text:
Barack Obama's September 9th trip to Lebanon, Virginia, in the southwestern hill country, came at a moment of deep unease among Democrats. John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, eleven days earlier, had yielded rich results, in Republican enthusiasm and in polling numbers. Several polls showed McCain pulling ahead of Obama, and some Democrats worried that Obama's slogan of "Change" was a frail substitute for an emphatic message spelling out just what change he hoped to bring about. It seemed that the Obama camp had been knocked off balance by the Palin factor. Some Democrats feared that Obama himself—cool, cerebral, aloof—was a problem, reflected by the campaign's apparent inability to counter McCain's bold communications strategy effectively. Most disturbing, polling revealed that voters were increasingly inclined to trust McCain on the economy—an issue on which the Democrat should have the advantage.
If Obama was feeling deflated, he did not show it when he bounded onto the stage that afternoon in the Lebanon High School gymnasium. The crowd of about two thousand had been warmed up by Cecil Roberts, the fire-breathing president of the United Mine Workers of America (who offered the observation, which was making the rounds that week, that "Jesus was a community organizer"). Obama, shedding his suit jacket and rolling up his shirtsleeves, worked the crowd hard for more than an hour. He joked about the hubbub surrounding McCain's choice of running mate ("I've been to forty-nine states now. The only one I haven't been to is Alaska, and I realize now that maybe I should have gone up there"), and then began a performance that was as populist in theme and as personal in style as a Harvard lawyer could credibly deliver. He portrayed an America that had lost its dream, becoming a nation whose people stood in unemployment lines as their homes were being foreclosed on. He decried C.E.O.s who "give themselves million-dollar bonuses, even as they're closing down a plant." And he portrayed John McCain as being hopelessly out of touch.
"I don't think John McCain is a bad man," Obama said. "I just think that he doesn't get it. I just think that he doesn't understand what the American people are going through right now." Obama attacked Republicans for their trickle-down economic theories, and McCain for buying into them. "They call it the ownership society in Washington," he said. "What they really mean is, You're on your own. Your plant closes up and you lose your job, you're on your own. You're sailing along, trying to look after your kids, if you want to go back to college, you're on your own. You're a poor kid, lift yourself up by your bootstraps, you're on your own. . . . Now, I guess if you think that somebody making four million dollars is still middle class, maybe you think it's worked. But if you're like an ordinary person, making thirty or forty or fifty thousand dollars, then you realize how tough things are. And that's why I'm running for President, because that's what I come from, that's where I've been."
Obama spoke of his mother, a single mom who "had to take out food stamps a couple of times, just to make sure we had enough to eat." He wondered why "Iraq has a seventy-nine-billion-dollar surplus that they've parked in banks in New York, drawin' interest" while Americans were wanting. "That is gonna change under an Obama Administration," he vowed, to loud cheers. "I want to spend that money right here in the United States.''
In a nod to local values, Obama declared, "I'm a Christian and I believe deeply in my faith," and he volunteered the information that he was no gun grabber. "I just want to be absolutely clear, all right? So I don't want any misunderstanding, so that when we all go home and you're talking to your buddies, and they say, 'Aw, he wants to take my gun away,' you heard it here. . . . I believe in the Second Amendment. I believe in people's lawful right to bear arms. I will not take your shotgun away from you. I will not take your rifle away. I won't take your handgun away." Obama said he was for "common-sense gun-safety laws," and repeated again, "I am not gonna take your guns away. So, if you wanna find an excuse not to vote for me, don't use that one, because that just ain't true. It just ain't true!"
In all, it was an inspired performance, which concluded to cascading cheers. But it was for a largely partisan crowd, which had come to the event already convinced, and it was hard to guess how it would play outside that gym. Although the regional media outlets gave the event a lot of coverage, it turned out that Obama's Virginia début as a rousing populist was hardly noticed nationally, having been overwhelmed by the kind of controversy that has come to characterize this campaign. During his talk, Obama had slipped into a colloquial style (not his strength), and at one point he decided to drive home a point with a down-home aphorism. The McCain-Palin claim as change agents, he said, was false. "You can put lipstick on a pig," Obama said, to the delight of the crowd. "It's still a pig."
When Obama finally secured Hillary Clinton's capitulation in the Democratic primary race, in June, the first place he took his campaign was Bristol, Virginia, also in the state's far southwestern corner. Although Virginia likes to be known as the Mother of Presidents, having produced eight, for generations the Old Dominion has been so reliably Republican in Presidential general elections that its vote was scarcely worth contesting. Except for 1964, when the Texan Lyndon Johnson prevailed, Virginia has not voted Democratic since 1948, resisting even the Democrats' all-Bubba ticket in 1992 and 1996. This year, after Obama and Clinton emerged from the February 5th Super Tuesday vote virtually deadlocked, Obama went on to sweep the "Potomac primaries" (Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.) the following week. In Virginia, he far surpassed expectations, taking ten of the state's eleven congressional districts, and beating Clinton over all by a twenty-nine-point margin.
That showing aroused Democratic hopes that Virginia might finally back a Democratic Presidential nominee in the general election. The state would be a prize, delivering more electoral votes (thirteen) than all but eleven other states. As Washington's expanding suburbs have reached farther into farmland and horse country, accommodating a well-educated workforce of government and tech-industry employees, northern Virginia has grown bluer and more politically influential. Virginia has elected successive Democratic governors, and in 2006 the Democrat Jim Webb unseated the formidable Senator George Allen, who was considered a favorite among potential Republican Presidential contenders. So tempting is Virginia to Obama that he seriously considered both Webb and Governor Tim Kaine as his running mate; another Virginia Democrat, the former governor Mark Warner, would likely have made the list as well, but for his campaign (in which he is heavily favored) to win the Senate seat of the Republican John Warner, who is retiring.
Virginia Democrats knew, however, that, impressive as Obama's primary victory was, the most notable result from that day's voting might have come in the only district he lost—the Virginia ninth, which includes Lebanon. The rout there—by thirty-two points—had troubling implications for Obama's chances in Virginia as a whole, and beyond. The southwestern region, rising from the Roanoke Valley up to the Appalachian Plateau, is a place of small farms, coal mines, and chronic economic hard times. It was settled in the eighteenth century by Scots-Irish Calvinists who fled Anglican-dominated Ulster and, eventually, came to that portion of Virginia which the planter aristocracy didn't want. Their descendants live in small hill towns that are nearer, in mileage and in spirit, to the old factory town of Ironton, Ohio, than to the glass office towers of northern Virginia. Three weeks after the Virginia primary, the mostly white, working-class voters of southern Ohio, a significant portion of them of Scots-Irish descent, helped deliver that state to Hillary Clinton. In the next weeks, their kin did the same in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, and Kentucky. It became clear that if Obama hoped to win in November he would probably have to overcome his Appalachia problem.
In May, Tim Kaine, Obama's national co-chairman, wrote a memorandum to the candidate, urging him not to write off southwestern Virginia; if the region votes against Obama in the general election by the same margins it did in the Democratic primary, John McCain will almost certainly win the state. "I said, first, don't assume that Hillary Clinton really racking up a margin there means that you're just not going to do well," Kaine told me recently. Kaine explained to Obama that the hill people were skeptics, but could be convinced. "Presence really matters," Kaine says he told Obama. "They're not used to seeing somebody come by and ask for their vote in a Presidential campaign. And my thought was, If you go, and show 'em that you're really interested, and they get a chance to see you more up close and personal than in a TV ad, a little bit of presence might go a long way in that part of the state."
After Obama's appearance, I left Lebanon and drove into the Shenandoah Valley, to Roanoke, for a visit with a man who has made a profession of selling Democrats to rural Virginians. David (Mudcat) Saunders has been called the Democrats' "Bubba coordinator," the embodiment of the Party's faint but growing recognition that its alienation of rural white men is both unnecessary and costly. Saunders, who is fifty-nine, is an exaggerated version of an élitist liberal's caricature of a Southern redneck. His face fixed in a wicked grin, he happily proclaims his love for Jesus and guns, college football and bluegrass music, and the Democratic Party. He smokes Camels, and is prolifically profane. Saunders is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and can provide details of his great-grandfather's wounding at the Battle of Seven Pines, in Henrico County, while serving in General James L. Kemper's brigade. He sleeps under a Rebel-flag quilt, and when challenged on such matters he has invited his inquisitors to "kiss my Rebel ass"—his way of making the point that when Democrats are drawn into culture battles by prissy liberal sensitivities they usually lose the larger war.
In 2006, Saunders served as a personal adviser to Jim Webb in his Senate run against the incumbent (and former governor) George Allen. Social conservatives had put on the ballot a measure banning gay marriage, a familiar ploy intended to drive up Republican turnout. When a coalition opposing the measure asked Saunders to volunteer for its side, he said that he would do so if the coalition agreed not to censor his message to the press. It agreed. "In my first interview, I said, This has nothing to do with queers getting married, this has to do with politics," Saunders recalled. "This has to do with drivin' up George Allen's numbers. It has to do with dividing God's children. The one thing people better understand is God loves every queer every bit as much as he loves any Republican. It's about individual rights." The gay-marriage ban passed, but its opponents won more than forty per cent of the vote—a victory in the margins—and Webb won his seat.
Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who has worked for McCain, has called Saunders's approach "one-third true, two-thirds hokum," but Saunders's methods have proven merit. In 2001, in his first full-time foray into politics, Saunders worked on the Democratic gubernatorial campaign of Mark Warner, who had an uphill climb in rural Virginia. Warner, who was born in Indiana and reared in Connecticut and Illinois, was a cellular-telephone mogul based in northern Virginia, and, therefore, culturally suspect in the southwest. At the time, Republicans held the statehouse and the governor's chair, but Virginia was stuck in a budget crisis. Saunders believed that if Warner could break through the cultural barriers rural Virginians would respond favorably to his message of competent governance. Warner made dozens of visits to the region, and Saunders worked out a deal that put Warner's name on a truck running on the Nascar circuit. One morning in the shower, Saunders decided that Warner needed a bluegrass campaign jingle. He composed lyrics on the spot, and put them to the tune of the Dillards' song "Dooley":
Mark Warner is ready
To lead our Commonwealth.
He'll work for mountain people
And economic health!
Get ready to shout it
From the coal mines to the stills
Here comes Mark Warner—
The hero of the hills!
The jingle became a small sensation during the campaign, and Warner won fifty-two per cent of the vote in the southwestern district. In office, Warner repaid the region by persuading two high-tech companies to move to Lebanon, and fought to get Virginia Tech—Virginia Polytechnic Institute, in the Blue Ridge town of Blacksburg—into the Atlantic Coast Conference. "Mark Warner has become part of the culture," Saunders says. "We accept him as part of who we are, if for no other reason—God damn, he got V.P.I. into the A.C.C.! I mean, it's a big damned deal."
Saunders worked as a senior strategist in John Edwards's Presidential campaign, and is now following Obama's with a critical eye. He worries that Obama seems too professorial, too detached, to make headway with rural voters. ''I never thought I would see Hillary Clinton being defined as pro-gun and anti-trade, and a black guy being considered an élitist down here."
Obama's "Change" message, Saunders argues, is too abstract, too vague, for the region. "Those people you were with today were screwed by the English in Scotland and Ireland way before they came over here and started getting screwed," he said. "They've been screwed since the dawn of time. And you know what? You ain't gonna do anything with them, talkin' about change. You know why? We're all changed out. That's all you ever hear, every election. Somebody's gonna change some shit. Nothin' ever changes. We get fucked."
Saunders was eager to hear about the distinctly populist message Obama had delivered in Lebanon, but when I mentioned the "lipstick on a pig" line he stopped grinning. "That quote might come back to burn his ass up," Saunders mused. "Using the word 'pig' . . ."
If John Edwards were the nominee, he would certainly be pounding home the greed message. That message, Saunders said, "would be beatin' the hell outta John McCain right now." He went on, "And the reason is, is because John said, Enforce the antitrust laws that have decimated us. He said we're gonna make the playing field level, that the American workers are the most productive workers in the world still—let's put 'em back to work. We've traded local economies for Wall Street dividends. That's all that's happened. Since the dawn of time, the big sons of bitches kicked the little sons of bitches' ass. And that's what's happenin' now. I mean, it's a time to fight. I mean, anybody who doesn't think we have a problem with economic disparity, it's the worst it's been since the eighteen-eighties. And the redistribution-of-the-wealth argument? I love it when a Republican says to me, 'The Democrats wanna redistribute the wealth.' Well, there's been a redistribution of wealth—but it's the other fuckin' way!"
It is advice that the Obama campaign is hearing quite a lot, and by last week Obama was warning against a "welfare program for Wall Street," and reproaching finance-industry executives for "greed and irresponsibility."
Rick Boucher, a Democrat who represents southwestern Virginia in the House, has estimated that if Obama gets forty-five per cent of the vote there, he'll win in Virginia. That means Obama would have to improve upon John Kerry's performance by six points. I asked whether a black man could do that well. Saunders insisted that race was not the deciding issue. "That's what burns me up, when they talk about racism down here in the hills," he said. "We vote for blacks. Roanoke City is twenty-seven per cent black and we had a black mayor"—Noel C. Taylor—"for nearly twenty years, a Republican mayor, who was a preacher and a good man. Liberal as hell." Saunders also noted that Virginia was the first state to elect a black governor, L. Douglas Wilder. In 1989, Wilder won with the help of the southwest, which gave him forty-eight per cent of its votes.
If Obama loses Virginia, Saunders says, it will be because he didn't succeed in breaking down cultural barriers. Obama's famous remark, made at a fund-raiser in San Francisco, that rural voters are bitter, which causes them to cling to religion and guns, lingers in the heartland. "I don't pray because of resentment—I pray because it makes my life better," Saunders says. "I don't have a gun because of resentment—I've got a gun because I've always had one. I don't ever remember not having a gun of some kind."
Obama has now visited southwest Virginia twice, and may return again. He has opened eight campaign offices in the area. McCain has one. Obama won't be sponsoring a Nascar racer, but Saunders said that there is something else that Obama could do. "He needs to go sit down with Jim Webb for a while, and talk to him about the power of the culture, and how it works."
A wall in Jim Webb's Washington office is filled with a collection of archival photographs, the centerpiece of which is a striking black-and-white portrait captioned "Appalachian Man." The photograph's anonymous subject is a workingman who could be forty or sixty. His weathered face, vaguely handsome beneath a thick felt hat, is fixed in a glare suggesting skepticism, even disdain. Whoever Appalachian Man was, his image has found the perfect setting.
Webb has been thinking and writing about such people for forty years. When he turned to writing after serving as a Marine infantry officer in Vietnam, he became obsessed with the American cultural divide, and the fact that his people, the Scots-Irish, stood so firmly on one side. The descendants of the Ulster warrior clans that settled the Appalachian frontier were a proud, ornery lot, deeply patriotic and always ready for a fight. They invented country music, fostered the form of democracy named for their kinsman Andrew Jackson, and supplied generals on both sides of the Civil War. In "Born Fighting," his 2004 book about the Scots-Irish influence in American life, Webb summarized the culture's core ethos: Fight. Sing. Drink. Pray.
Webb has cast himself on both sides of the cultural divide. After Vietnam, he began identifying himself as a Republican, and eventually became Ronald Reagan's Navy Secretary. "There were a lot of people, like myself, who got really disillusioned by the Democratic Party getting away from its message of taking care of working people, and becoming the anti-military party rather than the antiwar party," he told me recently. "There was this huge group, this bellwether group that was sitting there. And after the Democratic Party started obscuring its message they look up and say, At the top, there's no real difference between the parties, no real difference except at least these people"—the Republicans—"are gonna protect God and guns. And they do values-vote."
Webb eventually became disgusted by the Republicans' manipulation of those values voters, through what he calls "Karl Rove tactics."
"The Karl Rove approach is very simple," he says now. "It's just three things: He's not like you, he doesn't understand you, you can't trust him. Our guy is like you, our guy understands you, you can trust him. That's the whole formula." Webb became a Democrat and ran for office, motivated partly by the challenge of attracting disenchanted former Democrats back into the Party, and of moving the Party back toward them.
An Obama-Webb ticket would certainly have helped Obama with some of the constituencies most wary of him, but when Webb was asked to undergo vetting for consideration as Obama's running mate he declined. "I know what it's like to be in an Administration," he told me. "You owe the people at the top your absolute loyalty. I did it for four years." Webb might well have chafed in an Obama Administration. He was for offshore drilling—or, at least, he favored allowing Virginia to decide whether its coasts should be explored—when Obama and most of the Party still opposed it. Webb advocates the exploitation of America's vast coal fields, saying, "We're sitting on the Saudi Arabia of coal." Obama used that same term when he spoke in Lebanon, emphasizing the need to develop clean coal technology. But earlier this year he referred to coal as "dirty energy," and his running mate, Joe Biden, said recently in Ohio, "No coal plants here in America. Build 'em, if they're going to build 'em, over there"—in China.
Webb is freer to fashion his own political identity from his position in the Senate. "My prototype really is Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who was able to combine an academic, intellectual career and a government career, really put new ideas out there, and think. I think I've been able to do that. And I don't want to stop doing that. I've got a lot of ideas that don't fit into either party, really."
Recalling Mudcat Saunders's advice for Obama, I asked Webb whether Obama had sought his counsel about breaking down cultural barriers in rural America. "I've done it a few times with him," Webb says. "He's been pretty busy over the last eighteen months, but a good time is when we've had stack votes on the Senate floor and we sit there for an hour, hour and a half, and just sit down and talk about different things." Webb said he urged Obama to read an opinion article Webb wrote for the Wall Street Journal in 2004, in which he argued that "the greatest realignment in modern politics would take place rather quickly if the right national leader found a way to bring the Scots-Irish and African-Americans to the same table, and so to redefine a formula that has consciously set them apart for the past two centuries."
"We had some good talks about this," Webb told me. "And I think he really gets it. I think it's one of the reasons he has pushed where he has been pushing."
Webb expects that Obama will perform well in suburban northern Virginia, echoing the view of nearly everyone else that I spoke with in the state. I wondered about that forecast, though, when I attended a rally for McCain and Palin in Fairfax on the morning after the Obama event in Lebanon. The Republican rally had a football-game-day feel, attracting a huge, intensely enthusiastic crowd—estimated at more than twenty thousand people—to a public park. In introducing the Republican ticket, the former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson gave a better performance than he ever did as a primary candidate, taking on the press for its allegedly incurious approach to Obama even as it investigated Sarah Palin's life with unreined zeal. When Palin took the stage, wearing a black suit and her signature red high heels, the response was rapturous, and many supporters waved signs bearing such messages as "Read My Lipstick—Soccer Moms for Palin." McCain seemed lifted by her presence, and was far more energetic and enthusiastic than the stumbling, unfocussed candidate I'd witnessed on the campaign trail earlier in the summer. He seemed lifted, too, by a sizable turnout of military veterans, whose presence he thankfully acknowledged.
