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Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. A searchable guide to these and many other art shows is at nytimes.com/events.
Asia Society and Museum: 'Bound Unbound: Lin Tianmiao' (through Jan. 27) Lin Tianmiao is one of a rare kind in China, where she lives: a nationally and internationally renowned female artist. This museumwide show presents installations that have not been widely seen. Influenced by American artists like Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois and Ann Hamilton — who made the female body and traditional women's occupations hot topics during the 1990s when Ms. Lin was living in New York — these productions are not particularly original. But they are striking for their surrealistic theatricality and labor intensive craft. 725 Park Avenue, at 70th Street, (212) 517-2742, asiasociety.org. (Ken Johnson)
★ Brooklyn Museum: 'Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe' (through Jan. 20) This invigorating exhibition is dominated by big, brash collage-like paintings, thick with color and studded with rhinestones that depict cacophonous landscapes, spatially skewed interiors and, best of all, images of imperious black women among swaths of brightly patterned fabrics. Building on Conceptual identity art, borrowing from art history and 1970s blaxploitation extravagance, they subvert prevailing notions of beauty and taste and subvert the male gaze while offering resounding proof that the political, not only the personal, can also be stunningly pictorial. Bravo. 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, (718) 638-5000, brooklynmuseum.org. (Roberta Smith)
Brooklyn Museum: 'Go: a community-curated open studio project' (through Feb. 24) Inspired by ArtPrize, an art competition in Grand Rapids, Mich., that awards money to artists based on votes by the public, and by local open-studios programs, the Brooklyn Museum created a contest in which the award was a spot in this exhibition. More than 1,800 artists registered with the museum; visitors went out to their studios and voted; and the Top 10 artists were whittled down to 5 by Brooklyn Museum curators. The results are less than stellar. "Go" has not unearthed any hidden masters of the borough, but it does raise questions about who should choose what appears in museums and what constitutes "great" art. 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, (718) 638-5000, brooklynmuseum.org. (Martha Schwendener)
★ Brooklyn Museum: 'Materializing "Six Years": Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art' (through Feb. 17) This big, intellectually enthralling exhibition of Conceptual works from the 1960s and early '70s is not a conventional museum period survey. Rather, it approximates how the rise of Conceptualism was seen while it was happening by one person: the curator, critic and writer Lucy R. Lippard, who was an extraordinarily energetic participant in and promoter of a trend that brought us the triumph of mind over matter in art. Anyone who wants art to be radically defiant of the market-driven system must see it. 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, (718) 638-5000, brooklynmuseum.org. (Johnson)
★ Frick Collection: 'Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings From the Courtauld Gallery' (through Jan. 27) This show of 58 drawings from a London museum and institute of art history covers a lot of ground — namely, the Renaissance, Baroque and Modern periods. The installation, which spills over from the lower-level galleries into the Cabinet Room off the lobby, encourages much back-and-forth between works of similar subject or virtuosity; Pontormo is paired with Michelangelo, Rubens with Rembrandt, and Goya with Daumier. 1 East 70th Street, (212) 288-0700, frick.org. (Karen Rosenberg)
★ Frick Collection: 'Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of a Peasant (Patience Escalier)' (through Jan. 20) "You'll shortly make the acquaintance of Mr. Patience Escalier — a sort of man with a hoe, an old Camargue oxherd," Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo, from the Provençal city of Arles in 1888. His bracingly vivid portrait the same year of this local character, with his grizzled beard and steely blue eyes offset by a ruddy complexion and bright yellow hat, normally resides at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, Calif. But for the next few months it can be seen at the Frick as part of an exchange program between the two museums. Installed on a temporary wall in the Oval Room, it shocks the neighboring Whistler portraits with its feral gaze and forthright celebration of hard labor. 1 East 70th Street, (212) 288-0700, frick.org. (Rosenberg)
★ Guggenheim Museum: 'Picasso Black and White' (through Jan. 23) Billed as the first monochromatic look at Picasso's whole career, this exhibition is as eye-opening as it is elegant. That's especially true among the later works on the upper ramps, which push well past the obligatory Neo-Classicism and Analytic Cubism into bracingly sensual explorations of the figure, strident political cries de coeur à la Guernica, and winking homages to Delacroix and Velázquez. Also notable: Thirty eight of the show's 118 works have never been exhibited in this country, and 5, among them the sharply angular "Bust of a Woman With a Hat" (1939), have never been on view publicly. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500, guggenheim.org. (Rosenberg)
★ Metropolitan Museum of Art: 'African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde' (through April 14) Timed to the centennial of the Armory Show of 1913, this exhibition tells the story of African art's debut in cutting-edge New York museums and galleries with exceptional candor. It makes clear that early-20th-century Americans received Modern art and African art as a single import, derived from French and Belgian colonies, distilled in Paris and presented on these shores by a few tastemaking dealers and collectors. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Rosenberg)
★ Metropolitan Museum of Art: 'George Bellows' (through Feb. 18) Organized by the National Gallery in Washington, this exhibition starts strong with the lush early paintings of New York City and its residents for which Bellows is justifiably well known. It then devotes more than half its space to a disorganized reprise of his restless but steady artistic decline, which ended with his death in 1925 at 42 from a ruptured appendix. It does little to clarify his achievement, partly because of the short shrift given to his plein air oil studies and late landscape paintings. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Smith)
★ Metropolitan Museum of Art: 'Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens' (through Jan. 27) The first in-depth survey of the brilliant artistry and engineering of Abraham and David Roentgen, a father-and-son team of genius German cabinetmakers, features roll-top desks, writing tables, chairs and clocks. Rife with intricate inlay and marquetry, gilded mounts and hidden compartments revealed by the touch of a button, these objects were among the supreme status symbols of late-18th-century Europe. Video animations show seven of the desks in action. The show is, over all, a stealth blockbuster. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Smith)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 'Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop' (through Jan. 27) This absorbing, often amusing exhibition offers abundant evidence that photographers have been cheating since shortly after the medium's invention almost two centuries ago. It features prints dating from 1846 to the early '90s made from altered negatives; seemingly realistic images made by piecing together two or more negatives; hand-colored black-and-white prints; Surrealistic montages; and conceptual confections contesting the ideal of photographic truth. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Johnson)
★ Metropolitan Museum of Art: 'Matisse: In Search of True Painting' (through March 17) This stunning exhibition skims across the great French modernist's long, productive career with a mere 49 stellar, often pivotal paintings arranged in pairs or groups according to subject. Examining his penchant for working in series and copying his own canvases, they shed new light on the arduous evolution of Matisse's seemingly effortless art, forming one of the most thrillingly instructive exhibitions about the artist, or painting in general, that you may ever see. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Smith)
★ MoMA PS1: 'Huma Bhabha: Unnatural Histories' (through April 1) In this midcareer survey, long-enduring forms from the ancient world lend some gravity to the throwaway materials that are now commonplace in contemporary sculpture. You could also say that the precariousness of recent assemblage and installation art haunts Ms. Bhabha's monstrous, totemic figures, which are typically made of Styrofoam, clay, rubber, wood scraps and wire mesh; either way, the juxtaposition is arresting. 22-25 Jackson Avenue, at 46th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 784-2084, momaps1.org. (Rosenberg)
★ MoMA PS1: 'Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt: Tender Love Among the Junk' (through April 1) Mr. Lanigan-Schmidt makes luminous art out of trash: candy wrappers, cling wrap, reflective plastics, aluminum foil, plastic bottles, beer cans and too many other kinds of cheap refuse to list. As this four-decade retrospective reveals, his devotion to his materials and hobbylike processes has yielded an oeuvre of transcending beauty, eroticized religiosity and poignant autobiography. 22-25 Jackson Avenue, at 46th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 784-2084, momaps1.org. (Johnson)
MoMA PS1: 'Now Dig This! Art & Black Los Angeles 1960-1980' (through March 11) This exhibition of works by black artists who lived and worked in Los Angeles during a time of revolutionary changes happening in art and society had its debut at the Hammer Museum last year as part of the citywide extravaganza "Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980." Focusing mainly on assemblage, the show includes pieces by Melvin Edwards, Betye Saar, David Hammons and nearly 30 others. It contributes a valuable chapter to the American art history of the last 50 years. 22-25 Jackson Avenue, at 46th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 784-2084, ps1.org. (Johnson)
Morgan Library & Museum: 'Fantasy and Invention: Rosso Fiorentino and Sixteenth-Century Florentine Drawing' (through Feb. 3) With just under 30 works, including an unfinished Rosso painting on loan from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, a Rosso drawing from the Metropolitan Museum and a smattering of drawings and letters by other Italian masters in the Morgan's collection, this small exhibition is a fine little introduction to the eccentricities of Florentine Mannerism and to one of the style's quirkiest practitioners, who was lauded by Vasari as "bold and well grounded in draftsmanship, graceful in manner, sublime in the highest flights of the imagination." 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, (212) 685-0008, themorgan.org. (Rosenberg)
★ Museum of Arts and Design: 'Doris Duke's Shangri-La: Architecture, Landscape and Islamic Art' (through Feb. 17) The Honolulu estate known as Shangri La is a masterpiece of refined eclecticism. Doris Duke, the owner, referred to it as a "Spanish-Moorish-Persian-Indian complex." Whatever you call it, it looks magnificent in this show and the accompanying book. Both combine sparkling new color shots of the home and gardens taken by Tim Street-Porter; architectural documents and vintage photographs; pieces of the collection; and projects by contemporary artists who had residencies at Shangri La (which has served, since Duke's death in 1993, as the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art). 2 Columbus Circle, (212) 299-7777, madmuseum.org. (Rosenberg)
Museum of Modern Art: 'Artist's Choice: Trisha Donnelly' (through April 8) The 10th artist invited to select an exhibition from the Modern's collection does the series proud. Installed in three far-flung galleries within the museum's vaunted painting and sculpture collection, her effort disturbs the march of masterworks by concentrating on photographs, drawings and other works on paper as well as several kinds of design. At every turn it asks what is art, who is an artist and what makes for greatness? (212) 708-9400, moma.org. (Smith)
★ Museum of Modern Art: 'Born Out of Necessity' (through Jan. 28) The title may or may not have an extra preposition, but the show itself is a fascinating array of recent acquisitions that have a fairly direct bearing on quality of life or actual survival. They range from classic (the 1908 Dixie cup) to cutting edge; cover both analog and digital; and include the tiny (the latest in earplugs) and the quite large (the 1952 United States Army Jeep). Whether born "of" or "out of" necessity, the displays attest to human ingenuity responding to human need. (212) 708-9400, moma.org. (Smith)
★ Museum of Modern Art: 'Inventing Abstraction: 1910-1925' (through April 15) The pursuit of the holy grail of early modernism at its most feverish is presented as a multiple-medium, multinational effort in this dizzying, magisterial cornucopia. The 350-plus works by 84 artists encompass painting, sculpture, music, poetry, dance, film and photography; alternate between the tentative and the prescient; and capture something of both the terrors and thrills of the project, with clusters of paintings by Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian among the high points. (212) 708-9400, moma.org. (Smith)
