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North Korea 2019
Written by Diana Thebaud Nicholson // December 10, 2019 // North Korea, U.S. // No comments
Jonathan Swan: Bolton knocks Trump administration for latest North Korea decision
(Axios) John Bolton, President Trump's former national security adviser, is publicly criticizing the Trump administration's decision to stymie a United Nations Security Council meeting on North Korea's human rights abuses. "We should take the lead, not obstruct other nations," Bolton tweeted on Tuesday. Bolton, who's already spoken out about what he views as Trump's misguided courtship of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, tagged me in his tweet — a sign that his latest criticism was in reference to the recent Trump administration decision at the UN.
8 December
The Guardian view on North Korea: a brewing nuclear crisis
Pyongyang's truce with Washington could end with terrible results. To avoid that, international efforts – notably from the US – are needed
North Korea often appears to have styled itself upon a James Bond adversary. We have seen the dramatic announcement of a deadline (New Year), followed by the arch threat that "it is up to the US what Christmas gift it will choose to get". (Experts predict a missile test.) Its fondness for baroque menace is matched by its flair for provocation – Sunday saw the announcement of a "very important" test at its Sohae site, which the US said it had agreed to destroy. A flurry of pictures of Kim Jong-un mounted on a white horse, at the sacred site of Mount Paektu, surely herald, according to state media, "a great operation to strike the world with wonder again". The theatricality is intentional: Pyongyang wants international attention. It should also be taken seriously. The North walked out of talks in October, frustrated that there is no sign of sanctions relaxation. The White House has reminded people that the US could use force and described Mr Kim as "Rocket Man" again – and warned he had "everything to lose".
18 October
Why North Korea walked away from negotiations in Sweden
Jung H. Pak
(Brookings) Sixteen months after the Singapore summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, nuclear negotiators finally met for eight hours in Stockholm earlier this month. The talks fell apart after just one day, with North Korea's representative Kim Myong Gil blaming the U.S. for its "failure to abandon its outdated viewpoint and attitude." North Korea's foreign ministry rejected the U.S. Department of State press release that described the conversations as "good discussions" and proposed resuming talks in two weeks. Instead, the foreign ministry stated that it has "no intention to hold such sickening negotiations…before the U.S. takes a substantial step to completely and irreversibly abandon the hostile policy" against North Korea.
16 October
Kim Jong Un rides white horse on sacred mountain – and plans 'great operation'
Experts speculated that the dictator's trip up Mount Paektu could signal a major announcement, amid faltering nuclear diplomacy with the United States. Rachel Minyoung Lee, an analyst with the NK Pro website based in Seoul, said Pyongyang's coverage of Kim's ride emphasized power and a hard line against concessions to the outside world.
(Wapo) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was shown riding a white horse in the snow on a sacred mountain, in several photographs released by state media Wednesday that experts said could presage a major announcement.
"His horseback march in Mount Paektu is a great event of weighty importance in the history of the Korean revolution," the Korean Central News Agency reported.
In North Korea's state mythology, Mount Paektu is supposed to be the spiritual home of the Kim dynasty and the birthplace of Kim Jong Un's father.
Kim purportedly "climbed" the 9,000-foot peak in shiny black leather shoes in December 2017, about 10 days after launching the country's largest intercontinental ballistic missile and less than a month before delivering a key speech that opened a diplomatic window for engagement with South Korea.
2 October
North Korea fired what may have been a submarine-launched ballistic missile from off its east coast, a day after it announced the resumption of talks with the United States on ending its nuclear program. If confirmed, it would be the most provocative test by North Korea since it started the talks with the United States in 2018. Analysts said it was likely a reminder by Pyongyang of the weapons capability it had been aggressively developing.
9 September
North Korea says it is willing to resume nuclear talks with U.S. in late September
(Reuters) – North Korea said on Monday it was willing to restart nuclear talks with the United States in late September, but warned that chances of a deal could end unless Washington takes a fresh approach.
14 August
By Robert Einhorn
US-DPRK negotiations: Time to pivot to an interim agreement
Editor's Note: This report was first published at 38 North, a project of the Stimson Center. It is republished with permission.
(Brookings) If and when U.S.-North Korea working-level talks resume, as agreed by U.S. President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un at their brief June 30 meeting at the Demilitarized Zone, prospects for overcoming the current impasse will depend heavily on whether the Trump administration is now prepared to recognize that the North is unwilling, at least at the present time, to give up its nuclear weapons—and whether, as a result, the administration is now prepared to consider an agreement that imposes significant constraints on DPRK capabilities but falls short of requiring complete denuclearization in an agreed time frame.
To be sure, such an agreement is not the ideal outcome that the U.S. government and all other interested governments would like to see. However, a less ambitious agreement should be compared not with the ideal but unattainable goal of complete, time-bound elimination but with its most likely alternative—a U.S. strategy of pressure, containment and ultimately regime change. Full Report
30 June
Trump takes historic step into North Korea with Kim Jong Un
After the theatrical gesture, both leaders pledged to restart stalled nuclear negotiations between the two countries
(Politico) It was a made-for-TV moment for the reality show-groomed president that unfolded at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Trump approached the border from the south, while Kim approached from the north. The two met at the line demarcating the two countries, grinned and shook hands.
Trump said Kim then asked him if he would like to cross into North Korea. Trump said he would be honored and walked about 20 steps into the country.
The two leaders then decamped to Freedom House, a small building on the southern side of the border that has been used for occasional talks between North and South Korean officials for two decades. They emerged 53 minutes later and announced they would appoint teams to restart nuclear negotiations.
30 May
North Korea envoy executed over failed Trump-Kim summit: report
(The Hill) Bloomberg News reported Thursday citing a South Korean newspaper that Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea's special envoy to the U.S., was executed in March along with four other North Korean foreign ministry officials involved in the Hanoi, Vietnam, summit.
A fifth official, Kim Jong Un's top deputy, Kim Yong Chol, has reportedly been sentenced to hard labor, according to the newspaper.
An unnamed North Korean source told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper that Kim Yong Chol and four other officials were executed at a North Korean airport for allegedly spying on behalf of the U.S.
4 May
NKorea says leader Kim oversaw drills of rocket launchers
(AP) — North Korean state media on Sunday said leader Kim Jong Un observed a live-fire drill of long-range multiple rocket launchers and unspecified tactical guided weapons, a day after South Korea's military detected the North launching several unidentified short-range projectiles into the sea off its eastern coast.
The weapons launches were a likely sign of Pyongyang's growing frustration at stalled diplomatic talks with Washington meant to provide coveted sanctions relief in return for nuclear disarmament. They also highlighted the fragility of the detente between the Koreas, which in a military agreement reached last September vowed to completely cease "all hostile acts" against each other in land, air and sea.
25 April
Putin says U.S. guarantees unlikely to prompt North Korea to de-nuclearize
(Reuters) That would mean including Russia, China, Japan and South Korea as well as the United States and North Korea, a long-standing format that has been sidelined by unilateral U.S. efforts to broker a deal.
The talks between Putin and Kim did not appear to have yielded any major breakthrough. But with Moscow committed to upholding international sanctions until North Korea dismantles its nuclear program, Russia's room for maneuver, beyond putting on a show of camaraderie, was limited.
North Korea issued $2 million bill for comatose Otto Warmbier's care
North Korea issued a $2 million bill for the hospital care of comatose American Otto Warmbier, insisting that a U.S. official sign a pledge to pay it before being allowed to fly the University of Virginia student from Pyongyang in 2017.
The presentation of the invoice — not previously disclosed by U.S. or North Korean officials — was extraordinarily brazen even for a regime known for its aggressive tactics.
24 April
Reuters: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in the Russian city of Vladivostok for a summit he is likely to use to seek support from Russian President Vladimir Putin while Pyongyang's nuclear talks with Washington are in limbo. Earlier, at a stop on the border, Kim told Russian state television he was hoping for useful and successful discussions with Putin.
For Putin the summit is an opportunity to show that Russia remains a major global player despite being under sanctions itself over its intervention in Ukraine and allegations that it meddled in U.S. elections. But analysts predicted that Kim is unlikely to emerge from the summit with any substantial promises of sanctions relief. The meeting is likely to focus more on showing camaraderie.
13 April
Kim open to another summit with Trump, with conditions
(AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he is open to a third summit with President Donald Trump, but set the year's end as a deadline for Washington to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage the high-stakes nuclear diplomacy, the North's state-run media said Saturday.
Kim made the comments during a speech Friday at a session of North Korea's rubber stamp parliament, which made a slew of personnel changes that bolstered his diplomatic lineup amid stalemated negotiations with the United States. His speech came hours after Trump and visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in Washington and agreed on the importance of nuclear talks with North Korea.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, Kim blamed the collapse of his summit with Trump in February on what he described as unilateral demands by the United States, which he said raised questions over whether Washington has genuine willingness to improve relations. But Kim said his personal relationship with Trump remains good and that they could exchange letters at "any time."
28 February
PBS experts go to the heart of the problem:
How 'overreach' by Trump and Kim set summit up for failure
Frank Jannuzi: "For President Trump, the summit should be about denuclearization. But for Kim Jong-un, it's really about legitimacy, prestige and a sense of security. And this is why he will have third summit, fourth summit, fifth summit, because each summit actually bestows a certain amount of additional legitimacy and stature upon this North Korean dictator.
— is that in the interest of the United States to have summit after summit after summit, if it's not going anywhere?
FJ: Only if it leads to concrete steps, which is why I would hope that this summit should have been better prepared in terms of having an agreement in place before the two leaders met.
If there's going to be a third summit, you should be darn sure that the working level talks should nail down what's going to happen before it happens. And maybe that's part of the learning curve with this president.
Jung Pak: I hope, if there is a next summit — and I suspect that there will be a next summit — that we let the working level discussions move forward and advance the conversation, rather than having the two leaders in the room again, so we could have another set of status quo situation.
So I think the lesson learned here is that the top level leadership conversations are good, they're OK for maintaining goodwill and momentum, but the working level processes are just as important, if not more.
Trump gets praise from unlikely corners for walking away from Kim
(Politico) "President Trump did the right thing by walking away and not cutting a poor deal for the sake of a photo op," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday morning. It was a rare bipartisan outpouring of compliments — even if some of them came with caveats — for a president who has alarmed global leaders with his erratic foreign policy decisions, his desire to engage in trade wars and his threats to pull out of NATO. "For the United States to have agreed to lift all sanctions in the absence of real and complete denuclearization would have been a tremendous mistake," former national security adviser Susan Rice, who also served as ambassador to the United Nations under President Barack Obama, said Thursday
US and North Korea give conflicting accounts of summit collapse
Pyongyang disputes Trump's claim that Kim sought end to all sanctions
(Nikkei Asia Review) The world had been expecting the two leaders to make at least symbolic progress at their second summit, and they had appeared to be in good spirits until the early afternoon. But as the talks entered the final stretch, each side stuck to demands the other found unacceptable, prompting the abrupt cancellation of a planned signing ceremony for a "joint agreement."
"Basically, [North Korea] wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, but we couldn't do that," Trump explained at a news conference afterward.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho gave a different account after Trump left Hanoi, saying that Pyongyang had sought only a partial lifting of sanctions.
Trump's Talks With Kim Jong-un Collapse, and Both Sides Point Fingers
(NYT) The premature end to the negotiations leaves the unusual rapprochement between the United States and North Korea that has unfolded for most of a year at a deadlock, with the North retaining both its nuclear arsenal and facilities believed to be producing additional fissile material for warheads.
It also represents a major setback at a difficult political moment for Mr. Trump, who has long presented himself as a tough negotiator capable of bringing adversaries into a deal and had made North Korea the signature diplomatic initiative of his presidency.
Trump Was Right to Walk Away From North Korea, But Kim Won't Be Ignored
(New York) Trump's next step was also shrewd: calling South Korean president Moon Jae-in from Air Force One to ask him to take the lead in further efforts with Kim. The South Koreans said Trump "asked President Moon to actively perform the role of a mediator that may entail talking with Chairman Kim and letting him know the outcome of his dialogue." This calms Moon, who has staked his own political survival on the process moving forward, and may provide some incentives for North Korea to keep talking. It also, of course, gives Trump someone else to blame if progress does not ensue.
