text:
Cary Grant: What you didn't know
Millions have come to the U.S. to pursue the American dream and have endured much to have a chance to better their lot in life. Archibald Alexander Leach came from Bristol, England in 1920 and became a part of history in the Golden age of Hollywood. He epitomized the handsome, suave sophisticated leading man for decades. He arrived in Bristol on January 18, 1904, at 1:00 a.m. He was raised as an only child of Elsie and Elias Leach. He left this earth as Cary Grant one of the most famous actors in history. He had an older brother who died before he was born, and that death would haunt the family resulting in decisions and behavior with affected Cary his entire life.
I grew up with only small references to him, he was a retired actor by the time I was able to perceive his presence. To me he was Cary Granite on the Flintstones, 30 minutes of Father Goose when I was eight, and as an adult the actor in North by Northwest. It was not until the internet, and You Tube old movies I became aware of him. Yet now after getting to know who he was and his work I consider him profoundly extraordinary as an artist and a person. In fact, Cary Grant is a national treasure whether you like his style or not.
I was reluctant to tell his story as a person, but to honor him his story must be told. It seems to me at times we think those who are public do not deserve privacy. Since he has passed on, I will tell you parts of what I have read and learned from watching his movies. I have watched at least 25 of them from Sinners in the Sun to Walk, Don't Run. For the blog I have utlized his own account and that of a biographer Scott Eyman along with Carygrant.net that includes his story in his words.
My own recovery has taught me it can be difficult to recover from trauma in childhood. Knowing that made me appreciate him more. If you have suffered and worked through it, you understand the incredible nature of his story. He was raised with addiction, abandonment, and the profound grief of his mother. Cary had an older brother who passed before he was born, and his mother struggled with her grief. She struggled so much that his father committed his mother to a sanitarium, where she stayed for decades. Cary was told at first, she left and then she died. He was 9 years old at that time.
Upon his death bed Cary's father confessed his mother was still alive. Cary was about thirty-five, and it was just as his career was taking off in Hollywood. He later was reunited with a woman who he did not know and who did not recognize him. She lived until 1973 so there was time to get to know her later in life. Elsie was released and cared for financially by Cary, who visited her periodically. She lived on her own at least 20 years after that period.
. After Cary's mother was gone, he was left to fend for himself. His father was gone most of the time and had started another family in a nearby town. They were a financially modest family even before Elsie's disappearance. A teacher brought Cary around to the local theatres in Bristol. Cary ended up getting a job helping behind the scenes at 13-14 years old. He fell in love with performers, and the whole environment. It created a place to go where he was part of a "family." A sentiment he felt much through his life. He said once that he thought acting drew orphans looking for a family. Cary got permission to join a troupe of acrobats The Pender Group when he was "released" from school. He first forged a signature, but later Pender and his father worked out a deal. Cary would learn a trade, be cared for, and send money home weekly. He ended up caring for his family in a way he never saw as a child. The group toured though England performing. It was the Pender Troup that would get Cary Grant to New York City during the time of Vaudeville. Grant trained and performed from the Vaudeville era until the modern movie era. He could play the piano, sing, and perform acrobatic stunts. He was also a stilt walker, and one of his early jobs was walking on stilts at Coney Island.
Those around him said Cary was beautiful as a young boy. He was handsome when he got himself to Hollywood. The silent movies had given way to the "talkies" when motion pictures had sound. The famous Mae West was one of the first to help him get his start in the movies. He realized early on he need an approach and used his leading man good looks and skills for comedy, though he also acted in several dramatic movies as well. It was his personal struggles that drew me to his story. Some of the same issues were part of my own story, just without all the enormous success. To me it made his journey even more incredible.
When you are deprived and neglected in childhood it sets up situations of survival and creates behavior that is not easily changed. He was considered miserly by many, others stated he was just frugal. What I recently read is that even though he stopped school at 14 he had the wisdom and savvy of an MBA. Cary considered himself a businessperson and managed his career as such, he made his own financial deals.
As he aged, he struggled with his romantic relationships, so he tried to work it out with a therapist using L.S.D. It was an experimental procedure at the time. He used it for breakthroughs to hasten his recovery around women and relationships. There were rumors about his sexuality through his life. Two of his wives have come forward to dispute rumors. If he were alive today there would be no speculation, no one would care. His biographer Scott Eyman was thorough and covered it better than this blog. Frankly, it is not our business. He did end up having a good marriage with his last wife Barbara Harris who had nothing to do with show business, except him.
Archie created a character with the name Cary Grant. He did what many who come from traumatic backgrounds do, he reinvented himself. Many in Hollywood change their names for the business it seems the producers did not think Archie Leach had the same draw. He was talented, and handsome. He created a tall, handsome, sophisticated, and well-dressed leading man with a mid-Atlantic style accent. He made sixty-five pictures, becoming rich and famous. Personally, he often struggled between Archie Leach and Cary Grant. Grant once said no wonder his marriages failed; his wives had married a hollow man.
Friends said when he retired in the 1960's he began to relax and became happier with himself in general. He had a daughter Jennifer at 62 with Dyan Cannon, but the marriage did not last. Jennifer was adored by her father, and he focused on being the kind of parent he did not have. He finally wed Barbara who created a loving marriage with him, and Cary Grant had found peace. He died November 30, 1986, and there is no actor his alive that is his equal.
I appreciate how hard he worked to improve his lot in life and then himself as a person. It allowed me to understand his journey from a recovering perspective. Most people would have stopped with being rich and famous, but he worked too to improve himself. Though born in Bristol, England he became a citizen of the U.S. in the 1940's. He is a tremendous example of the human spirit's determination to succeed. He came from very humble roots and overcame those situations, he rose to become a Hollywood legend.
Cary Grant, "I have made over sixty pictures and lived in Hollywood for more than 30 years. Thirty years spent in the stimulating company of industrious, excitable, dedicated, loving, serious, honest, good people. Casts and crews. I recognize and respect them. I know their faults and their insecurities. I hope they know and forgive mine. Thirty years ago, my hair was black and wavy. Today it is gray and bristly. But today people in cars, stopped alongside me at a traffic light, smile at me!"
The Ultimate Cary Grant Pages, https://www.carygrant.net/
Eyman, Scott, (2020), Cary Grant: a Brilliant Disguise, Simon and Schuster
Posted at 09:59 AM in Books, Current Affairs, Film, Music, Television | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Actor, Archie Leach, Bristol, Cary Grant, England, Golden era of Hollywood, Hollywood, Legend
The Kennedy Assassination: 58 years later!
It has now been 58 years since the shocking and devastating assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The final documents of his assassination were set to be released during President Donald J. Trump's administration in 2018. President Trump postponed them to 2021 stating, "identifiable harm to national security, law enforcement, or foreign affairs." (Judd, 2021) Biden has now postponed the release of the documents until December 2022. Why? There are still people alive that could be held accountable. Agencies? Foreign nations?
A document from the released files in 2014 states: "The surgeon General's report on the assassination stated the first bullet entered the president's throat below the Adam's apple clearly showing there were two persons involved, two distinct wounds. The first shot being fired from the bridge across the park way in front of the car. To further substantiate this there was a bullet hole through the windshield of the president's car." (Staff Nat. Archives, 2014) This clearly disputes the findings of the Warren Report. Allen Dulles was on the Warren Committee and had been fired by President Kennedy. He was fired for the failed Cuba take over in the Bay of Pigs and the Algiers Putsch against French leader Charles De Gaulle. His motives were always suspect to all except those trying to distort or hide information.
The released documents also addressed the "single bullet" theory. The Warren Commission stated of the first two shots only one hit the car. The first shot missed, and the second shot went through Kennedy and then through Governor Connelly. The third bullet was the one to the back of Kennedy's head. That shot resulted in Jackie Kennedy climbing over the back of the car to retrieve part of the president's skull.
The surgeon who worked on President Kennedy at Parkland Hospital, Dr. Robert McClelland created a drawing which clearly showed two distinct injuries in President Kennedy's head, discounting the ruling of the Warren Commission. Senator Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania is credited with the "single bullet" theory of the shots fired that day at the motorcade. Here is how it goes:
The theory says that a three-centimeter-long (1.2") copper-jacketed lead-core bullet from a 6.5×52mm Mannlicher–Carcano rifle fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, passed through President Kennedy's neck into Governor Connally's chest, went through his wrist, and embedded itself in Connally's thigh. If so, this bullet traversed 15 layers of clothing, seven layers of skin, and approximately 15 inches of muscle tissue; it also struck a necktie knot, removed 4 inches of rib, and shattered a radius bone. It was found on a gurney. (Nat. Archives, 2016)
One of the reasons for some confusion is that in lower injury entry is the back, but the exit wound was hidden by a tracheotomy incision from a previous surgery. There has been much debate on the "single bullet" theory, which still did not explain the head wound of President Kennedy.
An analysis of the film taken by Abraham Zapruder who in his own words "filmed a murder" while just wanted to film the president visiting Dallas, disproved the "single bullet" theory. Governor Connelly identifies when he was hit in the frames of the movie. Which was later than what theorists of the "single bullet" theory claim. This blog was written to honor the 58th year since President Kennedy's assassination and introduce more actual evidence from the newly released files at the National Archives. It was not meant to debate the "single bullet" theory. However, it does present the idea that such a theory leaves much of the real facts out, even as we understand them today.
What is clear is that as more evidence is revealed, the Warren Report begins to resemble a work of fiction. My questions are these:
Will the rest of the evidence (documents) be released as Biden has promised by the end of 2022 or is that just more of an empty promise?
Why isn't the rest of the evidence being revealed now? Who are they trying to protect? All the committee members have passed away.
Are there people who could be held accountable that are still alive?
Was his assassination a result of his confrontations with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev?
Did the CIA get involved because of his potential interference in Southeast Asia liaisons? Was Kennedy committed to shut down the CIA? Who is William King Harvey? David Atlee Phillips? Howard hunt?
Would the evidence reveal our own people killed their president? The FBI? The CIA? Organized Crime? Lyndon B. Johnson? Were there conspirators like George H.W. Bush or other politicians?