★ Museum of Modern Art: 'Edvard Munch: The Scream' (through April 29) A version of Edvard Munch's "Scream" is on view at this museum for the next six months, having come almost straight from the auction block. Protected by a Plexiglas box, like the Mona Lisa, it has been given a prominent perch opposite van Gogh's "Starry Night" in the fifth-floor painting and sculpture galleries. There is talk of timed tickets. But if you can put up with all the pageantry, you'll have a rare chance to get acquainted with "The Scream" in person and in context. The museum has built a mini-exhibition around the work, surrounding it with Munch paintings and prints that amplify its motifs and mood. (212) 708-9400, moma.org. (Rosenberg)
Museum of Modern Art: 'New Photography 2012' (through Feb. 4) In her pellucid photographs, Anne Collier contemplates old record album covers and an Edward Weston photograph in an old MoMA date book. In montages by Michele Abeles we see the bodies of naked men through spaces between grids and stripes cut from other printed materials. Shirana Shahbazi's abstractions picture alluring colors and light of photography itself. Zoe Crosher recycles amateur snapshots by a woman who worked as an escort in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. The two members of a team known as Birdhead use nondigital cameras and black-and-white film to shoot scenes in their hometown, Shanghai. (212) 708-9400, moma.org. (Johnson)
★ Museum of Modern Art: 'Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972' (through Jan. 28) This small but intense exhibition is the museum's second show of an Eastern European female artist in less than a year, following the Conceptual performance and photography of "Sanja Ivekovic: Sweet Violence." For many Americans it will be their first look at Ms. Szapocznikow's precocious Pop-Surrealist sculpture, much of which parallels work made on these shores by Lynda Benglis, Eva Hesse and Hannah Wilke. (212) 708-9400, moma.org. (Rosenberg)
★ Museum of Modern Art: 'Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde' (through Feb. 25) Modernist art, insurgent and utopian, ignited like a firecracker cluster in cities across the globe in the early 20th century, and Tokyo was one of them. Rising from the ashes after World War II, it produced huge amounts of new art, feisty, fantastic, often politically subversive. And a wave of it comes surging out at you like a blast of sound — half noise, half music — in this surprising exhibition made up of loans from Japan and little-seen material from MoMA's collection. (212) 708-9400, moma.org. (Holland Cotter)
Museum of Modern Art: 'Performing Histories (1)' (through March 11) An awareness of the uprisings, protests, occupations and revolutions erupting around the globe is present in "Performing Histories (1)," a show of video, film and photographic work recently acquired by MoMA. Insurrection and resistance pervade the Romanian artist Ion Grigorescu's film "Dialogue With Ceausescu" (1978), while the feminist personal as political is employed in Martha Rosler's "She Sees in Herself a New Woman Every Day" (1976) and Sharon Hayes's four-channel video "The Interpreter Project" (2001). Andrea Fraser's two videos connect politics and the museum. In one she describes how scientific philanthropy in the 19th century directed wealth to museums and other public institutions rather than the poor, while another video delves into how MoMA itself interacted with revolutionaries and communists, like the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. (212) 708-9400, moma.org. (Schwendener)
New Museum: 'Judith Bernstein: "HARD" ' (through Jan. 20) Ms. Bernstein is well-known for the giant drawings of phallic screws that she began making in the late 1960s. Two from the '70s are the main attractions in this much-abbreviated, 40-year retrospective, her first show in a museum. In these bravura performances of draftsmanship on vast sheets of paper, the screws extend horizontally as if they were drilling tunnels through mountains. Rendered by sweeping strokes of charcoal, they appear wildly hairy and scarily purposeful: biomechanical monstrosities of testosterone-fueled fury. 235 Bowery, at Prince Street, Lower East Side, (212) 219-1222, newmuseum.org. (Johnson)
★ New Museum: 'Rosemarie Trockel: A Cosmos' (through Jan. 20) This elegant, mind-expanding exhibition sidesteps the standard retrospective format and a linear, canonical version of art history. Ms. Trockel emphasizes her recent work in numerous mediums — most impressively ceramics, photography and drawing, sharing the spotlight with outsider artists, botanical illustrations and zoological models and even natural specimens. The result is completely entrancing, a celebration of nature and also of human nature — its curiosity, ingenuity and yearning for expression — encapsulated by the artist's magnanimous vision. 235 Bowery, at Prince Street, Lower East Side, (212) 219-1222, newmuseum.org. (Smith)
New-York Historical Society: 'John Rogers: American Stories' (through Feb. 18) The sculptor John Rogers (1829-1904) was the Norman Rockwell of his time. For a few decades following the Civil War, his lively, anecdotal, figurative tableaus known as Rogers Groups sold by the tens of thousands to middle- and upper-middle-class folks for about $15 apiece. Including examples of the technically impressive bronze masters from which the multiples were cast in plaster, this exhibition showcases an artist who was as remarkable for his entrepreneurial savvy as for his idealistic vision of life in America. 170 Central Park West, at 77th Street, (212) 873-3400, nyhistory.org. (Johnson)
★ Rubin Museum of Art: 'Radical Terrain' (through April 29) The third and last of three beautifully produced, back-to-back mini-surveys in the series Modernist Art From India, this exhibition combines landscape painting done in India in the years following independence in 1947 with recent work by young artists — some South Asian, most not — that corresponds to or comments on the older art. Small in size and unfamiliar in content, the show is large with history. Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, Chelsea, (212) 620-5000, rmanyc.org. (Cotter)
★ South Street Seaport Museum: 'Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions' (through Feb. 3) The American Folk Art Museum presents some 200 works from its unparalleled collection in this beautifully orchestrated exhibition. Paintings, sculpture, textiles, scrimshaw, painted furniture and much, much more are arrayed along themes that reflect the history of Lower Manhattan — seafaring, commerce, social life and that all-important factor, the weather — but not too tightly. Poetic license is taken, yielding an intricate constellation of connected artworks, histories and concerns that highlights one of the city's great treasures. 12 Fulton Street, Lower Manhattan, (212) 748-8600, southstreetseaportmuseum.org. (Smith)
★ Studio Museum in Harlem: 'Fore' (through March 10) In 2001 the Studio Museum in Harlem opened a dynamite group exhibition called "Freestyle," which turned out to be the first in a series of shows introducing emerging artists of African-American descent. In the latest edition, "Fore," organized by three young staff curators, Lauren Haynes, Naima J. Keith and Thomas J. Lax, covers the waterfront in terms of media, which it samples and mixes with turntablist flair, and in its contents, ranging from abstract to personal to political, sometimes combining all three. Firelei Báez, Sadie Barnette, Crystal Z. Campbell, Zachary Fabri, Yashua Klos, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Valerie Piraino and Nikki Pressley are some of the names to look for. 144 West 125th Street, (212) 864-4500, studiomuseum.org. (Cotter)
Whitney Museum of American Art: 'Richard Artschwager!' (through Feb. 3) Mr. Artschwager had his first career retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 1988, and now, at 88, he is having his second. Much of the work — the furniturelike sculptures covered with wood-grain Formica and the paintings that appeared to be done with smudged soot — is familiar. His recent portraits of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden, and his high-color landscapes of the American Southwest are not. An installation of his famous "blps" (pronounced blips), abstract lozenge forms, usually black and shaped like the uprights in an exclamation point, is in place on and around the High Line near the site of the Whitney's future home at Gansevoort and Washington Streets. (212) 570-3600, whitney.org. (Cotter)
Whitney Museum of American Art: 'Trisha Baga: Plymouth Rock 2' (through Jan. 27) "Plymouth Rock 2," a single-room installation by a young up-and-comer consists of seemingly random video scenes projected on one wall and banal, shadow-casting objects on the floor. Images of heaving ocean swells shot from a swimmer's point of view and of a beachcomber with a metal detector imply some kind of quest like a search for the Holy Grail, which turns out to be Plymouth Rock, the boulder whereon, legend has it, the Pilgrims first alighted in the New World, now a sadly nondescript tourist attraction. (212) 570-3600, whitney.org. (Johnson)
★ Whitney Museum of American Art: 'Sinister Pop' and 'Dark and Deadpan: Pop in TV and the Movies' (through March 31) The dark and truculent mood of this collection show is conversant with recent presentations of Warhol's death-and-disaster paintings, but the curators make plenty of room for other artists (including photographers). The point is not to cast a pall over Pop as we know it; it's to find common ground between the winking consumerism of early-1960s art and the antiwar, anti-corporate sentiment of work made later in the decade and into the 1970s. (212) 570-3600, whitney.org. (Rosenberg)
Galleries: Uptown
★ 'Calder: The Complete Bronzes' (through Feb. 9) The ingenious master of spare, levitating modern sculpture in wire, wood and sheet metal turns out to have been almost as adept with the ancient dead-weight staple of bronze, as demonstrated by 35 examples and some dozen plaster models in this eye-opening show. They run the gamut from figurative to abstract; dabble in Surrealism; achieve their own kind of levitation; and delve into art history while enabling the artist to use his hands and amazing tactile sense in a different way. L&M Arts, 45 East 78th Street, (212) 861-0020, lmgallery.com. (Smith)
Galleries: Chelsea
'Cellblock I' and 'Cellblock II' (through Feb. 2) This pair of strenuously cerebral group shows, both organized by the scholar Robert Hobbs, envision the artwork as a kind of prison (formalist and otherwise). "Cellblock I," in the main gallery, includes large paintings by Peter Halley, plans for underground mazes by Alice Aycock, works from Robert Motherwell's "Open" series and Kelley Walker's canvases printed with images of brick walls. The livelier "Cellblock II," in the gallery's new project space down the street, gathers smaller works by some of the same artists in "Cellblock I," along with others like Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman and Nancy Holt. Andrea Rosen, 525 West 24th Street, Chelsea, (212) 627-6000, andrearosengallery.com. (Rosenberg)
Agnes Denes: 'Sculptures of the Mind: 1968 to Now' (through Jan. 19) By the end of the 1960s, art's final frontier was mind itself, and Agnes Denes has been one of its brainiest and far-ranging explorers. This much abridged retrospective includes a miniature tableau of skeletons in philosophical conversation, diagrams of a system of symbolic logic that Ms. Denes thought up, and photographs of outdoor works like the wheat field she planted on a parcel of landfill near the World Trade Center in 1982. Leslie Tonkonow, 535 West 22nd Street, (212) 255-8450, tonkonow.com. (Johnson)
★ 'Carroll Dunham' (through Jan. 19) All nine of Mr. Dunhams big, comical and exhilarating paintings represent landscapes resembling a South Pacific paradise, with chunky, fat-leafed trees and colorful, spongy flowers. Six feature the figure of a naked woman of heroic proportions with chalk-white skin and untamed black hair drawn in thick black lines, bathing, swimming and cavorting in this Edenic setting. She might be the artist's own inner wild woman. Gladstone, 515 West 24th Street, (212) 206-9300, gladstonegallery.com. (Johnson)
Chris McCaw: 'Marking Time' (through Jan. 19) In Chris McCaw's haunting yet matter-of-fact photographs, the sun has burned crispy-edged lines across the skies of spectral land- and seascapes. Mr. McCaw constructs his own large-format cameras, which he equips with military surveillance lenses. Traveling to remote places, he exposes sheets of photo paper for durations from 15 minutes to 24 hours. The lens concentrates the sun into an inflammatory dot, which cuts through the paper like a welder's torch slicing through steel. Yossi Milo, 245 10th Avenue, near 24th Street, (212) 414-0370, yossimilo.com. (Johnson)
John A. Parks: 'Paint and Memory' (through Jan. 19) The strange, seemingly innocent paintings that dominate this show are small, based on the artist's childhood memories and painted with his fingers. The loosely Pointillist, somewhat Vuillardian hazes of color, light and form that result demarcate trees, gardens, brick buildings, puffy clouds and, above all, scrambling children, whose feral energy and natural subversiveness are vividly conveyed. The distinction between illustration and painting is rendered moot by the teeming quality of both surface and subject. 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, 532 West 25th Street, Chelsea, (917) 701-3338, 532gallery.com. (Smith)
Galleries: Other
'The Islands of Benoît Mandelbrot: Fractals, Chaos, and the Materiality of Thinking' (through Jan. 27) This heady, compact exhibition presents efforts from the 1960s and '70s to visualize a species of mathematical formulas known as fractals, a term coined by the mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot (1924-2012). The visual impact of the computer printouts, short films, 3-D models, letters, sketches and Polaroids on display is low, but the philosophical import is great considering the enormous advances in scientific imaging technology that have happened since those early days. Bard Graduate Center, 18 West 86th Street, Manhattan, (212) 501-3023, bgc.bard.edu. (Johnson)
