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Posts Tagged 'IMU'
China in Pakistan: An Awkward Relationship Beneath the Surface
Posted: January 15, 2014 in Royal United Services Institute
Tags: Afghanistan, China, China and the world, China-Afghanistan, China-Central Asia, Chinese foreign policy, ETIM, IJU, IMU, Pakistan, TIP, xinjiang
Another piece for my institutional home's analytical publication, Newsbrief, this time looking at the relationship between Pakistan and China. While this is not exactly Central Asia, it still forms a component of my bigger research project looking at China in Central Asia with Alex. More on this broader theme on the way.
RUSI Newsbrief, 15 Jan 2014
By Raffaello Pantucci
Characterised by soaring rhetoric, at first glance the China–Pakistan bilateral relationship appears to be one of the world's closest. Yet below the surface calm bubble concerns, with policy-makers in Beijing particularly worried about the implications of the 2014 withdrawal from Afghanistan for stability in Pakistan. Western policy-makers should not, however, be optimistic that these concerns will soon translate into Chinese willingness to somehow assume responsibility or leadership in helping Pakistan to develop in a way favourable to the West. Rather, Chinese concerns should be seen within the context of a regional relationship that is likely to grow in prominence as time goes on, ultimately drawing China into a more responsible role in South Asia at least.
China's Pakistan policy has three principal pillars – political, economic and security – which, together, leaders in Pakistan see as their main bulwark against international abandonment. Elites in both countries have publicly signalled the importance of the Sino–Pakistani relationship. For example, Premier Li Keqiang was the first foreign leader to visit Pakistan after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was elected in June 2013, while Sharif made China his first international destination as prime minister. Meanwhile, speaking about the region more broadly, China's Ambassador to Islamabad Sun Weidong told Pakistan's National Defence University in October that 'the Chinese government attaches great importance to developing relations with South Asia, and takes South Asia as a key direction of China's opening up to the west and a prominent position in China's neighbouring diplomacy'.
However, the decision to refer to Pakistan in the regional context reflects a divergence of views between the two countries on the importance of the relationship. While China clearly cherishes its links with Pakistan – indeed, Ambassador Sun closed his speech with the rallying call: 'May the China–Pakistan friendship last forever!' – the relationship between the two is imbalanced, with China the big brother and Pakistan the supplicant.
Indeed, for China, Pakistan is significant particularly within the broader regional context of relations with the countries along its western borderlands – stretching from Kazakhstan in the north to India in the south. Ties with Pakistan are seen by Beijing as part of this wider picture, rather than constituting a bilateral relationship in its own right.
This has been evident, most recently, in the relatively slow progress on the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a 2,000 km route connecting the Pakistani port of Gwadar with Kashgar in the northwestern Xinjiang region of China – which was formally mentioned during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's May 2013 visit to Pakistan. Always an ambitious project, at a Sino–Pakistani track-two meeting in Beijing in August 2013, Lin Dajian, vice director general of the Department of International Cooperation at the National Development and Reform Commission, highlighted 'the security issues and challenges that could impede the speed of [the] project'. A month later, Ambassador Sun more pointedly stressed the expectation of Pakistani support in 'safeguarding the security of Chinese institutions and citizens in Pakistan' as they developed the CPEC.
Other Chinese firms with investments in Pakistan have previously expressed similar concern for the safety of staff based there. In September 2011, China Kingho Group, one of the country's largest private coal-mining firms, backed out of a $19 billion deal in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, telling the Wall Street Journal that this was out of security concerns for its staff. In 2004, the Chinese state-owned enterprise Sinohydro, which had won a contract to build the Gomal Zam Dam in Pakistan's restive southern Waziristan province, suspended work when Chinese engineers were kidnapped near the site. One died during a rescue attempt, and the project was delayed for a further three years while Sinohydro aggressively renegotiated the contract (more than doubling its price). While this dam has now been completed, other Sinohydro projects, like the Duber Khwar hydropower project, have encountered similar problems.
These examples highlight the difficulties – even for Chinese companies – of doing business in Pakistan, belying the overly positive vision of the relationship often portrayed by the media. It also casts some doubt on the feasibility of the CPEC. With the state-owned China Overseas Holdings Limited responsible for managing the Gwadar port since February, focus has turned to the attendant ambitious plans for the Chinese-led re-development of Pakistan's roads, railways and pipelines, with the aim of transforming the country into a giant highway conveying Chinese goods to the open seas. So far, however, it is unclear how much progress has been made on rendering the port usable. In July, it was revealed in the Pakistani media that an investigation would be initiated into why a Chinese ship had been unable to reach the port due to heavy silt, despite 'billions of rupees' having apparently been spent on dredging work.
Yet China's security concerns with regard to Pakistan extend beyond apprehension about the safety of its nationals. In October 2013, a BBC Urdu report indicated that, at the behest of the Chinese government, Pakistani authorities had added the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM – known within the group itself as the Turkestan Islamic Party) as well as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) to its list of proscribed terrorist organisations. This announcement came amidst a period of turbulence in China, which saw attacks in Xinjiang and one in central Beijing in Tiananmen Square in late October. Although Chinese authorities did not specifically mention a Pakistani link in relation to these attacks, they have previously referred repeatedly to Pakistan or South Asia (which is usually read as Pakistan) as the source of such plots. They also reported, in the aftermath of a number of the attacks in Xinjiang and the Beijing incident, that radical material produced by ETIM had been found at the homes of those involved.
The nature of this connection with ETIM is unclear. While there are radical elements in Xinjiang who might use the ideological inspiration of the group as cover for their actions, it is not clear that there is a command-and-control connection. Certainly, those elements of ETIM that do exist outside of China mostly reside in Pakistan's badlands, under the protection of those close to the most fervently anti-state members of the militant outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). There, they produce a constant flow of radical videos, magazines and audio messages, calling for the overthrow of the Chinese state and for funding and support. In two messages in 2013, ETIM leader Abdullah Mansour praised those behind recent acts of violence in China: one message was released following an incident in Bachu County in April in which twenty-one were killed after a confrontation with authorities, and the other in the wake of the Beijing attack. However, Mansour did not claim responsibility for these two attacks, instead appearing more eager to give the impression that such acts are not the product of mindless anger, but of a global jihad.
Indeed, domestic messaging about international links to recent incidents in China tends not to refer specifically to Pakistan, but – increasingly – to Syria. For example, Chinese officials have suggested that individuals involved in attacks in Xinjiang also intended to go to Syria while reports in the Chinese media in July 2013 suggested that ETIM members were already fighting there. Subsequent reporting indicated that one member of the group had confessed that he had been dispatched from the battlefield in Syria with orders to conduct some sort of attack in China. Whilst the specifics of these reports are unconfirmed, videos have emerged showing Chinese-speaking individuals and Uighurs on the battlefield there – although whether they hail from China originally or from the large diaspora community in Turkey is unclear.
Despite this, for Beijing, the decision to push for Pakistan to list these groups as terrorist organisations seems more closely linked to concerns that ETIM is increasingly seeking and receiving support from other Central Asian groups based in Pakistan's badlands. Indeed, the increasingly broad fusion of jihadi groups in the region is likely to be appealing to ETIM, which has historically had difficulty sustaining itself and gaining traction among its counterparts internationally. Furthermore, Central Asian groups like IMU and IJU would be natural partners given their linguistic and ethnic proximity, and recent reports indicate that IMU in particular has been moving northward through Afghanistan, possibly heading back towards its primary ideological target – Islam Karimov's regime in Uzbekistan. As such, Chinese analysts speak with growing concern about the 're-networking' of extremist groups across the broader Central Asian region.
This is where the importance of Pakistan to China, due to its role and position in the region, becomes clear. Although China has invested substantially in Pakistan itself, it has also invested heavily in the broader region. Afghanistan, Central Asia and India are all potential trade partners and sources of the natural resources needed by China to bolster national growth and, more specifically, to enhance development in Xinjiang. Instability in Pakistan – perhaps through the presence of terrorist organisations – has the potential to undermine such efforts. Thus the prosperity and, indeed, the survival of the Pakistani state is essential to China.
Yet Western policy-makers must remain cautious in their interpretation of this relationship. While China may have a great deal invested in Pakistan, the way in which it pursues its interests there is not likely to further those of the West. Indeed, China will advance an agenda that, first and foremost, safeguards its citizens and assets. It will be unlikely to take on a major security role, preferring to bolster local authorities with whatever they say they need to counter the threat. Human-rights issues are unlikely to be prioritised, and in cases where bribes are required to expedite a process, it is unlikely that Chinese firms will hesitate to oblige.
The positive side of all of this is that China will provide Pakistan with useful infrastructure, be it roads, ports, railways or alternative sources of electricity. China has also demonstrated a willingness to lean on Pakistan when the mutual hostility with India becomes too tense: in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, Chinese shuttle diplomacy was important in soothing tensions. Following a visit by then-President Zardari of Pakistan to India in 2012, former Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani told the press that it was 'our best friend China … [which] advised us to promote trade relations with India'.
The end result is a situation in which China will increasingly find itself as the responsible partner to Pakistan, drawn more closely into Pakistani affairs. However, Beijing is unlikely to push for reforms within the Pakistani system or to try to influence affairs beyond its own specific interests. Any Western–Pakistani spats or discussions will be left to one side, with China more eager to nurture a stable country than one that is friendly with the West.
