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Excellence in Graphic Literature Submissions
Each year, Pop Culture Classroom promotes Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards finalists and winners, encouraging libraries, education groups, media, and our community of tens of thousands of pop culture fans and educators to check out these quality titles.
Graphic novel artists, writers, creators, and publishers are invited to submit original, book-length graphic literature for consideration.
Pop Culture Classroom defines  graphic literature as an art form that synthesizes text and sequential images to present a story or series of stories with lasting artistic, intellectual, literary, and cultural value. This medium incorporates written and graphic elements that work in tandem to create an evocative and complex reading experience.
Submission Rules & Requirements
Titles must have a publication and distribution date that falls between January 1 and December 31, 2022.
Submitted titles may be published outside of the United States, but must have distribution within the United States to qualify for consideration.
Submitted titles must be in finished, ready-to-print digital format. Books must be submitted in English translations if published in another language.
Comic media published exclusively in a single-issue format will not be accepted. However, collected editions of material previously published in a single format qualify for consideration, as long as the publication date falls between January 1 and December 31 for that year's award.
Titles must be submitted for consideration in one of two distinctions: Fiction or Non-fiction. The submitter is responsible for choosing a distinction for each title submitted.
Titles must be submitted for consideration in one of four categories: Children (Pre-k to 4th Grade/ ages 0–10 ), Middle-Grade (Grades 5-8 / ages 10–14), Young Adult (Grades 9-12 / ages 14–18), or Adult (ages 18+ ). The submitter is responsible for choosing a category for each title submitted. Titles will be evaluated in part for their value and accessibility to the chosen age category. Please see the judging criteria for more information.
Publishers are allowed to submit a maximum of TWO (2) books per category for each distinction. For example, a publisher may submit 2 Fiction and 2 Non-Fiction titles for each category.
Every submitted title will be considered for a Book of the Year and/or Mosaic Award nominations.
Category finalists are eligible for the Reader's Choice Award, which will be determined by an online vote.
Members of the juries and advisory board may reach out to authors, editors, or publishers only with the purpose of providing them with the link to the submission form. No other communication between juries and submitting parties will be made.
Titles must be submitted through the form below.
Submit Your Graphic Novel
Complete submissions must be received no later than February 12, 2023, to be accepted for consideration.
To be considered for an award, submissions must include:
A digital upload of the book. Use our secure, online form; or email egl@popcultureclassroom.org to arrange an alternate method of sending a digital version of your title submission; and
6 physical copies of each of your submissions, mailed to Pop Culture Classroom's Offices. These will be distributed to jurors evaluating your title. Please mail six (6) physical copies of your title submission to:
Attn: EGL Awards
1420 N. Ogden St. STE A1
You will receive an email confirming your submission and categories within 5 business days of completing your submission.
2023 EGL Awards Submission Form
Your EGL Title Submission
Book Title(Required)
Book Author(s)(Required)
Book Illustrator(s)(Required)
Publisher(Required)
Submission Category
Children's Books (grades pre-K-4, or ages 0-10)
Middle-Grade Books (grades 5-8, or ages 10-14)
Young Adult Books (grades 9-12, or ages 14-18)
Adult Books (Ages 18+)
Is the title Fiction or Nonfiction?*(Required)
Link to 2023 EGL Submission
Accepted file types: pdf, pdf, Max. file size: 300 MB.
Advisory Board & Juries
Categories & Judging Criteria
Graphic Literature Submission


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Aquaculture Gets Big Boost
Fish-farming company Algix Jamaica is leading a resurgence of aquaculture in Jamaica and is exploring a plan to get most of the more than 2,000 acres of deserted fish ponds in Jamaica back in operation to expand its production capacity as it prepares to tap into the lucrative global fish market.
Algix is the first company to produce the basa (pangasius hypophthalmus) fish in Jamaica, which is bred along with the tilapia (red hybrid) in approximately 120 acres of water at its 300 acres Barton Isle, St Elizabeth, property.
About 60 per cent of the ponds are dominated by tilapia production, with about 50,000 to 70,000 kilograms produced for the domestic market monthly. However, this is expected to be reversed as soon as Algix begins to export its new product, which, at full production, should realise about 150,000 kilograms monthly in the short term.
According to Raldane Reynolds, procurement and logistics manager at Algix, the company is targeting the Indian, Brazilian, European, and North American markets and will be contracting fish farmers to increase their production.
"We have set our sights on these markets. The potential is endless. the global fish market is big-money business," he said during his presentation at the launch of their new product recently. "Basa has become so popular. the last time we checked in 2013, it was the sixth most consumed fish on the planet.
"India alone imports 5,000 tonnes monthly, or US$13 million, of this product, and our neighbours, the United States, imports US$1 billion worth of basa annually," he continued. "The basa didn't just bring variety to our dinner tables, but also a new economic opportunity for our farmers."
Lower Production Costs
Added Reynolds: "The Pangasius has significantly lower production costs, requires no aeration whatsoever, and allows farmers to increase harvest yields by 5,000 per cent more (than the tilapia), to be precise, without having to dig additional ponds."
Reynolds continued: "With full government support, Jamaica stands to be the envy of the global basa industry. We have a product the entire world wants, and we will be the best at producing it."
The Reynolds family-led firm acquired Aquaculture Jamaica in 2014 and has so far pumped approximately US$300 million into its operations. Some 90 persons are currently employed there.
A native of Asia, the basa is one of the most consumed fish globally and was being imported to Jamaica for decades until Algix farm, led by managing director and aquaculturist Maurice Reynolds, decided to explore the possibility of breeding it locally.
During his address, state minister in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries JC Hutchinson challenged fish farmers to see aquaculture as big business.
"No longer can we see fish breeding as just a hobby. this is big business as is being demonstrated by Algix," he said.
News Source: J

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Cercospora furfurella är en svampart som beskrevs av Speg. 1888. Cercospora furfurella ingår i släktet Cercospora och familjen Mycosphaerellaceae.   Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The VITA Mission is ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli's third mission aboard the International Space Station, commencing 28 July.
VITA stands for Vitality, Innovation, Technology and Ability. This was chosen by Italian space agency ASI, which is providing the mission through a barter agreement with NASA.
In Italian, 'vita' means 'life', reflecting the experiments that Paolo will run and the philosophical notion of living in outer space – one of the most inhospitable places for humans.
The mission's logo was developed by ESA together with ASI and Paolo.
The overall circle and blue shading evoke our planet, with the Third Paradise symbol by Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto linking the mission's main messages.
Three elements stand out: a strand of DNA as a symbol of life and science, a book as a symbol of culture and education, and Earth as a symbol of humanity.
The Third Paradise is a reformulation of the symbol for infinity. The two opposing ovals contain elements of the scientific and cultural activities Paolo will perform in space. Their meeting in the centre represents the evolution of Earth and benefits for humankind.
The central shape of the symbol, together with the presence of the globe, can also be seen as an eye, giving an astronaut's perspective over our planet.
Reflecting Paolo's origins, the logo features the colours of the Italian flag.


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import React from 'react';
import ProgressIndicator, { propTypes } from './ProgressIndicator';

const VerticalProgressIndicator = props => <ProgressIndicator {...props} isVertical />;

VerticalProgressIndicator.propTypes = propTypes;