★ Simon Dinnerstein: 'The Fulbright Triptych' (ongoing) This little-known masterpiece of 1970s realism was begun by the young Simon Dinnerstein during a Fulbright fellowship in Germany in 1971 and completed in his hometown, Brooklyn, three years later. Incorporating carefully rendered art postcards, children's drawings and personal memorabilia; a formidable worktable laid out with printmaking tools and outdoor views; and the artist and his family, it synthesizes portrait, still life, interior and landscape and rummages through visual culture while sampling a dazzling range of textures and representational styles. It should be seen by anyone interested in the history of recent art and its oversights. German Consulate General, 871 United Nations Plaza, First Avenue, at 49th Street, (212) 610-9700, germany.info. (Smith)
Out 0f Town
★ Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: 'Ai Weiwei: According to What?' (through Feb. 24) As seen in its first American survey, the work of the lionhearted Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, is no match for his prominent role as a human rights advocate. The sculptures and installation pieces too often adhere to the fashionable international genre of handsome, Conceptually generated artworks. Explanatory labels do much of the heavy lifting, along with historically-charged materials and objects, like Chinese antique furniture and wood from destroyed Qing dynasty temples. The artist's photographs and videos suggest that his documentary work may be best. On the National Mall, at Independence Avenue Southwest and Seventh Street, Washington, (202) 633-4674, hirshhorn.si.edu; free. (Smith)
★ Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art: 'Oh, Canada' (through April 8) Seesawing between bigness and intimacy, the personal and the communal, this 62-artist survey of contemporary art in the Great White North may tell you more about Canada's identity crisis than it does about Canadian art. A sense of place, if not nationhood, does emerge in stark photographs of Newfoundland by Ned Pratt and Kim Morgan's hanging latex cast of a lighthouse on Prince Edward Island. Elsewhere, cartoonlike pencil drawings by Annie Pootoogook and Shuvinai Ashoona depict contemporary Inuit life and the artist Amalie Atkins stars in a prairie fairy tale involving musical wolves and bears with golden teeth. 87 Marshall Street, North Adams, (413) 662-2111, massmoca.org. (Rosenberg)
★ Philadelphia Museum of Art: 'Dancing Around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg and Duchamp' (through Jan. 21) The Philadelphia show, an ensemble performance composed of entirely stars, with an elusive sun, Marcel Duchamp, at the center, focuses on a transformative moment in American modernism when a heroic view of art ended, and another view, cool, wry and brainy, began. In Manhattan, the most radical of all those stars, John Cage, gets a solo show of his lambent late watercolors in honor of his 2012 centenary year. (That Manhattan show, "John Cage: The Sight of Silence" at the National Academy Museum, runs through Jan. 13.) Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street, (215) 763-8100, philamuseum.org. (Cotter)
★ The Walters Art Museum: 'Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe' (through Jan. 21) This history-rattling exhibition is a visual gift, with marvelous things by artists familiar and revered — Durer, Rubens, Veronese — along with images most of us never knew existed. Together, they map a history of art, politics and race that few museums have addressed in full-dress style. Like the best scholarship, the Walters show, organized by Joaneath Spicer, the museum's curator of Renaissance and Baroque art, is as much about questions as answers. It takes a prized piece of art history, one polished to a glow by generations of attention, and turns it in an unexpected direction, so it catches the searching, scouring rays of new investigative light. (From Feb. 16 to June 9 it will be at the Princeton University Art Museum in Princeton, N.J.) 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore, (410) 547-9000, thewalters.org. (Cotter)
★ Yale University Art Gallery (continuing) In a museum era dominated by vying forces of bad economics and compulsive building, it's a miracle when something comes out right, which makes the opening of the splendidly renovated and expanded Yale University Art Gallery a happy event. The angels of art, design and budgetary planning were on duty. Everything worked. The country's oldest university art museum has arrived at a kind institutional ideal of opposites in balance: an encyclopedic teaching museum, big enough to get lost in, small enough for intimate art encounters. New galleries of Indo-Pacific art are a particular attraction, but so are other collections, including one of the countries premier holdings in American art and a small, matchless display of very early Italian Renaissance painting. A special exhibition, "Societe Anonyme: Modernism for America," made up of Yale-owned material, is on view through July 14. 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven, (203) 432-0600, artgallery.yale.edu. (Cotter)
Last Chance
American Folk Art Museum: 'Foiled: Tinsel Painting in America' (closes on Sunday) Might tinsel painting, a decorative and resourceful form of picture making that was all the rage during the second half of the 19th century, be due for a comeback? Possibly, to judge from this cluttered but charming show, which seems tailor-made for the Etsy set. It includes some 150 works made by placing crinkly metallic foil under a protective surface of reverse-painted glass, most of them by unidentified artists. 2 Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street, (212) 595-9533, folkartmuseum.org. (Rosenberg)
★ Trisha Baga: 'The Biggest Circle' (closes on Saturday) Trisha Baga creates transporting, frowzy installations of video projections, paintings, sculptures and scattered objects. For one, you don 3-D glasses and headphones, through which you hear the popular art historian Sister Wendy lecturing on canonical painters while shifting configurations of vividly dimensional abstract shapes play on the wall. "Bag's Circle" centers on a floor-to-ceiling projection of the revolving, circular mouth of a much-used paper bag, a symbol, perhaps, of a wide-open mind. Greene Naftali, 508 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 463-7770, greenenaftaligallery.com. (Johnson)
Bob Dylan: 'Revisionist Art' (closes on Saturday) Bob Dylan may be a genius but he's no polymath. His music is great. His attempts at visual art have gone from bad to worse. From paintings based on photographs, he has turned to full-on appropriation with silk-screened works that rejigger the words and pictures on the covers of magazines like Time, Life, Playboy and Rolling Stone. Alternately obscure or obvious, these attempts at social satire suggest that the line between naïveté and cynicism is sometimes very thin. Gagosian Gallery, 980 Madison Avenue, at 76th Street, (212) 744-2313, gagosian.com. (Smith)
★ 'Keltie Ferris' (closes on Saturday) Keltie Ferris's big, scintillating paintings feel fresh, direct and very much of this moment. That's partly because they seem to picture a kind of visual experience that did not exist before the advent of digital forms of visualization. Made with lively immediacy on canvases up to nearly nine feet in their longest dimensions, they give the impression of computer-screen imagery breaking up into pixels and blurs. Mitchell-Innes & Nash, 534 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 744-7400, miandn.com. (Johnson)
Guggenheim Museum: 'Gabriel Orozco: Asterisms' (closes on Sunday) For one-half of this two-part exhibition, Mr. Orozco and his team collected about 1,200 pieces of flotsam and jetsam that washed up on the beach of a nature preserve in Mexico. All are displayed by type in a color-coordinated rectangle on the floor along with framed grids of photographs of each item. A playing field on Pier 40 in Manhattan was similarly combed for detritus. The two presentations resemble exhibitions in a natural history museum. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500, guggenheim.org. (Johnson)
Alicja Kwade: 'The Heavy Weight of Light' (closes on Saturday) Elegantly understated works by this Berlin artist are as much thought experiments as sculptures. A folding screen of clear glass panels with electric globe lights on the floor on either side becomes a puzzle about perceptions and reflections. Clocks on the walls run faster and slower than normal. Pieces of pipe and lumber apparently have become rubberized. It gives pause to consider a world so arbitrarily variable. Harris Lieberman, 508 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 206-1290, harrislieberman.com. (Johnson)
★ Metropolitan Museum of Art: 'Designing Nature: The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art' (closes on Sunday) Have any artists ever, anywhere, caught the hello-ness of spring and the farewell-ness of autumn more sweetly and sharply than the Rimpa painters of Japan? Two shimmering fall exhibitions — this show is running in conjunction with "Silver Wind: The Arts of Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828)" at Japan Society — argue persuasively, that no, no artists ever have. Together the exhibitions add up to one of the largest Rimpa displays seen outside of Japan in years, with the Met's show giving us a broader view of the style. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Cotter)
★ National Academy Museum: 'John Cage: the Sight of Silence' (closes on Sunday) This solo show of John Cage's lambent late watercolors, produced in the decade or so before his death in 1992, is a superb, late addition to the 2012 Cage centenary year. It's a sort of companion to the Philadelphia Museum of Art's "Dancing Around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg and Duchamp," which focuses on a transformative moment in American modernism when a heroic view of art ended, and another view, cool, wry and brainy, began. (The Philadelphia show runs through Jan. 21.) 1083 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 369-4880, nationalacademy.org. (Cotter)
National Gallery of Art: 'Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective' (closes on Sunday) The first major survey of this Pop artist's career work since his death, at 73, in 1997, is a big show and has some slow spots, but on the whole it moves right along. As always, Lichtenstein's large-featured images, with their Ben-Day dot patterns; thick, black contours; and flat, bright colors are almost ergonomically comfortable to the eye. On the National Mall, between Third and Seventh Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, (202) 737-4215, nga.gov. (Cotter)
★ 'Charles Ray' (closes on Saturday) This striking show features the sculptor's latest forays into post-Conceptual realism, namely two male nudes — one standing and one crouching — and a clothed, homeless woman sleeping on a bench. Oddly luminous, finely detailed, 10 percent larger than life and carved by computer-driven machines in solid stainless steel, they form a beautifully spare arrangement and a cat's cradle of ricocheting ideas that both update and disrupt longstanding sculptural motifs, techniques and traditions. Matthew Marks Gallery, 522 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 243-0200, matthewmarks.com. (Smith)
★ Rubin Museum of Art: 'Candid: The Lens and Life of Homai Vyarawalla' (closes on Monday) The Indian photojournalist Homai Vyarawalla (1913-2012) was on the spot time and again to record the history of modern South Asia being made. This small, evocative, event-filled retrospective catches highlights of her career, including her coverage of Mohandas Gandhi's funeral; important events in the career of the charismatic Jawaharlal Nehru; and visits from Nikita Khrushchev, Ho Chi Minh and Jacqueline Kennedy. As one of the few female photographers in the Indian press corps in her day, Ms. Vyarawalla was a pioneer; in 1970 she abruptly put down her camera and disappeared until her recent rediscovery by younger peers. 150 West 17th Street, Chelsea, (212) 620-5000, rmanyc.org. (Cotter)
★ 'Ed Ruscha' (closes on Saturday) Derived from a larger exhibition that appeared at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria in the fall, this reading-themed show includes three marvelous new "vanitas" paintings that subject a blank, open book to the ravages of time. Also here are found-object works made by scratching and bleaching books, and painted works that foil or assault would-be readers with meaningless palindromes, redacted texts and profane titles. Mr. Ruscha, unlike other artists of his generation, does not seem inclined to brood over the death of print; if anything, he is cracking wise at its funeral. Gagosian Gallery, 555 West 24th Street, Chelsea, (212) 741-1111, gagosian.com. (Rosenberg)
★ 'Where is Jack Goldstein?' (closes on Tuesday) Jack Goldstein, who killed himself in 2003 when he was 57, was one of contemporary art's mystery men. He made his mark in New York in the late 1970s and 1980s as one of group of artists working with media-inspired imagery. Then in the 1990s, he more or less disappeared, personally and professionally. This show of 13 paintings — with images lifted from photographs of lightning strikes, unexplained explosions and aerial bombardments — makes a strong case for a continued interest. Venus Over Manhattan, 980 Madison Avenue, at 76th Street, (212) 980-0700, venusovermanhattan.com. (Cotter)
★ Whitney Museum of American Art: 'Wade Guyton: OS' (closes on Sunday) Something of a rarity this fall season, a beautiful, thoughtfully staged show makes a cogent case for a young painter with no overt political ax to grind working in New York. Made entirely with computer, scanner and printer — the OS refers to computer operating systems — his works methodically explore the possibilities of technology as just another if especially up-to-date paintbrush. The results are full of glitches and irregularities that provide their own pictorial life, full of the ghosts of painting past and strikingly original. (212) 570-3600, whitney.org. (Smith)


