text:
\section{Introduction}
The closely related  questions of Flavour and CP Violation are two of the major
open problems in Particle Physics.
Discrete symmetries have played a major role in the development of Particle Physics.
The symmetries C, P, CP
and T are all violated in Nature. Yet, they are very important, since they are
conserved by electromagnetic
and strong interactions. Only CPT is not violated, as far as we know today.
Parity is explicitly violated in the Standard
Model (SM), but in the SM
CP can be violated explicitly in the Yukawa sector provided that there are
three or more fermion generations. Spontaneous CP violation,
can only occur if the scalar sector of the SM is extended. The first model
of spontaneous CP violation was proposed by Lee \cite{Lee:1973iz} in the context
of the SM extended with one additional Higgs doublet, in order to
accommodate the experimental evidence for CP violation in the quark sector
at a time when it was not yet known that there were more than
two generations of quarks. Models with two Higgs doublets have a very rich
phenomenology \cite{Gunion:1989we,Branco:2011iw}
and they provide very interesting candidates for physics beyond the SM,
which have the potential of being tested at the LHC.
There is, by now, clear experimental evidence that the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa
(CKM) matrix is complex \cite{Botella:2005fc}.
Therefore, in any model of spontaneous CP violation, with the breaking of CP arising
from a CP violating vacuum, it must be possible to generate a complex
CKM matrix from the vacuum phase, in order to conform to experiment. This makes it non-trivial
to have viable models of spontaneous CP violation. The simplest realistic  model
of spontaneous CP violation, involves the
addition to the SM of a vector-like isosinglet quark and a complex
singlet scalar \cite{Bento:1990wv,Bento:1991ez,Branco:2003rt}. Models with
several Higgs doublets have potentially large Higgs mediated
flavour changing neutral currents.
Experimental data show that the latter are extremely suppressed thus implying
the need for a mechanism to avoid, in a natural way, sizeable effects. One
option is to use a symmetry that eliminates these currents at tree level,
this is the natural flavour conservation paradigm \cite{Glashow:1976nt, Paschos:1976ay}.
In alternative it is possible to use a symmetry that leads to tree level
effects suppressed by  small entries of $V_{CKM}$ \cite{Branco:1996bq}.
These are the so-called BGL models which have been extended later-on
\cite{Botella:2009pq, Botella:2011ne}
and where the suppression conforms with the
experimental evidence.\\

At present, all experimental results on quark mixing and CP violation in the quark
sector, are in essential agreement
with experiment. However, there is plenty of room for New Physics.
CP violation has profound implications for cosmology, since CP breaking is one of
the required ingredients \cite{Sakharov:1967dj}  in order
to generate the observed Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe (BAU).
By now, it is clear that in the SM it is not possible
to generate sufficient BAU. One of the reasons for this is the smallness of
CP violation in the SM.
This is a clear indication that there should be additional sources of CP violation,
beyond the one present in the SM.
The great challenge is to find out where are the new sources of CP violation and how
they could be detected. In the quark sector, an interesting possibility may arise
if vector-like quarks are added to the spectrum of the SM
\cite{Bento:1991ez,delAguila:1985ne,Branco:1986my,
Lavoura:1992qd,Branco:1992wr, Barenboim:1997qx,Barenboim:2000zz,Barenboim:2001fd,
AguilarSaavedra:2002kr,AguilarSaavedra:2004mt,Botella:2008qm,Higuchi:2009dp,
Botella:2012ju,Fajfer:2013wca,Aguilar-Saavedra:2013qpa,
Ellis:2014dza,Alok:2015iha,Ishiwata:2015cga, Bobeth:2016llm}.
These quarks
can have bare masses in the Lagrangian, since their mass terms are invariant
under the gauge symmetry. They may also
receive their mass from the couplings to SU(2) singlet scalars, once these acquire a
vacuum expectation value (vev). In any case, they mix
with the standard quarks, and the $3 \times 3$ unitarity of the CKM
matrix can be violated.
These violations of $3 \times 3$ unitarity
lead in general to Z-mediated Flavour-Changing-Neutral-Currents (FCNC) at
tree level, which are naturally
suppressed. In spite of this suppression, these FCNC,
like $B_d-\overline B_d$ mixing, $B_s-\overline B_s$ mixing and
$D^0-\bar D^0$ mixing \cite{Branco:1995us},
can contribute to
processes which in the SM only occur at loop level. \\

Another possible source of CP breaking is leptonic CP violation. It is well known
that in the SM neutrinos are strictly
massless, so the discovery of neutrino oscillations, implying that at least
two of the neutrinos have mass, is
a clear experimental evidence of Physics Beyond the SM. Let us assume that one
adds three right-handed neutrinos
to the SM. Then the most general renormalizable Lagrangian must include
Majorana-type bare mass terms for the right-handed neutrinos, together
with Dirac neutrino masses,
leading to the seesaw mechanism
\cite{Minkowski:1977sc,Yanagida,Glashow,GellMann:1980vs,Mohapatra:1979ia}
of type one, providing an elegant explanation for the
smallness of the neutrino masses. In this scenario, there are three types of
CP violation which may arise: CP violation
at low energies of Dirac type, CP violation at low energies of Majorana type and
CP violation at high energy which
provides a very attractive scenario of Baryogenesis through
Leptogenesis \cite{Fukugita:1986hr}.
At low energies one may detect leptonic
CP violation of Dirac type through neutrino oscillations,
which is one of the major tasks for future experiments.
Majorana CP phases
are difficult to detect at low energies
but they affect double-beta decay. An important question is whether
there is a relationship between
leptonic CP violation at low energy and CP violation entering in Leptogenesis.
It has been shown that in general
such a relationship does not exist \cite{Branco:2001pq,Rebelo:2002wj}
unless one introduces leptonic flavour symmetries.

\section{Comparing the Quark and Leptonic Sectors}

In the SM, the flavour structure of Yukawa couplings is not constrained by the
gauge symmetry which implies that
the Yukawa matrices are $3 \times 3$ general complex matrices. This leads to the existence
of 36 parameters in the
quark flavour sector. It is clear that there is a large redundancy, since in the
quark flavour sector we have only ten physical parameters, namely the six quark masses
plus the four physical parameters of the CKM matrix. In the lepton sector,
one encounters an entirely analogous situation in the case of massive Dirac neutrinos.
In the case of Majorana
neutrinos, one has two extra CP violating phases which reflect the Majorana
character of neutrinos.
This large flavour redundancy  is due to the freedom that one has to make weak
basis (WB) transformations which, for the quark sector, can be written:
\begin{equation}
d_L^{0} \rightarrow U^\prime d_L^{0}, \quad u_L^0 \rightarrow U^\prime u_L^0,
\quad d_R^{0} \rightarrow  V^\prime d_R^{0} \quad u_R^0 \rightarrow  W^\prime u_R^0
\end{equation}

As previously mentioned, the Yukawa matrices are arbitrary
complex matrices. However, one can make a weak
basis transformation so that both $Y_u$, $Y_d$  become Hermitian
matrices. In the context of specific anz\" atze with texture zeros it is
common to consider Hermitian matrices (see, for example, \cite{Ramond:1993kv})
yet, this need not be the case \cite{Branco:1994jx}.
The large redundancy in Yukawa couplings
renders it specially difficult to extract from the data some flavour symmetry,
in a bottom up approach. Even if such symmetry exists, in what WB would the
symmetry be apparent? There is a specially convenient WB where
one of the quark mass matrices ($M_d$ or $M_u$) is diagonal real and the
other matrix is Hermitian. It can be readily seen that in this basis the number
of free parameters in the quark mass matrices equals the number of physical
measurable parameters, namely the six quark masses and the four physical parameters
in $V_{CKM}$.

The discovery of neutrino oscillations providing experimental evidence for
non-vanishing neutrino masses, brought
further intriguing aspects to the Flavour Problem. Why are the pattern of
fermion mixings so different in the quark
and lepton sectors?  Do we understand why lepton mixing is large? Do we understand
why quark mixing is small?
An important difference between the quark and lepton sectors has to do with
experiment. In the quark sector
the $V_{CKM}$ matrix is overdetermined, in the sense that once we measure
$V_{us}$, $V_{ub}$ and  $V_{cb}$ through strange particle and
B-meson decays, there is a large amount of physical quantities like
$B_d-\overline B_d$, $B_s-\overline B_s$ mixings, the strength of CP
violation in the kaon sector as well as CP violation in the B sector,
with the measurement of the angles $\beta$  and
$\gamma$, which within the SM, have to be fitted through a single parameter,
namely the CP violating phase entering in the parametrization of $V_{CKM}$.
This is to be contrasted to the situation encountered in the lepton  sector.

