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In Defense of a Big Idea for Joint Warfighting
J.P. Clark
We, the United States Army, we are truly blessed to have the absolute greatest Navy and Air Force the world has ever known. When the bullets start flying, the Navy and the Air Force are the Army's best friend, and in my personal experience…neither the Navy nor the Air Force have ever failed the Army.
– Gen. Mark Milley, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Eisenhower Annual Luncheon, 4 October 2016
Since at least the end of World War II, an overarching trend within the U.S. military has been a long march toward a more integrated joint force. The creation of the Department of Defense and the Goldwater-Nichols Act are the highlights that garner most attention, but the present state of jointness also owes much to change achieved by more gradual degrees. Beginning with the desire to reap a post-Cold War "peace dividend," the pull of budgets declining faster than operational demands led to an understandable desire to cut seemingly redundant capabilities. This gave rise to what defense leaders such as Gen. Martin Dempsey and Adm. Jonathan Greenert have touted as joint force interdependence — "a deliberate and selective reliance and trust of each Service on the capabilities of the others to maximize its own effectiveness." The principle remains sound, but that is not to say that all earlier decisions made in its name are still valid. Deliberate and selective choices made in one operational environment might be unwise in a different context.
War on the Rocks recently featured an article by Col. Mike "Starbaby" Pietrucha on the emerging "multi-domain battle" concept. Both Pietrucha's article and multi-domain battle address the important issue of the present state of joint force interdependence against what it should be in the future. This might be one of the most pressing defense debates of our time. Before examining the concept, however, it is important to emphasize that multi-domain battle — an Army and Marine Corps effort — is still just a draft white paper that has not been released. With no primary, authoritative source yet publicly available, Pietrucha bases his description of multi-domain battle on two brief second-hand accounts of statements by Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley. The author uses that slim evidence to paint a misleading picture of the Army and Marine Corps' intent for multi-domain battle. His erroneous conclusions follow from there.
As such, it is important to provide a description of the most important elements of that operational concept as expressed in the draft version of the white paper. As the Army and Marine Corps continue to flesh out the white paper, it remains subject to change. Nonetheless, informed debate about multi-domain battle requires a shared, factual understanding of its contents..
Pietrucha provides a three-part critique of Gen. Milley's vision for a multi-domain capable Army: It ignores enemy capabilities, it cannot work given "existing force posture," and it is infeasible given the Army's "addiction" to airpower.
The first claim — that the Army is ignoring or understating enemy capabilities — is a serious charge. Fortunately, it is also baseless. Pietrucha offers no evidence whatsoever to support the claim either from the Army or any other source. The white paper proceeds from a view of the future operational environment that is broadly accepted by all of the services and, indeed, most military analysts: that all domains will be contested by increasingly capable adversaries who have closely studied the U.S. joint force and deliberately sought to counter its strengths. That opinion has been publicly stated by Gen. Milley in congressional testimony and annual statements to the force, as well as by Gen. David Perkins, commander of the Training and Doctrine Command, in his article describing multi-domain battle. Moreover, it is consistent with the views expressed by the secretary of defense, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the other services, and respected think tanks.
In his other two claims, however, Pietrucha is correct. The problem statement (as quoted in Kevin Benson's excellent commentary) on which multi-domain battle is based accepts Pietrucha's essential argument that U.S. ground forces are not well-postured to meet emerging threats and the reliance on airpower has gone too far:
U.S. ground forces, operating as part of a joint, interorganizational, and multinational team, are not sufficiently trained, organized, equipped, nor postured to defeat highly-capable peer enemies to win in a future war.
Yet Pietrucha errs in assuming that because something is currently the case it must always be so. The purpose of a concept is to lead to change by proposing different approaches that can then be rigorously tested, refined, and — if validated — implemented. Concepts are the start of a long process that will take years and perhaps decades before they come to fruition in the form of doctrine, organizations, and equipment, often in forms somewhat different than envisioned at the outset . The conceptual work underpinning the successful AirLand Battle doctrine, which culminated in the 1986 edition of Field Manual 100-5 and was used so effectively in Operation Desert Storm, began over a decade earlier when the Army studied the lessons of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. In the process of developing AirLand Battle, the Army refined its understanding of the military situation and made some mistakes, including the maligned "Active Defense" doctrine. But that might have been a necessary way station on the path to a better solution to a complex, difficult problem. Thus, a critique of a concept because it envisions some future beyond current capabilities entirely misses the point. Concepts advance thinking, push boundaries, and explore new approaches to drive innovation.
All the services are thinking through the implications of more contested domains, a sign of a cross-service consensus that future challenges demand new approaches. The Air Force's Air Superiority 2030 Flight Plan from last year warns that a combination of trends "threaten the Air Force's ability to provide air superiority at the times and places required in the highly contested operational environments of 2030 and beyond." In September, the commandant of the Marine Corps approved a new operating concept that lays out some significant changes to existing practice because the current Marine Corps is "not organized, trained, and equipped to meet the demands of a future operating environment." That document identifies the "contested maritime domain" as one of the key drivers of change requiring adaptation. In October, the chief of naval operations fired a shot across the bow of his service on the matter of anti-access/area denial strategies. He wants a more aggressive service culture ready to steam into harm's way and battle for contested spaces. Multi-domain battle is a complementary effort by the Army and Marine Corps rather than a service-parochial struggle over a share of the defense budget. It is completely consistent with these other efforts to adapt to a changing operational environment.
As currently conceived, multi-domain battle offers three components of the solution that will be tested and refined with future development. The first is to "create and exploit temporary windows of advantage." This acknowledges that some adversaries will be so formidable that it will be necessary for the joint force to "stack" complementary effects across all domains in order to achieve local advantage. In other words, tougher enemies require the American military to bring every possible weapon and tool to bear against a critical or weak point to crack a stout defensive position. Even then, the enemy will be able to react and close that window of advantage — hence "temporary." The implication of this for the Army is that it needs to explore what cross-domain capabilities might best contribute to the joint effort.
Multi-domain battle contends that joint combined arms operations will often be the most effective and efficient means of opening these windows of advantage by employing asymmetric means. The power of these means will be magnified when they are employed in concert to create tactical dilemmas for the enemy. To give one possible example, rather than having an F-35 fly into the teeth of a sophisticated enemy air defense system, long-range ground-based cannon, rocket, and missiles can destroy enemy surface-to-air missile or radar sites far behind enemy lines. Army assistance with air defense suppression can free an F-35 to then employ its sensors against an array of deeper targets, while cyberattacks help to degrade enemy air forces by attacking their command and control and support networks.
This is a case of back to the future. The fundamental idea of cross-domain effects from the ground is not new. During the Cold War, the Army had a valued role in the joint suppression of enemy air defenses (J-SEAD). In the absence of a threat comparable to that of the Soviet forces poised to attack western Europe, those skills have atrophied. As adversaries have developed longer range and more capable air defense systems, the United States must improve the range of its surface-to-surface systems to play a role in J-SEAD. Such a modernization is already necessary, as potential adversaries enjoy a significant advantage over the United States in the range of their surface-to-surface systems.
White papers do not answer detailed questions about how much services should invest in cross-domain capabilities or the precise method of their employment. As multi-domain battle becomes a formal concept, wargaming and experimentation will cast light on these questions, informing future decisions about the relative costs and benefits of the various alternatives. But the proposition that the entire U.S. military benefits when services gain greater capability to assist the larger effort in other domains is a sound starting principle.
The second component of multi-domain battle is the restoration of "capability balance" and the construction of "resilient battle formations." As Pietrucha notes, over the last several decades, the Army took advantage of virtually guaranteed American air superiority to reduce its artillery and air defense capabilities in favor of meeting other, more pressing demands. But conditions have changed and American ground forces soon may have to operate under unfriendly skies under some specific conditions. The size and scope of this new problem depends on many variables such as the degree to which one side or the other achieves surprise; the point at which the scenario takes place within the course of the campaign; and the composition, posture, and quantity of both friendly and enemy air forces.
There is no question as to the U.S. Air Force's unmatched capabilities. Nonetheless, a sophisticated enemy operating close to home, exploiting favorable geography, and executing a no-notice, snap campaign could achieve local air superiority for a time. Multi-domain battle considers that possibility and the consequent need for the Army to revisit these earlier decisions to divest most of its artillery, air defense, and electronic warfare capabilities. At no point in the white paper does the Army take the position that it can achieve air superiority from the ground, as Pietrucha states. Assertions to the contrary are untrue and divert dialogue from more fruitful questions. For example, under what conditions might adversaries achieve local air superiority? How likely and how dangerous are those scenarios? What capabilities do ground forces require to provide acceptable levels of protection in those conditions? Similar questions need to be answered in relation to the other domains.
The final component of multi-domain battle is to "alter force posture to enhance deterrence." In an operational environment in which all domains are contested, forward-deployed ground forces and pre-positioned equipment and supplies offer many benefits. Pietrucha emphasizes the importance of air and naval forces in getting people, equipment, and supplies from point A to point B. To my knowledge, this is not in dispute anywhere within the Department of Defense. Arguably, the Army has become more dependent on other services as potential adversaries have the ability to contest strategic lines of communication. It is thus prudent for the Army to consider ways to solve or at least mitigate that problem. Altering force posture is one option. Obviously, units already in place do not require transport across contested strategic lines of communication, therefore eliminating an adversary's ability to completely exclude U.S. ground forces from a region. In the early days of a crisis, when relatively small amounts of military force can have a disproportionate influence on events, this could be the difference between deterrence and war. But forward-positioned forces with cross-domain capability can assist the larger joint effort by shielding air- and seaports and threatening or pushing back the adversary's anti-access/area denial systems. Just possessing the capability to attack and counter threats complicates enemy planning and risk calculation and can have an deterrent effect. For example, the Air Force's new emphasis on distributed basing is a smart reaction to a changing environment and proof that existing posture is not an unalterable condition. Ultimately, the operational and strategic benefits of altering force posture must be weighed against the political and financial costs. In the process of developing the formal multi-domain battle concept, the potential benefits of forward basing and the capabilities required to realize those benefits will become clearer. That, in turn, will enable informed decisions about both future posture and capabilities.
In summary, multi-domain battle is the conceptual basis for the Army and Marine Corps to adapt to a changing world. Its animating principle — enhancing cross-domain capabilities to mitigate emerging operational challenges and offer more solutions to joint force commanders — is sound. Many of the details of how best to man, train, and equip the Army to achieve that aim require further work, including close collaboration with other services. If I have provided a basis for constructive discussion along those lines and whetted appetites for the Army-Marine Corps white paper, then I have accomplished my goal. It is important that readers have the basis to assess its soundness for themselves. It remains to be seen whether multi-domain battle becomes a multi-service concept, though the multi-service enthusiasm displayed at a panel at the recent Association of the U.S. Army annual conference bodes well for future joint collaboration. Regardless of the fate of the multi-domain battle "bumper sticker," I predict that every service will do all it can to assist the joint force in other domains while remaining the master of its own.
Lt. Col. J.P. Clark is a U.S. Army strategist whose assignments include service in the Republic of Korea, the West Point Department of History, Iraq, the Pentagon, and the United Kingdom. He holds a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University. He is the author of Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815-1917, published by Harvard University Press. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army or the U.S. government.
Image: DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Daniel DeCook


