Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) are calling all innovative and successful rural businesswomen to enter, across the fields of horticulture, agriculture, dairy and tourism.
The Awards focus on the success of women operating businesses and contributing to their local economy and community in rural locations.
The competition promotes entrepreneurship and encourages technological innovation in remote areas.
Previous award winners include women lifestyle publishers, honey producers, native nursery operators, physiotherapists and adventure-tourism providers.
Last year's Love of the Land Award was won by Marian Hirst of Bay Blueberries (Hastings) and was sponsored by Agrisea Ltd.
Being environmentally-friendly and sustainable was important for Marian to assist her passion in producing quality apples and blueberries.
Marian's Bay Blueberries also won the 2016 Ballance Farm Environmental Supreme Award for the East Coast Region.
"Being acknowledged with a 'Love of the Land' award in the Enterprising Rural Women Awards has given me the opportunity to connect with inspirational business women throughout New Zealand," says Marian Hirst.
"I have made friends, been inspired, challenged and encouraged by a strong and supportive local network of Rural Women New Zealand members, who truly understand what it means for me to be a woman in the business of horticulture."
Supreme Award: Enterprising Rural Woman Achievement Award for standout business success in the rural sector.


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Q: Android arp table - developing questions I've got two problems with the android app I'm writing.
I'm reading out the local arp table from /proc/net/arp and save ip and corresponding mac address in a hash map. See my function. It's working properly.
    /**
     * Extract and save ip and corresponding MAC address from arp table in HashMap
     */
    public Map<String, String> createArpMap() throws IOException {
        checkMapARP.clear();
        BufferedReader localBufferdReader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File("/proc/net/arp")));
        String line = "";

        while ((line = localBufferdReader.readLine()) != null) {
            String[] ipmac = line.split("[ ]+");
            if (!ipmac[0].matches("IP")) {
                String ip = ipmac[0];
                String mac = ipmac[3];
                if (!checkMapARP.containsKey(ip)) {
                    checkMapARP.put(ip, mac);
                }
            }
        }
        return Collections.unmodifiableMap(checkMapARP);
    }

*

*First problem:
I'm also using a broadcast receiver. When my app receives the State WifiManager.NETWORK_STATE_CHANGED_ACTION i check if the connection to the gateway is established. If true i call my function to read the arp table. But in this stage the system has not yet builded up the arp table. Sometimes when i receive the connection state the arp table is sill empty.
Anyone got an idea to solve this?

*Second problem:
I want to save the ip and mac address of the gateway in a persistent way. Right now i'm using Shared Preferences for this. Maybe it's better to write to an internal storage?
Any tips?

