What's the outlook for car and light-truck sales in North America through 2007? What about production?
You'll find those answers in the 2003 Automotive News Market Data Book, which will be distributed to all Automotive News subscribers with the Monday, May 26, issue.
Sales and production forecasts, compiled by Automotive News and J.D. Power and Associates-LMC Forecasting Services, are just two of the features in the annual data book. It also includes plenty of facts about vehicle specifications, prices, plant data and dealership statistics.
Single copies can be ordered for $19.95. A more detailed version of the Market Data Book will be available online May 26.
The online version, which can be accessed at autonewsdatacenter.com, is limited to subscribers.


Leabhraichean-caibideil ùra anns' a Ghàidhlig a chuideachas le bhith a' leum bho leughadh san sgoil gu leughadh airson tlachd - rim faighinn do bhuill a' Chlub a-mhàin!
Gheibh gach ball cairt-ballrachd, baidse, agus leabhar ùr tron phost a h-uile mìos. Do dh'aoisean 7-12.
New chapter books in Gaelic to help make the jump from reading in school to reading for fun - only available through our subscription scheme.
Every member receives a membership card, badge, and a new book through the post every month. For ages 7-12.
Mar as motha a leughas tu, 's ann as fhasa a bhios leughadh a' fàs. Ach chan eil e daonnan furasta do chloinn ann am foghlam tro mheadhan na Gàidhlig leum bho bhith a' leughadh sa Ghàidhlig san sgoil gu bhith a' leughadh sa Ghàidhlig airson tlachd. Tha e ro fhurasta dhaibh am misneachd a chall agus sgur a dh'fheuchainn, is a bhith a' leughadh sa Bheurla a-mhàin aig an taigh. Do chloinn eadar 7 agus 12 gu sònraichte tha gainnead leabhraichean spòrsail is tlachdmhor sa Ghàidhlig a leughas iad air an ceann fhèin.
Cuiridh Club Leughaidh 'Cuilean Craicte' leabhar-caibideil ùr gu gach ball a h-uile mìos - nam measg eadar-theangachaidhean de leabhraichean le sgrìobhadairean ainmeil leithid Frank Cottrell Boyce is Terry Deary. Togaidh na leabhraichean ùidh ann an leughadh, leasachaidh iad sgilean cànain is litearrais, cuiridh iad ri misneachd is briathrachas agus bheir iad cothrom na Fèinne dhaibh a thaobh a bhith a' leughadh le tlachd sa Ghàidhlig.
Tha na leabhraichean againn nan eadar-theangachaidhean de chuid den fhicsean cloinne co-aimsireach as fheàrr a th' ann, air a thaghadh gach cuid do ghillean agus do chloinn-nighean. Tha a' chainnt sna leabhraichean beòthail is furasta a thuigsinn, gus an togar misneachd na cloinne ann a bhith a' leughadh air an ceann fhèin, is gus an cuidichear le bhith a' doimhneachadh briathrachas agus siubhlachd an cuid Gàidhlig gu nàdarra.
Tha leughadh airson spòrs cho cudromach do chloinn. Tha leughadh anns a' Ghàidhlig a' cuideachadh clann ann am FMG san aon dòigh - agus mar as motha a tha an spòrs, 's ann as fheàrr!
Nar measg tha foillsichearan proifeasanta, eadar-theangairean agus pàrantan le cloinn ann am FtMnG. Tha fhios againn dè na leabhraichean a tha a còrdadh ri cloinn agus tha fhios againn nach eil gu leòr rim faotainn sa Ghàidhlig. Beag air bheag bheir sinn thugaibh barrachd - stòras tron doras!
The more you read, the easier it becomes. But for kids in GME it can be difficult to make the move from reading Gaelic at school to reading Gaelic for fun. It's easy for them to lose heart and stop trying, or for home reading to shift almost entirely to English. For the 7-12 age group in particular, it can be hard to find enough entertaining and attractive chapter books to encourage independent reading in Gaelic.
Club Leughaidh 'Cuilean Craicte' is a book club that will send kids a Gaelic chapter book once a month, featuring hot off the press translations of books by popular authors such as Terry Deary and Frank Cottrell Boyce. A new book each month will keep kids interested, support their core Gaelic language and literacy skills, build up their confidence and vocabulary, and help them to develop a love of reading in Gaelic.
Our books are new translations of some of the best of contemporary children's fiction, chosen to appeal to both boys and girls. The Gaelic is lively and accessible, designed to build children's confidence in independent reading, helping them to develop their vocabulary and fluency naturally.
Reading for pleasure is so important for children. Reading in Gaelic helps kids in GME in the same way - and the more fun it is, the better!
We are a group including professional publishers, translators, and parents of kids in GME. We know the kinds of things kids love to read, and we know there's not enough available for them in Gaelic. Bit by bit we'll bring them more, through your door!
Faighibh barrachd a-mach mun mhodal ballrachd againn air a' blog againn. Faodaidh sibh ballrachd a thoirt a-mach air an duilleig fo-sgrìobhaidh againn.
Find out more about our membership model on our blog. You can sign up via our subscription page.