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Home Internet Uber Is Working On Slashing Spending On Incentives And New Hires
Uber Is Working On Slashing Spending On Incentives And New Hires
Last week's quarterly earnings call from the company contained both good and bad news: Uber's reported revenue of $6.9 billion for the first quarter of 2022 was a staggering 136 percent increase over the same period last year.
Juanita Benson
Uber Is Working On Slashing Spending On Incentives And New Hires.
This year, Uber intends to tighten its purse strings. Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of the ride-hailing company, said in an email to employees obtained by CNBC that the company would cut back on spending due to a "seismic shift" in investor sentiment.
The first to go in marketing and incentives, also known as Uber's various perks for customers and drivers such as sign-up bonuses and ride discounts. Although Khosrowshahi didn't mention layoffs in the e-mail, he did state that any new hires at the company would be considered a privilege.
MORE FROM RAVZGADGET: New 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Trailer Shows A Certain Sith Lord Being Assembled
"We have to make sure our unit economics work before we go big. The least efficient marketing and incentive spend will be pulled back. We will treat hiring as a privilege and be deliberate about when and where we add headcount. We will be even more hardcore about costs across the board," wrote Khosrowshahi.
Last week's quarterly earnings call from the company contained both good and bad news: Uber's reported revenue of $6.9 billion for the first quarter of 2022 was a staggering 136 percent increase over the same period last year.
Demand is clearly returning to pre-pandemic levels. However, the company also lost $5.6 billion as a result of its numerous investments, which included overseas ride-sharing apps.
Uber frequently acquires or buys a stake in local competitors. However, as the Chinese ride-hailing company Didi discovered, this strategy can backfire. Last year, Uber sold its stake in Didi after its value dropped by $2 billion in a matter of weeks.
The transportation app company is also looking to speed up the sale of its 29 percent stake in Russia's ride-hailing platform Yandex.
Uber's incentive program has increased new driver sign-ups and ridership while also causing the company to incur significant losses. Last August, the company reported a $509 million loss due solely to its heavy spending on sign-up bonuses used to entice drivers back on the road.
MORE FROM RAVZGADGET: Spotify Joins The Metaverse With Spotify Island On Roblox
The ridesharing platform intends to focus even more on Uber Eats and its new Freight program, which allows businesses to ship packages. Uber's delivery business generated $2.5 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2022, and the company now has a record number of merchants.
"Investors are happy with Delivery's growth coming out of the pandemic and see that we have performed better than many other pandemic winners. I must admit that was a bit of a surprise for me because I firmly believe Delivery should be growing even faster," Khosrowshahi wrote.
#DiDi
Juanita Benson loves following technology inventions and stories a whole lot before being hired by Ravzgadget to start writing instead of just reading. I see this rare opportunity as golden. Thanks to my new team.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home / News / Press Releases / News & Events / National Centre for Atmospheric Science joins new national partnership for climate solutions
National Centre for Atmospheric Science joins new national partnership for climate solutions
The National Centre for Atmospheric Science is joining forces with other leading UK climate science organisations to develop a new national alliance focused on climate solutions for society.
The UK National Climate Science Partnership (UKNCSP) brings together seven Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) supported centres, and the Met Office, to respond to threats posed by our rapidly changing climate.
The UKNCSP members will combine their capabilities in climate change observation, prediction and impacts. The partnership will also build new multidisciplinary collaborations that are required to develop and evaluate climate solutions.
Recognising the urgency of climate action, in the context of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference – COP26, the partnership will play an important role in embedding climate science in the government's mitigation and adaptation plans.
The partnership will also work with the public and private sectors to ensure that decision makers and business leaders have access to the climate information they need, in order to manage the risks of extreme weather events, meet net-zero targets, and build a climate-resilient UK over coming decades.
"At a time of rapid climate and technological change, the UKNCSP will enable a new solutions-focused approach to climate science. By pooling the power of the UK's wide-ranging capabilities in climate observing, prediction and impacts, we can shape a world-leading, strategic partnership that is driven by policy and decision-making needs. Governments and businesses urgently require quantitative information about the potential impacts of climate change on people, places and resources."
Professor Rowan Sutton, Director of Climate Science at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science.
The partnership will enhance the UK's capability by extending observational and modelling approaches, developing the use of new technologies, establishing major programmes of trans-disciplinary research and providing training for a new generation of policy and decision-makers and expert intermediaries.
Who are the UKNCSP members?
The UKNCSP brings together the NERC-supported centres and the Met Office. The seven NERC-supported research centres are: British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, National Centre for Atmospheric Science, National Centre for Earth Observation, National Oceanography Centre, Plymouth Marine Laboratory and UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
How will the UKNCSP be different to previous ways of working?
The UKNCSP aims to enhance the UK's climate science capabilities and build multidisciplinary collaborations that are required to meet emerging needs for climate policy advice and solutions to the challenges of net-zero and building a climate-resilient United Kingdom.
The Met Office and NERC-supported research centres have a long history of productive collaboration in climate science – specifically in numerical climate modelling. This new partnership will build on these strong foundations to integrate key observational capabilities with models to more effectively monitor and predict the evolving UK and global climate, and emerging impacts of climate change. It will also forge partnerships with experts in other science areas, such as agriculture, health, economics, engineering and human behaviour, to develop the evidence required to inform solutions.
How can universities contribute to the UKNCSP?
Building strong partnerships with UK universities is a high priority for UKNCSP. University experts already make vital contributions to the UK's capabilities in climate science. The UKNCSP aims to enhance existing collaborations as well as building new multidisciplinary collaborations that are required to address emerging needs for climate policy advice and solutions. Engaging with UK universities and the wider UK science community will be a key initial activity for the partnership.
What can businesses expect from the UKNCSP?
Businesses increasingly are rising to the challenges and opportunities of climate change. To do so effectively, they need robust information – informed by the latest observations and models – about the impacts of climate change on assets and operations, and the associated risks. The UKNCSP aims to ensure that the UK science community is at the forefront of providing this climate information, including by working with partners to ensure that information is made available in decision-relevant forms.
What will the UKNCSP offer government and public sector organisations?
The UKNCSP aims to play a leading role in developing an end-to-end "climate decision value chain" that connects climate data and analysis of vulnerabilities, impacts and risks directly to the design and assessment of policy options. This will enable a clear line of sight from climate science to policy impact and ensure that UK decision makers benefit from the UK's investment in its world-leading science and cutting-edge technologies, and from up-to-date multidisciplinary scientific advances.
What are the next steps for developing UKNCSP?
The UKNCSP is developing plans to engage with UK and devolved government, public and private sector decision makers, and the wider UK science community, to establish future needs for the national capability in climate science and the requirements and opportunities to build an effective climate decision value chain.
How is the UKNCSP resourced?
Initial funding from the partnership comes from the Met Office and NERC Centres aligning relevant National Capability activities to address the shared goals of the UKNCSP. As the partnership develops, the partners will seek opportunities to fund new projects from public and private sector sources.
UK climate science supports new £10M green finance research centre
Long-term Global Change


