Instead of saying no, which I intensely want to, I say yes with great (read: faked) enthusiasm.
Do you want to come to my place for lunch?
Could you help me with this analysis?
Can you stay in the office during the summer while I go on five weeks of vacation?
You get the point. Long story short, I am pretty much the all-inclusive, all you can eat, people pleaser slash straight-A student on a bad trip.
Now, I count myself as a fairly rational person. I'm not a masochist. I know that I have a (serious) problem, and I know that I need to change my behaviour. But I just can't.
So what the heck is wrong with me?
I like when people are happy. I like doing good, helping when I can. Fairly standard stuff.
However, more than anything else, I hate to disappoint. And this is my Achilles heel, because as a result of trying to satisfy everyone else's needs I end up overlooking my own, and this makes me unhappy.
Or actually, it makes me angry. Angry that people dare to abuse, angry that I let them. Angry that I seldom get the appreciation I deserve, angry that still I cannot stop caring.
All this anger, I tell you, it's an unpleasant burden to carry.
I thought I could deal with it as an adult by starting to beat the sh*t out of a boxing bag once a week.
Eventually, my hands stopped getting bruised. My uppercut got better. My self-esteem, not so much.
It's a tricky situation. In many ways, desiring to please is like any other addiction. When I say yes to people, I get a short-term rush from doing good. Quickly afterwards, however, comes the dip in the form of feelings of guilt and disappointment with myself for not resisting. And so it goes over, over and over again.
I can't wait for the "quit-smoking" patch to evolve into a "stop-pleasing" patch. The person solving that equation should be a strong contender for the Nobel prize.
Recognizing, however, that this may take a while to hit the shelf, I figure I need to come up with a different action plan for becoming less agreeable.
Now, don't get me wrong here, I still believe it's a positive thing to want to do a good job, to want to make people happy. Being mean or rude to people is not how I was brought up. Even Rambo would agree that's just unnecessary (unless they're armed and dangerous).
What I mean is that you need to strike a balance between doing things for others and doing things for yourself. Sure, selflessness is great, but not if it comes at the expense of your personal well-being.
My experience is that simply having someone repeatedly encouraging you to say no is not enough. A role model can indeed be useful, but in the end you will need to learn to say no in your own way.
I don't have time this week, but I will let you know once I'm available.
Right now I don't have the time, maybe you can first check with someone else.
Actually, I had also planned to go on holidays, so we will need to discuss a solution.
Easy as cake. Hopefully this method will eventually lead me to the holy grail of no.
That's one small step for mankind, a giant leap for me.
→ Are You a Serial Clubber? Or You Hate It? Tell Us About Your Experiences!
This is something I also struggle with. I'm working on not saying yes all the time, thanks for the examples provided, gives me ideas for my own situation.
I must say that such problem is really the same for everyone!


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5 Game of Thrones filming locations in the UK
Here in the Evan Evans offices, GoT is something of a water-cooler talking point. Being an office full of travel junkies, we love trying to figure out where each of the gorgeous locations in Westeros may have been filmed. From Croatia to Iceland, HBO's fantasy epic showcases some of the most beautiful travel spots in the world.
After what felt like a seven-year winter, the most wonderful time of the year has come around once more. No, we're not talking about Christmas time – it's season seven of Game of Thrones!
Out of all the stunning scenes though, our favourites have always been the ones a little closer to home. Many Game of Thrones locations were shot right here in the UK, in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Thanks to the GoT wiki's fantastic list of filming spots, we can see exactly where the magic was brought to life.
So, if you are planning a tour in the UK, take a look at our top five UK Game of Thrones filming locations. And, as always, keep an eye out for dragons on the horizon.
Magheramorne Quarry (County Antrim, Northern Ireland)
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For me personally, the wall has to be the most striking of all the GoT locations. Watching the members of the Nightwatch stare out across the barren wastelands of The North captured the imagination of audiences the world over.
That's why Magheramorne's quarry is at the top of my list. Not only is it the real-world home of both the wall (with a drop of CGI!) and Castle Black, but it was also used during sequences in the epic battles of Hardhome and Blackwater Bay.
The Dark Hedges of Armoy (County Antrim, Northern Ireland)
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With a name like 'The Dark Hedges', it's no surprise that this unbelievable location was snapped up for our fantasy epic. Used as a location for Ned and Arya's scenes on the King's Road, the Hedges is a country road encircled by a line of beech trees on either side. The trees themselves were planted by the Stuart family over 200 years ago. Take a stroll down this road and you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd fallen into a fantasy world of your own.
Duone Castle (Stirling, Central Scotland)
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When GRR Martin first imagined the islands of Westeros he based them around his own vision of Roman Britain. It's fitting then, that HBO takes Duone Castle as the inspiration for Winterfell – the home of the Stark family. This stunning medieval stronghold was used for several exterior shots of Winterfell, as well as interior shots of the great feast when Robert Baratheon arrives to visit Ned.
Tollymore Forest Park (County Down, Northern Ireland)
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Tollymore is worthy of mention for its outstanding natural beauty as much as for its prime-time fame. This beautiful state park, with its stone bridges and ancient hermitage, is the perfect setting for a fantasy adventure of any scale, although you'd be hard-pressed to recognise it from the show alone.
The park has been featured throughout the series as the 'generic wooded area somewhere in Westeros'. Tollymore was where the Stark children originally found their six Direwolf pups, as well as where the three Nightwatchmen were massacred by Whitewalkers during the show's prologue.
Downhill Strand (County Londonderry, Northern Ireland)
A post shared by Ireland Travel (@ireland_travel) on Feb 27, 2018 at 5:37am PST
Our final location served as the exterior of Dragonstone – the beach location where we are first introduced to Stannis Baratheon and his Red Priestess, Melisandre. This gorgeous blue-flag beach perfectly captures the windswept desolation of Dragonstone, as well as the rugged beauty of Ireland itself. It's the perfect place to wave goodbye to your Game of Thrones tour of the UK.
If you're interested in discovering more amazing film locations based in the UK, don't forget to check out our special Harry Potter London tour.
5 luxury things to do in London
10 Of The Most Unusual Ways To See London

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home Soccer FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Needs Neymar to be Just as Important...
FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Needs Neymar to be Just as Important as Him
Peter Fisher
There are many layers and reasons for Barcelona to bring in Neymar, some of them a bit more obvious than others. One of them is taking a lot of pressure off from Lionel Messi, even if it means that in some matches, the Brazilian is actually the focus of everything that goes on.
Barcelona brought over Neymar simply because he's one of the biggest rising stars in the world, having enough of Brazilian football and knowing it's time to "spread his wings" and show the doubters he can succeed on European soil as well. He's a huge media and commercial attraction, bringing Barcelona back to the "one big signing" operational model, which worked quite well during the Guardiola era, even if someone like Zlatan Ibrahimovic didn't last very long.
It also meant beating Real Madrid for a player that for a very long time they looked like the closer team to getting. Cristiano Ronaldo is just as big of a star as Lionel Messi, but last season proved to Neymar that it's going to better for his career to play next to the Argentine than the Portuguese star.
And then there's what he'll actually bring to the table. Neymar is used to keeping the ball at his feet for a long time before letting it go, which will obviously have to change. It's not that he can't do it – we've seen some brilliant passing sequences from the current Brazilian side, but it's more about getting used to quick passing, releasing and off the ball movement than the question of whether he can do it or not.
Without Lionel Messi on the pitch, it's hard to believe Barcelona would even be close to challenging for a title. Yes, the void would have been partially filled by someone, but it's never going to be the same. Their dependence on Messi being on the pitch, scoring the goals, providing the assists and drawing so much attention to himself has been immensly crucial for the last five seasons. While it hasn't hurt their dominance in the La Liga, the Champions League is a different story.
Teams have managed to figure out how to deal with Barcelona, as we've seen for the last couple of seasons. Bayern Munich weren't about neutralizing Barca – they were about running over them on the way to the title. But AC Milan last season, Chelsea the year before and other matches during the group stage proved just how hard it is for this team to carry on playing in the same way, when everyone knows what's going to happen. It's very difficult to stop, but there are teams good enough to do it, like Real Madrid did in all competition against Barca last seaosn.
Neymar needs to draw the same focus to himself, and not be some on-the-side player who is just part of the team being built around Messi. From now on it should be a team that revolves around both of them, with Neymar getting the same kind of importance in finishing and build up. It's going to take time before he gets to that level of dominance on the pitch, but without his goals and ability to get defenses to focus on him, Barcelona won't evolve from a stage that seems to be holding them back on the European front for the last couple of seasons.