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"A man who gets 50 ideas a day, 51 of them bad": Is it time to bid adieu to Blatter?
CHANGE; the word that bridged the racial divides in the United States to make Barack Obama the first African American President of perhaps the strongest nation in the world is set to influence the world again. Albeit this time it's the turn of World of Football to experience the change. Sepp Blatter, who has been happily (/sadly; your perception) in-charge of FIFA since 1998 faces his biggest challenge till date from a long term patron, Mohamed bin Hammam.
Hammam, the current Asian Football Confederation president is said to be in contention to challenge FIFA supremo Sepp Blatter as the Swiss hopes to extend his term at FIFA for a consecutive fourth term. The charismatic Qatari, who has been serving as a member of FIFA's 24-men executive committee since 1996, is yet to file an official entry, but he dropped the biggest hint of his intentions to contest the election and posted on his facebook account,
"Competition is the best way to make the organisation vibrant and alive. Competition is good for the organisation, whether president or any other posts."
Earlier in January, the 61 year old had said,
"A change is a demand for an improvement really. I cannot be 100% frank with you, but I think FIFA needs lot of improvement. I think there is a scope of work I can do, there is something I can present and do for international football."
To a certain extent, Hammam is correct. FIFA does need a change. There has been mismanagement and voices have been raising against the administration from even inside the office for quite some time now. Blatter has earned a reputation of being a lunatic (to be frank) and his various ideas have been laughed upon from all sections of the football world. The major slip-ups from the FIFA chief (for the time being) include:
- FIFA's secretary-general, Michel Zen-Ruffinen drew up a 30-page dossier outlining allegations of financial mismanagement within the organisation. The allegations were backed by Johansson,and the dossier was handed to the Swiss authorities, but they cleared Blatter of any wrong doing and FIFA had to pay all the costs.
- Blatter: "Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men – such as playing with a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?"
Do I need to say anything more? I guess the chief has said more than enough.
- In 2006, after a World Cup match between Portugal and Netherlands, Blatter himself criticized the referee, Valentin Ivanov, who had shown 16 yellow and four red cards saying, "It could have been a yellow card for the referee too. He was not performing at the same level as the players were. It was a great spectacle, but the refereeing did nothing else but ruin the whole thing, as well as some total lack of fair play from the players".
Considering what scrutiny the managers in the EPL have to go through for making slightest of comments on the referees, Blatter's comment was enough to earn him a life long ban from public speaking.
- His post match comments on the France-Ireland World Cup qualifier match where Thiery Henry was accused of handling the ball were labeled "unsporting" by the Irish fans. The FIFA president had burst into laughter as he told the story of how the FAI had requested to be the '33rd team' at next summer's World Cup.
- His continuous on-off statements on the use of goal line technology in football has irritated the fans who want the technology to come into action as soon as possible following the errors like the one in the 2010 World Cup where Frank Lampard's goal against Germany was disallowed.
- Widening the post: FIFA (read Blatter) proposed a shocking change; Widening the goal by 20 inches (equal to the diameter of two balls) and adding one ball diameter's height to the crossbar, a change that would have marked the first alteration to the size of the goal since the game was institutionalized in the late 18th century. The argument given was that the size of an average soccer player had increased since the time the dimensions were fixed.
- Scrapping the offside rule: Post his meeting with Leandro Nagre, President of International Hockey Federation, Sepp was adamant to abolish the offside rule in football "like they did in hockey". However like many other ideas of his, this masterpiece was thankfully never brought into practice.
- The biggest dud of his career can be seen as the 2022 World Cup. Allowing a country, where drinking is restricted in the 50degree heat, to host the biggest event in the football world can be dubbed as nothing but a major mistake. FIFA was again accused of taking bribe to allot the World Cup to Russia and Qatar.
- His other "commendable" ideas involved banning of playing the national anthem before a match, playing the world cup on artificial pitches, hosting the world cup every two years and splitting the game into four quarters.
Thankfully none of the "genius ideas" came into practice and even after 13 years of Blatter, we are still able to enjoy the beautiful game in more or less its original format. On the other hand, Hammam is an interesting character himself. A self made multimillionaire, he owns the Kemco group of companies that handle construction, real estate and drilling in the Gulf. He first came into notice when he was elected as the president of a Qatari club Al Rayyan in 1972. His 15 year stay as the club president at Al Rayyan was succeeded by brief stints as president of Qatari Volleyball Association and Qatari Table Tennis Association. He was elected to join the FIFA executive committee in 1996 where he was known to be a patron of Sepp Blatter. He played an important role in Blatter's campaigns in 1998 and 2002 but things changed when Blatter decided to contest the election for the third consecutive time, against Hammam's wishes. Hammam wanted to contest the elections himself and thus since then the two have been building support and trying to undermine each other. The FA and CONCACAF have been vocal in their support to Hammam which shows the back-room work that Hammam has been doing for the past 4 years. Hammam is also a master in marketing himself and is known to handle the media efficiently. He is active on his blog and his facebook account from where he stays in direct touch with the common masses.
Although so far, Hammam hasn't filed his nomination for the election but has vowed to make up his mind within 10 days. Candidates must be nominated by the end of this month, and need the backing of at least one of FIFA's 208 national associations to be eligible. With the above "achievements" of Blatter's career in mind along with the fact that Blatter managed to win just 66 of the 207 votes last time around, one can expect that a change is not too far away in FIFA.

