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Back in the mid-90s, Microsoft invented the Virtual Private Network, also known as the VPN. This breakthrough technology was developed so that remote employees could securely access their work network. Since then, VPN use has reached the consumer masses, allowing expats around the world to connect to a private network and access the web they know and love from back home.
But the benefits of a VPN go far beyond content access, extending into such philosophical issues as human rights and freedom of speech and expression. VPN technology has given a voice to millions. Here's how.
How Does a VPN Work?
What is a VPN?
A VPN functions very much like it sounds. It allows you to set up a completely private, secure connection to another network, generally in another country. This enables you to browse the web as if you were in that country, while also creating an encrypted tunnel for your data so it can't be intercepted by snoopers, hackers, and third parties.
Initially used as a way for employees to remotely and safely access their office network, consumer VPNs make the same benefits easily available to anyone, on any device.
Generally when you connect to a consumer VPN, you can select from a wide range of international servers and change your IP address — essentially a string of numbers that identifies your device's location on the web.
When you connect to an international VPN server, your actual IP address is masked and one of the VPN's IP addresses is what faces the world, mimicking an IP address of the country you've selected, and that's what allows you to experience the web as if you were actually sitting in your location of choice.
VPN Benefits
The major benefits of a VPN are four-fold and include the ability to: bypass online geo-restrictions and access otherwise restricted content and sites; protect your personal data from hackers and snoopers over unsecured Public Wi-Fi networks; conceal your digital footprints from government agencies, advertisers, and website owners; and last but not least, avoid online price discrimination to save considerable money on flights, rental cars, and software subscriptions.
VPN usage became especially popular in 2013 after the well-known Snowden leaks. Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee, leaked classified NSA documents that revealed the agency's extensive internet and phone surveillance.
For many of us, VPN benefits are undoubtedly invaluable. But for some, these benefits are essential — especially for citizens living in closed, highly censored societies.
Online Censorship Throughout the World
Over 65 countries around the world censor the Internet to some extent, and according to The Freedom House's "Freedom on the Net" 2015 report, the level of Internet Freedom is steadily declining.
The Great Firewall of China
China is the most notorious example. Commonly known as the Great Firewall of China, China's vast web of Internet censorship is among the most extensive in the world. The most popular and beloved social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, YouTube, and Instagram, are completely blocked.
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In addition to social networks and social networking apps, the world's leading search engine, Google, along with its many helpful utilities like Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Drive, is also unavailable. So is Duckduckgo, a search engine that doesn't track your online activity.
But even if you're on an approved search engine, many terms and keywords are still censored. For instance, spiritually-related topics like Falun Gong and of course, topics related to controversial political events such as Tiananmen Square are completely off limits.
Ironically, even some terms which could be potentially harmless like 'jiang,' which means river, are banned due to their association. Jiang is a common surname which happens to be tied to the rumours about the death of Jiang Zemin, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.
Along with social networks, popular search networks and specific search terms, international new sources, like the New York Times, and a number of photo and file sharing sites, like Dropbox and Flickr, are blocked as well. China's Great Firewall is so restrictive that China's Great Firewall inventor, Fang Binxing, was forced to use a VPN to bypass his very own creation when he gave a lecture on Internet safety.
Twitter Silenced in Turkey
But China is certainly not alone. In Turkey, apps and sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube have all been blocked at one point or another.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has even gone so far as to say that he is "increasingly against the Internet every day." In March of 2014, when discussing Facebook and YouTube to a rally of supporters, he stated: "We will wipe out all of these."
Two weeks later, prior to local elections and following the leak of potentially incriminating audio recordings, Twitter was blocked for several hours. One week later, YouTube was blocked as well.
Then in April of 2015, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were all blocked after photos of a prosecutor that was taken hostage and killed by militants began circulating on social media. The government demanded these networks remove these photos, and shortly after they complied, the sites went back online.
Most recently, social network outages occurred during both the Istanbul airport terror attack and military coup.
In the case of the airport attack, the Turkish government maintained the blocks were for "national security and public order."
Mother Russia's Rutnet
Russia is no friend of Internet freedom either. To more effectively censor, the country's controversial blogging law requires bloggers with more than 3,000 readers to register with the authorities and publish content under their real names. In May of 2015, international sites and social networks, including Google, Twitter, and Facebook, all came close to being blocked for their refusal to hand over the names of bloggers and remove content the Russian General Attorney deemed to be "extremist."
Prior to this, in April of 2014, Facebook, Gmail, and Skype came close to being banned due to the country's "anti-terror" data snooping laws, which threatened to block the services unless they stored data on Russian soil.
The Roskomnadzor, the Russian government's top Internet regulator, is very sensitive to several topics of choice including: political protest, profanity, drugs, suicide, "gay propaganda," and extremism. Because of this, pages like Reddit, GitHub, and Wikipedia have all been temporarily blocked. Youtube has also been in hot water. The entire site was almost blocked temporarily after hosting unauthorized copies of local Russian TV shows.
VPN Access & Freedom of Expression for All
In the face of online censorship, VPNs have proven to be a powerful tool for providing invaluable freedom of expression.
Fighting for Democracy: Uganda 2016 Elections
In February of 2016, the Ugandan presidential and parliamentary elections took place. This was a highly anticipated election for many who hoped to end the oppressive 30 year run of 71-year-old president Gen Y. K. Museveni and his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
But when citizens took to the polls, they discovered that their access to social media services, including Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp, had been completely cut off.
According to Museveni, these were temporary measures to stop people from "creating trouble" and "telling lies."
Left with no access, many Ugandans turned to VPNs. Over the course of the four-day ban, nearly 1.5 million citizens downloaded VPN software — 15 percent of the internet-using population.
With 77 percent of the population under 30 years old, Uganda is a country with the youngest population in the world, and so it's no surprise that social media, and the lack thereof, played such a pivotal role in this election.
On social media, citizens were able to express their views regarding the corruption and unjust practices surrounding the election that included the deaths and arrests of innocent people, the use of tear gas, and the complete absence of ballot papers and boxes in certain locations. The hashtags #UgandaDecides and the satirical #MuseveniDecides began trending on Twitter.
Although Museveni was ultimately declared the winner, with just over 60 percent of the vote, young Ugandans were victorious in their own right. Their determination combined with VPN technology allowed them to bypass unjust censorship, speak out, and exercise their right to freedom of expression.
Protecting the Environment: Protests in Vietnam
On May 16th of this year, the Vietnam government shut down Facebook and Instagram as dissidents tried to protest an environmental disaster that caused millions of dead fish to wash up on shore.
Citizens believe the disaster was caused by the Vietnamese government and Taiwan's Formosa plastics, specifically the wastewater with toxic discharge coming from the company's steel plant. Meanwhile, Formosa denied wrongdoing and the Deputy Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources claimed the fish deaths were caused by toxic algae bloom or industrial waste.
In an effort to speak out and protest, hundreds of people poured out into the streets to protest in cities including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Nha Trang, and more. They often used Facebook to organize the protests — hence the social media block.
Following suit, VPN providers experienced a surge in activity from Vietnamese users. One free proxy service, Hola, reported 200,000 Vietnamese users turning to their service over the course of one weekend.
For Vietnamese civilians, VPNs played a remarkable and pivotal role in their ability to speak out against environmental injustice and advocate on behalf of the natural world.
The Freedom to Communicate in Brazil
You know all those very useful calling apps you use to stay in touch with loved ones while you travel, or save on your phone bill? Well, you'd be surprised just how many countries censor and block them completely.
VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) apps, like Skype, Whatsapp, and Viber, are or have been blocked in numerous countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Pakistan, Egypt, and even Brazil — a country considered to be much more open and more moderate when it comes to Internet freedom.
Whatsapp has already been blocked three times in the country. The latest block took place on July 19th, but fortunately lasted only several hours. One block, however, in early May, took place over the course of 72 hours. Judge Marcel Mai Montalvão of the Sergipe state ordered the block as pushback after demanding Whatsapp turn over chat records related to a drug investigation. Yet Whatsapp, which now offers end-to-end encryption for 100 percent of the messages on its service, maintained they don't keep such data, nor would they be able to decrypt the messages even if they did.
The result was a ban that had an immense impact on the larger Brazilian public.
Whatsapp is hugely popular in Brazil. In a country of 200 million people, it is the second most used app with over 100 million users, many of whom had to turn to VPNs or other encryption apps, like Telegram, to continue their normal communications.
The Fight for Freedom of Expression: #UnblockTheWeb
Certain VPN providers, recognizing the power of their platforms, have stepped up to the plate to advocate, fight for, and offer freedom of expression and speech. SaferVPN is one of them.
"Shortly after we founded SaferVPN one of the first emails we received was from a mother from Azerbaijan, " said Sagi Gidali, Co-Founder and CPO of SaferVPN. "Her son was murdered in the army. She expressed to us that without our service she wouldn't have been able to fully access the web to tell his story."
"Thanks to the VPN," said Sagi, "she was able to bypass strict online censorship and express herself freely."
This got the Co-founders of SaferVPN really thinking about the value of their service and how they could make a greater change. So, together with the human rights crowdsourcing platform Movements.org, they established #UnblockTheWeb, an initiative to offer free VPN service to activists and dissidents who need it most.
Most recently the partnership provided much needed online anonymity and freedom to a coalition of online bloggers writing on behalf of cultural freedom and secularism in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, countless bloggers, atheists, and secular freethinkers have been the target of brutal attacks and murders by Islamic extremists. The need for such individuals to be able to speak out and express their views safely is absolutely essential.
"We realized we could offer much more than a premium service that allows expats to access their favorite streaming entertainment from back home — we could also serve the greater good with a service that has some really crucial benefits and value. Now, in the effort to further social justice and human rights, we see the very real impact of our technology."
Want to join us in the fight for freedom of online expression? Get involved with the cause at Unblock The Web.
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Army has to face the reality
Thursday, 25 April 2013 |
Pravin Sawhney
| in
Rhetoric will not do. Political parties must ask the Government the hard question: Is the 13 lakh strong Indian Army, which gets the lion's share of the $49 billion annual defence budget, adequately equipped and prepared to fight a war?
One year on is a good time to review the outcome of the confidential letter written by the then Chief of Army Staff, General VK Singh, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in April 2012, saying that the Army is unprepared for war. To be sure, he was referring to a war with Pakistan.
Within weeks of assuming office in May same year, the new COAS, General Bikram Singh, informed the nation that the Army was prepared for all eventualities, implying military threats from both Pakistan and China.
Union Minister for Defence AK Antony has since availed all opportunities, including the recently-concluded Army Commanders conference, to emphasise that modernisation is on track. While achieving so much in so little time is a miracle in itself, what was the fuss about General VK Singh's confidential letter that was leaked to the media?
The letter had said it all.
The mission reliability of mechanised vehicles is poor, the artillery is obsolete and inadequate, air defence is antiquated, armour is unreliable due to regular barrel accidents caused by mismatch between indigenous barrels and ammunition, night-fighting devices are insufficient, aviation corps helicopters need urgent replacements, and holdings of all types of missiles, anti-tank and specialised ammunition is critically low to last three to five days of war: This is what Gen Singh had written to the Prime Minister.
Following this, the Defence Minister asked Army Headquarters to fast-track acquisitions; the list of essentials was prepared overnight and sent. Unfortunately, the situation has deteriorated further in the last one year. On the one hand, nothing has come so far. On the other hand, missiles and specialised ammunition holdings which have a shelf-life, have dipped further.
At present, the Army does not have reserve stocks called War Wastage Reserves for most ammunition categories. It is mandatory for the Army to have WWR for 40 days of intense war for long-shelf life category, and 21 days of intense fighting for short shelf-life category like anti-tank, rocket artillery and missiles.
If this was not enough, Gen Bikram Singh has recently sought freezing of the 197 helicopters' deal meant to replace the aged Cheetah/Chetak helicopters of the seventies vintage, which are the life-line for troops that live on Siachen Glacier at heights between 12,000 feet and 21,000 feet. He has also asked for the cancellation of Spike Anti-Tank Guided Missiles urgently needed to hit Pakistani/terrorists hideouts in high altitude areas of Kashmir and Ladakh.
Both critical procurement processes have been going on since over a decade, and the Army has little to do with any wrongdoing, if indeed wrongdoings have happened.
In the case of the 197 helicopters, the finalists after extensive field trials are the Russian Ka-226T and the Eurocopter's AS 550 C3 Fennec. However, in an unrelated case of 12 AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters sold to India for VVIP use, an Italian probe has mentioned the name of Indian Brigadier VS Saini apparently asking for money to manipulate the same company's AW119 helicopter to win the 197 helicopter bid.
Considering that AW119 was out of the trials at an early stage, why has the Army chief denied replacements of obsolete helicopters by saying that the deal should be placed on hold till Brigadier Saini is cleared by the CBI?
imilarly, after extensive trials, the Israeli Spike ATGM has emerged as the best weapon for use in high altitudes to hit bunkers at 18,000 feet. To recall, the present Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, had first recommend Spike ATGM when he was the Indian defence adviser in Israel in 1997, two years before its operational utility was understood during the 1999 Kargil War where the Pakistani Army had dug itself into bunkers in high altitude areas. Since then, trials have been held of Russian Kornet-E and American Javelin ATGMs, both of which have been found unacceptable on different counts.
The reason given by the Army chief for withdrawing from the ATGM acquisition is that he did not want a single-vendor situation. Stated bluntly, in both cases — 197 helicopters and Spike ATGM — Gen Bikram Singh has covered up for what was the Defence Minister's call. Why has he done this? Is it not his highest moral responsibility to ensure optimal war preparedness of his Army?
It can be argued that Gen Bikram Singh has simply followed in his predecessors' foot-steps of making exaggerated claims during peace time. During the 1999 Kargil War, the then COAS, General VP Malik, told an incredulous nation that "we will fight with whatever we have" — really saying that the needed wherewithal was absent
Consequently, more young officers died than should have, and the artillery was pulled from other sensitive theatres leaving operational gaps which would have been disastrous had the Pakistan Army enlarged the conflict into an all-out war. There were umpteen media reports about Defence Ministry bureaucrats air-dashing to Russia and Israel, clutching suitcases filled with dollars to procure ammunition.
Similarly, during Operation Parakram, the 10-month long military stand-off between India and Pakistan in 2001-2002, the Vajpayee Government decided to finally not go to war.
Little known to the nation was the fact that the Northern Army Commander, Lt General RK Nanavaty had told the then COAS, General S Padmanabhan, that he lacked adequate equipment and ammunition for the war.
In the aftermath of 26/11 terrorists attacks in Mumbai when New Delhi was mulling over strong retaliatory action, there were reports that the COAS, General Deepak Kapoor, had expressed concerns to both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister Antony about equipment and ammunition deficiencies.
The truth is that since 1993, when then COAS, Gen BP Joshi, raised the Rashtriya Rifles forces for Jammu & Kashmir to quell Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, he used internal resources, depleting the Army's WWR.
His successor, Gen Shankar Roychowdhury, has written about this in his book,
Officially at Peace,
"No COAS has since cared enough, going beyond official communications, to make preparedness for war his top-most operational responsibility."
Political parties must now ask the Government the hard question: Is the 13 lakh strong Indian Army, which gets the lion's share of the $49 billion annual defence budget, prepared to fight a war?
(The writer is a former Indian Army officer and now Editor, FORCE, a newsmagazine on national security)
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Monday, January 2, 2012
Operation: Eighty-six the Baby Weight
Now, I've bought countless exercise videos in the past and have never seen any results; however, I'm feeling very motivated. I've also never had a blog before and I plan to track my progress publicly to try to keep myself accountable. Don't get excited...I'm not going to reveal my actual weight (I'm way too self-conscious for that!), but I'll let you know how much weight I've lost (probably monthly) and when I've reached my pre-pregnancy weight...which is my goal (once I hit that, I'll set a new goal!). I'll even let you know how many inches I lose...Tony (I might as well call him by his first name since we'll be spending so much time together) included a handy measuring tape in the kit too :} He seems to be pretty confident that his plan will show results in as little as one month. We'll see!
And so begins the journey...
4 comments:
Go you! I'm trying to get back on the P90X wagon myself. If you'd even like to come try one of the sessions with me (maybe a nice Yoga?) you and Cam are certainly welcome! And good for you for doing the meal plan. I don't do that, but I am still doing my meal replacement shakes and more soup for lunch type things. We can do it!ReplyDelete
Way to go, Ashley! I wish you the best of luck with your goals!!!ReplyDelete
I'm not a fan of meal replacement shakes. I agree with skipping that part. Let us know how the workouts go! I need to get into some strength training.ReplyDelete
Good for you friend! Big changes all around coming my way as well. We can motivate each other. I'm going to need the most help with healthy meal ideas! And someone to yell at me when I really want pizza. Or ice cream. Or cheesy, buttery potatoes.ReplyDelete