export default VerticalProgressIndicator;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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HomeLatest NewsFrench Firm Wins $2 Billion Loan Guarantee for Idaho Enrichment Plant
French Firm Wins $2 Billion Loan Guarantee for Idaho Enrichment Plant
May 25, 2010 Jim Crabtree Latest News Comments Off on French Firm Wins $2 Billion Loan Guarantee for Idaho Enrichment Plant
WASHINGTON, DC, May 24, 2010 (ENS) – The U.S. Department of Energy has approved a $2 billion loan guarantee for French state-owned nuclear power developer Areva to build a uranium enrichment plant in Idaho. The plant will provide fuel for the U.S. nuclear power industry.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the conditional loan gurantee is part of a broad effort by the Obama administration "to expand the use of nuclear power in the United States and reduce carbon pollution."
The $2 billion loan guarantee will support Areva's $3.3 billion Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility 18 miles west of Idaho Falls, Idaho, which will supply uranium enrichment services to U.S utilities.
"Increasing uranium enrichment in the United States is critical to the nation's energy and national security," said Secretary Chu. "Existing reactors will need additional sources of enriched uranium soon. New nuclear plants that could start to come on line as early as 2016 will also need a steady, reliable source of uranium enrichment services. Areva's project will help to meet that demand."
Centrifuges for uranium enrichment (Photo courtesy Areva)
The Idaho Falls facility will use advanced centrifuge technology instead of the more energy-intensive gaseous diffusion process.
Although Eagle Rock will be only the second plant to use this technology in the United States, it has been employed in Europe for about 30 years to enrich uranium for the commercial power market.
The Eagle Rock project's technology uses 95 percent less electricity than the gaseous diffusion technology it replaces, reducing both energy use and environmental effects.
Areva estimates construction of the Eagle Rock facility will create 4,800 direct and indirect jobs through the life of the project and will spur billions of dollars of investment in the regional economy.
"Areva is elated by this decision which will enable us to continue development of our Eagle Rock facility in Idaho and contribute to rebuilding America's energy infrastructure so we can produce more CO2-free electricity," said Jacques Besna-inou, CEO of Areva North America. "Areva has considerable experience building and operating enrichment facilities and is putting that experience to work with the Eagle Rock project."
USEC, which operates the only uranium enrichment facility in the United States, supplying about half the U.S. market, also applied for an Energy Department loan guarantee for its proposed plant in Ohio. But the application ran into a snag last year when the Energy Department decided it was not ready for commercial scale.
USEC is testing new production-ready commercial centrifuge machines and USEC president and chief executive officer John Welch said, "We are targeting to update our application with the Loan Guarantee Office this summer."
Still, the award of a loan guarantee to the French company drew criticism from Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt, a Republican, who said "The controversial decision contradicts a campaign promise President Obama made to support the American company applicant and build a facility in Ohio, creating some 4,000 jobs."
"Today is a day we all feared was coming," said Schmidt. "I find the administration's decision is a slap in the face and just wrong. I am sure they are celebrating in Paris tonight but in Piketon all we have is the paper that the President's promise was printed on."
"Ohio voters will not soon forget what happened today. The pain is as real as we believed his promise to be," Schmidt said.
Richard Myers, vice president for policy development of the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry association, said, "The Eagle Rock loan guarantee offer is an extremely positive development for the nation's electric infrastructure, for the Idaho economy and for U.S. energy security."
"Most immediately, the federal loan guarantee will help Areva arrange lower-cost debt financing that will reduce the overall cost of the project and mean thousands of good-paying jobs for the Idaho citizenry.
"Longer term, it will strengthen the U.S. supply of competitively priced uranium enrichment services, which will help ensure that the production costs of nuclear energy remain as low or lower than other baseload electricity sources," said Myers. "That benefits consumers and the U.S. economy as a whole."
The light-water reactors that generate power in the United States are fueled by low-enriched uranium, in which the concentration of the easily split U-235 uranium isotope is raised from less than one percent found in natural uranium to between three and five percent by weight.
Currently, the United States obtains half of its enriched uranium from Russia under the Megatons-to-Megawatts program, in which nuclear materials that were once aimed at the United States are converted to civilian nuclear fuel.
The program expires in 2013, after which alternate sources of enrichment services will be required to support the continued and expanded use of nuclear power in the United States.
The Eagle Rock project must obtain a Combined Construction and Operating License from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before the loan guarantee can be finalized.
In addition to the $2 billion in loan guarantee authority under the 2009 Omnibus Bill, the Energy Department has made available an additional $2 billion to support uranium enrichment technology from loan authority provided in 2007.
In a fiscal 2010 supplemental spending request, the Obama administration today proposed an increase of $9 billion in federal loan guarantees available for companies building new nuclear power plants.
The increased loan volume would be derived by accelerating access to a portion of the $36 billion requested by the Obama administration in its fiscal 2011 budget.
Energy Department loan guarantees are not grants but provide a federal backstop that enables companies to invest in clean energy projects.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2010. All rights reserved.
Environment News Service (ENS) © 2010 – 2012 All Rights Reserved.
Russia, Iran Big Cat Swap Raises Questions
BP Will Try to Kill the Broken Oil Well on Wednesday


Learn everything new in Fortnite's v8.20 Content Update, including the release of new weapon - Boom Bow, return of the LTM: Sniper Shootout, various changes to the game, and more!
Check Out The Latest News & Updates Here!
Aim, fire, and explode! Fortnite's v8.20 content update unveils the newest weapon for players to use: the Boom Bow! An explosive long-range weapon that ends in a bang!
The Boom Bow is a long range weapon made with destruction in mind! Its arrows explode after a period of time when fired, and its explosive trait means that it deals damage a good amount of damage to structures!
Check Out The Boom Bow Here!
The LTM Sniper Shootout will make its return along with the v8.20 content update! Steady aim, and sheer focus are what's needed for this LTM since Sniper Rifles are the only types of weapons that spawn!
Check Out The Sniper Shootout LTM Here!
Check Out The Sniper Rifle Weapon List Here!
Below are the miscellaneous changes implemented during the v8.20 content update.
According to the content update patch notes, the Foraged Item "Peppers" will have its duration increased from 10 seconds to 20 seconds, and the movement speed bonus increased from 20% to 40%.
Check Out Foraged Items Here!


