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J-S48012-14
NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
: PENNSYLVANIA
Appellee, :
:
v. :
:
DARREN RICHARD GENTILQUORE, :
:
Appellant : No. 1860 MDA 2013
Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence December 21, 2006,
Court of Common Pleas, Susquehanna County,
Criminal Division at No. CP-58-CR-0000183-2006
BEFORE: DONOHUE, JENKINS and PLATT*, JJ.
MEMORANDUM BY DONOHUE, J.: FILED SEPTEMBER 09, 2014
Appellant, Darren Richard Gentilquore
the judgment of sentence of the Court of Common Pleas, Susquehanna
County, following a conviction on the following charges: two counts of
criminal attempt to commit homicide, 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 2501(a), 901(a), two
counts of aggravated assault, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 2702(a)(1), and two counts of
aggravated assault, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 2702(a)(4). For the reasons that follow,
we affirm.
A summary of the relevant facts and procedural history is as follows.
, a resident of New Jersey, purchased
property. Shaun and Gentilquore became friends. On May 26, 2006, Shaun
long
*Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.
J-S48012-14
Memorial Day Weekend.
invited the Bigelows to come to his property to sit around the fire. N.T.,
11/13/06, at 208. A
Id. Gentilquore
began to follow the Bigelows on his ATV. Id. at 209-10. While on the trail
uore ran his ATV
Id. at 210-11. Gentilquore
agreed to pay for the damage, resolving the situation without any incident.
Id. at 211-12.
The Bigelows, Gentilquore, McCormick, Jim Velcheck, and two of
McCormick
Id. at 213-14. Later in the evening, Gentilquore started a fight with
-
property and Gentilquore obliged. Id. at 255. Shortly after Gentilquore left,
gunshots were fired. Id. at 256-
an
stop shooting because it was scaring the kids. Id. at 217. There was a
pause in the shooting, but shortly thereafter, gunshots began again. Id. at
-2-
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218-19. Ryan decided he was g
him to stop. Id. at 219-20.
Id. at 220. Gentilquore did not
respond to Ryan. Ryan told Gentilquore to co
Id. at 224. Gentilquore did not respond so
to get Shaun. Id. at 232. Ryan believed that Shaun would be able to get
Gentilquore to stop shooting the gun since they were friends. Id.
property. Shaun arrived first and quietly knocked on the door.
Id.
because he was angry and as retaliation for Gentilquore hitting his ATV
earlier in the evening. Id. at 236. Ryan p
front door to his house and bang on the door. N.T., 11/15/06, at 62-63.
Gentilquore came to the front door with a gun. Id. at 63-64; N.T.,
Id. at 237. Ryan approached the door, at
which time, Gentilquore told him to get off his property or else he was going
Id. at 239. Ryan told Gentilquore if he did not come
outside and face him wit
-3-
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threatened to burn his house down. N.T., 11/13/06, at 224; N.T., 11/15/06,
at 64-65.
Gentilquore proceeded to stick the barrel of the gun out of the storm
door and poked Ryan with the gun. Id. at 240. Ryan then called
Id. at 241. Gentilquore pulled the trigger, shooting Ryan
in the abdomen at point blank range. Shaun began screaming at
Id. at 92. Gentilquore turned towards Shaun and shot
him in the abdomen. Id.
Gentilquore was charged with two counts of criminal attempt to
commit homicide and four counts of aggravated assault. A jury convicted
Gentilquore on all charges on November 15, 2006. On December 21, 2006,
the trial court sentenced Gentilquore to 20-40 years of incarceration on
count one of criminal attempt to commit homicide and 20-40 years of
incarceration on the second count of criminal attempt to commit homicide,
to run consecutive to the first count. N.T., 12/21/06, at 38-39. The four
counts of aggravated assault merged with counts one and two and therefore,
Gentilquore was not sentenced on those charges. Id. at 3, 40.
On January 2, 2007, Gentilquore filed a petition for reconsideration of
sentence, which the trial court denied on January 10, 2007. Gentilquore
filed a direct appeal to this Court challenging the discretionary aspects of his
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sentenc
the discretionary aspects of his sentence waived and affirmed his judgment
of sentence.
While Gentilquore waited for disposition of his direct appeal, he filed a
pro se PCRA petition. This pro se PCRA petition was held in abeyance
disposition, affirming his judgment of sentence, Gentilquore filed a series of
amended PCRA petitions, asserting ineffective assistance of counsel by both
the PCRA court on July 12, 2010. Gentilquore appealed.
This Court vacated the PCRA c
proceedings after concluding that the PCRA court violated Pa.R.Crim.P. 907
a hearing. On March 21, 2012, the PCRA court provided notice to
Gentilquore of its intention to dismiss his PCRA petition pursuant to
Pa.R.Crim.P. 907. Gentilquore filed another amended PCRA petition on May
2, 2012. The PCRA court entered an order on July 9, 2012, dismissing the
May 2, 2012 PCRA petition. Gentilqu
this Court.
-5-
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appeal nunc pro tunc include a Pa.R.A.P.
Commonwealth v. Gentilquore, 1461 MDA 2012, at 7 (Pa. Super.
September 12, 2013) (unpublished memorandum). On September 18,
2013, the Susquehanna County Court of Common Pleas issued an order
nunc pro tunc.
Gentilquore timely filed a notice of appeal to this Court. On direct appeal,
Gentilquore raises the following issues for our review1:
1. Did the [t]rial [c]ourt err in, over the objection of
counsel, allowing the admission of prior wrongs to
prove the state of mind of [Gentilquore] about his
property and identity w[h]ere the admission did not
fit within an exception to Pa.R.E. 404(b) and, even if
it had, the probative value did not outweigh the
unfair prejudice?
2. Did the [t]rial [c]ourt err, over the objection of [t]rial
[c]ounsel, allowing the cumulative testimony from
witnesses unconnected with the victims to testify
that [Gentilquore] would shoot on his property lat[e]
at night which was not only irrelevant to the present
right to a fair trial?
3. Did the [t]rial [c]ourt err in, over the objection of
[t]rial [c]ounsel, allow the admission and publication
of color photographs of the Bigelows to the jury
thereby inflaming the passions of the jury and
depriving [Gentilquore] of a fair trial?
1
Gentilquore was not ordered to file a 1925(b) statement. The trial court
did not file a 1925(a) opinion in this matter. However, the
addresses all of the issues that Gentilquore raises in his appeal. We further
disposition.
-6-
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4. Should [Gentilquore] be granted a new trial as a
result of the amendment to 18 Pa.C.S.A. section
505(2.1) better known as the Castle Doctrine?
For his first issue on appeal, Gentilquore claims that the trial court
-35, 38-40. At trial,
after Gentilquore objected to the admission of their testimony to establish
prior bad acts, such as shooting firearms on his property and making
terroristic threats, the trial court made a ruling that the evidence was
admissible to prove motive, intent, state of mind, and identity as to the
shooter. N.T., 11/13/06, at 4.
We begin with our well-settled standard of review:
The admission of evidence is a matter vested within
the sound discretion of the trial court, and such a
decision shall be reversed only upon a showing that
the trial court abused its discretion. In determining
whether evidence should be admitted, the trial court
must weigh the relevant and probative value of the
evidence against the prejudicial impact of that
evidence. Evidence is relevant if it logically tends to
establish a material fact in the case or tends to
support a reasonable inference regarding a material
fact. Although a court may find that evidence is
relevant, the court may nevertheless conclude that
such evidence is inadmissible on account of its
prejudicial impact.
Commonwealth v. Page, 965 A.2d 1212, 1219 (Pa. Super. 2009).
-7-
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Rule 404(b)(1) of the Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence provides that
of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the
for other limited purposes, including, but not limited to, establishing motive,
opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity or absence of
mistake or accident, common scheme or design, modus operandi, and the
Commonwealth v.
Kinard, __ A.3d __, 2014 WL 848273, at *3 (Pa. Super. 2014) (citing
Commonwealth v. Brookins, 10 A.3d 1251, 1256 (Pa. Super. 2010),
appeal denied, 22 A.3d 1033 (Pa. 2011)). The trial court may admit the
evidence for these limited purposes if the probative value of the evidence
outweighs its potential prejudicial effect. Pa.R.E. 404(b)(2).
Gentilquore threatened the lives of her and her dogs if they ever entered his
-62.
ructions to the
relate to the identity, state of mind, and motive and/or intent of Gentilquore.
Id. at 176.
-8-
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Gentilquore argues that the trial court erred under Rule 404(b)(1) in
fear and did not want to kill the Bigelows, but felt it was necessary to protect
himself and his family, as he was afraid that Ryan would burn his house
down and kill him. N.T., 11/13/06, at 68. He further testified that he shot
from the hip and shot low because he did not want to kill Ryan. Id. at 69-
Id. at 71. Shaun then appeared, however, and knocked out the
was about to lift his leg to walk through the door. Id. at 71. Gentilquore
and that he was terrified at that moment. Id. at 72. In sum, Gentilquore
simply entering onto his property, but, rather shot them at his front door
after the Bigelows had been acting in a threatening manner which is
Id. at 33.
court indicated that it permitted the introduction of the Vis testimony based
upon its relevance to show motive, intent, state of mind, and identity under
order for evidence of prior bad acts to be admissible as evidence of motive,
-9-
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the prior bad acts must give sufficient ground to believe that the crime
currently being considered grew out of or was in any way caused by the
Commonwealth v. Jackson, 900
A.2d 936, 940 (Pa. Super. 2006) (citing Commonwealth v. Melendez-
Rodriguez, 856 A.2d 1278, 1283 (Pa. Super. 2004)). In this case, there is
reat directed at Vis.
With respect to intent or state of mind, the Commonwealth did not
elicit any testimony regarding when the Vis threat occurred. Moreover, the
incidents with Vis and the Bigelows share no factually similarities
whatsoever. Vis testified that Gentilquore threatened her after he had a
near collision with a friend of hers on the road, N.T., 11/13/06, at 162, while
property, outside of his front door, with Ryan banging on the door and
between the two incidents that would enable the jury to determine
was acting in self-defense when he shot the Bigelows.
demonstrated that Gentilquore was an aggressive landowner, and therefore
had a propensity to engage in aggressive or violent behavior towards
trespass
- 10 -
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that on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with the
Supreme Court has succinctly stated that
(t)he purpose of this rule is to prevent the conviction
of an accused for one crime by the use of evidence
that he has committed other unrelated crimes, and
to preclude the inference that because he has
committed other crimes he was more likely to
commit that crime for which he is being tried.
The presumed effect of such evidence is to
predispose the minds of the jurors to believe the
accused guilty, and thus effectually to strip him of
the presumption of innocence.
Kinard, 2014 WL 848273, at *3 (emphasis added) (quoting
Commonwealth v. Spruill, 391 A.2d 1048, 1049 (Pa. 1978)). Accordingly,
aggressive landowner, we conclude that the trial court erred in admitting
2
Nevertheless, in Commonwealth v. Stafford, 749 A.2d 489 (Pa.
Super. 2000), this Court held:
Not all improper references to prior bad acts will
e passing
2
Gentilquore cites to Commonwealth v. Seiders, 614 A.2d 689 (Pa.
Seiders reveals that our Supreme Court held that prior crimes may not be
introduced as evidence of intent in cases where intent is not at issue.
Seiders, 614 A.2d at 691. Unlike Seiders, the ultimate issue presented to
the jury in this case was whether Gentilquore shot the Bigelows in self-
defense. Thus, Seiders is inapplicable to this case.
- 11 -
J-S48012-14
references to criminal activity will not require
reversal unless the record indicates that prejudice
present when the properly admitted evidence of guilt
is so overwhelming and the prejudicial effect of the
error is so insignificant by comparison that it is clear
beyond a reasonable doubt that the error could not
Id. at 496-
adopted in Pennsylvania, reflects the reality that the accused is entitled to a
Commonwealth v. Hetzel, 822 A.2d 747,
759 (Pa. Super. 2003) (citing Commonwealth v. Drummond, 775 A.2d
849, 853 (Pa. Super. 2001)). After our review of the record, we conclude
to the verdict in light of the overwhelming evidence properly admitted at
trial, and therefore, constitutes harmless error.
In this case, the ultimate issue presented to the jury was whether
Gentilquore shot the Bigelows in self-defense. Self-defense rights are
governed by 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 505. Section 505 provides, in relevant part:
(a) Use of force justifiable for protection of the
person. The use of force upon or toward another
person is justifiable when the actor believes that
such force is immediately necessary for the purpose
of protecting himself against the use of unlawful
force by such other person on the present occasion.
(b) Limitations on justifying necessity for use
of force.
***
- 12 -
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(2) The use of deadly force is not justifiable
under this section unless the actor believes
that such force is necessary to protect himself
against death, serious bodily injury, kidnapping
or sexual intercourse compelled by force or
threat; nor is it justifiable if:
(i) the actor, with the intent of causing
death or serious bodily injury, provoked
the use of force against himself in the
same encounter; or
(ii) the actor knows that he can avoid the
necessity of using such force with
complete safety by retreating, except the
actor is not obliged to retreat from his
dwelling or place of work, unless he was
the initial aggressor or is assailed in his
place of work by another person whose
place of work the actor knows it to be.
18 Pa.C.S.A. § 505.3
-defense, the
Commonwealth bears the burden of disproving the self-defense claim
Commonwealth v. Chine, 40 A.3d 1239,
1243 (Pa. Super. 2012) (citing Commonwealth v. Houser, 18 A.3d 1128,
1135 (Pa. 2011)). This Court has held that
The Commonwealth sustains this burden if it
establishes at least one of the following: 1) the
accused did not reasonably believe that he was in
danger of death or serious bodily injury; or 2) the
accused provoked or continued the use of force; or
3
Section 505 was amended, effective August 29, 2011, adding
-(2.6). As will
be discussed infra, these additions do not apply to this case as the incident
occurred in May 2006.
- 13 -
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3) the accused had a duty to retreat and the retreat
was possible with complete safety.
Commonwealth v. Smith, 2014 WL 3844118, at *3 (Pa. Super. Aug. 6,
2014) (citing Commonwealth v. Hammond, 953 A.2d 544, 559 (Pa.
Super. 2008), appeal denied
Commonwealth can negate a self-defense claim by proving the defendant
Smith, 2014 WL 3844118, at *4 (citing
Commonwealth v. Truong, 36 A.3d 592, 599 (Pa. Super. 2012) (en
banc)).
Although Gentilquore claimed that he acted in self-defense when he
shot the Bigelows, no evidence introduced at trial established that
Gentilquore was justified in using deadly force to protect himself. First, no
testimony established that either of the Bigelows were armed during the
confrontation with Gentilquore. While Gentilquore argued that he feared for
house down, Gentilquore never testified that Ryan had a weapon, a blow
torch, a can of gasoline, a Molotov cocktail, or any fire-starting device on
him. Id. at 127, 162. Gentilquore also admitted that he did not see a gun
the incident, also testified that he did not see any weapons in either of Ryan
11/14/06, at 119.
- 14 -
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In Commonwealth v. Witherspoon, 730 A.2d 496 (Pa. Super.
deadly weapon against a rela not a justifiable
level of force. Id. at 499 (citations omitted). Our Supreme Court echoed
this position in Commonwealth v. Rivera, 983 A.2d 1211 (Pa. 2009),
Id. at 1221. As a result,
unjustifiable, and the result of this case could not be impacted by the
Moreover, the evidence establishes that Gentilquore was not justified
in using deadly force to protect himself in light of the evidence showing that
the Bigelows
reasonable person would not have believed he was in imminent danger of
death or serious bodily injury. In this case, the Bigelows never entered
at all times. Gentilquore admitted that he remained in his house and
ignored Ryan the first time he came to his property, and that Ryan left a few
minutes later. N.T., 11/15/06, at 54-56. Although Ryan admitted to
banging on Gentilquo
- 15 -
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and Shaun testified that they never attempted to gain entry to the house.
N.T., 11/13/06, at 95-96, 229-30. Furthermore, Gentilquore provided his
version of the events as they unfolded, testifying that as Ryan stood outside
pussy and then I - - -69, 121-24.
Given this evidence, we conclude that there was overwhelming
evidence to negate -defense and to
convict him of criminal attempt to commit homicide and aggravated assault,
cordingly, Gentilquore is
not entitled to relief on this issue on appeal.
With respect to the testimony of Hogle and Beaudry, we conclude that
the trial court did not err or commit abuse of discretion in admitting this
evidence. Hogle testified that Gentilquore often shot firearms on his
property late at night and that he called the police on the night in question
-84.
ening
or early morning hours after Gentilquore moved to the area and that he
heard gunshots and yelling on the night in question. N.T., 11/14/06, at 6-8.
explain why [Gentilquore] shot the Bigelows, and was, in fact, irrelevant to
proving the identity of the shooter, since [Gentilquore] admitted that he shot
- 16 -
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the Bigelow[s] and, also, never denied that he shot his firearm on his
admission that he shot the Bigelows, we agree that identity was not at issue.
However, we fail to see how testimony that Gentilquore shot firearms on his
bad acts
In Commonwealth v. Luster, 71 A.3d 1029 (Pa. Super. 2013), the
appellant was charged with murdering a woman he was romantically
involved with. Id. at 1035-37. At trial, an individual who lived in the same
apartment building as the victim testified that he often heard the appellant
and the victim arguing. Id. at 1049-50. The appellant objected to this
testimony as irrelevant and on appeal, asserted that the testimony was
evidence of prior bad acts and
Id. at 1050.
This Court determined that the testimony could not be characterized as
Id.
In this case, Gentilquore asserted that the testimony portrayed him as
depriving [him] of t
- 17 -
J-S48012-14
relevant character issue leading to an inference of propensity. Gentilquore
never argued at trial or on appeal that the testimony tended to convey to
the jury that because he shot firearms on his property at night, he
demonstrated a propensity to shoot people. Rule 404(b) only prohibits
order to show that on a particular occasion the person acted in
accordance with the character
this case, if anything, the testimony that Gentilquore shot firearms on his
property was neutral in this aspect as it established that he shot firearms on
his property on a multitude of occasions without harming anyone.
testimony of Hogle and Beaudry.
For his second issue on appeal, Gentilquore argues that the trial court
the Bigelows, as well as others who had direct contact with [him] that
Id. at 39. Gentilquor
etched into the minds of the jurors the picture of [Gentilquore] disturbing
Id. As a result, Gentilquore argues that the cumulative evidence deprived
- 18 -
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Id. at 40.
As this Court has hel
Commonwealth v. Walsh, 36 A.3d 613, 621 (Pa. Super.
2012) (citing Pa.R.C.P. 223(1); Commonwealth v. Smith, 694 A.2d 1086,
constituted reversible error, such rulings must not only have been erroneous
Collins v.
Cooper, 746 A.2d 615, 619 (Pa. Super. 2000) (citing Romeo v. Manuel,
703 A.2d 530, 532 (Pa. Super 1997) (citations omitted)).
in the following discussion:
guy
fires his gun on his property. He has numerous
witnesses to testify to it.
Attorney Legg: It will take five minutes, Your Honor.
The Court: Is this your last witness as to that issue?
Attorney Legg: As to the unconnected threat,
correct. I mean, I have people from New Jersey that
will testify that Mr. Gentilquore was at their camp,
left their camp, the gun fire started.
The Court: On that night?
Attorney Legg: On that night well, as well as the
- 19 -
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The Court: Well, I think we can offer him.
Overruled.
N.T., 11/14/06, at 3.
The trial court held that although the evidence presented was
cumulative, the cumulative evidence did not prejudice Gentilquore, stating,
mony to the same fact so undermined
the truth determining process that no reliable adjudication of guilt or
cumulative evidence not been presented, the result of the proceeding would
Id. After a review of the record, we agree.
court may exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is outweighed by a
danger of one or more of the following: unfair prejudice, confusing the
issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, wasting time, or needlessly
l evidence of the same character as existing evidence and that
Commonwealth v.
G.D.M., Sr.
Dictionary, Seventh Edition, at 577).
In this case,
property was substantially similar to the testimony provided by ten other
witnesses, including seven who were connected with the events of the
- 20 -
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evening and Gentilquore himself. Beaudry did not offer any additional
evidence to strengthen or bolster the testimony, but simply provided that
testimony was cumulative.
However, Gentilquore failed to establish how the admission of
Be
that
Evidence is not unfairly prejudicial simply because it
prejudicial that it would inflame the jury to make a
decision based upon something other than the legal
propositions relevant to the case
Commonwealth v. Folely, 38 A.3d 882, 891 (Pa. Super. 2012) (citing
Commonwealth v. Page, 965 A.2d 1212, 1220 (Pa. Super. 2009)).
We note that Gentilquore specifically challenged the admission of
evening. However, Gentilquore failed to distinguish the testimony of
Beaudry from the testimony of the witnesses connected with the events of
the evening. Thus, although the evidence was cumulative, there is no
to the verdict. As a result, pursuant to our standard of review, we conclude
that the t
For his third issue on appeal, Gentilquore argues that the trial court
erred in allowing the admission and publication of color photographs of the
- 21 -
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Bigelows to the jury thereby inflaming the passions of the jury.
have no other effect but to prejudice the minds of the jury by causing the
members of the jury panel to be improperly and unfairly influenced by
Id. at 37.
The standard of law for admitting photographs is well settled. Our
Supreme Court has held that
[t]he admissibility of photographs falls within the
discretion of the trial court and only an abuse of that
discretion will constitute reversible error. The test
for determining whether photographs are admissible
involves a two-
decide whether a photograph is inflammatory by its
very nature. If the photograph is deemed
inflammatory, the court must determine whether the
essential evidentiary value of the photograph
outweighs the likelihood that the photograph will
improperly inflame the minds and passions of the
Commonwealth v. Lowry, 55 A.3d 743, 753 (Pa. Super. 2012) (internal
citations omitted) (citing Commonwealth v. Malloy, 856 A.2d 767, 776
(Pa. 2004)).
In this case, the photographs of the Bigelows were, by their very
natu
wounds, the wounds as they healed, and Shaun on a ventilator. N.T.,
11/13/06, at 97-98, 249-
inflammatory nature of the photographs, the trial court was required to
- 22 -
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determine whether the essential evidentiary value of the photographs
outweighed the likelihood that the photographs would improperly inflame the
minds and passions of the jury.
At trial, Gentilquore argued that the colored photographs had no
probative value because the Bigelows could adequately describe their
injuries in detail and their doctors and medical records could detail how the
injuries affected them. Id. at 98. Thus, Gentilquore asserted that the
purpose of the colored photographs was to show blood and to inflame the
jury. Id. at 98-99. Conversely, the Commonwealth argued that they were
offering the photographs to prove serious bodily injury. Id. at 99. The trial
relevant to prove
essential evidentiary value that their need clearly outweighed the likelihood
7/9/12, at 18.
We agree that the photographs possessed evidentiary value to prove
Bigelows sustained serious bodily injury eliminated the probative value of
the photographs. See id. at 251-
inflammatory photograph is merely cumulative of other evidence, it will not
Commonwealth v. Wright, 961 A.2d 119, 138
(Pa. Super. 2009) (citing Commonwealth v. Robinson, 864 A.2d 460 (Pa.
- 23 -
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2004)). Thus, the trial court erred in admitting the color photographs to
prove serious bodily injury.
For the same reasons as set forth hereinabove with respect to the Vis
admitting the color photographs was harmless, as the properly admitted
evidence of guilt was so overwhelming that the error did not prejudice
Gentilquore, or the prejudicial effect of the error was de minimis.
Gentilquore admitted that he shot the Bigelows, and no evidence at trial
established any justification to use deadly force to protect himself or any
basis for a reasonable person to believe he was in imminent danger of death
or serious bodily injury when he did so. In short, Gentilquore shot the
Bigelows, and not in self-defense. As a result, the erroneous admission of
the color photographs was so insignificant by comparison to the properly
admitted evidence of guilt that it is clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the
error could not have contributed to the verdict.
For his fourth issue on appeal, Gentilquore argues that he should be
granted a new trial as a result of the amendments to the self-defense
Brief at 40. The Pennsylvania legislature expanded
self-defense rights by amending section 505 on June 28, 2011, which
became effective on August 29, 2011. Gentilquore asserts that the 2011
amendments should be applied retroactively to this case. Id. at 41.
- 24 -
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Section 505(b)(2.1) provides:
Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (2.2), an
actor is presumed to have a reasonable belief that
deadly force is immediately necessary to protect
himself against death, serious bodily injury,
kidnapping or sexual intercourse compelled by force
or threat if both of the following conditions exist:
(i) The person against whom the force is used
is in the process of unlawfully and forcefully
entered and is present within, a dwelling,
residence or occupied vehicle; or the person
against whom the force is used is or is
attempting to unlawfully and forcefully remove
dwelling, residence or occupied vehicle.
(ii) The actor knows or has reason to believe
that the unlawful and forceful entry or act is
occurring or has occurred.
18 Pa.C.S.A. § 505(b)(2.1).
Commonwealth v.
Thomas, 51 A.3d 255, 260 (Pa. Super. 2012). Section 1926 of the
retroactive unless clearly and manifestly so intended by the General
retroactive effect of statutes. However, as this Court held in
Commonwealth v. Estman
provides [] that legislation concerning purely procedural matters, not
substantive matters, may be applied to litigation existing at the time of
- 25 -
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Id. at 1212.
(citing , 715 A.2d 384
procedural laws are those that address methods by which rights are
Estman, 868 A.2d at 1212 (citing Commonwealth v. Morris,
771 A.2d 721, 738 (Pa. 2001)).
In this case, Gentilquore constructed two arguments for retroactive
argument is based upon the
specifically recognized that the amendment to section 505 was derived from
ancient common law doctrine, law that already existed, it manifestly
expressed its intent that the Amendments to section 505 be applied
mere fact that it relates to antecedent events, or draws upon antecedent
provision attaches new legal consequences to events completed before its
Commonwealth v. Robinson, 7 A.3d 868, 871 (Pa. Super.
2010) (citing In the Interest of K.A.P., Jr., 916 A.2d 1152, 1159 (Pa.
Super. 2007) (internal citations omitted)). In this instance, there is no
indication in the statute that the legislature intended section 505(b)(2.1) to
apply retroactively. Accordingly, absent the clear and manifest intention of
- 26 -
J-S48012-14
retroactively. See 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1926.
are substantive in nature, and therefore, must be applied retroactively. Id.
at 42. This argument is self-defeating. Estman established that only
legislation concerning purely procedural matters may be applied
retroactively. Estman, 868 A.2d at 1212. As previously stated, the
amendments to section 505(b)(2.1) expanded self-defense rights. Thus, the
amendments to section 505(b)(2.1) necessarily create, define, and regulate
self-defense rights and are thereby substantive in nature. As substantive
hat he should be
granted a new trial as a result of these amendments is denied.
Judgment of sentence affirmed.
Jenkins, J. joins the Memorandum.
Platt, J. concurs in the result.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 9/9/2014
- 27 -
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | FreeLaw |
With the national debate over removing monuments to confederate war heroes dominating headlines, perhaps we need a reminder of the principles and justifications for southern secession for which these men fought. The following excerpts are from the articles of secession adopted by five states, and the ordinances of secession adopted by the legislatures, conventions, and voters of the remaining states.
All the ordinances make clear that the primary motivation for secession was the rise of a “sectional party” (re: anti-slavery Republican party in the Northern States), and the perception that slavery’s abolition was imminent. Notably, for those ordinances that went to a vote, the legislation passed by overwhelming majorities of the voting public in Southern States. For the purposes here, “ordinances” are the actual resolutions passed by the legislatures and conventions to officially secede from the United States. “Articles” or “declarations” refer to the justifications for secession included in separate supporting documents.
These full text for these documents can be found at civil-war.net and the Civil War Trust. Specific underlined references to slavery are highlights made the by the author.
South Carolina
Articles of secession, adopted December 24, 1860.
“The ends for which the Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be “to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” “These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a Federal Government, in which each State was recognized as an equal, and had separate control over its own institutions. The right of property in slaves was recognized by giving to free persons distinct political rights, by giving them the right to represent, and burthening them with direct taxes for three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves for twenty years; and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from labor. “We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign [sic] the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection. For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government.... A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that “Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,” and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction. This sectional combination for the submersion of the Constitution, has been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship, persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its beliefs and safety.
Mississippi
Ordinance of Secession adopted January 9, 1861
Excerpt from the declaration or articles of secession.
“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product, which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.
Alabama
Ordinance of Secession adopted January 11 , 1861
No articles of secession available, but from the Ordinance of Secession:
“Whereas, the election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin to the offices of president and vice-president of the United States of America, by a sectional party, avowedly hostile to the domestic institutions and to the peace and security of the people of the State of Alabama, preceded by many and dangerous infractions of the constitution of the United States by many of the States and people of the Northern section, is a political wrong of so insulting and menacing a character as to justify the people of the State of Alabama in the adoption of prompt and decided measures for their future peace and security, therefore:....”
Georgia
Ordinance of Secession adopted January 19, 1861
The Georgia Declaration (articles) of Secession presents a detailed history of the growth of the anti-slavery movement as the central justification for secession. The following is from the opening paragraph from the declaration:
“The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slaveholding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic. This hostile policy of our confederates has been pursued with every circumstance of aggravation which could arouse the passions and excite the hatred of our people, and has placed the two sections of the Union for many years past in the condition of virtual civil war. ....
“The question of slavery was the great difficulty in the way of the formation of the Constitution. While the subordination and the political and social inequality of the African race was fully conceded by all, it was plainly apparent that slavery would soon disappear from what are now the non-slave-holding States of the original thirteen. The opposition to slavery was then, as now, general in those States and the Constitution was made with direct reference to that fact. But a distinct abolition party was not formed in the United States for more than half a century after the Government went into operation. The main reason was that the North, even if united, could not control both branches of the Legislature during any portion of that time.”
Texas
Ordinance of Secession February 23, 1861, popular vote 46,153 in favor, 14,747 against.
Excerpt from the articles of secession.
“In all the non-slave-holding States, in violation of that good faith and comity which should exist between entirely distinct nations, the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party, now strong enough in numbers to control the affairs of each of those States, based upon an unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of equality of all men, irrespective of race or color – a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of Divine Law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between the white and negro races, and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States.
....
“We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable. “That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states. “By the secession of six of the slave-holding States, and the certainty that others will speedily do likewise, Texas has no alternative but to remain in an isolated connection with the North, or unite her destinies with the South.”
Virginia
Ordinance of Secession adopted by convention April 17, 1861
ratified by vote 131,201 to 37451 May 23, 1861. No articles of secession. Quote from the ordinance of secession:
“The people of Virginia in their ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under said Constitution were derived from the people of the United States and might be resumed whensoever the same should be perverted to their injury and oppression, and the Federal Government having perverted said powers not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern slave-holding States.”
Arkansas
Ordinance of Secession adopted May 6, 1861
No articles of secession. Excerpt from the Ordinance of Secession:
“Whereas, in addition to the well-founded causes of complaint set forth by this convention, in resolutions adopted on the 11th of March, A.D. 1861, against the sectional party now in power in Washington City, headed by Abraham Lincoln, he has, in the face of resolutions passed by this convention pledging the State of Arkansas to resist to the last extremity any attempt on the part of such power to coerce any State that had seceded from the old Union, proclaimed to the world that war should be waged against such States until they should be compelled to submit to their rule, and large forces to accomplish this have by this same power been called out, and are now being marshaled to carry out this inhuman design; and to longer submit to such rule, or remain in the old Union of the United States, would be disgraceful and ruinous to the State of Arkansas.”
Kentucky
Ordinance of Secession adopted November 20, 1861
No articles of secession. Excerpt from the Ordinance of Secession:
“Whereas, the Federal Constitution, which created the Government of the United States, was declared by the framers thereof to be the supreme law of the land, and was intended to limit and did expressly limit the powers of said Government to certain general specified purposes, and did expressly reserve to the States and people all other powers whatever, and the President and Congress have treated this supreme law of the Union with contempt and usurped to themselves the power to interfere with the rights and liberties of the States and the people against the expressed provisions of the Constitution, and have thus substituted for the highest forms of national liberty and constitutional government a central despotism founded upon the ignorant prejudices of the masses of Northern society, and instead of giving protection with the Constitution to the people of fifteen States of this Union have turned loose upon them the unrestrained and raging passions of mobs and fanatics, and because we now seek to hold our liberties, our property, our homes, and our families under the protection of the reserved powers of the States, have blockaded our ports, invaded our soil, and waged war upon our people for the purpose of subjugating us to their will;....”
The following states appeared to have no specific reference to slavery in their ordinances of secession and articles of secession were not available:
Louisiana, Ordinance of Secession adopted January 26, 1861
Florida, Ordinance of Secession adopted January 11, 1861
North Carolina, Ordinance of Secession adopted May 20, 1861
Tennessee, Ordinance of Secession sent to conference May 6, 1861, adopted 104,471 to 47,183 on June 8 1861
Missouri, Ordinance of Secession adopted October 31, 1861 | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
All games have user interfaces, from first person shooters to puzzle games and hardcore simulations. Their quality ranges from excellent down to looking like they’ve been hastily put together by programmers themselves at the end of a project. Sometimes they seem to only be there to let players have access to the internal workings of the game, almost as an after thought. In this article I’ll discuss why World of Warcraft’s GUI works so well and why games as old as Sim Ant (1991) started the trend in excellent design.
Below is the list of 7 rules I follow during the design of a GUI for any game.
1. Less is more
People in general become overwhelmed and confused easily. This is particularly true when playing games as people use them as a time to relax and enjoy themselves. Work out what the player’s options are in each section of the game and remove any UI elements that aren’t relevant or that are used infrequently. From speaking with gamers from casual to hardcore I’ve found that confusion actually grows exponentially with the number of UI elements you have on screen at once.
2. Context sensitivity is in
Context sensitive help and options are all over Windows XP for a reason, it makes life so much easier. If you are right clicking on a folder then you’ll want to perform different operations to right clicking on the start button. In games, there are a multitude of different approaches you can take from performing a different action based on what they clicked on to bringing up different options in a radial menu when they right click on a different object.
3. Match data to representation
Programmers like to represent everything with numbers on screen. It’s quick, gets the data across and doesn’t take up much room, what more could you want? The use of numbers to represent some data is fine, such as the number of arrows left in your quiver, but displaying the current health of the player can be done in better ways. The first time I saw this work really well was playing Sim Ant over 10 years ago. The player had to assign a resource between 3 different options. Rather than have 3 numbers you could change where increasing one decreased the other two they had a triangle where you dragged a dot to any point in the triangle representing a split of the resources. It was so simple and elegant and even though I was only 10 years old I instantly understood what to do.
4. Mouse over help is in
This is another concept introduced by Windows that works well in games. The Movies does this really well by displaying a help bubble with general information about the object and after a few more seconds displaying more detailed information. World of Warcraft has one of the best mouse over help interfaces I’ve seen in a game to date. Nearly every UI element in the game has information telling you exactly what it does removing the need for a manual or even looking through a help file.
5. Give immediate feedback for every action
This is a key point to reducing the frustration of the player. Whenever they click on a button or object you should let them know that the game has registered their action, from simply playing a sound to playing an animation on the button. Warcraft (the RTS) used to give an immediate response from the character when you ordered them to do something even though the character didn’t actually perform the action until the server sent the response back. You couldn’t notice any problem as your brain was satisfied that the character understood the order and was just a little slow to get moving. If you’ve ever found yourself clicking multiple times or yelling at the screen because you’ve clicked 20 times and nothing has happened you will understand how frustrating this can be.
6. Keep the user from moving all over the screen with the mouse
You should try to position UI elements together in their logical groups as much as possible. It’s a good idea to keep UI elements to the sides of the screen out of the way, but try and keep them all in the one area rather than around more than 1 or 2 sides of the screen. In this picture the red parts indicate how much of the screen the user can click on. World of Warcraft succeeds by keeping everything to the bottom while Nexus has 3 sides of the screen where you may need to click meaning you spend a lot of time moving all over the screen to select different options.
7. Design before you begin
Ad hoc GUI’s show and they are really awful to use. This point was reinforced with how difficult the initial UI in CIC was for most users. They were overwhelmed with choice and had options they hardly used. Most parts of your game will only be seen infrequently, however you can be guaranteed the GUI will be on their screen the entire time so it’s important to design it properly. This is reinforced by the fact that releasing your game with a simple ad hoc GUI and then fixing it in a later release means the users will have to re-learn an entirely new interface and they will have picked up bad habits from your first ad hoc design.
I’m working on a small game for a friend for the next month or so after which I will be continuing work on my board game which will be part of the “Electronic Warfare” section of CIC. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Sexual history disclosure polygraph outcomes: do juvenile and adult sex offenders differ?
Despite the empirical and theoretical chasm between the opponents and proponents of polygraphy, its use is prominent among sex offender agencies in the United States. However, current research on polygraph examination outcomes among juvenile sex offenders, along with potential differences from their adult counterparts, is scarce and outdated. In the present study, we assess the difference between juvenile and adult sex offenders in terms of the propensity for passing a sexual history disclosure polygraph examination. A sample of 324 sex offenders (86 juveniles and 238 adults) who engaged in a sexual history disclosure polygraph examination as part of their treatment in an Intermountain West sex offender treatment agency was used for the analysis. Results from preliminary and logistic regression analyses indicate that juvenile and adult offenders do not significantly differ in the likelihood of passing a sexual history disclosure polygraph examination. Implications and limitations are discussed. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Abstracts |
Q:
What is the name of this Python comparison?
I found this function
def calculate_age(born):
today = date.today()
age = today.year - born.year - ((today.month, today.day) < (born.month, born.day))
return age
This is the first time that I saw this type of comparison. So, I did a few test,
>>> (5,4)<(7,5)
True
>>> (5,4)<(7,3)
True
>>> (5,4)<(4,3)
False
>>> (5,4)<(4,8)
False
>>> (5,4)<(5,8)
True
>>> (5,4)<(5,3)
False
>>> (5,4)<(5,4)
False
>>> (5,4)<=(5,4)
True
>>> (5,4,1)<(5,4,9)
True
>>> (5,4,1,7)<(5,4,1,6)
False
>>> (5,4,1,7)<(5,4,1,8)
True
>>> (5,4,1,7)<(5,4,2,8)
True
>>> (5,4,1,7)<(5,4,2,1)
True
This is really useful and I want to know if this type of comparison has a name and where can I find information about it.
Is this only in Python?
Thanks
A:
This is just ordinary comparison of tuple objects. From the Python language spec:
Tuples and lists are compared lexicographically using comparison of corresponding elements. This means that to compare equal, each element must compare equal and the two sequences must be of the same type and have the same length.
If not equal, the sequences are ordered the same as their first differing elements. For example, cmp([1,2,x], [1,2,y]) returns the same as cmp(x,y). If the corresponding element does not exist, the shorter sequence is ordered first (for example, [1,2] < [1,2,3]).
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | StackExchange |
Q:
Character Arrays versus Character Pointers regarding size
Quote from an article I read:
*...Consider the following two variables:
char s6[ ] = "hello", *s7 = "hello";
s6 allocates space for exactly 6 bytes; s7 allocates space for 10 ( typically ) - 6 for the characters plus another 4 for the pointer variable.*
Curious about to who holds the address of s6 (of the first char in the array)? And how does s6 'save' the 4 bytes for the pointer?
A:
To put it simply, it's not stored anywhere in your program. Only the compiler keeps track of it.
Under the hood:
s6 means "address XXXXXXXX: a block of six bytes, holding the values 'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', 0"
s7 means "address YYYYYYYY: a block of four bytes, holding the values ZZ, ZZ, ZZ, ZZ"
*s7 means "address ZZZZZZZZ: a block of one byte, holding the value 'H'"
The program doesn't actually have to store the value XXXXXXXX anywhere; the compiler just inserts the value XXXXXXXX anywhere that you use s6.
Similarly, the program doesn't have to store YYYYYYYY anywhere, but it does store ZZZZZZZZ, because you specifically said so (you said to assign the value ZZZZZZZZ to the variable s7).
If you want to store XXXXXXXX somewhere, though, you can easily do so:
char my_pointer* = &s6;
Now my_pointer means "address WWWWWWWW: a block of four bytes, holding the values XX, XX, XX, XX".
P.S. This is assuming you're on a system with four-byte pointers; nowadays, it's more likely that a pointer is eight bytes, or 64 bits.
A:
s6 allocates space for exactly 6 bytes; s7 allocates space for 10 ( typically ) - 6 for the characters plus another 4 for the pointer variable.
No, that's not correct.
s6 has space for exactly 6 bytes, s7 has space (size) of that of a pointer (4 or 8 bytes usually, depending on your architecture) and it points to the string used to initialize it.
In other words,
size of s6 is sizeof ("hello").
size of s7 is sizeof (s7), i.e, sizeof (char *)
You can execute the below program to check the sizes:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
char s6[ ] = "hello", *s7 = "hello";
printf("s6 = %zu\n", sizeof (s6));
printf("s7 = %zu\n", sizeof (s7));
return 0;
}
On my system, they yield:
s6 = 6 // sizeof ("hello"), or , sizeof (char [6])
s7 = 8 // sizeof (char *)
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | StackExchange |
On Monday, May 27, Dr. Rima Najjar, a retired professor and active participant on many social media platforms, had her attorney, Rima Kapitan, serve the management of Quora with a letter seeking a settlement with the internet platform, which had banned her permanently earlier that month. Quora.com is a website where users can post general questions on a range of topics and other users offer answers to those questions. Najjar feels that the ban is a direct result of her national origin, and Kapitan’s letter to the Quora management documents many instances when Najjar was censored because she wrote as a Palestinian. Kapitan’s letter to Quora, which she shared with me, states:
“Starting on May 2, 2019, Quora permanently banned [Najjar] from the site, claiming she engaged in ‘hate speech’ for using the term ‘Zionist’ because she views Zionism in a negative way. Quora claims to be enforcing its ‘Be Nice, Be Respectful’ policy, but Dr. Najjar can show that the policy is enforced against her because of her advocacy for the national rights of Palestinians, and that the policy is not enforced in the same way against non-Palestinians.”
Najjar’s action raises important questions about the legal definition of social media: is it a public accommodation, and thus subject to anti-discrimination laws? Who are the “censors?” Can an internet platform be manipulated by readers into determining what is acceptable contents, and what qualifies as hate speech?
Quora’s claim that criticism of Zionism is hate speech is based on the disproportionate number of reader comments to that effect. Yet Palestine rights activists know that Israel has deployed an army of paid internet trolls to flag Palestinian posts as hateful, and otherwise spread its hasbara. Indeed, the internet is one of the more active battlefronts in today’s culture wars, where discourse is shaped, and worldviews and ideologies can be transformed. It has democratized the media, which was once the purview of the wealthy and powerful. Are the wealthy and powerful– the funders of internet platforms such as Quora, which depends on their paid ads– shutting down this venue for grassroots conversations?
Quora’s permanent ban of Dr. Najjar, following the unmitigated harassment she had been subjected to from Zionist readers, “Quorans,” as they are called, prompted Najjar to take legal action. I asked her a few questions about her experience, her posts, and her decision to sue the social media platform.
Nada Elia: When did you start writing on Quora, and how soon afterwards did you experience harassment or hostility?
Rima Najjar: I am not sure exactly when I began writing there. Quora deleted all my answers on my profile and I cannot access my account. However, I began experiencing harassment in the form of collapsed (hidden) answers almost immediately. (Editor’s Note: Quora moderators have the authority to “collapse” answers, effectively making them less visible or completely invisible. They do so most frequently in response to readers “downvoting” an answer. Najjar’s answers were routinely “collapsed,” until she was permanently banned from the site.) My first post on Collapse Detectives, a Quora blog that helps newcomers understand moderation decisions, is dated Jan 25, 2018 and titled, ‘BDS and Writing While Palestinian’. Some of the initial collapses were a result of technical violations – for example, not formatting quotations according to a required Quora style or linking inadvertently to a commercial website (in my case, the Encyclopedia Britannica), which in Quora is considered spamming. But I quickly got a grasp of these technicalities and then the collapses were clearly a result of malicious mass reporting. From the discussions of my frequent posts on Collapse Detectives, I learned a lot about what “common discourse” was considered acceptable and polite on Quora and what was not. I challenged some of that through discussion there, and also by giving feedback to Quora management.
NE: Why persist, in what is clearly a hostile environment?
RN: I write on Quora because I have a strong desire to integrate Palestinian rights into the Quora universe, based on universal rights and the need for justice, equality and freedom for all people.
In wanting to erase me as someone with a Palestinian nationality from its platform, Quora exhibits the same attitude of Western society at large, which has long taken its cue from Zionist propaganda as formulated, not only by Israel, but also by academia, namely that the Jewish nationality (alternatively called “ethnicity”) is a given as a construct and as a reality in the form of Israel, and that the Palestinian nationality does not exists and never has. It must be stamped out, both as a construct and as a reality in the form of an independent Palestinian state, because it threatens the very foundation of the Jewish state, which, in order to exist as a Jewish state with a Jewish majority had first to ethnic cleanse and displace Palestinians – “transfer” them to other Arab states as “Arab nationals”.
NE: Can you cite some specific examples of the censorship and hostility you experienced, before being permanently banned from Quora?
RN: In my anti-Zionist writing, Quora’s demand goes beyond an insistence that I use the language of symmetry to describe the tragedy that has befallen me and millions of Palestinians, which is inherently asymmetrical, as any situation between the oppressed and their oppressor is. In fact, it appears to direct me to use only “neutral” language. And what’s “neutral” language? It’s “accepted usage” – i.e. the accepted dominant Zionist “narrative”. Veer away from that, and I am not being neutral.
This came out in a discussion I had on Collapse Detectives with Jennifer Edeburn, a Quora Top Writer. She was guessing that my use of the terms diaspora/exile in a question is what caused a moderator to flag the question as “possibly insincere, using language that was not neutral”. To “fix” the question, she suggested that I “replace the words diaspora/exile with ‘other countries’ or some such, [and then] the marking [flag on the question] will be removed. The idea that all Palestinians who do not live in Palestine are in exile is the ‘non-neutral’ perspective that supported the flagging of this question. … you should change it to be less easily misunderstood by those who do not share your knowledge and background. After all, I am not suggesting that you use an incorrect term, only a different one.”
I responded with, “All Palestinians who do not live in Palestine are ‘in exile’, a term accepted in Palestinian discourse the same way Jewish discourse accepts the term ‘diaspora’ (to Palestinians, that’s far from neutral). It refers to the fact that Palestinians living in other countries are denied return to Palestine, whether they wish to return or not. See Edward Said’s book Reflections on Exile and Other essays.”
NE: And did the moderators consider your perspective?
RN: The catch came after I wrote: “You are right, Jennifer — ’a moderator not familiar with the usage of the term would take that viewpoint.’ I agree. But don’t you think it is better to introduce the usage into common discourse — i.e., try to educate the moderator by appealing, etc., so that reports flagging Palestinian terms will not be successful anymore?”
Jennifer answered: “… you have the directionality wrong. Moderators are mirrors of common discourse, not mediators of it.”
Common discourse on Israel/Palestine – aka the Israeli side of the story, as we all know, is horrendous for Palestinians. Platforms like Quora that refuse to accept challenges to it, partly, I am guessing, to enhance their commercial attractiveness for ad buyers, end up with endless hasbara rhetoric masquerading as “knowledge” and “information”.
NE: What prompted you to consider legal action against Quora?
RN: It became clear to me that I was being censored not because of any neutral policy but because Quora considers advocacy for Palestinian national rights “hate speech.” Quora’s discriminatory application of its policies affects not only me but others seeking to create space on the internet for the exploration and examination of Palestinian national identity, and the ability of the general public to access accurate information through internet searches. I am concerned, horrified really, about the massive disinformation regarding Israel/Palestine that Quora puts out there, both in the questions that the hasbara machine cranks out (Quora’s Partnership Program financially rewards the writing of questions) as well as the content these questions attract.
NE: What other sites/platforms do you post on, and has your experience been different there?
RN: I am very active on Facebook and my Facebook account is connected to my Twitter account. I post everything on Facebook publicly, having come to the conclusion long ago that there is no such thing as privacy on social media, so why bother. Plus, I was motivated to be on Facebook for the same reason I was on Quora – to get my voice heard as widely as possible. At the beginning, there was a lot of trolling, but I don’t experience that now at all. My account on Facebook was blocked twice. The second time (in February 2018), the notification said I would be blocked for 30 days for posting the following meme: “#Hillel, a racist organization, has as much place on university campuses as does the #KKK.” Reason given was: “We remove posts that attack people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender or disability.” Clearly, Hillel is not “a people”. If that were the case, my article in which I discuss Hillel as a racist organization would also be subject to censorship. Hillel is billed as “introducing students to Jewish life”, but its core mission is to link Jewish students’ identities with Israel, regardless of their American (or other) nationality. This time, I not only appealed to Facebook, I also reported my experience to Online Censorship, and I believe they were able to help, because I was sprung from Facebook jail [a temporary ban] only a couple of days later and I have never been bothered again. Someone told me that a Facebook admin had said that Facebook had made “a lot of mistakes in the Middle East”. From recent news reports about the closure of the Facebook accounts of Palestinian officials and journalists, it looks like Facebook is still “making mistakes in the Middle East”.
Using ‘civility’ to silence
After intervewing Najjar, I reached out to her attorney, Rima Kapitan, who told me: “Quora uses the notion of ‘civility’ to silence proponents of Palestinian nationality. But speech isn’t uncivil simply because Zionists respond to it with outrage. Quora also fails to enforce its policies equally against those who advocate for Palestinian self-determination and proponents of Zionism. The effect is erasure of Palestinian voices from Quora and the removal of informative content.”
Quora’s headquarters are in California, and Najjar’s attorney, Kapitan, notes in her letter to Quora’s management that:
California’s public accommodations law provides “full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever” regardless of “national origin.” This Act applies to websites, since they are “a kind of business establishment and an accommodation, advantage, facility, and privilege of a place of public accommodation, respectively. No nexus to [a] physical [place] need be shown.”
Kapitan then documents how “Quora has denied equal privileges to Dr. Rima Najjar because of her national origin—Palestinian. Starting on May 2, 2019, Quora permanently banned her from the site, claiming she engaged in ‘hate speech’ for using the term ‘Zionist’ because she views Zionism in a negative way. Quora claims to be enforcing its ‘Be Nice, Be Respectful’ policy, but Dr. Najjar can show that the policy is enforced against her because of her advocacy for the national rights of Palestinians, and that the policy is not enforced in the same way against non-Palestinians.”
Among other demands she is making, Najjar is asking for her account to be reinstated, for Quora to issue a public statement affirming that opposition to Zionism is not “hate speech,” and for Quora to change its moderation policies, so that answers are not “collapsed” because of readers’ complaints, but rather because they violate the forum’s “Be Nice, Be Respectful” policy. Quora’s management has until June 10 to settle out of court.
Whatever the outcome, this is an important precedent for Palestine rights and other grassroots activists, as it legally challenges censorship in a space that has played a critical role in documenting abuse, social mobilizing, and political organizing, and shaping the public discourse. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Performance Anxiety
HOW'S this for the actor's nightmare: you not only freeze onstage in midperformance -- ''cold sweat, mute helpless fish-mouths, the works'' -- you also discover, upon staggering into the wings, that you no longer know the lines for your offstage role. Your self has gone away, or has been undermined by other selves that have fallen into step beside you or inside you.
The unhappily aptly named Alexander Cleave, the protagonist of ''Eclipse,'' John Banville's 12th novel, celebrated throughout Britain for his sensitive yet brutal Hamlet, ''uncanny'' Iago and ''coiled Richard Crookback,'' has noticed ominous signs even before this disaster: He has found himself weeping in movie theaters with no idea of what he was mourning. He has felt certain he was surrounded by portents, though uncertain of their meaning. Lately, the simplest things people have said to him seem cryptic and, whatever the hour, it is as if he had just risen and were trying to clear his head and get a grip. He has been involuntarily fixing on a bit of himself -- ''a finger, a foot'' -- and gaping at it in horror, ''unable to understand how it made its movements.'' And what is his last line before his very public breakdown? ''Who if not I, then, is Amphitryon?''
As that line suggests, Banville is back to one of the persistent preoccupations of his recent fiction: the elusive and unstable nature of identity. (''The Untouchable,'' his previous novel, was based on the misadventures of the baroquely self-divided Anthony Blunt, pillar of English society and Soviet spy.) And so Cleave hides out at his now empty childhood home like a survivor from a shipwreck, seeking not only respite but also some perspective, a chance to confront just who he is or might be ''without shock or shrinking.''
This requires some steeliness, it turns out. Because if his condition seems like a kind of Dantean punishment for an actor, that's no accident. For some time now, particularly as a husband and father, Cleave has not been what he pretended to be. (''It is an actor's failing,'' he helpfully points out.) He has been, and continues to be, heartlessly detached from his long-suffering wife, Lydia. When, distraught, she remarks, ''I take it you have left me and will not be coming back,'' his response is, ''Now, was that a line of anapests . . . or the rarer, shyer amphibrach?'' For long stretches, he loses track of his emotionally disturbed daughter, Cass, now grown and moved away. He never even fully inhabited the role of son, isolated from his parents when they were alive and unable to grieve at their deaths.
He lies about the house with a kind of numb lassitude, the melancholic savoring the forms of his own distress. (Having dreamed of himself as a torturer, he seeks to recapture the dream ''in all its cruelty and mysterious splendor.'') He stops shaving. He contemplates a palm turned septic from a scratch. His house seems to be haunted by an inexplicably familiar woman and child, shades conjured like the portraits from his memories, like himself.
As with so many of his creator's protagonists, Cleave is positively thrumming with self-awareness, exquisitely and relentlessly conscious of being watched. Alone in this house, he's hiding from one audience in order to perform for two others: himself and the reader. ''See me there, the haunted one,'' he exhorts us on the very first page, ''assailed suddenly, in the midst of the world.'' A fugitive presence in his own mind and heart, he seems to exist only insofar as he can write himself, or be written. He's got the tools he thinks are necessary to the task: an elephantine narcissism apparently separated from its mostly inseparable pal, vanity, and a self-consciously literary erudition.
In ways that are in equal measure slippery and illuminating, our narrator ranges across the canon in search of models to help us get a fix on his ever-shifting nature. He remembers, as a boy, feeling as though he were carrying the precious vessel of his own selfhood through a throng of foes, like a cross between the girl from Elizabeth Bishop's ''In the Waiting Room'' and the boy from Joyce's ''Araby.'' He offers himself as Crusoe, as Prospero and as ''the scoffer lounging in doublet and hose'' in an upstairs window of an inn and spitting pomegranate seeds onto Chaucer's pilgrims as they pass below.
The most ubiquitous literary shade evoked, though, is Nabokov's. Banville must be bone-weary by this point of having reviewers pick up the Nabokovian scent once again, and yet ''Eclipse'' seems positively crosshatched by the great man's spoor. There's the sly, performative unreliability of the narrator, and the courtesy with which he exposes his own narrative machinery. There's that characteristic playfulness about the permeability of memory and imagination. (Cleave says of a skewered childhood acquaintance, ''I see him in gaiters but surely that is just fancy,'' while other, contradictory details suggest to him ''the telltale threads on which memory snags her nails.'') Characters' names wryly point to their created status, as in Quirke, the eccentric caretaker, and Sniveling, Cleave's understudy. ''Lolita'' is alluded to throughout, in Cleave's teasingly Humbertian attitude toward the caretaker's under-age daughter, ''a grubby and all too actual odalisque, scanning her mags, and sipping her cola'' (''I study her now with an almost ogreish intensity''), and in his self-indictments: ''I have always been a timid soul, for all the blackness of my heart.'' Freud's beard is tweaked throughout. (On the way to his first sexual experience, Cleave notes, ''I was reminded of the slap my mother had given me all those years before, on the day of my father's death.'') And both Cleave and his daughter are even afflicted by the referential mania that torments the parents' son in Nabokov's magnificent story ''Signs and Symbols.''
Game playing like this contributes, of course, to an atmosphere of overcontrivance, and the book suffers periodically from both the sheer number of hints it provides concerning its own ingenuity of design and its narrator's eagerness to help us out editorially. He tends to retell us things that are abundantly clear, like ''Memories crowd in on me, irresistibly, threatening to overwhelm my thoughts entirely,'' or ''I may be embellishing, inventing, I may be mixing everything up.''
But two other aspects that also seem Nabokovian save the enterprise: that sense of the importance of the stakes involved -- of a desperate gaiety masking anguish -- and a beguiling tenderness of observation, a tenderness that immediately ethically complicates the solipsism implied by the suffocating self-consciousness.
Like Nabokov, Banville captures the vivid aesthetic pleasures of quotidian reality in the most satisfying ways. Cleave notes about his stand-in for Lolita that ''on each foot the littlest toe is turned in under its neighbor like the handle of a little cup.'' He attends the world around him as though given the sole task of keeping track of it: ''The day is damp and fresh as a peeled stick.'' At such moments, his dream of dislocation and transport becomes ours. This is watchfulness as the first step toward engagement, and so back into life.
And not a moment too soon, for all of those portents turn out to have been leading toward something, and our hero begins to transcend his solipsism just in time to apprehend a shattering loss. If, throughout ''Eclipse,'' perception has been rendered as a single, small attic window looking out onto an immensity of blue air, through which we can barely glimpse one another's incommensurable losses, the novel's triumph is to have contrived for us, by its finish, the piercing sadness of having connected to a man who can't connect to anyone, as he bears a punishment that turns out to have been more infernally ingenious than even he could have supposed. We grant him our full attention and respect as he's forced to go on, bearing the mystery of himself before him. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
The Ron Paul presidential campaign may have been involved with negotiations to offer financial compensation to an Iowa state senator in exchange for his endorsement and support in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, according to emails obtained by OpenSecrets.org
The negotiations appear to have involved several top Ron Paul 2012 officials, including Jesse Benton , pictured with Ron Paul at right, who was the campaign’s political director. Benton is married to Ron Paul’s granddaughter and is currently managing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ‘s 2014 campaign.
In an Oct. 29, 2011 email, a representative of Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, a Republican, asks the Paul campaign to provide Sorenson with $8,000 per month in salary for him, $5,000 per month in salary for a Sorenson ally, as well as $100,000 in contributions for a newly created PAC that Sorenson planned to use to support conservative candidates for Iowa state office.
In exchange, the email, which was allegedly written by Aaron Dorr, executive director of Iowa Gun Owners, says Sorenson would abandon his support for Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s campaign, endorse Paul, campaign for him and provide access to an email list of Iowans who support homeschooling.
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<a href=”http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/748672/ks-rp2012-proposal.pdf”>KS RP2012 Proposal (PDF)</a> <br /> <a href=”http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/748672/ks-rp2012-proposal.txt”>KS RP2012 Proposal (Text)</a>
Bachmann had narrowly defeated Paul to win the Ames Straw Poll in August 2011, an early measure of support in the state.
A top aide in the 2008 Ron Paul presidential bid, Dennis Fusaro, provided several emails to OpenSecrets.org. According to the address fields in the emails, Fusaro was copied on the messages, which all date from late 2011.
Five days before the caucus, in late 2011, Sorenson abruptly switched his support from Bachmann to Paul, and the Bachmann campaign at the time charged that he had done so for money.
Des Moines Register that Fusaro had fabricated the story and that he never authorized anyone to negotiate with the Paul campaign for financial support. Sorenson is currently under investigation by the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee after a former Bachmann campaign staffer filed a complaint against him alleging he was paid by that campaign as well. Similar complaints have been filed with the Federal Election Commission. He has denied any wrongdoing in that case. Sorenson and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment, but he told thethat Fusaro had fabricated the story and that he never authorized anyone to negotiate with the Paul campaign for financial support.
The lengthy memo sent on Oct. 29, 2011, was addressed to John Tate, who was then the Ron Paul 2012 campaign manager, Dorr not only lays out Sorenson’s alleged requests for money and what he will do in return, but says that because of a major Iowa Senate leadership meeting coming up on Nov. 10, Sorenson couldn’t quit the Bachmann campaign until Nov. 11. In a second email chain Fusaro provided, Benton emails Dorr on Nov. 14, writing that, “with those meetings in the rear-view mirror, I though(sic) now might be a good time to revisit Kent and your brother joining our team.”
On Nov. 21, Dorr replied to Benton and Tate that he was going to step out of the negotiations because Dimitri Kesari, a Ron Paul staffer, had gone to Sorenson’s house for dinner.
“As I’m no longer needed to facilitate a conversation at this point, I’ll bow out and let you, John, Dimitri and Kent work this out,” Dorr wrote.
Kasari, Tate, Dorr and Benton did not return calls and emails for comment. Today, The Iowa Republican, a conservative blog in Iowa, published an audio recording of what is alleged to be a conversation between Fusaro and Sorenson in which the senator tells Fusaro that Kasari gave his wife a $30,000 check from an account belonging to a jewelery store Kasari’s wife owns. In the recording Sorenson said he did not cash the check.
Fusaro, who worked on the Ron Paul 2008 campaign as national field director and was paid roughly $9,000 by the 2012 campaign for email lists, says the emails are authentic. He was not sure, he said, whether the deal had ever been carried out. According to a review of Iowa campaign finance records, the Iowa Conservatives Fund PAC, for which Dorr allegedly wanted $100,000, received no contributions from the Paul campaign or anyone affiliated with it. In fact, it has raised no funds at all and other than a $506 debt for bank account charges from Dec. 2011, appears to be dormant.
Fusaro said he thinks the emails speak for themselves.
“I sadly but firmly stand by the evidence that I have and I’ll let people draw their own conclusions,” Fusaro told OpenSecrets.org. “But I believe the conclusions about Sorenson are largely right.”
The Jan. 3, 2012 caucuses were the closest in Iowa history. While it initially appeared that Mitt Romney, the eventual Republican nominee, had won, voting irregularities were alleged, and when the officially certified results were released on Jan. 19, they showed Santorum edging out Romney by the thinnest of marginas. Paul came in third, while Bachmann only managed sixth place and subsequently pulled out of the presidential race.
For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]
Support Accountability Journalism At OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust.Please support our work and keep this resource free. Thank you. Support OpenSecrets ➜ | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
OK! This has been billed as a "blog" for several years now, but I have actually been presenting it more as a website; well, not any more! I hope to inspire and amuse.
While the Resource listing will remain intact, as well as Parenting Columns posted new and archived, I will be doing actual blogging about being a mom/parent and I hope to get your comments coming in.
Off we go!
Saturday, October 21, 2006
The Entitled Child
Here is a scary question for Halloween weekend: Are you raising an entitled child?
No parent sets out to raise a child that feels any or all material possessions should “naturally” come their way. Ideally, it would be best if our kids understood that things need to be earned or deserved based on merit, and that it is better to give than to receive. There are children half a continent or half way around the world who have nothing or who have lost everything, so get out there and help raise money or clothes or books for them! New Canaan CARES is featuring the author of “Raising Financially Fit Kids” next month, so this topic is certainly timely, and although I am not an expert, I do have frightening tales of entitlement-minded children to share.
When my second oldest son, Kenny, was a pre-teen and early teen, his favorite mantra was that he needed-- fill-in-the-blank -- because it was “pivotal to my success.” The first time he said this I laughed and promptly went out and bought him whatever small piece of technology he had requested. And then it happened a second and a third time; I was becoming brainwashed to the phrase “pivotal to my success.” The kid was a behavioral nightmare, but I wanted him to be good, to be a success and so I robotically dashed to the store, whipped out the checkbook or the credit card and got him what he wanted. If he asked to stay up a little later at night, or have a friend sleep over, or drink Capris Suns until the cows came home – boom! – his wish was my command. It was “pivotal to his success” and I felt I had to help make that happen. It was pivotal to my success as a parent.
Oh, was I so very wrong, and Kenny and I both paid the price fairly dearly, and I mean price both financially and emotionally.
Flash forward to his senior year at New Canaan high school. After winding up deprived of all material possessions and more the year before, he went out and got a job at the late Ritz Pastry Shop to pay for anything that might be a want rather than a need. Despite feeling that he was entitled to us paying for college, he secured student loans. (If he messed up in college it would be on his dime, not ours) The results? He graduated valedictorian last spring and anything that is still pivotal to his success is primarily bought by money he has earned. He has become entrepreneurial rather than entitled, a solid citizen rather than a self-seeking one.
And now there is Janet, who not only shares Kenny’s birth date but his “pivotal to my success” philosophy. Still reeling from Ken’s teenage years, we are determined to nip her wants in the bud. As Jon reminds her and Jack all the time, “’I want’ gets nothing.” (And yes, I get that from him as well on occasion.)
Just because we can afford to buy X,Y, or Z doesn’t mean we are going to buy it. We are trying to encourage her to think beyond her own needs – “$60 jeans? Really?” – to those of others, known and unknown to her or our family. That just because it’s the weekend doesn’t mean she can stay up until midnight or that Jack can continue not to eat what the rest of the family is eating just because he doesn’t like the food. The only two people entitled to do anything are mom and dad – we are entitled to try and raise children who have some sense of dollars and cents and right and wrong.
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...is the mother of four children ages 14 to 26. She is the founding editor-publisher of Connecticut's County Kids and a parenting columnist for the New Canaan Advertiser in New Canaan, CT. Check out her family resource site @ www.parentingfromthetrenches.com | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
D.M. Anderson's site of author news, interviews, fiction, reviews, essays, cartoons, lists, fun. His two young adult novels, “Killer Cows” and “Shaken,” are available from Quake Publishing.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The Killing Spring, Part 8
The slaughter continued. The death toll mounted...Rachel, Ashton, Coach Radley, who suspended him a game for showing up late for practice - it was unavoidable...I had dirt under my nails!, Ms. Stinson, who refused to give him a grade for his persuasive thesis on why death row inmates should be processed as food to end world hunger, the burger-flipper at Carl’s Jr. who took too long with Gene’s order the other day - probably spit on my burger before he wrapped it, too!
And so many more. All dead.
Gene showed no mercy, gave no quarter.
He spotted one last slug trailing away, making a slow retreat from the carnage littering the ground. The dark spots on it’s glistening back resembled black butterflies.
Mom.
Gene remembered his promise...
You go on. Make your escape.
After watching the slug retreat to safety, Gene surveyed his work. Countless corpses littered the killing field. The sun now glared down from high in the sky, offering life-giving rays to the plants and flowers in the garden, drying up was left of the morning rain. Soft steam arose from the bricks he knelt on.
Exhausted, Gene stood and tossed the empty salt container away, promising himself to pick it up before Mom and Dad got home later that week. He partially unzipped his overalls, allowing the soft spring breeze to cool the sweat clinging to his chest.
Despite a rough start, it turned out to be a good day. A productive day.
Something brushed his calf. Gene looked down. There was Stinky, staring up at him with a dead mouse in her jaws. She dropped it at his feet, sat proudly before her kill and meowed. For the first time since Mom brought home the stupid cat, Gene reached down and scratched her behind the ears.
“Not bad,” he said, running an hand across her back as she loudly purred. “Maybe we have something in common after all.”
Suddenly, the mouse twitched. Stinky snatched up her prey, scurried a few feet away and proceeded to eat it. Gene winced at the thought of eating his own kills, then spun around to head inside, hand slapped over his mouth and trying not to vomit.
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D.M. Anderson works and lives in Portland Oregon. He is the author of two young adult novels (Killer Cows & Shaken) and a collection of dark tales (With the Wicked). He has also published several short stories which have appeared (or will appear) in various anthologies and magazines such as 69 Flavors of Paranoia, Night Terrors, Trembles, Encounters, Implosion, Strange Fucking Stories, Perpetual Motion Machine. He documents his adventures in the dark onon his movie site, Free Kittens Movie Guide. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Two days after he walked free from a northeastern Pennsylvania prison on bail, Monsignor William Lynn, accused of shielding pedophile priests, learned when he'll face a new trial.
Lynn served nearly three years in prison before a judge granted him bail earlier this week after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's decision to overturn his conviction, granting him a new trial. At a hearing Thursday morning, a Philadelphia judge set Lynn's new trial for May 2017.
In the wake of Lynn's release, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams vowed to re-try the former Archdiocese of Philadelphia official, contending that he endangered thousands of children throughout the city's Catholic parishes when he knowingly transferred child-molesting priests to cover up abuse.
Lynn's now-overturned conviction is historical, because he is the first Roman Catholic Church official in the United States ever to be charged with shielding pedophile priests.
If he's convicted again, Lynn can only be sentenced to two months maximum in jail, his attorney, Tom Bergstrom, said. The state parole board had already granted him parole effective this October, when he would have completed a full three years of his three- to six-year sentence. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Jump to
In Guatemala, the slogan is “Indetectable = Intransmisible”
(I=I); in the Netherlands, it’s “Niet meetbaar = Niet overdraagbaar” (N=N); and
in Turkey, “Belirlenemeyen = Bulaştırmayan”
(B=B). One of the most striking aspects of yesterday’s pre-conference on
“Undetectable = Untransmittable” (U=U), held in advance of the 22nd International
AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018) in Amsterdam, was the extent to which the campaign
has energised advocates around the world.
“U=U is a fact that every person with HIV around the world
should know about,” said Jesús Aguais of AID for AIDS International, an
organisation working in six Latin American countries. “People have the right to
be informed and it is our responsibility to disseminate this information.”
“I can’t believe this information has been known for ten
years and I’ve only heard about in the past six months,” commented Lucy
Wanjiku-Njenga of Positive Young Women’s Voices. She said that not many of her
peer group in Kenya know what U=U means. Those who do know about it heard about
it from a friend or on social media, rather than from a doctor or care
provider.
The quotes she presented from other young women testified to
the impact the U=U message can have:
“This is a message of
hope to those living positively. It is the success that comes along with
adherence. The victory after all those days you feel like the drugs were a
burden. With this, young women can lead a life without worry of infecting their
partners.”
“U=U gives young
people who acquired HIV through vertical transmission like me a sense of
‘normalness’. For the first time, I see I am not afraid of infecting someone
else because I am virally suppressed! I can finally have a fear-free relationship.
I am the safest relationship any guy can have!”
Alex Schneider’s organisation Life4me+ works across
Eastern Europe and Central Asia. For him, the Russian language slogan “НЕОПРЕДЕЛЯЕМЫЙ = НЕ ПЕРЕДАЮЩИЙ” (Н=Н) is a new tool for advocacy. It
can help raise broader public awareness of HIV, reduce stigma towards people
living with HIV, undermine self-stigma, increase HIV testing, motivate early
initiation of treatment and improve treatment adherence. So far, 60
organisations, including eleven state organisations, have signed on to the
statement in the 14 countries of the region.
Nonetheless, there are very real barriers to treatment in
the region, including frequent stock outs of medication. In terms of the
90-90-90 targets, currently 63% of people with HIV are diagnosed, 28% of those
diagnosed are on treatment, and 22% of those on treatment are virally
suppressed.
In many low- and middle-income countries, viral load
monitoring is not routinely available, making it impossible for an individual
to be confident that they really are undetectable. U=U provides an additional
argument for increasing access to viral load monitoring.
In Vietnam, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) has promoted the slogan “Không phát hiện
= Không lây truyền” (K=K). John
Blandford of the CDC said that the campaign was conceived as an intervention
that would both support changes in HIV care and reduce stigma. The information
has been shared via social media, in community meetings and through press
coverage.
The community advocacy has helped build support among people
with HIV and healthcare practitioners for a switch from CD4 to viral load
monitoring. The country’s treatment guidelines are now aligned with K=K, so
that a key marker of success is two consecutive viral load test results of less
than 200 copies/ml. The proportion of people having their viral load monitored
increased from 21% to 73% in a year, with 93% of those on treatment now being
virally suppressed.
Science
The pre-conference opened with Anthony Fauci, probably the
United States’ most senior HIV research scientist, reviewing the evidence that
underpins U=U. Since the mid 1990s, data showing the inverse relationship
between the level of virus and the rate of HIV transmission have been
accumulating. The introduction of combination therapy “was the definitive
moment of U=U and we didn’t even realise it then,” he said.
The research studies HPTN 052, PARTNER 1 and Opposites
Attract have provided the strongest evidence. Tomorrow the final results of
PARTNER 2, the study which more precisely quantifies the potential for HIV
transmission during anal sex, will be presented at AIDS 2018. It is likely to
be the most discussed study at this year’s conference.
Nonetheless, Fauci did not feel he needed to wait for these
results to state: “The evidence that undetectable equals untransmittable is
overwhelming.”
Pietro Vernazza was presented with a lifetime achievement
award for the 2008 Swiss Statement he co-authored and other work which has laid
the basis for U=U. Clearly moved by the advocates’ response to his work, he
went back to the philosophy of science to explain why he felt that the
accusation of the Swiss Statement not being founded on evidence was unfair.
If the hypothesis is that HIV can be transmitted when a person is taking effective antiretroviral
therapy, then the null hypothesis is that HIV cannot be transmitted in these circumstances. In science, it is the
null hypothesis which a researcher aims to disprove or falsify.
He said that the position of the ‘HIV establishment’ had
always been the former, that there remains some transmission risk when a person
has an undetectable viral load. He said it was up to those who hold that
position to find a single documented case of transmission from a person with a
durably suppressed viral load.
Vernazza quoted the logical philosopher Irving Copi: “In
some circumstances it can be safely assumed that if a certain event had
occurred, evidence of it could be discovered by qualified investigators. In
such circumstances it is perfectly reasonable to take the absence of proof of
its occurrence as positive proof of its non-occurrence.”
Breastfeeding
One
remaining area of scientific uncertainty concerns breastfeeding. Eliane
Becks Nininahazwe, a woman from Burundi living in the Netherlands, said that
many women were waiting for the day when they could feel confident that U=U
applies to breastfeeding. “Please people who are doing the science, hurry up!”
she said.
Linda-Gail Bekker of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre said that
there are still gaps in the data, but there is clearly a strong relationship
between viral load and the potential for transmission.
She pointed to two African cohorts (from Tanzania
and Malawi) with a
total of 477 infant-mother pairs in which no HIV transmissions have occurred from
mothers with a plasma viral load
below 100 copies/ml. However, some transmissions occurred in the latter study
from women whose viral load would be described as ‘undetectable’ using a higher
cut-off. This could be due to viral load being detectable between the
(relatively few) occasions when it was measured, or due to reservoirs
of virus in breastmilk that can’t be eliminated by antiretroviral therapy.
Even if she could not be definitive, Bekker said that her
take-home message was that women taking HIV treatment who have an undetectable
viral load have shown very little risk of HIV transmission. Weighing up the
multiple benefits of breastfeeding for the infant with this low transmission risk,
she said that it was appropriate that women in low- and middle-income countries
continue to be recommended to exclusively breastfeed for six months after
birth.
Pietro Vernazza said he had reviewed the same body of
evidence to consider recommendations for the high-income setting of
Switzerland. For an optimal scenario of a woman who was adherent to her
medication and had a suppressed viral load of below 50 copies/ml throughout
pregnancy and breastfeeding, his group had not been able to identify any
confirmed cases of HIV transmission. While there are still gaps in the data, this
risk needs to be considered alongside the proven benefits for all infants, such
as fostering contact between mother and child, the anti-inflammatory and
antimicrobial substances contained in breastmilk, and the development of the
gut microbiota.
Given clinicians’ uncertainty about the balance of potential
harms and benefits, he suggested that a shared decision-making approach was
appropriate. Breastfeeding should not be actively promoted to women living with
HIV in Switzerland, but women who choose to breastfeed should be supported by
their clinical teams, in particular with adherence support and regular viral
load monitoring.
Messaging
How can organisations describe U=U in a way which is
meaningful to people living with HIV, their sexual partners and the general
public? Whereas the concepts of ‘treatment as prevention’ (TasP) and ‘universal
test and treat’ (UTT) are rooted in public health and describe the impact of
widespread treatment in a population, ‘undetectable = untransmittable’ focuses
on the individual. The slogan has already reached far more people living with
HIV than the idea of TasP ever did, but the language used is complex and may
not reach the widest audience.
Michael Brady said that it was in 2016, after the
second release of data from the PARTNER study, that the UK organisation the
Terrence Higgins Trust decided it had a responsibility to share the information
in a clear and definitive way. They would have to evolve the language, so that
it would be clear, concise and easily understood, he said.
A number of slogans were tested, including “Yes we are
sure”, “This changes everything”, “Won’t pass it on” and “Can’t be passed”. Two
made it to the shortlist – “I’m not a risk” (which resonated most with people
living with HIV) and “Can’t pass it on” (which had greater purchase with the
wider public).
It was the latter slogan which has been taken forward. Without
a larger than usual budget, it has been one of Terrence Higgins Trust’s most
successful campaigns in terms of reach and exposure, especially on social
media. Brady attributed this to the simplicity and definitiveness of the
message, as well as the support of community advocates.
Nic Holas of the Australian online organisation the Institute of Many
said that having people with HIV understand U=U was only half the battle. They
needed their sexual partners and potential sexual partners to understand it as
well. A particularly important audience are pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) users and his organisation has
developed a series of videos in collaboration with Dynamix International, one
of the main companies importing generic PrEP medication to Australia, the UK and
elsewhere.
While PrEP and U=U are often described as having synergies,
he pointed to tensions between the two approaches. Some PrEP users remain
fearful of and stigmatising towards people with HIV, he suggested. They prioritise
their new found freedom but ignore the fact that PrEP could only be developed “after
people with AIDS put their bodies on the line”.
“In the age of PrEP, people living with HIV must not shy
away from taking up space and ensuring our voices are heard,” he said. “It is
not enough to end the HIV epidemic with PrEP and leave us isolated,
criminalised and stigmatised.”
NAM's news coverage of the 22nd International AIDS Conference has been supported by Gilead Sciences Europe Ltd. and ViiV Healthcare.
Official conference partners
NAM’s information is intended to support, rather than replace, consultation with a healthcare professional. Talk to your doctor or another member of your healthcare team for advice tailored to your situation.
The Community Consensus Statement is a joint initiative of AVAC, EATG, MSMGF, GNP+, HIV i-Base, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, ITPC and NAM/aidsmap
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This content was checked for accuracy at the time it was written. It may have been superseded by more recent developments. NAM recommends
checking whether this is the most current information when making decisions that may affect your health.
NAM’s information is intended to support, rather than replace, consultation with a healthcare professional. Talk to your doctor or another member
of your healthcare team for advice tailored to your situation. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
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If there were ever any doubt that the tea party movement was considering a merger with old-line social conservatives, this should probably clinch it:
The Tea Party Patriots (TPP) is an umbrella group claiming to represent more than 15 million tea party activists nationwide. It has a pretty focused set of core values: fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets. By design, the list doesn’t say anything about abortion, gay marriage, or any other hot-button social issues. But over the weekend, TPP leaders met with members of the Council for National Policy to try to raise some money. CNP is a secretive and powerful club that has worked to make the Republican Party more socially conservative. Founded in 1981 by Tim LaHaye, the evangelical minister, political organizer, and author of the Left Behind books about the coming apocalypse, CNP’s board reads like a who’s who of the GOP’s evangelical wing.
According to the group’s 2008 IRS filings, board members include Elsa Prince, a wealthy contributor to religious right causes, particularly anti-gay marriage efforts. (She is perhaps better known as the mother of Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater.) Joining her is the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, Phyllis Schlafly, direct mail king Richard Viguerie, and Becky Norton Dunlop, the vice president for external relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation. By-invitation-only members of the group have included: Sarah Palin; the American Family Association’s Don Wildmon; former FBI agent Gary Aldrich (now a TPP board member) who’s famous for writing a book claiming that the Clintons hung sex toys on the White House Christmas tree; and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, the chairman of FreedomWorks.
Earlier this year, the council was reportedly concerned about the rise of the tea party movement, which it viewed as insufficiently religious. Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, told Politico in March that he had to reassure the council members at their meeting in March that the tea party movement shared its values. Since then, the council seems to have decided to simply join the party rather than fight it.
In September, former disgraced Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed‘s new Faith and Freedom Coalition convened a convention in Washington to roll out a new “get out the vote” scheme. During the two-day meeting, Bob Reccord, CNP’s executive director, moderated a chummy panel discussion of tea party activists, including Tea Party Patriots national coordinators Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler. Meckler, who often emphasizes that the tea party movement does not touch social issues because they are too divisive, told the audience that in fact, tea partiers were angry because of “this idea of separation of church and state. We’re angry about the removal of God from the public square.”
The comment suggested that at least the Tea Party Patriots weren’t averse to joining the culture wars—at least if it meant tapping social conservatives’ significant fundraising abilities. After the discussion, I asked Meckler whether TPP was going to be working more with Reed or evangelical Christians. He said no, but apparently the cozy relations between CNP and the tea party activists on display at the Faith and Freedom event were a sign of other things brewing behind the scenes.
At this weekend’s meeting with CNP in Orange County, California, TPP leaders handed out a “secret” strategy memo that lays out an ambitious goal: to “renew the commitment to limited government and free markets in the hearts and minds of at least 60 percent of the American public over the next 40 years.” Posted online by talk show host and one-time Tea Party Express chairman Mark Williams, the memo indicates that in the short term, TPP anticipates spending $675,000 in a “get out the vote” effort before the midterm election, which includes everything from house parties to GPS-driven precinct walking lists. (Most of that money presumably comes from the $1 million anonymous donation TPP received last month and announced with great fanfare.)
Down the road, though, the group anticipates needing at least $175,000 to host a summit for newly elected leaders to inoculate them against the Trent Lotts of the world who would “co-opt” innocent freshmen congressmen and turn them into the “establishment.” Lots of the money TPP is seeking would go towards—what else?—more tea party-type rallies, and, more interestingly, polling to see how well the group’s social media, advertising, and other outreach efforts are working. Over the next 40 years, the bill would add up to about $100 million. Clearly TPP hopes that people like Prince and other deep-pocketed members of the council will be interested in picking up the tab.
Whether the council decided to buy into the plan is anyone’s guess. Neither TPP’s Jenny Beth Martin or CNP’s Reccord returned calls seeking further information. But the fact that TPP was even at the meeting at all suggests that TPP’s top leadership don’t see a conflict in advancing their agenda with money from people who have underwritten the very culture wars that the tea party movement has long claimed to eschew. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Smalleye hammerhead
The smalleye hammerhead (Sphyrna tudes), also called the golden hammerhead or curry shark, is a small species of hammerhead shark, belonging to the family Sphyrnidae. This species is common in the shallow coastal waters of the western Atlantic Ocean, from Venezuela to Uruguay. It favors muddy habitats with poor visibility, reflected by its relatively small eyes. Adult males and juveniles are schooling and generally found apart from the solitary adult females. Typically reaching in length, this shark has a unique, bright golden color on its head, sides, and fins, which was only scientifically documented in the 1980s. As in all hammerheads, its head is flattened and laterally expanded into a hammer-shaped structure called the cephalofoil, which in this species is wide and long with an arched front margin bearing central and lateral indentations.
The yellow-orange pigments of the smalleye hammerhead seem to have been acquired from the penaeid shrimp Xiphopenaeus kroyeri, the main food of juvenile sharks, and from sea catfish and their eggs, the main food of adults. The golden color may serve to conceal it from predators such as larger sharks. This species is viviparous, with the developing embryos sustained by a placental connection formed from the depleted yolk sac. Females bear litters of five to 19 pups every year following a gestation period of 10 months. Reproductive seasonality, litter size, and size at maturity vary between geographical regions. Because of its abundance, the smalleye hammerhead is an economically important bycatch of artisanal gillnet fisheries throughout its range and is used as food. In recent years, overfishing has caused marked declines in its numbers off Trinidad, northern Brazil, and probably elsewhere. Coupled with its low reproductive rate, this has led the International Union for Conservation of Nature to list it under vulnerable.
Taxonomy and phylogeny
Despite being one of the most easily recognizable sharks, the smalleye hammerhead has had a long history of taxonomic confusion that still remains to be fully resolved. Its scientific name originated in 1822, with French zoologist Achille Valenciennes' description of Zygaena tudes in the scientific journal Memoires du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle; the specific epithet tudes is Latin for "hammer". Valenciennes made reference to three specimens: one from Nice in France, one from Cayenne in French Guiana, and one from the Coromandel Coast of India. However, for over two centuries, taxonomists believed Valenciennes' account matched the great hammerhead, which thus became known as Zygaena (later Sphyrna) tudes. The smalleye hammerhead was known by a different name, Sphyrna bigelowi, coined by Stewart Springer in a 1944 issue of Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences.
In 1950, Enrico Tortonese examined the Nice and Cayenne specimens of S. tudes (the Coromandel specimen having been lost in the interim) and concluded that they were not great hammerheads, but rather the same species as S. bigelowi. Carter Gilbert concurred in his 1967 revision of the hammerhead sharks, noting that while the lost Coromandel specimen was probably a great hammerhead, none of the existing material belonged to that species. Thus, Sphyrna tudes became the accepted name for the smalleye hammerhead, taking precedence over S. bigelowi because it was published earlier, and the great hammerhead received the next available name Sphyrna mokarran. Gilbert designated the Nice specimen as the lectotype that would define S. tudes, having priority over the Cayenne specimen (the paralectotype). This was meant to stabilize the name, but had the opposite effect.
In 1981, Jean Cadenat and Jacques Blache revisited the type specimens of S. tudes and found that the lectotype from Nice is likely not a smalleye hammerhead, but rather a fetal whitefin hammerhead (S. couardi, likely a synonym of the scalloped hammerhead, S. lewini). This would also explain the anomalous locality of the Nice specimen, as the smalleye hammerhead is not otherwise known outside of the Americas. By the rules of binomial nomenclature, Sphyra tudes should then become the valid name for the whitefin hammerhead, taking precedence over S. couardi, and the smalleye hammerhead would revert to being Sphyrna bigelowi. Taxonomists, though, have been reluctant to change the names again, preferring to keep the smalleye hammerhead as S. tudes. For this solution to have official status would require a decision by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), to reject the Nice specimen as the lectotype and designate the Cayenne specimen in its place. The relevant petition to the ICZN has not yet been put forth.
Until the first detailed study of the smalleye hammerhead was carried out in 1985–86 by José Castro of Clemson University for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, its distinctive golden coloration was unknown to science. The color fades after death and the pigments leech into the preservative, resulting in the "yellowish cast" of museum specimens being regarded as an artifact of preservation. The names "yellow hammerhead" or "golden hammerhead" are used by fishermen in Trinidad for this shark, and the latter was promoted for wider usage by Castro. Another common name for this species is the curry shark. Phylogenetic analyses based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA have found that the hammerheads with the smallest cephalofoils are the most derived members of their lineage. The closest relative of the smalleye hammerhead appears to be the scoophead (S. media), and the two of them in turn form a clade with the sister species pair of the scalloped bonnethead (S. corona) and the bonnethead (S. tiburo).
Description
One of the smaller members of its family, the smalleye hammerhead can reach a length of , though is more typical, and a weight of . The body is streamlined and fairly slender. The mallet-shaped cephalofoil is wide and long, with a span measuring 28–32% of the body length; the leading margin forms a broad arch with indentations in the middle and on either side. The cephalofoils of newborns are longer, more arched, and less indented in front than those of adults. The eyes, placed at the ends of the cephalofoils, are proportionately smaller than in other hammerheads and equipped with nictitating membranes (protective third eyelids). The nostrils are positioned just inside of the eyes, each with a well-developed groove running towards the center of the cephalofoil. The mouth is strongly curved, containing on either side 15–16 upper tooth rows and 15–17 lower tooth rows. The teeth have single narrow cusps with smooth or weakly serrated edges, that are angled in the upper jaw and upright in the lower jaw.
The first dorsal fin is tall and slightly falcate (sickle-shaped), originating behind the pectoral fin bases; its free rear tip lies over the origin of the pelvic fins. The second dorsal fin is smaller than the first, but still rather large, with a concave, trailing margin. The pelvic fins have nearly straight trailing margins. The anal fin is taller and longer than the second dorsal fin. The caudal fin has a well-developed lower lobe and a notch near the tip of the upper lobe. The dermal denticles are oval with five horizontal ridges leading to marginal teeth. The most distinctive trait of this species is its coloration: the back and dorsal fins are gray to yellowish gray, and the cephalofoil margins, flanks, underside, pectoral fins, pelvic fins, and anal fin are bright yellow to orange with a metallic or iridescent sheen. Newborn sharks are gray above, darkening on the first dorsal fin and upper caudal fin lobe, and whitish below. They gain a bright yellow cast on their undersides by a length of , which turns to orange by a length of . The golden color is brightest in sharks long, and tends to fade with the onset of sexual maturity.
Distribution and habitat
The smalleye hammerhead is found along the eastern coast of South America from Uruguay to Venezuela, though it seldom occurs further west than the Orinoco Delta southeast of Trinidad. There are unconfirmed reports of this species from off Panama, Mexico, and western Florida; records from other parts of the world are most likely erroneous, resulting from its tangled taxonomic history. It is among the most abundant sharks within its range. This species inhabits inshore murky waters deep, over muddy bottoms. There is segregation by sex and age: newborns and juveniles under long are found in the shallowest waters, moving deeper after a few months of life. Adult females are mostly found at depths of , while larger juveniles and adult males are mostly found at depths of . This species is tolerant of brackish water and can be found over a salinity range of 20–34 ppt.
Biology and ecology
Four other species of hammerhead sharks overlap in range with the smalleye hammerhead: the small-sized scoophead and bonnethead, and the large-sized scalloped hammerhead and great hammerhead. Little competition occurs between these species because of their differing habitats and dietary preferences. The smalleye hammerhead is the dominant hammerhead in shallow, muddy areas, where high turbidity limits the utility of vision (hence its smaller eyes). Adult males and juveniles of both sexes form schools of uniform body size; these schools do not appear to relate to reproduction or migration. Adult females are apparently solitary.
Young smalleye hammerheads under long feed predominantly on penaeid shrimp, mostly Xiphopenaeus kroyeri. Larger sharks feed mainly on bony fishes, especially ariid sea catfish and their eggs. The shrimp and the surface mucus layer and eggs of the catfish contain carotenoid pigments that appear to be the source of the sharks' golden color; whether the pigments in the catfish also ultimately come from the shrimp is uncertain. Another shark species in the region, the yellow smooth-hound (Mustelus higmani), also feeds on shrimp and has a yellowish color, albeit not nearly as bright. This species has also been known to consume swimming crabs, squid, grunts, and newborn scalloped hammerheads. The smalleye hammerhead may fall prey to larger sharks such as the bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas), while smaller individuals may also be taken by bony fishes. Its coloration may provide camouflage. A known parasite of this species is the hexabothriid monogenean Erpocotyle schmitti; it may also serve as a host to common copepod ectoparasites such as Echthrogaleus coleoptratus, Pandarus satyrus, and P. cranchii.
Like all hammerhead sharks, the smalleye hammerhead is viviparous: when the developing embryos exhaust their supply of yolk, the depleted yolk sac develops into a placental connection through which the mother delivers nourishment. Mature females have a single functional ovary and two functional uteri. Ovulation occurs at the same time as gestation, allowing females to bear young every year. The details of the smalleye hammerhead's life history vary across its range. Off Trinidad, reproduction occurs on a well-defined annual cycle with mating in August and September, and birthing in late May and June of the following year. The females carry between five and 12 pups for 10 months, and make use of food-rich, shallow coastal bays as nursery areas. The newborns measure around long, and males and females attain sexual maturity at and long respectively. By contrast, smalleye hammerheads off the northern Brazilian state of Maranhão are substantially larger, with males maturing at over long and females at over long. As the litter size increases with female size, Maranhão sharks have been recorded carrying up to 19 pups. The seasonality of breeding also differs, with pregnant females found from June to October and January to April, and males in apparent reproductive condition from May to November and in March.
Human interactions
Timid and harmless to humans, the smalleye hammerhead is caught incidentally by inshore artisanal multispecies fisheries throughout its range, and marketed as food. It is the most or second-most important shark caught by such fisheries off Trinidad, Guyana, and Brazil. Because of its head shape, individuals of all ages are readily caught in gillnets; small numbers are also caught on line gear and in bottom trawls. The IUCN has assessed this species as vulnerable, as it is subjected to intense fishing pressure and its low reproductive rate renders it susceptible to population depletion. Anecdotal evidence suggests that smalleye hammerhead catches have declined significantly off Trinidad and northern Brazil, which are likely indicative of population trends in the rest of its range. It is not the target of any conservation or management schemes.
References
External links
"Sphyrna tudes, Smalleye hammerhead" at FishBase
"Sphyrna tudes" at IUCN Red List
"Biological Profiles: Smalleye Hammerhead" at Florida Museum of Natural History
"In Search of the Golden Hammerhead" at ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research
"Sphyrna tudes" at Shark-references.com
smalleye hammerhead
Category:Fish of Brazil
Category:Fish of Uruguay
Category:Fish of Venezuela
Category:Marine fauna of South America
smalleye hammerhead
Category:Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Wikipedia (en) |
No. 13 Chiney Ogwumike of Stanford, was the Pac-12 Player of the Year. (Photo by Lee Michaelson)
There's old "news" and new news for the upcoming Pac-!2 women's basketball season.
The old news: The 11-time reigning champion Stanford Cardinal are (yawn) yet again the favorite of both the media and conference coaches to take the title, if not to run the table, in the league this season, having taken both the regular-season and the conference tournament title for the past seven seasons.
The new news: A 12th Stanford Pac-12 conference championship is far from a foregone conclusion. This time around, there will be some serious competition for the perennial conference heavyweights. Fortified by last season's trip to the Final Four where they fell to Louisville in the national semifinal, California, who last year broke its Bay Area rival's 81-game winning streak against conference opponents, will once again be a force to be reckoned with. Both Stanford (No. 3) and Cal (No. 9) ranked in the top 10 nationally in the preseason Coaches' Poll released yesterday.
After the top two teams, the race will be wide open. Four Pac-12 teams made the NCAA tournament last season, but that number could easily jump to a half-dozen in ’13-14. UCLA was a terrific story last season under then second-year coach Cori Close, challenging Stanford in the conference tournament and making it as far as the second round in the NCAA Tournament. The injury bug has already taken a deep bite out of their hopes for this year, but the Bruins, ranked No. 25, certainly can't be overlooked. Nor can Colorado, which weighed in at No. 19 despite the graduation of leading scorer Chuckie Jeffery. The Buffs vaulted into the NCAA tournament last season and will be looking to take that next step to become a consistent conference contender. Utah, the other conference newcomer last year, will also be looking to make a statement.
And all eyes will also be on Cynthia Cooper as she takes the reins at her alma mater after considerable coaching success in the mid-majors: Will she be able to bring back the glory days for the Women of Troy? Cooper will have an ace on hand in Cassie Harberts, one of the best players in America whose supporting cast has been bolstered by a combination of talented newcomers and players back from injury.
And throughout the conference, there’s a bunch of very good sophomores for up-and-coming teams, most notably in the Pacific Northwest, where Washington, Oregon State and Washington State are all looking to make youth-infused jumps up in the rankings this season. Even Oregon, which slumped to last place in the conference standings in ’12-13, and won just four games on the season, could enjoy a revival. The Ducks are healthy, and they have a host of very good players.
On any given night, there are a host of teams that could give Stanford a run for its money, all of which makes it look to be a great year for women's hoops in the Pac-12. As first-year Washington coach Mike Neighbors summed up the situation at Pac-12 media day, "I think there's a lot of people that can maybe beat Stanford on a one-game basis, but to win the title two or three people have to do that. ... That's where their dominance is so impressive. They may lose a game here, they may catch a bad break there, they may get in some foul trouble. I think there's a handful of teams that if you catch them on a night when they don't play to their normal level, their normal standard, there's about four, five teams, maybe six, that could beat them. Hopefully, we're trying to close that gap."
That uptick in competitiveness may mean more pressure for the reigning champs, but it could also be just what it takes for the conference to earn itself some long overdue respect on the national scene.
Midway through the press conference the day before his team’s Sweet 16 matchup with Stanford last spring, Georgia head coach Andy Landers leaned into his microphone from his perch on a podium in the Spokane Arena media room and revealed that his Lady Bulldogs knew all about Cardinal forward Chiney Ogwumike.
The Bulldogs were just having some trouble figuring out the correct pronunciation of her last name. (It’s Oh-gwu-mi-kay.)
The nation will be on notice once again for Ogwumike, who took home Pac-12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors last spring after posting impressive averages of 22.4 points (on 59-percent shooting) and 12.9 rebounds per game. All three of those stats were conference bests. Unsurprisingly, she was a consensus first-team All-American at the national level.
But despite Ogwumike's dominating presence in the frontcourt, Stanford crashed and burned against Georgia, missing out on the Final Four for the first time in six seasons. (The Cardinal were the national runner up twice during that span.) This summer, Ogwumike led some team-wide soul searching. There had begun to be a sense that you could just put on the maroon and white jersey and Poof — the Final Four was within reach.
The Cardinal recalibrated their goals in the off-season and that mindset has been eliminated. Stanford’s expectation is not a Final Four; it’s a national championship, which would be the third in the program's history. And the Cardinal are committed to the blue-collar work ethic it will take for them to get there.
Ogwumike said that after the loss to Georgia, which snapped her team's lengthy Final Four streak, there was a palpable shift in the program’s vision. “The actual culture we want is national championships,” said Ogwumike. “We got everyone on the same page with that. Every practice, every weights session is geared toward a title.”
The Cardinal certainly have the pieces not only to repeat as conference champions but also to make another deep postseason run. That's not to say that the Cardinal haven't sustained some personnel losses: Stanford only lost sharpshooting forward Joslyn Tinkle to graduation, but guard Toni Kokenis was forced to retire this summer after a string of concussions, and forward Aly Beebe ended her career after a debilitating knee injury.
But Tara Vanderveer has Ogwumike, a Wooden All-American last season who returns to the watch lists this year as an early frontrunner for National Player of the Year. “You’ll see a more versatile Chiney this year,” said Vanderveer. “She plays the 3 for us, she handles the ball, and she’ll have more talent around her. She’ll get to rest a little bit more.”
Speaking of the talent surrounding Ogwumike, point guard Amber Orrange, who played brilliantly in last season's conference tournament final, is back, and Alex Greene, an untested junior, should also help out at guard, and give Orrange something she rarely had last season — the ability to rest. When the jet-quick guard came out during games last season, Vanderveer said Stanford’s production dropped almost immediately. “Amber worked hard,” said Vanderveer. “She can be one of the premier point guards in our league. Her work ethic is really special. She was cut from the World University Games team this summer, and that motivated her in a good way.”
Also back is redshirt senior Mikaela Ruef, who has a knack for coming up big when the lights are shining brightest. The 6-3 forward earned national attention last November for her defensive work on Brittney Griner as Stanford shocked Baylor at the Rainbow Wahine Classic in Honolulu. That snapped the Lady Bears’ winning streak at 44. In the Pac-12 tournament final, it was Ruef who hit the decisive shot to unlock a knotted score with the clock winding down to beat UCLA.
Adding to the wealth of veteran talent Vanderveer, who needs just five wins to reach the 900 mark for her career --during his media day interview at Pac-12 headquarters, Oregon coach Paul Westhead made a quick comparison to Dean Smith -- has once again assembled a sterling recruiting class. Five freshmen join the team for ’13-14, including junior forward Bonnie Samuelson’s younger sister, Karlie, who could see playing time in the backcourt spelling junior starting point guard Amber Orrange and senior Sara James.
Kailee Johnson and Erica McCall were ranked No. 9 and No. 10, respectively, in the 2013 Full Court Fresh 50, and both could see minutes at the forward positions alongside Ogwumike. Vanderveer even offered that they could earn starting nods.
For all the Cardinal’s flair on the attack, they also bring a healthy mix of hard-working steel.The Cardinal ranked among the best defensive teams in the country last year, holding opponents to just 51.9 points per game (11th in D1). They ranked first in the country in limiting opponents' field-goal percentage (32 percent).
But the biggest change in this year's edition of the Cardinal is likely to be mindset. Ogwumike said she felt stifling pressure last season. Nneka, her older sister and former Cardinal great, had graduated, and Chiney felt the weight of the expectation to lead another Final Four run.
This year, she says, the yoke has lifted. “I feel no pressure,” Ogwumike said. “I’m developing into the player I hope to be. I’m a threat on both ends. I have perimeter skills, I have my outside shot.”
That augurs well for a team already loaded with both offensive and defensive talent.
No. 25 Gennifer Brandon chases down the loose ball during the 2013 NCAA Women's Final Four. (Photo by Kelly Kline)
2. Cal (32-4, 17-1, lost to Louisville in Final Four)
A little further north in the Bay Area, Cal, which tied Stanford for the regular-season conference title last year, is looking for a return trip to the Final Four. Last season's unprecedented success has instilled a new confidence for the Golden Bears.
“I think our standards are a lot higher as a program now,” said Bears associate head coach Charmin Smith. “The Final Four experience is very helpful. We tell recruits to come here, we can get another. The national exposure and recognition is a positive, but we know how hard that was. It didn’t happen overnight. It’s still Cal basketball. We still want to grind and be tough and athletic. Nothing’s going to change about our style or character.”
The style might be the same, but after last season's thrilling run to New Orleans, Lindsay Gottlieb brings back a very different team. The scary thing is, by the time March rolls around, this Golden Bears might be even better than last season’s team.
After Stanford's Ogwumike, the two other Pac-12 players named to the preseason Wade and Wooden Award watch lists — Brittany Boyd and Gennifer Brandon -- both belong to the Golden Bears.
When the game was one the line last season, there were few players in the country better at taking — and making — big shots than Layshia Clarendon. One of three seniors on last season’s Golden Bears Final Four team, the guard with the unmistakable blonde mohawk left some very big shoes to fill.
Enter junior point guard Brittany Boyd. The 5-7 point guard roomed with Clarendon, and the Cal coaching staff is raving about the way she has embraced the role of leadership with this young, and very talented, team. She’ll be expected to lead the Golden Bears’ dynamic, fast-paced attack this season — and she just might reel in some national awards along the way. During Cal’s China tour this past August, Boyd played at another level. When she’s ‘on,’ she’s a triple-double waiting to happen. She worked on her shooting all summer with Bears assistant coach Charmin Smith. If she can stretch defenses with a more consistent jumper, Cal could become a darkhorse contender .
The Bears made their name as a fast-paced bunch, but they also led the Pac-12 in rebounding margin, coming in ahead of second-placed Colorado by almost three boards per game (11.4 to 8.8). The Bears could take a bit of a hit in that department, at least in the early going, as they will be without standout senior forward Gennifer Brandon (12.3 points, 11.1 rebounds) for the first few weeks of the regular season. Brandon is recovering from August surgery to repair a right tibia stress fracture, but frosh post KC Waters could help fill the void while Brandon continues her rehabilitation. So will junior forward Reshanda Gray, who played for Team USA at the World University Games this summer.
Smith thinks senior guard Afure Jemerigbe, who had an excellent NCAA tournament (she was named to the Spokane Regional all-tournament team), could also have a special season.
In addition to Waters, freshmen wings Courtney Range and Mercedes Jefflo could both make immediate impacts.
Recreating a winning team chemistry with so many newcomers might be a challenge, but this summer's trip to Italy went a long way toward helping this team gel. Coach Lindsay Gottlieb could have taken an overseas trip in 2012, but she opted to wait a year. She knew the depth chart in ’13-14 would include six newcomers (four freshmen, two transfers), and she knew the added practices (10), games (three) and time spent navigating a foreign culture as a team would present a priceless building opportunity.
Team staff rate the experiment an unqulaified success: “It was everything you’d want your players to get out of the experience,” said Smith. And that could spell trouble for the Bears' opponents both in and out of the Pac-12 this year.
3. Colorado (25-6, 13-5, lost to Kansas in Round of 64)
All-everything guard Chucky Jeffery (13.7 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.2 steals) is gone, but the Buffaloes return a host of talent — including four starters — from a team that cracked the NCAA tournament last March.
Like Cal, Buffaloes head coach Linda Lappe opted to take an overseas trip this summer instead of the year before. “Losing Chucky and having a new point guard made it a better time to go abroad,” said Lappe, who played for Colorado from 1998-2003. “We were able to figure out our deficiencies through 10 practices. We feel like we’re much further along than we were last year at this time.”
How to replace Jeffery? Lappe isn’t looking at things that way. “One player won’t replace Jeffery,” she said.
“[Senior] Brittany Wilson started at point guard during her freshman year," said Lappe of the vacancy Jeffery leaves at the point. "she backed up Chucky these past two seasons. She’ll continue to get better as she gets more confidence.”
Among other returning talent is Arielle Roberson, one of a number of very talented sophomores in the conference. The 6-2 forward was forced to take a medical redshirt her freshman year at Boulder (’11-12) after she suffered a torn left labrum. She made the most of that year, watching and learning at a rapid rate. She’s carried that mentality with her.
“You can always tell when she’s in a drill,” said Lappe. “It’s night and day, [in terms of] our sense of urgency, when she’s in.”