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Dec 28, 2008
Inspirational tale or horse abuse? You decide!
Tagline: The inspiring true-life adventure of a courageous young rebel who defied the odds...and won.
So the deal is this: either you like this movie, or you think it's an evil promotion of horse abuse. I guess this is a common occurrence with Disney, given that they tend to inspire love or hatred in everyone, but to truly get to the heart of the matter, one would have to really research horse diving. I don't have the time or patience for that, so I'll just chat about what I know after a cursory glance.
Horse diving. It happened. Lots happened, folks. People are easily entertained, and if a horse will willingly jump sixty feet into a pool of water, I guess this counts as entertainment. The thing is, this act was conceived in the 1880s and it took until the 1970s to legally bring it down. More to the point, it's still going on in a less severe form. I have read Ranch of Dreams, a book about an animal rescue farm and written by a preachy killjoy, about a former diving horse that wound up in an animal rescue after the act was shut down. The author was very snotty about horse diving, asking readers to imagine being trained to jump into a pool of water (amusing, considering professional divers have been trained to jump into a pool of water...hell, I have been trained to jump into a pool of water) and then be sold at auction when you're no longer useful...an auction where you could go to slaughter! Gasps all abound! Look. At least the horse had a job before people like that guy freaked out and made its job illegal, forcing the poor horse into auction where the kill buyers are looking for horses that have no purpose anywhere else. Good going, guy. That said, I don't think asking horses to jump sixty feet into water is a fantastic idea. It's certainly something I wouldn't be interested in paying to see. But if people are responsible about training the horse to do the trick, fine. Whatever. I watch horse racing, so I'm not throwing stones.
Now that we've resolved that, let's get to the movie. Sonora Webster and her sister, Arnette, are orphans living in Georgia. It's the Depression, and Sonora's an orphan living with her aunt, who is not doing too hot seeing as how they live in Georgia and it's during the Depression. In fact, Sonora's aunt is probably about ready to freak out, given that she's got too many kids around and for all we know she's a single mother. Sonora's inability to do anything other than stare at an advertisement for Atlantic City isn't helping matters, especially when she decides to chop off her hair in an attempt to appear fashionable. Her aunt flips out and smacks her around, then forces her to wear a paper bag over her head to school. Ah, tough love. Or no love. Whatever.
Sonora gets rid of the bag pretty quickly, and notices that the family horse is limping around in his paddock. She goes out there and removes a giant rock from his hoof, and proceeds to fondle him in a way only horse loving girls can. Then the classic horse story antagonist shows up, a girl who not only ridicules Sonora's hair, but puts down Lightning, the family horse. Sonora isn't having that, and starts to mouth off about how Lightning is the fastest, bestest jumper in the whole county! Well, horse story antagonist girl can smell that lie and dares Sonora to prove it. Not only that, she double dares her. You know things are serious now, so Sonora rips her hem off her skirt to fashion reins on Lightning's halter, leaps up on him, and heads him to a fence that he completely demolishes because he's a draft horse, for Christ's sake. The cows get out, and Sonora is late for school. She gets detention. Antagonist girl has the nerve to moo at her, and Sonora makes an attempt to pull one of the girl's braids before apparently deciding it would be much more satisfying to punch the girl in the nose. Sonora is suspended, but refuses to leave the school. Therefore she is ignored the rest of the day.
When she returns home, her aunt has discovered what has happened all ready, and has acted out by selling Lightning. Then she smacks Sonora again and tells her that she's sending her away to the state. She cannot handle this anymore, people. She is done. Sonora then makes the executive decision to run away, and does so after seeing an ad for diving girls in a local paper. So she runs off to a local fair, where Doc Carver has his diving horse show set up. There Sonora meets hot dog boy (I can't remember his name, but he later becomes important as Sonora's groom, ignored fanboy, and later the inventor of the motorcycle cage of death) before running into her true love, Al Carver, whom she saves by hiding his hidden ace right when some nitwits try to beat him up after rightly discovering he was cheating at poker.
She meets Doc Carver after Al indicates that the only thing fun in his life is gambling and whoring (oh, Al). Doc is not impressed with Sonora, and it's indicated all around during this meeting that he's not impressed with her because her breasts aren't large enough. Of course, maybe I'm reading into his lecture about strength, but when he points to the picture of his current diving girl, Marie, his pointer goes straight to Marie's much larger chest. And he looks flustered. Very flustered. Sonora refuses to go, so he picks up the chair she's clinging to and tosses her outside. She eventually finds Al, and guilts him into showing her around when she gives him back his ace. Then Doc gives her a job as stable hand and they go to Virginia, where Al gets a new horse from a poker game and convinces Sonora to help train him. Sonora names the new horse Lightning, and he's this gorgeous gray. If I'd bothered to screencap this movie, I would have been screencapping him constantly.
Eventually Lightning is trained, following classic horse story guidelines to romance while horse training (lunging together, check). Al eventually makes his move while they're swimming, kissing Sonora, and she freaks and swims off. Then Doc lays down the gauntlet, telling Sonora that if she can mount Lightning while he's moving, she can train as a new diving girl. After many, many, many falls, Sonora finally does it, all the while concerning Al to the point of flipping out at his dad, who smacks and then punches him. There is a lot of family dysfunction in this movie...way more than the normal amount. Anyway, Al decides to leave and tells Sonora he will write her. He does, but Doc burns all of his letters but one before Sonora can get to them.
Anyway, eventually Marie dislocates her shoulder and Sonora gets to be the diving girl. Marie quits in disgust at not being the center of attention, and Sonora is the main attraction for a while as they go from small state fair to small state fair. Eventually there are no more state fairs, given that the Depression is so bad and what all. Al comes back and miraculously saves Lightning from colic (or something like that), and asks Sonora why she never answered his letters. But, she did not receive any letters! But this doesn't matter. He has secured a contract at Atlantic City for the diving horse show, and on their way there Doc dies.
They arrive at Atlantic City. Al and Sonora get engaged, and then she has her disaster dive and hits the water with her eyes open. She hemorrhages and eventually goes blind, becoming increasingly pissy and annoyed with her life until Al decides to let her try to train again. It doesn't work out, and he gets Marie to come back to the show so they don't get kicked out of Atlantic City for breach of contract. But then Sonora decides to spend a night with Lightning, fondling him all over during a thunderstorm. I recall several years ago when I was watching this one day, that at this very scene my father passed by, paused, and asked me if I was watching The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. No. No, I was not.
Anyway, then the classic horse story kicks in full gear. Groom/hot dog/motorcycle boy locks Marie in her dressing room, switches the chestnut Marie normally uses with Lightning, and Sonora climbs up the ladder. Lightning is released just before Al realizes what's going on, and Sonora makes the jump despite being blind. Everyone is relieved and happy when both come out of the water unharmed. Then sappy voice over starts about how Sonora was a diving girl for the next eleven years and how she and Al lived happily ever after.
When Sonora Webster saw this movie, she indicated that the only thing true about it was that she dove horses for eleven years while blind, and she married Al. I guess she wasn't very much into the sentiment that this movie laid on pretty thick in places, but that's creative license for you. It's an okay movie, pretty typical Disney from that era. What I find the most interesting is that it's Michael Schoeffling's last movie, and I never realized that he was even in this until recently. And I just now realized he's the guy in Sylvester, another horse movie I loved when I was little (and there was teen sex in a stall in that one...I'll have to watch it again for sure). Apparently Michael Schoeffling lives in northeastern Pennsylvania and makes furniture now. This I find unfortunate, because if two of the ten movies he made were horse movies, imagine what he could have been typecast as. He could have been Brad Townsend. This saddens me.
So what's next, guys? I have a very impressive Netflix queue waiting me (141 dvds), but I can add new ones or send a specific title to the top of the list easily enough. More Wildfire? Another movie? What do you say?
Okay, so I'll finish this entry with a photo of real horse diving.
5 comments:
- Jessica Burkhart said...
That movie sounds SO familiar. I think I might have seen it years ago. But that photo of horse diving DISGUSTS me. Sigh.
- December 28, 2008 at 1:47 PM
- sundae_mourning said...
the Magic Forest! that place is only about twenty minutes from where i live and i spent many, many summer days there growing up. how cool to see it again...i haven't been there in at least ten years. my mom's got a photo of me sitting on a fiberglass Pegasus that surely was right near Lightning's pool, although i was so young that it was probably Rex's pool at the time. it was a fun place to go, though even as a child, i could never quite work out how i felt about horse diving. though for what it's worth, the horse really did seem to be happy. he climbed out of his pool, went over to his paddock and immediately rolled in the dirt as soon as he was done.
- December 28, 2008 at 3:03 PM
My dad took me to see this movie when it first came out. I couldn't have been more than eight, though I'm too lazy to look up when exactly it came out. Gabrielle Anwar definitely gave me some funny feelings though. I could be my own comic strip...The Li'lest Lesbian. God, I wish I could draw. That'd be fun.
Anyway, as far as horse diving goes, I see it on a similar level as racing, steeplechase, eventing, rodeos...some horses like their work. Some horses don't. Some horses get hurt or killed doing their work, and that's unfortunate and often implies that safety changes need to be made. That doesn't, however, inherently make it horse abuse. Sonora Webster insisted that the horses she worked with did indeed love it, and you know, people have accused me of being a monster for riding my horse. They believe that asking a horse to do ANY sort of work is cruelty and abuse. I think they're full of crap. I'd also like for them to go back in time and tell my horse that he HATED jumping and being a national-level competitor, because he seemed to think that he fucking LOVED IT. He loved jumping, and he LOVED the attention he got for it. He did eventually
die of knee problems that were hereditary but almost certainly exacerbated by years of hard work. But you know what? He had a reasonably long (he was about 20 when he died, not old for an Arab, but not young either) and VERY happy life where he was doted on and spoiled and loved. I hope his previous owners have no regrets, because I sure don't. Yet, people who never knew or even laid eyes on my happy, friendly, cheerful horse would immediately decide that I (and his other humans) was an abusive monster. So how can I make that snap judgement about any other line of horse, uh, careers? What the hell is the word to use there anyway?
Cleveland Amory is a douche. LOTS of horses end up at auction...no, it's not a great thing, but it has nothing to do with the horse's, uh, career. It has to do with owners who either don't care or are desperate.
Of course, I'm not entirely opposed to slaughter either. I wish it weren't necessary, but until dillweeds stop breeding their horses for the fun of it and churning out ugly, useless, worthless babies by the truckload, it's sadly going to be a necessity. Where do the OMG SLAUGHTER IS EVIL people think these horses are going to end up, exactly, if not slaughtered? There's not enough rescue space for them all, especially now, with the economy being what it is.
Okay, rants over.
- December 28, 2008 at 7:52 PM
- Zoe said...
I've never heard of horse diving. If the horses are treated right and they are happy doing this i wont bust on the people who invented it, but I really dont agree with it. That picture of the horse diving gives me the creeps. sort of weird and creepy if you ask me.
- May 8, 2009 at 2:31 PM
- 88Keys said...
Holy crap; I looooved this movie as a kid (and I was not a horse girl.) I thought no one else remembered it but me. I always thought it was kind of sad that Sonora ended up with Al instead of the groom guy that seemed to like her (and to actually be her age).
- July 28, 2009 at 11:20 PM