Did Lee Harvey Oswald have anything to do with the shooting?
Will we ever know the true story?
It is still a profound piece of my own personal history, even though I was small. President Kennedy was killed because he tried to change a powerful bureaucracy that did not want to be changed. In another blog after the anniversary of his murder, I will explore what Kennedy wanted to achieve and what he did achieve. His death was so horrific we sometimes overlook his potential and real contributions to the United States.
Photos 1 Paragraph about wounds, National Archives
Photo 2, the drawing by Robert McClelland, https://nypost.com/2017/06/21/surgeons-sketch-suggests-2-gunmen-killed-jfk/
Photo 3. The memo about requesting documents, CIA, National Archives
Judd, Donald, (2021), White House further postpones disclosure of JFK assassination documents, citing Covid, CNN.com, https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/22/politics/white-house-biden-john-f-kennedy-documents-covid/index.html
Staff, (2014), Kennedy Assassination Collection full results, The National Archives and Records Administration, https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32144493.pdf
Staff, (2016), "Chapter 3" Warren Commission Report, National Archives. 15 August 2016. pp. 79–81.
Tags: assassination, bullet, CIA, Dallas, FBI, Kennedy, Magic Bullet theory, Soviet Union
Robert Bierenbaum, former plastic surgeon confesses he took wife's 'body out of the airplane over the ocean'
Ex-surgeon confesses he took wife's 'body out of the airplane over the ocean'
JOSEPH RHEE, KEREN SCHIFFMAN, GERRY WAGSCHAL and LAUREN EFFRON
Thu, October 21, 2021, 2:53 AM
Robert Bierenbaum, a former plastic surgeon who was convicted of murdering his wife in 2000, confessed to killing her and throwing her body out of an airplane after more than three decades of maintaining his innocence.
Bierenbaum, an experienced pilot who had been convicted on circumstantial evidence, was serving his 20 years-to-life prison sentence when he made the chilling confession during a December 2020 parole board hearing.
It was the first time he had admitted to the crime since his wife, Gail Katz, disappeared in 1985. Her body has never been found.
"I wanted her to stop yelling at me and I attacked her," according to a transcript of the hearing obtained by ABC News.
When asked how, Bierenbaum said he "strangled" her, and went on to say, "I went flying. I opened the door and then took her body out of the airplane over the ocean," the transcript said. He also told the board he killed his wife because he was "immature" and "didn't understand how to deal with his anger," according to the transcript.
His admission shocked everyone involved in the case, because it was the exact theory prosecutors had presented in court at Bierenbaum's 2000 murder trial.
"I was like, 'Holy s---, are you kidding me?'" said Dan Bibb, one of the prosecutors who brought Bierenbaum to justice. "I was stunned because I always thought that that day would never come, that he would own up, take responsibility for having killed his wife."
Bierenbaum remains in prison. His next parole hearing is scheduled for November.
Watch the full story on "20/20" FRIDAY at 9 p.m. ET on ABC
Robert Bierenbaum and Gail Katz together in 1982. (Alayne Katz)
When Gail Katz met Bierenbaum in the early '80s, he seemed like a perfect catch. At the time, she was in college and working odd jobs in Manhattan. He was a handsome surgical resident who spoke multiple languages, and had a passion for gourmet cooking, skiing and piloting small planes.
He was known for taking women on short flights for romantic dates. But his love of flying, and one flight in particular, was key for prosecutors to convince a jury that Bierenbaum was a murderer, someone who killed Katz in a homicidal rage and got away with it for 15 years.
"[Flying] is the crux of the story. I mean, it's the method that he tries to cover up his crime," said Steve Saracco, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney who prosecuted the Bierenbaum case with Bibb.
At first, their romance seemed "magical," said Katz's sister Alayne Katz, an attorney in New York state, but there were red flags. She said she went on a strange double date at a sushi restaurant, where Bierenbaum shoved food into her sister's mouth, then tried to do the same with her. Alayne Katz also said her sister called her one day, hysterically crying, because Bierenbaum tried to drown her cat in the toilet of their Upper East Side apartment.
"[She said], 'No, no, no, Alayne… we're gonna get rid of the cat and then everything's gonna be fine because he's gonna believe that I love him,'" Alayne Katz said. "And I'm like, 'No. Not really. You really have to get rid of Bob.'"
Even still, Gail Katz decided to go through with marrying him.
"My sister told me, 'I'm smart. I'm loving. My love will cure. This is going to work out,'" Katz said.
Robert Bierenbaum and Gail Katz seen here sharing a meal in 1984. (Alayne Katz)
MORE: Ex-principal who spent 33 years in prison for wife's murder fights to clear his name
Over time, Gail Katz's friends and family members noticed the marriage was growing toxic. Bierenbaum was very controlling and at one point a neighbor said Katz told him she didn't feel comfortable at home.
One night, Alayne Katz said Bierenbaum caught his wife smoking on their balcony and he choked her into unconsciousness. Gail Katz reported the incident to a police administrative aide at a local precinct but nothing came of it.
"If this had happened in 2021 … Robert Bierenbaum would have been in handcuffs immediately," Bibb said. "The fact that this was [1983] ... nothing was done about it."
She convinced Bierenbaum to see a therapist, who ended up writing her a letter suggesting she should get out of the marriage and he was concerned he might kill her. Still, her sister said, Katz brushed it off for a while, and told her sister she was planning on leaving him.
Then on July 7, 1985, Gail Katz disappeared.
Gail Katz is seen here in this undated family photo. (Alayne Katz)
Bierenbaum told her family and police they had a fight at their apartment and Katz stormed off. He claimed to have stayed home. Her sister wasn't buying his story.
"She's not with me, and she's not with my parents, and at that moment I know that my sister's dead," Alayne Katz said. "And if she's not alive there's only one person who is a likely suspect to murder her, and it's Bob. There's no other suspect."
Days turned into weeks, then months, and there was still no sign of Gail Katz. Meanwhile, Bierenbaum was spending more time out in the Hamptons attending parties and dating other women.
Eventually, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office picked up the case and it went to chief investigator Det. Andy Rosenzweig.
Knowing of Bierenbaum's love of flying, Rosenzweig checked with the New Jersey airport Bierenbaum liked to rent planes from and discovered the doctor had taken a plane out on July 7, 1985, but Bierenbaum had doctored his flight log to make it look like he went flying the next day. Rosenzweig's working theory was that the doctor had killed his wife and thrown her body into the Atlantic Ocean.
However, without a body, the DA's office told Katz's family at the time they didn't have enough evidence to pursue charges against Bierenbaum. The DA's office closed their end of the investigation without bringing charges and the police department's investigation fizzled out. Bierenbaum continued to live his life as a free man.
Then in May 1989, nearly four years after Katz's disappearance, a torso washed up on Staten Island. This was a time before DNA forensics, and investigators tried to see if it belonged to Katz using old chest X-rays.
"An X-ray technician compared this X-ray with the torso and said, 'This is Gail,'" Alayne Katz said. "Now … we have a body to bury. We have some closure."
MORE: Convicted killers in millionaire's love triangle murder case maintain innocence
By 1990, Bierenbaum had relocated to Las Vegas and opened his own plastic surgery practice. He started dating Dr. Stephanie Youngblood, a chiropractor, and she said their first year together was "perfect."
PHOTO: Stephanie Youngblood and Robert Bierenbaum are seen here in this undated photo. (Stephanie Youngblood)
"We went to medical black tie events ... we went on a lot of ski trips," she said. "To go ski in Argentina in August when it's 114 in Las Vegas was absolute heaven."
Once again, he seemed like a perfect catch. Youngblood said Bierenbaum joined an organization that flew doctors and nurses in and out of Mexico to treat children who needed medical care.
Robert Bierenbaum and Stephanie Youngblood worked for Flying Doctors LIGA International, which flew medical staff to rural communities in Mexico. (Stephanie Youngblood)
But over time, cracks in Bierenbaum's facade started to appear. Youngblood said he eventually admitted he had been married before, but said his wife had disappeared and he didn't like to talk about it.
"The way he told the story, it was believable," Youngblood said. "He goes, 'Listen, this isn't for public knowledge. I would really appreciate it if you kept this under wraps.'"
PHOTO: Robert Bierenbaum and Stephanie Youngblood seen here in this August 1990 photo. (Stephanie Youngblood)
But there were two incidents where Youngblood said Bierenbaum exploded with rage at her in front of other people. After the second time, she said she convinced Bierenbaum they should see a therapist, who recommended Youngblood end the relationship because her "life could be in danger with him." So she left him.
Stephanie Youngblood is seen here in an interview with '20/20.' (ABC News)
Bierenbaum started dating again and, in 1996, he married a Las Vegas gynecologist named Janet Challot. The couple moved to Minot, North Dakota, to start a new life together, and eventually had a baby girl.
No one in North Dakota knew about Bierenbaum's past, and in fact he had become somewhat of a local hero for saving a boy's life after he was bitten by a tiger at the North Dakota State Fair.
"He looked good, wore suits, loved his child, loved dogs, just all over all things that you think would be great characteristics," said Barb Cooper, who worked as a nanny for Bierenbaum.
Meanwhile, back in New York, Rosenzweig was nearing retirement and was looking into cold cases that still haunted him. The Gail Katz's disappearance case, which had been cold for 10 years by that point, was on his list.
In 1998, Rozenzweig got back in touch with her family. DNA forensics existed by then and he convinced the Katz family to exhume the torso they had buried years ago to have it tested.
"To our surprise, it came back that Gail Katz had been eliminated as a contributor of that sample," said Bibb.
When she heard the news, Alayne Katz said she was devastated.
"That little, little shred of closure that I had has now been ripped away," she said "I looked up at Dan [Bibb] and at Steve [Saracco], and I said, 'Now, you better get a conviction.'"
Alayne Katz is seen here in an interview with '20/20.' (ABC News)
Investigators decided to re-interview everyone from the case. They flew to North Dakota to speak to Bierenbaum and Vegas to talk to Youngblood, as well as other women Bierenbaum was known to have dated.