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Iraq bow out of U-17 World Cup
HomeNewsIraq bow out of U-17 World Cup
Ali Al-Fakhri October 17, 2017 0
Iraq have been eliminated from the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup following a Round of 16 defeat against 2015 finalists Mali. The Cubs of Mesopotamia could not keep up with the physicality of the African outfit, who comfortably won the match 5-1.
The first half saw end-to-end action with both teams creating chances, however the Iraqis efforts were futile. In contrast, the Malian side was very effective, scoring the first goal in the 25th minute by Hadji Drame, after great play from the left-hand side. Striker Lassana N'Diaye doubled the advantage with a diving header after the half-hour mark.
The second half saw Iraq try to get back into the game, but the Malian defence was resilient and managed to control the tempo of the match. The former African champion scored a third through a fantastic strike by Fode Konate. Our youngsters still tried to get back into the game and were rewarded in the 85th minute when Ali Kareem scored to make it 3-1. However, the team lost focus and Seme Camara capitalised by scoring in the 87th minute and assisting another in the final moments of the game.
Iraq clearly missed striker Mohammed Dawood, who was suspended for this match; the team was toothless in attack and his absence was noticeable on the team. Despite the defeat, this marks Iraq's best ever participation in the U-17 World Cup – a huge improvement on Iraq's previous participation where they finished bottom of the group without a single point in 2013.
To relive our group stage run that saw us finish ahead of Mexico and Chile, read our previous article here.
Tags: Iraq, U17 World Cup
About Ali Al-Fakhri
Basrawi residing in Qatar. Ali is an aspiring business student with a huge passion for everything football. Formerly of Al Ahli Academy in Qatar, Ali makes sure on keeping tabs on all Iraqis abroad in the hope of watching them bring success and glory to themselves and their great nation.
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Q: A macro failed to use decltype(X) in g++ I've written a macro --- swapMacro and its 2 sub macros as below.
#define swapMacro( X, Y) swap_Macro1( X, Y, decltype(X) )
#define regTMP tmp ## __LINE__ ## __FILE__
#define swap_Macro1( X, Y, ARG_TYPE ) \
do { \
  register ARG_TYPE regTMP; \
  swap_Macro2( (X), (Y), regTMP); \
} while( 0);
#define swap_Macro2( X, Y, T) \
{ \
  (T)= (X);\
  (X)= (Y);\
  (Y)= (T);\
}

And here is the code to test them.
int a= 110;
int b= 220;
{
   register int t;
   swap_Macro2 ( a, b, t);  // works perfect, only 2 mem/r + 2 mem/w operations
}
swap_Macro1 ( a, b, int ); // works, as same as swap_Macro2
swapMacro ( a, b); // this one works if cflag -std=c++11 is set

int *A= new int(10);
int *B= new int(10);
A[0]= 330;
B[0]= 440;
swapMacro ( (A[0]), B[0]); // failed, even -std=c++11 is set
swapMacro ( A[0], B[0]); // failed, even -std=c++11 is set. However, the solution provide by Anton Savin solve it

But if I use Visual C++ 2010 to do that again, all 3 macros work, although they all need 3 mem/r and 3 mem/w operations ( watched from the debugger windows).
I wonder if there is any proper syntax to write swapMacro(a,b) for use of g++ ?

A: As I wrote in a comment, your code works for me. However, I believe the reason for the error is that you added extra parentheses somewhere, like this:
swapMacro ((a), b);

In this case, decltype(X) becomes decltype((a)) and that is not int now but int&.
To fix it you can change swapMacro definition by
#define swapMacro( X, Y) swap_Macro1( X, Y, std::remove_reference<decltype(X)>::type )

That said, I don't quite understand the purpose of all these macros and why you don't just use std::swap().

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Robert Isidor Örn, född 2 januari 1824 i Kuolemajärvi, död 25 juni 1885 i Helsingfors, var en finländsk ämbetsman. Han var far till Werner August Örn

Örn blev student 1840 och auskultant i Viborgs hovrätt 1847, justitierådman i Viborg 1852, politieborgmästare i samma stad 1855, representerade Viborg i det så kallade januariutskottet 1862 och vid lantdagen 1863–64, då han var talman i borgarståndet, vilket värv han på ett framstående sätt fullgjorde, samt utnämndes 1865 till direktor för generalguvernementskansliet i Helsingfors. På sistnämnda post gjorde hans ämbetsmannaförmåga sig så mycket mera gällande, som han genom sitt vinnande väsen i hög grad förvärvat sig generalguvernören greve Nikolaj Adlerbergs förtroende, varför dennes åtgärder, i synnerhet vid besättandet av högre ämbeten, ofta torde ha berott på Örns uttalade mening, Örn utnämndes 1874 till senator och vice ordförande i senatens justitiedepartement, fick samma år geheimeråds titel och upphöjdes 1876 i adligt stånd. År 1877 begärde han till följd av sjukdom avsked från sina ämbeten.

Källor

Borgarståndets lantdagsledamöter
Finländska ämbetsmän under 1800-talet
Finländsk adel
Finländska innehavare av geheimeråds titel
Personer från Kuolemajärvi
Födda 1824
Avlidna 1885
Män
Svensk uppslagsbok

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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There is a whole lot of information on how to write a synopsis. Go on, google it. I dare you.
See what I mean? YouTube videos, DVDs for sale, virtual racks of books, tweets galore from the #amwriting strand. What is the point of synopses, really? I've been to a bunch of panels with agents. I'll bet you have, too. Agents have different takes on them.
At the first panel I attended, an agent said a synopsis was to check that the writer had finished the book. Clever! At a later panel, an agent said that it was to see if there was an ending, and what the ending was. Note to those whose synopses end in ellipses! But many a writer is told off for having, indeed, submitted their finished book – hurrah – with a synopsis that does not match it, a synopsis that tales a different tale. Which comes first – the book you write or the book you want to write… or the book you meant to write?
Well, the book is the egg, of course, but sometimes there's a chicken of a synopsis impelling you to write it. I had a reading of my first draft from The Literary Consultancy. To learn more about what they do for you, why not visit my professional development blog for East Kent Live Lit, where they spoke at a recent networking event.) OK, advert over. The reading I received, from the generous Sara Maitland, told me that my draft did not match my synopsis and that without said synopsis she wouldn't have actually known what happened at the end. Seems I sank under the weight of my own imagery there in the final chapters… Come on, it happens to the best of us!
Now that I'm a few drafts older, it's time to square up to the old synopsis and slap it around a bit. But maybe, actually, I should buy my synopsis a drink. That was Meg Davis' advice, anyway, from MBA. (Another from that link above) She said a synopsis should feel like the writer is at the pub just telling the story. That's all it is. Just tell the story. What happens, then what happens next. Easy, right? You've written the book. You know what your story is… don't you?
Sometimes the story changes in the writing of it. Make sure your synopsis keeps up with it. Then, just tell the story.
Well, that's the plan, anyway!
On rejection…
No one ever said this would be easy. I'm editing the first novel, in the process of finding a home for it, and wishing I were writing the second novel. Which is greedy. The cat cries for tuna when he has a bowl full of dried food and I tell him – what's the problem? You've got food. But, it isn't the food he wants.
Editing is like dried cat food. It just sits there until you finish it. Going stale. New projects are tuna, full of juice, when anything is possible. With dried food… not so much. And the longer you leave the new project, the fear you'll lose the juice that you know is there, if only you had more heads.
I got my first "no" on my first novel today. Ouch. Still, I'm grateful for the agent's time in reading it, and grateful to be told "no" rather than being ignored. Bubble Cow told us today that "every rejection is a step closer to publication." Today, I'm not feeling it. Still, my butt's in the chair and I'm – well, I'm blogging, you can see that – but I'm squaring up to that dry bowl of pages to be edited, to prune and polish until they shine. Until they cannot be refused.
No one ever said it would be easy. Some books and sites say there is a magic formula. We're smarter than that. We know there is not. There is only this screen, this chair, this cup of tea, these words…