With the Pentagon and all of its military bases, Virginia has a huge military population—the third-highest number of TRICARE-health-insurance recipients in the country. "Veterans are McCain's to lose," Webb said.
The military culture's alienation from the Democratic Party has been another of Webb's literary preoccupations. "If you ask those who served in Vietnam to look back at that war and its legacy," he writes in his latest book, "A Time to Fight,"
a surprising number will quickly remind you that it was the Democratic Party that put Robert McNamara in the Pentagon and bungled the war's strategy; the Democratic Party that later on became the epicenter of an antiwar movement that wrongly labeled those who were fighting the war as the scapegoats for its failure; the Democratic Party that nominated George McGovern, who promised to go on his knees to Hanoi to end the war if he was elected President; the Democratic Party that pulled the funding plug on South Vietnam with the first vote of the so-called Watergate Congress in early 1975, thus precipitating the fall of Saigon; and Democratic President Jimmy Carter who immediately upon assuming office issued the first blanket pardon of draft evaders in our entire history, elevating every person who broke the law and evaded military service to the status of moral purist. Webb's larger point in the book, though, is an argument for a return to the Democratic fold. The Republican franchise on military people, he contends, was made forfeit by its rush to war in Iraq and mismanagement of the conflict once there, all driven by "a few Trotskyites," the neocons:
It is now the Republican Party that populated the Defense Department with a cast of unseemly true believers who propelled America into an unnecessary and strategically unsound war; the Republican Party that persisted in distorting the integrity of the military's officer corps by rewarding sycophancy and punishing honesty; the Republican Party that has most glaringly violated its stewardship of those in uniform; and the Republican Party that continually seeks to politicize military service for its own ends even as it uses their sacrifices as a political shield against criticism for its failed policies.
Webb's disaffection was shared by many in the military culture in 2006, and in Virginia that antipathy toward the Bush Administration almost certainly helped to get Webb elected. "He did have the good fortune of running before the surge," says Frank Atkinson, who was Governor George Allen's policy director and counsellor and is the author of two textbooks on Virginia politics. "And so a lot of his antiwar statements really resonated with the military community, because there are a lot of families of folks deployed who got very unhappy with the President in the 2005-2006 time frame." But the success of the surge strategy in Iraq has muted the war as an election issue.
"The challenge for Barack is to create an identity," Webb said. Like Mudcat Saunders, Webb thinks that Obama would be well served by emphasizing a populist theme for the rest of the campaign. "There's not a lot of difference between the situations of those people he was trying to help in Chicago and the people in southwest Virginia," Webb said.
Our visit happened to take place just as the financial markets were plummeting. Webb sensed an opportunity for Obama to break through the old values-driven alignments, in Virginia and beyond.
"What's happened over the past five days could dramatically change everything," Webb said. "This is the time for Barack Obama to step forward and really show that he has the intellect and the vision to help get us out of this. Because now it's affecting everyone. We're in a real crisis here. And I think it's probably going to break Barack's way." ♦


text:
"Delayed Internal Rotation" revisited and elbow roll-in/
Almost 4 years ago, I wrote an article that was sort of a spit-balled take on an arm action sequencing concept. Practically immediately, it was torn apart by Dr. Mike Marshall. I realized then that the article was poorly written. Part of that was the spit-ball nature of it, its kind of "thinking out loud" approach, but a big part was my wonderfully awful descriptions of and references to the kinetic chain.
Shortly thereafter, I threw a disclaimer at the top and promised to re-write the article. Well, there really isn't much point because, even cleaned up, I don't think the concept holds water.
Today, at Ron Wolforth's Pitching Central Ultimate Pitching Coaches Boot Camp, that exact article was mentioned in reference to an analysis of different types of lay back, what causes lay back, and how someone can have late forearm turnover and avoid the dreaded reverse forearm bounce.
It's an action that I've addressed before in my pitcher analyses. In my analyses (both professionally and on this site), I've drawn attention to when a pitcher decreases reverse forearm bounce by "picking up" his elbow. You can see this very well in my 2009 analysis of Brandon McCarthy. Back then, I described it like this:
It's hard to tell from this angle, but McCarthy's reverse forearm bounce might be exaggerated by some elbow flexion. By this, I mean that he picks his elbow up high enough that gravity plus natural elbow flexion - rather than inertia - appear to be causing some of the ball's downward motion. This view is inconclusive, but I don't believe his ulnar collateral ligament would hold up for very long if inertia alone caused a bounce that large.
You probably noticed that I was having trouble effectively articulating my thoughts about it. Chris Holt of Pro Bound USA in Clearwater, FL -- who didn't know I was in the audience -- has solved this problem for me by calling it "elbow roll-in".
With that term in mind, watch some of those McCarthy pitches again. Pay attention to his elbow and layback. While there is almost definitely an intertial lag component that helps with McCarthy's layback, the bulk of the layback was done by the way he rolled his elbow into position to lead his forearm.
This method of layback is something for which I've become a big proponent over the past 4 years (for a number of reasons that I don't have time to get into right now). I've needed a succinct way to describe it for some time, and I'm glad Chris was there to help me out.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
It's a European ride festival, where all nationalities are here to enjoy skiing in the "Val Tho atmosphere" with really good snow conditions, and intercultural spirit.
You can try various sensational sports such as bungy ejection, and other ski and slide activities (easy fun park, On Thursday contest many prizes to win, big air bag ).
You can get the Boarderweek Bracelet at the Tourist office for all week access to the activities. (If you are Tour Operator, please can you ask Val Thorens Tour).
from 14/12/2019 to 20/12/2019


text:
Good Heavens, Mr. Smith.
St. Peter: "Good morning, Mr. Smith. May I call you Rob?"
Rob: "Sure. Rob will be just fine. And, who are you?"
St. Peter: "I'm St. Peter, but, if you wish, you may call me Pete."
Rob: "St. Peter? Well, I'll be damned!"
St. Peter: "No you weren't. These days we save the damnation thing pretty much for murderers, rapists, child molesters, crooked politicians, and, of course, comment spammers."
Rob: "You're telling me that I'm in … Heav—-"
St. Peter: "Yep. Where'd you think you were? Jersey?"
Rob: "No. I am just a little confused. The place looks just like Georgia on a beautiful spring day."
St. Peter: "Yep. We're pretty good at arranging such things here. I thought I'd give you a bit of an orientation. I do that for the new arrivals. Let's start with your new house over there. What do you think?"
Rob: "Nice place. It's a lot bigger than the Cracker Box, but that will mean that I have more to keep clean. The Cracker Box used to get pretty grimy, Pete, but I have a feeling that you already knew that."
St. Peter: "Yep, we knew that, but you needn't worry. This place cleans itself while you're sleeping. It also has a huge, fully stocked library, and we already know the kinds of things you like to read. But, if you want something you don't find there, just let us know. Oh, and it also has a recording studio, which we're certain you'll find to your liking."
Rob: "So, you already know that I'm a guitar player?"
St. Peter: "Absolutely. In fact, there is another room in the house that contains a couple dozen guitars, acoustics and electrics. If you want something that's not in there, just let us know, and we'll take care of it."
Rob: "Heh! How about a pre-CBS Strat, or a twelve-string Rickenbacker?"
St. Peter: "Both already there."
Rob: "Speaking of guitars, I believe I hear guitars playing now."
St. Peter: "Yes you do. That would Chet Atkins, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. They're at Chet's place down the road, warming up. They heard you were coming, and they thought you might like to do a little pickin'."
Rob: "Chet Atkins, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash? All right: I'm calling bullshit here! Oh … wait… am I allowed to say 'bullshit' here?"
St. Peter: "Frankly Rob, we don't give a shit about that. After all, they're all just words, aren't they? And, I assure you that Chet and the boys are waiting to have you join them, whenever it is convenient for you, of course. I told them you most surely would want to visit with your parents a bit first."
Rob: "My parents? They're here?"
St. Peter: "Sure. Ha! You didn't think they'd be anywhere else did you? In fact, they're right here in the neighborhood."
Rob: "I'd like to see them right now, please."
St. Peter: "No need to rush, Rob. There is plenty of time here. You'll get used to it. Besides, I'll just be a couple more minutes."
Rob: "Damn, I sure am anxious to see them. I'm sure you understand that."
St. Peter: "Certainly. Don't worry. They know that you have to get the brief orientation first. I should let you know that there are also plenty of fine looking, well-spoken women who are anxious to 'meet' you, if ya know what I mean. I understand that many of them have been painting their toenails red."
Rob: "Bejus! Wimmen? Red toenails? And, yeah, I do know what you mean. Is, uh…, that permitted here?"
St. Peter: "Yep, that is most definitely permitted. Here we're big on the consenting-adults-in-privacy thing."
Rob: "Well, that sounds great, but I had this operation where they installed this bionic di—."
St. Peter: "Look south, Rob. You'll see that we've replaced that pump thing with original equipment."
Rob: "Bejus on a bike! A new dick!!! Oh, sorry, Pete."
St. Peter: "No problem. I can understand your excitement."
