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Business Immigration
The Alien of Extraordinary ability category is, in effect, reserved for that small percentage who has risen to the very top of their field of endeavor. This subcategory covers aliens possessing extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics. The extraordinary ability subcategory does not require a specific job offer, so long as the alien states that he/she will continue to work in the field of their extraordinary ability in the US. This means that the alien may file a petition on his/her own behalf, rather than having an employer file for them.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regulations define extraordinary ability as a "level of expertise indicating that the individual is one of those few who have risen to the top of the field of endeavor." In order to show that an alien has "extraordinary ability", the alien must show three of the following ten types of evidence:
- Receipt of lesser national or international prizes or awards for excellence in their field of endeavor
- Membership in associations in the field of endeavor that require outstanding achievements of their members
- Published material about the alien and his work in professional journals, trade publications, or the major media
- Participation, either in a group or alone, as a judge of others in the same or a similar field
- Original scientific, scholarly, or artistic contributions of major significance in the field of endeavor
- Authorship of scholarly articles in the field, published in professional journals or the major media
- Display of the alien's work at artistic exhibitions or showcases in more than one country
- Performance in a lead, starring, or critical role for organizations with a distinguished reputation
- Commanding a high salary compared to others in the field
- Commercial success in the performing arts, as shown by box office receipts and sales
The EB-1 is a good option for those applicants who do not wish to file for labor certification (PERM). Only the "alien of extraordinary ability may sponsor his or herself.
The EB-1 alien of extraordinary ability or outstanding researcher is a great way to avoid the arduous PERM process; however, it must be done correctly to prevent a dreaded "request for evidence" issued by USCIS. The Fleischer Law Firm LLC has developed a strong strategy for obtaining a successful alien of extraordinary or outstanding researcher petition.
When a researcher, physician, scientist or other qualifying professional files an EB-1 petition, there is rarely, if ever an "interview" with an USCIS adjudicator. Therefore, the Fleischer Law Firm requires all of their clients to write a "personal statement" in support of their petition. This person statement is a chance for an applicant to "speak" to the adjudicating officer; it is not a time to be shy or modest, but to fully demonstrate your qualifications and achievements as one of the top professionals in your field. While using language a lay person could understand (i.e. minimal scientific or field-specific jargon), a successful applicant should clearly elucidate the applicants IMPACT on his or her field, and how the applicant's work relates to the criteria listed above.
The Fleischer Law Firm LLC has been success in obtaining Alien of Extraordinary Ability petitions for dancers, doctors, businessmen, scientists, researchers, athletes, artists and other occupations.
'Advanced degree' means a US degree or a foreign degree equivalent to a US degree above that of a baccalaureate. A United States baccalaureate degree or a foreign equivalent degree followed by at least five years of progressive experience in this specialty shall be considered the equivalent to a master's degree. If a doctoral degree is customarily required by the specialty, the alien must have a United States doctorate degree or a foreign equivalent degree.
'Exceptional ability in the sciences, arts or business' means a degree of expertise significantly above that ordinarily encountered in the sciences, arts or business. Exceptional ability is a very high standard, but is less than that of 'extraordinary ability' found in the 'priority worker' category, thus a degree by itself is not enough.
Unlike the EB-1 category, the EB-2 category requires an employer and a labor certification. There is however an exception to this rule. If the alien's job is deemed to be "in the national interest" of the United States there is a "waiver" of the labor certification requirement. Obtaining this waiver is beneficial because the processing times will be greatly reduced.
For more information, please read about National Interest Waivers.
'Skilled' worker means an applicant who is capable, at the time of petitioning for this classification, of performing skilled labor (requiring at least two years training or experience) not of a temporary or seasonal nature for which qualified workers are not available in the United States. Relevant post-secondary education may be considered as training for the purposes of this provision.
'Professional' means a qualified alien who holds at least a United States baccalaureate degree or an equivalent degree and who is a member of the professions.
'Other worker' means a qualified alien who is capable, at the time of petitioning for this classification, of performing unskilled labor (requiring less than two years training or experience), not of a temporary or seasonal nature, for which qualified workers are not available in the United States.
All petitions filed in the EB-3 category require a job offer and a labor certification, now called PERM. The requirement of a labor certification is essentially a statement from the Department of Labor that there are no qualified available US workers willing to fill the position offered and has been part of US immigration law since 1965. Before then an immigrant worker could not be excluded unless the Attorney General issued a statement saying that there was no shortage of US workers and that admission of the alien workers would harm the position of US workers. The labor certification applies to all workers in the EB-3 preference category and most workers in the EB-2 category. Aliens in the EB-1 preference are exempt from the requirement.
The question answered by the labor certification is whether there are any "able, willing, qualified, and available" US workers. US workers include citizens, permanent residents, and anyone authorized to work in the US whose work authorization is not tied to a specific employer. In most labor certifications, the qualified US worker need only meet the minimum qualifications for the position. The exceptions are for teachers at colleges and universities and aliens of exceptional ability in the performing arts, in which the US worker must be as qualified as the alien worker.
Learn more about the Permanent Labor Certification or contact us with any questions.
A religious worker is a person who for at least two years immediately preceding the filing of a petition, has been a member of a religious denomination which has a bona fide nonprofit religious organization in the United States. The applicant must also be coming to the United States solely for the purpose of carrying on the duties of (1) a minister of that religious denomination or (2) working for the organization in a professional capacity in a religious vocation or occupation for the organization or (3) in a religious vocation or occupation for the organization or its non-profit affiliate.
Further, religious workers must have been performing the vocation, professional work or other work continuously (either abroad or in the United States) for at least the two year period immediately preceding the filing of the petition.
Such a person may come as a minister, work in a professional capacity or other work.
'Minister' means an individual duly authorized by a recognized religious denomination to conduct religious worship and to perform other duties usually performed by an authorized member of the clergy of that religion. There must be a reasonable connection between the activities performed and the religious calling of the minister. This term does not include a lay preacher, not authorized to perform such duties.
'Professional capacity' means an activity in a religious vocation or occupation for which the minimum of a United States baccalaureate degree or a foreign equivalent degree is required.
'Religious occupation' means an activity, which relates to a traditional religious function, such as by way of example liturgical workers, religious instructors, religious counselors, canters, catechists workers in religious hospitals or religious health care facilities, missionaries, religious translators or religious broadcasters. This does not include janitors, maintenance workers, clerks, fundraisers or a person solely involved in solicitation of donations.
The minimum amount of investment is either $500,000.00 or $1,000,000.00. Threshold investment amounts to $500,000.00 in areas of high unemployment or in a rural setting and reserves 3,000 visas of the 10,000 for this 'targeted employment area'. The $1,000,000.00 minimum is for areas other than a targeted employment area, but may also be in a targeted employment area. The Act further says that such an investor must provide at least ten full-time jobs for US citizens, residents or 'other immigrants lawfully authorized to be employed' in the US. It is this employment provision which made this section politically acceptable to the Congress so that receiving residence through investment could be passed.
The regulations also say that there may be no passive investment. However, the investor only has to have a place on the board of directors and does not have to take a more active role if that is not wanted.
There is a major difference between obtaining permanent residence through this category and the other employment categories. The initial grant of residence through the 'investor' category is called 'conditional' permanent residence. What this means is that residence is granted conditionally for two years. At the end of this time a second form is filed with the USCIS showing that the required amount of investment is there, as is at least ten full-time employees that were hired because of the investment. Of course, they don't have to be the same employees. When these conditions are met, the 'conditional' part of the conditional permanent residence is dropped. The only equivalency for this kind of provision is in the marriage category where conditional permanent residence is given to a spouse of a US citizen or legal permanent resident who hasn't been married for two years before residence is given.
What is PERM?
Affective March 28, 2005, the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration (ETA) published new regulations guiding the requirements and processes for an employer to obtain a permanent labor certification for a foreign worker.
A permanent labor certification allows an employer to hire a foreign worker to work permanently in the United States. In order for a permanent labor certification to be approved, the Department of Labor (DOL) must certify to the USCIS that there are no qualified U.S. workers able, willing, qualified and available to accept the job at the prevailing wage for that occupation in the area of intended employment and that employment of the alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.
How do I Apply for PERM?
In order for a United States employer to hire a foreign worker permanently, the employer first files an Alien Employment Certification, ETA Form 9089. The date the labor certification application is filed is known as the filing date and is used by USCIS and the Department of State as the priority date. Once the application for Alien Employment Certification is approved by the DOL, the approval should then be filed with the USCIS service center with form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker.
An application for Permanent Employment Certification can be filed either electronically or by mail. However, the Department of Labor recommends that the employer files electronically. Electronic filing is faster and will ensure that the employer has provided all required information as an electronic application cannot be submitted if the required fields are not completed.
In order to file electronically, the Online Permanent System requires an employer to set up an individual account. The employer must go to www.doleta.gov and set up a profile by selecting the appropriate profile option in the Online System. After registering and establishing an account, the employer can fill out and submit an Application for Permanent Employment Certification, ETA Form 9089.


