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Celebrating illustration, design, cartoon and comic art of the mid-20th century.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
"I wanted to be like him."
"My mother never worked out of the home, although she did perform as a community theatre actress when I was younger (no pay, of course). Back in those days, that was the norm: father worked, mother was a stay at home mom. We did not lead a lavish lifestyle but it was good. We were provided for and my parents were able to afford a few toys and at least one vacation a year."
"Pop would have been 41 years old when he married Mimi, so I'm sure he must have spent a number of lean years in his younger day. He never talked about that, though."
"I wish I could tell you I had memories of the outline of Denver's early life. Although he talked about his career as an illustrator, I remember most his ability to tell a good story and I loved to hear him talk about his childhood and his early days as an artist. The "facts" that I relate to you, however, come from a wonderful article about Denver Gillen written by Norman Kent in the November 1956 issue of American Artist."
"I am telling you this so that you will understand the following: Pop couldn't have children of his own. He had been hospitalized at age seventeen with a prolonged illness that made it impossible for him to have children."
"But, his time in the hospital changed the direction of his life."
"It was while in the hospital that he was encouraged to pass the time by drawing, by his doctor who was an amateur artist. Pop had been raised in a seafaring family in Vancouver, BC and would have probably followed his father and brothers into some related form of work. By the time he left the hospital, however, he knew he wanted to become a commercial artist."
"According to that article, "his doctor arranged a meeting with the manager of the art department of the Hudson Bay Company and there Gillen stayed for three years, learning the basic techniques of commercial studio." During that time, he met Edward Varley and studied with him. Then, Denver moved to Toronto in 1935 and worked for a year in the Brigden Studios. When commercial artists went on strike, he moved to Chicago. He worked for Montgomery Ward for four years as a staff artist, where he did the original illustrations for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", their gift to their customers. He then worked for another six years in Chicago in a "variety of studio affiliations".
"When Pop moved his studio to the new attachment to the house, I started working with him, part-time after school. I loved it! You entered the studio from the living room through the "plant room" that separated the spaces. The plant room was loaded with exotic plants, trees, shrubs and flowers. Our parrot, Lora, dictated policy as one walked through, screeching and whistling and laughing. The studio was quite large and a picture window overlooked the backyard and the lake. There was Pop's drawing board and his side table for his paints. Also an area he called "the morgue" where I worked, pouring through endless magazines like National Geographic and countless others, pulling out a billion photographs and illustrations to be sorted and catalogued according to subject. Also, I clipped tear sheets of his work and filed those, too. There was also a dark room and an overhead projector where Pop viewed reference material for whatever illustrations he was working on."
"Pop was a natural promoter of his own work. He never had an agent, to the best of my knowledge. He had no fear, although he wasn't an arrogant man. I think his early years of struggle, of trying to help support his mother after his father died and supporting himself as a young man, kept him on the prowl for work. He could do a variety of things, as [an] article by Norman Kent in American Artist of November 1956 points out. He made contacts and befriended a wide variety of people in the art world. "Networking", we call it now. One or two times a month, he would drive to New York City and pound the pavement, renewing contacts and foraging for new ones. He always stopped into the Society of Illustrators, too. I remember going with him a few times. I loved, especially, going to the Society of Illustrators and being served a "Shirley Temple" by a white gloved black butler. I was very shy, but this was a lovely and special treat for me."
"The Norman Kent article will give you more information about Pop at that time. Kent was the original person to hire Denver for the Reader's Digest. I remember seeing Pop doing those illustrations. He did the line drawings then did acetate overlays for the color(s). It was a pretty basic process. I did this sort of thing, too, when I worked for the offset printer doing graphics, typesetting, and color separations. I guess the Digest had their illustrators do their own separations, which makes sense."
"There was a daybed [in the studio] where Mimi would sit and read to Pop. Both she and Pop were avid readers, but, it was Mimi, trained in speech in college, who loved to read out loud an assortment of novels while Pop worked. Pop would get up early in the morning and head for the studio. He listened to talk radio, I remember, laughing out loud at William B. Williams and other humorous commentators. Then my mother would go in a do some reading, after finishing her own chores. And, I would hang out there, too, a few afternoons a week and tend to the morgue. After I left home for Boston University, my across the street friend took over my duties. (Funny thing there, too; I also worked occasionally for her father, filing flight plans in his pilot manuals.) The cool thing about my father, he had an open door policy -- no knocking necessary. He had an amazing ability to concentrate."
"However, there were times when he was under extreme deadlines -- you know the drill -- and we just knew when it was better to stay away."
"I tried to follow in Pop's footsteps, but, truly, I never had the burning desire to be an artist, and especially an illustrator. Too much pressure! I think if Pop had been a lawyer, I would have gone to law school, and I would have been successful because I have that kind of mind."
"But, I was a daddy's girl and wanted to be like him."
Continued tomorrow...
Denver Gillen Flickr set.
4 comments:
it's a pleasure keep reading this kind of histories about illustratorsReplyDelete
Barbara Bradley asked me to post this comment on her behalf:ReplyDelete
What a pleasure it was to read the account of Denver Gillen's career through the eyes of his daughter. I think both were fortunate; She to have good memories of interesting and neat parents and he to have had some one to handle his"Morgue", a fascinating but enormous task. Gillen's work shows his interest in getting things just right: figure attitudes, clothing, architecture, whatever the topic took. Though their styles were very different, Gillen's willingness and ability to include so much architectural background reminds me of Fawcett. I particularly admire that ability. Had it been a prerequisite of illustration to be able to dash off a scene from Parliament, I doubt if I could have become an illustrator. Thank you for taking the time to share one more skillful and admirable illustrator with us.
Barbara Bradley
Memoirs like this are extremely touching and a joy to read. LeifReplyDelete
this blog provides such a wonderful window into the lives of these wonderful men and women of the art world. Jenifer's stories along with her father's terrific pieces was
just great. My favorite is easily the couple sitting in the back of the pick-up truck. Thanks ever.
Thanks for that, Ron - its good to hear that these posts bring as much pleasure to others as they do to me - I feel very privileged to be able to provide a venue for such wonderful stories - and grateful to great folks like Jen, who are willing to share them with us!ReplyDelete


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July 17, 2007
Standing before more than 200 members of the Organ Historical Society gathered in the Wabash College Chapel on a warm Tuesday afternoon, convention coordinator Joe Roberts smiled and said, "You look like you are expecting something."
They were. And they got it.
At the keys and pedals of the College's Aeolian-Skinner organ, Stephen Schnurr played like a man with the power of an orchestra at his hands and feet. The musical director of St. Paul's Catholic Church, Valparaiso, Indiana performed a program that demonstrated the instrument's remarkable range, beginning with a hymn that mixed the organ's trumpets, flutes, and bass with more than 200 voices singing in harmony.
(Click here for photos from the performance)
"It's not a very big organ, but it was designed to be a very versatile instrument," said Schnurr, the author of a recently published book about historic organs in the United States that includes the College's 72-year-old Aeolian-Skinner.
Joining Schnurr for the performance was his student, 17-year-old Micah Raebel, who began playing organ three years ago after many years playing the piano.
"I find it relaxing," said Raebel, a three-sport varsity athlete and top student at Kankakee Valley High School near his home in DeMott, Indiana. "You're moving so much, making so many choices, you hardly have time to think."
"We wanted to see and hear this instrument because it's a good example built by an important major builder of the first half of the 20th century," said convention coordinator Roberts in explaining the society's visit to Wabash. "It is also unaltered, which is very important to us an historic society."
Also in the audience Tuesday were Calvin Shearer '65 and Wabash Professor David Blix '70, former College organists who literally played for their education back when such duties could be exchanged for full tuition. Shearer, the organist from 1961 to 1965, had fond memories of playing, singing in the Glee Club, and having long talks with Glee Club Director Bob Mitchum. He traveled from Mequon, Wisconsin, to attend the convention and hear his old instrument again.
Blix, who still plays the organ for College events, was Wabash organist from 1968 to 1970.
"That was back when we had mandatory Chapel period twice a week," Blix recalled. "We also played for religious chapel on Wednesday and Thursday. Students were allowed to miss 10 Chapels per year, after which time they were expelled. And those were the days when being expelled meant going to Vietnam, so students didn't miss very many."
Wabash Department of Music Chair Larry Bennett was impressed with both the recital and the audience that came to hear it.
"There are people here from all over the country in our Chapel today, listening to this organ, and it sounded marvelous," said Bennett. "With all that coming together, it really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us."
Pictured: Stephen Schnurr performs for the Organ Historical Society on the College's Aeolian-Skinner organ.

