text: Hegel's Master and Slave Alain Badiou 34 C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 Abstract: This article returns to and examines again Hegel's dialectic of master and slave. But it does so from a specific point of view, namely the view of actual existing slavery. The question being raised is: what does Hegel's account of the very constitution of the master-slave relation tell us about the constitution and practice of actual existing slavery, and what is it unable to conceptualize? Keywords: Hegel, master, symmetry, dissymmetry, slave Major texts dedicated to slavery are quite rare. This is especially because from the outset everything is in some sense, divided. One does not find simple strong, decided judgments, which one can anticipate. If one returns back to the Greek origins, one finds great societies that were contemporaries of slavery, which even developed it, and here one can make two elementary remarks. To start with Aristotle who ultimately legitimates slavery. He defines the slave as an "animated tool": the slave is a matter of which only the master is the form, it exists only potentially as its act is in the master. This is to say that the thesis arises according to which the slave is only virtually, not actually or really, human. This will have a long history in different forms. The case of Plato is more complicated, because Plato defines humanity through thought and grants in a certain sense this humanity to the slave, since he shows in a famous scene of the Menon that the slave is able to start comprehending a complex mathematical problem and that, consequently, his thought, just as that of the great philosopher, is constituted by the reminiscence of the ideas. Contrary to Aristotle, Plato recognizes the full humanity of the slave. But similarly to Aristotle, Plato never does contest slavery as social and economic system. In the modern world, it is certain that the most famous text in which (in French) the word "slave (esclave)" appears is found in Hegel, namely in Phenomenology of Spirit, a book of which I remind you that has been absolutely significant for the whole of French philosophy, specifically between 1930 and 1970. One can thus have the feeling that we have here in the history of occidental philosophy a major text on the objective and subjective figure of the slave. This text on slavery can be found in a strategic point of Hegel's book. The first half of this book is dedicated to a sort of history of consciousness, such that Hegel interprets it, passing through the constitutive figures of this history, and it is organized in the book into three stages: first consciousness, then self-consciousness and, thirdly, reason. We witness an ascension from animality, that is to say from 35 Hegel's Master and Slave C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 immediate life, the life on the level of needs, which Hegel calls the world of sense-certainty, to the summit of reason, which is in fact, ethical consciousness, the consciousness of the law. In the beginning Hegel tells us that "consciousness is 'I', nothing more, a pure 'This'."1 We thus start from an absolutely elementary given: an 'I' which knows a 'This'. An 'I' which knows this in an immediate way, by means of its sensory organs as an undifferentiated thing of the world. Then, starting from this utterly elementary relation, Hegel constructs a general image of the whole of civilization. And in the end, after four hundred pages2 of enormous difficulty, one finds the typical sentence which reads like this: "[T]he ethical substance has developed… into actual [l'essence de] self-consciousness…."3 A magnificent path, which goes from the humble link between an 'I' and a 'This' to the ethical substance, which is truly interiorized by selfconsciousness as being its will and duty. This is an immense path which entails numerous stages that one traditionally calls "shapes of consciousness"4, stages which stake out this progressive ascension. And in the midst of this immense path, truly in its midst, we have a section of ten pages called: "Lordship and Bondage (Domination et servitude)". In this section here we encounter the shape of the relation of "master and slave" which in a certain way shifts the universe of consciousness from one region to another one. This is why this is an absolutely fundamental text. Why? Because it deals with the appearance of the figure of the Other. This is the moment in which consciousness removes itself from the pure relation to itself, from its solitude, its solipsism, and realizes that it is partially dominated by the existence of other consciousnesses. This point seems to be of great banality but it really is not. One can effectively say that we owe to Hegel the explicit introduction of the other into the construction of subjectivity. Consciousness is not reducible to the Cogito of Descartes, it is not identical with self-consciousness. It must traverse the recognition by the other and in this recognition one encounters the figure of the mastery and of servitude. It is interesting to locate exactly the moment where the figures of the master and the slave emerge. For the section dedicated to the apparition of the Other entails three movements whose titles are: 1 Hegel 1979, 59. 2 Translator's remark: This only holds for the French edition. 3 Hegel 1979, 266. 4 Ibid., 21. 36 Hegel's Master and Slave C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 "Redoubled Self-Consciousness", "The Struggle of Opposing Selfconsciousnesses" and "Master and Slave", the third moment.5 Hegel's text is particularly difficult to understand and even more so to be made comprehensible, but the major difficulty is that I am not persuaded that it really deals with slavery, despite the titles and subtitles. Let's begin with a very simple thing: consider what an individual is. One can very simply consider it in three ways: Firstly, as a simple object in the world, a thing of the world which must be absolutely analysed as any other thing. It is a body, a package of organs, a set of cells, finally a package of atoms, and ultimately a senseless movement of a billion of particles. This is what Hegel calls the in-itself. Secondly, one can regard the individual as knowing itself, not simply as a known thing, but as having the reflective capacity to know itself and consequently as being what Hegel calls a "self-consciousness." The individual exists in-itself but also for-itself, that is to say in an effective relation to itself. And then, thirdly, one can consider that this individual exists as an individual that can be recognized as the individual that it is by an other, particularly by an other individual. This is the figure of the other, that Sartre will call the for-other. On an elementary descriptive level one very nicely finds again the Hegelian triplicity of in-itself, for itself and for the other. This will give us the key to Hegel's dialectical development. Starting from here the first sentence of the section about which we are speaking clarifies a famous sentence in which one hears, if I may call it so, the Hegelian clatter, the sonority of the concepts: "Selfconsciousness exists in and for itself when, and by the fact that, it so exists for another."6 This sentence means that consciousness hangs, in its very being, on the recognition by the other. This is a very strong thesis. There is not the individual and then another individual. Rather, there is an individual which, in its very individuality, integrates the judgment of the other. Thus the whole problem will be that consciousness as self-consciousness does only exist insofar as it is recognized as such by another self-consciousness. It absolutely needs this recognition to be constituted in the universe which is both its own and is always a collective and cultural universe. Self-consciousness is only born insofar as it is recognized. This is both fundamental and a new and profound idea: there is not what now 5 Translator's remark: These titles are additions by Jean Hyppolite, the translator, to the French edition of Hegel's text. 6 Hegel 1979, 111. Translator's remark: The French rendition of this sentence makes the sonority Badiou is referring to more apparent: "La conscience de soi est en soi et pour soi quand et parce qu'elle est en-soi et pour-soi pour une autre conscience de soi." 37 Hegel's Master and Slave C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 exists and then afterwards, the other, no, the other is present in the very constitution of self-consciousness. We can thus anticipate the problem of the master and the slave, starting from the fact that there are three terms: a self-consciousness, another self-consciousness which recognizes the first, and between the two that which is not consciousness, that which simply put is: the thing in itself. Between the master and the slave there will always be this third term, the thing. And what Hegel will try to deduce is that the master and the slave differ in relation to the thing. Everyone has the consciousness that the other is also a consciousness, but what produces their difference is the thing. And why? Because the master wants to enjoy the thing while the slave has to work on the thing so that the master enjoys it. This fundamental dissymmetry that is constitutive of this relation will therefore emerge that the master is tilting to the side of enjoyment, whereas the slave is tilting to the side of labour. However, both labour and enjoyment suppose the thing in their midst on which the slave works so that the master enjoys it. What Hegel in fact desires, his most fundamental project, is to arrive by philosophical, conceptual means from the simple existence of the other – from the simple fact that every self-consciousness proves that there is another consciousness and ultimately another selfconsciousness – at a dialectic, which is the dialectic of enjoyment and of labour. Hegel's gamble is that starting from this simple encounter – one self-consciousness encounters another self-consciousness – one can accomplish the deduction of culture as the cement of collectivity. Let's try to make our way with Hegel. The simple occurrence of the other self-consciousness presents itself at the beginning as coming from the outside: I am a self-consciousness and I see another selfconsciousness; it is outside. In this sense, it is an other, absolutely, since it comes from the outside. The paradox is that in the very moment when I see that it is absolutely other than me, I also see at the same time, that it is absolutely the same as me, since it is another selfconsciousness. We have here an extremely tight dialectic of the other and the same, which will organize the whole procedure. Since the other is also a self-consciousness it is in a certain sense identical to me. In addition, this relation is a relation of pure reciprocity. We have in fact a structure that makes each consciousness conscious of the fact that the other is also a consciousness, a consciousness that also has a consciousness of the fact that the other is a consciousness. All this creates a sort of absolutely primitive reciprocity which is the pure encounter of two selfconsciousnesses such that they both immediately identify one with the other. 38 Hegel's Master and Slave C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 To put this in more anthropological language: You encounter someone and even before you know anything about him, there is one thing that you know: that he belongs to humanity like you do. Thus, he is other, another human, but at the same time he is just human. And the relationship with the other represents a paradoxical synthesis between absolute difference and absolute identity. Oddly, here is the point located which brings us to the historical and anthropological consideration about slavery. The great problem is in fact that we are dealing with a pure symmetry: in this analysis, the two terms are indistinguishable; each term is defined as a selfconsciousness which encounter another self-consciousness, as other and same. This is what Hegel calls redoubled self-consciousness. We are thus in a logic of the double, a logic which has had many consequences, particularly aesthetic ones (the use of the twin; the fascinating theme of the doubling, of the double). But the double is a symmetry, a symmetrical identity. If I stay with the double, nothing is produced: it is a closed and static structure, since we have a primitive reciprocity where everyone recognizes the other as it is recognized by the other. We are apparently in an impasse of the dialectical process which seems to have stagnated in this primitive reciprocity. The whole problem is that humanity as we know it can constitute itself beyond this primitive recognition only if there is a dissymmetry. This is the most delicate point, and as we will see Hegel does not fully appreciate this. He certainly knows perfectly well that if one wants to move beyond the mirror effects of reciprocity and of the stagnation it causes, one must introduce dissymmetry. He himself says that the process "at first,… will exhibit the side of the inequality of the two [selfconsciousnesses, F.R.], or the splitting-up […]."7 In the moment when one obtains an absolute symmetry, the process must present us with the inequality of the two consciousnesses, which will then present this rupture. But where does this rupture, this inequality come from? At the point where we are, the other is also at the same time, the same. I think that Hegel produces what I would call a forcing: he will in fact describe the dissymmetry but without having the means to legitimate it. He will also assume and decide that there is a dissymmetry; he will tell us what it consists of, but he will not be able to deduce it, to construct it by starting from what precedes it. This forcing is, as always with Hegel, quite magnificent and one must understand its nature well. What he tells us is that everyone will engage the other, who is also the same, in a struggle in which the stakes 7 Hegel 1979, 112f. 39 Hegel's Master and Slave C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 for each is to be recognized by the other, without being obliged to recognize the other. "I" will get the other into a struggle, into a life and death conflict as such that the other is forced to recognize my humanity in the form of an identity that is not only different from his, but in fact, superior to his. This is to say that the other will be forced to recognize me as more other than he is other: recognize me as an other of a nature other than the inaugurally given symmetrical alterity. However, one cannot see, how this should result from the procedure itself. The struggle for recognition introduces from the outside a dissymmetry into the relation between the other and the same. The struggle, in fact, unfolds as such that the other recognizes that he is not really the same as me: that is to say, that I am superior to him. One sees here on the one side how we orient ourselves towards slavery, and on the other, that we have a principle of rupture which does not probably draw its legitimacy from the dialectic which precedes it, that of the symmetrical encounter of two self-consciousnesses. If one introduces a dissymmetry this amounts to saying that in it there is one more human than the other. Here, there is no alternative. And this is exactly what Hegel says in a different language. Here we have the necessarily abstract genesis of racism in its most general sense, of racism whose thesis is that there exist individuals that are certainly human, but of a lesser degree than others. From where the terms of master and slave are derived that name this presumption of inferiority. How does this struggle for recognition unfold if one admits to the stroke of force that institutes it? To understand this one must recall that behind the self-consciousness of the individual there is animal life, organic life. Before being self-consciousness consciousness must exist, live, as natural body, in sensuous immediacy. The dissymmetry will therefore be constructed in the following manner: in the struggle for recognition one of the self-consciousnesses will accept the risk of death and the other will shrink away in face of the risk of death. In reality, the self-consciousness through fighting in the deadly struggle for recognition is led to accept that the risk of death will fundamentally place the recognition of self-consciousness above animal and organic life. It will declare in the name of the pure recognition of its being human as self-consciousness that it is ready to risk its life, its animal life, since what it defends is pure self-consciousness. In turn, the other will in the fight shrink back in the face of risk of death and will thus not affirm selfconsciousness but rather the power of life. One of the combatants will accept that one deals with self-consciousness all the way, accepting to put its organic existence in the struggle for recognition in danger, C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 whereas the other will remember that organic life is the condition of consciousness and will thus protect it from the risk of death brought about by the struggle of the consciousnesses. Hegel puts this as follows: "[O]ne is the independent consciousness whose essential nature is to be for itself, the other is the dependent consciousness whose essential nature is simply to live or to be for another. The former is the lord, the other is the bondsman [in the French rendering: the slave, F.R.]