Senior Research Fellow, RUSI
Twitter: @raffpantucci
German Trials Highlight the Role of the IMU as a Feeder for al Qaeda Operations in Europe
Posted: May 19, 2012 in Terrorism Monitor
Tags: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Central Asia, Germany, IMU, Pakistan, terrorism
I have been travelling somewhere where this site was blocked, so I am going to be catching up on old articles for a day or so. There are also new ones in the pipeline, but apologies if you have already seen them elsewhere. First up is a piece for Jamestown that builds on my work about the German jihad focusing on a pair of current trials in which individuals who first went out to Waziristan to link up with IMU or a different jihad group in the region with a German flavour, but ended up working with al Qaeda for various reasons.
German Trials Highlight the Role of the IMU as a Feeder for al-Qaeda Operations in Europe
Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 10 Issue: 9
May 4, 2012 12:28 PM Age: 14 days
By: Raffaello Pantucci
Trial of German-Afghan Ahmad Wali Siddiqui – AP
Two separate trials are currently underway in Germany that have highlighted the particular role of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) as a feeder group for German jihadists who end up working alongside al-Qaeda. The first is a case in Koblenz involving Ahmad Wali Siddiqui, a German-Afghan who was captured in July 2010 by American forces at a taxi stand in Kabul (Der Speigel, February 28, 2011). The second case involves Yusuf Ocak and Maqsood Lodin, German and Austrian nationals respectively who were captured after careful detective work by German forces seeking to intercept radicals they suspected were behind videos threatening Germany (Der Spiegel, June 18, 2011; AP, June 20, 2011). The three men are all standing trial accused of ties to the highest echelons of al-Qaeda and seem to have made their connections to the group through the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Their trials have cast a new light on the particular ties between Germany and the Central Asian militants.
The Unsuccessful Jihad of Ahmad Wali Siddiqui
Ahmad Wali Siddiqui's ties to militancy go back to his time in Hamburg as an Islamist on the fringes of the community in which Mohammed Atta's September 11 cell formed around the infamous al-Quds mosque (later renamed the Taiba Mosque) (Der Spiegel, August 9, 2010; AFP, August 9, 2010). After moving to Germany as a 16-year-old in 1990, Siddiqui achieved little in life beyond failing at business before encountering Moroccan Mounir al-Motassadeq while they both worked at Hamburg airport in 1997 (AP, October 8, 2010; Der Spiegel, February 8). Al-Motassadeq was later convicted in Germany of supporting the September 11 cell. On the stand, Siddiqui denied being close to al-Motassadeq, though it was revealed that he had driven al-Motassadeq's father some 400km to visit his son in prison and had holidayed with al-Motassadeq and their wives in Morocco in 2002 (AP, March 19). [1] It was not until March 2009, however, that Siddiqui decided that it was time to join the fighters in Waziristan. Siddiqui joined a contingent of 11 Germans (nine men and two of their wives) that left in four separate groups starting on February 4, 2009. Along with his wife and brother, Siddiqui belonged to the second cell, which had intended to use as their guide an older member, Assadullah Muslih, an Afghan who had long been moving back and forth between Pakistan and Germany. However, Muslih seems to have disappeared soon after he took the first cell to Pakistan, leaving the aspiring jihadis to their own devices (Der Spiegel, October 18, 2010).
Those that made it re-grouped in Mir Ali in Waziristan later in 2009. Here they were absorbed by the IMU, which had by this point established itself as a home for German jihadists. According to Siddiqui, the group had gone to the region to connect with al-Qaeda, but was instead re-directed to the IMU after they met a pair of German jihadists in the region. They were brought into the group's trust and met leader Tahir Yuldashev at a wedding where they pledged allegiance to him (Der Spiegel, February 28). Things were not always so positive, however, as they found themselves largely unable to communicate with the Uzbek jihadists. According to Siddiqui's account, a trainer at one point threatened to beat him after Siddiqui experienced a fall that aggravated an old injury and prevented him from training. The commander settled for firing a shot near his head. Siddiqui's brother similarly got into a clash with another of the trainers and the brothers were able to broker their way out of the IMU camp after they agreed to produce a recruitment video for the group (AP, March 20). At this point, they found their way to al-Qaeda, though the group was initially suspicious of the men.
As with the IMU, they seem to have been brought into the group's trust relatively quickly and were allowed to train alongside the group using heavy weapons. In the first half of 2010 they participated in a meeting at which they met a fellow German jihadist from the Hamburg cell, Said Bahaji, an individual connected to the September 11 Hamburg group who had fled to Pakistan a week prior to 9/11. However, the most significant encounter was much later with Yunis al-Mauretani, whom Siddiqui and German jihadist Rami Makanesi state they met in mid-2010. The al-Qaeda commander arrived at a camp where the Germans were staying with stories of a plot being planned with cells in Italy, France and the UK to launch Mumbai-style assaults on European cities. Al-Mauretani was apparently eager for the Germans to return home and undertake fundraising and planning in Germany (Der Spiegel, October 11, 2010). However, the plot was soon disrupted, with Rami Makanesi handing himself over to authorities, Ahmad Wali Siddiqui being captured by U.S. forces in Kabul as he plotted his trip back to Germany and the remaining members being killed by a drone strike in late 2010.
The Deutsche Taliban Mujahideen
The story of Yusuf Ocak and Maqsood Lodin is different and yet similar in many ways to that of Siddiqui. Ocak and Lodin were drawn from a group of young German extremists who went to Pakistan to join the Deutsche Taliban Mujahideen (DTM), an offshoot of the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) that formed under the tutelage of the Pakistani Taliban and the IJU in response to the growing numbers of Germans coming to fight jihad. [2] Leaving months after Siddiqui's Hamburg group, Yusuf Ocak was ensconced in Waziristan by September 2009 where he helped found the DTM (Deutsche Welle, January 25). By late December, 2009 he was videotaping missile attacks on U.S. bases in Afghanistan (Der Spiegel, June 19, 2011). Ocak appeared in a video where he threatened Germany with attacks, leaving an audio trail that German investigators were able to trace, leading to his capture (Austrian Times, February 2). As well as helping establish the DTM and producing videos for the group, Ocak used the internet to reach out to prospective members and recruits in Germany. Lodin, meanwhile, was an active fundraiser for the group (Handelsblatt, January 25).
The DTM was a short-lived group that for a while seemed to be a new hub of German-origin terrorist networks in Afghanistan-Pakistan. However, with the April, 2010 death of their leader Ahmet Manavbasi (a former drug dealer from Lower Saxony), the group seems to have largely collapsed with Yusuf Ocak being picked up by al-Qaeda. This was around the same time that Siddiqui and Makanesi were being recruited by Yunis al-Mauretani for his European terrorist plot and the new German recruits from the old DTM would have been prime targets for recruitment as well. Ocak denies having encountered al-Mauretani, but was apparently taught to use the same encryption programs (Asrar and Camouflage) as Rami Makanesi admits to having learned in the training camps (Der Spiegel, May 9, 2011; Die Tageszeitung, January 25). More incriminating than this, however, was a series of documents found on an encrypted flash drive in Ocak's underwear when he was captured that appear to be a series of internal al-Qaeda documents (Die Zeit, March 15). The documents are apparently a series of internal planning documents written by senior members of al-Qaeda. These include a series of reports believed to be written by British al-Qaeda member Rashid Rauf (allegedly killed by a drone strike in November, 2008). These reports appear to be post-operational assessments of the July 7, 2005 London bombings, the failed July 21, 2005 attacks on the London Underground and the 2006 "Airlines plot" to bring down around eight airliners on transatlantic routes.
Ocak and Lodin left Pakistan in early 2011, travelling via Iran and Turkey to Budapest where they were apparently tasked with raising funds and establishing networks of suicide bombers that could be used in future al-Qaeda operations (Die Tageszeitung, January 25). However, both operatives were captured together with a network of Austrian recruits, some of whom were believed to have sought flight training (Der Spiegel, June 18, 2011).
What is most interesting about both cases is the transfer of the German cells from the IMU and DTM to core al-Qaeda. In both cases, the German speakers seem to have first been drawn in using the IMU/DTM networks that are in themselves off-shoots of Central Asian networks, but ended up as part of the al-Qaeda network, tasked with carrying out terrorist attacks in Europe.
According to Siddiqui, however, this was contrary to their original intentions: "We wanted to fly [to Pakistan] to live life according to Shari'a law and fight jihad….we didn't want to ever return" (AP, March 20). Similarly, Ocak seems to have enjoyed fighting the United States alongside the DTM and their Central Asian associates. However, the men were easily turned from their Central Asian focus back towards the West, al-Qaeda's priority interest.
There are still a number of uncertainties surrounding these two cases. In particular, it is unclear whether the two groups interacted or were kept apart. Given their similar interactions with al-Mauretani and orders to head back to Europe to establish new networks, it seems as though they might have been part of a bigger scheme, explaining why al-Qaeda would have wanted to keep them apart. While a number of other cells have been disrupted in Germany of late, it remains unclear how many more might be out there. Nevertheless, these trials show that the interaction between Central Asian terror groups in Waziristan, their German recruits and al-Qaeda is somewhat less organized than it appears at the outset and is highly influenced by the actions of individual personalities on the ground.
Far from being an organized targeting of Germany by al-Qaeda, the activities of these cells was instead an opportunistic effort that reflected the presence of numerous itinerant young Germans in Waziristan in 2009. In a pattern seen previously with the British-Pakistani connection in the lead-up to the July 7, 2005 bombings, young men fired up by parochial jihadist groups are drawn towards al-Qaeda's globalist message prior to returning home to carry out attacks there.
Raffaello Pantucci is an Associate Fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) and the author of the forthcoming We Love Death as You Love Life: Britain's Suburban Mujahedeen (Hurst/Columbia University Press).
