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Archive for the month "January, 2017"
Will Johnson's contribution!
Here giving an interview for researchers on Saba's History.
Will Johnson's contribution to History and Culture in the Eastern Caribbean.
Sir Winston Churchill said: "History will be kind to me. I intend to write my own." Another great figure of the 20th century Fidel Castro also advised:' you have to write your own History."
I have witnessed already that there are some who want to deny my history and others who would not want to give me any credit for what I have done in either the political field or in the field of letters and in the preservation of our past history in these our beloved islands of the Eastern Caribbean.
My column in this paper was entitled 'News and Views'. I did not get in trouble with the 'News' part, but definitely my 'Views' were not acceptable to the political establishment of the day.
I was asked to submit a document to an organization which wants to honour me. In complying with this request I thought it was time and important to give a summary of what I have done and what I think important for my children and grandchildren to know and if need be to defend my legacy.
Not that I have been ignored. My name is so well known in the Eastern Caribbean and beyond first and foremost because of my political career.
I will give just a few examples. I remember once Mrs. Dinda Hassell-Dunlock telling me that she had been listening to the Saturday morning radio program of Mrs. Josianne Fleming-Artsen for children. When she asked the class who was the President of the United States one little boy said he knew the answer and before anyone else he shouted out: "The President is Will Johnson. I hear him every day on the radio."
Menno and Corine Hofman here on my verandah discussing artifacts which were found at The Plum piece by Mr. Carl Zagers. It turned out to be a settlement from the days of the Arawaks and Kalingo.
On Saturdays we usually have a West Indian meat or fish soup for lunch. Just as we sat down to eat the phone rang. I advised my wife not to answer the phone. But having children abroad going to school you always answer every phone call which my wife did. The call was from Mr. Erasmus William on St. Kitts. He was the former Editor of The Chronicle newspaper on St. Martin, and after that assistant to the then Prime Minister of St. Kitts/Nevis the Hon Denzill Douglas.
After exchanging greetings he said to me. "I am calling on behalf of our Prime Minister. We have some people here at his office and they have a question. I told the Prime Minister that the one person in the Eastern Caribbean who would know the answer to their question is our friend Will Johnson.'
I told him 'Man you have a lot of confidence in me. I hope I do not disappoint.'
The folks in the Prime Minister's Office were looking for the Somers Islands where their ancestors once lived. Erasmus said we cannot find them anywhere on the map.
I told him;" The Somers islands are the old English name for Governor Somers who was shipwrecked there and went on to colonize Bermuda.'
I heard the Prime Minister in the background asking; 'What did he say? 'And then:' But I was there just last week and nobody told me that.' When ending the phone conversation I said to Erasmus:' Man you nearly put me on the spot! Suppose I did not know?' Erasmus said: 'Will I had every confidence that you would know the answer."
My first book on St. Maarten.
Daniella Jeffrey, teacher/writer of French St. Martin also had high praise for my approach to history in a lecture which she gave when my book 'Tales from My Grandmother's Pipe' first came out. She thought it great that I had approached history from the perspective of the contributions made by the native population, rather than highlighting the role played by colonial officials.
Because of my knowledge of history I have been asked a number of times to contribute to speeches to be made by officials.
I remember getting a call to prepare a speech for then Prime Minister Maria Liberia Peters when she was invited to speak at a convention of the People's Action Movement (P.A.M.) on St. Kitts. She called afterwards from Curacao to thank me and to tell me how enthusiastically it had been received. Many young people had come forward to tell her that they had no idea how important a role St. Kitts had played in the Eastern Caribbean in former times.
I am the third from the left and Ray Hassell was the first Chairman of the Harry L. Johnson Memorial Foundation. Opening of the Museum.
I was asked to contribute articles to the 'Libre Amicorum' for three former Prime Ministers:'Juancho Evertsz, Don Martina, and Maria Liberia-Peters, and contributed in the research of the book on the life of Prime Minister Minguel Pourier. Many people young and old have been to my home for help in their research on any number of topics relating to these islands and I have always willing gave my time freely for their projects, from simple home work to a University thesis.
Comments on my blog.
One of the many services to the community has been doing eulogies for prominent as well as ordinary citizens of the three Dutch Windward Islands. I may have done at least seventy five eulogies. Well appreciated. I remember once after having given a eulogy at the St. Martin of Tours Church in Philipsburg upon leaving the church a friend twenty years younger than me shouted out saying;" Will Johnson, when I dead I want you to do the talk for me."
I thought this would be a good opportunity to publish a small history of my work and contributions to the Literature and culture of Saba, and the islands of the Eastern Caribbean. Since I am at it I will illustrate it with some appropriate photos as well because photos tell their own story.
Presenting the Saba Flag for the first time on Saba Day 1985 to the people of Saba. I was the Chairman of the Committee given the task in May 1985 and succeeded in a matter of months even though there was a very heated election in between.
While working in the Old Courthouse on St. Maarten I had a column in the 'Windward Island's Opinion' at the insistence of its founder Mr. Joseph H. Lake Sr. This was in the early nineteen sixties already. From 1966 through 1968 I used to prepare and broadcast the Local News on the Voice of St. Maarten Radio station. I used to walk down to Fort Amsterdam under all kinds of weather conditions. Later Alcile Lake used to pick me up and bring me back to town after the newscast was over. I became well-known through that local news program and these many years later I still have the files from that period with the news items.
In 1968 at the request of Mr. Alrett Peters I started the newspaper 'The Labour Spokesman' for the General Workers Union. At the same time James Maduro and I started the 'Emporium Review of St. Eustatius' and I was its first Editor.
In the left corner. I was Commissioner of Culture and started Saba Day. Mr. Ray Hassell functioned as Chairman and was assisted by people like Mr. Eugenius Johnson.
I also started the 'Saba Herald' which lasted for the next twenty five years. In the beginning I had Mr. Eddy Peterson and Mr. Alan Busby as Editors as I was already under pressure and stood to lose my job. However when pressure was applied to them I said everyone knows it is my newspaper anyhow so I took on the responsibility of being the Editor. These newspapers were all stenciled at the Union Headquarters in Cole Bay. I remember Alrett's old father coming sometimes and sitting with me and I would read him articles which I had written. He would look at me in disbelief and say;" Johnson boy you put that in the paper in truth? "It was that kind of newspaper. Not one to please the
Annual account Windward Islands Bank Ltd. 2015
establishment but to oppose it.
In 1971 I started a column: 'The Exile Speaks' in the St. Maarten newspaper 'The New Age' of Mervin F. Scot. The column was hard hitting and became such a hit that the circulation of the paper increased by tenfold.
The first edition of the Emporium Review of which I was the Editor after which I passed it over to my friend James E. Maduro one of my friends from the Boys Town on Curacao.
In one of the first editions of the Saba Herald in 1968 I advocated for Saba to have a National Day of its own. One of the first decisions I made as Commissioner in 1975 was to make a Government resolution to have the National Day organized for December 6th, 1975. As Commissioner of Culture I had a Committee put in place headed by Mr. Ray Hassell (later Senator Etc.), Mr. Frank Hassell and others. The first Saba Day was carried out as scheduled and very much appreciated by the people of Saba. The Government of Saba assisted by Committees were responsible for carrying on Saba Day and they still are. It is still enthusiastically received and appreciated by the people of Saba.
Saba Herald, December 2nd, 1968: "Did you know that December 6th is San Saba Day? We hope that if not this year that December next year, December 6th will be celebrated as a National Holiday.
A tapestry in the Hall of Knights in The Hague of a speech which I made as Chairman of the Island Council in 1999.
In an article in 1970 I emphasized on how important it was for Saba to have its own National Day as was the case with the surrounding islands. A day in which to remember our hard working ancestors of the past. A day in which to showcase our culture and our handicrafts and so on. A day in which to encourage sports and in general to let the world know that we did exist as a people though small yet proud of what we had achieved and were still capable of achieving.
In 1971 in a thirteen page memo to my W.I.P.M. party colleagues, among the many suggestions one was: 'December 6th, is San Saba Day. Provisions should be made for this to be a day of festivities and could be developed into something nice with folkloric plays
Homework of Nikita Johnson.