subset: commoncrawl


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Prove it! That's how consumers ought to respond when presented with "guilt-free, socially responsible" products.
Spurred by consumer interest (and "green" profits), retailers now fill their stores with everything from No Sweatshop garments to sustainable timber. You can feel good about buying a T-shirt made without using child labor, or in purchasing ecofriendly detergent, fair-trade coffee, even "responsible" jewelry.
But judging competing social and environmental claims isn't so easy, and the task is getting more complex now that companies like Britain's Marks & Spencer are taking on climate change directly with a "carbon free" lingerie factory in Sri Lanka promising a garment produced entirely with renewable energy.
Yes, "green lingerie" is here, but should the retailer emblazon the item with a "carbon free" label and expect consumers to fully understand and accurately evaluate – let alone be receptive to – purchasing such a product?
Just how "green" is that shirt, dress, or blouse?
True sustainability requires independent certification, extensive consumer-education campaigns, and a desire and ability to review entire supply chains, say environmental authorities such as Linda Greer, a Natural Resources Defense Council senior scientist who specializes in toxic chemical pollution in textiles production.
"How do I know if a garment is 'green'?" asks Ms. Greer. "The answer is, there's no way to know that. Even if you buy a T-shirt that's organic, you don't know the factories and the chemicals that went into dyeing it, or how much carbon they emitted into the air."
An article of clothing may be made with organically grown cotton, but it's at the processing stage – often involving coal-fired boilers and poor treatment of waste- water – where garment producers create the biggest carbon footprint.
By this measure, the Sri Lankan lingerie factory – strictly a cut-and-sew operation – is a relatively manageable undertaking on the front end of a supply chain that has yet to be fully vetted.
Progressive retail players like Marks & Spencer, Adidas, and Nike are well on their way to improving raw materials cultivation, with organic fibers and recycled plastic waste for polyester and fleece products a few of the sustainable practices now being mandated.
But there isn't a mass retail company that has developed a full sustainability standard that accounts for the garment across every step of production.
"No one has done that," says Mike Barry, head of corporate responsibility for Marks & Spencer. The retailer will not be slapping a "carbon free" label on its new lingerie line, confirms Mr. Barry.
With more than 35,000 product lines bearing unique carbon footprints, the cost to Marks & Spencer would be enormous – if indeed the labeling were to be rigorous and accurate.
"Even if we spend $5,000 on each label," says Barry, "it's going to cost a lot of money to give information to consumers who may not be ready to act on it. So a carbon label might be a part of the solution in the future, but not tomorrow."
Consumer rejection is one of the main hurdles, says Marsha Dickson, chair of the University of Delaware's fashion and apparel studies department.
"Labels on underwear are small," notes Professor Dickson, "and that's tricky because the tendency then is to boil it down to a simple message. With the environment, there are so many ways it can be impacted in textiles and clothing. They'll have to be real specific in the standards they're trying to meet and it will have to be traceable and verifiable."
The carbon-neutral task is so massive that Marks & Spencer has taken to "hot spotting" – the term Barry employs when discussing the 100 priority commitments the company has outlined in its ambitious Plan A initiative, which includes aiming to make the company's operations in Britain and Ireland carbon-neutral by 2012.
High on this list are "green" manufacturing units and the idea that the first one in Thurulie, Sri Lanka, can serve as a blueprint for others to follow.
The Thurulie ecofactory is owned by MAS Holdings, a powerhouse apparel manufacturer with more than 45,000 employees and 2007 earnings approaching $700 million.
It cost MAS $7 million to build the ecofactory – roughly 25 percent more than a conventional one. For small- to medium-size enterprises, that figure will be an intimidating barrier.
Apart from Marks & Spencer "sponsoring" the architects' design costs, the ecofactory was paid for entirely by MAS – and without any increase in the purchase price of the lingerie made.
Its design – reviewed this past month on a tour with MAS officials – integrates evaporative cooling technology, solar panels and hydro power, with energy-efficient task lighting, low-emissivity glass (which cuts down on heat transfer), and traditional applications such as courtyard design and tree plantings.
But going ethical will eventually cost the consumer more at checkout, warns professor Dickson.
"We pay less and less, from a consumer standpoint, and yet more and more demands are being placed on suppliers to respect labor rights and the environment," says Dickson. "This takes significant investment in [factory] plants and human resources."
How is MAS able to justify making such a substantial up-front investment?
Economies of scale is one answer but so, too, is the fact that MAS will save money on rising fuel costs while better positioning themselves to compete for green-conscious retailers and consumers.


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Wabash College Art Department will host its next exhibit, Deeply Rooted. The March 31-May 18 show will be in the Eric Dean Gallery. A 7-8:30 p.m. public reception will be held Monday, March 31. Artists Justin Johnson and Randy Horst will give gallery talks at 7:30 p.m. during the opening reception.
The Deeply Rooted exhibition will feature three visual artists working in a variety of mixed media who draw inspiration from their deeply rooted spirituality, an inextricable part of their lives and creative explorations. Sandra Bowden uses three-dimensional books for her painting surface to alter image and text into her personal iconography. Randy Horst plays with visual information in his drawings and mixed media collages to reveal how an object or shape can mean more than one thing at the same time. Justin Johnson conveys historical, classical, and spiritual subjects as contemporary icons utilizing graphite, acrylic wash, gold on glass, and collage.
The Eric Dean Gallery is located on the south end of the Fine Arts Center. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The exhibit is free and open to the public and is handicap accessible.
Photo: Top Left: Justin Johnson; Top Right: Randy Horst; Bottom: Sandra Bowden


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Detailed Action Figures - Fully Painted
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Read More HB Late January News..Show and product updates!
Read More January Toy Soldier News #2
Read More Early January News from the Bunker!
Read More December News #2 Show and Store pictures, King and Country and more!
Read More Christmas Delivery Schedule 2018
Read More November News #2 NJ Show and Product info
Read More November Toy Soldier And other news
Read More October News #3 - Shows, Toy Soldier and Store updates.
Read More September News #3 the aftermath!
Read More September News...Metal, Plastic, Games and Shows!
Read More March News.....Appearing on Fox Business Channel March 6th!
8 products found in Tactical Scenes.


