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OK, I promised Part One would cover lessons from buses, but I think a short diversion is appropriate. Earlier this week, I was reflecting on an imagined London with cars as the unwelcome guests on our streets, and cycling and walking the ‘normal’ modes assumed to have priority. It’s worth doing this thought experiment every now and then, to highlight what our streets could be like and just how far away we are. For example, some authorities in the UK still have a ‘hierarchy of modes’, including my own local council. These tend to start with pedestrians and disabled travellers at the top (most important), followed by cyclists, followed by public transport users… with most car trips at the bottom. My local council’s better than most in the UK, but even here the streets look nothing like they would if we really put pedestrians, cyclists and disabled people first. On my street – pretty good in many respects, no footway car parking for one thing – pedestrians get one third of the space and cars two-thirds, with cyclists squeezed between parked and moving cars if both are present. Although only half the residents own cars, with very few driving to work, and there is little through motor traffic, cars can still dominate the street visually and physically. If I see kids cycling, they’re on the pavement. Although the car is so unsuited for mass urban transit – so unwieldy, so inefficient, so dangerous, so heavy – mass motorisation has powerfully marginalised other modes. The threats and inconvenience the car creates are why we bow to it. This example illustrates the persistence of what Professor John Urry has called the ‘system of automobility’, or, for brevity here, the ‘car system’. I’d tend to stress the human dimension more than Professor Urry does. A term well used on Twitter lately has been ‘contested space’. Even when there is no obvious struggle over space, it’s still there – it’s what makes up the car system. It’s the action of people – all of us, as engineers, designers, policy-makers, academics, planners, drivers, pedestrians, cyclists – often without any conscious thought at all. Sometimes it is explicitly sanctioned, sometimes not. The Highway Code mandates pedestrian priority in this situation; yet contravention is expected and accepted. The car system is made up of many, many everyday choices: – a ‘cycling scheme’ makes cyclists give way to side roads – cars park on the footway or cycleway, legally or illegally – slow, multi-stage crossings are installed to speed up cars – a car driver overtakes a cyclist with inches to spare – academic work studies how to make pedestrians wear hi-vis – thousands of injuries and deaths are treated as unavoidable – a car driver tailgates another driver to make her speed up – a car driver beeps a pedestrian crossing a side road A personal experience of this last one brought the assumption of car priority home to me. Driven at and beeped at on the shopping street near my home, I had to jump out of the way, enraged and shouting ‘It’s my right of way!’ Which it was. I felt like the injured party, which I was. However, looking around, I wondered if through the eyes of others, I was a crazy lady getting in the way of cars, standing in the road and shouting. People averted their eyes as if I was about to run up to them yelling some nonsense about ‘Rule 170’. Much of the car system is taken for granted, just happens. Hence when travelling around the country, and seeing footways full of cars, I feel shocked because at least where I live, that’s been stopped and there’s an assumption that footways are for people, not parked cars. But most places it hasn’t. And where that happens, many people just expect to have to step into the road and walk around parked cars. People get used to the idea that protecting an inanimate piece of metal and glass is put ahead of their own safety. We learn from how the system works on an everyday basis, whatever the Highway Code says. As a sociologist, I find the car system fascinating and weird. There are many items that are what economists call ‘positional goods’ – a key benefit of the object is derived from having something that others don’t, something that is either physically or socially scarce. Fashion largely works on this basis. The opposite is the Internet. If I have the Internet, and virtually no one else does, it’s rubbish – the benefit of the Internet comes from everyone using – and often, contributing to – it. But if I buy a new and expensive pair of shoes, and see many other people wearing them, I’m not going to be happy. Part of what I’m paying for is the hope that you don’t have the shoes. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/tra04-pedal-cycle-traffic But motor vehicles take positional goods to a new level. Having a new pair of shoes doesn’t entitle me to kick others off the street. Cars, on the other hand, marginalise non-users not just socially but also physically. This can be seen in the destruction of cycling in post-war Britain. I never tire of showing this graph in lectures and presentations; the first time I saw it myself I was shocked. I’d imagined cycling had gently declined – but no. As the level of driving exploded, cycling went from mainstream to marginal in only 12 years. At the same time, the risk of dying per km cycled tripled – an incredible statistic given that one would expect road death risks to generally decline; for one thing, health services get better at keeping people alive. The risk of being killed while cycling is now only slightly lower than in 1952; a dramatic example of system failure (compare what happened to risks for car users). Cars scared people off the streets quickly, with a particular impact on cycling (in the UK, pedestrians usually at least had footways separated from the growing numbers of motor vehicles). Which is why my thought experiment feels sad. While we can easily imagine (and see every day, even where pedestrians apparently top the hierarchy of modes) children unable to cross the road because of cars, it’s harder to imagine (outside of Sunday play streets) cars unable to get through because of children in the road. Car priority is not of course only about violence. It’s about social pressure, the social obligation to move out of the way; this obligation’s ultimately backed by force but in most cases, violence doesn’t need to be used. Car priority is there in everyday experiences and behaviour, like close passing cyclists who are ‘in the way’, or beeping a pedestrian who looks like she might step into the road. ‘This is my space’ the action says, ‘you are out of place here’. And most people internalise it, whatever their mode choice; the car driver is not only in the road, but also in our heads, even if we never drive. This struggle goes on even in places that provide better for cycling and walking, as shown in a recent paper. But if somewhere aims to dramatically increase cycling levels, the struggle is particularly acute and becomes more visible – because it’s clear that change needs to happen, on the roads and in the way we – all of us – think. I’ve written about this elsewhere in terms of cycling equity. Our guidance, our images, our tools and our streetscapes embody the assumption that UK cyclists will be a tiny minority; young, fit, able-bodied, and male, travelling alone and quickly. (I admit to recently having said the words ‘it’s ok if you cycle at 15 mph’ to a disgruntled companion about a very ordinary rat run on my commute). Disabled people’s cycling, women’s cycling, children’s cycling, older people’s cycling is designed out – and our guidance then generally assumes that, for example, disabled people do not cycle, that cycling far from being an option for disabled people, is even a threat to disabled people. Car priority as a system feeds through into behaviour, into guidance, into policy, into (lack of) enforcement, into street design, into academic work. It’s ensured that, in Leeds and Bradford, £30 million on a ‘superhighway’ will mean cyclists give way to a side road, using a ten-year old design from London guidance now – thankfully – superseded. It’s meant that in London, high profile cycle ‘Quietways’ can involve granite paving substituting for protection and priority at junctions. Of course, there is some good stuff. Many good people working within (as well as outside) the transport planning system, doing things for cycling and walking that would not get done otherwise, often working long hours for little thanks. But it’s not enough. Systems, tools, rules, practices are the results of past actions, reinforced by present actions. We need to do more to change these systems, tools, rules, and practices, so they can better support people working within those systems who want to take the right decisions – and ultimately, ensure that whoever’s working within those systems takes the right decisions without even thinking about it. So that no one involved in planning – whether they are ‘committed’ pedestrians or cyclists, or not – would even consider making pedestrians wait three times to cross a road, making a major cycle flow give way to a subsidiary motor flow, or making cyclists ‘share the road’ with left turning HGVs at major junctions. We need priority for people over cars to increasingly become institutionalised. And it’s not easy, even when there’s the money and the political will, to make this shift. Having observed what’s happened in London and elsewhere over the past five years, I’ve started to think that creating a Cycle Priority Network could help. We have cycle networks across the country, but they mean little. They don’t provide protection from motor traffic where it’s needed, and where protection is provided, it’s often at the cost of priority and directness. They don’t follow the key desire lines. They don’t get priority gritting in winter (one interesting fact I’ve learned from some current research is that having to cycle over ice is more off-putting to women than to men – so gritting also has an equalities angle). They often get closed for extended periods when there’s roadworks, without any satisfactory diversion. They often include signs telling cyclists to dismount. We know all this. So how would a Cycle Priority Network help? A Cycle Priority Network could help unpick the assumption of automatic car priority, and start to introduce new ways of thinking, designing, and planning more consistently. Although car priority is widespread across our street network, we also have a Strategic Road Network, which brings together core routes for motoring, with its own design guide (the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges). In London (and in some other cities) we have a Bus Priority Network (of which more later), again with its own set of rules and prohibitions. For cycling, we have a mish-mash of schemes and brand names, with widely varying quality. Many supposedly key cycling routes, even in high-cycling areas, look as if cycling’s an afterthought; whereas strategic road routes are treated completely differently. A Cycle Priority Network would not need to be attached to specific design guidance in the first instance. But authorities across the country could be told to designate such a network, and funding could be made dependent on this. Of course cycling needs more money – £20 per head at least, if we are not to fall further behind high-cycling countries. But that money will be worth nothing if it turns into expensive give-way markings on pavements, or dotted lines on the road for that matter. In towns, cities, and rural areas, the Cycle Priority Network should be aspirational; not a higgledy-piggledy patchwork following detours along quiet back streets, not an ad hoc collection of brand name routes, but a dense and direct network on key desire lines, where there are lots of trips that could be cycled, but currently are not. It would be accompanied by a strategy to implement the following three broad principles across the Cycle Priority Network, including making such changes whenever work is planned; for example, using resurfacing works to introduce protected space for cycling. (It’d be a bit like the householder’s obligation, where works are done, to make good aspects that don’t comply with parts of the current Building Regulations.) These would be my three core principles for the Cycle Priority Network: 1. Universal provision – suitable for, and attractive to, all ages and abilities, and all types of cycle 2. Prioritised provision – priority when there are conflicts with subsidiary motor traffic flows, and parity if there’s conflict with ‘strategic’ motor traffic flows 3. Building for growth – catering for the numbers of cyclists that might be expected, when cycling becomes a normal, everyday mode of transport Even on the best cycle routes that I currently know and use, there’s regular failings on all three counts. The terrifying spectre of delays to motor traffic is used as a reason to continue making cyclists using ‘official’ cycle routes cross busy roads without priority or protection, failing both (1) and (2). This needs to be unacceptable, just as it’s not acceptable to make traffic on a trunk road give way to a farm track – no one would ever consider designing or implementing it. It’s a question of priorities, and design flows from that. Otherwise, we risk throwing money away, and dissipating the momentum we’ve developed, thanks to the hard work of many people. Of course, there’s a risk that a Cycle Priority Network becomes a way to sideline cycling, to ensure it is seen as legitimate only on certain routes. We need to raise the standard of provision across the whole network. But right now, cycling is marginalised across that network, because of the underlying assumption of car priority; not only on a sub-section of the network, where it might be appropriate, but pretty much everywhere. Creating a Cycle Priority Network can start to provide a different vision, creating a real alternative to the car system, where demonstrably there are different ways of thinking, planning, and deciding. Douglas Carnall says: May 23, 2015 at 11:36 pm Your analysis of the decline in cycling is very good. Your propsed solution: to restore priority to cyclists is also good. In my view, this won’t come from the construction of “cycle infrastructure,” but from behavioural change. Most importantly, private cars need to be removed from the urban environment: they are dangerous, take up too much space, and pollute the air. Once this is done, there will be a nice cycle priority network called “the roads” to ride on. The Mayor of Paris is planning to reduce motor traffic by 40% by 2020, for example. Cyclists who can’t cope with sharing the road with left-turning vehicles (in the UK, right-turning elsewhere) should go on a course and learn to deal with this situation. It is not difficult, though it may involve ignoring ill-considered so-called “cycle infrastructure.” And where does this demand “for all ages” to be able to use the roads come from? I’ve been seeing this a lot recently on cycling blogs. A child does not have the cognitive capacity to make complex multiple calculations of speed and distance necessary to use the roads until around the age of eleven or twelve. The Cycling Proficiency Test was traditionally passed in the last year of primary school (11 years old), the London Cycle Network is supposedly designed with “the sensible twelve year old” in mind. The French guidance is similar. I don’t see how the need to supervise children younger than this as they ride will change in any circumstance, though obviously riding on quieter, less polluted roads with calmer driving would be preferable for everybody. June 11, 2015 at 5:52 pm There isn’t a demand for children to be able to use “the roads”, (Douglas Carnall). There is a need for children to be free to travel on foot or by bike independently from at least the age of 8 without being at high risk of being killed or seriously injured. The countries that have solved this one have separate networks, or extra facilities at junctions to keep things safe. There are plenty of people who have no more cognitive capacity for judging speeds and safety than an eight year old. Those with poor eyesight or less mobility are also put at greater risk in Britain. School outings by bike instead of coach? Perfectly possible with the right infrastructure: http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2014/04/school-trips-by-bike-everyday.html And having been cycling with children on holiday in the Netherlands and for leisure trips in the UK, I can tell you that not having to supervise your child closely every inch of the way makes for a much more enjoyable experience for both parent and child. pete says: May 24, 2015 at 4:00 pm What a great article. I would try to add a few points of my own, but you are way more eloquent than me so I won’t, it would just make me look foolish. Very interesting (and very sad) graphs showing the decline in cycling miles covered over the years. By the way, Im a real petrol head and love motorcycles and (interesting) cars BUT not on our over crowded city streets every morning and evening rush hour ffs!! paulc says: May 24, 2015 at 5:53 pm As an example of just how badly cyclists are served… just take a look at NCN41 between the center of Gloucester and the center of Cheltenham… and compare it to the road route. and right where it dives under the A40 Golden Valley Bypass is a bit of infra that’s completely impassable to anyone not able bodied and on a mountain bike… May 25, 2015 at 8:04 pm I particularly like the reference early on to internalisation of the dominant ideology of what I elsewhere call “car supremacism” – where you say, for example: ” People get used to the idea that protecting an inanimate piece of metal and glass is put ahead of their own safety. We learn from how the system works on an everyday basis, whatever the Highway Code says”. (For a recent examination of this ideology and unthinking acceptance of domination by the car, including manifestly dangerous driving see http://tinyurl.com/o73hyyp ) A bit of (hopefully constructive) criticism here: You say, referring to the decline in cycling in the 1960s “At the same time, the risk of dying per km cycled tripled – an incredible statistic given that one would expect road death risks to generally decline; for one thing, health services get better at keeping people alive. ” Not that incredible. The effects of superior trauma care are either seen over long periods of time ( between the 1930s and now, for example) or with regard to specific types of intervention, possibly some have occurred during this century but none during the 1960s period you refer to. What DID happen then was that the explosion of motorisation led to a brief but significant increase in various kinds of casualty, associated with the sudden increase in motorisation and the fact that people take some time to adapt to a change in kinds of danger – in this case the big increase in (new) drivers on the roads. Along with the very significant increase in the numbers of drivers capable of hitting cyclists, the decline in cycling numbers reduced the SiN (Safety in Numbers) effect for cyclists, so with these two factors you can understand the massive increase in cycling casualty rates. May 31, 2015 at 1:49 pm @Douglas – behavioural change? You mean like what the UK has been trying since the 30’s? I want to see mass cycling in my life time, thank you very much. I don’t want to wait for human nature to finally change from the greedy self-centrered power hungry individuals we all are to a utopian lover of all. That will take a few hundred years, at least. Until then we need segregation from motor traffic, among other things. https://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/no-surrender-the-damaging-enduring-legacy-of-the-1930s-in-british-cycle-campaigning/	20,397
Baby-led weaning (BLW) is a method of introducing your baby to solid foods. As opposed to the traditional method of starting with traditional, puréed “baby foods”, BLW allows babies to self-feed with table food. Rachel says, “Stick to traditional purees” Purees are less messy and wasteful BLW may not meet baby’s nutritional needs Fear of Choking Jo says, “BLW is the way to go” BLW is easier for the parent BLW is more comfortable for baby BLW exposes baby to a larger variety of foods Rachel says, “Stick to traditional purees” BLW seems to be very popular at the moment, but I went the traditional “baby food” route for my son and expect to do the same for my second. For my son, we didn’t introduce solids until just before 6 months. We still looked for signs of readiness, like being able to sit up and interest in food. We began with super thin (aka mostly breast milk) rice cereal to get used to the idea of eating and spoons, then quickly moved onto pureed fruits and veggies. Purees are less messy and wasteful Ok, so babies are messy in general. At least with purees I get some control over the amount of food that ends up on the floor, on the ceiling… or in his hair. Starting out most babies don’t actually get much food into their mouths. The dexterity required to even grasp the food is just developing, let alone the hand eye coordination necessary to successfully place it their mouths. That development, or rather lack of it, is totally expected in the BLW method. In fact, BLW promotes food exploration, which to me just sounds like playing with food. Aside from just the food waste is the amount of time. Letting my baby decide how long they want to play with, throw, and potentially attempt to eat their food each meal seems like a lot of extra time. Sure, it’s great when I’m trying to eat my own dinner, but what about when I’m trying to get us out the door in the morning? Using purees allows me to make sure something was consumed in our allotted time frame. BLW may not meet baby’s nutritional needs While infants are still getting the majority of their nutrition from formula or breast milk, they should begin to get some from foods as well. I have heard the phrase “food before one is just for fun” many times, but that makes it sound like there is a sudden huge shift at one, which doesn’t really make sense. Babies grow and develop a ton between 6 months and 1 year, so it makes more sense to me that their needs would follow a progression as well. Some babies may take a long time to actually eat much food at all using BLW. As a result of this some critics of BLW have pointed to iron deficiency as a potential issue. Babies usually get enough iron from mom for the first 4 – 6 months of life. After this they need to get it from iron-rich foods such as fortified cereal . Many foods high in iron (like meat) aren’t necessarily the easiest for baby to eat. Though these foods may be offered in BLW, since the baby is in charge they may not actually be eaten. On the flip side is the possibility that if your baby is actually eating, they may be getting too much sodium. The average American gets about twice the recommended amount of sodium each day. We had to improve our own eating habits as my son got older and started to eat more table foods. Before he ate with us, we often relied on prepared and processed convenience foods, which tend to be very high in sodium. We made most of our son’s foods using the Magic Bullet Baby Bullet as I talk about in baby feeding must haves. By starting out eating purees, he actually ate much healthier than we did by having more fruits and vegetables and no added sodium. Fear of Choking Like many parents, I am completely freaked out by the thought of choking. While the risk of choking is always present, the fear is much greater with BLW. Most mothers in this study did report their baby gagging during BLW. The gagging incidents are also consistent what I’ve heard from some BLW moms. And while gagging is not choking, it can still be extremely scary for parents. Whether or not the risk is higher, the perception of choking is still terrifying. For me, my fear outweighed any potential benefit of BLW. Jo asks, “Did you have any problems transitioning to non-pureed foods?” Nope. The amount of time that my son ate solely pureed foods was relatively short before we began to introduce finger foods as well. While blending up purees did seem like a bit of a hassle in the beginning, that stage was over so quickly. By making his own food with the baby blender , we were able to have control and slowly offer different textures – starting with very thin purees and getting thicker and more “chunky” over time. By 1 year my son ate nearly everything that we ate. Jo says, “BLW is the way to go” Admittedly, I didn’t do true BLW until my second baby. But if I had another kid, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I did everything the “right” way with my first. I skipped rice cereal (because it didn’t have any nutritional value according to my pediatrician), I carefully choose the nicest-looking organic sweet potato before steaming and pureeing it for his first meal, then waited 3 days before introducing another food. For my second kid? Well for starters she didn’t try solid food until 7 months. Life gets busy when you have multiple kids, ok?? I kept meaning to… but I also kept pushing it off because I was already busy packing lunch for myself, my toddler, and my husband. So one day I had some cooked sweet potato and decided that today was the day we’d try solids! I’d heard about BLW , so I just put her in the highchair and put a couple small (slightly bigger than pea-sized) pieces on her tray and let her go at it. Mainly she played – I don’t think she actually ate anything that first day. But it gently introduced and exposed her to eating. So why is BLW the way to go? BLW is easier for the parent No more getting out the baby blender to puree foods, not to mention no more cleaning the blender parts. Just chop it up and throw it on the tray. You also don’t need to prepare separate foods for baby. When I was meal planning for the week, I would make sure that every night we had something that was “BLW friendly” to give the baby. Things like cooked carrots, sweet potato, tofu, pasta, etc. I just made sure not to add too much seasoning (especially salt). And finally, it’s easier because one parent doesn’t have to be tied to the high chair for spoon feeding. BLW allows the parents to eat and the baby to feed themselves at their own pace. Which leads me right into my second reason for BLW… BLW is more comfortable for baby Since baby is in control, they can set the pace. They can decide how much, and how quickly, they want to be eating. No pressure like forcing a spoon in their face. BLW introduces eating in a more natural way. By giving them chunks of food, they learn to chew before swallowing. And yes, this even works if they don’t have teeth, those gums are strong! This will reduce the risk of choking in the future. Baby sees that eating is a relaxed, family event because they are sitting around the table with everyone else. It starts to build that sense of family dinner time, rather than eating before or after the parents. BLW exposes baby to a larger variety of foods After baby is comfortable with simpler (ie. blander) foods, then the next step in BLW is exposing them to the normal, everyday foods you eat! Yes, these means small pieces of curried chicken, coconut shrimp, farfalle pasta with pesto, popover rolls, etc. The sky’s the limit! (Just remember no honey before the age of 1). This exposes baby to a diverse array of flavors and textures. You’ll be surprised at the flavors your baby likes, and you’ll be happier with a less picky eater later on down the road. Rachel asks, “Did you have problems with gagging or choking?” Choking? No. I wouldn’t say we had a “problem” with gagging, but she did gag at some points. My first (who we did traditional purees with) used to gag just as much. Even though we were giving her foods with more texture, I think my second child was more comfortable with eating because she had the control over putting the food in her mouth herself. While there may be different sides to the purees vs. BLW debate, any way you choose to feed your child works! Kids can be picky eaters, so even if you have your heart set on one method don’t be surprised if they don’t respond to it right away. Keep trying and change tactics if you have to. You got this, mama! Want more debates? Check out one of our most popular posts on Drinking Alcohol While Breast Feeding About Author Jo and Rachel first had the idea for 'The Moms At Odds' in 2016 when our babies were turning 2 and we realized that we were very different parents. As a mom, Rachel immediately felt this strong connection to her son and instantly decided she wanted to become a stay-at-home mom. Though Jo obviously loved her son as well, she counted the days until she could go back to work and interact with other adults. They both struggled over getting their babies to sleep and while Jo believed in sleep training, Rachel looked for alternatives like dream feeding and no cry methods. As time passed and their children grew older the differences started to really add up – pacifier use, drinking during breastfeeding, organic foods, screen time, diaper brands, and on and on. During this day and age, it’s so easy to look at our parenting differences as a bad thing. After all, we’ve all seen jokes and articles about “Mommy Wars” over one subject or another. Instead, we choose to embrace our differences and show you that in many areas there is no wrong answer. What works for one family may not work for another, and that’s perfectly fine. We can still all get along and raise perfectly healthy, beautiful children. Related Posts 21 November 2019 13 September 2018 10 Tips for How to Keep Baby Warm in Winter 12 October 2022 A New Look at Breastfeeding and Drinking Is Driving vs Flying Better When You Are Traveling with Kids? Comments Amanda says: February 14, 2018 I’m like Jo. Made my own purees with my first, delayed introduction of new food for 3 days, never gave rice cereal. Second kid did BLW. It was soooo much easier. Almost every meal had something that was soft I could give him. He actually got more food in his mouth than spoon feeding my first, especially when she decided she wanted control of the spoon around 8mo. My seconds first food was chili at around 7.5mo. His favorite meal by one was brisket. Both my kids are great eaters but being able to just give the food off my plate makes meals so much easier, especially when out and about. We will be doing BLW with our third child as well. As for the sodium, I think that is something all parents should consider for any aged child. We mostly stay away from processed food and I make almost all our meals at home. We had less gagging with my second than my first, not sure if it was the child or the way we fed them. September 30, 2019 great issues altogether, you just received a logo new reader. What might you suggest about your post that you made some days in the past? Any sure? October 30, 2019 Hi, I do think this is an excellent website. I stumbledupon it I am going to revisit once again since I book-marked it. Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue to help others. January 26, 2020 It as hard to come by educated people about this subject. However, you sound like you know what you are talking about! Thanks. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. behind the moms at odds This site is dedicated to all of us trying to figure this parenting thing out. We’re here to explore different parenting methods and decisions, weigh the pros and cons, and ultimately help you decide on the best option for your family. Read more about us here Join our VIP group for exclusive content and a first look at new topics. Top Posts How to Make the Best Stay at Home Mom Schedule Are you trying to figure out a stay at home mom schedule that works for you? Every child deserves to feel special on their birthday! It's never too early to start some annual birthday traditions. If the Thanksgiving holiday has you in the mood for pumpkin or you need a last-minute snack to share, this pumpkin muffins recipe is perfect for you.	13,065
For the best experience of this site, we recommend that javascript is enabled in your browser. If you are unsure how to do this, please see guidance manual for how to do this in different browsers. A story about fake money, student trips to Poland, a slipped disc and a little ski trip to the North Pole in 1990. “If you had told us 20 years ago that we would be interviewed 20 years later, we would have laughed.” A story about fake money, student trips to Poland, a slipped disc and a little ski trip to the North Pole in 1990. The main characters: Erling Kagge, Børge Ousland and a guy named Geir. EVERY YEAR three men gather in Oslo to eat high-fat foods and watch old cowboy movies. We’re talking spaghetti carbonara and Sergio Leone. The desert is a given: “success pie”, made of almonds and egg cream. The annual gathering is part of a pact they made on the way to the North Pole in 1990. The three men are Børge Ousland - polar explorer; Erling Kagge - publisher; and Geir Randby - cameraman, journalist and editor at Norwegian state television in Hedmark. “I DISAPPEARED FROM THE STORY,” says Geir Randby by telephone from Gudbrandsdalen. Twenty years ago, on 8 March 1990, he stood together with Erling Kagge and Børge Ousland on Hunt Island, in the far north of Canada, and watched the Twin Otter that had flown them there take off again. The temperature was 52° below zero C. “I remember thinking: What the hell have you got yourself into now, Randby?” “Is it possible there are no matches here? Aren’t they part of the deal? Did some idiot rip off our matches?” Børge Ousland is standing in his new boat, a trimaran he is going to use to try to sail through both the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage in a single year. “Do you have any matches?” he asks me. No. How many times have you been to the North Pole? “Eighteen.” How does it feel when the plane leaves? “It’s quite a special feeling. If you’re in a group, it’s fine. But when you’re standing there alone, it’s pretty miserable to watch the plane disappear, I must say,” says Børge Ousland. “If you had told us 20 years ago that we would be interviewed 20 years later, we would have laughed.” Twenty years ago Ousland was a North Sea Diver. Randby and Kagge were law students. The expedition itself began 8 March 1990. The idea for it had come to Randby and Ousland independently four years before – from a certain small, yellow, glossy magazine. “I got the idea from an article in National Geographic in ’86, about someone who had walked solo to the North Pole with the help of air-dropped supplies,” says Randby. “The article said that the next goal – if it was even possible – had to be to go ‘unsupported’, in other words on your own muscle power, without depots and resupplies. That challenge piqued my interest.” He asked several friends, all of whom wanted to take part. Eventually, he realized that he was far more serious than they were. How did you hook up with Kagge? “It was a coincidence. I found a fake 100-kroner bill outside the Parliament. It was printed as an ad for Loftet, a club that Erling was helping run. That told me there was a guy with initiative and creativity. I already knew who he was – we were both pretty visible at the law school. He joined up, and he was serious.” Erling Kagge, for his part, recalls talking with Geir in early 1988. On a sofa in the upper stories of an office building in Oslo’s Vika district, where his publishing house is based, he thinks back and says: “Since the spring of ’87, when I returned from a sailing trip to the Antarctic, I’d been determined to get back to the polar areas.” In 1986 Børge skied across Greenland from the North Sea with three friends. “What a fantastic male adventure,” Ousland says. “We were looking for a rougher outdoor experience than waltzing over the Hardanger Plateau.” In the autumn of 1988, he gave a speech on the trip at the agricultural college in Ås, south of Oslo. Randby was there too, drumming up interest in student ski trips to Poland. “Børge came into the room after me,” recalls Randby. “He was supposed to talk about the Greenland trip. I decided to stick around and listen, and thought many of the tactics he had chosen were smart.” After the speech, Randby went up to Ousland. “You don’t just go over to people and ask whether they want to go to the North Pole unsupported,” he says. “So I asked what his next project was. ‘The North Pole,’ he said. I said, in that case, he might have trouble finding sponsors since he’ll be two years behind us.”Ousland had read the same magazine that Randby had, and was just as turned on by the challenge. That autumn they teamed up. They continued their strength training, using car tires, and their equipment testing, using the cold chamber at the SINTEF research institute. They developed provisions they would carry on the trek, and they read polar literature. To put it mildly, it was methodical preparation. “Victory goes to the one who plans,” says Kagge today. There was just one problem. They were 500,000 kroner short. The total budget was 800,000 kroner. By comparison, Monica Kristensen’s attempt to reach the South Pole in 1986-87 cost 15 million kroner. “Erling came up with an idea to contact the artist Jakob Weidemann,” says Randby. “He was the type who either liked you or disliked you. We were lucky that he liked us. He thought artists and polar explorers were soul brothers. What they have in common is the need to express themselves.” Weidemann gave them 50 numbered, signed, hand-colored prints of “Flower in Snow”, which the three would-be adventurers sold for 10,000 kroner apiece. That’s how Weidemann became the expedition’s main sponsor. Ousland shares Weidemann’s view of polar adventures. “Performance art. That’s what an expedition of that kind is.” The performance began on 8 March 1990. We were looking for a rougher outdoor experience than waltzing over the Hardanger Plateau. “Nowadays people can learn from what we did,” says Ousland. “Back then no one had experienced such a trip. We took a ton of equipment a month in advance to Baffin Island, where we trained and tried out the various equipment to our satisfaction. We made almost no mistakes. We actually did a lot right on that trip.” Ousland went to the extreme of shaving his rear quarters so that daily maintenance would take less effort. The same day the Norwegians were flown in, a Canadian team was flown out. After one week on the ice, the Canadians had only progressed a few kilometers north. The Norwegians were determined, no matter what, to do better than that. In the first day, they covered 3 km. They were pleased. But what was it really like to ski in a place like that – with pressure ridges, open leads, pack ice and cold and wind? “I say the same thing that the cross-country skier Thomas Wassberg once told a journalist who asked, after a 50-km race, how it felt: Try it yourself, you old bastard!” says Kagge. “It’s a tough slog,” says Ousland. “It’s almost impossible to describe. The cold is the worst. It’s freezing when you start out, down toward minus 50. That’s pretty chilly.” At what temperature does ‘chilly’ begin?	7,198
Hello! I’m Anjali. I’m a board certified health coach, author, wife, mom and food lover from the SF Bay area (now living in Seattle, WA!); with a passion for delicious food and a desire to make healthy eating easy, tasty and fun! Learn more about me here and stay for a while! Small Meals vs. Regular Meals – Which is the Healthier Diet? By Anjali Shah on March 23, 2021 · Last Updated on April 30, 2022 This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my disclosure. When it comes to your diet, you may wonder what is best, to eat 6 small meals a day, or to have 3 regular meals a day. The truth might surprise you! Here I’ll explain the benefits and pitfalls of each, so you can decide what is best for you! When it comes to healthy eating, we all want to do what is best for our bodies whether that’s choosing the best multivitamin, or protein powder, or even knowing when to eat! Recently, I was talking to one of my friends who is trying to lose weight. She was telling me that she regularly only eats 2 big meals every day and usually skips breakfast. My immediate thought was, “She needs to eat more frequently!” Eating less doesn’t always mean you’ll lose weight! Most people think that if they want to lose weight, they should just eat less and the weight will come off. That’s not exactly true. The weight will likely come off, but it won’t stay off because the only reason you’ve lost weight is because you’ve severely limited your calories. As soon as you start eating normally again, you’ll gain the weight back, and on top of that, your body will begin to store that extra meal as fat, fearing that you might decide to cut out that meal again in the future. Why does your body store fat if you’re eating less? Your body stores fat when you start consuming drastically fewer calories, or have long gaps between meals (e.g. one meal at 12pm and one at 8pm with nothing else in between). As a result, your body goes into starvation mode. When there are long gaps between meals, your body moves from a fat burning mode to a fat preservation mode. That means that your body will start burning muscle instead of fat. This eventually causes a decrease in your lean muscle mass, which actually slows down your metabolism, and makes your body fat percentage go up. Why do you get cravings when you’re super hungry? When you eat only a couple meals a day, your blood sugar levels fluctuate wildly. Those blood sugar fluctuations are often the culprit for the crazy cravings we’ll get once we’re so hungry that any food – 5 chocolate chip cookies, 2 bags of chips, 1 whole pizza – will do. So even when you do eat your meals, you’ll end up overeating and canceling out any calorie restriction gains you accomplished during the day. Are 6 meals a day healthier than eating 3 meals a day? Not necessarily. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as that. Because the other part of weight loss that’s important is a simple math equation: Calories in – Calories out < 0. Or, in other words, the calories you’re consuming must be less than the calories you expend throughout the day. Eating 6 meals a day vs. eating 3 meals a day is only healthier if you aren’t consuming more calories as a result of eating more meals. The key is to truly eat 6 SMALL meals. That means that each mini-meal should be about 200-300 calories max – which puts you at a 1200-1800 calorie range per day. Depending on your height, gender, weight, and age, you may have a slightly higher (or lower) recommended daily calorie intake. Here’s a link to an awesome tool that will help you determine your your BMR – that’s your basal metabolic rate – the amount of calories you burn doing no activity whatsoever. Once you find out your BMR, and calculate your daily exercise, you will have a better idea of approximately how many calories a day you should consume to maintain your weight. If you want to lose weight, you must consume less than you are expending. The benefits of 6 small meals a day are: Keeps your metabolism going at a steady rate which allows you to burn calories efficiently. Helps you maintain hunger cravings and random food binges – keeps your blood sugar steady which helps prevent hunger attacks. Keeps your energy level up! The pitfalls of 6 small meals a day are: Overeating! Small means small! 1 slice of whole wheat toast with a slice of low fat cheese; or a handful of almonds with an apple count as a mini-meals so be careful! Takes effort to plan out. If you’re doing well with 3 meals a day and you don’t tend to overeat in between meals, then this might not be the best plan for you. Many experts feel that trying to spread out the day’s calories rather than sitting down to regular meals may throw off the body’s internal clock making it forget how to recognize hunger and satiety cues to the point when you no longer understand what it’s like to be hungry but also never quite feel full. This is not a good thing. Are 3 regular meals a day healthier than snacking throughout the day? If eating 6 small meals a day seems like a challenge, then eating 3 regular meals a day might work better for you. The key with both small and regular meals is making healthy choices, and staying within your calorie range. Benefits of eating 3 regular meals a day: Eating a minimum of three times a day helps you feel full and reduces hunger pains. Eating regular meals helps with weight loss. Eating fewer than 3 meals increases your chance of overeating, and eating unhealthy high calorie foods. Having clear parameters around when you start and stop eating helps create boundaries, and prevents grazing on food all day. If you have trouble eating small meals, and end up eating all day, eating 3 meals helps you to eat fewer calories. Eliminating eating between meals, helps to reduce excess calories. You feel full after each meal, instead of feeling hungry not too long after having a small meal. Eating three balanced meals a day helps you to be more mindful about what you’re eating, rather than mindlessly snacking throughout the day. You’ll be less likely to cave to unhealthy snack foods. Pitfalls of eating 3 regular meals a day: It takes some planning. Preparing a healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner takes a bit of planning. Using a meal plan template can help! It’s easy to overeat! If you’re hungry and just sitting down to a meal, it’s easy to eat too fast, and eat more than you actually need! Take your time, and allow your brain to catch up with your body so you don’t consume too much at each meal. Now, it’s time for you to decide what works best for you and your lifestyle. Why you should choose 6 meals a day… If you’re the type of person who has the discipline and the patience to eat six small portions every day, can count calories, and you’re also the type of person to binge when you feel hungry – this could be the right fit for you. Why you should choose 3 meals a day… If you’re the type of person who enjoys sitting down to a regular sized meal and doesn’t have a tendency to overeat, then sticking to the traditional breakfast, lunch, dinner and one small snack is probably the best approach. Either way – the total calories you’re consuming must equal (or if you’re trying to lose weight, be less than) the calories you’re expending. And you should always be eating at least 3 balanced meals a day – don’t ever skip breakfast! Be sure to check out these other helpful healthy eating guides! Is organic food really better? Natural Sugar vs. Added Sugar: What’s the difference? The Milky Way Index: How much sugar is too much sugar? 24 responses to “Small Meals vs. Regular Meals – Which is the Healthier Diet?” March 23, 2018 at 8:58 am What should be included in those 6 meal plan.. Like what kind of food should be incorporated as i want to loose weight. Anjali @ The Picky Eater says: March 31, 2018 at 12:52 pm Hi Riya! Any fresh fruits/veggies, sprouted and whole grains, lean protein, healthy fats can be incorporated into a 6 meal diet — they just have to be much smaller meals (e.g. 1 cup low fat greek yogurt with berries and 1/4 cup high fiber cereal, or 3 egg whites and 1 yolk scrambled with veggies, etc.) I’m happy to chat with you more 1:1 about losing weight if you’d like to work with me in my 1:1 coaching program! Send me an email to [email protected] if that’s something you’re interested in! March 18, 2013 at 12:50 pm Everyone talks so much about eating 6 times a day, but personally that turns into me just overeating/eating all day. I feel much more in control when I KNOW i’m eating only 3 times a day. I recently cut out snacking and have lost 5 pounds with 3 meals: medium sized breakfast, medium lunch, small dinner. It’s important to have breakfast for sure and also important not too eat a lot at night. I also eat til I’m full, not stuffed, so that I don’t overeat or feel tired after a meal. Anjali @ The Picky Eater says: March 18, 2013 at 4:00 pm Hi Denise! What you said totally makes sense. 3 meals a day that are balanced and keep you full is a great way to make sure you’re not overeating, especially if it works for you. Congrats on the weight loss btw! January 7, 2013 at 9:41 pm I usually go for 4 medium-sized meals a day. Three meals are too few for me and the wait too long, and I lose track with how many meals and how much food I’ve consumed with six. Four meals with a four-hour wait in between works for my lifestyle. Anjali @ The Picky Eater says: January 10, 2013 at 12:06 am That is great to hear Dien! I think I generally end up doing 4 meals a day too (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner) spaced about 4 hours apart just like you! I think that anywhere between 4-6 meals is probably a good rule of thumb – but the key is, if you’re doing 6 meals to make them much smaller portions – or it defeats the purpose! Dana - Food for Thought says: September 2, 2010 at 6:54 pm Thank you so much for this! So often I hear people that are trying to lose weight say that they only eat one or two big meals per day and I cringe. You need to eat to keep your metabolism! I eat all throughout the day and am pretty healthy and trim. Anjali @ The Picky Eater says: September 18, 2010 at 4:09 pm Exactly!! Starving yourself throughout the day is totally not the answer – you’ll just end up eating way more than necessary when you finally do eat, and like you said – your metabolism can get all messed up. It’s all about balance – and it sounds like you have found something great that works for you! carla says: August 31, 2010 at 5:00 pm I totally agree with the 6 small meals. I do meal plans for people on my site and I usually do 3 meals and 3 snacks. The total calories are between 1400-1800 a day. If you eat the right kinds of food you’d be surprised how much you can eat. Thanks for the post, I’ve retweeted it and added it to my FB page. anjalim says: August 31, 2010 at 5:10 pm Thanks so much for the comment and for retweeting my post! I just visited your site and love it – looking forward to sharing recipes and tips! August 31, 2010 at 12:21 pm Nice! I love eating and completely agree that you need to have at least three balanced meals in a day- If you skip even one meal, you land up over eating the other meals… Anjali @ The Picky Eater says: September 18, 2010 at 4:10 pm Totally agree Suchitra!! You said it well Liz Bridges says: August 31, 2010 at 5:26 am This was so sensible! It really all comes down to how much you take in and how much you burn. People want to make weight loss complicated. But it’s really not. It just takes strength, commitment, and willpower. That said, it isn’t always EASY!Plus, you have to track what times of day you are most hungry to see when you need to eat more. Anjali @ The Picky Eater says: September 18, 2010 at 4:11 pm Thank you so much Liz! I’m so glad you liked this post You brought up a good tip – one way to figure out which way is best is to keep a food journal for a week – track what you eat / how much and when you get hungry. Then you can make adjustments to figure out the best long-term solution! August 31, 2010 at 3:12 am I love eating 6 a day! If not I will def be grabbing at whatever I can get my hands on and that’s not good! Great post and info, thanks! Anjali @ The Picky Eater says: September 18, 2010 at 4:07 pm Thank you so much Kristy! And thanks for sharing what works for you! notyet100 says: August 30, 2010 at 6:55 pm i am in for three balanced meals and ya breakfast is really important! Anjali @ The Picky Eater says: September 18, 2010 at 4:03 pm I’m totally with you on that! August 30, 2010 at 7:07 pm I agree! I have eaten the 6 meal a day way my whole life. Actually, it’s really not 6 meals, but food every few hours. Sometimes it’s just an apple or a banana, mid morning. Or a handful of almonds… just something so that I don’t get that “I’m starved” feeling. When that comes all proper thoughts go out the window and I will just grab whatever is in sight. Anjali @ The Picky Eater says: September 18, 2010 at 4:06 pm Thanks so much Kim! I think the way you described it is perfect – it’s not like 6 full MEALS – but more like mini-meals or small healthy snacks in between breakfast/lunch/dinner. I often have fruit mid-morning too – it’s a wonderful healthy snack between breakfast & lunch! August 30, 2010 at 7:05 pm I need to eat all the time…my issue is what you brought up – making sure that those 6 meals are smaller! Anjali @ The Picky Eater says: September 18, 2010 at 4:05 pm Hi Belinda! One thing you can try to do to curb your hunger is to make sure that each meal you eat has a good amount of lean protein and fiber (e.g. nut butters + fruit, or a piece of fish + veggies, or an egg white omelete + fruit on the side) – that way it will fill you up and you may not feel as hungry throughout the day. Hope that helps, keep me posted on how things go! May Ling WU says: August 30, 2010 at 6:40 pm I think it’s better to eat six small meals. I never get that really heavy feeling in my stomach and am never hungry. However, it is a lot of work to plan your day out and can be hard when eating out with friends etc. Anjali @ The Picky Eater says: September 18, 2010 at 4:02 pm Yup – if you can stick to six small meals (which it sounds like you can) then that sounds like the right path for you! No one diet type works for everyone, and as long as you can make it work for you and ensure you’re not overeating, 6 small meals is perfect Thanks for sharing!	15,081
