The PTA is excited to run the LPGS PTA 100 Club. Applications for 2018/19 are now open. The application form can be found in the page download section on the left hand side of this page.
It is believed that the chances of winning the main National Lottery game are 14 MILLION TO ONE, so why waste a pound on such high odds when you have a much, much better chance of winning £50 every month by joining the LPGS PTA 100 CLUB and helping the school in the process!
For a fee of £12 a year you have the chance to win a monthly prize of £50. Additional prizes are awarded if subscription levels allow. The draw takes place at the end of every month (or term end for holiday dates) by the head or one of her deputies.
One half of the money raised will go in prize money. After administration costs have been met, all other money will benefit the School and its students.
Prize winners will be notified personally within two weeks of the draw.
Winners' names will be displayed on the web-site.
The PTA is registered with the local authority under the Gambling Act 2005.
No child under the age of 16 years may be a member of the club.
The draw can take place with fewer than 100 members, in which event the prize money will be adjusted accordingly.
What is the 100 Club Fund?
The 100 Club Fund is a lottery run to support the school. Draws are made at the end of each month throughout the academic year, starting at the end of September and running through to August.
Each member pays £12 per year per share and that puts them in to a monthly draw, with the chance of winning £50 per draw. The prize money is dependent on there being 100 members. If there are more than 100 members, then the prize money will increase. 50% of all income will be allocated as prize money. Each member gets an individual number per share they own.
Parents, students, teachers, family members and friends. Under 16's are NOT allowed to take part as per the Gambling Act 2005. Applicants are not limited to one membership.
50% of all money taken in membership goes to the PTA who then fund school requests for help.
By submitting a membership form and remittance and sending it in to the school office, either through the post or by hand.
All applications must be received by 15th September each year to ensure inclusion for all draws. Applications cannot be accepted after this date.


Time. Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is caused by the coxsackievirus a16 most often and occasionally by other viruses. There is no cure. It is usually a mild illness with or without fever.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a severe, highly contagious viral disease of cattle and swine. It also affects sheep, goats, deer, and other cloven-hooved ruminants.
A: Though hand, foot and mouth disease is a common childhood disease, it can affect adults, too. Most of the symptoms are the same in children and adults, but a few of them are different. Most of the symptoms are the same in children and adults, but a few of them are different.
Hand, foot, and mouth disease earned its name from the characteristic blisters and sores that appear in the mouth and on the hands and feet. According to the CDC, the disease is most common during the summer and fall, and most often affects children aged five and younger.


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"Oh, hi Dan. Are you still interested in fugitive materials?"
But mostly I was pleased.
My whole life has been engaged with the ephemeral, fugitive, fleeting.
As a child, my grandfather would take me out "nutting" in the autumn to collect fallen horse chestnuts and pig nuts. It was seasonal--fugitive--activity.
I collected stamps and coins and much preferred the worn, nearly obliterated coins to those in mint condition... again fascination with the unseen--- those long dead fingers that had worn these coins into their current condition.
I've started retrieving these coins from boxes deep in the attic and am looking for ways to re-present the still powerful energies of the worn. They will likely end up as crown chakras on my carvings.


Won the award for the first time in his career. Played in all twenty-three of his team's games in September. Collected at least one hit in nineteen games and multiple hits in ten (three or more hits in five). Led the league in batting average in September. First Japanese Yakult player to win the award since Shinya Miyamoto in April 2011.
His four victories to no losses and league-leading 1.00 ERA were a big reason for his selection. Won his first award in April 2011. First foreign player in Carp history to win the award multiple times. Joined Terry Bross (April 1995, September 1995), Seth Greisinger (June 2007, July 2008), and Jason Standridge (June 2011, July 2011) as the only players in league history to win the award mulitple times.
Played in all twenty-four of his team's games in September. Led the league in batting average, hits, slugging (.600), and total bases (57). Recorded first five hit game on September 4; hit a walk-off double on September 15; hit a walk-off triple on September 28. Won first award in June 2013.
Pitched in four games in September. Tied for the league-lead in wins. Tossed two complete games. Extended his 2013 winning streak to twenty-two games. Recorded his first save in four years when his team won the pennant on September 26.


NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 3, 2019--B&H Photo would like to share the announcement that, just in time for CES 2019, Sanho has unveiled the HyperDrive USB-C Hub for the iPad Pro 2018. The world's first USB Type-C hub designed for the iPad Pro, the HyperDrive is a 6-in-1 multitasking marvel that adds HDMI, microSD, SD, USB Type-A, USB Type-C, and 3.5mm audio connectivity to your iPad Pro. The days of switching between multiple dongles and adapters are gone. The new HyperDrive puts all ports in one convenient place, allowing you to use multiple accessories at once and focus more easily on the tasks at hand.
Designing the HyperDrive, Sanho wanted an aesthetic that echoed the overall look of iPad Pro 2018. To achieve this, they built the HyperDrive with a comparable thickness and similar minimalist style. The result is a sleek, unobtrusive design that looks more like a natural extension than a third-party add-on. On top of that, the HyperDrive also features patented soft grips to ensure it remains securely attached to your iPad. You get a device that enhances both the convenience and capability of your iPad Pro 2018—and looks pretty great while doing it.


text:
Q: FULL TEXT SEARCH for multiple keywords I have a search place on my site which allows users to search for content.
Until today I was using LIKE function which did the job but took long time because of the database being big. This is how my code looked like:
SELECT * FROM articles WHERE body LIKE '%how%' AND '%to%' AND '%code%' LIMIT 30"

To improve speed I found out that I could use FULL TEXT SEARCH and this is how my code looks like:
SELECT * FROM articles WHERE MATCH (body) AGAINST ('+how +to +code' IN BOOLEAN MODE)LIMIT 30;

The problem is that returns rows but they are just random ones which have some of the words in it.
What am I doing wrong? :(

A: Check your MySQL setup for the ft_min_word_len-variable. You are matching for 'to' which is 2 characters and by default the fulltext-index is configured to index only words with a length of 3.
Make sure that you rebuild your FULLTEXT-index on your body-column after changing the ft_min_word_len-value.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Jean-Christian Petitfils, né à Paris le , est un banquier, écrivain, historien, politologue français.

Biographie

Origines et formation
Il est le fils de Pierre Petitfils (1908-2001), critique littéraire et auteur, spécialiste de Rimbaud et de Verlaine.

Il fait ses études au lycée Claude-Bernard, à la Faculté de droit de Paris, à l'Institut d'études politiques de Paris (section PES, promotion 1967) et à la Sorbonne ;  licencié en droit public et en histoire-géographie, il est docteur en science politique (1971) et diplômé de l'Institut d'administration des entreprises de Paris.

Carrière professionnelle
Il fait la plus grande partie de sa carrière dans le secteur privé : fondé de pouvoirs (1977), sous-directeur (1983), puis directeur adjoint (1990) de la banque de Suez et de l'Union des Mines, devenue banque Indosuez, puis Crédit Agricole Indosuez,  à  (2004) où il a dirigé le Service des montages juridiques des opérations financières, secrétaire général du groupement pour la Modernisation de la distribution (1976-1991). Il a pris sa retraite en 2004.

Carrière intellectuelle
Parallèlement, il a mené une carrière d'historien et d'écrivain. Après plusieurs ouvrages d'histoire et de science politique (La Droite en France, L'Extrême Droite en France, Le Gaullisme, Les Socialismes utopiques) et des biographies de personnages du Grand Siècle (Le Véritable d'Artagnan, Le Régent, Lauzun, Nicolas Fouquet, Madame de Montespan, Louise de La Vallière), il a écrit un ouvrage de synthèse sur Louis XIV, fruit de vingt-cinq années de travail (1995). Ce dernier combine une approche originale, mêlant science politique de l'Ancien Régime et biographie classique, insistant notamment sur les mécanismes de fidélités, de clans et de clientèles, essentiels dans un système politique en voie d'étatisation. Ce livre a remporté un grand succès (). Dans la même lignée, il a poursuivi avec des biographies de Louis XVI (), Louis XIII et Louis XV.

Il s'est intéressé également au personnage historique de Jésus.