Let us assume that neutrinos are Majorana particles and consider the effective
neutrino mass matrix at low energies. The leptonic mass terms are then of the form:
\begin{equation}
{\mathcal L}_{\mbox{mass}} =
-\frac{1}{2}  {\nu_L^{0}}^T C^{-1} m_\nu \nu_L^{0}
- \overline{\ell_L^0 } m_\ell \ell_R^0
+ \text{h.c.}\ .
\label{mb}
\end{equation}
The neutrino mass matrix is a complex symmetric matrix, with six real parameters
and three phases. If we work in the WB where the charged lepton
mass matrix is diagonal and real, the number of independent parameters of the
neutrino mass matrix is equal to the number of physical quantities derived from it,
to wit, three neutrino masses, and six parameters -
three mixing angles and three CP violating phases -
appearing in the leptonic mixing matrix. It has been pointed out that it is not possible
to completely determine the neutrino mass matrix from viable experimental
measurements \cite{Frampton:2002yf}.
This motivated the authors of Ref.~\cite{Frampton:2002yf} to
consider a restricted class of neutrino mass matrices with zero textures
consistent with all experimental data and to explore their phenomenological
implications. The imposition of these textures is based on the underlying
idea that they are linked to a flavour symmetry.
The effective neutrino mass matrix written in
Eq.~(\ref{mb}) must be generated through physics beyond the SM. The seesaw
framework is a simple and elegant possibility. The authors of Ref.~\cite{Kageyama:2002zw}
studied seesaw realisations of the texture zeros proposed in \cite{Frampton:2002yf}.
Implications for CP violation
in the leptonic sector at high energies, and in particular
for leptogenesis, of these seesaw realizations were analysed in \cite{Kaneko:2002yp}.
With two right-handed neutrinos only, zero textures allow to
establish a connecting link between the sign of the baryon
asymmetry of the universe and the sign of the CP violating
parameter which will be measured in low energy neutrino oscillations
 \cite{Frampton:2002qc}. With three right-handed neutrinos
these signs cease to be correlated \cite{Branco:2002xf} but a connection still exists.
In this respect the Casas and Ibarra parametrisation \cite{Casas:2001sr}
is very useful to show that
zeros in the Dirac type neutrino mass matrix, in the basis where the
charged lepton mass matrix is diagonal, lead to orthogonality
relations such that for some of the textures the variables relevant for
leptogenesis can be fully determined in terms of low energy parameters and
heavy neutrino masses \cite{Branco:2005jr,Branco:2007nb,Bjorkeroth:2015tsa}.
An alternative way of reducing the number of free parameters in the
Lagrangian is by means of discrete symmetries, such as for example
an $A_4$ symmetry \cite{Hagedorn:2009jy,Branco:2009by} (for a review see \cite{Altarelli:2010gt}),
leading, once again, to definite predictions.
In general without a flavour model
the three CP violating phases appearing at low energies and the three phases
relevant for high energy leptonic CP violation, and in particular Leptogenesis,
are not related \cite{Branco:2001pq,Rebelo:2002wj}. \\

\section{The Origin of CP Violation}

In  the SM with three or more generations, CP violation may originate at
the Lagrangian level with complex
Yukawa couplings, as it has been pointed out by Kobayashi and Maskawa
\cite{Kobayashi:1973fv}.
The most elegant way to show this
consists of separating the Lagrangian of the SM in two parts:
\begin{equation}
{\cal{L}}= {\cal{L}}_{CP} + {\cal{L}}_{\mbox{remaining}}
\end{equation}
${\cal{L}}_{CP}$ consists of the gauge part of the Lagrangian which necessarily
conserves CP. One can then consider the most
general CP transformation which leaves ${\cal{L}}_{CP}$ invariant. Applying this CP
transformation to ${\cal{L}}_{\mbox{remaining}}$ one can easily
derive that the necessary condition for CP invariance for any number of
fermion generations is \cite{Bernabeu:1986fc}:
\begin{equation}
\mbox{Tr} \left[  H_u, H_d \right]^3  = 0
\label{trcom}
\end{equation}
The condition of Eq.~(\ref{trcom}) is automatically satisfied for one or two generations. For
three generations Eq.~(\ref{trcom}) is a necessary and
sufficient condition for CP invariance and it can be expressed in
terms of quark masses and mixing:
\begin{eqnarray}
\mbox{tr} \left[  H_u, H_d \right]^3  = 6i & (m^2_t - m^2_c) &
(m^2_t - m^2_u) \quad  (m^2_c - m^2_u) \times \nonumber \\
& \times (m^2_b - m^2_s)  & (m^2_b - m^2_d) \quad (m^2_s - m^2_d) \quad \mbox{Im} Q_{uscb}
\label{eq31}
\end{eqnarray}
where $Q$ stands for a rephasing invariant quartet of $V_{CKM}$,
defined by $Q_{\alpha i \beta j} \equiv V_{\alpha i}  V_{\beta j}  V^\ast_{\alpha j}
V^\ast_{\beta i} $ ($\alpha \neq \beta$, $ i \neq j$).

Another scenario for the generation of CP violation is the one put forward by
Lee \cite{Lee:1973iz} about the same time that the KM mechanism
\cite{Kobayashi:1973fv}   was proposed. The idea
is that CP is a good symmetry of the Lagrangian but the vacuum is not CP
invariant.

In general a realistic model of Spontaneous CP violation has to
fulfil the following conditions.

i) The model should have a natural suppression mechanism for
FCNC both in the scalar and vector sectors.

ii) The vacuum CP violating phase phase should be able to generate a
complex CKM matrix. This requirement
arises from the fact that experimentally there is clear evidence that
the CKM matrix is non-trivially complex even
if one allows for the presence of New Physics.

 The minimal viable model of spontaneous CP violation involves
the following extension of the SM:

i) Introduction of at least one vector-like quark with charge either -1/3 or +2/3.

ii) Introduction of one complex scalar field, singlet under the gauge group,
which we denote S.

With the above mentioned addition to the SM, one achieves spontaneous CP violation
through a non-trivial phase in the vev of the scalar isosinglet S. For definiteness,
let us assume that we have introduced a down type  vector-like
quark. This leads to a $4 \times 4$  quark mass matrix in the down sector and the quark
mixing matrix becomes a
$3 \times 4$ matrix, leading to deviations of $3 \times 3$ unitarity in the
CKM matrix connecting standard quarks and also to
Z-mediated FCNC in the down sector. One of the nice features of this class of
models is the fact that both deviations
of $3 \times 3$ unitarity and tree level FCNC are naturally suppressed  by
the ratio of masses $m^2/M^2$ of standard quarks and
of the heavy isosinglet quark. Recall that since the mass term of the
vector-like quark is gauge invariant, its value can
naturally be much larger than the electroweak scale. There is mixing between
standard quarks and the vector-like
quark which in turn generates at low energies a complex $3 \times 3$ effective
down quark mixing. Upon diagonalisation of the quark mass matrices,  this
leads to a complex $3 \times 3$ CKM matrix, in agreement with experiment.
As mentioned  above there are naturally suppressed FCNC at tree level which
in spite of this suppression can contribute
to $B_d-\overline B_d$ and $B_s-\overline B_s$ mixings.

\section{Generating a Viable Model of Quark Mixing with Vector-Like Quarks}

In the SM the Yukawa couplings $Y_u$, $Y_d$, responsible for  generating the up and
down quark mass matrices, are
two independent complex matrices. As a result, we show next that there is
no reason for having the CKM matrix close
to the identity, even if one takes into account the strong hierarchy of
quark masses. In order to prove this result we shall
consider the extreme chiral limit, where only the top and the bottom quarks have a mass.

\subsection{The Extreme Chiral Limit}

In the EC limit the up and down quark mass matrices are two rank one
matrices which can be written as :
\begin{equation}
M_{d}={U_{L}^{d}}^{\dagger }\ \mbox{diag}(0,0,m_{b})\ {U_{R}^{d}},\qquad
M_{u}={U_{L}^{u}}^{\dagger }\ \mbox{diag}(0,0,m_{t})\ {U_{R}^{u}}
\label{loo}
\end{equation}
Note that no generality is lost in writing in Eq.~(\ref{loo}) the quark
masses in a  given ordering, taking into account
that a permutation which would change these positions could always be
incorporated in the matrices $U_{L,R}^{d,u}$ .

Keeping in mind that at this stage the first two generations are massless,
one can make an arbitrary redefinition of
the massless quarks through a unitary transformation with the following form:
\begin{equation}
W_{u,d}=\left[
\begin{array}{cc}
X_{u,d} & 0 \\
0 & 1%
\end{array}
\right]   \label{lii}
\end{equation}
where $X_{u,d}$ are $2\times 2$ unitary matrices. One can then show that the
quark mixing  matrix  $V_{CKM}$ is an orthogonal
matrix mixing only the third and second quark generation, parametrised by an angle
$\alpha$ which is entirely
arbitrary in the EC limit. It is clear that in the SM the smallness
of $|V_{23}|^2 + |V_{13}|^2$ has no relation
with the fact that the quark mass ratios are small. The experimentally observed
smallness of $|V_{23}|^2 + |V_{13}|^2$ may be an indication of the need of
a flavour symmetry.