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Mechanical & Magnetic Floats
These floats are tubed magnetic floats, used for reed switch activation; they have a hollow tubed connection running through them. These magnetic floats have become standard equipment where strength, corrosion resistance and buoyancy are necessary. They are manufactured by welding two drawn half shells together. The welding process is critical for the strength and durability of the float. The weld is a full penetration weld providing a smoothly finished seam, hardly distinguishable from the rest of the float surface.
When ordering stainless steel tubed-through magnetic floats you will need to specify:
- Shape and Dimensions
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- Liquid medium
Available in a wide variety of standard and custom materials, thicknesses, sizes and shapes with or without connector these stainless steel floats are intended for mechanically operated switches or valves. Spherical floats are particularly economical with a high collapse pressure relative to weight.
Copper floats are typically used in open tank applications, in a variety of sizes, shapes and styles including spherical, oblong and canister. The copper floats are manufactured from two separate shells. These base shells are pressed from sheet copper into true spherical or cylindrical forms with uniform curvature and wall thickness. To join the two shells without annealing the copper, an overlapping soldered joint is employed. This is made extra wide for ample strength and overlapped internally to preserve the true spherical shape of the copper float. The recess formed in the upper shell is held to close tolerance, then flooded with a special high temperature, non-toxic solder. In the completed joint, the end of one shell rests tightly against the metal offset at the base of the recess to eliminate any stress on the solder joint of the copper float.
Quick delivery is available on some standard copper floats
- Spherical with no connection
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When ordering copper floats you will need to specify:
- Shape and Dimensions:
- Spud connection shape – hexagon or round
- Threaded Connection – pipe size or SAE screw thread
- Material Gauge
- Operating Temperature
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- Liquid medium
Deeter will also design your copper floats and custom-make them to your specifications.
Aluminium floats are available in a wide variety of configurations to meet your special needs or they can be designed to your specifications. They are lightweight floats with electron beam welded joints. All our aluminium floats are pressure-tested to ensure reliability.


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Learn to clear clutter and improve home organizing to free up time for your priorities. Breast cancer and melanoma survivor also offers coping help to cancer survivors and their family and friends.
Breast cancer survivor and clutter clearing author learns to walk her talk
Clutter clearing cancer coping author and motivational speaker We can learn to live our priorities fully (and not just surviving or getting by on a day to day basis) by clearing out the distractions and focusing on what is important to each of us, our families, and our lives. Cancer Survivorship Coping Tools: We'll get you through this by Barbara Tako, two-time cancer survivor and published author and motivational speaker on the topic of clutter clearing. For updates on this new book, click here.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
New Normal: Life Before And After Cancer
New Normal: Life Before And After Cancer: It isn't always so
Posted by Barbara Tako at 11:34 AM
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Businesses Shouldn't Overreact To Sandy
Vendors, analysts and even senior executives and board members may encourage more spending on disaster preparedness. But that might not be in the company's best interest. Photo: AP Images.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... all all ... all I ... in a bid for two thousand twelve we live in the Wall Street Journal News and in New York today on the morning news update three super storm Sandy recovery and the death toll ... has risen to at least seventy two nearly half of those in New York City ... where fire still smoldering Queens ... and the reports of looting in Brooklyn and long Island ... meantime tens of thousands of people in the North East are badly trapping gas lines unlimited public transit ... to return to work this morning ... millions of others are struggling to return to some semblance of normalcy without electricity ... running water or even hot showers and ... within six million homes remain without power up and down the East Coast ... the party putting further strain on the recovery floodwaters leaner and coastal communities from southern New Jersey ... eastern Connecticut ... president Barack Obama having ... put campaigning on hold yesterday he visited some of the damage which New Jersey Republican Governor ... Chris Christie ... meantime many businesses they are facing ... tough questions about their disaster preparation plants ... Michael Higgins he is editor of The Wall Street Journal CIO Journal but Mr. chief information officers he's right here beside me ... as bulls rate sometimes he's a senior analyst with Forrester Research ... in Cambridge Massachusetts she's joined us as well Michael morning when talking about this ... new state companies really shouldn't be too hasty ... and how they sort of what's to respond and beef up their contingency disaster plans ... after seeing what is ... what people tend to react to the Western interests happened there and so ... do you should necessarily tried to prepare for another hurricane or overflowed and said the pics talk with her went out ... and in most cases the poll which are in the work of God is sufficient ... it's interesting because I've that all of these chief information officers ... this is hearing for the CEO ... of the co CEOs of companies in the chairman for the boards of the board directors like what's up land where we have in place there was a great opportunity for them to actually bring up risk and to bring up a conversation once again about ... here's what we have in place is this what the business needs ... we want to invest more because ... you can cost a lot more than the market work ... like the grainy Lincare partisan on in the morning thanks for joining us ... let's talk a little bit about that cos I mean when we are when and this is a standout as CIO scene and trying to weigh in to reinvest it anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars ... to upgrade our infrastructure ... or do we just saying maybe we should be without power for a couple of days and with that so that's a lower cost us how any way that how they succumb to a decision ... what a ... company doing it ... leading the cost of down time based on lots revenue plus employee productivity ... and higher fines or penalties and I have to pay ... an awesome reputation damage and then annexed all cars were damaged it ... and looking at God and compare it to the likelihood that there likely see that the reason they're likely to encounter ... the use of electric and then he might have been spending a lot of companies were necessarily prepared for because that with the euro greater magnitude than the seen before in in the in the cities ... of the website using recommended take a look at your cost of downtime on an hourly basis what you're likely bid to make a risk off that that it's really a business decision ... and who you talk about I you know that about the primary and secondary data system is being raised when exactly do you mean by that ... what this means having the equipment raised above ... but what ... what what is right and didn't do most of them have anything that seems sort of like ... common sense that they would do better to Clifton aflame ... area or is is that not the case well in some cases they didn't because they were preparing for the last big thing that happened which was an act of terrorism so ... sometimes they were thought well we'll just ... put in a bunker ... but also ... um sometimes a lot of these companies did raises most of their equipment but didn't think to raise their generators or pumps ... and the cause problems at the bigger point of racial might of Michael mentioned the word bunker here and I think that's very interesting because we've seen a lot of ... small and large companies in the past few years been investing in these safe rooms these big bonkers ... I've that a tornado proof hurricane proof of all that data equipment ... just in case something like a sandy ... of hers do you think this is a good idea for most companies have ... some sort of a safer and be a very small one or Beyblade depending on how big their infrastructure as ... what's really important that you get paid off right now I get the Rays region that you're currently in so if you're in your city to get out of the tri state area ideally or leaf out and see parts of New Jersey ... and the Pennsylvania ... on and you get that out there and then how Paulson infrastructure that WorkCover to ... know whether this is a tornado shelter of our underground bunker it's really going to depend on ... when to get your copy downtime and what your risk of heart into with the profile of that area it that your door covering to ... get out in the middle ... of that the state of Pennsylvania and there's really no significant tornado ran into the clinic sent to build a bunker ... but didn't bring a hat that infrastructure and it being spent on a regular basis and that's a very fine Rachel and Michael I wonder very very quick last question is ... you are these companies can it be having ... a lot of pressure from their vendors right now saying ... look you know you down are you know it if you are down when you doing to ensure this doesn't happen again ... though the bill that went into the woods to pressure birth and the vendors will see this is not to try to sell them to try and sell steaming sell to sell more products but inside


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She's here! My first ever doll pattern is ready to download. I had so much fun making Rose Red and I especially adore her hair using my woodcut print from Into the Woods. Which is going to be in stores August, by the way! It's coming up soon, ya'll!
Paper copies will be in the shop early next week. I'm hoping to keep up my momentum and get the Wolf Bait play cape in the shop soon.