One interview that struck investigators was with one of Bierenbaum's former girlfriends from when he was still in New York City. She told them she was with him one night when he got a phone call from Port Authority police in New York City, saying they thought someone had found Katz. He told them he would call them later, then told her, "I doubt it's Gail," according to investigators.
With this evidence, coupled with the proof Rozenzweig had uncovered years before that Bierenbaum took a flight on the day Katz disappeared, investigators moved forward with their case.
PHOTO: Steve Saracco, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney who prosecuted the Bierenbaum case, is seen here during an interview with '20/20.' (ABC News)
MORE: 'Stanford murders' conviction renews hope for justice in 2nd alleged victim's cold case
In 2000, a grand jury indicted Bierenbaum for second-degree murder. Fifteen years after her disappearance, he was finally going to trial for his wife's death.
"We knew it was going to be the toughest trial that we'd ever had. No forensics, no eye witnesses, entirely circumstantial," Bibb said. "There was no foregone conclusion to this case, by any stretch of the imagination."
Dan Bibb, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney who prosecuted the Bierenbaum case, is seen here during an interview with '20/20.' (ABC News)
One of the biggest hurdles at trial for prosecutors was to convince a jury Bierenbaum could fly a small plane and push a body out of it at the same time, so they filmed a recreation of this exact scenario to show it was possible.
"I thought the demonstration with the airplane was extremely effective, probably one of the critical moments of the case," said Leslie Crocker Snyder, the judge who presided over the case.
Bierenbaum's defense tried to paint Gail Katz as an unstable woman with mental health issues and a drug problem, but her sister said none of this was true. They called a witness, a retired textile manufacturer, who claimed he saw Katz in a bagel shop days after she disappeared, but prosecutors were able to easily point out the woman he described didn't match her description.
After just five-and-a-half hours of deliberation, a jury found Bierenbaum guilty of murder.
"I'll never forget … squeezing my brother's hand and slamming it down on his thigh and saying, 'Guilty?' with a question mark at the end because, 'Did I just hear that?'" Alayne Katz said. "I was in shock … I was relieved."
He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. He made attempts over the years to have his conviction overturned but was unsuccessful. Then, after serving 20 years of his sentence, he made his bombshell confession.
When ABC News showed the transcript of Bierenbaum's confession to Alayne Katz, she said, "This is exactly the same man that I knew 35 years ago." He hasn't changed … he is incapable of a shred of remorse."
In honor of her sister, Alayne Katz said the nonprofit organization Pace Women's Justice Center was rebranded as Gail's House to bring greater awareness to domestic violence issues and provide resources to women. Katz said she allowed them to use her sister's name as a way to honor her memory.
"My sister's body has never been found … Gail doesn't rest anywhere," Katz said. "Gail's House … gave my sister a resting place. I feel my sister's spirit ... is here … warning others … inspiring others."
This article appeared on ABCnews.go.com
1975 Cold Case Solved: The murder of the Lyon sisters
On March 25, 1975, Katherine Mary and Sheila Mary Lyon went to the mall like many other girls. It was a cultural phenomenon, preteen and teenage boys and girls headed over to the mall to socialize with their peers. It became like a third home to many and provided a way for kids to get together after school. They shopped, ate at the food courts, went to a movie, or just walked around with their friends. Though Katherine and Sheila were slightly younger (10 and 12 years old) They still fit the demographic of kids that liked to go to the mall. Their mall was Wheaton Plaza in Wheaton, Maryland a suburb of Washington D.C.
Both the mother and father were comfortable as performers. Before moving to Maryland, Mary was in a folk band in Ohio, and John had a children's show there where he played guitar. In Washington, D.C. 1975, John Lyon was in a band, and was a D.J. on the radio at WLAM. It was an ABC affiliate in the Washington D.C. area. He was a local radio personality with a big following. Both parents were well spoken and witty. John had worked a night shift so March 25th he came home and went to bed. The mother Mary had gone bowling and the two brothers were at a friend's house. Mary came home later in the afternoon.
There was a two-year age different between Sheila and Katherine. Sheila who was twelve, did not always want to spend time with Katherine, so Mary was happy to see them go to the mall together. They had $2.00 between them for two slices of pizza. The girls left their home between 11am-12pm to walk to the mall about ½ mile away. They were on their way have pizza at the Orange Bowl Pizza Parlor. It was spring break and just before Easter, so the girls were excited to see the displays that lined the mall.
The day they went missing a man described as 50-60 years old and six feet tall was carrying around a brief case in the mall. It had a microphone and cassette recorder. He would stop periodically to record kids speaking from a script into the recorder. He was seen talking to the girls about 1p.m. outside the Orange Bowl. Their older brother Jay spotted them about 2:30 pm eating pizza inside the restaurant. Their curfew was 4 p.m. and their mother said they were always on time. She was raking leaves in the back yard when she began to get concerned as the sun was going down. That day the girls did not come home, in fact they were never seen again.
By 7 p.m. their mother knew something was wrong and called the police. Volunteers helped the police department look for the girls. Divers were summoned to search two ponds and a lake in the area. There were no signs of the missing girls. Most missing children in 1975 were discovered before 24 hours passed, so the Lyon's fed their two boys trying to stay positive their sakes.
Wheaton, Maryland was a sleepy little community in 1975, the idea that two little girls would be kidnapped off the street never occurred people who lived there. "It was just an innocent time and people never thought the worst," Harry Geehreng said. "Just the idea that a total stranger absconded with these two little girls, it was really beyond belief. People were genuinely shocked." Harry Geehreng was a Montgomery County police sergeant that searched the mall and the woods around the area after the girls disappeared.
A young girl about the age of the Sheila and Katherine came forward to say she saw a young man staring intently at the girls, so she went up and confronted him. He ran off. She described him as having long dark hair and scars on his face from acne. The young man named Lloyd Welch came back to the mall on April Fool's Day, 1975, spoke to a security guard. After being warned off getting involved in the issue by his mother, Welch got high on weed and provided a description of the same older man who was stopping young girls. The same man with a briefcase who was providing them with a script to read into the microphone. (Bowden, 2019) This fact would be meaningful in the years to come.
This case was known for false leads. Chasing down the 60-year-old man with the microphone led to Raymond Mileski, Sr. Raymond Mileski. He resided in Suitland, Maryland in 1975 near Prince George County that reported a man with microphone approaching young girls. Two years later in 1977 he murdered his son and wife. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison and informants turned on him stating he had something to do with the Lyon girls murders. There was never any evidence recovered in this specific case though he was accused of molesting young children both male and female at the Wheaton Plaza.
Within two weeks of their disappearance a witness came forward and said she saw two young girls that were bound and gagged in the back of a car. The witness got part of a license plate. The shocked community were talking on CB radios looking for the car, which led to another dead end. The case was reopened and looked at a few times in the decades to come with no solid leads. Fred Howard Coffey was convicted in 1987 of the murder of a 10-year-old girl in North Carolina. In 1975 he worked at Silver Springs, Maryland near the Wheaton Plaza. He was never charged in the case of the Lyon sisters.
Eventually a Sergeant Chris Homrock discovered the 1975 interview with Lloyd Welch in 2013. He believed that Welch had at least witnessed something as he was able to identify that Mileski walked with a limp. Also, by that time Welch had been convicted of child molestation, so the police began to look at Lloyd Welch as a suspect.
They invited him in for an interview and were afraid he would not speak to them. He did speak to them at length and revealed a web of lies that gave enough detail of the murders the police knew they had their killer. Between 1975 when Welch was 18 years old, and 2015 when he charged with the murder of the Lyon girls, he was convicted of rapes in three other states. 2015 Welch was indicted on first degree felony murder charges. Lloyd Welch pled guilty to the murders of Katherine and Sheila Lyon in 2017, however their bodies were never recovered. He was sentenced to 48 years each to be served concurrently.
John Lyons became an victim's counselor and Jay Lyons the girls older brother became a police officer.
www.wbal.com
www.pintrest.com
Bowden, Mark, (2019), The Last Stone, Grove Press UK,
Jouvenal, Justin; Morse, Dan (2014), "Inmate Lloyd Welch named as a 'person of interest' in 1975 Lyon sisters' case", The Washington Post
Andersen, Annie; Doss, Catherine (2017), "Man pleads guilty to murdering Lyon sisters in 1975, will serve 48 years in prison, WSET-TV
Staff, (2017), Lyon sisters case: Man pleads guilty to 1975 murders of two girls, CBS News, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lyon-sisters-case-lloyd-lee-welch-pleads-guilty-to-1975-murders-of-2-maryland-girls/
Staff, (2021), ten oldest cold cases ever solved, org, https://www.oldest.org/people/cold-cases-ever-solved/
Tags: abduction, cold case, Lloyd Welch, Lyon sisters, Maryland, murder, wheaton Plaza
"We can now say without fear of contradiction that, thanks to the Warren Commission critics Oliver Stone and the internet, the CIA's first version of the JFK Story- that the agency fully supported a serious investigation into the death of the president- is now discredited and defunct according to the agency (C.I.A.) itself." (Stone, 1991)
This blog focuses on the relationship between President Kennedy and Allen Dulles. Along with their relationship is the global relations Dulles had set up in Southeast Asia, and Kennedy's potential sabotage of Dulles' covert affairs. Were the issues enough to line up an assassination plot against President John F. Kennedy?
Allen Dulles ran the C.I.A. From 1953 through November 29, 1961. When he was in charge his brother John Dulles Foster was functioning as Secretary of State to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was reported there was little of the usual friction between the two agencies.
Kennedy issued an executive order placing cold war psychological warfare programs under the control of his national security. He then issued Presidential memoranda to implement Presidential executive control over covert C.I.A. operations through the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Kennedy wanted the release of information on MJ-12 (Majestic-12) and the C.I.A. covert operations sent to his office. Dulles responded with a letter including this statement, "For reasons of security, I can not divulge pertinent data on some of the more sensitive aspects of MJ-12. Activities which have been properly classified under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954." (Dulles, 1961)
On April 17, 1961, 1,500 trained Cuban 'freedom fighters' tried to oust Castro from power at the Bay of Pigs and failed. The C.I.A. who backed the operation and trained the troops faced extreme scrutiny from President Kennedy. That along with failed Coup D'état against French leader Charles De Gaulle led to the firing of Allen Dulles as Director of the C.I.A.
