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Jar of Flies
REVIEW: Alice In Chains – Jar of Flies / Sap (Double EP)
Click if you missed my review of the new Alice in Chains album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here!
ALICE IN CHAINS – Jar of Flies / Sap (1994 double Columbia EP edition, originally 1992 and 1994)
For a little while, Alice In Chains were in the habit of releasing an EP before each studio album (We Die Young preceded the Facelift album albeit it was a promo). This ended after Layne's death, but these two EPs — 1992's Sap and 1994's Jar of Flies — represent some of the best work of this pioneering band. Acoustic in nature, these two recordings are crucial to rock fans who need to know more about one of the most interesting bands of the 1990's.
I snagged a European import of this set many years ago, for less than the price of either of the two EP's separately. Great score, and it was in great condition. It even contains all the artwork from the original releases. Although Jar of Flies is the first disc in the set, I will review Sap first since that's how they came out.
Sap is very low key. I remember reading an interview in RIP Magazine with drummer Sean Kinney. He stated that they were writing songs for the next album (Dirt), but all this acoustic music started pouring out instead. He had a dream about it one night, and told the band, "Guys, we have to release these songs as an EP, and we have to call it Sap."
The opening track, "Brother" is sung by Jerry Cantrell with Ann Wilson of Heart on the choruses. Very powerful understated song. Both "Brother" and the next song, "Got Me Wrong" (another standout) were released live on the band's Unplugged CD. These songs are followed by "Right Turn" by Alice Mudgarden: essentially Alice In Chains with Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Mark Arm of Mudhoney on guest vocals! It is a great contrast: Cornell screaming at the top of his lungs, and Arm down low. Great song. I remember Jerry Cantrell once said that Mark Arm's vocal on it "scares the shit" out of him every time he hears it.
Layne Staley's "Am I Inside" follows, another understated and mellow slow-burner. Everything goes to hell though with the final track, the unlisted "Love Song". The band switched instruments for this chaotic joke song, with Sean Kinney on megaphone/vocals. Hilarious track, but it must have taken people by surprise. "Rae Dawn Chong…Rae Dawn Chong…"
Jar of Flies was written and recorded rather spontaneously in just a week. When I first heard it, I felt like some of these songs were under-written, that they could have used more work. As you listen to it more, that feeling disappears. It feels more complete. Just about every song on Flies is a total winner, but the best thing about it is that it grows on you. As a result, it has a longevity that similar EPs sometimes lack. Here I am, still playing it 19 years later and loving it just as much.
"Rotten Apple", which is one of the best tunes anyway, kicks off the CD. It's hypnotic, even though the lyrics really feel unfinished. Who knows what Layne was trying to express at the time, perhaps it's with intent. It just feels like the fragment of a lyric. Perhaps that's what makes it so hypnotic to me. None of this changes the fact that this slow one is both warm and forboding at the same time; a cool thing.
The opener is followed by "Nutshell", which I like even better. It's my personal favourite tune on Jar of Flies. It always takes me right back to summer 1994. The single "I Stay Away" features strings to emphasize the powerful chorus. It's a cool tune because it has sections that sound like they don't go together, yet they make it work. Alice seem to ignore songwriting convention most on songs like "I Stay Away".
"No Excuses" was another single (the first one, actually). It's an almost-happy sounding song with some sweet rolling basslines from Mike Inez. The instrumental "Whale and Wasp" is up next, so named because Jerry felt it sounded like whales and wasps talking to each other. That should put you in the ballpark. Jerry wrote it when he was in highschool, finally recording it on Jar of Flies.
"Don't Follow" is probably the least experimental of the songs. It is a straight acoustic ballad with some nice harmonica. After five tracks of music that doesn't always follow the beaten path, "Don't Follow" feels like a reprieve. The final song is the pretty wild "Swing On This". It's the only song that tends to lose me, but some people I knew held it as their favourite. From the most conventional song to the least conventional; such is a journey on planet Alice.
Commenting specifically on the version I own, the dual EP, I bought this at my own store used several years after initially owning both releases. My logic at the time was that T-Rev and I were usually always trying to own the "coolest" or "most complete" or "rarest" version of things. When I traded up the two separate EPs, I broke even, plus I made space for one for more disc on my shelves!! Space is always a rare commodity to a collector.
Together, these two EPs together create a fantastic listening experience. The cool thing is that although both are acoustic, they are really nothing alike. Listen and you will see.
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Posted in Reviews and tagged alice in chains, Alice Mudgarden, ann wilson, Chris Cornell, classic rock, Dirt, ep, Facelift, grunge rock, hard rock, heart, heavy metal, I Stay Away, Jar of Flies, jerry cantrell, layne stayley, Mark Arm, Michael Starr, Mike Inez, mtv unplugged, Mudhoney, Nancy Wilson, Progressive Grunge Rock, Rae Dawn Chong, rock music, Sap, Sean Kinney, soundgarden, We Die Young on July 5, 2013 by mikeladano. 7 Comments
REVIEW: Alice In Chains – The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (2013)
ALICE IN CHAINS – The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (2013 Capitol Records)
You know how in offices they have those phones with the little speaker in them, that plays the local radio station? That's how I first heard "Hollow" by Alice in Chains. Not the greatest way to hear it. I couldn't hear the harmonies or the bass guitar. The song came off as a dull drone and I didn't like it. However Mandy Grant on 107.5 Dave FM said the album was lined up to be her album of the summer. Then Tricky Nick gave it 5/5 and praised its genius!
Now it's my turn to throw my hat in the ring. I had no problem with Black Gives Way to Blue; yes it's a sad album and we know why. If anything I found some of the songs to be not memorable. On the other hand, I found some of the softer material to be among Chains' best. Here, William DuVall does a great job. I don't get the sense that he's trying to sound a certain way, but when he sings with Jerry it's Alice in Chains.