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Establishing your first start-up company requires an extremely essential level an experience that can cause power and, somewhat, weakness. Irrefutably, plunging yourself into the connection world would consolidate a notion to ingest data that you just fundamentally had the probability to oppose, wherein you need to shape things right to begin your coming the authentic foot. Performing incomprehensible on your first month is conventionally the objective, and at whatever point inside the not actually far away future, you’d get your first check. You ought to understand that as you assemble your major not a lot of checks, you would conceivably need to get the most immediate strategy for overseeing control. Just inside the occasion that you essentially may have to extra cash, you’ll by and large pick propels, else you should examine robotized pay through the forex. In reality hand, obviously, spending your compensation skillfully and zeroing in on getting sorted out are just two imperative effects you had the probability to consider since you essentially are a replacement laborer. Like that, you see the most un-irksome strategy for overseeing figure your heading on everything about accounts once you get to the reasoning wherein you have some predominance in buying a vehicle or a house or raising a family. In the mean sun organized time, coming up next is a piece of the contrary money-related tips you should consider as a really enlisted subject matter expert: • You should consider opening a brief period of time store account, either a checking or record, since it is where your manager can orchestrate your whole or a piece of your check. This could even keep you far off from the drive to spend it. You’ll truly open separate records; one could besides be for your undertaking and one more as your annuity plan. • Spending plan your money whenever you’re truly research appears. The fundamental goof young specialists make is that they make a fair endeavor the amount of their money once they get their remuneration. Be a skilled and monetarily taught adult. Request that you basically course pieces of your pay and focus intently on costs that need pounding thought. • It’s proposed to control cash for your emergency saves. In any case, you have genuinely paid and gotten work, you won’t ever ensure. Your emergency records will work your back help essentially inside the occasion that a cash tying situation occurs in your life. • In the event that you’ll, you’ll contribute the piece of your checks inside the stock exchange or in shared resources. Your money will immovably make inside the occasion that you just do normally. Additionally, in the event you’re anguishing as for a sound money related future, check that you fundamentally basically are genuinely devoted to your destinations, whether or not it’s having the probability to say a house or a vehicle, begin a business, or perhaps leave before you’ll even appear at the hour of retirement. These are a few of the experiences you should consider as a replacement specialist. Nearby that address extraordinary expert in your new position and getting a charge out of the advantages and benefits of being a space of the use world, you should moreover underline the need to affect your records not only today, alongside the more broadened term. This is as a rule dependably why require what is happening on affiliations, forex, and various wellsprings of direct compensation. Doing as such will you energize your money and whenever the opportunity gives the idea that you basically essentially need accounts, you have a source to lay out a visit to. Saving and supervising accounts are consistently an outstanding case to intrude, yet in case you essentially practice early, everything should go smooth. https://indiatodaynewz.com saimukesh - October 28, 2022 0 How to Stop Biting Your Tongue in Your Sleep: There's no reason to say anything, except for "ouch" after biting your tongue. This is a... How to Identify a Rash Caused by Lamictal saimukesh - October 28, 2022 0 How to Identify a Rash Caused by Lamictal: Lamotrigine is a medicine employed to help treat epilepsy neuropathy, bipolar disorder and depression. There are some... saimukesh - October 28, 2022 0 What Happens When You Crack Your Back: Chiropractic manipulation or known as an "adjustment," can be performed by you or professional professionals, like the chiropractic or another... How to Fix GPU Artifacting? saimukesh - October 27, 2022 0 How to Fix GPU Artifacting: Its Graphics Processing Unit of the GPU of a computer tries to render videos and images in order to... New Posts October 28, 2022 How to Identify a Rash Caused by Lamictal October 28, 2022 October 28, 2022 How to Fix GPU Artifacting? October 27, 2022 October 27, 2022 Disclaimer - Indiatodaynewz.com is Independent technology breaking news Provider Platform. Brand Name, products and services are only for referential purpose. Indiatodaynewz.com hereby disclaims that brands names, trademarks, logos, company names used in the site are for representation purposes only.	5,356
Horror/Black Comedy: Told she must play a random game to follow the tradition of marrying into a wealthy family, a young bride must contend with them wanting to kill her when she finds herself in a deadly version of Hide and Seek. After eighteen months of dating, Grace (SAMARA WEAVING) is marrying Alex Le Domas (MARK O'BRIEN), a young man who's been estranged from his family that built its immense fortune via board games. But as tradition would have it, the wedding must take place at the family estate where most of the members -- who are only now meeting Grace -- talk about her behind her back and question whether she's just a gold-digger. There's the head of the family, Tony (HENRY CZERNY), and his wife, Becky (ANDIE MacDOWELL), the latter of whom is one of the few who seems to like the new bride. Also present are Alex's brother, Daniel (ADAM BRODY), who acts like he doesn't want to be there, and his wife, Charity (ELYSE LEVESQUE). Drugged up sibling Emilie (MELANIE SCROFANO) is there with her husband, Fitch (KRISTIAN BRUUN), while Aunt Helene (NICKY GUADAGNI) glares at Grace like she wants to kill her. She gets her chance at just that when Grace is informed that family tradition dictates that she must play a randomly chosen game at midnight, something that seems benign at first. But when she ends up getting Hide and Seek, little does she know that their hunt for her will be literal -- as in they intend to find and maim her so that they can sacrifice her before dawn the next morning. She's shocked when she realizes what's occurring and that Alex knowingly invited her there, but he says he didn't know that's the game she'd select and that if he didn't marry her there, he'd be killed. From that point on, he does what he can to try to get her out of the manor that's now been locked down by butler Stevens (JOHN RALSTON), all while the various family members come after her with murderous intent, forcing her to fight back. Teens into outrageous horror flicks might show some interest. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R For violence, bloody images, language throughout, and some drug use. That's just the introduction of this review. The full review -- available to our members -- includes summaries of the sex, nudity, profanity, violence and more (15 categories) so you won't be surprised by what you might see or hear in this movie. We have two options for you: 1) If you're ready to sign for a monthly ($5/month) membership, you can sign up now and get immediate access to this review, others released this week, and thousands of others going back several decades. We offer a 30-day, money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose by signing up. 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Director, State of CA Public Sector I signed up to get Screen It weekly reviews a long time ago, when my kids were young and I wanted to know more about movies before we went to a theater or rented. Now one child is in law school, other in undergraduate, and I still read the weekly Screen Its! It helps me know what my husband and I want to see or rent, and what to have waiting at home that we all will enjoy when my "kids" come home. I depend on Screen It reviews. They usually just present the facts and let me decide if the movie is appropriate or of interest for my family and me. Thank you for providing that service, Screen It! I have 4 children who are now in college. I signed up for Screen It when my children were pre-teenagers. Often my children would ask to see a movie with a friend and I wished I could preview the movie prior to giving permission. A friend told me about ScreenIt.com and I found it to be the next best thing to previewing a movie. The amount of violence, sexual content, or language were always concerns for me and my husband as we raised innocent kids with morals. We constantly fought the peer pressure our kids received to see films that in our opinion were questionable. With the evidence we received at Screen It, our kids couldn't even fight us when we felt a film may have been inappropriate for them to watch. Thank you, Screen It. Continue to make this helpful service available to everyone, but especially the young parents. Screenit.com is an amazing resource for parents, educators, church groups or anyone who wants to make an informed decision whether a movie is suitable for their viewing. The reviews and content descriptions are so detailed I am mystified how the reviewers can put them together. Vancouver, BC I love screen It! I don't know what I would do without it. It is well worth the membership. Before we take our son to the movies we check it out on screen it first. Thank you SO much for making it. 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DONALD TRUMP’S seemingly improbable quest for the United States presidency continues unabated, despite efforts on all sides to stop it, Republicans and Democrats alike. What explains Trump’s appeal to such a large segment of the voting public? Racism and xenophobia certainly play a part — to spectacular effect in Trump’s rhetoric. But Trump is more a symptom than causal agent (although he is the kind of symptom around which a certain fragile whiteness has mobilized). If we think about Trump’s popularity as a part, or the absurd end, of the long history of sovereignty in the United States, his appeal becomes much more understandable (if, perhaps, even more horrifying). Democracy, especially in the United States, has always been vexed by the concept of sovereignty. It is one thing to invoke the liberating, empowering phrase “popular sovereignty,” the sine qua non of democracy; it is another altogether to think through the sovereignty of popular sovereignty — which remains a question of domination and subjection that on the surface seems inimical to democracy. Donald Trump makes manifest this latent desire of the people (or at least an increasingly large segment of the people) to be subjected to some sovereign authority. The glaring contradictions, the all-encompassing narcissism, the insistent claims to violate the law, to do what needs to be done, to “Make America Great Again,” are all evidence not of Trump’s failings — his combination of danger and incompetence is, as most opinion polls suggest, apparent to nearly everyone — but of a political reality taking hold in the United States today: the desire for a new age of the sovereign. “Sovereignty” is a concept with a long and complicated history, grounded in the fantasy of an indivisible, final political authority. German political philosopher Carl Schmitt’s well-known definition of sovereignty — himself a staunch proponent of dictatorship — is very much at the core of Trump’s appeal. “Sovereign,” Schmitt wrote in his classic work of 1922, Political Theology, “is he who decides on the exception.” This definition has become a recurring trope in work on sovereignty in the United States, particularly since 9/11. But what, exactly, is the exception? Schmitt elaborates, claiming that a sovereign: decides in a situation of conflict what constitutes the public interest or interest of the state, public safety and order [. . .]. The exception, which is not codified in the existing legal order, can at best be characterized as a case of extreme peril, a danger to the existence of the state, or the like. But it cannot be circumscribed factually and made to conform to a preformed law. The sovereign, in a moment of conflict, determines the interest of the state, public order, and safety, and is able to do so by declaring exceptions to the law which cannot rest on facts, in order to articulate and enact dictatorial powers in a moment of crisis. A shadow of this definition lingers over Trump, who consistently articulates the United States as in a state of perilous crisis. Sovereignty is maintained regardless of whether it is embodied in a symbolic monarch, or, losing the monarch in whom it was once embodied, disperses into the demos. But even in the case of popular sovereignty, it does not wane in power; instead, it proliferates. In 19th-century United States — the moment of ascendant popular sovereignty — it was attached to the federal government, the states, the people, the individual, virtue, justice, femininity, marriage, the family, and God, to name a few. If this was in part about a kind of divided, or what Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri have called “network power,” it also tracked a tension between freedom and subjection. Transcendentalist and Democratic partisan Orestes Brownson in 1838 published a rousing denunciation of popular sovereignty that “Democracy [. . .] is sometimes asserted to be the sovereignty of the people.” Brownson wrote, “If this be a true account of it, it is indefensible,” in large part because it insured that the freedom of the individual would always be subjected to the collective will of the people, making every man “an absolute slave,” (a phrase Brownson, like most white men in the 19th century and since, used without irony). In the last analysis, Brownson offered a sovereign to whom all individuals could be subjected. “Justice is, then, the sovereign, the sovereign of sovereigns, the king of kings, lord of lords, the supreme law of the people, and of the individual.” Even in this encomium to the free individual, there was, lurking in the shadows of liberal democracy, some sovereign power to whom one could be and should be subjected. As sovereignty was increasingly associated with individuals, collectivities, and state rulers all at the same time, what was supposed to be an indivisible concept was becoming hopelessly fragmented. As the French political philosopher Claude Lefort wrote, democracy is a form “instituted and sustained by the dissolution of the markers of certainty. It inaugurates a history in which people experience a fundamental indeterminacy as to the basis of power, law and knowledge, and as to the basis of relations between self and other, at every level of social life.” Democracy does not constitute the end of sovereignty; instead, as Lefort suggests and Brownson demonstrates, sovereignty increasingly becomes attached to all kinds of quotidian and mundane parts of the life of the people, dividing and dispersing a supposedly indivisible political concept. Yet the desire for the indivisible remains. If popular sovereignty registers the tension between freedom and subjection, then why can’t we, in the name of freedom and autonomy, escape sovereignty? Why is it that we desire, not necessarily to be a sovereign, but rather to have a sovereign? Why is Donald Trump our sovereign choice? At the heart of liberal democracy lies a central paradox: to be a free individual, a free citizen, a constitutive part of the people, requires an act or process of subjection in order to be constituted as a subject. Subjection always resides, in some capacity, in the concept of sovereignty, yet it always seems repressed in the elision of democracy, popular sovereignty, and freedom. Why does Donald Trump seem to effectively embody this repressed sovereign authority now? If rational engagement with the Trump phenomenon yields little results, it might well be because his appeal lives in registers beyond the rational, beyond the conscious. It may just be that Trump figures himself as the primal father, “a violent and jealous father,” as Freud put it in Totem and Taboo, “who keeps all the females for himself and drives away his sons as they grow up.” Trump’s appeal to the populace lies not in rationality but in a desire to be subjected — a masochistic attachment to an arbitrary, narcissistic, sovereign father. Perhaps few other contests highlight this pathology more than the one between Trump and Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly — a contest he alone seems to be waging. As is now well known, Kelly opened the first Fox presidential debate specifically by problematizing Trump’s history of misogyny. “One of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don’t use a politician’s filter.” She then framed the question around women’s issues and sexism: However that is not without its downsides, in particular when it comes to women. You have called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals. [. . .] You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton [. . .] that you are part of the war on women? Kelly directly challenges Trump in a way that questions/castrates his authority to be president/primal father given his history of misogyny, and more specifically Trump’s insistence that women are simply sexual objects to please the primal father. Trump’s response is instructive here, as he poses himself as a commanding sovereign not bound by conventions of civility, which would only hinder him: I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct [cheers] [. . .] I’ve been challenged by so many people. And I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either. This country is in big trouble. We don’t win anymore. We lose to China. We lose to Mexico. Both in trade and at the border. We lose to everybody. And frankly, what I say, and oftentimes it’s fun, it’s kidding. We have a good time. What I say is what I say. And honestly, Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I’ve been very nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be based on the way you have treated me. But I wouldn’t do that. But you know what? [cheers] We need strength. We need energy. We need quickness and we need brain in this country to turn it around. That I can tell you right now. Trump never actually addresses Kelly’s question. Instead, he frames his response around the notion that political correctness stands in the way of sovereign strength. Here Trump and the nation have a metonymic relation, wherein he is constantly challenged “by so many people” just like the nation is challenged by China and Mexico, and neither have the time for political correctness; he frames his treatment of Kelly as a moment of underserved largesse, and then offers himself as strong, energetic, quick, and brainy — just the attributes that the nation needs in its sovereign father. Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination, like his business rivals, and like men with whom he has competed for the sexual attention of women (Trump has recounted these types of stories multiple times throughout his life as media spectacle) all figure as the metaphoric sons he must dominate to maintain his position as primal father. And he barely registers a response about his misogyny, because he figures women as the objects of pleasure, there only to gratify the desire of the primal father. And yet, Kelly’s position as castrating woman, challenging the unchecked, exceptional power of Trump, could not go unaddressed. Days later, he turned this exchange into one of the first spectacles of his role as castrating father. When asked about his exchange with Kelly, Trump turned his attention to her supposed rage, which was manifest in her apparently bloody body. “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” Despite his later protestations, Trump’s association of blood and an enraged woman drew on a long history of associating women’s menstruation with the incapacity to govern. As the feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey wrote, “Woman’s desire is subjected to her image as bearer of the bleeding wound, she can exist only in relation to castration and cannot transcend it.” Defending himself both through his derision of political correctness and through his association of Kelly (and, implicitly, all women) with a bleeding body, Trump shored up his position as primal father, castrating all women and potentially castrating all men. His sovereign power insistently turns on this performance. Trump’s relations to women have generally been a combination of possession and domination, evident as much in this exchange with Kelly as in his frequent public cataloguing of sexual partners. That he has, since this exchange with Kelly, repeatedly demeaned her as an incapable journalist and castrated woman (captured in his frequent reference to her as a “bimbo”), is more evidence of the repetitive nature of symbolic castration necessary to shore up the authority of the sovereign, primal father. Elaborating on the primal father and “the great man” in Moses and Monotheism, Freud gives us a picture of the desire for the father that sounds uncannily like our contemporary sovereign father, Trump. We know that in the mass of mankind there is a powerful need for an authority who can be admired, before whom one bows down, by whom one is ruled [. . .] and perhaps even ill-treated [. . .] It is a longing for the father felt by everyone from his childhood onwards, for the same father whom the hero of legend boasts he has overcome [. . .] The decisiveness of thought, the strength of will, the energy of action are part of the picture of a father — but above all the autonomy and independence of the great man, his divine unconcern which may grow into ruthlessness. Here we have Trump, ruthless, autonomous, divinely unconcerned with “the real world,” the world of facts. He emerges as that repressed father, who the “hero of legend” believes he has overcome. In contemporary democracy, isn’t this hero of legend “the people” of democracy, now confronted with the repressed father in the figure of Donald Trump? Trump’s rhetoric, we might comfortably argue, is consistently racist and xenophobic. In this, despite his demagoguery, he is a more powerful symptom of the long-standing territorial border anxieties and racism of American democracy. He may mobilize this, but he has not caused it. Indeed, his racism and xenophobia draw on the long racial and colonial structure of sovereignty itself. This racism, the quasi-colonial character of Trump’s border fetishism, buttresses his figuration of the sovereign father. But it may also mask what sits at the heart of his performance: a kind of arbitrary sovereign father, exemplified in the crude phallic discourse of the Republican primary. As nearly every commentator, left and right, has pointed out, Trump contradicts himself at nearly every turn; much of what he utters is factually unverifiable. Indeed, this has become the most compelling path of opposition to Trump — the belief that exposing his lies, his inventions, his absurd boasts, will mobilize the rational faculties of the American electorate. To this point reason has not been particularly effective; indeed, the more his inaccuracies have been exposed, the more popular he has become — evidence that the attachment to Trump does not operate in the world of the rational. Instead, for many voters, his appeal arises from an oft-cited, simple logic: he tells it like it is. The rational response is to point out, as did John Oliver to hilarious effect, that no, he does not tell it like it is. Rather, he never tells it like it is. Trump claims he is worth $10 billion, but research reveals that is unlikely the case; Trump claims his entire campaign is self-funded, but a quick perusal of his website reveals not one but two “donate” buttons; he often claims he will or has sued someone, but then doesn’t, or never has — the list goes on. Telling it like it is, it seems, means something a bit different in Trump’s case: It is the sovereign who promises to declare a permanent state of exception because, in his authoritative telling, we are in a permanent state of crisis, a permanent conflict. What Trump performs here is the role of the castrating father who claims, because he possesses the phallus — that is, because he is the primal father — he can exceed the law. This is telling it like it is, and it is perhaps, in the end, most clearly articulated in his willingness never to be held accountable to facts, and instead invent the world that he wants to govern. This is why people find him appealing, and it is also why the crude phallic moments of his campaign matter so much. That the Republican presidential campaign has turned on repeated references to penis size should come as little surprise. Trump is no stranger to crude moments in the campaign, trading ripostes in the phallic discourse that is presidential politics. As is rather well known at this point, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump debated over the size of “Big Donald’s” penis. At a campaign rally, responding in part to Trump’s frequent reference to Rubio as “Little Marco,” Rubio took a thinly veiled shot at Trump’s penis. He’s always calling me “little Marco.” And I’ll admit, he’s taller than me. He’s like six two which is why I don’t understand why his hands are the size of someone who is five two. Have you seen his hands? [. . .] And you know what they say about men with small hands [long pause] You can’t trust them. Playing on the hand/penis equivalence, Rubio closes by suggesting that a man with a small penis can’t be trusted. Or, conflating penis and phallus, a man who does not possess the phallus cannot be sovereign. Unsurprisingly, Trump responded at the opening of the next Republican debate. Holding up his hands for all to see, Trump said, “Look at those hands. Are they small hands? [laughter, cheers] And, he referred to my hands, if they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you, there’s no problem. I guarantee it.” It’s as if to say, “See, I have the phallus, I am the primal father, I am your sovereign.” Of course, as both Freud and Lacan pointed out, the penis is not the phallus — rather it is an illusion, since no one can actually have the phallus, which is the province of the primal father, who is always already dead, outside the world of the law. Trump may perform that position, but in the end, he simply cannot fully inhabit it. This is why, penis politics aside, his rhetoric is always boastful emptiness — 50-foot walls, mass deportation, $10 billion net worth — all hyperbolic penises trying to be the phallus. This phallic exchange was a coda to Trump’s most significant act as castrating father during this campaign season, where he engaged in a symbolic castration of Jeb Bush that resulted in one of the more bizarre moments of the campaign. During the debate, in another performance of his sovereign authority, Trump was explaining how George W. Bush knowingly lied about weapons of mass destruction in order to justify a war with Iraq. Ironically, this amounted to one of the few moments during his campaign that he told a factually verifiable truth. Regardless, this was a Republican debate with a conservative, Republican audience — to claim the war was a mistake built on deception violated the ideological demands of party politics, akin to supporting Planned Parenthood or portions of the Affordable Care Act (both of which Trump has done in the past few months). Jeb, however, was having none of this and took it as one more attack on his family. After Trump claimed “So George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes, but that one was a beauty,” Jeb took off the restraints in a heated and bizarre defense of his family. “I could care less about the insults that Donald Trump gives to me. It’s blood sport for him, he enjoys it, and I’m glad he’s happy about it. [. . .] I am sick and tired of him going after my family. My dad is the greatest man alive in my mind. While Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. And I’m proud of what he did.” Over this, Trump yells, in a humiliating act of castration, “The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign. Remember that.” Not only does he play on the phallic figuration of the World Trade Center, by using the word “reign,” but he acknowledges “the monarchy in democracy” (to borrow a phrase from the psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott) that is sovereignty. George W. Bush, in this exchange, can never be the sovereign protector — he is a castrated, failed sovereign. Jeb, however, pushes on. “He’s had the gall to go after my mother. [. . .] Look, I won the lottery when I was born 63 years ago and looked up and I saw my mom. Mom--my mom is the strongest woman I know.” Again, Trump yells over Bush, again castrating, “She should be running.” Here all presidential politics are reduced to family politics, with Jeb pronouncing the authority of his father, his brother, his mother, and presumably, through the sheer feat of consanguinity, himself. In short order, Trump ignores his father, castrates his brother, and then, through yelling that his mother should run, castrates Jeb. Three days later Jeb tweeted a photograph of a handgun engraved with “Gov. Jeb Bush.” The only text accompanying the photo was enigmatic: “America.” Playing 2nd Amendment politics as the South Carolina primary approached, Bush seemingly equated America with a handgun. But he was also reasserting his phallic authority — Jeb’s phallic gun was just the proof of his sovereign power that America was looking for. Of course, the gun was no better as a phallic substitute than the penis, and it holds its own illusion: Jeb hadn’t been governor since 2007 — if the authority of that gun rested on the engraving, then again, the primal father is always already dead. Four days later, castrated by Trump and the primary results, Bush suspended his campaign. This was not about policy, nor even ideology — rather, Bush was an ineffective embodiment of the illusion that a primal father could come into being in the world of law. When a woman from Mississippi was asked to explain her support for Trump, she said, “We got a bunch of pansies up there right now. So it’s time for something else.” This is about as vague a reason of support for Trump as one can imagine — again, content does not matter all that much. Yet, with its reference to “pansies” it suggests, as I have, that it is a desire for the primal father, for the real but impossible masculine, that animates Trump’s appeal. The conflation of democracy and popular sovereignty in the United States has long rested, in part, on the repression of this desire for submission to a sovereign Father. The return of the repressed always comes in distorted form, a grotesque re-appearance of that element in the psyche. The desire for an all-powerful sovereign who declares himself the permanent exception to all law by claiming we are in permanent crisis has long been the repressed of the democratic psyche. Donald Trump, in all his grotesquerie, is the return of the repressed. The literary critic Dana Nelson has argued that the presidency is “bad for democracy,” in large part because it holds out the fantasy that the people are at their best as a collective entity when they are symbolically unified in one figure. This has marked a vexing tension that has run through the democracy, such as it is, that is America. Trump’s ascendancy, embodying precisely that sense of the sovereign father that is the presidency, suggests that there is a wide part of the people who not only want to manifestly expose what is bad for democracy, but want to attach themselves to it. Brian Connolly is the author of Domestic Intimacies: Incest and the Liberal Subject in Nineteenth-Century America and editor of History of the Present: A Journal of Critical History. Brian Connolly is the author of Domestic Intimacies: Incest and the Liberal Subject in Nineteenth-Century America and editor of History of the Present: A Journal of Critical History. Donald Trump, The Coen Brothers, and the Decline of the American Middle Class Behind the angry talk of Trump supporters is the recognition that the world they were promised, the world of "Hail, Caesar!," is gone.... For Russell Amos Kirk, American conservatism was an attitude or mindset, not an explicit political program.... It is time for policy makers to embrace stimulative fiscal policy.... Any president can be packaged and rebranded. All it takes is a little insider journalism.... The Los Angeles Review of Books is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and disseminating rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts.	23,845
Ethereum Dropped Back Below $3,800 Monday, Extending December Slump Heres What It Means - Bethel United Methodist Church ↓ Skip to Main Content Bethel United Methodist Church Our Staff Children and Youth Home › Bitcoin Trading › Ethereum Dropped Back Below $3,800 Monday, Extending December Slump Heres What It Means Ethereum Dropped Back Below $3,800 Monday, Extending December Slump Heres What It Means Mike Burgess Posted on July 19, 2022 Posted in Bitcoin Trading No Comments Is Bitcoin A Good Investment? 100 billion, causing investors to watch the digital asset space even more closely. This makes Ethereum’s blockchain the best network to support any business or program. Its ability to solve problems with accuracy and precision is unparalleled. In the ever-expanding world of digital currency, Ethereum is one of the most promising technologies on the market. Listed below are a few options for buying ETH and how each method involves the exchange and wallet. The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile and speculative, states Ryan Haar for NextAdvisor. But, WalletInvestor is projecting a one-year forecast of $6,394.27 and a five-year forecast of $16,503.80 for Ethereum. Decentralized finance apps and games have already been launched on Ethereum, including marketplaces for collectibles like digital art and games. The same is most likely true for the foreseeable future with ethereum. It has a few things missing which have hindered its long-term growth. If Ethereum manages to implement Proof of Stake, then it could make Ethereum much more valuable and more decentralized than Bitcoin. This has the potential to disrupt the existing financial order and democratize finance. Unfortunately, another incident occurred in May 2019, resulting in a $40 million loss. In the cryptocurrency world, a fork takes place as the result of debates and arguments between developers and miners. If you’re interested in investing in Ethereum, and specifically Ether, you need a digital wallet connected to a cryptocurrency exchange. You can’t go to your online discount broker and buy Ethereum. The blockchain platform is the world’s second biggest — right after Bitcoin. It runs self-executing contracts known as smart contracts. This allows it to host decentralized applications in just about any area you can think of — from finance to gaming. Moreover,wild swingsin the values of most cryptocurrencies make them unreliable as a means of payment. It tripled in the next two weeks and then fell to half that peak value ten days later. It is as though a $10 bill could buy you just a cup of coffee one day and a lavish meal at a fancy restaurant just a few weeks later. Even on a calmer, more typical day, the value of a major cryptocurrency such as Ethereum might fluctuate by 10 percent or more, making it too unstable to be practical. Ethereum, the second most popular cryptocurrency, has its unique technology, features, and qualities that might threaten Bitcoin as the number one crypto. The problem with investing in anything like ethereum is there are always hidden risks. I just read the book about ethereum called “The Infinite Machine.” I figured it would be a good time to do some deep research on ethereum given the ever-changing opportunity it offers investors. With all the changes, ethereum is now becoming a lot scarcer. Therefore, ethereum could now become another form of scarce, hard money that can’t be created out of thin airlike US dollars. Ethereum’s smart contract platform can also eliminate the need for paperwork in other industries. It can significantly reduce costs and cut out the need for middlemen in many sectors. It simplifies the buying process and makes it easier for investors new to cryptocurrency to send and receive coins. Unlike some other forms of cryptocurrency, Tether is a stablecoin, meaning it’s backed by fiat currencies like U.S. dollars and the Euro and hypothetically keeps a value equal to one of those denominations. In theory, this means Tether’s value is supposed to be more consistent than other cryptocurrencies, and it’s favored by investors who are wary of the extreme volatility of other coins. Created in 2009 by someone under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency. As with most cryptocurrencies, BTC runs on a blockchain, or a ledger logging transactions distributed across a network of thousands of computers. Because additions to the distributed ledgers must be verified by solving a cryptographic puzzle, a process called proof of work, Bitcoin is kept secure and safe from fraudsters. From Bitcoin and Ethereum to Dogecoin and Tether, there are thousands of different cryptocurrencies, which can make it overwhelming when you’re first getting started in the world of crypto. To help you get your bearings, these are the top 10 cryptocurrencies based on their market capitalization, or the total value of all of the coins currently in circulation. It’s much easier for newcomers to invest in ETH and acquire whole “equity” units. On principle, the narrative overwhelmingly favors Bitcoin. While many altcoins have made a splash, and the underlying blockchain technology of Ethereum is commendable, the reality is that most institutional players are just warming up to BTC. Everyone, legacy institutions included, is looking to cryptocurrency to build their futures. If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m somewhat ignorant of the financial world. While I support the longer-term thesis of virtual currencies, as institutions put digital assets into their balance sheets, the pressure has ratcheted up enormously. Here’s the deal – the big boys are getting into this arena very late into the game. Even though I got in late to bitcoin, I was early enough to see my investment go up six times. It wasn’t the 3,600 times that Apple would have been, but it was a start. Staking is a great way to maximize your holdings in staking coins that would otherwise be sitting in a wallet or trading account. Many users hold on to their Ethereum with the expectation of it increasing in value. You can store your Ethereum safely on your Binance wallet or on our crypto wallet app Trust Wallet, the most user-friendly and secure mobile wallet. The proprietary scoring system analyzes how much money was required to move the price over the past 24 hours. The metric looks at recent changes in volume and market cap to evaluate how much a coin can be manipulated by limited trading. The score ranges from 0 to 100, with low scores representing high risk and high values equating to low risk. Binance is the best place to buy, sell, trade, and hold ETH easily. Signing up for a Binance account will allow you to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency. Charting can serve as an effective tool for traders, providing historical information that tracks when the price has previously reacted or held as support or resistance. With this technique, a group of cryptographic signatures appears, including at least one real participant, but the real one cannot be isolated since they all appear valid. Eth2’s goal is to make Ethereum more scalable, secure and sustainable. Ether’s rally followed an important upgrade to the Ethereum network on Wednesday. The upgrade, dubbed Altair, is one part of the integration toward Ethereum 2.0, or Eth2, where the network’s infrastructure will change. Once Eth2 is live in 2022, Ethereum mining will become obsolete. Ethereum and DeFi are relatively young — NFTs and many other new applications are becoming more mainstream on a daily basis. It’s vital to know and grasp the distinctions if you’re unsure which one to utilize. Buying Ethereum with a credit or debit card is possible in Ledger Live through our partner Coinify. Your newly brought crypto are immediately sent to the safety of your hardware wallet. Exchanges like Coinbase and Coinmama have also made the process smooth and fast but you’ll need a Ethereum wallet before you buy since some exchanges require one. With all that is going on and 25% swings up and down on a daily basis, holding could be the best option. The logic is also that by selling and taking profits now, you can swoop back in and buy more at a later did when the dust settles. Normally pricing ranges from 0.05 percent of your order to 0.3 percent. Traders can also buy and sell Bitcoin futures as well as take advantage of substantial volume trading discounts. Charles Schwab is routinely one of Bankrate’s picks for top broker, and this investor-friendly company offers trading in Bitcoin futures. Schwab also has no account minimum, but any futures contracts you trade will require some minimum margin to hold them open. Registration takes just one minute or less and requires only a 0.001 BTC deposit to begin. There you can prepare a position in Ethereum and start investing in the cryptocurrency today. However, even just a fraction of Ethereum can be purchased starting on most exchanges or trading platforms at a very low minimum. This means there is no real floor in terms of Ethereum investing. However, it is wise never to invest more than you can comfortably afford to lose. The NFT market, or non-fungible tokens, is also extremely important to Ethereum price growth as most NFTs are built on another type of Ethereum smart contract standard. We’ll continue sharing our insights on how to boost your portfolio with flexible and safe investments. The best way to check is to look at the website’s domain name. If it doesn’t have “https” in front of the name, do not invest. The website isn’t secure and encrypted and most likely is a scam. If you happened to buy Bitcoin on December 17, 2017, the price was $20,000. Weeks later, you couldn’t sell your investment for more than $7,051. Although you would be doing great now, to avoid painful losses in the short term, keep a close eye on the market. Once you own ETH, the selling of ethereum is just like the opposite of buying. You simply place a sell order on the exchange – like Coinase or Binance. It’s important to note that you don’t have to sell ethereum and receive cash for it. You see, Bitcoin uses a technology called blockchain specifically for conducting monetary transaction – it’s a straight currency. This is because unlike Bitcoin, where the network itself rewards transaction verifiers, Ethereum requires those participating in the transaction to cover the fee. It’s not for lack of effort that a blockchain is impenetrable to cyber attacks. A malicious actor stole more than $50 million in Ether from a project dubbed The DAO, a set of smart contracts written by a third party and originating from Ethereum’s software platform, in 2016. A third-party developer was blamed for the raid’s success. Now, months after we first published this explainer, we’re still seeing headlines about people paying house-money for clip art of rocks — and my mom still doesn’t really understand what an NFT is. These factors tell us that there is a good chance that ETH will go up in price from where it is now — and that it could be one of the safest cryptocurrencies to invest in right now. Considered the world’s first desktop wallet that supports multiple cryptocurrencies, this wallet has an attractive display that makes it easy to view your crypto balances. There are better investments that you could make in the sector. While you could make some good money investing in Ethereum, there are other crypto investments that could make you more money. Should a correction occur in the stock market, there will be additional pressure for institutional players to dump out of Bitcoin to salvage something from the red ink. Put another way, crypto volatility isn’t the only thing you must worry about in this space. The stock market is another variable, perhaps the variable to focus on. As for institutions preferring Bitcoin, that may not necessarily be a slight against Ethereum. However, you have to understand the psychology of the marketplace. Is Bitcoin A Good Investment? However, you can avoid this risk by investing through a traditional retirement account, such as a 401 or IRA, or by sticking with a classic index fund. Through Ethereum’s decentralized network, users can eliminate third-party intermediaries. This includes lawyers who write contracts and interpret them, banks that facilitate financial transactions, and companies that offer web hosting services. If you buy and sell coins, it’s important to pay attention to cryptocurrency tax rules. Cryptocurrency is treated as a capital asset, like stocks, rather than cash. As of December 2021, BCH has a market capitalization of around $8.2 billion and a value per token of $436. Cardano is an “Ouroboros proof-of-stake” cryptocurrency that was created with a research-based approach by engineers, mathematicians, and cryptography experts. Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency breaking records this month. Start with Benzinga’s guide to learn more about the bitcoin and the blockchain ecosystem. As well as powering smart contracts, Ether is also used to run DApps, generate tokens during ICOs, facilitate transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, and make payments. The information provided does not constitute, in any way, a solicitation or inducement to buy or sell cryptocurrencies, derivatives, foreign exchange products, CFDs, securities, and similar products. Comments and analysis reflect the views of different external and internal analysts at any given time and are subject to change at any time. Moreover, they can not constitute a commitment or guarantee on the part of PrimeXBT. It is specified that the past performance of a financial product does not prejudge in any way their future performance. The foreign exchange market and derivatives such as CFDs , Non-Deliverable Bitcoin Settled Products and Short-Term Bitcoin Settled Contracts involve a high degree of risk. Read more about DRGN Exchange here. “The world’s programmable blockchain,” according to Ethereum. Binance did not used to accept fiat deposits or withdrawals, unlike other platforms that offer standard payment methods such as bank transfers and PayPal. This makes it difficult for newcomers to begin trading cryptos. While Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, Ethereum might be considered the true first mass-market application of blockchain technology. In 2013, Ethereum was first proposed, and it became operational in 2015. Ethereum’s unique combination of many factors makes it stand out against traditional money or other assets. The boom in DeFi and NFTs built on Ethereum, have caused demand for ETH to pay for ultra high gas fees to rise and send prices soaring. An Ethereum 2.0 update is being rolled out in phases to help with scalability, and ensuring long-term investment success. Despite thousands of competitors that have sprung up, Bitcoin—the original cryptocurrency—remains the dominant player in terms of usage and economic value. Each coin was worth roughly $47,000 as of December 2021, with a market capitalization of more than $886 billion. Although Litecoin is like Bitcoin in many ways, it has a faster block generation rate and hence offers a faster transaction confirmation time. Cryptocurrencies are almost always designed to be free from government manipulation and control—although, as they have grown more popular, this foundational aspect of the industry has come under fire. The cryptocurrencies modeled after Bitcoin are collectively called altcoins, and in some cases shitcoins, and have often tried to present themselves as modified or improved versions of Bitcoin. While some of these currencies may have some impressive features that Bitcoin does not, matching the level of security that Bitcoin’s networks achieve largely has yet to be seen by an altcoin. The “crypto” in cryptocurrencies refers to complicated cryptography that allows for the creation and processing of digital currencies and their transactions across decentralized systems. Julius Mansa is a CFO consultant, finance and accounting professor, investor, and U.S. Learn more about Bitcoin and Ethereum in Benzinga’s guide. Discover the best crypto apps you can use on your iPhone or Android phone, based on security, data, availability and more. Ether acts as a store of value too, while the Ethereum Virtual Machine enables a host of innovative applications such as DeFi, NFTs and the metaverse. When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. This means that you can either pay your seller via PayPal, credit card or even hard cash, in case you decide to meet up in person. Consider speaking with a financial advisor about the hazards of investing in Ether or other cryptocurrencies before making any large investments. Even if you believe in Ethereum’s promise, make sure it’s money you can afford to lose, given the extreme risk and volatility in this market. Because of the aforementioned qualities, Binance Coin is an excellent cryptocurrency investment opportunity.	17,684