Keen observers noted that Trump's North Korea envoy, Stephen Biegun — who recently made the case for a steady, slow, and mutual move toward denuclearization — was not present at the major summit dinner. It's an odd choice that seems to signal he is not a key Trump adviser and may limit his future effectiveness. Washington still has cards — the lifting of sanctions, a declaration ending the Korean War, the removal of some or all troops from the Korean Peninsula — that Kim badly wants. But those cards just got harder, not easier, for Trump to play.
No deal reached between Trump, Kim at 2nd summit
(AP via CBC) The nuclear summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un collapsed Thursday after the two sides failed to reach a deal due to a standoff over U.S. sanctions on the reclusive nation, a stunning end to high-stakes meetings meant to disarm a global threat.
Trump, in a news conference after the abrupt end to the talks, said the breakdown occurred over North Korea's insistence that all punishing sanctions the U.S. had imposed on North Korea be lifted without Pyongyang committing to eliminate its entire nuclear arsenal.
27 February
Robin Wright: Will Trump Give Away Too Much to North Korea—and Get Too Little?
(The New Yorker) Eight months after the first summit, the two countries have not even defined what "denuclearization" means. They're "still at the starting point of the lengthy and arduous process," Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, in Washington, told me. "Trump cannot afford to squander the time spent getting to this point and come away with just pictures and pleasantries with Kim. This summit can and must emphasize substance over pageantry."
It had been dubbed a brilliant move in a grand game of diplomatic chess: North Korea's Kim Jong Un had booked the same hotel being used by the White House press corps during his meeting with President Trump in Vietnam this week. South Korean media and experts hailed it as a "heroic" and "deliberate strategy" for Kim to reveal more of himself to the American press. But minutes after Kim Jong Un arrived, the Vietnamese foreign ministry announced the Melia Hanoi Hotel, where North Korean leader is staying, would no longer host the press center for hundreds of visiting American journalists assigned to cover his second summit with Trump.
Trump: Kim Jong Un Is a Super Well-Adjusted Dictator
(Vanity Fair) According to new report from CNN, the last time the two leaders met, Trump told Kim that he'd known "plenty of people who'd grown up wealthy and whose families were powerful," life circumstances that led to them being total f–kups. But Kim, in Trump's mind, wasn't one of them. (As a reminder, we're talking about a guy who runs a country that's been described as "the world's biggest open prison camp," who's starved his own people to pay for nuclear weapons, and who ordered the execution of his half brother and uncle.)
Trump, of course, has a vested interest in flattering Kim. The two are currently rubbing shoulders in Vietnam, at a summit that no one expects will yield much of anything for the U.S., save for, at best, a "gesture that would help signal that Kim may actually be serious about dismantling [his nuclear] program eventually." As a leader for whom ass-kissing goes a very long way, Trump presumably expects the strategy to work on his little authoritarian friend. None of which is to say he doesn't truly believe that Kim is an accomplished dictator people should look up to. Last year, he told reporters how impressed he was with Kim's ability to "take over a situation like he did at 26 years of age and run it, and run it tough," and earlier this month he informed his followers that an economic miracle is about to take place in North Korea—one that only he saw coming.
Susan Rice: Can Trump Avoid Caving to Kim in Vietnam?
The United States can make progress toward reducing the North Korean nuclear threat if Mr. Trump is disciplined in his diplomacy.
For Mr. Trump, diplomacy with North Korea has always been about theater and politics. In falsely declaring after his first summit with Mr. Kim that "there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea," while bragging that the risk of war — which he foolishly stoked — is now diminished, the president is intent on creating the illusion of progress. In fact, there has been none toward our core goal of full denuclearization.
… the risk of the Hanoi summit is twofold. First, in a rush to generate good optics and distract from unpleasant developments at home, Mr. Trump may make further concessions to the North Korean dictator, like a peace declaration, partial sanctions relief, or continued limitations on United States military exercises or troop presence without receiving tangible, irreversible concessions in return. Second, Mr. Trump risks squandering an opportunity to make real headway toward denuclearization.
North Korea warns U.S. skeptics as Kim heads for summit with Trump
(Reuters) …their vaguely worded [Singapore] agreement has produced few results and U.S. Democratic senators and U.S. security officials have warned Trump against cutting a deal that would do little to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The North's KCNA state news agency said such opposition was aimed at derailing the talks.
The Trump administration has pressed the North to give up its nuclear weapons program, which, combined with its missile capabilities, pose a threat to the United States, before it can expect any concessions. But in recent days Trump has signaled a possible softening, saying he would love to be able to remove sanctions if there is meaningful progress on denuclearization.
Trump also said he was in no rush and had no pressing schedule for North Korea's denuclearization, hinting at a more gradual, reciprocal approach, long favored by Pyongyang.
Trump Is Misleading the American People About North Korea
Kim Jong-un is a threat. It's time for the president to say so.
By Tom Donilon, national security adviser to President Barack Obama from 2010 to 2013.
There are two basic problems heading into the summit. First, the president is either misleading the public or is dangerously mistaken about North Korea, falsely promising that its nuclear program is constrained and that the threat has receded. Second, and relatedly, the president's repeated claims to be in "no rush" to reach a deal reflect a serious analytical error, since, despite a pause in nuclear and missile tests, North Korea's nuclear program is in fact advancing by the day. At a minimum, the United States should insist that North Korea meaningfully freeze its program during the pendency of the talks.
22 February
(Bloomberg Politics) Kim Jong Un may have his own art-of-the-deal game plan at next week's meeting with the U.S. president in Vietnam: Get Donald Trump in a room alone.
Ever since their landmark summit in Singapore last year – Trump said he and Kim "fell in love" – the North Koreans have preferred dealing directly with the president. . As Nick Wadhams reports, U.S. officials fear Trump may make concessions on the fly if Kim offers something that sounds good at the moment.
Trump has a track record of doing just that – he suddenly agreed to pull U.S. troops out of Syria on a December phone call with Turkey's president, and dismissed his own intelligence community's findings on Russian election-meddling at a press conference with Vladimir Putin in July.
In Hanoi, administration officials worry about the fate of some 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea. Kim could seek to exploit Trump's distaste for overseas deployments to win a commitment to withdraw some or all of them as part of a denuclearization accord.
Since his real-estate days, Trump has relished the intimacy of the one-on-one chat to cut the best deal. Some of his closest aides fear that's precisely what Kim is counting on in order to set Trump up. – Karl Maier
21 February
North Korea warns of food crisis, slashes rations before next leaders' summit
(Reuters) – North Korea has warned that it is facing a food shortfall of some 1.4 million tons in 2019 and has been forced to almost halve rations, blaming high temperatures, drought, floods and United Nations sanctions in a memo seen by Reuters on Thursday. … Margareta Wahlstrom, president of the Swedish Red Cross, told Reuters after a trip to North Korea in November that, as far as the areas in which they operated were concerned, the maze harvest was only 65 percent of what should be normal due to the combination of an influenza outbreak, a heat wave and a typhoon.
18 February
North Korea's 'socialist utopia' needs mass labor. A growing market economy threatens that
(Reuters) The labor units, called dolgyeokdae or youth brigades, were created by Kim's late grandfather Kim Il Sung to build railways, roads, electricity networks and other infrastructure projects after the Korean peninsula was liberated from Japan's 1910-45 occupation.
Young workers get no pay, poor food and are forced to work more than 12 hours a day for up to 10 years in return for better chances to enter a university or join the all powerful Workers' Party. But as private markets boom and more people cherish financial stability above political standing, the regime has been struggling to recruit the young laborers in recent years, they say.
15 February
Singapore to Hanoi: The bumpy diplomatic road since Trump and Kim first met
(Reuters) – the statement that came out of the meeting was light on specifics, opting instead for four general commitments:
-The two countries will establish "new relations" for peace and prosperity.
-The United States and North Korea will work together to build a "lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula".
-North Korea committed "to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula".
-The two countries will recover and repatriate the remains of soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War.
Throughout all [subsequent] talks, as well as other behind-the-scenes negotiations, neither side announced major new steps toward denuclearization, easing sanctions, or establishing a new "peace regime" for the peninsula.
Statements carried by North Korean state media complained about Washington's opposition to signing a peace declaration or easing sanctions until North Korea takes more steps toward denuclearization.
American and North Korean officials have been tight-lipped about what agreement might come from the second Trump-Kim summit, but analysts say Washington needs to be open to taking interim steps for any deal to be possible. Stephen Biegun, the top U.S. envoy to North Korea, told South Korean lawmakers that most of the recent discussions with Pyongyang had revolved around summit logistics, and that more talks were needed to address the substantive issues
North Korea has continued to produce bomb fuel while in denuclearization talks with the United States and may have produced enough in the past year to add as many as seven nuclear weapons to its arsenal, according to a study released just weeks … But the country's freeze in nuclear and missile testing since 2017 means that North Korea's weapons program probably poses less of a threat than it did at the end of that year, the report by Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation found.
5 February
State of the Union: Second Trump-Kim Summit set for Vietnam on Feb 27, 28
(Straits Times) United States President Donald Trump and North Korea's Chairman Kim Jong Un are set to meet in Vietnam on Feb 27 and 28, Mr Trump told Congress in his second State of the Union (SOTU) address. The site of the meeting with the North Korean leader was not mentioned, but is widely believed to be the seaside city of Da Nang.
"As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula," Mr Trump said.
"Our hostages have come home, nuclear testing has stopped, and there has not been a missile launch in 15 months."
"Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong Un is a good one. And Chairman Kim and I will meet again on February 27 and 28 in Vietnam."
While North Korea has refrained from testing missiles or nuclear devices since the two leaders met in a breakthrough summit in Singapore in June last year, and has returned the remains of many Americans killed in the Korean War, official talks on denuclearisation have not made any progress and official rhetoric on either side has been at odds.
UN monitors find North Korea protecting nuclear missiles and easily skirting U.S. sanctions
Trump hailed 'tremendous progress' in his dealings with North Korea, but the view in the U.S. is that it has yet to take concrete steps to give up its nuclear program
18 January
Trump, North Korea's Kim to hold second summit in late February
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February but will maintain economic sanctions on Pyongyang, the White House said on Friday after Trump met Pyongyang's top nuclear negotiator.
The announcement came amid a diplomatic flurry in Washington surrounding the visit of Kim Yong Chol, a hardline former spy chief, and marked a sign of movement in a denuclearization effort that has stalled since a landmark meeting between Trump and the North Korean leader in Singapore last year.
1 January
Kim and Trump Back at Square 1: If U.S. Keeps Sanctions, North Will Keep Nuclear Program
Nearly two years into his presidency and more than six months after his historic summit meeting with Kim Jong-un of North Korea, President Trump finds himself essentially back where he was at the beginning in achieving the ambitious goal of getting Mr. Kim to relinquish his nuclear arsenal.
That was the essential message of Mr. Kim's annual New Year's televised speech, where he reiterated that international sanctions must be lifted before North Korea will give up a single weapon, dismantle a single missile site or stop producing nuclear material.
The list of recent North Korean demands was a clear indicator of how the summit meeting in Singapore last June altered the optics of the relationship more than the reality. Those demands were very familiar from past confrontations: that all joint military training between the United States and South Korea be stopped, that American nuclear and military capability within easy reach of the North be withdrawn, and that a peace treaty ending the Korean War be completed.
Kim Jong-un, Ready to Meet Trump 'at Any Time,' Demands U.S. End Sanctions
Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, said Tuesday that he was willing to have a second summit meeting with President Trump, but he paired the offer with a threat that if international sanctions against his country were not lifted, the North would "have no choice" but to return to nuclear confrontation.
"I am willing to meet the United States president at any time for the betterment of our international community," Mr. Kim said in his New Year's Day speech, broadcast on North Korea's state-run television.
There were sparse direct references in the speech to denuclearization. But Mr. Kim said the country would not be willing to take further steps toward removing its nuclear weapons unless the United States reciprocated. … Since the Singapore meeting, Mr. Trump has occasionally seemed to waver on the question of lifting some sanctions before the North dismantles its facilities and gives up its weapons and missiles. Now, with Mr. Kim's demand, he must decide whether to back down — and take steps similar to those of his predecessors.