Onto The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. Love the title, love the artwork, love the packaging, but we'll get to that in a few moments. It's an album that reveals more and more as you listen to it. It's really well produced for one. Sonically, this is the best album Alice in Chains have ever made. But musically, it peels like an onion: brief guitar interludes, dual guitar harmonies, bass hooks, vocal flare, all of this stuff and more comes through when you spend some time with it.
I think I'd like to invent a new genre here and declare this record to be "Progressive Grunge Rock". It has elements of both, which really isn't too much of a leap as Chains have always comprised some great musicians. Mike Inez was one of my favourite bass players from his Ozzy days, and Sean Kinney is very creative with his symbol work and weird time signatures. Only 2 of the 12 songs are under 5 minutes; the album clocks in well over an hour. Unbelievably, it doesn't drag. This is accomplished with a combination of well written memorable hooks, and a variety of song styles. Some moments recall mellow things like Jar of Flies, others the "Dog" album. There's also a lot of riffing and soloing that is pure traditional heavy metal.
Many reviewers have mentioned that this album seems a lot brighter than Black Give Way to Blue and I'm in agreement with that. Keep in mind this is Alice in Chains and they're not turning in a sunny-happy-joy-joy album at any time. There is however a certain jubilant quality to this album that is quite infectious.
I keep waffling between favourite songs. All of these are contenders:
"The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here"
"Breath On a Window"
"Phantom Limb"
There aren't any weak songs, but for me those 7 are all really exceptional. I really love "Phanton Limb". It's one of the most "metal" in some respects but it's also one of the most unique. Its riff is just mechanically punishing. "Voices" is like Jar of Flies meets Cheap Trick or something.
The packaging is really cool but fragile. Mine arrived with a slight crack on it. It's a coloured red jewel case, but with a function. Remember how G1 Transformers used to come with those "Tech Spec Decoders"? You had to use this red plastic "decoder" to read the stats on the robot's packaging. You could still sorta read it without the decoder, but Alice in Chains took it a step further. You can only read the lyrics by inserting the appropriate page into the jewel case. There are big red XXXXX's over most of the words making them very difficult to read. When you put the page under the jewel case, it's easy!
Having lived with the album for a week now, I concur with Mandy: I think the love will grow, and this will be one of my albums for the summer, too. The most important thing about The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here is that it sounds like Alice in Chains. There is nobody else out there that sounds like this.
Posted in Reviews and tagged 107.5 dave fm, alternative rock, Black Gives Way to Blue, Capitol Records, classic rock, G1, grunge, hard rock, heav y metal, Hollow, Jar of Flies, layne stayley, Mandy Grant, Mike Inez, Progressive Grunge Rock, rock music, Sean Kinney, Stone, Tech Spec Decoders, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, transformers, William DuVall on June 4, 2013 by mikeladano. 41 Comments
Part 170: Jonathan
RECORD STORE TALES Part 170: Jonathan
I've worked with a lot of accountants over the years. I like accountants. I seem to get along with accountants, don't know why. The coolest accountant I ever worked with was Jonathan. I like to describe Jonathan's appearance as being a dead ringer for the actor Romany Malco:
Jonathan always made me laugh. Check out this journal entry:
It was really amusing walking into the office today, and seeing Jonathan singing "Lick It Up" by Kiss.
Very un-accountant like behaviour!
Jonathan was good people. He took a pay cut to work with us, because he wanted to do something he was passionate about. He taught all us knuckle-draggers on the store floors about cash flow vs. profit. He helped us out a lot on the financial side, and he was smart. Plus he loved music.
One time when my mom came into the store to visit, I introduced her to Jon. He said to my mom, "You brought up a good son, Mrs. Ladano."
I used to drive Jonathan home from work once or twice a week, and it was always good to talk to him. He used to give me advice every time. He encouraged me to better myself. He used to call me "Lifer". He said, "You're never going to get out of here. You're going to work here forever." But he did it to rile me up, to get me looking for work elsewhere, because he knew the CD store was a dead end for me. He had respect for me, when he called me "Lifer" he meant it to motivate me.
I'd talk to him about girls I liked. There was this girl that worked at the Money Mart next door, but I was too shy to walk in and talk to her. So Jonathan did it for me! Witness these journal entries:
Date: 2004/05/21, 10:08
The one girl at the Money Mart next door is really cute, and I see her out there all the time having a smoke. When Jonathan goes out to have a smoke, he talks to her, give her a light, whatever. I mentioned to Jonathan that I thought the one girl was real cute yesterday. Then today, I TOTALLY got busted staring at her through the window! THEN Jonathan went out to chat it up with her, right after I got busted, to tell her all about me, ask her if she wants to go out on a date with me…Jesus Christ!
Cheap Trick – Authorized Greatest Hits
Alice In Chains – Jar of Flies
KISS tribute – Kiss My Ass
The Goo Goo Dolls – Gutterflower
Rush – Vapor Trails
Nice thing about working the day alone with no bosses around is that you can listen to whatever the hell you want!
I don't think Money Mart Girl, who I learned from Jonathan is named Jessica, is working today. So I couldn't say hi to her even if I worked up the guts!
In the end, Jonathan had to split. He had three kids and being an accountant for a CD store wasn't going to cut it anymore. He took an offer he could not refuse, and bid us farewell.
I'll always remember good times working with Jonathan, a true character, and the guy who got me thinking about my future.
Posted in Record Store Tales and tagged alice in chains, alternative rock, Authorized Greatest Hits, Cheap Trick, classic rock, Goo Goo Dolls, grunge, Gutterflower, hard rock, heavy metal, Jar of Flies, kiss, kiss my ass, lick it up, pop rock, progressive rock, rock music, Romany Malco, rush, Vapor Trails on February 10, 2013 by mikeladano. 7 Comments
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Our love for flowers and beautiful things was the reason for the birth of Picilily Bespoke Flower Boutique. This is a unique florist situated in the heart of the Klein Karoo, near the Garden Route. Housed in the first bank building (1896) this florist is filled with character, fresh smell of flowers and stories.
Have a freshly roasted coffee while we make you something superb. We specialize in flowers, functions, weddings and funerals.
The aardvark has fewer teeth than most mammals. The teeth are columnar in shape, have no roots and do not grow simultaneously.