\section{Obtaining Small Mixing Through a Symmetry}

Let us introduce the following $Z_6$ flavour symmetry in the SM:
\begin{align}
\label{SSM}
Q_{L1}^{0}& \rightarrow e^{i\tau }\ Q_{L1}^{0} &\quad Q_{L2}^{0}&\rightarrow
e^{-2i\tau }\ Q_{L2}^{0} &\quad Q_{L3}^{0}&\rightarrow e^{-i\tau }\ Q_{L3}^{0} \nonumber \\
\nonumber \\
d_{R1}^{0}&\rightarrow e^{-i\tau }d_{R1}^{0} &\quad d_{R2}^{0}&\rightarrow
e^{-i\tau }d_{R2}^{0} &\quad d_{R3}^{0}&\rightarrow e^{-2i\tau }d_{R3}^{0}  \\
\nonumber \\
u_{R1}^{0}&\rightarrow e^{i\tau }u_{R1}^{0} &\quad u_{R2}^{0}&\rightarrow
e^{i\tau }u_{R3}^{0} &\quad u_{R3}^{0}&\rightarrow u_{R3}^{0};\ &\quad
\Phi &\rightarrow e^{i\tau }\Phi; &\quad \tau & = \frac{2 \pi}{6} \nonumber
\end{align}
where the $Q_{Lj}^{0}$  stand for the left-handed quark doublets, $d_{Rj}^{0}$  and
$u_{Rj}^{0}$ denote right-handed quark singlets
and $\Phi $ is the scalar doublet. The Yukawa interactions can be written:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{Y}}=\left[ -{\overline{Q}_{Li}^{0}}\ \,\Phi \,Y_{d}\,\
d_{Rj}^{0}-\,{\overline{Q}_{Li}^{0}}\ \tilde{\Phi}\,Y_{u}\,\ u_{Rj}^{0}
\right] +\mbox{h.c.},
\end{equation}
As a result of the $Z_6$ symmetry, the Yukawa couplings have the following flavour structure:
\begin{equation}
Y_{d}=\left[
\begin{array}{ccc}
0 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & \times
\end{array}
\right] ,\qquad Y_{u}=\left[
\begin{array}{ccc}
0 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & \times
\end{array}
\right]  \label{ydyu}
\end{equation}
which leads to $V_{CKM}= 1\>\!\!\!\mathrm{I}$, at this stage.

\subsection{Generation of Quark Masses for the First Two Families}

We show next that one may generate masses for the first two generations,
through the introduction of
vector-like quarks. For definiteness, we introduce three down
($D^0_{Li}$, $D^0_{Ri}$,)and three up ($U^0_{Li}$,
$U^0_{Ri}$,)  vector-like
quarks which are singlets under  the gauge group. The Yukawa interactions can now be written:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{Y}}=\left[- {\overline Q_{Li}^{0}} \,\Phi\, (Y_d)_{i
\alpha} \, d^0_{R\alpha} - \, {\overline Q_{Li}^{0}}\tilde\Phi \, (Y_u)_{i
\beta} \, u^0_{R\beta} \right] + \mbox{h.c.},  \label{YYY}
\end{equation}
where the index i runs from 1 to 3 while the indices $\alpha$ and $\beta$
run from 1 to 6. We introduce the following generic bare mass terms
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{b.m.} = [- {\ \overline D^0_{Lj}} (\eta_d)_{j \alpha} \,
d^0_{R\alpha} - {\overline U^0_{Lk}} (\eta_u)_{k \beta} \, u^0_{R\beta} ] +
\mbox{h.c.}  \label{bbb}
\end{equation}
The $Z_6$ symmetry is extended to the full Lagrangian, and we further
introduce a complex scalar singlet denoted $S$. Soft-breaking terms are
introduced in the scalar sector to avoid a massless Goldstone boson
and also to solve the domain-wall problem. The couplings of the scalar
singlet to the quark singlets can be written:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{g}} = [- {\ \overline D^0_{Lj}} [({g_d})_{j \alpha} S +
({g_d^\prime})_{j \alpha} S^\ast ] \, d^0_{R\alpha} - {\overline U^0_{Lk}} [(
{g_u})_{k \beta} S + ({g_u^\prime})_{k \beta} S^\ast ] \, u^0_{R\beta} ] +
\mbox{h.c.}  \label{ggg}
\end{equation}
After gauge symmetry breaking one obtains:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{M}} = \left[- \frac{v}{\sqrt{2}}\, {\ \overline d^0_{Li}
} (Y_d)_{i \alpha} \, d^0_{R\alpha} - \frac{v}{\sqrt{2}} {\overline u^0_{Li}}
(Y_u)_{i \alpha} \, u^0_{R\alpha} - {\overline D^0_{Li}} (\mu_d)_{i \alpha}
\, d^0_{R\alpha} - {\overline U^0_{Li}} (\mu_u)_{i \alpha} \, u^0_{R\alpha}
\right] + \mbox{h.c.}
\end{equation}
In a more compact form one can write:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{M}} = - \left( {\ \overline d^0_{L}} \ {\overline
D^0_{L}} \right) \mathcal{M}_d \, \left(
\begin{array}{c}
d^0_{R} \\
D^0_{R}
\end{array}
\right) - \left( {\ \overline u^0_{L}} \ {\overline U^0_{L}} \right)
\mathcal{M}_u \, \left(
\begin{array}{c}
u^0_{R} \\
U^0_{R}
\end{array}
\right)
\end{equation}
where $ \mathcal{M}_d$,  $ \mathcal{M}_u$ are $6 \times 6$ matrices
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{M}_d = \left(
\begin{array}{cc}
m_d & \omega_d \\
X_d & M_d
\end{array}
\right) \quad \mathcal{M}_u = \left(
\begin{array}{cc}
m_u & \omega_u \\
X_u & M_u
\end{array}
\right)  \label{not}
\end{equation}
These mass matrices can be diagonalised through unitary transformations:
\begin{equation}
\begin{array}{lll}
\left(
\begin{array}{c}
d_{L}^{0} \\
D_{L}^{0}
\end{array}
\right) =\left(
\begin{array}{c}
A_{dL} \\
B_{dL}
\end{array}
\right) \left(
\begin{array}{c}
d_{L}
\end{array}
\right) \equiv \mathcal{U}_{L}^{d}d_{L} &  & \left(
\begin{array}{c}
u_{L}^{0} \\
U_{L}^{0}
\end{array}
\right) =\left(
\begin{array}{c}
A_{uL} \\
B_{uL}
\end{array}
\right) \left(
\begin{array}{c}
u_{L}
\end{array}
\right) \equiv \mathcal{U}_{L}^{u}u_{L} \\
&  &  \\
\left(
\begin{array}{c}
d_{R}^{0} \\
D_{R}^{0}
\end{array}
\right) \equiv \mathcal{U}_{R}^{d}d_{R} &  & \left(
\begin{array}{c}
u_{R}^{0} \\
U_{R}^{0}
\end{array}
\right) \equiv \mathcal{U}_{R}^{u}u_{R}
\end{array}
\end{equation}
One can then write the charged currents as:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{W}}=-\frac{g}{\sqrt{2}}\left( {\overline{u}_{L}^{0}}
\gamma ^{\mu }d_{L}^{0}\right) \mathbf{W}_{\mu }^{+}+\mbox{h.c.}=-\frac{g}{
\sqrt{2}}\left( {\overline{u}_{L}}V\gamma ^{\mu }d_{L}\right) \mathbf{W}
_{\mu }^{+}+\mbox{h.c.}
\end{equation}
with $V=A_{uL}^{\dagger }A_{dL}$. The neutral gauge couplings are:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{Z}}=\frac{g}{\cos {\theta _{W}}}Z_{\mu }\left[ \frac{1}{
2}\left( {\overline{u}_{L}}W^{u}\gamma ^{\mu }u_{L}-{\overline{d}_{L}}
W^{d}\gamma ^{\mu }u_{L}\right) -\sin ^{2}\theta _{W}\left( \frac{2}{3}
\overline{u}\gamma ^{\mu }u-\frac{1}{3}\overline{d}\gamma ^{\mu }d\right)
\right]
\end{equation}
with $W^{d}=V^{\dagger }V$ and $W^{u}=VV^{\dagger }$. In the quark mass
eigenstate basis the SM-like Higgs couplings, and the couplings of the would-be
Goldstone bosons $G^+$, $G^0$ can be written:
\begin{equation}
\begin{array}{l}
\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{Mh}}=
-\frac{\sqrt{2}G^{+}}{v}\left[ \overline{u}_{L}V
\mathcal{D}_{d}d_{R}-\overline{u}_{R}\mathcal{D}_{u}Vd_{L}\right]  \\
\\
-i\frac{G^{0}}{v}\left[ \overline{d}_{L}W^{d}\mathcal{D}_{d}d_{R}-\overline{
u}_{L}W^{u}\mathcal{D}_{u}u_{R}\right] -\frac{h}{v}\left[ \overline{d}
_{L}W^{d}\mathcal{D}_{d}d_{R}+\overline{u}_{L}W^{u}\mathcal{D}_{u}u_{R}
\right] +\mbox{h.c.}
\end{array}
\end{equation}
The vector-like quarks transform in the following way under $Z_6$:
\begin{align}
D_{L1}^{0} & \rightarrow e^{-3i\tau }\ D_{L1}^{0}  &\quad
D_{L2}^{0} & \rightarrow
e^{-2i\tau }\ D_{L2}^{0} &\quad  D_{L3}^{0}& \rightarrow e^{-i\tau }\ D_{L3}^{0}
\nonumber \\
\nonumber \\
D_{R1}^{0} & \rightarrow e^{-2i\tau }\ D_{R1}^{0} &\quad  D_{R2}^{0}& \rightarrow
e^{-3i\tau }\ D_{R2}^{0} &\quad  D_{R3}^{0}& \rightarrow D_{R3}^{0} \nonumber \\
  \\
U_{L1}^{0} & \rightarrow e^{-i\tau }\ U_{L1}^{0} &\quad  U_{L2}^{0}& \rightarrow
U_{L2}^{0} &\quad  U_{L3}^{0} & \rightarrow e^{i\tau }\ U_{L3}^{0} \nonumber \\
\nonumber  \\
U_{R1}^{0} & \rightarrow U_{R1}^{0} &\quad  U_{R2}^{0}& \rightarrow e^{-i\tau }\
U_{R2}^{0} &\quad  U_{R3}^{0} & \rightarrow e^{2i\tau }\ U_{R3}^{0};\ & \quad
S\rightarrow e^{i\tau }\ S; & \quad \tau & = \frac{2 \pi}{6} \nonumber
\end{align}
Diagonalisation of the quark mass matrices is performed through:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{U}_{L}^{d \dagger} \mathcal{M}_{d}\ \mathcal{U}_{R}^d = \mathcal{D}
_d \equiv \mbox{diag} (d_d, D_d)  \label{plus}
\end{equation}
with:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{U}_L = \left(
\begin{array}{cc}
K & R \\
S & T
\end{array}
\right)
\end{equation}
Unitarity of $\mathcal{U}_L$ implies
$K K^\dagger = {1\>\!\!\!\mathrm{I}} - R R^\dagger$
as well as $K^\dagger K = {1\>\!\!\!\mathrm{I}} - S^\dagger S$.
Deviations of $3 \times 3$ unitarity are small since $R$ and $S$
are suppressed by the ratio $m/M$.
The matrices $K_d$, $K_u$
can be computed from an effective Hermitian squared matrix given by:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{H}_{eff} = (m m^\dagger + \omega \omega^\dagger) - (mX^\dagger +
\omega M^\dagger) (X X^\dagger + M M^\dagger)^{-1} ( X m^\dagger + M
\omega^\dagger)  \label{28}
\end{equation}
To an excellent approximation $K$ is the matrix that diagonalises
$\mathcal{H}_{eff}$:
\begin{equation}
K^{-1} \mathcal{H}_{eff} K = d^2
\end{equation}
We assume that the $6 \times 6$ matrix ${\cal M}_d $ has a Froggatt-Nielsen
structure \cite{Froggatt:1978nt}:
\begin{equation}
{\cal M}_d = \mu \left(
\begin{array}{cccccc}
0  & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 &
\lambda^2 z  \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & \lambda y  &
0 \\
0 & 0 & 1 & \lambda x  & 0 &
0 \\
0 & 0 & \frac{C_1}{\lambda} &  \frac{D_1}{\lambda^2} & 0
& 0 \\
\frac{A_2}{\lambda}  & \frac{B_2}{\lambda} & \frac{C_2}{\lambda} & 0 &
\frac{D_2}{\lambda^2} & 0 \\
\frac{A_3}{\lambda} & 0 & \frac{C_3}{\lambda}& 0 &
0 & \frac{D_3}{\lambda^2}
\end{array}
\right) ,  \label{calMd}
\end{equation}
with $\mu \approx  m_b$. This leads to the following structure for $\mathcal{H}_{eff}$:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{H}_{eff} \sim \left(
\begin{array}{ccc}
\lambda^6 r z^2 & \lambda^5 uyz & - \lambda^3 c_3 z \\
 \lambda^5 u^* yz &  \lambda^4 r^\prime y^2 &  - \lambda^2 c_2 y \\
 - \lambda^3 c^*_3 z &   - \lambda^2 c^*_2 y &  1- \lambda^2 \hat{r}
\end{array}
\right)
\end{equation}
with:
\begin{eqnarray}
r=|a_3|^2 + |c_3|^2  \nonumber \\
r^\prime = |a_2|^2  + |b_2|^2  +|c_2|^2 \nonumber \\
\hat{r} = |c_1|^2 + |c_2|^2 + |c_3|^2 + (c_1 + c^*_1) x \\
u = a^*_2 a_3 + c^*_2 c_3  \nonumber \\
a_i = \frac{A_i}{D_i}, \quad  b_i = \frac{B_i}{D_i}, \quad
c_i = \frac{C_i}{D_i} \nonumber
\end{eqnarray}
It can be shown that a realistic $V_{CKM}$ is generated with:
\begin{equation}
|V_{cb}| \approx K_{23} \lambda^2 \qquad |V_{ub}| \approx K_{13} \lambda^3
\end{equation}
where the $ K_{ij}$ are of order one, namely $K_{23} = c_2 y$ and  $K_{13} = c_3 z$.