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SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS REFUSES TO EXTEND THE SUBSIDIARY RULE TO UNINCORPORATED DIVISIONS OF A PARENT COMPANY IN DIVERSITY ACTIONS
Last week, Judge Ellison of the District Court for the Southern District of Texas denied a Plaintiff's Motion for Remand against her insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield ("BCBS") in Coghlan v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, Civil Action No. H-12-2703, 2013 WL 150711 (S.D. Tex Jan. 14, 2013). Plaintiff's health insurance policy did not provide coverage for routine maternity procedures, but did cover maternity care in case of "emergency" or "complication of pregnancy". During Plaintiff's pregnancy, the doctors performed a Cesarean operation. Afterward, Plaintiff requested BCBS cover the cost of her pregnancy because of her operation. BCBS denied coverage for the cost associated with her pregnancy, and Plaintiff sued BCBS in Texas state court alleging numerous violations of the Texas Insurance Code, Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and breach of contract.
BCBS removed the lawsuit to federal court on the basis of diversity jurisdiction. Plaintiff moved to remand the case and alleged no diversity existed between BCBS and herself. Specifically, Plaintiff argued that BCBS maintains its principal place of business in Texas—BCBS maintains a large office in Richmond, Texas. BCBS argued in its response that it is an unincorporated division of HCSC, its parent company located in Illinois, and where it conducts business, principally or otherwise, is irrelevant in light of its parent company's citizenship.
The Court's analysis addressed the subsidiary rule, whereby a subsidiary corporation which is incorporated as a separate entity is considered to have its own principal place of business. The Court, however, refused to extend the subsidiary rule to unincorporated divisions of parent companies. Since BCBS was an unincorporated division of HCSC rather than a subsidiary, the Court determined its principal place of business was in Illinois. As such, diversity existed between the parties, and plaintiff's motion to remand was denied.


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Lesley's World
Women's rights, travel, politics, democracy-building work, gender and security, post-conflict reconstruction programmes, international news and comment ... an odd mix, but that's my life!
Sevgul Uludag first woman from Cyprus nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her journalistic work bringing Turkish and Greek Cypriots together.
My friend Sevgul Uludag has been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize.
She is the first woman from Cyprus to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her journalistic work in bringing together the two main communities of the island – Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots – by showing them with her work that their pain is a common human pain and through her work producing democratic solutions to the problems of the communities in Cyprus and her peace activism.
She helped to set up TOGETHER WE CAN where relatives of "missing persons" and victims of war from the two communities have been working together for the first time in the past decade to find burial sites of "missing persons", as well as pioneering for reconciliation and peace and for facing the history of the conflict together in order to move towards the future. She set up a "Hot Line" with her own mobile phone and mobilised readers from both parts of the divided island to call in and give information to her about this sensitive humanitarian issue and as a result of these calls, many burial sites of "missing persons" on both sides of the island were found and remains of "missing persons" were exhumed by the official Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and returned to the relatives for burial. Her work heals wounds of the war and conflict in Cyprus.
Uludag born in 1958 in Cyprus is an investigative journalist writing in newspapers in both parts of the divided island Cyprus in Turkish in YENIDUZEN and in Greek in POLITIS and on her blog in English, has focused for the past two decades on stories of "missing persons", "mass graves" and "rapes during times of conflict" has been nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. She is also a gender and peace activist and spent last four decades of her life, bringing together women from across the dividing line in Cyprus, setting up joint women NGOs, training women on peace, gender and organisational skills, pioneering in this field as a peace activist.
She is one of the founders of HANDS ACROSS THE DIVIDE, the first bicommunal women's NGO in Cyprus. She had also set up the Women's Research Centre which held activities around gender and peace for many years, in coalition with women NGOs from both parts of the island. She was also one of the founders of Women's Movement for Peace and a Federal Solution in Cyprus in the 80s… She worked voluntarily in the Women's Platform in the 90s to train women on a big scale from rural to urban areas on issues of gender, peace and organisational skills.
She is the first woman from Cyprus to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her journalistic work in bringing together the two main communities of the island – Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots – by showing them with examplary pieces of her work that their pain is a common human pain and through her work producing democratic solutions to the problems of the communities in Cyprus and her peace activism.
Sevgul Uludag has several international awards for her work like "Courage in Journalism" given by the International Women's Media Foundation, "European Citizens' Prize" given by the European Parliament, "Press Freedom Award" given by the Reporters Without Borders Austrian section. She has several books like "Strategy and Planning for Women in Politics" (in Turkish) and "Oysters with the Missing Pearls – Untold stories of missing persons, mass graves and memories from the past of Cyprus" (in Turkish, Greek and English), "Cyprus: The Untold Stories" (in English).
Throughout her life, Sevgul Uludag has been receiving death threats and she faced hate speech, psychological terror, intimidation… But she did not give up what she was doing and her work as an investigative journalist and as a peace and gender activist has been based on humanitarism and she works voluntarily as a humanitarian task, inspiring the two main communities of the island and giving hope for peace and reconciliation…
Contact details of Sevgul Uludag:
Sevgululudag99@gmail.com
Caramel_cy@yahoo.com
00 357 99 966518 and 00 90 542 853 8436
Photo shows Sevgul Uludag at the burial site in Kytherea,Cyprus.
Posted by Lesley Abdela No comments:
Hannah Yilma - Ethiopian activist, refugee, United Nations diplomat. 1943 – 2018. A personal tribute by Lesley Abdela
Hannah Yilma - Ethiopian activist, refugee, United Nations diplomat. 1943 – 2018
A personal tribute by Lesley Abdela
Hannah Yilma was a good friend for five decades. She was brave and cheerful no matter what life was throwing at her (and it did, in quantities). She was kind and funny and warm and passionate about politics. Hannah was quietly elegant with a wicked chuckle.
Born in Ethiopia, Hannah told me about happy times spent with her Father riding through their coffee plantation on horse-back when she was 14 or 15 years old. In this year of the 100th anniversary it is worth mentioning Hannah's parents knew Sylvia Pankhurst who lived in Ethiopia from the 1950s. Hannah's Father helped support the monthly journal, Ethiopia Observer, in which Sylvia reported on Ethiopian life and development. Hannah's Mother was Elisabeth Workeneh, her Father, Yilma Deressa was Ethiopia's Ambassador to the United States and Minister of Finance, at the time of Emperor Haile Selassie.
I first met Hannah in the 1960s when she came to London to attend St Godric's Secretarial College. We met through mutual friends. She lived with a British family in Surrey who knew her Father through major agricultural business in Ethiopia. I remember admiring the long light tweed winter dress she wore. It was under-stated quietly elegant with a pink coloured bodice and plaid checked skirt in the same pink with milky coffee beige. I went out and bought an identical dress.
The fact Hannah was at Secretarial College is ironic. She was dyslexic. Much of Hannah's life was a kaleidoscope of contradictions. She looked well-behaved, demure and lady-like. Beneath she was unconventional. In the swinging sixties she shared a flat in London with a couple of other friends. One was Maggie Wolf. Maggie married Richard Mason, author of 'The World of Suzie Wong' on which the film of that name was based. Maggie and Richard moved to Rome. Hannah was a frequent visitor.
Hannah's life changed after the Dergue government took power in Ethiopia in 1975. Following the ousting of Emperor Haile Selassie, her Father was imprisoned with other ministers and members of the Emperor's family. The Communist dictatorship executed and imprisoned tens of thousands of its opponents without trial.
Hannah became active in the opposition movement against the military regime.
She and her cousin Dereje Deressa formed the Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU) and ran the opposition radio station, "Voice of United Ethiopia" hostile to the military regime. She married the celebrated Ethiopian writer Sibhat Gebre-egziabher.
After threats of assassination Hannah and her young son Iyassu were rescued secretly by a pilot in a small plane and flown across the border to safety. She and her husband lived apart from then on. Hannah never talked much to me about her husband. Their relationship, their marriage, and their publication ventures are said to be described in a fictionalised account in the book Derasiw by author Baalu Girma. Her Father died of cancer a political prisoner in an Addis Ababa prison.( Aged 71 in January 1979.)
Hannah experienced racism a number of times. At one stage when she rented author Neville Shute's house in Seven Sisters, London she was furious with the local state school teacher who suggested 8 year son Iyassu should focus on sport rather than academic subjects. Hannah said, " They jumped to the assumption because he is black he should do sport. " Hannah battled with the school to ensure her son had every academic opportunity.
When he was a bit older the friends in Surrey enabled Iyassu to continue his education at a Boarding School in Surrey. Iyassu graduated in Chemistry from Imperial College, University of London.
Later Hannah and her British Partner of many years, were living in flat in Elgin Avenue, Maida Vale. His company offered him promotion to a top job in the USA. He told Hannah his employers, a major petroleum company said he would not be allowed to take Hannah with him to the United States. He would need to choose between career promotion and living with his 'black girl-friend'.
She was left with the apartment, but she had no way of earning an income in the UK.
Hannah usually gave an outward positive view of life. But one day confided to me how tough things had become, ' Who wants to employ a 40 something, who is dyslexic, and who is black' she said. I was able to lend her money from winnings from a bet I put on John Major to become Leader of the Conservative Party. The odds were 50 to 1. (She paid me back the loan many years later.)
Hannah's life continued to be under threat. One day when I was staying with her and Iyassu in their Flat in Elgin Avenue, Maida Vale. London. She loaned me her dark red Volvo to drive somewhere. I opened the glove compartment to look for the 'A to Z map' and saw a gun there. I was shaken. In the UK almost no-one carried guns. I asked Hannah about the gun 'I keep the gun for my protection' she said.
