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Economic growth in Japan but external factors remain troublesome
Economic growth in Japan but external factors remain troublesome
Joachim de Villiers and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The economy of Japan despite all the scaremongering continues to show great resilience and this is despite many massive internal and external factors. Of course, the events that unfolded on March 11 led to major economic convulsions and the loss of life was enormous but on top of this is also the global economic situation. Therefore, for Japan to rebound when America and the European Union are suffering so much is also remarkable.
Tens of thousands of people died because of the potent and deadly tsunami which was unleashed by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake. This was followed by a huge nuclear cloud which hung over Japan and the mass media didn't help. Therefore, many embassy staff fled alongside foreign nationals and this uncertainty put enormous strains on the economy.
Also, for major manufacturing companies who were based in the areas hit by the earthquake and tsunami, it was essential to restructure and solve the huge cog in the machinery which was hindering the supply chain. However, corporate Japan and the government pumped vast sums into the economy and the banking system. Therefore, a huge capital base was built in order for Japanese companies to obtain funds internally (applies to companies hit by March 11) and also to expand internationally because of the strong yen.
Not only this, the weakness of the American dollar and the Euro meant that exporters would have been hit badly during natural economic events. Yet despite everything, including typhoon Talas which killed many in Wakayama and other prefectures, Japan's economy is showing signs of economic growth and a rebound was announced.
This applies to gross domestic product growing by 1.5% and while the government of Japan can't rest on these laurels, it is still a remarkable achievement given the reality of 2011 in Japan. Of course, the ill-winds of America and the European Union will continue to hinder further economic progress but a base is being built and stability is the first step after such internal disasters this year related to nature.
In an earlier article by Modern Tokyo Times it was stated that "If you want to study about the uniqueness of Japanese capitalism and how companies respond to enormous adverse conditions, then the Tankan survey by the Bank of Japan will make you fully aware. After all, the devastation caused by March 11 and the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant would have caused most nations to bow down to mass uncertainty. However, welcome to corporate Japan where the response may seem slow but once the juggernaut starts, then it eats into the crisis and returns to normal."
"Let us also remember that unemployment in America remains within the 9% range to just below 10% despite enormous debt borrowing and having no internal devastating consequences to face. Also, remember, that the dollar is very weak and should be helping exporters but in Japan the opposite is happening because the yen is too strong and causing many problems."
"However, unemployment in Japan is falling despite all these negatives to below 4.5% and it is Japan and not America which is trying to help the European Union and crisis hit Greece. This applies to buying more Eurobonds and making it fully aware that Japan will step in and help Greece providing a sound economic policy is put on the table."
Therefore, the announcement that Japan's economy is picking up is remarkable given the adverse conditions but sadly the economic situation isn't out of the woods. This applies to external factors like the high yen; the sluggish global economy; recent floods in Thailand hindering Japanese companies with regards to the supply chain; the ensuing crisis in Europe and the "Euro cloud;" and other factors.
If the global economy was in a healthier condition and the international exchange rates of major currencies were based on realism; then Japan would have more hope for optimism. However, it is hard to imagine other nations rebounding so quickly from such a traumatic event and for this fact alone it is clear that Japan can recover quickly from major internal convulsions.
The next quarter may show that all is not well because of external factors and consumer spending internally remains problematic. Yet the scaremongering of the demise of Japan can be seen for what it was.


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Designers love it, website owners want to fill it. Whitespace seems to be one of the most controversial aspects of design. Why then is it so important and how can we ensure it is maintained?
Whitespace is a fundamental building block of good design. Its one of the first thing any visual designer is taught. However, to many website owners it is simply a waste of space that could be used to better promote their messages, services or products.
In this post I aim to explain why whitespace matters and how to keep whitespace in a design without compromising business objectives. However, before I can do that we need to be clear what we mean by whitespace.
What do designers mean by whitespace?
When designers talk about whitespace, they actually mean negative space. In other words the space between screen elements. That is not always 'white'. This space maybe a colour or texture but either way it is space within a design that does not include screen elements. Below you can see a couple of examples of 'whitespace' in on various websites.
With whitespace clearly defined the next questions becomes "why does it matter?"
Why whitespace matters
Whitespace is a fundamental element of design for good reason. Used well it can transform a design and provide many benefits. Some of those benefits are purely aesthetic while others have a tangible impact on the effectiveness of your site.
Below I share four benefits from the latter group:
Improved legibility
The most obvious benefit of whitespace is that it increases legibility. You only need to compare the examples shown in Mark Boulton's superb article on whitespace to see how a good use of whitespace can make an enormous difference to legibility.
Higher comprehension
Believe it or not whitespace between paragraphs and around blocks of text actually helps people understand what they are reading better. According to research in 2004, this kind of whitespace increases comprehension by almost 20%.
Increased attention
Whitespace can also be a powerful way of drawing the users attention to a particular screen element. To a non designer the most obvious way to make something stand out is to make it bigger. However often surrounding the item with whitespace can be just as effective.
Creates the right tone (sometimes)
Finally the use of whitespace can be a powerful way to communicate elegance, openness and freshness. Obviously this isn't always the design look and feel you wish to communicate. However when it is, you cannot do better than having loads of whitespace.
Hopefully by now the benefits of whitespace are obvious. However even with the best intentions in the world, whitespace can often be pushed out of a design. In order to prevent this we need to understand why it happens and how to combat it.
The three enemies of whitespace
I believe there are three primary reasons why whitespace is pushed out of a design. If you understand what these are and how to deal with them then your design stands a better chance of maintaining the whitespace it needs.
Lets start by looking at the fold.
The fold
Whitespace is often pushed out of a design because somebody within the organisation believes users do not scroll. The result is that they insist as much content as possible is placed high on the page sucking any whitespace from the design.
However the belief that users do not scroll was proved false as early as 1997 and more modern studies have shown that users routinely scroll to the very bottom of pages.
[icegram messages="21585″]
In addition it is important to remember that we do not know the point at which users have to start scrolling. This is dependant on operating system, browser, resolution and many other factors. In the end worrying about 'the fold' is a false economy.
That said, it is still good practice to ensure the primary calls to action and content are placed near the top of the page. However, this is not to suggest other content will be ignored. What is more, placing too much content high on the page will reduce the prominence of key content because it will be overwhelmed by the proximity of lesser content as discussed in 'increased attention' above.
Trying to say too much
Another common reason for whitespace being removed from a design is because there is a desire to communicate too much information at one time. Most website owners have a lot they want to say but unfortunately users only have limited attention. It is therefore important that you 'spend' this user attention wisely.
The Google and Yahoo homepages are good examples of this problem. Both Google and Yahoo offer similar services. However, they take radically different approaches to their primary homepages.
As you can see from the screenshots below Yahoo tries to get the user to look at everything at once. Google on the other hand recognises that users have limited attention and so focus on their primary offering first – search. By looking at the two homepages (let alone their relative incomes) it is immediately apparent which is more effective.
In order to drive this point home I suggest allocating yourself (or those within your organisation pushing for more content on your homepage) 15 points of user attention. Each item you add to the page costs 1 point. If one screen element is more important than another you need to assign it additional points to make it stand out. With only limited points available it quickly becomes obvious you cannot say everything on the homepage and so whitespace does not need to be pushed out of the equation.
Of course even with the best will in the world sometimes a website owner can be forced into adding too much content to a page because of internal politics. When somebody higher within your organisation insists his or her pet project appears on the homepage there is little you can do about it.
This is where the book 'Laws of Simplicity' offers some great advice. If you cannot remove a piece of content then try shrinking or hiding it.
Take for example the approach we used on the Wiltshire Farm Foods homepage. For various reasons it was decided the homepage should include food and health News despite the fact that this information distracted from the primary call to action (buy a meal) and was not something the vast majority of users were interested in.
There is little doubt that whitespace is a valuable design tool that can make any website more effective. What is more I see no reason it needs to be such a point of friction between designers and website owners. I believe any design can maintain its whitespace while meeting a site's business objectives.
But what do you guys think? What problems have you experienced with whitespace? Why do you believe whitespace in design is so important? Let's have a flame war in the comments below ;-)