"Dr. Liu is the Best" said Lonnie Ali at the Celebrity Fight Night. Mrs. Ali introduced Dr. Jing Liu as one of the team doctors for Muhammad Ali. Dr. Jing Liu, OMD, LA., PhD, has nearly 20 years of experience in both Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Medicine. Born and raised in China, Dr. Liu attended Beijing Medical School of PLA and Ph.D. program in Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, she also holds a Ph.D. degree in Natural Health Science. Dr. Liu is also Nationally Certified and Board Licensed in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in California and Arizona. As a recognized expert in acupuncture, Dr. Liu has worked alongside high-ranking Chinese government officials and top Western doctors. Dr. Liu was influential in the research of Dr. Shi Xue Min’s stroke rehabilitation method Xing Nao Kai Qiao. Dr. Shi or “The Father of Acupuncture” acts as a mentor to Dr. Liu and has nicknamed her “The Master of the Masters.” Dr. Liu makes yearly visits to China to further her acupuncture education and bring back the latest research in the field. Through her connection to China, Dr. Liu champions for the legitimacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the U.S. and standardizing acupuncture for many disorders. For over a decade, Dr. Liu and her Eastern Medicine Center has offered the Scottsdale community her unique talents using a seamless blend of Traditional Chinese and Western medicine. The Center has been featured in 3TV’s Your Life A to Z and Dr. Liu has contributed to the nation’s leading acupuncture news source Acupuncture Today. Miss Arizona 2014, Jennifer Smestad was Dr. Liu's patient when she was a little girl who suffered with Tourette's and ADD/ADHD. Dr. Liu called her a little duckling who became into a beautiful swan. Dr. Liu’s knowledge is well-rounded and encompasses the treatment of common illnesses, pain management, cancer support, neuropathy, and men and women’s health issues. Dr. Liu’s latest research looks into the cause and treatment of male and female infertility. Dr. Liu’s dominance of infertility treatments has led to full-term pregnancies for many of her patients. Dr. Jing Liu not only treats patients in her office, but she has dedicated her time to start her own nonprofit The Arizona Research Institute of Acupuncture to prove the clinical effectiveness of TCM by treating both symptoms and illness by setting up research, educate and support the community. She has visited elementary schools around the Scottsdale area to educate the parents and staff how acupuncture and Chinese medicine help kids who suffer from ADD/ADHD. Dr. Liu and her mentor were invited to Tucson medical school to introduce the advance research methods and its effect on the comprehensive evaluation system, and advanced clinical evidence. They both have been invited to numerous acupuncture schools across the U.S. to continue to educate students because the widespread use to Traditional Chinese Medicine in China and its use in the West, rigorous scientific evidence of its effectiveness is limited. Dr. Liu is also invested in shaping the next generation of practitioners at EMC and ensuring that Chinese medicine continues to thrive. To learn more about Traditional Chinese Medicine or to schedule an appointment with Dr. Liu and her team, call (480) 451-8880 today. Read more on Dr. Jing Liu at Acupuncture Today: Dr. Liu with Muhammad Ali after a treatment with Dr.Liu, Ali was always happy and relieved "She is the best." Lonnie Ali said of Dr. Jing Liu Dr. Liu Successful Story helping Miss Arizona when she was younger battling Tourette's Guest Speaker Mayo Clinic Stroke Association July 2014 3TV Infertility Interview Your Life A to Z December 2011 Dr. Liu work with Dr. Shi in Teaching Hospital in Tianjin China It was an honor when Dr. Shi offers a chair to sit next to him to work on patients together Yearly Visits from "The Father of Acupuncture" Dr. Shi Xue Min, the most respected TCM doctor in the world and a Chinese medicine treasure makes yearly... Merging with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is based on the pulse and tongue diagnosis. To improve on making diagno... Keep Up with Would you like to stay informed about Eastern Medicine Center? Click here to read up on our latest news...	4,371
Blog with tips on avoiding burnout while working from home. Published for Brand Manifest in July 2020. "The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say." It’s rare to come across the mix of talented wordsmith and strategic thinker that Autumn Barker embodies. She is able to simultaneously balance the short term requirements of preparing content for distribution with the long term goals of executing an overall marketing strategy. Autumn and I had the pleasure of working closely together over the course of a year on the marketing team for INTELITY. Her ability to juggle multiple projects and campaigns while staying focused on the big picture was crucial to the success of our team and ultimately kept everyone on track. Despite being in a different time zone, Autumn was always willing to support our mostly LA-based team and added value wherever she could. I admired her dedication to the organization and appreciated when she would go out of her way to help a teammate in a pinch, myself included. I am confident that Autumn would add value to any team she supports.	1,159
Milk tea generally has a good taste and drinking a beverage with a flavour you like gives you that positive feeling. Partea International’s milk tea will provide you strength for the body, reduces stress, and is effective for weight loss. Sort by Price: low to high Price: high to low Price filter $0.00 + Giving gifts may come with tons of reasons but the best one is probably to remind a loved one that you care for them. Especially in this trying time, sending your good thoughts to other people will surely go a long way. When picking the best present to give to your loved ones, it is important to be practical, caring and unique. Give your loved ones these delicious and healthy tea gift sets to send your good intentions. Tea gift set is a good way to show your love and concern for the people that matter. See our selection of various sets that will suit varying personalities and lifestyles.	938
The trial for Rita Jo Newcomb, the matriarch of a Pike County family accused of murdering eight people in 2016, was supposed to begin Monday morning. Though she is not charged with the murders, Newcomb stands accused of perjury, obstructing justice and forgery to protect her daughter, son-in-law and grandsons charged with the killings. Newcomb's trial was delayed on Monday; a hearing is scheduled for Dec. 2. The saga spans three years of investigations, arrests, hearings, dismissals and gag orders. Here’s what you need to know as her trial starts. Who is Rita Jo Newcomb? Newcomb, 66, is accused of lying to cover up her family's involvement in the Pike County massacre, but she isn’t implicated in the murder itself. Her charges stem from lying to a grand jury and forging custody documents. In subsequent hearings, she's been warned against aiding the legal defense of four members of the Wagner family charged with the murders after a judge issued a no-contact order. But Newcomb's attorney, Franklin Gerlach, describes her as a grandmother on a fixed income. "She's not charged with any violent crime — any nature at all," Gerlach said at 2018 hearing. "These are all paper-type crimes and we felt that justice in this particular matter would be a reasonable bond would be set, and she be permitted to sign her own bond." How is Newcomb related to the Wagners? Newcomb’s daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons were charged with the aggravated murders of eight members of the Rhoden family, charges which carry death penalty specifications and other crimes. Her daughter is Angela Wagner, who is married to George “Billy” Wagner and is the mother of Edward “Jake” Wagner and George Wagner IV. They have all pleaded not guilty. Who are the victims? Eight members of the Rhoden family, including Kenneth Rhoden, 44; Christopher Rhoden, Sr., 40; Dana Rhoden, 37; Gary Rhoden, 37; Hannah Gilley, 20; Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20; Hanna Rhoden, 19; and Christopher Rhoden, Jr., 16, were found dead in four homes on April 22, 2016. A grim preliminary autopsy report shows the victims were shot at point-blank range, some multiple times. Three children in the homes were found unharmed. Christopher Rhoden Sr. and his ex-wife, Dana Rhoden, were parents to Clarence "Frankie," Christopher Jr. and Hanna Rhoden; Hannah Gilley was Frankie's fiancee, and Gary was a Rhoden cousin. Did the families know each other? One of the eight victims, Hanna Rhoden, had been in a custody dispute with Edward “Jake” Wagner over a child they had together, according to her grandfather. Mike DeWine, the state attorney general at the time, said the Wagners conspired to kill the Rhodens over the dispute and cover up their tracks. Evidence shows they spent months planning the crime and studying the victims' habits and routines, according to DeWine. "They were brutally and viciously executed," he said in November 2018. What happened in the lead-up to Newcomb's trial? A Pike County grand jury indicted Newcomb and the Wagners on Nov. 12, 2018, and police arrested Newcomb on Nov. 13. After she pleaded not guilty, a judge placed her on house arrest. In January, Newcomb's attorney asked that she be allowed to visit her mother's farm to feed the horses and dogs there, a request Judge Randy Deering denied. Deering also issued no-contact orders to Newcomb and Fredericka Wagner, who was similarly accused of lying to cover up the murders. The order prevented the pair from speaking to the other four Wagners or aiding their legal defense. At a June hearing to dismiss Newcomb’s charges, prosecutors asked for her $50,000 bond to be revoked for violating Deering’s no-contact order. At the next hearing, on Aug. 28, Deering warned Newcomb could be jailed if she continued making phone calls to discuss legal defense in her family’s upcoming trials. Newcomb’s trial was set to start Oct. 21, but it was delayed until Monday. When are the rest of the Wagners on trial? The Wagners have pre-trial hearings scheduled for later this winter. George “Billy” Wagner’s hearing is set for Dec. 9. Angela Wagner and Edward “Jake” Wagner will appear in court on Dec. 11 in separate hearings. George Wagner IV’s hearing is set for Jan. 21, 2020. Like Newcomb, prosecutors accused Billy Wagner’s mother, Fredericka, of covering up the Rhoden murders, saying she lied about the purchase of a bulletproof vest. A judge dismissed the 76-year-old’s charges in June after her attorneys showed receipts for the vest dated after the murders. At the time, prosecutors said the charges could be re-filed. Jury selection for Newcomb's trial begins Monday at 8:30 a.m. in Pike County Court. Read more: 4 charged with murder; 2 charged with cover-up Pike County massacre suspect was in custody dispute with victim 'It's not enough to know who did it' Investigation, upcoming trials stretch tight county finances Grandmothers accused of covering up crime seek more freedom in house arrest Copyright 2019 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.	5,080
Bonjour chaps and chappetes, or all the three people that read this shit. As you may have noticed I haven’t posted for a while. I’m not sorry, life and my day job has been on top of me like a horny silver back that thinks my ass is full of bananas. And I went on holiday, I know woe is me, I went to Barbados to drink drinks with tiny umbrellas in them. Also been doing a lot of baking and cooking like a manwife but that’s neither here nor there. Well I’m back on track now for a couple of months so I should be posting regularly again until July. As you can see, got a new raw chapter of GS and a new edited chapter which I’ve yet to work through but I will. Also got a lot more money at the ready, what with all the day jobbing so I can afford a lot more chapters to be professionally edited and maybe a few more knives to review so hold out for that. Without further ado I’ll get on with schlocking the new chapter. Lots of lovecraft in this one, lots of action. It’s a pretty fun set up to probably the most fucked up action/gore wise the entire book goes into. So it was pretty fun to write, a lot of my heart and baby batter went into it and I hope you enjoy it. As usual for copyright/paranoia purposes this is just an excerpt and you can check the full chapters in order on inkitt linked below. An obnoxious beam of light perforated the dry dusty dark. Translucent fingers of light fumbling over burnt play mats and wooden toys. Simple wind up toys melted and disfigured by a burnt out fire. Frilly petticoats of little cotton dolls, singed beyond repair. Cheap plastic action figures curled into a praying position by a burst of intense heat. Grey and black ashes making a shifting carpet of despair. The light brisk morning air breezed through the holes in the roof of the burnt out nursery. Bodies strung nonchalant from the buckling ceiling of the single storey building. The beams of which were melted and twisted. But remained the only thing keeping the building together. The bodies, some of which were burnt, most of were not. Fresh looking ones, some with biker gear indicating how disposable they were, some without. Their heads crushed or missing or pulled apart like soft pizza dough. The bodies swayed in the delicate breeze, suspended by their feet to the steel beams in the ceiling. Exposed as they were by the collapsing asbestos tiles. Tied there with skipping ropes and belts and ties and anything on hand. Clear tape and shoe laces worked well. Despite the noisey crinkling sounds it made as the bodies swung. As the bodies parted, swinging free. An inhuman gargantuan figure appeared. Hunched over a toybox turned altar for some obscure obsession. Whispering, whispering, hoarse whispering. A sudden shrill whistling sound. Followed by sharp clap and a low rumbling shook the foundations of the building. Tossing up sickly plumes of grey and black dust and ash. “It’s time Lamby.” Jeff said as he picked up the plush lamb off the toybox altar and shoved it gracelessly into his fanny pack. Zipping it up litigiously, he began to walk out of the crestfallen building. TJ lay on his back on the floor of his living room, his eyes open but seeing nothing. The room spun around and he felt black wings circling. The ceiling fan getting closer and closer and he couldn’t move. He was frozen in place, a three hundred pound greasey paper weight staring into nothing. “TJ can you hear me? We don’t have time for this.” Sunday knelt at his side, pushing the coffee table off at a jaunty angle making a loud screeching noise. “TJ, I need you to wake up” She took one of his sweaty hands and cupped it in her cold palms. “I need you.” She placed his large hand with its chubby digits on her chest. And delicately probed her humble breast with the large clumsy instrument. “Shit if that didn’t work” She said as she dropped his meaty forearm onto the carpet. “I didn’t tell you anything about myself. I know this isn’t the best time.” She turned around on the floor to sit beside him. Lifting her knees up to rest her forearms on and cradle her head as she spoke. “But I get it, it hurts, I know that more than anyone.” She turned her head away from him, resting on her forearms across her skinny knees. Her face becoming drawn and moist “Losing someone, sucks, fuck that sounded dumb.” She laughed at herself as she sniffed back a few tears. “I came from a town just like this, it wasn’t exactly like this, close enough.” She lifted her head up and looked at the catatonic TJ. She smiled as she wiped her nose on the sleeve of an old disturbed hoodie she found in the closet. “I was pretty normal, went to school, most of the time, went for walks, took out the garbage.” she took a sharp inhale of breath. “My parents died when I was really young. Me and my brother spent most of our childhood in foster care. Oh yeah forgot to mention, I have an older brother, Adam, Adam Evens. That’s my last name, Sunday Evens, pleased to meet you.” She said as she smiled reaching over to shake TJ’s limp hand before dropping it back down onto the carpet. “He pretty much raised me, taught me how to fight, don’t know who taught him. Taught me how to fix cars, I’m pretty handy with a blowtorch. That was the first job he got, worked in a body shop. As like an apprentice to this skeezy old fuck who was always trying to pick me up. I was like fourteen, he wasn’t a bad old guy, just kind of a freak” She looked straight at the wall “Aren’t we all?” “It was hard, but we made it, we were something close to happy. Didn’t have anyone to tell us to get up or go to bed or do our homework, but we did it. We had to, we were all we had in the world, an island in a sea of shit.” She slid her forearms off her knees putting her hands on the side of her calfs and began to squeeze them tight. “Then all this shit happened, exactly like this. The zombies, then those weirdoes appeared. Started rounding people up, they took him, he tried to protect me, he died.” She squeezed her calves even harder, digging her fingers into her legs. “I swore, I fucking swore, to god or odin, or Krishna, that I would never, NEVER! Let anyone protect me ever again.” She bit her lip and kept her eyes locked forward. Her heart started to race her breathe became heavy and laboured. “I would use people, I would become a freak, I would kill, but I would never let anyone die to protect me.” She turned to TJ who hadn’t moved an inch other than deep rhythmic intakes of breath. Thanks for checking it out, tried to get a little heart more than meat in this one. Give a little glimpse into the character of Sunday. Anyway if you liked the excerpt don’t forget to check out the full chapter on inkitt and to read the corresponding chapters.	6,812
Sexual intercourse isn't always capitalized with lust. There's a mutual understanding between husband and wife, also the selection of an appropriate time, in order to obtain the sensation. If you wanna be happy in each other in a sexual relationship, you'd be able to establish an effective communication. You don't hesitate to ask or request time she likes to fuck. When the wife wants sex in the morning, do it. At that time, her stamina is ready, so surely, she would be easy to reach orgasm. If you have to rush immediately to the office, you might be able to do a quickie or sex without penetration as one variation. The essence is the agreement and understanding on each partner's needs. For women, sex isn't always the need for penetration. Romantic atmosphere, affection, caress, or attention from you has been fun. It'd be better if you understand when her libido comes. A woman's desire for sexual intercourse is to be high on the fertile period. The surge of libido in this fertile period is for women who don't use contraception, including who've been sterilized or using a spiral. Yet, until now, it's not known why the female libido is really high when the fertile period comes. The presumption is, in the fertile period, women produce pheromones more, chemicals that send messages to the opposite sex which increases the sexual attractiveness. You couldn't hurt to take advantage of this fertile time to make love because it's easier to achieve sexual pleasure. Just keep in mind, sexual intercourse during the fertile has a high potential to produce a pregnancy. If you don't wanna have a child, don't forget to wear a condom. Female fertile period lasts six days each month, five days before ovulation and in the day. Ovulation is the release of a ripe egg from follicle and usually occurs between day nine to seventeen after the beginning of menstruation. The peak point of fertility occurs on the fourteenth day before the next menstrual period. Unfortunately, women's menstrual cycles aren't always the same. For brevity, the fertile period is estimated three to five days before and after the fourteenth day before the next menstrual period, approximately ten days between the two menstrual periods. Ovulation is often delayed, for example, due to stress, during lactation, or in premenopause. Determining the fertile period can also be done by looking at the changes of the vaginal mucus. When estrogen increases, cervical mucus can be felt in the vagina. In the beginning, it'll give you the sensation of damp, and there'll be a small amount of white or cream mucus. In test with a finger, mucus tends to retain its shape and is easily broken. At the transition phase, the amount of mucus will increase and have a color of clouds. The elasticity is low, and it has a wet sensation. When approaching ovulation, mucus is more and can be ten times as much. This mucus gives a slippery sensation in the vagina. This fertile mucus is like an egg white: thin, watery, and transparent. In a test with a finger, the mucus is elastic and stretchy before rupturing. Sex in the fertile period aren't necessarily satisfactory. Once again, it takes mutual understanding of the needs of partner if you both wanna be happy. Not all men wanna have sex while his wife in a fertile period. The reason is because it's too muddy. Some women have mucus a little, normally, or pretty much in the fertile period. Even so, in general, having sex on fertile days just makes happy on both sides. Penetration takes place more easily. Woman's body is more easily stimulated to achieve orgasm in this fertile period. It's not always, in the fertile period, a woman has a high libido. It could be several days before or after menstruation, even when she's menstruating. It's just the agreement of you both to specify the time of lovemaking as an option: morning, afternoon, or evening. Sexual intercourse carried out on the wishes of both will feel happier. You may also like: 98° Hot and Cold Health Other Apps Comments How to strengthen child's immune system The immune system is responsible for keeping your body safe from the disease. However, your child ain't born with a strong immune system. It needs to be strengthened, so that your child ain't susceptible to the disease. Fans of Japanese comics or manga and anime, such as Captain Tsubasa , Naruto , maybe even Junji Ito's works like Tomie , were initially labeled as otaku, aka people who were really crazy about them. Some people thought that otaku were geeky, quiet, and anti-social. But in 1988, otaku was seen as a dangerous pastime. They were seen as prone to commit heinous murders. Tsutomu Miyazaki was born on August 21, 1962, to a wealthy family. His father, Katsumi Miyazaki, was the owner of Akigawa Shimbun , a local daily of the Itsukaichi newspaper network. Even though his school grade was bad, Miyazaki was able to get an education until he was in college. Miyazaki's life was far from perfect. Born prematurely, his hands were deformed for life. They were wrinkled, and the bones fused with the forearms. In other words, Miyazaki had no wrist bones and had to move his entire forearm if he wanted to move his hand. Miyazaki often made fun of at school and became quiet and withdrawn. It was hard Plunging into the world of streaming, Warner Bros. was full of stars' protests In 1997, a father of two named Marc Randolph intended to start a company. The problem was, he didn't know what kind of company to start and finally made a list of ideal business ideas. And a friend named Reed Hastings was asked to comment on whether the ideas he sparked made sense or not. Randolph was thinking of starting a personal toothpaste company. Hastings, through his business analysis, said no. On another occasion, Randolph wanted to start a baseball bat manufacturing company. Hastings turned it down. "That will never work," he said. The same remarks were expressed for 114 Randolph's suggestions, ranging from special shampoos, formula dog food, to custom surfboards. One day, after waking up all night because he had to accompany his children to watch the film Aladdin , Randolph came up with the idea of renting a film cassette via the website and sending it via post to Hastings. Not saying it wouldn't work, Hastings ventured. He admitted that he had just been	6,553
Please advise whether the Stihl kombi km 90/100/130 (Commercial range) are good and would you recommend going for this combi-tool or just buying a separate strimmer, pole hedge trimmer and long reach chain saw. I am unsure whether the kombi system is as tough as the tools bought as separate units and whether it works out as a better choice in terms of cost and longevity? I have no experience of the Stihl kombi but have generally found that tools made for a specific purpose are much better than a combination tool - one size fits all, but not very well. I use them and would recomend them, julien. Funguy Thanks bulbaholic, i understand where your coming from as i share your view, but a couple of people(all be it one was a guy working in the shop!) have sworn by them and how good they are. I wonder if they have advanced the technology to actually get that 'one size to fit all' Julien do you know what model you used? And did you use many of the attachments? I only work on a few gardens at the moment but i hope to get more work soon so will probably be using it regularily....did you/have you used it regularily? I'm a professional gardener. I cannot comment on whether the stihl combi is any good as I've not used it but if you're going to be doing alot of gasrdens you might find it a pain having to swap attachments all the time. Unless the swap process is extraordinarily quick and slick I think I'd go for separate tools. Another point to bear in mind...If the engine on the combi tool fails you'll be without all your tools. If you have 3 or more seperate tools if one fails you'll still be able to do some work with the ones that are working. 2ndhand I was a prof gardener for 10 years. I bought the stihl Kombi range just after I started. The model I got was a KM 90. I have the strimmer, brush cutter, hedge trimmer with the adjustable angle and lawn edger. The strimmer was fine, but I bought a different attachment from a company called garden innovations (years ago), it allows me to put 6 lengths of cable in, so if I want I can mulch as well as strim. The 'D' handle is comfortable to use. I personally couldn't get on with the harness, but when Hubbs or son use it they attach the harness for strimming / brushcutting. I am still using most of the attachments. I did find the edger was not brilliant and ended up using the strimmer for edging. I still using the stihl on a regular basis, but no where near as much as I used to. I chose the Kombi system, as I carried all my tools in my landy, and the mower took up quite a lot of room and it was easier to have one motor and a few attachments, rather than all those different tools. The attachments were changed very easily, just the loosening off of a bolt. I would highly recommend the stihl combi system. I used it between 15 - 30 hrs a week, depending on the jobs I had, But I must admit it was mainly strimming or hedgecutting. Hello yes mine is the same system as 2ndhand, and anchorman does have a point there, if your on a job and the engine were to fail, then straioght away its a big problem, lost time and money etc, i always make sure i have a back up for whatever job i am doing in that day, julien.	3,303
‘This will be close’: A race forecaster reveals more bad news for Democrats just days before the midterm elections. The head of the United Nations warned that ‘we will perish without a historic climate agreement’ Cope27 Education Student School Terms and Conditions Candidates recently competitive 50th District split in education Elections Democrats Doug Mann and James Musgraves, candidates vying to represent Missouri’s 50th House of Representatives District, are offering voters two different approaches to education policy. This race is expected to be more competitive than in years past. Because of redistricting, the 50th declined to include Columbia’s southern city limits and adjacent parts of Boone County. Mann is a civil rights attorney for the Columbia law firm TGH Litigation LLC, and began her career teaching school history and civics. Musgrave spent his entire career in the Navy, rising to the rank of captain before retiring in 2019. Each candidate has four pillars in his or her platform, but there is only one plan in common — and each differs significantly from the other in its approach. Mann said his education was No. 1 case, and his experience as a public school teacher in an underfunded Chicago school inspired him to run for office. Saying the teacher showed him that the questions of the teacher and the students were being discussed, specifically instructing him to address them. Mann said the biggest issue Missouri’s public schools face is a lack of funding, because of teacher shortages and some schools needing a four-day school week to save money. If elected, he said he would seek to expand the public school funding formula to increase the amount of funding. Local funding is determined by property taxes, over which the legislature has no control, and federal funding is a relatively small part of the formula. Mann said he hopes increasing funding will encourage schools to return to five-day weeks, because students in four-day districts are losing valuable instructional time. He said increasing teacher pay would help ease the stress of teaching. “There are also job stressors that drive employers, because if you want to pay badly for a great position, you’re going to try the exit as soon as possible,” he said. Musgrave said that if he were elected, he would ask teachers what he could do to make it easier for the legislator to do his job. “Steve Jobs once said, ‘Don’t hire smart people to tell them what to do.’ They hire smart people so they can do something for you,’” Musgrave said. “Well, we’ve already hired smart people. We hired teachers. Now we need to ask them, “What do we need?” Gary Ritter, dean of St. Louis University’s School of Education, said schools strive to recruit and retain the best teachers. Part of the argument, he said, is that the entire economy is about labor shortages. He also said that there are some specific frictions in schools. For the most part, Ritter said, teachers are paid according to a fixed salary schedule based on years of experience and level of achievement, while other occupations have a wide range of salaries to adjust. This means that a prospective teacher will likely not be able to bargain for a better salary and move to an industry where they could. He also said that Republican attacks on the school curriculum, such as textbook bans, can cause people to become teachers because the attacks cause stress that people in other fields do not have to deal with. He said the fear of school shootings also discourages students from following their studies. Musgrave said schools need to “go back to basics” and teach core subjects like math, science and English instead of “exciting agendas.” “It’s when you … go out there swimming out of your lane, and start getting into these other personal issues, political things that go around the school for whatever reason … it doesn’t matter who’s doing it or what part of the hallway you come from. It’s not,” he said. . Musgraves said parents have a right to know if their children are being taught something that conflicts with their morals and personal beliefs. He said parents should ask about their children’s background and teachers should have no problem explaining why they are being taught. Mann was pressured by parents and pressured by teachers and driven away from the profession. Republicans added that parents’ fear of trying to capitalize on the state’s profit. “I saw it twice a year and I thought it was absolutely brilliant. It was, ‘If your 10-year-old is learning CRT (critical genre theory), you should be really proud that your 10-year-old is in law school,’” says Mann. “Critical genre theory is not taught in schools. Kids are not taught. Musgrave said his top-line issue is the economy, which he said is also the top issue the overwhelming majority of voters have spoken about. Because of inflation, he said, people are more “just to be.” He recommends three measures in this area: to repeal the Missouri gas tax, the grocery tax and the personal property tax. Musgrave said he would also improve Missouri’s infrastructure, especially its stretch of Interstate 70, which he said is among the “least-restored” in the country. He said if the federal government in Missouri started putting money back into Missouri’s roads, it would strengthen the state’s largest artery. Musgrave, Missouri’s police force said it is experiencing a shortage of police officers. He said the “defund the police” rhetoric from Democrats is turning people away from becoming police officers. If elected, Musgrave said he would work more closely with police departments to serve their needs. Mann said his legislative priorities include improving access to mental health care, protecting workers’ rights and fighting for reproductive rights. Mann said his support for education benefits the economy because education is the ladder that lifts people out of poverty and provides job skills. Mann said the Missouri Department of Mental Health is facing a staffing crisis that he said is making it harder for Missourians to access mental health care. He said the state should send more funding to the department to help solve the problems. The state’s Human Rights Commission also needs more funding, Mann said. Workers who want to file an employment discrimination case must go through the commission, Mann said, but there is a backlog. More money would help move cases through the system faster and help crisis workers, he said. Mann said he is a “firm pro-choice candidate.” While abortion has become illegal in Missouri, he said lawmakers still need to protect access to contraception and in vitro fertilization. It runs for reasons Mann said he grew up with a single mother who was very politically involved and got him involved in politics, sparking his interest in politics. Originally from upstate New York, Mann taught high school in Chicago after graduating from Niagara University. He came to Columbia with his wife Adrienne five years ago to attend MU Law School. Mannus said he and his wife fell in love with Columbia and part of their reason for running is to give back to the community. Mann said he is running for a seat in the Missouri state House because he wants to use his place as a white man who is economically stable to help improve the state. “Well, I live a wonderful life, and I don’t want to go back to (Illinois) with the skills that I have and the privilege and the voice that I have to raise voices here and help. Missouri is doing the best it can,” Mann said. Musgrave grew up in St. Louis County and joined his class in high school. The Navy awarded him an ROTC scholarship, which he used to study political science at MU. After college, he was selected for flight training and spent much of his life flying or teaching others to fly helicopters, as well as building and leading performance teams. At last he became emperor. Musgraves also took on the role of executive director of the British Naval Support Facility in the overseas territory of Diego Garcia, an Indian atoll in the Indian Ocean. He spent about a year there and managed a budget of 2,500 people. 2019. Musgrave said his displeasure with the way President Joe Biden acted in office inspired him to run for state representative. “I can sit and talk and do nothing,” Musgrave said, “but it felt like the time for passive observation and the time for active combat were over.” 50th turns purple Rep. The seat is held by Sarah Walsh, R-Ashland, who has held the state stronghold for ten years. She went down. Above the village was also a rural swath of Boone, Cole, Cooper and Moniteau counties. Greg Vonnahme, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who has studied polling, said “there is a competitive way of thinking” about the 50th district this cycle due to redistricting. Related Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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November 2, 2022 Deals and buses: Why districts worry as competition plummets in the school bus industry November 2, 2022 High teacher expectations boost long-term student outcomes November 2, 2022 Law Column: Dyson’s claim dismissed by High Court for lack of reference Education 111 School 110 Americans ASIA Business business news continents and regions crime Economy and trade education government and public administration Instability law enforcement and corrections North America politics School social issues society United States US	10,651
I have had multiple people confirm that there is some sort of error when trying to load my page. I have heard back from one person that it is in Internet Explorer. Can someone please send me a screenshot of the error so I can begin to see about a fix. I run Mac OS X and use Safari, Firefox and Opera to check things out. It all appears fine in those browsers. So if you could please send a screenshot to [email protected] or chat me up on AIM. That would be great. Thanks! [UPDATED] Well it looks like that my dating post was causing the issue. I copy and pasted it from a Word Document and well Microsoft’s fucky code for Microsoft Word to HTML was causing an issue and breaking things. The lovely Junniper was doing a great job of being a loyal reader I and sent me the Word Document with some screen shots. When I need to take a screen shot on Windows the way I have found easiest is press Print Screen or Alt+PrintScreen if you just want to take a screenshot of the active window. Go into Microsoft Paint. Paste the screenshot in there. Then Save as JPEG. Since well BMP files get upwards of a few Megabytes. But if you are still getting errors let me know. I am sorry sometimes I forget about the IE users of the world. I know us Firefox users hang between 3%-47% depending on what statistic you read. I do hope that more of the world becomes adopters soon enough. Posted on February 11, 2007 Author Tristan Pipo 0 thoughts on “A Tale of Two Errors (Updated)” February 11, 2007 at 6:43 pm Hey, I just emailed you a screenshot. Also, in the email I told you that your sidebar doesn’t show. It suddenly showed up when I hit “leave a comment.” February 11, 2007 at 6:43 pm Hey, I just emailed you a screenshot. Also, in the email I told you that your sidebar doesn’t show. It suddenly showed up when I hit “leave a comment.” February 11, 2007 at 7:26 pm Junniper You are amazing you rock! I owe you 4 cakes and a bottle of sweet holy sweet amazing. Which is the name of a wine I just invented. Or made up. You decide. =) February 11, 2007 at 7:26 pm Junniper You are amazing you rock! I owe you 4 cakes and a bottle of sweet holy sweet amazing. Which is the name of a wine I just invented. Or made up. You decide. =) The Mick says: February 12, 2007 at 1:35 am RAH Motha Fuckas LOL I see that you decided to leave out the tale of yer coca cola venture last night eh mate. Well to those who are reading me and the big man here were rolling down the road and he was chugging down a cherry coke he found in his trunk, out of the blue he exclaims what the fuck and pulls forth a small square chunk of god only knows what from his mouth that had come forth from his can of soda any normal human at this point would feel terrible for thier friend for having experienced such an utterly disgusting event, meself well lets just say even in rehashing it on here i am damn near pissing meself laughing. So thank you coca cola for bringing hilarity to my saturday evening. The Mick says: February 12, 2007 at 1:35 am RAH Motha Fuckas LOL I see that you decided to leave out the tale of yer coca cola venture last night eh mate. Well to those who are reading me and the big man here were rolling down the road and he was chugging down a cherry coke he found in his trunk, out of the blue he exclaims what the fuck and pulls forth a small square chunk of god only knows what from his mouth that had come forth from his can of soda any normal human at this point would feel terrible for thier friend for having experienced such an utterly disgusting event, meself well lets just say even in rehashing it on here i am damn near pissing meself laughing. So thank you coca cola for bringing hilarity to my saturday evening. The Mick says: February 12, 2007 at 1:39 am Oh yeah and by the way yer page is working for me again so whatever ye fixed it seems to have worked. The Mick says: February 12, 2007 at 1:39 am Oh yeah and by the way yer page is working for me again so whatever ye fixed it seems to have worked.	4,133