Roberson averaged 12.1 points and 6.2 rebounds in ’12-13 and should be expected to make a concerted jump in production with a year under her belt.
Junior Jen Reese, who averaged 8.4 points and 4.9 rebounds as a key substitute a season ago, could join Roberson in the starting lineup.
The Wilson twins (seniors Ashley and Brittany) should help anchor the backcourt, and junior Lexy Kresl can shoot it from deep.
Lappe reeled in a strong recruiting class for her fourth season in charge. Forwards Haley Smith, Zoe Beard-Fails and Brianna Watts give the frontcourt a boost. Watts thrived during the team’s summer trip to Italy, during which the Buffaloes played four games.
The 6-0 Smith is a matchup nightmare, with an inside-out game that will translate very well at the collegiate level. Lappe rarely has to correct mistakes. “She’s the furthest ahead [among the freshmen] at this time,” said Lappe. “She’s confident and smart — she picks things up quickly. The best thing about her is I don’t notice her. That’s pretty good for a freshman.”
4. Washington (21-12, 11-7, lost to Pacific in NIT second round)
After Kevin McGuff left for the Ohio State job this spring, Washington was without a head coach. But that didn't stop this team from looking ahead to the coming season. To prepare for whatever awaited them, the Huskies hit the gym. They knew they were poised for a breakout season, and they wanted to be focused when McGuff’s successor was announced.
Mike Neighbors, the Huskies' associate head coach for the past two seasons, ultimately got the job, which came as a welcome relief to the players. “We were all hoping it would be Neighbors as head coach,” said star junior point guard Jazmine Davis. “That’d be the one person that could keep it all together, keep this momentum going.”
Davis is referring to the past two seasons, during each of which Washington has won at least 20 games.
Even with the loss of guard Kristi Kingma (13.5 points, a team-best 86 three-pointers), the Huskies should beef up their output of 65.3 points per game, and Davis will be critical to that effort. In just two seasons, Davis has become the program’s all-time leading scorer, aided by her 19.3 points per game in ’12-13. The 5-7 junior guard is a two-time All-Pac 12 first-team selection, and Neighbors said that this season, she’ll move off the ball in an attempt to get her more looks.
More firepower is likely to come from freshman guard Kelsey Plum (No. 36 in the 2013 Full Court Fresh 50 rankings), a McDonald’s and WBCA All-American who enters the fold this season. This summer, Plum played for gold-medal winning USA Basketball U-19 team at the FIBA U-19 World Championships, posting 5.6 points in just 12.9 minutes per game. After the competition ended, Plum flew straight from Lithuania to Seattle. Minutes after she’d landed and passed through customs, she was out on the court, playing one-on-one with Davis.
“(Plum) is going to be right at Jaz’s level of being ready to play, and Jaz was the most ready freshman I’ve ever coached,” said Neighbors. That’s a guard tandem that could take the nation by storm.
Add in sophomore Talia Walton, who averaged just under two three-pointers a game last season (the Huskies hit just under eight per game as a team) and senior Mercedes Wetmore, whose 1.7 assist-to-turnover ratio was tops in the conference. There were times this summer when Walton was unguardable, said Neighbors. Wetmore led the conference in minutes played last season, and even played some softball for Washington’s team this spring. Sophomore forward Aminah Williams (9.2 points, 10.8 rebounds, 2.2 steals) is another piece in a very talented young core of U-Dub players.
Couple the Huskies' scoring ability with their ability to force teams into mistakes — their turnover margin was a gaudy +5.36 in ’12-13 — and this team could make some serious noise this season.
5. UCLA (26-8, 14-4, lost to Oklahoma in Round of 32)
UCLA gave the Cardinal all they could handle in the conference tournament last year and hopes were high after last season's trip to the NCAA tournament. Those hopes were dented, however, by the news in recent weeks that junior forward Kacy Swain and sophomore guard Kari Korver will both miss the 2013-14 season due to injury. Swain underwent surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee. Korver, who averaged 4.7 points as a freshman and ranked third in the Pac-12 in three-point percentage (36 percent), suffered tears of the ACL and lateral meniscus tear in her right knee. The loss of Swain, in particular, puts even more of a burden on the frontcourt, which was already facing the daunting task of replace departed senior forwards Markel Walker, Alyssia Brewer and Jasmine Dixon.
When asked about the injuries, and if they might detract from potential success this season, Close was succinct. “Performance equals potential minus interferences,” said Close, who is now in her third year at the helm of the Bruins. “I thought we’d press more and extend our defense, but now because of the depth issue, we’ll have to change it a bit. But our players have added new pieces to their games. We’re excited about the players and the pieces that we do have.”
Close has had plenty of experience in dealing with injuries, which left her with a rotation that at times dipped to just seven players last year. In the mid-nineties, while an assistant on the staff of former Bruins coach Kathy Olivier, Close had the opportunity to spend some time with the Wizard, UCLA coaching legend John Wooden. One Wooden mantra she’s often invoked over the years: You have to adapt, and you have to change, but if you’re a true competitor you’ll find a way to win. “That’s what’s fun about basketball,” said Close.
The Bruins will share the ball (16.4 assists per game last season) and hunker down on defense (9.9 steals). Senior forward Atonye Nyingifa, who has struggled with injury since coming to Westwood in ’08, is the team’s top returning scorer and rebounder at 11.6 points and 7.1 rebounds, respectively. Close says Nyingifa has one of the highest basketball IQs she’s ever seen in a player.
Look for sophomore guard Nirra Fields to have a very strong season, after notching 7.8 points in her freshman campaign.
Still, t make the necessary adjustments, Close will need some immediate contributions from her newcomers. Dominique Williams, one of five St. Mary’s (Ariz.) High seniors to make the jump to Division 1 basketball this summer, should provide some steady play at the point guard position for the Bruins. Close said that Williams is likely to start, was will 6-3 center Luiana Livulo, a junior college transfer who hails from Lisbon, Portugal. Six-foot-nine freshman post Savanna Trapp, who set a Minnesota prep record for blocked shots with 643, will likely redshirt this season, but Paulina Hersler, a versatile 6-2 forward from Sweden signed late this past spring, could be called upon to help out when she joins the team in January. Hersler averaged a competition-best 20.9 points at the 2012 U-18 European Championships.
And if all else fails, there's always next season. Close’s 2014 recruiting class contains five players ranked in the Full Court Fresh 50's top 30, and is widely regarded as the best in the country.
Cassie Harberts, No. 11, led the Trojans with 18 points and 8.2 rebounds last season (Photo by Dan Avila/USC Sports Information)
6. USC (11-20, 7-11)
How best to describe the mentality first-year head coach, and forme USC great, Cynthia Cooper has brought to USC?
“Score, score, score!” said senior forward Cassie Harberts during her media day interview.
In Harberts (18.0 ppg, 8.2 rbg), a Wooden watch-lister andone of the nation's best players, and Ariya Crook (13.4 ppg), USC returns two of the Pac-12’s top scorers. Both factor heavily into Cooper’s vision for the Women of Troy. “I like to make basketball exciting to play and to watch,” Cooper said. “In practice, we do a lot of running with the ball. I like to be efficient in the halfcourt, and I want to get something out of our shot attempts, but you can expect an exciting style of basketball.”
Cooper’s infectious enthusiasm and name recognition are already paying dividends, motivating her current players to aspire to a higher level of play. Last season, as the head coach at Texas Southern (located in Houston), Cooper transformed a 5-26 team in ’11-12 into a 20-12 unit that cracked the NIT. There’s a feeling that Cooper could help USC vault into the realm of top teams this season. “To have one of the best players to ever play on the court with you is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Harberts said. (There's been a pay-off on the recruiting trail as well: Earlier this month, Cooper reeled in a commitment from McKenzie Calvert, a highly-touted 2014 shooting guard from Texas.)
The Women of Troy return all but one player from last season, and with four seniors and nine upper classmen on the roster, there is a plenty of veteran leadership alongside Harberts. The frontcourt will be boosted by the addition of Kaneisha Horn, a 6-2 junior who transferred in August from Alabama and will be eligible to play immediately. Horn, who made 28 starts for the Crimson Tide last season, notched four double-doubles in 31 games. “She adds a new dynamic to our program,” said Cooper. “She’s a ‘4’ who we can also put at the 2, 3 and 5. We’ll find out where she fits best, but she is exciting to watch.”
In the backcourt, sophomore guard Brianna Barrett led the team in assists last season with 3.1 per game, and getting sophomoreguard Jordan Adams back from injury will be a huge boon. Adams was a 2012 McDonald’s All-American, and started the first seven games for the Trojans last season. “She’ll have a breakout year,” said Cooper. “She’s in shape, and she’s really paying attention to her nutrition and conditioning.”
The biggest challenge facing Cooper if she hopes to move USC into the upper eschalon of Pac-12 teams won't be scoring, so much as it will be preventing opponents from doing the same. USC finished 11th in the conference last season in points allowed and struggled to keep teams from shooting high percentages. For Cooper and the Women of Troy to succeed, they will have to put as much emphasis on their defense as they do on installing an exciting and enteritaining offense.
7. OregonState (10-21, 4-14)
Head coach Scott Rueck, an OSU alum, can count upon a very strong and youthful cast (nine of the 11 players on this season’s roster are underclassmen) as the Beavers look to continue climbing the ranks of the Pac-12. Five freshmen saw significant minutes last season, and Rueck adds a very strong recruiting class to a team that also returns four starters. “We’re coming off a year that wasn’t what we’d hoped, but we learned our lessons,” said Rueck. “Half of our minutes played and points scored came from freshmen. We didn’t have a real post presence, but now we have those components.”
The Beavers defend well, and Rueck’s roster is filled with players capable of playing an engaging, up-tempo pace at both ends. Last season, OSU’s field goal percentage defense and blocks ranked 16th and 11th in the nation, respectively.
Among the key returnees is sophomore guard Jamie Weisner, who is coming off an excellent performance in the FIBA U-19 World Championships, where she averaged 17 points per game, twice eclipsing 30, and was named to the All-Tournament Team. Weisner burst onto the Pac-12 scene as a freshman, averaging 12.5 points a game and 5.9 rebounds (14.1 points and 6.4 rebounds in conference play.) She torched teams from deep, hitting 37% of her threes, second-best in the conference.
Junior Ali Gibson started all 31 games last season, averaging 9.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.7 steals. Six-foot-six sophomore Ruth Hamblin spent her summer with the Canadian national team, and Rueck sees a bigger role for her for the Beavers this year. “She should be jumping up in points, and she’ll be a focal point of our offense,” said Rueck. “You have to pay attention to her on every possession.”
Among the incoming freshmen, 6-3 post Breanna Brown, who signed late after originally committing to Virginia Tech, should provide depth in the frontcourt, an area in which the Beavers struggled in ’12-13. Brown excelled at perennial power Bishop O’Dowd (Calif.) High. Guard Sydney Wiese, a Top-100 recruit who scored over 2,000 points in high school, will be expected to lend some scoring punch.
Meanwhile, the Canadian pipeline to Corvallis keeps flowing with the arrival of forward Kolbie Orum, who is the fifth all-time leading scorer in British Columbia prep history. In a word, Orum is “phenomenal,” said Rueck. “You know me and freshmen,” Rueck said. “We’re basketball players. I expect you to come in and contribute right away.”
Some might say Oregon State is still a year away from making a run to the NCAA tournament, but never count out a team with this much firepower on hand.
8. Utah (23-14, 8-10, lost to Drexel in NIT final)
That loss in the NIT championship game stings, but hopes were high in Salt Lake City ahead of ths season. Head coach Anthony Levrets returned his top two scorers, and the Utes had every reason to believe they could make a serious run in the NCAA tournament this year.
That task became more difficult when 6-3 forward Taryn Wicijowski, a redshirt senior who averaged 14.3 points and 7.3 rebounds in 2012-13, was ruled out for the season after suffering an ACL tear. Then Paige Crozon, a rangy 6-1 sophomore who made 10 starts last season before suffering a severe concussion, couldn’t make a full recovery and will also miss the 2013-14 season.
“I’m an eternal optimist,” said Levrets, “but (dealing with the injuries) has been hard for me. But it’s part of our game, and part of our lives. You just have to do the best you can.”
That means even more will be demanded of senior Michelle Plouffe, a 6-4 senior forward who has been named an AP honorable mention All-America for two seasons running. Plouffe, who played for Canada at the London Olympics (there are four Canadians on the Utah roster), averaged 17.2 points and 9.4 rebounds for the Utes while hitting 58 three-pointer last season. “We have a special player [in Plouffe],” said Levrets, “and rarely is she your most improved player. But that’s what’s happened from last year to this one. With her skill set, we can play her anywhere on the court.”
Also back is Danielle Rodriguez, who started 35 games at point guard as a freshman and has earned raves for her work during the offseason. “She’s got a great basketball IQ, and she’s one of our most improved kids,” said Levrets. “She’ll play some great pick-and-roll with Plouffe. We expect her to have a great sophomore year.”
Five freshmen are on the roster, and they will be expected to help fill the gap in production in the wake of the loss of Wicijowski. Fellow Canadian and incoming freshman Emily Potter, a 6-5 forward, “can really play,” Levrets said. Five-foot-ten forward Malia Nawahine was Utah's 12-13 Gatorade Player of the Year, and joins her sister Valerie, a sophomore transfer from BYU. “It’s a really good [freshman] group,” said Levrets. “I like this team, and I think we have the chance to be good.”
9. Washington State (11-20, 6-12)
This summer, Washington State took a tour of Austria and the Czech Republic, playing in hostile environments against teams littered with players in mid-season shape. They won all their games, averaging upwards of 80 points and gaining immeasurable confidence in the process. As with the other conference teams that got a jumpstart through foreign play this summer, that experiencecould go a long ways this season.
Anchoring this seasoned group is Sage Romberg (6.1 points, 4.4 rebounds), a four-year starter at forward. Also back and showing promise is 6-0 sophomore forward Mariah Cooks, who scored in double figures in three of the Cougars’ games during their August European tour. Cooks has a lot of Charles Barkley in her game, says Daugherty.
Add that to Lia Galdeira, who led the conference in steals last season (2.8 per game) as a freshman and received an invitation to try out for the USA U-19 team this summer. “It was a great experience for Lia to try out for the U-19s,” said head coach June Daugherty. “She came back with her eyes wide open. She realized she can’t just count on her athleticism if she wants to continue to excel. There’s specific things she’s working on; she’s more motivated than she’s ever been.”
Galdeira’s 14.8 points per game was tops among Division 1 freshmen last season, and her 5.2 rebounds also led the Cougs. She’ll help recreate a strong backcourt alongside 5-9 junior Tia Presley (13.3 points), who returns from a knee injury that cut her ’12-13 season short at 18 games.
Sophomore Dawnyelle Awa started the last 13 games last spring, and led the team with 68 assists. “Dawny is one of the best passers in the game of basketball,” said Daugherty.
The lone freshman on the roster is 6-3 post Ivana Kmetovska, who excelled for Macedonia at the U18 European Championships in summer 2012. Kmetovska averaged 11.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists during the competition, and should make a contribution this season.
Wazzou had an excellent start to the 2012-13 season, beating Gonzaga on the road and Ohio State at home. But with six freshmen on the roster last year, growing pains proved insurmountable, and troubles mounted when key defender Tia Presley went out with a season-ending knee injury. The Cougars faded late in the season, losing six of their last seven games. “We didn’t like the way we finished,” said Daugherty.
They want that to change this time around. During the Cougars’ Midnight Madness (ZZUMania) on Oct. 11, Daugherty promised a postseason appearance. “We’re getting dangerously close, and we’re excited about it,” said Daugherty. “We have the guard play, the athleticism, the depth and the leadership to make the step to be in the [Pac-12] top 5 this year.”
10. Arizona State (13-18, 5-13)
Head coach Charlie Turner Thorne described last season as a baptism by fire for the Sun Devils. With Thorne back at the helm after taking the ’11-12 season off, there were definite growing pains.
This year, however, “We’re getting our commitment to discipline back,” said Thorne.
Thorne’s coaching philosoph is steeped in defensive intensity and pressure. “We deny passes, take things away, don’t allow you to do the things you want,” said Thorne.
Key to the execution of that defense-driven game plan is talented junior guard Promise Amukamara, one four starters returning this season. The 5-8 junior from Glendale, Ariz. is an excellent shooter and steady defender — her 1.9 steals per game helped earn conference honorable all-defensive honors.
Senior guard Deja Mann returns from a knee injury that kept her out all last season, and sophomore transfer Katie Hempen (Southern Illinois) is expected to provide an adept shooting touch from the perimeter. “Deja is a coach on the floor,” said Thorne. “She became even more of a student of the game during her time away. We’ll play her at all the guard spots. With her and Katie, we’ll have two prolific shooters — the two best on our team.”
Kelsey Moos, a 6-0 freshman wing from Edwall, Wash. should add to the depth as well as provide perimeter scoring. She’s part of a three-person incoming class that includes center Quinn Dornstaudter, who was named to Canada’s team for the U-19 World Championships in Lithuania this summer, where she averaged a solid 4.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. Forward Sophie Brunner rounds out the newcomers.
“We’ve recruited kids that have won — and only won,” said Thorne. “We need them to come in and have an impact this year. Kids that win understand what it takes. They understand defense is needed to win.”
11. Arizona (12-18, 4-14)
Niya Butts recruited well, bringing in highly-rated forward LaBrittney Jones (Cedar Hill, Texas). One of four freshmen on this team, Jones has a ways to go yet on the offensive end, but she’s a high-energy player.
That should mesh perfectly with Butts’s vision for the team this season. The Wildcats will look to use their quickness and athleticism to best opponents, Butts told Arizona’s official site on media day.
The Cats' strength is in their backcourt. Replacing Davellyn White (16.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.6 steals) will be a burden, but Butts returns a very good core of three seniors — all starters. Kama Griffitts is the top returning scorer at 10.7 points per game. She knocks down threes (60 last season) and forces steals (2.0) and fits Butts' sytem to a T.
Griffitts should partner with fellow senior Carrissa Crutchfield (6.3 points, 2.8 assists) in the backcourt. “We have good guard play,” said Butts. “They’ll have to be strong, and they’ll be catalysts on both sides of the ball.”
Junior Candice Warthen returns from injury that kept her out all of last season. The 5-5 guard averaged 11.7 points during the 2011-12 season, and is excellent off the dribble. She should help the Wildcats push the ball offensively.
The major weakness is in the post. The Wildcats don't field a single player over 6-2. Six-foot-one post Alli Gloyd was the team’s top returning rebounder at 6.0 boards per game, but she suffered a torn ACL in her right knee in a recent scrimmage and will miss the season. So the question here will be whether the guards can get it done, more or less on their own steam.
No. 14 Jillian Alleyne averaged a double-double last season for the Ducks. (Photo courtesy of Oregon Athletics)
12. Oregon (4-27, 2-16)
The Ducks were decimated by injury a season ago. At times, head coach Paul Westhead had just six players to choose from — and never really more than seven.
Is there reason to expect a boost this season? Westhead thinks so. “Every year is new life,” Westhead said. “Whatever team you had before, it doesn’t matter. Once you start again, it’s all brand new.”
Despite the burden of all the attrition, the Ducks never quit on him last year, something the fifth-year Ducks head coach found quite telling. “I compliment my players,” Westhead said. “They hung in. We’d lose a weekend of games (last season), come back, and it’d be the first practice day of the week and they’d be ready to go.”
Oregon returns all but one player (sophomore guard Devyn Galland transferred to Saint Mary’s) on a roster that features plenty of young talent, including sophomore Jillian Alleyne, who earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and honorable mention All-Pac 12 honors last year after averaging a double-double (13.0 points, 11.9 rebounds.
Senior guard Ariel Thomas averaged 10.6 points last year, and Danielle Love, a 6-2 fourth-year forward, was one of just two Ducks to start all 31 games last season. (Junior guard Jordan Loera was the other.)
On the other hand, Lexi Petersen and Laura Stanulis played just six games between them last season, but both will be counted upon to contribute in this year's starting lineup. Stanulis, a point guard, is one of four seniors on this team.
Also back will be 6-1 forward Liz Brenner started 18 games for the Ducks and averaged 7.9 points and 7.4 rebounds after joining the basketball team in midseason. Westhead said it usually takes Brenner, a junior who plays for the Ducks volleyball team, a game or two to really get in the swing of the season. After that, her innate feel for the game kicks in. “She doesn’t pick up a basketball from March to December,” Westhead said, “but I wouldn’t trade her.”
Newcomers include freshman guard Chrishae Roe, a top-100 recruit, and Katelyn Loper, a 5-11 junior guard who becomes eligible this season after transferring from Hofstra. If Loper is known for one thing, said Westhead, it’s shooting. She will combine with a number of wings that should ease some of the pressure off of Alleyne in the post. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
1. Introduction {#sec1-nutrients-08-00197}
===============
Iron deficiency is considered to be the most prevalent micronutrient deficiency worldwide, with over 2 billion people affected \[[@B1-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Nationally representative data on iron deficiency are scarce, especially in developing countries; hence the prevalence of iron deficiency is often estimated using anemia prevalence as proxy indicator. Although anemia can result from different etiologies, both nutritional and non-nutritional, iron deficiency is the leading cause globally \[[@B2-nutrients-08-00197]\]. It is often assumed that 30%--40% of the subjects with iron deficiency are also anemic, but causes of anemia vary widely by age, sex and geography \[[@B1-nutrients-08-00197],[@B2-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Iron deficiency alone, even without anemia, affects cognitive function and neurodevelopment of infants and children \[[@B3-nutrients-08-00197],[@B4-nutrients-08-00197],[@B5-nutrients-08-00197]\] and iron deficiency anemia in women has been associated with reduced work capacity and increased prevalence of pregnancy complications including low birth weight \[[@B6-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Conversely, in certain populations, malaria and inflammation could be more important etiologies of anemia than iron deficiency \[[@B7-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Also, other micronutrient deficiencies, such as vitamin A, folic acid or vitamin B12 deficiency could lead to anemia \[[@B8-nutrients-08-00197],[@B9-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Furthermore, populations in Africa and Southeast Asia where hemoglobinopathies (e.g., thalassemia) are relatively common \[[@B10-nutrients-08-00197]\] have a high prevalence of anemia that is unlikely to respond to iron interventions \[[@B11-nutrients-08-00197]\].
In Cambodia, the 5-yearly Demographic Health Surveys have consistently shown a high prevalence of anemia among women of reproductive age (WRA) and young children. In 2005 and 2010, 62% and 55% of the children \<5 years old were anemic, respectively. For WRA, these figures were 47% and 40% \[[@B12-nutrients-08-00197]\]. One would assume that iron deficiency is highly prevalent in Cambodia, but national data are lacking. Surprisingly, a 2014 survey in WRA in one Cambodian province found a prevalence of iron deficiency of only 2% (ferritin concentrations \<15 μg/L), whereas almost 30% of the 420 women were anemic (hemoglobin concentration \<120 g/L) \[[@B13-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Recently, we reported similar findings for school-aged children in a different province of Cambodia, with \<2% of school-aged children having low ferritin concentrations, despite an anemia prevalence of almost 16% \[[@B3-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Based on the high prevalence of anemia in WRA, and assuming iron deficiency as the major cause, the Ministry of Health of Cambodia has set iron and folic acid supplements for pregnant women as one of the top priorities for Cambodia, and is investigating ways to improve iron status of WRA. However, if anemia among Cambodian WRA is caused by factors other than iron deficiency, programs should either target those factors, or adjust its\' targets in the situation where causes are not amenable to interventions, as is the case with genetic blood disorders.
To guide the Ministry of Health, national representative data on iron status in WRA are needed. In 2012, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with the University of Health Sciences and the Ministry of Health Cambodia conducted a nationwide serological survey in WRA on immunity to polio, rubella, tetanus and measles \[[@B14-nutrients-08-00197]\]. We obtained permission from CDC and the Ministry of Health, Cambodia to analyze residual samples from this survey for iron (ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor concentrations) and vitamin A (retinol binding protein concentrations) status. Here we report nationwide data on the prevalence of iron and vitamin A deficiency in Cambodia in women aged 15--39 years.
2. Experimental Section {#sec2-nutrients-08-00197}
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2.1. Selection of Subjects and Data Collection {#sec2dot1-nutrients-08-00197}
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In November and December 2012, a nationwide cross-sectional, household serological survey was conducted among women aged 15--39 years in Cambodia. The survey design and sample size were selected to provide national estimates by 5-year age strata; a detailed description of subject selection is presented elsewhere \[[@B14-nutrients-08-00197]\]. In short, 20 enumeration areas (EAs) from the 2010 Cambodia Demographic Health surveys were sampled by probability proportional to size (PPS) based on the estimated number of women aged 15--39 years in the 2008 Cambodia General Population Census. Twenty EAs were selected from each of four regions and also from Phnom Penh. In each selected EA, 22 households (HHs) were selected by systematic sampling using previously described survey methods \[[@B15-nutrients-08-00197]\]. All eligible non-pregnant women in selected HHs were invited to participate, and teams revisited HHs up to three times to seek enrolment. A target sample size of 400 women within each age-stratum (15--19, 20--24, 25--29, 30--34, 35--39) was calculated based on a desired precision of ±5% with 95% probability of achieving that precision, a design effect of 1.5, and a 10% non-response rate based on results from previous surveys.
2.2. Field Procedures {#sec2dot2-nutrients-08-00197}
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Field teams enrolled eligible women after providing written information about the survey and obtaining consent from participants for venous blood collection, including storage and potential future testing of blood. A brief questionnaire, including demographic information was completed, and 5 mL of blood was obtained by venipuncture. Serum was stored at 4--8 °C and transported to the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) laboratory in Phnom Penh within 96 h of collection. In Phnom Penh, samples were centrifuged and aliquoted into two cryovials. The cryovials used in the present study were stored at −80 °C until shipped by air on dry ice to CDC, Atlanta, USA. After determination of antibodies for vaccine-preventable disease (measles, rubella, polio and tetanus), residual samples were sent to the VitMin Laboratory in Germany for the analysis of iron and vitamin A status and inflammatory proteins using a novel sandwich ELISA technique \[[@B16-nutrients-08-00197]\].
2.3. Micronutrient Status Determination {#sec2dot3-nutrients-08-00197}
---------------------------------------
For the determination of iron status, two biomarkers were used: ferritin (Fer) and soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR). Fer is considered a measure of iron storage, mainly in the liver and the spleen with \~2/3 of iron stores being in the form of ferritin \[[@B17-nutrients-08-00197]\], whereas sTfR is considered a measure of tissue iron needs \[[@B18-nutrients-08-00197]\]; using both indicators, total body iron (TBI) can be estimated using the formula from Cook: body iron (mg/kg) = − (log10 (sTfR/Fer) − 2.8229)/0.1207, with both sTfR and Fer expressed in mg/L \[[@B19-nutrients-08-00197]\]. For vitamin A status, retinol-binding protein (RBP) was used. RBP is the transport protein of retinol in the circulation and can be used as a proxy indicator for retinol concentrations \[[@B20-nutrients-08-00197],[@B21-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Many indicators of micronutrient status are affected by inflammation, including ferritin and RBP concentrations \[[@B22-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Therefore, to be able to correct for the effects of inflammation on these indicators, C-reactive protein (CRP) and α1-acidglycoprotein (AGP) were also measured in all individuals. Inflammation was defined as CRP \>5 mg/L and/or AGP \>1 g/L. Inflammation status was then categorized in four groups based on CRP and AGP levels: no inflammation (normal CRP and AGP), incubation (high CRP and normal AGP), early convalescence (high CRP and AGP), and late convalescence (normal CRP and high AGP). Correction factors were then applied to adjust values of Fer and RBP as described previously \[[@B23-nutrients-08-00197],[@B24-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Correction factors for ferrtin (ferritin corrected = Fer/correction factor) were 1.30, 1.90 and 1.36 for incubation, early convalescence and late convalescence respectively. Correction factors for RBP were 0.87, 0.76 and 0.89 for incubation, early convalescence and late convalescence respectively. Cut-offs used for micronutrient status were as follows: low iron stores was defined as Fer_corrected \<15 μg/L \[[@B1-nutrients-08-00197]\]; iron-deficient erythropoiesis was defined as a sTfR \>8.3 mg/L \[[@B25-nutrients-08-00197]\]; total body iron \<0 mg Fe/kg body weight was regarded as iron deficiency \[[@B25-nutrients-08-00197]\]. For calculation of total body iron, corrected values of ferritin were used. Vitamin A deficiency was defined as RBP_corrected \<0.70 μmol/L \[[@B20-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Marginal iron status was defined as a ferritin corrected \<50 μg/L \[[@B26-nutrients-08-00197]\] (including those with a ferritin concentration \<15 μg/L), and marginal vitamin A status as a RBP corrected \<1.05 μmol/L) \[[@B27-nutrients-08-00197]\].
2.4. Ethical Approval {#sec2dot4-nutrients-08-00197}
---------------------
The serosurvey protocol was approved by the National Ethics Committee for Health Research, Cambodian Ministry of Health (057 NECHR) and was approved by CDC as a public health program evaluation.
2.5. Statistical Analysis {#sec2dot5-nutrients-08-00197}
-------------------------
Data were checked for normality using Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test. Comparisons between regions and urban/rural for continuous variables were done by Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), controlling for age, and including the weighing factor to allow for the sampling of the subjects. Sampling weights were calculated to take into account each stage of selection, including the sampling probability in the original DHS EA selection. Prevalence of deficiency between regions or urban/rural was analyzed using binary logistic analysis, correcting for age and sampling procedures. *p*-values \< 0.05 were considered statistical significant. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (Version 20.0, IBM, New York, NY, USA).
3. Results {#sec3-nutrients-08-00197}
==========
Out of 2154 women participating in the original study, spare serum samples were available for 2112 women, allowing determination of iron and vitamin A status. The mean age of the women was 26.4 years, ranging from 15 to 39 years. Of the women, 30.4% lived in an urban area whereas 69.6% of the women lived in rural areas ([Table 1](#nutrients-08-00197-t001){ref-type="table"}). Almost 15% of the women had one or more elevated acute phase proteins, signifying inflammation ([Table 1](#nutrients-08-00197-t001){ref-type="table"}). Overall, the prevalence of low iron stores (Fer \< 15 μg/L) status was 8.1% ([Table 1](#nutrients-08-00197-t001){ref-type="table"}). Evidence of iron deficient erythropoiesis was found in 9.3% of the women. Over a third of the women had marginal iron stores (Fer \< 50 μg/L). Total body iron was negative (signifying a deficit in iron) in 5% of the women. Women living in rural areas had slightly lower iron stores, which were reflected in a higher prevalence of women with a negative TBI and iron deficient erythropoiesis. The effect of inflammation on the estimates of the prevalence of deficiency was only minimal ([Table 1](#nutrients-08-00197-t001){ref-type="table"}).
The prevalence of iron deficiency based on low serum Fer varied considerably among regions, with the prevalence of low iron stores being the highest in the north region (11.3%) and the lowest in Phnom Penh, the South-East and South-West of Cambodia ([Table 2](#nutrients-08-00197-t002){ref-type="table"}), although the differences did not reach statistical significance (*p* = 0.10). Marginal iron stores were significantly more common in the North and West regions of Cambodia (44.0% and 44.8% respectively) as compared to the Phnom Penh (32.7%; *p* \< 0.05). The prevalence of iron-deficient erythropoeisis was also significantly higher in the North than in all other regions (*p* \< 0.05, [Table 2](#nutrients-08-00197-t002){ref-type="table"}).
Vitamin A deficiency (RBP \< 0.70 μmol/L) was found in only 0.6% of the women ([Table 1](#nutrients-08-00197-t001){ref-type="table"}). There was no difference between urban or rural women with regard to the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency, but women in rural areas were more likely to have marginal vitamin A status than women living in urban areas (6.5% *vs.* 2.9%, *p* = 0.003). Prevalence of marginal vitamin A status was lowest in Phnom Penh, but differences among regions did not reach statistical significance (*p* = 0.13, [Table 2](#nutrients-08-00197-t002){ref-type="table"}).
4. Discussion {#sec4-nutrients-08-00197}
=============
Iron deficiency has been considered a major health problem in Cambodia given the high prevalence of anemia in children \<5 years of age and WRA, estimated to be 55.5% and 45.4% respectively in the most recent (2014) Demographic Health Survey. The World Health Organization estimates that on average there are 2--5 times more people with iron deficiency, than with iron-deficiency anemia in a given population, given that iron-deficiency anemia is the last stage of iron deficiency \[[@B1-nutrients-08-00197]\]. However, as the results of the present study show, iron deficiency may not be a major issue among Cambodian WRA. In our national sample of women aged 15 to 39 years, 8% had low iron stores, based on serum ferritin as the indicator and corrected for inflammation. Using TBI, an indicator of available iron, 5% of the women were deficient in iron. This poses questions on the etiology of anemia in Cambodia. Although malaria is still present in some provinces in Cambodia, the overall prevalence is low. Clearly for Cambodia, both nutritional causes such as vitamin B12 or folate deficiency, and non-nutritional such as hemoglobinopathies, may be more important causes of anemia than iron deficiency. Nationally representative data on vitamin B12 or folate status are missing but urgently needed to ascertain the cause of the high prevalence of anemia in Cambodia with almost 40% of women of reproductive age, and over 50% of children \<5 years of age being anemic according to the 2014 Cambodian Demographic Health Survey \[[@B12-nutrients-08-00197]\]. In a previous study of Cambodian school children, hemoglobinopathies, especially hemoglobinopathy E, was a more important factor for anemia than vitamin A and iron status \[[@B3-nutrients-08-00197],[@B28-nutrients-08-00197]\].
In contrast to iron deficiency, marginal iron status was far more common, and in some regions almost half of the women had ferritin concentrations \<50 μg/L. This is concerning, as iron requirements during pregnancy increase considerably and iron deficiency in pregnancy is associated with pre-term delivery, low birth weight and iron deficiency in infancy \[[@B6-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Milman *et al.*, estimated that overall net loss during 9 mo pregnancy and delivery is around 630 mg of iron \[[@B26-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Hence, women should enter pregnancy with adequate iron stores, as maintaining iron balance from food sources is highly unlikely \[[@B26-nutrients-08-00197]\]. A ferritin concentration of 50 μg/L corresponds to \~350--400 mg of mobilizable iron \[[@B19-nutrients-08-00197]\]. In the present study almost 40% of the women did not have this minimum amount of iron stores, and are thus likely to become iron deficient if pregnancy occurred.
In Cambodia, over 70% of the pregnant women receive standard iron and folic acid supplements during pregnancy and after delivery through the national health system \[[@B12-nutrients-08-00197]\]. In the last 10 years, Cambodia has also piloted weekly iron and folic acid supplementation for WRA. However, despite evidence for an impact on iron status during pregnancy, factors such as cost and need for behavioral change have hampered implementing this policy on a large scale. In contrast, food fortification efforts, such as iron-fortified fish sauce, are currently underway \[[@B29-nutrients-08-00197]\]. These interventions have the potential to improve the iron status of WRA in an effective and cost-effective manner \[[@B30-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Importantly, to provide evidence for policy makers on effectiveness of current interventions, repetition of the current survey in a few years from now, would give evidence on whether the iron status of WRA has improved after the introduction of fortified fish sauce in Cambodia \[[@B29-nutrients-08-00197]\].
Vitamin A deficiency or marginal vitamin A status was not a major concern in Cambodia, with only 6.4% of the women having a marginal or deficient vitamin A status. Earlier, we showed that vitamin A deficiency was also not a serious health concern in \~2500 school children in one Cambodian province, with only 0.7% of children with frank vitamin A deficiency and 7.9% with marginal vitamin A status, which is similar to the vitamin A status in WRA presented in the present study \[[@B3-nutrients-08-00197]\]. In the latter study, although vitamin A deficiency was not a significant health problem, it was significantly associated with anemia \[[@B3-nutrients-08-00197]\]. In contrast to these recent studies, a survey in 2000 showed a 2% prevalence of night blindness, double of the 1% cut-off set by the International Vitamin A consultancy group, leading to the assumption that vitamin A deficiency was prevalent in Cambodia \[[@B31-nutrients-08-00197]\]. No national data on vitamin A status have been collected in the 14 years between the survey in 2000 on night blindness and the current study, hence we can only conclude that probably the most likely explanation for this difference in vitamin A deficiency prevalence is that the vitamin A status of the Cambodian population has increased considerably during the last decade.
Unfortunately, our study could only provide information on iron status and vitamin A status through the measurement of several proteins in spare serum samples, and we have no information on the anemia prevalence in our study. Moreover, we have no data on the prevalence of hemoglobinopathies in the study population, although this is likely to be high and a major contributing factor to the high prevalence of anemia. Indicators of iron status such as ferritin and sTfR have been shown to be less reliable in the Cambodian context, perhaps due to the high prevalence of hemoglobinopathies \[[@B28-nutrients-08-00197]\]. Also, RBP is a proxy indicator for retinol concentrations, and although the correlation between retinol and RBP is high, as retinol is bound to RBP in a 1:1 ratio, RBP concentrations tend to underestimate vitamin A deficiency due to the presence of holo-RBP (RBP without retinol) in the circulation, which is especially the case at lower retinol concentrations \[[@B20-nutrients-08-00197]\]. However, as the prevalence of RBP \< 1.05 μmol/L is low also (\<5%), we are confident that our finding of a low prevalence of vitamin A deficiency in this population is valid.
Both ferritin and RBP concentrations are known to be affected by inflammation, even in sub-clinical infection \[[@B23-nutrients-08-00197],[@B24-nutrients-08-00197]\], resulting in under- (for iron status) or over-estimation (for vitamin A status) of the prevalence of deficiency \[[@B22-nutrients-08-00197]\]. In our cohort of women, the prevalence of sub-clinical inflammation was low, with less than 15% of the women affected. Moreover, we corrected the values of Fer and RBP for inflammation, leading to only slightly changed estimates of the prevalence of low iron stores (+0.6%) or vitamin A deficiency (−0.1%). Hence, it is unlikely that inflammation affected the estimate of the prevalence of iron deficiency in the present study.
5. Conclusions {#sec5-nutrients-08-00197}
==============
This national survey of over 2000 WRA showed that neither iron deficiency nor vitamin A deficiency were prevalent in Cambodian women, with \<10% of the women having iron deficiency, regardless of the indicator used, and \<1% having vitamin A deficiency. However, marginal or low iron status affected \>1/3 of the women overall, was more common in rural areas, affected almost half of the WRA in the west and north regions of Cambodia. This is a health concern given the high iron needs during pregnancy. Interventions such as iron-fortified foods are needed to improve overall iron status in WRA in Cambodia. Vitamin A status has considerably improved over the last decade and marginal vitamin A status appears not to be a major health concern in Cambodian women currently. The contribution of iron and vitamin A deficiency to the high prevalence of anemia in Cambodian WRA seems to be limited, and the etiology of anemia in Cambodia needs to be elucidated to guide current policies on anemia.
We like to acknowledge the great help we received from Christopher J. Gregory and Parminder S. Suchdev from CDC, Atlanta, USA, for allowing us to analyze the samples, and for feedback on the manuscript. We like to thank Christine Stabell Benn, Nanna Roos and Pernille Kierkegaard with their help on transferring the samples from States Serum Institute Copenhagen to VitMin Laboratory in Germany.
J.C., S.W. and F.T.W. conceived the study, F.T.W., J.C. and A.L. arranged for ethical approval, F.T.W., S.W. and A.L. performed the first analyses. F.T.W. and A.L. wrote the first draft of the paper. All authors commented on the first draft.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
nutrients-08-00197-t001_Table 1
######
Iron, vitamin A and inflammation status of Cambodian Women of Reproductive age by urban or rural living conditions.
Indicator All Women Urban Rural *p*-Value ^4^
------------------------------------------- -------------------- --------------------- -------------------- ---------------
*N* (% total) 2112 (100%) 643 (30.4%) 1469 (69.6%) *-*
Age (years mean ± SD) 26.4 (± 6.9) 25.9 (± 6.8) 26.6 (± 6.9) *0.001*
Uncorrected Ferritin (μg/L; median IQR) 67.9 (35.8--108.0) 75.6 (38.2--116.0 ) 63.8 (34.9--105.0) *0.003*
Fer \< 15μg/L (%) ^2^ 7.5% 6.5% 8.4% *0.18*
Fer \< 50 μg/L (%) ^2^ 37.9% 36.2% 39.6% *0.19*
Corrected ^1^ Ferritin (μg/L; median IQR) 64.4 (34.8--101.4) 71.5 (37.2--107.2) 61.1 (34.4--96.5) *\<0.001*
Fer \< 15μg/L (%) ^2^ 8.1% 7.3% 8.8% *0.28*
Fer \< 50 μg/L (%) ^2^ 39.3% 38.1% 41.8% *0.15*
sTfR (mg/L; median IQR) 5.5 (4.7--6.7) 5.3 (4.6--6.2) 5.6 (4.8--6.8) *\<0.001*
sTfR \> 8.3 mg/L (%) ^2^ 9.3% 7.2% 11.5% *0.007*
TBI (mg/kg body wt; median) 7.6 (5.0--9.5) 8.2 (5.5--9.9) 7.3 (4.8--9.3) *\<0.001*
TBI \< 0 (%) ^2^ 5.0% 3.7% 6.4% *0.026*
Uncorrected RBP (μmol/L; median IQR) 1.65 (1.36--2.05) 1.69 (1.42--2.03) 1.63 (1.33--2.07) *0.014*
RBP \< 0.70 μmol/L ^2^ 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% *NS*
RBP \< 1.05 μmol/L ^2^ 5.0% 3.1% 7.0% *0.002*
Corrected ^1^ RBP (μmol/L; median IQR) 1.69 (1.39--2.10) 1.76 (1.45--2.10) 1.67 (1.36--2.11) *0.012*
RBP \< 0.70 μmol/L ^2^ 0.6% 0.6% 0.5% *NS*
RBP \< 1.05 μmol/L ^2^ 4.7% 2.9% 6.5% *0.003*
Inflammation ^3^
Normal 85.7% 84.3% 86.2% *NS*
Incubation 3.9% 3.9% 3.6% *NS*
Early convalescence 3.1% 2.8% 3.2% *NS*
Late convalescence 7.6% 9.0% 6.9% *NS*
^1^ Values corrected for inflammation as described in methods section. sTfR = soluble Transferrin Receptor; RBP = retinol Binding Protein, TBI = Total Body Iron; ^2^ Estimated prevalence, corrected for sampling method; ^3^ Normal = CRP ≤ 5 mg/L and AGP ≤ 1 g/L; Incubation = CRP \> 5 mg/L and AGP ≤ 1 g/L. Early convalescence = CRP \> 5 mg/L and AGP \> 1 g/L; Late convalescence = CRP ≤ 5 mg/L and AGP \> 1 g/L; ^4^ *p* value for difference between urban and rural populations, using binary logistic analysis for difference in prevalence and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), controlling for age and sampling.
nutrients-08-00197-t002_Table 2
######
Prevalence of low iron stores, iron-depleted erythropoeisis and vitamin A deficiency by region ^1^.
Indicator Phnom Penh South-East South-West West North
---------------- ------------ ------------- ------------- ------------ -----------
Ferritin ^2^
\<15 μmg/L (%) 7.9% 6.8% 6.6% 8.0% 11.3%
\<50 μmg/L (%) 32.4% ^a^ 37.3% ^a,b^ 36.6% ^a,b^ 44.0% ^b^ 44.8% ^b^
sTfR
\>8.3 mg/L (%) 8.1% ^a^ 9.7% ^a^ 5.2% ^a^ 8.4% ^a^ 18.0% ^b^
TBI
\<0 mg/kg (%) 4.0% ^a,b^ 4.9% ^a,b^ 3.5% ^a^ 5.2% ^a,b^ 8.4% ^b^
RBP ^2^
\<0.70 μmol/L 0.2% 0.3% 0.4% 0.7% 0.9%
\<1.05 μmol/L 4.0% 6.6% 4.6% 7.6% 4.8%
^1^ Rows with different superscripts differ significantly (ANCOVA adjusted for age and sampling method, with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons, *p* \< 0.05); ^2^ Values corrected for inflammation as described in methods section.
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Central |
Safeguarding
Safeguarding information for parents can be found under Information for Parents / Keeping Children Safe
Children's welfare is a paramount priority to all staff at Granby - both morally and legally. School staff have a legal duty to act in accordance with legislation, Leicester City Council's guidelines, the school's Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy and Procedures and locally agreed inter-agency protocols. All staff and volunteers who work regularly in school will be subject to the appropriate statutory checks and are appointed under Safer Recruitment procedures.
The Head Teacher is the Designated Safeguarding Leader (DSL) and deals with any child protection concerns. In his absence, the Deputy Head teacher Dale Cross, SENCo Karen Parker or Office Manager Sue Foreman will undertake this role as they are all fully trained as DSLs as well. Any disclosure by a pupil must, by law, be reported immediately to the DSL; any concerns must be similarly dealt with. The DSLs undertake training every two years and ensure that all staff receive regular safeguarding training. At Granby, we provide staff training on an annual basis.
It is everyone's duty to pass on information that helps to safeguard the well-being of the children in our care. Staff reporting any concerns will not necessarily be party to any action taken or the consequences of that action.
All staff should familiarise themselves with a range of relevant policies which are located on the website and our safeguarding procedures which can be found by clicking here:
CPOMS
We use an online tool called CPOMS to log any safeguarding / child protection and a range of other issues. All staff are able to log incidents on the system and should use it as fully as possible. The system can also be used to record communications with parents, SEN issues, and much more. All staff need their own personal log in; and senior staff have a wider access to information stored on the system. Only DSLs can access safeguarding information.
September 2018 update... Keeping Children Safe in Education
The government guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education, was updated again in September 2018. The main changes and clarifications are as follows:
Make sure that induction for new staff includes Part 1 of the guidance
Ensure that school holds at least 2 emergency contacts for each child
Familiarise staff with the pupil behaviour policy and the school's safeguarding response to children missing education
Strengthen identification of DSLs and deputies, along with their role in school
Understand that previously Looked After Children remain vulnerable and need special safeguarding consideration
Further checks to be made on school governors
DSLs should be appointed by governors and should be part of the school's management team
Governors must ensure that children are taught about on-line safety
Interview panels must contain at least one person who is 'Safer recruitment' trained
Data should be treated according to legislation and local policy
How to respond to peer-on-peer sexual violence and sexual harassment
This list is not exhaustive and the document should be consulted for more detailed information.
September 2016 update... Keeping Children Safe in Education
The Government guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education, was updated in September 2016. All teaching and support staff have received training to develop their understanding of Part 1 of the document: Information for all school and college staff . The current version of the document can be accessed here.
Female Genital Mutilation
Staff have undertaken training on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and are instructed to be alert to the possible signs that a child has been subjected to FGM or is at risk of being abused through FGM. Staff are expected to take timely action in any case where a girl is suspected of being at risk, especially (but not solely) in the run up to the school summer holidays, known as the 'cutting season'. Since October 31st 2015, there has been a mandatory duty on school staff to report FGM.
Prevent Duty
Staff are also trained to be alert to the possibility of children being drawn into terrorism under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. The Act places a duty on schools to ensure that staff have the knowledge and confidence to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas which can be used to legitimise terrorism and are shared by terrorist groups. A leaflet for parents can be downloaded here.
Confidentiality
Staff are required to ensure that all information concerning pupils and any matters relating to school are kept confidential and not shared with any third parties. The General Data Protection Regulations come into force from May 2018 and we are currently preparing for compliance in relation to this. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Fuzion Unicorn Blood
Its almost as sweet as gummy bear blood but more tangy… like a nerds rope! The flavor is strong with just enough throat hit to make it fun without being painful. The clouds are fat, which is always a plus. But the best part is, that if you dont feel like it was worth the money to begin with, it just gets better over time. Its easy to see why this juice is so popular.
Product Description
Unicorn Blood by Fuzion Vapor
It’s a hard flavor to really identify and describe properly. It very refreshing with a “clean” taste, complex fruity and reminescent of Hawaiian Punch and the red drink that we all had at each other’s birthday parties..Fuzion Unicorn Blood is easy to vape and it does well in most tanks including clearos and drippers (however the Prime version is a better choice for RDAs).
Its almost as sweet as gummy bear blood but abit more “tangy”. The flavor is strong with just enough throat hit to make it fun without being painful. The clouds are fat, which is always a big plus. But the best part is, that if you dont feel like it was worth the money to begin with, it just gets better over time. Its easy to see why this juice is so extremly popular.
Unicorns are without doubt the single most magical creature that ever existed(?). Their fairytale blood is rumored to have extreme magical powers and butterfly kitten kisses.
Well, how does Fuzion Unicorn Blood actually taste like then?
Of cause i tastes exactly like Unicorn Blood should taste – what else could you expect? 🙂
Fruity, sweet rainbow goodness that would make even the Nyan Cat jealous all day! Some say that it tastes alot like skittles – you decide for your self 🙂
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All payments are processed through the 3D-Secure system. We don't store your credit card information, and all traffic on iSmokeKing.se is encrypted. Look for the padlock icon in your browser's address field to know you're safe. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Get Long and Lean Legs Like These Celebs
By
NewBeauty Editors
| April 09, 2013
Photo Credits: PR Photos
The tides are changing. Hemlines are rising. It's all about the legs, legs, legs. An often overlooked part of the body, the legs can fall victim to a variety of different problems and concerns that force millions of women to keep them covered up due to self-consciousness and limited clothing choices.
But the days of hiding behind long pants and below-the-knee skirts are over. Who says so? Oh, you know, just the hottest celebrities who, despite their age, refuse to give up the mini. And for good reason, their legs look fantastic.
With hot celebrities like Jessica Alba daring us to wear short skirts as confidently as they do, it's time to get our legs back to their best.
1/8
Photo Credits: Getty
While diet and exercise should always be your first line of defense when tackling thigh fat, there are options for when you need a little extra help to get thighs as thin as Cameron Diaz. “Liposuction is still the gold standard for exercise-resistant areas such as the thighs,” says Reno, NV, plastic surgeon Tiffany McCormack, MD.
But the skin on the thighs tends to be thin, so your doctor may suggest laser liposuction, which is believed to lend a tightening effect. Different than traditional liposuction, laser liposuction delivers a wave of laser light to stimulate collagen production to tighten the skin over subsequent months.
Somewhat controversial, some experts feel that laser lipo can help to firm the thighs while others feel that it offers little or no tightening benefit.
2/8
Jennifer Aniston's cellulite-free legs are the result of countless hours of yoga, which revs up circulation and firms muscles. Other great exercises to tone your legs include Pilates, belly dancing, kick boxing, and squats and lunges.
3/8
Fatty knees? No thank you. We prefer perfect proportion like supermodel Naomi Campbell. The knees can also be treated with liposuction to get rid of unnecessary fat with an incision at the knee or the groin (an incision in the groin also addresses fat in the thighs and results in less swelling during recovery).
“This area is amenable to sculpting and shaping with liposuction, but caution needs to be taken because the fat pockets are smaller and contour deformities can be more obvious,” says Dr. McCormack. When done right, liposuction to the knees can give good results and a barely visible scar. But you’ll need to wait a few weeks for the swelling to go down before the final results can be seen.
4/8
What's a "banana roll?" The area where the butt and upper thighs meet can be home to a resistant bulge or roll of fat. “This is one area that responds extremely well to both laser and standard liposuction,” says New York and Great Neck, NY, plastic surgeon Kevin Tehrani, MD. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen's legs are a great example of how the thigh should curve to meet the butt.
5/8
Photo Credits: PR Photos/Getty
Want slim calves like actress Gwyneth Paltrow? Minimizing large, bulky-looking calves can be achieved with neurotoxins (used off-label). Since neurotoxins paralyze the muscle, it also atrophies it to some degree. “Repeat treatments are necessary, but the calves can look smaller and less bulky,” says Dr. Tehrani.
6/8
Photo Credits: PR Photos
The mark of really beautiful legs can be found in the lower region, particularly trim, shapely ankles, like those of singer Rihanna.
Cankles (fat deposits that live where the leg meets the ankle) can be treated surgically with liposuction on the inner and outer portion of the ankle. Although it’s a rare area to treat, it’s also a tricky one because of the number of nerves that live at the base of the leg. The recovery is pretty lengthy due to the amount of time it takes for swelling to subside—like the knees, the ankles are far away from the heart, so it takes longer for the blood to recirculate, and the area tends to stay swollen longer.
7/8
Photo Credits: PR Photos
As we age, our skin becomes loose and saggy, which makes the legs look old, even if they are relatively slim. How can you fix this? Stimulate new collagen to achieve super-smooth skin like Stacy Keibler.
“Collagen production can be stimulated with fractional resurfacing to smooth the skin and improve its appearance,” says Hunt Valley, Maryland, dermatologist Karen Beasley, MD, adding that, if the skin is somewhat saggy, a radio-frequency treatment, like Thermage or Exilis, may minimally tighten the skin. While it can prove skin-smoothing benefits, it may not work on all patients.
8/8
Thanks to years of dancing, Jennifer Lopez has supersmooth and toned legs. One theory to get rid of cellulite is to use massaging machines with vacuum devices to stretch out the fibrous bands of tissue that are surrounded by fat cells that contribute to that unwanted dimpled look. Endermologie is one option, yet some doctors believe the benefits are typically temporary. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Review: Freed (Club Sin #4) by Stacey Kennedy
Fans who can’t get enough of USA Today bestselling author Stacey Kennedy will love this wicked, wild spinoff novel that explores how sexy life can be outside Club Sin.
Mary Schmidt knows only too well how thrilling a Master’s touch can be. Her husband, Charles, had been her ultimate fantasy, a seducer in the erotic dance of dominance and submission. She misses the sensual lifestyle they shared, but mourns him so deeply she cannot bear to embrace her submissive needs with another Dom—until a man who exudes temptation reawakens desires she can no longer deny.
Elliott Foster is dazzled by Mary. He instantly knows that she’s the woman he’s been waiting for—a woman who turns games into need. As her Master, he dares to unlock the deepest pleasures of her flesh, releasing her from pain and healing her mind. When Mary’s lithe body comes to life under his, he knows their connection goes beyond sex. Now that he has found the perfect woman, the perfect partner, the perfect submissive, he desires only to give her everything she craves.
Freed is an erotic romance intended for mature audiences.
5 out of 5 stars
This was an amazing story about moving on, love, and hope and I was truly touched by it.
I had planned to just look at a few pages and start another day but I started reading and I immediately wanted to know more. I felt for Mary and was intrigued by her story. Her connection with Elliot had me instantly drawn in. He is so commanding and I loved that connection the two of them shared. I was invested right from the beginning and couldn't put it down.
I really enjoyed that both the main characters in this story were a little older. It was nice seeing the perspective of an established Dom and submissive. They both knew themselves and what they wanted in the D/s department, that was refreshing. Elliot and Mary together were very passionate, there were some major steamy scenes involved.
Beyond the hotness, there was this majorly emotional story about moving on, letting go, and finding love again. This story is told from both Elliot and Mary’s POV’s and I loved getting into their heads, really getting to know them more and understand what was going on with them.The second half of the book had me crying. Not just teary eyed but full on pass the tissues crying. My heart hurt for these people and hoped for them. There was a really nice build throughout the story to their evolving relationship which I really enjoyed but the end was incredible. There's an epilogue too which was pretty darn perfect.
Beautifully written story. Fast paced. Wonderful characters that made me feel and pulled me into their world. I love the overall picture what was painted in my head, all the different characters and relationships. Everything came together nicely. I adored getting to see more of Dmitri, such a great man. Makes me want to read Claimed, book one in the series again.
I'm a Stacey Kennedy fan and I love the Club Sin series so much. I didn't know what to expect or how is feel when I started this book but Freed was so much more than a hot read that includes BDSM elements. It's about hope and life and living. Being happy. It was beautiful. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
World’s Saddest Prom Happening in High School Otaku’s Basement
Anime Maru is here to bring you live coverage of the hottest party happening tonight, the anime themed prom hosted by otaku high schooler Gavin Campbell within his parent’s basement. This party, planned in a drunken stupor half an hour ago as a reaction to the “social structures” that led to Gavin’s love confession to his longtime crush Charlotte Evans being rejected, is being held concurrently to that other lame prom that all of Gavin’s classmates are attending.
Several of this season’s hottest anime figurines are attending this year’s prom. Fate/Stay Night’s Saber is attending the prom in a suit jacket and button-down shirt sans pants, and Rin Tohsaka is by her side stealing the show with an eye-catching maid uniform. Gintoki Sakatai is also in attendance wearing a very stylish white kimono, showing off far more swagger than that asshole jock Brad could ever pull off, and he could totally beat up Brad too.
Of course, the eye of the ball is this year’s celebrity pairing, Gavin and his new girlfriend, Kosaki Onodera. Gavin has been heard flattering Onodera with compliments about what a nice and innocent girl she is, unlike that slut Charlotte who probably only decided to go to prom with Jackson because his daddy’s rich, which is totally how he got into Yale when he’d normally go to community college along with Gavin.
Oh, and who’s this appearing on the basement carpet? Why it’s Gavin’s mother, sporting a horrified look on her face as she sees Gavin’s half dressed state and… oh, it appears our reporters are being escorted out. Well, that about wraps up our coverage of tonight’s party. But don’t worry, prom season isn’t over yet, and we’ll be here to bring you live coverage of every high school anime fan’s descent into self-pity that goes along with it!
About the author
Bob_Squob is neither a Bob nor a Squob, but they’re both common enough names to form an alias. After roaming the earth for 10,000 years with no purpose, he came upon Anime Maru, and thought to himself, “It is good. I will make my home here.” He currently resides in the darkness for fear that his taste in anime will be discovered and exploited as a weakness. Twitter: @Bob_Squob
4 thoughts on “World’s Saddest Prom Happening in High School Otaku’s Basement” | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
You can feel it in the air. We're hours away from kickoff, tailgate parties, the bands, cheerleaders, corporate sponsor signs and announcements that we just saw Floyd's Fresh Water Softener Play of the Game.
This is the season that kicks off a new era of college football in Utah — a season where BYU and Utah are not blood brothers and a voting bloc in the same conference. They've been through many a two-against-everybody-else votes on issues concerning the WAC and Mountain West for decades.
It's a time for highlights, replays, HD television, overpriced hotdogs and nachos, and expensive season tickets that will never be pocket change again.
There are plenty of storylines this fall:
Will Utah make a nice entry splash into the Pac-12 by challenging for a Southern Division title?
Will Norm Chow be able to create an effective offense with the material left from the spread?
Will BYU thrive as an independent in football, or play uninteresting games at home while loading up with road games in the Big 12, SEC and Pac-12?
Can Brandon Doman call plays in the heat of a game? Can he put his new theories into action against somebody else at BYU?
Is preseason hype accurate or just smoke?
How good is Weber State?
Does Utah have a kicking game? Does BYU?
Will Robert Turbin be the leading rusher in the state of Utah out of Aggieville?
Is Jake Heaps for real?
Is Jordan Wynn really healthy and does Utah have a legitimate running back?
After the NCAA finishes with the Miami Hurricanes, will there be much of a zephyr left?
All this, and much more, waits for us to discover in days to come.
This week pushes college football out of the chute with plenty of interesting matchups and surprisingly key games this early. None loom bigger than No. 3 Oregon at No. 4 LSU, and No. 5 Boise State at No. 19 Georgia. The Broncos put their BCS bowl chances on the line very early this week. A loss, according to history, dooms non-BCS entities.
There are a whopping 15 games scheduled for this Thursday night as the Utes open up with Montana State at Rice-Eccles. There are two Friday night games, No. 14 TCU at Baylor and Youngstown State at No. 17 Michigan State.
So, folks, start your remotes and DVRs.
The season is upon us.
It's different getting into the guessing game this season because my venture won't center on the Mountain West Conference. With Utah in the Pac-12 and BYU going independent, I'll have to tweak this season's run of games each week. I think I'll center prognostications on a diet of Pac-12 fodder.
This week's picks:
Oregon 21, LSU 17: It'll be a tough road trip for the Ducks, but the firepower Oregon displays should be enough to outscore the Tigers, even on LSU's home turf.
USC 17, Minnesota 10: Tagged as a cheater, penalized and sanctioned, the Trojans enter the season ranked No. 15. They will welcome the Utes the following week with a 1-0 record.
Auburn 34, Utah State 10: It will be interesting to see how Gary Andersen's squad defends the defending national champions without their Heisman Trophy quarterback Cam Newton. Tough opener for the Aggies.
TCU 28, Baylor 10: If there is a year to catch Gary Patterson, it is when he's breaking in a new quarterback. But TCU is the best football program in Texas right now, from recruiting to coaching. Sorry, Texas, the Frogs are "It."
Hawaii 34, Colorado 7: This matchup features future foes for Utah and BYU, and it will be interesting to see how the Warriors do with a returning quarterback and expected firepower. Tough opener for the Buffs, and they go down easy.
Utah 34, Montana State 0: Look for Utah's defense to dominate this game, force turnovers and set up a young offense for some scoreboard. Not a pressure game for Norm Chow, is it?
BYU 28, Mississippi 24: This game might just set the tone for BYU's season, and starting off with a pair of roadies in the SEC and Big 12 isn't an easy script. Look for BYU's offensive execution to be the difference in a close game.
Popular Comments
Prognostications, trolling, and fanaticisms aside, its time to get it on!
Go Cougars - Go Aggies - Go Utes!!!
College football rules in
my book . . .
6:05 a.m. Sept. 1, 2011
Top comment
Kosta Fesenko
Chicken McNuggetville, UT
@Striker
you referring to Utah's offense in camp as
"abysmal" just shows that you have not followed them at all. Love it
when you guys show your hand. Its ok, we love you anyway.
9:31 a.m. Sept. 1, 2011
Top comment
Mormon Ute
Kaysville, UT
Striker,
All you say is true, but let's look a little closer. What
conference does Montana State play in? The Big Sky. I don't believe the Utes
have ever come close to losing to a Big Sky opponent. So being the conference
co-MVP needs
More..
Dick Harmon is a columnist for the Deseret News with a focus on college athletics. He previously worked as executive sports editor, sports columnist, city editor and police reporter for the Provo Daily Herald for 26 more .. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
This is a blog about marketing, gadgets, travel, privacy and cyberspace. Especially, but not exclusively, for those with an interest in everything that can make the life of a frequent traveller into something vaguely resembling normalcy.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Nice technology scoop from my alma mater, Groningen University, or rather: from one of its technology spinoffs, Sound Intelligence.
SI specializes in intelligent automatic sound recognition. Its sound sensors can be programmed to distinguish between a smooth-running engine and one with worn-out parts, or to recognize the sound of breaking glass or other burglary-related noises.
The technique is so robust that it can do all this even when the progammed sound is 'drowned out' by background or other noise. The company's current hot item is the 'Agression Detector', a security camera that can detect whether human sounds are produced by aggressive or non-aggressive individuals, and swivel and focus on aggressors in a crowd. An experiment in Groningen's city centre has just been succesfully concluded.
For a Direct Marketing mind, no more cues are needed. I can picture a host of applications here, from prioritizing support requests in a helpdesk's voicemail box to intelligent voice response systems. (No, that is not necessarily a contradiction in terms.)
Venture capital firms are kindly request to leave a comment with this post. You will be contacted as soon as possible.
It's a good thing when the likes of Nicholas Negroponte and Bill Gates start to devote part of their considerable resources to fighting poverty by bringing things like affordable laptops and proper healthcare to the Third World.
But novel as these admirable initiatives may sound, they still boil down to traditional charity. Negroponte doesn't want his laptop to cost less than $100 to keep the sales price down: he wants to keep the costs down of giving them away. Ditto the Bill&Melissa Gates Foundation with its future cures for infectious diseases.
A small niggling voice inside me that charity, even this new kind of charity, brings short-term relief rather than long-term development. You don't help people by giving them things, you help them by developing the instincts to get these things for themselves. Microcredit, for instance, its that bill perfectly.
More mobile marketing news from Japan, where it all seems to be happening: the official introduction of Mobile Suica, a service that enables Japanese consumers to pay with a wave of their handphones things ranging from Japan Rail train tickets to fast food and electronics goods.
The six handset models that were promised to work with the service as announced last month now turn out to have become a full dozen, from providers NTT DoCoMo and KDDI. Unfortunately, three more Vodafone handsets that also support the technology are not (yet?) supported.
This will not stand in the way of a substantial increase in mobile payments in Japan, though. The number of Suica compatible handsets sold by DoCoMo alone has passed the 10 million mark.
The impact of Quick Response codes for response generation in marketing cannot be exaggerated. In future they will become the supreme drivers for consumer response, from information requests to buying decisions.
But even before QR's widespread acceptation a sucessor has `already been announced: the Colorzip code. Colorzips are a Korean development, started six years ago at Yonsei University. They are now the de facto code reading standard in Korea, and are being introduced in Japan as we speak.
The greatest advantage of colorzips is their design flexibility: instead of being confined to squiggles or squares, colorzips can be morphed into any form that contains colour codes, and still be easily readable. The same goes for printing them on textured or flexible surfaces such as T-shirts or shopping bags, or even showing them on TV screens, not to mention mobile phones and other gadgets. In addition they can contain a lot more information than the QR codes' usual 300 characters.
On 31 January 1944 the first programmable electronic computer in the world, the Colossus Mark I, was installed in the British cryptographers' headquarters in Bletchley Park.
It had been constructed over the previous ten months by Tommy Flowers, at the British Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill in North London, for the purpose of breaking German cypher codes.
Colossus predated its more famous cousin ENIAC by two years. The machine operated on 1,500 vacuum tubes (ENIAC would use around 18,000) and was programmed by paper tape which was optically read. Because of the fragility of the vacuum tubes, the machines, once turned on, were never powered down until the World War's end.
The machine helped the Allied Forces win the war, and in honour of that a replica was built in 2003, which can still be admired at the Bletchley Park Museum.
After single-handedly innovating the worlds of search, advertising, webmail and just about all other things internet, Google has now handed business consultancy it's biggest innovation since Tom Peters wrote 'In Search of Excellence".
McKinsey&Company have recalled their regional heads for a worldwide meeting, as a new standard slide has to be added to all the consultancy's future reports: the Evilness Chart.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Did you ever realize? Someone asks you the time, you look at your wrist and answer. But the answer you give is never precisely what you see. It's always "five o'clock", or "a bit past five". Unless you're German or otherwise anally focused, of course.
UPDATE: For our more anal readers, not to worry: by clicking the crown the watch toggles between 'about time' and exact time, showing hours, minutes and seconds (Thanks Norman for pointing out the omission.)
And of course the discrepancies are huge, at least if you choose some nicely controversial keywords.
Here's what you get when you do an image search for 'tiananmen' on Google.com, and here are the corresponding Google.cn results. Americans get 22,400 images, with the first results pages dominated by the famous tank column being stopped by a white-shirted activist. Chinese only get 414, barely 2%, of these, mostly tourists' holiday snapshots on the famous square.
The picture with the white-shirted tourist above is result #29 on .com, #2 on .cn. Wonder if it's the same guy.
On Thursday the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and consumer targeting information company ChoicePoint reached a landmark $15 million settlement for endangering the privacy of more than 160,000 consumers in February 2005.
The settlement includes a $10 million fine, the largest so far for a privacy breach.
A further $5 million is set aside by ChoicePoint to compensate consumers who fell victim to identity theft as a result of the breach. Since the FTC said 800 consumers ended up being victimized, this settlement sets an interesting benchmark of around $60,000 per record for privacy breach compensation where marketing data are involved.
ChoicePoint's database was compromised by criminals who set up fraudulous accounts that enabled them to access 162,000 records. Interestingly the whole affair only came to light because ChoicePoint had to comply with California's 2003 disclosure law, requiring the company to disclose security breaches to state residents whose information has been affected.
#51: The hazards of Deceased Do-Not-Contact listsThe Direct Marketing Association decides to charge the deceased $1 for making the list. The bereaved object.
#64: The hazards of renting 3rd party listsStandard procedure should always be screening against a hoax name list. JPMorgan apparently doesn't know this and manages to send a credit card offer to an Arab American man, addressed to 'Palestinian Bomber.' No comment.
#98: The hazards of database analysisMail order company eZiba runs itself into the ground by doing a database analysis and subsequently mailing its catalogue to the least likely responders instead of the most likely ones. Great analysis job, though!
Friday, January 27, 2006
Yesterday Providence Home Services, a Portland, Oregon healthcare provider, confessed that 365,000 patients' records have been stolen from an employee's car on New Year's Eve, four weeks ago. The data included about 250,000 Social Security numbers. Apparently the disks and tapes that held the data were sitting in the car as part of a routine precaution against data centre disasters. The procedure has now been changed.
These are serious numbers, from serious companies who should know better. Ameritrust is a recent American Express spinoff. But the most striking part is the apparent carelessness with which the most sensitive types of data - healthcare, finance, and Social Security numbers - are apparently routinely taken off site, in laptops or on media, and left around in cars and God knows where else.
His forecast of spam's defeat in two years' time being proven false just four days ago apparently did not deter him from predicting victory over software piracy in China and India. In a speech at the WEF Bill Gates claimed to be optimistic about China and India becoming more licence-friendly, comparing the situation in those countries to Taiwan and Korea a few years ago.
Mr Gates is becoming a bit more careful at the future-betting game, though. This time he predicted victory in ten years, rather than two. Watch this space on January 27th, 2016.
Remember Where's George? Fill in the number of your dollar bill, where you got it and where you are now.
With enough participation bills will surface every now and then, and you'll be able to track your bill's circulation in space and time. Cute.
That was five-odd years ago, and Where's George lived happily ever after. But now George's saga is getting a new twist. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Goettingen, Germany, are now proposing to use George's database to predict the spread of infectious diseases like bird flu. The researchers have developed a mathematical model that uses human travel to plot the future course of pandemics, but lack a sufficiently robust database of human movements. According to recent analysis George's database of 50 million dollar banknotes seems to be the next best thing.
Interesting development at a time when business models are increasingly judged on the length of their tails.
Brin admitted critics of the decision do have a point, but, he said: "France and Germany require censorship for Nazi sites, and the U.S. requires censorship based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA). These various countries also have laws on child pornography."
That's an interesting ethical shortcut. Brin basically says "China thinks human rights are evil, France and Germany think Nazis are evil, the US think child pornography and violating copyrights is evil. What am I to think?"
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
As of today, it's official. Google's "Don't Be Evil" motto has withered in the face of China's opposition against maintaining any type of human rights within the Middle Kingdom's borders.
Today Google announced the Chinese version of their search page, which promises to censor any reference to obscenities like democracy, porn, and human rights. In addition Google have decided not to introduce Blogger and Gmail in China, just to avoid finding itself in the position of having to hand over personal data to the Chinese government.
Not only shopping paradise Singapore but also technology-savvy Japan see the rise of small online shops, created by posting articles, descriptions and prices on the web by using a simple blog interface. All you need is a digital camera, PC and internet connection, and you're in business. Literally.
One year later, on January 29th, Bill was doing his 'Davos thing' again. “I’m short the dollar,” he said in an interview with TV host Charlie Rose. “The ol’ dollar, it’s gonna go down.” The dollar was worth 77 Eurocents at the time. It's 81 today. Can't win'em all, Bill.
Back to Davos 2004, where Bill made a second prediction. This one, a bit less publicized, was about Google. A "pretty good" competitor with a "high level of IQ", Bill said, but "we will catch them."
No two years' time span on this one. And hopefully for Bill, a bit more accurate than the other two.
It was unavoidable: a mobile phone for pets. PetsMobility from Scottsdale, Arizona, has developed a bone shaped device that sits on your favourite canine's collar.
The phone has a 'Call Owner' button in case it ends up with strangers (or in case your dog's clever enough to use it himself - ya never know) and an auto answer function that can filter out calls from other numbers than your own. So your dog isn't in jeopardy of auto answering telemarketing calls, I guess. It can still receive them, though, as the phone has its own number. So you'll have to register your dog to the Do Not Call Registry as well, it seems.
Still, one wonders why the thing has the shape of a bone. For meeting other dogs, perhaps? A good thing it's waterproof, then.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
A historic moment in the history of ICT and one of the most famous (some would say infamous) TV commercials of all time was the '1984' Macintosh launch ad.
The commercial cost $1.6 million to produce, and Apple paid another $500,000 for the 45 seconds of airtime. It ran only once, during the third quarter of the January 22nd, 1984 Superbowl, and it marked a seminal moment in personal computing history.
SMRT, Singapore's dominant public transport and taxi operator, clearly hasn't figured out how to do SMS promotions.
This ad in SMRT's subway trains tells you how to participate by sending an SMS with your taxi's licence plate number, receipt number, journey start date & time, and your passport or identity card number. Seriously. The ad even gives an example how simple such an SMS would look: SMRT, SHB1234A, 999, 011105, 1033, S77712345A.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
And here I thought very little had happened in grand piano design for the last century or so. How wrong can one be.
This Schimmel Pegasus Grand Piano was on display in a shop in Hong Kong's Times Square. It's a Colani design, done completely in high-gloss automobile lacquer (complete with American 60s type hood ornament - seriously) and according to Schimmel's website it's available in the standard grand piano colours jet black and mother-of-pearl white.
Pulling billioms of dollars out of the market in order to start a religion might even become a trend. At least that's what the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi must've thought when he started his latest campaign, asking the world for nothing less than 10 trillion dollars. Buy one or more shares for $50,000 each and you'll be part of the Maharishi's global initiative to eliminate poverty.
Guess I'd rather put my money on the Religion of the Omniscient and Omnipotent Algorithm, as The Economist calls it.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
You live in a dorm with many others, and there's never a moment of privacy. You have almost no free spending money, and can afford very little luxury. You go to university in a city where real estate prices have gone through the roof, and owning or renting an apartment is a distant opportunity. So you go online.
This is, in short, the explanation for the wild success of Chinese website iPartment. iPartment is an online world where you can find an apartment, find someone to share it with and go and live there happily ever after.
And that's exactly what about half a million Chinese 18-25 year olds have done since the site's launch in July 2005. Couples spend time in their apartment, chatting in relative privacy, decorating it with furniture and luxury goods, or taking care of their pets. Stuff, pets and petfood can be bought at the site for a small fee.
Participants seem to love this cheap, commitment-free life and often spend hours a day on the site. The site turns a handy, though unreported, profit. This is China, after all.
You don't find the combination of low-income, internet-savvy youths in many other places, but I can't help but wonder if we'll see this phenomenon pop up elsewhere.
Why is posting this so irresistible? Not sure. Maybe it's the ridiculous idea that some people will shell out more than 500 bucks for a gadget that's outright dangerous to wear. Or maybe it's because the thing makes you look like one of those criminal suspects whose eyes have been covered in a newspaper photograph.
Or else it's the press photo, another splendid proof that Bling is King and the iPod is the ultimate Bling.
dMarc connects advertisers to radio stations through an automated platform. Google wants to integrate this technology into their AdWords programme, which basically does the same for websites. In the near future Google's AdWord clients will be able to buy both online and radio advertising from one single source.
This is not just a skirmish any more. Google will overpay up to $1.2 billion for dMarc, a company that was formed as recent as 2004, in a deal worth $29 million. And this is just the beginning...
Monday, January 16, 2006
Singapore, Chinatown. Midnight shopping madness in the run-up to Chinese New Year. A nice and refreshing change from glitzy high-rise shopping centres full of gadgets and luxury brands.
It's the middle of the night, but it could just as well be the middle of the day. Keong Saik Road has been turned into a crowded market that offers everything you need to celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Dog.
Lucky bamboo
Orange trees, for prosperity
Would you think red...
...and gold are the dominant Chinese New Year colours?
Special offer: not 3 for $30, not 2 for $20, but 1 for $10? Somebody needs a marketing course, maybe
This comment on my post below about SMS marketing and Cell Broadcasting shows that some companies are actually starting to learn how to use the medium in a consumer-friendly way. Indeed it is the first commercial SMS I ever saw with a proper unsubscribe line. (For those with less than 20/20 vision: 'To Unsub,reply citi_unsub'.)
Applause for Citibank, and thanks Lisa, both for the comment and for forwarding the message.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Remember how SMS started? It was only meant to be used by the providers alone, enabling them to send system service messages to users. But soon the users themselves got hold of it, and next thing you know the worldwide number of messages sent annually approaches 1 trillion.
So when I see an increasing number of countries introducing GSM Cell Broadcast (CB), I have mixed feelings. And apparently I'm not the only one. Main question is, will the use of this one-to-many messaging system remain in the hands of network providers, or end up being abused in the way email fell victim to spam?
The Netherlands is the first country to implement the system, with a pilot already underway (in Zoetermeer, of course. It had to there or Apeldoorn) and national coverage expected by the end of 2006. Singapore, which pioneered CB during the 1999 edition of CommunicAsia, is now considering the idea as well (Straits Times, paid access).
If you ever tried to shop online in the US from Asia or Europe (and live in Singapore), you'll appreciate Shop@USA, a new and very convenient service from Singapore Post.
E-commerce sites in the US have an annoying tendency to make life difficult for online shoppers from abroad (not counting Canada), either by failing to provide non-US shipping options, or by refusing to accept credit cards issued outside the US.
Personally I find few things more frustrating than going through the complete rigmarole of choosing your items, submitting your shopping basket, filling in your details including your Amex card (AMERICAN Express, for Chrissakes!), only to end up with a message that says non-US credit cards are out of bounds.
Thanks to SingPost, for Singaporeans no more. The Shop@USA website offers a handy combination of 68 US shopping sites, SpeedPost delivery including Track&Trace, and acceptance of just about every online payment method known in Singapore.
Postal operators across Europe and Asia, pay attention: this is an example worth following. Not to mention it's another step towards true global e-commerce.
The hottest gadget of the moment is without doubt the iPod Nano. And Tokyo is still the fashion capital of Asia. So trendspotters beware: as long as people dress up Nanos like this (thanks Akihabara), you can safely assume bling still rules.
Apart from the rather curious choice of branding (and Diamond's website suffering from an unlucky combination of Engrish and non-existence), Ogilvy do have a point. South Korea's advertising market is expected to be worth around US$6bn in 2006, making it Asia's #3 market after Japan and China.
No Sir. Now it's Apple who's being caught red-handed while sneakily harvesting information from its unsuspecting users' PCs, and having iTunes send it surreptitiously not only to Apple's iTunes Music Store itself, but to a third party as well.
Sony, Norton, Apple, these are big brands. It's simply astonishing how their owners keep thinking they can get away with the most despiccable privacy violations without endangering their most precious assets: their brands, and their reputation. Here's the mantra: transparency and permission, transparency and permission, transparency and permission.
Repeat after me, Steve: 'I shall not hide in my consumers' closets and I shall not install secret listening devices that transmit their private information without their explicit permission'. Now does that sound so difficult?
Thursday, January 12, 2006
April Fool is still a long way off but I had trouble believing my eyes when I saw this harebrained idea: the Windows CE based petrol station. Several nightmare scenarios spring to mind, of which the screen message
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Sistic, Singapore's largest ticketing agent, announced today the start of ticket sales through mobile phones.
"M-tickets", as they are to be called, will be sent via picture messages (MMS) to the buyer's phone. The MMS will show a QR code. The phone can then be held in front of an image scanner at the theater's entrance. Receiving by email and holding up the printout will also be possible.
Nice 'reverse use' of QR codes, eliminating the need of special reader software in people's phones, since only the theatre's scanners need the software now. Sistic intends to roll out a more comprehensive QR based solution with QR codes on ads, posters, flyers or even flashed on TV commercials, by the time phones with QR reader software are commonplace in Singapore.
The article below the illustration explains to the ever-wary Singaporean public that QR coupons are actually more secure than paper ones, which can be copied or reprinted.
More than a year later the ever-vigilant Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has decoded the secret markings that our colour printers include in every printout. Turns out, it's a storm in a teacup: the codes include date and time of printing and the printer's serial number, allowing the US Secret Service to track down currency counterfeiters. And of course, the secret's out. Bag open, cat gone. The EFF even provides the source code for an automatic decoding program.
This kind of stupidity does more harm than good: it scares the general public into countless conspiracy theories, causes privacy backlashes and is ultimately ineffective. Deals like these always hit the spotlight, sooner or later, after which workarounds for evildoers are a walk in the park. Meanwhile, the public is left behind with an unnerving "Told you so, Big Brother's watching" feeling.
Governments should know better than to succumb to this kind of short-term shrewdness. And companies should pay more attention to consumers' interests, instead of playing along when narrow-minded Government minions come up with silly plots.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
The likes of Paris and Britney are out, Steve and Sergei are the new chic. As technology becomes a greater part of our daily lives, tech geeks, the bringers of these blessings, are definitely gaining media visibility. Admittedly there are still some ups and downs and some geek foremen might never get the hang of it, but high tech rockstars like Jobs and Brin certainly fit the bill.
Especially Steve 'Reality Distortion Field' Jobs shows the way in which tomorrow's celebrities will try to manifest themselves. Rather than bumbling across the flickering screen like blonde little Paris, they'll distinguish themselves through meticulously prepared, glitzy software demos.
Finally: a Bluetooth earpiece that doesn't make you look like a Borg. The Motorola H5 Miniblue disappears into your ear. More importantly, it contains both a loudspeaker and a microphone, which picks up sounds through your ear canal. The subcutaneously implanted H6 version is foreseen in 2007.
The final goal is in sight: the ultimate urban nomad's companion. This week's CES reveals three trends that will contribute to the road warrior's ideal:
1. The flexible screen. PlasticLogic announced an E Ink screen in 10" size. That's close to the on-the-road ideal, lightweight and rollable, and uses very little energy.2. 'Core' notebook processors. Intel announced Yonah, its newest generation of single ("Solo") and dual core ("Duo") notebook processors. Not only are these more energy-friendly - they also provide plenty of scope to build more roadworthy functionality into future processor cores.3. Instant startup. The last barrier: the endless wait until your laptop has started up. Main raison d'être for using PDAs and smartphones, despite their pathetic little screens. Bill Gates showed the SideShow feature as part of his Vista demo, enabling the user to access contacts, to-do lists, and calendar without having to start the PC. Toshiba has Express Mediaplayer, a similar feature for playing media on its Qosmio notebooks and announced EM's rollout to 80% of its high end notebooks. And HP announced new notebooks with QuickPlay, a similar feature.
Rollable displays with Yonah Duos in the rim, and QuickStart features. Who's going to invent the lightweight mini battery? | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Meta
The New Anime About Fighting With Your Butt. Yes, For Real
So as you may or may not know I’m am NECK DEEP into japanese culture, manga, anime and video games in particular, and I generally pick up 9-10 new anime series per season (watched with subtitles of course.) there are a LOT of weird anime that come out, and an equal number of anime that showcase the more ‘ecchi’ side of things (the random boob shot etc) but this, THIS takes the biscuit.
Ladies and gentlemen I present to you Keijo: the battle of the asses!! now I personally am NOT following this anime at all… i mean, what self respecting man would watch an anime focusing on a new sport in which two women battle it out on a floating disc in the water, aiming to knock the opponent off using only her butt or bust??
Because I haven’t been following it, i don’t know that the series is set in an alternate reality where a new, women-only, gambling sport known as “keijo”, quickly becomes a fad in Japan since its introduction in the dawn of the 21st century. Keijo matches are held atop floating platforms, referred to as a “Land”, in large water-filled stadiums where swimsuit-clad players fight to incapacitate their opponents or push them out to the water, but they can only hit each other using their breasts or buttocks.
Nozomi Kaminashi is a gifted gymnast who decides to give up her dream of competing in the Olympics and become a keijo player instead, aiming for the high earnings offered there, in order to get herself and her younger siblings out of poverty. As she enters the world of Keijo, Nozomi soon makes new friends and rivals, while learning that the way to fame and fortune in this new, uncommon sport will have more challenges than she ever imagined.
So no, that definitely is NOT the trailer below, and I don’t know when it airs (every Thursday.) | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Abdominoplasty after major weight loss: improvement of quality of life and psychological status.
Abdominoplasty provides a reconstructive but rarely aesthetic cosmetic solution after major weight loss. Few articles document quality of life (QOL) issues and the psychological impact of abdominoplasty on obese patients. We report a retrospective study of 41 abdominoplasties performed after an average weight loss of 40.2 kg. Data were obtained through review of patient medical files, double-blind surgical and psychological examinations, and two specifically designated questionnaires used to assess pre-abdominoplasty body perception and QOL, post-body contouring perception of improvement, and psychological status. To date, 14 patients have regained >10 kg; 84.6% have improved QOL; 86.5% have improved psychological status; 74% have better sexual relations; 53.9% admit liking their body; 76.9% are satisfied with the results of abdominoplasty; and 96.1% would be willing to undergo abdominoplasty again. Anterior dermolipectomy improves both QOL and psychological status. Provision of patient education, multidisciplinary management, and long-term follow up are necessary to obtain satisfactory results. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Abstracts |
日本の「報道の自由」が脅かされているとする見方が海外で広がっている。来日した国連の専門家が懸念を表明。国際ＮＧＯが公表した自由度ランキングも大きく後退した。政治の圧力とメディアの自主規制が背景にあると指摘している。
「報道の独立性が重大な脅威に直面している」。１９日に東京都内で会見した国連特別報告者のデービッド・ケイ米カリフォルニア大アーバイン校教授（国際人権法）は、政府や報道関係者らへの聞き取りをもとに、暫定的な調査結果をまとめ、日本の言論状況に警鐘を鳴らした。
ケイ氏の指摘は、放送法や自民党の憲法改正草案、特定秘密保護法の問題点など多岐にわたる。なかでも、放送の政治的公平性を定めた放送法をめぐり、高市早苗総務相が電波停止に言及したことについて、「政府は脅しではないと主張したが、メディア規制の脅しと受け止められても当然だ」と批判した。
ケイ氏に面会したフリージャーナリストによると、「『政府の圧力』に対して強い関心を抱いていた」という。高市発言や、前回総選挙前に自民党が放送局に「公平中立」を求める文書を送るなどの事例が相次いでいることが、厳しい指摘につながったとみられる。
報道側の問題として、記者クラブ制度や、メディアの権力側との距離の取り方などに触れ、「日本のジャーナリストに独立して連帯する職業的組織があれば政府の影響に抵抗できるが、そうはならない」「メディア幹部と政府高官、規制される側とする側が会食し、密接な関係を築いている」などと指摘した。
市民デモにも言及し、「日本に… | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
It was a wild scene last night. Frankie Borelli and I bounced all over Manhattan looking for this dirty batch of protestors, and just when we thought we were out of luck, their stink cloud came cascading down 5th Avenue like fucking Pig Pen from Charlie Brown. It was truly a crazy scene. One Stoolie came up and said hi, but didn’t want to be on camera because he was only there because he needed to be around other people and he felt like he was going to cry. And as he told me this, tears began to well up in his eyes. To say that emotions were running high is an understatement.
We got a lot of Stool love, some battle rap love, and some random-stranger-on-the-street love. We also had a dumpy fat girl yell “fuck Barstool”, but she ducked behind a bus and ran away like a cockroach when I tried to talk to her about it. Chants, rainbow flags, armpit hair, body odor, hand-written signs, topless lesbians (they showed him) and a lot of anger marked a wild night of protesting. One guy came up and demanded to be on camera who I was legitimately concerned was going to do something very violent, as he compared this protest to the Arab Spring in 2013. If anyone from the FBI or NSA is reading this, I’m pretty sure I have someone to add to your watch list. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Category Archives: Newsletters and Notes
Rolestown National School Rolestown,Telephone:01-8404130 Co.Dublin.Fax: 01-8900011 E-mail: [email protected] 2nd March, 2015. Dear Parent, You will be pleased to hear that our Quiz Team has done us proud over the past few weeks. Nicholas, Lorcan, Justin & Conor reached the National … Continue reading →
This Friday 3rd October 12.30pm- 3pm in School Hall Drop off time from 8.30am You don’t have to be a Delia, or a Nigella or even a Mary Berry…!!!! All cakes, buns, breads, jams and preserves will be appreciated. Get … Continue reading → | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
In the middle of the 2008 housing crisis, I traveled to Nevada to hear from people who had lost their homes. One of the people who spoke that day was Mr. Estrada. He wore a jacket over his T-shirt and had on a red U.S. Marine Corps baseball cap. He and his wife both worked, and they had stretched their budget to get their two girls into a good school and buy a home. Their home meant everything to them — it was right across the street from the school so they could see their girls playing outside when they opened their garage door.
But when the payments on their mortgage jumped, they fell behind. Mr. Estrada tried to negotiate with the bank, but then suddenly the bank sold his home at auction.
Mr. Estrada said that his six-year-old daughter had come home the other day with a sheet of paper with all of her friends’ names on it. She told him that these were the people who would miss her because she was going to have to move away. He responded: “I don’t care if I have to live in a van. You’re still going to be able to go to this school.”
As Mr. Estrada told his story, he had tears in his eyes. I did too. And I still think about his story because it’s a powerful reminder of what housing means.
Housing is not just the biggest expense for most American families — or the biggest purchase most Americans will make in their lifetimes. It also affects the jobs you can get, the schools your children can go to, and the kinds of communities you can live in. That’s why it’s so important that government gets housing policy right.
But government at all levels hasn’t done enough to tackle our housing problems over the past few decades. The federal government has reduced investments in housing for middle-class and lower-income families even as rents continue to rise. Many state and local governments have layered on needless rules that drive up construction costs and lock families out of neighborhoods with better schools and job opportunities.
Meanwhile, homeownership is out of reach for too many families — especially Black families. Decades of outright discrimination by the federal government denied Black families the same kinds of homeownership subsidies available to white families. Then government regulators ignored warning signs as predatory financial institutions targeted minority communities with subprime mortgages that sucked billions of dollars in wealth out of those communities. The black homeownership rate today is nearly the same as it was when housing discrimination was legal.
We’re not going to solve our housing crisis by nibbling at the edges. We need to tackle it head on — with big, comprehensive solutions that match the size of the problems we have. That’s what my housing plan for America does.
Bringing Down Rental Costs
My housing plan starts by attacking the growing cost of rent in America. Millions of American families are spending more than 30% of their income on rent. My plan will bring down rental costs by 10% by addressing the root causes of the problem: a severe lack of affordable housing supply, and state and local land-use rules that needlessly drive up housing costs.
The rising cost of rent reflects a basic supply-and-demand problem. There aren’t enough places to rent that are affordable to lower-income families. That’s because developers can usually turn bigger profits by building fancier new units targeted at higher-income families rather than units targeted at lower-income families. The result is a huge hole in the marketplace.
That hole ends up raising costs for everyone. Without enough affordable options, lower-income families have to stretch their budgets to try to find housing. They end up taking units that would otherwise go to middle-class families. Middle-class families, in turn, have to stretch their budgets to secure housing that might otherwise go to even richer families.
To fix this problem, we need to fill in the hole in the marketplace. And that’s what my plan does.
The centerpiece of my plan is the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, which I introduced for the first time in the Senate last year and reintroduced this week. I’m proud that my bill has the support of two of my Senate colleagues. And I’m proud that an inspiring set of leaders — including Representatives Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, Barbara Lee of California, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, and Elijah Cummings of Maryland — has introduced the same legislation in the House.
My bill makes historic federal investments to increase housing supply. It invests $500 billion over the next ten years to build, preserve, and rehab units that will be affordable to lower-income families. A big chunk of that investment leverages private dollars so that taxpayers get the most bang for their buck.
By building millions of new units, my plan will reduce the cost of rent for everyone. An independent analysis from Mark Zandi, the Chief Economist at Moody’s Analytics, found that my plan would reduce rental costs by 10% over the next ten years. And because my plan invests in housing construction and rehabilitation, the Moody’s analysis also finds that it would create 1.5 million new jobs.
How would we pay for this new investment? Simple. Currently, an heir doesn’t pay a dollar of estate taxes until they inherit a fortune of $22 million or more. I would lower that threshold to $7 million — which is where it was when President George W. Bush left office — and raise the tax rates above that threshold so ultra-millionaires and billionaires pay a larger share. Those changes affect only 14,000 of the wealthiest families each year, but according to the Moody’s analysis, they fully cover the cost of my plan.
Think about that: by asking 14,000 wealthy families a year to pay a bit more, we can reduce rents by 10% for millions of families and create 1.5 million good new jobs.
My bill also makes additional targeted investments in communities that desperately need it. It invests half-a-billion dollars in rural housing programs. It invests $2.5 billion in the Indian Housing Block Grant and the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant to build or rehab 200,000 homes on tribal land. And it invests $4 billion in a new Middle-Class Housing Emergency Fund, which will support the construction of new housing catering to middle-class renters in communities with severe housing supply shortages.
These investments are one big — and necessary — way that we can reduce rental costs. But there’s another driver of expensive housing costs: some state and local zoning rules needlessly drive up the cost of construction. These aren’t necessary rules that protect the environment or ensure that homes meet safety codes. These are rules like minimum lot sizes or mandatory parking requirements. These kinds of rules raise the costs of building new housing and keep families from moving into areas with better career and school choices.
My bill gives state and local governments a real incentive to eliminate these unnecessary rules. It puts $10 billion into a new competitive grant program. States, regions and cities can use the new grant money to build infrastructure, parks, roads, or schools. But to even apply for these grants, they must reform land-use rules to allow for the construction of additional well-located affordable housing units and to protect tenants from rent spikes and eviction. Similar efforts have resulted in states making serious changes in the hopes of securing valuable federal grants.
Together, these changes will help the economy grow. The cost of housing is a real obstacle to families looking to move to cities with better job opportunities. My plan creates more affordable housing in these communities. And it lets people find affordable options closer to downtown areas so that they don’t need to commute as far — reducing a drag on productivity.
Reducing rents by 10%. Creating 1.5 million new jobs. Promoting economic growth. My plan will be a big win for America’s families.
A First Step to Addressing the Black-White Wealth Gap
For decades, the federal government discriminated against Black families by denying them access to the same kind of federal housing subsidies that white families received to purchase a home — a practice known as “redlining.” The federal government officially ended that form of discrimination in the 1960s and passed the Fair Housing Act. Yet the gap between white homeownership rates and Black homeownership rates today is about 30% — bigger than it was in 1960 when housing discrimination was legal.
This enormous gap is a moral stain on our country. And because the government bears a big part of the blame for it, the government should take real steps to fix it.
My housing bill takes a first step by creating a first-of-its-kind down-payment assistance program. The people eligible for assistance must be first-time homebuyers who live in a formerly redlined neighborhoods or communities that were segregated by law and are still currently low-income If they qualify, they are entitled to a substantial grant they can put towards a down payment on a home anywhere in the country. The program will provide thousands of families with a real chance to buy a home — the same opportunities the government denied to previous generations of residents of the area.
Professors Mehrsa Baradaran and Darrick Hamilton have said this proposal is the “first since the Fair Housing Act with the explicit intent of redressing the iterative effects of our nation’s sordid history of housing discrimination,” and that it “has the potential to make a substantive dent in closing our enormous and persistent racial wealth gap.”
Removing Barriers to Affordable Housing
My bill also removes unnecessary barriers that prevent people from finding affordable housing.
One existing barrier is discrimination. The Fair Housing Act bars certain forms of discrimination — and we must ensure that the Act is not weakened or diminished either by Congress or by regulators, and that it is fully and fairly enforced. But there are other forms of discrimination that are not currently covered by the Act. That’s why my bill prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, veteran status, and the source of one’s income, like a housing voucher. Landlords shouldn’t be able to reject tenants based on what they look like, how they identify, or who they love.
My bill removes another barrier: lack of access to credit for creditworthy borrowers looking to buy a home. In the 1970s, Congress passed a law called the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which required banks to make loans in communities where they took deposits. Before the law went into effect, banks often took deposits in minority neighborhoods, but only made mortgages and other loans in white communities.
The CRA rules are important, but they could be doing a better job of ensuring that financial institutions meet the credit needs of all the communities they serve. My bill extends the law to cover non-bank mortgage lenders, promotes more investment in activities that help low- and moderate-income communities, strengthens sanctions against institutions that fail to follow the rules, and imposes new requirements on banks that want to merge. These changes will make it easier for creditworthy borrowers to find an affordable mortgage, no matter where they live.
A final barrier is that many homeowners are still underwater on their mortgages since the 2008 financial crisis. Typically, these homeowners are in areas — often rural areas — where housing prices have not rebounded since the 2008 crisis. My bill invests $2 billion to support underwater borrowers in these areas so they can build more economic security.
Empowering Communities, Rather than Wall Street
I also want to empower communities to make decisions that protect their best interests.
For example, my bill reforms a government program that puts the interests of hedge funds and private equity firms ahead of the interests of borrowers and the communities they live in. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) have auctioned off thousands of delinquent mortgages. In the first few years of these auctions, nearly all of the mortgages sold were purchased by for-profit entities, mostly private equity and hedge funds. Rather than providing a second chance for families, the new Wall Street owners often foreclosed quickly and failed to maintain the properties.
I pushed FHA and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to improve its practices and the agencies did take some steps to improve the program. But we need to do more. That’s why my bill will put strict new requirements on the sale program, limiting the situations in which the agencies are allowed to sell mortgages and imposing requirements on buyers to make sure they protect distressed homeowners and the neighborhoods they live in. The changes will allow more people to stay in their homes and prevent private equity funds from scooping up properties and turning around to charge people exorbitant rents.
My administration will also take whatever legal steps it can to stop states from preempting local efforts to enact tenant protection laws. More than 30 states have passed laws that explicitly prohibit cities from adopting rent control. Efforts to repeal these state preemption laws have been met with fierce opposition from real estate and private equity giants, who have shelled out massive sums of money to block these proposals. Just last year, firms like New York-based private equity giant Blackstone Group contributed to a $65 million war chest to defeat a ballot initiative in California that would have repealed a state law making it harder for cities to control housing costs.
These state laws effectively permit Wall Street to decide what’s best for cities and towns instead of the residents of those places choosing for themselves. It’s wrong, and as President, I will do whatever I can to stop and reverse these industry-backed efforts to take power away from cities and towns.
My plan will lower rents, take a first step towards closing the racial wealth gap, and make it easier for Americans to access affordable housing. Enacting the plan will be a top priority of my administration — because every American deserves a safe, decent, and affordable place to live. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Photojournalist Eliza Hatch’s photo series Cheer Up Luv aims to raise awareness about women’s experiences of sexual harassment in cities such as her native London. Hatch found her female friends had all experienced harassment regularly, while her male friends were shocked by how frequently it occurred. Her photographs often feature women in environments in which they have been harassed, alongside their accounts. “I really wanted to capture the woman in her surroundings,” says Hatch. “Instead of it being somewhere where she felt vulnerable, I wanted to make it a stage for her to speak out from. And I wanted you to actually look into her eyes as you’re hearing her story.”
See more at: instagram.com/cheerupluv | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Sen. Nicholas Proposes $60M Reserve for Health Costs
Cheyenne, WY – Rising costs in health-related fields in the US have been well-documented. The impacts in the state of Wyoming are far-reaching. A budget of over a billion dollars is expected for the state Department of Health for next two years.State Senator Phil Nicholas of Laramie says the Department is trying to contain costs, but so far it isn't working. Nicholas is recommending that this year the state put an extra 60 million dollars into a reserve account. The state could tap into that account if the cost of running the Department of Health again grows at an unexpectedly high amount. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Buran, Mazandaran
Buran (, also Romanized as Būrān) is a village in Dasht-e Sar Rural District, Dabudasht District, Amol County, Mazandaran Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 2,869, in 750 families.
References
Category:Populated places in Amol County | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Wikipedia (en) |
Théâtre alsacien de Strasbourg
The Théâtre alsacien de Strasbourg was created on 2 October 1898 by a group of Alsatian personalities to promote the Alsatian dialect and its traditions.
History
The aim was to present quality plays in the regional idiom. Ferdinand Bastian, Julius Greber, Karl Hauss and Gustave Stoskopf were the co-founders of this theater
which settled in 1904 at the Municipal Theater which became the Opéra de Strasbourg.
Except under the German occupation, where the Alsatian theater was banned, this association of amateurs played about thirty performances Place Broglie in Strasbourg. It welcomes 20000 spectators per season. The repertoire is very varied, with dramas, historical plays, Christmas tales, but above all comedies.
The current president (as of 2013) is Pierre Spegt, who has been in charge of this theater since 1998. It is composed of 60 members.
See also
Authors: , Adolphe Horsch
References
Bibliography
Ingebjørg Før Gjermundsen, Le Théâtre Alsacien de Strasbourg : vecteur de la langue et la culture alsaciennes. La perception du théâtre dans l'entre-deux-guerres par les Dernières Nouvelles de Strasbourg/Strassburger Neueste Nachrichten, Universitetet i Oslo Institutt for litteratur, områdestudier og europeiske språk, I.F. Gjermundsen, 2010, 123 p.
External links
Théâtre Alsacien de Strasbourg on poterie-streissel.com
Théâtre Alsacien de Strasbourg on Tôt ou tard
Site officiel
Strasbourg
Category:Culture in Strasbourg
Category:1898 establishments in France | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Wikipedia (en) |
Psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people: recognition and management
Schizophrenia up to 18 years of age: scope consultation
NICE have been asked to develop a clinical practice guideline on Schizophrenia in children and young people for use in the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The draft scope defines what aspects of care the guideline will cover and to whom it will apply. Registered stakeholders for this guideline are invited to submit comments on the scope and may suggest clinical questions that could be answered in the guideline. Individuals and organisations not registered as stakeholders are not able to comment, we recommend that you register as a stakeholder or you contact the registered stakeholder organisation that most closely represents your interests and pass your comments to them.
Consultation documents:
Points to consider in the consultation:
Do you think this scope could be changed to better promote equality of opportunity relating to age, disability, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation or socio-economic status?
In answering this question, please include details of:
Which particular parts of the scope you think affect equality of opportunity.
Confidential information or other material that you would not wish to be made public
Personal medical information about yourself or another person from which your or the person’s identity could be ascertained.
What will happen to your comments
All eligible comments will be sent to the developers at the end of the consultation
Comments from registered stakeholders and nominated expert reviewers ONLY will be formally responded to by the developers and posted on the NICE website after the final scope is published.
No action will be taken upon receipt of personal, individual comments and late comments.
PLEASE NOTE:The Institute reserves the right to summarise and edit comments received during consultations, or not to publish them at all, where in the reasonable opinion of the Institute, the comments are voluminous, publication would be unlawful or publication would be otherwise inappropriate.
Acknowledgement of comments
You should receive an automated acknowledgement from the email box when you email your comments. If you do not receive this acknowledgement, please contact the relevant Guidelines Coordinator to ensure your comments have been safely received.
Comments received in the course or consultations carried out by the Institute are published in the interests of openness and transparency, and to promote understanding of how recommendations are developed. The comments are published as a record of the submissions that the Institute has received, and are not endorsed by the Institute, its officers or advisory committees. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
I’ve said before that presenting social science in a way that encourages skepticism and gives a sense of the complexity of the science involved is very difficult. The situations are complex. The number of variables is enormous. The research is of varying quality, not easily spotted from the outside. We all have biases that make it difficult to sort through the mountains of data that have been collected.
This is one of the reasons that CSICon made me so happy. They did it right, in two different sessions. The first was on gender differences, and the second was on the interaction of political positions and scientific denialism. Either one of these could have gone badly. Each would have been difficult for a single presenter to remain impartial about over the course of a talk and Q&A.
So the schedule never had just one presenter on this sort of topic. They had multiple presenters with multiple, competing viewpoints whose presentations directly addressed each other’s. I suppose it’s possible that topics like these could be addressed better from a skeptical point of view, but I don’t know how, and I’ve never seen it done this well.
To give you a sense of how this worked, I’ll give you some of the live-tweeting of the session on gender. Ron Lindsay moderated the session. Richard Lippa and Carol Tavris spoke. Lippa, who researches gender differences, spoke first.
“Here at #csicon, we don’t do pop psychology.” –@RALindsay introducing the gender differences panel.
First up, Richard Lippa talking about the gender similarities hypothesis. (Tweets are summary, not commentary.)
Showing us some moderate differences in the “Big Five” personality traits. Women tend to be more agreeable and neurotic.
Referencing Del Guidice’s paper arguing that differences need to be measured “spatially”, as cumulative differences.
Noting that males rates of learning and other disorders are higher, with female rates of mood disorders.
@anarchival: Men suffer more often from reading disorders, autism, ADD, sexual masochism, schizo, antisocial, women more from mood disorders.
@WilloNyx: Lippa overall differences small to no difference. Math males. Visual spatial males bit some kinds females. Verbal fluency female….
@Sci_Phile: Sex differences: “For decades the IQ test was purposefully crafted to show little difference between male and female intelligence.”
@DebGod: Sex differences re: mental rotation appear in infants within months. More likely biological.
Differences in abilities observed as early as 3 months. Suggests a limited role for culture at that age.
Gender differences on some tasks larger in “western” countries with less structured gender roles.
@RLBevins: Hmmm, I never meta-analysis that I didn’t like, to quote Crislip. (Methodologically, they should always be considered suspect)
Women and men show differences in thing-oriented vs. people-oriented occupations.
Occupational preferences show very consistent differences across countries (BBC’s internet-based survey of gender characteristics).
@Sci_Phile: Skeptical about “people-things” data shown: jobs used to determine male/female orientation are already gendered (i.e. dance teacher)
Gains in women’s employment in last 4 decades largely seen in people-oriented professions.
Similar percentage increases seen in thing-oriented professions, but overall numbers started and remained low.
People-oriented vs. thing-oriented job dichotomy has widened as status differences between men’s and women’s jobs have narrowed.
@RLBevins: From discussions with women in engineering field, the educational structure was both actively and passively misogynist, making me wonder if some job categories have secondary confounding effects.
Men have higher self-reported sex drive and less “bisexuality” (reported attractions, not identity). Still using BBC survey data.
@_sydleroy: Would you say it’s more acceptable for a man to admit his high sex drive? Would you say it’s more acceptable for a woman to admit her sexual fluidity?
@krelnik: Richard Lippa on gender differences: “I don’t know if it’s ‘mars and venus’ but at least it’s North Dakota and South Dakota.”
@DebGod: Interesting to me that Lippa is pointing out sex differences; I’d like to know the theories about why. Maybe Tavris will get into some of the “why”?
Gaze data showing women look at women as much as they look at men. Men look at women far more than at men.
@rebeccawatson: Lippa at #csicon measured attraction by how long people look at a photo of a model. More accurate if they were masturbating at the time.
@anarchival: 1) Women tend to look at other women to self-compare, 2) Women might be less shamed than men to explore same-sex attraction.
Strong differences in most displays of aggression.
@anarchival: Aggression, spatial abilities, same-sex attraction, and people v. things appear to be statistically significant gender differences.
How do we tell if these differences are biologically determined? Early, cross-cultural, cross-species, related to hormones.
@rebeccawatson: Judging by the #CSICON feed I’m not the only one a bit underwhelmed by his interchanging sex & gender, lack of discussion of why did exist
Then Carol Tavris took the podium and demonstrated amply, with humor and incisive language, why she’s a favorite among skeptical speakers.
Tavris: “That was a terrific talk, and I have no disagreements.” This will be a “yes, and” talk.
No women’s bathroom on the Senate floor until 1993. On the House floor? Last year.
A sense of history is very important in understanding biological sex difference–and the research on it.
@SarahebKaiser: Carol Tavris is reflecting on how differences [that] were explained in the past…don’t exist anymore. Awareness of bias is important.
Men may have a hard-wired preference for the theory that men are hard-wired to be promiscuous.
Female monogamy? All the females in the harem of a vasectomized male blackbird still became pregnant.
@anarchival: “Why would we need to develop blocker sperm if the female was not, dare I say, promiscuous?”
The way we think about gender differences affect the scientific questions we ask–and the answers we get.
@anarchival: Tavris cites women’s tendency to wear shoes they can’t walk in as a clear gender difference.
@DebGod: Glad Tavris is presenting 2nd for this session. Includes theories about *why* there are differences & how bias shapes conclusions.
“Does anyone think Michele Bachmann has the same ‘female approach to the world’ that Michelle Obama has?”
@anarchival: When women believed they were not welcome in certain careers their aspirations to enter them diminished, same also happens to men.
We see sex differences more than cultural differences because sex is more relevant to those of us sharing a culture.
When roles are segregated by gender, it is very, very easy to confuse the requirements of the role for a difference of gender.
@DebGod: This Q&A could be verrrrry interesting, even for this crowd…
Measuring people’s self-perceptions tells us very little about differences in their behaviors.
We must also be careful in how we measure expression of traits. There may be differences in expression but not the trait.
Some measures of sex-differences in aggression don’t show up when women are given more freedom (anonymity) in expression.
@anarchival: Tavris also points out that in this egalitarian world, the rate of violence by women is rapidly on the rise.
@talipa2012: Rotating objects and remembering where things are are so narrowly focused they are inconsequential.
When we see differences in brains, we need to confirm that they relate to differences in behavior.
Because the brain is dynamic, we must separate differences that are causes from differences that are results.
Brains are very complicated and vary widely. Brain studies are particularly in need of replication. Many results not replicated.
@SarahebKaiser: It’s easy to claim that you’re “just looking at the data,” but the answers you’re looking for can influence which data you examine.
“The whole planet is becoming Sweden.” The status of men and women across the globe is changing rapidly.
@_sydleroy: Where was Tavris when Lionel Tiger was giving his talk at Moving Secularism Forward Con?
@pzmyers: My new nightmare: that Carol Tavris will announce in a talk that she agrees with me 100%. She completely undercut Lippa.
Then we moved into the question portion of the session. Plenty of the questions or concerns raised by Lippa’s talk had already been addressed by Tavris. There were still some that hadn’t, however, including one that came from Twitter, and CFI’s Lauren Becker was kept busy running the microphone around the room.
[email protected] asks whether thing-oriented professions may be less accommodating of women’s caretaking duties.
@JarregIP: Could you please define what you mean by “men”? You might as well define what you mean by “women” too. I mean while we’re here.
@anarchival: Lippa replies many women with requisite abilities for STEM, but not the interest (not sure that cultural climate is the issue).
I keep hearing STEM referred to as one thing. How is bio research (high female participation) not thing-oriented?
@anarchival: Lippa gives women a back-handed compliment by saying we have broader interests than men while insisting we are more people-oriented.
@Sci_Phile: Lippa now teaching the conference goers how to backpedal effectively. Stand behind the data if it is robust.
@anarchival: “Historically men went where they could achieve financial security, women went where they could get a job.” #Tavris
Tavris: “The question of interest begs the question.” Women’s “interests” have changed as they’ve been allowed into various fields.
[email protected]: If we’re talking about interest, we have to look not just at workers, but at attrition rates.
@anarchival: Question from the audience points out that women who enter STEM in college are overwhelmingly driven out before graduation.
@anarchival: Comment from the audience about the gender ratio in this very room. Comments from Tavris and Lindsay about how much it’s improved.
Tavris: I said to @BarryKarr, “Barry, where are the women?” He said, “Oh, goody! Would you be a fellow?”
@DebGod: Lippa: Women’s spacial ability seems to change over course of their cycle due to hormones.
@anarchival: Lippa cites the lack of sex scandals among women politicians as evidence of men’s higher promiscuity. I think it’s tiny sample size.
@Sci_Phile: Lippa again stereotyping beyond preliminary data: Large self-reported male sex drive=”gay men are just hornier and more promiscuous”
@Sci_Phile: Notice how cautious Tavris is in her assertions (in comparison to Lippa), the mark of a good researcher/speaker.
@anarchival: “Enjoy the ones that matter, and ignore the rest.” #genderdifferences #Tavris
Tavris: Bulimia may be a culture-bound disorder. We’re now seeing more men with eating disorders. Mentions steroid use.
@SciTriGrrl: @szvan I wish I was there! I want to ask how think abt hormones since testosterone is converted to estrogen in brain
Lippa: Discussing sex hormones is incredibly complicated and far too easy to oversimplify. Testosterone becomes estrogen in the brains of only some species. Not necessarily in humans. In birds, where testosterone does become estrogen in the brain, it is the masculinizing hormone. This is really complicated.
@_sydleroy: Tavris: Children are gender police. “No! Everybody has a penis. Only girls wear barrettes!”
@PaulFidalgo: My almost-3-year-old boy, learning that his baby sister has “no winky” says, with great optimism, “But one day, she will have one!”
Tavris: The first woman anything, everything she does is a reflection on her gender. Takes ~10% to perceive diversity among women.
@RLBevins: Gist of Tavris story, brain surgery isn’t brain surgery compared to many hobbies typically considered human.
I would love to see more sessions done like this. I don’t think they’re comfortable for all the participants, but, well, skepticism itself is typically uncomfortable. It’s very productive, though, as this session was. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
The Sower (Grohar)
The Sower (), created in 1907, is an oil on canvas painting by the Slovene Impressionist painter and musician Ivan Grohar. It is an image of a peasant sowing seeds on a ploughed field in an early and foggy morning. A hayrack, typical of the Slovene landscape, stands in the back, and even farther, the rocks of the small hill Kamnitnik near Škofja Loka. It has been a metaphor for the 19th-century myth of Slovenes as a vigorous nation in front of an unclear destiny, a symbol for the Slovene nation that sows in order that it could harvest, and a depiction of human interrelatedness with the nature. It is also a reflection of the context of Slovene transition from a rural to an urban culture. It has become one of the most characteristic and established Slovene creations in visual arts. It has been used by the IRWIN art group as well as the Semenarna Ljubljana seed company, and is depicted on the Slovenian 5 cent euro coin.
References
Category:Slovenian impressionist paintings
Category:1907 paintings
Category:Paintings of people
Category:Paintings in Slovenia
Category:Farming in art | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Wikipedia (en) |
The history of the vibrator We take a look at the different shapes and sizes of vibrators through the ages, including Cleopatra's bee-filled calabash.
We’ve come a long way since then even in terms of design, but perhaps socially and psychologically we have in fact regressed.
Booming business
The genital massage business was booming. Doctors believed that more than 70% of women suffered from hysteria and required treatment. The problem was that the massage treatments were all done by hand and a patient could take up to an hour to reach paroxysm. There was naturally also the issue of the professional getting terribly, terribly tired. They needed a device which would do the job faster and more efficiently so they could save their energy and process more patients in a day, thereby making more money. And so the vibrator was born. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Immunotherapeutic potential of ICRC vaccine: a case control study.
A bacteriological follow-up of 16 lepromatous patients with a high initial Bacteriological Index (BI) showed that in 8 randomly selected patients who received single doses of ICRC Vaccine (C44) at the onset of multidrug therapy, the average reduction of BI was from 4.4+ to 1+ in 2 years--3 of these patients became negative and 3 showed BI 1+ or less. Comparable bacteriological assessments in 8 non-vaccinated but otherwise similar patients showed an average reduction of BI from 4.7+ to 2.6+, i.e. consistent with the expected response to MDT in lepromatous patients. Here we discuss the role of immunotherapy and the selection of a desirable antileprosy vaccine in the context of fixed-duration MDT. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Abstracts |
---
abstract: 'The closed one-sided ideals of a $C^*$-algebra are exactly the closed subspaces supported by the orthogonal complement of a closed projection. Let $A$ be a (not necessarily selfadjoint) subalgebra of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B$ which contains the unit of $B$. Here we characterize the right ideals of $A$ with left contractive approximate identity as those subspaces of $A$ supported by the orthogonal complement of a closed projection in $B^{**}$ which also lies in $A^{\perp \perp}$. Although this seems quite natural, the proof requires a set of new techniques which may may be viewed as a noncommutative version of the subject of peak interpolation from the theory of function spaces. Thus, the right ideals with left approximate identity are closely related to a type of peaking phenomena in the algebra. In this direction, we introduce a class of closed projections which generalizes the notion of a peak set in the theory of uniform algebras to the world of operator algebras and operator spaces.'
address: 'Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-3008'
author:
- 'Damon M. Hay'
title: Closed projections and peak interpolation for operator algebras
---
Introduction
============
Let $K$ be a compact Hausdorff space and let $C(K)$ denote the $C^*$-algebra of all complex-valued continuous functions on $K$. It is well known that closed ideals in $C(K)$ consist of all functions which vanish on a fixed closed subset of $K$. If instead, $A$ is a uniform algebra contained in $C(K)$, then by a theorem of Hirsberg [@Hirsberg], a closed subspace $J$ of $A$ is a closed ideal with contractive approximate identity if and only if it consists of all functions which vanish on a ‘p-set’ for $A$. Recall, a subset $E$ of $K$ is said to be a *peak set* for $A$ if there exists a function $f$ in $A$ such that $f(x) =1$ for all $x \in E$ and $|f(x)| < 1$ for all $x \in E^c$. A subset $E$ of $K$ is said to be a *p-set* for $A$ if it is the intersection of a family of peak sets. The p-sets for a uniform algebra $A$ were characterized by Glicksberg [@G] as those closed subsets $E$ such that $\mu \in A^\perp$ implies $\mu_E \in A^\perp.$ See [@Gam], [@G], or [@Jar] for more information on peak sets.
For general $C^*$-algebras, the closed right ideals of a $C^*$-algebra $A$ consist of the elements $a$ in $A$ for which $qa = 0$ for a *closed* projection $q$ in the second dual of $A$. In other words, a subspace $J$ is a right ideal of $A$ if and only if $$J =
(1-q)A^{**} \cap
A,$$ for a closed projection $q$ in $A^{**}$. Of course we are viewing $A$ as being canonically embedded in its second dual, which is a $W^*$-algebra. In fact, $1-q$ will be a weak\*-limit point for any left contractive approximate identity of $J$. Indeed all closed projections arise in this manner.
Turning to the nonselfadjoint case, let $A$ be a subalgebra of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B$, such that $A$ contains the identity of $B$. We characterize the right ideals of $A$ with left contractive approximate identity as those subspaces $J$ of the form $J = (1-q)A^{**}
\cap A$, for a closed (with respect to $B^{**}$) projection $q$ in $A^{**}$. However natural this may appear, the tools available in the selfadjoint theory are not applicable here. Thus a portion of this paper develops some technical tools from which this characterization follows. Incidentally, these generalize some peak interpolation results in the theory of uniform algebras. The above mentioned characterization is a refinement of the characterization in [@BEZ], which is in terms of right $M$-ideals. In particular, it appears to open up a new area in the theory of nonselfadjoint operator algebras, allowing for the generalization of certain important parts of the theory of $C^*$-algebras. This will be explored more fully in the sequel [@BHN] where, for example, we apply the main result of this paper to develop a theory of hereditary subalgebras of not necessarily selfadjoint operator algebras. As is the case in the selfajoint theory, we demonstrate that these hereditary subalgebras are connected to the facial structure of the state space. Additionally, we also give a solution there to a more than ten year old problem in the theory of operator modules.
In our noncommutative setting, the peak and $p$-sets described above are replaced with a certain class of projections in the second dual of $B$, called the *peak* or *$p$-projections for $A$*. In the commutative case this class of projections can be identified with the characteristic functions of peak or $p$-sets for $A$. When $A = B$, the $p$-projections are exactly the closed projections in $A^{**}$. The theory of these projections brings another tool from the classical theory to the world of operator spaces.
The paper is organized as follows. In Section \[prelim\] we introduce the notation and discuss some background and preliminary results. In particular, we discuss the noncommutative topology of open and closed projections. Section \[interpolation\] generalizes some interpolation results from the theory of function spaces to operator spaces, which will be used in Sections \[right\] and \[peak\]. Section \[right\] contains the main theorem and its proof. Finally, in Section \[peak\] we look at closed projections in the weak\*-closure of an operator algebra from the perspective of ‘peak phenomena.’
[**Acknowledgments.**]{} We first thank our Ph.D. advisor, David Blecher, for the initial inspiration to pursue this project and for his continuous support and suggestions along the way. We also thank him for pointing out, and helping to correct, some errors in the proof of Proposition \[gamlemma1\] in an earlier version. Additionally, we extend our thanks to Professor Charles Akemann for clarifying a number of points regarding open and closed projections.
Open and closed projections and preliminary results {#prelim}
===================================================
The theory of operator spaces and completely bounded maps has long been recognized as the appropriate setting for studying many problems in operator algebras. Basics on operator spaces may be found in [@BL], [@ER], [@Paulsen], and [@Pisier]. We will make use of the following lemma which gives a criteria for when a completely bounded map is a complete isometry.
\[ci\] Let $X$ be an operator space and $Y$ a (not necessarily closed) subspace of another operator space. Suppose $T:X \to
Y$ is a one-to-one and surjective completely bounded map such that $T^*$ is a complete isometry. Then $T$ is a complete isometry.
Let $Z$ be the closure of $Y$ and define $R$ to be the same as $T$ except with range $Z$. Since $Z^* = Y^*$, we have that $R^* : Z^* \to X^*$ is simply $T^*$ which is one-to-one and has closed range. By VI.6.3 in [@Dun] this implies that $R$ is onto. Since $R$ is onto, $Y = Z$ and $R = T$, and by the open mapping theorem $T$ is bicontinuous. Hence, given $\varphi \in X^*$, then $\psi \equiv \varphi
\circ T^{-1} \in Y^*$ satisfies $T^*\psi = \varphi$, showing that $T^*$ is surjective and thus, since it is also completely isometric, $T^{**}$ is a complete isometry. Viewing $X$ and $Y$ as being canonically embedded in their second duals, $T$ is just the restriction of $T^{**}$ to $X$. Hence, $T$ is also a complete isometry.
Throughout this paper, $B$ will denote a unital $C^*$-algebra and $A$ will denote either a unital subspace or a unital subalgebra of $B$, for which by *unital* we mean $1_B \in A$. We view $A$ and $B$ as being canonically embedded into the second dual $B^{**}$ of $B$ via the canonical isometry. The second dual of $B$, $B^{**}$, is a $W^*$-algebra. By the *state space of $B$*, which we denote $S(B)$, we mean the set of positive functionals on $B$ which have norm one. Each functional $\varphi$ of $B$ extends uniquely to a weak\*-continuous, or *normal*, functional on $B^{**}$, which we again denote by $\varphi$. Also, we denote the unit in $B$ by $1_B$, or more often, simply by $1$.
By a *projection* in $B$ or $B^{**}$ we mean an orthogonal projection. The *meet* of any two projections $p$ and $q$ can be given abstractly as $$p \wedge q = \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty}(pq)^n,$$ where this limit is taken in the weak\* topology. Similarly, the join is given by $$p \vee q = \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty}1-(1-p-q+pq)^n.$$ Let $M$ be a (not necessarily selfadjoint) weak\*-closed unital subalgebra of a $W^*$-algebra and suppose that $p$ and $q$ are projections in $M$. Then by the formula for $p \wedge q$ above, $p \wedge q$ is also in $M$. By induction, this extends to the meet of any finite collection of projections $M$. More generally, if $\{p_{\alpha}\}$ is any collection of projections, then $\wedge p_{\alpha}$ is the weak\*-limit of the net of meets of finite subcollections of $\{p_{\alpha}\}$, each of which is in $M$. Thus $\wedge p_{\alpha}$ is also in $M$. Similarly, a join of projections in $M$ is also in $M$. Now let $\pi
: M \rightarrow B(H)$ be a weak\*-continuous homomorphism of $M$ into the bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space $H$. If $p$ and $q$ are projections in $M$, then $\pi((pq)^n) = (\pi(p)\pi(q))^n$ for each $n$, and so we have $\pi (p \wedge q) = \pi(p) \wedge
\pi(q)$. This clearly generalizes to meets of finitely many projections. By approximating by such finite meets, this in turn generalizes to arbitrary meets of projections. Similar statements apply to joins of projections.
A projection $p \in B^{**}$ is said to be *open* if it is the weak\*-limit of an increasing net $(b_t)$ of elements in $B$ with $0
\le b_t \le 1$. A projection $q \in B^{**}$ is said to be *closed* if $1-q$ is open. It is clear that a closed projection is the weak\*-limit of a decreasing net of positive elements in $B$. It is well known that a projection $p$ in $B^{**}$ is open if and only if it is the support of a left (respectively, right) ideal in $B$. That is, there exists a left (respectively, right) ideal $J$ in $B$ such that $J = B^{**}p
\cap B$ (respectively, $J = pB^{**}\cap B$). In this case, the weak\* closure of $J$ in $B^{**}$ is $B^{**}p$ (respectively, $pB^{**}$). Moreover, $p$ is a weak\*-limit point of any increasing right contractive approximate identity for $J$. Actually, if $p \in B^{**}$ is a projection which is a weak\* limit of a net $(e_t)$ in $B$ such that $e_tp = e_t$, then $p$ is open. To see this, we let $J$ be the set of all $b \in B$ such that $bp = b$. Then $J$ contains $(e_t)$ and so $p$ is in $J^{\perp \perp}$, which is a weak\*-closed left ideal of $B^{**}$. Thus $B^{**}p \subset J^{\perp \perp}$, but also $J^{\perp \perp} \subset B^{**}p$, so that $J^{\perp \perp} =
B^{**}p$. However, $J = B^{**}p \cap B$, so that $p$ is the support of a closed left ideal, making it an open projection. A similar argument using right ideals holds if $pe_t = e_t$ instead. In the case that $B$ is commutative, open and closed projections correspond to characteristic functions of open and closed sets, respectively. It is this collection of open and closed projections which will act as a kind of substitute for topological arguments in the noncommutative situation. We now list, most without proof, some basic facts regarding these open and closed projections. Many of these facts can be found in Akemann’s papers [@Ak1] and [@Ak2], and some may also be found in [@Ped] and [@GK].
The join of any collection of open projections is again an open projection. Hence, the meet of any collection of closed projections is again a closed projection. However, in contrast to the commutative situation, joins of closed projections are not necessarily closed (see [@Ak1]). For a general $C^*$-algebra $B$, the presence of a unit guarantees a kind of noncommutative compactness. That is, if $q$ is a closed projection, given any collection of open projections $\{p_\alpha\}$ such that $q \le \bigvee_\alpha p_\alpha$, then there exists a finite subcollection $\{p_{\alpha_1}, \dots ,p_{\alpha_k}\}$ such that $q \le \bigvee_{i=1}^k p_{\alpha_i}$ (see Proposition II.10 in [@Ak1]). We will refer to this as the ‘compactness property.’ A type of regularity also holds with respect to open and closed projections. Namely, any closed projection is the meet of all open projections dominating it. The following was communicated to us by Akemann.
\[regular\]Let $q$ be a closed projection in $B^{**}$. Then $$q = \bigwedge\{u\; | \; u \ge q \; \text{and open} \}.$$
Assume that $B$ and $B^{**}$ are represented in the universal representation of $B$. Since $q$ is closed we may find an increasing net $(a_t)$ in $B_{sa}$ such that $1-a_t \searrow q$ weak\* and $(1-a_t)q = q$. Using the Borel functional calculus, for each $t$ let $$r_t =
\chi_{(\frac{1}{2} , \infty)}(1-a_t),$$ where $\chi_{(\frac{1}{2} , \infty)}$ is the characteristic function of the open interval $(\frac{1}{2} ,
\infty)$. Then necessarily $r_t$ is an open projection such that $$2(1-a_t) \ge r_t.$$ Furthermore, we claim that each $r_t$ dominates $q$. To prove this claim, fix $t$ and let $\{f_n\}$ be an increasing sequence of positive continuous functions on the spectrum of $1-a_t$ which converges point-wise to $\chi_{(\frac{1}{2} , \infty)}$ and is such that $f_n(1) = 1$ for each $n$. Now fix $n$ and suppose $\xi
\in \text{Ran} \; q$ is of norm one. Then $(1-a_t)\xi =
(1-a_t)q\xi = q\xi = \xi$. So for any polynomial $R$, we have $R(1-a_t)\xi = R(1)\xi$. Let $R_k$ be a sequence of polynomials converging uniformly to $f_n$. Then $$\langle f_n(1-a_t)\xi,\xi \rangle = \lim_k \langle R_k(1)\xi,\xi\rangle =
\lim_kR_k(1) = f_n(1) = 1.$$ By the converse to the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we have $f_n(1-a_t)\xi = \xi$ for all $\xi \in \text{Ran} \; q$, which is to say that $f_n(1-a_t)q = q$. Hence $\chi_{(\frac{1}{2},\infty)}(1-a_t)q = q$, and so $r_t \ge q$. Let $r_0 =
\bigwedge_{t}r_t$ and suppose that $r_0$ does not equal $q$. Then there exists a state $\varphi \in S(B)$ such that $\varphi(r_0 - q) = 1$. This forces $\varphi(r_0) = 1$ and $\varphi(q) = 0$ since $r_0 - q \ge 0$. Thus $$\varphi \left(
2(1-a_t) \right) \rightarrow 0.$$ However, since $\varphi(r_0) = 1$ and $r_t \ge r_0$, it must be that $\varphi(r_t) = 1$. Applying $\varphi$ to the inequality $$r_t \le 2(1-a_t)$$ and taking the weak\* limit, we get $1 \le 0$. Hence, $r_0 = q$ which proves the result.
Finally, one of the most important results in basic topology is Urysohn’s lemma. Akemann has extended this result to closed projections:
\[ncu\]Let $p$ and $q$ be closed projections in $B^{**}$ for a $C^*$-algebra $B$ such that $pq = 0$. Then there exists an element $a$ in $B$, $0 \le a \le 1$, such that $ap = p$ and $aq = 0$.
We will often be working with closed projections in $B^{**}$ which lie in the weak\* closure of $A$ in $B^{**}$. The following gives some equivalent conditions for this.
\[weak\] Let $A$ be closed subalgebra of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B \subset B^{**}$ such that $A$ contains the unit of $B$. Let $q \in B^{**}$ be a projection. The following are equivalent:
1. $q \in \overline{A}^{w*},$
2. $q \in A^{\perp \perp},$
3. $A^{\perp} \subset (qA)_{\perp}.$
The equivalence of (1) and (2) is a standard result of functional analysis. Suppose (3) holds. Then $((qA)_{\perp})^{\perp}
\subset A^{\perp \perp}$. However, $((qA)_{\perp})^{\perp} =
\overline{qA}^{w^*} = q \overline{A}^{w^*}$ which must contain $q$ since $A$ is unital. Hence, (2) holds. Now assume (2). By hypothesis, $\psi(q) = 0$ for all $\psi \in
A^{\perp}$. Let $\varphi \in A^{\perp}$. Then for each $a \in A$, $\varphi(\cdot a) \in A^{\perp}.$ Thus $\varphi(qa) = 0$ for all $a
\in A$. Hence $\varphi \in (qA)_{\perp}$.
A class of operators which will play an important role here are the *completely non-unitary*, or *c.n.u.*, operators on a Hilbert space $H$. A contraction $T$ is said to be *completely non-unitary* if there exists no reducing subspace for $T$ on which $T$ acts unitarily. It is well known that if $T$ is completely non-unitary, then $T^n \rightarrow 0$ in the weak operator topology on $B(H)$ as $n \rightarrow \infty$. See [@FN] and [@Kubrusly] for details.
If $B$ is a unital $C^*$-algebra, we denote the self-adjoint part of $B$ by $B_{sa}$. Kadison’s ‘function representation’ says that $B_{sa}$ may be represented as continuous affine functions on $S(B)$ via an order preserving linear isometry which extends weak\*-continuously to $B_{sa}^{**}$, in such a way that $B_{sa}^{**}$ is represented as bounded affine functions on $S(B)$. We say that an element $b$ of $B_{sa}^{**}$ is lower semi-continuous if its image under this representation is a lower semi-continuous function on $S(B)$ ([@Ped]).
\[vanishing\] Let $b$ be a positive, lower semi-continuous contraction in $B^{**}$ for a $C^*$-algebra $B$ and suppose $\varphi_0(b) = 0$ for some $\varphi_0 \in S(B)$. Then there exists a pure state of $B$ which is zero at $b$.
Let $K = \{\varphi \in S(B)\; | \; \varphi(b) = 0\}$. The set $K$ is nonempty by hypothesis, and since $\phi$ and $b$ are positive, we also have that $K = \{\varphi \in S(B)\; | \; \varphi(b) \le 0\}$. Thus $K$ is the complement of the set $\{\varphi \in S(B)\; | \; \varphi(b) >
0\}$ which is open in the weak\* topology by the semi-continuity property of $b$. Thus $K$ is weak\*-closed in $S(B)$ and hence weak\*-compact. It is also convex by a straight-forward calculation. Thus, $K$ is well supplied with extreme points by the Krein-Milman theorem. Now suppose that $\varphi_1,\varphi_2 \in S(B)$, $\lambda$ is a scalar in $(0,1)$ and that $\lambda\varphi_1 +
(1-\lambda)\varphi_2 \in K$. Then $\lambda\varphi_1(b) +
(1-\lambda)\varphi_2(b) = 0$. However, by positivity, this forces $\varphi_1(b) = \varphi_2(b) = 0$ and so $\varphi_1$ and $\varphi_2$ are in $K$. In other words, $K$ is a face of $S(B)$ and hence must contain an extreme point of $S(B)$. However, the extreme points of $S(B)$ are the pure states of $B$.
Noncommutative peak interpolation {#interpolation}
=================================
The following sequence of propositions and lemmas are the keys to the main result and generalize some classical results from the theory of function spaces (see Section II.12 of [@Gam]).
\[gamlemma1\]Let $X$ be a closed subspace of a $C^*$-algebra $B$. Let $q \in B^{**}$ be a projection such that $\varphi
\in (qX)_{\perp}$ for all $\varphi \in X^{\perp}$. Let $I = \{x \in X : qx = 0\}$. Then $qX$ is completely isometric to $X/I$ via the map $x+I \mapsto qx$. Similarly, if $I$ is defined to be $\{x \in X : xq = 0\}$, then $Xq$ is completely isometric to $X/I$ via the map $x+I
\mapsto xq$.
We will be using standard operator space duality theory, as may be found in [@BL], for example. First note that $I$ is the kernel of the completely contractive map $x
\mapsto qx$ on $X$, so that this map factors through the quotient $X/I$: $$X \overset{S}{\rightarrow} X/I \overset{T}{\rightarrow} qX,$$ where $S$ is the natural quotient map and $T$ is the induced linear isomorphism. Taking adjoints, we have $(T \circ S)^* = S^* \circ
T^*$ and if $\varphi \in (qX)^*$ and $x \in X$, then $$(S^* \circ T^*)(\varphi)(x) = S^*(T^*\varphi)(x)=(T^*\varphi)(Sx)
= \varphi(TSx) = \varphi(T(x+I))=\varphi(qx),$$ so that $S^*\circ T^*$ is given by $$\varphi \mapsto \varphi(q \cdot ),$$ for each $\varphi \in (qX)^*$. Identifying $(qX)^*$ with $(qB)^*/(qX)^{\perp}$ and $X^*$ with $B^*/X^\perp$, the map $S^* \circ T^*$ takes an element $\varphi +
(qX)^\perp$ to the element $\varphi(q \cdot ) + X^\perp$. To show that $T$ is a complete isometry, by Lemma \[ci\], it suffices to show that $T^*$ is a complete isometry, since $T$ is one-to-one, surjective, and completely bounded. Since $S^*$ is completely contractive, if $S^*
\circ T^*$ is completely isometric, then $$\|\varphi\| = \|(S^*
\circ T^*)(\varphi)\| \le \|T^*\varphi\| \le \|\varphi\|.$$ Similar statements also hold for each matrix level. Hence, if $S^*
\circ T^*$ is completely isometric, then so is $T^*$. Thus, in order to show that $T^*$ is completely isometric, it is sufficient to show that $S^* \circ T^*$ is a complete isometry. Note that since $T \circ S$ is completely contractive, so is $S^* \circ T^*$. We let $(e_t)$ be a decreasing net in the unit ball of $B$, such that $e_t \rightarrow q$ weak\* and $qe_t = q$ for all $t$.
Let $\varphi \in (qB)^*$ and $\psi \in X^{\perp}$. Then $\psi \in (qX)_{\perp} \subset
(qX)^\perp$. If $J$ is the right ideal in $B$ supported by $1-q$, then for $qb \in {\rm Ball}(qB)$, we have $\|qb\| = \|b + J\|$. Since right ideals are proximinal in a $C^*$-algebra, it follows that there exists $a \in J$ such that $\|qb\|= \|b+J\| = \|b+a\|$. Since $q(b+a) = qb$ and $\|b+a\| \le 1$, by replacing $b$ with $b+a$ it follows that $$\begin{aligned}
\| \varphi + \psi \|_{(qB)^*} & = & \sup \{ |
\varphi(qb) + \psi (qb)| : b \in {\rm Ball}(B) \}. \end{aligned}$$
However, for $b \in {\rm Ball}(B)$, we have $$\begin{aligned}
| \varphi(qb) + \psi (qb)| & = & \lim_t |
\varphi(qe_tb) + \psi (e_tb)| \\
& \le & \|\varphi (q \cdot) + \psi\|_{B^*} \|e_tb\| \\
& \le & \|\varphi (q \cdot) + \psi\|_{B^*}. \\\end{aligned}$$ Hence, $\| \varphi + \psi \|_{(qB)^*} \le \|\varphi (q \cdot) + \psi\|_{B^*},$ and, thus, $\|\varphi + (qX)^{\perp}\| \le \| \varphi (q \cdot) + \psi\|_{B^*}.$ Now taking the infimum over all $\psi \in X^\perp$, we get $\|\varphi +
(qX)^{\perp}\| \le \| \varphi (q \cdot) + X^\perp \|$.
The matricial case is almost identical, using operator space duality principles, and is left to the reader to fill in the details. The last statement of the proposition follows by a completely analogous proof.
Since $qX \subset qB$ and $qB$ can be identified with a quotient $B/J$, where $J$ is the right ideal of $B$ corresponding to $q$, then the result above shows that the set $\{x + J| x \in X\}$ is closed in $B/J$.
\[epsilon\] Let $X$ be a closed subspace of a $C^*$-algebra $B$. Let $q \in B^{**}$ be a projection such that $\varphi
\in (qX)_{\perp}$ whenever $\varphi \in X^{\perp}$. Let $p$ be a strictly positive element in $B$ and let $a \in X$ such that $a^*qa \le p$. Given $\epsilon > 0$ there exists $b \in X$ such that $qb = qa$ and $b^*b \le p + \epsilon 1_B$.
First assume $p =1$. Let $I = \{x \in X : qx = 0\}$ and let $\delta>0$ such that $2\delta + \delta^2 < \epsilon$. Then by the previous lemma there exists an $h \in I$ such that $\| a+h \| \le \|
qa \| + \delta$. Let $b = a+h$ and note that $qb = qa$. Also, since $a^*qa \le 1$, we have $\|qa\| \le 1$. Then $$\begin{aligned}
b^*b & \le & \|b^*b\|1_B = \|b\|^21_B \\
& \le & (\|qa\| + \delta)^21_B \le (1 + \delta)^21_B \\
& = & (1 + 2\delta +\delta^2)1_B \\
& \le & (1 + \epsilon)1_B = p + \epsilon 1_B.
\end{aligned}$$ In the case that $p$ is not necessarily $1$, note that $a^*qa \le p$ is equivalent to $$p^{-1/2}a^*qap^{-1/2} \le 1.$$ Furthermore, note that $p^{-1/2}a^*qap^{-1/2} = (a p^{-1/2})^*q(a p^{-1/2})$. Now suppose that $\varphi \in (Xp^{-1/2})^\perp \subset B^*$. Then $\varphi(\cdot
p^{-1/2})\in X^\perp$. Hence, by hypothesis, $\varphi(\cdot
p^{-1/2})\in (qX)_\perp,$ and thus $\varphi \in (qXp^{-1/2})^\perp.$ So by the $p=1$ case, there exists $bp^{-1/2} \in Xp^{-1/2}$ such that $$qbp^{-1/2} = qap^{-1/2},$$ and $$p^{-1/2}b^*bp^{-1/2} \le 1 + \epsilon \| p \|^{-1}.$$ Pre- and post- multiplying by $p^{1/2}$ yields $$b^*b \le p + \epsilon \|p\|^{-1} p \le p + \epsilon.$$
\[noepsilon\]Let $X$ be a unital subspace of $B$ and suppose $q$ is a projection in $B^{**}$ such that $\varphi \in (qX)_{\perp}$ for every $\varphi \in X^{\perp}$. Let $p$ be a strictly positive contraction in $B$. If $a \in X$ with $a^*qa \le p$, then there exists $b$ in the unit ball of $\{ x \in X : qx = qa
\}^{\perp\perp}$ such that $b^*b \le p$. Moreover, $qb = qa$.
As in the previous proposition, we first show that the lemma holds in the case $p=1$. Suppose $p=1$. By the previous lemma, for each $n>1$ there is a $b_n \in X$ such that $qb_n = qa$ and $b_n^*b_n \le
1 + \frac{1}{n}$. By the weak\*-compactness of $\text{Ball}(\overline{X}^{w^*})$, $(b_n)$ has a weak\*-limit point $b$ in $\text{Ball}(\overline{X}^{w^*}).$ Thus $b^*b \le 1$. Let $(b_{n_t})$ be a subnet of $(b_n)$ converging to $b$. Then by weak\*-continuity we must also have that $qb = qa$. For general $p$, as before we note that $a^*qa \le p$ is equivalent to $$p^{-1/2}a^*qap^{-1/2} \le 1,$$ and that $p^{-1/2}a^*qap^{-1/2} = (a p^{-1/2})^*q(a p^{-1/2})$. Now let $\varphi \in (Xp^{-1/2})^\perp$. Then $\varphi(\cdot
p^{-1/2})\in X^\perp$. Thus, by hypothesis, $\varphi(\cdot
p^{-1/2})\in (qX)_\perp,$ and thus $\varphi \in (qXp^{-1/2})^\perp.$ So by the $p=1$ case, there exists $bp^{-1/2} \in
\overline{Xp^{-1/2}}^{w^*} = \overline{X}^{w^*}p^{-1/2}$ such that $$qbp^{-1/2} = qap^{-1/2},$$ and $$p^{-1/2}b^*bp^{-1/2} \le 1.$$ We pre- and post- multiply by $p^{1/2}$ to get $b^*b \le p.$
[**Remarks**]{} 1) The preceding two lemmas have matricial variants. For instance, the conclusion to Lemma \[epsilon\] can be generalized to read ‘for every strictly positive contraction $p \in M_n(B)$ and $a
\in M_n(X)$ with $a^*(I_n \otimes q)a \le p$, there exists $b \in
M_n(X)$ such that $(I_n \otimes q)a = (I_n \otimes q)b$ and $b^*b \le
p + \epsilon I_n$.’ Here $I_n$ denotes the identity matrix in $M_n$.
2\) If $X$ is a reflexive unital subspace of $B$ and $q$ is such that $\varphi \in
(qX)_{\perp}$ for every $\varphi \in X^{\perp}$, then for every strictly positive contraction $p
\in B$ with $q \le p$, there exists $a \in \text{Ball}(X)$ such that $qa =
q$ and $a^*a \le p$.
Variants of Propositions \[epsilon\] and \[noepsilon\] in the commutative case are related to the subject of ‘peak interpolation’ from the theory of function algebras (see e.g. [@Gam]). For example, suppose $q$ above is such that $\varphi \in A^{\perp}$ implies that $\varphi(q \cdot)=0$, where we view $\varphi(q \cdot)$ as an element of $(qB)^*$. Now suppose that $\psi_0 \in (qA)^{\perp}$, viewing $(qA)^{\perp}$ as a subspace of $(qB)^*$. Now define $\psi \in B^*$ by $\psi (b) =
\psi_0 (qb)$ for all $b \in B$. Then $\psi \in A^{\perp}$ and, so $\psi (q \cdot ) = 0$ as a functional on $qB$, by hypothesis. Hence, we also have $\psi_0(qb) = 0$ for all $b \in A$. Thus $(qA)^{\perp} = \{0\}$ and so $qA$ is norm dense in $qB$. However, by Lemma \[gamlemma1\], $qA$ is norm closed, and so $qA = qB$. Now let $\epsilon > 0$ and let $p$ be a strictly positive element of $B$. Given $a \in B$ with $a^*qa \le
p$, by Lemma \[epsilon\], there exists $b \in A$ such that $qb = qa$ and $b^*b \le p + \epsilon$.
We close this section with several lemmas which are required in the remainder of the paper. The first one describes the weak\*-limits of powers of certain types of contractions. The last two are useful tools for generating certain closed projections associated with a contraction.
\[weakconverge\] Let $B$ be a $C^*$-algebra and let $a$ be a contraction in $B^{**}$. Let $q$ be a projection in $B^{**}$ such that
1. $aq = q$, and
2. $\varphi(a^*a) < 1$ for all $\varphi
\in S(B)$ such that $\varphi (q) = 0$.
Then $(a^n)$ and $((a^*a)^n)$ converge weak\* to $q$ as $n \rightarrow
\infty$.
We have that $B$ is contained non-degenerately in $B(H)$, where $H$ is the Hilbert space associated with the universal representation of $B$. We may also view $B^{**}$ as a von Neumann algebra in $B(H)$. Let $K$ be the range of $q$ so that $B(H) = B(K \oplus
K^{\perp})$. With respect to this decomposition we may write $$a = \left[\begin{array}{cc}I_K & 0 \\ 0 & x \end{array} \right],$$ where $I_K$ is the identity operator on $K$ and $x \in B(K^{\perp})$. Let $\xi \in K^{\perp}$ be a unit vector. Let $\varphi$ be the vector state corresponding to $0 \oplus \xi$. Then $\varphi (q) = 0$, so that $\varphi(a^*a) < 1$. Thus $\langle x \xi , x \xi \rangle < 1$ for any unit vector $\xi$ in $K^{\perp}$. If $x$ had a reducing subspace on which $x$ acted unitarily, then there would be a unit vector $\eta
\in K^{\perp}$ such that $\langle x \eta , x \eta \rangle = 1$, which is a contradiction. Thus $x$ must be completely non-unitary. This implies that $x^n \rightarrow 0$ in the weak operator topology as $n \rightarrow \infty$. Now let $\eta_1$ and $\eta_2$ be vectors in $K$ and let $\xi_1$ and $\xi_2$ be vectors in $K^{\perp}$. Then, $$\begin{aligned}
\langle a^n (\eta_1 \oplus \xi_1) , (\eta_2 \oplus \xi_2) \rangle & = &
\langle (\eta_1 \oplus x^n \xi_1),(\eta_2 \oplus \xi_1) \rangle \\
& = & \langle \eta_1 , \eta_2 \rangle + \langle x^n \xi_1 , \xi_2
\rangle \rightarrow \langle \eta_1 , \eta_2 \rangle.
\end{aligned}$$ Thus $(a^n)$ converges to $q$. In order to show that $((a^*a)^n)$ also converges to $q$, it will suffice to show that $x^*x$ is also c.n.u. For in this case, the same argument as above will also work. Suppose $x^*x$ has a reducing subspace $V$ on which it acts unitarily and let $\xi \in V$ be a unit vector. Then $\| x \xi \|^2 = \langle x^*x \xi , \xi
\rangle < 1$, which contradicts $x^*x$ acting unitarily on $V$.
\[almost\_between\]Let $X$ be a unital subspace of $B$. Let $a\in \text{Ball}(X)$ and let $q$ be a closed projection in $B^{**}$ with $aq = q$. Define $b = \frac{1}{2}(a+1)$. Then there exists a closed projection $r \in B^{**}$ such that $q \le r$ and satisfying
1. $br=r,$ and
2. $\varphi(b^*b)<1$ for all $\varphi \in S(B)$ such that $\varphi(r) = 0.$
With $b = \frac{1}{2}(a + 1)$ and $aq=a$, it is clear that $bq = q$. This implies that $(1-b)(1-q) = 1-b$. Hence, $1-b \in B^{**}(1-q) \cap B$ and this contains the intersection, $J$, of all left ideals in $B$ containing $1-b$. Let $p \in B^{**}$ be the support projection for the left ideal $J$. Then $(1-b)(1-p) = 0$, so that $b(1-p) = 1-p$. Hence $1-p$ satisfies condition (1). Now suppose that $\varphi$ is a state of $B$ such that $\varphi(1-p) = 0$. Then surely $\varphi(b^*b) \le 1$, but suppose that $\varphi(b^*b) = 1$. Then $\varphi(a^*a)+ 2\text{Re} \ \varphi(a) + 1
= 4$, which forces $\varphi(a^*a) = \varphi(a) = 1$, and hence, $\varphi(b) =
1$. Now let $L$ denote the left kernel associated with $\varphi$. Then $L$ is a left ideal and we claim that $1-b \in L$. To see this, note that $$\varphi((1-b)^*(1-b)) = \varphi(b^*b) - 2\text{Re} \;\varphi(b) +1 =
0.$$ Hence, $1-b \in L$ and consequently, $J \subset L$. If $p_L$ denotes the support projection of $L$, then by the definition of $J$, we must have $p \le p_L$ and so $1-p_L \le 1-p$. Applying $\varphi$ to this last inequality yields $1 \le 0$, an obvious contradiction. Thus we conclude that $ \varphi(b^*b) < 1$ and so $1-p$ satisfies condition (2). Furthermore, since $J \subset B^{**}(1-q)\cap
B$, it follows that $q \le 1-p$. Now let $r = 1-p$.
We also need the following variant of Lemma \[almost\_between\]:
\[weak\*\_between\]Let $a$ be a contraction in $B^{**}$ and $q$ a closed projection in $B^{**}$ such that $aq = q$. Let $b = \frac{1}{2}(a+1)$. Then there exists a projection $r \in B^{**}$ such that $r \ge q$ and satisfying
1. $br = r$, and
2. $\varphi(b^*b) < 1$ for all $\varphi \in S(B)$ such that $\varphi(r)=0$.
Moreover, $b^k \rightarrow r$ weak\* as $k \rightarrow \infty$.
This is essentially the same proof as above. Let $b =
\frac{1}{2}(a+1)$ and let $J$ be the intersection of all weak\*-closed left ideals in $B^{**}$ containing $1-b$. This will be a weak\*-closed left ideal. Let $p$ be the support projection of $J$. Then, as above, $q \le 1-p$ and $b(1-p) = 1-p$. Now let $\varphi \in S(B)$ be such that $\varphi(1-p) = 0$. Letting $L$ be the left-kernel of $\varphi$ in $B^{**}$, we get a weak\*-closed left ideal containing $1-b$. As in the proof of Lemma \[almost\_between\], we let $p_L$ be the support projection of $L$, so that $1-p_L \le 1-p$. Applying $\varphi$ to this inequality yields the necessary contradiction. Taking $r = 1-p$ proves the first part. The second part follows from Lemma \[weakconverge\].
Right ideals with left contractive approximate identity {#right}
=======================================================
We now have everything needed to prove the main theorem. The following theorem gives the difficult direction.
\[qinclosure\]Let $A$ be a unital subalgebra of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B$. Let $q\in B^{**}$ be a closed projection such that $q \in
A^{\perp\perp}$. Then $1-q$ is in the weak\*-closure of the right ideal $J = \{a \in A :(1-q)a = a \}$.
First recall that $A^{\perp} \subset (qA)_{\perp}$ is equivalent to $q \in A^{\perp\perp}$ by Lemma \[weak\]. Thus $q$ satisfies the hypotheses of Proposition \[epsilon\] and \[noepsilon\]. Let $u$ be an open projection dominating $q$. Then, by the noncommutative Urysohn’s lemma there exists $p \in B$, $0 \le
p \le 1$, such that $pq = q$ and $p(1-u) = 0$. For each integer $n
\ge 0$, let $$p_n = \frac{n}{n+1}p + \frac{1}{n+1}.$$ Then $p_n$ is strictly positive and $p_nq = q$, so that $q \le p_n$. Each $p_n$ also has the property that $p_n(1-u) = \frac{1}{n+1}(1-u)$. By Proposition \[noepsilon\], for each $n$ there exists $a_n \in \text{Ball}(A^{**})$ such that $qa_n = q$ and $a_n^*a_n \le p_n$. The net $(a_n)$ is contained in the unit ball of $A^{**}$, which is weak\*-compact. Let $(a_{n_t})$ be a subnet converging to an element $a$ in the unit ball of $A^{**}$. Since $(1-u)a_{n_t}^*a_{n_t}(1-u) \le \frac{1}{n_t+1}$, the net $(1-u)a_{n_t}^*a_{n_t}(1-u)$ converges to zero in norm, and hence, by the $C^*$-identity, $a_{n_t}(1-u)$ also converges to zero in norm. It follows that $a(1-u) =
0$ and $au = a$. Similarly, $qa = q$. Let $b =
\frac{1}{2}(a+1)$. From Lemma \[weak\*\_between\] we know that there is a projection $r \in B^{**}$ with $r \ge q$ such that $b^k \rightarrow r$ weak\*. We now show that $r \le u$. To do this, we first observe that $$\begin{aligned}
bu & = & \left(\frac{1}{2}a +
\frac{1}{2}\right)u \\
& = & \frac{1}{2}a + \frac{1}{2}u \\
& = & \frac{1}{2}a + \frac{1}{2}u + \frac{1}{2}(1-u) -
\frac{1}{2}(1-u) \\
& = & b-\frac{1}{2}(1-u),
\end{aligned}$$ and so $$b^k u = b^k - \frac{1}{2}b^{k-1}(1-u).$$
Thus in the weak\*-limit, as $k \rightarrow \infty$, we get $$ru = r - \frac{1}{2}r(1-u).$$ Hence, $$2ru = 2r -r(1-u) = r + ru,$$ and therefore $ru = r$.
For each $a_n$, Lemma \[weak\*\_between\] gives rise to projections $q_n$ in $B^{**}$ with $q_n \ge q$ such that $b_n \equiv \frac{1}{2}(a_n+1)$ has the following properties:
1. $q_nb_n = q_n$,
2. $\varphi(b_n^*b_n) < 1$ for all $\varphi \in S(B)$ such that $\varphi(q_n)=0$, and
3. $b_n^k \rightarrow q_n$ weak\* as $k \rightarrow
\infty$.
Item (1) implies that $1-b_n$ is in $J$ and item (3) implies that each $q_n$ lies in $A^{**}$.
Now let $Q = \bigwedge q_n$, so that $Q \le q_n$ for all $n$. Since $q_n
\ge q$ we also have $Q \ge q$. The containment $B^{**}(1-q_n)
\subset B^{**}(1-Q)$ follows from $Q \le q_n$. However, $1-b_n \in
B^{**}(1-q_n)$ for each $n$. Hence $1-b_n \in B^{**}(1-Q)$ for all $n$. However, $1-b_{n_t} \rightarrow 1-b$, and so $1-b$ is in $B^{**}(1-Q)$. By the construction of $r$ (recall $1-r$ is the support projection for the weak\*-closed left ideal generated by $1-b$) this implies that $B^{**}(1-r)
\subset B^{**}(1-Q)$. Therefore $q \le Q \le r \le u$ and hence, $$q \le \bigwedge_n q_n \le u.$$ Let $Q_u =
\bigwedge_n q_n$, which is in $A^{**}$. As $u$ varies over all open projections dominating $q$, we get $$q \le \bigwedge_{u \ge q}Q_u \le \bigwedge_{u \ge q}u = q,$$ So, $$q = \bigwedge_{u \ge q}Q_u =
\bigwedge_{u \ge q} \bigwedge_n q_n.$$ Thus, $$\begin{aligned}
1-q & = & 1- \bigwedge_{u \ge q} \bigwedge_n
q_n \\
& = & \bigvee_{u \ge q}\left( 1-\bigwedge_n q_n \right) \\
& = & \bigvee_{u \ge q}\bigvee_n \left( 1- q_n \right).
\end{aligned}$$
If $u$ is fixed, then for each $q_n$ associated with $u$, $b_nq =
q$, where $b_n \in A^{**}$, as above. From Proposition \[noepsilon\], each $a_n$ is a weak\*-limit of elements $y$ in $A$ satisfying $qy=q$. So each $b_n$ is the weak\*-limit of a net, $(c_t)$ say, in $A$ such that $qc_t = q$. Thus $(1-q)(1-c_t) = 1-c_t$ and therefore the net $(1-c_t)$ is contained in $J$. Hence its weak\*-limit, $1-b_n$, is in $J^{\perp\perp}$. Also, for any integer $k>0$, $1-b_n^{k}$ is in $J^{\perp\perp}$. Hence $1-q_n$ = $w^*$-$\lim_k 1-b_n^{k}$ is in $J^{\perp\perp}$. Combining this last fact with the last displayed equation we see that $1-q$ is in $J^{\perp\perp}$.
As a consequence, we have our main theorem characterizing right ideals with left contractive approximate identity.
Let $A$ be a unital subalgebra of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B$. A subspace $J$ of $A$ is a right ideal with left contractive approximate identity if and only if $J =
(1-q)A^{**} \cap A$ for a closed projection $q \in A^{\perp \perp}$.
The forward implication is the easy direction and is essentially in [@BEZ]. Suppose $J$ is a right ideal with left contractive approximate identity $(e_t)$. Then $J^{\perp \perp}$ has a left identity $p$ such that $e_t \rightarrow p$ weak\* (see e.g. 2.5.8 in [@BL]). Since $p$ is a contractive idempotent, it is an orthogonal projection. Since $pe_t = e_t$, $p$ is an open projection by the discussion on open projections in Section \[prelim\]. So $q = 1-p$ is closed. Also, $J \subset (1-q)A^{**} \cap A$. However, if $a \in A$ such that $(1-q)a = a$, then $e_ta \in J$ and so $a = (1-q)a \in J^{\perp \perp} \cap A = J$. Thus $(1-q)A^{**} \cap A \subset J$. Now let $\varphi \in A^{\perp}$. Then $0 =
\varphi(1-e_t) \rightarrow \varphi(q)$, and so $\varphi (q) = 0$. Hence $q \in A^{\perp \perp}.$
On the other hand, suppose $J$ is a subspace of $A$ such that $J =
(1-q)A^{**} \cap A$ for a closed projection $q \in A^{\perp
\perp}$. The subspace $J$ is a right ideal of $A$ and $J = \{a \in
A : qa = 0 \}$. By Theorem \[qinclosure\], $J^{\perp \perp}$ contains $1-q$, which is a left identity for $J^{\perp \perp}$. Thus $J$ possesses a left contractive approximate identity (see e.g. 2.5.8 in [@BL]).
peak projections {#peak}
================
From the last section we see can see the role that closed projections in $A^{\perp\perp}$ play in determining the right ideal structure of an operator algebra $A$. In this section we study the closed projections in $A^{\perp\perp}$ from the view point of ‘peak phenomena’ in $A$. Indeed, this idea was already subtly playing a role in the proof of Theorem \[qinclosure\]. The following theorem will be the basis for our definition of a noncommutative peak set, or *peak projection*. However, first note that if $a$ is a contraction and $q$ is a projection such that $qa = q$, then $a$ and $q$ necessarily commute.
\[equivalent\]Let $a$ be a contraction in $B$ and let $q$ be a closed projection in $B^{**}$ such that $aq=q$. Then the following are equivalent:
1. $\varphi(a^*a) < 1$ for all $\varphi \in S(B)$ such that $\varphi(q) = 0$,
2. $\varphi (a^*a(1-q)) < 1$ for all $\varphi \in S(B)$,
3. $\varphi (a^*a(1-q)) < \varphi (1-q)$ for all $\varphi \in
S(B)$ such that $\varphi(1-q) \not= 0$,
4. $\varphi(a^*a) < 1$ for every pure state $\varphi$ of $B$ such that $\varphi(q) = 0$,
5. $\| pa \| < 1$ for any closed projection $p \le 1-q$,
6. $\| ap \| < 1$ for any closed projection $p \le 1-q$, and
7. $\| ap \| < 1$ for any minimal projection $p \le 1-q$.
\(3) $\Rightarrow$ (2) Assume (3) holds. If $\varphi \in
S(B)$ is such that $\varphi$ doesn’t vanish on $1-q$, we have $\varphi (a^*a(1-q)) <
\varphi (1-q) = 1 - \varphi(q) \le 1$. In the case that $\varphi$ vanishes on $1-q$, (2) follows by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for positive linear functionals.
\(2) $\Rightarrow$ (3) Suppose (2) holds. Let $\varphi$ be a state which does not vanish on $1-q$ and define $$\psi ( \cdot ) = \frac{\varphi (\cdot (1-q))}{\varphi
(1-q)}.$$ Because $\psi$ is contractive and unital, it is a state on $B$. Applying $\psi$ to both sides of $a^*a(1-q) < 1$ we get $$\frac{\varphi (a^*a(1-q)(1-q))}{\varphi(1-q)} < 1,$$ which implies that $\varphi (a^*a(1-q)) < \varphi (1-q).$ So (3) holds.
\(1) $\Rightarrow$ (4) This is immediate.
\(2) $\Rightarrow$ (1) Assume (2) holds and let $\varphi \in S(B)$ be a state such that $\varphi(q) = 0$. Then $\varphi(a^*a) = \varphi(a^*a) - \varphi(q) =
\varphi(a^*a(1-q)) < 1$. So (1) holds.
\(4) $\Rightarrow$ (2) Assume (4) and let $\varphi \in S(B)$ and suppose that $\varphi(a^*a(1-q)) = 1$. It follows that $\varphi(a^*a) = 1$ and $\varphi(q) = 0$. Consequently, $\varphi(1- a^*a) = 0$. Now let $J$ be the left ideal $B^{**}(1-q) \cap B$ of $B$, so that $J \cap J^* = (1-q)B^{**}(1-q) \cap B$ is a hereditary subalgebra of $B$. Note that $1-a^*a = (1-a^*a)(1-q)$ is an element of $J \cap
J^*$. Let $(e_t) \subset J \cap J^*$ be an increasing contractive approximate identity for $J \cap J^*$. Then $(e_t)$ is an increasing left contractive approximate identity for $J$, However, since $1-q$ is the support projection for $J$, then necessarily $e_t \rightarrow 1-q$ weak\*, and so $\varphi(e_t) \rightarrow \varphi(1-q) = 1$. However,
$$\|\varphi|_{J \cap J^*} \| = \lim_t \varphi|_{J \cap
J^*}(e_t)$$ and so $\|\varphi|_{J \cap J^*} \| = 1$, making $\varphi|_{J \cap J^*}$ a state of $J \cap J^*$ such that $\varphi|_{J \cap J^*}(1-a^*a) = 0$. By Lemma \[vanishing\] there exists a pure state $\psi$ of $J \cap J^*$ which annihilates $1-a^*a$. We can then extend $\psi$ to a pure state $\tilde{\psi}$ of $B$. We then have $$0 = \tilde{\psi}(1-a^*a) = \tilde{\psi}(1) - \tilde{\psi}(a^*a) =
1 - \tilde{\psi}(a^*a).$$ Thus $\tilde{\psi}(a^*a) = 1$. We also have $$\begin{aligned}
1 & = & \tilde{\psi}(1) = \tilde{\psi}(q) +
\tilde{\psi}(1-q)\\
& = & \tilde{\psi}(q) + \lim_t \tilde{\psi}(e_t) \\
& = & \tilde{\psi}(q) + \lim_t \psi(e_t) \\
& = & \tilde{\psi}(q) + \|\psi\| = \tilde{\psi}(q) + 1,
\end{aligned}$$ which forces $\tilde{\psi}(q) = 0$. Thus we have found a pure state on $B$ which annihilates $q$, but takes the value 1 at $a^*a$. This contradicts our assumption of (4). Thus, the supposition that $\varphi(a^*a(1-q)) = 1$ must be rejected, and therefore (2) holds.
\(6) $\Rightarrow$ (7) This is immediate from the fact that any minimal projection is automatically closed.
\(7) $\Rightarrow$ (4) Assume (7) and let $\varphi$ be a pure state of $B$ which annihilates $q$. Let $\varphi$ be such a pure state. Let $L$ be the left-kernel of $\varphi$. Then $L =B^{**}(1-p)\cap B$ for some minimal closed projection $p \in B^{**}$, and the weak\*-closure of $L$ in $B^{**}$ will be $B^{**}(1-p)$ (3.13.6 in [@Ped]). Now viewing $\varphi$ as a normal state on $B^{**}$, let $L'$ be the left-kernel of $\varphi$ with respect to $B^{**}$. This will be a weak\*-closed left ideal and $L' = B^{**}r$ for some projection $r \in B^{**}$ with $q \in L'$. The containment $B^{**}(1-p) \cap B \subset B^{**}r$ is obvious. Passing to the weak\*-closure we get $B^{**}(1-p) \subset B^{**}r$. Hence, $1-p \le r$, or rather $1-r \le p$, which by minimality of $p$ forces $p = 1-r$. We conclude that $\overline{L}^{w^*} = L'$ and therefore $q \in B^{**}(1-p)$ . Hence $q \le 1-p$, or equivalently, $p \le 1-q$. Thus by condition (7), $\|ap\| < 1$. Now decompose $a^*a$ as $$a^*a = pa^*ap + pa^*a(1-p) + (1-p)a^*ap + (1-p)a^*a(1-p)$$ and apply $\varphi$ to get $$\varphi (a^*a) = \varphi(pa^*ap) + \varphi(pa^*a(1-p)) +
\varphi((1-p)a^*ap) + \varphi((1-p)a^*a(1-p)).$$ The last 3 terms vanish by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and the fact that $\varphi (1-p) = 0$. Thus we have $$\varphi (a^*a) =
\varphi(pa^*ap) \le \|pa^*ap\| = \|ap\|^2 < 1,$$ establishing (4).
$(2) \Rightarrow (5)$ Assume (2) and let $p \le 1-q$ be closed. Since $p$ is closed, $a^*pa$ is upper semi-continuous on $S(B)$. Therefore, $a^*pa$ attains its maximum on $S(B)$ at some state $\varphi$, and hence $\|pa\|^2 = \varphi(a^*pa)$. Since $p
\le 1-q$ we have $a^*pa \le a^*(1-q)a$, and so $$\varphi(a^*pa)
\le \varphi(a^*(1-q)a) = \varphi(a^*a(1-q)) < 1,$$ by (2) and the fact that $a$ and $q$ commute. Thus, the norm of $pa$ must be strictly less than 1.
$(6) \Rightarrow (7)$ Apply the implication $(7) \Rightarrow
(6)$, which has already been established, to $a^*$.
[**Remarks**]{} First, the condition $\|ap\| < 1$ is equivalent to $\|pa^*\| < 1$, which means that $a^*a$ in conditions (1)-(4) can be replaced with $aa^*$. Second, similarly to the equivalence of (6) and (7), condition (5) is equivalent to the statement that $\|pa\| < 1$ for any minimal projection $p \le 1-q$.
\[peakdef\] If $A$ is a unital subalgebra of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B$, a projection $q \in B^{**}$ is called a *peak projection for $A$* if there exists a contraction $a
\in A$ such that $qa = q$ and such that $a$ and $q$ satisfy the equivalent conditions of Theorem \[equivalent\]. We refer to $a$ as the *peak associated with $q$*. If $q$ is an intersection of peak projections, we refer to $q$ as a *$p$-projection*.
If $B = C(K)$, the continuous complex-valued functions on a compact space $K$, then the peak projections for $A$ are exactly the characteristic functions of peak sets. It is also easy to see that if $E$ is a peak set and $a$ is its associated peak, then $a^n$ converges point-wise to $\chi_E$. From Lemma \[weakconverge\], the same is true for peak projections.
As a consequence, we have the following proposition.
Any projection satisfying condition (1) in Theorem \[equivalent\] for some contraction in a unital subspace $A$ of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B$ is a closed projection.
Let $A$ be a unital subspace of $B$ and let $q$ be a projection in $B^{**}$ satisfying condition (1) of Theorem \[equivalent\] for some contraction $a \in A$, then $(a^*a)^n$ is a decreasing net of self-adjoint elements in $B$ with limit $q$. Hence $q$ is closed. Any intersection of closed projections is again closed. Thus the result also holds for $p$-projections.
For a compact Hausdorff space $K$, any closed set in $K$ will be a $p$-set for $C(K)$ by Urysohn’s lemma. The same thing holds in the noncommutative case as well.
\[cstar\]For a $C^*$-algebra $B$, any closed projection in $B^{**}$ is a $p$-projection for $B$.
Let $q \in B^{**}$ be a closed projection. Then for any open projection $u \ge q$, there exists $a_u \in B$ with $0 \le
a_u \le 1$ such that $a_uq = q$ and $a_u(1-u) = 0$. Now let $q_u$ be the weak\*-limit of $a_u^n$ as $n \rightarrow \infty$. Since multiplication is separately weak\*-continuous, it follows that $a_uq_u = q_ua_u = q_u$. From this property and again the separate weak\*-continuity of multiplication, it follows that $q_u$ is a projection. Since $a_u(1-u) = 0$, we also have $q_u \le u$. We now claim that $q_u$ is a peak projection for $B$ with peak $a_u$. We only need to check that $\varphi(a_u^2) < 1$ for any pure state $\varphi \in B^*$ such that $\varphi(q_u) = 0$. However, since $a_u^n \rightarrow q_u$ weak\*, it follows that $\varphi(a_u^n) \rightarrow 0$. Suppose that $\varphi(a_u^2) = 1$. Then representing $B$ concretely on a Hilbert space so that $\varphi$ is a vector state $\varphi(\cdot) =
\langle\pi(\cdot)\xi,\xi\rangle$, we see that $\langle \pi(a_u^2)
\xi, \xi \rangle = 1$. So by the converse to the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we must have that $\pi(a_u^2)\xi = \xi$, which contradicts that $\varphi(a^n) \rightarrow 0$. So $q_u$ is a peak projection. Note also that the equation $a_u^nq = q$ implies that $q
\le q_u$.
Now we take the intersection $\bigwedge q_u$ of all such $q_u$ as $u$ varies over all open projections dominating $q$. We now show that $q = \bigwedge q_u$. To see this, note that since $q \le
q_u$, we have that $q \le\bigwedge q_u$. By Proposition \[regular\], $$q \le \bigwedge q_u
\le \bigwedge u = q.$$ Thus, $q = \bigwedge q_u.$
This next proposition describes a peak projection in terms of a support projection associated with its peak.
A projection $q \in B^{**}$ is a peak projection for a unital subspace $A$ of $B$ if and only if there exists a contraction $a \in A$ such that $1-q$ is the right support projection for $1-a$.
We assume that $B$ and $B^{**}$ are acting on the universal Hilbert space $H_u$ for $B$. First suppose that $q$ is a peak projection for $A$ with peak $a \in A$. Let $\xi \in
H_u$ and let $r$ denote the right support projection of $1-a$. Since $a^n \rightarrow q$ weak\*, $aq = q$ implies that $\xi \in \text{Ran}\;q$ if and only if $a\xi = \xi$. This in turn is equivalent to saying $\xi \in
\text{Ran}\;q$ if and only if $\xi \in
\text{Ker} \; (1-a)$. Since $r$ is the projection onto $[\text{Ker} \;
(1-a)]^\perp$, this last statement is equivalent to $1-q = r$.
Now suppose that $a \in A$ is a contraction and $q$ is a closed projection such that the range projection $r$, of $1-a$, is equal to $1-q$. Then $1-a = (1-a)r = (1-a)(1-q)$ implies $aq=q$. Now define $b = (a+1)/2$, so that $bq=q$. Let $\varphi$ be a state on $B$ such that $\varphi(q) = 0$. We may assume that $\varphi ( \cdot ) =
\langle \cdot \eta , \eta \rangle$ for a unit vector $\eta \in H_u$. Then $q\eta = 0$, and so $r\eta = \eta$. Now suppose that $\varphi
(b^*b) = 1$. Then $$1 = \varphi(b^*b) = \frac{1}{4}(\varphi(a^*a) +
2\text{Re}\;\varphi(a) + 1).$$ Hence, $1 = \varphi (a^*a) = \langle a \eta
, \eta \rangle$, and so by the converse to the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, $a \eta = \eta$. Thus $\xi \in \text{Ker} \; (1-b)$, and so $r\eta = 0$, which is a contradiction. Thus $\varphi (b^*b) < 1$ and so $q$ is a peak projection with peak $b$.
In the commutative case, it is easy to see that if $E$ and $F$ are peak sets for a uniform algebra $A$ with peaks $f$ and $g$, respectively, in $A$. then $E \cap F$ will be a peak set with peak $\frac{1}{2}(f+g)$. For general $C^*$-algebras, we have the following generalization.
Let $q_1$ and $q_2$ be two peak projections with peaks $a_1$ and $a_2$, respectively. Then $q_1 \wedge q_2$ is also a peak projection with peak $\frac{1}{2}(a_1 + a_2)$.
That $q_1 \wedge q_2$ and $\frac{1}{2}(a_1 + a_2)$ satisfy the first condition in the definition of peak projection is immediate since $q_1
\wedge q_2$ is dominated by both $q_1$ and $q_2$. To show the second condition, let $\varphi$ be a pure state of $B$ which annihilates $q_1 \wedge q_2$. Let $b = \frac{1}{2}(a_1 + a_2)$. We wish to show $\varphi(b^*b) < 1$. This is equivalent to showing $$\varphi(a_1^*a_1) +\varphi(a_1^*a_2) + \varphi(a_2^*a_1)
+\varphi(a_2^*a_2) < 4,$$ for which it suffices to show that either $\varphi(a_1^*a_1) < 1$ or $\varphi(a_2^*a_2) < 1$. So suppose $\varphi(a_1^*a_1) =
\varphi(a_2^*a_2) =1$. Let $\pi : B^{**} \rightarrow B(H)$ be the weak\*-continuous cyclic representation associated with $\varphi$ and let $\xi \in H$ be the corresponding cyclic vector. Then $$\langle \pi(a_1^*a_1)\xi ,
\xi \rangle = \varphi(a_1^*a_1) = 1.$$ Thus, by the converse to the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we must have $\pi(a_1^*a_1)\xi = \xi$. However, since $(a_1^*a_1)^n \rightarrow q_1$ weak\*, and so $\pi(a_1^*a_1)^n \rightarrow \pi(q_1)$ in the weak operator topology, we must have $\varphi(q_1) = 1$. The same argument shows that $\varphi(q_2) = 1$ and so $\xi$ must be in the range of both $\pi(q_1)$ and $\pi(q_2)$. Hence, $\varphi(q_1 \wedge q_2) = \langle
\pi(q_1) \wedge \pi(q_2)\xi , \xi \rangle = 1,$ which is a contradiction.
The next result shows that $p$-projections must be in the weak\* closure of $A$ in $B^{**}$ when $A$ is a subalgebra.
\[forward\]Let $A$ be a unital subalgebra of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B$, and let $q$ be a $p$-projection for $A$. Then $\varphi(q) = 0$ for all $\varphi$ in $A^{\perp}$. Consequently, $\varphi$ is in $(qA)_{\perp}$ and $q$ is in $A^{\perp \perp}$.
First assume $q$ is a peak projection and let $a \in A$ be the peak associated with $q$. For any $\varphi$ in $A^{\perp}$ and any integer $n>0$, $\varphi (a^n) = 0$. However, $a^n$ converges weak\* to $q$. Thus $\varphi (q) = 0$.
Now suppose $q = \bigwedge_iq_i$ and let $\varphi \in A^{\perp}$. Let $\epsilon > 0$. By a result in [@Ak1] there exists an open projection $p \in B^{**}$ such that $p \ge q$ and $|\varphi|(p-q) <
\epsilon$, where $|\varphi|$ is obtained from the polar decomposition of $\varphi$ (3.6.7 in [@Ped]). By hypothesis $\bigwedge_iq_i \le p$. Hence $1-p \le \bigvee_i(1-q_i)$, and so by the compactness property of closed projections there, exist finitely many projections $q_1,q_2,\dots,q_n$ in the family $\{q_i\}$ such that $1-p \le
\bigvee_{i=1}^n (1-q_i)$. Thus $q \le \bigwedge_{i=1}^n q_i \le p$. Now let $Q = \bigwedge_{i=1}^n q_i$, which is again a peak projection. By the last paragraph it follows that $\varphi(Q) = 0$, and so $|\varphi(Q-q)| =
|\varphi(q)|$ for all $\varphi \in A^{\perp}$. The functional $|\varphi|$ has the property that $|\varphi(x)|^2 \le \|\varphi\| |\varphi|(x^*x)$ for all $x \in
B^{**}$. Thus we have $$\begin{aligned}
|\varphi(Q-q)|^2 & \le & \|\varphi\| |\varphi|((Q-q)^*(Q-q))\\
& = & \|\varphi\| |\varphi|(Q-q))\\
& \le & \|\varphi\| |\varphi|(p-q)) \\
& < & \|\varphi\| \epsilon. \end{aligned}$$ Since $\epsilon$ was arbitrary, this shows that $\phi(q) = 0$.
If $x \in
A$, the map $\varphi(\cdot x)$ is also in $A^{\perp}$. Thus $\varphi(qx) = 0$ for every $x$ in $A$. This shows that $\varphi$ is in $(qA)_{\perp}$. By Lemma \[weak\], this implies that $q$ is in $A^{\perp\perp}$.
It is natural to ask if the notion of a peak or $p$-projection is dependent on the particular $C^*$-algebra in which we view $A$ as residing. That is, if we have embeddings of $A$ into two different $C^*$-algebras, can the peak projections arising from the each embedding be identified in some way? By an embedding of $A$ into a $C^*$-algebra, we mean a completely isometric homomorphism of $A$. The following proposition shows that the notion of a peak or $p$-projection is indeed independent of the particular embedding.
Let $A$ be a unital subalgebra of a $C^*$-algebra $B$. Let $\pi:A \rightarrow B_1$ be a unital completely isometric homomorphism of $A$ into another $C^*$-algebra $B_1$. If $q$ is a $p$-projection for $A$ in $B^{**}$, then $\pi^{**}(q)$ is a $p$-projection for $\pi(A)$ inside $B_1^{**}$.
We assume that $B_1$ is acting on its universal Hilbert space $H_u$, that is $B_1 \subset B(H_u)$. Assume that $q$ is a peak projection with peak $a \in
A$. Clearly, $\pi(a)\pi^{**}(q) = \pi^{**}(q)$. Now suppose that $\varphi \in S(B_1)$ such that $\varphi(\pi^{**}(q)) = 0$ and extend $\varphi$ to a vector state $\tilde{\varphi}$ on $B(H_u)$. Viewing $\pi$ as a unital completely positive map into $B(H_u)$, by Arveson’s extension theorem we may extend $\pi$ to a completely positive map $\rho: B \rightarrow B(H_u)$. This in turn can be extended to a weak\*-continuous map $\tilde{\rho}$ on $B_1^{**}$. Since $\pi^{**}$ is the unique weak\*-continuous extension of $\pi$ to $A^{**}$, we must have $\tilde{\rho}|_{A^{**}} = \pi^{**}$. We next observe that $\tilde{\varphi}\circ\rho$ is a state on $B$ which extends uniquely to a weak\*-continuous state on $B^{**}$, which by uniqueness must be $\tilde{\varphi} \circ \tilde{\rho}$. Hence, $(\tilde{\varphi} \circ \rho)(q) = \tilde{\varphi}(\tilde{\rho}(q)) =
\varphi(\pi^{**}(q)) = 0$. Thus, since $q$ is a peak projection, we must have that $\tilde{\varphi}(\rho(a^*a)) < 1$. By the Kadison-Schwarz inequality for completely positive maps, we have $$\varphi(\pi(a)^*\pi(a)) =
\tilde{\varphi}(\rho(a)^*\rho(a)) \le
\tilde{\varphi}(\rho (a^*a)) < 1.$$ Thus $\pi^{**}(q)$ is a peak projection for $\pi(A)$. Now if $q$ is just a $p$-projection with $q = \wedge q_i$ for peak projections $q_i$, then $q$ is the weak\* limit of the net of meets for finitely many $q_i$. Thus, by the discussion about meets in Section 2, it follows that $\pi^{**}(q) = \wedge
\pi^{**}(q_i)$. Thus $\pi^{**}(q_i)$ is a $p$-projection.
Minimal projections which are also $p$-projections correspond to *$p$-points* (an intersection of singleton $p$-sets) in the commutative case. The closure of the set of $p$-points for a uniform algebra is the Shilov boundary (see e.g. [@Gam] and [@Phelps]). Let $A$ and $B$ be as before, but assume $A$ generates $B$ as a $C^*$-algebra. Then there exists a largest closed two-sided ideal $J$ of $B$ such that the canonical quotient map $B
\rightarrow B/J$ restricts to a complete isometry on $A$ ([@Arv1]). The ideal $J$ is the so-called ‘Shilov ideal’ for $A$. Let $p$ be the closed projection in $B^{**}$ corresponding to the Shilov boundary ideal, then $p$ dominates all minimal projections which are also $p$-projections for $A$. Moreover, $p$ dominates all minimal projections in $A^{\perp\perp}$ (see [@BHN]).
Unfortunately, however, the join of the orthogonal complements of all such minimal projections does not in general equal the support of the Shilov ideal.
One of the interesting aspects of $p$-projections is their relationship to approximate identities. For instance, we have the following proposition ([@Hay],[@BHN]).
\[lcai\]If $A$ is a unital subalgebra of a $C^*$-algebra $B$ and $p \in B^{**}$ is the support projection for a right ideal of $A$ with a left approximate identity of the form $(1-x_t)$ for $\|x_t\| \le 1$, then $1-p$ is a $p$-projection for $A$.
Let $J$ be a right ideal of $A$ with left approximate identity $(e_t)$ with $e_t = 1 - x_t$ with $x_t$ in the unit ball of $A$. Let $p$ be its support projection and define $q = 1-p$. Then $q$ is necessarily closed, $e_t \rightarrow
1-q$ weak\*, $J = \{a \in A : (1-q)a = a\}$, and $(1-e_t)q = q$. For each $t$ let $J_t$ be the intersection of all right ideals of $B$ containing $e_t$. Then there exists a unique closed projection $q_t$ in $B^{**}$ such that $J_t = (1-q_t)B^{**} \cap B$. By the proof of Lemma \[almost\_between\] $q_t$ is a peak projection with peak $\frac{1}{2}[1+(1-e_t)] = 1-\frac{1}{2}
e_t$ and such that $q_t \ge q$. Now set $r = \wedge q_t$. We have that $r \ge q$, but suppose $r -
q \not= 0$. Then $(r-q)e_t \rightarrow (r-q)(1-q) = r-q$, and $r-q \le q_t$. Thus $(1-q_t)B^{**} \subset (1-(r-q))B^{**}$, so that $(e_t) \subset (1-(r-q)) B^{**}$. Hence $(1-(r-q))e_t = e_t$ for each $t$, and so $(r-q)e_t=0$. However, $(r-q)e_t \rightarrow r-q$. Thus $r-q = 0$ and so $r=q$, making $q$ an intersection of peak projections.
[**Remark**]{} It can also be shown that if an ideal $J$ of a unital operator algebra $A$ has a left contractive approximate identity, then it has a left approximate identity of the form $(1-x_t)$, where $x_t \in A$ and $\lim_t \|x_t\| = 1$ ([@BHN]). Moreover, if we can choose the $x_t$ in $\text{Ball}(A)$, for every such ideal, then the $p$-projections are exactly the orthogonal complements of the support projections for right ideals with left contractive approximate identity.
It is natural to make the following definition.
Let $A$ be a unital subalgebra of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B$. A projection $q \in B^{**}$ is said to be an *approximate $p$-projection for $A$* if $q$ is closed and $q \in A^{\perp\perp}$.
The following shows that approximate $p$-projections possess peaking properties.
\[perp\]Let $A$ be a unital subalgebra of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B$ and let $q \in B^{**}$ be a closed projection. Then the following are equivalent:
1. $q$ is an approximate $p$-projection,
2. for every $\epsilon > 0$ and for every open projection $u
\ge q$, there exists $a \in (1+\epsilon)\text{Ball}(A)$ such that $qa=q$ and $\|a(1-u)\| \le \epsilon$, and
3. for every $\epsilon > 0$ and strictly positive $p \in B$ with $p \ge q$, there exists $a \in A$ such that $qa = q$ and $a^*a \le p + \epsilon$.
\(1) $\Rightarrow$ (3) This is essentially Lemma \[epsilon\]. Let $\epsilon > 0$ and let $p \in B$ be a strictly positive element of $B$ such that $p \ge q$. Since $q$ is in $A^{\perp\perp}$, by Lemma \[weak\], $q$ satisfies the hypothesis of Lemma \[epsilon\]. Thus there exists $a \in A$ such that $qa=q$ and $a^*a \le p +
\epsilon$.
\(3) $\Rightarrow$ (2) Let $\epsilon > 0$ and suppose $u \ge q$ is open. Let $\delta = \epsilon^2/2$. As we have seen before, by the noncommutative Urysohn’s lemma, there exists a strictly positive contraction $p \in B$ such that $pq = q$ and $p(1-u) = \delta
(1-u)$. By (3) there exists $a \in A$ such that $qa=q$ and $a^*a \le p +
{\delta}.$ Hence, $(1-u)a^*a(1-u) \le 2\delta(1-u),$ and so $\|a(1-u)\| \le \epsilon$.
\(2) $\Rightarrow$ (1) Let $u \ge q$ be an open projection. By (2), for each natural number $n$ there exists $a_n \in (1+1/n)
\text{Ball}(A)$ such that $qa_n=q$ and $\|a(1-u)\| \le
\frac{1}{n}$. The net $(a_n)$ has a weak\* limit point $a \in
\text{Ball}(A^{\perp\perp})$. Since $\|(1-u)a_n\| \le
\frac{1}{n}$ for each $n$, we must also have $\|a(1-u)\| = 0$, and hence $au = a$. Let $b = \frac{1}{2}(a+1)$, which is in $A^{\perp\perp}$. By Lemma \[weak\*\_between\], there exists a projection $q_u \in A^{\perp\perp}$ such that $q \le q_u$ and $b^k
\rightarrow q_u$. As in the proof of Theorem \[qinclosure\] we also that $q \le q_u \le u$ for each $u$. However, by Proposition \[regular\], this implies that $q = \wedge q_u$ as $u$ varies over all open projections dominating $q$. However, each $q_u$ is in $A^{\perp\perp}$. Thus, so is $q$, by the discussion in Section \[prelim\].
For a uniform algebra $A \subset C(K)$, Glickberg’s peak set theorem says that a closed set $E$ is a $p$-set for $A$ if and only if $\mu \in A^\perp$ implies $\mu_E \in A^\perp$. With this and Lemma \[weak\] in mind, it is then natural to ask whether or not the $p$-projections are precisely the approximate $p$-projections, in the noncommutative setting. Certainly any $p$-projection is an approximate $p$-projection. The reverse implication holds for unform algebras by the classical Glicksberg theorem, and it holds when $A = B$ is a $C^*$-algebra by Proposition \[cstar\]. It is also true for operator algebras which are also reflexive Banach spaces, as the following simple observation shows. In particular, it is true for finite dimensional algebras.
Let $A$ be a unital subalgebra of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B$ such that $A$ is also a reflexive Banach space. Let $q \in B^{**}$ be a closed projection. The following are equivalent:
1. $q$ is a $p$-projection for $A$,
2. $q$ is an approximate $p$-projection for $A$, and
3. $q \in A$.
The implication (1) $\Rightarrow$ (2) follows from Proposition \[weakconverge\] and the fact that $A$ is an algebra. If (2) holds, by reflexivity, $q$ is in $A$, establishing (3). If $q$ is in $A$, then it is trivially a $p$-projection. So (3) $\Rightarrow$ (1) holds.
Approximate $p$-projections enjoy some of the properties of $p$-projections. For example, by some observations in Section \[prelim\], if $A$ is a unital subalgebra of a unital $C^*$-algebra $B$, then the meet of a collection of approximate $p$-projections for $A$ is also an approximate $p$-projection. It can also be shown that if the join of a collection of approximate $p$-projections happens to be closed, then it is also an approximate $p$-projection (see [@Hay]). By Corollary 5.5 of [@BHN], if $q \in B^{**}$ is a closed projection and $X$ is a unital subspace of $B$ such that for every strictly positive contraction $p \in B$ with $q \le p$ there exists $a \in X$ such that $aq = q$ and $a^*a \le p$, then $q$ is a $p$-projection for $X$.
As described above, for many algebras the class of $p$-projections is the same as the class of approximate $p$-projections. The most tantalizing remaining question here is whether or not these two notions are the same for a general unital operator algebra. Nonetheless, the correspondence between right ideals with left approximate identity and approximate $p$-projections will be key in importing some results from $C^*$-algebra theory to general operator algebras. Indeed, we have begun this in [@BHN].
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| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | ArXiv |
Before President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress, I asked several Republican operatives, professionals who both opposed and supported Trump in the GOP primaries, to let me know what they thought.
"A good speech, and most importantly, it was better than any thought it would be," emailed Curt Anderson, who ran Bobby Jindal's presidential campaign. [Trump said] "'My job is not to represent the world, my job is to represent the United States of America' — AND THE DEMOCRATS DID NOT APPLAUD. Just think about that for a moment. This simple sentence captures the heart of Trump's appeal. And it is also the Achilles heel of the Democrats."
"Outstanding speech," said Ryan Williams, who worked for Mitt Romney in 2012. "By far his most presidential, uplifting, disciplined and dignified speech. I hope to God that he doesn't ruin it tomorrow morning with a 7 a.m. Twitter rant."
"This speech wasn't big, it was colossal!" wrote Barry Bennett, who worked for both Ben Carson and Trump and has now formed a new consulting firm with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. "Tonight millions of doubters saw the president."
Bennett meant that there are a lot of Americans who are not in full not-my-president mode, but who do question Trump's presidential stature. Polls will tell more, but it seems possible that on Tuesday night some of them saw Trump as more of a president than they did before the speech.
Some were predicting a bump in the polls for Trump even before he finished. About half an hour into the speech, another Republican political strategist, Alex Castellanos, tweeted, "With this speech @RealDonaldTrump fav rating will go up 6 to 8%."
Before the speech, a number of analysts and strategists urged Trump to spend a lot of time talking about jobs. Yes, the unemployment rate is down a lot from the worst days of the economic downturn, but people are struggling to keep up. They want to know that Trump will work to create jobs — so they can finally get one, or, if they are employed, so they can get a better one.
Trump delivered, mentioning jobs a dozen times in the speech. Among them:
He is "going to bring back millions of jobs."
His coming infrastructure proposal will "create millions of new jobs."
He's working "to massively reduce job-crushing regulations."
His approval of pipeline projects will create "tens of thousands of jobs."
Since his election, big companies have taken actions to "create tens of thousands of new American jobs."
He has already withdrawn from the "job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership."
Immigration reform must have as its goal "to improve jobs and wages for Americans."
And more. Overall, a huge part of Trump's speech focused in the broadest sense on improving Americans' economic well-being and on his promises to "restart the engine of the American economy."
If there was another grand theme, it was safety — protecting the American public from terrorism, from criminal illegal immigrants, from violent crime in general, from job-stealing economic policies, from the failures of Obamacare, and more. Trump used some form of the word "protect" seven times in the speech.
One more thing. Before Trump drove to the Capitol, there was a lot of breathless discussion about the possibility he would pronounce himself open to a big deal on comprehensive immigration reform, an agreement that would include a path to either legal status or citizenship for the 12 million immigrants in the country illegally. Pundit after pundit declared it a "Nixon goes to China" moment — only someone who had been as tough on illegal immigration as Trump could turn around and make a deal.
Some of the talk sounded crazy, and it was. Trump did indeed discuss immigration reform, but he not only did not mention the fate of the 12 million, he discussed the issue in a way sure to alienate any Democrat who might even consider a deal. Trump said illegal immigration reduces wages for American workers. He said those who come to the U.S. "ought to be able to support themselves financially." That there should be less low-skilled immigration. And then Trump's offer: "I believe that real and positive immigration reform is possible, as long as we focus on the following goals: to improve jobs and wages for Americans, to strengthen our nation's security, and to restore respect for our laws," he said.
It won't happen. "Whew!" tweeted Mickey Kaus, the Democratic writer who was a staunch opponent of the "Gang of Eight" effort. "This was wrong time to start negotiating some grand deal."
What no one seemed to consider, in all the pre-speech hyperventilating, was why Trump would cavalierly, and with almost no notice or preparation, break one of the most passionately repeated promises of his campaign. The answer was he wouldn't.
In the end, the speech was all about jobs and safety and that one simple Trump declaration that Curt Anderson noticed: "My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent the United States of America."
"I could win A LOT OF ELECTIONS on this," Anderson wrote, noting those Democrats who stayed seated and silent. "I cannot imagine a Democrat in a tough race who could defend their opposition to this."
There was some snickering in the room when Trump announced that, "The time for trivial fights is behind us." Doesn't the president read his own Twitter feed? But the fact is, Trump used the highest-profile moment of his presidency so far to go big — that is, to focus on the voters' most deeply-felt concerns. If a speech could capture the whole theme of a presidency, Trump did it on Tuesday night. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Travel, explore, make friends and even find a date – Swedish-made travel application Gayze makes navigating Southeast Asian cities like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta safe and fun for LGBTQ globetrotters.
Traveling abroad and being openly gay can be far from safe. With different laws, cultures and norms, gays risks persecution and worse. Two Swedish friends, Elin Wibell and Stelios Vasilantonakis, wanted to minimize the danger and developed Gayze – an app combining safety and travel advises, social network and dating for gays.
While Vasilantonakis is located in Stockholm, Wibell is based in Kuala Lumpur – and before that Singapore – where she lives with her husband. Over a Skype conversation they explain what makes the app so special:
“What’s unique about Gayze is that it is a travel app, but there is also a possibility of dating, finding friends, and learning about the LGBT situation in the region, and the safety and local advises on how to behave. So, it is pretty broad,” Wibell says.
Stelios Vasilantonakis, who is working as an artist, came up with the idea for this app two and half years ago, as he saw the need for it in the insecure state of gay rights in many countries.
Elin Wibell who has a background in corporate social responsibility helped realise the idea as she too saw the potential. Living in Southeast Asia she has the insights and experience in the Southeast Asian culture.
“For me being here is a perfect opportunity to meet a lot of gay people who can give me advices and potentially be local editors – It is very valuable to get to know the region to understand which markets are the most interesting,” Wibell explains.
Local editors
Wibell and Vasilantonakis are not building the app in any haste. They realise the responsibility to make this app a safe tool for gays traveling, and they carefully select their local insights – who are volunteer editors who knows the local customs.
“For us it is very important to keep up the quality, that we have the right information, the cool places and the editors. Stelios is working pretty vigorously making sure the editors is up to standards and the places that they recommend are real, and that it is a local secret,” Wibell says.
So far, they have 40 destinations in the app and around 25 local editors. The app has a map where you see yourself and places nearby that are gay friendly or exclusively gay. The Swedish duo is working on launching a second version that is more community friendly and with more places on the map.
They are also looking for investment in and partnerships – mentioning Hotels.com and misterb&b as potential partners. They have also been in contact with a Canadian company called Destination Pride, that in a very visual way are showing how gay-friendly countries are. Wibell and Vasilantonakis hope to be able to collaborate with them and using data from Destination Pride in their app to get an overall view of a country.
Changing perceptions and stereotypes
Even though the size and the knowledge about the app is limited, they have gotten a lot of positive response from their users.
“We learned that many people in different parts of the world are very keen on helping because they want to spread knowledge and also try to get tourist to visit their country – in that way breaking barriers and normalise things,” Vasilantonakis explains.
Wibell is very positive about the prospects in Southeast Asia. In her words it is boiling a lot in Asia and a lot of changes are coming – she points out the pink dot-movement in Singapore – a local LGBT-community – as an exciting thing.
Though In 2018, it sparked headlines worldwide when a sharia high court in Malaysia sentenced two women to caning for attempting to have lesbian sex. This was the first conviction for same-sex relations in Malaysia and a backlash for the Muslim country that has been known for being a moderate country.
“So, it is a pretty tricky country and Indonisia is kind of similar as well, so in those places it is extremely important for us to have really good editors who can bring advises on which kind of precautions you should take,” Wibell says and continues:
“We are not here to be political, we are not here to point fingers on how things should be. We respect the way things are, but we believe we can be part of the change by normalising something that should be normal.” | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Story highlights Suzanne Barr calls the allegations "unfounded and without any merit"
She says she is resigning to "prevent further harm to the agency"
Her resignation comes on the heels of a job discrimination lawsuit
Barr is accused of helping create a culture of sexual discrimination against men
The chief of staff to the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement resigned Saturday amid allegations that she helped create a culture of sexual discrimination against men.
Suzanne Barr, chief of staff for ICE Director John Morton, voluntarily stepped down last month and had been on paid leave.
In a letter to Morton, obtained by CNN, Barr called the allegations "unfounded and without any merit" and said she was confident her reputation would be restored.
"In recent weeks, I have been the focus of unfounded allegations designed to destroy my reputation, but of greater concern however, is the threat these allegations represent to the reputation of this agency and the men and women who proudly serve their country by advancing ICE's mission," she wrote.
"As such, I feel it is incumbent upon me to take every step necessary to prevent further harm to the agency and to prevent this from further distracting from our critical work."
ICE spokesman Brian Hale said Morton has received Barr's resignation.
"We wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors," he said.
The move comes on the heels of a job discrimination lawsuit filed by the head of the ICE office in New York against the Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.
In the suit, New York ICE chief James Hayes claims he was passed over for promotions in favor of less-qualified women, some of whom used to work for Napolitano when she was governor of Arizona. As part of his lawsuit, Hayes cites behavior by Barr in an attempt to prove an alleged culture of sexual discrimination against men, according to Hayes' lawyer, Morris Fischer of Maryland.
Hayes said Barr "created a frat house-type atmosphere that is targeted to humiliate and intimidate male employees."
When the lawsuit was filed, ICE spokesman Hale said the allegations were under review and that Barr had voluntarily placed herself on leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
That review is ongoing, according to a federal official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"We are obviously very pleased with the agency's first step in rectifying this situation by accepting Ms. Barr's resignation," said Fischer, Hayes' attorney. "Now is the time for the agency to move forward and make restitution to the individuals harmed."
Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said Barr's resignation "raises the most serious questions about management practices and personnel policies at the Department of Homeland Security."
The committee will continue a review of the case and the personnel practices of the DHS in general.
In his lawsuit, Hayes blames Barr for "sexually offensive behavior." In one alleged incident, Hayes said Barr called a male employee at a hotel and screamed at him, using crude language to say she wanted to have sex with him. Hayes also said that Barr moved the office contents of three male employees into a men's bathroom at ICE headquarters in 2009.
After his client's lawsuit was filed, Fischer said, he was contacted by other federal employees who had heard about Hayes' claim. They provided affidavits to Hayes and his lawyer alleging more sexually charged comments made by Barr, according to Fischer.
"We've been getting calls and e-mails from all over the country from people who want to come forward with information that may be helpful on this case," the attorney told CNN.
In an affidavit provided to CNN, another ICE employee describes a 2009 meeting in the office of ICE Director Morton, during which employees were discussing personal plans for Halloween. The male employee says he overheard Barr ask a "senior ICE employee" about the size of his genitals. "You're a sexy mother-(expletive)," she allegedly said.
Over 17 years, Hayes rose through the ranks from Border Patrol agent to a top position at headquarters in charge of Detention and Removal Operations, overseeing a $2.5 billion budget, his lawsuit states. Hayes claims he was removed from that job because of gender discrimination.
He is suing to recover $335,000 in moving costs and lost bonuses he says he incurred when he was transferred in 2009 to New York from Washington. His lawyer says other ICE employees have been reimbursed for similar expenses.
Hayes' lawsuit also claims he faced retaliation after threatening to file an Equal Opportunity Claim against DHS and cites six internal investigations that were all unfounded.
However, all but one of those investigations against him involving complaints by fellow employees were initially filed before Napolitano took office in 2008.
In court documents, Hayes said the complaints were reviewed after he began complaining.
DHS has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit and denied allegations of discrimination and retaliation. Its attorneys argued that the "unfounded allegations" made against Barr are "irrelevant" and an "attempt to embarrass or harass senior government officials."
According to a federal official who defended ICE as an agency of "dedicated law enforcement professionals," Hayes' lawsuit is filled with "false and unsubstantiated" allegations against Barr and other DHS employees.
The allegations "do not align with the fact that Mr. Hayes has routinely held high-ranking assignments, including his current position as head of ICE's second-largest field office in New York, the official added. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Posted: 3/11/2013 1:36:34 PM EDT [Last Edit: 3/12/2013 5:00:13 AM EDT by JBlitzen]
Here's my preliminary review from 8 days ago, as JBlitzen:
I've since gotten used to the type keyboard and it rocks. I've also gotten a great case for it, a rooCASE Netbook, iPad Carrying Case Deluxe Bag for 10,11.6 Inches - Black:
I have to say, after a couple weeks with this thing, it is FUCKING AWESOME.
You guys saying "what's that fancy doohickey need a them thar touchscreen for?" just don't get it. You've gotta break out of hillbilly land and think about what the actual user experience is like.
Most of my non-gaming activity on any computer is through the keyboard. And when I need to interact with something through the mouse, what happens? I reach my hand over to the mouse, 12 inches away. Then I get a good grip on the mouse and move it another few inches to try to get the mouse cursor onto the target UI element to click it. I might then click a couple more things, and then what? I let go of the mouse and move my hand 12 inches back.
Compare that with the Surface Pro. I'm typing on either the type cover or the onscreen keyboard (which itself has four different layouts including a thumb-friendly one and a full keyboard equivalent, which is absolutely awesome), and the type keyboard is only about 8 inches from the touchscreen. So guess what I do? I don't reach for a mouse, I just move my hand forward a bit and *touch*. Done.
And touching the screen doesn't move it because the Surface uses a kickstand, so the angle of the screen is fixed compared to the keyboard. It doesn't bend back or anything.
And if the finger isn't precise enough, I reach for the attached precision pen and use that.
It's very difficult to explain until you see it or try it, but it really is awesome.
And this thing runs everything. Here's SOME of the software I've installed on it so far, using the normal desktop and not the metro interface of course:
1. Office 2010 Professional
2. mIRC
3. Microsoft SQL Server 2012
4. mySQL
5. Internet Information Services
7. FileEdit (my own thing)
8. Textpad
9. Adobe Photoshop CS2
10. Adobe ImageReady CS2
11. Steam and a swath of games I haven't really tried yet
12. SmartFTP
13. .NET Framework SDK (aka Windows SDK)
14. Numerous custom business applications including a Wordpress/PHP/mySQL plugin which runs fine, many ASP.NET 3.5/MSSQL applications (two guesses what I do for a living...), and the latest monster which is ASP.NET/MSSQL/jquery/jquery-ui/json/ajax/SVG/and some other shit. Everything runs great, except that jquery-ui draggables need the -ms-touch-action css attribute set to override the default so as to permit touch dragging. But that's a cinch and it ends up working really well.
15. Firefox
16. Safari
17. Chrome
18. Remote Desktop is pre-installed but I've used it and it works fine.
19. PHP
etc., etc. And it multitasks just fine.
This thing is a fucking monster, I love it. It is everything I've wanted that laptops could never deliver. True portability and the ability to work on an iPad-esque form factor that can very easily be converted to a full, albeit small, desktop if desired, or anywhere in between.
And if you're looking at the Surface Pro and saying "that's ridiculously expensive, I'll just get an iPad, Microsoft is dum!" then you really have no fucking clue what you're talking about. The difference is the ability to run serious productivity software and background applications. iPads and Surface RT's and such are for CONSUMING content. The Surface Pro is for PRODUCING content. It's a massive difference, and only laptops currently compete with the Surface Pro.
(It's been fairly pointed out to me by a reddit user that cloud-based, RT, and iOS apps are advancing to the point that serious productivity in some tasks is performable purely from thin clients, in no small part due to software devs like myself automating and webinating everything we touch. This is a very good point, and I don't mean to sneer at people who get value out of those tools. I should rather say that the SP is a thick client whereas most tablets are thin clients.)
I see a few people mentioning some Surface Pro killer coming out in like six months for half again the price, and in a totally untested form factor. I can't imagine the thought process required for someone to say "haha that gadget sucks because I saw an ad that someone has a similar gadget coming out at some point in the distant future and they say it'll be super cool and it does basically the same stuff!"
I don't have the patience for that.
Pics with other crap for scale:
The SP screen looks dim because the flash is fighting with it and winning, and I've got the brightness set to like 25% to begin with, which I should really change.
Also notice how small and handy the damned SP is compared to that little composition notebook. I'm not positive but I think its width and height mean it could comfortably hide behind an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. And the case itself isn't much bigger, notice above how it's barely longer than my boot.
(And props to the Zebra F-701 pen)
This is what the screen actually looks like, with the desktop background and colors and borders and such I rigged up through photoshop from a bing-found image. Did the photoshop work ON the SP and it went fine.
(Incidentally, I'm not a huge fan of "look at me I spent money!" posts, but the SP has been getting a lot of flak so I thought I'd try to balance things a little. Despite being a senior software dev, I've never actually spent a penny on a portable computer beyond my aging smartphone, and I'm not a gadget hound at all, but this thing is obviously a good investment for me.) I bought a Surface Pro 128gb around 2/28 at Best Buy. The black type cover from MS.com arrived a few days later, as BB was out.Here's my preliminary review from 8 days ago, as JBlitzen: http://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/19b7oc/developing_on_the_surface_pro/ I've since gotten used to the type keyboard and it rocks. I've also gotten a great case for it, a rooCASE Netbook, iPad Carrying Case Deluxe Bag for 10,11.6 Inches - Black: http://www.amazon.com/rooCASE-Netbook-Carrying-Deluxe-Inches/dp/B002TYO3RQ/ref=pd_sim_pc_13 I have to say, after a couple weeks with this thing, it is FUCKING AWESOME.You guys saying "what's that fancy doohickey need a them thar touchscreen for?" just don't get it. You've gotta break out of hillbilly land and think about what the actual user experience is like.Most of my non-gaming activity on any computer is through the keyboard. And when I need to interact with something through the mouse, what happens? I reach my hand over to the mouse, 12 inches away. Then I get a good grip on the mouse and move it another few inches to try to get the mouse cursor onto the target UI element to click it. I might then click a couple more things, and then what? I let go of the mouse and move my hand 12 inches back.Compare that with the Surface Pro. I'm typing on either the type cover or the onscreen keyboard (which itself has four different layouts including a thumb-friendly one and a full keyboard equivalent, which is absolutely awesome), and the type keyboard is only about 8 inches from the touchscreen. So guess what I do? I don't reach for a mouse, I just move my hand forward a bit and *touch*. Done.And touching the screen doesn't move it because the Surface uses a kickstand, so the angle of the screen is fixed compared to the keyboard. It doesn't bend back or anything.And if the finger isn't precise enough, I reach for the attached precision pen and use that.It's very difficult to explain until you see it or try it, but it really is awesome.And this thing runs everything. Here's SOME of the software I've installed on it so far, using the normal desktop and not the metro interface of course:1. Office 2010 Professional2. mIRC3. Microsoft SQL Server 20124. mySQL5. Internet Information Services7. FileEdit (my own thing)8. Textpad9. Adobe Photoshop CS210. Adobe ImageReady CS211. Steam and a swath of games I haven't really tried yet12. SmartFTP13. .NET Framework SDK (aka Windows SDK)14. Numerous custom business applications including a Wordpress/PHP/mySQL plugin which runs fine, many ASP.NET 3.5/MSSQL applications (two guesses what I do for a living...), and the latest monster which is ASP.NET/MSSQL/jquery/jquery-ui/json/ajax/SVG/and some other shit. Everything runs great, except that jquery-ui draggables need the -ms-touch-action css attribute set to override the default so as to permit touch dragging. But that's a cinch and it ends up working really well.15. Firefox16. Safari17. Chrome18. Remote Desktop is pre-installed but I've used it and it works fine.19. PHPetc., etc. And it multitasks just fine.This thing is a fucking monster, I love it. It is everything I've wanted that laptops could never deliver. True portability and the ability to work on an iPad-esque form factor that can very easily be converted to a full, albeit small, desktop if desired, or anywhere in between.And if you're looking at the Surface Pro and saying "that's ridiculously expensive, I'll just get an iPad, Microsoft is dum!" then you really have no fucking clue what you're talking about. The difference is the ability to run serious productivity software and background applications. iPads and Surface RT's and such are for CONSUMING content. The Surface Pro is for PRODUCING content. It's a massive difference, and only laptops currently compete with the Surface Pro.(It's been fairly pointed out to me by a reddit user that cloud-based, RT, and iOS apps are advancing to the point that serious productivity in some tasks is performable purely from thin clients, in no small part due to software devs like myself automating and webinating everything we touch. This is a very good point, and I don't mean to sneer at people who get value out of those tools. I should rather say that the SP is a thick client whereas most tablets are thin clients.)I see a few people mentioning some Surface Pro killer coming out in like six months for half again the price, and in a totally untested form factor. I can't imagine the thought process required for someone to say "haha that gadget sucks because I saw an ad that someone has a similar gadget coming out at some point in the distant future and they say it'll be super cool and it does basically the same stuff!"I don't have the patience for that.Pics with other crap for scale:The SP screen looks dim because the flash is fighting with it and winning, and I've got the brightness set to like 25% to begin with, which I should really change.Also notice how small and handy the damned SP is compared to that little composition notebook. I'm not positive but I think its width and height mean it could comfortably hide behind an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. And the case itself isn't much bigger, notice above how it's barely longer than my boot.(And props to the Zebra F-701 pen)This is what the screen actually looks like, with the desktop background and colors and borders and such I rigged up through photoshop from a bing-found image. Did the photoshop work ON the SP and it went fine.(Incidentally, I'm not a huge fan of "look at me I spent money!" posts, but the SP has been getting a lot of flak so I thought I'd try to balance things a little. Despite being a senior software dev, I've never actually spent a penny on a portable computer beyond my aging smartphone, and I'm not a gadget hound at all, but this thing is obviously a good investment for me.) | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Background
==========
Pregnancy and birth mark a very special period in a woman\'s life. It is a time of physical and psychological changes that commonly impact women\'s physical well-being, mood, relationships and sexuality \[[@B1]\]. Many studies exploring sexual activity and correlated factors during pregnancy were performed more than two decades ago, and they focused primarily on genital response. In addition, they were published before the most important concepts of sexual satisfaction and distress began to be considered by researchers in this field.