A: For the first problem you could start a new thread that runs that method after sleeping for a set amount of time or until it has some entries (Make a Runnable with a mailbox to get the Map) - unless you need to use the map directly, then I think the only way is to wait for the entries. For example (if you need to use the map directly):
public Map<String, String> createArpMap() throws IOException {
    checkMapARP.clear();
    BufferedReader localBufferdReader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File("/proc/net/arp")));
    String line = "";
    while ((line = localBufferdReader.readLine()) == null) {
        localBufferdReader.close();
        Thread.sleep(1000);
        localBufferdReader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File("/proc/net/arp")));
    }
    do {
        String[] ipmac = line.split("[ ]+");
        if (!ipmac[0].matches("IP")) {
            String ip = ipmac[0];
            String mac = ipmac[3];
            if (!checkMapARP.containsKey(ip)) {
                checkMapARP.put(ip, mac);
            }
        }
    } while ((line = localBufferdReader.readLine()) != null);
    return Collections.unmodifiableMap(checkMapARP);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Home Tags Posts tagged with "Cranston"
Samuel Cranston, Rhode Island's 30-Term Governor
Rhode Island's Governor Samuel Cranston won election as Rhode Island's governor 30 times, once twice in one year. No other governor surpassed Cranston's record.
During his eventful life, Cranston was captured at sea by pirates, won office at the same time his nemesis came into power and prevented Connecticut from swallowing Rhode Island. He also fathered 15 children with two wives.
This is his story.
Samuel Cranston
Samuel Cranston was born in Newport in August 1659, and he was well educated and well connected. His father, John Cranston, served as governor of Rhode Island for two terms. His mother was the daughter of Rhode Island's colonial president Jeremy Clarke .
Cranston went to work as a merchant and goldsmith to support himself. He married the granddaughter of Roger Williams, Mary Hart. After doing so, he decided to go to sea.
Pirates, however, captured Samuel Cranston and held him for seven years. His wife gave him up for dead and planned to marry another man in an evening wedding ceremony. As fate would have it, Cranston got away from his pirate captors and made his way to Newport just in time to stop the wedding vows.
Samuel Cranston and his wife, Mary, had four children before her death in 1710. He then married his late brother's wife, Judith Parrott, in 1711. They had 11 more children.
Governor of Rogues Island
Nearing 40, he won an appointment as governor when his brother-in-law, Walter Clark, resigned. Cranston would then win election as governor 29 times.
As governor, he handled problems with patience and diplomacy, saving the colony's independence and endearing him to the residents of Rhode Island.
In colonial times, people called Rhode Island 'Rogues Island,' early and often. Cotton Mather called it the 'sewer of New England' because it welcomed heretics and Quakers banished in Massachusetts.
It was also called 'the perverse sister,' 'the evil genius' and 'the receptacle of riff raff" all the way to the Constitutional Convention. Rhode Island wouldn't send delegates convention–and then, when it came to ratification, Rhode Island held out until the other states threatened an economic embargo.
Almost all of these accusations against the state have proven true, according to Terry D' Amato Spencer in Rhode Island's Rogues and Rascals. Rhode Island, for example, was a haven for pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy.
Almost as soon as he became governor, Samuel Cranston faced his nemesis: the Royal Governor of New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Lord Bellomont.
Bellomont was bound and determined to end Rhode Island's freedom and place it under Royal Authority specifically–his Royal Authority. Once again Cranston navigated through his traps (need little bit of explanation). An act of Providence made that problem go away in 1701 when Bellomont died.
Lord Bellomont
Pirates of the Narragansett
Piracy was an ongoing problem in Rhode Island waters. So much so that none other than James Fenimore Cooper wrote a book about the pirates in these waters called the The Red Rover. Among the pirates Governor Cranston had to deal with was Capt. William Kidd.
Kidd came to the colony and anchored off of the island of Jamestown in Narragansett Bay. Cranston sent his tax collector along with an armed escort to arrest him. Two warning shots fired by cannon thwarted their effort.
Willim Kidd
King William's War (1688-1697) ended the year before Cranston became governor. Queen Anne's War (1702-1713) would break out in 1702 and finally end in 1713. In both wars, France and England vied for control of North America.
During these Anglo-French Wars, the warring nations would issue letters of marque, essentially licenses, to attack and capture enemy shipping. The letters were issued to private people, making them privateers, sometimes called corsairs. Herein lies the problem: When the wars ended, so did their licenses. Then the privateers and their crews had no work. But that didn't stop them. They just carried on as usual. Rhode Island, and Narragansett Bay in particular, had hundreds of nooks and crannies they could hide in from local and royal authorities.
Privateers were popular in Rhode Island, because they had to share some of their plunder with the government. That eased the burden on taxpayers. So Samuel Cranston for many years turned a blind eye to piracy while assuring officials in London he went after them. But public sentiment turned against pirates, and in 1723 Rhode Island hanged 26 pirates under the command of the notoriously cruel Edward Low.
Threats From North and South
After Lord Bellomont died, new threats to Rhode Island's independence arose. The tiny colony's existence was tenuous at best. Governor Cranston kept Rhode Island in existence with a combination of political astuteness and luck.
Connecticut and Massachusetts both coveted the colony because of Narragansett Bay. Maritime trade was their lifeblood, and the Connecticut shoreline was blocked by Long Island. Ships from Boston had to navigate around Cape Cod and then face unfriendly currents.
Narragansett Bay, however, had clear access to the sea and, perhaps more importantly, a clear sail to the Caribbean.
Fending Off Threats
Cranston fended off Massachusetts' governor, Joseph Dudley, who tried to take command of Rhode Island's militia. He demonstrated to the colonial overseers in London that Rhode Island was capable of governing itself. And he settled the boundary line between Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Samuel Cranston was able to checkmate threats to Rhode Island's sovereignty and bring it into an acceptable relationship within the imperial scheme. He also transformed a group of tiny villages into a stable colony on its way to eventual statehood.
Partly because of Samuel Cranston, no other land had been granted the freedom Rhode Island had, government by majority rule and freedom of conscience.
He died on April 26, 1727. According to Rhode Island historian George Washington Greene, he left 'no public man so universally loved behind.'
Leo Caisse, the author of this story, passed away in 2020. We miss him greatly. He published the book, The Civilian Conservation Corps: A Guide to Their Works in Rhode Island. He also published a number of historical articles, including Ears On the World in America in World War II Magazine, October, 2017. Leo earned a B.A. and M.A. in American History from Providence College and he lived in East Providence, R.I.
Image of grave medallion: CC BY 3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32582013. This story was updated in 2022.
How the Quahog Became a Rhode Island Icon
If you know anything about Rhode Island, you know the quahog is sacred and peculiar to America's smallest and wateriest state.
But it wasn't always so.
Another mollusk harvested from Narragansett Bay dominated Rhode Island cuisine for centuries. We know that because Roger Williams in 1643 described the Narragansett Indians fishing for oysters.
But World War II, pollution and hurricanes wiped out the Narragansett Bay oyster industry.
The quahog then took center stage.
The Oyster
Oystering in Narragansett Bay, like most fisheries, went through a series of ups and downs over the years.
In 1700, oyster fishermen harvested the mollusks – but for their shells, to make lime. The Rhode Island legislature banned the practice in 1734 as a waste of good oyster meat.
More oyster regulations followed as circumstances dictated.
In 1766, the legislature tried to prevent overfishing by requiring oysters to be harvested with tongs. Three decades later, the state started closing oyster beds for the same reason.
Then during the 19th century, the General Assembly passed legislation to encourage oyster fishing and aquaculture.
But by 1896, the oyster beds started to diminish because of industrial pollution. The Providence Gas Co. got itself sued in 1905 for polluting the Narragansett Bay.
Boats dredging for oysters, around 1875. The vessel tows the dredge along the bottom of the sea collecting the bottom-dwelling oysters.
The Great Hurricane of 1938
Oyster harvesters had a banner year in 1911, landing 1.4 million bushels of oysters. But things went downhill from there, as pollution continued to harm the oyster beds. Then in 1938 came the Great New England hurricane, which pretty much wiped out the oyster industry.
The devastating hurricane of 1938 dealt a near-fatal blow to Narragansett Bay's oyster industry. It wiped out shucking houses, shipping wharves and oyster boats. Then World War II came along, depriving the remaining oyster companies of strong backs and willing hands to harvest oysters.
Fortunately for Rhode Island stomachs, the quahog stepped in. Literally. A quahog moves through the mud with a muscular little foot.
Enter the Quahog
A quahog (pronounced KO-hog) is a large, hard-shelled clam.. 'Quahog' comes from the Narragansett word, 'poquauhock.' The Narragansett people had used their shells for wampum. New Englanders are really the only ones who call them quahogs. Others call them chowder clams.
Though quahogs are native to the Atlantic coast from Prince Edward Island to the Yucatan, they are most abundant from Cape Cod to New Jersey. You'll find Rhode Island smack in the center of quahog country.
Population growth along Narragansett Bay has actually helped the quahog population. Quahogs feed on plankton, and plankton feeds on nitrates, which water treatment plants can't filter out. One of the nice things about quahogs (in addition to their flavor) is that they filter impurities out of the water.
Quahogs burrow into mud in the intertidal zone and below the tidewaters. Digging them requires a strong back and a stronger work ethic.
Nelson Blount
Nelson Blount claimed credit for making the quahog a Rhode Island staple after the 1938 hurricane, one of the deadliest and most destructive ever to strike New England. His family had an oyster-harvesting-and-shucking business in Barrington, R.I., since the 1880s. It didn't take much for Blount to realize the storm had wiped out his family business, unless he could find another shellfish to sell.
F. Nelson Blount in the cab of Rahway Valley Railroad #15 at North Walpole, New Hampshire, 1963.
So Blount began to sell the Narragansett Bay quahog as a tasty alternative to the oyster. Formally known as F. Nelson Blount, he was a terrific salesman. His sales pitch worked.
Rhode Island embraced the hard-shelled bivalve. It made its way into important Rhode Island dishes like stuffies (stuffed clams), clams casino (a version of stuffies) and the controversial tomato-based clam chowder.
Blount did well, too, growing his company into the Blount Seafood Corporation, which sold the clams that went into Campbell's Soup clam chowder.
By 1987, Rhode Island's Legislature declared the quahog the Rhode Island State Shell.
Devotees of popular culture will recognize the quahog from the adult cartoon series, Family Guy. The protagonist (you can't really call him a star) lives in Quahog, R.I., a fictional town modeled on Cranston, R.I.
This story was updated in 2022. Images: Nelson Blount By RickKfoury – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=105312758.
Six New England Places To Learn About Irish History
Outside of Ireland, New England may be one of the best places to explore Irish history. After all, many people of Irish ancestry live here – and we do love our history.
Massachusetts and New Hampshire have special claims on Irish history. More than one in five residents of each state claims Irish ancestry. And about 18 percent of people living in Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont have Irish ancestors. Connecticut may be the least Irish state in New England, with only 16.6 percent of its people claiming Irish ancestors. But still, it's in the top ten, with only Delaware claiming slightly more.
We have already brought you six Irish landmarks in New England, but many of them are closed in the winter. So in honor of St. Patrick's Day, we bring you six more places where you can learn about Irish history. Even if it's cold outside.
Ireland's Great Hunger Museum
Learn about the most tragic chapter in Irish history at the Ireland's Great Hunger Museum
Between 1845-52, half of all immigrants to the United States came from Ireland. A potato blight and English oppression caused mass starvation, disease and death.
The Irish came to the U.S. in vessels called famine ships. If they didn't die of disease or hunger aboard the ships, they crowded into slums when they arrived. At Quinnipiac University, Ireland's Great Hunger Museum in Hamden claims the largest collection of visual art, artifacts and printed materials about that tragic episode in Irish history.
The exhibit "Making America: The Irish in the Civil War Era" ends on March 17. The work of Irish immigrant John Mulvany, a sketch artist during the Civil War, accompanies the exhibit.
3011 Whitney Ave, Hamden, Conn.
Burnham Tavern
Both Revolutionary and Irish history can be found at the Burnham Tavern.
During the American Revolution, some of the most notable fighters on both sides had Irish ancestry. Two – Henry Knox and John Sullivan — served as Washington's generals. Another, Jeremiah O'Brien, fought the first naval battle of the American Revolution.
On June 12, 1775, Jeremiah O'Brien led a group of Machias men – some armed only with pitchforks — in capturing a British schooner called the Margaretta. They planned the maneuver at the Burnham Tavern, today a National Historic Site. Visitors can learn the history of the battle and see some of the O'Brien family's belongings.
Should you decide to explore Irish history in Machias, you'll find a classic, picturesque Downeast town. And you can get the best blueberry pie in Maine and therefore the world at Helen's.
Main Street, Machias, Maine
James Michael Curley House
The James Michael Curley house.
James Michael Curley, Boston's 'Rascal King,' personified the big city political boss for the first half of the 20th century. He spent lavishly on parks and hospitals, which not only served his immigrant constituents but created jobs for them.
Curley first won election as mayor in 1914, and went on to win three more times. He also won as Massachusetts governor and congressman. But he went to prison twice, once for sitting in for a friend on a civil service exam and once for mail fraud. Curley embarrassed the Democratic Party, and he couldn't get elected as a Democratic delegate to the 1932 convention. Somehow he went as a delegate from Puerto Rico.
Curley built a mansion in Jamaica Plain with shamrocks cut out of the shutters at 350 The Jamaicaway. He never quite explained how he managed to build it on a mayor's salary. Today there are plans to open the house to the public on a regular basis. Until then, you can embrace Irish history by visiting James Michael Curley Park near Faneuil Hall.
1 Union Street, Boston, Mass.
First Parish Church, East Derry
The First Parish Church, where potato and Irish history were made.
The Scots-Irish arrived in New England at the invitation of the Massachusetts Puritans, who viewed them as a persecuted Protestant minority like themselves.
The Puritans didn't exactly embrace the poor Scots-Irish who first arrived in five ships in 1718. They strongly encouraged them to push on toward the frontier (Maine and New Hampshire). The Scots-Irish settlers provided a convenient barrier to unfriendly French and Indians.
In 1719, a group of Scots-Irish settled Nutfield, which evolved into the towns of Derry, Londonderry, Windham, and part of Manchester. When they arrived, they planted the first white potato in North America.
A historic marker in front of the First Parish Church in historic East Derry notes the historic planting of the spud:
The marker reads, "In April 1719, sixteen Presbyterian Scotch-Irish families settled here in two rows of cabins along West Running Brook easterly of Beaver Brook. Initially known as Nutfield, the settlement became Londonderry in 1723. The first year, a field was planted, known as the Common Field, where the potato was first grown in North America."
On April 12, Nutfield kicks off its 300th anniversary celebration, including a strawberry festival, a founders weekend and an old home day.
47 E Derry Rd, East Derry, N.H.
Governor William Sprague Mansion
Not just a Yankee monument, the Gov. William Sprague house also played a role in Irish history.
On New Year's Eve 1843, Rhode Island textile baron Amasa Sprague went for a walk. His servant later found his body, shot and bludgeoned.
The rich and powerful Sprague owned several textile mills, including the Cranston Print Works and the Slater Mill. he had had a dispute with three Irish brothers who ran a saloon. One of those brothers, John Gordon, was convicted of his murder.
John Gordon's real crime was to be Irish at a time when hatred of the Irish ran rampant. The judge had actually told the jury to pay more attention to Yankee witnesses than Irish witnesses.
Even though circumstantial evidence showed John Gordon hadn't committed the crime, the state hanged him. After Gordon's execution, Rhode Island banned capital punishment. Then in 2011, Gov. Lincoln Chafee pardoned him.
To trace the events in this sad chapter of Irish history, you can visit Cranston to see where Sprague and Gordon lived. Sprague lived in what is now known as the Governor William Sprague Mansion. The house, now a museum, was named for his son who also lived there.
Sprague died on the grounds of St. Mary's Church in Cranston, a 100-year old building. His Slater Mill is now on the National Register of Historic Places. You can see a video at the mill in March.
And John Gordon lived above a general store and saloon that is now St. George Maronite Catholic Church.
Governor William Sprague Mansion, 1351 Cranston St, Cranston, R.I.
Battery Street Historic District
Burlington, Vt., has a lot of Irish history, especially along the waterfront.
Nathaniel Hawthorne visited Burlington in 1832 and published a sketch of the young city. He noted "the great number of Irish emigrants" to be found there. They were everywhere: "lounging" around the wharves," "swarming in huts and mean dwellings near the lake," and "elbow[ing] the native citizens" out of work. (You can read the whole sketch here.)
Burlington had lots of Irish immigrants – 30 percent in the mid-19th century. They first sailed from Ireland to Canada, then came down Lake Champlain on steamboats. Most settled near the steamboat wharf.
Irish laborers lived and worked along the industrial waterfront. Today, a section of that waterfront is known as the Battery Street Historic District.
You can join Burlington's celebration of its Irish history on St. Patrick's Day with an annual Irish Heritage Festival.
Battery Street Historic District: rough boundaries are Main, St. Paul, and Maple Streets, and Lake Champlain.
Irish History End Notes
Images: Ireland's Great Hunger Museum, By Jllm06 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50748374; Burnham Tavern By Unknown photographer – Reproduced from an original postcard published by G. W. Morris, Portland, Maine, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19769449; First Parish Church of East Derry By John Phelan – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24513489; Gov. William Sprague Mansion By Swampyank – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23861004; Battery Street Historic District By Mfwills – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8672750.
Israel Potter, Revolutionary POW, Hobnobs in Europe With a King and 2 Founding Fathers
Israel Potter, a Revolutionary War POW, spent 50 years in exile in England, where he met King George III, Benjamin Franklin and a founding father imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Israel Potter
The British had captured Potter shortly after the Battle of Bunker Hill and took him to England aboard a prison ship.
After returning home in 1825, he published his amazing story, which sold for 28 cents throughout New England. He wrote it to persuade Congress to grant him a pension in his old age.
Herman Melville then picked up the story and wrote a fictionalized version of it, adding encounters with Ethan Allen and John Paul Jones.
In his book, Israel Potter wrote he couldn't return home because he couldn't afford the voyage for the wife he married in England or their children. The story made some sense: the U.S. government did pay for prisoners of war. But historians have uncovered another reason for Israel Potter's long stay in England, one he conveniently left out: He probably spied for the British.
