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Daniel Zolli: 'Competition was in the air these sculptors breathed. It could be a fight to the death, artistically speaking'
As the Museum of Biblical Art hosts this momentous exhibition of renaissance masterpieces, co-curator Daniel Zolli explains why Florence Cathedral's sculptural embellishments are such masterful and enduring treasures
Sculpture in the Age of Donatello: Renaissance Masterpieces from Florence Cathedral
Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA), New York City
20 February – 14 June 2015
by CINDI Di MARZO
In the midst of one of New York City's coldest winters on record, the historical import of the arrival of 23 sculptural works in marble, stone and bronze from the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence at the Museum of Biblical Art, located in blustery Columbus Circle near Lincoln Center, has not been lost on the city's residents or tourists. Many have already made their own pilgrimages, like faithful Florentines through the centuries who have attended services there each Sunday, to view masterpieces that once graced the facade and interior spaces of Florence Cathedral, its baptistery and famed Duomo.
These include nine by Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (c1386-1466); and others by his main rival, Nanni di Banco (1384/90-1421); and Luca della Robbia (1399/1400-1482), Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455) and Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446). Donatello may be the most widely known name of the lineup, but the stature of these other artists, then and now, is equally imposing; Ghiberti's two sets of bronze doors for the cathedral's baptistery are quintessential expressions of the classical, religious and humanist imagery that characterise Renaissance style, while Brunelleschi's dome (represented here by wooden models) remains a resounding architectural triumph. Nanni Di Banco died prematurely, but we may well imagine that, had he lived, competition between him and Donatello would have yielded an even more storied history of Florentine sculpture.
The exhibit was organised by MOBIA with Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, founded in 1293 to oversee construction and decoration of the cathedral and now responsible for its preservation, and Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. Co-curated by Museo director Monsignor Timothy Verdon and Harvard-based Donatello scholar Daniel Zolli, Sculpture in the Age of Donatello is, most likely, a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to view these works outside the city for which they were created, due to an expansion/renovation project that will allow the museum to show works that have long been held in storage.
Although larger venues were approached as possible hosts, MOBIA was chosen – partly because larger venues were already booked. By virtue of its shorter-lead time, MOBIA can accommodate the display before its return to Florence for the reopening of the Museo dell'Opera in autumn 2015.
In hindsight, MOBIA is an apt choice. In autumn 2014, it began a 10th-anniversary series of exhibits that highlight its mission to present biblically inspired art within a spiritually defined space for non-denominational audiences. The series kicked off with Back to Eden: Contemporary Artists Wander the Garden1 and Dürer, Rembrandt, Tiepolo: The Jansma Master Prints Collection from the Grand Rapids Art Museum.2 Sculpture in the Age of Donatello is MOBIA's celebration centrepiece.
In its current home, headquarters of the American Bible Society, MOBIA is serene, intimate and inviting. With the society's impending move to Philadelphia, MOBIA is seeking a new home just as it offers its most ambitious exhibition to date. Nevertheless, the museum's director, Richard P Townsend, considers the move an opportunity to expand its reach. He says: "I think it's imperative that in New York – a global capital of culture – there is an institution that provides the additional filter of the Bible's pivotal role in the western visual tradition, and more largely its culture. With Sculpture in the Age of Donatello, we've taken our programme to an entirely new level; the exhibit shows what we can do, and how our unique mission opens opportunities that wouldn't otherwise exist."
The accompanying catalogue for Sculpture in the Age of Donatello3 contains essays that point to stylistic advances that these artists, all in their 20s when they began work on the cathedral, achieved, sparking what we call the Italian Renaissance.
For one event in MOBIA's extensive schedule of related programming,4 the museum partners with the Rubin Museum of Art, which features art from the Himalayas, India and nearby regions, to discuss how the works in Sculpture in the Age of Donatello and Becoming Another: The Power of Masks at the Rubin "reimagine" original context. The idea is to present historical eras, age-old practices and customs to digital-age audiences. It is an intriguing premise, about which Townsend says: "There is an important story to tell about the continued relevance of sacred art in contemporary society for believers and non-believers. The Rubin Museum and MOBIA have complementary missions and approaches; both institutions are committed to exploring the role of spiritual belief in creative expression, maintaining a respect for religious belief and spiritual practices, and offering new perspectives on the role of the sacred in our lives. This programme offers a great opportunity to underscore the universality of the themes MOBIA and the Rubin Museum explore."
If, as Gertrude Stein suggested in her book, Paris France (1940), art reveals the character and "pulse" of a nation, sculpture seems to be the soul of Florence. It is difficult, then, to imagine the city devoid of sculptural details before work began in earnest on the cathedral facade, the baptistery doors and the Duomo.
Studio International spoke to the co-curator and catalogue editor Daniel Zolli, a Donatello scholar, just after the exhibit opened, to discover why the sudden, urgent desire of the city's patrons to decorate Florence Cathedral with sculptural embellishments yielded such masterful and enduring treasures.
Cindi di Marzo: Thank you, Daniel, for speaking to Studio International about Donatello, whose evolution into a master sculptor, through his work at Florence Cathedral, you chronicle in your catalogue essay.
Those of us who have not been to Florence, or have visited briefly, may not understand the profound ramifications of growing up in the shadow of the cathedral, called each Sunday to prayer, and knowing that hundreds of years of physical labour, unwavering faith and dedication have produced this praise to God and his creation. You have spent time there. How do you feel when walking the streets of Florence? Can you imagine what it was like to be contributing to, or benefiting from the project, watching it take shape and adding to the city's prestige?
Daniel Zolli: Although I carry an American passport, I've always regarded Florence as a second home. I'm very fortunate to have an aunt who still lives near Florence, in a town to the north called Vaglia, so I began visiting the city often from a young age. Thinking back to those first trips, what initially struck me was how utterly remote the city's landscape was from others more familiar to me. The changing effects of light on cool grey sandstone, the endless cortège of cypress trees, the murmuring of the Arno, even the clamor of motorini, offered the strongest contrast imaginable to the sights and sounds of Boston, where I grew up. And then there was the art! Wandering the streets, to say nothing of the churches and museums, could be an art-historical education in itself. Not that I had the tools to really make sense of what I saw. But the experience of standing before so many objects, the city's other population, and of intuiting how incredibly complex their histories were, certainly fired my imagination. More than anything else, it was this powerful sense of estrangement – of standing before something that was there, that affected me, but whose past eluded me. That is what eventually led me to art history.
Given my own interests, I would be lying if I said I haven't daydreamed about what it was like to watch the cathedral project unfold; to see Donatello train his chisel on the Zuccone, for instance, or to witness the titanic dome rise, brick by brick, above the city's skyline. Nor do I think such wonder is in the least bit extraordinary when faced with something so multifaceted. Having said this, one of the real joys of preparing the exhibition was becoming better acquainted with the archival documents associated with the cathedral project. The building's patrons, the Opera del Duomo, were famously meticulous record-keepers. These records, and they are legion, allow one to see the project with different eyes. Surely, the stuff of legend – indescribable technical feats, bitter rivalries – is there. But so are far more ordinary things: sculptors debating trade secrets; kvetching about imperfect workshop conditions, costs of materials, indigestion; and even playing pranks on one another, many of which would not bear retelling in polite company. It is these incidents of everyday existence that really drive my fascination with the cathedral project. By taking artists who might seem Olympian and bringing them closer to us, these details offer something that certain accounts of the period might not; a movement that, for me at least, makes their accomplishments all the more humbling.
CDM: Visitors to MOBIA will see site-specific works that were conceived and executed in a markedly different environment from New York City. From your perspective as a scholar and curator, how do they function in an entirely different context while preserving something of their original intent and effect?
DZ: I'd like to think that the sculptures in the MOBIA show haven't been orphaned from their original meanings. It is in fact because they had such an intimate relationship to a particular, and very important site that these works still have so much to tell us about the aspirations, ambitions and spiritual lives of those who commissioned and made them. I don't think that importance is any less apparent in a different setting. That said, there are inevitable concessions that one must make in a museum setting, which is restricted in its ability to convey a given sculpture's original effect on site. Consider Donatello's John or Nanni's Luke. For practical reasons, we weren't able to exhibit these statues at the heights for which their makers meant them; a four foot, and not 10 foot, plinth has had to suffice. This means that they lose some of their coherence: John's head does not quite nest behind his torso, and so forth. They never intended the Zuccone's anguished mien, which emerges from a tempest of heavy chisel marks, to be viewed so closely.
But I certainly don't believe this change in context means a fall from grace, or that it deprives these works of their greatness. Rather, I think it allows them to become differently enchanted. For one thing, most of the works on view were sculpted for locations far overhead, about 10 feet in the case of the Evangelist statues, but often much more. This meant that they were accessible to viewers in very particular ways – optical, spatial and psychological. Introduced into the museum, they are newly available, nearer. One of the virtues of this proximity, for me, is that it allows us to appreciate the craft, the sheer volume of knowhow that went into making these things. We begin to notice the care that Donatello took to differentiate surface textures in his sculpture of John. Or just how attentively Nanni handled each curl of Luke's hair, each page in the codex he holds. We begin to focus not only on questions of context, but to think about art in the making.