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This weekend was amazing! Traveled ten hours in a way-too-long car ride, but was able to make new friends during the ride, which definitely takes some of the pain out of long car trips. Learned a lot, a lot, a lot about something that's changed the way I see health that I am going to start sharing with people all over Utah (more on that in a future post). I'm really excited to get that going. But just being in San Fransisco, back in good old California, felt sooo good. I wish it had been LA though, because being north was just way too cold for me. I'm not ready for scarves and earmuffs yet, but they were definitely things that I was missing. After all the conferences and the learning, Chelsea (my lovely future sister in law) and I decided to go to Fisherman's Wharf and have some fun. Unfortunately, after being in Mexico for a summer, public transportation here in the states seemed so so expensive to me and we didn't want our bus pass to expire and have to buy a new one so we only hung out for a couple of hours. But we managed to:
- buy fudge and cookies for friends
- stare at Alcatraz for about a second
- take some pictures
- eat a very plain caesar salad
- take the wrong BART train
Ok, well now that I read that list, it's not super exciting, but we were having fun so everything seemed exciting. Anyway, I'm excited to come back and see more of this city!
That is Chelsea and me on our way to the city. And yes, she was giving fashion advice all night. 🙂
Also! Someone read this and talk to me! It is my current obsession and I don't usually talk to people about books, but I think Malcolm Gladwell is a genius and I think it would be fun to talk about. So out of the probably five people who end up reading this, I hope someone wants to.
So there you go, San Fransisco and Malcolm Gladwell inspired me this week.