The general FCNC structure was analysed in detail \cite{Botella:2016ibj}
for this model, including loop-induced FCNC. The decay channels of the
vector-like quarks were also studied, together with the possibility of
discovering them at the LHC.

\section{Conclusions}
We emphasise a flavour fine-tuning problem present in the SM, which results
from the
fact that there is no reason to have a $V_{CKM}$ matrix close to the identity,
even taking into account the strong hierarchy of quark masses. We describe a
solution to this fine-tuning problem which involves the introduction of a
flavour symmetry and the introduction of vector-like quarks of charges
(-1/3) and (2/3), together with a complex singlet scalar. Prior to the
introduction of the vector-like quarks $V_{CKM}$ equals the identity,
but in the presence of vector-like quarks, a correct quark mass spectrum
and a realistic CKM mixing matrix is obtained. We also point out that in
realistic models, some of the vector-like quarks are at the reach of
second run of LHC.

\section*{Acknowledgements}
The authors thank the local organising committee of the Symposium
Discrete 2016 for the stimulating scientific atmosphere and the warm
hospitality in Warsaw, and acknowledge financial support from
the National Science Centre, Poland, the HARMONIA project under
contract UMO-2015/18/M/ST2/00518 (2016-2019)
to participate in the Symposium and in the 1st Harmonia Meeting that
took place immediately after the Symposium. Special thanks go to
Maria Krawczyk.
Our work is partially supported by Funda\c c\~ ao para a Ci\^ encia
e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) through the projects CERN/FIS-NUC/0010/2015,
CFTP-FCT Unit 777 (UID/FIS/00777/2013) which are partially funded through
POCTI (FEDER), COMPETE, QREN and EU.

\section*{References}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


The B+W 52mm #900 Rubber Lens Hood is now available in Hong Kong. The cheapest B+W 52mm #900 Rubber Lens Hood price in Hong Kong is HK$ 328.12 from Amazon. B+W 52mm #900 Rubber Lens Hood price details are updated April 2019.


Rio Tinto Kennecott, located 35 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, is one of the world's most innovative mining operations. It comprises the Bingham Canyon Mine, Copperton Concentrator, Garfield Smelter, refinery and power plant. The business produces copper, molybdenum, gold, silver and sulphuric acid. It is an open pit mine and supplies 13 percent of copper in America.
Kennecott has several new innovative ways to increase safety and efficiency. One of these is the use of drones, which has become integral to the operation. This technology allows Kennecott to provide real-time 3-D mapping, equipment inspections and surveillance of mine walls.
Kennecott also recently completed a three-year pilot program to improve the payload capacity of haul trucks in the Bingham Canyon Mine. The mine has 88 haul trucks, and 84 of those trucks have an increased payload capacity of 314 tonnes. Their operations engineers are working with two mining equipment, technology and services companies on designing a lighter truck bed that can reduce wear and tear on the truck while increasing its payload capacity. Six trucks are participating in this pilot program and have so far achieved a 6 percent improvement in payload capacity.
Kennecott has also been the trial grounds for underground communications technologies that have then been implemented at Rio Tinto's impressive Oyu Tolgoi operation in Mongolia.
Rio Tinto has even created an online virtual tour, so anyone can experience Kennecott's operations in 3-D, with a tour guide.


It's that time of year to start planning your vacation and what's more fun that living the life of your favorite characters and authors? Check out what I've been doing during my weekend of writer's block. It rarely happens to me, but when it does you have to understand that I'm up to something bookish. Below is a treasure trove of literary tours and adventures that I'm dying to schedule for myself. Keep an eye on event pages because even if you miss this year's literary gala, they'll promote the next one. I think I'd go on the Hound of the Baskervilles Tour, first.
REQUISITE DISCLAIMER: The owner of this site is not responsible for the actions or illegal activity of any third-party websites or companies listed on this site. This page exists to expose you to the vacation possibilities available. We use many photos on this website (www.nicolinatorres.com) that fall under the creative commons license. We try to credit the authors as best we can but there are a lot of photos and mistakes happen. To that extent, if you see a photo we don't have rights to or are using incorrectly, please alert us immediately so we can remove it or otherwise address the situation. It is up to the customer to investigate their options before purchasing a vacation or tour with anyone. The owner of this site is not responsible for fraudulent behavior from third parties as well as injuries, death, crying babies on airplanes, cancellations, computer hack, lost baggage, muggings, poor weather, amnesia, lack of WIFI, Sticky Bandits, hotel disasters, or flesh wounds. Liability falls on the company or organization responsible for your tour, vacation package, or mode of travel.