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April fools. We're writing this story for one reason: to get all of our awesome loyal fans to stop tipping us on Instagram becoming available for Windows Phone. News flash: it's not.
The app in question went live in the Store on March 31st in beta form and cannot be downloaded by the public. In the app description, all of the features of the hipster photo app are given along with mentions of Windows Phone 8 support and a "Modern User Interface by Sarper Erel", who happened to have made an Instagram "concept" for Windows Phone 7 back one year ago in 2012.
That's just where some of the weirdness begins...
There's also of course the last bullet point in the app description that a few have glossed over: "And Happy April 1st 2013!.". Ahem.
Let us just clear a few things up: if Instagram was about to come out, we'd surely know about it. Trust us. This is not it, even though the company name, Burbn Inc. is the right one for Instagram.
So how did this happen? Simple, anyone with a developer account can make a private beta on the Windows Phone Store and have the app say whatever they want to say.Throw in some screenshots designed by someone else as a "project" from one year ago and hey-ho, you have a fake listing that looks almost real. Almost.
Let's look at a few other oddities here, just to be safe:
- It's April first
- The app description makes mention of April 1st
- The app was published on March 31st
- It's conveniently a private beta, meaning no one can test it
- The app design is based off of a 2012 concept that was a made "in a day"
Do we need to go on? Sorry folks, no Instagram. at least not today. Indeed, we have a feeling we'll be fighting off quite a few rumors and "news" today, so just have fun and take it all with a grain of salt.
Oh and if you want to see the app yourself in the Store, knock yourself out.


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When Smuin Ballet was created in 1994, it showcased a particular brand of dance showmanship tied to Broadway-style acts, the Vegas floor show and classical ballet. It meant that the company dashed from light, entertaining variety numbers to simple narratives to light classicism. In some hands, such as the late choreographer Pina Bausch's, such a smorgasbord might have been a boon. But in Michael Smuin's, it became a predictable and often sexist groove, and it grew dated quickly.
Now branded as "beyond ballet," the company on Saturday at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek seemed to have given itself over to a new era. It struck a well-chosen balance between the late choreographer's work and the innovations of two young choreographers, and its dancers danced with a new athletic and dramatic conviction, looking at home in almost every dance they touched.
Smuin's interest in crossing genre boundaries is alive and well, but other artists are now leading the way. Louisville Ballet's resident choreographer, Adam Hougland, set his "Cold Virtues" (2003) on the company this past fall, and on Saturday it hit all the right notes, and the company shined. Set to Philip Glass' plangent Violin Concerto No. 1, the dance embodied the kind of virtues a chamber company needs — meaningful movement, inventive physicality and a complex understanding of the body in space and time.
Based loosely on Choderlos de Laclos' 18th-century novel in letters, "Les Liaisons dangereuses," a tale of amoral nobles who destroy others for the pleasure of it, "Cold Virtues" is notable not for its literary references but for its way around the stage. Its secret was in how it blended a rich, sculptural sense of spatial volumes harkening back to early modern dance with the fractured, deeply expressive gestural language of postmodernism that was never literal. This gave Hougland the tools to create a fraught moral world where one couple (Jane Rehm and Jonathan Mangosing) is in icy control while an innocent set of lovers (Erin Yarbrough and John Speed Orr) are lured into their destructive web.
Even though the narrative at times felt like an interloper in a dance that has no real need of one, Hougland cleverly launched an emerging cat's cradle through one signature action: Rehm and Mangosing held their hands at the hips, fingers fanning out like dangerous and calculating tentacles reminiscent of the gestures of midcentury choreographers. As their duet sliced through the action of the group, that coldness cut like a knife through the spirit of the group.
The anguish that amassed was expressed through the whole body by the central lovers, Yarbrough and Orr, as well as by the ensemble. They performed abrupt backdrops to the floor, plunging arabesques, melting lifts and stretched out their vulnerable wrists and palms in supplication.
Dressed in Marion Williams' sepia toned costumes and beautifully lit by Michael T. Ford, the ensemble resembled a Greek chorus whose twisting limbs, soaring arches and aching backbends told the real story.
In whimsical contrast, Trey McIntyre's "Oh, Inverted World," first premiered by Smuin in 2010, ended the program like a wacky day at the beach after a trauma. Set to hummable tunes by the Shins and costumed in Sandra Woodall's gym shorts for the men and shorts and tank tops for the women, the work came off Saturday as a witty romp full of melting limbs that rendered the group a kind of blind centipede, able to shrink and expand organically. It's a dance too thin for a stage like Zellerbach's, but sized right for the Lesher, where its sweetness and humor hit the audience like welcomed bursts of summer air.
The evening opened with Smuin's "Starshadows" (1998), which set three couples in black dreamily circling against a backdrop of stars to Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major. It was followed by "No Viviré" (1994), an earnest though flawed effort to pair flamenco and street dance with ballet, set to music by the Gipsy Kings and by Paul Simon and Joseph Shabalala.
Ann Murphy is assistant professor and chair of the Mills College dance department. Contact her at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Presents Adam Hougland's "Cold Virtues," Trey McIntyre's "Oh, Inverted World" and three short works by Michael Smuin
When and where: 8 p.m. Feb. 20-23, 2 p.m. Feb. 23-24, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts; 8 p.m. March 8, 2 p.m. March 9, Sunset Center in Carmel
Tickets: $52-$68; 650-903-6000 for Mountain View, 831-620-2048 for Carmel, www.smuinballet.org.


text: We had the opportunity at Eli's Cheesecake to host students and faculty from esteemed Chicago high schools twice this week! Today, the Chicago Vocational Career Academy visited us here at The Eli's Cheesecake Company. Eli's associates shared career paths from their different departments, conducted a behind-the-scene tour of Eli's bakery, provided cakes and toppings for a cake decorating competition and enjoyed lunch on the patio with students and faculty.


text:
Allowing the Holy Light to shine through you.
HOME: First Presbyterian Church - Whitefish, MT
Connection in Community and Christ
Welcome Home!
Sunday Services 10:00 am – Join us for Easter Service, April 21st 10:00am
First Presbyterian Church Provides a Safe and Spiritual Home Where All People Can Explore Faith, Find Healing, and Share the Love of Jesus Christ.
Based on our vision, we are an open congregation and we invite you to be a part of our community. Whether you're a local, a seasonal resident, an out of town visitor or passing through town, you're always Welcome here.
May your connections here in Whitefish provide you with new friends and may you be blessed by a sense of God's presence in our community.
It is our sincere desire that you consider the First Presbyterian Church – Whitefish, a place you can call home – wherever you are!


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April 24, 2006
Junior art major Nic Bitting put up another installation art piece Friday. Bitting presented his first reflection of Wabash campus history Monday.
Bitting, from Carmel, In., constructed his art display on a northwest corner of campus reflecting on the historical significance of property once owned by College founder Caleb Mills.
"My art is concerned with making an audience aware of their environment," Bitting said in his artist's statement. "The pieces I produce are inexorably related to place and history. By making viewers aware of the historical uses of a place I hope to challenge their understanding of the place."
"To execute a piece I must gather information about a specific site, receive approval to install a piece at the site, and collect resources and resources from various parties," Biting said in the statement. "This leads to a very dialectic process as I am in contact and discussion with multiple people, organizations, and offices as I work towards the completion of a piece."


