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Nickel Oxide Target market Share, Size, Expected Growth Opportunities and Forecast by 2029 | Know the Russia Ukraine Impact On Nickel Oxide Target Industry
The global nickel oxide target market size is expected to expand on account of the rising demand for the chemical from various sectors, such as industrial, automobile, and display, observes Fortune Business Insights™, in its report, titled, "Nickel Oxide Target Market, 2022-2029."
The chemical industry has observed tremendous changes over the last decade. Armed with a substantial and varied range of products, the industry has found abundant success in all the developing and the developed nations. According to the European Chemical Industry Council, the demand and utilization of chemicals in the European region is likely to increase in the near future. Sorted investments in research & development, for developing innovative chemical products, are probable to boost factories, companies, and other industrial facilities. Moreover, the rising demand for chemical-based products is a result of the increased spending by consumers. Additionally, employment in the chemical sector is expanding at a considerable rate, which, in return, is expected to give rise to several progress opportunities. These factors are thereby set to fuel the nickel oxide target market size in the upcoming years.
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Russia-Ukraine War Implication
The Russia-Ukraine war could change the Nickel Oxide Target market dynamics of Europe forever. The standoff has revived the predicament situation of the Cold War and pushed Europe to the brink of a major military conflict. The Russian aggression in Ukraine has redefined the global landscape in terms of business. As the global Nickel Oxide Target market was recuperating from the havoc wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war has made several industry stakeholders skeptical.
The European Union is pushing for more sanctions against Russia, including halting imports of nuclear fuel from Russia and excluding Russia's top lenders from the SWIFT banking system. Moreover, Russia has also imposed similar sanctions on most EU countries. The war crisis and sanctions have put a strain on global investment, trade, and economic activity. Therefore, skepticism and uncertainty remain prevalent regarding the conflict, its potential reach, and its longevity. Accordingly, the restoration of normal relations among partners could prove be a sign of improvement.
Market Segment
On the basis of type, the global nickel oxide target market is divided into plane target and rotating target.
Based on the end-use, the market is further classified into automobile industry, solar energy industry, and display industry.
In terms of geography, the market is separated into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.
Highlights of the Report
The report offers an integrated evaluation based on thorough research of the market. It further provides in-depth insights of the current market trends and future opportunities. The report sheds light on the market drivers and restraints. Moreover, key players and their business strategies are carefully studied and presented in the following report. Thorough analysis of regional insights is stated and its prominence on the global market is observed in the report.
Market Drivers
Magnified Usage of Nickel Oxide Target in Solar Cell Metallization to Stimulate Growth
The surging adoption of nickel oxide target to carry out the metallization process of solar cells might promote market growth. The amplified performance of solar cell on the deposition of nickel /solder metallization is expected to generate the booming demand for nickel oxide target. This crucial utilization of nickel oxide target in solar cells is expected to boost the market growth in the upcoming years.
On the contrary, according to a survey by the National Poisons Information Service Centre in the United Kingdom, the adverse effects of the extensive exposure to nickel oxide target are dermatitis, high chances of asthma condition, rhinitis due to chronic inhalation, sinusitis, anosmia, and severe perforation condition of the nasal septum or pneumoconiosis.
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Regional Insights
North America to Ace the Market Backed by Extensive R&D Techniques
North America is expected to hold major shares in the global nickel oxide target market and dominate in the near future. This is owing to the upgradation of research and development techniques and its ample application done in this region. These factors are estimated to boost the demand for nickel oxide target and hence, enhance market growth of the North American region during the foreseeable future.
Asia Pacific is expected to hold the second-largest share in the global market and witness substantial growth. This is on account of the increasing set-ups done by key players and the rising production of solar energy plants in this region. These factors are anticipated to bolster the demand for nickel oxide target and further spur the market growth of the Asia Pacific region.
On the other hand, Europe is anticipated to showcase decent growth owing to the surging demand for the chemical in the industrial sector.
Competitive Landscape
Innovative Offerings of the Product by Key Players to Foster Market Growth
Prominent players in the market are trying to maintain their leading position by drawing several strategies to bolster the market growth. One such strategy is to launch products. Another major strategy is to partner up with other key players and boost the market for monetary gains. Companies are also producing innovative products to lead the market.
For instance, American Elements specializes in the production of nickel oxide sputtering targets of high purity. It has the biggest possible density and smallest possible grain sizes that are further used in semiconductors, chemical vapour depositions, physical vapour deposition displays, and optical applications. It offers nickel oxide sputtering target in four grades such as 99%, 99.9%, 99.99% and 99.999%. These applications are further estimated to fuel the demand for nickel oxide target in the market.
List of Key Players Covered in the Nickel Oxide Target Market Report
- Kurt J. Lesker Company
- Able Target Limited
- Jinxing Metals
- Kehong Materials
- ACI Alloys
- Testbourne
- Stanford Advanced Materials
- Cathay Advanced Materials Limited
- Admat
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Fortune Business Insights™ delivers accurate data and innovative corporate analysis, helping organizations of all sizes make appropriate decisions. We tailor novel solutions for our clients, assisting them to address various challenges distinct to their businesses. Our aim is to empower them with holistic market intelligence, providing a granular overview of the market they are operating in.
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A new development in the National Security Agency monitoring scandal has very serious implications for lawyers and their clients. CNET is reporting that the NSA has told lawmakers that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic telephone calls or apparently to read emails or text messages. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY has disclosed that he learned in a briefing that any NSA analyst can make the decision to listen to any domestic call.
Obviously, the monitoring of citizens' telephone calls and email and text communications raises serious privacy concerns. However on a professional level, as a federal criminal defense attorney whose entire practice involves litigation against the U.S. government, I am deeply disturbed that an analyst working for that same government can listen to my telephone conversations with clients and read my written electronic communications without any court or even supervisory oversight. The risk is particularly acute for attorneys like me who sometimes handle cases involving allegations of terrorism or terrorism funding.
The attorney-client privilege protects communications between a lawyer and client and is supposed to be inviolate. The privilege has deep roots in Anglo-American jurisprudence and the concept dates back hundreds of years. The attorney-client privilege exists to encourage clients to make full disclosure to their lawyers. The idea is that an attorney cannot effectively represent her client in the absence of complete information.
That any analyst in a U.S. government agency can monitor attorney-client communications at will means that going forward, attorneys will be forced to take steps to limit telephone conversations and electronic communications with their clients. Attorney-client communications will need to take place in person and exchanges of data between attorneys and clients will need to be made by hand. In this electronic age, this places an undue burden on attorneys and their clients. Moreover, now that the NSA's monitoring program has been made public, I am concerned that the government may in some cases argue that the fact that attorneys and their clients engaged in electronic communications even though they knew about the existence of the monitoring program constitutes waiver of the attorney-client privilege as to those communications.
Some of these same concerns were raised in a case styled American Civil Liberties Union v. National Security Agency, et al. In that case, journalists, attorneys and academics who had regular communications with contacts and clients overseas sued the NSA out of concern that their communications might be monitored under an NSA overseas surveillance program. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the case to be dismissed on the ground that no plaintiff could prove that he had actually been monitored. I anticipate that a similar challenge to the domestic monitoring program will soon be filed.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Overcriminalization - A New Congressional Task Force
A recent article by George Will published in the Washington Post shines a light on probably the most serious problem facing the federal criminal justice system: overcriminalization. Congress continues to legislate new federal crimes – now numbering at least 4,500 – with no end in sight. As Will points out, the proliferation of federal crimes and passage of mandatory minimum sentencing laws have increased incarceration rates and sentence lengths in this country to extraordinary levels. All that prosecution and incarceration costs money. Moreover, the expansion of regulatory offenses and concomitant dilution of the requirement that criminal conviction requires a "guilty mind" means that it is now eminently possible to commit a federal crime by accident. The newly created House Judiciary Committee's Over-Criminalization Task Force House is a step in the right direction.
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About us:
IFA-Institute of Finance & Accounts is promoted by a group of professionals (Chartered Accountants and MBA's) started its journey in 2008. The group has in-depth experience in the field of Finance & Accounts. We take pride in claiming that we stand amongst the best institute in India in providing CA Education and Professional Accounting Training. IFA has carved a niche for itself in the very short span of time with a unique updated curriculum, eye-catching infrastructure, and advanced study material. IFA-Institute of finance and accounts has been ranked for providing value for money services which makes it stand apart.
Why Choose an Institute of Finance and accounts:
- Provides quality education.
- We provide a high standard of education, care and learning opportunities.
- Best Finance and accounting franchise in India.
- Low investments and high expansions.
Why Choose Institute of Finance and accounts Franchise Opportunities:
- Provide all the guidance and support to run a playschool anywhere in India.
- Supports in assisting site selection.
- Franchisee Marketing assistance & advertisement support.
- Franchise Training support on Academics.
Franchise Facts:
- Investment range: 1000 - 2000 sq.ft
- Investment range: Rs. 5Lakhs –10Lakhs
Industry | Segment | Investment | Franchise Fee | Space | Expected No of Hours / month | Expansion Location/s |
Education Franchise | Accounts and Tax Related | Rs. 5lakhs-10lakhs | Rs. 50000 - 1Lakh | 1000 - 2000 | 10 - 20hrs | Delhi |
Should be a good listener
Should be good at customer service
Owning a Business previously works best for you.


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Anna Shumaker had a relatively quiet rookie season on American Ninja Warrior. An early exit on the Fly Wheels of the LA Qualifiers in season nine meant that she didn't get much face time with the fans. Anna has adjusted that for season 10. She came back as one of the strongest women in the Los Angeles Qualifiers, falling at the Doorknob Drop.
She followed that up with a stunning performance in the City Finals that moved her on to Las Vegas. The run saw Anna defeat the fifth obstacle and move all the way to the Giant Cubes.