This book covers everything required for for the Church Heritage Award and specifically focuses on significant details of interest to youth and youth leaders. Learn church history beginning in the Old Testament, through the New Testament, into the Dark Ages, and on to the Reformation. Study the founding of the Advent movement and then follow God's leading in the founding and growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.


text:
Cork Opera House
The original Cork Opera House was built in 1855 but burnt down in 1955. It was rebuilt from concrete and in 1993, the board of directors decided it needed completely refurbished. Murray O'Laoire Architects designed a stunning new glass front of house but the original theatre remained.
In 2007 the decision was made to complete the
refurbishment works and the main auditorium was redesigned. New Acoustics' main challenge was to improve the acoustics for theatregoers as the use of concrete within the auditorium led to a flutter echo problem as well as a lack of low frequency absorption. We completed an acoustic model of the theatre and set about lining the walls to help diffuse the sound and advised on other ways to improve the acoustics, including the provision of a new, quieter ventilation system and a change in the upper circle seating rake.
The opera house with its 1000-seat auditorium reopened on June 10, 2009, and has been described "as the building which takes the architecture of Cork City into the 21st century".
Architects: Murray O'Laoire Architects
Photography: Mike Hannon
Back to performance spaces section

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Ramblin' Man Fair Preview: Inglorious
Ramblin' Man Fair Preview: Kris Barras Band
Ramblin Man Fair Preview: Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Rushonrock Record Of The Week: Ida Mae
HATE OPEN THE GATES ON NEW ALBUM
Rushonrock Record Of The Week: Generation Axe
Kiss Host A Crazy, Crazy Night
Deever Deliver On Live Return
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GNR Week – Classic Gig '92
Simon Rushworth 25th November 2008
Reviews9 Comments 0
Guns N Roses @ Gateshead International Stadium, June 16 1992
It was a long hot day on Tyneside – and how many of those do we get? But it was also a worrying day for the thousands of North East rock fans who'd forked out £21 to see the most dangerous band in the world only to read of cancellations elsewhere in the UK and Axl's increasingly erratic behaviour.
In fact not until the moment his royal rockness stepped on stage did any of us really believe this gig was going to happen. But it did and it would go down in history as one of the must-see shows on the magnificent Use Your Illusion world trek.
But it wasn't all down to the mesmeric Gunners. I still own my Soundgarden T-shirt replete with all of its holes, tears and faded Superunknown imagery and as an opening act they were simply unstoppable. Little did we know that Chris Cornell and his ilk would slowly destroy the music we love as grunge grabbed the attention of media's tastemakers and consigned good old fashioned rock and roll to history (for a while).
Anyway if Soungarden were superb then Faith No More were fantastic. This was the band we'd come to see just in case Axl's helicopter did make a U-turn somewhere over Teesside. The hits came thick and fast, the energy burned during a high octane set could have powered Gateshead and as a warm-up act for the main men FNM were damn near perfect. We cared a lot and the band repaid our faith.
Then it happened. Axl, Slash and the gang did, indeed, deign us with their presence and what a night we had. Dipping into the Use Your Illusion records with regularity the biggest cheers were, of course, reserved for the Appetite standards we had been learning off by heart for the best part of five years.
In retrospect November Rain was the spine-tingling highlight but on the night it was impossible to look past Paradise City. Axl came to life like never before for those few minutes when the world belonged to GNR and as for Slash? The kid from the Potteries pounded our eardrums with as emotional a solo as you'll ever hear – now, then or in the future.
It's impossible to describe just how privileged we all felt cramming onto the Metro sometime after 11pm drained, dehydrated and dreaming of the next time. Of course that dream became a nightmare and later reincarnations of GNR (I'm thinking Leeds Festival ad Newcastle Arena) have failed to cut the mustard.
But if you were there on June 16 1992 then you don't really care. And why should you?
Simon Rushworth
Axl RoseChris CornellFaith No MoreGateshead International StadiumGuns 'N' RosesSlashSoundgarden
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Simon's love affair with guitar bands began the day he saw Def Leppard performing Animal for the first time. The founder of Rushonrock has contributed to Classic Rock Magazine, Classic Rock Blues, Classic Rock AOR, HRH Mag and Country Music Magazine and is a familiar face on the North East's rock and metal scene.
THE SLASH STASH
Simon Rushworth 17th December 2010
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW – TRACII GUNS
Simon Rushworth 18th August 2010
HIGH VOLTAGE: HIGH FIVE – SLASH
Simon Rushworth 22nd July 2011
Guns Shoot For Leeds/Reading
Simon Rushworth 29th March 2010
REVIEWS – NEW MUSIC
Simon Rushworth 14th June 2015
EXCLUSIVE – Duff McKagan Interview
Simon Rushworth 13th October 2009
25th November 2008 voodoo Reply
I was there (sort of) we were too poor to buy tickets unlike some posh privately educated rock reporters so we had to look over the wall, on the hill behind the toilets, left of stage with about 50 other paupers. The highlight for me was when Big Jim Martin, guitarist from faith no more came out the gates signed 2 autographs and walked back to his tour bus without anyone else even knowing who he was. Good times 🙂
19th April 2015 Dave Pazdziorek. Reply
I and some friends travelled down from Aberdeen for for the weekend to be part of this brilliant gig.. Soundgarden were ace, Faith no More were EPIC.. But the the thing that we were all worried about was Warren Beaty had Stolen Axles then girfriend and Axle had gone on a rant at there concert in France before Gateshead!! We wernt sure if (a) Guns n Roses would turn up or (b) Axle would have a huge rant!!!! Fortunately it turrned out to be one of the best gigs I have ever been to, not just the gig but the friends I found in Gateshead were FANTASTIC and I felt Very at home with lovely people. I even took some stotty cake home which I loved… One Happy Scotsman…
21st April 2015 simon Reply
Great to hear from you Dave.
Happy days. Doubt we'll see the like again…but here's hoping 🙂
4th June 2015 Wayne Madden Reply
It's all subjective and the thing of opinion, of course, but I felt Guns N' Roses performance in 2013 at the Metro Radio Arena was fantastic and a real personal live highlight of mine. I doubt it would have been hard to top seeing Axl at his peak and I do admit the disastrous 2002 performance at Leeds could have been so easily avoided, but their (or his) 2013 "comeback" in Newcastle was outstanding for me. With Thin Lizzy as support it was truly one of the best gigs of my life.
Was it before or after the Gateshead gig that the band cancelled Maine Road due to Duff's bottling?
15th November 2016 AJ Reply
I still brag about this gig almost 25 years later, Soundgarden were amazing, Faith No More were even better, singing Easy for the first time I'd heard it an Jim Martin telling everyone to sing. But watching GNR at the top of their game is still one of the best moments in music I've ever had. Them big inflatable monsters from the appetite for destruction cover bouncing up and down and everyone dying from third degree sun burn the next day. Awesome.
16th November 2016 Simon Rushworth Reply
Brag away AJ. I know plenty of people who wish they'd seen that show. It was a privilege and a thrill.
17th November 2016 andrey Reply
I know plenty of people who wish they'd seen that show.—- I'm one of them!But do U think Generation Zero could understand us?Or are we already history?Sad but true…
15th June 2017 Jamie Reply
I was there, it was a very hot day. My two friends and me got there about 9am, sat on the grass outside the back of the stadium and got stoned and sunburnt, I think it was about 2pm we entered, hit the beer tent and about seven hours later GnR came on stage. It was so good to see them at their best, great memories.
I can remember Duff kicking off like it was yesterday haha, it was 25 years ago….wow.
20th August 2017 Paul. H Reply
>yes mate i was right in front of duff at the barrier he spat all over a few of us at the front when he was kickin off. I had a op on my hand the day before and was hangin on for dear life. Good times.
Simon Rushworth on Kiss Host A Crazy, Crazy Night
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Trevor on DORJA announce much awaited debut album
Simon Rushworth on Extreme: Top 10
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A parenting view of the World: Are they ready yet?
My thirteen year old son came and asked me and my husband if he could go for an evening out with his friends to a gaming center. As no adults were accompanying and it was only a group of friends going, we naturally refused to let him go. He was offended big time and he made it a point to let us know how disappointed he was quite forcefully.
Generally till now we have taken them to lots of their friends' place as well as had his friends over at our place where we personally knew the parents. We have let them go out when one or the other parents have accompanied the group of children to an outing and they have had sleepovers at their friends' place. But so far we have never let them go out in a group alone without any adult supervision. Believe me, even at this age they are still a handful and do crazy things when they go out in groups.
Somehow children at this age have neither grown old enough to understand nor are they little that we can hold onto them. At one end children of that age feel quite grown up and act so very mature but the very next moment they bely their age by doing something very foolish. This is but common at this age.
As we have all passed through this phase of adolescence we do understand what they must be going through . I remember the time when my father used to refuse to send us on school trips if it was for a longer duration. Day trips however were fine with him. But we also used to be offended then and thought our parents did not understand us. Now I guess it is our turn to go through this cycle with our children.
However in the current scenario where children are growing up faster and getting exposed to so many facets of life at a very young age as parents I feel it is but natural to protect our children as far as possible. At the same time one wonders if it is overprotection. Where does the balance lie?Are they ready yet to fly out on their own??
This seems to be "Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani" esp. in households with teenage kids. I am often accused of being over-protective as my son is an only child, however, I like to think of myself as a mother with above average intelligence because of which, I think and feel a group of teenage boys without any supervision could turn into something dangerous. However, if you disagree all the time to the child's demand for freedom, it is definitely going to lead to ego-fights. My husband and I have sort of worked out a truce with my son, wherein he understands, that going to the club with friends for basketball and cricket sessions for a couple of hours without adult supervision is alright with parents. The club being two kms from our own house and knowing that coaches from the club are always around. He also knows that his parents will not agree to him spending the same amount of time at a mall on his own, atleast for some more years. Parenting is such a beautiful challenge and keeping yourself, your spouse and the child happy in a trying situation is one of the best juggling acts I have done.
Thanks Seema. I agree that most of the time it is a catch twenty two situation with teenaged children at home. We always seem to be doing the fine balancing act.