A variety of brief self-report measures have been developed for assessing female and male function across a variety of sexual domains (e.g., sexual desire, arousal, orgasm and satisfaction). These brief self-report measures have been shown to have high reliability and validity and to be sensitive to treatment interventions. A review of validated methods for assessing female sexual dysfunction \[[@B2]\] and a review of male and female sexual dysfunction \[[@B3]\] did not refer to any specific questionnaire for evaluating sexuality during pregnancy.
Changes in attitudes towards sexuality during pregnancy, the different sexual responses proposed by Basson \[[@B4]\], the limitations of methodological flaws (i.e., small sample sizes, unrepresentative samples, and retrospective data), and inconsistencies in the results from published studies may limit the relevance of many studies \[[@B5]\].
Health care professionals report a number of barriers when inquiring about their patients\' sexual functioning, including concerns about embarrassing their patients, perceptions that patients lack confidence in their professional knowledge of sexuality, time constraints, and personal discomfort in talking about sex \[[@B6],[@B7]\].
Over the past few years, there has been growing interest among healthcare providers in quantifying female sexual dysfunction during pregnancy. Obstetricians have become interested not only in the direct effects of pregnancy but also in the impact of pregnancy or the adaptation to pregnancy has on the woman\'s overall well-being.
An extensive literature search on the prevalence and predictors of female sexual dysfunction reported no valid assessment for pregnancy and the postpartum period \[[@B8]\]. Barclay \[[@B9]\] developed the Pregnancy and Sexuality Questionnaire (PSQ), a validated instrument for studying sexual relations between partners during pregnancy, although they did not list the specific items included in their questionnaire within their article. Due to the lack of access to the only validated instrument, we created a new instrument to assess the impact of pregnancy on sexuality and sexual activity that was based on the PSQ. An additional goal was to further the state of the evidence through expanding the assessment to include questions about sexual satisfaction and distress, as proposed by the Second International Consultation on Sexual Dysfunctions \[[@B10]\].
The present investigation was undertaken to design and validate a Pregnancy Sexual Response Inventory (PSRI) to evaluate changes in sexuality during pregnancy, that was brief, broad in scope, useful for both low and high-risk pregnancies, validated, and available in full text.
Methods
=======
A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Botucatu Medical School, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Brazil to design and validate a questionnaire for assessing women\'s sexual attitudes and practices during pregnancy. It utilized a public hospital clinic for patients from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, including women both with and without private health insurance. Approval for the study was given by the local Institutional Research Bureau (IRB), and a written statement of informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to interview.
All pregnant women attending prenatal consultations at Botucatu Medical School between July 2004 and December 2005 were eligible. Women with a singleton pregnancy between 10--35 weeks of gestation, approximately equally distributed across the three trimester of pregnancy, were approached to participate in this study. Women were not eligible to participate in the study if they had been diagnosed with medical or obstetric conditions that made sexual intercourse inadvisable (e.g., placenta previa, antepartum hemorrhage or threatened preterm labor). No sample-size calculations were specifically considered for the assessment of sexual behavior and activity during pregnancy, because this was not a hypothesis-driven study but was mainly descriptive in nature. The participants were assured that the survey was anonymous and that their responses would be kept strictly confidential. Participants were also informed that they would be helping to improve knowledge of sexuality during pregnancy among Brazilian women. The semi-structured interviews were all performed by the same female researcher (CVCR) and took place in an undisturbed room at the prenatal care clinic. Each participant was interviewed individually immediately after recruitment.
There were five phases in development of the PSRI: (1) item selection; (2) item development; (3) determination of internal consistency, reliability and convergence; (4) content validity; and (5) determination of inter-interviewer reliability. For item selection an α-questionnaire given to 42 subjects, to understand how Brazilian women perceive their sexuality, consisted of 45 items that were developed using as references the Brazilian Sexual Life Study\[[@B11]\], the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI)\[[@B12]\], and the Pregnancy and Sexuality Questionnaire (PSQ) \[[@B9]\]. Both qualitative and quantitative items were included. The aim of this initial phase was to meet basic established criteria, i.e., to be clear and understandable, to provide comprehensive response choices, and to be relatively simple to administer. The domains assessed comprised socio-demographic status, perceptions of sexuality, and sexual behavior during pregnancy. The socio-demographic details gathered were: age, marital status, education level, occupation, obstetric history, religious affiliation, drug and alcohol abuse, and smoking. The domain of perceptions of sexuality covered typical sexual activities: tenderness, condom use during pregnancy, and importance of sex life. The domain of sexual behavior during pregnancy were items including frequency of sexual intercourse, sexual satisfaction, arousal, sexual difficulties and dysfunction, sexual desire, orgasm, dyspareunia, beginning of sexual intercourse and the pregnant woman\'s opinion about her partner\'s sexual response, sexual satisfaction and difficulties during pregnancy.
For item development (phase 2), a β-questionnaire was formulated. This utilized a 38-item interview based on the results of phase 1. Unlike the α-questionnaire, only one response was accepted for each question, and responses were limited to three possible answers. It was designed to elicit information about demographic characteristics and sexuality before and during pregnancy. Demographic characteristics assessed were: maternal age, gestational age, partnership status, socioeconomic status (i.e., education level and occupation), alcohol use, drug abuse, smoking during pregnancy, pregnancy planning and condom use. The questions relating to sexuality and sexual activity that were included as items in the three initial PSRI domains were categorized into nine domains: frequency of sexual activity; sexual satisfaction; arousal; sexual difficulties and dysfunction; sexual desire; orgasm; dyspareunia; beginning of sexual intercourse; pregnant woman\'s opinion about partner\'s sexual response, including the man\'s satisfaction; and difficulties during pregnancy.
Sixty-three pregnant women were recruited to participate in the evaluation of internal consistency (phase 3). All responded to the β-questionnaire.
In the fourth phase, content validity, the 38-item questionnaire resulting from the phase 3 testing was sent by mail to an independent expert panel of 25 PhD level academic experts in pregnancy and sexuality. Each candidate item was assessed for clinical relevance, breadth of scope, ease of understanding, language level, brevity for use in a busy prenatal care clinic, and adequacy as an instrument for evaluating the influence of pregnancy on the female sexual response.
Based on the results of this process, 26 candidate items were selected for the reliability evaluation (phase 5). Ten doctoral students in four different cities without any previous training each applied the PSRI to 10 subjects. Their results were compared to those of the Botucatu interviewees. Internal consistency, which is a correlational determination of the goodness of fit of the items within a domain, was measured on a scale of 0--1. Reliability is a measure of the relatedness of items within each factor.
The final PSRI was divided into 10 domains, eight of them relating to the woman\'s feelings and two to her perceptions of her partner. All domains included items on possible distress, as this concept is necessary to investigate sexual dysfunction. The eight domains of female feelings included: (a) Frequency, a three-item scale that assessed frequency of sexual intercourse relating to pregnancy; (b) Desire: a three-item scale that assessed the frequency of desire before and during pregnancy and the frequency of participation in sexual activity; (c) Arousal: a three-item scale that assessed the quality of sexual activity before and during pregnancy; (d) Orgasm: a three-item scale that assessed the frequency of orgasm before and during pregnancy; (e) Pleasure: a three-item scale that assessed the enjoyment of sex life before and during pregnancy; (f) Dyspareunia: a two-item scale that assessed pain during sexual intercourse before and during pregnancy; (g) Intercourse initiation: a three-item scale that assessed the start of participation in sexual activity before and during pregnancy; and (h) Female difficulties: a two-item scale that assessed any female sexual difficulties before and during pregnancy. The woman\'s perception of her partner\'s sexuality included: (i) Male sexual pleasure: a three-item scale that assessed the female view of male pleasure before and during pregnancy; and (j) Male sexual difficulties: a two-item scale that assessed the female view of male sexual difficulties before and during pregnancy.
Statistical Analyses
--------------------
The first series of evaluations was performed on an item-by-item basis in order to obtain items with adequate properties and clinical relevance for the final inventory. The internal consistency and reliability of the PSRI items within each factor were evaluated using Cronbach\'s alpha coefficient \[[@B13],[@B14]\]. The inter-interviewer reliability was assessed by means of the Kappa Index\[[@B15]\]. Reproducibility was evaluated using the Student t-test \[[@B16]\]. All data were analyzed using SAS statistical software version 8.2 \[[@B17]\].
Results
=======
Forty-two pregnant women participated in phase 1. This α questionnaire accepted more than one answer for each question and was not drawn up in sequential order. We reviewed the univariate frequencies and calculated Cronbach\'s alpha coefficient to assess internal consistency and reliability \[[@B13],[@B14]\]. The alpha coefficient was -3.2, which indicated low reliability.
We then developed a β-version of the questionnaire (phase 2) building on the information acquired from this first effort. Responses of 63 women were analyzed. We evaluated (stage 3) the univariate frequencies of responses and calculated Cronbach\'s alpha to establish the internal consistency reliability. Demographic characteristics were excluded from the Cronbach\'s alpha coefficient calculation. Cronbach\'s alpha coefficient for the β-version of the PSRI was 0.79.
Content validity is an essential methodological consideration in developing a questionnaire. It is concerned with the adequacy with which questions reflect the domains that are being measured. As the PSRI is a new questionnaire, it was important that its credibility be established. Of the 25 experts whose evaluation was requested with regard to its validity and reliability 18 (72%) responded. The specific questions asked and the responses are shown in Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}. Among the 18 academics who returned the survey, 13 totally agreed (K = 1.0), three partially agreed (K = 0.67) and two disagreed (K = 0.33). K indices of more than 0.5 were considered to be good correlations. We used the comments and critical reviews to revise the PSRI with regard to identify partner characteristics (partner age, partner schooling level, stability of partner relationship and occupation) and question order. We did not implement certain suggestions, including the recommendations that open-ended questions be used (i.e., where, why, how) and that more than one answer be allowed for each question because we had already eliminated these possibilities when moving from the alpha to the beta version of the questionnaire.
######
Content validity of PSRI
**Items** **Yes (%)** **No (%)** **Some (%)**
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------- ------------ --------------
1 -- Are the questions in the PSRI broad in scope? 72.2 16.6 11.1
2 -- In your opinion, are more questions needed in order to cover all the domains? 27.7 72.2 \--
3 -- Will the questions be easy for OG or the health team to understand? 83.4 16.6 0
4 -- Are the words clear? 88.9 11.1 0
5 -- Are there enough questions in the PSRI regarding screening for female sexual dysfunction at prenatal consultations? 88.9 11.1 \--
6 -- Are there enough questions in the PSRI for evaluating the influence of pregnancy on female sexual response? 88.9 11.1 \--
Kappa index: 0.33 to 1.00.
Reliability (phase 5) refers to the stability of measurement exhibited when a questionnaire is administered at different times (test-retest reliability) or by different people (inter-interviewer reliability). Because the PSRI is a semi-structured interview, inter-interviewer reliability is relevant to its development. The test-retest procedure is difficult to assess in relation to pregnancy because our prenatal care routine establishes four-week intervals between visits, and this interval is large enough for the subject\'s behaviour to change naturally as the pregnancy progresses. A Cronbach\'s alpha coefficient of 0.73 was obtained for the 38-item PSRI, indicating good internal consistency and reliability. A subsequent calculation excluding demographic items 1--12 was conducted; we found a Cronbach\'s alpha coefficient of 0.79 for the remaining 26 items.
Comparisons of the mean PSRI domain scores made between the main researcher and other interviewers showed no significant differences in all domains (p \> 0.05) (Table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"}).
######
Comparisons\* of mean PSRI domain scores between the main researcher and other interviewers
**Domains** Rudge, CVC ***Other interviewers*** **p-value\***
-------------------------- ------------------- -------------------------- ---------------
Frequency 1.8848 (± 0.6946) 1.9497 (± 0.7677) 0.617\*\*
Desire 1.9787 (± 0.9189) 1.9667 (± 0.9153) 0.760\*\*
Arousal 2.3252 (± 0.6465) 2.3700 (± 0.7199) 0.908\*\*
Orgasm 2.1920 (± 0.8102) 2.3800 (± 0.7886) 0.212\*\*
Satisfaction 2.5344 (± 0.6609) 2.2700 (± 0.7939) 0.065\*\*
Dyspareunia 1.6260 (± 0.4858) 1.5556 (± 0.5207) 0.468\*\*
Intercourse start 2.4667 (± 0.7063) 2.3086 (± 1.1070) 0.379\*\*
Female difficulties 1.5556 (± 0.6146) 1.6081 (± 0.6674) 0.683\*\*
About partners
Male sexual satisfaction 2.4538 (± 0.6733) 2.2604 (± 0.8996) 0.217\*\*
Male sexual difficulties 1.7480 (± 0.4360) 1.8500 (± 0.3589) 0.187\*\*
\*T-test; \*\*: non significant.
The final PSRI model is shown in the Additional file [1](#S1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} and consists of a pool of 38 items that address aspects of female sexual function during pregnancy.
Discussion
==========
This study documents the structure, internal consistency, reliability, content validity and inter-interviewer reliability of the Pregnancy Sexual Response Inventory (PSRI). This is a new questionnaire for evaluating sexuality and sexual activity during pregnancy. It was designed to be a clinical assessment instrument for addressing health concerns regarding to sexuality during pregnancy. Furthermore, this instrument is intended for use as a screening tool for sexual disorders during pregnancy. It is designed to be used by health care providers to assess the quality of pregnant women\'s sexual lives and to determine if referral to a sexologist is necessary. The PSRI was developed over a series of stages, including preselection of the initial items, pretesting on volunteer pregnant women and then validation of the internal consistency reliability and content validity by a panel of expert consultants. The results from the present investigation demonstrated that the PSRI has good internal consistency and reliability over its entire scale (Cronbach\'s α = 0.79) and is suitable for use in assessing sexual function during pregnancy in obstetric clinical samples.
The test-retest reliability was difficult to assess during pregnancy because of the typical interval between prenatal visits. A two-week period would have been ideal: short enough for the woman\'s behavior not to undergo the natural changes over the course of the pregnancy, but long enough for them not to remember the responses that they had given on the first occasion \[[@B9]\]. Inter-interviewer reliability was examined, and the results confirmed that the instrument was reliable. In all domains, the results showed no significant differences between the main researcher and other interviewers. To minimize bias, other interviewers included both male and female researchers in the last phase, all doctoral students, but not all physicians (e.g., physiotherapists, nurses, and psychologists). These results are relevant as clinically validated questionnaires to be used in Brazil and other Portuguese-speaking areas after review by specialized teams in cultural translation and adaptation. We also developed a prototype English version, but, due to cultural differences, further modifications specific to each country may be necessary. If a translation is created and back translated, a new validation study should be done \[[@B18]\].
One limitation to this tool is the incorporation of questions around pre-pregnancy sexual function. Although these items are essential for comparison, recall bias may challenge the validity of these responses. Therefore, we suggest that this questionnaire can optimally be applied before and during pregnancy to limit recall bias. Further studies are necessary to determine the extent to which recall bias may limit results validity.
It is important that healthcare providers in the field of obstetrics are able to counsel their patients on the emotional aspects related to sexual alterations during pregnancy and sexual aspects during pregnancy. \[[@B19]\]. Although women feel that attention should be given to sexuality and sexual activity during pregnancy and wish to receive more information around these issues, this is rarely discussed between pregnant women and their physicians \[[@B5],[@B19]\]. The availability of a brief, valid, reliable and gender-specific self-reported questionnaire for monitoring sexual functioning may diminish these concerns \[[@B7]\].
As a next step, we plan to develop validated thresholds that should be used in prenatal care to indicate referral to a sexologist.
Conclusion
==========
In summary, the PSRI is a 38-item (12 demographic characteristics and 26 sexual behavior/activity) clinical instrument providing a brief, semi-structured interview for assessing the impact of pregnancy on sexuality. Internal consistency and content validity testing of questionnaire items by an expert panel was followed by an assessment of inter-interviewer reliability. Since the PSRI is a clinically validated questionnaire that is easy to administer, its value as a research instrument should be investigated.
Competing interests
===================
The first author is recipient of a doctoral PDEE fellowship from the Brazilian Federal Agency for Graduate Studies (CAPES, Ministry of Education). The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.
Authors\' contributions
=======================
CR carried out the conception, study design, acquisition of data, and draft the manuscript. IC participated in its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. AD participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analyses. IM carried out the acquisition of the data and draft the manuscript. AB carried out the acquisition of the data and participated in statistical analyses. GL carried out the literature review and participated in the study design. JO carried out a critically review for important intellectual content. MR: carried out the draft of manuscript and the final approval of the version to be published. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supplementary Material
======================
###### Additional file 1
**Items comprising the final version of the PSRI.**
######
Click here for file
Acknowledgements
================
We deeply thank all mothers who kindly participated in this survey. We would like to acknowledge the work of all the members of the study team, especially Rita de Cassia Chaves Grammelsbacher, Márcia Regina de Almeida Ramos Gonçalves, Jose Eduardo Corrientes, Helio Rubens de Carvalho Nunes, Maria Aparecida Mourão Brasil, Maria das Dores, and Omar Andrade de Rezende Filho for different contributions to the paper.
Finally, we like to thank Professor Steven Witkin, from Cornell University, for the final revision of this manuscript.
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Central |
Here’s the problem with reading the books that everyone else has read. It makes you more like everyone else. Checking off the various books from your high school curriculum, and then, perhaps the “100 Greatest Books Ever Written” is the educational equivalent of skating to where the puck is and not where it’s going.
Reading is about insight into the human experience, about understanding. What does following in the footsteps of everyone else get you? It gets you to exactly the same conclusions as everyone else.
Not to say that the books in our “canon” aren’t valuable, because they certainly are. It’s just that you have to remember for every Great Gatsby out there, there were 10 others written at the same time about the same thing that for whatever twist of cultural fate and cumulative advantage are mostly lost to us (one of the books on this list fits that definition to a T).
The Western world has been publishing books for some 3,000 years. Memoirs, histories, aphorisms, essays, treatises, tutorials, exposes, stories, epics–it’s all there. Humble yourself to think that our grasp of the lists of the “best” of these books will always miss more than it captures.
Which is why I put together the list of books below in their rough historical order. They are all great pieces of literature or learning and at the same time, mostly unknown. Sure, you might have heard of a few of them (in which case, consider yourself part of the minority) but far too many people haven’t. Put down your David Foster Wallace and pick up one of these. See what happens.
Cyropaedia (a more accessible translation can be found in Xenophon’s Cyrus The Great: The Arts of Leadership and War)
Xenophon, like Plato, was a student of Socrates. For whatever reason, his work is not nearly as famous, even though it is far more applicable. Unlike Plato, Xenophon studied people. His greatest book is about the latter, it’s the best biography written of Cyrus the Great (aka the father of human rights). There are so many great lessons in here and I wish more people would read it. Machiavelli learned them, as this book inspired The Prince.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus: A Roman Slave by Publius Syrus
The best philosophy comes from people who were not “philosophers.” Syrus was a slave and his moral maxims are far better than perhaps the most famous book in this category, those of Duc de la Rochefoucauld. Some favorites: “The mightiest rivers are easy to cross at their source.” “Avarice is the source of its owns sorrows.” And of course, extra-applicable to this list, “Many receive advice, few profit by it.”
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Gregory Hays translation, do not read the others, they suck)
Those familiar with my writing will not think this is an unknown book. But for far too many people it is. You can get a PhD in philosophy and not be forced to read this–and that’s a travesty. I imagine because it’s one of the few texts that wastes no time on pretension or explanations of the world. It simply tells you how to live a little better. Just wrap your head around this: At some point around 170 AD, the single most powerful man in the world sat down and wrote a private book of lessons and admonishments to himself for becoming a better, kinder and humbler person. And this text survives and you have access to it today.
The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects by Giorgio Vasari
Basically a friend and peer of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael Titian and all the other great minds of the Renaissance sat down in 1550 and wrote biographical sketches of the people he knew or had influenced him. Unless you have a degree in Art History it’s unlikely that anyone pushed this book at you and that’s a shame. Because these great men were not just artist, they were masters of the political and social worlds they lived in. There are so many great lessons about craft and psychology within this book. The best part? It was written by someone who actually knew what he was talking about, not some art snob or critic, but an actual artist and architect of equal stature to the people he was documenting.
The Man Without a Country by Edward E. Hale
Patriotism is not a concept that gets a lot of love today. But this essay/book makes you think a little. Released in 1863 during the height of the Civil War, the plot’s simple: an innocent man caught up in Aaron Burr’s treasonous conspiracy stands trial for his actions. When asked to address the judge, he bitterly remarks that he wishes to be done with the United States forever. So the judge grants his wish as a punishment–he’s sentenced to live the rest of his life in a cabin aboard ships in the US Navy’s foreign fleet, and no sailor is to ever mention the US to him again. He dies many years later, an old man like Rip Van Winkle, unsure of the changing world around him. For those with some understanding of historical, you’ll enjoy the meta-fiction of it, for those that haven’t it is still a very good look into early America.
12 Years A Slave by Solomon Northup
This one won’t stay unknown for long as Brad Pitt’s doing a movie about it but please don’t let that scare you away. If there is one book you read about slavery in America, read this one. It’s the real story of a born freedman in the North who, as a traveling musician, was brought out of his home state on false pretenses in order to be captured, kidnapped, and transported South to be sold as a slave. It’s fucking harrowing and written lucidly and articulately by the person who experienced it. For 12 years, he was a slave–and not some border-state slave, but a bayou slave in the deep South. He was cut off from his family and his freedom, and even among the slaves he was different. He couldn’t tell anyone he could read and write, he couldn’t even tell anyone that he was formerly free because they threatened to kill him if he did. This book is just as good as Frederick Douglass’ memoir and I think illustrates the horrors of slavery in a much more undeniable way.
Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce
Mark Twain, for all his bitterness and sarcasm, was just more fun for average people to read than Ambrose Bierce. But Bierce is the one who truly captured the Civil War–a terrible and awful conflict in which death and destruction and stupidity were far more prevalent than strategy or heroism. This book (half fiction and half memoir) contains the story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” which Kurt Vonnegut called the greatest short story ever written. Too many books about the Civil War are inaccessible, with their flanking movements and war vocabulary. This book is all people. Must read.
Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi by George Devol
The memoir of a professional gambler, fighter and criminal who rode the riverboats of the Mississippi and Red Rivers. It’s a true and vibrant snapshot of a period of American life that you can’t get anywhere else. Gun fights, brawls, cons–it’s all here. Fascinating, peculiar and very easy to read.
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
A dark and moving first-person narrative, about the conflicting drives for self-preservation and self-immolation inside all of us. Hunger is about a writer who is starving himself. He cannot write because he is starving and cannot eat because writing is how he makes his living. It’s a vicious cycle and the book is a first-person descent into it. Strangely modern for being published in 1890 and ultimately inspired a lot of great stream-of-consciousness writing since (but influence goes unacknowledged because Knut was a Nazi sympathizer).
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son by George Horace Lorimer
This book is the preserved correspondence between Old Gorgon Graham, a self-made millionaire in Chicago, and his son who is coming of age and entering the family business. The letters date back to the 1890s but feel like they could have been written in any era. Honest. Genuine. Packed with good advice.
My Life and Battles by Jack Johnson
This is the lost and translated book that came out of a series of pieces Johnson–perhaps the greatest boxer who ever lived–wrote for a French newspaper in 1911. It’s not very long but it is full of really interesting strategies and anecdotes. You get the sense that he was an incredibly intelligent and sensitive man–clearly had a thirst for drama and attention. Who knows what place he would occupy in our culture and history had he not been taken down so thoroughly by racism and genuinely evil people? But despite all that, he was always smiling. As Jack London put it after Johnson’s most famous fight: “No one understands him, this man who smiles. Well, the story of the fight is the story of a smile. If ever a man won by nothing more fatiguing than a smile, Johnson won today.”
Company K by William March
Far and away the best book ever written about WWI. Better than All Quiet on the Western Front or Goodbye to All That or any of the other classics. But that’s the problem–WWI was awful, perhaps the most awful thing of the 20th century. And this book is forgotten precisely because it portrays the war and its pointlessness too realistically. We want to know, but we don’t really want to know.
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
I don’t think there was anyone in the 1920s who would have believed that this book would be completely forgotten. By all accounts, it was destined to be a classic critical novel of the American Dream. You can’t read anything about the ’20s and ’30s that doesn’t comment on Babbitt (sold 130,000 copies its first year, HL Mencken loved it, it won Lewis a Nobel Prize). Calling someone a “Babbitt” was considered an insult and the phrase became a constant topic of conversation in the media and literature. Yet, here we are 80-90 years later: you’ve probably never heard of the term or the book. Perhaps it’s because the biting satire of American suburban middle class life cuts deeper now than it did then. It doesn’t matter if the book is old, it’s still very funny and at its core, a critique of conformity and what Thoreau called the “life of quiet desperation.”
Asylum: An Alcoholic Takes the Cure by William Seabrook
In 1934, William Seabrook was one of the most famous journalists in the world. He was also an alcoholic. But there was no treatment for his disease. So he checked himself into an insane asylum. There, from the perspective of a travel writer, he described his own journey through this strange and foreign place. Today, you can’t read a page in the book without seeing him bump, unknowingly, into the basic principles of 12-step groups and then thwarted by well meaning doctors (like the one who decides he’s cured and can start drinking again). On a regular basis, he says things so clear, so self-aware that you’re stunned an addict could have written it–shocked that this book isn’t a classic American text. Yet all his books are out of print and hard to find. Two of my copies are first editions from 1931 and 1942. It breaks your heart to know that just a few years or decades later, his options (and outcome) would have been so very different (he eventually died of an opium overdose).
Ask the Dust by John Fante
This is the west coast’s Great Gatsby. Fante has benefited from some recognition–mostly thanks to Bukowski championing him in his later years–but because the book is about Los Angeles and not New York City, it is mostly forgotten. Better than Gatsby, it is a series. Bandini, the subject of the series, is a wonderful example of someone whose actual life is ruined by the fantasies in his head–every second he spends stuck up there is one he wastes and spoils in real life. He’s too caught up and delusional to see that his problems are his fault, that he’s vicious because he can’t live up to the impossible expectations they create, and that he could have everything he wants if he calmed down and lived in reality for a second. This is the series in order by my favorites: Ask the Dusk, Dreams from Bunker Hill, Wait Until Spring, Bandini and The Road to Los Angeles. (DO NOT watch the movie version of Ask to Dust, it is embarrassingly bad.)
Why Don’t We Learn from History? and Strategy by BH Liddell Hart
These are two very short books but will help you understand the topics more than thousands of pages on the same topic by countless other writers. In my view, Hart is unquestionably the best writer on military strategy and history. Better than von Clausewitz, that’s for sure (who for all the talk is basically useless unless you are planning on fighting Napoleon). His theories on the indirect approach is life changing, whether you’re struggling with a business or just office politics. I can’t say much more than read these books. It’s a must.
The Crack Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald
If you like Asylum, read The Crack Up, a book put together by Fitzgerald’s friend Edmund Wilson after his death. It is such an honest and self-aware compilation of someone hell-bent on their own destruction. At the same time, Fitzgerald’s notes and story ideas within the book make it undeniably clear what a genius he truly was. It’s a sad and moving but necessary read.
On the Rock: Twenty Five Years in Alcatraz by Alvin Karpis
John Dillinger was played by Johnny Depp. Most people know who he was–mostly because he died in a hail of bullets. But they forget that the other Public Enemy #1 at the time was Alvin Karpis and he didn’t die. In fact, he lived up until the 1980s. Just enough time to do a couple decades at Alcatraz with guys like Al Capone. During a temporary transfer to an alternate prison, Karpis met a young weirdo named Charlie Manson and taught him how to play guitar.
Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther
Written in 1949 by the famous journalist John Gunther about his death of his son–a genius–at 17 from a brain tumor, this book is deeply moving and profound. Every young person will be awed by this young boy who knows he will die too soon and struggles to do it with dignity and purpose. Midway through the book, Johnny writes what he calls the Unbeliever’s Prayer. It’s good enough to be from Epictetus or Montaigne–and he was fucking 16 when he wrote it. It’s reading the book for that alone.
The Harder They Fall by Budd Schulberg
Budd Schulberg’s (who wrote On the Waterfront) whole trilogy is amazing and each captures a different historical era. His first, What Makes Sammy Run? is Ari Gold before Ari Gold existed–purportedly based on Samuel Goldwyn (of MGM) and Daryl Zanuck. His next book, The Harder They Fall is about boxing and loosely based on the Primo Carnera scandal. His final, The Disenchanted is about Schulberg’s real experience being attached to write a screenplay with a dying F. Scott Fitzgerald. All you need to know about Schulberg’s writing is captured in this quote from his obituary: “It’s the writer’s responsibility to stand up against that power. The writers are really almost the only ones, except for very honest politicians, who can make any dent on that system. I tried to do that. And that’s affected me my whole life.”
Losing the War by Lee Sandlin
This is an essay, not a book, but if you have to read one thing about WWII, this is it. Sandlin is a master and the essay is free, read it.
The Measure of My Days by Florida Scott Maxwell
The daily notes of a strong but dying woman (born 1883, written in 1968) watching her life slowly leave her and wind to a close. The wisdom in this thing is amazing and the fact that most people have no idea exists–and basically wait until the end of their life to start thinking about all this is very sad to me. Also I love her generation–alive during the time of Wyatt Earp yet lived to see man land on the moon. What an insane period of history.
The Power Tactics of Jesus Christ and Other Essays by Jay Haley
The title essay in this book is peerless and amazing. The rest of the essays, which talk about Haley’s unusual approach to psychotherapy are also quite good. If you’ve gone to therapy, are thinking about going to therapy, or know someone going to therapy, this book is a must-read.
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant
I’ll end with this book because it’s the most recent. The (true) story is simple: man in Siberia wounds tiger while hunting to feed his family. Tiger goes on killing spree while hunting the man down, and is stopped only when the Russian government dispatches a special SWAT team to track and kill it. This is probably the single best piece of nonfiction journalism I’ve ever read. I suppose it’s not totally unknown but I’m guessing you haven’t read it and that needs to change, now.
—
I’ve tried to capture most of the major eras and epochs above, from classical Greece to the Renaissance to the great wars of the 20th century. Yes, it is heavy on American history. But guess where most of the people reading this live?
Like I said, there are certain classic texts that we must read–books that have become cultural rites of passage. No one is saying you should skip your high school reading list. The problem is thinking that that’s enough. In order to work for “everyone,” those books had to be safe, they had to be accessible, they had to be provocative but not too provocative. There is a very understandable reason that we read All Quiet on the Western Front and not Company K. Or that we read Huckleberry Finn to understand slavery and not Solomon Northup’s real memoir.
Because the latter books are real. The others keep us comfortable, even when they make us think.
The next step is digging a little bit beneath the surface, leaving the road and exploring parallel or divergent paths. I hope some of these books do that for you. They certainly did for me.
This post originally ran on ThoughtCatalog.com. Comments can be seen there.
Like to Read?
I’ve created a list of 15 books you’ve never heard of that will alter your worldview and help you excel at your career.
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英政府は４日、英中西部アングルシー島での原発新設計画に関し、日立製作所と本格的な交渉に入ることで合意したと発表した。総額３兆円規模の事業費の分担などで一致。計画への直接投資を検討する考えを表明した。今後、詳細を詰める。
英政府は「原子力は英国のエネルギーの将来において重要な役割を持つ」と指摘。日立は２０２０年代前半の稼働開始を目指しており、１９年に投資の最終判断を下す。
３兆円規模の事業費のうち、２兆円程度を英国側が融資する方針。残る約１兆円を日立、英政府と現地企業、日本の政府系金融機関や電力会社の３陣営が等分して投資する方向で検討している。
PR
日立はこのところ、事業撤退も視野に英政府との話し合いを進めてきた。５月３日には中西宏明会長がメイ英首相とロンドンで会談し、詰めの協議をした。（共同） | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
{#s1}
Well it isn't, is it? Imagine yourself as a patient. You are, first and foremost, not at all happy about having to see a doctor about this worrying *problem* that has been disturbing you for rather too long. You are sitting in the waiting room, thinking. You are still sitting in the waiting room, thinking, more than half an hour after your scheduled appointment time has come and gone.
The doctor is late, as can happen, of course, especially in busy hospital environments. The problem is that when he eventually does get there, not only does he seem to totally ignore the extra 30 minutes that you have been obliged to suffer, but even adds insult to injury during the interview and the physical examination.
He never explains what he is doing during the physical, and tends to be rather too judgmental in his attitude. Shouldn't medicine be a caring profession, where doctors at least try to empathize with patients when they are at their most vulnerable and in need of understanding? You get the impression that you are simply a pathology, and not a person that is worried, and maybe even terrified, about his future well-being. In your opinion, in the patient's opinion, this is just *not good enough*.
And now for something completely different. Formula one racing drivers need to know the track they will be speeding around to avoid injuring themselves and others, and hopefully to win the race they will be taking part in. I have heard stories of certain scrupulous drivers that drive around the track on a scooter on the days before the race, so that they might get a closer look at the cracks and bumps in the track. Is this *good enough*? Possibly.
Legend has it that the great Ayrton Senna would avoid scooters altogether, and would walk around the race track, feeling the eventual cracks and bumps through the soles of his shoes. In my humble opinion, this is*more than good enough*! But, there again, Senna was arguably the greatest driver of all time, or at least he really was a top-level professional.
The world of peer-to-peer communication is full of examples that show us how *good enough*is never quite good enough. Failing to follow a journal's *Instructions to Authors*, for example, is not only dangerous, but has also to be considered rather silly. I recently came across a paper that risks rejection, or, at the very least, delayed publication as the graphic elements do not correspond to the appropriate legends. Not good enough.
In another paper, evidently a 'team effort' as far as writing is concerned, there is excessive repetition and a great deal of redundancy. Not good enough. Furthermore, the writing style of the separate sections is planets apart, making it evident to any reader that no serious editing has been carried out. Once again, not good enough.
Endless examples, unfortunately, exist.
What about when you find commas - 55,25 - instead of decimal points - 55.25 - in tables? What about when there is no agreement between subjects and verbs (our data is well-documented *should be*our data *are* well documented) or adjectives and subjects (little data are available on the matter *should be few*data are available on the matter). Too pedantic? Although in many contexts nowadays data is considered a singular noun like news and information, in the biomedical field we virtually always use *data* as a plural, and therefore with a plural quantifier and a plural form of the verb.
Hands up if you have never seen a poster that is full of minute writing, together with one or two poor quality images, all thrown haphazardly onto some kind of psychedelic, where blue will undoubtedly be present, background.
How many times have you seen presentations at congresses where the speaker himself (or herself, naturally) seems to be more interested in the coffee break than the audience that unfortunately has to sit through this disaster, pending said coffee break?
Remember. None of this is good enough, and never will be good enough.
\\\'This is the fourteenth of a series of articles on this topic. Send any questions to michael.john\@hsr.it who will answer them as part of this column\\\'
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Central |
It’s no secret that airlines want to shove as many people into their planes as humanly possible, shaving off legroom and, frankly, butt room inch by inch. It’s such an issue that the some U.S. senators put forth a plan to regulate seat sizes earlier this year (it failed).
Not every airline offers the same amount (or lack) of room between seats, but it’s hard to visualize the difference between 31 inches and 34. CNN Money’s graphics whizzes put together this animated gem, which shows how legroom compares across several different airlines. The animation moves through the different setups, bolding the airline’s name and legroom inches as the seat setup is visualized above. JetBlue’s refrain, "the most legroom in coach," bears out, while Spirit’s stingy spirit—half a foot less legroom than Jetblue—becomes even more apparent.
[h/t Digg] | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Is it still April Fool's?
I actually can't tell if this is a real thing, but with the last minutes of Dogstructoid bearing down on us (long may it live), I'll take my chances.
Quill Studios is developing a dog-themed visual novel called A Summer with the Shiba Inu. That's really all you need to know to decide if you're interested or not.
You can check out a trailer for it below, or get your paws on a 15-minute demo over here.
Click to open photo gallery: | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Even though America is soundly post-racial and racism is over because Barack Obama and Cheerios, it turns out that many white Americans still don't have any non-white friends. I find this odd, considering that white Americans typically cite their "black friend" as evidence of their inability to harbor racist beliefs. You guys just made him up, didn't you? Carl's not real, is he? That's cold. Carl deserves better than that.
According to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, 40% of white Americans have no non-white friends, and about 25% of non-white Americans have zero friends outside their own race. These numbers are disappointing, but not surprising to me. As a biracial kid in mostly white schools, I was the non-white friend.
In fact, the dearth of interracial friendships can probably be traced back to the failure to satisfactorily integrate public schools. It's satisfying to hope that the open-mindedness of today's children will somehow end racism at an unknown future date, but we're not exactly setting them up for success on that front by doubling down on the status quo. Despite the fact that school segregation officially ended almost 60 years ago, schools are somehow more segregated in 2013 than they were in 1954. White students attend schools that are 77% white—kinda tough to find a Carl given those odds. To recap, schools were more racially diverse at a time that there were segregation laws on the books than they are today, when we're legally free to go wherever we want, sit next to whoever we want, date whoever we want, and bum illicit cigarettes off of whatever 18-year-old member of the senior class we want.
If you're looking for someone to blame, or are looking for more reasons to hate the Supreme Court, you can start with Chief Justice John Roberts and his merry band of conservative dodos. The Roberts Court has made it nearly impossible for public schools to remedy racial imbalances, encouraging racial isolation and an overwhelming lack of interracial contact. Confronted with this reality, I'm rather shocked the 40% number wasn't a lot higher.
But as much as I love to blame Roberts for stuff, it's not his fault we all ended up segregated in the first place. White flight and discriminatory housing practices have also contributed to racially homogenous neighborhoods. And we can't blame Roberts or Scalia or any other shitty judge for that. That's on us. The racial prejudice that underlines housing patterns is what allows stereotypes to flourish. It allows white Americans to continue to think of people of color as threats instead of as people. When you don't think of people as people, it's easier to put them in jail, abuse them, discriminate against them, and forget about them. It's easier for people like George Zimmerman to kill them and feel nothing afterwards.
So, to the 40% of you white people who have no non-white friends, I issue this challenge: Stop clutching your goddamn purse and leave your neighborhood every once in awhile. Join the hiring committee at Lily White & Bread, LLP and start advocating for minority applicants at all levels in the company. Patronize minority-owned businesses. Stop shooting everyone all the time. Worship at the shrine of Melissa Harris-Perry. Read this quintessential piece about white privilege by Peggy McIntosh. Stop depending on your kids to fix racism so you don't have to.
But most importantly, don't be a dick. Carl will thank you for it.
Meagan Hatcher-Mays is a recent graduate of Washington University Law School in Saint Louis. She does a significant amount of yelling on Twitter. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
The wild popularity of our Obama poster parodies has motivated us to create a set of playing cards for the toiling masses with these images, under the title "To each according to his hyphen" and the subtitle "Everybody is an equal winner."
Making 54 pictures in vector format took a lot of time, but the glorious news is that all these files are now also available for making high-resolution posters, T-shirts, and other revolutionary products.
Incorporating this project into the current Five Year Plan required an unparalleled effort and sacrifice from all comrades in Central Planning and Visual Agitation Departments. Striving to meet the quota ahead of schedule we didn't spare creativity in implementing a series of motivational purges, denunciations, deportations, and executions. But despite such selfless efforts, the backstabbing capitalist saboteurs still managed to delay our shipment and we received the final product only this afternoon, which makes it too late for the Winter Solstice Holiday online shopping - but just in time for the New Year shopping!
I am humbled by your inclusion of the Che' in your superb deck of playing cards. As a revolutionary of the people, I have been honored numerous times. Your homage to my marketing skills is somewhat misplaced, however. The Visual Agitation Department and Central PLanning has done all of the work, and therefore must receive all of the profits. I say, use my likeness for any purpose the Party wishes. I plan to order some posters for the restaurant. Do they come framed, or have you a recommended vendor who could do this? KUDOS to you and your hardworking associates, Sir.
As a prole from the great socialist republic of Minnesota I'd offer this character for the Joker card...(*can't do the red blue and pumice thing so please help me and I will continue to dig this trench*)
This is an amazing collection you have here Red I Vladimir Toot'en am proud, and approve distribution of this merchandise.
All profits go to me.
AbecedariusRex
As a prole from the great socialist republic of Minnesota I'd offer this character for the Joker card...(*can't do the red blue and pumice thing so please help me and I will continue to dig this trench*)
Very amusing. I don't know if I should laugh or cry. Bernie said I should go slumming here. You little people are so, ummm..., lowbrow and oafish - in a nice way. Playing cards, gambling, lots of cheap gin and malt liquor too, no doubt. Oh well. You don't need to live lives of poverty and despair any longer. We have resumed our rightful place.
I have humble suggestion, if you plan a second printing to update your marvelous card deck that you revise the Jack of Spades. Though Scranton is a nice touch, the revisionist suggestion below may be a little more apropos………
I love this deck comrade, however, I must ask why are there RethugliKKKans in this deck. Aren't we a progressive collection for a greater cause?
The actual reason Big Red put Repugnicans in the mix is for a "Manchurian Candidate" style revolution. When one of these cards is observed by the victim operative, he / she / transgendered or whatever will do anything it is programmed to do.
I must say they have been cooking up some pretty powerful drugs medications for those who are so willing to sacrifice for the common good. Their numbers names will live on in history as great revolutionaries.
Very amusing. I don't know if I should laugh or cry. Bernie said I should go slumming here. You little people are so, ummm..., lowbrow and oafish - in a nice way. Playing cards, gambling, lots of cheap gin and malt liquor too, no doubt. Oh well. You don't need to live lives of poverty and despair any longer. We have resumed our rightful place.
This is an amazing collection you have here Red I Vladimir Toot'en am proud, and approve distribution of this merchandise.
All profits go to me.
AbecedariusRex
As a prole from the great socialist republic of Minnesota I'd offer this character for the Joker card...(*can't do the red blue and pumice thing so please help me and I will continue to dig this trench*)
Red missed that one that would be a great Joker card.
Comrade Franken would be a great addition to the deck. But wouldn't he just demand recounts on why he ended up on the card he did? What about those additional decks of cards he may claim are in a voting location?
I know I said in my previous post of "redone" cards purloined from the masterful original deck that it would be my last. However, I was motivated by Red Square to look up and study the cast of characters on the cards that I was not very familiar with. Soros was one that I admit I didn't know well, other than he was filthy rich.
What I found looking around was quite an eye-opener and it is a true testament to the Ministry of MiS-Information's Mission (MSM) of keeping the facts generic and suppressed.
Though the title of Red Square's Soros'card "Cash" is both accurate and succinct, after a little reasearch I feel that the card below might sum it up better......
Buenas Dias comrade and a merry Winter Solstice Holiday (Gaia be praised) to you!I do hope you are not defaming (but only honoring) our own Daddy Warbucks, i.e.: the "good" George? He is indeed the model that all progressives should emulate.
While the writer in the aforementioned artilce is literally, quite talented, with the absolute power that the George wields, the blasphemous traitor won't have too long to live in our World of This Tuesday! Soros is our global ambassator, and held in very high regard by the Party.
Viva La' Revolution, comrade Robot! I must now go and prepare a feast of epic proportions to feed the Inner Circle!
I do hope you are not defaming (but only honoring) our own Daddy Warbucks, i.e.: the "good" George? He is indeed the model that all progressives should emulate.
Che Gourmet!You misunderstood me!
I was um, um…(gulp)..in no way impugning (gulp!) Grand Marshal $oros’s good name. I am so sorry that it might have appeared that way. Perhaps it was too much Egg-Nog (party approved of course) last night.
I salute the Ministry of MiS Information’s Mission (MSM) for being the Vanguard of the people and letting us know only what we should and need to know!
I denounce the writer of that worthless, slanderous and factless blog as an enemy of the People’s Democracy ™ !! The similarity between $oros’s previous manipulation of the British and Thailand’s government and then the subsequent crash of their stock markets making him billions of dollars is entirely coincidental and should in no way be inferred with his current support of Dear Leader!
I shall have front row seats for the event in our World of This Tuesday, despite the fact that there won’t be any where near enough porta-potties for the masses! This proves my unflagging devotion to the Party.
As a prole from the great socialist republic of Minnesota I'd offer this character for the Joker card...(*can't do the red blue and pumice thing so please help me and I will continue to dig this trench*)
come on...we all know you Photoshopped(tm) this. Nobody is that ugly in real life.
As a prole from the great socialist republic of Minnesota I'd offer this character for the Joker card...(*can't do the red blue and pumice thing so please help me and I will continue to dig this trench*)
come on...we all know you Photoshopped(tm) this. Nobody is that ugly in real life.
This Current TruthTM post is like crack or meth once you start you just can't leave it alone.
Full appologies to Red Square but his Queen of Hearts in my opinion was just not quite accurate enough with the title Glass Ceiling and did not clearly reflect her performance during the recent presidential campaign season. The poorly doctored card below is my re-interpretation......
How do you guys make these posters? I really wish someone made one with Joseph Heller's picture, and wrote "Catch-22" under it. It would definitely be great. An Osama picture with "Peace", "Liberty" or "Freedom" would be good too. If you know what I mean. If some makes the Heller one for me, I'd like it without a card.
I guess I don't know why he would get his own card. The best one in the playing deck to get the title of "Catch 22" in my opinion would be McCain. He sure beats Obama but a "Catch 22" would be what you would get having a Moderate Republican at the helm classically: "you're damned if you do and damned if you don't" (i.e. stuck with Obama).........
Don't give me any lip about how no one here knows who Danielle is or what she looks like--I know, and that's all that matters, dammit!
And what do you mean, "How does she fit in with the rest of the cards?" Who says she has to? The Card Fairy? I say she doesn't, because I'M PINKIE OBAMA! Dammit!
And another thing. You put a plastic dish of M & M's on my dressing table this evening. I specifically said I wanted them served in Waterford crystal ONLY, dammit! Plus you forgot to remove all the orange M & M's--AGAIN! Now I'll have nothing but bad karma till the next full moon.
For that matter, so will you.
Don't forget what happened the last time you tried telling me you have a life "too" like you think you're as equal as I am.
I'll be back on Monday with an even longer list of unreasonable demands, so get cracking. Do I have to do everything around here?
Don't give me any lip about how no one here knows who Danielle is or what she looks like--I know, and that's all that matters, dammit!
And what do you mean, "How does she fit in with the rest of the cards?" Who says she has to? The Card Fairy? I say she doesn't, because I'M PINKIE OBAMA! Dammit!
And another thing. You put a plastic dish of M & M's on my dressing table this evening. I specifically said I wanted them served in Waterford crystal ONLY, dammit! Plus you forgot to remove all the orange M & M's--AGAIN! Now I'll have nothing but bad karma till the next full moon.
For that matter, so will you.
Don't forget what happened the last time you tried telling me you have a life "too" like you think you're as equal as I am.
I'll be back on Monday with an even longer list of unreasonable demands, so get cracking. Do I have to do everything around here?
I heard M&M is a big bad corporation. I hope you know what that means. Also, only The Red Square's voice counts because he got The Voice of The People. I'm still gonna get my Heller card because Red Square <3 Skinnee Jay.
Does the Sharp Shovel of Collective Correction have a People's Red Revolutionary Stick of Justice as a handle? I really need to get authorization to make a factory to produce those and come up with a five year plan for production!
Commissarka Pinkie, I do apologize missing your adopting the name of Pinkie Obama. The Cube is a big and wondrous thing and I spend all of my time with my legs crossed in a mantra position saying, "My legs aren't like this to protect the family jewels but because it's Marx..hum..Engels..hum..Mao...hum...Soros...hum...Zinn...hum...Algore...hum"
When you do that much creative meditating you are sure to miss things.
I'm not quite sure though how you're Pinkie Obama. Was this a special dispensation from Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the few milliseconds when he was not saying, "God DAMN America!"? I'd think that Missy Michelle might not like the suggestion that His O'liness had two Hos for O.
Where is my card? The most important card in the deck, you idiot! You have a short memory! Come and dine with me, I will help you get your memory refreshment, uh, refreshed.
This is what goes on the damn card!His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshall Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC ['Victorious Cross'], DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular, and Professor of Geography.
I heard M&M is a big bad corporation. I hope you know what that means. Also, only The Red Square's voice counts because he got The Voice of The People. I'm still gonna get my Heller card because Red Square <3 Skinnee Jay.
Spare me your petty distractions from The Real Issues, Skinnee Jay.
Yes, I eat M & M's a couple of times a year, and I feel horribly guilty about it, just as I feel guilty about plagiarizing the words of others like Laurie David. I probably shouldn't do it. But the truth is, I'm not perfect. This is not about perfection. I don't expect anyone else to be perfect either. That's what hurts the Progressive Movement--holding people to a standard they cannot meet. That just pushes people away.
The important thing is that I care about the issues that matter--the right to abortion, opposition to the Iraq war, and undying hatred of Bush. In fact, I have worked tirelessly to Raise Awareness about the issues that matter, to show the world just how much I care. That's the hardest, bravest, most patriotic thing in the world to do, Skinnee Jay, and all you can do is snipe at me for eating M & M's. It's easy to just stand around and criticize others; whereas it takes great courage to do what I'm doing to take our country back from the irreversible destruction Bush has wrought. Yes, even as I sit here eating my M & M's, I'm always thinking of how he's destroyed the world forever, and because of that I must never give up Raising Awareness of The One's promise to deliver us from the evil that is Bush.
Now, Skinnee Jay, do you have anything of substance to contribute to this discussion?
Is that a trick you learned from Our Many Titted Empress? You know, after the Clintons had their dog Buddy neutered we didn't hear a great deal about the Presidential Pecker and then he had a heart problem. The rhubarb was that Hillary had found a two-for-one sale.
Theocritus, as you know I was a faithful Hillary Operative until The One descended from above, so I'm no longer that kind of HO. I am now a Hussie for Obama, but I will not hesitate to use the lessons I learned from the Empress in defense and praise of His 'Oly Name.
Skinnee Jay: Nice avatar. Would you be one of the Sailor Scouts? I thought they all disbanded to join the Obama Youth so they could use their special powers to spread Hope and Change throughout the universe.
And if it means you're a gurl, then that will greatly excite The Man With The Hand That Holds The Cube. He tends to drop it with a great surprised clunk every time a new female wanders into The Collective.
I heard M&M is a big bad corporation. I hope you know what that means. Also, only The Red Square's voice counts because he got The Voice of The People. I'm still gonna get my Heller card because Red Square <3 Skinnee Jay.
Spare me your petty distractions from The Real Issues, Skinnee Jay.
Yes, I eat M & M's a couple of times a year, and I feel horribly guilty about it, just as I feel guilty about plagiarizing the words of others like Laurie David. I probably shouldn't do it. But the truth is, I'm not perfect. This is not about perfection. I don't expect anyone else to be perfect either. That's what hurts the Progressive Movement--holding people to a standard they cannot meet. That just pushes people away.
The important thing is that I care about the issues that matter--the right to abortion, opposition to the Iraq war, and undying hatred of Bush. In fact, I have worked tirelessly to Raise Awareness about the issues that matter, to show the world just how much I care. That's the hardest, bravest, most patriotic thing in the world to do, Skinnee Jay, and all you can do is snipe at me for eating M & M's. It's easy to just stand around and criticize others; whereas it takes great courage to do what I'm doing to take our country back from the irreversible destruction Bush has wrought. Yes, even as I sit here eating my M & M's, I'm always thinking of how he's destroyed the world forever, and because of that I must never give up Raising Awareness of The One's promise to deliver us from the evil that is Bush.
Now, Skinnee Jay, do you have anything of substance to contribute to this discussion?
Anything?
Anything at all?
Woops. I thought progress was supposed to be perfect. I mean, didn't Karl Marx wanted a perfect society? However, I do understand your problems. I will also Raise wareness and protest against Bush. I bet Da Mamba KKKonspirasi was his fault.
Oh and sorry for double-post, but yeah. He played Yossaria. I checked it at Wikipedia.
Gloriousl! Our proles are using the NewsSpeak Creation "WIKI" (Worthless Information Knowingly Inserted) system and feeling very confident concerning the answers obtained there. Yet another hard won victory for the Party and the Ministry of MiS-Information's Mission (MSM).
The Wikipedia has Commandant Gore listed as a Harvard cum laude graduate despite his many C grades and a D in earth science. When Harvard was asked about it, they stated he did have a cum laude average in his Government Classes. Another great example of DoubleSpeak. Truly we are winning this war.....
Woops. I thought progress was supposed to be perfect. I mean, didn't Karl Marx wanted a perfect society? However, I do understand your problems. I will also Raise wareness and protest against Bush. I bet Da Mamba KKKonspirasi was his fault.
Today's Modern Progressives uh De Party (should be trademarked fo' socialism soon) duzn't hold demselves down t'puh'fecshun. Dat would interfere wid de feelin's uh de Victim Class dat we's depend downon fo' unquesshunin' suppo't. Man! So's whut if Bill lied unda' oad in sexual harassment law suit; dat's about sex, and we all honky jibe about sex. Right? Feel bettah? ah' do. 'S coo', bro. Only de O'ly One be puh'fect, as long as we's feel pimp-tight about his intenshuns.
Now, we's do hold conservatives down t'de standard uh puh'fecshun. If ya' even tap yo' toes in de men's room, den ya' iz EBIL and gots'ta end yo' life. Dat be why Bu$hitla' be so's hated by de baaaad feelin' folks uh Today's Modern Progressives uh De PartyTM--CUZ BUSH WON'T UHF HISELF WHEN WE (Party members, intellectuals, and media o'gans) TELLS HIM DAT HE BE EBIL. Feel pissed about Bush? See dat gots'ta all make sense; if not stand in Jiffy-Lobo line.
NEXT FOO' brace yourself!
(Today's Modern Progressives of The Party (should be trademarked for socialism soon) don't hold themselves up to perfection. That would interfere with the feelings of the Victim Class that we depend upon for unquestioning support. So what if Bill lied under oath in sexual harassment law suit; that's about sex, and we all lie about sex. Right? Feel better? I do. Only the O'ly One is perfect, as long as we feel good about his intentions.
Now, we do hold conservatives up to the standard of perfection. If you even tap your toes in the men's room, then you are EVIL and must end your life. That is why Bu$hitler is so hated by the good feeling folks of Today's Modern Progressives of The PartyTM--BECAUSE BUSH WON'T OFF HIMSELF WHEN WE (Party members, intellectuals, and media organs) TELL HIM THAT HE IS EVIL. Feel enraged about Bush? See it will all make sense; if not stand in Jiffy-Lobo line.
Wait. You're saying we're not perfect because we are the Victim class? Oh I see. We support the Victim class. However, we can't support the Victim class if they're not victims right? Oh I see! Then what do you think of what Israel is doing right now against the HamAss?
Oh, and can anyone tell me how to do that "TM" thing? Thanks for sharing!
Skinnee Jay, we support victims if we can't claim to be victims. It's much better to be a vicim than anything else, unless you can support victims and then get to say who gets to do what, and the power is better than the misery memoir. I mean, what would you prefer: having wounds or selling the gauze and antiseptic and making other people pay for it?
Hamas is good because when Hamas tries to blow up Israelis and they screw up and get hurt and try to go back to Palestine, the Palestinians won't have them and the Israeli hospitals treat the people who tried to kill them.
I'll bet you're really happy that Comrade Dr. Strangelove gave you a translator for the Solstice Holiday. I know I am. Is it derived from Swahili? Our Obamessiah speaks this dialect too,(as do all Kenyans) Has Commissar Theocritis tossed some bling your way, yet for your tireless promotion of his new $$$ grabbing scheme?
And Comrade Skinnee Jay, what is this bullshit about our glorious Red Square 's <3 than you?You had better watch what you say about our wonderful Red Trapezoid! He wields the biggest, baddestshovel of all in the collective, prole!
We must also hate Israel for their very large number of entrepreneurs, their start-ups, and their technology. They design silicon chips, the same ones that Palestinians used in computers to get calling lists to call Americans to get them to vote for his O'liness. Who seems to be staffing his cabinet with people with no use for Israel. But since American Jews voted 81% for the Obamessiah, no doubt that will all turn around just fine.
Oh yeah I forgot. Israel is civilized-we should be progressive and go back to living in the nature. Like in "Lord of the Flies" right? Ralph is just a turd there. Jack was amazing. He sure supported freedom and equality and got rid of anyone who resisted.
Our teacher made us read that book, by the way. I live in Israel, so maybe it isn't so good if an Israeli teacher told you to read it.
You live in Israel? How can you have sympathy with the downtrodden? Your hospitals serve all sick people. You have an actual democracy. That is not the right thing for a progressive leading us to the Progressive World of Next Tuesday.
For this you are sentenced to cleaning off the remnants of the talent-shitting bird on the Rancho de Rio Grande.
Skinnee Jay, we support victims if we can't claim to be victims. It's much better to be a vicim than anything else, unless you can support victims and then get to say who gets to do what, and the power is better than the misery memoir. I mean, what would you prefer: having wounds or selling the gauze and antiseptic and making other people pay for it?
(My favorite is when we make the victims; blame the evil conservatives; gain power to support the victims; make more victims with that power; and then take moral credit for caring for the victims. Liberal job security, because we care.)
Che Gourmet
I'll bet you're really happy that Comrade Dr. Strangelove gave you a translator for the Solstice Holiday. I know I am. Is it derived from Swahili? Our Obamessiah speaks this dialect too,(as do all Kenyans) Has Commissar Theocritis tossed some bling your way, yet for your tireless promotion of his new $$$ grabbing scheme?
(I love my translator. I have to run it through three times, ghetto-jive-ebonics, to get it to come out right. I haven't receivedanything from Commissar Theocritis. I do owe him for my life. When my community organization skills failed to win Texas for his O'ly'ness, I was marked for termination. Brother Theo got me a gig as a gang-banger. Now I take steady money for government subsidies as a performing rap artist, as long as I don't really rap.)
You live in Israel? How can you have sympathy with the downtrodden? Your hospitals serve all sick people. You have an actual democracy. That is not the right thing for a progressive leading us to the Progressive World of Next Tuesday.
For this you are sentenced to cleaning off the remnants of the talent-shitting bird on the Rancho de Rio Grande.
I don't have sympathy for Israel. Famous bands come here. Anime community is evolving and Mangas are being sold without censorship. Library contains offensive books as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and there are attractions for gamers. I won't even go to the technology. It's a disgusting place. I can't write anymore. Not enough people pick a shovel and support true freedom. They just follow their hobbies and actually do something with their lives. Unlike ol' great HamAss.
I'm glad to find that you care nothing for Israel. You're quite right: shovels over research. Democracy over strapping bombs to retarded women. I bet you can't find a single Israeli willing to strap a bomb on his one-year-old child.
Oh, and can anyone tell me how to do that "TM" thing? Thanks for sharing!You type ( tm ) without spaces. It will automatically be replaced by ™ once you hit "enter". Any time you're curious about an element in the post, click on "quote" and examine the resulting code.
Oh, and I changed your avatar, The Skinnee Jay, to make it more compliant with the our revolutionary ideals: big red bows on top and big red D-cups on the chest. That is our standard for female comrades unless you are part of the Breasts Not Bombs collective; those have the Party permission to parade around without the big red D-cups on the chest - or any other cups for that matter.
A URL converts automatically to a link if it's preceded by other characters, but it doesn't if it starts a paragraph. So placing a dash or another character followed by space before the URL helps to turn it into a link.
I may do your request some other day when I have more free time. But you must justify the relevance of such work to advancing the Party cause, class struggle, and establishing the proletarian dictatorship. At this point the only connection I can see is weakening of the conservative bourgeois morals through pedophilia.
Comrades! These inflatable units need to be distributed equally to all party members. I know of a few comrades in Japan who even now are moving to be married to their cartoon character of choice. This would be the ideal for the new model of marriage in the world of next Tuesday. If the spousal unit were to offend physically or emotionally, out comes the eraser and all is well; no cartoon, no problem, I say! Slaves and repositories of lust with only the stroke of a pen. Perhaps the ONE(TM) could add this to his burgeoning agenda of important issues. Ten cartoon women to every man, mr. president.
Anime industry is on it's way to Capitalism(tm). I simply suggest using these too before the whole industry gets corrupt. Just like we use Chrismas to destroy the capitalist Christians, we shall use these 2 to destroy the capitalist Anime industry.
The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They come to be accepted by degrees, by precedent, by implication, by erosion, by default, by dint of constant pressure on one side and constant retreat on the other - until the day when they are suddenly declared to be the country's official ideology. ~ Ayn Rand
China launches cube-shaped space object with a message to aliens: "The inhabitants of Earth will steal your intellectual property, copy it, manufacture it in sweatshops with slave labor, and sell it back to you at ridiculously low prices"
Progressive scientists: Truth is a variable deduced by subtracting 'what is' from 'what ought to be'
Experts agree: Hillary Clinton best candidate to lessen percentage of Americans in top 1%
America's attempts at peace talks with the White House continue to be met with lies, stalling tactics, and bad faith
Starbucks new policy to talk race with customers prompts new hashtag #DontHoldUpTheLine
Hillary: DELETE is the new RESET
Charlie Hebdo receives Islamophobe 2015 award; the cartoonists could not be reached for comment due to their inexplicable, illogical deaths
Russia sends 'reset' button back to Hillary: 'You need it now more than we do'
Barack Obama finds out from CNN that Hillary Clinton spent four years being his Secretary of State
President Obama honors Leonard Nimoy by taking selfie in front of Starship Enterprise | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
INTRODUCTION {#s0}
============
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic relapsing inflammatory disorders that have been categorized into two main clinical phenotypes: ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). The global prevalence of IBD has been rising significantly, largely paralleling industrialization, with a concurrent increase in health care costs ([@B1]). Although their etiology and pathogenesis are not fully understood, genetic polymorphisms associated with IBD suggest an underlying role of aberrant immune responses to imbalanced gut microbiota as a key mechanism involved in disease pathogenesis ([@B2], [@B3]). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 160 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with IBD, many of which are involved in pathways that modulate the host response to microbial stimuli. The NOD2 gene, the first gene identified to have an association with IBD susceptibility, recognizes components of the bacterial cell membrane ([@B4], [@B5]). In patients with IBD, the diversity of the fecal microbiome is reduced compared to that of healthy controls (HC) ([@B6]). The major changes in the diversity of gut microbiota in the context of new-onset CD (before treatment is initiated) are correlated strongly with disease status ([@B7][@B8][@B9]). A broad pattern that differentiates IBD patients from healthy individuals has begun to emerge: reduced biodiversity, decreased abundance of several taxa in the *Firmicutes* phylum, and increased abundance of *Gammaproteobacteria* ([@B10][@B11][@B14]). Such alterations are consistent with the response of a complex microbial community to environmental stressors introduced by the host inflammatory response such as the production of alternative electron acceptors that promote nitrate respiration ([@B15]), as well as of oxygen radicals leading to oxidative stress ([@B11]). However, most of the aforementioned studies have been conducted in North American, European, and Japanese populations, whose genetics, ethnic backgrounds, environments, dietary habits, and lifestyles differ from those in China ([@B16]). It is well known that the gut microbiotas of human populations residing across different geographical locations are associated with significant differences in microbiota composition ([@B17]). However, it is currently unknown whether a disease state such as IBD would modify the composition of the gut microbiota in a consistent fashion independently of these geographical influences.
The natural history of CD is characterized by poorly predictable phases of quiescence and activity ([@B18]). In the absence of reliable predictors at the individual level, optimal medical strategies (e.g., top-up versus top-down management) remain debatable. The use of Infliximab (IFX \[Remicade\]), a human/mouse chimeric monoclonal antibody targeting tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) ([@B19]), is an effective treatment for patients with refractory moderate to severe CD. Nevertheless, some patients do not respond to IFX or else relapse after initial response. Our previous studies had suggested that the relapse rates were 10.53% in CD ([@B20]) and 25.0% in UC ([@B21]) at week 22 and were much higher after 30 weeks posttreatment. The inability to effectively predict the long-term efficacy of IFX treatment prevents adoption of a more targeted approach to the use of this class of biological agents with the intent of reducing both costs and the potential incidence of adverse events.
The choice of therapy is currently driven primarily by clinical predictive factors ([@B22][@B23][@B24]). Fecal calprotectin, a cytosolic protein of mucosal neutrophils that are extruded into the gastrointestinal (GI) tract when they undergo apoptosis ([@B25]), is useful to predict relapse in IBD patients ([@B23], [@B26]). Patients with high C-reactive protein (CRP) levels are more likely to achieve and maintain a response to biological therapy than those with low or normal CRP levels ([@B27]). Recently, the gut microbiota has gained attention as a reservoir of numerous microbial markers. It was found that reduced *Firmicutes* abundance is correlated with a shorter time to relapse after IFX withdrawal ([@B28]). The abundance of six clades of bacteria, including *Eubacterium rectale* and *Bifidobacterium* spp., predicted the response to anti-TNF-α medication in pediatric IBD patients ([@B29]). Thus, the gut microbiota may provide potential biomarkers for monitoring and predicting IBD treatment outcomes.
A global rise in IBD has been reported, especially in countries with previously low incidence rates, including China. To our knowledge, only a few studies have reported the characteristics of gut microbiota diversity in Chinese IBD patients ([@B30], [@B31]) and have mainly described correlations between shifts in microbial composition and disease phenotypes. Quantitative real-time PCR or denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), each targeting the 16S rRNA gene of selected bacteria, was used in those two Chinese studies. Due to the low throughput and low resolution of these methods, some key players of the microbial dysbiosis in IBD may not be discovered.
Using bar-coded 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we examined the gut microbiota of Chinese healthy individuals and patients with new-onset UC and CD before treatment initiation. We also included subjects representing a variety of phenotypes with respect to disease locations and activities. These data sets were compared with results from the RISK and PRISM IBD cohorts in the United States ([@B9]). This multicenter association study of gut microbiota and IBD, in which over 1,000 treatment-naive patients were included, represents the most comprehensive cross-cohort and cross-ethnic analysis involving this disease state performed to date. Additionally, we characterized the composition of fecal microbiotas from prospectively recruited patients with CD prior to and after receiving IFX treatment. The aims of this study were to identify gut microbiome patterns in Chinese IBD patients with different disease activities and statuses, to discover homogeneity and heterogeneity of IBD gut microbiota patterns in different populations, and to find out if there are any universal and specific biomarkers in gut microbes which can indicate and predict disease progression and IFX treatment responses.
RESULTS {#s1}
=======
Dysbiosis of gut microbiota patterns in Chinese IBD patients. {#s1.1}
-------------------------------------------------------------
We recruited 72 CD patients, 51 UC patients, and 73 healthy volunteers who were members of the Han ethnic group living in China. The clinical characteristics of the participants are shown in [Table S1](#tabS1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} in the supplemental material. Sixteen patients with active CD received IFX treatment and were followed for up to 30 weeks posttreatment.
10.1128/mSystems.00188-17.8
Baseline clinical characteristics of the subjects. Download TABLE S1, DOCX file, 0.1 MB.
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A total number of 1,376,142 high-quality 16S rRNA gene sequences were obtained for 196 samples from the cross-sectional study, with an average of 14,042 ± 7,304 (mean ± standard deviation \[SD\]) sequences per sample.
Consistent with previous reports ([@B6], [@B32]), the levels of alpha diversity of both CD and UC in our cohort were markedly reduced compared to the levels seen with healthy controls as indicated by the Shannon index ([Fig. 1A](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). *Firmicutes*, *Bacteroidetes*, and *Proteobacteria* were the most abundant phyla, together accounting for up to 95% of the sequences on average, while *Actinobacteria*, *Fusobacteria*, *Verrucomicrobia*, *Tenericutes*, *Synergistetes*, and *Cyanobacteria* each accounted for 0.1% to 5% of sequences (see [Fig. S1A](#figS1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} in the supplemental material). Genus-level characterization is more complex, as the 20 most abundant genera observed in our study constituted only up to 60% of the total microbiome, with *Bacteroides* dominating the composition ([Fig. S1B](#figS1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). At both the phylum and genus levels, we observed that the microbial composition seen with both CD and UC patients was different from that seen with the HC group ([Fig. 1B](#fig1){ref-type="fig"} and [C](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}; see also [Fig. S2A](#figS2){ref-type="supplementary-material"} and [B](#figS2){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). We used Kruskal-Wallis analysis combined with Bonferroni adjustment for multiple comparisons to screen the gut microbiome differences at the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) level between HC, CD, and UC. A total of 18 OTUs were significantly enriched in healthy controls and reduced in both CD and UC patients. These OTUs distinguished healthy controls from IBD patients, although they did not enable a distinction between patients with CD and UC ([Fig. 1D](#fig1){ref-type="fig"} and [Fig. S2C](#figS2){ref-type="supplementary-material"}), and the same groups were similarly indistinguishable in the Gevers RISK cohort ([Fig. S2D](#figS2){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Most of these OTUs belonged to the order *Clostridiales*. This was also confirmed by the use of a linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) algorithm, showing that it was the most significantly enriched taxon in the healthy individuals ([Fig. 1C](#fig1){ref-type="fig"} and [D](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). Specifically, levels of members of the family *Lachnospiraceae*, including the genera *Roseburia* and *Coprococcus*, were depleted under IBD conditions. This result accords with previous studies showing reduction of *Clostridiales* levels in IBD microbiota ([@B33]). Unsupervised clustering using principal-coordinate analysis (PCoA) based on weighted UniFrac distance data ([@B34]) also showed that the gut microbiotas of IBD differed significantly from those of healthy controls (HC) (analysis of similarity \[ANOSIM\] test, *P* = 0.001) and that the HC samples showed greater *Clostridiales* enrichment ([Fig. 1E](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}).
10.1128/mSystems.00188-17.1
Microbial composition at the phylum level (A) and genus level (B) of HC, CD, and UC groups. Download FIG S1, TIF file, 0.7 MB.
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10.1128/mSystems.00188-17.2
Discriminative taxa determined by LEfSe (the LDA cutoff value was set at 3.5) between HC versus CD groups (A) and HC versus UC groups (B). The supervised classification analysis was performed using random forest analysis to distinguish between the UC and CD groups in the present Chinese cohort (C) and in the RISK cohort of Gevers et al. (D). Download FIG S2, TIF file, 1.7 MB.
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{#fig1}
The alteration of gut microbiota in Chinese IBD patients is consistent with that of Westerners. {#s1.2}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is well known that host lifestyle affects gut microbiota. The gut microbiotas harbored by the Chinese population are different from those harbored by the Western population ([@B35]). Additionally, samples from different studies of gut microbiota are generally clustered by study due to the technical variations in sample collecting and processing. Thus, it is not surprising that the Chinese samples were separated from the Western samples in the PCoA when we combined data from this study with data from the cohorts studied by Gevers et al. ([@B9]) ([Fig. S3](#figS3){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Despite the overall microbial difference across the studies as shown in the PCoA plot, the results of the differential abundance analyses described above suggest that the microbial shift in Chinese IBD patients, compared to HC patients, may resemble that in Westerners. To examine this further, we selected OTUs that differed in relative abundances between HC and CD in our Chinese cohort, on the basis of a permutation test performed with a false-discovery rate (FDR) of less than 0.1 (the criterion was mildly relaxed to include more OTUs for this analysis). The log~2~-fold changes in these OTU abundances between the CD and HC groups were computed and plotted against those from biopsy samples of RISK and PRISM cohorts. As shown in [Fig. 2A](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}, these OTU abundance changes were highly correlated across these cohorts (Spearman correlation coefficient *r* = 0.459, *P* value = 3.41e−5 for PRISM; *r* = 0.641, *P* value = 3.47e−10 for RISK). A similar universal pattern was also seen in the UC cohorts (*r* = 0.327, *P* value = 0.001 for PRISM; *r* = 0.455, *P* value = 1.58e−6 for RISK) ([Fig. 2B](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}). However, stool samples from the two Western cohorts showed much less resemblance ([Fig. S4A](#figS4){ref-type="supplementary-material"} and [B](#figS4){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). The reasons for these differences are unclear; they could even have arisen from different practices in sample collection and processing. Samples were collected from the midstream stool in the present study, which is less convenient than swabbing but may retain the signal of microbial changes in IBD patients better, due to the biogeographic heterogeneity in the stool.
{#fig2}
10.1128/mSystems.00188-17.3
PCoA based on unweighted UniFrac distance indicates that the Chinese samples (including HC, CD, and UC) are separated from the cohorts of Gevers et al. Download FIG S3, TIF file, 1.1 MB.
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10.1128/mSystems.00188-17.4
The similar shifts of gut microbiota in IBD across ethnicities. Comparison of OTUs (A and B) and predicted KOs (C and D) differentiated between the healthy and IBD subjects in the current study and the study by Gevers et al. performed with stool samples. Each dot represents an OTU or KO statistically significantly different between healthy and disease samples in Chinese cohorts. Axes indicates the log2-fold changes of these OTU/KO abundances between disease subjects and healthy individuals in the Chinese cohort (*x* axis) and Western cohorts (*y* axis), with RISK data indicated in green and PRISM data in blue. The correlation coefficients and the *P* values determined from comparisons between the cohorts are labeled on the plot. Download FIG S4, TIF file, 0.7 MB.
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Furthermore, we predicted KEGG orthology (KO) data from 16S rRNA amplicon taxonomic profiles using PICRUSt and found that the KO abundances changed similarly across cohorts, reflecting the patterns that we saw at the OTU level ([Fig. 2C](#fig2){ref-type="fig"} and [D](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}; see also [Fig. S4C](#figS4){ref-type="supplementary-material"} and [D](#figS4){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). These patterns were even more consistent in the KEGG orthologues than the OTUs, suggesting that there are some variations among cohorts and ethnic groups in OTU composition, while those OTUs seem to provide similar functions. Specifically, the pathways that increased in members of both the CD and UC groups included xenobiotic degradation (caprolactam degradation, limonene and pinene degradation, and toluene degradation), amino acid metabolism (tryptophan metabolism and lysine degradation), and electron transfer carriers; in contrast, the decreased pathways included microbial motility (bacterial chemotaxis, bacterial motility proteins, and flagellar assembly), germination, and sporulation.
To explore the possibility of using the observed OTU changes to identify IBD, we built supervised classification models based on Chinese samples and evaluated the accuracies of the models with 5 repeats of 10-fold cross-validation. The gut microbiota is informative enough to distinguish HC samples from CD and UC samples with model accuracy of 89.5% and 93.2%, respectively. Similarly, the model built from RISK and PRISM biopsy samples achieved high prediction accuracies as well, although Western fecal samples are less informative for classification of IBD from HC ([Fig. S5](#figS5){ref-type="supplementary-material"}), in concordance with the findings in the correlation analysis described above. Additionally, to investigate whether the model can be applied across cohorts, we tested a model trained by the use of Chinese samples on the RISK and PRISM samples. The prediction accuracy across cohorts was reduced only marginally. For example, the predictive model constructed using Chinese CD stool has an 87.5% accuracy level in predicting PRISM CD biopsy samples and the model trained using Chinese UC stool has a 79.1% accuracy level in predicting PRISM UC biopsy samples ([Fig. 3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}). The RISK cohort is less well predicted than the PRISM cohort, likely because the RISK samples were mainly from children and adolescents instead of adults. Consistent with [Fig. 2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"} and [Fig. S4](#figS4){ref-type="supplementary-material"}, the biopsy samples are better predicted with the Chinese model than the fecal samples ([Fig. S6A](#figS6){ref-type="supplementary-material"} and [B](#figS6){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Taken together, these findings suggest that there are consistent changes in gut microbiota of IBD patients across populations and that they can serve as universal biomarkers for the classification of IBD states ([@B32]).
10.1128/mSystems.00188-17.5
Supervised classification of the HC group and the CD and UC groups using biopsy or stool samples from the RISK cohorts. The PRISM cohort does not have sufficient samples to build a robust classification model through cross-validation. Download FIG S5, TIF file, 0.5 MB.
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10.1128/mSystems.00188-17.6
Gut microbiotas distinguish IBD subjects from healthy subjects similarly across cohorts. The black ROC curve indicates the accuracy of the classification model built on data from the Chinese cohort for classifying the HC data versus the CD data (A) and the HC data versus the UC data (B). Colored curves represent the prediction accuracies seen in applying this model to the other cohorts. Download FIG S6, TIF file, 1.4 MB.
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{#fig3}
Gut microbiota signatures associated with disease activities. {#s1.3}
-------------------------------------------------------------
We further analyzed the characteristics of gut microbiota in different disease activity subgroups of IBD patients. LEfSe results showed larger proportions of *Bacilli*, represented by *Streptococcus*, in patients with mild CD compared to other groups. Significant enrichment in *Proteobacteria* and *Enterococcaceae* ([Fig. 4A](#fig4){ref-type="fig"} and [C](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}) and depletion in *Ruminococcaceae* and *Clostridiales* ([Fig. 4A](#fig4){ref-type="fig"} and [B](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}) were seen in patients with moderate to severe CD. Levels of *Bacteroidetes*, represented by *Bacteroidia*, and *Pseudomonadaceae* were enriched in patients with mild UC (Montreal classification of severity of ulcerative colitis score, S1). *Streptococcus* levels were increased in patients with moderate UC (score, S2), resembling mild CD. Species of the *Proteobacteria* phylum and *Bacilli* class were enriched in patients with severe UC (score, S3) ([Fig. 4D](#fig4){ref-type="fig"} and [F](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). *Clostridiales* levels were decreased in all active UC patients ([Fig. 4E](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). Notably, a majority of these differences in microbiota with regard to disease activity were related to the *Firmicutes*, *Bacteroidetes*, and *Proteobacteria* phyla ([Fig. 4A](#fig4){ref-type="fig"} and [D](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}).
{#fig4}
Crohn's disease may lead to a stricture phenotype and penetrating complications, which indicate disease progression and impact the efficacies of treatments ([@B27]). In an advanced stage, CD can induce fistulas, i.e., abnormal passageways created between the bowel and other body parts. They often cause severe impairment in the patient's quality of life ([@B36]). To determine whether any of the microbes were associated with these disease behaviors, we used the LEfSe algorithm for analysis and found that *Enterobacteriaceae* and *Pseudomonadaceae* were enriched in stricturing CD (CD_B2 \[Montreal classification of stricturing behavior of Crohn's disease\]), while levels of *Aeromonadaceae* in the *Proteobacteria* phylum were enriched in penetrating CD (CD_B3 \[Montreal classification of penetrating behavior of Crohn's disease\]) ([Fig. S7A](#figS7){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). *Enterococcaceae* and *Pseudomonadaceae* were the key taxa enriched in fistulizing CD patients ([Fig. S7B](#figS7){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). These results also show that the increase in *Proteobacteria* (*Enterobacteriaceae*) was strongly correlated with CD severities.
10.1128/mSystems.00188-17.7
Biomarkers determined for CD behavior (A) and for CD behavior complicated by the presence of fistulas (B) using LEfSe and illustrated by cladogram. The LDA cutoff value was set at 2. Download FIG S7, TIF file, 0.9 MB.
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The gut microbiota is restored during disease remission, and certain microbes, especially *Clostridiales*, enabled predictions of the response of IFX treatment in CD. {#s1.4}
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We followed 16 CD patients treated with IFX to week 30 to explore if the gut microbiotas were restored after IFX treatment and whether there were any microbial differences between IFX response and IFX relapse patients. A total number of 1,646,642 sequences were obtained from 27 fecal samples (including the 11 HC samples described above) for this longitudinal analysis, with an average of 15,106 ± 6,902 (mean ± SD) sequences. After initial IFX-induced remission, relapse occurred in 43.75% (7/16) of patients when reexamined at the end of week 30. The IFX treatment alleviated disease activity and increased microbial alpha diversity, measured by both Shannon index and PD whole tree ([Fig. 5A](#fig5){ref-type="fig"} and [B](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}), in the response group and, to a lesser extent, in the relapse group. The level of *Clostridiales*, the reduction of which was found as a signature of IBD ([Fig. 1D](#fig1){ref-type="fig"} and [E](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}; see also [Fig. 4B](#fig4){ref-type="fig"} and [E](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}), was not detected to be statistically significantly different from that of HC after IFX treatment in the response group, indicating its restoration after the IFX-induced response ([Fig. 5C](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}). These results imply that the *Clostridiales* reenrichment was correlated with disease remission after treatment and could potentially be used as a biomarker to guide treatment. The level of calprotectin, which has been recommended as a biomarker for IBD activity and prognosis, was also decreased more in the response group than in the relapse group after treatment ([Fig. 5D](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}).
{#fig5}
To further test whether the gut microbiota provides biomarkers for prognosis of IFX treatment for CD patients, we derived and evaluated a model trained on the gut microbiota at baseline (at week 0) to predict the IFX-induced outcome (response or relapse) at week 30. The use of the microbiota alone improved the prediction to 86.5% accuracy, compared with that determined with the Crohn's disease activity index (CDAI) (58.7%) and the level of calprotectin (62.5%), both of which are conventionally used to assess treatment effectiveness in clinic. The use of microbiota data in combination with calprotectin and CDAI data can further improve the accuracy of prediction of the prognosis (to 93.8%) ([Fig. 5E](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}). The most informative features that contribute to the prognosis model include multiple *Clostridiales* OTUs ([Fig. 5F](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}). These results highlight the advantage of using gut microbiota to stratify IBD patients and to apply personalized treatment for optimal outcomes, although the data warrant further verification in a larger cohort(s).
DISCUSSION {#s2}
==========
Conventionally, IBD is regarded as a Western disease. However, following the path of Western countries, the IBD incidence in Asian populations has been increasing, and IBD has increasingly become a global health care problem over the past decade ([@B37]). Although the exact etiology of IBD remains elusive, it is widely accepted that various factors, including host genetic background, gut microbiome, and environmental triggers, contribute to the onset of IBD symptoms ([@B2], [@B3]). People who have certain variant alleles of genes (such as NOD2 and interleukin-23 receptor \[IL23R\]) are more prone than others to developing IBD ([@B4], [@B5], [@B38]). Epidemiology evidence has also shown that smoking, diet, appendectomies, and stress have a complicated impact on IBD ([@B1]). The distinct genetic backgrounds of emerging IBD populations without risk gene alleles emphasize the role that environmental factors play in IBD pathogenesis. There is no doubt that the human gut microbiome is a key player in this process as a consequence of interacting with the immune system ([@B1]). For example, *Bacteroides fragilis* can secrete capsular polysaccharide A to induce expression of interleukin-10 from regulatory T cells and protect mucous from colitis in a NOD2- and ATG16L1-dependent way ([@B39]).
In this study, we characterized dysbiosis in a Chinese IBD population. We found that gut microbial diversity was reduced in IBD patients compared with healthy controls, with a nonsignificant trend toward a greater reduction of diversity in UC patients than in CD patients. These findings are coherent with those of previous research on colonic mucosa-associated bacterial microbiota ([@B32]). Our results comparing the gut microbiota from different populations demonstrated that the microbial alteration patterns of both Chinese and Western IBD patients are consistent with each other, as shown by the cross-cohort and cross-ethnicity meta-analyses. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first attempt to compare microbiota communities in Chinese and Western IBD populations. This report conceptually proves the potential of the use of the gut microbiome in one cohort to help diagnose and evaluate IBD status in other cohorts. It will therefore be of great value in clinical trials across multiple populations in IBD management, a major unsolved challenge.
Infliximab has been proven to be more effective in the treatment of CD and UC than some treatments using traditional medicines such as corticosteroids and thiopurines in previous studies ([@B40], [@B41]), but some issues still need to be addressed, including which population benefits most, when the therapy should be stopped, and whether the therapy is still effective if clinical relapse occurs ([@B27]). There are many factors associated with disease relapse or response such as demographic variables (including smoking, old age, and long duration of steroids), clinical variables (including CDAI scores and longer duration of disease), laboratory variables (including CRP and calprotectin), and IFX-related variables (IFX doses, serum IFX concentration, and IFX antibodies). However, these factors are *post hoc* or retrospective. In this study, we followed up the CD patients who received scheduled infliximab and analyzed their fecal microbiota before and after treatment to explore the potential predictors for CD clinical relapse based on gut microbial composition. We found that imbalanced microbial diversity and reduced *Clostridiales* abundance in CD patients were restored in patients who responded to infliximab treatment. Moreover, the use of the gut microbiota, alone or together with calprotectin and CDAI data, enabled more-effective prediction of infliximab treatment outcomes, although more samples are needed to confirm and improve this model before it can serve in clinical practice. These findings may help establish a set of microbiota-based biomarkers for predicting treatment efficacy for IBD, which may pave the way to the usage of gut microbiota to stratify IBD patients and apply personalized therapy for optimal outcomes.
Interestingly, although species of *Clostridiales* are depleted in IBD patients, CD patients with a relatively higher abundance of *Clostridiales* respond better to IFX treatment than those with lower abundance. During remission, *Clostridiales* is restored to close to the abundance level of healthy individuals. This indirectly suggests the protective role of the taxa in IBD pathogenesis. Many commensal *Clostridiales* species are well-known defensive symbionts. They can suppress proinflammatory bacteria ([@B42]), produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) ([@B43]), and induce an immune response ([@B44]). The suppression of these fermentation-related bacteria causes a decline in SCFA production, resulting in increased colonic pH and ammonia production and absorption in the intestine ([@B45]). For example, *Faecalibacterium prausnitzii* is a well-described anti-inflammatory organism that is considered to be a health-promoting bacterium ([@B46]). Reduced abundance of *Faecalibacterium prausnitzii* has been associated with a higher rate of IBD recurrence ([@B46]). However, it is still unknown what other strains protect against IBD in what capacity, which needs further mechanistic investigation.
In conclusion, our report reveals congruence in the gut microbiome dysbiosis in IBD patients in cross-cohort and cross-ethnicity groups. These findings may aid the establishment of principles guiding IBD treatment. Our results reinforce the idea that the gut microbiota contains promising biomarkers for the noninvasive evaluation of IBD activity and assessment of therapeutic responses. The identification of disease activity-associated microbiome is a step toward establishing a set of microbiota-based biomarkers for the assessment of treatment and progression of inflammatory bowel disease.
MATERIALS AND METHODS {#s3}
=====================
Ethics statement. {#s3.1}
-----------------
The Ethics Committee of Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, approved this study (NHMEC2013-081). Patients were included in the study after providing written consent.
Patients and samples. {#s3.2}
---------------------
Patients with CD or UC who had not received any treatments for those conditions were recruited for this study between June 2012 and July 2013 in the Department of Gastroenterology of Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, China. Healthy volunteers at age 20 to 40 (to match the age and gender of patients with CD) were recruited from the adjacent community. Exclusion criteria were receipt of IBD treatment, age \<18 years, receipt of antibiotics or probiotics within the previous 4 weeks, other known chronic disease, and pregnancy or breastfeeding status. Sixteen patients with active CD who received treatment with IFX (Remicade; Cilag AG, Schaffhausen, Switzerland) (5 mg/kg of body weight) at weeks 0, 2, 6, 14, 22, and 30 were followed up for 30 weeks.
All enrolled patients underwent colonoscopies for diagnostic purposes. Fecal samples (from midstream stool; both the first-stream stool and the last-stream stool were discarded to toilet) were collected from all enrolled subjects at hospital and stored at −80°C before further processing.
Diagnostics of IBD diseases. {#s3.3}
----------------------------
Diagnoses of UC and CD were based on the internationally accepted Lennard-Jones criteria ([@B47]). According to the Montreal classification ([@B48]), UC was classified as ulcerative proctitis (E1), left-sided (distal) UC (E2), or extensive UC (pancolitis; E3), based on the extent of the disease. CD was classified as located in the ileum (L1), colon (L2), or ileocolon (L3). Disease behavior (B) for CD was also classified as B1 (nonstricturing, nonpenetrating), B2 (stricturing), and B3 (penetrating).
For the evaluation of disease activity, the Mayo score ([@B41]) for UC and the Crohn's disease activity index (CDAI) score ([@B49]) for CD were determined to estimate UC and CD activity (mild \[S1\], moderate \[S2\], or severe \[S3\]).
Evaluation of clinical outcome following infliximab treatment. {#s3.4}
--------------------------------------------------------------
Patients receiving IFX treatment underwent endoscopy at baseline and after 30 weeks of treatment. For the evaluation of disease activity and response to IFX therapy, the CDAI was determined prior to each IFX infusion through the last follow-up visit (at week 30). CRP level, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, white blood cell count, and neutrophil ratio were also determined.
Clinical response was defined as a reduction of ≥70 points in the CDAI after infusion. Clinical remission was defined as a CDAI value of \<150. Clinical relapse during follow-up was defined as worsening of symptoms and a CDAI value of \>150, with an increase of ≥70 points compared with the CDAI value at remission; the need for an additional steroid or IFX course; or the need for surgical resection. All other outcomes were defined as nonresponse ([@B50]).
Fecal calprotectin assay. {#s3.5}
-------------------------
Fecal calprotectin concentrations were measured with a quantitative PhiCal enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (Immundiagnostik AG, catalog no. K6927) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Fecal specimens were diluted 1:2,500. ELISA plates were read by the use of a Thermo Scientific microplate reader (Multiskan FC; optical density at 450 nm against 620 nm). Samples containing ≥100 μg of calprotectin per 1 g of feces were considered calprotectin positive ([@B51]).
Total bacterial genomic DNA extraction. {#s3.6}
---------------------------------------
Bacterial DNA was extracted from the fecal samples using a Tiangen stool DNA kit (Tiangen Biotech, Beijing, China), according to the manufacturer's instructions ([@B52]). DNA concentrations were determined using a NanoDrop 2000 BioAnalyser (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA), and the remaining samples were stored at −20°C before PCR was performed.
PCR amplification and Illumina sequencing. {#s3.7}
------------------------------------------
We used bar-coded primers V4-515F (5′-GTGCCAGCMGCCGCGGTAA-3′) and V4-806R (5′-GGACTACHVGGGTWTCTAAT-3′) to amplify the bacterial 16S rRNA V4 fragments. The PCR cycle conditions were as follows: initial denaturation at 94°C for 2 min; 30 cycles of 94°C for 30 s, 52°C for 30 s, and 72°C for 40 s; and final extension at 72°C for 5 min. Each 25-μl reaction mixture consisted of 12.5 μl TaKaRa Premix Taq (D331A, version 2.0; TaKaRa Biotech, Dalian, China), 2 μl template DNA, 1 μl 10 μM bar-coded primer V4-515F, 1 μl 10 μM primer V4-806R, and 8.5 μl double-distilled water (ddH~2~O).
PCR products were gel purified using a QIAquick gel extraction kit (catalog no. 28704; Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) and sequenced using the 250-bp paired-ended strategy on an Illumina MiSeq system at Beijing Genomic Institute (BGI, Shenzhen, China).
Bioinformatics analysis. {#s3.8}
------------------------
The raw sequences were quality controlled using QIIME v1.9.1 ([@B53]) with default parameters. The closed-reference OTU clustering was done at 97% similarity level against the GreenGenes database (v13_8) ([@B54]). After the samples were rarefied to the same sequencing depth, alpha diversity, beta diversity, and differential OTU abundance analyses were performed with QIIME, PICRUSt ([@B55]), and LEfSe ([@B56]) tools.
To compare the IBD effects across ethnic groups, the sequences from RISK and PRISM cohorts of patients in the United States were downloaded from [qiita.ucsd.edu](http://qiita.ucsd.edu) (study identifier \[ID\]: 1939). All the sequences in these two studies were trimmed to the same length of 150 nucleotides (nt) on the same region of the 16S rRNA gene to minimize the technical variation. A single closed-reference OTU picking run was done on the combined sequences.
Random forest classification models were trained on features of the OTU data using the caret R package ([@B57]) with 5 repeats of 10-fold cross-validation, except for the IFX outcome classification, which was performed using leave-one-out cross-validation due to the small sample size. The model was evaluated with the area under the curve (AUC) derived from receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. ROC analysis was used to compensate for the uneven distribution of the three sample types in this study ([@B58]). Importance scores of a model were determined for each feature based on the increase in prediction error when that feature was randomly permuted while all others were left unchanged ([@B59]).
The functional profile of KEGG orthology (KO) for each sample was predicted from 16S data with PICRUSt ([@B55]). The predicted KO abundances are collapsed to level 3 by grouping them into a higher level of functional categorization.
Data availability. {#s3.9}
------------------
Data were deposited in ENA under accession number [PRJEB22028](https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/data/view/PRJEB22028).
We thank Huimin Zheng for microbiota analysis assistance and figure preparation and Gail Ackermann for assisting with uploading our data to Qiita and EBI.
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC31322003, 81570480, and 81700487) and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China ("863" Program, 2015AA020701) and by the Crohn\'s and Colitis Foundation (New York, NY).
Y.Z. was responsible for the design of the study, recruitment of patients, statistical analysis and interpretation of the data, and drafting of the article. Z.Z.X. was responsible for the design of the study, analysis and interpretation of the data, and revision of the article. Y.H. was responsible for the design of the study, bioinformatics analysis and interpretation of the data, and revision of the article. Y.Y. was responsible for interpretation of the data and revision of the article. L.L. and Q.L. were responsible for recruitment of patients. Y.N. and M.L. were responsible for interpretation of the data and revision of the article. F.Z. and S.L. were responsible for interpretation of the data. A.A., A.G., and A.T. were responsible for analysis of the data. M.C. and G.D.W. were responsible for revision of the article. R.K. was responsible for interpretation of the data and revision of the article. H.Z. was responsible for bioinformatics analysis and interpretation of the data and revision of the article. Y.C. was responsible for the concept and design of the study, interpretation of the data, and revision of the article.
[^1]: Y.Z., Z.Z.X., and Y.H. contributed equally to this article.
[^2]: **Citation** Zhou Y, Xu ZZ, He Y, Yang Y, Liu L, Lin Q, Nie Y, Li M, Zhi F, Liu S, Amir A, González A, Tripathi A, Chen M, Wu GD, Knight R, Zhou H, Chen Y. 2018. Gut microbiota offers universal biomarkers across ethnicity in inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis and infliximab response prediction. mSystems 3:e00188-17. <https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00188-17>.
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Central |
Q:
Connect to Gmail using Indy
I'm trying to log in to Gmail (not the email) through Indy component using Delphi XE5,
Using this function:
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
http : TIdHTTP;
S, GALX, Email, Pass : String;
lParam : TStringList;
begin
try
lParam := TStringList.Create;
try
http := TIdHTTP.Create(nil);
http.IOHandler := IOHandler;
http.CookieManager := Cookie;
http.AllowCookies := true;
http.HandleRedirects := true;
http.Request.UserAgent := 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; WOW64; rv:27.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/27.0';
http.Request.Host := 'accounts.google.com';
http.Request.Accept := 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8';
http.Request.ContentType := 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded';
S := http.Get('https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin');
Delete(S, 1, Pos('GALX', S));
S := Copy(S, 1, Pos('">', S) - 1);
Delete(S, 1, Pos('value=', S) + length('value='));
GALX := S;
lParam.Add('GALX='+GALX);
lParam.Add('Email='+Email);
lParam.Add('Passwd='+Pass);
Memo1.Lines.Add(http.Post('http://accounts.google.com/ServiceLoginAuth', lParam));
finally
http.Free;
end;
finally
lParam.Free;
end;
end;
Now whenever i try to execute that i get:HTTP/1.0.405 Method Not Allowed.
and i only get this error when the email/pass are right, when the email/pass is wrong i get the usual error page, so i'm guessing it's not the POST Method that is not allowed.
What am i doing wrong here?
A:
You are not submitting all of the input fields that /ServiceLoginAuth looks for. If you look at the HTML for /ServiceLogin, there are 8 other fields posted to /ServiceLoginAuth besides the 3 that you are already sending. When submitting data from an HTML form, you have to submit everything the HTML form wants to submit, you can't just pick and choose what you want. Try adding the other fields and see what happens.
You need to provide the /ServiceLogin URL in the TIdHTTP.Request.Referer property when posting to /ServiceLoginAuth so it thinks that the request is coming from /ServiceLogin.
You are retrieving /ServiceLogin using HTTPS, but you are posting to /ServiceLoginAuth using HTTP instead. You need to use HTTPS.
When the user has multiple Google accounts, /ServiceLogin posts to /AccountChooser, which then redirects back to /ServiceLogin with additional input parameters, so you might need to take that into account as well.
Posting to /ServiceLoginAuth redirects to /CheckCookie, which then redirects to /ManageAccount, so make sure those requests are complete and accurate at each step.
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | StackExchange |
(See the end of the chapter for notes .)
Chapter Text
The park was quiet, peaceful and to the two lovestruck women enjoying each other, the perfect place to lay in each other’s arms.
One of them was five feet and six inches tall, slender, and had long red hair, past her shoulders and neck, had with a thin hairband keeping her hair from messing with her eyes. She was wearing her glasses, a sweater, some leggings and a skirt with it’s length past her knees, along with a new pair of sneakers with her colorful socks.
The other woman was an inch or two shorter than her, had her hair in a grown-out pixie cut. Her outfit was similar but less feminine than her partner’s, instead of a skirt and leggings she wore jeans.
“This is a beautiful night, don’t you think Lena?” the taller one asked.
“Not as beautiful as you, Emily.” the shorter replied.
They held each other close, gazing at the night sky as they sat on a park bench wiped free of snow.
There were not much stars in the sky, as they were still in the city. The light pollution wasn’t that bad as their friend Mordecai kept claiming it was, they knew he was just mad about sacrificing his stargazing in order to live in Washington, DC with his fiancée, to which Emily thought ‘Mordy and Hannah both have screws in their head loose, they’re perfect for each other...’, while Lena thought ‘he combined a pizza and a chicken into a sandwich, and used the gravy as dip, and then Hannah poured some Carolina Reaper powder on it, oh boy, they couldn’t breathe without feeling the heat the next day!’
They knew that the other was also thinking of their friend’s hilarious blunders, and that his wife-to-be would mix said shenanigans up a notch, and as they looked at each other, both giggled at the thought.
“He got good health insurance, that’s what,” Lena said, laying her head on the taller girl’s shoulder.
“Look!” Emily said.
The two women both saw several shooting stars streak in, rather inconsistent paths.
“That’s weird.” Lena wondered. “Amazing, yet weird.”
Emily’’s eyes widened as she noticed two fireballs headed right near their area. She hoped they would crash somewhere a bit farther away, until she felt a tug in her arm.
Lena pulled her entranced girlfriend out of the bench and ran to the side.
“Let’s strafe from their trajectory path!” she exclaimed as she let go of Emily and they both started to run.
They got to the exit where they parked near and Emily clicked their car open. Just as she got into the driving seat, with Lena waiting in shotgun, they got hit with an impact shockwave. Their car windows cracked, as did the other vehicles’ windows.
Emily got out of the car and headed to where the crash site was. Lena called out to her, “Wait, where are you going??”
“I’m going to get some space rocks for Madame Lacroix, she’s going to love it!” Emily said, running to the crash.
“How the heck did she get so fast?” Lena blurted out. “Oh, wait. I made her run that fast.”
She headed on to where her girlfriend was going, only to hear a shriek.
“Emily!” she said, running faster.
She got to the crash site, and saw Emily looking terrified.
“What’s wrong?”
Emily pointed to what’s up.
Two towering mechanical humanoids, one taller than the other, both having feminine figures. Both were winged, one, the shorter, had wings resembling an angel’s, while the taller, had wings with what look like jet thrusters on them.
The shorter one, colored in hues of white, accented by different shades of yellow, seemed to have a metal extension similar to a skirt, while the taller one, colored in vibrant blues and had yellow accents, had what look like large pauldrons. The former wore a halo, and wielded a staff, while the latter wore a helmet, and wielded something similar to a boom tube.
The taller, blue and yellow one, it’s eyes widened in what looks like panic, pointed the boom tube at the two, defensively calling out at them in some alien language. The shorter white and yellow one put its hand on the former’s shoulder, in what seemed to be a reassuring gesture.
Emily took out her phone in order to get a picture, which the shorter one in white and yellow took notice. She scanned the device, and Emily noticed that the robotic titan was accessing dictionaries and websites, closing them as fast as they are opened. As soon as she finished, the taller titan followed suit, to which she groaned, “What the heck?”
The two women waited for the robotic titans to finish, and then were taken aback when the taller one called to them.
“What planet is this?” the taller one’s voice sounded like it was a battle-hardened woman from Cairo or Alexandria.
“Earth,” Lena replied. “Planet Earth.”
“More like Planet Dirt.” the shorter one quipped as it wiped off soil from itself. “Don’t you have better terrain, like metallic elements?” The shorter one’s voice sounded like it was a busy and stressed woman, with a German accent.
“Why do you sound like, that?” Emily asked, directing the question to both of the robotic titans.
“We downloaded your kind’s languages thanks to that card you were holding.” the taller one asked.
“Ja. From something called the World Wide Web.” the shorter titan added.
“Do… you have names?” Lena asked.
“We forgot the simplest of formalities,” the shorter one barked.
“How were we to find out they weren’t hostile?” the taller one argued back.
“Mein Name ist Mercy. I am a field Medic, always with emergency medical Energon at the ready.” she said, twirling her staff.
“And I am Pharah, I am a Protector, given only one directive,” she said, turning to the medic. “To keep her safe.”
“What, are you?” Emily asked. “Some sort of alien robot species? Who made you?”
“We are autonomous robotic organisms,” the one called Pharah answered. “You can call us Autobots.”
“We hail from the Planet Cybertron.” Mercy added. “What’s left of it...”
“We wish to not be a bother to your kind.” Pharah continued. “All we need is to regroup with our ship, the Ark.” She paused. “After which, we will be gone.”
“In the meantime,” Mercy added. “Your metal transports will serve as disguise.”
Emily cocked her head. “How come?”
Lena asked, “In the first place, how are you able to hide inside vehicles when you’re enormous?” She pointed at Pharah and exclaimed, “I mean, look at you!”
The two robotic beings looked at each other. Mercy shrugged at Pharah, earning a sigh from her.
“Stand back.” Pharah said to Lena and Emily with a sigh.
To say the human women were shocked and astounded to what they’re seeing is most likely an understatement.
They watched in confusion as the robotic beings, Pharah and Mercy, were shifting and forming, changing and morphing.
“What are they doing?” Lena asked.
“They’re...” Emily answered, squinting. “Transforming?”
The sight lasted only a handful of seconds, but the human women thought it took hours. They were so intrigued by this ability that the alien robots were capable of that they didn’t even notice the resulting forms, what looks like an alien jet and an alien chopper, rise up and take altitude.
“Which one is Pharah? The blue one?” Emily asked her girlfriend.
“I’m guessing Mercy is the white one...” Lena answered in wonder.
“Hey!” Emily shouted to the alien jet and alien chopper. “Which one of you is which?”
The blue jet descended in a manner that few planes can do.
“Yes, this is Pharah.” the jet said. “Our colors do not change.”
The chopper form of Mercy descended as well. The side opened towards the two humans. “You are going with us. Serve as our guide for the… vehicles here.”
Pharah’s cockpit opened. “Take the back seat, or Primus help me,” she said in a commanding manner.
Emily got into the jet, while Lena, disgruntled, entered the chopper.
“Why do we have to be separate?” Lena asked, her temperament sour.
“So we’ll each have local guides when, no, if, in case we get separated,” Mercy answered. “Only in the near-impossible chance. Ever since Pharah has been assigned to guard me by none other than Centurion Prime himself, we were never separable.”
“That’s a good strong bond,” Lena said. “I can only look forward to my thing with Emily...”
“Are you some sort of conjunx endurae?” the medic asked.
“What?” Lena asked back.
“ Conjunx endurae . Sparkmates.” Mercy explained. She noticed the perplexed look on the human’s face and sighed. “Even upon downloading your languages and syntax, barriers exist. Now, where do I start?”
Meanwhile, Emily was getting impatient at what is taking so long.
“I thought you were some sort of jet.” she said. “Why are we slow?”
“Because Mercy isn’t some sort of jet.” the protector snapped. “And I won’t leave her side. No matter what.”