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AMHERST, NY -- It could be the first foul up involving the state's new gun legislation. Who's to blame? That's still being hashed out.
The attorney for a Western New York gun owner who was told to surrender his pistol permit because of the SAFE Act says his client will get his guns back. The Erie County Clerk is now blaming New York State Police for making the mistake that could have cost the 35-year-old librarian his gun collection.
"Who messed this up?" asked Channel 2's Kelly Dudzik.
"I think that first and foremost, it stems from a flawed law that was passed so quickly without forethought on how something would be implemented. Certainly, I am disappointed on the fact that we were given information from State Police that this was an individual that we needed to act immediately on," says Erie County Clerk Chris Jacobs.
That individual is David Lewis. He is a 35-year-old college librarian. His attorney says he has an anxiety-related medical issue which prompted a doctor to prescribe him medication. Lewis owned seven guns until he received a letter from Jacobs' office. That letter told Lewis the New York State Police wanted the County Clerk to suspend his pistol license right away.
"They made the mistake. They handed the mistake to us, to our local judges, and it's really disappointing that they're not standing up and taking responsibility here," says Jacobs.
Jacobs feels the State Police are targeting his office, which he says only serves an administrative role when it comes to enforcement of the SAFE Act.
New York State Police issued a statement Wednesday saying "No guns are being taken because an individual is on anti-anxiety medication" and refused to answer our questions or do an interview.
"Are State Police trying to blame your office?" asked Dudzik.
"Yeah, I think they're saying that it's myself or the Supreme Court judge who's assigned to this that it's our fault, but they were the ones that gave us the information. We're not privy to any of that mental health information that they had and that's what they acted on to send this dictate down to us," says Jacobs.
Jacobs showed us an email indicating a State Police sergeant followed up with his office to make sure the guns were turned in.
Wednesday night, Jacobs said in a news release that the information he got from police about the man in question was incorrect.
"Somebody is not being exactly honest," says James Tresmond who is the attorney representing Lewis.
Tresmond tells us that someone along the way felt his client's personal medical information fell under the reportable mental health provision of the SAFE Act.
"It's negligence on either the State Police or Erie County Clerk's Office. Someone was negligent if my client has been put through this ringer," says the attorney.
Tresmond still plans on filling a lawsuit, but will not say how much he plans on suing for in federal court. He says it will be the maximum, and he doesn't know who he will sue until he knows exactly who is to blame for suspending his client's pistol permit.
"Has he gotten his guns back yet?" asked Dudzik.
"No, but we will get them back. They are his property," says Tresmond.
In order to get his guns back, Lewis still has to go to a hearing in front of a judge.
The Erie County Clerk says he typically sees the State Police as good partners, but he blames them for this mistake.


text:
Sat 23 Mar 2019
From The Plasma Universe theory (Wikipedia-like Encyclopedia)
Revision as of 18:09, 2 July 2018 by Iantresman (Talk | contribs)
The Plasma Universe is a term coined by Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvén to highlight the importance of plasma throughout the Universe.
See how much you think you know about cosmic plasma below, and then check out our articles, images and the Plasma Universe Timeline:
Know plasma, know 99.999% of the Universe
(No plasma, no Universe)
Note: Some of the theories on this site form the cornerstone of plasma astrophysics. Other theories contradict the generally accepted view (qv). This site merely attempts to describe them, citing peer-reviewed references where available.
2017 Website statistics:
9,000 unique visitors, and 33,000 page views per month


text:
Spend £15.00 more to get Free UK Shipping
Free economy delivery on all UK orders over £15, ONLY applies to retail customers with an order product cost above the £15 threshold. Customers must choose the free shipping method, upon checkout, to be eligible for this offer.
Get 100 Fairy Points when you spend £20 or over.


text:
Experts Believe 366 Million People Now Suffer from Diabetes
During a European meeting of the International Diabetes Federation, it was announced that 366 million people now suffer from the disease — and that number is only going up.
Since diabetes is most often diagnosed in middle age, experts believe the increase in cases is at least partially due to an aging population, as well as overall population growth and rising obesity rates.
In a statement, Jean Claude Mbanya, the president of the International Diabetes Federation, said, "The clock is ticking for the world's leaders. We expect action from their meeting next week at the United Nations that will halt diabetes' relentlessly upwards trajectory."
With one person dying from the disease every seven seconds worldwide, the federation wants the UN group to focus on prevention, to commit to more research, and to have diabetes care integrated into local health clinics.
Globally, $465 billion is spent every year to fight both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Left unchecked, it can lead to chronically high blood sugar levels that cause nerve damage and result in kidney disease, blindness and amputation.


text:
Google has privacy clay feet.
The NSA and Big Data may also, since they are relying on many of the same outdated legal assumptions as Google.
In the last few months, both the U.S. Supreme Court and European authorities have made new baseline privacy decisions that have greatly strengthened individuals' right to privacy. As a result, they've also exposed and heightened Google's massive privacy liabilities.


text:
Yi 0.6.0 Release Notes
Yi is a text editor written in Haskell and extensible in Haskell. The long-term goal of the Yi project is to provide the editor of choice for Haskell programmers.
Yi is now a fully usable editor for the unix console. The community is growing: the #yi irc channel on freenode has about 20 people. They might be able to help with your first steps!
Using cabal install:
cabal update
cabal install yi-0.6.0 -fvty
- A purely functional editor core
- Key-bindings written as parsers of the input
- Emacs, Vim and (partial) Cua emulations provided by default
- Console front-end (Gtk2Hs and Cocoa front-ends in development)
- Static configuration (XMonad style) for fast load
- Haskell support:
- Lexical highlighting and (unicode-based) beautification.
- Layout-aware parenthesis-matching
- Auto-indentation
- cabal-build within the editor
- Syntax highlighting for a number of other languages (latex, python, perl, …)
This release is brought to you by:
- Aleksandar Dimitrov (vim patches)
- Anders Karlsson (parser testing)
- Corey O'Connor (vty maintainer)
- Daniel Schoepe
- Deniz Dogan (javascript lexer)
- Dennis Griffith
- Gustav Munkby (cocoa frontend maintainter)
- Gwern Branwen (article reader mode)
- Jean-Philippe Bernardy (general maintainer)
- Jeff Wheeler (UI work)
- Kalman Noel
- Kevin Ballard
- Krzysztof Goj (vim patches)
- Michael Dagitses
- Nicolas Pouillard (vim keymap maintainter)
- Sasha Rush
- Stanisław Pitucha
and all the contributors to the previous versions.
Also, Yi would not exist without all the work put into the Haskell platform. It depends on many packages: Cabal, Diff, array, containers, directory, process, old-locale, base, binary, bytestring, derive, data-accessor, data-accessor-monads-fd, data-accessor-template, filepath, fingertree, ghc, ghc-paths, monads-fd, pointedlist, pureMD5, random, regex-base, regex-tdfa, rosezipper, split, time, transformers, utf8-string, uniplate, unix-compat, vty


