Rising rates, global trade disputes, and other geopolitical developments continue to change the dynamic for investors. If you haven't done so already, the midpoint of the year can be a good time to reflect on your investment mix.
If you are interested in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), one tool that may be of use is Fidelity's ETF screener that can quickly sort through a lot of data based on choices you make, to help you identify specific investments. You can search for ETFs using a variety of characteristics like the funds' objectives, fundamentals, technicals, performance, volatility, trading characteristics, tax considerations, and analyst ratings.
Below, we feature 3 examples of ETF screens that you might consider running, in light of recent market developments, plus the top results for each.
Second-quarter 2018 earnings reporting season began in July. According to S&P Capital IQ, consensus estimates are calling for 8 of the 11 US sectors to see double digit year-over-year earnings per share gains (9 of the 11 sectors are expected to have positive growth), led by energy, materials, financials, and technology, while real estate and utilities are expected to report declines (see table below).


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Thanks Apr 14, 2009 11:02:18 GMT -5
Post by drewshi on Apr 14, 2009 11:02:18 GMT -5
This was the best episode for me simply because For Your Eyes Only was the first Bond movie I ever saw. I had two friends of mine who went with me to see the Bond series through License to Kill.
I need to know who's talking smack about Dalton though. Even though I started with Moore, I prefer Dalton as Bond.
Post by tombitd on Apr 14, 2009 20:10:02 GMT -5
Apr 14, 2009 11:02:18 GMT -5 drewshi said:
Trust me, John--as you'll find out two Bond segments hence, both Derrick and I have much respect for Timothy Dalton.
Hell, I consider Dalton the flat out best Bond of the series.
Thanks Apr 15, 2009 2:48:10 GMT -5
Post by Dino on Apr 15, 2009 2:48:10 GMT -5
Many people consider Dalton to be the worst Bond and my theory is it's because many of those people grew up with Roger Moore, who was pretty campy as Bond, so it was a drastic change going from Moore to the very hard-edged Dalton.
Personally, Moore is my least favorite Bond. Dalton's not my favorite (gotta go with Connery for that distinction) but I definitely hold him in high regard.
Apr 15, 2009 2:48:10 GMT -5 Dino said:
I think there's also the perception that Dalton almost 'killed' the franchise. It's an entirely false perception based on the large gap between LICENSE TO KILL and GOLDENEYE--'hey, they didn't make Bond films for years after that one, he must've been bad.' That the gap was caused by a rights issue is not common knowledge, so that myth has been allowed to fester.
I love Dalton because he was, more than any other, the closest to the Bond that Fleming wrote.
Post by james on Apr 15, 2009 11:05:23 GMT -5
Apr 15, 2009 7:09:26 GMT -5 tombitd said:
I think Licence to Kill had a couple of other problems that didn't help it's reputation. It was released in the summer of 1989, which meant it had to compete at the box office with Batman, Ghostbusters II, one of the Lethal Weapon films (III, I think?) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. (and, uh, also UHF, which I have to admit I've actually watched more often than any of those others). United Artists probably could have scheduled a better release date.
Also, the movie (which I like but don't love) attempts to retain the traditional trappings of a Bond film with a new kind of story. So you have a revenge story with awkward "Bond" scenes shoehorned in (Q turning up in South America in disguise, with his wacky gadgets, for example - the story's interesting enough it doesn't need the crazy inventions, but someone decided they had to be in the movie).
And, yes, Dalton was a great Bond.
Last Edit: Apr 15, 2009 11:06:25 GMT -5 by james
Apr 15, 2009 11:05:23 GMT -5 james said:
Yeah, there was the fact that it got caught in The Biggest Summer ever, but Eon did attempt to forge on...until they found themselves caught in a battle for the movie rights to the character....and when those rights were straightened out, Dalton was offered the chance to be in what would become Goldeneye, but he felt that he had become too old for the role.
I don't care much for License itself--its biggest sin is that it's, well, generic; there's nothing in the story itself that couldn't have been handled by any of a dozen other action stars (although oddly enough, the fact that Bond is taking on drug smugglers is very much in keeping with the Dalton Bond's remit of being close to the Bond of the books--drug smugglers was just the thing the literary Bond took on in the 50's and 60's). There's also the matter of Carrie Lowell having no chemistry with Dalton whereas Taliso Soto--awful actress thought she is--has tons of it, which makes Bond's choice to stay with Lowell, well, head-scratching. And we won't start on some of the silliest stunts in the series (just because you can make a truck drive on two wheels doesn't mean you should, especially if you're going to break my suspension of disbelief in doing it).
But it does have some good nuggets in amongst the dross--the basic idea of how Sanchez smuggles his wares into the States is great, Soto is wicked hot, there's a refreshing return to the low-level sadism and hardcore attitude that had been missing since For Your Eyes Only (and will be gone from the series until Craig takes over). It's just not a really good Bond film overall.
Damn skippy. Don't mess with TD (I already have to go kick the Whedon Writing Trust for all the Dalton bashing they did in Buffy Season Six).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This is a bit of an extended Jack's Walk with a few photos we took while traveling through the Matapedia Valley on our way east. The area is world renowned for salmon and trout fishing and the river is dotted with high end fly fishing resorts. The Mr. and I fish with rod and reel, but we'd both like to try our hand at fly fishing. Most resorts are now catch and release (after the photo, of course) and there are strict limits on what can be kept. There are also fishery officials out and about watching. I know from personal experience, but that's a story for another time. The last three photos were taken from the car.
I love the first two with (?)mountains with their heads in the clouds.
The second is especially beautiful.
The second photo is certainly wonderful (for such a vast space, it feels very intimate), but my favourite are the first two of the last three -- a pair that makes a symmetry out of the loneliness of boats and houses.


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Swalwell announces he is running for president
By Avery Anapol - 04/08/19 07:18 PM EDT
Rep. Eric Swalwell Eric Michael SwalwellFundraising numbers highlight growing divide in 2020 race The Hill's 12:30 Report: Pelosi looks to squash fight with progressives The Hill's Morning Report - 2020 jitters hit both parties in the Senate MORE (D-Calif.) has officially jumped into the 2020 presidential race.
The California Democrat will announce his candidacy on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Monday night.
The show tweeted out a video clip of Swalwell making the announcement after speaking on what he considers to be some of the problems in the current administration.
"I see a country in quicksand, unable to solve problems and threats from abroad, unable to make life better for people here at home," Swalwell told Colbert.
"I'm ready to solve these problems. I'm running for president of the United States." Swalwell added. "Boy, did it feel good to say that."
TONIGHT: California Representative @EricSwalwell announces on @colbertlateshow that he is running for President! #LSSC pic.twitter.com/bvzBPIkSnz
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) April 8, 2019
Swalwell's entry into an already crowded pool of Democrats vying to take on President Trump Donald John TrumpEsper sidesteps question on whether he aligns more with Mattis or Trump Warren embraces Thiel label: 'Good' As tensions escalate, US must intensify pressure on Iran and the IAEA MORE has been anticipated for months. It was reported last week that he plans to center his campaign around gun control.
He mentioned gun violence in his appearance on "The Late Show," saying he has spoken to concerned students who "see Washington doing nothing about it after the moments of silence."
Swalwell followed the on-air announcement with a video proclaiming, "Let's go big, be bold, and do good!"
Are you ready America? Let's go big, be bold, and do good! pic.twitter.com/gk9SPDT4FN
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) April 8, 2019
Swalwell, who previously announced that he would not seek reelection to the House, leaves behind a California district that is likely to stay in Democratic hands. In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhy Trump's bigoted tropes won't work in 2020 The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by JUUL Labs - House to vote to condemn Trump tweet GOP put on the back foot by Trump's race storm MORE won California's 15th district by 25 points.
He was one of the first reported candidates for the 2020 race, following a November report in Politico that he would run.
The official announcement comes months after the birth of Swalwell's second child.
Updated 7:55 p.m.
Tags Hillary Clinton Eric Swalwell Donald Trump


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The latest in a long line of economic recovery plans for Birmingham and neighbouring local authorities begins with a timely reminder of previous documents and their glittering galaxy of promises that were mostly never delivered.
And in what we must hope does not become a hostage to fortune, the directors of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership state that things will be different this time.
Let's repeat that. We will deliver. Three small words, but the meaning is unambiguous.
• A net increase of at least 100,000 private sector jobs between 2011 and 2020.
• A net increase of at least £8.25bn GVA between 2011 and 2020.
• A decrease in unemployment across the LEP to match at least the national average by 2020.
• An increase in GVA per-head across the LEP to meet the national average by 2020, and exceed the national average by 2025.
• An increase in the percentage of the working-age population with NVQ3+ to be above the Core City LEP average by 2020, and out-perform the national average by 2025.
How, then, can the business leaders and local authorities that make up GBSLEP be so confident that Birmingham and a large part of the West Midlands can deliver a step-change in employment, skills and wealth creation?


Don't laze about! Get hands on and stick in the stickers to make things happen in LazyTown! With over 80 stickers and heaps of action-packed scenes to create, Sportacus and his energetic crew will keep you busy all day long.


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Category: 1
Caretta caretta…no, it's not a song
Caretta caretta…no, it's not a song. It's a symphony.
It's a fair-weather day.