There is something else, though, which I really only picked up on when the sculptures were being uncrated at MOBIA – the many exquisite details some possess that would have been impossible to see in their original locations. For instance, the elaborately studied sandal on Nanni's Luke, which could pass for antique Roman footwear; or the elegantly described tassels that peek out from the back of the Zuccone'stoga. These tassels were not only destined to be seen from afar – on the third story of the bell-tower – but, in a kind of double concealment, they would have faced the niche, and not the viewer.
This was a culture that had an eye toward posterity – that was beginning to believe that what it produced would be studied by us, even today. As mystical as it may sound, it's as though Donatello, Nanni and their peers predicted that we –or someone – would find these improvisational details and delight in them. Or maybe this is wishful thinking; maybe when Donatello carved those threads, he was simply distracting himself from the seriousness of the commission. Whatever the case, in my view details like these invite us to enter the artist's experience, to think of these works as somehow deeply personal to their makers as much as they are devotionally, civically or institutionally driven. They allow us to see them as art.
CDM: In Monsignor Verdon's catalogue essay, he discusses religious dimensions of fashioning figures from clay, stone, marble and other building materials that mirror God's creation of Earth and humanity. Certainly, political, economic and cultural values were at play, as were monetary and career aspirations, but how did the erection of these monuments to God and the Catholic Church affect the citizens of Florence, including those working on them, spiritually?
DZ: The spiritual impact these sculptures had on Florence's population really can't be overstated. For one thing, they organised and animated the devotional rhythms of the church. The works in our show were, without exception, attached to the cathedral's most ritually significant structures and spaces: next to the altar, for example, or on the bell tower, which still today calls people to prayer. From there, these sculpted similitudes of divine figures, their lives and deeds, gave material form to – and made accessible to man – the complex truths of Christian faith. They provided the faithful with something captivating and meaningful to latch on to.
But even this is reductive. It doesn't quite convey how actively these sculptures shaped the reality of those who commissioned and viewed them. And not just their present but, as they saw it, their future. We tend to think of the early Renaissance as a Golden Age, but it was also a period of tremendous uncertainty; framed by the constant fear of invasion from rival cities, of plague outbreak, factionalism in local politics, and more. Against this backdrop, the creation of religious sculpture was one way to guarantee survival. For as much as these sculpture had economic and cultural implications, they were, at their core, gifts to God, offered in the hope of receiving his divine support. The fact that the Opera del Duomo and other patrons around the city were willing to invest so much time and money in sculpture indicates how serious they thought these threats were. Patrons were not just investing in sculpture, but in their own – and more broadly Florence's – prosperity, health and salvation. We have evidence that artists also thought in these terms. Here, I have in mind a note on parchment found in a 14th-century wood crucifixion from Siena, on which the artist asked that his "soul … be recommended".
All of this is to say that, in the "age" to which our exhibition's title refers, artistry and faith were always inseparably intertwined, for viewers, sculptors and especially, perhaps, for those who commissioned their work. This may be an obvious point, but it's something that we can occasionally lose sight of when we encounter these objects in the secular spaces of modern museums, when we praise their aesthetic or stylistic qualities, and so forth. But for the citizens of 15th-century Florence, faith was the vanishing point for every sculpture on view at the cathedral, the place at which everything else about them intersected: their cost, their stylishness, the way they worked on viewers' senses.
CDM: You say in your catalogue essay that, unlike most of his contemporaries, the young Donatello was not apprenticed into his calling through a family workshop. His father was a wool carder. Were his experiences as a teen in Ghiberti's workshop instrumental in the technical mastery, stylistic flexibility and confidence he later demonstrated in his work on the cathedral?
DZ: And how! The debt may not strike some as entirely obvious, and it is something that we've worked hard to clarify in the show. There are several sources for this confusion, I think. First, and despite everything that we know about the Renaissance, art history – or certain strains of it – still gravitates toward individual genius, holding that the very best artists worked above, or were irreducible to, outside influences; that their work was uniquely their own, and so on. In Donatello's case, this view goes back at least as far as Giorgio Vasari. [Vasari authored one of the most celebrated accounts of the period, Lives of the Artists].
For Vasari, the sculptor had no professional training, nor even parents, but was instead birthed from nature. Naturalism, in other words, was in his blood. And while we might now read Vasari's remark with fond scepticism, it still affects the way we relate to Donatello. It follows that art history elevates certain individuals above others. While Ghiberti is a fixture in our narratives of the period, he is often treated as something of an anachronism, a belated practitioner of the international gothic, perhaps its last dying gasp. He was, to paraphrase one observer at the end of the 15th century, a small star beside that sun, in other words, Donatello.
But this is not how Ghiberti's contemporaries viewed him, nor could it be further from the truth. For nearly his entire independent career and, thus, Donatello's Ghiberti worked on the frontline of artistic innovation, constantly transforming sculpture and his peers through his use of materials and techniques, and his engagement with humanistic thought. These are aspects of the artist that we will witness powerfully in a forthcoming book by Amy Bloch, who was also a key player in producing the exhibition and catalogue. [Bloch is an assistant professor of art history at the University of Albany in Albany, New York.]
While working with Ghiberti, Donatello would have refined his skills as a draughtsman, learned how to make clay and wax preparatory models, to cast bronze, and even to adjust his technique in accordance with the angle and distance at which his works would be perceived, all skills that were integral to Donatello's career. His time in Ghiberti's shop also versed Donatello and countless others in styles, note the plural, that well suited other projects at the cathedral; not merely a gothic sensibility, but naturalism and classicism. And it led Donatello to commit to memory by careful study or sheer osmosis many of Ghiberti's compositions. Even at the end of his life, and after Ghiberti had died, Donatello responded to his mentor's reliefs from the baptistery doors. Least apparent of all, perhaps, is just how much Ghiberti's collaborative sensibility rubbed off on Donatello. Like Ghiberti, Donatello hired swarms of sculptors, painters, goldsmiths and technicians to fulfill his commissions. Ghiberti taught Donatello that being prolific rarely meant going it alone.
CDM: Nine of the 23 works are attributed to Donatello. Can you tell us more about two of them: the Zuccone, or "squash head", and the giant figure of John the Evangelist. These sculptures, which you have already mentioned, are marvellous studies of how site-specificity and the challenges presented by pre-existing structures affected Donatello's choices and the innovations he contrived to achieve his commissions. How did their size and locations and his renderings strike viewers?
DZ: Of these two statues, John the Evangelist for the cathedral facade was the more monumental in terms of its scale, real and implied. The niches that Donatello and his competitors worked with were older. They were shallow, narrow and, by the standards of the commission, not very tall. What the sculptor and his patrons did within these constraints was truly impressive and blazingly imaginative. First, there was the choice to represent the Evangelists seated, suggesting that their actual height far surpassed that of their architectural containers. A standing figure, cut from the same block, was much less monumental. Then Donatello adjusted John's proportions to accommodate a lower vantage point. Thus, what may appear awkward when viewed at ground level, originally supported the illusion of an anatomically correct body turning to its right. But the real miracle, for me, is just how three-dimensional the figure looks. What reads as a statue in the round is, in fact, nothing more than a thin marble slab carved in exceptionally high relief, even if viewers below the niche would not have perceived this.
Oddly, there are relatively few [recorded] contemporary reflections on the John and its companions. This is not to say that the statues were unfamiliar to Florentines. On the contrary, their placement all-but guaranteed familiarity. Set on the facade, they would have served as a backdrop and stimulus for the many ritual events that took place in the piazza; and they would have greeted anyone who entered the church. Arguably the best evidence we have of how resounding the influence of Donatello's John was, though, is found in the work of his devoted follower Michelangelo, whose Moses, made almost exactly a century later, picked up on John's unfolding movement.
The Zuccone for Florence's bell tower, by contrast, was one of the most written about sculptures of the 15th century. There was hardly a Renaissance art critic – in Florence, at least – who didn't spill ink about the statue. Judging from their remarks, it was the sculpture's personality that most intrigued. Whether he originally glowered down at passersby or appeared haunted by spectres, the prophet's psychology was for them, and is for us, fascinating. There is a sense that, whatever it is that he is doing, consumes him. This has a great deal to do with the statue's extraordinary realism, which is enhanced by a lack of iconographic attributes. There is not even a scroll, a prophet's typical "tool", to distract us.
But it also has to do with how Donatello carved the block. Unlike his John, the Zuccone was 60 feet or more from the ground. Legibility was of the utmost importance, which is why Donatello carved the statue so assertively, with deeply cut eye sockets, cavernous drapery and so forth. Some even attributed the work's success directly to these techniques. One scholar writing in 1596 noted that the figure's eyes seem from afar as though they were "dug out with a spade". Because, he went on, if the sculptor worked them
for a near view, the Zuccone "would now appear blind, for distance devours all refinements".
CDM: It seems as though the guilds that funded the cathedral projects, and even Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, fanned the competition that spurred ambitious and talented artists such as Donatello, Ghiberti, Brunelleschi and della Robbia to greater heights. At what point did these younger artists clearly triumph over the old guard and the international gothic?