text:
A new way to understand the high but elusive value of intellectual property
ITHIS IS THE WILL to human inventiveness that 50 million patents have been granted worldwide. But overall, much of the collection looks like an intellectual dumping ground. Included are plausible ideas that no business has ever wanted to pay for, plausible ideas that failed, and nonsense. A patent on the crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwich, for example, was not renewed in 2007.
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Narrow the list down to those that are both sane and legally in effect, which means a fee is paid to a patent office to keep them alive, and there are 16 million patents that matter. Last year 1.6m were awarded.
Most are owned by businesses, but balance sheets and conventional accounting are poorly suited to capturing their value. Using the acquisition cost and then depreciating it doesn't work. Instead, lawyers provide subjective numbers based on factors such as a patent's likely validity, royalties, and litigation history. Many companies find that it's not worth paying the tens of thousands of dollars it costs for an assessment.
In 2008, an intellectual property exchange opened in Chicago to do for patents what other exchanges have done for stocks, bonds and commodities. Its backers were blue chip companies like Hewlett Packard and Sony, but it closed in 2015. Patents cannot be treated like commodities, the Cornell Law Review. A subsequent effort to evaluate them used software to read and rate the documents. Until now, however, even machine learning techniques have failed to allow code to penetrate the opaque legal language in which patents are written.
Today, a startup called PatentVector, founded by a law professor, an information science professor, and a software engineer, is trying something new. It uses a variation of a method started in the 1960s that evolved to calculate how often individual patents are cited (a similar citation-based process is used to assess academic research).
Rather than trying to understand the patent, PatentVector uses artificial intelligence to comb through 132 million patent documents held by the European Patent Office in Munich (the largest collection in the world). Then, it assesses, on the one hand, the frequency with which a patent is cited and, on the other hand, the frequency with which it is cited by patents themselves frequently cited. This gives an indication of importance which is then multiplied by an average patent value based on an estimate by James Bessen, an economist at Boston University, which has become a benchmark. A number of companies, law firms and institutions (including the Canadian Patent Office) purchase the product from PatentVector.
The results contain valuable information about the invention. Frédéric shelton IV (pictured) isn't among the prominent innovators of the 20th century, but he probably should. He works at Ethicon, a medical device subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, and PatentVector values his inventions at $ 14 billion, which puts him forever in front of anyone. Its first three are for a mechanical surgical instrument, surgical staples and the cartridge for staples; in short, tools for cutting fabrics and binding them.
Ethicon itself, a manufacturer of medical devices, holds 95 of the world's 200 most valuable patents, according to PatentVector. The company also employs Jerome Morgan, who is ranked second with $ 5 billion in patents (many of which overlap with those of Mr. Shelton). Only one other person is part of the $ 5 billion club: Shunpei Yamazaki, president of Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, a Japanese research and development company. Mr. Yamazaki's most important patent covers screens for computers, cameras and other semiconductor devices.
PatentVector found 65 other people each responsible for patents valued at over $ 1 billion. Only 14 of the top 650 DIY enthusiasts are women. Highest ranked is Marta Karczewicz, who works for Qualcomm, an American chip designer, and was instrumental in inventing the video compression technology that powers Zoom and other video services.
Almost all valuable patents can be found in a few large industrial groups: biopharmaceuticals, software, computer hardware, medical devices and mechanical equipment. Over the past 40 years, the importance of specific categories has increased and decreased slightly, but biopharma and information technology (THIS) dominated and their importance increased. The companies with the highest overall patent value are in THIS, surmounted by IBM, Samsung and Microsoft.
PatentVector's figures on the patents held by countries are also revealing. America has the most active patents of any country at 3.3 million, followed closely by China with 3.1 million. But there is a world of difference in how often they are cited and their imputed value. The American library is estimated at $ 2.9 billion, compared to $ 392 billion for the Chinese collection.
Of course, the methodology of PatentVector will be subject to careful scrutiny. Naturally, the startup patented its own technique. Information about patents, which are essential parts of invention, has never been so important. Perhaps it was inevitable that innovation would apply not only through patents, but to them as well. ■
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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Billion Dollar Plans"
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Although it will only affect a small percentage of women, hair loss is a symptom of menopause that carries potentially grave emotional consequences. A recent article in the British Medical Journal suggests that female hair loss can even be emotionally traumatic, triggering psychological conditions such as anxiety or depression.
Hair loss in women is officially known as "alopecia": a chronic, inflammatory dermatological malady affecting the hair follicles which causes hair loss on the head and/or body. The causes of alopecia differ, ranging from stress, to hormonal disorders, to obscure causes. Although a large body of medical literature documents this condition, very little focus is placed on the emotional effects of hair loss.
In order to explore the emotional effects of hair loss, authors Nigel Hunt and Sue McHale reviewed articles examining hair loss in women from several sources going back to 1980. The investigators concluded that hair loss can have intense psychological consequences for women.
Hair tends to be an essential part of a woman's self-identity and self-esteem, and abrupt hair loss can be acutely harmful to the patient's self-image, generating anxiety and depression. Some women have even reported feelings similar to mourning upon losing their hair, such as they would feel after losing a loved one. Women suffering from alopecia areata, when only patches of hair are lost, reported fewer emotional side effects than women with alopecia totalis, where all the hair on the head is lost.
The mental consequences of hair loss in women can lead to family, social and work-related difficulties. 40% of women report marital tension due to their hair loss, while 63% report problems related to their careers. Psychological disorders are also more numerous in women with alopecia than in the rest of the population.
Women who experience hair loss during menopause are strongly encouraged to seek some form of psychological help in order to overcome the potential emotional trauma associated with the condition.