1. http://ojihad.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/why-the-hamburg-friends-matter-jihad-made-in-germany/
2. "Mein Weg nach Jannah," by Abdul Ghaffar el Almani (Eric Breininger), released on forums May 2010. A translation summary can be found at: http://www.jihadica.com/guest-post-the-story-of-eric-breininger/
Jihadi MCs
Posted: April 12, 2011 in Prospect
Tags: Anwar al awlaki, AQAP, counter-terrorism, denmark, Europe, Germany, IMU, online, radicalization, shabaab, shabab, Somalia, terrorism
A new piece for Prospect, looking this time at al Shabaab and its foreign recruitment. A rich topic that I keep coming back to, though one thing I realized I missed after publishing it was any mention of Shabaab's TV channel. As ever, any tips or thoughts are warmly appreciated.
RAFFAELLO PANTUCCI — 12TH APRIL 2011
The Islamist group al Shabaab is attempting to make jihad trendy. But is it having any success?
"I obsesses not depress for martyrdom success" raps hip-hop enthusiast and keen Islamist, Omar Hammami, in his recent comeback song. This track wasn't intended to top any charts, but instead to prove that the elusive Omar was still alive. That the Alabama-born twentysomething, who is believed to be a senior figure in the Islamist group al Shabaab, chose to do this through the medium of rap is typical of the Somali terrorist group that has brought the notion of socially networked revolution to a whole new level.
Jihad is a young man's game. Old codgers like Osama (54) or Ayman al-Zawahiri (59) may be able to provide some ideological and operational support for cells, but for the most part it is young men who are on the frontlines. As a result, Islamist networks trying to recruit fresh blood are increasingly using new media, social networks and other non-traditional means to spread their message. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the group behind the "underpants bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and last October's parcel bomb scare, even produces a flashy magazine called Inspire—full of funky imagery and slang, it looks more like a fanzine than a terror manual. Closer to home, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) releases bilingual videos with colloquial German subtitles to appeal directly to its core audience in Germany.
But it is Somali group al Shabaab ("The Youth") that is at the forefront of this new media approach. Omar Hammami's recent hip-hop release is merely the latest from the jihadi MC. In his earlier work "First Stop Addis" he rapped about his earnest desire to become a martyr, over shots of him and his "brothers" training and fighting in Somalia. Released through extremist websites, but also widely available on YouTube, the MTV-inspired videos and songs seek to show kids how cool it is to be a mujahedin. Other videos released by the group show young warriors from around the world speaking happily into the camera as they boast, sometimes in perfect English, of how much fun it is to be fighting against the "kuffar" (unbeliever) government in Somalia.
Videos and songs are all very well, but as any good PR manager will tell you, a multipronged approach is what's really needed. Recognising this, al Shabaab encourages its young warriors to phone home in order to inspire others and raise money. Using dial-in conference calls, the warriors in the field tell those back home of the fun they're having, and urge those who cannot come to send money instead. They shoot guns in the background while on the phone, "to see they are working ok" and to show off. And online, members have ongoing conversations with the friends they left behind, sending them Facebook messages along the lines of, "'Sup dawg. Bring yourself over here" to "M-town." Meanwhile websites like al Qimmah provide a forum for the fighters in the field and the fundraisers at home to interact, keeping the flame of jihad in Somalia alive.
This holistic media outreach program seems to be reaping dividends for the group, who continue to attract a steady trickle of young warriors from across Europe and North America. Most recently, in Canada, police pulled 25-year old Mohamed Hersi off a plane he was about to take to Cairo on his way to join the group. A bored Toronto security guard, it seems he was only the most recent of a number of young Canadians who have joined the group. Similar cases can be found in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark and Australia, among others.
The danger for western countries is that while al Shabaab is currently using its trendy web strategy to draw fighters to Somalia, a time may come when they attempt to punish the west directly for supporting Somalia's Transitional Federal Government. They have already turned their attention to neighbouring Uganda, which contributes soldiers to a peacekeeping mission in Somalia. If the recruitment drive succeeds, al Shabaab will have at their disposal a network of western passport-holding men, all of whom are at home in our hyperlinked society and know how to use technology to aid terrorism.
Raffaello Pantucci is an Associate Fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR)
Britain's Camera-Shy Jihadis
Posted: March 24, 2011 in Foreign Policy
Tags: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, counter-radicalization, counter-terrorism, Europe, Germany, IJU, IMU, Pakistan, radicalization, shabaab, shabab, Somalia, terrorism, UK
A new piece for AfPak Channel at Foreign Policy magazine, this time looking at the odd phenomenon of why so many German jihadis appear in extremist videos, while so few Brits do. At any rate, I find it curious. Interested if anyone comes across any more material, as this is a topic I will continue to follow.
BY RAFFAELLO PANTUCCI, MARCH 24, 2011 | Thursday, March 24 – 11:17 AM | Share
A few weeks have passed since the discovery on extremist forums of the image of alleged martyr "Musa, the British." While Britain's intelligence service MI5 confirms that they believe that at least 4,000 young Britons have been drawn to fight and train at militant camps in Waziristan and Afghanistan prior to 2009, they have thus far been remarkably coy in their appearances in propaganda videos produced by jihadi media outlets. This stands in stark contrast with the German jihadist contingent, which seem to revel in their celebrity and repeatedly feature injihadist media outlets, as well as self-publishing tracts describing their experiences. Parsing this difference between these two groups (and the related question of why only Adam Gadahn appears amongst the estimated hundred or so Americans Bob Woodward was told have ventured to Waziristan) might offer some deeper insights into the machinations of the networks drawing young western Muslims to Pakistani training camps and help analysts better understand trends of growth or shrinkage of such networks.
The shot of "Musa" was the first image of a British jihadi "martyr" linked to Afghanistan or Pakistan since the videos emerged of Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the July 7, 2005 London subway bombers. The two men were part of the pipeline of young British fighters drawn to training camps in Pakistan, though ultimately they were directed to carry out an operation back home in the U.K. rather fight and die on the field in Afghanistan. However, these three men aside, there have been few images released by al-Qaeda or its affiliates that have included British jihadis. In Somalia, a young British-Somali blew himself up in October 2007, though the video took almost two years to surface and in Tel Aviv, two British-Pakistani Muslims attempted a suicide attack on Mike's Place bar in 2003. In contrast, ever since about 2007 when German fighters started to surface in growing numbers in Waziristan, there has been an ever-growing digest of jihadi media in German and featuring a select group of German nationals.
Why there is such a divergence between the U.K. and Germany is hard to understand. One possible answer is that the German jihad in Waziristan is still in an earlier phase its British counterpart. According to Guido Steinberg of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik and a former adviser to the German Chancellery, the network to send young Germans to Waziristan only really got established in 2006. In an interview, he described that before 2006 the networks were a haphazard affair, suggesting that the network is still relatively immature, and might therefore need more advertising to attract young recruits. In the U.K., on the other hand, jihadi networks have been drawing young Britons to fight in South Asia since the early-to-mid-1990s — almost two decades of militant travel have established a strong network.
But this German network now exists in force, and security forces in Germany have a large body of returnees and missing individuals whom they believe are training in Pakistan's tribal areas that they are worried about. An unknown number of individuals are still being drawn to Waziristan, withofficials at home concerned about more than 30 that have been trained and a further 200 who have been radicalized. In September 2007, the possible threat that this network posed was illustrated by the case of the Sauerland Cell, a group of Germans who were planning an attack on an American base in Germany– having been tasked to do this by their commanders in the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU). An offshoot of the Islamist Movement of Uzbekistan, the group's primary target is Uzbekistan, though it has now been operating in Waziristan alongside al-Qaeda and Taliban groups for some time.
Operationally, the constant appearance of young Germans in videos in Waziristan merely gives the German authorities a useful list of individuals to place on international watch lists and investigative leads into networks back in Germany. From this perspective, al-Qaeda's British recruits have proved to be much more useful in international plotting. Their bashfulness before the camera means that their identities are still theoretically hidden and therefore they are still deployable in terrorist plots. In the period from 2004 to 2007, most major al-Qaeda linked terrorist plotting in the U.K. were linked to British citizens who had trained in Waziristan. Al-Qaeda and its affiliate networks may have concluded that the German contingent is less useful operationally in the West.
Ideologically, it is likely that the videos in some cases have even had a counterproductive effect insofar as some of the images may have reduced Western fears of the group, to the point of ridicule in some situations. The surreal sight of German-Moroccan jihadist Bekkay Harrachstanding before a red matinee curtain in a suit while he threatened Germany to vote correctly in an election was not followed by any visible attacks. For an audience of both potential jihadists and the general public, the impression was of empty threats that will not have strengthened the group's hand.
In contrast, when British jihadis with links to Afghanistan and Pakistan have appeared in propaganda videos, it has been when they are featured in videos that claim to celebrate their deaths in the pursuit of jihad. And none of them or their many compatriots have written lengthy tracts describing their adventures seeking fields of jihad like Mounir and Yassin Chouka, a pair of German-Moroccans currently fighting alongside the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in Waziristan, or the fallen Eric Breininger, the young German convert who hid out fighting alongside the IJU regularly releasing odd videos showing off about how much fun he was having. His subsequent obituary was an epic document that helped clarify a bit to German authorities how the networks of Germans going to fight had evolved.