He claimed he was born in Cranston, R.I., on Aug. 1, 1744, to reputable parents who loved and indulged him – until he turned 18. He then fell in love with a neighbor's daughter, but his parents forbade him from seeing her. So he ran away from home.
Israel Potter spent the next few years clearing land in Northern New Hampshire, working as a surveyor, hunting, trapping and trading with Indians. After nearly three years he returned home to his parents, who had given him up for dead. They still refused to let him marry the girl he loved, so he again ran away – this time to sea.
But the ship burned, and Israel Potter, a castaway, signed on to two whaling voyages. When he returned to Rhode Island he got a job with a farmer in Coventry in 1774 and enlisted in the local militia.
When he learned of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, he marched with his regiment to Boston. There he immediately went to work digging breastworks for the Battle of Bunker Hill. During the battle he fought valiantly and received a musket ball in his hip and one in his ankle.
Meeting the King
King George III
He then volunteered to crew aboard the Washington, a tragic mistake that ruined his life. The ship was to patrol Boston Harbor, preventing British ships from bringing supplies to the besieged soldiers. But the British quickly captured the Washington, and Israel Potter ended up in a floating prison in Portsmouth.
He escaped, and ultimately managed to find work with Englishmen sympathetic to the American cause. Then his tale grows completely implausible: He got a job with Princess Amelia, sister of King George III, for three months. Following that, he went to work for King George at Kew Garden. One day he was gravelling a walk when he was
unexpectedly accosted by his Majesty: who, with much apparent good nature, enquired of me of what country I was– "an American born, may it please your majesty, was my reply (taking off my hat, which he requested me instantly to replace on my head) — "ah! (continued he with a smile) an American, a stubborn, a very stubborn people indeed! — and what brought you to this country, and how long have you been here!" "The fate of war, your Majesty–I was brought to this country a prisoner about eleven months since," –and thinking this a favourable opportunity to acquaint him with a few of my grievances, I briefly stated to him how much I had been harrassed by the soldiers–"while here employed they will not trouble you," was the only reply he made, and passed on.
Potter concluded the king was less tyrannical and more open-minded to the Americans than he had heard in the colonies. His sympathetic portrayal of King George suggests something else: he had, by then, shifted his loyalties to the British.
Unpacking the Lies
Two centuries later, David Chacko and Alexander Kulcsa grew obsessed with the story of Israel Potter. They found his publisher, Henry Trumbull, had a reputation in his day as a prolific literary liar. Trumbull once published a narrative with 22 chronological errors on a single page.
And so the two men sought to uncover the truth about Israel Potter. They found, first of all, he was not born of reputable parents on Aug. 1, 1744. He was born in 1754, the illegitimate son of Amey Ralph. Eventually the Potter family, prominent Quakers, adopted him, perhaps because Mr. Potter was his real father.
Other, early parts of his tale ring true. Surveying did take place in northern New Hampshire when he claimed he had done that work. He probably told the truth about the ship that burned. But if he had taken the whaling voyages he said he took, he would have returned in 1777 – well after the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Kulcsa and Chacko found another problem with his tale of Bunker Hill: No Rhode Island regiments fought in the battle. Not one. They chalked it up as a complete fabrication.
The British did capture the Washington, though Israel Potter left out one important detail: the crew had mutinied on its first voyage. And he probably did end up on a floating prison in Portsmouth, England.
But what of his encounter with King George? Probably another lie.
Meeting Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (detail) 1767
"Curiously, when Potter's memoir grows most impossible, it becomes, in a hectic sense, most true," wrote Kulcsa and Chacko.
Israel Potter wrote that he began to think about surrender when he got a message from Squire Woodcock, an English radical sympathetic to the American cause. He went to see him and found two other Yankee sympathizers: John Horne Tooke and James Bridges. They asked him to go to Paris for them, secretly. They gave him a letter to take to Benjamin Franklin in the false heel of a boot.
Israel Potter did visit Benjamin Franklin, who saved the letter he brought. But the letter wasn't what Potter said it was. He claimed it represented the views of various British ministers.
The letter, wrote Chacko and Kulcsa, was no more than an introduction and an attempt by certain parties to establish a surreptitious contact with the American commissioner. It certainly didn't come from radical English gentlemen, as it was written in an unintelligible hand and filled with misspellings.
Franklin dismissed the letter as a clumsy attempt to spy on him. At the bottom of it he wrote,
"Israel Potters, pretended Letter from some Gentm. in England."
Franklin gave Israel Potter money to return home to Rhode Island – but he stayed in England.
Another odd event suggests Israel Potter had worked on behalf of the British until the American Revolution ended: His visit to Henry Laurens in 1781.
Laurens had been vice president of South Carolina and president of the Continental Congress. The British captured him at sea and kept him under close watch in the Tower of London. "No one was permitted to visit him without a warrant from one of the three secretaries of state," wrote Chacko and Kulcsa. But Israel Potter paid him a visit.
Why? The British wanted to persuade Laurens to defect. He didn't, though Israel Potter may have had a hand in their efforts. Laurens wrote of a visit by a young man named 'Bradfille,' who offered to help him and asked him many questions. His guards later told him 'Bradfille' – perhaps Israel Potter – was a British spy.
Israel Potter lived in relative comfort in London until 1783, when the war ended – and the British, presumably, no longer had any use for him.
His life then spiraled downward into poverty and wretchedness. He worked as a coachman, then a brickmaker, then a chair mender and, finally, a rag picker. He married a poor but respectable woman, who gave him 10 children. He buried seven of them under the age of five, two before the age of 20. Then he buried his wife.
That part of his story is probably true, concluded Chacko and Kulcsa. A writer interviewed Israel Potter around 1819 and described him as a scavenger.
Finally he and his surviving son Thomas went to the American consul in London – probably because he learned Congress had agreed to fund pensions for Revolutionary War veterans. Israel Potter was so weak and ill he had to crawl up the steps. The consul cheerfully agreed to help him. On April 5, 1822, he set sail for his native land.
Israel Potter hoped an inheritance awaited him in Cranston. It didn't. His brothers had sold all his father's property and divided the proceeds among themselves.
In hopes of getting a pension from Congress, he wrote, or rather dictated to Henry Trumbull, The Life and Remarkable Adventures of Israel R. Potter.
Congress didn't believe his story either, and denied him his pension. He spent the rest of his days eking out a meager living repairing chairs in Rhode Island. He probably died in 1826, his gravesite unknown.
With thanks to Chacko, David, and Alexander Kulcsa. "Israel Potter: Genesis of a Legend." The William and Mary Quarterly 41, no. 3 (1984): 365-89. doi:10.2307/1922730. This story updated in 2022.
Six Abandoned Places
What is so appealing about abandoned places? Cyberspace abounds with photos, videos and bloggers waxing elegiac about abandoned old mills, mansions and malls.
Tim Edensor, a geography professor at Manchester Metropolitan University, studies why people like abandoned places.
He called them 'marginal spaces filled with old and obscure objects,' where people can see and feel things they can't in everyday life. They're about time, nature, mortality and disinvestment, he says.
Perhaps people like abandoned places because they feel genuine in a world full of commercial clutter and Disneyized cityscapes. Or perhaps they long for an industrial past, when manufacturing provided jobs that would support a family.
Here are six abandoned places, one in each New England state.
Remington Arms, Bridgeport, Conn.
Remington Arms, one of the many abandoned places that once made something.
You can barely swing a cat in New England without hitting an abandoned factory. They're a sad reminder of the region's past as an industrial powerhouse. The old plants stand as silent witnesses to the impact of trade deals, tax incentives and government policies rewarding finance over manufacturing.
New England's once-enormous textile industry began to move south around the turn of the 20th century in search of cheap land and labor. A similar fate befell the high-tech industry that sprang up after World War II.
Factories that made products for the military continued to thrive, however, and successive wars masked manufacturing's decline. Remington Arms serves as a prime example.
Eliphalet Remington founded the company in 1816 in New York. He sold it in 1888 to a company that also owned the Union Metallic Cartridge Co. in Bridgeport and the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. of New Haven.
Remington made arms for France, Britain, Russia and the United States during World War I. During the Great Depression, it began making ammunition, and it made the Springfield bolt-action rifle for the U.S. government during World War II.
Remington's Bridgeport factory expanded in 1915. At one point it was called 'the greatest small arms and ammunition plant in the world.' At its height, Remington Arms employed more than 17,000 workers.
Remington Arms closed its Bridgeport plant in 1986.
Today the abandoned Remington Arms plant still sits at 812 Barnum Ave. in Bridgeport, though plans call for its demolition.
Since workers were killed there, it is said to be haunted.
Abandoned Locomotives, The Allagash, Maine
One of the ghost locomotives in the Allagash wilderness.
Deep in the heart of Maine's Allagash region sit two abandoned locomotives silently rusting in the wilderness. Only a few intrepid canoes, hikers and snowmobilers can see the hulking machines, miles from any road or railhead.
An independent logger named King Ed Lacroix, put the ghost locomotives there. He built a 13-mile railroad in the middle of the Allagash — some would call it nowhere — to haul pulpwood to Maine paper mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket. There the mills turned it into newsprint.
By 1933 the Great Depression had depressed demand for newsprint, so Lacroix abandoned the Allagash, the railroad, the rolling stock and the ghost locomotives.
By the time demand for paper picked up, trucks hauled logs more efficiently than railroads.
Today the abandoned places that Ed Lacroix left are part of the remote and scenic Allagash Wilderness Waterway protected by the State of Maine.
Abandoned Bear Pens, Boston
Bear pens, among Boston's odder abandoned places.
Abandoned bear pens in Boston? Yup. They're part of Zoo New England, formerly the Franklin Zoo in Franklin Park.
Frederick Law Olmsted designed an open plan zoological park surrounded by the larger park, also designed by Olmsted. The free zoo was a huge hit when it opened in 1912. Millions came each year. Then came the depression and the decline of the wild zoo.
Bears roamed freely (well, freely-ish) in a large stone enclosure at the bottom of a grand stone staircase. Large bas-reliefs of bears still stand amid the decaying cages.
Bears before their pens became abandoned places. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library.
In 1958, a city commission took over the zoo and tried to figure out how to revitalize it. They built a fence around the wild menagerie and charged admission for it. The bear pens, hard to tear down, and a badger enclosure, were simply left outside to rot.
They appear in the book and film Mystic River, where a murder victim was found in the pits.
More photos here.
Beech Hill Estate, Dublin, NH
Beech Hill Estate. Even mansions can be abandoned places.
Just because the National Park Service lists a building on the National Register of Historic Places doesn't mean it's been preserved. Such is the case with Beech Hill Estate in Dublin, N.H., as it also makes the list of abandoned places.
Noted architect Charles Platt designed the large Georgian Revival manor house for his sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Francis Jencks of Baltimore. Like other wealthy Victorians, they fled the hot cities along the Eastern Seaboard for the summer colony along Dublin Lake. Platt designed several other mansions for the Dublin summer colony, but none so large as the Beech Hill Estate. A prominent landmark, the house has a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside.
Built in 1902-03, the house changed hands before becoming the guest house for a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in 1949. Though it remains in private hands, the owners abandoned the house in the 1980s and it shows plenty of signs of neglect. The surrounding property is now conservation land with public hiking trails.
Abandoned Kmart, Cranston, R.I.
Cranston's abandoned Kmart. Dead retail space make up a lot of abandoned places these days.
The company that incorporated as S.S. Kresge in 1916 had 85 U.S. stores. In 1962, the company had grown to hundreds of discount stores and took on the name Kmart.
By 2000, Kmart peaked with 2,171 stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Then shopping malls started to die, Kmart bought Sears and began to shut down stores. In Rhode Island, both Kmart and Sears stores closed in Warwick, Woonsocket, South Attleboro, Swansea and nearby Fall River in Massachusetts.
In August 2017, the company announced the closing of Rhode Island's last Kmart in Cranston.
Abandoned Interstate 189, Burlington, Vt.
I-189, one of Vermont's abandoned places.
Once the Federal Highway Administration planned to build an interstate from Exit 13 on I-89 in Burlington, Vt., to the industrial waterfront where it would service freight carriers. But then a toxic barge canal stopped highway construction just beyond the US Route 7 interchange, only 1.488 miles from its beginning.
About half a mile of unfinished highway remained, though, so Jersey barriers prevented traffic on the orphaned stretch of pavement.
And then industry disappeared. By the 1980s Burlington's commercial activity mainly involved tourism, so transportation officials abandoned plans to finish I-189, at least for a while.
In 2012, federal highway planners came up with a new plan to extend I-189 to funnel traffic from Route 7 to downtown. Opposition to the plan halted construction, and the abandoned pavement serves as a pedestrian walkway for curious explorers.
Images: Remington Arms by Eric Kilby; Franklin Park Bear Dens By Ekmall – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29727050; Beech Hill Estate By User:Magicpiano – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25650567; abandoned Kmart by JJBers Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0); abandoned interstate by Doug Kerr Attribution Share-Alike 2.0. This story last updated in 2022.
The Revolutionary Holidays You May or May Not Celebrate
Revolutionary holidays didn't start and end with Independence Day.
When the Revolutionary War ended, Trumbull, Conn., celebrated with A Great Jubilee Day on May 26, 1783. The grand event featured militia maneuvers, feasting, prayer, speeches and toasts. The town was then called Stratford, and the holiday is now called Memorial Day.
Historic reenactment at Mount Independence
Holidays used to be local affairs, and they often moved around the calendar. For many years, the entire United States celebrated only two annual holidays: Washington's Birthday and the Fourth of July. Much of New England, of course, didn't celebrate Christmas.
Early Thanksgivings happened when state or local officials decided it happened. In 1816, for example, Massachusetts celebrated Thanksgiving on November 28, while New Hampshire observed it on November 14. It wasn't until 1941 that Congress passed a federal law making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.
New Englanders continue to celebrate Revolutionary holidays that commemorate events in the war with Britain. They tend to happen in the summer, often to attract tourists to their craft fairs, parades and reenactments.
Revolutionary Holidays in RI and Vermont
The Burning of the Gaspee by Charles deWolf Brownell, c1892
Since 1965, Pawtuxet Village in Warwick and Cranston, R.I., has celebrated Gaspee Days around Memorial Day. The festival commemorates Rhode Island's version of the Boston Tea Party, when patriots burned a British customs schooner in 1772.
Celebrations of the Gaspee Affair in 2018 include a road race, parade, party, fireworks and reenactment of the ship burning. In 2018, Gaspee Days was scheduled to start on May 26.
In Vermont, Bennington Battle Day is celebrated every August 16. Vermont is perhaps the only state to commemorate an event that happened in another state. The Battle of Bennington, an important victory in the American Revolution, took place in 1777 in New York.
Bennington Battle Day happens every year with a battle reenactment, but the local historical society holds events throughout the summer. The 2018 Bennington Battle Celebration includes a road race, a ceremony at the memorial and a fashion show of historic costumes.
Powder House Day
New Haven celebrates Powder House Day every year to commemorate the events of April 22, 1775. Then Capt. Benedict Arnold and his Governor's Foot Guard were eager to help out during the Siege of Boston. So they demanded the keys to the powder house so they could actually use their weapons.
Benedict Arnold celebrated in one of Connecticut's revolutionary holidays.
Town Meeting had voted against sending help, but the Foot Guard ignored the vote.
Arnold sent a message to the selectmen that if he didn't get the keys in five minutes, his men would break into the power house. He got the keys.
In 2018, New Haven celebrated Powder House Day on April 21 with a memorial service at the Center Church on the Green. Then a re-enactor playing Arnold marched across the Green and demands a key from the mayor. (Click here for the script.)
The day also featured carriage rides, a parade and tours of the new trees planted on the Green.
Margaretta Days
The first naval battle of the American Revolution took place in Machias, Maine (then Massachusetts). Today Margaretta Days is still one of Machias' Revolutionary holidays.
During the Siege of Boston, British authorities asked Ichabod Jones, a Loyalist merchant in Machias, to help obtain supplies for the army. In June 1775, two of Jones' vessels and the Margaretta, an armed British sloop, arrived in the harbor. The townspeople tried to arrest Jones on June 11 and went after the Margaretta's commander, who escaped. The townspeople then seized one of Jones' ships, armed a second and chased after the Margaretta. A short battle resulted in the death of the commander and several others, as well as the capture of the Margaretta.
In 2018, Machias celebrates Margaretta Days on June 16 with a reenactment, children's activities, period foods and artisan demonstrations.
Hack Holidays
The Massachusetts Statehouse
Eighty years ago a state law gave two holidays to state and municipal workers in Boston and the rest of Suffolk County, but not to anyone else. Government workers could take off March 17, Evacuation Day, which commemorates the day British troops and Loyalist sympathizers began to leave Boston. They can also take off June 17 to observe the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Critics say the Revolutionary holidays reflect Massachusetts', shall we say, overdeveloped government bureaucracy. They ridicule the 'hack holidays' that occur once a month except for August, when government employees take long vacations anyway.
Massachusetts hack holidays include New Year's Day and Martin Luther King Day in January, Presidents Day in February, Evacuation Day in March, Patriots Day in April, Memorial Day in May, Bunker Hill Day in June, Independence Day in July, Labor Day in September, Columbus Day in October, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December.
Revolutionary Holidays That Disappeared
One of the Revolutionary holidays that disappeared was Boston's Massacre Day.
Patriots celebrated the holiday every March 5 from 1771 to 1783 to commemorate the 1770 Boston Massacre. Each year a prominent patriot delivered a speech, which would then be printed. When 1783 brought the end of the American Revolution, Boston officials decided to replace Massacre Day with Independence Day.
Fast Day wasn't one of the Revolutionary holidays until it became one.
Since at least 1670, New Englanders regularly set aside fast days to, well, fast, attend church and ask God for blessings.
Massachusetts celebrated Fast Day until 1894, when the Legislature changed it to Patriots' Day to commemorate the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Maine jumped on the Revolutionary holidays bandwagon and did the same in 1897. New Hampshire clung to the Fast Day tradition until 1991, when it became Civil Rights Day in January.