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Taste of Cinema - Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists > Lists > Film Lists > 10 Reasons Why Stanley Kubrick Is The Greatest Director Who Ever Lived
10 Reasons Why Stanley Kubrick Is The Greatest Director Who Ever Lived
Posted on July 24, 2015 May 25, 2016 by Mark Krasselt
7. Kubrick's Formal Visual Style of One-Point Perspective and Reverse Tracking Shots
Perhaps no visual signature is more prominent in Kubrick's oeuvre than the one-point perspective – perfect symmetrical framing – and its corollary, the reverse tracking shot.
Kubrick employed that technique fairly regularly (starting mainly in Paths of Glory) long before Wes Anderson's affectionate revival. Mr. Anderson has extended this use almost through entire films (not even Kubrick did that!), but that is a different subject for a different day.
In Kubrick's hands, the use was quite jarring since no director alive at the time framed this way. As a result, it became a type of visual, Brechtian distancing device to awaken and assault the viewer's senses that became a deliberately self-referential directorial tick. It meant something was about to happen. It meant pay attention and drew significant attention because it often screamed look at me!
This style infuriated critics for years. To them, directors should remain in the background and not demonstrate their presence through gimmicky framing. The director as a self-referential auteur was not a role to be taken lightly, and then only after a lifelong career, and only then minimally – or so the prevailing critics opined. Leave visual promiscuity to the French and the nouvelle vague or to John Ford or Hitchcock who earned it. Kubrick? What arrogance!
In Paths of Glory, the transcendence of the reverse tracking shot was in stark counterpoint to the death and gore of the battle trenches; in 2001, the one-point perspective signified a Deity, or a brief shining moment before death or discovery. In other films, such as A Clockwork Orange, it was sensualized – the beauty of the framing was often in sharp, ironic contrast to the unfolding, sexual tension of the Alice-in-Wonderland narrative, and almost always foretold a horror to come, no matter how bright or sunny the scene.
The long, big Wheel excursions down endless hallways and forbidden rooms in The Shining was a unique antithesis to the reverse track. The forward, aggressive thrust of the big wheel by a peddling Danny – a Kubrickian anti-hero in the making – with the camera following close behind, like the ghosts of the Overlook tracking their prey, is now such an iconic image it almost distracts from its perfection.
You may forget the film in general, but you will always remember the Big Wheel and the endless hallways. There is motion. There is stasis. There are points in-between the two. When we aren't frozen in perfect, sinister alignment, we were swirling in a fugue-state, our mind recoiling from almost certain madness.
The reverse/forward thrust brings into mind Eastern philosophy and yin/yang. It converts positive space into negative space, subverting ego for intention, narrative for dialectic. It is a powerful tool and every one of Kubrick's male heroes experienced both ends of this visual sword, from their greatest heights to their lowly depths. It is arrogance personified, power visualized, and death foretold.
8. Kubrick's Use of The Reliable/Unreliable Narrator
Kubrick employed narration almost from the beginning of his career. Only a few don't have it – The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, and 2001 are the big ones, although two of the three have titles cards instead (a benign type of narration, to be sure).
In most film schools, one is taught never to use narration – that it's the lazy way out of telling a story – and there is some validity in this judgment. Early Kubrick films use narration somewhat clumsily and not too convincingly. And then there is A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and to some extent Full Metal Jacket, some of cinema's finest examples.
Narration in those films transformed and added complexity. It deepened the symbiotic relationship the audience experienced with the main character's plight in ways difficult to explain. The unreliable narrator is one of cinema's most effective tools – being a crass envoy between reality and fiction, action and inaction, motivation and result – that doesn't always tell the truth by design.
It is difficult to pull off successfully and the writing has to be precise. What failed in Blade Runner, an otherwise perfect film, worked to a most brilliant, mesmerizing effect in Apocalypse Now. What was plodding, mediocre, and not really that engaging in American Beauty, was transcendent and active in Goodfellas.
Barry Lyndon's narrator is not a character within the film, like the other examples – he is omniscient and aware of the ending – almost like a Greek chorus. His droll delivery, tinged not with a small amount of ironic intercourse, relates detail and fates before we actually see it happen. This is Hitchcockian in concept – who always let the audience know who the murderer was long before it was revealed to the characters – but what works in a crime drama is a great risk in a period piece.
Let me just say Barry Lyndon is an underappreciated, epic masterpiece whose full acceptance is long past due. Even amongst Kubrickphiles, it is seen more as a failure than a success, and that is a sad thing.
If, after reading this , you take away one thing, it's to reassess Barry Lyndon fairly. Barry Lyndon is a stately, refined, hauntingly beautiful, incredibly sad, and extremely well-made film. It was Kubrick at the top of his game, pushing structural and technological boundaries with comparative ease, and firing on all cylinders.
9. Kubrick's Very Strict Formalism of His Screenplays and The Very Particular (Some Would Say Peculiar) Style of Acting by His Cast
Over the years, there has been much written about Kubrick's screenplays and the quixotic, distanced styles of acting.
As Wes Anderson's current popularity attests, when other factors are involved, removing the conventionalities of the typical three-act-play structure – something Kubrick vociferously wanted to do and said as much in his interviews – and allowing the director freer reign to tell his story, makes for exciting, didactic, stimulating cinema. The drama is not as important as the lessons learned. This is pure Brecht.
Kubrick's cold, distanced, synthesized approach can only be understood on an increasingly intellectual level that requires considerably more thought and context than a typical film drama. One needs to learn what Kubrick knows, experience what Kubrick experienced, and dive deep into many areas of study that Kubrick had.
For the viewer, by choosing not to do this and stubbornly cling to one's own surface preconceptions of how it ought to be or what the director should have done, one denies themselves a portal into one of the greatest artistic intellectuals the world has ever known.
Formalism becomes a motif. Characters become metaphors. Plots become enigmatic mazes of point and counterpoint. Life becomes death and truth is subverted to nightmare. None of this is real.
All of this must be seen through the hazy lens of disinformation, as though they is seeing the film as directed by the flawed persona of the main character – a nihilistic Oz pulling all the strings and levers behind the black curtain of uncertainty. Kubrick is a conduit, a mythmaker, an incomparable artist, who creates opportunities to see things anew.
Kubrick works best when the viewer's intellectual curiosity matches his own. It is simply thus.
10. And Lastly, Kubrick's Career as a Whole
Only Akira Kurosawa, Woody Allen, Hitchcock, and perhaps John Ford have as many masterpieces (denoted by a ★) sprinkled throughout their career. Kubrick certainly has the highest percentage – an extraordinary 60% – compared to total feature output than anyone who ever sat in a director's chair.
1951 Day of the Fight (documentary)
Flying Padre (documentary)
1953 Fear and Desire (featurette)
The Seafarers (documentary)
1955 Killer's Kiss (feature)
1956 The Killing (feature)
1957 Paths of Glory (feature) ★
1960 Spartacus (feature)
1962 Lolita (feature)
1964 Dr. Strangelove (feature) ★
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey (feature) ★
1971 A Clockwork Orange (feature) ★
1975 Barry Lyndon (feature) ★
1980 The Shining (feature) ★
1987 Full Metal Jacket (feature) ★
1999 Eyes Wide Shut (feature)
Author Bio: Mark Krasselt is a writer, designer, and all-around creative who reads too much and has seen too many movies. He has been fascinated with Stanley Kubrick since his first saw 2001: a space odyssey at age 8, and this fascination has never abated. He has even written a long thesis on the famous director, titled "Stanley Kubrick: lessons of a Sentient," which he hopes to expand into an even longer book.
kubrick greatest
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Best 49 quotes in «ww1 quotes» category
Joss Sheldon
Alfred is taken past this broom, and enters this room; which can only be described as 'piecemeal'. It is full of pieces of fish-market paraphernalia, pieces of military-regalia; and pieces of rusted-steel. It is full of these spiky-hooks, fishmongery-books; and saline-scalers. These bayonet-blades, grenades; and dusty loud-halers.
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Pat Barker
And the Great Adventure - the real life equivalent of all the adventure stories they'd devoured as boys - consisted of crouching in a dugout, waiting to be killed. The war that had promised so much in the way of 'manly' activity had actually delivered 'feminine' passivity, and on a scale that their mothers and sisters had hardly known. No wonder they broke down.
Elizabeth Peters
As Ramses did the same for his mother, he saw that her eyes were fixed on him. She had been unusually silent. She had not needed his father's tactless comment to understand the full implications of Farouk's death. As he met her unblinking gaze he was reminded of one of Nefret's more vivid descriptions. 'When she's angry, her eyes look like polished steel balls.' That's done it, he thought. She's made up her mind to get David and me out of this if she has to take on every German and Turkish agent in the Middle East.
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Katherine Anne Porter