text:
Essays and Talks
Publications and Articles
[Second Opinion] Remembrance of typhoons past
by Gideon Lasco
Typhoons were a big part of my childhood. Surrounded by the forest trees on Mount Makiling, our apartment in the UP Los Baños housing area was particularly vulnerable to the storms' effects.
The anticipation for a coming storm began with Ernie Baron's prognostications on "TV Patrol," in which he would point his weatherman's stick at the Pacific in order to show the position of the looming storm. As the storm entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility, it would acquire a Filipino woman's name ("Rosing," a strong one, was particularly memorable, it being the name of my paternal grandmother).
Signal No. 2 sufficed to cancel classes in elementary school, but sometimes even after Signal No. 3 was raised there would be blue skies, or just some cloudiness, in which case we would play our favorite outdoor games: patintero, siato, or taguan. Otherwise, we would just stay indoors. Looking back, I would attribute my penchant for reading books to the many days when there was nothing else to do.
The apartments — a housing project for UP faculty — were thankfully sturdy, but because we were surrounded by trees, even a slight wind could cause a branch to fall on electric wires, cutting off power. And so even before the first gusts arrived, we already expected "brownouts," which sometimes lasted for weeks.
After the storm, we the neighborhood kids would scour the forest for sticks that we could use for siato; the best were from fallen branches of kape and kamagong. The brownouts — and trips to a water outpost a few kilometers away — may continue for days or weeks, but everything else was back to normal. I didn't realize it then, but looking back, it must have been a tremendous effort on my mother's part to make sure that we could go back to school—with ironed uniforms and packed lunches—despite the lack of electricity.
My childhood experiences are just one thread in the Filipino struggle to face the storms that come our way. Safe in their mansions and gated villages, some children may never even have heard the ominous sound of a fierce gust of wind; a typhoon's sole consequence will be to have no classes. For others, however, the experience is far worse.
A few years ago, a typhoon swept Laguna and felled many trees, including most of my maternal grandmother's rambutan. When my mother visited her the next morning, my Lola Belen was in a state of shock, unable to process the sight of so many fallen rambutan days before they were to be harvested. How much more shocked, I thought, are Filipinos who wake up to destroyed houses, or those who could not sleep because of floods? Typhoons call us to empathy — a realization that the blind force of nature affects people differently—and we have to factor in others' experiences, not just our own.
I was reminded of this on a recent trip to Tacloban, where my friends opened up about their experiences of living through "Yolanda." They said: "It wasn't the typhoon per se that devastated us, but the aftermath. People were not people anymore: Some were willing to kill for a sack of rice. And the stench of dead bodies permeated the air for several weeks…" As they proceeded, it became clear to me that the full impact was beyond narrative.
Even so, Tacloban itself has risen, and my friends show no sign of defeat. "It makes you stronger, knowing that you lived through Yolanda," one of them said. What shines through in their accounts, like a candle in a dark stormy night, is a resilient spirit: one that we can neither romanticize nor underestimate.
"What do you do," I once asked an old woman in Catanduanes, "when the roofs are detached?" She laughed. "We chase after them," she said, perhaps half-jokingly. "And nail them back." Which reminded me of what my Lola Belen told me in the wake of the storm, weeks later: "We will plant new trees. It will only be a matter of time when there be rambutan again."
With our planet's climate changing, and our future ever more uncertain, I fear that there will be stronger typhoons, with greater impacts, ahead of us. But I know enough of the Filipino people to say that we are capable of weathering any storm.
Originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer: http://opinion.inquirer.net/105538/remembrance-typhoons-past
Posted by Gideon Lasco at 8:43 PM
Labels: disasters, haiyan, los banos, reminiscences, resilience, tacloban, typhoons, yolanda
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by Gideon Lasco, MD I was with my family in a restaurant in Tagaytay, and the discussion went to wine. My brother-in-law, an American w...
The apocryphal Fernando Pessoa and the imagined Pope Francis
I admire Pope Francis greatly, but the "Being Happy" passage attributed to him and going viral in the Philippines is not by him, but is t...
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"...the crater lake at the end of the trail was shaped like a heart." by Gideon Lasco Winner, Palanca Awards 2017 (Second ...
The eye of the storm and the blind eye of international media
Image: CIMSS via Stu Ostro on Twitter by Gideon Lasco I have mixed feelings with the way the Philippines has been covered by intern...
Making sense of "Bawal umihi dito" signs in the Philippines
by Gideon Lasco, MD Bawal umihi dito : It is an ubiquitous injunction in urban spaces, often boldly painted onto walls, and it translat...
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Tara Culton is a mental health advocate, speaker, and educator. She is Creator of "Talks with T". Through her work Tara shares aspects of her journey through the silence, the stigma, the struggle, and the triumph of experiencing mental health illness while serving in ministry.


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But with any new technology or process comes uncertainty and skepticism. With water reuse, improper treatment of the reclaimed water can create public health issues. To help address questions about these systems, NSF/ANSI Standard 350: Onsite Residential and Commercial Water Reuse Treatment Systems was developed. This standard sets clear, rigid, yet realistic guidelines for water reuse treatment systems. With a key focus on public health and appropriate water quality criteria for reuse applications, this is the first standard of its type for comprehensive evaluation of water reuse technologies.
NSF verifies that all design and performance requirements of the standard have been met, and confirms through testing that effluent reuse water meets stringent quality criteria for designated uses.
For a list of NSF-certified onsite water reuse systems, please visit the NSF wastewater products database.


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Zeitschriften-Projekt im Englischunterricht der 7d
31.05.2016 Berichte aus dem Schulleben Erstellt von Wiebke and Annika, 7d
In the last few lessons our class, the 7d, made English teen magazines in groups of two. Our teacher gave us some examples for topics that we had to do. Every group created a magazine with more than six pages. We made it in school and at home, too.
We wrote about an interview, film and chart news, problem corners and horoscopes. Some groups also added a crossword puzzle, a picture story or an ad. All the groups needed to do a cover page and to find a name for the magazine.
It was much work, but we had a lot of fun! One pupil said: "I liked it because you can be creative but it was a lot of work." Another pupil said: "It was a nice change from normal lessons."
Written by Wiebke and Annika, 7d
Zugeordnete Dateien
16.05.31.Zeitung_6.jpg 466 KB


Galerie Nathalie Obadia is honored to present Italian artist Gaetano Pesce's first exhibition in Belgium. Born in 1939, in La Spezia, the famous architect-designer is also an inspired visual artist. Since the early 1960s, his polymorphous oeuvre has set itself apart on the international art scene by its political engagement and its experimental dimension, both of which are addressed with true freedom of style.
For his first solo exhibition in Brussels, Gaetano Pesce presents a selection of recent works (2014-2019), which he juxtaposes with several older works (1996-2007), thus covering over twenty years of artistic creation. All of the chosen works have the following in common: they are made of multicolored resin, one of the materials he first experimented with in the early 1980s and to which he has stayed faithful ever since.
When Gaetano Pesce completed his architecture studies at the University of Venice, in 1965, the discipline was still largely dominated by the international style of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. This geometric and cold vision of architecture, which extended to the decorative arts with the Bauhaus's functionalist research, did not suit Gaetano Pesce, who did everything in his power to distance himself from it. Early on, he developed a very different approach, one that was at once figurative, poetic and colorful: it was relatively provocative at a time when everyone swore exclusively by abstraction, minimalism and monochrome.
Based on this fundamental difference, Gaetano Pesce cultivated his singularity and built his success, which came as early as 1969, with his armchair Up5, created one year after the May 1968 events. It is the seminal model of his series of Up Chairs and displays all the anthropomorphic features that the artist would incessantly go back to. "This realization allowed me to express my vision of women. Always sedentary, she remains her own prisoner, in spite of herself. The shape of this armchair, which evokes the generous curves of a woman, held down by a ball and chain, allowed me to refer to the traditional image of an inmate." Up5, with its baroque, sensual curves and playful shapes, covered in fabrics characterized by bright and cheerful colors, humorously and ironically shifts away from the undoubtedly political and dissenting nature that was at the origin of his vision. This now-iconic armchair, which celebrates its fiftieth birthday this year, embodies the mischievous ambiguity that has always animated Gaetano Pesce's work.
Gaetano Pesce's ongoing interest in new technologies and his experimentation with materials led him to create works, as early as 1983, made entirely of colorful translucent resin. Following his Pratt Chairs (1983) and his furniture collection titled Nobody's Perfect (2001), some of the new pieces he designed were particularly poetic. One such example is Lagoon Table (2012), presented at Galerie Nathalie Obadia. The title does not refer to a coral atoll. Rather, the table constitutes an ode to the water that covers the sandbanks of the Venice lagoon, recognizable here from the famous bricole, these robust wooden poles that serve as signals to direct Venetian maritime traffic.
Apart from Skins, a series of intriguing paintings that stand independently from the rest of his artistic production, all the exhibited works—the table, the cabinets, or even the organic vases—can be edited in up to five different color variations. However, each is considered a unique work, because of the artisanal manufacturing process. The starting point is an original drawing by Gaetano Pesce, from which a wooden prototype is realized, which is then transposed to a rubber mold. Once the resin is dyed—the results are never the same—it is poured into the mold and evened out with a spatula. The very manufacturing process, which rejects any mechanical gesture and banishes the idea of repetition, takes advantage, aesthetically, of the imperfections of the material and forms, the same way it holds randomness and uncertainty as essential artistic contingencies.
This type of formal and stylistic flippancy generates a creative universe that exudes a rare freedom and fantasy. After over forty years of creation and long freed from all stylistic conventions, Gaetano Pesce pursues his singular and engaged artistic trajectory, by waging a "systematic attack against monolithic cultures and standardization, in the name of freeing the differences," 3 which the works exhibited at Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Brussels, attest to with levity and poetry.
1. Marco Casamonti, Gaetano Pesce. Going against the current, in AREA 119, September 21, 2014, p. 104.
2. Op. cit., p. 104.
3. Silvana Annicchiarico, cited in Murray Ross, "The View from Here," March 2014.