subset: commoncrawl


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Aidan Smith hit a hat-trick as Annan Athletic beat Celtic Colts 3-1 in the first round of the IRN-BRU Cup at Galabank on Tuesday night.
Partick Thistle's Neil McLaughlin also claimed a treble as Partick Thistle's U20 side thrashed Stirling University 6-1 at Firhill.
Lewis Morgan scored an injury-time winner as St Mirren came from behind to beat East Kilbride 2-1 at the Paisley 2021 Stadium while Livingston beat Morton 2-0 at Cappielow in an all-Championship tie.
Patrick N'Koyi got both goals for Dundee United in their 2-0 win over Cowdenbeath at Tannadice and Andy Ryan bagged a debut double for Dunfermline as they saw off Arbroath 2-0 at East End Park.
Derek Lyle set Queen of the South on their way to a 4-0 win against Airdrieonians at Palmerston and Raith Rovers beat Brora Rangers 3-0 at Stark's Park.
Aberdeen U20s beat their St Johnstone counterparts 1-0 at Glebe Park and Hearts Colts fought back to beat Formartine United 3-2 at North Lodge Park, with Harry Paton scoring the clincher in the last minute of extra time.
Montrose were 3-1 winners at League 2 rivals Stirling Albion and Elgin City defeated Hibernian Colts at Ainslie Park. Peterhead won 2-0 at East Fife and Stranraer overcame Clyde 3-2 at Broadwood after extra time.
There are four more games this evening and the second-round draw takes place tomorrow, live on the SPFL Facebook page at 1.00pm.
A full list of results and scorers from the 20 ties played on Tuesday can be found HERE.


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I want to blog today about what I consider the most important publication to have come from within the cooperative movement so far this century. I think every coop in the country should have a copy, readily available to be consulted (and debated). However, unless you were at the International Co-operative Alliance's recent conference in Turkey, my strong suspicion is that you may not yet have seen it or read it.
The publication comes from the ICA and is entitled Guidance Notes to the Co-operative Principles. In other words, its starting point are the seven agreed core international principles behind the cooperative concept. These principles help to bind together what (let's be honest) can be a very heterogeneous movement. Encouragingly I have noted a trend in recent years for British coops (particularly workers' coops) increasingly to make reference to them.
The principles were last agreed in 1995, at what was the centenary conference of the ICA held in Manchester. The 1995 iteration followed two earlier versions, agreed by the ICA in 1937 and 1966. But all three statements of cooperative principle were heavily influenced by early debates among cooperative pioneers, particularly the 'Rochdale Principles' developed in the British cooperative movement in the mid nineteenth century.
So what does the new publication offer us? It offers us for the first time a comprehensive set of proposals for how the principles can and perhaps should be put into practice by cooperatives, in real life. As Pauline Green puts it in her foreword, the Guidance Notes "allow cooperatives themselves to fully grasp just what it means to be a cooperative in the world in which they are now working". It's a tool.
Almost all the key ethical, managerial and governance issues facing cooperatives are covered here somewhere. Look carefully and you'll find, for example, guidance on the importance of indivisibility of coop reserves (avast, you would-be demutualisers and carpet-baggers!), on member democracy and executive power, on executive pay (this last section should perhaps be stronger), on issues associated with equity capital, on enlightened treatment of employees and the importance of ILO core labour standards, on coop responsibilities in relation to environmental sustainability, and so much more.
What's here is, of course, guidance not dictat – some coops will cheerfully disregard the lot, just as they disregard the seven principles at the moment. But it's a collective expression from across the global coop movement of what is considered appropriate and best practice. That's why I think it is important.
One irritation: the PDF on the ICA website is hard to cope with. Hard copy versions need to be acquired, and distributed widely. As soon as possible, please.


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Getting the Right Model for Your Race Car and Gear
Looking at the season, you find that the racing time is steadily approaching which makes it very vital for you to start making your selection on the ideal race car and gear for the experience. The results of the race will be largely determined by the car that you select as well as the suit that you will be using for the race hence the need for you to understand the criticality; whether you are an expert or just an amateur. With the right race car and suit, you will be able to live by and get to see another day to race once more. In this article, we look at the crucial considerations that you need to make when making a choice of the right race car and gear for the racing activity.
Ensure that you consider your safety as the most critical aspect for the racing experience. It is your responsibility to ensure that the car is sturdy and strong enough to have or rather to take you through the race. The clothes chosen should also be very ideal in protecting you from the adverse effects of radiation and heat. The car race becomes better for you if you feel completely sure of the gear and race car you pick.
It is also important for you to strike a balance between safety and comfort since you need before, during and even after the race. In most cases, you find that the clothes that have more than one layer are more protective and safer as opposed to the ones with single layers hence very essential for you to check the layers on the garments. If in any case the car gets an accident or malfunction, you get to be safe and secure at all times whether you are in or out of the car. As a racer, you need to ensure that you are safe and sound as well as comfortable by having an ideal balance.
It is important for you to ensure that you dedicate some time to ensure that you take your time in researching so that you can assess the different brands and models of race cars available. Depending on your preference and likes, you find that it becomes very essential and vital for you to have the research through the virtual means as well as the physical stalls and shops. If you read from the reviews, you get to see that you are at a better position to have the best decision making process when it comes to the race car and gear. As you choose the racing car and the gear, endeavor to go for whatever makes you happy and whatever you feel comfortable in.
What You Should Know About Racecars This Year


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Pilates and Multiple Sclerosis
This past week I found out that the son of someone dear to me was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). After the initial shock and sadness passed, my immediate response was, "He should take Pilates!" I've had the opportunity to do Pilates-based Physical Therapy with a number of people with neurological conditions, MS being one of them. Upon doing a bit of background research, I felt both excited and validated to find a number of articles supporting Pilates as having significant benefits for people with MS. MS is a bit enigmatic to both the common population and doctors alike. We don't know what causes it, what makes the disease progress or how to cure it. However, what we are starting to discover is how to manage the disease and improve quality of life for those that have it.
Let's start off with the WHAT. MS is a degenerative neurological disease which affects the myelin sheath of the central nervous system. When this protective covering begins to deteriorate, the messages getting sent from the brain to the rest of the body are slowed down or altered. While variable from person to person, some of the most common symptoms of MS include numbness, weakness, problems with vision, fatigue, heat intolerance, altered cognition, pain and depression. In general, the disease onset happens between ages 20-50 and is more common in women than in men (at least 2-3 more times according to the National MS Society).4
Historically, it was thought not to allow people with MS to participate in any type of exercise at all for fear of exacerbating symptoms. That mentality is slowly but surely starting to fade away as we gain more knowledge on not only the complexity of this diagnosis, but also how to treat (or train) the person with MS. Recent research supports the fact that physical activity in people with MS can actually reduce the inflammatory process thus prolonging the potential for a relapse.1 In this specific study, the intervention performed was 12 weeks of Pilates combined with aerobic exercise and researchers found that people with MS were better able to manage their fatigue post intervention.
So WHY Pilates? It's low-impact, it addresses strength and balance deficits in a safe environment, it challenges the mind, it improves body awareness thus decreasing any significant/rapid increases in body temperature, and most importantly, it makes you feel good! A 2015 study showed that implementing a Pilates program 2x/week for 8 weeks demonstrated significant improvements in balance, fatigue management, cognition and quality of life in people with MS.3 Similarly, Kalron et. al., found that both Pilates and Physical Therapy enhanced performance in people with MS as both groups demonstrated significant improvements in walking speed after intervention.2
So for those of us that are Physical Therapists or Pilates instructors, HOW do we implement all this knowledge into practice? There are some precautions to take into account when working with people with MS.
What to watch for:
- Extreme temperature changes (make sure studio is air conditioned)
- Not adapting the "No pain, No gain" mentality
- Allow for person to take rest breaks as needed
- Guard closely with balance activities
It is still very possible to give someone with MS a challenging and rewarding session while staying within these guidelines. Respect the disease but have fun with creating a program for your clients!
The message is clear: Having a degenerative neurological condition does not have to imprison you in your own body! If you or someone you know has MS and is interested in taking Pilates, make sure to see a medical doctor or physical therapist first to receive clearance for participating. For more information on Multiple Sclerosis, a good resource is The National MS Society website (www.nationalmssociety.org )
-Kelsey Garcia DPT, PMA-CPT
- Alvarenga-filho H, Sacramento PM, Ferreira TB, et al. Combined exercise training reduces fatigue and modulates the cytokine profile of T-cells from multiple sclerosis patients in response to neuromediators. J Neuroimmunol. 2016;293:91-9.
- Kalron A, Rosenblum U, Frid L, Achiron A. Pilates exercise training vs. physical therapy for improving walking and balance in people with multiple sclerosis: A randomized controlled trial. Clin Rehabil. 2016;
- Küçük F, Kara B, Poyraz EÇ, İdiman E. Improvements in cognition, quality of life, and physical performance with clinical Pilates in multiple sclerosis: a randomized controlled trial. J Phys Ther Sci. 2016;28(3):761-8.
- National MS Society http://www.nationalmssociety.org/