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Tag Archives: Western Civilization
It would appear that I have been wasting my time. If John Carroll is right, and I think he is, the humanities I attempted to pass on to the younger generation are dead. Indeed, they have been dying for some time. I have suspected this, but Carroll's argument in The Wreck of Western Culture is very persuasive.
Bear in mind that I do not agree with everything I read. Indeed, I have been trained to read with a critical eye. But Carroll makes a persuasive case and given that the signs he points to are all around us and I have even noted many of them myself, there's little more to be said.
The humanities have traditionally included the fine arts, literature, philosophy, history, and other endeavors now regarded as "elitist" and generally ignored. And there's the rub. Carroll saw the creations flowing from those endeavors grow and thrive as Western Civilization worked its way from ancient Greece through Christianity, especially during the Dark Ages, to the Reformation which sought to bring new life to the basic tenets of Christianity that were dying from the intolerant nature of the Catholic Church with its purges and Inquisitions. The Renaissance and then, especially, the Enlightenment brought about an explosion in human creativity and invention; in the process it was insisted that religion is superstition and man is free and capable of solving all problems with his reason alone. In Descartes' words, we need only heed "clear and distinct" ideas to answer all the questions that can possibly be raised. The avenue to absolute certainty does not lie with revelation; rather, it lies with mathematics and empirical science.
With modern science came longer, less painful lives, but also the industrial revolution, and eventually capitalism and all have transformed culture while at the same time disenchanting our world, dismissing out of hand all of the things in heaven and earth that are not dreamt of in science. Humanism, as it came to be called, lasted several centuries and eventually was given a death blow by such thinkers as Karl Marx and Charles Darwin who insisted that humans are not truly free and even reason is not sufficient; economics and natural selection govern everything. Regarding Darwin, Carroll notes,
"The new scientific picture of the world is utterly dispiriting. . .. . in the shoes of Darwin the joyful bird song at dawn is transformed, at best, into intellectual curiosity about a species sending his warning signals in defense of its territory. Once one begins to think like this — about birds, newborn babies, romance, death — the magic is compromised."
Marx's influence may have gone even deeper. As Carroll put it:
"The cultural consequences of Marx were that selfishness and economics rule, that culture is merely a cloak disguising base bourgeois motives; unconsciously, the gods of culture have betrayed us, so let us annihilate them. . . .No honor, no trust, no fidelity — nothing but greed."
Now whether or not one agrees with Carroll's rather bleak pronouncements, they do give us pause. Careful studies back up the signs I have pointed to in numerous blogs, especially of late, making it clear that those of us who have been teaching the humanities (in my case for over 40 years) were fighting a rear-guard battle, because the humanities were expiring even as we tried to breath life into the dying corpse. Students, and a great many professors simply do not care. The colleges and universities are now overrun by barbarians who have embraced a nihilistic attitude toward everything in the past. It is time to "do-over." And their behavior, including their unqualified postmodern commitment to such thing as political correctness, has become the way to do things. We will eliminate the dead, white European males and replace them with like-minded men and, especially, women who will indoctrinate the young properly. Meanwhile the streets are overrun by self-absorbed seekers of more and greater profits who couldn't care less about the past or the heights to which the human spirit can aspire. Brace yourselves: we have entered a new era.
To be sure, we see around us the decaying corpses of the dead, white European males and the great works they created and which are now regarded as past their prime and not worth our effort. At best, they will be museum pieces visited by a decreasing number of people as time passes, those few who still care. So along with a Christianity that was based on love of our fellow humans and adherence to those virtues that make it possible for us to lead a good life, we turn our backs on the humanism that raised humanity to great heights, created extraordinary works of beauty and imagination while influencing a great many people and giving birth to, among other things, modern science — which survives independently, largely reduced to technical expertise and invention. And never asking moral questions.
So it goes. I guess I have suspected it for some time now. But it is hard to admit that the things one fought for have "come a cropper" as the Brits would say. The humanities have had their day. But what really rankles is the obvious fact that what is taking the place of the humanities and Christianity is nothing more and nothing less that a vapid nihilism, a new barbarism, nesting comfortably in an egoism that seeks only pleasure and which cannot see beyond the eradication of what has been in the name of the new and the now.
The time has come to accept the facts that have been announcing themselves loud and clear for some time now.
Tagged capitalism, Christianity, Descartes, Enlightenment, humanism, John Carroll, Western Civilization
One of the most difficult things to do when determining the strengths and weaknesses of Western Civilization — which has come under fire of late by many who see it as the cause of nothing but years of persecution and misery for millions of human beings — is to balance the pros against the cons. We might begin with the cons, as they are most interesting. At the top of my list would be the Spanish Inquisition about which the always reliable Wikipedia has this to say:
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Spanish: Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition (Inquisición española), was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control. It became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Catholic Inquisition along with the Roman Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition. The "Spanish Inquisition" may be defined broadly, operating in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Spanish Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, and all Spanish possessions in North, Central, and South America. According to modern estimates, around 150,000 were prosecuted for various offenses during the three centuries of duration of the Spanish Inquisition, out of which between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed.
Gruesome, to say the least — even if the numbers of those burned alive in public auto-da-fes in the name of Christ are exaggerated. But one might add to this list the Protestant persecutions and execution of witches and heretics as well as the many wars fought by various factions of a Church which was founded on love.
And while we must realize that the history of the Christian Church is not the whole of the history of Western Civilization which began with the pre-Socratics, we must wonder why such a civilization that could have produced such horrors — not ignoring the Holocaust that took the lives of millions of Jews, the murder of millions of Russians during the Second World War by the Nazis, and the dropping of bombs on civilians in Germany and Japan by the Allies — should be preserved and allowed to survive. And we mustn't forget the slave trade and the genocide that accompanied the take-over of the North American continent.
Arnold Toynbee tells us that civilizations come and go; they have a lifetime and the expire just as do those who comprise the members of those civilizations. Ours is clearly enduring what Toynbee called a "time of troubles" and seems to be gasping for breath — especially as growing numbers of those historically devoted to preserving Western Civilization in the colleges and universities have turned against it. But why should we be concerned, given the many atrocities that have been committed in the name of civilization when we know that many people who we have always regarded as "uncivilized" seem now to be in many ways superior to those who regard themselves as "civilized" people?
Ignoring for the moment that fact that many of the images of the delights of "uncivilized" people are romantic nonsense with little or no basis in historical fact, there are a number of reasons to fight to save Western Civilization. If we simply regard the benefits that have come to humankind as a result of Western Civilization the list would be impressive indeed. It must start with Roman law, civil discourse, a growing awareness of universal human rights together with the extraordinary works of art, music, literature, sculpture, philosophy and science all of which owe their origins to the brilliant people who have lived during that period we associate with Western Civilization, many of the art works centering around the passion of Christ. Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish film-making genius put it well when he noted that:
"It is my opinion that art lost its creative urge the moment it separated from worship. It severed the umbilical cord and lives its own sterile life, generating and degenerating itself. The individual has become the highest form and the greatest bane of artistic creation. Creative unity and humble anonymity are forgotten and buried relics without significance or meaning. The smallest cuts and moral pains of the ego are examined under the microscope as if they were of eternal importance. Thus we finally gather in one large pen, where we stand and bleat about our own loneliness without listening to each other and without realizing that we are smothering each other to death."
Thus we do wander around bleating like sheep about nothing more important than ourselves. Our art shrinks to the level of the merely personal. We strive to eliminate all suffering because we fail to see that through suffering we might grow as human beings. And this is a sure sign of the "time of troubles" that Toynbee notes is associated with the demise of civilizations. We live shallow lives, and in the process seem to have lost our creative abilities as we worry not about others and about the future but about ourselves now. This suggests that the present civilization may well be replaced by another that will almost certainly have as many atrocities — given the nature of human beings — and fewer of the great works noted above. The best we can hope for, I strongly suspect, is something very closely resembling Huxley's Brave New World peopled by citizens who find their narrow pleasure-seeking lives worth the price of greatness that we must, like it or not, associate with Western Civilization at its height.
Tagged Aldous Huxley, Arnold Toynbee, Brave New World, Christ, Christian Church, Ingmar Bergman, Nazis, Roman Law, Western Civilization
The Canon
The word I have used in my title refers not to the large gun, called a "cannon," but to a list of sacred works that need to be protected against the erosion of time. The latter meaning has come to be used to refer to a list of "Great Books" which should be read by all who can read. This list has of late it been called "elitist" or irrelevant by the multicultural hordes who have taken over the universities and now dictate, in large measure, what the students read — if they read at all.
In 1994 Harold Bloom wrote a large book about the "Western Canon" that included a long list of the books he thought were not necessarily sacred but at any rate ought to be read by anyone who treasures the thoughts of those who have lived before us and who have had important things to say. His book was a best-seller, but has done nothing to quiet those in the academy determined to bring down Western Civilization itself in the name of "justice" and "fairness." Those who would defend a list of books written by "dead, white, European males" (as is charged) are a dying breed and students in our colleges and universities now have been turned in the direction of correcting the many wrongs that have occurred in the past, as determined by their professors, and away from the thoughts of great minds. Indeed, the argument is that there are no great minds or, indeed, any such thing as "greatness" itself. We live in a relativistic age in which there is no truth, only opinions or "alternative facts."
I will print a full disclosure, which will come as no surprise to any who have read more than one or two of my posts: I was educated at a small college in Annapolis, Maryland where we spent four years reading the "hundred Great Books," as they were then called. We never counted them. We just read them and discussed them in small groups in an attempt to help us think a bit about the most pressing problems exceptional minds worried about in the past and which continue to perplex us today. I am, therefore, a defender of the Canon, I guess, though we never referred to the list of books in that manner. We revered them, of course, but we did not regard them as sacred. We were asked to participate in the "great conversation" with the best minds that had ever set pen to paper.
The multiculturalists who have taken over the colleges and universities intent upon correcting past errors, and who, I strongly suspect, have never read most of the Great Books, insist that those books have brought about the many of the ills that now affect society. They dismiss the books out of hand as simply an attempt by past educators to instill in the minds of the young wrong-headedness, a sort of indoctrination which they will now correct by replacing those wrong ideas with their own. However, as was clear to those of us who read and discussed these books, no two authors in the entire list agreed about much of anything. They were anything but monolithic. Thus reading and discussing the Great Books cannot be viewed as a form of indoctrination because of the sheer variety of the ideas contained in those books. There is no single message. There are thousands of messages and the only way out of the morass is to begin to form ideas of one's own. One need not be told that the West has a record of injustice if one reads the words of those who have again and again addressed the question: what is justice? One figures it out on one's own — as one should.
In a word, the Canon should be defended and read in our schools because it contains the best that has been thought and written for thousands of years. It need not contain only the thoughts of those in the Western world who have written; it can be broad enough — indeed it should be broad enough — to include the best that has been thought and written in the East as well. But the selection ought to be carefully made and based on aesthetic criteria and the principle that no single "message" should come through except that what is being read is important and has influenced the minds of those who have gone before us.
Education is not about indoctrination. It is about enabling the young to take possession of their own minds. Education is about freedom, true freedom, and it should not be directed by a handful of instructors who have a not-so-hidden agenda to save the world. It should be directed by the Canon, because the best teachers are the books themselves. And they teach the young how to think — not what to think.
Posted in Education
Tagged Great Books, Harold Bloom, indoctrination, the Canon, thought, Western Civilization
Cultural Pluralism
At the end of the nineteenth century, James George Frazer published a twelve volume study of various cultural practices from ancient times to our own. The book was titled The Golden Bough and was later brought out in a single volume, much edited, and has had a profound influence on cultural anthropology. Indeed, many regard it as a classic. I recently began to peruse the volume and found the following rather startling passage regarding the treatment of young women in primitive tribes:
"When symptoms of puberty appeared on a girl for the first time, the Guaranis of Southern Brazil, on the borders of Paraguay, used to sew her up in a hammock, leaving only a small opening in it to allow her to breathe. In this condition, wrapt up and shrouded like a corpse, she was kept for two or three days or as long as her symptoms lasted, and during this time she had to endure a most rigorous fast."
This is only one of the practices enumerated by Frazer; several so-called "primitive" cultures did whatever necessary to seclude these young women from other members of the tribe until they had outgrown their "malady." This includes the example of young women being secluded for as long as seven years in small tent-like buildings raised off the ground — until it was determined that they were safe to be among the other members of the community. Such passages are among the many Frazer includes by way of enlightening us about the way people have behaved over the centuries. And we might include in this list the ancient practice of Sati in which the husband's wife is thrown on the funeral pyre at his death. Or it might include clitoridectomies in young women performed by a number of primitive tribes — with no anesthetic and with dull tools — to assure that those women become less promiscuous in their adult years. The list goes on and on.
In our day a postmodern army has taken over the universities and is intent on instructing the young about the crimes that have been committed in the name of Western Civilization; it makes a point of insisting that our civilization is rotten at the core and that, in the name of "cultural diversity," students should learn about the superiority of other cultures. And all other cultures are ipso facto superior to our own, it is said. I dare say, Frazer's book is not on the reading list. Nor is any mention made of the practices of the Guaranis. Nor, in all likelihood, are the other practices mentioned above. The idea is to make a point and that point is that Western Civilization is the main, perhaps the only, source of the many ills that have befallen humankind. It is only we, in the West, who are capable of unconscionable behavior to our fellow humans.
I am as aware as anyone else of the atrocities that have been committed — and indeed are even today committed — by our culture. I am aware of slavery and the abominable treatment of women and children for so many years; I am also aware of the genocide that was practiced against the native people of this continent in order to bring "civilization" to the New World. I am aware of the atrocities that are committed, even today in the name of capitalism and "freedom" that have resulted in the widespread poverty of millions of people in this country alone in order that a few can become terribly wealthy. I am, in general, aware of the sins committed by Western Civilization as it spread across the globe in an attempt to "civilize" the rest of the world.
But I am also aware that capitalism has made it possible for many to have so much more than they would otherwise have; that Western medicine has prolonged life and made us healthier than humans ever were before. I am aware of the beauty and the magnificence of the cathedrals that tower far into the sky in the name of God and "peace on earth," and of the hundreds of thousands of beautiful works of art that are displayed around the world. As noted, I am also aware that the things we have done in the name of civilization are in many cases unconscionable. And it is this awareness, which applies to our own culture no less than it does to others equally barbarous, that is the result of the lessons that have been learned as Western Civilization was aborning. That includes the awareness of human rights — the rights of ALL humans. It also includes the awareness that such practices as Sati and clitoridectomies in young women are barbaric and violate universal moral principles such as the rights of all humans not to suffer needlessly. Finally, this awareness has raised moral outrage to a fever pitch in this country over the forced separation of children from their parents who seek asylum, forcing our would-be dictator to rescind his order and alter his plans — or so he says. That is to say, the awareness itself is the major prize of Western Civilization.
If we are going to teach young Americans to be more aware of the shortcomings of their own culture, it behooves us to also teach them of the strengths of their culture along with the shortcomings of other cultures. There is no such thing as "cultural superiority." No culture on earth is without its errors, blunders, and atrocities. Ours is not unique in that regard.
Tagged anthropoligy, cultural superiority, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, Western Civilization
Militant Multiculturalism
I have held forth on a number of occasions (too many, some might say) about the battles going on in the Higher Education since at least the 1960s when the wheels started to fall off. The battles take many faces but occur under the umbrella term "postmodernism," a new age that will replace the old. One of those faces is that of "multiculturalism," which has become increasingly militant and focuses on an attack against Western Civilization — regarded as the source of all major problems now confronting the world. It began with an attack on the "establishment" in the 1960s and expanded to take in the whole of Western Civilization, especially during the Viet Nam war, because of the West's consistent pattern of aggression and exploitation in an attempt to bring other peoples to their knees and force them to yield up their treasure — exacerbated by the presumption of greatness on the part of Western Europe and America and Western art, literature, and philosophy, in particular.
It's a movement that is well intended, to be sure, though it tends to dwell all too intently on the failures of the Western way of looking at the world. To be sure, there have been terrible mistakes, such as genocide, greed, slavery, pointless wars, and intolerance of other ways of looking the world. But in the tossing out process something precious is being glossed over and in the tizzy to replace the old with the new some important elements are being ignored or forgotten altogether.
Beaten down by this attack, for example, are the "Great Books" of Western Civilization which are now regarded as the villains in the drama, the source of the ideas that have made our culture rotten at the core — though one must wonder how many the zealots have bothered to read any of those books. Indeed, it is mainly dwindling numbers of old geezers such as myself who continue to spit into the wind while defenders of the New Age proudly display their ignorance and triumph in their new-won victories. Their goal is to "rid the world of colonial oppression," to convert students to one way of thinking, toss out the old, and pave the way to a new and more open way of engaging the world in an effort at what its called "globalization." And they are winning. Indeed, they may have already won.
One of the old geezers to have joined the battle in a rear-guard effort save the humanities — where these battles have been fought for the most part — is Anthony Kronman of Yale University who has written a book that describes the battles in some detail in an effort to save what remains and perhaps even to resuscitate the humanities as they lie dying in agony from self-inflicted wounds. His book, Education's End: Why Our Colleges And Universities Have Given Up On the Meaning of Life, points out some of the many ironies of the attack on the tradition that is being replaced. To begin with, there is the fact that replacing our culture with another, presumably superior, culture would require a total immersion in that culture, which is not possible — even in theory — for American students who have spent their lives inculcating scraps from the very culture they hope to displace. Furthermore, the attack on Western Civilization draws on the categories and ideals of that very civilization which also provides the intellectual framework, such as it is, for that attack. And ironically those ideas and ideals are endemic to most, if not all, of the cultures that are regarded by the militants as superior to our own from whence they arose. As Kronman points out:
"The ideals of individual freedom and toleration; of democratic government; of respect for the rights of minorities and for human rights generally; a reliance on markets as a mechanism for the organization of economic life and the recognition of the need for markets to be regulated by a supervenient political authority; a reliance, in the political realm, on the methods of bureaucratic administration, with its formal functions and legal separation of office from officeholder; an acceptance of the truths of modern science and the ubiquitous employment of its technical products: all these provide, in many parts of the world, the existing foundations of political, social, and economic life, and where they do not, they are viewed as aspirational goals toward which everyone has the strongest moral and material reasons to strive. . . . all of them, all of these distinctively modern ideas and institutions, are of Western origin. . . . The ideas and institutions of the West, liberated from the accidental limits of their historical beginnings, have become the common possession of humanity."
Moreover, as Kronman points out,
"The idea of tolerance [which the militants champion] finds support in many traditions, especially religious ones. But only in the modern West did it become — fitfully, hesitantly, but with increasing clarity and determination– an axiom of political life."
I have often noted that we seem to be throwing out the baby with the bath water, but those who would do the throwing couldn't care less as they reach left and right for the latest Western evil to be tossed. However, while there are indeed many reasons to feel disdain for our past, even terrible, mistakes that we in the West have made, there are also so many things that are worth saving and preserving. To be sure, the universities should be open to new ideas and make the students aware of the many cultures around the world other than their own — all of which also have made mistakes, by the way. But at the same time they should seek to preserve the best of what we have all learned from our own past in order to pass those things along. Healthy criticism is a good thing along with honest appraisal and a weighing of pros and cons, but a hysterical rejection of all things Western in the name of "tolerance" is itself the most intolerant view one can possibly exhibit.
Tagged Anthony Kronman, colleges, Humanities, postmodernism, tolerance, universities, Western Civilization, Yale University
I often wonder how many people outside the Academy realize (or care?) how severe the attack on Western Civilization is within the Academy as students and faculty on a growing number of campuses across the country have determined that Western Civilization is the source of most of the world's problems today. Indeed, I wonder how many people within the Academy are aware of the seriousness of the problem.
In a recent acceptance speech at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni annual banquet, one of the recipients of their "Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education," Ms Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Fellow at the John Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, paints a bleak picture indeed. She cites a battle at Stanford University in 2016 in which a group of students sought to reinstate a course requirement in "Western Civilization" that had been eradicated 25 years ago. The attempt was overwhelmingly rejected by the student body.
"In the run-up to the vote, one Stanford student [a young woman in this case] wrote in the Stanford Daily that 'a Western Civ requirement would necessitate that our education be centered on upholding white supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism, and all other oppressive systems that flow from Western civilizations.'"
The ignorance of this student's comment beggars belief and, sad to say, it is a view that is shared by what many think is the majority of students (and faculty) on today's campuses. Let's take a look at this comment.
To begin with, one course requirement would not result in an education "centered" on Western Civilization. The is what logicians call a "straw man" and it is a fallacy. The young lady would know this if she knew more about Western Civilization, since logic was first formalized by Aristotle and later refined by the Schoolastics during the Middle Ages. In any event, even if the course were required, it would not comprise the whole of the students' study for his or her four years. Moreover, there is no reason to believe that there could not also be a requirement in "Eastern Civilization" as well. But, more to the point, the comment ignores the benefits of Western Civilization that this student has chosen to ignore — if, indeed, she was aware of them. I speak of such things as women's equality, the abolition of slavery, individual freedom, religious tolerance, and freedom of expression (which makes possible ignorant comments like that of the student in question). As Ms Ali points out:
"One cannot dismiss the sum total of Western Civilization without losing one's moral compass. And one cannot participate meaningfully in the battle of ideas raging in the world today while dismissing the value of Western Civilization as a whole."
While there are many things to note and regret about the luggage that has been brought with them by folks who have struggled to create what we call "Western Civilization," and here we would have to acknowledge the half-truth hidden in the rhetoric of the Stanford student, we must insist upon a wider perspective and note the extraordinary beauty in Western art, the intellectual triumphs, the moral gains (as noted above) that form the warp and woof of Western Civilization. Perspective, when speaking of such a large issue, is essential. And this student has lost hers entirely (if she ever had it to begin with). To take an obvious example, capitalism, for all its faults, has made it possible for this particular student to attend one of the most prestigious universities in the world. She bites the hand that feeds her.
As one who has read, taught, and defended the Great Books of the Western World I have an obvious bias against this sort of blanket condemnation. But even if this were not the case, the intolerance built into the ignorant comment by this student would be disquieting. After all, college is a place where one broadens one's mind, not shrinks it — ideally. And the comment reflects the growing attitude on many college campuses across the country that results in the exclusion of certain "types" of speakers from appearing on campus, because they represent views that are regarded as unacceptable. This includes Ms Ali who was denied access to Brandeis University by militant students and faculty after initially being invited to speak about the crisis within Islam and receive an honorary degree. It is an attitude that has also resulted in the prohibition against saying certain words or thinking certain thoughts, an attitude that reflects a fascist approach to eduction — if this is not, in fact, a contradiction in terms. The "battle of ideas" requires that we keep an open mind.
My concerns are obvious to anyone who has read any of my blogs. But I do not think they are misplaced or even exaggerated. Higher education is supposed to be a place where the students do not learn certain things, necessarily, but they learn to use their minds to determine which things are worth knowing and which things are not. And a blanket condemnation of the whole of "Western Civilization" by a group of students at Stanford University who, we may assume, know little or nothing about that which they reject, is nothing short of presumptuous, if not arrogant. And the fact that the faculty at Stanford did not take the lead in determining which courses were to be required in the first place is also to be regretted, but not surprising in an age in which the students and the children are mistaken for those who should lead rather than follow. And here we have a graphic example of why they should not be allowed to lead.
Tagged American Council of Trustees and Alumni, Brandeis University, capitalism, Eastern Civilization, Harvard University, Stanford University, Western Civilization