Bells Screamed all off key, wrangling together as they collided in midair, horns and whistles mingled shrilly with cries of human distress; sulphur-colored light ex-ploded through the black windowpane and flashed away in darkness. Miranda waking from a dreamless sleep asked without expecting an answer, "What is happening?" for there was a bustle of voices and footsteps in the corridor, and a sharpness in the air; the far clamour went on, a furious exasperated shrieking like a mob in revolt. The light came on, and Miss Tanner said in a furry voice, "Hear that? They're celebrating . It's the Armistice. The war is over, my dear." Her hands trembled. She rattled a spoon in a cup, stopped to listen, held the cup out to Miranda. From the ward for old bedridden women down the hall floated a ragged chorus of cracked voices singing, "My country, 'tis of thee…" Sweet land… oh terrible land of this bitter world where the sound of rejoicing was a clamour of pain, where ragged tuneless old women, sitting up waiting for their evening bowl of cocoa, were singing, "Sweet land of Liberty-" "Oh, say, can you see?" their hopeless voices were asking next, the hammer strokes of metal tongues drowning them out. "The war is over," said Miss Tanner, her underlap held firmly, her eyes blurred. Miranda said, "Please open the window, please, I smell death in here.
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Hortensia Papadat-bengescu
Bărbații fiind duși, traiul nu mai avea cele două înțelesuri: goana după spor și avuție și goana după dragoste. Rămăsese nevoia de a exista.
A vertical battled pitted the Italians against the Austrians, who were starving up in the mountains. The Italians also sent men to the firing squad "to set an example". I couldn't make up my mind which was more appalling: the mining war or the mountain war. And between an Italian general and a French one, I wouldn't've known which one to shoot first.
By the next war, the message will have got through. There will never be another war. There will always be wars. Men couldn't be so stupid, John! After all this? Isn't the only real purpose of our being here to teach them that lesson - how bloody useless and pointless the whole thing is? Men are naturally stupid and they do not learn from experience.
Emerson abandoned irony for blunt and passionate speech. 'This war has been a monumental blunder from the start! Britain is not solely responsible, but by God, gentlemen, she must share the blame, and she will pay a heavy price: the best of her young men, future scholars and scientists and statesmen, and ordinary, decent men who might have led ordinary, decent lives. And how will it end, when you tire of your game of soldiers? A few boundaries redrawn, a few transitory political advantages, in exchange for an entire continent laid waste and a million graves! What I do may be of minor importance in the total accumulation of knowledge, but at least I don't have blood on my hands.
God is British to the bone, and every fellow here knows it. You can't exploit him to save yourself, you blaspheming cadaverous-prig; you disgusting shambles of porcelain-skin, unwholesome-fat and puny-bones. Your blatant disregard for God's word shan't earn you any favours here!
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Helen Zenna Smith
Her soul died that night under a radiant silver moon in the spring of 1918 on the side of a blood-spattered trench. Around her lay the mangled dead and the dying. Her body was untouched, her heart beat calmly, the blood coursed as ever through her veins. But looking deep into those emotionless eyes one wondered if they had suffered much before the soul had left them. Her face held an expression of resignation, as though she had ceased to hope that the end might come.
Noel Marie Fletcher
Her unique observations are about how the war impacted people—from the thrill-seekers going to battlefields for fun, to the nurses working among the wounded in darkness, and London society women venturing into foreign lands to work near dangerous enemy lines.
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Dan Carlin
His jaw is on the floor. Here is someone who doesn't think that anybody does anything better than America and he is getting a lesson in what the best army in the world looks like.
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Russel H. S. Stolfi
Hitler initially served in the List Regiment engaged in a violent four-day battle near Ypres, in Belgian Flanders, with elite British professional soldiers of the initial elements of the British Expeditionary Force. Hitler thereby served as a combat infantryman in one of the most intense engagements of the opening phase of World War I. The List Regiment was temporarily destroyed as an offensive force by suffering such severe casualty rates (killed, wounded, missing, and captured) that it lost approximately 70 percent of its initial strength of around 3,600 men. A bullet tore off Hitler's right sleeve in the first day of combat, and in the "batch" of men with which he originally advanced, every one fell dead or wounded, leaving him to survive as if through a miracle. On November 9, 1914, about a week after the ending of the great battle, Hitler was reassigned as a dispatch runner to regimental headquarters. Shortly thereafter, he was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class. On about November 14, 1914, the new regimental commander, Lieutenant Colonel Philipp Engelhardt, accompanied by Hitler and another dispatch runner, moved forward into terrain of uncertain ownership. Engelhardt hoped to see for himself the regiment's tactical situation. When Engelhardt came under aimed enemy smallarms fire, Hitler and the unnamed comrade placed their bodies between their commander and the enemy fire, determined to keep him alive. The two enlisted men, who were veterans of the earlier great four-day battle around Ypres, were doubtlessly affected by the death of the regiment's first commander in that fight and were dedicated to keeping his replacement alive. Engelhardt was suitably impressed and proposed Hitler for the Iron Cross Second Class, which he was awarded on December 2. Hitler's performance was exemplary, and he began to fit into the world around him and establish the image of a combat soldier tough enough to demand the respect of anyone in right wing, Freikorps-style politics after the war. -- Hitler: Beyond Evil and Tyranny, p. 88
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biography quotes
Rebecca M. Gibson
He shot everything that moved in a blind fury. It was as if he were floating outside his body, his flesh acting on pure animal instinct. To kill or be killed. It was exhilarating.
Hitler derived several things from his experience and achievements in World War I, without which his rise to power in 1933 would have been at the least problematical, and at the most inconceivable. Hitler survived the war as a combat soldier—a rifle carrier—in a frontline infantry regiment. The achievement was an extraordinary one based on some combination of near-miraculous luck and combat skill. The interpretive fussing over whether or not Hitler was a combat soldier because he spent most of the war in the part of the regiment described as regimental headquarters can be laid to rest as follows: Any soldier in an infantry regiment on an active front in the west in World War I must be considered to have been a combat soldier. Hitler's authorized regimental weapon was the Mauser boltaction, magazine-fed rifle. This gives a basic idea of what Hitler could be called upon to do in his assignment at the front. As a regimental runner, he carried messages to the battalions and line companies of the regiment, and the more important ones had to be delivered under outrageously dangerous circumstances involving movement through artillery fire and, particularly later in the war, poison gas and the omnipresent rifle fire of the skilled British sniper detachments. --Hitler: Beyond Evil and Tyranny, p. 96
soldier quotes
But this anti-war protest, is far from a success; it is just a placebo for the people. These peacemakers feel so satisfied, gratified; gay-gallant-and-gleeful. But they do not achieve anything acceptable, perceptible; or peaceful.
protest quotes
Artur Von Bolfras
If war was once a chivalrous duel, it is now a dastardly slaughter.
wwi quotes
world war 1 quotes
Siegfried Sassoon
I have always been considerably addicted to my own company.
solitude quotes
company quotes
I had him in my cab once. Who? Neville asked Rupert Brooke. He was good, him. "There's some corner of a foreign field/ That is forever England". That would be the bit with my nose under it; just fucking drive, will you?
anger quotes
John Biggins
I have lived now for over a century, yet I can still say with complete confidence that no one can claim to have plumbed the depths of human misery who has not shared the fore-ends of a submarine with a camel.
humour quotes
camel quotes
submarine quotes
Theresa Breslin
If you are not a Conchie, what are you man?' demanded the Major. After some moments' thought, Francis said, 'I am a human being who does not believe in killing my fellow man for insufficient reason.
D. Dauphinee
It doesn't matter now that they lived and died, but rather did they make a difference?
love story quotes
I thought it would be a good thing to follow John Redmond's words. I thought for my mother's sake, her gentle soul, for the sake of my own children, I might go out and fight for to save Europe so that we might have the Home Rule in Ireland in the upshot. I came out to fight for a country that doesn't exist, and now, Willie, mark my words, it never will.
Marvelous, isn't it, how these Germans can shoot back at us even when they're fucking dead.
A. H. Septimius
It is not enough to say, simply, the motherland called and we fought; woe to the dead, and to the living goes their glory.
caribbean quotes
africa quotes
Mona Rodriguez
It's finding out where we came from that helps guide us to where we are going.
prohibition quotes
It would be well to realize that the talk of 'humane methods of warfare', of the 'rules of civilized warfare', and all such homage to the finer sentiments of the race are hypocritical and unreal, and only intended for the consumption of stay-at-homes. There are no humane methods of warfare, there is no such thing as civilized warfare; all warfare is inhuman, all warfare is barbaric; the first blast of the bugles of war ever sounds for the time being the funeral knell of human progress… What lover of humanity can view with anything but horror the prospect of this ruthless destruction of human life. Yet this is war: war for which all the jingoes are howling, war to which all the hopes of the world are being sacrificed, war to which a mad ruling class would plunge a mad world.
humanity quotes
madness quotes
Cynthia Harrod-eagles
Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom .... These are the beginnings of sorrows.
No thanky-you; you can't overcome hatred with more hatred. Force can kill the liar but not the lie, the hater but not the hate, and the violent but not the violence. Hate begets hate, violence begets violence, and war begets war.
quote quotes