In 1991 she was finally offered a job where she could use her diplomatic skills. Hannah was an ace networker. She became an Information Officer in the UN Department of Public Information. Hannah Yilma participated in two field missions; the UN Protective Force (UNPROFOR) in the former Yugoslavia, from 1994 to 1995, and the UN Observer Mission to South Africa (UNOMSA), from 1992-1994, as Civil Affairs Officer and Peace Observer. Prior to her final posting in South Africa, she served as a Political Affairs officer in the Situation Centre in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations from 1995-1998 and then held the post of Associate Spokesman in the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General from 1998 to 2000.
She retired as the Director of the UN Information Centre Pretoria in 2005 and stayed on living in Pretoria. I stayed with Hannah overnight in 2005 on my way to catch my flight home to UK from Johannesburg after a month I spent working on a project assessing the situation on women's rights in Swaziland. Life had finally worked out for her. She was living in a large gated community in a nice house with a garden beside a lake. In retirement she remained actively involved in in non-governmental work, as well as in the diplomatic corps in South Africa.
Several of us from London of the 1960s remained lifelong friends with Hannah. In 2016 She organised a small reunion dinner in a Greek taverna in Bayswater for Advertising Photographer Sanders Nicolson from Scotland, Maggie Wolf from Rome and her brother Adrian. Five decades earlier we had all been together just across the road at Queensway Ice skating rink when we heard the news US President John Kennedy had been shot .
Hannah and I last spoke on the phone in early June this year She told me she had ovarian cancer and it had been treated with a hysterectomy and chemo. She thought she was on the road to recovery. . She sounded optimistic and busy. It was a tremendous shock when her son Iyassu called.
She died in S.Africa where she lived for the past 20 years.
Here is a pic I took of Hannah in 2012. We had lunch together at the Royal Geographical Society in South Kensington and made a 'pilgrimage' to her son Iyassu's alma mater Imperial College, nearby.
Hannah was rightly immensely proud of Iyassu. He is a leader in preclinical drug discovery, early clinical development programs and therapeutic areas spanning cardiometabolic (diabetes, obesity, hypertension) and neuroscience (cognition). He was Director of Chemistry at Merck Pharmaceuticals in the USA and is now Head of Chemistry and Senior Director at Kallyope, New Jersey, USA.
As well as her son Iyassu Sebhat, Hannah Yilma leaves two sisters Salome and Sophia.
(31 May 1943 – 14 August 2018)
Lesley.abdela@shevolution.com
Posted by Lesley Abdela 2 comments:
#Vote100 Salute to Millicent Fawcett women's suffrage campaign Leader
Salute to Dame Millicent Fawcett DBE
President of the -The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) 1897 until 1919.
Millicent Fawcett campaigned within the law which is why she is less well known today than the Pankhursts' suffragette movement. As a campaigner myself for women's rights I can truly say that the scale of Millicent Fawcett's achievement, her tenacity and determination is absolutely awesome. Millicent Fawcett was President of The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) 1897 until 1919.
The NUWSS was fifty times bigger than the militant suffrage movement - the Women's Suffrage and Political Union (WSPU)with only some 2,000 members. Millicent Fawcett's suffrage union had 500 local branches and over 100,000 members. They held over 300 public meetings per week and massive peaceful marches, organised petitions, wrote letters. Millicent Fawcett Millicent Fawcett was an exceptionally capable organiser, mobiliser and fund-raiser for 'the cause'. She used constitutional methods. Her approach was to use reason an/d patience, based on persistent lobbying and public education.
Millicent Fawcett was one of the vintage generation of women activists who brought about reforms for women's lives that impact on us today. One of the scenes in history that I would most like to have witnessed is a scene in 1860 at the Garrett family home - Alde House, Aldeburgh. In front of the bedroom fire, three girls were brushing their hair. They were two sisters : Elizabeth and Millicent Garrett, and their friend, the famous feminist Emily Davies. Emily was 29, Elizabeth 23 and Millicent 13. As they brushed their hair they chatted: "Women can get nowhere", said Emily, "'unless they are as well educated as men. I shall open the universities." She did it. In her life Emily Davies succeeded in opening up access to women for university - including founding Girton College College.
"Yes," agreed her friend Elizabeth Garrett . 'We need education but we need an income too and we can't earn that without training and a profession. I shall start women in medicine." She did it. Elizabeth Garrett became the first qualified British woman Doctor. Elizabeth Garrett Browning Hospital is named after her.
Elizabeth looked at her younger sister and said, "But what shall we do with Milly?" They agreed that Millie should get the parliamentary vote for women. Millicent too succeeded in her allotted life- task.
Millicent (Garrett) Fawcett campaigned for over 60 years from 1857 until 1928 - for women to have the right to vote and to stand for parliament and to have full rights as equal citizens with men. She was author a number of publications. Her: 'Political Economy for Beginners' became a bestseller with ten editions in twenty-five years.
Shameful behaviour of Gladstone, Churchill and Asquith
In giving her entire adult life to the great cause, fighting every day for votes for women, she and her suffragist supporters were endlessly mocked, derided and treated with contempt by these pillars of the British Establishment The great political 'A' List celebrity beasts who are so revered today, Gladstone, Winston Churchill, Asquith and their colleagues have a shameful record of duplicity and arrogance. These men in no way behaved as democrats.
For daring to ask for democracy - the right for half the population to have a say in who governs Britain Millicent Garrett Fawcett and her fellow suffrage campaigners were the butt of ribald humour, adverse press comment, and duplicity. The very mention of the word 'women' in the House of Commons produced laughter and derision. In a debate in the House of Commons, Liberal MP Labouchere said - "it would be as useful to extend the vote to rabbits as to women!"
Despite being tricked and trivialised by Gladstone, Asquith Winston Churchill and their colleagues, year after year Millicent sat patiently in the lobby of the House of Commons waiting for appointments with Ministers and Members of Parliament. I think it would be a fitting and ironic tribute for a bronze statue of Millicent Fawcett sitting on one of the benches in Central Lobby……….similar to the bronze figures of Churchill and Roosevelt who sit on a bench in Bond Street.
Having a blind husband turned out to be a great asset in learning about politics
Three other men played a pivotal role in Millicent Fawcett's life - the first was her Father - the second was Radical MP and philosopher John Stuart Mill
and the third was her husband Henry Fawcett, an economics professor at Cambridge who was also a Liberal MP. He had been blinded in a shooting accident when he was aged 22.
The result of her having worked alongside her blind husband in his political activities meant that after his early death in 1884, Millicent Fawcett was the only woman in the early suffrage movement who understood how to wheel and deal with politicians - how to choose the right people to lobby and how to approach them. At this time in Victorian England it was not considered proper for a woman to speak on a platform at a public meeting. The partnership with her blind husband gave Millicent the chance to learn the trade of politics. Because of Henry's condition, Millicent Garrett Fawcett served as his amanuensis, secretary, and companion as well as his wife. The husband and wife team of Henry Fawcett and Millicent Garrett Fawcett was similar to that of their mentor John Stuart Mill and his platonic love, (and later wife) Harriet Taylor. Besides being among the leading feminists of their time, the two women provided both intellectual stimulation and feminine perception of the highest degree to their partners.
World War 1 and Lloyd George
Millicent Garrett Fawcett supported the British war effort in World War I, believing that if women supported the war effort, suffrage would naturally be granted at the end of the war. In the London Suffrage Society's case this was mainly through the setting up of the Women's Service Bureau, to place women both as volunteers and into essential paid war work -which included ambulance drivers, medics, the setting up of training schemes for women welders and munitions workers. This war work contributed to their main purpose - with increased activity in Parliament in 1917 around the Representation of the People Bill.
In March 1917 Millicent Fawcett led a deputation that included representative of 24 women's suffrage societies to see new Prime Minster, Lloyd George and in February
Victory in 1918. Parliament passed the Representation of the People Act.
The Representation of the People Act allowed the vote, to women with property over the age of 30.
After a struggle of 52 years Millicent returned home to Gower Street from the House of Lords, triumphant from witnessing the victory of Women's suffrage. The press flocked to her home. A journalist knowing of her fifty years association with the movement, asked her to describe briefly its 'ups' and 'downs'. She replied that it had been all 'ups' and no 'downs.' He looked perplexed and incredulous. Millicent Fawcett continued with words that I feel best sums up the progress since the 1950s….
She said : "The history of the women's movement for the last fifty years is the gradual removal of intolerable grievances. Sometimes the pace was fairly rapid; sometimes it was very slow ; but it was always constant , and always in one direction. I have sometimes compared it, in its slowness to the movement of a glacier; but like a glacier it was ceaseless and irresistible. You could not see it move, but if you compared it with a stationary object and looked again after an interval of months or years, you had proof positive it had moved. It always moved in the direction of the removal of the statutory and social disabilities of women. It established their individual liberty and freedom; they were in fact passing from subjection to independence . That is why I said the history of the movement has been all 'ups' and no 'downs. "
Millicent Garrett Fawcett turned over the NUWSS presidency to Eleanor Rathbone, as the organization transformed itself into the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (NUSEC) and worked for lowering the voting age for women to 21, the same as for men.