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CATEGORIES: Air & Space | Museums & Galleries | Weddings | Downtown Hampton Gift Card
600 Settlers Landing Rd
Hampton, VA 23669
Telephone: 757-727-0900
Sunday: Noon-5pm
Monday: Closed
Tuesday - Saturday: 10am-5pm
Located in Hampton, Virginia, the birthplace of America's space program, the Virginia Air & Space Center features dozens of hands-on air and space exhibits, a premiere interactive aviation gallery that spans 100 years of flight, more than 30 historic aircraft, unique space flight artifacts and more! Your imagination will soar as you launch a rocket, pilot a space shuttle, become an air traffic controller, fly an airplane, and climb aboard a WWII bomber! Come face to face with the Apollo 12 Command Module that went to the moon, a Mars meteorite, a DC-9 passenger jet, a replica 1903 Wright Flyer and more!
Admission (General Admission now includes a free IMAX film)
Members: Free
Children (0 – 2) Free
Students (3 – 18) $15.50
Adults (19 – 64) $19.00
Seniors (65+) $17.00
Military/NASA $16.00

subset: commoncrawl


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This Mercedes-Benz 600 is powered by the distinctive M100 6,332-cc overhead-valve V8 engine developed specifically for the Grand 600s. The engine produces 245 horsepower. The car is equipped with a 4-speed automatic transmission; double-wishbone air-spring independent front suspension; swing-axle rear suspension with air springs; and four-wheel, power-assisted hydraulic disc brakes. The car is built on the 600 Pullman wheelbase of 3,900 mm (153.5 inches).
The Landaulet Pullmans are considered the "holy grail" for collectors. Making this one even rarer, it is a 6-door model, one of only 26 ever built. This example is being offered for sale publicly for the first time ever, from only its second owner. It has been hidden away for over three decades and is completely original and unrestored in "barn-find" condition. As such, it represents an exceedingly rare and special opportunity for the right buyer.
The world's most important people were driven in Mercedes-Benz 600s, and for those who were not only important but who also ruled the world, the top choice of the 600s was the Pullman Landaulet. This imposing custom-built car of state featured a folding convertible top over the rear seat, allowing its passengers to stand before their public during parades and other ceremonial occasions. It was such an exclusive example that it was never actually included in the 600 catalog or price listing. Each 600 was individually handcrafted to order, matching the rather unique specifications of its original owner with a cost and level of labor intensity that was usually more often associated with private aircraft.
Offered here is one of very few Pullman Landaulets that have an interesting and unique early history and currently remain in private hands. It was one of a mere 26 produced with six doors, and it was specially ordered with the most state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment available in 1971, including a 23-cm (nine-inch) Sony television with all the ancillary equipment required, including an antenna on the rear deck; a Becker Grand Prix radio system with no fewer than eight interior speakers; and even a telephone. All of this was surrounded by the comfort of optional armrests, the security of seatbelts, and the privacy of curtained windows.
This Pullman Landaulet is a remarkably complete, ideal restoration project that is being offered from its second owner, and it is the only 6-door variant presently available for sale. It marks a rare chance for a dedicated Mercedes-Benz enthusiast to acquire what is truly the ultimate 600, and it is perhaps the most important "car of state" of the modern era.


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Some beautiful custom wooden boxes. What can you do with a handcrafted wooden box? Display treasures, store photos, use as a portable desk, save momentos, take it for a romantic get away. A custom handcrafted wooden box is just what you need! Order your wooden boxes from Handmadechair.com today.
Custom Millwork
Custom Millwork includes stairs, mantels, as well as entry systems.
This gallery contains 19 photos.
Cabinets should always be functional, sturdy and beautiful. Cabinets from our shop meet all of these requirements. Continue reading
Studio Furniture Gallery
This gallery contains 3 photos.
Studio furniture is bespoke or custom designed for an individual application. Each chair is comfortable. Every table is the right height. The bed fits the room. Would you like to have each piece of furniture in your home fit perfectly and compliment all other pieces? You need our studio furniture!Examples… Continue reading


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Four teenagers were arrested this week in connection with the murder of Marvin Bryant. Bryant was robbed on Monday night on South Salina street and stabbed twice in the back. He was rushed to Upstate University Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Syracuse Police Department Chief Frank Fowler says that evidence gathered from the scene suggests that Bryant was forcefully robbed of his wallet by Tony Comer 10 to 15 minutes prior to the stabbing.
The second and third suspects, Shakeith Stackhouse and Jahmeer Stackhouse, and a fourth individual, aged 15, then lured the victim to the corner of East Beard Avenue and Beard Place with the promise of drugs, where they robbed him of his remaining money and stabbed him. Bryant was able to return to his residence on South Salina Street before he collapsed.
Fowler says that Bryant was loitering in the area looking to buy crack cocaine. Fowler says the nature of Bryant's dealings with the suspects will have no bearing on the charges against them:
Tony Comer was arrested Wednesday for murder in the third degree for his involvement in the incident. The Stackhouses and the juvenile defendant were arrested for murder in the second degree and robbery in the first degree. The 15-year-old suspect is being held at Hillbrook Detention Center, while the three adults are held at the Onondaga County Justice Center.
When pressed by reporters about whether there's a pattern to the recent murders or if they're gang-related, Fowler explained while similar characteristics to each of the crimes would make his investigators' work easier, the Department has found no connections:
Fowler says the most important thing the police and the public can keep in mind is to engage in preventive efforts to keep gang violence and other crimes at a minimum, and to help keep Syracuse youth from entering criminal systems in the first place. He says the Syracuse Police Department is grateful for the help of community members in investigating Bryant's death:


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Recent Posts
Category Archives: Obesity
What You Must Know About Metabolic Syndrome And Type 2 Diabetes
Posted on April 23, 2012 by Atin Dasgupta
One of the major risk factors of overweight is the development of metabolic syndrome. Medical researchers estimate that at least 100 million people in India alone have metabolic syndrome. People with metabolic syndrome have at least three of the following disorders: ● They … Continue reading →
Posted in Anti Aging, Blog, Obesity | Tagged abdominal fat, arteriosclerosis, Cholesterol, diabetes epidemic in India, foot sores, global epidemic, heart disease and stroke, High blood glucose levels, insulin, insulin resistance, Kidneys, lipids, metabolic syndrome, Nerve damage, obesity epidemic, pancreas, triglycerides, type 2 diabetes, weight reduction | Leave a comment


text: Last week I took my Nissan Leaf in for its first of three annual battery checks. While owning an electric vehicle (EV) means there's minimal maintenance required, the battery check is one of those very important minimal maintenance requirements. It's basically a test to gauge how you are using the battery – charging, discharging (driving), … Continue reading


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Pass the Qts Skills Test with Confidence
Taylor & Francis Ltd
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Pass the QTS Skills Test with Confidence is the must-have guide for all prospective trainee teachers. It will provide you with the skills guidance, subject knowledge and confidence you need to pass the Literacy and Numeracy QTS Skills Tests, make an application that stands out and sail through interview day. Online support provided on the companion website includes tests to audit your subject knowledge. The first section of the book introduces you to the tests and how to prepare for them, and covers the areas of knowledge tested. The second section offers advice to help you write a personal statement that stands out, make a successful application and get ready for your interview. Extensive online support provided on the companion website includes tests to audit your subject knowledge. Key topics covered include: * Developing your exam technique * Mastering the mental arithmetic test * Succeeding in the written questions * How to use spelling, grammar and punctuation correctly * Successfully applying for teaching training courses * Acing the interview Written by expert teacher trainers with first-hand experience of both interviewing candidates and helping students pass the QTS Skills Tests, this is an essential purchase for all prospective teachers.


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I think he's referring to the dude who shot the boxer and ended her career and walked away with a 6 year prison sentence
I think he's referring to the dude who shot the boxer and ended her career and walked away with a 6 year prison sentence
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.
German courts aren't hesitant to give maximum sentences to murderers acting out in hate crimes btw, both for adults (life) and youths (10 years).
Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C
In most cases domestic intelligence has its fingers and feelers deep in such groups, with the theoretical target of finding ring leaders and so on. Often flanked by state-sponsored groups going in to isolate and separate "harmless" members of right-wing groups.
The fingers are in deep enough that for example a couple years ago the Supreme Court denied outlawing a nazi party because 15% of the leaders of the party at state and federal level were controlled by domestic intelligence. There's currently the assumption that at least two different state domestic intelligence agencies had informants close to the terrorist cell, trying to find where the main group was hiding. There's also been the accusation that one domestic intelligence agent or informer was suspiciously close at hand at at least six of the assassinations.
So yeah, more repression.
IMO, Far too many Laws that have ballooned the "gray" area far beyond reason.
A major flaw of these generations and ours is that they no longer see in black and white (right and wrong), all they see is a rather large expanding "gray area" that is riddled with bullshit excuses, plea deals, cop outs, circumstances and technicalities. We wonder why society is the way it is, thats because we have allowed it. Prisons are overloaded with "politcal pets" that instead of giving them the punishment they really deserve, they get to become pets of the state and bleed the taxpayers unendlessly. Many deserve a box and a bullet, not cable TV etc etc etc.
Last edited by Dreadnought; 20 Nov 11, at 21:25.
Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C
Kato basically answered my question (Thank You), I am glad to hear the German legal system would handle this more severely than the guy who shot his step daughter.There is no doubt this represents a new dimension of far-right violence which is why federal prosecutors are investigating accusations of formation of a terrorist organisation," Friedrich said.
"If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."
Police added two more supporters to the suspect list on Friday, domestic intelligence in Thuringia currently estimates about 20 members/supporters for the cell.
The killing of the police officer is currently investigated as another possible targeted investigation; the officer was from Thuringia herself, and had a (non-amiable) personal connection to the woman arrested.
Last edited by Dreadnought; 21 Nov 11, at 20:20.
Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
Damn,not even Nazis aren't sacred anymore.As a manifestation of the Devil himself on Earth,of course.
Why do we have to return always to welfare recipients and junkies?Just bring homos and the opinion of reps and dems on taxes, to have the full spectrum.
Those who know don't speak
He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36
Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C
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—By Tim Murphy
December 12, 2012- Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) flamed out of the GOP presidential race and barely held onto her House seat in November, polling 15 points behind Mitt Romney in the state's most conservative congressional district. This is where a typical member of Congress might reflect for a moment, tone down the rhetoric, and focus on nuts-and-bolts legislative issues to win back her constituents. Michele Bachmann is not typical.
Last weekend, she made a guest appearance on Understanding the Times, a radio show devoted to End Times prophecy whose host, Jan Markell, believes that Harry Potter is a "gateway to the occult" and that President Obama is poised to declare himself "One World President." (Bachmann has been a frequent guest [1] on the show and even wrote an endorsement for Markell's Biblical prophecy conference, at which a keynote speaker warned that a two-state solution would give rise to the antichrist.)
Here's a recent newsletter from Markell's ministry:
Note from Jan: Prophecy teacher Jack Kelley writes about a man who may be waiting in the wings: The Antichrist. The world longs for a leader. The world thought they had it in Barack Obama in 2008. Now they wonder again. As we see evil arise in a shocking manner in these "days of Noah," be encouraged that it is leading to a day when there will be a shout and the sound of a trumpet. And in the twinkling of an eye, we will leave this throbbing planet. I can almost hear the hoof beats of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Look over a ridge and you will see them on the way.