DZ: I'm not sure there was a specific point when this happened. History has a habit of trying to identify particular moments when one age gives way, decisively, to another. But I'd like to think that history, as lived, is never that straightforward. Artists such as Donatello, Luca della Robbia, and Nanni di Banco were certainly trailblazers, and we are justified in noting everything that points forwards in their work. But they also laboured, from start to finish, with the tools that others had honed before them. When Donatello adjusted his John's anatomy to compensate for a lower viewpoint, he was doing something that Giovanni Pisano had done almost a century earlier, in a different but no less dynamic way. Nanni Di Banco, for all that is novel in his art, learned much about classicism by following the example of his father, who was a fairly respected sculptor in his own right. And the older masters continued to receive prominent commissions, sometimes besting the young Turks, well into the 15th century.
You are right about competition, though. It was in the air these sculptors breathed. When commissions were at stake, it could be a fight to the death, artistically speaking. This is partly why the cathedral sculptures are so accomplished. Competitions – and the cathedral staged its share – helped to ensure the best products possible. But it was also because of these high expectations that sculptors were willing to adopt a plurality of styles, and not always the most progressive ones, in their work. At the cathedral, it was utterly important that works made over decades remain stylistically consistent to ensure uniformity in a given programme's many parts.
Nearby, at the guild church of Orsanmichele, certain styles could reflect the values or ethos of their patrons. International gothic might signify internationalism. There, style was a kind of ideological tool. All of this contradicts any clearcut narrative about stylistic change, especially in the period encompassed by the MOBIA exhibit.
This notwithstanding, there really are moments when one begins to sense a changing of the guard. It can hardly be a coincidence that Niccolò Lamberti, an older sculptor who had carved one of the Evangelists for the facade and, thus, competed with the youthful Nanni and Donatello, packed his bags for Venice mere months after the statues were put in place. He may have perceived a sea change underway and so set off for a city where the decorative character of his work would be well received, and not soon outpaced.
CDM: Donatello worked in Rome in the 1430s. Can you talk about the changes evident in his cathedral projects that reflect his growing interest in classical imagery?
DZ: The trip to Rome, from roughly 1431 to 1433, was hugely important for Donatello. It was not, of course, the artist's first encounter with antiquity; by most accounts, he had been to Rome much earlier, and there was plenty of classical or classicising imagery for him to study closer to home in Florence and Pisa. Nevertheless, the trip you mention marked a turning point, one that saw a measurable growth in Donatello's regard for antiquity. Regrettably, this dimension of the sculptor's career exceeds the scope of the MOBIA show. As fate would have it, the lone commission that he would complete at the cathedral after his return from the Eternal City – he accepted several – was the cantoria, or organ loft, that flanked the church's main altar. It's a breathtaking work, and in it one finds two very different postures that Donatello would take towards the classical past for the rest of his career.
On the one hand, there is the loft itself, which is incredibly playful in its references to Roman art. It borrows motifs from classical sarcophagi, but the variegated mosaic that sheaths the structure recalls, instead, early Christian inlay work called opus sectile, the latter commonplace in Roman churches. And the hypnotic frieze of infants that dash around the loft? Who knows? One gets a sense here of just how prodigious Donatello's visual appetite was, how much he absorbed in Rome, and how unafraid he was to rework what he saw. With the cantoria, Donatello transforms his classical, early Christian and medieval sources into a pastiche, something that is classical in feel, true, but also emphatically his own.
On the other hand, there are the bronze heads that nested below the loft's projecting face in our show, which were probably the last elements that Donatello added to the cantoria. These likenesses show us that Donatello could also imitate antiquity verbatim. In fact, so closely do these heads resemble Hellenistic portraits in spirit and letter that they were, until the 1930s, classified as ancient bronzes.
Although these two approaches – the unorthodox mingling of older sources and the unalloyed imitation of a single prototype – differ, they attest to how much the trip to Rome had mattered to the sculptor. Indeed, it was around the 1430s that Donatello began in earnest to collect classical pieces himself, and that his friends, the humanists with whom he kept company, started to call on him to judge the quality of their own collections. Perhaps the most powerful indicator of Donatello's interest in the ancient past is his choice to leave Florence for Padua in the early 1440s. Home of a major university, Padua was a hotbed of classical study, and it may have been that Donatello sought a community of like-minded spirits. Incidentally, he returned to Florence a decade later, claiming that he did not want to die among the Paduan frogs.
CDM: Can you give us a preview of the Donatello-related events you will be participating in?
DZ: The programming for Sculpture in the Age of Donatello is, to my mind, one of the real triumphs of the show. I cannot praise MOBIA's director of education, Nathaniel Prottas, enough here. He has managed to bring an incredibly dynamic and varied group of participants into the fold, from distinguished artists and museum educators to curators and professors. We'll even hear a Renaissance music ensemble play songs from 15th-century Florence and Padua, the two cities where Donatello spent most of his working life.
I'll confess that my own role within this vast tableau of events is rather limited. I helped to organise a symposium that coincided with the show's opening, and I'll continue to lead tours for private and public audiences, as well as students. Beyond this, I'll be running an in-gallery seminar with Peter J Bell of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that explores the fundamental site-specificity of the works in the show and their delicately engineered relationship to specific settings and audiences on, in and around Florence Cathedral. I'll also be giving a public lecture on Donatello's approach to relief sculpture. I'm particularly excited about this last event, since it will allow me to highlight the dimension of Donatello's artistic persona that I find most captivating: his prolific play with materials, not just marble or bronze, but papier-mache, leather, coloured wax and glass.
CDM: Finally, Brunelleschi's dome remains a great marvel of architectural experimentation that moved the field forwards from gothic into the Renaissance. Its construction is a riveting story.5 At the time, the dome must have seemed in itself a miracle. But viewing the sculptural works in this exhibit reminds me that what Donatello and his contemporaries achieved in stone, marble, terracotta and bronze was no less revolutionary.
Details that offer new interpretations, attributions and clues to artistic practices are still being uncovered. From your years of research, are there any "surprises" or insights that opened a new window on this complex period in Italian art history?
DZ: I'm still a bit green, but I don't think there has been a single day when I haven't been surprised by one thing or another. This is partly because the period is, as you say, so complex. And it's partly because writing a doctoral dissertation invites one to look in corners that remain underexplored. But it is also because the works themselves are so very voluble, so laden with meaning. And I know Donatello, di Banco, della Robbia and Ghiberti meant them to be this way. These artists were born to a culture with outsized spiritual and artistic ambitions. The stakes were high. And many rose to the challenge, making our own fascination a foregone conclusion. Because: to make works that continue to reward such sustained attention, that continue to turn up new meanings, indeed that continue to pump meaning into our own lives in 2015, is a pretty extraordinary thing.
CDM: Thank you again for speaking with Studio International, Daniel. You have helped us to imagine the excitement surrounding the construction and decoration of Florence Cathedral and the hope it imparted to those who worked on or worshipped in it.
DZ: It's been my pleasure, Cindi. And on that note, I should get back to work –Donatello calls.
Daniel Zolli is a doctoral candidate in Harvard's history of art and architecture department, where he is completing a dissertation on Donatello's workshops. He has worked on exhibitions in a research capacity at the Harvard Art Museums and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is currently a visiting lecturer at Tufts University. Zolli has lectured and participated in panels on Renaissance art at venues throughout the US and worldwide, including the Frick Collection, the Morgan Library & Museum, and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.
1. Read Studio International's interview with Jennifer Scanlan, curator of Back to Eden: Contemporary Artists Wander the Garden.
2. Read Studio International's coverage of Dürer, Rembrandt, Tiepolo: The Jansma Master Prints Collection from the Grand Rapids Art Museum and our interview with Nathaniel Prottas, MOBIA director of education.
3. To purchase a copy of Sculpture in the Age of Donatello: Renaissance Masterpieces from Florence Cathedral, edited by Timothy Verdon and Daniel M Zolli with contributions by Timothy Verdon, Daniel M Zolli, Amy R Bloch, Marco Ciatti and Stefano Nicastri (Giles, 2015) US$49.95, go to http://bit.ly/1ALUWxZ.
4. For a complete list of programmes and performances scheduled to accompany Sculpture in the Age of Donatello, including concerts by Renaissance ensemble Sonnambula and Donatello Open Nights, go to http://bit.ly/17Vvn6L.
5. Ross King's Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture (Chatto & Windus, 2000) is an excellent entry into the dramatic history behind the dome's construction.
Fra Angelico and the Rise of the Florentine Renaissance
An exquisite exhibition at the Prado reveals the most joyous and serene of Italian artists as a pivotal figure in the development of the Renaissance
Nathaniel Prottas interview: 'Often museum didactics get in the way of people viewing art'
Nathaniel Prottas, director of education at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York, talks about public programming for its current exhibition, which traces the history of printmaking, through works by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo and other master printmakers
Wim Delvoye in Moscow
Wim Delvoye, a bad boy of the art world, is showing in Moscow this summer. He is at the Gary Tatintsian Gallery and in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. While for the world-renowned Delvoye having a gallery exhibition in Moscow is not unprecedented, a show in a museum known for its collection of classical art and its conservatism is an event of note.
Wrestling with the Angel in the Modern Age
For most of human history, art works were centred on the beliefs of a group and clearly expressed the group's fears, hopes and expectations. In the earliest days, the primary purposes of art were to pay homage to a variety of divine beings and to relate the experiences of men and women with spiritual aspirations.


