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On Rolling Waters and Impurity: D&C 121, and the parts that were excluded
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Date: July 22, 2021Author: Hedgehog 12 Comments
This is a guest post by HarJIT, who now affiliates with Community of Christ, having previously been raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.
Background and notes on canon
There is more than one tradition of section numbering of the Doctrine and Covenants (narrowly the Book of Covenants; the term Doctrine and Covenants sensu strictissimo refers to the combination with the Lectures of Faith, though modern editions do not follow this), since multiple section numberings were used for it during Joseph Smith's lifetime, and both the LDS and RLDS Churches defined their own numbering traditions independently of one another. There are considerable differences in content, especially in portions subsequent to the Kirtland period; the most obvious of these are those originating from Presidents following Joseph Smith (two sections and two declarations in the LDS Church version, fifty-two sections[1] in the Community of Christ version) but the LDS Church includes considerably more post-Kirtland content attributed to Joseph Smith. In contexts where both might be referred to various approaches are taken to make reference to one particular edition. These include "LD&C" or "LDC" versus "RD&C" or "RDC", using "Utah edition" for the LDS Church edition,[2] or using "D&C SLC" for the LDS edition versus "D&C IND" for RLDS editions.[3]
Although the Community of Christ has indeed actively removed some of the material which appears in the LDS D&C (the sections IND 107, 109, 110 and 113, numbered SLC 124, 127, 128 and 135 in the LDS Church edition),[4] these are only four sections out of a total of thirty-two absent from the Community of Christ edition. Rather, the majority (twenty-six of them)[5] were first canonised in the 1876 LDS Church edition, prepared by Orson Pratt under Brigham Young, which also introduced the current LDS section numbering.
Three of these sections are 121, 122 and 123. They derive from writings of Joseph Smith when in Liberty Jail; 121 and 122 are well known for "where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place", unrighteous dominion, "thou art not yet as Job" (which CES Old Testament Seminary presents as modern-day revelation confirming the historicity of Job, something never actually claimed by the text itself) and "all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good". Sadly, they are not a complete or uncompromised witness to the Prophet's words.
The Prophet's epistles from Liberty Jail
Thanks to the Joseph Smith Papers project, you can from the comfort of your own home peruse the manuscripts of the two linked epistles to the Church written by Joseph Smith from Liberty Jail.[6] Not that I advise doing so except to check other transcripts againts: they are written with no paragraphs, barely any punctuation, and no consideration for standard spelling. There is a cleaned up transcript here which also marks up the canonised sections; note that the second "D&C 121:1" is a typo and should (as can be guessed from context) be "D&C 122:1".
Something which is not stated, although not denied, by the section header of D&C SLC 121 is that it is a collection of piecemeal excerpts taken from mostly the first epistle, stuck together with no explicit marking where a part has been omitted, plus the unrighteous dominion discourse from the second epistle. In fact, the last part of 121 immediately precedes the first verse of 122 in the original (surely, any sensible handling of the text would have included it at the start of 122?). D&C SLC 122 and 123 are both single excerpts from the second epistle.
The portions excluded from D&C SLC 121
The beginning of D&C SLC 121 is treated comparatively sensibly compared to its subsequent portions, not that that is saying much, although it misses out a considerable quantity of the content before verse 1, and between verses 6 and 7. Although both of these omitted sections are quite lengthy, I draw your attention to the following excerpt preceding verses 7–25. This is the only excerpt I shall be quoting that I feel there might be reasonable justification for removing if only to shorten the text, though I still do not feel it should have been.
"We received some letters last evening—one from Emma, one from Don C. Smith, and one from Bishop Partridge—all breathing a kind and consoling spirit. We were much gratified with their contents. We had been a long time without information; and when we read those letters they were to our souls as the gentle air is refreshing, but our joy was mingled with grief, because of the sufferings of the poor and much injured Saints. And we need not say to you that the floodgates of our hearts were lifted and our eyes were a fountain of tears, but those who have not been enclosed in the walls of prison without cause or provocation, can have but little idea how sweet the voice of a friend is; one token of friendship from any source whatever awakens and calls into action every sympathetic feeling; it brings up in an instant everything that is passed; it seizes the present with the avidity of lightning; it grasps after the future with the fierceness of a tiger; it moves the mind backward and forward, from one thing to another, until finally all enmity, malice and hatred, and past differences, misunderstandings and mismanagements are slain victorious at the feet of hope; and when the heart is sufficiently contrite, then the voice of inspiration steals along and whispers, [start of verse 7] 'My son, peace be unto thy soul; […]'"
Fairly touching, no? Although there doesn't seem to be much sense excluding it, excluding it at least doesn't materially change the meaning of the retained text. Which is more than can be said for the omitted section between verses 25 and 26. This omission is again quite lengthy, but here is the last part leading up to verse 26:
"How vain and trifling have been our spirits, our conferences, our councils, our meetings, our private as well as public conversations—too low, too mean, too vulgar, too condescending for the dignified characters of the called and chosen of God, according to the purposes of His will, from before the foundation of the world! We are called to hold the keys of the mysteries of those things that have been kept hid from the foundation of the world until now. Some have tasted a little of these things, many of which are to be poured down from heaven upon the heads of babes; yea, upon the weak, obscure and despised ones of the earth. Therefore we beseech of you, brethren, that you bear with those who do not feel themselves more worthy than yourselves, while we exhort one another to a reformation with one and all, both old and young, teachers and taught, both high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, male and female; let honesty, and sobriety, and candor, and solemnity, and virtue, and pureness, and meekness, and simplicity crown our heads in every place; and in fine, become as little children, without malice, guile or hypocrisy. And now, brethren, after your tribulations, if you do these things, and exercise fervent prayer and faith in the sight of God always, he shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit […]"
Verse 26, as canonised, simply starts, "God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit […]". Notably, this retains none of the "if…then" conditions which the Prophet places on this statement, just, God will give his Church revelation. It retains none, either, of his criticism/confession of the existing conduct of the Church leaders (including himself).
As a sidenote while we're on verses 26–32, for the sake of completeness, I would like to acknowledge a claim leveled, at least by some traditionalist RLDS groups (i.e. separate from the main-line CofC), that verses 28–32 were deliberately modified by the LDS to insert references to plurality of Gods, citing the initial printing of the epistles in Times and Seasons which omitted them.[7] Reference to the original manuscripts[6] is adequate to reveal that those references did in fact originate in the original manuscripts, and that they were removed (along with, for instance, the entire iconic interrogative "How long can rolling waters remain impure?") in the printed version prepared during the Prophet's lifetime.
Verse 33 has the unusual status that it is neither followed by verse 34 nor preceded by verse 32 in the original epistle. Indeed, verse 34 is from the second epistle. The omitted portion between verses 32 and 33 is the shortest of all the skipped portions, and consequently perhaps the most conspicuous in its omission. I quote it in full, with the entirety of verse 33 in context, below:
"[…] and into His immortal rest. [end of verse 32] But I beg leave to say unto you, brethren, that ignorance, superstition and bigotry placing itself where it ought not is often-times in the way of the prosperity of this church. Like the torrent of rain from the mountains, that floods the most pure and crystal stream with mire and dirt and filthiness, and obscures everything that was clear before, and all hurls along in one general deluge, but time weathers tide and, notwithstanding we are rolled in for the time being by the mire of the flood, the next surge peradventure as time rolls on may bring us to the fountain as clear as crystal and as pure as snow, while all the filthiness, flood wood and rubbish is left and purged out by the way. [start of verse 33] How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven, upon the heads of the Latter Day Saints."
Again, a similar observation might be made. The bit that says that God will lead his Church by revelation is kept. The bit which, assuming the same analogy is extended, laments how contaminated the water being used as an analogy for the word of God is by the time it reaches the membership? Silently removed with nary an indication that anything was ever there. I might of course be being too cynical to suggest this to be because Follow Your Leaders, perhaps, because Their Words Are God's Words, perhaps? That served the Martin Handcart Company well, sure. Be that or be that not so, it is in any case all very well endeavouring to read the scriptures in context and not as a library of numbered disjointed quotations to draw from, but if the context has been stripped out to support the party line, how can the mere student of the scriptures do that?
This passage, read in full, might be read as setting down an interesting teaching which does not come through in the canonised verse 33 alone very well, if at all. The Lord's word is clear water like rainwater or springwater, but it collects sediment and flotsam by the time it reaches us due to various human factors, so is not really in a drinkable state when it reaches us. Yet it inexorably comes, and will overcome any attempt to stop it, and will flush out the past contamination as it flows.
So if the Lord's word is so contaminated when it reaches us, how are we to view or approach it? To complete the discourse, here is the text following verse 33, but before the sign-off part of the first epistle, also missed out in the canonised version. I have removed the scarequotes around "Mormonism" as perhaps-undue editorialisation by the transcriber, since they do not appear in the original manuscript:
"What is Boggs or his murderous party, but wimbling willows upon the shore to catch the flood-wood? As well might we argue that water is not water, because the mountain torrents send down mire and roil the crystal stream, although afterwards render it more pure than before; or that fire is not fire, because it is of a quenchable nature, by pouring on the flood; as to say that our cause is down because renegades, liars, priests, thieves and murderers, who are all alike tenacious of their crafts and creeds, have poured down, from their spiritual wickedness in high places, and from their strongholds of the devil, a flood of dirt and mire and filthiness and vomit upon our heads. No! God forbid. Hell may pour forth its rage like the burning lava of mount Vesuvius, or of Etna, or of the most terrible of the burning mountains; and yet shall Mormonism stand. Water, fire, truth and God are all realities. Truth is Mormonism. God is the author of it. He is our shield. It is by him we received our birth. It was by his voice that we were called to a dispensation of his Gospel in the beginning of the fullness of times. It was by him we received the Book of Mormon; and it is by him that we remain unto this day; and by him we shall remain, if it shall be for our glory; and in his almighty name we are determined to endure tribulation as good soldiers unto the end."