A battalion of brown pelicans coast overhead on dark arched wings. Children build sand castles and bob in the surf, and shorebirds rest in warm dunes—a feast of beauty and abundance.
Santa Rosa Island was named in homage to Isabel Flores de Oliva – the "Rose of Lima." She was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1671 as Saint Rose.
Pensacola is rich in stories.
Take the story of Caretta caretta for example. She doesn't even know we've tagged her with a dichotomous name to set her species apart from others. Her only inclination is to find a darkened shoreline and lay her burden down.
Buoyed by thick ocean waves she paddles with strong legs through the currents.
Through heavy lid, she looks toward shore and vaguely remembers its smell and warm, gritty touch. The moonlit shore is quiet as she takes purchase on the shifting sand below her.
She looks from just under the water along the beach head where bright lights in hotels and restaurants, homes and gas stations could make her decide to turn away. She looks for a darkened beach, lit only by the silver moonlight. It's instinctual.
Every May through September along the Gulf shores, female loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) return to lay leathery eggs in the dunes of their birth.
Kemp's Ridley, Atlantic green turtles and sometimes leatherbacks also use these crystal white beaches as a nursery. It's been so for thousands of years.
Caretta caretta has spent her youth in the Sargasso Sea, a body of water created from currents in the North Atlantic and where Sargassum seaweed covers over its surface. It is believed the loggerhead turtle feeds and grows in this protective cover.
When she comes of age, dozens of eggs grow within her as she heads back to the same beach where as a hatchling she was just the size of a quarter and prize catch of shorebirds, crabs, and other beachside predators. She is one of the few lucky infant turtles that managed to survive to adulthood.
Now she returns to lay down the next generation. And, should she come ashore, will she struggle to navigate beach chairs, plastic inner tubes, or sandcastles?
What will happen to her offspring? Baby sea turtles are attracted to bright lights, an instinct that should turn them toward a moonlit sea. Will they head toward the hotel lights instead? Rangers report scores of tiny turtles destroyed by cars or desiccated in the hot sun among buildings.
In today's world, with the human built environment, it takes countless volunteers to tend turtle nests, redirecting the young toward the ocean. Because of this, can we say that these species are self-sustaining?
There are seven species of sea turtles in the world today. Four of them lay their eggs here on Santa Rosa Island, Gulf Shores National Seashore. That constitutes a biological treasure for this region, a remaining strand of a once diverse web of life just off these shores.
What if Caretta caretta disappears due to human interference in this annual ritual that replenishes her kind? Should we really care?
Reach back 100 years in Pensacola history to an ocean teeming with life. Fish would be larger and more plentiful and you could scoop up shrimp in Escambia Bay with your hands. There would be hundreds more dunes with waving sea oats, both habitat and nursery to many species.
The loggerhead turtle is part of an ocean web that supports our fishing industry. The biodiversity of our beautiful islands is the basis of tourism, a principal industry. Somehow we have to learn to maintain this natural treasure while going about our business.
We are working that out now. There has got to be a way. Pensacoleans have never been short on ingenuity.
For Caretta caretta we can turn down the lights, sit out on our decks and listen to the oncoming waves. We'll save money by reducing energy consumption and get a better view of the heavens. Let's face it: life would be dismal without the beauty of nature.
When we see a dolphin breach the waves, white terns dive and soar, or listen to ocean breezes, we are renewed and encouraged that all is right on this exquisite planet we are so fortunate to share with other species.
Author Susan FeathersPosted on March 8, 2010 September 26, 2018 Categories 1, Animal Literature and Stories, Childhood, Climate Change, Ecology, Environment, Nature, Ocean, Photography, Spiritual, Sustainable Society, Ecoliteracy, Writing, Philanthropy, Nature, Wildlife ConservationTags conservation, Gulf Shores National Sea Shore, Loggerhead Turtle3 Comments on Caretta caretta…no, it's not a song
Duma, Ghost Cat, Part III
The big cat's ghostly form moved through the forests of broccoli, then across the road under a cool moon and into the tall corn tribe growing profusely by the canal.
Border Cat
This story takes place in Yuma, Arizona where the Colorado River meanders south to the Sea of Cortez. In truth, most of the water never gets to the Delta area as it once did. The jaguar in this story followed the river trace toward Yuma's agricultural canals and farm fields where he inadvertently became tangled up in border problems. He represents species whose ranges traditionally span the arbitrary boundaries of the human species.
Duma bounded from row to row, sure footed in the cover of night. The big cat's ghostly form moved through the forests of broccoli, then across the road under a cool moon and into the tall corn tribe growing profusely by the canal. His activity was confined solely to night, now that the ranchers and homeowners were on the lookout for the phantom jaguar. This put Duma at a disadvantage. His white coat stood out starkly against the night sky and dark shadows. His large tracks left a trail of fear for the farm hands who worked in the same fields come morning. Duma plodded over the fields in search of prey. It had been many days without meat and he felt weakness entering his heavily muscled body.
Duma's quivering nostrils caught the scent of something unknown, stopping him in his tracks. It was not exactly like the smell of the two-leggeds. But what? Duma moved closer to the smell's source in a low crouch now, soundlessly advancing. Another smell—of death—unmistakable… His nose led him closer to the road than he liked, and at its edge he paused and stretched out his long, white neck to peer through the corn stalks. Every fiber of his being was on alert, his small ears drawn forward to catch the slightest sound, Duma's glassy eyes opened wide to catch the slightest movement. He held himself completely still, taking in every possible clue as to what this prey might be and calculating what it would take to bring it down.
Finally, the animal came into view. It was small and sitting on its tail in the middle of the road. It smelled strange. Duma's full-grown jaguar body demanded more and more of the hunter's skill to satiate the incessant need for flesh and blood, and now he felt the gnawing ache of hunger in his empty belly. So he continued to investigate. As he looked on in perfect silence, the strange animal stood up and started to walk toward something ahead of it in the road. Duma understood with his nose that whatever it was, it was dead. The smaller animal swayed over it.
Duma sniffed the air again, breathing in the chemical language. An acrid scent of urine and scat pierced his nostril. This was no self-respecting beast, he decided. He took a chance and crept slowly out onto the road toward the prey, sensing no eminent danger. As he skulked closer, the small creature turned. Duma let a low growl roll out onto the warm night's air from his powerful throat. The animal seemed unafraid! Perhaps it was more of a threat than he realized. Duma paused, bringing himself more upright. He cocked his small, intelligent head as he tried to understand what he had encountered. Remembering other times he had misjudged a threat, Duma was not going to let his ego fool him again.
Duma crouched, waiting to see what this strange beast would do. It started coming toward him, walking in a strange manner, falling down, and then righting itself. Duma thought it must be injured. He stood up, walking forward with more curiosity, yet ready to pounce.
When the moonlight lit up the white panther, the child saw it.
"Colecta… colecta…. "
What a strange sound, Duma thought…high pitched like a rabbit. The creature was holding its paws out toward him, and he reflexively swiped them away, knocking the child down. It began to wail. Its smell was foul.
Duma was deciding just how hungry he was when suddenly a noise grew out of the sky and sunlight shot down the road! The great white panther bounded out of sight. Behind him he heard his prey shrieking. Duma looked back. It was the sky beast he'd seen many times. He was filled with terror.
Now it dropped from the sky with wings swirling and fire breathing from its mouth. Duma had never seen anything like this animal, many times his size. He soared into the air and leapt over the tall corn, golden tassels brushing against his belly, white flanks streaming through the dark field toward the trees.
Duma stopped for a moment and looked back to see the beast take its prey. But instead of devouring the strange little animal, it turned toward him! Now the deafening roar and giant flapping wings came rushing at a greater speed than the jaguar could maintain, and his great paws lost traction in the muddy soil. Reluctantly, the powerful cat decided to come into the open to gain traction on the solid dirt path between corn rows. That's when the creature threw light onto him. Duma felt the ripping heat tear through his flank. He crumbled to the ground, pushing up a great cloud of dust as his two-hundred-pound body came to rest in a heap of white hair, muscle, fang, and claw.
The last fading sight in the cat's blue eyes was that of the great monster coming in for the kill.
Author Susan FeathersPosted on March 2, 2010 March 2, 2010 Categories 1, Animal Literature and Stories, Ecology, Environment, Nature, Photography, Spiritual, Sustainable Society, Ecoliteracy, Writing, Philanthropy, Nature, Wildlife ConservationLeave a comment on Duma, Ghost Cat, Part III
Duma, Ghost Cat Part II
Duma grew to an extraordinary size for his kind. He stood three feet tall at the shoulder, and the length of his body measured six feet of muscular power—not including his long tail. The deep paw prints he left behind were eight inches at their widest point, contributing to the growing number of myths about him. Cattlemen and sheepherders came to know him as he made his way along the water traces of the region. Drawn imperceptibly to the Yuma Valley along the Colorado River from the delta, Duma cared little about from whence his nourishment came. To fuel his large body, he would as soon eat a frog or fish as a mammal or bird. But the local people formed their own beliefs about his coming: he was a ghost of times past come to take retribution for humankind's sins; he was the white buffalo of the region come to lead tribal people to their rightful place among men; he was a marauder—a demon predator—of cattle and sheep, taking his revenge on the ranchers who had invaded his territory, and so on depending on who was telling the story.