In 1924, Millicent Garrett Fawcett was given the Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, and became Dame Millicent Fawcett.
Until her death Millicent continued to campaign for votes for women on the same basis as men including - in her 80s - taking part in the famous Mud March in Hyde Park.
She died in London just months after women got the right to vote on an equal basis with men in 1929.
Millicent Fawcett earned the words on the memorial she shares with her husband in Westminster Abbey. The words say : "A wise, constant and courageous Englishwoman who won citizenship for women."
(Dame Millicent Fawcett DBE - June 11, 1847 - August 5 1929)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gj7nf
https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/vote-100
BREXIT Repeal Bill. Women's rights may be dumped in the wheelie bin.
Please feel free to circulate my article. I would appreciate if you attribute quotes by name to Lesley Abdela. Thanks!
The last time Britain's laws were up for modification on such an immense scale it was under the Normans. It took 800 years before women got back rights they lost in the process. Unless amended the Government 'Repeal Bill' may ultimately result in women's rights being dumped in the wheelie bin of history.
Women in the UK have mostly relied on EU law and the European Court of Justice to make sure our rights get meaningful protection. Ministers will import thousands of EU rules and regulations on to our statute books as part of the Repeal Bill. All existing EU legislation will be copied across into domestic UK law. Under the Government's proposed fast-speed 'Henry V111' procedures unless there is oversight and scrutiny it will be all too easy for business interests to persuade Government to get rid of what they perceive as 'red – tape'. Warning Signals for UK women to beware of losing their employment rights in the BREXIT transition process are coming thick and fast.
The Sunday Express announced, 'Equal pay diktat is just more red tape for business. [1]
A Telegraph article titled 'Cut the EU red tape choking Britain after Brexit to set the country free' stated, 'Britain must sweep aside thousands of needless EU regulations after Brexit to free the country from the shackles of Brussels, a coalition of senior MPs and business leaders has demanded.'[[2]
MEP Martin Callanan said in a speech, 'One of the best ways to speed up growth is to … scrap the Pregnant Workers Directive and all of the other barriers to actually employing people if we really want to create jobs.'[3]
The EU has been at the forefront of driving greater gender equality for women including: equal treatment for part-time workers (the majority of whom are women); anti-discrimination legislation on employment, training and working conditions; the pregnant workers directive which gives women the right to take time off work to attend medical appointments; sex discrimination rules which place the burden of proof on the defendant. And it was the European Court of Justice that obliged the British government to amend the legislation to provide equal pay for work of equal value and to ensure women had equal pension rights with men. EU directives provide a minimum standard for Member States. It is possible to go beyond these standards, but Member States cannot go beneath the floor.
I have worked on women's rights in over 50 countries and seen how in the turmoil of a society in transition whenever an opportunity arises to roll back women's civil, social, economic and political gains, they will be rolled back. It can happen with frightening speed. I saw first-hand how women's rights gained in the Soviet era - often considerable, due to industrial development, were scrubbed, out as financially costly and unnecessary in the new free market world in the opinions of men from the corporate world.
More recently we witnessed a dramatic example of rapid reverse during and after the uprisings in the Arab World. At the height of the revolutions men welcomed women as partners in the struggle for democracy as, for example, in Cairo's Tahrir Square. But after the uprising women's rights were deliberately damned and reversed as a hangover from the ancienne regimes.
Here at home in the UK the loss of EU protection after Brexit would mean the British government can do whatever it feels appropriate, unimpeded by international floors. The EU, safety net status for women's rights will be removed. Brexit secretary David Davis has told Parliament any substantive policy issues would be dealt with by new laws scrutinised by parliament with a topping up by a fast-track process now dubbed the 'Henry Vlll' process after the Statute of Proclamations 1539 which gave him the power to legislate by proclamation. This will not involve the usual Parliamentary scrutiny process, opposition parties (and some Conservatives) have protested at Ministers being handed "sweeping powers" to make hasty, ill thought-out legislation.
When Britain's laws were last up for modification on such an immense scale. It started a few miles from where I live in East Sussex, at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The evidence which has survived from Anglo-Saxon England is that women were more nearly the equal companions of their husbands and brothers than at any other period before the modern era. In the Anglo-Saxon legal system women Anglo-Saxon women were their own creatures and not merely appendages to their husbands. In the higher ranges of society this rough and ready partnership was ended by the Norman Conquest which introduced into England a military society relegating women to a position honourable but essentially unimportant. It took over 800 years after the Norman conquest before Britain's women gained the right not to be viewed as a husband's property, with the Married Woman's Property Act of 1882!
Please ask MPs and Peers to propose an amendment demanding the public sector equality duty (section 149 Equality Act 2010) be used to protect women's rights during the BREXIT Repeal Bill process.
The Equality Act imposes a duty on all public authorities and bodies performing public functions to give 'due regard' in the performance of functions to the need -
a) to eliminate discrimination; b) to advance equality of opportunity;
c) to foster good (gender) relations. The need to give 'due regard' to the advance equality of opportunity means identifying the barriers to equal opportunity in any particular context and considering what steps could.
This duty is often honoured more in the breach, or in an entirely 'tick-box' way, but the UK Supreme Court says it must be conducted "in substance, with rigour and an open mind" (Hotak v London Borough of Southwark, 2013).
MPs and Peers should be Government Ministers the following questions :
Will the repatriation processes be monitored in compliance with Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010? If so, by whom at each stage? What powers will they have? For example, will there be opportunities for outsiders with particular interest and expertise to scrutinise areas considered important from the women's rights perspective to ensure that in all political, employment, economic and societal spheres women and girls do not lose rights they had gained.
In addition to my suggestion you can support 'Face Her Future'. A call to action by over 20 women's and equalities organisations
https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/faceherfuturehttps://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/faceherfuture
[1] , Sunday Express, (14 July 2015): http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/591066/Equal-pay-red-tape-business-gender-gap-women-s-rights
[2] The Telegraph, (17 March. 2017): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/27/cut-eu-red-tape-choking-britain-brexit-set-country-free-shackles/,
EU Article 50. Full text of Lord John Kerr's speech - there's nothing in Article 50 to stop the British people changing their minds on BREXIT.
The Brexit process is reversible and the British people have the right to change their minds should they want to, Lord John Kerr, who played a central role in drafting Article 50, said in a speech in central London 10 November 2017 hosted by the Open Britain campaign.
Lord Kerr says that the Article 50 letter that Theresa May sent in March this year can be unilaterally withdrawn. "We are not required to withdraw just because Mrs May sent her letter", he says. "We can change our minds at any stage during the process."
He says that "Mrs. May's letter was only a notification of the UK's "intention" to withdraw. Intentions can change. We still have all the rights of a member-state, including the right to change our minds." He points to statements from European legal experts and leaders including Emmanuel Macron, Donald Tusk and Antonio Tajani to prove that the door is open for the UK to change its mind on Brexit, despite the fact that "Putin and Trump would be disappointed" if that happened.
He says: "As new facts emerge, people are entitled to take a different view. And there's nothing in Article 50 to stop them. I think the British people have the right to know this – they should not be misled."
John Kerr served as Britain's Permanent Representative to the EU from 1990-1995, as UK Ambassador to the United States from 1995-1997, and as Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Office from 1997-2002. In 2002-2003 he acted as Secretary-General of the European Constitutional Convention, which drafted Article 50.
The full text of Lord Kerr's speech is below:
*CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY*
"Article 50 emerged 15 years ago, in a Convention of 200 Parliamentarians from all the countries who then were members of, or were then negotiating to join, the EU. I was their Secretary-General.
"One of their concerns was to demonstrate that the Union was a voluntary partnership of sovereign nation-states, based on treaties between states, not the incipient super-state of Eurosceptic nightmares. Including an Article setting out a procedure for orderly divorce was one of several ways of underlining the voluntary nature of the Union. Though we called our product a Constitutional treaty I can't recall anyone suggesting adding any "We, the People…" claim to a legitimacy going over the heads of elected national governments.
"Nor do I remember any serious opposition to the idea, enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty in what became Article 50, that nation-states were entitled to change their minds, and leave if they so choose. Equally I'm certain no-one dreamed that in 2017 a member state would trigger the procedure, as Mrs. May did on 29 March.
"Now that we're in the procedure, it's important to understand it; and I am concerned that some aspects of the Article seem to me rather inadequately reflected, or indeed misinterpreted, in our current public debate.
"I want to highlight 4 points.
"First, while we're in, we're in. While the divorce talks proceed, the parties are still married. Reconciliation is still possible. The Article requires the parties to negotiate the "arrangements" for our withdrawal; but we are not required to withdraw just because Mrs. May sent her letter. We can change our minds at any stage during the process.