text:
OWS Activist Found Guilty of 'Assaulting' Cop Who Allegedly Sexually Assaulted Her
Posted on October 15, 2020 by FASHIONISLANDBLOG
Cecily McMillan, the 25-year-old Occupy Wall Street organizer who was allegedly sexually assaulted and brutalized by a police officer at Zuccotti Park, is facing up to seven years in prison after—in what her supporters say is a cruel twist—she was convicted Monday afternoon of "felony assault" of the very police officer she says is her perpetrator.
"This threatens a chilling effect over protest movements going forward," said Stan Williams, media coordinator for Justice for Cecily, in an interview with Common Dreams. "I am so sad and raw right now."
After four weeks of trial and just three hours of jury deliberation, the verdict was issued Monday afternoon, and Judge Ronald Zweibel immediately remanded McMillan into custody pending sentencing, rejecting her lawyer's requests for bail.
The courtroom, which was packed with McMillan's supporters and approximately 50 police officers, erupted into cries of "Shame!" as McMillan was handcuffed. According to Williams, people who stood up were pushed down and told to be quiet, yet the crowd "continued to shout and yell."
"You could see Cecily over the heads of police officers who lined the front of the courtroom," he added. "She looked upset and in shock over the verdict. Then she was whisked away."
Williams said the scene was "extremely triggering" given the brutality of the March 2012 incident around which the trial orbited. According to a statement from Justice for Cecily,
McMillan is described by her supporters as "a 25-year-old organizer" who "has been politically active for over a decade — most notably in the Democratic Socialists for America, the anti-Scott Walker mobilization, and Occupy Wall Street."
She earlier rejected a deal from prosecutors, in which she would plea guilty to second-degree assault of a police officer in exchange for a recommendation from prosecutors for no prison time.
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McMillan's supporters have slammed Judge Zweibel for imposing a gag order on her lawyers and showing strong favor to the prosecution.
McMillan will soon be on her way to Rikers Island, said Williams.
According to The Guardian, "Hers is believed to be the last of more than 2,600 prosecutions brought against members of the movement, most of which were dismissed or dropped."
McMillan's supporters say McMillan will fight the verdict in an appeals court. According to Williams, there will be a rally Monday evening at Zuccotti Park, and there is a separate fund being collected for her commissary costs.
In a statement immediately following the verdict, Justice for Cecily declared:
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