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It was an eventful beginning to my New York trip. I succumbed to the cold virus two days before flying, and had a full blown fever the day before. Thankfully, my fever broke around midnight, which allowed me to pack for my trip. Well, that was just the start.
I arrived at the airport for an early check-in (an hour and half before), only to find out that my plane was grounded and I had to transfer to the next flight which was an hour and half later. Upon arrival in Newark, the bathroom called out loud and clear, which made me stand in line for 45 minutes because that five minute delay meant that a plane load of Danish people arrived as well. After clearing customs, and finding my luggage to be the only one left on the belt, I walked out of the arrival area, happy to be finally cleared of my airport drama. As I reached for my wallet in my backpack, alas! I lost my yoga mat in between the line-up and customs. Dang. While I was still trying to keep my spirits high, I found out that the air trains stopped running which made me miss my connection to Penn Station, New York. Nonetheless, I trudged forward. At Penn Station, I boarded a train which stopped running a few stations after! After a switch, I was finally on my way to Brooklyn!
Upon arrival, I saw this note stuck on the door of the apartment I was housing at. It made me realize that hey, life is indeed a daring adventure.
Through my travels and past experiences, I have learned to always expect the unexpected. Things never go as planned. Life never goes as planned. We can only live in the present and accept things as they come our way. We can make choices in life, but whatever the circumstances are, we have to accept them because that was the path we chose, even though it may not have turned out the way we wanted it to.
Life is a mystery, but that's why it is a daring adventure. If you're having a bad day, or going through a bad time now, remember this: There is always sunshine after the rain.


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After being resurrected at the last minute last year, a Screen on the Green for 2010 was anything but a given. The District has no shortage of free outdoor movie series these days, but the event on the National Mall is the undoubtedly the most popular, with a culture all its own.
With the Capitol as a backdrop, this summer's event will show classic films on four consecutive Mondays, reports the Washington Post:
July 12: "Goldfinger"
July 19: "The Goodbye Girl"
July 26: "12 Angry Men"
Aug. 2: "Bonnie and Clyde"
So dig out those low camping chairs, find a place to buy an outrageous helium balloon... and of course, brush up on your moves for the beloved HBO Dance.
Let's go Around Town: Keep up with what's happening in the D.C. area anytime, anywhere. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Sign up for our e-mail newsletters and find out What You're Doing Tonight with texts delivered right to your mobile phone -- just text DCTONIGHT to 622339 to sign up. (Message and data rates may apply.) Don't forget our iPhone app!