The following article is reprinted with permission from Eastern, the official magazine of Eastern Michigan University. I choose it for several reasons. First and foremost, it is a well written piece about the Aryan Nation and their attempts to recruit farmers in the early 1980's, with a brief mention of a similar rhetoric in today's politics and the importance keeping the fight against hate crimes in the spot light. Eastern Michigan University is also my alma mater. I had a wonderful experience at Eastern and recommend it to anyone considering a higher education. Re-posting this article is a great way to highlight some of the great faculty and staff that Eastern has to offer.
When Jack Kay, EMU's provost and executive vice president, was just starting out in academe in the early 1980s, he made a risky move that has echoed throughout his career.
An assistant professor of speech communication at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he was researching the farm crisis of the time (in many ways, a precursor of the subprime mortgage crisis that torpedoed the economy a quarter of a century later) when he learned that the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group, was trying to enlist members from the farm community.
This wasn't unusual. Such organizations, Kay says, are always on the lookout for people who might be sufficiently disaffected to join their ranks.
"I decided that I wanted to find out more about how this group operated," he says, so he spent several days a week over a three-week period at its compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho, where the Aryan World Congress was being held.
While members of the media who had been invited by the group to attend the event focused their attention on its more spectacular aspects, even renting planes to cover the cross-lighting ceremony, Kay kept a low profile.
He got an eyeful, and an earful.
He did, of course, eventually get out of the compound, but he never got his experiences in the compound out of his mind. Not long after his stint with the Aryan Nations, he was called upon to testify before the Judiciary Committee of the Nebraska state legislature. Then he presented testimony to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
Even as his record of accomplishments grew – as a leading scholar of rhetoric and communication, and as an administrator at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan-Flint before coming to EMU in June 2009 – he continued to study and speak out about the methods, motives and dangers of groups promoting racial and ethnic hatred.
And he became a "go-to guy" on the subject for the media. From the time he started keeping count in 1990 until last spring, he appeared on television news programs more than a hundred times and did more than 60 interviews for newspaper and magazine articles.
Then his already busy life got even busier late in March, when nine members of the Hutaree, a self-described Christian militia movement, were arrested in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana on various federal charges stemming from an alleged plot to kill police officers.
National Public Radio wanted to know Kay's views. So did WDET in Detroit. So did annarbor.com. And so on. What he had to say wasn't sensational or alarmist. In keeping with his demeanor and the rubrics of scholarly precision, he tried to be clear about what was and wasn't happening.
First and foremost, he differentiated between most militia groups and those that claim a divine imprimatur.
The possibility that one of these organizations might actually achieve its far-fetched dreams is not among those dangers. Kay estimates that they have a combined membership of about 100,000, hardly enough to pull off a revolution. But that doesn't make them harmless.
A more subtle concern is the seepage of their rhetorical style into mainstream political discourse, a kind of collateral cultural damage.
In the long run, an ounce of educational prevention will probably be worth more than a pound of law enforcement cure.
While experience has shown him that a pedagogical pairing of the arts and history can work − "Seeing a play of the diary of Anne Frank can be far more powerful than reading a paragraph in a history book," he says – he's well aware that the evidence is still largely anecdotal.
Maybe it's time to revisit those farmers the Aryan Nations tried to recruit back in the '80s.
Posted with permission from Eastern magazine, Fall 2010 edition. Links and images added by The Itch.