A powerful teaching, to be sure. "[M]ight we argue that water is not water", i.e. that God's word is not God's word, because it comes to us corrupted through human vessels? How, then should we approach the teaching of leaders, or of scripture, that we may discern the spark of God's word from within it? Joseph seems to be suggesting that the message will become less corrupt over time, as continued revelation inexorably purges the existing considerable contamination in spite of considerable adversity resisting it. So, maybe we should take particular care to be ready to accept continuing revelation, even if it corrects what we might for now believe to be part of God's word?
The traditional polemic against the Brighamite approach to the D&C, from back when conflict on this front was more mainstream, was: why did the 1876 LDS edition add mostly historic material from the period before the 1844 edition, i.e. which had not been accepted for canonisation in 1844, rather than adding continuing revelation? Why had the addition of new revelation to the LDS D&C all but stopped since the LDS entered Utah?[2] If God had more material that he wanted canonised, would he not continue to reveal it?
My own perennial observation is that, in comparison to the Community of Christ, the LDS Church has a greater tendency to cleave unto the presumed virtues of the past as a shield against the presumed vices of the present. It any case, it seems averse to canonising recent material: its last full-fledged D&C section was canonised in 1976 but recieved more than half a century earlier, in 1918,[8] and only two full-fledged sections or four canonised elements postdate Joseph Smith at all. In some cases (LGBTQ issues, for instance), I (and others) might view them as cleaving unto the vices of the past. The LDS Church's associated culture loves to reference "standards" as an us-vs-them, and accuse defectors of not wanting to live their "standards"—increasingly, though, it may well be the LDS Church which does not live up to the defectors' standards in this regard. Arguably, its institutional culture has difficulty (an optimist might say, growing pains) letting go of the mire and flotsam which the unheeding torrent threatens to purge them of.
God's word comes to us through human vessels, but this is not to say that scripture should be thrown out because it is flawed, only that it should be read with that awareness and with the intent to discern the spark of inspiration within. To give some relevant quotations from the Community of Christ's Affirmations on Scripture:[9]
"Scripture is a library of books that speaks in many voices. These books were written in diverse times and places, and reflect the languages, cultures, and conditions under which they were written. God's revelation through scripture does not come to us apart from the humanity of the writers, but in and through that humanity. […] Faith, experience, tradition, and scholarship each have something to contribute to our understanding of scripture. In wrestling to hear and respond to the witness of scripture, the church must value the light that each of these sources may offer. […] As the church tries to interpret scripture responsibly, it seeks the help of the Holy Spirit."
The remainder of D&C SLC 121 is an iconic teaching on unrighteous dominion taken from the second epistle. Thankfully, this has been kept more-or-less intact, apart from the aforementioned unjustified section break. Indeed, the assertion in the verse range synopses that section 122 ("the ends of the earth shall inquire after thy name", et cetera) refers specifically to Joseph Smith is not particularly supported by the context in the letter, where it appears more to be simply a continuation of of the consequences of righteous leadership listed at the end of section 121.
One might be inclined to argue that this is a counter-example, since it gives conditions by which the Spirit might withdraw from a Priesthood holder, although it only really holds the Priesthood accountable to itself and God and, unlike some of the removed material, does not seem to imply flaws in pre-existing established revelation. But especially given how much to a similar effect was removed, I am thankful that this powerful discourse was kept in mostly intact, albeit without the context of the Prophet's other comments to this regard.
Another point to consider is that some of the omitted material might have been removed to as to cast some parts as more explicitly God's word rather than Joseph Smith's, or rather, removing the literary devices casting it as an inspired epistle rather than a direct verbatim revelation.[10] This may be another factor, though I would say it does not excuse the change in substantive meaning of the remaining portions taken out of context—and if epistles from church leaders are not to be esteemed scripture when framed as epistles and included in their entirity, surely most of the New Testament is written off?
In connection both with this and with the implications of the passages, more honest portrayal of how scripture was received in practice is somewhat called for in general; several D&C sections were revised between the 1833 Book of Commandments and the Doctrine and Covenants two years later—some stark examples being Comm 4 (now D&C 5 in both editions) and Comm 28 (now D&C SLC 27 or D&C IND 26)—a process which would only have been justifiable if the role of the human receiver is understood as more than just a transcriber of dictation.[11] David Whitmer of the Three Witnesses notably cited some of these changes to support his claim that Joseph Smith had only been called to bring forth the Book of Mormon, and had subsequently pretended to other gifts and led the church into apostasy and false doctrine,[12] which is not the mainstream LDS or RLDS view, but I am led to believe is given stronger weight in some smaller groups such as the Temple Lot group.[13]
I am also left curious as to whether more complete versions may exist for some of the other Brighamite-only sections; D&C SLC 130 and 131 stand out as a collection of sayings possibly excerpted from sermons, making me wonder what they were excerpted from or whether anything else was written down of their source sermons.
[1] 114–165, but skipping number 123 since 1990 and including a number 149A. Section IND 123 (or Appendix E) is this, for the curious.
[2] Smith, Elbert A. (1943). Differences that Persist. Independence, Missouri; Herald House.
[3] Shields, Steven L. (2019). "Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon: Co-Founders of a Movement". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 52(3), pp. 1-18. ISSN: 00122157; E-ISSN: 15549399.
[4] The last of these is John Taylor's eulogy for Joseph Smith, the one that proclaims him second only to Jesus in terms of bringing about salvation. The other three are temple-related documents from the Nauvoo period. The section numbers are still printed, but only above section headers which describe their decanonisation, with no content below them; earlier editions between 1970 and 1990 designated these sections as Appendices A through D, with Appendix A boasting a considerably lengthy section heading explaining how it is considered historical "local" instruction to the Nauvoo community, and not binding upon the Reorganisation in the absence of God proceeding to issue equivalent instruction to the Reorganisation. The section headings of Appendices B and C referred back to that of Appendix A, while the eulogy (Appendix D) bore a somewhat clinical section heading ("This section is not a revelation. […] The Reorganized Church has deemed it better to leave it as it is rather than to omit or revise it. As far as the facts are stated, they are a part of the history of the event discussed."). The appendices were later removed in 1990, in the extended aftermath of the murderer Mark Hofmann being unearthed as the actual author of Appendix G. (For anyone wondering, Appendix E is linked from footnote [1] here, and Appendix F was this.)
[5] The remaining two were canonised in 1976[8] and added in 1981, under Spencer Kimball.
[6] First one, second one.
[7] Tandy, Jon. "Differences between the RLDS and LDS Doctrine and Covenants on the subject of Godhood". CenterPlace.org.
[8] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1976). "Scriptural Text for Visions Added to Pearl of Great Price". Ensign, May 1976.
[9] Community of Christ (2018). Sharing in Community of Christ (4th ed.). Independence, Missouri; Herald Publishing House. ISBN: 978-0-8309-1715-0.
[10] Oman, Nate (2010). "How to write a revelation". Times & Seasons (blog), 1st July.
[11] FAIR Latter Day Saints. "Why and how revelations were modified in the Doctrine and Covenants". FAIR Answers Wiki.
[12] Whitmer, David (1887). "Chapter VII—The Changes and Additions to Some of the Revelations". An Address to All Believers in Christ.
[13] I do sometimes ponder on how the current practice of LDS members and investigators being told simultaneously that (a) the Three Witnesses (including Whitmer) testified of the Book of Mormon's truthfulness to their deathbed and (b) that the Book of Mormon's truthfulness implies that Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and the latter's successors are prophets, in the same breath, must surely be rendering Whitmer's corpse a source of perpetual motion.
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12 thoughts on "On Rolling Waters and Impurity: D&C 121, and the parts that were excluded"
Josh H says:
HarJIT: thank you very much for your scholarship. This is fascinating material that will take time to digest.
I hope you don't mind me pointing out a very ironic description of your church that you used: "The mainstream RLDS". It seems that the Community of Christ, like the LDS, has its splinters which to me seems ironic.
Please don't take this as an attack on the RLDS. I for one think that if the average LDS member understood more about the Church's succession crisis back in the day, many more LDS members would gravitate to the C of C splinter. Like I said: ironic.
rastlefo says:
Thanks for sharing this. I appreciate the scholarship and insights.
Kirkstall says:
"Some of the omitted material might have been removed to as to cast some parts as more explicitly God's word rather than Joseph Smith's, or rather, removing the literary devices casting it as an inspired epistle rather than a direct verbatim revelation."
Yeah that bit where Joseph frames the whole "Peace be unto thy soul" section as "the voice of inspiration"—that's mind-blowing to me. Thank you for sharing this because I had no idea there was so much missing from these texts. And I agree that the parts they cut out are touching.
I also appreciate your analysis of the greater context of the rolling waters analogy. Does anyone else feel more connection to church leaders the more they own up to their own humanity?