Admit it! That's what you think when you see your parish vestibule overflowing with oddly shaped purple cardboard boxes. But you grab one anyway, take it home, throw some change in it and return it at the end of Lent. Have you ever wondered where the money actually goes? Well, it goes to these folks and what may be a minor annual ritual in our lives is a huge deal to them. So take some time to visit their website, maybe even check out their blog, which shares stories from their work around the world (RSS feed), and perhaps find it in you to pack that rice bowl with some serious silver, or better yet, some green. Making it up as they go By on February 24, 2009 10:42 PM \| Permalink If that sounds ludicrous to you, trust your instincts. These people really don't know what they're doing, and they're spending hundreds of billions to do it. In an unusual joint statement, several U.S. agencies tried to clarify the government's goals as they prepare for Wednesday's launch of so-called stress tests, an attempt to measure the ability of large U.S. banks to survive a protracted recession. The Obama administration announced its stress-test plans several weeks ago but initially provided little information. On Monday, the government issued a 500-word statement that the Fed, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other government officials plan to begin running banks through rigorous tests to measure whether they hold enough of a cushion to continue lending during the downturn. The federal statement still stopped short of explaining what economic conditions the government would simulate to determine a bank's health. Officials said Monday they will likely consider a series of nightmarish economic scenarios, including drastically lower housing prices, rising unemployment and continued negative growth. They will ask some 20 banks to predict losses for these events against asset classes such as auto loans, mortgages and commercial credits. According to the government's statement, firms that need capital would be allowed to sell the Treasury convertible preferred shares, which the government can convert to common shares as banks need more common equity. This would improve banks' cushion against losses but would also boost the government's ownership stake. Full story. By on February 18, 2009 8:24 PM \| Permalink This review of The Superorganism, a book about ants, is pretty frickin' aweome if you look past the author's bizarre and disturbing lamentations that humans aren't as much like ants as we should be. St. Jude Catholic Worker House By on February 18, 2009 8:18 PM \| Permalink Kudos to the News-Gazette for profiling our local Catholic Worker House, which is seeing a surge in clients and could use your help. By on February 16, 2009 11:03 AM \| Permalink NYTimes headline: Burris Defends His Evolving Description of Talks So apparently Burris' story is mutating randomly and he's merely selecting the story that's best adapted to current circumstances. Political Darwinism. So much makes sense now. Bishop Jenky's statement on abuse lawsuits By on February 11, 2009 7:36 PM \| Permalink Since various news outlets are castigating my bishop for "lashing out" against just about everybody in his recent letter, I thought I'd post the whole thing so you can see what a "blistering attack" it really is. The background, as far as I can tell, is that an appellate court recently overturned a lower court ruling that dismissed several lawsuits due to the statute of limitations expiring. SNAP -- the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests -- then organized a demonstration after mass outside of Peoria's St. Mary's Cathedral asking Bishop Jenky not to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. This letter seems at least in part a response to that request. So here's the full text of the bishop's letter,followed by my comments. February 7-8, 2009 Dear Priests, Deacons, Religious and Faithful of the Diocese of Peoria, My greatest responsibility as your bishop is to preach the Gospel, celebrate the Sacraments, and to try my best to be a good shepherd for this local church. The saddest part of my ministry has been to deal with our part of the immense societal issue of sexual misconduct with minors. Where there have been credible accusations made against individuals and with the advice of my Review Commission, I have not hesitated to remove them from all active ministry. I have also tried to attentively follow the charter adopted by the American bishops that deals in a comprehensive manner with this painful subject. I have not discovered any evidence in this Diocese that priests guilty of misconduct were ever moved from assignment to assignment. Our Diocese normally offers counseling to victims rather than paying out large cash settlements. Not every allegation has been found to be credible by our Review Commission, and so our Diocese resists supporting those claims that simply cannot be sustained by the facts. I take very seriously my responsibility to protect all the children entrusted to our care, and I am absolutely convinced that today the programs of our Church now provide the safest possible environment in America for your children. In these perilous economic times, I will work to be a prudent steward of the money you offer for the work of Christ. Attorneys representing some claimants and some "victims groups" obviously have a significant financial stake in trying to overturn our Diocesan policies. Recent decisions in the Illinois courts may make our legal situation even more difficult in the future. It should be noted that the sexual abuse of minors cuts across all socio-economic lines, ethnicities, ministries, and religions. It is important to remember that the State basically exempts its own institutions from civil litigation. Amid all the tensions of our nation's culture wars and in the face of the media's intense hatred for our Catholic Faith, I am increasingly concerned that our Church in effect no longer enjoys equal justice under the law. I will not be intimidated by choreographed demonstrations or the abuse that is sometimes personally directed against me. I remain immensely proud of the zealous and holy priesthood of our Diocese. May God guide and protect his Holy Church and bless us all in his service. Sincerely yours in Christ, Now, had anybody aked my opinion, I'd have strongly advised against referring to "the media's intense hatred for our Catholic Faith." That the media hate the Church is more or less true depending on individuals, but when you're dealing with a national scandal where many churchmen were not forthcoming about the abuse of children until and in many cases even after the press revealed their malfeasance, beating up on the media comes off as retaliatory, and in the context of this letter is unnecessary. Be that as it may, Bishop Jenky's larger point, that the Church is being shaken down by victims' groups (enabled by courts and legislatures) in a way that no other institution could be, deserves attention. With one hand, the government exempts itself from being sued for abuse and with the other it breaks down legal barriers for the Church to be sued for the same wrongdoing (and remember, the statute of limitations exists for a reason). This unequal treatment affects the Church's spiritual mission and the related material goods it provides: schools, hospitals, family services and other social services. This is something that every Catholic and all people of good will should be very concened about. Lastly, after reading the bishop's letter, is it not comical to read the characterization of it as an attack? I understand that journalists might bristle at being accused of hating the Catholic faith, but you would try in vain to see a journalist wrestle with Bishop Jenky's arguments about "equal treatment." That's not hatred of the Church -- it's just laziness. By on February 11, 2009 12:28 PM \| Permalink \| Comments (4) Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the apparition of the Virgin Mary to St. Bernadette Soubiroux, a French peasant girl, over 5 months in 1858. Mary called herself "The Immaculate Conception," confirming the Pope's proclamation of that dogma just four years earlier. She appeared near a cave and directed Bernadette inside, where Bernadette discovered a previously unknown spring. As far as Marian apparitions go, Lourdes is fairly uncontroversial. There are no secret messages inspiring conspiracy theories, no railing against her as a symbol of colonialism (I won't even get into Medjugorje). About 5 million pilgrims flock there every year out of devotion and to seek healing from the fountain, which has reportedly worked countless miracles. That number swelled to 8 million last year for the 150th anniversary of the apparitions. I've long been somewhat of a francophile going back to 4th grade when we did country reports and I chose France. I then took French for eight years and it was even my major for a few semesters in college. Furthermore, though my Catholic family wasn't particularly devout, the closest parish to us when I grew up was Our Lady of Lourdes in Chicago, an absolutely gorgeous church which I attended for a while as an adult after I embraced the faith of my Baptism. And spiritually, I owe a great deal to Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity (soon may she be canonized!) and St. Francis de Sales. So you would be right to think that Lourdes, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and St. Bernadette would hold a special place in my heart (though, to my shame, I still have not yet seen Song of Bernadette). You might further think that, given the chance, there's no way I would pass up a chance to visit Lourdes -- to pray for my loved ones at the grotto and collect as much Lourdes water as I could carry. And you'd be right, I would -- if I had another chance. In the summer of 1994 I traveled to Paris for a week and then stayed two weeks in Tarbes, a small French town near the Pyrénées mountains, with a family who then sent their son (my "correspondent," Paul) to stay with my family in Chicago for three weeks -- all part of an annual exchange program my high school participated in. One morning, Paul was arguing with his mom over breakfast (they argued in Spanish so I couldn't understand -- they were Spanish immigrants, the irony being that everybody in my extended family but me speaks Spanish). I had no idea what they were arguing about and finally Paul acquiesced to whatever she was asking and we were off on a road trip. We took about a half hour trip further into the Pyrénées and when we got there Paul asked me if we had seen Versailles when we were in Paris. I said I had and he commented that Versailles was a very beautiful castle, a castle for a king and for diplomats. He said that I was now going to see un chateau très fort. And he was right, we visited a huge castle, parts of which date back to the 11th century. He showed me the narrow slits from which archers could fire without getting hit and pointed out various other nifty features. Then I think we ate lunch and headed home. On the return trip I remember thinking, I'll never get those three hours of my life back. We got back to the house and the mother, with an eagerness I now find a bit tragic, asked me how the trip was. When I told her about the castle, she first looked puzzled, but then turned to Paul, who was avoiding her look. Another, much more furious argument immediately erupted. I'd had enough of this bizarre day, so I went to my room and let them fight it out. The next day, I told some of the other students from my school about it, and one of them said something vague about a religious shrine and special water. It would be another 5 years until I discovered that I had been to Lourdes and had not visited any of the holy sites. I don't exactly blame Paul. He and I got along fairly well (better, if I remember correctly, than any of my friends got along with their correspondents), and if he had told me we were going to a religious shrine, I probably would have talked him into taking me to the cafe where we used to drink demi-pêches (beer w/peach syrup) and check out girls. Still, I'VE BEEN TO LOURDES WITHOUT KNOWING IT. Every February 11 I think about this fact and my heart breaks a little bit. I used to think about what would have happened if I'd had my conversion there in Lourdes instead of 4 years and a lot of stupid mistakes later. I'm a bit calmer about that now, but yet I can't help but lament that I WAS WITHIN 3/4 MILES OF THE GROTTO AND I WAS PISSED TO BE THERE. So there, my friends, is my crappy Lourdes story. The story of an incurious dope who missed his chance to visit one of the holiest shrines in the world. By on February 9, 2009 9:09 PM \| Permalink So, um, you may have noticed the decrease in activity on this blog. I've started a Twitter account and a lot of my snark has migrated over there. (You can see my updates over at the top of the right sidebar or follow me here if you're on Twitter.) Anyway, most people I mention Twitter to say something like, "Oh yeah, Twitter, I've heard of that. What exactly is it?" This NY Mag article is a pretty good look at just what the heck Twitter is. The first day I was in the Twitter office, I sat in the corner, playing with my own Twitter page, taking notes (it feels somewhat silly to write in a notebook there), and waiting to talk to Williams. For lunch, executives, including Stone, hosted programmers in the lounge to talk about some sort of open-source mumbo jumbo I didn't understand. Their HD television was tuned to a still photo of a fireplace. They were wrapped up in the meeting. I attended to my computer. And then I noticed something on Twitter Search. The first person was "manolantern," who, at 12:33 local time, posted, "I just watched a plane crash into the hudson rive (sic) in manhattan." After that, the updates were unceasing. Some fifteen minutes before the New York Times had a story on its website (and some fifteen hours before it had one in print), Twitter users who witnessed the crash of US Airways Flight 1549 were giving me updates in real time. One of them was a man named Janis Krums. Krums lives in Sarasota, Florida, and happened to be on a ferry navigating the Hudson when the plane hit the water. He immediately took a photo and posted it to TwitPic and sent a "tweet" with a link to the picture and "There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy." He then, perhaps coming to his senses, began to help passengers off the plane. (He ended up giving his phone to one of them and didn't get it back until that night.) Now think about that for a second. In the midst of chaos--a plane just crashed right in front of him!--Krums's first instinct was to take a picture and load it to the web. There was nothing capitalistic or altruistic about it. Something amazing happened, and without thinking, he sent it out to the world. And let's say he hadn't. Let's say he took this incredible photo--a photo any journalist would send to the Pulitzer board--and decided to sell it, said he was hanging onto it for the highest bidder. He would have been vilified by bloggers and Twitterers alike. His is a culture of sharing information. This is the culture Twitter is counting on. Whatever your thoughts on its ability to exist outside the collapsing economy or its inability (so far) to put a price tag on its services, that's a real thing. That's the instinct Stone was talking about. If the nation has tens of millions of people like Krums, that's a phenomenon. That's what Twitter is waiting for. Of course, no one at Twitter noticed any of this going on. This is the New Communication. There was no screaming and running through a newsroom, dispatching any reporter in the vicinity to the scene. For an hour, the boring open-source meeting droned on. No one in the room knew a plane had crashed. The next day, Stone would tell me that the site didn't even get a traffic spike. "That's only for huge shared experiences, like the inauguration, or Mumbai." Twitter had unleashed something ... and its executives were completely unaware, as its system worked on its own, without them. That might be what the future holds for Twitter. Or it might not be. It all depends on whether you're willing to wait for something that might not come. It all depends on whether you're willing to believe. Well, I can't say I "believe" in Twitter, but it's combination of immediacy and simplicity is compelling. Almost as trendy as grunge By on February 8, 2009 3:18 PM \| Permalink \| Comments (2) To all the dumb schlups writing with condescencion and clever ironic distance about the "25 random things" Facebook meme, allow me to dump some cold water on your "journalism." You might think that by "covering" social media such as Facebook, you're ingratiating yourself with the millenials who live and breathe the stuff (and who, by the way, will still never buy your newspapers). Let's leave aside the possibility that what your friends are doing on Facebook might not be newsworthy and concentrate on the fact that this new, apparently disturbing trend is not actually a new thing at all. The same exact "random crap about me" chain letters were filling up my email inbox 7-10 years ago. Your treatment of this "trend" as something new in any way except scale betrays real, actual ignorance.	17,617
Ingenext is one of the largest recyclers of electric vehicle parts. If you are looking for other parts, please contact us at [email protected] Used parts are not refundable. Buyer have to make sure to buy the right part. The product images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product. Add to cart You may also like Recently viewed Ingenext is a Quebec-based company that specializes in EV conversions. The company was not built by following a model or by tracing a mould. On the contrary; it's a company that knows how to play bold. We specialize in two things. The development of vehicular technologies based on the reuse of electric vehicle components and the development of products for Tesla vehicles. Ingenext It's also a team that has chosen to create according to its own values, and to reinvent itself according to its own vision. All simply because we have the knowledge, the power and the duty to do so: to be a vector of change. We have the firm intention to open our community - and the world - to new opportunities. Not tomorrow, but now.	1,123
Posted by Grubbs & Landry on January 20, 2021 Getting a driver’s license is a major milestone for teenagers. It is also a big responsibility. While driving can be a sign of maturity, reckless behavior behind the wheel can have drastic consequences. When your teenager begins driving, it is important to discuss the potential dangers of any vehicle. Review teenage driver safety tips to be sure your child understands the rules of the road. Motor vehicle owners in Kentucky who are also parents need to pay attention to whether or not it is appropriate to let their children drive. When a parent signs the application for a minor to obtain a driver’s license they accept liability for any damage caused by the teen. If an underage driver does not have a driver’s license but decides to drive a car and has a crash while driving, all liability caused can be claimed against the parents for negligent supervision. Parents become responsible if they themselves are negligent in the supervision of their children and, as a result, their children negligently injure someone. The cases are based on the idea that a parent has a duty to exercise reasonable care to make sure his or her minor child does not intentionally harm another of cause a risk of bodily harm. To prove negligent supervision in the contest of a car accident, a plaintiff must show… The parent had a duty That they breached the duty To be held responsible a parent must know of his or her ability to control the minor and must know that it is necessary and possible to control the child. Foresee-ability is the issue on which a parent’s responsibility to control his or her child turns. If the teen has prior occurrences of the cause of the accident and the parent is aware of that behavior it could cause a parent to be responsible. However, parents are not required to be fortune-tellers about their teen’s behavior. In the case of car accidents, parents who know the teen has been drunk and driven on prior occasions may be liable to anyone the teen injures. A Ky Court of Appeals 2005 case consider whether parents had negligently supervised their child who crashed their car and injured a passenger. The 15-year-old driver convinced someone to buy him beer. He had no permit or license. He and a group of friends drank beer at a friend’s house and then the fifteen year old drove the friends to a cemetery for another gathering. As he was driving through the cemetery he crashed into a tree. One of the friends in the back seat suffered brain damage as a result. The parents of the injured boy sued the fifteen-year-old and his parents, and others. The claim against the parents was negligent supervision of their son. The parents of the fifteen old filed suit that there was no negligence in supervising their son and prevailed. There was an appeal by the parents of the injured boy. The appellate court said there was no evidence that the parents had actual knowledge of their son drinking and driving on the night of the accident or even before. The plaintiffs argued that the accident was foreseeable because the parents knew of prior occasions of drinking and prior occasions of driving the vehicle. The fifteen-year-old’s parents said he was punished and the plaintiffs argued the parent efforts were ineffectual. The boy’s mother did say she had taken the boy to the cemetery to do driver training previously. The appellate court ruled these isolated instances of drinking and on another occasion operating a motor vehicle with his parent in the car were not sufficient to make it foreseeable that he would take a car and crash it into a tree. The appellate court also found that there was insufficient evidence to show that the parents had the actual ability to control their son to keep him from driving and crashing the car into the tree that night. Alcohol isn’t just illegal for teenagers to consume—it can be deadly if they drink and drive. In fact, drunk driving is one of the most frequent causes of death among teens. Alcohol impairs most of the skills that young drivers need the most, such as their reaction time, their vision, and their judgment. Parents of teenagers who own cars must be cautious about how they respond to their child’s misbehavior in connection with the car and drinking. This case found in favor of the defendant, but the court left open the question of whether the parents would have been liable if they had known of more occasions on which their son drove drunk. — At Grubbs & Landry, PLLC, we are dedicated to personal and friendly service. We manage our practice in an ethical, cost-effective manner to best help our clients resolve their legal issues with the least expense possible. We pride ourselves in advocating for our client in divorce, child custody, and child support matters as well as other family law matters. We are active in prosecuting personal injury cases-recovering for the injuries our clients sustain due to the negligence of others. Additionally, we help our clients prepare for the future through the preparation of Wills, Power of Attorney and Living Will.	5,450
Dr. Sarah Hickey was raised in Louisville and attended The University of Kentucky. She worked with her father, Dr. Bill Hickey, at The Pet Clinic on and off since the clinic opened in 1996. After graduating from the Tuskegee School of Veterinary Medicine in Alabama she returned to Louisville. Dr. Hickey is a self-proclaimed "crazy cat lady", although she loves dogs too. She has big shoes to fill, but is trying to live up to her father's legacy. John was raised in Louisville and is Sarah Hickey's brother. Before joining the family business in 2015, he was a submariner stationed at King's Bay, Georgia, where he conducted many patrols with the US Navy. John loves all animals but large dogs, especially Irish Setters, and box turtles hold a special place in his heart. He considers a friendly, bouncy dog jumping on him one of the perks of the job. In 1996 Diane founded Chenoweth Lane Pet Clinic with her husband, Dr. Bill Hickey. She continues to manage the practice.	1,041
Tina Carinci Morris is the secret weapon of nonprofit agencies in the Ohio Valley. As a freelance marketing and development specialist, she has been working with the United Way and other area nonprofits to help secure funding for their vital projects. Tina has recently surpassed the $15 million mark in funding secured through grant writing, capital campaigns, strategic development and annual appeals. What started as a job offer from the United Way has developed into a fully collaborative service for nonprofits who are or are not member agencies of the United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley. Tina’s 34 years of experience in news reporting and corporate communication launched a career in matching an agency’s needs with funders who are willing to support their mission. “My job has evolved over the years as the needs of Wheeling have changed. But my main mission is to bring multiple agencies together to support one goal and share the funds to make change happen,” Tina relates. “No one should even know I exist. None of this is about me or my abilities. It’s always about the organization and their mission and story.” “No one should even know I exist. None of this is about me or my abilities. It’s always about the organization and their mission and story.” — Tina Carinci Morris Tina has found that the Northern Panhandle may have several nonprofits that work with clients in drug recovery, mental health, human trafficking, hunger and more. For the first time, she has a way to bring all of these agencies together. She can pool their resources and ensure that the foundation money obtained through grants has the biggest impact possible on the community. Tina secured funds for The Seeing Hand Association’s Edelman Garden on Wheeling Island that provides employment opportunities for blind and visually impaired individuals. Since Tina’s No. 1 requested service is grant writing, she enjoys bringing together members of the community who are working toward the same goal. Four years ago, Tina wrote and received funding from the Walmart Let’s Start Fresh program. Sixteen local organizations have benefited from the funding providing fresh food to childcare centers, seniors centers, The Soup Kitchen and more. It has also provided education and outreach about healthy eating habits. Some of the recipients have gone on to start gardening programs themselves. The impact of a collaborative effort such as this one ripples through the community. People in all areas and stages of life are given an opportunity to benefit when agencies work together. Funders are more likely to support collaborative projects that can show they are serving an entire community. Plus, the impact is tremendous when needs can be met in a variety of locations and mediums. Tina had the privilege of obtaining the funding for Serenity Hills Life Center. In the summer of 2019, this addiction recovery center for women opened as the largest in West Virginia. It has 72 beds in the main facility with an additional 10 bed designated just for pregnant women. It also has a step-down program for those transitioning back to independent living. With the rising rates of substance abuse in the mountain state, many organizations were trying to address the problem. Treatment for women was identified as an area that was still lacking focus. With the $3 million grant written by Tina, services can now be offered locally. “I’m so excited for the Ohio Valley that this is now available. And it won’t just help the women who stay there. It will benefit families, children and the community.” While Tina is a contractor for the United Way, she is in no way limited to working just with the 26 member agencies. “It was agreed when I started that my projects would be community-wide. Being able to work with every social service agency gives us a huge reach and a big impact,” Tina says. “Tina is fantastic at finding state and federal money and bringing it into the area. She understands the needs of the area and can help the funding end up in places like Wheeling instead of exclusively in bigger cities.” Jessica Rine, executive director of the United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley, explains. Laughlin Memorial Chapel is just one of many agencies that benefit from Tina’s grant-writing endeavors. Tina has developed a team of freelance professionals who are available to assist community organizations find funders. This can be anything from grant research and writing to creating a cohesive social media platform that engages potential sponsors. “We want to match an organization’s need to the right donors. People are generous. They just don’t always know where to look or how to find an organization whose mission they care deeply about. Our annual appeals, press releases, websites, video production and capital campaigns bring awareness to the needs of the community,” Tina says. By making connections and supporting the mission of all nonprofits in the area, Wheeling benefits. The House of the Carpenter on Wheeling Island is able to build their new youth center thanks to a capital campaign led by Tina and her team. The Wheeling YWCA is developing programs to fight human trafficking in the local area. Laughlin Memorial Chapel uses grant money to provide services directly to low-income at-risk youth. Employees from Williams volunteer last year at the Sandy O’Haver Day of Caring. But Tina and the United Way are not stopping at $15 million in funding. They are working to see the Ohio Valley fully served with an array of services tailored to the needs of the community. It takes money to make these dreams possible. Thankfully, the Ohio Valley has a team in the business of making dreams come true. To find out how you can get involved in supporting Wheeling’s needs, contact the United Way or attend their annual fundraiser, September to Remember, reverse raffle on Sept. 12 to kick off the 2019-20 campaign. Details can be found at www.unitedwayuov.org • Stacey Sacco is a Wheeling native currently living in Martins Ferry with her husband and four children. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in social work and previously worked for several social service agencies. She is the production editor for InWheeling Magazine. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)	6,730
10:03 PM Unless you've got got a robust feeling approximately wherein to go in life, angel number 1108 warns you of focusing an excessive amount of on poor matters. Therefore, you need to alternate on ho you deal with matters as they seem. Besides, your mind are important while you try and alternate your behavior to higher ones. To locate achievement, you need to be appreciating what your angel is doing on your life. Thin gs could now no longer be precise to your facet if it had been now no longer on your above beings. So, you need to live robust in the entirety you do and now no longer lament matters that don't hassle you. The symbolism of angel number 1221 is displaying you the acute which means of getting a super destiny for your self. But, first of all, see your self in a vivid destiny and manifestation of abundance. All those will assist you in understanding the way to spread candies to your life. Importantly, be decided to locate stability. The achievement which you are aiming for have to be robust and strategic. So, the angels seem as a reminder to maintain specializing in what is going to advantage you. Besides, you need to manipulate your mind as it's miles the engine of efficient mind. Again, poor matters need to now no longer pull you down in any way. Be robust enough. There are belongings you need to recognise approximately 1108, and one is to be controlling your feelings for the sake of achievement. Also, retaining off from poor perspectives which can derail your energy. Being constructive is important because it facilitates you've got got efficient mind and visions. They`re at your facet that will help you thru the unsure times, and angel number 808 requests which you test your mind and feelings. You are focusing an excessive amount of at the negativity to your life. This will lead you down a risky road. So it`s first-rate in case you get out of this addiction as in order you can. Your angels are there to maintain you secure. So angel number 1108 asks you to solid apart your fears and concerns to make certain which you are centered at the wonderful feelings and components of your life. Number 1108 will assist you sense higher and make certain that your religious self remains ambitious and robust even withinside the face of some thing unsure and scary, because the destiny regularly appears to you. Remember which you are heading to a higher destiny with the assist of this angel number. Angel Number 1 which means indicates you that we're all linked to the better powers round us, making sure we're constantly secure and linked to individuals who provide us the energy to have an excellent destiny headed our way. angel number 707 asks which you depend on meditation and prayer to make certain which you live natural and true. This will provide calmness and electricity out of your dad or mum angels to help you attain the wonderful destiny you're operating so difficult to locate Additionally, Angel Number eight encourages you to maintain attempting even if the entirety appears not possible and pointless. Angel Number eleven reminds you to maintain an eye fixed to your mind and motivations, as you'll locate the steerage there which you want. Lastly, Angel Number one hundred ten asks which you use your competencies to create your very own destiny. Angel Number 108 assures you that each one the paintings you do will come again as an excellent view while you want it most. while you stumble upon the angel number 414 it indicates which you are fortunate enough, and you need to live alert of poor matters which can pull you Sep 26, 2022 10:53 AM ranian law requires aff 1688 all women to wear a head ?? ??? 1688 covering and loose-fitting ufabet ???? ??????? clothing in public. ??????? The rule has been enforced ???????????? in Iran since the 1979 ?????????????? Islamic Revolution, and it is ???????? obligatory for every woman ???????? in the country including tourists UFA1688 visiting political ufa1688 figures and journalists.	4,012
WWF (World Wrestling Federation) Women’s title defeating The Fabulous Moolah (October 8, 1978) – not recorgnized by WWE. Career History October 20, 1961 – NWA St. Louis: Evelyn Stevens & Millie Stafford defeated Dot Dotson & Jessica Rogers. January 16, 22, 1962 – AWA: Barbara Baker defeated Evelyn Stevens. January 25, 1962 – AWA: Evelyn Stevens defeated Barbara Baker. May 26, 1962 – NWA St. Louis: Evelyn Stevens defeated Jessica Rogers. June 15, 1962 – NWA St. Louis: Evelyn Stevens, Judy Glover & Millie Stafford defeated Barbara Baker, Dot Dotson & Jessica Rogers in a best 2 out of 3 falls match. January 4, 1963 – NWA St. Louis: Evelyn Stevens, Judy Glover & Penny Banner defeated Ann Regan, Jessica Rogers & Kathy Starr in a best 2 out of 3 falls match. October 12, 1968 – GAC: Evelyn Stevens defeated Kay Noble. April 18, 1969 – WCW: Evelyn Stevens defeated Donna Christianello. May 3, 16, 1969 – WCW: Donna Christianello defeated Evelyn Stevens. May 23, 31, 1969 – WCW: Donna Christianello, Mario Milano & Tex McKenzie defeated Evelyn Stevens, Murphy The Magnificent & The Spoiler. December 2, 1969 – NWA Big Time Wrestling: Evelyn Stevens defeated Mary DeLeon. March 6, 1970 – Houston Wrestling: Evelyn Stevens defeated Belle Starr to retain the NWA Texas women’s title. February 20, 1975 – MACW: Belle Starr & The Fabulous Moolah defeated Evelyn Stevens & Susan Green. June 25, 1978 – Houston Wrestling: Evelyn Stevens defeated Marie DeLeon. October 8, 1978: Evelyn Stevens defeated The Fabulous Moolah for the World Ladies title in Dallas, Texas. In typical Moolah fashion, she once again regained the Ladies title days later defeating Evelyn Stevens.	1,665
Head Ball 2 mod apk is a thrilling and fast-paced multiplayer football game where you can challenge your opponents!. Take place in 1v1 online football matches against real opponents from all around the world. Join millions of football players to prove yourself to the online football community and your friends. Play 90-seconds of action-packed football matches; whoever scores more goals, wins! Challenge your friends in real-time! Get social by connecting your Facebook account and play exciting soccer matches with your friends, show them who is the best! You can also join a football team or create your own team and gain different rewards as you win matches! Represent your team and face off different teams to show which football team is superior. Contribute to your teams’ overall progress. Rumble Through Competitive Football Leagues with your team! Compete in 5 different football leagues and do your best to make it to the very top of the ladder. Join a team or create your own, either way, you’re much powerful with your team! Join the competition each week where you have a chance to challenge other teams all around the world. More team you beat, more chance to rise from Bronze League to Diamond League! Fight your way through real opponents and challenging football matches. You can’t know who the winner before the match will be is over. Soccer is all about kicking the ball and scoring goals, right? Kick, strike and score using your hero. Use your feet, head, and superpowers to score goals. Head Ball 2 offers simplistic gameplay that can be quickly transformed into action-packed and exciting games. Hit the ball, hit your opponent, use headers, superpowers or outwit your opponent by juking them. Everything is permitted, as long as you win! Take Control of Your Football Career Progress through the unique career mode to unlock special bonuses, characters, and accessories. As you progress, rewards become increasingly difficult to obtain, do you have what it takes? Stand out from the crowd! Pick the best character out of 125 unique upgradeable characters, unlock new accessories to improve your football hero, and create your dream football player! As you progress, you will unlock different stadiums and gain fans to support you. The more the merrier! Become the ultimate football hero and show who’s got more style and skill! Upgrade Your Character Upgrade your character to unlock your full potential. Progress through the career mode to unlock unique bonuses, accessories, and even heroes. As you progress, the rewards will get better but so will the challenge. Are you up to it? No match will be the same as the previous one in this football game! -Play football against real opponents from all across the world in real-time! -Thrilling moments with the voice of the legendary commentator, John Motson! -Facebook connection to play with your friends! -Dynamic and exciting gameplay with dashy graphics. -5 unique competitive football leagues with 15 brackets to play through. -Hundreds of accessories to improve your football hero! -Plan out your strategy on the field with 18 upgradable powers. -Gain supporters to unlock new stadiums. -Daily Missions to get more fun and rewards! Download Head Ball 2 to experience the thrill of challenging football matches against millions of players across the world! Head Ball 2 is a free-to-play game. However, there are some in-game items that can be purchased for real money. You can disable in-app purchases in your device’s settings if you don’t want this feature.	3,638
liver health \| The Great Recession continues to take a grim toll: Since 2009, a growing number of Americans have died from liver disease and liver cancer. Jul 19, 2018 liver health Medically Reviewed THURSDAY, July 19, 2018 (HealthDay News)—The Great Recession continues to take a grim toll: Since 2009, a growing number of Americans have died from liver disease and liver cancer. The increase among 25- to 34-year-olds is especially troubling because the deaths are due to cirrhosis, a disease caused by excessive drinking, the authors of a new study said. The researchers suspect the economic downturn in 2008 prompted people to comfort themselves with alcohol. "These are deaths of despair," said lead researcher Dr. Elliot Tapper, an assistant professor of gastroenterology at the University of Michigan. It's similar to overdose deaths from the opioid epidemic. In both cases, people are trying to relieve the emotional pain they feel, Tapper said. He cautioned, however, that because this is an observational study, it cannot prove cause and effect. Cirrhosis scars the liver and causes damage that can lead to deadly conditions such as liver cancer and liver failure. The most common causes of cirrhosis are drinking too much over many years, hepatitis C or a build-up of excess fat in the liver, known as fatty liver disease, the study authors noted. While young people are dying from alcohol-related cirrhosis, older people are dying from liver cancer and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Tapper explained. The conditions affecting older people are most likely due to the obesity epidemic, he suggested. In many cases, liver disease can be prevented by living a healthy lifestyle. If cirrhosis is caught early, the liver will repair itself, Tapper said, and losing weight can reverse fatty liver disease. Dr. Raymond Chung is director of the Hepatology and Liver Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston. He said the increased deaths may stem from several factors, including complications of the hepatitis C epidemic, as well as the high frequency of fatty liver disease in the U.S. population. The deaths of very young adults are striking, added Chung, who is also on the governing board of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. "We do not yet understand why this is happening in this age group, and further study is required to determine whether this is due to sheer quantity or type of alcohol consumed, genetic factors or the presence of other forms of liver injury," Chung said. For the study, Tapper's team reviewed death certificate data for nearly 600,000 U.S. adults. Between 1999 and 2016, deaths from cirrhosis increased by 65 percent (from about 20,600 in 1999 to nearly 34,200 in 2016). Deaths from liver cancer doubled (from more than 5,100 to nearly 11,100) during the same time period. Compared to women, men had nearly twice as many deaths from cirrhosis and almost four times as many from liver cancer, the study authors said. From 2009 to 2016, people aged 25 to 34 had the highest annual increase in cirrhosis deaths—nearly 11 percent. Deaths from liver cancer among those under 55, meanwhile, decreased, but rose among people over 55, Tapper said. The greatest increase in deaths from cirrhosis was seen among whites, Native Americans and Hispanics, the researchers said. Deaths from cirrhosis and liver cancer rose fastest in western and southern states. For example, deaths in Kentucky rose nearly 7 percent, in New Mexico 6 percent and in Arkansas nearly 6 percent. Only one state, Maryland, saw a significant decrease in cirrhosis deaths, of about 1 percent, the findings showed. According to Dr. David Bernstein, chief of hepatology at Northwell Health in Manhasset, N.Y., "This study highlights the silent epidemic of advanced liver disease in the United States, which largely remains unrecognized and unacknowledged by the collective medical leadership." Bernstein added that "the paper should be a wake-up call to the medical community—and especially to health care policymakers and administrators—that we need to focus on disease prevention and risk-factor modification, while at the same time shifting resources to address the already growing burden of cirrhosis and liver cancer." The report was published online July 18 in the BMJ. A report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released earlier this week echoed these findings. Between 2000 and 2016, liver cancer deaths were up 43 percent for men and 40 percent for women aged 25 and older, the CDC reported. SOURCES: Elliot Tapper, M.D., assistant professor of gastroenterology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Raymond Chung, M.D., director, Hepatology and Liver Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, governing board, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases; David Bernstein, M.D., chief of hepatology, Northwell Health, Manhasset, N.Y.; July 18, 2018, BMJ, online	5,150
“Your dedication and commitment bring our university to life,” President Barnard told staff and faculty celebrated at the Long Service Awards, held in Marshall McLuhan Hall on the evening of June 26. That same liveliness was evident at the event. The room was bursting with laughter and stories—and a vibrant connection amongst the attendees of the Long Service Awards. Fifty-two academic and support staff were honoured at the formal event for dedicating 25 years of service to the university. Guests enjoyed an evening with food, music and special gifts for the awardees. The event is about a shared history, noted Mark O’Riley, director of learning and organizational development, human resources. Unique, ‘happy, engaging and sustaining’ individual careers Susan Prentice, professor in the department of sociology, was one of the honourees; she was interviewed following the event. Prentice began her journey at the university as the Margret Lawrence Chair, working to build the women’s studies program, which she refers to it as “a magical start” to her career. The pursuit of equity is still a primary motivator for her work. Though her career has been challenging, she said, her time at the university has also been happy, engaging and sustaining. She added that she loves her job and has never wanted to leave. Also recognized for her service was Shan Rogers, Aurora functional analyst in the registrar’s office. Rogers began her career in the chemistry department as a lab steward, which she called a great learning experience. After two years, she became a convocation assistant in the registrar’s office and has since taken on various positions before landing in her current role. With a father who was a professor in the Faculty of Science, she always envisioned working at the U of M, she said. Because she’d been in attendance for many functions at the university prior to her employment, she couldn’t imagine not having a job here, added Rogers. “There have been many ups and downs through the years, but I’ve always expected to work and retire at the university.” President Barnard commented that while much has changed over the past 25 years at the university, there remains “an unwavering commitment to our shared cause: the pursuit of meaningful learning, discovery and engagement.” He noted that together those who work at the U of M help students, faculty, staff, alumni and the members of our communities build better lives for themselves and for those around them. “Thank you for choosing to make your difference here,” he concluded. Faculty and Staff, human resources Faculty and staff contributions recognized with anniversary awards Over 800 employees celebrated for 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 and 60 years of service anniversary awards, campus community, Faculty and Staff, human resources Planting the seedling of exchange To honour the spirit of McGill’s gift to UM and to recognize the learning exchange program, the committee planted a tree along Curry Place.	3,032
Hello, I would like to recruit your eighth grader - Inside the Hall \| Indiana Hoosiers Basketball News, Recruiting and Analysis Community '23 Recruiting Board Recruiting Scholarships Community 23 Board Recruiting Scholarships Hello, I would like to recruit your eighth grader Commentary Those of you with eighth graders, relax…I’m only kidding. Most of you know by now that Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie took a commitment last week from Michael Avery, an eighth grader from Thousand Oaks, California. And the reaction from around the country has sparked much needed conversation on how out of control this whole recruiting thing has become. As PostmanE pointed out over at the Dagger on Y!, most eighth graders are worried about video games, not where they’re going to be attending college. Avery chose Kentucky before he picked where he’d be attending high school. Nothing against this kid (I’m sure he likes Miley Cyrus and Playstation 3 like most other kids his age), but I just don’t see how he’s ready to make this decision at this point in his life. Why his parents even allowed him to declare this early is even more puzzling. My guess is they don’t have a fully funded 529. From the school’s standpoint, how can a staff project the type of player a kid will be four years down the road? Some kids mature early and stop growing. Remember the kid in junior high gym class that had a mustache, posted you up and abused you down low? He was probably the same height at high school graduation. This post isn’t meant as an attack on Gillispie specifically. He’s not the first coach to take a commitment from a kid this young and he definitely won’t be the last. But you can bet as this becomes more prevalent, it’s only going to turn up the heat on the NCAA to take action. The National Association of Basketball Coaches is already starting the dialogue: “It greatly concerns me,” said NABC executive director Jim Haney. “To me, it sends the wrong message. … I don’t think it completely aligns with the perception that college athletics reflect in a time of increased academic standards. Maybe it’s something we, as an association, need to take up and say something like, ‘Our association has agreed that we’re not going to accept (commitments) prior to the summer between a player’s sophomore and junior year.’ It just gives fuel to that whole perception that coaches are out of control … that coaches are trying to sign kids when they’re born or all they can think about is recruiting.” Not only is Haney concerned, he’s even throwing out specific ideas on a solution to this problem. And personally, I think he’s right on the money. Let kids get a couple of years under their belt in high school and then let the offers start rolling in. The schools would have a chance to evaluate potential recruits for an extra couple of seasons and the kids get a few more years to develop their games. Sounds like a win-win to me. So, what say you, ITH’ers? Do you have a problem with kids being recruited as eighth graders? What would your reaction be if Indiana took a commitment from a player that young? Should the NCAA intervene and establish a rule? Thoughts in the comments, por favor.	3,356