Allen Dulles had been an operator on the world stage since WWI. In the 1954 he had set up an agreement with Britain and France to keep Southeast Asia out of the hands of the Communists. Later Winston Churchill changed his position, taking Britain out of the agreement and later so did France as they still were in control of parts of Indochina. That same year the fight of Viet Bien Phu rebels made the area vulnerable to Communist takeover.
The C.I.A. negotiated with leaders and political platforms for certain candidates that supported the west. They manipulated the certification of election results. The C.I.A. was heavily involved with Southeast Asian politics, meaning Allen Dulles was heavily involved. In November 1963, the C.I.A. supported the Vietnamese generals who had staged a coup and set up a new American approved regime.
President Kennedy fired Dulles, wanted to place the C.I.A. agency under the control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and two days before he was assassinated Kennedy had accepted an invitation from Indonesian President Sukarno to visit spring of 1964. Dulles had other plans for Indonesia, and Kennedy could foil them.
Allen Dulles though not active C.I.A. at that time (it is claimed he still ran it) had planned a regime change in Indonesia through violence, to gain access to their natural resources. Dulles had lied to Kennedy and told him Indonesia did not have profitable resources. Indonesia has a valuable shipping lane next to the South China Sea, along with the largest copper and gold mine at Grasberg. Are these reasons enough for Dulles to have been considered a suspect in the assassination of Kennedy? Was President Kennedy a threat to the American's deep state?
In a book called the Devil's Chessboard leveled several accusations were leveled at the former C.I.A. Director. Among the accusations were that any agency connection to Lee Harvey Oswald was buried. While Oswald was arrested and killed Dulles was moved into 'The Farm' a secret C.I.A facility in Virginia. It is also leveled that Allen Dulles served the American Corporate and political elites. (Talbot, 2017)
After the assassination of President John. F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, a new president was sworn in, President Lyndon B. Johnson. Within one week on the 29th, he issued an Executive order #11130 creating the "President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy" or the Warren Commission. The commission was to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to head the commission. One of the six board members was none other than Allen Dulles. It is like hiring a fox to guard your hen house.
Allen Dulles even attempted to "strong arm former President Harry S. Truman when he dropped hints that an out-of-control C.I.A. might have been involved in Kennedy's murder." Later after the results of the Warren report were released, reports came out stating that the evidence given to the Warren committee from the C.I.A. might have been inaccurate. C.I.A Chief historian David Robarge issued a report in 2014 stating, C.I.A. officers were instructed to keep the agency focused on what the agency believed was the 'best truth' at the time, that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing John F. Kennedy. Are we really surprised?
Stone, Oliver, (1991), JFK, Warner Brothers
Staff, (1969), Allen W. Dulles, C.I.A. Director From 1953 to 1961, Dies at 75, New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/1969/01/31/archives/allen-w-dulles-cia-director-from-1953-to-1961-dies-at-75-allen-w.html
Salla, Michael E., (2009), President Kennedy's deadly confrontation with the CIA & MJ-12 over ET/UFO XFiles, exopoliticsjournal.com, http://exopoliticsjournal.com/vol-3/vol-3-2-Salla.htm
Dulles, Allen, (1961), MJ-12, Operations Review: The MJ-12 Project," http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/mj12opsreview-dulles-61.pdf
Fox, Will, (2019), Doubt and Deception: The public opinion of the Warren Report
Curtin, Edward, (2016), Allen Dulles 'Indonesia Strategy' and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, org, https://www.tribunal1965.org/en/allen-dulles-indonesian-strategy-and-the-assassination-of-john-f-kennedy/
Talbot, David, (2017), The devil's chessboard: Allen Dulles, the C.I.A., and the rise of the American secret government, org, https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/government-integrity/devils-chessboard-allen-dulles-cia-rise-american-secret-government/
Shenon, Philip (2014), "Yes the CIA Director was part of the JFK Assassination cover-up, POLITICO Magazine
Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Lyndon B. Johnson: "Executive Order 11130 – Appointing a Commission To Report Upon the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy," November 29, 1963". The American Presidency Project.
Posted at 12:13 AM in Books, Current Affairs, Film, Television, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Allen Dulles, Assassination, CIA, conspiracy theory, Indonesia, JFK, Kennedy Assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson, President, Warren Commission
Cold Case from 1956 Solved: Young couple at lover's lane murdered in cold blood
This is a story of two lovers and a cold case that dating back to 1956. It was a frigid January 3rd in Montana, and three boys were out hiking along the Sun River when they happened upon a horrific "Stand by Me" discovery. They walked up on the body of an 18-year-old teen named Lloyd Duane Bogle. He was lying near his car. He had been shot in the head and the killers used his belt to tie his hands behind his back. The car was still running when the kids discovered Bolger with one door open. Bogle was just out of boot camp and technical school. It was his first assignment at Malmstrom Airforce base in Montana.
Photo one-Patty Kalitzke and Lloyd Bogle
On January 4th, a road worker found the body of a teen age girl also shot in the head. She was found just north of Great Falls and the girl had also been sexually assaulted. She was identified as 16-year-old Patricia (Patty) Kalitzke. The two had gone on a date at an area known as lover's lane. The Tribune, a local newspaper described Bogle as an airman from Texas and Kalitzke as a junior at Great Falls High School. It went on to say they had fallen in love and were considering marriage.
The case went cold quickly, but the Cascade sheriff's office "poured their hearts into this case over the decades," remarked Sgt. Jon Kadner. (KRTV, 2021) It was through DNA genotyping the case was solved. Thirty-five different persons of interest investigated including the famous organized crime figure, "Whitey Bulger." Gangster Bulger was in the Great Falls area in 1950 and had been arrested for rape in 1951. Though when his DNA was evaluated against the sample from the victims, he was not a match.
Another famous killer Edward Wayne Edwards was included in the persons of interest. He was referred to as the "serial killer who framed others for his murders." He escaped jail in 1955 and travelled across the country. His DNA was not a match to the victims. He was accused of being the murderer of Elizabeth Short the 'Black Dahlia' and 'the Zodiac Killer' along with many other unsolved murders.
The 65-year-old case was solved with a single sperm cell by genetic genealogy. The killer turned out to be, a Great Falls resident named Kenneth Gould. He was a 29-year-old husband and father that worked a few blocks from Patty's home corralling horses. He sold his family property about a month after the murders. After his family travelled for time they settled in Alton, Missouri. He has no other records of crime throughout his life. Gould died in Oregon County, Missouri in 2007 and his DNA was traced through his children.
Photo two-Gould
The young couple were on a date and last seen at the drive-in restaurant in town about 9 p.m. They then drove to lover's lane near Wadsworth Park. It was the last anyone saw of them. KIRO news stated genetic genealogy is, "The technique in which a genealogist plugs a suspect or victim's DNA profile into a public genealogy database. This allows them to reverse engineer a family tree for the owner of the profile." (Bonvillian, 2021)
Barwood, George, (2015), Edward Wayne Edwards, https://ededwardsserialkiller.wordpress.com/
Staff, (2021), Cold Case Closed: 1956 murder of two young people in Great Falls, KRTV News, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk8WBP9-QBs
Bonvillian, Crystal, (2021), Double murder from 1956 now oldest cold case solved through genetic genealogy, cops say, KIRO News, https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/double-murder-1956-now-oldest-cold-case-solved-through-genetic-genealogy-cops-say/NNLY2M43SFCQ3MVL5LKHMHEA6M
Photo one-Lloyd Duane Bolger, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/138863894/lloyd-duane-bogle
Photo two-Gould, www.Kiro7.com
The Thames Torso Murders and Jack the Ripper
During the late 19th century London's East End was overpopulated with refugees from other parts of Europe. There were Irish immigrants fleeing Ireland's potato famine. In Eastern Europe and Russia there was ethnic cleansing or pogroms (riots focusing on assaulting or killing ethnic groups-Jews in this case) resulting in the Jewish population fleeing for England. At one point there were 150 synagogues in London. The streets of the End East in London saw its population living in deep poverty and overcrowding. The people were living in cold, dirty hovels. The area also had complicated social problems caused by the former issues.
The East End developed along the Thames River where the ships came in between Bishopsgate and Aldgate. Mapcarta defines the area as, "The East End is a district of inner London. The boundaries of the East End are not well defined, but for the purposes of this page it covers from the edge of the city to the River Lea in the East, and Shoreditch in the North." (1) The most prominent feature for this area that benefited immigrants were the docks. People arrived there, worked there, and lived near the docks. It was disproportionately hit disease and pestilence like the black plague in the 1660's.
In 1866 Cholera broke out and ran through the East End causing three thousand people to lose their lives. Families already struggling were left in a condition of destitution. They were living ithout male support and their orphaned children begged to survive or went to work in factories. At that same period there was also a revival of Christian churches with William Booth's tent revivals. The Salvation Army also joined in to spread the good word and aid the poor. The East End would be an area ripe with reformers, but that is a blog for another time. How it affected the community is that women left without support had to find the means to feed themselves and their families. Women were forced into a life of prostitution as a survival mechanism. This circumstance was in direct opposition to the moral dictates of the Christian revival movement.
During the 1880's the drastic poverty, and vast social problems created an environment ripe for crime to flourish. Of the crimes that flourished along the docks, one of the biggest targets were the destitute women who were barely surviving. "Whitechapel and Ratcliffe areas alone had 1803 prostitutes; and because of high mortality rates the 'working girls' became victims of crime at a disproportionally high rate". (2)
Whitechapel is a district in the East End defined by two streets that run through them, Whitechapel High Street and Whitechapel High Rd. Historic-UK.com states, "Whitechapel in the East End was like a festering sore on the face of Victorian London in the late 19th century." (3) In late summer and fall of 1888 Whitechapel would be made famous because of the murders of Jack the Ripper. Though they were not the only murders occurring at that time in East End.