text:
A man died last week while cycling alone on a mountain road in West Linn
July 15, 2022 May 10, 2019 by Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)
David Schermer remembered on Lawyer Ride Facebook page.
Cycling was a huge part of 69-year old David Schermer's life. All the way up until the end.
Schermer died while riding his Giant TCR road bike down Pete's Mountain Road in West Linn last Friday. According to the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office there was no other vehicle or person involved in the crash. Evidence suggests Schermer lost control on the steep downhill portion of the road where it ends at the junction of SW Riverwood Drive and SW Hoffman Road (see photos below). The turn to Hoffman is nearly a right-angle and the turn to Riverwood is quite sharp as well. The last section of Pete's Mountain Road drops over 100 feet at an average grade of about 7% in just three-tenths of a mile.
Sergeant Dan Krause from the Sheriff's Office told me yesterday that a crash reconstruction and forensics team responded to the scene last Friday around 1:30 pm. Sgt. Krause said they found no skid marks and no other physical evidence of another bicycle or automobile. "It appeared to be an unfortunate incident," he said. "We found nothing at the scene that would have caused this crash." Schermer was found in a ditch about 20-30 feet from the intersection. He died on the scene from head and neck-related injuries.
Looking downhill (southbound) on Pete's Mountain Road.
(Left: Aerial view of the intersection with arrow showing Schermer's direction of travel. Right: Street view looking downhill (southbound) just before intersection of Pete's Mountain Road and SW Riverwood/Hoffman.)
Schermer was a lawyer and had an office in downtown West Linn about seven miles northeast of where he crashed. He was likely on one of his usual lunch rides on roads he knew very well.
I first heard about this when acquaintances of his contacted BikePortland looking for details about what happened. There were no news reports and law enforcement didn't make any public statements about the crash. Then I saw a tribute to him on the Facebook page of the local Lawyer Ride. That tribute was written by Schermer's friend and riding buddy Dan Rohlf.
Rohlf remembered David as an energetic adventurer who loved to challenge himself on the bike. "David died as he lived — going for it in the outdoors, whether on a bike, climbing a mountain, on cross-country skis, or hiking for miles," Rohlf shared on Facebook. "He climbed the Tourmalet like Pantani a few years ago, and ripped passes in the Dolomites. But his idea of a perfect ride was a climb to Council Crest, a few laps on Fairmount and Humphrey/Hewett, then Terwilliger to the Multnomah Lucky Lab for pizza."
"David was just a wonderful guy; he had a smile for everyone, was a fantastic husband, father, and grandfather, and was loved by his family and friends alike… our community has suffered a profound loss," Rohlf added.
Schermer was an avid mountain climber and member of Portland Mountain Rescue. In a statement on their Facebook page today, PMR wrote, "Willing to hump a big load and quietly competent, David was the rescuer you always wanted on your team. Over his tenure with PMR, he logged almost 1000 hours of training and missions. More important, he was generous with kindness and a cheerful word. David, we always knew you had our backs, we just wish we could have been there to cover yours."
He had also ridden the Ronde PDX ride several times. This legendary and unsanctioned ride tackles all the big West Hills climbs. This ride is "officially cancelled" but the word on the street is many people are likely to show up tomorrow (Saturday 5/11) to do it anyways (10:00 am from NW 31st and NW Industrial). If you ride it, keep Schermer in your thoughts. Rest in peace David.
Categories Front Page Tags david schermer, memorials, west linn
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David Hampsten
We all have to go sometime. Given a choice, I'd rather exit as this gentleman has, suddenly while doing what I like to do in a beautiful area, than in a hospital with a drip, slowly dying of a terminal and painful disease.
drosser
If you enjoy going on long, solo rides into less-busy areas, please consider getting a bike computer with a "ride tracking" feature that utilizes your cellphone to periodically send updated location information to a contact list. No, this won't work in those areas without cellphone service (which are more common than you think) but it would help narrow down the area you were last located.
Reply to drosser
I sometimes use a Spot locator. It can be, um, spotty at times (particularly in forested canyons), but it usually lets folks know where I'm at decently. It uses satellites, so the automatic tracking is a paid service over and above the fee to use it for manually showing people where you are. At least its lights let you know if it successfully got the last location off.
Sometimes for us Olds, the most dangerous descent is the one we've done thousands of times. It's easy to get just a touch complacent at just the wrong time. I absolutely have no idea if this is what happened to this seemingly wonderful person, but I'm certainly going to make an extra effort to keep my focus on just such descents going forward.
SERider
If you're riding with GPS, many GPS units will provide a link where people can track your location.
I know Wahoo units do this for sure.
Some newer helmets also have sensors that send out alerts (I believe with beacon function) if the helmet is crashed.
SilkySlim
Oh my goodness, I can't believe this. I was riding the exact same route on the same Friday afternoon, headed from Portland to Newberg. Based on that estimated time I was probably less than an hour behind. I got to the top of the Pete's Mountain climb (at the golf club), resting to take in the view, and was about to head down Hoffman when a guy in a truck warned that the road had just been blocked down below for a crash. I ended up taking a different route westward (Schaeffer Rd.) on his advice.
Whoa. I'm so sorry for the loss, to all family and friends.
I grew up just down Riverwood and my parents were at the scene while he was being recovered. Very sad, almost contacted you but didn't have any other info at the time. Glad to see this piece. Sounds like a very full life.
While I've ridden these exact roads a lot I rarely make the turn in the direction this happened but it is very sharp and dips down then up right at the apex. It would be one of the worst corners in the area to try and recover from misreading. I actually would be surprised if he rode this area often (as you wondered) and totally missed this corner, it's one you would not forget about. That said, being too comfortable and familiar could also be a recipe for huge error like this.
Jonathan, any chance you could post Dan's tribute from the Lawyer FB group here since it is a closed group?
Here you go BradWagon:
Via Dan Rohlf..
I have not done Lawyer Rides for a few years for health and other reasons (but I will this summer!), but I know what a wonderful community this is. And I suspect a number of you know of David from other outdoor-related pursuits. So I hope you don't mind this tribute to my friend and fellow cyclist (and lawyer) David Schermer. On Friday (May 3rd), David was doing a version of his customary (fair weather only!) solo noontime ride from his West Linn office. He was apparently feeling good and decided to tackle the Pete's Mountain climb, but on his also-customary blistering descent something went drastically wrong. David was killed when he crashed and fractured his neck. There is no indication any vehicle or person was involved. David died as he lived — going for it in the outdoors, whether on a bike, climbing a mountain, on cross-country skis, or hiking for miles. He was nearly 70 years old, but aside from a few racers I doubt anyone in town even close to his age could keep up with him on a bike. He climbed the Tourmalet like Pantani a few years ago, and ripped passes in the Dolomites. But his idea of a perfect ride was a climb to Council Crest, a few laps on Fairmont and Humphrey/Hewett, then Terwilliger to the Multnomah Lucky Lab for pizza. David was an active member of Portland Mountain Rescue (and was up for a climb up Mt. Hood at the drop of a hat), and always had an amazing garden. He loved watching the Blazers and the Tour, the latter which we were fortunate to see in person — and ride some of the climbs — in 2010. But most of all, David was just a wonderful guy; he had a smile for everyone, was a fantastic husband, father, and grandfather, and was loved by his family and friends alike. While David couldn't do the Lawyer Ride since his office was far from downtown, our community has suffered a profound loss.
JRB
Reply to Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)
Dan Rohlf is himself an exemplary human being. Praise for David Schermer from Dan is high praise indeed.
So sorry to hear that for whatever reason the odds caught up with David on this ride, and a reminder that traveling through space at velocity is always a risky proposition. A wheel can suddenly slip on gravel, an animal can quickly dart out into your path, a chain can jump, a bee can fly in your helmet (or mouth!), a handlebar or steerer can fail… And all of this is just random chances, apart from the intentional or ignorant aggressions and violence from other humans in metal boxes we encounter too frequently. But we all take that risk because it's a beautiful risk. The fresh air, the hum of tires, nailing the apex, spending time with friends or just alone sorting things out in your head it's all so worth it compared to rotting on a sofa.
Just be aware, go out each time ready to savor some part of it, and know it might be the last time whether it's a cold rainy commute or a focussed hard training session or just a ride for the fun of it on a 75º beautiful clear spring day. Tell your loved ones you love them and make sure they know how much the bike means to you, and if you happen to meet that slight chance and not come home again like David, everyone will know you left this world doing what you loved and that can hopefully bring some solace to those close to you.
Sukho
Reply to Jason H
Well said, Jason H. I'm riding right through there tomorrow and will certainly take it easy. RIP David.
I wish lots more people could have had the pleasure of a ride and a beer and piece of pizza with my friend David. He could talk cycling, politics, law, and the Blazers. He brewed (and appreciated) good beer and grew amazing vegetables. He was smart, interesting, and always smiling — but you probably would have had a hard time keeping up with him on a bike! The open road will be a much lonelier place without him.
I'll take away a few lessons from his tragic death. Going fast downhill is a blast, but lycra and even a good helmet provide modest protection at best. Unless you've broken away from the peloton on the World Tour and you're heading for victory, stay within your limits. Always carry ID on a ride. And live each day to the fullest.
Tom Howe (Contributor)
David was on a portion of the Canby Ferry Classic – a 25-mile loop that's been around for many years. Think of him if you're ever doing this ride:
http://files.idssasp.com/public/C163/9733477d-bf60-431c-bdfc-d792238747f6.pdf
Poor fella. It looks like he got to ride in the Dolomites – if there is a cycling Heaven, it looks just like that and he's there now.
Bummer and sad
Steve Scarich
I debated whether to post this or not, and please remove it if not appropriate. I have gotten rid of only one bike in my 60+ years of cycling because it was scary at very high speed (45+mph). It was a Giant TCR. Twice it started going into almost uncontrollable wobble on screaming fast descents. Both times, if I had gone down, there would have been no skid marks, just a guy losing control and going off the road. and, yes, I raced for decades and know all the reasons and techniques for avoiding high speed wobble. Your experience may be different.
Reply to Steve Scarich
I have sold off two bikes–one US-built and one French and both steel– because they were too good-handling for high speed descents, enough so to goad me into descending at speeds I knew damn well weren't sane.
This is sad and I also hope he didn't suffer. When I saw the bike he was riding it sent shudders down my spine. The TCR was my first racing bike and I'm sure some people love it but I found the geometry extraordinarily touchy – it demanded my attention at all times and I went down twice descending sharp turns. When I started riding other geometries I knew the TCR wasn't for me, and I can't help thinking he was taken by surprise and went down suddenly and hard. It's so sad to hear about people like this, who drank life in with adventures, pushed themselves, only to be taken young. My condolences to his friends and family.
Paul Gronke
If you enjoy going on long, solo rides into less-busy areas, please consider getting a bike computer with a "ride tracking" feature that utilizes your cellphone to periodically send updated location information to a contact list. No, this won't work in those areas without cellphone service (which are more common than you think) but it would help narrow down the area you were last located.Recommended 7
I have had good success with "viewranger". It's an iPhone app (may be on Android as well) and has something called "beacon buddy" that allows folks to follow you on hikes, rides, etc.
I used it when riding the Kokopelli trail and now try to turn it on whenever I am on a solo trail ride, hike, or cross country ski for the reasons listed above.
I'm sure there are other programs / services out there, just sharing my experiences with this one.
Reply to Paul Gronke
Strava does this but you need to have Premium (paid) access. They call the feature Beacon.
It would also technically be possible for the phone to detect a crash (any crash actually, even in a car) and send out an alert to predefined contacts.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Mississippi Standards. Income is money that people earn from working. It is also referred to as wages or salaries. Earning is receiving money for work done or services performed.
3.4. Understand basic economic concepts and their effects on our community.


Many people make financial mistakes without comprehensive knowledge of its effects on their future. Most of these financial mistakes affect their credit rating. Though you might not think much of this, it has a significant impact when you apply for a mortgage. It is the primary determinant of your application's outcome and the loan's interest rates.
Applying for a loan is an ideal alternative to buying something valuable using cold cash. This is especially true if you don't have enough cash to finance the big purchase, such as a house or a car. Getting a loan would be a more practical option at the moment because you don't need to shell out a large amount of money upfront. You just have to pay a more affordable monthly mortgage for a certain period, which is determined by your loan terms and conditions.
These loans are awarded to borrowers with a credit score as low as 580. You can put at least 3.5% of your home's cost for the down payment, but anything below 20% requires payment of a mortgage insurance premium. To qualify for this loan, you need to have a low debt-to-income ratio. FHA loans are also available to homebuyers who have filed for bankruptcy in the past provided 1-2 years have passed since the debts were discharged.
This is backed by the Department of Veteran Affairs and has very low credit score requirements. The loan is open for those in active military duty, veterans, and non-remarried spouses of those who died on duty. Borrowers who qualify for VA loans require neither a down payment nor mortgage insurance. This serves as a tribute and a form of gratitude to those who serve and protect the country, as well as their families. The incentive is a good way to own a house while protecting the interests of the fellow countrymen.
These are designed for those who are investing in homes in rural areas and have low or moderate incomes or poor credit. The US Department of Agriculture can also back loans for home purchases in some suburban areas. These loans come with low interest rates and can also be used for property repairs. This type of loan is ideal for those who want to live a simple life and settle in a rural community. These include farmers, retirees, and anyone who wants to live peacefully and leave the hustle and bustle of the city.
Shopping for a mortgage as a first time homebuyer is challenging. This can be more difficult if you have a poor credit score. With the above options, however, your loan approval will be much easier and you can finally live your dream of owning a house.


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text:
What Could Bankruptcy Look Like For The Pittsburgh Diocese? It Depends
By Virginia Alvino Young • Oct 9, 2018
Virgina Alvino Young / 90.5 WESA
Most of the financials of Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses' are a mystery to outsiders. As religious institutions, they don't have to report income or spending.
House Moves Key Bill Amendment Allowing Retroactive Child Sex Abuse Suits
By Katie Meyer • Sep 25, 2018
Katie Blackley / 90.5 WESA
The state House has approved an amendment that would open a two-year window for child sex abuse victims to sue in cases on which the statute of limitations has run out.
Rep. Rozzi: 'If We Can Expose These Predators, We Can Save Future Generations'
By Virginia Alvino Young • Sep 19, 2018
In the wake of a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing mass child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, state lawmakers are considering changes to the statute of limitation law.
Upcoming Report On Abuse In Catholic Dioceses Renews Effort To Change Statute Of Limitations
By Kathleen J. Davis • May 25, 2018
Andrew Rush / AP
A grand jury report on child sexual abuse in six Pennsylvania Roman Catholic dioceses is expected to be released in the coming weeks, after two years of investigation.
Legislation Would Change Statute Of Limitations In Child Sex Abuse Cases
By Jess Lasky • May 5, 2014
The criminal statute of limitations in Pennsylvania for children who have been sexually abused is currently until the victim reaches 50 years of age, but legislation in the House and Senate would change that.
"Too many abusers are still in public and around children because of the statute of limitations," said State Senator Rob Telplitz (D-Dauphin), sponsor of SB 1350. "And too many victims languish and have had to stand by helpless as other children are put at risk."


5x100mm mini diamond file profiles for working on various shapes and contours. The mini diamond file set includes 5 profiles, flat, square, round, half round and triangle. These 100mm tools are excellent for the smaller more intricate modeling and filing tasks in plastics and metals. Diamond files stay cooler and do not clog.


In the previous session Bank Nifty spot opened at 27972.95 , it made a high of 27988.20 , then made a low of 27827.30 , before closing at 27875.90 .
Had mentioned that long trade for the day will get triggered on sustaining above 27980 and short trade for the day will get triggered on sustaining below 27815 . Bank Nifty initially triggered our long trade at opening but did not sustain and reversed immediately . Post that the entire session Bank Nifty traded between 27815 - 27980 which was the short and long trigger levels for the day indicating indecisiveness .
As mentioned before " In the coming week Bank Nifty needs to break and sustain / close above 27910 to test 28135 - 28195 initially and above it we can see a test of 28385 - 28600 . Similarly Bank Nifty needs to break and sustain / close below 27480 to test 27255 - 27195 initially and below it we can see a test of 27005 - 26790." , and Bank Nifty has broken above 27910 in the last 2 consecutive sessions but has failed to give a close above to confirm weekly longs.
Had mentioned in the previous post " For the month of August ,Bank Nifty longs will get confirmed with a consecutive close above 28075 for a initial target of 28405 - 28490 and sustaining / closing above it we can see a further test of 28775 - 29085 . Similarly , shorts will get confirmed with a consecutive close below 27450 for a initial target of 27125 - 27040 and sustaining / closing below it we can see a further move till 26755 - 26445 . Bank Nifty currently has resistance near 27955 - 28075 and it needs to break and sustain / close above it for further upmove else we might pull back till 27570 - 27460 initially ." , and Bank Nifty has made a high of 27994 and has been unable to break above 27955 - 28075 zone which will can take it further up . If Bank Nifty fails to break and sustain above 28075 in the coming sessions then we can see a pullback till 27525 - 27450 again.
Now in the coming session Bank Nifty needs to break and sustain above 27955 to test 28045 - 28070 initially and sustaining above it we can see a further upmove till 28145 - 28225. Similarly breaking and sustaining below 27795 we can see a test of 27705 - 27685 initially and breaking and sustaining below it we can see a further correction till 27610 - 27530 .