subset: commoncrawl


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September 13, 2008
Beyond Constructs
- Rob Nilsson's "Go Together"
- Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight"
They could be considered opposites. "Go Together" is made on a shoe string budget by an independent, local film maker, Rob Nilsson. While Dark Knight is an almost $200 million Hollywood blockbuster movie by Christopher Nolan.
But for me they're at essence about the same thing: Transcending simplistic constructs. For "Go Together", it's the construct of the the film spectacle that is critiqued as people voyeuristically watch a film within a film back out to itself. Reflecting the displaying and viewing of film pulled within and through itself, the very act of viewing film is considered. The projections of our own wants, distractions, desires -- such constructs -- missing acting out on acting on life for passive reflections of forms of living.
In "The Dark Knight", the construct of the Hero that people picture in their minds to the real consequences of acting as a hero. Nietzche's statement "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you." comes into play. As the actions of ridding evil, results in the death of loved ones and crossing into corrupt, destructive acts. To be true to justice, the Dark Knight goes beyond simplistic constructs of Hero. To be true to his values, he's willing to be seen as the villain by those accepting one dimensional ideals.
To me, this is the challenge of the 21st century. To go beyond simplistic constructs of good and evil(doers). Simple views of liberals or republicans as good or bad. Instead to discover to bring about values in reality that are actually good irregardless of the consent of those settling for simplistic notions.
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Thrive. –verb. 1. To prosper; 2. To grow or develop vigorously; flourish.
One word embodies a campaign from my HMO, Kaiser Permanente. The Kaiser Permanente Thrive Facebook page says, "Launched in 2004, the Thrive campaign embodies Kaiser Permanente's commitment to total health. Our integrated health care delivery system and commitment to preventative care empowers our members to maximize their total health — mind, body, and spirit."
I'm not here to judge the merits of Kaiser as an HMO, nor my personal experience being in this health care system for over thirty years. But I am curious about the concept of a more proactive and preventative approach promoting health, wellness, and wholeness, versus a more reactive approach of curing diseases and dealing with problems. The way I have typically managed my psoriasis over these past thirty plus years is more the latter. When my skin is red, flaky, peeling, and cracking, my first thought is that I need to find some therapy or medication to address the outbreak of the disease. I want to do something. I might try a combination of conventional therapies such as pills and needles, or some non-conventional ones such as dietary supplements or special baths. I wait day after day to see if anything works, with each new dawn bringing a greater level of anxiety if it does not.
I can understand why I tend to take the more reactive track, as psoriasis patients are at a higher risk for what feels like just about everything. The National Psoriasis Foundation issued a "Psoriasis and Mental Health Issue Brief" where they cite study after study documenting how those with psoriasis have higher rates of depression, anxiety, stress-related disorders, and behavior disorders, and are twice as likely to have thoughts of suicide. Besides these mental health concerns, the lives of patients with severe psoriasis are cut short by four years on average, and they have increased risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and so on.
No wonder in the back of my mind I ask, "Can I thrive with a case of severe psoriasis?" I feel like I need to just survive!
I can think back to countless times when I didn't thrive or think that I could; when the bleakness of a future chained to the ball of psoriasis weighed me down to the point when I wanted to give up. I've been there in the depression, under immense stress, obsessively worrying if I would die before my time. To prosper or flourish in the face of a chronic, inflammatory, unrelenting autoimmune disease does not seem possible even during the better days; forget about the low moments.
But from time to time, something inspires me, drawing me back to courage, hope, and optimism. This week's inspiration came from watching the The King's Speech. In the movie we learn of how the future King George VI struggles with stammering. He eventually becomes king just as Europe is thrust into World War II. The events of his time challenge his resolve to overcome his speech impediment, in order to encourage his empire facing Hitler's war machine. But the King can barely get a sentence out, painfully stammering at what feels like every word. Through his own perseverance, the help of an unorthodox speech therapist, and the support of his family, he overcomes his impediment enough to bring courage to his nation.
After the movie I choked back tears as I thought about the struggle and pain the King endured. I cheered for him just as his subjects cheered for him after he made his first wartime speech. I could relate to how he faced a chronic condition and fought not only for his own life, but also for his family and those who depended on him. It's my challenge, too — to continually commit to health in my body, and just as importantly, in my mind and spirit. This way if one part, such as my body, is not well, my optimistic mind and encouraged spirit can sustain me.
Do you feel it's possible for you to thrive and flourish with psoriasis? I'd love to hear your thoughts, including what inspires you.