text:
Porky's II – Dagen efter, (engelska Porky's II: The next day), är en amerikansk-kanadensisk komedi från 1983 i regi av Bob Clark, som även hade varit med och skrivit filmens manus. Filmen hade Sverigepremiär den 26 augusti 1983.

Handling
Gänget från Angel Beach High School med Pee Wee Morris i spetsen är tillbaka igen. Denna gång ska de sätta upp en pjäs av Shakespeare och försöker locka till sig alla möjliga elever att ställa upp som skådespelare. Tyvärr vill en grupp medborgare med den största dubbelmoral som finns och rasistiska attityder, med den religiösa pastorn Bubba Flavel i spetsen, förbjuda att pjäser av Shakespeare uppförs eftersom han och hans grupp, "The Righteous Flock", tycker att Shakespeare är alldeles för oanständigt för skolans anseende. Gänget måste också ta sig an en Ku Klux Klan-attack, som motsätter sig att ett Redskin (indian) ska spela Romeo.

Om filmen
 Filmen är bland annat inspelad i Fort Lauderdale, Miami och Virginia Key, Florida i USA.
 Filmens regissör, Bob Clark, gör en cameo-roll som en av Ku Klux Klan-männen.

Rollista (i urval)

 Dan Monahan - Edward "Pee Wee" Morris
 Wyatt Knight - Tommy Turner
 Mark Herrier - Billy McCarthy
 Tony Ganios - Anthony "Meat" Tuperello
 Scott Colomby - Brian Schwartz
 Cyril O'Reilly - Timmy "Tim" Cavanaugh
 Kaki Hunter - Wendy Williams
 Ilse Earl - Mrs. Morris
 Eric Christmas - Mr. Carter
 Bill Wiley - Pastor Bubba Flavel
 Nancy Parsons - Beulah Balbricker
 Joseph Runningfox - John Henry
 Roger Wilson - Mickey Jarvis

Källor

Externa länkar

 Porky's II – Dagen efter på Allmovie

Filmer 1983
1954 på film
1950-talet på film
Florida på film
Amerikanska komedifilmer
Amerikanska sexkomedifilmer
Kanadensiska komedifilmer
Filmer om Ku Klux Klan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


ROK Construction was formed in 2007 and is run by experienced construction professionals, who have a wealth of building knowledge and techniques.
Robert became a director of ROK Construction in 2011 and brought with him a wealth of knowledge and experience which spans over 30 years.
His experience in the construction industry in the Channel Islands spans over 20 years, working on Public and Private Projects such as the new Police Station Headquarters, Jersey Gas new processing plant, Ogiers Headquarters and most recently, College Gardens.
Robert commenced his career as a Site Engineer in 1987 and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Builders.
Richard joined ROK Construction in 2015 and has enviable knowledge and experience in Jersey's Public and Private Sectors. Gaining a DipSurv – CEM at Reading University, Richard has also amassed an outstanding knowledge of the local construction market, through working in the Jersey Construction Sector his entire career which spans some 20 years.
Richard has been involved with an array of new build and refurbishment projects from the Public Sector in the areas of Health, Education and Home Affairs; through to the Residential Sector of Private Bespoke Dwellings, Apartment Blocks and Housing Zones; and to the private sector including Large Commercial Offices, Leisure & Hospitality Facilities, Restaurants and Retail Operations.
Greg joined ROK Construction in 2014 and has enviable knowledge and experience in Jersey's Public and Private Sectors within the Construction Industry.
Greg has worked in the Jersey Construction Sector his entire career which spans some 15 years, gained a Bsc Honours Degree in Construction Management, a member of the Chartered Institute of Builders, and most recently appointed as a member on the Board of Trustees at Jersey Employment Trust.
Greg has been involved with some high value building projects including Co-op Grand Marche, Co-op St Peter, Maritime House, The General Hospital Phases, Elizabeth Terminal, Deloitte (Jersey) and Le Gallais.


(2) Is unable to support himself through appropriate employment or is the custodian of a child whose condition or circumstances make it appropriate that the custodian not be required to seek employment outside the home.
If the court orders maintenance, this can be modifiable or non-modifiable. The court can order maintenance to terminate upon a specific event or date. Parties may also agree to the amount and duration of the maintenance award. The duration of Court ordered statutory maintenance is periodic in nature, thus continues until the court modifies the order or as defined, upon the payor's death, upon the payee's death or upon the payee's remarriage. Upon showing of a substantial and continuing change in circumstances, modifiable maintenance may be decreased, increased, terminated, extended, or otherwise modified based upon a substantial and continuing change of circumstances.
Missed maintenance payments may result in judgments enforced by Court filing a motion for contempt. If the non-paying party is found to be in contempt of court, the non-paying spouse may be punished with payment of attorney fees/costs, fines, relinquishment of licenses held and possibly imprisonment.