In the month of May 1985 I was asked to be Chairman of a Committee for Saba to have its own flag, coat of arms and national song. This had to be done on short notice and I personally prepared all the legislation for the flag, coat-of-arms and national song. This was not an easy task and as Chairman I had to do a lot of arm twisting to get the final design of the flag and coat-of arms approved by the Island Council of which I was a Member. The Lt. Governor Mr. Wycliffe Smith, the Commissioners Vernon Hassell and Peter Granger helped to push the initiative and even though politically we were not on good terms and in the middle of an election they were full of praise for the end results. It was a glorious moment on December 5th, 1985 when the people of Saba witnessed for the first time the unfurling of the Saba Flag. I appreciate very much to see how young people especially going abroad to school appreciate their flag.
Here I am running behind the food truck in the Boystown on Curacao where I spent some of my boyhood years.
In 1977 I was able to purchase the house and property in Windward Side and to start the Harry L. Johnson Memorial Foundation and Museum as a tribute to the work which he had done before he died to preserve the Maritime History of Saba.
In those years I would also prepare and give out the Local News on the Voice of Saba when Miss Pauline Paul was off island.
As a result of my research I decided to publish a book of my own. Not only of oral history. But backed up by research in the archives of Willemstad, Curacao and The Hague Holland.
This one is a political history of the island.
My first book was.
Tales From My Grandmothers Pipe, followed by
For the Love of St. Maarten
The Diary of a St. Maarten Salt Checker
Co-author of Caribbean Interlude.
I was also one of the contributing editors of 'De Encyclopedie van de Nederlandse Antillen.'
One of the many times I have been invited to give speeches on the history of our islands.
Even before 2007 I used to contribute articles of historical interest to The Daily Herald newspaper. At the suggestion of Wim Hart in 2007 I started a regular column for which he suggested the title: 'Under The Sea Grape Tree'. I have now enough material to publish five books based on that column alone. I would even say that more than my political career this column has made me well-known in the Eastern Caribbean islands.
This is the fifth edition of my first book.
2013 I started a blog 'The Saba Islander' which in the first two years had more than one hundred thousand visitors from countries from all over the world. I include in my blog articles from all the islands, and not only of Saba. A little bit of politics but I try to resist that as much as possible as I have an International audience who would not be interested in local politics.
Over the years I have encouraged and assisted others with their books. I encouraged Dr. Johan Hartog to translate his book 'De Bovenwindse Eilanden' into English and Mr. Frank Hassell did the translation. We also pointed out to him that several claims he had made in his Dutch version were not based on fact. Saba has always been an English speaking island.
Dr. Julia Crane is one of many who were grateful for my assistance with their research.
Also I have letters from Dr. Julia Crane thanking me for my help with her books 'Saba Silhouettes" and 'Statia Silhouettes'.
As I write this I am about to review a book for a University in the United States at their request. It is about Saba and I am flattered that I a poor island self-educated boy get regular requests like this one.
Technically Mr. Alrett Peters was the Editor but everyone knew that the newspaper was mine.
With my interest in history and genealogy for many years I did research on the history of the Sulphur mines and located a possible claimant to the lands. After getting an agreement from her that she would transfer the lands to the people of Saba I passed over my dossier to the Saba Conservation Foundation for completion.
In 1999 as Acting Lt. Governor and Chairman of the Island Council I included in the ordinance a clause that no buildings were allowed in the Mountain above the five hundred meter line. It is my hope that government will not be tempted under any circumstances to change that and deface our mountain.
What the article does not say is that my advisory capacity to government has been 'pro-bono' and still is.
aba Lace. I have written a number of articles on Saba Lace which were carried in newspapers and Magazines in the USA and for a period of time I was a correspondent for the New York Times when they would produce articles on the Caribbean.
Raymond Simmons asked me to be a board member of the Facebook site 'Of Saban Descent' which has become very popular and a source of preservation of histories and old photos of Saban families of yore.
My own Facebook page is very popular because of the old photo's I post of the Islands.
Photo by Roger Snow. Someone said once that I had a dark and brooding personality.
Most of my activities are self-financed. The Prins Bernhard Fonds has helped me with donations to help with the publishing of my various books and the Saba Government has purchased some copies for distribution to dignitaries coming to the island.
At my age I still spend several hours each day on the computer doing research, and also reading books of interest to Saba's history and I always seem to find things which I believe would be of interest to the people of these islands. I continue to be involved with researchers and students in answering questions pertaining to their field of interest. Over the years I have also been helping people with their family research and with property title research. This takes up lots of my time.
In 1999 a speech which I made to the Island Council of Saba as Chairman at the time to celebrate fifty years of Universal suffrage, was later used on a tapestry in the Hall of Knights in The Hague.
In 2014 I received an award from the St. Martin book week group organized by Mr. Lasana Sekou and Mr. Suga Reiph in recognition of my contribution to the literature of the Windward Islands.
Part of the interior of the Harry L. Johnson memorial musueum.
In ending this first draft I would like to give a small story from my brother Walter Frederick Martinus Johnson, a lifelong teacher and in his spare time agent for Windward Island's Airways. He said something in a public setting which I thought he should not have said and I told him so. His answer was 'At my age if I cannot say what's on my mind and what I want to say, when will I ever say it?' A few months later he was no longer in the land of the living. The very least I can do for my descendants is to defend my legacy.
And finally my great-great-great- grandfather Governor Richard Johnson stepped down at the age of seventy in 1831 with the reason: At my advanced age and disability I want to respectfully tender my resignation.' I later discovered that at the age of ninety one he was still signing old documents for later Governors as to what he knew about property
I was asked to be one of the Editors of this encyclopedia of the Netherlands Antilles.
transactions all the way back to the West India Company lands.
Whatever time is left to me I only wish for good health so that I can continue doing those things I love most and I wish to thank the many thousands of people who still give me
Sometimes I flatter myself by comparing my message as bringing light to those in need of it like the lamplighters of old.
encouragement to continue writing and speaking out!
The Saga of Captain Richard Hassell
Schooner 'Margareth Truph' of Capt. Wallce Simmons. Capt. Richard Hassell in his lifetime was Captain of many schooners.
Introduced by Will Johnson
This story was written by Richard Stuart Hassell on May 26th, 2000 when he was 87 years of age and living in Santa Monica California. He did this at the urging of Brian Mark a friend. Brian had heard Richard telling so many stories about when he grew up on Saba as a boy that he felt these stories should be written down and sent to the island for people here to enjoy. After Richard's death Brian sent the stories to Sea Saba whose site he found on the internet. Lynn Costenaro passed them on to me. I first introduced Richard's (Dick) own life story which was very interesting and now what he informs us of his grandfather the captain. He lived in the house in Windwardside which was torn down to make way for the new Kindergarten and he was related among others to Captain Eddie Hassell of "Swinging Doors" restaurant.
In the foreword the writer tells us:"This story has been written with the knowledge that it is a true story as related to me by my mother who experienced a great deal of it herself and as a youngster and teenager had a lot of it related to her by her mother. There are many seamen who may have had similar experiences, but since I can only write about those of my grandfather, it then becomes a partial history of my family, and is written with a humble pride. Therefore, this story is dedicated to my grandfather for being a man of great courage and that he had the determination to do what he thought was best for him and his family when the odds were against him."
My grandfather Captain Richard Hassell was born on the tiny Dutch island of Saba (only 5 miles square in size) in the year 1856 and whose forbearers settled on Saba in the year 1640.
Since seafaring was the way of life in those days, and the island being so small, the male population by necessity had to go to sea in order to earn a living and support their families. The very young teenagers had to start out going to sea at 13 years of age to follow in their father's footsteps, and were always signed on the ship as the "cabin boy." It was standard practice that the captain had the responsibility of teaching the cabin boy all the rest of the schooling he would be missing by starting out at sea at such an early age. In addition he had to teach him all the rudiments of navigation and seamanship, along with the aid of books on the subject.