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Tightening of mortgage rules will have little impact on local market
Prelude to the Battle of Seven Oaks — a "private" war imperils Red River
Whining about the cold
The changes to mortgage rules announced by federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty won't have much of an effect on the local housing market, according to WinnipegREALTORS® president Ralph Fyfe.
One measure announced by Flaherty is the lowering of the maximum amortization period for government-backed insured mortgages from 35 years to 30 years with loan-to-value ratios of more than 80 per cent.
"Mortgages are still palatable in all price segments," said Fyfe. "The tightening of mortgage regulations will only have a small impact on the market as local home buyers are amortizing their mortgages for 25-year and 30-year periods, anyway."
Despite the limited impact, Fyfe said some purchasers, particularly first-time home buyers, will probably react to the announcement by rushing to complete transactions on homes before the change comes into effect on March 18.
Flaherty announced "prudent adjustments" to the rules for government-backed insured mortgages to support the long-term stability of Canada's housing market.
The new measures are in reaction to growing debt among Canadians, which has been fuelled by historically low interest rates. Debt to disposable income is now 148 per cent, with home-equity lines of credit and loans representing 12 per cent of household debt.
Flaherty said reducing the amortization period will significantly reduce the total interest payments Canadian families make on their mortgages, allow Canadian families to build up equity in their homes more quickly, and help Canadians pay off their mortgages before they retire.
While Manitobans are carrying more debt as a result of increased home prices, the province still has the lowest level of consumer per capita debt in Canada, according a report by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Manitoba released in October 2010.
At 11 per cent, Manitoba had the greatest increase in consumer debt per capita last year, but at $20,463 it was the lowest in absolute terms when compared to other jurisdictions.
Another report released late last year by TD Canada Trust indicated Manitoba home buyers are likely to reduce costs by making a greater down payment on a home, and then make accelerated payments (bi-weekly, bi-monthly) in order to pay off their mortgages more quickly.
Fyfe said local homes are more affordable than in most other Canadian centres, which means the impact of the changes announced by Flaherty will be less severe.
The monthly payment on a $200,000 mortgage at four per cent and amortized over 30 years interest will increase from $882 to $952, a $70 increase.
It's an increase that still is affordable to most local home buyers, he added.
"Canada's well-regulated housing sector has been an important strength that allowed us to avoid the mistakes of other countries and helped protect us from the worst of the recent global recession," said the finance minister. "The prudent measures announced will build on that advantage by encouraging hard-working Canadian families to save by investing in their homes and future."
Other changes announced by Flaherty include lowering the maximum amount Canadians can borrow when refinancing their mortgages at 85 per cent from 90 per cent of the value of their homes, and the withdrawal of government insurance backing on lines of credit secured by homes, such as home equity lines of credit, or HELOCs, which takes effect on April 18.
The Canadian Real Estate Association said one measure the government thankfully did not take was increasing the minimum down payment from the current five per cent to 10 per cent, which had been under consideration.
CREA said such a measure would have a greater negative effect on the national housing market than the three changes announced by Flaherty.
CREA said it recognizes the government is trying to take reasonable and responsible action with respect to household debt, but is urging Ottawa to refrain from additional measures until it can fully evaluate and assess the impact of Flaherty's changes to mortgage rules.


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We are all Majid
By Siamak, December 11, 2009 in History, Politics, Religion & Philosophy
Majid Tavakoli, the prominent student leader at AKUT was arrested on December 7 (Students Day) after giving a courageous speech to a crowd of 1500 protesters at his school. He was severely beaten during his arrest and taken to jail, and is reported to be under pressure and subjected to torture.
Majid Tavakoli's Speech before 1500 protesting students at AKTU.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNgN1rbXjLc
Iran's state-sponsored media have allegedly reported that Tavakoli was disguised as a woman when he was detained and have widely published close-shots of Tavakoli wearing so-called women's clothing (as a means to undermine his courage and damage his reputation among his peers). Using women's clothing to demean Tavakoli is also an insult to all Iranian women who have bravely fought in the green movement and have struggled for equal rights in Iran for years.
Iranian students worldwide are reacting in outrage and while demanding the release of Majid Tavakoli, are asking the state media to put an end to this pattern of behavior. Iranian male webloggers have initiated a Campaign for men to wear women's clothing in support of Majid Tavakoli, as part of a greater movement reacting to the state's mistreatment of political prisoners and student activists.
http://www.iranian.com/main/albums/be-man
http://www.zan-va-mard.blogfa.com/post-53.aspx
http://dinairani.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/rosari/


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French Bank Rocked by Rogue Trader
Société Générale Blames
$7.2 Billion in Losses
On a Quiet 31-Year-Old
Jerome Kerviel
By David Gauthier-Villars, Carrick Mollenkamp and Alistair MacDonald
Jan. 25, 2008 11:59 pm ET
PARIS -- The rogues' gallery of banking has a new candidate for membership: 31-year-old trader Jérôme Kerviel.
In one of the banking world's most unsettling recent disclosures, France's Société Générale SA said Mr. Kerviel had cost the bank €4.9 billion, equal to $7.2 billion, by making huge unauthorized trades that he hid for months by hacking into computers. The combined trading positions he built up over recent months, say people close to the situation, totaled some €50 billion, or $73 billion.


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Car / Tree Accident on the TSP Claverack 06/19/14
Columbia County 911 dispatched Churchtown Firefighters and Greenport Rescue at 6:38am for a reported car into a tree with entrapment on the Taconic State Parkway near Snydertown Road in the Town of Claverack. The accident was in the northbound lane. Churchtown Command requested mutual aid from Taghkanic with their jaws.
A helicopter was placed on standby and then declined the flight.
Greenport Rescue transported the lone occupant to Albany Medical Center.
The northbound lane of the TSP was closed during the incident.
The New York State Police investigated.
Firefighters were back in service at 7:55am.
Photos by Lance Wheeler


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French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Poland next month
by Kafkadesk
Warsaw, Poland – French President Emmanuel Macron is due to pay an official two-day visit to Poland in early February, local media reported.
France's Macron to visit Poland in February
According to an announcement by the Elysée Palace, the French President will come to Poland on February 3 – 4, visiting both the capital Warsaw and Krakow, the country's second largest city, during his stay.
Polish presidential aide Krzysztof Szczerski had already announced in December that Macron was expected to visit Poland in February 2020.
Macron's trip to Poland, one of the last remaining EU countries he hasn't visited since his election in 2017, has been long in the making. The state visit has been repeatedly postponed over the past two years following frequent clashes between Paris and Warsaw on a wide range of issues, including migration and refugee quotas, rule of law, EU budget negotiations and climate change.
The will be the first visit of a French President to Poland since 2013.
A restart in French-Polish relations?
Already marked by growing tensions since the victory of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party in 2015, French-Polish relations took a turn for the worse the following year after the Polish government abruptly abandoned plans to purchase 50 Airbus-manufactured Caracal military helicopters.
Both countries have since then continued to cross swords on a number of occasions. Macron has regularly criticized Poland for its stance on migration, climate change and the controversial judicial reforms it's trying to push through, while Warsaw didn't mince its words either when calling France "the sick man of Europe" at the height of the yellow vest crisis or slamming the French President's comments about a "brain-dead" NATO as deeply irresponsible.
According to analysts, Macron's visit could help reset relations between two of the biggest EU countries.
Main photo credit: Getty Images
TagsDiplomacy • France • Krakow • Poland • Warsaw
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Don Wilton has fished all his life and recently acquired an Aboriginal Coastal Fishing Licence in Maningrida, NT.
Making Fruit Kebabs For Kids!
Former co-chair of the National NAIDOC Committee, Ms Anne Martin AM, has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. She talks about her journey to higher education and her passion to help others achieve their goals.
A conference will be held at the National Library of Australia in February 2019 titled: Language Keepers: Preserving Indigenous Languages. Professor Kim Scott from WA will speak the impact of language on identity and connection with place.
The Aboriginal Summer School for Excellence in Technology and Science, held by the CSIRO, has given young people a taste of university life alongside cultural studies and networking sessions.
The award winning film Ngambi, which has its television premiere on NITV, follows Roy Wuyŋumbi Ashley as he shares an all-encompassing story of Wagilak identity, culture and law.
Benjamin Bayliss dropped out of school but has returned to help struggling students, because he knows how.
A surge in popularity has pushed the National Indigenous Touch Football Knockout competition to new heights, attracting more than 500 players to Dubbo last month.
Primary School teacher, Rosemaree Whitehead shares and recommends her 3 favourite Indigenous based films with us, just in time for the school holidays.