"Second, however, there is a time-limit. To reassure a member-state wishing to leave that it could not be trapped in endless fruitless negotiation, the Article is clear that after 2 years, one is out. But the time-limit can be extended if all parties consent: this could become important.
"Third, Article 50 is only about divorce. Any Agreement about future relationships, e.g. on trade, between us and the 27 would be negotiated under other Articles, with different voting rules; and could only be concluded after we had left; and, unlike an Art 50 Agreement, would probably require ratification in every member-state, which in some countries would require referendums.
"Fourth, once we're out, we're out. The Article is clear that there can be no keeping a back-door key. If, once we'd left, we were to change our mind, and want to go back in, we would have to go through the full Accession procedure, like any other candidate-country. That would entail paying a price.
"Taking these in turn…
"First, and crucially, as required by the Treaty, Mrs. May's letter was only a notification of the UK's "intention" to withdraw. Intentions can change. We still have all the rights of a member-state, including the right to change our minds and our votes, as member-states frequently do, for example after elections. The Article is about voluntary withdrawal, not about expulsion: we don't have to go if at any stage, within the two years, we decide we don't want to.
"The clause that says that "once we're out, we're out" says just that, and only that. If we had wanted declaring an intention to go to be the Rubicon moment, if we had wanted a notification letter to be irrevocable, we would have drafted the clause to say so. But we didn't, and the clause doesn't. So, the die is not cast irretrievably. The letter can be taken back.
"That has subsequently been confirmed by formidable legal experts. Let me cite just two. Jean-Claude Piris, Legal Counsel to the Council in my Convention days, is clear that "even after triggering Article 50, and notifying the EU of its intention to leave, there is no legal obstacle to the UK changing its mind." Sir David Edward, UK Judge in the ECJ when the Article was drafted, says the same.
"The Government give the impression that the Rubicon has been crossed, but they currently refuse to publish their Law Officers' Opinion: I think we know why. They have been careful not to say that we could not take back Mrs. May's letter. During the Miller case, and at the Despatch Box in both Houses, Government spokesmen have consistently said only that "as a matter of firm policy ", we won't take it back. That formula in itself confirms that we could take it back.
"The fact is that a political decision has been made, in this country, to maintain that there can be no going back. Actually, the country still has a free choice about whether to proceed. As new facts emerge, people are entitled to take a different view. And there's nothing in Article 50 to stop them. I think the British people have the right to know this – they should not be misled.
"Supposing we were to exercise our right to withdraw Mrs. May's letter, how would leaders across the Channel react? We know from what they have said: they would applaud. Let me cite a couple of Presidents…
"If the UK wanted to stay, everybody would be in favour. I would be very happy."
That's Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament.
"It is in fact up to London how this will end: with a good deal, no deal, or no Brexit."
That's Donald Tusk, President of the European Council.
"Or take the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar … "The door remains open for the UK to stay in the EU." Yes. It does.
And President Macron has said the same.
"Most EU leaders think Brexit would be a disaster, worst for us, but bad for all. Most believe that, in a world of Trump and Putin, of Daesh and Islamic State, of Asian competition, of climate change and migration misery, Europe should stick together and work together. They of course recognise that we have every right to take a different view, but they hope that in the end we won't. They value our contribution to the Union's vitality, remembering with respect how Mrs. Thatcher fought to create the Single Market, and John Major and Tony Blair insisted, when the Wall came down, that we must bring in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe.
"They often find us difficult partners, annoyingly pragmatic and practical. But they now find us puzzlingly dogmatic and doctrinaire on Brexit. If we were to change our minds, Putin and Trump would be disappointed, but our near neighbours, and our true friends across the Atlantic and in the Commonwealth, would cheer. I think the country should know that.
"My second concern is less fundamental, but I am uneasy that the country isn't being told much about the possibility of taking more time.
"I don't know why Mrs. May was in such a rush to send her letter in March, before her Cabinet had an agreed plan. It was odd to start the clock and not start negotiating, instead calling an Election. And I don't know why both Government and Opposition now seem to discount the possibility of our seeking an extension. Predicting how the 27 would react to such a request is harder than predicting how they would react to our withdrawing the letter, and if anyone refused there would be no extension. I believe much would depend on our perceived motive. If we were seen as simply wanting to take a deadlocked financial negotiation into Extra Time, I doubt if we could be sure of the necessary unanimous consent.
"But if, for example, we were to need time for Parliament to consider a final deal, an Election, and/or to pass the legislation needed for a referendum giving the people the final say on this process, to check that the country, having seen the facts emerge during the negotiation process, still wanted to Leave, I do not see any of 27 democracies denying us the chance to consult the people. They would think we had every right to check that the country, by then aware of the facts, still wanted to Leave. How the people should be consulted at the end of this negotiation process is an issue for the politicians not me, but the country is entitled to know that different options are open to it.
"My third concern is over confusion about "transitions", "implementation periods", "standstills", and cliff-edges.
"I believe it was unwise of the 27 to insist on "sufficient progress" on money before turning to the future relationship. I think they were wrong to be misled by suggestions here that they could "go whistle", and that we might refuse to honour our commitments: I'm sure we never would. And it would of course be self-defeating: lengthy arbitration or court proceedings about unpaid bills would severely complicate full WTO accession. I believe that there should now be parallel tracks, one looking back, on settling debts, one looking forward, on future partnership plans, everything on the understanding that nothing can be finally agreed on either until all is agreed on both. I hope that will now happen.
"But I am puzzled by UK suggestions that a fully comprehensive agreement about the future can be completed and initialed by this time next year. EU trade agreements with third countries come under Article 218, not Article 50. They take time, and Association agreements take longer. And getting widely-drawn agreements ratified can be tricky: the Canadian negotiations have taken 7 years, and I hope that a UK/EU agreement would go wider, extending beyond Goods into Services. And ratifying widely-drawn agreements can be problematic: the Canadian deal got stuck in the Wallonian parliament.
"But we, the Article 50 drafters, had thought of the timing problem: hence the stipulation in the Article that the divorce settlement must be drawn up "taking account of the framework for the future relationship with the Union." When will we at last put forward a draft framework, a "Heads of Agreement " text, the basis for an agreed outline, or set of principles, which would guide the subsequent detailed sectoral negotiations? And why do we insist that the ball is in the EU court? Having service is usually seen as conferring an advantage. The best time to submit our ideas for the framework might have been before starting the 2-year clock. But better late than never.
"And do we really envisage that by next October we shall have not only initialed a permanent agreement, but will have also, subsequently, reached agreement on a transitional regime to get us from here to there, so avoiding the cliff-edge in 2019? This seems no less puzzling. Since we won't have a clear picture of the detail of future permanent arrangements, I don't see how we could build a bridge to them. Without some framework, we risk having nothing to "transition" to, nothing to "implement".
"In her Florence speech Mrs. May seemed to acknowledge this, and floated instead the idea of a standstill, for some two years, during which we would, after Leaving, continue to apply all EU rules and regulations. The 27 have in fact offered that from the start: their April Guidelines say that " should a time-limited prolongation of Union acquis be considered, this would require all existing Union regulatory, budgetary, supervisory, judiciary, and enforcement instruments and structures to apply." In Florence, it sounded as if Mrs. May might buy all that, for two or three years. But subsequent statements by Mr. Johnson, Dr. Fox and Mr. Gove suggest that they don't.
"But the key point about such a standstill is that it doesn't avoid the cliff-edge; It merely postpones it for a couple of years. That wouldn't provide the certainty business so badly needs. And whether it's called Transition, Implementation or Standstill, it would follow our Leaving. Once we're out, say in March 2019, we're out, with no votes, no judge, no commissioner, no MEPs, and no way back, other than an Accession negotiation, starting from scratch. Again, I think the country needs to know that.
"My last point can be briefly put. I think the country should also be aware of one big difference between, on the one hand, negotiating for accession, and, on the other, drawing back from secession: in the former, there's a price to pay; in the latter, there isn't.
"If we were eventually to apply to re-join the EU, it might be rather difficult to persuade 27, or by then maybe more, member-states, many of them less wealthy, in per capita terms, than us, that we should have a budget rebate. Mrs. Thatcher secured it from inside, after quite a fight, and it isn't universally popular. To sell the idea again, from outside, would not be possible.
"Conversely, while we're in, we're in; and there would be no price to pay if we were to decide to stay in. The rebate is part of a legal text known as the Own Resources Decision, which can be amended only if all member-states agree. While we remain a member-state, we would not agree to drop the Rebate. and since we are entitled to remain a member-state, we could not be forced to do so.
"My conclusions are simple.
"The national debate about Brexit should take account of the facts that:
i. our Article 50 letter could be withdrawn without cost or difficulty, legal or political;
ii. a standstill agreement is no panacea;
iii. once out, there is no easy way back in, and there would be a price to pay; but
iv. while still in, the option of stopping the clock, in order to consult the people again, is available.
"All four facts will still be relevant when Parliament next autumn gets the chance, as it must, to assess the outcome of the negotiations."
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About Lesley Abdela
Winner of the 2009 UK Woman Political Journalist of the Year chosen by votes of Members of Parliament, the House of Lords and the Parliamentary Press Lobby.