We asked Anna to look back on her first two runs of the season.
"My season has been really good so far. I'm really excited to be in Vegas this year!
I was really excited to get up the Warped Wall, but I think I was even more excited to get up the Salmon Ladder. I think that was my favorite memory of all time, getting up the Salmon Ladder. That's what I wanted, I knew I could do it. Once I was on it, I was going to be able to get up no problem. I did. I was really excited that I did it the way I knew that I could.
It's surreal (to be going to the National Finals). I'm trying to soak it all in the best that I can."
"I would have spent less time on the Sky Hooks in City Qualifiers. I think I would have finished the course and hit a buzzer if I'd paid more attention to the technique on the Sky Hooks. That's the one thing I would have changed. Spent less time on the Sky Hooks.
But I feel like my mentality going into the course was the best that it could have been. I felt very good and very calm, which is important for me. I can't get too excited or I over-do things. That's what happened to me in season nine. I need to just stay calm. I think I've done a good job of that over the season."
On the Giant Cubes, Anna twisted herself into a split between the middle and third portion of the obstacle that was staggering to witness. However, because Anna's back foot was so much higher than her front foot, she couldn't maintain the hold when she jumped for the transition.
The stellar run earned her a place at the National Finals for the first time. In the weeks between the Los Angeles City Finals and the Las Vegas competition, Anna had some time to make a few tweaks in her training.
"The only thing I've changed is more endurance training. I started running more stairs and sprints. Doing more course runs trying to get my endurance up since Vegas is a timed course. I wanted to make sure endurance wasn't going to be a problem for me. I did not want that to be a reason I didn't finish the course.
Endurance is not my strength. I would love it to be a little bit better, but I think between the time that I had to train, it's as good as it can be. Having watched Stage One a couple years past, I feel I have the capability to complete it. It's just about doing it in the moment and the first time."
We'll find out how Anna does on Stage One when the National Finals debut on Monday, August 27. The fans won't be forgetting her name any time soon.


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West Midlands businessman attempted to hide 138kg of the drug, with more also found at his home
A drug smuggler who used coconuts to hide almost 140 kilos of herbal cannabis sent from Ghana has been jailed.
Richard Myers, 53, from Smethwick, West Midlands, was arrested as part of a National Crime Agency investigation after a consignment destined for his business, Soul Foods, was searched.
The container arrived in the UK on 13 July 2018 and, when opened and examined by Border Force officers, contained sacks of coconuts with plastic wrapped herbal cannabis hidden inside the fruits.
The drugs weighed almost 138 kilos. A further block of cannabis weighing 497 grams was found at Myers' home.
The drugs would have been worth £650,000 if sold on the streets of the UK.
The NCA investigation found Myers had travelled to Ghana to see the drugs loaded before returning to the UK.
Myers had previously been convicted of drug smuggling in 1995 when cannabis was found concealed in his false bottomed suitcase.
He had also been convicted of importing drugs into Sweden and possession of cannabis when he tried to return to the UK from Jamaica with 10.45kg and 4.54kg in his luggage on two occasions in 2002 and 2003.
Myers was interviewed by NCA officers and refused to answer any questions about Soul Foods. He was subsequently charged with importing cannabis and possession with intent to supply cannabis.
He denied the charges but was found guilty following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
Myers was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years imprisonment at the same court on 20 August.
NCA senior investigating officer Paul Boniface said:
"Myers travelled to Ghana to ensure these drugs were on their way, hiding them in coconuts in the hope they would seem to be a legitimate business transaction.
"This was not his first attempt at importation and Myers appeared intent on bringing cannabis onto the streets of the UK.
"The NCA will continue to work to tackle the drugs trade and will work with our Border Force partners to stop people like Myers from fuelling illegal and exploitative criminal networks."


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Greetings to you all on this chilly May evening. I am very excited with the changing seasons, shorter days and cosy nights sharing wonderful wholesome food in front of a crackling fire. Guanaba certainly hits the chill factor at night! All the more reason to feast on fantastic, life promoting fats.
Fats in the form of Raw Cold-pressed Coconut Oil, Cultured Organic Butter,(preferably from grass eating cows, not grain fed) Organic Cream and Olive oil. Other important fats from avocados, nuts and seeds. One question for you- How many people do you know that have gone on a low fat diet, only to hear how they crave carbohydrates more and then when the diet is finished, they put back on all the weight and more than what they may have been carrying before the diet. Well the answer is very simple when you look at what the body needs for brain function, hormone production, energy and warmth. Its FATS in the good old natural form. Fats satisfy the appetite, as the mechanism in the brain knows when the body has had adequite amounts, whereas carbohydrates metabolise quite differently and often leave us wanting more.
Dr Western A. Price studied ancient cultures that literally had no cavaties in their teeth, strong bones, well functioning reproductive systems, and they consumed large amounts of animal fats, and very little if any grain type foods. Their energy levels were incredible as they survived the threat of the harshest winters, wild animals and long distance travelling.
Why then have people become so scared of the good fats and through media propaganda, turned to artificial fats, that are having a grave effect on our health.
"Food for thought" facts about fats:
* Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50% of the cell membranes, giving them integrity so that they function properly.
* For calcium to be absorbed into the skeletal structure, 50% of the dietry fats should be saturated.
* They lower Lp(a) a substance in the blood that indicates proneness to heart disease.
* They protect the liver from alcohol and other toxins
* They enhance the immune system
* The heart needs fats to function especially in times of stress.
So by consuming fats such as : Butter, cream(organic and grass fed cows), lard, beef, duck ,lamb and goose fat, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, raw milk and yoghurt, you are actually doing yourself a favour for health and longevity.
Once fats have been heated, the nature of them changes. So once milk has been homogenised and pasteurised, all its digestive enzymes have been destroyed, leaving us with a product that is now causing so many allergies in people. All outbreaks of salmonella in America were from pasteurised milk not raw milk.
Synthetic margarines cause denaturing of DNA, leaving us with damaged cells replicating more damaged cells.
Processed cheeses contain emulsifiers, extenders, phosphates and hydrogenated oils.
No wonder the human race is battling life threatening diseases more than ever.
So this winter and every season following let natural raw fats be a big part of your life!


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Horns of Mosesʹ Face
.This is a mere blunder. The Hebrew karan means "to shoot out beams of light," but has by mistake been translated in some versions "to wear horns." Thus Moses is conventionally represented with horns. "Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone" (Exod. xxxiv. 29); compare 2 Cor. iii. 7–13: "The children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance."


text: Three colored rattan balls and three colored wooden sticks all held together with 1/8" vegetable tanned leather strip. A swirl of natural straw weave winding from the top and locked with a mini plastic hair clip. Included one of 2.5mm stainless steel quick link. Width: 4". Overall Length: 9". For small and medium-sized birds. Made in the USA


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Pre-Election Polls | what would be needed
With the election in Georgia approaching fast, polls are beginning to appear every week. Unfortunately, many of these polls are taken at face value. The reality is that at this point there is not a single pre-election poll that has demonstrated credibility. This does not necessarily mean that polling firms and newspapers are simply fabricating their data -- it simply means that if they were simply fabricating their data, it would be very difficult for anyone to know.
So can we be confident that a poll is credible? There are a number of basic stipulations:
1. Reveal the sampling methodology. How, in other words, do the pollsters ensure that interviewing a few thousand people is representative of the entire electorate? Choosing respondents requires a) knowing where most people live, and b) having a very strong theory about which people are likely to turn out to vote on election day. This is very difficult stuff, and even tiny errors here can have tremendous consequences.
2. Tell us about the field work. Were the interviews done face to face or by telephone? When and how? Did the survey enumerators explain who they were working for, and is it possible that the respondents knew that they were looking certain answers?
3. Publish the questionnaire. What exactly was asked, and how, and in what sequence?
4. Document the non-response rate. How many people refused to answer? There are plenty of people who don't pick up the phone, or who don't have 30 minutes to talk to pollsters...and in this country, many of those people will vote.
5. Allow peer-review. Power point presentations for nonspecialists are fine, but make the data set available to peers for professional scrutiny (and of course you can restrict usage). If you really are confident in what you're doing, this is the way to go.
If polls do not meet the standards, they really do not deserve to be taken seriously.
Too many commentators forget that the burden of proof is on the polling firms, not on the public. We seem to be entering a dangerous cycle, where there is a lot of awful information floating around, and no one has the ability to sort the good from the bad. This is as much a problem with what the public is demanding as what the firms are supplying. The public should beware, and commentators should be very cautious about taking firms' power point slides at face value, until some basic methodological questions are answered transparently.
What do CB interviewers' ratings of respondents' intelligence tell us?
Junior Fellows at CRRC-Georgia: Facing new challenges
Getting to the streets: Who is more inclined to protest in Georgia?
საქართველოში დემოკრატიის მხარდაჭერა მცირდება
Fearing for the children – how living with children affects homophobic attitudes in Tbilisi
Fearing for the children - the blog looks at how homophobic attitudes vary along gender lines taking into account whether men and women live in a household with children:Can't get no satisfaction. Who doesn't want to join the EU?
How to buy votes when you can't buy votes
Today, less than democratic regimes face a serious dilemma – how do you buy votes to win an election without becoming an international pariah. Unfortunately for a society and fortunately for an autocrat, the wheels of power and administrative resources an incumbent regime wields provide ample opportunity to manipulate electoral outcomes through what are otherwise legitimate activities related to state spending and coercion.Before and After the Elections: Shifting Public Opinion in Georgia
Alternating Pasts, Changing Futures
Note: This blog is re-posted from the MYPLACE project's blog. The original MYPLACE blog can be found here.Electoral Notes- Municipal Elections, 2014
Trust in local government in Georgia
A look at (in)Justice in Georgia as charges are brought against ex-President Saakashvili
Russia as a threat: the Ukraine crisis and changing public opinion in Georgia
Making energy matters matter: entering the electoral field
Democracy in Georgia
Leaving Thoughts by British Political Officer in Georgia
Access to justice in Central Asia | Presentation of research findings in Kazakhstan
IDPs in Georgia – Attitudes towards return, conflict resolution and justice
The Caucasus Barometer 2010 Dataset Is Available!