text:
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You are here: BBC > Science & Nature > TV & Radio Follow-up > Programmes > Horizon
What Really Killed the Dinosaurs?
Read the programme transcript.
Programme summary
NARRATOR: Everybody knows what wiped out the dinosaurs. Sixty five million years ago it came from outer space.
ALAN HILDEBRAND: The world changed in an instant, it became an Old Testament version of hell.
NARRATOR: Scientists claim the whole world burned...then they say dust blocked out the sun. They say the earth plunged into deep freeze for months or years. They say it drove the dinosaurs to extinction. But maybe they've got it all wrong.
NORMAN MACLEOD: The impact theory says in effect that a rock fell out of the sky and killed everything, except for the things that it didn't kill. I don't think that's much of an explanation.
NARRATOR: Tonight, Horizon reveals the new science which challenges our understanding of what really killed off the dinosaurs.
NARRATOR: The hills of north east Mexico are full of evidence of a mass murder, sixty five million years ago. It's a crime that for over a decade, scientists thought they had already solved. But then, a geology professor from Princeton discovered something that wasn't supposed to be there.
GERTA KELLER: When I first saw it I couldn't believe it, but then when it dawned on me what it really meant, I jumped up. It was the most exciting Eureka moment, it changed the whole story.
NARRATOR: What Gerta Keller had found were just tiny balls of rock, but the implications were profound.
GERTA KELLER: Then I realised that if I'm right, everyone else is wrong; then science is wrong, about one of the biggest catastrophes in history.
NARRATOR: Gerta Keller's claim was so shocking that it has sparked one of the bitterest scientific controversies of recent years.
JAN SMIT: So when I think of Gerta Keller's so called evidence, it makes me sort of mad because none of it holds up. It's based on arguments which to my mind are barely scientific.
NARRATOR: The arguments are so bitter because Gerta Keller has re-opened the case which most others considered closed. In doing so she has sparked a scientific civil war. And all because she questioned the accepted theory about what wiped out the dinosaurs.
NARRATOR: The dinosaurs were some of the most successful animals ever to roam the planet. For a hundred and forty million years, their dominance was unchallenged....except by other dinosaurs. Then, all of a sudden they all disappeared. Something must have killed them off. To find out what had done it, scientists began to investigate a layer of rock formed sixty five million years ago. It's seen in mines and rock outcrops around the world. Below this layer there are lots of dinosaur fossils, above it there are none. It's called the KT boundary.
JAN SMIT: This is the KT boundary and because it's such a thin, sharp line we know something dramatic must have happened here, some catastrophe and until recently we have almost no clue what happened whatsoever here, so it remained a total mystery.
NARRATOR: Then in 1979 they discovered a clue in the KT boundary. A high concentration of an element called Iridium. Such quantities are extremely rare on earth and usually come from outer space.
JAN SMIT: So as soon as you find ten thousand times more Iridium at the very moment when the dinosaurs disappear, you know somewhere on earth a very big impact must have happened by an asteroid or a comet.
NARRATOR: In fact there was so much Iridium, scientists realised the asteroid must have been a staggering ten kilometres in diameter. If the theory was right, the impact would have created a fireball, equivalent to ten billion Hiroshima bombs. The shock wave alone would have destroyed all life for hundreds of miles around. All they had to do to prove the theory was find the evidence. It was Jan Smit who first discovered the traces of the impact. Hidden in the KT boundary layers he found these tiny balls of rock. Careful analysis revealed the telltale signs of their origin.
JAN SMIT: These are called spherules, they're actually made of round rock globules so we know they're condensed from a very hot vapour cloud and it also tells us some of the mineralogy in there tells us that these spherules, these globules originated at very high temperatures. That's exciting, we know something hot happened and hot is associated with an impact.
NARRATOR: The spherules were evidence that the fireball had vaporised billions of tonnes of rock. In outer space the vapour condensed into tiny droplets which fell back all over the earth as white hot spherules. Then scientists discovered another clue in the KT boundary, high levels of soot. From America to New Zealand there seemed to be evidence of massive burning at the time of the impact. It looked as if the world's forests had spontaneously ignited as the rain of spherules heated the atmosphere by up to a thousand degrees centigrade.
CLAIRE BELCHER: If we're looking at six hundred, a thousand degrees then this would instantly have ignited all the plant matter across the world and it just would have been sent up in flames.
NARRATOR: The impact was also thought to have created a deluge of vicious acid rain. The fireball had released chemicals which turned the water deadly.
DAVID ARCHIBALD: It was suggested that the acid rain had a PH so low that it was like battery acid and if you had something that low in PH it would literally burn everything on the land from plants to dinosaurs to everything else.
NARRATOR: Then there was the final clue from the KT boundary... a high concentration of fern spores. Ferns flourish whenever all other plants have been killed off by some environmental devastation. So the predominance of fern spores known as a fern spike suggested something had wiped out every plant on the planet.
DAVID ARCHIBALD: Fern spikes were found all over the world such as in New Zealand and this I think became stronger and stronger evidence that there was something like global darkness caused by an impact.
NARRATOR: So the theory grew up that vast amounts of dust created by the impact must have blocked out the sun. This could have plunged the world into freezing darkness for months or years. Any dinosaurs which had escaped burning either froze or starved to death. But the mammals were small and could burrow to escape the heat and the cold. When conditions recovered they would emerge to inherit the earth. It was an elegant theory and there was only one thing missing - the impact should have left a crater, two hundred kilometres across. To be certain the theory was right they had to find it. Alan Hildebrand who was based in Calgary in western Canada was determined to be the one to discover the crater. He knew the spherule layers should be thicker the nearer he got to the crater itself... so he followed the trail of the spherules.
ALAN HILDEBRAND: Here in western Canada we have a layer at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, it's about one centimetre thick on average. In Colorado and New Mexico it's two or two and a half centimetres thick. Still further south in the Caribbean as in Haiti it's about a half metre thick so by nineteen eighty nine we knew that the source crater had to be somewhere between North and South America.
NARRATOR: Then Alan Hildebrand had a stroke of luck. He happened to be looking at an old oil company map, he was looking at the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near a village called Chicxulub, then he noticed something odd.
ALAN HILDEBRAND: This is when I spotted: a horseshoe shape feature; we can see it better on this map. The anomaly is a hundred and eighty kilometres across which was in the range of sizes predicted for this crater and laying on the Yucatan Peninsula, between North and South America it's within the region where the ejecta thickness says the crater should lie. So this suggested that this might indeed be the crater that killed the dinosaurs.
NARRATOR: Now they knew where the crater lay, the theory seemed to be proven. But it wasn't quite so simple. At Chicxulub the crater was buried a kilometre underground. On the surface there was nothing to see. To investigate the impact further would mean looking elsewhere. Jan Smit rushed to Mexico. He scoured the country for rock outcrops which were the same age as Chicxulub. He hoped they would reveal the remaining secrets of the impact. Finally he came to explore an area one thousand kilometres from the crater itself.
JAN SMIT: We came here as a sort of last gasp effort and finally the last rays of the sunset we found it.
NARRATOR: It was a massive rock outcrop. It seemed to be exactly the same age as Chicxulub. At last the whole history of the impact could be read in a rock. There were spherules from the crater and Iridium from the asteroid, but there was also something else.
JAN SMIT: What you see here, here is the spherule layer and if we go way up there you see the layers which we know are rich in Iridium and normally those two are together but now we see here, in between, huge masses of sand sandstone and the question was how did it get here?
NARRATOR: Sand is normally found only on the coast, but sixty five million years ago this whole region was under deep ocean. The sandstone should not have been here. According to Smit, it could only be evidence of another disaster caused by the asteroid.
JAN SMIT: And there must have been a lot of energy in the ocean here to bring all this sand down here and to me it was very obvious, very clear that this must have been a huge Tsunami wave.
NARRATOR: Smit believed it was a Tsunami tidal wave like no other. It would have travelled at hundreds of miles an hour... It could have been a thousand feet high. According to Smit, the Tsunami must have churned up billions of tonnes of sand from the coast and dumped it on the ocean bed. This became the sandstone and when the sea level fell, the rock was exposed. If Smit was right the entire outcrop was created in no time at all.
JAN SMIT: After the impact it took a few minutes for the molten material from the crater to get on the spot and deposit on the sea floor. Then after a few hours we get huge Tsunami waves crashing in and they bring a lot of sand here to this place here. And finally we get layers rich in Iridium, since Iridium is so fine grained it takes probably a few days or a few weeks maybe to settle on the sea floor, so this whole package can be deposited in a matter of days.
NARRATOR: With a Tsunami deposit, the impact theory seemed complete. The idea swept through science, it conquered the popular imagination. It spawned a rash of Hollywood films. So it was that the impact theory took over the world. But that was before Gerta Keller's awkward discovery. Keller was fascinated by the Tsunami idea and followed Smit to Mexico. Keller and her colleague, Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, investigated fifty rock outcrops in the same region. The same sandstone feature Smit described occurred everywhere they looked, but somehow Smit's Tsunami analysis just didn't seem to fit.
GERTA KELLER: It's a nice story but when you take a second look the story just doesn't stack up, there is something fishy about it, it just doesn't make sense.
NARRATOR: In science they say there is nothing sadder than a beautiful theory ruined by a single awkward fact. And Keller and Stinnesbeck thought they could see lots of awkward facts.
WOLFGANG STINNESBECK: Even the first time that we came to this place we noticed there was something wrong with Jan Smit's story, just too many details that you have to explain some other way.
NARRATOR: Their first awkward fact was evidence of ancient life, fossilised in the sandstone.
WOLFGANG STINNESBECK: We have this lower grey level where we find feeding structures, feeding tracks of a probably worm-like animal which well, ate the sediment and we have another layer here with dwelling structures of a crab.
NARRATOR: It looked to them as if the lower layer of sandstone had been thoroughly colonised by worms over months or even years. Only afterwards was the upper layer deposited and colonised by the crabs. It seemed to them that there were two layers created at different times and not within a couple of days as Smit had suggested.
WOLFGANG STINNESBECK: So this layer up here has nothing to do with the lower level, the two are separated by time, and by a considerable amount of time.
NARRATOR: The next awkward fact was the existence of layers of muddy sedimentary rock, interspersed in the sandstone. These they thought would have taken a long time to form. They are made of fine grains which tend to build up slowly on the sea floor.
WOLFGANG STINNESBECK: So these fine grains needed some time to settle, in fact an awful lot of time and in that case these sandstones would be separated by some time.
NARRATOR: Then, near the bottom of the outcrop they discovered their third awkward fact - a layer of limestone. Limestone is given away by its violent reaction to acid. It can also take a very long time to form. Finally, Keller and Stinnesbeck discovered their most awkward fact of all. It lay eight metres below the outcrop. It was another layer of spherules. Chemical analysis suggested, these remains of tiny meteorites like the layer higher up could only have come from the Chicxulub crater. For Keller and Stinnesbeck, this changed everything.
GERTA KELLER: It was a Eureka moment, absolutely. We danced, we jumped up and down and said we've got it.
NARRATOR: They were excited because these spherules were eight metres below where any had been found before. In geology, lower normally means further back in time, so for them it suggested an entirely different explanation for the whole rock formation and the extinction of the dinosaurs. It was all to do with time. After the Chicxulub impact, the spherules settled on the sea floor within minutes. These were the spherules just discovered by Doctor Keller. On top of the spherules there seemed to have been a period of normal sedimentation, eight metres of mud had built up. According to Keller and Stinnesbeck this would have taken two hundred and seventy thousand years.
NARRATOR: Next came the limestone layer, this too could have taken thousands of years to form. Only then came the sand, washed in to form the sandstone. Then those fine grained layers built up by sedimentation, that could have taken centuries. Then worms apparently had months, maybe years in which to colonise some of the layers. And only then, at the very top came the Iridium layer, which coincided with the extinction of the dinosaurs. But by now Keller and Stinnesbeck calculated that three hundred thousand years had passed since the Chicxulub impact.
GERTA KELLER: The Iridium must have come from an asteroid but it must have been a second impact, three hundred thousand years later for which we simply don't know where the crater is and it is that impact that probably finished off the dinosaurs.
NARRATOR: If Keller was right, there hadn't been one impact but two. The first, Chicxulub, would have been devastating enough... It would have killed many dinosaurs... but it did not drive them to extinction and it didn't create the Iridium layer. According to Keller and Stinnesbeck, even as earth absorbed the Chicxulub impact, deep in outer space a second asteroid was hurtling toward the planet and this was the asteroid that left the telltale Iridium and finished off the dinosaurs.
NARRATOR: Gerta Keller's work provoked a major scientific clash. Defenders of the old impact theory attacked her ideas. The argument quickly turned vicious.
JAN SMIT: Gerta Keller's totally wrong.
GERTA KELLER: Jan Smit has an awful lot at stake.
JAN SMIT: What she is doing with the evidence makes me totally mad.
GERTA KELLER: Jan Smit says the things he does because he is desperate.
JAN SMIT: Sometimes its not evidence, sometimes its not fact.
GERTA KELLER: Desperate to rescue his impact Tsunami hypnosis.
NARRATOR: But behind the bitter personal fight was a fundamental scientific dispute about how to interpret the same bits of evidence. They needed a way to settle it. At the end of 2001 an international team of scientists gathered near Chicxulub. They used an oil rig to drill down over a kilometre into the heart of the crater. They extracted hundreds of metres of rock cores, most of the rock had been pulverised by the Chicxulub impact but one section was undamaged. It lay above the broken rock so it must have been created after the impact and just underneath the Iridium layer, so the question was how long had this section taken to form? If the mysterious rock had been formed slowly it would support Keller and Wolfgang Stinnesbeck.
WOLFGANG STINNESBECK: What we can see here is the impact sediment which is all smashed off the rocks, we see bigger pieces and smaller pieces here, but then we find something completely different. See this grey rock, this is a limestone and when I looked at the limestone with my head lens I noticed that the grains which are forming the limestone are very fine, so that would show to me that this sediment has been deposited under rather quiet conditions.