Au total, il est l'auteur de plus de trente ouvrages historiques, essais et biographies, notamment, outre ceux cités précédemment, le Masque de fer, L'Affaire des poisons, L'Assassinat d'Henri IV.

Il collabore, ou a collaboré, aux journaux et revues Historia, L'Histoire, Marianne, Le Figaro littéraire, Le Figaro Magazine, Le Figaro - Histoire, Le Point.

Il a été candidat au fauteuil de René Girard à l'Académie française le .

Mandats divers
Membre du jury du prix Hugues-Capet, du prix Combourg, du prix de la biographie du Point, du Prix de la Fondation Stéphane Bern pour l'Histoire, et du prix  (2005-2008).

Membre du Comité scientifique de la revue Versalia, revue de la Société des amis de Versailles.

Membre du Comité d'orientation scientifique de la Maison de l'Histoire de France (2010-2012).

Membre du conseil scientifique du Figaro histoire depuis 2012.

Administrateur de la Société des amis de Versailles depuis 2022.

Membre de l'Académie catholique de France depuis 2023.

Télévision
En tant que spécialiste de l'Ancien Régime, il participe régulièrement à l'émission Secrets d'histoire, présentée par Stéphane Bern, sur France 3.

Réception

Sur les ouvrages relatifs à l'Ancien Régime
L'historien Fabrice d'Almeida considère Jean-Christian Petitfils, ancien banquier, comme représentatif d'une tendance récente de certains écrivains non-historiens à s'approprier le style de l'histoire professionnelle, brouillant ainsi les frontières entre l'« histoire d'amateur » et l'histoire académique : « par diffusion de la culture historique et de la technique historienne, des acteurs qui œuvrent en dehors de l'histoire professionnelle académique se sont approprié les codes de la grande histoire pour mettre en scène le réenchantement », écrit Fabrice d'Almeida. Dans le cas de Petitfils en particulier, c'est la masse des documents utilisés qui sert d'« argument de vente ».

Pour l'historien Jean-Baptiste Noé, « Jean-Christian Petitfils écrit avec beaucoup de style, ce qui rend ses livres toujours agréables à lire ». Ces qualités d'écriture sont également louées par la revue Hérodote. Pour le militant d'extrême droite Dominique Venner dans La Nouvelle Revue d'histoire, Petitfils est l'« auteur de talentueuses études qui font autorité, notamment un Louis XIV et un très éclairant Louis XVI ». Jugement similaire de l'historien du droit Jacques de Saint Victor qui considère que

Son ouvrage consacré au Régent est présenté par Claude Lebédel comme « une véritable histoire de la Régence ».

Son Louis XVI (2005) est salué par l'historien Emmanuel de Waresquiel qui le décrit comme « un portrait intelligent et lucide du roi décapité » qui constitue selon lui la meilleure biographie écrite par Petitfils. Pour Marc Riglet de L'Express, Jean-Christian Petitfils signe une remarquable biographie « loin des idées reçues ». En revanche, l'ouvrage reçoit une réception très mitigée chez certains historiens , dans l'atelier du Centre de recherches historiques : ainsi pour Aurore Chéry, « censée être une étude novatrice, la biographie de Petitfils serait plus exactement du Girault de Coursac bonifié par le temps et un voyage outre-Manche. Différence majeure toutefois, chez Petitfils, comme chez Hardman, le ton est bien moins virulent et Marie-Antoinette traitée avec plus d'indulgence. » L'ouvrage rejoint les analyses historiques de François Furet, dont Jean-Christian Petitfils est un disciple.

Nathalie Brémand, dans son Introduction : « Socialistes utopiques », les mal-nommés critique le livre que Petitfils a consacré aux communautés utopistes au , réédition en 2011 d'un ouvrage paru en 1982. Selon elle, « les préjugés négatifs liés au concept de socialisme utopique sont nombreux. On en trouve un florilège dans l'ouvrage de Jean-Christian Petitfils ». L'ouvrage véhiculerait « une image complètement dépassée » du « socialisme utopique ».

Sur son ouvrage Jésus

Son ouvrage sur Jésus a connu un succès. Néanmoins, il a été critiqué pour différentes raisons :
Pour l'exégète jésuite Marc Rastoin : « Petitfils livre le fruit d'un sérieux travail de recherche (près de cent cinquante pages de notes). On pourrait dire qu'il s'agit d'une version française de l'enquête de John Paul Meier en un seul volume mais « parfois il accorde trop de certitude à des hypothèses plus ou moins probables », son analyse textuelle des péricopes évangéliques est « trop littéraliste et le souci de soutenir l'historicité au sens documentaire de tous les épisodes évangéliques (avec une préférence forte accordée à Jean) affaiblit ses conclusions ». » D'autres critiques le taxent de « conservatisme » parce qu'il prend ses distances avec la méthode historico-critique. L'historien et exégète français André Paul juge que si son Jésus peut séduire par sa clarté et son aisance, il relève d'un « conservatisme inouï ». Il critique plusieurs de ses hypothèses.
L'abbé lefebvriste Denis Puga, de Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, l'accuse de « modernisme », notamment parce que « 98 % des études citées sont postérieures aux années soixante ».
Inversement, pour Jean Mercier, rédacteur en chef adjoint de l'hebdomadaire La Vie,  Pour le père Laurent-Marie Pocquet du Haut-Jussé : . Pour l'essayiste Gérard Leclerc :   Pour le Bulletin des Lettres : « Jean-Christian Petitfils est historien et rigoureux. (...) Cette alliance, fides et intellectus, donne une force de cohérence et de conviction à cet ouvrage qui fait beaucoup de bien après tant de lectures fielleuses. »

Jean l'évangéliste et l'apôtre Jean
Jean-Christian Petitfils reprend l'hypothèse historienne qui dénie à l'apôtre Jean, fils de Zébédée, la paternité du quatrième évangile. À la suite de beaucoup d'autres auteurs (Oscar Cullmann, François Le Quéré, Joseph A. Grassi, James H. Charlesworth, Xavier Léon-Dufour, notamment), il accrédite la thèse d'un autre « Jean ».

Pour Jean-Christian Petitfils, Jean aurait appartenu à l'aristocratie sacerdotale du Temple de Jérusalem. Dans cet ouvrage, ces faits historiques sont attribués, non à l'apôtre Jean, fils de Zébédée, mais à un autre Jean, « prêtre » (hiereus) du sacerdoce du Temple (sacerdoce disparu en l'an 70, avec la destruction du Temple et la prise de Jérusalem par les armées romaines de Titus). Papias, évêque de Hiérapolis  au début du , parlait de deux Jean : Jean l'Apôtre et Jean le Presbytre, disciple du Seigneur. Benoît XVI écrit dans son Jésus de Nazareth qu'il peut « adhérer avec conviction » aux conclusions des biblistes , Eugen Ruckstuhl et Peter Dschullnig, pour qui Jean le Presbytre a reproduit dans son évangile les souvenirs de Jean, fils de Zébédée. Ce prêtre serait considéré comme son relais et comme son porte-parole. Pour Jean-Christian Petitfils la confusion entre les deux Jean remonterait au .

Il estime peu probable qu'un humble fils de pêcheur comme Jean de Zébédée ait pu avoir la capacité intellectuelle de rédiger l'Apocalypse et le quatrième évangile.

Jean-Christian Petitfils remarque que le quatrième évangile est en majeure partie centré sur Jérusalem. Jean connaît à la perfection le Temple et son personnel. Enfin et surtout, le quatrième évangile ne fait nulle allusion à l'un des événements majeurs dont Jean de Zébédée a été témoin, avec son frère Jacques, comme la Transfiguration.