As it turned out, my grandfather was a very ambitious man, and so at 16 years of age he decided that he wanted to get married and so he married a Saban girl who happened also to be 16, after receiving the blessings of her parents. One year later my mother was born. Being a father gave my grandfather the impetus to learn more about navigation and seamanship. He studied so hard that at age 21 he had taken the examination for a Captain's license and passed it, whereupon the shipping company for whom he was sailing gave him command of a ship, and so he kept going to sea. It was a customary thing for a shipping company not to allow the prospective captain to take command of a ship without being a part owner which was 25% of what the ship was worth. The shipping company's idea was that the captain of the vessel would be more interested in keeping it in good shape and would look out more for the company's interest if he was a part owner. My grandfather turned out to b a man of good judgment and thrifty with his money because he had built his own home on the island of Saba by the time my mother was three years old. After having sailed to New York many times my grandfather decided to take his family to live there in the year 1877. After his first son Richard was born my grandmother started to get a little more apprehensive about my grandfather going to sea, particularly after having weathered three hurricanes at sea. He finally relented and found a grocery store in New York City that was for sale and bought it almost immediately. But being a born seaman at heart he put the grocery store up for sale after only two years and eventually sold it to another merchant. He found a small schooner of 46 tons in size and bought it, putting it in seaworthy shape. He began trading up and down the East Coast of the United States and
The schooner 'Priscilla ' of Capt. T. C. Vanterpool anchored in Fort Bay at Saba. Transported mail and passengers between the Dutch Windward and Leeward Islands.
the Caribbean area. He called the vessel the R.H.
My mother having been born in 1872 was about 8 years of age and interested in whatever my grandfather did because my grandmother had gotten in the habit of keeping her informed even at such a young age, particularly about the dangers of going to sea. Although Captain Hassell had some dangerous adventures, one where he was the only survivor, he always returned successfully. But my grandmother was more convinced than ever that she would try to persuade him to give it up. Finally in about 1886 on a particular trip to Jacksonville, Florida, he was approached by a representative of a local shipping company who was interested in buying the R.H. at a price satisfactory to my grandfather. By the following day he found out that an orange grove was for sale located on the St. John's River, not too far from Jacksonville. The price of the orange grove was much less than what he had been offered for the R.H. and so he made up his mind to sell his beloved ship and buy the orange grove.
Schooner 'Mona Marie' of Capt. Ben Hassell of Saba.
So he put down a down payment on the orange grove and signed an agreement to sell the R.H. to the shipping company, advising them that he would have to go back to New York City and conclude all business there before returning to Jacksonville and finalizing the sale of the R.H. and purchasing the orange grove. Captain Hassell finally got all the business taken care of in New York and took enough supplies including food and water for 26 days to take him and his family to Jacksonville. After about 3 days at sea, when he was approximately off the coast of Cape Hatteras, the vessel's barometer started to fall rapidly. From his experience with other hurricanes he knew that the telltale signs pointed to trouble – running headlong into another hurricane. He immediately called the crew together and told them that from his past experience with hurricanes he felt it imperative that they prepare. He decided to ride it out. He then ordered the crew to take in all sails except for the jib which he needed to help keep the vessel's bow into the wind. He battened down the hatches. He further asked several crew members to lash him to the helm so that he would not get washed overboard and since his family was on board, he wanted to make sure he and he alone was responsible for bringing the vessel through the hurricane. Many of the crew had asked him to let them spell him at the helm but he would not hear of it. The ship's cook, knowing that he would have to at least have some hot coffee, did manage to hold the coffee pot on the stove long enough to boil the water for the coffee. That was all Captain Hassell had for three days and three nights while the hurricane lasted. But he did bring the R.H. successfully through. After the hurricane was over they found themselves becalmed which lasted for 25 days and my grandfather had supplies for only that period of time. On the 26th day he was down to one tin of salmon and some "hard tack," which he chose to give to the crew and sugar water and crackers which he gave to his family. That afternoon, around 3 P.M., a United States warship was seen approaching within a close distance and Captain Hassell put up a distress signal. The warship gave them enough supplies to get to Jacksonville, which they reached after six days. He then proceeded in finalizing the sale of the R.H. and the purchase of the orange grove, and immediately started to put the orange grove home in better shape, after which he started the trimming of the orange trees. Blossoms sprouted in a month or so, and soon tiny oranges began to appear. My mother said she had never seen him in a better frame of mind. As the oranges started to reach maturity my grandfather envisioned a bumper crop and had by this time decided that being a "landlubber" was not so bad after all. However, his luck was about to run out because the area was hit with one of the heaviest frosts in years and the whole crop was lost. He went bankrupt. Wasting no time, he checked in Jacksonville about possible other jobs and as luck would have it; he found out that the Jacksonville lumber company had a three master schooner that needed a captain. He applied for the job and got it. The lumber company gave him all the information that was necessary including the fact that he would have to run the vessel on shares of the profits, which he readily agreed to. After taking command of the vessel his first trip was to Trinidad with a load of lumber. He took his family and dropped them off at the island of Saba where he still owned his own home, and he continued on to Trinidad. My mother, now having reached the age of 17, had started to teach a small kindergarten class of children to help out as much as she could until her father had received his first share of the profit. Soon my Uncle Richard had reached the age of 13 and immediately went to sea as a cabin boy with an uncle of his who was captain of a 4 master square rigged ship. In the meantime, my grandfather continued to carry lumber to Trinidad and on one particular trip, after he had taken his first sight of shooting the sun, in the morning around 10 o'clock he laid down to rest. In the afternoon, just before he shot the sun again (around 3 o'clock) he called the mate and told him he was not feeling well and that he felt like he was going to die. He said if he did, he did not want his body buried at sea, but to take tar and tar his body, wrap it in canvas, folding it over and over, and put it in the ship's hold. He gave the mate the course to steer after having taken his second shot of the sun, and found his position according to his calculation of the latitude and longitude, and that if they stayed on course as he told them they would come to Barbados where he wished to be buried, and so he was.
Saba island as it looked from the air in the nineteen thirties.
The crew then sailed the vessel to the island of Saba where they related all the details of what had occurred. When my grandmother, Rebecca, heard it, she told my mother that six months from that date she would not be alive and let herself grieve to death. My mother then had to take over the responsibility for her younger brother Camille who was only five years of age at the time (+_1892). After my mother reached 20 years of age (1896) she felt that she could better provide for her brother and herself by going back to New York City and with her uncle being captain of a sailing ship he stopped at the island of Saba, packed them up, and sailed for New York. Since she knew no one in New York City, she decided after a year to go to Providence, Rhode Island, where she had relatives.
The lady in black Victoria Hassell was I think a daughter in law of Capt. Richard Hassell.
My father had fallen in love with my mother after her mother died, but she did not get to see him too often because of his going to sea. When his ship stopped at Providence, he heard from other relatives that my mother was now living there and he went to see her. They decided to marry and did so in January of the year 1902. My brother was born in December 1902. Soon after, my mother decided to go back to Saba for a short time but that never happened, as she stayed much longer. My sister Caroline (Carry) and I were born on Saba which is a place I can never forget, as small as it was.
As this story has been written primarily about my grandfather I deem it to be my duty that it is centered on him. I wish to add that nothing has given me greater pleasure than to try to recall all of the information that comprises the Saga of Captain Richard Hassell." END.
As I was typing out this article I thought of the hundreds of Saban captains and other men of the sea who would have had similar stories which went unrecorded and that Saba can truly be called "Isle of a thousand sea tales."
Two Tales of One HASSELL FAMILY
Sometime back Ms.Lynn Costenaro of Sea Saba called me and said that she had two interesting stories for me. They had been sent to her by a Mr. Brian Mark of Mar Vista, California. He must have found her website on the internet and sent the following letter: To whom it concerns. "I was a friend of Richard Hassell (who passed away some years ago) and I heard many of his stories about growing up on Saba. I encouraged him to write about Saba and the stories he knew, and before he passed he was able to write two pieces. I've included them here, as I think they may interest Saban Islanders, as well as visitors interested in your island."
A painting of the schooner 'The Three Sisters' by Richard Hassell who wrote this story.
As there were so many Richard Hassell's on Saba it was not easy to figure out his background. One of the stories which he wrote was about his grandfather Capt. Richard Hassell. I contacted several "old timers", but it was teacher Frank Hassell who helped me to put the puzzle together. His grandfather was also Richard Hassell married to Ann Rebecca Hassell. They owned the house in Windwardside which belonged to the R.C. nuns and which was torn down to build the Kindergarten there. His aunt Lilly May was the organist in the Anglican Church both in Windwardside and The Bottom. The family bought a home at The Gap which they sold later on to Mr. Ignatius Zagers. He had a sister named Carrie who spent her last years on St.Maarten and who has a surviving daughter Leonora Hassell who is in the "Sweet Repose" at the St. John's Ranch. I put that name to it as my fond memories go back to the "Sweet Repose" on the Backstreet. These folks are related to Captain Eddie Hassell of the "Swinging Doors "restaurant in the Windwardside.