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Category Archives: Baseball Jerseys Custom
Richard Jefferson has hilarious response to LeBron James free agency questions
It appears Richard Jefferson has had enough of all the LeBron James free agency talk.
The two were teammates in Cleveland from 2015-17 and even won a championship in 2016, but Jefferson had a pretty hilarious announcement to make about their friendship.
The Pelicans (counting only their history in New Orleans) have had plenty of bad draft selections. But they haven't ever really missed on a star. We mostly are bringing this up because Wright ended up having such a short-lived NBA career while Afflalo would have been a nice fit on a rising team in the Chris Paul era.
Thurmond recorded 14,050 more career rebounds than Heyman. That's a lot. The Hall of Famer out of Bowling Green clearly was the best player in his draft class, while Heyman mostly is known as Duke's first No. 1 pick. But given that the Knicks drafted center Willis Reed the following season, they may be willing to live with this bust.
White Sox: 3B Yolmer Sanchez was back in the lineup after missing the series opener with a bruised left quad sustained when he collided with Minnesota 1B Logan Morrison on Thursday.
Rangers: Choo doesn't think his quad issue is serious, but said he didn't want to make anything worse. I know I have the streak going on, but my body and staying healthy is more important, he said. … LHP Martin Perez (right elbow) allowed two singles in six scoreless innings in his second rehab start, throwing 73 pitches for Double-A Frisco.
Rangers left-hander Cole Hamels (4-6, 3.61 ERA), one of the top starters potentially available before the July 31 trade deadline, pitches the series finale. Hamels has a 3.28 ERA over his last nine starts. He is 2-0 with a 2.86 ERA in four career starts against the White Sox.Source: Mavericks decline Dirk Nowitzki's option, plan to re-sign him
This entry was posted in Baseball Jerseys Custom and tagged Cheap Girls Softball Jerseys, MLB Jerseys Cheap on July 13, 2018 by Cheap Youth NFL Jerseys.
The Cardinals scored five times in the seventh to rally from a 6-0 deficit.
Foltynewicz matched Julio Teheran and Max Fried to post the Braves third successive scoreless appearance by a starter. Teheran tossed six scoreless innings a 5-1 win on Friday. Fried did not allow a run in 6 2/3 innings of an 11-4 victory on Saturday.
They've been awesome, said Atlanta infielder Charlie Culberson, who had two hits and drove in two runs on Sunday, It makes it easier for us (hitters). A little bit more relaxed for us going up there.
A.J. Minter picked up his third save in as many tries by setting the side down in order in the ninth. He has not allowed a run in his last seven appearances.
Freeman's 16th homer of the season, a two-run drive, pushed the lead to 3-0 in sixth. The blow highlighted a five-run uprising that also included a run-scoring hit from Culberson.
Pham hit a three-run homer off Peter Moylan in the seventh to bring the Cardinals to within 6-5.
What pieces do we need? I think time. I think a little bit of time, he said. I think that's the main thing for us. We don't have that much experience with Joel [Embiid] and I and some of the younger people on our team and guys like that. So I think experience plays a big role.
Obviously, some key pieces. Maybe that is a free agent, a big free agent who we can lean on and learn from, so we don't really have that older, veteran guy who is a star like that.
But we have great veterans in J.J. [Redick], Amir [Johnson], Jerryd Bayless and guys like that who have taught me a lot from my first season.
Stratton allowed five runs on eight hits in four innings. Colorado's Jon Gray also gave up five runs in four innings but yielded seven hits with seven strikeouts.
Giants catcher Nick Hundley threw out a pair of runners trying to steal second base in consecutive at-bats in the eighth. Story hit a leadoff single but was thrown out. Gerardo Parra then reached on an error but was quickly erased when he tried to take second
This entry was posted in Baseball Jerseys Custom and tagged Best Place To Buy Cheap Jerseys, Cheap International Soccer Jerseys on July 4, 2018 by Cheap Youth NFL Jerseys.
Odell Beckham Jr.'s ankle injury clouds his future with the Giants
Odell Beckham Jr. has a broken ankle that will require surgery this week to repair. The New York Giants placed him on injured reserve, and the injury will end his 2017 season.
For the 0-5 Giants, that doesn't bode well for the remainder of the season, not for an offense that was already struggling even when it had its most dynamic weapon. But the question now is how the injury will affect Beckham's future in the NFL and his future with the team that drafted him in the first round in 2014.
In the offseason, the Giants picked up the fifth-year option for Beckham keeping him under contract for the 2018 season. But he's scheduled to become a free agent in 2019. It was already a difficult contract to get a handle on, and now it's even more complicated by the injury suffered Sunday.
He's fast, he runs clean routes, and he makes ridiculous catches on a weekly basis.
Beckham is one of the NFL's best wide receivers and deserves to be paid like one. Currently, the highest paid receivers are Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who received a five-year, $72.71 million deal in February, and DeAndre Hopkins of the Houston Texans. who signed a six-year, $88.9 million contract before the season.
Bennett began sitting for the anthem at the start of the preseason and did so through Seattle's first two regular-season games. The Seahawks and Tennessee Titans remained in the locker room during the anthem before their game in Week 3, which came two days after President Donald Trump made critical comments about NFL players who protest during the national anthem.
This entry was posted in Baseball Jerseys Custom and tagged Cheap Essendon Jerseys, Cheap Youth NBA Jerseys on December 16, 2017 by Cheap Youth NFL Jerseys.
Kaepernick fires back at Roger Goodell without opening his mouth
Colin Kaepernick hasn't said much publicly since he stopped being employed as an NFL quarterback.
The last tweet he wrote was on Oct. 10, and it was a shout-out to Eminem for name-dropping him in a long freestyle rap that was extremely critical of President Trump. He has remained active on Twitter though, specifically by re-tweeting several posts per day.
Welcome back to the Disrespectful Blocks of the Week video for Week 4 of the NFL season. I had too many clips this week it was a fabulous week of knockdowns and pancakes. And thank you to everyone who continues to support this project and sends me clips to review for the reel.
Zimmer said all along that Bradford will play when he's ready, and now, he's ready.
Keenum turned in one of the best games of his career in a win over the Buccaneers but then being held to just seven points against the Lions a week later. Minnesota went 1-2 during Bradford's absence.
What does this mean for the Vikings and Bradford?
The Vikings' playoffs chances increase with Bradford back under center. Keenum vacillated between poor and great while filling in over the past three games, but he's realistically the team's third choice behind Bradford and another injured starter, Teddy Bridgewater.
Smart, responsible moves that paid off. At 1-5, this Giants season isn't salvageable, but McAdoo will rightly be judged on how he navigates it now that it's lost. The final score Sunday night indicates he's on the right track.
This entry was posted in Baseball Jerseys Custom and tagged Cheap Jerseys Hot, Cheap Jerseys NBA on December 12, 2017 by Cheap Youth NFL Jerseys.