."8 One of the consciousnesses affirms that a consciousness is ultimately independent from life and must be recognized precisely in this independence; and for consciousness as superiority over life to be recognized all the way it will have to take up the risk of death. And this will be the independence of self-consciousness, self-consciousness as essence. The other consciousness will assume that ultimately the real of self-consciousness is life after all, since without life there is no consciousness and thus it will protect life, but will at the same time accept its inferiority in relation to self-consciousness. There is a point that I want to underline here because it is often forgotten. One must understand that for Hegel this all has two reasons. One here does not deal with a conflict where one could state that the master is right and the slave wrong because it is correct that selfconsciousness is superior to life as well as it is correct that life is the condition of self-consciousness. The master will recognize selfconsciousness at the expense of life, accepting the risk of death, but this is an abstraction, because this detaches self-consciousness from life itself. And the slave will abandon the principle of self-recognition in the name of life, however this is also an abstraction, for he renounces the singular progress that is represented by self-consciousness in relation to simple organic life. As one can see, the genesis of the categories of master and slave in Hegel represent a passionate attempt to deduce the fact of domination from the simple encounter with the other. To be honest, I think that this does not work for the following reason: from the pure encounter one can eventually deduce a symmetrical structure. But the dissymmetry must be introduced from the outside, because fundamentally one does not know why there is one who shrinks away in the face of death while the other accepts it. There is an obscure contingency. One could very easily imagine that in the name of the pure for-oneself, that in a general manner, everyone accepts the risk of death. Or conversely, that everyone refuses it. The dissymmetry is simply the dissymmetry of two possibilities, but the deduction of the fact that these 8 Ibid., 115. 40 Hegel's Master and Slave 41 Hegel's Master and Slave C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 two possibilities really constitute the fundamental relation of civilization from its beginnings, that of the master and the slave, is not really established. This means that it is true that the deadly struggle for recognition makes us, in its consequences, pass from one process to the other. In terms of the first process, the master is in the position of domination over the slave. But what will be the content, the exercise of this domination? We find here again the fundamental role of the third term, of the thing. The master, being he who affirms the pure self-consciousness, must live independently from the thing. Since it is he who took the risk of death and has thus affirmed the purity of self-consciousness, detached from the needs of life, he cannot be dependent on the thing anymore. The master is thus he who must be able to enjoy that thing without being preoccupied with it. This is his position. Consequently, he will command the slave, for he has chosen the side of material life, to occupy himself with material life to the master's advantage. He will ask him to produce the things that he desires, without engaging himself in the vital quagmire, if one can say so. The task to occupy oneself with the vital quagmire is returned to the slave to furnish the master with the things that he needs. In this sense, the master is immediate enjoyment, whereas the slave cannot enjoy the thing, because it is destined for the master. The slave must work and form the thing for the enjoyment of the master. While he took sides with life in the fight for recognition, he is thus the one who paradoxically finds himself in the impossibility of satisfying his immediate vital needs, and is thus forced to defer his enjoyment, since he works for the master. We have here an utterly extraordinary shape insofar as it initiates a reversal. Compelled to defer his immediate satisfaction, to work, to form and cultivate the object independently from his own desire, for the desire of the other, the slave will in the end be the inventor of culture because he is the inventor of a desire that is dispatched from the formation of the thing, in the adornment of the thing, in the aesthetic of the thing. One must here appeal to the language of Freud that is so close to all this and state that the slave is the man of sublimation, the man of repressed pleasure, for the benefit of working on the thing. Ergo, he is the one who creates the human civilization. One witnesses here, as Hegel will tell us, a complete reversal. The master who had affirmed self-consciousness at the expense of life has become the one who is content with immediate enjoyment, whereas the slave is led to defer the satisfaction of his immediate desire for the sake of culture, of the invention of more and more beautiful, more and more extraordinary and creative objects. It is thus the slave who will become C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 the creator of sublimated culture, whereas the master will ultimately remain an enjoyer without any creativity. So, we have in the second section a spectacular reversal that in the end makes it clear that human history is the history of the slaves and not that of the masters, who are nothing but the history of successive enjoyment, and never the history of creative and productive culture. This dialectical reversal allows us to understand in which sense certain depths of Hegel have oriented Marxism: in the bosom of History the fundamental creativity is on the side of the dominated and not on that of the dominating. Hegel tries to give an explicit account of this in a passage that I quote before commenting on it: "But just as lordship showed that its essential nature is the reverse of what it wants to be, so too servitude in its consummation will really turn into the opposite of what it immediately is; as a consciousness forced back into itself, it will withdraw into itself and be transformed into a truly independent consciousness."9 Let us recapitulate. Faced with the risk of death the master renounces the immediacy of life but only to fall into the immediacy of enjoyment that is enchained to a thing whose true master is the slave. In this sense the master becomes the slave of the slave. On his side, the slave has on the contrary accepted, out of fear of death, the primacy of immediate survival. But forced to work and accept the mediation of labor, he has created culture, becoming in this way a future master of the master. In the incapacity to live otherwise than in the present, the master becomes the slave of the slave, in turn, the slave devoted to the future becomes the master of the master. Now, can we draw any clarification from all of this concerning historical slavery? To a certain degree, yes: it is from the perspective of the last thesis according to which the most important historical work is accomplished as production, as creation by those who are in the position of servitude and not by those who are in the position of mastery. But I nonetheless think that three objections subsist. And this is even apart from a more formal and non-negotiable objection, namely that the German word "Knecht" – translated into French as "esclave / slave" – means "servant" or "knave", and that one thus deals with more universal dialectic than those which clarifies the anthropological phenomenon of slavery. First objection: The dissymmetry remains unexplainable, it is not really deduced and consequently the historical phenomenon of slavery 9 Ibid., 117. 42 Hegel's Master and Slave 43 Hegel's Master and Slave C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 is missed, precisely because it requires a contingent dissymmetry, that between human groups that are on the levels of – technical, scientific or military – development presenting an objective, historical dissymmetry. The material possibility to organize something as vast and as terrifying as the great transatlantic slave Treaty cannot be explained without mentioning the material instruments and the wills of domination that one camp, that of the powerful imperialists, disposed of. There is an acquired superiority that cannot be explained as a consequence of this pure encounter: in the moment of this encounter a major dissymmetry is already effectively constituted. This is a point that Hegel does not let enter into the account of the dialectical configuration of master and slave, simply because he remains faithful to his program which consists in deducing the dialectic from the encounter. From here arises a second objection. One can say that real, historical slavery could be rather described as a point of impasse of the Hegelian dialectic. An impasse that one can very clearly situate in the moment of the second time: the thing mediates the relation between enjoyment and labour. Its principle is very simple: by means of his labour, the slave furnishes the master with what his enjoyment obtains. Yet, historical slavery is not limited to this mediating position of the slave, between the thing and the master. The historical slave is nonetheless partially the attempt to subjectively identify the slave with a thing. The real slave is not simply he who can work the thing to offer it to the master; he is himself thing-ified, treated like, sold as, bought as a thing. Even if one knows very well that there is always a zone of impossibility of this radical treatment, it is nonetheless true that slavery in the strictest sense is different from the servitude that Hegel describes. From this point of view one could say that real slavery is the moment where the second moment of the Hegelian dialectic finds itself in some sort of blockage, paralyzed by the fact that one does not really recognize in this figure of slavery the distinction between thing and labour. Certainly, what one awaits from the slave is labour, but this labour is itself like an emanation from the thing, since the slave himself is a thing. And thus the triple of enjoyment, the thing and labour, that certainly exists in the real, since for example the slave will fabricate the sugar for the markets of the masters, this dialectic is not the subjective dialectic of real slavery. In real slavery, the slave is lowered to the thing he handles, he is a thing amongst things. One thus must recognize that in this precise point historical slavery does not enter the Hegelian schema. Finally, the third objection: In the Hegelian frame it becomes impossible to access the proper political subjectivity of the slave with regards to slavery. What I mean by this is that while at the same time the 44 Hegel's Master and Slave C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 emancipation attempts of the slaves is contained by themselves, it is also in the revolt of the slaves under the lead of Spartacus in the Roman Empire or in the revolt of the slaves at St. Domingo under the lead of Toussaint-Louverture. This does not enter into the schema because the slave sees himself as confined by Hegel to the register of the cultural production of the thing, and thus nothing allows for him to be able to invent a particular political subjectivity. The figure of the political revolt from the slave origin is a figure that is absent, not simply out of contempt or ignorance but due to the very structure of the Hegelian development. For my part I think – and I conclude with this point – that Hegel refers with his complete dialectical unfolding to the aristocratic world. The world of enjoyment of the master remains nonetheless, for him, a world of nobility and the world of the slave, of the inferior classes, does in the end, include the bourgeoisie. The inferior classes comprise also of the intellectual class, that is to say the class that is formative of culture, certainly in the state of servitude in relation to monarchic nobility, in the state of abatement and servitude, but this nonetheless is in the end the true motor of History. Even though, in exaggerating a bit, one could say that the slave is Hegel himself, considered in the last resort as small professor, who is insignificant with regard to the politico-monarchical establishment of Prussia at that time. It is Hegel, who attributes to himself or endows himself, in the heart of the consciousness of relative servitude that is those of the small public servant in the ending 18 th century with real historical greatness. This otherwise can be resumed in saying: "All this is nice, but one will remember me, Hegel, I will exist eternally, while one will not remember the Count So-and-So, who certainly has enjoyed in his life more than I did, but who in view of universal history is nothing at all." To my mind, Hegel is much closer to this than to the producers of cans of sugar on the Caribbean Islands. I would thus say that the dialectic of master and slave in Hegel is an interesting, passionate figure, even from the point of view of the theory of the other and its introduction into philosophy. It is interesting to the degree in which it brings with it the theory of enjoyment and of labour, as much as the function of sublimation and repressed desire in this affair; it is also interesting from the point of view of the manner in which the dominated classes can represent themselves in the moment of ending Aristocratism, in the hinges of the 18 th and 19 th centuries. But it certainly does not really touch the real of slavery. For this to be the case, one would have needed without any doubt a different entry, because, once again, this theory presupposes the quasi evental givenness of a first dissymmetry, a factor that Hegel has not integrated 45 Hegel's Master and Slave C R I S I S & C R I T I Q U E / Volume 4 / Issue 1 in his development because his development must obey to the laws of dialectical genesis. Consequently, and this is my last word, I would say that the dialectic of master and slave, and I believe I have somehow elucidated it, is a magnificent philosophical anticipation whose relation to real History remains however indirect and metaphorical. Translation: Frank Ruda 46 Hegel's Master and Slave C R I S I S BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hegel, G.W.F. 1979, Phenomenology of Spirit, Oxford: Oxford University Press. C R I S I S & & C R I T I Q U E C R I T I Q U E / / Volume 4 / Issue 1 Volume 4 / Issue 1 47 Hegel's Master and Slave