I will first give the story of Richard Hassell (Dick) the friend of Mr. Brian Mark (and we also thank Ms. Lynn of Sea Saba) whom we thank for bringing these stories to our attention so that we can share them with a larger audience to once again show how people from this little island moved around in former times.
He starts his own story with a Foreword.
"The story entitled "The Saga of Captain Richard Hassell", has been written by me his (Grandson) Richard S. Hassell, mainly because of it's being unique by nature of it's contents and is somewhat abrupt in some circumstances, but is nevertheless a true story as told to me by my mother and she in turn was told by her mother, which is really considered to be a part of my family's history."
"Since I am the grandson of Captain Richard Hassell I am now compelled to write something about my own life with a view that it will be construed as a story of some interest to anyone who may read it.
In the past Saban schooners traded regularly with New York carrying salt, sugar and passengers from the Eastern Caribbean and bringing back passengers, lumber, and dry goods from New York to the island. This schooner the 'Esther Anita' belonged to Capt. Ben Hassell of Saba.
Like all my forbears I too, was born on Saba even though my brother who was the eldest of three children was born in Providence Rhode Island and lived there until he was two years of age when my mother took him back to Saba to see the family, planning to come back to Providence in the near future, but she never did return and chose to live in Saba where the weather was like summer year round. In the meantime my father kept on going to sea and would come home for a vacation every two years or so, but worked doing painting or other needed repairs on our home if required, and would even put in a vegetable garden if the weather was good.
"According to the records that were located in the archives in Holland, there were 3 families of Hassells that were found to be residing on Saba and who had settled therein 1640 and in 1695 one of them was listed as a Richard Hassell and so the name Richard has come down through the ages from family to family all having the name Richard in each family till my Grandfather who had 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys, had the notion that he too should name one of his sons Richard who also went to sea, and was a Naval Officer in World War 1, but finally became a landlubber after getting married to a girl in Providence, and my mother in turn named me Richard. In 1695 there were only around 500 people living on Saba and so that is the reason practically everyone had to go to sea in order to earn a livelihood, while all the women were home makers.
I was born on December 13th 1913 on Saba and enjoyed a very happy and peaceful life there until I was 21 years of age. Since there were no cars there everyone had to walk wherever they went because the only mode of transportation were horses which numbered about 6 or so and were owned by the Doctor, the Governor and the others by merchants on the island. We had no movies or telephones or any ice cream stores, but I would not change one day of it. Now that our little island boasts over 100 cars and 2 movie houses, everyone now possesses flush toilets and showers, T.V. sets and Telephones including supermarkets with ice cream available. However I would not change life as it was while growing up there, and I will always cherish the memories of my childhood.
I had a loving kind and gentle mother who was the epitome of a first class lady who never smoked or drank alcoholic beverages of any kind and the word "damn" was not in her vocabulary. My father was also a good man who never cursed or used profane or foul language of any kind but he did like his little schnapps now and again to which my mother found it hard to accept the idea that he did, but he never overdid it.
He came home on vacation December 1920 and upon returning to the United States brought my brother with him and found my brother a job with a manufacturing concern in Brooklyn New York. He then went back to sea, sailing around the East Coast of Canada and the United States. In November 1922 he came down with chronic bronchitis and asthma and his doctor in Providence, Rhode Island suggested that he should retire back to Saba where the tropical weather would at least give him better health there. So he made up his mind that he would do just that and came back to Brooklyn, New York to make sure that my brother was doing O.K. and being satisfied that he was took passage on a steamboat that sailed between New York and the Caribbean, with St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands being the first stop. While on the way he came down with double pneumonia and bronchitis and when the ship reached St. Thomas he had to be placed in the hospital there and passed away a couple of days later. This was a great sorrow and shock for the family but my mother was a very religious person and although suffering great sorrow, she nevertheless accepted my father's death as God's will. She was highly concerned about how well we would be able to live and fortunately found a job as a school teacher in one of the schools where we lived and along with dress making jobs we were able to live fairly comfortably.
The entrance to the LAGO oil refinery on Aruba where Richard worked.
I was only 9 years of age when my father passed away and found it hard to cope with, but my mother would sit me down and tell me that this was God's will and that we had to accept it as such. As time went on I finally reached age 17 when I graduated from the local school that I attended with the equivalent of a High School education in the United States. On many occasions I would talk to my mother about coming to the United States after I graduated, but soon thereafter, the great depression came about and that scuttled everything that my mother and I had planned. As luck would have it I found out that the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey had built an oil refinery on the Dutch island of Aruba and that the possibility existed that I might find a job there. So I talked it over with my mother and she agreed that it was worth a try and so off I went to Aruba and as luck would have it I was hired as an apprentice in the electrical department. However electricity at the time was all Greek to me and it was suggested by the electrician with whom I worked, that I should take a course in electricity from the International Correspondence Schools in the United States, and so I did and after 4 years with on the job training and the course in electricity the company promoted me to a first class electrician. This was the terminology used by the company, but I can assure you that it did not hurt my feelings any, because it was not a fallacy. During my four years tenure I had switched to the electrical shop, where I worked on repairing electrical motors and also rebuilding them. After spending 10 years in Aruba I wanted to come to the United States, and so I did in May 1944 but I had to be released from the oil company because they were considered to be a highly essential industry who was supplying two thirds of all the aviation gas for the allies in England and North Africa and because of that 7 oil tankers were torpedoed by German while waiting to be docked and loaded with aviation gas. It occurred in 1943 and the refinery had been in a state of total blackout, but some of the submarines had surfaced and was shelling the refinery and in doing so were first firing tracer bullets of all colors and some of them were going over my head and hitting the bachelor quarters where I lived.
The LAGO oil refinery as seen from a distance.
Some passed only 10 feet over my head where I was standing watching the whole scenario and as in the rest of the health turmoil of mine the Good Lord was with me. We were shelled twice more after that but luckily I was a mile or so from where the shells hit. After arriving in the United States in May 1944 I went immediately to the draft board in Brooklyn, New York and at that time they were not accepting anyone over age 30 and they suggested that I go to the Naval supply depot and they would employ me as a maintenance electrician and so I was hired immediately and worked there until the war was over. To all intents and purposes the war ended in 1945 and although the naval supply officer wanted to find me a job in the naval shipyard in Brooklyn, I chose to resign and seek a job in private industry which I did by taking a job as an electrician with a marine electrical contractor. Soon after I met a girl who eventually became my wife and we had 3 children, and the first born who was a boy, "yep you guessed it", I named him Richard and that is where the name Richard ended because eventually my son Richard who did have 4 sons chose not to name either one of them "Richard." And so that is a history that ended after several hundred years, and is the sign of the modern times we live in, but I accepted it with some degree of reticence. I had 3 children of my own, Richard the eldest, then my daughter Patricia, and finally a son David. Richard lives in a little town called Bennet about 40 miles from Denver, Colorado. My eldest daughter Patricia lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and my youngest son David is working in Northern New Guinea as a business administrator along with his wife and they have no children. Back to my own private life, I got divorced after 17 years of marriage and have lived alone since 1969, but I have some good friends with whom I come in contact fairly often, and apart from that I manage to keep my mind occupied with taking care of myself health wise. I thoroughly enjoyed working for the Marine electrical industry because anything to do with shipping was something that I grew up with and the fact that it was never dull, considering that overtime was always a possibility and very often a fact, when I had to work 7 days a week for as long as 6 months with going 12 hours a day Monday to Friday, 10 hours on Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday, and very often worked 24 hours around the clock and twice that I worked 2 days and 2 nights without stopping except for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. So you can see that working on ships was never dull, and very often in fact humorous because of things occurring that invariably had spontaneous humor in them.