But it was not always so. Dhiren Barot, the British Hindu convert to Islam who in the mid-1990s ran away to Kashmir to join Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group responsible for the deadly terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008, subsequently wrote a book about his experiences. Other British Muslims radicalized during the 1990s served as "correspondents" for www.qoqaz.com orwww.azzam.com, the infamous British-based websites that supported jihad in Chechnya and Afghanistan, writing about their experiences in hagiographic terms. And prior to that, videos and cassettes that are still available online describe the experience of British jihadis (amongst others) going to fight in Bosnia.
None of this is very surprising — these Western warriors have been convinced by the al-Qaeda narrative that they are carrying out sacred acts in the name of a good cause, and it should be expected that they want to show off about it before a camera. Having seen countless others in such videos before they leave, it is not shocking that they want to add their names and images to the lists to inspire future terrorists. But, for British jihadists at least, this need seems to have faded away, with occasional rumors or newspapers stories around single individuals. Unlike their German comrades whose names are becoming tabloid currency, Britons like "Musa" have largely fallen silent.
Raffaello Pantucci is an Associate Fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR).
Terror in Germany: An interview with Guido Steinberg
Posted: March 19, 2011 in Free Rad!cals
Tags: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, counter-radicalization, counter-terrorism, Europe, Germany, IJU, IMU, terrorism, Uzbekistan
Another interview for Free Rad!cals this time with my old friend Guido Steinberg, the most reliable authority on jihad in Germany. I believe that he is developing a book on this topic, and has worked on a lot of the cases built against the jihadi network in Germany.
View all Raff Pantucci Blogs
Filed under: Europe,	Homegrown extremism,Radicalisation
Given the shootings at Frankfurt airport by Arid Uka, and a series of arrests and convictions recently, it seems as though jihad in Germany is continuing to be a thorn in the side that is not going away. Last week I asked Ces to comment on events in Russia. This week, I have reached out to Dr. Guido Steinberg of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin, the most prominent expert on the topic of radicalisation in Germany, to give us some thoughts on the current state of jihad in Germany.
RP: Can you give us an overview of the current state of Islamism and Jihadi ideology in Germany at the moment? What sort of numbers are we talking about?
GS: The number of German jihadists has risen substantially since 2005/2006. Before then, Germany used to be more of a safe haven and logistics base for al-Qaeda and other organisations. Today, it has become a target and German citizens of different backgrounds have joined different organisations including al-Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Islamic Jihad Union.
Germany is under threat today because these organisations aim at perpetrating attacks on German soil in order to force the German government to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. At the same time, al-Qaeda and its allies now have the necessary recruits who have been trained in Pakistan and know Germany well.
According to official information, about 220 persons from Germany are on their way to, are currently in, or have recently been to jihadist training camps. Of these, 110 are back in Germany and 10 are in jail. In more concrete terms, there are currently more than 50 Germans in Pakistan. This is a substantial increase from previous years and the jihadist scene in Germany still seems to be growing.
RP: The recent case of Arid Uka and the shootings in Frankfurt is particularly disturbing- do you think this is the beginning of a trend?
GS: There has been a trend towards independent action in Germany just like in other European countries since 2005. At that time, most independent jihadists in Germany radicalised because of the Danish cartoon crisis. For instance, there have been the so-called suitcase bombers, two students from Lebanon who planted bombs in suitcases on two regional trains in Western Germany in July 2006. The bombs did not detonate because of a technical error. It might be that the trend towards independent action will gain traction as it has all over Europe and in the US in 2010. However, as of yet, there are no clear indications regarding this in Germany.
RP: What brought about the creation of the German Taliban Mujahedeen in Waziristan? Not many other European or Western communities have similar organisations out there.
GS: The German Taliban Mujahedeen has been more of a propaganda tool than an organisation. It seems as if it was founded by the IJU in 2009 after an increasing number of Germans arrived in its headquarters in Mir Ali, North Waziristan. Together with a Turkish-Azerbaijani group called Taifetul Mansura they formed a kind of jihadist international brigade. However, the organisation never consisted of more than a dozen fighters and after the death of its founding emir, Ahmet Manavbasi, the group disintegrated. Some were killed with him, some joined the IJU, and others returned to Germany. Its remnants today seem to consist of a small group of young men from Berlin.
RP: From the Hamburg Cell to the Sauerland Group and Arid Uka. Why has jihadism found such a rich soil to grow in Germany?
GS: The members of the Hamburg cell were in their majority Arab students who had only arrived in Germany during the 1990s and had not struck deep roots here. Therefore, I think that the history of a distinct German scene only began with the Sauerland group. It began when an increasing number of ethnic Turks and Kurds were radicalised. The Sauerland group was part of a wider network, which was predominantly Turkish. As it seems, it took the Turks longer than most Arabs to get attracted by jihadist thought. When that happened, Germany was affected because it is home to some 2 million ethnic Kurds and at least 500.000 ethnic Kurds from Turkey – the biggest Turkish diaspora community worldwide. Once the first Turks had joined, the German jihadist scene expanded rapidly. This to me seems to be the result of an internationalisation processes affecting the jihadist scene worldwide. However, the German example seems to be especially striking.
RP: Are there any particular trends in Germany that particularly worry you in the short to medium term?
GS: The most worrying trend is the growth of the salafist scene in Germany. Some years ago, there were only two or three prominent preachers. Today, there are dozens. Official estimates count some 4000-5000 salafists here. This is particularly worrying because all the German individuals who went to join al-Qaeda, IMU and IJU in Pakistan first attended salafist mosques. This is where they were radicalised and recruited. Visiting the al-Nur mosque in Berlin, the al-Quds mosque in Hamburg or the multicultural house in Neu-Ulm was the first step on their journey to jihad. The fact that the salafist scene is growing likely means that the number of sympathisers, potential supporters and active jihadists will grow as well. It is no coincidence that Germany-based salafist preachers also influenced Uka


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Headline of the month: Mon dieu!
TODAY'S Scottish Daily Mail carries an article by Rob Robertson about the French rugby player, Mathieu Bastareaud, who is hoping to play against Scotland in the upcoming Six Nations.
But last year, The French centre created something of a diplomatic incident when it was revealed that he had badly damaged his eye, not following an assault by a group of New Zealanders – as originally claimed – but because he had fallen, while drunk.
The tale prompts a rather fine contender in allmediascotland's 'Headline of the month' competition – run in association with whisky folk, Whyte & Mackay.
It reads: 'Inglorious Bastareaud'.
Up for grabs each month are bottles of Whyte & Mackay Special whisky – for both the author of the headline and the person who has nominated it, with the monthly winners entered in a 'Headline of the year' competition where two bottles, each worth £150, of Whyte & Mackay 30 year-old are the prizes.
Eligible are headlines in Scottish newspapers (national and local), plus Scottish magazines and online.
By Administrator · February 4, 2010 · Comments Off
« Herald & Post to be relaunched
Status magazine launch symbol of glossy digital publishing in Scotland »

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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ABOUT IAG
World-Class Management Team
We are Leading AI powered Drug Development and Precision Medicine
Over 2,000 published works in AI and Precision Medicine
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Dr. Kubassova and IAG's Bio-Partnering are Attending Bio, June 3-6, 2019
Dr. Kubassova and IAG's Bio-Partnering are Attending Bio International, June 3-6, 2019 in Philadelphia USA.
Dr. Olga Kubassova, CEO of IAG and Venture Partner at Analytics Ventures and Bio Capital Impact Fund will be attending Bio, Philadelphia, USA together with bio-partnering team of IAG. Dr. Kubassova will also be a part of the investment panel to discuss challenges and opportunities for the lifescience industry in the US and China, topics around industry trends and cross-border opportunities between US and China. Given the increasing need for collaboration in therapy development, Dr. Kubassova will introduce IAG's technology-enabled, risk-sharing and mitigation partnerships, and targeted development strategies.
IAG's Bio-Partnering team is an independent investment division of IAG that is building a diversified investment portfolio of innovative life science companies at various stages of clinical development, with first partnerships including immuno-oncology, neuro-oncology and immunology focused partners. At the Bio meeting, IAG team seeks to engage with companies and discuss the development of clinical stage assets, IP acquisition from the academic partners and biotech companies, investment partnerships and strategic collaborations.
To find out more about IAG's Bio-Partnering services or to schedule a meeting during BIO 2019 please send an email to contact@ia-grp.com
About BIO 2019
The BIO International Convention is hosted by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), which represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. The conference brings together businesses, investors and academics and runs over 500 education sessions and netwrokign events, click here.
About Image Analysis Group (IAG)
IAG, Image Analysis Group is a unique partner to life sciences companies. IAG leverages expertise in medical imaging and the power of Dynamika™ – our proprietary cloud-based platform, to de-risk clinical development and deliver lifesaving therapies into the hands of patients much sooner. IAG provides early drug efficacy assessments, smart patient recruitment and predictive analysis of advanced treatment manifestations, thus lowering investment risk and accelerating study outcomes. IAG bio-partnering takes a broader view on asset development bringing R&D solutions, operational breadth, radiological expertise via risk-sharing financing and partnering models.
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New Article on Genetic Differences in patients with Hip and Knee OA
By Prof. Mikael Boesen Published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
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ISO Standard reflects our commitment to the highest technical quality products.
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Definition of skating – What it is, Meaning and Concept
by soetrust November 28, 2021 Leave a reply 18
Skating is what people do patina. The verb rollerblading, for its part, refers to moving on a surface through the use of a device with wheels or thanks to how slippery the floor is.
For instance: "Once a week, I go skating at my neighborhood club", "Ice skating is one of my favorite activities", "When Lucía was young, she loved skating … although when she grew up she preferred to dedicate herself to other things, such as music and painting".