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Like many writers, I feel centered when I write, or it might be better to say, when I don't write, when I can't write for whatever reason, I feel, frankly, de-stabilized. It's dangerous for me not to write.
Sigrid Nunez
The Los Angeles–based architecture firm Johnston Marklee is having a big year. With the renovation of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago opening this June and the new Menil Drawing Institute in Houston opening in October—to say nothing of their serving as the artistic directors of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, which opens in September—the office is showcasing its ability to maintain its characteristic rigor, intensity, and attention to detail on a scale that normally doesn't lend itself to that kind of precision. Preferring delayed gratification over high-octane first impressions, Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee make buildings that reveal themselves in layers. This is not to say that their houses, museums, and mixed-use projects don't deliver on initial impact—they do. But patiently reading their work unveils an ongoing conversation with architecture itself—its history, typologies, and philosophical cycles. Their thoughtful, highly self-aware practice produces buildings that operate at both the experiential and the intellectual levels. It was fascinating to chat with them at this moment in their careers and hear about how they approach their work.
—Frank Gesualdi
Frank Gesualdi You have a rush of large projects at the moment. How did all that happen?
Mark Lee Well, it's certainly an interesting time for us. We've always been interested in modern and contemporary art. When we started our office about twenty years ago, our first projects were in Marfa, Texas, some time after Donald Judd passed away, and we did work for Lannan Foundation, in collaboration with the Chinati Foundation. In those years, we met a lot of artists and curators who later became collaborators or clients. We started off by working with and designing spaces for artists. After that we started designing houses for collectors, and then galleries, and now museums. So our work has evolved steadily and slowly, but everything has started to come together in these last couple years
Sharon Johnston We're also maybe a little different from a lot of practices like ours in that Mark and I didn't start out working for many years in a big office. We had worked in other offices, and we had experience. But Mark had been working in Europe, while I'd been working here in Los Angeles, and we really just wanted to learn how to build, and, in that way, define an identity for our practice. So it was a slow evolution, and that's partly because of where we came from. We were connected to the arts and had no large practice to leverage in terms of experience or exposure to projects.
FG Was it sort of a faith-based thing, where you planted some seeds and hoped they would grow?
SJ There were a few strategic moves we made along the way. Mark and I were both doing quite a lot of teaching. But around 2007, we decided that if we really wanted to develop a building practice, we had to pull back on our teaching loads. Concurrent with that, we had the opportunity to pursue some projects in Europe for art foundations that allowed us to design projects that we probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to do in the US given the rules and regulations here about experience and credentials. We were able to pursue projects like a small winery and a large mixed-use master plan for the DEPART Foundation. So going to Europe and getting some experience gave us the chance to come back and compete for projects like the Menil Drawing Institute.
ML I remember reading an interview with Frank Gehry a long time ago in which he was asked about his transition from doing bohemian projects with low budgets primarily for artists to doing multimillion dollar constructions. He said, "Well, you know, my clients didn't change. They all became very successful." It's really about finding fellow travelers, not cultivating a certain career and hoping someone will commission you as a trophy. You somehow cultivate the relationships early on, whether they're collaborators, clients, instigators, or enablers. The people we started working with in the beginning were all young curators and artists. Over the years, we've established a healthy exchange and grown together. These projects are some of the fruits of those relationships.
FG Cultivating a longer-term vision of how you'd like to work seems crucial. Looking at your earlier projects, the arc from smaller, single-family houses to the larger projects you're doing today, I see a real investigation of form, detail, and space-making—an almost modernist sensibility. In your Hill House in Los Angeles, for example, the exterior volume is expressed as a bold form. It cuts a striking silhouette on its site. There's a level of abstraction and an editing out of unwanted detail that can only be achieved with a high degree of control over the construction logic. Did that early work allow you to test ideas you're now starting to realize in larger institutional projects that demand more complex assemblages of programs, functions, and public flows? How does your earlier work inform the museum work you're doing now?
ML One thing that has been important for us is context—and not necessarily just physical context, but professional and construction context, too. We were very aware of where we were practicing when we started in Los Angeles. It was not long after we had moved back from Switzerland, which has maybe five times the construction budget of California, and more higher-skilled workers and detailers. So we knew at the outset that we couldn't achieve that kind of perfection with the construction and the budgets we had available to us, and our early projects were a response to that condition. We dealt with very difficult sites such as hillsides or beachfronts by trying to somehow reduce them to one distilled problem, and deal with that.
That meant we focused less on details such as apertures and windows. As a result the early work seemed quite abstract, which works well for the scale of a single-family house. Whereas with the projects we're dealing with now, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, which has the Josef Paul Kleihues building as context, and the Drawing Institute, which sits on the Menil's extremely sensitive campus, we're aware of the new scale, and of the fact that the kind of abstraction we adopted in the early single-family houses cannot happen in the same way. We also benefit, I think, from the hindsight of looking back at the late modernists, where abstraction could suddenly become very alienating at larger scales.
SJ Although they're still relatively small by institutional standards—the Drawing Institute is 30,000 square feet and the MCA's phase-one renovation is about 15,000 square feet—one thing I do think we've been able to transpose from the smaller-scale works to the larger is the idea of being able to read the historical and literal contexts, and understand our client—and translate these into strong moves. I think we've trained ourselves to distill the complexity of people and circumstance into an approach to institutional work, and the intensity of the residential projects we did at the beginning of our careers really helped us figure out how to do that. It's not because they're all similar—there's no signature look to our projects. It's more an approach. We like a clear slate to approach a project, and slowly build up the knowledge we need as we work. It's a different way of using experience—it's not about what the building looks like, but how you approach the making of it.
FG How do abstraction and questions of scale relate to a project like the Vault House, near Los Angeles. How do they manifest in the Drawing Institute?
ML The Vault House is still at the friendly scale of a single-family house and could afford to be more abstract and reticent; by contrast, the Menil Drawing Institute is, naturally, more institutional in scale, especially within the context of the prewar houses on the Menil campus. As a result, it would be alienating if the entire building lacked definition. So while the white steel roof and the walls are abstract, the wood and glass enveloped within them have a human scale and dimension to them. Abstraction has never been an end in itself in our work. It's always a prelude or a vehicle to something else. In the Vault House, because the materials lack definition, one can perceive the singularity of each vault and the interplay between multiple vaults. We're typically attracted to work that has a certain sense of mystery, that doesn't reveal everything all at once, and has a certain ineffable aura—work that reveals itself slowly only once you begin to probe more deeply into it. Maybe it's because that's the type of building we're attracted to, and because we aspire to be like that, too. There's a feeling of modernist abstraction to our work, but in a way that also makes it very human. We detest projects that are too cold—where you can only use, say, Barcelona chairs, or everything inside has to line up, where no piece of furniture is out of place, projects that are too strict and lack generosity. We try to look for projects that have the right balance of abstraction and humanist qualities.
SJ In terms of how we have sought to present our work, we have often selected images that aren't loaded with furniture or people inhabiting the spaces. Our focus has been on the space and the atmosphere of our buildings, rather than how they may be inhabited. There's a very practical aspect to this. In our early projects, which didn't have very big budgets, we focused a lot on things like aperture and structure, so we haven't explored material as a medium as much as some others have. Mark is right that we have a strong focus on proportion, light, and atmospheric qualities that are not easy to capture photographically. Our clients live in their homes and buildings in very casual ways, and we like that.
ML One strategy that we've always employed is the disproportionate attribution of construction budget and design energy. In other words, let's say we have a $1,000-per-square-foot project. We'll try to make five to ten percent of the project cost $5,000 per square foot, and the rest of the project cost much less, maybe around $500 per square foot. That's a lesson we learned from the generation that preceded us. What distinguishes us from them is that the areas where we spend that $5,000 dollars remain very invisible. It's not something that screams out. Often, we use it where you'd expect structure to be, but without having any structure at all. Instead, we'll make small, subtle moves that make some things deeper or lighter than they appear. Making these moves more invisible actually ingratiates the entire building with the people who inhabit and use it, and that gives it more coherence.
FG I love the idea of designing what's not there. Sometimes, making things go away is one of the premier acts of design. The harder part is convincing a client that this counts as design. For example, getting windows to look the way that your windows look in the View House, in Rosario, Argentina—where you subtracted them from the monolithic form of the house and controlled their scale, proportion, and simplicity—is no simple feat. The difference between building in Argentina or Europe and building in the States is clearly significant. It's hard to do those kinds of things here because they demand a level of craftsmanship and industry standards that are less readily available.
ML Certainly, but besides being conscious of the different building cultures in Europe, Latin America, and the States, it's also natural to be conscious of the history of the place where you practice and react against the predominant positions that came before you. In the generation before us, at least for the Los Angeles school, there was an abundance of quirky materialism, where everything was cladded, every detail was exposed, and every volume was cloaked with a complex surface or membrane—not that we think that it wasn't a good direction. There are many interesting things that came out of that generation of architects and their progenies, and some of those buildings could use a cloak. (laughter) We just think there was too much of it, and we don't need to add to that. Instead, we're more interested in things like the weight, volume, and mass of a building.
FG One thing that's apparent in the way you represent your work is your awareness of the historical cycles of the discipline. This leads us, I think, into your vision for the Chicago Architecture Biennial, which you have titled Make New History. Do you see architecture as being cyclical, and, if so, where do you see yourselves in the current cycle?
ML For us, the biennial is about understanding how progress is related to an engagement with history. Ideally, we wish architecture could be less cyclical, less revolutionary, and more continuous in its evolution. At heart, we are more reformist than extremist in our position, and we wish architecture could form a more cohesive collective project, not unlike modern architecture did in the interwar years. Historically, architectural discourse often moved in cyclical patterns because certain individuals or groups were a little too opportunistic, ambitious, and extreme in their attempts to advance their ideas. The result, usually, was that the next generation would rebel against them. The extreme forms this took then led to another extreme reaction from the subsequent generation. One could write a history of twentieth-century architecture based around episodes of opportunism and exaggeration. We're hoping that our Biennial might serve as the first chapter of a new model of history for the twenty-first century.
FG What are the action and reaction today?
SJ We see a younger generation reacting to the overvaluation of digital design and production in the past decade or two. The optimism for digital tools is still there, but there's a new skepticism toward their overriding role. There is a belief that the digital can do a lot, but it can't do everything. And that's where history comes in, because it provides an anchor and a disciplinary framework for the digital prowess we have today. It is not about being cyclical or swinging the pendulum from the future back to the past, but about how history and the development of our tools inform one another in order to make progress. When people hear the word history, many immediately think of postmodern architecture. But that's only the most recent episode in which history has been brought back as an active participant in design. There were many episodes in the twentieth century—Art Nouveau, rationalism, Novecento, and Tendenza—in which history played an important role.
ML Perhaps the biggest problem of modernism was the general perception that it severed itself from what came before. No doubt, there was a group that tried to perpetuate this notion, but it's not representative of all modernist architects. If we go further back in time and look at architecture in the Renaissance and movements like Neoclassicism, both were at the apex of culture and innovation and chose to look back into history. For us, that's a more productive model of historical evolution than modernism's revolutionary one. Modernism is certainly a very important moment in history—and we very much consider ourselves modernists—but the concept that one has to reject the past in order to make the "new" is problematic. I think Aldo Rossi has also said that. If we can identify and understand the strains within modernism, whether it be rationalism or Tendenza, the ones that incorporate things from the past—those are movements within modernism that are more relevant for us, especially today, when there's an abundance of images and information and everything is available right away. We live in an ahistorical moment, and it's moments like our's when deep engagement with history feels more necessary than ever.
FG Right.
ML We don't mean history as something that has a borrowed authority to dignify something unworthy or increase its cultural capital, which was the problem with postmodernism. Nor do we understand history as a set of rules that would tie your hands, which was the problem with the Beaux-Arts—but rather as an understanding of where we are and where we're going that comes from an accrued intelligence built over many years.
FG Can we talk about the Menil Drawing Institute? The current exhibition at the Menil Collection is called The Beginning of Everything, and Roni Horn will have a show there in 2018 called When I Breathe, I Draw. That says something about the role of drawing in contemporary art, and, I think, you guys see drawing as an important part of your practice. Is drawing something that you have an affinity with as a discipline and as a way of thinking about architectural representation? Was that something that excited and interested you in this project?
ML Drawing certainly has an immediacy and directness that we're very fascinated by. I think the establishment of the institute helps to cement the idea that drawing is a practice or a medium of its own, not just a "bridge medium" somehow below or in the service of sculpture or painting. And, yes, drawing also plays an important role in our own practice. We use the latest drafting and modeling programs, but we also draw by hand and build physical models. The latter have a sense of reality and material resistance that computer models can't simulate. And the time it takes to move the pencil across the paper to connect two dots to represent a wall allows one to be cognizant that one is constructing a wall, something that divides or unites, something that has weight and materiality—and that is a very different experience from clicking two dots on a screen with the mouse to draw a wall.
SJ The specificity of the medium in the Drawing Institute was really exciting for us. We're always looking for a way to find that specificity as a starting point. So we were given that assignment: to design a building not only a medium but for a specific set of works of art. That really resonated for us as a design problem from the outset. One way our design responds to drawing is through its use of natural light. All the public spaces on the Menil campus primarily have natural light coming from above, whether it be well-lit spaces such as the Cy Twombly Gallery or dimly lit ones such as the Rothko Chapel, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel, or Dan Flavin's installation at Richmond Hall. They all have natural light coming in from the ceiling. Drawing, being a more direct and immediate medium than others, feels more at home to us in a domestically scaled and lit space. So in our design, natural light enters the public spaces laterally, just like it would through a window in a house. There's a familiarity and directness about laterally transmitted natural light that's different from typical institutional spaces.
FG I imagine that the competition brief for the institute also suggested a host of technical challenges that come with displaying drawings and works on paper. There's a certain material quality in drawing, since paper is a relatively fragile medium. Did that also extend to your approach to scale? I saw on the fact sheet that the institute will be only sixteen feet tall, a very precise number. How did you arrive at that?
SJ We spent a lot of time looking at both the immediate and historical context of not only the Menil collection, but also the Philip Johnson–designed Menil house, which was built in 1950. We have always talked about the Menil Drawing Institute as being somewhere between a residential- and an institutional-scale building. The datum line of our roof is at sixteen feet—which aligns with the height of the average apex of the roofs of the surrounding bungalows and lower than the datum line established by the roof of the neighboring Cy Twombly Gallery. So it came from both thinking conceptually about the problem of the museum being just a little bigger than a house, and the immediacy of what was around it.
ML When we first started the project, the Menil asked us to design specifically for the collection they have. They knew that the collection would expand and grow, but they didn't want a building that could accommodate everything. We also met with its curators to discuss the role of drawing in art today. What is drawing today? That's not an easy question to answer. Is Michael Heizer's work in the desert considered a drawing? In 2012, the Menil had a Richard Serra show with works on paper that are more than forty or fiftyfeet long. Should the building be able to show works of this scale? They decisively rejected the idea of having a building that accommodates everything and instead opted for one that has a specific character tailored for the collection and an architectural personality. And if they want to exhibit a large Richard Serra drawing, they will show it in the Menil Collection building. That decision was very liberating. We knew at that moment that we were on the right path toward the architecture.
SJ Nowadays, every museum wants to be as big and flexible as possible. So I think the Menil's willingness to place real limits on the building was radical for an institution. It's actually kind of unheard of.
ML We also looked at their collection. They have a lot of surrealist and modernist work meant to be hung in salons or houses, somewhere more domestic than a museum. So we said, "Let's create spaces where these pieces look the best." That was the driving idea for us in terms of figuring out the scale, both in the interior, and, as Sharon mentioned, in the context of the prewar bungalows in the area and the Cy Twombly Gallery on the Menil campus. In a way, we hope that the building will blend into the historical strata of design already there. We love the idea that if someone visits the campus in twenty years, they won't be quite sure whether it was built before the Cy Twombly Gallery or after.
FG You're bringing up a really interesting issue: the question of institutional identity versus flexibility. Are these in some sort of tension, or are they even mutually exclusive? I'm thinking about your renovation of the MCA Chicago, which is opening in June, and which is a very different project from the Drawing Institute. How do you handle the tension between a museum's identity and its need for flexibility?
SJ One of the things that's special about the Menil is that it doesn't have a museum store or an auditorium. As a result, they adapt spaces for different functions. So, perhaps a space won't be perfectly tuned for a lecture, but to sit in the foyer of the Menil Collection and hear Charles Ray deliver a lecture—there's something very thrilling about that. It's adaptive and imperfect, but it gets the job done. We want to solve precise technical problems with the right tools, but we like that there are certain things you just can't control. At the MCA Chicago, we've designed what we're calling a "street," a kind of public space on the ground floor that connects a theater, a new café and bar, and a new staircase that leads to an upstairs common area. It took a lot of conversations with consultants and the MCA to ensure that the street will be acoustically well-tuned and function as an active, multi-use space. The idea is that you could have a meeting there, or invite an artist to do an installation; at the same time, it's neither a gallery nor a meeting room. This lack of specific definition was something really interesting to us.
ML The tension between identity and flexibility is really at the core of the master plan we designed for the MCA. At first, we tried to understand and be sympathetic to the intentions of Josef Paul Kleihues, who completed the building only a little more than twenty years ago. He was trying to make a building similar to Friedrich August Stüler's Old National Gallery in Berlin, which sits on a plinth and conveys a certain classical dignity. Looking at Kleihues's building from the outside, there's a certain desire for symmetry that conveys preponderance. But inside, the flow of the building is actually extremely asymmetrical. In the genesis of our master plan, we tried to play off that fissure between the building's intention or identity and its latent usage and flows. This first iteration, which will be completed this June, is a way for us to address that.
FG To what degree would you like the renovation to be legible to visitors? Is it important for us to know where the old stops and the new begins, or do you prefer to blur that distinction to some degree?
SJ Like with our Menil project, we're hoping to blur the boundary between the old and the new. To work on an existing building we have to first cultivate a love and respect for it. Certainly, it's much easier on the Menil campus and slightly more challenging for the Kleihues MCA building. We also see this in a lot of buildings today, especially museums built in the '80s or '90s that are lately being added on to. The recently completed San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by the Norwegian firm Snøhetta, and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown's Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla are two examples that have reached a certain limit in their lifespan, and I think it's critical that architects working on expanding them look at their history and intrinsic qualities. This is something we tried to be very positive about.
FG Your work is very invested in architecture as a form of dialogue and reciprocity between, say, a host building and a renovation, a building and a campus, a building and the city surrounding it. You're also interested in the reciprocity between the present and the past. Going back to the biennial, how did you select the participants, and how are you beginning to shape the frame around their work under the heading of Make New History?
ML At the outset, we were thinking about a general theme and began to look at practices and projects that addressed it. We also began to look to the work we selected to help us articulate what we're thinking about architectural history itself. It soon became clear that it's not about historicism or imposing a metanarrative that explains everything. For example, we very much admired Rem Koolhaas's 2014 Venice Biennale, Fundamentals. But even though we feel connected to many of the works there, the premise of fitting everything within the hundred-year framework Koolhaas used, 1914–2014, is another form of historicism for us. By contrast, Paolo Portoghesi's The Present of the Past, the first Venice Architecture Biennale in 1980, is more interesting to us. Even though we might find fewer commonalities with the work presented back then, we are compelled by its understanding of history as a horizon into which you can have multiple entry points. So we have selected people who are interested in the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, or the nineteenth century; there are also, of course, many people interested in early twentieth-century modernist history. We want to see how they might all come together to form dialogues we couldn't anticipate.
FG Thinking about history and time—what about the future? What's coming up around the corner?
SJ We're doing a new campus for the UCLA Graduate Art Studios in Culver City and we've been talking with Theaster Gates about developing a performance arts building on the South Side of Chicago. One thing we see is that diving deep into cultural projects gives us the opportunity to think on a more urban scale. We're still working on buildings, but I think that programmatically and physically they are beginning to have impact at the urban scale, which is exciting for us.
ML I think it's also about going back to the beginning. We're in a harvest time right now. Tomorrow will be about sowing seeds again. It's important for us not to be afraid of doing that. We still design houses. Like you said, they're a chance to experiment, whereas working on larger projects and dealing with committees doesn't give us the same immediacy and freshness.
FG That's a wonderful nonlinear approach. It's not as if the house projects go away just because you're doing bigger things. It gives your work some dimension, a parallel investigation, and provides continuity between very different projects.
Frank Gesualdi is an associate principal at STUDIOS Architecture. He cofounded EFGH in 2007, and was a senior designer at Diller Scofidio + Renfro. He is currently an adjunct assistant professor at the Pratt Institute.
Originally published in
Featuring interviews with John Giorno, Lidia Yuknavitch, Iman Issa, Eric Baudelaire, Ieva Misevičiūtė, Daniel Borzutzky, and more.
Like many writers, I feel centered when I write, or it might be better to say, when I don't write, when I can't write for whatever reason, I feel, frankly, de-stabilized. It's dangerous for me not to write.
Sigrid Nunez