Rob: "Damn, nice house, books, guitars, wimmen with red toenails and a new Johnson! Next thing you'll tell me is that you allow beer, wine and booze here too."
St. Peter: "Absolutely. People seem to forget that my Boss was and is quite the wine guy. Drinking is not a problem here. The bar in your house remains fully stocked with anything you'd like."
Rob: "Well, Pete, I have to be honest with you. I love to drink, but I had a bit of a problem with it. It even sent me to the hospital. What's more, when I drank I sometimes would write things or say things that I regretted. Maybe you should 86 the bar."
St. Peter: "Not necessary. We arrange things such that people can drink whatever they like and they become friendlier with each drink. We see to it that there are no traffic accidents. There are no hangovers either."
Rob: "How about smokes?"
St. Peter: "Same deal. Smoke all you want. It won't make you sick, and the people who don't smoke won't see or smell anything."
Rob: "Listen, Pete. I don't mean any disrespect here, but I figure that there must be a catch. What is it?"
St. Peter:
Rob: "Ah! I knew it. So, what's the deal?"
St. Peter: "This is no catch, Rob."
Rob: C'mon. Don't shit me. There absolutely must be a catch. Do I have to work 23 hours a day cleaning toilets? Shoveling shit? Babysiting cats? What is it?"
St. Peter: "No catch."
Rob: "No catch?"
St. Peter: "No catch."
Rob: "Damn, I'm blogging this."


text:
The Civility Mural
Judge Mary Yu's King County Superior Courtroom
This mural, created by 18 lawyers and judges during the April 2012 Civility Promise Seminar in Tuscany, symbolizes the value of civility in the service of justice in our profession. Learn more about how creating the civility mural impacts the legal community in the videos below.
This video explores how creating the civility mural impacts the participant, both personally and professionally.
For those who were unable to attend the mural installation and reception, this video highlights remarks from leaders in the legal community.
About the civility mural
In 2011 Robert's Fund and Seattle University School of Law agreed to co-sponsor the Civility Promise Seminars that are designed to foster civility and are offered in Seattle and Tuscany. Although many define civility as mere politeness, we propose that true civility requires more: Civility is a set of attitudes, behaviors, and skills that calls upon us to respect others, to remain open-minded, and to engage in honest and constructive discourse. We believe that the foundation of civility is consciousness, creativity, and community. Thus, all of our seminars are structured around developing these components, with exercises that include a group mural project.
This mural project was developed by Italian artist and art teacher, Sergio Tamassia. We have created four of these collages in the past year; three of them were produced in the beautiful Tuscan town of Sovana, in Italy. This exercise begins with white shapes and black shapes. The shapes are cut by Sergio into interesting forms to stimulate creativity, even from those who claim no artistic ability. The participants are then invited to find shapes they like and simply to doodle on them, first only with black and white paint, then with color.
They place their completed forms on the floor to dry. After the painted shapes have dried, participants create a collage with the shapes (their own or others') by placing them on a 30- x 5-foot sheet of poster paper. At this point, they lose their attachment to their own work and begin to generate a collective piece of work. Through this stage of the process they begin to see how they can change the impact of a form by altering its direction or by placing other forms next to it. Thus, they see how a creative process enables them to expand possibilities and keep soft eyes and open minds – a skill that is useful in problem-solving generally. In addition, as the collage begins to take shape and a composition emerges, the participants see how their individual contributions are both necessary to the completion of the whole and, more importantly, how the whole is enhanced by everyone's contributions. Thus they see the value in community collaboration.
This project occurs on the second day of the seminar in Italy; and it solidifies the group. Debriefing the experience, many lawyers share that they have not done anything creative since they were in elementary school. Many express that they felt fearful and uncertain at the beginning, but nonetheless trusted us and engaged. They are able to apply this experience to their work as lawyers and judges by understanding that often the clients come with similar fears and uncertainty and need to be able to trust their lawyers and judges. In addition, the lawyers and judges appreciate how when they bring their authentic selves to the endeavor, stay open to more than one possibility, and work in collaboration, they will better serve their clients or the litigants that appear before them and thereby act as true stewards of justice.
In April 2012, King County Superior Court Judge Mary Yu was a participant in this seminar, and she received permission from the other participants to hang this mural in her courtroom. The framed piece comes from the center of the mural that was created and is pictured above.


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Spring 2017
5349 Toxic Torts - SANDERS- 25068
Joseph Sanders (FACULTY)
Credits: 3
Course Areas: Energy, Natural Resources and Environmental Law
Health Law
Time: 2:30p-4:00p MW Location: 209 BLB
Course Outline: This course strives to give students an overview of the law of environmental and toxic torts. It includes cases in which there is a personal injury or property damage due to exposure to toxic substances, including drugs. It combines a historic overview of the field with coverage of the current issues confronting the courts and Congress.
The legal system's response to these substances is both proactive and retroactive. Statutes such as the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) seek to prevent injury by assessing a drug's safety before permitting it to be marketed and by regulating the handling of hazardous waste. Common law torts suits sounding in negligence, products liability, nuisance, trespass, and strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities – provide potential redress for injuries caused by toxic substances and drugs and as do statutes such as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), which seeks to ensure that sites that have been contaminated are cleaned up to safe standards. This course explores both responses within the context of private tort law and statutes.
Course Syllabus: Syllabus
Course Notes:
First Day Assignments:
Final Exam Schedule: 05/03 1 - 4pm 209 BLB
This course will have:
Satisfies Skills Course Requirement: No
Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No
Experiential Course Type:
Bar Course: No
Course Materials (10/31/2016 3:22:17 PM)
Book(s) Required


text:
The North Central Florida YMCA plans to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization within five years under a plan accepted by its creditors and U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
The North Central Florida YMCA plans to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization within five years under a plan accepted by its creditors and U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the organization announced Tuesday.
Among the highlights of the plan, Wells Fargo agreed to modify $3.6 million worth of loans, the YMCA is continuing plans put in motion last summer to operate profitably and the YMCA of the USA is accepting lower fees.
"This is a huge step in regaining the trust of the community as well as the faith of our donors that we will uphold our fiduciary responsibilities to them as we continue to serve the children and families of our community," CEO John Bonacci said in a news release.
The organization filed for bankruptcy in November 2011 after defaulting on loans taken out starting in 2006 as part of expansion plans. Memberships and donations declined during the recession, leaving four out of five facilities operating at a loss, while the real estate collapse left the organization underwater on its loans, owing more than the properties were worth. The "Y" has since closed facilities in northeast Gainesville, Starke and Crescent City.
Bonacci, a certified financial planner previously credited with turning around Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Florida, was hired July 1 to come up with a plan to operate the YMCA more like a business.
Bonacci said that has meant reducing administrative staff, putting in better cost controls and providing better customer service.
That also includes adding more revenue-generating programs. Bonacci said they are trying to fill in the gaps in services and promote programs between departments.
"Simple things like scheduling of programs where mom drops off kids, is there something for mom to do while she's here," he said.
The YMCA has added dance and cheerleading to go with gymnastics at the Northwood "Y" at 5201 NW 34th St. and more sports and seasons at the Southwest Sports Facility at 9315 Archer Road. They are getting ready to add preschool classes that include music and art and will soon do another 90-day weight-loss challenge through its wellness program.
"All of this is a work on progress," Bonacci said. "I'm working on a shoestring budget so we're trying to gain more community support so we can invest in these programs to further enhance them."
The YMCA is trying to raise money for field lights on the Southwest fields to have sports programs after dark, to resurface the pool and for a new fleet of buses for kids.
As part of the debt modification, Wells Fargo agreed to forgive a dollar for every dollar the YMCA raises up to $500,000.
"This is a huge milestone for us moving forward," Bonacci said. "A lot of those people that have a wait-and-see attitude I'm hoping will come back off the sidelines and help me do the things we need to do to bring this 'Y' back to the standard our members deserve."
The YMCA took out a loan to buy the Southwest Sports property in 2004 and took out loans from other banks to purchase and operate the Starke and Crescent City facilities. Both of those properties went back to the banks.
By May 2009, the organization needed an additional $135,000 from Wells Fargo to make payroll and continue operations.
In 2010 and 2011, all senior managers were terminated or resigned and the board of directors brought in Harold Cook as interim CEO under the guidance of the Y-USA.
At the time of the bankruptcy filing, the organization had annual gross revenues of $435,000 and $5.7 million in debt.
The YMCA recently sold its McGurn Family Center in northeast Gainesville to a charter school, with proceeds of the sale going to PNC Bank as part of the bankruptcy agreement.


text:
Benjamin Markovits
Benjamin Markovits grew up in Texas, London and Berlin. He is the author of The Syme Papers, Either Side of Winter, Imposture, A Quiet Adjustment, Playing Days, Childish Loves and, You Don't Have to Live Like This. He has published essays, stories, poetry and reviews on subjects ranging from the Romantics to American sports in the Guardian, Granta, the Paris Review and the New York Times, among other publications. In 2013 Granta selected him as one of their Best of Young British Novelists and in 2015 he won the Eccles British Library Writer in Residence Award. He lives in London and teaches creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.


text:
New KDE Buzz
While you wait for the KDE 4.3 gates to open, you may be interested in our new buzz.kde.org site, using an experimental "LifeStream" tracking KDE on identi.ca and Twitter, Picasaweb, Flickr and Youtube. Check out buzz.kde.org for the stream for who's saying what about the hottest Free Desktop release this year!