Mark Gibson Gibson says:
The dominant voice on what is included in the RLDS D&C has always been the majority vote of the World Conference. Before preparing their 1970 edition, all sections included "without Conference approval" were subject to a vote. As stated, Nauvoo era sections were removed to the appendix, but six other sections received a vote to retain. They are:
Sec. 22 (chp. 1 Book of Moses)
Sec. 36 (chp 7 Book of Moses, Genesis chp 7 Inspired Version)
Sec 100 (Utah Sec 103)
The "code names" for individuals in several sections were retained but with actual names listed in each section intro.
RLDS conferences allow resolutions to be drafted and submitted to the Delegate Body. Occasionally one calls for the removal of a controversial Section (OWP, for example) completely or to the Appendix. Now the Appendix has been removed and those resolutions are declared out of order by the 1st Pres.
Very interesting. I had no idea.
HarJIT (@HarJIT_EGS) says:
Josh H—best I can remark is that schism is fractal.
Mark Gibson—yes, that's a major cultural and institutional difference I've noticed. Conferences being a legislative body in their own right, with delegates from the membership having actual power, as opposed to something you watch to be told what to do and ritualistically express recognition of leaders' authority. The historic controversy over the attempts to introduce a supreme directional control policy stands in stark contrast to the LDS view of debate being over when the President speaks.
Mata says:
"The LDS Church's associated culture loves to reference "standards" as an us-vs-them, and accuse defectors of not wanting to live their "standards"—increasingly, though, it may well be the LDS Church which does not live up to the defectors' standards in this regard. Arguably, its institutional culture has difficulty (an optimist might say, growing pains) letting go of the mire and flotsam which the unheeding torrent threatens to purge them of."
This is a really provocative idea and merits more discussion.
Does anyone have thoughts or experiences that fit with this?
HarJIT: In the LDS Church, members who want change have to wait for like-minded General Authorities to be in place; in the CofChrist, they wave to wait for enough like-minded to be voting delegates at Conference.
Rich Brown says:
There is something in the DNA of the latter day saint movement that makes room for, if not actively encourages, dissent and schism. This is a characteristic since at least the Kirtland era.
One could argue that after JS's death in 1844, which led to a succession crisis, the exodus/dispersal from Nauvoo essentially meant the end of what might be called the "original church." All the groups after that, both large and small, were then schismatic: the two largest now being LDS and CofC, but include dozens of others. The concept of continuing revelation differs among them all.
Thanks for this interesting post.
Rich: every schismatic group but one claims that Joseph Smith, at varying points in time, went off the rails. The LDS Church doesn't include this as part of their identity. FLDS probably claim Wilford Woodruff went off the rails; and 4 of the 5 Smith RLDS Prophets endured the same "fallen Prophet" claim by some members.
My point, however, has nothing to do with JS as a fallen prophet. Simply that the pre-1844 church no longer exists. Every group since, regardless of their truth claims, is different.
Fantastic Content and analysis. I had no idea about this one. But it stands to reason, as I'm from a "Utah" LDS background. I've discovered a growing group of those who actually choose to believe that joseph's public claims, and the the claims of his family that he was faithful to only one wife are prerequisite to him retaining the prophetic mantle. Ie, to say one thing and yet do another secretly would have created a double standard that would disqualify him as a prophet. In other words, they take him at his word.
Faith on Is Religion Dead?
10ac on Is Religion Dead?
Kirkstall on Is Religion Dead?
Andrew S. on Is Religion Dead?
Toad on Is Religion Dead?
familywomen on Is Religion Dead?


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< Local
Wanted: A new leader for Hong Kong
Frank Ching June 17, 2019 17:36
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's announcement on Saturday suspending controversial extradition legislation after a secret meeting with a top Chinese official wasn't enough to pacify an angry population. Demonstrators returned to the streets on Sunday with a substantially bigger turnout than the previous Sunday's estimated one million protesters.
Lam, who refused to apologize the previous day, finally made a half-hearted apology with the issuance of a press release where she acknowledged "deficiencies in the government's work" and added: "The Chief Executive apologized to the people of Hong Kong for this and pledged to adopt a most sincere and humble attitude to accept criticisms and make improvements in serving the public."
However, she didn't meet the protesters' demands that she withdraw the legislation, not just suspend it, or step down as chief executive.
While China voiced its respect, understanding and support for Lam's decision, it certainly cannot be happy with the four-month-long saga, which has focused world attention on Hong Kong and the distrust of its residents in the mainland's legal system. Lam has brought disastrous international publicity to China in her attempt to allow the extradition of people from the city to the mainland.
She has enhanced suspicions of China in the United States and brought about the revival of legislation in Washington to monitor Hong Kong. If the city loses American recognition as a separate customs territory, it will lose trade and visa privileges and both China, which derives economic benefits from the city, and Hong Kong itself, will suffer.
She has created a more difficult environment for China to discuss its many differences with the United States, just as Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are gearing up for the G-20 meeting in Osaka next week, where the two leaders may meet.
In Taiwan, she has weakened pro-unification candidates running for president in next year's election and strengthened the incumbent, Tsai Ing-wen.
In Hong Kong, there are already signs of outside investors having second thoughts and of local businessmen moving their money offshore.
At a press conference announcing the suspension, Lam explained that the original impetus for the legislation resulted from a Taiwan murder case where the suspect returned to Hong Kong, which has no extradition agreement with the island.
Hong Kong, in fact, only has extradition treaties with 20 countries. Lam said she and her colleagues then decided to kill two birds with one stone: sending the murder suspect to Taiwan while creating a legal framework for extradition with the rest of the world, including mainland China, so that the city doesn't become "a safe haven for the criminals".
The response from within Hong Kong, and the West, was strong and negative. Critics pointed out that while the city enjoys the rule of law, such is not the case in mainland China, where the judicial system is controlled by the Communist Party. The proposed bill would allow foreign nationals, as well as people passing through Hong Kong, to be extradited to the mainland.
On June 9 the largest protest since the 1997 handover was staged, with a million people marching through the streets. Police action against protesters in the following days heightened concern, with dozens injured, including protesters and police.
An hour after the million-person march, the government announced that it would proceed with the bill three days later as scheduled. A million peaceful demonstrators, it seemed, had no impact. It was only after blood was shed on the streets in the following days that the government started to take a softer line.
The sheer arrogance – and naivete – of the chief executive is mind-boggling. Lam knew, unlike the general public, that Hong Kong and the mainland had engaged in discussions on a rendition agreement for 20 years. The talks were unproductive because China doesn't have a sound legal system.
And yet, all of a sudden, Lam decided to lump the mainland legal system together with some 170 other jurisdictions and said Hong Kong would allow extradition to all those places, without even mentioning China's policy of "one country, two systems".
Before assuming office in 2017, Lam was criticized for being so removed from Hong Kong reality that she didn't even know where to buy toilet paper. Now, it turns out, she doesn't understand the most basic sentiments of the people she is supposed to represent.
China almost never admits making mistakes. But Lam may be making it difficult for Beijing to show continued understanding and support for her and her policies.
If she doesn't step down voluntarily, Beijing may have to remove her the way it got rid of two of her predecessors: by "promoting" her to vice chairmanship of the most important advisory body in Beijing.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
El Sant Antoni de Pàdua de Santa Maria dels Turers és una talla barroca del  que es troba al Museu Arqueològic Comarcal de Banyoles, provinent de l'església de Santa Maria dels Turers, a Banyoles. Es tracta d'una imatge processional que representa a sant Antoni de Pàdua. La figura presenta una corona de raigs i al nen Jesús aguantant un llibre. Fa 80 centímetres d'alt i 28 d'ample. La seva base és de 19 cm. Es tracta d'una plataforma de forma quadrangular, que es feia servir per fixar la peca al baiard, quan s'havia de treure en processó. L'obra va ser sotmesa a un procés de restauració, dut a terme per la restauradora Anna de Puig i de Traver. La peca va ser seleccionada com a Joia del Museu durant la celebració del Dia Internacional dels Museus de 2010.

Referències

Cultura de Banyoles
Escultures religioses
Escultures barroques
Museu Arqueològic Comarcal de Banyoles

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Look at how happy this couple is. Running doesn't cost them any willpower because it just makes them sooooo happy. Jerks.
The Willpower Instinct is a book that just keeps on giving. There's a section in the book about we have finite reserves of willpower. The more of it we expend, the less of it we have. However, the book also theorizes that our body maintains a hidden reservoir of willpower. Like, it tells us that we don't have any more, even though we secretly do. In just the same way, our body tells us that we're tired, even though we could stay awake longer, and that we're hungry, even though we could go without eating.
This was a fascinating metaphor to me. On the one hand, it's obvious: we can do more than we think we can. But, on the other hand, I'm used to trusting the signals that my body gives me. It hadn't occurred to me that there's a kind of error built in there.
Anyway, this yielded a practical advantage today. You see, I try (as much as possible) to not drink coffee or take any caffeine that's stronger than tea. However, for some reason, I was very tired this morning, and just had that feeling like I couldn't face the day without it. Normally, in this situation, I'd cave and drink it and then overdo it and not be able to sleep tonight and feel miserable for the next few days.* However, today I figured that I had some hidden reserves of willpower in me, so I actually managed to just sort of power through the whole day and do everything I needed to do (including write this blog post).
*I call it the five-day coffee cycle: on day one I'm so tired that I drink so much caffeine that I can't sleep; on day two I'm even more tired and drink more caffeine and still can't sleep; on day three I'm so tired that even though I drink a huge amount of caffeine, I'm able to manage some sleep; on day four I manage to get enough sleep that by day five I'm not tired at all and end up sleeping very poorly that night (leading me to being extremely tired on the next day, which is when the cycle restarts). This just goes on and on until I finally stop drinking coffee again.