Public Attitudes in Georgia: CRRC Polling Results
ODA – CRRC Data Analysis Online
Follow-Up Media Landscape Survey
By Tamar ZurabishviliIf You Were Asked What Everyone Else Thought of Your Country...
Caucasus Barometer: Unpacking Public Trust in the President
MyPlace Website is up!
Counting Crowds & Crowds Counting | Jacobs' Method
During the last 25 years Georgian capital has experienced a diverse history of political meetings in its central areas including peaceful demonstrations, rallies with radical political demands, "tent towns" and so forth. The higher the attendance, the more legitimate the protests are often seen to be. As a result, the figures themselves usually are contested, sometimes in significant controversy.Top Ten Leisure Activities in Georgia
Caucasus Barometer | A New Name for the CRRC's Data Initiative
Testing Mobile Innovation in our Surveys
SMS Survey | First Insights
Greatest Threats Facing the World | Data from the 2009 CB & the Global Attitudes Survey
From environmental catastrophe to violence, our world currently faces serious challenges with long-term consequences. In this context, what do people in the Caucasus consider to be the most acute problems?
Survey Snippet | WorldCup
The Public's View of Constitutional Reform in Georgia
Georgian get-togethers: Private Problems versus Politics
In September 2011, CRRC on behalf of Eurasia Partnership Foundation and EWMI G-PAC conducted a nationally representative survey on Volunteerism and Civic Participation in Georgia. Georgians were asked how often they get together and discuss private problems and politics with their friends and relatives (who do not live in their houses).Ask CRRC!
Ask CRRC: what does the public actually know?
DRC & CRRC's Migration Report
Ask CRRC | Survey vs Census
Q: What's the difference between a survey and a census?Alpha Version of CRRC Data Initiative now online!!!
USAID Political Party Assessment of Europe and Eurasia
Philanthropy in Georgia
Counting People Makes them Count | Richard Rose
Exit Polls | Take Two
Diversity Polling on the Caucasus | Ask500
Parliamentary Elections in Georgia | ODIHR Observation
What do Georgian Troops Think about the Iraq War?
Georgia post-Election Phone Survey | Quick Review
European Cup Craze : Who Supports Whom in the Caucasus?
Caucasus Data | Language: Russian versus English?
Georgia: Women's Participation in Politics
Georgia Post-Conflict Phone Survey | may be a first glance?
Surveying Corruption | Details Matter!
What do Russians think about the situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia? -- Data Snapshot
Russian Public Opinion | Levada Update
The August Conflict | Economic Impact on Georgia?
Polling Data on Turkish-Armenian Bilateral Relations
რატომ არ მართლდება წინასაარჩევნო გამოკითხვების შედეგები?
საქართველოში ექვსი ოქტომბრის დილის რვა საათიდან საარჩევნო უბნების დახურვამდე დუმილის პერიოდია. დროის ამ შუალედში, კანონმდებლობის თანახმად, საზოგადოებრივი აზრის გამოკითხვის შედეგების გამოქვეყნება იკრძალება[1]. ზუსტად ერთი დღით ადრე, ტელეკომპანია "იმედმა" საკუთარი დაკვეთით ჩატარებული მასობრივი გამოკითხვის ანგარიში გამოაქვეყნა[2], რომელიც მრავალმა პოლიტიკოსმა, ექსპერტმა თუ ჟურნალისტმა არჩევნების შედეგების წინასწარმეტყველებად მიიღო. ამ წერილში აღვწერ, თუ რატომ არ ემთხვევა (და არ უნდა ემთხვეოდეს) გამოკითხვის შედეგები არჩევნებისას და მიმოვიხილავ მეთოდებს, რომლებიც ხმის მიცემის შედეგების პროგნოზისთვის გამოიყენება.Comparing Civic Participation: Caucasus Data 2007
McCain vs Obama: Caucasus preferences
World Press Freedom | Caucasus does badly!
Public Opinion on the Parliament in Georgia
World Public Opinion: Azerbaijan in Focus
EBRD Life in Transition Survey | worth analyzing!
Drugs Use Survey of Georgian Students, 2003
The Georgian Research Institute on Addictions (GRIA) in 2003 conducted a survey of about 700 students in Tbilisi's universities.Exit Polls | a good idea?
With upcoming elections in Georgia, the attention is back on a theme that otherwise often gets neglected: what does the Georgian electorate want?Georgia's Performance? | Millenium Challenge Corporation's Meta-Index
With all the attention on Georgia, it may be interesting to revisit Georgia's most recent performance as seen by international organizations. As it happens, the Millennium Challenge Corporation offers a such an assessment through its annual scorecard, just released last week. This scorecard is a meta-index, drawing on data from the World Bank Institute, Freedom House, IFC, WHO, UNESCO and a few other organizations.Schoolchildrens' Attitudes in Armenia: What Kind of Impact Has Civic Education Had?
Georgian parliamentary elections 2016 - Gender and ethnic minority representation on party lists
The results of the 2016 Parliamentary elections in Georgia reveal some interesting patterns about the representation of women and ethnic minorities in Georgian politics.Developing the "culture of polling" in Georgia (Part 1): Survey criticism in Georgia
Intense public debate usually accompanies the publication of survey findings in Georgia, especially when the findings are about politics. The discussions are often extremely critical or even call for the rejection of the results. Normally criticism of surveys would focus on the shortcomings of the research process and help guide researchers towards better practices to make surveys a better tool to understand society. In Georgia most of the current criticism of surveys is, unfortunately, counterproductive and mainly driven by an unwillingness to accept the findings, because the critics do not like them.Who makes political decisions in Georgia: What people think
Bidzina Ivanishvili resigned from the post of prime minister of Georgia on November 20th 2013, and in his own words, "left politics". Speculation about his continued informal participation in the political decision-making process began even before he resigned and still continues. Some politicians think that Ivanishvili gives orders to the Georgian Dream party from behind-the-scenes, while others believe that he actually distanced himself from politics. Politicians, journalists and experts continue to discuss the situation. Meanwhile, a majority of Georgia's population thinks that Bidzina Ivanishvili is still involved in the governing process and that his informal participation is unacceptable.Prioritizing the personal: People talk more about personal issues than political events
In general people are primarily interested in their own lives, rather than in social or political events. In other words, social and political events will, most probably, be overshadowed by events in one's personal life. CRRC's 2015 Caucasus Barometer (CB) survey data provides more detailed insights on this. In this blog post, we compare answers to two CB questions: "When you get together with your close relatives and friends, how often do you discuss each other's private problems?" and "When you get together with your friends and close relatives, how often do you discuss politics / current affairs?" in Armenia and Georgia.Visa liberalization: How much do people in Georgia know about the conditions of visa-free travel to the EU?
CRRC's previous blog posts have shown that the population of Georgia had rather moderate expectations of the recent visa liberalization with the Schengen zone countries, especially when it comes to the question of how much ordinary people will benefit from it. Europe Foundation's latest survey on Knowledge of and Attitudes towards the European Union in Georgia, conducted in May 2017, provides a more nuanced understanding on how people in Georgia feel about this process and to what extent they are familiar with the conditions of visa liberalization.
Visa liberalization: How much do people in Georgia know about the conditions of visa-free travel to the EU?
CRRC's previous blog posts have shown that the population of Georgia had rather moderate expectations of the recent visa liberalization with the Schengen zone countries, especially when it comes to the question of how much ordinary people will benefit from it. Europe Foundation's latest survey on Knowledge of and Attitudes towards the European Union in Georgia, conducted in May 2017, provides a more nuanced understanding on how people in Georgia feel about this process and to what extent they are familiar with the conditions of visa liberalization.Survey incentives: When offering nothing is better than offering something
Why do people take the time to respond to surveys in Georgia? A telephone survey experiment CRRC-Georgia carried out in May 2017 suggests that small financial incentives may actually discourage people from participating in surveys. This finding suggests people may respond to surveys for intrinsic (e.g. because they are curious or want to help) rather than extrinsic reasons (e.g. doing something for the money).Taking partly free voters seriously: autocratic response to voter preferences in Armenia and Georgia
Do voters in less than democratic contexts matter or are elections simply facades used to create a veneer of democratic accountability for domestic and international actors? Within the Autocratic Response to Voter Preferences in Armenia and Georgia project, funded by Academic Swiss Caucasus Net, CRRC-Georgia and CRRC-Armenia aimed to help answer this question, at least for Georgia and Armenia. On October 27, Caucasus Survey published the results of the project in a special issue, available here.Who should own land in Georgia? How attitudes changed between 2015 and 2017
Georgian parliament recently adopted constitutional amendments. Among the many changes were those regulating the sale of agricultural land. According to the amendments, "Agricultural land, as a resource of special importance, can only be owned by the state, a self-governing entity, a citizen of Georgia, or a union of Georgian citizens." While the constitution allows for exceptions, which should be regulated by a law yet to be written, it is expected that foreigners will not be allowed to buy agricultural land in Georgia as freely as Georgian citizens. This blog post looks at public opinion about foreigners owning land in Georgia.Perceptions of professionalism, corruption, and nepotism in local government
Professionalism, honesty, and fair competition are important in any institution. Yet, incidents involving corruption, nepotism and/or a lack of professionalism are sometimes reported in the Georgian media when the work of local government bodies is covered. How does the public perceive local government? This blog post describes data from the June 2017 CRRC/NDI survey, which show that a majority of people in Georgia thought that there were problems with nepotism and a lack of professionalism in local government. Moreover, roughly half of the population thought that their local government also faces a problem with corruption.Gender (in)equality on TV
Stereotypes are an inseparable part of every society, and present in many parts of everyday life. Georgian society is no exception in this regard. For example, some professions like teaching are stereotypically thought of as "women's professions" while others like being a soldier are considered "men's professions". The media is considered one of the strongest means through which stereotypes are strengthened or broken. In Georgia, TV is the most important media, given that according to CRRC/NDI data, 73% of the population of the country name television as their primary source of the information. In order to understand the dynamics around gender-based stereotypes on TV, CRRC-Georgia monitored the main evening news releases and political talk shows broadcast during prime time (from 18:00 to 00:00) on five national and three regional channels from September 11 to November 12, 2017 (Channel One of the Public Broadcaster, Adjara, Rustavi 2, Imedi, Maestro, Trialeti, Gurjaani, Odishi) with the support of the UN Joint Program for Gender Equality with support from UNDP Georgia and the Swedish government.As many Georgians think the West spreads propaganda as Russia
On 13 February, the United States released its Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community. In it, the significance of Russian influence operations in Georgia were highlighted. Just eight days earlier, on 5 February, a coalition of Georgia's leading non-governmental organisations made an official offer to support the Government of Georgia, the EU, and NATO in their efforts to counter anti-Western propaganda.Which questions do people tend to respond "Don't know" to?