Who really shot J.F.K. and did George Washington honestly have wooden teeth? These are just two of the 30 historic questions addressed in a new exhibit at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch. Museum director Tim Walch says the exhibit’s goal is to spark an interest in our nation’s past and get people talking in the present. Walch says, "These are historical questions that have been with us for, in some cases, 200 years or hundreds of years beyond that because people find that there are no real answers, there are just better questions." The exhibit is called "American Mysteries, Riddles and Controversies." Walch says it covers a range of topics, some of which have kept people guessing for decades. Walch says the museum curator picked 30 chief questions in American history, like: Who really killed the Lindbergh baby? What really happened at the Battle of Little Big Horn? Did Mrs. O’Leary’s cow really kick over a lantern to start the Great Chicago Fire? Should we really blame Herbert Hoover for the Great Depression? Walch says there are conspiracy theories abounding in our society on everything from Amelia Earhart to Watergate. Walch says: "We’ll be successful if, when people come and start reading and say to their partner or family member, ‘Come here, take a look at this!’ We even have casts from the footprints left by Bigfoot. Our curator says there really is a Bigfoot, but I think it’s all hooey. We’ll let the public decide when they come to see this exhibit." The Hoover library and museum is open 9-to-5 every day. For more information, visit: "www.hoover.archives.gov". Public Safety Director: alcohol sales at Kinnick Stadium improving game day experience Iowa’s 2022 election a red wave in all but one statewide race Two road crew workers killed by distracted driver on Burlington bridge Tweets by RadioIowa Iowa’s Campbell is B1G Defensive Player of the Year Sioux City set for NAIA Volleyball Championships Wartburg hosts Aurora in NCAA Division III quarterfinals Archives Select Month November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 May 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 January 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 August 2000 July 2000 June 2000 May 2000 April 2000 March 2000 February 2000 January 2000 December 1999 November 1999 October 1999 September 1999 August 1999 July 1999 June 1999 May 1999 April 1999 March 1999 February 1999 January 1999 September 1998 February 1998	5,873
Here’s my personal recipe for a super chic date night look: a flirty top, black jeans or leather pants, and statement heels. I’ve worn a variation of this look for the entirety of my 15-year marriage and it never failed me once. Love this combo because it makes a statement without trying too hard, it’s definitely dressy yet there is a certain kind of ease about it. Speaking of jeans and leather pants… The faux patent leather pants I am wearing in this post are a solid favorite at the moment. They dress down rather well when I wear them with an oversized shirt and a blazer, but when I pair them with an evening top, they take on a dressier persona. Statement heels are my staple, obsession and pièce due résistance! I often say that I style my looks around shoes and to be completely honest with you, it’s true 80% of the time. I love bright, embellished, bold heels especially paired with all-black looks. Feathers are in this season and I love it! This top in particular is a wonderful example of how a few carefully placed feathers can transform an otherwise rather simple crop top. By the way, it also looks amazing with simple blue denim!	1,191
The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and our partners gathered in Washington, D.C. for a historic event to launch its Truth and Racial Justice Initiative. As we mark 50 years since the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, we will commit to do our part to eradicate the entrenched racism that grips the United States and paralyzes our ability to see every human being as equal. We challenge ourselves and our communities to join in truth-telling, leading to actions that right the wrongs, and, with God’s grace, bring healing and wholeness to all people, and unity to the nation. AWAKEN ourselves to the truth that racism is ever-present, deeply rooted in American culture, and profoundly damaging to our communities. CONFRONT racism, speak truth to ourselves, our communities and institutions, and stand against injustice. TRANSFORM the hearts, minds, and behaviors of people and structures that shape society. Vision and Objectives of A.C.T. Now The National Council of Churches professes that the image of God is found equally in each person (Gen 1:26). All are called by God to treat each other with dignity and love (Mk 12:31). Yet, the sin of racism – a distortion of human value, and a church-dividing issue[1]– continues to grip the United States of America. Contrary to the will of God, the legacies of slavery are embedded in U.S. laws and practices. To this day, distribution of wealth and power is filtered unjustly through largely white controlling interests. The National Council of Churches admits to the painful truth James Cone stated in his landmark essay Theology’s Great Sin: Silence in the Face of White Supremacy: the collective silence of the church through enslavement, Jim Crow, and the criminalization of communities of color, renders church people complicit with the evil of racism. In the face of such injustice, the church – sometimes silent, sometimes intentionally involved – is called, along with all who benefit from this system, to take reparative action. This is the moment. The World Council of Churches, as part of its “Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace,” has called the U.S. churches to grapple with issues of racism particularly facing the African American community. The United Nations declared 2015-2024 as The International Decade for People of African Descent, noting: “the international community is recognizing that people of African descent represent a distinct group whose human rights must be promoted and protected. Around 200 million people identifying themselves as being of African descent live in the Americas.”[2] The time is right for the National Council of Churches to join other partners seeking to identify, name, and address the trauma caused by racism in the United States – especially as it impacts people of African descent. In an effort, then, to eradicate racism, and to move toward healing the wounds it has caused in society and church, the National Council of Churches seeks to engage the full agency of its members and partners as a resource for inspiring clear commitments to racial equity and justice. The National Council of Churches believes that a thorough and true story of racism and racial injustice in our nation must be told and heard; that the complicity of white church members and leadership, and the impact of that complicity on faith communities of color, has not yet been fully recognized in white communities. The National Council of Churches believes that healing cannot be achieved without a complete confession of the truth as a prelude to reparative action and restorative justice. In an effort to break the silence; In an effort to begin healing; In an effort to exercise full agency together; In an effort to partner in building God’s justice; In an effort to eradicate racism and unfold greater racial equity and justice in our time: The National Council of Churches urges our partners to join in this work. Some will find it necessary to prepare a record of their complicity with racism through acts of commission or omission. Some will document suffering and exploitation experienced at the hands of those who brokered in race hate. Others may bring forth testimonies of hope based on acts of courage and righteousness in the historical struggle for justice. Still others may speak out of an ethnic identity that is neither white nor black. This is a commitment that brings us together to seek healing for the church, the nation and wholeness for all God’s people. In all cases, this truth telling is but a prelude to deeper commitments to begin a healing process that, through the grace of God and the everlasting hope of the Risen Christ, can lead to the original dream of this great land: that all are created equal, free to live under the watchful eye of a Creator who endowed all with an inalienable right to a full life, a complete liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for each and all. [1] Gros, Jeffrey “Racisim and Ecumenism”, etc. prepared for the National Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission. 19__, identifies racism as “church-dividing issue.” Please follow & like! About the National Council of Churches Serving as a leading voice of witness to the living Christ in the public square since 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) brings together 38 member communions and more than 35 million Christians in a common expression of God’s love and promise of unity.	5,738
Cure for Cancer in 10 Years? Anyone else see West Wing last night? Apparently, drugs called signal transduction inhibitors (STIs) - such as phenoxodiol, the drug referred to by Pres. Bartlet - are a reality, and early studies have shown their effectiveness in striking cancer's Achilles heel. Furthermore, in the Law and Order episode which followed, Gleevec was mentioned as the key to curing a type of leukemia, which is in fact a remarkably potent STI recently FDA-approved. Perhaps Aaron Sorkin isn't spinning a fantasy tale as I initially thought -- any oncologists in the house? [If Newsgurus doesn't let you in, try Google's cache.] posted by padjet1 (27 comments total) That kind of stuff is pretty well researched I find. But it's all in testing. Maybe they'll be ready for some basic trial in 10 years, but as for mass availability and run of the mill 'oh, I have cancer, I'll just take my pill today', I'm not as confident. posted by rich at 12:43 PM on January 17, 2002 I'm not an oncologist, but I play one on TV but I do work in clinical cancer trials. Gleevec has been the gee-whiz drug of the last year, but it's way, way, way too early to begin making curative pronouncements about STIs. Every now and then a drug comes along and hits big with the public--remember when Taxol was going to do away with the big C? I would love to be out of a job within 10 years, but it's difficult to be optimistic about that. That said, these are exciting times for new therapies. There's still a whole revolution coming with gene therapies alone. posted by Skot at 12:54 PM on January 17, 2002 I also hear that Clegg from 'The Last of the Summer Wine' has worked out a cure for the common cold. posted by feelinglistless at 1:07 PM on January 17, 2002 til then, continue to eat your greens and lots of fruit. The Cynic: we will have the drugs you need. But can you afford what we will charge? posted by Postroad at 1:07 PM on January 17, 2002 Speaking of Gleevec, anybody see "Law and Order" last night? posted by martk at 1:12 PM on January 17, 2002 posted by martk at 1:15 PM on January 17, 2002 Speaking of Gleevec, anybody see "Law and Order" last night? Yes. Lame. Whatever happened to the great Law and Order twists? That which used to be background--the "ripped from the headlines" stories--is now the entire story. There are no suprises, and the once-least-predictable-show on-TV is now obvious from minute 5 on. And even for a flaming liberal like myself, it was disgusting that this guy was let off the hook so easily for bashing in another man's skull. posted by thebigpoop at 1:22 PM on January 17, 2002 What I want to know is whether the time frame is lengthy because of FDA red tape (meaning that something like a presidential boost would vastly accelerate things, much like Kennedy and the space program in the 60s, also mentioned in the episode), or because these drugs truly are still quite experimental. Would a billion dollars make 10 years a reasonable target? [as for L&O, I agree -- and I hate how they now reveal the investigative twists in the previews sandwiched in the West Wing commercial breaks. Though, last night was the first in a long while that I felt an bit of sympathy for the killer, which I thought was a bit of a twist in itself.] posted by padjet1 at 1:28 PM on January 17, 2002 I've interviewed some of the country's leading cancer researchers on this topic, and they all say the same thing: Don't hold your breath. In coming years, the most we can look forward to is further refinement of our current, bludegeoning approach to the disease: radiation, chemotherapy, surgery. At best, the new therapeutic agents may become useful adjuncts to the old stand-bys. The only hope for a "magic bullet" lies in the possibility of a discovery that more types of cancers than are already known turn out to be caused by viruses. posted by Faze at 1:33 PM on January 17, 2002 What I want to know is whether the time frame is lengthy because of FDA red tape (meaning that something like a presidential boost would vastly accelerate things, i'd like them to test drugs well before approving them. it'd really suck for a drug to cure leukemia but still kill you because of liver failure. of course, it won't matter anyway. why find a cure for something when you can create extremely profitable treatment drugs that have to be used for the rest of the patients life? posted by tolkhan at 1:35 PM on January 17, 2002 Here's the strange thing about that "West Wing" episode: Nobody mentions that Richard Nixon did precisely what the fictional president suggests: He launched a "War on Cancer" commensurate with the space program. Tons of money was poured into this effort, and it is responsible for our cancer research infrastructure as it exists today. The old S.O.B. ought to get some credit for this. Not that it did any good. Cancer (which is actually many different diseases) is a messy, intractable inheritance of the flesh that may be with us always. why find a cure for something when you can create extremely profitable treatment drugs that have to be used for the rest of the patients life? Tolkhan, you'd be astonished if you knew how little that kind of paranoia is justified. I'm not kidding when I tell you that drug companies, doctors and hospitals really, honestly do want to cure these diseases. The kind of paranoid fantasy that sees them making the kind of profit calculation you describe simply doesn't happen. No one in the "establishment" would dream of sitting on a truly effective cure, and if such a cure were ever to be found, it would rip through the market like a hurricane. posted by Faze at 1:45 PM on January 17, 2002 look, I just want to know if pharmaceuticals are now paying for product placement on TV shows. since they are already allowed to buy ads (and 1 and 8 people who see an ad ask their doc about the drug), I don't see why this would be illegal. I think it's a bad idea, though. posted by rebeccablood at 1:46 PM on January 17, 2002 posted by rebeccablood at 1:47 PM on January 17, 2002 Just FYI, Gleevec's FDA approval was blazingly fast. Novartis applied in February of 2001 and the FDA gave approval in May. I can't tell you what kind of a fast track that is. The usual lead time is something like a year or better. posted by Skot at 1:54 PM on January 17, 2002 Why is everyone out to cure disease? It makes diseases stronger, humans as a species weaker, and makes our survival drug reliant. Darwin would freak if he found out we were passing on such crap genes. Sorry, I'm feeling very big picture today, ignore me. posted by remlapm at 2:01 PM on January 17, 2002 Tolkhan, you'd be astonished if you knew how little that kind of paranoia is justified. I'm not kidding when I tell you that drug companies, doctors and hospitals really, honestly do want to cure these diseases. The kind of paranoid fantasy that sees them making the kind of profit calculation you describe simply doesn't happen. No one in the "establishment" would dream of sitting on a truly effective cure, and if such a cure were ever to be found, it would rip through the market like a hurricane. This is true at the level of the researchers and people involved in trying to cure cancer. It probably isn't true at the level of people who decide whether to look into a cancer cure versus erection medicine... posted by srboisvert at 2:01 PM on January 17, 2002 Well, remlapm, you could also look at it this way: by keeping as many germ lines going as possible, we're keeping our biodiversity up, thus increasing our chances of surviving future plagues that don't exist yet. Or that could be sophistry. I just can't tell any more. posted by lbergstr at 2:06 PM on January 17, 2002 I hope someone else here finds it pathetic and embarrassing that you get your science updates from a fictional television series. posted by ParisParamus at 2:11 PM on January 17, 2002 lbergstr- I was being half serious. It just seems we waste so much money to prolong peoples lives by 10 years or so ( granted there are the child case which are tragic, I'm not discounting that ). Couldn't the money be better spent on nutrition, thus strengthening our bodies the natural way? Anyway, didn't want to derail the thread, and I don't really have a strong opinion on this or know all the facts so I am more than likely talking out of my ass ( i do that often ). posted by remlapm at 2:11 PM on January 17, 2002 I hope someone else here finds it pathetic and embarrassing that you get your science updates from a fictional television series. What, that I hear about something via an intelligent TV show that I like (one of maybe three), which then lends me to do some research on the subject, capped off by initiating an informed discussion to find out even more? Maybe I missed something, but these drugs haven't exactly received Segway-esque media coverage. posted by padjet1 at 2:31 PM on January 17, 2002 it's going to be interesting. even if the fda approves these drugs, the price (at first), to produce this is going to be insane. i work for a pharmaceutical company & estimates around here are that it's going to cost about $1 million dollars to treat one person. posted by tinaguppie at 2:37 PM on January 17, 2002 ParisParamus: I hope someone else here finds it pathetic and embarrassing that you get your science updates from a fictional television series. Wow. You just crossed the official line between "usually irritating" and "always an arrogant, self-aggrandizing prick". Perhaps not everyone has enough time to scour the Internet for the latest information on every subject imaginable. Or perhaps, having posting 1470 comments on MeFi in less than eleven months, you just need to get a fucking life. posted by Danelope at 2:57 PM on January 17, 2002 Interesting episode. Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971 ($1.5 billion per year, at the time). posted by stevengarrity at 3:01 PM on January 17, 2002 It's too bad the term "STI" is being overloaded. On a casual glance-by, the descriptive text appears to imply that leukemia is a remarkably potent sexually-transmitted infection. This is confusing. Too many TLAs! posted by Mars Saxman at 3:53 PM on January 17, 2002 MetaTalk. posted by sennoma at 7:51 PM on January 17, 2002 No, ParisParamus, but I find your attitude to be pathetic and embarrassing. posted by websavvy at 8:18 AM on January 18, 2002 I would love to be out of a job within 10 years Skot, honey, if current research leads to a cure, you'll still be working. We'll turn you loose on curing other diseases...but with more of us around, we'd could pay you handsomely this time. posted by Dinzie at 11:11 PM on January 18, 2002 This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments Related Posts Paddling 1,500 Miles for Science and Adventure July 27, 2013 HIV vs. Cancer: Altered Immune Cells Beat Leukemia June 20, 2013 Brown Bird June 17, 2013 The good kind of serial killer August 10, 2011 Twelve STIs of Christmas December 20, 2004 health MetaFilter is a weblog that anyone can contribute a link or a comment to. A typical weblog is one person posting their thoughts on the unique things they find on the web. This website exists to break down the barriers between people, to extend a weblog beyond just one person, and to foster discussion among its members.	11,536
by Doug Leddin (Doug will run in Las Vegas this year to raise awareness of the Irish Society for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease) June 11 2012 is a date I will probably never forget. Not because I was waking up in a camper-van in some part of Poland, hung-over after losing to Croatia in the first round of the Euros with the rest of Ireland around me after cleverly making “Angela … [Read more...] about How running has helped me cope with Inflammatory Bowel Disease Subscribe to site via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Archives Select Month November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 March 2021 February 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009	2,766
PyCon 2008 has been absolutely amazing this week. The talks I've seen and the people I've met have been a real inspiration, and my head is a-whirl with ideas. Above all, as always, I'm impressed by the Python community's genuine warmth. Maybe it's just a function of Python being relatively small compared to some other technologies, but there's something pleasantly hippy (in a good way) about its practitioners. Guido, for example, unsurprisingly turns out to be eminently reasonable and affable, and the IronPython team, to whom I and Resolver owe so much, are a thoroughly pleasant and interesting bunch. To the people who have been asking for my humble talk slides, you can grab them here in a couple of formats: The slides as PDF (fonts 100% good for everyone, but I think the various animations are gone:) TddBrooksSilverBullet.pdf (162kb) If anyone has any outstanding thoughts or questions about the talk, I always love to chat, so please feel free to email me, tartley at the domain tartley.com (gosh I love love love http://spamarrest.com.) (Update: email obfuscated - spamarrest is no more.) Update: There are photos! We've all known this for a long time, but I don't remember anyone actually saying it out loud: Have you ever noticed how it's always the most industrious LinkedIn users who are the very last people you'd actually recommend in a genuine network of trust? The most ruthless networkers, climbing every last tenuous connection like an insidious vine. Grasping for unearned advantage at every node. Can you introduce me to so-and-so? If you link to me, I'll have over 500 connections, think how popular that will make me look. My preciousss connectivity. Somehow, this kind of behaviour also correlates well with other repugnant activities, like spamming. Some people just have no conception of how their actions change the world around them for better or worse, and hence act as though they had no responsibilities to the community around them. One final spam this morning broke the camel's back. I've asked him not to do it before, both personally, and via the captcha screen he disingenuously filled in to get onto my whitelist. So it's time for LinkedIn to start pulling its weight. I notice there is no mechanism to add a negative recommendation via LinkedIn, so I've been forced to add him as a connection and then leave a suitable-worded positive one. Hopefully it still conveys my intended semantic. It may be that publicly dissing a recruiter is not the wisest of career moves, and maybe James will get retaliatory. I weighed that up for a while, and decided I can risk that. I don't operate on appearance. I operate on substance. I can take it. Some things are right, and some things are wrong, and It's time to take a stand. Unfortunately, even this is a half-hearted measure - I think James needs to approve it for it to be attached to his profile, and that seems unlikely from my perspective. Who knows, though? Maybe he's actually a stickler for accurate representation who relishes feedback. So this got me thinking. Forget LinkedIn - it's clearly designed to appeal to vacuous self-congratulators. What attributes would we want from a real network of trust? Clearly some mechanism for leaving public negative feedback would be one of them. Can that be done in a way that can't be abused? What else does it need? Studencki Festiwal Informatyczny 2008 I had the good fortune to attend the Academic IT Festival over the weekend, in Cracow, Poland. Pictured below is the audience listening to Chad Fowler, Ruby and Rails guru, who I had the pleasure to discover is also a really nice and interesting guy. The festival is organised by a large group, including former Resolver legends Jan and Konrad, and covers a diverse array of IT and related topics. It is the largest event of its type in Central Europe. Some talks were in English, some in Polish, by an absolutely stellar line-up of luminary speakers, including Joe Armstrong, creator of Erland; Gilad Bracha, co-creator of Java; plus yours truly. See 'one of these things is not like the others.' There's some photos up here, and I'll publish my own updated Test-Driven Development talk here later today. Update: There's photos and the talk slides are finally online, over here somewhere... {.alignleft .floatleft}A friend who is a doctor is considering learning Python as his first programming language, to do some processing on some research data. He asked me to give him the 30 second elevator pitch for Python, to evaluate whether it's a wise choice. I enjoyed constructing the reply so much that I decided to post it here, just in case it helps anyone else in a similar situation. Python is very accessible and intuitive. You should be able to produce simple, useful programs in your first day of experimentation. The syntax is clean and concise, without too much cryptic punctuation (Perl, I'm looking at you), redundancy or unnecessary verbosity. This accessibility isn't just a superficial convenience. Because of it, writing a program in Python will take noticeably less time than many other programming languages. The resulting program will be shorter and more comprehensible, and will be easy to modify or extend in the future. The simplicity of Python is not because it is in any way cut-down or incapable. In fact, it is one of the most limber languages available, including a carefully chosen cross-section of advanced language design features, which enable it to adapt gracefully to many different situations and programming styles. Its beauty lies in its ability to provide the aforementioned simplicity regardless of the complexity of the task to which you choose to put it. Of those language design features, a couple are worthy of special mention. Python is one of a number of dynamic languages, which are in vogue at the moment. Proponents would say that the entire history of programming has been a gradual migration towards progressively more dynamic languages. Dynamic languages, amongst other things, allow you to write programs that modify themselves when they run. Instead of simply writing a function yourself, you can instead write a function which creates a second function, and then call this second function, which will do the thing you want done. This, and other sorts of brain-bending meta-programming, seem a little abstract at first, but sometimes allow some tremendous conceptual ju-jitsu, allowing very small amounts of code to achieve enormous things. Secondly, Python's dynamism facilitates a programming style known as test driven development, of which I am big fan. The idea is that for every bit of code you write, you also write a test, which verifies that your code is doing the right thing. It isn't immediately obvious that this is necessarily a very useful thing to do, but in practice it reaps tremendous benefits. I evangelise about it often, because I feel it is the single most important thing that most programmers could do in order to be more productive and write better code. As well as the language itself, Python comes bundled with a comprehensive set of pragmatic built-in standard libraries, which your program can lean on to help you get things done with a minimum of hassle. These libraries are augmented by a vibrant community of authors producing third-party modules you can download and use as well. A notable alternative to Python is Ruby, which looks like a delightful environment and community to be in. As a general-purpose tool, Ruby is just as good as Python, and it excels in certain areas such as website development. But Ruby is not compellingly better than Python. They are more similar than they are different, and form healthy rivals. There are other languages that are better than Python at particular things, but none, in my opinion, are better than it for most things. Something like C++ is better for sheer speed of program execution, or for addressing the low-level bits and bytes that make up the electronics of your computer. But it takes years to master C++. It's a hard-core programmers language. I spent seven years living and breathing it, and feel qualified to say that its practitioners can be slightly masochistic about its inaccessible superiority. Even once mastered, it is still a lot of work to write C++ programs. Java and C# are both very popular indeed - orders of magnitude more so than Python, and are ubiquitous in conservative corporate enterprise consulting shops. Both are slightly frowned-upon by computer science academics (C#, for example, for being ostensibly tied to Windows), but nevertheless, these languages are not bad choices for many people. Programs written in Python are usually slower than any other mainstream programming language. This could be an issue if you intend to intensively crunch large amounts of data in CPU intensive ways, for example running a finite element analysis. There are many Python libraries you can call which are, under the covers, written in C. A prominent example is NumPy, for doing numerical processing. Libraries like this might circumvent the performance issue if one of them happens to handle your particular problem. Even if there is no appropriate library available, slow performance isn't as serious a drawback as it sounds. 99% of programs don't need to do these sort of CPU intensive tasks, so Python's slowness makes no discernible difference. Even in cases where performance is a factor, Python makes it easy to modify and optimise your code to make it run faster, which often alleviates the problem entirely. Python uses indentation to define blocks of code instead of 'begin/end' or '{}' delimiters like other languages. This caused no small amount of controversy when it was introduced, with many veteran programmers recoiling in horror, imagining nightmare scenarios in which simply changing the whitespace in a program (eg adding more spaces or tab characters) would unexpectedly change a program's behaviour. In practice, however, this does not ever cause problems, and actually eliminates an entire class of errors, wherein a programs appear to behave strangely because the programmer has failed to keep the indentation (which is useful to human readers of the code) in sync with the delimiters (which are used by the computer.) Multi-threading is an advanced technique in which a program casts off new versions of itself, all running around simultaneously helping each other out, sorcerers apprentice style. Python does not handle this well, only utilising a single CPU on dual or quad core machines, and often requiring careful crafting of finicky constructs to get it working reliably. However, this is equally awkward in almost every other language, and has had programmers tearing their hair out for decades, no matter what language they use. There are exciting new approaches to this in the language Erlang, but this is still too fringe to recommend as a first language. Python lacks some of the delightful academic brilliance of hardcore functional languages such as Lisp and its derivatives, which are based on the mathematics of the lambda calculus. In the right hands, these tools can be devastatingly elegant and highly productive. However, many of them lack a degree of day-to-day practicality in terms of available libraries, and most people feel that they are initially unintuitive to learn. Such languages will no doubt remain highly influential in computer science circles, and are having something of a renaissance these days, but they are sufficiently unorthodox for me not to recommend as someone's first (and possibly only) programming language. by Lawrence Lessig (2004) Accessible, entertaining, rich with historical perspective, and cuts incisively to the core of modern society's conflict over intellectual property. To my mind, one of the most important books of the decade. I'd highly recommend it. And it's available for free from your iPhone's built-in ebooks installer, or as a pdf. Rating: 10/10. Blimey. This is just a refinement of last week's script. No massively significant changes, just a bunch of minor tweaks. The fans are replaced with slightly prettier flowers, with separate vertex and color arrays for each one. Running with the python -O flag means we can render 800 flowers at 30fps, no problem. The camera can now be moved and rotated and zoomed. I just use this to subtly zoom in after the screen has filled with flowers I discovered that if I fail to clear the screen before rendering, then I inherit the appearance of the desktop as a backdrop. No doubt this cannot be relied upon, and presumably doesn't happen on some other graphics hardware or operating systems, so YMMV (Update: yep - it looks CRAZY on Windows unless you uncomment the glClear() call). I won't be relying on this trick in future, but for now, on my machine at least, it looks like this: Actual vs Perceived threats (aka People are Crazy) Susanna Hertrich has an art / thesis project to artificially stimulate people's threat perceptions (by giving them goosebumps, or making hairs stand on end) in response to actual threats, as opposed to perceived ones. It's a topic that I'm unnaturally preoccupied with, since the most egregious examples of the disparity between the two seem to intrude on my life every day. My opinions about whether any given threat is real or illusiory seem to differ from almost everyone, but I'm going to stubbornly cling to the idea that everyone else is crazy. Take the entry on 'terrorist attack' as an example (see diagram.) Public reactions to the topic remind me of nothing so much as a stirred-up ants nest, a psychotic, ineffectual frenzy. A humble little Python script to select a random image from a given directory (defined at the start of the file) and use it as your Gnome desktop wallpaper. Put it in your session startup programs to get a new desktop each time you login. Coolio. 33 essays, edited by Andy Oram I was wondering how to explain why I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would - possibly as much as I thought I ought to. Thirty-odd genius bitwranglers delving into their favourite bits of code - surely it must be packed with fabulous insights into the zen of programming. But something about it left me flat, and I was having trouble putting my finger on why. Fortunately Jeff Atwood's ever brilliant Coding Horror has saved me the bother, by explaining it perfectly. Programmers love code. It is the culmination of their labours. It's not just a document or a diagram, but is a dynamic, living record of their conceptual jujutso. But to focus on the code itself, in a variety of languages, which few readers are likely to be familiar with all of, is a relatively superficial theme, and comes at the expense of the abstract designs that the code embodies, and of the features and capabilities of the languages themselves. Rating 6/10: Contains some gems, but generally falls between two stools. If it's good enough for Benny... These folks will store samples of your pet's DNA, so that in the event of their death, you can replace them with a newer, younger clone. Apart from the fact it's a gimmick ripoff (\$1,500 to store my pets DNA? That's quite a freezer they must have there, and the hypothetical cloning service 'may be offered by some other company at a future time') it seems to totally miss the point. If you love your pet, it's surely for their personality. Your shared experiences and memories, having grown to know one another. I'm talking about their soul, or the state vector of their consciousness, whatever you want to call it. Growing a clone in their image is like creating a twin - it bears no relation to the animal you loved but for its superficial appearance, and even seems to me to be an insult to the memory of your former pet, that they could be replaced by the next one off the shelf. Certainly I wouldn't like to think my loved ones would be content to replace me with a look-alike. Sometimes I wonder why we make it so hard on ourselves trying to make an honest buck when the rest of the world is one big scam, preying on the vulnerable and the unwary.	17,035
How do you tell if a casket is STAINLESS STEEL and not the lower priced 18ga or 20ga steel? Of course this is a STAINLESS STEEL casket and a magnet will not stick to Stainless Steel but a magnet will stick to the lower priced 18ga or 20ga steel (different molecular structure). Interior length: 79" Write an online review and share your thoughts with others. Superior client guidance through difficult time. I want to commend Robert and Terry at Best Price Caskets for their guidance,knowledge and compassion through the difficult loss of my mother, July 19, 2015. I found the company's web-site and first spoke to Robert, who was very helpful and knowledgable of funeral arrangements and prices in Texas. At the funeral home on July 20,2015, my brother and sisters met to plan the service. After viewing the caskets at the funeral home, the director gave us a room to discuss our selection. I had my i-pad, pulled up the Best Price Caskets site and found the perfect casket and the same vault offered for a total of $4000.00 savings. The funeral director was constantly checking on us, but Terry guided us through the order and delivery process, while the director waited outside the door. The casket arrived as promised, beautiful. The director said he could not have gotten the color my mother loved, turquoise, because of her Indian heritage. Thank you again for making our loss and sadness a celebration of her memory. The Marks Family I was very reluctant, and very worried about ordering a casket online. But I did it for financial reasons, and hoped for the best. The casket was absolutely beautiful!! The order process was handled professionally, and and with kindness. I was told that casket would arrive the next day, and they would call the funeral home, and give them the delivery time. And that is exactly what happened. As a matter of fact the funeral director complimented us on how beautiful the casket was, and how nice, and professional the delivery people were. Please do not hesitate to order from this company, I highly recommend them!! When I found out my husband had cancer and it would be terminal we started shopping around on line for a casket, we could not believe the price of a casket through the funeral home. We came across this website, we were a little wary of it, just because it was so important for us to receive it on time. My husband passed away on Tuesday afternoon, we called that evening around 8pm MST and placed the order. We paid to have it overnight and the funeral home received it on Thursday. Even the funeral director was impressed by the quality and beauty of the casket, as were we. Thank you so much. Harris F. Home in Madisonville, ky ordered this for my father we where pleased with it ... as far as price it is the best for oversized caskets.... Thanks Great experience My aunt told me about ordering casket online when my dad passed away. We did some research and found a great looking casket for my dad from here. We followed the tips that we read from this site and everything went smoothly, and we received the casket on time. It was a pleasant experience, and they are truely working 24/7, since I ordered it on 4th July weekend! Reviewer: The Frazier Family (Long Beach, CA) We would like to express our gratitude for your wonderful customer service during our sad time. Your driver stayed and waited to make sure everything was to our satisfaction. He was very kind and considerate. The individual that helped us with our casket choice, Belinda, was also very helpful. The casket was beautiful and we are telling everyone about your company. God bless you all. Sincerely, The Frazier Family When my mother passed away the beginning of May and we went to the funeral home to purchase a casket. We could not believe how expensive the caskets were. The funeral director who is a good friend of the family said, we should try going on line and I came across your web site. I called and purchased the 3003 Mahogany Veneer Casket from a lady at Best Price Caskets. I was shocked when the casket showed up at the funeral home exactly as promised by the next morning. The funeral director was amazed how beautiful the casket was and when I told him I paid less then $1,000.00 plus $355 shipping he said, there was no way he could of bought a casket of this quality at that price. Thank you so much Best Price for making our experience a little easier. Thanks Again! My name is Joan Harris and I am from Canada. My Father-in-Law passed recently and my Pastor told me about a website called "Best Price Caskets", and boy did I get the "best price". Considering that I am in Canada and even with currency conversion I saved more than 60% on the cost compared to what the Funeral Home wanted to charge us. I had to pay some import tax to the Canadian Customs (13%) but The agents at "Best Price" handled our situation with complete Professionalism and I personally would recommend them to all my family and friends. My husband and I viewed the casket when it arrived today (we only ordered it yesterday afternoon) and boy were we surprised. The casket was breathtaking, the funeral representatives were all in awe - notwithstanding the fact that we paid less than half the amount they were charging us. Again, kudos to you all at "Best Price" and believe me you will have my business whenever the need arises. Congratulations on a job well done!! I Saved $4450 I saved $3600 on the casket from www.BestPriceCaskets.com and saved another $850 on the funeral expenses by following tips I learned by reading their website before visiting the funeral home. I ordered the casket at 2pm on a Saturday and the funeral home received it when they opened on Sunday morning. The main thing they told me is to not tell the funeral home that I was buying an online casket until after they gave me in writing the itemized list of funeral and burial expenses. They said that if I tell them about the online casket beforehand, that the funeral home will simply add the lost $3000 profit to the price of the other funeral or burial expenses on the itemized list and I won't save any money. They said to not feel guilty about this because the funeral home only spends about 5 hours on a funeral. $3000 is enough for the funeral service. Thank You Best Price Caskets. Steven J Detroit Best Price Caskets is the When my mother passed away the beginning of May we went to the funeral home to purchase a casket. We could not believe how expensive the caskets were. The funeral director who is a good friend of the family said, we should try going on line and I came across your web site. I purchased the 3003 Mahogany Veneer Casket. I was not off the phone two minutes and my phone rang and a representative from Best Price Caskets was calling me back confirming our order and telling us they were sorry for our loss. I was shocked that someone would take the time to call me back and not just to confirm the order but to see if there was any else we needed and if there was anything they could do. The casket showed up at the funeral home and the funeral director was amazed how beautiful the casket was. When I told him I paid less then $1,000.00 and free shipping he said, there was no way he could of gotten the least expensive casket at that price. Thank you so much for making Best Prce for making our experience a little easier. Best Price for what I wanted for my husband I checked the funeral homes and I checked other online sites. I checked with my nephew, who is a Funeral Director, and would have gotten me a casket for cost. Best Price Caskets gave me the best price for the military casket I wanted for my husband. My nephew could not even find the casket I wanted anywhere else. I did have to pay to have it flown to GA from Dallas, TX, but it was a reasonable fee. I did get nervous about getting the casket and getting it in time, since I ordered the casket on a Friday morning and the service was on Monday with viewing on Sunday; but the casket arrived by noon on Saturday which was in plenty of time. I am very pleased with the kind, considerate treatment I received, especially AFTER the casket was paid for. As I said I got very nervous and call a few times concerning delivery, but they were always nice and helpful. Reviewer: Mary Pheeny (Arcade, NY) BestPriceCaskets saved us $3000 on our casket and futher told us how to shop for the best funeral home. We saved $3000 on the casket and an additional $2000 on the funeral service. This amounted to a total savings of a little over $5,000.00 Thanks again BestPriceCaskets. Mary Pheeny Arcade, NY Best Price Caskets is the most ideal place to purchase a casket when you are on a budget. I first went to the funeral home to receive my quote and was told I would have to pay $3000 for a simple steel casket. After doing some brief research, I stumbled across this website and encoutered the same casket that I saw at the funeral home for $949. I was amazed by how fast the casket arrived, and would recommend this site to all of my friends and family. You can really save big! I Saved $2000 I bought an online casket and saved $2000 I bought an online casket from www.BestPriceCaskets.com and saved $3000.00. I read the site beforehand and it told me how to do it. Go to the funeral home and show interest in their caskets (they think they will make an extra $3000-$4000 on the casket so they are more likely to discount the rest of the funeral) and ask for an itemized list from the funeral home of all expenses. Them that you have 3 other appointments that day for three other funeral homes and that you only have an hour to spend with them (They try to wear you down by holding you there for 8 hours and you are ready to sign anything). Push down on the Funeral expenses and burial costs. Then go to the second funeral home and repeat. Make sure you let them know that you still have to go to the Smith, Williams, and Jones funeral homes for prices. Develop some compitition. After checking around call the first one back up and tell them that you can do it if they can cut another $1000 off, after all you only get a 2 hour viewing, and 2 hour embalming, a dug hole and a $200 vault, really how much should this cost? When you go to the funeral home they will ask you questions like 1) Is there insurance 2) what do you and your husband do for a living 3) how many or whom will be paying All the above prices are really all about, how much can we charge you. Which itemized price sheet should I give you? This is not a good time to bring your nice car, to really dress up or try to impress this funeral director. A better story is my husband just lost his job 3 weeks ago, none of the rest of the family can help us, there is no insurance, I don't know how we are going to pay for this. We are going to 3 other funeral homes today and two tomorrow. We are going to be forced to go with the best price. Do not push down on the price of the casket. You will leave with your itemized list. Tell each funeral home that you will only have an hour to spend with him because you have other appointments. The average funeral home only does 50 funerals/year or 1 per week. They need to hit a home run. This idea of scheduling appointments, and how busy they are, well you get the idea. After all what is the suggested retail price of a funeral, embalming, limo ride, face and hair prep etc.? It is whatever they can get you to pay. Thank You	12,306