The Thames Torso Murders were a set of four murders occurring 1887-1889. The first was the Rainham mystery. Late spring of 1887 the remains of a woman's body were discovered in the Thames. The woman's torso was found bundled up in a parcel by the workers in the area. Later other parts of her body showed up, all but her head and upper chest. There was specific medical expertise in the dismemberment of the corpse. There was no way to determine death, so they labeled her 'found dead.'
The second victim found was called the Whitehall torso murder. In fall of 1888 a set of remains were revealed at three sites in the center of the city. One place she was discovered would later become Scotland Yard Police Headquarters. An arm and shoulder were found first followed by a torso. A police surgeon matched the body parts determining they were from the same victim. A journalist Jasper Waring used a Spitsbergen dog to find the left leg that was thought to be part of the same woman. The leg was buried in a nearby construction site. (4)
Photo 1 Whitehall murder
Jack the Ripper's crimes were done in a small area, about a square mile and out in the open. The Torso murders victims were found in different areas of the city and could have come from anywhere. Not ruling out the sixty brothels in East End where widowed and abandoned women struggled to survive their brutal life. (5) Both the Ripper's and the Torso murders were thought to be prostitutes. The pubs of the East End were the offices where the prostitutes met their johns. Women on the edge of starvation that were so desperate they would take anything to survive. That put the women in positions of vulnerability, with no bargaining power.
Photo 2 Elizabeth Jackson
June 1889 the remains of Elizabeth Jackson would be found in several places. Her torso was first discovered in the Thames. Her left leg and thigh, her upper body, neck, and shoulders along with her buttocks and pelvis were found off Battersea Park. The first limb was discovered by three boys swimming on the Albert Bridge side of Battersea Park. The tide brought the limb ashore wrapped in a white cloth and the boys immediately took it to the police. Just as the police were examining the first limb a second was discovered at George's stairs at Horselydown. It turned out the be the lower half of a woman's torso. The wound's edges were ragged with blood still oozing around the edges. This told them she had not been dead long. It also contained an umbilical cord and placenta that revealed this woman had also been pregnant. John Regan was a laborer waiting along the water for the offer of work when he notice children throwing rocks at a wrapped-up parcel and flagged a police boat down. When examined by Dr. Bond the chief surgeon to the Metropolitan police, it seemed the limb and the lower torso were from the same person. It was wrapped in the same material as the first package tied with bootstraps.
Two days later, June 6, a gardener named Joseph Davis at Battersea Park discovered a package. It was in an isolated area, and he smelled it first. When he opened it, he found body parts and contacted the Battersea police. Telegrams were sent to police headquarters about the remains. They contained the following:
Upper part of woman's trunk the chest cavity was empty but had both breasts and was cut through the center. They thought a saw had been used to cut the chest.
Both kidneys
A portion of the intestines
A portion of the stomach
They were obviously more decomposed that the first two discoveries of body parts.
That same day Charles Marlow was working on a barge at Covington's Wharf just opposite of where the Whitehall torso murder happened the previous year. He saw a parcel floating in the water. The parcel was wrapped in a dark colored skirt tied with string. It contained:
Another portion of the upper part of a woman's trunk. Arms severed at the shoulder and head cut off close to shoulders. Chest cut in center like the one found at Battersea Park by the gardener the same day.
Some of the windpipe remained, but lungs were missing. The victim had light red or auburn hair as it was found on the body.
The woman began taking shape with items of clothing present in the package they were beginning to develop a visual piece of evidence.
The next day was Friday June 7th and several other body parts were turning up:
A section of the lower right leg and foot were picked up at Wandsworth Bridge in Fulham, wrapped in the same tweed Ulster coat found in some of the other packages.
The left leg and foot were found near Limehouse wrapped in the arm of tweed coat.
A liver and other body parts from the abdomen were found around the Thames. There was also now a search party along the river looking for more evidence.
A portion of lung was found at Palace Wharf, Vauxhall.
More pieces of clothing identical to what the police had were being discovered along the bridge area.
A female newborn baby was wrapped in ragged, filthy clothing and bedding and dumped in an underground station near Edbury Bridge. Based on the understanding there was a recent pregnancy it was thought this was Elizabeth's baby. Though no cause of death could be determined.
June 8th the left arm and hand were found in the Thames off Bankside, they were pale, delicate, and genteel. There was evidence of a ring on her left hand though it had been removed. So, at one time it was thought she was married. She had also been vaccinated. The limb was wrapped in brown paper and tied with string.
June 9th her buttocks and empty pelvis were discovered near Battersea Park. June 10, 1889, the final arm, and hand were discovered near Bankside. Her murder seemed to be motiveless according to Dr. Bond's findings. By the June 26, it was identified as Elizabeth Jackson. It was rumored that Jackson was a friend of one of Jack the Ripper's victims in Whitechapel.
There were two pieces of information withheld from the public until the inquest:
A piece of fine linen had been inserted into the back passage of the victim (her butt) It was the practice of some occupations, along with the costermonger's apron one of her hands was wrapped in.
She had been operated on after her death and her uterus removed.
In life they called her Lizzie, she was pregnant and came from Ireland, her father was John Jackson a stone mason and her mother was Catherine. Catherine came to the inquests into Elizabeth's death. Lizzie had been living with a man named John Faircloth and it was revealed that he was the father of her baby. He abused her or 'ill-used her" as they called it, did not marry her, and left her pregnant. He did not kill her and was nowhere near London, he was unaware of her death. He was brought down to London to testify to their relationship during the inquest.
Lizzie was 8 months pregnant and could not work so well, probably it was not comfortable for her to walk around Battersea Park. That is how the homeless lived at that time, they walked. She was unable to afford the "common lodging houses in the Chelsea area she was known to live in." (6) She slept in Battersea Park after they locked the gates to visitors. It is there they think she met her fate among the rough men that worked the docks. Her friend Ginger Nell warned her off staying at Battersea Park at night and sleeping outdoors.
At the inquest on June 17, Mr. Braxton Hicks stated, "the division of the parts showed skill and design: not, however, the anatomical skill of a surgeon, but the practical knowledge of a butcher or a knacker." A knacker was a person that removed or cleared away animal carcasses. The person who dismembered Elizabeth knew enough anatomy to separate body parts into pieces. The plugging of her pelvis and the costermonger apron 'hinted' at the killer's work. Costermongers sold fruits, vegetables, fish etc. from carts and barrels in the street. Elizabeth was identified, but her killer never was. She was identified by her missing status, hair color, the fact she was pregnant, her clothing and a scar from childhood on her wrist.
The last of the Torso Murders was the one that most resembled the work of Jack the Ripper. It was called the Pinchin Street Torso Murder. It occurred on September 19, 1889, when P.C. William Pennett discovered a woman's torso and arms under the railway arch on Pinchin Street, Whitechapel. Her womb had been cut out. There were no head or legs, and they were never found. There was no evidence the murder occurred where he discovered the torso. The remains were recent, meaning within a few days. A prostitute by the name of Lydia Hart had been missing for a few days and it was thought the remains could be hers. This fact was never sufficiently proven. So, the body of the woman could have been deliberately placed there to fuel Jack the Ripper hysteria. No cause of death was determined, and she was buried in East London Cemetery.
There were other well known murder cases in the later part of the 19th century. The Battersea murders 1873-1874 with body parts strewn across the same area as Elizabeth Jackson. I would argue for same murderer, but this was a time of diminished life expectancy due to poverty, and disease. These murders would have been 25 years earlier so probably not. Tottenham Court Road and Bedford Square Mystery also had similarities to other torso murders. In 1884 there was a skull found, along with flesh from a thigh bone. At the same time an arm was found in Bedford Square. The arm had a tattoo, so it was thought to belong to a prostitute. It was determined to belong to a woman.
Another interesting fact about these cases is that the person who dismembered the victims also had knowledge of how to divide a body like livestock. Remember this was late 19th century and the skill set might not have been so unusual. They carved up their own protein cows, sheep, chickens and alike. They did not get meat at Kroger's.
During this period women and children who were fighting for survival were the victims of horrendous crimes. It is why I stress throughout the blog I am that these were ordinary people at times thrust into extraordinary circumstances, like poverty, overcrowding and disease with little or no options. All these murders remain unsolved though many have tried to link them to Jack the Ripper. The Battersea murders were 15 years earlier, that alone could have taken him out of the picture. Jack the Ripper had a different, more precise skill set that seemed to focus on vivisection as opposed to that of a cattle butcher. For a reliable source of information about Jack the Ripper and other murders around the same time check out casebook.org.
Staff, 2021, East End, Mapcarta, https://mapcarta.com/London/East_End
Staff, (2007), Prostitution in Maritime London, https://web.archive.org/web/20071028091736/http:/www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.111/chapterId/2347/Prostitution-in-maritime-London.html
Johnson, Ben, (2007), Jack the Ripper, https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Jack-the-Ripper/
Bell, Neil R. A.; Bond, Trevor; Clarke, Kate; Oldridge, M.W. (15 July 2016), The A-Z of Victorian Crime, Amberley Publishing Limited
Cullen, Tom A. (1965). Autumn of Terror: Jack the Ripper: His crimes and times, Bodley Head.
Arif, Deborah, (2008), The murder of Elizabeth Jackson, org, https://www.casebook.org/victims/ejackson.html
"The Thames Mystery". Times [London, England]. 17 June 1889. p. 6.
Gordon, R. Michael (26 October 2009). The Poison Murders of Jack the Ripper: His Final Crimes, Trial and Execution. McFarland.
Gordon, R. Michael, (1952), The Thames Torso Murders of Victorian London, McFarland, and Company
Photo's 1, 2, 3 from Casebook.org, https://www.casebook.org/victims/
Tags: Battersea Park, Chelsea, dismemberment, East End, Elizabeth Jackson, England, Jack the Ripper, London, Murder, prostitution, Torso Murders
The Hook of Rejection: What do I do?