The third and final meeting of the year for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) just wrapped up in Scottsdale, Arizona, last week.
On the day of ALEC's board meeting, Greenpeace attempted to ask ALEC's board of directors and executives about climate change science. ALEC CEO Lisa Nelson was not keen on speaking to us.
ALEC has a long history of denying climate change. It continues to take payments from fossil fuel companies like Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, and Peabody Energy. It was part of the American Petroleum Institute's leaked plan to manipulate the public's trust in climate scientists, spelled out in an eerie memo from 1998.
The group even hosts privately-funded events where ALEC legislators are taught how to deny climate change science by public relations consultants who have ties to fossil fuel companies.
As for Lisa Nelson, she is on the board of a Libertarian think tank that promotes solutions to climate change. The Niskanen Center was named after the late co-founder of Charles Koch's Cato Institute, whose recent death led to an attempted coup of the organization by the Koch brothers. Some of Niskanen's staff are former Cato executives, who now support a carbon tax, perhaps the most viable policy solution to global warming. This has caused a rift between the Libertarian purists and the Koch network's hacks-for-hire, like Pat Michaels, the disgraced climatologist at Cato.
Since Ms. Nelson has taken the helm of ALEC, she has lost over a dozen corporate members. Some of those companies--Google, SAP, and Shell--even condemned ALEC specifically for peddling doubt over climate change in their statements explaining why they have abandoned the lobbying group.
Ms. Nelson has inherited a big problem. After decades of helping companies lie to legislators about climate change, the companies themselves and many of their front groups will no longer deny that humans are responsible for unnatural climate variability. But ALEC legislators have not received the memo, and if you ask them about climate change, they sound woefully uninformed. Almost as if they were paid to.
Todd Wynn: director of ALEC's Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force, formerly of Cascade Policy Institute. Cascade and ALEC are two of the many front groups coordinated under the umbrella of the State Policy Network.
In Friday's Wall Street Journal story, "States Cooling to Renewable Energy," American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Director Todd Wynn claimed, "I have not received one dime to work directly on renewable-energy mandates." Wynn may not have received a check where the memo read: "For your efforts to attack clean energy policies" but his ALEC paycheck certainly comes (in part) from fossil fuel interests.
ALEC received approximately 98 percent of its budget from corporations, trade associations and corporate foundations, according to IRS 990 tax forms from the organization in 2009.
The members (as of June 2011) of Mr. Wynn's task force include at least 23 fossil fuel companies and utilities, like ExxonMobil, Continental Resources, Peabody Energy and Duke Energy, that have a direct financial interest in slowing the growth of clean energy. Task force members fund almost all of ALEC's operations.
ALEC corporate members each pay between $7,000 and $25,000 or more to be members. The corporate task force members also pay fees to have a vote on what pieces of "sample legislation" should be sent to state legislators. And, last fall, the energy task force members voted to push the "Electricity Freedom Act," which repeals state clean energy standards, through state legislatures across the country.
So it's no surprise these bills are showing up and being pushed by fossil fuel interests and front groups in states across the country. Wynn probably received at least a few dimes to coordinate this effort to attack clean energy policies. If ALEC wants to provide some transparency on its budget, Checks and Balances Project would be happy to take a second look.
Will ALEC block EPA coal pollution safeguards at Illinois' controversial Prairie State Energy Campus?
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the Illinois-based Prairie State Energy Campus, a combined coal mine and power plant spearheaded by Peabody Energy, co-owned by eight public power companies based in the Midwest. Numerous cost overruns from construction delays and equipment problems at the Campus resulted in customers in several states having to pay for power well above market price.
While Peabody defends Prairie State Energy Campus (PSEC) from SEC scrutiny, a corporate front group has developed copycat legislation that could exempt dirty projects like PSEC from national clean air and water laws.
A model state bill developed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) would block federal pollution regulations when coal is mined and then burned or altered within the borders of a single state. The "Intrastate Coal and Use Act," created within ALEC's Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force, is ideal for projects like Prairie State Energy Campus, which mines and burns coal on site.
By exempting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from overseeing permits for projects like Prairie State, ALEC's Intrastate Coal and Use Act leaves regulation to state agencies, which may have weaker pollution standards or simply lack enough staff to do their jobs, as the gas fracking boom has demonstrated.
Peabody itself is a member of ALEC's anti-environmental task force, which readied the Intrastate Coal and Use Act for national distribution, and a member of ALEC's Private Enterprise Board, which may explain ALEC's role in promoting the Prairie State Energy Campus.
Materials leaked to Greenpeace after ALEC's most recent conference in Washington DC show that the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a coal front backed by companies including Peabody, was showcasing Prairie State at ALEC's conference. Files in a USB drive branded with the ACCCE logo contained three promotional videos for PSEC while a paper folder with the ACCCE logo contained a promotional brochure for the Campus.
The ALEC model does not appear to have been introduced in Illinois, although ALEC has been busy pushing a wishlist of state laws for its dirty energy members companies like Peabody, Duke Energy and ExxonMobil.
The St. Louis suburb [Kirkwood] needed a stable, long-term power source. The plant's developers needed customers. The parties struck a deal — a 30-year contract that would supply more than half of Kirkwood's electricity beginning in late 2011. The kicker: The energy produced at Prairie State would be cheap compared with market power prices at the time.
But now, as the first of two 800-megawatt generating units at Prairie State begin operations — six months late — the plant hardly seems the bargain it did five years ago.
The $5 billion price tag is 25 percent more than when the city signed on, driving up the price of electricity that Kirkwood and other cities are obligated to buy. And construction delays mean the city is getting nothing for the monthly $296,000 checks it began writing to Prairie State's owners in February.
Because ALEC peddles copycat laws that benefit dirty and expensive coal projects while attacking clean energy incentives, renewable energy interests like the American Wind Energy Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association have abandoned ALEC.
An ALEC legislator in West Virginia named Gary Howell introduced a version of the Intrastate Coal and Use Act back in 2011; his bill inspired the current model bill that ALEC is distributing. Delegate Howell suggested that all of the top 20 coal producing states consider his legislation, indicating where watchdogs should keep their eyes peeled for ALEC's model legislation.
While the bills weren't passed in 2011, West Virginia is again considering the Intrastate Coal and Use Act in the 2013 session, renewing their attempts to keep the EPA from overseeing permits to burn coal from mountain top removal.
Another version of the Intrastate Coal and Use Act has surfaced in Kentucky.
In fact, it was the Kentucky-based Bluegrass Institute that sponsored ALEC's Intrastate Coal and Use Act within ALEC's anti-environmental task force, apparently based off of what WV Del. Howell has been introducing into his own legislature. Like ALEC, the Bluegrass Institute is a member of the State Policy Network, an umbrella organization for state and national think tanks and interest groups that are usually funded by the Koch brothers and company.
Instead of being a source of low cost electricity, the first year cost of power from Prairie State is 40 to 100 percent higher than the current cost of power in the Midwest wholesale markets and is expected to remain higher than market prices for the next ten to thirteen years, if not longer.
The Campus proposal was supported by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (currently serving a 14-year prison sentence for corruption charges), who publicly supported construction of the plant and ate up Peabody's false promises of cheap energy. In Big Coal, author and journalist Jeff Goodell notes that Peabody's desire to build its own coal plant was to help burn its own reserves of high-sulfur coal from Illinois, which the market did not have much of an appetite for. A representative of the Illinois Office of Coal Development told Goodell, "Most power plants are built in order to generate electricity. Prairie State was really conceived more as a platform to burn Peabody coal." While Peabody sold all but 5% of its stake in PSEC to eight nonprofit power companies, it has been the driving force behind the Campus since 2001.
"Prairie State will emit more than 11 million tons [of carbon dioxide] a year, marginally less than a similar size coal plant built thirty years ago, but more than twice as much as every vehicle sold by the Ford Motor Company in a single year."
Illinois' bind demonstrates the lose-lose situation promoted by the coal industry: drink and breathe our pollution now, and pay more...now and later.
As clean energy becomes increasingly viable, even without considering the costs of fossil fuel pollution and climate change, some cities are taking matters into their own hands, including [the ironically-named] Carbondale Illinois, which recently established that 100% of its power will come from clean energy. Cincinnati, Ohio dumped Duke Energy and made a similar commitment, as have all municipal facilities in Austin, Texas.
But clean energy advocates be warned: the more the American public recognizes that 19th Century energy like coal is a thing of the past, the more the dirty energy industries are going to spend big to desperately defend their bottom lines.
Duh. That's probably what you thought to yourself when you read my headline.
Fanning probably considers the much-needed conversations considering Hurricane Sandy and climate change as "ancillary" because Southern Company plays a very central and very inconvenient role in creating global warming. Apparently, Fanning's home and livelihood weren't damaged by superstorm Sandy, although his birthplace of Morristown, NJ was hit by the storm. Lucky him--out of sight, out of mind! Apparently there's no need to talk about the deeper issue of global warming. (Greenpeace photos of damage from Sandy).
See, not only is Southern Co one of the nation's largest coal-burning utilities, but it creates more carbon pollution than any other utility in the country and ranks #7 in global power company carbon emissions. Southern Co is responsible for dumping over 145 million tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere each year, making it a key culprit in the global climate crisis.
In turn, global warming creates conditions that can make cyclones like Hurricane Sandy more intense than they naturally would be, not to mention increasing the likelihood of other extreme weather events like droughts, floods, and heavy storms. If you live in the U.S., you know this year was particularly suspicious in terms of climate-related disasters.
Suspicious unless you have your head in the sand, as Mr. Fanning appears to. What's worse is how much Thomas Fanning's company has paid money to stuff other people's heads in the sand with them.
Funding junk science: Southern Company gave Willie Soon $230,000 from 2006-2009 for two distinct junk studies disguised as scientific research in order to confuse politicians into ignoring policy solutions to climate change. Willie Soon is a career climate science denier whose other "research" sponsors have included ExxonMobil, the Charles G Koch Foundation and the American Petroleum Institute.
Funding shill groups: Southern Co. is a member of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, a front group run by coal utility lobbyists at the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani. Through ERCC lobbyists Scott Segal and Jeff Holmstead, Southern Co and other dirty utilities bitterly opposes any requirements for coal companies to reduce their pollution or greenhouse gases causing global warming. Southern Co is also a member of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), another front group opposing strong environmental standards for coal pollution. You may be familiar with ACCCE for its multimillion dollar ad buys around the election, or for its involvement in a scandal where forged letters were sent to Congress to oppose climate legislation in 2009.
Buying politics: Since 2008, Southern Co. has spent over $61 million lobbying our federal government, much of which was to block environmental laws and legislation addressing climate change. Southern Co. has spent over $10 million each year on federal lobbying since 2004. To support its lobbying expenditures, Southern Co. has also sent over $1.6 million to federal politicians and registered political groups since the 2008 election cycle.
In the 2012 presidential election, Southern Co. has sent $46,650 to Republican candidate Mitt Romney and $8,580 to President Barack Obama (OpenSecrets).
Unfortunately for the climate and those who are now suffering from weather disasters, Southern Company is just one of many companies funding our politicians and then paying lobbyists, setting up front groups and financing hack scientists to push politicians even farther into an anti-science fantasy-land. Along with Southern are other key bad actors like Duke Energy, Peabody, ExxonMobil, Chesapeake Energy, Koch Industries and other fossil fuel interests that also want to stomp any mention of global warming out of politics, protecting billions in profit and limiting their liability over pollution problems.
Understanding how these behemoths operate and coordinate makes it less surprising, though no less offensive, that we didn't hear about climate change in the first presidential debate series in over 20 years.
It doesn't matter if global warming is an "ancillary" issue to Southern Company after disasters like Hurricane Sandy, or if the presidential contenders won't be honest with Americans about the problem. Our changed climate is only going to keep changing.
What's on ALEC's polluter agenda tomorrow?
Tomorrow, the American Legislative Exchange Council--known as ALEC--will host their 2012 Spring Task Force summit in Charlotte, NC. At tomorrow's meeting, the corporate front group will round up its various committees and prepare to peddle new state-level legislation to attack clean energy laws, protect polluting industries, privatize education, and suppress voters, among other big business schemes.
Need a refresher on ALEC? It's the group that brings state legislators to the table with representatives from major corporations in the sectors of energy, healthcare, tobacco, private prisons, and other groups to manipulate state politics to maximize their profits and limit their liabilities. These companies help craft template bills for state legislators to bring home and introduce in their respective statehouses.
Documents obtained and published by Common Cause now give us a roster of specific attendees at ALEC's environmental meetings, a consortium of state legislators and a who's who of the most offensive polluting political heavyweights including: Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, Duke Energy and Peabody. Participating legislators know well they're walking into a dirty party, sometimes using state taxpayer money to foot the bill.
The corporations that fund ALEC are well known for their political spending on both sides of the aisle. ALEC funders include Koch Industries, known for its coordinated political spending against President Obama, and Duke Energy, which is laying down a ten million dollar line of credit to host the Democratic National Convention in their hometown of Charlotte, NC. But these polluting companies are co-conspirators under the banner of ALEC, where partisan politics are set aside to focus on the mission of destroying environmental protections, clean energy competition and liability for crimes against both people and the ecosystems sustaining us.
So what exactly are ALEC and these oil, coal, chemical and public relations companies focusing on tomorrow?
The "Electricity Freedom Act" (really? Electricity Freedom?!) is a new attack on states with plans requiring companies to get a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources. This new bill is similar to other legislation ALEC has already peddled in several states and compliments an "email and telephone campaign" against state renewable energy standards, according to the Guardian.
The "Coal Intrastate and Use Act" serves to prevent EPA from overruling state permits for coal mining and producing dirty coal products (like liquid coal for fuel) if all the coal operations are conducted within the borders of a single state.
The "Resolution on U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement Accountability" mandates a report be filed on cities and states that have fallen short of their goals to reduce greenhouse gases through the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which has over 1,000 signatories. ALEC's new resolution then demands that any program that hasn't met its goal be canceled out right, voiding the Climate Protection Agreement altogether. Keeping in mind that ALEC's members like Koch and Exxon have fought greenhouse gas programs at every turn for years, it is obvious that this ALEC bill is meant for one thing, attacking programs that address carbon emissions.
A resolution demanding the passage of the notorious federal REINS Act, which would give Congress the power to block the enforcement of just about any federal protection--clean air and water laws, safeguards for mine workers, prohibiting tobacco sales to kids, protection from discrimination, you name it. It's the ultimate gift from Congress to their corporate fundraisers who would like to avoid responsibility for...everything.
The exhaustively-titled "Resolution Supporting a Reasonable Compliance Timeline and Economy-wide impact study of EPA's Mercury and Air Toxics Rule" has a simple purpose: delay when coal-burning utilities have to reduce mercury pollution and other severely hazardous emissions. For major mercury polluters like Energy Future Holdings, American Electric Power, and Duke Energy, this is likely to be a popular item tomorrow.
A resolution urging Congress and the State Department to push through TransCanada's Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. ALEC recycles a lofty jobs lie in their reasoning for this resolution, ignoring State Department KXL job estimates under 2,000 and a Cornell study warning that "There is evidence to suggest that the effects of KXL construction could very well lead to more jobs being lost than are created." How many jobs does ALEC assume? 120,000 -- see Greenpeace's letter to the SEC to understand how they were calculated by politics rather than reality. Go figure--the American Petroleum Institute and its largest members were in the room when this resolution was forged.
A deceptive ALEC bill pushed by ExxonMobil that "discloses" chemicals used by the oil industry in fracking operations, but actually inserts loopholes to avoid disclosure of certain fracking chemicals. This bate-and-switch comes at a time when doctors are concerned about signing confidentiality agreements if they ask for disclosure of fracking chemicals when treating people who are exposed to chemicals from gas drilling.
A resolution that would prevent EPA from recognizing coal ash as a hazardous substance (it contains neurotoxins, carcinogens and radioactive elements). This may well have served as the model for the coal ash amendment that is currently being tacked on to the federal transportation bill by Rep. David McKinley (R-WV). Coal ash was a repeated topic of discussion at ALEC's energy task force meetings over the last two years, according to their meeting documents.
Who exactly attends these events? Beyond ALEC staff and dozens of corporate representatives, industry front groups are also represented. Tomorrow will feature John Felmy of the American Petroleum Institute in a presentation on gas prices (spoiler alert: this crowd will probably blame the President). Next up: presentations from representatives of the Edison Electric Institute (utility trade group) and the Nuclear Energy Institute (nuclear industry lobby).
Perhaps most intriguing will be a chat about "The Dirty Truth Behind Reusable Bags" led by Charles Gerba, who will warn attendees that reusable bags will give them "projectile vomiting and diarrhea." Gerba may not mention this dramatic and messy sickness can be avoided by simply washing one's reusable bags, since Mark Daniels of Hilex Poly (a plastic bag company) regularly attends these meetings, and Gerba serves as an advisor to Hilex Poly.
Robert Bradley of the Institute for Energy Research, which made press recently when its sister group the American Energy Alliance spend $3.6 million on ads blaming the President for high gas prices. IER has a former Koch lobbyist on staff and has received $175,000 from Koch foundations in recent years as part of the climate denial network.
James Taylor of the Heartland Institute, which has helped champion ALEC efforts to confuse K-12 students about climate science. Heartland is currently in the middle of a crisis as corporate funders are distancing themselves from its comparison of terrorists and serial killers to those who recognize the reality of global warming. Seriously, they put the Unabomber on a billboard saying, "Do you still believe in global warming? I do. www.heartland.org"
Craig Idso, whose nutjob Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change has been paid by the coal industry and the Heartland Institute to tell people that global warming is good for the planet. Craig Idso explained this nonsense to state legislators in August. As is the pattern here, see the Center's history of Koch- and Exxon-funding, as well as Idso's former employment at Peabody and work for the Western Fuels Association.
Stephen Miller of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which spends big on national advertisements promoting the idea that perhaps coal isn't inherently dirty, dangerous and deadly (it is). Miller, who is resigning from ACCCE this year after serving as a dilligent coal apologist for the last decade, came under Congressional fire in 2009 when it was revealed that ACCCE contractors forged letters on behalf of groups "representing senior citizens, minorities and veterans," including the NAACP.
Dezenhall Resources, which Businessweek calls the "Pit Bull of Public Relations." Dezenhall Resources is currently included in a Greenpeace lawsuit due to its role in hiring spies on behalf of chemical companies to track Greenpeace's internal campaign plans.