NARRATOR: In other words, Stinnesbeck thought the rock had been formed slowly, by sedimentation. There must have been a long time between the impact below the core and the arrival of the Iridium at the top. Then they noticed something else in the core. Traces of what looked like a green clay mineral. Samples were sent for analysis by a technique called x-ray diffraction. Every mineral has its own unique signature when exposed to x-rays. The analysis revealed a clay mineral called Glauconite and Glauconite has one vital characteristic.
WOLFGANG STINNESBECK: Glauconite needs many thousands of years to form, so it's indicating interruptions in the sedimentation of this limestone so it extends even more the time, the period of time which is needed for the deposition of this limestone.
NARRATOR: Gerta Keller also had samples from the core. She was looking for something quite different.
GERTA KELLER: I just scanned them very rapidly and at first I didn't see anything, and then I began to see some shapes that looked familiar.
NARRATOR: What Keller thought she had seen were microscopic plankton fossils called forams, but they were poorly preserved and it took an expert eye to make them out.
GERTA KELLER: This is a 3D image of a perfect foraminifera. This is what we found in the core, it is a cross section of the same species. This is another 3D image, you see five chambers arranged in a circle, you can see the same chambers in the cross section. Here is another species, each of the segments come to a pinched end and the same you can see on the cross section.
NARRATOR: All these species went extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs, yet Keller had found their fossils in rock formed after the Chicxulub impact. For Keller the meaning of the discovery was clear.
GERTA KELLER: The fact that we find these species in the rocks above the Chicxulub impact rocks means that Chicxulub impact must predate the mass extinction by about three hundred thousand years and that just confirms what we already found.
NARRATOR: Keller and Stinnesbeck thought they had won. For them the evidence proved beyond doubt that Chicxulub was far too old to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. But that was just one way to look at it. When Jan Smit analysed the core, he saw something quite different. He found evidence that the rock had been created quickly.
JAN SMIT: Look here for instance, you see here ripple marks, there's another layer of ripple marks, there are lines in the rocks, they all bear evidence for strong currents which implies Tsunami events.
NARRATOR: Smit also examined the layers of green clay mineral. He did his own x-ray diffraction analysis... and found not Glauconite but a different mineral called Smectite. Smectite can form quickly.
JAN SMIT: So they made another mistake, they misidentified the clay mineral with very severe implications.
NARRATOR : And as for Gerta Keller's forams, Smit was in no doubt she had made another big mistake. He took photographs through a microscope too - he found not a single fossil, just these inorganic crystals.
JAN SMIT: On these fuzzy pictures you can easily claim they are forams but I claim it's a fortuitous combination of those crystals in a very fuzzy picture. If you take sharper pictures like these with a different method, you see they are totally different.
NARRATOR: According to Smit, all the evidence suggested the core had been formed in just a few days by a Tsunami... and that meant Chicxulub must be the killer of the dinosaurs.
JAN SMIT: This is still one and the same impact, we have the Chicxulub impact here, very quick sedimentation by Tsunami waves and at the very end we get the Iridium from the Chicxulub impact so the dinosaurs got extinct right here, as a consequence of the Chicxulub impact and not by a second impact on some unknown place in the world.
NARRATOR: Jan Smit and Gerta Keller had fought each other to deadlock. Smit still represents the view of the great majority of scientists in this field...but there is now some support for Gerta Keller's position. Neither side is about to back down.
JAN SMIT: We looked at all evidence and I refute everything. There's not a single argument which holds ground.
GERTA KELLER: He built his career on this impact Tsunami hypothesis and right now he's feeling this hypothesis crumble in front of his eyes.
NARRATOR: But while two groups of scientists were obsessed with the debate about which was the guilty impact, another thought the whole thing was completely beside the point. The objection was based on one simple observation - earth has been hit many times... and these impacts, even the really big ones, seldom coincide with mass extinctions.
NORMAN MACLEOD: For the very large craters that we think might have produced global effects, in some cases they don't line up with any extinction events whatsoever and in other cases extinction events, very well dated extinction events have occurred that are not associated with any impacts.
NARRATOR: Because of this, some scientists had long doubted that any impact could have wiped out the dinosaurs and now there is new evidence which seems to reinforce those suspicions. The new evidence relates to the forest fires that were said to have raged all over the world. They seem to have been supported by soot in the KT boundary layers, but the problem with soot is that it can be blown thousands of miles from where the burning actually happened, so one researcher decided to investigate a more reliable kind of evidence... charcoal!
CLAIRE BELCHER: Large pieces of charcoal can't be transported great distances, they can't be picked up and lofted in smoke plumes or carried around the world so therefore if we can find charcoal at each KT boundary location we can be sure that burning occurred at each site.
NARRATOR: In 2003, Claire Belcher scoured North America looking for charcoal. She collected samples from eight KT boundary sites, from New Mexico in the south right up into western Canada. In the lab she searched the samples for traces of charcoal, which show up white under the microscope. She was amazed at what she discovered... there was almost none.
CLAIRE BELCHER: What we did find however was a lot of this non charred plant material. This was really surprising because it means that to have this amount of non charred plant material in the KT boundary rocks, there's no way that there can have been a globally extensive wild fire because it just simply wouldn't have left so much non charred material on the rock record.
NARRATOR: Claire Belcher's results were consistent from Canada, all the way down to the southern United States, just two thousand kilometres from the crater. Even here there was no evidence of burning.
CLAIRE BELCHER: If there was no burning across north America then how on earth could there be burning across the rest of the world because north America is so close to the impact site so basically it seemed there were no fires.
NARRATOR: So the dinosaurs had not roasted. A major predicted effect of the impact simply did not hold up. And that raised a whole series of other questions. What about the idea of acid rain, meant to have been as strong as battery acid, that should have destroyed the plants that many dinosaurs lived on and wiped out many sensitive animal species. Biologist Dave Archibald has made a statistical study of the kinds of animals which went extinct and those that survived. He found that many which should have died out because of acid rain... didn't.
DAVID ARCHIBALD: This little tree frog like all amphibians is very susceptible to acid rain. They have problems with their metabolism and finally they can't breed in the water. If acid rain had occurred at the end of the Cretaceous, all amphibians should have disappeared. They don't, almost all of them survived, as do all the turtles, the crocodiles, their cousins the alligators and most fishes. This says that there can not have been battery acid strength acid rain at the end of the Cretaceous.
NARRATOR: If there was no significant acid rain, it seemed another killing mechanism had been disproved. And what about the so called impact winter? Dust was meant to have blocked out the sun... that could have plunged the world into deep freeze for months or years, but again those little frogs got in the way.
DAVID ARCHIBALD: Amphibians like all cold blooded creatures have problems dealing with sudden drops in temperature, especially if it lasts for many months or years. If this had happened at the end of the Cretaceous, then many cold blooded organisms should have become extinct... they did not. This tells us that there could not have been a long term drop in temperature.
NARRATOR: So the dinosaurs did not freeze to death... nor did they roast and nor did they die from the effects of acid rain. There seemed to be so many holes in the impact theory, scientists began to dust down a more classical, evolutionary idea. Maybe the dinosaurs had died out gradually and for completely different reasons. Many scientists believe that about ten million years before the KT boundary, the dinosaurs' environment began to get markedly worse. The lush coastal planes on which they depended began to turn arid, as sea levels fell dramatically. Their natural habitat was disappearing.
DAVID ARCHIBALD: They no longer have as much area to live in, they don't have as much food to eat, it's harder to get from one area to another. Organisms are adapted for a certain type of environment and when those conditions disappear those organisms disappear.
NARRATOR: Between ten million and three million years before the KT boundary, the dinosaurs seem to have suffered a dramatic decline. One interpretation of the fossil record is that forty percent of dinosaur species went extinct.
DAVID ARCHIBALD: And so we come up to about one to three million years before the end of the Cretaceous and we've got a group that seems to be vulnerable to any kind of extinction events that might be occurring at that time.
NARRATOR: So it seems that by three million years before the impact, the dinosaurs were already in trouble. The big question is what happened next? Did they stabilise or carry on dwindling? What is known is that their environment continued to worsen. For about half a million years before the KT boundary, the world suffered one of its most destructive periods of volcanism ever. Vast areas of land were ridden with eruptions. A million cubic kilometres of lava spewed out in what are known as the Deccan Traps.
NORMAN MACLEOD: We're talking about the entire western part of India being a centre of volcanic activity with volcanoes and lava coming out, over a large area, over thousands of kilometres.
NARRATOR: Volcanic greenhouse gases contributed to an apparently massive global warming. Some data point to an average rise in temperature of eight degrees centigrade in the last half million years before the impact. This would have been devastating.
NORMAN MACLEOD: We're talking about catastrophic effects in terms of changes in habitat, changes in rain fall patterns, changes in climate, all of these you can think of all of the things that are going on in the modern world magnified many many times, many many orders of magnitude indeed.
NARRATOR: It is not clear what effect the Deccan Traps had on the dinosaurs. The fossil record for this crucial period is difficult to interpret. But the fossil record for other animals such as the ammonites is far better and using this some argue it's possible to infer what was happening to the dinosaurs.
NORMAN MACLEOD: Six million years prior to the KT boundary there were about twenty species of ammonites in the world's oceans. Three million years before the KT boundary there were only fifteen or so and one million years prior to the KT boundary we have less than half of what we started out with, we have less than ten species so the extinction event has already been going on for millions of years. The amazing thing is that we see the same pattern in the fish record, we see the same pattern in the terrestrial reptile record, we even see the same pattern in the mammal record. All of these groups were undergoing an extinction event for millions of years and it would be absolutely amazing to me if dinosaurs weren't undergoing the same sort of extinction and indeed I think they were undergoing the same sort of long term extinction.
NARRATOR: It seemed there was no role left for the asteroid impact or impacts at all. The dinosaurs were doomed anyway; except there was still evidence of an environmental catastrophe at the KT boundary. The awkward unavoidable fact that remains to support the impact theory was the fern spike. The predominance of fern spores in the KT boundary layers suggests that all vegetation was destroyed for a time. Those who are convinced that Chicxulub killed off the dinosaurs argue that the fern spike, caused by the impact, is still the key to understanding the mass extinction.
ALAN HILDEBRAND: It's reasonable to think that all the standing vegetation all over the earth was destroyed, so we don't understand exactly how yet but certainly its evidence of a dramatic catastrophe in the terrestrial eco system from the impact.
NARRATOR: Because the vegetation was not destroyed by wild fires, the most likely cause seems to be global darkness brought on by the impact dust... and that would have been catastrophic for the dinosaurs.
ALAN HILDEBRAND: Naturally if you're a plant eating dinosaur, all the plants that you're eating are dying so this of course is the end of you, and if you're a meat eating dinosaur preying on plant eating dinosaurs once they're gone, you're gone too.
NARRATOR: The end of the dinosaurs now seems much more complicated than it once did. It appears they were already dwindling under pressure from a worsening environment. Massive volcanism and falling sea levels might have forced them to extinction, even if the asteroid had missed. But there was a massive asteroid impact, either at Chicxulub or was it somewhere else entirely? And it does seem likely that this, at the very least finished off the remaining dinosaurs. So it seems they were the victims of a lethal combination of circumstances.
DAVID ARCHIBALD: Clearly dinosaurs were incredibly unlucky at the end of the Cretaceous to have all three things happen at the same time.
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Elsewhere on bbc.co.uk
News: Dinosaur impact theory challenged
Scientists have cast doubt on the theory that a single asteroid strike killed off the dinosaurs.
Prof Jan Smit
Argues against Gerta Keller's theory.
Prof Gerta Keller
More on why Keller believes the impact theory is wrong.
The Geological Society - Chicxulub: the Great Debate
What the main protagonists have to say.
UNAM Earth Sciences Department
The custodians of the most recent core sample from the crater.
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The kleptomaniac wife (Gene Tierney) of a successful psychoanalyst (Richard Conte) is intercepted by a conning hypnotist (Jose Ferrer), who promises to help cure her sleep issues, then manipulates her into appearing culpable for a murder.
Scripted by a blacklisted Ben Hecht (whose real name eerily shows up in the apparently touched-up DVD release), this noir-ish Otto Preminger flick — based on the novel Methinks the Lady… by Guy Endore — features Broadway-star Jose Ferrer in his first leading screen role, prior to his Oscar-winning performance in Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) the following year. Instead of possessing a femme fatale, however, Ferrer stands in as a somewhat fey homme fatale — a manipulative shyster who uses his estimable skills as a hypnotist to prey on vulnerable wealthy women caught in compromising situations. Hecht's script possesses just enough sass and originality that it's unfortunate to find it couched within a decidedly dated psychoanalytic premise, much like his previous outing for Hitchcock (1945's Spellbound). Both milk the then-current obsession with psychoanalysis for all it's worth, positing overly simplistic causes for mental illness, and utilizing the suggestive power of hypnosis as a conveniently sinister narrative device.
Ferrer's performance is at times a bit too broad for comfort (it appears he was still getting his screen-acting legs wet), but definitely makes an impact; he's fearless in his depiction of a truly despicable yet clever cad, someone we hate almost immediately yet can't help admiring for his ingenuity. Richard Conte is fine if a bit too reserved as Tierney's puzzled, distant husband, while Tierney is perfectly cast (though given little room to stretch beyond her stereotypically icy demeanor) in the central female role. Meanwhile, Preminger and d.p. Arthur Miller infuse the entire affair with an appropriately atmospheric air. Watch for a fine supporting performance by Charles Bickford as the lieutenant assigned to the murder case; in some ways, his performance feels more natural than any of the others.
No, though it's recommended for one-time viewing.
Agreed – not a must, for reasons stated.
The cast seems fine to me, overall, but this is little more than a slick, commercial melodrama that occasionally gets a little silly.