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Parents & Guardians
Parents, carers and legal guardians, addressed as Akaal Families in our correspondence, are without doubt, Akaal Primary School's most important partners. Our ethos is one of working actively with them to enhance the achievement and attainment of all pupils. We will ensure that parents/guardians will be kept fully informed about their child's learning and encouraged to share in the activities of Akaal Primary School by:
- Providing a regular newsletter setting out what the children will be learning and how they can offer support at home.
- Putting curriculum information in the newsletter/website when appropriate.
- Providing a termly "open" session, where parents can join their children in their learning. This will operate in all classes from Reception to Yr6.
- Supporting parents by encouraging them to read daily with their children.
- Sharing teaching strategies with parents to give them the necessary tools to support their children with homework.
- Providing opportunities for parents to find out about their children's progress and targets through open evenings, informal meetings and both verbal and written reports.
- Liaising with school via home-school books where appropriate (e.g. to support behaviour).
- Providing learning opportunities for parents and carers through Family Learning.


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HRD panel to Sibal: Allow IIMs to grant degrees
A HRD panel headed by NR Madhava Menon has suggested to the Human Resource Development Ministry to allow Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to grant degrees. The panel constituted by Kapil Sibal is evolving a "Comprehensive Policy for Autonomy of Central Educational Institutions".
"IIMs should be authorised to award degrees like central universities without any erosion of their existing autonomy," the committee said.
According to the panelists a degree will open up research opportunities for IIM passouts. The IIMs at present award diplomas for their post graduate management programmes. Their PG diploma is equivalent to an MBA and fellow management programme is equal to a Phd.
The panel also recommended major reforms in the higher education system and advocated a single uniform act to govern the IIMs, IITs and central universities.
On autonomy in academic matters, the committee suggested that all Central Educational Institutions (CEI) like IITs, IIMs and central universities should shift towards adoption of a choice-based credit course along with a semester system, and should have internal evaluation of students instead of external examinations.
This would bring in flexibility in the academic structure besides promoting students mobility both within the country and abroad.
On the much debated issue of recruitment of foreign faculty, the panel suggested freedom for CEIs to hire faculty irrespective of their citizenship. At present, the Citizenship Act prevents hiring of foreign nationals as permanent faculty in IIMs and IITs.
Other recommendations include doing away with the office of the visitor in central universities and transferring his/her powers to the chancellor; avoiding the practice of posting civil service officials to university positions and subjecting all faculty members to a review once every five years by a committee appointed by the executive council.
[Source: DNA]