Publications

Ouvrages
L'Homme au masque de fer, Paris, Perrin, 1970.
La Droite en France de 1789 à nos jours, Paris, PUF, 1973; coll. "Que sais-je ?", 1994. Traduction en japonais.
La Vie quotidienne à la Bastille du Moyen Âge à la Révolution, Paris, Hachette, 1975.
L'Affaire des poisons. Alchimistes et sorciers sous Louis XIV, Paris, Albin Michel, 1977. Traduction en japonais.
Le Gaullisme, Paris, PUF, 1977. Traduction en arabe.
Les Socialismes utopiques, Paris, PUF, 1977. Traductions en portugais (éditions "Zahar ediores", 1978), en espagnol (édition "Adalba ensayos", 1979).
La Démocratie giscardienne, Paris, PUF, 1981.
Le Véritable d'Artagnan, Paris, Tallandier, 1981; coll. "Texto", 2011. Couronné par l'Académie française. Traductions en estonien (éditions "Kunst", 2002), en russe (2004), en portugais (éditions Publicações Europa-América, 2005).
La Vie quotidienne des communautés utopiques au , Paris, Hachette, 1982; coll. « Pluriel », 2011.
L'Extrême Droite en France, Paris, PUF, 1983
Le Régent, Paris, Fayard, 1986, ; coll. « Pluriel », 2013.
Lauzun ou l'insolente séduction, Paris, Perrin, 1987; coll. "Tempus", 2015.
Madame de Montespan, Paris, Fayard, 1988; coll. "Tempus", 2009.
Louise de la Vallière, Paris, Perrin, 1990, 2002; coll. "Tempus", 2011.
Louis XIV, Paris, Perrin, 1995; coll. "Tempus", 2002. Prix Hugues-Capet, grand prix de la biographie - Histoire - de l'Académie française, couronné par l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques.
Fouquet, Paris, Perrin, 1998, coll. "Tempus", 2005.
Louis XIV, Paris, Tallandier, 2001. Version abrégée et illustrée en deux volumes de Louis XIV (1995), voir supra.
v. 1 : L'ordre et la gloire, 1638–1678
v. 2 : La grandeur et les épreuves, 1679–1715
Le Masque de fer, entre Histoire et Légende, Paris, Perrin, 2003; coll. "Tempus", 2004, nouvelle édition réaugmentée, 2011.
Louis XVI, Paris, Perrin, 2005; coll. "Tempus", 2010. Prix Combourg 2005, prix du nouveau cercle de l'union 2005, grand prix Charles Aubert de l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques. Traduction en japonais.
Versailles, la passion de Louis XIV, Timée-Éditions, 2005.
Louis XIV expliqué aux enfants, Paris, Le Seuil, 2007.
La Tranparence de l'aube, Mémoires de Claire Clémence, princesse de Condé, Paris, Perrin, 2007. Prix littéraire Brantôme.
Louis XIII, Paris, Perrin, 2008 , coll. "Tempus", 2014. Prix de la biographie de la ville d'Hossegor, Grand prix du livre d'Histoire,
L'assassinat d'Henri IV. Mystères d'un crime, Paris, Perrin, 2009; coll. "Tempus", 2012.
Testaments et manifestes de Louis XVI (présentation), Éditions des Équateurs, 2009.
L'Affaire des poisons, crimes et sorcellerie au temps du Roi-Soleil, Paris, Perrin, 2009; coll. "Tempus", 2013.
Jésus, Paris, Fayard, 2011; Le Livre de poche, 2013. Traductions en italien et en espagnol (El Jesus de la Historia, Gaïa ediciones, 2013).
Le Frémissement de la grâce, le roman du Grand Meaulnes, Paris, Fayard, 2012; Le Livre de poche, 2013. Prix de la critique littéraire du PEN club français.
Louis XV, Paris, Perrin, 2014 .
Le Siècle de Louis XIV (direction), Paris, Perrin, 2015.
Dictionnaire amoureux de Jésus, Paris, Plon, 2015, . Rééd. 2017, Tempus.
La Bastille, mystères et secrets d'une prison d'État, Paris, Tallandier, 2016 .

Marie-Antoinette. Dans les pas de la reine (direction), Paris, Perrin, 2020.
 Henri IV, Perrin, 2021, 700 p.
 Le Saint Suaire de Turin. Témoin de la Passion de Jésus-Christ, Tallandier, 2022.

Ouvrages en collaboration
La Contre-Révolution. Origines, Histoire, Postérité, sous la direction de Jean Tulard, Perrin, 1990 ;
Le Règne de Louis XIV (1661-1715), Les Dossiers Historia, Tallandier, 1998 ;
Personnages et caractères s, sous la direction d'Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, PUF, 2004 ;
Napoléon et l'Europe, coordonné par Thierry Lentz, Fayard, 2005 ;
Dictionnaire des ministres des Affaires étrangères, sous la direction de L. Bély, G.-H. Soutou, L. Theis, M. Vaïsse, Fayard, 2005 ;
Versailles, encyclopédie du voyage, Gallimard, 2005.
Versailles, le pouvoir de la pierre, sous la direction de Joël Cornette, Tallandier, 2006 ;
Mémoires de la France, sous la direction d'Emmanuel de Waresquiel, L'Iconoclaste, 2006 ;
La Galerie des femmes illustres au Grand Siècle, acte du Colloque de la Fondation Singer-Polignac, sous la direction de Marceau Long, Éditions de la Bouteille à la mer, Paris, 2007 ;
Le Livre noir de la Révolution française, sous la direction de Renaud Escande, Cerf 2008 ;
Dans les secrets de la police, sous la direction de Bruno Fulini, L'Iconoclaste, 2008 ;
Histoire et Système, sous la direction d'Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Cerf, 2010.
Secrets historiques et grandes énigmes, présenté par Philippe Delorme et François Billaut, L'Express Poche, 2011.
Les Plus grands mensonges de l'histoire, Fayard / Pluriel, 2010.
Dix grandes énigmes de l'Histoire passées au crible, Histoire édictions, 2014.
Les Derniers jours des rois, de Charlemagne à Napoléon III, sous la direction de Patrice Gueniffey, Le Figaro Histoire / Perrin, 2014, Pocket, 2015.
Les Grands duels qui ont fait le monde, sous la direction de Alexis Brézet et Vincent Trémolet de Villers, Perrin/ Le Figaro Magazine, 2016.
 Les Énigmes de l'histoire de France, sous la direction de Jean-Christian Petitfils, Perrin / Le Figaro Histoire, 2018, 399 p.
 (dir.) Marie-Antoinette. Dans les pas de la reine, Perrin, 2020.

Récompenses et distinctions

Prix littéraires
 1982 : Prix Feydeau-de-Brou de l'Académie française (prix d'histoire) pour son livre Le véritable d'Artagnan.
 1995-1996 : Prix de la biographie de l'Académie française, prix Hugues-Capet, prix Maurice Travers de l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques pour son livre Louis XIV.
 2005-2006 : Prix Combourg, prix du Nouveau Cercle de l'Union, prix Charles-Aubert d'Histoire de l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques pour son Louis XVI (ainsi que pour l'ensemble de son œuvre).
 2007 : Prix littéraire Brantôme pour son roman La Transparence de l'aube, Mémoires de Claire-Clémence, princesse de Condé.
 2008-2009 : Prix de la biographie d'Hossegor, Grand prix du livre d'Histoire pour son Louis XIII.
 2013 : Grand prix de la Critique du PEN club français pour son livre Le Frémissement de la grâce.
 2014 : Prix Marcel-Pollitzer pour son Louis XV.
 2016 : Prix spiritualités d'aujourd'hui pour son Dictionnaire amoureux de Jésus.