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Boris Nemtsov, the Russian opposition leader who was assassinated in 2015, began his career as an ambitious, creative, and aggressively questioning physicist.
On 27 February 2015, Boris Nemtsov, reports Physics Today, the prominent Russian opposition figure, was in Moscow publicizing an upcoming rally against President Vladimir Putin's maneuvering in Ukraine. After a late-night dinner, Nemtsov and his girlfriend were walking toward the city's Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge when a car pulled up behind them. Nemtsov was shot four times and killed.
The assassination was especially shocking in the West because Nemtsov had been viewed as possible head-of-state material since the Boris Yeltsin years of the 1990s. Nemtsov's political star had dimmed after Yeltsin brought in Putin to the top governing circle, yet he remained a dedicated democrat and emerged as a vocal and unintimidated critic of Putin. Earlier this month, the Washington, DC, city council voted to rename a street in front of the district's Russian embassy after Nemtsov.
Little known outside of Russia is that Nemtsov was also a physicist, one who published an impressive 60 papers during a decade of research prior to his turn to politics. He came from a unique place for physics, Nizhny Novgorod (officially known as Gorky until 1990), the capital of the Volga Federal District in southeast Russia. Best known in the West as the place of exile for Russian physicist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov, Nizhny Novgorod also has a distinct history as a radiophysics center that evolved to become a crucible for nonlinear physics—the study of phenomena that experience amplified effects from stimulations. There, Nemtsov explored propagating phenomena across disciplines, in radiophysics, plasma physics, fluid dynamics, electromagnetic waves, and notably acoustics by creatively delving into the possibility of an acoustic laser.


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Add the products that you would like to include in your Australian gift or gift box to the shopping cart and then go to the product page "Gift Wrapping & Gift Boxes".
Select the number of items that are to be included in each gift when adding this to your cart. You can have 1 to 20 items packaged together - we will select the best approach between wrapping in paper or the size box for the items that you are gifting.
Enter the the gift message information and also any instructions. For example if you are building multiple boxes with different products or purchasing other products you don't want included in the gift.
We use lovely brown kraft paper and matt black kraft boxes with a mixture ribbons and gift wrap belli bands to make you gifts look extra special.


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Accounts Receivable Management
Midwest Recovery Systems' focus is on a seamless implementation process with the ultimate goal of making it simple and stress-free to do business with us. At Midwest Recovery Systems our financial services specialists are held to a strict adherence to industry standards regarding all consumer requests and compliance. Each specialist is specifically trained for the industry they support, ensuring that they are highly knowledgeable in the unique collection procedures and regulations of each. We are backed by a $1,000,000 Hold Harmless Errors & Omissions agreement, and fully licensed and bonded in 48 states. Midwest Recovery Systems is HIPAA compliant, PCI compliant, and our staff are monitored to ensure full compliance with client work standards, as well as all federal, state and local laws and regulations.
Midwest Recovery Systems offers a wide range of healthcare-specific services that will help your organization benefit from increased revenue and lower accounts receivable days. From first-party recovery to third party debt collection and litigation, we help increase cash flow.
Midwest Recovery Systems works with educational and financial institutions that provide loans to ensure borrowers understand all of the payment options available to them. Our financial services representatives will ethically and efficiently work with these consumers to recover these loans, and retain customer satisfaction.
Midwest Recovery Systems will provide a variety of programs and services designed to maximize recovery without sacrificing customer satisfaction.
First-Party Collections
Our staff will work with your customers as representatives of your company, not an outside third-party agency. During the first-party collections process, Midwest Recovery Systems enforces being a natural extension of your business office. Initial collection efforts are maximized due to high contact rates and improved customer satisfaction.
- Letter Series - We can customize and send a series of pre-collection letters directing your customer to make payment directly to your company before accounts are placed with an outside agency. This program is designed to improve recovery through early action, as well as to separate the accounts that will need minimal collection effort, from those that will require a more extensive approach.
Third-Party Collections
Midwest Recovery Systems can help you build an effective, reliable collection strategy that will help boost your cash flow and alleviate any concerns regarding the process. With over 20 years of experience in the industry our management staff has a commitment to set the industry standard for liquidation rates, and maximize recovery. With the collection strategy we have in place, you can devote your time to other key elements important to the ongoing success of your business. We will handle everything from letter series, to skiptracing and locating consumer information. Efficiency is everything in this industry. At Midwest Recovery Systems, we take those extra steps to maintain our client and consumer satisfaction, without jeopardizing productivity.
Pre-Legal & Litigation Collections
In our pre-legal collection we approach debtors firmly, yet professionally. Midwest Recovery Systems is fully prepared to continue the collection process through the judicial system, upon written authorization from the client, on a case-by-case basis. If the client authorizes Midwest Recovery Systems to pursue litigation of an account, we will take the necessary steps in the debt recovery process and comply with all state statutes and local court rules regarding procedures governing litigation of debts. Our Litigation Referral Network will deliver cost-effective recovery in these unfortunate circumstances.


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A key focus of many organisations is the ability to optimize their current business processes. Business processes are the foundation to running a business or organisation effectively, however over time business operating procedures and processes can become inefficient, wasting time and resources. According to market research firm IDC, this can cost businesses 20 to 30 percent of their yearly revenue and also lead to internal dissatisfaction and missed opportunities for growth. To ensure businesses continue to grow and operate effectively, it is important for companies to regularly revaluate and update their business processes.
There are three main benefits to optimising business processes:
1. Increased efficiency
By identifying the inefficient systems in place and automating tasks, an organisation can work towards optimizing their business processes. Eliminating inefficient processes will allow employees to be more productive as they can focus on more important tasks on hand. As processes become more efficient, they will also become more effective which will lead to better informed decisions and execution of tasks and assist with organisational growth.
2. Access to accurate information
A key part of process optimization involves having a central repository that can deliver accurate information at any time of the day or any part of the business cycle. By having this single source of truth that is accessible by all relevant parties it creates value to an organisation by ensuring that all information communicated is up-to-date and useful.
3. Improved flexibility
If business processes are optimized successfully, it will result in more flexibility, meaning that individuals, teams, departments and organisations can respond in an agile manner and adapt to any significant changes affecting the business. Subsequently, businesses are able to cope with sudden mishaps and remain competitive within the market.
It is clear to us that an organisation needs to regularly update their existing processes to operate efficiently and effectively. Implementing a business management system that is a true reflection of an organisation's current processes, controls and deliverables allows organisations to function at their highest potential and manage their growth in an ever changing business environment.


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Friday, 23 December 2011
China Glaze Solar Flare
Today is my friend's Sophia's birthday! Happy Birthday, dear! Today I also happen to have my varda diena, a local celebration of "name day". It's a nice local tradition where many common/traditional names are allotted specific days that you can celebrate, like Victoria on December 23rd, or Alexander on November 18th. I view it as just an opportunity to treat yourself a little bit.
Anyway, my parents surprised me by presenting me with DS Fantasy, a polish on my wishlist. Awesome!!!
But today I have a chunky glitter top coat to show you. China Glaze's Solar Flare reminds me of golden fish scales. It has big gold hexagons glitter in a clear base. Here I am wearing one coat over OPI Lincoln Park At Midnight. I've worn Solar flare over other colours, and I especially like it over red (very festive) and over blue. This is one of those polishes that looks great in indirect light\cloudy weather as the hexagons reflect light at different angles.
Below is a close up of the polish in natural light, with a flash and in the sun.
Labels: China Glaze, glitter, gold, OPI
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Back to all reports
The sequencing of the traffic lights on M1 jun34 roundabout is not set correctly
Reported in the Road traffic signs category anonymously at 09:25, Wednesday 16 January 2019
Sent to Rotherham Borough Council 5 minutes later
The lights aren't timed correctly, traffic is being stranded on the roundabout blocking the incoming traffic. At 7.30am it took over 8 minutes to travel through two sets of lights This needs looking at urgently as it's causing queues back up onto the motorway
Provide an update
Please note that updates are not sent to the council. Your information will only be used in accordance with our privacy policy


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Upcoming Events
Building Blocks
IGNITE | By: Michael Grant
Friday, April, 8, 2016
In today's society, we can see a growing need for the spiritual and physical health of our youths. Society today has many challenges and distractions, which have impacted the youths in many areas of their lives. Ignite Ministry strives to walk with young people of every ethnicity, on their journey from childhood to adulthood. We also provide the following:
– A church environment where youths and young adults are welcome, nurtured and supported both personally and spiritually.
– Programs and opportunities that develop and encourage worship and spiritual growth in a fun and Godly way.
– Opportunities for to gather in faith and friendship, in the community locally, regionally and nationally.
– Opportunities where youths and young adults can participate within the church.
– Create and encourage pastoral care for youths and young adults, especially in times of challenge, change and crisis.
In Proverb 22 v 6: Parents have been given the privilege of being stewards of their children's lives for a short time, but the teaching and training they provide is eternal.According to the promise of Proverbs, a child who is diligently trained in the "way he should go" will remain true to that way in this life and reap its rewards in the next.
For more information , please email email@example.com