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Countrywide Tells Workers, 'Protect Our House'
By James R. Hagerty and Jonathan Karp
Oct. 3, 2007 12:01 am ET
For Countrywide Financial Corp. , this time it's personal. At least that's what a top executive says.
Having suffered a barrage of negative headlines while battling to shore up its finances and shrink its work force of 60,000 by as much as 20%, the nation's largest home-mortgage lender is launching a PR blitz aimed at repairing its reputation. And it starts inside the company.
For the demoralized employees who remain, the new campaign means wristbands with the phrase "Protect Our House" and pep talks promising to keep "amply" rewarding the most successful among them amid a struggle with the sharp drop in mortgage lending as defaults soar and house prices decline.
Leading the counterattack is Andrew "Drew" Gissinger III, a former offensive lineman for the San Diego Chargers football team who serves as executive managing director, residential lending, at Countrywide.
"Let's call it like it is, as I mentioned earlier, it's gotten to the point where our integrity is being attacked. NOW IT'S PERSONAL!" says the transcript of a talk made last week by Mr. Gissinger. "... And, WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT!"


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Karen Longwell
Posted about a month ago
Pickering wild boars caught with marshmallows and peanut butter sandwiches
A month-long hunt to capture a group of wild boars ended with the sweet treat for animals who were roaming rural properties in north Pickering.
A group of 14 boars was first spotted at the beginning of November, and the City of Pickering and Ontario's Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry worked to capture them.
Wild boars are being spotted roaming around near Toronto and officials are concerned https://t.co/InwA9mVyHm #Ontario #Boars
— blogTO (@blogTO) November 15, 2021
Wild pigs, the ministry says, are an invasive species, and compete with native wildlife for food, destroy agricultural crops through rooting and trampling, and can prey on native plant and animal species.
The wild boars were finally captured in traps using a mixture of marshmallows, oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches, according to local news reports.
"It was 'fluffernutter' on a stick and a mash of oatmeal and sweet stuff," said resident Mary Delaney told the Pickering News Advertiser. Delaney saw the pigs on her property twice and she was concerned about the environmental devastation the boars would cause.
#LATEST: The wild boars were "humanely euthanized and will be sent for necropsy and research." @NWestoll.https://t.co/U7D79VivS5
— CityNews Toronto (@CityNewsTO) December 8, 2021
The last three of the 14 boars were finally trapped this week, Morgan Kerekes, an Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry spokesperson, told CityNews.
Kerekes said the boars were "humanely euthanized and will be sent for necropsy and research."
It is not known where the pigs came from. There is speculation that they were raised in captivity and dumped in the area.
According to the City of Pickering, the animals were Eurasian Wild Boars, which are not native to Canada. They came here in the 1980s and 1990s to diversify local farming. All wild pigs in Ontario today have either escaped, been released, or are the offspring of rogue boars from farms.
Arctic Wolf
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Scarborough is tired of being ignored and asks Toronto to share the love