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LONDON (CBS.MW) -- Pfizer PFE, +0.70% on Monday gave an update in Berlin on arthritis drugs. In separate studies it said: Celebrex arthritis drug takers have a significantly lower risk of safety problems, intolerability, and discontinuation patients than those taking diclofenac; Celebrex is associated with a reduced risk of ulcer complications; and its Bextra drug results in reduced medical costs compared to diclofenac. Pfizer shares fell 17 cents Thursday to $35.66 per share.
Pfizer releases Celebrex, Bextra drug studies
Quote References
+0.25 +0.70%


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Friday, June 15, 6:30 to 8:30pm
Live Music and Text performed by cellist Kit Mason and poet-musician Greta Ehrig
Space 7:10 at Kefa Cafe
963 Bonifant St. in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland
6:30 to 7pm: meet, greet, and eat
around 7:10pm: performance
Kit plays cello in the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and with the improvisational group Two Friends Jamming. She combines classical and traditional techniques in fiddle and folk-dance music, and is experimenting with using the cello as an accompaniment to singing. She is an alumna of Thrir Ventri Foetr (Three Left Feet), playing medieval and Renaissance dance music at the Maryland Renaissance Faire. Kit was the first artist to show work (Japanese ink drawings) at Kefa Café in the room that has become Space 7:10.
Poet, musician and songwriter Greta Ehrig has recently turned her pen to songwriting. Her "tender / sultry / thoughtful" lyrics lift off the page through "gorgeous melodies," varied guitar-work, and a "clarion voice" that other singer-songwriters liken to Suzanne Vega and Judy Collins. Greta gives as many as five performances a week in the mid-Atlantic area, and coordinates a house concert and literary series in Takoma Park, Maryland. She is currently at work on her first acoustic album. firstname.lastname@example.com


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My Thanksgiving was eerily quiet, save for a phone call from my dad. Not wanting to waste the day, I strolled around the Fisherman's Terminal in Ballard. It was eerily quiet there, too, but I was fortunate to visit on a day of rest, because otherwise these beautiful piles of fishing net and cages would have been in the ocean being tugged by a work boat instead of sitting on the curb, basking in the sun.
Friday, November 23, 2007
My Thanksgiving, in Pictures...
Posted by Ashley Anne at 8:09 PM
Labels: local
1 comment:
- Dan said...
pretty. wish i could get enough saved up already to get a digital slr. see what happens when you leave me be and i end up responsible for buying all this furniture that i don't want?
- November 26, 2007 at 9:29 PM
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text:
i want this office someday. so beautiful. simple. clean. and i love all the white. and the window. love it all.
photo found here.
there's a lot to catch up on, as usual, but for some reason i'm sitting here completely blank. i'm in the mood to just sit and stare at the wall. i feel tired, ya know? but it's a good tired because i've been pretty productive the past few days. we just got back from the beach with my family earlier this week and it was so perfect... i mean, really. goldie loved it so much, and she was so good which i was very thankful for. just a little angel, that one.
goldie's first moment with the ocean. she was squishing her toes in it, and later sat in it and put a handful of sand in her mouth. it was one of those perfect moments that i always dreamed about. she makes my dreams come true.
i've been thinking a lot about prayer. i know i've talked about it before, how much i appreciate the act of prayer. i guess i just feel like a lot of my prayers have been answered lately, whether they were in ways that i was hoping for or not.
heavenly father knows what's best for me. he always has, and he always will.
anyway, i have some photos that i need to post but i'll save that for another day. for now i'm just going to keep watching chopped and go make some roasted butternut squash.
hope you have a fabulous 4th of july weekend. we're going to celebrate it small-town style.


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Director : Eran Creevy, Producer : Rory Aitken, Producer : Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Producer : Ben Pugh, Writer : Eran Creevy, Cinematography : Ed Wild, Music : Harry Escott, Casting : Nina Gold, Casting : Sasha Robertson, Costume Design : Natalie Ward,
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The VL-10 ST Rifle was a model of blaster rifle available during the Galactic War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire.
Behind the scenesEdit
The VL-10 ST Rifle was first added to the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic as part of the Mid Rim Explorer Pack, which was released to the Cartel Market on June 9, 2015.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic (First appearance)


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Now Never Ends~
Her collection of Quotes, Poems, Sayings from all corners of the world. Read, Enjoy, Share! :)
Saturday, September 6, 2014
— Warsan Shire
Give your daughters difficult names. Give your daughters names that command the full use of tongue. My name makes you want to tell me the truth. My name doesn't allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right."
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Yeah. I know. I really don't update this blog too often, do I? And I really don't get to be creating with paper too often these days, either. My room is just too friggin' cold in the winter, and what a winter we've had! I've spent most evenings downstairs in my warm and cozy sofa, knitting and reading. But yesterday I finally sat down to create cards again.
Easter is coming up real soon! Wow, time flies. It feels like christmas was just here. I made a few Easter cards with papers from Imaginisce, and stamps by Penny Black. I always enjoy coloring with Promarkers. I need more colors, though. I heard they released some new ones while I was hibernating.
And then I made some clean & simple cards out of my beloved kraft cardstock. I really prefer the Clean & Simple style for myself, but I find it hard to mix with the fun of coloring. I guess I should stick to both.
Well, that's all for today, folks. Hope ya'll are enjoying spring :)
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Out of hibernation
Best wishes from Malin a.k.a. Boop at 9:58 AM
8 comments:
- May-lill said...
Kasandra fyller 12 år i morgen. Har du eller kan du lage ett kort til henne. Hun liker litt "dillette" ikke rosa gjerne med grønt.
Hillsen May-lill
- Mar 11, 2010, 10:47:00 AM
- Mette said...
Nydelige C&S-kort og påskekortene var kjempesøte! Har aldri laget påskekort selv, men nå fikk jeg lyst til det:)
- Mar 11, 2010, 11:30:00 AM
- Kreativmonster said...
Very nice cards - both kinds are rea´lly pretty. I cannot tell which I would prefer.
- Mar 11, 2010, 11:33:00 AM
- Marianne said...
Så søte de påskekortene var - herlige vårfarger :)
Likte veldig godt dine C&S kort også, spesielt det som går i turkis!
Ha en flott dag!
- Mar 11, 2010, 12:36:00 PM
- Aina said...
Så mange nydelige kort!!!
- Mar 12, 2010, 12:39:00 PM
- Maren said...
Nyyydelig!! :D
Ha en riktig god helg! :]
- Mar 12, 2010, 2:11:00 PM
- Norske Scrappere said...
Kjempe herlige kort.
Nydelige farger og herlig motiv.
- Mar 14, 2010, 9:23:00 AM
- ellabella said...
Beautiful work!!! Really good!!!
I like it!!!
LG Janine
- May 31, 2010, 9:14:00 PM
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Check out the fall colors around Lake Superior last month - from 220 miles above the Earth!
Photo courtesy of European Space Agency
Wow - looks like the real place to go for enjoying the fall colors next year is Lake Superior Provincial Park (over on the east side of the Lake).
That is, if you can't make it to the *real* real place to see the fall colors, in low-Earth orbit. I want to see that view!