Village of Windward Side where Richard was born
I lived in Brooklyn and Long Island for close to 20 years, and then I got the bright idea to move to Tampa Florida, because of the cold winters in New York but soon changed my mind because the wage scale was about half of what it was in New York. So back I came to New York and settled down in Wantagh, Long Island and remained there for 10 years when my doctor advised me to move to a warmer climate and so I came to California and have lived there for 35 years in Santa Monica which is large enough in size to equal the 5 square miles of Saba Island, and the only difference between the two is the geographical location and mode of living, but are the two places where I have spent the most of my life, and have enjoyed living in both immensely. Just about 18 years ago I was lucky enough to get an apartment in Santa Monica and when I went there the board of Directors asked me if I would be the entertainment chairman which I accepted and once every month would hold a "dinner dance" for all the seniors in the building who were observing their birthdays for the particular month and we would have special entertainment for them with a little band for dancing, which was enjoyed by all.
An ordinary day at sea in the life of Sabans in the past. Lest we forget!
After doing that for 10 years with my age creeping up on me I retired and a good thing that I did because of my having serious setbacks with my health. I enjoy living in Santa Monica because of my being in close proximity to the beach and the ocean and will always be happy here, but nothing will EVER, EVER surpass that little island of Saba where I was born and grew up having two of the best loving parents in the world in a very happy and peaceful environment, all of which could persuade me to call it "fantasy island", and for all that I offer my praise and thanks to our everlasting Almighty God for his love and care of me. END.
If you have enjoyed this just wait till I bring you the story of his grandfather Captain Richard Hassell.


Operating valve clearance measured when engine is cold Intake .006"
Design Two Bing carburetors inclined with needle valve, throttle slide and Concentric lever float. Two inclined Bing Butterfly valve, constant velocity carburetors with needle valve, vacuum slide & Concentric lever float.
Transmission 4-speed, claw - type transmission mounted to the engine. Shock absorption of the drive in all speeds. Ratchet type foot shifting.
Power transmission from the transmission to the rear wheel Enclosed drive shaft in the right swing arm tube with universal joint, equipped on the side of the rear drive with Hypoid Gear coupling.
Suspension front wheel Telescopic fork with large volume, double acting, hydraulic shock absorbers, front fork travel 8.43"
rear wheel Swing arm with 3-position-spring-legs and double acting, hydraulic shock absorbers rear swing arm travel 4.92"
Brake drum 7.9" diameter, lining width 1.2"
Overall width (engine) 29.1" 29.1" 29.1"
(motorcycle without load) 40.7" 40.7" 40.7"
Saddle height without load 33.5" 33.5" 33.5"
Overall length 82.7" 82.7" 82.7"
Ground clearance under load of a rider weighing 165 lbs. 6.5" 6.5" 6.5"
The actually achieved maximum speed of a broken-in motorcycle depends to a large extent on the air resistance offered by the rider due to his size, posture and clothing, and upon road and weather conditions.
Breaker contact gap 0.014" to 0.016"
Return to Owners Manual Contents.


A while back C at Little Bit Funky posted about this book. Since that post she has become a sewing mastermind. It is unreal what this girl can accomplish in a day, much less how crazy her sewing skills are considering she has been sewing for only a matter of months. I knew I couldn't go another day without the book and I was just hoping that it would make me 1% the crafty, speedy sewer she is. It did not disappoint. The first project I made was the bamboo bag. Easy peasy. Super cute! I am a dork and have a weird little system. I pick one present a year and then customize it for each of my friend's birthdays. It keeps me organized, keeps Lucy from having to go shopping, makes everything fair and helps me by planning ahead. My friends aren't surprised when their gift rolls around, but at least nobody gets left out. Last year my present was this sign. I just made my last one and now the bamboo bag becomes this year's project. I am looking forward to picking out fabric for each friend's personality.
Here is my first try. I found this fun & funky vintage fabric for my friend Amy who is 5th grade teacher. Her class focuses on American History and she is super cute and patriotic. I also made a tissue cozy with this easy tutorial, a little wallet and an oilcloth key fob. I also had a sweet Etsy seller make a car litter bag to match.
So if I buy this book I might have a chance at learning to sew??!! OOHH!! I better see if I can find it! Ya know, I have had my sewing machine for TWO years now and never sewed a single stitch! This might be my time to learn!!
Thanks for sharing Julie! It is always fun to see what you are up to!!
Okay, I'm buying this book. I'm always so impressed with Little Bit Funky's funkiness! Always so cute!
I don't even have my sewing machine with me right now (due to renovations), but I'm shaking I want to do something creative!
Super cute, bag. Boy, you really seem like you have it SO Together - good gift idea!


text:
Who owns the lottery in USA?
In the United States, the individual states own and operate their own lottery systems, with each state having jurisdiction over its own regulations, game offerings, and procedures.
The individual state lotteries are run by a dedicated lottery organization that is typically a branch of the state's government. The state lottery organizations are responsible for the drawing of numbers, overseeing game vendors, advertising, ticket sales and collecting the funds for each draw.
The revenue raised by the state lottery systems goes into the general fund of the state and is typically used to finance public education and health services.
Revenue raised by the lottery systems is also used to fund particular programs, such as college tuition assistance, seniors citizens' centers, and health care assistance.
In 2019, the 42 U.S. state lotteries brought in more than $80 billion in total sales and awarded more than $60 billion in prizes.
Who owns Powerball and Mega Millions?
Is the lotto government owned?
Is Mega Millions owned by the government?
What country owns the National Lottery?
Where do the lottery money come from?
How much does the US government take from lottery winnings?
Where does the money go when you win the lottery?
How do lottery winners receive their money?
Do you actually get money from the lottery?
What's the first thing you should do if you win the lottery?
Did anyone win the $1.5 billion Powerball?
How quickly does the national lottery email you if you win?
How much do you get if you take the lump sum in Powerball?
What is the payout for 1.5 billion Powerball?
Powerball and Mega Millions are two of the most popular lottery games in the United States, and are both owned by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL). The MUSL is a non-profit organization that consists of members from 37 different states, Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands, as well as the US organized Territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The MUSL was established in 1987 for the purpose of organizing, managing and launching new lottery games, and currently the MUSL owns and operates both Powerball and Mega Millions. The proceeds from lottery sales go to the various members of the MUSL, who in turn use the money to fund projects that benefit their respective regions, such as public education, highways, natural resources, public safety, housing and economic development, or other similar purposes.
No, the lottery is not government owned. The lottery is generally run by private companies or organizations, and often regulated by the government. Each individual state has its own lottery system and regulations which can vary.
In some states, the lottery games are operated by the state and all proceeds are kept by the state. In other states, the lottery is operated by a private company and the proceeds can be split between the state and the company.
Most lotto games in the United States are run by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), a nonprofit organization made up of member lotteries from various states. MUSL is owned and operated by the member states and the state lottery commissions provide oversight and shares in the profits.
No, Mega Millions is not owned by the government. It is a US-based lottery that is sold in 44 states, the District of Columbia, and the US Virgin Islands. It is run by the Mega Millions Consortium, a nonprofit organization made up of lottery directors from each of the participating jurisdictions.
The Mega Millions Consortium sets the rules of the game and manages the drawings, which are then conducted by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL). MUSL is owned and operated by 37 member lotteries in the United States and its territories.
The United Kingdom operates the National Lottery, which is owned and operated by Camelot UK Lotteries Limited, a company created in 1994 and owned by the British government since 1997. The current license for the National Lottery runs from 2023 until 2023 and is held by Camelot.
The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, which was established in 1999. The National Lottery has raised over £40 billion for good causes since its launch in 1994, money which has been distributed to a variety of projects and charities across the UK.
In 2016 alone, nearly £1. 6 billion was donated to projects and groups making a difference in our communities – from tackling youth unemployment to helping improve the conditions of the elderly and funding art and heritage projects.
The money for lottery draws typically comes from the ticket sales, with a percentage of the total amount sold being collected by the lottery provider as fees for administering the game. The fees vary by lottery provider, but generally for each $1 to $2 ticket purchased, about 50 cents (or more) goes to the administration and maintenance of the lottery.
Ticket sales are used to pay the jackpot prizes, and also contribute to state funds, such as environmental preservation, education and charitable causes. Lotteries may be publicly or privately owned and are often regulated by state governments.
In the United States, how much the government takes from lottery winnings will depend on a few factors. The biggest factor is the location of the lottery. Some states withhold taxes while others do not.
Depending on where the lottery is located, federal income taxes may be taken out as well.