Emily stared in surprise at the devotion of Pharah on her task. She then smirked and asked, “So, she your girlfriend or something?”
The jet screeched to a halt, and barrel-rolled to the right. Mercy, in her chopper form, lagging behind, took notice and slowed pursuit.
“It… it’s nothing like that. She-she’s important to me...” Pharah said. “Not just due to Centurion’s direct mission… I don’t want to talk about this to a human stranger.”
Emily rolled her eyes in triumph, having a guess as to what relationship the jet has with the chopper.
“...some of our kind have choices they made, to be with another they care deeply about.” Mercy said.
Lena noticed Mercy slowing down, and her sudden halt of her discussion. “Pharah, stopped… Abruptly...”
“So, your kind can also, have romantic relationships?” Lena asked.
Mercy was enthralled in a thought about her jet companion when she snapped herself back upon hearing the question. “If my assumptions about what you humans call ‘boyfriends, girlfriends, partners, husbands, wives, and the like’, ja. We do. Our term for it is either ‘sparkmate’ or ‘Conjunx endura’, the latter being similar to what you call ‘marriage’ or ‘partnership’.”
“Have you thought of getting one?” Lena asked.
“Well, our planetary turmoil was several thousands of millennia in the making, and I was crafted by the AllSpark in the twilight years of the war,” she answered, in a flustered manner. “I had no time in considering anyone for it, at all. You could ask Pharah, maybe she has had considerations...”
Lena noticed that the medic’s tone sounded saddened.
“Or, she can tell you how her parents met!” Mercy said, bumping up her mood to a frantic but forced-jolly tone.
“So what’s the equivalent of ‘romantic partnership’ in Cybertron?” Emily asked cheekily.
“Sparkmates.” Pharah answered. “Or, if you’re looking for ‘til death do you part’, conjunx endurae. And I am not answering what I think you’re going to answer.” Pharah defensively added.
“So...” Pharah asked. “Are you and her...”
“Yes.” Emily answered. “I...” she said, pulling out a small box from her sweater’s inside pocket, “was going to give her this...”
Pharah took notice.
“A ring with a rock on it?” she asked.
“It’s a custom here on Earth,” the human replied. “The ring is supposed to symbolize the unity of the two people in love.”
“Until we crashed the party?” Pharah added. “You could give it to her after this, you know...”
“It wouldn’t feel, perfect.” Emily retorted. “Like, she would most likely remember ‘the time when two alien robots crashed the park’ than ‘the time I popped the question’.”
The jet sighed. “Did you try? You still could.”
“Let me tell you of a story between two Bots, very important to me. One of them, his name was Thunderhawk. He met a female named Horus Prime, and let’s say everything was shaky from the start. Horus Prime did find Thunderhawk funny but she wanted to test his mettle. After all, it’s not every megacycle that a Maximal would take a shine to an outsider Cybertronian.”
“Maximal?” Emily asked, interrupting.
“Maximals are an uncommon, and reclusive, line of Cybertronians, as they could transform into beasts.” Pharah explained. “Now, where was I...”
“Mercy?” Lena asked.
“Yes? Was ist los?” Mercy asked.
“There’s a hospital nearby, and I thought maybe a rescue chopper would fit you as an alternate mode.” Lena suggested. “Mainly because the whole alien-y thing going on isn’t warming up to me.”
“Mhm.” Mercy said, uninterested.
“Well, if you want to blend in and be inconspicuous , you might consider following my suggestion.” Lena retorted.
Mercy sighed and headed to the hospital. “Well, lucky us then.” She spotted a red-and-white rescue helicopter perched on top of the building, on a platform with a large letter H on it.
She activated her alt-mode scanner and warned Lena.
“You might want to hold on, because it’s redeco time.”
Her alt-form shifted and changed appearance, slowly copying the appearance of the rescue chopper. Her colors remained the same, with her white and yellows proudly brandished on the make.
Lena took notice of the doors changing, with better windows too. She could see where the Autobot medic was moving and how she was moving, to boot. The cockpits started to glow, creating a hologram of a blonde woman manning the controls.
“What’s with the hologram?” Lena asked.
“Part of the inconspicuous getup.” Mercy said. “Meet Angela.”
“You named her?” Lena asked again.
“What’s bad about that?” Angela, the hologram, answered.
Pharah took notice of her medic adopting a form more akin to the Earth vehicle perched on top of the hospital. “Are there places where aircraft similar to my form exist?”
“Like, planes?” Emily asked. “Combat planes?”
“Yes, sounds like they’re up to my speed.” Pharah answered.
Emily placed her phone on the front seat in the cockpit. “The map’s loaded up, you want to scan it?”
“Let’s see...” Pharah scanned the phone’s information in a second. “Good. Not that far. But--”
“Yes, we wait for Mercy and Lena to finish.” Emily said. “Like hell am I leaving Lena behind.”
Pharah saw the white-and-yellow helicopter approach her, and she barreled to face the opposite side.
Mercy knew that Pharah was signaling to get going, she recognized the barreling.
“Lena,” Mercy said. “Sit up front. To Angela’s right.” The hologram pointed at the empty seat up front.
Lena went to sit, after which she heard a noise from the back chambers.
Mercy’s slender chopper tail rearranged into a jet engine, in order to keep up with her faster guardian
“Holy crap,” Lena said, grabbing tightly on the seat. “This isn’t how they work!”
“We can modify some things,” Mercy said, “however it isn’t recommended to use these modifications constantly.”
“Somebot wants to dance...” Pharah said, taking notice of Mercy’s usage of her booster modification.
“Come, habibti!” she said to Mercy, and activated her boosters as well.
“Why did you do it as well?” Emily exclaimed.
And with that, the two blasted off to the military base. The sailing was smooth, until Emily wanted to throw up.
This prompted the two bots to land at the outskirts of the air base, beyond detection.
Emily started to throw up, while her girlfriend Lena comforted her.
Mercy looked at Pharah, or where she used to be, only to notice she had snuck in the base, spotting an alien jet landing on the base’s runway.
“Scrap.”
“Unidentified aircraft, identify yourself.” said the comm tower personnel.
“This is Squad Captain Fareeha Amari reporting, sustained damage due to recent meteor shower. Requesting to land in hangar?” Pharah responded.
“Affirmative, Captain.” the personnel replied.
“Security protocols in this planet’s technology are weak...” Pharah responded as she wheeled into the hangar.
“Let’s see, ahh!”
Pharah activated her alt-mode scanner and scanned the nearby F-16 also parked in the hangar.
Pharah’s cockpit shifted to accommodate only one seat, and changed appearance and setting to be like an actual F-16 jet. The bubble dome shifted into place, and the very metal making up the alien jet’s body warped, morphing to that similar to a Falcon jet. The blue and yellow-accent color scheme still remained, and the symbol of Autobots showed itself on one wing, while the symbol of Protectors show on the other.
She also created a holographic pilot, a woman with flight gear and bronze skin, her exotic beauty accented with beaded braids framing her cheeks and a tattoo, of the eye of an ancient Egyptian god, framing her right eye.
Pharah chimed into Mercy’s communication link. “Rouhi?”
Mercy looked on to the two humans when she received a comm chime. “Ja?”
“I’m on my way,” Pharah responded, with the hologram, Fareeha smiling. “Fareeha, wipe the eyes.”
Mercy saw a blue fighter jet leave the air base, while the hangar it came from started to flash red lights.
*Alert! Alert! Surveillance data has been scrubbed by intruders!*
The fighter jet was approaching where the rescue helicopter and the two humans lay.
Mercy immediately transformed into her robot form and pointed her hand, transforming into a photon burst gun, at the jet.
She looked at the jet and stood down upon recognizing the color scheme and the Autobot symbols.
The jet nosedived down and then pulled up, grazing the ground and started to gain altitude, steeply. As it flew up, it started to transform, wings shifting, jet boosters forming and a very familiar boomtube being drawn out.
The robotic form, upside down, steered itself upright, and landed with finesse.
“Superhero landing!” Lena said out loud.
“Only one bot is that much of a Prahlhans.” Mercy said with a smirk, sheathing her photon burst gun.
“What? It was hard to stick the landing, now that my Thermo Rocket cannon is heavier...” Pharah said, rolling her eyes.
Mercy walked toward Pharah and grabbed her by her chest plates. “You scared the scrap out of me! I almost leaked energon because of it!”
“Aww… and I wanted to look nice so we can match...” Pharah teased.
If bots could blush, Mercy would have been as red as a robin.
“Well...” Mercy said, opening one eye to look at Pharah. “You do look buffed up in that new digs...”
Pharah started to chuckle, which spread to Mercy who started to giggle.
The two Autobot ladies shared a hearty laugh together, until a rock, thrown, hit Mercy on her head, and ricocheted to Pharah’s head.
“Ohh yeah, double kill!” Emily shouted.
The two immediately glared at Emily.
“Hey, we need to get back!” Lena shouted.
Pharah and Mercy looked at Lena and Emily, back and forth.
“Understood.” Mercy nodded.
She jumped away from Fareeha, away from the humans as well, and transformed into her helicopter alt-mode, hovering to land near Lena and Emily.
Mercy opened her doors, telling the two humans to enter. Lena and Emily climbed in, shut the door, and the white and yellow helicopter took off.
“Please fasten seatbelts, this is one dangerous ride.” Angela said, materializing into the cockpit.
Lena fastened her seatbelts, and held Emily’s hand after she fastened hers.
“What about Pharah?” Emily asked.
Mercy didn’t need to answer. The two women heard the same noise that Lena heard when Mercy activated her booster modification.
“What was that?” Emily asked Lena.
“I have no idea, love,” Lena answered. “But I have a fair guess who.”
A blue and yellow fighter jet appeared in their view through the left windows, and they knew it was Pharah when it did a barrel roll, and another.
Angela asked Emily, “Destination, bitte?” to which the redhead fumbled with her phone. “Umm, I, uh--”
Angela stood up briefly to take Emily’s phone as she finished her nervously-inputting their home address.
“Danke.” she said. “Ah, just in London, I see?” she mentioned as she smiled.
“Yep yep yep!” Lena nodded.
The holographic blonde went back to the pilot seat and took the controls.
Fareeha, the holographic aeronaut hologram in Pharah’s cockpit, noticed Mercy taking a left turn, veering slightly away from the direction to the park where the two Transformers crashed in.
“Captain, route change is in order.” Fareeha told the cockpit controls.
“Yeah, I noticed.” Pharah replied.
“Doesn’t this feel like--”
“Talking to myself? Yes.”
Pharah and her hologram groaned in regret as the blue jet followed the helicopter to the destination.
Mercy released an emergency ladder down to the road in front of Lena and Emily’s apartment.
“Oh my God, oh my God, it’s too high, it’s too high!” Emily said, freaking out as she slowly climbed down the ladder, terrified.
“Don’t worry, love!” Lena said, holding a bunch of pillows. “I’ll catch you!”
“I don’t wanna die!” Emily shrieked.
A light opened in one of the apartments much further down the block.
“Shut it! We’re trying to have a good night sleep, you slag!”
“Your mother’s the fucking slag!” Emily retorted.
“Oh, bismillah.” Pharah said, transforming into her robot form. She gently grabbed Emily with both hands, and lay her down on the pillows Lena set up.
“There,” Pharah said, “You fell. Like a feather, I might add. And you were saved by your conjunx endura and the pillows.” she added as she rolled her eyes.
“Th-th-thank you,” Emily said, hyperventilating.
“How come you couldn’t just land?” Lena asked.
“Is there enough space for a helicopter and a plane to land on this one-lane road?” Mercy asked.
“We could stand here, as I did,” Pharah said.
“Get up here,” Mercy rapped. “You really want to give us away?”
“Don’t have a clue what you mean,” Pharah said sarcastically, teasing the Medic.
“What if we got caught?” Mercy retorted.
“Then we could do what Emily told me about Earth robots.” Pharah added, entering jet mode.
The jet and helicopter shared a hearty laugh as they flew off. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
His utility belt might not be as well-equipped as the TV version and he hasn't had to fight Penguin's henchmen yet, but Zoltan Kohari has nailed the superhero look and grit needed to fight evil in the southern Slovak town of Dunajska Streda.
Dressed in his home-made, all-leather Batman costume with the bat symbol proudly displayed on his chest and pointy ears on his cowl, Kohari, 26, cleans the streets, helps old people out and calls the police when he sees something suspicious.
"I have decided to do good for the people. I take care of order and help clean up the environment so we can keep living on this planet," Kohari told Reuters.
There are some slight differences in the storylines of the real-life Kohari and fictional millionaire Bruce Wayne, the man behind the mask in Batman comic books, TV shows and films.
For one, Kohari is a real-life person, whose path to the side of truth, justice and a tidy neighbourhood once strayed to the wrong side of the law.
The trained house painter spent eight months in jail last year and attempted suicide after he was released, before realising he had a mission to make life in his community better.
Lacking a full-time job, he moved into a dilapidated concrete apartment block on the edge of town where he turned an empty apartment - with no electricity or running water -- into his very own Batcave from where he launches his street patrols.
Kohari's Batman impersonation follows the emergence of a trend in the United States, where ordinary citizens began donning superhero costumes and performing public services in the wake of Hollywood films such as "Kick Ass" and Woody Harrelson's "Defendor", which tell the tale of "real-life" superheroes.
Kohari says he never resorts to physical violence and some people in his town think he is a bit batty, but his neighbours said he is an honest and good man.
"He's had a tough life but he is very dependable and we like him. He helps us out, keeps an eye on public order, and he is a hero for my son and his schoolmates," said Jana Kocisova, a mother of two who lives in a neighboring apartment block.
So what's next for the Slovak superhero?
After tidying up and helping the elderly, Batman's next mission will be making sure bouncers at the local disco do not rough up visitors.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka, editing by Paul Casciato)
See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
During the event, my man installed a GoPro Hero2 inside the sexy matte black Nissan GT-R driven by Mr. James Ling from team MSOC. Many thanks to Mr. Ling for giving us the permission to do so. My man managed to edit and published only one video before he went outstation. How about the remaining clips? The extended / full version will be available only for the owner of the car. Below are the clips that I’ve just finished editing. What was it like inside the beautiful monster?
And another one…
It’s utterly ridiculous to be envious of an inanimate object such as the GoPro Hero2 but… don’t you wish you were inside that beautiful monster?
Below is an official video of the 4WD Pro Drag category by MUSC Motorsports:
Hello and welcome :)
I'm quite cool but global warming made me hot.
About Me and This Humble Blog
An artistically-inclined, multilingual Dayak lady with diverse interests currently living in Miri, Sarawak. This is a ‘masam manis’ (sweet and sour) distraction where she shares stuff such as arts and crafts, adventures, books, cars, events, her favorite things, occasional stints as performer, random musings, travel, etc.
Elena Wee is a pseudonym. Blog owner is a native of Borneo born in Miri. She is a homemaker (also, a wannabe thespian / writer) – married to a wonderful guy whose late paternal grandmother was a Melanau of Mukah origins, while his late paternal grandfather was a Chinese – surnamed Wee, who was the first Wee that established himself in Mukah, Sarawak before World War II.
Don't ever change yourself to impress someone, cause they should be impressed that you don't change to please others -- When you are going through something hard and wonder where God is, always remember that the teacher is always quiet during a test --- Unknown | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
UNITED STATES, Appellee
v.
Robert M. PAYNE, Staff Sergeant
U.S. Air Force, Appellant
No. 13-0345
Crim. App. No. 37594
United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
Argued October 8, 2013
Decided January 6, 2014
ERDMANN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which BAKER,
C.J., STUCKY and RYAN, JJ., and EFFRON, S.J., joined.
Counsel
For Appellant: Captain Nicholas D. Carter (argued).
For Appellee: Captain Thomas J. Alford (argued); Colonel Don
Christensen and Gerald R. Bruce, Esq. (on brief).
Military Judges: Katherine E. Oler and Dawn R. Eflein
This opinion is subject to revision before final publication.
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
Judge ERDMANN delivered the opinion of the court.
Contrary to his pleas, Staff Sergeant (SSgt) Robert Payne
was convicted by a general court-martial with members of one
specification of attempting to communicate indecent language to
a child under the age of sixteen, one specification of
attempting to transfer obscene material to a minor, and one
specification of attempting to persuade a minor to create child
pornography, all in violation of Article 80, Uniform Code of
Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. § 880 (2006). He was also
convicted of three specifications of failure to obey a lawful
general regulation by misusing his Government computer in
committing the above-mentioned offenses, in violation of Article
92, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 892 (2006). Payne was sentenced to three
years of confinement, a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of
all pay and allowances, and reduction to the lowest enlisted
grade. The convening authority approved the adjudged sentence
except for the forfeitures, and the United States Air Force
Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) affirmed the findings and the
sentence in an unpublished opinion. United States v. Payne, No.
ACM 37594, 2013 CCA LEXIS 18, at *38, 2013 WL 375777 at *18.
(A.F. Ct. Crim. App. Jan. 17, 2013) (unpublished).
Both Article 51(c) UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 851(c) (2006), and
Rule for Courts-Martial (R.C.M.) 920(e)(1), require a military
judge to instruct the members on the elements of each offense
2
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
charged. We granted review to determine whether the military
judge properly instructed the members on the elements of Charge
I, Specification 4, which alleged an attempt to persuade a minor
to create child pornography in violation of Article 134, UCMJ
clauses 1 and 2.1 We conclude that she did not properly instruct
the members as to Specification 4, but that the error was
harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. We therefore affirm the
CCA.
Background
SSgt Payne engaged in a series of sexually explicit
Internet chats and phone calls with an undercover civilian
sheriff’s deputy who Payne believed to be a fourteen-year-old
girl named “Marley.” The communications took place over a
period of about a month and a half. As a part of those chats,
Payne repeatedly asked “Marley” to send him pictures of herself.
Some of these requests were for “nude” pictures, while others
were more general. Payne also promised nude pictures of himself
in exchange for nude pictures of “Marley.” While Payne sent
“Marley” nude pictures of himself, as well as a video of himself
1
Specifically, we granted review of the following issue:
Whether the military judge improperly instructed the
members of the elements for creation of child
pornography.
United States v. Payne, 72 M.J. 407 (C.A.A.F. 2013) (order
granting review).
3
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
masturbating, “Marley” did not respond in kind. Eventually,
Payne traveled from Philadelphia to upstate New York to meet
“Marley,” where he was arrested by local law enforcement
authorities.
At trial, Payne’s defense to the Charge I specifications
focused almost exclusively on the defense of entrapment. While
the defense did not contest his underlying conduct, Payne did
object to the military judge’s proposed instructions on the
Charge I offenses. He argued that:
[F]or all four specifications under Charge I, we
object to your instructions because we do not believe
that the government in its pleadings identified the
offenses to which you are listing elements. We
believe that based on what trial counsel stated when
she read the identity of the elements to us and later
to the members in their initial discussion about these
findings instructions as you’ve memorialized on the
record, and even at present, we believe that these
elements are not necessarily a fair parsing of what
was pled in each of the four specifications in Charge
I.
As I said in the 802 conference, our challenge is
this, we have a duty to candor towards a tribunal and
to identify any errors and give you a forthright
answer, but we also have a competing duty to Staff
Sergeant Payne and not to assist the government or
even the bench in perfecting elements in charges
against him if we think that there’s, perhaps, a right
way to do this. And therefore, we simply say that we
don’t believe that the court has been able, due to the
nature of the pleadings, to properly identify if these
are offenses and if so, what those elements would be.
The military judge did not specifically rule on the objection
and she gave the members her proposed instructions concerning
4
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
Charge I. As to Specification 4, the military judge described
the specification as “the offense of soliciting a minor to
create child pornography” and subsequently provided the
following instruction:
First, that, within the continental United States, on
divers occasions from on or about 1 June 2008 to on or
about 1 August 2008, the accused attempted to
persuade, induce, entice, or coerce “Marley,” someone
he believed was a female 14 years of age, to commit
the offense of creating child pornography by
requesting that she send nude photos of herself to the
accused;
Second, that the accused intended that the person
he thought was “Marley” actually produce one or more
visual depictions of her nude body to send to him
electronically or through the mail;
Third, that, under the circumstances, the conduct
of the accused was to the prejudice of good order and
discipline in the armed forces or was of a nature to
bring discredit upon the armed forces.
The military judge also instructed the members that they must
find that “the accused’s statements constituted a serious
request that the offense be committed.” In addition, she
instructed that “‘[c]hild pornography’ means any visual
depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct,” and
that “‘[s]exually explicit conduct’ includes masturbation or
lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any
person,” and also properly defined the term “lascivious
exhibition.” Following these definitions, the military judge
instructed the members that to convict on this specification,
5
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
the panel must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Payne
“specifically intended that ‘Marley’ produce visual depictions
of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”
The members convicted Payne of Specifications 2, 3, and 4
under Charge I. Before the CCA, in regard to Specification 4,
Payne argued that the military judge erred by failing to
properly instruct the members on the elements of attempt.
Payne, 2013 CCA LEXIS 18, at *14, 2013 WL 375777 at *5. While
the CCA concluded that the instructions given by the military
judge “lacked some specificity,” it ultimately held that “they
included all the required elements and adequately instructed the
members to find the necessary predicate facts beyond a
reasonable doubt.” Id. at *21, 2013 WL 375777, at *7.
Before this court, Payne renews his argument that the
military judge erred by omitting the elements of attempt when
instructing on Specification 4. The government concedes that
“the military judge did not read the statutory elements of
Article 80 [Attempts]” but argues that for this “unique charge
of attempting to entice a minor to create child pornography, the
military judge was permitted to, and appropriately did, tailor
her instructions to cover . . . the required elements . . . .”
The government further argues that “[t]he combination of an
attempt offense, a federal crime, and the UCMJ article applying
that federal crime to the military simply cannot be overlooked
6
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
when determining what instructions the military judge needed to
provide the members.”2
Discussion
Standard of Review and Preservation of Error
The question of whether the members were properly
instructed is a question of law and thus review is de novo.
United States v. Maynulet, 68 M.J. 374, 376 (C.A.A.F. 2010)
(citations omitted). Where there is no objection to an
instruction at trial, we review for plain error. United States
v. Tunstall, 72 M.J. 191, 193 (C.A.A.F. 2013); see also R.C.M.
920(f). As Payne did offer a general objection to all of the
military judge’s proposed Charge I instructions, we must
determine whether that objection adequately preserved the error
he now raises on appeal.
We have had occasion to address the adequacy of evidentiary
objections and have held that the law “does not require the
moving party to present every argument in support of an
objection, but does require argument sufficient to make the
military judge aware of the specific ground for objection, ‘if
2
Contrary to both parties’ positions, Specification 4 does not
allege an offense under 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a) as incorporated by
clause three of Article 134, UCMJ. See Manual for Courts-
Martial, United States pt. IV, para. 60.c.(6)(b) (2012 ed.)
(MCM) (“When alleging a clause 3 violation, each element of the
federal or assimilated statute must be alleged expressly or by
necessary implication. In addition, the federal or assimilated
statute should be identified.”).
7
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
the specific ground was not apparent from the context.’” United
States v. Datz, 61 M.J. 37, 42 (C.A.A.F. 2005) (quoting Military
Rule of Evidence (M.R.E.) 103(a)(1)). We have not, however,
addressed the specificity required to preserve an error in the
context of an objection to proposed instructions. R.C.M. 920
deals with “Instructions on Findings” and subsection (f)
specifically addresses waiver of an objection under that
section.3 The Analysis to R.C.M. 920(f) notes that this
subsection was based on the last two sentences of Fed. R. Crim.
P. 30, “Jury Instructions.” MCM, Analysis of the Rules for
Courts-Martial app. 21 at A21-70.4 At the time R.C.M. 920(f) was
adopted, the last two sentences of Fed. R. Crim. P. 30 provided:5
No party may assign as error any portion of the charge
or omission therefrom unless [that party] objects
thereto before the jury retires to consider its
verdict, stating distinctly the matter to which [that
party objects] and the grounds of [the] objection.
Opportunity shall be given to make the objection out
3
The text of R.C.M. 920(f) states that “Failure to object to an
instruction or to omission of an instruction before the members
close to deliberate constitutes waiver of the objection in the
absence of plain error.”
4
The Analysis of the Rules for Courts-Martial notes that there
were four basic goals for the 1984 revision to the MCM, the
first of which “was to conform to federal practice to the extent
possible, except where the Uniform Code of Military Justice
requires otherwise or where specific military requirements
render such conformity impracticable.” MCM, Analysis of the
Rules for Courts-Martial app. 21 at A21-1; see also Article 36,
UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 836 (2006).
5
R.C.M. 920(f) was enacted with initial adoption of the Rules
for Courts-Martial in 1984. At that time the version of Fed. R.
Crim. P. 30 adopted in 1944 (as amended in 1966) was in effect.
8
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
of the hearing of the jury and, on request of any
party, out of the presence of the jury.
Fed. R. Crim. P. 30, 18 U.S.C. app. at 622 (1982) (emphasis
added). Given the similarity of purpose between R.C.M. 920(f)
and M.R.E. 103(a)(1), as well as the requirements of Fed. R.
Crim. P. 30, we see no reason not to require the same level of
specificity for objections to instructions as we do for
evidentiary objections.
Payne’s defense counsel objected to all of the military
judge’s instructions to Charge I on the grounds that “the
government in its pleadings [did not] identif[y] the offenses to
which [the military judge was] listing elements.” However,
defense counsel did not identify which specification or
specifications he was referring to or which elements he felt the
military judge should have instructed on because he did not want
“to assist the government or even the bench in perfecting
elements in charges against [Payne].” (Emphasis added.) In
taking this position, it appears that defense counsel was trying
to preserve any instructional error for appeal while
simultaneously refusing to assist the military judge in
correcting any alleged instructional error at the trial level.6
6
“The purpose of [Fed. R. Crim. P.] 30 is to alert the district
court to potential problems in jury instructions and thereby
avert any error in the first place.” United States v. O’Neill,
116 F.3d 245, 247 (7th Cir. 1997) (citation omitted).
9
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
Under these circumstances we believe that the issue is most
appropriately treated as waived in absence of plain error. See
United States v. Zapata, 546 F.3d 1179, 1190 (10th Cir. 2008).7
“Under a plain error analysis, the accused ‘has the burden of
demonstrating that: (1) there was error; (2) the error was
plain or obvious; and (3) the error materially prejudiced a
substantial right of the accused.’” Tunstall, 72 M.J. at 193-94
(quoting United States v. Girouard, 70 M.J. 5, 11 (C.A.A.F.
2011)).
Elements of Charge I, Specification 4
We next turn to the elements of the charged offense.
Charge I alleged violations of Article 80 (Attempts) and
Specification 4 specifically alleged that Payne:
[Did] wrongfully and knowingly attempt to persuade,
induce, entice, . . . or coerce “Marley,” someone he
believed was a female 14 years of age, who was, in
fact, Lillian Vedder, an Ulster County New York
Sheriff’s Office undercover detective, to create child
pornography by requesting that “Marley” send nude
photos of herself to the said STAFF SERGEANT ROBERT M.
PAYNE, which conduct was prejudicial to good order and
discipline or of a nature to bring discredit upon the
armed forces.
There are four elements of attempt: (1) that the accused
did a certain overt act; (2) that the act was done with the
specific intent to commit a certain offense under the code; (3)
7
“[W]e have held that a generalized objection to an instruction
is insufficient to preserve a specific objection on appeal.”
Zapata, 546 F.3d at 1190; United States v. Bornfield, 184 F.3d
1144, 1146 n.2 (10th Cir. 1999).
10
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
that the act amounted to more than mere preparation; and (4)
that the act apparently tended to effect the commission of the
intended offense. MCM pt. IV, para. 4.b. Although this
specification is not a model of clarity, we find that it alleged
all of the elements of attempt and it provided Payne with notice
that he was charged with an attempt to commit an Article 134,
UCMJ, offense. The offense charged was the persuasion of a
minor to create child pornography, which was alleged to be both
prejudicial to good order and discipline and service
discrediting.
The Military Judge’s Instructions
A military judge has a sua sponte duty to instruct on the
elements of every offense. R.C.M. 920(e)(1); Article 51(c),
UCMJ. Having held that the alleged instructional error was not
preserved at trial and having identified the elements of
Specification 4, we must now examine whether the military
judge’s instructions on those elements amounted to plain error.
While Payne argues that the military judge failed to
instruct on any of the elements of attempt, we are satisfied
that the instructions adequately covered the first two elements
of attempt.8 The third element of attempt requires “[t]hat the
8
The first element of attempt is that “the accused did a certain
overt act.” MCM pt. IV, para. 4.b.(1). This element was
covered by the military judge’s instruction that the members
must find that Payne “attempted to persuade . . . ‘Marley,’
11
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
act amounted to more than mere preparation[.]” MCM pt. IV,
para. 4.b.(3). We have interpreted this element as requiring
that the accused take a “substantial step” toward commission of
the crime. United States v. Jones, 37 M.J. 459, 461 (C.M.A.
1993) (citing Article 80, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 880; United States
v. Schoof, 37 M.J. 96, 102 (C.M.A. 1993)).
Despite the fact that the military judge did not instruct
on the “substantial step” requirement, the government argues
that the members were adequately informed of the third element
when the military judge instructed that the members needed to
find that “the accused’s statements constituted a serious
request that the offense be committed.” The government argues
that since the overt act in this attempt offense was the actual
request transmitted to the recipient, the “serious request”
referenced by the military judge constituted a “substantial
step” and the members were therefore aware that they needed to
find that “the act amounted to more than mere preparation.”
someone he believed was a female 14 years of age, to commit the
offense of creating child pornography, by requesting that she
send nude photos of herself to the accused.” The second element
of attempt is that “the act was done with the specific intent to
commit a certain offense under the code.” MCM pt. IV, para.
4.b.(2). This element was covered by the military judge’s
instruction that Payne must have “intended that the person he
thought was ‘Marley’ actually produce one or more visual
depictions of her nude body to send him electronically or
through the mail.”
12
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
We do not agree that an instruction which requires a
“serious request that the offense be committed” is the
equivalent of an instruction that an accused must take a
substantial step toward the commission of the substantive
offense. The “serious request” instruction focused the finder
of fact upon Payne’s mental state at the time of the act in
question. By contrast, a “substantial step” instruction would
focus on the extent to which Payne actually acted in furtherance
of his attempted crime. See United States v. Winckelmann, 70
M.J. 403, 407 (C.A.A.F. 2011) (“[T]he substantial step must
unequivocally demonstrat[e] that the crime will take place
unless interrupted by independent circumstances.”) (second set
of brackets in original) (question marks and citation omitted).
The military judge’s instructions did not include the third
element of attempt -- an error which we find to be plain and
obvious.
With respect to the fourth element of attempt, “[t]hat the
act apparently tended to effect the commission of the intended
offense,” MCM pt. IV, para. 4.b.(4), the government merely
argues that the evidence on the element presented at trial was
legally sufficient to support that element. The government does
not point to any portion of the military judge’s instructions
which would cover the fourth element of attempt, and indeed
there are none. An element cannot be considered to be properly
13
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
instructed upon simply because legally sufficient evidence had
previously been admitted at trial. We therefore hold that the
military judge’s failure to instruct on the fourth element of
attempt also constituted plain and obvious error.
Prejudice
Having found plain and obvious error, Payne points us to
our holding in United States v. Mance, 26 M.J. 244 (C.M.A.
1988), and argues that failure to instruct on an element of an
offense is structural error which is per se prejudicial. In
Mance, we held that “when a judge omits entirely any instruction
on an element of the charged offense, this error may not be
tested for harmlessness because, thereby, the court members are
prevented from considering that element at all.” 26 M.J. at
255. As the military judge failed to instruct on two elements
of the charged offense, we agree that under the rationale of
Mance, Payne would appear to be entitled to relief.
However, since we decided Mance in 1988, the Supreme Court
addressed this issue in Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 8
(1999), and it held that the failure to instruct on an element
does not constitute structural error.9 Less than a month after
Neder was decided, this court issued United States v. Glover, 50
M.J. 476, 478 (C.A.A.F. 1999), which, while holding that there
9
In Neder, the Supreme Court reviewed under a “harmless error”
standard as Neder had objected at trial. 527 U.S. at 15.
14
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
was no plain error in the context of the military judge’s
instructions, cited but did not rely on Mance.
Other than Glover, we have since applied Neder rather than
Mance in examining instructional errors and have tested for
prejudice. See United States v. Upham, 66 M.J. 83, 86-87
(C.A.A.F. 2008). We have not cited or relied upon Mance to find
structural error resulting from the omission of an element from
instructions since Neder was decided. To alleviate further
confusion on this issue, today we overrule Mance to the extent
it conflicts with the holding in Neder that omission of an
instruction regarding an element may be tested for harmless
error.
We conclude that the omission of instructions on the third
and fourth elements of attempt did not materially prejudice
Payne’s substantial rights. Payne did not contest those
elements at trial as he relied primarily upon the defense of
entrapment. Furthermore, the evidence on those elements, which
includes the logs of the explicit chats between Payne and
“Marley,” was overwhelming. We are therefore satisfied beyond a
reasonable doubt that the omitted elements were both
“uncontested and supported by overwhelming evidence, such that
15
United States v. Payne, No. 13-0345/AF
the jury verdict would have been the same absent the error.”
Neder, 527 U.S. at 17.10
Decision
The decision of the United States Air Force Court of
Criminal Appeals is hereby affirmed.
10
Payne’s additional arguments, that the military judge failed
to define “create” in “creation of child pornography” and that
she improperly instructed the members that nude pictures
constituted child pornography, have no merit and we need not
address them in detail. “‘Words generally known and in
universal use do not need judicial definition.’” United States
v. Nelson, 53 M.J. 319, 321 (C.A.A.F. 2000) (quoting United
States v. Shepard, 1 C.M.A. 487, 492, 4 C.M.R. 79, 84 (1952)).
The word “create” -- as used in a specification for an attempted
general disorder under Article 134 -- is such a word. We are
also satisfied that the military judge properly instructed the
panel as to what constitutes child pornography. She defined
that term and then provided proper definitions of “sexually
explicit conduct” and “lascivious exhibition.” The military
judge concluded by instructing the members that “[u]nless you
are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt . . . that the accused
specifically intended that ‘Marley’ produce visual depictions of
a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, as I have defined
that term for you, you may not convict the accused . . . .”
16
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | FreeLaw |
An arrow flew towards Phenox but missed by a mile shot by the ranger skulking with the hoods through the shadows into the Whiskey Troll Tavern. The ear-shattering crack of colliding wood thundered through the smoky-thick tavern atmosphere as the hill-giant mercenary, indeed that’s what he appeared to be as he was not like his partners wearing a hood, struck with his spiked great club the blow parried by Nezor’s own hardwood great club. Thunder struck again and again as Nezor swung, was parried, swung again and again parried.
Phenox yelped when a bolt from the lead-hood’s crossbow hit him. Immediately another bolt flew from the shadows imbedding itself in Nezor’s new plate-mail armor. Cantra somersaulted to avoid two quarrels launched in her direction both of which thudded into the wall. Two of the hooded thugs went at Nezor but their short-swords were parried easily. The other leathern-hood wearing thief moved into the tavern bearing a bearded-axe and another of the hooded thugs charged and swiped at Phenox whom dodged the blow.
Thunder exploded again as the hard wood of the great clubs met once again this time clinching. The weapon-wood creaked painfully, muscles pressed and bulged, and the battle of raw brute strength took all of Nezor’s concentration as the tavern battle raged on around him. Both giants identically matched neither giving an inch each was intent on plowing through the other. Nezor kicked at the other giant’s groin but missed his mark.
Meanwhile Phenox was engaged with the bearded-axe wielding leather-hood managing to avoid every blow and Cantra got a lucky shot in with her bow and a poisoned arrow which paralyzed the hood allowing Phenox to claim the coup de grace. One of the thugs that was looking for an opening between the giants to try to stab at Nezor saw this and went after Cantra. She parried the sword-strike with the wood of her bow as she backed away. The other thug finally found the opening he sought and stabbed Nezor but only managed to score the hill-giants plate. The sound of Nezor’s teeth gritting could be heard by all.
Phenox spotted out the enemy ranger and hacked a gory wound into his neck nearly killing him. The merc-giant broke loose of the clinch and Nezor taking immediate advantage smacked him with ‘dog-smasher’ then on the backswing the mercenary clinched again with his parry. Both giants grunted as they found themselves frozen in the same strained stances. Again veins bulged, muscles creaked as loud as the weapon-wood and sweat rained on the flags and filled Nezor’s plate-mail and the merc-giant’s scale-mail.
Again the battle raged and another hood dropped with one of Cantra’s arrows in him. One of the petty human thugs close by Nezor stabbed him, again only mauling his armor so the hill-giant stomped on him. Crossbow bolts flew, the tavern was in an uproar as the drunks and tavern-goers crowded into the opposite half of the place and began chanting ‘”goodfellas” over-and-over again. Then the mercenary giant jerked unexpectedly and broke the clinch disarming Nezor of his great club in the process flinging it across the bar.
The enemy ranger dropped dead his head partially shorn from the neck by the stroke of Phenox’s paired scimitars. Two of the remaining hoods converged on Cantra their angry blades gleaming in the candlelight.
Nezor lunged at the other giant trying to grapple his enemy. He managed to get inside the reach of the spiked great club but could not find a grip on his opponent. It was his only chance to survive as he knew the merc-giant could easily kill him with a single lucky blow. The merc-giant knew this as well and tried to take a step back underestimating Nezor’s penchant for dirty fighting. Nezor kicked one of his enemy’s feet from under him tripping him and immediately stomped on his head crunching his skull. A crossbow bolt launched from an unseen assailant sailed into a chink in the triumphant giant’s armor wounding him.
Nezor took a moment to assess the situation and take in some desperately needed air. His other two companions were still fighting with both of the leather-hooded thugs and a ratling, probably the unseen archer that had put that bolt into him. The hill-giant scooped up his club and rejoined the skirmish.
Nezor missed with an initial attack on the hood with the bearded axe but struck him on the backswing wounding him. Cantra began to laugh unnervingly chilling the spines of all that could hear her as she dipped her dagger in a vile of Black Thorn Poison. The hood with the axe swung at Nezor scoring a critical strike due to Nezor’s clumsy defense forcing the hill-giant to back off in order to recover his bearings.
Phenox moved in and struck the other leather-hooded thug wounding him. The axe wielding hood moved after and struck at Nezor clinching with him when the giant attempted to parry the blow. Nezor then realized that this thug was as strong and about as large as a half-giant. More arrows and bolts flew from the shadows at Cantra whom barely avoided them. Nezor forced the half-giant to his knees with some effort. The half-giant tried to force his way back up but could find neither the leverage nor the strength to do so.
Phenox was in a duel with the other leather-hood and more arrows flew at Cantra. Nezor broke the clinch and swung on the half-giant who lunged to his feet parrying the club with his bearded-axe. Splinters flew everywhere but the axe remained intact to clinch Nezor’s club yet again. Nezor using all of his might tried to force the hood down to his knees again but the hood was barely able to hold his stance and tried to use his newfound leverage to break free but Nezor easily kept the axe bound up.
Phenox finally gained the upper hand in his duel with the other leather-hood and cut him down, the body instantly teleporting away in a flash of light from the magic hood. Cantra ducked under a table for cover and downed a healing potion. The half-giant and Nezor continued to struggle strength opposing strength the half-giant ever at a disadvantage but Nezor severely wounded. Cantra and the ratling suddenly disappeared from sight undoubtedly both playing at a very deadly shadow game. The half-giant suddenly broke the clinch with a sudden spot of luck.
Nezor in utter panic power-attacked putting all of his supernatural strength behind the blow in an all-or-nothing bid for victory and life the concussion of the killing blow stunned the crowd and the half-giant’s corpse was gone in a magic flash just as was his companion.
Phenox and Nezor looked about and saw no other enemies nor did they see Cantra though Phenox detected the ratling squeak as if it had been hit. Nezor was distracted when he saw the faun bartender and the trollish barmaids looting the merc-giant’s corpse.
Nezor (thrusting forth a stern finger): “Hey YOO! I impounded that criminal’s stuff! Tha’s the LAW’s property!”
After a few minutes it became evident that the ratling had escaped when Cantra finally emerged from a dark corner. The looting of the corpses that were left behind commenced. The take was disappointing though Nezor took delight in pegging up the spiked great club and giant suit of scale-mail as trophies on the wall behind his table. Phenox and Cantra retreated to her villa to recuperate. Nezor left to get a free healing at the local White Star house of healing due to his status as a city guard then returned to pass the rest of the night eating and drinking as usual.
The next day was for the most part a quiet one. The air was heavy and it was muggy, dense cotton-clouds hung in the stark blue sky. It felt like a heat wave was picking up. Throughout the day the usual patrons came and went. The rat-trappers, those with coats of patchwork rat-skins and an embroidered patch of a rat impaled on a dagger on their backs, sat and drank with Nezor eventually paying for their own drinks in rat-tails cut from the vermin that had infested that very establishment. The Black-Skull pirates also filed in around noon and filled the place with rowdy laughter and salty language. A fish-monger wandered in with his cart trying to peddle fish-stew but was chased out by the Troll’s owner. Phenox on his way in bought a jack of stew as the monger was leaving. Cantra wandered in shortly thereafter.
The trio enjoyed some drinks until sundown when the Black Skulls stumbled back to their ship. Phenox and Cantra left as they were meeting someone for something. Nezor wasn’t paying attention he was mulling over an idea. Shortly after they left he decided to put his idea into action and gathered up some random guards and friendly toughs in the streets and led a mob rousting the local pimps along the way. Nezor ended the night at the Troll as usual though 30 silver pieces, 100 coppers, 100 gold pieces, and 1 gold medallion richer.
Later that night, the hill-giant was awoken by a foul stench on the air. He saw the large hunched figure of a troll lurch into the tavern bearing a very large barrel. The tavern owner came out and talked for a bit with the creature, some coin exchanged hands, and the troll wandered out leaving the barrel which the publican had some hefty servants drag into the back. The giant rolled over and commenced to snore.
To Be Continued…
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| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Q:
Angular 9 -- Multiple Children inside Parent
Can someone explain to me, why the appropriate child switch won't update properly?
Click on the second child and the first child updates, but the console shows the correct method being called. Is it not possible to call the same child component in the parent like I am?
https://stackblitz.com/edit/angular-ivy-ch65ks
A:
https://stackblitz.com/edit/angular-ivy-ch65ks
Answer added here:
child.compontent.html
<input type="checkbox" id="toggle-button-checkbox_{{inputId}}" [disabled]="isDisabled">
<label class="toggle-button-switch" for="toggle-button-checkbox_{{inputId}}" (click)="toggleCheck()"></label>
<div class="toggle-button-text">
<div class="toggle-button-text-on">{{textOne}}</div>
<div class="toggle-button-text-off">{{textTwo}}</div>
</div>
child.component.ts
import { Component, OnInit, Output, EventEmitter, Input } from '@angular/core';
@Component({
selector: 'app-child',
templateUrl: './child.component.html',
styleUrls: ['./child.component.scss'],
inputs: ['textOne', 'textTwo', 'checkedValue', 'isDisabled','inputId'],
outputs: ['checkToEmit']
})
export class ChildComponent implements OnInit {
checkToEmit = new EventEmitter<boolean>();
textOne: string;
textTwo: string;
inputId;
checkedValue: boolean;
isDisabled: boolean = false;
constructor() { }
ngOnInit(): void {
console.log(this.checkedValue);
}
toggleCheck() {
this.checkedValue = !this.checkedValue;
this.checkToEmit.emit(this.checkedValue);
}
}
parent.component.html
<app-child name="one" textOne="Yes" textTwo="No" [checkedValue]="test1" (checkToEmit)="test1Checked($event)" inputId="1">
</app-child>
<app-child name="two" textOne="Yes" textTwo="No" [checkedValue]="test2" (checkToEmit)="test2Checked($event)" inputId="2">
</app-child>
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | StackExchange |
Intestinal microbial profiles in extremely preterm infants with and without necrotizing enterocolitis.
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) represents one of the gravest complications in premature infants. The suggested role of intestinal microbiota in the development of NEC needs to be elucidated. This prospective single-centre case-control study applied barcoded pyrosequencing to map the bacterial composition of faecal samples from extremely preterm infants. Ten patients were diagnosed with NEC and matched to healthy controls with regard to sex, gestational age and mode of delivery prior to analysis of the samples. Enterococcus, Bacillales and Enterobacteriaceae dominated the flora. Although not statistically significant, a high relative abundance of Bacillales and Enterobacteriaceae was detected at early time points in patients developing NEC, while healthy controls had a microbiota more dominated by Enterococcus. A low diversity of intestinal microbial flora was found without any differences between NEC patients and controls. In 16 healthy controls, Firmicutes (Enterococcus and Bacillales) dominated the faecal flora during the first weeks after birth and were then succeeded by Enterobacteriaceae. No significant differences in the composition of intestinal microbiota of patients developing NEC were detected; however, some findings need to be scrutinized in subsequent studies. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Abstracts |
Ask HN: How many of you grew up with entrepreneurial parents? - elai
Something I often wonder, how many HNers grew up with a parent who founded their own company or were founding their own while they were growing up. Or better yet, grew up with SV founders from back in the 80s or 70s. How was the experience growing up and what long term lessons did you learn from the effects of the lifestyle from your unique perspective as a child of one?
======
jdg
My father owned a real estate company, an ISP and a CLEC while growing up. All
turned into lifestyle businesses, even though they were meant to be big exits
in their respective industries.
* I learned that you're up some years and down others. The trick is to just keep pushing forward.
* Some people have it, others don't.
* You won't be able to recognize whether you have it or not, until you're actually doing it.
* Marry the right person (and make sure they have health insurance that covers you and your family).
* Keep your personal expenses low and maintain the ability to live off of your partners salary while you're bootstrapping, if that's the path you take.
Bonuses:
* You get to have great discussions around the business every time you're together.
* You're able to lean on your dad (or mom) and ask for advice about what they would do in particular situations. Basically a built in mentor.
* You have a #1 fan that in some ways are living their own dreams through you. And they actually "get" what you're doing.
You have to be careful though that you don't fall into some of the same traps
that they may have. As a great example: the typical small business mindset is
to never, ever give up equity. For what we do here, it's silly to think that
way. Equity is another tool in your toolbox, and should be used when
appropriate.
------
olalonde
Quite the opposite. My parents are both professors in social sciences and are
mostly disgusted with capitalism. Sometimes I wish I was born in an
entrepreneurial friendly background but I guess I have the benefit of having
seen both sides of the table. Plus, I have some interesting debates with them
once in a while :)
------
tzm
My mother and father were successful musicians in their early life. Since
then, my mother inherited a jewelry store from her father (who built it from
scratch in 1945). My father owns a restaurant and motorcycle store. His father
owned a very large elevator company, who sold it and retired. My mother's
father's father was a self taught dentist. (I still have his study books from
his early years). My father's father's father was a musician who was tough as
nails on his kids. They played the Grand Ol' Opry back in the day.
I have to say, my entire family tree is filled with entrepreneurs. That is all
I know.
------
mindcrime
My dad was definitely entrepreneurial, but he wasn't a technology guy at all.
The businesses he ran when I was a kid included: running a pulpwood truck,
cutting down trees and hauling logs to the mills; building docks and bulkheads
for people with houses on the water; building a selling crab traps; running a
dump truck, hauling fill dirt and doing ground grading / leveling / etc;
running a small-time shrimping operation, and uh, probably a couple more I'm
forgetting. He never made it "big time" doing any of the above, although he
would sometimes go years at a time making it OK doing one of those things, but
he always wound up going back to a "day job." Then, after hurting his back on
the job and being forced to more or less retire, he started a business doing
cement pouring / finishing, and that's the one where he kinda "made it." He is
very well established now doing that and makes pretty good living at it.
So yeah, watching my dad as a kid definitely taught me something about
persistence and the value of hard-work; and certainly contributed to my desire
to do my own thing.
------
mbenjaminsmith
My father had an aircraft building/rebuilding business for most of my
childhood. One of the earliest photos of me was me sitting on the nose cone of
a BD-5 with a screwdriver in my hand. One of my brothers started his own
business when he was 16 (I was 5 - 6) and was very successful for his age. My
mother ran an upholstery business for many years and most of her family were
entrepreneurs.
I guess what I learned from that is a business is a series of ups and downs
but at the end of the day it's always more satisfying to do your own thing. I
started my first business in college and founded my first 'real' one at 25.
While I don't think there's anything wrong with working for other people, I
can say I'm hardwired to start new things and I'm sure my childhood had a lot
to do with that.
------
avkumar2
I grew up watching my dad work his ass off day after day in a corporate
setting. I always admired how passionate he was about his work. Hes 52 now and
the CTO and supply-chain head for one of the large pharma giants.
He is gona quit the next month to launch his own venture because he doesn't
feel a sense of satisfaction with what he has done.
I just graduated from college and this just reaffirms my thinking - I want to
do more than walk the path other people have laid out for you. Just not
satisfying enough!
------
neworbit
Sorry - parents were both in exceedingly regulated industries (medical and
telecommunications)
------
Mz
My dad started a sewing machine repair store when I was a kid. I don't know
too much. I think he worked for someone else for a time and/or worked from
home and decided to open a shop. Once he opened a shop, then my mom, who sews,
got involved as well and it became a place where they also sold patterns and
material and sewing supplies. I don't think they ever did very well and I
think they really couldn't get on the same page. There also weren't the
resources there are today for assisting small businesses. The store eventually
folded. My mom brought home leftover material, thread, patterns, etc and
stocked her sewing room with them and spent years using up some of that stuff.
My mom also took in sewing at home for years and years and later became self-
employed as a cleaning lady. Her skills were in high enough demand that when
my dad went through chemo about 16 years ago and she had to mostly be home to
care for him, she could make one phone call and have work on her terms for the
hour or two she had available on some afternoon when he was doing well enough
to be left alone briefly. This helped them enormously. I think my mom
fundamentally has better business sense than my dad. She also sometimes sews
stuff (or did a few years back) for my cousin's gift shop, to help support
their success.
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | HackerNews |
That’s the net amount of petroleum products that the U.S. exported in 2011, marking the first time since 1949 that the country exported more petroleum products than it imported, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Imports fell to 2.4 million barrels per day (bpd)—the lowest level in 11 years—while exports rose to 2.9 million bpd, largely on the back of strong global demand for diesel fuel. (Diesel has a larger profit margin than gasoline—attractive to refiners—and is used in much greater levels by European countries, where cars as well as trucks often run on diesel.) But this doesn’t mean the U.S. is anywhere near close to being energy independent, at least when it comes to crude oil. The U.S. imported $331.6 billion worth of crude oil in 2011—by far the largest U.S. import of any good. Thanks in part to rising oil prices, that represented a 32% increase from 2010. Translation: while the growth of the U.S. petroleum industry is good for oil companies, the people who work for them and the overall U.S. trade deficit, it’s not likely to relieve the pain at the pump. Trying buying a hybrid instead. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
[Cite as State v. Louden, 2014-Ohio-3059.]
IN THE COURT OF APPEALS FOR CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO
STATE OF OHIO :
Plaintiff-Appellee : C.A. CASE NO. 2013 CA 30
2013 CA 31
v. :
T.C. NO. 12CR 53
JOSHUA A. LOUDEN : 13CR173
Defendant-Appellant : (Criminal appeal from
Common Pleas Court)
:
:
..........
OPINION
Rendered on the 11th day of July , 2014.
..........
WESLEY E. SOMOGY, Atty. Reg. No.0089037, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, 200 N.
Main Street, Urbana, Ohio 43078
Attorney for Plaintiff-Appellee
CHRIS BECK, Atty. Reg. No. 0018477, 1370 N. Fairfield Rd., Suite C, Beavercreek, Ohio
45324
Attorney for Defendant-Appellant
..........
DONOVAN, J.
[Cite as State v. Louden, 2014-Ohio-3059.]
{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant Joshua A. Louden appeals his conviction and sentence
for violating the terms of his community control in Champaign County Court of Common
Pleas Case No. 2012-CR-53, after he was charged with, and subsequently pled guilty to,
drug possession in a separate Case No. 2013-CR-173. Louden filed a timely notice of
appeal with this Court on July 22, 2013.
{¶ 2} In May of 2012, Louden pled guilty in Case No. 2012-CR-53 to two counts
of breaking and entering, in violation of R.C. 2911.11(A)(C), both felonies of the fifth
degree. The trial court placed Louden on three years of community control on each count,
the supervision orders to run concurrently. The trial court also ordered Louden to pay
restitution to the victim in the amount of $1,075.00. We note that Attorney Nick A.
Selvaggio was the original prosecuting attorney for the State of Ohio in Case No
2012-CR-53 and was present at all initial hearings.
{¶ 3} On January 1, 2013, prosecuting attorney Selvaggio became judge of the
Champaign County Court of Common Pleas. On April 13, 2013, Louden appeared before
Magistrate Shockling in Champaign County for a violation of his community control in Case
No. 2012-CR-53, and a hearing was scheduled before Judge Selvaggio. Louden did not
object to Judge Selvaggio presiding at the hearing. On May 22, 2013, Judge Selvaggio
continued Louden on community control with the added condition that he successfully
complete residential treatment at the West Central Community Based Correctional Facility.
Louden was ordered to report to the Tri-County Regional Jail on May 24, 2013, pending
admission into West Central. On May 27, 2013, while incarcerated at Tri-County, Louden
was found to be illegally in possession of Suboxone, a prescription narcotic.
{¶ 4} As a result of being found in possession of Suboxone at Tri-County, Louden
3
was indicted on one count of drug possession, in violation of R.C. 2925.11(A)(C)(2)(a), a
felony of the fifth degree in Case No. 2013-CR-173. On June 26, 2013, a community
control disposition/plea hearing was held in front of Judge Selvaggio. Once again, Louden
did not object to Judge Selvaggio presiding over the hearing. At the hearing, Louden
admitted to violating the terms of his community control in Case No. 2012-CR-53. In Case
No. 2013-CR-173, Louden pled guilty to the charged offense.
{¶ 5} Judge Selvaggio revoked Louden’s community control in Case No.
2012-CR-53 and sentenced him to twelve months in prison and ordered him to pay all
court-appointed legal fees, court costs, and unpaid restitution. In Case No 2013-CR-173,
Judge Selvaggio sentenced Louden to twelve months in prison and ordered that the
sentences in both cases be served consecutively for an aggregate term of two years
imprisonment.
{¶ 6} It is from this judgment that Louden now appeals.
{¶ 7} Louden’s first assignment of error is as follows:
{¶ 8} “APPELLANT WAS DENIED EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL
IN VIOLATION OF THE FIFTH, SIXTH, AND FOURTEENTH AMENDMENTS TO
THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND ARTICLE I, SECTION OF THE OHIO
CONSTITUTION.”
{¶ 9} In his first assignment, Louden contends that his trial counsel provided
ineffective assistance by failing to file an affidavit to disqualify Judge Selvaggio from
presiding over his second community control revocation hearing held on June 26, 2013.
Specifically, Louden argues that he was unable to receive a fair and impartial hearing
4
because of Judge Selvaggio’s prior involvement as the prosecutor in Case No. 2012-CR-53.
{¶ 10} A claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel requires both a showing
that trial counsel’s representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness, and
that the defendant was prejudiced as a result. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104
S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). A reviewing court “must indulge in a strong
presumption that counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional
assistance.” Id. at 689. The prejudice prong requires a finding that there is a reasonable
probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would
have been different, with a reasonable probability being “a probability sufficient to
undermine confidence in the outcome.” Id. at 694; see also State v. Bradley, 42 Ohio St.3d
136, 538 N.E.2d 373 (1989).
{¶ 11} Upon review, we conclude that Louden’s claim that he was unable to receive
a fair hearing because of Judge Selvaggio’s prior involvement as prosecutor in Case No.
2012-CR-53 lacks merit. Other than conjecture, Louden can point to no facts in the record
which support his argument that he was prejudiced by his counsel’s failure to file an
affidavit to disqualify Judge Selvaggio from presiding over the second revocation hearing.
{¶ 12} “In the absence of extraordinary circumstances, an affidavit of
disqualification should not be used to disqualify a judge after lengthy proceedings have
taken place in the case.” In re Disqualification of Light, 36 Ohio St.3d 604, 522 N.E.2d 458
(1988). “To prevail on an affidavit of disqualification, an affiant must demonstrate clearly
the existence of bias, prejudice, or other disqualifying interest that requires a judge's
removal.” In re Disqualification of Synenberg, 127 Ohio St. 3d 1220, 2009-Ohio-7206, 937
5
N.E.2d 1011, ¶ 18; citing In re Disqualification of Crow, 91 Ohio St.3d 1209, 741 N.E.2d
137 (2000). “A judge is presumed to follow the law and not to be biased, and the
appearance of bias or prejudice must be compelling to overcome these presumptions.” In re
Disqualification of George, 100 Ohio St. 3d 1241, 2003-Ohio-5489, 798 N.E.2d 23, ¶ 5; In
re Disqualification of Olivito, 74 Ohio St.3d 1261, 657 N.E.2d 136 (1994).
{¶ 13} As evidence of bias, Louden points out that Judge Selvaggio denied a
request for a continuance of the sentencing hearing for the preparation of a new pre-sentence
investigation report in Case No. 2013-CR-173. Louden also argues that Judge Selvaggio
was biased against him based on the imposition of consecutive sentences. These arguments
are unpersuasive. First, the revocation was based upon a new offense to which Louden pled
guilty. The new conviction, standing alone, is a basis to revoke. Furthermore, Louden was
on community control at the time of the newest offense, and the trial court had the benefit of
an earlier pre-sentence report. It is mere speculation, therefore, that Louden’s sentence
would have been more favorable if Judge Selvaggio had been disqualified as the sentencing
judge.
{¶ 14} It is undisputed that Louden violated the terms of his community control
twice. Significantly, Judge Selvaggio did not revoke Louden’s community control the first
time he violated his supervision in Case No. 20-12-CR-53, but merely added a condition that
he attend a treatment program at a residential facility. It is apparent that Judge Selvaggio
initially attempted to assist Louden in his rehabilitation rather than simply sending him to
prison. It was only after Louden’s second violation which occurred a mere five days after
6
his first revocation hearing that Judge Selvaggio imposed consecutive one-year prison terms.
The record contains no evidence of bias and prejudice on the part of Judge Selvaggio.
Louden has presented no evidence which overcomes the presumption that Judge Selvaggio
correctly followed the law. The record before us supports the findings made by the trial
court and supports a revocation of Louden’s community control. The facts before Judge
Selvaggio also provided a clear basis upon which to impose consecutive sentences. After
properly considering all relevant statutory provisions and applying them to the facts in the
instant case, the judge found that consecutive sentences were warranted. Accordingly, we
have no basis in this record for concluding that there is a reasonable probability that the
result of the proceeding would have been different if another judge had presided over this
case.
{¶ 15} Additionally, we find that it could have been trial strategy on the part of trial
counsel to not seek disqualification of the judge in this case, if trial counsel had reason to
believe that this particular judge would be more familiar with the facts and more lenient than
another judge. State v. Brown, 2d Dist. Champaign No. 2013-CA-13, 2014-Ohio-2301, ¶ 18.
An appellant is not deprived of effective assistance of counsel when counsel chooses, for
strategic reasons, not to pursue every possible trial tactic. State v. Brown, 38 Ohio St.3d 305,
319, 528 N.E.2d 523 (1988). A reviewing court may not second-guess decisions of counsel
which can be considered matters of trial strategy. State v. Smith, 17 Ohio St.3d 98, 477
N.E.2d 1128 (1985). Debatable strategic and tactical decisions may not form the basis of a
claim for ineffective assistance of counsel, even if, in hindsight, it looks as if a better
strategy had been available. State v. Cook, 65 Ohio St.3d 516, 524, 605 N.E.2d 70 (1992).
7
Thus, based on our review of the record before us, we conclude that Louden has failed to
demonstrate that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance.
{¶ 16} Louden’s first assignment of error is overruled.
{¶ 17} Louden’s second assignment of error is as follows:
{¶ 18} “APPELLANT WAS DENIED HIS RIGHT TO A FAIR AND IMPARTIAL
TRIER OF FACT [IN] VIOLATION OF [THE] SIXTH AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED
STATES CONSTITUTION AND ARTICLE I, SECTION 10 OF THE OHIO
CONSTITUTION.”
{¶ 19} In his second assignment, Louden argues that Judge Selvaggio should have
been disqualified from determining whether he violated his community control due to the
fact that the trial judge had formerly been the prosecutor in Case No. 2012-CR-53.
{¶ 20} As previously noted, Louden did not raise the issue of Judge Selvaggio’s
disqualification while the case was pending in the trial court. Louden’s remedy for a claim
of judicial bias and prejudice based upon facts known to him before trial was to seek to
disqualify the trial judge by means of an affidavit of bias or prejudice filed with the Supreme
Court of Ohio pursuant to R.C. 2701.03. Brown, 2d Dist. Champaign No. 2013-CA-13,
2014-Ohio-2301, at ¶ 11. This affidavit should have been filed prior to the hearing on
Louden’s alleged community control violations, at which the trial judge made factual
findings against Louden. State v. Scharsch, 2d Dist. Champaign No. 2013-CA-38,
2014-Ohio-1756, ¶ 9, citing In re Disqualification of Pepple, 47 Ohio St.3d 606, 607, 546
N.E.2d 1298 (1989).
{¶ 21} By not filing an affidavit of disqualification before the second revocation
8
hearing, Louden acquiesced to Judge Selvaggio presiding over the hearing. “In fairness to
the State, he should not be allowed to seek a favorable outcome from that trial judge while
retaining the ability to raise the bias and prejudice issue in the event of an unfavorable
outcome.” Brown, 2d Dist. Champaign No. 2013-CA-13, 2014-Ohio-2301, at ¶ 12.
{¶ 22} Louden’s second assignment of error is overruled.
{¶ 23} Louden’s third and final assignment of error is as follows:
{¶ 24} “[THE] TRIAL COURT ERRORED [sic] WHEN IT ORDERED
APPELLANT TO PAY ATTORNEY FEES AFTER HE WAS FOUND TO BE INDIGENT
AND QUALIFIED TO RECEIVE A PUBLIC DEFENDER.”
{¶ 25} In his final assignment, Louden argues that the trial court erred when it
ordered him to pay all court-appointed legal fees after he was initially found to be indigent.
Louden also asserts that the trial court failed to make the appropriate findings regarding his
ability to repay his legal fees.
{¶ 26} R.C. 2941.51(A) provides in pertinent part:
[C]ounsel . . . appointed by the court . . . shall be paid for their
services by the county . . . [and] request for payment shall be accompanied by
a financial disclosure form and an affidavit of indigency that are completed
by the indigent person on forms prescribed by the state public defender.
{¶ 27} Additionally, R.C. 2941.51(D) states in pertinent part:
[I]f the person represented has, or reasonably may be expected to
have, the means to meet some part of the cost of the services rendered to the
9
person, the person shall pay the county an amount that the person reasonably
can be expected to pay.
See State v. Myers, 2d Dist. Champaign No. 2011-CA-36, 2012–Ohio–5917, at ¶14.
{¶ 28} In State v. Breneman, 2d Dist. Champaign No. 2013 CA 15,
2014-Ohio-1102, ¶ 5, we recently stated the following:
*** R.C. 2941.51(D), upon which the State relies in its brief, does not
permit the recoupment of legal costs in the manner employed by the trial
court. R.C. 2941.51(D) does allow a county to seek reimbursement of
court-appointed counsel fees if a defendant has the means to pay for some or
all of the costs of services provided to him, but we have held that the right of
action it confers “must be prosecuted in a civil action.” [State v.] Miller [, 2d
Dist. Clark No. 08CA0090, 2010-Ohio-4760] at ¶ 61, citing State v.
Crenshaw, 145 Ohio App.3d 86, 761 N.E.2d 1121 (8th Dist.2001); State v.
Hill, 2d Dist. Clark No. 04CA0047, 2005-Ohio-3877, ¶ 6. The statute
specifically states that “fees and expenses approved by the court under this
section shall not be taxed as part of the costs * * *.” R.C. 2941.51(D).
{¶ 29} In light of the language of R.C. 2941.51(D) and our cases interpreting that
provision, the trial court erred in ordering Louden to pay for his legal representation as costs.
Because we have held that such compensation must be pursued in a separate civil action,
this portion of Louden’s sentence is vacated.
{¶ 30} Louden’s third and final assignment of error is sustained.
{¶ 31} The portion of the trial court’s judgment that requires Louden to pay legal
10
fees as costs will be vacated. In all other respects, the judgment of the trial court is
affirmed.
..........
FAIN, J. and WELBAUM, J., concur.
Copies mailed to:
Wesley E. Somogy
Chris Beck
Hon. Nick A. Selvaggio
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | FreeLaw |
Categories
*Sure Jewelry is currently producing for wholesale (business) only. *We produce every order, all fresh, all new! (No ready or old stocks). *Required “minimum order quantities” (MOQ) per item / size / appears in the description of each model. *”Minimum order value” (MOV) is 99$ not includes the freight charge. *Both MOQ & MOV are requiring for order production confirmation.
Delivery time
Delivery time for wholesale orders: 1month ~ 1.1month. But it as well may depend on domestic national holidays, design complexity, quantity. Best delivery time will be checked at order confirmation stage. Delivery on confirmed time or earlier is our high priority!!!
Prices
Get all prices by sending price inquiry & we will email a quotation. All is done via our website’s convenience: 1-Log in to your account (or register new account). 2-scroll categories, click on desired model which will open new tab, tic the size, or color and “ask for Quote”. At this stage the code & size inquired will appear pending in “All quotes” (top of page). 3-Tic other sizes of same code or close the tab to choose another model’s code. 4-When completed; go to “All quotes”, click “View list”, edit the list or drop us massage and “Submit now”. 5-Congrats your price inquiry had been email to us; expect email massage to confirm this. We will review your inquiry and reply wholesale quotation email ASAP.
*Price Bargain, be welcome to ask for better prices (Bargain), after we had email the quotation. Everybody want fair price! we do all we can to provide it, so we decided to use few production cost fluctuations factors that may allow us extra room for price reduction accordingly at bargain’s date, for the benefit and joy of our clients.
- Very important: we are not quoting high prices to begin with just because the bargain option. *It may be impossible to reduce an item price by bargain, we'll check and confirm.
*We reserve the right to adjust prices, modify or cancel discounts & promotions, and or any other details on this website without prior notice and at any require time.
Return policy
It is possible to return any item you assume different than what you had ordered, and or what confirmed in order; we will replace it with a similar item free of charge. In such case please email us the PO# (Purchase order number), the item code & return quantity, describing the problem in details & the reason of return. We will check and confirm by email the acceptance of this return item.*(Please do not ship back any return item without our acceptance by confirmation email).
Ship return item to us within 2 weeks since shipment received, and in the original packaging.
* Please make certain to return item in protected padded envelope for avoiding farther damage during the shipment back to us.
We are not responsible for return packages that had been lost or damaged on the way back to us; it is recommended to use forwarder with tracking option on return shipment. Next we receive the return item, check and verify it, and ship you back the corrected new item ASAP; We produce every item therefore it will be shipped to you as soon as completed. In case of a return, the client will carry return shipping cost, new replacement shipping cost, includes additional duties charges if there are. We reserve the right to accept or reject (not accept) a return (each case will be thoroughly examine). Any returned item will not be sold again, it’s a lost, and therefore we will do our most to provide you with perfect item in the first place.
*Return policy does not apply to items which has been stated so in their description. **We produce organic handmade items; there are few important informative issues which return policy does not apply to:
- Organic handmade jewelry will never appear 100% identical even between pairs; therefore we perform matching, getting pairs to look as identical as possible.
- Differences can appear such as the raw material color, different shade, wood structure, - While doing our best to produce finish item to match image, the differences usually cannot be seen with the naked eye; but as we depends on natural organic raw materials and handmade process, 100% consistency in look & similarity cannot be guaranteed.
- We do guarantee top grade raw materials, skilled carvings finish,, correct inlay, accurate sizes (subject to 1mm + -); in most of the cases the finish items will appear identical to the catalogue image.
Ex Works terms:
All pricing, delivery and products being offered by Sure Jewelry are according Ex Works terms; Any misuse of our products, lost or damage caused by or through the products personally, publicly or to property or else, and or products damaged after they had been collected by the freight forwarder or cargo from our premises for delivery, will not be by any way under sure jewelry responsibility, and cannot held against us in any way. Sure Jewelry will deliver top quality finish products as we do for over 10 years now, according to order, professionally high standard packed with complete & correct shipping documents for shipping by the freight forwarder (chosen by client) to deliver at client’s address and in accordance to the delivery schedule in the expected high quality.
Sizes:
All organic items sizes are in MM, in case of inquiry or order in Gauges, or inches we will convert them to MM for production, and they will appear in sales order for confirmation as MM. Converted gauges to MM will be rounded closest according to MM. Please refer to our size conversion chart, we are also able to show you and confirm first. As we are producing handmade it is not yet possible to guarantee 100% size accuracy, we guarantee the sizes 1mm + - (accuracy by the mm). | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Circadian rhythm disturbances in manic-depressive illness.
Clinical features of manic-depressive illness, such as diurnal variation in mood, early morning awakening, and cyclicity and seasonality of recurrences, have led to speculation that the circadian system may be involved in its pathophysiology. At least three types of circadian rhythm abnormalities have been described in such patients: blunting of circadian rhythms' amplitudes, advanced position (or even nonentrainment) of circadian rhythms' phases, and doubling of the length of the sleep-wake cycle from 24 to 48 h. Several types of experiments indicate that alterations in the timing of sleep and wakefulness relative to other circadian rhythms (i.e., changes in internal phase relationships) may trigger the onset or offset of episodes of depression and mania. Whether drugs used to treat manic-depressive illness act through their effects on the circadian system is currently being investigated. Direct manipulations of the circadian system are also being investigated as new approaches to treatment. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Abstracts |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a valve apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-182638 discloses a valve apparatus, which can open and close a flow passage according to a displacement position of a slidable member or which can adjust a flow quantity of fluid that passes the flow passage. One previously proposed valve apparatus of this kind will be described with reference to FIG. 6.
The valve apparatus shown in FIG. 6 is implemented as a pressure reducing valve 111, which is installed to a common rail 101 of a common rail fuel injection system of an internal combustion engine (e.g., a diesel engine). The pressure reducing valve 111 reduces an actual pressure of the common rail 101 when the actual pressure of the common rail 101 exceeds a predetermined pressure.
In the pressure reducing valve 111, a pushrod (a slidable member) 122 is axially slidably supported in a slide hole 128 formed in a valve body 121. A drive arrangement 125, which drives the pushrod 122, includes a spring 141 and an electromagnetic actuator 142. The electromagnetic actuator 142 includes an armature (a slider) 143, a solenoid 146 and a connector 147 with terminals 147a. The armature 143 is fixed to an upper end of the pushrod 122 in FIG. 6 to move integrally with the pushrod 122. The spring 141 urges the armature 143 and the pushrod 122 in the downward direction (a valve closing direction) in FIG. 6. The solenoid 146 magnetically attracts the armature 143 upon receiving electric power through the connector 147, so that the pushrod 122 fixed to the armature 143 is urged in the downward direction in FIG. 6 to seat a ball 123 against a valve seat 138 formed in a seat member 124 and thereby to close a flow passage hole 137 formed in the center of the valve seat 138.
When the ball 123 is lifted away from the valve seat 138 by the fuel pressure in an accumulation chamber 101d of the common rail 101, the flow passage hole 137 is opened. Thus, the high pressure fuel of the accumulation chamber 101d of the common rail 101 is conducted through the flow passage hole 137, a small diameter hole 132, radial holes 133 and a low pressure passage 101c to a lower pressure side (e.g., a fuel tank) of the system.
The previously proposed pressure reducing valve 111 may have the following disadvantage. Specifically, the pressure reducing valve 111 is installed to and is fixed to the common rail 101 when a male threaded portion 134 formed in the outer peripheral surface of the valve body 121 is threadably tightened and is thereby threadably secured to a female threaded portion 101a of the common rail 101. Thus, there is a possibility that the valve body 121 is deformed by the tightening load (the axially compressed load) applied to the valve body 121 by a tool (e.g., a wrench) that is used to install the pressure reducing valve 111 to the common rail 101.
Furthermore, when the common rail 101 is formed by metal casting or is processed in a high temperature environment, the common rail 101 may possibly be deformed in some cases. Thus, when the valve body 121 is strongly and securely tightened against such a deformed common rail 101, the valve body 121 may possibly be deformed due to the deformation of the common rail 101.
When the valve body 121 is deformed in this way, the slide hole 128, which is directly formed in the valve body 121, may be deformed. When this happens, the pushrod 122 may be interfered with the slide hole 128, so that a trouble in the slide movement of the pushrod 122 may possible occur.
Furthermore, when the deformation of the slide hole 128 occurs, the central axis of the pushrod 122 may possibly deviate from the central axis of the valve seat 138 in some cases. When the central axis of the pushrod 122 is deviated from the central axis of the valve seat 138, the seating direction of the ball 123 against the valve seat 138 (the urging direction of the urging force applied to the ball 123) may possibly be deviated from its proper direction. Thus, the leakage through the valve seat 138 may possibly occur even when the ball 123 is seated against the valve seat 138. Also, localized partial wearing may occur at the connection between the ball 123 and the valve seat 138.
Here, it is conceivable to increase a wall thickness of the valve body 121 to limit the deformation of the valve body 121. However, this will disadvantageously result in an increase in both a size and a weight of the pressure reducing valve 111.
The previously proposed pressure reducing valve 111 may also have the following disadvantage. Specifically, when the armature 143 of the electromagnetic actuator 142 is driven in the axial direction, a volume of an armature receiving chamber 148, which is formed in the valve body 121 and slidably receives the armature 143, is changed. In order to promote this volume change of the armature receiving chamber 148 to facilitate the movement of the armature 143 and the pushrod 122, the armature receiving chamber 148 is communicated with an external space, which is external to the armature receiving chamber 148, through a breathing passage.
In the previously proposed pressure reducing valve 111, the armature receiving chamber 148 is communicated with an interior of the small diameter hole 132 (a low pressure side), which is positioned on the upstream side of the valve seat 138, through a slide clearance B between the pushrod 122 and an inner peripheral surface of the slide hole 128. The slide clearance B is relatively narrow in the radial direction and is axially lengthened to limit possible deviation of the central axis of the pushrod 122. Thus, a flow resistance of the fluid (the fuel), which passes the slide clearance B, is relatively large. Therefore, the breathing (the volume change) of the armature receiving chamber 148 may be disadvantageously hindered, and thereby movability (response) of the armature 143 and the pushrod 122 may be disadvantageously limited. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | USPTO Backgrounds |
7.21.2008
The newest member
Today she got to go shopping for toys, treats and a bed. Let me tell you...she was exhausted! She is so well behaved for only being 8 weeks old, plus she is the CUTEST thing on earth!
I am trying to make business cards. It is hard because I want them to be so cool. I think I might have figured out the template that I like, phhheewwww!
I had a GREAT cup of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffe today from dirt cowboy cafe in Hanover. It was one of the most amazing brews I have ever had. I am pretty sure I like every cup of coffee I get from there. I wish there was a business like this cafe near me at school, I would probably be there daily x 6.
I had my Orthopedic dr. appointment for my knees today. I am okay for the most part. I was given some exercises to strengthen the insides of my legs and stretches for my IT bands so the tension is taken off of my knee caps ( which was causing my ouchies). The exercise band I was given smell like chocolate, if I could eat them I probably would.
I go back to the Ortho tomorrow for the big one: my wrists....dunnn dunnn dunnn!
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I don't proof read. I go by: Elizabeth, Bud, Reeds, B, E or Lizzie some times I will make an exception to Liz..when I am ordering food. I strongly agree with the following: Tomatoes are gross; chocolate is good. Sparkle is indeed a color. Water keeps you youthful. Reading is important. You should smile, more. Blimp's are the most magical human creation. I like to belt Annie Lenox at the top of my lungs. Coffee is my muse. Highheels are a must. Adequate sleep is the same as taking a daily vitamin. Nail polish envy is real. "At least I am Not Normal" is my favorite quote. Bikes are my Passion. I happen to be extremely good at drinking red wine. My World, My Rules. 48-Hours to Live. Instagram: ereederreadsanereader Xx | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Michael Nelson Trout is the greatest baseball player you, I or anyone has ever seen play. I say that with complete sincerity and in no way meant to be hyperbolic. Depending on your age, the likelihood of the greatest player ever in a sport that is 150+ years old playing in your lifetime seems slim but he hasn’t even reached his prime years and has not finished below 2nd in MVP voting in his young 5 year career. Baseball twitter has written extensively on the subject of Trout’s greatness more eloquently and statistically-based than I could hope to, so I won’t here. This writing will attempt to not devolve into a Trout love fest, but I make no promises. I want to focus on something I’ve been looking forward to since my 5/6th favorite person in the world tragically tore the UCL in his thumb sliding head first into second base; his return and the challenge that awaits him.
When Trout left the ballpark in late May with an apparent injury the baseball world waited with baited breath. Then we found out about the tear, we all cried as the first DL stint of his amazing career took him when he somehow appeared to be getting better and then we came to terms with our bleak Troutless lives. That time is gone now and now we get to see Trout attempt to imitate the Freeze and beat someone who has been given as sizable lead, hopefully with better results. The race in this case is for the most WAR in the American League. Wins Above Replacement, is an attempt to measure a player’s true value with adjustments for position, league, and era with the goal being to assign a value with which we can compare all players. WAR is somewhat of touchy subject between sabermetric and more traditional baseball communities but it’s value should not really be questioned. The validity of a stat is usually how well it backs up what we see. By WAR the best players of all time currently, due to Trout’s youth, are Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, and Willie Mays. There’s a reason you have probably heard of those guys regardless of your level of baseball fandom and they are all where they should be by this measure. Trout will join and pass them just like he has all but 6 active major league players.
When Trout went down around 5 weeks ago, the incredible Sam Miller at ESPN made a bold prediction that Trout would still win the MVP, I independently concurred. Though WAR and MVP are two different things one would think if he can somehow overcome these odds there is almost no way the BBWA can deny him the A.L. MVP, unless there’s a stupid triple crown winner again. WAR is a counting stat meaning the more a player is on the field and not actively hurting their team they are gaining value. By the time he takes the field Mike Trout will have missed 6 weeks and should have no chance at leading this statistic however currently he stands only 17 spots and two fWAR away from the top, which equates a good month for him. Essentially this accomplishment will mean that Trout is so much better than everyone else he can put up the same amount of value in ⅔ the time.
The problem is the current WAR leader is the ‘biggest baseball boy,’ Aaron Judge. Leaving out pitchers, (because the translation between position players and pitchers is weird) after Judge is a cast of recurring MVP candidates Jose Altuve, Mookie Betts, Carlos Correa, Paul Goldschmidt, and Justin Turner. After the incredible showcase Judge put on in the Home Run Derby he is everyone’s favorite baseball player right now. Like Griffey did for wearing caps backwards before him he inspired a whole generation to want to punish baseballs with extreme prejudice. Even I, a noted Yankees hater, who thinks Judge looks like a Bond villain can not deny his talent and the amazing season he has already put up so far. Because of what Judge has done watching this "second half" chase really fun to watch.
Based on Fangraph’s WAR calculation Mike Trout currently stands at 3.4 (number one when he went out) and Judge is at 5.5. I did not think Judge would be anywhere near that number even two months ago. It is a huge lead, seemingly insurmountable but this is Mike Trout. The updated projections from Dan Szymborski’s ZIPs system predicts Judge will end the season near 7.4 and Trout 6.4, just fractions behind the three people between him and Judge. Again after missing almost two months of the season this alone would be an incredible feat but given the circumstances even second place in WAR should warrant him an MVP award win but it won’t. He has been denied MVP multiple times when he was far and away the best player in the league so I don’t see a path to the award without winning this statistic and even then the BWAA is going to try and find a way to give it to the guy from New York with the high traditional stats.
There are a few ways we can squint and see Trout win this:
Aaron Judge suffers from the infamous HR Derby hangover and falls apart for the rest of the season. The hangover doesn’t exist, but that will not stop this narrative if he does stumble down the stretch.
Judge gets hurt. Nothing can hurt him have you seen the guy?
Judge finds out how much of a bitch regression to the mean can be. He is running a .426 BAbip(Batting Average on Balls in Play), the league average is typically around.300. BAbip for a single player with no track record is not very telling in either direction but is something worth considering. Also, given how he hits the crap out of the ball this may not matter with Judge particularly but it’s not nothing.
He has been picking on some especially bad pitching staffs in his division; Blue Jays and Orioles and they should regress positively just as he will negatively.
As Miller stated, Trout should be relatively healthy even though his thumb has been surgically repaired, he took a month off. So while everyone is dragging in late September/October he should still be fresh and putting up his usual mid season numbers
“If Trout played the final 70 games at that level, he'd produce 4.9 second-half wins, and 8.2 for the season.”
Until his injury Trout was putting up his best season yet. If he is somehow able to sustain the level he was playing before the injury he should be able to at least catch the field. An 8.2 WAR is unlikely but he may not need to reach quite that high. His pace when he was healthy in the first half shows it’s not completely out of the question.
The hard thing to confidently predict about what could be Trout’s first repeat MVP, though he should have 5 by now, is how much of a wild card Judge is. He has no worthwhile sample size to use for predictions. In an industry that has become all about projections Judge is a big question mark right now. This is past performance vs the great unknown, with the added intrigue of The Yankees fading and the Angels somehow staying afloat in the Wild Card mix, along with all other A.L. teams.
Being a huge baseball fan, I would normally be tracking the leaderboards and standings anyway but this is going to be a special kind of fun to watch. The kind of accomplishment that may be a definitive moment of the greatest baseball career ever. If Trout pulls this off it’ll be like watching a half season long version of The Block. Even if he doesn’t, MIKE TROUT is back! Who says baseball is boring? Oh right all the standing around, carry on. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Labour is now leading the field among big-money donations totalling more than £7,500. Labour can always count on the Union Barons to bankroll a beleaguered Jeremy Corbyn. The Tories will be disappointed with their measly haul… | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
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Ethical issues in obtaining collateral information on alcohol and drug use: experience from Asia and Africa.
In many regions of the world, wives of alcohol and drug-using men are at an increased risk for HIV/AIDS because of their husbands' high-risk behaviours. These women also tend to be poor, illiterate and dependent on their husbands. Few interventions are designed exclusively for these women. Furthermore, these interventions have had to obtain permission from the husbands to recruit the wives. This article discusses the ethical concerns in obtaining husbands' permission to recruit their wives, with examples taken from India and other countries in Asia and Africa. Studies indicate that married women are recruited for interventions only with their husbands' consent. Researchers reported that this strategy was acceptable to the local culture, increased acceptance of the research by family and community and improved the participation rate of married women. However, this strategy conflicts with the ethical principles of individual autonomy and voluntariness. Designing research processes according to the local cultural norms is important. However, it is a researcher's ethical duty to ensure that every individual of the society, irrespective of sex, race or marital status, gets equal opportunities to make health-related decisions. This article suggests alternate strategies to directly approach and recruit monogamous wives of alcohol and drug-using men; further research is required to test the feasibility of suggested strategies. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Abstracts |
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— Mike Gundy (@CoachGundy) June 14, 2018
Goddamn. Hold my beer for a second, I gotta speak on a few things.
[pulls camp chair out of thin air in parking lot of Stillwater, Oklahoma’s fourth-best gas station]
[cracks beer]
[cracks another beer]
My boy is too good for y’all. HE IS JUST TOO GOOD FOR Y’ALL. He’s giving you emojis when you come for his neck. Know what any other coach would give you? Two middle fingers and a good view of his ass out the back window of his pickup truck.
Don’t say that’d be hard to do. Cousin of mine got picked up in Tulsa for doing it. He said the hard part was losing the cop afterwards while trying to get his Carhartts up without spilling his drink. WHICH HE DID because he’s Red Dirt Royalty.
Like my boy. Y’all know who you’re talking to? That man has more wins than any other coach in Oklahoma State history. That man’s got the best winning percentage of any coach in history except for someone named “Pappy Waldorf.” Pappy coached during the Great Depression. They passed the ball six times a game back then. Not their fault. Depression really hurt the market on numbers. They’re like Kansas and wins. Six is about as high as they could go.
[tosses two empties into back of passing pickup]
[cracks four more beers]
[stashes one in hair]
[throws another to a passing bird]
[bird, in Bird: hey thanks homie]
Don’t mention it.
Some bullshit about recruiting better. You looked around? Our fair city is not for everyone. It just ain’t, and we gotta be proud of that. It takes a special player to appreciate Eskimo Joe’s and wearing boots in the shower. Not everyone is gonna enjoy our core curriculum. We learn to frack in the morning and noodle in the afternoon. Stillwater puts the extra in extraction and extracurricular. You’re gonna need extra-type people to get that.
Yon’t find extra-type people anywhere. You gotta hunt for them. That’s fine. Our man can do that.
Here's a second image of #OKState coach Mike Gundy's rattlesnake hunt. Wrapped around the neck! pic.twitter.com/09GWOIjawt — Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) March 21, 2017
T-Boone. Thinks he’s special cause he’s got checks. Put his name on the stadium like that’s a thing any other redneck with money can’t do. Been saying for years: We need Garth to write some damn checks, is what we need. You wanna go to Boone Pickens Stadium? Or do you wanna show up to Low Places Stadium at Garth Brooks field? With the Trisha Yearwood Indoor Facility next door?
I know, I know. I’m ahead of you already: The visitors locker room is gonna be named after Chris Gaines.
The T in T- Boone stands for trackpants btw. That’s his given name. Don’t tell me it ain’t, he’s got hundreds of millions of dollars and that’s all he ever wears. If I’m 328 years old and got more money than God you’re damn sure gonna find me in something better than trackpants. Probably waders with no shirt. Don’t laugh till you tried it, those things are just comfy as hell.
[lights a cigarette]
[lights another cigarette]
[throws cigarette to passing dog who catches it in mouth and begins smoking]
[dog, in dog: ‘preciate it hoss]
All good, cuz.
I’m gonna wrap this up. Our man is gonna keep on keepin’ on. Even if our athletic director thinks he can’t recruit. Even if our de facto owner takes breaks from trying to buy all the water under Texas for profit and tweeting sick burns at Drake to complain about being good at football for more than a decade. Even if he has to compete with those cheating hemi-Texans in Norman with half the natural advantages and two geezers with money yelling at him from the peanut gallery. Dudes are birds. They’re gonna chirp.
One more thing.
Good morning. Here is the greatest photo of all time. Happy Homecoming #okstate. pic.twitter.com/LNWfdG67BW — Pistols Firing (@pistolsguys) October 14, 2017
Paraphrasing here: Are y’all not entertained? Y’all better be entertained.
P.S. Tell OU I watched that Georgia game. Get you a Mike Stoops or a bag of prunes. They’re the same when it comes to stopping the runs. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
TREATMENT OF CIVILIANS***
E-text prepared by Brian Coe, Graeme Mackreth, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
Note: Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive. See
https://archive.org/details/germanwarpractic00munriala
GERMAN WAR PRACTICES
PART I
TREATMENT OF CIVILIANS
Edited by
DANA C. MUNRO
Princeton University
GEORGE C. SELLERY and AUGUST C. KREY
University of Wisconsin University of Minnesota
[Illustration]
Issued by
The Committee on Public Information
The Secretary of State
The Secretary of War
The Secretary of the Navy
George Creel
November 15, 1917
EXECUTIVE ORDER.
I hereby create a Committee on Public Information, to be composed of
the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the
Navy, and a civilian who shall be charged with the executive direction
of the Committee. As civilian Chairman of the Committee I appoint Mr.
George Creel.
The Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the
Navy are authorized each to detail an officer or officers to the work
of the Committee.
WOODROW WILSON.
April 14, 1917.
INTRODUCTION.
[Sidenote: Germany pledged to Hague regulations.]
For many years leaders in every civilized nation have been trying to
make warfare less brutal. The great landmarks in this movement are the
Geneva and Hague Conventions. The former made rules as to the care
of the sick and wounded and established the Red Cross. At the first
meeting at Geneva, in 1864, it was agreed, and until the present war
it has been taken for granted, that the wounded, and the doctors and
nurses who cared for them, would be safe from all attacks by the enemy.
The Hague Conventions, drawn up in 1899 and 1907, made additional rules
to soften the usages of war and especially to protect noncombatants
and conquered lands. Germany took a prominent part in these meetings
and with the other nations solemnly pledged her faith to keep all the
rules except one article in the Hague Regulations. This was article
44, which forbade the conqueror to force any of the conquered to give
information. All the other rules and regulations she accepted in the
most binding manner.
[Sidenote: German policy of frightfulness.]
But Germany's military leaders had no intention of keeping these solemn
promises. They had been trained along different lines. Their leading
generals for many years had been urging a policy of frightfulness. In
the middle of the nineteenth century von Clausewitz was looked upon as
the greatest military authority, and the methods which he advocated
were used by the Prussian army in its successful wars of 1866-1871.
Consequently, because these wars had been successful, the wisdom of von
Clausewitz's methods seemed to the Prussian army to be fully proven.
Now, the essence of von Clausewitz's teachings was that successful war
involves the ruthless application of force. In the opening chapter of
his master work, _Vom Kriege_ (_On War_), he says:
"Violence arms itself with the inventions of art and science. * * *
Self-imposed restrictions, almost imperceptible and hardly worth
mentioning, termed usages of international law, accompany it without
essentially impairing its power. * * * Now, philanthropic souls
might easily imagine that there is a skillful method of disarming or
subduing an enemy without causing too much bloodshed, and that this
is the true tendency of the art of war. However plausible this may
appear, still it is an error which must be destroyed; for in such
dangerous things as war, the errors which proceed from a spirit of
'good-naturedness' are precisely the worst. As the use of physical
force to the utmost extent by no means excludes the cooperation of the
intelligence, it follows that he who uses force ruthlessly, without
regard to bloodshed, must obtain a superiority, if his enemy does not
so use it."
In 1877-78, in the course of a series of articles upon "Military
necessity and humanity," Gen. von Hartmann wrote, in the same spirit as
von Clausewitz:
[Sidenote: Frightfulness advocated by German generals.]
"The enemy State must not be spared the want and wretchedness of
war; these are particularly useful in shattering its energy and
subduing its will." "Individual persons may be harshly dealt with
when an example is made of them, intended to serve as a warning. * *
* Whenever a national war breaks out, terrorism becomes a necessary
military principle." "It is a gratuitous illusion to suppose that
modern war does not demand far more brutality, far more violence,
and an action far more general than was formerly the case." "When
international war has burst upon us, terrorism becomes a principle
made necessary by military considerations."
In 1881 von Moltke, who had been commander in chief of the Prussian
army in the Franco-Prussian War, declared:
"Perpetual peace is a dream and not even a beautiful dream. War is
an element in the order of the world established by God. By it the
most noble virtues of man are developed, courage and renunciation,
fidelity to duty and the spirit of sacrifice--the soldier gives his
life. Without war, the world would degenerate and lose itself in
materialism." "The soldier who endures suffering, privation, and
fatigue, who courts dangers, can not take only 'in proportion to the
resources of the country.' He must take all that is necessary to his
existence. One has no right to demand of him anything superhuman."
"The great good in war is that it should be ended quickly. In view of
this, every means, except those which are positively condemnable,
must be permitted. I can not, in any way, agree with the Declaration
of St. Petersburg when it pretends that 'the weakening of the military
forces of the enemy constitutes the only legitimate method of
procedure in war. No! One must attack all the resources of the enemy
government, his finances, his railroads, his stock of provisions and
even his prestige. * * *"
[Sidenote: Kaiser's "Hun" speech in 1900.]
Many other examples might be cited from the writings of German
generals. The very best illustration of this attitude, however, is
to be found in the Emperor's various speeches, and especially in his
speech to his soldiers on the eve of their departure for China in
1900. On July 27 the Kaiser went to Bremerhaven to bid farewell to
the German troops. As they were drawn up, ready to embark for China,
he addressed to them a last official message from the Fatherland. The
local newspaper reported his speech in full. In it appeared this advice
and admonition from the Emperor, the commander in chief of the army,
the head of all Germany.
"As soon as you come to blows with the enemy he will be beaten. No
mercy will be shown! No prisoners will be taken! As the Huns, under
King Attila, made a name for themselves, which is still mighty in
traditions and legends to-day, may the name of German be so fixed in
China by your deeds that no Chinese shall ever again dare even to look
at a German askance. * * * Open the way for _Kultur_ once for all."
[Sidenote: Opposition in Reichstag.]
Even the imperial councillors seem to have been shocked at the
Emperor's speech, and efforts were promptly made to suppress the
circulation of his exact words. The efforts were only partly
successful. A few weeks later, when letters from the German soldiers
in China were being published in local German papers, the leading
socialist newspaper, _Vorwaerts_, excerpted from them reports of
atrocities under the title "Letters of the Huns." Many of the leaders
in the Reichstag felt very keenly the brutality of the Emperor's
speech. The obnoxious word "Huns" had excited almost universal
condemnation. When the Reichstag met, in November, the speech was
openly discussed. Herr Lieber, of the Center (the Catholic party),
after quoting the "no mercy" portion of the speech, added, "There
are, alas, in Germany groups enough who have regarded the atrocities
told in the letters which have been published as the dutiful response
of soldiers so addressed and encouraged." The leader of the Social
Democrats, Herr Bebel, spoke even more pointedly. Toward the end of a
two-hour address on the atrocities committed by the German soldiers in
China and on the speech of the Emperor he said:
"If Germany wishes to be the bearer of civilization to the world, we
will follow without contradiction. But the ways and means in which
this world policy has been carried on thus far, in which it has
been defined by the Emperor * * * are not, in our opinion, the way
to preserve the world position of Germany, to gain for Germany the
respect of the world."
The consequences of the Emperor's speech Bebel aptly described:
"By it a signal was given, garbed in the highest authority of the
German Empire, which must have most weighty consequences, not only for
the troops who went to China but also for those who stayed at home."
"An expedition of revenge so barbarous as this has never occurred in
the last hundred years and not often in history; at least, nothing
worse than this has happened in history, either done by the Huns, by
the Vandals, by Genghis Khan, by Tamerlane, or even by Tilly when he
sacked Magdeburg."
[Sidenote: Atrocities in China.]
These stories of atrocities in China or "Letters of the Huns" continued
to be published in the _Vorwaerts_ for several years and appeared
intermittently in the debates of the Reichstag as late as 1906. At that
time the socialist, Herr Kunert, reviewing the procedure in a trial
of which he had been the victim in the previous summer, stated that
he had offered to prove "that German soldiers in China had engaged in
wanton and brutal ravaging; that plunder, pillage, extortion, robbery,
as well as rape and sexual abuses of the worst kind, had occured on a
very large scale and that German soldiers had participated in them."
He had not been given an opportunity to prove his allegations, but had
been sentenced to prison for three months for assailing the honor of
the "whole German Army." The outrageousness of this sentence was made
clear by the revelations, made in the Reichstag shortly afterwards, of
similar atrocities committed by German officials and soldiers in Africa
in the campaign against the Hereros.
The teachings of Treitschke and Nietzsche and their evil influence
upon the present generation in Germany are well known. The minds of
the responsible officials were filled with ideas wholly different from
those to which Germany had agreed at The Hague. The cult of might, and
of war as its expression, found many disciples who flooded the press
with pamphlets and panegyrics on war and its place in the natural and
political development of a nation. Before the war the average number of
volumes concerning war published each year in Germany was 700, and the
vast majority of those written by the German Army officers advocated
the ruthless policy of von Clausewitz, von Hartmann, and von Moltke.
These ideas, which have come to control the minds of the military
class, are best shown in the _German War Book_ (_Kriegsbrauch im
Landkriege_), published in 1902. The tone of this authoritative book
may be judged from the following extracts:
[Sidenote: Teachings of the German War Book.]
"But since the tendency of thought in the last century was dominated
essentially by humanitarian considerations which not infrequently
degenerated into sentimentality and flabby emotion (_Sentimentalitaet
und weichlicher Gefuehlschwaermerei_), there have not been wanting
attempts to influence the development of the usages of war in a way
which was in fundamental contradiction with the nature of war and its
object. Attempts of this kind will also not be wanting in the future,
the more so as these agitations have found a kind of moral recognition
in some provisions of the Geneva Convention and the Brussels and Hague
Conferences."
"By steeping himself in military history an officer will be able to
guard himself against excessive humanitarian notions; it will teach
him that certain severities are indispensable to war, nay more, that
the only true humanity very often lies in a ruthless application of
them."
For the guidance of the officers in case the inhabitants of conquered
territory should take up arms against the German Army, the _German War
Book_ quotes with approval the letter Napoleon sent to his brother
Joseph, when the inhabitants of Italy were attempting to revolt against
him:
"The security of your dominion depends on how you behave in the
conquered province. Burn down a dozen places which are not willing to
submit themselves. Of course, not until you have first looted them;
my soldiers must not be allowed to go away with their hands empty.
Have three to six persons hanged in every village which has joined the
revolt; pay no respect to the cassock" [that is, to members of the
clergy.]
[Sidenote: German war proclamations in French translations.]
Some of the rules laid down in the _German War Book_ are illustrated
and their spirit made more definite in _L'Interprete Militaire_. _Zum
Gebrauch im Feindesland_ (Military Interpreter for Use in the Enemy's
Country). This is a manual edited at Berlin in 1906. "It contains,"
says the introduction, "the French translation of the greater part of
the documents, letters, and proclamations, and some orders of which
it may be necessary to make use in time of war." Thus, eight years
before this war began, the German military authorities were not only
preparing their officers to wage war in a manner wholly contrary to the
Hague regulations, but also were looking forward to the use of these
proclamations in French or Belgian territory. Among its forms, ready
for use by inserting names, date, and place, are the following:
"A fine of 600,000 marks in consequence of an attempt made by ---- to
assassinate a German soldier, is imposed on the town of O. By order of
----.
"Efforts have been made, without result, to obtain the withdrawal of
the fine.
"The term fixed for payment expires to-morrow, Saturday, December 17,
at noon ----.
"Bank notes, cash, or silver plate will be accepted."
* * * * *
"I have to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated the 7th of this
month, in which you bring to my notice the great difficulty which you
expect to meet in levying the contributions. * * * I can but regret
the explanations which you have thought proper to give me on this
subject; the order in question which emanates from my Government is so
clear and precise, and the instructions which I have received in the
matter are so categorical that if the sum due by the town of R---- is
not paid the town will be burned down without pity!"
* * * * *
"On account of the destruction of the bridge of F----, I order: The
district shall pay a special contribution of 10,000,000 francs by
way of amends. This is brought to the notice of the public who are
informed that the method of assessment will be announced later and
that the payment of the said sum will be enforced with the utmost
severity. The village of F---- will be destroyed immediately by fire,
with the exception of certain buildings occupied for the use of the
troops."
These forms have been of great use to the German commanders in Belgium
and northern France. The closeness with which they have been followed
in these conquered lands, during the present war, may be seen by
reading the following proclamations and the other proclamations which
are printed elsewhere in this pamphlet.
"The City of Brussels, exclusive of its suburbs, has been punished by
an additional fine of 5,000,000 francs on account of the attack made
upon a German soldier by Ryckere, one of its police officials.
"The Governor of Brussels,
"BARON VON LUETTWITZ.
"_November 1, 1914._"
Placard posted on the walls of Luneville by order of the German
authorities:
"Notice to the People.
"Some of the inhabitants of Luneville made an attack from ambuscade on
the German columns and wagons (_trains_). The same day [some of the]
inhabitants shot at sanitary formations marked with the Red Cross. In
addition, German wounded and the military hospital containing a German
ambulance were fired upon.
"Because of these acts of hostility a fine of 650,000 francs is
imposed upon the commune of Luneville. The mayor is ordered to pay
this sum in gold or silver up to 50,000 francs, September 6, 1914,
at nine o'clock in the morning, to the representative of the German
military authority. All protests will be considered null and void. No
delay will be granted.
"If the commune does not punctually obey the order to pay the sum of
650,000 francs, all property that can be levied upon will be seized.
"In case of non-payment, visits from house to house will be made
and all the inhabitants will be searched. If anyone knowingly has
concealed money or attempted to hold back his goods from the seizure
by the military authorities, or if anyone attempts to leave the city,
he will be shot.
"The Mayor and the hostages taken by the military authorities will be
held responsible for the exact execution of the above orders.
"The Mayor is ordered to publish immediately this notice to the
Commune.
"Henamenil, Sept. 3, 1914.
"The General in Chief,
"VON FASBENDER."
The German officers were provided with the forms to be used in
terrorizing the conquered people. The common soldiers were provided
with phrase books which would enable them to impose their will upon the
terrified people. Minister Brand Whitlock in his report to the State
Department on September 12, 1917, writes:
"The German soldiers were provided with phrase books giving alternate
translations in German and French of such sentences as:
"'Hands up.' (It is the very first sentence in the book.)
"'Carry out all the furniture.
"'I am thirsty. Bring me some beer, gin, rum.
"'You have to supply a barrel of wine and a keg of beer.
"'If you lie to me, I will have you shot immediately.
"'Lead me to the wealthiest inhabitants of this village. I have orders
to requisition several barrels of wine.
"'Show us the way to ----. If you lead us astray, you will be shot.'"
[Sidenote: The system of frightfulness.]
The quotations and proclamations printed above show clearly the
attitude of mind of the German military authorities. The policy of
frightfulness had been exalted into a system with every minute detail
worked out in advance. The _German War Book_ with its "cold-blooded
doctrines of the nature of war and of the means which may be employed
in prosecuting war," did its work in training the German military
officials. Of this book it has been well said: "It is the first time in
the history of mankind that a creed so revolting has been deliberately
formulated by a great civilized State." The generals gave their
sanction to this policy of frightfulness. Gen. von Bernhardi was quoted
in an interview in the _Neue Freie Presse_ of Vienna, as follows:
"One cannot make war in a sentimental fashion. The more pitiless the
conduct of the war, the more humane it is in reality, for it will run
its course all the sooner. The war which of all wars is and must
be most humane is that which leads to peace with as little delay as
possible."
This interview was reproduced in the _Berliner Tageblatt_ of November
20, 1914.
Mr. F.C. Walcott, of the Belgian Relief Commission, tells, in the
_Geographical Magazine_ for May, 1917, of meeting Gen-von Bernhardi:
[Sidenote: Interview with Bernhardi.]
"As I walked out, General von Bernhardi came into the room, an expert
artillery-man, a professor in one of their war colleges. I met him the
next morning, and he asked me if I had read his book, _Germany and the
Next War_.
"I said I had. He said, 'Do you know, my friends nearly ran me out of
the country for that. They said, "You have let the cat out of the
bag." I said, "No, I have not, because nobody will believe it." 'What
did you think of it?'
"I said, 'General, I did not believe a word of it when I read it, but
I now feel that you did not tell the whole truth;' and the old general
looked actually pleased."
Speaking on August 29, 1914, at Muenster, of the extreme measures which
the Germans had felt obliged to take against the civil population of
Belgium, Gen. von Bissing said:
[Sidenote: Statement by von Bissing.]
"The innocent must suffer with the guilty. * * * In the repression
of infamy, human lives cannot be spared, and if isolated houses,
flourishing villages, and even entire towns are annihilated,
that is assuredly regrettable, but it must not excite ill-timed
sentimentality. All this must not in our eyes weigh as much as
the life of a single one of our brave soldiers--the rigorous
accomplishment of duty is the emanation of a high _Kultur_, and in
that, the population of the enemy countries can learn a lesson from
our army."
Gen. von Bissing, after his appointment as governor general of Belgium,
repeated in substance the above opinion to a Dutch journalist. The
interview is published in the _Duesseldorfer Anzeiger_ of December 8,
1914.
Irvin S. Cobb states his conclusions on the responsibility of the
higher German command for the atrocities:
"But I was an eyewitness to crimes which, measured by the standards of
humanity and civilization, impressed me as worse than any individual
excess, any individual outrage, could ever have been or can ever be;
because these crimes indubitably were instigated on a wholesale basis
by order of officers of rank, and must have been carried out under
their personal supervision, direction, and approval. Briefly, what I
saw was this: I saw wide areas of Belgium and France in which not a
penny's worth of wanton destruction had been permitted to occur, in
which the ripe pears hung untouched upon the garden walls; and I saw
other wide areas where scarcely one stone had been left to stand upon
another; where the fields were ravaged; where the male villagers had
been shot in squads; where the miserable survivors had been left to
den in holes, like wild beasts.
"Taking the physical evidence offered before our own eyes, and
buttressing it with the statements made to us, not only by natives
but By German soldiers and German officers, we could reach but one
conclusion, which was that here, in such and such a place, those in
command had said to the troops: 'Spare this town and these people.'