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Thank you Dr. Larson…Posted on January 30th, 2010 No comments
The SMAS Winter Lecture Series is always a hit and last nights lecture, Connections to the Cosmos: The Search for Life Beyond Earth presented by Dr. Shane Larson of Utah State University, was no exception.
The question whether there are others like us or are we alone in the Universe has been asked since there has been someone to ask it. Dr. Larson's deep insights into this question, and the questions that it leads to, helped me to make some sense of these profound and fundamental issues.
This was a wonderful presentation and I was very glad to see a large turnout at the Hager Auditorium at the Museum of the Rockies for the event. A big thank you to Dr. Larson for coming up here on short notice and presenting this lecture and thank you to the Museum of the Rockies and the Montana Space Grant Consortium for their support of the Winter Lecture Series. Thanks also to SMAS and it membership for making this all happen.
I am really looking forward to next month and the next lecture in the series when Mike Murray, Programs Manager of the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City, will present Seeing in the Dark: Tales of an Amateur Astronomer.
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Thursday, February 16, 2017
Heavy Action: John Wick: Chapter 2
When John Wick was released back in 2014, it was rightly hailed by a significant number of film fans -- myself among them -- as one of the best American action films of the new century. Directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, both of whom come from the world of stunts and fight choreography -- made a film that was lean and stylish, tightly focused on a single revenge mission while hinting at a larger universe inhabited by assassins with their own traditions and societal rules. It also confirmed something that I've been arguing since the '90s, which is that Keanu Reeves is one of the great action stars of all time. This is the most interesting and exciting phase of his 30-year career, as he's making the movies that interest him most in the way he wants to make them. That most of these happen to be genre movies just makes it that much better.
Because John Wick was a surprise financial success -- and, more than that, so quickly became a beloved action classic -- we are now graced with John Wick: Chapter 2, which returns Keanu Reeves to the title role as the world's greatest assassin brought out of retirement after his wife dies and some thugs steal his car and kill his dog. After tracking down his car in a stellar opening sequence, John is forced back into the life of a professional hitman when an Italian crime boss (Riccardo Scamarcio) collects on a marker that helped John Wick leave killing behind in the first place. Unfortunately, getting back in business puts a target on John Wick's back and every assassin in New York City after him. Literally.
The Raid 2 or even Fast Five. This is the company in which John Wick: Chapter 2 finds itself. I'm not positive it's a superior film to its predecessor (a case could be made, but it doesn't matter to me one way or the other because we're lucky to have both), but it is an example of how to do a proper action sequel: take what's good about the first film and give us more of that foundation while building something new on top of it.
Chad Stahelski goes it alone as director of John Wick: Chapter 2 (his former co-director David Leitch is now making Deadpool 2, so he's doing just fine), retaining both the stylish, bold lighting design and the no-nonsense shooting style that puts the actors in wide shots and allows fights to play out with a minimum of cuts. This is a big advantage of casting Keanu Reeves, who has trained in fighting and martial arts since his days on The Matrix and is able to pull off the choreography in a way that is totally convincing while never superhuman. There is a plausibility amidst all the over-the-top violence and insanity even in the way John Wick holds his gun high and tight so as to better shoot as many heads as possible; it's more about accuracy and efficiency than it is about looking like a badass out of a John Woo movie. Like in so many of his action movie, Reeves' best qualities are put to good use: he is a man of deeds, not of words, and his blankness suggests a total dedication to a single goal. Last time the goal was revenge. In the sequel, it's revenge and survival.
The Warriors in which Wick has to make his way across New York City while every single person he passes is a sleeper assassin trying to kill him. It's an incredibly inspired sequence that winds up being more like the back half of the film, and Stahelski's ability to continually find inventive ways to stage action keeps Chapter 2 thrilling in a way that few action sequels manage to be. It is not a marked improvement over the first film nor does it feel like it belongs to a totally new genre (the way The Raid 2 does), but it's just different enough to feel fresh while still very much a continuing piece. Without going too far up its own ass to explain the specifics of the assassin society introduced in John Wick -- special coins, special cleanup crews, special hotels, special rules -- Chapter 2 answers some questions while introducing compelling new ones. None of that is really what interests me in those movies (that would be all the head-shooting and dick-kicking), but the attention to world-building detail is a welcome bonus.
There are times, too, when John Wick: Chapter 2 can't help but succumb to convention. It's not quite, as I have heard it described, some next level shit, but a really creative and stylish execution of an action formula that is, in many ways, very familiar. Like in the original John Wick, I'm not sure if the climactic showdown is an homage to or a parody of overused action movie tropes; the first film's fight-in-the-rain is replaced here by a shootout in a hall of mirrors. That's some James Bond shit right there, but there's a ferocity to how it's handled in Wick 2 that makes it intense and crazy instead of campy, as it's so often presented with Bond. I love how many of the fight scenes and gun battles in the second half of the film are all about where John Wick is going to get his next round of bullets -- and, of course, which heads he's going to put them in.
6 comments:
The strongest praise I can give this sedulously fun movie is that it made Common come off alright, whereas normally I deduct a movie a full point simply for having him in itReplyDeleteReplies
All I remember him on is Hell on Wheels another role where he had to be a silent badass that couldn't lose a fight, this seemed really similar, but when the other notable henchperson is Ruby Rose I guess Common Can pull that off?Delete
Yes! I really enjoyed John Wick 2, it just never stopped moving along and Keanu was operating at peak efficiency.ReplyDelete
I think the Shotgun scene is going to be in my top movie moments for the year, it had the entire audience gasping and cheering with every shot and every kneecap. Overall it was a ton of fun and I too am grateful that this one got made. I also wish I was half as good at anything as John Wick is at poppin domes but some things aren't meant to be.
Great movie and great article! Thanks Patrick!Replies
Who would win in a race to 100 kills, John Wick or John Matrix?ReplyDelete


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text: CHEAT SHEETTOP 10 RIGHT NOWSHOP WITH SCOUTEDStolen Radioactive Material FoundMEXICOUpdated Apr. 14, 2017 5:26PM ET / Published Dec. 05, 2013 7:06AM ET CNSNS/APMexican authorities say they've found a stolen truck containing dangerous radioactive cobalt. The two thieves—who presumably were unaware of the vehicle's volatile contents—are still on the run, officials said. The truck was found 25 miles away from where it was taken, and the container holding the material had been opened. Authorities say they believe the suspects eventually will show up at a hospital with symptoms of radiation exposure.Read it at CNN


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To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of ATTAK, we made a book, our own book.
This first monograph by Dutch design studio ATTAK documents the eye melting crossover of graphic design, illustration and art.
Buy here: attakbook.com
Title: Powergestaltung
By: ATTAK
Editors: Casper Herselman & Peter Korsman
Preface by: James Victore
Release date: September 23rd, 2014
Format: 16,5 x 23,5 cm
Features: 208 pages, full colour plus 3 extra colours, soft cover
Language: English
Price: € 29,90 / $ 39.90
Made in the EU
Powergestaltung is the word that captures the working range of design studio ATTAK. A fierce and visually arresting melting pot of graphic design, illustration and art.
With roots in Dutch design, ATTAK has grown a unique collection of cutting edge images and razor sharp vectors. Expect vibrant type treatments, tactile collages, custom fonts and more well-crafted and lush works.
The face melting body of work is playfully presented and a colorful must have for the contemporary graphic designer, illustrator and cultural thrill seeker.
Production & edit: ATTAK | Casper Herselman
Camera: Het Shot
Music by: The Bronx 'Heart Attack American' (Taken from 'The Bronx (I)', White Drugs, 2003)


text: Now what? You've had Distinctive Career Services develop a terrific resume for you. You put it where it counts. Now what? Is it smart to follow-up, and when is it overkill? You first have to assess the total situation. Different situations prompt different responses. A small business handles pretty much the whole process in the


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There is a ton of garbage, both in the brush on the edges of the beach, and on the beach itself down at this end of West Haven's shoreline. All sorts of paper, plastic, and unmentionables. This is one small sample of a widespread issue.
There is a ton of garbage, both in the brush on the edges of the beach, and on the beach itself down at this end of West Haven's shoreline. All sorts of paper, plastic, and unmentionables. This is one small sample of a widespread issue.
Thanks, Concerned. Maybe we can get together to start some sort of civic action group of like minded individuals who want to once again be proud of the city in which we live. Maybe put some pressure on the government folks who would like to think that we don't care. I'll do some research and come back here and let you know what I find out if you are interested.
On another note, the bulk and trash that was supposed to have been picked up yesterday (thurs) is still sitting outside. I called the city today. I called the number of the Department That Likes Lists Alot, couldn't even get through. Phone wouldn't even ring. Then I called the Mayors office, and that poor assistant, who is the nicest woman in the world, was left to run interference for the DTLTML and The Mayor. She explained to me that the reason this happened was because Sandy caused so much damage that there is too much to pick up. She said that there would be a HUGE clean up and all will be nice and tidy by Monday. Yes, Monday.
Trying to be a nice as possible I reminded her gently the Sandy was, like, 7 months ago. Did we not foresee this happening? Couldn't the city have been a little more proactive knowing how much people would probably have accumulated between that and the snow storm? Is the word 'proactive' even listed in the city's dictionary? I mean really, had they asked even I could have told them there would have been way too much to do in a regularly scheduled pick up.
I also gently mentioned that, not for nothing, but because of today's weather there is garbage ALL OVER THE PLACE now. Who's going to pick that up? The city? Highly unlikely. But she assured me they would. Ok.
Lastly, I told her that since the city knew that this was the plan, they should have gotten the word out to residents sooner. Then she wouldn't have had to field all these phone calls for the folks that I am sure make a lot more money than she does. They should have to deal with this, not her. She asked how that would have been possible. I said use the reverse 911 system. She said...you guessed it...that's only for emegencies. I again gently reminded her that the PD uses it to tell us all when the town hall style meetings with the PD will be held. I usually get three of these a year. Oh. She said she would suggest it. Thanks nice lady, but you will get nowhere, just like the rest of us.
So that's my latest tale of woe from the "friendliest city in CT" ! Maybe we should work toward changing that to the "cleanest" city in CT. I think that will attract a lot more visitors, you know...first impressions.