On surveys, sometimes the questions asked are hard for some people to answer. As a result, the answer option "Don't know" is a regular part of any survey dataset. But are some questions particularly likely to elicit these responses? This blog post uses un-weighted 2017 CRRC Caucasus Barometer (CB) survey data for Georgia to look at this question.Are there predictors of not knowing and refusing to answer on surveys in Georgia?
Are there variables that predict who is likely to report "Don't know" or to refuse to answer survey questions more often in Georgia? This blog post looks at this question, using un-weighted Caucasus Barometer 2017 (CB) data for Georgia.Who doesn't want democracy for Georgia?
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia adopted western-style democratic institutions. They have never functioned in a fully democratic manner, fluctuating between more liberal and authoritarian tendencies. That is, Georgia is and has been a hybrid regime.But what do people want?
ესმით თუ არა ქართველებს, რას ნიშნავს გენდერული თანასწორობა?
გენდერული თანასწორობისა და ფემინიზმის ცნებები სულ უფრო ხშირად გამოიყენება საჯარო დისკურსში საქართველოში. 2010 წელს საქართველომ მიიღო კანონი გენდერული თანასწორობის შესახებ. გენდერული თანასწორობა ხშირად პოპულარული სატელევიზიო გადაცემების განხილვის საგანია და სახალხო დამცველის აპარატი ანგარიშს ამზადებს ამ საკითხთან დაკავშირებით. მიუხედავად ამისა, გამოკითხვის მონაცემები აჩვენებს, რომ ქართველებს ხშირად არ ესმით, რას ნიშნავს გენდერული თანასწორობა.რა მიმართულებით მიდის საქართველო? საქართველოს მოსახლეობის აღქმა
ბოლო ათი წელია, CRRC-საქართველოსა და ეროვნულ-დემოკრატიული ინსტიტუტის მიერ ჩატარებული კვლევები პოლიტიკური შეხედულებების შესახებ თვალს ადევნებს მოსახლეობის დამოკიდებულებას ქვეყნის მიმართულებაზე. მიუხედავად იმისა, რომ ამისი პირდაპირი მიზეზი ვერ იქნებოდა, მზარდი აღქმა იმისა, რომ საქართველო არასწორი მიმართულებით მიდის, გარკვეულწილად გავლენას ახდენს იმ საპროტესტო ტალღაზე, რაც საქართველოში ივნისში დაიწყო და დღემდე გრძელდება. ხალხის აღქმაზე, თუ რა მიმართულებით მიდის საქართველო, გავლენას მრავალი ფაქტორი ახდენს, თუმცა, ამ მიმართულებით ყველაზე მნიშვნელოვან ფაქტორებად არჩევნები და აშშ დოლართან მიმართებაში ქართული ლარის დევალვაცია იკვეთება. ეს ბლოგი მიმოიხილავს, თუ როგორ იცვლება მოსახლეობის შეხედულება ქვეყნის მიმართულებაზე ბოლო ათი წლის განმავლობაში.Attitudes toward politicians are related to evaluations of institutional performance
How citizens evaluate the performance of the state is often a reasonable proxy for its performance. In Georgia, evaluations of public institutions are mixed. While a number of social and demographic variables are associated with people's perceptions of state performance, so too are people's attitudes towards political parties and politicians. This shows once again how politics is personalized in Georgia.What divides and what unites Georgian society?
The last year has seen a number of conversations about polarization in Georgia. The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, even commented on the issue in his Batumi speech. One of the components of polarization, though not the sole factor, is division in society over actors, issues, and institutions.While many things could divide the public, what do the people think and which groups report more and fewer sources of division? The April 2019 NDI-CRRC poll suggests that there are fewer perceived reasons for division in rural areas and among ethnic minorities.
წამლები დესერტად? ოჯახის ყველაზე დიდი ყოველთვიური ხარჯები საქართველოში
საქართველოს მოსახლეობისთვის მთავარ სატკივრად კვლავ ეკონომიკა რჩება. სამომხმარებლო ფასის ინდექსის და დოლარის ლართან გაცვლის კურსის ზრდასთან ერთად, ბოლო წლების განმავლობაში შინამეურნეობების საშუალო ხარჯებიც გაიზარდა. ამასთანავე, უახლესი მონაცემების მიხედვით, მოსახლეობის მხოლოდ 10%-ს აქვს რაიმე დანაზოგი. შინამეურნეობის საშუალო ხარჯების გაზრდასთან ერთად, საინტერესოა, რაში ხარჯავს ხალხი ფულს საქართველოში. CRRC-NDI-ის ბოლო, 2019 წლის ზაფხულის კვლევაში დაისვა კითხვები ოჯახის ხარჯებთან დაკავშირებით, რაც გარკვეულ წარმოდგენას გვიქმნის იმის შესახებ, თუ რაში ხარჯავენ ფულს საქართველოში და ვინ უფრო მეტს ხარჯავს გარკვეული სახის პროდუქტებსა და მომსახურებაში.Government employees assess the work of the government better than the general public
The outlook in Georgia continues to be increasingly pessimistic, with more people reporting that the country is heading in the wrong direction. Similarly, performance assessments of government institutions have been on the decline in recent years. As recent CRRC analyses have highlighted, party identification, attitudes towards individual politicians, ethnicity, and Georgian language proficiency among ethnic minorities are associated with attitudes towards government. Analysis of the July 2019 CRRC and NDI survey suggests that working for the state is also associated with performance assessments. However, government employees in poor households and those in Tbilisi rate government performance significantly worse.საქართველოში კლებულობს ოპტიმიზმი ევროკავშირში გაწევრიანებასთან დაკავშირებით
საქართველო ევროკავშირში გაწევრიანების კანდიდატი ქვეყანა ჯერ არ არის, თუმცა, ევროკავშირში გაწევრიანება მთავრობის გაცხადებულ მიზანს წარმოადგენს. 2019 წლის გაზაფხულზე, CRRC-საქართველოს მიერ ჩატარებული კვლევის მიხედვით (ევროკავშირის მიმართ დამოკიდებულება და ცოდნის შეფასება), ხვალ რომ რეფერენდუმი ტარდებოდეს, საქართველოს მოსახლეობის 71% მხარს დაუჭერდა საქართველოს ევროკავშირში გაწევრიანებას. მხოლოდ 10% იქნებოდა ამის წინააღმდეგი და 7% საერთოდ არ მიიღებდა მონაწილეობას რეფერენდუმში. მიუხედავად იმისა, რომ ქვეყანაში ევროკავშირში გაწევრიანების მხარდაჭერა აშკარად მაღალია, ხალხი პესიმისტურად არის განწყობილი იმის მიმართ, თუ რა დრო დასჭირდება საქართველოს ევროკავშირში გასაწევრიანებლად.Georgia's Foreign Policy Trilemma: Balance, Bandwagon, or Hedge? Part 1
Georgia is a small, partly free democracy in a tough neighbourhood, and NATO membership remains an unfulfilled promise. While Russia is widely perceived as the main threat to Georgia's security, the appropriate strategic or political response to the threat is not obvious. What options does Georgia have when faced with a powerful rival on its border, and what public support is there for these options?Georgia's Foreign Policy Trilemma: Balance, Bandwagon, or Hedge? Part 2
The first part of this blog post discussed evidence of an association between perceiving Russia as the main threat to Georgia and a preference for a foreign policy that balances against that threat through alliances with the West. The relationship between threat perception and hedging, defined as attempting to maintain good relations with both Russia and the West, is less clear.In a sea of pessimism, who is optimistic about Georgia?
The CRRC and NDI survey released two weeks ago showed a pessimistic picture – half the public thinks Georgia is going in the wrong direction, 24% that nothing is changing, and only 19% think it is going in the right direction. A majority (59%) think the country is not a democracy for the first time since the question was asked on the survey in 2010. Moreover, performance assessments of government, parliament, the courts, and most ministries declined.What kind of electoral system do Georgians actually want?
On 8 March, Georgia's political leaders agreed on a new electoral system under which 120 seats will be allocated via proportional elections and 30 seats will be allocated via direct election of candidates.The long-fought-over electoral reform was a compromise which represents two steps forward after three steps had been taken back.