And there they had said: 'Waste this town and shoot these people.'
And here the troops had discriminately spared, and there they had
indiscriminately wasted, in exact accordance with the word of their
superiors." Irvin S. Cobb, _Speaking of Prussians_, New York, 1917,
pp. 32-34.
These ideas, then, were systematically impressed upon the military and
official classes. It was necessary, however, to work upon the minds of
the German people, so that they might lend themselves to the inhuman
policies advocated by the military leaders. To do this was difficult,
for, as has been shown above, many of the civilian leaders of public
opinion, time and again, expressed their horror of the new spirit which
was animating the military authorities. The Reichstag debates give
ample evidence of this, and the task of the military leaders would have
been still more difficult if the Reichstag had had any real power. (See
War Information Series, No. 3, _The Government of Germany_; see also
Gerard's _My Four Years in Germany_, Chap. II.)
[Sidenote: Hatred against Belgians.]
The military authorities and those in sympathy with them have done all
in their power to stimulate a hatred of other peoples in the minds of
the Germans. A campaign of education before the war was carried on with
the object of impressing upon the minds of the Germans the treacherous
nature of the peoples against whom the military leaders were anxious
to wage war. Not only were the Germans gradually led to believe that
it was necessary to fight a defensive war against unscrupulous foes,
but also that these foes would violate every precept of humanity,
and consequently must be crushed without mercy as a measure of
self-defense. The fruits of this campaign of suspicion and hatred
became evident when almost at the outbreak of the war many Germans
became possessed with the belief that the whole population of Belgium,
the first country to be invaded, had violated every rule of honorable
warfare, that the _francs-tireurs_ (guerillas) were everywhere present
doing their deadly work in secrecy or under the cover of darkness; that
women and even children were mutilating and killing the wounded or
helpless prisoners.
The effect of the fables upon the popular mind may be seen in the
following extracts from German letters:
Extract from a letter written by a German soldier to his brother. (This
letter, now in the possession of the United States Government, was
obtained for this pamphlet from Mr. J.C. Grew, formerly secretary to
the United States Embassy at Berlin.)
"NOVEMBER 4, 1914.
"The battles are everywhere extremely tenacious and bloody. The
Englishmen we hate most and we want to get even with them for once.
While one now and then sees French prisoners, one hardly ever
beholds French black troops or Englishmen. These good people are not
overlooked by our infantrymen; that sort of people is mowed down
without mercy. The losses of the Englishmen must be enormous. There is
a desire to wipe them out, root and all."
Extract from another letter to a brother:
"SCHLESWIG, 25, 8, 14 [Aug. 25, 1914].
"DEAR BROTHER, * * * You will shortly go to Brussels with your
regiment, as you know. Take care to protect yourself against these
_Civilians_, especially in the villages. Do not let anyone of them
come near you. _Fire without pity on everyone of them who comes
too near._ They are very clever, cunning fellows, these Belgians;
even the women and children are armed and fire their guns. Never go
inside a house, especially alone. If you take anything to drink make
the inhabitants drink first, and keep at a distance from them. _The
newspapers relate numerous cases in which they have fired on our
soldiers whilst they were drinking._ You soldiers must spread around
so much fear of yourselves that no civilian will venture to come near
you. Remain always in the company of others. _I hope that you have
read the newspapers and that you know how to behave. Above all have no
compassion for these cut-throats. Make for them without pity with the
butt-end of your rifle and the bayonet._ * * *
"Your brother,
"WILLI."
The Emperor gave his sanction to the reports of the brutal acts of the
Belgians in a telegram to President Wilson.
[Sidenote: Emperor's telegram.]
"BERLIN, VIA COPENHAGEN, _Sept. 7, 1914_.
"SECRETARY OF STATE,
"_Washington_.
"Number 53. September 7. I am requested to forward the following
telegram from the Emperor to the President:
"'I feel it my duty, Mr. President, to inform you as the most
prominent representative of principles of humanity, that after taking
the French fortress of Longwy, my troops discovered there thousands
of dumdum cartridges made by special government machinery. The
same kind of ammunition was found on killed and wounded troops and
prisoners, also on the British troops. You know what terrible wounds
and suffering these bullets inflict and that their use is strictly
forbidden by the established rules of international law. I therefore
address a solemn protest to you against this kind of warfare, which,
owing to the methods of our adversaries has become one of the most
barbarous known in history. Not only have they employed these
atrocious weapons, but the Belgian Government has openly encouraged
and since long carefully prepared the participation of the Belgian
civil population in the fighting. The atrocities committed even by
women and priests in this guerilla warfare, also on wounded soldiers,
medical staff and nurses, doctors killed, hospitals attacked by rifle
fire, were such that my generals finally were compelled to take the
most drastic measures in order to punish the guilty and to frighten
the blood-thirsty population from continuing their work of vile murder
and horror. Some villages and even the old town of Loewen [Louvain],
excepting the fine hotel de ville, had to be destroyed in self-defense
and for the protection of my troops. My heart bleeds when I see that
such measures have become unavoidable and when I think of the numerous
innocent people who lose their home and property as a consequence of
the barbarous behavior of those criminals. Signed. William, Emperor
and King.'
"GERARD. _Berlin._"
Lorenz Mueller in the German Catholic review, _Der Fels_, February,
1915, made the following statement in regard to the Emperor's telegram:
[Sidenote: Refutation by a German.]
"Officially no instance has been proven of persons having fired with
the help of priests from the towers of churches. All that has been
made known up to the present, and that has been made the object of
inquiry, concerning alleged atrocities attributed to Catholic priests
during this war, has been shown to be false and altogether imaginary,
without any exception. Our Emperor telegraphed to the President of the
United States of America that even women and priests had committed
atrocities during this guerilla warfare on wounded soldiers, doctors
and nurses attached to the field ambulances. How this telegram can be
reconciled with the fact stated above we shall not be able to learn
until after the war."
The _Vorwaerts_, of Berlin, October 22, 1914, said:
[Sidenote: Refutation by Vorwaerts.]
"We have already been able to establish the falseness of a great
number of assertions which have been made with great precision and
published everywhere in the press, concerning alleged cruelties
committed, by the populations of the countries with which Germany is
at war, upon German soldiers and civilians. We are now in a position
to silence two others of these fantastic stories.
"The War Correspondent of the _Berliner Tageblatt_ spoke a few weeks
ago of cigars and cigarettes filled with powder alleged to have
been given out or sold to our soldiers with diabolical intent. He
even pretended that he had seen with his own eyes hundreds of this
kind of cigarettes. We learn from an authentic source that this
story of cigars and cigarettes is nothing but a brazen invention.
Stories of soldiers whose eyes are alleged to have been torn out
by francs-tireurs are circulated throughout Germany. Not a single
case of this kind has been officially established. In every instance
where it has been possible to test the story its inaccuracy has been
demonstrated.
"It matters little that reports of this nature bear an appearance
of positive certitude, or are even vouched for by eyewitnesses. The
desire for notoriety, the absence of criticism, and personal error
play an unfortunate part in the days in which we are living. Every
nose shot off or simply bound up, every eye removed, is immediately
transformed into a nose or eye torn away by the francs-tireurs.
Already the _Volkszeitung_ of Cologne has been able, contrary to the
very categorical assertions from Aix-la-Chapelle, to prove that there
was no soldier with his eyes torn out in the field ambulance of this
town. It was said, also, that people wounded in this way were under
treatment in the neighborhood of Berlin, but whenever enquiries have
been made in regard to these reports, their absolute falsity has been
demonstrated. At length these reports were concentrated at Gross
Lichterfelde. A newspaper published at noon and widely circulated
in Berlin printed a few days ago in large type the news that at the
Lazaretto of Lichterfelde alone there were 'ten German soldiers, only
slightly wounded, whose eyes had been wickedly torn out.' But to a
request for information by comrade Liebknecht the following written
reply was sent by the chief medical officer of the above-mentioned
field hospital, dated the 18th of the month:
"'SIR,
'Happily there is no truth whatever in these stories.
'Yours obediently,
'PROFESSOR RAUTENBERG.'"
[Sidenote: German soldiers protest against atrocities.]
Thus the teachings of the _German War Book_ and of the German apostles
of frightfulness, suspicion, and hatred, had now begun to bear their
natural fruit. But the voice of protest was not entirely silent. A
considerable number of letters by German soldiers who were shocked by
the German atrocities were sent to Ambassador Gerard, because he was
the representative of the United States, the leading neutral nation.
The three letters which follow, in translation, were received by the
American ambassador from German soldiers. They were obtained for this
pamphlet from Secretary Grew; they illustrate both the system and the
horror of it, which the writers felt.
Here is the protest of a German soldier, an eyewitness of the slaughter
of Russian soldiers in the Masurian lakes and swamps:
"It was frightful, heart-rending, as these masses of human beings
were driven to destruction. Above the terrible thunder of the cannon
could be heard the heart-rending cries of the Russians: 'O Prussians!
O Prussians!'--but there was no mercy. Our Captain had ordered: 'The
whole lot must die; so rapid fire.' As I have heard, five men and one
officer on our side went mad from those heart-rending cries. But most
of my comrades and the officers joked as the unarmed and helpless
Russians shrieked for mercy while they were being suffocated in the
swamps and shot down. The order was: 'Close up and at it harder!' For
days afterwards those heart-rending yells followed me and I dare not
think of them or I shall go mad. There is no God, there is no morality
and no ethics any more. There are no human beings any more, but only
beasts. Down with militarism.
"This was the experience of a Prussian soldier. At present wounded;
Berlin, October 22, 1914.
"If you are a truth-loving man, please receive these lines from a
common Prussian soldier."
Here is the testimony of another German soldier on the Eastern front.
"RUSSIAN POLAND, _December 18, '14_.
"In the name of Christianity I send you these words.
"My conscience forces me as a Christian German soldier to inform you
of these lines.
"Wounded Russians are killed with the bayonet according to orders.
"And Russians who have surrendered are often shot down in masses
according to orders, in spite of their heart-rending prayers.
"In hope that you, as the representative of a Christian State will
protest against this, I sign myself,
"A GERMAN SOLDIER AND CHRISTIAN.
"I would give my name and regiment, but these words could get me
court-martialed for divulging military secrets."
* * * * *
The third letter, from the Western front, shows the same horror of the
system of which the writer was a witness.
"To the
"AMERICAN GOVERNMENT,
"_Washington, U.S.A._
"Englishmen who have surrendered are shot down in small groups. With
the French one is more considerate. I ask whether men let themselves
be taken prisoner in order to be disarmed and shot down afterwards? Is
that chivalry in battle? It is no longer a secret among the people;
one hears everywhere that few prisoners are taken; they are shot down
in small groups. They say naively: 'We don't want any unnecessary
mouths to feed. Where there is no one to enter complaint, there is no
judge.' Is there then no power in the world which can put an end to
these murders and rescue the victims? Where is Christianity? Where is
right? Might is right.
"A SOLDIER AND MAN WHO IS NO BARBARIAN."
[Sidenote: Socialists oppose system.]
Many of the Germans, as has been already indicated, do not believe
the reports of the atrocities committed by the Belgian civilians and
refuse to accept the system of frightfulness. The _Vorwaerts_, the
leading socialistic paper, which has a very wide circle of readers, has
opposed the policy of frightfulness. All honor to its editors who have
so courageously opposed powerful military authority! Its editorial,
entitled "Our Foes," published August 23, 1914, reads as follows:
"We wish to show ourselves humane and friendly towards those whom the
fortune of war has played into our hands as prisoners. But we wish
also to be humane towards our foes on the field. We must fight them.
* * * But fighting does not mean murdering. It does not mean being
barbarous. * * *
"What should one say when even such an organ as the _Deutsches
Offizier-Blatt_ expresses its sympathy with a demand that 'the
beasts' who are taken as francs-tireurs should not be killed but only
wounded so that they may then be left to a fate 'which makes any help
impossible?' Or what should we say when the _Deutsches Offizier-Blatt_
states that 'a punitive destruction even of whole regions' cannot
'afford full recompense for the bones of a single murdered Pomeranian
grenadier' Those are the desires of blood-thirsty fanatics and we
are thoroughly ashamed of ourselves because it is possible that
there are people among us who urge such things. Such disclosures in
themselves, even if they are not followed out, are likely to place our
fighting quite in the wrong before all the world. * * * Let us show
knightliness even though we are of the proletariat. Let us take such
pains that when the fight has finally been fought it will also not
be so difficult again to work in common as brothers with our class
associates on the other side of the border."
On the following day, August 24, 1914, the _Vorwaerts_ returned to the
attack in an editorial "Against Barbarism."
[Sidenote: Some Germans demand "orgies of barbarism."]
* * * "One might, in the first place, possibly believe that such a
demand for a bloody vengeance [against alleged Belgian outrages]
emanates from a single disease-racked brain; but it appears that whole
groups among certain classes who represent German _Kultur_ want to
indulge in orgies of barbarism and to devise a whole system for the
purpose of organizing 'a war of revenge.'
"What of law and custom! Such thoughts do not stir a 'great nation'.
Thus in a leading article of the _Berliner Neueste Nachrichten_, the
demand is made that all the authorities in Brussels--one, the second
Burgomaster, is generously excepted--should be immediately seized and
subjected to trial in order to expiate the wrongs which, according
to fragmentary and highly uncertain reports, were said to have been
committed by the people. They demand that the captured city should
immediately pay a fine of 500,000,000 marks; that all stores of the
conquered territory be requisitioned without paying the inhabitants a
single penny for them."
Three years later, August 26, 1917, the _Vorwaerts_ quoted the following
passage from the _Deutsche Tagezeitung_:
[Sidenote: Still hold same opinions.]
"We have a ring of politicians who hold that might makes right
(_Machtpolitiker_) who despise the forces of the inner life and
believe that they must eliminate all ethical points of view * * * from
foreign and social politics. For them, Germany of the present and of
the future is the country of the Krupps and Borsigs, of the Zeppelins
and the U-boats. Any idea of a connection between politics and morals
is rejected and any reference to the right of a moral method of
consideration is ridiculed as delusion and sentimentality."
[Sidenote: Belgian warning of danger.]
Naturally the reports of the atrocities committed by the Germans and
the Emperor's declaration that the war would henceforth assume a
terrible character (_grausamen Charakter_) caused grave anxiety among
the Belgians. In order to avoid the danger of reprisals, the Belgian
Government, at the beginning of the invasion, had every Belgian
newspaper publish each day the following notice on its first page, in
large print:
"TO CIVILIANS.
"The Minister of the Interior advises civilians in case the enemy
should show himself in their district:
"Not to fight;
"To utter no insulting or threatening words;
"To remain within their houses and close the windows; so that it will
be impossible to allege that there was any provocation;
"To evacuate any houses or isolated hamlet which the soldiers may
occupy in order to defend themselves, so that it cannot be alleged
that civilians have fired;
"An act of violence committed by a single civilian would be a crime
for which the law provides arrest and punishment. It is all the more
reprehensible in that it might serve as a pretext for measures of
oppression, resulting in bloodshed or pillage, or the massacre of the
innocent population with the women and children."
In the hope of arousing the sympathy and securing the aid of the
neutral nations, the Belgian Government appointed a committee to
ascertain the facts about the German practices. The evidence collected
by the Belgian commissioners is detailed and explicit, and their
reports give names, places, and dates. It is not possible, however, to
include in this pamphlet more than the following summary of the charges
they make against the Germans:
"1. That thousands of unoffending civilians, including women and
children, were murdered by the Germans.
"2. That women had been outraged.
"3. That the custom of the German soldiers immediately on entering a
town was to break into wineshops and the cellars of private houses and
madden themselves with drink.
"4. That German officers and soldiers looted on a gigantic and
systematic scale, and, with the connivance of the German authorities,
sent back a large part of the booty to Germany.
"5. That the pillage had been accompanied by wanton destruction and by
bestial and sacrilegious practices.
"6. That cities, towns, villages, and isolated buildings were
destroyed.
"7. That in the course of such destruction human beings were burnt
alive.
"8. That there was a uniform practice of taking hostages and thereby
rendering great numbers of admittedly innocent people responsible for
the alleged wrongdoings of others.
"9. That large numbers of civilian men and women had been virtually
enslaved by the Germans, being forced against their will to work for
the enemies of their country, or had been carried off like cattle into
Germany, where all trace of them had been lost.
"10. That cities, towns, and villages had been fined and their
inhabitants maltreated because of the success gained by the Belgian
over the German soldiers.
"11. That public monuments and works of art had been wantonly
destroyed by the invaders.
"12. And that generally the Regulations of the Hague Conference and
the customs of civilized warfare had been ignored by the Germans,
and that amongst other breaches of such regulations and customs, the
Germans had adopted a new and inhuman practice of driving Belgian men,
women, and children in front of them as a screen between them and the
allied soldiers."
The German authorities undertook to defend themselves against the
terrible indictment in the report published by the Belgian Government
and appointed a German commission, which collected a huge mass of
materials designed to show that their acts of cruelty were merely acts
of reprisal necessitated by the deeds of the Belgians. This mass of
testimony was published in a _German White Book_ with the title _Die
voelkerrechtswidrige Fuehrung des Belgischen Volkskriegs_.
The German commission declared in its findings that the German soldiers
had acted with humanity, restraint, and Christian forbearance. But the
sworn statements of German soldiers, which the commission published,
show the reverse to be true.
[Sidenote: German White Book reveals atrocities.]
It has been well said that the publication of this _German White Book_
was "an amazing official blunder." The neutral world, whose good
opinion Germany sought, was not convinced by it that the Belgians had
committed the atrocities with which the Germans charged them. On the
other hand, this _White Book_, published by the German Government, will
be accepted by everyone as conclusive evidence of the massacres and
other brutal deeds which were carried out as "reprisals" by the orders
of the German military authorities in Belgium. The names of the German
officers who gave the terrible orders are published officially, and
"frequently the very men themselves come forward and depose coldly and
callously to acts which have degraded the German Army and left a stain
upon its banners that [future] generations of chivalry will not efface."
Indeed, in the light of the admissions of the _German White Book_, it
is not too much to say that the time has already come which was spoken
of by President Wilson in his dispatch to President Poincare, September
19, 1914, when he said (speaking for "a nation which abhors inhuman
practices in the conduct of a war"):
"The time will come when this great conflict is over and when the
truth can be impartially determined. When that time arrives those
responsible for violations of the rules of civilized warfare, if
such violations have occurred, and for false charges against their
adversaries, must of course bear the burden of the judgment of the
world."
CHARACTER OF THE MATERIAL USED IN THIS PAMPHLET.
[Sidenote: German sources.]
In this pamphlet throughout, as in the preceding pages, the evidence
is drawn mainly from German and American sources. The German sources
include official proclamations and other official utterances, letters
and diaries of German soldiers, and quotations from German newspapers.
The diaries which are so frequently quoted form a unique source. The
_Rules for Field Service_ of the German Army advises each soldier to
keep such a diary while on active service. Very many German soldiers
who have been taken prisoner had kept such diaries, and these have been
confiscated by the captors. Many have been published, frequently with
facsimile reproductions to guarantee their authenticity. The best known
collection was made by Bedier, whom Prof. Hollmann, of the University
of Berlin, properly described as "the distinguished Prof. Joseph Bedier
of the College de France." Of Bedier's publication Prof. Nyrop, of the
University of Copenhagen, says:
"He has translated the diaries and commented upon them just as one
does with all old historical documents, and, in order that everyone
may be in a position to check up his work, he has also accompanied
the account with facsimile copies of the documents he used. Here,
accordingly, at the outset every proof of the evidence which he has
employed is provided. No falsification is possible. The accounts
are those of eyewitnesses, and these eyewitnesses are Germans. They
tell what they themselves or their comrades have done, and Bedier
accompanies their remarks with running comments which show that not
only have common law and the Hague Conventions been violated, but sins
have also been committed against the most elementary laws of humanity.
Both the material and the presentation are unassailable. The details
which are provided by the German soldiers in regard to their own
violent acts are horror-striking."
Prof. Hollmann attempted to prove that Bedier had made mistakes in
translating and interpreting, but he did not deny the genuineness of
the diaries. "These notebooks," he says, "may well be authentic and I
accept this without further comment for all those which are provided
with the name of their authors and whose authenticity can in any case
be established after the war."
[Sidenote: American sources.]
The American evidence is drawn mainly from material in the archives
of the State Department. In addition, statements from our ambassadors
and ministers and other well-known officials and authors are given.
Messrs. Hoover, Kellogg, and Walcott have written statements especially
for this pamphlet. All of this material is essentially the testimony
of neutrals, for it is based wholly on observations made before the
United States entered the war. Occasionally official documents and well
authenticated facts from foreign sources are used.
[Sidenote: Frightfulness as a system.]
The purpose of this pamphlet is to show that the system of
frightfulness, which is itself the greatest atrocity, is the definite
policy of the German Government, against which more humane German
soldiers themselves revolted at times. For this reason it has not
seemed necessary to set forth the individual acts of cruelty; such
acts are cited only when necessary to illustrate the system. Anyone
who wishes to read chapters of horrors can find them in the _Report of
the Committee on Alleged German Outrages_, presided over by the former
British Ambassador to this country and therefore generally known as
"the Bryce report;" in the official reports by the Belgian _Commission
d'Enquete_; in the official French reports compiled under the auspices
of the French minister for foreign affairs; in many other publications,
and especially in the conclusive admissions of the official _German
White Book_ cited above. The last, published by the German Government,
is the most damning testimony concerning the system of frightfulness.
I. MASSACRES.
[Sidenote: Protection of noncombatants agreed to by Germany.]
[Sidenote: But her military leaders did not acquiesce.]
In the wars waged in ancient times it was taken for granted that
conquered peoples might be either killed, tortured, or held as slaves;
that their property would be taken and that their lands would be
devastated. "_Vae victis!_--woe to the conquered!" For two centuries
or more there has been a steady advance in introducing ideas of
humanity and especially in confining the evils of warfare to the
combatants. The ideal seemed to have become so thoroughly established
as a part of international law that the powers at The Hague thought it
sufficient merely to state the general principles in Article XLVI of
the regulations: "Family honors and rights, the lives of persons and
private property, as well as religious convictions and practice, must
be respected. Private property can not be confiscated." Germany, in
common with the other powers, solemnly pledged her faith to keep this
article, but her military leaders had no intention of doing so. They
had been trained in the ideas voiced by Gen. von Hartmann 40 years
ago: "Terrorism is seen to be a relatively gentle procedure, useful
to keep the masses of the people in a state of obedience." This had
been Bismarck's policy, too. According to Moritz Busch, Bismarck's
biographer, Bismarck, exasperated by the French resistance, which was
still continuing in January, 1871, said:
[Sidenote: Bismarck's idea in 1871.]
"If in the territory which we occupy, we can not supply everything for
our troops, from time to time we shall send a flying column into the
localities which are recalcitrant. We shall shoot, hang, and burn.
After that has happened a few times, the inhabitants will finally come
to their senses."
The frightfulness taught by the German leaders had held full sway
in Belgium. This is best seen in the entries in the diaries of the
individual German soldiers.
EXTRACTS FROM GERMAN WAR DIARIES.
"During the night of August 15-16 Engineer Gr---- gave the alarm in the
town of Vise. Everyone was shot or taken prisoner, and the houses were
burnt. The prisoners were made to march and keep up with the troops."
(From the diary of noncommissioned officer Reinhold Koehn of the Second
Battalion of Engineers, Third Army Corps.)
* * * * *
"A horrible bath of blood. The whole village burnt, the French thrown
into the blazing houses, civilians with the rest." (From the diary of
Private Hassemer, of the Eighth Army Corps.)
* * * * *
"In the night of August 18-19 the village of Saint-Maurice was punished
for having fired on German soldiers by being burnt to the ground by
the German troops (two regiments, the 12th Landwehr and the 17th). The
village was surrounded, men posted about a yard from one another, so
that no one could get out. Then the Uhlans set fire to it, house by
house. Neither man, woman, nor child could escape; only the greater
part of the live stock was carried off, as that could be used. Anyone
who ventured to come out was shot down. All the inhabitants left in the
village were burnt with the houses." (From the diary of Private Karl
Scheufele, of the Third Bavarian Regiment of Landwehr Infantry.)
* * * * *
"At 10 o'clock in the evening the first battalion of the 178th marched
down the steep incline into the burning village to the north of Dinant.
A terrific spectacle of ghastly beauty. At the entrance to the village
lay about fifty dead civilians, shot for having fired upon our troops
from ambush. In the course of the night many others were also shot, so
that we counted over 200. Women and children, lamp in hand, were forced
to look on at the horrible scene. We ate our rice later in the midst
of the corpses, for we had had nothing since morning. When we searched
the houses we found plenty of wine and spirit, but no eatables. Captain
Hamann was drunk." (This last phrase in shorthand.) (From the diary
of Private Philipp, of the One Hundred and Seventy-eighth Regiment of
Infantry, Twelfth Army Corps.)
* * * * *
"Aug. 6th crossed frontier. Inhabitants on border very good to us and
give us many things. There is no difference noticeable.
"Aug. 23rd, Sunday (between Birnal and Dinant, village of Disonge).
At 11 o'clock the order comes to advance after the artillery has
thoroughly prepared the ground ahead. The Pioneers and Infantry
Regiment 178 were marching in front of us. Near a small village the
latter were fired on by the inhabitants. About 220 inhabitants were
shot and the village was burnt--artillery is continuously shooting--the
village lies in a large ravine. Just now, 6 o'clock in the afternoon,
the crossing of the Maas begins near Dinant * * * All villages,
chateaux, and houses are burnt down during this night. It was a
beautiful sight to see the fires all round us in the distance.
"Aug. 24th. In every village one finds only heaps of ruins and many
dead. (From the diary of Matbern, Fourth Company, Eleventh Jaeger
Battalion, Marburg.)
* * * * *
"A shell burst near the 11th Company, and wounded seven men, three very
severely. At 5 o'clock we were ordered by the officer in command of
the regiment to shoot all the male inhabitants of Nomeny, because the
population was foolishly attempting to stay the advance of the German
troops by force of arms. We broke into the houses, and seized all who
resisted, in order to execute them according to martial law. The houses
which had not been already destroyed by the French artillery and our
own were set on fire by us, so that nearly the whole town was reduced
to ashes. It is a terrible sight when helpless women and children,
utterly destitute, are herded together and driven into France." (From
the diary of Private Fischer, Eighth Bavarian Regiment of Infantry,
Thirty-third Reserve Division.)
Other German soldiers, too, we are glad to see, show their horror at
the foul deeds.
"The inhabitants have fled in the village. It was horrible. There was
clotted blood on all the beards, and what faces one saw, terrible to
behold! The dead, sixty in all, were at once buried. Among them were
many old women, some old men and a half-delivered woman, awful to see;
three children had clasped each other, and died thus. The altar and
the vaults of the church are shattered. They had a telephone there
to communicate with the enemy. This morning, September 2, all the
survivors were expelled, and I saw four little boys carrying a cradle,
with a baby five or six months old in it, on two sticks. All this
was terrible to see. Shot after shot! Thunderbolt after thunderbolt!
Everything is given over to pillage; fowls and the rest all killed.
I saw a mother, too, with her two children; one had a great wound on
the head and had lost an eye." (From the diary of Lance-Corporal Paul
Spielmann, of the Ersatz, First Brigade of Infantry of the Guard.)
* * * * *
* * * In the night the inhabitants of Liege became mutinous. Forty
persons were shot and 15 houses demolished, 10 soldiers shot. The
sights here make you cry.
"On the 23rd August everything quiet. The inhabitants have so far
given in. Seventy students were shot, 200 kept prisoners. Inhabitants
returning to Liege.
"Aug. 24th. At noon with 36 men on sentry duty. Sentry duty is A 1, no
post allocated to me. Our occupation, apart from bathing, is eating and
drinking. We live like God in Belgium." (From the diary of Joh. van der
Schoot, reservist of the Tenth Company, Thirty-ninth Reserve Infantry
Regiment, Seventh Reserve Army Corps.)
* * * * *
"August 17th. In the afternoon I had a look at the little chateau
belonging to one of the King's secretaries (not at home). Our men had
behaved like regular vandals. They had looted the cellar first, and
then they had turned their attention to the bedrooms and thrown things
about all over the place. They had even made fruitless efforts to smash
the safe open. Everything was topsy-turvy--magnificent furniture,
silk, and even china. That's what happens when the men are allowed to
requisition for themselves. I am sure they must have taken away a heap
of useless stuff simply for the pleasure of looting."
"Aug. 23rd. * * * Our men came back and said that at the point where
the valley joined the Meuse we could not get on any further as the
villagers were shooting at us from every house. We shot the whole
lot--16 of them. They were drawn up in three ranks; the same shot did
for three at a time.
"* * * The men had already shown their brutal instincts; * * *
"The sight of the bodies of all the inhabitants who had been shot
was indescribable. Every house in the whole village was destroyed.
We dragged the villagers one after another out of the most unlikely
corners. The men were shot as well as the women and children who were
in the convent, since shots had been fired from the convent windows;
and we burnt it afterwards.
"The inhabitants might have escaped the penalty by handing over the
guilty and paying 15,000 francs.
"The inhabitants fired on our men again. The division took drastic
steps to stop the villages being burnt and the inhabitants being shot.
The pretty little village of Gue d'Ossus, however, was apparently set
on fire without cause. A cyclist fell off his machine and his rifle
went off. He immediately said he had been shot at. All the inhabitants
were burnt in the houses. I hope there will be no more such horrors.
"At Leppe apparently 200 men were shot. There must have been some
innocent men among them. In future we shall have to hold an inquiry as
to their guilt instead of shooting them.
"In the evening we marched to Maubert-Fontaine. Just as we were having
our meal the alarm was sounded--everyone is very jumpy.
"September 3rd. Still at Rethel, on guard over prisoners. * * * The
houses are charming inside. The middle class in France has magnificent
furniture. We found stylish pieces everywhere and beautiful silk, but
in what a state * * * Good God! * * * Every bit of furniture broken,
mirrors smashed. The Vandals themselves could not have done more
damage. This place is a disgrace to our army. The inhabitants who fled
could not have expected, of course, that all their goods would have
been left intact after so many troops had passed. But the column
commanders are responsible for the greater part of the damage, as they
could have prevented the looting and destruction. The damage amounts to
millions of marks; even the safes have been attacked.
"In a solicitor's house, in which, as luck would have it, all was in
excellent taste, including a collection of old lace and Eastern works
of art, everything was smashed to bits.
"I could not resist taking a little memento myself here and there. * *
* One house was particularly elegant, everything in the best taste. The
hall was of light oak; I found a splendid raincoat under the staircase
and a camera for Felix." (From the diary of an officer in the One
Hundred Seventy-eighth Regiment, Twelfth Saxon Corps.)
But this horror apparently was not shared by the German commander in
chief, as is evident from the following:
"ORDER.
"_To the People of Liege._
"The population of Andenne, after making a display of peaceful
intentions towards our troops, attacked them in the most treacherous
manner. With my authorisation, the General commanding these troops has
reduced the town to ashes and has had 110 persons shot.
"I bring this fact to the knowledge of the people of Liege in order
that they may know what fate to expect should they adopt a similar
attitude.
"Liege, 22nd August, 1914.
"GENERAL VON BUELOW."
The following "Order of the Day" shows how the town of Huy escaped a
like fate. Drunken German soldiers were frightened and began to shoot
men and burn houses. The commanding officer condemned this because it
was not done by his order and because two German soldiers were wounded.
It is evident that massacres and arson were permitted only when
commanded by the officers.
"Last night a shooting affray took place. There is no evidence that
the inhabitants of the towns had any arms in their houses, nor is
there evidence that the people took part in the shooting; on the
contrary, it seems that the soldiers were under the influence of
alcohol, and began to shoot in a senseless fear of a hostile attack.
"The behavior of the soldiers during the night, with very few
exceptions, makes a scandalous impression.
"It is highly deplorable when officers or noncommissioned officers set
houses on fire without permission or order of the commanding, or, as
the case may be, the senior officer, or when by their attitude they
encourage the rank and file to burn and plunder.
"I require that everywhere strict instructions shall be given with
regard to the treatment of the life and property of the civilian
population.
"I prohibit all shooting in the towns without the order of an officer.
"The miserable behaviour of the men caused a noncommissioned officer
and a private to be seriously wounded by German bullets.
"The Commanding Officer,
"MAJOR VON BASSEWITZ."
In his report of September 12, 1917, to the Secretary of State,
Minister Whitlock has much to tell of the policy of frightfulness. The
following passages refer to the subject of massacres:
[Sidenote: Germans force wives to witness husbands' executions.]
"Summary executions took place [at Dinant] without the least semblance
of judgment. The names and number of the victims are not known, but
they must be numerous. I have been unable to obtain precise details
in this respect and the number of persons who have fled is unknown.
Among the persons who were shot are: Mr. Defoin, mayor of Dinant;
Sasserath, first alderman; Nimmer, aged 70; consul for the Argentine
Republic, Victor Poncelet, who was executed in the presence of his
wife and seven children; Wasseige and his two sons; Messrs. Gustave
and Leon Nicaise, two very old men; Jules Monin and others were shot
in the cellar of their brewery. Mr. Camille Pistte and son, aged 17;
Phillippart, Piedfort, his wife and daughter; Miss Marsigny. During
the execution of about forty inhabitants of Dinant, the Germans placed
before the condemned their wives and children. It is thus that Madame
Albin who had just given birth to a child, three days previously, was
brought on a mattress by German soldiers to witness the execution of
her husband; her cries and supplications were so pressing that her
husband's life was spared."
"On the 26th of August German soldiers entered various streets [of
Louvain] and ordered the inhabitants of the houses to proceed to the
Place de la Station, where the bodies of nearly a dozen assassinated
persons were lying. Women and children were separated from the men
and forced to remain on the Place de la Station during the whole day.
They had to witness the execution of many of their fellow-citizens,
who were for the most part shot at the side of the square, near the
house of Mr. Hemaide. The women and children, after having remained on
the square for more than 15 hours, were allowed to depart. The Gardes
Civiques of Louvain were also taken prisoners and sent to Germany, to
the camp of Muenster, where they were held for several weeks.
"On Thursday, August 27th, order was given to the inhabitants to
leave Louvain because the city was to be bombarded. Old men, women,
children, the sick, priests, nuns, were driven on the roads like
cattle. More than 10,000 of the inhabitants were driven as far as
Tirlemont, 18 kilometers from Louvain."
"One of the most sorely tried communities was that of the little
village of Tamines, down in what is known as the Borinage, the coal
fields near Charleroi. Tamines is a mining village in the Sambre; it
is a collection of small cottages sheltering about 5,000 inhabitants,
mostly all poor laborers.
[Sidenote: Massacres in Tamines.]
"The little graveyard in which the church stands bears its mute
testimony to the horror of the event. There are hundreds of new-made
graves, each with its small wooden cross and its bit of flowers; the
crosses are so closely huddled that there is scarcely room to walk
between them. The crosses are alike and all bear the same date, the
sinister date of August 22d, 1914."
"But whether their hands were cut off or not, whether they were
impaled on bayonets or not, children were shot down, by military
order, in cold blood. In the awful crime of the Rock of Bayard, there
overlooking the Meuse below Dinant, infants in their mother's arms
were shot down without mercy. The deed, never surpassed in cruelty by
any band of savages, is described by the Bishop of Namur himself:
[Sidenote: Slaughter of the innocents at Rocher Bayard.]
"One scene surpasses in horror all others; it is the fusillade of the
Rocher Bayard near Dinant. It appears to have been ordered by Colonel
Meister. This fusillade made many victims among the nearby parishes,
especially those of des Rivages and Neffe. It caused the death of
nearly 90 persons, without distinction of age or sex. Among the
victims were babies in arms, boys and girls, fathers and mothers of
families, even old men.
"It was there that 12 children under the age of 6 perished from the
fire of the executioners, 6 of them as they lay in their mothers' arms:
"The child Fievet, 3 weeks old.
"Maurice Betemps, 11 months old.
"Nelly Pollet, 11 months old.
"Gilda Genon, 18 months old.
"Gilda Marchot, 2 years old.
"Clara Struvay, 2 years and 6 months.
"The pile of bodies comprised also many children from 6 to 14 years.
Eight large families have entirely disappeared. Four have but one
survivor. Those men that escaped death--and many of whom were riddled
with bullets--were obliged to bury in a summary and hasty fashion
their fathers, mothers, brothers, or sisters; then after having been
relieved of their money and being placed in chains they were sent to
Cassel [Prussia]."
Mr. Hugh Gibson, the secretary of our legation in Belgium, visited
Louvain during its systematic destruction by the Germans. In _A Journal
from our Legation in Belgium_, New York, 1917, pages 164-165, he
relates what the German officers told him:
"It was a story of clearing out civilians from a large part of the
town, a systematic routing out of men from cellars and garrets,
wholesale shootings, the generous use of machine guns, and the free
application of the torch--the whole story enough to make one see red.
And for our guidance it was impressed on us that this would make
people respect Germany and think twice about resisting her."
German pastors and professors far from the excitement of the firing
have defended this policy of frightfulness, e.g.:
[Sidenote: Pastor defends frightfulness.]
"We are not only compelled to accept the war that is forced upon us
* * * but are even compelled to carry on this war with a cruelty, a
ruthlessness, an employment of every imaginable device, unknown in any
previous war." Pastor D. Baumgarten, in _Deutsche Reden in schwerer
Zeit_, "German Speeches in Difficult Days."
* * * * *
"The fate that Belgium has called down upon herself is hard for
the individual, but not too hard for this political structure
(_Staatsgebilde_), for the destinies of the immortal great nations
stand so high that they cannot but have the right, in case of need,
to stride over existences that cannot defend themselves, but live,
as parasites, upon the rivalries of the great." Prof. H. Oncken, in
_Sueddeutsche Monatsheft_, "South German Monthly."
Would they have dared to defend such a policy if they could have seen
the announcement sent out by the parish of St. Hadelin with its silent
eloquence?
This is an invitation to a service in memory of 60 men and women from
one parish, of whom all but two were killed by the Germans in the
massacre of August 5 and 6, 1914. The closing sentences are:
PRAY TO GOD FOR THE REPOSE OF THEIR SOULS.
Gentle Heart of Mary, be my refuge.
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
St. Joseph, patron of Belgium, pray for us.
St. Hadelin, patron of the parish, pray for us.
Sainte Barbe, patroness of kindly death, pray for us.
After reading such ghastly accounts, many of them written by German
eyewitnesses, and knowing that similar tales were published widely in
the German newspapers, it is difficult to read with patience such words
as these:
"The German Army (in which I of course include the Navy) is to-day the
greatest institute for moral education in the world."
"The German soldiers alone are thoroughly disciplined, and have never
so much as hurt a hair of a single innocent human being." Houston
Stewart Chamberlain, in _Kriegsaufsaetze_, "War Essays", 1914.
"We see everywhere how our soldiers respect the sacred defencelessness
of woman and child." Prof. G. Roethe, in _Deutsche Reden in Schwerer
Zeit_, "German Speeches in Difficult Days."
II. HOSTAGES AND SCREENS.
The massacres described above were a part of the German system of
frightfulness. Another feature of this system was the use of civilians
as hostages and for screens.
In discussing the use of hostages the _German War Book_ (_Kriegsbrauch
im Landkriege_) says:
[Sidenote: Views of the German General Staff.]
"By hostages are understood those persons who, as security or bail for
the fulfillment of treaties, promises, or other claims, are taken or
detained by the opposing State or its army. Their provision has been
less usual in recent wars, as a result of which some professors of the
law of nations have wrongly decided that the taking of hostages has
disappeared from the practice of civilized nations. * * *
"A new application of 'hostage right' was practiced by the German
Staff in the war of 1870, when it compelled leading citizens from
French towns and villages to accompany trains and locomotives in order
to protect the railway communications which were threatened by the
people. Since the lives of peaceable inhabitants were, without any
fault on their part, thereby exposed to grave danger, every writer
outside Germany has stigmatised this measure as contrary to the law of
nations and as unjustified towards the inhabitants of the country."
Although their deeds in the Franco-Prussian war had been universally
condemned, as they themselves admitted, the leaders did not intend
to abandon such a useful measure of frightfulness. In _L'Interprete
Militaire_ the forms were provided for such acts in the next war. Both
in Belgium and in France the Germans have constantly used hostages. The
evidence is contained in the proclamations of the governing authorities
and also in the diaries of the German soldiers. A few examples from
these will illustrate the system which was employed.
A specimen of the arbitrariness and cruelty is furnished by the
proclamation of Maj. Dieckmann, from which the following sections are
presented:
FROM A PROCLAMATION BY MAJ. DIECKMANN, SEPTEMBER, 1914.
"4. After 9 a.m. on the 7th September, I will permit the houses in
Beyne-Heusay, Grivegnee, and Bois-de-Breux to be inhabited by the
persons who lived in them formerly, as long as these persons are not
forbidden to frequent these localities by official prohibition.
[Sidenote: Maj. Dieckmann seizes hostages.]
"5. In order to be sure that the above-mentioned permit will not
be abused, the Burgomasters of Beyne-Heusay and of Grivegnee must
immediately prepare lists of prominent persons who will be held as
hostages for 24 hours each at Fort Fleron. September 6th, 1914, for
the first time [the period of detention shall be] from 6 p.m. until
September 7th at midday.
"The life of these hostages depends on the population of the
above-mentioned Communes remaining quiet under all circumstances.
"During the night it is severely forbidden to show any luminous
signals. Bicycles are permitted only between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. (German
time).
"6. From the list which is submitted to me I shall designate prominent
persons who shall be hostages from noon of one day until the following
midday. If the substitute is not there in due time, the hostage must
remain another 24 hours at the fort. After these 24 hours the hostage
will incur the penalty of death, if the substitute fails to appear.
"7. Priests, burgomasters, and the other members of the Council are to
be taken first as hostages.
"8. I insist that all civilians who move about in my district * * *
show their respect to the German officers by taking off their hats,
or lifting their hands to their heads in military salute. In case of
doubt, every German soldier must be saluted. Anyone who does not do
this must expect the German military to make themselves respected by
every means."
* * * * *
A PROCLAMATION BY VON BUELOW. IN NAMUR, AUGUST, 1914.
"1. The Belgian and French soldiers must be delivered as prisoners of
war before 4 o'clock in front of the prison. Citizens who do not obey
will be condemned to hard labor for life in Germany.
"The rigorous inspection of houses will commence at 4 o'clock. Every
soldier found will be immediately shot.
"2. Arms, powder, and dynamite must be given up at 4 o'clock. Penalty,
being shot.
"Citizens who know of a store of the above must inform the
burgomaster, under penalty of hard labor for life.
[Sidenote: Von Buelow takes hostages in every street.]
"3. Every street will be occupied by a German guard, who will take ten
hostages from each street, whom they will keep under surveillance. If
there is any rising in the street, the ten hostages will be shot.
"4. Doors may not be locked, and at night after 8 o'clock there must
be lights at three windows in every house.
"5. It is forbidden to be in the street after 8 o'clock. The
inhabitants of Namur must understand that there is no greater and more
horrible crime than to compromise the existence of the town and the
life of its citizens by risings against the German Army.
"The Commander of the Town,
"VON BUELOW.
"NAMUR, _25th August, 1914_. (Printed by Chantraine)."
* * * * *
PROCLAMATION POSTED AT BRUSSELS AND ELSEWHERE, OCTOBER 5, 1914.
"September 25th, in the evening, the railroad track and telegraph were
destroyed on the line Lovenjoul-Vertryck. * * *
[Sidenote: Hostages are made responsible for railroads.]
"Henceforth the villages situated nearest the spot where such events
take place--it is of no consequence whether they are guilty or
not--will be punished without mercy. For this purpose hostages have
been taken from all places in the vicinity of railways in danger of
similar attacks; and at the first attempt to destroy any railway,
telegraph, or telephone line they will be immediately shot.
"Furthermore, all troops entrusted with the protection of railways
have received orders to shoot anyone approaching railways or telegraph
or telephone lines in a suspicious manner.
"The Governor General of Belgium,
"BARON VON DER GOLTZ,
"_Field-Marshal_."
* * * * *
PROCLAMATION TO THE POPULATION OF RHEIMS.
"In order to insure sufficiently the safety of our troops and the
tranquility of the population of Rheims, the persons mentioned have
been seized as hostages by the Commander of the German Army. These
hostages will be shot if there is the least disorder. On the other
hand, if the town remains perfectly calm and quiet these hostages and
inhabitants will be placed under the protection of the German Army.
"THE GENERAL COMMANDING.
"RHEIMS, _12th September, 1914_."
[Sidenote: Over 80 hostages in Rheims.]
Beneath this proclamation there were posted the names of 81 hostages
and a statement that others had also been seized as hostages. The lives
of all these men depended in reality upon the interpretation which the
German military authorities might give to the elastic phrase, "the
least disorder," in the proclamation.
Hugh Gibson, in _A Journal from our Legation in Belgium_, page 184,
explains what was likely to happen:
"Another thing is, that on entering a town, they hold the burgomaster,
the procureur du roi, and other authorities as hostages to insure good
behavior by the population. Of course, the hoodlum class would like
nothing better than to see their natural enemies, the defenders of law
and order, ignominiously shot, and they do not restrain themselves a
bit on account of the hostages."
STATEMENT FROM DIARY OF BOMBARDIER WETZEL.
"Aug. 8th. First fight and set fire to several villages.
"Aug. 9th. Returned to old quarters; there we searched all the houses
and shot the mayor and shot one man down from the chimney pot, and
then we again set fire to the village.
"On the 18th August Letalle (?) captured 10 men with three priests
because they have shot down from the church tower. They were brought
to the village of Ste. Marie.
[Sidenote: Hostages at Willekamm.]
"Oct. 5th. We were in quarters in the evening at Willekamm. Lieut.
Radfels was quartered in the mayor's house and there had two prisoners
(tied together) on a short whip, and in case anything happened they
were to be killed.
"Oct. 11th. We had no fight, but we caught about 20 men and shot
them." (From the diary of Bombardier Wetzel, Second Mounted Battery,
First Kurhessian Field Artillery, Regiment No. 11.)
The Germans also found it convenient on many occasions to secure
civilians, both men and women, who could be forced to march or stand in
front of the troops, so that the countrymen of the civilians would be
compelled first to kill their own people if they resisted the Germans.
This usage is illustrated in the following:
LETTER OF LIEUT. EBERLEIN.
"OCTOBER 7, 1914.
[Sidenote: Civilians used as screens.]
"But we arrested three other civilians, and then I had a brilliant
idea. We gave them chairs, and we then ordered them to go and sit out
in the middle of the street. On their part, pitiful entreaties; on
ours, a few blows from the butt end of the rifle. Little by little
one becomes terribly callous at this business. At last they were all
seated outside in the street. I do not know what anguished prayers
they may have said but I noticed that their hands were convulsively
clasped the whole time. I pitied these fellows, but the method was
immediately effective.
"The flank fire from the houses quickly diminished, so that we were
able to occupy the opposite house and thus to dominate the principal
street. Every living being who showed himself in the street was shot.
The artillery on its side had done good work all this time, and when,
toward 7 o'clock in the evening, the brigade advanced to the assault
to relieve us I was in a position to report that Saint Die had been
cleared of the enemy.
"Later on I learned that the regiment of reserve which entered Saint
Die further to the north had tried the same experiment. The four
civilians whom they had compelled in the same way to sit out in the
street were killed by French bullets. I myself saw them lying in the
middle of the street near the hospital."
"A. EBERLEIN,
"_First-Lieutenant_."
Letter published on the 7th October, 1914, in the "Vorabendblatt" of
the _Muenchner Neueste Nachrichten_.
Minister Whitlock, in his report of September 12, 1917, to the
Secretary of State, gives an instance of this German practice of
seeking protection.
[Sidenote: "No respect to the cassock."]
"The Germans attacked Hougaerde on the 18th August; the Belgian troops
were holding the Gette Bridge in the village. The Germans forced the
parish priest of Autgaerden to walk in front of them as a shield. As
they neared the barricade the Belgian soldiers fired and the priest
was killed. After the retreat of the Belgians the Germans shot 4 men,
burned 50 houses, and looted 100."
Hugh Gibson, in _A Journal from our Legation in Belgium_, page 155,
gives another incident:
"Two old priests have staggered into the ---- legation more dead than
alive after having been compelled to walk ahead of the German troops
for miles as a sort of protecting screen. One of them is ill, and it is
said that he may die as a result of what he has gone through."
STATEMENTS OF CARDINAL MERCIER AND HIS FELLOW BISHOPS.
"At the time of the invasion Belgian civilians, in twenty places, were
made to take part in operations of war against their own country. At
Termonde, Lebbeke, Dinant, and elsewhere in many places, peaceable
citizens, women, and children were forced to march in front of German
regiments or to make a screen before them.
[Sidenote: Cardinal Mercier's judgment on the system of hostages.]
"The system of hostages was carried out with a fierce cruelty.
The proclamation of August 4th, quoted above, declared, without
circumlocution: 'Hostages will be freely taken.'
"An official proclamation, posted at Liege, in the early days of
August, ran thus: 'Every aggression committed against the German
troops by any persons other than soldiers in uniform not only exposes
the guilty person to be immediately shot, but will also entail the
severest reprisals against all the inhabitants, and especially against
those natives of Liege who have been detained as hostages in the
citadel of Liege by the commandant of the German troops.'
"These hostages are Monsignor Rutten, Bishop of Liege; M. Kleyer,
burgomaster of Liege; the senators, representatives, and the permanent
deputy and sheriff of Liege."
The above quotation is taken from _An Appeal to Truth_, addressed Nov.
24, 1915, by Cardinal Mercier and the other bishops of Belgium to the
cardinals, archbishops, and bishops of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
[Sidenote: Will Irwin on brutality of German drive through Belgium.]
"Some ten or a dozen American correspondents, of whom I was one,
witnessed the First German drive through Belgium. Most of us were so
appalled and horrified by what we saw as to become anti-German for
life." Will Irwin, in _Saturday Evening Post_, Oct. 6, 1917, p. 41.
III. FINES.
The contracting nations, including Germany, who signed the Conventions
of the Second Peace Conference at The Hague, 1907, pledged themselves
to the following:
[Sidenote: Germany's promises in Hague conventions.]
"Article L. No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be
inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals
for which they can not be regarded as jointly and severally
responsible."
"Article LII. Requisitions in kind and services shall not be demanded
from municipalities or inhabitants except for the deeds of the army
of occupation. They shall be in proportion to the resources of the
country, and of such a nature as not to involve the inhabitants in the
obligation of taking part in military operations against their own
country."
[Sidenote: German violations of Hague conventions.]
The German authorities have violated these articles from the very
beginning. As soon as they invaded Belgium, heavy fines were laid upon
individual communities as reprisals for some act against the German
Army or its regulations which was committed within their boundaries. In
_An Appeal to Truth_ Cardinal Mercier cites the following cases:
"Malines, a working-class town, without resources, has had a fine of
20,000 marks inflicted on it because the burgomaster did not inform
the military authority of a journey which the Cardinal, deprived of
the use of his motor car, had been obliged to make on foot. In fact,
upon the flimsiest pretexts heavy fines are inflicted on communes.
The commune of Puers was subjected to a fine of 3,000 marks because
a telegraph wire was broken, although the inquiry showed that it had
given way through wear."
In addition to such arbitrary, sporadic exactions, in December, 1914,
the Germans demanded 40,000,000 francs ($8,000,000) a month to be paid
by the Belgian Provinces jointly.
Concerning this enormous imposition Cardinal Mercier says, in the
_Appeal to Truth_:
"The essential condition of the legality of a contribution of this
kind, according to the Hague Convention, is that it should bear
_relation to the resources of the country_, article 52.
[Sidenote: Cardinal Mercier's comments.]
"Now, in December, 1914, Belgium was devastated. Contributions of
war imposed on the towns and innumerable requisitions in kind had
exhausted her. The greater part of the factories were idle, and in
those, which were still at work, raw materials were, contrary to all
law, being freely commandeered.
"It was on this impoverished Belgium, living on foreign charity, that
a contribution of nearly 500,000,000 francs was imposed."
[Sidenote: The crushing fine is increased.]
The German authorities were not satisfied with this impoverishing levy.
In November, 1915, one month before the expiration of the twelve-month
period fixed for the levy, they decreed that this contribution of
40,000,000 francs a month should be paid for an indefinite period. In
November, 1916, they increased the levy to 50,000,000 francs a month,
in May, 1917, to 60,000,000 francs a month. In addition, the German
authorities have continued to levy fines upon towns and villages for
acts committed in their neighborhood, although they had no proof that
these acts had been committed by any inhabitant of the city or village
thus fined. (Compare taking of hostages, noted above.)
The German military rulers have also made the families responsible
for acts committed by or charged against members as is shown in the
following examples, which are quoted from the _Appeal to Truth_, cited
above.
[Sidenote: Family made responsible.]
"The Belgian Government has sent orders to rejoin the army to the
militiamen of several classes. * * * All those who receive these
orders are strictly forbidden to act upon them. * * * _In case of
disobedience the family of the militiaman will be held equally
responsible._"
"A warning of the Governor General, dated January 26th, 1915, renders
the _members of the family_ responsible if a Belgian fit for military
service, between the ages of 16 and 40, goes to Holland."
The Commander in Chief of the German army in Belgium posted a
proclamation declaring:
[Sidenote: Villages made responsible.]
"The villages where acts of hostility shall be committed by the
inhabitants against our troops _will be burned_.
"For all destruction of roads, railways, bridges, etc., _the villages
in the neighborhood_ of the destruction _will be held responsible_.
"The punishments announced above will be carried out severely and
without mercy. _The whole community will be held responsible._
Hostages will be taken in large numbers. The heaviest war taxes will
be levied."
At the end of the _Appeal to Truth_ Cardinal Mercier says:
"But we can not say all here, nor quote all.
[Sidenote: Cardinal Mercier has proofs.]
"If, however, our readers wish for the proof of the accusations * * *
we shall be glad to furnish them. There is not in our letter, nor in
the four annexes [to the _Appeal to Truth_], one allegation of which
we have not the proofs in our records."
A striking illustration of the German methods is contained in the
archives of the State Department, because the Prince of Monaco appealed
to President Wilson against the injustice of a fine imposed upon a
small and impoverished village. The following documents from the State
Department archives tell the story. They need no comments.
"PARIS, _Oct. 27, 1914_.
"SECRETARY OF STATE,
"_Washington_.
"Prince of Monaco called this morning and asked that the following
case be submitted to the President:
[Sidenote: The case of Sissonne.]
"Prince states that General von Buelow for weeks has been inhabiting
Prince's ancestral chateau near Rheims, historical monument,
containing works of art and family heirlooms; that von Buelow has
imposed fine of five hundred thousand francs on village of Sissonne
some miles distant from chateau, because broken glass found on road
near village. Sissonne being unable alone to pay has raised with a
number of other neighboring villages one hundred twenty-five thousand
francs but von Buelow has sent two messengers from Sissonne to Prince
that unless latter pays fine for Sissonne the chateau and adjoining
village, as well as Sissonne, will be destroyed on November first.
Prince has answered refusing to pay sum now but willing to give his
word to German Emperor that amount would be paid after removal of
danger of fresh war incidents. Prince now fearful lest returning
messengers, as well as male employees on his estate, be shot because
of refusal to pay.
"I have arranged meeting this afternoon between Spanish Ambassador and
Prince, to whom I have suggested that matter be presented to German
Government through Spanish Ambassador at Berlin inasmuch as Prince's
threatened property is in France.
"HERRICK."
"ARMY HEADQUARTERS,
"_Warmeriville, Sept. 19th, 1914_.
"TO the MAYOR OF THE COMMUNE OF SISSONNE,
"_Sissonne_.
[Sidenote: Von Buelow's levy on Sissonne.]
"It has been conclusively proven that the road between Sissonne and
the railway station of Montaigu was, on September 18th, strewn with
broken glass along a distance of one kilometre and at intervals of 50
metres, for the purpose, no doubt, of impeding automobile traffic.
"I hold the commune of Sissonne responsible for this act of hostility
on the part of its inhabitants and I punish the said commune by
levying upon it a contribution of 500,000 francs (five hundred
thousand francs).
"This sum must be entirely paid into the Treasury of the Etape by
October 15th.
"The Inspection of the Etape now at Montcornet has been directed to
enforce execution of this order.
"The General Commander in Chief of the Army.
"VON BUELOW."
LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE GERMAN EMPEROR.
"MONACO, _Oct. 22nd, 1914_.
"SIRE:
"I forward to Your Majesty several documents relating to a very grave
and urgent matter.
[Sidenote: Prince of Monaco writes Emperor William.]
"The General von Buelow has caused to be occupied since one month and
a half my residence of Marchais, situated at five kilometres from the
village of Sissonne. The general has levied upon the fifteen hundred
inhabitants of this poor ruined village a war contribution of five
hundred thousand francs, of which they are unable to pay more than
one-quarter. Moreover, he has sent to me two emissaries bearing a
document in which he threatens to destroy my property and the village
of Marchais, over and above that of Sissonne, in the event of my not
disbursing myself the sum in question before the end of the month of
October.
"That is how a Prussian general treats a reigning Prince who for 45
years has been a friend to Germany, and who in all the countries of
the world is surrounded with respect and gratitude for his work.
"In reply to the summons of the General von Buelow I have given my
word of honor to complete the above contribution in order to avert
a horrible action accomplished in cold blood, but adding that as a
sovereign Prince I submit this matter to the judgment of the Emperor
by declaring that the said sum shall be paid when the Chateau de
Marchais will be free from the danger of intentional destruction.
"I am, with great respect, Your Majesty's devoted servant and cousin,
"ALBERT, _Prince of Monaco_."
LETTER ADDRESSED TO GEN. VON BUELOW.
"MONACO, _Oct. 22nd, 1914_.
"GENERAL:
"To avert from the Commune of Sissonne and that of Marchais the
rigorous treatment with which you have threatened them, I give my word
of honor to remit to His Majesty the Emperor William, should the war
come to an end without intentional damage being caused to my residence
or to these two communes, the necessary sum to complete the amount of
five hundred thousand francs imposed by you upon Sissonne.
"As a Sovereign Prince, I wish to deal in this matter with the
Sovereign who, during fifteen years, called me his friend and has
decorated me with the Order of the Knight of the Black Eagle.
[Sidenote: Prince comments on German treatment of monuments.]
"My conscience and my dignity place me above fear, as also my personal
will shall elevate me above regret; but should you destroy the Chateau
de Marchais which is one of the centers of universal science and
charity, should you reserve to this archeological and historical gem
the treatment you have given to the Cathedral of Rheims--when no
reprehensible action has been committed there--the whole world will
judge between you and myself.
"I tender to Your Excellency the expression of my high regard.
"ALBERT, _Sovereign Prince of Monaco_."
IV. DEPORTATIONS AND FORCED LABOR.
[Sidenote: Advance in humanity--until August, 1914.]
Until the present war the whole civilized world has boasted of its
advance in humanity. This advance had been marked in many fields, and
in none had greater progress been made than in the protection to be
given to the private citizen in an invaded country. As far back as
1863, in the _Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United
States in the Field_ the United States declared:
[Sidenote: United States treatment of civilians, 1863.]
"22. Nevertheless, as civilization has advanced during the last
centuries, so has likewise steadily advanced, especially in war on
land, the distinction between the private individual belonging to a
hostile country and the hostile country itself, with its men in arms.
The principle has been more and more acknowledged that the unarmed
citizen is to be spared in person, property, and honor as much as the
exigencies of war will admit.
"23. Private citizens are no longer murdered, enslaved, or carried
off to distant parts, and the inoffensive individual is as little
disturbed in his private relations as the commander of the hostile
troops can afford to grant in the overruling demands of a vigorous war.
"24. The almost universal rule in remote times was, and continues
to be with barbarous armies, that the private individual of the
hostile country is destined to suffer every privation of liberty and
protection, and every disruption of family ties. Protection was, and
still is with uncivilized people, the exception."
[Sidenote: German Government's reversion to barbarism.]
These declarations were made in the midst of our Civil War--one of
the world's fiercest conflicts. A half-century later, after more than
50 years of progress, the German Government has gone back to the
methods used by "barbarous armies" and "uncivilized people." It has
deliberately adopted the policy of deporting men and women, boys and
girls, and of forcing them to work for their captors; it has even
compelled them to make arms and munitions for use against their allies
and their own flesh and blood.
No other act of the German Government has aroused such horror and
detestation throughout the civilized world. Thousands of helpless men
and women, boys and girls, have been enslaved. Families have been
broken up. Girls have been carried off to work--or worse--in a strange
land, and their relatives have not known where they have been taken, or
what their fate has been.
This system of forced labor and deportation embraced the whole of
Belgium, Poland, and the occupied lands of France.
The plan for setting forth the essential facts of the deportations and
forced labor is as follows: the documents, that is to say, a small
fraction of those which could be cited, will be allowed to tell the
story, and only such comments will be added as are needed to enable the
reader easily to grasp the connection of events.
BELGIUM.
"The deportations * * * were the most vivid, shocking, convincing,
single happening in all our enforced observation and experience of
German disregard of human suffering and human rights in Belgium."
Vernon Kellogg, in _Atlantic Monthly_, October, 1917.
A summary of the whole situation, down to January, 1917, can be
obtained by reading continuously the report of Minister Whitlock, taken
from the files of the State Department, which is given in italics on
pages 48-49, 53, 54-55, 67-68, 74-75, 78. The insertion of his report
at appropriate points has made it possible to avoid all but a minimum
of repetition.
"_Legation of the United States of America_,
"_Brussels, January 16th, 1917_.
"_The Honorable the Secretary of State_,
"_Washington_.
[Sidenote: Horrifying behavior of the Germans in Belgium.]
"_Sir: I have had it in mind, and I might say, on my conscience, since
the Germans began to deport Belgian workmen early in November, to
prepare for the Department a detailed report on this latest instance
of brutality, but there have been so many obstacles in the way of
obtaining evidence on which a calm and judicious opinion could be
based, and one is so overwhelmed with the horror of the thing itself,
that it has been, and even now is, difficult to write calmly and
justly about it. I have had to content myself with the fragmentary
despatches I have from time to time sent to the Department and with
doing what I could, little as that can be, to alleviate the distress
that this gratuitous cruelty has caused the population of this unhappy
land._
[Sidenote: Belgian Government wished to support unemployed Belgians.]
"_In order to understand fully the situation it is necessary to go
back to the autumn of 1914. At the time we were organizing the relief
work, the Comite National--the Belgian relief organization that
collaborates with the Commission for Relief in Belgium--proposed an
arrangement by which the Belgian Government should pay to its own
employees left in Belgium, and other unemployed men besides, the wages
they had been accustomed to receive. The Belgians wished to do this
both for humanitarian and patriotic purposes; they wished to provide
the unemployed with the means of livelihood, and, at the same time,
to prevent their working for the Germans. I refused to be connected
in any way with this plan, and told the Belgian committee that it had
many possibilities of danger; that not only would it place a premium
on idleness, but that it would ultimately exasperate the Germans.
However, the policy was adopted, and has been continued in practice,
and on the rolls of the Comite National have been borne the names of
hundreds of thousands--some 700,000, I believe--of idle men receiving
this dole, distributed through the communes._
[Sidenote: German cupidity excited.]
"_The presence of these unemployed, however, was a constant temptation
to German cupidity. Many times they sought to obtain the lists of
the chomeurs, but were always foiled by the claim that under the
guarantees covering the relief work, the records of the Comite
National and its various suborganizations were immune. Rather than
risk any interruption of the ravitaillement, for which, while loath to
own any obligation to America, the Germans have always been grateful,
since it has had the effect of keeping the population calm, the
authorities never pressed the point, other than with the burgomasters
of the communes. Finally, however, the military party, always brutal,
and with an astounding ignorance of public opinion and of moral
sentiment, determined to put these idle men to work._
"_General von Bissing and the civil portion of his entourage had
always been and even now are opposed to this policy and I think have
sincerely done what they could, first, to prevent its adoption, and
secondly, to lighten the rigors of its application._"
(Continued on page 53.)
In the early days of the German advance into Belgium, the people had
learned to fear the worst. This was particularly true in Antwerp. In
order to alleviate their fears and to obtain guarantees which might
hasten the restoration of settled conditions, Cardinal Mercier secured
from the German governor of Antwerp promises, and in a circular letter
dated October 16th, 1914, asked the clergy of the Province of Antwerp
to communicate them to the people:
[Sidenote: Solemn promises of Germans not to exploit Belgians.]
"The governor of Antwerp, Baron von Hoiningen, General von Huene,
has authorized me to inform you in his name and to communicate by
your obliging intermediary to our populations the three following
declarations:
"(1) The young men need not fear being taken to Germany, either to be
enrolled into the army or to be employed at forced labors.
"(2) If individual infractions of police regulations are committed,
the authorities will institute a search for the responsible authors
and will punish them, without placing the responsibility on the entire
population.
"(3) The German and Belgian authorities will neglect nothing to see
that food is assured to the population."
These promises were not kept, as Cardinal Mercier and his colleagues
show by abundant evidence in the _Appeal to Truth_.
"On March 23rd, at the arsenal at Luttre the German authority posted
a notice demanding return to work. On April 21st, 200 workmen were
called for. On April 27th soldiers went to fetch the workmen from
their homes and take them to the arsenal. In the absence of a workman,
a member of the family was arrested.
[Sidenote: Violation of German promises.]
"However, the men maintained their refusal to work, 'because they were
unwilling to co-operate in acts of war against their country.'
"On April 30th, the requisitioned workmen were not released, but shut
up in the railway carriages.
"On May 4th, 24 workmen detained in prison at Nivelles were tried at
Mons by a court-martial, 'on the charge of being members of a secret
society, having for its aim to thwart the carrying out of German
military measures.' They were condemned to imprisonment.
[Sidenote: Early deportations.]
"On May 8th, 1915, 48 workmen were shut up in a freight car and taken
to Germany.
"On May 14th, 45 men were deported to Germany.
"On May 18th a fresh proclamation announced that the prisoners would
receive only dry bread and water, and hot food only every four days.
On May 22nd three cars with 104 workmen were sent towards Charleroi."
"A similar course was adopted at _Malines_, where, by various methods
of intimidation, the German authorities attempted to force the workers
at the arsenal to work on material for the railways, as if it were not
plain that this material would become war material sooner or later.
"On May 30th, 1915, the Governor General announced that he 'would be
obliged to punish the town of Malines and its suburbs by stopping all
commercial traffic if by 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 2nd, 500 workmen
had not presented themselves for work at the arsenal.'
"On Wednesday, June 2nd, not a single man appeared. Accordingly, a
complete stoppage took place of every vehicle within a radius of
several kilometres of the town."
"Several workmen were taken by force and kept two or three days at the
arsenal."
[Sidenote: Belgians asked to make barbed wire.]
"The commune of _Sweveghem_ (Western Flanders) was punished in June,
1915, because the 350 workmen at the private factory of M. Bekaert
refused to make barbed wire for the German Army.
"The following notice was placarded at _Menin_ in July-August,
1915: 'By order: From to-day the town will no longer afford aid of
any description--including assistance to their families, wives,
and children--to any operatives except those who work _regularly_
at _military work_, and other tasks assigned to them. All other
operatives and their families can henceforward not be helped in any
fashion.'
[Sidenote: Punished for refusal to work for German Army.]
"Similar measures were taken in October, 1915, at
Harlebekelez-Courtrai, Bisseghem, Lokeren and Mons. From Harlebeke
29 inhabitants were transported to Germany. At Mons, in M. Lenoir's
factory, the directors, foremen, and 81 workmen were imprisoned for
having refused to work in the service of the German Army. M. Lenoir
was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, the five directors to a
year each, 6 foremen to 6 months, and the 81 workmen to eight weeks.
[Sidenote: Interference with Red Cross.]
"The General Government had recourse also to _indirect_ methods of
compulsion. It seized the Belgian Red Cross, confiscated its property,
and changed its purpose arbitrarily. It attempted to make itself
master of the public charities and to control the National Aid and
Food Committee.
[Sidenote: Trickiness of German rulers of Belgium.]
"If we were to cite _in extenso_ the decree of the Governor General
of August 4th, 1915, _concerning measures intended to assure the
carrying out of works of public usefulness_, and that of August 15th,
1915, '_concerning the unemployed, who, through idleness, refrain from
work_,' it would be seen by what tortuous means the occupying Power
attempts to attack at once the masters and the men."
October 12th, 1915, the German authorities took a long step in the
development of their policy of forcing the Belgians to aid them in
prosecuting the war. The decree of that date reveals the matter and
openly discloses a contempt for international law.
DECREE OF OCTOBER 12, 1915.
"Article 1. Whoever, without reason, refuses to undertake or to
continue work suitable to his occupation, and in the execution of
which the military administration is interested, such work being
ordered by one or more of the military commanders, will be liable to
imprisonment not exceeding one year. He may also be transported to
Germany.
[Sidenote: Germans flout international law and order Belgians to work
for them.]
"Invoking Belgian laws or even international conventions to the
contrary, can, in no case, justify the refusal to work.
"On the subject of the lawfulness of the work exacted, the military
commandant has the sole right of forming a decision.
"Article 2. Any person who by force, threats, persuasion, or other
means attempts to influence another to refuse work as pointed out in
Article 1, is liable to the punishment of imprisonment not exceeding
five years.
"Article 3. Whoever knowingly by means of aid given or in any other
way abets a punishable refusal to work, will be liable to a maximum
fine of 10,000 marks, and in addition may be condemned to a year's
imprisonment.
"If communes or associations have rendered themselves guilty of such
offence the heads of the communes will be punished.
"Article 4. In addition to the penalties stated in Articles 1 and 3,
the German authorities may, in case of need, impose on communes,
where, without reason, work has been refused, a fine or other coercive
police measures.
"This present decree comes into force immediately.
"Der Etappeinspekteur,
"VON UNGER,
"Generalleutnant.
"GHENT, _October 12th, 1915_."
Cardinal Mercier's brief comment is as follows: "The injustice and
arbitrariness of this decree exceed all that could be imagined. Forced
labor, collective penalties and arbitrary punishments, all are there.
It is slavery, neither more nor less."
[Sidenote: October 3, 1916, German Government inaugurates wholesale
deportations.]
Cardinal Mercier was in error, for the German authorities were able
to imagine a much more terrible measure. In October, 1916, when the
need for an additional labor supply _in Germany_ had become urgent,
the German government established the system of forced labor _and
deportation_ which has aroused the detestation of Christendom.
The reader will not be misled by the clumsy effort of the German
authorities to mask the real purpose of the decree.
THE DECREE OF OCTOBER 3, 1916.
"DECREE CONCERNING THE LIMITING OF THE BURDENS ON PUBLIC CHARITY....
[Sidenote: German verbal camouflage.]
"I. People able to work may be compelled to work even outside the
place where they live, in case they have to apply to the charity of
others for the support of themselves or their dependents on account of
gambling, drunkenness, loafing, unemployment, or idleness.
"II. Every inhabitant of the country is bound to render assistance in
case of accident or general danger, and also to give help in case of
public calamities as far as he can, even outside the place where he
lives; in case of refusal he may be compelled by force.
"III. Anyone called upon to work, under Articles I or II, who shall
refuse the work, or to continue at the work assigned him, will incur
the penalty of imprisonment up to three years and of a fine up to
10,000 marks, or one or other of these penalties, unless a severer
penalty is provided for by the laws in force.
"If the refusal to work has been made in concert or in agreement with
several persons, each accomplice will be sentenced, as if he were a
ringleader, to at least a week's imprisonment.
"IV. The German military authorities and Military Courts will enforce
the proper execution of this decree.
"The Quartermaster General, SAUBERZWEIG.
"GREAT HEADQUARTERS, _3d October, 1916_."
[Sidenote: Hindenburg's responsibility for deportations.]
The responsibility for this atrocious program rests upon the military
rulers of Germany, who had labored so zealously to infect the army and
the people with the principles of ruthlessness. It is significant that
the decree of October 3, 1916, followed hard upon the elevation of
Hindenburg to the supreme command with Ludendorf as his chief of staff.
In his long report of January 16, 1917, Minister Whitlock says:
REPORT OF MINISTER WHITLOCK (continued)
[Sidenote: Was Bissing against deportations?]
"_Then, in August, von Hindenburg was appointed to the supreme
command. He is said to have criticized von Bissing's policy as too
mild; there was a quarrel; von Bissing went to Berlin to protest,
threatened to resign, but did not. He returned, and a German official
here said that Belgium would now be subjected to a more terrible
regime--would learn what war was. The prophecy has been vindicated.
Recently I was told that the drastic measures are really of
Ludendorf's inspiration; I do not know. Many German officers say so._"
(Continued on p. 54.)
If von Bissing had opposed the policy of deportation when his own
judgment was overruled, he consented to become the "devil's advocate"
and defended the system in public. Especially instructive is the
following conversation reported by Mr. F.C. Walcott:
VON BISSING'S CONVERSATION WITH MR. WALCOTT.
"I went to Belgium to investigate conditions, and while there I had
opportunity * * * to talk one day with Governor General von Bissing,
who died three or four weeks ago, a man 72 or 73 years old, a man
steeped in the 'system,' born and bred to the hardening of the heart
which that philosophy develops. There ought to be some new word coined
for the process that a man's heart undergoes when it becomes steeped
in that system.
"I said to him, 'Governor, what are you going to do if England and
France stop giving these people money to purchase food?'
"He said, 'We have got that all worked out and have had it worked out
for weeks, because we have expected this system to break down at any
time.'
[Sidenote: Bissing says deportation plans were carefully prepared.]
"He went on to say, 'Starvation will grip these people in 30 to 60
days. Starvation is a compelling force, and we would use that force to
compel the Belgian workingmen, many of them very skilled, to go into
Germany to replace the Germans, so that they could go to the front and
fight against the English and the French.'
"'As fast as our railway transportation could carry them, we would
transport thousands of others that would be fit for agricultural work,
across Europe down into southeastern Europe, into Mesopotamia, where
we have huge, splendid irrigation works. All that land needs is water
and it will blossom like the rose.'
"'The weak remaining, the old and the young, we would concentrate
opposite the firing line, and put firing squads back of them, and
force them through that line, so that the English and French could
take care of their own people.'
"It was a perfectly simple, direct, frank reasoning. It meant that the
German Government would use any force in the destruction of any people
not its own to further its own ends." (Frederic C. Walcott, in _The
National Geographic Magazine_, May, 1917.)
A brief general view of the character of the deportations can perhaps
be gained best from the report of Minister Whitlock.
REPORT OF MINISTER WHITLOCK (continued).
"_The deportations began in October in the Etape, at Ghent, and at
Bruges, as my brief telegrams indicated. The policy spread; the rich
industrial districts of Hainaut, the mines and steel works about
Charleroi were next attacked; now they are seizing men in Brabant,
even in Brussels, despite some indications and even predictions of the
civil authorities that the policy was about to be abandoned._
[The etapes were the parts of Belgium under martial law, and included
the province of western Flanders, part of eastern Flanders, and the
region of Tournai. The remainder of the occupied part of Belgium was
under civil government.]
[Sidenote: The deportations begin.] [Sidenote: Pitiable scenes.]
"_During the last fortnight men have been impressed here in Brussels,
but their seizures here are made evidently with much greater care
than in the provinces, with more regard for the appearances. There
was no public announcement of the intention to deport, but suddenly
about ten days ago certain men in towns whose names are on the list
of chomeurs received summons notifying them to report at one of the
railway stations on a given day; penalties were fixed for failure to
respond to the summons and there was printed on the card an offer of
employment by the German Government either in Germany or Belgium. On
the first day out of about 1,500 men ordered to present themselves
at the Gare du Midi about 750 responded. These were examined by
German physicians and 300 were taken. There was no disorder, a large
force of mounted Uhlans keeping back the crowds and barring access
to the station to all but those who had been summoned to appear. The
Commission for Relief in Belgium had secured permission to give to
each deported man a loaf of bread, and some of the communes provided
warm clothing for those who had none and in addition a small financial
allowance. As by one of the ironies of life the winter has been more
excessively cold than Belgium has ever known it, and while many of
those who presented themselves were adequately protected against the
cold, many of them were without overcoats. The men shivering from cold
and fear, the parting from weeping wives and children, the barriers of
brutal Uhlans, all this made the scene a pitiable and distressing one._
"_It was understood that the seizures would continue here in Brussels,
but on Thursday last, a bitter cold day, those that had been convoked
were sent home without examination. It is supposed that the severe
weather has moved the Germans to postpone the deportations._"
(Continued on page 67.)
Cardinal Mercier attempted to persuade the German authorities to
abandon their terrible plans, reminding them of their solemn promises
in the past:
"MALINES, _19th October, 1916_.
"Mr. GOVERNOR GENERAL:
[Sidenote: Another "Scrap of Paper."]
"The day after the surrender of Antwerp the frightened population
asked itself what would become of the Belgians of age to bear arms
or who would reach that age before the end of the occupation. The
entreaties of the fathers and mothers of families determined me
to question the governor of Antwerp, Baron von Huene, who had the
kindness to reassure me and to authorize me in his name to reassure
the agonized parents. The rumor had spread at Antwerp, nevertheless,
that at Liege, Namur, and Charleroi young men had been seized and
taken by force to Germany. I therefore begged Governor von Huene to
be good enough to confirm to me in writing the guarantee which he had
given to me orally, to the effect that nothing similar would happen
at Antwerp. He said to me immediately that the rumors concerning
deportations were without basis, and unhesitatingly he sent me in
writing, among other statements, the following: 'Young men have no
reason to fear that they will be taken to Germany, either to be there
enrolled in the army or employed for forced labor.'
"This declaration, written and signed, was publicly transmitted to the
clergy and to those of the Faith of the province of Antwerp, as Your
Excellency can see from the document enclosed herewith, dated October
16th, 1914, which was read in all the churches. [Printed on preceding
pages.]
"Upon the arrival of your predecessor, the late Baron von der Goltz,
at Brussels I had the honor of presenting myself at his house and
requested him to be good enough to ratify for the entire country,
without time limit, the guarantees which General von Huene had given
me for the province of Antwerp. The Governor General retained this
request in his possession in order to examine it at his leisure.
The following day he was good enough to come in person to Malines
to bring me his approval, and confirmed to me, in the presence of
two aides-de-camp and of my private secretary, the promise that the
liberty of Belgian citizens would be respected.
"To doubt the authority of such undertakings would have been to
reflect upon the persons who had made them, and I therefore took steps
to allay, by all the means of persuasion in my power, the anxieties
which persisted in the interested families.
"Notwithstanding all this, your Government now tears from their homes
workmen reduced in spite of their efforts to a state of unemployment,
separates them by force from their wives and children and deports
them to enemy territory. Numerous workmen have already undergone this
unhappy lot; more numerous are those who are threatened with the same
acts of violence.
[Sidenote: Mercier's moving appeal.]
"In the name of the liberty of domicile and the liberty of work of
Belgian citizens; in the name of the inviolability of families; in
the name of moral interests which the measures of deportation would
gravely compromise; in the name of the word given by the Governor of
the Province of Antwerp and by the Governor General, the immediate
representative of the highest authority of the German Empire, I
respectfully beg Your Excellency to be good enough to withdraw the
measures of forced labor and of deportation announced to the Belgian
workmen, and to be good enough to reinstate in their homes those who
have already been deported.
"Your Excellency will appreciate how painful for me would be the
weight of the responsibility that I would have to bear as regards
these families, if the confidence which they have given you through my
agency and at my request were lamentably deceived.
"I persist in believing that this will not be the case.
"Accept, Mr. Governor General, the assurance of my very high
consideration.
"D.J. CARDINAL MERCIER,
"_Arch. of Malines_."
Municipal governments in Belgium appealed to the German authorities
to observe their solemn promises. The two documents which follow
illustrate Belgian appeals and German answers.
RESOLUTION OF THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL OF TOURNAI, OCTOBER 20, 1916.
"In the matter of the requisition made by the German authorities on
October 20, 1916 (requisition of a list of workmen to be drawn up by
the municipality) * * *
"The municipal council resolves to maintain its attitude of refusal.
"It further feels it its duty to place on record the following:
"The city of Tournai is prepared to submit unreservedly to all the
exigencies authorised by the laws and customs of war. Its sincerity
can not be questioned. For more than two years it has submitted to
the German occupation, during which time it has lodged and lived at
close quarters with the German troops, yet it has displayed perfect
composure and has refrained from any act of hostility, proving thereby
that it is animated by no idle spirit of bravado.
[Sidenote: Council of Tournai refuses immoral and illegal demands.]
"But the city could not bring itself to provide arms for use against
its own children, knowing well that natural law and the law of nations
(which is the expression of natural law) both forbid such action.
"In his declaration dated September 2, 1914, the German Governor
General of Belgium declared: 'I ask none to renounce his patriotic
sentiments.'
"The city of Tournai reposes confidence in this declaration, which it
is bound to consider as the sentiment of the German Emperor, in whose
name the Governor General was speaking. In accepting the inspiration
of honor and patriotism, the city is loyal to a fundamental duty, the
loftiness of which must be apparent to any German officer.
"The city is confident that the straightforwardness and clearness of
this attitude will prevent any misunderstanding arising between itself
and the German Army."
GERMAN REPLY TO THE RESOLUTION OF THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL OF TOURNAI.
"TOURNAI, _23rd October, 1916_.
[Sidenote: And is roundly lectured and fined.]
"In permitting itself, through the medium of municipal resolutions, to
oppose the orders of the German military authorities in the occupied
territory, the city is guilty of an unexampled arrogance and of a
complete misunderstanding of the situation created by the state of war.
"The 'clear and simple situation' is in reality the following:
"The military authorities order the city to obey. Otherwise the city
must bear the heavy consequences, as I have pointed out in my previous
explanations.
"The General Commanding the Army has inflicted on the city--on account
of its refusal, up to date, to furnish the lists demanded--a punitive
contribution of 200,000 marks, which must be paid within the next six
days, beginning with to-day. The General also adds that until such
time as all the lists demanded are in his hands, for every day in
arrears, beginning with December 31, 1916, a sum of 20,000 marks will
be paid by the city.
"HOPFER, _Major General_,
"_Etappen-Kommandant_."
The Commission Syndicale of Belgian workingmen also attempted to induce
the German authorities to abandon their terrible plans.
"COMMISSION SYNDICALE OF BELGIUM,
"_Brussels, 30th Oct., 1916_.
[TO THE GOVERNOR GENERAL OF BELGIUM.]
"EXCELLENCY: The measures which are being planned by your
administration to force the unemployed to work for the invading power,
the deportation of our unhappy comrades which has begun in the region
of the etapes, move most profoundly the entire working class in
Belgium.
"The undersigned, members and representatives of the great central
socialist and independent syndicates of Belgium, would consider that
they had not fulfilled their duty did they not express to you the
painful sentiments which agitate the laborers and convey to you the
echo of their touching complaints.
"They have seen the machinery taken from their factories, the most
diverse kind of raw materials requisitioned, the accumulation of
obstacles to prevent the resumption of regular work, the disappearance
one by one of every public liberty of which they were proud.
[Sidenote: Workmen recite their wrongs at German hands.]
"For more than two years the laboring class more than any other has
been forced to undergo the most bitter trials, experiencing misery
and often hunger, while its children far away fight and die, and the
parents of these children can never convey to them the affection with
which their hearts are overflowing.
"Our laboring class has endured everything with the utmost calm and
the most impressive dignity, repressing its sufferings, its complaints
and heavy trials, sacrificing everything to its ideal of liberty
and independence. But the measures which have been announced will
make the population drain the dregs [of the cup] of human sorrow;
the proletariat, _the poor upon whom unemployment has been forced_,
citizens of a modern state, are to be condemned to forced labor
without having disobeyed any regulation or order.
[Sidenote: And appeal for decent treatment.]
"In the name of the families of workmen among which the most painful
anxiety reigns at present, whose mothers, whose fiancees, and whose
little children are destined to shed so many more tears, we beg Your
Excellency to prevent the accomplishment of this painful act, contrary
to international law, contrary to the dignity of the working classes,
contrary to everything which makes for worth and greatness in human
nature.
"We beg Your Excellency to pardon our emotion and we offer you the
homage of our distinguished consideration.
"(Appended are signatures of members of the National Committee and the
Commission Syndicale.)"
Von Bissing in his reply, November 3rd, practically admitted the truth
of the complaint by attempting to justify the measures protested
against. The arguments which he used are taken up and refuted in the
letter of the Commission Syndicale, November 14, which follows:
"COMMISSION SYNDICALE OF BELGIUM,
"_Brussels, 14th Nov., 1916_.
"To His Excellency BARON VON BISSING,
"_Governor General in Belgium_.
"EXCELLENCY: The Secretaries and representatives of the socialistic
and independent labor Unions of Belgium have, with a painful
disappointment, taken cognizance of the answer which you were good
enough to make to their petition of October 30th, concerning the
deportation of laborers to Germany, and it is in the name of the
working classes as a united whole that we are making a final effort
to prevent the consummation of an act, without precedent, directed
against its liberty, its sentiments, and its dignity.
[Sidenote: Socialists refute Bissing's arguments.]
"You say that many industrial works have been closed on account of
the lack of raw materials brought about by the blockade by the enemy.
Permit us, Excellency, to remind you that the allied powers manifested
very clearly their intention to permit the importation into Belgium
of raw materials required by our industries, provided, with a very
natural provision, that no requisitions should be made, except those
mentioned in Article 52 of the Hague Convention, that is to say
those necessary to the 'occupying army,' and that an international
commission, the Commission for Relief in Belgium, should have the
right to supervise the destination of the manufactured products.
"Instead of agreeing to such a proposal, we have seen the occupying
authorities systematically remove the machinery, implements, machines
of all kinds, the engines and raw materials, metals, leather, and
wool, limit production, aggravate continually the difficulties of
transactions. When communes or committees have desired to employ
workmen without employment on works of public utility, obstacles have
been thrown in their way and finally in many cases their undertakings
have been stopped and broken. In a word, as fast as the most tireless
efforts were strained to employ as many hands as possible, other men
were constantly thrown out of work.
[Sidenote: And proudly praise the Belgian workman.]
"You state also that unemployment is caused by the laborers' hostility
to work. The whole past of our working class protests against this
accusation with every bit of energy that still remains in them. Where
is there to be found in the whole world a working class which has made
of such a small country such a great industrial and commercial power?
And we, who for the last 25 years have been the enthusiastic witnesses
of the magnificent efforts of our brother workmen, in the matter of
their material and moral betterment, we proudly affirm that it is
not among their ranks that one can find men so degraded as to prefer
to receive a charitable assistance which barely furnishes them with
sufficient food to an honest wage given in remuneration for free and
fruitful work.
"What is true, however, is that the Belgian workmen, conforming to the
same article 52 of the Hague Convention which only admits requisitions
of labor 'for the needs of the army of occupation and in case these
requisitions do not imply an obligation to take part in the war
against their country,' have refused the most tempting offers, not
wishing to build trenches nor to repair forts nor to work in factories
which manufacture war materials. This was their right and their duty.
Their attitude deserved respect and not the most humiliating of
punishments.
"You refer to your decrees of August 15th, 1915, and of May 15th,
1916, in which are mentioned the possible punishment of any workmen
who receive support and refuse work suited to their capacities and
carrying with it a proper wage. Those who know with what care and with
what minute detail the conditions, under which the unemployed have
the right to receive assistance, have been established might perhaps
think that these menaces were, to say the least, useless. But as you
yourself say, these decrees declare in their article 2 that every
motive of refusal to work will be considered valid if it is admitted
by international law.
[Sidenote: Laborers see through the German scheme.]
"For these cases of refusal, the German Authorities reserved the
right to cause these recalcitrants to appear before Belgian tribunals
and later before German military tribunals. It is therefore certain
that the unemployed have the right to refuse to work for any motive
approved by international law. When summoned before the tribunal they
have the right to employ counsel in their defense and to state clearly
their reasons for refusal. One might, of course, say that it is not a
question obliging the workmen to participate in military enterprise;
but it is only too evident that every Belgian deported to Germany will
take the place there of a man who to-morrow will go to reinforce the
ranks of the enemy. We should like to know, Excellency, whether these
tribunals carry on their functions.
"You fear that continued unemployment may depreciate the physical and
moral status of the workmen. We, who know them, have more confidence
in them. We have seen them suffer with a stoicism which exists only
in proud and high souls. Did not the splendid idea come from them, of
organizing throughout the entire country a vast chain of educational
work for the unemployed in order to develop their technical knowledge
and to increase their professional value? The _Comite National_ was
not, alas, authorized to undertake this magnificent enterprise. Is
it the idea that it is through forced labor, performed with black
despair, like slaves, that our unhappy brothers will keep up their
physical and moral energy?
[Sidenote: The Germans have no right to talk about unemployment of
Belgians.]
"You fear also that 'the assistance which they receive will at length
weigh down Belgian economic life.' We can with difficulty believe that
Belgians, as you say, have had the smallness of soul to grudge in that
form the bitter piece of bread and the little soup which have formed
the food of so many working families for so many months; and what,
after all, do the twelve million francs amount to that are distributed
each month to from 500,000 to 600,000 unemployed, in comparison
with the destruction, beyond reckoning, of goods and lives which the
horrors of a war in which it has not the slightest responsibility have
cost and still cost our country? With the most unshakable faith in
our destinies; we, the most nearly interested, know that in the near
future Flanders and _Wallonie_ will rise again, glorious, in history.
[Sidenote: All Belgians understand the German scheme.]
"Excellency, our heart and our reason refuse, then, to believe that it
is for the good of our class and to avoid an additional calamity to
our country, that thousands of workers are suddenly torn from their
families and transported to Germany. Public sentiment has not been
deceived and in reply to the grievous complaints of the victims, there
echo the indignant protests of the entire population, as expressed by
its representatives, its communal magistrates, and those persons who
constitute the highest incarnation of law in our country.
"Furthermore, the arbitrary and brutal manner employed in the
execution of these sad measures has raised all kinds of doubts
regarding the object in view: the need, above all, is to obtain
workmen in Germany, for Germany's profit, and for the success of its
arms.
"While at Antwerp they did not take any young men from 17 to 31 years
who were under the regime of control, in the Borinage they call all
the men from 17 to 50 years of age; in Walloon Brabant all men over
17 years, without making any distinction between the employed and
unemployed. Men of all professions and of all conditions have been
taken--bakers, who have never ceased to work in our co-operatives
of the Borinage, for example; mechanics, who always had employment;
agricultural workmen, merchants * * * At Lessines on the 6th instant,
2,100 persons were taken away, all workmen up to 50 years of age.
Several cases are cited where old men with five or six of their sons
have been exiled thus by force.
[Sidenote: The tears of the mothers and the children.]
"Distressing scenes occur everywhere. The unhappy ones gathered
together in the public squares are rapidly divided into gangs. They
had been directed to bring a small amount of baggage; they are taken
at once to the railway station and loaded in cattle cars. They are not
allowed to say good-bye to their families. No opportunity is given
to them to put their affairs in order, even the most pressing ones.
They do not know where they are going, nor for what work, nor for
how long. Taken away at the beginning of the winter, after two years
of privations, having no further resources and no means to provide
themselves with warm clothing or with other indispensable articles,
what privations are they going to endure? How will they live there?
In what state will they return? This mystery and this anxiety are the
cause of the ceaseless tears of the mothers and little children.
Distress and despair reign in the homes.
"Listen, Excellency, to these tears and these sobs. Do not permit
our past of liberty and independence to be ruined. Do not permit
human rights to be violated in its holy of holies. Do not permit the
dignity of our working classes, which has been acquired after so many
centuries of effort, to be trodden under foot.
"It is to law and humanity that we appeal, solemnly and with the hope
of being heard, for we have the profound conviction that by our voice,
at this tragic hour, the great voice of the working class of the
entire civilized world expresses its sorrow and its protest.
"Accept, Excellency, the homage of our most distinguished
consideration."
(Here follow the signatures of the Members of the _Comite Nationale_
and of the _Commission Syndicale_.)
"We transmit this letter and previous correspondence to the Ministers
and representatives of Foreign powers at Brussels, as well as to our
comrades of the Commission Syndicale des Syndicats in Holland."
The files of the State Department contain authentic copies of very many
such moving protests. The foregoing ones are taken from this pathetic
collection, and from it may be cited, by way of further illustration,
some passages from two others:
PROTEST OF BELGIAN MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.
"BRUSSELS, _9th November, 1916_.
"To his Excellency, BARON VON BISSING,
"_Governor General in Belgium_.
[Sidenote: Belgian legislators recite the wrongs of Belgium.]
"EXCELLENCY: It seemed that no suffering could be added to those under
which we have already been weighed down since the occupation of our
country. Our banished liberty, our destroyed industry and commerce,
our raw products and instruments of work taken out of the country, the
public fortune ruined, want succeeding to wealth in families formerly
most prosperous, privations, anxieties, and mourning. * * *
[Sidenote: The "summary and sorrowful" procedure of the Germans.]
"Is there need to relate the scenes which the region of the etape
has been the theater of for several weeks, and which are now being
reenacted, during the past days, in the territory of the Government
General, where this scourge threatens to extend from commune to
commune until its victims are counted by hundreds of thousands?
The notices posted on the walls and reproduced in the papers tell
sufficiently what it is. Everywhere the same procedure, summary and
sorrowful: arrests in mass, men classified arbitrarily among the
unemployed, herded together, divided into groups, sent toward the
unknown. * * *
"The authorities prefer to give them work in Germany, where the
representatives of the [German] Industrial Bureau promise them 'good
wages,' if they consent to work there 'voluntarily,' and where they
may expect, in case of refusal, famine wages. What physical and moral
depression is counted on in order to force their hand?
[Sidenote: Everyone knows what Germany wants Belgian workers for.]
"True, it has been asserted that the work which is offered to them
will be nonmilitary in character; but voices have replied on every
side: 'in taking the place of a German workman, the Belgian workman
permits Germany to increase the numerical forces of its armies.'
The most odious work is that whose results are used against the
fatherland. To serve Germany is to fight against their own country.
To compel our workmen to do this is nothing else than an act of force
contrary to international law (referred to by Your Excellency in your
proclamation of August 15th, 1915), and contrary also to the spirit,
if not to the text, of the Fourth Convention of the Hague of 1907. * *
*
"They adjure Your Excellency to employ with the military authorities
the high prerogatives which are yours from your position to prevent
the consummation of an act without precedent in the history of
modern wars, and they beg you to accept the assurance of their most
distinguished consideration."
[Signatures of Belgian Senators and Deputies.]
PROTEST OF CARDINAL MERCIER.
"ARCHBISHOPRIC OF MALINES,
"_Malines, 10th November, 1916_.
"Mr. GOVERNOR GENERAL:
"I refrain from expressing to Your Excellency the sentiments which
have been evoked in me by your letter of reply to the letter which
I had the honor to address to you on October 19th, relative to the
deportation of the unemployed.
[Sidenote: German perfidy.]
"I have recalled with melancholy the words which Your Excellency,
dwelling upon each syllable, pronounced in my presence, after your
arrival at Brussels: 'I hope that our relations will be loyal * * * I
have received the mission of dressing the wounds of Belgium.'
"My letter of October 19th recalled to Your Excellency the engagement
taken by Baron von Huene, military governor of Antwerp, and ratified
a few days later by Baron von der Goltz, your predecessor as Governor
General at Brussels. The engagement was explicit, absolute, unlimited
as to time: 'The young men need not fear being taken to Germany,
either to be enrolled in the army _or to be employed at forced labor_.'
"This engagement is being violated every day--thousands of times in
the last fortnight.
"Baron von Huene and the late Baron von der Goltz did not say
conditionally, as your despatch of the 26th of October would seek to
imply: 'If the occupation does not last longer than two years men
fit for military duty shall not be taken into captivity;' they said
categorically: 'Young men, and with greater reason, men who have
reached an advanced age, shall not _at any moment of the occupation,
either be made prisoners or employed at forced labor_.' * * *
"The decrees, posters, and comments of the press, which were intended
to prepare public opinion for the measures now being taken, pleaded
especially two considerations: The unemployed, so they declared, are a
danger to public security; they are a charge upon governmental charity.
[Sidenote: The Belgians have got no charity from the Germans.]
"It is not true, I said in my letter of October 19th, that our
workmen have troubled, or even anywhere threatened the public peace.
Five million Belgians and hundreds of Americans are the astonished
witnesses of the dignity and the flawless patience of our working
class. It is not true that the workmen deprived of work are a charge
upon the occupying power for the charity which is dispensed by
their administration. The _Comite National_, in which the occupying
government has no active part, is the sole purveyor of subsistence to
the victims of enforced idleness. * * *
[Sidenote: The German plan makes Belgians war against their own
country.]
"Each Belgian workman will liberate a German workman who will add
one more soldier to the German army. There, in all its simplicity,
is the fact which dominates the situation. The author of the letter
himself feels this burning fact, for he writes: 'nor is the measure
one which affects the conduct of war _properly speaking_ (_proprement
dite_)'. It is, then, connected with the war _improperly speaking_
(_improprement dite_); which can only mean that the Belgian workman,
although he does not bear arms, will free the hands of a German
workman who will take up the arms. The Belgian workman is forced to
co-operate, in an indirect but evident manner, in the war against
his country. This is manifestly contrary to the spirit of the Hague
Conventions.
"Here is another statement: _unemployment is not caused either by the
Belgian workman or by England; it is brought about by the regime of
the German Occupation_.
[Sidenote: No disorder is caused by Belgians.]
"The occupying government has seized considerable supplies of raw
material intended for our national industry; it has seized and
shipped to Germany the machinery, tools, and metals of our factories
and our workshops. The possibility of national labor being thus
suppressed, there remained one alternative to the workman: to work
for the German Empire, either here or in Germany; or to remain
idle. Some thousands of workmen, under the pressure of fright or of
hunger, accepted, with regret for the most part, work for the enemy;
but four hundred thousand workmen and workwomen preferred to resign
themselves to unemployment, with its privations, rather than injure
the interests of the fatherland; they lived in poverty, with the aid
of a meager relief allowed them by the _Comite national de secours et
d' alimentation_, under the supervision of the protecting ministers
of Spain, America, and Holland. Calm, dignified, they bore without
a murmur their painful lot. In no part of the country was there a
revolt or even the semblance of one. Employers and employees awaited
with patience the end of our long martyrdom. Meanwhile, the communal
administrations and private initiative endeavored to alleviate the
undoubted inconveniences of unemployment. But the occupying power
paralyzed their efforts. The _Comite National_ attempted to organize
a professional school for the use of the unemployed. This practical
instruction, respectful of the dignity of our workmen, was meant to
keep up their skill, increase their capacity for work, and prepare for
the restoration of the country. Who opposed this noble movement, the
plan of which had been elaborated by our large manufacturers? Who? The
occupying government.
[Sidenote: Communes not allowed to furnish work for unemployed.]
"Notwithstanding all this, the communes made every effort to give
work to the unemployed upon undertakings of public utility; but the
governor general made these enterprises depend upon permission which,
as a general rule, he refused. There are numerous cases, I am assured,
where the General Government authorized undertakings of this kind upon
the express condition that they should not be undertaken by unemployed.
"They were seeking to create unemployment. They were recruiting the
army of the unemployed. * * *
"The letter of October 26th says that the first responsibility for the
unemployment of our workmen rests upon England, because she has not
allowed raw materials to enter Belgium.
[Sidenote: England not to blame.]
"England generously allows foodstuffs to enter Belgium for the
revictualling [of the country], under the control of neutral
States--Spain, the United States, and Holland. She would allow raw
materials necessary for industry to enter the country under the same
control if Germany were willing to agree to leave them to us, and not
to seize the finished products of our industrial work.
[Sidenote: Germany robs Belgians and inflicts privations.]
"But Germany, by various proceedings, notably by the organization of
its _Centrales_, over which neither the Belgians nor our protecting
ministers can exercise any efficacious control, absorbs a considerable
portion of the products of agriculture and of the industry of our
country. The result is a considerable increase in the cost of living,
which causes painful privations for those who have no savings. * * *
[Sidenote: Deportation is slavery.]
"Deportation is slavery, and the heaviest penalty of the penal code
after that of death. Has Belgium, who never did you any wrong,
deserved at your hands this treatment which cries to heaven for
vengeance?
"Mr. Governor General, in the beginning of my letter I recalled the
noble words of Your Excellency: 'I have come into Belgium with the
mission of dressing the wounds of your country.'
"If Your Excellency could penetrate into the homes of workingmen, as
we priests do, and hear the lamentations of wives and mothers whom
your orders cast into mourning and into dismay, you would realize far
better that the wound of the Belgian people is gaping.
[Sidenote: Cold calculation of Germans.]
"Two years ago, we hear people say, it was death, pillage, fires,
but it was war! To-day it is no longer war, it is cold calculation,
intentional destruction, the victory of force over right, the
debasement of human personality, a cry of defiance to humanity.
"It depends upon you, Excellency, to silence these cries of a revolted
conscience; may the good God, whom we call upon with all the ardor of
our soul for our oppressed people, inspire you with the pity of the
good Samaritan!
"Accept, Mr. Governor General, the homage of my highest consideration.
"D.J. CARD. MERCIER,
"_Arch. of Malines_."
In less moving phrases, but in deadly corroboration, the continuation
of the report of Minister Whitlock says:
REPORT OF MINISTER WHITLOCK (continued).
[Sidenote: Appalling stories of German behavior.]
"_The rage, the terror, and despair excited by this measure all over
Belgium were beyond anything we had witnessed since the day the
Germans poured into Brussels. The delegates of the Commission for
Relief in Belgium, returning to Brussels, told the most distressing
stories of the scenes of cruelty and sorrow attending the seizures.
And daily, hourly almost, since that time appalling stories have been
related by Belgians coming to the Legation. It is impossible for us
to verify them, first, because it is necessary for us to exercise all
possible tact in dealing with the subject at all, and secondly because
there is no means of communication between the Occupations-Gebiet and
the Etappen-Gebiet. Transportation everywhere in Belgium is difficult,
the vicinal railways scarcely operating any more because of the lack
of oil, while all the horses have been taken. The people who are
forced to go from one village to another must do so on foot or in
vans drawn by the few miserable horses that are left. The wagons of
the breweries, the one institution that the Germans have scrupulously
respected, are hauled by oxen._
[Sidenote: A foul deed.]
"_The well-known tendency of sensational reports to exaggerate
themselves, especially in time of war, and in a situation like that
existing here, with no newspapers to serve as a daily clearing house
for all the rumours that are as avidly believed as they are eagerly
repeated, should of course be considered; but even if a modicum of all
that is told is true there still remains enough to stamp this deed as
one of the foulest that history records._
"_I am constantly in receipt of reports from all over Belgium that
tend to bear out the stories one constantly hears of brutality and
cruelty. A number of men sent back to Mons are said to be in a dying
condition, many of them tubercular. At Malines and at Antwerp returned
men have died, their friends asserting that they have been victims of
neglect and cruelty, of cold, of exposure, of hunger._" (Continued on
page 74.)
A vivid sketch of the deportations from Mons, drawn by a participant,
may well be cited here:
[Sidenote: "The woes of slavery."]
"I will take the 18th of November of last year [1916]. A week or so
before that a placard was placed on the walls telling my capital
city of Mons that in seven days all the men of that city who were
not clergymen, who were not priests, who did not belong to the city
council, would be deported.
"At half past five, in the gray of the morning on the 18th of
November, they walked out, six thousand two hundred men at Mons,
myself and another leading them down the cobblestones of the street
and out where the rioting would be less than in the great city, with
the soldiers on each side, with bayonets fixed, with the women held
back.
"The degradation of it! The degradation of it as they walked into this
great market square, where the pens were erected, exactly as if they
were cattle--all the great men of that province--the lawyers, the
statesmen, the heads of the trades, the men that had made the capital
of Hainaut glorious during the last twenty years.
"There they were collected; no question of who they were, whether they
were busy or what they were doing, or what their position in life. 'Go
to the right! Go to the left! Go to the right!' So they were turned to
the one side or the other.
"Trains were standing there ready, steaming, to take them to Germany.
You saw on the one side the one brother taken, the other brother left.
A hasty embrace and they were separated and gone. You had here a man
on his knees before a German officer, pleading and begging to take his
old father's place; that was all. The father went and the son stayed.
They were packed in those trains that were waiting there.
"You saw the women in hundreds, with bundles in their hands beseeching
to be permitted to approach the trains, to give their men the last
that they had in life between themselves and starvation--a small
bundle of clothing to keep them warm on their way to Germany. You saw
women approach with a bundle that had been purchased by the sale of
the last of their household effects. Not one was allowed to approach
to give her man the warm pair of stockings or the warm jacket, so
there might be some chance of his reaching there. Off they went!" John
H. Gade, in _The National Geographic Magazine_, May, 1917.
The Belgian women sent a touching appeal to Minister Whitlock:
THE APPEAL OF THE BELGIAN WOMEN.