Transwalk Interior is an interior and exterior design company with expertise in residential, commercial, and hospitality projects based in Osapa London, Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria. Transwalk interior was established in 2002 but incorporated in March 2012 by Chinyere Udeagbala who has become a prominent expert in the industry. Transwalk Interior combines extraordinary talent and experiences to create spaces that can be as "cutting edge" or "timeless" as the exceptionality of each of its Clients.
Our mission is simple: To develop interior and exterior design experiences that are distinctive, compelling and of superb quality and individuality.
Transwalk interior is committed to achieving the highest level of design with a "turn-key" approach through services offered. Our designers successfully participate in projects from the initial concepts, furniture and decorative item selections, decorative material selections, budgeting, project coordination – always with precision, professionalism, attention to detail, exceptional customer service and expert project management skills.
For the period of our establishment until date, Transwalk Interior is consistently applauded for its business acumen and its variety of innovative design solutions that impeccably blend functional and esthetic needs.


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OpEdNews Op Eds 4/20/2016 at 6:17 PM EDT H2'ed 4/20/16
No Reward for Sanders's Israel Stance
By Robert Parry (Page 1 of 2 pages) 4 comments
Reprinted from Consortium News
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
(Image by (NBC photo)) Details DMCA
So much for political bravery! Sen. Bernie Sanders had the audacity to say that the Palestinians are human beings, that there are two sides to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "not right all of the time" -- and lost the New York primary by more than 15 percentage points.
Obviously, there were many other factors, including the tightly closed rules for the New York primaries, requiring voters to have declared their party affiliation by last October or be barred from participating.
But still New York Democrats did not appear to reward Sanders for breaking with Official Washington's orthodoxy on Israel, which holds that the only permissible political stance is total obeisance to Netanyahu and his government. Whether Sanders's stance hurt him may be debatable but the election result could resonate nonetheless with future candidates who might be more chary about taking a more even-handed position on Israel-Palestine.
In one of the sharper exchanges from last Thursday's Democratic debate, Sanders, who is Jewish and once worked on an Israeli kibbutz, chided his rival, Hillary Clinton, for appearing before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee last month and giving a speech that "barely mentioned the Palestinians."
While political insiders gasped at his heresy, Sanders plunged on, "All that I am saying is we cannot continue to be one-sided. There are two sides to the issue. ... There comes a time when if we pursue justice and peace, we are going to have to say that Netanyahu is not right all of the time."
By contrast, former Secretary of State Clinton and the three remaining Republican candidates, including front-runner Donald Trump, went politically prostrate before AIPAC, competing to see who could out-pander the others.
Clinton Prevails
Despite serious efforts by Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, Clinton appeared to come out on top in the pander-off, perhaps partly because she is more experienced at telling Israel's right-wing government what it wants to hear. She depicted Israel as an innocent victim in the Mideast conflicts facing unconscionable challenges from Iran, the Palestinians and global activists seeking to put pressure on Israel through a program of boycott, divestment and sanctions.
"As we gather here, three evolving threats -- Iran's continued aggression, a rising tide of extremism across a wide arc of instability, and the growing effort to de-legitimize Israel on the world stage -- are converging to make the U.S.-Israel alliance more indispensable than ever," she declared.
"The United States and Israel must be closer than ever, stronger than ever and more determined than ever to prevail against our common adversaries and to advance our shared values. ... This is especially true at a time when Israel faces brutal terrorist stabbings, shootings and vehicle attacks at home. Parents worry about letting their children walk down the street. Families live in fear."
Clinton promised to put her future administration at the service of the Israeli government. "One of the first things I'll do in office is invite the Israeli prime minister to visit the White House. And I will send a delegation from the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs to Israel for early consultations. Let's also expand our collaboration beyond security," Clinton said, adding...
"The first choice is this: are we prepared to take the U.S./Israel alliance to the next level?"
Clinton's one-sided presentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fit with her longstanding approach to the Middle East, where she has either actively supported or quietly accepted Israel meting out military retribution on the region's Arabs, even when justified by clear-cut bigotry.
For instance, in summer 2006, as a Senator from New York, Clinton shared a stage with Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman while Israeli warplanes pounded southern Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 Lebanese. Gillerman was a well-known Muslim-basher who had once quipped, "While it may be true and probably is that not all Muslims are terrorists, it also happens to be true that nearly all terrorists are Muslim."
At a pro-Israel rally with Clinton in New York on July 17, 2006, Gillerman proudly defended Israel's massive violence against targets in Lebanon. "Let us finish the job," Gillerman told the crowd. "We will excise the cancer in Lebanon" and "cut off the fingers" of Hezbollah.
Robert Parry Social Media Pages:
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at
Related Topic(s): Bernie Sanders; Hillary Clinton; Israel; Israel Firsters; Israel Runs Washington, Add Tags
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"Just as The Tipping Point provides an explanation for big changes, Rob Kall offers a unified explanation for the magic behind the success of the biggest tech companies, the Arab Spring, Occupy and the social media revolution" An important, big picture, visionary approach weaving together technology, economics, evolution, science and personal relationships -- even happiness -- to describe a wave of change as significant as the invention of the printing press that is well under way -- a wave that could rescue the planet from the top-down system that afflicts the planet."
Thom Hartmann, host of nationally syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, since 2003 and a nightly television show, The Big Picture, since 2008