No lack of time, strength or money shall prevent me from doing anything that I want to do," was Sarah Macnaughtan's lifelong motto, first uttered in her younger years. A compassionate and daring woman ahead of her time who stood barely over 5 feet tall, Sarah let no obstacles become roadblocks in her life.
courage quotes
bravery quotes
Linda De Quincey
Shut your mouth - there's a bus coming.
dementia quotes
memoir quotes
Jamie L. Harding
She did not respond, only clung harder to my embrace, and I held her with all the afflictions of a man torn by love. What a miracle she was, what a truly exquisite paragon of beauty and virtue so incredibly combined. And all perhaps wrenched from my grasp because of a war I had no real interest in nor knowledge of. In that moment I did not care who won, if only it would end and I could be with her. I would accept the whole responsibility of defeat if I had to, if only it meant a life with her by my side. I just wanted her. Needed her. As simply and clearly as one needs food and oxygen and light, I needed her in my life. And above us, flittering tranquilly in the trees above, the finches and skylarks continued to sing peacefully into the fading sun.
hug quotes
M. A. Lossl
Sometimes time can play tricks. One moment it idles by, an hour can seem a lifetime, such as when sitting by the river at dusk watching the bats snatching insects above the limpid waters; the breaching fish causing ringed ripples and a satisfying plop. Other times, time flashes by in an immodest fashion. So it is with the start of war. First time quivers with the last strum of a wonderful peace, the note holding in the air, mysterious and haunting, filling the listener with awe. Then, with a rising crescendo the terror starts with uncouth haste; with a boom the listener is shaken from their reverie and delivered into the servitude, of an ear-shattering cacophony.
great war quotes
Caroline Davies
That as he climbs out of the trench with the rest of the lads he feels lifted up as if by angels.
Cat Winters
Surely, though, I must have stolen into the future and landed in an H.G. Wells-style world - a horrific, fantastic society in which people's faces contained only eyes, millions of healthy young adults and children dropped dead from the flu, boys got transported out of the country to be blown to bits, and the government arrested citizens for speaking the wrong words. Such a place couldn't be real. And it couldn't be the United States of America, "the land of the free and the home of the brave." But it was. I was on a train in my own country, in a year the devil designed. 1918.
The Allied governments, for example, with the British as executors, maintained in place the food blockade of Germany that had been in effect since 1917. A British authority would note that "in the last two years of the war, nearly 800,000 noncombatants died in Germany from starvation or diseases attributed to undernourishment. The biggest mortality was among children between the ages of 5 and 1 5, where the death rate increased by 55 percent. . . a whole generation [the one which had been born and lived during Hitler's rise to power] grew up in an epoch of undernourishment and misery such as we [British] have never in this country experienced."3 A distinguished American authority on United States foreign policy in the first half of the twentieth century, Stanford University professor Thomas A. Bailey, noted that "the Allied slow starvation of Germany's civilian population was quiet, unspectacular, and censored."4 The Englishman Gilbert Murray, writing in 1933, noted that future historians would probably regard the establishment and continuation of the blockade as one of those many acts of almost incredible inhumanity which made World War I conspicuous in history. -- Hitler: Beyond Evil and Tyranny, p. 122
The great rich nation had made triumphant war, suffered enough for poignancy but not enough for bitterness - hence the carnival, the feasting, the triumph.
The leave zipped right by. We were so terrifically glad to be back to our own little section of the trench, with all its happy memories, that we wouldn't have traded places with anybody. The lazy bastard who'd filled in while we were away hadn't managed to nibble away so much as an inch of garden soil in the direction of Berlin. We found out that Brugnon hadn't come back from leave. He'd hanged himself in the stairwell of his building, on rue des Gâtines. He left a note to say he couldn't take it any more and asked us to count him out. We accepted it… Who were we to judge?
suicide quotes
The last time I saw Collin was in 1917, at the foot of Mort-Homme. Before the great slaughter, Collin'd been an avid angler. On that day, he was standing at the hole, watching maggots swarm among blow flies on two boys that we couldn't retrieve for burial without putting our own lives at risk. And there, at the loop hole, he thought of his bamboo rods, his flies and the new reel he hadn't even tried out yet. Collin was imaging himself on the riverbank, wine cooling in the current his stash of worms in a little metal box and a maggot on his hook, writhing like… Holy shit. Were the corpses getting to him? Collin. The poor guy didn't even have time to sort out his thoughts. In that split second, he was turned into a slab of bloody meat. A white hot hook drilled right through him and churned through his guts, which spilled out of a hole in his belly. He was cleared out of the first aid station. The major did triage. Stomach wounds weren't worth the trouble. There were all going to die anyway, and besides, he wasn't equipped to deal with them. Behind the aid station, next to a pile of wood crosses, there was a heap of body parts and shapeless, oozing human debris laid out on stretchers, stirred only be passing rats and clusters of large white maggots. But on their last run, the stretcher bearers carried him out after all… Old Collin was still alive. From the aid station to the ambulance and from the ambulance to the hospital, all he could remember was his fall into that pit, with maggots swarming over the open wound he had become from head to toe… Come to think of it, where was his head? And what about his feet? In the ambulance, the bumps were so awful and the pain so intense that it would have been a relief to pass out. But he didn't. He was still alive, writhing on his hook. They carved up old Collin good. They fixed him as best they could, but his hands and legs were gone. So much for fishing. Later, they pinned a medal on him, right there in that putrid recovery room. And later still, they explained to him about gangrene and bandages packed with larvae that feed on death tissue. He owed them his life. From one amputation and operation to the next – thirty-eight in all – the docs finally got him "back on his feet". But by then, the war was long over.
The old men were still running the country. The politicians who had caused millions of deaths were now celebrating, as if they had done something wonderful.
elite quotes
Roseanna M. White
They'd said that whatever drug they'd slipped into his veins would make the journey comfortable. They'd said that he wouldn't even be aware of the trip, that he'd wake up in London and be on the mend. They'd said that rest was all he needed. They'd lied.
This is a story about understanding overcoming compulsion, love overcoming revulsion; and oneness overcoming abuse. About the rare sort of kind-geniality, and brave-morality; which we all possess but seldom use. A story about detractors who will be defeated, challenges which will be completed; and principles which will be proclaimed. About acts of persecution, and threats of execution; which will all be constrained. This is the beginning of Alfred Freeman's story, the beginning of a life full of glory; and the beginning of Alfred himself. Because Alfred is being born, in his human form; with peaceful-eyes and perfect-health.
introduction quotes
Peter Hart
This is what is called dying for your country, but it is actually selling your soul to a few profiteers for a shilling, and being massacred to satisfy their selfish purposes. And they call it WAR--and a legitimate thing at that. -Private Arthur Wrench, Headquarters, 154th Brigade, 51st Division
David Malouf
This new lot...they too would go down. They were 'troops' who were about to be 'thrown in,' 'men' in some general's larger plan, 're-enforcements ' and would soon be 'casualties'. They were also Spud, Snow, Skeeter, Blue, Tommo.
In 1917 I was only beginning to learn that life, for the majority of the population, is an unlovely struggle against unfair odds, culminating in a cheap funeral.
This was the moment when the 20th century really began, in all its viciousness and bloody-mindedness. Me, I had imagination in spades, though. I saw myself as a corpse, swept into this stream of fools against my will along with thousands, millions of other corpses, and I didn't like it one little bit. The other guys, still waiting on the platform at the Gare de l'Est, already saw themselves throwing back a well-earned beer on Alexanderplatz. Only the mothers really knew. They knew the babies in their arms were tomorrow's war orphans, and the cattle cars (8 horses, 40 men) were nothing but rail-mounted coffins joined end to end and headed for military cemeteries.
When they writes up the history of this war,' said Nell's mother. 'I hope they tells about the wives and the children starving to death!'. 'They won't,' said Nell, gloomy socialist. 'It'll be all "Our Boys", and everyone enlisting and people doing without chauffeurs to help the war effort.
socialism quotes
You can't win because of the guns," said Adam with a sigh. "Machine guns, mortars, field guns, howitzers: it doesn't matter how much courage soldiers have, how much will; flesh and blood can't pass through bullets and shells, or at least not in sufficient numbers to have any effect. The guns win in the end and they always will. Not us, not the Germans - the guns.
peace quotes
guns quotes
V. W. Yeates
They went chasing round and round. Round and round the mulberry bush. The Hun could fly. This must be one of Richthofen's young men.
narcissist quotes
cowboy bebop quotes
massage quotes
pokemon quotes
memorial quotes
the giver quotes
pay it forward quotes
stupidity quotes
be thankful quotes
ballet quotes
help quotes
african quotes
i'm not perfect quotes
data quotes
good luck quotes
utah quotes
different quotes
broke quotes
Walter Benjamin 155 quotes
Matt Smith 65 quotes
Sharon Gannon 137 quotes
Pushpa Rana 90 quotes
Carrie Underwood 174 quotes
Arnold Palmer 129 quotes
Ulysses S. Grant 83 quotes
Samuel Adams 72 quotes
Daphne Du Maurier 128 quotes
Jeffrey Eugenides 243 quotes
Joseph Heller 183 quotes
Tahir Shah 105 quotes
Jawaharlal Nehru 121 quotes
Laurie Nadel 80 quotes
Sue Grafton 119 quotes
Nate Berkus 75 quotes
Mandy Ashcraft 72 quotes
Bisco Hatori 54 quotes
Khang Kijarro Nguyen 135 quotes
Bernard 98 quotes
Gudjon Bergmann 119 quotes
Kingsley Amis 85 quotes
Gerald R. Ford 139 quotes
Lisa See 90 quotes
Agnes Repplier 182 quotes