Still pondering The Willpower Instinct. For me, the most revelatory chapter was the one on how when we want something, we assume it'll make us happy (or at least bring us pleasure), even though that's often not the case. In this chapter, the author explains that dopamine is the brain chemical that mediates how much we want something, however it has nothing to do with how much we enjoy it. Thus, when we do things, we're trying to stimulate the release of dopamine in our brain…but that release does not correspond to a feeling of pleasure. The only subjective emotion that we experience is a cessation of wanting.
Now, I sort of already knew that, but I had mostly heard about it in the context of smoking cigarettes. I know from personal experience that the magnitude of the compulsion to smoke is in no way mirrored by the pleasure that a cigarette brings. I wanted to smoke much more than I actually enjoyed the act of smoking.
However, dopamine is also the culprit in lots of compulsive behaviors. For instance, internet browsing–the compulsion to click on another link or open another tab or go to another webpage or check your email one more time–is all based on this desire: this implicit promise that if we do these things, then there's a chance of pleasure. But, actually, the compulsion is far greater than the desire. The maximum joy I'm going to get from reading an article on the web is much less than the need that I feel to go and find one to click on.
There's also a corollary to this, which is that some things bring us pleasure but only carry a very weak desire. For instance, now that I've started regularly exercising, I can finally attest: exercising does make you happy. It's a remarkably good and robust feeling. I know that after I exercise I'm going to feel much better–oftentimes for a good 3-6 hours–than I did before it. Nonetheless, I still feel very little desire to exercise.
It's just a quirk of our neurochemistry. Possibly there's something evolutionary involved here. Maybe our brain gains some evolutionary advantage tofromrewarding us for exertion, but little evolutionary advantage from encouraging us to engage in unnecessary exertion? I don't know.
But this information has had pretty profound implications for my world view. You see, I had always more-or-less seen life as a trade-off between momentary pleasure and attaining lasting goals (like being productive and maintaining my health). I think this comes from drinking. For me, drinking heavily was really fun. When I stopped drinking, I lost that pleasure. And this is a pretty classic framework that influences lots of human beings: the idea that life is a choice between sense-pleasure and a deeper, more spiritual sense of joy.
But I think I was ignoring the fact that lots of things aren't really like drinking. I do (or did) so many things that don't really bring me much pleasure. Watching the day's seventh episode of Law and Order isn't pleasurable. Browsing the internet for three hours isn't pleasurable. Checking my email twenty times a day isn't pleasurable. Buying a gadget isn't really pleasurable (or, actually, browsing for new gadgets is pleasurable…actually spending money on them is not that pleasurable).
But I was constrained by my worldview. I assumed that because I wanted to do these things, then there must be some value in them.
Now I feel very liberated.
This has mainly made itself clear to me in my attitude while I am reading. Normally, when I am reading, I feel a constant desire to interrupt myself and look something up on Wikipedia or check my email or see what happened on Facebook. And I not-infrequently give in to these desires. When I do, I assume (in some unconscious way) that Facebook was just more interesting to me than the book was.
And that feels really good. The world makes much more sense now.


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Dozens of Undocumented Women Moved to Detention Center Known for Human Rights Violations
Posted By Alex Zielinski on Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 1:35 PM
A DHS spokesperson confirmed late last week that the department had begun transferring women from a facility in New Mexico to the West Texas Detention Facility in Sierra Blanca, a small town about 90 miles outside of El Paso.
Dozens of undocumented women are being quietly moved to a West Texas privately-run detention center that's been previously described as "hell," according to Buzzfeed intel from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
A DHS spokesperson confirmed with Buzzfeed reporter John Stanton late last week that women were being moved from a New Mexico center to a facility in Sierra Blanca — a town about 90 miles southeast of El Paso.
This center, run by LaSalle Corrections, has a long history of alleged mistreatment of its detainees. Last March, inmates reported that they were deprived running water for at least three days, leaving toilets "full of human waste." They were allegedly told to use plastic bags in place of a toilet.
And in early June of this year, Mexican journalist Martin Mendez Pineda decided he'd rather return to the violence-riddled state of Guerrero, where his life had been threatened by both police and gang members, than stay another day in the Sierra Blanca facility.
"I live daily the sad reality of maltreatment and discrimination...but know that this suffering may help the better treatment of the undocumented [migrants] and also of all the journalists of Mexico and other countries in the future," he wrote in an April 13 statement, where he called the center "hell."
It's unknown how many women were transferred to the center — or why. Unidentified "human rights activists" told Stanton that they were moved without without DHS contacting the attorneys representing the women.
Tags: detention center, immigration detention, Department of Homeland Security, Image
« New Immigration Laws and Deportatio… | Texas House Advances Bill to Create… »
Smuggling Survivors Are Being Held in a Federal Immigration Detention Center
Journalist Seeking Asylum in U.S. Returns to Mexico After Months in Detention Center 'Hell'
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ProPublica Exposes Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Posters Mock Dead Migrants
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text:
Founder and former CEO Bob Stiller retires from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters board
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 4:30am -- tim
by Tim McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine As the story goes, and how legend now has it, Bob Stiller was enjoying a cup of coffee after coming off the slopes at Sugarbush in 1981 when he had a "eureka" moment. The coffee was so good he decided to buy the company. He recently had sold his rolling paper business and had money. The coffee company, of course, became Green Mountain Coffee Roasters based in Waterbury. It is the state's largest business, with a market cap of $12.07 billion and annual revenues near $4 billion. And Stiller's story with it has now come full circle. Yesterday he stepped down from the board, the final shoe to drop in what has been a tumultuous 18 months for both him and GMCR.
A Q&A VBM did with Stiller from January 2002 is below.
Robert Stiller, far right, and family. Courtesy Stiller Family Foundation.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc (NASDAQ: GMCR) announced June 19 that Stiller and former CEO Lawrence Blanford had retired from the board and that three new directors had been appointed: John D Hayes, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of American Express; Susan Saltzbart Kilsby, Senior Advisor to Credit Suisse AG; and Robert A Steele, former Vice Chairman, Healthcare Strategy for The Proctor & Gamble Company. Stiller now becomes Chairman Emeritus following his retirement.
In a statement, GMCR's Chairman of the Board of Directors Norm Wesley said, 'John, Susan and Rob are terrific individual leaders with prestigious careers and significant global experience. Each will be a tremendous asset to GMCR as we continue to drive single-serve beverage category expansion and pursue growth opportunities leveraging the strength of our Keurig ® brewing technology.'
Wesley continued, 'Bob Stiller's vision for GMCR has been unwavering and as a result of his foresight, GMCR experienced unprecedented growth as it successfully transitioned from a regionally recognized specialty coffee roaster to a leader in the emerging single-serve beverage category in North America. On behalf of many GMCR stakeholders, including our Board and our executive leadership and all our employees, we express our gratitude to Bob and we are very pleased that he will assume the newly created role of Chairman Emeritus.'
Stiller stated, 'I believe the time is right to retire from the Board and pursue a variety of personal interests. I am confident that GMCR's culture of innovation, the breadth and depth of our Board and leadership team, the determination of our employees and the incredible consumer enthusiasm for our brands will continue to drive value for all GMCR stakeholders. It has been the highlight of my business career to serve GMCR and I am enthusiastic to continue to do so in this new role.'
And perhaps Stiller should be confident of the company's future as it stock surges beyond what anyone would have thought reasonable just a year ago. It was trading over $80 as of the close of business June 19, but it was only last July that the stock had plummeted to $17.11, less than a year after it had been over $100 per share.
Between September 2011 and July 2012, the stock cratered twice, once in November 2011 after a Wall Street "short" investor said the company was over-valued. David Einhorn of hedge fund Greenlight Capital said, among other things, that GMCR had corporate governance problems and, more importantly, that the company would lose its Keurig single-cup brewer patents in September 2012, which would subject GMCR to low -cost competition and a loss of market share. The stock also fell after release GMCR's second quarter financial report in May 2012, in which neither revenue nor earnings met analyst expectations.
The second quarter report was particularly damaging to Stiller. He had used his prodigious holdings in the company as collateral against what turned out to be bad investments, including in donut maker Krispy Kreme. In a margin call, Stiller was forced to sell 5 million shares worth $125 million in GMCR stock, which contributed to the fall in stock price.
Stiller, who was board chairman at the time, was removed as chairman less than a week after the Q2 report came out and another board member, William Davis, was forced to step down for also using the stock to cover outside investments and having to sell millions of shares at such a critical moment in the company's history (Davis sold 608,000 shares in May 2012).
Stiller was kept on the board at a lower level. And then things got better.
GMCR weathered the uncertainty of the loss of the Keurig patents; the company continued to grow in both revenues and profits; it signed another big agreement with sometimes-bitter rival Starbucks; its presence in the single-cup market expanded not contracted; it found a new CEO from Coca Cola before the end of 2012; and now is a Wall Street darling, again.
As of March 2013, Stiller still owned 8.3 million shares, which at $80 per share would be valued at about $664 million.
GMCR President and CEO, Brian P. Kelley said, 'GMCR has a bright future with growth opportunities in new channels and with new brewer technologies that take the power of Keurig ® to new beverages in large part thanks to the solid foundation and building blocks that Larry Blanford and the GMCR team put in place. Personally, I am grateful for Larry's guidance during my initial days as GMCR's CEO and on behalf of the Board, our employees, partners, customers and many other GMCR stakeholders, I thank him for his unwavering dedication to the Company.'