text: CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ 512K x 16 Static RAM Features The device can also be put into standby mode when deselected (CE1 HIGH or CE2 LOW or both BHE and BLE are HIGH). The input/output pins (I/O0 through I/O15) are placed in a high-impedance state when: deselected (CE1 HIGH or CE2 LOW), outputs are disabled (OE HIGH), both Byte High Enable and Byte Low Enable are disabled (BHE, BLE HIGH), or during a write operation (CE1 LOW, CE2 HIGH and WE LOW). • High Speed — 55 ns and 70 ns availability • Low voltage range: — CY62157CV18: 1.65V–1.95V • Ultra-low active power — Typical Active Current: 0.5 mA @ f = 1 MHz • • • • Writing to the device is accomplished by taking Chip Enables (CE1 LOW and CE2 HIGH) and Write Enable (WE) inputs LOW. If Byte Low Enable (BLE) is LOW, then data from I/O pins (I/O0 through I/O7), is written into the location specified on the address pins (A0 through A18). If Byte High Enable (BHE) is LOW, then data from I/O pins (I/O8 through I/O15) is written into the location specified on the address pins (A0 through A18). — Typical Active Current: 4 mA @ f = fmax (70 ns speed) Low standby power Easy memory expansion with CE1, CE2 and OE features Automatic power-down when deselected CMOS for optimum speed/power Reading from the device is accomplished by taking Chip Enable (CE1 LOW and CE2 HIGH) and Output Enable (OE) LOW while forcing the Write Enable (WE) HIGH. If Byte Low Enable (BLE) is LOW, then data from the memory location specified by the address pins will appear on I/O0 to I/O7. If Byte High Enable (BHE) is LOW, then data from memory will appear on I/O8 to I/O15. See the truth table at the back of this datasheet for a complete description of read and write modes. Functional Description The CY62157CV18 is a high-performance CMOS static RAM organized as 512K words by 16 bits. This device features advanced circuit design to provide ultra-low active current. This is ideal for providing More Battery Life™ (MoBL™) in portable applications such as cellular telephones. The device also has an automatic power-down feature that significantly reduces power consumption by 99% when addresses are not toggling. The CY62157CV18 is available in a 48-ball FBGA package. Logic Block Diagram 512K x 16 RAM Array 2048 X 4096 SENSE AMPS A10 A9 A8 A7 A6 A5 A4 A3 A2 A1 A0 ROW DECODER DATA IN DRIVERS I/O0–I/O7 I/O8–I/O15 COLUMN DECODER A11 A12 A13 A14 A15 A16 A17 A18 BHE WE CE2 CE1 OE BLE Power -Down Circuit BHE BLE CE2 CE1 MoBL, MoBL2, and More Battery Life are trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. Cypress Semiconductor Corporation Document #: 38-05012 Rev. *C • 3901 North First Street • San Jose • CA 95134 • 408-943-2600 Revised October 31, 2001 CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ Pin Configuration[1, 2] FBGA Top View 4 3 1 2 BLE OE A0 I/O8 BHE I/O9 5 6 A1 A2 CE2 A A3 A4 CE1 I/O0 B I/O10 A5 A6 I/O1 I/O2 C VSS I/O11 A17 A7 I/O3 Vccq D VCC I/O12 DNU A16 I/O4 Vssq E I/O14 I/O13 A14 A15 I/O5 I/O6 F I/O15 NC A12 A13 WE I/O7 G A18 A8 A9 A10 A11 Maximum Ratings (Above which the useful life may be impaired. For user guidelines, not tested.) Storage Temperature ................................. –65°C to +150°C Ambient Temperature with Power Applied............................................. –55°C to +125°C Supply Voltage to Ground Potential ............... –0.2V to +2.4V NC H DC Voltage Applied to Outputs in High Z State[3 .............................................]–0.2V to VCC + 0.2V DC Input Voltage[3] ................................ −0.2V to VCC + 0.2V Output Current into Outputs (LOW)............................. 20 mA Static Discharge Voltage .......................................... >2001V (per MIL-STD-883, Method 3015) Latch-Up Current .....................................................>200 mA Operating Range Device CY62157CV18 Range Ambient Temperature VCC Industrial –40°C to +85°C 1.65V to 1.95V Product Portfolio Power Dissipation (Industrial) Operating (ICC) VCC Range f = 1 MHz f = fmax Standby (ISB2) Product Min. Typ.[4] Max. Speed Typ.[4] Max. Typ.[4] Max. Typ.[4] Max. CY62157CV18 1.65V 1.8V 1.95V 55 ns 0.5 mA 3 mA 5 mA 15 mA 1.5 µA 20 µA 70 ns 0.5 mA 3 mA 4 mA 12 mA Notes: 1. NC pins are not connected to the die. 2. E3 (DNU) can be left as NC or VSS to ensure proper application. 3. VIL(min.) = –2.0V for pulse durations less than 20 ns. 4. Typical values are included for reference only and are not guaranteed or tested. Typical values are measured at VCC = VCC(typ.), TA = 25°C. Document #: 38-05012 Rev. *C Page 2 of 11 CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ Electrical Characteristics Over the Operating Range CY62157CV18-55 Parameter Description Test Conditions Min. Typ. VOH Output HIGH Voltage IOH = –0.1 mA VCC = 1.65V VOL Output LOW Voltage IOL = 0.1 mA VCC = 1.65V VIH Input HIGH Voltage VIL Input LOW Voltage IIX Input Leakage Current GND < VI < VCC IOZ Output Leakage Current GND < VO < VCC, Output Disabled VCC Operating Supply Current f = fMAX = 1/tRC ICC f = 1 MHz ISB1 ISB2 Automatic CE CE1 > VCC – 0.2V or CE2 < 0.2V, Power-Down Current— VIN > VCC – 0.2V or VIN < 0.2V, f = 0, VCC = 1.95V CMOS Inputs CY62157CV18-70 Min. Typ.[4] Max. 1.4 Max. Unit 1.4 V 0.2 V 1.4 VCC +0.2V 0.2 1.4 VCC +0.2V V –0.2 0.4 –0.2 0.4 V –1 +1 –1 +1 µA –1 +1 –1 +1 µA VCC = 1.95V IOUT = 0 mA CMOS levels Automatic CE CE1 > VCC − 0.2V, CE2< 0.2V Power-Down Current— VIN > VCC – 0.2V, VIN < 0.2V) f = fMAX (Address and Data Only), CMOS Inputs f = 0 (OE, WE, BHE, and BLE) [4] 5 15 4 12 mA 0.5 3 0.5 3 mA 1.5 20 1.5 20 µA Capacitance[5] Parameter Description CIN Input Capacitance COUT Output Capacitance Test Conditions Max. Unit 6 pF 8 pF TA = 25°C, f = 1 MHz, VCC = VCC(typ) Thermal Resistance Description Thermal Resistance (Junction to Ambient)[5] Test Conditions Symbol BGA Unit Still Air, soldered on a 4.25 x 1.125 inch, 4-layer printed circuit board ΘJA 55 °C/W ΘJC 16 °C/W Thermal Resistance (Junction to Case)[5] Note: 5. Tested initially and after any design or process changes that may affect these parameters. Document #: 38-05012 Rev. *C Page 3 of 11 CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ AC Test Loads and Waveforms R1 VCC ALL INPUT PULSES OUTPUT VCC Typ R2 30 pF 90% 10% GND Rise Time = 1 V/ns 90% 10% Fall Time = 1 V/ns INCLUDING JIG AND SCOPE Equivalent to: THÉVENIN EQUIVALENT RTH OUTPUT V Parameters 1.8V Unit R1 13500 R2 10800 RTH 6000 Ohms Ohms Ohms VTH 0.80 Volts Data Retention Characteristics (Over the Operating Range) Parameter Description VDR VCC for Data Retention ICCDR Data Retention Current tCDR[5] Chip Deselect to Data Retention Time tR[6] Operation Recovery Time Conditions Min. Typ.[4] 1.0 VCC= 1.0V CE1 > VCC – 0.2V, CE2 < 0.2V, VIN > VCC – 0.2V or VIN < 0.2V 1 Max. Unit 1.95 V 10 µA 0 ns tRC ns Data Retention Waveform[7] DATA RETENTION MODE VCC VCC, min. tCDR VDR > 1.0 V VCC, min. tR CE1 or BHE,BLE or CE2 Notes: 6. Full Device operation requires linear VCC ramp from VDR to VCC(min.) > 100 us or stable at VCC(min.) > 100 µs. 7. BHE.BLE is the AND of both BHE and BLE. Chip can be deselected by either disabling the chip enable signals or by disabling both BHE and BLE. Document #: 38-05012 Rev. *C Page 4 of 11 CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ Switching Characteristics Over the Operating Range[8] 55 ns Parameter Description Min. 70 ns Max. Min. Max. Unit READ CYCLE tRC Read Cycle Time tAA Address to Data Valid 55 tOHA Data Hold from Address Change tACE CE1 LOW and CE2 HIGH to Data Valid tDOE OE LOW to Data Valid tLZOE OE LOW to Low Z[9] 10 tLZCE 10 25 5 OE HIGH to High Z CE1 LOW and CE2 HIGH to Low Z 10 [9, 10] 70 ns 35 ns ns 25 10 ns ns tHZCE CE1 HIGH and CE2 LOW to High Z tPU CE1 LOW and CE2 HIGH to Power-Up tPD CE1 HIGH and CE2 LOW to Power-Down 55 70 ns tDBE BLE / BHE LOW to Data Valid 55 70 ns [9] tLZBE BLE / BHE LOW to Low Z tHZBE BLE / BHE HIGH to HIGH Z[9, 10] 20 ns ns 5 20 [9] ns 70 55 [9, 10] tHZOE 70 55 0 25 0 5 ns 5 20 ns ns 25 ns [11] WRITE CYCLE tWC Write Cycle Time 55 70 ns tSCE CE1 LOW and CE2 HIGH to Write End 45 60 ns tAW Address Set-Up to Write End 45 60 ns tHA Address Hold from Write End 0 0 ns tSA Address Set-Up to Write Start 0 0 ns tPWE WE Pulse Width 45 50 ns tBW BLE / BHE LOW to Write End 45 60 ns tSD Data Set-Up to Write End 25 30 ns tHD Data Hold from Write End 0 0 ns [9, 10] tHZWE WE LOW to High Z tLZWE WE HIGH to Low Z[9] 20 5 25 10 ns ns Notes: 8. Test conditions assume signal transition time of 3 ns or less, timing reference levels of VCC(typ)/2, input pulse levels of 0 to VCC(typ.), and output loading of the specified IOL/IOH and 30-pF load capacitance. 9. At any given temperature and voltage condition, tHZCE is less than tLZCE, tHZBE is less than tLZBE, tHZOE is less than tLZOE, and tHZWE is less than tLZWE for any given device 10. tHZOE, tHZCE, tHZBE, and tHZWE transitions are measured when the outputs enter a high impedance state. 11. The internal write time of the memory is defined by the overlap of WE, CE = VIL, BHE and/or BLE = VIL, CE2 = VIH. All signals must be ACTIVE to initiate a write and any of these signals can terminate a write by going INACTIVE. The data input set-up and hold timing should be referenced to the edge of the signal that terminates the write. Document #: 38-05012 Rev. *C Page 5 of 11 CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ Switching Waveforms Read Cycle No. 1 (Address Transition controlled)[12, 13] tRC ADDRESS tOHA DATA OUT tAA DATA VALID PREVIOUS DATA VALID Read Cycle No. 2 (OE controlled)[13, 14] ADDRESS tRC CE1 tPD tHZCE CE2 tACE BHE/BLE tDBE tHZBE tLZBE OE tHZOE tDOE DATA OUT tLZOE HIGH IMPEDANCE HIGH IMPEDANCE DATA VALID tLZCE VCC SUPPLY CURRENT ICC tPU 50% 50% ISB Notes: 12. Device is continuously selected. OE, CE1 = VIL, BHE and/or BLE = VIL, CE2 = VIH. 13. WE is HIGH for read cycle. 14. Address valid prior to or coincident with CE1, BHE, BLE transition LOW and CE2 transition HIGH. Document #: 38-05012 Rev. *C Page 6 of 11 CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ Switching Waveforms (continued) Write Cycle No. 1(WE Controlled) [11, 15, 16] tWC ADDRESS tSCE CE1 CE2 tAW tHA tSA tPWE WE tBW BHE/BLE OE tSD DATA I/O tHD DATAIN VALID NOTE 17 tHZOE Write Cycle No. 2 (CE1 or CE2 Controlled) [11, 15, 16] tWC ADDRESS tSCE CE1 CE2 tSA tAW tHA tPWE WE tBW BHE/BLE OE tSD DATA I/O tHD DATAIN VALID NOTE 17 tHZOE Notes: 15. Data I/O is high impedance if OE = VIH. 16. If CE1 goes HIGH and CE2 goes LOW simultaneously with WE = VIH, the output remains in a high-impedance state. 17. During this period, the I/Os are in output state and input signals should not be applied. Document #: 38-05012 Rev. *C Page 7 of 11 CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ Switching Waveforms (continued) [16] Write Cycle No. 3 (WE Controlled, OE LOW) tWC ADDRESS tSCE CE1 CE2 tBW BHE/BLE tAW tHA tSA tPWE WE tSD DATAI/O NOTE 17 tHD DATAIN VALID tLZWE tHZWE Write Cycle No. 4 (BHE/BLE Controlled, OE LOW) [16] tWC ADDRESS CE1 CE2 tSCE tAW tHA tBW BHE/BLE tSA tPWE WE tSD DATA I/O NOTE 17 Document #: 38-05012 Rev. *C tHD DATAIN VALID Page 8 of 11 CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ Typical DC and AC Characteristics (Typical values are included for reference only and are not guaranteed or tested. Typical values are measured at VCC = VCC(typ.), TA = 25°C) Standby Current vs. Supply Voltage Operating Current vs. Supply Voltage 3.0 6.0 (f = fmax, 55 ns) ICC (mA) (f = fmax, 70 ns) 4.0 2.5 ISB (µA) MoBL2 5.0 MoBL2 2.0 1.5 3.0 1.0 2.0 0.5 1.0 (f = 1 MHz) 0.0 1.65 1.80 SUPPLY VOLTAGE (V) 0 1.65 1.95 1.80 1.95 SUPPLY VOLTAGE (V) Access Time vs. Supply Voltage 40 MoBL2 35 TAA (ns) 30 25 20 15 10 1.65 1.95 1.80 SUPPLY VOLTAGE (V) Truth Table CE1 CE2 WE OE BHE BLE H X X X X X X L X X X Inputs/Outputs Mode Power High Z Deselect/Power-Down Standby (ISB) X High Z Deselect/Power-Down Standby (ISB) X X X X H H High Z Deselect/Power-Down Standby (ISB) L H H L L L Data Out (I/O0–I/O15) Read Active (ICC) L H H L H L Data Out (I/O0–I/O7); High Z (I/O8–I/O15) Read Active (ICC) L H H L L H High Z (I/O0–I/O7); Data Out (I/O8–I/O15) Read Active (ICC) L H H H L H High Z Output Disabled Active (ICC) L H H H H L High Z Output Disabled Active (ICC) L H H H L L High Z Output Disabled Active (ICC) L H L X L L Data In (I/O0–I/O15) Write Active (ICC) L H L X H L Data In High Z (I/O0–I/O7); (I/O8–I/O15) Write Active (ICC) L H L X L H High Z Data In (I/O0–I/O7); (I/O8–I/O15) Write Active (ICC) Document #: 38-05012 Rev. *C Page 9 of 11 CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ Ordering Information Speed (ns) Ordering Code Package Name Package Type Operating Range 55 CY62157CV18LL-55BAI BA48F 48-Ball Fine Pitch BGA Industrial 70 CY62157CV18LL-70BAI Package Diagram 48-Ball (6 mm x 10 mm x 1.2 mm) Fine Pitch BGA BA48F 51-85128-*A Document #: 38-05012 Rev. *C Page 10 of 11 © Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, 2001. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Cypress Semiconductor Corporation assumes no responsibility for the use of any circuitry other than circuitry embodied in a Cypress Semiconductor product. Nor does it convey or imply any license under patent or other rights. Cypress Semiconductor does not authorize its products for use as critical components in life-support systems where a malfunction or failure may reasonably be expected to result in significant injury to the user. The inclusion of Cypress Semiconductor products in life-support systems application implies that the manufacturer assumes all risk of such use and in doing so indemnifies Cypress Semiconductor against all charges. CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ Document Title:CY62157CV18 MoBL2™ 512K x 16 Static RAM Document Number: 38-05012 REV. ECN NO. Issue Date Orig. of Change Description of Change ** 106158 04/06/01 MGN New Data Sheet, replaces CY62157BV18. *A 107242 07/31/01 MGN Changing from Preliminary to Final. *B 109231 08/31/01 MGN Add comment on front page about Active Current at different frequencies. *C 110574 11/02/01 MGN Improved tDOE from 35 ns to 25 ns (@55 ns). Added Typical DC & AC Characteristics. Format standardization Document #: 38-05012 Rev. *C Page 11 of 11