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Wolfpack Leadership & College Experience Week a SUCCESS!
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Thirty-six military teens representing Active Duty, Guard and Reserve components from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia explored the campus of NC State University, for the inaugural "Wolfpack Leadership & College Tour" held 23-26 June 2015. Teens experienced first hand what it is really like to live on a college campus. They visited classrooms, toured campus along with state-of-the-art facilities, visited with college students… to get the real facts, met with college professors, lived in the dorm, and ate in the cafeteria. Most importantly, they met other military teens who are also preparing for college.
This orientation to college life offered experiential learning activities on topics such as finding funds to help pay for college, developing winning application essays, and balancing your budget. Teens were presented time management strategies to help them figure out how to succeed academically while enjoying the social opportunities available at a large college campus. An important aspect of college is developing leadership skills to stand out from the crowd. Military teens worked to gain skills and knowledge to help them prepare for the leadership opportunities that will come their way.
Teens enjoyed NC State's famous Howling Cow Ice Cream, painting the Free Expression Tunnel, visited the state-of-the-art James B. Hunt, Jr. Library (complete with "book-bot" demonstration), group photo in front of Carter-Finley Stadium, and for their closing dinner…a delicious Southern-style dinner compliments of the State Farmer's Market Restaurant.
Throughout the week, teens worked on their group presentations, which were presented on their last day of their "college experience". Groups had the option of utilizing traditional PowerPoint, Prezi or video. Each group captured a diverse and informative perspective of their experience on the "Wolfpack Leadership & College Experience" week.
Check out photos from the 2015 "Wolfpack Leadership & College Experience" Week!