Steele's appointment is effective June 20, 2013 and Hayes and Kilsby's appointments will be effective July 1, 2013. Stiller's retirement was effective June 19, 2013. Blanford's retirement will be effective June 21, 2013. Upon Hayes and Kilsby's appointments, GMCR's Board of Directors will consist of 11 members, 10 of whom are independent.
In connection with Stiller's retirement, Stiller and the Company entered into a letter agreement, dated June 19, 2013, pursuant to which Stiller will make himself available for a period of one year following his retirement to provide advisory services and general advice to GMCR relating to its corporate social responsibility mission and business innovation strategy. Similarly, in connection with Mr. Blanford's retirement, Blanford and the Company entered into a letter agreement, dated June 19, 2013, pursuant to which Blanford will make himself available until December 31, 2013 to provide general advisory services to GMCR.
Biography Information
John D. Hayes , 58, has been Executive Vice President since May 1995 and Chief Marketing Officer of American Express since August 2003. Prior to joining American Express, Hayes spent over 20 years in the brand and advertising industry. He was President of Lowe & Partners and worked with clients including The Coca-Cola Company. He also has held senior positions at Geer DuBois Inc., Ammirati & Puris and Saatchi & Saatchi Compton. In addition, he has led the development of product position and global campaigns for Citibank, Aetna , Proctor and Gamble, Prudential Insurance, RJR Nabisco, Mercedes-Benz and Reebok.
Mr. Hayes is a Member of the Board of Yahoo! Inc., Board of Trustees of Save the Children and Board of Regents Seton Hall University. He was a previous Board Member of Fairfield Communities Inc., the Association of National Advertisers and The Tiger Woods Foundation. He received a B.A. in Communications from Seton Hall University.
Susan Saltzbart Kilsby , 54, has served as a part-time Senior Advisor to Credit Suisse Group AG since 2009. During her more than 30 years at Credit Suisse, she served as Chairman of Mergers and Acquisitions, EMEA and Vice Chairman of the European Investment Banking Committee, and also led the European Consumer, Retail & Services Investment Banking Group. Her career in global investment banking also includes senior positions with Barclays de Zoete Wedd, Bankers Trust and The First Boston Corporation.
Ms. Kilsby is currently a Member of the Boards of BBA Aviation PLC, Coca-Cola HBC AG and Shire PLC. She serves as the International Regional Chair of the Committee of 200 and was a founding Member of the Competitor Diversity Forum. She is a Visiting Fellow of the Cass Business School and is Chariman of the M+A Research Centre at Cass. Ms. Kilsby also serves on the Advisory Board of the Yale School of Management and is a Member of the Business Leadership Council of Wellesley College. She previously served on the Board of Directors of L'Occitane S.A. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management.
Robert A. Steele , 57, is the former Vice Chairman, Healthcare Strategy for The Proctor & Gamble Company. In his 35 years at the company he held several leadership positions including Vice Chairman, Global Health and Well-Being, with responsibility for oral care, feminine care, personal health care, pet care and snack brands; Group President, Household Care; Group President, North America; President, North America; and Vice President, North American Market Development Organization. He began his career in sales before moving to brand management.
Mr. Steele is a Member of the Board of Directors of Beam, Inc. and is an Adviser to CVC Capital Partners Ltd. He previously served on the Board of Directors of the Kellogg Company. He holds a B.A. from College of Wooster and an M.B.A. from Cleveland State University.
Lawrence J. Blanford , 59, served as GMCR's President, Chief Executive Officer of the Company from May 2007 to December 2012, and will serve as Director until June 21, 2013. Mr. Blanford previously was Chief Executive Officer at Royal Group Technologies Ltd., and President of Strategic Value Consulting, LLC, a consultancy firm. His prior experience included various management positions with Royal Philips Electronics (North America), Maytag Corporation, Johns Manville Corporation, PPG Industries and The Procter & Gamble Company. Mr. Blanford is a member of the Board of Directors of Steelcase Inc . He holds a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from Xavier University in Cincinnati.
Robert P. Stiller , 69, founded GMCR in 1981 and served as its President and Chief Executive Officer through May of 2007. He also served as Chairman of the Board from May 2007 through May 2012 and as a Director until June 19, 2013.
Q&A: Robert Stiller
Published by Vermont Business Magazine: January 1, 2002
Robert Stiller, the founder and CEO of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, has created a reputation as a man with a considerable knack for innovation. From ideas on how to improve his father's electric stove heating coil manufacturing process when he was in high school, to ways to improve his cigarette rolling paper business in the 1970s, to how to make gourmet coffee an experience you could enjoy at the local gas station, Stiller's ideas have often paid off big time. In October, Forbes magazine named the 58-year-old Stiller their Entrepreneur of the Year, complete with cover photo and a full page inside photo of still meditating on a pallet of coffee bean bags to illustrate his unusual approach to business. During the interview he joked that he was a little worried that he would be on the Forbes' cover.
He shouldn't have been too concerned though, and for good reason. His often spiritual approach to business may be unusual, but it's certainly been successful. According to Forbes, Stiller made over $3 million when he sold his first company in 1980, and earnings on GMCR have jumped an average of 24 percent a year for the past five years, earnings per share have grown at 43 percent, and the company is ranked 16th on Forbes 200 Best Small Companies. Stiller's 48.5 percent share of his company is worth an estimated $89 million.
A year ago GMCR signed a five-year contract with ExxonMobil to supply some 1,600 convenience stores, guaranteeing the company's dominance in this facet of the industry for some years to come. They beat out 11 other coffee companies to seal the deal.
Stiller lives in Burlington with his wife, daughter and two sons. While enjoying a delicious cup of freshly brewed Colombian coffee, Robert Smith interviewed Stiller at the company offices in downtown Waterbury, which are located over by the town liquor store and across the street from the fire station, just a few miles from the manufacturing and shipping plants.
VBM:How you ended up here in Vermont with a gourmet coffee company is a rather unique story. Could you fill us in? Did you bring the idea to Vermont or come up with it here?
Stiller: Well, I had sold another business in 1980.
VBM: Which business was that?
Stiller: E-Z Wider, the cigarette paper company. So I was looking for something to invest in. I used to come up to Vermont to ski, had been coming up here for years. So when I sold the business I was spending more time here.
I wasn't really much of a coffee drinker at the time, but I had this great cup of coffee in a restaurant. I got to know the owners of the shop that had just opened in Waitsfield. I used to play racquetball with them. They wanted to expand their business, and to me it was a great concept. Like I said, I wasn't much of a coffee drinker, but this was such a different beverage it was like day and night. It was good coffee, and so much better than the quality of coffee people were used to, especially 20 years ago. The quality of coffee has improved considerably since then.
So I formed another company to expand that concept, though I wasn't planning on becoming as active as I eventually became. I brought in another person to run it, and we lost a fair amount of money over the first couple of years. I bought one of the partners out, another had an opportunity to move to Florida, and I ended up owning 100 percent of the business. I spent a lot of time getting things on track.
VBM: This business started in 1981, and you took over running it when?
Stiller: After about three years, and I'd say that we'd lost over $1 million in those three years. I turned the company around and grew the business steadily and profitably until 1993, when we went public. We had five retail stores at the time I went public. We'd invested in the plant, we advertised for mail-order. We really tried to shift our growth.
You were interested in why we went public and it was basically because Starbucks was growing quickly and we saw other coffee companies growing quickly and we felt we had to shift our growth rate if we were going to maintain our presence in the marketplace.
They were more focused in the retail area. We did open up a number of retail shops after we went public. But the retail space was really hard to come by and it was such a different part of the business that we eventually sold off our retail stores in 1998 to just focus on the wholesale business. We were much more successful at helping other companies present great coffee.
We work with a very broad, diverse customer base from the finest restaurants to convenience stores and supermarkets. Planes, boats, trains! It's much more than just supplying coffee, it's really supplying the program, the training. Getting the staff at these locations to care about the product and present coffee right. Because if it's not brewed right it can be ruined, and if it stays on the burner it can be ruined.
So it's a lot more than just good coffee, but there is a lot of service and support that goes on behind the scenes to make good coffee. We are one of the leaders, if not the leader, in the country in doing that.
VBM: The machine that brewed this cup of your coffee, Keurig, do you find that is catching on? (The machine brews a fresh cup in seconds using pressurized hot water and a small, sealed cup of GMCR coffee.)
Stiller: They've sold around 20,000 machines in the last couple of years, and we sell a million of those cups a month, I believe.
VBM: GMCR had $84 million in total sales for the 2000 fiscal year, do you have the figures for 2001?
Stiller: In 2001 we had $95,576,000 in sales.
VBM: What do you see as far as immediate plans for the company, and what do you see five and 10 years down the road?
Stiller: Well, in our last conference call we threw out that we could be at the billion dollar mark in sales 11 or 12 years from now if we maintain our growth. It was an optimistic, aggressive forecast, but it's not ridiculous. The potential is there for someone to capture a significant part of the coffee market by providing the best coffees available. We're partnering with a lot of farmers in the coffee producing countries, so we have great relationships. They're producing superior product and value for us because of that relationship.
Coffee prices are much lower today than the cost of production, so they had cut a lot of corners in the production so that the quality of the coffee wasn't there. We have begun to partner with a number of farms for multiple years to produce coffee with certain quality standards. So now they know that they can put the work in and have someone to sell it to. That will be a problem going forward for companies that haven't done that.
We're grateful to be at a size where we can do that. We sell a lot of fair trade coffee, which guarantees a minimum price to the farmer. They work together in a co-op and sell coffee direct, which is wonderful. We sell more organic and fair trade coffee than probably any company in the United States.