Duma had found a place along the river with ready access to fish and fowl and there seemed no reason to leave. Now that the river's banks were denuded of forest, his pale color, which matched the mottled white and yellow colors of the desert pavement, afforded him more cover than the green of his Sierra Madre birthplace.
He'd made his way to The Crossing and thus joined the conflagration of living forms at the edges of the Colorado River. He was a creature of the times, struggling to stay alive, in need of sustenance and habitat to keep himself going. This was also the state of humankind, unmasked for the first time—finally freed from its technological haze.
In an oddity of circumstance, Bob Minor discovered the white jaguar on his property one evening. It was standing behind an old stand of prickly pear as high as Bob's shoulders. Bob was spellbound. He raised his rifle but could not get a good angle and was fearful he'd only injure it. And so, Duma ambled down the plateau and into the fields of broccoli where he crouched low and rested by the gurgling irrigation ditch.
Bob called Fish and Game to report the sighting.
Author Susan FeathersPosted on February 27, 2010 Categories 1Leave a comment on Duma, Ghost Cat Part II
Duma, Ghost Cat – Part I
With clear, blue eyes rimmed in red and a ghostly white pelt with telltale rosettes, the pale cat later earned the name "ghost cat."
Yareen made her way down a jagged escarpment on the Sierra Madre plateau, not far from Luis Munõz's boyhood home. Her ebony and tan flanks rippled through the pale green of manzanita and scrub oak. Falling pebbles, pushed from their earthen beds by her great paws, scattered noisily down the slope ahead of her.
Her mate was roused from an afternoon nap in a tree above her. They greeted each other with low, rolling hellos as she bounded up the tree. Yareen rubbed her head against her mate's with her golden eyes wide open. They had been together for many sunrises and sunsets. Soon, he would leave her and she would return to a solitary life to birth their cubs. It would be her second time.
They climbed down the tree and followed a path to a big, rock-lined bowl in the stream for a swim. She caught a trout and they shared it. Later they lingered by the water's edge, where a nearby deer stood immobilized in the brush, caught unawares by their silent arrival. Its breath was barely discernable until the large cats moved away, saved by being upwind of its natural predator.
Earth changes were indeed affecting the sky islands of the jaguars' home, but this spring it had brought more frequent rain. The streams ran full and cold, and the oak woodlands were a riot of activity as the oaks produced an abundance of acorns on which a host of creatures feasted.
For Yareen, it meant easy access to plumb deer, and plenty of milk for her young cubs when three months later she gave birth to four kittens.
Among them was a large, white cub who startled his mother each time she looked at him. Following her natural instincts, she gave Duma little access to her teats until the cubs she saw as normal had suckled, and often, there was little nourishment left for the largest baby.
And so the white cub weaned earlier than the others and began foraging to survive. Oblivious to his difference, Duma frolicked in the woods that first season of his life, reveling in the joy of being alive on a great, good planet.
Soon, he learned to imitate their mother's low whistle and practiced the hissing scream that immobilized trembling quarry, though with his were more a yip and a squeak. The furry ball loped over rocky terrain, following Yareen and his siblings at a distance through the scrubby wooded forests, pouncing on the prey his mother wrestled to the ground in a fury of claws and fangs.
Duma's markings afforded him little camouflage in a region of emerald, umber, and black. Unknowingly, the young cat developed stealth and discernment beyond even the ability of his kind. He would have to be faster, stronger, and develop cunning beyond that of his siblings and mother to survive.
With clear, blue eyes rimmed in red and a ghostly white pelt with telltale rosettes, the pale cat later earned the name "ghost cat." And so it happened that as the jaguar went about the business of eating, sleeping, and traveling sightings of Duma would spark many colorful legends among the two-leggeds of his time.
Author Susan FeathersPosted on February 24, 2010 February 24, 2010 Categories 1, Animal Literature and Stories, Ecology, Nature, Writing, Writing, Philanthropy, Nature, Wildlife ConservationLeave a comment on Duma, Ghost Cat – Part I
Synchronicities
The resort was on the grounds of a previous Essene community established in the 1920s.
On my first break from the teaching, I drove to San Diego to stay with friends from my work days at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation. At that time, the clinic gave health and wellness classes at Rancho la Puerto, a spa and retreat center near Tecaté, Baja California. My friends arranged for three days of rest and contemplation. I was exhausted, and confused about whether to continue my education in Yuma.
The resort was on the grounds of a previous Essene community established in the 1920s. The library still shelved many of the community's books. I wandered in there one evening, not knowing the background of the ranch, and found a history of how the community was founded by Edmond Bordeau Szekely, an internationally known translator and student of world religions. The American Essene Community flourished for over fifty years, and gradually evolved into the present-day spa as more and more people wanted to experience the Essene quietude, exercise, vegetarian food, and spiritual practice.
Szekely is the scholar who translated the Essene Gospel of Peace from the original Aramaic, the native language of Jesus. He was given permission to translate the texts that were kept under lock and key in the Vatican. Szekely later discovered he followed on the path of St. Benedict and the monks of the Monte Cassino Monastery who protected these documents through the ages.
The texts had been originally translated by St. Jerome in the fourth century. He found fragments of the original texts in many small communities in the desert. Many of the residents who harbored the document fragments were descendents of the original Essenes.
These ancient documents precede the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran, and represent ancient teachings as old as eight thousand years B.C.E. (all the way back to Zarathrustra). They describe The Law. It is the same Law to which Moses referred. When St. Jerome was made the Secretary to Pope Damascus, who established a Papal Library, he was allowed to translate the ancient writings of the Essenes.
However, the translations caused a storm of criticism. The basic principles of the teaching emanated from natural law, not the laws of man. This body of knowledge made it impossible to follow while promoting the ownership of land and the suppression of women and children to the rule of men (i.e. patriarchal government). The Essene Gospel was the original ecological literature of the west, binding human beings to the Earth and her natural rhythms in a cosmology connecting Mother Earth and Father Sky, the feminine and masculine principles.
When Pope Damascus died, his successor St. Augustine made sure these documents were suppressed. Jerome fled for his life to the desert. There he continued to search for more fragments of the ancient knowledge. After his death, Jerome's manuscripts were scattered, but eventually many found their way into the Secret Archives of the Vatican, where they remained under lock and key.
The Essenes were a peace-loving sect that believed in the sacredness of all life, practiced vegetarianism, and held that there are spiritual manifestations for all physical phenomena. In this, they were the first quantum physicists: all matter exists in two forms, particle and wave – flesh and spirit.
They understood all of life in the universe as the Ocean of Life, and all thought in the universe as constituting the Ocean of Consciousness. It was their experience that angels connected these two realities. The Essenes believed that Moses understood this through the vision of his ancestor, Jacob, who saw angels ascending and descending a ladder connecting Heaven and Earth.
Essenes practiced self-improvement, which they deemed a life-long process. Achievement of harmony required a balance between earthly and cosmic forces. The heavenly father (cosmic) and the earthly mother (earth) are balanced: eternal life with earth; creative work with life; peace with joy; power with sun; love with water; wisdom with air. These correlations remind us that whenever we contact earthly forces, we are in contact with heavenly forces.
I eagerly read these teachings, and I was encouraged to learn that the principles and cosmology taught to me in Yuma were the same described in the Essene teachings. Here was an Earth-based spirituality making the connection between the material world and the world of thought at a universal consciousness level.
The Teacher of Righteousness in the Essene texts is believed by some to be Jesus, when he was between eighteen and thirty years of age. During this time, his whereabouts are not mentioned in the Biblical texts we have today. Jesus and his family were Essenes, the ancient Jewish sect, existing from 250 B.C. to 60 A.D in Palestine. The community lived and taught a way of life consistent with Native American spirituality in which all things are imbued with the spirit of the Creator – rocks, water, air, plants, animals, and people. The philosophy of non-violence extended to animals, invoking a deep reverence for the living creatures of our planet. The last and most famous Essene-in-spirit was St. Francis. He lived and believed exactly as the Essenes, and his own writings are nearly identical to Essene texts.
So, I took this discovery of Szekely's community, at the time I was questioning whether to stay with my Indian teachers, as an affirmation of the integrity of the work. I returned to Yuma.
Author Susan FeathersPosted on February 22, 2010 February 22, 2010 Categories 1, Ecology, Environment, Nature, Spiritual, Sustainable Food Production, Writing, Philanthropy, Nature, Wildlife Conservation, YogaLeave a comment on Synchronicities
Midsummer Nights
A profound shift is happening in the West where growth is out of control and the Earth is showing strains of overuse and over-harvesting.
Mid-Summer Night's Dream
Patterns of Life in an Urban Sea
At midnight the heat radiates from the cement driveway under my feet. I stand in the white moonlight gazing up at twinkling stars. The dark outline of tall trees and roof tops form a stage-drop where city glow breaks the blackness of night.
This is my summer ritual – star-gazing in my pajamas. I wake out of some consciousness that tells my snoozing brain I can open the doors and go out to a cool 85ْ F!
It's summertime in Phoenix, Arizona. Temperatures soar over 100. Yesterday was a crisp 116ْ. After June, the heat island effect kicks into gear. Buildings and streets – especially asphalt surfaces – absorb the day's solar energy, then release it slowly through the night. Even though the sun goes down, the built environment is still hot. The hum of air conditioners is a constant auditory feature of summertime.