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Hiring Well, Doing Good Kickoff Event
Beacon hosted our "Hiring Well, Doing Good" kickoff breakfast on June 14th. Nearly 70 business, community, and nonprofit leaders came together to discuss ways to help the chronically under- and unemployed find work. While Tennessee has historically low unemployment rates, nearly 39% of working age adults remain out of the workforce entirely. As we've discussed previously, our goal is to eliminate the barriers that make it hard for these Tennesseans to get and keep good jobs.
During the panel discussion at our kickoff, we heard from business leaders like Lawrence Everett of Lee Company and John Cerasuolo of ADS Security, who discussed how their companies are working to hire those who struggle to find gainful employment, identified barriers they face in the hiring process, and offered practical solutions to remove those barriers. Lawrence discussed how Lee Company focuses on drive and will to learn rather than experience, which helps open up opportunities for those that might otherwise struggle to get their foot in the door. John explained how state occupational licensing laws are so arduous that the company has to spend significant resources going to bat for employees when they try to obtain a license.
Anthony Charles serves as the Aftercare/Re-entry Manager at Men of Valor, a nonprofit that helps men leaving prison land on their feet. Anthony provided his perspective not only as a nonprofit leader, but also as a past graduate of the program. He shared his organization's success in preparing former inmates to re-enter society as men of integrity—"becoming givers to the community rather than takers." At a time when nearly half those leaving a Tennessee prison will return within three years, men who complete Men of Valor's six-month program inside the prison and 12-month program after they are released have recidivism rates below 15%.
Another ex-offender, Lindsay Holloway, discussed the challenges facing those with criminal records, including finding housing and having to start at the bottom rung of the ladder, even when they may be more qualified for a better job. Lindsay has shared her personal story with Beacon previously in the video below.
Mark Lenz, president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Nashville, inspired us by highlighting the incredible availability of high paying jobs and demand for students with practical technical skills. Eighty-two percent of their students were employed in their field of study, and all with no student loan debt at graduation!
We are also grateful to Bradley Jackson and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce for co-hosting "Hiring Well, Doing Good," as well as all of our sponsors who made our kickoff breakfast such a huge success. Now that we have held a successful launch, we will build out our steering committee. This committee will be tasked with identifying barriers that still stand in the way of those seeking good jobs. It will be made up of employers, nonprofit leaders, and those who themselves have faced challenges finding gainful employment. The steering committee will also increase partnerships between human services organizations and the private sector to promote solutions for productive work and self-reliance. Having built a strong and diverse base of support, we're extremely excited to increase the number of individuals who are able to find and keep stable, productive work.
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Protecting Right to Work for generations to come
Our hope is that Right to Work will be enshrined in the Tennessee Constitution where it belongs, protecting worker freedom for generations t...
Decaf Episode 30: football, Tennessee politics review, Golden Globes, and CNN vs. Babylon Bee
Taylor and Mark talk about football headed into playoff season, the Tennessean's top 10 political stories of 2019, Ricky Gervais'...
Decaf Episode 28: UK election, new lawsuit, 1980s bands, and Christmas movies
In the last episode of Decaf of 2019, Taylor and Mark talk about the UK election results, Beacon's latest lawsuit, the best bands of t...
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Karrie – fighting for transparency and parental control in Williamson County Schools Parents are entitled to full transparency when it comes...
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This week on Decaf, Taylor and Mark talk about movies coming out around Christmas, Beacon's Pork Report, transparency in hospital pric...
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Oscar Watch 2014: Actor in a Supporting Role
Categories: academy awards
Tags: Barkhad Abdi, Bradley Cooper, Dallas Buyers Club, Jaret Leto, Jonah Hill, Michael Fassbender
Oscar Watch looks to break down the different categories for the 2014 Academy Awards. We'll do our best to give you the inside track for your Oscar pools. Above: Jaret Leto as Rayon from Dallas Buyers Club.
Who Should Win: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
From it's debut at TIFF last fall, Jared Leto's performance as Rayon is the first thing people talk about when they talk about Dallas Buyers Club. His transformative performance even overshadows McConaughey's at times. Leto gets to play the entire range with his character; when Rayon is his usual self he's flamboyant and in your face, but also has emotional moments as well when he relapses into his drug use or in the scene where he goes to see his father. It's a loud and sometimes showy performance, but that's the kind of thing that gets supporting actors nominated and an eventual win.
On everyone else . . .
Barkhad Abdi: If there was anyone that I thought that could slay Jared Leto, it would be the other captain in Captain Phillips—Barkhad Abdi's Somali pirate captain Muse. A first time actor, Abdi shows no signs of weakness in scenes where he goes toe to toe with Tom Hanks. He truely was in command of those scenes where his crew first comes aboard the Alabama. There's just something about his eyes, his mannerisms, and his dogged determination that makes his character that much more threatening. Sadly, The Academy rarely likes to give statues to actors without a proven record so Abdi's nomination could be his prize.
Bradley Cooper: Though Cooper is good, he had a much better performance in last year's Silver Linings Playbook. There were times in the film where when he went overboard, he REALLY went overboard; and not in a good way for me. Having said that, I think the overall strength of American Hustle is really what landed Cooper his nomination.
Michael Fassbender: Nobody does bad like Fassbender. His role as a plantation owner in 12 Years a Slave is one of the main reasons why some people have had difficulty with sitting through the film. His demented, and at times sadistic, character is just the type that audiences love to hate. While the performance is good, I just don't think it's as high as the one Leto is giving.
Jonah Hill: This is Hill's second nomination, but like Cooper, I think it's the weaker of the two (his first nominated and better performance being in Moneyball). We know Hill can do comedy, so while his scene stealing shenanigans in The Wolf of Wall Street are fun, they're just not doing enough to really push him over the top and really show us more of a range.
Who Will Win: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
While it's a solid field, Leto has been the clear frontrunner since the fall. Almost everyone has fallen in love with his character with Leto picking up awards in this category from both the LA & NY film critic circles, a Screen Actor's Guild award, and a Golden Globe. Only an Oscar would complete the list.
What are your thoughts on our predictions? Give us your thoughts on the Best Actor category in the comments.
Review: Silver Linings Playbook
By Yoda808 2 Comments
Tags: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Knock knock. Who's there? A potential Academy Award contending movie.
Ah the holidays . . . a time when families comes together, talk, and catch up with relatives. And while Silver Linings Playbook isn't a holiday per se, it's definitely a film representative of our culture today (at least part of it anyway). It's got everything you could possibly want from a holiday film: drama, family issues, and love. I mean, what more could you ask for?
In many ways Silver Linings Playbook is sort of a current take on the dysfunctional family movie. Think along the lines of something with the vibe of American Beauty, but updated for 2012. You have Pat who's just been released from a mental institution, trying to deal with bipolar disorder stemming from a breakdown he suffers when he catches his wife having an affair. Then you also have Tiffany who's dealing with depression and the death of her husband. Both are supported by their families, but both struggle to deal with how to handle the little things in their everyday lives; some things that us "normal people" would consider second nature. In our world where there's a medication to solve any of our problems and an abundance of therapies to work through our psychological issues; the story of two slightly broken people developing a relationship based on their common experience with mental instability doesn't seem that out of place.
Probably the biggest thing the film has going for it is the cast. Everyone in the film is pretty solid and the three top names in the film are all giving Academy Award level performances. Ok, maybe Academy Award level is a bit hyperbolic, but trust me when I say that Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Robert De Niro are all turning in the performance of their career/the last 10 years.
Cooper is probably giving his best performance to date in a role that draws from other characters in his filmography. he utilizes some of his doucheyness from Wedding Crashers, mixed with some of his cool guy persona from The Hangover movies, and adding a bit of torturedness that gives his character Pat believable anger management issues and baggage, but at the same time makes him someone you want to see work through his issues. While Cooper dances the line between angry and emotional pretty well, he's getting a lot of help from those around him; help that makes his performance that much more believable and buyable.
Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence and becomes Pat's new love interest, has a few issues of her own. Her hang ups stem from depression from the death of her husband which make her lash out by being with guys who don't treat her well, thereby reinforcing a downward spiral. In Pat's first few encounters with Tiffany, Lawrence plays the psycho girlfriend card pretty well and we don't know if she truly is damaged or just plain crazy. However as the relationship between Tiffany and Pat develops, you begin to see her feelings come through and her outbursts slowly change from "crazy girl" territory to that of someone being upset with a person they genuinely have feelings for.
Rounding out the acting trifecta is Robert De Niro. Now don't get me wrong, we know he can give a great performance; as of late though it seems like he's been chewing on scenery and just taking paydays (we're looking at you New Year's Eve). But in Silver Linings Playbook, director David O. Russell manages to get a great performance from the two time Oscar winner. De Niro plays Pat Sr, father to Cooper's character in the film, and a devout Philadelphia Eagles fan. When it comes time for game day, Pat Sr's neurotic quirks regarding fandom and bonding with his son soon goes beyond mere team support and sheds light on not just Pat Jr's problems, but the entire family's as well. De Niro plays the loving father/OCD super fan really well and is actually emoting in some of the better scenes.
Going in I wasn't too sure how I was going to feel about Pat's budding relationship with Tiffany (something that the entire film hinges on); one because I've never really gotten behind or really rooted for any of the characters Bradley Cooper has played in the past; and two because of the age difference between Cooper and Lawrence (15 years, though in the film he's playing younger and she's playing older). However, over the course of the film I was really sold on Pat's struggle with his bipolar disorder. From the challenges Pat faced and the way he dealt with them, that's what sold me on their relationship in the end–it was a challenge that he kept working on, that wasn't easy and tested him along the way, and one that you could get a good sense of from the emotion he was portraying.
Overall, everything about Silver Linings Playbook feels just a little bit awkward and a little bit off, not in a bad way, but in a way that mirrors its main characters. You won't be blown away by action or special effects, because there are none to be found. What you will find is a great modern day family film, well acted, and with a great mix of comedy and drama that will entertain. And really, isn't that all we could ever ask from any holiday film?
Silver Linings Playbook is currently playing at Consolidated Kahala 8 and Regal Dole Cannery.
Rating 4/5 stars // R // 2hr 2min