Rejection is defined by Cambridge dictionary is:
The act of refusing to accept, use, or believe someone or something:
The government's rejection of the plans is a setback for us.
It is also the act of refusing to be involved with another, in business, friendship and romantic relationships.
Rejection can make you feel:
It can cause great pain. It creates a wound as deep as a knife piercing your heart. When I am using tarot cards, the three of swords is a good depiction.
Photo one
It demonstrates the pain, almost betrayal feeling of the rejection. Good therapy has this to say about rejection, "According to research, the same brain pathways that are activated by physical pain are also activated by social pain, or rejection. Receptor systems in the brain also release natural painkillers (opioids) when an individual experiences social pain, the same as when physical pain is experienced.: (1) As far as the tarot goes, even though the depiction is severe there is an understanding that it is temporary, or this too shall pass. It is an event not a destination.
It now has a psychological name, Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) is an intense emotional response caused by the perception that you have disappointed others in your life and that, because of that disappointment, they have withdrawn their love, approval, or respect. (2)
In real life the pain can feel unbearable. When I first got sober and had a disappointment in a friendship my sponsor told me to sit through the pain, don't act on anything, talk to friends, and write about it. She also said if I did that, it would never be that bad again. She was right. I have experienced pain or rejection, but now I understand it and it is not as deep as it was the first time in sobriety.
It can cause symptoms like those experienced with PTSD. Rejection can lead to depression, especially in adolescence. The trauma can affect people psychologically. Children who feel rejected by one or both parents can find it difficult to succeed with relationships and in life generally. The fear they have of being rejected can trigger a response in which they refuse to be vulnerable. They will not want to risk rejection. OR….
It can also create a catch 22 pattern. This occurs when a person fears rejection and unwittingly sets up the situations that create it. It is evidenced a person gets involved with someone who is unavailable or falls in love too quickly. Then when the inevitable situation arises where they perceive rejection, it reaffirms their worst fears. It creates feelings of unworthiness, leading to behaviors that are destructive. An example of this is going from one bad relationship to another, hoping this one will save you, or be your soulmate. When really you are creating the same situations over and over. For a brief period in the beginning of a new relationships you have hope. This time will be different, then something happens, you feel rejected, and the process starts over again. Scientist Albert Einstein stated, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." (2)
Eating disorders and self-harming behaviors like cutting can also manifest from rejection. It can also aggravate situations that result in extreme anxiety. Abuse in intimate relationships can result from rejection or just the fear of rejection. People have murdered other people, fearing they would be rejected.
Now that I have said all that there is a solution. I am a spiritual person, so my solutions are spiritual in nature. In this case it is self-love, or the desire for self-preservation. We are after all spiritual beings having a human experience. I will go into self-love more in-depth in another video. This video will reveal my journey of self-love in this situation based on my work in recovery within a 12-step program.
As I stated the first time, I encountered my "peak rejection" experience in the first three months of my sobriety. It was not someone I was in love with but slightly dependent on. I had a confidant in those early difficult days. I spoke with him nightly; I came to rely on him. The relationship was plutonic, and I was ok with that. Until he suggested he was not really liking sobriety and he was going to start drinking again. I was so devastated and feared losing his company. I was not well put together myself at that point. I felt as if I would die, like it was a knife pierced my heart. I thought perhaps I should go drink with him. Luckily, I called my sponsor, and she pulled me down to earth. Basically saying, "You are going to give up your sobriety for a guy you don't know well, that wants to go drink?". I realized how absurd it sounded and asked what I could do about it. What could I do about this horrible thing that was killing me? She gave me the following suggestions:
First sit still and do nothing-tell that to a squirming mass of nerves
Go to an AA meeting and talk about it
Call people and talk about it
Write about it
Get enough sleep and eat well
Pray and meditate
She said the feelings would not kill me, and once I went all the way through them, they would never be that deep or scaring again. The most profound suggestion for me was to sit through the feelings and experience them. Like I said I thought they would kill me. Every day got easier, I never heard from him again, and I stayed sober. Though I have experienced great pain in sobriety it has never been that deep, and I have always known what to do with it.
There is another issue besides the ones I outlined, an emotional one. I call it the Hook of rejection. Have you ever dated anyone and thought, they are o.k. but I am not that interested, or you have just plain taken their inventory? Then they break the relationship off, "I am sorry I am not feeling it." Suddenly you feel rejection, disbelief, and outrage, when at first you didn't even care for them. You say things, I was just starting to care for him/her. You feel 'not good enough' and feel as if you want to keep the relationship going. That rejection creates an illusionary hook that makes the person more desirable. You may here yourself say, "If he/she just knew who I really am, or I will show her/him." I have read for people that become despondent over situations like these. It affects their self-esteem creating almost a victim mentality. No one will ever get me or love me…. That is extreme but I have seen it happen. So, when the person you don't like says its not working. Say thank you and move on. They have created space for someone you will like and whom with you will be able to develop a meaningful relationship.
One of the greatest things I got out of that experience is that feelings cannot kill you, I am capable of living through them, recovering and going on with life. This sounds a little dramatic I know, but I have spoke to men and women who are sure the feelings will kill them, and they must act on them. So, they call or text the beloveds 30 times or more in a day. The stalk their beloved's social media pages, sleep with people they don't like, spend money they don't have and various other self-destructive behaviors. Then they still feel bad and have created worse issues for themselves and the people around them. Again, there is real recovery. I personally did not formally date until I was 9 months sober, so by that time I healed the wound and was not dragging it around with me. Before recovery this was my normal pattern of behavior.
There are more complex spiritual issues around some of these behaviors. These are my experiences in reading people for the last 25 years, and in my own recovery. For me when I drank, I was a flight person. You know flight or fight? I would sabotage or leave relationships when they looked like they were going south. Because my thinking was so distorted, that seemed to happen frequently in my estimation. So, me sitting still through real painful feelings did lead to recovery. I am a spiritual reader, so if you would like to talk to me about these or other issues, connect with at the link below.
Staff, (2021), Rejection, Good Therapy, https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/rejection
Dodson, William M.D., L.F-APA, (2019), [Self-Test] Could You Have Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria? Attitude Mag, https://www.additudemag.com/rejection-sensitive-dysphoria-adhd-symptom-test/
Tweed, Carter, (2019), Einstein's insanity quote, alternate memories, https://www.alternatememories.com/historical-events/people/einsteins-insanity-quote
Photo one- Rider Waite Tarot can be purchased at angelicvisions-healing.com
Staff, (2021), Rejection, Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridg
Posted at 01:57 AM in Current Affairs, Religion, Science | Permalink | Comments (0)
Cold Case for 14-year-old Stephanie Issacson solved with smallest amount of DNA evidence
It was June 1st, 1989, about 6:30 a.m. in Las Vegas, Nevada. The temperature was a chilly 40 degrees Fahrenheit at that time, it would only get to 61 degrees in the afternoon. The sun rose about 15 minutes before Stephanie left her home. 14-year-old Stephanie Ann Isaacson grabbed her books and set out for El Dorado High School where she was a freshman. It was a route she normally took to get to her school.
When Stephanie did not come home that afternoon her father called her school wondering where his daughter was. It turned out Stephanie never made it to school that day. He then contacted her friends, and none had seen her all day. Upon calling the police an "exhaustive ground and air search was conducted". (1) About 8:40 p.m. near Stewart and Nellis Blvd in East Las Vegas, Stephanie's books and belongings were in what was then a desert area. There was a path she walked north to get to her high school, her body was found about 25 feet off the path. She had been murdered.
During the autopsy it was discovered that she had blunt force trauma to her head, and she was sexually assaulted. On top of those injuries her death was a result of strangulation. There was foreign DNA on her shirt, and it was tested both in 1998 and 2007. Though a profile was created, there was no match in the system to match it to, so the case remained cold.
Dedicated to solving the crime against Stephanie, over the decades the detectives identified several suspects and traveled to Washington, Texas, and Ohio to chase leads and interview witnesses. It would turn out that the perpetrator was much closer to home.
A retired marketing and advertising executive in Henderson, Nevada named Justin Woo, founded a nonprofit agency called 'Vegas Helps'. They provide 'acts of kindness' in the area. Woo revealed a friend introduced him to David Mittelman of Othram Labs. So Woo donated $5000 to the lab in order to fund testing for a cold case from the Las Vegas area. (2)
After contacting the Metropolitan police, they selected Stephanie's murder for the DNA test. Stephanie's case was chosen because of the limited amount of DNA they had to work with. At that time there was only 15 cells left because evidence had been used twice before. Over the course of seven months the lab was able to use genetic genealogy to identify the man who killed Stephanie, 23-year-old Las Vegas resident Darren Roy Marchand.
Kimberly Murga, the head of the forensics lab at the Las Vegas police department stated, "That testing consists of sophisticated DNA technology to identify thousands of different markers, to obtain genetic information associated with the killer in a homicide, an unsolved homicide, an unsolved sex assault, or even unidentified human remains." (3)
According to Ancestry.com, Marchand was born in 1965 in New York and moved to Las Vegas at 17. We know that because in 1982 he obtained a social security card enabling him to work in Nevada. 1986, Marchand was accused of murdering 20-something Nanette Vanderburg in her home. The case was later dismissed for lack of evidence. It would eventually be compared to the sample from the seminal fluid on Stephanie Isaacson's shirt and found to be a match. Solving a second murder by Marchand.
Also, in between the murders Marchand married a woman named Lisa Lorraine Bradford (20 years old) on January 21, 1988. She would divorce him by March 16, 1990. Darren Roy Marchand committed suicide July 1, 1995, just shy of his 30th birthday. So, the cold case would never go to trial.