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Xconomy Seattle
Agtech Sprouts From North Carolina's Fertile Ground: A Company Map
Elizabeth Hagerman
Vice President for Corporate Engagement, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Nobel Laureate, Professor of Biology, Caltech
Seattle Home
Seattle	Events
Lucid Commerce Closes $5M Series B
Gregory T. Huang
@gthuang
[Updated 12:20pm, 4/14/10] Seattle-based Lucid Commerce, a provider of business intelligence software and data for direct marketers, has closed a Series B funding round, according to a report in VentureWire this morning. New York-based Greycroft Partners, a new investor, co-led the round together with OVP Venture Partners in Kirkland, WA, which has confirmed that the deal is for a total of $5 million. OVP led Lucid's $2.5 million Series A funding in 2008. Last September, there were reports that the company had raised part of its Series B round. Lucid Commerce is led by co-founder and CEO Tyson Roberts, a former aQuantive employee.
Highspot Snags $60M to Help Sales Professionals Refine Their Pitches
Amperity Raises $50M for Marketing Software Used by Consumer Brands


Plumbing contractors are greatest people to approach each and every homeowner wants to install a new kind of plumbing system at his home; on the other hand, they can help inside a new home that someone is building where this person needs state of the art plumbing services. It is very often a headache to the homeowner when there are plumbing problems at home. There might be a leaky tap or a broken pipe that plumbing contractors can fix within a few minutes. The average homeowner spends about 15% of his house building investments setting up the plumbing system. That is attain a great big amount when individual thinks of the health hazards he may have for you to face with a bad plumbing system. It takes money to keep how you can plumbing system in good working condition. It not necessarily adds to the ease of modern living but is employed by the general health with the family.
Usually the plumbing system at home serves two basic purposes. The first purpose is supply clean water for all kinds of household needs; the sinks, the washing machine, the dishwasher, the toilets, bathrooms and so on. The second purpose for you to remove the polluted water efficiently after collecting it from various drains without mixing it with all the clean water base. For the plumbing system to work efficiently it is necessary that the water pressure and gravity be checked. The actual components of a plumbing system are the main water shut down valve, water meter, fixture stop valves, drainage taps and water heater. Each of these components are rigged together by a cost effective contractor and checked to see if they work well.
An important function of plumbing contractors is to manipulate the water pressure in such a manner that water is distributed and preserved in desirable quantities. Each area of the plumbing system however small or big is thoroughly influenced by good water sway. Plumbers see to it that each area of house gets the necessary quantity of water at all intervals. The internal diameter of the delivery pipes is essential. The smaller the diameter, the larger the pressure and the rate that goes into the house. Plumbers be dependent on gravity to remove waste water and drainage from your property. It is mandatory that each house has correct number of vents and pipes so your drainage system works perfectly. The vents work towards releasing all the air pressure stuck within the pipes.
Plumbing services in order to be adhere to certain codes. Though the designing and setting up of a plumbing system will depend largely on the power of the plumbing contractors he should adhere to the strict federal, state and local codes. These codes decide the internal diameter of plumbing pontoons. They also recommend where those disconnected valves will be placed, what materials can be utilized the pipes, exactly what the safety precautions are that need to followed, what involving pipes should use where, how these pipes should be placed, the slope of the pipe and so on. There are certain limitations that could mar the efficacy of those plumbing companies. When one hires a successful plumbing service, they'll make the best use of the available resources and work to the best of their total ability. The water availability and the location of the home all play an important role in plumbing services.


A suite of function rooms, created in 1993, provide meeting and corporate entertainment facilities of high quality. - Find Cheap Theatre Tickets. In The Theatre Royal is a colourful Café Royal bistro restaurant and bar, seating 40 patrons.
Call 0141 332 9000 for more information & booking.