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Contact us
JAMES I, KING OF SCOTLAND, and Joan Beaufort
] [
Born on 10 DEC 1394 in Dumferline, Fife, Scotland; son of
ROBERT III (Stuart) [F4522460] and Annabella DRUMMOND [F4522461]
. He was born into a world of political intrigue and power struggles. In 1402 his elder brother, David, was starved to death in prison at Falkland in Fife.
In 1406, before the death of his father, Prince James was sent to France for his own safety, principally from his uncle, Duke of Albany, who had already murdered his elder brother, David. While on the way to France, James was captured by English shipping off King's Lynn before he ever reached France. He was handed him over to Henry IV, King of England, who imprisoned him in the Tower of London and demanded a ransom.
His father Robert III died in 1406, said to have died from grief over the capture of James. James was made King of Scotland on 4 APR 1406, when the Scottish Parliament declared him to be king; but in his absence, his uncle, Robert Duke of Albany, was appointed to Regent to rule in his behalf. Albany made no attempt to obtain James' release. In fact, Robert of Albany secured the release of his own son Murdoch, who was captured at the same time, but did not make the same gesture for James.
James spent the next eighteen years of his life in the captivity at the English Court, in Windsor Castle and in secure manor houses near London.. Henry saw that he received an education appropriate to his royal birth. James even eventually served the English military in France.
By the time James was eighteen, he was energetic, cultivated, and accomplished. He loved music, wrote poetry, and was a fine athelete. One day in looking from his window, he saw a beautiful young woman, the Lady Joan Beaufort, a close relative of Henry IV, strolling in the gardens below, and fell in love with her. Inspired by love, he wrote the poem
The King's Quair
, an allegorical romance and one of the earliest major works of Scottish literature.
After the death of his uncle in 1420, and also the death of Henry V, his ransom was negotiated, and the ransom of Ł40,000 was eventually paid.
He married his love, Joan BEAUFORT, on 2 February 1424 in (London-S2)(Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland-S1). It is probable that due to their pending marriage and the agreements that James must have made that the Treaty of London was made in December 1423, releasing James for ransom.
When James returned to Scotland in 1424, he took his young bride with him. They would have eight children, including the future James II of Scotland, and Margaret, wife of Louis XI of France.
James was formally crowned King of Scotland at Scone Abbey, Perthshire, on (2)(21) MAY 1424. Upon his return to Scotland he found the country in chaos. James was determined to restore order in his kingdom. He immediately took strong actions to regain authority and control. Over the next seven years, he reformed Scottish administration. He founded what became The Court of Sessions. His energy and ruthlessness antagonized many of the nobles who had taken advantage of his absence to expand their own power. James was particularly determined to curb his rivals descended from his grandfather Robert II. He confiscated estates, arrested some and exectued others.
Among those executed were the Albany family, who had opposed his actions. The execution of Murdoch, Duke of Albany, and two of Murdoch's sons took place on May 24, 1425 at Castle Hill, Stirling.
He proceeded to rule Scotland with a firm hand, and achieved numerous financial and legal reforms. For instance, for the purpose of trade with other nations, foreign exchange could only be exchanged within Scottish borders. He also tried to remodel the Parliament of Scotland along English lines. However, in foreign policy, he renewed the Auld Alliance, a Scottish-French (and therefore anti-English) alliance, in 1428.
In 1429, James received the submission of Alexander, Lord of the Isles at the High Altar at Holyrood Abbey.
His strong hand, though effective, upset many people. During the later years of his reign, his claim to the throne was even brought into question. James I's grandfather, Robert II, had married twice and the awkward circumstances of the first marriage, from which James was descended, led to it being disputed. Conflict broke out between the descendants of the first marriage and the unquestionably legitimate descendants of the second marriage over who should be on the Scottish throne.
The situation was made worse by the fact that after 1431 James became increasingly lazy in terms of government.
Matters came to a head on 21 FEB 1437 in Blackfriars Monastery in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. He was surprised by a group of discontented lords led by Sir Robert Graham and by his own uncle, Walter, Earl of Atholl and brother of Albany, a son of Robert II's second marriage. James was assassinated and and his queen Joan was badly injured.
He had attempted to escape his assailants through a sewer. However, three days previously, he had the other end of the drain blocked up because it was connected to the tennis court outside, and balls were in the habit of getting lost in it. He was cornered and brutally stabbed to death. James was buried nearby in the Carthuisian Monastery, which he had founded.
A wave of executions, of those who were part of the plot, followed, in March 1437. Among those executed were James's uncle, Walter, Earl of Atholl, and his grandson, Robert, Master of Atholl.
Joan BEAUFORT. [
Born about 1398 in Westminster, Middlesex, England; daughter of
John BEAUFORT, 1st Earl of Somerset [F4522462], and Margaret HOLLAND [F4522463]
. Joan met James I, King of Scotland in London while he was imprisoned at the English Court. They were married on 2 February 1424 in (London-S2)(Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland-S1). James was murdered in 1437. Joan married James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn, in 1439. They had one child: John Stewart (John of Balveny), who would later become the first Earl of Atholl. She died on 15 July 1445 in Dunbar Castle, Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland; and was buried beside James I at the Carthusian Monastery in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland.
CHILDREN of JAMES I and Joan Beaufort:
Margaret STEWART. Born in 1424. She married Louise XI, King of France.
Isabel STEWART. She married Francis I de Dreaux of Brittany in 1442. She died in 1494.
Mary STEWART. She married Wolfheart de Borssele, Lord of Campvere. She died in 1465.
Eleanor STEWART. Born in 1427. She married Segismund, Archduke of Austria. She died in 1480.
[F1130615]. Joan STEWART
(STUART). Called "the Mute." Born in 1428 in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. She married James DOUGLAS III, Earl of Morton [F1130614] before 15 May 1459. She died after 22 June 1493 in Scotland
Annabella STEWART. She married George Gordon, Earl of Huntly .
James II King of Scotland
. James II Stewart (Stuart). Born on 16 October 1430 at Holyrood Abbey; twin of Alexander. He married Margaret of Guelders in 1449. He died on 3 August 1460 in Roxburgh Castle, Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotland.
Alexander STEWART. Duke of Rothesay. Born 16 October 1430 at Holyrood Abbey; twin of James.
[S1]. Ancestors of William Cahoon. Research of Terri Hamblin. Correspondence of 9 OCT 2005.
[S2]. Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_I_of_Scotland and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Beaufort%2C_Queen_of_Scotland
[S3]. Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. Scottish monarchs family tree. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_monarchs_family_tree