Travel from Mugnano di Napoli to Marsala and discover this Sicilia city of 78.000 inhabitants. The distance from Mugnano di Napoli to Marsala is 593 kilometers; with Wanderio you can compare the available flights and trains to get from Mugnano di Napoli to Marsala, so that you can organize your trip choosing the fastest route, the most comfortable or the cheapest one. You can choose among different choices and organize your trip according to your needs, depending on whether you are looking for the fastest, the most comfortable or perhaps the cheapest travel solution. For example, by choosing a flight from Mugnano di Napoli to Marsala, you'll get to your destination in about 1 hour on average; flight ticket prices start from 84 €. Going from Mugnano di Napoli to Marsala by train instead? Prices for your ticket start from 75 € and the train journey takes about 15 hours on average.
To get to Marsala from Mugnano di Napoli you can take a flight from Naples International Airport, which is the closest airport to Mugnano di Napoli, and arrive at Trapani Airport, the airport the best serves Marsala. The average price for a Mugnano di Napoli to Marsala flight is 301€, but you can find low cost flights as well, with prices starting from 84€. Getting from Mugnano di Napoli to Marsala by flight takes about 1 hour on average; however, you need to consider the time to get to the airport and pass the security checks. You can count on 45 daily connections between Mugnano di Napoli and Marsala provided by Alitalia and Volotea. Trapani Airport is the closest airport to Marsala and is 6.17 kilometers away from the city center; you can get to Marsala in 9 minutes thanks to airport shuttles from Trapani Airport to Marsala.
You can get from Mugnano di Napoli to Marsala by train, thanks to the 4 daily routes provided by Trenitalia. The train ride from Mugnano di Napoli to Marsala takes about 15 hours on average and the average train ticket is 88€. If you book in advance, you can find the best fares and save 42% on average on your train ticket, with prices starting from 75€. Travelling Italy by train can often be cheap.