VBM: I'm familiar with Equal Exchange, the coffee company. They spoke recently in Brattleboro at the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility conference, and they were talking about fair trade coffee.
Stiller: That's all they sell. We feel that we have to offer a variety of coffees for the consumer and let them choose. I'd certainly love to educate people on the importance of fair trade because it's so significant.
Coffee is the second largest commodity in the world. Oil is number one and coffee is number two. But unlike oil, coffee is a product of the people. There are 25 million people involved in coffee production, and 75 percent of them are small farmers, and they need to live. If they can't grow coffee, what are they going to grow?
VBM: Cocaine?
Stiller: In some cases, yes. And then we're willing to spend billions fighting the drug trade. As far as the stability of governments go, people are not happy if they can't earn a livable wage, and then they want a better system of government and then there's complete unrest. Coffee could really provide stability in the world if these people can have the economic substance to live. It changes the globe. There are some people who feel that you could really change the world through coffee because it is the only product that reaches so many people in so many lands.
VBM: Expound on that some more.
Stiller: It's a big thing for us. We started doing this at least 10 years ago, trying to improve our sustainability when it comes to coffee. When fair trade certification came along, all of our organic farms that we were dealing with were certified as fair trade as they already met those standards.
VBM: Where are these farms located?
Stiller: Mexico, Sumatra, Peru, Columbia, Costa Rica. We look upon it as good business, because if you don't have great product and you don't have the relationships with your growers, where are you? The whole fair trade idea was started with funding from the Ford Foundation. They funded TransFair, which is the certifying organization. The Ford Foundation really funded that to promote more democracy in the world. If there is financial stability, then there is a more stable government. A lot of people don't realize that. They think: "Fair trade, great, the farmer gets more money. So what?" But the ramifications are very far reaching.
We started an organic co-op in Sumatra three years ago with $15,000 in start up capital to another firm that's in the Brattleboro area, ForestTrade. It's a fascinating story because they really did this. I think they were able to raise $700,000 or $800,000 to get this co-op thing going, and it was the most successful intervention they've ever done in Indonesia. The director went back to Jakarta and did another one.
What was fascinating was that this was a really diverse cultural and economic group doing this. But because they had a common interest together, they worked together to help each other grow coffee. When all the fighting was happening there, this area was insulated from all those uprisings, because the people there had a job and they had money and they were OK. It really shows the impact of a program like that.
VBM: One of the things I've seen is that a company's reputation for social responsibility is becoming increasingly important. Have you found that is true for GMCR?
Stiller: I think it has helped us, and in ways that a lot of people don't realize. Everybody looks at the socially responsible sort of things as a marketing positioning, where I think it is much more impactful to a business from a motivational point of view and from a good business point of view.
A lot of workers will go much further to make a difference in the world as opposed to just making a company profitable. And they understand that they are not going to make a difference in the world if the company is not profitable.
They will feel so much better about themselves, be much more motivated, and I think the organization will have a lot more energy to be successful. If your employees focus their environmental/social issues along their supply chain or selling chain, and it is impactful in those areas, they'll only help the business do better. It's not like we just get a lot of money and at the end of the year we give it out haphazardly.
We help the farmers grow better coffee, we help the local environment which also helps our product. We help the community. If we have a stronger community with more services it will help our employees as well as others. We've given out coffee for various causes. We have to go out and buy that coffee, but people get to sample our product and we build relationships that way. It's a very synergistic type of relationship, it's not haphazard.
A lot of these larger organizations are thinking: "How can we cut employees or how can we cut benefits?" It's like them against the employees, as opposed to really supporting their workers. The biggest asset of any company is its employees. Why the hell wouldn't you do everything you could to make their work situation better and support them in life?
VBM: What is the size of your company now? How many employees?
Stiller: We have a little over 500.
VBM: But that's not all in Vermont?
Stiller: No, we have about 350 in Vermont.
VBM: So your headquarters and roasting facilities are here in Waterbury?
Stiller: Our roasting, packing and warehousing are here. We have about 110,000 square feet here now. We have about five buildings here and we have five other regional warehouses in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Florida, so that we can distribute to and support our customers. We call those regional operations centers where we do delivery to about half of our customers directly. We try to make the coffee conveniently available to our consumers. At the end of the day it is the consumer who drinks our coffee, and for that consumer to have it available wherever they would like it is our goal.
A lot of organizations will just focus on one or two channels, whereas we will be in the offices, the community stores, the restaurants, the supermarkets. If you like our product, we'll have it available for you.
VBM: And you have a mail order part of the business?
Stiller: Yes, and a website.
VBM: How big is the mail order portion?
Stiller: It's around three or four million. Not a huge percentage, but a percentage that we will look to grow over the next year. We've made some investment in the computer area that we've been waiting for, and now we'll be able to expand our mail-order business.
VBM: Do you feel that the Internet has been important for your growth and success?
Stiller: No. I think it will be more so, and it has been successful for what it is, but it has been such a small percentage of our overall business. I believe though, that it will grow because it is a very convenient way to order coffee. And we can offer other products that are specialized, but that might not be supported through other channels because there's not that much demand. We can provide a lot of brewing and coffee information on the web that you might not be able to get from other sources. So I think it has a very valuable place. But in the grand scheme of things the company is successful because of what we've done in other areas.
I really feel that, as good as our coffee is, the key to our success is our ability to execute. A lot of other companies can copy what we do, but our ability to work together as a team to do what we've got to do really sets us apart in the marketplace. Other companies can promise that they can do this and that for you, but when we promise something, we really try to do better than we've promised.
VBM: Has that been easier to do or harder to do as you've grown?
Stiller: I think we go through both stages. Right now it's somewhat easier because of understanding the dynamic and the process of how it's done. It's really empowering the people and giving them the tools to make it happen. I think we have a very engaged and involved workforce that is interested in where we are going and what we are doing. We've developed an ESOP program over the last few years so that the company is becoming more employee owned, even though it's a small percentage. We've given stock to employees and options. We're very involved with them.
VBM: Are you involved in an expansion right now?
Stiller: Yes. We've added some storage place to the plants.
VBM: Is that completed?
Stiller: No. The exterior is done. We've been able to get our hands on a couple of large roasters that we're setting up right now. We got them from another company in Boston that had to move because of the Big Dig there. We had to increase the plant size to get them, but it will shift our roasting capacity to about 40 million pounds a year, and we're at about 16 or 17 million right now.
VBM: So this will more than double your capacity?
Stiller: Oh yes. These things are huge, And not only are they big, but the technology is really superior. You can customize your roasting profile to exactly where you need it. It is a much more sophisticated machine to bring out the coffee flavor during the roasting process.
VBM: Will you increase employees as well when the expansion is completed?
Stiller: Not in any huge way.
VBM: So doubling capacity is not going to mean doubling employees?
Stiller: No. Our growth is steady and we hire accordingly.
VBM: For a worker here do you feel you pay average or above average wages for the area?
Stiller: I don't have a clue. I think we've tried to pay a little above average wages, but our benefits are way, way above what a typical benefit's program is. Probably in the top 98th percent. Then we try to give employees options to share in the appreciation of the value of the company, so it might be stock appreciation as opposed to high wages.
But I can tell you that we're known as a good place to work. I know a lot of people who have joined the organization, and then will get their brother or their spouse to join. Everybody is very excited to be here. We have a new employee tour every couple of weeks, and somebody I knew who worked in the post office here for years was in the tour a couple of weeks ago as she'd just started working here. Her husband and sister had worked here for years.
VBM: What do you offer as products?
Stiller: Well, we're about 85 percent or more coffee. Our business is coffee. We provide a full range of full coffee flavors. We have dark roast, light roast, mixed roast, different types of decaf, fair trade, organic, what we feel are the better flavored coffees 'the whole spectrum of what's available out there.
Coffee is a very personal type of experience. There is no "best." What is best is what you like, and we really help people find that and enjoy it. Other coffee companies, like Starbucks, have mostly dark roasts, they don't have flavored or other types. Like Equal Exchange will have fair trade coffee, but that's it. We really try to offer everything that's available out there.
Then we have other products that enhance the coffee experience like mugs or coffee makers, but it's a small percentage of what we do. Our focus is the coffee. If we can enhance that with other products, we'll do that. Like in the convenience stores we have hot chocolate and a frozen product so that the store can deal with us from a beverage point of view and they don't have to go to several different people to get stuff. They can get sugar, cups, stirrers from us so that we can be more of a one stop shop and make that relationship with the customer just that much more effective.
VBM: Do you see the recession or the events of September 11 affecting your business?
Stiller: I don't feel it is in a significant way at all. Certainly what has happened in New York City was devastating, and we had offices affected. But in the grand scheme of the economy, people are going to drink coffee. We might see a decline in the office coffee segment, but at the same time see an increase in the supermarket coffee segment.
The coffee experience and caffeine is supposed to be energizing, but I think it is also a very relaxing and didactic type of experience, and I think people might spend more time looking for solutions, planning and reflecting on things over a cup of coffee in more difficult times.
You might also have a cup of coffee to keep things going. It's a nice ritual. I think better coffees are certainly more expensive, yet it's relatively very inexpensive. To be able to have the best for that amount of money is another pleasure one can savor and enjoy. In the grand scheme of things, we're much, much more recession-proof than a lot of other businesses.
VBM: Can you explain what the Exxon/Mobil contract is, how you received it, and what it means to your company?