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Calling All Retailers: Understanding Cyber Threats and How to Combat Them
Credit: Getty Images by Kirill_Savenko
By Michele Dupré
Now more than ever, cybersecurity is a crucial form of protection for businesses across industries working to combat a variety of threats. It's easy for organizations and individuals to grow complacent about security, but implementing measures to protect the data of customers, partners and your own business is a key step in mitigating cyber risks, particularly for those within the retail space. In fact, Verizon's 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) found that among incidents in which retailers had data compromised from their websites, 73 percent of the information was payment data.
With the rise of e-commerce and the proliferation of technology in stores, the challenge to reduce risks is greater as these innovations continue to open the door to vast amounts of data and information. Amid increasing pressure and competition in the industry, both online and offline, it's important for retail organizations to recognize the patterns associated with cyber breaches and understand how they can mitigate the risks associated with attacks.
The Patterns and Consequences of Cyber Attacks in Retail
Retailers are trusted with extensive amounts of payment card data from customers, making them key targets for financially motivated cyber attacks. In fact, Verizon data revealed that retailers with online presences are consistent targets of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, which occur when hackers attempt to prevent legitimate users from accessing the service during payment. While the confidentiality of data isn't typically compromised in DoS attacks, there is a potential of downtime, where performance degradation can have a serious impact on the bottom line. Additionally, payment card skimmers continue to be a long-time problem for brick-and-mortar retailers.
Among incidents analyzed in the Verizon DBIR, 93 percent of attacks were carried out through external threat actors. In addition, these attacks were triggered by financial motives 96 percent of the time. The DBIR also found that beyond DoS attacks, online retailers are particularly vulnerable to web application attacks. Among these confirmed web app breaches, threat actors often use stolen credentials as their hacking technique of choice. Hackers comprise devices and use code modifications in payment applications designed to capture card data, turning payment apps into criminal-controlled data harvesters.
Steps Retailers Must Take to Stay Secure
Often, retailers are operating on tight margins, limiting the budget for operating costs such as IT maintenance. Though this may ultimately boost store revenue, it can often minimize the focus on security measures and lead to lax data management, which in turn can be quite costly in the event of a breach. Retailers with an online presence must prioritize implementing mitigation plans and take the necessary steps to combat threats, especially with the rise of digitalization and mobile.
Combat Attacks and Avoid Vulnerabilities
Retain DDoS (distributed denial of service) mitigation services proportionate to tolerance and availability loss, and verify that all bases are covered from a scoping standpoint.
Find out from ISP(s) what defenses are already built in, as there may be pre-existing relief in place that can be leveraged for cyber defenses.
Avoid tunnel vision and understand that availability issues can occur without a DDoS attack.
Identify and patch server vulnerabilities with availability impacts, perform capacity planning testing to handle spikes in traffic, build in redundancy, and conduct failover testing.
Implement Loss Prevention Controls
Employ cameras and layout designs that are integrated and extended to any card processing devices.
Make an adversary shift in tactics and implement new technologies that make it difficult for criminals to conduct fraud, such as Chips and PIN and contactless-enabled point-of-sale (POS) terminals.
Reports indicate that retailers large and small have witnessed improvements in restricting access to retail payment card information environments from the internet, simultaneously strengthening the authentication process for those permitted. Moving forward, retailers must continue to recognize cybersecurity as a crucial component of their overall protection plans in an effort to combat the threats they face.
As digital transformation and technological innovation continues to shape cybersecurity policy and organizations more broadly in the retail industry, retailers must look to protect e-commerce applications as they represent a critical asset. Defenses against availability, integrity and confidentiality losses must be implemented, tested and refined.
Michele Dupré is group vice president at Verizon Enterprise Solutions.
Related story: Can Retailers Trust Their Third-Party Vendors?
Michele Dupré Author's page
Michele Dupré is a group vice president at Verizon Enterprise Solutions and is responsible for enterprise customers in the Retail, Hospitality & Distribution Verticals as well as customers headquartered in Canada. In this capacity she is responsible for maintaining and growing a base of more than 160 vertical enterprise customers and over 1000 customers in Canada.
In her role, Michele is charged with driving sales strategy while focusing on acquiring new customers, increasing profitable revenue growth and maintaining the global customer base. Additionally, Michele leads the development and growth of her enterprise leadership and sales team.
Michele's organization is comprised of sales, sales operations and support personnel who drive business solutions including network and managed services, security, mobility, collaboration, professional services and outsourcing.
Previously, Michele was group vice president for enterprise customers for the Central U.S. Region. With revenue responsibility in excess of $1B and over 3000 accounts she led one of the largest areas in the U.S. In her prior role she was area vice president for enterprise customers in Illinois & Wisconsin and had revenue responsibility in excess of $500M. Before that, she was a branch vice president of Sales for Premier Accounts where she led a team of sales and service professionals responsible for some of the largest global and Fortune 100 Customers' in Chicago and Wisconsin.
Michele started her career with the legacy company, MCI, in 1988 and has over 25 years of industry experience. Based in Chicago, Michele is also a noted contributor to media publications including Women's Wear Daily, CNBC.com, USA Today and Forbes among others.
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<< Back To Energywire
Study: 5 ways to hit Biden's net-zero emissions target
By Miranda Willson | 12/16/2020 07:27 AM EST
A new study from Princeton University outlines how to achieve a carbon-free economy by 2050. Pikist
The United States can achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economywide by 2050 without spending more than usual on energy and while seeing a net increase in energy jobs, according to a new study from Princeton University researchers.
The study gives credence to President-elect Joe Biden's clean energy plan, which calls for net-zero emissions by 2050 nationally. With net-zero emissions, energy use would have to be carbon free, or any greenhouse gases would have to be offset elsewhere through mechanisms like carbon storage in forests.
Biden's climate and energy plans have faced skepticism because of potential costs, infrastructure hurdles and political challenges, although much of the criticism has been focused on a nearer target — to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035 (Energywire, Dec. 2). If he moves forward with the 2050 target once he is inaugurated, the United States would join Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the European Union in having committed to net-zero emissions by midcentury (Climatewire, Nov. 20). Many major companies have also pledged to achieve that goal.
There are five technological pathways the United States could pursue to meet the 2050 goal, all of which would require careful and proactive planning as well as "immediate, large-scale mobilization of capital, policy and societal commitment," the study said. While the plans would be "affordable" for consumers over the course of several decades, costing about the same fraction of gross domestic product as is spent on energy today, it would require at least $2.5 trillion in upfront investments, the report said.
Those investments would support the transition of the energy and power sectors, heavy industry, buildings and vehicles in the next 10 years, according to the report. For example, $7 billion alone would be needed to ramp up public charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
"We conclude that getting to net-zero doesn't require a World War II style mobilization of 20% of our nation's GDP towards energy infrastructure," Jesse Jenkins, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton's Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and a project lead, said in an email. "Instead, all of the five paths we outline mean Americans spending about the same share of GDP on energy as we do today, but shifting from business as usual to a cleaner path."
This decade, the United States should focus on quickly deploying new wind and solar resources, electric vehicles, electric heat pumps, and critical infrastructure such as EV charging stations and pipelines for carbon capture and storage. Other technologies should continue to be studied and tested for large-scale deployment in the 2030s and 2040s, the report said.
The five pathways call for different rates of electrification for transportation and buildings and of deployment of new solar and wind projects. Some scenarios also rely more on biomass for energy use, and one scenario includes an increased emphasis on carbon capture and storage.
In all of the scenarios, coal is mostly eliminated over the next 10 years, and oil and gas use declines by between 65% and 100% by 2050. Natural gas for space and water heating as well as cooking is replaced almost entirely with electric options such as heat pumps by 2050 in all scenarios.
The researchers are "agnostic" as to which scenario is preferable. Following any of the pathways would prevent an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 premature deaths and avoid $2 trillion to $3 trillion in health care costs, Jenkins said.
"We also see a net increases of [500,000]-1 million jobs in energy supply sectors by 2030 and 2 [million]-3 million net jobs by 2050, as growing sectors like wind, solar, and transmission grid construction offset declines in fossil fuel related employment," he said.
The culmination of a two-year research effort that involved discussions with advocacy groups, energy companies, trade associations and others, the study provides more information and granularity for specific sectors and states than similar previous reports on this topic, Jenkins added.
"We think that going from pledges to real progress requires clarity about what a net-zero future would look like [on] a more human, visceral scale. Our work aims to paint a more vivid picture than prior studies of what a net-zero transition looks like on the ground, across the country," he said.
The untimely death of America's 'most equitable' EV rebate
By Niina H. Farah | 01/30/2023 06:53 AM EST
Climate law challenge: DOE staffing
By Brian Dabbs | 01/27/2023 07:10 AM EST
Oil industry takes offshore fracking case to Supreme Court
Manchin bill slaps back at Biden in EV tax credit fight
By Hannah Northey, David Ferris | 01/25/2023 07:19 AM EST
Tesla supersizes 'Gigafactory' with big trucks and batteries
By David Ferris | 01/25/2023 07:17 AM EST


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How to Configure Raspberry Pi - (Part 01/38)
Group all Htabs RBI
The Raspberry pi is a low cost single board minicomputer which can be used for learning the computer basics, programming and easy to interface with the embedded systems. The Raspberry pi is a mini computer which is designed in a single board with all the essential components required for running an operating system. The Raspberry pi board runs on ARM11 processor but is available at extremely cheap price. The board is provided with a RCA connector which can be used to connect it directly to a TV screen which is based on PAL and NTSC standard. The board also has a HDMI connector output which can be used to connect the board to a HD TV.
The board can be powered up from the USB port also but it is not recommended. The board has two USB2 ports where the keyboard and mouse can be plugged in. There is an Ethernet port which can be used to connect the board to a computer network. A video input port is also available with a Raspberry pi board which can be used to connect an external camera. The board also has a SD card slot and the Raspberry pi is designed to boot from the SD card.
The Raspberrypi board can boot a number of operating systems like Archlinux ARM, OpenELEC, Pidora, Raspbmc, RISC OS and the Raspbian and also Ubuntu. A step by step explanation of how to install Ubuntu in the Raspberrypi board is available in a previous article. After booting the Ubuntu for the first time in Raspberrypi it has to be configured so that it can use all the features of the Raspberrypi board. This article explains how to do the important configurations once the Raspberrypi boots Ubuntu for the first time.
The Ubuntu image for the Raspberry pi called 'Soft-float Debian "wheezy"' can be downloaded from the Raspberry pi website. To use this image file, one has to unzip it and write it to a suitable (2GB or larger) SD card using the UNIX tool dd. Windows users can use Win32DiskImager. The Ubuntu image has been installed using a 4GB SD card and a windows7 PC following the steps given below as explained in the project how to install Ubuntu in the Raspberrypi board.
{C}{ 1) Unzip the wheezy into a folder
{ 2) Format the SD card
{C 3) Write the wheezy image file (.img) using Win32DiskImager.
The board is designed with an intention of providing computer education to the remote schools where the PCs are not very commonly used. The idea behind the design is to use the TV screen as the display unit for the Raspberry pi board and hence converting the normal TV into a computer. The board is hence provided with a RCA connector which can be used to connect it directly to a TV screen which is based on PAL and NTSC standard. The board also has a HDMI connector output which can be used to connect the board to a HD TV, but there is no VGA connector assuming that there is no PC or PC monitor in the place where the Raspberry pi is used. But there are situations in which the person using the Raspberry pi has a PC screen but not a HD display device. In such situations one can use remote login to access the Raspberry pi and view the TUI (Text User Interface) on the PC screen as explained in the project how to connect the Raspberrypi directly to the Ethernet port of PC. The Raspberrypi board has been connected with the PC screen with the help of two different software called DHCP server software and PuTTY using the following steps;
{ 1) Provide an IP to the windows
{C 2) Connect the Raspberry pi
{C 3) Run the DHCP server software
{C} 4) Reconnect the Raspberry pi board and note the IP assigned
{C 5) Remote login using the same IP with the help of PUTTY
Once the PUTTY establishes a connection with the Raspberrypi board the user will be directed to a TUI which asks for the user login with password.
The default login and password are:
login as : pi
password : raspberry
After login the first thing to do is to configure the Raspberrypi. During the configuration the Ubuntu expands its file system into the entire SD card and user can choose some options and settings that will be in effect after the Raspberrypi reboots.
To get the configuration window the user has to type a single command and press enter:
Fig. 1: Command To Open Configuration Window In Raspberry Pi
This will open up a new window as shown below, from where the user can perform all the required configurations.
Fig. 2: Ubuntu filesystem expands in SD card for Configuration 1
As shown in the above image there are 8 configuration options and the user can move up and down using the left arrow key and right arrow respectively. The "select" or "finish" option can be choose using the left arrow and the right arrow respectively.
There are two important configurations that the user must do once got this configuration window. The important configurations are configuration option 1) and 3).
The configuration option 1) will expand the Ubuntu filesystem on the entire SD card. The user must make sure that there is nothing else copied in the SD card other than the .img file of Ubuntu. Select that configuration and press enter to expand the filesystem. Within a couple of seconds the following dialogue appears and which means the filesystem has been expanded successfully.
Fig. 3: Ubuntu boots to desktop on next reboot in Configuaration 3
The configuration option 3) is another important configuration that has to be done. This option enables the Ubuntu to boot directly to the desktop and the user can have a desktop GUI view from the next reboot.
Fig. 4: Change the login password in Configuration 2
The user can also do configuration option 2) to change the login password, 4) to set up the time and date details, 5) to enable a camera interface which might be required in future projects. The option 6) can be done only if the Raspberry pi is connected to the internet. The steps required to connect the Raspberry pi using the Wi-Fi of the PC will be explained in a later project.
The new users of Raspberrypi board are not supposed to do the configurations 7) and 8) as they are required for advanced projects.
Interfacing Raspberry Pi With Arduino
How to Load Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi - (Part 02/38)
How to Access Raspberry Pi Directly through the Ethernet Port of PC - (Part 03/38)
Getting Started with Raspberry Pi: "Hello World" Programming on Raspberry Pi - (Part 06/38)
How to Connect Raspberry Pi to Wi-Fi Connection of a PC - (Part 05/38)