Décorations

Notes et références

Voir aussi

Articles connexes
 Famille Petitfils

Liens externes

Naissance à Paris
Historien français du XXe siècle
Historien français du XXIe siècle
Essayiste français du XXe siècle
Essayiste français du XXIe siècle
Biographe français
Politologue français
Historien du politique
Écrivain catholique français
Auteur publié par les éditions Perrin
Auteur publié par les Presses universitaires de France
Auteur publié par les éditions Hachette
Auteur publié par les éditions Albin Michel
Auteur publié par les éditions Tallandier
Auteur publié par les éditions Fayard
Auteur publié par les éditions du Seuil
Auteur publié par les éditions Plon
Auteur publié par les éditions Gallimard
Auteur publié par les Éditions de l'Iconoclaste
Auteur publié par les éditions du Cerf
Candidat à l'Académie française
Docteur en science politique
Élève de l'Institut d'études politiques de Paris
Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur
Chevalier de l'ordre national du Mérite
Officier des Arts et des Lettres
Élève d'un IAE
Naissance en décembre 1944

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


On 24th March, we published the press release linking to the new study, "Bringing democracy to Europe's governance" published jointly by PRIME and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Brussels Office, in which the authors (Jeremy Smith and John Weeks) set out the detailed changes to the EU Treaties required to bring a reasonable degree of democratic choice in the economic sphere to Europe's citizens. We now reproduce below part of a first paper by Jeremy Smith, dated November 2016, in which he set out the case for the Treaty amendments in more depth. This first paper, "Making space for an economically democratic Union: the EU Treaty changes we need" can be downloaded here.
The European Union was created by Treaty – originally the Maastricht Treaty, and since December 2009 its legal existence is provided for by the Treaty of Lisbon. The Lisbon Treaty in turn amends and renames the Maastricht Treaty (1993) to become the Treaty on European Union (2007) or TEU for short; it also amends and renames the Treaty of Rome (1957), now called the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (2007) or TFEU. The original European Economic Community (EEC) – created by the Treaty of Rome – was renamed the European Community (EC) by the Treaty of Maastricht, and the EC was itself subsumed into the EU by the Lisbon Treaty. So far so simple!
But the mismatch was increasingly apparent between the inter-governmental Treaty form, and the creation of a new transnational entity – the EU - with its own (additional) citizenship as well as a common currency and with a court with far-reaching jurisdiction. In 2001, the EU Heads of State set up the Convention on the Future of Europe, under the chairmanship of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, to draw up a European Constitution.
While the Constitution was duly drafted and signed by all member states, it was rejected in national referenda in France and the Netherlands in 2005, and could not be ratified. However, its contents were effectively maintained (almost unchanged in substance) but redistributed as amendments into the newly named TEU and TFEU Treaties.
Despite the failure of the European Constitution, it is generally considered by lawyers and political scientists who study the EU that the Union has all or most of the attributes of a "constitutional order", and that its Treaties are to be seen as providing a constitutional framework. That is, they have to a large degree the functional equivalence and force of a written Constitution of a state (or of a 'sui generis' body with many or most of the attributes of a state, even if it has other non-state attributes).
"…In this chapter, the boundaries of constitutional development are drawn broadly to encompass both the EU and the Member States constitutional orders. Also, not only the formal constitution, but also the substantive constitution is taken on board. This enables an analysis of one major response to the crisis, the Fiscal Compact contained in the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union. This instrument is constitutionally located 'in between' the EU and the Member States.. The chapter concludes that we are in the middle of constitutional change, which—once the dust has settled—may be codified and consolidated in the EU constitutional documents proper, in the style of 'evolutionary constitutions'.
"The European Economic Area is to be established on the basis of an international treaty which merely creates rights and obligations as between the Contracting Parties and provides for no transfer of sovereign rights to the inter-governmental institutions which it sets up. In contrast, the EEC Treaty, albeit concluded in the form of an international agreement, none the less constitutes the constitutional charter of a Community based on the rule of law. The Community treaties established a new legal order for the benefit of which the States have limited their sovereign rights and the subjects of which comprise not only Member States but also their nationals. The essential characteristics of the Community legal order which has thus been established are in particular its primacy over the law of the Member States and the direct effect of a whole series of provisions." (Our emphasis).
"The obligations imposed by an international agreement cannot have the effect of prejudicing the constitutional principles of the EC Treaty, which include the principle that all Community acts must respect fundamental rights, that respect constituting a condition of their lawfulness which it is for the Court to review in the framework of the complete system of legal remedies established by the Treaty." (Our emphasis again).
But in any event, the Treaties perform a function that is so analogous to a Constitution – and in particular to a "liberal-democratic" state constitution – that it is wholly justifiable to assess its provisions against the norms of such states.
Each Constitution is the product of its own time and history, and some run to just a few pages, others to hundreds. But we may summarise their general features – and in so doing will see that the European Union is extremely unusual – and unique in the degree of detail -in laying down the economic philosophy (or ideology) and detailed rules to govern day-to-day economic policy-making.
A Constitution in general terms sets out the institutional relationship between the different parts and levels of government, it usually allocates competences between the different parts and levels of government, including the division of roles and functions between legislature, executive and judiciary. It may often set out the founders' general values and aspirations. It frequently lays down the principal rights (especially human rights) which the state's citizens are to enjoy. The provisions of the Constitution are almost always entrenched, i.e. are harder to amend than ordinary laws.
If one studies Constitutions across what are seen as democratic states with "advanced economies", one notable feature is that, with few exceptions (at least until the Eurozone crisis), the content and details of economic and monetary policy are quite absent; the Constitution may set out the goals to be aimed for and the procedures to be followed, but the content of the policies is left to the product of democratic debate through Parliamentary law-making (as well as day-to-day operational management).
The small number of exceptions to this general rule are to be found in more recent constitutions in a few EU countries' constitutions, which have adopted one or more rules (e.g. Poland's 1997 Constitution caps debt as a percentage of GDP) of the EU post-Maastricht Treaties. We may also note the very recent fashion – generated in the heat of the Eurozone crisis - for "debt-brake" or balanced budget amendments to national Constitutions in a few countries (Germany, Spain, Italy, Slovenia).
In general terms, national constitutions often include provisions laying down the forms and requirements of annual budget-making, tax-setting or the incurring of governmental debt, but these are about the decision-making processes not the policy content.
No provisions prescribing the content or rules of economic ideology or policy.
"Article 1: Austria is a democratic republic. Its law emanates from the people".
In 2012, in mid-crisis, a constitutional amendment was adopted (Article 135) to require Spain to adhere to the EU's structural deficit and debt limits.
The EU Treaties – how far do they 'constitutionally' impose a specific economic philosophy and policy?
The general values and aims of the EU are set out in the TEU, while the detailed policies and rules are laid down in the TFEU. One needs to examine both to see how the economic philosophy and rules interact. And the rules for changing any provision are the same for all articles under both Treaties – and very difficult.
The Union's aim is to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples.
The priority here is curious, since establishing an internal market should surely be a means to the end, not the primary objective. Yet it comes ahead of the rest. Europe's sustainable development is "based on balanced economic growth" and "price stability, and on "a highly competitive social market economy." Only at the end of this list do we find the formulation about "aiming" at full employment and social progress, which appears from the French version of the text ("qui tend au plein emploi et au progrès social") to be an aspiration of the social market economy, and only very indirectly of the Union (the English version is ambiguous).
The term "balanced" in 3.3. is not defined, but we may note that, far from becoming closer to achievement, by any standard the Eurozone in particular has become more divergent and unbalanced, whether judged by GDP or unemployment etc.
"The economy in the Slovak Republic shall be based on the principles of a socially and ecologically orientated market economy", but this is a looser formulation than that of a "social market".
The page continues in a simplistic eulogy of markets, based on neoclassical economic theory, and without a balancing reference to the role of government in macroeconomic (including fiscal) policy to deal with problems that arise, such as the impact of the global financial crisis. The problem of course is that at European level, the working of the social market economy to date has precisely not delivered full employment; unemployment in August 2016 was still at 10% across the Eurozone, and had fallen below that level for only one month in seven years.
Of course, the proponents of ultra-free markets will argue that it is imperfections in markets (and insufficient liberalisation) that have led to this imperfect result in the real world. But this precisely opens the question of which economic theory and policies is most appropriate – and this should be subject to democratic debate and not embedded in constitutional forms that preclude democratic change.
It is thus a concept that has a particular resonance in Germany, and reflects orthodox German (ordoliberal) economic philosophy. The term was introduced via the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, which also set the highly-disputed convergence criteria (including the public deficit and debt criteria) and the newly created central bank's primary task of price stability, irrespective of the impact on employment. In essence, the philosophy of the social market economy places somewhat more emphasis on the role of the state in driving competition and the market mechanisms than the (more laissez-faire) neoliberalism – and perhaps a greater emphasis on strict adherence to fixed rules by the state.
What is excluded by the concepts and rules of ordoliberalism (and thus the social market economy) and Hayekian (neo)liberalism is, for example, a more Keynesian approach – both monetary and fiscal – to the economy and society, where it is recognized that for long periods the economy may remain stuck in a sub-par equilibrium which involves sustained high unemployment, and which may require major public investment if the private sector is not willing or able to invest sufficiently.
Moreover, ordoliberalism and neoliberalism both underestimate or ignore the role and potentially disruptive power of free movement of capital, and the need to control imbalances. Instead, both concepts assume or claim that the major problem to address is government deficits. These in fact arise largely as an outcome of economic failure, and are not the cause of other imbalances or of financial and banking crises.
In conclusion on this issue of the EU's economic objectives, our preliminary view is that while Article 3.3 contains elements that are not controversial, its wording evidences particular ideological assumptions and goals that are not appropriate to the Constitution of a democracy, and should be redrafted.