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Beautiful Groovy Photos That Take You Back To The Past....
Groovy Photos That Reveal A Different Side To The '90s
Gram Parsons: Bio Of Country-Rock's Messiah And Grievous Angel
Music | November 5, 2020
CHICAGO - MARCH 1969: Singer/Songwriter Gram Parsons plays acoustic guitar backstage in March 1969 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
When Gram Parsons died in 1973 he was only 26 years old. In the few years before his death he played a pivotal role in the crossover between country and rock, blending the genres until they were one in the same. As a member of The Byrds, Parsons changed the band at a genetic level, and with the Flying Burrito Brothers he created the template for the country-rock sound.
In spite of his lack of success while he was alive, Parsons' friendships with The Rolling Stones and Emmylou Harris were extremely influential on those artists. He didn't just make Harris a sought after singer, but he brought the Stones into their own as a rootsy rock band, and inspired "Wild Horses," one of their most beloved songs.
Parsons died young and never reached the heights of his friends, but his songs continue to echo through country and rock, so much so that you can still hear his influence today.
From prep school to country star
source: pitchfork
Ingram Cecil Connor III is hardly the name of the country-rock messiah, but in 1946 that was the name given to a newborn in Winter Haven, Florida. The grandson of John A. Snively, a citrus magnate whose crop was once responsible for one third of the Floria citrus crop, he started going by Gram at a young age (it's short for Ingram), and even though he had a good childhood his family was marred with depression and alcoholism.
Gram was drawn to music at a young age, and as a teenager he started playing in cover bands that played all around Florida while attended prep schools throughout the south. After his mother passed away from cirrhosis on the day that he graduated from prep school in 1965, Parsons set out on a folky journey that saw him playing in coffee houses and hootenannies with his group the Shilohs. In 1966, he started the International Submarine Band with a group of folkies from Boston before moving to New York and finally Los Angeles where he dropped the Submarine Band in favor of one of the most popular groups in the world.
He headed west to grow up with the country
source: People
In 1967, The Byrds were left high and dry by David Crosby and Michael Clarke, two of their founding members and songwriters. After meeting bassist Chris Hillman at a bank that year, Parsons auditioned for the group as their pianist but it was clear to everyone involved that he wasn't just a sideman. Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn has bristled at the idea that Parsons was an influence on the group, but anyone with ears can hear that the group's 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo is dripping with Parson's distinct style.
Initially, McGuinn conceived Sweetheart of the Rodeo as a double album that would encompass the entirety of western music, from bluegrass to electrified music. That didn't happen. Parsons worked his mojo over the group and convinced them to move to Nashville to record a straight up country record, jettisoning McGuinn's concept. But it wasn't totally the Gram Parsons show. Contractural obligations led McGuinn to re-record several of Parsons' vocals, something that drove Parsons crazy long after he was out of the band. In 1973 he told Cameron Crowe that McGuinn "erased it and did the vocals himself and f**ked it up."
Parsons left The Byrds during a tour of England, citing his worries over playing South Africa due to apartheid, although it's more likely that he was just done with the group. He later explained his apprehension about playing alongside McGuinn:
Being with The Byrds confused me a little. I couldn't find my place. I didn't have enough say-so. I really wasn't one of The Byrds. I was originally hired because they wanted a keyboard player. But I had experience being a frontman and that came out immediately. And [Roger McGuinn] being a very perceptive fellow saw that it would help the act, and he started sticking me out front.
Nudie suits and flying burritos
source: rolling stone
In 1968, the dueling worlds of country and rock came together when Gram Parsons and Keith Richards met on a trip to Stonehenge. After leaving The Byrds, Parsons moved in with Richards and the two developed a friendship that lasted the rest of Parsons' life and altered the trajectory of The Rolling Stones. After spending a few months playing obscure country albums and jamming with Richards, Parsons returned to Los Angeles where he got back in touch with Chris Hillman of the Byrds and started The Flying Burrito Brothers, a psychedelic country-rock outfit, complete with colorful Nudie suits that channeled their traditional Nashville and hippie influences.
Influenced by Buck Owens and the Bakersfield country sound (less polished recordings, more pronounced, straight forward drumming and rock influenced), the Burrito Brothers synthesized the country-rock genre (he called it "cosmic American music"), but sales of the group's first album were mediocre and Parsons wasn't keen on doing anything to promote the record.
At the time he was receiving between $30,000 and $100,000 a year from a trust fund. Something that allowed him to be as creative as he wanted without worrying about success -- he didn't need the money. But he also didn't need to push himself in the way that his friends in the Rolling Stones did throughout the '60s and early '70s.
Parson dropped out of the gilded palace of sin
Drugs and partying seeped into Parsons' life more and more as the '60s came to an end. The Flying Burrito Brothers scored a sweet spot at the Altamont festival as one of the openers (for once the openers on a festival line-up were the luckiest group), but Parsons spent much of his time partying with Keith Richards and living the good life.
The Burritos' first album, The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969), peaked at #164 on the Billboard 200 and then disappeared without Parsons going out of his way to promote the record. One year later the band released Burrito Deluxe, an album that's most notable for featuring the first recording of "Wild Horses" by Parsons' buddies in the Stones. Parsons left the band shortly after the album's release and once again set out on his own.
Gram Parsons in exile
source: Morrison Hotel
While still in Los Angeles, Parsons started recording what would have been his solo debut with producer Terry Melcher. Nothing's ever come from the sessions because of the duo's shared love of cocaine and heroin. Parsons and Melcher gave up on the project, and the master tapes disappeared.
Parsons ducked out of the country and went on tour with the Rolling Stones in 1971, which then turned into a longterm residence at Villa Nellcôte with Keith Richards while the Stones recorded Exile on Main Street. Parsons was so messed up during his time at the Villa that if he appears anywhere on the album it's in the chorus on "Sweet Virginia," but no one can recall if he ever made it into the actual studio. He was finally asked to leave the villa by Anita Pallenberg, although it's believed that Mick Jagger had something to do with asking the wayward country star to leave the band alone.
Out with the truckers, and the kickers, and the cowboy angels
After returning to the States in 1971, Parsons heard Emmylou Harris sing at a club in Washington D.C. and invited her out to Los Angeles to help him record his first solo album, GP. Released in 1973, the album never charted but was critically adored. And for the first time in his career Parsons was driven to do something and not just let success happen. While touring with the Fallen Angels, Gram and the band were pushed to rehearse by Harris, who was understandably tired of performing rushed sets to annoyed crowds.
Seemingly revitalized by his time touring with Harris and the Fallen Angels, Parsons kept his drug and alcohol intake to a minimum while working on his follow up, 1974's Grievous Angel. Many of the songs on the album were rewritten versions of songs from previous sessions, but the new songs written for the album are some of Parsons' best. "Return of the Grievous Angel" is a driving country rock track that's perfect for going on a road trip, and "In My Hour of Darkness" shows the depths of Parsons' soul that were only peeking out on previous albums.
Parsons never lived to see Grievous Angel released. After accidentally burning down his house with a stray cigarette he broke things off with his wife Gretchen Burrell and took a trip to Joshua Tree National Park to have some time to himself before going back on tour.
Grand Theft Parsons
source: desertUSA
After the recording of Grievous Angel, Parsons drove to Joshua Tree in September 1973 and fell back into his old drinking and heroin habits. On the night of September 18, Parsons injected himself with liquid morphine and overdosed in a motel room while his old girlfriend, Margaret Fisher, his assistant Michael Martin, and Martin's girlfriend attempted to revive him instead of calling an ambulance. When they finally did call 911, Parsons was declared dead on arrival at High Desert Memorial Hospital at 12:15 A.M. on September 19, 1973.
Parsons' family made arrangement for his body to be brought to New Orleans for burial, but his road manager Phil Kaufman knew that a family burial was the last thing his friend wanted. Parsons longed to have his ashes scattered in Joshua Tree National Park, so Kaufman did what any of us would do -- and he stole Parsons' body from LAX.
Driving a 1953 Cadillac hearse loaned to him Michael Martin's girlfriend, Kaufman convinced the crew at Western Airlines that he employed by Parsons' family, signed release papers for the body as "Jeremy Nobody," and then ran the hearse directly into a wall right in front a policeman who helped him load Parsons' casket into the car. After finally getting on the road, Kaufman was too drunk to drive so he stopped to sleep off the beer they'd been guzzling before hitting the road for Joshua Tree.
Once Kaufman and Martin woke they had to take the hearse in for repairs because it wouldn't start. The comedy of errors continued as they ended up in a pile up on the highway, nearly arrested for rear-ending a car, and pushing the casket into the desert and setting it on fire before speeding away. Kaufman and Martin were arrested and fined $300 for misdemeanor theft and charged $708 for funeral home expenses. At least 30% of Parsons' body remained, and it was shipped to New Orleans for burial.
Parsons was buried in a small service at the Memorial Lawn Cemetery in New Orleans. His headstone reads, "God's Own Singer."
Tags: Country Rock | Gram Parsons | The Byrds | The Flying Burrito Brothers
Jacob Shelton
Jacob Shelton is a Los Angeles based writer. For some reason this was the most difficult thing he's written all day, and here's the kicker – his girlfriend wrote the funny part of that last sentence. As for the rest of the bio? That's pure Jacob, baby. He's obsessed with the ways in which singular, transgressive acts have shaped the broader strokes of history, and he believes in alternate dimensions, which means that he's great at a dinner party. When he's not writing about culture, pop or otherwise, he's adding to his found photograph collection and eavesdropping on strangers in public.
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IJPDS International Journal of Population Data Science
Population Data BC
Vol. 5 No. 5 (2020): Conference Proceedings for International Population Data Linkage Conference 2020
The Stepping On Fall Prevention Program Scale-Up in NSW: Program Reach and Fall-Related Health Service Use
Serene S Paul
Discipline of Physiotherapy, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney
Qiang Li
The George Institute for Global Health Australia
Lara Harvey
Neuroscience Research Australia
Therese Carroll
NSW Health
Annabel Priddis
Anne Tiedemann
Institute for Musculoskeletal Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney
Lindy Clemson
School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney
Stephen R Lord
Jacqueline CT Close
Cathie Sherrington
Falls in older adults are associated with increased healthcare costs. Falls may be prevented or minimised with multifactorial interventions including exercise and behavioural modification.
Objectives and Approach
To describe the reach of the scale-up of Stepping On, a fall prevention program targeting community-dwellers aged 65 years and older in NSW, Australia; and fall-related ambulance service use and fall-related hospitalisations after scale-up. Routinely-collected data on program reach, fall-related ambulance usage and fall-related hospital admissions in NSW residents aged ≥65 years between 2009 and 2015 were compared within Statistical Local Areas prior to and following implementation of Stepping On using multilevel models.
From 2009 to 2014 the program was delivered in 1,077 sites to 10,096 people with an average (SD) age of 81.0 (7.2) years. Rates of fall-related ambulance use and hospital admissions per 100-person-years were 1-2 in people aged 66-74, 4-5 in people aged 75-84 and 12-13 in people aged ≥85. These rates increased over time (p<.001). Overall, the interaction between time and program delivery was not significant for fall-related ambulance use or hospital admissions. The time-related increase in fall-related ambulance usage in people aged 75-84 years may have been moderated by Stepping On (RR 0.97, 95% CI 0.93–1.00, p=.045).
Conclusion / Implications
There was no indication of either a reduced rate of fall-related ambulance use or hospital admissions across the entire sample. There was a suggestion of a reduction in ambulance call-outs for falls in people aged 75-84. The lack of a detectable impact on fall-related health service usage may be due to the use of routinely collected data not intended for research purposes or inability to remove those who would be ineligible for Stepping On from the data analyses. Increasing the program reach and targeting groups contributing most to health service utilisation may improve program outcomes.
Paul, S. S., Li, Q., Harvey, L., Carroll, T., Priddis, A., Tiedemann, A., Clemson, L., Lord, S. R., Close, J. C. and Sherrington, C. (2020) "The Stepping On Fall Prevention Program Scale-Up in NSW: Program Reach and Fall-Related Health Service Use", International Journal of Population Data Science, 5(5). doi: 10.23889/ijpds.v5i5.1538.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i5.1538
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