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Panel discussion - View from the C-Suite
The asset management industry is experiencing a set of unprecedented structural shifts.
How should the asset management industry respond?
Three senior Asset Management executives together with the Chairperson of ALFI provide insights into the future of the Asset Management industry
Part I - Crypto currencies and their relevance to Asset Management
Part III - A checkpoint on reality in assessing whether investor protection lines of defence can keep pace and be more effectively enabled through technology
Transformational technology; what does it mean for control functions
|12.05 - 12.35
The evolving role and profile of the Regulator
As Asset Management evolves, embraces new technology and shifts its own paradigms, how is the role of Regulator adapting to these changes? We will hear from experts representing both the CSSF and the FCA, specialising in preparing the regulator for such change and adapting to regulate the Asset Manager of tomorrow


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Oil prices eased on world markets on Friday as traders locked in profits after a rally earlier in the week sparked by a surprise production cut by the OPEC cartel.
New York's benchmark light sweet crude November contract slipped US$0.13 to US$28.16 in late trading.
The price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for November delivery dipped US$0.31 per barrel to US$26.50 in London trading.
"After the news from OPEC this week, there is a bit of profit-taking into the weekend," said GNI trader Kevin Blemkin.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries surprised oil markets on Wednesday by agreeing to trim its overall production ceiling by 900,000 barrels per day to 24.5 million barrels, sending prices soaring.
The decision followed a sharp fall in world oil prices in the month ahead of the meeting at its Vienna headquarters.
But with supplies rising from post-war Iraq -- a member of OPEC but not part of its quota system -- and rivals such as Russia, many analysts think prices could start to weaken again.
"I think prices will keep deteriorating next week," said Kevin Blemkin, a trader at GNI.
"If there was no follow-through in the rally [this week], I'm not sure we're going get one."
Meanwhile, traders paid close attention to Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the US.
Putin ate a ceremonial glazed doughnut to open a service station in New York on Friday, and a US senator used the occasion to bash OPEC.
The moment was a small but sweet victory for the Russian oil baron Vagit Alekperov: The Getty gas station he bought in Manhattan three years ago was renamed on Friday after his own huge oil company, Lukoil.
Alekperov wanted US consumers at the pump to understand that they need Russian oil and that companies like his are ready to provide it. For the last two years, oil has become an increasingly powerful bond between the US, the world's largest consumer, and Russia, among the largest producers.
But Alekperov's trip to the US as part of Putin's entourage may partly be in the hope that the Bush administration could help Lukoil with a crucial oil interest outside Russia: the huge West Qurna field in Iraq.
Lukoil is among several foreign companies that negotiated contracts and memorandums of understanding with the government of Saddam Hussein to develop oil fields once UN sanctions were lifted. The sanctions are now gone, but so is the old government. Lukoil and the other companies now worry that the agreements they spent years and millions of dollars to develop will be abrogated by the new Iraqi authorities.
People close to Putin and Alekperov said that they expected Putin to raise the question of protecting the Russian oil contracts with US President GEorge W. Bush during their weekend meeting at Camp David.
"The Iraqi question will clearly be on the agenda of the summit," Alekperov said in an interview in New York on Thursday evening. "I think the president of a country and the government should help their own companies."
Russian-owned Lukoil Oil Co acquired Getty Petroleum and its 1,300 US gasoline stations in November 2000, and the Manhattan station is one of about 150 in the US Northeast that Lukoil will rebrand over the next two years.
Bright red Lukoil flags fluttered and US and Russian security men in dark suits held photographers and reporters at bay as Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, greeted Putin at the curb of the full-service station, then accompanied him inside where bills are paid and beverages and snacks are sold.


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Bill Davidson began the first part of his life as a successful trail attorney. After many years Bill found he craved the natural beauty of the world and took up painting. As Bill became more skilled as a plein air painter and thoroughly enthralled with Nature's beauty he courageously made the move to full time artist and workshop teacher.
Read more here and listen to his interview here:
Views: 188


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No free pass during shutdown; anglers must be licensed
Minnesota's government shutdown has sparked confusion among anglers in some northern Minnesota counties dependent on summer tourism business.
The Department of Natural Resources, which has been unable to process fishing licenses during the shutdown, had warned that people who fish without one would be breaking the law and that they would be cited by conservation officers.
But Crow Wing County officials say their local DNR conservation officer told them people could fish without a license, as long as they bought one later when the government shutdown ends.
County leaders said so publicly earlier this week, and that created confusion as other counties and chambers of commerce picked up the information.
But Wednesday afternoon the department issued a statement that said that wasn't true. Anglers without a license are breaking the law and could be cited for it, department officials said.
Resorts in the Brainerd Lakes area have been getting lots of calls from confused guests, wondering if they'll still be able to fish on their upcoming vacation, even though fishing licenses aren't for sale because of the shutdown.
County attorney Don Ryan, however, said a conservation enforcement supervisor informed him the department would not strictly enforce fishing license laws. Instead, the supervisor told him department would largely be on the water checking for life jackets and ensuring public safety, he said.
"There's just a high level of frustration ... there's really no direction for the people that are trying to do the right thing."
"They're not going to be checking for fishing licenses since people who are coming to town can't get one," Ryan said.
He said the supervisor told him the department would let people without a license fish, but when state resumes its operations they should obtain a fishing license for the time they went fishing.
In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, however, DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr said nothing has changed with DNR enforcement policy.
Landwehr said he'd received reports that a few license agents and resorts had started issuing temporary fishing licenses with a promise to purchase a legal license when the state is back up and running. But he said the practice is in violation of state law.
What remains unclear, however, is just how hard local DNR conservation officers are working to enforce state fishing laws. In Crow Wing County, the attorney's office has not received a single fishing citation since the shutdown began.
Crow Wing County Board Chairman Paul Thiede said he wants the department to ease up on violators and he thinks that's what they're doing at the local level.
"We're told that they're not going to make a public statement, because they don't want to encourage law violators," Thiede said. "On the other hand, they are not seeming to be interested in arresting people if they come up here on vacation and fish without that license."
Some resort owners in northern Minnesota say the mixed signals are confusing. Shannon Graupmann, owner of Little Winnie Resort in Itasca County, said her summer guests have been frustrated they can't buy a license, but she's told them there's not much they can do.
"Unless I was told face to face by a conservation officer that that was their way of running things nowadays, I would still not be able to tell somebody, 'Yeah, go fishing, you can get a fishing license later,' " Graupmann said. "It's not worth losing that customer over if they get a huge fine for fishing without a license."
Other counties in northern Minnesota say they're hearing mixed signals from the DNR. Lake of the Woods County Commissioner Tom Hanson said fishing and tourism are his region's economic lifeblood. He'd rather people be allowed to fish now and get a license later.
"There's really no direction for the people that are trying to do the right thing," Hanson said. "It would just be nice if there was something that the DNR could [do to] let these people know that until this is over, go fishing ... and make sure they come back and get a fishing license once the state reconvenes."
The Department of Natural Resources typically sells about 200,000 fishing licenses during the month of July. The shutdown means the agency has already lost millions of dollars in revenue, with no end in sight.


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Roberto Mancini has backed big summer signing Geoffrey Kondogbia to emulate Marco van Basten and Michel Platini, by overcoming a difficult start to life in Serie A to eventually find success.
The France midfielder, who cost Inter €35m when they signed him from Monaco, has struggled to adapt to life in Italy and spent the past few games either leaving or joining the substitutes' bench. Mancini, however, said the club are fully behind the 22-year-old and expect him to overcome his difficulties.
"I believe Geoffrey will become a great midfielder," said the Inter coach. "We all hold him in high esteem. He shouldn't be worrying. Van Basten, Platini and plenty of other players had some difficulties when they first started playing in Italy."
Hailed as a key player for Inter when he in the summer, Kondogbia has instead found the Italians' disciplined, tactical approach to football tougher than expected. Playing among Mancini's three-man midfield, in a 4-3-2-1 or 4-3-1-2 formation, has not helped either.
Kondogbia was replaced by Andrea Ranocchia at half-time in a stunning 4-1 defeat at home to Fiorentina last month and, in Inter's next league outing, was replaced by Jonathan Biabiany late in the second half in a 1-1 draw at Sampdoria. Kondogbia was left on the bench last week when Inter welcomed champions Juventus to the San Siro, only making a cameo appearance at the death before the game finished scoreless.
It was only when Mancini adopted a 4-2-3-1 for the Berlusconi Trophy against AC Milan in midweek, a friendly fixture played to honour the father of Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi, that Kondogbia shined.
Playing just in front of the defence, Kondogbia scored the goal that earned a second string Inter side. It was the Frenchman's first goal since he helped fire Monaco into the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League last February.
"He played well besides scoring the goal," said Mancini, who added that Kondogbia should not be worried about his time spent on the subs' bench. "It will happen to others too because we'll be playing three times in a week."