What would seem to be a more "normal" and sensible approach to the EU's "constitution"1 is to recognize at the outset the role of both private and public sectors in contributing to a European society and economy that matches the values it is committed to and proclaims. This would leave the path open to debates over different solutions and policies in the economic sphere – and contribute to a proper European democracy of which we can be proud.
Under the heading "Economic Policy", we find in Articles 119 and 120 no fewer than three separate references to "the principle of an open market economy with free competition", without definition. Yet there is not a single mention in these articles of a policy of full employment. Moreover, there is no explanation of whether – and if so how – the principle of an "open market economy" differs from that of a "social market economy".
Moreover, the term "free competition", left unqualified, may not be seen as always and in every circumstance the right approach, e.g. if European citizens wished to argue that certain natural quasi-monopolies (e.g. network utilities like water or railways) should be publicly owned. There should be the freedom to argue over and democratically choose different options, not have constitutional constraints erected to prevent the open competition of ideas and public choice.
Since the Great Depression and rise of fascism in the 1930s, and following publication of Keynes's General Theory, the democratic world has debated issues of fiscal and monetary policy, and reached different decisions at different times. This includes, as a central issue, the scale and scope for fiscal policy – covering both current budgets and investment.
"Ordoliberalism differs from other schools of liberalism (including the neo-liberalism predominant in the Anglo-Saxon world) in that it places a greater emphasis on preventing cartels and monopolies. For example, it rejects the use of expansionary fiscal and monetary policies to stabilise the business cycle in a recession and is, in that sense, anti-Keynesian." (Our emphasis).
Consequent on this deliberate rejection of active fiscal policy, the whole of Eurozone policy since the crisis broke has on the contrary centred on the reduction of budget deficits, with something close to a blind eye being turned to the more severe problems of private debt overhangs and trade and current account imbalances within the Eurozone.
But whether the ordoliberal or the Keynesian view is correct, it is extraordinary that the EU – which is expressly committed to democracy as a key value – should use Treaties to close off debate and the democratic choice of other legitimate economic policy options. Thus, the main political response within the EU hierarchy to the Eurozone crisis was to draw up and pressure member states to sign yet another Treaty – to tie states into a yet tighter commitment to the ordoliberal view on fiscal policy, in the form of the "Treaty on Stability Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union" of 2012.
Until recently, there were hardly any national constitutions that sought to place limits on deficits and debt. Decisions of finances have traditionally been the province of public debate and democratic decision-making. The concept of specific limits on deficits and debt was introduced in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. Even though the global financial crisis of 2007-9, and the Eurozone crisis of 2010-13, were not caused by the state of public finances, they were singled out by the EU's leadership as the main target for corrective action, and this means the current EU Treaty provisions are supplemented by the separate Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union of 2012.
Also in the context of the Eurozone crisis, as we have seen, a number of states have for the first time amended their own national constitutions (or Basic Law in Germany's case) to include "debt brake" provisions, e.g. Germany (2009), Spain (2012), Italy (2012) and Slovenia (2013), though in most cases with some considerable wriggle room to allow (at least to some extent) for economic reality to impinge. A few other governments tried to do so but were defeated politically.
The current deficit/debt rules have helped to contribute to an overall low rate of GDP increase in the Eurozone in particular – compared to the rest of EU and other similar "advanced economies" – and a higher rate of unemployment for the Eurozone as a whole.
In a nutshell, we would argue that this is down to a significant degree to the contractionary fiscal policies pursued by the European Commission and other EU institutions. But whether this view is right or wrong in the eyes of the institutions, it is hard to see why it should not be the subject of democratic debate and freedom to choose different fiscal paths at European and/or national levels.
We will of course need to consider what if any rules or guidelines or indicators might be appropriate – and consistent with democracy - for the maintenance of the single currency, on the basis that there is no real democratic political and economic union to accompany the monetary union.
The TFEU embeds both the absolute independence of the European Central Bank – which is removed from any direct democratic oversight – and defines a single primary mandate – price stability. The Treaty also strictly enforces the division between the Bank and other governmental sectors, preventing the ECB from providing any credit facilities to government or public sector bodies.
Almost all aspects of the ECB's Treaty roles and mandate are disputable and disputed, in terms of economic theory and policy.
The concept of central bank independence – notably in the field of monetary policy - is far from new (it featured strongly in debates in the early 1920s) but came to the fore as a favoured policy (by most but not all economists) from at least the late 1980s. It is only quite recently that debate has started to open up as to whether – while maintaining operational independence for the central bank - the focus should not be more on partnership between the central bank (monetary policy) and central government (fiscal policy).
The European Central Bank was born at a time when the doctrine of independence was at its peak, and the Treaty embeds a very strong form of independence, indeed of total detachment from any democratic accountability, as well as fixing a single primary mandate of price stability.
The ECB statute represents the high-water mark of the idea of an independent central bank committed to the unique goal of price stability. The outcome of Maastricht was possible only because of the widespread consensus about central bank independence, which made it seem as if the astonishing act of European monetary integration could occur without any substantial transfer of sovereignty. Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa saw this emphasis on the independent central bank as part of a more general acceptance of "minimum government" that made a new stage of European integration possible. As he implied, the discussion of central banking was part of a broader trend that prepared the way for what was later dismissively referred to as "market fundamentalism".
Comparison with the mandates of other central banks of democracies with developed economies demonstrates that the current Treaty basis of the ECB in fact precludes proper democratic debate – and whose rigidity has obliged the ECB under Draghi's presidency to interpret the Treaty provisions with a creativity that – however sensible in its own terms – surely overturns the intentions of the original drafters.
But even here the bank is "under" the Parliament, and its mandate is self-determined, i.e. can be varied if circumstances change. The central bank's existence is provided for in the constitutions of a few other countries, but with little more set out in terms of independence or mandate, which is left to legislation. In many more countries, the central bank's existence depends on legislation – which by definition is subject to democratically decided change.
"The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee shall maintain long run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy's long run potential to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates."
"WHEREAS it is desirable to establish a central bank in Canada to regulate credit and currency in the best interests of the economic life of the nation, to control and protect the external value of the national monetary unit and to mitigate by its influence fluctuations in the general level of production, trade, prices and employment, so far as may be possible within the scope of monetary action, and generally to promote the economic and financial welfare of Canada".
14 (1) The Minister and the Governor shall consult regularly on monetary policy and on its relation to general economic policy.
And the Minister may ultimately issue a "written directive concerning monetary policy" to the governor of the bank for a specific period.
(b) subject to that, to support the economic policy of Her Majesty's Government, including its objectives for growth and employment.
The purpose of setting out these different national solutions is to show that the Treaty provisions for the ECB in the TFEU are not necessary, and demonstrate a disregard for democracy in that they embed a very particular – and conservative – economic philosophy which is based (as Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa indicated) on the presumption of desirability of "minimum government".
Moreover, the Treaty provisions have not led to a superior economic performance on the part of the Eurozone – on the contrary, the Eurozone has tended to underperform other advanced economies, and has consistently had a much higher rate of unemployment – as we write, still at 10%. While it is still probably necessary for the ECB's existence to be defined via the Treaties, it is surely time that the role and mandate of the ECB was opened up to democratic debate and potential change by democratic choice – either through more flexible Treaty provision, or by leaving the key policy issues to legislation rather than Treaty.
At the same time, the Treaties have also failed to give the ECB sufficient powers in fields where these are obviously required. While we may argue that the ECB's power is too great in that it holds monopoly over monetary management without democratic oversight, the ECB is too weak in that it lacks necessary instruments to carry out the basic tasks of central banks, e.g. to be "lender of last resort".
The problem posed by the rigidity and policy bias of the Treaties is urgent – and made more so by recent events such as the Brexit vote, and the election of President Trump in the US. Though both reflect what the US economist Brad Delong calls "nativism" among a wide set of discontented voters, the economic factors in that dissatisfaction are also evident. This is the culmination of a process long in the making. At present, it is the right-wing and far right forces that are gaining more support from those who are dissatisfied with the failure of European economic policy.
Since 2009, and in particular with the emergence of enduring mass unemployment in many parts of the EU, and the lowering of real wages and living standards, we have seen the emergence of new radical political forces in Europe on both left and right. Many of these groups or parties do not share the economic policy goals of the EU and in particular of the Eurozone.
At the country level a political system should enable the challenge from new groups to be integrated through democratic means. But many key economic and social policies are decided not through debate and elections, but as we have argued above, via inflexible EU Treaties which lay down a specific economic ideology and policy framework. No matter how they vote, citizens are not allowed to choose a truly different set of economic policies. The treaties themselves are enforced ultimately via the ECJ, and changeable only by unanimous agreement of all 28 Member States. Thus, we have a democratic blockage, and the imposition of a centrally-controlled economic policy that has in reality made the standard of living worse for many, especially for the less well-off.
The situation is also particularly problematic for those on the left who have broadly supported the European project for all its economic flaws. The challenge (from which the UK has alas turned away) is to unite progressives across Europe in a socially and economically democratic European project - and at the same time to 'deconstruct' the economic hegemony embedded in the Treaties.
 If one looks beyond Europe, to the USA or Japan, India or New Zealand (which has a Constitutional Act), there are no provisions that lay down binding economic policy rules in the way the EU Treaties do.