Worked in over 40 countries as an expert consultant advising Governments, International Organisations and Civil Society on Democracy, Women's Human Rights, Gender, Women Peace and Security, Media Advocacy, and Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Gender and elections.
Former Vice President of the Electoral Reform Society. Former Board Member of the Britsh Council and the International Institute for Environment & Development.
Lesley gives talks on global affairs, women's rights globally, adventure and inspiration.
Full biography at Wikipedia
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Family law cases, like many varieties of litigation, can sometimes take unexpected turns. One such example was a case recently decided by the Fifth District Court of Appeal. In this case, a mother in a child support case lost her job after the final hearing but before the trial court issued its judgment. The appeals court upheld the trial court's refusal to grant a motion to reopen the case, since granting that type of motion would prejudice the father too much and essentially require starting the case over from the beginning.The litigants in this case were a couple from Brevard County. They were in court to establish a parenting plan and child support. The parenting plan called for the father to have the children 2/3 of the time and the mother to receive 1/3 of the time. Based upon the timesharing, the parents' incomes, and all of the other relevant factors, the trial court determined that the wife owed child support. In assessing the wife's child support obligation, the court followed the child support guidelines based upon the mother's income from her job.
In many ways, this may sound like an "ordinary" child support case. However, this case wasn't ordinary. After the court had already finished the final hearing (but before it issued its order), the mother lost her job. This, the mother argued, greatly reduced her income.
Based upon that, the mother asked the court to reopen the case to accept new evidence, namely, the evidence of her termination and loss of income. The father opposed the mother's request. He argued that the mother was not entitled to reopen the case and that, if the mother wanted to argue for a change based upon her loss of income, the proper procedural method to do so was to file a request for a modification of her child support obligation under Section 61.14 of the Florida Statutes.
The trial court denied the motion to reopen and instead set the mother's child support payment, using her pre-termination income. She appealed, but she lost. The appeals court, while acknowledging that it was "not unsympathetic to Former Wife's position," still concluded that a motion to reopen wasn't the proper procedural method to obtain the relief she sought. The mother cited several cases, but those cases almost all involved granting motions to reopen when there had been "inadvertent omissions of evidence." This mother's situation was different. Here, the court concluded, there was no accidentally omitted evidence; there was an entirely new issue that emerged at the last moment.
The law requires trial courts to look at two things in deciding a motion to reopen: (1) the degree of prejudice or harm to the opposing party and (2) whether or not reopening would "serve the best interests of justice." In this case, granting the mother's motion would bring the parties back to "square one" and essentially demand a new trial, in the appellate court's estimation. Under those circumstances, the trial judge did not act improperly in denying the mother's request.
You never know when something unexpected will affect your family law case. That is just one of many reasons why you need an experienced and skilled advocate on your side. The South Florida child support attorneys at Sandy T. Fox, P.A. have handled many child support cases and have the resources to help you deal with your case, even in the wake of unexpected events. Contact our attorneys online or by calling (800) 596-0579 to schedule your confidential consultation.


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The MPO is responsible for planning and programming the annual expenditures, approximately $50,000,000 annually, of state and Federal (not local) transportation funds within the MPO boundary area. The MPO also provides technical guidance to local governments regarding transportation planning issues. The MPO also performs multimodal transportation studies to assess transportation needs and accessibility. As a result, the MPO develops several work products, including annual roadway deficiencies list, a Four Year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and a 20 year, at a minimum, Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP). Please note that the MPO is a planning agency and not an implementing agency. Projects are funded and implemented by other agencies such as MDOT, Road Commissions, Cities, Villages, Townships, and Transit agencies such as ITP and Hope Network.
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text:
Inglis never married. A letter from Philip Stewart, 6 Sabal Ct., Sewall's Pt., Stuart, Fl. states that as an adult he cared for his mother in Roseneath, NY "and was a pretty good friend of my grandparents. I remember him as a very friendly man."
Stewart also states Inglis was born in Willow Tree, NY. I can find no Willow Tree or Roseneath in New York, but there is a town called "Willow" in Ulster County. "Roseneath was the name of a home near Beacon. From "The history of Duchess County, edited by Frank Hasbrouck, published in Poughkeepsie in 1909:
"Mr. Wolcott had extensive real estate holdings in Fishkill, includ-
ing farms and village property, as well as interests in rnanufacturing,
in which he was at one time associated with Robert G. Raitkin, who
also lived at Fishkill some years and built there. Mr. Wolcott, by
his second marriage, had three children who lived to maturity. His
son, Henry Goodrich, married Julia, daughter of the late Waldo
Hutchins ; and his daughter, Katherine, married Samuel Verplanck
and they now occupy Roseneath. This house was built by Lieutenant
Ward of the United States Navy about seventy-five years ago. His
wife was a sister of Samuel Whittemore, who married Louisa, daugh-
ter of John Peter DeWint, and lived in the Wren's Nest, a cottage
with attractive grounds on the river a short distance south of the Long
Dock. The place had two entrances, whence the name.
Inglis was a member of the Order of Runnemede (Browning, Corrigenda, page D). The Inglis Stuart book confirms Willow Tree and Roseneath.
Examined for entrance to Columbia College, May 1876 and passed without conditions. Began reading Kent's Commentaries in a Wall Street law office September 1, 1879. Admitted to the bar after examination by Committee of General Term 1st Dept., NY Supreme Court. Practiced thereafter in N.Y. City and Dutchess County till retirement 1931. For notable cases see 104 N.Y. 268; 112 N.Y. 189 and 194 N.Y. 495. Representative of American shareholders of Exchange Telegraph Company Ltd. at the Annual Meeting in London July 1895. Elected member of Board of Directors of the North River Insurance Company in March 1896 and has served continuously ever since. Elected to Association of the Bar of New York City 1883. Trustee of Howland Library (since 1912) and Life member of Railway and Locomotive Historical Society of Boston, Massachusetts; Republican, Bachelor (Stuart, Inglis. Mayflower ancestry of Elizabeth Ely Goodrich and her descendants. Rhinebeck, NY : Rhinebeck Gazette Press, 1932).


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text: Q: Test of independence for categorical and discrete variables First time writing question on stack. Mostly, I could find the answer needed from previous questions. This time couldn't find such a. Lets say I have categorical variable y(dependent) which can have values of 0(no occurrence) and 1(occurrence). And x, where rows are frequencies of how many times value is higher than mean. What test would be better to test dependence?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


What's the resolution of the Droid?
Are there any cool hidden features of the physical keyboard?
Hit shift twice for caps lock.
Hold shift and hit alt. Then hit Delete to delete an entire row.
What is the manufacture number on my Droid? What does that mean?
The number indicates generational 'batches' of manufacture. Check under the battery for a number like 40/09. If you are experiencing unsolvable hardware problems, try to exchange for a 42/09 or higher.
Sometimes acquiring the first fix can take a very long time. Leave the GPS enabled for a few hours with a view of the open sky. Also try removing any third party GPS - status programs you've installed. If still having issues, wait for software update or return the phone.
How can I get more battery life?
Add the power control widget to your home to easily make sure you have your wifi, gps, and bluetooth radios off when not in use. You might turn off sync also. And lower the brightness (the backlight is one of the most power hungry components).
Check out battery use under Settings => About Phone => Battery Use. You can see here what is costing you the most juice and scale back accordingly.
Why is my battery charging slowly?
The wall charger shipped with the unit provides 850 mA of current. The USB 2.0 spec provides only 500 mA. Thus, charging through your computer or non-droid charger will charge at just over half the full speed.
What do the two dots/holes at the top of the Droid do?
The one on the left is an IR emitter and sensor to blank the phone during a call when it's against your face. The one on the right is a light sensor to activate automatic brightness.
Can I change the color of the notification LED?
Yes, but only with third party apps like Missed Call and SMS Popup.
Your phone is near a magnet. Magnets are used in the car and home docks to indicate to the droid they are docked. Many phone holsters contain a magnet.
How do I get into the two dock modes without the docks?
For multimedia mode, download an app called DockRunner. For car mode, Android actually includes an application called Car Home. You can also hack it by putting a linearly polarized magnet, like a small cube magnet, on the back near the camera. The orientation of the magnet indicates to the droid what type of dock it is.
Yes. Set it up through Verizon or look here.
Why won't the camera focus properly?


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Why austerity isn't working in Europe
Joseph E. Stiglitz Professor, Columbia University
We are helping platform companies improve working standards in the gig economy
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the theory," goes the old adage. But too often it is easier to keep the theory and change the facts – or so German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other pro-austerity European leaders appear to believe. Though facts keep staring them in the face, they continue to deny reality.
Austerity has failed. But its defenders are willing to claim victory on the basis of the weakest possible evidence: the economy is no longer collapsing, so austerity must be working! But if that is the benchmark, we could say that jumping off a cliff is the best way to get down from a mountain; after all, the descent has been stopped.
But every downturn comes to an end. Success should not be measured by the fact that recovery eventually occurs, but by how quickly it takes hold and how extensive the damage caused by the slump.