In general, the US government often takes up to 25% of lottery winnings in the form of federal taxes. However, this will depend on the individual's tax bracket.
In addition, some states can take up to 8. 95% of the winnings in the form of state taxes. Very few states do not take any taxes out of lottery winnings. Depending on the state, the taxes could be higher or lower.
In summary, how much the US government takes from lottery winnings will depend on a few factors like the location of the lottery and the individual's tax bracket. Generally, the government can take up to 25% in the form of federal taxes and up to 8.
95% in the form of state taxes.
When you win the lottery, the money will be transferred to you in a variety of ways depending on your state, the amount won, and the type of lottery game you played.
Large prizes such as those won in state lotteries are often transferred to the winner's accounts in the form of a lump sum payment, either via direct deposit, a check, or in person at the lottery office.
Some state lotteries also offer annuity options where the winnings are dispersed in smaller installments over a period of years instead of one lump sum. Some games also offer both options and the winner can choose which one to take.
Upon receiving the money from their lottery winnings, winners must decide how best to manage the money. It is advised to take the time to research and understand the options available to ensure the money is invested wisely and managed properly for the long term.
It is a good idea to consult an accountant or qualified financial planner to get advice on long-term investments, estate planning, and tax liability.
Payments from national lottery games like Powerball and Mega Millions may be handled differently and may be transferred directly to the player's bank account or as a check in the mail. Some states also offer cash options; in this case, the money is transferred to the winner in the form of a check from the state treasurer.
No matter how the money is transferred, most lottery winners need to report and pay taxes on the money they won. Depending on the size of the winnings, the amount of taxes owed can vary greatly and can include both state and federal taxes.
Regardless of the method used, when you win the lottery, the money is yours to do with as you wish. It can be used to invest, pay off debt, and make life-long dreams come true—just remember to make sure the money is managed and invested properly in order to ensure financial security and a comfortable retirement.
Lottery winners typically receive their winnings in a lump sum payment, less taxes, unless otherwise stated in the lottery's rules. This means that upon verification of their winning ticket, the winner will receive a one-time payment for their total winnings.
The method of payment will vary depending on where the ticket was purchased and the amount of the winnings. Many states require winners to claim their winnings in person at the lottery office, usually within 180 days of the drawing.
The winner will present their ticket and proof of identification, then complete a claim form and tax forms. The state lottery commission will then redeem the ticket and issue a check to the winner.
In some cases, the state will offer an annuity option, where the winnings are paid out over a period of several years. This option allows the winner to receive smaller payments over a longer period of time and can often help them manage their winnings better.
Winners in other states may be able to wire transfer their funds, although this is not typically done in most states. Additionally, some states have tax reciprocity agreements in place, which means that if the winner lives outside the state where the tickets were purchased, the taxes may be withheld from the lump sum payment at the lower rate in the state where the winner resides.
In all cases, the amount of taxes owed on lottery winnings will vary depending on the winner's marginal tax rate. It is important for lottery winners to consult a tax professional prior to claiming their winnings, as taxes owed are usually not deducted from the lump sum payment.
Yes, you can actually get money from the lottery. When you purchase a lottery ticket, you are purchasing the chance to win a prize. Depending on the game, the prize could be cash, a car, a vacation, or something else.
In the vast majority of lotteries, you can win either cash or other prizes.
When you win a lottery prize, you typically receive a lump-sum of money. Lottery winnings are generally taxed like income, and the IRS requires that you report your winnings when you file your taxes.
Depending on the type of lottery, you may also be responsible for state and local taxes.
State lotteries also sometimes include the option to receive payments over a period of time instead of a single, lump-sum payment. This is known as an annuity, and it provides a steady stream of income for many years.
Many people prefer the annuity option because it allows them to maintain a comfortable lifestyle for many years.
Ultimately, you can get money from the lottery. However, it's important to remember that actual lottery prizes are taxed, like any other form of income. You should always consult with a tax professional if you win a prize to ensure you understand your tax obligations.
If you win the lottery, the first thing you should do is seek professional advice. Before you claim your winnings or do anything else, find an attorney or financial advisor who is knowledgeable in areas such as tax law, estate planning, and budgeting.
You'll need to discuss with them how to best structure any investments and make sure that your winnings are securely protected. You'll also want to discuss with them if forming a trust or other entity would be beneficial in order to protect your financial interests in the long-term.
Additionally, it's wise to be prepared for potential changes both legally and financially. Lastly, don't let the new found wealth cloud your judgment or go against any of your core values, as this could end up costing you in the end.
Yes – after an intense wait of nearly four months, the lone winning ticket for the record-breaking $1. 5 billion Powerball jackpot was sold in Munford, Tennessee. The winning numbers for the January 13, 2016 drawing were 4-8-19-27-34 with a Powerball of 10.
The winner was not revealed until weeks after the drawing took place, but once the excitement settled; it was revealed that a couple from Tennessee had won the incredible sum. This is the largest ever single-ticket Powerball win, exceeding the previous record of $656 million in March 2012.
The individuals chose to remain anonymous, and requested to receive their winnings in the form of a trust. They received their winnings in the form of a lump sum payment of $327. 8 million after taxes.
Even though only one ticket had the lucky winning numbers, more than 19 million tickets and other prizes were awarded during the drawing.
If you win the national lottery, generally the first you'll hear about it is an email notification. Depending on the type of game, you may receive an email within a few minutes of the draw closing. For more detailed information, you will receive an email within 24 hours, with links to the details of your win and a form to complete.
After they receive your form, you will often then receive a telephone call to discuss the next steps in claiming your prize. If you win a larger prize (for example, a jackpot), a National Lottery representative may visit you in person in the next few days to provide further guidance and paperwork.
If you choose to take the lump sum option in Powerball, you will receive approximately 60-70% of the advertised jackpot. The cash option or lump sum is the total amount of money you will receive as a single payment, before taxes, as opposed to the annuity option, which is paid out in annual payments over a period of decades.
When the jackpot is large, the difference between the cash option and annuity is more significant. Based on the odds of winning, the lump sum amount is calculated according to the expected present value of the total annuity prize.
Factors like market conditions and the amount of winners also have an impact on the size of the lump sum.
The payout for the $1. 5 billion Powerball jackpot varies depending on the number of winners. As of the January 13th, 2016 drawing, the estimated annuity option pays out over 29 years with each payment getting larger.
The estimated cash value of the $1. 5 billion Powerball jackpot is estimated to be around $930 million and is paid out in one lump sum. All winners have the choice of either the annuity option or the cash option when claiming their prize.
Can you play lottery on credit card?
What is the small town to live in in Kentucky?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
namespace SpellChecker.Net.Search.Spell
{
    using System;

    /// <summary>
    /// Interface for string distances.
    /// </summary>
    public interface StringDistance
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Returns a float between 0 and 1 based on how similar the specified strings are to one another.
        /// Returning a value of 1 means the specified strings are identical and 0 means the
        /// string are maximally different.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="s1">The first string.</param>
        /// <param name="s2">The second string.</param>
        /// <returns>a float between 0 and 1 based on how similar the specified strings are to one another.</returns>
        float GetDistance(String s1, String s2);

    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Based in Germany's capital, Berlin, Oculentis is an independent manufacturer, researcher and developer of intraocular lenses. With a company mantra of "we envision, you see", Oculentis crafts products that reduce the risk of cataracts and provide surgeons with a high comfort and high functionality option for their patients.
Founded in 1995, Oculentis' vision is to help people worldwide acheive a better vision, driven by a desire to have high quality and technology goals. Oculentis strive to provide the optimum solution for surgeon and patient, and aim to ensure that their solutions are able to treat various eye diseases and eye conditions.
As a provider of intraocular lenses, Oculentis partners with Device Technologies to bring their ophthalmic solutions to healthcare professionals within the Australian and New Zealand healthcare market.


2010-2011 marks our sixth year creating large-scale demonstrations for introductory biology lectures. As you can see from the photo to the left, students in the back need the demonstrations to be physically large in order to see them. These are called "Garage Demos" because we make them from standard materials found in our garages. Short videos of the demonstrations done in class are posted on YouTube for students to re-view.
We found the demonstrations helpful not only for teaching but also for increasing the creator's understanding of the processes modeled. Therefore we have begun generating resources to encourage faculty, graduate student TAs, and undergraduates to create and use physical materials to teach and learn basic concepts in biology with links posted below.