Impressive Design » Use adaptable home furniture when redecorating a reduced scaled space. An ottoman is a great choice. You can use it for sitting or possibly a table, and you could even retailer products inside, if it starts. Products which have multiple reasons are effective space savers to get a smaller sized area.


text:
Q: Sectioning bibliography by type of referred item My promoteur has a very unusual requirement: the bibliography needs to be sorted first by specific type of referred item, next by author and by year of publication.
I managed to get this custom sorting done by using makebst and manually editing the .bst, but now there is even greater problem for me: the bibliography itself must be sectioned, so it should look something like this:

Sources
Aahn, A. 2008, whatever dude
Aahn, A. 2009, whatever dude, really
Dictionaries
Encyclopeadia of everythinga, 1999
Wikipaedia, 2000-today
Articles
Aahn, B. and Boss, C., 1889 This issue is not to our concern, good man
Other Materia
Bactera, E.C., 1987, How we totally not-wiped the whole earth.

Can this be done automagically with bibtex? Or do I have to edit the generated file manually?

A: There are several ways to have separate bibliographies by type of items cited.
I'll describe here some of them, namely:

*

*With bibtex

*

*Using splitbib;

*using bibtopic; and

*using multibib

*With biblatex
BibTeX
There are several, more or less complicated solutions to separate
bibliographies by type with bibtex, but that's not "automagicly" at all...
Using splitbib
You can do that with the splitbib
package, you have to define a bibliographic category and manually add the
corresponding itens to it, something like this:
\begin{category}[A]{First category}
\SBentries{entry1,entry4}
\end{category}

Here's a MWE:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{splitbib}
\begin{category}[A]{First category}
  \SBentries{article-minimal,article-full}
\end{category}
\begin{category}[B]{Second category}
  \SBentries{book-minimal,book-full}
\end{category}
\begin{document}
\cite{article-minimal,article-full,book-minimal,book-full}
\bibliography{xampl.bib}
\bibliographystyle{plain}
\end{document}

Check splitbib documentation for more details.
Using bibtopic
As with splitbib, bibtopic aims at other
possible usages besides separate bibliographies by type.
Since it requires separate databases for each bibliography section, it is more
indicated when you already them as such (i.e., separate .bib files for each
kind of item).
The usage is basically, e.g.:
\begin{btSect}{books}
\section{References from books}
\btPrintCited     % for cited references
\btPrintNotCited  % for references not cited
\end{btSect}

Here's a MWE:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{bibtopic}
\begin{filecontents}{books.bib}
@BOOK{book-minimal,
   author = {Donald E. Knuth},
   title = {Seminumerical Algorithms},
   publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
   year = {1981},
}
@BOOK{book-full,
   author = {Donald E. Knuth},
   title = {Seminumerical Algorithms},
   volume = 2,
   series = {The Art of Computer Programming},
   publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
   address = {Reading, Massachusetts},
   edition = {Second},
   month = {10~} # jan,
   year = {1981},
}
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{articles.bib}
@ARTICLE{article-minimal,
   author = {L[eslie] A. Aamport},
   title = {The Gnats and Gnus Document Preparation System},
   journal = {\mbox{G-Animal's} Journal},
   year = 1986,
}
@ARTICLE{article-full,
   author = {L[eslie] A. Aamport},
   title = {The Gnats and Gnus Document Preparation System},
   journal = {\mbox{G-Animal's} Journal},
   year = 1986,
   volume = 41,
   number = 7,
   pages = {73+},
   month = jul,
   note = {This is a full ARTICLE entry},
}
@ARTICLE{article-notcited,
   author = {L[eslie] A. Aamport},
   title = {The Gnus and Gnats Document Preparation System},
   pages = "73+",
   journal = {\mbox{G-Animal's} Journal},
   year = 1987,
   volume = 42,
   number = 8,
   month = jul,
}
\end{filecontents}
\begin{document}
\bibliographystyle{alpha}
\section{Testing}
Let's cite all the books: \cite{book-minimal,book-full}; and articles:
\cite{article-minimal,article-full}.
\begin{btSect}{books}
\section{References from books}
\btPrintCited
\end{btSect}
\begin{btSect}[plain]{articles}
\section{References from articles}
\btPrintCited
\section{Articles not cited}
\btPrintNotCited
\end{btSect}
\end{document}

Notice that bibtopic requires a bibtex pass for each section, so you should
compile it with
latex <file>
bibtex <file>1
bibtex <file>2
...
bibtex <file>n
latex <file>
latex <file>

Check bibtopic documentation for more details.
Using multibib
As with splitbib, and bibtopic, multibib
aims at other possible usages besides separate bibliographies by type.
It does not require separate databases, but it creates a special citation
command for each type of item you define in the preamble.
The basic usage is to create a new citation type in the preamble with:
\newcites{mytype}{A Header for your special bibliographic type(s)}

And then cite the entries that should be considered in the new type with a
\cite<newcites-arg> command, e.g. \citemytype.
Here's a MWE:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multibib}
\newcites{book}{Books}
\begin{document}
\citebook{book-full,book-minimal}

\cite{article-minimal,article-full}
\bibliographystylebook{alpha}
\bibliographybook{xampl}
\renewcommand{\refname}{Other References}
\bibliographystyle{plain}
\bibliography{xampl}
\end{document}

Notice that (as with bibtopic) it requires special bibtex passes:
latex <file>
bibtex <file>
bibtex <mytype>
latex <file>
latex <file>

Check multibibdocumentation for more details.
Using biblatex
You can do this quite "automagicly" with the biblatex package! The usage is as simple as:
\printbibliography[type=book]
\printbibliography[type=collection]
\printbibliography[type=thesis]

or by adding a keywords field to your bib entry, and splitting it the bibliography with
\printbibliography[keyword=keyword1]
\printbibliography[keyword=keyword2]

or by creating categories like with the splitbib package, with something like
\DeclareBibliographyCategory{<category>}
\addtocategory{<category>}{<key>}

Here's a MWE using the first mentioned option:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[style=numeric]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{xampl.bib}
\begin{document}
\cite{article-minimal,article-full,book-minimal,book-full}
\printbibliography[type=article,title={Articles}]
\printbibliography[type=book,title={Books}]
\end{document}

Check biblatex documentation for more information.
To move to biblatex, I suggest you read the following questions:

*

*bibtex vs. biber and biblatex vs. natbib

*What to do to switch to biblatex

*biblatex in a nutshell

*What is the difference between bibtex and biblatex?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Tag Archives: Pedro Ospina
Rocks, Rebeca Martel
The Unity of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt in the Americas
A multi-part art installation celebrating Alexander Von Humboldt's 250 Anniversary,
November 15th through December 9th, 2019.
Cherry Street Pier, 121 N. Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19106.
The Unity of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt in the Americas, celebrates the 250th anniversary of the German polymath scientist Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859) through the work of five Philadelphia based American artists. The exhibition uses photography, video, sound, performance, painting, and sculpture, paying homage to Humboldt's travels in the Americas, including a Philadelphia stop, in 1804.
Henry Bermudez
Humboldt's five-year trip through Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Cuba, Peru, and Mexico was a watershed journey that allowed him to develop his theories on nature not only as an interconnected system, but also helped to form his observations on man's destructive impact on the environment; theories centuries ahead of their time and which are now currently accepted unanimously by scientists, as we face global warming and environmental devastation. The five artists represented in the exhibition come from five of the countries Humboldt visited during his five-year journey, they are: Henry Bermudez, (Venezuela), Pedro Ospina and Salome Cosmique, (Colombia), Rebecca Martell, (Mexico), and Devin Asher Cohen, (USA).
Rocas, Rebeca Martell
Humboldt, the most famous man of his age, (more famous than Napoleon), achieved fame through his unquenchable interest in both exploration and in the search for scientific knowledge. It was this combination as both scientist and intrepid explorer that made his travels so celebrated. His travels through the Americas redrew the map of the continent and laid the groundwork for several fields of study including, biogeography, geology, and climatology, among others. Humboldt's name appears on more things than any other historical figure: animals, birds, plants, flowers, fish, mountains, ocean currents, national parks, waterfalls, glaciers, a basin on the moon and two asteroids, not to mention thousands of institutions worldwide bearing his name.
The exhibition organized by Casa De Duende and curated by David Acosta, Artistic Director, was made possible by a grant from the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, as part of their Waterfront Arts Program. The exhibition pays tribute to Humboldt and his love of the natural world through the work of five artists for whom Humboldt has had an impact on both their thinking and work. The exhibition runs through December 9th 2019.
Henry Bermudez will display two large paper reconstructed paintings, which form part of a seven painting series dedicated to Alexander Von Humboldt, as well as several smaller botanical drawings. Pedro Ospina creates three large totem poles honoring the three clans of the Lena Lenape people (wolf, turtle and turkey) as well as the Delaware River. Salome Cosmique's performance on opening night honors the Andean earth mother deity Pachamama mother of all living things. Rebecca Martell's photographs of Mexican landscapes pay tribute to Humboldt's visit to her native Puebla, while Asher Cohen's sound installation serve as the artist's homage to Humboldt. The sound pieces will fill the space, exuding within the setting an experiential state of being and the emotional quality, (not as observed) but as felt and imagined from the perspective of Von Humboldt during his travels from Puebla, Mexico to Philadelphia, capturing both, the oceanic sounds at sea, and the sound of the winds of arrival.
About Casa de Duende:
Casa de Duende is dedicated to presenting socially relevant art that addresses critical social issues and challenges both artists and communities to address these through art and art making.
About Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, (DRWC) DRWC is a 501(c)(3) created in January 2009, exclusively for the benefit of the City of Philadelphia and its citizens. The fundamental purpose of DRWC is to design, develop, program and maintain public amenities such as permanent and seasonal parks, trails, and streetscape improvements to transform the waterfront into a vibrant destination for recreational, cultural, and commercial activities for the residents and visitors of Philadelphia as is consistent with the goals of the Master Plan for Central Delaware. Daily programming throughout the entire year is changing the way Philadelphians see and converse about the waterfront, and is helping to create spaces and communities that connect residents and visitors to the waterfront. Visit delawareriverwaterfront.com for more information.
Thank you to David Acosta for the content of this post.
Donate via safe and secure PayPal in the sidebar.
DoNArTNeWs – celebrating eleven years reporting on Philadelphia artists and art.
This entry was posted in Art, Art in Philadelphia, Drawings, Fine Art Philadelphia, Installation, Mixed Media Art, PA Art, Paintings, Paintings Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Art, Philadelphia Art Galleries, Philadelphia Art Installations, Philadelphia Art Shows, Philadelphia Artists, Philadelphia Artists, Philadelphia Photographers, Photography Philadelphia, Uncategorized and tagged Alexander Von Humboldt, Casa De Duende, Cherry Street Pier, Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, Devin Asher Cohen, DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog, Henry Bermudez, Pedro Ospina, Philadelphia Art, Rebecca Martell, Salome Cosmique, The Unity of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt in the Americas on November 9, 2019 by admin1.