text:
Q: Excel - Equation to produce Sunday date based on week I am working on a time sheet. There is a cell that requires a date based on the pay period. That date will always be Sunday date of that week. I am trying to create a formula that will look at today's date and report that Sunday. For an example last week, if I filled out my time sheet last Friday the 25th it would report Sunday the 27th. Does any one know how to create this equation with out populating extra data on a sheet.

A: =TODAY()+(7-(WEEKDAY(TODAY())-1))


text:
We are Made of Dreams: Summer 2019
By Lee Weingrad - Executive Director, Surmang Foundation
[The back story]
We depend on your support, the support of individual donors big and small. This project, in its 30th year, proves that it is possible to realize a dream --of healthcare and empowering women-- with an inspired but uncomplicated narrative.
When I first arrived in 1987, there was no clinic and there were only ruins of this 500 year-old monastery.
in 1992, when we signed the partnership agreement with the Chinese Government, Qinghai Province to build the clinic, we soon received the $150,000 for the clinic construction. This was to be the only substantial donation we received.
The building took 3 years to complete. Since I come from a background of teaching and also wholesale and retail sales you might wonder how we could succeed. I was asked that very question many times by NGO and PH professionals.
[Enter Kevin Costner]
In perfect 202-20 hindsight, knowing nothing about public health -- outputs and indicators, Gannt Charts and logframes-- I remember being asked by an official at WHO, "how do you know you will succeed if you build a clinic?" I answered her, "Did you see the movie "Field of Dreams" when Kevin Costner's character asks the same question and the ghost answers him, "build the field and they will come"?
Kevin Costner: "build it and they will come."
But where my creds were non-existent, my instincts were good. And our connection to the community was even better. The clinic we built was the only new construction at Surmang since the disastrous years of 1959-1966. When I first got there, most of the monastery buildings were flattened, in ruins. Our work was the first exposure of this remote place to the outside world and the first vote of confidence in its future.
Now 32 years later, the monastery is in a robust growth cycle. The clinic has gone from "the free clinic," to one of the more successful experiments in remote primary care. Don't forget, a big medical school or school of public health doesn't have our back.
[Empowering women and girls]
Not only that, but the focus of our work on women and girls has begun to bear fruit in our asymmetric war against the low status of women and girls. We also discovered that a very inexpensive model of providing health care, inexpensive despite the fact that all the services and meds are free. With no co-pays or insurance, our model at Surmang is truly "single payer," and explains why our costs, according to a study by Peking University is $7/patient visit, vs $35 in the public sector.
[This year]
Last year through your kind support we added a water system.
This year, we will add upstairs
--an oak floor to the second floor --replace the kitchen floor
--replace the kitchen cabinets --remove the wall between the dining area and the small bedroom, opening up the space
--re-finish the small br in the NE corner, adding a new window. downstairs
--build bathroom and shower --create storage space for meds in the current tromb entrance whole building
--replace all broken all broken double-pane windows --install Hunter-Douglas style thermal window treatments.
Please support us this year. $500 or $5, it matters not.
Clinic waiting room
Surmang From Above, by Ian Allen
2nd Floor Changes this June
Architect Ralph Allen's plans for this summer
We'll add a downstairs bath and shower
Surmang Facebook page
Another Year Over, A New One Just Begun
By Lee Weingrad - Director
Laizhang
They make 50¢ a day.They live in one of the most exotic, beautiful remote places in the world: East Tibet, SE Qinghai Province, China.
They have no transportation, public or private and the nearest hospital is over a broken road, a 6000 m pass, and when women bleed to death it's in the fields in unassisted births. If you are a child, 1 in 5 die from dehydration caused by diarrhea. Women and girls have low status.
On the other hand, in this beautiful place, it's not hard to make a difference, giving free care to whoever walks in the door, tracking pregnant women with one of 40 Community Health Workers, giving gynecological exams on the the only ultrasound within 75 miles.
We give asking nothing in return, a service, a free service. Years ago it seemed like the only option not it's clear we plugged into their primary religious value: generosity, or jinpa in Tibetan. There was no other way; we could not distringuish the nomad who had 30 horses from the one who had 3, based on how they dressed.
The accident of not knowing how to collect for services and meds led us to not only give them away, but also to tap into their primary cultural value. The result has been 130,000 patient visits in the last 10 years.
Our doctors are both MDs in the Chinese allopathic system. We have had high level doctors train them every year: Chinese, Canadian, Norwegian, American, Dutch, German. For nearly every one, the experience was a watershed moment in their life.
Now approaching our 31st year, we look forward to further government partnerships, distance consultation, and futrther improvements to our clinic. 2018 was the year we installed running water. 2019 is the year we hope to partner with the government to fill the gap in epidemiology, and remote consultation. Our work is a brilliant model of cooperation and service. Please join us.
Dr. So Drogha with her new baby
New patient waiting area floor and furniture!
Some of our 40 community health workers
Lee Weingrad unexpectedly meeting monastery Abbot
The Dharma Sagara Clinic at Dutsi til Monastery
Find us on the internet.
A Watershed Moment
Regent Abbot Tashi, who gave the clinic land
The Surmang Clinic is the oldest philanthropic clinic in a Tibetan region. For the 26 years of its clinic history, the idea of a water system was never far from our minds. There were several engineers who drew designs, but we always seemed to lack the ability to actually execute, until US Board member, Architect Ralph Allen and Canada Board member Lyle Weinstein came along.
In 2011, Surmang Foundation received a donation of two pumps by the Danish pump manufacturer, Grundfos, via the support of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, China. By late 2017, we'd received the last design, the one we intended to use, from Ralph and Lyle. Both had been to Surmang and understood the difficulty of capital construction there.
By late 2017 we assembled a team consisting of myself, daughter iana Weingrad, son Joseph Weingrad and Russell Iser, a Master Plumber from the US. All three –iana, Joseph and myself—have nearly perfect Chinese language skills.
The source of the water was to be the stream that runs by the monastery, a stream that feeds the upper reaches of the Dzachu, the "wild yak river," what we call the Mekong River. At Surmang this stream is referred to by as "the heart's blood of Demchog, or Chakrasamvara," one of the two names of Buddha in the lineage of Surmang Tibetans.
As good as our plans were, we found that recent construction blocked direct access to the stream, so we met with Trungpa Rinpoche XII, Chokyi Sengay, the Abbot of Surmang Dutsi-til Monastery.
The founding director of Surmang Foundation, Lee Weingrad, was the first non-Tibetan to meet Rinpoche back in 1992. Rinpoche agreed to let us connect to the year-old water main that had recently been installed by the Chinese government. The foundation offered to continue its help of the monastery with a helicobacter infectious disease project in 2019.
To do that, we needed a revised drawing to connect the water main to the clinic. Fortunately Joseph Weingrad had the skills to create such a graphic:
Within a few days a backhoe was summoned, the trench was dug and the pipes were laid. Connecting the pipe was the next task. Since we had purchased all the necessary equipment and supplies in Yushu, we had all the PVC pipe needed to join and lay the pipe.
As the last pipes were joined, and the backhoe returned to fill the trench, the next morning with perfect timing, a local Lama blessed the project.
After 26 years of planning, the clinic water system was finally completed. We told everyone that we would be back next summer to install a modern shower and composting toilet.
The day before we left, Joseph Weingrad filmed an interview with Laizhong, with one of the oldest members of the Surmang Community. She broke our hearts when she said, "the clinic is like a mother and father to me." That interview will be available soon.
The next day, August 2nd, we returned to Yushu. Everyone was happy since we'd completed a project that we'd talked about 26 years before. Its completion firmly brought the clinic and health care into the 21stC.
It would be impossible without your steadfast support, the donors of GlobalGiving.org
Dr. So Drogha with her new daughter
Final water plan by Joseph Weingrad