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For the past several months, I've had this girl's picture hanging on my fridge among to-do lists, awards, magnets and recipes.
It's been my inspiration to grow long, strong and luscious hair like hers. Unfortunately, it just wasn't working out, so…
I chopped it!
I don't like how my stylist fixes my hair after a cut, so I wanted to wait until today to show you! It's definitely more high maintenance then my long hair which I could just blow-dry and go, but that's the price you pay, I guess! Do you ever use pictures for inspiration?
At any rate – today I made some oh-so-fluffy Banana Almond Oatmeal for breakfast.
Cooked on the stove-top to whippy, hot oat-y perfection.
In the mix:
- 1/3 cup each old fashioned oats, skim milk & water
- 1 banana (1/2 sliced in while oats were cooking, 1/2 sliced on top)
- Sliced almonds
- Splash of vanilla, dash of cinnamon
- Drizzle of sugar-free syrup
This totally hit the spot! What's your favorite oatmeal combo?
Today's lunch is sure to be better than yesterdays – it's the other half of last night's Cuban Sandwich and a Honeycrisp Apple.
Ok, I know I said last night that I have no taste for cold sandwiches, but the rules bend for sandwiches that were at one point hot, and are now cold. Mmmkay?
Are you sick of seeing these Honeycrisps yet? No? Good, 'cause I'm not sick of eating them! Glad we're all on the same page here. ;) Oh and thanks to everyone who let me know yesterday where the good sales are at for these guys!
In other news – I won a contest on Twitter yesterday! You've seen me feature Blue Bunny products (seriously, click on that link and tell me that music doesn't make you smile) on this blog before. From Blackberry Creme & Raspberry Acai Berry yogurt to Sweet & Salty Cluster ice cream (twice) – I truly love their products.
When @Blue_Bunny tweeted the following challenge yesterday:
Blue_Bunny: Trivia (& 1 FREE ice cream winner) – in your POV whats been the greatest invention in the ice cream world? (IMHO, inclusions! & lots of em!)
I responded:
IowaGirlEats: The peanut butter cone pieces in Sweet & Salty Cluster, which never get soggy. Brilliant!
What would you know – they picked me as the winner! FYI, Sweet & Salty Cluster ice cream is whipped cream flavored ice cream with salty chocolate peanuts, peanut butter cone pieces and a caramel swirl. I KNOW.
I find out what my prize is sometime today. Hopefully it's vats and vats of ice cream. My thighs won't be pleased. ;)
Off for another day – can you believe tomorrow's Friday? My, my…time flies!
It's Three Question Thursday time! Here we go folks:
1. Would you rather see the future or hear what everyone is thinking?
2. 2 part Q: Is your hair long or short? Curly or straight?
3. What would you do if someone gave you $1,000 dollars today?
My answers:
1. Eek, both options sound equally as horrifying, actually! I guess seeing the future could totally ruin the present, so as painful as it could potentially be, I'd rather hear what people are thinking.
2. Short and stick straight. My hair won't hold a curl for one, hot minute!
3. Book a trip to NYC for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!


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Posted Friday, December 10, 2010
2 main acts - no support act
George started writing songs in 2001 & to date has written 212 songs & made 8 CDs. George's output has been prolific, with a steady stream of new songs, all of musical excellence and showing great powers of observation. He manages to find exactly the right words to suit his needs. In addition to this he is able to view situations from a variety of perspectives. Many of his songs are such that they invite audience participation.
But there's only so much a man with a guitar can do, so George asked Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer to join him on an album, & in his words - we exploited every opportunity to play and sing together in each other's sets at festivals. The result was inevitable - I started to write songs that required three voices, or keyboards, or nyckelharpa to do them justice. And when I asked them to assume the mantle of my hitherto itinerant "Los Marbles" they happily agreed and through 2009 and 2010 we performed as such at a number of UK festivals, from Sidmouth to Fylde and from Banbury to Bedworth and Chippenham.
With the Los Marbles we provide a much more extensive repertoire than I can ever do on my own, performing a number of songs that require the fuller sound of the trio but also several of my "hits" with a fuller backing, and interspersing them with Vicki's and Jonny's own hit tunes and songs, adding more dimensions and variety to the performance that can keep an audience on their toes - literally - or singing along for hours.
Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer have developed a strong reputation for a delivering great performances time and time again. Once known mainly for for their instrumental skills with Scottish smallpipes, accordion and even Swedish nyckelharpa, they are now being accepted as impressive song arrangers and writers.
Vicki & Jonny effortlessly blend traditional material with contemporary interpretations whilst equally creating original self penned tunes and songs that are entirely at home in the tradition. Out of this combination they have developed a sound that is both familiar and fresh.
Annandale Neighbourhood Centre, upstairs, 79 Johnston St, Annandale
enquiries 9358 4886
Cost - $25/20
BYO, supper available
BOOKINGS - 9358 4886 or email
Sandra Nixon
(02) 9358 4886


text: This thread is a continuation of my intermarket thread. In this thread we will discuss predicting the energy markets using both indexes and mutual funds in the energy sector. I have been looking for a source of data I can share with everyone. QuotePlus was nice enough to supply for me 7 different data series with permission to redistribute. I am going to upload one of them on ET. The complete set is available for free on TradersStudio.com. All it requires is for you to be a registered member of TradersStudio.com, registration is free. If you want to download the data just login to TradersStudio.com If you want to register the link is. http://www.tradersstudio.com/UserRegistration/tabid/56/Default.aspx The link to the data page is as follows http://www.tradersstudio.com/TradersResources/Data/tabid/161/Default.aspx I am including the symbol !EXV , "SELECT SPDR ENERGY INDEX" on ET for you to see how well this intermarket technology works. All seven data series are available on TradersStudio.com


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SEATTLE — A man's best friend might be a dog — but a dog's best friend is definitely its toy. And at the "Bite of Seattle" food festival this weekend, dogs go to the edge and beyond to get their toy back.
Photojournalist Walker Anderson shows the leaps and the bounds of our furry four-legged friends.


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November 5, 2009 — H1N1 influenza is emerging as an equal-opportunity threat, seriously affecting people of all ages — not just younger people, as had been thought — according to the results of a surveillance study from California published in the November 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Pandemic influenza A(H1N1) emerged rapidly in California in April 2009," write Janice K. Louie, MD, MPH, from the California Department of Public Health, Richmond, and colleagues. "Preliminary comparisons with seasonal influenza suggest that pandemic 2009 influenza A(H1N1) disproportionately affects younger ages and causes generally mild disease."
However, data on the clinical features and populations at risk for complications from H1N1 influenza infection are still emerging, the authors add.
The aim of the study was to describe the clinical and epidemiologic features of H1N1 influenza cases that led to hospitalization or death.
The investigators studied all cases of California residents who were hospitalized or died with laboratory evidence of H1N1 infection that were reported to the California Department of Public Health between April 23 and August 11, 2009.
During that time, 1088 cases that led to hospitalization or death were reported in 41 of 61 local health departments, with most occurring in June and July. Of these, 344 (32%) were children younger than 18 years.
The median age of all cases was 27 years (range, <1 – 92 years). The overall rate of hospitalization or fatality per 100,000 for all age groups was 2.8 and ranged from 11.9 in infants younger than 1 year to 1.5 in those aged 70 years or older.
The highest hospitalization rates per 100,000 were in infants 1 month old (35.8) and 2 months old (21.1). These rates were lower in infants aged between 3 and 12 months, ranging from 4.2 to 12.6 per 100,000.
The median length of stay in hospital was 4 days.
Although infants were hospitalized at greater rates than adults, individuals aged 50 years or older had the highest rate of death once hospitalized, the authors report.
The overall fatality rate was 11%. In children younger than 18 years, the death rate was 7%, and in persons older than 50 years, it was 18% to 20%. The median time from onset of symptoms to death was 12 days, and the most common causes of death were viral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Sixty-eight percent (741/1088) of patients had risk factors for seasonal influenza complications.
Obesity a Risk Factor for Hospitalization
The study also found that a high number of hospitalized adult patients were obese. Of the 268 adults aged 20 years or older with a known body mass index (BMI), 156 (58%) were obese, as defined by a BMI 30 kg/m2 or higher. Of these, 67 patients (43%) were morbidly obese (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2).
Sixty-three percent of obese patients had comorbidities associated with influenza complications such as diabetes, asthma, and renal disease.
"We found a surprising number of obese persons in this study," Dr. Louie commented to Medscape Infectious Diseases. "Our proportion of morbidly obese persons was much higher than in the general population. Others are reporting similar findings. We need to study further to find out if obese persons were also more likely to have other risk factors not yet diagnosed, like asthma or diabetes."
The study findings emphasize the importance of vaccinating children, as well as caregivers of infants younger than 6 months of age and pregnant women, she added.
"H1N1 has a reputation as a mild illness, but we found that almost one third of our hospitalized cases became severely ill and required mechanical ventilation. Over 10% died," she said. "Also, there is a perception that the elderly have some immunity. However, we found that if elderly persons were admitted to a hospital, they tended to be more likely to die from their H1N1 infection."
She emphasized that clinicians should be thinking about H1N1 infection, as well as seasonal influenza, when a person presents with fever and respiratory symptoms.
Rapid Influenza Tests Not Reliable
She added, "Clinicians should not rely on the rapid tests for influenza done in the clinic, because these can be unreliable, especially in adults. If a patient is not looking well or has risk factors like pregnancy, antiviral treatment should be started right away while awaiting test results with [polymerase chain reaction]. Many studies have shown that early treatment can make a big difference as far as hospitalization and death for influenza."
Commenting on the study for Medscape Infectious Diseases, John Bartlett, MD, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, said the authors did everybody a big favor by doing the study.
The big surprise here, he said, was the severity of H1N1 infection in older individuals.
"We've all emphasized the fact that this is a disease of young people and elderly people are relatively spared. A lot of people, including myself, have told older people not to worry about H1N1, that it's not their problem. I think we have to think twice about that now," he said.
This does not mean that all older people need to be vaccinated, he added. Rather, it means that clinicians need to be more cautious in advising them of their risk.
Dr. Bartlett also noted the finding that obesity appears to be a risk factor for hospitalization. "Everybody has been talking about this, but the CDC has never really recognized that as a risk per se. But it just keeps coming up. It came up in Canada, it came up in Mexico, and it came up in California. I think we are going to have to try to figure out why people who are morbidly obese tend to handle this flu less well. A lot of them in this series had comorbidities, but a lot of them did not."
Dr. Louie and Dr. Bartlett have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Medscape Medical News © 2009 Medscape, LLC
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Cite this: Hospitalization, Death From H1N1 Influenza Can Occur at Any Age - Medscape - Nov 05, 2009.