Limited availability of skilled health providers in developing countries is thought to be an important barrier to achieving maternal and child health-related MDG goals. Little is known, however, about the extent to which scaling-up supply of health providers will lead to improved pregnancy and birth outcomes. We study the effects of the Midwives Service Scheme (MSS), a public sector program in Nigeria that increased the supply of skilled midwives in rural communities on pregnancy and birth outcomes.
We surveyed 7,104 women with a birth within the preceding five years across 12 states in Nigeria and compared changes in birth outcomes in MSS communities to changes in non-MSS communities over the same period.
The main measured effect of the scheme was a 7.3-percentage point increase in antenatal care use in program clinics and a 5-percentage point increase in overall use of antenatal care, both within the first year of the program. We found no statistically significant effect of the scheme on skilled birth attendance or on maternal delivery complications.
This study highlights the complexity of improving maternal and child health outcomes in developing countries, and shows that scaling up supply of midwives may not be sufficient on its own.
One of the major global health challenges of the 21st century is reducing the approximately 3 million newborn deaths, 7 million under-five deaths, and 300,000 maternal deaths that occur globally each year. This health burden is not uniformly distributed: most deaths occur in the poorest regions of the world—87 % of maternal deaths and about 65 % of neonatal deaths, for example, occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia . Many of these deaths are believed to be preventable: it has been estimated, for example, that up to a third of maternal deaths, and half of newborn deaths can be prevented by increasing coverage rates for skilled attendance at delivery [2–4].
In many of the countries lagging behind Millennium Development Goal (MDG)-related targets, poor access to skilled health providers, particularly in rural areas, is regarded as one of the main challenges to increasing rates of skilled birth attendance and improving outcomes for children and mothers . Two recent studies have brought this issue into sharp focus by estimating the effect of scaling up access to midwives on maternal and infant health [6, 7]. Given limited empirical evidence regarding the effects of scaling up access to midwives, both studies rely on model-based projections.
In this paper, we present empirical findings from an evaluation of a large-scale program in Nigeria that sought to increase access to midwives in rural communities. This program, known as the Midwives Service Scheme, deployed thousands of midwives to primary health facilities across Nigeria to increase access to skilled care. The stated goal of the program was to double the proportion of births attended by skilled attendants by December 2015. In 2014 we carried out a mixed-methods evaluation to study the impact of the program on use of antenatal care during pregnancy and on skilled birth attendance five years after implementation of the scheme. We also examine effects on maternal delivery complications. This study provides timely evidence to policy makers in developing countries looking to increase coverage of skilled birth attendance and improve maternal and child health outcomes.
Every year, more than 50,000 Nigerian women die from pregnancy-related complications. The chance of a woman dying during pregnancy and childbirth in Nigeria is approximately 1 in 30 compared to about 1 in 2,400 in developed countries . Infants also experience poor health outcomes with an estimated 250,000 newborn deaths annually. These high rates of mortality have been attributed in part to low utilization of pregnancy and delivery care: only 39 % of births, for example, are attended by a skilled health provider. In many health facilities across the country, there is a shortage of skilled providers (doctors, nurses and midwives). A survey of primary health facilities in rural communities found that up to half did not have a single midwife .
The Midwives Service Scheme (MSS) was introduced in December 2009 to address these challenges. The key feature of the MSS was the recruitment and deployment of unemployed, retired, and newly graduating midwives to government primary health facilities in rural and underserved communities. Participating midwives were recruited through a national recruitment exercise. The scheme was funded by debt relief funds under a 2009 Appropriations Act and was designed to be a collaborative effort between all three tiers of government. The federal government recruited and deployed the midwives, paid them a monthly salary (N30,000 or approximately 150 USD) and supplied clinics with midwifery kits (these kits contain essential items needed for deliveries such as instruments, sutures, gloves, and cord clamps), basic equipment such as blood pressure apparatus and weighing scales, some essential drugs, and facility/community registers for record keeping; state governments paid additional allowances to midwives (N20,000 per month) and provided monitoring and supervision; local governments paid a supplementary allowance of N10,000 and provided free accommodation for the midwives in the local community.
The first phase of the scheme—the subject of our evaluation—rolled out nationally in 652 primary health care facilities in 2009. The distribution of MSS facilities was determined largely by geographic location. States in the northeast and northwest zones (classified as 'very high' maternal mortality zones) were assigned 24 facilities each, states in the north-central and south-south (classified as 'high' mortality zones) were assigned 16 facilities each, and states in the southwest and southeast (classified as 'moderate' mortality zones) were assigned 12 facilities each (see Table 1). Each MSS facility was linked to a general hospital that would serve as a referral hospital. Nearly 2,500 midwives in total were deployed in the first phase of the scheme.
To identify the effects of the MSS we compared changes in pregnancy and birth outcomes in MSS (intervention) communities to changes in non-MSS (comparison) communities in the same states over the same period i.e., a difference-in-difference design. The comparison group consisted of similar communities (as the intervention communities) that, however, were not enrolled in (an updated version of) the program until three years later; we refer to this as Wave 2. Thus we exploit the fact that there was a window of time within which one group of communities was exposed (Wave 1) but the other was not yet exposed (Wave 2). Both sets of health facilities were selected using the same criteria. Data on pregnancy and birth outcomes were collected retrospectively through a household survey in both sets of communities targeting women who had a recent pregnancy (see next section). A graphical illustration of our study design is provided in Fig. 1.
Two hundred eight MSS communities were randomly selected to participate in the study. To draw the study sample we began by randomly selecting two states in each geopolitical zone (making 12 states in total), and then enrolling all MSS health facilities in the state into the study. We randomly selected an equivalent number of Wave 2 facilities in each state to serve as a comparison group. It is important to clarify that prior to rollout, participating communities did not have any advance knowledge that they would participate in the scheme. We carried out qualitative interviews and focus groups in three purposively selected states to shed light on program implementation and to provide additional context for the evaluation findings. These results are presented in a companion paper .
Institutional Review Boards at RAND, Bayero University Kano, and University of Nigeria Enugu provided ethical review and approval for the study. Data collection took place between June 2014 and January 2015. Since a comprehensive listing of households in each community was unavailable, we randomly generated Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates within each community using a GPS-enabled tablet and special software and selected the dwelling nearest this point for interview. Twenty households were randomly selected in each community, with the criterion for inclusion that they contained a woman who was pregnant at least once between January 2009 and the date of interview. If there was no eligible household within the dwelling, the interviewer visited the dwelling on either side until one was found. If there were multiple eligible households within the dwelling, one was randomly chosen for interview. All eligible women within each selected household were interviewed. To obtain consent, interviewers read out a statement to study respondents describing the study and any associated risks/benefits of participation. Interviewers checked a box on the consent screen of the tablet to indicate that verbal consent had been provided. In total we interviewed 7,104 women in 368 communities (not all communities selected could be surveyed because of logistical constraints).