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Can I use my credit card in St Helena?
Please note that the option of using credit and debit cards on St Helena is limited. Cash is the best form of making payments locally.
There are currently no ATM cash machines on St Helena. A limited number of shops and businesses accept visa/ mastercard for payment (a commission is usually charged).
Can I rent a Car?
It is HIGHLY recommended that you book in advance as it can be difficult to book a car once on the island because of the great demand, not only from visitors but returning St Helenians as well.
Car hire costs from GBP12.00 – GBP20.00 per day. (Delivery & collection fees may be charged). This rate includes insurance however, any minor damages e.g. broken headlight, wing-mirror, etc, will have to be paid for by the client. Before driving – show your licence at the police station in Jamestown where they record details of your driver's licence.
What clothing should I take with me?
Casual informal clothing is appropriate, however it is advisable to bring a jersey, light-weight rain jacket and good walking shoes if you are contemplating doing any of our interesting walks. Semi-formal clothing is also suggested for some evenings.
What form of communication is there?
Sure (SA) is the telecommunications provider for St Helena, offering services such as international direct dialling, internet & email facilities, information service, facsimile, television, flexible access, national and international telephone.
What currency is used?
The St Helena Pound is used on the island which is fixed at parity with the British Pound Sterling, which is accepted on the island.
Is St Helena Duty Free?
St Helena is not a duty-free port.
Duty Free Allowance
Visitors arriving in St Helena may bring with them the following:
1.Spirits, strong liqueurs over 22% volume, 1 litre and wine x 2 litres, or 12 x 340ml bottles/cans of beer/lager
2.Perfumed spirits & toilet water not exceeding 250 ml
3.Cigarettes not exceeding 200, or
4.Other tobacco goods not exceeding in all 250 grams
Persons under the age of 18 years cann ot claim the duty free allowance of alcoholic liquors and persons under the age of 16 years cannot claim the duty free allowance of cigarettes and other tobacco goods.
On which side of the road must I drive?
Most roads are single lane. Etiquette requires the driver coming down to make way for up-coming traffic. Drive on the left-hand side of the road. The drink drive laws are strictly applied with a limit of 50µg of alcohol per 100ml of breath. The safest course is not to drink and drive.
Speed Limits: Unless otherwise stated, normal speed limits are 30mph. Road signs are shown in miles per hour and not kilometres per hour. In Jamestown the speed limit is 20mph.
Can I eat Out?
There is a variety of St Helena local dishes for the visitors to enjoy such as fishcakes, black puddings, pilau, coconut fingers, pumpkin pudding and pumpkin fritters. For more information visit the Tourist Office. Visitors are advised to make eating reservations in advance for evening meals.
What is the Electricity Supply like?
The electricity supply on St Helena is 240V, 50Hz. The standard electrical socket is the 13-amp flat pin as used in the United Kingdom.
Who do I call in an emergency?
In case of emergency, dial 911 for Ambulance and 999 for Police, Fire or Sea Rescue.
What are the entry requirements?
All visitors must have valid passports. Return tickets and pre-booked accommodation.
A fee of £12.00 is payable for all visitors over twelve years disembarking at St Helena. Remember to have proof of your medical insurance with you.
Do I need insurance?
Before leaving home you should arrange travel, personal accident, additional medical insurance and baggage insurance to cover the journey. You will be asked to produce proof of medical insurance by the immigration officer if you intend to stay longer than 48 hours. Please remember to have it with your passport.
What language is spoken?
English is the only language spoken on St Helena, although most St Helenians speak their own dialect of the English language.
Where Is St Helena?
St Helena is situated in the South Atlantic Ocean, 5° 43′ west and 15° 56′ south, 1,200 miles (1,950km) from the south-west coast of Africa, and 1,800 miles (2,900km) from the coast of South America. The nearest land is Ascension Island, which lies 703 miles (1,125km) to the north-west. The island is 47 square miles (122 square km), ten and a half miles (17km) long and six and a half miles (10km) wide.