Stiller: I think our first Mobil customer was about 10 years ago. One of our sales people was trying to get one of the convenience stores in Maine, and the customer said if you feel you can increase sales, go ahead. I think that first store was across the street from Dunkin' Donuts. We increased his sales there, and in all his stores, at least four or five times what they were.
That got us recognition from the local Mobil representative. They could see that quality products in the store could bring in more customers to the station. They want to sell gas, and if they can sell other things there that bring in more people, they can sell more gas, and if they can sell more gas they can sell it cheaper and bring in more people. It all goes into making the station a destination place, so they wanted to have the best products.
A nice store with good service is a place people will go to get their coffee. Mobil actually built a unit in a warehouse and tested us against every other coffee. They wanted the best and they found that we did better than the other coffee companies and supported them better. We got the contract up here, then in Florida, Arizona , California 'we jumped around the country with them.
When Mobil was acquired with the Exxon deal we were very concerned because Exxon had also developed their specialty program and usually the acquirer can just do things as they want, whether it's the best way or not. You hear these horrific stories. But our program was just so much more successful than theirs that they stuck with it. It's based on results and consumer appreciation of the product. It's very important to us, because the more people that see our product and drink it and develop that taste for it and like it, well that's our advertising.
The Maxwell House coffees of the world just go into a supermarket and advertise and advertise. Everything that can be said about coffee has been said. But at the end of the day, it boils down to what does it taste like? If we can match you with what you like and help you have that great coffee experience, well that's where it's at. No advertising can do that. You've got to sample the product, which is really the most effective advertising.
So we've always been out there. Cup business creates the brand because people can see what it tastes like. Maxwell House says it has the finest gourmet beans, and they go out and pick them and they do this and this and this 'and there are some people who love it because that's all they're used to. But I really feel that if people would explore the possibilities with better coffee, that we would get them.
VBM: How do you feel about operating here in Vermont? Do you think your association with the Green Mountains and the Vermont name helps your product? I know Vermont is trying to market the idea of the quality of the state.
Stiller: I think that when people know Vermont, it works. From the New England states Vermont does have the best image as far as work quality and ethics. But how far away does that work? It certainly has helped us in the New England area. But I remember we did some research years ago in Boston, some focus groups, about whether we should call ourselves Green Mountain Coffee, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, whatever, and what should the name mean and so forth. I was shocked that people didn't know where the Green Mountains were. They didn't know they we're in Vermont, and these were upscale consumers.
But the name Green Mountain brings up some nice imagery. It's an image of purity and integrity, and even aside from Vermont it's a great name. And when people know Vermont, there's an even better connection.
VBM: Do you feel that the business environment and state government here in Vermont has been helpful to you? Could they do better?
Stiller: From the state point of view they've been very supportive to us. We've had interactions with a number of divisions over the years and I would say that everyone intends to work with you and it's not an adversarial relationship. We've worked with VOSHA doing trainings with other companies around the state to explain the benefits of working with VOSHA. If you have fewer accidents in your company you're going to make more money and you're going to keep your insurance costs down. A lot of this stuff makes business sense.
In expanding and keeping us in the state, they have been very responsive over the years. Governor Dean has been just great. People here want to do a great job and the employee base is very good. You're away from a huge choice in some of the more skilled areas. A lot of people don't come up here to further their career, it's more of a lifestyle and work balance issue. It's a choice that we support because if you're not balanced you're not going to be happy. Your life has got to work for you, and your employment is a big part of that life. I think that we've done well with that.
VBM: The lack of skilled workers is listed by many as the number one problem with the Vermont labor force.
Stiller: But people here want to learn and grow, and we've seen a lot of participation in training programs here. What I would like to see more support from is the banking sector. When I was starting, that was the most difficult are to find help in. I eventually went to Boston. I did try to come back to Vermont banks once, but they just didn't get it.
VBM: Are there other areas that you are concerned with?
Stiller: Not as far as the state is concerned. One of the things that I always try to get across to other business people is to involve their employees and workers in what they are doing. It's a real partnership. If they take care of their people and work all together, the business is going to be a lot more successful. But that's an area where a lot of companies try to cut corners.
Another area that I try to get into is a spiritual area, not in the sense of religion, but in the sense of one's self, your intuitive self, who you are and being who you are. Just as that is true for the individual, it's also true for the organization. For an organization to be all together and understand who everybody is, it becomes like a person and it's a lot stronger that way. From an effectiveness point of view, to be more in touch with oneself is a more creative thing. It's easy here because you can go out for a walk in the mountains, and being in touch with nature can be a spiritual experience. Meditation gets you to that same place as well.
We've often encouraged our people to explore those types of reality because it furthers their development and I think it adds to the success of people and the business.
VBM: I was deeply involved in a religion for about 35 years, and now I'm essentially an atheist. But while I've left the religion part behind in my life, the idea of spirituality, what you're discussing, is still definitely a huge factor for me.
Stiller: You see that more and more today. I'm talking about that spirituality that's common to all religions, how we are all connected. This is sort of an aside, but our perception of how we see things is our reality, and we only see what we want to see to reinforce our beliefs. There is a lot of interesting research that has dealt with that.
So for people to get in touch with that bias and then observe that, they'll be less reactive and more able to make decisions based on what is actually going on. They'll be able to understand what the dynamics are and chose to respond with a little more freewill.
VBM: That's exactly my own experience with what was basically a fundamentalist religion. You were taught a conditioned response to see events in a certain way. But when you leave that behind you realize that so much of what you saw in the world was through the lens of what the religion told you to see and it's not necessarily connected to reality.
Stiller: It's the same with business. If you think it's a lousy day, you'll see things that will confirm that it's a lousy day. If you're going to a meeting and think - these meetings stink - you'll make sure that that meeting stinks. You need to be aware that you're creating that and then step forward to make it different. You need to really look forward to what you want to achieve. We will do different things to make things happen, and we'll get into that loop. Gee, I want this so I'll do that. It's when you realize where you really want to be, what you want your life to be and have that imagery, then you can change that cycle for the better.
And you can apply a lot of these principles to business. We always try to start a meeting, even before we get to the agenda, by asking: "If this meeting meets everyone's expectations, then what will it accomplish?" We create that vision first. Talk about where you want to go. Anytime you get together, talk about what is the ideal that you want to have happen. We call this appreciative inquiry. It keeps your attention going toward what you want to achieve. Appreciative inquiry is a way of bringing people together and focusing them on the positive, building on what works, and you can use it anywhere.
It's true in any sport. You want to focus on what works, and you don't keep thinking: "Well I don't want to do this and I don't want to do that." In golf, if you're focusing on - "Oh, I don't want to hit this shot into the woods!" - you usually end up hitting it into the woods. So you can create your reality by focusing on the positive and we try to build on what works in the organization. As opposed to focusing on "that doesn't work or that doesn't work," well, if it's no good, what does it look like if it works well and how can we get there? Again, it's creating that vision.
I've had employees interview all of their people, and often I have people interview those people they don't know very well because it creates that community.
VBM: All here in the company?
Stiller: Yes. We always assume things, and then when you get to talk to someone you're like, "Oh my god, you've got the same issues and concerns that I have." People don't always realize that while we may be in the same place generally, we have had things happen to us that make us approach things differently, and we need to understand that and use it to our advantage. I truly believe that most people want to do things well and make a difference.
VBM: Do you have a spiritual practice of your own?
Stiller: I try to meditate twice a day, for maybe a half hour. I think there's a balance between a contemplative practice and getting things done. It's not a question of going off to meditate for weeks at a time, its also dealing with the day-to-day reality of things. I did have the experience of going off for a week and meditating with Deepak Chopra in a Seduction of the Spirit retreat. I pursued that and I'm an instructor of his Primordial Sound Meditation. But I haven't really exposed my employees to that. Other trainings we have done here include the Silva Method. It takes only a few days, but it awakens people to their intuitiveness.
There's a lot of stuff out there that I find fascinating. What is the nature of reality that makes a lot of this stuff work? Certainly after the week of meditation with Deepak Chopra, I was clearly in another place. There was like an instant connection, a compassion, with everyone. I think more and more people are tapping into this, which is good to see . I really feel it has a place in business, because it's a real source of creativity.
VBM: I did have a final question. First, congratulations on being named Forbes'Entrepreneur of the Year. How has that impacted your life?
Stiller: Well, I've heard from a few people that I haven't seen in years! But mainly it's really given me the opportunity to speak more. I was invited to some commencements, and I also got invited out to speak at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland which was an honor for me in particular, because that's where David Cooperrider came from. He's the main originator of appreciative inquiry, and I'll probably be working with him to speak to more business people. So this type of recognition has helped open doors for me and I'd love to be able to speak more to the embracing of the social and environmental issues as a pathway to success and not an afterthought for when you get there. I'd also like to encourage more personal development and see people explore some of the meditative practices, be more mindful about who they are.
Copyright 2002, Vermont Business Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
Additional information from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc, June 20, 2013


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Paramaevia poultoni is a species of jumping spider in the family Salticidae. It is found in the United States and Mexico.

References

Salticidae
Spiders described in 1901


The launch of the SHARP AQUOS R2 COMPACT is really trending on the net, being the first smartphone to feature a notch to both the top and bottom when some of us still don't fancy the notch design and now there is two them? This year, 2018 has been all about the notch display which was first introduced by the Essential smartphone but Apple made it popularly known by designing the iPhone X with a notch display.