What sport, skating is a discipline whose essential characteristic is the use of skates In the feet. According to the surface on which it is made, the skates (which is the footwear used for movement) will present different characteristics.
The roller skating It can take place on various surfaces (a concrete track, a street, a square, etc.). The traditional skates have two axles with four wheels each, while the inline skates (also known as rollers) have all four wheels on the same axle. In the case of ice skating, the skates have a blade.
In addition to all the above, we cannot ignore the existence of the so-called street skating either. Having fun and moving around the city in a comfortable and fast way are the fundamental objectives of this discipline that is carried out through the use of hard-boot skates. It includes different variants, as would be the case, for example, of the so-called "night skating", which is practiced on the street. In this way, the large volume of traffic and pedestrians is avoided, which means that it is possible to circulate on skates with much greater safety.
In the same way, we must not forget another very significant variety within skating that, in recent years, is achieving a notable increase in the number of people who practice it. It is the so-called freestyle slalom.
This consists of a variant of inline skating and consists mainly of performing different tricks, demonstrating coordination or speed, around some plastic cones that are placed one behind the other. In Europe is where this modality is achieving great success, in which both music and the skater's technique play a fundamental role. Of course, he must also demonstrate his fluency, his rhythm and his style.
As to competence sports, skating can be developed in different ways. There are speed competitions, in which athletes participate in a race to finish first or record the shortest time. There is also the figure skating, with a jury evaluating the skaters' pirouettes and movements. Skating also appears in sports As the roller hockey and the ice Hockey.
Likewise, we must not forget the roller derby, a roller skating sport that is typical of the United States and that is also identified by being contact, requiring great teamwork. It develops on an oval track and is usually feminine.
What can you do to prevent in-line skating injuries?…
n which sentence are the conjunctions used…
Definition of choreography - What it is, Meaning and Concept
Definition of Undefeated - What it is, Meaning and Concept
Definition of junk - What is, Meaning and Concept
Conflagration Definition - What it is, Meaning and Concept
What's the simplified form of x – 1 + 4 + 7x – 3? A. 8x B. 8x + 6 C. 6x + 3 D. 6x
Which of the following defines the term "rhetoric"? A. Language used to have a certain effect on readers and listeners B. Stories meant to show the positive and negative aspects of life C. Details that make it easy for readers to relate to the story D. Words that are based solely on the technique of hypocrisy
Definition of Pastry – What it is, Meaning and Concept
Trick Definition – What is, Meaning and Concept
Bargain Definition – What is, Meaning and Concept


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4 Incredibly Simple Questions To Make Any Company Successful
August 09, 2014 by William Hennessy in Business
Here's my favorite story from Derek Sivers's brilliant tiny book Anything You Want. Sivers was in Las Vegas talking to his cab driver. The cabbie told Sivers he misses the mob. Sivers asked why:
"When the mafia ran this town, it was fun. There were only two numbers that mattered: how much was coming in, and how much was going out. As long as there was more in than out, everyone was happy. But then the whole town was bought up by these damn corporations full of MBA weasels micro-managing, trying to maximize the profit from every square foot of floor space. Now the place that used to put ketchup on my hotdog tells me it'll be an extra twenty-five cents for ketchup! It sucked all the fun out of this town! Yeah... I miss the mob."
(Sure, we could bring up other issues with the mob, but let's just leave it as a metaphor and a lesson.)
I told this story a lot at CD Baby.
Sometimes MBA types would ask me, "What's your growth rate? What's your retained earnings rate as a percentage of gross? What are your projections?"
I'd just say, "I have no idea. I don't even know what some of that means. I started this as a hobby to help my friends, and that's the only reason it exists. There's money in the bank and I'm doing fine, so no worries."
They'd tell me that if I analyzed the business better, I could maximize profitability. Then I'd tell them about the taxi driver in Vegas.
Never forget why you're really doing what you're doing.
Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn't that enough?
Sivers, Derek (2011-06-29). Anything You Want (pp. 28-29). AmazonEncore. Kindle Edition.
Four questions that define the only just reason for any business to exist. This should be a consultant's checklist:
Are you helping people? If not, you should figure out a way to help or shut down the business. Companies that aren't helping are hurting, and that's evil.
Are they happy? This goes beyond merely helping. Helping is the bare minimum. If they're not happy, you're doing it right.
Are you happy? This might be the most important question of all. If making people happy by helping them doesn't delight you, find something that does.
Are you profitable? Yes, you have a responsibility to make a profit, but only if you answered "yes" to the first three questions. If you're not helping, or if they're not happy, or if you're not happy, then you have no right making money doing what you're doing.
I read business journals and blogs every day that talk about companies squeezing another nickel out of unhappy customers they're killing before the CEO jumps off the roof of his 128-story tower. What a waste of lives and money.
I know business schools don't teach helping, happy, happy, profit, but they should. And if they don't, why would anyone go?
Later, Sivers sums up the Tao of Business beautifully:
But even well-meaning companies accidentally get trapped in survival mode. A business is started to solve a problem. But if the problem was truly solved, that business would no longer be needed! So the business accidentally or unconsciously keeps the problem around so that they can keep solving it for a fee.
(I don't want to pick on anyone's favorite pharmaceutical company or online productivity subscription tools, so let's just say that any business that's in business to sell you a cure is motivated not to focus on prevention.)
It's kind of like the grand tales, in which the hero needs to be prepared to die to save the day. Your company should be willing to die for your customers.
That's the Tao of business: Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you'll do well.
Help people, make them happy, have fun, and make a profit. That's all it takes to run a successful business.
business, CD Baby, derek sivers, Happiness, Las Vegas, MBA, The Mob
How to Persuade Like the FBI's Top Hostage Negotiator
March 15, 2013 by William Hennessy in Strategy
The clock is ticking. Three people are in a small frame house: a woman, her five-year-old son, and a man bent on killing them both.
And the clock is ticking.
Outside the house is a team of expert killers.
How this ends is up to you, and there are three possibilities: no one dies, someone dies, everybody dies.
You have only three tools: a video feed from the scene, a phone, and your brain.
What's your first move?
You Are an FBI Hostage Negotiator
Whether you're a CEO, a marketer, or a mom, you live in a scaled down version of the hostage negotiator's world. How so? Another party wants something, you want something, but on the surface your wants don't seem to go together well.
You're about to learn how to bring those conflicting desires to a happy ending.
Whether you're trying to close a deal, design a perfect loyalty program, or get your kids to pick up their clothes, you face the same challenges that face the men and women who talk psychopaths out of slaughtering their families.
Luckily, one of those negotiators, Chris Voss, revealed the tricks of his trade to Eric Barker. And those tricks can make your life a lot easier.
Hostage Negotiation Trick #1: If You're Right, People Die
The last thing a negotiator wants to hear the psychopath say is "you're right."
According to Voss, "you're right" is the end of the conversation. When people say "you're right," they've given up trying to reason with you. You wore them down, but didn't get into their head or change their mind.
we love it when somebody tells us we're right. It's usually when we're making an argument and we've worn the other side down, and they're just sick of us… Even if I believe in my heart that you are right, I'm not vested when you're right.
The magic words you want to hear the other side say are "that's right."
when I say "that's right," I've put myself in a position of adjudicating what you've said, and I've pronounced what you've said right. There's a much greater chance that I'm going to accept it if I've said "that's right" as opposed to "you're right."
So you want to get to "that's right," but how? And the clock is still ticking. You're under stress. The coffee's weak and cold, and your colleagues cigarette smoke finds you wherever you go.
You're ready to argue, but don't.
Hostage Negotiation Trick #2: Arguing Is Schizophrenic
Voss reminds us that it's difficult to talk to a schizophrenic because he has a voice in his talking whenever he's not talking. He doesn't have time to listen to you.
When you argue, though, you become schizophrenic yourself. Think about your last argument. You were either talking (or yelling) or you were preparing your next argument. So was the other guy. No one was listening, except for trigger words to pounce on.
the only time the other side is silent is because they're thinking about their own argument, they've got a voice in their head that's talking to them. They're not listening to you.
When they're making their argument to you, you're thinking about your argument, that's the voice in your head that's talking to you. So it's very much like dealing with a schizophrenic.
Two schizophrenics arguing with three lives at stake probably doesn't end well.
So how do you break out of this cycle of death?
Hostage Negotiation Trick #3: Listen Up and Nobody Gets Hurt
Listen to what they want. Really listen.
The idea is to really listen to what the other side is saying and feed it back to them. It's kind of a discovery process for both sides. First of all, you're trying to discover what's important to them, and secondly, you're trying to help them hear what they're saying to find out if what they are saying makes sense to them.
Listen closely enough that you can paraphrase what they're saying. Then ask them to confirm your summary. And be patient.
Yes, the clock is ticking. But it's difficult to carry on a conversation and kill people at the same time.
As long as you have them spellbound with their own story, as long as you let them parrot that voice in their head, they're not hurting anyone.
You can say, "What are we trying to accomplish here?" Then, "How is what you are asking for going to get you that?" If you make them explain it to you, a lot of times both you and them are going to discover whether or not it makes any sense. So you can become a real sounding board in the negotiations to try and figure out whether the solutions match the problems.
It All Comes Down To Persuasive Design
I describe Persuasive Design as "helping people get what they want—in the context of your business." Sounds a lot like the way Voss describes hostage negotiation.
Listen to gain confidence and understanding.
Confirm what you've heard by getting to "that's right."
Find out what they really, really want.
Ask how their present course will help them get that.