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Oakwood Opens Second Branded Property in Beijing
SINGAPORE – Nov. 1, 2016 – Oakwood Asia Pacific Ltd, which manages the finest serviced apartments for business and leisure travelers, announced the opening of its second Oakwood-branded property in Beijing, Oakwood Residence Damei Beijing.
Located within the Damei Centre, a multi-use complex consisting of four high-rise towers with serviced apartments, grade A commercial offices and a retail centre, Oakwood Residence Damei Beijing is conveniently located east of the Central Business District, 20 minutes from Beijing International Airport and within walking distance to subway line 6.
"Oakwood is proud of its 16-year history in China, starting with our first branded property in Guangzhou through this, our eighth branded property in this key market," said Dean Schreiber, managing director, Oakwood Asia Pacific, Ltd. "Beijing is a bustling city and a gateway to the rest of China, which drives strong demand for serviced apartments. Oakwood Residence Damei Beijing offers our guests elegant accommodations and service levels that will exceed expectations."
Oakwood Residence Damei Beijing is the only serviced apartment in Beijing that has its own in-house natural hot spring water supply. Expansive city views are available from floor-to-ceiling windows with the apartments situated from level 23 to 35 in the building complex. A high-efficiency air purification system is installed.
The 171 stylish, contemporary serviced residences range from studios to three-bedroom apartments and offer an elegant range of amenities to ensure each resident's stay is comfortable. Residents will enjoy a sense of complete comfort and privacy with 24-hour security and reception services, 24-hour fitness centre housing the full range of Life Fitness cardio and strengthening equipment and a children's playroom.
In addition to the first-class residence facilities, the property offers in-house dining with Treat Restaurant & Bar. Situated on the fifth floor with high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows, fine city views complement the delicious international and Asian dishes served.
To celebrate its opening, Oakwood Residence Damei Beijing is offering special introductory rates starting from RMB909 per night with a choice of Studio, 1-, 2- and 3-Bedroom Apartments from November 2016 until end of February 2017.


text:
Only 15% of legal claims against doctors succeed
Around 85% of medical negligence claims find in favour of the doctor, a new review by a medical defence organisation has revealed.
The Medical Defence Union has said that the doctors and patients are having to endure considerable stress and anxiety due to what it calls the 'outdated and adverserial legal system'.
In a review of its Annual Reports 2016,the MDU said that increase in claims since 2012 'doesn't serve anyone well – doctors or patients.'
MDU chief executive, Dr Christine Tomkins, said: 'The costs for the MDU of carefully investigating a case and satisfying the claimant's lawyers there is no case to answer are significant. On top of that, when we do pay compensation, the size of awards are still rising unsustainably. Claims for £10 million or more are no longer unusual. The recent drastic drop in the discount rate to -0.75% has made matters very much worse.'
MDU chairman, Dr Peter Williams continued, "The current legal system has encouraged a dramatic increase in the number of claims being brought against our members and for the minority of claims where compensation is paid, the sums are rising beyond doctors' ability to pay for them. This has led to some doctors having second thoughts about taking on higher risk activities.'
It comes as Government changes to the 'discount rate', the formula for calculating compensation pay outs for victims in personal injury suits, is set to lead to soaring indemnity rates this winter, which the GPC warns could make general practice 'untenable' by autumn.
Readers' comments (9)
I am not certain, but I think a Doctor can sue someone for making a false allegation / lying. This would have to be proven, either in or out of court. So one would need to have proof / evidence that someone had lied related to the complaint. An example could be when a complainant made false allegations relating to a consultation that had been recorded. The issue is that the media does not like the idea of doctors suing complainants. Secondly there would be no point in doing this unless the respective patient / complainant had significant funds.
The sad fact is that all 100% had their premiums upped by anything from 50-100%.
Indemnity providers should not raise premiums when the case closes. Unfortunately, they do not tell you of the case having terminated. If you try to move to another Insurer you suddenly find out that a case that was settled in 2007 is still listed as on-going on your record which is a definite deterrent for the new Insurer although they do know the game as they are part of the cartel.


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From Rupa Manjari devi dasi – 16 August, 2015:
"I will tell you that one thing I find very unethical on behalf of the Prabhupadanugas is that they use the July 9th letter as their "mandate" for permanent ISKCON initiations as ritvik. This I find dishonest because in the language of the letter it says that names of new disciples are to be sent "to Srila Prabhupada". This means while He is still physically present on earth. To say this is an order for permanent post-Lifetime ritvik diksa is simply not correct."
"The name of a newly initiated disciple should be sent by the representative who has accepted him or her to Srila Prabhupada, to be included in His Divine Grace"s "Initiated Disciples" book." July 9th Letter excerpt
Sent to Srila Prabhpada for WHAT? To be included in the initiated Disciples book – something that anyone can do. Let's not get lost in the semantics. Let's be practical here. Your reasoning is over-intelligent.
The acceptance of the disciples has already been established by the representatives; the name is now TO BE included in the initiated disciples book.
Your argument fails to refute nor even ADDRESS the fact that the newly initiated disciple was ALREADY accepted on behalf of Srila Prabhupada without him being involved whatsoever – PRIOR to whether or not the name was to be sent to him. Thus your argument falls apart here; you have TOTALLY MISSED THE NAIL. The nail being the fact that Srila Prabhupada still had no physical involvement whatsoever in the acceptance of the newly initiated disciple; the technicalities of the names being sent to him or her or you or me is IMMATERIAL – IRRELEVANT to the very issue!
Ys, Vidura dasa


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China Is Now the Top Source of Foreign Tourists to Japan
Sino-Japanese relations remain frosty amid ongoing territorial tensions and in the wake of China's massive military parade lauding Japan's World War II defeat. But Chinese tourists are flocking to the Land of the Rising Sun in unprecedented numbers, according to newly-released data.
China has surpassed South Korea to become the largest source of foreign tourists to Japan, according to recent data from the Japan National Tourism Organization.
About 4.3 million mainland Chinese tourists visited Japan from January to October this year, comprising about 25% of all tourists to Japan during that period, the agency said. The figure is double the number of tourists who visited during the January-to-October period last year.
South Korea had the second largest contingency for travelers to Japan, with 3.2 million tourists from January to October this year, the agency's data showed. Taiwan was third, with 3.1 million tourists over the same period.
More In Tourism
- Chinese Tourists Encouraged to Behave Ahead of Mass Vacation
- Angry Chinese Lady Scolds 'Shameful' Chinese Tourists
- Oppa, Suizhou Style: Chinese City Woos Tourists With Psy-Inspired Video
- Chinese Tourists' Lunar New Year Swag: Toilet Seats Are Out, Condoms Are In
- Chinese Tourists to Japan Doubled in 2015
A weakened yen, along with a downturn in Chinese travelers to Hong Kong, has helped fuel Chinese tourism in Japan. Relaxed visa rules for Chinese citizens, which went into effect in January, have also helped make cross-border travel to Japan easier.
Among mainland tourists who traveled to Japan from July to September, nearly 67% were making their first visit to Japan, according to the Japanese agency. Their main expenditures included accommodation and shopping, with the average shopping expenditure totaling 152,991 yen per person (about 7,960 yuan or about $1,244).
During the October Golden Week holiday alone, Chinese tourists in Japan spent more than $830 million on shopping, according to the state-run China Daily.
According to the China Tourism Research Institute, China had 61.9 million outbound travelers in the first half of 2015, up 12% compared with the same period in 2014.
--Alyssa Abkowitz. Follow her on Twitter @AlyssaAbkowitz.


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Be A Part Of Our Mission
The YMCA achieves its missions one person at a time. The greatest source of energy for the YMCA is our staff. Our staff contribute to the advancement of the YMCA vision by meeting the needs of the people in our communities. Guided daily by the core values of Caring, Honesty, Respect, and Responsibility, our staff create an environment where everyone aspires to be their best.
Where can you find meaningful work that offers rich rewards? Where can you, simultaneously, build a better future for yourself and for kids, families and your community? Where can you work with people who thrive in a values-based environment of Caring, Honesty, Respect, and Responsibility?
All of this can be found at a YMCA. YMCAs get the job done through staff members who are carefully selected for their interests, skills and enthusiasm. With over 150 years of experience, YMCAs know that the mission is achieved one person at a time-carried out in the hearts and hands of each caring and competent staff member.
Believing that people deserve the best, YMCAs offer competitive wage and benefit packages:
- Health & dental insurance
- Disability and life insurance
- Funded retirement plan
- Flexible work schedule
- Free YMCA membership
- Discounted program fees
- Paid time off and holidays
Employee/Volunteer Code of Conduct
The YMCA Retirement Fund
One of the primary benefits of working for a YMCA is that you will be enrolled in the Retirement Plan, the pension program for almost all YMCAs in the United States. In the course of your YMCA career, if you move from one YMCA to another, your retirement savings move with you because they are always at the YMCA Retirement Fund. Over time, contributions, combined with the interest earned, can help you build a nest egg for the future and plan for a comfortable retirement.
Apply your experience, knowledge, creativity and energy to discover new talents within yourself as you make a difference in the community around you. The YMCA fosters an environment built upon teamwork, staff development and community. The YMCA provides a fun, safe and caring environment where you can build your career. Reach your greatest potential with the YMCA.