Here in Tempe there is humidity from the old irrigation system still in use. Once a week residents open aqueduct valves in their yards to allow water to flow. Encircled by raised earth berms, the water is held so it slowly soaks deep into the ground. This is an old way of life to support large trees and grass lawns from a time when Tempe was a tiny agricultural town in the early 1900's.
People moved to Tempe to enjoy the dry, mild climate, and to escape allergy causing vegetation. However, the Eastern trees and plants people brought with them (mulberry and olive, for example), and their love of grass, resulted in Phoenix becoming the asthma capital of the west.
Nearby Arizona State University is our land-grant university. My little house sits behind a friend's large art studio. It is a plum of a house and only a short walk or bike to my workplace at the Center for Environmental Studies at A.S.U. In the hot afternoons I swim in the Olympic-sized pool at the University along with bronze co-eds and swim team athletes.
My house is surrounded by large trees and a grass lawn maintained beautifully by grounds keepers. Old Tempe is a remnant of an outdated way of life in the desert: just add water and cultivate an oasis. It was a way that made sense to residents and developers when water was plentiful, and when temperatures were cooler, and summers only four months long.
Over the last 50 years the average low temperature has increased by 10ْ F. The city's growth is exponential now. The population since 1990 increased by 59%! This is unsustainable with available water, even though theoretically there is much more desert to develop across the expansive valley floor.
City mothers and fathers are currently examining critical decisions Phoenix needs to make to sustain a live-able future. How and what they decide to do to shape the city's growth will be an important example for metropolitan communities across the West.
In 1998 Arizona State University was awarded a major grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a Long Term Ecological Research Study (LTER) as one of two urban sites. Phoenix and Baltimore were chosen as two urban cities to be studied. We are a city growing by the process of sprawl, and Baltimore is an older city that has filled in its borders, and now grows inward and up.
NSF wants to know what is happening to the ecology of living communities in cities – since nearly 80% of the world's population now lives in or near an urban area. The study seeks to answer questions that indicate the health of ecosystem functions in urban areas. How are native animals and plants coping? How quickly is organic matter turned-over (decomposed to soil, elements in the air, and water again)? What is happening to water and air quality?
The Central Arizona Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research Study (CAPTLER) began a twenty-year study of these factors along with human behavior patterns such as where we choose to live in the city or how we use water among many others. The study recognizes that landscape affects human activity as much as humans impact landscape. These forces work together to shape urban environments.
The Greater Phoenix 2100 study initiated by Arizona State University collects and disseminates data for possible scenarios of growth and quality of life to be used by policymakers. It looks at trends over time. For example, three projections are made for population by 2050: at current annual growth rates (4.4%), the lowest annual growth rate in the last 50 years (3.4%), and the lowest annual growth rate in the last 100 years. Projected population in 2050 based on these three rates could result in 28.2, 17.4, or 10 million people respectively. Citizens and policy-makers looking at these numbers can make decisions now that will help them shape tomorrow.
The Long-Term Ecological Research Study is reporting loss of indigenous biodiversity on mountains in Phoenix surrounded by an urban sea of human activity. These habitats are essentially like islands. Isolated species that can not relocate represent small populations with consequent small gene pools. Inbreeding weakens the biological fitness of species if prolonged. Scientists believe this is happening to many species of plants and animals in the urban perimeters of Phoenix.
One of the most harmful assaults to native species diversity is the introduction of non-native plants and animals. Successful non-natives have no natural predators in the new environment. Thus they can out-compete native species for habitat and resources. On species of tree – the Tamarisk – has reduced native trees along Arizona's already vulnerable riparian green belts (areas where the water table is close to or above the ground). Riparian habitat has been reduced by 90% in Arizona over the last century due to human activity.
For thousands of years these riparian habitats supported the greatest species diversity in our state. Beavers and otters abound in rivers and streams, and mega fauna like deer found sustenance there. Today one has to visit a museum or zoo to know what native species Arizona once supported. Many residents in Arizona are unaware of what is a native versus a non-native due to the importing of exotic species. In other words the cultural memory of the original landscape is being lost with each generation.
In many ways what Phoenix does over the next decade to slow and manage growth, and to clean up and use water more responsibly will be rich learning opportunities for cities across the Southwest facing similar issues. A profound shift is happening in the West where growth is out of control and the Earth is showing strains of overuse and over-harvesting.
Tucson, Arizona where I now reside is 100 miles south of Phoenix and higher in elevation. We are called the Upland Desert. Tucson currently follows the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, a multi-agency and community-based initiative, to shape its growth. Although Tucson has its own sprawl (it has reached nearly one million people in the metro area), it is still known for its open space and residential landscaping with native desert corridors. Native Tucsonans are desperately trying to hold onto this legacy. But many new residents who do not understand desert ecosystems, or appreciate the way of life necessary to protect water reserves, build huge homes with lawns and pools. They represent a threat to a way of life that has existed here for tens of thousands of years.
Since I moved here from Phoenix six years ago, I can still enjoy a cool summer night at the decent hour of 7 pm when desert soils release the heat of the day. This is the natural desert rhythm that Phoenix has lost by asphalting over much of the valley floor.
On morning walks in central Tucson, I enjoy a covey of Gamble's quail running wildly through the native vegetation in alleyways and yards. Many people pride themselves on landscaping with desert trees like the graceful desert willow with its lavender throated blossoms and uniquely shaped cacti placed as you would sculpture. They tend gardens where heirloom vegetables conserved from the Americas grow with little water. The Tohono O'Odham still dry farm using only annual monsoon rains to grow corn, beans, melons, and greens of all kinds.
Striking the balance between natural communities and human communities makes sense. We are in a new period of understanding the intimate and wholly necessary relationships with nature that maintain us physically and economically, emotionally and spiritually.
It is an exciting time for Arizona, one filled with great potential to rework our plan for human habitation. How do we balance quality of life with quality of environment? How do we develop a way of life that is in sync with the natural communities that make this land such a fabulous place to live and work?
Gazing at the twinkling night sky above me at midnight, I wonder if Hohokam people also lay outside in the cool of moonlight thousands of years ago. A soft breeze moves across the yard as I doze off in my chaise lounge, in another desert town, in my pajamas on a summer's night under the heavens.
Author Susan FeathersPosted on February 18, 2010 February 18, 2010 Categories 1, Ecology, Environment, Writing, Philanthropy, Nature, Wildlife Conservation8 Comments on Midsummer Nights
Lag time is "doing nothing". Today it is revolutionary, even suspect.
What ever happened to daydreams?
Recently I heard a story that reminded me of after school time when I was in grade school. The author describes an era I call B.T. – Before Television. He came home after school to a quiet house, an afternoon snack awaiting him. He changed into play clothes and then boredom would set in. He lay on the living room rug wondering what to do. The clock ticked rhythmically. He felt his heart beating in the silence of the moment. Then suddenly, he seized upon an idea, and off he would go to find a friend to share his imagined adventure!
I remember those days when there was plenty of time for the imagination. A special teacher of mine later named these seemingly vacuous moments as "lag time"- suspended time when fruitful thought can develop. It is a portal through which one perceives her true feelings, innermost urges, and clear thoughts.
Children today have virtually no lag time. American children suffer from a lack of time to develop a fertile ground for their imagination. But the good news is it is still possible to capture these moments at home if you are willing to turn off the television, the computer, the music, and slow the pace. Just sitting is something I had to learn again from an Iroquois teacher when I was an adult. Often the lesson for the day would be sitting in total silence for several hours.
In our fast-paced world of multi-tasking, digital games, cell phones, e-mail (the new drug – Crackberry), television, and the personal IPOD loaded with hundreds of songs – there is virtually no down time unless we are asleep. This is even true with young children, most of whom have never experienced the "lazy days of summer." Dragged from place to place, weary and irritable, many young children cannot be still or tolerate unplanned time. Today's adults and youth experience withdrawal symptoms without external stimulation.
My children and I have been vacationing at Deer Springs Inn in the White Mountains of Arizona for the past nine years. There are just a few cabins set back on the edge of the Mogollon Rim. It is Ponderosa Pine Country where tall red trunks soar to 100 feet.
This place has become a refuge to many families. You learn about it through word of mouth. Everyone guards its whereabouts like buried treasure. There are no phones, televisions or any outside communication except the radiophone for emergencies. Due to the 14-mile trek on forest service roads, guests rarely leave until its time to go home.
There is sleeping time, reading or drawing time, chatting on the front porches, hiking, and writing time. And there is silence and the drawing of wind through pines as if the forest invites us to breathe with it.
At night, a campfire beckons everyone to wander down to roast marshmallows, drink wine, laugh and commiserate into the night. Our faces are ruddy and lit by a blazing fire, poked lovingly by Ed or Mary King, the owners. The low hoot of an owl and the pine sap popping in the fire are the only music. Towering pines encircle a portion of jet black sky dotted with glittering stars and a big, white moon. The air is crystal clear. Every cell in your body lays back and sighs.
My son recently stayed up there with my daughter and me. He is a businessman from Nashville and lives a commuter life with a stressful job in the healthcare industry. He told me later how those four days at Deer Springs completely reoriented his mind and spirit. He felt deeply renewed. Whittle on a stick, let the chips fall where they may. He had forgotten about lag time.
With all of the technological advancements marketed as convenience, we have enslaved ourselves in a frenzy of driving, working, planned recreation, planned "free time" and – more driving! Often, children never set foot at home until after 6 p.m. as weary parents pick them up from day care. Chasing our consumer driven dreams we have neglected the imagination, the soulful, the spontaneous – in short, the spice of life!
