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Technically, I am a strong atheist, which means I hold "the philosophical position that God or gods do not exist. It is contrasted with weak atheism, which is the lack or absence of belief in God or gods, without the claim that God or gods do not exist." Make no mistake: I do not claim that I can prove that there is no God; it is simply my belief. However, please don't write and tell me that I have "faith" that there is no God, since "faith" has implications which don't make sense for atheists. One can't have "faith" in nothingness.
So if I can't prove it, why do I believe it, especially since I was raised an Orthodox Jew? Well, I can describe how I arrived at atheism and perhaps that will do. As early as I can remember, I believed in God, since that's what I was taught by my parents. I was a curious child, though, and I always had questions. I was also cocky and didn't believe anything just because somebody said it. My first doubts probably started when some of my early rebbeim said things which I knew to be untrue or believed to be immoral. Being curious, if a Rabbi contradicted a science book, I did more research. In the end, I found the science books to be more credible than my Rabbis, who, while intelligent and learned in one particular field, were demonstrably ignorant in other matters. Once I realized that it was possible for Rabbis (and secular teachers, too, of course) to be incorrect, I became a skeptic. If I was taught something which seemed wrong and was testable, I would test it. If it weren't testable, I would do research and find the most credible sources I could come up with.
Eventually, I realized that if Rabbis could be wrong, perhaps the Torah could be wrong. After all, what made me believe it was the word of God other than the claims of Rabbis I knew to be fallible? I started thinking about Breishit (Genesis) since it makes many claims which are relatively testable as compared to stories about people who supposedly lived 3000 years ago. The six days' account of creation seemed to contradict Evolution, which I had come to believe in through my readings, but I could reconcile the two if I sort of squinted and told myself, "Well at least the Genesis story is presented in mostly the right order."
The first thing that really tripped me up was the idea of the firmament:
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. (Genesis 1:6-7.)
What was this? First of all, this seems to imply that the Earth is the center of the Universe. But more imporantly, it clearly states that some firmament actually exists and there's water on top of it. To my understanding, no such thing exists. I was troubled. I went to one of the smartest Rabbis I knew and I asked him what the firmament was. He said, "I always thought of it as the stratosphere." Huh?? That didn't make any sense at all. Combined with the other curious parts of the Genesis story like the fact that it took place in 6 days, that there was no mention of dinosaurs or of mass extinctions (pre-Flood), that it doesn't appear to agree with evolution, that it doesn't seem to realize that the Moon is a satellite nor that the Earth is a planet, I decided it must not be literally true.
Well, so, maybe it was metaphorical. Maybe it was just a pretty story. But then what about the rest of the Torah? Was the Flood just a story? How about Abraham? I was a big reader of fiction as well as science books and the stories in the Torah certainly read like fiction. Don't Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Isaac and Ishmael, Isaac and Esau sound like fiction? Aren't they a little too pat to be historical record? Joseph and the multicolored coat? Come on, now. What about Egypt? How do I know that even happened?
I read about other religions, past and present. I wondered, did the Greeks and Romans literally believe in their mythologies? How were my Rabbis so sure that the Torah is true but the New Testament is false? Why were the Muslims as confident that they're right as we were that we were? Wasn't it unlikely that I was just born into the right denomination of the one true religion? Didn't Muslims and Baptists and Catholics all think the same thing? Why hadn't all the smartest, best, and most learned people in the world converted to Orthodox Judaism if it's so obvious that we were right?
I was going to have to look at it objectively. I couldn't directly test whether a given religion was correct, since religions are so slippery. You disprove one thing, and the apologists say, "Oh no, that doesn't mean what you think it means. It means [this entirely different thing.]" I started to think about that phenomenon a little bit more. It was interesting that as scientific knowledge grew, religious claims seemed to get milder and milder. Long ago before videorecorders and Richter scales, Moses supposedly split a sea. Before we knew that the Earth rotates, the Greeks believed a god pulled the sun around the earth each day. The Egyptians thought the sun was God. Jesus supposedly walked on water. But it was fascinating that whenever we figured out how something works, religion simply accepted our explanations and shifted their claims to less impressive events. We started understanding weather better, and religions stopped claiming that the gods made it thunder and rain, at least directly. God Himself (or Herself or Theirselves) became less specific. God became abstract.
Okay, so maybe God was this abstract Thing which didn't directly cause thunder or give people leprosy for lying anymore. Maybe the Torah stories were just for the people who lived back then, so that they would understand. But if God wrote the Torah, or if God even talked to Moses, or talked to anyone, why didn't He take some easy steps to alleviate suffering? Couldn't he have just explained about tiny, invisible bugs that cause illness? If God exists at all, why does He allow such misery in the world? Why the earthquakes and the holocaust and child slavery? Why does the Torah hate gay people so much? Why does it allow slavery and condone genocide (e.g. of the Midionites and Amalek?) Even if it's not literal, even if the Torah is just allegory, and even if God inspired it rather than dictated it, shouldn't it be a better book? Shouldn't it be more moral?
I stopped believing the Torah wasn't written by people living thousands of years ago. I mean, what would it look like if it had been written by people who lived in Israel thousands of years ago? Wouldn't it reflect their ignorance and their knowledge and their hangups and prejudices? Doesn't it?
I started thinking about whether the Universe could exist in the absence of God. I read Stephen Hawking's book A Brief History of Time. I noticed that although he went out of his way to deny being an atheist, his book presents a good case for a Universe that runs by itself according to a bunch of math and physics and randomness. Hawking didn't know what caused the Big Bang, but it sure looked like the Universe has been taking care of itself since then. I read Carl Sagan. I realized how incomprehensibly huge the Universe is. I decided there's no reason for such an enormous Universe if the whole point of creation was humanity. I read Dawkins. Obviously, he was a fanatic atheist with a chip on his shoulder. But he made a lot more sense than most of the religious apologists I'd read.
Then I started reading philosophy. I read Bertrand Russell's Why I am Not a Christian and a whole bunch of stuff online. I found that Russell's and others' arguments made a lot of sense to me.
Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I no longer believed in God. I can't prove that God doesn't exist, but as John McCarthy wrote, "An atheist doesn't have to be someone who thinks he has a proof that there can't be a god. He only has to be someone who believes that the evidence on the God question is at a similar level to the evidence on the werewolf question."


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In Texas for the 10th Annual Lonestar Round Up
They do things bigger in Texas, and the 10th Annual Lonestar Round Up, hosted by The Kontinentals Car Club of Austin, lives up to the boast.
From humble beginnings 10 years ago on a local football field, the show has grown to a couple thousand cars and trucks, several live bands, a swap meet, a car culture art show, and completely obnoxious mini-bike races.
The best shows don't limit themselves to what's happening only at a fairgrounds and the Round Up delivers on that score as well. There's a garage-crawl on Friday morning and plenty of cruising on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin each night.
We've been to a lot of big shows with cruising afterwards, but we can't think of one that's been in the very heart of a city of over a million people. Austin has a killer downtown, with a club and restaurant district covering several square blocks. Combined with being a college town, the city fathers know how to handle crowds, and rather than throw up the barricades to keep hot rodders out they added a little more crowd control and let the rodders cruise.
Texas is synonymous with cattle ranching, and ranchers need trucks. Fifty years into the modern truck era and Texas is full of vintage trucks, and the Round Up's show field is heavily weighted toward hay haulers. Though the show is billed as '63-and-earlier, one of the great things about trucks is that the mid-'60s are pretty difficult to differentiate; for instance, we saw a lot of "1963 Chevy" trucks without wraparound windshields. But guys have been doing that with trucks since the '70s when NSRA had the "'49-and-older" rule, and every '55 first-gen Chevy truck was built in '49. The rest of the entrants are traditional hot rods and customs, along with vintage motorcycles.
By the time we drove back home, the dates for the 2012 show were already up on The Lonestar Round Up's website, at www.lonestarroundup.com. Check it out and plan on attending next year's event—we've already marked it on our calendar. ct

subset: commoncrawl


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co.'s ANF, +5.94% shares fell 1.7% on Friday after it offered a disappointing full-year outlook. The company, however, reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit. Luxury retailer Nordstrom Inc. JWN, +5.53% also dipped after its full-year outlook fell short as well. Among the gainers, Home Depot Inc. HD, +1.52% shares rose almost 1% on Friday after Oppenheimer & Co. upgraded the rating on the stock to outperform from perform. The upgrade came a day after Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. cut the rating on the largest home-improvement retailer to hold. Home Depot's smaller rival Lowe's Cos. LOW, +10.35% shares inched up 0.5%. Avon Products Inc. AVP, +0.74%, the largest direct seller of beauty products, edged up 0.5%. The Wall Street Journal reported the company is considering exiting more countries to reverse years of weak results.
Abercrombie, Nordstrom hurt by disappointing views
Quote References
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Winners of the indoor lighting category of the fourth-annual Next Generation Luminaires (NGL) Design Competition were announced recently at the LIGHTFAIR International conference in Las Vegas. The competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and the International Association of Lighting Designers, was launched in 2008 to promote excellence in the design of energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) commercial lighting fixtures, or luminaires. Solid-state lighting (SSL), which includes both LED and organic light emitting diode (OLED) technologies, has the potential to save Americans $30 billion a year in energy costs by 2030. Advancing energy efficient lighting choices is part of the Obama Administration's strategy to help families and businesses save money by saving energy, while ensuring American leadership in energy-efficient building technologies.
A panel of eight judges, including experts from the architectural lighting design community, evaluated the NGL entries based on lighting quality, appearance, serviceability, efficacy, value, dimming, and lifetime. The Best in Class winners came from three different manufacturers and covered three different lighting types:
- Intense Lighting (Anaheim, Calif.): Awarded Best in Class for its MBW2 LED Track accent lighting fixture.
- Albeo Technologies Inc. (Boulder, Colo.): Awarded Best in Class for its H-Series LED high-bay fixture.
- Lithonia Lighting (Conyers, Ga.): Awarded Best in Class for its ST Series LED utility/general purpose fixture.
Out of 114 entries submitted to the competition from 45 companies, 50 were recognized as winners, deemed by the judges to have met the stringent requirements of the competition, in addition to the three that were chosen as Best in Class. These winners represented a wide range of manufacturers and lighting applications, such as recessed accent lighting, recessed down-lighting, recessed wall washing, cove lighting, decorative lighting, linear lighting, pendant lighting, task lighting, and high-bay industrial lighting.
Design competitions are a key part of DOE's national strategy to accelerate technology advancements from laboratory to marketplace and boost the adoption of energy efficient lighting products. More information on all of the winning entries is available at the Next Generation Luminaires website.


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Re. my post on the Age of New Physics what science reveals is that in a collision of matter and antimatter,nihilism is not an option. Matter shall always have an edge over anti-matter. The earth was not 'created' in vain but was intended to be inhabited. Having said created you might ask, 'how can you uphold science in one breath and speak of creation in the next? Science is not foolproof as we are ever discovering to our dismay. Einstein was the last word but science advances and Einstein's theories recede into the past. New understanding splices into what was supposed and over a length of time shall be shown to altogether different. nutrinos can travel faster than the speed of light and technology shall push the envelop further than before. Let us give science its due place.( see correction at the end)
In all these what we need to remember is that positive values of universe cry out for mankind to be positive in their outlook as well. Merely because greed of some has made mess of our future we ought to think other means to go past these folks for whom material wealth is all that matters. Let them sort out their confusion and we need to get grips with what think is our best way forward. By throwing some dole to the poor shall never make them free from the yoke of poverty. The poor and weak in society need to be helped so they have adequate skills to grow further and make their way in life.It is not money but knowledge coupled with power is the secret. Positive intelligence in such a case shall cut a wide swath for man to go further.
Positive intelligence also tells us that any material object wealth for example with its adjuncts status, fame shall never be satisfied. The more you get more wants it will create and that make you a slave. Instead find a positive way to make material wealth our servant and not the master. Positive intelligence frees us from material servitude to be at ease with our interior word and material world equally. By positive intelligence we say 'yea' to life.
Those who want to write their future need to hold onto the Positive intelligence.
I do not expect it would reveal us the kind of Creator God we are looking for. As humans let us not expect the impossible and think of silly stuff like guardian angels, prophets and such like. It is foolish to kill all those who worship gods with twenty hands since you are convinced your gods have two heads.
The intelligence with which we can carve the piece of mutton laid on our table will do. It is also intelligence to eat as much as your body can take it. Positive intelligence gives you all you need to be at peace with both visible and inner worlds. As the earth has given you may give equally your best to others. It is such intelligence that can make the earth fit for all those who want to make a difference positively.
A correction: Now the Scientists have retracted and found their basis to hold nutrinos can travel faster than light was based on wrong data. (March 23,2012-b.)


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Preparing for Electric Cars
Many new models of electric cars are about to hit the roads. Think Nissan Leaf, GM's Volt, among others! How to recharge electric vehicles is becoming a serious concern. The US is far behind many other countries in this regard. A recent visit to Andorra, a tiny principality between Spain and France, revealed a popular option - plugging in when you park on the street.
It is a complicated subject requiring all vehicle manufacturers to have a common system which in turn will be complemented by a common system of recharging. Some steps being taken include:
Houston, Texas - the City of Houston has joined with Reliant Energy and Nissan to ensure recharging stations are ready for the Nissan Leaf. So far 10 charging stations, seven of them public, are ready.
San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, California - These cities are partnering with Better Place, an electric-car company that plans to launch its vehicle in 2012. There will be 220 volt charging stations throughout the cities, permits will be expedited to allow fast installation of outlets and employer incentives will be put in place that will encourage employees to drive electric cars.
Raleigh, North Carolina - Local utility Progress Energy has partnered with Nissan and the city to create a recharging infrastructure.
West Sacramento, California - Retailer DMC Green Inc. opened its first electric-vehicle charging station in August 2009, the first of many retrofitted gas stations in California.
Massachusetts - The state government and Nissan are developing plans for home, work and public charging facilities.
Elk Horn, Iowa - The city installed four public charging stations in November 2009.
In August 2009, the US Department of Energy awarded Electric Transportation Engineering Corp., a charging-station maker, $100 million to deploy more than 11,000 charging stations, and 4,700 Nissan Leaf vehicles in the following locations - Portland, Corvallis and Eugene, Oregon; Seattle; San Diego; Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, Tenn.
Let us know what is happening in your area - email@example.com
Hawksbill turtle hatchings have their first swim in Barbados
Helping Hawksbill turtles to the water in Barbados
At Going Green Resources.com we are committed to preserving the environment.When you have a chance to see Mother Nature at work, as we recently did, the point of environmentalism is made really clear.
We traveled to Barbados to see these Hawksbill turtles hatch and go to sea. This occurred on beautiful Turtle Beach, at the east end of St. Lawrence Gap.We helped release 126, day-old, Hawksbill turtles that hatched earlier in the day.A local fisherman had collected them and protected them until nightfall.They are released at night to increase their chances of survival.
Hotels often dim their lights so as not to confuse the turtles as they are attracted to light.A naturalist uses a light to lead the turtles to water.We are not supposed to help them into the water as their lungs and hearts have to be ready to swim. These special creatures try so hard to start their lives and yet many people make their life more difficult.
Plastic bags and bottles, fish nets and wastewater runoff, all impact their survival.Next time you plan to wash your car and let the soapy water runoff into the storm sewer, please think of these turtles. It is really amazing to witness.
Thank you for caring. We hope you enjoy the video, even though it was taken at night for the turtles sake.
Founder's Message
Around the world people have been "going green" for many years and enjoying it. There is a sense of pride when we incorporate some basic steps into our everyday life, at home, at school and at our place of business. The cumulative effect of our actions can have a dramatic effect on our environment.
At GoingGreenResources.com we realize that people are often prevented from doing more as they don't have a central resource of ideas and products. We aim to change that!
Ten years ago some ideas seemed crazy that we now take for granted. Now within ten years it is entirely possible we may not have gas stations as auto manufacturers are finally creating some really incredible "green" cars. Many people we know now drive hybrids and are not only thrilled with the reduced cost of gas but they also feel good about fighting global warming in their own small way.
In March of 2008 we visited a "sustainable farm" in Costa Rica. Using intriguing methods this farm is growing beautiful organic vegetables, tasty free-range eggs, unique plants with health benefits and so much more. There is reason to believe that many of these farming ideas can be used around the world. More on this wonderful experience can be found in our travel section.
Last November, we traveled to Barbados in the Caribbean. Beaches were lined with recycling bins. There a small number of visitors were fortunate enough to help the locals return some newborn turtles into the waves so they could begin their journey. The excitement everyone felt as they helped Mother Nature along was beyond words. Our travel section has some great photos.
Back at home we take the steps that we can. Our recycling container is full each week, while the trashcan is nearly empty. It's a good feeling knowing that there is a lot less waste being sent to landfills. Where possible at home, CFL's are used for lighting; water waste is minimized; biodegradable detergents are used and all personal grooming products are organic and fragrance free. The benefits are many of minimizing the chemicals that come in touch with the skin, the body's largest organ.
Please bookmark our site and tell your friends. New content will be added frequently and we will be offering commentaries from our fellow green citizens and well-respected individuals in the environmental field.
- John Livingstone, GoingGreenResources.com
3 Comments
Comment by greenman:
May 10, 2008 @ 10:55 am
Great site
Comment by MissMinnie:
June 1, 2008 @ 1:23 pm
Finally a green site with useful information! Thank You!
Comment by Greeneagle:
October 2, 2008 @ 5:18 am
I just happen to be looking for ideas on going green and I came across this site,Love It! It is very informative with a lot of ways to go green. I am involved with a group of people who have the same concerns that I have and i will be sending them to this site. This is a very educational site that will help the group and myself learn a lot and be able to help others that are on their way to going green!
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text: IndyCar driver Dario Franchitti sustained two fractured vertebrae, a broken ankle, and a concussion when he crashed his car on the final lap of yesterday's Grand Prix of Houston. The Big Lead found this terrifying video taken by a fan standing right along the catchfence at the moment and place of impact. Thirteen spectators and a race official were also injured by flying debris.


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A sacral stress fracture is a small break in the sacrum. The sacrum is a large triangular bone at base of the spine. The sacrum connects to the pelvis.
Sacral stress fractures can be caused by repetitive stress or weakened bones.
Sacral stress fractures are most common in young athletes and older women with
. Other factors that may increase the chance of a sacral stress fracture include:
The most common symptom of a sacral stress fracture is low back pain. It is important to report any unexplained lower back pain. Prompt treatment can prevent the injury from causing further problems.
Other symptoms may include:
You will be asked about your symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done. You may be referred to a spine specialist or a surgeon who specializes in bone problems.
Imaging tests evaluate your bones and other structures. These may include:
In general, treatment depends on the cause and severity.
Treatment options for a sacral stress fracture include:
Extra support may be needed to protect, support, and keep the back in place while it heals. Supportive steps may include a
corset or
Fractures due to
osteoporosis are treated with partial weight bearing.
or other device
will be used for this.
Prescription and over-the-counter medications may be advised to reduce inflammation and pain.
People with osteoporosis may be advised to take medications that will increase bone density and reduce the risk of another fracture.
Fractures caused by physical
rest, but complete rest is rarely required. Ice may be recommended to help with discomfort and swelling.
Gentle massage
and heat
also be used to
Physical therapy or rehabilitation can help to strengthen the area.
There are some treatments that are not invasive that may help reduce healing time by stimulating bone growth. These treatments include:
If other treatment does not work, surgery may be required. Surgery is generally indicated if the break is unstable, there are nerve problems, or the sacrum is not properly aligned. Bones are reconnected and held in place with screws or a plate.
To help reduce your chance of a sacral stress fracture, take these steps:
To help reduce falling hazards at work and home, take these steps:
The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicinehttp://www.sportsmed.org
Ortho Info—American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeonshttp://www.orthoinfo.org
Canadian Orthopaedic Associationhttp://www.coa-aco.org
The University of British Columbia Department of Orthopaedicshttp://orthopaedics.med.ubc.ca
Hosey RG,
et al. Evaluation and Management of Stress Fractures of the Pelvis and Sacrum.
Orthopedics. 2008; 31:383.
Lin JT, Lane JM. Sacral stress fractures.
Journal of Women's Health. 2003;12(9):879-888.
Longhino V, Bonora C. The management of sacral stress fractures: current concepts. Clin Cases Miner Bone Metab. 2011;8(3):19-23.
Low back pain fact sheet. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke website. Available at:
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/backpain/detail%5Fbackpain.htm. Accessed September 1, 2017.
Micheli LJ, Curtis C. Stress Fractures in the Spine and Sacrum.
Clinics in Sports Medicine. Jan 2006;25(1).
Spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis. Ortho Info—American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons website. Available at:
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00053. Updated September 2016. Accessed September 1, 2017.
Stress fractures. Ortho Info—American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons website. Available at:
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00112. Updated October 2007. Accessed September 1, 2017.
Zaman FM. Sacral stress fractures.
Curr Sports Med Rep. 2006;5(1):37-43.
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While I don't think we here at CarGurus can take *all* the credit, we are pretty excited about some new diesel-powered vehicles entering the U.S. market. On this blog alone, we've sung the praises of the oil-burner for years and made the case for more of them here, while watching the gas/electric hybrid run away with the hearts of Americans.
Can you feel the shift coming, though? I sure can.
In addition to existing diesel offerings from Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, Jeep, Mazda, Audi and Porsche will soon join the party. And once those floodgates open, who knows what will come next.


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March 28, 2011
NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA-Four members of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's outdoor track and field team have been honored by the Little East Conference for their performances in the opening meet of the outdoor season at the Bridgewater Invitational Saturday.
Sophomore Jillian Van Ness (Agawam, MA/Agawam HS) has been named LEC Women's Track Athlete of the Week, freshman Lauren Roche (Norfolk, MA/King Phillip Regional HS) was named LEC Rookie Women's Field Athlete of the Week, sophomore Kyle Costa (Somerset, MA/Somerset HS/Vermont) was named LEC Rookie Men's Track Athlete of the Week, and freshman Joe Texeira (Seekonk, MA/Seekonk HS) was named LEC Rookie Men's Field Athlete of the Week.
Van Ness was a member of the 4 x 100 meter relay team that finished first in 52.90 seconds. She also finished fourth at 100 meters in 12.81 seconds, qualifying for the New England Division III Championships with the fifth best time at UMass Dartmouth, and was fourth at 200 meters in 27.41 seconds. Roche was third in the long jump at 15-2, and fourth in the triple jump at 33-5, the eighth best mark at UMass Dartmouth. Costa, who is in his first year competing in intercollegiate track and field, finished first in the 400 meter hurdles in 59.85 seconds. Texeira was second in the javelin at 185 feet, 10 inches, the fifth best throw at UMD, which qualified him for the Division III New England Championships. He also finished third in the discus at 125-11.
"I was extremely pleased with the way Jillian ran on Saturday," said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Steve Gardiner. "For her to open up as a sophomore running 12.81 in 35 degree weather is an indication of how well she's going to run this season. Lauren has had to overcome a difficult class schedule. She has had to practice at odd times and in the evening, and I'm very pleased to see that her hard work has paid off. Kyle ran a very solid race, running the 400 meter hurdles for the first time in two years in adverse weather conditions. He is coming off a great indoor season, and we expect some very good performances from him throughout the spring. Joe has been impressive throughout the pre-season and during practice, and we expected him to do well. He is a hard worked, is very coachable, and is just starting to scratch the surface of how far he is going to be throwing."
The Corsairs will return to action at the Bryant Invitational this Saturday.


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A Fleet Street in Every Town: The Provincial Press in England, 1855-1900Andrew Hobbs
Winner of the 2019 Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize, for best book on Victorian newspapers and periodicals � awarded annually by the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals.
Beautifully written and skilfully argued, Andrew Hobbs�s book makes a significant contribution to the study of the Victorian newspaper and periodical press. He reminds us that readers�the ordinary working people whose mindset historians care about�looked to the journalism of their local communities. The book also contributes to a broader social and cultural historiography�not only of Preston but of the whole concept of �locality� and communication in Britain�s nineteenth century.
�Prof. Leslie Howsam, University of Windsor
Hobbs� new book on the local press in Britain is remarkable for its original research, its granularity and its diversity. On a topic that has been genuinely neglected by scholars, it is a convincing illustration that the difficult task of documenting the �historical� reader is achievable on a convincing scale, which will inform our understanding of the �implied� reader. Hobbs� huge array of sources is clearly shaped and presented accessibly. A Fleet Street in Every Town is unparalleled in studies of the local press.
�Prof. Laurel Brake, Birkbeck, University of London
At the heart of Victorian culture was the local weekly newspaper. More popular than books, more widely read than the London papers, the local press was a national phenomenon. This book redraws the Victorian cultural map, shifting our focus away from one centre, London, and towards the many centres of the provinces. It offers a new paradigm in which place, and a sense of place, are vital to the histories of the newspaper, reading and publishing.
Hobbs offers new perspectives on the nineteenth century from an enormous yet neglected body of literature: the hundreds of local newspapers published and read across England. He reveals the people, processes and networks behind the publishing, maintaining a unique focus on readers and what they did with the local paper as individuals, families and communities. Case studies and an unusual mix of quantitative and qualitative evidence show that the vast majority of readers preferred the local paper, because it was about them and the places they loved.
A Fleet Street in Every Town positions the local paper at the centre of debates on Victorian newspapers, periodicals, reading and publishing. It reorientates our view of the Victorian press away from metropolitan high culture and parliamentary politics, and towards the places where most people lived, loved and read. This is an essential book for anybody interested in nineteenth-century print culture, journalism and reading.
Hobbs offers new perspectives on the nineteenth century from an enormous yet neglected body of literature: the hundreds of local newspapers published and read across England. He reveals the people, processes and networks behind the publishing, maintaining a unique focus on readers and what they did with the local paper as individuals, families and communities. Case studies and an unusual mix of quantitative and qualitative evidence show that the vast majority of readers preferred the local paper, because it was about them and the places they loved.
A Fleet Street in Every Town positions the local paper at the centre of debates on Victorian newspapers, periodicals, reading and publishing. It reorientates our view of the Victorian press away from metropolitan high culture and parliamentary politics, and towards the places where most people lived, loved and read. This is an essential book for anybody interested in nineteenth-century print culture, journalism and reading.
The University of Central Lancashire and the Marc Fitch Fund have generously contributed to this Open Access publication.
A Fleet Street in Every Town: The Provincial Press in England, 1855-1900
Andrew Hobbs | December 2018
478pp | 64 colour illustrations | 6.14" x 9.21" (234 x 156 mm)
ISBN Paperback: 9781783745593
ISBN Hardback: 9781783745609
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783745616
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783745623
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783745630
ISBN Hardback: 9781783745609
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783745616
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783745623
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783745630
ISBN Digital (XML): 9781783746545
Categories: BIC: KNTJ (Press and journalism), JFD (Media studies), 3JH (c. 1800 to c. 1900); BISAC: SOC052000 (Social Science : Media Studies), HIS015060 (HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901)), LAN008000 (Language Arts & Disciplines : Journalism)
You may also be interested in:
2. Reading Places
3. Reading Times
4. What They Read: The Production of the Local Press in the 1860s
5. What They Read: The Production of the Local Press in the 1880s
6. Who Read What
7. Exploiting a Sense of Place
8. Class, Dialect and the Local Press: How �They� Joined �Us�
9. Win-win: The Local Press and Association Football
10. How Readers Used the Local Paper
List of Illustrations
1. The Readers of the Local Press
2. Reading Places
3. Reading Times
4. What They Read: The Production of the Local Press in the 1860s
5. What They Read: The Production of the Local Press in the 1880s
6. Who Read What
7. Exploiting a Sense of Place
8. Class, Dialect and the Local Press: How �They� Joined �Us�
9. Win-win: The Local Press and Association Football
10. How Readers Used the Local Paper
List of Illustrations
© 2018 Andrew Hobbs
The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the author, but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work. Attribution should include the following information:
Andrew Hobbs, A Fleet Street in Every Town: The Provincial Press in England, 1855-1900. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2018, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0152
Copyright and permissions for the reuse of many of the images included in this publication differ from the above. Copyright and permissions information for images is provided separately in the List of Illustrations.
Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher.
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All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web
Introduction: Why were local newspapers so popular?
Karl Marx described the explosive growth of the British provincial press after 1855 as a �revolution�. This chapter quantifies that revolution (more titles, more sales, more readers than any other publishing genre), and asks why the local paper was so popular. The book�s argument is introduced: that readers preferred the local press partly for structural reasons, but mainly because it made their lives and the places they loved sacred and significant. This is followed by an examination of some myths about the provincial press (that it was an inferior, scaled-down version of the London press, it was not produced, or read, by powerful people, it is and was of only local significance, and that local newspapers were simple, banal, transparent texts), to establish its differences from its twenty-first-century descendants, and from the London press.
A brief literature review of newspaper history critiques its focus on politics, its neglect of social and cultural aspects of the press, its concentration on production to the detriment of reception, and its sidelining of the provincial press. Scholarship has focused on a few big lone trees, and ignored enormous forests of smaller trees. Preston is introduced as the case study town. The guiding concepts of the monograph are introduced, including the provincial press as a national entity, Stanley Fish�s concept of the �interpretive community� and James Carey�s view of newspaper-reading as ritual rather than informational.
1. The readers
The experience of reading the local paper in the second half of the nineteenth century was different in almost every way from our experience today. This is the first of three chapters to introduce the people, places and times involved in reading the local paper. Studying the text of the local newspaper gives us some information about the type of readers being targeted. But the �implied reader� deduced from the text, usually a middle-class man, is only part of the picture. Other evidence reveals that the illiterate and semi-literate in particular were drawn to the local paper, that women and children were readers, and that working-class readers eavesdropped and �poached� across newspapers created for middle-class purchasers. Literacy was a communal asset, particularly at mid-century, available to those who could read and those who could not; similarly, reading the local paper was usually a communal activity. Local newspapers were one part of the social revolution stimulated by the swift spread of literacy, in which children became the experts, better able to use the technology of print than their parents. The spread of literacy was even swifter in Preston, going from below the national average to above it in less than two generations. This demonstrates how reading is geographically and historically specific.
2. Reading places
Reading matter changes its meaning according to where it is read. The same report of a football match can mean victory or defeat in rival towns; listening to a newspaper being read and interpreted by a Chartist in a crowded pub is different from reading the same paper in silence in an Anglican news room. This chapter takes an imaginary stroll around Preston, visiting the places where newspapers were read, in 1855, 1875 and 1900. Two types of reading location, the news room and the newsagent�s shop, were subject to dynamic change during the second half of the nineteenth century. News rooms grew in popularity, but commercial ones soon disappeared, as did free-standing ones used by middle-class readers. Working-class rooms continued, especially those above co-operative retail shops, while the opening of rate-funded free libraries provided the first cross-class newspaper-reading environments. The newsagent�s shop as a distinct category began to develop at mid-century, and numbers increased exponentially throughout the period, raising difficult questions of cause and effect between the growth of literacy and greatly increased production of reading matter, particularly of local newspapers. Taken together, the two trends - an evolving ecology of public news rooms, and a huge growth in newsagents - suggest a development from listening to reading, from public reading to private, and from communally owned to individually purchased newspapers. Reading the local newspaper was migrating rapidly into the home.
3. Reading times
This chapter explores a concept often theorised in literature and the history of reading, but rarely evidenced � the times of reading. It explores �the periodical-ness of periodicals� (Mark W. Turner), through the day, the week, the month and the year. It describes how readers fitted newspapers and other reading matter into their routines and rituals, domestic and public, aided by publishers who worked hard to ensure that reading matter was in the right place at the right time. Domestic rituals of reading are surveyed, from the working man with his Woodbine cigarettes and his evening paper by the fire at day�s end, to the housewife looking forward to Thursday when her husband will read John Bull to her; and more public reading rhythms, including the daily and weekly ebb and flow of reading-room customers, the times of trains bringing papers from London and other big cities, and the edition times of the local papers. Newspapers were read more avidly during Parliamentary sessions and football seasons, while Christmas annuals and summer seaside specials marked holiday times. Reading was also affected by less predictable events, such as wars, elections, major sporting events and trade slumps. The Crimean War, Franco-Prussian War and Boer War all caused long-lasting changes in reading and publishing habits, with the first two helping to popularise new genres such as the provincial morning and evening paper respectively. The newspaper-reading routines of one reader, the Clitheroe weaver John O�Neil, are examined in detail for what they reveal about his use of periodicals to mark time and create rituals, and his sophisticated understanding of the temporal nature of news-gathering and publishing practices. The theories of Zygmunt Bauman, Julia Kristeva are used, alongside Uriel Heyd�s idea of short-, medium- and long-term reading of newspapers, challenging simple ideas of ephemerality.
4. What they read: The production of the local press in the 1860s
This is one of two chapters structured around two working weeks in the life of a reporter and later editor, Anthony Hewitson of Preston, Lancashire, who wrote the only surviving diaries of a Victorian provincial journalist. Census figures tell us that most mid-Victorian journalists lived and worked outside London, so Hewitson�s diaries offer an accessible overview of the marginalised mainstream of Victorian journalism, and the people and processes involved in its production. A comparison of Hewitson�s 1865 diary and that week�s editions of his newspaper tells us about verbatim shorthand reporting, objectivity, telegraphy, �paragraphing� (proactively seeking news and gossip), working conditions, a reporter�s social status and the wide range of content published by the local press. He was a local correspondent for The Times and other daily papers, revealing the complex national networks through which news travelled. The diary entries bring to life issues of local print cultures, the dynamic newspaper publishing period of the 1850s and 1860s, the growing variety of local newspaper formats and the influence of politics, religion and class. This chapter adds significantly to our understanding of a ubiqitous but neglected figure in nineteenth-century print culture, the ordinary reporter.
5. What they read: The production of the local press in the 1880s
This is the second of two chapters structured around two working weeks in the life of a reporter and later editor, Anthony Hewitson of Preston, Lancashire, who wrote the only surviving diaries of a Victorian provincial journalist. By 1884 Hewitson was the owner-editor of his own weekly paper, and a week from that year�s diary reveals change over time in the economics of local newspaper publishing, local print ecologies and markets, the public visibility of most Victorian editors (far from anonymous), and their social position. Hewitson reviewed opera and literary periodicals for his paper, and wrote and published local history books, demonstrating newspapers� links with book publishing. He dealt with a large corps of amateur and part-time contributors, from doctors who wrote poetry to secretaries of football clubs who submitted match reports. These and other contributors made the local paper a literary and cultural hub. Quantitative analysis of some literary genres printed in the local paper challenges 19th-century publishing history, suggesting that more poetry and history, for example, were published in local weekly papers than in books. More broadly, the chapter demonstrates the cultural richness of the local newspaper, and its openness to material written by non-journalists. It offers a provincial challenge to narratives of the New Journalism, previously based largely on metropolitan newspapers, and reveals significant changes in the local newspaper market, as highly capitalized publishers squeezed out owner-editors like Hewitson.
6. Who read what
Local and regional newspapers were more widely read and purchased than those produced in London, with the local weekly the most popular type of Victorian newspaper. This conclusion is based upon quantitative analysis of records from libraries and reading rooms, oral history material and auction prices of second-hand newspapers. Other evidence adds colour to these findings, and reveals how gender, class, politics and cover price were all factors in the choice of newspaper, and in the preference for newspapers over books. Readers identified with their favourite paper � in Blackburn there was standing room only at a series of weekly debates on the best local paper � and a public reading culture enabled �promiscuous� reading of titles with opposing viewpoints, creating local public spheres, which splintered as newspaper-reading moved into the home at the end of the 19th century. Growing literacy and the more popular style of the late-century �New Journalism� created a publishing and reading boom, with the local paper at the centre of this dynamic period. New genres such as the weekend news-miscellany and the halfpenny evening paper catered mainly for working-class readers, who were also increasingly addressed by traditional papers. The evidence of historical readers adds complexity and nuance to the limited insights gained from studying the �implied reader� deduced from the text of the newspaper.
7. Exploiting a sense of place
This chapter proposes that the popularity of the local press was in large part due to its promotion of local identity. The local press wove itself into the fabric of provincial life, applying techniques not available to metropolitan publications. Newspapers did more than report their localities: they became part of the loop of making and re-making culture. A cross-class local identity guided the selection, mediation, interpretation and presentation of newspaper texts, including non-local texts. A brief analysis of the concept of local identity enables a survey of newspaper content, revealing the techniques used to promote and sustain local identity. Some techniques are so banal that they are rarely noticed, such as including the name of the town in the paper�s title. Others are more sophisticated, such as the rhetorical web woven by careful use of �we�, �our� and �us�. Illustrations, fiction, poetry, advertisements, history and geographically labelled news are surveyed. Readers saw the world mediated through a local lens, as when amateur foreign correspondents used local metaphors to describe Crimean battlefields or the wonders of Rome. This chapter acknowledges the contested nature of local identity, but questions the idea that �othering� is essential to it. It demonstrates how the newspaper as a cultural form is well suited to the promotion of place identities, thanks to its iterative, repetitive nature, its power to roll together many disparate elements of local identity, thereby increasing their impact, and its ability to present highly constructed, artificial notions as normal and implicit, seen in its division of the world into �here� and �there�.
8. Class, dialect and the local press: how �they� joined �us�
The use of Lancashire dialect in the county�s newspapers provides a detailed case study of the techniques of place promotion used by local newspapers. Dialect was one way for the provincial press to negotiate the competing discourses of place (region or locality) and class. Initially, they used it divisively to demarcate class boundaries, but, as working-class readership grew, they used dialect in an inclusive way which promoted local identity and sense of place. The use of dialect in reported speech (emphasising class differences) declined over time, while its use in dialect literature and other literary contexts (playing down class differences) grew. Working-class writers were increasingly given the power to represent themselves in print. The placing of dialect in a range of texts suggests that journalists were influenced by the literary techniques of novelists, even when writing non-literary texts such as court reports. Dialect was also used as a rhetorical device to strengthen supposedly �commonsense� arguments, and its untranslatable nuances could add depth. In these ways, publishers and writers in areas with a lively dialect tradition had literary advantages over less linguistically diverse areas, being able to call on an extra set of meanings. This chapter provides further evidence that print ran alongside, and stimulated, aspects of oral culture, rather than replacing them. It also shows how new working-class readers influenced the language of the press, as local newspaper editors expanded the boundaries of �us� to include readers previously represented as �them�.
9. Win-win: the local press and professional football
This case study investigates the coverage of professional football in local newspapers, and explores how press techniques of capitalising on local identity were magnified when applied to another source of local identity, sport. Taking the newspapers of Preston, Lancashire as a case study, two �moments� are analysed in detail: the early pinnacle of Preston North End�s Football Club�s success, when they won the FA Cup and the Football League championship in 1889, and when the club came close to financial collapse in 1893. The symbiotic and dynamic relationship of the local press and professional football benefited both parties, and the press took full advantage of the regional and local nature of the new phenomenon, adapting established techniques and adopting new ones to capitalise on local identity in its coverage. Sports coverage, particularly of football, enabled newspapers to package together many other elements of local identity into one topic, making town patriotism more intense and emotional. Football reporting was a particularly good example of newspaper boosterism and was well suited to combining identities at town, county, regional and national level.
10. How readers used the local press
Readers valued local newspapers, and used them to add meaning to their public and private lives. Three questions are addressed: how did readers use the local press? What uses were unique to the local press? And in particular, how did readers use papers to sustain local identities? A counter-argument is addressed: that readers may have preferred the local press for its ability to deliver news faster than the London press. However the evidence demonstrates that the local newspaper was valuable to readers chiefly for its local content. The first section of the chapter examines the problematic nature of readers� letters as evidence, before drawing guarded conclusions from them. The second section examines how readers responded to the localness of the local press, and explores their perceptions that local newspapers had the power to make people and places special. The third section analyses the public uses of the local press, in circulating information necessary for Victorian society to function, and its private uses, particularly for sustaining local identities. The chapter shows that the local newspaper was still merely raw material when it came off the press. Readers completed the manufacturing process, as they brought local newspapers to life through their many uses.
11. Conclusions
A brief summary of the book�s argument is used to challenge some of the dominant paradigms in press history and the history of reading, including the focus on centralised modes of cultural production; the anachronistic and confused concept of the �national� newspaper, and the supposed divide between a �quality� press and a �popular� press, untenable at local level. The advantages of the historical reader over the implied reader are outlined. The book�s evidence is reviewed to demonstrate the importance of place to most readers. Change over time is summarised, for example in the expansion of newspaper production and of places where newspapers were available. Many hearers became readers, and many readers became purchasers. Free-standing newsrooms expanded and declined, while those attached to membership organisations grew; meanwhile, private and domestic newspaper reading became more common. Local public spheres splintered, while readers still perceived the newspaper as having educational value. The author�s personal experience as a local reporter in the 1980s was remarkably similar to the Victorian journalism presented here; the industry has changed very rapidly since then, and is now in crisis, but the public demand for media that celebrate local identity remains unchanged.


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Antioxidant (actually an antitoxin as part of an enzyme system that helps protect against environmental and metabolic toxins)—protects against peroxidation. Lipid peroxides alter unsaturated lipids in cell membranes. Peroxides are also potent free radicals. (Like hydrogen peroxide, H2O2, peroxides release oxygen, which can destroy bacteria and parasites, as well as our own cells if they are not protected by all of the nutritional antioxidants.) Some chemicals that increase peroxidation include pesticides, plastics, benzene, and carbon tetrachloride. Glutathione protects against these as well as heavy metals, cigarette smoke, smog, carbon monoxide from cars, drugs, solvents, dyes, phenols, and nitrates. GTH transferase helps to detoxify these chemicals into less toxic forms. It is possible that future uses will allow us to use some form of glutathione to clean up our environment.
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(AS L-cysteine)
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major macro economic indicators
|2018 (e)
|2019 (f)
|GDP growth (%)
|Inflation (yearly average, %)
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|Current account balance (% GDP)
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(e): Estimate. (f): Forecast.
- Abundant natural resources (oil, iron ore, potassium, phosphates, wood) and agricultural potential
- Potential for economic diversification with the opening of free trade zones
- Highly dependent on oil and China
- Lack of infrastructure; insufficient progress in poverty reduction
- Unsupportive business environment and weak governance
- Lack of transparency on debt levels; uncertainty about interest payments
Risk assessment
Recovery strengthens thanks to the oil sector
After two years of recession, the Congolese economy returned to growth in 2018. Higher oil prices, coupled with an increase in production, supported a rebound in oil GDP. Growth in the non-oil sector, meanwhile, remained weak after being hit hard by the public finance crisis that followed the 2014/15 oil shock. The financing difficulties encountered by state-owned companies and arrears owing to Chinese companies in particular have caused several projects to be shelved. Despite a favourable oil market environment in 2019, fiscal consolidation efforts are expected to put a dampener on investment and consumption. Non-oil growth is likely to remain moderate, but this should be offset by an increase in oil GDP. Oil and gas production is set to increase in 2019, driven by the ramp-up of the Nene Marine (operated by Eni, an Italian oil and gas multinational company) and Moho (managed by French group Total) offshore fields, making the Republic of the Congo the third largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. As the government prepares to launch a new call for tenders for deep-sea exploration licences in 2019, the improved security situation in the Pool region and the conclusion of an agreement with the IMF in 2019 should encourage foreign investors to return, even though the business environment remains challenging. Inflation is expected to be relatively stable in 2019, staying below the 3% target set by the Bank of Central African States.
Despite improvement in public accounts, debt remains unsustainable
The rise in oil prices led to a marked improvement in public finances in 2018, allowing the government to post a budget surplus. The surplus is expected to be maintained in 2019, despite the increased public spending provided for by the Finance Act. Even so, the country's financial situation remains critical. Between 2014 and 2016, Congo – which had embarked on a major infrastructure investment programme – maintained a high level of public spending, despite the sharp drop in its revenues. The subsequent accumulation of deficits led to a significant increase in the debt ratio. After a temporary default on Eurobonds in July 2017, in September of the same year the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's revealed the existence of hidden debts linked to significant arrears owed to the Swiss trading companies Glencore and Trafigura. After the IMF included these debts in its estimates, Congo's adjusted debt ratio jumped from 77% to 110%. The Congolese government is also involved in a dispute with Commisimpex, a construction company that is claiming USD 1.1 billion (16% of GDP) for unpaid infrastructure work. So far, the Paris Court of Appeal has ruled against seizure of the bank accounts of Congo's diplomatic representation in France, but has upheld the seizure in favour of the complainant of claims due by French companies operating in the country. Despite the hidden debt scandal, China, which remains Congo's largest creditor (40% of the debt), continues to support the country in its negotiations with the IMF. In 2017, the Congolese government asked the IMF for three-year assistance, but the fund made its support conditional on public debt restructuring and a prior agreement with private creditors. A year of negotiations was necessary to reach a technical agreement, which will also involve an additional €135 million in aid from France.
Increased oil revenues, which represent 75% of exports, have generated a current account surplus that is expected to continue in 2019. However, the country remains vulnerable to a downturn in the oil market.
Tensions ease in the Pool region
The peace agreement signed between Pastor Ntumi's Ninja Nsiloulou militiamen and the Congolese government in December 2017 defused the escalation of violence in the Pool region south of Brazzaville. The rebels had taken up arms in April 2016 to challenge the re-election of President Denis Sassou Nguesso. Clashes between armed militias and Congolese forces led to the closure of the railway link between Brazzaville and Pointe Noire in November 2016, disrupting part of the country's economy. Although the peace agreement appears to have been respected and the disarmament of militias continues, the situation remains precarious, with 138,000 people living in difficult humanitarian conditions. Despite the challenge from the Pool region, President Sassou Nguesso, who has been in power since 1997, emerged stronger from the 2016 presidential and July 2017 legislative elections. His Congolese Labour Party continues to hold a majority in the National Assembly, while the opposition is still fragmented, despite negotiations to unite in the run-up to the 2021 elections. The financial crisis, which has resulted in significant delays in paying civil servant wages, continues to fuel a very tense social climate.
Last update : February 2019


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Yep, Tooks has the best Sven there.
I think I may have found a holiday for this year. My old flatmate and good friend has suggested a 13 day cruise to NZ. You stop at about 9 ports and can see the pretty pretty countryside. Nothing LOTR though. Those places are hard to get to (as Mal would say) and you need a car but it sounds nice and relaxing and not too $$$. She has agreed to do a driving holiday there another time as she has loads of family there. I still want to do Egypt but it will have to wait a while. Maybe I could even hook up with Tyg as well, one of the days, when she gets back from here blue bus jaunt.
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When You Can't See Who's Cutting In Line
With the "advance" of online ticket sales, we all went from standing in line outside the Wherehouse on a Sunday morning to standing together in a dark room with our hands outstretched, blindfolded, hoping that when the tickets fell from the ceiling we might catch one. Today's news confirms what we all suspected: someone snuck in a vacuum.
This just in from New Jersey, via the Star-Ledger:
Federal authorities in New Jersey today charged four men with hacking into websites of online ticket sellers and illegally buying tickets to Hannah Montana, Bruce Springsteen and other shows around the nation.
The massive conspiracy virtually hijacked the online ticketing systems and prevented average consumers from buying prime seats.
The men, who ran a Nevada-based company called Wiseguy Tickets Inc., employed a computer programmer in Bulgaria who crafted software to swarm the websites of Ticketmaster, Live Nation, Major League Baseball and other companies, according to a 60-page indictment unsealed in Newark.
In essence, the company was able to cut in front of thousands of fans and buy the best seats in the house, authorities said. Wiseguys allegedly sold the tickets at a steep mark-up to brokers, who in turn sold them at an even steeper price to fans, according to the 60-page indictment. The firm bought more than 1.5 million tickets and grossed more than $25 million in profit between 2002 and 2009, according to the indictment. Wiseguy bought at least 11,700 tickets to Springsteen shows alone between September and December 2007, authorities said.
Goes without saying, but may these guys burn in hell. May we also further discover ways in which technology has actually made things worse, says the weirdo who just typed a postcard on a typewriter to send through the United States Postal Service.
What's especially maddening is that these can't be the only people hacking the Ticketmaster system. Nor will they be the last.
Tags: hack, hacking, indictment, lawsuit, Live Nation, Ticketmaster, Tickets, Wiseguy Tickets, Wiseguys


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A structural fix is something that you pay for up-front and which then continues to serve your life with zero or little in the way of ongoing maintenance costs.
Some examples, feel free to add more:
-If your computer is swapping (you hear the hard drive churning) during normal usage, get more RAM! Getting an SSD hard drive is also a good idea. Swapping out to disk is like sending a sailboat across the Atlantic to fetch your stuff, whereas RAM is like getting it from your pocket.
-Buy everything you can find that can optimize your sleep. Some ideas: blackout curtains for your sleeping quarters, Zeo device, supplements known to aid sleep (melatonin, zinc, stuff like that), Philips Golite, earthing mat, etc.
-Get a good digital scale with bodyfat measurements and all that jazz. Make a habit to enter it into a suitable tracking tool. Hacker's Diet is good for weight. Even better if it auto-tracks the data for you.
Taking in a bunch of info is fun and great, whether it's from blogs, podcasts, audiobooks, whatever.
Link: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/james/william/talks/chapter8.html (found it via http://everydaysystems.com/)
Choice quotes:
All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits,— practical, emotional, and intellectual,— systematically organized for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward our destiny, whatever the latter may be.
Habit is thus a second nature, or rather, as the Duke of Wellington said, it is 'ten times nature,'
Voice 1 tells me to go for the stars. Voice 2 tells me I'm not good enough.
Voice 1 speaks of unbreakable self-worth. Voice 2 is a fickle status whore.
Something I've been wanting to do is to put together a proper morning routine. I want to field test a bunch of things to see what works for me.
This guy has some cool ideas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PliFBr__T7Y
Jason Shen takes cold showers every moning.
What are you guys doing currently? What's some cool ideas?
I'm going to start working out and eating right, I just need to read all these websites on training & nutrition first.
I'm going to work on my coding project, I just need to close down all these tabs first.
I'm going to call my dad more, I just need less stress in my life first.
I'm going to approach more women, I just need to read more about inner game first.
I'm going to study for my exam, I just need to reorganize my desk first.
This article is brilliant and should be read by all: bookofhook.blogspot.com/2013/03/smart-guy-productivity-pitfalls.html
Then, read these:
It may seem obvious that you should try to lift up your friends, but are you LIVING it every day?
Are you sometimes being a crypto-crab because you can't stand the ego blow of your friends rising up in life?
Are you 100% always cheering your friends on to achieve more? Are you actively helping them find opportunities? Are you being ever-vigilant in pointing out their follies and mistakes? Would you never for a second entertain the thought of letting your friends stagnate at a comfortable level?
Selfishness is often a good motivator in life, so what is a selfish reason to help your friends?
Remember the old adage that you are the average of your 5 closest friends?
1. Trust yourself
2. Break the rules
3. Don't be afraid to fail
4. Ignore the naysayers
5. Work your butt off
You probably get a lot of cool ideas, thoughts that juice you up and feel Just Right for you and your circumstance. I am willing to bet you typically write down the idea, talk about it with friends, think about it for a few days, then.... nothing. You forget about it or it loses its lustre. You move on. You probably have a mental shelf full of never-wases and could-have-beens, ideas that sparkled for a short while but never made it.
The idea is a seed. You need to plant it and germinate it before it's too late. If you don't - if you leave the seed on the shelf - it will start to lose its life and take rot. An idea not acted upon will seem dull two weeks later.
Whenever you feel juiced up by a brilliant new idea, immediately open a text file and dump everything you can think.of pertaining to that idea. Pack that initial inspiration into solid ground.
Paradoxically, this will rob you of that initial juice. You will feel "meh" about the idea for a little while. BUT... and this is big, you now have germinated the seed and over the coming weeks you will notice it growing. You will receive more and more inspiration and follow-on ideas and your text file will fill up. People will start suggesting things you could add.
This is when you go public with your idea and start saying self-concept building things like "I am currently writing a book / programming an app / starting a blog / etc". Because it will be true then, and it will fuel you.


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Seasoned concert-goers who walk into the resurrected Forum in Inglewood after it opens Wednesday with the first of six Eagles concerts may be struck as much by what's missing as by what's been added to the 46-year-old former sports palace.
The overhead electronic scoreboard and basketball backboards that were integral to the Forum during its 31-year reign as Southern California's premiere sports arena? Gone.
Hard-plastic sports-arena seats? Gone — replaced by movie theater-style high-back upholstered seats.
The blue exterior color added in 1988 when Great Western Bank secured naming rights? Gone, replaced by gleaming coats of the original shade now known as "Forum red."
All the missing elements add up to what the revamped Forum is: a new kind of arena, one thoroughly reconfigured with music and live entertainment as the top priorities, rather than subservient to resident sports teams.
It's the outcome of a $100-million investment by Madison Square Garden Co. as the New York firm's first West Coast venture. In some respects, it's a $100-million gamble as MSG rolls the dice in hopes that it can create a viable business at the arena level without a sports team to anchor the calendar, as has been the rule at arenas across the country.
"We don't know how things are going to go," said MSG Executive Chairman James L. Dolan, who has overseen the recent $1-billion overhaul of Madison Square Garden itself and major rehab efforts on other historic New York venues, including Radio City Music Hall and the Beacon Theatre. "But I'm very hopeful. We've tried to think of everything we could that would make it [work], and if it does — if we are right — I think it does change the game."
The return of the Forum may well represent a game-changer both in the healthy concert business, if aging arenas in other cities can be profitably retooled for live entertainment, as well as for the city of Inglewood and its environs, which have struggled as fortunes faded at the Forum and neighboring Hollywood Park.
Absent any resident sports teams, the Forum has been redesigned to maximize the concert-going experience. Concrete walls and partitions have been dressed up with black fabric to absorb sonic reverberations that can wreak havoc with music.
As for the luxury corporate sky boxes that help newly built arenas pay the bills, but which push upper-deck seating for fans even farther from the stage on concert nights—the top row of the Forum is 80 feet above the arena floor, compared to 110 feet at Staples Center--they never existed at the Forum, and none have been added.
Musicians will find that in place of the athletic locker rooms they've often had to use as makeshift dressing rooms, the Forum has reinvented those backstage spaces as elegantly appointed artist rest and relaxation spaces. For today's elaborate stage shows, crews will now have the ability to hang 350,000 pounds of equipment from the ceiling, to which 230 tons of steel support have been added.
Now the gussied-up Forum is positioned to compete with the venue that once stole its fire. Not that Staples Center will be rolling over.
"It's another large venue coming into an already crowded market," said Staples Senior Vice President and General Manager Lee Zeidman. "I don't know how many shows they'll have to have to make a profit, but at the end of the day, I think we still have the best artist and fan ameninties. Coupled with two hotels next door, 19 restaurants in the L.A. Live complex and three more ready to open up and our location downtown, I think Staples Center is going to continue to be the region's preferred chioce for arena and concert entertainment."
The Forum was designed by architect Charles Luckman (he also designed the original Madison Square Garden arena) and built by Lakers' owner Jack Kent Cooke. After opening in 1967, it reigned as the region's premiere sports arena for more than 30 years, until billionaire developer Philip Anschutz's Anschutz Entertainment Group opened Staples Center 10 miles away.
During the 2000s, the Forum saw only sporadic activity while it was owned by the Faithful Central Bible Church, which sold it to MSG last year for $23.5 million.
Today, however, the Forum could take a serious bite out of its competitor's concert business because many of Staples calendar dates are consumed by its resident NBA and NHL sports franchises: the Lakers, the Clippers and the Kings. Those teams keep Staples busy more than 120 nights a year, although Staples officials downplay any limitations sports activity presents for concert bookings.
"We put on 53 concerts last year," Zeidman saidbesting the arena's previous high of 38. "We're going into our 14th year, and We've never had a problem routing in an artist who wanted to play Staples Center."
Even more than spurring increased concert activity in the Southland, which Forum officials are saying will easily top 90 events during its first year of renewed operation, it stands as a a blueprint for a new kind of concert facility.
"Nowhere else in the world do you have a venue of this size that is truly not a sports venue first," said the head of the world's largest concert promotion company, Live Nation President and Chief Executive Michael Rapino. "Any time you have that amount of resources focused purely on the concert experience, I think it's a win."
A key ally who Dolan and MSG have leaned on in bringing the Forum back to life is Irving Azoff, manager of the Eagles, Christina Aguilera and other acts and whose latest business venture, Azoff Music Management, is a partnership with MSG. Azoff is taking a leading hand in booking acts into the Forum.
"We're overwhelmingly, pleasantly shocked and surprised by the amount of holds there are on the building — shows that are confirmed and shows that are holding," Azoff said.
Declining to identify performers coming into the Forum besides the 14 dates currently on sale, Azoff said "It looks to me like it's a slam dunk that we'll have 90 shows" spanning rock, country, pop, R&B, hip-hop and electronic dance music. It's expected that the MTV Video Music Awards will take place this year at the Forum, which also is negotiating for other award shows.
The Forum's storied history is part of the appeal for some of the younger acts that have signed on to play in the venue that has hosted shows by Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Barbra Streisand, Queen, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Prince, Stevie Wonder and many more.
The names of all the artists who played the Forum are now painted — in chronological order — on a loading-dock wall where new acts can see them.
"It's a place with such a rich history," said Mac Reynolds, manager for Imagine Dragons, the rising Las Vegas rock band that scored the best-selling rock album of 2013 and that is booked for a Valentine's Day performance at the Forum. "The guys in the band are Led Zeppelin fans, and they know that Zeppelin played there something like 15 or 16 times, and a lot of other iconic bands played there. It's always a thrill when you can kind of rub shoulders with the people you've idolized."
After Staples upstaged it, the Forum quickly lost its luster. While still hosting concerts periodically, the Forum fell victim to the ravages of time and weather, its paint badly peeling, its amenities reduced to bare minimum while officials at the Faithful Central Bible Church struggled to keep the doors open.
The hit taken by surrounding businesses and residents was already severe from the downturn at Hollywood Park racetrack next door. After California approved off-track betting on horse racing in 1987, the number of visitors to the track plummeted — Inglewood Mayor James Butts said Hollywood Park's parking lot was filled with about 34,000 cars a day on average before off-track betting; soon that number dropped to 1,000.
Now, even before a note of music has sounded from the Forum's stage, its return has brought more jobs to the area — from those who worked on the rehab to the hiring of hundreds of new employees (a significant chunk of whom are Inglewood residents) to work the concerts.
Dolan and Azoff have lauded Inglewood Mayor James Butts for cutting through bureaucratic red tape to facilitate the Forum reboot.
"We knew that if we could bring back the Forum in a grander scale, it would have a tremendous spillover effect to many different interests in the city," Butts said. "Because of where we were economically, and because we had lost all our retail anchors, that adds to the economic uncertainty of a billion-dollar company placing its only West Coast operation in the city of Inglewood."
Butts said that MSG's commitment to the Forum, and the city, has triggered new investment capital for the long-delayed Hollywood Park Tomorrow development designed for the beleaguered race track next door. Butts said developers are scheduled to break ground on the nearly $200-million project in March, and that there's new developer interest in a long-fallow 57-acre parcel formerly the site of Daniel Freeman Hospital.
And you need look no farther than across the street to find one of the first ripples of this grand experiment.
"We opened 13 years ago — the year after the Lakers left," said Sean Mitchell, co-owner of the Bourbon Street Louisiana Fish and Grill restaurant, where he and partners Derrick and John Brown have repainted the exterior, expanded their menu and are in the process of hiring six to eight new employees in anticipation of increased business.
"We've made it through some hard times," Mitchell said. "With the Forum back, we hope it's going to be 'Happy days are here again.' "
Twitter: @RandyLewis2
Forum Facts
Date opened: Dec. 30, 1967
Seating capacity: 17,500
Architect: Charles Luckman
Cost: $16 million
First concert: Aretha Franklin, Jan. 22, 1968
Reopening date: Jan. 15, 2014
Cost of revitalization project: $100 million (including $23.5 million purchase price)
First concert: The Eagles
Number of concerts on sale: 14
Acts scheduled: The Eagles, Justin Timberlake, Alejandra Guzman, Imagine Dragons, Paul Simon and Sting, Tobymac, Kings of Leon, Chelsea Handler, DJ Armin van Buuren
Least expensive: Tobymac ($20 to $85)
Most expensive: Paul Simon and Sting ($50 to $255)


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Don Sullens, a specialist with the Chatham County Emergency Management Agency, wanted to give his agency's May hurricane evacuation exercises a realistic touch so he invited volunteers from Coastal Therapy Dogs, the Savannah Kennel Club and other pet owners to bring their animals to the Civic Center to play the role of evacuees with pets.
A new federal mandate means that communities like Chatham County will not only have to help those without other means of transportation get out of town in the face of a hurricane evacuation - they will have to help their pets, too.
That means registering, sorting and loading people without any other means of transportation and their beloved pets onto school buses for the long hot ride to emergency shelters in Augusta, where there will be an official shelter for pets of registered evacuees at the fairgrounds.
"We had no idea how it would go and we wanted to add some realism to the mix," Sullens said.
The therapy dogs were asked to participate because they are temperament tested and have to meet specific health requirements to be registered; Sullens wanted some realism for the exercise but not the potential chaos of a bunch of unruly animals that could happen during the real thing.
Volunteers were given cards that described roles they were to play. Some had sick pets, some had impairments such as blindness, some had walkers or wheelchairs, and some had unusual "pretend" pets such has chickens, rabbits and pythons. There was a real iguana as a participant.
The volunteer dogs - from Great Pyrenees to Chihuahuas - from the dog organizations behaved well and the volunteer pet owners took their roles to heart. In doing so they gave Sullens a lot of feedback based on what could be, not on what was, during the drill.
Hints like do not expect all the pet owners who come to register for evacuation to have a leash and a collar for their dog let alone proof of rabies vaccination. And, yes, I have a crate for my well-behaved but scary looking Doberman, but it is too large to fit through the bus door. My sweet beagle is fine today, but during an actual evacuation event there may be rain and thunder and she snaps when freighted. No, I do not have a muzzle, aren't you providing them.
CEMA has a lot to consider as the agency does a post-mortem on the exercise. And even this group of experienced, well-informed pet owners probably learned a thing or two about their own level of preparedness.
It all comes down to personal responsibility; no one is going to take care of your pet or your family but you. While CEMA, the Humane Society of Greater Savannah and area veterinarians make it easy to plan ahead with lots of useful and free information you still have to take responsibility for your pet in disaster preparation.
A newly published book, "Guide to Pet Safety: Saving the Entire Family," by Richmond Hill author Cameron "Cami" Thumwood offers lots of tips, easy to use instructions and checklists to help you prepare. Thumwood operates the www.petalert911.com website and speaks about pet safety. She is offering the book to fire departments and animal welfare organizations at a wholesale price in order to help them raise funds for disaster supplies. But her main goal is to alert pet owners to be prepared.
The No. 1 tip in the event of an evacuation is simple: Do not leave your pets behind. Evacuate your pets with your family. Local boarding kennels will be closed and evacuated. The animals and staffs of both the Humane Society for Greater Savannah and Chatham County Animal Control will be among the first to evacuate. Both shelters will be closed. Do not plan to abandon any pets at either of these shelters.
Other tips:
• Make sure your pets are up to date on their vaccinations, particularly their rabies shots. Get a secure carrier for each of your companion animals. If you evacuate to a Red Cross arranged community shelter, you must have a carrier or crate: your pet will be housed in a separate designated shelter in its carrier during the stay. (The carrier must be large enough for your dog to stand up and turn around.) For larger animals, a collapsible crate is preferable as it will be easier to transport. If you do not have a create, the Humane Society's popular thrift store often has used ones for sale and the proceeds help support the shelter pets.
Get your pets use to being crated. Putting your cat in a crate for the first time in the face of a hurricane is not going to be easy for you or the cat.
• Make sure each pet - yes, cats too - is wearing a well-fitted collar with attached tags imprinted with multiple contact information. Have a stout leash ready as well as a muzzle. Even the friendliest dog can become aggressive in a stressful situation and an evacuation or other disaster will be stressful.
• Microchip your pet if you have not already done so. The Humane Society of Greater Savannah has frequent low-cost micro-chip and vaccine clinics. Check their website for dates and details at www.humanesocietysav.org/events.
• Prepare a pet disaster kit. Things to include are food and water for several days; bowls; medicines; and extra flea control products
A bit of preparation now will keep your pet safe and give you peace of mind.
Gail Krueger writes the Savannah Weeder column and about her other passion, pets. Send her an email at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Michael Clayton.
Swinton was born in London, England. Her mother, Judith Balfour, Lady Swinton (née Killen), was Australian, and her father, Major-General Sir John Swinton KCVO of Kimmerghame Berwickshire, is Scottish. The Swinton family is an ancient Anglo-Scots family that can trace its lineage to the High Middle Ages.
Swinton attended two independent schools, the West Heath Girls' School (the same class as Diana, Princess of Wales), and also Fettes College for a brief period. In 1983, she graduated from New Hall (now known as Murray Edwards College) at Cambridge with a degree in Social and Political Sciences. While at Cambridge she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. She has two Honorary Doctorates: one from Napier University in Edinburgh, received in August 2006 and one from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow, received July 2006. She was a contributing editor to the literary magazine Zembla.