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NFL fans burning jerseys in rage over teams' support of protests
As the quandary of protests during the national anthem has run from the NFL's sideline to the White House and back to the 50-yard line, several fans have taken matters into their own hands … and lit them on fire.
The NFL's protests began more than a year ago as a move to highlight racial inequality and bring attention to police brutality. On any given weekend, no more than a handful of players, initially led by then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, would sit or kneel during the national anthem.
But then President Donald Trump got involved, and that changed the entire equation. After Trump blasted the NFL and its players on Friday night, well over 200 players protested during Week 3. And in response, fans of those players' teams have shown their displeasure by torching their jerseys, gear and season tickets, then uploading the videos to social media.
Here's one Pittsburgh Steelers fan, invoking the memory of his veteran grandfather:
After the Pittsburgh Steelers refused to participate in the national anthem, many fans will be torching their gear. #TakeTheKnee pic.twitter.com/pRVOZX5f8r
— GRANT J. KIDNEY (@GrantJKidney) September 24, 2017
Here's a New York Giants fan igniting his tickets for next week's Chargers game:
Here's another fan, burning an absolute pile of Steelers gear:
Here's a Kansas City Chiefs fan turning his back on his team after 50 years:
Here's an Oakland Raiders fan burning his jerseys; language alert for tender ears:
Former Raiders fan 'Bob' makes a bold statement by burning his JaMarcus jersey…keep sending me videos like this! pic.twitter.com/5ms7OxwhK9
— Busted Coverage (@bustedcoverage) September 26, 2017
… and so forth, all following the same format: fans staring into the camera, taking a long time to tell us their belief that players shouldn't tell us their beliefs, then putting the flame to jerseys or tickets … which tend to ignite with awkward slowness.
For those keeping score, then, these are protests of the protest to the protest. It's impossible to know whether there's any significant number of fans torching their jerseys, or whether the ones filming themselves orating over the flames are the outliers.
From one perspective, it's an admirable demonstration of priorities, valuing the flag even over and above one's beloved football team. But from another view, it's a pretty rash decision to make with such little contemplation. If you've spent decades of your life rooting for a team, spending money on them, defending them in innumerable bar arguments, shouldn't you perhaps give them the slightest opportunity for explanation? Don't you respect those you love enough to hear out and contemplate their views, which might be slightly different from your own?
Eh, maybe not.
In the wake of the president's critical remarks, NFL teams across the league issued statements in support of their players' right to speak, without actually endorsing (or, really, even mentioning) what they were speaking about. Sure, it was a PR move, done to tamp down brush fires that could spread into uncontrolled wildfires (see: NASCAR), but the fact that it was done at all shows the teams have at least some small measure of respect for their players' voices. That, apparently, was too much for many fans to handle.
One key element of the protests is the idea of freedom, the idea that even if you don't support what the players are protesting, you support their right to do so. It's a bit of nuance lost on the love-it-or-leave-it, burn-it-all-down segment of NFL fandom. But the great thing about America is that even those basic all-or-nothing views are accepted. And the great thing about the NFL is that they're always willing to sell you on the shield, no matter what you've said before.
Because you're always welcome back in the NFL as a fan. Every team has a fresh, unburned replacement jersey just waiting for you.
Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at firstname.lastname@example.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
More from Yahoo Sports:
• President Trump to Cowboys owner: 'Players will stand'
• NASCAR star's risky statement on anthem protests
• Mayweather unveils his huge painting of McGregor
• After Trump remarks, Magic Johnson gets political


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Sophia Glassware has specialized in exporting glass products for 10 years, which is located in the historical and cultural city called Baoding, closing to Beijing, the capital of China.
Our main advantage is the stable production and quality, so we can avoid the risk that clients often change suppliers because of unstable quality, so far we have owned hundreds of customers who market glass products, we provide them with glass vase, glass candle holder, glass jars,glass borosilicate, fish bowl, tea-things and other glass products.
here is the main departments in our company.
in addition, we can give a quick reply in 1 business day if you want to consult product price, every client will get full tracking service guide from a specialized staff, what's better, we can provide free samples in 15 business days if you need!
Our unique goal: satisfy customers, good co-operation!

subset: commoncrawl


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Bill Moyers calls it like it is.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
"No More Mr. Nice Guy, Mr. President"
Posted by Counterlight at Saturday, September 05, 2009
4 comments:
- it's margaret said...
I hope Obama listens! Damn straight!
- September 5, 2009 at 9:03 PM
- Göran Koch-Swahne said...
Amen to this. Good health care is a human right!
- September 6, 2009 at 8:54 AM
- Brad Evans said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- September 7, 2009 at 2:04 PM
- Counterlight said...
One flavor.
Take it or leave it.
If you ever lost your resentments, I don't think there would be anything left of you.
No more posts for you here. Time to crawl back under your rock with the rest of the poison centipedes.
- September 7, 2009 at 9:28 PM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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African Print Kimonos/Jackets are a need for all women's wardrobe.
Its a perfect one for your outings. Its so stylish and will make you stand out. You'll definitely look your best in this gorgeous outfit.
African Print Kimono
Short Sleeves
Can be worn as an outerwear
100% cotton
Colour and Print may defer
Perfect for Winter or Spring
Designed in Canada
Made of African Print Fabric known as Ankara
Regular Fit – True to size
SIZE AND FIT: Our model wears a Medium (M) and is 5"7″ tall
Still unsure what size to get? Find your recommended size here.
CARE INSTRUCTIONS: Hand wash cold, DO NOT BLEACH, Hang dry, Press with cool iron on the reverse side only. Hand wash cold. Press with cool iron on the reverse side only.
STYLING TIP: Our bold versatile kimono can be worn with trousers or with a pair of jeans. These are very versatile as it fits most outfits. It can be easily dressed up with a pair of trousers, black heels or dressed with a white t shirt, denim and converses.
Processing time -1 day
Returns and Exchange Policy


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NEW YORK, NY — November 19, 2021 — (NOTICIAS NEWSWIRE) — Latinas in Business Inc. is asking for the general public support for their Annual Fundraiser and Silent Auction to take place virtually on December 8 from 4 PM to 7 PM. The event will feature special guests, celebrities, and female founders who will be interviewed to tell stories of resilience and success over the adversity of the Covid19 pandemic.
The free virtual event takes place on Wednesday, December 8 from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM EST –Zoom and Live streamed on Latinas in Business Facebook page. For free registration to this event visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/208728290937. The event is open to the general public regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity.
"We are extremely excited and grateful that many sponsors and members are joining us to amplify the voice of Latinas suffering during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many female founders have suffered losses not only in their businesses but also in their families and friends. We want to bring a little joy and hope to many female founders and tell them we will continue to support them," Susana G Baumann. President and CEO, said.
The Silent Auction page includes donations from major sponsors and also, high-end female brands including Renovad Experiential Retreats, Fashion Designers of Latin America, Stuyvesant Champagne, Villakuyaya Gourmet Chocolates, and many more. The lowest bid starts at $15 but viewing of the Silent Auction Page is free to all who register.
"We are very grateful to one of our main sponsors and supporters, Investors Bank, for donating one of the most valuable prices, 4 VIP tickets to the Disney on Ice, Let's Celebrate show at Prudential Center in Newark NJ, for a value of $1000. And to the Investors Foundation, for providing a grant to support the event for another $1000," Baumann added.
For registration to this free event, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/208728290937.
About Latinas in Business Inc
Latinas in Business Inc. is a national non-profit 501(c)(3) membership organization that advocates for the economic empowerment of Latinas and other minority women entrepreneurs. Based in New Jersey, it provides branding, marketing, advertising, and editorial services through a quality digital platform, digital marketing content, social media campaigns, and educational and promotional events. Latinas in Business Inc. provides the space for over 1,800 Latina and other minority women-owned small business members to gain national exposure and marketing opportunities for the products and services they offer.


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Hey now, the University of Toledo wants its mascot be to an all star. In a since-deleted tweet from Tuesday, the official Twitter account for the Ohio college called for 500,000 retweets to change the mascot from Rocky the Rocket to Shrek, per USA Today.
Unfortunately, though, it seems the school was just joking about welcoming the the lovable green ogre to its hallowed halls. A representative from the school clarified to USA Today that Rocky isn't going anywhere. "We are definitely not changing the school mascot to Shrek," University of Toledo media relations specialist Christine Billau said. "If we do reach a half million (retweets), we'd plan something special for Rocky."
Before the tweet was deleted, however, the idea of turning the campus into a swamp really took off. Though it's not possible to tell how many retweets the original tweet received, there are plenty of hilarious replies and suggestions like a new fight song to renaming the stadiums. "Will you rename all the stadiums "the swamp" so the crowd can chant "get out of our swamp"/"get out of my swamp" at the opposing team?" one Twitter user wrote. "Then your fight song has to be 'All Star' by Smash Mouth," another suggested.
The choice of Shrek was surely not an accident. Besides Shrek being one of the most beloved movies of all time, the ogre was first introduced to audiences on April 22, 2001, almost seven years ago to the day, so perhaps the University of Toledo was celebrating this momentous occasion. Not to mention Donkey, Fiona, and the whole crew are set to hit Netflix in May 2018. It's truly a great time to be a Shrek fan.


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We estimate old paintings and artwork
Our shop offers the evaluation of old paintings and artworks. To make a proper assessment we may consider the object period, his conditions, the type of restoration to be performed. We are specialists in the restoration of paintings, in the restoration of chandeliers and restoration of antiques.
Our staff consists of experienced antique dealers in the industry able to bring back former splendor of any object. Come and visit our shop in Via Ampere 55, not far from Piazza Piola and M2.
Paintings estimate: request more information
Contacting us is easy!
The phone is always the fastest method: +39 02 70635993
Alternatively, write an email to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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If you are new to the world of Chiropractic and have never visited a Chiropractor before, you may be curious as to how you'll feel after your first adjustment.
Most of the people who visit our Marietta Chiropractic clinic for the first time are a bit nervous when they arrive since they often think that spinal adjustments consist of painful, cracking exercises.
This perception, mostly fueled by the media, could not be more wrong.
First Chiropractic Adjustment – Expectations
While our Marietta Chiropractors do provide the old fashioned adjustment techniques for those who are interested, we also offer a variety of highly effective techniques that do not solicit any type of "popping" or "cracking."
Are Chiropractic Adjustments Painful?
Many first-time patients come into our Marietta clinic wondering if their adjustment will hurt, as well as when they start to notice relief from whatever kind of pain they are experiencing.
Because each person's recovery process is unique depending on the specifics of their pain or injury, there's no complete way to describe how your body will react or respond to your first adjustment.
However, it is important to know that the results connected to Chiropractic Adjustments are often noticed almost immediately after the first session or examination.
What To Expect During Your First Chiropractic Visit
During your first Chiropractic examination or consultation, your Chiropractor will ask some questions that relate to your personal and family medical history, where you believe your pain stems from, what kinds of symptoms you've noticed, and if you have ever sustained some injury in the past.
Your Chiropractor will follow through with a complete examination and, in some cases, take some X-rays to learn more about your spine's health, as well as to understand what type of treatment is most appropriate for your specific condition.
Chiropractic Adjustments Offer Immediate Pain Relief
Almost all of our new patients experience immediate pain relief following their first Chiropractic Adjustment.
For those who have suffered from various misalignments and chronic pain for years, the effects of our adjustments are even more recognizable.
While each person responds differently, most of our patients feel more relaxed and flexible after they leave our Marietta Chiropractic clinic.
Others report feeling an intense surge of energy since our Chiropractic techniques help repair nerve damage and stimulate appropriate circulatory responses.
In situations where a particular patient is being treated for severe to critical injuries, they may require an extended series of adjustments that are complemented with other common techniques such as:
- Deep tissue massage
- Ultrasound therapy
- Trigger point therapy
If you suffer from chronic pain or are interested in learning more about the health benefits associated with Chiropractic treatment, call us today at (770) 383-1435.


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2014 Caterham Seven 620R to be launched
The Goodwood speed festival will be the venue of the launch of the most extreme Caterham Seven 620R. This iconic model is going to receive complete makeover and is supposed to develop even better performance than its predecessor. The new Caterham Seven 620R is powerful, but the driving is both manageable and exciting. The specifications of the car have been modified so that it has become one of those vehicles which completely rewrites the parameters of performance. This model will be powered by a 2.0l Ford Duratech supercharged engine, producing a power of 311 bhp at 4711 rpm. It delivers a maximum torque of 219 ft lb at 7350 rpm. This engine has been mated with six speed sequential transmission with flat shift.
The new model gets upgraded suspension to cope with the power of the vehicle. The front suspension is adjustable double wishbone with roll bar while the rear suspension is the De Dion axle. Twin circuit split brakes in the front is mated with discs front and rear and has low level warning system. the car has a top speed of 155 kmph and takes a mere 2.79 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph. Rack and pinion steering increase the ease of handling.
In addition to the above features, the Caterham Seven 620R comes with the standard package of this model. Race developed cooling package and the toggle switch ignition are classic Caterham touches. The four point race harness offer a high level of security. Engine immobilizer is another major security feature. The car is not only fast and powerful; it is comfortable as well. Finally, the car appears extremely sporty and stylish with its various innovative features including airflow optimized nose cone, gunmetal chassis, carbon fibre wings, carbon aero screen, high focused instrumentations and many more.


text:
Browse the Plays
- Experience Chronicled
- Allegoric or Metaphoric Representations
- Concentration and Extermination Camps
- Deniers and Denial
- Germany, Hitler and the Growth of Nazism
- European Jewry Before the Holocaust
- Escape
- The Ghettos
- Hiding
- Righteous Gentiles
- Rescue
- Resistance
- Liberation
- Nazi War Crimes and Judgement
- Other Victims of Nazi Persecution
- Perpetrators, Bystanders and Collaborators
- Survivors and Subsequent Generations
- Theater During Holocaust
- Women and the Holocaust
- Experience Chronicled
Recent Insights
- A Personal Welcome to the Holocaust Theater Catalog
- Honoring Elie and Marion Wiesel for Their Plays
- NJTF HTII becomes part of UM MILLER CENTER
- Theatrical Depictions of Survivor Stories
- On Resort 76: Jewish Drama and Putting the Audience Through a Difficult Evening By Bruce Cohen, MFA – the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater
- NJTF Remembrance Readings Launched
- Online Women, Theatre, and the Holocaust Resource Handbook
- Almost Lost
- Press: From the Cleveland Jewish News
- Reference Books
I Claudio [אני קלאודיו]
Author(s): Ilan Yaacobi
The many ways the Yaacobi family evades capture by the Nazis. They move from Berlin to Italy, and when the daughter, Hildegard, gives birth to a son, in order to protect him they call him Claudio and do not circumcise him. They hide in monasteries, disguise themselves as Swiss-Italian, move from one building to another, until finally the Americans liberate Rome.
Format: Autobiographical drama
Cast Size: 14M/12F
Nationality of Author: Israeli
Original Language: Hebrew
G.R. Books
Experience(s) Chronicled: Hiding | Liberation | Perpetrators, Bystanders and Collaborators | Righteous Gentiles | Women and the Holocaust


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This week's card is called Four Birds singing and was made by Jasu. This delightful card was made using the PinBroidery Four calling birds Pattern.
Jasu said: "It was stitched on cream coloured cards with plain green, black and variegated silk threads, and then mounted onto textured green card. I used black beads for the musical note & red beads for berries and peel offs for the frame."
Cards featured here must have been posted in either the Stitching Cards forum gallery or the Forum-A-Lines forum gallery. The card should be based on a Stitching Cards pattern or a Form-A-Lines pattern. This picture was posted in the Forum-A-Lines forum gallery.
Would you like to enter your card as contender for "Forum gallery stitching card of the week"? All you have to do is post it in either Stitching Cards forum gallery or the Forum-A-Lines forum gallery. Forum membership is required to post pictures. Go to the forum and click the "Join" link to join.


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Oral Presentation Session
Reviewed by: Society for Medical Anthropology
Of interest to: Practicing and Applied Anthropologists, Students
Primary Theme: Health
Secondary Theme: Resistance
In their annual review article "The Anthropology of the Beginnings and Ends of Life," Kaufman and Morgan survey the bodies of intersectional work that, since the 1990s, anthropologists have generated from the core to the margins of birth and death (2005). Underlining the importance they place upon how historical frameworks inform later work, we propose a compounded revisitation of earlier influences in the field alongside more recent scholarship. In consideration of the conference theme, paper proposals demonstrate the sustained, multifarious, and overlapping aspects of death, dying, and bereavement. Each paper may resurrect or deal afresh with earlier concepts and matters such as ritual and religion, the postmortem treatment of bodies and burial. Alternatively, they may deal with the continually evolving landscape of dying centering around topics such as medicalized dying, biomedical identification of death, (Lock 1996; Kaufman 2005, 2015), critical and cross cultural reflections on a "good death" (Del Vecchio Good 2004, Green 2008), decision-making in end-of life care (Chapple 2003), or death at the start of life (Scheper-Hughes 1992). Subjects impacted by political-economic conditions and citizenship; bioethics, laws, institutional or professional policy; or public opinion surrounding end-of-life interventions are also included. This panel aims to broadly showcase and highlight anthropology's transcendence in death studies by focusing on the different ways anthropologists have and continue to study death and dying, the ways that death and dying are re-imagined, and their relevance and situatedness within a broader framework of health care.
Chapple, Helen S. 2003. "Could She Be Dying? Dis-orders of Reality Around Death in an American Hospital,"
Anthropology and Humanism, 27(2):165-184.
Del Vecchio Good, Mary-Jo, Nina M. Gadamer, Patricia Ruopp, Matthew Lakoma, Amy M. Sullivan, Ellen Redinbaugh, Robert M. Arnold, and Susan D. Block, "Narrative Nuances on Good and Bad Deaths: Internists' Tales from High-Technology Work Places," Social Science and Medicine 58:939-953.
Green, James W. Green. 2008. Beyond the Good Death: the Anthropology of Modern Dying. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Kaufman, Sharon R. 2005. And a Time to Die: How American Hospitals Shape the End of Life. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
2015. Ordinary Medicine: Extraordinary Treatments, Longer Lives, and Where to Draw the Line. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Kaufman, Sharon R. and Lynn Morgan. 2005. "The Anthropology of the Beginnings and Ends of Life,"
Annual Review of Anthropology, 34: 317-341.
Lock, Margaret. 1996. "Death in Technological Time: Locating the End of Meaningful Life," Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 10(4): 575-600.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press.


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Black Michigan prison officer: I was demoted after reporting co-worker's use of 'N' word
LANSING – A black Michigan prison lieutenant says officials demoted him and otherwise made his life hell after he complained about a co-worker calling him the "N" word.
Michael Doss, who works at Parnall Correctional Facility near Jackson, filed a lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court on Thursday against the Michigan Department of Corrections and Capt. Frank Sawyer.
Doss alleges unlawful discrimination by the department and aggressive retaliation once he complained about it.
The allegations fit a familiar pattern in lawsuits and civil service actions involving the Corrections Department — allegations that have been upheld in several other recent cases involving racial or gender discrimination, through judicial opinions, jury awards and findings by civil service hearings officers.
Doss, who has worked at the department for 13 years, alleges in the lawsuit he was "rapidly climbing up the employment ladder" at Parnall, and was working as a captain in 2017 and being assigned extra responsibilities by Deputy Warden Lee McRoberts, when he learned about a conversation at the prison Christmas party that would drastically alter his career path.
Doss was told that McRoberts, who is white, was seated at the party at a table with Sawyer and another white captain and mentioned that he had an upcoming interview for a warden's position at another prison.
"You can't go anywhere," Sawyer allegedly told McRoberts. "I don't want a (N word) for a boss."
Sawyer's alleged comment was based on his assumption that if McRoberts left Parnall, Doss would be chosen from among the captains for promotion to deputy warden, according to the suit.
Doss was told that McRoberts then told Sawyer: "Frank, you can't say that," but took no action.
More:Jury awards husband and wife prison employees $11.4M in racial discrimination case
Doss alleges that after learning about the conversation, he confirmed it with McRoberts and told McRoberts he planned to report the racial slur as a violation of the department's discriminatory harassment policy.
From then on, his life at work changed dramatically, Doss alleges. Since then, he has been demoted from captain to lieutenant, overlooked for promotions and "subjected to a culture of racism that has been ignored, cultivated, and/or perpetrated" by the department and its employees, "including co-workers, secretaries, supervisors, and other individuals in management."
"As soon as he rocked the boat ... he was retaliated against," said Jonathan Marko, a St. Clair Shores attorney representing Doss.
Chris Gautz, a Corrections Department spokesman, said the department has not yet been served with the lawsuit and "cannot comment on the specifics." He said some of the claims referenced in the complaint are under investigation by internal affairs.
"The department takes this claim seriously," Gautz said. "All MDOC employees deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and should be treated fairly. Retaliation is not tolerated in this department and all claims of such are investigated with the utmost seriousness."
Sawyer and McRoberts, who is not a defendant in the case, did not respond to Friday emails seeking comment.
More:Gay corrections officer settles lawsuit against Michigan prison agency
Doss says in the lawsuit that his complaint was investigated and upheld, with Sawyer admitting to making the remark and receiving a five-day suspension, which "he laughed and bragged about to other MDOC staff members," saying he would use vacation days to cover the suspension and "drink a beer for each day."
But co-workers previously friendly to Doss turned cold, and ostracized him, calling him a "rat" and a "snitch," the lawsuit alleges. "McRoberts began treating him as an outcast, socially and professionally," excluding him from work-related meetings and decisions.
The suit alleges that:
- On Feb. 19, 2018, Doss says he was demoted from captain to lieutenant, with a "reduction in force" cited as the reason.
- On April 3, 2018, McRoberts placed a negative "counseling" report in Doss' personnel file — the first he had ever received — after a subordinate was late turning in a report.
- On Feb. 13, 2019, Doss was notified that he was under investigation for using a department copying machine to copy a one-page document he wanted to use in support of a grievance he had filed.
Doss says McRoberts was not investigated for failing to report the slur — also a violation of department policy.
Sawyer is a defendant in a separate pending lawsuit, filed in federal court in July against the department. In that case, an Arab American corrections officer at Parnall, Hizam Yehia, alleges widespread racial discrimination and harassment by department officials, including Sawyer. Yehia alleges that on one occasion Sawyer told him he would never visit the Middle East because "they" beat their women, have sex with goats, blow themselves up and women cover their faces "like ninjas."
The department and Sawyer generally denied Yehia's allegations in an August court filing.
In 2018, a civil service hearings officer cleared and reinstated two fired resident unit managers at Cotton Correctional Facility near Jackson, including one who had filed a 2015 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the department for disparate treatment of employees. The hearing officer, Matthew Wyman, said the charges brought against Brent Rohrig and Vicki McCabe for alleged work rule violations were "the essense of disparate, arbitrary, disproportionate discipline."
The Free Press ran a series of stories in April 2018 in which current and former female employees of the department complained of retaliation after they complained about sexual harassment.
And in 2019 alone, the Free Press has reported on four separate judgments or settlements totaling more than $13 million arising from cases in which current or former Corrections Department employees have alleged racial or sexual discrimination and/or retaliation.
Department Director Heidi Washington said in an email to employees at the time of the Free Press series on sexual harassment and retaliation that the department will not tolerate discrimination or harassment in any form and encouraged employees to report such cases without fear of retribution.
Marko, who represents both Doss and Yehia, said Thursday he believes the department only pays "lip service" to the issue and has not confronted it or tried to curb it in any meaningful way.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.


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Academic Engagement Working Group
The Academic Engagement Working Group explores methods for the University Libraries' participation in the entire life cycle of research and learning on campus. The Working Group guides the enhancement of engagement activities, course integrated and embedded instruction, online research guides, and workshops. The Group defines and prioritizes strategies for assessment and reflective practices in order to understand the University Libraries' impact on student success. Regularly consulting with liaisons for special projects in their subject areas, the Working Group focuses on partnering the University Libraries with the larger University community to build deeper engagement practices as well as address information and research needs.
Membership: Janet Clarke, Jennifer DeVito, Kristin Hall, Kristen Nyitray, Mona Ramonetti, Gregg Stevens, Clara Tran.
Access Services Working Group
The Access Services working group focuses on issues surrounding policies and procedures related to circulation, reserves, and interlibrary loan. The working group seeks to enhance services and facilitate access to the resources at the Stony Brook University Libraries.
Membership: Jennifer DeVito (chair), Donna Darling, Diane Englot, Christopher Larson, Kenneth Schaal, Lisa Socci, and Giulieta Stoianov.
Communications & Outreach Working Group
The Communications and Outreach Working Group recommends strategies, policies, and procedures to ensure that events align with and fully support the University Libraries' mission, vision, and goals. The Working Group collaborates closely with Library faculty and staff to plan, promote, and execute cultural, scholarly and advancement events and programs in the Library. Also, the Working Group coordinates and oversees the Library's full-range of publicity and communications strategies for consistent messaging and branding of its resources, services, and programs.
Membership: Stacey Horath (chair), Vincent Clark, Janet Clarke, Shafeek Fazal, Kristin Hall (vice-chair), Chris Kretz, Laurel Scheinfeld, Lisa Socci, and Meghan Sprabary.
Social Media Sub Group
Membership: Kristin Hall (Chair), Janet Clarke, Shafeek Fazal, Stacey Horath, Chris Larsen, Laurel Scheinfeld, Lisa Socci, and Meghan Sprabary.
Digital Humanities Working Group
The Digital Humanities Working Group guides library engagement in digital humanities work on campus, with an emphasis on the ways in which the University Libraries can provide leadership and vision in this dynamic area of inquiry. The Working Group plans programming, offers a framework for research consultations, and works with liaisons to engage with faculty and students on teaching, learning, and research activities in the digital humanities.
Membership: Kate Kasten (chair), Darren Chase, Shafeek Fazal, Carolyn Hansen, Chris Kretz, Heath Martin, Victoria Pilato, Jamie Saragossi, Chris Sauerwald.
Digital Initiatives Working Group
The University Libraries' Digital Initiatives Working Group provides leadership and direction on digital initiatives, including, but not limited to, digital project creation, digital preservation, digitization services, metadata, discoverability, and accessibility.
Membership: Victoria Pilato (chair), Darren Chase, Anastasia Chiu, Shafeek Fazal, John Fitzgerald, Jessica Koos, Chris Kretz, Heath Martin, Kristen Nyitray, Chris Sauerwald, Jason Torre.
Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Committee
Respect for diversity is a fundamental value of Stony Brook University and the University Libraries, and is identified among the core values of our strategic growth.Working in parallel with the Office of the SBU's Chief Diversity Officer the University Libraries Committee on Equity, Inclusion and Diversity will strive to:
- increase awareness and sensitivity among library staff
- recommend policies and projects that embed diversity and inclusion into the Libraries' services and work environments
- envision events that build cultural awareness and provide the tools needed to strengthen work relationships and build a supportive SBU community
Membership: Mona Ramonetti (chair), Anastasia Chiu, Chris Kretz, Jay Levenson, Raquel Lynn, Victoria Pilato, Sarita Sharma, Gregg Stevens, Giulieta Stoianov
Lead Selectors Working Group
The Lead Selectors Working Group guides the development and preservation of a rich and diverse network of scholarly, cultural and informational resources in support of the University's mission of excellence in scholarship, research, teaching, creativity, health care and economic and technological development. The working group supports the University's teaching and research missions locally and globally by:
- Providing leadership for the creation of a resource-rich scholarly environment
- Implementing a framework for acquiring and preserving world-class scholarly collections
- Assessing and anticipating the needs of a constantly evolving learning and research community
Membership: Jin Guo (chair), Darren Chase, Shafeek Fazal, Kate Kasten, Heath Martin, Kristen Nyitray, Jamie Saragossi, Clara Tran
Liaison Working Group
The Liaison Working Group enhances scholarly productivity and student achievement, and actively engages in all aspects of SBU's research and learning life cycles.
Membership: Janet Clarke (chair), Clara Tran, Heath Martin, Shafeek Fazal.
Scholarly Communication Working Group
The Scholarly Communication Working Group acts to support the mission of the Center for Scholarly Communication and provides expertise, information and resources to authors, researchers and students:
- Meeting public access mandates;
- Promoting and teaching scholarly communication skills, practice and tools to the academic community through workshops, events, course-integrated instruction and discussion
- Understanding the dynamic scholarly publishing environment and leveraging author's copyright
- Utilizing open access for the sharing and discovery of scholarship, research and data.
- Discovering, using and creating Open Educational Resources (OER).
Membership: Darren Chase (chair), Anastasia Chiu, Shafeek Fazal, Kate Kasten, Jessica Koos, Victoria Pilato, Clara Tran.
Virtual Presence Steering Group
The Virtual Presence Steering Group provides guidance for the development, management, and ongoing assessment of the University Libraries' virtual presence, including all web and mobile platforms. The Group defines and prioritizes strategies for making the most effective use of the web and mobile environments, focusing on innovation and user satisfaction.
Membership: Darren Chase, Shafeek Fazal, Chris Kretz.


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Some Pregnant Women Are Exposed to Gadolinium in Early Pregnancy
Released: August 20, 2019
At A Glance
- Pregnant women may be inadvertently exposed to a commonly used MRI contrast agent early in their pregnancy.
- Researchers analyzed data on U.S. pregnancies between 2006 and 2017.
- Contrast agent exposure was seen in 5,457 of 4.69 million pregnancies, a number corresponding to one in 860 pregnancies.
- RSNA Media Relations
- Linda Brooks
- Dionna Arnold
OAK BROOK, Ill. — A small but concerning number of women are exposed to a commonly used MRI contrast agent early in their pregnancy, likely before many of them are aware that they're pregnant, according to a study published in the journal Radiology. The results support adherence to effective pregnancy screening measures to help reduce inadvertent exposures to these contrast agents during early pregnancy.
Gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) are used in as many as 45 percent of MRI exams in the United States to improve the visualization of organs and tissue. Recent evidence shows that trace levels of gadolinium may be retained in the body after the MRI, although the implications of this are not yet understood.
Gadolinium can cross the placenta and enter the fetal circulation. The safety of GBCAs in pregnant women has not been established, and their use during pregnancy is not recommended unless essential to the health of the woman or fetus. Available data from cohort studies and case reports have revealed inconsistent findings regarding the association between gadolinium and adverse fetal outcomes.
To obtain a more precise idea of the prevalence of GBCA exposure among pregnant women, study lead author Steven Bird, Pharm.D., Ph.D., of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Division of Epidemiology, and colleagues analyzed data on U.S. pregnancies resulting in live births between 2006 and 2017. The data was collected from 16 partners of the FDA's Sentinel System, a program that allows for active surveillance of healthcare data from multiple sources to monitor the safety of regulated medical products.
The data revealed exposures to GBCAs in 5,457 of 4,692,744 live births, a number corresponding to one in 860 pregnancies. Most of the exposures came from contrast MRI examinations of the head, although the number of pelvic and abdominal MRIs were also noteworthy. Almost three-quarters of exposures occurred during the first trimester. The results strongly suggested that inadvertent exposure to GBCAs may occur before pregnancy is recognized.
"Unintended fetal exposures to gadolinium can occur during early pregnancy among women who are not yet aware they are pregnant. Increased attention to existing pregnancy screening measures may help reduce inadvertent exposures to gadolinium contrast," Dr. Bird said.
The FDA has advised all MRI centers to provide a medication guide to outpatients during their first gadolinium contrast administration, stating that pregnant women and young children may be at increased risk from gadolinium staying in the body.
The researchers suggested several ways radiology imaging centers might avoid inadvertent administration of GBCAs to pregnant women. Among the tools are a safety screening form asking about the potential for pregnancy, direct questioning of women by radiologic technologists regarding pregnancy, prominently displayed signs asking women to notify radiology staff if they may be pregnant, and pregnancy testing when appropriate.
The FDA is continuing to monitor reports of adverse events associated with gadolinium exposure in utero. While this study was not designed to assess health outcomes of this early exposure for women and/or infants, the FDA is collaborating on and funding a study to evaluate potential risk for stillbirth and other neonatal adverse effects following in utero exposure to gadolinium in a large group of pregnant Medicaid beneficiaries.
"First-Trimester Exposure to Gadolinium-based Contrast Agents: A Utilization Study of 4.6 Million U.S. Pregnancies." Collaborating with Dr. Bird were Kate Gelperin, M.D., M.P.H., Leyla Sahin, M.D., Karen B. Bleich, M.D., Elnara Fazio-Eynullayeva, M.A., Corinne Woods, R.Ph., M.P.H., Erica Radden, M.D., Patty Greene, Pharm.D., Carolyn McCloskey, M.D., Tamara Johnson, M.D., Mayura Shinde, Dr.P.H., and Ira Krefting, M.D. (https://www.sentinelinitiative.org/sites/default/files/communications/publications-presentations/Sentinel_ICPE_Poster_GBCA_in_Pregnancy.pdf)
Radiology is edited by David A. Bluemke, M.D., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wis., and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc. (https://pubs.rsna.org/journal/radiology)
RSNA is an association of over 53,400 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists, promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)
For patient-friendly information on MRI safety during pregnancy, visit RadiologyInfo.org.
Press Resources:Editorial
Study abstract
Figure 1. Number of contrast MRI exposures and anatomic location of imaging by gestational week. Dotted line represents date of conception, defined as the date of the last menstrual period + 14 days.
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Figure 2. Number of unenhanced MRI exposures and anatomic location by gestational week. Dotted line represents date of conception, defined as the date of the last menstrual period + 14 days.
High-res (TIF) version
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Semantic Days 2010
The conference Semantic Days 2010 will take place in Stavanger, Norway from Monday, May 31 to Wednesday, June 2 2010.
Semantic Days 2010 slogan: Understand Your Data
- Why semantic technologies?
- What will you learn?
- Who should attend?
- Tutorials
- Bird of a feather
- First day Opening Keynotes
- First day main session
- Bird of a feather
- Second main session
- Projects parallel session
- Bird of a feather sessions
- Vendor demo session
- Program committee
- Industry:
- Public:
- Research:
- Board:
Programme and registration
Programme available below. Registration form: http://www.conventor.no/semanticdays
General information about Semantic Days
Semantic Days in Stavanger is an annual conference that has become a meeting place for industrial and public sector use of semantic technologies with solid contribution from research institutes and universities.
Why semantic technologies?
Semantic technologies emerge from efforts to create a Semantic Web, to transform the current "Web of documents" to a "Web of linked data", available to people and to computers alike. It opens up a whole new class of intelligent services and applications, not restricted to the domain of the web proper. Both industry and public services may greatly benefit from the enhancement of human-computer communication, improved information retrieval, data exchange and system interoperability offered by semantic technologies. The semantic technologies comprise a set of standardized formats and languages used to express data on the Web, allowing consumers and businesses to easier find and analyze all kinds of useful online information. The basic technologies are:
- Common languages for representing and linking structured and unstructured data
- Ontologies – concepts, relations and definitions – that provide common terminologies to interpret data from disparate sources
- Rules that allow software to retrieve and reason about information on the basis of the ontologies
A central point of semantic technologies is that all data, including formalized vocabularies, is formulated in terms of statements, i.e. assertions of facts. This makes it conceptually very easy to join both data sets and vocabularies. All data in these statements refer to a defining vocabulary, and are therefore equipped with a handle on their meaning. This explicit representation of meaning opens for a systematic and uniform treatment of data that would otherwise appear heterogeneous and thus resist uniform treatment. As a consequence, data can be processed independently from the application that created them.
What will you learn?
- Introduction to basic semantic technologies
- Why and how industries and research institutions are developing ontologies
- What practical applications ontologies can be used for
- The benefits of semantic technologies for standardized information access
- Availability of IT solutions for integrated work processes
Who should attend?
- Everyone is challenged by information overflow
- Everyone is challenged by interoperability issues arising from the absence of a shared understanding
- Everyone wondering how semantic information can support integrated work processes
- Everyone wondering how to achieve interoperability between data sources
- Everyone wondering how to create an architecture for sharing information
- Everyone interested in semantic technologies and the future of the Web
Program Semantic Days 2010
May 31st 2010
The half-day tutorials has been set up to give deep insight into selected areas of semantic technologies. Tutorials has been divided into half-day tutorials on Semantic Web Programming (targeting programmers, researchers and architects), building and using Semantic Applications for the Oil- and Gas sector, for Service Modeling with SoaML, and building and using Semantic Applications for Government (SERES).
|Semantic Web programming
|The tutorial is based on material from a new course given at the University og Oslo in the spring term 2010. Learn how to publish and retrieve knowledge using W3C Semantic Web standards. Create an ontology to formalize a data model, and reason about it. Target audience: programmers, students, professionals. Don't forget to bring your laptop! Presenter: Martin Giese, Department of informatics, University of Oslo.
Martin Giese works as a researcher and teacher at the University of Oslo. He received a PhD in computer science from the Univ. of Karlsruhe in 2002 and has been working in a broad range of topics connected to formal methods, automated deduction, and semantic technologies. He is currently affiliated with the Semicolon project that is concerned with the integration, communication, and publication of information in the Norwegian public sector. He has recently developed an introductory course on semantic technologies at the Univ. of Oslo.
|Interoperable OpenPlant and ProjectWise Lifecycle solutions using ISO 15926
|This session will provide an insight into how Bentley Systems Inc. has been implementing the latest ISO 15926 protocols in OpenPlant suite of products and ProjectWise Lifecycle solutions. A brief demonstration will be provided of an Engineering Contractor to Owner-Operator data exchange scenario that leverages ISO 15926 protocols and OpenPlant Schema built from an online connection to the RDS/WIP. Presenter: Manoj Dharwadkar, Bentley Systems, Inc.
|Service Modeling with SoaML
|SoaML (Service oriented Architecture Modeling Language) is a new OMG standard for Service Modeling adopted in December 2009, with both a UML profile and a metamodel for modelling of services. This tutorial introduces the concepts and practical use of SoaML with corresponding tool and methodology support. The tutorial is provided in two parts. Part I provides an introduction to SoaML for Service Modeling and Service oriented architectures and Part II shows how SoaML can be used and extended in a wider context including a link to business modelling and support for semantic web services. Presenters: Arne Jørgen Berre and Dumitru Roman, Sintef.
Dr. Dumitru Roman joined SINTEF ICT as a research scientist in September 2009. Previously he worked as a senior researcher at the Semantic Technology Institute Innsbruck, Austria, where he was involved in several large projects on developing and applying semantic technologies in the area of service-oriented computing and the Web. His general research background and interests lay at the border between knowledge representation and reasoning, and large scale, dynamically distributed systems.
|SERES tutorial
|A SERES tutorial (For public sector, in Norwegian)
June 1st 2010
Bird of a feather
|Organized on site
First day Opening Keynotes
|PC chair
|"Public Open Data and Innovation" (unconfirmed)
|Bertrand du Castel, Schumberger. "Upstream Ontologies: Will We Ever Learn?" The upstream industry, so dependent on people and information, has been pursuing for decades a long quest to bridge the need for expert decision with the barriers to sensory input in the oilfield. Size, remoteness, invisibility, all combine to make the use and accumulation of knowledge difficult indeed. From the data bases of the eighties to the networks of the nineties to the ontologies of the first decade of this century, the industry has walked a long way. But the next challenge looms; as exploration and production ask for more and more human-centered automation, will our systems ever learn?
Bertrand du Castel is a Schlumberger Fellow. Based in Austin, Texas, Bertrand is past Vice-Chairman of POSC (Energistics), and co-Chairman of the December 2008 W3C Worshop on Semantic Web in Energy Industries. Bertrand received the 2005 Visionary Award from Card Technology Magazine for his pioneering of the Java Card, the most sold computer in the world. Bertrand is author with Tim Jurgensen of Computer Theology (Midori Press, 2008). He has an engineering degree from Ecole Polytechnique, France, and a PhD in theoretical computer science from the University of Paris.
|David Pearson, VP Architecture and Sem. Tech, Oracle UK
Dave Pearson is a vice president in the Global Technology Business Unit for Oracle Corporation. He leads the definition of industry specific reference and solution architectures and is a regular speaker at information technology events and conferences. His experience in IT spans 30 years including 21 years with Oracle. In that time he has worked on architecture and IT strategy with Oracle's key customers in all industry sectors. He has also actively participated in international standards organisations and is a former chair of the OGF working group on Database Access and Integration Services. He began his career as an exploration geologist in the mining industry. Prior to joining Oracle he worked in the oil industry developing data integration and visualisation systems to support exploration and production processes. He holds a BSc in Geology from Durham University and carried out postgraduate research at Imperial College, London.
|Coffee break
|Stefano Bertolo, EC "The EU Semantic Technologies ecosystem: funding and strategies". Through its Framework Programmes 6 and 7 the EU has been and continues to be a major funder of Semantic Technologies. This presentation will give an overview of the wealth of freely available resources produced by such funding and describe strategies for the future.
Stefano Bertolo received a joint Philosophy Ph.D. and Cognitive Science diploma from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in 1995 with a dissertation on formal learning theory and human language acquisition. During three years as post-doctoral associate at the Brain and Cognitive Science department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he published a book and several papers on language acquisition. In 1998 he joined Cycorp, Inc. in Austin, Texas where he developed various components of the Cyc system and managed several research and development projects at the intersection between formal knowledge representation, natural language processing and information retrieval and extraction. Since 2004 he has been working as a scientific project officer for the European Commission where he oversees the progress of several research projects in information management and contributes to the definition of future EU research directions.
|Morten Dæhlen, UiO "The search for the perfect balance" Informatics (or ICT) is the science on how data systems are constructed and used, and informatics is today the science in the realm of all sciences with the largest impact on the development of the society. With emphasis on collaboration with industrial partners and important units in public sector this presentation is about the long term research challenges within informatics. It is all about shaping the workforce of tomorrow and performing high quality basic research for sustainable development.
Morten Dæhlen got his PhD in numerical analysis at the University of Oslo in 1989 and he has been professor in informatics since 1992. He has since 2005 been head of the Department of Informatics at (UiO) – a department with approximately 250 employees and 1500 students. Dæhlen has also been director at Simula Research Laboratory (2001-2004), executive director at The Research Council of Norway (1999-2000) and research director at SINTEF (1994-1997). Department of informatics has a broad range of activities covering distributed multimedia systems, networks and distributed systems, nanoelectronics, robotics and intelligent systems, object-oriented modeling and languages, precise modeling and analysis (secure and robust software development), logics and natural languages (language technology), design of information systems (human computer interaction), global infrastructures for mobile services, bioinformatics, computational mathematics and imaging( Image analysis and signal processing). Dæhlens research interests are modeling and representation of huge data sets for real-time visualization, real-time physics calculations and efficient data transfer. This involves GPU-programming, geometric modeling, computer graphics and interactive visualization, scattered data approximation, data integration and data reduction. Dæhlen is also involved in projects utilizating game technology for the development of learning and medical applications.
First day main session
Theme: "Challenge of Information Overflow" (or: "data overflow"?)
|Session talk
|Lars Olav Grøvik, Statoil - "Introduction to the challenge as it appears in Statoil"
|Session talk
|Jayant, IBM, Watson Research Lab
|Session talk
|Inge Svensson, Baker Hughes - Data integration
|Coffee break
|Session talk
|Steffen Lamparter, Siemens "From patients to information and back - how semantic technologies support this round trip" Recent developments in storage and sensor technologies enable healthcare information systems to gather an enormous amount of data about, e.g., patients, pharmaceuticals or even medical equipment. However, while current healthcare applications are quite powerful regarding their data collection capabilities, they still lack intelligent functionality for searching, analysing and thus reusing the stored information. A major obstacle in this context is the heterogeneity of the available data which requires applications to cope with structured as well as unstructured data, qualitative as well as quantitative data, and data from various sources with different structures and formats. Semantic technologies such as natural language processing, ontology learning and mapping, imagine interpretation, sensor data aggregation, and semantic search provide means for overcoming the heterogeneity. This talk discusses some major challenges of today's healthcare applications and outlines how semantic technologies may contribute to future healthcare information systems.
Steffen Lamparter is research scientist in the Global Technology Field Autonomous Systems at Siemens Corporate Technology. Before joining Siemens AG Steffen Lamparter was project leader at the University of Karlsruhe, Institute AIFB and managing director of the Karlsruhe Service Research Institute (KSRI). He received a diploma in information management and engineering as well as a PhD in applied informatics from the University of Karlsruhe. Steffen Lamparter is a program committee member of several international conferences, reviewer for international journals such as the Journal of Web Semantics and the journal on Electronic Commerce Research and Applications (ECRA). He has published over 30 articles in international journals and conferences addressing interdisciplinary topics in the fields semantic web technologies, electronic markets, and services research.
|Session talk
|Ralf Møller, Hamburg - Status of Semantic Technologies
|Industry: IBM, Schlumberger, Baker, Oracle et.al
|Demo floor
==== Sightseeing and conference dinner at ''Flor and Fjære'' ==== * http://www.florogfjare.no/
June 2nd
Bird of a feather
|Organized on site
Second main session
Theme: "Standards and Open data"
|SKD, BR, and more
|Session talk
|"A strategy for metadata for the Norwegian public sector", Endre Grøtnes, Difi. There are several initiatives and projects related to metadata in the Norwegian public sector today. Some of these initiatives are at a national level, like SERES and LOS, some are limited to specific sectors, such as the judicial or the health sector, and some initiatives are limited to improve information management within an agency. The Norwegian Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (Difi) has been tasked by the Norwegian Ministry for Government Administration and Reform with proposing a national strategy for metadata. The strategy proposal, which will include proposals for activities for improving electronic data interchange in public sector, is due in December 2010, and the presentation will give an outline of the work and give some examples of the activities that will be considered for inclusion in the final strategy proposal.
|Session talk
|Ana Estelrich, Manager of Standards Implementation and Development in the National French Health Care Record - epSOS.
|Coffee Break
|Session talk
|Nicola Guarino, ISTC-CNR Laboratory for Applied Ontology. "The challenge of semantic integration and the role of ontologies." Despite the boom of so-called semantic technologies, semantic integration – that is, integration of heterogeneous information sources on the basis of their content – still remains a myth for current information systems. In most cases, we can effectively integrate information only where the basic concepts and relations used to structure such information are already well understood, and shared by a given community. In these cases, "lightweight" ontologies may prove to be useful to make such shared conceptual structure available to anybody, acting as a bridge between different applications. However, as soon as we need to cross the boundaries of restricted communities, immediately we realize that a deeper ontological analysis is needed to better understand the areas of mutual agreement and – what counts most – the reasons of disagreement. In this talk I shall motivate the need of such deep analysis, discussing the tradeoff between reusability and interoperability, and introducing a few formal, basic distinctions that might help people - and not just computers - to better understand each other.
|Session talk
|Manoj Dharwadkar, Ph.D., Bentley Systems, Inc. OWL implementation of ISO 15926 Geometry Reference Data using Template Methodology. This talk will present some preliminary results of transforming ISO 15926 Part 3 Geometry Reference Data using Part 7 Template Methodology and creating an Part 8 OWL representation. This Part 8 OWL Geometry Reference Data is published through a SPARQL endpoint in conjunction with other non-geometry ISO 15926 Reference Data. This would now allow representation of geometry on P&ID Documents, 3D models and other wide usage of geometry using the Semantic Web Technology and Template Methodology.
Projects parallel session
|Oil and Gas
|Integrated Operations in the High North (IOHN). Organized by Frédéric Verhelst, project leader IOHN. May include talks by invited speakers
|SERES/Semicolon (large public sector projects). Organized by Håkon Olderbakk. This session will most likely be in Norwegian. May include talks by invited speakers
|A technology session on semantic technologies (unconfirmed?) Organized by Dumitru Roman, SINTEF. Target audience: Students and researchers
|Healthcare and semantic technologies, Organized by Jim Yang, KITH.
Bird of a feather sessions
- These are sessions that participants may suggest and organize themselves, with informal registration on site. The SD 2010 PC facilitates by providing meeting rooms and organization, possibly also by suggesting themes
- Can also be used for vendor demos
Vendor demo session
- Vendor stands for participants to walk around (i.e. a demo floor)
- Organized by David Norheim, Computas
Invited confirmed vendors
- Adaptive, inc
- more to be anounced
The organisers of Semantic Days are E&P Information Management (EPIM), POSC Caesar Association (PCA), Tekna, The Brønnøysund Register Centre, The Norwegian Defence and The Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF).
The organisers have established a Board that appoints chairman and provides guidelines for the programme committee. PCA is accountable for economy and the secretarial functions.
Program committee
Arild Waaler, UiO (chair)
David Norheim, Computas (co-chair)
Lars Olav Grøvik, Statoil
Frédéric Verhelst, Epsis
Inge Svensson, Baker Hughes
Terje Gundersen, Schlumberger
Kaare Finbak, IBM
Naci Akkøk, Oracle
Espen Slotvik, Brønnøysundregistrene
Steinar Skagemo, DIFI
Terje Aaberge, Vestlandsforsking
Per Myrseth, DNV Research
Arne Thorstensen, Skattedirektoratet
Jim Yang, KiTH
Johan W. Klüwer, DNV Energy
Dumitru Roman, SINTEF
Jon Atle Gulla, NTNU
Andreas L. Opdahl, UiB
Chunming Rong, UiS
Thore Langeland, OLF (chair)
Nils Sandsmark, Posc Caesar Association (PCA)
Tor Arne Irgens, Norwegian Defense
Håkon Olderbakk, Brønnøysundregistrene
Ove Ryland, EPIM
Terje Andersen, Tekna
Queries can be made to Nina Lein Nybråten, PCA
Mobile: +47-9225 0030 Email: [email protected]
Restricted to Committee members, there's the SD2010 internal pages.
(23.5 kB) - added by mrst
13 years ago.
Semantic Days 2010 logo


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Revolut is a UK financial technology firm that offers pre-paid debit cards (Master Card or Visa), currency and cryptocurrency exchange as well as peer to peer money transfers. With the existence of the payment app and credit card, Revolt offers a great alternative to the banking products.
If you are adventure-loving, Revolut credit card offers endless opportunities to enjoy a global lifestyle with exceptional flexibility that you cannot get from the regular banks. With Revolut, you'll also have perfect control over your finances at your comfort. Thanks to the contactless Revolt card that enables travelers to spend money in over 130 currencies without hidden charges, reliance on brokers or expensive exchange rates. If you travel a lot, Revolt also offers you an excellent opportunity for growth and establishment in international business. Here is how to get your free Revolut debit card and start enjoying seamless transactions at your comfort.
Eligibility And Account Verification
The process of getting a Revolut free debit card starts with your eligibility. If you are a Revolut user, who is yet to apply for a physical card, you are eligible. However, you should top up your account with a minimum of £10 for account verification. After that, you can purchase using your Revolut card with no limitation.
How Many Times Can You Apply For The Revolut Free Debit Card?
After ordering your first Revolut card, you better take great care of it to avoid the extra costs involved in the replacement of your card. With your first free Debit card, you can enjoy limitless purchases as long as your account has enough money. However, the free physical card is only for the standard revolt current account. With that said, you cannot order a free premium card. Interestingly, you can also order your first physical card for free, even if you have a virtual one. Remember, the emphasis lies only on the first physical card. The offer is null and void for card replacement.
Charged For Your First Revolut Debit Card?
If you believe that you were charged for the first physical card for whatever reasons, do not hesitate to contact the support agents to look into your situation and refund your fee. Isn't it credible? Well, never fall a victim.
Delivery of your card
After you have fully processed your Revolt debit card, all you will need is to choose a convenient means of receiving your card. Even though the card is free, you should pay a small fee to foot for the delivery. The price for standard delivery is usually £5 while the express delivery may cost you £7 more, making it £12. The company does the delivery of the Revolut debit cards to over 45 countries covered by Revolut. You can check out for your country.
How The Card Works
To ensure the card is loaded, you can top it up via bank transfers. With that said, you can freely spend up to £500 free, but you'll have to go through the verification process to spend more. In connection to that, you will have to provide your relevant credentials such as passport, National ID or a driving license for successful verification. With all that in mind, you will have a great time using the Revolut free debit card.


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Last Updated on 20th May 2011
No doubt you'll all be excited to hear that luxury London-based shoe company Kurt Geiger has just signed a new license to design, develop and distribute shoes for ladies fashion brand Lipsy as of next year.
Yup, thought so. The collection will launch in spring 2012 in Kurt Geiger and Lipsy stores nationwide, with no doubt plenty of cool fashion-forward footwear to boot.
"It is a natural progression for Kurt Geiger to explore new licensing opportunities to enable us to increase our brand portfolio and international retail presence," said Andrew Lee, director of Wholesale, Licensing and Franchise for Kurt Geiger.
"Lipsy is highly recognized for creating fashion-led product at affordable prices. This, paired with our knowledge in design, supply chain and distribution, will lead to a successful and ongoing partnership."
Lipsy currently sells a selection of gorgeous party dresses and glamorous evening wear to match, alongside quirky separates and enviable accessories, all endorsed by hot young celebs such as Pixie Lott, reports LDNfashion.
We can't wait to see the results! Next spring just seems too far away for our liking – here's to sneak previews.


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M Premiere proudly presents the long-awaited concert of the year – Zemfira is coming to Dubai
for the first time with her bestseller world tour «Little Man».
One of the leading musicians and songwriter, Zemfira is the best female rock-artist in Russia and CIS-countries.
Thanks to her inborn talent and unique charismatic nature, Zemfira has created more than 50 top-hits
which are well-known and always the long-awaited at her sold-out concerts.
To date the singer has sold over 3 million records ranging from traditional rock to jazz and funk.


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Inception and Philosophy is out
Thorsten Botz-Bornstein's edition Inception and Philosophy: Ideas to Die For is out and available for ebook purchase. Unless I'm dreaming, it looks like there's even a video for the book.
Planet of the Apes & Philosophy CFA
PLANET OF THE APES AND PHILOSOPHY: CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Deadline for abstract submission: January 15, 2012 Editor: John Huss The editor encourages contributions from philosophers and other intellectuals that explore topics connected to the Planet of the Apes franchise, from Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des singes to the 1968 politically charged blockbuster starring […]


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U.S. Real Estate Market Rebounds in March
A wide variety of U.S. housing market trends have the potential to impact your relocation program, including rising home prices, low inventory levels, and a growing pressure on the rental market. Check out a recent blog post from Cartus' sister company, Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, citing the National Association of Realtors (NAR) report that home sales rebounded from February to March of this year, and NAR reported a month-over-month sales gain of 5.1% to an annualized rate of 5.33 million homes. Sales were also up year-over-year by 1.5 percent. Markets in the Northeast showed the greatest gains with a year-over-year increase of 7.7%.
While inventory shortages kept the numbers from being even better—inventory levels are at 4.5 months, below the six-month supply considered to be a balanced market—there are many positive indicators. Lower unemployment rates, modest rises in wages, continued low interest rates, and a steady rise in rents are all positive signs of strength for the spring home sale season. For more information on how U.S. housing, rental, and mortgage market trends are impacting relocation, read our latest issue of U.S. Market Watch.
Cartus to Host Worldwide ERC® Webinar on Real Estate Trends
Understanding the trends that impact real estate will help you and your transferring employees succeed in an ever-changing market. Be sure to join Cartus in an upcoming Worldwide ERC® webinar, "Top 10 Evolving Trends Shaping Real Estate (2016 and Beyond)" on Wednesday, June 15 at 2 p.m. EST. In this session, Anthony Cristaudo of Cartus Home Loans and Tom Lacey of Cartus, will share a broad picture of the U.S. housing market, including what's trending with homebuyers and housing industry predictions. In addition, they will address the nuances of transferee loans in an ever-changing mortgage landscape, and policy considerations moving forward. We invite you to register for this complimentary session today.


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Main Research Areas
Our Institute builds on a dynamic and productive network of scientists. While our research groups vary in their major areas of interest, they all make use of the latest methods and technologies to find answers to their research questions. They address fundamental cellular processes such as "Genomic Instability and Aging" (Wollnik) or "Hedgehog/Patched Signaling Pathway & Tumor Development" (Hahn). In parallel, they also focus on genetic and molecular causes of rare skeletal and connective tissue disorders (Kornak), hereditary hearing loss (Vona) and pathomechanisms underlying specific diseases as, for example, in projects on Colon Cancer and Prostrate Carcinoma (Burfeind and Kaulfuß), Hodgkin Lymphoma (Yigit), CHARGE Syndrome (Pauli) and congenital progeria syndromes (Wollnik).
We apply an array of methods including NGS-based high-throughput analyses (e.g. whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing, RNA-Seq, Chip-Seq), state-of-the-art molecular biology methods and different cellular systems and model organisms (e.g. mouse, zebrafish). Please have a look at the profiles of our individual research groups to learn more about their projects and methods.
A distinguishing feature of the Institute is our "MutationMining Team" (MM Team): It unites currently 17 clinicians and researchers of varying background who combine their expertise to analyze and interpret data generated by whole-genome/exome or Mendeliome sequencing studies. Their aim is to identify novel disease-associated genes and variants for conditions that are being investigated in internal and external collaborations.


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This bill was introduced in the House as H.R.306 by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) on January 13, 2015.
The National Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act requires the Attorney General to collect comprehensive data from law enforcement agencies in all cases when an officer uses deadly force and make that data available to the public. Law enforcement agencies will also be required to keep these data records for at least four years. The Attorney General will reduce the amount a noncompliant state or local government receives from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program by 10%.
PFLAG Talking Points
- LGBTQ people, especially transgender people, have been historically subject to police violence and brutality. This bill aims to hold law enforcement agencies accountable for acts of violence and decrease that violence.
- Many LGBTQ people are also members of other communities vulnerable to police violence and brutality. People of color, low income communities, and immigrant communities are more likely to experience violence from police than their peers.
- Law enforcement agencies must be trustworthy to minority populations and able to work with them effectively. By cultivating transparency in law enforcement agencies, this bill will help pinpoint areas where law enforcement agencies need to improve in order to protect and serve all citizens. If improvements are made, relations between law enforcement and minority populations will become less tense.


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McKinney Car Accident Lawyer
A car crash can shatter lives. If you have been critically injured or lost a member of your family in an automobile collision caused by another's lack of attention or dumb decision, you may be entitled to significant compensation under the law.
When someone else's poor behavior was responsible for the auto accident – whether by speeding, driving distracted, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol or other dangerous conduct – the party at fault should be held accountable for the injuries and losses they have caused.
A seasoned McKinney car accident lawyer at McCraw Law Group is able to assist you immediately to help in your recovery. With years of experience representing Texas personal injury and insurance claims, our firm is able to take compelling legal action on your behalf when dealing with auto insurance companies. En Español.
Our personal injury attorneys seek compensation concerning all types of car collision cases in McKinney, including:
- Head-on collisions
- Hit and run accidents
- Rear-end collisions
- SUV rollover
- Multiple-car collisions
- Bicycle / car collisions
- Side impact crashes (broadside or T-bone collision)
- Drunk driving auto accidents
- Fatal car collisions
A car or truck accident can take a few seconds, while the complications of serious injury can be lifelong. A speeding driver slams into your passenger-side door, leaving a loved one paralyzed from spinal cord injury. A drunk driver veers into your lane hitting you head-on, causing traumatic brain injury and permanent disfigurement. A texting driver rear-ends you, causing severely broken bones and permanent nerve damage. Life as you know it has changed.
Potential Damages for a Car Wreck
In the days, weeks and months following an accident, you find yourself struggling to collect money from insurance companies. You try to get well enough to return to work and keep your job, as you steadily become overwhelmed by medical bills. You deal each day with physical pain, depression, and frustration because of the crippling injuries sustained and the effect of those injuries on the rest of your life.
Do not let another's reckless or careless behavior cause a ripple effect of tragedy in your life. Filing a claim with the help of a qualified McKinney car wreck lawyer can greatly increase your chances of obtaining full, fair and timely compensation. Our auto crash attorneys are able to fight effectively for you before insurance companies, claims adjusters, opposing legal counsel, judges and juries.
What damages are you entitled to after an auto injury? McCraw Law Group can help you recover monetary damages for:
- Medical bills and future medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Physical and emotional pain and suffering
- Vehicle damage
- Disability
- Scarring, permanent disfigurement
- Dismemberment
- Rehabilitation costs
- Wrongful death
Consult With a McKinney Car Accident Lawyer
For the best chance at a fair settlement or verdict in a car accident, you need a car wreck attorney that knows how to analyze the full extent of the injuries sustained and go toe to toe against the insurance companies. When insurance carriers won't play fair, we are ready and able to file a lawsuit against them in order to secure the maximum compensation you need and deserve in order to pursue a meaningful and productive life.
If you or a loved one has been severely injured as the result of a truck or car crash, contact us to learn more. Our car accident lawyers in McKinney are ready to review your case and answer your questions in a free consultation.


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Elkhart, IN - Jan 23, 2019 – Conn-Selmer is pleased to announce the latest in the Vincent Bach 190 series trumpets with the release of the C190SL229 Stradivarius C trumpet. Vincent Bach combined his unique talents as both a musician and an engineer to create brass instruments of unequalled tonal quality. Often copied but never duplicated, Bach Stradivarius instruments today remain the sound choice of artists worldwide. The Bach C190 series trumpets has truly defined the sound of symphonic brass in symphony orchestras throughout the world.
In collaboration with Cleveland Orchestra's Principal Trumpet, Michael Sachs, the new model C190SL229 delvers the following key features:
Key Features
"The new Bach C Trumpet has the traditional Bach sound – the special richness, depth and ring you can access throughout all ranges and dynamics." stated Michael Sachs, Principal Trumpet for the Cleveland Orchestra. "The newly designed 25M leadpipe increases evenness, intonation and response. This trumpet offers all the breadth of color and character in tone quality akin to vintage Bach horns."
The Bach C190 series trumpet is available silver-plated (C190SL229) and lacquered (C190L229).
For more information visit the C190 product page here.
About Conn-Selmer
Conn-Selmer is the leading U.S. manufacturer and distributor of musical instruments for student, amateur and professional use under the brand portfolio of Vincent Bach, C.G. Conn, King, Holton, Selmer, Armstrong, Leblanc, Ludwig, Musser, and Scherl & Roth. With a focus on quality craftsmanship,
innovation and superior musical performance, Conn-Selmer operates U.S.A. production facilities and is the North American distributor of Henri Selmer Paris woodwinds, and Yanagisawa saxophones. For more information on the complete line of instruments, services and support available contact Conn-Selmer at P.O. Box 310, Elkhart, IN 46515-0310 U.S.A. or visit www.conn-selmer.com.
About the Division of Education at Conn-Selmer
The Conn-Selmer Division of Education, led by Vice President of Education, Tim Lautzenheiser, is dedicated to providing exemplary programs, services and advocacy tailored to the positive growth and development of music education around the globe. This mission is accomplished through five main areas including the Educational Clinician Network, Conn-Selmer Institute, Conn-Selmer VIP Program, the Music Administration Collaborative and the Conn-Selmer School Partnership Program. Collectively we seek a world where every child has access and support to a quality music education. For more information, visit http://education.conn-selmer.com or contact us at, email@example.com, or 574-523-0698.


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In this article:
In business, there are two types of assets. One depreciates, and the other amortizes:
- Short-term (or current) assets, which will be sold, converted to cash, or liquidated within one year. Accounts receivable and inventory are good examples of short-term assets. Most short-term assets amortize, or spread their value out over their useful life.
- Long-term (or fixed) assets, which are not intended to be turned into cash or be consumed within one year. Long-term assets could be computers, office furniture, building improvements, vehicles, etc. Most long-term assets slowly lose value, or depreciate, over their useful life.
Setting the useful life of a short-term asset
LivePlan calculates the amortization of short-term assets based on useful life of each asset. The useful life is the length of time you think the asset will provide value to your business.
When you enter a current asset in your forecast, you can set the number of months (between 1 and 12) in which to spread out its value:
This setting will prompt LivePlan to amortize the asset, or divide its total value by the number of months, and then apply that value to each month of the asset's useful life.
If you prefer not to have the asset amortize at all, you can choose Keep at full value:
With this setting, LivePlan will represent the full value of the asset in each period of your plan.
Setting the useful life of a long-term asset
LivePlan calculates depreciation on long-term assets based on useful life - or, the length of time you think the asset will provide value to your business.
Note that the useful life may not be the same thing as an asset's actual life. For example, a delivery van may only provide value to your business for 10 years, but the van itself could last quite a bit longer than that. A variety of things can affect the useful life of an asset, including:
- How old the asset was when you purchased it
- How often you use it
- The conditions in which you're using the asset
Useful life periods are determined by tax authorities (for example, in the U.S., the IRS). If you don't know the useful life period for a particular asset, you can find that information from the tax agency in your local area.
Here are some example useful life values for common long-term business assets (in the U.S.):
- Vehicles, computers, office machines, research equipment: 5 years
- Office furniture and fixtures: 7 years
- Agricultural or horticultural structures: 10 years
- Land improvements: 15 years
- Farm buildings (not agricultural or horticultural): 20 years
- Residential rental property: 27.5 years
- Non-residential real estate (not including the value of the land): 39 years
LivePlan calculates a straight-line depreciation based on the useful life you've set for your asset.
For more detailed information about how to calculate useful life and depreciation in the United States, see this article from the Internal Revenue Service: A Brief Overview of Depreciation. If you are not located in the U.S., or you need additional detail about how to depreciate your long-term assets, we recommend contacting an accounting or tax expert in your area.
To set the useful life of a long-term asset, select the number of years from the pull-down menu:
If this asset won't depreciate, choose Forever (do not depreciate) at the bottom of the list:


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Welcome to the first release of the OCA Newsletter!
In this newsletter, we hope you will find relevant information regarding Odoo and the OCA: features, events, contributors, updates. If you have any feedbacks and would like to read some important stuff here, do not hesitate to comment.
Odoo version 9 has been released!
On October 1st, Odoo SA released version 9 of our favorite open source business applications platform. You will find all the details about this new version and its changelog. Discover it now!
Migration to version 9
Pedro M. Baeza has written the script to automate the initialization of OCA repositories for the migration to 9.0. You can review his pull request here. For those of you eager to start migrating modules, please read the documentation on how to proceed.
Work has started to provide a packaging and distribution mechanism for OCA modules. This effort can be followed and contributed to on Github. We try to base the packaging system on the standard python setuptools. A working prototype of a setup.py for Odoo addons is described in this comment. We are seeking feedback and testers.
Release 3.2.0 of OCA/Connector
Version 3.2.0 of the OCA/connector has been released with his lot of new features and bugfixes. Please read the full changelog on Github.
OpenUpgrade Library completed
In the OpenUpgrade project, the refactoring to use openupgradelib wherever has been completed. OpenUpgradelib is the decoupling of the helper methods for migration tasks from the OpenUpgrade distribution into a separate library (pip install openupgradelib). This allows you to use the library in any module migration. Remember that standard Odoo supports migration scripts to be run when the module version number is incremented. For an example of such scripts, see https://github.com/OCA/bank-payment/tree/8.0/account_banking_sepa_direct_debit/migrations/184.108.40.206 In these scripts, you can now import OpenUpgradelib and use the following methods: https://doc.therp.nl/openupgrade/API.html#module-openupgrade. Many thanks to Sandy Carter for doing this refactoring. OpenUpgradelib is maintained at https://github.com/oca/openupgradelib.
Events and local communities
Pycon FR in Pau, France from October 17th to 20th
The OCA will be in Pau this month for Pycon FR. Make sure to meet and join the Odoo Community for the code sprint by registering here: https://framadate.org/3qotnpzc5uu8fndp
More info:
Festival ICT in Milan, Italy on November 11th
It is official, this year, the OCA will participate in the ICT festival in the Arena, the area dedicated to associations, community, users groups, networks of professionals, universities, research centers, and other companies in the ICT world. The date is 11th November, 2015 for the third edition of the ICT festival, at the Fiera Milano Congressi (via Gattamelata, 5), with 5,000 square meters of contents and ICT protagonists (Italian and global).
More info: https://odoo-community.org/event/festival-ict-2015-11-11-26/register
Open Source Summit in Paris, France from November 18th to 19th
New contributors and PSC
The OCA would like to welcome Gervais Naoussi as a new contributor. Gervais is a student at ETS (http://etsmtl.ca), an engineering university in Montreal, Canada. Gervais will be migrating and enhancing management systems modules to version 9.
Laurent Mignon joined the OCA/connector PSC.
Board Announcements
Next OCA Board Meeting
2015 Annual General Assembly
Mailing lists
The OCA is now providing a mailing lists service for PSC on its Odoo instance. The service is two-fold:
- a public mailing list where anyone can subscribed to
- a private one restricted to the PSC members
If your PSC is willing to setup any of those mailing lists, please email firstname.lastname@example.com.
The OCA is also welcoming and encouraging the whole community:
- to join the mailing lists of their choice
- to introduce themselves and their expectations
- to share their skills that can be helpful to the PSC (reviewing, translating, writing, bug triaging, etc.)
RSS Feed
The blog of the OCA now has an RSS feed. You can add https://odoo-community.org/blog_rss.xml to your favorite RSS aggregator and get informed of the new blog posts.


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The Gingerbread House winners have been announced. Congratulations to all teams!
Monthly Archives:
December 2017
Parkin Gingerbread House Competition
Parkin's 2nd annual gingerbread house competition took place on Monday December 11, 2017. Three teams entered and decorated their pre-build gingerbread houses during lunch time. The teams met budget requirements and used edible materials. Judging will take place today. Winner will be announced soon, stay tuned.
Joseph Brant Hospital – Postcard
Parkin recently mailed a postcard for Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, Ontario. The completion of the seven-storey Michael Lee-Chin and Family patient tower brings 172 new beds to the hospital, a new emergency department, operating rooms, and a new intensive care unit. The new cutting-edge medical facility has been designed to provide patients with a
Read more
Parkin's Special Care Nursery opens at Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus for Preemies
The Ottawa Hospital's new special care nursery opened today to help the region's tiniest patients. The nursery's purpose is to help babies who aren't sick enough to be in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) but aren't well enough to go home with their families. To read more click on: The Ottawa Hospital Special Care Nursery CTV News


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Annuity sales during the first half of the year fell to a point not seen since the first half of 2001, according to research by the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.
The organization reports that total annuity sales for the first half of 2017 decreased to $105.8 billion, marking a 10% decline from the first six months of 2016.
LIMRA notes that second quarter results for total annuity sales rose slightly from last quarter to $53.9 billion, but they still reflected an 8% decline from this quarter last year. U.S. variable annuity sales in particular were $24.7 billion in the second quarter, down 8% compared with prior year results. This marks the 14th consecutive quarter of decline in variable annuity sales.
However, LIMRA says this is also the sixth straight quarter fixed sales have outperformed variable annuity sales, which hasn't happened in almost 25 years.
"A closer look at what's driving the drop in VA [variable annuities] sales reveals qualified VA sales have experienced a more significant decline than non-qualified VAs," notes Todd Giesing, director of annuity research, LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute. "VA qualified sales were down 16% in the second quarter, while nonqualified sales were actually up 5%. This could be in reaction to the DOL fiduciary rule."
Sales of fee-based variable annuities increased in the second quarter to $570 million, representing 2.3% of the total variable annuity market. LIMRA says that while this is a small portion of the overall variable annuity market, these products have seen continued growth over last year. Back in December 2016, research firm Cerulli Associates published a report indicating the fiduciary rule could drive reconsideration of fee-based annuities. The report also projected U.S. variable annuity sales to decline by at least 10% through 2018 as the industry adapts to regulatory changes under the rule.
Many annuity providers argue they won't be able to meet the best-interest contract exemption (BICE) requirements, because of the commission-focused distribution structures of fixed-indexed annuities. Therefore, many could turn to fee-based products.
The second quarter 2017 Annuities Industry Estimates can be found at LIMRA.com.


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Monday, March 18, 2013
Comics thoughts for the Week of 3/13/13
Spotlight book of the month:
Nowhere Men #4
w - Eric Stephenson, a - Nate Bellgarde, Jordie Bellaire
In the build-up to both DC's New 52 initiative and Marvel's response via Marvel NOW, there has been alot of focus on the "big two" comic companies and what they're up to in terms of their "universe shaking". But silently, through the course of 2012, Image Comics slowly began its re-ascent to respectability on the stands. For those who don't remember, Image was a company that was founded in the 90's by Marvel stalwarts like Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, etc..as a way to create comics "on their own terms" more or less removing the concept of the editor and basically allowing the creators to not only put out the books as they saw it with no interference but to also own said creations outright. It was a revolutionary idea in an industry where your work was basically freelance or work for hire and whatever you created was owned by the company in which you were employed. Sadly, very little of Image's output was worthwhile with most of it being downright terrible. That doesn't mean it didn't sell though. Titles like Spawn and WildCATS were hugely popular, and even lower rung books like Shadowhawk and The Savage Dragon were moving units during the wild 90's comics boom.
Eventually though, Image fell apart, and its founders started going their separate ways with only a few like Erik Larsen and Jim Valentino still staying involved. Things looked bleak until the mid-2000's when Image, now basically just a publishing house for creator-owned books put out Robert Kirkman's first issues of The Walking Dead. The title caught on, a few years later it was optioned for tv rights and history wrote itself. With Kirkman basically becoming the biggest star in comics not named Neil Gaiman (and to some he may even have surpassed him), every comics creator worth their salt (and some that aren't) began to knock on Image's door to put out their dream projects. Writers like Ed Brubaker, Brian K Vaughan, Jonathan Hickman and others put out titles through the imprint. In the past year alone, we've gotten what I see as some of the best books in the industry (Prophet, The Manhattan Projects, Fatale) and some fan favorites (Saga, Thief of Thieves) and a slew of titles that I don't even pick up with more to come with titles coming from Mark Waid, James Robinson and more. There've been a few misses, like Grant Morrison's Happy, but overall the critical praise for the new revitalization of Image has been a major plus for the industry.
With that said, one of the titles that I'm currently loving is (Image Publisher) Eric Stephenson's Nowhere Men. The basic premise being in some undetermined time (we'll say the 1960's), four scientific geniuses decide to create a company called WorldCorp in order to solve the world's ills. This motley crew resembles The Beatles in their prime moreso than your typical researchers, or at least your popular conception of what a scientist might look like. You can almost line them up with Beatles archetypes with one exception. There's Dade, the idealist (George Harrison), Simon, the youthful looking businessman (Paul McCartney), Emerson, the hard working, witty one (John Lennon), and Thomas, the space-case who spends most of his time in the midst of acid trips and meditation. (Rather than Ringo, he's a bit more like Syd Barrett). The very first words echoed by Thomas before their press conference to announce their partnership are: "Science is the new Rock and Roll." and indeed it proves true.
After the initial creation of the partnership, we jump an undetermined number of years in the future where the partnership is dissolving and what was once four becomes two, as Thomas and Simon both leave either through being forced out for his eccentricities (the former) or due to disagreements in direction (the latter). To take the music analogy even further, the loss of Thomas then inspired a generation of "Science Punks" who began to either take on illegal experiments or just make drugs, depending on whose perspective is presented. We then flash-forward to the International Space Station, which Emerson had purchased as was sponsoring a heretofore unknown to the public space experiment of some kind. We join them in the middle of a disease outbreak that is affecting all of its inhabitants differently, mostly physically but some not. They're quarantined with little to no help from WorldCorp other than destruction. Facing this, Daniel, one of the scientists on board devises a way for them to teleport off the station and back onto earth. Unfortunately, with limited time and bouncing from one moving object to another moving object leaves them stranded in small groups in different places across the globe. Lastly, after the station is destroyed, it is discovered by an investigative author named R.D. and his team. R.D. becomes sick just as he boards a plane headed back to the United States.
This opens us up to Issue 4, the first thing we see is a readers poll for Best Company, Best Male Thinker, etc..it's like a Spin Magazine poll taken to a whole new level. But that's the point Stephenson is trying to make, just like the arrival of the Minutemen completely altered humanity and its popular culture in Watchmen, the creation of WorldCorp did the exact same to this version of the world in Nowhere Men. The mixed media used throughout also heightens this comparison, as in each issue of Nowhere Men, the readers get to peruse bits like this poll, ads for products, and excerpts from magazine interviews and books about WorldCorp. It adds a terrific bit of flavor that I think grounds a piece like this more in our reality rather than the heightened reality of the also science-heavy Manhattan Projects. The issue basically details the continued transformations of those stranded on earth, with one member somewhat resembling a bio-version of The Thing (Fantastic Four, not Carpenter) and another looking more like this....
This is a slippery slope for Stephenson to trevail over, but I hope that he doesn't take the obvious scientists become exposed to radiation and become superheroes trope. Everyone seems to have to developed some kind of ability, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for something more. More tellingly, RD continues to cough his was across the Atlantic on the plane he is on, surely infecting everyone with him, and this has some truly engaging story possibilities. Also, Dade has finally awoken from his coma and has a heightened sense of awareness about the Space Station incident and looks to be a fairly active character in his work with his old partner Emerson. Finally you have Simon, plotting something through a spy he has planted within WorldCorp, the last image we see is of said spy purging WorldCorp's records of the scientists from the Space Station. To what end? We'll see next month. By the way, the art on this book of gorgeous, with beautiful designs and vibrant colors throughout. I'd argue this might be the most eye-compelling comic Image is currently putting out. The very clean, also utopian-esque art is quite the contrast to the fairly horrific imagery that crops up with regularity. If there's a negative trait, I'd say its that the story advances fairly slowly, but I think with so much scope and depth as we see in the various story strands that Stephenson produces, he's giving everything adequate room to breath unlike your average Bendis story which is dialogue for dialogue's sake.
It's a really fun read, as a sort of pseudo mix of Watchmen + The Fantastic Four + a dash of Contagion + Cronenberg-style body horror + something wholly original, Nowhere Men is currently standing toward the top of my to-read pile. There's still of a bit of a ways to go before the first arc reaches its conclusion and we have a better sense of what the status quo of its world will look like once the dust has settled on those that have gained new abilities and what Simon is truly up to, along with wherever the heck Thomas is. But so far, I'm completely engaged. It's not quite yet at the level of genius of Prophet, but it's quickly becoming one of my favorite science fiction reads from the company.
One Sentence Reviews:
Thor God of Thunder #6: One day, I hope writers understand that sometimes monsters are more compelling when we don't get every little detail of their background, this issue was a massive step-down from the previous arc. C-
The Manhattan Projects #10: This issue provides an interesting shift from the main action into whatever is going on in Oppenheimer's mind, it almost seemed like a parody of Prophet. B+
Demon Knights #18: Etrigan is back and Cain continues to advance, I maintain that this book is wholly improved with Venditti on the title and I remain correct. B+
Ozymandias #6: Not a bad ending to a rather "ehh" series, I found its lining up with Watchmen to at least be satisfying unlike last week's Rorschach. B
Batman #18: A nice solid story, I still find little reason to care about Harper Row other than she's probably future Robin or some permutation of that, but its a good placeholder for the next arc and a nice approach to the Damian stuff. B+
Batman and Robin #18: Yep, the silent issue, it's good, fairly touching with pretty imagery if a little melodramatic; I am at least slightly more interested in what Tomasi may do next now. A-
Threshold #3: Ugh, do not dig, I love ya Keith, come back to Legion. D and Dropped
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Posted by Kyle Pinion at 10:14 AM
Labels: comics
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