But, it can be recaptured with very simple acts and it costs nothing. It just takes a little retraining:
1) Practice turning off the television, radio, stereo for brief periods. Later go for longer periods.
2) Remove clutter from rooms. Don't replace any of it.
3) Put plants in your home. Hang a bird feeder.
4) Practice sitting and doing nothing for 15 minutes. Breathe deeply and then settle down to regular breathing. Smile. Notice the change in how you feel.
5) Just keep it simple. Your place of repose might be a hammock or a chaise lounge. Invite the kids.
Revolutionary Acts in Lag Time
Allow the spontaneous to return.
Reclaim your own thoughts and feelings.
Seek silent places.
Stay away from crowds.
Go for a walk and smell the roses.
Feel your body, listen to your heart.
Act accordingly.
Resources for Parents:
Inspired Parenting Web Site
This is a fabulous site for parents to learn tips from child development specialists and family counselors.
Resources for Adults:
Coming to Our Senses by Jon Kabot-Zinn
Reading this book will add years to your life!
Author Susan FeathersPosted on February 13, 2010 February 13, 2010 Categories 1, Childhood, Ecology, Nature, Spiritual, Women, Writing, Philanthropy, Nature, Wildlife Conservation2 Comments on Lag Time
Thinking Like a Mountain in Afghanistan
There has never been anything more powerful than the individual to change the world.
For the past few weeks two books have kept me engrossed in a saga that reminds me about the power of the ordinary citizen.
Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools take readers on the personal journey of Greg Mortenson as he follows his heart in the most remote places on this planet. The fact is, Greg's intuition and inexhaustible determination, have made him such an effective U.S. diplomat that military leaders are visiting him to learn his secret.
Greg and his small nonprofit organization are building schools in rural communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan and making sure that girls attend them. He offers this proverb from Africa as his raison d'être: "Educate a boy and you've educated an individual; educate a girl and you've educated a community."
Sleeping in his old Buick, living on food from street vendors, working through the night shift at a hospital— the journey of the warrior often looks like failure in our wealthy, modern culture. Where did his story begin?
In the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Greg spent happy days with his little sister and parents in a culturally diverse region of Tanzania where he learned to speak dialects of his local friends. He watched as his father struggled to build a hospital, declaring it would one day be staffed by Tanzanians (not wealthy expats who believed the locals incapable).
This was the framework of experience that set the course of Mortenson's life journey.
But two tragedies would have to wet the stone of Greg's resolve. His father's death from cancer coincided with his sister's premature death from severe epilepsy. Greg vowed to climb the highest mountain on earth in honor of her short, difficult life.
And he nearly lost his own life in the attempt. After begin rescued by local villagers as he wandered lost at the base of K-2's soaring 28,000 ft. peak, Greg spent the winter months with villagers in Korphe, a place few ever leave or venture.
In the house of Haji Ali, chief of Korphe, Greg met his life long mentor who taught him the wisdom of "three cups of tea."
What is this wisdom? Haji Ali: The first cup of tea we meet each other. The second cup of tea we come to know each other. The third cup of tea we become friends. Then, we can do business.
It's all about relationships. That was a lesson his father learned in Africa: to sit with the local people, pass the communal gourd of beer, tell stories and get to know each other.
In Korphe Greg learned the ways of the people and came to respect their simple, rugged lives. He was nursed back to health. One day, while out walking the landscape, he came upon a group of children sitting in the snow and rocks with thier teacher.
Haji Ali told him the children had no school house so they sat outside to learn. Haji Ali's little daughter, Jahan was among the girls who shivered in the frigid air. She asked Greg if he could help them build a school. He promised her he would do what he could.
Since that promise, Jahan has become a graduate of medical studies, delivering health care to her village and the people of the region – more than 130 schools pepper the rural villages on both sides of the vaulted Karakorum between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
But more, Greg Mortenson has become known by the rural people of Afghanistan and Pakistan as an American who can be trusted, a man of his word.
State departments and military generals now read Three Cups of Tea as a way of learning how to do business in that part of the world.
In spite of wars, the convolutions of local fiefdoms, in spite of a 7.6 magnitude earthquake, and infrastructure obstacles that would defy the resources of even the most powerful nation on earth, Greg and his "dirty dozen" colleagues at the Central Asia Institute persist.
By drinking three cups of tea they are turning stones—stones that mark the locations of land mines planted during the Soviet invasion, and among which unwary children play—into schools where they can make a better life through education.
Greg's declaration? Every school must strive for an equal ratio of girls to boys. In Afghanistan and Pakistan that is a quiet revolution.
Simple but powerful in its message, many of the CAI schools are expressly for girls. Greg's belief is that by empowering girls to become transforming agents of their communities, the fire of hatred flamed by extremists groups will be damped with hope.
One man's journey reminds us once again that when we act from our own internal compass and follow the urgings of our heart, the path will be true…not easy, but straight as a piercing arrow into the heart of a problem.
Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools (VIKING, 2006, 2009)
Author Susan FeathersPosted on February 11, 2010 February 11, 2010 Categories 14 Comments on Thinking Like a Mountain in Afghanistan
Haiti in the Long Run
Most of us have been glued to the news about the immediate assistance to Haitians following the 7.2 magnitude earthquake and its continuing aftershocks. We all most likely contributed initially to the Red Cross and other humanitarian aid organizations. Aid is finally arriving but much is still in the emergency phase.
What remains is the larger logistical questions about how to rebuild a devastated infrastructure and how to rebuild entirely differently to provide people with the safety and resilient systems many developed countries are not only used to but expect. What does this massive restoration and innovation mean for the world community?
While there have been many preceding natural catastrophe's to the collapse of Haiti's infrastructure, this event has to become a kind of flag and marker for humankind about the much greater work we may share as climate change, entwined with nature's natural furies, makes Haiti one of dozens of catastrophic events. We cannot let that happen.
While humankind cannot control the natural cycles of the Earth's systems, we can control how we as a species add to the impact of them. As a Gulf coast resident in Florida, I am eying the predictions for an average of 11 Atlantic storms in the 2010 hurricane season. Haiti is right in their path as well. How will the people there, how will all the countries who are going to be there helping to rebuild Haiti, deal with major storms?
An article in Science Daily recently described how climate change could impact poverty, deepening it by virtue of collapsing food systems due to climate change.
I watch my countrymen and women and representatives in Washington and realize how easily distracted we are by seemingly more pressing problems like health care and jobs. But up the road we need to be charting our next moves to prepare for many more natural disasters. Resilience to them can be seen in a country like ours which has such a high standard of living, so much social and economic infrastructure, that we find it hard to imagine a place where there are no options and everything that could go wrong does.
What hurt the Haitian people so much is poverty. How can we get to work to make sure poverty does not deepen but is turned on its head and becomes a solution? All the people without jobs…all the things that need doing…is there a bridge between these two realities that might create a third: better living standards by investing our time, talent, money, and sweat into GOOD WORK, and in quitting our bickering, deal playing and investment in wars.
For now, I plan to set up an affordable monthly withdrawal from my bank for Haiti relief, however small, and keep it there for the time it takes to get the job done. What we are investing in is not so much clean-up as raising a standard of living so that whatever may come their way, Haitians will have the resources to protect themselves and to build structures with the latest safety standards and materials that we Americans have come to expect.
Every Haitian child is one of ours, our future in an increasingly connected world community.
Author Susan FeathersPosted on January 24, 2010 January 24, 2010 Categories 1, Childhood, Climate Change, Environment, Nature, Sustainable Food Production, Women, Writing, Philanthropy, Nature, Wildlife ConservationLeave a comment on Haiti in the Long Run
Avatar and Mountain Top Removal Mining
Appalachian Voices and iLove Mountains.org are primarily battling mountain top removal (MTR) mining in critical watershed areas and communities in states where these mountains are under siege by the coal industry.
While viewing Avatar, I thought I was on their websites as the spaceship spans over a devastated mining area that looks suspiciously like the Appalachians where coal companies decapitated ancient mountains and their communities. See my review of the film on this blog and visit these sites to learn how the basic story of Avatar is happening on a huge scale right in America's oldest and most diverse mountains. Go to iLoveMountains and put in your zip code to learn whether your power is emanating from coal mined by MTR methods. This is where the battle on Mother Earth is happening! Join in.
Author Susan FeathersPosted on January 12, 2010 January 12, 2010 Categories 1Leave a comment on Avatar and Mountain Top Removal Mining


Home > Admissions > Why Cardozo Law?
Reason #1: We have a unique vision of legal education.
Reason #2: Live and learn in Manhattan 24/7.
Reason #3: We are leaders in public service.
Reason #4: Our world-class faculty will know your name.
Reason #5: We are an intellectual powerhouse.
Reason #6: Clinics, externships and trial experience give you a real-world edge.
Reason #7: Career support from day one.
Reason #8: Our global alumni network will work for you.
Reason #9: We are a welcoming community in the heart of Manhattan.
Reason #10: Diversity is a defining concept.
At Cardozo Law, legal education extends far beyond the pages of casebooks. Our renowned faculty and internationally recognized programs provide a solid foundation for your future.