While I'm happy this service exists, I'm wondering about KDE's pending focus problems :P
Actually, it would be nice if some of these new KDE sites and services could be inter-connected in some way. For example, why can't buzz be integrated into planetkde? This would require less websites to check, and reduce fracturing the readership?
Actually, this goes for many other KDE website/services as well...
By Troy Unrau at Tue, 2009/08/04 - 5:09pm
very different...
Well Buzz and Planet are two very different things. I wouldn't want to mash them together.
By Lydia Pintscher at Tue, 2009/08/04 - 5:44pm
nice new site.
Btw. I get lost in our websites as well. Too many of them are around. jm2c.
By Mark Ziegler at Wed, 2009/08/05 - 6:10am
Same here
Got the same issue here, Firefox 3.5 mentioned a script was running too long.
By vdboor at Wed, 2009/08/05 - 7:21am
Hi, I got the same problems
I got the same problems with firefox 3.0.x and 3.5.x...
I also tried konqueror, and after a little bit of a hang - it runs smoothely there.
By Polysem at Wed, 2009/08/05 - 3:20pm
Yes, in Seamonkey it is so
Yes, in Seamonkey it is so slow you can hardly use it.
By Paul at Wed, 2009/08/05 - 10:17pm
Same here
same problem here, with all my browsers
By rickychiumiento at Fri, 2009/08/07 - 11:41am
No problem at all here with arora... workin real smooth, haven't tried any
By Robert at Sat, 2009/08/08 - 8:14am


text:
Wimport necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 141 diseños de 35 diseñadores freelance.
We provide and customize a wide range of Promotional products
(give-aways as lanyards, pens, keyrings, sweets, textiles, bags, etc.)
and a choice of fresh and trendy promotional innovations.
Please help us to establish a fresh and new Logo - max. 2 colors
(Including our former "W" in Font Vivaldi would be great - was, but is no longer condition!)
Come up with simple, cool, eye catching and unique designs
which show our passion for promotional gifts!
Got a blazing idea about how to make us a brand?
Alright, be brave!
Our passion is to customize and provide a wide range of Promotional products, small give-aways, textiles, bags and a fine choice of fresh and trendy innovations which are suitable as gifts or for promotions.
All items can be ordered neutral or individually branded – for ex. printed, laser engraved, embroidered.
What we offer is: fresh, functional, useful, standard & modern trendy items
We act: open minded, friendly, decent, self-confident, polite, direct
- a rather simple design
- max. 2 colours Logo
- please consider coloured squares (like flying parcels?)
combined with the "W" in Vivaldi
- a version with and without the domain
- a negative copy
- a colour range, suitable also for a website
- Logo in AI and/or .psd format
- Logos which contain globes or gift boxes
- Logos with more than 2 colours
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
Fifty-six years after he won the last Formula One Grand Prix held in Switzerland, the Maestro is applying a dab of oppo yet again at the Geneva Motor Show.
Why the gap? Motor racing was outlawed in Switzerland after the 1955 Le Mans disaster. It was not until 2007 that the ban was lifted, allowing the Bremgarten grands prix of yore to become Technicolor history.
The last one was held in 1954, the year when Juan Manuel Fangio was lured from Maserati to drive for Mercedes-Benz. After winning back-to-back championships for the German team—which will return to Formula One next weekend in Bahrain after a 55-year-gap—and a year at Ferrari, Fangio returned to Maserati for 1957 to win his fifth and last world title in the very car he abandoned to drive the Mercedes-Benz W196: the Maserati 250F, pictured here.
The incredible attention to detail on this model, which commemorates Fangio's win at the 1957 French Grand Prix, extends to Fangio's trademark short sleeves and his finesse at four-wheel drift, the driving style required for 1950s front-engined grand prix cars.
It is for sale here at the motor show and you can have #5 of the 29-piece run for the low, low price of CHF 450, which is just about the same amount in US dollars.


text:
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This page enables delegates and partners to share information electronically as part of an effort to minimize COP 10's environmental impact. The content of the material presented here belongs to the associated organizations and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
United Nations Specialized Agencies
Non-Governmental Organizations
Academic and Research Institutions
A recently published report by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) on the opportunities for mainstreaming Ecosystem Goods and Services (EGS) in International Policies.
Prospects for Mainstreaming Ecosystem Goods and Services in International Policies
Written by: Kok, M.T.J. ; Tyler, S.R. ; Prins, A.G. ; Pinter, L. ; Baumuller, H. ; Bernstein , J. ; Tsioumani, E. ; Venema, H.D. ; Grosshans, R.
Degradation of ecosystems worldwide threatens local and regional supplies of food, forest products and fresh water, and also biodiversity. Although most decisions that directly affect ecosystem management are made locally, these decisions are influenced by national and international policies. This study shows how local delivery of ecosystem goods and services (EGS) is closely linked to international policies on development cooperation, trade, climate change and reform of international financial institutions. Integrating or mainstreaming EGS considerations into these policies provides significant opportunities for reducing poverty while simultaneously improving the quality of local EGS. Furthermore, mainstreaming EGS in international policies can contribute significantly to achieving policy objectives on biodiversity and sustainable management of natural resources. However, mainstreaming EGS requires careful consideration because many of the opportunities identified can reduce poverty, but may have the opposite effect if poorly managed or implemented. A major challenge is, therefore, to ensure consistent policies across scales and policy domains based on analysis of the local situation. In order to support poverty Tools to mainstream EGS into non-environmental policy domains are available but there are few examples of their systematic application.
For more information contact:
Side Event on "East and Southeast Asia Biodiversity Information Initiative (ESABII)
East and Southeast Asia is one of the richest biological diversity areas on the earth. However, information and knowledge on biodiversity in this region are still limited. ESABII was launched by 14 countries in this region and relevant organizations to achieve goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD) thorough development of biodiversity information and taxonomic capacity building. This side event will be a unique opportunity to widely introduce goals and activities of ESABII to the participants of the CBD COP10.
: Ministry of the Environment, Japan
: 22 October 2010
: Room 212A, Building 2, 1st Floor, Nagoya Congress Center
United Kingdom
During the CBD COP10, the UK´s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will launch the publication
The publication covers three related questions: How a stable climate and a productive biosphere can be secured together. Why this is an opportunity for green growth. And how a closer partnership between multilateral environmental agreements, in particular the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, can help both to achieve their respective aims.
The publication features a joint foreword by the UK's Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Caroline Spelman, and Brazil's Minister of the Environment, Izabella Teixeira.
It brings together eight original articles by specialists in their fields showcasing the experience of Brazil, one of the world's megadiverse countries, in tackling the interlinked challenges of safeguarding our fragile biodiversity and securing a stable future climate.
The publication will be distributed at the following side event:
: Reconciling efforts to implement the provisions of the conventions on climate change and biological diversity in an integrated way
: Brazilian Ministry of Environment
: 28 October 2010 at 18:00 - 20:00
: Nagoya Gakuin University - Large Hall, Second Floor
For further information, please contact the press office of the UK's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 020 7238 6600
United Nations Specialized Agencies
Convention on Migratory Species (UNEP/CMS)
Flyer for CMS side event on 27 October 2010
Summary of a study on Climate Change's effects on migratory species
CMS brochure: Convention on Migratory Species
At the 10th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity in Nagoya, the Convention on Migratory Species (UNEP/CMS) will be hosting a side event to which you are invited:
"Steppes and deserts of Eurasia: a refuge for migratory species"
Wednesday 27th October at lunchtime (13:15 - 14:45) in Room 236 - Building 2 (3rd Floor).
Food and drinks will be provided.
The aridlands of Eurasia warrant closer attention by the international community, not least because these regions provide an important refuge for numerous migratory species. The side event will showcase why the steppes and deserts of Eurasia play a vital role for the conservation of global biodiversity and illustrate some of the achievements on migratory species conservation in the region. It also aims to encourage others to engage in the many promising conservation initiatives in this part of the world. Steppes and deserts are currently underrepresented in the global protected area network, compared to other ecosystems. The time is right to join hands to build the current ecological network while large areas are still unfragmented and the opportunity cost for much of the land is low. The Convention on Migratory Species invites you to join!
Elizabeth Mrema (Executive Secretary, CMS): Introductory remarks
Melanie Virtue (CMS): CMS activities in Eurasian arid zones
Crawford Prentice (Internat. Crane Foundation): GEF-sponsored Siberian Crane Wetland Project
Anada Tiega (Secretary General, Ramsar): The variety of wetland habitats in arid regions
Simba Chan (BirdLife International, Asia): Saving Asia's Threatened Birds
Thomas Tennhardt (NABU, Germany): NABU's Saiga conservation activities and CMS
Marceil Yeater (CITES): Sustainable use and trade; CMS-CITES cooperation
Non-Governmental Organizations
Earthmind is a Geneva-based non-profit sustainability network which has been responsible for managing the Dutch-funded GDM 2010 Initiative leading up to COP10.
Side events on the GDM Initiative:
Friday, 22 Oct, 16:30 - 18:00, Room 212A - Bldg 2, 1st Floor
Biodiversity Markets: Private-sector Participation through a GDM
Actors within the private sector are looking at ways of engaging in the biodiversity agenda. This side-event will explore the opportunities and challenges of engaging the private sector through a proposed 'Green Development Mechanism'.