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Listen up Dr Pepper fans, there's a new flavor of the soda available — but not just anyone will be able to get their hands on a can.
This week, a few lucky people have been posting pictures of a special birthday box they've received in the mail from Dr Pepper containing a new drink: It's called Icing on the Cake Birthday Cake Dr Pepper.
Along with the new soda, the boxes also contain a few extras like a Dr Pepper balloon, confetti and a birthday hat. The kit also comes with a card that says:
To the Birthday Pepper, (cute!)
Since you're a die-hard Dr Pepper fan, your birth month is, well, kind of a big deal to us. So to celebrate, we've created a limited-edition Birthday Cake-flavored Dr Pepper and some exclusive party supplies to help commemorate your existence. Don't drink it all in one place. Or do. It is YOUR Birthday after all.
Happy Birthday,
The Dr Pepper Team
But Dr Pepper isn't just randomly sending this new soda to people born in July. All of the social media posters are members of Dr Pepper's Pepper Pack, an ambassador program for fans of the drink with about 1,000 elite members currently. The company told TODAY Food via email that the kits were made exclusively for members of the Pepper Pack, and that they will be given to each member during their birthday month.
One instagrammer commented, "A normal birthday is great, but a #DrPepperBDAY is truly second to none."
Another recipient said, "Dr Pepper really cementing it's number one spot in my heart with the best birthday gift ever."
Many just wanted to know how they could snag their own birthday box with cans of the soda.
Looks like they're going to have to apply to become a Pepper Pack member, which consumers can do here. And if you're wondering what it tastes like, one instagrammer said the soda tastes like "rich vanilla frosting from a bakery," and noted that you can "still taste the Dr Pepper underneath the vanilla." Sounds a like a treat for those with a real sweet tooth.
Birthday cake-flavored items have been popular over the last few years with options including birthday cake-flavored Oreos, ice cream and Little Debbie snack cakes.
Soda brands have also been getting more creative with their flavors lately with Diet Coke introducing fruit-flavored drinks and new flavors of Coca-Cola, like Vanilla Orange Coke, Georgia Peach and California Raspberry.
Orange Vanilla Coke is coming! KLG and Hoda try it outFeb. 8, 201901:20
In addition to its classic flavor, Dr Pepper also comes in Cherry and Cherry Vanilla. The brand also released a limited-edition Dark Berry flavor this summer.