The survey instrument included a household module that collected information including dwelling characteristics, source of drinking water, toilet facilities and possession of various assets (these were aggregated into a wealth index using principal component analysis); and an individual module administered to all eligible women. The individual module collected retrospective information about each birth since January 2009 including use of antenatal and postnatal care, place of delivery, and pregnancy and delivery complications such as haemorrhage, fever and convulsions. Respondents were asked about complications during delivery (intrapartum complications) and within six weeks after delivery (postpartum complications). We also carried out a clinic survey in each study clinic (both MSS and non-MSS clinics). Interviewers collected data on clinic characteristics including staffing and availability of supplies from the officer-in-charge (or another knowledgeable individual if the officer-in-charge was unavailable). All interviews were administered face-to-face using Android tablets.
Our primary outcomes are antenatal care and skilled birth attendance. We consider the following measures for antenatal care: (1) an indicator for any antenatal care use, (2) an indicator for whether a mother received at least 4 antenatal visits (per World Health Organization recommendations), and (3) an indicator for antenatal care obtained in the study clinic. For skilled birth attendance our measures are: (1) an indicator for whether a birth took place in the study clinic, (2) an indicator for whether the birth took place in any health facility (i.e., was attended), and (3) an indicator for whether a birth was attended by a doctor, nurse or midwife independent of birth location. For both outcomes we look separately at uptake in the study clinic and overall uptake. This allows us to measure any substitution effects i.e., women switching from other sources of formal care to the MSS clinic. Even though the goal of the program was to increase uptake among prior non-users, switching from other sources of formal care to the MSS clinic is potentially beneficial if the MSS clinic is closer, thus reducing time and travel costs, and/or if the care offered by MSS midwives is of higher quality relative to existing alternatives.
Our secondary outcomes are maternal birth complications. We look at the probability that a mother experienced at least one of several complications including severe bleeding, convulsions, retained placenta, prolonged labor, loss of consciousness or high fever, either during the delivery (intrapartum complications) or within six weeks of delivery (postpartum complications).
y ijt denotes the outcome of interest for birth i in community j in month t (starting in January 2009); Treated jt is an indicator that takes the value 1 if the study clinic in community j is a Wave 1 (MSS) clinic; Post t is a binary indicator that takes the value 1 after the MSS is introduced; η j is a community fixed effect; and e ijt is an unobserved error term. In this specification our interest centers on the coefficient β 3 , which measures the differential change in the outcome in intervention communities relative to comparison communities. We include controls for gender of the baby, an indicator for a multiple birth, marital status, mother's education and religion, the mother's age at the time of the birth, an indicator equal to one if the woman reported at least one complication during pregnancy, and household wealth (quintiles of an asset-based wealth index derived using principal component analysis). Standard errors are clustered at the level of the community given correlation in the outcomes within this level.
where the regression sample is restricted to baseline births (those that occurred before introduction of the MSS), t denotes monthly pre-trends, and where interest centers on the interaction coefficient δ (the parallel trends assumption implies that δ = 0).
All data were analyzed using Stata 12 software. The survey sample consists of 9,475 births born to 7,104 women over the period 2009–2014, of which 4,746 (50.33 %) occurred in MSS (intervention) areas. We exclude births occurring after women in the comparison group became exposed to the intervention, leaving us with 5,295 births taking place between January 2009 and May 2012. Table 2 summarizes the variables used in the analysis at baseline, and tests for balance across intervention and comparison areas. Even though the DID identification strategy does not require it (as noted earlier, the key assumption involves equivalence of trends not levels), it is reassuring to note that the outcome variables as well as the covariates are relatively well balanced at baseline. In Table 3, we test the parallel trends assumption for each of the outcome variables of interest, using the specification shown in (2). As Table 3 shows, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected for any of the outcome variables, which lends credence to the empirical strategy.
Table 4 presents the DID results for each of the measures of antenatal care. For each outcome, we report the average effect of the MSS [this is the coefficient on the interaction of Treated and Post from specification (1)]. We then disaggregate this average effect into effects in each year of the program to examine whether the effects of the scheme vary over time. The impact of the scheme might increase over time if it takes time for information about midwife availability in the clinic to spread through the community or if it takes time to gain the trust of the community. Conversely it might decrease if over time the availability of midwives in the clinic becomes compromised. We present effects for Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3 of the program after which the comparison group becomes exposed.
The average effect in Table 4 indicates a small positive impact of the program on antenatal care although this result is not statistically significant. We see, however, that this average effect obscures significant variation over time. Row 2 indicates that the rate of antenatal care usage at MSS clinics increased by about 7.3 percentage points (CI: 0.3 to 14.2 %) in the first year of the program (starting from a baseline rate of 62.2 %), but thereafter we are not able to find any program effect. There is a less precisely estimated 5-percentage point increase (CI: −0.2 to 10.2 %) in the overall rate of antenatal care use, but little evidence of an increase in the number of visits as measured by the rate of four or more antenatal visits.
In Fig. 2, we plot the coefficients (and associated 95 % confidence intervals) from a more refined specification that allows program effects to vary by quarter. We find that antenatal care usage at the study clinic rose by more than 10%age points in the first three quarters following introduction of MSS, but thereafter dropped off. The graphs also show that overall use of antenatal care (not restricting to care in the study clinic) increased on both the extensive (i.e. rate of any antenatal care) and intensive margins (rate of four or more antenatal visits) during this period, but thereafter declined. From this we conclude that the MSS had a significant, but somewhat short-lived, impact on antenatal care use.
Table 5 presents the DID results for each of the measures of skilled birth attendance. Again we report average effects and effects over time. Overall, the MSS appears to have had little impact on delivery in the study clinic (Estimate: −0.7 %; CI: −7.0 to 5.5 %), institutional delivery (Estimate: −1.6 %; CI: −7.4 to 4.1 %), or skilled birth attendance (Estimate: −0.16 %; CI: −5.6 to 5.5 %). The confidence intervals are tight enough that we can rule out economically significant effects on any of the outcomes. This conclusion is not significantly modified if we decompose program effects by year or quarter (see Fig. 3).
In Table 6 we examine the impact of the MSS on our secondary outcome, maternal complications. Not surprisingly given the lack of major impacts on antenatal care or birth attendance, we find no evidence that the MSS reduced the incidence of intrapartum complications (Estimate: 1.2 %; CI: −2.8 to 5.1 %) or postpartum complications (Estimate: 0.2 %; CI: −3.3 to 3.8 %).
The results in the previous section show that the MSS had smaller than anticipated effects (relative to the ambitious program goals). The main measured effect of the program is that it increased the use of antenatal care, with gains concentrated in the first year of the program. The pattern of results indicate that the MSS did not simply result in women changing where they attended antenatal care, as would have been the case if antenatal care use at the study clinic increased without an increase in the overall rate of antenatal care use. Given that the overall rate of antenatal care use increased, albeit by a smaller fraction than the observed increase in the MSS clinics, we conclude that the MSS was successful in inducing some women into antenatal care who would not have used care otherwise. However, we find no evidence of an increase in institutional deliveries or skilled birth attendance, even though this was the primary objective of the scheme. Our confidence intervals allow us to rule out effects larger than about 5.5 percentage points (or about 10 percent of the baseline mean).