And, finally, one thing that the hostage negotiator didn't tell you, but I will.
Once you find out, by listening carefully, what they really, really want, offer them a plausible path to getting it that benefits your business. And lets three people leave that little frame house alive.
Let me know your hostage situation in the comments. I'm here to listen . . . and to help you get everyone out in one piece.
Now find out why you should avoid affinity bubbles.
March 15, 2013 /William Hennessy
business, channel loyalty, consumer loyalty, dealing with kids, difficult conversations, FBI Hostage Negotiator, Hostage Negotiation, Listening, loyalty marketing, management, managing people, persuasive design, psychology, Schizophrenic
Free Your Mind From Trivial Decisions
July 24, 2012 by William Hennessy in Working
Decisions tire the brain. In a famous study, Israeli parole judges were more likely to grant parole early in the day (70 percent) and almost never late in the day (less than 10 percent) after controlling for all other factors.
Psychologists call this "decision fatigue." Every decision we make weakens the brain's capacity for reasoning and paying attention. Only a full night's sleep restores our maximum capacity, but bursts of sugar (glucose in the blood) will temporarily alleviate the condition.
Knowing this information obligates us to design around it. How often, for example, do you attend all-day meetings that end with critical decisions? Scheduling day-long meetings with decisions at the end all but guarantees weak outcomes. Tired participants tend to give in to the most vocal participant or to accept the defaults, like the parole judges.
When I designed a two-day persuasive design lab, I intentionally designed it as two half days. Because the most important decisions are made on day two, I try to hold the second session from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with lunch arriving at noon. We make final decisions on pilot plans after eating.
I use a personal strategy to minimize the affect of decision fatigue, too: personal policies. I borrowed the idea from Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking, Fast and Slow. He talks about risk policies, like never buying extended warranties. By adopting a policy, I don't have to decide every time a situation arises.
Here just three of my personal policies:
* Never switch to an earlier flight on the day of travel * Never buy extended warranties * Always wear black t-shirt, khakis or jeans with no belt, and slip-on shoes when travelling
Maybe it sounds silly, but these policies save me from the agony of deciding and from the unexpected calamities associated with airline travel decisions. (I once switched to an earlier flight, got bumped from that flight, and missed my original flight because of problems re-ticketing.)
If you want to keep your brain rested for important decisions, apply these three tricks:
* Create personal policies to set defaults for trivial matters * Assign important decisions to early in the morning * Split full day meetings into two days, with the big decisions the morning of day two
For more on Decision Fatigue, see this NYTimes story. And share your personal policies in the comments below.
Decision Fatigue (economistsview.typepad.com)
Is "decision fatigue" a big problem in sentencing decision-making? If so, what should be done? (sentencing.typepad.com)
Keynote Ricci (ldosumap2012.wordpress.com)
Thinking, Fast and Slow: the 'landmark in social thought' going head to head with Fifty Shades of Grey (telegraph.co.uk)
This much I know: Daniel Kahneman (guardian.co.uk)
July 24, 2012 /William Hennessy
Amos Tversky, business, Daniel Kahneman, design, Extended warranty, George W- Bush, Israel, Parole
7 Ways to Kill Your Modifiers
June 28, 2010 by William Hennessy in Best Of, Writing
I like to say "there's no such thing as business writing." Okay, there is. It's called "sucks." From where I sit, "business writing" refers to strings of meaningless modifiers interrupted periodically by bland verbs and flabby nouns. Thankfully, we readers have hope. And our hope comes from science, not from the English Department. Here's what I mean.
Dan Zarrella, the social media scientist, has determined that nouns and verbs work, adjectives and adverbs choke. Here's the sharebility of various kinds of words:
Active verbs zoom around Facebook while adverbs die on the author's wall. That's because modifiers usually weaken a sentence. They encourage writers to use imprecise nouns and dull verbs. For example:
Dull: He walked quickly through the room.
Not Dull: The tomcat tore through the kitchen.
Both sentences describe the same event and the same actor. The latter conveys movement and excitement, while the former induces sleep.
Here's an exercise. Take some piece of your writing and do the following:
Circle all the adjectives and adverbs. (Just in case you don't know, adverbs modify verbs and adjectives modify nouns.)
Delete the ones that weaken the sentence. For example "He was a brave and valiant soldier," feels weak compared to "He was a soldier."
Replace weaker nouns with more specific ones. ("Soldier" becomes "warrior.")
Repeat for verbs. ("Walked" becomes "tore.")
Edit out the modifiers if their opposites would sound ridiculous. For example, "Our software is fast, flexible, and easy to use," is weak because no one would tell you their software is slow, inflexible, and cumbersome by design. (Hat tip Guy Kawasaki.)
Replace adjectives that make important points with anecdotes that convey the message more powerfully. You say, "She's a compassionate animal lover." Try instead, "She has taken in over forty rescued dogs and cats, giving them loving foster care until the animals were adopted."
Restore the (few) modifiers you just can't live without. Sometimes, you need to say "the red dress."
These seven steps will leave your paper stronger, more readable, and more shareable. Your readers won't know why it's so good, just that it's really good.
If you get any compliments on this new style, please comment below.
June 28, 2010 /William Hennessy
adjectives, adverbs, business, dan zarrella, facebook, modifiers, writing
Best Of, Writing


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Meeting Ron Turcotte- a Kentucky Derby hero
May 5, 2017 Franco-American News and CultureDrummond New Brunswick Canada, Pimlico, Riva Ridge
Every year, on the first Saturday in May, at Kentucky Derby time, I'm reminded about my meeting with Ron Turcotte, the French-Canadian jockey who has been kind enough to give me several phone interviews over many years. But, in 2011, I had the experience of meeting him, in Waterville ME.
Ron Turcotte is the horse racing jockey who rode the champion Secretariat to the Triple Crown. We met in Waterville, Maine several years ago.
I'm not an autograph collector, but the signature I own from Ron Turcotte is a particular treasure.
Turcotte is a horse racing Triple Crown hero who exceeded my expectations after we met, because he exposed a life beyond the dream of winning equestrian victories.
Turcotte is rare among an elite group of racing champions. He won back to back races at the Kentucky Derby in 1972 and 1973. Then, in 1973, riding Secretariat, he made horse racing history by winning the Triple Crown.
Turcotte and Secretariat were an impressive racing duo. Together, they won the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, the Preakness at Pimlico, in Baltimore Maryland and the Belmont Stakes in New York, during the same year. It's an extraordinarily difficult feat for one horse and jockey to win all three races. In fact, some sports writers called Secretariat "the super horse of the 19th century", because of his ability to sustain his strength through the end of his winning races.
"The Will to Win", an autobiography with Ron Turcotte's autograph
Being a world famous jockey is heroic enough, but Turcotte became a champion after acquiring a disability in 1978, the result of an accident at the Belmont, in New York. Since then, he's been a paraplegic, meaning the injury caused him to lose mobility in his legs. His heroism shines in the quietly professional way he expresses a profound appreciation for his life after acquiring a disability. Moreover, he's become a motivational speaker for disabled jockeys and a role model of for all who overcome physical challenges.
My meeting with Turcotte followed more than decade writing about him as a news reporter for Maine's French-Canadian and Franco-American cultures. He was born on July 21, 1941, one of eleven siblings. He grew up in a close knit French speaking family, in Drummond, New Brunswick, Canada. His father worked in the Northern woods as a logger. Turcotte left school after finishing the 8th grade to work with his father in logging, but his small size kept him out of the rugged side of the job. Instead, his job as a teenager was caring for the logging camp's horses. Although he was too small for forestry work, his physical attributes made him a perfect fit for horse racing.
Eventually, Turcotte learned to work with race horses, which clearly lead him to become a jockey. In one interview I had with him, he acknowledged his "horse whisperer" talent for treating horses with gentle tactics and speech.
Computer search engines typically find my name when people start looking for the Triple Crown winners of horse racing. My byline pops up when Kentucky Derby followers look for past winners.
Turcotte rode in 20,281 races in his career, beginning in 1961. By the premature end of his career in 1978, he won first place in 3,021 races (including riding Riva Ridge in the 1972 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes).
Riding the horses Riva Ridge and Secretariat gave him the biggest thrills, winning two consecutive Derbies, which had not been done in 71 years. Then, of course, came the honor of winning the Triple Crown.
Numerous accolades and honors are included in his resume. He is an esteemed member of several Halls of Fame, including The Canadian All Sports Hall of Fame. Sculptor Edwin Bogucki created a statue at Churchill Downs featuring Turcotte, riding Secretariat immediately after the Kentucky Derby on May 5, 1973, as he danced into the winner's circle, led by his groom Eddie Sweat.
Every May, Turcotte is a VIP guest of the Kentucky Derby.
Queries about how to find Turcotte come from sports magazines, television anchors, curious readers and children. An 11 year old 6th grader from Upstate New York asked her grandmother to call me about how she might contact Ron Turcotte? In her case, she wanted to ask Turcotte how to find the jockey clothing like he wore in 1973, when he rode Secretariat to the Triple Crown victory. She wanted to role play his winning story to her school class.
Responding to her request, Turcotte went beyond speaking with this young fan on the phone. He even took time to write a short autobiography called "My Personal Story", so she could read it during the show and tell, while wearing the racing attire.
He wrote to her about his faith in God and the "ups and downs" of his racing career. "I had some great wins and some disappointments, but through it all, I have always tried to give it my best," he writes.
Furthermore, he writes, "I had a chance to ride some top horses".
In Waterviille, Turcott's smile beamed through a calm demeanor. You get the sense of how he must have had a calming effect on high strung racing horses.