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The 25 Best Historic Homes in America
Great Estates: A new look at historic house museums
"You must have Mount Vernon," says Susan Weber, the founder and director of New York's Bard Graduate Center for studies in the decorative arts and design. "It's beautiful, and the spot is fantastic." She's warming to the question posed: Which historic houses in America does she admire most? "And you must have the White House," she adds.
The United States may lack the medieval castles and wondrous palaces of Europe, but it boasts hundreds of noteworthy homes, including Weber's choices. For our 25th anniversary, Traditional Home decided to shine a light on 25 of them, all open to the public. It turned out to be easy to go beyond the most famous, like the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina or The Breakers in Rhode Island.
The U.S. has thousands of remarkable houses! Built by barons of industry, adventurous architects, and wealthy eccentrics, these homes may have stately architecture, sumptuous interiors, eclectic style, gorgeous grounds, history—or, usually, a combination. This selection focuses on 25 estates, in all regions of the country, with a unique visual appeal—homes whose lives are as fascinating as those of the original owners.
New England
1. Isaac Bell House Newport, Rhode Island
2. Castle Hill Ipswich, Massachusetts
3. Hildene Manchester, Vermont
4. Naumkeag Stockbridge, Massachusetts
5. Beauport Gloucester, Massachusetts
6. Winterthur Wilmington, Delaware
7. Fonthill Doylestown, Pennsylvania
8. Cairnwood Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania
10. Lyndhurst Tarrytown, New York
11. Sotterley Hollywood, Maryland
The South
12. Monticello Charlottesville, Virginia
14. Harper Fowlkes House Savannah, Georgia
15. Drayton Hall Charleston, South Carolina
16. Oak Alley Plantation Vacherie, Louisiana
The Midwest
17. Alden Dow House Midland, Michigan
18. Glessner House Chicago, Illinois
19. James J. Hill House St. Paul, Minnesota
20. Glensheen Duluth, Minnesota
The West
21. Larkin House Monterey, California
22. Gamble House Pasadena, California
23. Pittock Mansion Portland, Oregon
24. Filoli Woodside, California
25. Hearst Castle San Simeon, California
Produced by Doris Athineos
Isaac Bell House Newport, Rhode Island
The Isaac Bell House in Newport, Rhode Island, is a favorite of Ian Wardropper, director of the Frick Collection in New York. This 1883 McKim, Mead & White Shingle house doesn't immediately look exceptional. But, Wardropper says, "The inside is really interesting—you see all the bare bones of the architecture. And they had flights of fancy." One example: "They took traditional Japanese frying pans and made them into light fixtures," he says.
Photo: Gavin Ashworth, Courtesy of The Preservation Society of Newport County
Castle Hill Ipswich, Massachusetts
A far more glamorous "Great House" on the coast in Ipswich, Massachusetts, Castle Hill epitomizes the landscaped summer estates built in the American Country Place era, circa 1840–1930.
More of Castle Hill on the next slide.
Photo: Courtesy of The Trustees of Reservations
Castle Hill Ipswich, Massachusetts
This 1928, 59-room Stuart-style mansion is furnished in antiques, including ornate, imported woodcarvings by Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721), whose work also graces England's Hampton Court and Blenheim palaces.
Photo: Courtesy of Jumping Rocks
Hildene Manchester, Vermont
The Lincoln name adds allure to Hildene, in Manchester, Vt., built by the president's son Robert Todd Lincoln in 1903-05. This stately Georgian Revival, whose entrance hall has a working 1,000-pipe organ, is furnished mainly with Lincoln family furniture.
See more Hildene on the next slide.
Hildene Manchester, Vermont
Outside at Hildene there's a formal garden planted to resemble a multi-colored stained glass window and, touchingly, a rectangle of bricks that occupies the same space as Honest Abe's birthplace.
Naumkeag Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Naumkeag, in Stockbridge, Mass., is a pick of architect Annabelle Selldorf, renowned for her work renovating historic properties. "It is a Stanford White Gilded Age 'cottage,' " she says, "an excellent example of the Shingle style with well-maintained interiors that really show how people lived at the turn of the century and beyond." Built in 1885, Naumkeag's rooms are paneled in cherry, oak, and mahogany. "The house is beautifully situated with a combination of pasture land and formal gardens including the wonderful 'Blue Steps' by Fletcher Steele," a series of four, deep-blue fountains, flanked by stairs, that descend into the gardens.
Beauport Gloucester, Massachusetts
Decorator Mario Buatta loves Beauport, the home of Henry Davis Sleeper, one of the first male decorators in the United States.
See more of Beauport on the next slide.
Beauport Gloucester, Massachusetts
Overlooking the harbor in Gloucester, Massachusetts, "it's a charming, charming house," Buatta says. "It's a 40-room house, and it's a miniature version of Winterthur," the Delaware estate of chemical company heir Henry Francis du Pont. "They were friends and collected together." Beauport's curiosities, from folk art to china to silhouettes, fill every nook, cranny, and alcove.
See Winterthur on the next slide.
Winterthur Wilmington, Delaware
Winterthur, however, is a majestic 175-room mansion that houses what may be the world's best collection of American decorative arts. Its masterpieces of furniture, porcelain, and glass date from the 1600s through the 1800s, and the house abounds in notable features, including the stunning hand-painted 18th-century wallpaper in the Chinese Parlor, historic millwork, and a two-story spiral staircase.
Fonthill Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Weber suggested a folly, specifically Fonthill in Doylestown, Pa. Between 1908 and 1912, tile maker Henry Chapman Mercer created this 44-room castle, which except for its 200-plus windows looks like a fortress.
Find an interior photo of Fonthill on the next slide.
Photo: 2daysphotos.com
Fonthill Doylestown, Pennsylvania
It's Fonthill's mazelike interior that's so engaging: along with built-in furniture, it's decorated with Arts-and-Crafts-style tiles and filled with Mercer's collectibles, including Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets and ceramics embedded in the concrete.
Photo: Jack Carnell
Cairnwood Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania
Cairnwood, built between 1892 and 1895 in Bryn Athyn, Pa., was designed by Carrère and Hastings, the premier architectural firm for Gilded Age mansions, to look like a French chateau.
Another photo of Cairnwood is on the next slide.
Photo: © Joy Marie Photography
Cairnwood Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania
Inside, the two-story great hall features a vaulted ceiling, a massive carved stone fireplace, and three arched doorways that lead to a flagstone terrace and manicured lawn. Other rooms exhibit rich brocade wallpaper, details trimmed in gold leaf, and mantles of Siena marble.
Photo: © Allure West Studios
Olana Hudson, New York
With its sweepings views of the Catskill Mountains and Persian-inspired design, Olana, artist Frederick Edwin Church's well-preserved domicile above the Hudson River in New York, has charmed from its start in 1870. "There is no more important site to the Hudson River School of painting," Weber says. "I like the Moorishness of it, and you can see where an artist worked and lived." Surrounded by 250 acres that Church designed, Olana contains many original furnishings and paintings.
Photo: Andy Wainwright
Lyndhurst Tarrytown, New York
Further south, in Tarrytown, N.Y. stands Lyndhurst, the turreted Gothic Revival mansion once owned by tycoon Jay Gould. Designed by architect A. J. Davis in 1838, who later expanded it, this opulent home displays hundreds of treasures, including furniture by Davis and Herter Brothers, plus paintings by the likes of William-Adolphe Bouguereau, many in a grand arched-ceiling gallery.
Sotterley Hollywood, Maryland
Dating to the early 1700s, Sotterley, a onetime tobacco plantation in southern Maryland, evolved from a two-room nucleus into a long, bayed clapboard manor home distinguished by a steeply pitched roof and crowned by a cupola. The interior features carved half-shell alcoves flanking a marble fireplace in the formal drawing room and an unusual Chinese Chippendale central staircase.
Monticello Charlottesville, Virginia
At Thomas Jefferson's Palladian Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va., "the furnishings, the architectural work and the amazing site all work together," Weber says. "Through the house, which is very idiosyncratic, you can see the mind of Jefferson working." For example, "He had a dumb waiter at the foot of his bed that had 40 different outfits. He could spin it around and get dressed quickly," she marvels. "He had absolutely divine taste. He has his furniture from Philadelphia, but he also has English and French things – and not too much of it."
Vizcaya Miami, Florida
Vizcaya, in Miami, is a choice of Elliot Bostwick Davis, the chair of the Art of the Americas department at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. "It was a way to do Venice in the U.S.," she says. Built on Biscayne Bay between 1914 and 1922, this palatial property reinterprets an 18th-century northern Italian villa for the subtropics.
See another photo of Vizcaya on the next slide.
Vizcaya Miami, Florida
Surrounding the central courtyard are 34 rooms showcasing some 2,500 pieces of Italian decorative art—including the rare Admiral Carpet, woven in the 1450s.
Harper Fowlkes House Savannah, Georgia
Curving stairs lead to the entrance of the Harper Fowlkes House, an 1842 Greek Revival mansion in historic Savannah. Inside, a columned central hall with Georgia marble floors leads to a large double parlor, furnished with the original marble consoles, gilded mirrors, and a 1740 Queen Anne-style chair. The house is famous for its chandeliers, made around 1847 by Cornelius Company in Philadelphia.
Drayton Hall Charleston, South Carolina
Drayton Hall, a Georgian pile built in 1738, remains in its nearly original condition, with a design inspired partly by English architects Inigo Jones and William Kent.
See an interior shot of Drayton Hall on the next slide.
Photo: Wade Lawrence
Drayton Hall Charleston, South Carolina
Among Drayton Hall's notable features is the hand-molded c. 1742 ceiling in the "withdrawing room." Bordered by meandering vines and urns, it includes a central medallion with a design featuring corn.
Photo: Tony Sweet
Oak Alley Plantation Vacherie, Louisiana
Named for an 800-foot-long allée of live oaks dating to the 1700s, Oak Alley Plantation on the Mississippi in Vacherie, Louisiana, provides a glimpse of the Old South. The Great House, erected between 1837 and 1839, is Greek Revival with French Creole touches.
View another photo of Oak Alley Plantation on the next slide.
Photo: Courtesy of Oak Alley Foundation
Oak Alley Plantation Vacherie, Louisiana
Twenty-eight Doric columns surround the square, symmetrical mansion, which features a spacious second-floor gallery overlooking the allée.
Photo: Courtesy of Oak Alley Foundation
Alden Dow House Midland, Michigan
Andrew S. Dolkart, architectural historian at Columbia University, chose the Alden Dow House, in Midland, Mich., rather than a Frank Lloyd Wright house: "I love Wright, especially the Dana House in Springfield, Illinois and the Darwin Martin in Buffalo, but these houses are shown as such precious relics that the visitor is afraid to breathe."
See another photo of Alden Dow House on the next slide.
Photo: Courtesy of the Alden B. Dow Archives
Alden Dow House Midland, Michigan
Dow studied briefly at Wright's Taliesin and, Dolkart says, "His house is shown as a home. Visitors can sit on the furniture and are free to walk anywhere. Money was no object here, and the house descends into an artificial lake and is filled with amazing detail and furnishings."
Photo: Glen Calvin Moon, Courtesy of the Alden B. Dow Archives
Glessner House Chicago, Illinois
Completed in 1887, the Glessner House in Chicago was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, the foremost proponent of the Romanesque style in the U.S. He used rough granite blocks to form a U-shaped home, adding arches and columns as functional ornamentation, and created a large inner courtyard that gave the inhabitants privacy from the city.
See another photo of Glessner House on the next slide.
Photo: William Zbaren, Courtesy of Glessner House Museum
Glessner House Chicago, Illinois
Inside Glessner House, there are English and American Arts and Crafts objects by the likes of William Morris and Isaac Scott.
Photo: Courtesy of Glessner House Museum
James J. Hill House St. Paul, Minnesota
The five-story James J. Hill House, in St. Paul, is another Romanesque showplace, with 22 fireplaces, 16 cut-glass chandeliers, a two-story art gallery, an 88-foot reception hall, and a dining room with a hidden door to a walk-in safe.
Another photo of the James J. Hill house is on the following slide.
James J. Hill House St. Paul, Minnesota
An elaborately carved grand staircase is just one example of intricate oak and mahogany woodwork that abounds in the house.
Glensheen Duluth, Minnesota
On the shores of Lake Superior, in Duluth, sits Glensheen, a 39-room Jacobean Revival home, built in 1905-08.
See another picture of Glensheen on the next slide.
Glensheen Duluth, Minnesota
The inside of Glensheen is a cornucopia of woodwork, panels and trims in oak, walnut, mahogany, cypress and more, and much of the original furniture is there, as are the rich wall and ceiling coverings and the 1908 art collection.
Larkin House Monterey, California
Michael S. Smith, the Santa Monica-based designer whose clients include the White House, singled out the Larkin House, an 1835 adobe brick box with a veranda encircling the second floor, in Monterey, Ca. "It is a perfect example of the beginning of relaxed California architecture," Smith says. "It is a simple form in a beautiful location. Each floor is decorated beautifully, with many delicate yet meaningful French and Asian antiques" from the early 19th century.
Gamble House Pasadena, California
With both structure and furnishings designed by Charles and Henry Greene, the Gamble House in Pasadena – created in 1908 for heirs to the Procter & Gamble Co. – represents the apogee of American Arts and Crafts-style, the "new and native" architecture the Greenes invented.
See another photo of the Gamble House on the next slide.
Gamble House Pasadena, California
A leaded glass Tree of Life door lead to the home in warm woods (teak, mahogany, redwood, ebony, maple), outfitted with furniture designed to occupy specific spots and upper-level sleeping porches.
Pittock Mansion Portland, Oregon
An eclectic mix of Jacobean, Edwardian and French Renaissance architecture, with a few Turkish touches thrown in, the Pittock Mansion in Portland, Or., is a charmer. Completed in 1914, this 22-room, richly decorated home is filled with period furniture, porcelain, silver and glass and up-to-date features like a central vacuum system.
Photo: Courtesy of Michael Henley, Contemporary Images, Inc.
Filoli Woodside, California
Well known for its gardens, Filoli, in Woodside, Ca. is also one of the west's grandest abodes, a Georgian English country estate with a Spanish mission tile roof and an Italian baroque entrance portico.
Another photo of Filoli is on the next slide.
Filoli Woodside, California
In the 43 rooms of Filoli are 17 fireplaces, carved moldings, inlaid parquet floors, and high ceilings that rise from 17 feet in most major rooms to more than 22 feet in the ballroom.
Hearst Castle San Simeon, California
Hearst Castle, on a hilltop in San Simeon, Ca. is a pastiche of many styles, and with its 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms and 19 sitting rooms, represents the height of excess in the early 20th century. Ceilings, tiles, furniture and furnishings were bought back by Hearst from churches, monasteries, and palaces in Europe to make this dream estate.
Photo: Courtesy Hearst Castle®/California State Parks


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Colorado State softball: More on another Rams rebound
My story on Colorado State softball is in the Friday paper and online here.
I enjoyed checking in with the program on Wednesday, attending the Rams' victory over New Mexico at Ram Field adjacent to Moby Arena, and had considerable leftover material after filing the story about the Mountain West Conference's co-leaders.
Fourth-year Jen Fisher is a Rocky Mountain High graduate and played collegiately at Creighton and Colorado School of Mines before finishing up her degree work at CSU, where her father, Wayne Schubert, is a long-time atmospheric sciences professor.
Her stint at Metro State involved shepherding a startup program to Division II prominence, and now she's doing similar things at CSU.
How has it happened? Read more…


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Is Facebook Places not sufficiently immersing you in the mundanity of your friends' lives? Try Nearby Friends, an app that plots their check-ins—past and present—on Google Maps. Just don't let any of them catch you using it.
In all truth, the app—sure to be a hit among crazed, jealous ex-boyfriends everywhere—is only using information that's available because someone opted for it to be. And several other prominent location services, such as Loopt and Latitude, already make it easy to find your friends on a map. But viewing a friend's full geographical history, complete with destination-connecting lines, might raise an eyebrow among those worried about revealing too much of their whereabouts—though this set probably isn't using Places to begin with. [Nearby Friends via ReadWriteWeb]


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Saturday, May 23, 2009
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We have come to drag days. We have come to drag days. We escape them sometimes and the feeling is different, more intensified. We escape them within the walls of our fidgety hearts where we hide. They will turn around. They will turn around... -Guided By Voices