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By Kevin Romary
January 19, 2009
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6Sports' Kevin Romary looks at the matchup between Kansas and Texas A&M.
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January 19, 2009
6Sports Preview: Kansas vs. Texas A&M January 19, 2009
Useless Fieldhouse Trivia with D.J. Whetter January 19, 2009
Taylor takes Freshman of the Week for third time January 19, 2009
GameDay Cram Session: Texas A&M January 19, 2009
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Thursday, 1 December 2011
Birthday Love
33 comments:
Awesome pressies from the ladies - I love the festive flamingo!ReplyDelete
Oh wooooooooohooooo I love all of those things, but Elvis, a jigsaw. My goodness, it is fabulous.ReplyDelete
Love the presents your received! What a great jigsaw, you must show us when it's done!!!ReplyDelete
Happy belated birthday!!! Catching up on posts so missed your birthday one - lovely pressies, and oooh that flamingo had your name on alright! xReplyDelete
Awesome xmas decoration! Happy birthday! :)ReplyDelete
I laughed and laughed about what you said about the sign Keep Calm and Get Cooking. Loved your post today.ReplyDelete
Lovely gifts for a lovely girl! So glad you had a great birthday. Can't wait to see your Christmas decorations. You know I love that Flamingo ornament! hugs, LindaReplyDelete
Happy Birthday. Love the post. And.........who doesn't love Elvis?ReplyDelete
Gorgeous - I especially love the fab flamingo!ReplyDelete
Sarah xxx
The xmas decoration is brill, love it xxReplyDelete
Lovely pressies and I hope the birthday was a good 'un!ReplyDelete
awww lovely pressies you got! and that flamingo is just perfect! xx susanReplyDelete
What lovely gifts! The swallow necklace is so pretty, and I like the little teacup brooch and Union Jack ring. That flamingo is an awesome Christmas decoration..you'll have one funky looking Christmas tree! :)ReplyDelete
Oh!! I love the flamingo!! Amazing!ReplyDelete
Jem xXx
Wow! Such lovely gifts. I'm loving the Elvis jigsaw it's very you indeed xxxReplyDelete
Happy belated birthday - loving the flamingo!ReplyDelete
Brilliant gifts, so you!!! Loo's flamingo is enough to make even me want a Xmas tree. xReplyDelete
Don't think I've ever seen a flamingo Christmas decoration before! Brilliant!ReplyDelete
Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger
Happy late Birthday love! I dig that Union Jack ring. Killer stuff!ReplyDelete
Happy be-lated birthday Scarlett!ReplyDelete
You got some fantastic things too. Hope you had a brill day even though there was no electric pussy in sight!
MBB x
You were spoiled - so cool...how lovely is Blog Land! :)ReplyDelete
A very late happy birthday to you - (I don't think I wished you HB before - sorry sorry.... bad memory in action).
Love that flamingo - absolutely wonderful.
aawww what super gifts ;-)) Loving that flamingo that made me smile. dee xReplyDelete
Oh that festive flamingo is the best Christmas dec I've ever seen!ReplyDelete
Lovely gifts, lucky you. xxxx
isn't it wonderful knowing that nobosy on this earth received that same set of gifts?!ReplyDelete
Such quirky, cute and imaginative finds - lucky you.
Have a brilliant weekend hun,
Lucy x
What cute stuff! More Elvis goodies.
Love the glittery flamingo.
lucky biatch!
oooh elvis what a great gift, somebody here really love you;)ReplyDelete
gorgeous pressies :) Happy belated birthday xxxReplyDelete
I'm loving the festive flamingo!!!ReplyDelete
Victoria xxx
What wonderful presents! And happy belated birthday to you!ReplyDelete
What lovely gifts.Happy Birthday.I love that ring and the flamingo ornament.Hope you had lots of cake.xxReplyDelete
Happy Birthday! Your gifts are super fun, hoping your day was too.ReplyDelete
woah, that christmas flamingo is AWESOME; the best deco I've seen on any blog so far into the silly season! happy birthday scarlett xReplyDelete
Happy Belated Birthday Scarlett. 21 again.ReplyDelete


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Letcher County Area Technology Center has a brand new "Medi-Man," a
human simulator that helps teach students how to diagnose and treat patients. The
"Medi-Man," purchased with the Center's latest Perkins Grant, has a
heartbeat, can breathe and talk as if it were a real person and comes with
software that allows the dummy to be programmed with diseases and illnesses. Whitesburg, Kentucky


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Belleville Area Humane Society
Until They All Have Homes
Join BAHS for this free family-friendly event! We've got tasty treats for pups and humans alike, games, dog pools, agility courses, vendors, and fun in the sun with your furry friends. We'll also be drawing winners in our Duck Raffle. Don't miss out!


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ICEF Southeast Asia WorkshopDate: Jun 14, 2017 — Jun 16, 2017
Hosted By: ICEF
Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
About this Workshop
The ICEF Southeast Asia Workshop provides international educators and service providers with the opportunity to meet quality, active student recruitment agents from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Southern China.
Following the success of the Thailand-Vietnam Roadshow in 2016, the ICEF Southeast Asia Workshop will address the immense demand for student recruitment in this region.
The ICEF Southeast Asia Workshop is a highly anticipated event and is expected to sell out quickly. Do not miss your opportunity to establish and develop links in this growing study abroad market.
Agents attending the workshop will represent the best and most active agencies from across Southeast Asia, providing a focussed opportunity to establish a robust network in these markets. All agents are carefully screened to strict ICEF standards and proven to send students to various institutions around the world.
In addition to face-to-face meetings, networking opportunities at lunch times, coffee breaks, and evening functions allow participants to develop the more social aspects of their business relationships.
The ICEF Southeast Asia Workshop is the most efficient and cost effective way to conveniently meet a large number of quality agents. It is a must for educators wanting to connect, build and maintain long-term partnerships in this important region.


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Overall amazing cruise!
Carnival Dream Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Sail Date: December 13, 2015
Ship: Carnival Dream
Cabin Type: Inside
Cabin Number: 7293
Traveled As: Couple
Reviewed: 2 years ago
Review Summary
I have no complaints about this cruise. Service was outstanding, food was incredible, and a variety of offered activities kept us busy. My favorite port was Grand Cayman. There were many nice shops, and the beach was the cleanest, prettiest beach I have ever seen, with crystal clear water.
Ship Experiences
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Ship Tip
All the food was delicious, but some of my favorites were the sea day brunch, the main dining room dinner, and room service pizza.
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Remember: Be polite and respectful. Our diverse community is home to members with different opinions and a broad range of cruise experiences.


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Former Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion defender Liam Ridgewell was one of the star performers this week in MLS, grabbing his first league goal since joining the Portland Timbers in late-June.
GK – Jon Kempin (Sporting Kansas City)
The 21-year-old homegrown keeper was making his first league start, after injuries to Eric Kornberg and Andy Gruenebaum, and came up with a couple of excellent saves to help KC claim an impressive 4-1 home win over Toronto.
RB – Akira Kaji (Chivas USA)
Signed in late-June from Gamba Osaka, the former Japanese international has had few problems settling into MLS since, with another solid outing in his side's 0-0 draw against Vancouver.
CB – Giancarlo Gonzalez (Columbus Crew)
After his impressive World Cup with Costa Rica, Gonzalez's form has carried over into MLS, with a rock-solid defensive effort and late goal in the Crew's 4-1 upset win over LA.
CB – Liam Ridgewell (Portland Timbers)
Ridgewell scored his first MLS goal in outstanding fashion to equalise against New England, while also putting in another stellar performance at centre-back to earn his side a 1-1 draw on the road.
LB – Taylor Kemp (DC United)
In just his second start of the season, Kemp proved his worth as a 2013 SuperDraft first-round pick with two assists to help defeat Colorado 4-2.
CM – Luke Mulholland (Real Salt Lake)
The Englishman has been one of the surprise packages of this season, with a goal and assist on the weekend earning his side a crucial 2-1 win over Seattle to send them top of the Western Conference.
CM – Tony Tchani (Columbus Crew)
Another member of the Crew's lineup to shine this weekend, Tchani did a fantastic job in the holding role against an in-form LA side, but also helped out in attack to pick up an assist on the night.
RW – Fabian Castillo (FC Dallas)
Castillo has been on a tear in recent weeks but his performance in the 5-0 thumping of San Jose was perhaps his best of the season, complimenting his talismanic outing with a brace and assist.
AM – Luis Silva (DC United)
With DC missing main man Eddie Johnson for the Colorado clash, Silva filled the void with two excellent finishes in the 4-2 win, as his side continue to exorcise the demons of 2013's last-place finish.
LW – Joao Plata (Real Salt Lake)
Netting his 11th goal of the season in the win against Seattle, the diminutive forward could well have made himself a surprise MVP candidate with his recent performances for Salt Lake.
ST – Tesho Akindele (FC Dallas)
Akindele is making a serious bid for Rookie of the Year honours, scoring his first career hat-trick against San Jose, as the partnership between him and Castillo continues to produce outstanding results.