The fact that there were some positive impacts at the beginning of the scheme that appeared to erode over time may indicate that the effectiveness of the program was compromised by operational challenges that emerged over time. An in-depth look at the implementation of the scheme , indicates that problems such as irregular payment of midwife salaries, and inadequate provision of accommodation, affected availability of midwives in the clinics and contributed to long-run difficulties in retaining midwives in the scheme. However this does not explain why there was no effect on skilled birth attendance, even in the first year of the program. Our data suggest that part of the reason for this is that other dimensions of service quality did not improve, which deterred uptake . For example, data from the clinic survey suggest that clinic infrastructure in many cases remained poor, as did availability of drugs and supplies. Only 44 % of facilities visited received a rating of "good" by project staff regarding the physical condition of the building [options were poor (requires major rehabilitation), fair (requires minor rehabilitation), and good (requires no rehabilitation)]. Lack of electricity and water were also problems: 35 % of MSS clinics in the clinic survey reported having no electricity. Availability of essential medicines and basic equipment was poor. We assigned clinics a score of one for each piece of equipment that was functional, zero if not. The median score was 13 out of 22. With regards to essential medicines, on average, clinics had only about half of these medicines in stock, and 21 % of clinics did not have availability of any of the drugs.
We also find some suggestive evidence that that demand-side barriers such as low perceived need for services and lack of transportation to clinics continued to play an important role (the revised iteration of the scheme sought to address this constraint by including a conditional cash transfer to households to encourage utilization) . For example, in our survey we asked women who gave birth at home why they did not opt for a facility birth, and for 70 % of births that did not take place in a health facility, the mother reported that the reason was because it was "not necessary". In contrast only 4 % and <1 % of the time did the mother give "facility not open" and "no female provider" as the reason why. This suggests that women did not consider a facility birth to be a high priority.
This study contributes to a growing literature evaluating the effects of policies and programs designed to increase use of maternal and child health services in developing countries. Much of this literature has focused on demand-side initiatives such as conditional cash transfers [12, 13], transportation subsidies , and voucher schemes [15–17]; supply-side studies are considerably less common.  Limited availability of skilled providers, particularly in rural areas, is thought to be an important constraint but there is little empirical research evaluating the effects of scaling up access to providers. Frankenberg et al. , one of the few examples, find weak evidence that the village midwife programme in Indonesia increased use of antenatal care and the likelihood of delivering with the assistance of a medically trained provider. Fauveau et al.  study a similar midwife program in Bangladesh and find that many home births were still not attended by midwives. The present study is largely consistent with this work in finding small effects of the Midwifery Scheme in Nigeria and highlights the challenge of improving maternal and child outcomes in developing countries.
This study has several limitations. First, as the evaluation was carried out ex-post it presented a number of challenges. For example, though some data were collected at baseline from MSS communities, there was no comparison group at baseline. As such, we do not have a baseline and follow-up in the classical sense; our birth panel is constructed retrospectively. Our design relies on similar trends in intervention and comparison communities, and we attempt to validate this assumption by examining trends in the pre-period. We are not able to reject the null of similarity, but we add the caveat that we have about 11 months of pre-data. A longer pre-period would have been desirable, allowing for a stronger test, but would have meant extending the recall period beyond five years (we followed the widely used Demographic and Health Surveys in keeping the recall period to the last five years). If the underlying assumptions are met, then this strategy provides robust estimates of the effect of the program, but readers should interpret these estimates with this caveat in mind. Second, our approach relies on retrospective information collected from women via a survey, raising the potential problem of accuracy of recall. This is unlikely to be a major concern for our primary outcomes, antenatal care and place of birth/skilled birth attendance, but may be a concern for delivery complications [21, 22]. If the measurement error in the dependent variable is classical (to the extent that it is present) then the estimate of program effects is unbiased (although the standard errors would be larger), but if it is correlated with the explanatory variables then the estimates may be biased . Given this, the results for maternal complications (our secondary outcome) should be interpreted cautiously. However, we note that in developing country settings where a large fraction of births occur outside health institutions, survey data are usually the only option as birth registration data, where available, are notoriously incomplete .
Poor access to skilled health providers, particularly in rural areas, is regarded as one of the main challenges to increasing rates of skilled birth attendance in poor countries. Given the dearth of empirical evidence, researchers have attempted to use models to project the effects of scale-up. Homer et al. , for example, estimate that a modest increase in coverage of midwifery could potentially avert 30 % of maternal deaths and half of neonatal deaths. The results in this paper reinforce the need for caution in generalizing from these estimates. As this evaluation shows, scaling up the supply of midwives in the real world is a complex undertaking and may not translate into the desired outcomes. One of the lessons of this evaluation is that increasing the supply of midwives, by itself, may not be a sufficient condition for increasing skilled birth attendance. Other interventions targeting other aspects of service quality such as improving clinic infrastructure and ensuring that clinics have adequate equipment and supplies, strengthening incentives for health providers to deliver high quality care, and tackling demand-side barriers will likely prove necessary.
We are grateful to Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, the former Minister of State for Health in Nigeria and former Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Ado Muhammad, the current Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, and Dr. Nnenna Ihebuzor, the Director, Primary Health Care Systems Development for their support in carrying out this evaluation. We are also grateful to the many other staff at the NPHCDA who patiently answered our questions and provided helpful information. We thank especially Mrs. Ify Onwudinjo, Dr. Lekan Olubajo, and Dr. Usman Abdulkadir. We received many helpful comments and contributions from participants at our workshops in Abuja for which we are grateful. Finally we thank all the field coordinators, supervisors and data collectors that helped to carry out the study and the thousands of study participants who graciously gave of their time.
This study was funded by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) through Grant No. OW4/1225. The sponsors of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report.
EO devised the study, wrote the first and final drafts of the article, and was responsible for overall leadership of the project. AC led the econometric modeling and analysis, and contributed to the writing. PG contributed to the design of the study, interpretation of the findings and writing of the paper. IA, UB and OO led the data collection and contributed to the interpretation of the results. EP and JE contributed to the design of the study, data analysis and interpretation of the study findings and writing of the paper. KG contributed to data analysis. All authors helped to interpret the results and undertook reviews and revisions of the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Dr. Abubakar has served as a consultant to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency. All other authors declare no competing interests.
Institutional Review Boards at RAND, Bayero University Kano, and University of Nigeria Enugu reviewed and approved the study protocol. Informed consent was obtained from all participating study subjects.