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The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya LAUNCHES!!! (Updated)
I realized most of CR's upload of anime is ones with a lot of episdoe or really little. like either like over 40 or less than 15
Inactive :(
Starlight_lily wrote:
iMikuHatsune wrote:
NoBreyner wrote:
for those who watch this take a look at they posted a movie from this series this morning. It is low quality
is it ._. even ur a primium member as well...
oh well x3 it just came out it may take some time
the movie's not on crunchyroll
i know i've seen it its pretty good i guess :))
Len.Miku.Rin.~♥// semi-hiatus // new avii //
I am very disappointed with this... i already have the second season of TMHS... anyways out of the 14 good ones being aired.... only 3 are by crunchyroll... -_- well nothing much i can say.... i shall watch these off torrents then.
So tell me.... a little about yourself?
i love haru but sigh i guess it will be something to wach
going black friday shopping tonight at 12am wish me luck everyone.
This was aired 4 years ago....
Lol, you guys with CR memberships can enjoy your 4 year old anime.
I'll just google "free anime episodes" and get the "three days aired ago" anime.
being obsessed of #$^#
This has been out for quite some time now. Heck its been dubbed already.
The one flower that shines throughout the entire world!
Have watched the first season already and some of the second. The second was annoying as most of the episodes were just repeats of the last episode shown.
One shall not.
I love that Haruhi is on CR, but I can't help but be a little disappointed that it was added as part of the spring 2010 lineup. I think it should have just been a normal announcement about an older show being added to the site. But yeah I am excited to see Haruhi come on CR, and I'll look forward to watching it again whenever I get the time. Its just disappointing that the last announcement for the spring 2010 simulcast lineup wasn't something that was actually new this season. I mean I think its clear that Haruhi can't be called a simulcast, so it shouldn't be announced as on.
On another note I had been trying to guess what the new shows were going to be. I would have loved to see kaichou wa maid-sama, K-ON!, or even Angel Beats. Its sad to see that there aren't many titles this season that I look forward to watching, but I'll probably check of the first episode of each before deciding for sure.
Aim high and reach for the stars!
why is CR being so annoying right now
I accept random friend requests
WHY CANT U JUZ POST XxXHOLIC OR K-ON!! SEASON 2!!!OR DETECTIVE CONAN!!GOSH!!!>.<WUT THE POINT >.<..I WATCHED THIS LIKE...ALMOST 5 TIMES ALREADY..NYYAAA
too late... I already watched all of it
I'm not really excited. I was hoping for more newer shows.
I come back a week later and this is what I see?
This one is nice... up to the endless 8 episodes...
Too bad I cannot watch any series from this lineup in my country, and I truly mean none of them. I didn't think regional restriction could be worse after the winter lineup but I was wrong.
Well, I guess I'll still keep the anime membership so that the authors still get paid while I watch the rips on some other site.
Fen_Star wrote:
Sure you know this season hasn't been as good as the last couple but they set a pretty high strandard from the beginning IMO but I don't know sometimes it's gonna go better then others.
I'm currently watching 6 shows weekly on CR myself, I think that for the money that isn't bad. To be honest it's not like the subscription is exactly expensive infact it's pretty damn cheap for 6 shows.


text:
PRINCE - One Song Lyrics
I am the universe
The sun, the moon and sea
I am the energy
4 that is what I believe
I can be contradiction
Cuz that is all I see
But I am the universe
And the universe is me
I am the one song (Ah yes)
And that one song is free
All things come from this one song (Yes they do, uh)
The garden and the tree
If everything, everything is present
What is will always be
This here is the first and the last song
And all that come between
When language falls like a wounded soldier
And it's covered by the sea
All the sadness
All these unanswered questions
Keep me company
(Company, company, company come 2 me, come 2 me please!)
Here at the center of it all
(I know)
I know that U can only come from me
(I am the universe)
Yes it will, oh, yes it will
(The sun, the moon and sea)
Where else is it gonna come from but me?
(I am the universe)
Oh my, my my my my my my my universe
(The universe is me)
(I am the universe)
(The sun, the moon and sea)
(I am the universe)
(We are the universe) {x2}
(The universe is me)
One truth (One truth)
One song (One song)
One energy


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Learn to Sew
August 1, 2018 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm$5
Event Navigation
Every Wednesday (except the first one!) will be hands-on instruction for sewing with a machine.
Cindy "Professor Stitches" will show you how to craft simple garments using your sewing machine! If you don't have one, don't worry! We have a few machines you can use here!
Learn progressively. She will address whatever area you need without you having to commit to every single Wednesday. Skip a class if you need and she will get you the next time you show up.
Please be advised that the first Wednesday of the month will be sewing "theory" where you will learn how to read patterns, understand fabric, learn the vocabulary, etc. All the other Wednesdays will be hand-on.
This class is free to members and we ask that non-members consider making a small donation?


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The presidential campaigns are continuing to wage an aggressive back and forth, especially in Ohio. But the devastating impact of Sandy will likely put a wrench in many East Coast residents' plans to vote, as well as the tallying of those votes. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.
Nationwide polls may portray the presidential campaign as a neck-and-neck horse race, but less conventional data-crunching methods spit out a different picture, with President Barack Obama edging out GOP challenger Mitt Romney.
One big variable remains to be factored in: the effect of Hurricane Sandy. And one big state that's been relatively unaffected by the storm holds the key to the outcome: Ohio. "It's been that way for the entire election cycle," said David Rothschild, an expert on opinion modeling at Microsoft Research and Columbia University's Applied Statistics Center.
Rothschild, who lays out election forecasts at the Predictwise website and blogs about prediction science on The Signal at Yahoo, surveyed the state of the art this weekend at the New Horizons in Science symposium, presented as part of the ScienceWriters2012 conference.
In the final days of the campaign, the divergent spins on the election outlook have sparked a few fireworks. Statistician Nate Silver's analysis for The New York Times' Five Thirty Eight column, which has consistently favored Obama even as many others were reporting a tightening of the race, drew criticism from the National Review's Josh Jordan for including "a little bit too much hope of an Obama victory against what appears to be a surge of Romney momentum."
This week, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough virtually called for Silver's pundit license to be revoked. "Anybody that thinks that this race is anything but a tossup right now is such an ideologue they should be kept away from typewriters, computers, laptops and microphones for the next 10 days, because they're jokes," he said on "Morning Joe."
Economist Paul Krugman went to Silver's defense in his own column for the Times, decrying the "war on objectivity" and saying that "all the election modelers have been faithful to their models, letting the numbers fall where they may."
"This is really scary," Krugman wrote. "It means that if these people triumph, science — or any kind of scholarship — will become impossible. Everything must pass a political test; if it isn't what the right wants to hear, the messenger is subjected to a smear campaign."
Silver's analysis is based on a state-by-state assessment of polling data from multiple sources, translated into an electoral vote count. Political prediction markets, such as those studied by Rothschild, use a different method to come up with a surprisingly similar snapshot of the horse race.
The markets offer a glorified kind of gambling on political fortunes: The winner-take-all markets let players "invest" in the prospects of a particular candidate. If the candidate wins, the investor gets, say, $1 a share. If the candidate loses, the investor gets nothing. Leading up to Election Day, investors can buy or sell shares in candidates to match their expectations of success.
The shifting share prices reflect the perceived probability of success. For example, Intrade's market sets the probability of Obama's re-election at 63 percent. The Iowa Electronic Markets go with a little more than 63 percent, while the trading at Betfair puts the probability at 70 percent. That's in the same ballpark as Silver's 72.9 percent estimate.
IEM / Univ. of Iowa
A chart shows share values on the Iowa Electronic Markets in the winner-take-all market for the presidential popular vote. The blue line indicates Democratic share prices, while the red line indicates GOP share prices.
Intentions vs. expectations
What the prediction markets provide is a probability figure, not a vote share figure. It reflects expectations about a given outcome, just as the Vegas odds reflected the expectation that the Giants would win the World Series, even before they swept the Tigers. There was a chance all the way up to the final out that the Tigers could roar back and take four games in a row to win the series. But in this case, at least, the Vegas marketplace predicted the outcome.
So what's the success rate of prediction markets? How do surveys that gauge expectations perform, compared with traditional surveys that gauge what voters say they intend to do? That's where Rothschild's research comes in: He and a colleague, Penn economist Justin Wolfers, looked at the predictions produced by traditional polls ("For whom do you intend to vote?"), as opposed to less traditional surveys ("Whom do you expect to win?"), in 345 political races.
Most of the time, the predictions from the two types of forecasts were in agreement. But in those cases where the predictions were different, the expectation survey was right 76 percent of the time, while the traditional intention survey was right only 24 percent of the time.
Rothschild said the strength of expectation polls may lie in the fact that investors can absorb information from other sources to come up with a consensus that reflects the wisdom of crowds. "Asking people about expectations is equivalent to as if people went out to 10 random voters and reported the binary result," he said.
Based on the prediction markets, it's as if Obama is the favored team in the seventh game of the World Series. The betting odds have been in his favor for the past year — even though there have been ups and downs, such as his slump in the first presidential debate. Now that all the debates are done, most of the uncertainty has been wrung out of the campaign.
"There's one more unexpected event: this hurricane," Rothschild said.
After the storm
Lots of prognosticators have pointed to the uncertainties raised by Hurricane Sandy. The conventional wisdom was that Romney would benefit from a long-recognized anti-incumbent effect in late pre-election polling, as well as a race-tightening effect. However, Sandy changes the calculus.
"Generally, natural disasters benefit incumbents," Rothschild said. There's a tendency to put politics aside, rally 'round the flag and let the president look presidential. (That effect can go negative if the disaster response doesn't go well, as President George W. Bush found out in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.) Even before the storm hit, Scarborough said Romney's momentum could stall in Sandy's aftermath. "It changes everything with a week to go," he said.
There's already some evidence that the rally effect has kicked in: For example, today New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie, said hat Obama's response to the storm crisis was "outstanding" and that he didn't "give a damn about Election Day." Christie is due to tour devastated areas with the president on Wednesday.
The catastrophic aftermath of the storm may affect early voting as well as the Election Day turnout in places like New York and New Jersey. That could cut into the Democratic vote. Research has shown that obstacles to voting tend to hit Democrats harder than Republicans. But in Sandy's case, that statistical effect may not be critical because those states are relatively safe for Obama.
Sandy's effect may be more crucial hundreds of miles from the worst of the storm, in Ohio. For the past year, Ohio has been the "flip state" in Rothschild's calculations. Neither candidate has a clear path to victory unless he wins Ohio's electoral votes, Rothschild said. That's one reason why Romney was the headliner for a storm-relief rally in Ohio today — and why Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton are canvassing the state while Obama tours the hurricane zone.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney reacts as he accepts a food donation from a supporter during a storm-relief event in Kettering, Ohio.
How will it all turn out? There are lots of statistical models floating around, and no matter which way it turns out, some will score a home run while others will strike out. In addition to the political prediction markets we've been talking about, here are a few more forecasts to watch:
- University of Illinois' Election Analytics favors Obama in the electoral vote.
- Moody's Analytics favors Obama in the electoral vote.
- Yale economist Ray Fair's Vote-Share Equations indicate that the election is too close to call.
- University of Colorado's election model, developed by political scientists Kenneth Bickers and Michael Berry, favors Romney in popular and electoral vote.
- IHS Global Insights' Nigel Gault's model favors Romney, based on a formula that combines five economic indicators.
We'll be talking about the scientific angles to the political campaign at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday on "Virtually Speaking Science," an hourlong talk show airing on BlogTalkRadio and in the Second Life virtual world. My guest will be Shawn Lawrence Otto, a founder of ScienceDebate.org and author of "Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America."
Turn to NBC Politics for the full story about the final week of the presidential campaign, and keep a watch on our coverage of Hurricane Sandy's aftermath as well.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor and vice president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, which presented the New Horizons in Science symposium. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.