The SHARP AQUOS R2 COMPACT is a small size device made with metal and polycarbonate material plus highly comprehensive features ranging from the camera to the display quality and hardware performance, so looking at this weird smartphone as some of us might see it, is a machine in its own way. Let's get to it.
R2 COMPACT features a 5.2-inch full HD+ IGZO, IPS LCD capacitive touch-screen display with 2280 x 1080p in resolution resulting up to 485 PPI. Looking at the display of this device, it really rich in color plus the display wraps around the camera and the fingerprint giving it more screen to the top and bottom. Additionally, is a 2.5D curved glass surface, Corning Gorilla glass to enable scratch resistant, an HDR video technology, Dolby Vision which is often used for the movie theater and so on.
On the rear side of the phone is a single camera which really surprised me, since SHARP can double the trending design which is the notch, why can't they double the camera too making it four or at least make it dual rear camera. Well, some say it better to have one single camera than having two dual cameras where both are of low quality.
SHARP AQUOS R2 COMPACT sports a 22.6MP high-resolution camera lens with a f/1.9 aperture which is further integrated with AI to take good shots according to the scene by auto-selecting a mode that fits in. It has an image dimension of 5488 x 4112 Pixels and it supports full HD recording, auto-focus, and touch-focus plus a video resolution of 2160@30fps, 1080p@30, 60fps which is good enough to record quality videos with enough lights.
And according to SHARP, It is hard to shake even in photographs and movie shooting of pickups by W and W hand vibration compensation of optical type and electronic type which I think manufacturers need to start adopting.
At the center of the notch is an 8MP front camera with beautifications features to produce nice selfies in vibrant colors and it features f/2.0 aperture and faces recognition tech.
On the inside is a high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset with 64-bit octa-core processor clocked at the speed of 2.8GHz and a 4GB LPDDR4X RAM with a memory speed of 1866MHz making it one of the most powerful smartphones to launch this year. The device is packed with a 64GB ROM, quite small to you? not to worry, it supports a memory expansion up to 512GB using a memory card. This device might be small, but trust, it will work perfectly more than the big sized phones.
SHARP AQUOS R2 COMPACT is powered by Lithium Polymer 2500mAh battery capacity which is non-removable. it supports fast charging tech but no wireless on this one, the battery can last up to 3.5 hours watching videos, 4 hours browsing, 11 hours playing music. The device runs on Android 9.0 Pie with a modified UI.
Check out the new Tecno smartphone coming soon !!


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The World Cup Is on... Should You Be Watching?
The World Cup is here, and you'd better believe employees will be watching. Here's how to keep spirits high and deadlines in check.
By Suzanne Lucas, Freelance writer@RealEvilHRLady
I experienced my first World Cup Fever in 2010, while living in Switzerland. Coming from the United States, where football means shoulder pads and touchdowns, I had never paid one bit of attention to what the rest of the world calls football and we call soccer. And, as such, I didn't give the World Cup one bit of thought until the night that Switzerland upset Spain. While the game was playing, no cars were going up and down the street. The trams were running with just the driver and maybe two or three people. It was as if the entire world had shut down.
We live in an apartment building, and when something good would happen, we could hear a unified cheer through the building. We finally turned the game on, because we felt almost compelled to do so. The football fever didn't end when Switzerland lost; the people simply transferred their loyalty to their next favorite country. For most of our neighborhood, that was the German team.
Soccer is gaining popularity in the U.S. and for the 2014 World Cup, your business may have quite a few people who are as invested as my Swiss neighbors are. The World Cup lasts almost a month, so you can't, of course, just shut down and wait for it all to end. So, how do you make sure productivity remains high, even as the game is on?
Don't be punitive. The last thing you want to do is be that boss who screams, "Are you checking that score again!" and generally berating people. Look, it's important to people, and in the day of the smartphone, your employees will be checking the score. Don't threaten people with punishments for calling in sick to watch a game, and don't look to catch people goofing off.
Post the scores. If you have big fans, give someone the task of letting others know when someone scores and when a game has been won or lost. If they know that they'll find out when something important happens, it reduces the need to check the Internet every three minutes.
Be more flexible than usual. British employment consulting firm Acas advises employers to allow employees to use flex days, swap shifts, or do any number of things that make employees' live a bit easier during the World Cup. But it also cautions against people using sick days, both to watch the games and because of hangovers.
Don't forget past performance. If your star performer is suddenly glued to the screen, gently nudge her back to work, but realize that this, too, shall pass. The last thing you want to do is drive a great performer out of your office because she's temporarily obsessed with soccer.
Watch select matches. One afternoon watching a big game will make your employees happy and not kill your productivity any worse than if they were surreptitiously trying to watch. Order pizza and soda (alcohol in the office is not generally a good idea, especially during the work day). Turn the television on. Even if the home team is winning, most employees will wander back to their desks and do work anyway.
Good performance is expected. Even though you don't want to be too uptight about the World Cup, you don't want to be too relaxed. It's still a business and you still have deadlines, clients, and important things to do.
Enforce your existing leave policies. Unless you want to make a blanket statement that you won't punish someone for calling in sick for a game, continue with whatever policy you have in place. If you require doctor's notes, continue to require doctor's notes. If you accept an employee's word (which is preferable for normal illnesses that don't require leave), accept the phone call that says, "I'm sick." You must trust your employees to be responsible. If not, you've got bigger issues than a loss of productivity.
You set the tone. The boss determines whether or not this a "fun" time or a "stressful" time. If you're positive but still hard working, your staff will follow your lead. If you're screaming at them, they'll be tense, angry, and watch anyway. And those feelings--be they positive or negative--will persist after the World Cup is over.


UNEB releases 2018 PL.E results, indicating an improvement in performance - Western Uganda's Biggest radio.
Uganda National Examinations Board(UNEB) is releasing the results for the 2018 Primary Leaving Examinations at the office of the Prime Minister in Kampala.
The results indicate that there was an improvement in performance from the previous ye4ar 2017, while males performed generally better than females.
Releasing the results, Daniel Odongo, the UNEB secretary General said that out of the 671,923 candidates who registered from 13,072 centers across the country, 599,593 candidates, representing 91.4% passed in division 1,2,3 and 4.
Meanwhile, 41,604 boys came in division one, compared to 35,529 girls who scored grade one.
The exams body notes that examination malpractrice remains a challenge which threatens the quality of education in the country.


Rillfit 6 tyre cutting tool or re-groover as they are also known as. One of the most user friendly tyre cutters on the market and a favourite in the race and rally service areas and pits garages. An ergonomic handle design ensures comfortable operation, with the super flexible cable making complex patterns easy to perform without any resistance from the cables. It's Hitech 500W toroidal power transformer with thermoswitch and 4 heat settings, ensures safe and powerful non-stop cutting performance, now featuring a more water resistant transformer casing, with high standard temperature preset switch. The cutting head is adjustable for a wide range of cutting blade widths and depths.


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History & Restoration
Isles Internship Program
Tea & Tour
Community & Corporate
Bruce Springsteen: A Photographic Journey
Curated by the GRAMMY Museum® at L.A. LIVE
November 18, 2016—May 21, 2017
The Grammy Museum at L.A. Live, The Sally F. and James Scott Hill Foundation, Pheasant Hill Foundation, PNC Bank, and Ann and Austin Starkey
Like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan before him, Bruce Springsteen is a pillar of American music. Springsteen has turned his guitar into an instrument of change, using it to tap into the American psyche and connect with the blue-collar man and woman through his melodies and lyrics. From his humble beginnings of rehearsing in New Jersey garages to selling out arenas around the world, Springsteen's career has spanned decades and crossed genres—and has never wavered from its upward trajectory.
Morven Museum & Garden is proud to present Bruce Springsteen: A Photographic Journey. Traveling from the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles, this exhibition features 42 photographs of the rock legend, and video interviews with five of the six photographers: Danny Clinch, Ed Gallucci, Eric Meola, Barry Schneier, Pamela Springsteen, and Frank Stefanko. Together they revisit Springsteen's career as a frontman and songwriter, capturing his charisma and off-stage vulnerability.
The following special programs are scheduled in conjunction with the exhibition:
A Panel Discussion at Princeton University with the exhibition photographers moderated by Bob Santelli, Executive Director of the GRAMMY Museum. They will discuss their adventures documenting the American music legend, dating back to 1972. You can view the video of the Panel Discussion HERE.
The Theologies of Bruce Springsteen
Join us at Luce Hall at the Center of Theological Inquiry for The Theologies of Bruce Springsteen. An intimate conversation with Azzan Yadin-Israel, Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University, and Dr. William Storrar, Director of the Center of Theological Inquiry. They will discuss Yadin-Israel's book The Grace of God and the Grace of Man: The Theologies of Bruce Springsteen (Lingua Press, 2013). You can view the video of Theologies of Bruce Springsteen HERE.
Springsteen on the Radio: 1973–Present
Radio legends, David Dye of WXPN and creator and host of The World Cafe, and Tom Cunningham host of Bruce Brunch on The Hawk 105.7 Classic Rock of the Jersey Shore will talk about Springsteen's early career and the role the region's radio stations played in launching the then-fledgling rock 'n roller to a global audience. Frank Stefanko, whose photographs are featured in Morven's current exhibition, Bruce Springsteen: A Photographic Journey, will join the conversation and talk about his experiences working with Springsteen early in both their careers. The cover photo on Springsteen memoir, Born to Run, was shot by Stefanko in 1978. You can view the video of Springsteen on the Radio: 1973–21st Century HERE.
Morven Museum & Garden
55 Stockton Street
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