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In a surprise move, gold prices declined below the key level of $1,300 per ounce in the middle of this month. This has brought the prolonged sideways consolidation in gold prices — between $1,300 and $1,370 — to an end.
The strength in the US dollar has played spoil sport to an otherwise healthy uptrend in prices in the beginning of the year. A strong surge in the US dollar index dragged gold prices to a low of $1,282 earlier last week. But, US President Donald Trump's calling-off of his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, that triggered political tensions, gave gold a breather.
The yellow metal bounced back above $1,300 again to a high of $1,307 on Friday. But the possibility of gold sustaining above $1,300 remains uncertain as Trump on Friday said that his meeting with Kim could still happen as scheduled on June 12, which could once again ease the tension.
Strong dollar
While the uncertainty over the US-North Korea meet may support gold prices, strong dollar, on the other hand, may continue to keep the yellow metal under pressure in the short term. The US dollar index (94.25) is on a strong footing, and has surged breaking above a key level of 93.
Though there is some resistance near current levels, the overall bullish outlook remains intact. The current uptrend in the index is likely to extend in the coming weeks, and can target 95 or even 96 levels over the short term. The rally in the dollar index will drag gold prices lower again below $1,300 in the coming days.
The dollar index will come under pressure only if it declines below 93. Such a break, though, looks less likely at the moment.
Gold outlook
The global spot gold ($1,302 per ounce) came off last week from its high of $1,307. A crucial resistance in the $1,308-$1,310 region has capped the upside in gold. A strong break above $1,310 is needed for the outlook to turn completely positive. Such a break will ease the downside pressure and can take the prices higher to $1,325. A further break above $1,325 will then increase the likelihood of the prices revisiting $1,350 levels thereafter.
But as long as gold remains below $1,310, it is likely to remain under pressure and break below the immediate support level of $1,298. Such a break can take the prices lower to $1,280 or $1,275 in the short term. A further break below $1,275 will see the fall extending to $1,260. The level of $1,260 is a strong medium-term trend support, and a fall below this level is less probable at the moment.
On the domestic front, the gold futures contract on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) came off after making a high of ₹31,510 per 10 gm. It closed the week at ₹31,189. The contract has been broadly range-bound between ₹30,850 and ₹31,620 since April. Within this range, the possibility of the contract moving down towards ₹30,850 — the lower end of the range — is high in the near term.
However, the possibility of the contract breaking below ₹30,850 seems lower. A bounce back from ₹30,850 will see the contract rallying back to ₹31,500 levels. An eventual break above ₹31,600 will see the MCX-Gold futures contract targeting ₹32,500 and ₹33,000 over the medium term.
Traders can hold the long positions taken at ₹31,100. Accumulate on dips at ₹30,900. Retain the stop-loss at ₹31,250 for the target of ₹32,000. Revise the stop-loss higher to ₹31,550 as soon as the contract moves up to ₹31,800.
Silver outlook
The global spot silver ($16.51 per ounce) has been stuck inside a narrow range between $16.15 and $16.85 over the past three weeks.
A breakout on either side of $16.15 or $16.85 will determine the next trend. A strong break below $16.15 can drag silver lower to $15.75 or $15.60. On the other hand, if silver manages to decisively rise past $16.85 in the coming days, it can rally to $17.25.
The outlook for the MCX-Silver (₹40,267 per kg) futures contract is mixed. Like the global spot prices, the MCX-Silver contract has also been range-bound over the past three weeks. The contract is stuck in between ₹39,500 and ₹40,900. A breakout of this range will give a clear cue on the next trend.
If the contract breaks the range below ₹39,500, a fall to ₹39,000 is possible. On the other hand, if the contract manages to breach the range above ₹40,900, the contract can gain momentum. Such a break can trigger a fresh rally to ₹42,000.


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The front of this Ditsy wallet is in grey and pink floral PVC coated fabric. A variety of shoes are printed onto the front flap and the phrase 'if the shoe fits' is printed onto the main part of the wallet.
On the back of the wallet the phrase 'buy in every colour' is printed onto the pink floral PVC coated fabric. There is also a zip up pocket with a purple lining fabric.
Inside there are five credit card slots with a clear pocket for an ID card or bus pass. Behind these is one pockets for notes.
In the main section of the wallet are three pockets for vouchers and receipts with another zip up pocket one in the centre.
Dimensions: 19cm x 10cm x 2.5cm approx
90% PVC, 10% base metal


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After the burial, I sat in my room to listen to soothing churchy tunes. The music; whether the vibrations or the exertion of creation had left an immeasurable physical effect on my body. I suddenly felt strong. Through this serenity my mind traveled to the days I invited my younger brother to live with me in the city of Nairobi. He had dropped out of school when he was left with one year to complete high school. I convinced him to go back to school. He accepted and enrolled for the final year so that he could sit for his examinations while staying with me. His performance was dismal. Hence, he opted for casual jobs at home. Months later, I was informed that he had gotten into drinking illicit local brew. My efforts of talking to him regarding drug and alcohol abuse fell on deaf ears.
Three years later, our mother informed me that he was suffering from boils on both legs and could not walk. He had been on traditional herbal therapy for two weeks without improvement. I suggested that he be hospitalized. I squeezed time from my usual busy schedule and visited him at the hospital. He was delighted to see me. I saw the pleasant boy I use to know since we were children; jolly, nice, loving and tender. We talked at length and he promised never to touch alcohol again. I recall this moment as if it happened yesterday. It was on 23.11.2011. I was just leaving my brother's bedside when he called me back and whispered in my ears. 'Siste please buy for me shoes; look at how my shoes are torn!' He bent down and showed me the torn shoes'. Immediately, I saw an opportunity to motivate him to change. I repeated my earlier words 'Bro if you quit drinking and refocus on your life, you will bring a bigger change to yourself'. 'I will never drink again'. He promised. I told him to wait until 10th of December so I could bring him shoes from Addis Ababa where I was to attend African HIV/AIDS conference known as (ICASA). A friend had mentioned that the quality of the shoes were affordable in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
I vividly recall 30th November, 2011. I received a call from my sick brother at mid-day 'Siste remember the shoes on 10th December'. Two hours later, our mother informed me that he had passed on. 'Yes, he was dead!' I cried bitterly on receiving the news. I had many questions and anger. My brother, hardly 24 years old had died. What we thought were normal boils turned out to be HIV/AIDS complications- Kaposi's sarcoma!
Everyone is somehow infected or affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Kenya …yet the stigma remains. The Microsoft Word Dictionary defines stigma as the shame or disgrace attached to something regarded as socially unacceptable. Sociologists have taken this a bit further. In a seminal study on stigma in 1963, stigma was defined as an attribute that is seen as deeply discrediting to a person or group (Goffmann, 1963). Stigma has claimed many lives of people infected with HIV/AIDS; however, the stigma can be addressed and eventually be eliminated by: friendlier youth services, educational programs for youth, support groups and a political voice that acknowledges the problem. This is also echoed by UNAIDS when they state: Eliminate stigma and discrimination against people living with and affected by HIV through promotion of laws and policies that ensure the full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms (UNAIDS, 2006).
Kenya recorded its first HIV case in 1984, since then the AIDS epidemic has evolved to become one of the central impediments to national health, well being and development. HIV/AIDS in Kenya has deepened poverty, slowed economic growth and has affected women, children and youth to a larger percentage. As of December 2011, 1.6 million people were living with HIV in Kenya, 33% of whom are the youth (NACC, 2012). This number is a clear illustration that the virus has spread beyond discrete groups that affect the whole of society. Many infected people are still stigmatized and discriminated. The late checkups are primarily due to stigma (Murphy, 1995). It often sounds like any other statistics until it is closest to you!
The reality of my brother's death let me to retrace my experiences around HIV/AIDS. My mind rolled to 2008 during my sister-in-law's (our spouses are brothers) burial. She had died of AIDS which were highly due to stigma, suffering, shame, and silence. I was given a chance to give my eulogy. For a moment, I was lost with words. However, when I started speaking, I found myself addressing issues of HIV/AIDS and how it is mired with a lot of stigma and silence, including the culture of wife inheritance perpetuating spread of HIV/AIDS and high school dropout rates for both boys and girls. I also talked of how we can come up with strategies of minimizing HIV spreading and stigma and helping the victims seek for medical attention. I saw mixed reactions from the crowd during my speech. I knew it was because they had expected me to add on to the heap of praises that had already been said of the deceased. Others were shocked at such openness on an 'unspoken topic'. Still, others looked deep in thought. This speech gave birth to Ramula HIV Support Group. This group focuses on enlightening the community on HIV/AIDS thereby eliminating stigma. The group has also assisted the group members establish economic support unit of commercial farming.
I sobbed even more as I reflected on all these. How could my own brother die of HIV/AIDS when I am communicating with the public, researching and training on HIV/AIDS? I thought and reflected on the trainings that I have been conducting on HIV/AIDS in various parts of the country since 2006. I have been carrying out trainings, workshops, conferences and seminars to health workers, community health workers, community members and other members of various HIV support groups on HIV/AIDS. I have been a consultant for Actionaid International, AMREF and Medicine San Frontiers-Belgium on HIV/AIDS, Gender Based Violence and leadership. I am also a member of a global movement on health issues known as People's Health Movement. Many a times I would carry out programs on emerging issues on HIV//AIDS, including gang rape in the Kenyan local FM stations such as KBC and Waumini FM. I have carried out surveys and I have conducted extensive research on HIV/AIDS.
Also, I have presented some of these researches at local and international forums. All these were done to sensitize community members on HIV/AIDS. Nevertheless, at home I had done nothing…I felt pained! It is human nature that we often think that the problem is out there and bad things can not affect our inner circle. My brother's death brought the urgency in my heart to give my little contribution on the issue of HIV/AIDS in my village. You see, no one knew of my brother's HIV status. I thought it was just alcoholism that had made him emaciated. His death shocked our entire family. My dear brother died without disclosing to anyone his HIV status or maybe he wasn't aware of it. I don't know. But what is so apparent is stigma was key to my brother's death!
Coincidentally, my brother was buried on 10th of December 2011. This was the same date that he kept reminding me to buy for him shoes. I bought the clothes he was buried in including the shoes. My brother's death was the real battle on HIV right in the family! I felt so disturbed and I kept blaming myself that I should have done this or that to avert this situation. Finally, I too decided to wear new shoes and do something instead of blaming myself endlessly. Together with my friend Milcah, we had formed an organization called Supporters of the Youth Worldwide (SOY-Worldwide) in 2006. The purpose of this organization is to empower and support the youth by creating an awareness of their human rights, promote their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) through educational programmes, HIV/AIDS support programmes and entrepreneurial training. These programs were carried out to the youth of Mathare slum Nairobi and Machakos. In the month of May, 2012 I took a program within SOY-Worldwide to my home village, targeting youth on issues of drug abuse, alcoholism and HIV/AIDS. My brother's case made me look at the social determinants of HIV/AIDS. I saw a co-relationship between drug abuse and alcoholism and HIV/AIDS among the youth.
According to NACADA (National Campaign against Drugs Abuse) authority Kenya, 75% of Kenyan population is made up of young people below 30 years. The youth currently make up 33% of the Kenyans infected with HIV/AIDS. Young women 15-24 years are three times more likely to be infected with HIV/AIDS than men of the same age. Among students research shows that 75% have tried alcohol at least once. Statistics have also revealed that approximately 2/3 of out-of school youth reported they had ever had sex. Male youth were more likely to have had sex than female youth. Out-of-school youth in rural areas were more likely to have had sex (76%) than their urban counterparts (57%). Condom use among out-of-school youth during the first sexual intercourse was low, especially among males (NACC, 2012). In summary HIV/AIDS among the youth could be attributed to various factors; drug abuse, alcoholism and social behaviour (NACADA). This calls for concerted effort to address the root courses of the spread of HIV/AIDS in the society. When I initiated SOY-Worldwide I was just adding the effort of addressing the issue of drug abuse, alcoholism and HIV in my area.
SOY-Worldwide has made a big change in my village. It is working closely with the youth with the core mandate of drugs and substance abuse prevention, education & communication on HIV/AIDS, rehabilitation and training while contributing to HIV/AIDS risk reduction. Currently SOY is running outreach program for the youth in my village. This program is attracting many youths both boys and girls who are infected by HIV. Many of these youths were dieing in silence without a friendlier service provider to turn to.
The main vision of SOY-Worldwide is to create youth friendly services in addressing youth issues and pave a path for better leadership in the future and making the youth own issues that affect them in the society. Change is inevitable and the young people tend to embrace it better than the older generations. Our society needs young people who are change driven so as to change the status quo that has prevailed for a long time. It's until we involve the youth who form a larger population in Kenya that meaningful change will be realized. For all these to happen we need sober, focused and healthy youths!
Through my brother's death I was able to initiate this noble course of assisting the youth in my village. I appreciate that change is gradual. Gradual as it may be, I am doing my part in contributing to attaining zero HIV infection, zero stigma and zero deaths due to HIV/AIDS.
This article is part of a writing assignment for Voices of Our Future a program of World Pulse that provides rigorous digital media and citizen journalism training for grassroots women leaders. World Pulse lifts and unites the voices of women from some of the most unheard regions of the world.Voices of Our Future 2013 Assignments: Frontline Journals