text:
My name is Matt Stevens and I welcome you to my small corner of the web. I am an ordinary business man who would like to share his passion for briefcases. During my career, I've managed to form a collection of briefcases which I truly love. This website is dedicated to those who are looking to purchase a briefcase either for themselves, for their family member or even for a friend. If you never purchased a briefcase, you are probably feeling a bit lost. Don't let the sheer volume of briefcase types and models bring you down though. I am here to help.
For those of you who are in a hurry, I've created a simple comparison table for some of the best leather briefcases. You can find it below.
|Saddleback Leather Classic Briefcase
|Samsonite Colombian Leather Flapover Case
|Kenneth Cole Reaction Luggage Mind Your Own Business
|Komal's Passion leather 18 inch Handmade Leather Briefcase
|Floto Luggage Venezia Briefcase
|Outer material
|Goat leather
|Calf skin leather
|Closure mechanism
|Magnetic buckles
|Locking buckle
|2 cmpts + 2 pockets
|2 cmpts + 3 pockets
|2 cmpts + 3 pockets
|4 small and 1 big cmpts + 1 big front pocket
|3 cmpts + 1 pocket
|Laptop size
|Varies depending on the chosen size
|15.6 inches
|15.4 inches
|17 inches
|16 x 9 x 12 inches (large)
|5.5 x 16.5 x 12 inches
|13 x 9 x 4 inches
|18 x 13 x 6 inches
|20 x 17 x 13 inches
|7.5 pounds
|3.9 pounds
|2 pounds
|3.9 pounds
|4 pounds
|100 years
|3 years
|Limited lifetime
|Limited lifetime
|Our rating
|Check on Amazon!
|Check on Amazon!
|Check on Amazon!
|Check on Amazon!
|Check on Amazon!
Men's briefcases are available in a variety of sizes, styles and designs. The best briefcases are expected to do the job they are made for and survive. Before purchasing a briefcase, give some thought to its overall function. Make sure you know what items it is expected to carry and the look the owner of that briefcase wishes to impart.
The best choice is obviously the one that fulfills the requirements of the job they need to do. While it is not mandatory to carry a briefcase, it can help people stay organized, especially when attending out of office meetings or taking work home. Using it helps keep its contents together and protected from the elements.
How should you choose the briefcase?
Your main concern while looking for the perfect briefcase should be: What are the most important factors that you should account for during the selection process?
Type of briefcase – A range of several types of men's briefcases is available to choose from. To select the most appropriate type, you should think about the needs of the person you are buying the briefcase for. A lawyer who stays in his office most of the time will typically enjoy a classic attaché briefcase. Someone who is hitting the road frequently will likely enjoy a rolling briefcase.
Material – Briefcases can be made from various materials ranging from leather to aluminum. Again, you have to consider the person's needs before the purchase. An aluminum briefcase will be able to endure a harsher handling while still protecting the items inside than, say, a canvas briefcase.
Brand – Well-known brands tend to have higher price tags on their products than less known brands, but usually, they also offer a better quality. Brands worthwhile of your time are for example Saddlebag Leather, Kenneth Cole or Samsonite. Of course, there are other brands to choose from, and we will get into details in a dedicated article.
Size – Size and weight is an important factor to consider because, for example, someone who doesn't travel a lot would not mind a bit heavier bag. On the other hand, if the person is on the road a lot, it'd be wise to choose a smaller and lighter briefcase.
Number of compartments – Hand in hand with overall size comes the size and number of available compartments. If you are planning to carry a lot of stuff, pick a briefcase that has multiple compartments in various sizes.
Maximum laptop size – A person who wishes to carry a laptop in the bag, will need a compartment specifically designed for laptops to secure it in its place, and prevent unwanted damage. What really is important is the maximum laptop size taht will fit into such compartment. Ifyou have a smaller laptop like for example MacBook Air, you can be quite sure that it will fit in any briefcase. However if you have something with a larger screen like let's say 17″, then it may become a problem to find a briefcase large enough for such a laptorp.
Leather Briefcases
The traditional models are made of leather. They have an enduring quality that will sometimes last longer than their owner's careers. Leather briefcases for men will stand up to day to day use and take the punishment which day to day use brings.
Some of the best looking bags are made by Samsonite, Kenneth Cole, Brooks Brothers, Coach and TUMI to name a few. They each have their own unique design and level of functionality. Each offers quality in the construction of their product and can be as versatile as necessary. Leather briefcases maintain a professional image that is perfect for everyday business, as well as business travel.
Aluminum Briefcases
If you belong in the corporate world and you lead a fast-paced lifestyle, you need a briefcase that will keep up with your day-to-day activities. You need one of those aluminum briefcases, which are stylish enough to bring to work and sturdy enough to hold all your things.
A briefcase made of aluminum is something that you should think about buying. It not only keeps your things properly organized, but it also protects your important documents.
Canvas Briefcases
Canvas briefcases are popular mainly for their lower weight when compared to standard leather briefcases. As the name suggests, they are made of canvas. Most the canvas bags will nevertheles have some features made of leather like for example the shoulder strap or the handle.


text: Welcome to gorgeous Oak Tree Court Apartment Homes, located in elegant Placentia, California. With the 57 and 91 Freeways close by, our apartment homes are situated in the heart of Orange County where fun and excitement awaits! We offer residents an irresistible combination of residential luxury, convenience and unrivaled quality that you can't find anywhere else. Oak Tree Court Apartment Homes offers a remarkable blend of sophisticated living and big city charm that can't be found anywhere else. From unparalleled community amenities and expansive floor plans to designer interior appointments and fine finishes, Oak Tree Court Apartment Homes offers everything you've been looking for and more! You'll be delighted with the superb array of amenities such as a resort style pool and spa, BBQ and picnic areas and a resident clubhouse for your enjoyment. At Oak Tree Court Apartment Homes, we provide more than a place to live…we offer a lifestyle! Visit our photo gallery or schedule your private tour today and open the door to a new way of living!


text:
A convicted murderer from Indiana is on the loose because of some bad paperwork in Cook County.
Steven Robbins killed a man in 2002 after a fight at a party.
He isn't eligible for parole for another 16 years; but Cook County had an old 1992 warrant for Robbins in a separate case.
He went to court Wednesday, and the charge was dropped; then he was sent back to the Cook County jail, and he was supposed to return to a prison in Indiana.
But someone forgot to add that information to his paperwork; and Wednesday evening he was mistakenly released from the jail.
Authorities say Robbins should be considered dangerous; he is 5'5" tall and has a tattoo on the right side of his neck with the word "Nicole," the name of his ex-wife.


text:
product description page
Men's Marvel® The Avengers Logo Stainless Steel Pendant with Chain - Black (24")
About this item
Fit & style
- Wipe Clean with Soap and Water,Wipe Clean with a Damp Cloth,Clean with Jewelry Cleaners
- 1 Year Limited Warranty
- Made in China
Make a style statement with this stunning stainless steel necklace from Avengers.
Care & Cleaning: Clean with Jewelry Cleaners, spot or wipe clean
Finish: Polished, Enameled
Suggested Age: 15 Years and Up
Includes: Gift box
Item 1: Material: Stainless Steel
Chain Style: Boxed
Item 1: Closure Type: Lobster Claw Clasp
Item 1: Weight: .02 pounds
Item 1: Width: .12 inches
Item 1: Length: 24 inches
Warranty: 1 year limited warranty. To obtain a copy of the manufacturer's or supplier's warranty for this item prior to purchasing the item, please call Target Guest Services at 1-800-591-3869
Item Number (DPCI): 215-14-0228
If the item details above aren't accurate or complete, we want to know about it. Report incorrect product info.
In stock - free standard shipping with REDcard
Not in stores
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Prices, promotions, styles and availability may vary by store & online. See our price match guarantee. See how a store is chosen for you.