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Economic Justice as a Religious Mission
Like no other attack in India, the terrorist bombings that occurred from 26 to 29 November 2008, shocked the world. In India it was even compared with the attack on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001.
Indian Muslims from Mumbai, who are often targets of violent attacks by fanatic Hindu nationalists and likewise suffered losses after the attack, condemned the terrorist act and, afterwards, organised protests and peace marches together with members of other religions.
Among them were members of Islamic reform theologian Asghar Ali Engineer's Center for the Study of Society and Secularism, CSSS.
"Terrorism has no religion"
"Forty percent of the victims were Muslims," says Kutub Kidwai, Asghar Ali Engineer's right hand. "Terrorism has no religion and knows no friends, no brotherhood," explains Indian Sunni Kidwai. "They did not attack a specific religion, but all of us."
Asghar Ali Engineer, born in 1939, fell out with his original community – the Shi'a Dawoodi-Bohras – decades ago. His team now includes Hindus and members of other religions.
Whether Christian, Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, or Jews – Asghar Ali Engineer approaches all believers – and non-believers – with respect. He is the most well-known Islamic reform theologian in India.
"All people, even women, must be allowed to live in dignity," he replies to those who derive male supremacy from the Koran. "They must be able to decide their own future and present – for me that is the spirit of the Koran."
Rethinking Sharia
Engineer also calls Sharia into question for this very reason, because it was laid out in the Koran during a time in history in which society was still feudal. "Today we must rethink all Sharia laws," explains Engineer.
His beliefs and work have made him a target of the Dawoodi-Bohras. "Five times they have tried to kill me," the reform theologian says. The perpetrators, however, were not able to intimidate him. For many decades now he has been organising seminars and congresses, and is in an ongoing dialogue with representatives of religious, social, and political organisations.
The last attack on Asghar Ali Engineer took place in 2000. Newspapers and television stations reported on the attack, and many critical intellectuals announced their solidarity with the reform theologian.
In 2004, Asghar Ali Engineer was awarded the alternative Nobel Peace Prize for his work together with Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu reformer and opponent of Hindu nationalists.
For many decades Engineer has lived and worked in Mumbai, a city with a population of 18 million, the leading economic centre on the subcontinent and the most Western-oriented city in India. More than any other Indian metropolis in the past two decades, Mumbai has been targeted with terrorist attacks and pogroms.
Indian Muslim particularities
The right-wing extremist Hindu party Shiv Sena, the "Army of the God Shiva", has been in power for more than 15 years. The Shiv Sena regard Indian Muslims as their archenemy Pakistan's "fifth column".
Not coincidentally, but precisely for this reason, Asghar Ali Engineer has chosen to house his Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism in Mumbai. In his fight against fundamentalism he builds on the Indian tradition of coexisting with different religions.
"Thanks to our mixed culture, Islam in India differs from the Islam in Arab countries," says Engineer. "Muslims are a minority here and even the Muslim dynasties that ruled in India had to moderate their religious fervour because the majority of the population belonged to another religion," explains the theologian.
Indian civilisation and culture have had a strong influence on Islam, just as Islam, in its turn, has influenced Indian culture.
This tradition of a mixed culture is still strong today. Engineer is convinced that "despite the powerful influence of Hindu fundamentalism, most Hindus have not been infected by it. Most Hindus are very accommodating and secular."
Kutub Kidwai is more sceptical about the future. She is afraid that attacks on Indian Muslims and their religious sites might radicalise younger members. After all, the Mumbai assassins used these incidents to vindicate their actions.
"In a TV interview one of them mentioned the destruction of the Babri mosque in 1992 and the pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002," says Kidwai. He demanded the end of cruelties against Muslims.
"Someday we must realise that we have to come to terms with our internal conflicts in India," insists Kidwai.
Influences of Bertrand Russel and Marx
Muslims in India are not only subjected to violence from Hindu nationalists, but, compared to the Hindu majority in India, have less access to education, are more impoverished, and are underrepresented in civil service.
Changing this is part of his religious mission, says Engineer, because Islam emphasizes economic justice.
The works of the British philosopher Bertrand Russell and Karl Marx have been another influence on Engineer. According to Engineer's interpretation, Marx did not condemn religion in itself – and its spiritual content – but rather its social function.
Asghar Ali Engineer agrees with Karl Marx that religion can be an instrument of tyranny when used to maintain the conditions of oppression instead of changing them.
In his book "Islam and Revolution" Asghar Ali Engineer develops the perspective of a liberation theology, which assigns religion another social function, one which places justice in the here and now, and not in the afterlife.
In the process, Asghar Ali Engineer envisions not an armed, holy war, but non-violent acts of civil disobedience to counter the forms of direct and structural violence.
Asghar Ali Engineer is a big role model for Kutub Kidwai. "Sometimes I call him a modern Sufi," she says. "Sometimes a veritable Gandhi."
Gerhard Klas
© Qantara.de 2009
Translated from the German by Nancy Joyce
Portrait Asghar Ali Engineer
Learning from India
Asghar Ali Engineer's aim is to make progressive thinking accessible to lay people and to bring it beyond the borders of a select group of intellectuals. A portrait of the Indian Muslim thinker by Fatma Sagir
Interview with Maulana Kalbe Sadiq
"Education Is the Most Crucial Challenge for India's Muslims"
Maulana Kalbe Sadiq is one of India's leading Shia Muslim scholars. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand, he talks about educational concepts of Indian Muslim scholars and their widespread reluctance to face Muslims' contemporary challenges
The Indian Subcontinent's Colonial Heritage
Divide and Conquer
The murderous terrorist attack in Mumbai at the end of November brought the religious and political fault-lines on the Indian subcontinent sharply back into the public eye. Their background, however, reaches back to the days of British colonial rule, as the historian Jörg Fisch shows


text: Our Story Aston Carter has grown to become a preeminent global provider of top talent to businesses requiring highly specialised business professionals focusing on Accounting & Finance, Change & Transformation, Compliance, Management Consulting, Operations and Risk & Regulation. Aston Carter's global reach extends across Europe, Asia and North America — each with a strong focus on the core values that made Aston Carter the company it is today: Commitment, Character & Trust, Relationships and a Passion for Excellence. About Aston Carter From London to New York to Hong Kong, Aston Carter offers unrivalled service out of more than 60 offices around the globe. For two decades, our team has consistently exceeded the expectations of clients and business professionals by going above and beyond, every day. Aston Carter is an Allegis Group company, a global leader in talent solutions. Unrivalled Commitment to Delivery Aston Carter is committed to building long-term strategic relationships with our clients and business professionals, enabling us to deliver world-class professional talent and staffing services to businesses worldwide. Contact Us We Are Global We have over 350 staff members servicing Europe, Asia and North America, with our global headquarters in London. Contact Us