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21 Apr 2016
Gertrude "Trudy" or 'Gertie" Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel. Wearing a pair motorcycle goggles to protect her eyes, the native New Yorker crossed the water in 14 hours and 34 minutes - a record that stood until 1950
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The early hours of September 10th saw the talented Port Adelaide Football Club player John McCarthy fall from a Las Vegas hotel balcony to his death. According to an article in The Age, McCarthy, accompanied by ten other Port players celebrating the end of season, had spent much of the night at the exclusive XS Nightclub at Vegas' Wynn Casino. Separating from the group at approximately 4.30am on Monday morning, McCarthy found himself on the fourth floor roof of the nearby Flamingo Hotel, where he was not staying, and accidentally slipped and fell nine meters to his death. The remaining ten players embarked on their trip home, where they were met by the Football Club's Welfare and Media Managers prior to being offered counselling. The Herald Sun reported that:
Port Adelaide CEO Keith Thomas said it was as yet unclear whether McCarthy had been affected by drugs, but players admitted drugs had been widely available.
As reported by ABC News, a recent study commissioned by the AFL into the drinking habits of their players has highlighted that 54% partake in consuming alcohol at 'risky levels' outside of the sporting season, compared to 15% of the general male population. Given that this incident, as well as the three alcohol-related charges issued recently to AFL player Aaron Edwards, occurred during off-season periods, the study indicates an alternative approach to educating players on alcohol use and abuse is necessary. The study pointed out that being a member of the players' leadership group did not appear to affect alcohol intake of players, however membership to particular clubs did. This brings into question the effectiveness of club intervention to better equip players to protect their reputation and ensure their safety off the field.
While clubs such as Collingwood, Geelong and Richmond have taken a firm stance on banning players for unethical behaviour ranging from misuse of alcohol to speeding and drug-taking, an article in the Herald Sun indicates that some players feel that clubs' enforcing conformity to stringent behavioural standards is dollar-driven. Collingwood's Dane Swan was recently suspended for a fortnight for breaking the team pledge to avoid alcohol during the season, despite the consumption being incident-free. This "zero tolerance" regime for AFL players has been criticised as being imposed by certain clubs out of fear of losing sponsorship and could be enough to cause players to retire early, as players state that they might be deprived of their need to learn from their mistakes and grow into balanced adults. Both AFL Players' Association chief Matt Finnis and Associate Professor Paul Dietze, an epidemiologist at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, who partook in conducting the alcohol use study, agree that players should not be expected to live up to a behavioural standard that is significantly higher than what is expected of everyone else. Professor Dietz suggests that the AFL ought to be recognised for their pro-activeness in managing players' risky alcohol consumption.


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I don't know about you, but I (Pastor Ryan) love Fall! Sweater weather, football, school, pie, awesome colors - sign me up! More than ever, I'm excited for this upcoming Fall, mainly because I'll be working full-time with our Anchor ministry as your pastor! I'm really excited to be able to serve in a greater capacity with what God is doing in Oneonta through Anchor. Now that I'm able to spend more time in service to our church, here are a few things that are going to be popping up this Fall around Anchor!
In short, we're gearing up to grow wider and deeper as a community in Christ. These plans are an attempt to grow in our knowledge of God, so that we might be disciples who grow deeper in love with God, and cast a wide net of discipleship and service to others in our city. Here are a few ways that we're going to do that.
1. New discipleship classes
I believe one of the key purposes of church is to love people by teaching them the truth about Jesus using the Bible. (This is one of the many reasons why we have sermons every week at Anchor). I've personally grown so much through listening to preaching and taking classes with pastors who are much smarter than I am. In an effort to grow deeper as disciples of Jesus, we'll be starting a few classes that will aim to teach the bible to all people: whether they've been a Christian for years, or have never considered Christianity. Be on the lookout for:
- Core Christianity: Based on a book by Michael Horton, this will be a class for new Christians (and a great refresher for not-so-new Christians) that teaches the basic foundations of our faith. This will answer questions like - Can we trust the Bible? Is Jesus the only way to Heaven? What is the Trinity? etc.
- Bible Doctrine: Based on a book by Wayne Grudem, this will be a systematic theology class for Christians who want to grow deeper in their understanding of what the Bible teaches. The class will focus on seven main sections: The Doctrine of the Word of God, The Doctrine of God, The Doctrine of Man, The Doctrine of Christ, The Doctrine of the Application of Redemption, The Doctrine of the Church, The Doctrine of the Future.
- The Reason For God: Based on a book by Timothy Keller, this will be a series of discussions about the book, which explores popular arguments for and against the existence of God. This will be a great class for people who are not yet Christians, and Christians who want to build up their apologetic muscles.
You can check out and register for classes here.
2. More ways to serve
At Anchor, we believe that church is about more than just showing up, being entertained, going home, and forgetting about God until next Sunday. We like to think of church as a Thanksgiving gathering of family members who all come together to contribute to the meal and feast together in love. This Fall, there will be even more ways to serve than before!
We have lots of opportunities to serve in church: door greeters, musicians, guest services, small group leaders, food preparation, children ministry workers, and more! If you're interested in signing up and connecting with us about these opportunities, let us know here.
We'll also have lots of opportunities outside of our church walls to love and serve our community. We'll continue our monthly service opportunities (like raking leaves, free car washes, etc.). We'll also be partnering more with the Redemption Movement's Kindness Station and #OneontaRides service. Here, we'll have the opportunity to offer safe transportation to students who have had a little too much to drink downtown.
3. A focus on church membership
Have you ever tried to marry somebody who doesn't want to marry you back? Awkward. A family won't grow unless its members are mutually committed. At Anchor, we want to be "in it to win it" with our church family, and we want to offer another way for people to grow closer together as they grow closer to God. Church membership is key to this kind of relationship.
Membership to a local church is for all Christians. You won't fully love Jesus without fully loving his church. It's kind of like telling your wife, "Honey, I really love your face, but the rest of your body is so terrible that I don't want to be around you." We truly believe that God wants to bless Oneonta, NY through Anchor, and that He wants you to be a part of that.
We're starting membership classes soon! Click here to register.
4. Opportunities for leadership growth
Let me be totally transparent here. Even though I have more time to work for our church and be able to get a whole lot more done, I still can't do it all by myself. We are blessed with many people who have stepped up to lead various ministry teams, and we're looking for more!
Do you believe God has called you into leadership? Later this Fall, we'll be launching a training program in order to equip leaders to be key decision-makers, bible teachers, pastors, elders, and more around here.
5. A sermon series on 1 John
I'm pretty giddy about this one. Starting mid-September, we'll be going through the book of 1 John together at church, and exploring what God has to say to us through John's letter to the Church. Through this series we'll be looking at ways that we can practically live out our faith in Christ in every day life, such as what to do when you totally blow it and sin, how to love people like God loves them, how to know whether somebody is preaching the true gospel, how to overcome fear, and more!
6. Growth in our mid-week ministries
According to a recent study, it's a proven fact that you can hang out with Christians during the week as well! :)
We've got a lot of ways that you can connect with our family mid-week to encourage and build one another up in love! Here are a few fun options, which coincidentally all start at 7pm on their respective days:
Mondays - Lighthouse Ladies Ministry, Men's Ministry, #MyAnchorGroup Young Adult group (23-35)
Tuesdays - Prayer Ministry
Wednesdays - Tabernacle of Praise Dance Team
Thursdays - BASIC College Ministry @ SUNY Oneonta
Fridays - Youth Group (12-18)
Click here for more information about these groups.