As COVID-19 sends political campaigning to Facebook, will polarisation increase?
With Georgia in an election year and traditional face-to-face campaigning out of the question given the COVID-19 outbreak, the importance of Facebook in Georgian politics is only likely to grow.Facebook is an important part of Georgian politics. Political campaigns are fought, and public opinion thought to often be formed on the platform...
Georgian voters: personalities, policies, or a bit of both?
While personality in politics matters greatly for the Georgian public, data from this year shows that for Georgian Dream and United National Movement voters, policy is still important.
A recent CRRC Georgia policy brief argued that what was really dividing Georgians politically was personalities rather than policies. Data from the August 2020 CRRC and NDI survey provides further evidence for this idea.
However, the data also shows a difference between Georgian Dream (GD) and United National Movement (UNM) voters in terms of policy preferences and that economic policy is the most important issue for a plurality of voters.
UNM supporters are especially pessimistic about their economic future
With the pandemic still raging and accompanying economic restrictions still in force, Georgians are unsurprisingly pessimistic about their economic future. This holds true especially for supporters of the opposition United National Movement Party, above all other party supporters.
COVID-19 restrictions have impacted people's economic activity heavily. This is reflected in key economic indicators such as GDP, which declined by 5.9% year on year between January and November 2020.
It is also reflected in employment, with fewer people reporting starting new jobs and more people reporting having lost one, according to the 2020 Caucasus Barometer.
Грузини хочуть, щоби їхній уряд підтримав Україну
Війна Росії з Україною шокувала світ. Вона також шокувала Грузію, а нове опитування від CRRC Georgia викриває ступінь наявних політичних наслідків.
Наслідки війни, що стосуються зовнішньої та внутрішньої політики Грузії, виявилися доволі масштабними. Офіційна позиція Грузії щодо війни була суперечливою: в той час як прем'єр-міністр Іраклі Гарібашвілі категорично заявив, що Грузія не приєднається до санкцій, накладених Заходом проти Росії, президент Грузії Саломе Зурабішвілі почала медійний та дипломатичний бліц у Європі, висловлюючи рішучу підтримку Україні.
How do Georgians feel about the influx of Russians?
Recent CRRC data shows that a large majority of the Georgian public is concerned about the migration of Russians to Georgia.Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, at least 1.2 million Russian citizens have entered Georgia, equivalent to roughly 30% of Georgia's population. While the number of Russian citizens who have decided to stay in Georgia remains unclear, the impact of this mass migration is strongly felt in rising rents and concerns over the country's security.
Is the Georgian government doing enough to secure EU membership?
CRRC Georgia data suggests that while the majority of Georgians want to join the EU, they are largely split along partisan lines on whether their government is doing enough to secure the country's candidate status.Is People's Power designed to make Georgian Dream look good?
A CRRC Georgia study found that positioning Georgian Dream as more moderate than its spin-off group, People's Power, increased support for the ruling party.რა სარგებლობა მოაქვს ხალხის ძალას მმართველი პარტიისათვის?
CRRC Georgia-ს კვლევამ აჩვენა, რომ ქართული ოცნების უფრო ზომიერად პოზიციონირებამ, ვიდრე მისი სპინ-ოფ ჯგუფი ხალხის ძალაა, მმართველი პარტიის მხარდაჭერა გაზარდა.Are individual Georgians politically polarised?
CRRC-Georgia data found that individual political polarisation — how committedly partisan a person is — is relatively low in Georgia, despite concerns about the country's polarisation as a whole.Georgians' attitudes and beliefs associated with polarised media preferences
A recent NDI/CRRC survey suggests that Georgians have markedly different beliefs about the present state and future of their country, regardless of their party sympathies, depending on whether the television channel they trust is pro-government or pro-opposition.Do Georgians feel like they are being spied on by the government?
Nearly half of the Georgian public think that they or their family members are under government surveillance at least some of the time.Georgia's changing priorities at the UN General Assembly
A quantitative analysis of the speeches made by Georgia's leaders at the annual UN General Assembly found that their themes and priorities changed after the change of government in 2012, with Georgian Dream leaders more positive and discussing Russia less negatively than their predecessors.Russian émigrés in Georgia
After the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, tens of thousands of Russian nationals moved to Georgia, with many choosing to stay. A CRRC survey found that Russian respondents in Georgia believe that Russia is not a democracy, have mixed views about Georgia's political direction, and feel relatively secure in Georgia.Can political parties in Georgia survive abandonment by their leaders?
A year before Georgia's general elections, a CRRC survey found that less than half of surveyed Georgian partisans would remain loyal to their favoured party if its leader were to establish a new party, with supporters of the ruling party more likely to stick with their party than supporters of the opposition.


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text:
Pytest approximately equal scalars and arrays
Pytest cleanly handles many continuous integration issues.
Pytest is worthwhile to setup tests and improve test coverage.
It's straightforward to incrementally upgrade from obsolete nose
and legacy unittest
modules to Pytest.
A frequent CI task is comparing floating point numbers. Computer representations of floating point numbers have finite precision. Real numbers associativity doesn't completely apply to digital floating point representations. A practical solution to this problem is to compare numbers (scalars or arrays) to within an absolute and relative tolerance. Widely known functions exist to compare "equality" of floating point numbers in Python and Fortran real/assert.F90 among other numerical languages.
provides a syntactically clean approach that may be more intuitive and readable for CI applications.
It works with scalars and arrays of all sorts including the ubiquitous numpy.ndarray
This example shows how to replace numpy.testing.assert_allclose()
with pytest.approx()
import numpy as np
from pytest import approx
def test_mynums():
x = np.array([2.00000000001, 1.99999999999])
assert x == approx(2.)
Whereas with Numpy, the last line would have been np.testing.assert_allclose(x, 2.)
The Pytest syntax and appearance are more readable.
NaN is an unrepresentable, undefined quantity as results from invalid computations like:
- ∞ / ∞
- 0 / 0
NaN are also useful as sentinel values to indicate a problem with a computation for example.
Python sentinel
values include NaN
and None
In Julia, performance is approximately the same for nan
vs. nothing
sentinel values.
The option pytest.approx(nan_ok=True)
allows one or more NaN's in the test array.
Absolute and relative tolerance are important considerations for CI, particularly across OS and computer types, where order of operation and numerical CPU/GPU/APU/etc. tolerances and low level math routines (BLAS, AVX, etc.) differ.
Especially (perhaps obviously) for single precision arithmetic vs. double precision arithmetic, tolerances will be larger.
pytest.approx() default tolerances work for many situations.
Absolute tolerance shouldn't be 0 to avoid unexpected effects near 0.
Depending on the parameter, rel=1e-4
may be more appropriate for CI tests that need to work on a variety of systems.


text:
On top of hill at the end of a line of telegraph poles, 150 yards north from the junction of two minor roads.
LOCKED All surface features remain intact with some flaking of the green paint. The hatch is locked.
27.10.2013 Alastair McCann reports post demolished, was still there a year ago. The above ground features appear to have been uprooted by a digger and dumped in a ditch near to the site. The entry shaft is still in one piece and could probably be salvaged for a museum
Opened in 1957 and closed in 1991.


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Kevin Boucher, Traffic Manager for WSIU Television and a two-degree graduate of the SIU College of Mass Communication & Media Arts, invites you to unplug and unwind in this soothing new local series. The one-hour program combines acoustic guitar music with the sounds of nature and stories of nature experiences as told by hikers, campers, and others who love spending time in the beautiful natural areas of southern Illinois.
"My hope is that this program will provide listeners with the same excitement and peace I find when I spend time outdoors," says Boucher. "Using the magical 'theater of the mind', one-on-one quality that is the strength of radio, I hope to create awareness of the beautiful natural areas right here in southern Illinois. In our hectic, cubicle-controlled, increasingly online lives, I feel there is a tremendous need for all of us to reconnect with our planet."
Please send your comments, questions, and nature stories to host Kevin Boucher at firstname.lastname@example.com or send a note to:
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About the Host
Born in Newport, Rhode Island to a military family, Kevin Boucher traveled the country and the world at a young age before his family settled in Murphysboro, Illinois in 1976. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Radio-Television at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale and worked in commercial radio before becoming the Traffic Manager at WSIU Public Television. Boucher has since earned a Master's degree in Professional Media & Media Management Studies from SIU's College of Mass Communication & Media Arts. He is an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys gardening and exploring the flora and fauna of the Shawnee National Forest and other beautiful natural areas across southern Illinois.
A reminder that WSIU's annual "Acoustic Nature Hour Christmas Special" will air tonight - Thursday December 7th - at 8:00PM. Here is a sample from…
The Acoustic Nature Hour Earth Day Special is supported locally by First Southern Bank.
Unusually mild temperatures are causing some early spring wildflowers to come to life. Jennifer Randolph, Natural Resources Coordinator at Giant City…
Celebrate Earth Day 2016 with an Acoustic Nature Hour Earth Day Special. Many, many thanks to the experts who appeared in this year's program. Names below…


text:
Fair Pay for All
Today's text is about the Fair Pay Initiative for Equity on the Pay Slip, with thoughts on the correspondent situation in the film business, especially as far as the wages of actresses and actors are concerned.
- Prologue: 23rd Century – Men and Women, Leads and Supports
- FairPay Alliance and the Question of Transparency
- Wage Disparity in the Film Industry
- The Policy Paper on Gender by the BFFS
- Epilogue: 21st Century – Men and Women, Leads and Supports
Prologue: 23rd Century – Men and Women, Leads and Supports
Fifty years ago, in 1966, the US TV series STAR TREK was broadcast for the first time. The core crew of the starship consisted of six men and one woman (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Sulu, Uhura and Chekov), the male-centred storyline is set in the 23rd century and the women generally wore very short skirts, if they occured at all… Just before STAR TREK the German Sci-Fi series RAUMPATROUILLE – DIE PHANTASTISCHEN ABENTEUER DES RAUMSCHIFFS ORION (Space Patrol – The Fantastic Adventures of the Spaceship Orion) was broadcast in 1965 which surpassed this by far, but that is a topic for another day. Let's get back to the USS Enterprise.