text:
The Carol Chomsky Memorial Fund - News
Trapped by Denial of Rights, Illusion of Statehood: The Case of the Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon
Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network
March 1, 2012
The bid to attain UN membership is a reflection of the impasse the Palestinian leadership reached in the negotiations with the Israelis and their American sponsor. It is the PLO/PA attempt to break out of the deadlock despite the risks involved to the PLO's claim to be the sole representative of the Palestinian people in their quest to secure their right of return and self-determination.
Palestinians in Lebanon took different positions towards the bid. Some cheered enthusiastically (Fatah and PLO factions) while others expressed reservations and/or rejected it (Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement). Many were concerned that the bid could affect the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and in particular their rights of return and self-determination. Civil society organizations, especially the committees and bodies involved in a movement for the right of return explicitly rejected the bid and even accused the PA of betrayal and squandering national rights in the "game of nations".
Apartheid targets Palestinian home-owners inside Israel
Electronic Intifada
By Jonathan Cook
March 10, 2005
You won't hear about the story of my Palestinian friend Ali Zbeidat and the threatened demolition of his "illegal" home, either from the hundreds of international correspondents in Jerusalem or from the Hebrew media - not even from those remarkable Israeli journalists Amira Hass and Gideon Levy, two lone beacons inside Israel in the campaign for justice for the Palestinians.
None of them will tell you about the story of Ali's family and the imminent physical and financial ruin of their lives by Israel, even though Ali's plight is far from unique. There are tens of thousands of other Palestinians in the same desperate situation as Ali, living in homes Israel defines as illegal.The problem for Ali is not just that he is Palestinian; if he were, you might learn of his story. Ali's problem is that he is also a citizen of Israel. He belongs to a minority of one million Palestinians who fell under Israeli sovereignty during the 1948 war that founded a Jewish state on what was once the Palestinian homeland.
IDF pushes law to give settlers another way of grabbing land– unpaved roads
By Allison Derger
February 25, 2012
The Israeli military is pushing legislation allowing settlers to bypass the state's convoluted building permit system in the occupied West Bank. The new law would allow settlers to create unpaved roads without a permit. If the law passes, these settlers would be the only Israeli citizens able to build roads in this manner. Currently, only the military is able to build roads without a permit.
Under the proposed legislation, Israeli-only roads in the West Bank will begin to take on a different function. This network of roadways currently exists to speed travel between the settlements and create physical barriers between Palestinian villages. The new law would treat roads as something similar to the caravans in illegal settler outposts - a means of pushing Palestinians off their land. The Civil Administration confirms the land grabbing function of the bill, stating: "the request did not deal with the paving of roads for vehicular traffic to preserve this land."
Robert Fisk: The new Cold War has already started – in Syria
The Independent
By Robert Fisk
February 25, 2012
If Iran obtains nuclear weapons capability, "I think other nations across the Middle East will want to develop nuclear weapons".
Thus thundered our beloved Foreign Secretary, William Hague, in one of the silliest pronouncements he has ever made. Hague seems to spend much of his time impersonating himself, so I'm not really certain which of Mr Hague-Hague's personas made this statement.Flaw number one, of course, is Hague-Hague's failure to point out that there already is another Middle East "nation" that has, in fact, several hundred nuclear weapons along with the missiles to fire them. It's called Israel. But blow me down, Hague-Hague didn't mention the fact. Didn't he know? Of course, he did. What he was trying to say, you see, was that if Iran persisted in producing a nuclear weapon, Arab states – Muslim states – would want to acquire one. And that would never do. The idea, of course, that Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons because Israel already possesses them, did not occur to him.
Beyond the Fall of the Syrian Regime
Middle East Research and Information Project
By Peter Harling, Sarah Birke
February 24, 2012
Syrians are approaching the one-year anniversary of what has become the most tragic, far-reaching and uncertain episode of the Arab uprisings. Since protesters first took to the streets in towns and villages across the country in March 2011, they have paid an exorbitant price in a domestic crisis that has become intertwined with a strategic struggle over the future of Syria.
The regime of Bashar al-Asad has fought its citizens in an unsuccessful attempt to put down any serious challenge to its four-decade rule, leaving several thousand dead. Many more languish in jail. The regime has polarized the population, rallying its supporters by decrying the protesters as saboteurs, Islamists and part of a foreign conspiracy. In order to shore up its own ranks, it has played on the fears of the 'Alawi minority from which the ruling family hails, lending the conflict sectarian overtones. All these measures have pushed a growing number of young men on the street -- and a small but steady stream of army defectors -- to put up an armed response, while impelling large sections of the opposition to seek financial, political and military help from abroad. Loyalist units have taken considerable casualties from the armed rebels, and the regime has hit back with disproportionate force.
Visit and join the Chomsky Fund's Causes page!
The Carol Chomsky Memorial Fund works to assist Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and in the Occupied Territories. The Fund provides financial assistance to LEAP, the Learning English Advancement Program, which teaches English to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. It also assists the Mezan Center for Human Rights, which monitors and documents human rights violations in Gaza and educates teachers and other public workers about the rights of women, children, and the disabled.
1. Supports Educational Programs for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon2. Donates Funds for Human Rights Work in the Gaza Strip
Israeli decision to release Palestinian detainee in April 'insufficient'
Amnesty International
February 21, 2012
The Israeli authorities' decision to release a Palestinian detainee by mid-April is insufficient, Amnesty International said amid reports that he has agreed to end his 66-day hunger strike.
The organization has urged Israel to release Khader Adnan immediately to allow him to receive urgent medical treatment. The 33-year-old baker – allegedly affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement – is at immediate risk of death after more than 10 weeks on hunger strike.
Occupied Lives:Sniper Fire in the 'Buffer Zone'
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
February 16, 2012
Goldfinches and canaries are appreciated worldwide for their colourful appearance and their melodic whistling. The birds are especially popular in the Gaza Strip as they help to create a distraction from the hardships of daily life.
Munther Rashad Saleh al-Nakhala, 44, lives in Gaza city. He is widely known by his neighbours for his success in raising canaries and goldfinches and for the care and attention he shows them. At present, he owns more than 50 birds, and although they sell for up to 1,000 NIS in the Gazan market, he refuses to sell them. "I have built special cages for them so I simulate their natural environment. They are very precious for me."
Munther enjoys hunting goldfinches and canaries with his green net and a small wooden cage. Four days a week for the last seven years, he has taken his bicycle to go hunting in the neighbouring areas of Gaza city. In the Gaza Strip, however, such a simple hobby has put his life at risk. On the morning of 31 January 2012, Munther was shot three times by Israeli soldiers.
Volunteer for the LEAP Program Summer 2012!
Learning for the Empowerment and Advancement of Palestinians (LEAP) is an educational empowerment program for Palestinian refugee-youth in Lebanon dedicated to nurturing the intellectual growth and creative curiosity of our students. LEAP encourages youth to become agents of change by supporting them in their educational pursuits during their most formative years.
5 January 2009: Amal al-Samouni
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
January 5, 2012
On 4 January 2009 at around 6:00 Israeli forces surrounded the house where Amal al-Samouni (11) and 18 members of her extended family were sheltering, in Zeitoun neighborhood east of Gaza City. Israeli soldiers ordered the owner of the house, Amal's father Attia al-Samouni (37), to step outside with his hands up. Upon opening the door he was immediately killed by shots to the head and chest. Soldiers then started firing bullets into the house, killing Amal's 4-year old brother Ahmad al-Samouni and injuring at least 4 other people, of whom 2 were children.
Over the following hours, soldiers ordered over 100 other members of the extended al-Samouni family into the house of Wa'el Fares Hamdi al-Samouni, Amal's uncle. On 5 January 2009 Israeli forces directly targeted the house and its vicinity, killing 21 persons and injuring many others. Amal, who was inside, was wounded by shrapnel to the head and buried under the rubble, lying between injured, dying and deceased relatives. On 7 January ambulance personnel, who were prevented from entering the area until then, evacuated her to hospital.
Occupation authorities install cctv cameras inside the Aqsa Mosque
The Palestinian Information Center
January 4, 2012
The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage revealed that the Israeli occupation on Tuesday installed cctv cameras to monitor the Aqsa Mosque, especially from the side of the Maghareba Gate.
The organisation condemned, in a statement on Wednesday, this serious step by the occupation, pointing out that the occupation authorities aim to restrict and intimidate worshippers inside the Aqsa Mosque, stressing that Muslims will continue to keep a constant presence in the mosque to defend it.
Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, head of the Jerusalem Awqaf, stressed that this was a serious precedent which is rejected and the cameras must be removed immediately.
He added: "We are following the matter. I official wrote to the police telling them that what they did was a serious precedent, and the cameras must be immediately removed."
The Aqsa Foundation said that occupation technicians, on Tuesday, installed two cameras above the Maghareba gate, a position from which a large area of the Aqsa Mosque can be monitored.
Lebanese MPs: The Boogeyman of Tawteen
Al-Akhbar English
By Qassem Qassem
Lebanese politicians habitually invoke the specter of permanent settlement of Palestinians in Lebanon (tawteen) at every political juncture to instill a fear of the other. The other, in this case, is the Palestinian refugee living in refugee camps.
Tawteen is therefore used as a boogeyman in media campaigns to attack political adversaries and demonstrate the extent of one's patriotism and Lebanese nationalism. These campaigns tend to intensify before every election cycle as politicians try to outdo each other by fighting heroically to prevent Palestinian refugees from settling in Lebanon.
In the period following the last elections, most MPs competed with one another by demonstrating their concern for Lebanese interests through denying Palestinian refugees in Lebanon their basic social rights. Their justification was that giving Palestinian refugees these rights would contribute to their permanent settlement in Lebanon.
United States Contributes $55 Million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
US State Department - Media Note
January 3, 2012
The United States is pleased to announce an initial 2012 contribution of $55 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
The $55 million contribution will provide critical health, education, and humanitarian services to five million Palestinian refugees in the region. Of this contribution, $29 million will support UNRWA's core services in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza; $24 million will support UNRWA's emergency programs in the West Bank and Gaza; and two million will support UNRWA's ongoing relief assistance in Lebanon for those displaced during the 2007 conflict in Nahr al Bared refugee camp.
As UNRWA's largest bilateral donor, the United States recognizes the critical role the Agency plays in assisting Palestinian refugees and maintaining regional stability and calls upon other donors to enhance their support for UNRWA. The United States encourages UNRWA to maintain the neutrality of its operations, expand its donor base, enhance its strategic communications, and maximize programmatic efficiencies in order to better serve refugees.
In 2011, the United States provided just under $250 million to UNRWA, including $146 million to its General Fund, $75 million to its West Bank/Gaza emergency programs, $15 million to emergency programs in Lebanon, and $10 million for the construction of five new schools in Gaza, which will serve an estimated 10,000 schoolchildren.
PCHR Appeals to Palestinian President to Immediately Intervene to Save Lives of 450 Patients in Gaza
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
December 15, 2011
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) appeals to the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, to immediately intervene to save the lives of 450 patients, including 15 children, in the Gaza Strip who suffer from renal failure, as their lives are endangered due to the lack of Dialysis filers, which are vital disposables that function like normal kidneys and serve to remove toxins from the blood during dialyses.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, on Thursday at noon, 15 December 2011, blood filters ran out at all hospitals in the Gaza Strip, and consequently, dialyses for 450 patients who suffer from renal failure have been stopped.
We Are Palestinians - Op-Ed
The New York Times
By Daoud Kuttab
December 14, 2011
JERUSALEM — When they were young, one of my children's favorite games was reciting the family lineage. In our culture a person's full name is a combination of his paternal parentage. My son, born in Jerusalem in 1988, would say his name is Bishara Daoud George Musa Qustandi Musa Kuttab.
Our family name came from the profession two brothers had a long time ago. The first Kuttabs were scribes who sat outside the court and wrote up petitions for people who had a claim with the authorities. Kuttab is Arabic for writers or scribes.
Upon graduating from North Park University in Chicago and returning to Palestine, Bishara visited the St. James Orthodox Church in the Old City of Jerusalem. He met with the head of the local Palestinian Christian parish. Using extensive baptismal records, they were able to patch together the history of Kuttabs in Jerusalem for hundreds of years. This turned into a family tree that has been circulated on Facebook to all Kuttabs.
My son's visit had another reason: He wanted to collect rent on our family's property. On the eve of World War I, many Palestinian families turned their properties over to local churches or the Islamic Waqf (trust) for safekeeping. The properties were controlled by the churches but the owners were able to collect a meager rent. Our history is typical of many Palestinians.
The Unknown Hell of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon
By Tom Charles
December 12, 2011
For the past sixty-three years, millions of Palestinians have lived as refugees in areas of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and in surrounding countries. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) describes their plight as "by far the most protracted and largest of all refugee problems in the world today."
Three-quarters of all eleven million Palestinians throughout the world are refugees, though their plight is often ignored. Many key issues in the Middle East, political and humanitarian, arose as a consequence of Israel's denial of the right of refugees to return to their land.
Multiple international treaties and conventions recognize the inviolable characteristic of the right of return of refugees--including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. Humanitarian and human rights law and numerous UN resolutions all guarantee the right of return for refugees.
Israel's Grand Hypocrisy: Netanyahu Slams 'Anti-liberal' Arab Spring
By Jonathan Cook
December 1, 2011
As protests raged again across the Middle East, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, offered his assessment of the Arab Spring last week. It was, he said, an "Islamic, anti-western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli, undemocratic wave", adding that Israel's Arab neighbours were "moving not forwards, but backwards".
It takes some chutzpah – or, at least, epic self-delusion – for Israel's prime minister to be lecturing the Arab world on liberalism and democracy at this moment.
In recent weeks, a spate of anti-democratic measures have won support from Netanyahu's rightwing government, justified by a new security doctrine: see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil of Israel. If the legislative proposals pass, the Israeli courts, Israel's human rights groups and media, and the international community will be transformed into the proverbial three monkeys.
Controversial historian visits UW
The Daily Cardinal
By Ben Siegel
November 17, 2011
Known in academia for his controversial work on Israel and Palestine, historian Ilan Pappé lectured [at the University of Wisconsin - Madison] on his perceived failures of the Middle East Peace Process Wednesday.
Prefacing his perspective by affirming it to be strictly his own, Pappé focused on how the process is understood. To him, the lack of progress in negotiations stems from the continual portrayal of Palestine as an equal partner in peace.
The French Consul and his Family in Gaza were Wounded in an Israeli Attack on a Palestinian Navy Site in the Northern Gaza Strip
Palestine Center for Human Rights
November 14, 2011
On Monday, 14 November 2011, the French Consul in the Gaza Strip, Majdi Jameel Yaseen Shaqqoura, 44, and his two children were wounded in an Israeli attack on the Palestinian Navy site in the southwest of Beit Lahia, located in northern Gaza. They were in their home when they were injured by shrapnel. Additionally, as a result of the same attack the consul's wife suffered from hemorrhage that led to a miscarriage.
Noam Chomsky's Sydney Peace Prize lecture
Green Left
November 8, 2011
Revolutionary Pacifism: Choices and Prospects
As we all know, the United Nations was founded "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war." The words can only elicit deep regret when we consider how we have acted to fulfill that aspiration, though there have been a few significant successes, notably in Europe.
For centuries, Europe had been the most violent place on earth, with murderous and destructive internal conflicts and the forging of a culture of war that enabled Europe to conquer most of the world, shocking the victims, who were hardly pacifists, but were "appalled by the all-destructive fury of European warfare," in the words of British military historian Geoffrey Parker.
And enabled Europe to impose on its conquests what Adam Smith called "the savage injustice of the Europeans," England in the lead, as he did not fail to emphasize. The global conquest took a particularly horrifying form in what is sometimes called "the Anglosphere," England and its offshoots, settler-colonial societies in which the indigenous societies were devastated and their people dispersed or exterminated.
Palestinians must say no to negotiations with Israel
By Amira Hass
November 2, 2011
Now that Palestine has been recognized by the United Nations' cultural organization, UNESCO, it will be no more of a non-state and no less occupied than it was before. Its citizens will be no less unfree than they are today, no less under the yoke of Israeli foreign rule. But their civil disobedience versus Israel, the United States and the Quartet raises the hope that the Palestinians will not return to the negotiating table - because negotiations have become an obstacle to the decolonization process, the essential condition for peace.
Israeli army test-fires missile capable of reaching Iran
The Guardian
By Associated Press
November 2, 2011
Israel has successfully test-fired a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and striking Iran, fanning a public debate over whether the country's leaders are agitating for a military attack on Tehran's atomic facilities.
While Israeli leaders have long warned that a military strike was an option, the most intensive round of public discourse on the subject was ignited over the weekend by a report in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot that said the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the defence minister, Ehud Barak, favoured an attack.
IAF Chief must Save Israel from futil attack on Iran
By Reuven Pedatzur
November 2, 2011
The IAF can bomb Iran, he must tell the government, but ultimately the operation will not destroy the Iranian nuclear program, at best it can delay it.
If anyone can save Israel from catastrophe it is the Israel Air Force commander. All Maj. Gen. Ido Nechushtan has to do is whisper to the prime minister and defense minister that an Air Force attack on Iran cannot achieve its goals.
The force's airplanes can reach Iran and even drop bombs, he must tell them, but ultimately the operation will not destroy the Iranian nuclear program. At best it will be delay the program by a few months.
Israel to expedite settlement construction in response to Palestinian UNESCO membership
By Amira Hass
November 1, 2011
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his forum of eight senior ministers decided Tuesday to initiate a new wave of settlement construction in the West Bank, as part of a wider set of sanctions Israel decided to impose on the Palestinian Authority after it was accepted to UNESCO as a member on Monday.
Netanyahu's office said Tuesday that the construction of 2,000 housing units planned in East Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, and Ma'aleh Adumim should be expedited.
Despite attacks, national conference unites
Students for Justice in Palestine
The Electronic Intifada
By Alex Kane
October 21, 2011
Israel was being discussed as a settler-colonial project in one classroom, while in another a workshop about the Arab uprisings and Palestine took place. In the hallways of New York's Columbia University, activists huddled together and talked about recent travels or the Palestinian Authority's role in the West Bank. And at night, organizers headed down to the Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York's financial district to address a general assembly.
This was the scene at Columbia last weekend as 350 student activists from more than a hundred schools across the nation converged for the first-ever Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) national conference. The conference was structured around workshops ranging from "The Economics of Israeli Colonialism" to the "Politics of Women's Activism" to "How to Effectively Start and Run an SJP Group." The result of a year of student planning, organizing and fundraising, the SJP gathering comes at a moment when Palestine solidarity activism on college campuses is increasingly scrutinized.
The US media reports: Gilad Shalit swapped for 1000 non-people
Al-Akhbar English
By Max Blumenthal
October 18, 2011
By now, Gilad Shalit is back in Israel, while around 1000 Palestinian prisoners will eventually be released from Israeli jails, then scattered to various locations from Jerusalem to Egypt to Syria, where many will live in permanent exile. While some Israelis doubt the wisdom of the prisoner swap, there can be little doubt that the state of Israel has scored a public relations victory in the United States. American coverage of the prisoner exchange has focused almost exclusively on Shalit, his family, and Jewish Israeli society's "bittersweet" reaction to the deal.
Reports on the exchange generally did not mention the identities of the Palestinian prisoners, and if they did, they tended to only name those who had committed violence against Israelis. It is of course newsworthy that perpetrators of lethal violence against Israeli civilians are being freed, and that many Israelis are outraged about it, but the American media made no effort to contextualize the conflict propelling the violence -- the word "occupation" was not mentioned once in today's reports on the exchange.
Robert Fisk: Why the Middle East will never be the same again
The Independent
By Robert Fisk
September 20, 2011
The Palestinians won't get a state this week. But they will prove – if they get enough votes in the General Assembly and if Mahmoud Abbas does not succumb to his characteristic grovelling in the face of US-Israeli power – that they are worthy of statehood. And they will establish for the Arabs what Israel likes to call – when it is enlarging its colonies on stolen land – "facts on the ground": never again can the United States and Israel snap their fingers and expect the Arabs to click their heels. The US has lost its purchase on the Middle East. It's over: the "peace process", the "road map", the "Oslo agreement"; the whole fandango is history.
Read more
Q&A: Palestinian statehood bid at the UN
BBC News
September 16, 2011
Palestinian officials have launched a campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state. They will ask for international recognition on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as a capital. The idea is strongly opposed by Israel and its close ally, the United States.
Here is a guide to what is likely to happen and its significance.
Read more
What Could a State Change for Refugees?
The Daily Star
By Annie Slemrod
September 3, 2011
BEIRUT: It's official. The state of Palestine has an embassy in Lebanon. Last month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hoisted his country's black, white, red and green flag above a building in the Beirut suburbs of Jnah, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization's longtime delegation became Palestine's embassy.
The upgrade in status came in advance of Palestine's September bid for statehood at the United Nations. If the attempt succeeds, Palestine will become the 194th member state of the United Nations, where the PLO currently has observer status.
The achievement of statehood would certainly be accompanied by a certain amount of hand shaking, and more flag-raising. But on a practical level, what would it mean for the approximately 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon? And what would be the implications for the Lebanese, who have long had a fraught political relationship with the country's Palestinians?
Read More


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We all misspell, no doubt about it, even more so when using a language other than our mother tongue. But lately it seems there is an inverse relationship between the Israelis' infatuation with the English language, and their actual interest in mastering it. It always dazzles me how companies spend piles of money on advertisements without spending a minute to check for spelling errors. Israeli food company Elite backs its snacks campaign with a website for kids, where they can start their own blog and get popularity votes for it. I can only speculate what is the effect of a kid typing daily www.tatoomania.co.il and then going off to the world wondering why everyone is spelling it with three T's.
And don't get me started on sticker tattoos for kids, kiddie blogs as pedophile hangouts, the unnecessary rating system on that website, or the fat contents in the snacks you need to buy to get the tattoo.


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Miss Ukraine International™ Director
Pageant Contestants:
If you are interested in participating as a 2020 contestant to represent this state / country at the Miss International® 2020 Pageant in Kingsport, Tennessee, from July 27- August 1, 2020 and would like additional information - please use the area below to contact us. If you wish, you may expedite the processing by completing an Official Application, available on this website, and forwarding a copy of the Application along with a recent snapshot photo (4x6 size or larger) to:
Mary Richardson
Executive Director
International Pageants Inc.
P.O. Box 12426
Roanoke, VA. 24025
Attention: Director Candidates
The Directorship for the Miss International® Pageant for this state / country is currently available. If you are interested in joining one of the fastest growing, most exciting and rewarding pageant systems as a State or Country Director - please contact Mary Richardson, Executive Director at the link below:
Phone: 540-989-5992 - - - Fax 540-989-8571
E-mail: email@example.com


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UW Oshkosh Kinesiology and Athletic Training Alumni
This area is dedicated to the alumni of the Department of Kinesiology, which includes Athletic Training alumni and Kinesiology alumni, along with the former Exercise Science major alumni.
The University and several academic programs are using various social networking sites to stay connected to our alumni. Click here to see the listing of UW Oshkosh social networking groups. The Athletic Training Education Program has a new Facebook page and encourages all UWO AT alumni to become a fan in order to reconnect and stay updated with program events and news.
Check back often for information on department and alumni events, announcements about your former classmates, and to update the Department on your current location, employer and contact information. Also, please contact the appropriate program director if you or your company have internship and/or career opportunities for our students.
We look forward to reconnecting with you!
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A Girl in Winter: A Novel
Faber & Faber, 1957 - Librarians - 248 pages
The story of a fateful winter day in the life of a European woman who has fled to England during WW II.
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35 pages matching began in this book
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LibraryThing ReviewUser Review - sonofcradock - LibraryThing
Wrenching. Gorgeous. Amazing. Read full review
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Anstey asked Bank Street becn began can't chair chair Miss Cheshunt cigarette cold course Cream Cracker dark dentist didn't doesn't don't think door dropped England English everything eyes face feel felt Fennel gave girl GIRL IN WINTER glanced go home hair hand handbag head I've Jack Stormalong Jane's Katherine looked Katherine's knew Lansbury Park laugh letter light lived looked round lounge mean Merion Street mind Miss Brooks Miss Feather Miss Green Miss Holloway Miss Lind Miss Parbury morning mother mouth moved never night no-one once perhaps pole punt remember river Robin and Jane seemed shut side silly sleep slowly sorry sounded stared stood stopped strange suddenly suppose sure talking tell There's things thought took trying turned voice waiting walked watch week window wondered wouldn't writing


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With Alumni . . . Chicago — Roy Cox resigned on March 27th after almost five years on the Chicago audit staff to accept a position as vice president in charge of administration at the Mell Manufacturing Company, a Chicago client. Memphis — Roy Gates resigned to accept a position with Coastal States Gas Producing Company, Corpus Christi, Texas, a client of the Houston office. Milwaukee — Calvin Johnson has accepted a position as works manager at E. R. Wagner Mfg. Co., a client of the Milwaukee office. Minneapolis — Richard Guinand resigned to become controller of Seaboard Properties, a subsidiary of Baker Properties, Inc., operators of a hotel at Ocean Reef, Florida. Mr. Guinand was formerly on the Chicago staff and transferred to Minneapolis in 1961. Kenneth Schuba of the management service department resigned to take over his duties as controller of the Robert A. Johnston Candy Company in Milwaukee. Mr. Schuba joined our staff in 1959, and had formerly been on the Milwaukee office staff. On April 24 Russell Melgaard took over his duties as assistant controller of Barton Contracting Company a client of the Minneapolis office. Allan Fonfara, who was on the Minneapolis audit staff from 1957 to 1963, has been named the new controller of Marquette Corporation. New York — John Carroll resigned April 15th to accept a position as controller with Kirkeby Natus Corporation. Phoenix — Miles Bresee resigned on April 15 and is now corporate tax manager of Great Western Financial Corporation. Pittsburgh — James O. Rackley left our firm to accept a position with Penn Machine Company as assistant to the controller. San Francisco — William Kitchel left the firm to accept a position as assistant controller with Church & Dwight Co., Inc. of New York City. William Griscom resigned and will be associated with Golden West Financial Corporation and Golden West Savings and Loan Association in Oakland, as financial vice president. Applause . . . Atlanta — Duff Macbeth was elected first vice president of the Atlanta Chapter of the Budget Executives Institute for the 1964-65 year. He will continue as chairman of the 1967 National Conference Committee, which will be held in Atlanta. Bob Minnear was re-elected to the Board of Governors of the Atlanta Chapter, Institute of Internal Auditors. Chicago — Ted David taught a class at the University of Chicago Graduate School for the spring quarter entitled "Information Systems and Management Decisions." Robert M. Trueblood was elected to the Accounting Principles Board at the meeting of the American Institute's Council in Boca Raton. Robert M. Shehan has been appointed to the Membership Committee of the State Chamber of Commerce. The Illinois Society of CPAs has announced the following appointments of Touche, Ross, Bailey & Smart personnel to committees for the coming fiscal year: Robert M. Trueblood, Chairman, Committee on Special Public Pronouncements, and Liaison with AICPA; William J. Schwanbeck, Society Insurance Plans; Allen C. Howard, Professional Conduct; Raymond P. Bloom, State Auditing and Accounting; Robert M. Shehan, Standards of Reporting; H. Justin Davidson, Management Services; Robert S. Kay, 1965 Annual Meeting, and Sub-committee Chairman Technical Sessions; Raymond E. Perry, Auditing Procedure and Accounting Principles; Raymond J. Revers, Vice Chairman, Professional Development; W. Donald Georgen, Cooperation with Bankers and other Credit Grantors; Glen R. Ostdiek, CPA Consultation Service; Gilmour M. Krog-stad, Meetings Planning; Richard H. Gallagher, Chairman, Personnel; Donald I. Hausman, Federal Taxation; Glenn J. Hartung, State Taxation; Joseph T. Brusherd, Natural Business Year. JUNE, 1964 47


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Forum Post: Jackie Robinson, Trayvon Martin and the Sad History of Sanford, Florida By Dave Zirin
Posted 7 years ago on March 28, 2012, 8:34 a.m. EST by flip
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Sanford, Florida is a city that will now be known for all times as the place where Trayvon Martin was killed for the crime of Living While Black. It's in addition the place whose institutions – the police department, the local press, and even the city morgue - treated Trayvon and his body in ways that should disturb anyone with a shred of conscience.
The city of Sanford also has a past that speaks to the racism many believe to be at the heart of why Trayvon was killed and why the man who pulled the trigger was never arrested. I'm not arguing that Sanford, Florida is somehow more or less twisted than anywhere else. Last month, unarmed, 18-year-old Ramarley Graham was killed in his bathroom by police in New York City. Last week Dane Scott Jr. in Del City, Oklahoma was killed by police after a "scuffle." The state Medical Examiner's office, however, declared Scott's death a homicide. The murder of Trayvon Martin is only a "local issue" if we understand "local" to mean local communities across the country.
But Sanford, Florida does have its own history and it includes a collective moment of intolerance and bigotry that almost derailed the man Martin Luther King called "a freedom rider before freedom rides," Jackie Robinson.
Before Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color line in 1947 as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he spent a season desegregating the minor leagues, playing for the Dodgers AAA team, the Montreal Royals. The Royals held Spring Training in Sanford.
Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey, after so many years, thought he knew Florida. He believed that Robinson's presence could go over if efforts were taken to ruffle as few feathers as possible. Robinson, on Rickey's instructions, didn't try to stay at any Sanford hotels. He and his wife didn't eat out at any restaurants not deemed "Negro restaurants." He didn't even dress in the same locker room as his teammates.
Rickey thought that would be enough. He thought he knew Florida. But he didn't know Sanford.
As Jean West, a school teacher in Florida, wrote, "Branch Rickey had miscalculated the degree to which Jim Crow was entrenched in Sanford. As an example, an inanimate object, a second-hand piano, purchased in 1924 from the courthouse for use in a segregated school in nearby Oviedo, was filed as a 'Negro Piano' in the school board's record; living human beings challenging segregation certainly would not be tolerated."
It wasn't. The mayor of Sanford was confronted by what the author describes as a "large group of white residents" who "demanded that Robinson... be run out of town."
The Mayor caved. On March 5th, the Royals were informed that they would not be permitted to take the field as an integrated group. Rickey was concerned for Robinson's life and sent him to stay in Daytona Beach. His daughter, Sharon Robinson, remembered, "The Robinsons were run out of Sanford, Florida with threats of violence."
This was a low moment for Jackie. The man whose number 42 is retired throughout Major League Baseball almost quit and rejoined the Negro Leagues.
The team then took an extraordinary step. As the late tennis star Arthur Ashe wrote in A Hard Road to Glory, Rickey, ''moved the entire Dodger pre-season camp from Sanford, Florida, to Daytona Beach due to the oppressive conditions of Sanford.'' That sounds heroic and it speaks well for Rickey's fierce desire to forge ahead with "the Great Experiment", racists be damned. But the mob in Sanford had made, at least for the moment, a successful stand. In cites and small towns across the south, Jackie Robinson's mere presence provoked challenges to power and provoked real, meaningful change. In Sanford, change did not come that easily.
What does this tell us? Maybe nothing, maybe everything. If nothing else, the line between Jackie Robinson and Trayvon Martin points to how institutional and systemic racism actually is. We might have short memories, but institutions only change when they are confronted and challenged. In Sanford, racist institutions took root. Now we bear the horrifying fruit.