4th Forum of the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR) and 2nd Fora of the Adriatic and Ionian Chambers of Commerce, Cities and Universities, will take place in Budva, Montenegro, on 7-8 May 2019, under the slogan "Integration for the people, development for the region".
The 4th EUSAIR Forum will focus on topics related to the field of Tourism and Blue Growth. The participants will also have the chance to discuss funding mechanisms for all four thematic pillars of the EUSAIR and share concrete ideas on the future prospects of the Strategy. Each year the Forum attracts numerous stakeholders, such as European Commission and other EU institutions, national ministries, regional and local authorities, the business sector, academic and civil society, who share views, exchange experience and discuss ways of cooperation.
Two Forums will be preceded by the Adriatic and Ionian Council/EUSAIR Ministerial Meeting (event reserved to Ministers and their delegations) and other side events on 6 May 2019.


text:
Johannes Kneppelhout (Leiden, 8 januari 1814 – Oosterbeek, 8 november 1885) was een Nederlands auteur, ook bekend onder het pseudoniem Klikspaan. Roem geniet hij vooral om zijn humoristische en realistische, later moralistische schetsen over het studentenleven. Kneppelhout was ook mecenas van veel kunstenaars.

Leven
Kneppelhout, lid van de familie Kneppelhout, verloor zijn vader Cornelis Johannes Kneppelhout reeds in 1818 en had zijn eerste opleiding te danken aan zijn moeder Johanna Maria de Gijselaar en zijn oom Nicolaas Cornelis de Gijselaar (als officier in ruste wonende op Zuilenstein bij Amerongen), beide kinderen van de patriot Cornelis de Gijselaar. Kneppelhout genoot zijn middelbareschoolopleiding aan het gerenommeerde instituut Noorthey te Veur, waar hij van 1825 tot 1832 verbleef. Later studeerde hij rechten te Leiden, zonder deze opleiding af te ronden. Als student woonde hij in het kapitale pand Rapenburg 65, waar hij in de jaren 1839-1841 onder zijn nom-de-plume Klikspaan zijn magnum opus "Studententypen" publiceerde. Hij was een letterkundige pur sang, beproefde vergeefs de letterkunde in het Frans, maar keerde, door goede raad daartoe gebracht, tot zijn moedertaal terug. Op het Rapenburg ontving Kneppelhout schrijvers en kunstenaars waaronder Hans Christian Andersen.

Kneppelhout trad op 15 mei 1845 in het huwelijk met zijn achternicht Ursula Martha Van Braam, op 17 september 1825 aldaar geboren als lid van de familie Van Braam en dochter van Willem Charles van Braam (kapitein-ter-zee en later burgemeester van Hattem) en Machtelina Christina de Gijselaar. Het huwelijk - daar Kneppelhout veelal als homoseksueel wordt beschouwd door velen een schijnhuwelijk genoemd - bleef kinderloos. Van Braam overleed als weduwe op 18 mei 1919 op De Hemelsche Berg te Oosterbeek, een landgoed dat Kneppelhout in 1847 had gekocht en waar hij vanaf 1851 permanent woonde. Hij reisde - hiertoe in staat gesteld door een groot vermogen - naar zijn goeddunken, schreef reisverhalen, toonde belangstelling in de kunst en steunde gaarne het behoeftig talent met milde hand. Onder andere nam hij daarom de opvoeding op zich van Jan de Graan, Petrus Augustus de Génestet, Otto Scholderer, David Artz en Gerard Bilders. In 1867 waren er geruchten over een verhouding met De Graan, waardoor Kneppelhout reputatieschade leed. In zijn laatste jaren bleef hij op zijn De Hemelsche Berg wonen, waar hij na een langdurig lijden op 8 november 1885 overleed. Hij werd begraven op de Algemene Begraafplaats Katwijk in een familiegraf. Het stoffelijk overschot werd op 13 november 1885 per trein van Arnhem naar Leiden overgebracht. Tien jaar later werd door de Oosterbeekse bevolking op het landgoed de gedenkzuil Kneppelhout-van Braam geplaatst.

Trivia
De Klikspaanweg in Leiden, waar studentenflats staan, is genoemd naar het pseudoniem dat Kneppelhout als schrijver gebruikte. Kneppelhout is in Leiden twee keer vernoemd, want er is daar ook een Kneppelhoutstraat.

Werken

 Fragments de correspondance (1835)
 L'éducation par l'amitié (1835)
 Nouveaux fragments de correspondance (1836)
 Copeaux (1837)
 L'ère critique ou l'art et le culte (1837)
 Iets over eene beoordeeling (1838)
 Prose et vers (1838)
 Souvenirs d'un voyage à Paris (1839)
 In den vreemde (1840)
 Studententypen (1841, onder het pseudoniem Klikspaan)
 De studenten en hun bijloop (1844, onder het pseudoniem Klikspaan)
 Studentenleven (1844, onder het pseudoniem Klikspaan)
 Verhalen (1846)
 Opuscules de jeunesse (1848)
 Schetsen en verhalen uit Zwitserland (1850)
 Mijne zondagen in het Vereenigde Koninkrijk (1859)
 Geschriften, dl. 1-3 (1860)
 Ce qui m'a passé par la tête en Italie: 13 Février - 13 Juin 1872, A. J. Sijthoff, Leide (1872)
 Een beroemde knaap: ter herinnering aan Jan de Graan, geboren te Amsterdam 10 September 1852, overleden te 's Gravenhage 8 Januarij 1874 (1875)

Zijn geschriften, van december 1839 in druk verschenen, zijn bijna alle verenigd in een uitgave van 12 delen, Leiden 1860-1875.

Externe link

Nederlands schrijver
Nederlands persoon in de 19e eeuw

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


For confidential site selection and relocation, business retention and expansion, workforce development or small business start-up assistance, you can trust and rely on Katy Area EDC for experienced service. Katy Area EDC staff members have over 40 years of experience in economic development and are here to help from the "ground-up" to help your company tap into the fertile and growing economic infrastructure of the Katy area.
Katy Area EDC provides development assistance to real estate brokers and developers seeking to build, mixed-use projects, business parks and speculative office and industrial buildings in the Katy area. Katy Area EDC provides site selection assistance, demographics, permitting assistance and knowledge of the local market.
The attraction and recruitment of new corporations and businesses to Katy is fueling our commitment to quality growth. The Katy Area EDC economic development staff works to help find the best properties and programs that fit your project or company. The staff helps identify and administrate local and state incentive programs that can help your company's bottom line and foster a smooth relocation transition.
Existing businesses create the most new jobs in communities and Katy Area EDC recognizes the impact and importance of those businesses in the area. The EDC directs a business retention and expansion program that has been in place for the past 12 years. Site and building selection, financing, workforce recruitment and training, tax and non-tax incentives and facilitating access to state and local programs are the types of assistance we provide. The EDC works closely with its economic development allies on projects.
The Katy area is home to many corporate training centers such as the BP North America Center, National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE), Petroskills and Weatherford. Katy Area EDC helps Katy employers by facilitating workforce resources and training through the local Workforce Solutions Office and helping companies interface with the University of Houston-Victoria, Houston Community College (HCC), Katy ISD and other training providers in the area.
Katy Area EDC, working with local Workforce Solutions personnel, can help existing or new companies apply for workforce incentives such as the "Skills Development Grant" program through Houston Community College or other programs offered from the Texas Workforce Commission.
Katy Area EDC frequently advocates for major infrastructure and educational projects which impact economic growth, development and quality of life. Such projects include highways like the Grand Parkway and Cane Island interchange as well as Westpark Tollway expansion. The EDC also supports several bond referendums including Katy ISD bonds, mobility bonds and other public safety projects.


text:
Blechnum brasiliense es una especie de helecho perteneciente a la familia Blechnaceae. Es originaria de Sudamérica.

Descripción
Es un helecho con rizoma erecto, no estolonífero, las escamas de 1-2 x 0.1-0.3 mm, lineares a lanceoladas, concoloras, pardo oscuro a negras, enteras; hojas estériles y fértiles monomorfas; pecíolo de 2-12 cm, pardo o negro en la base; lámina 50-120 x 20-40 cm, pinnatisecta o 1-pinnada basalmente, glabra, atenuada gradualmente hacia la base, el ápice pinnatífido; yemas ausentes; pinnas 30-50 pares, 8-22 x 1-2.2 cm, ascendentes, no involutas, serradas, la base anchamente adnata, sursumcurrentes, las basales auriculiformes, obtusas; raquis y costas pajizos a pardo claro, glabros; aeróforos ausentes.