Actor Walter Koenig mentioned in an interview with the Las Vegas Sun (published 30.7.14), that Nichelle Nichols' wage für playing the part of Uhura in the original series was lower than his (as Chekov) and that of George Takai (Sulu). Leonard Nimoy (Spock) heard of this and stood up for equal pay:
KOENIG: Leonard (Nimoy, Mr. Spock) was always kind of unapproachable. But a very good man. Sound ethics and a good sense of morality.
LAS VEGAS SUN: How so?
KOENIG: When it came to the attention of the cast that there was a disparity in pay in that George and I were getting the same pay but Nichelle was not getting as much, I took it to Leonard and he took it to the front office and they corrected that.
In this context it is fitting to quote cameraman and member of ver.di FilmUnion Stefan Nowak laudatory speech when the special award "Starker Einsatz 2014" (Strong Commitment) was presented to script writer / director Ulrike Grote and producer Ilona Schultz, founders of Fortune Cookies Filmproduction:
"(…) whoever stands up for reasonable compensation and humane working conditions is risking a lot. If worse comes to worse they are not hired any more. But at best reasonable budgets and working conditions can be achieved."
I read of a second situation where Leonard Nimoy stood up for – financially – disadvantaged colleagues, which occured during the production of the animated series of Star Trek (1973 – 74):
NIMOY: There was also the case where George (Sulu) and Nichelle (Uhura) were not hired to do their voices in the animated series. I refused to do Spock until they were hired.
(quoted by Anthony Pascale in TrekMovie. 31.7.14)
Pascale commented on both incidents in the following manner:
The fact that Nimoy fought for Nichelle Nichols back in the 1960s shows a bit of bravery. Back then women's pay equity wasn't the same kind of hot topic it is today. On top of that, while he was a lead, Nimoy was still just an actor in the show and didn't have the kind of pull he would eventually have when he went on to produce and direct for the Star Trek movies in the 80s & 90s. All in all, Walter's story just proves what we all knew, Leonard Nimoy is a mensch.
Some elementary essentials of a fight for fair wages become apparent: first and foremost the different pay situation must be (made) transparent. It also helps if priviledged advocates act in solidarity and ideally if a broad alliance is formed.
FairPay Alliance and the Question of Transparency
Such an alliance has become active in Germany recently, not only in relation to the film industry but rather to all professional areas that show a gender specific imbalance of wages:
The alliance of the Berlin Declaration, working across all political groups, enters the next phase. We started (in 2011) with the aim to get more women involved in the decision making processes of the business world – on equal terms and with equal representation. The first big step was taken with the Law of Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions. Our next aim: equal pay. We vouch for this with our FairPay Alliance. And we will have reached our aim when each and everyone is able to say on 365 days a year:
TODAY I am being paid fairly.
TODAY I am paying in a fair way.
(From the Berlin Declaration of Equality on the Pay Slip)
For the moment the campaign's website fairpay-heute.de only exists in a German version. On it everybody interested can support the petition and the work of the alliance with their signature, find information on allies as well as statements by supporters – among them of three actresses. The core demands of the petition are as follows:
- achieve transparency for all
- obligation to fix detected unequal pay situations
- an upgrade of social careers
Transparency is good for everyone. Some don't know for sure that they earn more than the others and how much. Or at least how little the others get paid, how badly they are paid for the same, equivalent or comparable work. And others often don't know that they get less and how much less.
There is the real income distribution and the felt one. There is no connection between the two. Wealth starts at a net income of roughly 3.100 € per month (for singles, 4.600 € for pairs.) Only 8 % are above this threshold. People earning this much belong to a relatively small upper class. But actually most rich people believe that it's never about them when newspaper and tv talk about the rich.
Kolja Rudzig. Reich sind immer die anderen / It's always the others that are rich. DIE ZEIT No. 40, 22. Sept. 16
At the Rio Olympics all German athletes who won medals got the same prize money, gender didn't matter, only the position in which they finished did: for a gold medal they were awarded 20,000 €, for silver 15,000 € and for bronze 10,000 €. The postions four to eight were awarded with 5,000 to 1,500 €. There were also standardized regulations for those competing in team events. The same prize money was given to German athletes competing in the Rio Paralympics.
A completely different Gender Prize Gap is practiced by the German Football Association DFB. Some months ago the men's football Euro Championship was held in France, the German team got as far as the semi-finals, each player received a bonus of 100,000 €. Had they won the title they would have got 300,000 €. The female DFB players who won Olympic gold in Rio, in 2013 each received 22,500 € for winning the European champions' title, which was their fifth in a row. That is 7,5 % of the men's bonus they would have got 3 years later. I am expecting a distinct increase for the women's Euro next year in the Netherlands. Anything less than 300,000 € per player for the title would be inappropiate and anachronistic.
These numbers are not very difficult to find, they are published by the German Sporthilfe (sports aid) and the DFB and also by the media. Other Gender Pay Gaps are not so easily detected since talking about one's earnings
is still a taboo in Germany. However, breaking this taboo would have a positive effect on the wage gap and help close it. (…) Only those who know about salary levels can assess their own situation in comparison to others and are able to prove if they are paid unfairly.
(Source: Equalpaywiki)
Wage transparency is possible as the example from Sweden shows, a state without tax secrecy. The taxable income of nearly all people (exceptions: the King and the Queen) are made public and can be requested by calling the Skatteverket / tax office or by looking it up in the annual Taxeringskalender. Is transparency the source of the smaller Gender Pay Gap in Sweden? And could this be a model for Germany? (read also: Taxes are an open secret in Scandinavia).
What would it be like if everybody in a film project knew how much you are earning and you knew what everbody else is getting? Or alternatively, if the average wages for women and for men for each team division and in front of the camera were published?
Most of us have probably at one point or another encountered colleagues at work who take their time and chat a lot about private things during work, or who only pick the cherries from the workload – i.e. who work less than we do, in our subjective perception. But this is not about this type of "unfair pay".
- Unequal Pay is used for different wages, e.g. of women and men, for the same work.
- Gender Pay Gap refers to the difference between the average incomes of women and men and is influenced by the types of jobs, part-time work and care responsibilities (read also: Gender Pay Gap: Government failing to take action)
Wage Disparity in the Film Industry
There are no uniform wages in the film industry, neither among the divisions nor within each. The varying pay depends on several causes:
- Film job: a lot of film salaries are regulated by collective agreements and differ a bit or considerably (see also: Filmcrafts: Some with Women, Some with Men? from July 2014).
- Type of production, i.e. wheter it's for cinema or television, a blockbuster, indie or low budget film, broadcast in main or early evening programming etc.
- Weekly or annual individual occupational scope (read also Cinema, Career, Children: Can the Film Industry be called a family-friendly Workplace? From May 2014)
- Gender: wage differentials between women and men are also encountered in the film industry
- Status: Some wages are freely negotiable and the sky's the limit, at least for some people in the film / tv industry.
Quoting from Cinema, Career, Children:
Satzer (2007) determined an average annual pre-tax income of 38.878 € for male and 30.119 € for female film makers. So according to this – non representative – survey men earn 29 % than women. This gender pay gap is also confirmed by the findings of Buhrmann and Diersche in 2012. But why is the gap so big? Are typically female film jobs paid less? Do women negotiate worse contracts individually? Is it because women – maybe because of family committments – participate in less productions per year? Knowing about the pay gap, would part-time wages for mothers in film and television even be higher than the social benefits level?
And what about women in film and television in front of the camera? According to the survey of Bührmann et al. (2010) 72 % of the women and 64,7 % of the men had an annual income of less than 30.240 € (from film, theatre and voice work). The survey also gives a more detailed classification of wages, in 5000 € steps, but that unfortunately does not differenciate between women and men. But the survey leaves another clue to the inferior situation for women: 18,5 % of the actors as opposed to 25,7 % of the actresses cannot support themselves from acting jobs.
It is also worth remembering that most people working for film and television aren't permanently or continuously employed, rather they work in projects for limited periods. The shooring periods get shorter, the shooting days get longer. The reconciliation of family and working life is very difficult, not only against this background. (at present only a small share of the men care for small children or elderly relatives).
Danish actor Christian Tafdrup (known from the last season of the TV series BORGEN as the baddie TV1-programme director Alexander Hjort) mentioned at the screening of his directoral debut FORÆLDRE / PARENTS at the Munich Filmfest this year that in Danmark you cannot shoot longer than 8 hours a day. Not only is this good knews for parents but it's probably also favouring creative work on the whole. Director Urs Egger – when receiving the Fair Film Award for the TV film DER FALL BRUCKNER – positively highlighted the fact that because children were involved in leading roles the shooting days were shorter than normal. But that is a topic for another day.
So far I have been writing about wages and salaries, but actually a number of film people aren't employed / socially insured but are working free-lance, for example directors and directors of photography, so they have to take care of social insurance by themselves. There are no collective agreements for them, but e.g. again for directors, just recently an agreement between the ZDF (German Channel Two), the producers' alliance and the BVR directors' union was signed, in which a
Basic Remuneration BVR (directors' union) of 27.820 € (was stipulated) . This is in accordance with the standard remuneration for script writers, even though it means some sort of advanced minimum fee for directors. Obviously experienced directors will receive more.
(Source: BVR und ZDF vereinbaren Gemeinsame Vergütungsregeln, undated).