Cardozo Law provides a superb grounding in the essential principles that underpin our system of justice. Our students learn methods of analytical reasoning while they examine both the role lawyers play in society and their ethical responsibilities to clients. We enable students to build on this foundation so that they will be able to develop innovative approaches for a new legal landscape. As business models, cultural standards and public institutions undergo major transformations, we help students understand the new challenges and fresh opportunities those changes will present so that they may craft solutions to problems and practice at the highest levels of the profession.
At Cardozo Law, we nurture lawyers who are creative and flexible thinkers. We believe career success relies on a complementary set of creative and concrete skills, so today's successful lawyer needs equal parts intellectual depth and practical expertise. You will develop both when you study and train with our faculty of intellectual scholars and practitioners.
As part of Yeshiva University, we draw on the Jewish tradition of scholarship and ethics to build a superb secular and diverse law school. The Cardozo Law experience offers groundbreaking clinics, a selection of field clinics within major legal organizations, and a robust range of externships and study abroad opportunities. You may also choose to participate in one of our distinctive simulation programs, such as our Intensive Trial Advocacy Program and Intensive Mediation Advocacy Program. No matter which of these opportunities you choose to pursue, you'll learn how to think creatively and seize opportunities for yourself and your clients while deepening your understanding of the crucial human element in all aspects of legal work. You'll experience the important teamwork, negotiation and transactional skills that build law careers and create great leaders.
… And you will be working and studying in the legal capital of the world.
At Cardozo, you'll gain the critical legal perspective that prepares you for opportunities—whether they're around the corner or across the globe.
When you study at Cardozo, you'll have access to our extensive network of New York business and legal professionals. Our connections provide added value to your law degree and are powerful tools for exploring career interests and options.
We will be by your side to help you make the most of everything New York City offers. That means there's more opportunity for you—any time, every day. At Cardozo, you will have the academic opportunities that provide a career edge, with access to top-tier business and legal events, lectures and networking; to exciting judicial, business and public service externships unique to New York City; and to our long-standing relationships with leading recruiters and employers.
New York City is at your doorstep, offering world-class museums, theater, dance and sporting events; vibrant ethnic neighborhoods where life is local and the accent is global; and more live music venues than Nashville, Austin and Los Angeles combined. The intellectual life of New York City is as unique as its reputation for sky's-the-limit dreams.
...and then there's the food!
Whatever your taste, from hummus to home-style, from bagels to bistro—even vegan stir-fries—you'll find great restaurants, vendors and eateries a short walk from Cardozo.
You'll find everything you need at our 55 Fifth Avenue location. Cardozo offers you a welcoming community in a state-of-the-art environment.
The Kathryn O. and Alan C. Greenberg Center for Student Life provides students with a spacious, comfortable lounge and café. The Dr. Lillian and Dr. Rebecca Chutick Law Library is the center of student and faculty research at Cardozo. Both the library and student center overlook Fifth Avenue.
The library holds more than 545,000 books, periodicals, microforms and audio and video materials. You'll access many law and law-related electronic resources and an exceptionally comprehensive reference collection. Cardozo's library is a selective federal depository, housing congressional publications, executive agency reports and documents and judicial materials.
A commitment to public service has been at the core of Cardozo's educational mission since we opened our doors in 1976. Founded, in part, to offer opportunities to groups typically excluded from mainstream practice, the law school hosts a vibrant Public Service Law Center that supports public service initiatives that often intersect with fundamental issues of social justice.
Public service is woven into the life of the law school. On-campus panels and symposia, domestic and foreign service programs, and informal brown-bag lunches focused on public interest issues promote values supporting a commitment to the greater good. To help students envision careers in public service, the Center for Public Service Law holds informational sessions and counsels students one-on-one on how to develop into public service attorneys. Career networking events are coordinated with the Office of Career Services.
Cardozo's commitment to public service work is highlighted during a weeklong event known as P*LAW week. Daily panels and workshops feature topics pertinent to the practice of public interest law. The school becomes abuzz with panelists, including legal practitioners and community advocates and organizers, who are invited by students to address important issues such as domestic violence, LGBT rights, prisoners' rights, immigration reform and education reform. Recent speakers have included Randi Weingarten '83, president of the American Federation of Teachers; Judge Fern A. Fisher, Deputy Chief Administrative Judge, New York City Courts; and Susan Jacobs, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor. The climax of the week is Cardozo's Inspire! Awards ceremony and reception honoring student, alumni and faculty achievements in public service.
Through coursework and hands-on learning, you can explore diverse areas of public service law, such as family law, international human rights, housing and immigration rights, labor and employment law, and criminal defense. Groundbreaking Cardozo clinics within the public service sphere are in the vanguard of social justice causes. Cardozo provides the public interest options that allow you to find your passion and make a difference. At Cardozo, public service is all about leadership, commitment and results.
The Public Service Scholars Program prepares future lawyers for the practice of law in public service through a comprehensive three-year program that offers specialized training and experience in the field. Public Service Scholars are selected through an application process on the basis of the candidate's ability to continue the strong tradition of public service at Cardozo Law. Students who are accepted into the program come with diverse backgrounds and interests, and many bring to the program prior experience working with public interest organizations, nonprofits and government agencies.
Cardozo faculty members bring warmth to the classroom and a fresh approach to teaching. They are serious scholars who care about their students and about how the law relates to areas of human inquiry and expression, such as philosophy, literature, economics, politics and history. Cardozo faculty members are dedicated to collaborating with their students. They are intellectual pathbreakers who bring students a wealth of connections across New York and around the world.
From alternative dispute resolution to white-collar crime, Cardozo prepares you for today's global legal environment and tomorrow's opportunities. Along with the core essentials of legal education, our curriculum has the sought-after range of electives you want to customize your J.D. degree. Together with experimental opportunities, study abroad options and joint degree choices, you'll have all the tools you need to define your goals—and prepare for success.
As a first-year student, you will work on mastering the fundamentals of legal practice, including civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, criminal law, property, torts and legal writing. Along with Elements of Law, a course designed by Cardozo faculty members, your first-year courses will provide you with theory, ethical understanding and analytical skills as well as a deep appreciation for the role of the law and the value of lawyers in society. These courses are taught by a world-class faculty that will prepare you for the upper-level classes that permit you to construct a personalized skill set reflecting your passions.
Cardozo is known nationally for comprehensive programs in alternative dispute resolution, intellectual property and information law, public service law, and legal theory. We also feature programs in Holocaust and human rights studies, law and humanities, Jewish law, family law, corporate governance, entertainment law, communications law, comparative law, and ethics. We continually expand our offerings and ensure a broad scope of class choices each year.
The doctrinal foundation you build through coursework springs to life through the rich array of hands-on experiential opportunities you'll have at Cardozo. Learning by doing helps you master the research, teamwork, oral advocacy and leadership skills that employers value.
Clinics Give You a Real-World Edge. From experience comes opportunity. The doctrinal foundation you build through classwork springs to life through the rich array of hands-on experiential opportunities you'll have at Cardozo. Clinics allow students to represent clients under supervision of faculty who are specialists in their areas of expertise.
Cardozo Law hosts some 15 clinics including the Innocence Project, which was founded at the law school. Clinics are designed to bring students into practice under expert supervision, representing clients in a multitude of forums. For a complete list see our clinics page.
Our Field Clinics program is built on our partnerships with nonprofit and government law offices throughout the New York metropolitan area. Host-organization partners provide rigorous, hands-on experience as students assist practitioners with semester-long, part-time work. Seminars are taught by the same attorneys who supervise students in the field. This connection helps build the practical and critical-thinking skills essential to all legal work. Currently, Cardozo has four Field Clinics. Students can be placed with the New York State Attorney General's Office, Social Justice Division or with the City of Newark's Law Department in New Jersey. Additional opportunities include working in the field of consumer debt protection with a national leader in poverty law or on health care reform with the Legal Aid Society.
Cardozo's New York City location provides unparalleled opportunities for students to pursue legal areas of interest under the careful supervision of leaders in their respective fields. From politics to grassroots advocacy to impact litigation, it's all here in New York City.
Cardozo externships are a critical tool for career exploration and development. Each year, more than 250 students choose from a variety of opportunities with public service and nonprofit organizations, businesses, government offices, or federal or state courts. By litigating; engaging in complex legal research, writing and analysis; representing individual clients; and promoting broad policy changes, our students sharpen the practical and critical-thinking skills that forge powerful advocates.
Current students in public service externships are working at such nonprofits as Safe Horizons and the Urban Justice Center. Other externs are working at city, state and federal government offices, including the offices of the New York City Council, the EEOC and the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. Heyman/ACCA In-House Counsel externs are placed in such companies as Burberry, CBS, Christie's, Forbes Media, FINRA and NASDAQ.
Cardozo was one of the first law schools in the country to offer an Intensive Trial Advocacy Program (ITAP), which is the cornerstone of the law school's practical skills curriculum. Leading trial attorneys and judges from across the country gather at Cardozo to work with approximately 130 second- and third-year students in a rigorous two-week course simulating the intensity of a real trial. Each participant works on the full range of necessary trial skills, including examination and cross-examination techniques, introduction of evidence, and full trial strategies. Upon the completion of this "boot camp" experience, students are capable of trying a case—and ready for career success.