"BRUSSELS,
"_November 18, 1916, 46 Rue de la Madeleine_.
"His Excellency Mr. BRAND WHITLOCK,
"_Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
of the United States of America_.
"MR. MINISTER:
"From the depths of our well of misery our supplication rises to you.
"In addressing ourselves to you, we denounce to your Government, as
well as to our sisters, the women of the nation which you represent
in our midst, the criminal abuse of force of which our unhappy and
defenseless people is a victim.
"Since the beginning of this atrocious war we have looked on
impotently and with our hearts torn with every sorrow at terrible
events which put our civilization back into the ages of the barbarian
hordes.
[Sidenote: No shadow of excuse for deportations.]
"Mr. Minister, the crime which is now being committed under your eyes,
namely, the deportation of thousands of men compelled to work on enemy
soil against the interests of their country, can not find any shadow
of excuse on the ground of military necessity, for it constitutes a
violation by force of a sacred right of human conscience.
"Whatever may be the motive it can not be admitted that citizens may
be compelled to work directly or indirectly _for_ the enemy _against_
their brothers who are fighting.
"The Convention of The Hague has consecrated this principle.
"Nevertheless, the occupying power is forcing thousands of men to this
monstrous extremity, which is contrary to morals and international
law, both these men who have already been taken to Germany and those
who to-morrow will undergo the same fate, if from the outside, from
neutral Europe and the United States, no help is offered.
[Sidenote: The women of Belgium have kept back their tears.]
"Oh! The Belgian women have also known how to carry out their duty in
the hour of danger; they have not weakened the courage of the soldiers
of honor by their tears.
"They have bravely given to their country those whom they loved. * * *
The blood of mothers is flowing on the battle-fields.
"Those who are taken away to-day do not go to perform a glorious
duty. They are slaves in chains who, in a dark exile, threatened by
hunger, prison, death, will be called upon to perform the most odious
work--service to the enemy against the fatherland.
"The mothers can not stand by while such an abomination is taking
place without making their voices heard in protest.
"They are not thinking of their own sufferings, their own moral
torture, the abandonment and the misery in which they are to be placed
with their children.
[Sidenote: The rights of honor and conscience.]
"They address you in the name of the inalterable rights of honor and
conscience.
"It has been said that women are 'all powerful suppliants.'
"We have felt authorized by this saying, Mr. Minister, to extend our
hands to you and to address to your country a last appeal.
"We trust that in reading these lines you will feel at each word the
unhappy heartbeats of the Belgian women and will find in your broad
and humane sympathy imperative reasons for intervention.
"Only the united will of the neutral peoples energetically expressed
can counterbalance that of the German authorities.
"This assistance which the neutral nations can and, therefore, ought
to lend us, will it be refused to the oppressed Belgians?
"Be good enough to accept, Mr. Minister, the homage of our most
distinguished consideration."
(Signed by a number of Belgian women and 24 societies.)
The United States Government did not fail to respond to this touching
appeal and to others of a similar nature. The American Embassy at
Berlin promptly took up the burning question of the deportations with
the Chancellor and other representatives of the German Government. In
an interview with the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr.
Grew was handed an official statement of the German plans, which is, in
translation, as follows:
THE GERMAN MEMORANDUM ON BELGIAN "UNEMPLOYMENT."
[Sidenote: More German camouflage.]
"Against the unemployed in Belgium, who are a burden to public
charity, in order to avoid friction arising therefrom, compulsory
measures are to be adopted to make them work so far as they are not
voluntarily inclined to work, in accordance with the regulation
issued May 15, 1916, by the Governor General. In order to ascertain
such persons the assistance of the municipal authorities is required
for the district of the Governor General in Brussels, while in the
districts outside of the General Government, i.e., in the provinces of
Flanders, lists were demanded from the presidents of the local relief
committees containing the names of persons receiving relief. For the
sake of establishing uniform procedure the competent authorities have,
in the meantime, been instructed to make the necessary investigations
regarding such persons also in Flanders through the municipal
authorities; furthermore, presidents of local relief committees who
may be detained for having refused to furnish such lists will be
released."
Mr. Grew pointed out that the deportations were a breach of faith and
would injure the German cause abroad. In his official summary of the
negotiations which he carried on he says:
[Sidenote: Mr. Grew points out that Germany excites public opinion
against her.]
"I then discussed in detail with the Under Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs the unfortunate impression which this decision would
make abroad, reminding him that the measures were in principle
contrary to the assurances given to the Ambassador by the Chancellor
at General Headquarters last spring and dwelling on the effect which
the policy might have on England's attitude towards relief work in
Belgium. I said I understood that the measures had been promulgated
solely by the military government in Belgium and that I thought the
matter ought at least to be brought to the Chancellor's personal
attention in the light of the consequences which the new policy would
entail. Herr Zimmermann intimated in reply that the Foreign Office had
very little influence with the military authorities and that it was
unlikely that the new policy in Belgium could be revoked. He stated,
however, in answer to my inquiry, that he would not disapprove of my
seeing the Chancellor about the matter."
[Sidenote: Mr. Grew appeals to the Chancellor]
Mr. Grew accordingly took up the whole question with the Chancellor,
and among other arguments urged the promises which the German
Government had solemnly made to the Belgian civilians through Baron
von Huene and Baron von der Goltz. [These pledges are set forth in
detail in Cardinal Mercier's letter of October 19th, 1916, quoted in
full on preceding pages.] Mr. Grew found it impossible to persuade the
Chancellor to secure the abandonment of the policy of deportations,
and thereupon urged that the policy should be modified. His formal
statement of this phase of the negotiations is as follows:
"The points of amelioration which I then suggested as a concession to
Belgian national feeling and foreign opinion were as follows:
"1. Only actual unemployed to be taken, involving a more deliberate
and careful selection.
"2. Married men or heads of families not to be taken.
"3. Employees of the Comite National not to be taken.
[Sidenote: and asks certain concessions]
"4. The lists of the unemployed not to be required of the Belgian
authorities, but to be determined by the German authorities
themselves, as a concession to Belgian national feeling, and the
Belgians, who had already been imprisoned for refusing to supply these
lists, released.
"5. Deported persons to be permitted to correspond with their families
in Belgium.
"6. Places of work or concentration camps of deported persons to be
voluntarily opened by the German Government to inspection by neutral
representatives.
* * * * *
"A few days later Count Zech, the Chancellor's adjutant, called on me
and communicated to me informally and orally the following replies to
the various suggestions which I had made for concessions and points of
amelioration:
[Sidenote: but with slight success.]
"1. Only actual unemployed were to be taken. The selections would be
made in a careful and deliberate manner.
"2. Married men or heads of families could not in principle be
exempted, but each case would be considered carefully on its merits.
"3. Employees of the _Comite National_ are regarded as actually
employed and therefore exempt.
"4. It was essential that the Belgian authorities should co-operate
with the German authorities in furnishing lists of unemployed, in
order to avoid mistakes. Only one Belgian had been imprisoned for
refusing to give such lists, and orders had now been given for his
release.
"5. Deported persons would be permitted to correspond with their
families in Belgium.
"6. Places of work and concentration camps would in principle be open
to inspection by Spanish diplomatic representatives.
"American inspection might also be informally arranged if desired.
* * * * *
"On December 2nd, the Minister at Brussels communicated to me the text
of a telegram which he had sent to the Department on November 28th,
stating that he had been encouraged by the report of the results of my
interview with the Chancellor." * * *
The telegram to which Mr. Grew refers was the following:
MINISTER WHITLOCK'S TELEGRAM OF NOVEMBER 28, 1916.
"BRUSSELS, VIA THE HAGUE, _November 28, 1916_.
"SECRETARY OF STATE,
"_Washington_.
[Sidenote: Germans are deporting the skilled Belgian workmen.]
"We are naturally encouraged by Grew's telegrams concerning his
conversations with the Chancellor. It is probable that the orders
[for softening the rigors of the deportations] have not yet been put
into effect, as the recruiting of Belgian workmen continues without
distinction as between the employed and unemployed. I have received
creditable information that choice is made with great rapidity, which
allows no time for examination. Mayor in the Province of Namur had
given a list of unemployed as one hundred. Practically none of the
persons in this list were taken by the Germans, but from the same
district hundreds of employed were taken. Apparently the choice is
based entirely on the skill and physical fitness of the workmen. There
is a great demand for blacksmiths and iron workers. The identification
cards from the Commission for Relief in Belgium issued to men working
for the _Comite National_ were respected in Antwerp; nine men holding
them were taken at Mons; over thirty at Namur, and a few each day
in various parts of the country. Over forty thousand are engaged in
various departments of relief work, however, and this is but a small
percentage. It is reliably reported that very bad conditions exist
in the Province of Valenciennes, and that many men have been taken
there. They have been without food for sixty-three hours and have
no blankets. Apparently they have been deprived of food in order to
oblige them to work for the Germans.
"WHITLOCK,
"_American Minister_."
The American minister and the representatives of other powers were able
to secure some lessening of the severity of the deportations. Minister
Whitlock says:
REPORT OF MINISTER WHITLOCK (continued).
[Sidenote: Neutral representatives are allowed to request
reconsideration of special cases.]
[Sidenote: They run into high figures.]
"_We have, of course, done all that was in our power to ameliorate the
conditions without in any way seeming officially to intervene. I have
already reported to the Department the conversations I have had with
the officials. Recently I induced the Political Department to request
that we bring to their attention any case of flagrant injustice, and
on the basis of this admission we have been sending from time to time
to the German authorities the names of certain deported Belgians who
were working at the time of their seizure and therefore did not come
within the purview of the rule laid down by the German Government
that the unemployed should be deported. Other neutral Legations in
Brussels have done the same, and the work has assumed proportions
that are so large that I fear they may defeat its ends. The Legations
of Spain and Holland have organized similar bureaus, and so many
requests for repatriation are received that I have been compelled to
rent rooms in a vacant house, across the street from the Legation
in the rue Belliard, to carry on the work. The necessary staff and
supplies for the work have been furnished by the Comite National,
which has organized a central bureau that investigates all reports
received by the Legations in order to determine whether or not the
persons mentioned have received financial assistance since the war,
and, as well, to avoid duplication in representations. Inasmuch as it
is difficult to make exceptions, I fear, as I said before, that the
very mass of these requests will prevent their being examined with
any care. So far as we are able to determine, about 100,000 have been
deported, and of those less than 2,000 have returned._
"_The Spanish Legation which, because of the fact that Spain is
charged with the protection of Belgian interests in Germany, claims
precedence in this matter, * * * makes a demand for the return of each
and every one who applies, and sends in about two hundred names each
day. The Dutch Legation * * * forwards each request that is presented,
and, owing to the fact that after the fall of Antwerp, assurances
were given by the German Authorities through the Dutch Government to
Belgian refugees in Holland that they would not be deported should
they return to Belgium, they are receiving a great many. I am told
that they submit over fifteen hundred each day._ * * *
"_We have a great many requests, and although we try not to
discriminate we attempt to pick out the most deserving cases, though
now that I have written that phrase I feel a certain shame in it
because all the cases are deserving._
[Sidenote: Germans rarely allow food packages to reach deported
Belgians.]
"_I have had requests from the burgomasters of ten communes from La
Louviere, asking that permission be obtained to send to the deported
men in Germany packages of food similar to those that are being sent
to prisoners of war. Thus far the German authorities have refused
to permit this except in special instances, and returning Belgians
claim that even when such packages are received they are used by the
camp authorities only as another means of coercing them to sign the
agreements to work._
"_It is said that, in spite of the liberal salary promised those who
would sign voluntarily, no money has as yet been received in Belgium
from workmen in Germany._" (Concluded on p. 78.)
The American Government was not content with informal recommendations
to the German Government, and on December 5, 1916, the American
representative at Berlin laid this formal protest before the German
chancellor:
FORMAL PROTEST OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.
[Sidenote: A solemn protest by United States.]
"The Government of the United States has learned with the greatest
concern and regret of the policy of the German Government to deport
from Belgium a portion of the civilian population with the result
of forcing them to labor in Germany, and is constrained to protest
in a friendly spirit but most solemnly against this action which is
in contravention of all precedent and those humane principles of
international practice which have long been accepted and followed by
civilized nations in their treatment of noncombatants in conquered
territory. Furthermore, the Government of the United States is
convinced that the effect of this policy if pursued will in all
probability be fatal to the Belgian relief work so humanely planned
and so successfully carried out, a result which would be generally
deplored and which, it is assumed, would seriously embarrass the
German Government."
[Sidenote: Other neutrals support American protest.]
This protest was followed by those of the Pope, the King of Spain, the
Government of Switzerland, and other neutrals. They were of no avail,
except, perhaps, to lead the German authorities to draw a tighter veil
over their detestable proceedings. But the evidence has in some measure
come through, although the full facts will not be known until the
liberation of heroic Belgium.
In the _Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_ of December 2, 1916, the
following protests appeared, made, respectively, by Socialist Deputy
Haase and Deputy Dittmann, members of the Reichstag:
PROTESTS AGAINST DEPORTATIONS HEARD IN REICHSTAG.
"Thousands of workmen in the occupied territory have been compelled
to forced labor; we earnestly ask the government to restore to these
workmen their liberty, especially in Belgium. In truth, we [the
Germans] find no sympathy in neutral countries; even the Pope has made
a protest against this procedure, and several neutral states have done
the same. Common sense itself demands that we abandon this procedure
which moreover is in opposition to the Hague Convention to which we
have agreed."
"In opposition to the Secretary of State, I must recall that when
formerly the Belgian workmen who had fled to Holland returned to
Belgium, Governor General von Bissing promised that these Belgian
workmen would under no circumstances be deported to Germany. This
reassuring promise has not been kept."
Ambassador Gerard's interesting testimony appears in his recent book:
AMBASSADOR GERARD'S EVIDENCE.
[Sidenote: American indignation at deportations.]
"The President [during my visit to America in 1916] impressed upon me
his great interest in the Belgians deported to Germany. The action
of Germany in thus carrying a great part of the male population
of Belgium into virtual slavery had roused great indignation in
America. As the revered Cardinal Farley said to me a few days before
my departure, 'You have to go back to the times of the Medes and
the Persians to find a like example of a whole people carried into
bondage.'
"Mr. Grew had made representations about this to the Chancellor and,
on my return, I immediately took up the question.
[Sidenote: Gerard not permitted to visit deported Belgians.]
"I was informed that it was a military measure, that Ludendorf had
feared that the British would break through and overrun Belgium and
that the military did not propose to have a hostile population at
their backs who might cut the rail lines of communication, telephones
and telegraphs, and that for this reason the deportation had been
decided on. I was, however, told I would be given permission to visit
these Belgians. The passes, nevertheless, which alone made such
visiting possible were not delivered until a few days before I left
Germany.
[Sidenote: Some of them call on him.]
"Several of these Belgians who were put to work in Berlin managed to
get away and come to see me. They gave me a harrowing account of how
they had been seized in Belgium and made to work in Germany at making
munitions to be used probably against their own friends.
"I said to the Chancellor, 'There are Belgians employed in making
shells contrary to all rules of war and the Hague Conventions.' He
said, 'I do not believe it.' I said, 'My automobile is at the door. I
can take you, in four minutes, to where thirty Belgians are working on
the manufacture of shells.' But he did not find time to go.
"Americans must understand that the Germans will stop at nothing to
win this war, and that the only thing they respect is force." James W.
Gerard, _My Four Years in Germany_, 1917, pp. 351-52.
A similar point of view is expressed in an article entitled "Vae
Victis" from the Hungarian newspaper _Nepszawa_ of Budapest (quoted in
K.G. Ossiannilsson, _Militarism at Work in Belgium and Germany_, 1917,
pp. 53-54).
HUNGARIAN OPINION ON DEPORTATIONS.
"Mechanical skill, and especially qualified mechanical skill, is
for the moment a more important factor than usual, and as it must
be obtained where it can be obtained, Belgium has had to suffer in
accordance with the old saying which always holds good: _Vae victis_
(woe to the vanquished). In Poland, mechanical skill and the arms
which exist there are mobilized under 'the glorious and fortunate
banners of Poland'; in Belgium under 'the banner of necessity.'"
[Sidenote: The Germans are using the Belgians for war work.]
"* * * The question remains: for what kind of work will the Germans
use the Belgians? * * * Every kind of work in Germany is war work,
whether it is called agricultural or industrial work. As the deported
Belgians have not given their consent, their use is contrary to
international law, and the policy of the Germans in Belgium and Poland
is equally to be deplored. Instead of aiming at bringing us nearer
peace, it serves to embitter our opponents and to rouse more hatred
towards us amongst the neutrals. Many times and more and more we have
had occasion to observe that the neutrals show more sympathy for
Belgium than for any other belligerent."
[Sidenote: Belgians still being deported, September, 1917.]
The news dispatches indicate that the deportation and forced labor of
Belgians still continue. In a dispatch from Havre (New York _Evening
Post_, September 13, 1917) it is stated: "The removal of the civilian
population of Belgium continues, according to advices received here.
The town of Roulers, immediately behind the battle line in Flanders,
has been evacuated completely. Ostend is being emptied gradually, and
two thousand persons already have been sent from Courtrai." In another
dispatch from Havre (_Washington Post_, September 24, 1917) it is
stated that "the German military authorities at Bruges, Belgium, are
conscripting forcibly all the boys and men of that city between the
ages of 14 and 60 to work in munition factories and shipyards. The
rich and poor, shopkeepers and workmen, all are being taken, only the
school-teachers, doctors, and priests escaping."
REPORT OF MINISTER WHITLOCK (concluded).
[Sidenote: German capacity for blundering.]
"_One interesting result of the deportations remains to be noted,
a result that once more places in relief the German capacity for
blundering, almost as great as the German capacity for cruelty. Until
the deportations were begun there was no intense hatred on the part
of the lower classes, i.e., the workingmen and the peasants. The
old Germans of the Landsturm had been quartered in Flemish homes;
they and the inmates spoke nearly the same language; they got alone
fairly well; they helped the women with the work, the poor and the
humble having none of those hatreds of patriotism that are among the
privileges of the upper classes. It is conceivable that the Flemish
population might have existed under German rule; it was Teutonic in
its origin and anti-French always. But now the Germans have changed
all that._
[Sidenote: Germans will be hated for generations.]
"_They have dealt a mortal blow to any prospect they may ever have
had of being tolerated by the population of Flanders; in tearing away
from nearly every humble home in the land a husband and a father or a
son and brother they have lighted a fire of hatred that will never go
out; they have brought home to every heart in the land, in a way that
will impress its horror indelibly on the memory of three generations,
a realization of what German methods mean, not, as with the early
atrocities, in the heat of passion and the first lust of war, but by
one of those deeds that make one despair of the future of the human
race, a deed coldly planned, studiously matured, and deliberately and
systematically executed, a deed so cruel that German soldiers are
said to have wept in its execution, and so monstrous that even German
officers are now said to be ashamed._
"WHITLOCK."
Mr. Hoover's mature conclusions on the German practices in Belgium,
which he has written for this pamphlet, reinforce the detailed evidence
already presented.
MR. HOOVER'S CONCLUSIONS.
SEPTEMBER, 1917.
I have been often called upon for a statement of my observation of
German rule in Belgium and Northern France.
I have neither the desire nor the adequate pen to picture the scenes
which have heated my blood through the two and a half years that I
have spent in work for the relief of these 10,000,000 people.
[Sidenote: Belgian atrocities are the result of the "system."]
The sight of the destroyed homes and cities, the widowed and
fatherless, the destitute, the physical misery of a people but
partially nourished at best, the deportation of men by tens of
thousands to slavery in German mines and factories, the execution of
men and women for paltry effusions of their loyalty to their country,
the sacking of every resource through financial robbery, the battening
of armies on the slender produce of the country, the denudation of the
country of cattle, horses and textiles; all these things we had to
witness, dumb to help other than by protest and sympathy, during this
long and terrible time--and still these are not the events of battle
heat, but the effects of a grinding heel of a race demanding the
mastership of the world.
All these things are well known to the world--but what can never be
known is the dumb agony of the people, the expressionless faces of
millions whose souls have passed the whole gamut of emotions. And why?
Because these, a free and democratic people, dared plunge their bodies
before the march of autocracy.
I myself believe that if we do not fight and fight now, all these
things are possible to us--but even should the broad Atlantic prove
our present defender, there is still Belgium. Is it worth while for
us to live in a world where this free and unoffending people is to be
trampled into the earth and to raise no sword in protest?
HERBERT HOOVER.
FRANCE.
[Sidenote: German practices were the same in all occupied regions.]
In France the German system of forced labor and deportations, with its
attendant callousness, brutalities, and horrors, was the same as in
Belgium. Inasmuch as the German system in action has been adequately
illustrated in the foregoing pages on Belgium, it will suffice in this
part simply to show the real identity of German practice in the two
occupied regions. This can be done from the official documents and from
a summary by Ambassador Gerard. The harrowing details may be gathered
from the scores of depositions which accompany the note addressed by
the French Government to the Governments of the neutral powers July 25,
1916. These are on file in the State Department, and have also been
translated, along with the official documents, in _The Deportation of
Women and Girls from Lille_, New York, Doran.
PROCLAMATION OF THE GERMAN MILITARY COMMANDANT OF LILLE.
"The attitude of England makes the provisioning of the population more
and more difficult.
"To reduce the misery, the German authorities have recently asked for
volunteers to go and work in the country. This offer has not had the
success that was expected.
[Sidenote: German proclamation at Lille, April, 1916.]
"In consequence of this the inhabitants will be deported by order
and removed into the country. Persons deported will be sent to the
interior of the occupied territory in France, far behind the front,
where they will be employed in agricultural labor, and not on any
military work whatever. By this measure they will be given the
opportunity of providing better for their subsistence.
"In case of necessity, provisions can be obtained through the German
depots. Every person deported will be allowed to take with him 30
kilograms of baggage (household utensils, clothes, etc.), which it
will be well to make ready at once.
"I therefore order that no one, until further orders, shall change
his place of residence. No one may absent himself from his declared
legal residence from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. (German time), unless he is in
possession of a permit in due form.
"Inasmuch as this is an irrevocable measure, it is in the interest of
the population itself to remain calm and obedient.
"COMMANDANT.
"LILLE, _April, 1916_."
NOTICE DISTRIBUTED TO HOUSES IN LILLE.
"All the inhabitants of the house, with the exception of children
under fourteen and their mothers, and also of old people, must prepare
themselves for transportation in an hour and a half's time.
[Sidenote: Inhabitants of Lille given 90 minutes to get ready to
depart.]
"An officer will decide definitely what persons will be taken to the
concentration camps. For this purpose all the inhabitants of the house
must assemble in front of it; in case of bad weather they may remain
in the passage. The door of the house must remain open. All protests
will be useless. No inmate of the house, even those who are not to be
transported, may leave the house before 8 a.m. (German time).
"Each person will be permitted to take 30 kilograms of baggage; if
anyone's baggage exceeds that weight, it will all be rejected without
further consideration. Packages must be separately made up for each
person and must bear an address legibly written and firmly affixed.
This address must contain the surname and the Christian name and the
number of the identity card.
[Sidenote: Must carry their own cooking utensils.]
"It is absolutely necessary that each person should, in his own
interest, provide himself with eating and drinking utensils, as well
as with a woolen blanket, good shoes, and body linen. Everyone must
carry his identity card on his person. Anyone attempting to evade
transportation will be punished without mercy.
"ETAPPEN-KOMMANDANTUR."
[LILLE, _April, 1916_.]
PROTEST OF BISHOP CHAROST, OF LILLE, ADDRESSED TO GENERAL VON
GRAEVENITZ.
"MONSIEUR LE GENERAL: It is my duty to bring to your notice the fact
that a very agitated state of mind exists among the population.
"Numerous removals of women and girls, certain transfers of men and
youth, and even of children, have been carried out in the districts of
Tourcoing and Roubaix without judicial procedure or trial.
[Sidenote: The Bishop protests against deportations.]
"The unfortunate people have been sent to unknown places. Measures
equally extreme and on a larger scale are contemplated at Lille. You
will not be surprised, Monsieur le General, that I intercede with you
in the name of the religious mission confided to me. That mission
lays on me the burden of defending with respect but with courage, the
Law of Nations, which the law of war must never infringe, and that
eternal morality whose rules nothing can suspend. It makes it my duty
to protect the feeble and the unarmed, who are as my family to me and
whose burdens and sorrows are mine.
[Sidenote: Appeals to the humanity of the commander.]
"You are a father; you know that there is not in the order of humanity
a right more honorable or more holy than that of the family. For every
Christian the inviolability of God, who created the family, attaches
to it. The German officers who have been billeted for a long time in
our homes know how deep in our hearts we of the North hold family
affection and that it is the sweetest thing in life to us. Thus to
dismember the family by tearing youths and girls from their homes is
not war; it is for us tortures and the worst of tortures--unlimited
moral torture.
[Sidenote: The methods of deportation a danger to morals.]
[Sidenote: Hopes for restoration of the deported.]
"The violation of family rights is doubled by a violation of the
sacred demands of morality. Morality is exposed to perils, the mere
idea of which is revolting to every honest man, from the promiscuity
which inevitably accompanies removals _en masse_, involving mixture
of the sexes, or, at all events, of persons of very unequal moral
standing. Young girls of irreproachable life, who have never committed
any worse offense than that of trying to pick up some bread or a few
potatoes to feed a numerous family, and who have besides paid the
light penalty for such trespass, have been carried off. Their mothers,
who have watched so closely over them and had no other joy than that
of keeping their daughters beside them, in the absence of father and
sons fighting or killed at the front--these mothers are now alone.
They bring to me their despair and their anguish. I am speaking of
what I have seen and heard. I know that you have no part in these
harsh measures. You are by nature inclined toward justice; that is
why I venture to turn to you; I beg you to be good enough to forward
without delay to the German High Military Command this letter from a
Bishop, whose deep grief they will easily imagine. We have suffered
much for the last twenty months, but no stroke of fortune could be
comparable to this; it would be as undeserved as it is cruel and
would produce in all France an indelible impression. I cannot believe
that the blow will fall. I have faith in the human conscience and I
preserve the hope that the young men and girls of respectable families
will be restored to their homes in answer to the demand for their
return and that sentiments of justice and honor will prevail over all
lower considerations.
"ALEXIS ARMAND,
"_Bishop_."
ADDRESS OF PROMINENT CITIZENS OF ROUBAIX AND TOURCOING TO THE
PRESIDENT OF FRANCE.
"To Monsieur RAYMOND POINCARE,
"_President of the French Republic, Paris_.
"SIR: We have the honor to express again our most sincere gratitude to
you for your most kind reception, a few days ago, of the deputation
which went with feelings of legitimate emotion to inform you of the
deportation of lads and girls, which the German authorities have just
carried out in the invaded districts.
"We have collected some details on the subject from the lips of an
honorable and trustworthy person, who succeeded in leaving Tourcoing
about ten days ago; we think it our duty to bring these details to
your notice by reproducing textually the declarations which have been
made to us:
"'These deportations began towards Easter. The Germans announced that
the inhabitants of Roubaix, Tourcoing, Lille, etc., were going to be
transported into French districts where their provisioning would be
easier.
[Sidenote: The procedure of the deportations.]
"'At night, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, a whole district of
the town was invested by the troops of occupation. To each house
was distributed a printed notice, of which we give below an exact
reproduction, preserving the style and spelling. [See second document,
above.]
"'The inhabitants so warned were to hold themselves ready to depart an
hour and a half after the distribution of the proclamation.
"'Each family, drawn up outside the house, was examined by an officer,
who pointed out haphazard the persons who were to go. No words can
express the barbarity of this proceeding nor describe the heartrending
scenes which occurred; young men and girls took a hasty farewell of
their parents--a farewell hurried by the German soldiers who were
executing the infamous task--rejoined the group of those who were
going, and found themselves in the middle of the street, surrounded by
other soldiers with fixed bayonets.
[Sidenote: Sometimes a kind-hearted officer could not carry out the
brutal orders.]
"'Tears of despair on the part of parents and children so ruthlessly
separated did not soften the hearts of the brutal Germans. Sometimes,
however, a more kind-hearted officer yielded to too great a despair,
and did not choose all the persons whom he should--by the terms of his
instructions--have separated.
"'These girls and lads were taken in street cars to factories, where
they were numbered and labelled like cattle and grouped to form
convoys. In these factories they remained twelve, twenty-four, or
thirty-six hours until a train was ready to remove them.
"'The deportation began with the villages of Roncq, Halluin, etc.,
then Tourcoing and Roubaix. In towns the Germans proceeded by
districts.
[Sidenote: Numbers deported.]
"'In all about 30,000 persons are said to have been carried off up
to the present. This monstrous operation has taken eight to ten days
to accomplish. It is feared, unfortunately, that it may begin again
soon. The departures took place in freight cars to the sound of the
"Marseillaise."
"'The reason given by the German authorities is a humanitarian (?)
one. They have put forward the following pretexts: provisioning is
going to break down in the large towns in the north and their suburbs,
whereas in the Ardennes the feeding is easy and cheap.
[Sidenote: Young men and girls lodged in "disgraceful promiscuity."]
"'It is known from the young men and girls, since sent back to
their families for reasons of health, that in the Department of the
Ardennes the victims are lodged in a terrible manner, in disgraceful
promiscuity; they are compelled to work in the fields. It is
unnecessary to say that the inhabitants of our towns are not trained
to such work. The Germans pay them 1.50 m. But there are complaints of
insufficient food.
"'They were very badly received in the Ardennes. The Germans had told
the Ardennais that these were "volunteers" who were coming to work,
and the Ardennais proceeded to receive them with many insults, which
only ceased when the forcible deportation, of which they were the
victims, became known.
"'Feeling ran especially high in our towns. Never has so iniquitous a
measure been carried out. The Germans have shown all the barbarity of
slave drivers.
"'The families so scattered are in despair and the morale of the
whole population is gravely affected. Boys of 14, schoolboys in
knickerbockers, young girls of 15 to 16 have been carried off, and the
despairing protests of their parents failed to touch the hearts of the
German officers or rather executioners.
"'One last detail: The persons so deported are allowed to write home
once a month; that is to say, even less often than military prisoners.'
"Such are the declarations which we have collected and which, without
commentary, confirm in an even more striking way the facts which we
took the liberty of laying before you.
"We do not wish here to enter into the question of provisioning in the
invaded districts; others, better qualified than ourselves, give you,
as we know, frequent information. It is enough for us to describe in a
few words the situation from this aspect:
"The provisioning is very difficult; food, apart from that supplied by
the Spanish-American Committee, is very scarce and terribly dear. * *
* People are hungry and the provisioning is inadequate by at least a
half; our population is suffering constant privations and is growing
noticeably weaker. The death rate, too, has increased considerably.
[Sidenote: People rely on the neutral powers.]
"Sometimes inhabitants of the invaded territories speak with a note
of discouragement, crying apparently: 'We are forsaken by everyone.'
We, on the other hand, are hopeful, Monsieur le President, that the
energetic intervention on the part of Neutrals, which the French
Government is sure to evoke, will soon bring to an end these measures
which rouse the wrath of all to whom humanity is not an empty word. *
* *
"With all confidence in the sympathy of the Government we venture
to address a new and pressing appeal to your generous kindness and
far-reaching influence in the name of those who are suffering on
behalf of the whole country."
(Signed on behalf of various specified organizations by Toulemonde,
Charles Droulers, Leon Hatine-Dazin, and Louis Lorthiois.)
"PARIS, _15th June, 1916, 3, rue Taitbout_."
AMBASSADOR GERARD'S STATEMENT.
[Sidenote: Barbarity of deportations.]
"It seems that the Germans had endeavored to get volunteers from the
great industrial towns of Lille, Roubaix, and Tourcoing to work these
fields; that after the posting of the notices calling for volunteers
only fourteen had appeared. The Germans then gave orders to seize
a certain number of inhabitants and send them out to farms in the
outlying districts to engage in agricultural work. The Americans told
me that this order was carried out with the greatest barbarity; that
a man would come home at night and find that his wife or children had
disappeared and no one could tell him where they had gone except that
the neighbours would relate that German noncommissioned officers and
a file of soldiers had carried them off. For instance, in a house
of a well-to-do merchant who had perhaps two daughters of fifteen
and seventeen and a man servant, the two daughters and the servant
would be seized and sent off together to work for the Germans in some
little farm house whose location was not disclosed to the parents. The
Americans told me that this sort of thing was causing such indignation
among the population of these towns that they feared a great uprising
and a consequent slaughter and burning by the Germans.
[Sidenote: Chancellor says that the military authorities ordered the
deportations.]
"That night at dinner I spoke to the Chancellor about this and told
him that it seemed to me absolutely outrageous; and that, without
consulting with my government, I was prepared to protest in the name
of humanity against a continuance of this treatment of the civil
population of occupied France. The Chancellor told me that he had not
known of it, that it was the result of orders given by the military,
that he would speak to the Emperor about it, and that he hoped to be
able to stop further deportations. I believe that they were stopped,
but twenty thousand or more who had been taken from their homes were
not returned until months afterwards. I said in a speech that I made
in May on my return to America that it required the joint efforts of
the Pope, the King of Spain, and our President to cause the return of
these people to their homes; and I then saw that some German press
agency had come out with an article that I had made false statements
about this matter because these people were not returned to their
homes as a result of the representations of the Pope, the King of
Spain, and our President, but were sent back because the Germans had
no further use for them. It seems to me that this denial makes the
case rather worse than before." James W. Gerard, _My Four Years in
Germany_, 1917, pp. 333-335.
POLAND.
The systematic exploitation of human misery by the German authorities
in Poland followed the general plan with which the reader has become
only too familiar. In order to prove the identity of procedure it will
be enough to present the detailed report specially written for this
pamphlet by Mr. Frederic C. Walcott. A fuller and in some ways more
touching treatment is given in his article, "Devastated Poland," in the
_National Geographic Magazine_ for May, 1917.
POLAND AND THE PRUSSIAN SYSTEM.
SEPTEMBER, 1917.
Poland--Russian Poland--is perishing. And the German high command,
imbued with the Prussian system, is coolly reckoning on the
necessities of a starving people to promote its imperial ends.
West Poland, which has been Prussian territory more than a hundred
years, is a disappointment to Germany; its people obstinately remain
Poles. This time they propose swifter measures. In two or three years,
by grace of starvation and frightfulness, they calculate East Poland
will be thoroughly made over into a German province.
[Sidenote: Devastation of Poland.]
In the great Hindenburg drive one year ago, the country was completely
devastated by the retreating Russian army and the oncoming Germans.
A million people were driven from their homes. Half of them perished
by the roadside. For miles and miles, when I saw the country, the
way was littered with mudsoaked garments and bones picked clean by
the crows--though the larger bones had been gathered by the thrifty
Germans to be ground into fertilizer. Wicker baskets--the little
basket in which the baby swings from the rafters in every peasant
home--were scattered along the way, hundreds and hundreds, until one
could not count them, each one telling a death.
Warsaw, which had not been destroyed--once a proud city of a million
people--was utterly stricken. Poor folks by thousands lined the
streets, leaning against the buildings, shivering in snow and rain,
too weak to lift a hand, dying of cold and hunger. Though the rich
gave all they had, and the poor shared their last crust, they were
starving there in the streets in droves.
In the stricken city, the German governor of Warsaw issued a
proclamation. All able-bodied Poles were bidden to go to Germany to
work. If any refused, let no other Pole give him to eat, not so much
as a mouthful, under penalty of German military law.
[Sidenote: The policy of starvation.]
It was more than the mind could grasp. To the husband and father
of broken families, the high command gave this decree: Leave your
families to starve; if you stay, we shall see that you do starve--this
to a high-strung, sensitive, highly organized people, this from the
authorities of a nation professing civilization and religion to
millions of fellow Christians captive and starving.
[Sidenote: Country to be restocked with Germans.]
General von Kries, the governor, was kind enough to explain.
Candidly, they preferred not quite so much starvation; it might get on
the nerves of the German soldiers. But, starvation being present, it
must work for German purpose. Taking advantage of this wretchedness,
the working men of Poland were to be removed; the country was to be
restocked with Germans. It was country Germany needed--rich alluvial
soil--better suited to German expansion than distant possessions. If
the POLAND that was had to perish, so much the better for Germany.
Remove the men, let the young and weak die, graft German stock on the
women. See how simple it is: with a crafty smile, General von Kries
concluded, "By and by we must give back freedom to Poland. Very good;
it will reappear as a German province."
Slowly, I came to realize that this monstrous, incredible thing was
the PRUSSIAN SYSTEM, deliberately chosen by the circle around the
all-highest, and kneaded into the German people till it became part of
their mind.
German people are material for building the State--of no other
account. Other people are for Germany's will to work upon. Humanity,
liberty, equality, the rights of others--all foolish talk. Democracy,
an idle dream. The true Prussian lives only for this, that the German
State may be mighty and great.
[Sidenote: German system of frightfulness everywhere.]
All the woes in the long count against Germany are part of the
Prussian system. The invasion of Belgium, the deportations, the
starving of subject people, the Armenian massacres, atrocities,
frightfulness, sinking the Lusitania, the submarine horrors, the
enslavement of women--all piece into the monstrous view. The rights of
nations, the rights of men, the lives and liberties of all people are
subordinate to the German aim of dominion over all the world.
FREDERICK C. WALCOTT.
CONCLUSION.
STATEMENT OF MR. VERNON KELLOGG, SEPTEMBER, 1917.
(Prepared for this pamphlet.)
[Sidenote: The graves of the massacred.]
It was my privilege--and necessity--in connection with the work of
the Commission for Relief in Belgium to spend several months at the
Great Headquarters of the German armies in the west, and later to
spend more months at Brussels as the Commission's director for Belgium
and occupied France. It was an enforced opportunity to see something
of German practice in the treatment of a conquered people, part of
whom (the French and the inhabitants of the Belgian provinces of
East and West Flanders) were under the direct control of the German
General Staff and the several German armies of the west, and part, the
inhabitants of the seven other Belgian provinces, under the quasi-civil
government of Governor General von Bissing. I did not enter the
occupied territories until June, 1915, and so, of course, saw none of
the actual invasion and overrunning of the land. I saw only the graves
of the massacred and the ruins of their towns. But I saw through the
long, hard months much too much for my peace of mind of how the Germans
treated the unfortunates under their control after the occupation.
It would be an unnecessary repetition to describe again the scenes in
Louvain, Dinant, Vise, Andenne, Tamines, Aerschot, and the rest of
the familiar long list of the ruined Belgian towns. But too little
has been said of the many, many ruined villages all over the extent
of the occupied French territory from Lille in the north to Longwy in
the south, and from the eastern boundary of France to the fatal trench
lines of the extreme western front.
As chief representative for the Commission, it was my duty to cover
this whole territory repeatedly in long motor journeys in company with
the German officer assigned for my protection--and for the protection
of the German army against any too much seeing. As I had opportunity
also to cover most of Belgium in repeated trips from Brussels into
the various provinces, I necessarily had opportunity to compare the
destruction wrought in the two regions.
[Sidenote: Towns untouched by war but ruined.]
I could understand why certain towns and villages along the Meuse and
along the lines of the French and English retreat were badly shot to
pieces. There had been fighting in these towns and the artillery of
first one side and then the other had worked their havoc among the
houses of the inhabitants. But there were many towns in which there
had been no fighting and yet all too many of these towns also were in
ruins. It was not ruin by shells, but ruin by fire and explosions.
There were the famous "punished" towns. Either a citizen or perhaps
two or three citizens had fired from a window on the invaders--or were
alleged to have. Thereupon a block, or two or three blocks, or half the
town was methodically and effectively burned or blown to pieces. There
are many of these "punished" towns in occupied France. And between
these towns and along the roadways are innumerable isolated single
farm houses that are also in ruins. It is not claimed that there was
any sniping from these farmhouses. They were just destroyed along the
way--and by the way, one may say. When the roll of destroyed villages
and destroyed farmhouses in occupied France is made known, the world
will be shocked again by this evidence of German thoroughness.
[Sidenote: Heartlessness of German rule.]
The rigor of the control over the inhabitants of the occupied French
territory is almost inconceivable. The lines delimiting the regions
occupied by the various distinct German armies are lines of impassable
steel for the inhabitants. If a member of the family in one town was
visiting friends or relatives in another town a few kilometers away at
the time of the outbreak of the war that family has remained separated
through all the long months that have since elapsed. No messages can
pass except by dangerous subterranean ways from town to town.
[Sidenote: False receipts for requisitioned property.]
The requisitioning of everything from food to furniture, from farm
animals to the blankets and mattresses from the beds, has been carried
to such an extent that the people live on nothing, amid nothing. These
requisitions in the earlier days had a more or less official seeming
in that quartermaster's _bons_ were given for the things taken. Even
then the German sense of humor too often made the _bon_ a crude jest.
The _bons_ were written in the German language in German script,
illegible and beyond the understanding of the simple natives. A _bon_
might be given for a chicken when it was a pair of horses that was
taken. But later, when these jests palled on the German soldiers, the
requisitioning was simplified by the omission of _bon_-giving. Where
the villagers and peasants had tried to save something that could be
buried or concealed, the searching out of these pitiful hiding places
became a great game with the German soldiers. One ingenious Frenchman
had secreted a few choice bottles of wine in a famous tomb on heights
above the Meuse. But these bottles found their way to special tables
at the Great Headquarters.
In the spring of 1916 the army authorities devised the plan of
deporting a number of men and women from Lille and the industrial towns
near it to the agricultural regions further south. These French were
to work in the fields and help produce food for the German army. As a
matter of fact this plan had at bottom something to recommend it. The
congestion in the industrialized northern region made the food problem
there very difficult. Our Commission had more trials in connection
with the provisioning of the great city of Lille and the lesser but
crowded towns of Valenciennes, Roubaix, and Tourcoing than with all the
rest of the occupied territory. Also these people had no work to do,
as the great factories were still. To come south and work in the open
air in the fields and be allowed a fair ration would have been a real
advantage to these people. It would also have helped in the whole food
supply situation.
[Sidenote: Horrors of deportations.]
But the horrible methods of that deportation were such that we,
although trying to hold steadfast to a rigorous neutrality, could not
but protest. Mr. Gerard, our Ambassador to Berlin, happened at the
very time of this protest to make a visit to the Great Headquarters in
the west and the matter was brought to the attention of certain high
officers at Headquarters on the very day of Mr. Gerard's visit and in
his hearing. So that he added his own protest to that of Mr. Poland,
our director at the time, and further deportations were stopped. But
a terrible mischief had already been done. Husbands and fathers had
been taken from their families without a word of good-bye; sons and
daughters on whom perhaps aged parents relied for support were taken
without pity or apparent thought of the terrible consequences. The
great deportations of Belgium have shocked the world. But these lesser
deportations--that is, lesser in extent, but not less brutal in their
carrying out--are hardly known.
[Sidenote: No American can fail to oppose Prussianism.]
I went into Belgium and occupied France a neutral and I maintained
while there a steadfastly neutral behavior. But I came out no neutral.
I can not conceive that any American enjoying an experience similar to
mine could have come out a neutral. He would come out, as I came, with
the ineradicable conviction that a people or a government which can do
what the Germans did and are doing in Belgium and France to-day must
not be allowed, if there is power on earth to prevent it, to do this a
moment longer than can be helped. And they must not be allowed ever to
do it again.
[Sidenote: Civilization must crush Prussian system.]
I went in also a hater of war, and I came out a more ardent hater of
war. But, also, I came out with the ineradicable conviction, again,
that the only way in which Germany under its present rule and in its
present state of mind can be kept from doing what it had done is by
force of arms. It can not be prevented by appeal, concession, or
treaties. Hence, ardently as I hope that all war may cease, I hope
that this war may not cease until Germany realizes that the civilized
world simply will not allow such horrors as those for which Germany is
responsible in Belgium and France to be any longer possible.
VERNON KELLOGG.
Your Government Is Willing to Send You
WITHOUT CHARGE
Any Two of the Pamphlets Listed Here with Exceptions Noted
_Committee on Public Information._
(Established by Order of the President, April 14, 1917, Washington,
D.C.)
Series No. 1. War Information. (Red, White and Blue Covers.)
Catalogue No.
1. How the War Came to America.
_Contents_: A brief introduction reviewing the policy of the United
States with reference to the Monroe Doctrine, freedom of the seas, and
international arbitration, developments of our policy reviewed and
explained from August, 1914, to April, 1917; Appendix: the President's
address to the Senate January 22, 1917, his war message to Congress
April 2, 1917, his Flag Day address at Washington, June 14, 1917. 32
pages. (Translations: German, Polish, Bohemian, Italian, Spanish,
Swedish, Portuguese. 48 pages.)
NOTE.--For Numbers 2, 3 and 7 described below, a contribution is
required as noted. All other booklets are free.
2. National Service Handbook. (Price, 15 cents)
(A reference work for libraries, schools, clubs and other
organizations.)
_Contents_: Description of all civic and military organizations
directly or indirectly connected with war work, pointing out how
and where every individual can help. Maps, Army and Navy Insignia,
diagrams. 246 Pages.
3. The Battle Line of Democracy. (Price, 15 cents)
_Contents_: The best collection of patriotic prose and poetry. Authors
and statesmen of America and all the countries now associated with us
in the war have expressed the highest aspirations of their people. 134
Pages. (Price 15 cents.)
4. President's Flag Day Speech with Evidence of Germany's Plans.
_Contents_: The President's speech with the facts to which he alludes
explained by carefully selected notes giving the proofs of German
purposes and intrigues. THESE NOTES PRESENT AN OVERWHELMING ARSENAL OF
FACTS, all gathered from original sources. 32 Pages.
5. Conquest and Kultur.
_Contents_: A brief introduction outlining German war aims and showing
how the proofs were gathered; followed by quotations from German
writers revealing the plans and purposes of Pan Germany, one chapter
being devoted entirely to the German attitude toward America. The
quotations are printed with title or no comment, THE EVIDENCE PILING
UP PAGE AFTER PAGE, CHAPTER AFTER CHAPTER. 160 Pages.
*** | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Gutenberg (PG-19) |
Specific chemoimmunotherapy in tumor-bearing mice with extracted antigen, cyclophosphamide, and intrasplenic administration of interleukin-2.
The effect of daily intrasplenic (I-SP) injection of interleukin-2 (IL-2) in conjunction with specific chemoimmunotherapy with extracted tumor antigens and cyclophosphamide was assessed with the use of methylcholanthrene (MCA)-induced fibrosarcoma in C3H/HeJ mice. Injections of 80 U of human IL-2 were delivered transcutaneously into the spleen (I-SP), which had been relocated to the subcutis with its blood supply intact. Six daily I-SP injections into mice bearing MCA-F tumors activated immune spleen cells (SPC), as evidenced by specific neutralization of the MCA-F, but not the antigenically different MCA-D tumor, in local adoptive transfer assays. The immune cell phenotype was Thy 1.2+ Lyt 2+, based upon abrogation of tumor neutralization after depletion with monoclonal antibodies and complement. In a second series of experiments, primary hosts bearing established MCA-F tumors underwent therapy with 1 microgram 1-butanol extracted, isoelectrophoretically purified TSTA injected subcutaneously, a single intraperitoneal (IP) dose of 20 mg/kg cyclophosphamide (CY), and/or either IP or I-SP IL-2 injection. Triple chemoimmunotherapy with I-SP, but not IP, IL-2 retarded tumor outgrowth more effectively than single or double treatment protocols. Furthermore, in a third series of investigations, the triple therapy group showed both decreased numbers and incidence of spontaneous metastases from a subcutaneous implant of clone 9-4, a highly metastatic variant of MCA-F. Indeed, 35% of hosts that received triple therapy, but none of the animals treated with other regimens, were free of lung metastasis (P less than 0.02). Thus, tumor resistance engendered by chemoimmunotherapy with TSTA and CY is potentiated in vivo by I-SP administration of IL-2. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Abstracts |
Striving to live the life that God intended for me, by praying, and seeking to use the inspiration handed down, by those who struggled and made their way to Heaven and the Lord….those declared saints of our Holy Mother Church.
Tag Archives: the storm and the wind oon the boat
Gospel of Matthew 22 -33 22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside … Continue reading → | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Next March, Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is expected to pit DC Comics’ three biggest heroes (known collectively as the Trinity) against Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) and a massive threat in the form of Doomsday. In addition to having Batman (Ben Affleck) squaring off against Superman (Henry Cavill), the blockbuster plans to lay the groundwork for multiple DC movies, including a Justice League movie that will hit in November 2017. Well, last night, a Reddit user claimed to have attended a BvS preview screening, and spilled from very important beans. What was revealed? Let’s discuss.
Needless to say, this article is going to deal in potential spoilers for next year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, so please stop reading if you do not want to know details. The movie comes out soon. Can you wait? Here’s the full trailer, to prevent you from hitting any of the spoilers that I am discussing below.
The screening details, provided by the Reddit user ViolatingNDA (clever) walk a very fine line between being possible, and possibly being bullshit. I’m honestly not convinced that Warner Bros. would screen Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice this early, knowing that the possibility of someone breaking the NDA and spoiling the movie was all too probable. Some of the scenes described by this potential audience member sound like they are speculated off of footage shown in the trailers. But then the third act reveals are potentially major… if they turn out to be true. So, take all of this with a shovel of salt, and see what was revealed:
Who Jena Malone Plays
We’ve run rumors that Jena Malone, who also starred in Snyder’s Sucker Punch, would be playing Carrie Kelley, a version of Robin who fought alongside an older Batman in the comics. ViolatingNDA actually confirms a different rumor, saying that Malone appears in a few scenes as Barbara Gordon, daughter of a deceased Commissioner James Gordon. There are mentions of the character Oracle, an alter ego of Barbara. And she apparently also makes a Killing Joke reference to an amusement park incident involving The Joker. There are a lot of Joker references in this movie, but it doesn’t sound like Jared Leto’s criminal clown prince shows face. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Some people can't see the upside-down plates. This one might work for them - it's the same uncropped image rotated ninety degrees both ways.
People are used to illumination coming from above - not from below; so when the scene is illuminated from below, one's brain is inclined to flip the image inside-out to make it better match with the 'usual' illumination.
The effect isn't so strong on my desktop monitor, but when I've seen this pic on my phone, it straight-up looks like a full-color photo unless I zoom way the fuck in. It's especially noticeable in the people's skins, I don't see gray at all, I see a for real human-style flesh tone.
First time I saw it was on a smaller screen, and although I could see the grid lines, I still believed the photo underneath was a normal colour one - until I read the spoiler and checked.
Of course, the colour receptors in our retinas are much more spaced apart than the non-colour ones, and there are very few colour receptors away from the centre of our field of view - so our brains are always dealing with high resolution monochrome images with a much lower resolution colour overlay - this image just helps reveal that in a somewhat surprising way.
If it's not working for you, try squinting a bit, or standing further away from the screen. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Q:
When will I run into problems when calculating with double values?
Imagine I write a simple calculator application, that just calculates simple stuff like
1.5 + 30 + 9755 - 30 - 20000 + 999900.54
I remember slightly that there were some precision problems when using floating point numbers. At which point would my calculator app start to create wrong results? Most of the time, I would just calculate integers like 1 + 2 - 963422, but sometimes I may enter a floating point number. I have no big clue about where the precision problems would start to take effect. just the very last numbers of that double? like -963419.0000000000003655? Or how would that look like? And any idea how to catch those?
A:
Citing Wikipedia:
In addition to loss of significance,
inability to represent numbers such as
π and 0.1 exactly, and other slight
inaccuracies, the following phenomena
may occur:
Cancellation: subtraction of nearly equal operands may cause extreme loss
of accuracy. This is perhaps the most
common and serious accuracy problem.
Conversions to integer are not intuitive: converting (63.0/9.0) to
integer yields 7, but converting
(0.63/0.09) may yield 6. This is
because conversions generally truncate
rather than round. Floor and ceiling
functions may produce answers which
are off by one from the intuitively
expected value.
Limited exponent range: results might overflow yielding infinity, or
underflow yielding a subnormal number
or zero. In these cases precision will
be lost.
Testing for safe division is problematic: Checking that the divisor
is not zero does not guarantee that a
division will not overflow and yield
infinity.
Testing for equality is problematic. Two computational
sequences that are mathematically
equal may well produce different
floating-point values. Programmers
often perform comparisons within some
tolerance (often a decimal constant,
itself not accurately represented),
but that doesn't necessarily make the
problem go away.
In order to avoid such problems, you need to analyze your specific calculations in order to minimize error propagation.
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | StackExchange |
[Standards established by consensus for the treatment of bronchial asthma and its exacerbations].
A group of pulmonologists from different sites of Argentina convened to establish consensus guidelines for treatment of acute and chronic bronchial asthma. General acceptance that in fatal asthma diagnosis and hospital admission are usually too late and treatment insufficient prompted the need for this meeting. The purpose of treatment was devised to keep the patient symptomless, decrease frequency of exacerbations and the risk of severe attacks. Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) measurement in all patients was decided. inhalation of anti-inflammatory drugs (corticosteroids, CE, and/or disodium cromoglycate, DSG, in those younger than 20 years) was established as first line of treatment. Inhaled CE (even in high doses such as 2 mg/day) do not provoke significant adverse systemic effects (immune depression, Cushing syndrome, hyperglycemia in diabetics or osteopenia). Secondary local adverse effects are however frequent: oral and pharyngeal candidiasis and dysphonia. It is advisable considering present evidence, that bronchodilators (Bd) be used preferentially on demand. On account of small bronchodilator effect and frequent secondary adverse effects, use of theophylline should be limited to patients not adequately responsive to anti-inflammatory drugs in high dosage. Immunotherapy is not useful in asthma. Four clinical levels were defined in chronic asthma considering severity of dyspnea, frequency of nocturnal bronchial obstruction, levels of PEFR and amount of required Bd. Guidelines of treatment were established for each clinical level considering increasing dosage of CGS, inhaled CE (up to 2 mg/day) and regular administration of Bd. Indications for systemic CE administration were also established. Three levels of acute asthma (sudden worsening of symptoms) were accepted based on clinical evidence and PEFR values. Treatment was quantitatively adjusted to severity. Criteria for hospital admission either in emergency or intensive care areas and treatment procedures were established. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Abstracts |
---
abstract: 'We consider the heat-kernel expansion of the massive Laplace operator on the three dimensional ball with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Using this example, we illustrate a very effective scheme for the calculation of an (in principle) arbitrary number of heat-kernel coefficients for the case where the basis functions are known. New results for the coefficients $B_{\frac 5 2},...,B_5$ are presented.'
author:
- |
M. Bordag\
Universit[ä]{}t Leipzig, Institut f[ü]{}r Theoretische Physik,\
Augustusplatz 10, 04109 Leipzig, Germany\
K. Kirsten[^1]\
Departament d’ECM, Facultat de Fsica\
Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona\
Spain
date: 'January 10, 1995'
title: '[UB-ECM-PF 95/1 ]{}'
---
-0.5in
It is important to know the explicit form for the coefficients in the short-time expansion of the heat-kernel, $K(t)$, for some Laplacian-like operator on a $d$-dimensional manifold ${{\cal M}}$. In mathematics the interest stems for example from connections between the heat-equation and the Atiyah-Singer index theorem [@gilkey1], whereas in physics the interest in this expansion lies for example in the domain of quantum field theory where it is commonly known as the (integrated) Schwinger-De Witt proper-time expansion [@birrell].
If the manifold ${{\cal M}}$ has a boundary $\partial {{\cal M}}$, the coefficients $B_n$ in the short time expansion have volume and boundary parts [@greiner]. Thus K(t) \~(4t)\^[-d 2]{}\_[k=0,1/2,1,...]{}\^ B\_kt\^k\[neu1\] with B\_k =\_[[[M]{}]{}]{}dVb\_n+\_[[[M]{}]{}]{}dSc\_n.\[neu2\] For the volume part effective systematic schemes have been developed (see for example [@volume]). The calculation of $c_n$ is in general more difficult. Only relatively recently the coefficient $c_2$ for Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions have been found [@discr; @boundary]. When using the general formalism of ref. [@discr] for higher spin particles, Moss and Poletti [@moss1] found a discrepancy with the direct calculations of D’Eath and Esposito [@giam1] (see also [@giam2]). The latter results have been confirmed in [@sasha] where a new systematic scheme for the calculation of $c_2$ has been developed in the context of the Hartle-Hawking wave-function of the universe for the case when the full set of basis functions is known [@sasha]. Finally, very recently the discrepancy have been resolved [@vasil] and now the results found using the general algorithm [@moss2] are in agreement with the direct calculations [@giam1; @giam2; @sasha].
We will use a variant of the approach of ref. [@sasha] in order to show that higher coefficients $c_n$ may be calculated very effectively for the case that the basis functions are known. To illustrate the method in this letter we will concentrate on the calculation of the heat-kernel coefficients of the elliptic operator (-+m\^2) \_[n,l,m]{} = (\^2\_[n,l,m]{} +m\^2) \_[n,l,m]{} \[1\] in the three dimensional ball defined by $B_R=\{\vec x \in {\mbox{${\rm I\!R }$}}^3,
|\vec x|\leq R\}$. We will treat explicitly Dirichlet boundary conditions, $\phi_{n,l,m} (|\vec x|=R)=0$. As will be clear afterwards, other boundary conditions and higher dimensional balls may be treated in exactly the same way.
Starting point is the equation J\_[l+1 2]{} (\_[n,l,m]{}R) =0\[2\] for the eigenvalues $\lambda_{n,l,m}$, which are $(2l+1)$-times degenerated. We are especially interested in the calculation of the heat-kernel coefficients defined in equation (\[neu1\]). Instead of calculating the heat-kernel coefficients itself, we will concentrate on the zeta function of the operator, eq. (\[1\]), and recover the heat-kernel coefficients using the relations [@voros] Res(s) = \[3\] for $s=\frac m 2,\frac{m-1}2,...,\frac 1 2;-\frac{2l+1}2,$ for $l\in
{\mbox{${\rm I\!N }$}}_0$, and (-p) = (-1)\^p p! \[4\] for $p\in {\mbox{${\rm I\!N }$}}_0$.
Using relation (\[2\]) for the eigenvalues, one may write the zeta function in the form (for a similar procedure see [@michael]) (s)& =& \_[n=0]{}\^[\_[l=0]{}\^]{}\_[m=-l]{}\^l \_[n,l,m]{} \^[-2s]{}\
&=&[\_[l=0]{}\^]{}(2l+1) [\_]{} (k\^2+m\^2)\^[-s]{}J\_[l+1 2]{}(kR),\[5\] where the contour $\gamma$ is counterclockwise enclosing all eigenvalues which are known to be situated on the positive real axis. As it stands, the representation (\[5\]) is valid for $\Re s >\frac 3 2$.
Before considering in detail the $l$-summation, let us first construct an analytic continuation of the $k$-integral in equation (\[5\]) alone and let us define for that reason \_(s)& =& [\_]{} (k\^2+m\^2)\^[-s]{}J\_(kR),\[5a\] with $\nu =l+1/2$. Deforming the contour to the imaginary axis, the analytic continuation, \_(s) = [\_[mR]{}\^dk]{}( (k R )\^2-m\^2)\^[-s]{}I\_[l+1 2 ]{}(k),\[6\] valid in the strip $\frac 1 2 < \Re s <1$, may be found. A similar representation valid for $m=0$ has been given in [@sergio].
In order to continue, the idea is to make use of the uniform expansion of the Bessel function $I_{\nu} (k)$ for $\nu \to \infty$ as $z=k/\nu$ fixed [@2]. Actually we use the expansion I\_ ( k ) \~1 [ ]{} \_[n=0]{}\^\[7\] with $t=\frac 1 {\sqrt{1+z^2}}$. Here the functions $d_n (t)$ fulfill the recurrence relation d\_n (t) =1 2 t (1-t\^2) ( t -1) d\_[n-1]{} (t) -1 2 \_[k=1]{} \^[n-1]{} d\_k (t) d\_[n-k]{}(t), \[11\] starting with $d_0 (t) =1$. In order to calculate up to $B_5$ one needs the first eleven coefficients $d_n$, which can be easily calculated using the recurrence.
Adding and subtracting the leading terms of the asymptotic expansion for $\nu\to\infty$, eq. (\[6\]) may be split into two pieces, \_(s) = N\_(s) +\_[i=1]{} \^[N+1]{} A\_\^i (s),\[8\] with N\_(s) = [\_[mR/]{}\^dk]{}( ( R )\^2-m\^2)\^[-s]{}{I\_[l+1 2 ]{}(k)-1 \_[n=0]{}\^N } \[9\] and A\_\^i(s) = [\_[mR/]{}\^dk]{}( ( R )\^2-m\^2)\^[-s]{}d\_[i-1]{} (t).\[10\] As it stands, the $A_{\nu}^i$, equation (\[10\]), are well defined (at least) in the strip $1/2 <\Re s<1$. However, the analytic continuation in the parameter $s$ to the whole complex plane in terms of known function may be provided. To explain afterwards some details of the calculation let us give explicitly only the $A_{\nu}^i $ of the two leading terms in the asymptotics (\[7\]), A\_\^1 (s)&=& Rm\
& &(s-1 2) (1-s) \_2F\_1(-1 2,s-1 2;1 2;-()\^2),\[anu1\]\
A\_\^2 (s) &=& -\
& &(s) (1-s) \_2F\_1( 1,s;1; -()\^2).\[anu2\] Similar expressions for higher $A_{\nu} ^i$ can be calculated, e.g. using standard integration packages. As mentioned, we did explicitly calculate the coefficients up to $B_5$ and thus needed $A_{\nu}^i$ for $i=1,...,11$. Here $_2F_1(a,b,c;z)$ denotes the hypergeometric function [@1].
The representation (\[8\]) has the following very important properties. First of all, by considering the asymptotics of the integrand in equation (\[9\]) for $k\to mR/\nu$ and $k\to \infty$, it may be seen that N(s) =[\_[l=0]{}\^]{}(2l+1)N\_[l+1 2]{} (s)is analytic in the strip $1-N/2 < \Re s <1$. For that reason it gives no contribution to the residue of $\zeta (s)$ in that strip. Furthermore, for $s=-k$, $k=0,1,2,3$, we have $N(s) =0$ and thus it does also not contribute to the values of the zeta function at those points. Together with eqs. (\[3\]), (\[4\]), this yields, that the heat-kernel coefficients are only determined by the terms $A_i (s)$ with A\_i (s) =[\_[l=0]{}\^]{}(2l+1)A\_[l+1 2]{}\^i (s).\[17a\] However, the $A_i (s)$ may be given in terms of Hurwitz zeta functions and an explicit representation of $A_i (s)$ showing the meromorphic structure in the whole complex plane may be given. The sum in (\[17a\]) may be easily done by means of the Mellin-Barnes type integral representation of the hypergeometric function, \_2F\_1(a,b;c;z) = 1 [2i]{} \_[[C]{}]{}dt (-z)\^t,\[13\] where the contour ${\cal C}$ is such that the poles of $\Gamma (a+t)$ and $\Gamma (b+t)$ lie to the left of it and the poles of $\Gamma
(-t)$ to the right [@1]. Defining h(a,b,c;n) =[\_[l=0]{}\^]{}(l+1 2) \^n [\_2F\_1]{}(a,b;c;-()\^2)\[14\] and closing the contour ${\cal C}$ to the left, we arrive at h(a,b,c;n) &=& \_[k=0]{}\^ \^[2k]{}\[15\]\
& &(\^[2a]{} \_H (-n+2a+2k;1 2).\
& &.+\^[2b]{} \_H (-n+2b+2k;1 2)), which may be used for all summations we need for the calculation of the $A_i$‘s. For example we obtain A\_1&=& Rm (s-1 2)(1-s) h( -1 2,s-1 2,1 2;1 )\
&=& R\^[2s]{}(1-s) [\_[l=0]{}\^]{} (mR)\^[2l]{} \_H (2l+2s-2;1 2),\
A\_2 &=& - (s) (1-s) h(1,s,1;1)\
&=& -R\^[2s]{}(1-s) [\_[l=0]{}\^]{} (mR)\^[2l]{}(l+s) \_H (2l+2s-1;1 2),and similar expressions for the other $A_i$’s, $i=1,...,11$. The sums appearing in the $A_i(s)$ are convergent for $|mR|<1/2$. Using this representation, equations (\[3\]), (\[4\]), together with \_H (1+;1 2) &=&1 +[[O]{}]{}(\^0),\
(-n) &=& 1 +[[O]{}]{}(\^0),the heat-kernel coefficients may be easily determined. Summarizing, we find the following new results for the coefficients $B_{\frac 5 2},...,B_5$, B\_[5 2]{}&=&\^[3 2]{}( 6 - 1[120R\^2]{} - m\^4R\^2)\
B\_3& =&( - + + 3- 9)\
B\_[7 2]{} &=&\^[3 2]{}( - - + + 3)\
B\_4& =&(- + - .\
& &. - 9 + )\
B\_[9 2]{}&=&\^[3 2]{}( - +.\
& &.-- )\
B\_5&=& (- + - .\
& &.+ + 9 -)For $m=0$ the coefficient $B_{5/2}$ agrees with the one found by Kennedy [@gerard].
As mentioned, other boundary conditions, higher dimensional balls, and even higher coefficients may be found in exactly the same way without any additional complication. This and more details of the calculation will be given in a separate publication.
It is a pleasure to thank S. Leseduarte, E. Elizalde, P. Gilkey, S. Dowker and G. Esposito for interesting discussions and helpful comments. K.K. thanks the Department ECM of the University of Barcelona for their warm hospitality. Furthermore, K.K. acknowledges financial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany).
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[^1]: Alexander von Humboldt foundation fellow, E-mail address: [email protected]
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | ArXiv |
Rick Owens
Richard Saturnino Owens (born November 18, 1961), known as Rick Owens, is an American fashion designer from Porterville, California.
Early life and education
Rick Owens was raised in Porterville, California. His parents are John (d. 2015) and Concepción "Connie" Owens. Connie is Mexican. Owens was raised in a conservative, Catholic household. After graduating high school, he moved to Los Angeles to study art at Otis College of Art and Design, in Los Angeles, for two years before taking pattern-making and draping courses at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College. This led to work in the garment industry, designing copies of designer clothing.
Career
Owens launched his fashion line in 1994, operating out of a store in Hollywood Boulevard. He moved to Paris in 2003 with his companion and then wife Michèle Lamy, setting up his home and atelier inside a historic five-storey building that previously served as offices for former French President François Mitterrand. His runway collections have been mounted in Paris since then. In 2004, Owens and Michèle Lamy established their own fashion company Owenscorp, and described their business partnership as “asking a gypsy to organise a war with a fascist.”
In July 2005, Owens introduced a furniture collection. Using raw plywood, marble, and moose antlers, the collection is inspired by his favorite shapes from Eileen Gray to Brâncuși to California skate parks. The furniture collection has since been shown at the Musée d'Art modern in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
In 2013, Owens exhibited his 'Prehistoric' collection at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London. Owens' design colour palette in this seven piece collection stretches from white to black, stopping nowhere in between. "The show is entitled 'Prehistoric' – a name that reflects its inspiration, the origins of humanity, it recalls a mysterious ancient civilisation. Its aura is one of spiritual ritual, archaic ceremony and supreme power".
A recipient of the 2002 Perry Ellis Award for emerging talent and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in 2017, Owens was also awarded the Cooper-Hewitt Design Award for fashion design, as well as the Fashion Group International Rule Breaker Award in 2007. In June 2019, Owens won Menswear Designer of the Year Award at the 2019 Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Fashion Awards.
Owens has authored 3 books — L'ai-je bien descendu?, published in 2007, Rick Owens, published in 2011, and Rick Owens Furniture, followed by 2 books about Larry LeGaspi, which was published in November 2019 by publisher Rizolli.
He had launched five labels including Rick Owens, DRKSHDW, Rick Owens Lilies, Slab (Defunct), and Rick Owens Hun. His first museum exhibition and retrospective, chronicling over 20 years of his life's work, entitled, "Subhuman Inhuman Superhuman" opened at the Triennale di Milano in December 15, 2017. In 2018 and 2019, he has collaborated with Birkenstock and French sneaker brand Veja, respectively.
In 2019, Owens dedicated his fashion show to Larry LeGaspi, the man he considers his creative forefather. He introduced Gaspi in his fall and winter 2019 women’s runway collection, "For me, as a teenager growing up in Porterville, California, what Larry LeGaspi did was a huge thing—the way he infiltrated middle America with this subversive sensibility [...] [h]e connects with soul culture—black soul culture and music [...] [a]ll of this stuff coming together was very important to this kid in Porterville." And, "I do think of Larry’s as a kind of biblical story... about the glory of lust and vice, something I talk about a lot, but also about dissipation and decline—which I also talk about a lot... When I was 15, I wanted to be dissipated. And now I am, a little bit. But there is also responsibility." In November 2019, Owens returned to Los Angeles for the first time in 16 years to introduce the books.
References
External links
Owenscorp
Rick Owens Official Site
Voguepedia - Rick Owens
Voguelist - Rick Owens
Category:American expatriates in France
Category:American fashion designers
Category:American people of Mexican descent
Category:Bisexual men
Category:LGBT fashion designers
Category:High fashion brands
Category:People from Greater Los Angeles
Category:1962 births
Category:Living people
Category:People from Porterville, California | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Wikipedia (en) |
"Hyperion Under Glass", a first extract from the sixth DIRGE album is now streaming below :
The track comes off the band's much-awaited new full-length album, "Hyperion", which release is scheduled on March 14th (April 15th in North America).
This mind-blowing new record is an incredible listening experience. Immense, colossal and yet deeply emotional all at once. As usual, DIRGE collaborated with several other talented guests: Milena Rousseau (MIRODA), Nicolas Dick (KILL THE THRILL) and Tara Vanflower (LYCIA).
According to American Aftermath, "This band is phenomenal in every aspect (...) DIRGE are amazing.That is all ! (10 out of 10)"
The conceptual visual art was realized and conceived by Axël Kriloff (ex-PROTON BURST) and Stefan Thanneur (CHAOS ECHOES)
The CD and 2x12" LP versions are available for pre-order. A bundle offer with both is also available at cheaper price.
Note that the vinyl version contains two bonus tracks : "Distance" and "Absence" | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
NOTICE: NOT FOR OFFICIAL PUBLICATION.
UNDER ARIZONA RULE OF THE SUPREME COURT 111(c), THIS DECISION IS NOT PRECEDENTIAL
AND MAY BE CITED ONLY AS AUTHORIZED BY RULE.
IN THE
ARIZONA COURT OF APPEALS
DIVISION ONE
STATE OF ARIZONA,
Appellee,
v.
VICTOR LEONARD BLACKWELL,
Appellant.
No. 1 CA-CR 15-0375
FILED 6-30-2016
Appeal from the Superior Court in Maricopa County
No. CR 2014-131707-001 DT
The Honorable Christopher Coury, Judge
AFFIRMED
COUNSEL
Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Phoenix
By Joseph T. Maziarz
Counsel for Appellee
Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office, Phoenix
By Christopher V. Johns
Counsel for Appellant
STATE v. BLACKWELL
Decision of the Court
MEMORANDUM DECISION
Judge Patricia A. Orozco delivered the decision of the Court, in which
Presiding Judge Diane M. Johnsen and Judge Kenton D. Jones joined.
O R O Z C O, Judge:
¶1 Victor Leonard Blackwell (Defendant) appeals his convictions
and sentences for one count of aggravated assault; a class six felony and
domestic violence offense, and one count of criminal damage; a class two
misdemeanor. Pursuant to Anders v. Cal., 386 U.S. 738 (1967) and State v.
Leon, 104 Ariz. 297 (1969), Defendant’s counsel has filed a brief indicating
he searched the entire record and finding no arguable question of law, asks
this court to review the record for fundamental error. Defendant was given
the opportunity to file a supplemental brief in propria persona, but has not
done so. Finding no error, we affirm.
FACTS1 AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
¶2 Defendant and C.H. (Victim) were previously involved in a
romantic relationship and had two children together. In early July 2014,
Victim and one of the children were living with A.R. A.R. testified that she
started to fear her life was in danger because of Victim’s activities, so she
“kicked” Victim and the child out of her apartment. A.R. contacted
Defendant, telling him that Victim had the child in an apartment with a man
who had drugs and he should go get the child.
¶3 A.R. drove Defendant to the apartment of J.K., where they
believed Victim was with the child. Defendant admitted to hitting J.K.’s
apartment door. The State introduced photographic evidence of damage to
J.K.’s apartment door along with testimony that the repair costs totaled at
least $200.
¶4 Witnesses testified that Defendant left the apartment
complex, but returned to J.K.’s apartment later that same day. Victim
testified that when Defendant returned, he requested she hand over the
child. According to Victim, the interaction turned physical, and Defendant
1 We view the facts in the light most favorable to sustaining the trial
court’s verdict. State v. Flores, 227 Ariz. 509, 512, ¶ 12 (App. 2011).
2
STATE v. BLACKWELL
Decision of the Court
choked and punched her while she held the child. Victim further testified
that she was unable to defend herself while she was holding the child.
Defendant denied ever making physical contact with Victim. A jury found
Defendant guilty of one count of aggravated assault and one count of
criminal damage.
¶5 The trial court found that Defendant had two prior felony
convictions; burglary in the second degree, a class three felony, and armed
robbery, a class two felony. Defendant was sentenced to 3.75 years’
incarceration for his aggravated assault conviction, with sixty-eight days’
presentence incarceration credit. The trial court suspended imposition of
sentence on Defendant’s criminal damage conviction, ordering two years’
supervised probation upon his release. We have jurisdiction pursuant to
Article 6, Section 9, of the Arizona Constitution, and Arizona Revised
Statutes (A.R.S.) sections 12-120.21.A.1, 13-4031, and -4033.A.1 (West 2016).2
Finding no reversible error, we affirm.
DISCUSSION
¶6 On appeal, we review for fundamental error and do not
disturb the fact finder’s decision if there is substantial evidence to sustain
the verdict. Anders, 386 U.S. at 746; State v. Stroud, 209 Ariz. 410, 411, ¶ 6
(2005). We review the sufficiency of evidence “in the light most favorable
to sustaining the conviction.” State v. Tison, 129 Ariz. 546, 552 (1981). All
reasonable inferences are resolved against Defendant. Id.
¶7 Defendant’s conviction for aggravated assault required proof
that he “intentionally, knowingly or recklessly” caused physical injury to
another while the person’s “capacity to resist is substantially impaired.” See
A.R.S. §§ 13-1203.A.1 and -1204.A.4. In support of this charge, the Victim
testified that Defendant choked her while she was holding the child, and
the State presented photographic evidence of Victim’s injuries. This
evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s findings.
¶8 The jury also had to determine whether the aggravated
assault was a domestic violence offense. A designation of a conviction as a
domestic violence offense pursuant to A.R.S. § 13-3601.A.6 requires
evidence “[t]he relationship between the victim and the defendant is
currently or was previously a romantic or sexual relationship.” Defendant
2 We cite the current version of applicable statutes when no revisions
material to this decision have since occurred.
3
STATE v. BLACKWELL
Decision of the Court
and Victim admitted they had been in a romantic relationship at trial, and
the jury found the aggravated assault to be a domestic violence offense.
¶9 A conviction for criminal damage pursuant to A.R.S.
§ 13-1602 requires evidence that Defendant “recklessly defac[ed] or
damage[ed] property of another person.” A.R.S. § 13-1602.A.1. Criminal
damage amounting to less than $250 is a class two misdemeanor. See A.R.S.
§ 13-1602.B.6. At trial, evidence was presented that Defendant damaged
J.K.’s door, resulting in at least $200 in repairs. Based on the testimony and
evidence presented at trial, sufficient evidence was presented to find
Defendant guilty of criminal damage.
CONCLUSION
¶10 We have read and considered counsel’s brief. We have
carefully searched the entire record on appeal for reversible error and have
found none. See State v. Clark, 196 Ariz. 530, 541, ¶ 49 (App. 1999). All of
the proceedings were conducted in compliance with the Arizona Rules of
Criminal Procedure. We find substantial evidence supported the jury’s
guilty verdicts. Defendant was represented by counsel at all critical stages
of the proceedings. At sentencing, Defendant and his counsel were given
an opportunity to speak, and the court imposed a legal sentence. For the
foregoing reasons, Defendant’s convictions and the sentences imposed are
affirmed.
¶11 Counsel’s obligations pertaining to Defendant’s
representation in this appeal have ended. See State v. Shattuck, 140 Ariz. 582,
584 (1984). Counsel need do nothing more than inform Defendant of the
status of the appeal and his future options, unless Counsel’s review reveals
an issue appropriate for submission to the Arizona Supreme Court by
petition for review. See id. at 585. Defendant shall have thirty days from
the date of this decision to proceed, if he so desires, with an in propria
persona motion for reconsideration or petition for review.
:AA
4
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | FreeLaw |
Q:
SOAP call in PHP not working at all
Unfortunately I have never worked with SOAP before, so I hope I can express myself well anyways.
I have the following SOAP request (it's for creating tickets in HPSM):
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<ns:attachments>
<!--Zero or more repetitions:-->
<com:attachment xm:contentType="application/?" href="?" contentId="?" action="?" name="?" type="?" len="?" charset="?" upload.by="?" upload.date="?" attachmentType="?">cid:933455187673</com:attachment>
</ns:attachments>
</ns:instance>
<!--Optional:-->
<ns:messages>
<!--Zero or more repetitions:-->
<com:message type="String" mandatory="?" readonly="?" severity="?" module="?">?</com:message>
</ns:messages>
</ns:model>
</ns:SubmitIntApiIncidentRequest>
</soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>
By now I have the following code in my soapcall.php file:
<?php
$wsdl ='asdf?wsdl';
$client = new SoapClient($wsdl, array('login' => "user", 'password' => "pw"));
$request = array(
'SubmitIntApiIncident'=>(array(
'model' => '',
'registrationID' => 'registrationid',
'contactId' => 'me',
'affectedUserId' => 'affuser',
'serviceId' => 'serviceid',
'affectedCiId' => '',
'priority' => '4',
'title' => 'Test Title',
'description' => 'description',
'submittedBy' => 'me',
'assignmentGroup' => 'assignment group',
'externalReferenceId' => '',
'category' => 'incident',
'resolveImmediately' => ''
)));
$response = $client->__soapCall("SubmitIntApiIncident", $request);
var_dump($response);
?>
This does not work at all - right now I don't get any error message, there is just a blank page. But every time I change something in the code there is another error message. So I don't even know if I am on the right track or if everything I try just makes it worse.
I would really appreciate if you could tell me if there is any big error in my code or how I could successfully submit a ticket with the php file.
A:
Using the __soapCall method is one of the good way. You can also directly use the operation name as the method such as $client->SubmitIntApiIncident().
You should definitively use a WSDL to php generator in order to avoid wasting your time searching for the issue.
The advantage of using a WSDL to php generator are numerous :
construct the request without wondering how to construct it, just use a good IDE to have the autocompletion showing you what data to pass
send the request using the method of a generated class that handles cleanly errors and response
get the response with clean objects
get help from the generated classe to target the error
stop wondering if the request is well formatted
...
Try the PackageGenerator project
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | StackExchange |
Based Haruna Hana taking the Shotacon genre to a whole new level. She does this incest JAV without any makeups and with a carefully done story adaptation. They totally nail it.
MIMK (Mankitsu) is an awesome and very special series that has been going strong since 2011, one of my favorites too. I will talk more about it and about MOODYZ in a special post I am preparing.
Haruna Hana (春菜はな) is Aunt Kyoko. Yūki Yudzuru (結城結弦) is nephew Kohei. The original was done by Kuroneko, and the doujin title is “おばさんの肉体（からだ）が気持ち良過ぎるから ～ボクのおばさんは超名器だった～”.
Plot:
It’s summer and Kohei parents go to the visit their relatives in the mountain. Which include superstar Auntie Kyoko, a sassy Auntie with a pair of ginormous tits. It all compounds, as Kohei is a bit rebellious because he is at “that age”.
That same night. Kohei is helping Auntie to prepare the beds and suddenly Auntie trips down and so does Kohei which lands directly on top of her Auntie tits. He insta-likes it and decides to grab some more, awarding himself an epic boner.
Auntie is shocked by the sudden situation and doesn’t know how to react, and even more because her husband is sleeping beside. She doesn’t know better and decides to just innocently fap him one, so the situation is solved and they both can forget about it all. Or so she thought…
Little Auntie did know that she was about to open Pandora’s box… | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
A German man was forced to call the cops on his one-night-stand after she refused to stop having sex with him.
According to a police spokesman, the 43-year-old phoned the local station claiming a 47-year-old woman with a voracious sexual appetite that he picked up at a bar in Munich was refusing to let him leave her apartment.
The two had made love multiple times during the night, but the woman wanted more. He initially said no, but eventually "complied with the woman's wishes another few times so he could finally leave the apartment," said the spokesman. She remained unsatisfied, and demanded even more snu-snu.
The man could take no more and made his way to the balcony where he phoned the police to come save him. The sex monster "then tried to talk the dispatched officers into similar activity but was unsuccessful."
She faces sexual assault and illegal restraint charges.
[photo via Shutterstock] | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
Despite marked progress in recent years with BRAF-targeted therapy and immune checkpoint inhibition, stage IV melanoma remains a largely incurable disease. Approximately half of melanomas harbor BRAF codon 600 mutations targetable with combined BRAF and MEK kinase inhibitors.[@R1] Although initial response rates are impressive, median progression-free survival is less than a year, and approximately 20% remain progression free at 3 years consisting predominantly of those with relatively low tumor burden at baseline.[@R1]--[@R3] Ipilimumab, an anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen (CTLA)-4 monoclonal antibody, was the first immune checkpoint inhibitor approved for advanced melanoma on the basis of improved overall survival in randomized phase III trials.[@R4],[@R5] In the initial phase III trial, single-agent ipilimumab produced an overall response rate of 11% with an additional 18% achieving stable disease 12 weeks from therapy initiation.[@R4] Mean time to response was 12 weeks. None with progression at 24 weeks later responded, and only 6% of patients initially achieving stable disease experienced delayed objective response beyond week 24. Thus, the majority of ipilimumab responses occur in \<3 months. Delayed responses to ipilimumab beyond 6 months are rare, and those progressing at 6 months virtually never subsequently respond. Among those achieving objective response following ipilimumab, 66% progressed within 2 years.[@R4] Recent pooled analysis of long-term survival data from phase II and phase III trials of ipilimumab in 1861 patients with advanced melanoma demonstrated median overall survival of 11.4 months with a plateau at 22% in the survival curve beginning around 3 years.[@R6] Therefore, the vast majority of patients treated with ipilimumab will require subsequent anticancer therapy. We reasoned that radiotherapy (RT) to sites of limited melanoma progression following ipilimumab could treat sites of immune escape and potentially enhance systemic immune response. This retrospective report reviews our experience with surgically incurable stage III or stage IV melanoma treated with RT to limited sites of progression in patients with otherwise good response to ipilimumab.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
=====================
Ipilimumab for surgically incurable stage III or IV melanoma was the predominant first-line therapy used at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) after Food and Drug Administration approval of ipilimumab in March 2011 for this patient population. The records of all melanoma patients over 18 years of age who received immunotherapy at UAB from August 2011 to August 2015 were reviewed. Patients were excluded if anti-programmed death (PD)-1 monoclonal antibodies were administered before or currently with ipilimumab or if whole-brain RT was necessary for palliation of extensive brain metastases. Patients who received RT to all sites of limited progressive disease after treatment with ipilimumab with no other intervening treatment were analyzed. To prevent confounding from delayed responses to ipilimumab, patients were excluded if the first fraction of RT was delivered \<15 weeks from the start of ipilimumab. In those who had a complete clinical and radiographic response to ipilimumab, RT was delivered to all sites of detectable relapse. In patients with detectable, residual melanoma following ipilimumab, RT was delivered to all new or progressive sites with observation of stable and/or responding sites. Irradiation of a single site was defined as treatment that encompassed a single planning target volume. Follow-up was measured from the first day of ipilimumab infusion until the date of last clinical follow-up or death. Local control was defined as radiographic and clinical stability or regression of all lesions targeted with RT. Disease control was defined as the time from the last day of RT to the first of one of the following events: start of additional systemic therapy known to impact survival (anti-PD-1 or targeted BRAF therapy), hospice enrollment, or death. The overall survival was measured from the completion of RT. Statistical analysis was performed using SAS 9.4 software (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Estimates of overall survival, local control, and disease control were measured using the Kaplan-Meier product limit method.[@R7] Cox regression analysis was used to determine hazard ratios (HRs) between subgroups.[@R8] A total of 16 patients were analyzed. Complete blood counts obtained within 4 weeks of RT initiation were analyzed for any correlation between total white blood count, absolute neutrophil count, absolute lymphocyte count, or eosinophilia and clinical outcomes. This study was conducted with approval from the UAB institutional review board.
RESULTS
=======
Patient and Treatment Characteristics
-------------------------------------
Of the 16 patients analyzed in this study, the majority was male (63%) and the median age at diagnosis of metastatic or surgically incurable disease was 61 years (range, 46--85 y). Most patients (81%) had a documented cutaneous primary melanoma and the remainder had melanoma of unknown primary site. All patients with tissue available after 2013 were tested for BRAF codon 600 mutations (either at initial diagnosis or at time of metastatic progression) and 2 patients were identified as harboring a mutation. One BRAF-mutated patient received ipilimumab due to progression of disease while on BRAF-targeted therapy. No patient had known central nervous system metastases before ipilimumab.
Ipilimumab was administered intravenously at 3 mg/kg and the majority completed 4 doses (94%) with 1 patient discontinuing therapy after 3 doses due to autoimmune colitis requiring steroids. The median time from the first ipilimumab dose to the start of RT was 30 weeks (range, 15--130 wk). Half of the patients had a complete clinical and radiographic response to ipilimumab and were irradiated to the only site(s) of relapse. The other half had detectable, residual melanoma following ipilimumab, and RT was delivered to new or progressive sites with observation of stable and/or responding sites. Characteristics of the 27 irradiated lesions in our cohort of 16 patients are described in Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}. The most common RT dose and fractionation regimens were 30 Gy in 5 fractions (41%) or 36 Gy in 6 fractions (26%), which were delivered every other day, Monday through Friday. One patient was treated with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) to a dose of 20 Gy in a single fraction to 3 sites of isolated intracranial progression. Biological effective dose (BED) calculations were performed to estimate the effective total dose if delivered in 2 Gy fractions and assumed a tumor α/β ratio of 10. BED calculations were not performed for single fraction regimens due to the uncertainty of extrapolating the linear-quadratic model for nonfractionated treatments. Half of the patients were irradiated to a single site of disease. If patients were treated at \>1 site of disease, it was common practice to use the same dose and fractionation regimen, although this decision was made on an individual basis. As our demographic consisted of situations where all sites of active disease were targeted with RT, it was not possible to consistently evaluate for abscopal responses at active untreated metastatic sites.
######
Treatment Characteristics
Clinical Outcomes
-----------------
Most patients (n=8) had an initial complete response to ipilimumab. Of the remaining 8 patients, 3 achieved an initial partial response and 5 had stable disease following ipilimumab. The median follow-up from initiation of ipilimumab for the entire cohort and for living patients was 25.5 months (range, 12--49 mo) and 34 months (range, 23--49 mo), respectively. Seven patients (44%) experienced a local failure at one or more irradiated lesions. The median duration of local control was 31.4 months for all patients (Fig. [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}A). Local control at 1 and 2 years was 83% and 63%, respectively, for the 8 patients where RT was delivered to all sites of progression after a complete response to ipilimumab. Corresponding local control of the treated lesion(s) was 50% at both 1 and 2 years for those with detectable, residual melanoma following ipilimumab (HR, 2.53; 95% confidence interval, 0.46--13.99) (Fig. [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}B). The median disease control was 18.7 months for the entire cohort (Fig. [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). The overall survival at 1 and 2 years was 87% and 61%, respectively (Fig. [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}C). The overall survival at 1 and 2 years was 100% and 80%, respectively, for the 8 patients where RT was delivered to all sites of progression after a complete response to ipilimumab. For those with an incomplete response or stable disease as best response to ipilimumab the corresponding overall survival at 1 and 2 years was 75% and 47%, respectively (HR, 3.29; 95% confidence interval, 0.37--29.51) (Fig. [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}D). Seven patients (44%) had no clinical or radiographic evidence of active disease at a median follow-up of 29.5 months since completion of RT. Six of these patients received 30--36 Gy in 5--6 fractions and 1 patient with 3 brain metastases received single fraction SRS of 20 Gy to all 3 lesions. The RT schedules used in these patients are analogous to regimens selected for modern melanoma trials to enhance immune response. There has been no evidence of melanoma progression in the central nervous system or elsewhere after over 2 years of surveillance in the patient who received SRS. There was no apparent correlation between interval from ipilimumab to RT, number of irradiated sites, tissues irradiated or pre-RT complete blood counts, and clinical outcomes. Three additional patients were treated with salvage anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies at the time of disease progression after RT, and all have experienced continuous melanoma control for up to 22+ months. Thus, 10 of 16 patients have excellent melanoma control at this writing. There were no documented grade≥3 radiation related acute toxicities according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. Imaging from representative patients treated with RT at the time of limited melanoma progression after ipilimumab as first-line immunotherapy are shown in Figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}.
{#F1}
{#F2}
{#F3}
DISCUSSION
==========
In this small series of 16 patients treated with RT to limited sites of melanoma progression following ipilimumab, our findings of 31.4 months median local control of the irradiated disease and 18.7 months median disease control were encouraging. Furthermore, overall survival of 61% at 2 years from the start of RT for ipilimumab-refractory melanoma dramatically exceeded expectations considering pooled analysis demonstrating median overall survival of 11 months for advanced melanoma patients from the start of ipilimumab. All 16 patients in our cohort were managed in the era preceding Food and Drug Administration approval of first-line systemic therapy with anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies, pembrolizumab and nivolumab.[@R9],[@R10] However, phase II trials of these agents in patients with metastatic melanoma who have progressed after ipilimumab showed response rates of 21%--30% and median progression-free survival of 5 months.[@R11],[@R12] Thus, a brief course of RT using a hypofractionated schedule provides an attractive complementary or alternative approach to patients with limited sites of melanoma progression with otherwise good response to ipilimumab. In fact, 44% of our cohort was free of detectable melanoma at a median follow-up of 29.5 months following RT with no additional therapy. It should be noted that our cohort had a relatively good prognosis before RT with immunogenic tumors benefiting to varying degrees from prior ipilimumab. No grade 3 or 4 acute adverse events were observed with RT and patients were able to defer more time-consuming, costly, and toxic treatment options.
Ionizing radiation affects the inflammatory tumor microenvironment, increases antigen presentation by myeloid cells within the tumor stroma, and enhances recruitment of tumor-reactive effector T cells.[@R13]--[@R15] In murine models as little as a single 2 Gy fraction of gamma irradiation resulted in polarization of tumor-associated macrophages from M2 toward M1 phenotype favoring effectual cytolytic T-cell function and tumor rejection.[@R16] RT also expands the T-cell receptor repertoire through increased peptide pool diversity resulting from epigenetic modifications within irradiated tumor cells enhancing transcription of quiescent genes capable of priming at the treated site and recognition of much lower level antigen expression at distant tumor sites.[@R17] Recent dramatic advances in melanoma immunotherapy have heightened interest in the ability of RT to enhance immune response as investigators seek to define the role of radiation in modern melanoma treatment.
It is also becoming increasingly apparent that durable local control following RT for most malignancies involves induction of innate and adaptive immune responses to eliminate tumor cells surviving the direct effects of ionizing radiation.[@R14],[@R18],[@R19] Prior experience with RT for macroscopic melanoma metastases has shown median local control of approximately 6 months.[@R20],[@R21] Although our cohort has the favorable characteristics of prior response or disease stabilization following ipilimumab, the median local control of 31 months observed in our series was unexpected durable. Although immune enhancement by RT is an attractive hypothesis to explain the favorable outcomes reported herein, immune response analysis was not part of this study.
The abscopal effect is a phenomenon where local RT is associated with regression of metastatic cancer remote from the irradiated site.[@R22],[@R23] It has long been observed in melanoma patients and in murine models has been demonstrated to depend upon a functional immune system.[@R24],[@R25] Recent studies have examined synergy between immune checkpoint inhibitors and RT.[@R26] In murine models of mammary and colon cancer, a single fraction of 12 or 20 Gy, respectively, and anti-PD-L1 synergistically reduced local accumulation of tumor infiltrating myeloid-derived suppressor cells and enhanced local and distant tumor rejection.[@R27] Two retrospective reviews reported in the same journal have examined the effects of palliative radiation after ipilimumab in advanced melanoma patients.[@R28],[@R29] The first reported partial abscopal response defined simply as dimensional reduction of metastases outside the irradiated area in 9 of 21 patients (43%). The second paper reported that RT was associated with an improved frequency (11% vs. 25%) and rate of index lesion response outside the radiation field. Although useful for hypothesis generation, these studies shared 2 key limitations: (1) the most commonly irradiated site was the brain, a sanctuary organ from robust immune surveillance and (2) the majority of "abscopal" responses occurred within 3--6 months of ipilimumab initiation such that a portion may have represented delayed response to checkpoint inhibition. In our series, 81% of patients began RT for melanoma progression \>24 weeks after ipilimumab initiation, a timeframe in which delayed response to ipilimumab alone is very rare.[@R4] Our 16 patient cohort could not be directly analyzed for abscopal responses as all new or progressive lesions at the time of RT were treated. However, hypofractionated RT regimens of 6 Gy×5 (BED, 40 Gy) or 6 Gy×6 (BED, 48 Gy) predominating in our series are similar to those used in cases of abscopal responses in humans.[@R26],[@R30]--[@R32] The median disease control of 18.7 months and 44% of our cohort NED without further therapy at median follow-up of 29.5 months were encouraging. Limitations of this study include its retrospective nature, small cohort size, and lack of uniformity in RT dose and fractionation. Although enhancement of systemic immunity by RT following at least partially successful treatment with ipilimumab is an attractive hypothesis supported by other preclinical observations, this study does not provide direct evidence of this mechanism. Selection of patients with favorable characteristics including immunogenic tumors transiently controlled by ipilimumab may have contributed to better than expected outcomes.
Use of RT to regress limited sites of immune escape following ipilimumab could logically be extrapolated to follow other immune checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies, which have recently received a first-line indication in advanced melanoma. In a recent letter to *Nature*, investigators at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrated that RT combined with anti-CTLA4 and anti-PD-1 activate nonredundant immune mechanisms in a murine melanoma model.[@R31] It is interesting to note that all 3 patients in our series receiving anti-PD-1 therapy after ipilimumab and RT have experienced continuous melanoma control. Although surgery would sometimes be feasible in such patients, it would often result in greater morbidity and would not be expected to enhance immunologic control of melanoma elsewhere. Clearly, therapy for widespread melanoma progression following checkpoint inhibition needs to focus on other systemic agents. However, RT should be considered for limited sites of progression in patients with otherwise good response to checkpoint inhibition as an alternative to potentially more toxic systemic treatments. The only parameter identified to correlate with improved clinical outcomes following RT was prior complete rather than incomplete best response to ipilimumab. Future prospective trials to investigate this approach and the optimal RT dose, timing of checkpoint inhibitor and RT delivery, and fractionation regimen are warranted. Such trials should include correlative laboratory studies to identify tumor and host immune parameters predictive of local and distant melanoma control.
All authors have declared that there are no financial conflicts of interest with regard to this work.
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Central |
Tags:
The dust had hardly settled from the Magdi Allam baptism story when Saudi King Abdullah announced he wanted to promote dialogue between Muslims, Christians and Jews. The World Council of Churches came out with its endorsement of the Common Word dialogue appeal after consulting member churches (many of which have already responded positively). And the World Economic Forum issued a study that says, among other things, that fewer than 30% of Muslims and Christians polled thought the other faith was sincerely interested in better understanding and cooperation. What’s going on?
Tags:
The nascent Catholic-Muslim dialogue sparked by the “Common Word” initiative was never going to be easy, even under the best of circumstances. There is a lot of suspicion, misunderstanding and different agendas to deal with. And then there are the surprises that can come seemingly out of nowhere and blow the effort off course, at least temporarily. One of these was the baptism of the Egyptian-born Italian journalist Magdi Allam by Pope Benedict that popped up by surprise on Saturday evening and highlighted some of the twists along the path of inter-faith dialogue.
Tags:
After much anticipation, a Muslim delegation representing the “Common Word” Muslim appeal for a theological dialogue between Christianity and Islam finally came to the Vatican. The five-member delegation held two days of meetings on March 4-5 with the Vatican’s Council for Inter-religious Dialogue to prepare the groundwork for the meeting of representatives a larger delegation.
Both sides decided to establish the “Catholic-Muslim Forum,” the start of a permanent dialogue between the two religions, and hold the first meeting in November. It will include an address by Pope Benedict.
This is the joint statement on the meeting.
While the highlight of the meeting and a news conference are found in the Reuters story of that day, here are some interesting additional comments from the news conference by the Muslim delegation which give useful insight into their point of view:
Tags:
Preparations are under way for a planned visit to the Vatican by representatives of the “Common Word” Muslim appeal for a theological dialogue between Christianity and Islam. This group of Muslim scholars and leaders got to be known as the “138″ because that was the number of initial signatories, but the total has grown to 221, so that label is a bit confusing now. Anyway, veteran vaticanista Sandro Magister informs us that five Muslim representatives were at the Vatican early this week to start preparing for the visit expected to take place in the next month or so. One interesting aspect is simply the geographical mix of people involved — they come from Turkey, Britain, Jordan, Libya and Italy.
Tags:
Christmas greetings of peace on Earth and good will to all — what could be more common during this holiday season? It’s heard so much that it’s practically a cliché. But this familiar tune takes on a new tone when the greetings come from leading Muslim scholars, clerics and intellectuals. The same group of 138 Muslims that invited Christians to a theological dialogue last October has just sent its Christmas greetings to the Christian world (see the text and our news story). What struck me the most about it is that it was even sent at all.
Tags:
The Vatican announcement welcoming the appeal by 138 Muslim scholars opens the way to a broad and deep dialogue between Christianity and Islam. The Roman Catholic Church — with more than half the world’s 2 billion Christians — could have scuttled the whole thing if it had said “no, thanks.” That first hurdle is now out of the way, but it’s going to be a long and slow process before we see results. Although it goes against the instincts of a wire service reporter to say it, that’s not such a bad thing. Taking time to discuss differences and clear up misunderstandings has got to help relations.
Tags:
Context is such a help. My report that the Vatican is due to respond positively and very soon to the dialogue appeal by 138 Muslim scholars was based on several conversations these days in Rome with cardinals and Vatican officials. Our news stories have to pare comments down to the essential quote to keep the story to a manageable length. Adding more context to some of those comments can give a better feel for the way these leading Catholic figures view the Muslim letter.
Tags:
The 138 Muslims scholars who recently invited Christian leaders to a high-level inter-faith dialogue feel their unprecedented step of uniting so many different Islamic representatives has created a momentum that must not be lost. The responses from Christian churches have shown varying levels of urgency in taking up the challenge. Many denominations, most notably the Anglicans and Lutherans, responded promptly and positively to their appeal “A Common Word Between Us And You.” The Roman Catholic Church has been more cautious, and its provisional response has gone from vaguely positive to cautiously critical.
Author Profile
As Religion Editor based in Paris, I cover main religion developments, coordinate religion news coverage and run the FaithWorld blog. Since joining Reuters in 1977 in London, I've worked in Vienna, Geneva, Islamabad, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Bonn and Paris. My book Unchained Eagle: Germany after the Wall was published in 2000. In 2006, I received the European Religion Writer of the Year award and FaithWorld was awarded the RNA 2012 Best Online Section prize. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Fractions consist of two numbers. The top number is called the numerator. The
bottom number is called the denominator.
numerator
denominator
An improper fraction is a fraction that has a numerator larger than or equal to its denominator.
A proper fraction is a fraction with the numerator smaller than the denominator.
A mixed number consists of an integer followed by a proper fraction.
Example: The mixed number, 3 3/5, can be changed to an
improper fraction by converting the integer portion to a fraction with the
same denominator as the fractional portion and then adding the two fractions.
In this case the integer portion (3) is converted to 15/5. The sum of the
two fractions becomes 15/5 + 3/5
=   18/5. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Memory transference in organ transplant recipients
There have been perplexing reports of organ transplant receivers claiming that they seem to have inherited the memory, experiences and emotions of their deceased donors, causing quirky changes in their personality. We will present a few cases and then discuss a possible explanation in the light of the occult insights of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Mirra Alfassa.
Cases of personality changes due to organ transplants
Before we discuss the cases, it is pertinent to note that apart from miscellaneous information such as gender, age and cause of death, profiles of organ donors are traditionally kept concealed from their recipients for psychological reasons. The cases discussed here came to light after mysterious behavioral symptoms resulted in renunciation of the traditional donor-recipient anonymity.
Case 1: On May 29, 1988, an American woman named Claire Sylvia received a heart transplant at a hospital in Yale, Connecticut. She was told that her donor was a eighteen-year old male from Maine, USA who had just died in a motorcycle accident. Soon after the operation, Sylvia declared that she felt like drinking beer, something she wasn’t particularly fond of. Later, she observed an uncontrollable urge to eat chicken nuggets and found herself wanting to visit the popular chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. She also began craving for green peppers which was something she hadn’t particularly liked before. Sylvia also began having recurring dreams about a mystery man named Tim L., who she had a feeling was her donor. On a cue from someone, she searched for obituaries in newspapers from Maine, and was able to identify the young man whose heart she had received. His name had indeed been Tim. After visiting Tim’s family, she discovered that he used to love chicken nuggets, green peppers and beer. These experiences are documented in her book “A Change of Heart” by Claire Sylvia. [1]
Case 2: This story comes from an article in the Daily Mail [2]. William Sheridan, a retired catering manager with poor drawing skills, suddenly developed artistic talents after a heart transplant operation. He was amazed to discover that the man who donated his new heart had been a keen artist.
Case 3: A forty seven-year-old Caucasian male, who received a heart from an African-American teenager, was puzzled to find in himself a newfound taste for classical music. He presumed that the donor must have liked rap music and dismissed the idea that the organ transplant had anything to do with his changed personality. He was surprised to learn that the donor had been an avid violin player, and had died while clutching his violin case to his chest. [3]
Case 4: An eight-year-old girl, who received the heart of a ten-year-old girl who had been murdered, began having recurring vivid nightmares about the murder. Her mother arranged a consultation with a psychiatrist and after several sessions, the girl’s psychiatrist decided she was experiencing actual physical incidents. They decided to call the police who used the detailed descriptions of the murderer given by the little girl to find and convict the man in question. [3]
Skeptical Explanations
Skeptics might put forth one of the following explanations for this phenomenon:
The heart is a vital organ and a new heart can breathe new power into the body and change the personality.
Heart transplant patients may be subconsciously influenced by the information provided or overheard during their hospital stay. Incidentally, this has been dubbed the “hospital grapevine theory”.
These theories may explicate some cases but not Case 4, where the organ recipient’s dreams led to the conviction of the murderer.
Explanations verging on the mystical
Some scientists have proposed the concept of “cellular memory” to explain the transference of memory in organ transplants. They have said that the mind is not just in the brain but is in fact active in every cell of the body. Paul Pearsall proposed that immunosuppressant drugs injected during transplants could conceivably lower the threshold in patients to allow them to register cellular memories which were potentially stored in the transplanted organs [5]. Pharmacologist Candace Pert proposed “Molecules of emotion” as a sort of biochemical correlate of emotion which is stored in every cell [6]. In Claire Sylvia’s book A Change of Heart, a spiritual medium speculates that these experiences were caused because the donor’s spirit was still attached to the earth and had not yet moved to it’s abode in the higher subtle worlds [1].
These hypotheses are aligned with some of the occult insights offered by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on the nature of memory and the process of death. Regarding the concept of “cellular memory”, this is what Sri Aurobindo had to say:
Disciple : What is memory ? Is it a mental faculty ?
Sri Aurobindo : Memory is everywhere. All that one is conscious of or not, is recorded in the “Prana“, the basic stuff of consciousness. But one remembers only that which one has attentively heard and fixed in his mind. But generally these impressions are received by the “Prana” and immediately they sink into the subconscious, or the subliminal consciousness, or whatever you like to call it.