Photo two
Stephanie's mother though grateful to know who killed her daughter is quoted saying, "It's good to have some closure, but there is no justice for Stephanie at all. We will never have complete closure because nothing will ever bring my daughter back to us." (4)
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, (2021), Homicide cold case Stephanie Isaacson solved, news conference, You Tube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ztb7hfvgHQ
Torres-Cortez, Ricardo, (2021), DNA testing reveals killer in 1989 strangling of Las Vegas schoolgirl, Las Vegas Sun, https://lasvegassun.com/news/2021/jul/21/dna-testing-reveals-killer-in-1989-strangling-of-l/
Best, Paul, (2021), Las Vegas police solve 32-year-old cold case involving teen's rape and murder, Fox News, https://www.foxnews.com/us/las-vegas-police-solves-32-year-old-cold-case-involving-teens-rape-and-murder
Ford, Alexis, (2021), Suspect in 1989 slaying ID'd using world's smallest sample of DNA evidence, Las Vegas Review-Journal, https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/suspect-in-1989-slaying-idd-using-worlds-smallest-sample-of-dna-evidence-2404059/
User sfr826, (2021), Suspect identified in 1989 rape and murder of 14-year-old Stephanie Anne Issacson, Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/CrackedColdCases/comments/oozhlj/suspect_identified_in_1989_rape_and_murder_of/
Photos one and two- https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/suspect-in-1989-slaying-idd-using-worlds-smallest-sample-of-dna-evidence-2404059/
Tags: cold case, DNA testing, Las Vegas, murder, rape, solved, Stephanie Anne Issacson


Think a diverse cast isn't "universal" enough?
Actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, far right, as American revolutionary Alexander Hamilton.
Imagine a film about one of our nation's great forefathers. He's a bootstrapping young man, born to white parents in the Caribbean, who came to New York to study. But, soon after his arrival, he leapt into the British colonies' nascent revolution. He advised Gen. George Washington, led a decisive battle in the Revolutionary War, passionately advocated for the Constitution's ratification, and served as the young United States' first Secretary of the Treasury.
Now, what if the actor playing this storied figure in American history is of Puerto Rican descent? And what if the other major players in the story -- Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Eliza Schuyler -- were actors of color?
In an industry currently under fire for lack of representation in all areas -- behind the camera and in front of it -- it's very difficult to imagine Hollywood would do anything but cast along expected racial lines. And sure, there's not much wiggle room in a retelling of actual historical events, if history is indeed a selling point.
"Hamilton" is among the five top-grossing Broadway shows this season.
Hollywood studio executives -- the people who decide which films are made and which are not -- are said to shy away from diverse casting in the name of telling more "universal" stories that appeal to the broadest audience. Too many, for example, black actors, and you have "a black film" that won't appeal to anyone but black people.
Yes, moviemaking is a risky business. Studios have bills to pay and stakeholders to please -- they need to crank out films that appeal to a lot of people just to make ends meet. Executives' presumption, though obviously flawed, is that whiteness is some kind of human default setting, and despite being a large part of the world off-screen, actors of color impede a film's attempt to speak to large numbers of ticket-buyers. For some reason, studios consider white actors not limiting whatsoever.
Actors Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler.
"Hamilton," though, spits in the face of that logic. The show's only white lead is England's King George III. Its titular character is played by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a Latino who wrote the script, flavoring the historical tale with hip-hop musical numbers. Other lead actors -- Leslie Odom Jr. plays Aaron Burr, Christopher Jackson plays Washington, Daveed Diggs plays Jefferson and Phillipa Soo plays Schuyler -- are all black or biracial.
At its heart, "Hamilton" is a white story told effectively and entertainingly by people of color. It's hugely appealing to Broadway audiences -- a group that, according to the Broadway League, is 80 percent white. It seems there's a lesson there for the entertainment industry at large: Actors of color aren't a liability.
Considering the inherent differences in their production, we have to admit that talking about Broadway success and Hollywood box office success may be an apples-to-oranges comparison. Take "The Wiz," a retelling of "The Wizard of Oz" featuring a black cast, for example. The stage production became a hit, winning seven Tony awards in 1975, yet the film adaption bombed at the box office. Hollywood and Broadway may simply be two different species of entertainment, each befitting certain types of stories better than the other.
But it's worth noting their similarities. Putting on a Broadway show is no walk in the park, either. Four out of five shows fail. We can imagine studio executives and Broadway investors sharing similar anxieties over their table at Per Se.
With stars threatening to boycott this year's Oscar ceremony in the name of racial disparity, it's unclear what it'll take before the tide turns, and the diverse reality of audiences' lives are actually represented in more of the stories we see on screen and other stages beyond "Hamilton's" Richard Rogers theater.
We can only dare studio executives to not come out of a "Hamilton" performance with the sneaking suspicion that a diverse group of people can tell great stories, too.


text:
Wanted: Good Looking Musicians For Flash Mob Performance In Unemployment Office
By John Zappe August 16, 2013 July 23, 2015
Can geeks be good programmers and developers and network admins, and also be good looking?
Everyone in The Social Network was, but that's Hollywood and Facebook. LinkedIn thinks no, and so did a bunch of IT and hacker-types, who, we are lead to believe, complained about the good looking women Toptal used in its job ads.
Now, this is the same group that rushes to download games like SoulCalibur, whose central character is the very busty, not to mention anatomically improbable, yet stunningly iconic Ivy Valentine. But never mind that. The harrumphing over the use of "suggestive" models in Toptal's ads prompted LinkedIn to block the ads and lock out Toptal, creating a public kerfuffle when the developer networking site's CEO blasted the action on the company blog.
"We saw extreme sexism within the tech community, from an industry leader and advertising partner that we work with quite extensively: LinkedIn," began CEO Taso Du Val.
As lawyers are prone to say, no one's hands here were entirely clean here. Toptal mixed real engineers with stock photos of models, and LinkedIn cavalierly turned off the ad campaign without a heads-up to Toptal. However, the picture in the ad here is of a real engineer.
Help Wanted: Nudity Required
Imagine, now, the apoplexy an ad headlined "Nude models wanted" would cause at LinkedIn. At least until someone read the fine print and figured out it was a call for infants.
The ad was part of a Quora collection of job ads that included some that would have the EEOC on the next plane. There's even a job-wanted ad from a convicted drug smuggler who points out in his ad that he co-owned and managed a $100-million, 120-person global smuggling operation. "I am en expert in all levels of security," the ad notes.
Whoever was behind the ad must have been reading those job-hunting guides that talk about the transferability of skills. But I wouldn't have played up my expertise in security; the job seeker was caught and sentenced to 10 years while everyone else got away. Personally, I'd go for logistics management.
Are You Inspired?
LinkedIn (yes, again) came up with an Inspiration Index, based on how its users score their answer (from 1 to 100) to "How often do you feel inspired by your work?" For recruiters and HR professionals the results are:
Hospitality – 76
Pharmaceuticals – 73
Education Management – 72
Financial Services – 72
Non-profit Organization Management – 71
Unemployment, Spanish Style
Imagine now if that question were asked in an unemployment office. Oh, right, they're there because they don't have a job, which is a good enough reason why, in Spain where unemployment is 27 percent, a flash mob choose that very location to offer inspiration of its own.
John Zappe
John Zappe is the editor of TLNT.com and a contributing editor of ERE.net. John was a newspaper reporter and editor until his geek gene lead him to launch his first website in 1994. He developed and managed online newspaper employment sites and sold advertising services to recruiters and employers. Before joining ERE Media in 2006, John was a senior consultant and analyst with Advanced Interactive Media and previously was Vice President of Digital Media for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group.
Besides writing for ERE, John consults with staffing firms and employment agencies, providing content and managing their social media programs. He also works with organizations and businesses to assist with audience development and marketing. In his spare time he can be found hiking in the California mountains or competing in canine agility and obedience competitions.
You can contact him here.
Advertising & MarketingLinkedInSurveysData, Metrics, & Analytics

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Budgets are formal documents that quantify an organisation's plan for achieving its goals & are expressed physical units or financial terms. Budgets translate goals & strategies into operational terms. Benefits include; improved decision making.
A Master Budget is a set of interrelated budgets (operating - cash - financial statement budgets) combining all divisions & activities (sales, production). A continuous budget is a rolling 12 month plan (each month a new month is added). A Static budget is a budget for a particular level of activity. A Flexible budget computes expected costs for a range of activity.
Operating Budgets involve sales, production & finished goods inventories.
Budget preparation beneficially promotes goal congruence (between managers & employees - incentives) & should be participative (total corporate effort & to provide a sense of responsibility – individuals setting their own standards will work harder to achieve them – but may lead to slack + over/underestimation in standard setting + pseudo participation), achievable, flexible, provide feedback & have incentives.
Budgets should define responsibilities & accountability which should be dependent on controllability (what the person can/has the power to control).
Positive behaviour occurs when the individual manager goals are aligned with the corporation & has drive to achieve them.
This page was last modified on 23 January 2013, at 19:36.


text:
FAOSTAT
Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Livelihoods (7) Apply Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Livelihoods filter
(-) Remove FAOSTAT filter FAOSTAT
Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Executive Summary
EPAR's Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy series provides a history of government intervention in the fertilizer markets of eight Sub-Saharan African countries: Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania. The briefs focus on details of present and past voucher programs, input subsidies, tariffs in the fertilizer sector, and the political context of these policies. The briefs illustrate these policies' effect on key domestic crops and focus on the strengths and weaknesses of current market structure. Fertilizer policy in SSA has been extremely dynamic over the last fifty years, swinging from enormous levels of intervention in the 1960s and 70s to liberalization of markets of the 1980s and 1990s. More recently, intervention has become more moderate, focusing on "market smart" subsidies and support. This executive summary highlights key findings and common themes from the series.
Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Côte d'Ivoire
In the decades following independence in 1960, Côte d'Ivoire stood out as a shining example of economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. GDP increased at an annual average of 8.1 percent from 1960 to 1979, led largely by cocoa and coffee exports. Low export earnings from a fall in world cocoa prices and a heavy public debt burden halted this growth in the 1980s, followed by civil conflict beginning in 1999. Three decades of focus on export crops rather than food crops also left Côte d'Ivoire with a growing food deficit. This literature review examines the state of agriculture in Côte d'Ivoire and the history of government involvement in the agricultural sector. We find that while the country is poised to reemerge from a decade of economic stagnation and civil war after signing the Ouagadougou Political Accord in 2007, the political economy of Côte d'Ivoire is still heavily dependent upon and influenced by the production of cocoa. Cocoa is the top export, and cocoa export taxes provide one of the largest sources of revenue for the Government of Côte d'Ivoire (GoCI). Cocoa is not heavily dependent on fertilizer inputs and growers have increased production by expanding cropland. The small contribution of fertilizer to the production of this essential crop may help explain the GoCI's low priority on expanding fertilizer production and use. Given that a large part of government revenue comes from the export of cocoa and coffee, the government has chosen to focus resources on crops that increase revenue. Even with the food riots in 2008, the GoCI has not made increasing domestic food production an important focus of agricultural policy.
Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Ghana
Agriculture is the most important sector in the Ghanaian economy. In 2008, it accounted for over 32 percent of GDP and employed over half of the labor force. Economic development in Ghana has historically been dependent on the success of agriculture, particularly the main export crop, cocoa. Despite the sector's importance, Ghanaian farmers have one of the lowest fertilizer application rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. The combination of a dominant agricultural sector, nutrient-poor soils, low fertilizer use among smallholder farmers, and the absence of locally produced inorganic fertilizers has prompted the government of Ghana (GoG) to intervene in the fertilizer market. This literature review examines the state of agriculture in Ghana, the history of the fertilizer market, and the current market structure. We find that the GoG has been a major actor in the inorganic fertilizer market over the past 50 years, from exercising total control of the domestic supply chain in the 1960s and 1970s to more indirect interventions in later years. In recent years, agricultural growth has averaged 5.5 percent as compared to 5.2 percent growth in the rest of the economy. However, most of this growth has been due to land expansion and favorable weather conditions rather than increased productivity. Increased fertilizer use among smallholder farmers has the potential to contribute to future agricultural growth and continued economic success.
Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Tanzania
In Tanzania, agriculture represents approximately 50 percent of GDP, 80 percent of rural employment, and over 50 percent of the foreign exchange earnings. Yet poor soil fertility and resulting low productivity contribute to low economic growth and widespread poverty. Chemical fertilizer has the potential to contribute to crop yield increases. Yet high prices and weaknesses in the fertilizer market keep fertilizer use low. This literature review examines the history of government interventions that have intended to increase access to fertilizers, and reviews current policies, market structure, and challenges that contribute to the present conditions. We find that despite numerous strategies over the last fifty years, from heavy government involvement to liberalization, major weaknesses in Tanzania's fertilizer market prevent efficient use of fertilizer. High transportation costs, low knowledge level of farmers and agrodealers, unavailability of improved seed, and limited access to credit all contribute to the market's problems. The government's current framework, the Tanzania Agriculture Input Partnership (TAIP), acknowledges this interconnectedness by targeting multiple components of the market. This model could help Tanzania tailor solutions relevant to specific road, soil, and market conditions of different areas of the country, contributing to enhanced food security and economic growth.
Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Senegal
Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa have often intervened in the fertilizer sector to promote more optimal levels of fertilizer use. Many West African nations, in particular, have inherited a legacy of government involvement, stemming from French colonial policies that encouraged state participation in the agricultural sector. Senegal's colonial past has influenced much of its present economy, from its principal export crop (peanuts) to its major food import (rice). The colonial legacy includes a relatively high degree of urbanization; limited domestic industrial capacity; institutions, policies, and agricultural networks focused on supporting a single export crop; and a history of state intervention into markets. After government intervention in the 1960s and 1970s, followed by a period of liberalization in the 1980s and 1990s, Senegal is again defining its agricultural policy. This literature review examines the state of agriculture in Senegal and the history of Senegalese agricultural policy in order to understand past and current trends in fertilizer usage. We find that Senegal continues to experience a high level of food price fluctuations as it imports increasing amounts of rice to cover its food deficit. Increased use of fertilizer, along with irrigation technology may help improve rice production and increase food security. To achieve this goal, the Government of Senegal (GoS) has embarked on several initiatives, notably the Agro-Silvo-Pastoral Law (LOASP) and the Grande Offensive Agricole pour la Nourriture et l'Abondance (GOANA), employing subsidies to increase fertilizer demand and making food sovereignty a national priority. In the coming years, GoS will need to determine what role the government should play in the agricultural sector, and what level of intervention can be sustained in the long-term.
Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Nigeria
Nigeria's experience with fertilizer subsidy programs has been different than that of other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria is one of the only African countries capable of producing fertilizer domestically. But Nigeria is also large and densely populated. This makes national agricultural policy difficult due to logistical problems with implementation and the unique fertilizer needs of the various agro-ecological zones. This research brief discusses the effects of Nigeria's input subsidy programs on maize production and fertilizer consumption. It focuses on the years 2000 to 2007, but also includes a discussion of Nigeria's subsidy history from the early 1970s to 2009. Researchers have had difficulty studying Nigeria's subsidy schemes due to a lack of data. In spite of decades of authoritarian, centralized leadership, Nigeria's states have significant power to implement their own subsidies. This complicates any evaluation of a program's effectiveness, in part due to the variety of subsidies at any given time, as well as inconsistent accounting practices.
EPAR Technical Report #35
Research & Development Finance for Agriculture in SSA
This report provides a general overview of trends in public and private agricultural research and development (R&D) funding and expenditures in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The request is divided into two sections, covering public funding and private funding. Within each section, relevant data is presented on historical funding patterns, the types of research conducted, and which countries within SSA are financing R&D at the highest level. We find that the majority of growth in African public agricultural research funding took place in the 1960s, when real public spending on agricultural research increased 6% a year. From 1971 to 2000 annual growth averaged 1.4% a year. Public financing of agricultural R&D experienced a moderate shift in the 1990s from bilateral and multilateral donor funding to domestic government financing. The shift varied by country, but donor funding dropped for all SSA countries an average of 10%. Private research and development funding is heavily concentrated in developed countries with the United States and Japan the two biggest spenders. Within SSA, private R&D expenditures comprise 2% of all R&D spending. The main private actors in SSA are companies based in South Africa and Nigeria. The private sector is focused on research areas that involve marketable inputs, such as chemicals, seeds, and machines/


Watch our video: Bee HEARsmart to find out more about tinnitus, how you can reduce your risk and manage your symptoms (click the CC button in the lower bar for captions). And if you want to know a little about the background to the animation, read our 2017 article in The Hearing Journal: Advancing Tinnitus Awareness through Animation.
itself can be an early indicator of hearing damage.
Given we exist to look out for the hearing health of young Australians, this is us! We want people to know how easy it is to reduce the risk of developing tinnitus and hearing loss. We also want to support anyone experiencing tinnitus to successfully manage it.
What is it? As Blake explains to Alex in the video, tinnitus is: "when you hear a sound – but that sound isn't actually there". The actual process or mechanism of tinnitus is not fully understood, but it is real, not imagined, and is often referred to as a symptom of the hearing system.
What does it sound like? Tinnitus is often described as ringing in the ears, but is also commonly experienced as buzzing, roaring, clicking and hissing. It can vary from a low roar to a high squeal in one or both ears.
How long does it last? For many people tinnitus is transient, it often disappears after a period of time. For others, around 10%* of the population, it is permanent and may be continuous or intermittent for these people.
What causes it? Exposure to loud sound is one of the main risk factors for developing tinnitus – though getting older and ear wax can also contribute! It can also be triggered or made worse by emotional events such as depression or anxiety, accident, and injury (not necessarily of the ear).
Who gets it? Anyone can experience tinnitus, but people exposed to lots of loud sound are at higher risk, hence musicians are 4x more likely to experience it than the rest of the population.
….so, do you have tinnitus?
NO – great, let's keep it that way! You don't have to stop playing or gigging or listening but think about how loud, how long and how often you are exposed to sound and take a look at our tips on how to Beeee HEARsmart so you can see how easy it is look after your ears. If you have any concerns, we recommend seeing an audiologist. They can keep an eye on your hearing levels and talk to you about strategies to keep your hearing healthy.
YES, but it doesn't bother me – this is pretty common, lots of people experience tinnitus as an occasional nuisance but it doesn't worry them too much.
YES, and it does worry me – there are ways to manage tinnitus and minimise its impact on your day-to-day life. We recommend seeing an experienced audiologist to work out a personal management plan. This might include sound enrichment, relaxation or meditation, or a variety of other approaches that can be tailored to your particular situation. We also recommend taking a look at our tips on how to Bee HEARsmart (we love that pun!) to help you protect your ears from here on.
* the incidence of tinnitus in general population and musicians has been the subject of much discussion, we have used a figure of 10% for the general population (as reported by Davis in 1995) and roughly four times that for musicians (reported variously by Kahari et al (2003), Maia & Russo (2008), Putter-Katz et al (2015), Patel et al (2008) and Schink et al (2014)).
To create this animation, HEARsmart worked with the extremely smart and very talented audiologists, Alison King and Emma Scanlan, from Australian Hearing and Siobhan McGinnity from the Univerisity of Melbourne Audiology and Speech Pathology Clinic, as well as Musicians 4 Hearing. What a pleasure!


text:
Q: How can I associate multiple domain name with one record in Route53? I am thinking to use AWS Route53 to balance traffic among multiple domain names. According AWS doc:
Associating multiple IP addresses with a single record is often used for balancing the load of geographically-distributed web servers. Amazon Route 53 allows you to list multiple IP addresses for an A record and responds to DNS requests with the list of all configured IP addresses.
it mentions that it can associate multiple IP addresses but how I can associate with multiple domain names? My use case is that I have multiple application load balancers from different AWS accounts. And I'd like to use route53 to route traffic to these ALB endpoints.
I have tried to create a CNAME with multiple domain name on the list but got an error:
InvalidChangeBatch 400: RRSet of type CNAME with DNS name rancher.crms.myzeller.dev. does not contain exactly one resource record.

How can I achieve it in route53?

A: This is happening because you're creating the record with Routing policy value Simple routing. Try using Geolocation or weighted to test it out first.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange