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On-line version ISSN 2071-0771
Print version ISSN 0075-6458
Koedoe vol.56 n.2 Pretoria Feb. 2014
The development of a tourism research framework by South African National Parks to inform management
Duan BiggsI; Louise SwemmerII; Glen PhillipsIII; Joep StevensIII; Stefanie FreitagII; Rina GrantII
ICentre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Australia; South African National Parks Scientific Services, Kruger National Park, Skukuza, South Africa
IISouth African National Parks Scientific Services, Kruger National Park, Skukuza, South Africa
IIISouth African National Parks Tourism Managing Executive, Pretoria, South Africa
Tourism is critical source of financing for conservation in Africa. South African National Parks (SANParks) raises in excess of 80% of their own funds through tourism revenue. SANParks has a culture of co-learning between scientists and conservation managers through a process known as strategic adaptive management (SAM). Despite the critical role that tourism plays in SANParks, it has, until recently, not been formally incorporated in the SAM process. Moreover, SANParks recently adopted a new responsible tourism policy to guide the development and management of tourism across all national parks. The new policy calls for tourism that supports biodiversity conservation, is environmentally efficient and socially responsible. In 2011, SANParks initiated a tourism research programme to support the incorporation of tourism in SAM and to provide enabling information for the implementation of the responsible tourism policy. This article summarised the development of the tourism research programme in SANParks and its key research themes.
CONSERVATION IMPLICATIONS: An active tourism research programme that integrates science and management is necessary for tourism to play a stronger role in delivering outcomes for conservation, neighbouring communities and broader society.
Tourism is an important and growing source of financing for protected areas (PAs) and conservation globally (Dharmaratne, Yee Sang & Walling 2000; Naughton-Treves, Buck Holland & Brandon 2005; Thur 2010). In Africa, the financing provided by tourism is particularly important (South African National Parks [SANParks] 2012). Yet, financing PAs and conservation through tourism presents a range of challenges. Attempts to maximise tourism revenue may have negative impacts on biodiversity conservation objectives (Grant, Peel & Bezuidenhout 2011). Many PAs in Africa are surrounded by low income communities and challenges, trade-offs and potential synergies exist between optimising for income from visitors and delivering benefits and building and maintaining a healthy relationship with neighbouring communities (Barrett, Travis & Dasgupta 2011; Biggs, Turpie, Fabricius & Spenceley 2011; Botha, Witkofski & Cock 2007; Naidoo & Adamowicz 2005; Spenceley 2008). Indeed, the relationship between tourism, conservation and broader society forms part of a broader social-ecological system (a joint system of humans and nature) (Ban et al. 2013).
SANParks raises in excess of 80% of its annual revenue through tourism and is therefore considered one of the more successful PA agencies globally (Licht, Slotow & Millspaugh 2008; SANParks 2012; Varghese 2008). SANParks is responsible for managing 19 national parks in South Africa, including adjoining marine PAs. The SANParks' estate includes globally renowned parks, such as Kruger National Park and Table Mountain National Park, and core protected areas in two of the planet's 25 biodiversity hotspots (Myers et al. 2000). Of the 19 PAs managed by SANParks, only a small number of iconic, internationally known PAs, such as Kruger National Park and Table Mountain National Park, operate at a profit and finance the establishment and management of many other PAs in South Africa managed by SANParks (SANParks 2012). SANParks is guided by a management philosophy and process known as strategic adaptive management (SAM) which has received widespread international exposure (Du Toit, Rogers & Biggs 2003; Gaylard & Ferreira 2011; Van Wilgen & Biggs 2011; Venter et al. 2008). This has been supported by the creation of a culture of co-learning between scientific services and conservation managers (Biggs, Ferreira, Freitag-Ronaldson & Grant-Biggs 2011; Roux & Foxcroft 2011; Roux et al. 2006; Stirzaker, Roux & Biggs 2011; Venter et al. 2008).
Until recently, tourism research in SANParks has taken two different forms. Firstly, is the research coordinated by the Scientific Services department, which is often conducted by outside researchers and facilitated and reviewed by SANParks Scientific Services staff (Biggs & Rogers 2003; Gaylard & Ferreira 2011). Secondly, is shorter-term research that addresses specific market issues and which is commissioned by the Tourism Development and Marketing Executive at the SANParks head office in Pretoria (hereafter the Tourism Executive). Research coordinated by Scientific Services feeds into management through bimonthly conservation meetings, forums between science and management and through scientific inputs on specific management issues. Although the conservation meetings have been conducted at regular intervals for over a decade, these typically have not involved the discussion of tourism or tourism research. The development of a tourism research framework was seen to be a way in which tourism research could strengthen how tourism is managed within the framework of SAM.
Thus, in 2011, SANParks initiated the development of a tourism research framework to better integrate tourism research and decision-making with management within the framework of SAM. In this article, we describe the development of the tourism research framework in SANParks. Firstly, we describe the context in which tourism operates in SANParks; next we describe the process that was followed to develop the tourism research framework. This is followed by a description of the research framework and a discussion of the challenges experienced in implementing the framework, as well as the lessons the SANParks' experience holds for other conservation agencies with an interest in developing tourism research.
The context of tourism in South African National Parks
Overview and history
SANParks (previously the National Parks Board) was created in 1926 through an act of parliament as a para-statal organisation (Varghese 2008). The core mandate of SANParks is the conservation and management of cultural and natural heritage through a system of national parks. From its inception, SANParks was created in a way in which it was able to generate and use revenue from tourism to fulfil its mandate. Tourism in SANParks has grown exponentially since the first three tourist cars entered the Kruger National Park in 1927. This was followed by 180 cars in 1928 and 850 cars in 1929 (Stevenson-Hamilton 1937). By the 1950s, over 10 000 people visited the Park each year. In the 2011-2012 financial year, national parks received a total of 4.7 million visitors, of which 77% were South African residents. Table Mountain National Park accounted for 2.3 million (49%) guests, mainly day visitors and the Kruger National Park accounted for 1.4 million (30%). The total revenue from tourism income, including entry fees and retail, amounted to 84% of the total income to SANParks in the 2011-2012 financial year (SANParks 2012).
Following the political change in South Africa in 1994, there has been a strong drive to increase the number of previously excluded or marginalised visitors (non-whites, defined as people of Indian, coloured, or black races) to national parks (SANParks 2012). The number of non-white visitors has increased since 1995, but not as much as desired by SANParks. In 2011-2012, 24% of all visitors were non-white. There is a continued strong drive to increase the number of non-white visitors to national parks through developing a more diverse tourism product.
In addition, around and after the time of the political change in 1994, there was a realisation of the need to increase and diversify the income stream to national parks (Varghese 2008). One strategy that was pursued entailed the development of public-private partnerships (PPPs) and concessions in national parks. As of 2012, there are 40 active PPPs in national parks that represent 7% of total tourism revenue (SANParks 2012). The PPPs are developed and managed with a focus on achieving Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and poverty alleviation objectives as outlined by the national government (SANParks 2012).
In 2011, SANParks adopted a responsible tourism policy to guide the development and management of tourism across all national parks (Phillips 2012). The policy aligns with new government policies and calls for tourism that supports biodiversity conservation, is environmentally efficient and socially responsible (Phillips 2012). The implementation of this policy will be based on satisfying evolving market needs, through service excellence, and the maintenance of high quality standards and infrastructure. Sound business principles will be used to generate revenue from tourism initiatives to support the SANParks conservation and constituency-building mandates (Phillips 2012).
Strategic adaptive management and tourism research
SANParks adopted SAM as the approach of choice to address the complexity inherent in managing its PAs (Venter et al. 2008). SAM consists of three components: adaptive planning (where a vision is defined together with stakeholders and the objectives that have to be met to achieve the vision are developed), adaptive implementation and, lastly, adaptive evaluation (the important step of evaluating and learning from the outcomes of the implementation) (Roux & Foxcroft 2011). The application of SAM aims to contribute to the achievement of the SANParks vision: 'South African National Parks connecting to society' and mission: 'To develop, manage and promote a system of national parks that represents the biodiversity and heritage assets by applying best practice, environmental justice, benefit sharing and sustainable use' (SANParks 2012). Tourism has an important role to play in achieving the people's objective which is, 'to provide human benefits and build a strong constituency, preserving as far as possible the wilderness qualities and cultural resources associated with National Parks' (Swemmer & Taljaard 2011). In addition, there is a specific tourism objective under the people's objective which aims to develop, manage and enhance a range of sustainable tourism products in synergy with the SANParks conservation ethic.
The purpose of the tourism research framework is to highlight the required research to support the achievement of conservation, tourism and people's objectives and to integrate tourism decision-making in the implementation of SAM in SANParks. Research guided by the tourism research framework can play an important role in enhancing the evaluation of the achievement of SANParks' objectives, which is necessary as part of the adaptive planning, implementation and evaluation steps of SAM. Studies that evaluate the importance of iconic mammals, such as lion and elephant, to provide tourists with a high quality, nature-based, value-for-money experience (Di Minin et al. 2013; Lindsey et al. 2007), the socio-economic impact of national parks (Saayman & Saayman 2010), or the impact of tourism on adjacent communities (Anthony 2007; Strickland-Munro, Allison & Moore 2010) can provide valuable insights into tourism management when incorporated in the adaptive evaluation process. The intention of the tourism research framework is not only to guide the integration of information for management outcomes but also to be adapted over time as new management needs and objectives emerge.
Development of a tourism research framework
The development of the tourism research framework followed a number of iterative steps and processes. These included an initial tourism research workshop, the identification of knowledge gaps associated with SANParks' responsible tourism policy, the development of a social-ecological systems understanding of tourism to national parks and conducting an integrated park management planning exercise (Figure 1).
In accordance with the principles of SAM, the thinking during the development of the research framework was that it would be evaluated, reviewed and adapted over time.
Initial stakeholder workshop for tourism research
The development of the tourism research programme was initiated through engaging a variety of stakeholders, including tertiary research institutions, representatives from district municipalities and private companies that were in PPPs with SANParks, in a tourism research workshop held in February 2011.
Furthering the research framework
The further development of the framework took a transdisciplinary approach to research, which recognises that knowledge is co-created between scientists, practitioners and policymakers and that the continual questioning of different disciplinary perspectives is essential (Max-Neef 2005). In addition, such an approach based on complexity thinking integrates biodiversity conservation, ecological, social and economic approaches.
Furthermore, the Tourism Executive expressed the need for tourism decision-making in SANParks to become strategic, structured and evidence-based. From August 2011, extensive discussions took place within Scientific Services, and with the Tourism Executive, to further develop a clear agenda for tourism research by advancing the original framework. With this aim, the following three processes were followed:
- The identification of knowledge gaps and research needs that stem from the SANParks responsible tourism policy adopted by SANParks (Phillips 2012).
- The development of a social-ecological systems diagram of tourism in national parks and the questions that this system's perspective raises.
- Conducting a tourism management planning exercise for a national park, together with the park and regional management and tourism staff.
Identifying knowledge gaps in the implementation of the responsible tourism strategy
Not only is baseline data required to measure SANPark's progress towards achieving the aims of responsible tourism, but the structures and processes to enable the successful implementation of the policy require understanding (Table 1). The key research areas that were identified during this process were:
- Monitor, evaluate and research the drivers of visitor satisfaction and how it can be improved.
- Assess the levels of, and research the determinants of successful constituency-building for conservation through tourism and how this can be strengthened.
- Evaluate and understand the synergies and trade-offs between income from tourism in SANParks and the achievement of conservation and constituency-building objectives and identify opportunities to synergise tourist income with conservation and constituency-building objectives.
In addition, the discussion between Scientific Services and the Tourism Executive generated a range of additional research needs:
- Human capacity and human capital is critical for the functioning of the entire tourism and conservation system and research is needed on how it can be strengthened (Hall 2009).
- The legal and regularity framework governs the way in which tourism products are managed and can be delivered; in other words, management processes, such as procurement procedures and human resource procedures, may affect SANParks' ability to achieve the objectives of the responsible tourism policy. The interaction between these legal and organisation frameworks and the strategic adaptive management of tourism needs to be understood.
- BEE is a key national policy imperative in South Africa and research is needed to understand how the development and management of tourism in SANParks currently contributes to South Africa's imperative for BEE and societal transformation and how this can be improved (SANParks 2012). This research focus transcends the entire organisation, including the structure and management of PPPs. SANParks should enable economic empowerment which empowers marginalised and poor communities (Ashley 2006). Management processes and structures that enable successful transformation but ensure the delivery of top quality tourism services and products need to be researched and developed. An important component of this issue is the research and development of principles and models that can guide partnerships with communities neighbouring parks and other stakeholders so that they can receive more benefits from tourism to national parks. Processes and principles to enable the just, transparent and sustainable distribution of such benefits also require research.
- The role of national parks in forging a common national identity and a sense of national pride (Pretes 2003).
A social-ecological systems perspective
The role of tourism to PAs in conservation and in generating societal benefits plays out in broader interactive social-ecological systems (Ban et al. 2013; Strickland-Munro et al. 2010). An understanding of tourism's relation to national parks needs to therefore account for these broader social-ecological interactions. The development of social-ecological systems diagrams are widely used as a tool to illuminate the dynamics of a system that require understanding for its management (Anderies, Janssen & Ostrom 2004; Wilkinson 2012). A social-ecological systems diagram was developed by Scientific Services and the Tourism Executive to establish whether the process of developing the diagram raised additional considerations and research questions that did not emerge in the stakeholder workshop, or in the analysis of the responsible tourism policy research needs. The social-ecological systems diagram that we developed (Figure 2) provides an outline of the joint understanding of the tourism system in SANParks by Scientific Services and the Tourism Development and Marketing Executive. Below, the key components of the social-ecological systems diagram (Figure 2) and the research needs that stemmed from each are discussed.
Tourist demand
Tourist demand and therefore revenue depends on the propensity to travel, which is associated with factors such as, (1) the trendiness of the destination and (2) the value attributed to the travel experience (Biggs 2011; Hjalager 2010). Factors such as concern over carbon emissions from long haul travel may reduce the perceived value of travel to national parks in South Africa and therefore reduce demand (Tol 2007). Affordability is another important factor and depends on issues such as the exchange rate for international visitors and the real cost of visiting national parks (Smeral 2010). Security concerns can also play a powerful role in reducing demand for travel to national parks (Hall, Timothy & Duval 2004). The tourists' perceptions of the state of the natural or cultural attractions in parks will depend on their expectations, the interpretation and visitor information provided by SANParks and also their knowledge of a system. For example, research on tourists to coral reefs has shown that visitor perception of coral reef condition can be very different from ecological metrics (Andersson 2007; Biggs 2011; Uyarra, Watkinson & Côté 2009). Different market segments will also differ in their perception - more knowledgeable and experienced tourists are more likely to detect degradation in the environment. The above factors contribute to the expectations of an experience that will result from visiting the destination, which is also an important determinant of tourist demand (Fenton, Young & Johnson 1998).
The expectations of what an experience may hold depends on a range of factors that, for the purposes of the SANParks tourism research framework, can be summarised into three groups, (1) experiences of past visits, levels of satisfaction (Gnoth 1997), (2) expectations generated by discussions with the social network (Wang, Yu & Fesenmaier 2002) and (3) exposure and interaction with marketing materials and interaction with travel agents (Middleton et al. 2009).
Levels of visitor satisfaction depend on the interaction between these expectations and the visitor's experience of the PA and its natural and cultural attractions. This experience is mediated by the condition of the tourist infrastructure and facilities and interactions with PA staff.
The development of the social-ecological systems understanding led to the identification of additional research priorities to understand the key risks to continued tourism demand and the tourism revenue stream:
- Perceived security, which partly depends on relationships with neighbouring communities.
- Affordability of SANParks as a destination relative to competitors.
- Expectations of experience and levels of visitor satisfaction.
- Quality of service, infrastructure and facilities.
- Perceived state of natural and cultural attractions.
Relationship with neighbouring communities and broader society
The relationship between a national park and its neighbouring communities can have an important impact on both the perception of the PA and security concerns (Anthony 2007; Berkes 2007). Engagement by SANParks with neighbouring communities and also broader society will influence the perceptions of these stakeholders and potentially affect their actions and therefore the human impacts that they have on parks (Botha et al. 2007). The impacts of neighbouring communities and sectors such as industry and agriculture in broader society include issues such as the illegal harvesting of resources and water extraction from, and pollution of rivers (Figure 2). Importantly, improving the relationship between PAs and neighbouring communities requires the use of a complexity perspective, the ability to deal with multiple objectives through deliberative, participatory processes (Berkes 2007). For SANParks to achieve its constituency-building objective, it needs to understand and manage the perception of, and the relationship between, neighbouring communities, broader society and national parks.
Furthermore, building a constituency for conservation requires the strenghtening the relationship between SANParks, neighbouring communities and broader society. This requires the promotion of mutual benefits with key stakeholders, as well as opportunities for growth and development of neighbouring communities, whilst acknowledging that SANParks is not a development agency (Phillips 2012). Key research priorities that can support SANParks in achieving these objectives are:
- What are the job creation and economic benefits of national parks and, more broadly, of SANParks?
- How can the employment and economic contribution of national parks be strengthened?
- How can the non-economic benefits of national parks be strengthened, both to visitors and neighbouring communities?
- What are the key barriers to enhancing the socio-economic contribution of national parks?
- Which opportunities exist to involve neighbouring communities and other stakeholders to enhance benefits from tourism to national parks (e.g. the development of cultural tours)?
- How can the funds and opportunities from SANParks to neighbouring communities and broader stakeholders be distributed to ensure fairer access to all?
Global environmental change
Global environmental change can influence tourism to PAs in a number of ways (Gossling & Hall 2006). Climate change receives a lot of attention, but it is the interaction of climate change with pressures, such as invasive species (e.g. see Letnic, Webb & Shine 2008), bush encroachment (e.g. Blaum et al. 2007; Hudak & Wessman 1998) and droughts (e.g. Wall & Badke 1994), that may be of more importance. Since 2000, the Kruger National Park has been affected by a number of substantial floods which have led to a loss of revenue as a result of a lack of access to tourist and accommodation facilities, but which also have had a significant financial burden in the replacement and repair of damaged infrastructure (SANParks 2012). Key research priorities identified with respect to environmental change are:
- What are the key potential risks from environmental change on visitor satisfaction and tourist demand as a result of impacts such as bush encroachment, more frequent and severe flooding and/or droughts?
- What are the repair and maintenance cost and revenue implications of increased frequency and severity of natural disasters such as floods?
- What are the potential risks that environmental change poses to the livelihoods of neighbouring communities (e.g. from more frequent or extreme floods or droughts) and how may these impact on constituency-building efforts and tourism?
Conducting an integrated park management planning exercise
In addition to the theoretical development and discussions between Scientific Services and the Tourism Executive to strengthen the transdisciplinary nature of the tourism research framework, the revision of an integrated park management plan was part of the process. The management plan for Augrabies Falls National Park (hereafter Augrabies) was due for revision and this was used as an opportunity for a two-day workshop. Representatives of Scientific Services and the Tourism Executive participated in a two-day management planning exercise together with Conservation Management, People and Conservation, and Tourism Management and marketing staff from SANParks based at Augrabies and in the broader region. The objective of the workshop was to integrate tourism planning with the biodiversity conservation plan and the plan for engaging and working with local communities.
The process highlighted the value of a broader SANParks tourism research agenda which can inform (and be informed by) tourism planning at the park level. Every national park will have their own specific research needs and therefore the tourism research framework should be implemented in consideration of the different contexts of each national park. However, a few of the tourism research needs that emerged in Augrabies are likely to be relevant to many national parks. For example, a key issue in Augrabies is the need to understand the market for new products to increase visitor stay and visitor income. In addition, there are numerous local communities in close proximity to Augrabies that can potentially partner with SANParks to deliver cultural tours and products to visitors. This would simultaneously deliver benefits to local communities and increase the diversity of products offered to tourists. The market demand for and the potential partnership models through which such products can be managed needs to be explored. As the tourism management planning process is conducted for other national parks, other park-specific needs may emerge.
Operationalising and funding tourism research
Research project facilitation and management
SANParks has a strong track record over the past decade and a half of coordinating and managing research with scientific partners at universities and research institutions in South Africa and internationally (Du Toit et al. 2003; Gaylard & Ferreira 2011). To date, much of this research has been focused on ecological or biological issues. The aim of the tourism research programme is to foster and conduct high quality research of international standard through partnerships with research institutions to support the SAM of tourism in SANParks.
Tourism research projects will be managed through the same research project management process that is in place for all research projects. Individuals from universities and research agencies that are interested in collaborating with SANParks in conducting tourism research submit a research proposal. The SANParks staff member responsible for coordinating tourism research will work together with the respective individuals to ensure that the research proposal is aligned with SANParks objectives and information needs. Sometimes, commercially oriented research with tight deadlines is required to inform urgent management decisions. Such rapid assessments will follow an alternative faster review system that still aims to ensure the rigour and the value of the research.
Funding options
Through partnerships with scientific institutions, the co-funding of tourism research is possible. Related funding options include joint applications for industry and research linkage grants (with South African and international institutions) and joint funding of graduate student or research fellowships. Importantly, tourism research expertise and capacity is required within SANParks to coordinate, facilitate and integrate research to ensure that it aligns with SANPark's information needs and can effectively support the practice of SAM within the tourism domain.
Lessons learnt and challenges
Our article has described one of the first attempts, to our knowledge, of integrating tourism research into the adaptive management policies of a PA agency. The integration of tourism research into the SAM of tourism in SANParks remains a challenge. Despite the development of a tourism research framework jointly between Scientific Services and the Tourism Executive, there is still little integration between tourism management and science and limited progress towards managing tourism within the framework of SAM.
Through the process of developing the tourism research framework and its implementation, we faced a number of challenges and learnt numerous lessons that may be of value to other PA agencies and conservation organisations that attempt to integrate tourism research and decision-making and conservation management in a transdisciplinary fashion. The key issues that we identified are, (1) different objectives and different timeframes for tourism and conservation objectives, (2) auditing and organisational reporting systems that are not congruent with an adaptive approach to management and (3) human and organisational capacity constraints and entrenched ways of thinking about managing tourism. We discuss each of these in turn.
Different cultures of operating, objectives and timeframes
Tourism managers have to report on short-term financial performance as part of the evaluation of whether annual financial objectives have been met. Their requirements can lead to a very different way of thinking about the type of tourism research that is needed. In essence, there is a tension between a more business-oriented operating culture focused on short-term financial objectives and a conservation management and science culture focused on longer-term, more holistic objectives such as biodiversity conservation and achieving community benefits. These objectives are not necessarily mutually exclusive and they can be aligned (e.g. see Biggs, Ban & Hall 2012). However, this alignment requires regular interaction between Scientific Services, tourism managers and national park managers. The implementation of the tourism research framework through these regular interactions represents an attempt to implement a novel transdisciplinary, science-based approach to management - a challenging task (Gunderson, Holling & Light 1995). Closer cooperation between Scientific Services, the Tourism Executive and management both within parks and at national level will be essential to implement SAM and the findings of tourism research effectively and through regular communication and collaboration this cooperation can be achieved.
Legal structures and organisational procedures
Legal structures and auditing procedures in organisations originate from a perspective of command and control and not one of adapting and learning in a complex, adaptive system (Ebbesson 2010). Although the theory and science of legal practices and auditing is adapting to a more complex world, these changes will take time to filter through to individual PA agencies and conservation organisations. Research and experimentation is required to find ways of managing tourism and conservation more adaptively within existing auditing and legal procedures, as well as to develop new processes that are more adaptive but still satisfy the need for control and regulations of auditors and regulators (Ebbesson 2010).
Entrenched ways of thinking and capacity constraints
The cognitive frameworks that people use to interpret and the world and make decisions play a critical role in managing the complex interface between tourism and conservation (Biggs, Abel, Knight, Leitch, Langston & Ban 2011). Entrenched perspectives about what tourists want, how to increase the number of tourists to a PA and how tourism should be managed act as potential constraints to managing the tourism and conservation interface more creatively, with more room for the emergence of synergies between tourism and conservation. However, there are numerous participatory social processes (e.g. Barnaud, Bousquet & Trebuil 2008; Biggs, Abel, Knight, Leitch, Langston & Ban 2011; Cundill et al. 2012; Voinov & Bousquet 2010) which can be used to address this challenge and develop a shared vision for action for tourism and conservation based on the co-construction of a shared understanding of a system and the alternative options available.
Research and the strategic adaptive management of tourism
The aim of the development of the tourism research framework was to strengthen the SAM of tourism in national parks and to integrate research coordinated and guided by Scientific Services into the decisions and policies of the Tourism Executive and individual park managers. The benefits of this integration would be a more holistic consideration of the interactions between biodiversity conservation and tourism in policy and management decisions. However, because of the challenges described above, the collaboration between Scientific Services and the Tourism Executive to achieve this integration has not been sustained. These challenges were not completely unexpected, but perhaps insufficient attention was paid to how these challenges could be managed earlier on in the dialogue between Scientific Services and the Tourism Executive. Implementing a novel transdisciplinary, science-based approach to the adaptive management of tourism through SAM was always going to be challenging (Gunderson et al. 1995). A commitment from both Scientific Services and the Tourism Executive to regular communication, collaboration and the commitment of sufficient resources and human capacity for this collaboration will be necessary. Moreover, both departments need to acknowledge and respect that they operate according to different cultural norms and perspectives with sometimes differing objectives (Biggs, Abel, Knight, Leitch, Langston & Ban 2011; Cundill et al. 2012). Through such collaborative processes, co-learning between the departments can emerge which together with closer cooperation between Scientific Services and the Tourism Executive and management will be essential to integrate the findings of tourism research effectively within a SAM framework in SANParks.
A further important lesson learnt is that the implementation of tourism research in management decision-making could possibly have been strengthened by collaborating more closely with the managers in individual national parks as well as the Tourism Executive. Many decisions or components are taken at the level of individual national parks and developing the research framework in a more participatory and decentralised way would have enabled the implementation of the research framework to take place at the level of individual national parks as well. The benefits of decentralisation for conservation and natural resource management are widely discussed in the literature (Andersson & Ostrom 2008; Bohensky 2008).
In this article, we discussed the development of a transdisciplinary tourism research framework by SANParks. The development of the framework was led by Scientific Services and included extensive interactions with managers at an individual national park, with the Tourism Executive and other stakeholders. The research suggested by this framework is slowly getting underway and SANParks is adapting the framework in accordance with the lessons learnt. We believe that our experiences in integrating tourism research with conservation management can hold valuable lessons for other conservation agencies.
The authors would like to thank the Kruger Park Marathon club for providing financial support to the development of a tourism research framework. In addition, we would like to thank Harry Biggs, Giju Varghese, Marna Herbst and Danie Pienaar who provided their time and insight during the development of the tourism research framework and this article. In addition, we would like to thank two reviewers who provided us with comments to substantially improve this article. Stefan Gelcich at the Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile provided office space and resources during the revision stage of this article.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
Authors' contributions
D.B. (University of Queensland) was the project leader and led the writing of the manuscript. G.P. (SANParks Tourism Managing Executive) and J.S. (SANParks Tourism Managing Executive) participated in workshop discussions and made conceptual contributions. L.S. (SANParks Scientific Services), S.F. (SANParks Scientific Services) and R.G. (SANParks Scientific Services) made conceptual contributions and assisted with writing and editing.
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Biggs, D., Abel, N., Knight, A.T., Leitch, A., Langston, A. & Ban, N.C., 2011, 'The implementation crisis in conservation planning could "mental models" help?', Conservation Letters 4, 169-183. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2011.00170.x [ Links ]
Biggs, D., Ban, N.C. & Hall, C.M., 2012, 'Lifestyle values, resilience, and nature-based tourism's contribution to conservation on Australia's Great Barrier Reef', Environmental Conservation 39(4), 370-379. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0376892912000239 [ Links ]
Blaum, N., Rossmanith, E., Popp, A. & Jeltsch, F., 2007, 'Shrub encroachment affects mammalian carnivore abundance and species richness in semiarid rangelands', Acta Oecologica 31(1), 86-92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j~.actao.2006.10.004 [ Links ]
Bohensky, E.L., 2008, 'Discovering resilient pathways for South African water management: Two frameworks for a vision', Ecology and Society 13, Artcile 19. [ Links ]
Botha, J., Witkofski, E.T.F. & Cock, J., 2007, 'Is "something better than nothing"? The impacts of ten outreach nurseries on South African community stakeholders', Forests, Trees and Livelihoods 17, 199-221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14728028.2007.9752597 [ Links ]
Cundill, G., Cumming, G.S., Biggs, D. & Fabricius, C., 2012, 'Soft systems thinking and social learning for adaptive management', Conservation Biology 26(1), 13-20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01755.x, PMid:22010884 [ Links ]
Dharmaratne, G.S., Yee Sang, F. & Walling, L.J., 2000, 'Tourism potentials for financing protected areas', Annals of Tourism Research 27(3), 590-610. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(99)00109-7 [ Links ]
Di Minin, E., Fraser, I., Slotow, R. & Macmillan, D.C., 2013, 'Understanding heterogeneous preference of tourists for big game species: Implications for conservation and management', Animal Conservation 16, 249-258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-1795.2012.00595.x [ Links ]
Du Toit, J.T., Rogers, K.H. & Biggs, H.C., 2003, The Kruger experience: Ecology and management of savanna heterogeneity, Island Press, Washington, DC. [ Links ]
Ebbesson, J., 2010, 'The rule of law in governance of complex socio-ecological changes', Global Environmental Change 20, 414-422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.10.009 [ Links ]
Fenton, D.M., Young, M. & Johnson, V.Y., 1998, 'Re-presenting the great barrier reef to tourists: Implications for tourist experience and evaluation of coral reef environments', Leisure Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Journal 20(3), 177-192. [ Links ]
Gaylard, A. & Ferreira, S., 2011, 'Advances and challenges in the implementation of strategic adaptive management beyond the Kruger National Park - Making linkages between science and biodiversity management', Koedoe 53(2), 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/koedoe.v53i2.1005 [ Links ]
Gnoth, J., 1997, 'Tourism motivation and expectation formation', Annals of Tourism Research 24(2), 283-304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(97)80002-3 [ Links ]
Gossling, S. & Hall, C.M., 2006, Tourism and global environmental change, Routledge, Abingdon. [ Links ]
Grant, R.C.C., Peel, M.J.S. & Bezuidenhout, H., 2011, 'Evaluating herbivore management outcomes and associated vegetation impacts', Koedoe 53(2), 15 pages. [ Links ]
Gunderson, L.H., Holling, C. & Light, S.S., 1995, Barriers and bridges to the renewal of ecosystems and institutions, Columbia University Press, New York. [ Links ]
Hall, C.M., 2009, 'Tourism firm innovation and sustainability', in S. Gössling, C.M. Hall & D. Weaver (eds.), Sustainable tourism futures: Perspectives on systems, restructuring and innovations, pp. 282-298, Routledge, New York. PMCid:PMC2677279 [ Links ]
Hall, C.M., Timothy, D. & Duval, D., 2004, Safety and security in tourism: Relationships, management and marketing, Haworth Press, New York. [ Links ]
Hjalager, A.-M., 2010, 'A review of innovation research in tourism', Tourism Management 31(1), 1-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/jj.tourman.2009.08.012 [ Links ]
Hudak, A.T. & Wessman, C.A., 1998, 'Textural analysis of historical aerial photography to characterize woody plant encroachment in South African savanna', Remote Sensing of Environment 66(3), 317-330. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0034-4257(98)00078-9 [ Links ]
Letnic, M., Webb, J.K. & Shine, R., 2008, 'Invasive cane toads (Bufo marinus) cause mass mortality of freshwater crocodiles (Crocodylus johnstoni) in tropical Australia', Biological Conservation 141(7), 1773-1782. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2008.04.031 [ Links ]
Licht, D.S., Slotow, R. & Millspaugh, J., 2008, 'Out of Africa: Lessons from park management in South Africa', The George Wright Forum 25, 20-29. [ Links ]
Lindsey, P.A., Alexander, R., Mills, M.G.L., Romanach, S. & Woodroffe, R., 2007, 'Wildlife viewing preferences of visitors to protected areas in South Africa: Implications for the role of ecotourism in conservation', Journal of Ecotourism 6, 19-33. http://dx.doi.org/10.2167/joe133.0 [ Links ]
Max-Neef, M.A., 2005, 'Foundations of transdisciplinarity', Ecological Economics 53(1), 5-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.01.014 [ Links ]
Middleton, V.T.C., Fyall, A., Morgan, M. & Ranchod, A., 2009, Marketing in travel and tourism, Eslevier, Oxford. [ Links ]
Myers, N., Mittermeier, R.A., Mittermeier, C.G., Da Fonseca, G.A.B. & Kent, J., 2000, 'Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities', Nature 403, 853-858. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/35002501, PMid:10706275 [ Links ]
Naidoo, R. & Adamowicz, W.L., 2005, 'Biodiversity and nature-based tourism at forest reserves in Uganda', Environment and Development Economics 10, 159-178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X0400186X [ Links ]
Naughton-Treves, L., Buck Holland, M. & Brandon, K., 2005, 'The role of protected areas in conserving biodiversity and sustaining local livelihoods', Annual Review of Environmental Resources 30, 219-252. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.30.050504.164507 [ Links ]
Phillips, G., 2012, Responsible tourism in SANParks: 2012-2022 Strategy, SANParks, Pretoria. [ Links ]
Pretes, M., 2003, 'Tourism and nationalism', Annals of Tourism Research 30(1), 125-142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(02)00035-X [ Links ]
South African National Parks, 2012, South African National Parks annual report 2010-2011, SANParks, Pretoria. [ Links ]
Saayman, M. & Saayman, A., 2010, 'Regional development and national parks in South Africa: Lessons learned', Tourism Economics 16, 1037-1064. http://dx.doi.org/10.5367/te.2010.0007 [ Links ]
Roux, D.J. & Foxcroft, L.C., 2011, 'The development and application of adaptive management in South African National Parks', Koedoe 53(2), 5 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/koedoe.v53i2.1049 [ Links ]
Roux, D.J., Rogers, K.H., Biggs, H.C., Ashton, P.J. & Sergeant, A., 2006, 'Bridging the science-management divide: Moving from unidirectional knowledge transfer to knowledge interfacing and sharing', Ecology and Society 11(1), Article 4. [ Links ]
Smeral, E., 2010, 'Impacts of the world recession and economic crisis on tourism: Forecasts and potential risks', Journal of Travel Research 49(1), 31-38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0047287509353192 [ Links ]
Spenceley, A., 2008, Responsible tourism: Critical issues for conservation and development, Earthscan, London. [ Links ]
Spenceley, A., 2011, 'A tourism research workshop for South African National Parks, 01-02 February 2011', South African National Parks, Pretoria. [ Links ]
Stevenson-Hamilton, J., 1937, South African Eden, Penguin, Johannesburg. [ Links ]
Stirzaker, R.J., Roux, D. & Biggs, H.C., 2011, 'Learning to bridge the gap between adaptive management and organisational culture', Koedoe 53(2), 6 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/koedoe.v53i2.1007 [ Links ]
Swemmer, L.K. & Taljaard, S., 2011, 'SANParks, people and adaptive management: Understanding a diverse field of practice during changing times', Koedoe 53(2), 7 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/koedoe.v53i2.1017 [ Links ]
Strickland-Munro, J.K., Allison, H.E. & Moore, S.A., 2010, 'Using resilience concepts to investigate the impacts of protected area tourism on communities', Annals of Tourism Research 37, 499-519. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/jj.annals.2009.11.001 [ Links ]
Thur, S.M., 2010, 'User fees as sustainable financing mechanisms for marine protected areas: An application to the Bonaire National Marine Park', Marine Policy 34(1), 63-69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/jj.marpol.2009.04.008 [ Links ]
Tol, R.S.J., 2007, 'The impact of a carbon tax on international tourism', Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 12(2), 129-142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2007.01.004 [ Links ]
Uyarra, M., Watkinson, A. & Côté, I., 2009, 'Managing dive tourism for the sustainable use of coral reefs: Validating diver perceptions of attractive site features', Environmental Management 43(1), 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-008-9198-z, PMid:18810525 [ Links ]
Van Wilgen, B.W. & Biggs, H.C., 2011, 'A critical assessment of adaptive ecosystem management in a large savanna protected area in South Africa', Biological Conservation 144, 1179-1187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.05.006 [ Links ]
Varghese, G., 2008, 'Public-private partnerships in South African National Parks: The rationale, benefits, and lessons learnt', in A. Spenceley (ed.), Responsible tourism: Critical issues for conservation and development, pp. 69-84, Earthscan, London. [ Links ]
Venter, F.J., Naiman, R.J., Biggs, H.C. & Pienaar, D.J., 2008, 'The evolution of conservation management philosophy: Science, environmental change and social adjustments in Kruger National Park', Ecosystems 11(2), 173-192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10021-007-9116-x [ Links ]
Voinov, A. & Bousquet, F., 2010, 'Modelling with stakeholders', Environmental Modelling and Software 25(11), 1268-1281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2010.03.007 [ Links ]
Wall, G. & Badke, C., 1994, 'Tourism and climate change: An international perspective', Journal of Sustainable Tourism 2(4), 193-203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669589409510696 [ Links ]
Wang, Y., Yu, Q. & Fesenmaier, D.R., 2002, 'Defining the virtual tourist community: Implications for tourism marketing', Tourism Management 23(4), 407-417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0261-5177(01)00093-0 [ Links ]
Wilkinson, C., 2012, 'Social-ecological resilience: Insights and issues for planning theory', Planning Theory 11(2), 148-169. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1473095211426274 [ Links ]
Duan Biggs
Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions and the NERP Environmental Decisions Hub, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
University of Queensland
St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia
Received: 19 Apr. 2013
Accepted: 06 Nov. 2013
Published: 24 June 2014


text: Facebook said on Monday it is not building a mobile phone, dismissing a TechCrunch story that it is working on software for a device from a hardware manufacturer."The story is not accurate," according to a company statement. "Our approach has always been to make all phones and apps more social, not build a phone. The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a "Facebook Phone" (even internally) because that's such an attractive sound bite, but our real strategy is to make everything social and not build one phone or integration."TechCrunch reported that Facebook wanted more control over a phone's operating system in order to more deeply integrate with phone features such as contact lists.Facebook said it is also working on enabling full support on mobiles for its Connect feature, which allows people to use their Facebook identification credentials to log into other Web-based applications."Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this," according to Facebook. "For an example, check out Connect for iPhone and the integration we have with contact syncing through our iPhone app. Another example is the INQ1 phone with Facebook integration (the first so-called 'Facebook Phone')."But Facebook did describe its mobile work, such as an HTML5 version of the site. HTML5 is the latest specification for the Web's mother tongue that enables new graphic features and the ability to create snappy Web applications with desktop-like performance, among others.Send news tips and comments to firstname.lastname@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
WFAA and WTHR were the two regional winners at the 33rd annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards, handed out Monday night in New York City.
WFAA, the ABC affiliate in Dallas, took home the Emmy for Outstanding Regional News Story in the Spot News category. The award for "A Day of Weather" was presented to executive producer Valerie Roberts-Evans, producer Eric Valadez and chief director Art MacLaren.
Related, TVNewser: News and Doc Emmy Awards: PBS, ABC, CBS Lead List of WinnersAdvertisement
WTHR, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, won Outstanding Regional News Story in the Investigative Reporting Category. Producer Cyndee Hebert, reporter Bob Segall, photojournalist Jim Hall and photojournalist-editor Bill Ditton were honored for "Reality Check: Where Are The Jobs?"
A full list of the winners is here.


text:
Israel Struggles to Keep Spy Story Cloaked in Secrecy
February 13, 2013
by Reuters
The mysterious death of an Australian prisoner in Israel has put the spotlight on a military-run censorship system that is finding it harder to black out secret information often only a mouse click away on the Internet.
The case involves a man reported by Australia's ABC channel on Tuesday to have been a member of Israel's Mossad spy agency. According to the report, he committed suicide in prison in 2010 in an isolated top-security wing originally built for the assassin of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Why the man, identified by ABC as Ben Zygier, an immigrant to Israel, was jailed is still a closely guarded secret, and reports dealing with matters of state security must be submitted to military censors for vetting.
In a highly unusual move within hours of the ABC broadcast, Israeli editors were summoned to an emergency meeting in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office and asked not to publish a story "that is very embarrassing to a certain government agency," Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported.
Israeli news outlets that had carried the report scrambled to remove it from their websites, but that only drew attention to the case. Chatter ran rampant on Twitter and Facebook, offering polyglot Israelis links to foreign news sites.
For decades, journalists in Israel have been required to sign an undertaking to abide by military censorship rules when they apply for accreditation from the government press office. Reporters risk being denied press cards and, in the case of foreigners, work visas if they violate the regulations.
"You either work with us, or you work abroad," a military censor, cautioning against reporting where Palestinian rockets were landing in Israel, warned a Reuters correspondent during an eight-day Gaza war in November.
In the age of the Internet, efforts by Israel to put the genie back in the bottle proved fruitless.
"People in the state, in the Shin Bet [internal security agency] and the courts conduct themselves as if we were still in the Stone Age," said Avigdor Feldman, an Israeli attorney whose clients have included nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu.
Vanunu, a former technician in Israel's top secret Dimona nuclear reactor told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper in 1986 that atomic bombs were produced at the facility. He was jailed as a traitor and served 18 years in prison.
"These things are ultimately revealed. People talk, and not just on the Internet," he told Reuters. "The tight-lip that once typified this country is no longer ... all the gag orders just shame the courts and the country."
Aluf Benn, editor of Israel's liberal Haaretz newspaper, said Israeli security authorities and judges who issue gag orders at their request find it hard to come to terms with the concept of a free media operating in a democracy.
"For [Mossad chief Tamir] Pardo and his ilk, the Israeli media are a branch of the state ... that is why we are forced absurdly to quote foreign news sources about military operations, intelligence snafus and clandestine trials," Benn wrote in a commentary in his newspaper. "Generation after generation, the military censor has explained to reporters that anything published by an Israeli outlet is seen by the international community as an official statement, whereas reports by foreign news sources are not."
So when controversial incidents take place, such as an attack on Syria last month that the Damascus government said was carried out by the Israeli air force, Israeli media are banned from publishing their own information.
And while Israel's nuclear arms have been an open secret for decades, reference to the arsenal has always been attributed in the local press to "foreign reports."
Curiously, the case of "Prisoner X" was deemed so sensitive that for almost 24 hours the authorities tried to prevent any word seeping out into the local media.
They finally raised the white flag after left-wing and Arab legislators used their parliamentary immunity to demand explanations about the affair on the floor of the Knesset, enabling Israeli papers to at least allude to the story.
On Tuesday the gag orders were eased to allow the media to carry foreign reports of the case, but the censors told journalists not to identify the dead man's wife and two children — information that is readily available on the Internet.
Gad Shimron, a former Mossad officer who writes on intelligence matters, told Reuters he had no knowledge about Zygier, "but in the 21st century, in the age of Facebook and Twitter, I simply don't believe such secrecy can be maintained."
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text:
A delicious and creative brunch dish that's perfect for the vegetarian crowd.
Sometimes you need a new spin on culinary classic, and this recipe for Creamy Grits with Crispy Leeks happens to be vegetarian and gluten free, perfect for when you have tired of the bacon and bread combination that is the darling of every breakfast joint du jour.
This week's Sunday Brunch recipe comes to us from Herbivoracious, an excellent food blog run by Michael Natkin that is committed to intriguing vegetarian recipes. Natkin is also coming out with a new cookbook this spring, and if you're looking for another addition to your brunch table, you might also want to try out his One-Bowl Banana Muffins.
Breakfast for dinner doesn't have to be just pancakes or eggs and toast. I grew up in the South, and was always appalled to watch folks mix together waffles, bacon, maple syrup and everything else on their plate. Thirty years later, I think that mixing sweet, savory and salty flavors is pure genius.
Today's dish explores that idea, with creamy grits, crispy fried leeks, a leek jus with Morita peppers and honey, cilantro-Epazote pesto, an egg, sunny side up, and a bit of queso fresco. This would be more of a Southwestern spin on that Southern idea.
Grits are one of the great breakfast foods. If you have made polenta before, you've also made grits – there is no real difference, unless you are talking lye-processed hominy grits, which are much less common. Some folks argue about whether or one is coarser or finer, white or yellow but mainly it is a distinction without a definitive difference. Cornmeal is simply whisked into lots of boiling water, and then simmered until smooth, soft and creamy. If you like, you can replace some of the water with milk, and/or add cheese to enrich.
I handled the leeks in an interesting way here. We fry up a big batch of them until crispy. Some are reserved for the final dish, and the rest are then simmered with morita peppers, extracting all of that caramelized flavor to make the jus. I just recently learned about Moritas – they are smoked and dried red jalapenos. So basically chipotles, but not packed in adobo. You get the opportunity to get all the pepper flavor and smoke without the extraneous tomatoey flavors in the canned sauce. And let me tell you, breathing in deep from a bag of Morita peppers is a transporting experience. Wow.
The cilantro-Epazote pesto was a pure experiment. I thought maybe the Epazote flavor would be overpowering, and I would only be able to use a tiny bit as an accent. Surprisingly, that wasn't the case. It was present and very appetizing, but not over the top.
Creamy Grits with Crispy Leeks, Leek Jus, and Cilantro-Epazote Pesto
Vegetarian and gluten-free; not vegan
Serves 2
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup stone-ground grits
- 2 tablespoons pepitas, toasted
- 1 handful cilantro leaves, cleaned
- 4 Epazote leaves
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 3 leeks, white parts only, halved lengthwise, cleaned thoroughly, sliced thinly
- 2 Morita peppers or other smoked pepper of your choice, briefly toasted in a dry skillet
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 organic eggs
- 2 ounces queso fresco or other cheese of your choice
Bring the 3 cups of water and 1 cup of milk to a boil. Whisk in the grits in a thin stream, stirring continuously. Add a couple big pinches of salt. Reduce to a simmer. Cook for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. You will notice a distinct change where they go from being "gritty" to creamy. Add more water as necessary if they are getting dry before that happens. Anytime after they turn creamy, they are ready to serve. Taste and add salt as needed.
Meanwhile, combine the pepitas, cilantro, Epazote, 2 tablespoons of canola oil and a pinch of salt in a mini food processor, and process until it forms a coarse, pesto-like consistency. You might need a little more oil. Taste and adjust salt.
Heat a very large, preferably cast-iron skilet over a high flame. Add 1/4 cup of oil and heat for a moment. Add the leeks and a big pinch of salt and fry, turning only very occasionally, until they are mostly deep brown. Remove about two tablespoons of them two paper towels and season with salt. As they cool, the should become crisp.
Return the pan to a medium flame (with the rest of the leeks still in it), and deglaze the pan with 1 cup of water, scraping well to get all the flavorful bits. Add the Morita peppers and the honey and whisk. Reduce heat to a bare simmer and cook five minutes, adding more water if needed.
Using a fine sieve and pressing well, transfer the liquid to a very small saucepan and keep warm. Dispose of the solids. Reduce or add liquid as necessary to produce a thin jus with just a hint of body. Taste and adjust seasoning. We'd like a balance of savory from the leeks, salt, smoke and heat, and sweetness from the honey.
In the original skillet, add a little more oil and fry off two eggs. Cover so that the whites cook while the yolk remains runny. Or you could use poached eggs.
To serve, put a helping of the grits in each bowl and make a well. Fill the well with the poached egg. Top with the crispy leeks and pour a couple tablespoons of the jus around the edge. Add a tablespoon or so of the pesto and a small piece of queso fresco.
Sunday Brunch is an ongoing series featuring brunch recipes from some of our favorite food blogs around the web. New recipes every Sunday, so that you're ensured a gourmet weekend. Bon appetit!
Image: Herbivoracious


text:
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
tongue twister
If native speakers find it tricky, think of what the Japanese would make of it.
You can sympathize with the Americans, who call it a 'truck' rather than a 'lorry'.
I wonder why the 80s rock band Red Lorry Yellow Lorry chose a tongue twister as their name.
* * *
I know it's a sign of old age to complain about the ignorance of the young, but there you are. Today's complaint concerns a bouncy new ITV newsreader presenting the local news for the London area, who doesn't know how to pronounce Godalming, a town of 21,000 people about 50 km (30 miles) from London. No, it's not "ɡɒˈdælmɪŋ", it's ˈɡɒdl̩mɪŋ. How can you be a Londoner, a professional newsreader, and not know that? Must be one of those people who never venture south of the river.
17 comments:
When I was in high-school drama class in Arizona, our enunciation exercise was "red leather yellow leather".ReplyDelete
Wow, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry takes me back to the good old days of goth. Fellow RLYL fans tended to call them "Ver Lorries" to avoid such tonguetwisting.ReplyDelete
- Paul Carley13 October 2010 at 13:06
I was thinking only yesterday that a nice phrase for most efl learners would be 'vulnerable squirrels'.ReplyDelete
Yes, it would be so much easier if you would just start saying truck like us.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous13 October 2010 at 14:45
As for "red lorry, yellow lorry,"ReplyDelete
John wrote "If native speakers find it tricky, think of what the Japanese would make of it."
Many Japanese will not find it difficult, because
they may use a kind of flap r for both r and l!
I would rather test the articulability differences between the clear l and dark l or
between British type of r and American type of r
using the above tongue twister.
'Red lolly, yellow lorry' is even more fiendish.ReplyDelete
I think I've seen the name in passing (and now I'm wondering where ...), for I remember being stumped as to the pronunciation.ReplyDelete
Let me just test something:
""ɡɒˈdælmɪŋ", it's ˈɡɒdl̩mɪŋ."
For some reason ɒ and ɒ look completely different in my font ...
- Anonymous14 October 2010 at 00:56
Why is the /d/ syllabic, rather than the lateral? Does it syllabify as [ɡɒ.dl.mɪŋ], and if so, wouldn't the coronal stop fill the onset?ReplyDelete
Anon: the /d/ is not syllabic, the /l/ is. Perhaps your browser and font are unable to display the syllabicity diacritic properly.ReplyDelete
In my view the syllabification is ˈɡɒd.l.mɪŋ. The /d/ has lateral release.
They obviously have never watched the original Reggie Perrin.ReplyDelete
You do notice when your home town gets mentioned on TV shows :)
- Stephen14 October 2010 at 09:11
On BBC radio London the other day, we were told about traffic problems in Walton (or so I thought), except that I realised he had added Forest to the name and was talking about Waltham Forest, not Walton on Thames.ReplyDelete
The English Place-name Society's (1935) volume on the place-names of Essex give's [wɔˑtəmstou] (note silent l) for Walthamstow and [wɔˑltəm] for Waltham Abbey. I had thought these pronunciations obsolete, but it's good to hear that one Radio London announcer is reviving them!ReplyDeleteReplies
No real reason for a silent L. Maybe that was a typo.Delete
- Stephen14 October 2010 at 11:41
And John's LPD gives ˈwɔːlθ əm stəʊ, previously ˈwɔːlt-, ˈwɒlt-. I wonder if Billy Reeves knows he's reviving an older pronunciation.ReplyDelete
I had been in London for several years before I realised that Walthamstow had θ. Maybe one day there'll be a place in East London called Westham ˈwesθəm.ReplyDelete
- army198714 October 2010 at 23:43
Gosh, that's hard. Probably one of the hardest tongue twisters from me, after Italian Li vuoi quei kiwi? /liˌvwɔi.kweiˈki.wi/ "Do you want those kiwifruits?"ReplyDelete
- Anna Lowenstein30 October 2010 at 12:09
I must admit I didn't know how to pronounce Godalming either. But if I were a newsreader, I might think it a good idea to look the word up!ReplyDelete


text:
WASHINGTON >> The White House is making it easier for people to press the federal government to act.
It is bringing that constitutional right to petition one's government into the digital age with a webpage, "We the People," where people can create and sign petitions seeking the government's action on a range of issues.
An official response is guaranteed for any petition that draws enough signatures — 5,000 names within 30 days — after it is reviewed by staff and the appropriate policy experts within the Obama administration.
The White House announced the new page, http://www.whitehouse.gov/wethepeople, on Thursday.
"When I ran for this office, I pledged to make government more open and accountable to its citizens," President Barack Obama said in the announcement. He said the new feature will give Americans "a direct line" to the White House on issues that most concern them.
The online petition program comes as Obama has been urging the public to press their representatives in Congress to act on his ideas for creating jobs and balancing the federal budget.
To emphasize word-of-mouth organizing, a petition's Web address initially will only be known by the person who created it. The address is not supposed to show up anywhere else on the White House website until 150 signatures have been collected.
The first online petitions can be created later this month.
The White House already accepts petitions through its correspondence office and that is not expected to change, officials said.


text:
"Dreams & Flashbacks" is a blend of electric piano and synthesized bells rising and cascading down the same scale in unison. Windy white noise shoots across the stereo field and the effect is given a generous helping of reverb.
This kind of sound is well-known in cartoons and comedy when a character is dreaming, having a flashback, recounting past events or being hypnotized. This sample can be looped.
Thanks for listening.


text:
Mal día para Ban Ki Moon, Secretario General de Naciones Unidas.
La número dos de la diplomacia noruega en la sede de la organización multilateral en Nueva York escribió un informe, que ha sido filtrado, para el Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de su país. Noruega es uno de los principales contribuyentes a Naciones Unidas. En el informe se le tacha de ser una persona «sin nervio», un mero «observador pasivo» en el asunto de Myanmar, cuyo trabajo es «infructuoso» y expone el daño que todo ello está ocasionando a la institución.
Imagino que el asunto le habrá sentado a Ban Ki Moon como una patada en los… riñones, aunque se le debe de estar empezando a hacer callo porque Mona Juul, la diplomática noruega, no parece ser la única que piensa de este modo.
Aquí tenéis el documento completo:
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's fruitless visit to Burma in the beginning of July is indicative of a Secretary-General and an organization who are struggling to show leadership. In a time when the UN and the need for multilateral solutions to global crises are more needed than ever, Ban and the UN are conspicuous by their absence. During the last six months, where the follow-up to the many crises that left their imprint on the General Assembly during the fall should have brought the Secretary-General and the UN into play at full force, the opposite seems to have happened.
In relation to the financial crisis , neither the Secretary-General nor the General Assembly – despite the summit on the financial crisis during the end of June – have shown themselves to be the most important arena, and the vacuum is being filled by the G-20 and other actors. Ban's voice on behalf of the G-172 and the poor is barely being registered. And at times an invisible Secretary-General, in combination with a rather special president of the General Assembly, has to a large extent placed the UN on the sidelines and the organisation has not known when to act. In the environment/energy area the UN also struggles to be relevant, despite the planned climate summit at the opening of the General Assembly in the fall. Even though the Secretary-General repeats ad nauseam that Copenhagen must «seal the deal», there is widespread concern that the UN summit will not contribute anything worth mentioning in the process towards Copenhagen.
In the many political/security-related crises around the world the Secretary-General's leadership and ability to deliver on behalf of the international organization are also found wanting. Burma is a shining example. There was no shortage of warnings that the Secretary-General should not go at this time. The Americans were among the most sceptical of him going, while the British believed he should. Special Envoy Gambari was also sceptical at the outset, but Ban insisted. Gambari noted that recent negative press (with headlines such as «Whereabouts unknown» in The Times and «Nowhere Man» in Foreign Policy) had made Ban even more determined to visit Burma. After a seemingly fruitless visit by the Secretary-General, the UN's «good offices» will be made even more difficult. Special Envoy Gambari will have major problems during the aftermath, after «the top man» has failed and the generals in Yangoon no longer want to meet with him.
Another example of weak handling by the Secretary-General is the war in Sri Lanka . The Secretary-General was a powerless observer to thousands of civilians losing their lives and becoming displaced from their homes. The authorities in Colombo refused to see the Secretary-General while the war was ongoing, but he was heartily invited – and accepted an invitation – as soon as the war was «won». Even though the UN's humanitarian effort has been active and honest enough, the moral voice and authority of the Secretary-General has been missing.
In other «crises areas» such as Darfur, Somalia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and not least the Congo , the Secretary-General's appeals, often irresolute and lacking in dedication, seem to fall on deaf ears. Many would also claim that the handling of the investigative committee, following the war in Gaza , ended with an unstable and overly careful follow up.
More surprising, and all the more disappointing, is that Ban Ki-moon has been almost absent on the issue of disarmament and non-proliferation. This was an issue he himself held forward as a principal area of focus before he took over his post. The re-organisation of the department for disarmament into an office directly under the Secretary-General, run by a High Representative, signalled a major focus on this area, also given the Secretary-General's background on the Korean peninsula. With discussions of a new non-proliferation agreement in 2010 and a U.S. administration that have put the theme much higher on the agenda, it is discouraging that the Secretary-General is not to a larger degree involved.
What all these examples have in common is that a spineless and charmless Secretary-General , has not compensated this by appointing high profile and visible coworkers. Ban has systematically appointed Special Representatives and top officals in the Secretariat who have not been visibly outstanding – with the exception of Afghanistan. In addition he seems to prefer to be in the center without competition from his coworkers and has implied quite clearly that press statements are for him exclusively. The result is that the UN is a less visible and relevant actor in various areas where it would have been natural and necessary for the UN to be engaged. An honorable exception is the appointment of Helen Clark as the new leader of UNDP . She has in a short time, done good things. It will be interesting to see if she will be given space to give the UN a profile in the area of development. As a woman from this side of the world, Clark could soon turn into a candidate for Ban´s second term.
It is common knowledge that it was a deliberate choice of the former US administration not to prefer an activist Secretary-General. The current American Administration has not yet signalled any changes in its postition towards Ban, however, there are rumours that in certain quarters in Washington Ban is refered to as a «one term SG.» It is understood that people in the circles of Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton are very negative to Ban, but neither of them has given any declarations. China is also quite positive to him and it is primarily China who holds the key to Ban´s second mandate. Russia has for a long time been dissatisfied with the Secretary-General´s handling of both Kosovo and Georgia but also the lack of appointments of Russians to leading position at the UN. At the same time the Russians, however, have no problems with a not too-interventionist Secretary-General.
Half way through his term, one feels that the member states are increasingly negative towards Ban. Many considered that Ban should be given time and he would improve as he gained experience and any comparison with his charismatic predecessor was unfair. Among those, however, the tone has changed, and now the argument of his learning-potential has expired and the lack of charisma has become a burden. The Secretary-General seems to function quite well when he sticks to a script and performs at larger meetings and arrangements. The problem arises when he is «on his own» and is incapable of setting the agenda, inspiring enthousiasm and show leadership- not even internally. The consequence of Ban´s lack of engagement and interest in studying well enough the problems, is that he fails to be an effective actor or negotiator in the many negotiation processes he is supposed to handle.
The atmosphere in the «house» is described as being less than motivating. The decision making structure is hampered by the fact that all information both up and down is filtered by the omni-present chef de cabinet, Kim. After the latest round of negative media coverage, it is understood that the atmosphere on the 38th floor is rather tense . Ban has constant outbreaks of rage which even the most cautious and experienced staff find hard to tackle. The relations with the Deputy-Secretary-General Migiro are also tense and her marge de manouvre seems – if possible- to have decreased. There are constant rumours of replacements and reshuffling. In addition to constant rumours about Migiro leaving, there are rumours that the overwhelmingly well liked OCHA chief John Holmes will be promoted to chef de cabinet and that Nambiar will leave. Same goes with the head of DPA, Pascoe – Holmes is also tipped as a candidate for his succession. The Brits are understood to want that position «back». These are, however, only rumours and most likely Ban will continue with the same staff – at least until the end of the year. If that is enough to secure him another term, only time can tell.


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Boston's school department has offered no evidence that incidents of bullying or other misbehavior have increased to the point where both audio and video surveillance of students on their way to and from school are required. Yet the school system is in the process of equipping its 750 yellow school buses with both microphones and cameras. It's an extreme initiative that unnecessarily infringes on private conversations.
Video recordings are routine, and especially useful when it comes to identifying gross misconduct, like physical assault, on the part of bus riders. But audio recordings are different in tone and tenor. And the city's policy fails to make that distinction. It is not even clear how audio surveillance will keep students safer. It may even have a deleterious effect, according to defenders of civil liberties.
"We're indoctrinating children to believe that everything they say and do will be recorded by some faceless entity behind glass," said Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts law prohibits surreptitious audio recordings. The school department likely can remain within the law by posting signs on school buses informing passengers that they are under both video and audio surveillance. But that doesn't make it right. Recording every word out of a student's mouth still raises serious privacy concerns.
If anything, Bostonians might expect serious incidents of misbehavior to decrease in the coming years as the school department phases out yellow school bus service for middle school students. Seventh- and eighth-graders will be issued MBTA passes instead. And the T does not incorporate audio recording into its surveillance system due to "privacy concerns," according to spokesman Joe Pesaturo.
At minimum, the public should have been given opportunities to weigh in on this significant change in policy. Yet even City Councilor Tito Jackson, who chairs the council's education committee, said he was caught unawares by the decision. Jackson also expressed deep reservations about the usefulness and accuracy of voice recordings on a noisy school bus.
Interim school superintendent John McDonough may be having second thoughts. He is firmly behind the use of video cameras on school buses as a method to prevent or document bullying. But he now says that he wants "to better assess the impact of the audio portion before we flip the switch."
He shouldn't flip it. Pervasive audio surveillance on school buses is both bad public policy and a bad lesson for students.


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text:
By Daniel Trotta
NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, a study released on Thursday said.
The war has killed at least 134,000 Iraqi civilians and may have contributed to the deaths of as many as four times that number, according to the Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.
When security forces, insurgents, journalists and humanitarian workers were included, the war's death toll rose to an estimated 176,000 to 189,000, the study said.
The report, the work of about 30 academics and experts, was published in advance of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003.
It was also an update of a 2011 report the Watson Institute produced ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks that assessed the cost in dollars and lives from the resulting wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
The 2011 study said the combined cost of the wars was at least $3.7 trillion, based on actual expenditures from the U.S. Treasury and future commitments, such as the medical and disability claims of U.S. war veterans.
That estimate climbed to nearly $4 trillion in the update.
The estimated death toll from the three wars, previously at 224,000 to 258,000, increased to a range of 272,000 to 329,000 two years later.
Excluded were indirect deaths caused by the mass exodus of doctors and a devastated infrastructure, for example, while the costs left out trillions of dollars in interest the United States could pay over the next 40 years.
The interest on expenses for the Iraq war could amount to about $4 trillion during that period, the report said.
The report also examined the burden on U.S. veterans and their families, showing a deep social cost as well as an increase in spending on veterans. The 2011 study found U.S. medical and disability claims for veterans after a decade of war totaled $33 billion. Two years later, that number had risen to $134.7 billion.
The report concluded the United States gained little from the war while Iraq was traumatized by it. The war reinvigorated radical Islamist militants in the region, set back women's rights, and weakened an already precarious healthcare system, the report said. Meanwhile, the $212 billion reconstruction effort was largely a failure with most of that money spent on security or lost to waste and fraud, it said.
Former President George W. Bush's administration cited its belief that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's government held weapons of mass destruction to justify the decision to go to war. U.S. and allied forces later found that such stockpiles did not exist.
Supporters of the war argued that intelligence available at the time concluded Iraq held the banned weapons and noted that even some countries that opposed the invasion agreed with the assessment.
"Action needed to be taken," said Steven Bucci, the military assistant to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the run-up to the war and today a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think-tank.
Bucci, who was unconnected to the Watson study, agreed with its observation that the forecasts for the cost and duration of the war proved to be a tiny fraction of the real costs.
"If we had had the foresight to see how long it would last and even if it would have cost half the lives, we would not have gone in," Bucci said. "Just the time alone would have been enough to stop us. Everyone thought it would be short."
Bucci said the toppling of Saddam and the results of an unforeseen conflict between U.S.-led forces and al Qaeda militants drawn to Iraq were positive outcomes of the war.
"It was really in Iraq that 'al Qaeda central' died," Bucci said. "They got waxed."


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It's got more chrome than Elvis had themed bedrooms, but it's nothing a little dirt couldn't fix. Underneath, the Beetle R is something we'd no doubt consider taking home for a little of the old paddle shift, know wot I mean?
Unfortunately, for the moment, the AWD Beetle R is merely an attention-getting concept targeted to freaks like us, who, after driving the new 2012 Volkswagen Beetle, would celebrate the addition of a 266-hp Beetle. The figment of VW's conceptual imagination would get a version of the 2.0-liter direct-injection turbocharged four in the Golf R.
Of course, we'd keep the engine and the aero kit (and the sport seats), lose the 20" jewelry (some shiny things we just can't live with) and assume the position — behind the wheel, of course. Naturally, VW people are merely suggesting all of this might be possible, by way of teasing the crap out of us.


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- From: pavel <email@example.com>
- Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:16:08 +0200
- To: "Pavel" <firstname.lastname@example.com>
- Message-ID: <003201c7acc1$c9647ca0$f0bca8c0@alphaekts5r299>
Apologies for cross-postings -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Second International Workshop on ONTOLOGY MATCHING (OM-2007) http://om2007.ontologymatching.org/ November 11, 2007, ISWC'07 + ASWC'07 Workshop Program, Busan, Korea BRIEF DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES Ontology matching is a key interoperability enabler for the Semantic Web, since it takes the ontologies as input and determines as output correspondences between the semantically related entities of those ontologies. These correspondences can be used for various tasks, such as ontology merging, query answering, data translation, or for navigation on the Semantic Web. Thus, matching ontologies enables the knowledge and data expressed in the matched ontologies to interoperate. The workshop has two goals: 1. To bring together academic and industry leaders dealing with ontology matching in order to assess how academic advances are addressing real-world requirements. The workshop will strive to improve academic awareness of industrial needs, and therefore, direct research towards those needs. Simultaneously, the workshop will serve to inform industry representatives about existing research efforts that may meet their business needs. 2. To conduct an extensive evaluation of ontology matching approaches through the OAEI (Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative) 2007 campaign. The particular focus of this year's OAEI campaign is on real-world matching tasks from specific domains, e.g., medicine, food. Therefore, the ontology matching evaluation initiative itself will provide a solid ground for discussion of how well the current approaches are meeting business needs. TOPICS of interest include, but are not limited to: Requirements to ontology matching from specific domains; Application of ontology matching techniques in real-world scenarios; Social and collaborative ontology matching; Interaction design for ontology matching; Interactive ontology matching; Background knowledge in ontology matching; Uncertainty in ontology matching; Formal foundations and frameworks for ontology matching; Performance of ontology matching techniques; Ontology matching evaluation methodology; Ontology matching for information integration; Ontology matching for dynamic environments; Systems and infrastructures. FORMAT AND SUBMISSIONS The schedule assumes one day workshop. The workshop will consist of the following components: technical presentations, OAEI'07 results presentations, posters, workshop on consensus building (of reference alignments) and wrap-up discussion. Contributions to the workshop can be made in terms of (i) technical papers addressing different issues of ontology matching as well as (ii) participating in the OAEI 2007 campaign. Technical papers should be not longer than 12 pages using the LNCS Style. For complete style details, see Springer's Author Instructions http://www.springeronline.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,5-164-2-72376-0,00.html These should be prepared in PDF format and and should be submitted (no later than August 3, 2007) through the workshop submission site at: https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/ISWC2007/ Technical papers will be refereed by the Program Committee. Accepted papers will be published in the workshop proceedings. Contributors to the OAEI 2007 campaign have to follow the contest conditions at: http://oaei.ontologymatching.org/2007/. IMPORTANT DATES FOR TECHNICAL PAPERS August 3, 2007: Deadline for the submission of papers. September 7, 2007: Deadline for the notification of acceptance/rejection. September 28, 2007: Workshop camera ready copy submission. November 11, 2007: OM-2007, BEXCO, Busan, Korea. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE 1. Pavel Shvaiko University of Trento, Italy e-mail: pavel at dit dot unitn dot it 2. Jerome Euzenat INRIA Rhone-Alpes, France 3. Fausto Giunchiglia University of Trento, Italy 4. Bin He IBM Almaden Research Center, USA PROGRAM COMMITTEE Olivier Bodenreider, National Library of Medicine, USA Francesco Guerra, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy Wei Hu, Southeast University, China Jingshan Huang, University of South Carolina, USA Todd Hughes, DARPA, USA Michael Huhns, University of South Carolina, USA Ryutaro Ichise, National Institute of Informatics, Japan Anthony Jameson, DFKI, Germany Yannis Kalfoglou, University of Southampton, UK Vipul Kashyap, Clinical Informatics R&D, USA Christian Meilicke, University of Mannheim, Germany Peter Mork, The MITRE Corporation, USA Meenakshi Nagarajan, Wright State University, USA Luigi Palopoli, University of Calabria, Italy Luciano Serafini, Fondazione Bruno Kessler (ITC-IRST), Italy Marco Schorlemmer, IIIA-CSIC, Spain Steffen Staab, University of Koblenz, Germany Umberto Straccia, ISTI-C.N.R., Italy Heiner Stuckenschmidt, University of Mannheim, Germany Petko Valtchev, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Canada Frank van Harmelen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands Ludger van Elst, DFKI, Germany Baoshi Yan, Bosch Research, USA Mikalai Yatskevich, University of Trento, Italy Songmao Zhang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China ------------------------------------------------------- Download the OM-2007 flyer: http://om2007.ontologymatching.org/Pictures/CfP_OM2007_flyer.pdf ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- Pavel Shvaiko University of Trento Dept. of Information and Communication Technology Sommarive 14, POVO, 38050, TRENTO, ITALY Web: http://www.dit.unitn.it/~pavel/ http://www.ontologymatching.org/
Received on Tuesday, 12 June 2007 07:18:33 UTC


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Charles W. Chesnutt, in full Charles Waddell Chesnutt, (born June 20, 1858, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.—died Nov. 15, 1932, Cleveland), first important black American novelist.
Chesnutt was the son of free blacks who had left their native city of Fayetteville, N.C., prior to the American
Civil War. Following the war, his parents moved back to Fayetteville, where Chesnutt completed his education and began teaching. He was named assistant principal (1877–80) and then principal (1880–83) of State Colored Normal School (now Fayetteville State University), but he became so distressed about the treatment of blacks in the South that he moved his wife and children to Cleveland. He worked as a clerk-stenographer while becoming a practicing attorney and establishing a profitable legal stenography firm. In his spare moments, he wrote stories.
Between 1885 and 1905 Chesnutt published more than 50 tales, short stories, and essays, as well as two collections of short stories, a biography of the antislavery leader Frederick Douglass, and three novels. His "The Goophered Grapevine," the first work by a black accepted by The Atlantic Monthly (August 1887), was so subtle in its refutation of the plantation school of Thomas Nelson Page that most readers missed the irony. These and similarly authentic stories of folklife among the North Carolina blacks were collected in The Conjure Woman (1899). The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line (1899) examines color prejudice among blacks as well as between the races in a manner reminiscent of George W. Cable. The Colonel's Dream (1905) dealt trenchantly with the problems of the freed slave. A psychological realist, Chesnutt made use of familiar scenes of North Carolina folklife to protest social injustice.
His works outranked any fiction written by blacks until the 1930s. Chesnutt's thematic use of the humanity of blacks and the contemporary inhumanity of man to man, black and white alike, anticipates the work of later writers as diverse as William Faulkner, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin.


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The Upanishads, Part 2 (SBE15), by Max Müller, [1879], at sacred-texts.com
'Understanding performs the sacrifice, it performs all sacred acts. All Devas worship understanding as Brahman, as the oldest. If a man knows understanding as Brahman, and if he does not swerve from it, he leaves all evils behind in the body, and attains all his wishes.' The embodied Self of this (consisting of understanding) is the same as that of the former (consisting of mind).
Different from this, which consists of understanding, is the other inner Self, which consists of bliss. The former is filled by this. It also has the shape of man. Like the human shape of the former is the human shape of the latter. joy is its head. Satisfaction its right arm. Great satisfaction is its left arm. Bliss is its trunk. Brahman is the seat (the support).
On this there is also the following Sloka:


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GOP critics demand Hispanic appeal
Conservative writers and commentators grew increasingly vocal on Election Night about the need to broaden the Republican tent, particularly to include more Hispanics.
"The Romney campaign to the [Hispanic] community was atrocious and, frankly, the fastest growing demographic in America isn't going to vote for a party that sounds like that party hates brown people," wrote Erick Erickson at RedState.com. "That does not mean the GOP must offer up amnesty. It does mean that a group that is a natural fit for the GOP on social issues, must in someway be made to feel comfortable with the GOP."
Mitt Romney secured only about 30 percent of the Latino vote, according to exit polls. He fared worse with that demographic than did the two preceding GOP nominees, reports indicated. That spurred some soul-searching from the right.
"Our party must do better with young voters & Hispanics," tweeted Alex Schriver, the chair of the College Republican National Committee. "They are BOTH existential threats to our movement. Let THAT be the lesson of 2012."
GOP strategist Mike Murphy also offered a harsh assessment.
"We have a Latino problem that just cost us a national election," he said on NBC, also bashing the GOP primary process. "We're going to have to have a very adult conversation that might turn into an inter-party fistfight about how we become electable again."
In an interview on Fox News Tuesday night, former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee slammed his party's approach to minorities.
"I think Republicans have done a pathetic job of reaching out to people of color, something we've got to work on," Huckabee said. He added later, "Republicans acted as if they can't get the vote, so they don't try. And the result is, they don't get the vote."
John Weaver, a veteran of GOP campaigns including Sen. John McCain's 2008 run, offered, "Any increase in Hispanic voting is bad for MR, but good for the country."
Ana Navarro, who served as a Hispanic national co-chair for the McCain campaign, chimed in: "Republicans, there's no time for navel gazing. We need to have a serious conversation about how to bring Latinos into our Party."