LOTS is happening throughout New Mexico this Fall! I'm looking forward to being with all of you for the Cowboy Camp Meeting at the Glory to God Ranch, West of Cuba & North of Regina (See Information below), the 6th Annual Camp Meeting in Rio Rancho at Emmanuel Ministries International and Awaken The Dawn Tent America at the New Mexico State Capitol Concourse in Santa Fe. Labor Day (U.S. & Canada) is Monday, September 3, Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) Begins At Sundown, Sunday, September 9, Yom Kippur (Day Of Atonement) Begins At Sundown, Tuesday, September 18, First Day Of Autumn, Saturday, September 22 and Sukkot/Feast Of Tabernacles Begins At Sundown, Sunday, September 23.
This is the last third of the year, so let's give it all we've got to reap the Fall Harvest of 2018! God Is Faithful & Jesus NEVER Fails, so Give'm Heaven! Should you or someone you know want to host a prayer event in your area of the state or surrounding New Mexico, don't hesitate to contact me.


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You are here: Parliament home page > Parliamentary business > Publications and Records > Hansard > Commons Debates > Daily Hansard - Westminster Hall
2 July 2008 : Column 233WH
[John Bercow in the Chair]
Piper Alpha Disaster (20th Anniversary)
Motion made, and Question proposed, That the sitting be now adjourned—[Mr. Blizzard.]
Mr. Frank Doran (Aberdeen, North) (Lab): I am glad to have the opportunity to lead this debate, remembering those who died in the Piper Alpha tragedy in 1988, their families and loved ones, the survivors and all who were involved in the tragedy and its aftermath.
I shall say a little about the background to the disaster. Over the past 40 years, we have seen a dramatic change in the city of Aberdeen. It has moved from having a rural economy, with a shipyard and some light engineering on the side, to being one of the oil capitals of the world. The city is a model of how a community can make the transition from a rural economy to one based on oil.
Oil was first discovered in the North sea in 1965, and was first produced in 1975. Aberdeen has grown and thrived. It became the main supply base for the offshore oil and gas industry, and it is now a world-class oil centre in its own right. Many oil companies and oil-related businesses have headquarters in the city. Oil facilities around the world—in Africa, Asia and Europe—are run from offices in Aberdeen. We have a higher concentration of IT companies than anywhere else in Britain. The centre of the world's sub-sea technology industry is now based in Aberdeen. The city exports its knowledge and expertise around the world.
There have been several phases in the development of the oil industry. I like to think of the first as the Klondike phase. Once oil was discovered in sufficient quantities to justify investment, everyone was anxious to get the oil out of the ground. The Government wanted the tax revenues. The companies wanted to recover their investment, which was often billions of pounds, and then wanted a return on it. Safety was lax, and there were many accidents.
The Department of Energy was the safety regulator in the North sea. It was also the Department responsible for producing the oil. There was a clear conflict of interest, but no one minded so long as the oil was produced. As a young solicitor dealing with personal injury cases in the north-east of Scotland, I saw many cases in which safety came behind production.
The beginning of the end of the Klondike phase came at the end of the 1985, when Aberdeen experienced its first price collapse, which was almost the opposite of what is happening now. The oil price fell quickly from $32 a barrel to $8 a barrel. The industry's response was immediate. All new investment stopped. Production continued while operators came to terms with the new situation. Most affected was the routine maintenance of platforms and facilities. More than 20,000 jobs were lost in the north-east of Scotland, and about 50,000 were lost in the United Kingdom. It was a terrible time in the city.
One of the earliest platforms, and one of the largest, was the Piper Alpha platform, then operated by Occidental, an American company owned by Armand Hammer. The oil field was discovered in 1973, and production of oil began in 1976. The peak of production was 274,000 barrels a day. I did a quick back-of-the-fag-packet calculation and discovered that at today's prices it would have been worth nearly £40 million a day.
Piper Alpha was no different from other platforms in the North sea, in that the priority was to recover oil and gas and get it to the mainland. In addition to its oil and gas production facilities, the Piper Alpha platform also hosted several gas pipelines that transmitted natural gas from other fields to the shore.
Towards the end of 1987, an oil worker died on Piper Alpha in an accident. Following that death, there were inspections of the platform and its safety facilities, the latest being in June 1988. Department of Energy inspectors pointed out some faults, but none of the more serious safety problems was even noticed, far less rectified. A month later, Piper Alpha was destroyed in the worst offshore oil and gas accident ever seen. The industry was about to enter what I now think of as the post-Piper Alpha period. Indeed, it is most commonly referred to by that name.
On 6 July 1988, there was a significant leakage of gas on the platform. We now know that the leak came from a gas compressor that was missing a safety valve. At about 10 pm, the cloud of gas ignited. At 10.20 pm, 10.50 pm and 11.20 pm, there were further huge explosions, caused by ruptures in the pipelines connecting Piper Alpha to other platforms, principally the MCPO1 operated by Total, and the Tartan platform operated by Texaco.
Observers on the nearby stand-by vessel, the Silver Pit, likened the scene to a huge Bunsen burner, with a massive supply of gas burning at temperatures in excess of 700° C. The effect was catastrophic. The platform was destroyed.
There were nearly 230 men on the platform. Most of them died. The vast majority followed the standard safety instructions: "In the event of fire or explosion, go to your muster point and await the rescue helicopter." The fire was so fierce that the helicopters could not get anywhere near the platform. The 59 men who survived had ignored the standard instructions and followed their instincts. Most of them escaped within half an hour of the first explosion. They made their way to the water by climbing down the platform to the lowest point, some using ropes, and then dropping into the water. Five men jumped from the helicopter deck, 175 ft above the water. Three of them died from injuries received on impact.
There were many stories of bravery and courage on that evening. The survivors had to swim significant distances from the platform to the rescue vessels, but it was not an ordinary swim. They had to stay clear of debris being thrown from the platform by frequent explosions. Worst of all, bubbles of gas were exploding as they rose to the surface. Bob Ballantyne, an electrician who survived, told me that he had to constantly duck his head under water, because his hair kept catching fire. Some reached safety with horrific burns. Others never reached the stand-by vessels. On the rescue vessels, Silver Pit and Tharos—the latter was a custom-built
fire-fighting vessel—there were many stories of bravery. Two members of the rescue crew were killed when their rescue craft caught fire.
One hundred and sixty men died, most from suffocation on the platform or later in hospital from terrible burns. Fifty-nine survived. The victims came from all parts of the United Kingdom, underlining the fact that the North sea oil and gas industry was a UK industry. In the early days, workers had been recruited from the old smoke-stack heavy industries—the coal mines, the shipyards and the steel works. They came from Lancashire, Teesside, Merseyside, Lincolnshire, north and south Yorkshire, Berkshire, Sheffield, Stafford, Manchester, Wales, Essex, Peterborough and London. The majority came from Scotland. From my previous constituency and the constituency that I now represent, a total of 22 men were lost.
On 6 July 1988, the UK oil and gas industry changed for ever. So did Aberdeen. The city was forced to come to terms with the fact that although huge rewards and benefits come from being a host to the oil industry, it can levy a terrible price.
Tonight in the Lemon Tree theatre in my constituency, we will see the first performance of a short play written to commemorate the Piper Alpha victims. One line in the play is this:
"I have never heard a city cry before, but I heard Aberdeen cry today."
That accurately reflects the pain that the city felt, and still feels strongly today. One of the questions most asked in Aberdeen this week is, "Where were you when the Piper went up?"
On 6 July 1988, I was a young inexperienced MP. I had returned to my flat after a late-night sitting, and I first heard on the midnight news that something serious had happened in the North sea. The following morning, I went to the House early and phoned Cecil Parkinson, who was then Secretary of State for Energy. I asked for a briefing, and he told me to come immediately to his office. From then on, and for the next few years, I became very involved with Piper Alpha, the survivors, the families, and the consequences, particularly for offshore safety.
As a solicitor, I had seen my fair share of death and tragedy, but never on such a scale. I saw anger and despair. There was grief and bitterness. There was a driven urge to find out who was responsible, who was to blame. There was a need to hide from the world. There was a lack of comprehension. There was a need for support, there was a need to be alone. The magnitude of individual grief was made that much greater because of the collective grief felt throughout the country, but particularly in the north-east of Scotland.
Of course, every aspect of the tragedy was played out, over and over, in public. The world's media came to Aberdeen, and its eyes were everywhere, peering into every nook and cranny. Real grieving was impossible, until the media eventually moved on to the next disaster zone. Families whose only connection was the loss of a loved one started to come together, sometimes as mutual support, sometimes to grieve. Later, a focused, painful journey was undertaken by many families as they tried to understand what had happened. In that period, I
attended many meetings of the Piper Alpha families and survivors group, a mutual support organisation set up by the families and survivors themselves. They were supported by a team of counsellors, led by Ann Bone, a local social worker who did remarkable work with individuals and the group.
The 1980s was a bad time for public disasters and the Piper Alpha group made contact with the groups established following the King's Cross fire, the Bradford football stadium fire, the Zeebrugge ferry disaster, the Clapham rail disaster and others. Meetings with representatives of those groups allowed people to share experience and knowledge, and provided mutual support. Many of the relatives attended the inquiry into the disaster, and had to endure some very stressful days of evidence, sometimes listening to discussions about the circumstances of a death, or, on other days, listening to evidence of the neglect and lack of proper safety systems that led to those deaths— grief one minute, anger the next.
It was a particularly hard period for those families for whom the body of a relative had not been recovered. In all, 32 bodies are still missing. I remember arranging for a group to visit London to meet Cecil Parkinson, who was still Secretary of State. It was an extremely difficult meeting and it became very angry. The problem was that Cecil Parkinson was not being direct with the families, to which they reacted very badly. Later, the families were provided with evidence that attempting to recover the bodies would put divers' lives at serious risk because of the dangerous condition of the wreckage. Difficult though it was for them, no one wanted to see any more lives lost, and they moved on but, of course, the aggravated sense of loss remains.
It was obvious that there was a number of failures in the safety system, one of the most obvious being safety regulation, which was carried out by the Department of Energy. Despite defending the arrangements, the then Government agreed to set up an inquiry under the chairmanship of Lord Cullen, a senior Scottish judge. No one has ever questioned the thoroughness of the inquiry and the importance of Lord Cullen's report. It changed the safety culture, not only in the North sea, but in industry around the world. His report made 106 recommendations. Among the most important was that responsibility for safety should be transferred to the Health and Safety Executive. He also spelled out the shortcomings of the safety systems on Piper Alpha, which included a weak permit-to-work system, inadequate fire walls, which were incapable of withstanding explosion, the failure of the deluge system, inadequate safety training, poor safety auditing by Occidental, the operating company, and inadequate risk-assessment procedures. Despite a lengthy and serious list of defects and faults, there was no criminal prosecution of the operators or any individual.
Since Piper Alpha, there has been a real improvement in safety offshore. Injury and death rates have fallen and the industry continues to invest significant sums of money and other resources in safety. However, I cannot ignore the fact that concerns have been growing in the past few years.
Miss Anne Begg (Aberdeen, South) (Lab): Does my hon. Friend agree that, although safety offshore has improved quite dramatically since the Piper Alpha disaster, as he said, there is a tendency with the passage of time
to forget and to become complacent? This anniversary serves as a timely reminder of the importance of safety offshore. There are now new challenges in what is a mature province, and we have an ageing infrastructure. We need to address those issues.
Mr. Doran: My hon. Friend is exactly right. It is a dangerous industry and safety needs to be at the highest level. As the province matures, that becomes a more pressing problem.
Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP): I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this important debate. The lessons are important for his constituents and mine, and not only regarding the North sea. An ever-growing number of them work around the world, from Azerbaijan to Sakhalin island. Many of the lessons have been fully implemented in the North sea, but is he confident that they have been learned in oil-producing regions around the world?
Mr. Doran: As I said earlier, Lord Cullen's report was taken up by the oil industry around the world, not only in the UK. I was fortunate enough two or three years ago to host a reception in the Palace for offshore safety authorities from around the world. I had an opportunity to hear how seriously they were taking the issue. Of course, many of the companies that operate in the North sea operate in other areas, and they transport their safety systems, so I am optimistic that the lessons that have been learned in the North sea are being applied elsewhere.
Malcolm Bruce (Gordon) (LD): This debate is timely and the hon. Gentleman has given us a powerful account of how terrible the Piper Alpha disaster was. I am sure that he would agree that for those of us who live in the area, it is routine when one meets a service company or operating company to have a safety briefing before one is briefed about other issues. Nevertheless, has he heard the concern that has been expressed to me—that some routine maintenance programmes and shutdowns are being delayed or postponed to maximise production at the current, high price of oil? That is a problem if it compromises safety.
Mr. Doran: The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. I was just coming to that point in my speech.
Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con): One of my friends was on Piper Alpha and fortunately survived the disaster. The hon. Gentleman has paid tribute to the survivors for the way in which they set up self-help groups, but will he also pay tribute to them for the way in which they ensured, through their dogged fight with the Government, that safety was increased, not for the people who sadly died, but for those who currently work on oil rigs throughout the world?
Mr. Doran: The hon. Gentleman referred to a mutual friend, I believe, and I shall mention him later. Again, initially, I think that there was shock everywhere, including in Government. I had a lot of contact with the then Secretary of State and his Minister, Peter Morrison, whom I eventually shadowed through some of that period. It took some time for the Government to focus
on how they should respond to the disaster. Of course, the survivors and the relatives have played a major part in helping them to focus.
The Cullen report is a jewel that needs to be protected. I said that concerns have been growing in the past few years. They started with the deaths of two workers, who were killed by a gas leak on the Brent Bravo platform in 2003. In the criminal proceedings and the fatal accident inquiry that followed, serious shortcomings on maintenance on the part of the operator were highlighted, but the problems are not limited to one company. Between 2004 and 2007, the HSE offshore safety division carried out an asset integrity programme involving targeted inspections of nearly 100 platforms. The report, which is known as the key programme 3 report, had some worrying things to tell us about the lack of maintenance of platforms and the effect on work force morale. Some of the problems related to the commercial environment in which the industry operates. In particular, problems arise when platforms are scheduled for transfer or disposal and are shifted from one operating company to another and maintenance is not kept up to scratch. In any case, the report has had a profound effect on the industry and investment is now being made in reaction to it. It highlights the need for the most intensive vigilance.
Like some in the oil industry and the trade unions, I am concerned about some employment practices in the industry. There is what is known as the NRB culture, which stands for "Not Required Back", by which a worker can be removed from a platform without any right of appeal on the say-so of one official. The industry has also resisted the implementation of the working-time regulations in the offshore industry. There is a lack of a common permit-to-work system. At the root of almost every significant accident in the North sea oil and gas industry, including Piper Alpha, there is failure in the permit-to-work system. That system needs to be reviewed so that there is a common system offshore. Earlier this year I introduced a ten-minute Bill to address some of those issues. It would have reformed safety representative and committee rules offshore and provided an element of independence in the system. I would be interested to hear the Minister's views on those points.
The roll-call of honour for Piper Alpha is long. It takes in the survivors; the rescue crews who operated in such difficult conditions to bring both survivors and bodies home; the medical teams who waited in Aberdeen for the helicopters to bring in the most seriously injured, who worked incredible hours, who were fiercely committed to tend to them, and who in some cases spent years repairing the damaged bodies; the crews of the lifting vessels who recovered from the wreckage the accommodation module that contained the bodies of many of the victims; the police and others who went into the module after it was removed and brought ashore to recover the bodies; and the psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and counsellors who worked not only with the survivors and the families, but with many of the rescuers. Many others in the public and private sectors made a contribution.
The survivors are left with memories not only of lost friends and workmates, but of a horrifying experience, and those memories will never leave them. They bear psychological scars, and many of them also suffered physical damage. In the years since the disaster, some of the survivors have died and most have moved on. Some
have been successful in a new life—none more so than Ed Punchard, a diving control supervisor on the Piper. Ed now lives in Australia, where he started a successful film production company. He has published a book about his life as a Piper Alpha survivor and he has made a film about his return to the Piper Alpha platform for the 10th anniversary, which was shown on Australian and UK television.
None of the survivors will ever lose their memories of the events on Piper Alpha on 6 July 1988, but they struggle on and they cope. For the families, there has been the unimaginable horror of losing a loved one in the most terrifying circumstances, and they live with that loss every day. At this time of year, that sense of loss grows, and on an anniversary such as this, it is even more intense. A number of events have been arranged in Aberdeen this weekend, and there will be a memorial service in the St. Nicholas kirk on Sunday. Our thoughts today are with all those involved.


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Apprentices Mean Business
"Apprentice Means Business" is a network dedicated to the promotion of apprenticeships as an outstanding career option in Dorset.
Our purpose is to promote apprenticeships to businesses and young people by shining a light on examples of outstanding performance by our current network apprentices.
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Ben Clarke heads up the network as an ex-apprentice who is committed to the promotion of apprenticeships in general in Dorset!
Ben's experiences of being an apprentice have laid the foundations of building a successful career which he is excited about sharing with others.
Design and Technology at St Edwards
Superior at Poole High School
Bournemouth and Poole College Careers Event
Careers at Queen Elizabeth School
Your Future – Your Choice


We understand the news of the ongoing criminal investigation involving a registered nurse at Horizon's The Moncton Hospital is upsetting to many families who have had their children at our facility.
We encourage patients to call 1-844-225-0220 if they have any concerns and we will arrange for a member of our obstetrics team to answer questions. To date we have heard from over 40 patients.
We can confirm the nurse in question has been terminated and cannot practice in New Brunswick.
The actions of one individual do not define the level of safe and quality care we provide. Because of this, patients and their families should not have any concerns about the care they receive at the labour and delivery unit at The Moncton Hospital or any of our Horizon facilities.