I have been thunderstruck... completely taken aback, amazed.
As has been true to form in my life, my whole life, the tides have changed suddenly. Just like that.
One day I'm going along doing my thing, unawares of the mighty torrents in the ether around me, and the next thing I know my whole life has been turned inside-out, shaken out of its malaise, in a most positive manner. The Universe knocked on my door, and I opened it.
And this time, I am going to listen and move to the intuitions of my heart. This time, I'm stepping into the mighty flow of good energies and great blessings that befall me. This time, I've said to myself, 'why not?', and I've stepped off the precipice in a leap of faith into unknown terrain.
I'm changing companies in accepted pursuit of a new job. And I've met my equal in accepted pursuit of a new relationship.
In moments of all of a sudden both of them arrived in my life, within days of one another. I wasn't looking for either - I had set my intention some time ago about both and let the notions go, to germinate as the universe would see fit. Both, through the avenues of third party assistance, led me to these great good things in my life.
I still have to stop in wonder of it all. It all has been breakneck, profound, deep, and exciting.
When both opportunities arose in my life, the question to me was "Would you be willing to...?" My response both times was an open-minded, "Why not?"
I listened, I watched, I entertained more details; I saw things I value deeply and require, I met both opportunities on level ground, unabashed, and I welcomed the exchange. And both opportunities responded to me in kind, full out.
A season of blessing and expansion is upon me.
My bated breath is beginning to find a new rhythm.
I am scared to death. And I am excited to life.
The second half of my life is started; my intuition tells me it is, by far and away, the better half of my life. In so, so many ways.
It has been worth the wait. More than I can convey, it has been worth the wait.
I really don't have words to speak my heart; I know that you know. I do and I am.


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Gunley House pupil to attend US president Barack Obama's inauguration
A former Gumley House pupil took the trip of a lifetime as she travelled to Washington to witness the inauguration of new US president Barack Obama.
Ciara Macklin
Ciara Macklin was invited to attend the historic occasion on Tuesday as a reward for her contribution to the United Nations Global Youth Conference two years ago.
Topics like world poverty and globalisation have always been close to Ciara's heart and she has a bright future ahead of her, according to proud father Finbarr Macklin, 50, of Grimwood Road, Twickenham.
The 19-year-old, who left the Isleworth secondary this summer, first took an interest while studying for a piece of coursework during her GCSE's.
"I became really passionate about it and am passionate about it now," she said before her trip. "When I got the news I gave the biggest smile you have ever seen. It's an amazing opportunity."
Ciara was originally selected to attend the conference after impressing judges with an essay on world poverty and a presentation on global citizenship.
She was joined by hundreds of young people from across the globe at the event in New York in July 2007.
Her father believes that as a state school Gumley House, in St John's Road, does not always get the praise it deserves but in this case it should be ÔapplaudedÕ.
After completing her A-levels, Ciara has decided to take a gap year but hopes to go on to university to study law.
She said a career in human rights would be her dream and would like to work for organisations like Fair Trial International, which have a 'great philosophy'.
During her stay, she will also attend the inauguration ball and conferences whose speakers include Al Gore and Colin Powell.


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THE BABY BELLS DISCOVER EUROPE - 3: PACIFIC TELESIS, SOUTHWESTERN BELL, US WEST
SEVEN INSURENCE COMPANIES DEVELOP INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
SUN-3 RELEASE OF MODULA-2 NOW READY, SAYS OREGON SOFTWARE
Oregon Software, Portland, Oregon, says it has now completed field trials of its Modula-2 compiler for the Sun-3 workstation. Repeating the oft-forecast opinion that Modula-2 would move away from its current academic setting towards more general business and industrial use, Oregon, which made its name developing Pascal compilers, said its own version was based on […]
Oregon Software, Portland, Oregon, says it has now completed field trials of its Modula-2 compiler for the Sun-3 workstation. Repeating the oft-forecast opinion that Modula-2 would move away from its current academic setting towards more general business and industrial use, Oregon, which made its name developing Pascal compilers, said its own version was based on the third edition of Dr Niklaus Wirth's Programming in Modula-2 text, with Oregon extensions in areas such as packed records, packed arrays, and Forward references. Oregon Modula-2 programs can also call Pascal, C, C++, and assembler routines so that users can take advantage of existing software libraries, and has user controllable, run-time error handling and an interactive, source level debugger. Although the initial release is for the Sun-3, future versions scheduled include VAX/VMS/Ultrix/BSD and Intel iAPX86/MS-DOS/Xenix (in native and cross-compiler versions). The Oregon Modula-2 Sun-3 compiler is $2,100 for a single-user licence. Network pricing is also available.
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Place two cups of bulgur in a bowl and add two cups of water. Let the wheat absorb the water (20 minutes). When ready, fluff it with a fork to separate the grains.
Pour the wheat into a large salad bowl and add the tomatoes, cilantro, mint and onion. Mix the ingredients and dress with lemon juice, olive oil and salt.
Toss together and serve with pita bread or as a side with grilled meat, on top of a green salad or as a fill-ing for stuffed avocado.
If you can't find fresh mint, you can use dried mint instead.
My family really enjoys eating salads, especially when it's hot outside. This tabbouleh salad that I grew up with is a tradition in my home and it's a great dish for summer vacation. Tabbouleh is a Mediterranean salad made with wheat, tomatoes, onion and mint, and served with hummus and pita bread. It's a truly delicious salad that satisfies everyone, and now I want to share my special recipe with you.


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Black lives matter protest to be held in the BVI on june 20th
The people of the British Virgin Islands stands in solidarity with the worldwide Black Lives Matter Movement. On June 20th 2020, the BVI will march peacefully in conjuction with the Kneel with me movement. The protest will commence at 3p.m. at the Noel Lloyd Park to the Queen Elizabeth Park.
284media newsroom spoke to one of the co-organizers of the protest, Mr. Nicoy Hendrickson. He explained why it's important to stand in solidarity and the importance of organizing a protest here in the B.V.I.
Mr. Hendrickson said "We feel as though a demonstration is necessary in the BVI, not only for George Floyd but against racial injustices in America, our home and the world moreover."
"Although slavery was abolished in the late 1800s, people of the African diaspora have been fighting to be treated as more than sub-humans for generations and I think it's time to put that fight to an end."
He further said "We as a Territory is not immune to the effects of racism and have silently allowed it to fester within our waters. We want to bring our fight to the forefront because we believe that confrontation is the only true catalyst for change."
Earlier this month, right across the waters in the U.S.V.I, residents joined together to protest against the injustices experienced by black people daily.
For centuries black people have faced injustices primarily based on the colour of one's skin. Over the years many lives have been taken in America; Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breanna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, most recently Rayshard Brooks and unfortunately so many others.


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Sumit Chowdhury
Visiting Faculty and Dean's Advisory Board
Dr. Sumit Chowdhury is a global thought leader in the field of Smart Cities, Telecom and Information Analytics.
He is a business leader, entrepreneur and best-selling author, having led large, hyper-growth, multinational telecom and consulting companies in US, Australia and India. He has worked on technology based transformation of companies and is now focused on sustainable solutions for Smart Cities and Internet of Things.
He provides mentoring & funding to entrepreneurs in areas like M2M, Internet of Things, Smart Cities, health-care, mobile internet, and career services. He is serving on the Board of 4 Start-ups. He's been a mentor with NEN, TotalStart, BusinessWorld Accelerate programs. He is part of Mumbai Angels & CIO Angels. He is the author of a bestselling career management book, 'Rules of the Game' published by Bloomsbury India that empowers readers to enhance productivity and fast-track their careers. He is also a speaker on the TEDx platform.
Publications & Awards
Author of Non-Fiction book on Career Management published by Bloomsbury India, titled: "Rules of the Game".
Paper: Chowdhury, Sumit; Carley, Kathleen: "Power and Influence in Inter-Organizational Networks" (in the Telecommunications, Information and Entertainment industries) presented at the American Sociological Meetings in August 1998, San Francisco, CA.
Invited Chairperson for "Telecommunication Network & Service Planning" session- at INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Science) - 97 at San Diego, CA.
Invited speaker on Telecommunications Network Planning at National Conference on Telecommunications Network Technology and Service Planning in New Delhi, India in 1996.
Paper: Sumit D. Chowdhury, G. Duncan, R. Krishnan, S. Roehrig, S. Mukherjee (1996), "Disclosure Detection in Multivariate Categorical Databases: An Optimization Approach".Published in Management Science Jan 2000.
Worked on National Science Foundation (NSF) grant (IRI-9312143) on Inferential Disclosure Risk in Computer Databases.
US Information Week Global CIO-50 (2009) – one of the TOP 50 CIOs of the World – in its first edition.
CTO of the Year (CTO Forum)-2009, Pioneer CIO (CIOL Dataquest)-2009, CIO Hall of Fame (2009)- IDG Media , IDC Enterprise Innovation Award, Network Computing EDGE, PCQuest Best IT Implementation Award (2009)
CIO-100 Awards for 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006 for being one of the leading CIOs in India for managing Scale and Innovation, Ingenuity and working on bold projects.
B-Tech, IIT Kanpur in India
MS from Carnegie Institute of Technology in ECE
Ph.D in Public Policy and Management from Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University
Sumit Chowdhury sdchowd@andrew.cmu.edu


Unfortunately, Governor Brown is sadly misinformed as reflected in his statement above; banning a single item, such as thin-film plastic grocery bags will not stop the torrent of plastic that pollutes our beaches, parks, waterways and the ocean. Single-Use Plastic Bags, although more visible as litter, are a very small part of the total litter stream and not the only plastic item that finds its way to and pollutes our beaches, parks, waterways and the ocean. Plastic items that find their way to the ocean include the following: plastic bottle caps, plastic cigarette lighters, toothbrushes, balloons, golf tees, six-pack rings, polystyrene, plastic bags, ball-point pens, etc. These items are harmful to marine wildlife. What is needed is not a feel-good bag ban that bans a single item from the litter stream, but a comprehensive solution to prevent and remove all litter from the environment!
VERY UNFORTUNATE. Elections do have consequences.
You are correct, elections do have consequences. The idea that you can ban your way to a clean environment is flawed. You must put comprehensive litter prevention and litter cleanup policies and programs into effect. I believe every one will agree on that.