And this brings us back to the question of gender. Both diversity reports published by the BVR so far (2010-13 and 2014) show a structural discrimination of female directors ("they directed only 11 % of prime time TV minutes") – so it is more difficult for women to gain experience that would raise their pay.
As a reaction to the work of Pro Quote Regie / Pro Quota Directing, to date several production companies have expressed their willingness to introduce minimum quotas for female directors, maybe pay equity will also become an issue – in accordance with the earlier mentioned demand of the Fair Pay Petition for Equity on the Pay Slip (TODAY I am paying in a fair way): obligation to fix detected unequal pay situation.
The Policy Paper on Gender by the BFFS
The German association of actresses and actors BFFS first commented on unequal pay for women and men in public in August 2014 with their unfortunately still quite unknown Unequal Pay Campaign. Now, two years later, the next step followed with a 1 page-policy paper on Gender (in German only, click here). The full title is Policy Paper on the situation of actresses in German language film and TV productions. The paper starts with an inventory:
The BFFS find the continuous discrimination of actresses unacceptable and commit themselves to do everything in their power that will result in equality for actresses in the workplace.
The paper lists three demands and four strategies. The second demand deals with wage justice:
2. Remuneration: The BFFS wants gender equal unbiased wages and through these a balanced wage ratio between actors and actresses.
The reasons for different annual incomes of actresses and actors among others can be found in the earlier mentioned wage disparity reasons occupational scope, gender and status:
The possible OCCUPATIONAL SCOPE is influenced by the different quantity of roles for women and men (have a look at my findings in section "Female and Male Roles, Quantity and Age in NEROPA – NEutral ROles PArity: A Method for more Genderbalanced Casts from 20.1.16) and the personal, e.g. family situation.
The factual occupational scope is also connected to the individual's market value however that is determined or rather built, and the individual's experience. Those who have been in more films are more likely to be cast than colleagues with a shorter c.v. – this applies to smaller roles as well. The BVC (Association of German Casting Directors) organized a panel discussion at this year's Munich film festival called "Focus Casting: who is suitable for which role and why?" and there we heard that even the number of followers in social networks are taken into account when determining the person's market value. A high market value is said to be synonymous to a great audience and high tv ratings.
There is something else that negatively influences the possible occupational scope of less famous acting people: To save money some productions of public TV are transferred abroad and shot in East European countries. As a result there is less work for film people based in Germany who work behind and in front of the camera. The leading roles are cast in Germany and maybe also a handful of supporting actresses and actors. All others are hired locally for lower wages and possibly with additional regional funding. This makes the shooting a bit more difficult as the main cast will speak German and the others in their languages (and will be dubbed later). And also of course this results in fewer possible roles for German based actresses and actors.
GENDER: Not always but still sometimes women and men are paid differing daily wages for comparable roles. This may concern the two leading roles in a 90 minutes cop drama as well as secondary characters with similarly large (or small) roles. In Germany not many actresses go public with such discriminations, this was one of the reasons behind the BFFS Unequal Pay Campaign.
But of course we know of similar situations in other countries. Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey who played the equal leads Claire and Frank Underwood in the Netflix series HOUSE OF CARDS originally weren't paid the same. Robin Wright was able to end this injustice because of transparency – she knew of this unequal pay – and her privileged situation. Her main character was more popular according to several audience surveys. So she threatened to go public – which she did in the end of course after she'd been successful with her demand. I don't know if the unequal pay she'd received was also compensated in retrospect. So this was a clear example for Unequal Pay – but also for the Gender Pay Gap, as Wright mentions the connection between her lower market value and her family time:
"Because I wasn't working full-time, I wasn't building my salary bracket. If you don't build that … with notoriety and presence, you're not in the game any more. (…) You don't hold the value you would have held if you had done four movies a year like Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett did during the time I was raising my kids. Now I'm kind of on a comeback at 50 years old."
The Guardian 18.5.16 Robin Wright says she had to fight for equal pay on House of Cards
Another aspect of unequal pay of female and male leading roles could be their different occurence in the film. Maybe the man of a leading pair of cops has his own recurring subplot and the woman doesn't. So the actress on top of receiving the smaller daily wage also has fewer shooting days. (of course it could also be that the actor has fewer shooting days, that remains to be analysed).
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media recently introduced the Geena Davis Inclusion Quotient GDIQ. This is a software tool for automatically analysing audio and video content in regards to the screen time of characters (see An Automated Analysis of Gender Representation in Popular Films).
It will be really great to see how this works out because obviously it would spare the analysts from time consuming work with stop watch and note pad in front of a monitor.
But of course it is also possible to analyse the roles by statistically evaluate the script before a production starts (e.g. the number of spoken words and the number of scenes in wich the characters appear). This ways has the great advantage that it enables a corrective intervention before shooting starts, in case the main couple is a bit lopsided. And in the digital era this evaluation should be no big deal.
STATUS as a third reason for Unequal Pay among actresses and actors it has less to do with Gender and more with the level of recognition, market value and (non-)exchangeability of the acting people.
Leading roles have the most shooting days and the highest daily wages in a production even though they don't all earn the same. Secondary roles have (far) less shooting days and mostly also lower daily wages. Those shooting less often can even be downgraded in their regular wage for public TV. Character A and character B can act together in an important scene, be equally present and even be cast by acting people from the same agency and yet be paid very differently – because character A only has a total of three shooting days and character B is the lead and was cast with a public favourite.
I call this the Status Pay Gap. The next drawing shows a proportion of 3 to 1, of course the ratio for daily wages can easily be much higher.
Director Thomas Stuber, who was on the panel of the above mentioned BVC event "Focus Casting": "Only five to eight women are eligible for female leads in ZDF (channel two) productions. The names change every now and then. It's not a certain type of woman". He didn't talk about the pool of possible male leads, but it will most probably be bigger. Casting Director Anja Dihrberg added "The TV channels say "This works for us". There are no 10.000 people who can act the leading parts." Casting director Clemens Erbach thinks that the problem with casting a film basically is
"too complex to be explained with few words". He is getting fed up with this same old tune about a handful of actors and actresses taking away the roles from the others. Maybe some people really are better than others, he says provokingly, and of course he would request people of whom he is convinced more often. However, this is only a question of quality."
Source: Jörg Seewald. Immer die gleichen Gesichter im TV /Always the same faces on TV. Der Tagesspiegel – 23.2.16
So the bulk of acting people has to make do with small/er roles. Of course, not all actresses and actors of a certain age or type who provide the skills needed for a character won't be equally good or equally well suited. But there will be more than 25, the training and the talent situation in Germany is not that bad after all. And the TV and cinema audience don't oppose variety as strongly as those in charge might think. But that is a topic for another day.
It remains to be said that the wage gap between bigger and smaller roles in a production diverges considerably, this status pay gap could easily be up to a factor 40, as shown in this detail:
No, that's not true, we only see a factor 20.
Lisa Basten comments on this in her book (in German) WE CREATIVES! THE SELF-IMAGE OF AN INDUSTRY (Frank& Timme. Berlin 2016): "It is interesting to see how the image of the poor artist works even though at the same time it is accepted that some with big names earn an exorbitant amount."
But back to the Policy Paper on Gender of the BFFS. The first demand reads:
1. Casting: the BFFS demands a balance in the casts at a qualitative and quantitative level. For the total of fictional productions commissioned by a channel as well as for the sum of publically funded cinematographic works the total number of female (leading) roles and the total number of male (leading) roles should provide a balanced picture.
So, all productions (over which period?) should have just as many female as male leads, the same for the supporting roles, so that the overall figures are even.
This aim is very important and statistically speaking can only be reached if more female biased films are produced, as we already have a large number of male balanced projects (see here). But this is not the topic for now, let's get back to pay equity. Only this much: more female roles than at the moment will lead to a higher overall income for the entirety of actresses – and at the same time to a decrease for the overall income of actors – and therefore the total remunerations of the sexes will get closer.
The already cited second demand reads:
- Remuneration: The BFFS wants gender unbiased equal wages and through these a balanced wage ratio between actors and actresses.
What exactly is meant by "gender unbiased equal wages", should the leads earn the same sum or have the same daily wages? Will those earning less at the moment get as much as those with more or will they meet in the middle? Will the demand be fulfilled when female and male leads ear the same and the supporting roles are paid less but again women and men there get the same (per day or in total)? More on that in the final subchapter.
As mentioned the policy paper on gender also points out the strategy of the BFFS:
- Mandatory monitoring for TV channels and funding bodies (appointments. total remuneration)
- Change of Germany's Federal Film Subsidies Act (FFG) (more women in awarding bodies)
- Role descriptions
- Acting wage agreement and collective agreement respectively (parental benefits, film contingency insurance)
The item role descriptions needs some explaining. Here is the full paragraph:
Supporting roles should always have a full name and be cast on basis of parity: roles whose gender has no significant meaning for the plot should have a real name (e.g. "Laura Müller") instead of a general, usually male description ("Taxi driver" – that's male in German). Parity should be ensured.
This is the most direct of all listed strategies and it describes – you will probably have recognized it already – my casting tool NEROPA Neutral Roles Parity. This makes sense of course, it's a low-threshold offer with which the share of female roles in the cast can be increased immediately and without fundamentally changing the script and the plot. I am very happy that my association BFFS plans to advocate this path. Less pleasing is the fact that NEROPA is not mentioned by name, this is quite a careless handling of the work of a colleague, especially by an association that champions solidarity and the protection of copyrights. However I guess it's only a small oversight and I hope that NEROPA Neutral Roles Parity will be added to the policy paper on gender soon, maybe even as the heading of that item – since "role descriptions" is not really a gender political strategy. If all roles had a name there would be not one female character more than before. And if role names really make sense other than for acting c.v.'s or whether this decision should be left to the script writers is a topic for another day.