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Two significant developments in recent days, each of varying importance to the devolution debate. Firstly, David Cameron's unguarded comments caught on microphone and secondly, the election to the leadership of the Labour party of Jeremy Corbyn.
As YDM was penning a blog piece in response to David Cameron's (jokey?) assertion that the people of Yorkshire hate each other as much as they hate the world, columnist GP Taylor in today's Yorkshire Post beat us to it. In his excellent piece he explains why the competing bids from local authorities – in regard to a devolution settlement – suggest why, to outsiders, relations within Yorkshire seem acrimonious. He draws the inevitable conclusion that a Yorkshire assembly is the best option: 'Yorkshire is a distinct region with its own culture and customs. It should therefore be granted its own assembly and be self determining in matters of finance, education, policing and welfare.' We, at YDM, would agree with that!
With regards to the election of a new Labour leader and its significance to the debate on devolution to Yorkshire, more later. It's fair to say in the meantime, that Jeremy Corbyn has never unambiguously supported the idea of a Yorkshire assembly or parliament, rather he prefers to see some sort of constitutional convention for the North. What is encouraging though, is his appointment of Hemsworth MP Jon Trickett as Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government, who will have responsibility for devolution. The Yorkshire Post reported him as saying, in July: 'In my view it is time to establish a single voice for Yorkshire to speak powerfully for our wonderful county.' He also dismissed the idea of a Mayor for Yorkshire instead 'suggested the region should be aiming for a "full scale devolved administration"'. Not much ambiguity in that statement and YDM wish him well in convincing the Shadow Cabinet, but more importantly, his party colleagues who lead councils across Yorkshire, that a Yorkshire parliament is the most obvious way forwards.
The Yorkshire Post has been making a laudable attempt to initiate a debate about Yorkshire devolution. The paper has carried a series of well written pieces from different viewpoints and is hosting a debate in a couple of weeks time (17th September in Leeds. Contact firstname.lastname@example.com to register). This is in stark contrast to the almost complete lack of public consultation and engagement from local council leaders who are the forefront of the devolution discussions. It was somewhat ironic that George Osborne, on his visit to Yorkshire yesterday, was reported as saying: "I want to hear what local councils, local people think." We don't know what he is expecting but we can tell him that local people are not engaged in the process at all. There is no vehicle for testing public opinion.
The real debate at the moment has to be around whether two city regions strike out alone or whether the devolution settlement is a Yorkshire wide one. YDM is of the opinion – naturally enough – that Yorkshire as a whole should be the basis for devolution. The Yorkshire Post's Tom Richmond captures our feelings precisely in his piece yesterday.
Gareth Shanks, the YDM secretary, looks at London's continuing airport fiasco.
London has always loved to take a much larger slice of the pie when it came to infrastructure spending, but the debate surrounding her future air links really takes the biscuit.
On one hand, the answer is expansion of the current airports in London, which will involve destroying large spans of housing and industrial estates – ensuring that any attempt to go forward with these plans will be met with stern resistance by campaigners.
While on the other hand, building a brand new airport in the Thames Estuary had initial building costs that were just shy of an eye watering £50 billion pounds: judging by how government budgets work, we can expect that figure to easily shoot up.
In 2004, when London was bidding for the Olympic Games, the original budget for the Olympic Stadium was 282 million. It ended at 547 million, almost double.
The Airports Commission recently declared it was against building a new airport, but there are still key influential members of both the National and London government who see it as a positive step forward.
Either way, London is set to take another huge sum of money to invest in its self while the rest of the country suffers from ever aging infrastructure. It is of no great shock that only recently a £38.5 billion five year plan to improve the North's train links, focusing on the trans-Pennine & the electrification of the Sheffield to London line, was shelved due to "rising costs".
Sadly, of course, it doesn't end there, in the run up to the General Election, George Osborne promised to support the One North plan should the country return a Conservative Government: the 15 year plan aims to spend £15 billion pounds on improving rail links between Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle.
He's now gone silent.
The question that doesn't seem to pop into the heads of the Westminster bureaucrats seems pretty clear to me, why does any new airport expansion have to be in London?
Obviously the London centric government we have in power couldn't ever possibly dream of spending such sums of money outside of their own back garden, but if they truly want to deliver on their pre-election promise to rebalance the economy of England way from London and towards the neglected regions, such as Yorkshire, then why not invest in a swathe of airports in the North?
Manchester & Newcastle airports both find themselves within the top ten busiest in the country (based on the 2013/14 figures) and Yorkshire has three international airports: Doncaster, Leeds and Humberside. Those airports handled a grand total of 4,235,442 passengers last year*. In addition to this, Doncaster has one of the longest runways in the entire country, which makes it a perfect destination for haulage planes transporting cargo.
We all know Yorkshire has been shafted when it comes to infrastructure in general, but if you thought it might have been a different case for our air travel, sadly, it isn't.
London will continue her quest to inwardly invest, regardless of the damage that the lack of development will do to our regional economies, quite simply because they don't have to worry about us until the next General Election.
*Passengers handled
Doncaster: 724,885
Humberside: 236,083 *2013 figures
Leeds: 3,274,474
Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority
News of the postponement of rail investment in the north and midlands somewhat fuelled the ire of those who thought the Government's support for a 'Northern powerhouse' was half-hearted at best. YDM blog came across this excellent piece from Sarah Noble. a Liberal Democrat activist in Calderdale, which sums up the feelings of many quite perfectly and which she has allowed us to reproduce. The original – along with readers' comments – is here.
Opinion: Ending the northern power cut
by Sarah Noble
Yesterday, Patrick McLoughlin announced what many of us had feared but were hoping would never happen: electrification of the train line between Manchester and Leeds was to be postponed, and possibly cancelled. The lynchpin of the Northern Powerhouse was pulled out and the plan predictably fell apart at the seams.
Three months ago, the Conservatives promised that £38 bn would be invested in the national rail network, mostly into electrifying the old diesel lines. This was so important to the Tories, we were told, that it was at the top of the manifesto. On page 11, the Tories outlined their plans for £13 bn for the North alone, going towards new trains, new lines, and new wires. And in one speech today, McLoughlin snuffed out the flame of hope in such a way on the Tories can.
The rail network in the North is completely dire, and bears all of the hallmarks of central government in London meddling time and time again. Serco-Abellio were awarded all but the actually profitable lines and told to run a vast network in the North using Cold War-era trains under the assumption that there was to be no growth and no investment in the Northern network. And to their credit, they've done a good job from what they've been given.
But rail in the north has grown beyond all expectations, and the small old "Pacer" trains, built on the cheap thirty years ago, can't take the strain any longer. New trains and new electric wires would enable the North to step into the twentieth century while London aimed towards the twenty-second. But with electrification across the North and Midlands all but cancelled, we cannot expect the trains to be off the tracks for good before the Disability Discrimination Act's deadline of 2019.
But, to nobody's surprise, rail schemes in the South escaped the cut. The worst thing is that this isn't a change in the state of affairs. Labour too must shoulder responsibility for the state of the North. They took their safe constituencies in the North for granted whilst bribing London with train line upon train line upon train line. Whilst Alistair Darling was busy approving Crossrail with its £20bn price-tag and funnelling more money into Thameslink, the DLR, and Terminal 5, tram projects in both Manchester and Leeds costing a fraction of the price got the axe from his department. All at the same time electrifying only nine miles of track. And they are now sowing the effects of complacency, with UKIP taking chunks of their support all across the North.
When compared to the two major parties, even doing nothing at all would make us come out smelling like roses. But we didn't do just that. In the coalition, we grabbed the nettle by the thorn and pushed for the approval of the biggest rail project for the North for generatins: the Northern Hub. We pushed for wide-ranging electrification. And when Network Rail's plans for electrification initially left out the Calder Valley line, local Liberal Democrats alongside our former transport minister, Baroness Kramer, lobbied for its inclusion.
As liberals, we know that the only way to prosperity is to give people the power to prosper, not by dictating that they must. We see in Scotland and Wales the success of proper representative devolution. And we see that, with the Northern Powerhouse, Osborne's city region mayors, overwhelmingly rejected in Sheffield, Manchester, and Leeds just three years ago, will now be one-eyed kings leading the blind.
In November, the Yorkshire and Humber regional conference overwhelmingly passed motions for proper and accountable devolution and prosperity. Yorkshire clearly wants to replace unaccountable layers of bureaucracy with a strong democratically elected Parliament. Manchester clearly wants its own powers to build its own path to prosperity. As our MP in Leeds North West, Greg Mulholland said, "Yorkshire is the real entity. It is Yorkshire that is the brand and that has the huge economic potential for growth". For a more prosperous North and for modern infrastructure, the only way forward is proper and accountable devolution. And we must push with every fibre of our resolve to secure that.
* Sarah Noble is a LGBT rights and feminist activist from Calderdale, and incoming executive committee member of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats.
For some time, George Osborne has been talking about a Northern Powerhouse. This is something ill-defined but which, in his imagination, can rebalance the out of kilter UK economy. Those of us at YDM have long felt that this approach – for Yorkshire at least – is limited in scope, divisive and undemocratic. Others are starting to feel the same, not least some Yorkshire MPs. Interestingly, over the past couple of weeks, we have seen the emergence of a new concept to challenge the Northern Powerhouse – that of a 'Yorkshire Powerhouse'. Its first airing seems to have been at Prime Minister's Questions on 3rd June in a question by Julian Sturdy MP and picked up by Greg Mulholland MP later in the same day in a debate on the Queen's Speech. Again this is a concept that is ill-defined, but nevertheless is a positive contribution to the debate about devolution in Yorkshire.
Both MPs' question/speech are reproduced below with the help of Hansard. It is interesting to read just how completely the Prime Minister fails to answer the question.
From Prime Minister's Questions on 3rd June 2015
Q2. [900036] Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con): Thanks to the careful financial stewardship of this Government, York's economy continues to grow, with unemployment a fraction of what it was five years ago. Will the Prime Minister assure me that his offer of devolution will percolate right through the great county of Yorkshire, empowering rural communities, as well as cities such as York, to deliver a Yorkshire powerhouse that rivals Manchester and London?
The Prime Minister: I certainly give my hon. Friend that assurance. He talks about the strength of the Yorkshire economy. The claimant count in his constituency —the number of people claiming unemployment benefit—has come down by 74% since 2010. We see the northern powerhouse as the linking of the great northern cities as a counterpoint and a counterpoise to the strength of London. We are making good progress on that, but we certainly want more money, resources and powers to be devolved to those cities. The York, North Yorkshire and East Riding local growth deal, for example, is creating at least 3,000 jobs and allowing 4,000 homes to be built. We have made good progress, but there is more to be done in this Parliament.
From the debate on the Queen's Speech 3rd June 2015
Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD): It is pleasure to follow the hon. Member for North East Hampshire (Mr Jayawardena). I congratulate him and other colleagues on their excellent maiden speeches. In my brief remarks, I will speak about devolution. May I ask your permission, Mr Speaker, to miss part of the winding-up speeches so that I can attend the special mass for Charles Kennedy and family? I would very much appreciate that and shall come to the Chamber immediately afterwards.
I am delighted that the Government are continuing to pursue the strong devolution agenda that the coalition Government set in place. The coalition finally stopped talking about devolution and actually started to deliver it. I am proud of the Liberal Democrats' role in that, including in devolution—though not as much as we would like—for Leeds and Yorkshire.
It is slightly strange, however, that the Liberal Democrats, having always been the party for devolution, are now listening to the Conservative and Labour parties saying how passionately they support devolution. That is extremely welcome, but it is certainly the opposite of what was pursued during the 18 years of Conservative Government and the 13 years of Labour Government—the two most centralising Governments in British history. I welcome that trend and this new-found passion for devolution that seems to be found across the House. As for what is on offer, I would like the proposals to go further. Indeed, I would like the Liberal Democrats as a party to be far more radical on devolution. I do not think that our manifesto was sufficiently radical or clear. I strongly urge the two contenders for the party leadership and the wider party to put us back at the forefront of the devolution debate by arguing strongly for real devolution across the whole of the UK and by dealing with the West Lothian question as well as regional devolution.
Devolution is clearly linked to economic growth. The Local Government Association has pointed out that radical reform would help to deliver £11 billion in savings for the taxpayer, generate £80 billion in growth, create 700,000 new jobs and enable us to build half a million new homes, which we clearly need. The thorny issue in Leeds and Yorkshire has been whether we need to have a mayor. As hon. Members have said, that was rejected in Leeds, as it was elsewhere, but we now accept that that is the Government's policy whether we like it or not. Clearly, we want to have devolution. If there is to be a push towards having an elected mayor, my challenge to Ministers and their team—I would warmly welcome positive and proactive discussions with them, with other colleagues in the House and with council colleagues—is this: instead of doing it on the basis of artificial metro areas, why can we not do what is the more obvious thing for our region and do it on the basis of the powerhouse of Yorkshire?
Yorkshire is the real entity. It is Yorkshire that is the brand and that has the huge economic potential for growth. It would be artificial to split the region. I am a very proud Leeds MP and Leeds is a huge economic driver of the country as well as our region but, to echo earlier comments, we need to ensure that devolution works for the rural areas as well as the towns and cities of Yorkshire. Yorkshire's population is identical to that of Scotland and its GDP totals over £100 billion, yet we have nothing like the powers given, rightly, to Scotland and have no ability, bar what councils have, to raise our own taxes and to make transport decisions. We still have to come cap in hand to the Department for Transport to ask for the much needed rail link to Leeds Bradford airport. I will continue to champion that until it happens. We should not have to come cap in hand to the DFT for that. Given the fairly modest cost, we should be able to deliver that ourselves. Similarly, with the rather poorly thought through new generation transport trolley bus scheme, we want the power locally to make bold decisions about 21st century transport solutions. To do that, we need real fiscal autonomy.
I urge Ministers genuinely to look again at the historic county of Yorkshire. The carve-up of Yorkshire is generally regarded as a mistake. Why not reunite Yorkshire and give us the opportunity to have a Yorkshire powerhouse that would fit with the Government's agenda but would also deliver real powerful devolution for one of the biggest and most important economic regions of our country?
posted this comment two days ago:
On 27th October 2010, Rt Hon David Blunkett MP asked the PM if he could think of one single reason why the people of Yorkshire should not determine their own priorities and one reason why they should not have their own White Rose Parliament. The PM failed to give Mr Blunkett any reason in either respect and I have yet to hear anyone give a response to what I call 'the Sheffield Brightside & Hillsborough question' that cannot be either defeated in argument or dismissed as rubbish! The truth of the matter is, if any part of the UK enjoys the benefit of determining their own priorities through their own devolved Parliament (or similar institution), there can be no reason why Yorkshire should not!