Viewed in these terms, austerity has been an utter and unmitigated disaster, which has become increasingly apparent as European Union economies once again face stagnation, if not a triple-dip recession, with unemployment persisting at record highs and per capita real (inflation-adjusted) GDP in many countries remaining below pre-recession levels. In even the best-performing economies, such as Germany, growth since the 2008 crisis has been so slow that, in any other circumstance, it would be rated as dismal.
The most afflicted countries are in a depression. There is no other word to describe an economy like that of Spain or Greece, where nearly one in four people – and more than 50% of young people – cannot find work. To say that the medicine is working because the unemployment rate has decreased by a couple of percentage points, or because one can see a glimmer of meager growth, is akin to a medieval barber saying that a bloodletting is working, because the patient has not died yet.
Extrapolating Europe's modest growth from 1980 onwards, my calculations show that output in the Eurozone today is more than 15% below where it would have been had the 2008 financial crisis not occurred, implying a loss of some $1.6 trillion this year alone, and a cumulative loss of more than $6.5 trillion. Even more disturbing, the gap is widening, not closing (as one would expect following a downturn, when growth is typically faster than normal as the economy makes up lost ground).
Simply put, the long recession is lowering Europe's potential growth. Young people who should be accumulating skills are not. There is overwhelming evidence that they face the prospect of significantly lower lifetime income than if they had come of age in a period of full employment.
Meanwhile, Germany is forcing other countries to follow policies that are weakening their economies – and their democracies. When citizens repeatedly vote for a change of policy – and few policies matter more to citizens than those that affect their standard of living – but are told that these matters are determined elsewhere or that they have no choice, both democracy and faith in the European project suffer.
France voted to change course three years ago. Instead, voters have been given another dose of pro-business austerity. One of the longest-standing propositions in economics is the balanced-budget multiplier – increasing taxes and expenditures in tandem stimulates the economy. And if taxes target the rich, and spending targets the poor, the multiplier can be especially high. But France's so-called socialist government is lowering corporate taxes and cutting expenditures – a recipe almost guaranteed to weaken the economy, but one that wins accolades from Germany.
The hope is that lower corporate taxes will stimulate investment. This is sheer nonsense. What is holding back investment (both in the United States and Europe) is lack of demand, not high taxes. Indeed, given that most investment is financed by debt, and that interest payments are tax-deductible, the level of corporate taxation has little effect on investment.
Likewise, Italy is being encouraged to accelerate privatization. But Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has the good sense to recognize that selling national assets at fire-sale prices makes little sense. Long-run considerations, not short-run financial exigencies, should determine which activities occur in the private sector. The decision should be based on where activities are carried out most efficiently, serving the interests of most citizens the best.
Privatization of pensions, for example, has proved costly in those countries that have tried the experiment. America's mostly private health-care system is the least efficient in the world. These are hard questions, but it is easy to show that selling state-owned assets at low prices is not a good way to improve long-run financial strength.
All of the suffering in Europe – inflicted in the service of a man-made artifice, the euro – is even more tragic for being unnecessary. Though the evidence that austerity is not working continues to mount, Germany and the other hawks have doubled down on it, betting Europe's future on a long-discredited theory. Why provide economists with more facts to prove the point?
Published in collaboration with Project Syndicate.
See also: World Bank economist Augusto Lopez-Claros on why austerity is sometimes the only option.
Author: Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics and University Professor at Columbia University, was Chairman of President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and served as Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank.
Image: Fake euro banknotes are seen in a block of ice symbolizing austerity measures, during a demonstration by trade unions and workers in central Brussels February 21, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Vidal
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Professor, Columbia University
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Weekend in Houston Part 3
The Catastrophic Theatre
Catastrophic Theatre
Tamarie Cooper (along with Jason Nodler) is the driving force behind The Catastrophic Theatre, a venue that does edgy, new works. They're the Kitchen Dog of Houston. They are housed in the warehouse district right off the freeway, behind Spaghetti Warehouse. I have a tangential history with Tamarie Cooper which is why I knew this would be a great show and had to go see it. Let me explain.
Tamarie and Jason formed Catastrophic in 2007 after the collapse of Infernal Bridegroom Productions, their previous experimental theatre that lasted 15 years and featured Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper) as one of their founding members. It so happened that I had just moved back to Texas as my sister was finishing up her BA at U of H. We would drive down there and see her in a show every once in a while. Eventually she graduated and got involved with IBP, soon becoming a company member herself. One summer, she was cast in an original musical called Tamalalia 8 along with a bunch of other crazy people. The head crazy person was Tamarie Cooper who kept writing these nutty original musicals and they kept selling out every summer. So that's how I finally made it to Tamalalia X: The Greatest Hits Show, back in 2005. My sister, and the rest of Houston, was right. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen...ever! Tamarie was irreverent, making fun of everyone and everything, but most appealing to me were the numbers about the 1980's and The President's Physical Fitness test, which neither Tamarie nor yours truly could pass.
Fast forward ten years. Jim Parsons is out in Hollywood making a million dollars an episode as Sheldon Cooper and sending Catastrophic $50,000 a year. My sister's got her MFA and is working as an actress in Chicago. Tamarie is still producing her original quirky musicals every summer at Catastrophic. Catastrophic Theatre is still doing edgy, new plays with a twist: Tickets are always Pay What You Can. Their website says that no one should be denied access to theatre due to a lack of funds. So thank you Catastrophic Theatre for allowing everyone equal access to theatre, thank you Jim Parsons for helping them to do that, and thank you to Tamarie for being so funny every single year.
Here's an interview with Tamarie that was done back in 2013 when she was premiering her new musical, Tamarie's Old as Hell.
University of tamarie
Tamarie is about to send her daughter to Kindergarten and still doesn't have her BA. Welcome to The University of Tamarie! Her seventh grade guidance counselor is there to confront her about the 200+ credit hours she's accumulated but still doesn't have a degree. The gauntlet is thrown down and the challenge is accepted. Can Tamarie prove that she's learned something in all her years of being in and dropping out of college before the show's over? Does she have what it takes to make it through Kindergarten today? Will she choose Public School, Private School or Homeschool for her daughter? Can she take on the Texas Board of Education and win? Will she earn her degree and graduate? All these questions will be answered and more, usually while singing and dancing. The show runs until August 29, so make plans to go see it now. It is for mature audiences only, as Tamarie does explore subjects like keg parties, sexual experimentation, and drug use.
The technical elements of the show contributed greatly to the comedy. Scenic Design was by Ryan McGettigan. The set featured a Classical facade although skewed in perspective. There was a giant #2 pencil leaning against it on stage right and a giant red apple for teacher on stage left. There were alphabet blocks, some that lit up from the inside, scattered about the stage. The backdrop was a orange sky with blue sun rays shooting up from the horizon. I'm not sure if the metaphor was supposed to be the sun is setting on Tamarie's education, or it's the dawn of Tamarie's new day or Buckaroo Banzai blesses this play, but either way it was striking. On the stage right side were higher platforming and hanging from the grid was a giant flat screen TV that alternately projected a map of the US, a chalkboard, various photos, and short videos. The neatest trick was when Tamarie had to take a math test. She had chalk in her hand but was standing on the floor away from the screen. The screen was projecting the chalkboard image. As Tamarie drew in the air, her equation appeared on the chalkboard as she was writing it. Tim Thompson was responsible for the video design.
The costume design by Tamarie Cooper, Pam Pelligrino, and Kelly Switzer, was equally comedic. The 16 actors in the show seemed to change costumes for every number, while Tamarie mostly stayed in her uniform of navy blue dress with white polka dots that she wears in every Tamarie show. The first number, "The University of Tamarie" everyone wore the standard black graduation gown with mortar board. For the second number, "Welcome to Kindergarten" the cast changed into standard mode of dress with solid coloured polo-type shirts and khaki shorts for the boys and jumpers for the girls.
The next bit was the "Battle of the Schools" in which Private School, Public School, and Home School must compete against each other in the game of life to determine which one is the best. Tamarie and Ronnie Blane (as Troy McKenzie) wore red blazers like ESPN announcers to comment on the action. The Private school kids (2 boys and 1 girl) wore white dress shirts, ties, and navy blue blazers with khaki pants for the boys and a green and blue plaid skirt for the girl. The Public school kids (also 2 boys and a girl) wore non-uniform clothes with the girl being "pregnant" and wearing a red mini-dress over her 9 month pregnancy pad. The Home School kids (3 girls) wore identical denim long dresses over white T-shirts with Keds. All the girls had long blond frizzy wigs and silver cross necklaces.
For "Sex Education" Kyle Sturdivant, a very large and hairy man, played a female gym teacher in red lycra capri pants and a purple windbreaker with a silly blonde wig, a sweat band, and a whistle. The rest of the class was in red and white gym clothes. The Egg Baby that Tamarie had to take care of was Zach Leonard in a giant foam egg costume.