This is a placeholder page for Laura Amonds, which means this person is not currently on this site. We do suggest using the tools below to find Laura Amonds.
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Test Your Knowledge Of The PDGA Rules!
Anyone who has a PDGA number receives a compact handbook that outlines the rules and regulations set forth by the PDGA, and while a lot of people read it from cover to cover, does anyone memorize it?
Today we want to put your brain to the test and see if you know the "legal" way to handle certain situations if they come up during tournament play. You can click here for a full list of the PDGA Rules Q & A.
Could you theoretically kick your disc down the fairway and have each kick count as your throw?
Am I allowed to use my mini, remove my previously thrown disc, but then change my mind and put it back again?
What kinds of substances can I use on my hands for a better grip?
Can I lean on a tree for support while I put or throw if I have an awkward stance?
Yes, you can! Since shots of all types are allowed, "throwing" with your foot would be seen as acceptable play.
No way - once a method of marking your lie has been utilized, it cannot be changed.
Technically you can use anything to increase your grip, as there isn't a rule that prohibits this practice.
This one might surprise you, as you can hold on to something for support as long as it is in-bounds and part of the course.
4. -Only if said supporting point to a tree/boulder/lamp post/whatever is no closer to the basket than your lie.
Don't think you need to mark your lie with mini.
If you want to kick a different disc, nope!


text:
Q: GCM send-to-sync message gets to client with no data I'm sending a GCM send-to-sync message from the MessageEndpoint of the Appengine server that looks like this:
Message msg = new Message.Builder()
  .collapseKey("collapse-key-1")
  .timeToLive(600)
  .delayWhileIdle(true)
  .addData("key1", "val1")
  .addData("key2", "val2")
  .build();

When I get the message at the onMessage() of the GCMIntentService of the client app, I get a bundle that contains "collapse_key=do_not_collapse", the "collapseKey=collapse-key-1" appears in the "message" key and the data ("key1", "val1", "key2", "val2") appears nowhere.
The onMessage() looks like that:
     Bundle bundle = intent.getExtras();
     if (bundle != null) {
        String key;
        Set<String> keys = bundle.keySet();
        Iterator<String> it = keys.iterator();
        while (it.hasNext()) {
            key = it.next();
            Log.d(it.toString(), key);
        }
    }