Blood types: "Styrofoam Red Blood Cells"
Oxidative Phosphorylation:"Student and tennis ball molecules"
Cardiac cycle: "Lecture Hall Heart Contraction"
Blood buffers: "Tennis Ball Buffer"
Protein degradation: "Pipe Insulation Protein and Garbage Bag Proteasome"
Actin - myosin crossbridge cycling: "Paper Plate and Jumprope Contractions"
Chromosome replication and division: "Dirty Sock Chromosomes"


text:
Always Iconic – Austin King
The Founder of Rafterhouse Keeps His Homebuilding Firm on an Upward Track
By Nora Burba Trulsson
Photography by Roehner + Ryan
If things had gone a bit differently, Austin King might have not been known for his well-crafted renovations and new builds in Arcadia and Paradise Valley. Instead, he might have joined the ranks of riders like Eddy Merckx, Tadej Pogacar, Chris Froome and other Tour de Francers on the circuit of competitive road racing.
"My father owned a bike shop," explains King, a long-time Arcadia resident, "and I got interested in road cycling at a young age. In fact, I turned pro after high school and lived in Europe for five years pursuing the sport." But, as King puts it, long hours on windy, rainy roads in West Flanders gave him a lot of time to think about his career. By the time he met his future wife, he realized that road racing did not exactly mesh with a stable family life.
"I ditched the Lycra, sunscreen and power bars for slacks and a laptop," King says of his return to Phoenix and getting into real estate in 2007. He took advantage of the real estate crash by buying distressed properties, fixing them up and selling them. The 180 from cycling to the design/build world was not without precedent for King—his mother is Gera King, who ran Scottsdale Community College's interior design program for years and served as an ASID chapter president. "My mother was always rearranging the house when I was growing up," he remembers. "I guess this was in my blood."
After a few years of fixer-uppers, King became a licensed contractor and Rafterhouse (rafterhouse.com) was born, specializing, at first, in the remodels of classic
Arcadia ranch homes, then expanding into new builds, done initially in a transitional style that complemented the Arcadia architectural aesthetic.
In 2019, he moved his staff—which now numbers 11 and includes an interiors department—into a restored 1920 bungalow on 44th Street in Phoenix, built by Frank Avery, a pioneer Arizona citrus grower. "It's a special place to me," King notes. "I have an appreciation for history and a good story. We try to infuse that into our projects."
The bungalow also came with two adjacent residential lots, for which King collaborated with architect Michael Higgins to design and build two modern-day Craftsman-influenced bungalows, now used as rental properties. "They're fun, vibrant and quaint homes," he says, "and they both relate to the original 1920 house, which is our headquarters."
Bungalows aside, King has been busy building his portfolio with more custom homes, ranging in size from 4,000 to 11,000 square feet, and working with the likes of architects Mark Candelaria, Jim Blochberger and Higgins, as well as landscape firms such as Refined Gardens and Greey/Pickett. "We're still doing transitional homes," he notes, "but we're also getting into more contemporary designs."
Are commercial projects on the horizon for Rafterhouse? "I really don't want to do commercial," King replies. "Our office was a commercial project, and I learned that I really don't like doing that kind of work. I like the emotional side of doing residential work. I like playing counselor and creating a safe, happy place for clients. The client process is important to us."
King was an early adapter of social media to get the word out about his projects. "We let people know that we don't just swing hammers around," he says. "We are part of the creative process."
Taking advantage of what he calls "the lively real estate market now," King just completed the renovation of his own 1951 Arcadia home, and has some eight active residential projects in the area.
At the end of the process, King says he and his team take care to make sure clients are happy when they get the keys to their new house. "I live in Arcadia. I go to OHSO and Safeway. I can't escape my clients. I don't want to walk into those places and think, 'oh shoot, we have to leave 'because I don't want to run into someone." As of now, King can ride his bike to that local brewpub and get milk at the corner supermarket. Homebuilding is one road race he's clearly won.


text:
Showing results by author "D.K. Hood" in All Categories
10-20 Hours (2)
Where Angels Fear
An Addictive Crime Thriller with a Gripping Twist (Detectives Kane and Alton, Book 5)
By: D. K. Hood
Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez
When Ella Tate stumbles into Black Rock Falls, her exhausted and bloodied body is a terrifying sight, but not as frightening as the story she has to tell. Ambushed on their way into town when they stopped to help a man by the side of the road, Ella and her friend Sky ran when he pulled a knife on them. But only one of them got away.
Series: Detectives Kane and Alton Series, Book 5
Whisper in the Night
Detectives Kane and Alton, Book 6
By: D.K. Hood
Fifteen-year-old Lindy Rosen has been having nightmares for weeks, waking in a panic, screaming that there's a man in her room watching her sleep. Her parents assumed it was her overactive imagination, but when one morning they find Lindy missing from her bedroom, they're not so sure. Detective Jenna Alton is called in to investigate. Within hours of the schoolgirl going missing, the kidnapper reaches out to Jenna with a video of Lindy bound and tied to a chair, crying to be set free. And a simple message - you've got 24 hours to find her or I kill her.
Don't Tell a Soul
Narrated by: Alison Farina
When a body is found stuffed into a barrel at a garbage dump, covered in long red lacerations, Detective Jenna Alton and her new deputy, David Kane, rush to the scene. Nothing ever happens in the small American town of Black Rock Falls, so Jenna believes the victim must be one of two recent missing persons, and she fears for the life of the other. Both were strangers to the town, but there's nothing else to link them. Jenna knows someone must have seen something, but no one's talking.
The Crying Season: An edge of your seat crime thriller
It's hiking season in Black Rock Falls, and the small town in Montana is flooded with visitors. But when a hiker finds a human skull on a deserted trail in the woods that surround the town, Detective Jenna Alton is called in to investigate. With no missing persons reported, Jenna has no leads. Then her team makes a shocking discovery - the body of another hiker, a young man, tied to a tree and riddled with bullets. Could the two murders be linked? As more bodies are found, Jenna and her deputy David Kane know that they must venture deep into the forest to find and face the killer.
brilliant even better than the last one
Bring Me Flowers
Narrated by: Julia Vita
Hidden deep in the forest, schoolgirl Felicity Parker is found carefully laid out on a rock with nothing but a freshly picked bunch of flowers next to her lifeless form. Detective Jenna Alton is called in to investigate the gruesome discovery. With the body found just off a popular hiking route, Jenna believes the killer is a visitor to the town...until a second local girl is discovered.
A great story..
The body of Amos Price lies in a pool of blood on the polished floor of an otherwise empty house. With no signs of a break in and no clues left at the scene, Detective Jenna Alton is at a loss. But as the team begins to unpick the life of the reclusive victim, they discover a disturbing link between Amos and the disappearance of several young girls in the county going back years.


text:
package com.heatonresearch.aifh.evolutionary.sort

import com.heatonresearch.aifh.evolutionary.species.Species
import com.heatonresearch.aifh.evolutionary.train.EvolutionaryAlgorithm
import java.util.Comparator

/**
 * This comparator is used to compare two species. This is done by comparing the
 * scores of the two leaders.
 *
 * @param training The trainer.
 */
class SpeciesComparator(val training: EvolutionaryAlgorithm) extends Comparator[Species] with Ordering[Species] {

  override def compare(sp1: Species, sp2: Species): Int = {
    training.bestComparator.compare(sp1.leader, sp2.leader)
  }
}


text:
Science past and present
Tom Siegfried
Physicists debate whether quantum math is as real as atoms
Words like 'ontic' and 'epistemic' are hurled as weapons in war over meaning of subatomic equations
Physicist-philosopher Ernst Mach denied that atoms were more than a hypothetical tool, but later work confirmed their existence — as did IBM's 2013 stop-motion movie "A Boy and His Atom," made by precisely positioning individual atoms. These days, physicists debate whether quantum wave functions are as real as atoms or just tools for forecasting phenomena.
Courtesy: IBM
Second of two parts (read Part 1)
Ernst Mach found atoms useful. But he didn't believe they were real.