If you’re new to my financial advice, you may think to yourself: what\’s with all this talk about lattes? She must really, really like coffee. Even though yes, I do really, really like coffee—my latte motto is not just about caffeine; it\’s a financial philosophy. Other financial experts will tell you that giving up your daily coffee-shop-runs will save you more than $1,500 per year. I hear it all the time: if you invest $5 a day for 40 years, you could earn close to $1 million if you manage to get a return of 10%. But remember: not drinking coffee doesn’t mean you will become a millionaire automatically. Cutting out lattes doesn’t mean that you won’t spend that $5 a day elsewhere. A financial diet is like a regular diet: crash-dieting rarely works, and only leads to binging. Allow yourself the small indulgences—lattes, takeout from your favorite restaurant, a Netflix NFLX subscription—while keeping an eye on the bigger picture. Stick to those harmless pick-me-ups so that you don’t blow your money on something more expensive in the heat of the moment. Chances are that when you go on a spending binge, the results are more costly than you expected, which will only lead to more of an emotional roller coaster ride. Nix the guilt around splurging on yourself. You shouldn’t feel guilty if your small indulgence is planned and accounted for in your overall spending plan. I always say that investing in yourself is the best investment you will make. Studies have shown that taking care of yourself and your happiness is directly correlated to doing better at work. Plus: if you do better at work, then you make more money. If that morning latte is going to help you feel better and be more productive, it’s worth it. Keep in mind, in the end, money is there to enjoy. It’s not worth your valuable time to get overly bogged down in the small expenses. Don’t add to your stress levels by worrying about the small things that make your day better. ← Previous Post Next Post → Winning business achievement award and awards for entrepreneurs is the perfect opportunity to build your personal brand and corporate reputation.	2,213
A few days ago, I wrote this post titled [Tutorial] Print Digital Photos online with EOE that showed you a step by step method on how to get your digital photos printed online at EOE’s website and sent straight to your doorstep. A few days after I have made my order, I got my package. Its a nicely wrapped 50pcs of 4R photos and 2 pcs of 8R photos. As you can see, I printed a lot of my graduation photos – since they were all digital photos and I wanted a hard copy. Each 4R print only costs RM0.30 and each 8R photos is RM6 each. Also you get… read more You May Also Like Win 50+ prizes by nominating your favourite female brands for worthy book November 25, 2012 I was surfing around the other day and came across this site that allows you to print your digital photos online. All you have to do is upload the photos, choose what size you want, and then make payment. Then they will send all the printed photos to your address. So I decided to try it out and write a short tutorial as well :D Hope you guys find this helpful Step One Go to www.eoe.com.my and click the REGISTER button on the top. This is a standard login, so just fill in your details and reply the confirmation email. Step Two Look at the top and click on Shopping… read more You May Also Like Win 50+ prizes by nominating your favourite female brands for worthy book November 25, 2012 Out with the girls I finally quit my moping around at home and went out on Wednesday. First was tea with a guy friend with whom I’ve been postponing meeting coz of time constraints. Then I met up with Pam, Aree, Jazzy, Ayman & Taufan at Empress Cafe, Curve. I had a bottle of shisha. Wee~ shisha makes me happy :P Then lepaked and chit-chatted with Pam and her friends at Idaman till around 2am plus. On Thursday we woke up and Aree came over and we had lunch at this nice place in KJ that serves N9 food. Sedap (no pics tho coz we were starving and instantly attacked the food). Then we… read more Outings, Personal I got my new baby – red hot Perodua Viva! Finally! Well I’ve had it for almost a week now, since Thursday (11 Oct) thanks to Azman who rushed the whole process just so I could get it before Raya. Thanks loads! I really like my number plate as well – WQQ then 4 odd numbers after that. My mom is quite happy there are no ‘4’ in the number plate. The reason why I didnt get a Myvi was because my parents wanted to get a 2nd cheaper car since we already have the Honda. If we were thinking of buying a main car, then a myvi would be… read more Click for more photos in this album — Luau Bday Party For my birthday, I originally planned to just have a small get together to makan2. I was craving for steamboat and hot plate so that was the dinner menu that night. Plus it’ll be easy to prepare, just cut up all the raw stuff, panaskan the soup/broth then let the people cook what they want.	3,038
It was one of the highlights of AAFW when Manahou Mackay gracefully stormed down the runway wearing the opening look for Iordanes Spyridon Gogos endlessly joyful debut show. A psychedelic racer-back dress created in collaboration with Amy Baran, finished with a fluid wire hem, emerging amongst neon trojan horses to a remix of Aqua's Lollipop by Byron Spencer, set the tone for the show. Two weeks on, we are still thinking about the show - a celebration of art, concepts, colour and character, the burning question on our lips, is to know what's next for the promising young designer. For those who know Gogos' work, it can be found in the form of minimal steel furniture in Dion Lee stores and on sets of shoots. Wearable art, however, was a slightly more recent foray for the Parsons educated multidisciplinary artist, and upon deciding to send in an application to have a show at AAFW, things moved very fast for Gogos. "If you don't get accepted into fashion week, they don't let you know, they just don't reply. You just sit there like a log hoping someone contacts you. And then they called me up and they're like we want you to do like a runway. It was crazy. Like, I've made three pieces this year," he tells us. "I didn't know what I was doing, so I called up heaps of people that I knew and I was like, I'm doing a runway. We're gonna put some music on and just walk. And it just fuckin' went off the chain. It started off with a little group of artists which I posted on Instagram and said, anyone who wants to be in a dynamic opportunity, let me know." And off the chain it went. Amid a sea of carefully crocheted garments adorned with glass droplets, printed lycra, and patch-worked corsets, coats and ball gowns, Gogos, and the 25 different artists he collaborated with for the show, created a moment in time for Australian fashion. One with a future that not only looks very bright indeed, but safe for people of all identities to exist within. "People talk about inspiration versus motivation. And I feel like I'm more motivated in my designs. A lot of designers talk about things like the sun which is meant to capture the light which is nice, but I don't care about that," he says. "I've never cared about that. I'm motivated by the idea of facilitating differentiating perceptions of people. I wanted the edges to be built out and clean. And for it to look like, this is an artist, but we're not going to give the industry what they expected from us." He notes, which, upon first glance of the show, rings true to the sentiment of the work. The work which is detailed in a different way. It is meticulous and fun and dramatic and detail oriented. What Gogos' wanted to – did prove, was that it is possible to achieve it all when you're not focussing on what the industry wants from you. "It was about having fun. And just proving ourselves like I've proved myself for seven years. And this was the first time in my life that I, alongside other people, thought, maybe we don't have anything to prove anymore. Maybe we can actually exist in this design space in a collected way where we can do things with intention and not have to walk away feeling like next year, we have to raise the bar. It's like, 'No, we don't have to use our labour and our bodies in that way,'" he says. "We can actually just like breathe and acknowledge that we actually are artists that are respected. I think that is really motivating. I wanted to embrace every artist because these people should exist in this space." It was the kind of facilitation of creativity that the industry, one that is so often gate kept by the straight, white, and able bodied, has been crying out for for so long. Gogos' not only carved out a space for the artists involved, but those who wore the designs too - a space that is so often moderated in ways that sacrifice both creative integrity and freedom of expression. It manifested as the opposite of tokenism. When I spoke with Gogos about the casting process, he expressed that there was no casting process - so to speak. It was always grounded in the people who were excited about the pieces, who he worked with from the beginning to create pieces that they felt best in. "When people went down that runway, they knew what this brand was, they knew who I was. They knew how they fit into it. They knew that the piece they were wearing was something that was actually created for them, that fitted them, that they had a say in." He explains, "I would ask a lot of the models multiple times by email and in person, saying, do you feel comfortable? Is this what your mood is? Do you want to wear a dress? Do you want to wear a suit? What is going to benefit you? So there wasn't an ego on the runway, there was just presence." With a jubilant energy, riding on the coat tails of the success of the show, we ask Gogos, what is next? In addition to taking over the windows at Parlour X, the answer, is an installation at the Powerhouse Museum, which has acquired a lot of the wearable artworks; and a commitment to create consciously and ethically, in whatever iteration that means for the designer. How does he want to be remembered when all is said and done? "I'm a human. I've got a family. I've got a little brother who's 10. I want them to remember me as this person who gave fashion another chance. I just did my best. I did my best." Stay inspired, follow us. Enter your details below to receive 30% off Amber Sceats jewellery. Louis Vuitton redefines escapism for Cruise 22 – reminding us that life's most valuable passport is creation See the full shoot here. The red carpet looks for the 2022 Fashion Awards have been spot on so far. Below, are the best looks as they come through. Every royal needs a wardrobe to get people talking, and as a member of Hollywood’s most decorated family, this queen of the screen has us discussing nothing else.	6,302
Cannabinoids is one hefty word that belongs in every medical marijuana patient’s vocabulary is cannabinoid. Cannabinoids (e.g., THC and CBD) are the chemical compounds secreted by cannabis flowers. They can provide relief to an array of symptoms including pain, nausea, anxiety, and inflammation. These work their medicinal magic by imitating compounds our bodies naturally produce, called endocannabinoids. In which activate to maintain internal stability and health. To put a complex system simply, they mediate communication between cells. Also, when there is a deficiency or problem with our endocannabinoid system, unpleasant symptoms and physical complications occur. When it is Consumed When cannabis is consumed, cannabinoids bind to receptor sites throughout our brain (receptors called CB-1) and body (CB-2). Different cannabinoids have different effects depending on which receptors they bind to. For example, THC binds to receptors in the brain whereas CBN (cannabinol) has a strong affinity. Affinity for CB-2 receptors located throughout the body. Depending on a cannabis product’s cannabinoid profile, different types of relief are achievable. This concept is the cornerstone of cannabis as medicine, and the results are so promising that these cannabinoids have been synthesized for legal prescription use. Some synthetic cannabinoid medications include Marinol, Nabilone, and Rimonabant. While these synthetic forms are effective, research shows that herbal cannabis contains a far wider variety of therapeutic compounds. Cannabis contains at least 85 types of cannabinoids, many of which have documented medical value. Products and strains have been developed to deliver larger doses of different cannabinoids. It is knowing which types best treat your symptoms is a handy piece of knowledge to bring to your next dispensary visit. The below wheel serves as a resource to determine which cannabinoids may help treat symptoms. Symptoms associated with mood, eating/gastrointestinal disorders, neurological disorders, pain, sleep disorders, and other medical conditions. Click on the infographic for an enlarged version. Synergy The Cannabinoids each have their own individual properties which is creating plenty of excitement in the scientific community. Besides the Terpenoids and Cannabinoids there are many other items. Vitamins, minerals, phytosterols, pigments, proteins, enzymes, essential sugars, polyphenol antioxidants, flavonoids and essential fatty acids. The oil appears black but it is really a blend of intense colors. It is important to know that while isolated Cannabinoids have their own characteristic properties. The different compounds have synergistic effects when the whole symphony of phytonutrients are consumed together. Synergy means that the combined effect is greater than the sum of the individual parts. Another way of thinking of this is 1+1. You know 1+1 = 2. Modern scientists for over 50 years, so (un)naturally, attempts were made to produce synthetic versions of isolated Cannabinoid molecules in an attempt to create pharmaceutical drugs. Unsurprisingly, as with all synthetic chemicals, the desired properties are often reduced significantly while undesirable side-effects can abound as is confirmed in the United States Government Patent #6,630,507 “Cannabinoids as Antioxidants & Neuroprotectants.” If health and happiness, not side-effects are what you seek, best stick to real plants – the original design was already perfect to begin with. Customer feedback is the lifeblood of our business. Tell us what’s on your mind, good or bad. We respond to all customer feedback and look forward to hearing from you! First Last = ProExtraction products and equipment are state-of-the-art Oil Extraction systems. Our manufacturing facility is equipped with calibration and test equipment that guarantees performance, making us a leading Extraction manufacturer. We are dedicated to delivering reliable, repeatable, high-performance to the customers we serve.	4,176
The term “Hindu Undivided Family” derives its meaning and rules from the two schools of Hindu Law. The ancient Schools of Hindu laws are believed to be of two types and where in existence before the Hindu law was codified with the Hindu Succession Act of 1956. 1. The Mitakshara School, and 2. The Dayabhaga School or Bengal School In Bengal and Assam, the Dayabhaga School was established, and in the entire of India apart from Bengal and Assam Mitakshara School was broadened. The two main interpreters who wrote on Mitakshara and Dayabhaga Schools were Vijnaneshwar and Jeenutavahan respectively. Debts occupy a very important place in the Hindu system of Law. This is one of those areas of Hindu law that illustrate one of the fundamental principles of Hindu jurisprudence, i.e, moral obligations take precedence over legal rights. The Hindu sages have repeatedly enjoyed that one must pay one’s debts. Brihaspati ordained: one who does not repay his debts will be born hereafter in the creditor’s house as a slave, servant, woman, or a quadruped. According to Narada: if a religious and devoted person died indebted, the whole of the merit of his sacrifices and devotions will belong to the creditor. The Hindu sages did not stop here. They said that if a Hindu dies indebted, his sons must repay his debts. This is considered to be the religious or pious duty of sons of discharging their father from the sin of his debts. Not merely this, the son’s son and son’s son should also pay the debt of the grandfather and great-grandfather. The only distinction between their liability was that son was required to pay it with interest and the grandson to pay only the principal amount. The grandson was required to pay only to the extent to which he had the joint family property in his hands; he was not personally liable, though the son and the grandson were made personally liable. By a series of decisions, it has now been established that the son, the grandson, and the great-grandson’s liability to pay is coextensive in nature i.e, their liability is the same and they are liable to the extent to which they have joint family property in their hands. They are not personally liable. This doctrine applies to all the coparceners who are fathers, and merely to the father who is head of the family, i.e, Karta. When a coparcenary consists of the father and sons and if the father dies indebted, the sons have the Pious Obligation to pay the debts of their father, not merely of the fathers’s interest but to the extent of the entire joint family property. This means under the doctrine of pious obligation is the logical corollary to the son’s birthright. The doctrine is not recognized under the DayaBhaga School. But it is applicable to the Thiyyass of Kerala, among whom polyandry prevails. Note: The doctrine of the pious obligation of the sons to pay their father’s debt has been abolished by Section 6(4) of the Hindu Succession Act, as it exists after the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005. Therefore, the law discussed in this respect below is the prior law as it stood before the Hindu Succession (Amendment Act, 2005) What is Son’s Pious Obligation history? If a debt contracted by the father has not been repaired during his lifetime, by himself, it must be restored, after his death, by his sons. Should they separate, they shall repay it according to their respective shares. If they remain united, they shall pay it in common, or the manager shall pay it for the rest, no matter whether he may be the senior of the family or a younger member, who, during the absence of the oldest, or on account of his incapacity, has undertaken the management of the family estate. Mitakshara School Mitakshara School: Mitakshara is one of the most important schools of Hindu law. It is a running commentary of the Smriti Yajnvalkya. This school is applicable in the whole part of India except in West Bengal and Assam. The Mitakshara has a very wide jurisdiction. However different parts of the country practice law differently because of the different customary rules followed by them. Mitakshara is further divided into five sub-schools namely Banaras Hindu school Mithila school Maharashtra school Punjab school In the Mitakshara School, the allocation of the inherited property was based on the law of possession by birth and a man could leave his self-acquired property to which he willed. The joint family property went to the group known as coparceners, i.e, those who belonged to the next three generations and also the joint family property by partition could be, at any time, converted into separate property. Therefore in Mitakshara School, Sons had an exclusive right by birth in joint family property. Under the Hindu law, the liability to pay debts of another has a religious, moral and legal origin– a) Liability to Pay the Debts of a Person by His Heir: A Hindu heir is liable to pay the debts (whether properly incurred or for an immoral or unlawful purpose) of the deceased, out of the assets he has inherited from the deceased. In such cases, he is not personally liable at all, even if the deceased was his own father. b) Liability for the Debts of a Coparcener: The Vijnaneshwara says that Daya, the origin of the coparcener system is just that the property becomes another person’s property just because of the owner’s relationship with others by family. It became a prominent part of Hindu law,every coparcener is under a legal obligation to pay his debts. The undivided interest of a coparcener can be attached and sold in the execution of a money decree against him before his death (for payment of debts) by a creditor. Thus, if a coparcener had died with some personal debts, these debts cannot be enforced against his interest in Joint Family Property after his death. However, if interest has been attached during his lifetime or before judgment and the coparcener dies during the pendency of the suit, his interest can be sold. Further, a creditor could claim from the persons inheriting the coparcener’s property. The meaning of coparcenary under mitakshara law is clarified in the case of Moro Vishwanath v. Ganesh Vithal[1]. The Supreme Court summarized the situation and noted that all the coparceners in a quasi-corporate capacity kept the coparcener property in the collective possession of members of the Undivided Family. c) Liability of a Son to Pay the Debts of His Father (Pious Obligation of a Son): Since the liability of the son is pious, the character of father’s debt is material. The sons are liable for the father’s pre-partition debts, not post-petition debts, provided the debts are not vyavaharika, i.e, taken for immoral or illegal purposes, or to use the apt expression of Derrett, private, untainted, pre-partition debts[2]. The doctrine of pious obligation of sons to discharge the personal debts of the father is peculiar to Hindu law (Smritis). The basis of it is the spiritual benefit which will accrue to the soul of the father by the discharge of his earthly obligations. Thus, the liability does not arise from the contract. It depends upon the relationship between the father and the son. The doctrine is not intended in any sense for the benefit of the creditor. “He who having received a sum lent or the like does not repay it to the owner will be born hereafter in his creditor’s house, a slave, a servant, a woman, or a quadrupted” (a text of Brihaspati). The obligation exists whether the sons are major or minor, or whether the father is alive or dead. The liability exists even during the father’s life-time (then, both son and father will be liable), and subsists so long as the father is liable. Thus, for a time-barred debt or when the father is adjudicated insolvent, the son is not liable. The father in a Hindu Joint Family may sell or mortgage the whole of Joint Family Property (including the son’s interest therein), to discharge a debt contracted by him for his own personal benefit. a) the debt was an antecedent to the alienation; b) the debt was not incurred for an immoral purpose (untainted debt), and; 3) the father acted like a prudent man and did not sacrifice the property for an What is an avyavaharika debt? The term avyavaharika has been variously translated by writers and judges. Colebrook’s rendition of it, as those which are for “causes repugnant to good morals” has been approved by the Supreme Court in Jakati v. Borkar[4]. Broadly speaking, it has come to mean those debts that are taken for “illegal or immoral purposes.” Since the shastric elaboration of the avyavaharika debts is no longer valid and since the case law is numerous and confused, it is difficult to spell out precisely as to which debts are avyavaharika in nature. On the basis of shastric texts, Mayne has enumerated debts which sons need not to pay under the following nine heads: a) debts due for spirituous liquor; c) promises without consideration; d) promises made out of lust; f) debts due to gambling; i) debts that are not vyavaharika in nature. The burden of proof that the debt is ‘tainted’ is not on the creditor, but on the son. The son is not liable to pay debt incurred by the father in the circumstances which would render the father liable to a criminal prosecution; but he is liable for money which the father has to account in a purely civil capacity. Where the father’s act which gives rise to debt is a mere tort or breach of contract, the debt is not vyavaharika, and the son will be liable for it. It may be noted that a time-barred debt is not avyavaharika. What is antecedent debt? Lord Dunedin of the Privy Council defined the antecedent debt as antecedent in fact as well as time,” i.e, not a part of the transaction impeached[5]. Thus two conditions are necessary: The debt must be prior in time. The debt must be prior in fact. Therefore, it implies an indebtedness of the father–prior in time to, and, independent in origin of, the particular dealing with the family property, whether by way of sale or mortgage, which it is sought to enforce against the son. Thus, the father has no power to alienate his sons’ share, after a partition between him and his son, even though the alienation is in respect of a debt contracted before the partition. Antecedent debt need not be for legal necessity or for the benefit of the estate. It may be even for a new business started by the father or it may even be for his own personal benefit. Dayabhaga School Dayabhaga school predominantly prevailed in Assam and West Bengal. This is also one of the most important schools of Hindu laws. It is considered to be a digest for the leading smritis. Its primary focus was to deal with partition, inheritance, and joint family. According to Kane, it was incorporated in between 1090-1130 A.D. Dayabhaga school was formulated with a view to eradicating all the other absurd and artificial principles of inheritance. The immediate benefit of this new digest is that it tends to remove all the shortcomings and limitations of the previously established principles and inclusion of many cognates in the list of heirs, which was restricted by the Mitakshara school. In Dayabhaga school various other commentaries were followed such as: The property is inherited in the Dayabhaga School after the death of the person who was in possession of it. The doctrine of the son’s birthright and the devolution of property by survivorship had limited space in Dayabhaga School. It is established that in the Mitakshara School neither the father nor any other coparcener could normally disaffect the joint family property. Under the Dayabhaga School, there is no such constraint and each coparcener has the complete right of separation of his exclusive share in the joint family property To put it simply, Mitakshara was based on the ‘principle of ownership by birth, and Dayabagha on the principle of ownership by death’ The dayabhaga joint family is the reflection of family members’ ability to live together. In food, worship, and land the family is communal. The dayabhaga school is based on the principle of religious effectiveness or spiritual gain and its rule of succession. It means the person who gives the decreased religious advantage is entitled to inheritance rather than the other. The dayabhaga school of law does not distinguish between joint family property and separate property, because the property is based on the principle of inheritance. The shares of coparcenary property are clear under dayabhaga school and do not fluctuate with the birth of the member or death of the member. The property is returned to the heir by the way of inheritance upon the death of the coparcener. The foundation of a coparcener is first laid on the birth of the son, under the Mitakshara school of law. Therefore, if a Hindu governed by mitakshara law has a son born to him the father and the son became a coparcener at once the foundation of the coparcener is laid on the death of the father under dayabhaga school. There is no coparcency until and unless the father is alive. It is only on the death that coparcenary is first created leaving two or more male members. The following are the rules of Dayabhaga Law of debts contracted by a Hindu for his own private purposes– a) The separate property of a Hindu is liable for payment of his debt under all circumstances. b) The interest of a coparcener, being defined, one is liable for the payment of his debt not only in his lifetime but also after his death. c) The father being the sole owner of the ancestral property can sell or mortgage the whole of it in his hand for payment of his debt though tainted with immorality or illegality. The rule of Dayabhaga Law relating to debts contracted for joint-family purposes are the same as those of Mitakshara Law. Thus, in short, the Dayabhaga Law of Debts is very simple, for no question can arise under Dayabhaga Law as to the special liability of the sons, grandsons and great-grandsons, as it did under the Mitakshara Law before the 2005 Amendment of the Hindu Succession Act. In other words, the doctrine of pious obligation was never recognized under the Dayabhaga Law. The reason is that, under the Dayabhaga Law, sons do not acquire, by birth, any interest in the ancestral property, as they did earlier under Mitakshara Law. Further, each coparcener under the Dayabhaga Law takes a defined share in the coparcener property, which he can deal with at his pleasure, and which, on his death, passes to his heirs and not to the surviving coparceners. Difference between Mitakshara and Dayabhaga Schools: Both the schools fundamentally differ from each other on certain fundamental matters: The difference in relation to the joint property Under the Mitakshara school, the right to ancestral property arises by birth. Hence the son becomes the co-owner of the property sharing similar rights as of the father. While in Dayabhaga school the right to ancestral property is only given after the death of the last owner. It does not recognize the birthright of any individual over ancestral property. Under the Mitakshara school the father does not possess the absolute right to alienate the property but in dayabhaga, the father has the absolute right of alienation of the ancestral property as he is the sole owner of that property during his lifetime. Under Mitakshara school the son attains the right to become the co-owner of the property he can ask for the partition of the ancestral property even against the father and can demand for his share but in the case of Dayabhaga school son has no right to ask for the partition of ancestral property against his father. Under Mitakshara school the survivorship rule is prevalent. In case of the death of any member in the joint family, his interest shall pass to other members of the family. While in case of the Dayabhaga school the interest of the member on their death shall pass on to their heirs like widows, sons, and daughters. Under the Mitakshara school the members can’t dispose of their share of the property while undivided while in daya bhaga the members of the family enjoy absolute right to dispose of their property. The difference as regards to inheritance Under Mitakshara the rule of blood relationship or consanguinity is followed in case of inheritance whereas in case of Dayabhaga school the inheritance is governed by the rule of the offering of pinda. Under Mitakshara school the cognates are postponed to agnates or not preferred upon agnates while in case of Dayabhaga cognates and agnates. Mitakshara school expanded its recognition to a very limited extent in regards to the recognition of the doctrine of factum valet but Dayabhaga, on the other hand, has expanded its recognition to the full extent. Under the Hindu law the difference between the Mitakshara school and the Dayabhaga school is not recognized as in the present scenario there exists one uniform law of succession for all the Hindus. Regardless of the fact law governing the Hindu undivided family are not codified and written, other than the framework provided by Hindu Laws and Hindu Succession Act,1956, the legal treatments to be applied to the issues arising out of discrepancies in the family have been well-founded by the principles and judgments given by the apex court. The doctrine of a pious obligation under which sons are held liable to discharge their father’s debts is based solely on religious considerations; the doctrine inevitably postulates that the father’s debts must be avyavahika. If the debts are avyavahika, the doctrine of pious obligation cannot be invoked. “The principle relating to the liability of the sons for debts incurred by the father may be briefly recapitulate. Thus, the liability of the interest of the sons in such cases to discharge the debts incurred by the father is undisputed, though the method and manner of its enforcement by the creditor would vary and the sons must be afforded every opportunity, be it in a suit or execution proceedings to question the binding nature of the debt or liability. Submitted by Samridhi Srivastava III Sem, BBA LLB (Hons) What are the Liabilities to Pay the Debts under Dayabhaga Law?	18,776
Ajax Amsterdam were crowned Dutch champions with an emphatic 5-0 victory over Heerenveen at the Johan Cruijff Arena on Wednesday. Ex-MLS player Marco Pappa gets 5-year domestic violence sentence Former MLS and Eredivisie league midfielder Marco Pablo Pappa was sentenced to five years for a domestic violence offense in Guatemala on Tuesday. 3Y Nigeria's Ejuke wants to make his mark at Ajax... by beating them Striker Chidera Ejuke is an unknown quantity to Nigeria fans, but he hopes a win for Heerenveen against Ajax Amsterdam will get his name in lights.	574
The issue of distracted drivers is leading to some severe consequences. The CDC reports that nine people a day are killed and 1,000 people are injured each day due to accidents that are caused by distracted drivers. Distracted driving is driving while any other than your driving is stealing your attention. The three types of distracted driving are visual, which takes your eyes off of the road, manual which takes your hands off of the steering wheel and cognitive, which takes your mind off of your driving. Here are five ways that you may be participating in distracted driving: You keep your cell phone in the passenger seat Your cell phone is one of the biggest distractions that you have. Keeping it in a handy or seen place makes it that much more of a temptation to pick it up while driving. If you look at a text for 5 seconds while going 55 miles per hour that is like driving the distance of a football field with your eyes closed. It is better to put your phone away and to put on the do not disturb function before you start driving. Where your GPS is convenient in helping you get to your desired destinations, it can also be a huge distraction. This is especially true if you are adding to your destination, checking on the traffic that you are in or trying to find an alternate route. If your GPS is set, leave it, and focus on your driving only. You are eating or getting dressed while driving Many people find it a point of pride when they can drive and also do something else at the same time like eat or put on their make-up. But both of these take your hands off of the steering wheel for periods of time. If you are trying to take off or put on a sweater, you are not only losing your hands on the wheel; you are also taking your eyes off of the road. Instead, plan to eat before or after you are driving and park your car for any additional activities. You tend to daydream while driving This one may seem harmless, but it is highly dangerous while driving. You never know when someone may stop suddenly or make a quick change of lanes in front of you. If you are not paying attention, more likely than not, you can be the cause of a car accident because you are not putting your focus to the road. Your passengers take a priority while you are driving This distraction can take many different forms. It could be that you are paying attention to what someone in the back seat is saying or a parent is trying to get the toy that their child has dropped from their car seat. Either way, both of these can lead to some severe issues. If you feel like you have participated in any of the above distractions, do your best to eliminate them from your driving habits. If you see someone on the road that is weaving or driving erratically, it is always smart to pull off the road and let them pass you for a while. If you or someone you know has been injured in a car accident due to a distracted driver, please feel free to call us, and we can help you. All of our initial meetings are free of cost and obligation. Please call us today. Previous Post What’s Hot in Legal News: May 2019 Next Post 5 Useful Tips on How to Avoid Fireworks Injuries You must be logged in to post a comment. Recent Posts What the statutes of limitations are for Californians “Pain and suffering has no limit”: Recent changes to medical malpractice lawsuit caps in California The pandemic continues to affect basic health care for Americans, and even more complex health affairs	3,682
CECL – Applying qualitative overlays that are transparent, robust and repeatable – Center for Financial Professionals Events Member Area What we do Sponsorship Not found text See all results Articulating information to the board to understand the nature of the threat of vendor and third-party risk and translating into action April 26, 2022 Current status of CECL accounting standard including delay requests and congressional and regulatory activities April 26, 2022 CECL – Applying qualitative overlays that are transparent, robust and repeatable CECL 2019 is taking place in New York City on 27-28 March, 2019 – find out more here www.cefpro.com/cecl Can you please tell the Risk Insights readers a little bit about yourself, your experiences and what your current professional focus is? I’ve got over 20 years of experience as a practitioner in risk management and line-of-business functions at Merrill Lynch, BMO, ABN AMRO, and most recently at Regions Bank. I have worked extensively developing and implementing economic capital and other credit-related models. I have also worked in the credit portfolio management space, developing and implementing credit trading and risk mitigation strategies. Since the financial crisis, I have focused on developing champion/challenger stress testing methodologies, but more recently my focus has shifted to CECL and the integration with stress testing, economic capital, risk rating, valuation and other methodologies across the firm into a comprehensive framework. Over the course of my career, I have spent considerable amount of time in front of regulators, model validation, audit, and internal stakeholders, defending methodologies and methodological choices. What, for you, are the benefits of attending a conference like CECL and can you provide an overview of what you hope to discuss at the event and why the topic is so important? Since most firms are in a mad dash to prepare for going live with CECL in 2020, now is a good opportunity to hear what others are doing and compare notes before everything gets locked down. Although many firms have settled on methodological choices and made design decisions on the production environment, firms are only now starting to focus on qualitative adjustments that might be needed specifically for CECL in the setting reserves on an ongoing basis. During my talk, I will describe what unique qualitative adjustments are relevant to CECL, above and beyond adjustments that are used in the incurred loss approach. What are some of the challenges associated with developing models with the capability to project more accurately than CCAR models? For the most part, CCAR models are accurate and do perform reasonably well. However, the challenge is that CCAR models have been built with a specific design criteria and specific variables (e.g., unemployment rate) set by the Federal Reserve Bank. For this reason, more can be done to produce a more forward-looking loss estimate. For instance, number of hours worked decreases before the unemployment rate is impacted, and as a result can contribute to a more forward-looking model. Since accurate forecasts are more relevant to CECL — rather than performance under stressed macroeconomic scenarios — making use of more anticipatory macroeconomic variables is more desirable. Why is it important to develop models that are more anticipatory than your CCAR models? During periods of economic stability, having an accurate forward view of the economy is not so critical. However, as the current bull market continues into record territory, anticipating the next recession has become an active discussion at most banks. In this case, how do we ensure that we are able to adequately anticipate the next recession and have adequately increased reserves to the appropriate levels? If we can’t do this, rather than having reserve levels that are “too little, too late” — as the current ACL process is often characterized — reserve levels could be instead “way too late” under CECL. In terms of qualitative overlays, what non-linearity and multiple scenario considerations need to be made by financial institutions? To some extent, this one comes down to semantics. While most firms intend to make use of multiple scenarios, it is not clear if the effect of additional scenarios will be represented in the overlay or as part of a blended base forecast that includes probability-weighting of scenarios. Either way, unanticipated changes in the economy can be represented as an added stress in the base scenario variables or — if multiple scenarios are used — in the scenario likelihoods. To the extent that this process cannot adequately capture inflection points in the economy, then additional adjustments are needed in the form of an overlay. What I am say here is that all of this needs to work together consistently. In my talk, I will go over some of the alternatives in getting all this to hang together. How can financial institutions best leverage their early warning frameworks to make decisions on qualitative overlays? At Regions, we have existing CCAR models as well as a forward-looking EWI framework that we have designed to be more anticipatory than our CCAR models. The process that we are currently developing will take in all this and additional relevant information to inform the overlay process. Since judgement still needs to play a critical role in setting of reserves, we imagine a scorecard framework to support a robust, transparent, and repeatable overlay process. At the conference, we will be going into more detail on how we are thinking about this, new methodologies, and how a framework like this could work. Finally, in your opinion, how do you foresee CECL impacting the industry once all institutions have moved to implementation? Current ACL methodologies vary considerably between institutions and CECL should bring about somelevel of standardization. However, the FASB standard is not prescriptive and methodologies under CECL will still vary, but perhaps not quite as much. In terms of impact on business activity, even if issues of capital relief are addressed, products like the 30 mortgage and other CECL “hogs” will likely be impacted in some way.	6,439
What is the meaning of life? That is one of the most common questions I get, and so this session is dedicated to answering that question. The meaning of life is really quite simple; it is for all of life to allow for Spirit to come into ever greater and grander expressions of itself. That is the meaning of every space, every place, every being, and object. I invite you to join me as we dig a little deeper into exploring what this means to us as unique and perfect individuals. From the community J This is the the best, most accurate, most eye opening, most motivating and simplest description of the meaning of life I have heard and I feel that my life will be clearer, happier, and more productive because of it. Thank you for sharing your wisdom. Namaste.	789
Tennis is a great form of physical activity that works out many parts of the body due to its demanding dynamics, but just like every other sport, it also comes with a risk for injury. The most common injury in the sport is called lateral epicondylitis, which is often referred to as tennis elbow. Tennis elbow is a bothersome injury that can significantly interfere with gameplay, but there are several steps you can take to reduce your risk. And if it does occur, physical therapists have you covered. The lateral epicondyle is a bony bump on the outside of the elbow that serves as an attachment point for several muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the elbow and forearm. When the arm is overworked, a muscle in this region called the extensor carpi radialis brevis (ECRB) gets weakened, which eventually leads to microscopic tears in its tendon, which attaches to the lateral epicondyle. This results in inflammation of the ECRB tendon, which is called lateral epicondylitis, or tennis elbow. Tennis elbow is yet another example of a repetitive strain injury (RSI) that’s caused by repeatedly performing the same movements in tennis over a long period. Thus, athletes who play tennis and other racquet sports therefore have a particularly high risk for developing tennis elbow, particularly due to the groundstroke in these sports, which directly puts a strain on the ECRB. But tennis elbow can occur in anyone who performs repeated movements that involve the elbow, such as painters, plumbers, and carpenters, who are especially prone to getting tennis elbow. When tennis elbow occurs, the most common symptoms are pain and a burning sensation in the outer part of the forearm and elbow that gets worse with activity, as well as weakened grip strength. If you play tennis regularly, following these tips can reduce your risk for tennis elbow: Learn to use your shoulder and upper arm muscles to take the strain off your elbow Stick to the middle of your range of motion during strokes, and avoid bending or straightening your arm all the way Make sure your racquet is the right size for you; lighter weight, larger grips, and softer strings may reduce the strain on your tendons Take intermittent breaks from tennis throughout the year to avoid overuse Try to maintain adequate fitness and flexibility levels with conditioning exercises Avoid repeating any one type of stroke, and practice a range of strokes instead Physical therapy may be needed for patients with bothersome symptoms But for those of you who are already dealing tennis elbow symptoms, or if symptoms develop in the future, the good news is that 90% of cases will significantly resolve with nonsurgical treatment alone, such as physical therapy. Physical therapists are movement experts who will first perform a thorough evaluation to identify the source of your pain and determine if any of your movements or activities may be contributing factors. From there, the therapist will design a personalized, evidence–based treatment program designed to alleviate your symptoms and restore your physical function with a variety of interventions. A typical physical therapy program for tennis elbow will consist of the following components: Elbow bracing, which reduces stress on the ECRB and allows it to self–repair; research has shown that using an elbow brace can significantly reduce the frequency and severity of pain in tennis elbow Strengthening exercises that target weakness in the wrist, forearm, and core muscles; eccentric exercises, or negative strengthening exercises, are particularly effective for tennis elbow and are likely to be included Manual therapy to increase the flexibility of joints and muscles of the lower arm and alleviate painful symptoms Activity modification training, in which the therapist will teach you how to modify any movements you perform regularly that could be contributing to your symptoms For tennis players, your therapist may guide you on how to select the right type of racquet, how to modify your stroke to avoid repetitive strain of your, and how frequently you should be taking breaks to avoid overuse As we’ve shown you over these last four posts, RSIs and occupational overuse syndrome can be the product of a wide range of movements involved in work, sports, or just about anywhere else, and the only real criterion is that the movement is performed repeatedly over a long period. The resulting pain and functional impairments often hold patients back from certain activities and can degrade their quality of life. But on the bright side, physical therapists are ideally suited to identify and treat these injuries with various interventions that both address patients’ symptoms and teach them how to modify their behaviors and prevent future injuries. August 24, 2021 The information in the articles, posts, and newsfeed is intended for informational and educational purposes only and in no way should be taken to be the provision or practice of physical therapy, medical, or professional healthcare advice or services. The information should not be considered complete or exhaustive and should not be used for diagnostic or treatment purposes without first consulting with your physical therapist, occupational therapist, physician or other healthcare provider. The owners of this website accept no responsibility for the misuse of information contained within this website.	5,418