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Wizards of the Coast
D&D fifth edition
This product is part of a bundle. Complete the set and save on all bundled products you don't already own and all future additions to the bundle.
D&D Adventures Bundle
Diabolical dangers await in this adventure for the world's greatest roleplaying game.
Welcome to Baldur's Gate, a city of ambition and corruption. You've just started your adventuring career, but already find yourself embroiled in a plot that sprawls from the shadows of Baldur's Gate to the front lines of the planes-spanning Blood War! Do you have what it takes to turn infernal war machines and nefarious contracts against the archdevil Zariel and her diabolical hordes? And can you ever hope to find your way home safely when pitted against the infinite evils of the Nine Hells?
Converted by: Zacchaeus
Requires: An active subscription or a one time purchase of a Fantasy Grounds Unity license and the included D&D fifth edition ruleset.
Recommended: D&D Basic Rules, D&D Player's Handbook or D&D Character Customization Pack, D&D Monster Manual
Dungeons & Dragons, its logo, and D&D, are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Released on December 13, 2019
Designed for Fantasy Grounds version 3.3.7 and higher.
Shop for more D&D fifth edition products
Shop for more products by Wizards of the Coast
Shop for more D&D fifth edition products by Wizards of the Coast


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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 25
By Sadraddin Agjayev – Trend:
Individual buyers and sellers aren't the only ones in the e-commerce market of Azerbaijan, it also includes state agencies and banks, Tariyel Agazade, program manager of Azerbaijan's SUP.VC center, expert, told Trend.
"The entrepreneurs can't actively work in the field of online trading in Azerbaijan because such giants as Amazon and AliExpress offer the same or similar products in a wider range and cheaper," Agazade added.
"We, in turn, as developers and start-ups will participate in expanding the capabilities of entrepreneurs who own online platforms by offering them our startup projects, which in the future will help drive some foreign suppliers out of the market, replacing them with local ones," the program manager added.
Azerbaijani expert in the field of e-commerce Orkhan Ahmadli stressed that not only sellers, but also domestic producers of goods need to step up as far as development of e-commerce in Azerbaijan goes.
"We often purchase the goods that we don't have, on foreign online platforms abroad," the expert added. "It is unprofitable for our entrepreneurs to purchase accessories for their further sale on the local market, which are less popular in our country."
"If the range of production of accessories for various gadgets is expanded in the country, then there will be no need for our citizens to buy these goods abroad," Ahmadli said, stressing that this step will also attract foreign buyers to the Azerbaijani market.
"Kazakhstan is exemplary in successful development of e-commerce, where sellers in e-platforms have been exempted from paying taxes for five years since 2018," the expert added. "This has had a great impact on the development of such commerce. Many entrepreneurs have closed their facilities and switched to online trading by using their facilities as warehouses."
"Many people think that entrepreneurs involved in online sales earn more than traditional stores, but this is not so," Ahmadli said. "They also pay for renting warehouses, have employees, pay taxes, spend money on advertising, pay a certain percentage (usually within three percent) to the acquiring system (the technology that allows to accept payment cards) and bear other costs."
"I think that the e-commerce may rapidly develop in our country and the foreign markets may remain in the background when the state, entrepreneurs and manufacturers apply joint efforts," the expert said.
"Of course, these issues are resolved at the state level and the banking sector is also working in this sphere to simplify the process of introducing the necessary technologies on online platforms," Ahmadli added.
Follow the author on Twitter: agdzhaev


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While the proven Zacks Rank places an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find strong stocks, we also know that investors tend to develop their own individual strategies. With this in mind, we are always looking at value, growth, and momentum trends to discover great companies.
Looking at the history of these trends, perhaps none is more beloved than value investing. This strategy simply looks to identify companies that are being undervalued by the broader market. Value investors rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.
In addition to the Zacks Rank, investors looking for stocks with specific traits can utilize our Style Scores system. Of course, value investors will be most interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with "A" grades for Value and high Zacks Ranks are among the best value stocks available at any given moment.
CBD (CBD) is a stock many investors are watching right now. CBD is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 18.31 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 19.77. Over the past year, CBD's Forward P/E has been as high as 38.57 and as low as 17.76, with a median of 22.65.
We should also highlight that CBD has a P/B ratio of 1.50. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This stock's P/B looks solid versus its industry's average P/B of 3.11. CBD's P/B has been as high as 1.61 and as low as 1.23, with a median of 1.41, over the past year.
Finally, investors should note that CBD has a P/CF ratio of 11.26. This data point considers a firm's operating cash flow and is frequently used to find companies that are undervalued when considering their solid cash outlook. CBD's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 11.90. CBD's P/CF has been as high as 21.68 and as low as 9.53, with a median of 12.77, all within the past year.
These are just a handful of the figures considered in CBD's great Value grade. Still, they help show that the stock is likely being undervalued at the moment. Add this to the strength of its earnings outlook, and we can clearly see that CBD is an impressive value stock right now.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao (CBD): Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.


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Optimizing Resilience Webinar
Optimizing Resilience: Mental Health in Black and African American Communities Webinar Hosted by Dorienna M. Alfred, PhD for Bereaved Parents and Providers. During this presentation, Dr. Alfred will provide an overview of mental health in Black and African American communities, explore barriers to mental health treatment, and discuss strategies for optimizing resilience.
Lets Talk Mental Health
Dr. Greg Alfred and Dr. Dorienna M. Alfred discuss Mental Health with David A Williams, Lead Pastor of Life Transformation Churchin Columbus, Ohio. Follow the link below to watch the full video interview and discussion. To find this video you can search through the archive of past sermons using the keyword 'Health'.
Mothering Successfully
Dorienna M. Alfred, Ph.D. was a featured speaker as part of the webinar workshop, Mothering Successfully During COVID hosted by Dr. Ebere Azumah founder of Healthy and Uplifted and organization that aims to help women flourish through life. Webinar workshop focus: A discussion on handling stress and recognizing when we need professional help.