Monday, 25 October, 13:15 - 14:45, Room 136 - Bldg 1 - 3rd Floor
The GDM and Innovative Finance
In light of the deliberations of the Parties on innovative financial mechanisms, this side event will explore how a GDM could generate additional funding from the private sector in support of biodiversity and development. A high-level panel will discuss the case for further consultation and work on a mechanism for green development.
Wildscreen and its ARKive prjoject
Wildlife films and photos are vital weapons in the battle to save the world's endangered biodiversity from the brink of extinction. So, with the help of the world's best filmmakers, photographers, conservationists and scientists,
is creating the ultimate multimedia guide to the world's threatened species. By revealing what these species look like, how they behave and what makes them special, ARKive aims to shine the spotlight on the many thousands of threatened species worldwide, thereby raising their public profile and, ultimately, helping to ensure their conservation. ARKive is freely accessible to all at
Watch the short informational video about ARKive
Please visit us during the CEPA Fair:
Exploring the power of films and photographs to influence hearts and minds
Organized by:
Date and Time: Wednesday 20 October at 18:15pm - 19:45pm
Venue: CEPA Fair, First Floor, Building 2 Room 216 A
This inspiring multi-media presentation will illustrate how films and photographs, perhaps the most emotive and effective communications tools, really can play a valuable role in the battle to protect our planet's imperilled habitats and species. Using exemplars of best practice from around the world, on both traditional and new media platforms, and from grass roots to international initiatives - you will see how images are making a significant impact in efforts to conserve biodiversity, and hear compelling arguments for putting imagery at the forefront of conservation communication strategies.
Marine Protected Areas
: Local and Traditional Fishing Community Perspectives
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can undoubtedly play a useful role in conserving biodiversity and sustaining livelihoods. Yet, if they are not established in an inclusive manner, they run the risk of failure. Proper implementation should consider, and strengthen, the traditional rights of communities to access and use resources in sustainable ways and recognize and support local systems of governance and traditional ecological knowledge systems. Many of these issues remin hidden in the process of setting up MPAs. This site attempts to explore these issues.
Side Event
Getting It Right: Incorporating Social Aspects Into MPA Planning and Implementation
Venue: Room 234A - Building 2 - 3rd Floor
Date: 21 October 2010
Time: 16:30- 18:00 hrs
Across the world communities have demonstrated that they can conserve and manage coastal and marine resources, drawing on traditional and local knowledge systems and the strength of their social institutions. What does it take for such initiatives that benefit both biodiversity conservation and social wellbeing to be recognized and supported? What can be done to address the flaws inherent in top down, target driven, non-inclusive processes?. This side-event discusses on these critical issues, with speakers from Panama, Spain, Thailand, Brazil and Honduras.
World Future Council
The Future Policy Award 2010 Ceremony, 25 October 2010
Location: Court Yard, Nagoya Congress Centre, Time: 6:30 - 8:30PM
Visionary policies for the protection of biodiversity are urgently needed. The Future Policy Award celebrates policies with particularly positive effects on the rights of current and future generations. The aim of the award is to raise global awareness for these exemplary policies and speed up policy action towards just, sustainable and peaceful societies.
More »
GOBI (Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative)
GOBI Briefings
Eight inserts containing information on the work of the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI) in the process of identifying ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs).
Executive summary
The Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) identification process
Examples of scientific contributions
EBSAs & multi-criteria decision analysis
Example of a candidate EBSA
Regional processes: focus on the Pacific
The BirdLife International marine IBA toolkit: contributing to EBSAs
Contribute your expertise: Identify EBSAs in the World's Oceans
GOBI side event
The Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI) will host a side event on Wednesday 20 October 2010 between 6.15 pm and 7.45 pm at the Nagoya Congress Center in Room 233B, Building 2, 3rd floor. This side event will present GOBI's work as well as tools and resources developed by GOBI in the process of identifying ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs).
Society for Ecological Restoration (SER)
The Society is international non-profit, non-governmental organization whose mission is to support and promote the science and practice of ecological restoration as a "means of sustaining the diversity of life on Earth and re-establishing an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture." The
SER International Primer
outlines the general principles of ecological restoration as a cost-effective, participatory approach to biodiversity conservation, enhanced ecosystem services delivery, sustainable livelihoods and climate change mitigation/adaptation. More detailed information with case studies can be found in the
Information Note for SBSTTA14
. The Society partners with governments and NGOs around the world to deliver excellence in ecological restoration, including
Principles and Guidelines for Ecological Restoration in Canada's Protected Natural Areas
Side Event
Restoring Ecosystem Services: Biodiversity, Sustainable Livelihoods and Climate Change
Venue: Room 235A - Building 2 - 3rd Floor
Date: 20 October 2010
Time: 13:15-14:45 hrs
The purpose of this side event is to inform and assist the Contracting Parties in the implementation of CBD Article 8 (f): ecosystem restoration and species recovery. The panelists will discuss the socio-economic rationale for restoring ecological infrastructure and how ecological restoration projects can assist countries in addressing the pressing issues of biodiversity loss, climate change, and sustainable livelihoods.
Botanic Gardens Conservation International
Botanic gardens are playing a key role in the implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) and support the call for the adoption of revised plant conservation targets for 2020. Botanic gardens worldwide are working to conserve threatened wild plant species and to raise awareness of the importance of plants amongst the general public. Visit BGCI's display stand (Map No 50) at the Interactive Fair for Biodiversity to learn more about their work. Progress on the GSPC, and perspectives for the future will be discussed at a side event on Tuesday 19 October:
"Saving plants, saving the planet"
– a side event on the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
Tuesday 19 October, 18.15-19.45.
Room 212B, Building B, 1st Floor.
Come and hear about national and international plant conservation initiatives and contribute to a discussion on options for developing a toolkit to support future implementation of the GSPC.
Pew Environment Group
The Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-governmental organization that applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improving public policy, informing the public and stimulating civic life. The Pew Environment Group works to strengthen environmental policies and practices that protect terrestrial and marine systems worldwide. Pew is engaged in a number of issues relevant to the Convention on Biological Diversity with a particular emphasis on environmental problems and issues relating to marine biodiversity.
CBD's Subsidiary Body on Scientific Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) convened this year in Nairobi at its Fourteenth meeting to assess the status of biological diversity and to evaluate measures that Parties have taken in accordance with the convention to reverse biodiversity loss. In the ensuing meeting report, SBSTTA offered many excellent recommendations to Parties. Among these recommendations, was a subset relating specifically to marine issues "
Recommendations to the 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): Marine Issues
." In this document, we examine these recommendations and strongly encourage Parties to endorse them and adopt strong conservation-oriented language. In the document, Pew focuses on several main elements of work and makes recommendations for: marine protected areas, areas beyond national jurisdiction, destructive fishing practices, unsustainable fishing and illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.
We hope that you can join us for our side event, "
The Role of Marine Reserves and Wildlife Sanctuaries in Conserving Large Pelagic Species
." The event is scheduled for October 20th, 18:15-19:45, Room 231B, Building 2 (3rd Floor). Drinks and light refreshments are provided along with simultaneous English-Japanese translation.
The invitation to the side-event
The program of speakers
Our speakers include:
Dr. Susan Lieberman, Pew Environment Group
Bilung, Gloria Salii, Queen of Koror, Palau
Dr. Hiroyuki Matsuda, Yokohama National University, Japan
Wael Hmaidan, Executive Director, IndyACT, Lebanon
IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare)
Founded in 1969, IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare) saves animals in crisis around the world. With projects in more than 40 countries, IFAW rescues individual animals, works to prevent cruelty to animals, and advocates for the protection of wildlife and habitats.
COP10 Fact Sheet & IFAW Recommendations
: This document reviews the key issues that will be addressed at COP10, including IFAW recommendations related to stemming the loss of wildlife species and sustaining ecosystems.
On Thin Ice: The Precarious State of Arctic Marine Mammals in the United States Due to Global Warming
, a comprehensive report commissioned to gauge the effects of unprecedented climate change on polar bears and other ice-dependent marine mammals within the United States.
Ocean Noise: Turn it Down
The report highlights how steadily increasing man-made noise - particularly from shipping, sonar and seismic surveys - is interfering with marine mammals' communication, dramatically altering their behaviour and injuring and even killing some whales and dolphins.
COHAB Initiative
The COHAB Initiative (Co-operation on Health and Biodiversity) is a community of individuals and organisations working to address the gaps in awareness, policy and action on the links between biodiversity and human health. The Initiative supports efforts to enhance human security through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the goods and services it provides.
Following on from CBD COP9
Decision IX/27
on co-operation with other conventions and international organisations, the COHAB Initiative Secretariat has released four policy briefs on the theme Biodiversity and Global Health for CBD COP10. These highlight some of the core issues linking health and biodiversity, and outline policy options to be considered at the COP. These documents can be found at the following links:
The importance of biodiversity to human health
Global health and global ecosystem change
The health effects of climate change impacts on biodiversity
Linking health and biodiversity in policy and practice
Visit the website of the
COHAB Initiative
or our
blog site
for further information.
International Risk Governance Council (IRGC)
The International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) is an independent organisation whose purpose is to help the understanding and management of emerging global risks that have impacts on human health and safety, the environment, the economy and society at large. IRGC's work includes developing concepts of risk governance, anticipating major risk issues and providing risk governance policy recommendations for key decision makers.