The 19th century physicist-philosopher gained his greatest fame as an atom denier. He believed that reality consisted of sounds and colors and pressures, features of nature susceptible to "sensuous contemplation." Reality was what the senses perceived; things like atoms were mere "mental artifices" designed to represent nature for practical purposes.
Hypothesizing atoms permitted successful predictions about chemical reactions or properties of heat, for instance. It's much like how hypotheses about circles and epicycles allowed ancient astronomers to plot the paths of planets and predict eclipses. Epicycles weren't real, and Mach saw no reason that atoms should be, either.
"Atoms cannot be perceived by the senses," he declared. "Like all substances, they are things of thought."
No scientist today denies the reality of atoms. Mach did not foresee the technology that allows them to be imaged, split and smashed. But Mach's conception of atoms and the question of their reality echoes today in a different debate on the physics frontier: the nature of the mathematical expression at the heart of quantum mechanics.
Quantum math describes how atoms behave, in much the way atomic theory helped explain the behavior of the observable world. But atoms, Mach insisted, would forever remain "a tool for representing phenomena, like the functions of mathematics," and you shouldn't mistake mathematical equations for the real phenomena they describe. Yet today some experts believe that the quantum formula describing atomic phenomena is not simply a mathematical tool, but is just as real as atoms are.
That formula is known as the state vector or (a bit loosely) the wave function. Atoms, or any physical system, can be considered to be in a "quantum state"; the wave function describing it permits predictions of the system's future. But to the despair of many fans of traditional, or classical, physics, those predictions are not definite. In a classical state, the math describes the locations and motion of all the particles in the system, enabling a precise forecast of future states. Quantum math offers up only the odds for various possible futures.
Nature obeys those odds — in the long run, quantum probabilities accurately forecast the distribution of experimental results. But the explicit cause-and-effect certainty of classical Newtonian physics is rendered fuzzy. Hopes of restoring such certainty with "hidden variables" have been dashed by experiments based on work by John Bell a half a century ago.
Such experiments have persuaded many physicists to live comfortably with the wave function's probabilities, happy to comply with an often-repeated quantum theorist creed: "Shut up and calculate." But others insist that the wave function or quantum state has real physical existence. Whether it's real or merely a tool for calculating probabilities is today "perhaps the most hotly debated issue in all of quantum foundations," quantum physicist Matthew Leifer writes in a recent paper in the journal Quanta.
Dressing this debate in philosophical jargon, Leifer and others in the field label the two possibilities as "ontic" and "epistemic." These are not words you should try to use at home. But when eavesdropping on quantum debates, you should know that "ontic" refers to something physically real; "epistemic" alludes to mere knowledge about something.
An ontic state exists independently of anybody's knowledge or awareness. "Ontic states are the things that would still exist if all intelligent beings were suddenly wiped out from the universe," writes Leifer, of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada. "An epistemic state is … a description of what an observer currently knows about a physical system. It is something that exists in the mind of the observer rather than in the external physical world."
Historically, quantum states have usually been regarded as epistemic. As the Danish quantum pioneer Niels Bohr famously said, "It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about nature."
Bohr's attitude was incorporated into the view of quantum physics known as the Copenhagen interpretation, once the predominant approach but now widely challenged. Modern adherents of the Copenhagen view tend to favor the epistemic side of the ontic-epistemic debate.
"If asked what quantum states represent knowledge about, neo-Copenhagenists are likely to answer that they represent knowledge about the outcomes of future measurements, rather than knowledge of some underlying observer-independent reality," Leifer writes.
Others think the quantum world makes more sense if the quantum state wave function actually does exist in a physically real sense. In fact, in 2012 physicists Matthew Pusey, Jonathan Barrett and Terry Rudolph published a theorem in Nature Physics positing that the wave function must be ontic. Other theorems seem to demonstrate the opposite, though, and all such mathematical arguments rely on assumptions that may not be valid.
And so the debate goes on — for instance, during a workshop a few months ago at the IBM Watson Research Center north of New York City. There a group of quantum experts, plus one impartial observer, explored various perspectives on the foundations of quantum physics and its relationship to the classical appearance of the ordinary world.
Mark Srednicki, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, argued strongly for the superiority of the ontic wave function over the epistemic approach.
"There are people who are trying to come up with a fully epistemic theory of quantum probability," Srednicki pointed out. "It's really hard. Those guys have been working a long time in trying to get this to work, and I think they have basically not been able to do it."
Another theoretical physicist at the workshop, Sean Carroll of Caltech, also views the quantum state as ontic. "It represents reality," he says. "It's what the universe is."
Probabilities come into play, as he sees it, because of "self-locating uncertainty." You can know what the quantum state is without knowing which branch you occupy on the tree of quantum possibilities described by the wave function.
"The point of self-locating uncertainty is that you can know what the state is, and know what your environment looks like, and yet not know where you are in the state, because there is more than one place that looks like your environment, including you," Carroll says.
But another leading quantum theorist, Wojciech Zurek of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, isn't ready to jump on the ontic bandwagon.
"I don't think the [quantum] state is either epistemic or ontic," he said at the IBM workshop. "For the record, the state is definitely epi-ontic."
Zurek pointed out that quantum states do not exist in the same sense that ordinary classical states exist. For classical states, information about the state can be recorded, copied and shared. A quantum system can be prepared in a known state, but an unknown quantum state can't be examined or copied without destroying it.
"I can confirm a quantum state exists if I know it," Zurek said. "If I don't know it, I cannot find it out.… So I can have a situation where, for example, the state exists for me because I know what it is, but I haven't told you."
Perhaps, Zurek suggested, it doesn't really matter whether you regard a quantum state as ontic, epistemic or epi-ontic. As Leifer notes in his review, the issue doesn't even arise if you don't believe in any underlying reality to begin with — in that case, there is no ontic. And even if some mysterious reality does underlie quantum knowledge, that doesn't mean the quantum state captures that reality uniquely.
But Carroll believes such issues really do make a difference for cosmologists in their efforts to understand the universe. Building a comprehensive model of the universe that faithfully represents its origin and evolution requires a solid quantum foundation.
For instance, much of the discussion at the IBM conference focused on Boltzmann brains, hypothetical transient configurations of matter possessing consciousness and memories (if for just an instant). In some scenarios, quantum fluctuations could produce such an arrangement of matter and energy that exactly duplicates the state of your brain at this moment. So how do you know that you're not just an ephemeral flux of randomness that popped into existence a moment ago and will go poof a moment later?
You'd think that wouldn't be likely. But in fact, if the universe spends most of eternity in a quantum vacuum state, as some cosmological theories suggest, it becomes overwhelmingly probable that you are a Boltzmann brain, since Boltzmann brains would vastly outnumber real ones (if certain views of quantum physics are correct).
Carroll would rather not be a Boltzmann brain. And he and collaborators Kim Boddy and Jason Pollack have proposed a view of quantum physics that avoids them.
"Boltzmann brains are supposed to be things that arise through quantum fluctuations," Carroll explained to me during a break in the action at IBM. "But what a quantum fluctuation is depends upon one's views about the foundations of quantum mechanics."
For instance, a quantum state that doesn't change over time should imply that nothing happens, and so there should be no fluctuations (and no Boltzmann brains). But in quantum physics, multiple possibilities can exist at the same time. So a nonchanging quantum state could be expressed as the sum of two other states that are evolving in time.
"Then the quantum foundation question is, are those evolving states real in some sense, or is it just a math trick and we shouldn't treat them as real?" Carroll said.
If his approach rules out Boltzmann brains, then various approaches to modeling the cosmos become more feasible. Models with multiple universes, for instance, that might be tossed in the trash because they imply too many Boltzmann brains, could be reconsidered.
"So we're saying you can relax a little bit," Carroll said. "It is an example … where your opinion about certain issues in quantum foundations affects whether you think a certain cosmological model is legitimate or not. So I think that's great, because it's really saying that you can't just shut up and calculate."
Perhaps Mach would say the quantum state is just a mathematical tool for representing phenomena, just as he believed atoms to be. Or maybe he'd see in it progress toward his view that physicists would someday give up playing with atoms as though they were stones and forge a more vivid picture of reality.
"As the intellect … grows in discipline," Mach predicted, "physical science will give up its mosaic play with stones and will seek out the boundaries and forms of the bed in which the living stream of phenomena flows."
Follow me on Twitter: @tom_siegfried


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