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Vanier Canada Graduate scholarships For International Students 2021- Full Funded
Table of Contents
Canadian Government
Ph.D. Degree
Deadline: before 3 Nov 2021 (annual)
Study in: Canada
The course starts May/Sept 2021
The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS) was established to attract and retain world-class doctoral students and to make Canada a global center of excellence in research and higher learning. The scholarships are towards a doctorate and PH.D. programs.
Host Institution(s):
Canadian Universities with Vanier CGS allocation. Without exclusion, the Vanier CGS is tenable only at the eligible Canadian institution that submitted the nomination.
Level/Field(s) of study in Canada:
Ph.D. programs (or combined MA/Ph.D. or MD/Ph.D.) in health research; natural sciences and/or engineering research; and social sciences and/or humanities research
An eligible doctoral program must include an important research component that leads to the completion of a thesis, major research project, dissertation, scholarly publication, performance, recital, and/or exhibit that is merit/expert-reviewed at the institutional level as a requirement for completion of the program.
Joint graduate research programs with a professional degree (e.g., MD/Ph.D., DVM/Ph.D., JD/Ph.D.) as well as clinically-oriented programs of study, including clinical psychology, are also eligible programs if they have a significant autonomous research component, as described above.
Number of Scholarships:
Up to 166 scholarships are awarded annually.
Target group:
Canadian students, permanent residents of Canada, and international students are eligible to be nominated for a Vanier CGS.
Scholarship value/duration:
The Vanier Canada scholarships are worth $50,000 per year for three years.
Eligibility Criteria for Vanier Canada Graduate scholarships 2021
To be considered for a Vanier CGS, you have to:
- be pointed by only one Canadian institution, which must have received a Vanier CGS quota;
- be pursuing your first doctoral degree (including joint undergraduate/graduate research programs such as MD/Ph.D., DVM/Ph.D., JD/Ph.D. – if it has a demonstrated and significant research component). Note that only the Ph.D. portion of a combined degree is eligible for funding;
- have completed no more than 20 months of doctoral studies as of 1 May 2021
- in order to seek, in the summer semester or the academic year following the announcement of results, full-time doctoral (or a joint graduate program such as MD/Ph.D., DVM/Ph.D., JD/Ph.D.) studies and research at the nominating institution;
- It is important to note that only the Ph.D. portion of a combined degree is available for funding;
- have completed no more than 32 months of full-time study in their doctoral program, by 1 May 2021 if enrolled in a joint graduate research program, e.g., MD/Ph.D., MA/Ph.D., DVM/Ph.D. Applicants that fall into this category have access to the 32-month window whether or not they were previously enrolled in a Master's program; or
- have completed no more than 32 months of full-time study in their doctoral program by 1 May 2021 if increased straightly from a Bachelor's to a Ph.D. (no time spent in a Master's program), or
- have completed no more than 32 months of full-time study in their doctoral program by 1 May 2021 if accelerated from a Master's degree into a Doctoral program without gaining the Master's degree.
- have achieved a first-class average, as determined by your institution, in each of the last two years of full-time study or equivalent. Candidates are encouraged to contact the institution for its definition of a first-class average, and
- should not hold, or have held, a doctoral-level scholarship or fellowship from CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC to undertake or complete a doctoral degree.
How to Apply for Scholarship in Canada / Application instructions Vanier Canada Graduate scholarships 2021
Applications are currently closed.
Candidates must be nominated by a Canadian Institution with an allocation at which they want to study. Candidates cannot apply straight to the Vanier CGS program.
Applications are initiated in one of two ways. In the first way, the student informs the faculty of graduate studies at the selected institution of their intent to apply to the Vanier CGS program OR the institution initiates the nomination process by contacting the desired candidate.
Applications are prepared by the student. Applications submitted to the appointed institution by their internal deadline using the ResearchNet application system. The nominating institution then recommended nominations to the Vanier-Banting Secretariat (the Secretariat) by 3 November 2020.
It is important to visit the official website of the University of Canada. To learn more about the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.
Official Website: https://vanier.gc.ca/en/home-accueil.html


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Montréal Passion Vin: $435,190 for the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont
21 November 2020
Given the exceptional context, the 19th edition of the Montréal Passion Vin benefit event was virtual. The unique raised $435,190 net.
À Votre Santé! and Montréal Passion Vin: Winning Cocktail
Added to the $133,004 raised during the À Votre Santé! event on Thursday, November 12, it is a total of $568,194 net that will be donated to the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (HMR) Foundation.
A prestigious wine tasting event
Sébastien Benoît and renowned sommelier Véronique Rivest hosted this special edition for which participants were able to purchase a tasting pack containing four wines—tasted during the event—that have marked the already long history of Montréal Passion Vin. Guests also had the opportunity to bid, as always, on silent and live auctions featuring great prizes.
Standing together in partnership and solidarity
The HMR Foundation warmly thanks its presenting partner, the SAQ, and its major donor partner, the National Bank – Private Banking 1859.
It should be noted that the benefit event is organized by a committee of leading people from the business community chaired by Jean-Philippe Beauvais, Vice-President Operations, Plaisirs Gastronomiques, alongside the HMR Foundation. For this year's edition, and as is the tradition, the HMR Foundation was honoured with the presence, through a video link, of representatives from the following wine houses: Veuve Clicquot, represented by its cellar master, Didier Mariotti; Louis-Latour, by Louis-Fabrice Latour; Marchesi Antinori, by Alessia Antinori, vice-president of Marchesi Antinori and the Château de Beaucastel, represented by Thomas Perrin, the man who is leading the winery today.


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Makoto Japanese e-Zine #27 May 2020 | Digital Download + Sound Files
➡ WAIT! Want to save a dollar and get the latest issue each month? Become a member of our Makoto+ club and not only save and download new Makoto issues, but also access web-versions of the past three Makoto issues. Want more? Well, Makoto+ members also get a 10% reusable coupon good for anything at theJapanShop.com and each month, we will post a new eBook for you to download free of charge. Subscribe today with a free 7 day trial. Cancel at any time! Click here to learn more.
Makoto E-Zine series #27
Recommended for beginners and lower intermediates of Japanese.
FREE MP3s of the stories read by a native Japanese speaker--download link found on the last page. Listen while reading.
The Fun Japanese Not Found in Textbooks. If you like our readers and lessons, you will love Makoto, the e-zine filled with articles on kanji, culture, idioms, proverbs, geography, history, etymology, JLPT tips, Japanese trivia, and much more. Not only that, but every issue will include a brand new reader with newly recorded high-quality MP3s for you to download for no extra charge.
IN THIS ISSUE: May 2020
TWO NEW READERS: Anyway, Study Japanese (beginner) + Japanese Tunnels Part I (Intermediate)
- Laughs, Jokes, Riddles, and Puns
- Vocabulary: Everyone
- Prefecture Spotlight: Oita
- Etymology: Kawaii
- Anime Phrase of the Day
- Haiku
- Kanji Spotlight: Answer
- Grammar Time! ~たい
- Japanese Readers: Anyway, Study Japanese (beginner) + Japanese Tunnels Part I (Intermediate)


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A five-year study looking at 7,900 home health agencies revealed interesting disparities.
The Journal of Rural Health published a recent article by the New York University (NYU) college of nursing that is catching some buzz regarding the health disparities between urban and rural settings. The study looked at process and outcome measures over a five-year period, from 2014 to 2018. They compared the two geographic regions across approximately 7,900 home health agencies, looking at the timeliness of initiation of home health services, from the referral to the utilization of ED and hospitalizations.
The results were telling, in the rural settings: home health agencies were better at starting new patients for services, either from the PCP office or the hospital discharge referral. Urban settings showed better outcomes and lower ED visits and hospitalizations for enrolled patients. However, the concern is that despite referrals for home health, both rural and urban locations showed an increase in utilization on ED and hospitalizations. So I ask: what is going on, and what can we do about this? Granted, this study ended before COVID began. However, the results highlight the continued concept that not one single service can always prevent a patient from returning to the ED or the hospital.
So, here's the concern: rural home health may be able to start working with patients in timely fashion, but they may be limited in their ability to navigate and coordinate resources to prevent the failsafe return for hospital services. Completing a home visit in a rural area means significant travel, with limited resources and staffing capabilities. There is less availability to providers and late-night services, and access to testing could take months and require traveling a long distance.
The ED and hospital, as we know, could offer immediate resolution. I am not even compounding the COVID factor of limited staff, delayed appointments, and overwhelmed EDs and hospitals.
Regardless of your geographic setting, urban or rural, the care of the patient is a public health concern that requires a community approach with multiple disciplines. Although there are best practices on how to reduce hospital utilization, the greatest outcomes arise when organizations collaborate openly – and creatively.
The referral to home health is still a positive option, with continued support and care for the patient with eyes on their living environment, such as checking to ensure that there is food in the refrigerator, that old medications have been discarded, and that fall hazards have been removed. The referral also provides nursing and physical therapy services in the home, and support with infusions that could not otherwise be possible, along with many other things.
So, my key question goes back to that COVID issue: how many of you are seeing delays in discharge at your hospital because patients are waiting for post-acute placement or services?
Programming Note: Listen to Tiffany Ferguson's live reports on SDoH Mondays on Monitor Mondays, 10 Eastern.


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I'm blogging this because my beautiful friend Arabella needs some company in card-blogging...thought you'd enjoy sharing!
Bookie bird. Signing off card-making speedster
Lovely BB! Love the colours you have used for the cat girl!
OMGoodnesses... another very talented chickie in our midst!
Love them all (gorgeous colours and fixings), but love the 'star boy' card best. No prizes for guessing why...