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"To create change, you need to shock people"
Categories: Features
Rebellious, ambitious and more than a little evangelical, Douglas McMaster promotes the concept of zero-waste cookery through his Brighton restaurant, Silo. He talks about composting, pre-industrial food and the joys of braised beef sphincter
Words: Clare Finney
Images: Joseph Fox
It is a truth universally acknowledged that meeting a person equal to you in age but streets ahead in their accomplishments is an intimidating experience, however nice they might be. Inevitably it leads to a totting up of the woeful disparity between your paltry achievements (school progress prize circa 2003, anyone?) and theirs. Douglas McMaster, owner and head chef of Silo in Brighton, is a case in point.
He's no celebrity—not yet anyway—but in the course of just 28 years his accolades range from changing Australia's food waste policy, to winning two major awards and opening Silo, one of only a handful of zero-waste restaurants in the world. For any 28-year-old it would be commendable—let alone a boy from a "cold, hard, grim northern town" whose story is, by his own admission, a classic tale of "being dyslexic, a bit rebellious, dropping out of school and into a local restaurant kitchen".
We meet inside his restaurant, a warm, gently buzzing environment of whitewashed walls, rustic wooden floors, long benches and brown sugar jars. If that sounds a bit gimmicky, it's actually not: "By maximising these jam jars, we minimise waste," Douglas says, following my line of gaze. "It is never a gimmick, what we do. Jam jars are hardwearing and multifunctional: one day it's a jam jar, the next a glass to drink out of, the next something to ferment cabbage in. We can use the lid to serve butter, or snacks. It's better than energy-expensive recycling." Instead they're upcycled (repurposed) along with everything else you'll find in this place, which somehow manages to make waste look not just useful, but cool.
More than just zero-waste
Plates are made from plastic bags, tables from industrial floor tiles, and work benches from filing cabinet frames. Raw ingredients are delivered in reusable containers or, if animals, as carcasses straight from organic farms. What little food diners don't eat is turned into compost in the anaerobic digesting machine. Silo is about more than being just zero-waste, Douglas says: "It is pre-industrial. Waste is part of the problem, but it is also a symptom of the larger problem that is the industrial food system, in which a middle man takes the whole ingredient, does things to it and passes it on to the consumer." It is the middle man, continues Douglas, who gives the impression that "throwing food away doesn't matter, because it costs so little and there is such ready availability".
It's the middle man who adds the bin-bound packaging, over-processes the food, and siphons off most of the money in doing so. "We talk about waste, but it is directly related to healthcare, to politics, and to the economy," he tells me passionately. "Farmers are so poor now that no one wants to be one. Health problems arise from food which is so processed, it barely resembles the natural product." Conversely, in Silo's pre-industrial system, Douglas trades directly with small organic farmers in the local area, mills his own flour, butchers his own meat from whole carcasses, churns his own butter and curd, brews his own beer, ferments his own pickles and, like an increasing number of chefs, supports a nose to tail and root to fruit ideology.
There's no other word for it: Douglas is evangelical—about food, about waste, and about our relationship with the environment. An hour in his company is depressing and uplifting by turns. On the one hand, his clear-sighted interpretation of these issues is that they're connected and if we don't change, "the planet will explode, really. We've some serious problems." On the other, he believes "organic systems have a way of healing themselves. We're a bit behind, but we are an organic system and we will find a way."
Nature-loving liberals
He's optimistic, in short—and while sipping a home-brewed, fermented elderflower drink, surrounded by like-minded people dining on homemade bread and fresh farm eggs, it's easy to be persuaded. Silo is in many ways representative of the changes we must start making in our relationship with food. Yes, it exists in the bubble of Brighton, a city renowned for its nature-loving liberals, but Douglas is no Don Quixote: "I was on the Today programme earlier and the journalist asked me if I'd roll Silo out across the country. I said no. Because I don't know how," he says simply. "I don't believe you can franchise Silo as it is at the moment. But there may well be a better, slicker version. An evolution from what I am doing now."
Silo is but a stepping stone—a beacon of hope, not the definitive answer. "It could take me three more years to master that solution, because it is not an easy thing." This is not a cop out: if Douglas was into quick fixes, he would have just set up in the countryside proper—"you know, have a hippy kumbaya restaurant in the woods with its own smallholding. But by 2050, six billion people are expected to live in cities. If I want to make change, real change, I need to deal with the harder model and show there is hope for the future of urban consumerism in the food world. I have to be based in a city."
We touch on Borough Market—the perfect place, Douglas says, for a London Silo. "Everything I'd need is in that market. It would be really amazing." Borough Market itself has been making the reduction of waste a priority recently, with surplus food going to local charities and its packaging increasingly recyclable, biodegradable or non-existent. It's a far cry from the Australian market whose obscene quantities of waste fuelled Douglas's first solo venture, aged 24: Wasted, a pop-up cafe in Sydney which used this surplus so deliciously, it ultimately persuaded the Australian government to change its food waste policy.
Blood, brains and skin
"The idea was to use all the ingredients that would otherwise be wasted to create a really elegant tasting menu," he explains. Being a self-described extremist, Douglas made headlines with a starter of cow's nose and nettle soup, and a special entitled 'blood, brains and skin'. "Poached brains are like a sweetbread, really, and I dehydrated the braised pig skin," he grins. "When you do that it blows up like a quaver. The sauce was pig's blood and people literally licked the blood off the floor tiles."
They ate off the floor? "No, no—I used donated items of waste for plates, like frisbees and floor tiles. It was so successful, though. The Evening Standard even reported on it, and called it 'a triumph of ideas'." To create real change, Douglas argues, you need to shock people. "If you're only a bit different, people think "Oh that's nice, but they don't really think about it enough to change things." Were he an artist, his meals would be on the Jackson Pollock end of the spectrum, he agrees: bold, original, challenging and alluring by turns yet, like Pollock, well grounded in formal practice. "I've spent 12 years in fine dining restaurants. I've learnt lots of techniques. You might be surprised, but even the most outlandish dishes, like the pig skin, make use of techniques that aren't at all new."
Douglas's technical competence is hard won, gleaned from some of the world's best restaurants. A stint in St John in London was followed by The Fat Duck in Bray, Noma in Copenhagen, and Greenhouse—a waste-free restaurant then in Sydney, now relocated to Perth. It was there he met Joost Bakker, "a designer, farmer, artist, fifth generation tulip grower and one of the world's most brilliant people," according to Douglas. "He built Greenhouse from waste materials. I was working at another restaurant at the time, which I hated, and I saw this incredible, glowing building with huge crowds outside as I was leaving one evening. I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame."
Honest and relaxed
Two hours of queuing in the pelting rain later, Douglas walked in and "knew within minutes this was going to be the rest of my life. It encapsulated everything I wanted: a brilliant environment with brilliant food, yet so honest and relaxed, with chefs sitting with customers, music playing. No pretence at all." He sought out Joost, and before the night was out had been offered a job as head chef at a prospective London branch. "It didn't happen in the end—we did something in Melbourne instead—but it was pretty amazing that he had so much faith in me straight away."
Joost told him he chose intuitively, and no doubt there's truth to that. But I can't help but think Douglas's eloquence and passion on the subject of food had an influence. He's best known for being the BBC Young Chef of the Year in 2009, but it's the UK's Most Irreverent Young Chef award he is proudest of. "I won that in 2012, with a dish inspired by the Wasted cafe: I served Marina O'Loughlin and Nuno Mendes pope's eye, which is the beef sphincter muscle. It's the muscle that pumps the waste from the cow's bum. I braised it and served it with other ingredients you'd normally discard, like a lettuce core. I'm so proud of that," he beams. "But I don't care if I'm the best at cooking. I care about making change."
We talk about role models, his impassioned rhetoric rising in urgency as he reels off his food heroes, from his dad to René Redzepi. "They say all creatives have a lightbulb moment. Well, there is no such thing. It's experiences in life, isn't it?" he enthuses, "Certain experiences which build up and lead you to a piece of art, or plate of food. Would I have got here without Fergus Henderson and his ethics? No way. But then it was Noma where I learnt about using stalks and skin from vegetables, and foraging. It was my dad—a poet and a brilliant, wise man who only really eats cheese and biscuits—who made me the man I am today."
Something messianic
Even his hometown, a "northern mining community" near Sherwood forest, played its part. "The culture there is you eat whatever food is easiest, cheapest and quickest, processed or whatever. Maybe, in my unconscious mind, rising from there made me want to create something completely contrasting."
What with his long hair, intense blue eyes and expressive features, there is something messianic about Douglas's food crusade. Compost has never seemed so compelling. "It would cost about £1,000 a month for our waste to be taken away, so our anaerobic digester actually makes us money," he says excitedly. "The resulting compost is so amazing we give it away to our vegetable suppliers, so they save money also. It's a closed loop."
Douglas's phone rings not for the first time today, but he's been too polite to answer it until now. It's a delivery. Reluctantly, I let him throw back the last dregs of his fermented elderflower and make moves to go. We've been talking for almost two hours now, yet I still have at least 20 questions to ask: about the churn, sustainability, fermentation, waste—even about the compost machine. I limit myself to one quick, final query: what can the public learn from Silo when it comes to consuming food?
"That nothing is as it seems," Douglas says. "I want people to be inspired and to adopt as much as they can from here—composting, nose-to-tail eating, not throwing away jam jars—and just appreciate that this is a successful business that's making a positive statement about the sustainability of food." I'm still intimidated; lost as to where I could even compost in a small flat in London, let alone the rest. But as I tear into fresh, sourdough bread spread with creamy homemade butter and organic rocket, I resolve to try harder. There's nothing like meeting an accomplished person the same age as you to make you up your game.