Distribución y hábitat
Se encuentra en matorrales pantanosos a una altitud de 1200-1500 metros, en Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia, Brasil, Paraguay, Uruguay y Argentina.

Taxonomía
Blechnum brasiliense fue descrita por Nicaise Augustin Desvaux  y publicado en Der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin Magazin für die neuesten Entdeckungen in der Gesammten Naturkunde 5: 330. 1811.

Sinonimia
Blechnum corcovadense Raddi
Blechnum fluminense Vell.
Blechnum nigrosquamatum Gilbert
Blechnum nitidum C. Presl

Referencias

Enlaces externos

brasiliense


There are over 1 billion unique visits to YouTube each month with visitors watching over six billion hours of video. Of all the available marketing channels, YouTube has the potential to reach the largest percentage of the population.
While YouTube's overall reach is certainly incredible, reach means nothing if you are not "reaching" the people in your target audience. With YouTube advertising you can use precision targeting based on demographics, location, interests, viewing devices (laptop, cell phone, tablet, etc.) and even time of day to ensure that your message gets in front of the right people.
Google Adwords gives you the option of establishing a start and end date for your video campaign. However, unlike other advertising campaigns that require an expiration date YouTube ads can run forever. No matter when a new potential customer begins a search your video message can be ready to respond.
You do not need a large marketing budget to advertise effectively on YouTube. Google AdWord's flexible pay-per-view (PPV) system allows you to set a weekly budget and even determine the maximum amount you want to pay per view (this is known as max cost-per-view [CT1] (CPV)).
The brilliant combination of video access, sharing, and community within YouTube and particularly your target audience creates an opportunity for audience engagement, and consequently business growth, that is matchless. If a viewer finds your video to be informative or entertaining, or both, they have the option of sharing it with others. Thus, significantly expanding the reach of your video.
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Closely related to measurability is adjustability. When you understand the people interacting with your ad, you can tailor your campaign to better suit them; thus, increasing your chances of engagement.


text:
Wisconsin Recall Offers Strategic Lessons for Mitt Romney
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann.
By David Drucker
Posted June 10, 2012 at 10:54pm
In five months, Republicans will learn whether Gov. Scott Walker's victory foreshadowed something big for the party beyond Wisconsin.
But even if the June recall election proves less than a broad political harbinger, the Republicans' rare opportunity to test-run their voter turnout operation this close to November could pay important tactical dividends in key battleground states that could decide the presidential race.
Before all of the votes were tallied last Tuesday, top Republican strategists were already crunching the data, and they believe what they learned on the ground in Wisconsin can help them elsewhere.
"We never dubbed it a dry run … But there is no better testing ground than an election," said Rick Wiley, the Republican National Committee political director. "Now we have strategy teams in D.C. and Boston looking at how things are performing."
Wiley spoke to Roll Call on Friday by telephone from Boston, where he was briefing top campaign strategists for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. In concert with the Walker campaign, the RNC led a get-out-the-vote effort modeled on its presidential-level Victory program that operated 23 field offices throughout Wisconsin and made an incredible 4.5 million voter contacts in a contest that saw approximately 2.5 million people vote.
Political analysts and partisans are still arguing over the political ramifications of only the third gubernatorial recall election in U.S. history. But with the fall battle against President Barack Obama's well-oiled re-election machine in mind, Wiley said the RNC gleaned tactical and strategic insights from the Wisconsin contest that could significantly affect the Republicans attempt to reach parity with an Obama campaign that has sprinted to a huge operational head start over team Romney.
If the RNC's ground game for the Wisconsin recall revealed any major flaws that need correcting, Wiley wouldn't concede as much. But he was willing to share some of the positive highlights that are likely to be implemented by the Romney campaign and the RNC Victory program when absentee and early voting begin sometime after Labor Day. His characterization of the GOP approach to voter turnout moving forward: "Our ability to be nimble."
What pleasantly surprised Wiley the most in the Republicans' extensive effort to micro-target Wisconsin voters was the success Republicans had with low-propensity voters. Normally written off in favor of focusing on turning out mid- and high-propensity voters, the RNC's Victory program took a gamble, sending tens of thousands of absentee ballot applications to voters with a poor history of showing up to vote in major elections, let alone unusual special elections.
The result: about 10,000 additional votes for Walker that the GOP would have normally never sought. The governor ended up winning by a wide margin, but those extra votes bolstered the Republicans' confidence early last Tuesday evening, as exit polling incorrectly suggested the potential for a photo finish with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D). Targeted absentee voters received five ballot applications, five phone calls and were part of a door-knocking program that hit 250,000 homes.
"The ability to get those 10,000 people to vote in a June 5 recall is just huge for us. These folks just don't vote," Wiley said.
The RNC political director also discussed elements of the Victory GOTV programs' micro-targeting strategy, which intends to deeply refine the voting universe any number of categories that can be used to craft specific turnout messages.
Similar to the way pollsters telephone a sample of a survey universe to make broad predictions on a candidate's political standing or the state of campaign, the Republicans on any given night would call a small percentage of a targeted voting demographic. If the sample demographic responded well, campaign volunteers would be assigned to hit this entire voting universe with heavy follow-up.
If a sample responded poorly, a third-party contractor would be paid to robo-call the voting universe — or it might be dropped altogether from the GOTV program. This approach saved the RNC and the Walker campaign from expending too many personnel and resources on voters that weren't going to perform well or might show up and support Barrett, while saving those investments for demographics that appeared more fruitful according to the micro-targeting research.
"Micro-targeting has allowed us to slice and dice," Wiley said. "We'll do that this summer and fall throughout the country."


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Gold foil matchbox style gift box + printed charm buffer inc.


Oral Thrush: Oral Thrush is a condition in which a fungus accumulates on the lining of your mouth. Oral Thrush causes creamy white lesions, usually on your tongue or inner cheeks. The lesions can be painful and may bleed slightly when you scrape them. Sometimes oral thrush may spread to the roof of your mouth, your gums, your tonsils or the back of your throat.
In some cases, the symptoms of oral thrush can make eating and drinking difficult.
Although oral thrush can affect anyone, it is more likely to occur in babies, young children, elderly people and in people who wear dentures, use inhaled corticosteroids or have compromised immune systems. Oral Thrush is a minor problem if you are healthy but if you have a weakened immune system, symptoms of oral thrush may be more severe and difficult to control.
Your doctor will usually be able to diagnose oral thrush simply by examining your mouth. Sometimes they may also recommend blood tests to look for certain conditions associated with oral thrush, such as diabetes and nutritional deficiencies.


Photoshop offers many different techniques to remove a background from an image. For simple backgrounds, using the standard magic wand tool to select and delete the background may well be …... Background Eraser Tool (E): Change particular colors of a layer to transparent by clicking and dragging. Eraser Tool (E): Change parts of the layer to transparent by clicking and dragging. Layers Panel: Displays all layers within the document.
Photoshop offers many different techniques to remove a background from an image. For simple backgrounds, using the standard magic wand tool to select and delete the background may well be …... Photoshop 101 - Transparent Fills Photoshop doesn't come with the same one-click ability as Illustrator to make the fill of shapes or objects transparent. Here's a workaround.
Background Eraser Tool (E): Change particular colors of a layer to transparent by clicking and dragging. Eraser Tool (E): Change parts of the layer to transparent by clicking and dragging. Layers Panel: Displays all layers within the document.
First transparency background color: Click the swatch if you want to make a custom color choice for one set of the pattern squares. Second transparency background color: Click the second color swatch if you'd like to choose a custom color for the second set of pattern squares.
3/10/2012 · Then set your document dimensions, resolution and choose transparent for the background. Add your text and/or images. Then use save for web and choose PNG24 to preserve the transparency.


El Paso, Texas – As a continuation to an ongoing infrastructure upgrade project, El Paso Electric (EPE) crews will begin work on transmission lines over I-10 at North Raynor Street on Sunday, June 3, 2018, from approximately 5:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Traffic control measures will begin at 4:00 a.m.
Both eastbound and westbound lanes on I-10 at Piedras Street (Exit 21) will be closed. Traffic will be detoured onto Gateway East and Gateway West off the Piedras Street exit.
Raynor St. from Alameda Ave. to Wyoming St.
Missouri St. from Piedras St. to San Marcial St.