Wearing a casual cloths, he looked completely different than the real life jockey actor Otto Thorwarth, who played Turcotte in the popular Disney released movie "Secretariat".
Turcotte showed videos of his horse racing victories. Having him personally explain the details of each individual Triple Crown win, while showing videos riding Secretariat was nearly as exciting as being at the track. He explained what was going on with detailed descriptions of the race, like the events happened yesterday. He's justifiably pleased to show the video of Secretariat's Belmont win, the third leg of the Triple Crown. That's the arduous race where he won, with Secretariat, by 45 lengths, a record that's yet to be broken.
Spontaneous applause followed each video, especially when the audience saw Turcotte edging out other horses while appearing to fly toward the finish lines.
As the audience cheered each race, a jovial Turcotte seemed to take on the energy of where he was in the videos. He looked like he could let go of his wheel chair in a second, if someone just put him in the saddle of another race horse.
I'm confident Turcotte will be a VIP guest during the May 2017, running of the derby, also called the most exciting two minutes in sports. It was an honor to meet him and to realize how he is a hero in French-Canadian sports history.
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She's put away many of Pensacola's most notorious killers. You probably don't know her name.
Colin Warren-Hicks
This story has been updated to correct a mistake that appeared in the original version. Bridgette Jensen assisted in the prosecution of Leonard Gonzalez Jr. but was not the lead prosecutor on the case.
You're much more likely to recognize the names of the people she has sent to prison than her own.
But that's OK with Assistant State Attorney Bridgette Jensen. She is well aware there is little glory in being a prosecuting attorney.
She knows the general public likely has no idea who she is as she walks down Palafox Street on her lunch breaks from the courthouse, despite the countless sleepless nights she has spent working to keep them safe.
As the lead homicide prosecutor based in Pensacola for the State Attorney's Office, Jensen has been responsible for more than a decade for ensuring that many of Escambia County's most notorious killers have been locked away from the public. During her career, she has prosecuted more than 50 murder trials.
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"At the end of the day, when I do sleep at night, I sleep knowing that I do a good thing," Jensen said. "I do an honorable thing for the victims, for their families, for the community, for the state of Florida, for the Office of the State Attorney. I don't think that there is any amount of money that would make me feel better."
Now after 12 years of serving her community, Jensen is stepping away from the courtroom to take on a new administrative role as chief assistant state attorney. Her former in-court prosecutorial partner, Assistant State Attorney Trey Myers, will step up to take her place as the lead homicide attorney for the State Attorney's Office.
"I'd like to say that I'm on a hiatus," Jensen said. "I love the courtroom, and I love homicide cases. That's what I've done for the last 12 years. So I don't want to say that I'll never do it again … but 12 years of constant pressure and stress and murders, this is a really nice breath."
The list of people Jensen has helped put behind bars is lengthy.
In 2011, she was involved in the trial of Zachary Littleton, a former Navy master-at-arms who was ultimately found guilty of murdering his pregnant girlfriend, 25-year-old Samira Watkins, in 2009.
In 2012, Jensen prosecuted Tina Brown, who was convicted for Tasering, beating and setting a woman on fire.
She "learned the ropes" of how to prosecute a murder trial by assisting Assistant State Attorney John Molchan with his prosecution of Leonard Gonzalez Jr., the mastermind behind the 2009 murders of Beulah philanthropists Byrd and Melanie Billings.
More recently, Jensen has worked as a prosecutorial team with Myers — taking turns speaking in court and alternating who questioned witnesses — on three, high-profile cases.
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"I think a lot of people don't get our job. Our job is not necessarily to convict," Myers said. "Our job as a prosecutor is to put the facts out there as they are and present the case and the law and let a jury decide whether there is enough evidence to convict a person of whatever crime.
"Obviously in homicides, there is a greater interest, whether in the public or the families of victims, in wanting to make sure that we convict someone of a terrible crime and importantly that we convict the right person for the right charge," he continued. "So that is the most pressure, because you want to make sure that you get it right."
Jensen and Myers worked as team for the first time during the June 2019 trial of Henry Steiger. Steiger was found guilty of second-degree murder after prosecutors successfully argued he killed Cassandra Robinson after the birthday party for their 1-year-old daughter.
Last year, Jensen and Myers also worked together during the trial of Donald Hartung Sr. Hartung was eventually found guilty of three counts of premeditated first-degree murder in the deaths of his mother and two brothers.
But it was the third trial that the duo prosecuted together that Jensen said was perhaps the most emotionally taxing in her long career: the homicide of a little girl named Naomi Jones.
Jensen still keeps a photo of the 12-year-old on her desk.
"I think it's because all homicides are devastating and they are tragic and they break families, but there is something unique and so sad about a 12-year-old little girl who is kidnapped and raped and tossed in a body of water," Jensen said. "Just something very emotional, I guess, goes along with a child."
Robert Howard was convicted in August 2021 of first-degree murder in Naomi's 2017 death after Jensen and Myers proved to the jury that Howard kidnapped the girl from an apartment complex, choked her to death and dumped her body in a creek.
On Thursday, the Escambia County Commission issued a proclamation thanking Jensen and Myers for their work on the Howard case on behalf of the community.
"I'll be honest with you. This is a very thankless job," Jensen told the News Journal in an interview Thursday afternoon. "People expect us to work the hours that we work because we do prosecute murder cases. We're supposed to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get the job done, and sure, we get thank you cards, we get flowers. We get an occasional nice gesture, but to actually be recognized — and I think we are the first prosecutors to get recognized by the Board of County Commissioners — it is really kind of overwhelming."
Now in her new role as chief assistant state attorney, Jensen will help oversee the strategies behind all of the other assistant state attorneys' prosecutions, as well as perform other administrative duties.
It will be up to Myers to face down alleged murderers in the courtroom. He said he's up for the challenge.
"I think that there are just some people who feel called to serve, and I think you would agree," Myers said, speaking to Jensen. "I think that we feel like we are serving the community and trying to do our small part in trying to make it a better place to live."
Colin Warren-Hicks can be reached at colinwarrenhicks@pnj.com or 850-435-8680.


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with author Esri Allbritten
Q: Chihuahua of the Baskervilles features something called the Emma Crawford Coffin Race. Is that a real event?
A: It is. Emma Crawford came to Manitou Springs, CO, in the late 1800s, hoping to cure her tuberculosis by drinking the spring waters. It didn't work, but before she died, she got engaged and asked her fiancée to bury her on the top of Red Mountain. It wasn't an official graveyard, and when the railroad needed the land, they moved her grave. Maybe they weren't very careful, because in 1929, a huge rainstorm unearthed poor Emma and sent her coffin hurtling down the mountain on a tide of mud. So every year in October, the people of Manitou Springs dress up and race coffins down the main street. The event draws about ten thousand people, most of them in costume, and feels like a cross between Mardi Gras and Halloween.
Q:Is the coffin race the reason you set the novel in Manitou Springs?
A: That was part of it. My plan is to set each book of this series in a tourist town that has some cool event. I fell in love with Manitou Springs when I attended Authorfest, a writing conference. It's a real jewel of a town, everyone is tremendously friendly, and if they all buy a copy of my book, that'll be a nice print run.
Q: One of your characters likes to poke fun at the supernatural. Are you a believer or a skeptic?
A: When I first moved to Boulder, I dived head-first into the New Age movement — wore home-made robes under the full moon, fondled crystals, the whole bit. It was fun but also expensive, and I never saw any results. I'm pretty skeptical now, but I love ghost and monster legends even more than I did, because they make for great stories, and they're also a window on human psychology. Michael is the skeptic in the book — an unpublished novelist who only works at Tripping Magazine for the money and résumé credit. He's essentially me, but with fewer people skills. At least, I hope I behave better than him.
Q: Where did you get the idea to riff on a Sherlock Holmes classic?
A: First I came up with the idea of a magazine that covers supernatural stuff, only the stuff is always someone committing or covering up a crime rather a genuine paranormal event — very Scooby Doo. The first book I wrote with that concept was The Legend of Big Butt, and that was my self-taught class on how to write a mystery – poorly, as it turned out. I'll probably fix that book and publish it at some point, but it was easier to take what I learned and move on. I wanted to riff on classic horror or mystery titles, and I consider The Hound of the Baskervilles one of the best books ever written. Do you know it's been made into a movie at least 20 times? I just stumbled across a farce version starring Dudley Moore and Peter Cook that has a Chihuahua, although it's not the hound itself — just an excuse for pee jokes.
Q: Why a Chihuahua?
A: The short answer is that "Chihuahua of the Baskervilles" is funnier than "Poodle of the Baskervilles" and punchier than "Rat Terrier of the Baskervilles." But I've been a huge fan of the breed for about four years. I spend a lot of time hanging out on Facebook sites like Obsessive Chihuahua Disorder, and it turns out that Chi owners are a pretty perfect market for my writing voice. They have a sense of humor about themselves, don't give a damn what other people think, and love to have fun. Recently I finally got my own Chihuahua, Josie O. She's a delight. In the book after this, Portrait of Doreene Gray, one of my characters is going to get a Chihuahua. It'll be a great sidekick for the staff of Tripping Magazine. They can hide a pen recorder under its coat or hang a miniature camera from its collar. Its ruffled, Bedazzled collar.
Q: Do you have a folksinging alter ego?
A: Doesn't everyone? Mine is named Jenny Blossom, and she writes songs for Tripping, the magazine for which my sleuths work. Jenny has long blonde hair with a pale pink streak in it, and her signature piece of jewelry is a silver necklace with a butterfly and the word "Dream." If you're lucky enough to see her live, ask for a souvenir guitar pick.