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Spotted Wednesday
Finally, finally it's starting to feel a teensy bit like fall may arrive!! Today I embraced it while dreaming a bit of spring with a pop of pastel:
Cardigan: Kate Spade (it's a wrap)
Dress: Kay Unger (a gift from a generous friend, I love this dress!)
Shoes: Christian Louboutin
Necklace: Kate Spade
I also made cupcakes late this afternoon, and my kiddos got creative with theirs:
The little candies are Konpeito, a Japanese sugar candy (and one of my favorite candies!).
Have a great rest of the week!
Until next time,


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In brief
93.3% of school leavers in Scotland are going into education, training or employment.
Correct according to initial findings for 2015/16, although these may change slightly when the surveys are followed up later this year.
Educational attainment in Scotland is at record levels.
It depends on which measure you look at. 15 year olds' performance in international exams is falling, but at the same time more pupils are leaving school with Higher qualifications..
Claim 1 of 2
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh MP: "We have record levels of attainment in Scotland."
Kezia Dugdale MSP: "That's not true."
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh MP: "93.3% of young people are going to into education, training or employment when they leave school."
Kezia Dugdale MSP: "That's destinations not attainment."
BBC Question Time, 9 March 2017
Both politicians seem to be talking past each other. They're correctly referencing different sets of figures, but it's less clear what Ms Ahmed-Sheikh means by record levels of attainment, since she goes on to talk about where pupils go after they leave school.
Scotland's performance in international science and reading tests is falling
Labour confirmed Ms Dugdale was talking about Scotland's recent performance in the PISA international survey of 15 year-olds' educational performance.
The survey showed Scotland's performance in science and reading falling between 2012 and 2015. While performance in maths hadn't changed much in that time, it was still lower than scores back in the mid-2000s.
More pupils going into education, employment or training
Ms Ahmed-Sheikh appeared to be backing up her claim about attainment with statistics about the destination of school leavers, which is different. It's possible that she was making a separate point on attainment without going into detail, so we've asked her office to confirm what her initial claim referred to.
On destinations, she's correct that, using the available figures, a record proportion of young people are going into education, employment or training.
In 2015/16, 93.3% of school leavers in Scotland went into higher or further education, paid or unpaid work, training and 'activity agreements'. That's been rising each year, from 90.1% in 2011/12.
Those figures tell us what's happening to former pupils three months after leaving. There's usually a follow-up survey after nine months, which tends to show a small drop in pupils going into education, work or training.
More pupils are leaving school with higher level qualifications
One other measure of attainment paints a more positive picture, in line with Ms Ahmed-Sheikh's initial claim.
The proportion of school leavers in Scotland attaining one or more Higher qualification has been rising since 2006, from just over 40% to around 60%. At the other end of the spectrum there's a rising proportion of pupils leaving without any passes at level 3 or better.
This factcheck is part of a roundup of BBC Question Time. Read the roundup.


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The UK should adopt a light touch when it comes to regulating VoIP services according the newly-formed Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA). The organisation is lobbying Ofcom, the DTI and other government bodies to ensure that VoIP gets a fair chance to succeed in the UK.
ITSPAs spokesman Kim Thesiger said that until a month ago, Ofcom had not been aware of the issues surrounding VoIP. The only people who had been talking to Ofcom previously were from BT, he said. He said that the FCC in the US had set the pace in showing how the VoIP industry could be lightly regulated and ITSPA was calling for the same approach in the UK.
Thesiger said that the association was hoping to drive the UK market forward to the same sort of level as the Japanese market. There are five million VoIP phones in Japan. In the UK, they are virtually non-existent. We want to develop the regulatory structure to ensure that sort of success over here.
The association is calling for the development of a Code of Conduct that suppliers would conform to as a first step towards widespread acceptance. Thesiger said that such a code would be released within six weeks. It is also working with similar bodies in Europe and with the EU for a European-wide approach to the issue.
ITSAP has been set up by a group of 13 UK companies, ranging in size from established Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and existing telecoms companies. Thesiger admitted that none of the big equipment vendors such as Cisco or 3Com had joined the association but said that was being addressed and some vendors should join shortly.
He added that the development of SIP meant that VoIP was now a genuinely viable alternative for the delivery of voice services. He expected ITSPA to be concerned mainly with promoting VoIP to consumers and small businesses although that was mainly because there were many larger businesses already interested in running voice over existing IP networks.


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Rules, Codes and Regulations
So you've decided what you'd like to accomplish. Before you get ahead of yourself, you'll want to get in contact with any, and every, entity that could have a say in what you can do with your 'personal' property. Installing a solar power system will require some construction and installation. There will be solar panels either on your roof or in your yard. If you intend to have a grid-tied (net metering) system, the utility company will need to be contacted to determine their rules and safety requirements. Local building codes will need to be consulted. Your neighborhood association, city zoning and county laws should be investigated. You may even want to discuss your intended project with your immediate neighbors. Not only can they create hassles for you during construction (i.e. "There was this truck blocking my drive for 5 minutes." or "They are making quite a racket over there & I want something done about it!", etc, etc.), what if the neighbor decides to plant trees that will block the sunlight to your panels? Basically, confer with everybody, down to the area dog catcher, to alleviate potential headaches later. Here is a link to a checklist needed by the City of Berkeley, CA, in order to be issued a permit to install a solar power system. It should give you an idea of what your local authority my require.
Although there are laws, codes, regulations, stipulations and opinions that can be a real drag but depending on where you live, some governing rules can actually be of assistance completing a DIY solar power system project. The State of California, in general, is a good example where laws are favorable & residence are encouraged toward green energy through legislation.
A good place to get started learning solar law and policy in your state is DSIRE. (some local info may be available there too) I would recommend searching the Internet and using the phone book to learn about the rules applicable to your specific location.
Of course all of the rules about setting it up will be unique to your particular locale. The same thing is also true regarding incentives, rebates and tax credits. At the time of this posting, the Federal Government offers many incentives to encourage residential solar power. In addition to DSIRE also look at energy.gov and energystar.gov for substantial savings relating to all aspects of installing a solar power system. You should also ask your local government if they offer any incentives or rebates.
The next step will be things to consider about the physical setup of your system. Things like estimating your solar power requirements, available solar energy (sunlight) in your area and home energy conservation.