This judicial clerkship program is one of the most highly selective programs at Cardozo. While working for a federal judge in chambers five days a week for a full semester, you'll gain an insider's view of judicial decision making. You'll research and prepare memoranda on legal issues, participate in conferences, and draft opinions. A weekly seminar, usually led by a federal judge, provides an in-depth study of judicial administration. Skills developed in this program put you a step ahead of your peers if you pursue a clerkship after graduation.
We'll be with you every step of the way. Cardozo's Office of Career Services, along with Cardozo's Center for Public Service Law, works hand in hand with employers to make the job connections you need. We never follow a one-size-fits-all approach; throughout your time at Cardozo, we will be actively involved in presenting multiple career paths for you to explore while creating employment connections to help you meet your goals.
As part of the Cardozo Law community, you're at the hub of some of the best business, finance, government, judicial and public service opportunities found anywhere. And our expanding network of New York City business partnerships helps put you on track for a legal career in one of the world's most desirable markets.
In the first year of law school, you'll meet with at least one of our seven full-time counselors to begin exploring and defining your individualized career path. Throughout the school year, a range of OCS programs will prepare you for your future job search. You'll learn about the many practice areas within the public and private sectors; develop the skills necessary to compete effectively; meet and network with practicing attorneys, including many of our alumni from across the globe; and obtain access, through the fall and spring recruitment programs, to hundreds of potential employers and judges looking for Cardozo talent to fill open internships as well as summer associate and postgraduate positions.
Every fall and spring, scores of representatives of private- and public-sector employers interview our students at Cardozo, in their offices, or through virtual interviews using our teleconference technology.
Cardozo continually mines the marketplace to provide multiple opportunities for employers to meet our students—their future hires. Cardozo's historic commitment to public service work has created connections through our clinics, externships and ITAP programs, and those connections can lead to postgraduate employment in the public interest. Alternately, the Heyman Center for Corporate Governance is a major point of contact for students seeking work in corporate settings.
Below are descriptions of some of Cardozo's many networking events.
Fall Recruitment Employer Expo Employers are invited to participate in a "Table Talk" expo to meet our students.
Lunches and Receptions for 1L Students Employers come to campus to sponsor a lunch or other reception for interested 1L students. The employer often sends a small group of attorneys and recruitment professionals who share their experiences and provide some insights on the employer's "personality."
Diversity Receptions OCS hosts employers' receptions and other opportunities for law students from diverse backgrounds.
Practice Area Expos "Table Talk" expos give employers an opportunity to informally meet and familiarize themselves with a large group of students who are interested in a particular legal practice area. Expos cover a broad range of fields.
Practice Profile Lunch Series Throughout the academic year, practicing attorneys come to campus to meet students at an informal brown-bag lunch and speak about their practice areas.
Cardozo alumni are regular campus visitors, returning to meet with students and share their insights into the real-world practice of law. Through networking events, various speakers' series and direct on-site recruitment, our graduates take an active role in helping students connect to career-building opportunities right after law school. Our graduates make things happen.
Cardozo's 10,000-plus graduates are a major asset for you—not just because of their number but because of what they do and the variety of jobs they hold. Alumni with J.D. or LL.M. degrees live and practice in 49 states and 48 countries. Cardozo can boast that graduates have served as law clerks on the U.S. Supreme Court, Federal District and Appellate Courts, and the highest state courts. They sit as judges and are partners at major law firms. They're corporate counsel, senior executives at financial institutions, and elected or appointed city and state officials. Dozens have senior positions as assistant district attorneys, U.S. attorneys and public defenders. They hold major offices in local bar associations, and many who have chosen careers outside of the law are business executives, union leaders, community activists, art dealers, writers, actors and professors.
Cardozo graduates bring their values, principles and dedication to a vast scope of enterprises. They work around the world—and they are ready to work for you.
We build our community one student at a time. The commonalities—and diversity—among our students are the strengths of our exceptional Cardozo Law community. Each student is essential to the conversation ... and the conversation is never dull.
Is there a typical Cardozo Law student?
Each student brings something different—and dynamic—to the Cardozo Law community of almost 1,200 motivated and enthusiastic learners. About 75 students are seeking a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree; the rest are pursuing a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) degree or one of our joint degree options. Each has been selected based on academic excellence, personal and/or professional background and experiences.
Cardozo Law students are smart problem solvers and analytical thinkers who appreciate the energy and sense of joint mission found in a close-knit academic community. They are team players who are not afraid to stand out in a crowd. Cardozo students are culturally astute, valuing different backgrounds and ideas. They know the importance of hands-on experience and are eager to take advantage of Cardozo's extended partnerships to build their careers. And they want to be in New York City, recognizing that it is the ideal place to study law.
Cardozo Law students come from more than 135 geographically diverse undergraduate institutions, including those in such countries as China, Columbia, Germany, South Africa and Korea. They represent a wide cross section of life skills and backgrounds—which we believe is a key advantage for future lawyers working in an increasingly global profession. Some Cardozo students enter law school right after college, and others join us after taking a postcollege break. Some have experience as parents and as veterans of the armed forces, others as teachers, financial analysts, engineers, software programmers, patent agents, paralegals, writers and editors, community organizers, and artists. Some hold graduate degrees in such areas as business, psychology, accounting, history, philosophy, chemistry and political science.


This Outback adventure reveals a very different aspect of Queensland. Far from the lush reef-fringed coast there are historic rural and mining towns, and wide brown lands characterised by their endless horizons.
After exploring the wonders of Australia's largest tropical city, Townsville head out on the Flinders Highway, which will bring you to the beef region around Charters Towers, a once incredibly wealthy gold town is still full of numerous grand heritage buildings.
Further west, Hughenden's main attraction is the Dinosaur Display, featuring a replica of the famous Muttaburrasaurus skeleton, and you can also take a drive to Porcupine Gorge National Park, a spectacular mini-version of the Grand Canyon. There are more remnants of a long-gone age at Richmond - the Marine Fossil Museum features over 200 fossils from the inland sea that once covered this region.
You'll then pass through the cattle-trucking centre of Julia Creek, home to a rare marsupial, the Julia Creek dunnart. There is plenty to do in Cloncurry, an old copper mining town and the birthplace of Australia's Royal Flying Doctor Service. Visit John Flynn Place, a museum that tells the extraordinary RFDS story, and the collection of minerals and old machinery at Mary Kathleen Memorial Park.
The Barkly Highway then leads to the city of Mount Isa, best known for its mining - this is the world's biggest single producer of silver and lead. You can take fascinating underground and surface mine tours, visit the Royal Flying Doctor Service base, and spend time at the Riversleigh Interpretive Centre, where fossils are the main attraction.
Beyond Mount Isa, Camooweal lies just east of the Northern Territory border - if you wish to continue to the old gold mining town of Tennant Creek on the Territory's Stuart Highway, it's a 450 km drive from here.
Time Required: This itinerary covers a great deal of ground, so at least a week is recommended.


Creative explorations in nature, art, photography and writing.
V is for vantage point, it often influences the success of your pictures. You can vary the vantage point to get an unusual shot. Find below a few examples of using variations of vantage point.
Here is a picture of the Ebony Damselfly up close.
This view was once my vantage point for 7 days. Mostly water was all I saw, this time it was land ahoy!
Here is a picture of some good-natured teachers. Their vantage point was drastically reduced during this activity and they had to rely on other senses.
This picture offers a dramatic view of Maghonay Bay, Roatan, framed by palm fronds and tree leaves.
This picture shows the view of the Belize River from a vantage point of a boat on the river.
Here is a view from the bottom looking upward.
I love that picture of the stairs! It is interesting to try to capture something from a different point of view.
#SOL 2018 Day 31 Thank you, slicers.
Throughout the month of March, I am participating in the Slice of Life Challenge, hosted by twowritingteachers.wordpress.com. The month long goal is to write a daily post reflecting on a portion of your day. This is my 7th year to participate. I enjoy reading "slices of life" written by other slicers, connecting with them by commenting, and reflecting on a part of my day. To become a writer one must write, so it makes logical sense to me, I accept this challenge and attempt to write.
Flowers, flowers, flowers - and a Mexican Koko!
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working."


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What You Need to Know About the Manson Family Murders
Behind the scenes of the brutal crimes lurking throughout Quentin Tarantino's new film, 'Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood'
Angela Serratore
Cameramen film the scene as Charles Manson is brought into the Los Angeles city jail under suspicion of having masterminded the Tate-LaBianca murders of August 1969. Bettmann / Contributor
In Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood, the new film from director Quentin Tarantino, an actor and stuntman (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, respectively) find themselves living next door to beautiful actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). It's the summer of 1969, and what none of the characters know is that Tate and five others will soon be brutally murdered by members of the Manson Family, the cult led by Charles Manson that would become, for many, the ultimate symbol of the dark side of the 1960s.
In Tarantino's film, Manson and members of the Family loom in the background, an ominous presence haunting the painstakingly recreated Los Angeles landscape. As the 50th anniversary of the Manson Family's crimes approaches, here's a primer that attempts to untangle the who, what, where, and why of the case.
Who was Charles Manson?
Born in 1934 to a teenaged mother, Charles Manson's early childhood and young life was spent bouncing around between relatives and, later, in and out of institutions in the Midwest. In his early 20s, he married twice and fathered a son. Manson was considered so thoroughly institutionalized by authorities that upon his 1967 release from a California prison, he asked the warden if he could stay.