Earlier this month, IRGC published an 'opinion piece' (a new type of IRGC publication allowing experts to express their personal views and policy recommendations on a – potentially controversial – issue), entitled
Cooling the Earth through Solar Radiation Management: The need for research and an approach to its governance
. This opinion piece was written for IRGC by Prof. Granger Morgan (Chairman of IRGC's Scientific and Technical Council and Head, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University) and Katharine Ricke (Doctoral Candidate at the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University).
For more information about this publication or IRGC's work in general, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com
Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund
The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund is a significant philanthropic endowment of 25 millions Euros, established to do the following:
Provide targeted grants to individual species conservation initiatives Recognize leaders in the field of species conservation; and Elevate the importance of species in the broader conservation debate.
Since it's inception in 2009, the Fund has granted over 300 projects in over 60 countries for a total amount of 4.5 millions $
For more information on the Fund, it's objectives and it's activities, please visit our website
Academic and Research Institutions
The French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity
As a foundation for scientific cooperation, the FRB's mission is to support research on biodiversity at national, European and international levels in close interaction with all stakeholders. Among the core activities of the FRB are to encourage innovation, to develop and support projects and to mobilise expertise in the fields of biology, chemistry, socio-economic and legal sciences.
Sharing knowledge is at the heart of science-society interactions. The FRB develops activities to produce and disseminate scientific information.
More »
Sud Expert Plantes (SEP)
Sud Expert Plantes (SEP) is one of the programmes which aims at helping developing countries better know, preserve and use their biodiversity. Focusing on plants, it has developed a unique approach combining training, research, support of collections, and involvement of scientists in policy making. It has enhanced South-South collaboration at regional and multi-regional levels, as well as North-South collaboration.
Started in 2007, SEP has produced a number of significant results: 7 books, 33 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 25 international research consortia, over 100,000 herbarium specimens digitised, 250 staff trained in GBIF methodology and in collection management, 31 Master & 23 PhD theses, and 1 new international Master curriculum.
From 2011 on, this effort is now poised to enter into a new phase.
Up to date achievements will be presented, and the priorities for the future will be discussed, aiming at producing a roadmap for building the next phase during the coming months.
Venue : Tuesday 19th October, 16:30 – 18:00, Room 210 ; Building 2 ; 1st Floor
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text:
In the middle ages, scholars often began their debates and expositions with the formula: videtur quod non,meaning, "it would appear that such and such is not true." Thus, the scholars defended their thesis in 2 steps.
First, the discussions centered on the considerations that made the thesis seemingly unlikely. Subsequently, the scholars argued that these considerations were not valid.
Here we will follow the reverse path: videtur quod sic, meaning, "it seems that such and such is true," to subsequently show that actually it is untrue.
The issue at stake: It appears that in psychiatry, soul and mind have to retreat in favor of the brain and that brain sciences will soon occupy center stage, if that is not already the case.
Here we argue that this prediction is insufficiently grounded, and that if it should happen, the damage to psychiatry would be considerable.
Some definitions first
To begin with, briefly, the definitions of the concepts involved. The word "soul" (or psyche) is used as a metaphor for the conglomerate of psychic functions that enable man to be cognizant of both the world around him and his inner world, to make contact with fellow men, and to interpret that information both intellectually and emotionally.
The word "mind" is used to indicate those ingredients of the soul that make each individual into a unique self. It pertains to the internal structure of the self: the cognitive style of an individual, his ability to analyze, to conceptualize, and the depth and variegation of his emotional repertoire. Mind refers to his aspirations, hopes, and disappointments, his ability to love and to make moral judgments, the measure of his self-consciousness, etc. Mind also encompasses man's urge to achieve purpose and meaning as well as his desire to provide life with a vertical dimension, to once in a while reach out beyond the horizon—where the lands lie of our dreams, our imagination, and the metaphysical experiences—and where religious sensitivity finds its birthplace.
Mind makes man identifiable for himself and others. Mind is the very essence of selfhood. It overshadows the bodily characteristics of the self by far. Phrased parsimoniously: the soul provides the basic tools with which the unique edifice of the mind is constructed.
Did Descartes err?
The relationship between body and soul has been debated by philosophers for thousands of years. Descartes is linked to the notion that a sharp distinction should be made between body and mind. The body—the res extensa—has spatial extensiveness; the mind—the res cogitans—on the other hand, does not. Both "substances" were thought to operate independently, apart from a possible hyphen Descartes hypothetically located in the pineal gland. The body could be studied with mechanical tools, like a machine; the mind could not, was a domain for philosophical studies.
Descartes has often been misunderstood, taken for a rigorous dualist. For instance, Damasio1 wrote: "Descartes imagined thinking an activity quite separate from the body." Damasio erred. Descartes considered features such as "feelings" and "tendencies" body- (ie, brain-) dependent. The mind was not, could not be, because it was considered to be immortal. In his day and age, this viewpoint could hardly be (openly) questioned.
1. Damasio AR. Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: GP Putnam's Sons; 1994.
2. Kendler KS. Toward a philosophical structure for psychiatry. Am J Psychiatry. 2005;162:433-440.
3. Swaab DF. Evolutionair gezien zijn we weinig meer dan wegwerpartikelen [evolutionarily seen, we are no more than throw away commodities]. In: Visser H, ed. Leven zonder God. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij LJ van Veen; 2003.
4. Kandel ER. A new intellectual framework for psychiatry. Am J Psychiatry. 1998;155:457-469.
5. Guze SB. Biological psychiatry: is there any other kind? Psychol Med. 1989;19:315-323.
6. van Praag HM. Seat of the divine: a biological "proof of God's existence"? Verhagen PJ, van Praag HM, López-Ibor JJ Jr, et al, eds. Religion and Psychiatry: Beyond Boundaries. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons; 2010:523-540.
7. Swaab DF. Wij Zijn Ons Brein [We Are Our Brains]. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Contact; 2010.
8. Wolters G. Gedragscontrole. Vrije wil of neuronale processen [Behavioral regulation: free will or neuronal processes]. De Psycholog. 2005;24:23-29.
9. Genesis 2:7.


text:
Causeway Attack
The unraveling of Rudy Eugene, aka the causeway face attacker
Ruth Charles could not find a Haitian church in Miami to hold a funeral for her son, Rudy Eugene.
The brutal details of his attack on a homeless man, the roaring headlines, the whispers of Vodou or demonic possession, all conspired against Charles, who simply wanted to bury her son with a proper church service and then return to a quiet, anonymous life with a fiancé and two younger sons.
The first church said no, followed by the second. The third said yes then backed out. Same for the fourth church.
The news of Eugene's death on Memorial Day weekend was already too well known. He was shot to death by Miami police as he crouched over Ronald Poppo's limp body, naked and growling, chewing off chunks of the man's face. It took several bullets fired by a stunned police officer to stop him. At 31, the son who had carried a Bible, quoted scripture and worn a four-inch cross on a chain around his neck had become something unrecognizable, known across the nation as the Miami zombie.
Two weeks after Eugene died, a funeral home chapel agreed to hold a service. His mother shuffled into the chapel, sank into a front pew and quietly cried throughout the hourlong service.
"I felt so much frustration. I was angry," said Charles, 57, though she would not name the churches who had turned her down. "They were members of my Haitian community. They turned their back on me."
Yet faith remains a recurring theme in the story of Eugene's life — and in his horrifying death. It is why he evangelized, led a Bible study for friends and had recently been looking for a church home. It is what sent his mother door to door, looking for a church that would have her son's funeral. It is why police found verses ripped from his Bible scattered across the MacArthur Causeway a few feet from his body. And, perhaps, it is what helps people understand what happened that afternoon.
"Religion and culture are playing a huge role in this story. And because this is very much a story that makes no sense, religion is being used as a framework for understanding,'' says Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, a University of Miami associate professor of religious studies. "People are using their belief of evil spirits, of dark and light, to try to explain what happened that day.''
Charles' fiancé, Raymond Leo, who was with Charles each time a church said no, said she put on a brave face in public but crumbled behind closed doors, overwhelmed by grief and rejection.
"When you're a Christian, you want the funeral to be in the church,'' he said. "That's the way it's supposed to be.''
Fast cars, sports and marijuana
Before Rudy Eugene became infamous, he was a fairly ordinary guy — he liked sports, fast cars, action movies. But even those closest to him say Eugene was introspective and private. Now they are left wondering if that quiet shielded something darker, something that drove him to break with reality on a Saturday afternoon in May. Though it was widely speculated that Eugene was under the influence of "bath salts," a powerful synthetic amphetamine that has fueled a handful of grisly flesh-eating attacks across the country, toxicology tests showed Eugene's body was clean except for marijuana. A lingering question remains, though — especially among experts — because some synthetic drugs are undetectable. Mental illness could also be a factor, though none of his friends or family say they noticed anything that would lead to that conclusion .
"I am shocked by the situation. I don't know what to say about it, how to interpret it, how to express it,'' said Fredric Christian, Eugene's close friend since they were teens. "The only thing I know for sure is Rudy was something other than this monster people talk about.''
But there are others who believe Eugene was depressed or struggling within.
"Drugs can open the gateway to the demons inside of you. Whatever he took open[ed] that gateway and a demon came out,'' said Joe Aurelus, a friend of Eugene's since they attended church together as children. "Whatever he was fighting, it came out. I believe in spiritual battles. I believe in demons.
"Rudy was fighting a demon that day and he lost."