Like Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Greater London, Yorkshire is a recognized territory defining a strong identity. Yorkshire has a larger land mass than Northern Ireland and Greater London combined, a larger population than Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales, a stronger economy than Northern Ireland and Wales in total and the potential, with devolution, to have a stronger economy than Scotland. In fact, on a worldwide scale, in terms of land mass, Yorkshire is larger than 91 countries and in terms of both population and economy, Yorkshire is pretty much on par with the Republic of Slovakia which beats 131 countries on population and is 62nd best on economy. Yet, despite all this, unlike Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Greater London, Yorkshire has no devolved government in order to make its own decisions!
No part of the UK should enjoy greater devolution and democratic benefit than any other part yet in today's UK there are seven tiers of this ranging from near devo-max in Scotland to 'devo-lacks' in Yorkshire and other regions! In between we have the varying levels of powers devolved to assemblies, mayors, city regions, LEPs and combined authorities. This imbalance can only be redressed by either reducing devolution to those who have more, increasing devolution to those who have less or a combination of both, and let's face it, there is no way Scotland is going to be stripped of any powers it already enjoys! Scotland therefore sets the benchmark for the devolution and democratic benefit that must be distributed throughout the UK to achieve equality. That benchmark includes the powers devolved; the recognition of traditional boundaries and of the heritage, identity and loyalties of the people living within them; the standard of representation enjoyed by the people; the level of transparency and accountability offered to the people and the devolved institution most capable of delivering all those things, a directly elected parliament; all things for which the Yorkshire Devolution Movement has been campaigning over the last three years and of which we are determined to realize!
I have the greatest respect and admiration for Alisdair McGregor and his fellow Yorkshire Lib Dems; Alisdair for having the inspiration and commitment to drive the recent adoption, at regional level, of policy for a Yorkshire Parliament and Yorkshire Lib Dems for having the courage to adopt that policy despite having no backing from national level and despite their leader being committed to City Regions. I have similar respect and admiration for Lord Paul Tyler and Sir Nick Harvey who recently brought fresh thinking not only toward Lib Dem devolution policy at national level but to the major parties in general via their Centre Forum document, "A Devolution dialogue– Evolution or revolution?". Particularly pleasing is that in both Lord Tyler's proposal for devolution on demand to top tier institutions of regions with populations of at least one million and in Sir Nick Harvey's proposal for regional governments and restructuring of local authorities, the Yorkshire Devolution Movement is acknowledged and Yorkshire is specifically cited to support their respective cases.
Lord Tyler says, "Then there are huge areas like Yorkshire, which (even without 'the Humber') numbers just under five million. There is a longstanding campaign for a Yorkshire Assembly/Parliament, which would certainly demand an Assembly under the Devolution Enabling Act the Liberal Democrat Conference has endorsed. Local government in each area could be a matter for that area, subject to Devolution Agreement to which all the authorities in the area had signed up at the outset." He adds, "I agree, too, that while local leaders would necessarily take a lead, the process could and should include wider civic society. If the local County Council leaders in Yorkshire, were recalcitrant about a Yorkshire Assembly, they should be answerable at such a convention to the Yorkshire Devolution Movement." He goes on to say, "The Yorkshire Devolution Movement, for example, is clear that they would retain councils beneath a new Yorkshire Assembly in order to devolve 'powers to the least centralised authority capable of addressing…matters effectively within Yorkshire'. Sir Nick Harvey sums up, "Yorkshire (even without suborning part of Lincolnshire into 'the Humber') numbers just under five million. This is a much more credible basis for devolving serious power, Yorkshire has a strong identity and as Paul Tyler points out there is a campaign for a Yorkshire Assembly. Yorkshire would still need strong Local Governments underneath to represent its very different constituent parts, but like London it would be a good candidate for a first wave of our process."
However, surely if Lib Dems were intent on adopting the establishment of a Yorkshire Parliament or Government as national policy, they would have said so at the same time as announcing their support for the establishment of a devolved assembly for Cornwall? They did not do so! In addition to this, a couple of weeks ago YDM asked the three Lib Dem MPs holding Yorkshire seats, Greg Mulholland, David Ward and Nick Clegg, where they stand in respect of a Yorkshire Parliament but NONE of them took the opportunity to express their commitment to the idea! Whilst the policies within the pages of the Lib Dem manifesto remain to be seen, this does not bode well for the establishment of a Yorkshire Parliament being amongst them! If it is not, where would this leave those to whom the matter is of great importance? With both Yorkshire First and Greens having clearly committed to this already, would Lib Dems run the risk of losing Yorkshire voters and members alike due to the apparent lack of cohesion on this issue between national and regional levels and between party leader and other key personnel? We await the manifesto with great interest!
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As Liberal Democrats gather in Liverpool this weekend will devolution to Yorkshire feature in the party's manifesto for May?
Lord Tyler, the Liberal Democrat peer who is in the vanguard of those within his party pushing for a devolved parliament in Yorkshire, wrote a blog piece for Liberal Democrat Voice recently (reproduced below). Essentially he lays down the gauntlet for YDM to pick up and show the preferred option for devolution here is indeed a parliament and not city states or combined authorities. We can assure him we will be doing just that, up to and beyond, the General Election. However, what is needed from the Liberal Democrats nationally is to abandon the presumption that we want city states as proposed by that party's leader and that the form of devolution is a done deal. All options should be on the table otherwise it makes a mockery of the proposed Devolution Enabling Act (by the way can someone explain to us how that would work in practice?). As Liberal Democrats gather in Liverpool this weekend it will be interesting to see how this is fleshed out and whether devolution to Yorkshire feature in the party's manifesto for May.
Paul Tyler writes… Devolution: Who's next?
The eagle-eyed among LDV readers may have noticed last week good coverage for Nick Clegg's trip to Cornwall on St Piran's Day. As well as the usual round of school and business visits, Nick took the opportunity to publish a joint article on Cornish devolution with local Lib Dem Council Leader, Cllr Jeremy Rowe. For some reason the local papers, which published it, haven't put it online, so here's a link to it on my own website.
For the first time, Jeremy and Nick spell out how Cornwall could use the Lib Dems' proposed Devolution Enabling Act to form a Cornish Assembly, with powers over housing, education, health and public transport. They write:
Cornwall could alter right-to-buy, keeping back vital homes for 29,000 people waiting on the local housing list. We could change planning law and Council Tax so buying up second homes in Cornwall comes with a greater price. And Cornwall could blaze a trail, integrating local NHS services and funding with the social care which people rely on all year round – that alone could save millions of pounds and improve thousands of lives.
It's great to see the political concept of devolution brought alive with real examples of how an Assembly could vary "one size fits all" rules made in London, but which just don't suit the economy and environment elsewhere.
Cornwall's great advantage is that there is a measure of political consensus – with the notable exception of the Tories! – about what they want. The Devolution Enabling Act, if we get it on the statute book after May, will let them take it.
What is urgently needed is clear agreement – preferably across party, but certainly within the Lib Dems – on what other areas of the country want. I have never lived in Yorkshire, so don't presume to prescribe what local people should want there, but surely it's time to decide whether the Yorkshire Devolution Movement's call for a Yorkshire Assembly is the best way to go or whether smaller city-based institutions, perhaps based on the existing City Deal areas, are preferred. The Coalition has made strides in devolving responsibility to Sheffield and Leeds, but Whitehall relies on the lack of consensus about where to devolve power as an excuse to retain it in London.
It's unfair, of course, for me to pick out Yorkshire. I do so as a compliment – because the prospect of progress there seems clearer than almost anywhere else outside Cornwall. Every Lib Dem in every part of England should be thinking about how they would want a Devolution Enabling Act to be used in their area. To campaign for devolution, we must campaign on what Lib Dems locally would do with it. To do that, each area must decide!
Since the core purpose is to make a reality of subsidiarity (decisions taken as close as possible to the people they affect) this bottom-up initiative is essential. Far from attracting snorts of derision about more government, the coverage in Cornwall was almost all positive (see BBC and Western Morning News) with only Cornish Nationalists raging that they wanted both a Cornish Assembly and a continuing Cornwall-wide Council!
* Paul Tyler is the Liberal Democrat spokesman in the Lords on constitutional reform issues
Stewart Arnold writes:
Matthew Townend, a Reader of English and Related Literature at York University, has just published a book 'Viking Age Yorkshire' which I can thoroughly recommend as a hugely useful addition to the growing literature on the history of Yorkshire. Worth a read!
I attended a lecture by Dr. Townend in the Mansion House, York yesterday as part of the city's Jorvik Viking Festival which picked up several interesting extracts from his book and started to answer a few questions about Viking age Yorkshire.
It's impossible to summarise everything, after all the book runs to over 300 pages, but a few things stood out to me.
Firstly, although the name' Yorkshire' is a slight anachronism when it comes to Viking Age history ('Yorkshire' is not mentioned until the 11th century), the area or political unit it designates is not.
Secondly, having been established as a Viking kingdom for around 200 years, 'Yorkshire' was conquered and settled by the Anglo-Saxons or the 'English' as they called themselves. Essentially, 'Yorkshire' was colonised by the English from around the mid 10th century. A process that continued to the period of the 'Harrying' over a hundred years later.
Thirdly, there is no evidence that the Vikings gathered in Jorvik for an assembly or þing (thing). However, although now lost, Yorkshire 'boasted at least one example' of this: a site named Tingwala or Thingwala near Whitby, recorded in the 12th century but now lost. It is not beyond imagination therefore to think that a Viking parliament or þing for Yorkshire may well have existed.
Fourthly, Dr. Townend concludes 'the Scandinavian centuries were a defining period, not only on account of the events and developments of the period itself, but also for the regional sense of self, and sense of difference, which the period consolidated and bequeathed.'
All in all a fascinating lecture.
Chair of the Yorkshire Devolution Movement, Nigel Sollitt, writes:
As the general election approaches and candidates are selected across the country, the situation in Redcar throws up an interesting anomaly. The two recently formed regionalist parties, Yorkshire First (YF) and the North East Party (NEP) on the face of it could both be expected to put up candidates in the Redcar constituency. Both parties campaign for devolved power but whereas YF believes Redcar should be represented by a Yorkshire Parliament, NEP have plans to bring the people of Redcar under the same parliament as those of Newcastle.
The situation has arisen due to two measures imposed by the government, the Local Government Act 1972 (LGA1972), which restructured the boundaries of areas administered by local authorities, and the creation of Government Regions (GRs).
LGA1972 did not abolish traditional counties. It is therefore fact that the traditional county of Yorkshire still exists and that any town, village or piece of land that was part of Yorkshire prior to that Act coming into force in 1974, such as Redcar, is still part of Yorkshire now. Unfortunately, because those local authorities refer to the areas they administer also as 'counties', it has caused much confusion over the word and many people now believe, wrongly, that it was traditional counties that were altered or even eliminated. Yorkshire has been particularly adversely affected by this. We suffered the abominations of 'Cleveland' and 'Humberside', both now thankfully gone, along with parts of our county being placed under the administration of local authorities bearing such names as 'County Durham', 'Cumbria' or even 'Lancashire' and 'Greater Manchester'!
The introduction of GRs complicated the situation further. Again, the government paid no respect to the loyalties and identities of people when they decided which local authority areas would be included in which GR and as a consequence of this, parts of Yorkshire such as Saddleworth, West Craven and Sedbergh & Dentdale found themselves in the North West GR whilst former Startforth Rural District, South Stockton, Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland were placed in the GR of the North East.
The overall effect of this Westminster meddling is that, instead of Yorkshire being a clearly identifiable integral entity in all respects as it should be, the government has fragmented traditional Yorkshire between various alien local authorities and unnatural 'regions', thereby administratively separating Tykes of many settlements from the bulk of their historic homeland and county brethren in the GR of Yorkshire & the Humber. But despite the name of the GR or local authority, those places all remain parts of Yorkshire, including Redcar & Cleveland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redcar_and_Cleveland !
Redcar is situated in the territory of the former Brythonic kingdom of Ebrauc, the first of the ancient kingdoms to become part of the Anglo kingdom of Deira, the original name for Yorkshire https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mOa7BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT24&lpg=PT24&dq=deira+yorkshire&source=bl&ots=vu9HxPzrJP&sig=Dah0WUFMw-fv-aVI5C71K4T0nPg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GrqxVJmyDNLLaPnvgMAB&ved=0CCIQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=deira%20yorkshire&f=false . It has therefore been an intrinsic part of the heritage, culture, and history of Yorkshire for fourteen centuries. Compare such depth of identity to the mere twenty years since the North East GR was imposed upon the people of Redcar and it clearly puts into perspective where the loyalty and identity of Redcar folk lay! This is demonstrated by such facts as every year on 1st August they fervently celebrate Yorkshire day and last year actually hosted the Yorkshire Ridings Society for their Yorkshire Day ceremonies http://www.yorkshireridings.org/news/2014/08/redcar-highstreet-was-packed-today-when-yorkshire-day-fell-on-market-day-but-this-resultedin-a-bumper-turnout-for-the-annual.html , that they proudly support Yorkshire County Cricket Club and that since LGA1972 there have been many calls from Redcar for the area to be returned to Yorkshire administration including Councillor Chris Abbott's call for all south Teesside to embrace their Yorkshire heritage and Councillor Tristan Learoyd's call just last month for a referendum for Redcar & Cleveland to have closer Yorkshire ties rather than joining a combined Tees Valley authority with which nobody identifies http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/war-words-redcar-cleveland-council-8313601 .
I understand NEP intends to contest a dozen or so seats within the North East which comprises 30 parliamentary constituencies in total. Three of those 30 constituencies are wholly in Yorkshire (Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland and Redcar & Cleveland) with a further two being largely in Yorkshire (Bishop Auckland and Stockton South). Seemingly, this leaves more than twice as many North East constituencies that are wholly outside Yorkshire as there will be NEP candidates to stand in them. Why then, would they choose to contest a constituency that is bound to cause unnecessary conflict with a fellow regionalist party?
Whilst the Yorkshire Devolution Movement supports NEP and regional devolution in the North East, we must protest that the North East starts on the north bank of the river Tees and that anywhere between the Tees and the Humber is Yorkshire. It therefore follows that if any regional devolution party is to stand in constituencies between those two rivers, it should only be a party that stands for Yorkshire!
Nigel Sollitt, Chair, YDM
As blindingly obvious statements go, this is up there! 'English devolution is once more on the political agenda'
Lord Haskins writes in the Yorkshire Post that English devolution is once more on the political agenda. His acute observation cannot be faulted, nor his point that 'Yorkshire, with a population of 5.3 million, also has a strong popular identity'. However, he lets himself down in his call for federation of Yorkshire LEPs. He talks about this body demonstrating 'competency and accountability', but then nowhere goes on to explain how this is to be achieved. The history of the RDA in Yorkshire(which Haskins seems to want to recreate) was never one of accountability hence its unpopularity with Conservative politicians amongst others. He is dismissive of regional assemblies (and this from the man who Chaired the hapless 'yes4Yorkshire' campaign in 2004) not appreciating that the accountability for the LEPs he is seeking would be created in a single stroke with the setting up of such a body. In short, an interesting analysis but does little to further the devolution debate in Yorkshire.