Instead, Manson migrated to Berkeley and then San Francisco, cities that became flooded with young people looking to embark on a new way of life. An older figure among the crowd, he amassed a small group of followers (almost entirely women) and, in 1968, headed along with several female followers to Los Angeles to pursue a music career, having learned to play the guitar in prison. Manson's tools of persuasion were the lax social codes of the late 1960s, in which runaway hippies mingled freely with Hollywood royalty, and his ability to tell others what they wanted to hear, both of which he parlayed into a friendship with Dennis Wilson, the drummer for the Beach Boys.
Through Wilson, Manson met other music-industry players and grew increasingly fixated on stardom, all the while exercising greater and greater control over the group that came to be known as the Manson Family. He was, as investigative journalist Jeff Guinn put it in Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson, "the wrong man in the right place at the right time."
After the Family members behind the August 1969 murders were apprehended, Manson was put on trial for murder along with them. He didn't do any of the actual killing, but prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi argued that the Family did everything Manson ordered them to do—including murder. One of California's longest-standing prison inmates, Manson died in November 2017.
Who were the followers known as the Manson Family?
In the public's imagination, the "Manson girls," as they came to be known, loomed almost as large as Manson himself. Mostly young women in their late teens and early 20s, Manson Family members were, in the late 1960s, not especially unusual. White, middle-class women all over the country were heading for cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, inspired by other hippies to "turn on, tune in, and drop out." Manson used his female followers to lure other men to both join the group and to support it—it was several of the women that initially met Dennis Wilson and brought Manson to his home.
Manson and the Family bounced around Los Angeles, eventually settling at Spahn Ranch, an old film-and-television set in the western San Fernando Valley. At Spahn, Manson exercised total domination over the group—members were reportedly forbidden from wearing eyeglasses or carrying money, and in Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness That Ended the Sixties, Manson follower Dianne Lake (just 14 when she met Manson) detailed long nights of lectures, in which Manson instructed others at the ranch to take LSD and listen to him preach about the past, present and future of humanity. Some of the Family remained loyal to Manson even after he was sentenced to death (later converted to life in prison when the state of California overturned the use of the death penalty)—in 1975, one of Manson's earliest followers, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, attempted to assassinate president Gerald Ford (her gun jammed and she was quickly felled by the Secret Service).
How did Manson fit into the Hollywood scene?
Manson had connections to a number of wealthy and influential people in Los Angeles. Through Dennis Wilson, he became acquainted with record producer Terry Melcher, son of actress Doris Day and boyfriend of model and actress Candice Bergen. At one point, the daughter of actress Angela Lansbury was a Family hanger-on, and though she wasn't an official member, she used her mother's credit cards to buy the Family's food and clothing.
Melcher and Bergen lived at the house (10050 Cielo Drive) that Tate would eventually rent with her husband, director Roman Polanski, and Guinn posits that the house represented Manson's rejection by the musical establishment—he'd courted Melcher as a patron, and even hosted the producer at Spahn Ranch, where Melcher politely listened to Manson and the Family perform. Manson pinned a great deal of hope on his connections with Wilson and Melcher, and it's widely believed that once it became clear the two men weren't going to significantly advance his music career (though Wilson did convince the Beach Boys to re-work and record a version of Manson's song "Cease to Exist," which they renamed "Never Learn Not to Love," it was considered a flop), Manson became increasingly focused on violence.
Actress Sharon Tate takes a leap in the film Don't Make Waves Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Terry Melcher and Candice Bergen, who were formerly acquainted with Manson and lived in the house where Tate was murdered before Tate and Polanski moved in. Dove / Express / Getty Images
What was 'Helter Skelter'?
Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, in his exhaustive attempt to put together a motive for the Family's killings, landed on Manson's obsession with what he called 'Helter Skelter.' Taken from the Beatles song of the same name (Manson told his followers the White Album was further evidence his theories about the end of the world were correct), 'Helter Skelter,' in Manson's verbiage, was the pending race war that would see thousands dieand force the Family disappear to underground caves. There, they would wait until it was time for them to emerge and rule what was left of the world.
While Manson initially foretold that the first crimes would be committed by African-Americans against whites, the desperate state of his affairs in the summer of 1969—his musical aspirations had largely come to nothing and his Hollywood connections had died up—led him to shift focus and tell the Family they might have to begin Helter Skelter themselves, committing savage crimes in upscale neighborhoods in an attempt to demonstrate to African-Americans how the violence should be carried out. In 1974, Bugliosi published Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, the first major work examining the Manson Family and the best-selling true crime book of all time.
Overview of Spahn Ranch, a former Hollywood filming location where the Manson Family later took up residence. 1970. Ralph Crane / The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images
Who were the Manson Family's victims?
On the night of August 8, 1969, Manson Family members Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, and Linda Kasabian (who would later turn state's witness against the others) drove to Tate and Polanski's home (the director was out of town working on a film). The eight-months pregnant Tate, who appeared in 1967's Valley of the Dolls and was considered one of Hollywood's most promising up-and-comers, was relaxing at home with her friends: celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, and Folger's boyfriend Voytek Frykowski. None of them had any tangible connection to Manson or the Family other than being physically in the house previously occupied by someone Manson knew (Terry Melcher).
In Helter Skelter, Bugliosi writes that a witness for the prosecution described a March 1969 day on which Manson came to the house looking for Melcher and found Tate on the porch instead—"There could be no question that Charles Manson saw Sharon Tate, and she him," writes Bugliosi.
Tate and her friends all died at the hands of Watson, Krenwinkel, and Atkins, as did Steven Parent, a teenaged friend of the house's caretaker who happened to be pulling out of the driveway as the killers arrived.
The very next night, the same group of Family members, plus Leslie van Houten and Manson himself, set out to commit more murders. They drove to the house of grocery business executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. LaBianca was totally unknown to the Manson Family—some of its members had reportedly been to a party in the neighborhood. According to Bugliosi, the LaBiancas were chosen at random after several hours of driving around upscale Los Angeles neighborhoods.
Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel (left to right) walk from the jail section to the courtroom during the trial for their role in the Manson Family murders. Bettmann / Contributor
Why does Manson still loom so large?
The brutal nature of the murders committed by the Manson Family, in addition to the fact that some of the victims were celebrities, touched upon some of the deepest fears of the American psyche—the idea that you might not be safe at home, for one, and the idea that even 'good girls' are a few moves away from committing unspeakable crimes. They also cemented the idea in popular culture that the Free Love movement of the 1960s wasn't free at all. It's a sentiment further explored in Jeffrey Melnick's Creepy Crawling: Charles Manson and the Many Lives of America's Most Infamous Family , in which Melnick, professor of American studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, examines the long-term cultural impact of the Manson Family. In "The White Album," an essay appearing in her eponymous collection named after the Beatles album, Joan Didion uses the murders to argue that the '60s had effectively ended—"the paranoia," she wrote, was fulfilled.
Angela Serratore | | READ MORE
Angela Serratore is a writer and a contributing editor at SmithsonianMag.com
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While preparing my coursework and portfolio for formal assignment there were a few exercises that I wasn't satisfied with and so made fresh attempts at the exercises to increase my chances of passing this first course. Like those exercises this assignment was one that I felt wasn't up to scratch mainly because of the limited choice of views that I had to draw and the medium I chose to draw the finished piece. I found myself asking these questions: Was the dry watercolour pencil the best choice for this assignment? and if not which medium would be more suitable?
For the Study of Several Trees exercise I had used oil pastel and was really happy with the natural, loose feel of the finished drawing. I tried to imagine the above dry watercolour pencil drawing in the clumsier, thicker medium and the paintings of Vincent van Gogh came to mind, because this assignment included buildings as well as trees I decided to take a look at paintings of buildings by van Gogh.
What I like about van Gogh's paintings of buildings is that they aren't just blocks with roofs on or basic shapes, they paintings look like that he has painted part of the building and then kept adding to it so that the buildings look wonky a bit like the way they build buildings here in Bangkok and indeed how they built extensions onto old country cottages.
Being a bulkier messier medium than the colour pencil I used in the original finished piece it was guaranteed that the parts of the buildings that show in the oil pastel drawing would turn out looking wonky but looking at van Gogh's paintings this wasn't necessarily going to be a negative.
The finished drawing in oil pastel below was drawn from the original photo, it isn't the best work I have produced but it isn't a let down either. The colours are a lot more vivid than the colour pencil drawing and I feel that that the drawing itself is a lot stronger with more character, you can also see a lot more of the temple through the trees than the original picture.
The most difficult part of the drawing was the window on the left which took a lot of scarping and redrawing to get it looking anything like the original drawing, with the bulkier medium I had to sacrifice the fourth pain of glass in the window and with the constant redrawing of the window and the wonky lines it makes it look almost van Goghlike.
The down side is though, because I don't feel that the window on the left doesn't show confidence with this medium, i shall still only be submitting this drawing as an additional study and not a finished piece, but one thing is certain, it was a study that needed to be done.
On my tutor's advice to be a little bit bolder in the depiction of the light and shade created by the layers of leaves I attempted to go over the leaves in the original picture with coloured pencil to try to depict light and shade. Because I had already used fixatives they didn't layer very well. In the original drawing I had used grey oil pastel as a frame to try to depict the dirty inside walls of the school which I don't think worked very well, the paper was also torn where I had removed it from the sketchbook, I went over the grey in black and trimmed the paper.