Also, when trying to look into the Bundle in the Expressions window in Eclipse, I see only what I have described, no data in there.
Any idea what has gone bad here?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Better Your Business
11 Ways to Finance a Start Up
Published Fri, May 25 2012 12:35 PM EDT Updated Fri, May 25 2012 12:35 PM EDT
Bernadette Tansey, Special to CNBC.com
Strategies For Business Financing
For decades, entrepreneurs have followed a traditional stair-step of financing methods to vault their companies through successive stages of growth. Starting with personal savings, they would often then raise seed money from personal contacts, move on to banks, angel investors and/or venture capitalists. Eventually, a successful start up would offer shares to investors and become a publicly traded company.But openings onto that well-trodden path are narrowing. Banks and venture firms are less li
Photo: REB Images | Blend Images | Getty Images
For decades, entrepreneurs have followed a traditional stair-step of financing methods to vault their companies through successive stages of growth. Starting with personal savings, they would often then raise seed money from personal contacts, move on to banks, angel investors and/or venture capitalists. Eventually, a successful start up would offer shares to investors and become a publicly traded company.
But openings onto that well-trodden path are narrowing. Banks and venture firms are less liberal with funds since the financial crisis of 2008. Initial public offerings of shares are also harder to float.
However, new fundraising mechanisms have been springing up. The DIY culture of social media has produced hybrid online platforms with elements of contributing, investing and marketing. Through Kickstarter and Indiegogo, business innovators rely on the kindness of web strangers to back their projects. And Congress has just approved another "crowdfunding'' model, through the JOBS Act that would permit private online sales of company shares.
While supporters celebrate the new opportunities, some experts see dangers of investor fraud, as well as possible pitfalls for unwary start ups.
Click ahead to see what the various forms of funding are, and what entrepreneurs have used to build successful companies.
By Bernadette Tansey, Special to CNBC.com
Posted 2 May 2012
Sweat Equity
Entrepreneurs can "fund'' the first stage of their business by using their own unpaid labor and resources to create value. Rather than contributing cash, they might write code for a new iPhone app or build a workshop in their garage. Facebook is launched from a Harvard dorm room by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin. By investing your own resources without outside funding, you develop an idea on your own time. You control the decisions and any intellectual proper
Photo: Pat Lacroix | Image Bank | Pat LaCroix
Entrepreneurs can "fund'' the first stage of their business by using their own unpaid labor and resources to create value. Rather than contributing cash, they might write code for a new iPhone app or build a workshop in their garage.
They did it: Facebook is launched from a Harvard dorm room by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin.
Advantages: By investing your own resources without outside funding, you develop an idea on your own time. You control the decisions and any intellectual property you create.
Cautions: If you have partners, make sure you get full credit for your contributions. Draw up a written "deal memo'' on the ownership percentage for each partner. A truly original idea conceived in an instant can be worth hours of computer programming, says M.J. Bogatin, an Oakland, Calif., attorney who has advised Bay-area start ups.
Savings, Credit Cards
The initial funding for a fledgling private business has often come from its founders. A budding entrepreneur might draw on a personal savings account to finance an indie film, or plunk down a credit card to pay for the machine tools needed to build a sample product or prototype. Well-known example: Convenience store clerk Kevin Smith sold part of his comic book collection and charged as much as he could on his credit cards to finance shooting for his 1994 film, "Clerks,'' at the New Jersey stor
Photo: Richard Lewsohn | Image Souce | Getty Images
The initial funding for a fledgling private business has often come from its founders. A budding entrepreneur might draw on a personal savings account to finance an indie film, or plunk down a credit card to pay for the machine tools needed to build a sample product or prototype.
They did it: Convenience store clerk Kevin Smith sold part of his comic book collection and charged as much as he could on his credit cards to finance his 1994 film, "Clerks'' at the New Jersey store where he worked, according to IMDb.com. He raised $27,000, including contributions from friends and family. The film grossed more than $3 million.
Advantages: You retain control of your project. You're also proving to future funders that you're willing to put your own money at risk to launch your business.
Cautions: If you're not already keeping careful books, start now. Unequal financial contributions or sweat equity among the partners may change their views on the ownership shares they deserve. Clear agreements can avoid multimillion-dollar lawsuits years later if the enterprise takes off. Bogatin tells clients to watch "The Social Network,'' a fictionalized film account of the legal battles among early claimants to big stakes in Facebook.
When a young enterprise produces promising early results, the founders' friends and family have often been the first outsiders who chip in money to help it grow. The entrepreneurs' parents may give them a loan, or their college friends may buy small ownership stakes. Young screenwriter Edward Burns shot most scenes for his early film, The Brothers McMullen, at his mother's house on Long Island, where his friends were part of the cast. The movie won the Sundance film festival's Grand Jury Prize,
When a young enterprise produces promising early results, the founders' friends and family have often been the first outsiders who chip in money to help it grow. The entrepreneurs' parents may give them a loan, or their college friends may buy small ownership stakes.
They did it: Young screenwriter Edward Burns shot most scenes for his early film "The Brothers McMullen" at his mother's house on Long Island, where his friends were part of the cast, according to IMDb.com. The movie won the Sundance film festival's Grand Jury Prize, and was sold to 20th Century Fox's Searchlight Pictures. It was named the most profitable film released in 1995.
Advantages: Friends and family often help because they want to support you, not for an expected profit, says Arkansas Securities Commissioner Heath Abshure, a former attorney for early stage businesses.
Cautions: It's best to have a written agreement. The uncle you thought was giving you a no-interest loan may think he's now part-owner of your company, with voting rights.
Perk-Based Crowdfunding
Innovative businesses can now use social media sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo to appeal for financial support through "crowdfunding'' campaigns. Entrepreneurs attract backers by posting their imaginative plans, and often, by promising perks to those who pitch in some money. Those perks range from product samples to an invitation to join a company-sponsored activity. Scott Wilson couldn't get conventional watch manufacturers interested in the designs for his LunaTik kits to convert iPod
Source: Kickstarter.com
Innovative businesses can now use social media sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo to appeal for financial support through "crowdfunding'' campaigns. Entrepreneurs attract backers by posting their imaginative plans, and often, by promising perks to those who pitch in some money. Those perks range from product samples to an invitation to join a company-sponsored activity.
They did it: Scott Wilson couldn't get conventional watch manufacturers interested in the designs for his LunaTik kits to convert iPod Nano's for use as wrist watches. He campaigned on Kickstarter to raise $15K in 30 days; but the pledges reached nearly $1 million, LunaTik's website says.
Advantages: Some start ups have raised significant sums made up mainly of small pledges from large groups of well-wishers. Your online project plan may also attract press coverage and new collaborators.
Cautions: Your windfall may be taxable as personal income, or as profits of your business. The Internal Revenue Service has not yet published specific guidance.
Bank Loans, SBA Loans
Banks and credit unions make loans to small businesses that need cash to fund their next growth spurt. If the small company is already profitable, lenders may advance the cash for business expansions, such as new store locations, that will increase profits. Retired engineer Oscar Wong was producing 6,500 barrels of beer a year at his craft brewery, Highland Brewing Company in Asheville, North Carolina. With the help of a total of $1.9 million in loans from two financial institutions, Avista Busi
Photo: Peter Dazeley | Photographer's Choice | Getty Images
Banks and credit unions make loans to small businesses that need cash to fund their next growth spurt. If the small company is already profitable, lenders may advance the cash for business expansions, such as new store locations, that will increase profits.
They did it: Retired engineer Oscar Wong was producing 6,500 barrels of beer a year at his craft brewery, Highland Brewing Company in Asheville, N.C. With the help of $1.9 million in loans from two financial institutions, Avista Business Development Corporation and Wong's bank, Banking Branch & Trust Co., he recently built a state-of-the-art production facility that can make 30,000 barrels a year. Highland's lagers, ales, stouts and other beers are now sold in seven southeastern U.S. states.
Advantages: You may qualify for loan guarantees or lower interest rates through programs of the Small Business Administration or local economic development agencies. The bank takes no ownership share of your company.
Cautions: Banks see small business loans as risky investments. To get a loan on favorable terms, you need a solid business plan, extensive documentation of your creditworthiness, and possibly assets to post as collateral, according to the National Federation of Independent Business. To help entrepreneurs navigate the loan process, web-based outfits such as Multifunding.com are now offering to connect you with lenders, guide your choice among banks or facilitate your loan applications.
Web commerce and social media have given rise to Internet companies that offer small businesses an alternative to bank loans. These web outfits spotted a large potential customer base among small enterprises that have been turned down for bank loans in a tight credit market.Some small business borrowers can get loans from alternative lenders even if they don't meet bank criteria. While banks look at the personal credit score of the business owner, the New York-based company On Deck considers oth
Source: Ondeck.com
Web commerce and social media have given rise to Internet companies that offer small businesses an alternative to bank loans. These web outfits spotted a large potential customer base among small enterprises that have been turned down for bank loans in a tight credit market.
Some small business borrowers can get loans from alternative lenders even if they don't meet bank criteria. While banks look at the personal credit score of the business owner, the New York-based company On Deck considers other factors such as cash flow and timely bill payments. On Deck, which makes the loan itself, is backed by venture capital firms. Its borrowers repay their loans through daily electronic bank debits.
Another alternative lender, the San Francisco firm Prosper.com, puts a crowdfunding spin on business loans. Prospective borrowers describe their project and their funding needs online, and Prosper sets the interest rate after a credit evaluation. The money comes from individuals who may lend as little as $100 toward the total funding goal of the applicant of their choice. Prosper.com dubs this "peer-to-peer lending.'' Some lenders may help particular applicants because they like the product offered, or the community where it's sold.
They did it: Seth Perlman's company, Gaines Motor Coaches in Las Vegas, took out a $35,000 loan from On Deck last fall to refurbish one of the big buses it rents to transport the crews of rock bands on tour. The green bus called Emerald had been booked much less often than the company's other motor coaches until the loan financed the installation of a new lounge in the back. Emerald is now rented for more than 320 days of the year, and the On Deck loan repayment reinforces the company's credit history, Perlman said. He now hopes to qualify for a bank line of credit at lower rates.
Advantages: A small business may more easily get a short-term loan of 12 months or so to expand or meet seasonal cash flow needs. The application process may be simpler and quicker than a bank application. For example, On Deck makes loans in as little as two days.
Cautions: Although some alternative lenders say their interest rates are competitive, rates can exceed 30 percent depending on the borrower's circumstances. Quick access to funds may not be a boon if a business is headed for failure. Meeting with a banker for a detailed review may reveal weaknesses in a business plan and help an owner avoid taking on debt for a nonviable enterprise.
Wealthy individuals called angel investors like to make financial bets on early stage private companies that are capable of rapid growth, but that are still too small to seek millions from venture capital firms. Angels, who may belong to groups such as the Vermont Investors Forum, often take an ownership stake in exchange for their private investment of personal funds. Such sales of company shares are called "private placements." In 1998, Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim gave Larry Page and Serg
Photo: GSO Images | Photographer's Choice | Getty Images
Wealthy individuals called angel investors like to make financial bets on early stage private companies that are capable of rapid growth, but that are still too small to seek millions from venture capital firms. Angels, who may belong to groups such as the Vermont Investors Forum, often take an ownership stake in exchange for their private investment of personal funds. Such sales of company shares are called "private placements."
They did it: In 1998, Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim gave Larry Page and Sergey Brin a check for $100,000 to support their work to found Google Inc.
Advantages: Angel investors are often experienced entrepreneurs, who can become valuable advisers to a young company.
Cautions: Any financing round that involves selling shares to new investors can reduce the entrepreneur's freedom to make business decisions unilaterally. The new ownership structure may also limit valuations and options for the next round of financing. Privately held shares have traditionally been hard to sell to others, but new online businesses, such as Xpert Financial and Second Market, have arisen to serve as trading platforms.
Equity Crowdfunding
This new form of crowdfunding, authorized by Congress recently through the JOBS Act, will allow private sales of company shares through social media sites and other intermediaries. Companies could raise as much as $1 million a year through small private investments from an unlimited number of people. Crowdfunding websites are expected to crop up after the Securities and Exchange Commission formulates the regulations they must follow. Not yet. These fundraising platforms are expected to crop up a
Source: Indiegogo.com
This new form of crowdfunding authorized by Congress recently through the JOBS Act will allow private sales of company shares through social media sites and other intermediaries. Companies could raise as much as $1 million a year through small private investments from an unlimited number of people. Crowdfunding websites are expected to crop up after the Securities and Exchange Commission formulates the regulations they must follow.
They hope to do it: These fundraising platforms are expected to emerge after the SEC draws up regulations for them to follow. Indiegogo has expressed interest in supporting Equity Crowdfunding.
Advantages: The regulatory requirements, such as financial disclosures, would be less stringent than general SEC rules for registering securities or for making an initial public offering of shares.
Cautions: Your many new shareholders have rights under federal and state laws. Complying with those rights could soak up company time and money. A start up's crowdfunding investors may also look like a cumbersome burden to some venture capital firms you'd counted on for your next round of financing.
Venture capital firms, such as Draper Fisher Jurvetson, can devote several million dollars to the growth of a young company that has established its potential to market valuable new technology, goods or services. Venture firms invest pools of money, raised from wealthy individuals, in enterprises with potentially high rates of return. Robert Swanson, a 29-year-old partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner & Perkins, recognized the commercial potential of a cutting edge technique in academic re
Venture capital firms, such as Draper Fisher Jurvetson, can devote several million dollars to the growth of a young company that has established its potential to market valuable new technology, goods or services. Venture firms invest pools of money, raised from wealthy individuals, in enterprises with potentially high rates of return.
They did it: Robert Swanson, a then-29-year-old partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner & Perkins, recognized the commercial potential of a cutting edge technique in academic research: recombinant DNA technology or "gene splicing.'' In 1976, he joined with UC San Francisco biochemist Herbert Boyer to found Genentech, which used gene splicing to produce drugs including human insulin and human growth hormone. The VC firm now known as Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers contributed early funding to Genentech.
Advantages: Venture firms bring management expertise and guidance in realizing the full financial payoff for investments in fast-growing companies.
Cautions: In exchange for risking their capital, venture firms seek a substantial ownership stake, and often, seats on the funded company's board of directors.
An entrepreneur's tiny private company may reach its next stage of growth by becoming part of a large corporation that offers to buy it. Big companies often acquire creative enterprises whose new product or service dovetails with their own business activities. For example, Google's You Tube acquired Next New Networks, an independent producer of online video programming. Instagram was purchased by Facebook for nearly $1 billion. You, your partners and your investors get a cash payout for betting
An entrepreneur's tiny private company may reach its next stage of growth by becoming part of a large corporation that offers to buy it. Big companies often acquire creative enterprises whose new product or service dovetails with their own business activities. For example, Google's You Tube acquired Next New Networks, an independent producer of online video programming.
They did it: Instagram was purchased recently by Facebook for nearly $1 billion.
Advantages: You, your partners and your investors get a cash payout for betting on a winning idea and bringing it to life. After this "exit'' from your investment, you can use your financial gains to start another company, or to rest from your labors.
Cautions: You may forfeit even greater financial rewards that might have been reaped from retaining control of your company and offering ownership shares to the investing public in an IPO. And if the acquiring corporation doesn't ask you to stay on, other people will explore the full potential of the business you nurtured.
Initial Public Offering
A privately owned company can raise a substantial amount of fresh capital for further growth by offering shares to the general public in an initial public offering. The private enterprise becomes a publicly traded company whose shares can be bought and sold on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq or other trading platforms. After the IPO, the pre-existing ownership stakes of the company founders and early investors have a specific value determined by the stock's daily trading price. Mark Pinc
Photo: Paul Giamou | Getty Images
A privately owned company can raise a substantial amount of fresh capital for further growth by offering shares to the general public in an initial public offering. The private enterprise becomes a publicly traded company whose shares can be bought and sold on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq or other trading platforms. After the IPO, the pre-existing ownership stakes of the company founders and early investors have a specific value determined by the stock's daily trading price.
They did it: Mark Pincus founded social media game maker Zynga in 2007, and its games, including FarmVille and CityVille, took off. In December 2011, Zynga announced an initial public offering of 100 million common shares at $10 apiece.
Advantages: Your company can fund new growth opportunities. You and other shareholders may benefit if share prices rise with profits. But also, founders and early investors, such as venture firms, have opportunities to cash out, or "exit'' from the investment by selling their shares on a stock exchange.
Cautions: The value of company shares may fall well below their initial offering price, depending on the ongoing performance of the business and economic conditions. Registration as a publicly traded company brings new requirements for frequent public disclosures of financial reports, and compliance with other SEC rules. However, the JOBS Act will reduce the regulatory requirements for up to five years for "emerging growth companies'' that conduct IPOs. These companies can delay compliance with certain SEC rules, including some auditing requirements. But they must comply fully once they reach annual gross revenues of $1 billion, or meet other milestones.
The JOBS Act also allows companies to delay SEC registration as a publicly traded company while raising funds from private investors. Formerly, companies could not sell shares to more than 500 investors without registering and complying with SEC rules governing public companies. That shareholder threshold has now been raised to 2,000.
Virtual Reality Technology Now in Your Face
Busiest U.S. Trade Hubs
How Microprocessors Are Reinventing the Prosthesis
A New Enviromental Arsenal to Tackle Oil Spills
10 Smart, Digital Appliances