There is the recorded instance of the servant girl of a famous French scholar of Hebrew. She used to hear, while at work, her master repeating the Bible in Hebrew. To her it was meaningless gibberish. Then when she was in an abnormal condition she repeated her master’s speech exactly, with the same accents and without a mistake. And evidently she knew nothing of the language – that is, the mind did not understand anything of it. But all the time it was there recorded in the subconscious being. Even the soles of our feet have got a memory of their own.…we have divided the being into the mental, vital and physical. But when we speak of the mental, we take the mind working on its own plane, so to say. But all the parts are interconnected and the mind is working from above down right up to the lowest plane of consciousness and so it is with every principle. [7]
But “cellular memory” may not explain everything, because not every organ seems to induce a memory transfer; as far as I know, people who receive donated corneas have not reported any such side-effects. Therefore, one has to consider the possibility that the the spirit of the dead donor, or various vital sheath fragments which are let loose after death, continue to cling to the organs and thereby influence the recipient’s mind. Given the fact that organ transplants are always done within hours after doctors have diagnosed outer signs of physical death, it is of relevance to note the Mother Mirra Alfassa’s observation that it takes upto seven days for the soul to evacuate the body. Perhaps it is the premature organ harvesting which induces the memory transfer from the donor to the receiver ? This was her observation on the process of death:
In the physical form there is the ‘spirit of the form,’ and that spirit of the form persists for a time, even when outwardly the person is said to be dead. And as long as the spirit of the form persists, the body isn’t destroyed. In ancient Egypt they had that knowledge; they knew that if they prepared the body in a certain way, the spirit of the form wouldn’t go away and the body wouldn’t be dissolved. [8]
In another conversation, she expatiated on death and cremation:
…the doctors observe all the outer signs, then they declare you dead, but you’re still in your body!…it’s probably during this period that people are ‘resuscitated,’ as they say, for they have not left their bodies, they are not really dead, though the heart may give every appearance of having stopped.
People in India are in too much of a hurry to burn the dead, sometimes they burn them alive! … They should wait for there’s a consciousness of the form, a life of the form assumed by the cells, which takes seven days to come out. And that is why sometimes the body makes abrupt movements when burned – people say it’s mechanical. It’s not mechanical, I know it’s not.
So I don’t like this habit of burning people very much….I think they do it here (apart from entirely sanitary considerations in the case of people who have died from nasty diseases), here in India, mainly because they are very afraid of all these little entities that come from desires, impulses – things which are dispersed in the air and which make ‘ghosts’ and all kinds of things. All desires, all attachments, all those things are like pieces that break off (each one goes its own way, you see), then these pieces gain strength in the surrounding atmosphere, and when they can fasten on to someone, they vampirize him. Then they keep on trying to satisfy their desires [9]
Therefore, it is possible that these fragments of the donor’s vital sheath, which are imbued with the living memories of impulses and desires, attach themselves to the organs and find a new home in the organ transplant recipient, thereby inducing the memory transfer. Here is a note that Sri Aurobindo wrote to a disciple regarding the vital sheath fragments:
The fragments [of a dead person] are not of the inner being (who goes on his way to the psychic world) but of his vital sheath which falls away after death. These can join for birth the vital of some other Jiva(soul) who is being born or they can be used by a vital being to enter a body in process of birth and partly possess it for the satisfaction of its propensities. The junction can also take place after birth.[10]
I’m having a hard time accepting what Mother says regarding leaving the cremation till up to 7 days: is she saying that the Jiva takes this amount of time to leave the body? OR is she saying some other Pranic (life) element takes so long to exit the body?
Do we have the observations on this subject of other Yogins? I think it’d be interesting to see the origin of the recommended time-to-cremation according to Hindu tradition.
Question 38: In what manner can the way of disposing of the body of the dead (cremation, burial, etc) affect the state of the departed soul still clinging to terrestrial life?
Answer: From the teachings of the Theosophical and Kabalistic works, it would appear that – as all operations of Nature are gradual – so after death, the magnetic or fluidic cord which connects or ties the astral to the physical very gradually disintegrates; but, not until its ultimate snapping does the final separation between the two bodies take place. Therefore, up to that time, the Entity living in his astral, in close vicinity to the dead physical, so that, if at all conscious, the Entity will see his physical, and still dimly feel sensations connected with it. Thus it is said that one of the horrors of burial, for certain material souls, is to have to witness the gradual decomposition of their physical body. In a similar manner, a material person will pass through mental tortures while witnessing the dissecting of the physical. Consequently, cremation must also cause a shock and mental agony if done too soon after death, before the magnetic cord is nearly ready to snap. But, of course, all these mental worries are spared to the pure and spiritual, who are no longer bound to the body by earthly desires; in them, the snapping of the cord takes place much quicker, and in the meanwhile they remain in a kind of blissful unconsciousness. Premature cremation will also affect a soul still clinging to material life, by forcing it out of its astral, before it is ready for that next step in posthumous evolution. (A.M).
From page 65-66 of the book Realms of the living dead by Theosophists Harriette Augusta Curtiss and Frank Homer Curtiss.
“The recently deceased is often strongly, even morbidly attracted to the discarded physical body for some time, hence haunts its burial place…Cremation is therefore always desirable, not only because more sanitary and less revolting to think of, but because it consumes the physical magnetism and this releases the deceased…great care must be taken to see that the cremation is not carried out until the astral body has had time to withdraw completely from the physical body or considerable suffering to the departed one may result…. The best indication as to the proper time for cremation is when definite signs of physical disintegration appears.”
” After death, then the divine spirit which animated man returns alone to heaven, and leaves upon earth and in the atmosphere two corpses, one terrestrial and elementary, the other aerial and related to the stars; the one already inert, the other still animated by the universal movement of the soul of the world, but foredoomed to die slowly, as absorbed by the astral powers which produced it. When a man has lived a good life, the astral corpse evaporates like a pure incense mounting towards the higher regions; but if the man has lived in crime, his astral corpse, which holds him prisoner, seeks still the objects of its passions and yearns to resume the earthly life.”
I just discovered an article by Michael Tymn “Are Organ Transplants Metaphysically Contraindicated?” published in the July 2001 issue of the Journal of Religion and Psychical Research, which examines the above topic. See http://www.beyondtheveil.net/organs.html.
As per this article, The Tibetan Book of the Dead holds that it might take up to three-and-a-half days for the consciousness to leave the body. Here is the relevant text from the Bardo Thodol
“The interval between the cessation of the expiration and the cessation of the inspiration is the time during which the vital-force remaineth in the median-nerve.
The common people call this the state wherein the consciousness-principle hath fainted away. The duration of this state is uncertain. [It dependeth] upon the constitution, good or bad, and [the state of] the nerves and vital-force. In those who have had even a little practical experience of the firm, tranquil state of dhyāna, and in those who have sound nerves, this state continueth for a long time.
In the setting-face-to-face, the repetition [of the above address to the deceased] is to be persisted in until a yellowish liquid beginneth to appear from the various apertures of the bodily organs [of the deceased].
In those who have led an evil life, and in those of unsound nerves, the above state endureth only so long as would take to snap a finger. Again, in some, it endureth as long as the time taken for the eating of a meal.
In various Tantras it is said that this state of swoon endureth for about three and one-half days. Most other [religious treatises] say for four days; and that this setting-face-to-face with the Clear Light ought to be persevered in [during the whole time].” (Tibetan Book of the Dead, Book 1, Part 1)
Mohan : is she saying that the Jiva takes this amount of time to leave the body? OR is she saying some other Pranic (life) element takes so long to exit the body?
The Jiva(soul) exits quickly through the nine gates but there is an elemental consciousness which continues to reside in the body for a few days. As long as that elemental exists, you can even re-enter the body (i.e. resurrection)
Do we have the observations on this subject of other Yogins? I think it’d be interesting to see the origin of the recommended time-to-cremation according to Hindu tradition.
The Renaissance era physician and occultist Paracelsus defined the concept of the Mumia – a vital essence which is attached to the organs, which is particularly relevant to the notion of cellular memory. I quote from the book “Paracelsus : life and teachings” by Franz Hartmann, page 37.
Mumia: The essence of life contained in some vehicle (vitality clinging to some material substance). Parts of the human, animal, or vegetable bodies, if separated from the organism, retain their vital power and their specific action for a while, as is proved by the transplantation of skin, by vaccination, poisoning by infection from corpses, dissection wounds, infection from ulcers, &c. (Bacteria are such vehicles of life.) Blood, excrements, etc., may contain vitality for a while after having been removed from the organism, and there may still exist some sympathy between such substances and the vitality of the organism; and by acting upon the former, the latter may be affected
In another case, a seven-month-old boy received a heart from a 16-month-old boy who had drowned. The donor had a mild form of cerebral palsy mostly on the left side. The recipient, who did not display such symptoms prior to the transplant, developed the same stiffness and shaking on the left side.
Sexual orientation changed: A 29-year-old lesbian and a fast food junkie received a heart from a 19-year-old woman vegetarian who was “man crazy.” The recipient reported after her operation that meat made her sick and she was no longer attracted to women. If fact, she became engaged to marry a man.
A 47-year-old man received a heart from a 14-year-old girl gymnast who had problems with eating disorders. After the transplant, the recipient and his family reported his tendency to be nauseated after eating, a childlike exuberance and a little girl’s giggle.
So, it looks inadvisable to leave your body to science or donate organs at all. Seeing that they take organs immediately after clinical death this could be a nightmare for the person who has just left. Although if your more advanced or perhaps just call on SA and The mother you’d be whisked off instantly.
Has SA and Mother adviced against donating organs. l’ve always sensed it was wrong somehow, and after reading the above stories l think l might be right.
Mike: So, it looks inadvisable to leave your body to science or donate organs at all
Thats not true. I am afraid I did not present the full picture in the article above. All organ transplants are not bad. Dr Pearsall observed that heart transplants seem to be the most problematic because the heart soaks up all the primal subconscious emotions. Kidney, liver, and other transplants are fine.
Furthermore, not all heart transplants are bad. Dr Pearsall found that only a fraction of recipients have a problem. He identified eighteen distinguishing traits amongst these people whom he called cardio-sensitives. The problematic recipients had good emotional IQ, were environmentally sensitive, sensual, animal-loving, music-loving, creative types, more inclined to go with the flow rather than dominate. These traits were similar to the characteristics of easily hypnotized subjects and those who were successful energy-connecting operators and percipients in the PEAR (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research) program. For more information, see Pearsall’s book The Heart’s Code
The search for the perfect artificial heart seems never-ending. After decades of trial and error, surgeons remain stymied in their quest for a machine that does not wear out, break down or cause clots and infections.
But Dr. Billy Cohn and Dr. Bud Frazier at the Texas Heart Institute say they have developed a machine that could avoid all that with simple whirling rotors — which means people may soon get a heart that has no beat.
[…]
In March, after practicing on 38 calves, Cohn and Frazier felt confident enough to try their device on a human patient. They chose Craig Lewis, a 55-year-old who was dying from amyloidosis, which causes a buildup of abnormal proteins. After the implant, Craig Lewis woke up and recovered somewhat. He could speak and sit up in a chair.
But then he began to fade as the disease attacked his liver and kidneys.
“Amyloidosis is horrible,” Linda Lewis says. “I could see the other organs were not cooperating.”
Craig Lewis lived for more than a month with the pulseless heart. He died in April, due to the underlying disease. His doctors say the pumps themselves worked flawlessly.
Science is advancing – first artificial heart transplant has now been done
For the first time, an artificial heart that may give patients up to five years of extra life has been successfully implanted in a 75-year-old French man.
The artificial heart, designed by French biomedical firm Carmat, is powered by Lithium-ion batteries that can be worn externally.
The heart that was put into the patient at Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris uses a range of “bio-materials”, including bovine tissue, to reduce the likelihood of the body rejecting it, ‘The Telegraph’ reported.
This device is intended to replace a real heart for as many as five years, unlike previous artificial hearts that were created mainly for temporary use.
Just read in the news today that people with transplanted organs are twice as likely to get cancer – tumours form more easily on these organs apparently. Published in an American Medical journal. Of course you have to take the immune-resistant drugs for the rest of your life as well.
According to the summary, solid organ transplant recipients have elevated cancer risk due to immunosuppressant drugs used during transplants (which weaken the immune system) and oncogenic viral infections. They used data on 175 732 solid organ transplants (58.4% for kidney, 21.6% for liver, 10.0% for heart, and 4.0% for lung) from the US Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (1987-2008) and 13 state and regional cancer registries. They concluded that compared with the general population, recipients of a kidney, liver, heart, or lung transplant have an increased risk for diverse infection-related and unrelated cancers.
Researchers have for the first time managed to give patients a complete bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. The recipients were also able to accept kidneys from the same donors without the need for immunosuppresive drugs. Normally, such transplants would trigger graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) — an often deadly complication that occurs when immune cells from an unrelated donor attack the transplant recipient’s tissue .
We may have to make a distinction between death and the dying process. The multicellular human organism does not experience total cellular death at the same instant. Apart from the failure of vital functions like respiration and circulation, the physician takes into consideration the fact of the loss of function of Brainstem which coordinates and maintains the vital functions. With the availability of ventilators and other mechanical devices, the cardio-pulmonary functions can be sustained after the death or loss of function of Brainstem. At that time, a decision to donate various body organs and tissues is made. These organs and tissues which could be otherwise healthy could be used in other suitable recipients and have to be used quickly. There are two aspects of consciousness; 1. the contents of consciousness; this refers to the cortical awareness, the contents that are known to a fully alert person in a state called Arousal, and the 2. the composition of consciousness; the information is received and is processed by the Reticular Formation of the Brainstem and it is blocked or selectively projected to different parts of the Central Nervous System, and the information that is relayed to the cerebral cortex causes cortical awareness of that selected information. The body is aware of a vast amount of information and if all of this is routinely projected to the cerebral cortex, it would be a huge burden causing information overload and is not compatible with well-being of the person. The Reticular Formation protects our existence and maintains peace, harmony, and tranquility in the experience of our subjective living experience. The function called cognition and memory is a function of the biological membrane/plasma membrane of the cell. You may call it a ‘vital sheath’ or outer limiting membrane or external layer of the cell. A living cell to perform its living functions needs this separation of its living matter from its immediate external environment. However, I would not like to suggest that the biological membranes of cardiac cells get exposed to information such as the taste or flavor of organic molecules that man is exposed. The perception of such sense information like that of taste and smell need the assistance of special organs which have the ability to detect those chemical molecules that contribute to those sensations. It would not be reasonable to suggest that cardiac cells have memory of the taste preferences of an individual.
After reading this l don’t think l’ll be leaving my organs to science:
“In 1968, the report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Death , redefined “irreversible coma”. The report gave doctors the ability to declare a person dead in just a few minutes.
For a large majority of the medical establishment in years past, the definition of death was the patient’s loss of personhood and not necessarily defined by a heart that could not be restarted.
The Harvard authors defined a “permanently non-functioning brain” as:
• Unreceptively or unresponsitivity to “even the most painful stimuli”
• No movements or spontaneous breathing
• No reflexes
• Flat EEG
The results, according to the committee must be repeated 24 hours later to prove the patient was deceased. The only acceptations were hypothermia and drug intoxication because they can mimic conditions similar to death.
The criterion, set forth by the Harvard committee, was not based on any observations from patients, experiments on humans or animals.
In 1981 the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA), approved by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws was based on the Harvard committee document.
Within 13 years, all 50 states in the US codified this 4 page article as the definition of clinical death.
The mainstream medical community assumes that the brain controls bodily functionality.
D. Alan Shewmon , pediatric neurologist at UCLA, rejects this idea. Shewmon believes the definition of clinical death needs revision. He says “that most integrative functions of the brain are actually not somatically integrating, and, conversely, most integrative functions of the body are not brain-mediated.”
In an 150 page document, Shewmon explains brain-dead patients still have heart beats. In one case, a patient survived more than 2 decades after brain death.
The Harvard committee’s motivation for lowering the standards for clinical death may have been organ harvesting through transplants.
Joanne Lynn , geriatrician and director of the Altarum Center for Elder Life Care and Advanced Illness says: “Advocate groups just want the organs. Transplant debate has ignored the donors and focused on the recipients.”
The reality of transplants can be summed up in a comment made by Michael Divitta , professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Divitta said that transplant donors are “pretty dead” before their organs are extracted.
The beating-heart cadavers (BHCs) are what Divitta refers to as “brain dead” who are “warm and pink and breathing.” These people may look dead, but they are far from it.
In the medical establishment, the BHCs are considered a subspecies designed specifically to keep the organs fresh for future owners. These patients are alive, respond to pain, yet they are considered conventionally dead.
Corporations are now preserving the nearly dead to preserve the organs. Doctors contend that once the oxygen flow is disrupted, the organs begin to decay.
The qualification process of declaring the patient dead, obtaining consent to extract organs from the patient by family can take hours. Then the cadaver is considered a BHC.
However a BHC could have another heart attack before the organs are removed. These patients are only clinically dead.
Steven Ross of Cooper University Hospital and Dan Teres of Baystate Medical Center assert that BHCs are “alive”.
The New England Organ Bank (NEOB), headed by Jim McCabe, uses a team in the operating room; comprised of one surgeon, one resident, one technician and a coordinator from the NEOB.
Anesthesiologists create dead people every day, says Mark Schlesinger, chairman of the anesthesiology department at Hackensack University Medical Center. “We give them drugs and they die.” Under anesthesia, a patient would be classified as clinically dead by the Harvard committee’s standards.
The Harvard criteria focused on brain stems, the patient’s cerebral cortex and the brain’s ability to control the body. As Divitta puts it, a “pretty dead” patient is dead enough to begin the organ extraction process.
An important issue to note is the BHCs are denied anesthesia during transplant surgery. Experts contend that anesthesia damages the organs.
Gail A. Van Norman, professor of bioethics and anesthesiology at the University of Washington cites that some BHCs are more than not dead when the extraction process begins. She explains examples where patients have:
• Begun to breathe during a liver extraction
• Gasped after an apnea test, but was declared dead anyway
• 30 year old head trauma patient began breathing during preparations for organ removal
• Donor reaction to scalpel incisions
• Reactive eye pupils and gag reflex during surgery for liver donation
• Patents coughing, grimacing and movement of arms and legs during and after the extraction procedure
• Regaining consciousness
• Showing signs of being alert and coherent during the transplant surgery
Gregory Liptak, wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association that: “Patients who are brain dead have spontaneous movements.” Liptak claims that these instances described by Van Norman must be a “release phenomena from the spinal cord” and not evidence of the donor being alive during surgery.
Because of the possibility that BHCs may feel pain, the practice of using anesthesia is becoming popular in Europe. Yet Shewmon still maintains that BHCs cannot feel pain and that he has not heard of reports of BHCs having consciousness during or after surgery.
Robert Truog , professor of medical ethics, anesthesia and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, says, “Just because the symptoms come down . . . does not mean the patient is in pain. Pain is a subjective thing.”
Cruel words coming from an expert in medical ethics.
In 1971, a paper was published entitled, Brain Death: A Clinical and Pathological Study , by a Minnesota research team that found out some startling facts about the brain-dead and their ability to react.
• Five of the 25 studied were still sexually responsive
• Pregnancy can still go on gestating and nourishing their unborn baby
When considering the definitions of death modern medicine adheres to, combined with the real life accounts of how the “dead” behave and react, it is clear that the mainstream medical community know less about the body than they let on.
And sometimes, that ignorance has devastating effects.
Susanne Posel”
Organ donations are being regulated, but I don’t know how effective that is. If the donor and recipient are not related, the donation has to be approved by a state-level committee. Of course, that introduces red tape and delays. Things are improving but at a slow pace!
See :
According to existing rules, if the potential donor is not related to the person who needs the organ, the transplant needs to be approved by a state-level committee or by a hospital committee that includes government officials.
Yes, sandeep, lt’s a difficult problem.Personally, l think ‘regeneration of organs’ might be the way ahead. That Red Market book looks interesting.
l did hear someone recently saying that if you have one of the rare blood groups – Group O donors or something like that – then your organs can go in anyone, just like Group O donors blood can. lt’s universally compatible, that is. l’m not sure if this is right but the person l heard was convinced.
Older adults who have greater heart and lung health also have better memory recall and cognitive capabilities. A new study examines the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness, memory and cognition in young and older adults.
In other words, cardiovascular fitness improves Prana which improves memory recall. This is in accordance with Sri Aurobindo’s remarks above that “Memory is Prana“:
Disciple : What is memory ? Is it a mental faculty ?
Sri Aurobindo : Memory is everywhere. All that one is conscious of or not, is recorded in the “Prana“, the basic stuff of consciousness. But one remembers only that which one has attentively heard and fixed in his mind. But generally these impressions are received by the “Prana” and immediately they sink into the subconscious, or the subliminal consciousness, or whatever you like to call it.
This is all very vast and complex but very very interesting. Just 2 things :
1) Finally for how many days should a corpse be kept before it is cremated as per Hindu rites so as to not cause any mental agony?
2) As per a spiritual organisation that I have been following, blood donation, organ donation and even adoption should not be done unless guided by a Guru or someone at a very high spiritual level, since this can cause your karma and destiny (which in turn could give rise to interference in your life) to be linked with that of the donor /recipient or with that of the child being adopted (and vice versa). Also, only a biological child will be a soul that has some karmic give and take with the parents as well as other family members and helps in reducing / completing the karmic account for everyone whereas an adopted child can open an additional karmic account increasing the burden of existing destiny for all especially for the parents and the child. Any thoughts on this?
for how many days should a corpse be kept before it is cremated as per Hindu rites so as to not cause any mental agony?
The Mother says seven days but thats not practical these days [unless you have space in the freezer :-)]
blood donation, organ donation and even adoption should not be done unless guided by a Guru or someone at a very high spiritual level
As I mentioned in a comment above, only heart transplants have been found to be problematic and that too for sensitive people. I don’t have the insight to determine if every part of the physical is really so tainted that it cannot be transplanted or donated to someone in need.
One should beware of overly rigid theories of Karma. Karma is not a financial ledger where you keep debts and credits with each individual. The human mind feels comfort in living by rules; it likes to hastily generalize with insufficient data; it classifies the world according to some mental analogies. Human beings create elaborate religious prisons out of such tendencies.
I am not aware of this “karmic give and take” with biological child that you are referring to. In most cases, it is a egoistic impulse which creates emotional attachment between the parent and child. As the parents become anxious, the children become spoiled. Eventually everyone grows old and exhausted.
“If one loves everyone without any emotional expectation, no fatigue is experienced and no Karma is created.”
I guess you are right about that. But unfortunately love without expectations is rather hard to find in these times. In most cases it is calculated.
“I am not aware of this “karmic give and take” with biological child that you are referring to. In most cases, it is a egoistic impulse which creates emotional attachment between the parent and child. As the parents become anxious, the children become spoiled. Eventually everyone grows old and exhausted”
karmic give and take – any kind of attachments, positive or negative, that souls have with one another since previous births. Eg – A has murdered B in some birth. So in some subsequent birth, B comes back as the son of A and causes A a lot of trouble and trauma … why? to close the karmic account between them. Neither A nor B maybe consciously aware of any of this.
Similarly, C borrows money from D, but is unable to repay and dies before that. So in the next birth, maybe C gifts approx. the same amount of money to D … to close the karmic account. Again neither C nor D maybe consciously aware of any of this.
There can be a zillion such examples.
So in order to close the karmic account that one has with others, souls may reincarnate as family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues etc etc. Usually one has more give and take with immediate family members – spouse (the maximum), children, parents, siblings.
So basically a much higher chance that a biological child has reincarnated into the family to complete the give n take he or she has with parents and maybe others too, as compared to an adopted child (here, much higher chance that the parents r using their free will to adopt the child and probably has nothing to do with closing any past accounts.). In other words, by adopting a child, parents could be opening a brand new give n take account.
So in order to close the karmic account that one has with others, souls may reincarnate as family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues etc etc
Ok, now i understand what you meant by Karmic give-and-take. I don’t think financial debt gets converted into Karmic debt. The Universe it too vast and unfathomable for Reincarnation to keep track of money.
In case of murder or other trauma, it is not necessary to be born in the same family to complete the circle. One could end up bonding with such people in the course of the new incarnation and learning to forgive and forget.
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About
My name is Sandeep. This blog primarily discusses the Integral Yoga (Интегральной Йоги) of Sri Aurobindo (Шри Ауробиндо) & the Mother Mirra Alfassa (Мать Мирра Альфасса) , whose pictures are seen above. I am *not* affiliated with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry and this is not an official blog.
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Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without permission is prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided credit is given with a URL link to the original content. All text from works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is copyright Sri Aurobindo Ashram. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Prince Rupert (electoral district)
Prince Rupert was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It made its first appearance on the hustings in the election of 1916 and its last in the 1986 election. Its main successor ridings are North Coast and Skeena.
Notable MLAs
The first electoral race in this riding is its most significant - the electoral debut of Thomas Dufferin "Duff" Pattullo, 22nd Premier of British Columbia, 1933-1941.
Political geography
Members of the Legislative Assembly
Election results
|-
|Liberal
|Thomas Dufferin Pattullo
|align="right"|1,062
|align="right"|52.89%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|2,008
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Thomas Dufferin Pattullo
|align="right"|1,501
|align="right"|43.70%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|3,435
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=7|1 Endorsed by FLP but ran on SPC platform.
|}
|Liberal
|Thomas Dufferin Pattullo
|align="right"|920
|align="right"|55.89%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|1,646
!align="right"|100.00%
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=7|2 Endorsed by Conservative Party.
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Thomas Dufferin Pattullo
|align="right"|1,370
|align="right"|51.78%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|2,646
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|60
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|80.28%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Thomas Dufferin Pattullo
|align="right"|1,725
|align="right"|64.90%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.
|George Weston Rudderham
|align="right"|665
|align="right"|25.02%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|2,658
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|70
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|66.29%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Thomas Dufferin Pattullo
|align="right"|1,446
|align="right"|49.55%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.
|George William Weaver
|align="right"|796
|align="right"|27.28%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|BC Social Credit League
|Robert Purvis Armstrong
|align="right"|14
|align="right"|0.48%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|2,918
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|83
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Thomas Dufferin Pattullo
|align="right"|1,681
|align="right"|51.82%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.
|George William Weaver
|align="right"|1,563
|align="right"|48.18%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|3,244
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|96
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.
|William Henry Brett
|align="right"|1,873
|align="right"|49.83%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Independent
|Thomas Dufferin Pattullo 3
|align="right"|1,348
|align="right"|35.86%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|3,759
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|52
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|63.19%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=7|3 T.D. Pattullo (Prince Rupert) former premier and Liberal Party leader ran as a straight Independent and is included as such.
|}
|-
|Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.
|William Henry Brett
|align="right"|2,296
|align="right"|43.59%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|5,267
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|53
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.
|'''George Edwin Hills
|align="right"|2,292
|align="right"|37.67%
|align="right"|2,903
|align="right"|51.32%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Liberal
|John Duncan McRae
|align="right"|2,001
|align="right"|32.89%
|align="right"|2,754
|align="right"|48.68
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Progressive Conservative
|Thomas Melbourne Christie
|align="right"|687
|align="right"|11.29%
|align="right"| -
|align="right"| -.- %
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|6,084
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|5,657
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|153
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=9|4 Preferential ballot; final count is between top two candidates from first count; intermediary counts (of 4) not shown.
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Arthur Bruce Brown
|align="right"|1,864
|align="right"|32.88%
|align="right"|2,611
|align="right"|50.32%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.
|George Edwin Hills
|align="right"|2,074
|align="right"|36.59%
|align="right"|2,578
|align="right"|49.68%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|5,669
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|5,189
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|299
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total Registered Voters
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=9|5 Preferential ballot; final count is between top two candidates from first count; intermediary counts (of 2) not shown.
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Arthur Bruce Brown
|align="right"|1,664
|align="right"|32.79%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.
|George Edwin Hills
|align="right"|1,259
|align="right"|24.81%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|5,074
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|83
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.
|Angus MacPhee
|align="right"|2,139
|align="right"|36.93%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Liberal
|Arthur Bruce Brown
|align="right"|1,087
|align="right"|18.77%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Progressive Conservative
|Horace L.G. Kelly
|align="right"|199
|align="right"|3.44%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|5,792
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|134
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Neil Fergus MacDonald
|align="right"|1,328
|align="right"|23.70%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|5,603
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|59
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Neil Fergus MacDonald
|align="right"|544
|align="right"|10.87%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|5,004
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|34
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Peter James Lester
|align="right"|1,488
|align="right"|19.79%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Independent
|Roderick Douglas Falconer
|align="right"|64
|align="right"|0.85%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|7,519
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|94
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Odd Inge Eidsvik
|align="right"|1,416
|align="right"|18.71%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|Independent
|Robert Graham Porter
|align="right"|287
|align="right"|3.79%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|7,570
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|103
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Liberal
|Charles Michael Emes
|align="right"|428
|align="right"|5.12%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|8,367
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|78
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|8,300
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|147
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Liberal
|James Grant Carr
|align="right"|745
|align="right"|7.19%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|10,353
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|160
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align=";right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
|-
|Liberal
|John D. Whyte
|align="right"|320
|align="right"|3.25%
|align="right"|
|align="right"|unknown
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total valid votes
!align="right"|9,861
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|214
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|- bgcolor="white"
!align="right" colspan=3|Turnout
!align="right"|%
!align="right"|
!align="right"|
|}
The Prince Rupert riding was redistributed after the 1986 election. Successor ridings are:
North Coast
Skeena
Bulkley Valley-Stikine
Sources
Elections BC website - historical election data
Category:Defunct British Columbia provincial electoral districts | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Wikipedia (en) |
ANACARDIUM ORIENTALE DILUTION 200C
ANACARDIUM ORIENTALE DILUTION 200C
Anacardium orientale DilutionThis remedy is prepared from a plant, which is commonly known as the marking nut. It is used for mental confusion, acidity, examination funk, headache, forgetfulness, constipation and eczema. Sensation of a plug in all parts
Mind
ForgetfulnessConfusionDifficulty in concentrationFear of examinationDislike for workAbsentmindednessSuspiciousAlways torn between a good and bad idea (feels as if a devil on shoulder and angel on the other)Hears imaginary soundsLack of all moral restrain; disposed to acts of wickedness
Abdomen and rectum
Weakness of digestionStomach feels emptyBurping with nausea and vomitingComplaints are relieved by eatingConstipation, Stool soft, but passed with strainingFissure, itching at anusDischarge of moisture from rectumPainful pilesFeeling as if plug is inserted in the rectumFeeling of powerlessness in rectum | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Farewell My Queen
by Benoît Jacquot
mp4 (640x360) [12251 kb]
Copy and paste the code in your html to embed this video:
Versailles in July 1789. There’s growing disquiet at the court of King Louis XVI: the people are defiant and the country is on the brink of revolution. Behind the scenes at the royal palaces emergency plans are being made. Although nobody believes that this spells the end of the established order everyone is talking of escape, including Queen Marie Antoinette and her entourage. One of Marie Antoinette’s ladies-in-waiting is Sidonie Laborde who, as the Queen’s reader, is a member of the monarch’s inner circle. Concerned that her escape might fail, the queen gives instructions for the girl to step into her carriage dressed in the queen’s clothes while the queen herself is to escape from the palace unseen at night. At first Sidonie is proud to have such an honour bestowed upon her – but she soon realises that her mistress’ request has nothing to do with her affection for her.
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About us
Cineuropa is the first European portal dedicated to cinema and audiovisual in 4 languages. With daily news, interviews, data bases, in-depth investigations into the audiovisual industry, Cineuropa aims at promoting the European film industry throughout the world. Welcome to a platform where professionals can meet and exchange information and ideas. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
3 SBnasta-prayesy abhadresu nityaḿ bhagavata-sevaya bhagavaty uttama-sloke bhaktir bhavati naisthiki By regular attendance in classes on the Bhagavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact.
4 [SB ] sa vai kilayam purusah puratano ya eka asid avisesa atmani agre gunebhyo jagad-atmanisvare nimilitatman nisi supta-saktisuThey said: Here He is, the original Personality of Godhead as we definitely remember Him. He alone existed before the manifested creation of the modes of nature, and in Him only, because He is the Supreme Lord, all living beings merge, as if sleeping at night, their energy suspended.
5 Key pointsThere are two types of dissolution of the manifested cosmos. At the end of every 4,320,000,000 solar years, when Brahma, the lord of one particular universe, goes to sleep, there is one annihilation. And at the end of Lord Brahma's life, which takes place at the end of Brahma's one hundred years of age, in our calculation at the end of 8,640,000,000 x 30 x 12 x 100 solar years, there is complete annihilation of the entire universe, and in both the periods both the material energy called the mahat-tattva and the marginal energy called jiva-tattva merge in the person of the Supreme Lord. The living beings remain asleep within the body of the Lord until there is another creation of the material world, and that is the way of the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the material manifestation.
6 Key pointsThe merging of the living beings into the body of Maha-Visnu takes place automatically at the end of Brahma's one hundred years. But that does not mean that the individual living being loses his identity. The identity is there, and as soon as there is another creation by the supreme will of the Lord, all the sleeping, inactive living beings are again let loose to begin their activities in the continuation of past different spheres of life. It is called suptotthita naya, or awakening from sleep and again engaging in one's respective continuous duty. When a man is asleep at night, he forgets himself, what he is, what his duty is and everything of his waking state. But as soon as he awakens from slumber, he remembers all that he has to do and thus engages himself again in his prescribed activities.
7 Punch line The living beings also remain mergedin the body of Maha-Visnu during the period of annihilation, but as soonas there is another creation they arise to take up their unfinished work.This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita ( ).
8 Punch line This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (8.18-20).The jivas (individual souls) remain compact in the body of Visnu and again and again are manifest at the arrival of Brahma's day. When Brahma's life is finally finished, they are all annihilated and remain unmanifest for millions and millions of years. When Brahma is born again in another millennium they are again manifest. In this way the jivas are captivated by the material world. However, those intelligent beings who take to Krsna consciousness and chant Hare Krsna, Hare Rama in devotional service transfer themselves, even in this life, to the spiritual planet of Krsna and become eternally blissful there, not being subject to such rebirths.
9 [SB ] sa eva bhuyo nija-virya-coditam sva-jiva-mayam prakrtim sisrksatim anama-rupatmani rupa-namani vidhitsamano 'nusasara sastra-krtThe Personality of Godhead, again desiring to give names and forms to His parts and parcels, the living entities, placed them under the guidance of material nature. By His own potency, material nature is empowered to re-create.
10 Key pointsThe living entities are parts and parcels of the Lord. They are of two varieties,nitya-muktanitya-baddha.The nitya-muktasTher are eternally liberated souls, and they are eternally engaged in the reciprocation of transcendental loving service with the Lord in His eternal abode beyond the manifested mundane creations.
11 Key pointsThe nityabaddha, They are eternally conditioned souls, are entrusted to His external energy, maya, for rectification of their rebellious attitude toward the Supreme Father. Nitya-baddhas are eternally forgetful of their relation with the Lord as parts and parcels. They are bewildered by the illusory energy as products of matter, and thus they are very busy in making plans in the material world for becoming happy
12 Key pointsThe spiritual spark living entities have no material names or forms. But in order to fulfill their desire to lord it over the material energy of material forms and names, they are given a chance for such false enjoyment, and at the same time they are given a chance to understand the real position through the revealed scriptures. The foolish and forgetful living being is always busy with false forms and false names.
13 SummaryBhagavad-gita is the guiding principle for every human being, but by the spell of material energy they do not take care to carry out the programs of life in terms of the Bhagavad-gita. Srimad-Bhagavatam is the post-graduate study of knowledge for one who has thoroughly understood the principles of the Bhagavad-gita. Unfortunately people have no taste for them, and therefore they are under the clutches of maya for repetition of birth and death.
14 [SB ] sa va ayam yat padam atra surayo jitendriya nirjita-matarisvanah pasyanti bhakty-utkalitamalatmana nanv esa sattvam parimarstum arhatiHere is the same Supreme Personality of Godhead whose transcendental form is experienced by the great devotees who are completely cleansed of material consciousness by dint of rigid devotional service and full control of life and the senses. And that is the only way to purify existence.
15 Key pointsThe great devotees of the Lord who are able to clear the mind of all material dust by rigid devotional service can experience the Lord as He is. Jitendriya means one who has full control over the senses. The senses are active parts of the body, and their activities cannot be stopped. The artificial means of the yogic processes to make the senses inactive has proved to be abject failure, even in the case of great yogis like Visvamitra Muni. Visvamitra Muni controlled the senses by yogic trance, but when he happened to meet Menaka (a heavenly society woman), he became a victim of sex, and the artificial way of controlling the senses failed.
16 Key pointsThe senses of a pure devotee are not at all artificially stopped from doing anything, but they are given different good engagements. When the senses are engaged in more attractive activities, there is no chance of their being attracted by any inferior engagements. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that the senses can be controlled only by better engagements. Devotional service necessitates purifying the senses or engaging them in the activities of devotional service. Devotional service is not inaction. Anything done in the service of the Lord becomes at once purified of its material nature.
17 Key pointsThere is nothing beyond Vasudeva. The Vasudeva conception gradually develops in the heart of the learned after a prolonged acceleration of the receptive organs. But the process ends in the knowledge of accepting Vasudeva as all in all. In the case of devotional service, this very same method is accepted from the very beginning, and by the grace of the Lord all factual knowledge becomes revealed in the heart of a devotee due to dictation by the Lord from within. Therefore controlling the senses by devotional service is the only and easiest means.
18 Punch lineThe Lord can be known in His real nature by dint of pure devotional service only.
19 [SB ] sa va ayam sakhy anugita-sat-katho vedesu guhyesu ca guhya-vadibhih ya eka iso jagad-atma-lilaya srjaty avaty atti na tatra sajjateO dear friends, here is that very Personality of Godhead whose attractive and confidential pastimes are described in the confidential parts of Vedic literature by His great devotees. It is He only who creates, maintains and annihilates the material world and yet remains unaffected.
20 All the Vedic literatures are glorifying the greatness of Lord Sri Krsna.
21 Key pointsThe Vedas are expanded by many branches and subbranches by great devotees and empowered incarnations of the Lord like Vyasa, Narada, Sukadeva Gosvami, the Kumaras, Kapila, Prahlada, Janaka, Bali and Yamaraja But in the Srimad-Bhagavatam especially, the confidential parts of His activities are described by the confidential devotee Sukadeva Gosvami. Vedanta-sutras or Upanisads there is only a hint of the confidential parts of His pastimes.
22 [SB ] yada hy adharmena tamo-dhiyo nrpa jivanti tatraisa hi sattvatah kila dhatte bhagam satyam rtam dayam yaso bhavaya rupani dadhad yuge yugeWhenever there are kings and administrators living like animals in the lowest modes of existence, the Lord in His transcendental form manifests His supreme power, the Truth Positive, shows special mercy to the faithful, performs wonderful activities and manifests various transcendental forms as is necessary in different periods and ages.
23 Key pointsThe basic philosophy of Isopanisad: everything is the property of the Supreme Being. No one should encroach upon the property of the Supreme Lord. One should accept only what is kindly awarded by Him. The living beings are certainly His parts and parcels, or sons, and thus every one of them has a right to live at the mercy of the Lord to execute his prescribed work. No one, therefore, can encroach upon the right of another individual man or animal without being so sanctioned by the Lord.
24 Key pointsThe king or the administrator is the representative of the Lord to look after the management of the Lord's will. Such kings have full responsibility and knowledge from authorities about the administration of the world. But at times, due to the influence of the ignorance mode of material nature (tamo-guna), the lowest of the material modes, kings and administrators come into power without knowledge and responsibility, and such foolish administrators live like animals for the sake of their own personal interest. The result is that the whole atmosphere becomes surcharged with anarchy and vicious elements. And the devotees of the Lord or the faithful are persecuted by all means. All these symptoms indicate the time of an incarnation of the Lord to reestablish the principles of religion and to vanquish the mal-administrators. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavadgita.
25 Key pointsThe Lord then appears in His transcendental form without any tinge of material qualities. He descends just to keep the state of His creation in a normal condition. The normal condition is that the Lord has provided each and every planet with all the needs of the native living beings. They can happily live and execute their predestined occupations to attain salvation at the end, following the rules and regulations mentioned in the revealed scriptures. The material world is created to satisfy the whims of the nitya- baddha, or everlasting conditioned souls, just as naughty boys are provided with playing cradles. Otherwise, there was no need of the material world. When they become intoxicated with the power of material science to exploit the resources unlawfully without the sanction of the Lord, and that also only for sense gratification, there is necessity of the Lord's incarnation to chastise the rebellious and to protect the faithful.
26 Amazing LordWhen He descends, He exhibits superhuman acts just to prove His supreme right, and materialists like Ravana, Hiranyakasipu and Kamsa are sufficiently punished. He acts in a manner which no one can imitate. He is famous as the asamaurdhva, unparalleled. No one is equal to or greater than Him.
27 [SB ] aho alam slaghyatamam yadoh kulam aho alam punyatamam madhor vanam yad esa pumsam rsabhah sriyah patih sva-janmana cankramanena cancatiOh, how supremely glorified is the dynasty of King Yadu, and how virtuous is the land of Mathura, where the supreme leader of all living beings, the husband of the goddess of fortune, has taken His birth and wandered in His childhood.
28 Key pointsIn the Bhagavad-gita the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna has expressively given a description of His transcendental appearance, disappearance and activities. The Lord appears in a particular family or place by His inconceivable potency. He does not take His birth as a conditioned soul quits his body and accepts another body. He exists at all times and at every place, but by His causeless mercy when He appears before us we take it for granted that He has taken His birth.
29 Key pointsAnyone who can understand this truth, in terms of the statements of revealed scriptures, certainly becomes liberated just after quitting the present body. Liberation is obtainable after many births and after great endeavor in patience and perseverance, in knowledge and renunciation. But simply by knowing in truth about the Lord's transcendental births and activities, one can get liberation at once. That is the verdict of the Bhagavad-gita.
30 Key pointsBut those who are in the darkness of ignorance conclude that the Lord's birth and activities in the material world are similar to those of the ordinary living being. Such imperfect conclusions cannot give anyone liberation. His birth, therefore, in the family of King Yadu as the son of King Vasudeva and His transfer into the family of Nanda Maharaja in the land of Mathura are all transcendental arrangements made by the internal potency of the Lord.
31 Key pointsIf simply by knowing the transcendental nature of the birth and activities of the Lord one can get liberation easily, we can just imagine what is in store for those who actually enjoyed the company of the Lord in person as a family member or as a neighbor. All those who were fortunate enough to associate with the Lord, the husband of the goddess of fortune, certainly obtained something more than what is known as liberation. Therefore, rightly, the dynasty and the land are both ever glorious by the grace of the Lord. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | Pile-CC |
Correlations among human plasma levels of dioxin-like compounds and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and implications for epidemiologic studies.
In studies of the potential health effects of background-level exposure to organochlorine compounds (e.g., polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, and polychlorinated dibenzofurans), investigators have often measured either polychlorinated biphenyls or polychlorinated dibenzodioxins/polychlorinated dibenzofuransbut not both. We measured polychlorinated biphenyls (including specific non-, mono-, and di-ortho congeners) and specific polychlorinated dibenzodioxins/dibenzofurans among 63 Canadian blood donors. Levels of these compounds were, in general, fairly correlated. For example, Pearson's correlation coefficient between log total polychlorinated biphenyl and log total polychlorinated dibenzodioxins was .52. These results suggest that in epidemiologic studies of health effects of background-level exposures to these compounds, the quantitative dose-response relation observed for a given compound (or class of compounds acting through a similar mechanism) may easily be miscalibrated or confounded. | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Abstracts |
Background
==========
Over the last two decades, minimal access techniques have gained widespread acceptance as an approach to radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer.
The evidence advocating laparoscopic over open approaches for cervical cancer has been based on a number of retrospective studies that have been summarised in two meta-analyses ([@B34]; [@B36]). These studies found that a minimal access approach to cervical cancer surgery was associated with less blood loss, less post-operative complications, and a shorter hospital stay compared with open surgery with no difference in survival ([@B34]; [@B36]). Subsequent studies with a combined cohort of over 1000 patients have shown similar findings ([@B32]; [@B33]; [@B5]).
In 2018, the publication of two studies has resulted in the efficacy of a minimal access approach for cervical cancer to be questioned ([@B25]; [@B30]). The first is an analysis of data from the USA National Cancer Database (NCDB) ([@B25]). That study reports both a lower survival in women who have had a minimally invasive radical hysterectomy compared to open surgery and also demonstrated that the adoption of laparoscopic surgery coincided with a lowering of the four-year relative survival rate ([@B25]). The second is a randomized controlled study (LACC trial) comparing laparoscopic and open radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer and reported that minimally invasive radical hysterectomy was associated with lower rates of disease free and overall survival compared to an open approach ([@B30]). Moreover, data on adverse events from the LACC trial have been recently published ([@B29]) without finding any difference in terms of intra-operative and post-operative complications between minimal invasive and open surgery. This is in contrast with several meta-analyses based on non-randomised studies on cervical cancer and with multiple randomised controlled trials (RCT) and a Cochrane meta-analysis comparing open and laparoscopic hysterectomy in endometrial cancer ([@B10]).
The National Clinical Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines of 2019 state that 'Previous iterations of the guidelines indicated that radical hysterectomy could be performed via open laparotomy or minimally invasive surgery (MIS) laparoscopic approaches, using either conventional or robotic techniques'. The guidelines then state, 'Given recently presented findings of significantly poorer survival outcomes with the minimally invasive approach compared to the open approach in a randomized controlled trial of women with early-stage cervical cancer, women should be carefully counselled about the short-term versus long-term outcomes and oncological risks of the different surgical approaches' ([@B28]). Despite the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology(ESGO)/ European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO)/European Society of Pathology (ESP) guidelines of 2018 stating that a 'minimally invasive approach is favored' ([@B4]) a recent survey among ESGO members showed that 57% of responders had already changed their approach to open surgery a few months after the LACC trial results. Moreover 50% of members, still consider MIS to be appropriate for small tumors.
In this document we assess the importance of these two new papers and what their additional contribution is towards existing studies into the surgical approach to cervical cancer. Furthermore, we provide a consensus statement of the European Society Gynaecological Endoscopy (ESGE) and the Society of European Robotic Gynaecological Surgery (SERGS) as to the position of minimal access techniques (both standard and robotic) in light of this new evidence.
A Cohort Study ([@B25])
-----------------------
This study reported on a cohort study looking at women who underwent radical hysterectomy for stage IA2 and IB1 cervical cancer and included 2461 women in the combined arms of both minimal access (n = 1225) and open approaches (n = 1340). Data were obtained from the NCDB and covered the years 2010 to 2013. There was a second part to this paper which was an interrupted time series analysis involving women who underwent radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer during the period of 2000--2010 using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. For the NCDB analysis, the authors reported that over a median follow-up of 45 months, the 4-year mortality from any cause was 9.1% among women who underwent minimally invasive surgery and 5.3% among those who underwent open surgery (hazard ratio, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.22 to 2.22; P=0.002). One patient who had minimal access surgery died peri- operatively compared to three in the open group.
Even if the apparent quality of this study comes from the large number of patients included, another meta-analysis ([@B36]) that reported on survival differences between open and laparoscopic surgery and an additional two papers published subsequently ([@B32], [@B5]) with similar number of patients totalling 2334, show no differences in the recurrence rate.
Moreover, some comments can be made in respect to the multivariate analysis that has been reported in more detail in the supplement to the paper. Variables in the Cox multi-variate analysis included age, race, insurance type, grade, lymph node status, tumour size and adjuvant treatment. The authors justified their choice of variables in the supplement. However, histological type was not included in the multi-variant analysis even though there were significantly more cases of adenocarcinoma in the laparoscopic arm. Instead, histology comparisons have been shown as a separate uni-variant sub- analysis. Furthermore, the incidence of parametrial invasion and positive margins were not included in the Cox proportional hazard model and although not significantly so, there were more of those in the laparoscopic arm compared to open surgery.
The analysis of the SEERS database covered a different time period (2000-2010) to that of the NCDB. The total numbers could be calculated from the supplement to the paper and consist of about 437/ 5991 (7.3%) of women who received a minimal access approach. The article reported that before the adoption of minimally invasive radical hysterectomy (2000--2006), the 4-year relative survival rate among women who underwent radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer remained stable and that the adoption of minimally invasive surgery coincided with a decline in the 4-year relative survival rate of 0.8% (95% CI, 0.3 to 1.4) per year after 2006 (P=0.01 for change of trend). The authors have used a calculated temporal trend analysis based on a statistically non-significant drift observed prior to the introduction of MIS. Furthermore, the use of 'relative' survival over actual cancer-specific survival has resulted in improved results for the pre-2006 era. The authors have included the actual figures obtained from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Result (SEER) database in their supplement and the four-year cancer-related survival both before and after January 2006 is almost identical in both arms at about 92%.
Another consideration about this article is the fact that it covered a period when MIS has been performed by early adopters both for standard laparoscopy and robotics. Furthermore, for robotics, the dates covered a time prior to the introduction of third and fourth generation robotic technology. This is important to recognise since in this study nearly 80% of the MIS cases were performed using a DaVinci robot.
The main critics of 'big data' studies consistently point to the population being examined and the accuracy of the data entered. Whether it should bear more weight over other observational studies is controversial. The data from the NCDB cohort is already out of date and we eagerly look forward to the data from 2014 to 2016. The SEER data stopped at 2010 and could have been extended to 2013 also.
A Randomised Controlled Study -- Laparoscopic Approach to Cancer of the Cervix (LACC) ([@B30])
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The study reported a phase 3 RCT comparing 312 open radical hysterectomies with 319 laparoscopic or robotic radical hysterectomies in women with early- stage cervical cancer. The data and safety monitoring committee called for an early closure of the trial. This interim analysis, on almost 81% of patients accrued, revealed that the disease-free survival rate at 4.5 years was lower with MIS compared to open surgery (86.0% vs. 96.5%; difference -10.6%, 95%CI -16.4 to -4.7%) and that MIS had a lower 3-year rate of overall survival (93.8% vs. 99.0%; hazard ratio for death, 6.00; 95%CI 1.77 to 20.30).
Designing a surgical RCT is notoriously difficult as it is impossible to control for different surgeons' skills for different procedures. To ensure an adequate quality of MIS surgery, participating sites required accreditation from the trial management committee that involved a submission of peri-operative outcomes from a minimum of any ten MIS radical hysterectomies and two unedited videos of a MIS Piver-Rutledge type III radical hysterectomy.
It is unknown what the criteria was for assessing the videos and how many potential surgeons were rejected ([@B8]; [@B17]). This resulted in 297 women actually receiving a MIS approach among 33 centres. The fact that all the recurrences were clustered in 14 of 33 participating centres raises questions as to whether there were unique surgical factors affecting the result or perhaps these centres were bigger recruiters or started recruiting earlier.
It is not that the minimally invasive arm performed so much worse in the LACC study, but that open surgery performed unexpectedly well. There were only seven recurrences in 312 (2.2%) women in the open surgery arm. This is an extremely low percentage of recurrence. On the other hand, 27 (8.4%) recurrences in the minimally invasive surgery (MIS) arm corresponded well to the data reported in most large studies comparing robotic surgery with open surgery for cervical cancer ([@B32]; [@B33]; [@B30]; Wang et al., 2015[@B36],[@B37]; [@B6]; [@B11]; [@B39]). These studies have had recurrence rates for abdominal radical hysterectomy varying between 6,6 %-20% respectively ([@B32]; [@B33]; [@B30]; Wang et al., 2015[@B36],[@B37]; [@B6]; [@B11]; [@B39]).
The difference between MIS and open surgery for the 3-year overall survival (93.8% vs 99%) was wider compared to other studies present in the literature including the Melamed study ([@B25]) where a 4-years OS for MIS was 90.9% compared to 94.7% for open surgery. The sample size calculation of the LACC study itself was based on a disease- free survival rate of 90% in the open surgery arm. In the LACC study authors explained in the discussion that such difference is due to different analysis conducted: sequential comparison for retrospective study and concurrent analyses for RCTs.
One criticism of the study is the lack of a central histology review. In table S1 of the paper relative to postoperative histological characteristics there is a certain amount of "not reported data" on grade, invasion, vaginal resection margins, lympho-vascular space invasion (LVSI), and parametrial involvement that do not match with the amount of cases reported with "no residual disease". These parameters have tremendous influence on recurrence-free survival ([@B6]) and the absence of a central histological review is a lesson for future studies as is the lack of standardization for pre-operative assessments (including MRI) and criteria for referral for adjuvant treatment.
Patients in the LACC study included women from thirteen countries who had cervical cancer stages ranging from 1Ai (LVSI) to 1Bi. A total of 51 from 631 women (8.1%) had stage 1aii disease and under. Guidelines from ESGO/ESTRO/ESP ([@B4]) state that a parametrial dissection is not necessary for stage 1aii disease and under and the study probably does not completely reflect practice in Europe. At the other end of the spectrum, it is apparent that those cases with recurrence often had large tumours (\>2cm) and other poor prognostic features such as grade 3 disease, deep stromal invasion, and lympho-vascular invasion. Patients with multiple histological risk factors for recurrence at diagnosis who would require adjuvant therapy should be offered chemo-radiotherapy without previous radical pelvic surgery according to European guidelines ([@B4]). In the LACC study, most of the recurrences occurred in patients with large tumours. A supplementary table shows the histological characteristics of the patients who recurred in each arm but regrettably, tumour size and invasion are not included. If this had been included in this table, the reader would have been able to see which women would not have been offered surgery in their own institution. However, 27.6% and 28.8% of patients required adjuvant therapy in the open and MIS arms respectively. The proportion of women requiring adjuvant therapy was higher with exclusion of the cases with stage 1a disease.
There are a lot of positive aspects to this study and completing a RCT for cervical cancer surgery is a huge achievement in its own right. One concern is the early closure, with an enrolment of 85% of the planned participants. The published protocol includes a quality of life aspect of the study and we hope that the authors will publish this data in due course.
Discussion
==========
The two studies discussed above have changed the evidence balance from one where MIS radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer was thought to have less complications with an equivalent survival to one where it is uncertain if the survival following MIS is as good as open surgery and if the complication rates are any better ([@B34]; [@B31]; [@B33]; [@B5]; [@B11]; [@B38]; [@B2]; [@B7]; [@B9]; [@B12]; [@B14]; [@B18]; [@B20]; [@B21]; [@B24]; [@B27]; [@B32]; [@B35]; [@B23]). However, more recent studies have shown that MIS seems to be safe, with decreased morbidity and costs in women with tumours of less than 2cm but not in women with larger tumours ([@B5]; [@B16]; [@B13]; [@B22]).
The reasons for the results of the two studies have to be considered. It is possible that the results may be biased by factors already discussed. However, it seems logical that every measure that could be taken should be in case the hypothesis is true. One option would be to abandon all MIS for surgery in cervical cancer. However, if the complication rates for MIS are less, then that policy could also cause harm to patients. If MIS for cervical cancer results in more recurrences than open surgery, then we have to consider why.
The first reason why MIS might cause more recurrences that open surgery in cervical cancer is due to case selection. This is unlikely to have altered the results of a RCT but could account for the results in the Melamed study ([@B25]). A management plan should be made only after careful consideration of all aspects of a case with a multidisciplinary team approach, and appropriate counselling with the patient. This area and other aspects of care for cervical cancer is covered in the ESGO/ESTRO/ESP guideline on cervical cancer ([@B4]).
Another reason for the potential findings in the two studies might be related to a less radical approach to surgery in the MIS arm. This might be a competency-based issue. Therefore, it seems intuitive to recommend that experienced surgeons are present during such procedures and that such operations are only undertaken in centres of high volume. The guidance falls short of specifying the numbers required as this is unknown. However, with evidence that the number of radical hysterectomy procedures is dramatically falling, ([@B33]) and that from the literature data an acceptable level of surgical proficiency in LRH is from at least 25 up to 50 cases ([@B13]; [@B19]), it is sensible that institutions should keep a careful audit of their outcomes both in terms of survival, complications and quality of life.
A number of other factors have been proposed as reasons for a possible lower survival rate in MIS compared to an open approach for cervical cancer. These include the use of uterine manipulators, the carbon dioxide (CO~2~) pneumoperitoneum ([@B26]; [@B1]) and tumour contamination at colpotomy. Although the effects of these are unknown and the usage was not reported in either of the two new studies ([@B25]; [@B30]) it is instinctive that a surgeon should try to minimise any theoretical risk from these sources. Methods proposed in the past have included low CO~2~ pressures, washing with ringer solution, tying off the Fallopian tubes, not using a manipulator, sewing the vagina from below to seal off the cervical tumour, removing the bulky part of the tumour at the beginning of the operation, stapling the vagina and bringing the cervix and tumour into a vaginal tube with the assistance of a suture. Furthermore, it is sensible that lymph nodes should be placed in bags when stored in the abdominal cavity and for retrieval.
Recent preliminary results from the retrospective European SOCCOR study underlined that the use of a manipulator worsened the outcome among MIS patients ([@B3]). Moreover, Kohler et al. underlined how a combined laparoscopic-vaginal technique for radical hysterectomy with the avoidance of spillage and manipulation of tumour cells provides excellent oncological outcomes for patients with early cervical cancer ([@B15])
The next challenges will be to standardise the surgical steps to perform MIS radical hysterectomy and to undertake further RCTs to define the correct indications for MIS approaches. The use of video technology has advanced substantially since the onset of these studies and future research should consider including video evidence of every procedure.
ESGE and SERGS released a joint statement in July 2019 to highlight this debate and outline the opinion of the two societies on this debate (Appendix).
Conclusion
==========
The joint statement presented here is based on two new studies and pre-existing evidence. It is inevitable that new evidence will emerge over the next few years that will supersede that presented in this document and will result in modification of existing guidelines. For now, we do not recommend the abandonment of MIS for cervical cancer. For tumours of \> 2cm, MIS should be considered predominantly within clinical trials. However, the two papers described in this document will inevitably make surgeons reflect on how they counsel their patients and how they manage their surgery intra-operatively.
Joint Statement by the European Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy (ESGE) and the Society of European Robotic Gynaecological Surgery (SERGS) <https://esge.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ESGE-SERGS-Statement.pdf>
Common Working Group in Oncology ESGE: Mereu Liliana, Rovira Negre Ramon, Habib Nassir, Scambia Giovanni
SERGS: Ind Thomas, Kimming Rainer, Zanagnolo Vanna, Verheijen Rene HM
July 2019
Approved by the Executive Boards of ESGE & SERGS after open review in the websites of both societies
- The surgical management of cervical cancer is described in detail in a guideline from European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) / European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) /European Society of Pathology (ESP) ([@B4]) The general recommendations for the management of cervical cancer are that:
- Treatment planning should be made on a multidisciplinary basis (generally at a tumour board meeting) and based on prognostic factors for oncological outcome, morbidity and quality of life.
- Patients should be carefully counselled about the suggested treatment plan as well as potential alternatives. This should include the risks and benefits of all the available options.
- Treatment should be undertaken by a team of specialists dedicated to the diagnosis and management of gynaecological cancers.
- The lead surgeon for a radical hysterectomy for a cervical cancer procedure should be someone who participates in such procedures regularly and has a wealth of experience.
- Centres who perform radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer should audit their outcomes.
- A minimally invasive approach to radical hysterectomy either by standard laparoscopy or robotics can still be considered.
- When considering a Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer, women should be informed of all the evidence concerning the route of surgery in terms of complications and survival. The present evidence is;
- Many observational studies have shown no differences in survival between MIS and open surgical approaches.
- Two recent studies, the randomised study by Ramirez et al. and the epidemiologic study by Melamed et al. found that MIS radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer was associated with shorter overall survival than open surgery.
- All the studies were unable to find a difference in survival between MIS and an open surgical approach in the subgroup of women with tumours \<=2 cm.
- The randomised study by Ramirez et al. has shown a significantly better survival using open surgery for cervical cancer for large tumours (\>2cm).
- Both recent studies were unable to explain why MIS was associated with shorter survival.
- Many observational studies have shown a reduced complication rate for MIS compared to an open surgical approach.
- A recent randomised controlled study showed no difference in complication rates between an open and minimally invasive approach.
- During a radical hysterectomy, every effort should be made to avoid tumour cell spillage and contamination of the peritoneum during surgery. Techniques that have been employed include sewing closed the vagina prior to disconnection of the uterus, using a vaginal stapling device, and bringing the cervix into a vaginal tube using a suture. Furthermore, areas for consideration include techniques such as reducing unnecessary uterine manipulation; avoiding excessive intra-abdominal carbon dioxide pressures; and placing lymph nodes in bags rather than leaving them free in the pelvic peritoneum.
- ESGE and SERGS support the concept of confirmatory controlled trials.
- ESGE and SERGS support the concept of a standardised methodology for MIS radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer.
| tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | PubMed Central |
The Bell Curve
Originally prepared by: Brian Beatty
Revised:
The Bell Curve , published in 1994, was written by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray as a work designed to explain, using empirical statistical analysis, the variations in intelligence in American Society, raise some warnings regarding the consequences of this intelligence gap, and propose national social policy with the goal of mitigating the worst of the consequences attributed to this intelligence gap. Many of the assertions put forth and conclusions reached by the authors are very controversial, ranging from the relationships between low measured intelligence and anti-social behavior, to the observed relationship between low African-American test scores (compared to whites and Asians) and genetic factors in intelligence abilities. The book was released and received with a large public response. In the first several months of its release, 400,000 copies of the book were sold around the world. Several thousand reviews and commentaries have been written in the short time since the book's publication.
CONTENT
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CONTENT
Introduction - assumptions about intelligence
The Bell Curve begins with fundamental and important assumptions, makes assertions (supported by the author’s evidence), draws conclusions based on statistical analysis of the evidentiary data, and concludes with wide-ranging recommendations for national policy-makers to follow. The authors state that their main motive is, " the quest for human dignity." (p. 551). Their concluding paragraph seems to support this motive:
"Inequality of endowments, including intelligence, is a reality. Trying to pretend that inequality does not really exist has led to disaster. Trying to eradicate inequality with artificially manufactured outcomes has led to disaster. It is time for America once again to try living with inequality, as life is lived: understanding that each human being has strengths and weaknesses, qualities we admire and qualities we do not admire, competencies and incompetencies, assets and debits; that the success of each human life is not measured externally but internally; that all of the rewards we can confer on each other, the most precious is a place as a valued fellow citizen." (pp 551-552)
There is such a difference as a general factor of cognitive ability on which human beings differ. All standardized test of academic aptitude or achievement measure this general factor to some degree, but IQ tests expressly designed for that purpose measure it most accurately. IQ scores match, to a first degree, whatever it is that people mean when they use the word intelligent, or smart in ordinary language. IQ scores are stable, although not perfectly so, over much of a person's life. Properly administered IQ tests are not demonstrably biased against social, economic, ethnic, or racial groups. Cognitive ability is substantially heritable, apparently no less than 40 percent and no more than 80 percent.
TOP | OUTLINE | CONTENT | CRITICISMS
Part 1 - The Cognitive Elite
The Bell Curve, in its introduction, begins with a brief description of the history of intelligence theory and recent developments in intelligence thought and testing, through the eyes of the authors. The introduction concludes with six important assumptions that the authors build much of the Bell Curve's case upon. These six assumptions regarding the validity of "classical" cognitive testing techniques include:The authors proceed to explain, using classical cognitive test results primarily, to explain how lower levels of measured intelligence impact an individual's, or indeed an entire class or group of individual's life in American society. The rest of the book is divided into four major parts.
Part 1 (Chapters 1-4) describes the intelligence stratification of American society and the resulting emergence of a "Cognitive Elite". The essential conclusions of this Part of the book are that more intelligent (higher measured IQ) Americans are selected for college, and end up in fewer professions; American society is becoming cognitively stratified, with the Cognitive Elite crossing paths rarely with those of lower cognitive abilities. In the last half of the twentieth century, more and more Americans have been getting college degrees. College graduates have been funneled into a selective few occupations, especially for the brightest of the bright. The authors assert that more intelligent employees are more proficient employees, so that even among high-IQ professions like law, the highest IQ persons end up at the top. In addition, the authors argue that IQ tests could be the most important indicator of potential employee success, and therefore should be allowable as an input to the hiring process. A final point is made with respect to earnings based on cognitive ability. Since the cognitive elite are more proficient, they make more money, live in different areas, and send their children to different schools, churches, stores, etc. This leads directly to physical separation from the rest of society.
TOP | OUTLINE | CONTENT | CRITICISMS
Part 2 - IQ and Social Problems
Part 2 (Chapters 5-12) of the book addresses social groups at the low end of the cognitive ability spectrum. Assertions are made, and conclusions reached, concerning the propensity of people involved in anti-social or otherwise undesirable behavior or situations to be below average when measured for cognitive ability. The conclusions reached are summarized as follows:
Poverty - Low IQ is a strong precursor of poverty, even more so than the socioeconomic conditions in which people grow up.
- Low IQ is a strong precursor of poverty, even more so than the socioeconomic conditions in which people grow up. Schooling - Low IQ raises the likelihood of dropping out of school before completing high school, and decreases the likelihood of attaining a college degree.
- Low IQ raises the likelihood of dropping out of school before completing high school, and decreases the likelihood of attaining a college degree. Unemployment, Idleness and Injury - Low IQ is associated with persons who are unemployed, injured often, or idle (removed themselves from the workforce).
- Low IQ is associated with persons who are unemployed, injured often, or idle (removed themselves from the workforce). Family Matters - Low IQ correlates with high rates of divorce, lower rates of marriage, and higher rates of illegitimate births,
- Low IQ correlates with high rates of divorce, lower rates of marriage, and higher rates of illegitimate births, Welfare Dependency - Low IQ increases the chances of chronic welfare dependency.
- Low IQ increases the chances of chronic welfare dependency. Parenting - Low IQ of mothers correlates with low birth weight babies, a child's poor motor skill and social development, and children's behavioral problems from age 4 and up.
- Low IQ of mothers correlates with low birth weight babies, a child's poor motor skill and social development, and children's behavioral problems from age 4 and up. Crime - Low IQ increases the risk of criminal behavior.
- Low IQ increases the risk of criminal behavior. Civility and Citizenship - Low IQ people vote least and care least about political issues.
TOP | OUTLINE | CONTENT | CRITICISMS
Part 3 - IQ and Race
Part 3 (Chapters 13 - 17) addresses issues of a national focus, turning attention to cognitive and social behavioral differences between racial and ethnic groups. The controversy surrounding these topics, and the incredibly complex nature of the comparisons being made is acknowledged by the authors from the outset; the reader is cautioned to "read carefully". The assertions and conclusions reached in this part of The Bell Curve include the following:
Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability - East Asians typically earn higher IQ scores than white Americans, especially in the verbal intelligence areas. African-Americans typically earn IQ scores one full standard deviation below those of white Americans. The IQ difference between African-Americans and whites remains at all levels of socioeconomic status (SES), and is even more pronounced at higher levels of SES. Recent narrowing of the average IQ gap between black and white Americans (about 3 IQ points) is attributed to a lessening of low black scores and not an overall improvement in black scores on average. The debate over genes versus environment influences on the race IQ gap is acknowledged.
- East Asians typically earn higher IQ scores than white Americans, especially in the verbal intelligence areas. African-Americans typically earn IQ scores one full standard deviation below those of white Americans. The IQ difference between African-Americans and whites remains at all levels of socioeconomic status (SES), and is even more pronounced at higher levels of SES. Recent narrowing of the average IQ gap between black and white Americans (about 3 IQ points) is attributed to a lessening of low black scores and not an overall improvement in black scores on average. The debate over genes versus environment influences on the race IQ gap is acknowledged. The Demography of Intelligence - Mounting evidence indicates that demographic trends are exerting downward pressure on the distribution of cognitive ability in the United States and that the pressures are strong enough to have social consequences. Birth rates among highly educated women are falling faster than those of low IQ women. The IQ of the average immigrant of today is 95, lower than the national average, but more importantly the new immigrants are less brave, less hard working, less imaginative, and less self-starting than many of the immigrant groups of the past.
- Mounting evidence indicates that demographic trends are exerting downward pressure on the distribution of cognitive ability in the United States and that the pressures are strong enough to have social consequences. Birth rates among highly educated women are falling faster than those of low IQ women. The IQ of the average immigrant of today is 95, lower than the national average, but more importantly the new immigrants are less brave, less hard working, less imaginative, and less self-starting than many of the immigrant groups of the past. Social Behavior and the Prevalence of Low Cognitive Ability - For most of the worst social problems of our time, the people who have the problem are heavily concentrated in the lower portion of the cognitive ability spectrum. Solutions designed to solve or mitigate any of these problems must accommodate, even be focused towards, the low cognitive ability profile if they are to have any hope of succeeding.
Part 4 - IQ and Social Policy
Part 4 (Chapters 17 - 22) focus on the idea that we must all live together in this country of diverse cognitive ability, just as we must all live together in this nation of diverse racial and ethnic background. All major domestic issues that we address must include a component that takes into account the predominant cognitive levels of the target population. For example, if we want to implement a training program for unemployed men, we should realize that fully half of the target group will have measured IQ below 80. This should have a significant impact on the resulting social program or policy we establish. Specifically, the discussions in this part of the book, the culmination of the author's efforts, include:
Raising Cognitive Ability - If it were possible to significantly, consistently, and affordably raise intelligence, many of the negative consequences of societal low IQ could be mitigated or removed. However, historical attempts to raise IQ using nutritional programs, additional formal schooling, and government preschool programs (such as Head Start) have proven to have little if any lasting impact on intelligence as measured by IQ tests. The one intervention that has consistently worked to raise intelligence is adoption form a bad family environment into a good one. The authors recommend that children born to single mothers with low cognitive ability be voluntarily given up for adoption.
- If it were possible to significantly, consistently, and affordably raise intelligence, many of the negative consequences of societal low IQ could be mitigated or removed. However, historical attempts to raise IQ using nutritional programs, additional formal schooling, and government preschool programs (such as Head Start) have proven to have little if any lasting impact on intelligence as measured by IQ tests. The one intervention that has consistently worked to raise intelligence is adoption form a bad family environment into a good one. The authors recommend that children born to single mothers with low cognitive ability be voluntarily given up for adoption. The Leveling of American Education - The average American school child has not suffered from recent declines in overall school system measurements. Indeed, the focus of American public education has shifted more and more towards educating the average and below-average child to the exclusion of gifted children. Among the most gifted students, SAT scores have been falling since the mid -1960ís. No more than one-tenth of one percent of federal education spending is targeted towards the gifted students. As American education has been "dumbed down" to accommodate the average and below average students, the gifted students have been allowed to slide by without developing their true potential. The authors recommend that some federal education funds be shifted from disadvantaged programs to gifted programs, and that the federal government encourage parental choice in education through voucher programs, public school choice programs, or tax credits for education. A final recommendation is for educators to once again view as one of the chief purposes of our educational system to educate the gifted because the future of society depends on them, an education that fosters wisdom and virtue through the ideal of the "educated man".
- The average American school child has not suffered from recent declines in overall school system measurements. Indeed, the focus of American public education has shifted more and more towards educating the average and below-average child to the exclusion of gifted children. Among the most gifted students, SAT scores have been falling since the mid -1960ís. No more than one-tenth of one percent of federal education spending is targeted towards the gifted students. As American education has been "dumbed down" to accommodate the average and below average students, the gifted students have been allowed to slide by without developing their true potential. The authors recommend that some federal education funds be shifted from disadvantaged programs to gifted programs, and that the federal government encourage parental choice in education through voucher programs, public school choice programs, or tax credits for education. A final recommendation is for educators to once again view as one of the chief purposes of our educational system to educate the gifted because the future of society depends on them, an education that fosters wisdom and virtue through the ideal of the "educated man". Affirmative Action in Higher Education - The edge given to minority applicants to college and graduate school is an extremely large advantage that puts them in a separate admissions process. Asians are a conspicuously unprotected minority due in large part to their above average intelligence scores. The cost of affirmative action in higher education includes the psychological consequences of students admitted under affirmative action programs, at lower cognitive ability levels, being seen as a low proportion of the overall student population, but a high proportion of the students doing poorly in school. This can lead to increased racial animosity and the high black dropout rate on American campuses. The authors recommend a color-blind affirmative action, giving preference to members of disadvantaged groups when qualifications are similar.
- The edge given to minority applicants to college and graduate school is an extremely large advantage that puts them in a separate admissions process. Asians are a conspicuously unprotected minority due in large part to their above average intelligence scores. The cost of affirmative action in higher education includes the psychological consequences of students admitted under affirmative action programs, at lower cognitive ability levels, being seen as a low proportion of the overall student population, but a high proportion of the students doing poorly in school. This can lead to increased racial animosity and the high black dropout rate on American campuses. The authors recommend a color-blind affirmative action, giving preference to members of disadvantaged groups when qualifications are similar. Affirmative Action in the Workplace - Affirmative action programs in the workplace have had some impact, on some kinds of jobs, in some settings, during the 1960ís and 70ís, but have not had the decisive impact that is commonly asserted in political rhetoric. action does produce large racial discrepancies in job performance in a given workplace. Blacks have been overrepresented in white collar and professional occupations relative to the number of candidates in the IQ range from which these jobs are usually filled. The data suggest that aggressive affirmative action does produce large racial discrepancies in job performance in a given workplace. The authors recommend a color-blind affirmative action, giving preference to members of disadvantaged groups when qualifications are similar.
- Affirmative action programs in the workplace have had some impact, on some kinds of jobs, in some settings, during the 1960ís and 70ís, but have not had the decisive impact that is commonly asserted in political rhetoric. action does produce large racial discrepancies in job performance in a given workplace. Blacks have been overrepresented in white collar and professional occupations relative to the number of candidates in the IQ range from which these jobs are usually filled. The data suggest that aggressive affirmative action does produce large racial discrepancies in job performance in a given workplace. The authors recommend a color-blind affirmative action, giving preference to members of disadvantaged groups when qualifications are similar. The Way We are Headed - Three significant trends have emerged that, left unchecked, will lead the U.S. toward something resembling a caste society. These trends are: 1) An increasingly isolated cognitive elite, 2) A merging of the cognitive elite with the affluent, and 3) A deteriorating quality of life for people at the bottom end of the cognitive ability distribution. The authors see the continued polarization of society with the underclass anchored at the bottom, and the cognitive elite anchored at the top, restructuring the rules of society so that it becomes harder and harder for them to lose. The author's denouement of their prognosis is the coming of the "custodial state - an expanded welfare state for the underclass that also keeps it out from underfoot". The custodial state will have the following consequences: 1) Childcare in the inner city will become primarily the responsibility of the state. 2) The homeless will vanish. 3) Strict policing and custodial responses to crime will become more acceptable and widespread. 4) The underclass will become even more concentrated spatially than it is today. 5) The underclass will grow. 6) Social budgets and measures for social control will become still more centralized. 7) Racism will reemerge in a new and more virulent form.
- Three significant trends have emerged that, left unchecked, will lead the U.S. toward something resembling a caste society. These trends are: 1) An increasingly isolated cognitive elite, 2) A merging of the cognitive elite with the affluent, and 3) A deteriorating quality of life for people at the bottom end of the cognitive ability distribution. The authors see the continued polarization of society with the underclass anchored at the bottom, and the cognitive elite anchored at the top, restructuring the rules of society so that it becomes harder and harder for them to lose. The author's denouement of their prognosis is the coming of the "custodial state - an expanded welfare state for the underclass that also keeps it out from underfoot". The custodial state will have the following consequences: 1) Childcare in the inner city will become primarily the responsibility of the state. 2) The homeless will vanish. 3) Strict policing and custodial responses to crime will become more acceptable and widespread. 4) The underclass will become even more concentrated spatially than it is today. 5) The underclass will grow. 6) Social budgets and measures for social control will become still more centralized. 7) Racism will reemerge in a new and more virulent form. A Place for Everyone - In order to avoid the pessimistic custodial state conceptualized in the previous chapter, the authors propose a different scenario for American society in this chapter. The foundation to this alternative (more positive) scenario is the rethinking of equality and inequality.
CRITICISMS
The Bell Curve has inspired a literal mountain of response. A good summary of the critical response to The Bell Curve can be found in the book, The Bell Curve Debate , edited by Russell Jacoby and Naomi Glauberman (1995). The following sections are excerpted from The Bell Curve Debate:
Mismeasure by any Measure (excerpts)
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould is a professor of zoology at Harvard University; he is author of The Mismeasure of Man , Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes , and many other works.
His article originally appeared in The New Yorker , November 28, 1994, entitled "Curveball."
The Bell Curve, by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, subtitled Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, provides a superb and unusual opportunity to gain insight into the meaning of experiment as a method in science. The primary desideratum in all experiments is reduction of confusing variables: we bring all the buzzing and blooming confusion of the external world into our laboratories and, holding all else constant in our artificial simplicity, try to vary just one potential factor at a time. But many subjects defy the use of such an experimental method particularly most social phenomena because importation into the laboratory destroys the subject of the investigation, and then we must yearn for simplifying guides in nature. If the external world occasionally obliges by holding some crucial factors constant for us, we can only offer thanks for this natural boost to understanding. (p. 3)
The Bell Curve rests on two distinctly different but sequential arguments, which together encompass the classic corpus of biological determinism as a social philosophy. The first argument rehashes the tenets of social Darwinism as it was originally constituted. Social Darwinism has often been used as a general term for any evolutionary argument about the biological basis of human differences, but the initial nineteenth century meaning referred to a specific theory of class stratification within industrial societies, and particularly to the idea that there was a permanently poor underclass consisting of genetically inferior people who had precipitated down into their inevitable fate. The theory arose from a paradox of egalitarianism: as long as people remain on top of the social heap by accident of a noble name or parental wealth, and as long as members of despised castes cannot rise no matter what their talents, social stratification will not reflect intellectual merit, and brilliance will be distributed across all classes; but when true equality of opportunity is attained, smart people rise and the lower classes become rigid, retaining only the intellectually incompetent. This argument has attracted a variety of twentieth-century champions, including the Stanford psychologist Lewis M. Terman, who imported Alfred Binet's original test from France, developed the Stanford-Binet IQ test, and gave a hereditarian interpretation to the results (one that Binet had vigorously rejected in developing this style of test); Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yevv of Singapore, who tried to institute a eugenics program of rewarding well-educated women for higher birth rates; and Richard Herrnstein, a co-author of The Bell Curve and also the author of a 1971 Atlantic Monthly article that presented the same argument without the documentation. The general claim is neither uninteresting nor illogical, but it does require the validity of four shaky premises, all asserted (but hardly discussed or defended) by Herrnstein and Murray. Intelligence, in their formulation, must be depictable as a single number, capable of ranking people in linear order, genetically based, and effectively immutable. If any of these premises are false, their entire argument collapses. For example, if all are true except immutability, then programs for early intervention in education might work to boost IQ permanently, just as a pair of eyeglasses may correct a genetic defect in vision. The central argument of The Bell Curve fails because most of the premises are false. (pp 4-5)
Herrnstein and Murray's second claim, the lightning rod for most commentary, extends the argument for innate cognitive stratification to a claim that racial differences in IQ are mostly determined by genetic causes small differences for Asian superiority over Caucasian, but large for Caucasians over people of African descent. This argument is as old as the study of race, and is almost surely fallacious. The last generation's discussion centered on Arthur Jensen's 1980 book Bias in Mental Testing (far more elaborate and varied than anything presented in The Bell Curve, and therefore still a better source for grasping the argument and its problems), and on the cranky advocacy of William Shockley, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. The central fallacy in using the substantial heritability of within-group IQ (among whites, for example) as an explanation of average differences between groups (whites versus blacks, for example) is now well known and acknowledged by all, including Herrnstein and Murray, but deserves a restatement by example. Take a trait that is far more heritable than anyone has ever claimed IQ to be but is politically uncontroversial body height. Suppose that I measure the heights of adult males in a poor Indian village beset with nutritional deprivation, and suppose the average height of adult males is five feet six inches. Heritability within the village is high, which is to say that tall fathers (they may average five feet eight inches) tend to have tall sons, while short fathers (five feet four inches on average) tend to have short sons. But this high heritability within the village does not mean that better nutrition might not raise average height to five feet ten inches in a few generations. Similarly, the well-documented fifteen-point average difference in IQ between blacks and whites in America, with substantial heritability of IQ in family lines within each group, permits no automatic conclusion that truly equal opportunity might not raise the black average enough to equal or surpass the white mean. (p. 5)
Disturbing as I find the anachronism of The Bell Curve, I am even more distressed by its pervasive disingenuousness. The authors omit facts, misuse statistical methods, and seem unwilling to admit the consequences of their own words. (p. 6) Nothing in The Bell Curve angered me more than the authors' failure to supply any justification for their central claim, the sine qua non of their entire argument: that the number known as g, the celebrated "general factor" of intelligence, first identified by the British psychologist Charles Spearman, in I904, captures a real property in the head. Murray and Herrnstein simply declare that the issue has been decided, as in this passage from their 1970 Republic article: "Among the experts, it is by now beyond much technical dispute that there is such a thing as a general factor of cognitive ability on which human beings differ and that this general factor is measured reasonably well by a variety of standardized tests, best of all by IQ tests designed for that purpose." Such a statement represents extraordinary obfuscation, achievable only if one takes "expert" to mean "that group of psychometricians working in the tradition of g and its avatar IQ." The authors even admit that there are three major schools of psychometric interpretation and that only one supports their view of g and IQ. (p. 8) But this issue cannot be decided, or even understood, without discussing the key and only rationale that has maintained g since Spearman invented it: factor analysis. The fact that Herrnstein and Murray barely mention the factor-analytic argument forms a central indictment of The Bell Curve and is an illustration of its vacuousness. How can the authors base an 800-page book on a claim for the reality of IQ as measuring a genuine, and largely genetic, general cognitive ability and then hardly discuss, either pro or con, the theoretical basis for their certainty? (p. 8)
Like so many conservative ideologues who rail against the largely bogus ogre of suffocating political correctness, Herrnstein and Murray claim that they only want a hearing for unpopular views so that truth will out. And here, for once, I agree entirely. As a card carrying First Amendment (near) absolutist, I applaud the publication of unpopular views that some people consider dangerous. I am delighted that The Bell Curve was written so that its errors could be exposed, for Herrnstein and Murray are right to point out the difference between public and private agendas on race, and we must struggle to make an impact on the private agendas as well. But The Bell Curve is scarcely an academic treatise in social theory and population genetics. It is a manifesto of conservative ideology; the book's inadequate and biased treatment of data displays its primary purpose advocacy. The text evokes the dreary and scary drumbeat of claims associated with conservative think tanks: reduction or elimination of welfare, ending or sharply curtailing affirmative action in schools and workplaces, cutting back Head Start and other forms of preschool education, trimming programs for the slowest learners and applying those funds to the gifted. (I would love to see more attention paid to talented students, but not at this cruel price.) (p. 12)
However, if Herrnstein and Murray are wrong, and IQ represents not an immutable thing in the head, grading human beings on a single scale of general capacity with large numbers of custodial incompetents at the bottom, then the model that generates their gloomy vision collapses, and the wonderful variousness of human abilities, properly nurtured, reemerges. We must fight the doctrine of The Bell Curve both because it is wrong and because it will, if activated, cut off all possibility of proper nurturance for everyone's intelligence. Of course, we cannot all be rocket scientists or brain surgeons, but those who can't might be rock musicians or professional athletes (and gain far more social prestige and salary thereby), while others will indeed serve by standing and waiting. (p. 13) I closed my chapter in The Mismeasure of Man on the unreality of g and the fallacy of regarding intelligence as a single-scaled, innate thing in the head with a marvellous quotation from John Stuart Mill, well worth repeating: The tendency has always been strong to believe that whatever received a name must be an entity or being, having an independent existence of its own. And if no real entity answering to the name could be found, men did not for that reason suppose that none existed, but imagined that it was something particularly abstruse and mysterious. (p. 13) How strange that we would let a single and false number divide us, when evolution has united all people in the recency of our common ancestry thus undergirding with a shared humanity that infinite variety which custom can never stale. E pluribus unum. (p. 13)
TOP | OUTLINE | CONTENT | CRITICISMS
Scholarly Brinksmanship (excerpts)
Howard Gardner
Howard Gardner is professor of education and co-director of Project Zero at Harvard University; he is the author of Leading Minds (1995) and Frames of Mind (1983). His article originally appeared in The American Prospect , Winter 1994, titled "Cracking Open the IQ Box."
The Bell Curve is a strange work. Some of the analysis and a good deal of the tone are reasonable. Yet the science in the book was questionable when it was proposed a century ago, and it has now been completely supplanted by the development of the cognitive sciences and neurosciences. The policy recommendations of the book are also exotic, neither following from the analyses nor justified on their own. (p. 61) TOP | OUTLINE | CONTENT | CRITICISMS Scholarly brinkmanship:
... I became increasingly disturbed as I read and reread this 800 page work. I gradually realized I was encountering a style of thought previously unknown to me: scholarly brinkmanship. Whether concerning an issue of science, policy, or rhetoric, the authors come dangerously close to embracing the most extreme positions, yet in the end shy away from doing so. Discussing scientific work on intelligence, they never quite say that intelligence is all important and tied to one's genes; yet they signal that this is their belief and that readers ought to embrace the same conclusions. Discussing policy, they never quite say that affirmative action should be totally abandoned or that childbearing or immigration by those with low IQs should be curbed; yet they signal their sympathy for these options and intimate that readers ought to consider these possibilities. Finally, the rhetoric of the book encourages readers to identify with the IQ elite and to distance themselves from the dispossessed in what amounts to an invitation to class warfare. Scholarly brinkmanship encourages the reader to draw the strongest conclusions, while allowing the authors to disavow this intention. (p. 63) TOP | OUTLINE | CONTENT | CRITICISMS On divisive arguments:
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the book is its rhetorical stance. This is one of the most stylistically divisive books that I have ever read. Despite occasional avowals of regret and the few utopian pages at the end, Herrnstein and Murray set up an us/them dichotomy that eventually culminates in an us-against-them opposition. (p. 70) Who are "we" ? Well, we are the people who went to Harvard (as the jacket credits both of the authors) or attended similar colleges and read books like this. We are the smart, the rich, the powerful, the worriers. (p. 70) Why is this so singularly off-putting? I would have thought it unnecessary to say, but if people as psychometrically smart as Messrs. Herrnstein and Murray did not "get it," it is safer to be explicit. High IQ doesn't make a person one whit better than anybody else. And if we are to have any chance of a civil and humane society, we had better avoid the smug self-satisfaction of an elite that reeks of arrogance and condescension. (p. 71) TOP | OUTLINE | CONTENT | CRITICISMS On social policy:
Though there are seven appendices, spanning over 100 pages, and nearly 200 pages of footnotes, bibliography, and index, one element is notably missing from this tome: a report on any program of social intervention that works. For example, Herrnstein and Murray never mention Lisbeth Schorr's Within Our Reach: Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage, a book that was prompted in part by Losing Ground. Schorr chronicles a number of social programs that have made a genuine difference in education, child health service, family planning, and other lightning rod areas of our society. And to the ranks of the programs chronicled in Schorr's book, many new names can now be added. Those who have launched Interfaith Educational Agencies, City Year, Teach for America, Jobs for the Future, and hundreds of other service agencies have not succumbed to the sense of futility and abandonment of the poor that the Herrnstein and Murray book promotes. (p. 71) TOP | OUTLINE | CONTENT | CRITICISMS Concluding comments:
It is callous to write a work that casts earlier attempts to help the disadvantaged in the least favorable light, strongly suggests that nothing positive can be done in the present climate, contributes to an us-against-them mentality, and then posits a miraculous cure. High intelligence and high creativity are desirable. But unless they are linked to some kind of a moral compass, their possessors might best be consigned to an island of glass bead game players, with no access to the mainland. (p. 72)
TOP | OUTLINE | CONTENT | CRITICISMS
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (excerpts)
Leon J. Kamin
Leon J. Kamin is professor of psychology at Northeastern University; he is author of The Science and Politics of IQ , and with R. C. Lewontin and Steven Rose of Not in Our Genes .
His article is an expanded version of a review that appeared in Scientific American February 1995.
An overall perspective:
"The publicity barrage with which the book was launched might suggest that The Bell Curve has something new to say; it doesn't. The authors, in this most recent eruption of the crude biological determinism that permeates the history of IQ testing, assert that scientific evidence demonstrates the existence of genetically determined differences in intelligence among social classes and races. They cite some 1,OOO references from the social and biological sciences, and make a number of suggestions for changing social policies. The pretense is made that there is some logical, "scientific" connection between evidence culled from those cited sources and the authors' policy recommendations. Those policies would not be necessary or humane even if the cited evidence were valid. But I want to concentrate on what I regard as two disastrous failings of the book. First, the caliber of the data cited by Herrnstein and Murray is, at many critical points, pathetic and their citations of those weak data are often inaccurate. Second, their failure to distinguish between correlation and causation repeatedly leads Herrnstein and Murray to draw invalid conclusions." (pp 81-82)
On the subject of evidence sources:
"Herrnstein and Murray rely heavily upon the work of Richard Lynn, whom they described as "a leading scholar of racial and ethnic differences", from whose advice they have "benefited especially". " "I will not mince words. Lynn's distortions and misrepresentations of the data constitute a truly venomous racism, combined with scandalous disregard for scientific objectivity. But to anybody familiar with Lynn's work and background, this comes as no surprise. Lynn is widely known to be an associate editor of the vulgarly racist journal Mankind Quarterly; his 1991 paper comparing the intelligence of "Negroids" and "Negroid-Caucasoid hybrids" appeared in its pages. He is a major recipient of financial support from the nativist and eugenically oriented Pioneer Fund. It is a matter of shame and disgrace that two eminent social scientists, fully aware of the sensitivity of the issues they address, take as their scientific tutor Richard Lynn, and accept uncritically his surveys of research. Murray, in a newspaper interview, asserted that he and Herrnstein had not inquired about the "antecedents" of the research they cite. "We used studies that exclusively, to my knowledge, meet the tests of scholarship." What tests of scholarship?" (p. 86) Herrnstein and Murray cite the work of Arthur Jensen on reaction time testing and racial differences Kamin comments: "The cited Jensen paper (1993) presents data for blacks and whites, for both reaction and movement time, for three different "elementary cognitive tasks." The results are not, despite Herrnstein and Murray's contention, "consistent." Blacks are reported to have faster movement times on only two of the three tasks; and they have faster reaction times than whites on one task, "choice reaction time." Simple reaction time merely requires the subject to respond as quickly as possible to a given stimulus each time it occurs. Choice reaction time requires him/her to react differently to various stimuli as they are presented in an unpredictable order. Thus it is said to be more cognitively complex, and to require more processing, than simple reaction time. When Jensen first used reaction time in 1975 as a measure of racial differences in intelligence, he claimed that blacks and whites did not differ in simple reaction time, but that whites, with their higher intelligence, were faster in choice reaction time. He repeated this ludicrous claim incessantly, while refusing to make the raw data of his study available for inspection. Then, in a subsequent 1984 paper, he was unable to repeat his earlier finding in a new study described as "inexplicably inconsistent" with his 1975 results. Now, in the still newer 1993 study cited by Herrnstein and Murray, Jensen reports as "an apparent anomaly" that (once again!) blacks are slightly faster in choice reaction time than whites. Those swift couriers, Herrnstein and Murray, are not stayed from their appointed rounds by anomalies and inconsistencies. Two out of three is not conclusive. Why not make the series three out of five?"(p. 88)
On statistical abuse:
"The confusion between correlation and causation permeates the largest section of The Bell Curve, an interminable series of analyses of data gathered from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience of Youth (NLSY). Those data, not surprisingly, indicate that there is an association within each race between IQ and socioeconomic status (SES). Herrnstein and Murray labor mightily in an effort to show that low IQ is the cause of low SES, and not vice versa. Their argument is decked out in all the trappings of science a veritable barrage of charts, graphs, tables, appendices, and appeals to statistical techniques that are unknown to many readers. But on close examination, this scientific emperor is wearing no clothes." (p. 90) "Herrnstein and Murray pick over these data, trying to show that it is overwhelmingly IQ not childhood or adult SES that determines worldly success and the moral praiseworthiness of one's social behaviors. But their dismissal of SES as a major factor rests ultimately on the self-reports of youngsters. That is not an entirely firm basis. I do not want to suggest that such self-reports are entirely unrelated to reality. We know, after all, that children from differing social class backgrounds do indeed differ in IQ; and in the NLSY study the young peoples' self-reports are correlated with the objective facts of their IQ scores. But comparing the predictive value of those self-reports to that of quantitative test scores is playing with loaded dice." (p. 91)
On the relationship between poverty and intelligence:
"The core of the Herrnstein-Murray message is phrased with a beguiling simplicity: "Putting it all together, success and failure in the American economy, and all that goes with it, are increasingly a matter of the genes that people inherit." The "increasing value of intelligence in the marketplace" brings "prosperity for those lucky enough to be intelligent." Income is a "family trait" because IQ, "a major predictor of income, passes on sufficiently from one generation to the next to constrain economic mobility." Those at the bottom of the economic heap were unlucky when the IQ genes were passed out, and will remain there." (p. 91) "There are a number of criticisms to be made of the ways in which Herrnstein and Murray analyze the data, and especially so when they later extend their analyses to include black and Hispanic youth. But for argument's sake, let us now suppose that their analyses are appropriate and accurate. We can also grant that, rightly or wrongly, disproportionate salaries and wealth accrue to those with high IQ scores. What then do the Herrnstein-Murray analyses tell us?" (p. 92) "The SES of one's parents cannot in any direct sense "cause" one's IQ to be high or low. Family income, even if accurately reported, obviously cannot directly determine a child's performance on an IQ test. But income and the other components of an SES index can serve as rough indicators of the rearing environment to which a child has been exposed. With exceptions, a child of a well-to-do broker is likely to be exposed to book-learning earlier and more intensively than a child of a laborer. And extensive practice at reading and calculating does affect, very directly, one's IQ score. That is one plausible way of interpreting the statistical link between parental SES and a child's IQ." (p. 92)
On affirmative action:
"The Bell Curve, near its closing tail, contains two chapters concerned with affirmative action, in higher education and in the workplace. To read those chapters is to hear the second shoe drop. The rest of the book, I believe, was written merely as a prelude to its assault on affirmative action. The vigor of the attack is astonishing." (p. 98) "Now, at long last, Herrnstein and Murray let it all hang out: "affirmative action, in education and the workplace alike, is leaking a poison into the American soul." Having examined the American condition at the close of the twentieth century, these two philosopher-kings conclude, "It is time for America once again to try living with inequality, as life is lived...." This kind of sentiment, I imagine, lay behind the conclusion of New York Times columnist Bob Herbert that "the book is just a genteel way of calling somebody a nigger." Herbert is right. The book has nothing to do with science." (p. 99)
On the divisiveness of The Bell Curve's argument:
"That psychometric tradition of heads-I-win-tails-you-lose has been carried forward intact by Herrnstein and Murray. They acknowledge that James Flynn has demonstrated that across the world intelligence as measured by IQ tests has been increasing dramatically over time. Thus an average contemporary youngster, taking an IQ test that had been standardized twenty years ago, would have a considerably higher than average IQ score. Perhaps, Herrnstein and Murray suggest, "Improved health, education, and childhood interventions may hide the demographic effects.... Whatever good things we can accomplish with changes in the environment would be that much more effective if they did not have to fight a demographic head wind." Their conviction that "something worth worrying about is happening to the cognitive capital of the country" is unshakable. Imagine the heights that America could scale if a Ph.D. in social science were a prerequisite for the production of offspring! With environmental advantages working exclusively upon such splendid raw material, no head winds would delay our arrival at Utopia. And we would sell more autos to the Japanese." (p. 105)
"That is the kind of brave new world toward which The Bell Curve points. Whether or not our country moves in that direction depends upon our politics, not upon science. To pretend, as Herrnstein and Murray do, that the 1,000-odd items in their bibliography provide a "scientific" basis for their reactionary politics may be a clever political tactic, but it is a disservice to and abuse of science. That should be clear even to those scientists (I am not one of them) who are comfortable with Herrnstein and Murray's politics. We owe it to our fellow citizens to explain that the reception of their book had nothing to do either with its scientific merit or the novelty of its message." (p. 105) TOP | OUTLINE | CONTENT | CRITICISMS
BIBLIOGRAPHY Herrnstein, R. J. and Murray, C., (1994). The Bell Curve. New York: The Free Press. Jacoby, R. and Glauberman, N., eds, (1995). The Bell Curve Debate . Times Books. TOP | OUTLINE | CONTENT | CRITICISMS
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[people in Western Nagaland] said we [Naga] are free people, and we have a right for self-determination. They officially submitted the document to the British in 1929, saying that leave us alone to determine by ourselves as in the ancient times. The memorandum was written and submitted to the British government by the Naga Club, which was formed already in 1918. Based on that memorandum the Naga National Council (NNC) was formed in 1946.
[/fusion_fontawesome]Before India and Burma were granted independence, the Nagas declared independence to the outside world
Before our people were not organised as a nation. But after the formation of Naga National Council, all the villages of free Nagas were brought into a nation. The Naga national family stood to preserve and protect the sovereignty of Nagaland, and the Naga National Council clearly stated in a memorandum to the British that the Naga will remain as an independent nation. Without our knowledge, our nation should not be turned into the political sphere of India. It was stated and submitted to the British government.
Before India and Burma were granted independence, the Nagas declared independence to the outside world. We did it because we wanted to safeguard our future, our sovereignty. If not, the world would not know that Nagas are sovereign people.
So the British had no right to say that they handed over the Nagaland into Burma or India. We had already clearly stated to them our sovereignty in 1929 and following up in 1946-47. We clearly stated that Naga will remain an independent nation.
In 1951, the declaration of independence was reaffirmed by 99.9% of Naga people on May 16, when the NNC conducted a Plebiscite. The people’s verdict was to remain independent as in the ancient times, and immutable mandate was given to NNC to speak for the Naga people.
[/fusion_fontawesome]How can the British give our land to other nations, without our knowledge?
After Burma and India got their independence, they became free from the orders of colony. Since 1954, they started to colonise our country. That is when the war started. India started the war with the Nagas. We didn’t go to India, but they sent their armed forced to Nagaland and started fighting with the Nagas. So the war started between us. It is dragging on, unsolved, till today.
India and Burma had no right to invade Nagaland. They had no right to colonise Nagaland again. They themselves bitterly fought against the British colonialism. After they break from the British colony, how can they use the same colonialism against the Naga? They have no right to suppress the Naga people. They have no right to deprive the right of Nagas to be a nation. And the British had no right to give our land to India or Burma without our consent, without our knowledge.
In the Atlantic Charter from 1943, UN Charter, they say that no people or land shall be transferred to other nation without the people’s consent. That was made also by British and American people. So how can the British give our land to other nations, without our knowledge? Because of this war we have lost many lives. And the British are not attempting to solve the problem.
The problem started after the British left this Indian subcontinent. If British make clear our position, according to our memorandum submitted to them, then there should be no problem. But the British have failed to do that. In the Second World War the Naga helped their land forces a lot, to fight against their enemy. We have done a lot to help them. But instead of trying to help us, when India or Burma are giving us trouble, they quit. Karen also, Kachin also speaking in that way, the same thing. We feel bad.
[/fusion_fontawesome]Our country is occupied, our lands are not developed
Our NNC President submitted a memorandum to the UN in 1960 October. Our leaders asked for intervention by the UN in the atrocities committed by India against the Naga. But the UN did not attempt to intervene in the war. After that India started playing divide and rule policy. They started attempting to internalize the Indo-Naga conflict in the eyes of the international community.
The UN and the world community should help our people, should support our rights. We are not demanding anything from India. We are not demanding anything from Burma. It is our land. Before Burma became independent, and India, we talked to the leaders. We talked to Aung San and Mahatma Gandhi. They agreed that Nagas have every right to be independent. But after they [Burma and India] got independence they became our enemy, to fight against us. We don’t want to fight them! We want to be good neighbors with them. We are not their enemy.
If only they did not suppress us and keep us in the dark… The Nagas may have developed. But now, our country is occupied, our lands are not developed, our people are not developed.
[/fusion_fontawesome]I sleep in Burma, eat in India
NNC represents all Naga people. One Nagaland for Naga people. We think that the British had no right to draw the borderline in the heart of Naga country. The British are so far away from our country. How can they come and draw our border without our knowledge? Because of this border, if our home is in India, our fields in Burma, our kettle going around India and Burma. And this local village, Lungwa village, is divided into two parts. So Lungwa villagers have become two nations’ citizens. The village chieftain says that “I sleep in Burma, eat in India”. Because the border crosses in the middle of his house. How can we recognise that as a border?
If Gandhi and Aung San had lived, it might be different. Their successors arrogantly invaded our country. Nehru on India’s side and U Nu on Burma‘s side. U Nu and Nehru visited Nagaland on March 30, 1953. That day they came to Nagaland on their own initiative. Though they were not invited by the Naga people, our Naga leaders and Naga people prepared to request them to recognise the sovereignty of Nagaland, on that day. But at the beginning of the meeting it was announced that no Naga will be allowed to meet these two prime ministers nor to submit the memorandum to them. In protest, the Nagas walked out en mass to the last man.
Nehru disappointed the Naga people, and in April 1953, the Government of India started ruthless political persecution, including mass arrests, torture, and terrorizing against the Nagas. On April 13, 1953, the Indian Government even gave instructions to the Indian Armed Forces in Nagaland to rape Naga women. A letter of protest was subsequently sent to the Prime Minister of India against this abominable instruction.
And we heard that after the meeting Nehru and U Nu flew to Khamti and agreed to control Nagaland; Eastern part of Nagaland to be controlled by the Burmese, and Western part by India. Without our knowledge! They had no right to do that.
[/fusion_fontawesome]India and Burma; we don’t want your occupation of our land!
Many of the world people don’t know the back of the conflict. They say Nagas are on the wrong or hostile or this and that, but we’re not hostile, we’re not on the wrong!
We want to say to the world community that we want the support of the world community. Now in the world, many people are guarding and respecting human rights. The Burmese and Indian people are smart and civilized people, so they should nobly allow us to be a nation. The Nagas are a nation, and we will be a good neighbor with Burma and India.
For more than 60 years now we have been suffering. International community should acknowledge that Nagas are sovereign people. We want to say to India and Burma; we don’t want your occupation of our land! We have nothing to negotiate with them, but we just say withdraw your occupational forces from our country. Nagas are a free people. We did not sign to join Indian Union. We did not sign to join the Burmese either.
Even animals should not be kept in a cage. They should be free! In the free world. In Belgium, a few months ago, I think one zebra was killed and fed to the tigers and lions. The people said you shouldn’t deprive the animal of its rights. The value of human is more than an animal isn’t it? So why the Burmese and Indian can kill us freely, we don’t know.
[/fusion_fontawesome]Foreigners are not allowed to enter the Naga villages
Not much has changed in Eastern Nagaland since reforms [in Burma]. Now they say they are constructing roads and things like that. But mostly, the people are forced to work on the road, without payment. For example, a road was constructed between Lahe and Khamti maybe for more than 50 years. But even now, the road is not good. In the dry season they call the villagers; take your ration for one month, work on the road! The villagers are getting the stones from the river, for the road. Next year again they come and call the people. All these things are still happening. Some say the money to construct the road is going in the pockets of the Burma Army officers.
Many many human rights violations are there! But no organisations are there to report it. Raping, beating, illegally collecting money, threatening the people and taking their money or their domestic animals, cows, and pigs. All these things demanded by the Burmese army officers. Without payment all these things. [Read more about human rights violations in the Naga Hills in the report by Naga Youth Organization in 2010]
There is also religious persecution. They are forcefully converting the Naga Christian into Buddhist (click here to read more). Those who convert into Buddhism, they give them money and rice. They are giving more facilities to Buddhist Naga. If they have constructed a boarding house for the students, they will say no Christians are allowed. Christians are not allowed to stay in the boarding house, only Buddhist. And also for army training, no Christian is allowed. They only accept Buddhists. And no official will be promoted to higher rank if he is not Buddhist. If he wants to become an officer, he should deny Christ. Right now it is going on.
Foreigners are not allowed to enter the Naga villages. They are only allowed to come to the New Year festival, which is always during January. Foreigners are allowed to come there because they give more money to the Burmese army officers. But they are not even allowed to talk with the Naga people.
Naga New Year Festival photos (photo credit: NNC)
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This story is based on Shapwon’s voice as he tells Burma Link about Naga history and current issues.
Coming soon: Shapwon’s personal story and the incredible struggles he has been through to help his people.
Further reading: Naga Youth Organization (NYO) (2010). Life under Military Rule: Human Rights Violations of Nagas in Burma. A report by the Naga Youth Organization, Burma. Published in October 2010 | tomekkorbak/pile-curse-small | OpenWebText2 |
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