Joseph and Russell Laying the pipe
Pipes in place
Mother of Tibet
Our Clinic building was started in 1993. I'd never built anything before in my life.
Dharma Sagara Clinic is an odd building for China, and an even odder building for Tibet. It's like no other. It's high passive solar gain, techno-geek for grabbing the sun's heat and keeping it and releasing it at night when it's cold. And it does get cold at night at 14,000', 4000m. The windows all face south. The walls are two courses of brick with volcanic ash in between. The floors don't touch the earth. It withstood the 2010 Yushu earthquake that brought down two very large 400 year-old monastery buildings.
My original instinct was "how are we going to raise the money to build it when it's in a closed-to-foreign-travel region of China?" (a prohibition since lifted, ed.) I decided that I had to get an agreement with the Chinese Government to build the clinic. That process took almost a year '92 -'93.But by the end of '92, we had an agreement. You'd think there would be some difficulty in getting their cooperation. In fact they were happy to sign. The donated construction funds came about 3 months after the ink dried.
It took 3 years for the building to be completed.
When it was done – summer of 1996— we had neither doctors nor a plan for its use in any grownup sense of the word. I knew nothing about outputs and indicators, logframes or GANNT charts, sustainability or the "n's" of infant and maternal mortality.
In the winter of '96 I visited the Beijing office of UNICEF, looking for funding. The China Director of Mother and Child Health, Susie Jollie, asked me a perfectly reasonable question, "how do you know that whatever funding you get will result in health benefits for mothers and children?" I asked her if she'd seen the movie, "Field of Dreams." It's about a farmer in Iowa, played by Kevin Costner. He's approached by the ghost of the 1912 Chicago "Black Sox" who threw the world series. They wanted to return to earth once more to do it the right way.
"How do I know they will play if I build the field?" Kevin Costner asked. "Build the field and they will come" was the answer.
And this is what I said to Suzie Jollie, "build the field and they will come." And come they did. We'd started a Community Health Worker corps in 2006. We got an Siemens Ultrasound in 2008. In 2011 we had maybe the first ever Rural Health Festival. The assembled CHWs reported that in the previous year there had been no infant or maternal mortalities. Down from world-record-high infant and maternal mortality.
In the year ending 2017, we'd treated about 1200 patients per month for free including meds. That's 120,000 patient visits since 2008. Contrary to what one might think about a growing clinic, our cost basis remains the same – for one obvious reason that we have one administrator, myself. One meds and equipment procurement officer, myself. And one primary representative to the support community, myself.
Within China and outside China our base of support has grown, because of the simplicity of our project design and because we're not connected to any Church, corporation, government or big nonprofit.
Our constant overhead and growth allows us to do the things we put off for years, such as:
--new flooring upstairs
--new double-pane windows
--new waiting room furniture
--a water system.
--last year we put a metal roof on the clinic
But we need help. I'm writing this to assure you that we have built the field and they have come. The only complaint I've ever heard from the Tibetan women is "Why didn't you come 10 years earlier? There'd be many women and children who died, who would be walking the earth now!" Unfortunately of all my powers, having a DeLorean and going back in time is not one of them.
We are looking for about $10,000 this summer to complete the above projects. Please join us. Help us complete the field of dreams for Tibetan women and children.
$2000 completes 2nd fl of clinic
$2000 furnishes waiting room
Dr. P treating a patient
we will get a new water system
Clinic Director's Report: 2017
By Phuntsok Dongdrup - Director Dharma Sagara Clinic, Surmang
Surmang Dharma Sagara Clinic
Phuntsok Dongdrup, MD, Clinic Director & Sonam Drogha, MD Associate Director
[Dr. Phuntsok Dongdrup has worked for the Surmang Clinic for 17 years. Dr. Sonam Drogha, 16 years. ed.]
Our work is patient-centered medicine, which means that we strive to see the patients on an eye-to-eye level, as fellow Khampa Tibetans and work from the point of view of our culture and religion, both of which are based on generosity. Generosity is our primary cultural value.
And so we are united in spirit with the patients, many of whom we have known our entire adult lives.
Familiarity, warmth and openness are the basis for our work. From a Chinese or Western perspective, we might see these people as poor, since their income levels are about US 25¢/person/day. Who are they? They are nomads, farmers and monks and nuns. They are people who herd, farm or pray here -- all descendants of people who have been doing this for a thousand years and in the case of the monastery, 400 years.
To open the doors of our work without concern about the ability to pay, we have three standards:
Patients are treated for free
Medicines are prescribed and given for free
Mother and child health are our primary concern.
Patient Load
This year we treated 12,587 patients, averaging about 34 patients/day, if we were open 365 days of the year. But the truth is that we are closed for about a month every year, due to monthly religious holy days and also the lengthy national day, and Chinese national New Year's (week), and Tibetan Lunar New Year (another 2 weeks).
That would mean we actually see 1,144 patients/month or about 38 patients/month. Some times of year, such as in July when Khampa Tibetans gather "worm grass," or cordyceps sinesis, there are very few patients. And in the winter, there are days when we see 100 or more patients/day and often keep the clinic open until late at night, 7 days a week.
Clinic hours are 9:00 to 12:00 am, 2:00 to 6:00 pm. But often we have to take the time to take a break to diagnose and treat the patient. Sometimes, even at late night, we have to go to the heavily afflicted patient's home for medical treatment before climbing tens of miles of hard-and-dangerous mountain road.
Mother and Child Health
1703 women were OBGYN patients, treated both neo- and post-natal using ultrasound. Our clinic is one of the few outside the large Prefecture Hospital, that not only has a functioning ultrasound, but that has international doctors who come to aid in our professional development on this and other devices.
27 babies were delivered.
Hypertensive myocardial infarction
Osteoproliferation
Gastric ulcer
Gynecological diseases
Difficult birth/labor
The vast majority of patients are treated and rehabilitated at the Surmang Foundation Clinic. Male or female patients from the age of 30 suffering from high blood pressure are a problem due to environmental problems such as altitude (clinic is at 14000'+, 4200m) and diet (Khampa Tibetans eat a very salty diet, and few vegetables). Increase in high bp, I personally believe is caused by diet. In the last two years most seriously ill patients suffer from high blood pressure, tuberculosis and hepatitis.
The profile of patients in Yushu Prefecture and Yushu City hospitals is similar to that of the Surmang Clinic.
There are two problems with severely ill patients or those needing emergency care. One it the long distance (150km) over poorly maintained mountain roads. Another is the dearth of private transportation and the complete absence of public transportation. To provide these patients with emergency or surgical care, we will drive them free of charge to the Yushu Prefecture Hospital.
This number includes women giving birth. Most of this year's maternal patients were sent to the Prefecture, because of a recent government policy, requiring a birth certificate. For high risk pregnancies (pregnancy-induced hypertension, nephritis, premature birth, dystocia, bleeding) mothers need to be evacuated for birth or treatment of disease.
For Khampa Tibetan mothers and mothers-to-be, this has challenged cultural mores that don't see a hospital is a place where you might go when you are sick on one hand, but don't consider pregnancy or childbirth an illness, on the other.
In short, we achieved gratifying results in 2017. However, we should realize more clearly that the more outstanding our achievements are, the greater the responsibility we assume and the heavier our burden on our shoulders. As Buddhists we don't separate our spiritual practice from our working life. We always think that our work is very spiritual, very important. To this end our staff works together in that same spirit, setting an example of wakeful, spiritual cooperation. We hope to make a contribution to our entire society beyond our society, our country, in the same way as well. We will continue in this spirit and so contribute to a healthy, sane world from our remote corner, hopefully for a long long time.
Staff + Director Lee Weingrad and Joseph Weingrad
Dr. Phuntsok Dongdrup, Clinic Director
two clinic patients
treating a patient
Board Members & volunteers Drs. Tauh and Berg
Surmang Foundation's Facebook page