With NEROPA of course ALL roles in a production should be checked, including the main characters, not only the small nameless ones. So NEROPA can help to level out the role imbalances at all levels.
Epilogue: 21st Century – Men and Women, Leads and Supports
"It's a fact that we want a supportive society. We are in favour of those who have more, partially including ourselves, giving something up for those that have less."
This quote from BFFS board member Julia Beerhold (cn-interview 2009, in German) is from a slightly different context – social insurance and temporary employees – but it fits today's text as well and the image of the film industry as a community of solidarity is quite nice.
Captain Kirk from the Star Trek series mentioned something else at the beginning of each episode, that might be a suggestion: "To boldly go where no man has gone before." To achieve fair pay for the film industry new roads need to be taken, so let's go on a bold mental experiment with three models:
The four columns on the left schematically show the current situation of negotiable wages. The male lead gets a higher daily wage (5.000 €) than the female (4.000 € – Gender Pay Gap). The bigger supporting role gets 2.000 € and the smaller 750 € per day. The gap between smaller and bigger roles is much wieder than that between the actor and the actress in comparable leading roles – a sort of antonymous quantity discount – the more days of shooting the higher the daily pay.
The model in the middle depicts staggered payment (1.500 €, 3.000 € and 4.500 € per day respectively) and the model on the right is based on uniform wages for all of 3.000 € per day.
I'd like to introduce the three acting categories used by the GVL (Society for the Administration of Labouring Rights) in this context. They classify acting people according to their participatory share in the total shooting days of a production. The middle category B is for all those who acted in 20 – 40 % of the shooting days, and the categories A and C are above and below that respectively.
For our example let's assume that we are dealing with a 90 min TV movie with 21 days of shooting. Supporting role 1 had 2 days (= category C), supporting role 2 had 5 days (category B, which is from 5 to 8 days shooting) and the lead had 12 shooting days (category A).
The next graph shows the total wages for the actresses and actors:
Obviously – since the number of days in front of the camera is crucial – in all three models the leading roles receive considerably more money than the supportings, so their status is guaranteed.
We can also see the distinct Gender Pay Gap of 12,000 € in the model on the left (for the same number of shooting days). Supporting role 1 is paid 1,500 € for 2 days, which is 1/40 (= 2,5 ) of the wage of the male lead, supporting role 2 gets 1/6 (= 16,7 %) of the male lead.
The model in the middle, apart from the staggered daily wages also introduces a pay cap of 50,000 €. Without this the leads would get 54,000 € for 12 days of shooting. Supporting role 1 makes 3,000 € (1/6 of the leads) and supporting role 2 gets 15,000 €, which is just a bit over 1/3 of the leads' wages.
Of course the staggered wages models could be extended a bit further and also ackknowledge the years of individual professional activity and / or the person's age. The actual film shoot experience would be a rather bad reference, since in the light of male-biased casts most actresses would be classified lower automatically.
The uniform wage model leads to wages that have moved closer together: 6,000 €, 15,000 € and 36,000 € respectively.
If we want to achieve fair pay for people working in films, especially for acting people, then then the industry as well as our association BFFS as interest group of all actors & actresses will have to address two challenges: close the Gender Pay Gap for all film crews and casts and lessen the Status Pay Gap.
Possible bold steps for productions could be:
- voluntarily committing to pay women and men behind and in front of the camera equally for the same work ("today I am paying in a fair way")
- introducing wage transparency, publishing average wages for women and men in each division
- performing the NEROPA Check for the whole cast list ("neutral roles parity").
- calculating the cast budget with different models (e.g. with staggered wages using the 3 GVL categories), introducing pay caps. Instead of cancelling smaller parts or combining them, consideration of possible reinforcements. Differentiating the smaller roles brings more depth to the film.
Back to the last figure once more. There are two more features in model I (red and blue horizontal lines) depicting hypothetical fees for a female director (30,000 €) and a male (50,000 €). What is worth considering: the directors work between 3 and 6 months on a film, pre-production, shooting, post-production. During that time they cannot work on another project. Acting people of course work more than the number of shooting days on a project, but how much in all? Threefold? Fivefold? So what about the fact that the leading actor / actress might actually earn much more than the director, who has to pay for insurance and pension schemes out of their wages as well? Once again, this is talking about public television, that does not have to follow the dictations of the tv ratings – no matter how often they say that they should? Cinema is a different cup of tea since there films are undergoing greater commercial pressure. So there a star model would make sense. Today maybe just as much as it did in the past:
For his role in the film TO CATCH A THIEF actor Cary Grant received much more than director / producer Alfred Hitchcock, who got less than $50,000. One of the reasons being that Grant had negotiated to get 10% of the gross revenue (= more than 700,000 $), something uncommon at the time. (acc. to McCann, Graham (1997). Cary Grant: A Class Apart. Quoted in the English Wikipedia).
Maybe one or two people reading this will start shouting "Oh no, this debate is guided by envy!" – but this is a killer argument. What is wrong in talking about top wages and poverty, about the still growing wage disparity among acting people, about unequal working opportunities an unequal pay for the same type of work? Let's face it, all actresses / actors, whether they belong to the small group of "ARD / ZDF faces" (those are the two main public TV channels in Germany) or to the group of rarely employed supporting casts or to those, still waiting for "the" call, share the same profession (unlike e.g. dentist – dental assistant – dental technician) and want the same thing. To act.
And actually, calling for "pay caps and redistribution from the top to the bottom" is nothing new, look at the open letter US actor Peter Coyote wrote to Hollywood's top stars eight years ago (Peter Coyote's Open Letter to Lead Actors), calling them to action.
In a representative survey of economist Carina Engelhardt "83 % of the participants stated that they were in favour of more redistribution. This included most of the high earners – who were of the opinion that they didn't rank highly in the income hierarchy. As soon as the researcher corrected this misconception and told them that they would have to co-finance the retristribution they immediately changed their mind."
Kolja Rudzig. Reich sind immer die anderen / It's always the others that are rich. DIE ZEIT no. 22, Sept. 16
We are still is at the rear end of European countries with a Gender Pay Gap of 21 %, it is still difficult to combine family and work in Germany, and there is still a lack of women in specific jobs, trades and on the higher steps of the career ladder. However, one thing is certain, it's not only women that benefit fromequality and fair wages but also men and economy as a whole. Equal opportunities strengthen Germany's future sustainability.
Henrike von Platen. FairPay-Expert Forum Equal Pay Day, Past-President BPW Germany
It's fun to fight. And those that change the conditions also change their lives. For that they need to be courageous, creative and willing to act in solidarity – and maybe also be a little stubborn.
Stefan Nowak. laudatory speaker at the "Strong Commitment Award 2014


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What to Know
- A 45-year-old firefighter from Providence, Rhode Island was arrested for allegedly beating a father and son.
- The alleged assault left the son with a broken eye socket and skull fracture.
- The firefighter is on leave without pay for reasons not related to the alleged attack.
A Rhode Island firefighter has been arrested for severely beating an auto body shop owner and his son.
Police charged the 45-year-old Providence firefighter with felony assault Tuesday in connection with the attack at Cranston Collision.
Authorities say the firefighter was yelling at a woman in the shop's parking lot Sunday when he was approached by the owner and his son.
Cranston police say he attacked both men, leaving the son badly beaten and bleeding profusely when officers arrived.
The son has been hospitalized with a broken eye socket and a skull fracture that will require long-term recovery.
The firefighter entered no plea during his arraignment Tuesday.
In-depth news coverage of the Greater Boston Area.
Providence officials say he is on leave without pay for reasons unrelated to the assault.


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Confirming the Moon's Vital Role
These highly fine-tuned features form one of the cornerstones of the evidence for a supernatural, super-intelligent Creator
Back in 1993, a research team led by French astronomer Jacques Laskar proved analytically that the tilt of Earth's rotation axis is stabilized over long time periods thanks to Earth being orbited by a single moon whose mass is a substantial fraction of Earth's.1 (See here and here.) Laskar's team showed that with the Moon Earth's rotation axis tilt varies over many millions of years between 22.0 and 24.6 degrees. Without the Moon, Earth's rotation axis tilt would vary between 0 and 85 degrees.
Variations in Earth's rotation axis tilt of much more than a couple of degrees would generate climate changes catastrophic for advanced life. Consequently, the Moon's amazingly unique features (for example, the Moon-Earth mass ratio is fifty times greater than for any other known moon-planet system) are crucial for the existence of advanced life. These highly fine-tuned features form one of the cornerstones of the evidence for a supernatural, super-intelligent Creator.
In the context of evidence for design, astronomers, for some time, have desired a more rigorous confirmation of the Laskar team's research results. Now, such a confirmation has arrived.2 This new study uses realistic planetary orbits and takes into account both solar and planetary torques exerted on the Moon and the Earth. The calculations extend from two billion years in the past to two billion years into the future.
The new analysis finds that short-term variations in the tilt of a moonless Earth's rotation axis are somewhat less than what Laskar's team calculated. The long-term variations (timescale in excess of 100 million years) are just as prominent. Therefore, this particular evidence for the design of the Earth-Moon system for the specific benefit of advanced life has now been more rigorously established.
Jacques Laskar and P. Robutel, "The Chaotic Obliquity of the Planets," Nature 361 (February 18, 1993): 608-12; Jacques Laskar, F. Joutel, and P. Robutel, "Stabilization of the Earth's Obliquity by the Moon," Nature 361 (February 18, 1993): 615-17.
Jason Barnes, Jack J. Lissauer, and John E. Chambers, "Long-Term Obliquity Evolution of Reimagined Moonless Earths," Astrobiology 8 (April 2008): 373.