The picture for today's meditation is a real one from the Anglican Sisters of the Transfiguration. They are one of the many Anglican Orders of nuns that are top heavy when it comes to age and like many Anglican Orders, are being replaced or at least renewed in some way by "New Monasticism", of new religious orders of people who no longer have to live isolated in a Monastery or Convent and are not necessarily restricted in their personal relationships. Even the traditional Monastic Orders (Religious Communities) in the Episcopal Church are now in constant dialogue and sharing with new Monastic Communities (Intentional Christian Communities), and meet yearly to share their life in common and their differences.
"Monastic Life is a practice for death." says our Author.
I am in the process of getting ready for my "retirement" in 5 months time. I have opted for an early retirement in order to fulfill one of my dreams which is to begin an ecumenical Benedictine community in the heart of Mexico City. In order to do that I have to "let go" of being a full time parish priest in order to go "full time spiritual" as a full time monastic living in Mexico City. Along with this come many fears, and anxieties about no longer "contributing" as I have for so many years economically to our household. I have also had to take a step aside as the "alpha male" in our household as my spouse gets more mature and is able to make many of the decisions that before I felt I needed to make or felt I could make. Every day that I get up it takes me just a little longer to "put myself together again" in order to take on the day. I no longer spend hours in the gym trying to make my physique stand out (it never really worked anyways). Its just about time for that second colonoscopy that everyone dreads, which is symptomatic of aging in our society. I spend more of my time not worried so much about outer appearances and physique as eating well, sleeping well, finding balance in my day, praying well, and walking at least one hour a day, swimming twice a week, and biking when possible instead of using the car.
As much of this might buy me just a few more years of health and pleasure in this life, if I look ahead to my parents (my mom who died two years ago and the other who is now 84) I know exactly in which direction I am heading. I saw it in my grandparents (may they rest in peace) and I am living it with my Parents. I am the next in line to ride the roller coaster.
It is sobering to know you are going to die. It is sobering to know that you don't have any idea usually exactly when you are going to die. It is helpful for me to know that the real "process of dying" in nearly a majority of the cases is something that is basically pretty short lived. Most of us, with a little luck will be pretty healthy and in good shape up and until some final months or even days of our existence. It is also sobering to know, after having been a priest and experienced death with so many others for over 27 years, sitting at the bed side of a dying person or giving last rites over and over again (I can't even count how many times), that death is such a natural and beautiful process in the entire life cycle that there is really nothing to fear when it comes to actually dying. We all do it, sooner or latter, and it just takes a matter of minutes in the end for everything in our bodies to gently shut down and go into eternal rest and sleep.
The Monastic Practice of Death to Life is not being afraid to enter into the full cycle of "life to death to life". In Christian terms we call it the Paschal Mystery. The monastic term for death is the latin word "transitus". Every year Benedictines celebrate the Transitus of St Benedict on March 22. We also celebrate his life on July 11. The word implies everything that death is, "a transition" from one life into another life. None of us knows exactly what the second life will be like, but we know that it will be there for us. Whether we are conscious of it, or will know or be in the know after our death is secondary. We have spent our entire lives in preparation for what is to come, the fullness of life eternal as God sees it for us, as God saw it for Jesus when he raised him from the dead.
The second picture in this discussion is a picture here on the side of one of the buildings in the Monastery. It looks like it could come from Mexico and not Germany but if you look closely you will find the skeleton in the coffin is Bavarian and is wearing Lederhosen and traditional Bavarian dress. He is surrounded with everything that he cannot take with him, money, possessions, power and influence. The cemetery at the Monastery is only a short walk from this daily reminder. It is the most peaceful and beautiful part of the entire monastic enclosure. Each tomb stone or wrought iron cross says just a little bit about each monk who died, their interest, their specialty, there is a symbol of what they present or who they were. It is truly Holy Ground.
I find it hard to end this part about Monasticism since I still am working on this spiritual practice each and every day. I know one day I will get it right, and that will be my LAST DAY.


Shortly after his return from Fulton in 1946, Churchill began to write his war memoirs. With a team of researchers beavering away on his behalf, he had a very ordered (if somewhat laborious) approach to drafting and editing. He would pull together all his documents (or get his researchers to pull them together) – minutes, telegrams, letters – and then would track down material from other sources, too. Churchill would then begin to draft the text which would link all the documents together, dictating to a team of secretaries, often late into the night. Just as he did with all his speeches, he'd check drafts, check proofs, marking them up at each stage with copious corrections, determined to get the right word, the right phrase. Despite such a laborious process (or perhaps because of it), The Second World War appeared relatively quickly, in six volumes, between 1948 and 1954. Churchill never claimed the memoirs were 'history'; they were rather a contribution to history. Although their very breadth and coverage gave the impression that they were a definitive account, there were omissions, of course. The Second World War was Churchill's interpretation of the events, the work of a man seeking to place his role in the war – and in history. The books sold well, with a combined first printing of over 800,000 copies.
Watch newsreel footage of the Conference, with some of Churchill's speech, here. Churchill stops his speech to take a drink and then says: 'I don't often do that'. After laughter and applause, he then adds, with perfect comedic timing, 'I mean, when I'm making a speech'.
At the birthday celebrations at Westminster Hall in November 1954, Churchill was presented with a portrait by Graham Sutherland, commissioned by past and present members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It was Sutherland's practice to prepare detailed sketches, almost completely finished works, often close-ups of the heads of his sitters.
Churchill felt strongly that Britain had a key role to play in world politics; it was 'the only country in the world which had an important interest in all 'three great circles among the free nations and democracies' (the Commonwealth, the English-speaking world and Europe). He believed he could help Britain play its role in all three and this was one of the main reasons why he refused to retire. He continued to exert his influence and express his views about the need for a new approach to diplomacy in the face of post-war reality.
I am now going to say something that will astonish you. The first step in the recreation of the European family must be the partnership between France and Germany.
Churchill's speech at Fulton in 1946 was followed by a similarly important speech on the state of Europe later that year. Churchill's power, influence and prestige internationally meant that his speeches were taken seriously and widely reported, and he became regarded as a leading figure in the European movement. But he wasn't, as some have said, a committed 'European'; he always felt that Britain should not be subsumed within a federal Europe. He always remained a British nationalist. His speeches must also be seen in the context of the time.
In November 1945, Churchill was invited to give one of a series of annual lectures at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri. The letter of invitation was annotated by President Truman who offered to introduce Churchill, and therefore guaranteed a high profile event.
Churchill's speech, given on 5 March 1946, was to prove enormously influential. Originally entitled 'The Sinews of Peace', it became better known as the 'Iron Curtain' speech because of his use of a phrase now in common use. This was Churchill's first public declaration of the Cold War, in which he warned the western world about the 'iron curtain' that was descending over Europe, drawn down by the Russians, and called for greater Anglo-US cooperation, in what he called a 'special relationship', in the battle against Soviet expansionism. Click here to see Churchill give this speech in the presence of US President Harry S. Truman.
Churchill wanted to see Britain as the interlocking link between three circles – the Empire and Commonwealth, Europe and the United States. But the British Empire was fading fast. The Empire never really recovered from the Second World War. British authority in India had been eroding since the early 1930s and the hand-over of power was now inevitable. But Churchill was still against relinquishing responsibility for the governance of the country to 'men of straw'.
It is with deep grief I watch the clattering down of the British Empire with all its glories and all the services it has rendered to mankind.
Eventually, Churchill realised that the glory days of the Empire were over and he had to support the Independence of India Bill. Learn more about Indian Independence at the British Library India Office Records.
In fact, Churchill was more than ready for retirement. Only a year after his resignation, days before his eighty-second birthday, he finally admitted that he was not the man he was; he could not be Prime Minister now. Only a week after his last cabinet meeting, he and Clemmie went on holiday to Syracuse.
I am not the man I was. I could not be Prime Minister now.
Even though he was not the man he was, and despite his failing health, Churchill began his 'retirement' with some of his old vigour and energy. For an elderly man, he was remarkably resilient and determined. He embarked on holidays, painting tours and new writing projects.
In January 1950, a general election was called and this time Churchill took a more measured approach in his campaigning, avoiding those outright attacks on socialism he'd made in 1945.
By a tiny margin (six seats), the Labour government won the election.
In 1951, Churchill finally avenged that devastating defeat of 1945 and was back in Downing Street. He was nearly seventy-seven. During this second period as Prime Minister, what he later referred to as 'several years of quiet steady administration', Churchill devoted much of his energy to foreign affairs; to Cold War issues, strengthening Anglo-American relations (that 'special relationship') and to retaining Britain's position as a global power.
I want so much to lead the Conservatives back to victory. I know I am worth a million votes to them.
He didn't do much in the way of domestic policy-making – stating once that the government's priorities were 'houses and meat and not being scuppered' (John Colville, 22–23 March 1952).
Churchill didn't enjoy being in opposition after 1945 and he didn't attend the House of Commons very often, leaving the day-to-day party management to others. He didn't seem particularly interested in economic issues, and the Conservatives came to seem increasingly out of step with the drive towards welfare and reconstruction.
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, then, he 'looked like a dinosaur at a light engineering exhibition' (Aneurin Bevan, 'History's Impresario'). Vulnerable at home, unable to influence policy (and generally unwilling to), Churchill played to his strengths. He knew that he had the most to offer in his role as the great elder statesman who had 'won the War', and for the second time in his career, he turned his attentions abroad – and to the US.
The best that can be said for Churchill as leader of the Conservative Party is that he exercised a vague but olympian authority and kept the show on the road.
On 2 June 1953, following the death of her father, George VI, the young Princess Elizabeth was crowned Queen of England, the occasion filmed by television cameras – against Churchill's wishes. He felt the Queen would find it a strain and that '[i]t would be unfitting that the whole ceremony … should be presented as if it were a theatrical performance' (speech to House of Commons).
The future queen insisted and the filming went ahead. Churchill became a Knight of the Garter, becoming Sir Winston Churchill in April 1953 in time for the Coronation. He'd refused the honour when offered it by George VI after his election defeat in 1945, famously saying (but not to the king): 'How can I accept the Order of the Garter, when the people of England have just given me the Order of the Boot?'.
After Germany's surrender in May 1945, Churchill wanted his wartime coalition government to continue until the defeat of Japan which wasn't anticipated for another year at least. But Labour and the majority of the Liberals refused and pulled out of the coalition. Churchill headed a Conservative 'caretaker' government for a brief period until Parliament was dissolved and the first general election for ten years was held.
I must tell you that in spite of all our victories a rough road lies ahead. What a shame it would be, and what a folly, to add to our load the bitter quarrels with which the extreme socialists are eager to convulse and exploit these critical years. For the sake of the country and of your own happiness I call upon you to march with me under the banner of freedom towards the beacon lights of national prosperity and honour which must ever be our guide.
Shortly after his return from Fulton, Churchill began to write his war memoirs. With a team of researchers working on his behalf, and a very ordered (if somewhat laborious) approach to drafting and editing, he soon had the first volume finished. appeared in six volumes between 1948 and 1954.
Churchill never claimed the memoirs were 'history'; they were rather a contribution to history. Although their very breadth and coverage gave the impression that they were a definitive account, there were omissions, of course. was Churchill's interpretation of the events, the work of a man seeking to place his role in the war – and in history. The books sold well, with a combined first printing of over 800,000 copies.