text:
State medical societies have expressed considerable ambivalence about proposals to proceed specialty by specialty on malpractice reform, starting with the hardest-hit areas such as obstetrics and emergency medicine, fearing that such measures might serve to divide the profession and allow politicians to say that they had "done something" after addressing only the most obvious crisis areas ("AMA vows united voice in battle for tort reform", American Medical News, Jan. 5). At any rate, it seems the choice of such a compromise won't be available at the federal level, since opponents have no seeming interest in it. This week the Senate's Republican leadership brought back malpractice reform in a pared-down version intended just to address obstetric litigation, but no go: the 48-45 vote was pretty much the same as that by which omnibus reform had failed, falling far short of the 60 needed to overcome an expected filibuster by Democrats.
The Associated Press report on the vote (Jesse Holland, AP/DailyNews.com, Feb. 25) reported that "some conservatives" opposed the bill, but the conservative it quoted turned out to be Ken Connor, former head of the religious-right Family Research Council. What AP didn't add is that Connor is not exactly your typical conservative, having made his fortune in Florida as a plaintiff's lawyer suing nursing homes and having served as a tenacious legislative advocate for the interests of the trial bar before his stint at FRC (see Mar. 2-4, 2001).
[cross-posted from Overlawyered, where it ran Feb. 26, 2004]
Published by the Manhattan Institute