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Ongoing outbreak of hepatitis A in Nis, Serbia: a preliminary report
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Citation style for this article: . Ongoing outbreak of hepatitis A in Nis, Serbia: a preliminary report. Euro Surveill. 2007;12(51):pii=3334. https://doi.org/10.2807/esw.12.51.03334-en
Hepatitis A is still a great problem in developing countries, especially those in which vaccination is not obligatory. It is well known that hepatitis A is associated with risk factors such as poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene. However, some investigations (e.g. in Spain and Greece) showed that the seroprevalence of antibodies against hepatitis A virus (HAV) in recent decades has decreased, especially in the younger adults, most likely due to improvements in living standards and hygienic conditions.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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BestAir® ALL-2-PDQ-3 Universal Humidifier Filter
ALL-2-PDQ-3 | BestAir® ALL-2-PDQ-3, Universal Extended Life Humidifier Replacement Paper Wick Filter, For Holmes, Sunbeam, Touch Point, White-Westinghouse, Bionaire, and GE Models, 7.75″ x 10.5″ x 3.1″
- Description
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Indoor air quality is commonly affected by particles such as dust, pet dander, and viruses. Overly dry air can exacerbate lung conditions and irritated sinuses, especially during winter and dry climates. BestAir® is dedicated to protecting and providing a clean and safe indoor environment for everyone. We have a complete array of high quality humidification wicks, air cleaning filters, and many other accessories, which will ensure that your indoor air quality will be the BestAir® that you and your family can breathe. We are the largest manufacturer of replacement filters made in North America and are also leading the way for industry standards. Our markets first innovations, such as the expanded paper wick and Original Bacteriostatic Treatment (EPA Registered), are some technologies we invented that sets us apart from our competition. Protect your home and work environments now with BestAir®!
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The 2007 college football season was one of the craziest in memory. Over the course of the year, 59 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents, teams ranked in the AP's top five lost a record-setting thirteen games to unranked opponents, and team ranked #2 in the country lost an astounding seven times during the final nine weeks of the regular season. The champion of the 2007 season was LSU, a team that lost two games in triple overtime and spent the entire season living on a razor's edge and avoiding upsets by lower-ranked SEC opponents. The entire season was a wild, unpredictable, chaotic mess, which made for one of the most exciting and memorable years college football had seen in decades.
That 2007 season may have found its spiritual successor in the 2021 campaign. Forty-seven ranked teams have lost games through the first seven weeks of the season (which CBS Sports believed to be the highest pace of ranked upsets since the AP Top 25 began in 1936), an unranked opponent defeated the #1 team in the country for the first time since USC lost to Oregon State in 2008, and top-10 teams have dropped like flies all season long.
The #2 Iowa Hawkeyes were victimized by the chaos when they fell to Purdue two weeks ago, and the upsets continued this past week as #8 Oklahoma State lost 24-21 to unranked Iowa State and #7 Penn State was defeated in a record-setting nine overtimes by unranked Illinois. Several other top teams narrowly avoided suffering major upsets of their own, with #10 Oregon falling behind 14-0 to unranked UCLA, #3 Oklahoma having to rally from a ten-point first half deficit to beat the woeful Kansas Jayhawks, and #2 Cincinnati struggling to put away a rudderless Navy team.
Both of the Week 8 losses by AP top ten teams could have major implications for the Hawkeyes' ranking and playoff resume. While Iowa State's victory over the Cowboys helped the Hawkeyes by knocking off another undefeated team and validating Iowa's 27-17 road victory over the Cyclones as a quality win, Penn State's home loss to a woeful Illinois team that came into the game with a 2-5 record removed some of the shine from Iowa's signature win over the then-#3 Nittany Lions. Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford appeared visibly pained and was clearly limited by the injury he suffered against Iowa two weeks prior, and the Nittany Lions could be in danger of losing several more games should Clifford continue to be hampered going forward. Iowa's victory over a Penn State team that finishes the year 8-4 or 7-5 will carry significantly less weight than a win over a 10-2 Nittany Lion squad that sits at or near the top of the East division standings. Hawkeye fans may be best served by rooting for Clifford and the Nittany Lions to bounce back in a big way in the weeks to come; maybe Penn State can be the beneficiary of upset trend now that they are ranked outside of the top ten.
ILLINOIS UPSETS NO. 7 PENN STATE IN THE NINTH OVERTIME‼— ESPN (@espn) October 23, 2021
That's the most overtimes in FBS history pic.twitter.com/uKlOg9Sd6j
The Big Ten West was also not immune to the lack of predictability that has come to epitomize the 2021 college football season. Fresh off its stunning win over Iowa, Purdue imploded in the second half against Wisconsin en route to a 30-13 defeat which raises further questions about how the Hawkeyes managed to lose so decisively to a mediocre Boilermaker squad. Wisconsin, a team most analysts dismissed after its 1-3 start, seems to have found its footing again after rolling off three straight wins. Illinois, who had been in a steady downward spiral since its Week 0 win over Nebraska, proved it still had some fight in it with its history-making win over Penn State.
Perhaps most surprising is that the fate of the Big Ten West may come down to a battle between Iowa and Minnesota, a squad that lost its top two running backs to season-ending injuries and was beaten by a 2-6 Bowling Green team yet sits tied with the Hawkeyes at 3-1 in the division and could easily come into Iowa City with a 7-2 overall record in mid-November.
Despite Iowa's loss to Purdue, the Hawkeyes are still in position to win the Big Ten West and compete for a conference title and bid to the College Football Playoff. However, Week 8 serves as another reminder as to why the Hawkeyes cannot afford to take any of their remaining opponents lightly lest they risk suffering the latest in a long string of stunning upsets. Iowa should be favored in each of their remaining games against its Big Ten West opponents, but the 2021 season has shown that the potential for disaster is hiding around every corner. If Iowa learns from its letdown loss to Purdue and proves that the real version of the Hawkeyes are the team fans saw through the first six games, Iowa should find itself with a clear path to Indianapolis.
However, if the Hawkeyes allow themselves to be caught sleepwalking through another game, Iowa fans may once again find themselves scratching their head at the end of the season and wondering how such a talented team found itself on the outside looking in during conference championship week.


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Mark Vogt is owner and president of Vogt Builders in Waterloo, IL. His company was established by his father, Leland Vogt in 1957, and continued on by Mark since 1987. Vogt Builders is primarily a single family new home construction company, and has also done remodeling and home additions through the years. Land development has also been a large part of this company, with 9 different subdivisions produced in the Waterloo market to date.
A lifelong resident of Waterloo, Mark has been active in his community throughout years as a member of Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, Monroe County Builders Association, and other volunteer activities. He has been a member of HBA since 2001, and has served as a local president during that time. He has been on the state HBAI board for several years now, and enjoys lobbying on behalf of our industry


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The project "North/East-North/west" is schedhuled for some festival concerts this summer. This is a Norwegian/Russian- collaboration based on new compositions by Roger Ludvigsen (guitar, misc) and Jan Gunnar Hoff (keys). Details TBA. They will perform a concert at the Varanger festival (Vadsø Int Jazzfestival) on Aug 10.
North East/North West
Varangerfestivalen, Vårbrudd · 21:00


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Product Description
Publication Date: August 15, 2016
The case, set in May 2016, discusses sales strategy and managing sales and service at Oversight Systems, an Atlanta, Georgia-based software firm that developed analytics for organizations to monitor their data for errors, fraud, and operational inefficiencies. Included is an overview of Oversight's founding and the evolution of its offering from customized software analytics to pre-packaged software-as-a-service (SaaS) bundles, called Insights on Demand (IOD). Oversight adapted its sales and service approach to better suit IOD by standardizing its prices, packaging, and product delivery, as well as its approach to sales, including the sales team's composition, compensation, and incentive structure. Over time, Oversight had engaged in a variety of channel partnerships, and some were more successful than others. The case examines the decision of whether to engage in a channel partnership with a major credit card company.