Kajira | August 11, 2011 at 11:02 am
I just finished "Chihuahua of he Baskervilles" and really enjoyed it. Normally I prefer "darker" mysteries, but I also like the humorous ones, IF and ONLY IF dogs play a major role in the story. I am also pleased that you are in favor of animal rescue.
i hope that the Chi character will be a rescued pooch. Perhaps you can put in a plug for PuppyMill Rescue? ( http://www.puppymillrescue.com )
Appearances by Maltese would also be most appreciated, since I own a rescued Maltese, Mac.
Esri Allbritten | August 11, 2011 at 11:34 am
Don't know if you noticed that Lila, in the book, is mentioned as being a rescue dog. (Ivan attributes her willingness to please to that.) All of my animals and my parents animals have come from shelters. One of many reasons we do that is that we don't like the "pig in a poke" aspect of baby critters. Sure, they're adorable, but I'd rather get an adult and be able to see what their personality is like.
I love Malteses! The main dogs in this series will probably always be Chis, but there will be guest appearances by other animals. There's a Scotty in book 2, Portrait of Doreene Gray.
I could talk about pets all day. You got me going. 🙂
I noticed the rescue aspects of the novel, and was pleased, since the more people here about rescue, the more likely they will be to adopt a pet rather than buy one from a pet store (which usually get the puppies and kittens from puppymills).
My Maltese, Mac, is 16 now and was rescued from a mill when he was fairly young, but had many behavioral issues at first due to abuse. Like Chum, he has vision problems (but is not blind) but is a very lively dog.
Eww….is there an edit feature? I meant "hear" lol.
Gareth | March 30, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Is it possible to buy any of your books in the UK?
Esri Allbritten | March 30, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Yup, all of them! Thanks for asking!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jokers-Fools-ebook/dp/B0074AV6UW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1333140227&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=chihuahua+of+the+baskervilles&x=0&y=0
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=esri+rose&x=0&y=0
jade | October 22, 2012 at 11:48 pm
Is there any objectionable content for an avid 11 year older reader?
Esri Allbritten | October 25, 2012 at 9:57 am
The two books in the Tripping series (Chihuahua of the Baskervilles, Portrait of Doreene Gray) have no sex or romance. There might be some humorous innuendo about Suki, who is a sexpot off the page, but it would be very mild. There's no violence on the page. My editor wanted it to be good for YA, so I think you're safe. Thanks for asking!


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Experiencing Northern Michigan: Mackinac Island Public Library & The Island Bookstore
Allison Peters,
Mackinac Island Public Library
Show Caption Hide Caption
Walking to the Public Library
Exterior of the Mackinac Island Public Library
Inside the Mackinac Island Public Library
Reading Room with Floor-to-Ceiling Bookcases
Stacks of Books Inside the Library
Reading Break in the Children's Section
Adorable Koala Hand Puppet
Book Nook with Fireplace & Cozy Chairs
Perfect Place to Read a Book Outdoors
Mackinac Island Sunset Behind the Library
The Island Bookstore on Mackinac Island
Inside The Island Bookstore
Cute Finds at The Island Bookstore
Selfie with Lilacs on Mackinac Island
Bike Ride Back to Town from the Library
For those of us who love literature as much as we love adventure and Northern Michigan, what could be better than kicking back and relaxing with a good book after a long day biking around Mackinac Island? Reading outside on a sunny spring day like today or finding a cozy spot around the big fireplace at the heart of the Island's year-round library? Now that's the epitome of Pure Michigan for us NoMi-loving bookworms.
Like most architecture on the Island, the Mackinac Island Public Library is adorable, with its brilliantly bright minty teal exterior and four white columns holding up a quaint front porch. Small yet stately, the library's architecture is as charming as it is iconic. Nestled right on the water in one of the Island's most prime locations, this unique NoMi library sits adjacent to a bike rack big enough for dozens of bicycles and is located right around the corner from a lovely lookout with expansive views of the Straits of Mackinac. The library serves over 500 year-round residents as patrons in addition to the thousands of tourists who make seasonal trips to the Island in the summers. While visitors can't check out books without official library cards, the library does offer an ongoing used book sale year-round.
Dressed inside and out in that gorgeous teal, the library interior features walls of windows that let in spectacular natural light all day long. It's truly breathtaking stepping into this dreamy building, humble in size (this is one of the smallest libraries I've ever visited!) with endless charm. The library features an open hearth area—perfect for quiet book club gatherings or cozying up with an old-fashioned newspaper or your favorite book—with a stunning tile fireplace as the centerpiece along the back wall with French doors overlooking Lake Huron, the Mackinac Bridge, and the Round Island Passage Lighthouse.
The original library on Mackinac Island, founded by Rosa Webb (who has a gorgeous room in the library named after her!) was built in 1936 on Market Street, and the Mackinac Island Public Library as we know and love it today is still considered a new building. Made possible by a Housing and Urban Development Grant, the current library was constructed in January 1992 and features diverse design influences. The bright, beautiful building was designed by Richard Bos of Royal Oak; the landscaping was designed by Deborah Silver of Detroit; the fireplace tiles were designed by Nancy Gorman of Glencoe; and the breathtaking interior was designed by Carleton Varney of New York.
The library has a great collection of children's books in addition to fun toys and activities for kids, including several cute animal hand puppets, which make awesome storytelling aids to help keep kids engaged while reading aloud! Engaging readers of all ages is vital to every library's mission. An annual tradition for almost 20 years, the Mackinac Island Public Library celebrates their Summer Author Series each year, through which the library hosts local authors who live on the Island as well as those who write about themes central to Michigan and the Midwest in their work.
For locals who stay on the Island year-round—or for those visitors who love visiting in the off-season to experience Mackinac Island as a real-life snow globe—the public library stays open five days a week, Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Every summer, the library extends their hours on Tuesdays and Fridays into the evenings, open from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Their catalog offers a search feature where you can find brand new books, books from various New York Times Bestseller Lists, and 2019 Michigan Notable Books, including The Faygo Book by Joe Grimm, Building the Modern World: Albert Kahn in Detroit by Michael H. Hodges, and Sister Pie: The Recipes and Stories of a Big-Hearted Bakery in Detroit by Lisa Ludwinski, who's from Milford.
While we're on the subject of books, I can't not mention The Island Bookstore in Downtown Mackinac Island, where I had the pleasure of visiting on my trip to the Island last summer for the glorious Lilac Festival celebration. (Want more Experiencing Northern Michigan blog posts all about Mackinac Island? Check out my columns about touring historic Fort Mackinac, the Wings of Mackinac Butterfly Conservatory, the bicycle lifestyle and kite-flying fun on Mackinac Island, the Stuart House City Museum, and Mackinac Island Carriage Tours for more Island life goodness!)
Browsing around in The Island Bookstore, I found super cute cards with hand-painted lilac illustrations on them, a memory game where you match flowers together, and a book written and designed by students at Mackinac Island Public Schools for a fundraiser they organized. This sweet little book is all about how the Island functions during the winter months and what it's like to live on Mackinac year-round. I found this topic so fascinating and was excited to support the school fundraiser, so I bought a copy, the memory game, the lilac cards, and a "Greetings from Michigan Booksellers" tote bag!
Reader, what's your favorite library Up North? I've had the good fortune of visiting a few around Northern Michigan so far, and I'm excited to check out them all! And probably check out all the books, too. Are there any books you're eager to read this summer on the beach, at the pool, in a hammock, or on a warm, lazy Saturday on your front porch? Whether you're on Mackinac Island or anywhere in the world, there's not much better, at least in my mind, than reading a good book in the great outdoors!
Categories: Experiencing Northern Michigan, the four
Tags: books, bookstore, Experiencing Northern Michigan, ExperiencingNoMi, libraries, library, Mackinac Island, Mackinac Island Public Library, michigan, NoMI, Northern Michigan, public library, pure michigan, reading, The Island Bookstore, tourism, vacation
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Assistant Professor Alexandros Charalambides
Assistant Professor Stelios Yiatros
Assistant Professor Sotirios Chatzis
Sara Mariza Vryonidi
Dr Olympia Nisiforou
Dr Rogiros Tapakis
Sofia Papadopoulou
Stefani Peratikou
Stavros Stylianou
Antigoni Tsiarta (2016)
Eirinaios Chatzimarkou (2016)
Chryso Chatzinikola
Dr Andreas Poullikkas
Dr Charalambos Theopemptou
Ioannis Kourouklides
EIT Climate-KIC Cyprus Hub
Ioannis Kourouklides pursued his four-year Master of Engineering (MEng) at Imperial College London in the fields of Electronic and Information Engineering, with specialization in Machine Learning, Optimization, Signal and Image Processing. He graduated in 2014 with a First Class Honours and his thesis involved applications of Computer Vision and Machine Learning in Mobile Robotics. In the summer of 2014, he joined the Centre for Medical Image Computing at the University College London. He was funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK government as part of the 2014 cohort of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Medical Imaging. In 2016, he has worked at the Sustainable Energy Laboratory on ENERFUND, a Horizon 2020 project of the European Commission. His research interests include both applied and theoretical aspects of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
In terms of industrial experience, he had had an internship with Broadcom, as a R&D Software Engineer before joining Citigroup for his six-month placement as a Software Developer in 2013. As a result, he managed to solidify his programming skills while working with huge legacy code as part of global diversified teams. Finally, he embraces a live entrepreneurial spirit.
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