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Background. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) can be effectively treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). However, some patients with GIST develop drug resistance, and alternative treatment strategies are therefore needed. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of somatostatin receptors (SSTR) in GIST as a target for peptide receptor-mediated radiotherapy (PRRT). Material and methods. Expression profiling of SSTR1-5 was performed on biopsies from 34 GISTs (16 gastric tumors, 15 small intestinal tumors, and three rectal tumors). SSTR scintigraphy ((111)In-octreotide) and measurement of (111)In activity in tumor specimens was performed in seven patients. Uptake and internalization of (177)Lu- octreotate was studied in primary cell cultures from two patients. Results. Quantitative PCR analysis showed expression of SSTR1 and SSTR2 in the majority of tumors, while SSTR3-5 were expressed at low levels. Immunohistochemical analysis confirmed the presence of SSTR1 and SSTR2 proteins in all GISTs, and SSTR3-5 in a subset of tumors. Diagnostic imaging by SSTR scintigraphy, using (111)In-octreotide, demonstrated tumor uptake of (111)In in three of six GIST patients. Measurement of (111)In activity in excised tumor specimens from five patients gave tumor-to-blood (T/B) activity ratios of between eight and 96. Tumor cells in primary culture (gastric and small intestinal GIST) specifically bound and internalized (177)Lu when incubated with the therapeutic compound (177)Lu-octreotate for 4-48 hours (p < 0.05). Conclusion. Peptide receptor-mediated radiotherapy via SSTR may provide a novel treatment strategy in carefully selected GIST patients with TKI-resistant tumors.


text:
WWE reportedly pushing for Daniel Bryan to re-sign
May 5, 2021 - by Marc Middleton
WWE is reportedly trying to get Daniel Bryan to sign a new contract.
As noted last night at this link, Bryan's WWE contract reportedly expired last week or was set to expire as he lost the Career vs. Title match to WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns on SmackDown.
In an update, F4Wonline.com reports that Bryan's contract did expire on Friday. It was noted that WWE is "pushing hard" for Bryan to sign a new contract.
There's no word yet on what Bryan is planning, or if a new deal has been reached. Bryan has been signed to WWE since 2009, besides a brief period in 2010. Bryan has talked about wanting to be more of a part-time talent as of late, so he can focus more on family.
Stay tuned for the latest on Bryan's WWE status.
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April Fangria says:
I can't see him going to Impact but I could see him in AEW if they gave him a deal similar to Paul Wight: commentary and occasional matches.