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The Berkeley police officer who shot her gun, striking a vehicle linked to a robbery call last summer, was found to have committed no crime, but violated the department's deadly force rules and was fired, Berkeleyside has learned.
Officer Cheri Miller's gunfire struck the getaway car but hit no one inside it, the police investigation found. One month after the shooting, Berkeley Police Chief Andrew Greenwood — who retired Friday — found that Miller had violated BPD's use-of-force and vehicle pursuit policies when she fired her gun, according to records released by the department in response to a Public Records Act request from Berkeleyside.
According to those records, Miller insisted she had tried to shoot the driver, not his blue Ford Fusion, because she thought he might run her over. Her attorney said Miller lost her footing, which changed the trajectory of her aim. His office produced a frame-by-frame analysis backing up his claims. But police investigators who reviewed the evidence were not convinced.
The July 30, 2020, shooting in the parking lot of the North Berkeley CVS at 1451 Shattuck Ave., just south of Rose Street, was BPD's first officer-involved shooting since 2012, and the first one the agency handled after SB 1421 went into effect in 2019. The law "dramatically altered the ability of the public (and the press) to obtain previously highly confidential police personnel records." After those records were released for the CVS shooting, Berkeleyside reviewed approximately 65 police reports, transcripts, warrants and other investigative documents spanning more than 300 pages, as well as approximately 700 photographs and videos, to learn how the department investigated its first officer-involved shooting in nearly a decade.
On the night of the shooting, Cheri Miller was immediately placed on paid leave pending the outcome of two parallel investigations, by BPD's homicide and internal affairs units. The Alameda County district attorney's office was notified but did not conduct its own investigation because the shooting "was non-fatal," the DA's office said. The alleged driver from the getaway car has been charged with felony robbery; the outcome of that case is pending.
On Sept. 1, 2020, Greenwood informed Miller of his decision to let her go. Miller appealed that decision twice but was unsuccessful. Miller's attorney, Harry Stern of San Francisco-based Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver, told the city BPD investigators had drawn the wrong conclusions when they reviewed evidence from the shooting. And Stern insisted Miller, who had worked at BPD for about 22 months at the time of the shooting, could learn from her mistakes.
Cheri Miller herself said, during her appeal hearings, that there had been "no malice" behind the shooting, and that she had been "forced to make a decision whether it was my life or theirs." She said she had watched video from that night repeatedly and wished she had made different choices.
"I know what I did wasn't perfect," Miller told the city. "Every time I watch this video it's like, ugh, Jesus Christ! I could have done so many different things better. And that's what I was doing after everything transpired. That's what I've been doing every day since, you know, it happened."
Stern told Berkeleyside in March that Miller is still "considering her options" as far as her response to the city's ruling and what she plans to do next. (Berkeleyside did not speak to Miller directly for this story.)
At the time of the shooting, Cheri Miller was still on probation as an at-will employee, meaning the city could "release her" at any time. In his letter, the chief described his decision to discharge her as a "no cause probationary release." Because Miller was still on probation, which is considered an extension of the interview process, the city did not have to give a reason for the decision to "separate" Miller from her job. In Berkeley, the probationary period lasts two years.
On Dec. 4, 2020, after the completion of both appeal hearings and the chief's finding that Miller had violated BPD's use-of-force and vehicle pursuit policies, the city informed Miller that the decision to dismiss her was final, and was effective immediately.
The one-page letter said the city had granted Miller two name clearing hearings because of "the particular circumstances surrounding your release from probation." Those hearings were not legally mandated because Miller was still on probation, staff said, but the city wanted Miller to have a chance to weigh in.
None of the decision letters — which are now part of Miller's personnel file — detailed the events of July 30 or said she had fired her gun.
Suspect: "I just could not go to jail that day"
Cheri Miller graduated from the police academy in May 2018, then worked for the Hercules Police Department for three months. She was hired on at BPD in October of that year while still in training in Hercules. Berkeley, she said during her interviews with the city, "was always the place I wanted to be."
Miller said she became a police officer to "make a difference" because she herself had experienced racial profiling and knew she could "look beyond color" when handling crimes. As a Black, gay woman, Miller said she had picked Berkeley PD because of its reputation as a progressive agency that is "culturally accepting of people regardless of their differences."
"That's why I got in this profession," she said, "to be progressive and do things the right way."
Miller's attorney told officials, during her appeal hearings, that his client had no disciplinary issues before the July 30 shooting and that her supervisors had described her as a "very diligent, hardworking officer" who was proactive on her beat. On the day of the shooting, Cheri Miller had come in early, at 11 a.m., to work some extra hours before her regular patrol shift at 3:30 p.m.
At about 9:15 p.m., according to a transcript of Miller's Aug. 2, 2020, interview with BPD homicide investigators, Miller was parked by the North Shattuck Safeway when she heard "a commotion" and saw people running outside the CVS across the street. She had parked on the block to be "a deterrent," she said, because of the high number of thefts and robberies in the area.
Miller said she could see a struggle in the CVS parking lot and assumed a robbery was underway. She put on her emergency lights and drove straight over the median on Shattuck to get into the parking lot. Miller said she first tried to talk to the driver to find out what was going on. She initially told investigators she only drew her weapon when the driver failed to follow her orders.
According to footage from the scene, however, Miller got out of her vehicle with her gun drawn. She tried to control the situation by issuing a flurry of commands. Within less than a minute of her arrival, she had ordered the driver — later identified by BPD as Brandon Owens of Concord — to get into his car and put his keys on the roof. It was one of several decisions she would come to regret.
Miller told investigators she ordered the driver to get into the car because she was treating the incident like a felony stop where the goal is to contain the situation until backup arrives. She didn't see a weapon but was concerned the driver or one of the people with him might have a gun, she told investigators. That night, she said, two fears ran through her mind: "They're gonna run me over or they're gonna shoot me."
Owens — who was then 19 — told investigators during an Aug. 6, 2020, interview that he was surprised when the officer told him to get into his car. He was so taken aback, he had asked Miller if she was sure he should do that. Investigators asked him why he questioned the order.
"'Cause I knew exactly what I was about to do," said Owens, according to the BPD transcript.
"What were you gonna do?" one of the investigators asked.
"Leave," Owens replied, according to the transcript. "I just could not go to jail that day."
Police ID'd getaway driver from prior Berkeley theft
Although he escaped that night, BPD identified Owens the very next day, according to investigative reports, when a Berkeley officer recognized him from a suspected theft in February 2020 at the downtown Berkeley CVS. The officer said he recognized Owens because of his "distinctive widows peak haircut" and because Owens used the same "distinctive" Nike backpack in February and July, according to the report.
Police said they also linked Owens and his car to several shoplifting cases in the Bay Area just before the July 30 robbery in Berkeley, including a nearly $500 theft from a CVS in Vallejo that same morning. In the weeks after the Berkeley shooting, Oakland police issued a warrant for Owens' arrest in connection with a robbery in that city, according to police records.
Owens told police, according to the BPD transcript, that he and two friends had gone to CVS on July 30 to steal coffee and Dove soap because they were broke and "just needed some money," which they knew they could get from selling the items in San Francisco.
According to BPD transcripts, Owens said he and his friends only planned to steal items, not fight with anyone, that night. But they got into a tug-of-war with store staff over a shopping cart full of stolen goods, according to police. The struggle turned the shoplifting into a robbery.
Once Owens was in his car, according to video from the scene, he turned it on and reversed to get out of the disabled spot near the front door where he had parked. Owens said he was "star-struck and flabbergasted," and that "everybody in the car was scared" because Miller was just inches from his window with her gun in his face, according to the transcript. But he said he also "had a feelin' in my gut" she wouldn't shoot him.
As he angled to get out of his parking spot, Owens told investigators Miller "aimed her gun down" and "popped the tire." Owens told police she was always to his side and that he did not try to hit her with his car.
Less than two minutes passed between Miller's initial broadcast about the CVS theft and the time she fired her gun, according to police records.
Owens told detectives he had looked at Miller in his rearview mirror right after the shooting. He was surprised she wasn't moving.
"I'm, like, you know… I just fled from the police," he said, according to the transcript. "Ain't nobody about to chase me? So she just standin' there, so I leave."
Miller said she did not pursue Owens because she thought she had shot him or his car and believed he would stop. She said she thought arriving officers would pick up the chase. And she was in shock, she said, because she had just fired her gun and was almost run over.
"I didn't go anywhere," she told a supervisor on the night of the shooting. "I was literally here the whole time as they drove off, I just stayed right here."
Owens said he was able to leave the parking lot but couldn't get far because his tire was flat, according to the BPD transcript. So he parked at the 99 Cent Store at University and San Pablo avenues, he said. He had to wait two hours for a tow truck to arrive.
What exactly was Officer Cheri Miller shooting at?
According to the available records, the city appears to have let Miller go, at least in large part, because it found no justification for her to have fired her weapon at all.
The documents released by the city do not explicitly state what aspects of the Berkeley Police Department rules Miller was found to have violated. In addition to the employment-ending decision letters, which include no details about the shooting, there is only a one-page "disposition sheet," dated Nov. 27, 2020, in which the police chief sustained violations of two BPD general orders: the ones related to its use-of-force rules and vehicle pursuits.
"Miller discharged her service firearm three times in the direction of the left front area of the moving vehicle as it drove past her," a brief narrative on the disposition sheet reads. Other than the word "sustained," there is no explanation of the violations.
But the investigations leading up to Miller's firing focused on several key issues, including what she was aiming at when she pulled the trigger. The intended target was a critical issue for investigators to sort out: Shooting at a vehicle would not have been consistent with departmental policy. Shooting at the driver, depending on the circumstances, may have been.
But even that may well have been a stretch in this case. The BPD rules in place at the time of the shooting allowed officers to shoot at drivers fleeing from felony crimes, but only to protect against a significant threat of death or serious bodily injury. The policy — which has since become even more restrictive — was very specific: Officers were not allowed to fire at inanimate objects or to fire warning shots into the air.
In early August 2020, during the course of two lengthy interviews with investigators, Miller repeatedly said she was "definitely trying to shoot" the driver, primarily to stop him from running her over, according to records reviewed by Berkeleyside. She said she thought she was at serious risk even though she was never in front of the car. She also said she had been stressed out since the shooting and hadn't been eating much as a result.
"I shot two rounds directed at the driver," she told homicide investigators, according to a 108-page transcript from Aug. 2, 2020. "I just know that I was very close and I didn't feel like I could get out of the way at the time."
"I believe he was trying to hit me," she told internal affairs sergeants, according to a 43-page transcript dated Aug. 19, 2020. "I fired at the driver to prevent [him] from running me over."
Miller's assertions ran counter to the conclusions drawn by witnesses at the scene and many of the people who watched video of the shooting when Berkeleyside published the footage last year.
The Internal Affairs Bureau investigator, who produced a 21-page report dated Aug. 27, 2020, reviewed the video and wrote that: "Miller appears to point the muzzle of her firearm in the direction of the front left tire area before she apparently discharges three rounds."
"The officer shot but wasn't aiming to kill or anything," one witness told police.
Investigators also noted that Miller had said she probably hit "the front driver's side tire area" during her initial statement on the night of the shooting. She said nothing at all about trying to shoot the driver. In her next interview, with homicide investigators in early August, she said she thought she had hit the driver or his door.
When internal affairs investigators pressed Miller about the "discrepancy," she said she didn't see a big difference between the statements and felt she had been truthful in each of them.
Miller said she fired her gun, at least in part, because the driver was coming "straight toward" her at 10-15 mph. She said the driver was "angling" toward her and that she was trying to protect herself.
The driver told police he never intended to hit Miller. But one witness said the driver had "swerved like he was going to run her over" and another said, "it looked like the sedan came very close to the officer as it was turning."
Miller said she was always on the side of the car and was never directly in its path, according to the interview transcripts. But she told investigators she was concerned about a phenomenon called "rear wheel cheat," in which the back tire could have struck her even though the front tire had passed.
Detectives also pushed Miller for details about injuries to her foot she said had been caused by the fleeing driver. In her initial statement at the scene, Miller said she thought the driver may have run over her foot. After the shooting, Miller went to the hospital for treatment for bruising and contusions, according to interview transcripts.
But investigators said they could find no physical evidence to confirm an injury. One investigator who reviewed crime scene photographs of Miller's foot said she could see "no visible injury" to it. Another wrote, more decisively: "The video showed that the vehicle did not run over Ofc. Miller's foot."
The inconsistencies may have raised questions for investigators about Miller's credibility.
Miller's attorney asserted, during both of her appeal hearings last fall, that Miller's foot had become wedged under the fleeing driver's vehicle, causing her to lose her balance, fall off of a raised curb and fire toward the vehicle's left front tire instead of her original target, which she said had been the driver. Stern, the attorney, said the frame-by-frame analysis created by his office showed powerful evidence investigators missed when they watched the video in real-time.
The city did not change its position after reviewing Stern's frame-by-frame analysis, so it does not appear to have been determined to have been sufficiently exculpatory.
"Some of the most important factors in the investigation were completely overlooked," Stern said during Miller's appeal hearings. "If she's shooting at the driver to prevent from getting hit as close as she is, that's a lawful within policy shooting. For whatever reason, they decided not to focus on that."
Many questions raised about police tactics
When Miller spoke with investigators in August, they asked numerous questions about decisions she had made on the night of the shooting. Miller told them she would have done "the majority of things" differently "from the moment it transpired."
The most significant issues, she told investigators, were that she would have had the driver lay down on the ground rather than get into his car, and that she would have been sure to turn on her body camera immediately. Miller said she thought she had turned on the camera when she got out of her car but that, apparently, it had not worked. When she realized the problem, she said, she immediately activated it. Fortuitously, witness footage captured the entire exchange.
Miller made a number of other choices that have also been questioned, according to police records, from pulling out her gun immediately, to approaching the driver's side window alone during an incident she was treating as a felony car stop, to staying near the car when she thought the driver might have a weapon himself, to not pursuing the driver when he fled.
Investigators also asked Miller why she didn't back up, to create more space between her body and the vehicle, give a warning before she fired her gun, or simply let the driver flee.
"We take an oath not to retreat," Miller said, according to BPD transcripts. "I thought cover was coming and things were happening so quickly, like, I just maintained my position."
When asked what might have happened had she not fired her gun, Miller said the driver "would have just fled," adding: "I don't think anything else would have happened."
Miller's own radio traffic appears to have added to the confusion of the night. In her initial broadcast, she said she was responding to a theft in progress rather than a robbery, which is a more serious crime and may have drawn a swifter response from other officers. She also asked for backup using the police code for "at your convenience" rather than the code for when immediate help, or "cover," is needed.
And, as the getaway car fled, Miller repeatedly broadcast over the radio that the driver was headed west on Rose Street when he had actually gone east.
"I always get the directions messed up," Miller said, during one of her interviews.
Miller also initially said she only fired her gun twice, although it turned out to have been three times. And a detective who inspected Miller's gun after the shooting found that Miller had somehow managed to load 19 rounds into the 18-round weapon.
In Miller's defense, her attorney, Stern, told the city his client likely had not had enough practice on the street responding to in-progress calls, adding: "There's a difference between making a different choice and being wrong."
He also said Miller had been the victim of a common problem: Monday-morning quarterbacking.
"Everyone can say I would have done this differently or this is the wrong way to handle it," Stern told the city. "But that's mostly based on the ultimate outcome and you can kind of see that theme going through the course of the investigative report."
Officer Miller: "I was being honest"
In the end, it was up to Greenwood to assess the facts and decide whether the circumstances of the shooting represented a "training issue," such that Cheri Miller should be given another chance, or whether more serious consequences were warranted. Ultimately, the city settled on the latter.
During her appeal hearings, Miller said she knew immediately that the shooting could cost her her job.
"I know as soon as those shots came out of my gun that this is a possibility that I'll be in this situation," she told the chief in early October.
During her appeal hearings, Miller told the city she had been "devastated" when she learned she would lose her job, especially when she realized her honesty had been questioned.
"It was a little disheartening to learn that it's probably because, you know, maybe you did lie about getting injured," she said. "I know how my body felt. I know how I felt in that situation and I wasn't lying. I was being honest. My foot wasn't hurting for no reason."
In addition to the homicide and internal affairs investigations into the circumstances around Miller's shooting, the department's general orders specify that BPD should have convened what's called a Use of Force Training Review Board (TRB) to evaluate the incident in its aftermath.
"A TRB will be established to review all use of force reports," according to the policy, which states that the board should, in fact, meet monthly. "The TRB's review will be independent and not related to any internal or external administrative investigation. The board shall consider use of force trends, as well as individual employee and departmental training needs."
That review did not happen. Interim Berkeley Police Chief Jen Louis told Berkeleyside there had been no review board "based on the outcome of the Personnel Complaint and Officer Miller's release from probationary employment." But Louis said last week that she was not opposed to convening a review board in the future, depending on staffing availability and the views of department experts.
Louis said she could not comment on the details of the Miller investigation, because she was not the chief when it happened and had therefore not been charged with reviewing the relevant materials. But she said she was certain that review had been robust.
"We take all of these incidents with the utmost seriousness and desire to ensure that we are providing the best quality service we can," she said. "Where things can be done differently or better, we're always open to considering those options in the future."


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AP News
WATCH: Video Shows Worker Saving Man as Speeding Train Approached
SAN FRANCISCO — A transit supervisor in Oakland is being hailed as a hero after pulling a man up from train tracks and away from a speeding train.
BART released surveillance video showing John O'Connor spring to action Sunday after a man falls into the tracks at a crowded Coliseum station following an Oakland Raiders football game.
The video shows O'Connor yanking the man up by the shoulders and back onto the platform moments before the train arrives.
O'Connor has worked for BART for 24 years and said Monday he was helping with crowd control when he saw the man fall.
BART officials said the man who fell was intoxicated and taken to a local hospital. He has not been identified.