Eugene was born Feb. 4, 1981, at Jackson Memorial Hospital. His parents, Ruth Charles and Pellisier Funeus, both Haitian immigrants, divorced months before his birth. Eugene would never meet his father, who died when he was 6, though he would bitterly search for details in later years.
His mother remembers gazing into his tiny face, right after he was born, and thinking, " 'That's a handsome boy.' He had a lot of hair and his eyes were so alert."
She worked exhausting hours assembling shoes at a Doral factory, earning just enough to care for her son and send a few dollars home to Haiti. Originally from Cap Haitien, a port city at the northern end of the island, Charles was the daughter of farmers.
"Where I came from, we were poor,'' said Charles, who married Melimon Charles in 1985 and had two more sons, Thompson and Marckenson. "Sometimes my mom couldn't buy sugar to put in the tea.''
But it was that unforgettable poverty that drove Charles to work hard and demand the same of her sons, a pressure that sometimes would spark fights.
As a young boy, Eugene had a huge appetite, a talent for drawing family portraits and a fondness for singing Yes, Jesus Loves Me.
Most Sundays, he attended with his family Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami — made up of a predominantly Haitian congregation — dressed in a freshly pressed shirt, slacks and shiny dress shoes.
Charles presented her boys with a Bible when they turned 8 and she believed they were old enough to understand its significance. When she handed the Bible to her oldest son, she told him, "This is your life. Anything you want to know about life, go there."
By high school, though, Eugene had stopped going to church regularly. He kept reading the Bible. And he clung to one tradition: Every night, he would get down on his knees and pray, according to friends and family.
He loved football, playing defensive end in middle and high school. He rough-housed with his brothers, copying wrestling moves they'd seen on television. "He would pick me up and throw me on the bed," his brother Marckenson, now 25, remembered. "He would act like I knocked him out to make me feel good."
But when Eugene was in the ninth or 10th grade , his world was shaken to the core. His mother told him that her husband, Melimon Charles, the man he had called "Daddy" since he was 2, was not his biological father. And he would later learn the father he'd never known was dead.
The boy was angry at first, Melimon Charles said.
Eventually, he said, the boy accepted "the truth and we were doing fine."
But signs of trouble began to crop up. When Eugene was 16, he was arrested for battery. The charges were later dropped, but it was the first of a string of arrests on charges ranging from trespassing to marijuana possession. In all, he was arrested seven times in five years, the last in 2009.
Graduation from North Miami High School in 2000 only left him more adrift. Ruth Charles had become a nursing assistant and she wanted Eugene to work in the healthcare industry, too.
"I would go after him to go to college, go to vocational school, learn something," she said, but the conversations often ended in a fight. "I wanted him to be in healthcare because you can always get a job.''
Instead Eugene was a wanderer, never quite settling down. He lived off and on with friends and his mother — she ordered him out of the house several times. He detailed cars at dealerships and worked as a forklift operator. He talked about becoming a small-business owner, wanting to open up a mobile car wash.
Three powerful jolts from a taser
In 2004, Eugene had another fight with his mother. This time, it escalated. Sweating profusely, he pushed her out of the kitchen, smashed a table and told her, "I'll put a gun to your head and kill you,'' according to police.
When North Miami Beach police arrived, he "balled his hands into a fist" and threatened several police officers. When one officer drew his Taser, Eugene responded, "What you gonna shock me,'' and "I'll kick your ass." It took three Taser shots to subdue Eugene.
"Thank God you're here, he would have killed me," Charles told officers on the scene.
While Eugene was being transported to the station he told police, "Officer I'm sorry, I should have never acted like that. My mother just makes me upset because she always calls me a bum.''
The battery charge was later dropped, but Eugene pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and was sentenced to probation
About six weeks before Eugene turned 24, he married Jenny Ductant, who he met while studying in high school. The marriage broke up after 18 months because she said he was violent, according to an interview on WPLG-ABC 10 in May.
In 2007, he met Rikkia Cross as they were both in their cars at a red light, made eye contact and he honked the horn at her. Drawn to his good looks, Cross gave Eugene her phone number, the beginning of a rocky but enduring five-year relationship.
Weeks after his death, Cross sat in the wood paneled living room of her parents' modest home in Miami Gardens, the only place she says she feels safe, outside of media scrutiny. Crying, she slowly scrolled through her cellphone looking at pictures of Eugene, the most recent taken the day before he was killed.
Cross, a dispatcher at an air-conditioning company, talked softly about how they connected instantly, how after only five months, the couple moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Broward County. They spent time watching movies, riding go-karts and reading the Bible. She kept the pantry stocked with his favorite snack: Famous Amos cookies, chocolate chip and pecan.
"Rudy was sweet and kind," she said, "the type of dude you want to be with forever. He was my heart.''
As friends and family try to piece together Eugene's final hours, a few of the gaps have been filled in. The evening before the attack, Christian, Eugene's longtime friend, said a troubled Eugene came over to visit Christian's brother.
"My brother said Rudy didn't look right,'' Christian said. "[Eugene] said he needed to talk to [my brother] about something but never got a chance to say what it was."
The next morning, Cross said, Eugene was up about 5 a.m. scouring their closet for something, leaving heaps of clothing strewn across the room. He kissed Cross on the lips and walked out the door carrying his King James Bible and a brown book he used to jot down scriptures.
"It felt like he was searching for something," she said. "I don't know what."
Hours passed. Cross began to worry. It was unusual for Eugene not to check in. She said she called his cellphone dozens of times, tried his friends and finally drove the familiar streets of North Miami hoping to spot his 1995 Chevy Caprice nicknamed, "the purple monster.''
As Cross searched for Eugene along State Road 7, he had somehow made his way from South Beach — where his car was later found — to the west end of the causeway. Around 2 p.m., he came upon Poppo, 65, who has spent three decades on Miami's streets. Poppo was in a shady spot along the off-ramp to Biscayne Boulevard next to the Miami Herald building. Eugene began to attack Poppo, ripping off his pants and nearly destroying his face in a relentless 18-minute assault partially caught on Herald surveillance video.
Poppo and Eugene had crossed paths before. A few years ago, Christian said he and Eugene were doing community work feeding the homeless, and the two of them met Poppo
"Poppo seemed like a nice and kind man," said Christian, 34. "I remember when we gave him food.''
It wasn't until two days after the attack that Cross and Eugene's family would learn the man shot by police was Eugene. That night, Eugene's mug shot from an earlier arrest — bearded, blank expression — was leading the news, had gone viral and would later become the gruesome punch line of jokes about a Miami zombie cannibal apocalypse.
Friends and family were left reeling, forced to ask if something in his past — the questions about his father, the aimlessness, the casual drug use, his troubled spiritual state — somehow figured into the attack.
"What he fell into, to get into this situation, I don't know," said Melimon, tears welling in his eyes. "I wish he were alive so he could tell me [what happened] ... He always told me, 'Daddy, I'm going to make it.' "
Among the clues he left behind was a Quran in his car and a Facebook page, filled with religious references. An April 22 entry is garbled, confusing: The Lord side to my Lord. Sit at My right hand. Till. I make. Your enemies Your footstool.
In the weeks before Eugene's mother returned to her job at a nursing home, she began to take small steps toward healing, running errands, trying to ignore the mean comments about her son and family. Then, during a visit to a nail salon, Ruth Charles overheard a stranger discussing her son, loudly offering her opinion about how Eugene ended up on the causeway, naked and violent.
It was Vodou, the woman explained matter-of-factly, claiming Rudy came from a line of Haitian practitioners of Vodou and was under a spell.
"The mom is a manbo. His dad is a manbo. The family just took him to Haiti," the woman said, referring to the Haitian term for Vodou priest or priestess. Charles said she sat there stunned by the lies. Eugene had never even been to Haiti and her family did not practice Vodou.
"They talk so much crap," she said. "It hurts to hear."
Closing their doors to a grieving mom
Charles had always been a deeply spiritual woman who attended Sunday service and sang in the choir. So at first, she refused to believe that a church wouldn't hold a funeral service for her son.
She started by calling churches in Little Haiti and Northeast Miami. Then she tried in person, a mother's singular plea.
On the third attempt, a week after he was dead, she found a Little Haiti church that would allow her to hold her son's final farewell. She planned a sermon, testimony, eulogy and songs — in the company of those who remembered Eugene before the attack.
The pastor took her deposit. But two days before the service, he told her his congregation and church leaders did not feel comfortable having his body in their church.
That afternoon, she found another church, blocks away, still in the heart of the Haitian community.
Less than 24 hours before the service, that pastor called and cancelled, too.
At that point, Charles made a hard decision. Her youngest son, Marckenson, sent out a mass text message again to those planning to attend. The service would be held in the chapel of a funeral home.
"I believe that we can all agree in this room what happened two weeks ago on Saturday ending Rudy's life is not consistent with who Rudy was," said Pastor Keny Felix of Bethel, who was one of the speakers at the service. "The events of May 26 remind us that we live in a broken world. We live in a dark world."
Eugene is buried in a corner of a cemetery in Miami-Dade. His girlfriend visits his grave, with its simple stone marker and artificial bouquet of purple and yellow blossoms, to remind him that he was loved, that he is forgiven and to somehow get closer to the truth.
"What happened to Rudy had to be supernatural, something humans cannot explain, something that leaves us with a lot of questions,'' she said. "I just wish he would come to me in a dream and answer all the questions. I wish he would tell me what happened that day.''