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Colum McCann on Letters to a Young Writer at the 2017 AWP Book Fair
PBS NewsHour correspondent Jeffrey Brown interviews Colum McCann about his novels, "Letters to a Young Writer" and "Thirteen Ways of Looking: A Novella and Three Stories" at the 2017 AWP Book Fair.
James Gleick: 2016 National Book Festival
James Gleick discusses "Time Travel" in a book launch event with Joe Palca from NPR at the 2016 Library of Congress Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
Speaker Biography: James Gleick is a best-selling author and historian of science. He has worked as an editor and reporter for the New York Times and in 1993 he co-founded The Pipeline, a pioneering New York City-based internet service provider, and served as its chairman and chief executive officer. Gleick's books include "The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood," "Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything," "Chaos: Making a New Science," "Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman" and "Isaac Newton." Three of his books have been Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalists, and he has received a PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and a Royal Society Winton Prize for science books. Gleick's latest book, "Time Travel" , explores the subversive origins of time travel, its evolution in literature and science, and its influence on our understanding of time itself.
The Art of Philosophy by Susanna Berger
Delving into the intersections between artistic images and philosophical knowledge in Europe from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries,
The Art of Philosophy
shows that the making and study of visual art functioned as important methods of philosophical thinking and instruction.
Celebration of E.L. Doctorow with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Jennifer Egan
Friends and fellow writers pay tribute to E. L. Doctorow upon posthumous publication of his Collected Stories. "His prose tends to create its own landscape," wrote Don DeLillo. "His sensitivity to language is perfectly balanced and complemented by a gigantic vision," wrote Jennifer Egan. "He did not so much write fiction about history as he seemed to occupy history itself," wrote Ta-Nehisi Coates. "He owned it. He made it his own."
Don DeLillo also read this evening, from the Doctorow novel Billy Bathgate, but it was not recorded.
After Words: Melissa Fleming, "A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea"
Melissa Fleming, chief spokesperson for the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, discusses her book, "A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea", which recounts the journey of a young woman, Doaa Al Zamel, from Syria to Europe. Here's a portion of her conversation with Dr. Michel Gabaudan, President of Refugees International.
Amazon talks to Jonathan Safran Foer about his novel HERE I AM.
April Ryan, "At Mama's Knee"
American Urban Radio Network White House Correspondent April Ryan discusses her book, "At Mama's Knee" which examines the issues surrounding race and police shootings in America from the perspective of African American mothers on the frontlines in their communities.
Isabel Wilkerson and the Great Migration
The mass movement of nearly seven million African-Americans from the South during the Great Migration unleashed a revolution that redefined American politics, culture, and urban life. In The Warmth of Other Suns, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson captures the intimate details and personal stories behind the historic, half-century long exodus. Wilkerson will be joined by WBEZ reporter Natalie Moore in Bronzeville, a subject of her book and the historic epicenter of the Great Migration in Chicago.
Susan Jacoby: 2016 National Book Festival
Susan Jacoby discusses "Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion" with Tom Gjelten from NPR at the 2016 Library of Congress Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
Chuck Klosterman: "But What If We're Wrong" | Talks At Google
Klosterman talks about how his latest book, "But What If We're Wrong?" in which visualizes the contemporary world as it will appear to those who'll perceive it as the distant past. One of the most provocative, perceptive, and entertaining cultural critics of our time considers whether much of what we think we know about reality is false, why that is, and why it matters in all things including music, democracy and the internet.
Rose McDermott: The Genetics of Politics | Talks at Google
"While traditionally social factors have been considered to have primary influence on political behaviors and preferences, more recent research shows that there's also a strong heritable component to ideological attitudes. Rose McDermott, professor of International Relations at Brown University and a 2015-16 CASBS fellow, will discuss her research on the influence of genetic contributions to political and social behavior. McDermott has described her work as intended to offer "…a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to the interaction of psychological processes and political outcomes.""
McDermott studies the biological influences which interact with environmental factors to shape ideology across the political spectrum in cultures around the world. Her research has included conducting embedded experiments on attitudes toward gender equality in numerous countries including Lebanon, Jordan, Uganda, Indonesia, Mongolia and India.
The author of Political Psychology in International Relations and co-editor of Man Is by Nature a Political Animal , McDermott was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 02013. McDermott is the David and Mariana Fisher University Professor of International Relations at Brown University and a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She received her Ph.D.(Political Science) and M.A. (Experimental Social Psychology) from Stanford University and has taught at Cornell, UCSB and Harvard. She has held numerous fellowships, including the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and the Women and Public Policy Program, all at Harvard University. She is also a past and current fellow at the Stanford Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences.
She is the author of three books, a co-editor of two additional volumes, and author of over a hundred academic articles across a wide variety of disciplines encompassing topics such as experimentation, emotion and decision making, and the biological and genetic bases of political behavior."
Sebastian Barry reads from his new novel, Days Without End
'I am thinking of the days without end of my life...'
After signing up for the US army in the 1850s, aged barely seventeen, Thomas McNulty and his brother-in-arms, John Cole, go on to fight in the Indian wars and, ultimately, the Civil War.
Having fled terrible hardships they find these days to be vivid and filled with wonder, despite the horrors they both see and are complicit in. Their lives are further enriched and imperilled when a young Indian girl crosses their path, and the possibility of lasting happiness emerges, if only they can survive.
Moving from the plains of the West to Tennessee, Sebastian Barry's latest work is a masterpiece of atmosphere and language. Both an intensely poignant story of two men and the lives they are dealt, and a fresh look at some of the most fateful years in America's past, Days Without End is a novel never to be forgotten.
Rahul Mehta on No Other World: A Novel at the 2017 AWP Book Fair
Rahul Mehta talks with host Rich Fahle about his latest novel, "No Other World: A Novel" at the 2017 AWP Book Fair.
Asian-American Literature Today: Kundiman Spotlight
Poets Janine Joseph and Aimee Nezhukumatathil read and discuss their work with Kundiman Advisory Board Co-Chair Jennifer Chang.
The Great Leveler by Walter Scheidel
The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century by Walter Scheidel
Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world.
Ever since humans began to farm, herd livestock, and pass on their assets to future generations, economic inequality has been a defining feature of civilization. Over thousands of years, only violent events have significantly lessened inequality. The "Four Horsemen" of leveling—mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich. Scheidel identifies and examines these processes, from the crises of the earliest civilizations to the cataclysmic world wars and communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Today, the violence that reduced inequality in the past seems to have diminished, and that is a good thing. But it casts serious doubt on the prospects for a more equal future.
An essential contribution to the debate about inequality, The Great Leveler provides important new insights about why inequality is so persistent—and why it is unlikely to decline anytime soon.
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text:
moretto needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 73 designs submitted by 35 freelance designers.
a private tv channel
private..see description
A design for an italian private channel called "canalshopping".
They just sell "thing" on tv.
- tipical for tv
- a clear indication that the "brand" has an extension .tv
- simple lines, few colours.
- sharp shining
- too many colours
- too complex design
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
Imagine the following script: A wildly popular leader of a tropical country wins an election and then heads to a foreign country for cancer treatment. He fails to utter a word in public for over a month as he fights to recover from a surgical procedure, and misses the inauguration for his fourth consecutive term in office.
In the meantime, one of his most loyal aides takes over the country, ruling on behalf of the dear leader. He starts to make decisions for the leader, like cutting some social programs and devaluing the country's currency to pay for its bloated debt.
Day after day passes without anyone hearing from the leader, as his most loyal aid continues to make decisions in his name. Those who ask for proof that the leader is actually alive face threats and repression from the state. They are accused of inciting social discord and disrespecting the leader's right to medical privacy.
This could turn out to be a decent book plot. Throw some talking pigs in there, a hard working horse and winged creatures, and we could have a sequel to George Orwell's "Animal Farm" on our hands.
Sadly, this is actually what things could start to look like in Venezuela, a nation with serious economic problems and a lot of oil, and whose president has not uttered a word in public for the past 34 days.
Before heading to Cuba for his fourth cancer surgery in 18 months, President Chávez warned his country that he may not emerge victorious from this battle. He asked his followers to vote for Vice President Nicolás Maduro, if he could not resume his duties as president.
But after Chávez failed to be sworn into office on January 10, as scheduled by Venezuela's constitution, his supporters in the National Assembly chose to interpret the law in ways that guaranteed a power vacuum in the tropical country. Instead of implementing a clause in Venezuela's constitution that calls for new elections to take place if the elected president cannot be sworn in, they chose to give Chávez some extra time to "recover" from cancer surgery.
The National Assembly awarded Chávez an indefinite leave of absence, only saying that he can be sworn into office at "a later date" once he "overcomes" his current circumstances. That wasn't the only option for the assembly: The body also could have chosen to create an independent medical commission that would verify if Chávez is able to resume his presidential duties.
In the meantime, Vice President Maduro is in charge. With the presidential inauguration postponed indefinitely, he organized a massive rally in support of Chávez last week. He hasn't, however, taken any crucial decisions on behalf of the president -- so far.
Maduro and his peers argue that in October's presidential election the majority of the Venezuelan people voted for Chávez, so he must be allowed all the time that is necessary to recover.
But how long can Venezuela have an absent head of state? And how long before Maduro, who was appointed to his post by Chávez, but not elected at the ballot box, starts to make serious decisions on behalf of El Comandante?
It's very difficult to tell, as Maduro's tenure also depends on the outcome of Chávez's opaque health condition. But Venezuelan blogger Francisco Toro speculates that the country's state of political limbo will only last for weeks, not months, before a new election is called.
Toro said that sympathy for Chávez and recent electoral triumphs by chavistas in other elections across the country indicate that a chavista candidate, such as Maduro himself, would be very likely to win presidential elections if they took place sooner, rather than later. Therefore, the government has an incentive to call for elections quickly.
"I don't understand the realpolitik of what they're doing," Toro said of recent decisions by Venezuelan officials to delay new elections, and place Maduro as acting president. "The one explanation I imagine is that they're scared that Chávez somehow comes back, and boils them alive for having moved to take over power before he was properly dead."
George Ciccariello-Maher, a political science professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, believes that the decision by Venezuelan officials to keep Chávez in power, despite his frail state of health, could suggest that members of Chávez's inner circle know something about the situation that the rest of the world doesn't.
"If Maduro were to run in a snap election now he would win," said Ciccariello-Maher, who is about to publish a book on the rise of socialism in Venezuela. "The fact that they're not making that move, [calling for elections]… suggests at least that Chávez is potentially in a situation to recover."
Ciccariello-Maher said that the current situation, in which Maduro is ruling in the name of Chávez, could last for a couple of months at most.
"If they get to something like four, five, six months, the chorus from the opposition is just going to become more and more powerful that it's time to resolve this question of succession once and for all," Ciccariello-Maher said. "If they waited a year or two years they would be losing sympathy, and if it were clear that chavez were not governing the whole time, they would be losing the upper hand that they have now."
Venezuela currently faces serious economic problems, including food shortages and the very real prospect of currency devaluation, as the government attempts to plug a massive deficit that is worth 18 percent of the country's GDP. U.S. dollars are currently trading in Venezuela's black market at four times more than the official rate, and dollars sold at the official rate are extremely limited. This means that imports can become scandalously expensive for industrialists and retail companies that do not have the right connections to get dollars at the official rate.
Ciccariello-Maher and Toro agree that these are issues that tarnish Chávez's caretaker government. If months pass by before the government calls for new elections, and these problems continue, they could affect Maduro's popularity and benefit the opposition.
But there could be another reason why the Venezuelan government is staying away from new elections, Toro said.
"The government knows this kind of thing drives the opposition crazy… part of the attraction from their point of view might be simply driving us up a wall," added Toro, who openly identifies with the Venezuelan opposition.
Since it started to become evident that Chávez was not going to be sworn in on January 10, Venezuela's opposition has pushed for new elections, or for the creation of an independent medical committee to provide more information on Chávez's health and determine whether he is fit to rule the country.
Last week, its leaders vehemently rejected the National Assembly's decision to give Chávez an unlimited leave of absence and on Twitter, some radical sympathizers of the opposition called for a "national strike" in order to protest the lack of information on Chávez's health and the National Assembly's decision to give him an unlimited leave of absence.
But a national strike would be unpopular with the millions of Venezuelans who sympathize with Chávez and his health condition. Toro, along with opposition leaders like the former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, say that by not providing information about Chávez's health and delaying elections, the government is "laying a trap" for the opposition. They say the lack of information could spur more extreme reactions from some Chávez opponents, further polarizing Venezuela's political landscape.
Of course, it could also be possible that Chávez is slowly recovering from cancer, and that he has real prospects of once again returning to the Venezuelan presidency, as communication minister Ernesto Villegas suggested in a statement issued on Sunday.
But information on Chávez's health has been vague so far. Venezuelans have no details about his prognosis, no information on exactly what type of cancer he's suffering from and no idea how long he could be in bed for, exercising his presidential mandate from a Cuban hospital.
A scenario where Maduro rules in Chávez's name for months and even makes important decisions on his behalf, therefore, is not completely out of the question.
Eric Farnsworth from the Council of the Americas and Americas Society, a Washington D.C. think tank, believes that Venezuelan democracy loses out if its government is not clear about Chávez's health.
"If they don't tell the status of the president, it's awfully difficult for there to be a credible election, because no one can prepare for an election, if you don't know when it's going to be," Farnsworth said. "This is another way to game the system in Venezuela to overtly favor one side over the other, and that's completely what's going on here."