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Smartphone apps could help reduce alcohol consumption among college-age drinkers
Smartphone apps to track blood alcohol abound, but until now had little evidence to show they help manage drinking in young adults. A new University of Florida study shows that heavy drinkers age 21-25 who weren't trying to cut back on alcohol reduced their drinking by four and a half drinks per week while using the apps -; nearly one drink less on each day they imbibed.
This shows that college-age drinkers are open to ways to reduce their drinking. It just has to be something that fits their world, that's easy to use and that they can do discreetly."
Robert Leeman, Ph.D., study's lead author, professor, University of Florida College of Health and Human Performance
Heavy drinking in this age group is common, with 23% meeting the criteria for alcohol use disorder compared to 14% of older adults. But despite potential impacts on their health and safety, those in their early 20s may feel little motivation to change their habits, making them difficult to reach with interventions, Leeman said.
"Their life is set up to facilitate drinking in a lot of ways, but that doesn't mean that they won't reduce their drinking," he said.
In the study, published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, participants tested three smartphone-based interventions: a Bluetooth breathalyzer paired with an app to measure blood alcohol, an app that estimates blood alcohol based on input from the user, or, in the control condition, sent a text to themselves each time they had a drink. Each had previously self-reported four or more heavy drinking days per month (four or more drinks for women, five or more for men), with at least one day with an estimated BAC of .1 % or higher and drinking at least 10 of the past 30 days.
The researchers, which included UF psychiatry professor Sara Jo Nixon and colleagues from Yale School of Medicine, Brown University, University of Washington, Boston University, University of Missouri and University of Alabama, first acquainted participants with the apps in a purpose-built lab tucked underneath UF's football stadium. Launched in 2016, the EDGE (Ethanol, Drug & Gambling Experimental) Lab has all the trappings of a drinking establishment: a wooden bar with beer taps and paper coasters, liquor bottles and pint glasses lining the shelves. Only a handful of similar labs exist nationwide, Leeman says, and getting it off the ground wasn't easy, given that Ben Hill Griffin Stadium didn't allow alcohol sales in the stadium at the time.
During studies, the lights are lowered, music blares and a muted television mimics sports-bar ambiance. The researchers even spray alcohol into the air and wipe it on surfaces for an authentically boozy smell.
"We have everything but the sticky floors," Leeman said. "We know those cues can really drive alcohol consumption."
In the study, which was done before the pandemic, participants ages 21-25 chatted and drank beer at their own pace in the bar lab while recording their intake using the technology assigned to them. Research assistants monitored the group and poured drinks. Leeman supervises but stays out of sight during the sessions to preserve the vibe. ("I'm older, I'm a faculty member. I'm a human buzzkill at this point.")
After the lab sessions, 99 participants about evenly split between male and female, students and non-students, were instructed to use any of the three methods to track their drinking over the next two weeks. Although they were only compensated for using the technology three times, the participants averaged almost nine uses in the following two weeks, with most alternating between the breathalyzer and the estimator.
Leeman says it's encouraging to see that heavy drinkers who weren't trying to reduce their consumption wound up drinking less while using the apps. His analysis also shows app use may be linked to fewer consequences from drinking, which can range from traffic accidents to unwanted sexual encounters. He hopes to explore these links further in future research.
"There's so much more to learn about risk factors for drinking in general, but particularly young adult drinking," he said. "Most people who drink will have a drink or two and it scratches that itch. But for some folks, it just starts a cascade of having more and more. The drive to understand that differentiation gets me out of bed every morning."
Leeman, B., et al. (2021) A combined laboratory and field test of a smartphone breath alcohol device and blood alcohol concentration estimator to facilitate moderate drinking among young adults. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2022-02062-001.
Posted in: Device / Technology News | Healthcare News
Tags: Alcohol, Beer, Blood, Education, Ethanol, HIV, Medicine, Pandemic, pH, Psychiatry, Psychology, Research, students, Wound
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For those who were looking for an answer as to why the Bacman Forums closed up, found this today that shows his last post. Make your own conclusions.
Hey Downing, it's Royal. I haven't been to the bacteria forums in a long time, so you might not remember me. Though, it was a fun place to talk to some great people that did some really cool projects, like yourself.
Of course I remember you! Yeah it was a fun place for a time but it is what it is. I just wish there was a bit of warning so people could have saved their build logs.
Dang I thought I would never be able to find you guys. Has there been a new meeting site that is popular, or has the MBB community just completely dissipated?
If any of you guys know of any other modding site, please let me know!
So glad you were able to make a backup of most of the site. I've been meaning to download it so I can help recover the worklogs of those who want to post their full logs elsewhere. Kudos!


text:
Razor thin finish peru
Leftist candidate Pedro Castillo, the possible winner of the 2021 elections in Peru.
Peruvian elections: With almost 100% of precincts counted, Castillo emerges as next president
Presidential candidate Pedro Castillo addressed his supporters on June 8 from the headquarters of the 'Peru Libre' party in Lima.
'A Soldier's Play'
Meeting of Afro Women
Juan López at the Kimmel
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Penélope Cruz at MET Gala
Chalino's Ballad
Maria and Boricua art
'La Brega' gets a 2nd season
Natalia Puertas Cavero
Officially, Peru is still without a president, and the technical tie that concluded the second electoral round has kept Peruvians in tense expectation. The margin between both candidates have been very short, the counting of the votes has felt endless, waiting for reports from abroad and those from the rural areas farthest from the capital.
In addition to this uncertainty, the candidate of the Popular Force party, Keiko Fujimori, has denounced a "systematic fraud," which has been refuted at this time.
The candidate for Peru Libre, Pedro Castillo, continues to lead the vote count with 50.206% of the votes over Keiko Fujimori's 49.794% after 99.75% of the polling stations have been counted. The ONPE, Peru's electoral body, continues with the counting. The citizens expect 100% of the vote will be completed in the next hours to declare one of the two candidates as the president of the country's Bicentennial.
Crisis in Peru: Machu Picchu closes as tourists are trapped
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte says that she will not resign
Peruvian Congress approves early presidential elections
#ONPEinforma [ACTUALIZACIÓN DE RESULTADOS] Actas contabilizadas para fórmula de presidente y vicepresidentes a las 04:46 horas del 9 de junio. pic.twitter.com/bTFu41GVub
— ONPE (@ONPE_oficial) June 9, 2021
The leftist candidate came out on June 8 from the balcony of Peru Libre's campaign headquarters in Lima and addressed his supporters.
"We will be a government respectful of democracy, of the current Constitution and we will make a government with financial and economic stability. According to our spokespersons, we already have the official count of the party, where the people have imposed this gesture which we salute," said Castillo.
"I come here to tell the Peruvian people, not only to express my gratitude, but also my recognition to the men and women of this country who have stood up here and abroad, to the brothers and sisters outside the country who have been mobilized for democracy."
Regarding the accusation of "fraud," on Tuesday, June 8, Adriana Urrutia, president of the Civil Association Transparencia, stated in an interview granted to El Comercio that there is no evidence to speak of fraud in the process, although there were several incidents. These have been reported and transferred to the authorities to take actions to solve them.
"You have to have enough elements to talk about such a hard thing. You cannot sow doubts of that nature," said Jorge Luis Salas Arenas, president of the National Jury of Elections (JNE).