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NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. -- New Rochelle resident Maya Holmes recently helped Ithaca College's Symphony Orchestra make beautiful music at Lincoln Center.
Holmes, a senior flute performance major in the Ithaca College School of Music, performed recently at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.
"Giving its students the opportunity to perform at one of the world's most prominent venues exemplifies the Ithaca College School of Music's creative and innovative training environment for young musicians," Jeffery Meyer, the orchestra's conductor, said in a statement. "The School of Music provides its students with a solid, traditional groundwork in musicianship and artistry while at the same time encouraging students to experience new musical connections that are adventurous, contemporary and relevant."
The Symphony Orchestra performed Ligeti's "Atmospheres" and Lutoslawski's "Concerto for Orchestra." The Ithaca College Choir sang "Laudibus in sanctis" by Byrd and "Hymn to St. Cecilia" by Britten. Both ensembles gave a combined performance of Poulenc's "Gloria."
Home to the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has been called by Frommer's Travel Guides as "New York City's foremost institution."
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text:
Research Project
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
Our purpose is to realize the following goals while changing the general education system and curriculum at the school of science and engineering ;(1) teaching and doing the research about multimedia simultaneously,(2) using high-level multimedia system,(3) making the research and education really situational and parallel,(4) making the system flexible enough in the respect of the management as well as the teaching content to meet the radical change of the information technology.(1) We have been applied and continue to apply our research results to the curriculum and system.(2) We produced the various kinds of stacks which we can use as the useful tools for teaching and authoring. And we made many data for the teaching materials.(3) The network system we designed are being used as teaching and research facility.(4) Our research was useful and efficient for training teachers and technical assistants.(5) The students' works are recorded in the CD-ROMs, and they gave the other students a good educational effect.
Published : 1996-04-01
Modified : 2016-04-21
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