The "Lament of Useless Information" was perhaps the funniest costuming as Tamarie is urged to purge her brain of useless information to make more room for her education. All of the cast came out dressed as different things that Tamarie remembers: tap dancing, her Aunt Phyllis' recipes, 1970's TV theme songs, the Metric System, Haiku, cursive, and French. Tap Dancing was a boy and girl dressed in black and white sequined Chorus Line-esque costumes of top hats and tails. Aunt Phyllis' recipes was costumed like Sophia on the Golden Girls in a brightly coloured track suit with grey wig and carrying two pans full of food the whole number. The 1970's TV show theme songs were two guys and a girl in bell bottoms and Afros. Haiku was Kyle Sturdivant cross-dressing (again) as a Japanese woman in traditional kimono, obi, white makeup and black wig. Cursive was dressed in frilly Elizabethan doublet and pumpkin hose. French was in traditional Marcel Marceau black and white mime costume with a black moustache and red suspenders and beret. The Metric System was in a giant foam thermometer with 0 degrees Celsius and 100 degrees Celsius marked on it.
"The Texas State Bored of Education" featured Kyle Sturdivant again, as The Chairman of the Bored, his only non-cross dressing role. The number featured all the women as 1980's housewives in solid color jewel toned suits with skirts, with bad Dallas big-haired wigs. The boys came out in period costume as our Country's founders: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Jesus. John Dunn played a scary Ted Cruz. For the finale everyone reprises the opening song, this time in silver sequined gowns.
The music was mostly original, although many familiar songs wafted in and out of the soundtrack, like the 1970's TV show theme songs from "The Lament of Useless Information" scene in which the band played theme songs from The Jeffersons, Three's Company, and Laverne and Shirley. The flashback to the keg party began with Duran Duran and meandered through other 1980's hits. The house band was really talented. With only three members: Chris Bakos, Miriam Daly, and Cathy Power, they managed to fill the house with music, each member playing a variety of instruments.
Houston Arts week review
We went on a Pay What You Can evening: two tickets $20.
The Foreigner at The alley at U of H
The Foreigner was Larry Shue's last play. It had been running Off- Broadway for a year. when he was killed in a plane crash in 1985. If you haven't seen the play before, here's a brief character description/plot summary. The play is set in a fishing lodge in Northern Georgia. Betty is the sweet old widow lady who owns the lodge. Catherine, her preacher boyfriend David, and her mentally challenged brother Ellard are new in town and staying in the lodge. Owen is the redneck building inspector in town who's trying to condemn the lodge. The visitors to the lodge are Froggie, a British military demolitions expert, and his friend and former clerk Charlie, who is now an editor at a Science Fiction publishing house. The action of play begins when Froggie brings Charlie to Betty's lodge to stay for a few days while Froggie is at the base training our troops. Froggie is frightfully shy and no good at social situltions and wishes there were a way that he didn't have to talk to anyone while he's there. Froggie comes up with the plan to introduce Charlie as a foreigner who doesn't speak English. His plan backfires when his foreign status only makes Charlie more interesting to the lodgers rather than less so as they try to communicate with him and teach him words in English. Naturally Charlie overhears a few conversations that he shouldn't have since everyone talks openly around him secure in the knowledge that he doesn't umderstand a word they are saying. Charlie discovers that Owen and David are in cahoots to condemn the lodge so that they can buy it cheap and turn it into the KKK headquarters. Charlie manages to develop a personality, becoming a witty raconteur. He "learns" English from Ellard, endearing himself to the women folk. Together they foil Owen's nefarious plan, exposing David's involvement, Froggie blows up David's van, and the lodge is saved as well as the day.
The great thing about this show is how well it stands up to the passage of time, unlike The Nerd, which dates itself with Willum's service in Vietman, its lead characters' constant use of old-fashioned language, and even more dated references like Marjorie Main. The only thing that dates The Foreigner is Catherine's complaint about the out of date magazines in the lodge: "'Princess Diana gives birth to her first child, a boy, as yet unnamed' Oh no! Whatever will they name that boy?". Prince William was 3 when the play was first written. The fact that he's now 33, only serves to make the magazines more out of date but does nothing to damage the contemporary feel of the play. The South still has a problem with the KKK, there are still obnoxious rednecks, corrupt preachers, out of wedlock pregnancies, mentally challenged people, and the US still has a love of (and sometimes fear of) foreigners.
The acting was spot on, The tendency with lesser actors is to overplay comedy. The more subtle and serious an actor's performance in a comedy, the better. Jeffrey Bean, who played Charlie Baker, was clearly understated right until his character warms up to his circumstances and the fellow lodgers; then he completely gives himself over to the hilarity in the situation. It was like watching Sylvester McCoy in the role.
The attention to detail on the set was phenomenal. The fishing lodge was completely rustic. There's a hardwood floor covered by braided rugs, a huge stone fireplace with a cast iron stove in the hearth. Hand-hewn logs provide the skeleton for the roof. Wood paneling abounds, as does stuffed and mounted fish, antlers, a moose head strung with Christmas lights, and a bear skin. The set is strewn with knick-knacks, out of date magazines, board games, books, and of course, Betty's collection of souvenir spoons.
The costumes were nothing special, as they should be. There's no Creature of the Black Lagoon costume required for The Foreigner, like there is in The Nerd. Charlie, being British and shy, makes his first entrance in a lot of brown and grey with a tweedy jacket, a plaid sweater vest completely buttoned up, wool trousers, and a white dress shirt and brown tie, It's the mousiest of mousy costumes. He trades that outfit in for a grey bathrobe and light blue pajamas for the next scene. Once he finally begins to enjoy his foreign-ness he then dresses in another pair of brown trousers, but this time with a yellow dress shirt with rolled up sleeves, a sleeveless burgundy cardigan that he doesn't even bother to button, and best of all--no tie. He's finally loosened up and his costume reflects that. Betty wore various pants or jeans, with plaid men's shirts, and an apron. Froggie was in military camo. Catherine wears a variety of outfits that are both summery and show off her cute figure. Even though she's just found out she's pregnant, she's a long way from showing, so no special maternity clothes or pregnancy pads required. Ellard was in denim overalls, but clean, with a clean shirt. Owen, by comparison, had on dirty jeans, a plaid work shirt with the sleeves ripped off, a faded dirty baseball cap, and a western style belt with big silver buckle. David wears nice slacks, dress shirts, and sweaters or a blazer in every scene. I was thinking that it must be cool up in those rugged mountains of Northern Georgia, if David needs to wear those sweaters. The cabin doesn't look like it has air conditioning and there were no ceiling fans on the set. The characters tell you it's summer, but no one appears to be dying of the heat. So that's a little suspicious for this Texan, but I've never been to Georgia. I did look it up on a map, and sure enough the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee do stretch right across the border down into Georgia and that's where the Chattahoochee National Forest is located. So I'm sure there's probably a lovely spot right there by a lake that's nice and cool and green even in the heat of summer and David just might need to wear sweaters in every scene. So I've learned something about US geography that I didn't know before.
The show runs through August 9th, so if you are able to get down to Houston and see it, you should.
Here's the preview video:
Here's a very brief interview with the star of the show, Jeffrey Bean.
Total cost of the Event: Dennis Draper comped our tickets for the Sunday matinee.
Houston's Museum of Fine Art
Houston MFA
We like to fit in as many museum trips and other attractions as we can. We went to the Museum of Fine Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Rothko Chapel, and went back to the Zoo and The Menil as well. We had a lot of time to kill before the shows.
The MFA's special exhibit was Habsburg Splendor: Masterpieces from Vienna's Imperial Collections.
From their website:
"See the spectacular treasures amassed by one of Europe's longest-reigning dynasties. The major exhibition Habsburg Splendor: Masterpieces from Vienna's Imperial Collections showcases masterworks and rare objects from the collection of the Habsburg Dynasty—the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire and other powerful rulers who commissioned extraordinary artworks now in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Largely composed of works that have never traveled outside of Austria, Habsburg Splendorexplores the dramatic rise and fall of the Habsburgs and their global empire, from their political ascendance in the late Middle Ages, to the height of their power in the 16th and 17th centuries, to the expansion of the dynasty in the 18th and 19th centuries, and ultimately its end in the early 20th century at the conclusion of World War I.
The story unfolds through more than 90 works of art, including arms and armor, sculpture, Greek and Roman antiquities, court costumes, carriages, decorative-art objects, and paintings by masters such as Caravaggio, Correggio, Giorgione, Rubens, Tintoretto, Titian, and Velázquez.
Habsburg Splendor comes to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, after debuting at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) in February 2015. Following the Houston presentation, the exhibition opens at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in October 2015."
The Museum allows photographs to be taken of any of their exhibits. I took a lot.
The museum has many artifacts from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century. Here are just a few of the costume related items that we saw.
Total cost of the event: 2 tickets to see the Habsburg Splendor: Masterpieces from Vienna's Imperial Collections exhibit was $36 and it got us into the rest of the museum for free. the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Rothko Chapel, and The Menil were all free. We got into the Zoo free because we are members in Waco. Thanks Cameron Park Zoo for participating in the National Zoo and Aquarium membership exchange program.