When young men and women join the military, the majority of them dream of making a huge impact, day one, on America’s armed forces — if not the world. From the moment we touch the training grounds of boot camp to the graduation ceremony, we show up ready to make our mark on history by earning different accolades. Those accomplishments are represented in form of certificates, letters of recommendation, and, of course, ribbons and medals. Although some of those distinguishments are tough-as-hell to earn, others get pinned on our chest just for making it through boot camp. One of those earnings, the National Defense Service Medal, or NDSM, is one of the simplest medals you’ll earn. Related: 5 things you didn’t know about the Navy’s Medal of Honor Here’s what you didn’t know about the NDSM: 4. Its origin The NDSM was inked into existence when former President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10448 on Apr. 22, 1953. It was to serve as a “blanket” campaign medal for service members who honorably served in the military during a period of “national emergency.” President Eisenhower, 1954. (Photo under public domain) 3. You actually earned the medal? Since the medal’s establishment, there have been periods of time in which the U.S. isn’t been involved a major conflict. Many veterans who served during those times don’t rate to wear this medal since they didn’t serve during “national emergency” periods. Those who served during the Korean War, Vietnam, the Gulf War, and the Global War on Terrorism all rate to wear the ribbon above their heart if they’ve served for more than 89 days — including boot camp. The medal features an eagle perched on a sword and palm branch. The eagle, of course, is the national symbol for the United States, the sword represents the armed forces, and the palm branch is symbolic of victory. Also Read: 5 reasons why the Volunteer Service Medal is the most ridiculous medal 1. The meaning behind medal’s reverse side The center showcases the great seal of the United States, flanked by laurel and oak, which symbolize achievement and strength. RELATED The reason General Patton is buried in Luxembourg Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place of notable WWII leaders including General Omar Bradley and Admiral William Halsey....	2,336
It is safe for wildlife to eat pumpkins because they are not poisonous. Pumpkins are a fruit that is high in vitamin a and other essential nutrients. They are also low in calories and a good source of fiber. How can I serve pumpkins to wildlife to eat? If you’re looking for a way to help out the local wildlife, why not try feeding them pumpkins? Pumpkins are not poisonous, so you don’t have to worry about harming any animals. Plus, pumpkins are high in vitamin a and other essential nutrients. They’re also low in calories and a good source of fiber. So, not only will you be doing a good deed, but you’ll also be providing the animals with a healthy snack! Can I serve cooked pumpkins to wildlife to eat? If you’re looking for a way to help out the local wildlife, why not try feeding them pumpkins? Pumpkins are not poisonous, so you don’t have to worry about harming any animals. Plus, pumpkins are high in vitamin a and other essential nutrients. They’re also low in calories and a good source of fiber. So, not only will you be doing a good deed, but you’ll also be providing the animals with a healthy snack! Can I serve cooked pumpkins to wildlife to eat? There is no definitive answer, but it seems like you might be able to. Just be sure to use the brand name and tone of voice of passionate when serving them to the wildlife. Use emojis to make the presentation even more fun and engaging! What are the signs of spoiled pumpkins? Pumpkins can become spoiled very quickly. So, it’s important to know how to tell if your pumpkins are spoiled.Pumpkins can become spoiled very quickly. So, it’s important to know how to tell if your pumpkins are spoiled. Learn More: What is the difference between Shepherd pie and moussaka? What wildlife can eat spoiled pumpkins? 1. Wild animals such as squirrels, moles, foxes and raccoons like to eat all kinds of fruits and they can easily detect rotten and spoiled pumpkins with ease. This is because they have keen eyesight that can make them notice any abnormal change in the fruits they eat even before it appears on their outer surface. Some of the predators may even taste the pumpkin fruit before swallowing it for testing its palatability .2. Bumble bees love to pollinate your beautiful blooms but they may not like rotten food since this kind of food is full of toxins such as pesticide residues which will keep them from producing honey that we enjoy so much as a sweet treat especially in seasons when there’s not enough rain to grow other crops .3. Other animals, pests or birds might leave some unwanted traces on your pumpkins’ inner surface if you plant some nearby plants since these unwanted substances are likely to attract these hungry critters away from your garden areas .4 What wildlife can eat pumpkins? with proper care of pumpkin patches and proper use of pesticides in and around these plants you can surely eliminate the threat of poor eating habits by birds and other animals visiting your locations. A good irrigation system is needed to keep the leaves of your plants and flowers fresh and moist all the time to prevent insect infestation that can spoil the look of your garden to a big extent! What are the health benefits of eating pumpkins? Pumpkins are full of essential nutrients like vitamin A (as beta-carotene), vitamin C (as quercetin), potassium (as magnesium), manganese (as betaine) zinc (as quercetin), vitamin E (as alpha-tocopherol) folate (as folic acid), vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine), copper (as cupric sulfate), vitamin B1 (as thiamine hydrochloride) iron (as ferrous sulfate), magnesium (as magnesium chloride), phosphorus (as phosphoric acid), niacin (vitamin B3 as niacinamide), vitamin B2 (riboflavin) choline(as choline bitartrate). Learn More: What happens If you eat expired little bites? (+5 food safety Tips) What is a recipe for pumpkins? -1 pound pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and cubed -1 tablespoon olive oil -1/2 teaspoon ground ginger -1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon instructions: In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, olive oil, chicken broth, ginger, cinnamon, honey, salt, and black pepper. 3. Spread the mixture into a 9×13-inch baking dish. 4. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the pumpkin is tender. 5. Add the raisins and nuts to the dish 10 minutes before the dish is finished cooking. 6. Let the dish cool before serving. In conclusion this is my opinion as someone who is not an expert in this field but I have read about it on different sources so I would like your opinions as well since I am also interested in this topic in general .I would like your opinion about this topic because I am wondering if someone could eat pumpkins considering its seeds are poisonous for humans .since pumpkins are grown in many places around us especially in farms where animals feed on them as well .So I am wondering if its safe for wildlife animals like deer ,rabbits ,foxes etc etc .I hope that you could give me some explanation about this subject .Thanking You very much .Best Regards ,Yasmin Mustafa-Rahman .This email address is Related Posts Is cheese safe to eat with mold Moldy food has become a common sight in our supermarkets. Is it safe to eat… Is it safe to eat with hand sanitizer Hand sanitizers are everywhere these days. They come in spray bottles or gel form. Some… Is bacon safe to eat without cooking Bacon is delicious, but did you know that it can also cause serious health problems?… 1 How can I serve pumpkins to wildlife to eat? 2 Can I serve cooked pumpkins to wildlife to eat? 3 What are the signs of spoiled pumpkins? 4 What wildlife can eat spoiled pumpkins? 5 What wildlife can eat pumpkins? 6 What are the health benefits of eating pumpkins? 7 What is a recipe for pumpkins? 7.1 Related Posts When we're upset, we tend to eat junk food. We feel bad, so we eat more junk food. We're stressed, so we eat even more junk food. And this happens over and over again. So why not try to change that? So I decided to try to make healthy eating a regular part of my life. Similar Posts Are coddled eggs safe to eat? There is a lot of debate surrounding the safety of coddled eggs. Some people believe that they are not safe to eat because the egg white is not cooked all the way through. Others believe that coddled eggs are just as safe as regular boiled eggs. There is no definitive answer to this question, but… Read More Are coddled eggs safe to eat?Continue Can you eat honey if you are allergic to bees? Are you allergic to bee stings? If yes, then you should definitely stay away from honey. Honey contains pollen, which is the same thing as bee stings. Pollen is also found in some foods such as apples, almonds, peas, and carrots.Honey has been around since ancient times. The earliest records of honey dates back to… Read More Can you eat honey if you are allergic to bees?Continue Can you eat a ready meal 3 days out of date? Ready meals are convenient and cost effective, but they also come with a big downside. They can contain high levels of salt, fat and sugar, which can cause health problems. Ready meals are often sold at discounted prices, but should you really be buying them? Ready meals are usually made from pre-cooked ingredients, such as… Read More Can you eat a ready meal 3 days out of date?Continue Zebra meat has become very trendy lately. People love its exotic flavor and unique appearance. Is it safe to consume?Zebra meat comes from the African wild ass Equus quagga, which is also known as the plains zebra or Quaggas. The meat is usually sold fresh, frozen, or canned.Zebra meat is considered a delicacy in some… Read More Can you eat zebra?Continue Does coffee make you fat? Coffee has become a part of our daily lives. Whether you drink it black or add milk, it’s no secret that drinking coffee helps boost energy levels throughout the day. But does caffeine really cause weight gain? Coffee contains caffeine, which is a stimulant. Caffeine stimulates the nervous system and increases blood flow to the… Read More Does coffee make you fat?Continue Does salt dissolve in oil? Salt is a mineral that is made up of sodium and chlorine. It is used to add flavor to food and to preserve it. Salt can dissolve in oil, but it does not mix well with it. When salt is added to oil, it will float on the top. Does salt dissolve in alcohol? Does… Read More Does salt dissolve in oil?Continue I, Haley Schroedar, went to a party where I ate a plate of cheese and crackers. It wasn't just any cheese and crackers -- it was a plate of the kind of cheese and crackers that I had been eating for lunch every day for months.Read More	9,076
Riti Shimkhada is a public administration analyst at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, responsible for grant and manuscript writing, study design and analysis planning of various studies in the area of health and social disparities, immigrant and global health, mobility, health equity, and population outcomes. She is also the cost team lead analyst for the California Health Benefits Program, which involves work on the California population model, conducting analyses of costs and impact of health benefit mandates in legislative bills. Shimkhada has been a key player in a number of teams in both academic and private sector settings to design and analyze studies, most often using multi-level modeling, in global and local settings. She has over a decade of experience with Health Impact Assessment (HIA), which examines the impacts of policies on population health. She has co-authored HIAs on a wide range of public policies and projects, including Living Wage Ordinances, urban redevelopment, school programs and transportation projects. Chapters Authored Quality of Care Misdiagnosis of Obstetrical Cases and the Clinical and Cost Consequences to Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study of Urban Providers in the Philippines	1,283
The story of Sasta is also a story about ingenuity and perseverence. What we call innovation today, was simply the need of a young man in Nurmes, Finland to have the best outfit for the harsh conditions of the last true wilderness of Northern Europe. The first ever outfit made by Sasta was made of Sarka wool. When Urpo showed up for the first time in his new outfit, a suit that provided unique functionality, it understandably immediately caught the attention of Urpo’s fellow outdoorsmen, who subsequently wanted a similar suit for themselves – “the market research was conducted right then and there”, says Urpo now decades later. This was also the start of Sasta’s story. Sasta is guided by the old Finnish philosophy of respecting nature, in every sense. It directs sustainable thinking in design and production, while also underlining the old Finnish wisdom of Finnish outdoorsmen – equipping properly when heading out into the wilderness. Discover the clothing by Sasta: View more Read more VISIT US Glasshouse Helsinki store and gallery space have been closed due to renovation starting soon in the building. Thank you all visitors!	1,178
What if you knew the source of stress showing up in your life, why it shows up, and what you can do about it? When a line, or several lines extend across the hand from the inside of the palm just below the start of the Life Line and just above the inset of the Thumb, you’ll find a stress indicator a.k.a. attack line. Severity of stress is determined by a higher quantity of lines, or how deeply they are chiseled. The hand map below shows a variety of pathways the lines can take. Figure 1: The colored lines map a variety of ways attack lines can appear. The etching reflects a repeated pattern of disequilibrium in a particular area of life. These types of lines are common to see in hands. In fact, it is unusual not to find a few of these lines inscribed diagonally across the palm – even in children. Effective ways to overcome the obstacles can be addressed after pinpointing the length and quality of the impression of the line. In essence, the line becomes a rock solid opportunity-indicator for harnessing the undeniable problematic energy it represents. Specifics about the area of stress are deciphered by detecting where the line(s) ends. They have been called attack lines because they originate in the area of the palm called Mars. To better understand these stress indicators let’s consider the Roman mythological archetype, Mars. He is known as the god of war always wearing a shield of armor; built to do battle in an instant. When Mars has a particular cause he stands tall, can become aggressive and even rageful. Women like Joan of Arc and Wonder Woman personify this archetype, too. For example, if you see an attack line stretching across your palm and it ends under your ring finger then you might feel a looming sense of fear of rejection related to something you have created or want to create. For example, putting yourself out there to make a spaghetti dinner for visiting friends can make you a nervous wreck over the quantity of each ingredient to combine so that it looks and tastes just right. When this fear is present then the, “I’m just sure I’m going to be criticized” radar is triggered. Not receiving applause for the dinner can even feel like an attack. This in turn could launch an immediate defense such as, “I know, if I would have used farm raised ground beef instead, this would be much better.” Keep in mind; none of the guests have yet said a word about the spaghetti dinner! In this example, the owner can feel an inherent disapproval of his or her individualistic nature. Here is a bellowing call for courage! With the attack line ending under the ring finger, there is a call to feel the fear of the tomato and make the spaghetti anyway. It’s helpful to consider the worst-case scenarios but not to dwell on them, but instead to give them airtime and turn the obstacle into an opportunity for growth. The most important point is to reject the tomato fear and find a way into to your heart-felt creations. Lines of Courage is another phrase I use for attack lines because there is a call for a change to balance the disequilibrium and change frequently requires courage to do something differently. Courage lines present an opportunity to discover and understand the source of conflict so that it can be harnessed for building a better life. But that takes bravery. The example of making the spaghetti dinner and presenting it to the guests even with paralyzing fear of rejection, takes a heavy dose of daring to put ones self at stake. By knowing more about the meaning associated with the various end points of the lines in the hands we better understand the warnings, the positive and negative possibilities, and precisely how to use the God-given-glyph to cultivate a plan for growth. Attack Lines Positive: I dare to cultivate courage and protection to grow in this area of life [based on where the line ends] Attack Lines Negative: My defenses are triggered [in this particular area where the line ends on the palm] and I become aggressive (or passive aggressive) against others and myself. Mantra: I observe stress and conflict in particular areas and I stand strong in my courage for what is important to me. I harness this energy effectively for the greatest good of all concerned. Key word for attack line termination points and where opportunity in change is calling: Join Kay for her webinar-workshop teaching about Challenge Markings in the Hands and How to Create and Uplifting and Inspiring Message.	4,674
Was recently surprised to find this game still is a thing. There's a strong group of players that play seemingly every night around 8-12pm EST. Even my kids are putting down Fortnite and showing an interest in learning the game. See you in the game. Comments August 2021 Tribes 2 is still a fantastic game and I really wish there was a way to fully revive the community. Maybe working with Hi-Rez to release this patched version for free on Steam would work?	477
I guess the SWAC just wouldn’t be the SWAC if there weren’t a good scandal to come up every 7 to 8 years or so. If you’ve been following the SWAC for a while, you probably remember Rudy-gate, the SWAC scandal of 2001 where former SWAC Commissioner Rudy Washington was reportedly fired for overpaying himself $78,750 in salary. Of course, lawsuits were filed, and fingers were pointed, but Rudy even pointed a finger at us: The suit states that “Washington’s termination is nothing more than a political power play based on misleading and overstated charges.” The suit also lists rumors circulated about Washington, some on The SWAC Page Internet Message Board (www.swacpage.com), an independent website not run by the conference, which accuse Washington of stealing $1.5 million and labeled him “a crook, thief, con artist and scammer.” “Those rumors are of such specificity and such direct accusations of theft that they almost have to come from the SWAC, or somebody who knows about this audit report,” Falkenberry said in the Birmingham News story. We fast forward to our new year of 2009, where it appears that a new scandal is brewing. This time it involves SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp. Yesterday, I reported on the message board that Duer fired three people on his staff. They were Will Bright (Dir. of Media Relations), Jennifer Huggins (Asst. Commissioner of Championships), and Deborah Vaughn (Dir. of Finance & Accounting). From what I understand, there was no severance pay. Not even a reason was given as to why they were being fired. Just an envelope that was handed to them informing them their employment with the SWAC had been terminated. What raises an eyebrow about these firings is twofold and could possibly result in a double scandal of sorts. For the sake of clarity, we will label each scandal as Duer-gate (DG1) and Duer-gate (DG2). Duer-gate1 involves accusations of Duer literally modifying the voting ballots that resulted in a nominee not being inducted with the class of 2008 to the SWAC Hall of Fame. What is even more disturbing is the reasoning for Duer’s actions, which according to my sources, was simply because he didn’t like the person. The same was echoed by what appears to be a well-informed newcomer to the TSPN message board. The user sums up DG1 in just two posts. The word from a fly on the wall is there was something fishy about the SWAC Hall of Fame selections this year and the Commish fired everyone he “thought” might have been responsible for letting it out seems like Duer did not like one of the people nominated (by the committee) for the SWAC HOF and he changed (altered) the ballot of several voters so that person would not have the 60% votes to keep the person from being named to the HOF Apparently, the SWAC Council of Presidents is aware of DG1. I’m told that after learning about Duer’s actions, James Frank (the former SWAC commissioner before Rudy Washington) was asked by the SCP to investigate the situation. According to sources, the person who did not get inducted (because of Duer) was Alabama State Track Coach Horace Crump. Here is a quick bio I found on Crump from an ASU press release dated November 2007. Track Head Coach Horace Crump has 38 years of coaching experience, 30 of which have been at Alabama State University. Crump has led the school to 11 SWAC Championships and has been selected SWAC Coach of the Year 11 times. In addition, he was elected president of the SWAC Track Coaches Association. An ASU alumnus, Crump was an accomplished athlete in college. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and has served as an assistant professor of HPER at ASU. Crump and his wife have three sons and one daughter. Let’s see…30 years…11 SWAC titles…that’s a success rate of 36%. I’d say that’s worthy of being a SWAC Hall of Famer. Apparently, those who voted thought so as well. If this is true (and I have no reason to believe it isn’t), it is a gross abuse of power and privilege – if such terms are applicable to the position of SWAC commissioner these days. Duer-gate2 (which I will explain in greater detail in the next 24-48 hours) is a scandal that is still in formation and could potentially have legal implications. Not only does it involve the latest round of firings by Sharp, but involves the firings of other former SWAC staff members over the past 14 months. If the legal implications hold, the SWAC could face heavy financial penalties. And yes…I tried contacting the SWAC office and left a message asking for a statement, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I haven’t heard back from them yet. Kenn Rashad Kenn Rashad is the Founding Editor & Publisher of HBCU Sports and a graduate of Grambling State University. Next Post TSPNsports.com/Cavil's Classic Cuts HBCU Women's Basketball Poll Pathetic. Duer please fire yourself At the time of her firing, Huggins was Assistant Commissioner – Championships. She had been promoted back in August, when Cory Lima (the previous director) left to take a position with the NCAA. The three firings on Thursday were all directorships (Media Relations, Championships and Finance) which should make managing the upcoming conference championships an interesting process. Kenn Rashad says: Thank you OW. The correction has been made. The truth always comes to light says: To add injury to insult….Duer…how could you fire someone whom ascended from an intern to Assistant Commissioner of Championships. I guess you stepped in it this time…they say it doesn’t stink until you stir it up…how this plays out is going to be very embarrassing to the conference and especially you….you’re so stupid!!!!lmao Jarrett says: Pingback: Duer Sharp is Going to Get You \| HBCU Sports Blog It's going Down in the Magic City says: WOW! Duer is crazy, but who did not already know that. You fire the only two people who was left in the office who knew how to run a championship (GOD knows the people in place now have no idea how to run one, i.e. soccer, volleyball, xc) What exactly does your â€œAssistant Commissioner / Communicationsâ€ do? And how can a secretary become a director of championship? What exactly does the conference liaison do that helped him keep his job? Duer you and whomever else is helping you run the conference office are idiots!	6,558
Satterfield 7 April 2013 Edgar Allan Poe was a very dark, dramatic writer. All of his stories require the audience to reread his works of art. There are so many elements incorporated into his stories that it would be impossible to understand them all after one reading. His stories drip with irony and reveal mysteries in an interesting way. He writes his stories in a way that engages the mind and questions character. One of his most famous short stories is “The Cask of Amontillado”. This story has much verbal and dramatic irony.The most ironic concepts are how the narrator interacts with Fortunato and the use of names within this story. The setting of this story was during the 1800’s, at night, and during a great party. The setting greatly adds to the suspense that is being told. If the story had been set during the daytime, there would not have been an eerie element added. Since the climax of this story happened at night and during a big party, Fortunato and Montresor were able to have been together without anyone interrupting. Montresor is the narrator in this story, and he is extremely mad at a man named Fortunato. Poe used verbal irony for the naming of his characters. Fortunato is a French name that means “lucky’. (Lorcher) After a full reading of “The Cask of Amontillado”, the reader discovers that Fortunato is anything but lucky. Montresor is a French surname meaning “my treasure”. (Lorcher) The Montresor family considered themselves to deserve respect because of the name they carry. The “lucky’ one ended up dying because he offended his friends “treasures. ” During the great party, Fortunato drank too much, resulting in him being extremely drunk. Best services for writing your paper according to Trustpilot 4,8 / 5 Support 4,6 / 5 Support Support * All Partners were chosen among 50+ writing services by our Customer Satisfaction Team Montresor persuades Fortunato to go into a catacomb to taste a cask of Amontillado wine.While in the catacombs, Montresor chains up Fortunato and seals him in a niche. Montresor did not kill Fortunato instantly, he let nature take its course be leaving him sealed up in a tomb. The theme of the story is how natural it is for some people to avenge their family name, despite how wrong it may be legally and morally. Even though Montresor vowed to get revenge, it is very surprising how many times Montresor calls Fortunato his friend. Montresor had been plotting the death of Fortunato for days, maybe even weeks, and still considers him a friend.When Montresor and Fortunato were in the catacombs, the atmosphere was having a egative effect on Fortunato. After Fortunato was coughing very bad, Montresor thought to himself, “My poor friend found it impossible to reply for many minutes. “(Poe) That thought reflects how much Montresor,himself, was full of irony. Montresor knew the fate that he was going to be giving to Fortunato, but he was still thinking him a friend. The reader can imagine a big smile across Montesor’s face after reading that thought. Montresor had kept his idea for Fortunato’s death very secret. Fortunato seemed to have no idea at the anger Montresor had harbored towards nlm. Fortunato trustlng Montresor causes aramatlc Irony Slnce tne reader knows the thoughts of Montresor, it is easy to see Fortunato’s character flaw in trusting Montresor. Fortunato had another character flaw: his behavior when he was drinking. Fortunato could have never trusted Montresor when he was sober. Maybe Montresor knew that Fortunato would have to be drunk in order to lure him to his death. Montresor said, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could”. Poe) It is left a mystery to the readers what Fortunado actually did to Montresor. It is extremely interesting why Poe did not write what Fortunato did. Montresor then goes n to say, “But when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. “(Poe) One might determine that Montresor was easily angered, but since the story does not reveal what Fortunato did, that is not a perfect guess. Fortunato could have actually done something extremely wrong to Montresor. Poe wanted the readers to be more symphathetic to Fortunato, leaving out the reason behind Montresors actions.Montresor came up with an interesting way to draw Fortunato away from the party. Montresor knew exactly how to do that by chastises Fortunato, saying that he will go to Luchesi to get advice on his wine instead. Montresor pinpointed a certain erson to get advice from, instead of Fortunato himself. It is written that Fortunato was very educated in his wines. It was written that, “He prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine. “(Poe) Fortunato seemed like a man who was very boisterous, so everyone, including Montresor, knew about his love and skills of wine. Why, then, did he say he was going to ask Luchesi for advice?Montresor must have known what a prideful man Fortunato was. Maybe Fortunato had a certain dislike towards Luchesi. If Fortunato had liked Luchesi then he would not have put him down. He simply said, “Luchesi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry. “(Poe) He did not ave anything nice to say about Luchesi, especially when he called him an ignoramus. Fortunato perhaps had another character flaw of having too much pride, resulting in him falling straight into Montresor’s evil plan so easily. Montresor had extremely planned out the details of his revenge. He made sure that no one would interfere.Montresor (talking about his houses attendants) “told them that I should not return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. “(Poe) He had previously gone through the catacombs to find the perfect place. He had hidden his tools down there before he took Fortunato there. After Fortunato was guided to the niche, Montresor said, “In its surface were two iron staples, distant from each other about two feet, horizontally. From one of these depended a short chain, from the other a padlock. “(Poe) Montresor knew what he was doing; he definitely planned how to capture Fortunato.After he chained Fortunato in the niche he, “uncovered a quantity of building stone and mortar. “(Poe) Montresor had mapped out his plans before he took Fortunato down there. Poe used much verbal irony in the use of Montresor’s family history. Poe gave us more insight on Montresor’s family arms and motto. The information on these adds o the irony and thoughts behind what Montresor did. Montresor told Fortunato that his family arms are “A huge human foot d’or, in a field azure, the foot crushed a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel. (Poe) This gives much information to Montresors character. A snake is a symbol of a lying, sneaky person wno narms someone. Montresor conslaerea Fortunato to De a snake to stomp out. Fortunato insulting Montresor can by symbolized as a snake biting him. Montresor crushed him by making him suffer a horrible death. The Montresor’s family motto was “Namo me impune lacessit”(Poe) which means “No one wounds me with impunity’. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, impunity is a Latin word that means “without punishment”. That motto says a lot about the character of the Montresor family.Their motto was that no one will hurt them without punishment. They must have either been an easily angered family or had a very high sense of family honor in order for that to be their motto. The first paragraph states that Montresor, “Must not only punish, but punish with impunity. “(Poe) Montresor said, “The Montresors were a great and numerous family. “(Poe) Were, not are. The Montresors must have been a socialite years before, but are now diminishing out of ociety. Montresor took his family history and motto very seriously because his family was not on a pedestal anymore.He did not want to stray from the beliefs of his ancestors. His family arms and motto was what gave him endurance and anyone that insulted him was, ultimately, insulting his family. While Montresor and Fortunato were walking in the catacombs, Fortunato asked him if he was a mason. Fortunato was referring to the masons that are an “international fraternal and charitable organization with secret rites and signs”. (“Freemason”) Montresor told Fortunato that, indeed, he was a mason. But Montresor was talking about the mason that deals with building architecture.Montresor was being honest though, because he was about to build Fortunato a tomb made of stones to encase him in forever. The irony of the story was Montresor pretended to really like Fortunato. Montresor said, “That neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good-will. I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation. “(Poe) Montresor was very cunning in his vengeance against Fortunato. He did not let any of his hatred show through. He was absolutely nothing but a friend to Fortunato.The title of this story is very interesting. Why did Poe decide to name the story “The Cask of Amontillado”? An obvious answer is because the cask is what Montresor used to lure Fortunato to his death. But like Poe’s entire story, there is more behind it. “Cask” and “casket” are derived from the same root wood, and casket can be interpreted as coffin. (Lorcher) In this story, Fortunato was looking for a cask of Amontillado, but he ended up finding himself in a fgurative casket. The most ironic substance to “The Cask of Amontillado” is the dialogue between Montresor and Fortunato after they share a drink.Fortunato said, “l drink to the buried that repose around us. “(Poe) Montresor said, “And I to your long life. “(Poe) Works Cited “Freemason. Lorcher, Trent. “Irony and Symbolism in “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe. ” Bright Hub Education. N. p.	10,431
Here at Kabazi, we know what you crave! Our editorial team aims to humor, surprise and delight you with our daily content. They scour the internet for the hidden gems, keeping a keen eye on what’s trending, and serve you only the best of the best. So, keep calm and scroll on! WOW Cute By Zac Farmer June 5, 2018 “I worked I.T. at a company that had cameras on the shop floor. The boss called me in to watch a video and get my opinion on what I thought was going on. So the night shift had one lady working and 6 guys. When things slowed down in the middle of the night she would walk over to one of the guys, whisper in his ear, and they would both go into the girl’s bathroom together. 5 min later she would come out adjusting her skirt and the guy would follow with a huge smile on his face. Over several hours she did this with each of the 6 guys and it appeared it was a regular thing. I said it looked like she was sleeping with everyone in the place. Well, the boss fired her for the possibility that it would lead to a harassment lawsuit. Later I found out what was really going on. Seems she was the local weed dealer and hid her stash in her panties.” “I didn’t catch him in the act, but I watched a guy steal my pizza. I was working the night shift on a Friday night and ordered pizza for my lunch. I had leftovers which I put in the staff-room fridge so I could have it for lunch the next day. Saturday evening I come into work, I work until lunchtime, then go to grab my pizza only to discover that it is gone. Like what!? So I check the camera feed. During the day some random guy came into our office, went to the staff-room, and stole my pizza. He just walked out of the building carrying the pizza box and the day shift guy didn’t even notice. No questions just walked in and never heard from again. I am not sure how someone could have that level of confidence.” “Used to work security for a mall back in Kansas City, that city was chalk full of geese when it wasn’t winter. One day one of the store clerks called me up and told me to get animal control to dispose of a dead goose in our parking lot. I went to the front to check it out and sure enough, there was a dead goose lying in the middle of the parking lot. Called animal control and they had it removed from the premises. Out of curiosity, I went into the back and started viewing the cameras for the parking lot thinking the goose may have just died of sickness or somebody accidentally ran him over with their car. Nope. Apparently, this particular goose wandered onto the parking lot and started terrorizing anyone that got near him. If you’ve encountered a goose before, you would know how much a mean bird those things are. Everybody that came out of the store basically had to walk around the goose to get to their car, except for one guy. This dude, wearing a striped sweater and khakis, holding a bag in one hand and his other hand in his pocket started walking straight to his car. He literally didn’t care at all that the goose was flapping his wings and honking at him, telling him to run off. The guy was about 4 feet from the goose when the goose started charging him trying to mess him up. The guy just took his hand out of his pocket, grabbed the goose by the neck, snapped it, dropped the body in the middle of the parking lot and proceeded to get into his car and drive off. I don’t know why, but the way he just nonchalantly snapped a goose’s neck with his bare hand and left its body for dead sent a chill down my spine.” “Work in IT, had to splice a video from our CCTV into our CEO’s end of year presentation. The company had refurbished the car park, which used to have an all-access footpath running through it. There was no legal right of way there, so they got rid of the footpath and put up signs saying it was private property etc. This didn’t stop a middle-aged lady who cycled through every day, and regularly damaged parked cars with her bike when she squeezed through narrow gaps. The alternative route was literally 50 yards out of her way to go around the car park rather than through it. So, bigger signs go up. This is PRIVATE LAND, NO ACCESS etc. As part of that, they install an automatic barrier. To get into or out of the car park, you have to keep your company ID badge on a sensor, the barrier raises, and you can drive through. Cyclist lady just ignores everything. Cycles up to the new barrier, and WHAM, her bike goes under it, and she doesn’t. She gets up, walks up to her bike and cycles off again, up the road. The next day, they’re investigating damage to the barrier, and have a look at the CCTV. They can’t believe she hasn’t seen the bright red and white barrier. While they’re reviewing the CCTV, she comes in again from the other direction, and WHAM. Exactly the same thing happens again. They run out to check if she’s OK. She refuses all help and runs away with her bike. She knows she’s not supposed to be going through here and has now made the same mistake twice. She now goes around the car park instead of through it.” “Worked casino surveillance for several years – so I have a lot of stories. Saw a guy receive a BJ at a roulette table, saw a couple get it on in a crowded bar. I saw a guy get stabbed, and saw two people get hit by speeding cars. I saw a lot of people vomit, saw a lot of people pee – especially in the elevators. Saw a guy who was drinking trip on an escalator, catching himself on the side, then slide down a 50-foot moving rail, spinning the whole time, then land on his feet without spilling his drink. I watched people cheat at blackjack and various carnival games. I saw two suicide attempts, one successful. I saw a casino cashier stuff two hundred dollar bills in his sock. He was arrested. I saw a waitress twerking upside down in the well, she slipped and landed face first on the tile and was unconscious for about 20 seconds. I saw a kitchen worker slice her hand while cutting lemons – blood everywhere. She wrapped it in a towel and continued cutting the lemons with the same knife. She put the finished lemons in the fridge then went for medical attention. I saw a brawl in the craps pit that ended with a mostly naked woman riding piggy-back on the cop that tried to break up the fight. She was arrested and the rest of the brawlers escaped to the parking garage where the fight continued. Last I saw, another semi-naked woman was hanging on to the hood of a car as it drove away, slamming her shoe on the windshield. That was a fun job.” “Saw a guy once get out of our pool, he dries off and is carrying his pool noodle. He does the look around, sees he’s alone, then starts smacking it against the floor. He folded it in half and then starts punching it. He then twists it and tries to punt it. It untwists and flops to the ground so he missed. He goes to pick it up, doesn’t get a good grip, stands up and it’s not in his hand. Picks it up, tries to punt it again, flops to the floor as he missed again. Then he picks it up and just hurls it into the pool. He stands there for a second, has a look of defeat, goes back into the pool, fishes it out, dries off and proceeds towards the locker room.” A Serious Health Advisory Is In Effect “I worked in a supermarket, not as security, but one day stocking shelves my manager and I noticed a strange smell, we couldn’t find the source so we kept working. A couple of hours later and it was still hanging around, eventually we emptied the last trolley of stock which had been sitting in an aisle for a while (small supermarket) and we found a blob of human poop on a box of cat food, and then two or three more on the shelves next to the trolley. We checked the cameras and there was this seemingly normal 50 something year old lady, walked in, put a few things in her basket, then started walking / waddling oddly down the pet food aisle and then all of a sudden just casually reached into the back of her pants, pulled some poop out, chucked it on the stock trolley, walked another few paces and did the same then from memory she even proceeded through the checkout and out of the store. The manager asked me to clean it up to which I offered my immediate resignation (as a joke, he was my mate but there was no way I was dealing with that) so he had to clean it up and we ended up throwing out a lot of stock and most of the fruit and veg stock. I’ve told so many people this story, I still find it so bizarre to this day.” “Worked as an assistant manager at a grocery retailer. The store is closing and few employees left. I’m finishing paperwork and happen to look up at the monitor displaying 16 different cameras. The one in the deli caught my eye because I happened to notice the deli employee filling a sink. Didn’t think anything of it and kept on going with my work. Looked at the time and was thinking, okay everyone should be out. Look through the cameras and see the girl in the deli… Bathing in the sink. The dread comes over me. What… What do I do… Next morning, speak with the store manager and show him the video. Pull the girl upstairs and let her go for violating all sorts of health and safety violations. Turns out, her water was turned off and she needed to bathe for her date… With her parole officer the next morning. Things people do when they think others aren’t watching.” “I was working the desk at a gym in a large sports facility that was connected to a high school. There is one section that shows a hallway known as ‘Trojan alley’ because of all the high school kids who went around a corner and had intercourse. One day I see a foot kinda sticking out from around the corner kind of twitching. I thought a member of the facility had fallen or had a seizure or something. So I grabbed a first aid kit and ran over. When I came around the corner, there was a girl completely naked with her laptop open and filming herself messing around alone. She slammed the laptop shut kinda grabbed her clothes and stood up very embarrassed. I was equally embarrassed. Neither of us said anything. I just turned around and went back to my desk and I’m assuming she left. I feel bad because that must have been so scarring yet I legitimately thought there was a medical emergency so I was very thrown off as well.” That Other Time I Worked At A Casino “Good God, where do I even start? Been a surveillance operator for 5 years at a casino. Let’s just make a list: -Guy whipping his thing out while going up escalators, leaving a trail off urine. He was sober. -Man, super toasted, thought he saw his ex-wife’s car. Proceeded to stand on and stomp in the hood, then pass out on the windshield. -Saw one cop miss with a taser and tase another officer. -Watched a woman attempt to walk up a down escalator for eight minutes straight without moving. She eventually passed out. -Watched a woman drinking jump off a nearby highway, land, and walk off like nothing happened. -Caught a guy (more than once) using his mobile phone camera to not-so-discreetly take upskirt shots of women standing next to him. -Caught a cashier stealing money. By pretending to sneeze, use the bill as a tissue, then shove the bill down his shirt. -Barfight. Two groups going at it. Random girl not part of the brawl grabs a bottle off the bar and tomahawk chucks it at the melee. Thankfully she somehow missed everyone. -Watched a man jump off the roof. Hit the ground and bounced about three feet. Only suicide I’ve ever seen. There’s probably a lot more I could come up with. After you’ve seen hundreds of attempted cheats, a few people fall over dead, and a guy bounce after falling 12 stories, everything just becomes kind of mundane.” “I used to work in loss prevention at a very large retail store. I had been finding wrappers and discarded packages in a place called the fixture room. This is where they keep all the peg hooks, shelves, and racks to display products. Not many people go in there so I put up a hidden camera thinking I would catch someone stealing stuff. Around 1:00 am a guy walks in, pulls his pants down and rubs one out all over a shelf leaning against the wall. I show the video to the store manager and he said that the guy was his 3rd shift supervisor. As he watches the video he starts getting mad… at me for showing it to him! I take it to my boss and he tells the store manager to fire the guy. Two weeks later I come in early one morning to see the guy clocking out. I ask the store manager why he didn’t fire him and he said, ‘I talked to him about it and he explained what happened.’ I said, ‘Ok I gotta hear this one!’ The manager explained, ‘He had been drinking and smoking weed before he came to work and was just out of his mind. So he’s not a pervert or anything.’ The manager then told me that as punishment the guy had to clean everything in the fixture room, on his own time (unpaid) and had to submit to 4 random screenings the next year (which never happened because the manager is a cheapo). The guy got promoted to assistant manager a year later!” “Worked IT for a company. One day, a lot of the head managers of this certain department come barging into my office demanding I pull some footage, serious. I think somebody is about to get fired so I start scrubbing through footage. Finally, I get to what they want me to see. One of their team leads is rocketing through the office on an office chair when it gets stuck on something in the carpet and she gets EJECTED out of her seat. She must have landed like 10 feet from her chair. As soon as the scene happens, the group of managers busts out laughing their butts off. I nearly pissed my pants laughing, I had never been asked to pull camera footage of something so funny. The best part is the girl just laid on the carpet while everybody around her in the room collapse with laughter.” “One time at work I went to the Starbucks down the street and got a delicious panini. I was so excited for this panini. Double smoked bacon and chicken. Delish. I was working the closing shift so I was tired and just wanted to eat my panini. I pulled the little paper bag out and what I assume was the heat from the food had melted the adhesive holding the bag together and my delicious panini is now all over the break room floor. Immediately my soul crushes, then right afterward, I’m like ‘forget this!’ and picked it right back up and ate it. It was delicious. A few weeks later my coworkers are chatting away and whatever, one of them offhandedly mentions that our GM watches all the security cam footage on the days she isn’t at work. She wasn’t at work that day my panini exploded everywhere. She probably saw me eating that sandwich off the ground like a savage, so to answer the question at hand, that.” “I’m the security supervisor overnight at a food dye processing plant. I sit in a guard shack and watch upwards of 20 camera feeds at a time. One night, one of my officers, who is posted up at the other side of the facility, walks away from his shack and goes to an area behind one of the buildings, out of the way. He apparently thought there weren’t any cameras watching that particular area because he wasn’t there for a minute before some lady arrived and they started having intercourse, right there. When they were done, she left and he went right back to his post. He had no idea I saw the whole thing. I didn’t talk to him about it, but I called my operations manager over in the office the next morning and told him about it. The officer wasn’t fired. He was transferred, however. Bull, in my opinion. When an officer can be fired for being late, they should be fired for abandoning their post to meet with a lady of the night.” “I worked at a car dismantler and people would break in and steal catalytic converters, radiators, and other valuables. I noticed a pattern of break-ins on Wed mornings about 4 am. So, one day I decided to catch the perp. I locked myself into the office around midnight, called up the local PD and explained to them what I was doing. Sure enough around 3:30 am I noticed some movement by one of the fences. I watched him cut a hole in the fence and start to wander around. He started to stash things by the hole. I called the cops and told them what was going on, but asked them to hold off on arresting him until he was outside the fence. I watched as five cars pulled up in the parking lot next door. The perp pushed the stuff through the fence and I told the dispatcher OK, now get him! They caught him and arrested him. The reason I wanted to wait till he was outside is that it was then burglary and trespassing. If they had arrested him inside it would only be trespassing because he hadn’t left the premises with the parts. I later got a letter of commendation from the chief of police.” “Not me, but a story from somebody who helped set up remote logins for a security company. He was on a remote session with this one local bar. Typically normal but he wanted this whole suite of cameras, a lot more than what he thought was normal. Going through the entire process of setting up the equipment, testing the DVR and having the owner walk through every cam. Now on the phone going over some information and the final checks my friend notices some people slip in through the back. Since it is the middle of the day just as the bar is about to open he assumes they are employees. Then these two guys just start going at it. Shell-shocked at the brazenness of it he just kinda stares for about 30 seconds. Now the owner notices my friend isn’t responding and asks what is wrong. He finally tells him ‘uhh there are two guys in the first floor back hallway…ugh just having intercourse.’ The owner just screams ‘NOT THOSE TWO AGAIN’ and bolted from his office. My friend watches the owner run full sprint from his office through the bar towards the back hallway. They must have heard him as they start pulling up their pants. Just as he arrives they bolt out the door and he chucks his phone at them full force. Of course, now the owner has just destroyed his phone and cut the call.” “I worked at a thrift store. We had a furniture storage semi-trailer out back where people would also drop off donations during the day. It was so common for people to break into the trailer we just stopped locking it. It’s a thrift store and we never prosecuted because frankly it just wasn’t worth it. One day me and a couple of guys decided if they want to violate our property we’ll make it a bit more enjoyable for them. We rigged up a bucket of water on top of the semi-door tied so it would fall when the door was opened. Then we also had a big dumpster there that was regularly looked through so we put a couch up against the dumpster positioned in a way that there was only one obvious place to put your hands when you climbed up the dumpster. We put grease there. For us working at the thrift store and never getting revenge on the countless thieves it was an enjoyable experience to watch their plans fall apart for at least one night.” “Worked security at a large hotel chain. Part of my job was to keep track of storage room visits, by kitchen staff and other employees. There was a camera watching the big metal door of the storage room. One day as I returned to my office I noticed the storage room door was open, which was odd because only I had keys for it and I hadn’t opened it that day. I checked the camera and on film I caught the door slowing opening by itself! No one was there and no way the wind could unlock a heavy metal door. Showed my boss and he told me not to mention it. Although word got out and some of the more superstitious employees avoided the storage room. There had been 2 suicides that previous year, some said it was related to them.” “I worked in IT for a resort that had an ice rink. Two guests decided to bone in the middle of said rink at like 1 in the morning. Thing is, those cameras are motion detecting because it’s dangerous. Security office immediately gets an alarm if they detect anything. So Security had to go up there while they were mid-act and ask them to not… Unfortunately, their situation had placed them in the center of an ice rink, naked, with nowhere to go. Security had to watch as they carefully and awkwardly put their clothes back on and removed themselves from the rink.” The Look Of A Deceiver “A middle-aged man who always walked with a cane got into an elevator at the end of the day. Fairly big elevators. The guy was always nice but pretty unseemly. After he got in the elevator, however, he leaned the cane against the rail and started to practice what looked like (and I later checked with a friend) a taekwondo form. When he heard the elevator ding at a floor to stop, he grabbed the cane, went back to his demeanor and walked out. I found out later that the guy worked in a dangerous profession and makes himself seem weak. I’d be terrified to mess with that guy.” The Unwarranted Vigil “My old job was on a busy boulevard with an alley in the back. We had an open garage with access to said alley. We used to often catch people doing weird acts, doing/selling stimulants, guys urinating, even saw one couple take turns relieving themselves beside our AC unit… But what took the cake is one morning around maybe 7-8 AM a man was walking by through the alley, stops suddenly, goes into our garage, lights a candle, and sets it there by the wall and walks away. It was so odd getting there and seeing a randomly lit candle. Checking the footage only left us with more questions.” “I was staying overnight at my hotel security job in downtown San Diego one night and noticed that a homeless man had something shiny in his hands but I couldn’t determine what exactly it was just by looking at the cameras. So I dispatched a security guard to investigate and it turns out that this guy was carrying a machete. Not a large knife. An actual life-size machete. He even had a sheath on his belt and everything. I told my guy to keep his distance and I called the local police. Minutes later the police show up and I got to see them in action. They kept yelling at him to drop his machete but he was on a different planet and wasn’t hearing a word they were trying to say to him. When they finally had enough, the cop with the launcher shot him with a beanbag round and leveled him to the ground. He dropped his machete and another cop came in and punted it away from his reach. They pinned him down and arrested him. It was awesome to watch.” “I hang out with our security guard a lot and spend time in their office at our hotel messing with them. There’s footage saved that they show to our new hire guards to see if they can handle things professionally. In this video, a guy takes his streetwalker (a $100 an hour one, super dirty and cheap) and takes her into an alley by a function room where we had a camera. They get to it, and he straight away pulls down her pants and starts to eat her butt. This goes on for five minutes or so until you see the door open behind them, and our HUGE Polynesian guard standing behind the guy. The lady runs off laughing instantly, leaving her poor client to put on his pants and clean up by himself”	24,775
NYU Langone Medical Center Investigators discover that approximately 6% of New Yorkers who get a tattoo have experienced tattoo-associated rash, serious itching or inflammation that has lasted over 4 months and for some, several years. With respect to Dr. Marie Leger, senior study researcher and NYU Langone dermatologist, an approximated 20% adults in the US has minimum one tattoo. “Given the increasing popularity of tattoos, doctors, public health representatives and consumers have to be aware of the threats involved.” Leger and his team published their results in journal Contact Dermatitis. The research outcomes resulted from survey interviews with some 300 people in New York’s Central Park in June 2013. The results reflect those identified in studies performed by European nations – which have only recently begun to keep track of medical issues related with tattoos. Survey individuals ranged in age from 18-69 years, with a greater part claiming to have not more than 5 tattoos, with the arm being the very popular tattoo site, at 68%. “We were instead alarmed at the great rate of reported chronic issues tied to getting a tattoo,” .While some undesirable skin reactions can be handled with anti-inflammatory steroid medicines, others may need laser surgery. Surgery is often essential in serious cases to take out the tattooed areas of the skin or built-up scar tissue and granular skin lesions, which can increase several millimetres on the skin and lead to significant itching and psychological distress. The research exposed that areas of skin injected with two of the very common tattoo ink colors, red and black, experienced the most durable issues. Chemical composition of colored tattoo inks are “improperly understood and not standardized” Nearly half (45%) of chronic side effects were because of red ink, although only slightly more than 1/3rd (36%) had tattoos with red ink. 1/3rd of chronic cases involved black ink, while above 90% of the participant’s tattoos used black coloring. Leger suggests: “It is not yet identified if the reactions being noticed are because of chemicals in the ink itself or to other chemicals, like preservatives or brighteners, combined with them or to the chemicals’ breakdown over time. The absence of a nationwide database or reporting requirements also hinders reliable supervising.” Leger suggests that the truth of complications linked to tattooing are partially due to lack of regulatory oversight, and also the truth that the chemical composition of colored inks used in the procedure is improperly understood and not standardized among dye producers. Adding to above statement she says “The skin is an extremely immune-sensitive organ, and the long-term effects of repeatedly examining the body’s immune system with injected dyes and colored inks are improperly understood.” “Some of the side effects appear to be an immune response, yet we do not know who is most probably to have an immune response to a tattoo.” Another key finding from the study signifies that identical types of short-term complications, which include delayed healing, pain, swelling and infection within weeks of getting tattooed, take place in 10% of people. Furthermore, the data revealed that only a third of those who experienced a reaction wanted medical advice or assistance. Many instead, re-visited the tattoo store for assistance. Leger and team have future plans to perform a huge study to identify particularly what color inks and dye components are most closely connected to adverse reactions. They predict that their investigations may reveal other factors that may put individuals at a higher risk of struggling chronic complications from getting “inked.” This is an example widget to show how the Right Sidebar looks by default. You can add custom widgets from the widgets screen in the admin. If custom widgets are added then this will be replaced by those widgets.	4,067
A gift arrives from America: a pianist colleague has kindly sent me Barbara Alex’s handsome new book about Hungarian piano professor Gyorgy Sebok, who died in 1999. Like all Sebok’s former students, I love to be reminded of how he spoke. He had a gift for aphorism which I’ve never heard equalled, but that doesn’t do him justice; what I mean is that he had a genius for insight and was able to express it with memorable pungency. Barbara Alex’s book is really a collection of Sebok’s wise sayings, elegantly displayed on the pages with the help of some imaginative typography. It’s rather like reading a collection of Zen proverbs, and indeed there are things in common between the two. ‘Play the contents and not the container’, Sebok said. ‘Teaching freedom is a self-defeating thing, because one has to become free. That cannot be taught. It is the learner’s job.’ ‘Don’t concentrate, but rather be concentrated by the music.’ ‘To play louder, you must hear more.’ ‘You cannot play now and think later.’ ‘Music is understanding in action.’ Such remarks were great when they arose naturally in the course of a lesson, and were often said with a twinkle in the eye. When I read the isolated comments in the book, I can’t help wondering how they will strike people coming to them ‘cold’. Will Sebok’s remarks, pinned to the page like rare butterflies, seem enlightening or tantalisingly enigmatic? Liked this post? Subscribe to the RSS feed for more of the same! This entry was posted on Friday 13th August 2010 at 6:00am and is filed under Books, Musings. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. « Anton Stadler’s clarinet Relaxing into loud music » Name (required) Email (will not be published) (required) Notify me of followup comments via email Δ Susan Tomes is a pianist and writer. Renowned as a soloist and as a chamber musician, she's the author of six books. Read her biography or send her an email.	1,962
One of the main reasons women choose not to run for political office: They fear their safety inside and outside social networks, as well as attacks from the opposition and from within their own ranks. More than a military tactic: sexual violence in wars and armed conflicts Published: 23 November 2022 War and armed conflict almost always go hand in hand with sexual violence – rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage. On occasions when it seems pertinent, such as in the context of the current war in Ukraine, politicians and the media talk about the issue and condemn the violence, but their rhetoric is short on substance. What do intersectionality, feminist leadership and feminist foreign policy have to do with justice? Published: 28 October 2022 The elimination of violence against women is tied to the elimination of all forms of heteropatriarchal, homo- and transphobic, (neo-)colonial, racist, capitalist, ableist violence. Violence in social media threatens women active in Brazilian politics Published: 27 September 2022 In Brazil, misogynist discourse and attacks against female politicians have rapidly increased since the election of Jair Bolsonaro. Especially those who dare to challenge gender norms have become targets of online vitriol. A new law that criminalizes political gender violence may bring some relief, but may not be enough to turn the tide. Civil society voices on the fight against gender based violence in Cambodia Published: 15 October 2021 Gender-based violence, participation in political and social processes and shrinking spaces: How do women's rights activists work under increasingly constrained circumstances in Cambodia? Pride and Prejudice: Georgia after the Escalation of Violence against Civil Society Published: 15 July 2021 More than 50 people were injured in attacks on journalists and civil society in Tbilisi in early July in connection with Pride Week. The German Federal Government and the EU should strongly urge their Georgian partners to address the violence through prompt and comprehensive legal and political action. Sexual Violence in the Holocaust: Perspectives from Ghettos and Camps in Ukraine Published: 18 May 2020 The experiences of women in the Second World War with sexualised violence show that some suffering was gender-specific. According to the sources, sexualised violence against Jewish women and girls was not a by-product of the war, but the war itself, organised and controlled by those who denied Jews their right to exist. Published: 17 June 2019 Violence against women, gender pay gap, homo hatred - the gender backlash is in full swing worldwide. That is why we need encouraging feminism. Violence against women in Turkey: "Looking where others look away" Published: 2 November 2017 Up to five women are murdered every day in Turkey. Photographer Emine Akbaba collected evidence videos and took photos of the sites of crime. As for herself, she says that she is no longer sure how to come to terms with everything she has seen. Interview: Second Peace Conference in Myanmar Published: 24 May 2017 It is difficult to have peace if you do not move your positions. We were talking with Dr. Sai Oo over the opportunities for a constructive peace conference. He is the Country Representative of Pyidaungsu Institute for peace and dialogue in Yangon, Myanmar.	3,375
America's Greatest Pinner and Four-Time NCAA and Collegiate World Champion, Innovative Coach, Guinness Book of World Records Holder, and the Father of Funk Wrestling Posts Schalles Award Winners The Penn State, Ohio State Dual By Wade Schalles \| February 11, 2018 A truly outstanding meet with the sport being the ultimate winner. Well, sort of, kind of, well, not really. The very first thing I noticed when I turned to the Big Ten Network 15 minutes before airtime was a Penn State-Iowa basketball game that was taking place in the Bryce Jordan Center. I said, “what, I thought tonight’s match was at home?” Then the announcer’s indicated I was right, but the match was scheduled for Rec Hall instead. Immediately I was shaking my head and then uttering, “you’ve got to be kidding?” The biggest dual meet of the year and maybe of the decade, with 8, count them, 8 national champions wrestling in the 10 weight classes, and a total of 18 of the 20 wrestlers ranked nationally . . . and the meet is being relegated to Rec Hall? Don’t get me wrong, Rec Hall is a great building with a storied past, but it’s woefully inadequate for a Super Bowl like dual. For those who are unaware, Bryce Jordan seats 16K and can accommodate upwards of 2k more with mat side seating and a lenient Fire Marshall. Rec Hall can’t handle 7K even if they allow rafter seating. I get it, it’s wrestling versus basketball but half the seats in the BJC were without butts for that PSU-Iowa basketball game. And conversely, tickets for the dual meet were as scarce as wrestlers in Boise State’s wrestling room. The administration at Penn State could have filled Bryce Jordan twice over for the Ohio State dual . . . and most likely doubled gate receipts. (To my point, yesterday the Iowa-Penn State dual was held in Bryce Jordan and it was a sell out, well over 16k fans were present. And the Hawkeyes don’t even have 1 NCAA Champion in their lineup although they are always a strong draw.) So, who at Penn State didn’t think about the impact this decision would have on the sport as a whole and its bottom line? Do you realize that wrestling has never been in the black anywhere in America? The sport at every institution loses money every year with PSU being the closest of all the universities to breaking even with a deficit of over 100K. Those numbers are the latest statistics I could find which I believe are two years old but the point is, the sport isn’t doing well. Actually, it’s on food stamps and welfare. Tell me, what’s wrong with hosting the match in Bryce Jordan earlier in the day, or the next afternoon? Both time frames would have worked, both teams were free of any obligation then and neither were scheduled to go again until the following weekend. Now I did read that the Lions preferred Rec Hall because it shut out Buckeye fans from acquiring tickets. I can understand that thinking even if it is nearsighted, but in the larger picture it’s a terrible business decision. And why the sport struggles so. Yes, I realize there’s an added cost in going to the BJC given that PSU doesn’t own the building so charge an extra $5.00 per ticket and the negative goes away. The point here is the sport desperately needs a program, any program, to show a profit. We need to demonstrate to athletic administrators across the country that we can be self-sufficient if given the opportunity. Note to coaches, administrators don’t care about your All-Americans and winning record, they are only interested in the color of the ink your program is producing. This is exactly why the President of Boise State said last Spring, “wrestling is a dying sport!” And if it’s not dying, the best that can be said is the sport’s in neutral when so many other ones are growing in participation numbers, media interest and revenue production. None of that bodes well for wrestling when you realize what our sport could be. Today we have less than 50% of the collegiate programs we had in the 1970’s and half as many fans. I know that doesn’t look good for us but what makes it far worse is the growth of so many other sports that once were far below wrestling’s numbers. Put simply, we’re becoming less as others become more. But congratulations just the same to Cael and all the Nittany Lion wrestlers and support personal for the huge win; it was an evening well served. The organization won 32 World Medals this year and 14 of them were Gold! Plus, they brought home the 2017 Senior World Team Title! Kudo’s to all, exceptional job! Congrats also to Bill Zadick for being named National Olympic Coach of the Year. Well deserved. For the first time since 1951, the Russians failed to have a senior level World Champion at any weight, in any style! I wonder if that had anything to do with the IOC jumping their bones regarding decades of epidemic level doping? It serves them right; but it’s also saddens me to think of all the other great wrestlers the world has produced who had to settle for less than Gold as a result of their indefensible, widespread and government sponsored cheating? A question to chew over: given their medically bionic power, were they ever great wrestlers or just very good wrestlers with great power? That cloud of doubt seems to have merit when you evaluate their recent drop in performance. How could the International Olympic Committee allow any of the athletes from Russia to compete in the Winter Olympics? I thought we had rules with serious consequences for violators regarding the use of anabolic steroids? And worst of all, the violator this time was the country itself! I could see from an outsider’s perspective, specifically those not in competition, how this is a feel-good story . . . we’re allowing those who chose not to violate the most sacred of rules to have a path to citizenship . . . I mean competition? However, it seems the penalty that the IOC imposed on the Russian Federation was purposely written in disappearing ink. A wink-wink, nod-nod sort of agreement between leaderships. “We’ll start by acting indignant, then levy heavy penalties and then when you begin to offer us the right amount of inducements we’ll create work arounds proportional to the incentives.” Does anyone doubt that’s a possibility? As for the use of performance enhancing drugs, there is no doubt in my mind that they were dirty even when I wrestled against them 40 years ago. I’d swear that everyone one of them was capable of doing push-ups under large cars and small trucks. But in Rio they were finally, actually, completely and unquestionably caught cheating. Now two years later, and the very first Olympiad since then, the Russians are back. So much for rules, regulations or their transgressions. They weren’t even forced to say 5 Hail Mary’s or 1 “I’m sorry.” I get it, athletes shouldn’t be penalized for something their country did, especially if the ones competing are clean. But that’s crap; the only way rules are effective is when they bite everyone who’s in the organization. When a CEO makes a bad decision, everyone in the company pays. When a commander in the field screws up, soldiers die. When a quarterback throws a pick-6, his entire team suffers. But here, it seems the Russians were playing roulette with the odds in their favor. They knew they were too big to be allowed to fail, because the IOC needs them more than they need to enforce their rules. So, did anyone get hurt here? Well, actually yes. As soon as the scandal broke two of the three men who masterminded their doping program died under curious circumstances. The other one didn’t wait around to find out what happened, he fled the country. Now the athletes are not only back but representing oh, wait for it, Team OAR (Olympic Athletes from Russia). Wow, how cunning of the IOC, no one will ever know who these athletes are representing or be able to compare metal counts. Oh look, here’s today’s medal count for the Top 9 countries. Medals Race Norway Netherlands Canada Germany United States France Olympic Athletes from Russia SWE Sweden Italy So, tell me again, I missed it, what was their penalty for cheating? Not a wrestler, a coach or a fan, at any time throughout the year, took a knee during the playing of our National Anthem. We may be many things, and certainly a very diverse bunch, but wrestling is America . . . it’s amber waves of grain, hard work, discipline and even with varied political views, we’ve always been united under one flag. I’m glad to report that I’m close to finishing the book I’ve been writing. That frees up enough time now to restart these blogs; at least on a limited basis until its published. Regarding the book, this was my first attempt at a 300-page novel. I hope it’ll be received as graciously as you welcomed my blog. As to the story line, the book is about Jacob Charles, a middle-aged man in his early 30’s who’s determined to retire from wrestling as an Olympic Champion. Before he can do that though, he has to overcome more than his share of hardships; from the death of his young wife and the twin boys she was carrying to avenging the loss of his father at the hands of an international assassin. But most of all, it’s the story of love found, love lost and love regained; all wrapped around the CIA, Interpol and the underbelly of international wrestling. 17 thoughts on “The Penn State, Ohio State Dual” Merrillhoover February 28, 2018 Wade,, still follow you as much as I can, from our high school and college days Recently I have regained a great interest in college wrestling as I did following you 45-50 years ago About psu- Ohio State, I also was greatly upset at the choice of center hey used Until I heard the big 10, determined the time for each event and psu had to go with what they could Stephen Schalles March 1, 2018 Great to hear from you . . . it’s been a while! Hope you’re doing well. I don’t think the Big 10 sticks to their guns about the time or even the day if the host and their competition decide it’s better for the sport of wrestling and income streams to move it a couple of hours one way or the other of for a day. Rick S. February 19, 2018 Forgive me for playing devil’s advocate. Wrestling? What wrestling? What exactly is wrestling anyway? Is it a sport designed by daddy to toughen up his son or a sport designed by mommy to insure her little darling doesn’t get beat up? Is wrestling a ground sport or a sport where you see how many times you can take a person down, letting him up just to take him down again? You make dozens of rules to make mommy happy, and then complain the officials are deciding the outcome of the match. Daddy would say, leave them alone as along as they aren’t hurting each other, let them wrestle, let them solve their own problems. Wrestling is not fighting, but neither is wrestling a politically correct dance designed by mommy. Wrestling is supposed to be a sport where two boys beat each other up without injuring each other. Wrestling is supposed to be one-on-one. Wrestling is supposed to be messy. Wrestling is supposed to toughen your little darling up so the military doesn’t have to toughen him up should he decide to serve in the military. Look at your rules. Name a year you haven’t had rule changes. Name a year you haven’t decided to ban a move or hold because it was dangerous or you haven’t decided to clarify stalling or you haven’t decided something about the clock. How did boys wrestle a hundred years ago without killing each other if they didn’t have your rules banning everything? How did boys deal with stalling a hundred years ago? Did boys worry about the clock a hundred years ago? You and your rules committees have it all wrong. Don’t be religious about time clocks. A hundred years ago, time clocks weren’t important. Wrestlers and coaches couldn’t use the clock as part of their wrestling strategy, like they do now. How much of wrestling is about the clock? You stop a match during a pinning situation when time runs out. Coaches yell at wrestlers telling them time for the period is running out. If a match is exciting, the clock should be ignored. If a match is boring, the match should be ended in a draw, irrespective of how much time is on the clock. Don’t have referees decide stalling. That’s a problem for the wrestlers to solve. If they go off the mat, put them back on the mat in the same position, near as you can, to the position they had when they went off. If one wrestler is stalling, it’s up to the other wrestler to take him down, and beat on him a little, if possible. If the wrestler on top is stalling, it’s up to the wrestler on the bottom to get out of the situation, and not rely on a kindly referee to come to his rescue. You’re afraid of stalling because you have that blasted clock. Get rid of that blasted clock, tell them you will stop the match and call it a draw if they want to stall, and see what happens. Tell the coach, too many draws and you will DQ the team for the rest of the year, not just this one dual, and see if the coach teaches his charges not to stall and what to do about stalling. You say pins are the goal in wrestling? Or do you? What is the goal in wrestling? I say pinning an opponent is the goal, but I’m willing to bet you have coaches who will disagree. Reward wrestlers for accomplishing goals, not tactics. Pinning is the goal. Take downs and escapes and reversals are tactics. Near falls aren’t goals. Near falls are failed attempts, close but no cigar, at accomplishing a goal. Being close should only count in horse shoes. You’re too afraid of draws, which I can understand in individual tournaments, but why are you afraid of draws in dual matches? If pinning is the goal, only pinning should count toward team points. In summary, As long as wrestling is a politically correct dance designed by mommy so her little darling won’t get a scratch, or designed with goals to avoid pinning or make it easy to win a wrestling match without pinning, wrestling is doomed. We have plenty of other sports for mommy’s little darling where they will be perfectly safe. We have lots of other sports for coaches who want their charges to win without having to work hard to pin an opponent. There are plenty of non-contact sports to choose from. I apologize for unloading. Wrestling is doomed. I don’t think you even have consensus among your coaches what constitutes wrestling, and what should be the goals for wrestling. You may think you have a consensus, but your rules and your reliance on the clock and your reliance on the referee solving all your problems with wrestling suggest otherwise. Wrestling claimed to be a combat sport last time I checked, or is that no longer true? How will I know when wrestling is no longer doomed? I will know wrestling is no longer doomed when the military no longer has to toughen up mommy’s little boys in boot camp. I will know when wrestling can again lay claim to being a combat sport, not just for a select few who would be good at combat anyway, but for the vast majority of its participants. Please forgive me for unloading. Ken Chertow February 19, 2018 Classic! Maybe some sarcasm and exaggeration, but many good ideas. Largely due to influences like Wade and Gene I emphasize pinning more than ever. Eric Pizzi February 12, 2018 Wade excellent content, love reading about wrestling when the person is a well versed and honest as you are. Chad Crow February 12, 2018 Wade, glad that you’re back putting ink on paper in public. I’ll be looking forward to your book, but even more so, to your thoughts and comments on a brighter future for wrestlin – on a more regular basis – wrestling needs your voice. Now . . . If they would just listen. Ken Chertow February 12, 2018 Welcome back Wade. I am with you. I do not look at your opinions as negative but typically matter of fact. So many people are too timid to speak their mind candidly. Too many people want to be politically correct. Our sport needs to be promoted, evolve and grow. I see too few leaders and coaches willing to take initiative to do this. Glad your blog is back in action! I agree OSU @ PSU should have been scheduled to enable nearly 10,000 more fans to watch in person. It could have been done easily. I agree Bill Zadick and USAW had a great season and also agree the Russians I wrestled were freakishly strong! Wade Schalles Post author February 12, 2018 Thanks Kenny . . . . overall my point is that business managers should be making business decisions and coaches should coach. Coaches want to win and they will always decide, regardless of the outcome, on decisions that gives them the best chances of winning. And that’s okay, that’s what they’re paid to do but it’s also why we’re going backwards. Hope you’re doing well. Mark DeAugustino February 11, 2018 Wade I always enjoy your perspective. Why so gloom though. I understand Title IX has taken away 50% of our wrestling programs but let’s try not to be so negative here…. I just watched Mich. vs Ohio State. If I read your words correctly I think you said PSU’s budget for wrestling is $100,000… Well there were around 8,000 people at the wrestling match that I just watched. I don’t know how much a ticket is… lets just say $10.00. That’s $80,000 right there! Not including the concessions and t-shirt sales! After paying door people and refs and custodians, that one match pretty much pays for their season…. And that one match tonight will bring back fans to MIchigan Univ. Also that one match between Penn State and OSU will bring back fans from all over. And the Match between PSU and IOWA was another sell out crowd. Come on Wade solutions here, not problems. And I know you have a knack for solving problems in our wonderful sport of wrestling. I gave one solution and no one listened…. lol… Lynn February 11, 2018 PSU’s wrestling budget is way more than $100k. Wade stated they were $100k in the red two years ago. Wade Schalles Post author February 12, 2018 I didn’t say that was their budget, and it’s way over a million dollars each year. I said when the smoke clears each year they are in the red by over 100k. Wade Schalles Post author February 12, 2018 Mark . . . maybe I didn’t choose my words carefully enough, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say or suggest that PSU’s budget is 100k, it’s far more, well over a million, but when you subtract expenses from revenue, they are over 100k in the hole and the Nittany Lions are the closest thing we have to making ends meet of all our major institutions. I’ve tried the positive route and will continue to do so as best as I can but I always hear, “I know there are solutions to our problems somewhere but that one isn’t it.” It doesn’t matter what I write, that’s the response I hear more times than not. In my opinion, in order to get people thinking you have to make them aware of how bad it is, regardless of how disturbing that might be or contrary to what you may want to read. And on that subject, you/we/anyone CANNOT point to the 2, 3 or 4 best programs in America and then point to their 2, 3 or 4 best dual meets and say, “see, we’re fine and getting better.” If you insist on looking at it that way, then allow me the courtesy of pointing out the 350 other universities and colleges that have more wrestlers and parents in the gym than fans in the stands. Wrestling has to stop looking at the PSU-OSU type of duals and point them out as being what the sport is. They’re anomalies, clearly not the norm. Granted, it’s what we want the sport to be but to think that way is to mislead oneself. Ken Chertow February 12, 2018 Wade speaks the sad candid truth above. To solve this attendance issues, coaches need to do more than Xs and Os. They need to engage college SIDs and marketing departments, high school booster clubs, and the media and get more fans in the seats. Youth programs and parents need to attend high school matches and high school teams need to attend college matches. We also need to produce an exciting and entertaining event. Brady Hiatt March 28, 2018 Get a program vs program dual. Youth, Jr High, and High School all together. Build community. Build rivalries. Long, all day tournaments — at all levels — are brutal on fans (and their backsides). Ken Chertow March 28, 2018 Wade always has good ideas. We need more folks in wrestling community taking consistent and persistent actions.	20,930
The information in this preliminary pricing supplement is not complete and may be changed. This preliminary pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus are not an offer to sell these securities and are not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. Preliminary Pricing Supplement, Dated February 11, 2021 Pricing Supplement (To Prospectus dated March 3, 2020 and Prospectus Supplement dated May 7, 2020) Due Nine Months or More From Date of Issue, Fully and Unconditionally Guaranteed by The notes will bear interest at a rate of % per year. We will pay interest on the notes on and of each year. The first interest payment will be made on , 2021. The notes will mature on unless redeemed prior to that date. The notes will be our senior indebtedness under our senior indenture dated November 1, 1995, as amended, supplemented or modified from time to time, which we refer to as the “indenture,” and will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed by our subsidiary, United Dominion Realty, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership. The notes will not be subject to a sinking fund and will not be convertible or exchangeable into other securities. Investing in the notes involves risks. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page S-3 of the accompanying prospectus supplement dated May 7, 2020 and on page 3 of the accompanying prospectus dated March 3, 2020. Public offering price(1) % % % (1) Plus accrued interest if settlement occurs after , 2021. Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this pricing supplement, the accompanying prospectus and prospectus supplement. 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Neither we nor the underwriters are making an offer to sell the notes in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should assume that the information contained or incorporated by reference in this pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus relating to any issuance of notes, is accurate only as of the date on the front cover of the applicable document. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since that date. None of this pricing supplement, the accompanying prospectus supplement and the prospectus is a prospectus for the purposes of the Prospectus Regulation (as defined below). 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For these purposes, a retail investor means a person who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client, as defined in point (8) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 2017/565 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 (“EUWA”); or (ii) a customer within the meaning of the provisions of the United Kingdom's Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as amended (the “FSMA”) and any rules or regulations made under the FSMA to implement the Insurance Distribution Directive, where that customer would not qualify as a professional client, as defined in point (8) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the EUWA; or (iii) not a qualified investor as defined in Article 2 of the Prospectus Regulation as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the EUWA. Consequently no key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the EUWA (the “UK PRIIPs Regulation”) for offering or selling the notes or otherwise making them available to retail investors in the United Kingdom has been prepared and therefore offering or selling the notes or otherwise making them available to any retail investor in the United Kingdom may be unlawful under the UK PRIIPs Regulation. The communication of this pricing supplement, the accompanying prospectus supplement, prospectus and any other document or materials relating to the issue of the notes offered hereby is not being made, and such documents and/or materials have not been approved, by an authorized person for the purposes of section 21 of the “FSMA”. Accordingly, such documents and/or materials are not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom. 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Any person in the United Kingdom that is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this pricing supplement, the accompanying prospectus supplement or prospectus or any of their respective contents. SUMMARY UDR, Inc. is a self-administered real estate investment trust, or REIT, that owns, operates, acquires, renovates, develops, redevelops, disposes of and manages multifamily apartment communities nationwide. References in this pricing supplement, the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus to “UDR,” “we,” “us,” “our” or “the Company” are to UDR, Inc. References in this pricing supplement to “UDR LP” or “the guarantor” are to United Dominion Realty, L.P. The net proceeds from the sale of the notes are estimated to be approximately $ after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering to repay indebtedness, including the redemption of $300 million aggregate principal amount (plus the make-whole amount and accrued and unpaid interest) of our 4.00% medium-term notes due October 1, 2025, to fund potential acquisitions, or for other general corporate purposes. Pending application of the net proceeds for those purposes, we may use the net proceeds from this offering to repay currently outstanding indebtedness under our commercial paper program and working capital credit facility, or we may invest the net proceeds in short-term investments, including marketable securities. As of December 31, 2020, the interest rates for borrowings under our commercial paper program and working capital credit facility were 0.27% and 0.97%, respectively. Our working capital credit facility has a scheduled maturity date of January 14, 2022. Certain of the underwriters or their affiliates may hold positions in our commercial paper. Furthermore, certain of the underwriters or their affiliates are lenders under our working capital credit facility. Accordingly, those underwriters or affiliates may receive a portion of the net proceeds from this offering. The following description of the terms of the Medium-Term Notes, Series A Due Nine Months or More From Date of Issue, Fully and Unconditionally Guaranteed by UDR LP, referred to in this pricing supplement as the “notes,” supplements, and to the extent inconsistent replaces, the description of the general terms and provisions of debt securities contained in the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus. It is important for you to consider the information contained in this pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus in making your investment decision. We will issue the notes as a series of Debt Securities under an indenture, referred to in this pricing supplement as the “indenture,” dated as of November 1, 1995, as amended, supplemented or modified from time to time, with U.S. Bank National Association, successor trustee to Wachovia Bank, National Association (formerly First Union National Bank of Virginia), as trustee. The terms of the notes include those provisions contained in the indenture, the terms of which are more fully described in the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus and under the section entitled “— Covenants” below, and those made part of the indenture by reference to the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, as amended, or the Trust Indenture Act. The notes are subject to all of these terms, and holders of notes are referred to the indenture and the Trust Indenture Act for a statement of those terms. 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UDR LP will fully and unconditionally guarantee payment of any principal, premium and interest in respect of the notes in full to the holders thereof. The guarantee forms part of the indenture under which the notes will be issued. If, for any reason, we do not make any required payment in respect of the notes when due, UDR LP will cause the payment to be made to, or to the order of, the applicable paying agent on behalf of the trustee. Holders of the notes may enforce their rights under the guarantee directly against UDR LP without first making a demand or taking action against UDR or any other person or entity. UDR LP may, without the consent of the holders of the notes, assume all of our rights and obligations under the notes and, upon such assumption, we will be released from our liabilities under the indenture and the notes. The section in the accompanying prospectus entitled “Description of Debt Securities” and the section in the accompanying prospectus supplement entitled “Description of Notes — Certain Covenants” describe certain agreements we have made for the benefit of the holders of the notes. However, the covenants limiting UDR’s incurrence of debt set forth in Section 1004(a) and Section 1007 of the indenture, which are described under the heading “Description of Debt Securities — Covenants Under the Senior Indenture,” will not apply to the notes offered under this pricing supplement. Instead, the following covenants will apply to the notes, as discussed in more detail under the heading “Description of Notes — Certain Covenants” in the accompanying prospectus supplement (capitalized terms not otherwise defined will have the respective meanings assigned to them in the indenture): “The Trust will, and will cause the Subsidiaries to, have at all times Total Unencumbered Assets of not less than 150% of the aggregate principal amount of all of the Trust’s outstanding Unsecured Debt and the outstanding Unsecured Debt of the Subsidiaries, determined on a consolidated basis in accordance with GAAP. The Trust will not, and will not permit any Subsidiary to, incur any Debt if, immediately after giving effect to the incurrence of such additional Debt and the application of the proceeds thereof, the aggregate principal amount of all outstanding Debt of the Trust and its Subsidiaries on a consolidated basis determined in accordance with GAAP is greater than 65% of the sum of (without duplication) (i) the Trust’s Total Assets as of the end of the calendar quarter covered in the Trust’s Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as the case may be, most recently filed with the Commission (or, if such filing is not permitted under the Exchange Act, with the Trustee) prior to the incurrence of such additional Debt and (ii) the purchase price of any real estate assets or mortgages receivable acquired, and the amount of any securities offering proceeds received (to the extent such proceeds were not used to acquire real estate assets or mortgages receivable or used to reduce Debt), by the Trust or any Subsidiary since the end of such calendar quarter, including those proceeds obtained in connection with the incurrence of such additional Debt. ‘Total Unencumbered Assets’ means the sum of, without duplication, those Undepreciated Real Estate Assets which are not subject to a lien securing Debt and all other assets, excluding accounts receivable and intangibles, of the Trust and the Subsidiaries not subject to a lien securing Debt, all determined on a consolidated basis in accordance with GAAP; provided, however, that all investments by the Trust and the Subsidiaries in unconsolidated joint ventures, unconsolidated limited partnerships, unconsolidated limited liability companies and other unconsolidated entities shall be excluded from Total Unencumbered Assets to the extent that such investments would have otherwise been included.” We may redeem all or part of the notes at any time at our option at a redemption price equal to the greater of (1) the principal amount of the notes being redeemed plus accrued and unpaid interest to the redemption date or (2) the Make-Whole Amount for the notes being redeemed. If the notes are redeemed on or after (three months prior to the maturity date) (the “Par Call Date”), the redemption price will equal 100% of the principal amount of the notes being redeemed plus accrued and unpaid interest thereon to the redemption date. We must give written notice to registered holders of the notes to be redeemed at our option not more than 60 nor less than 15 calendar days prior to the date of redemption. “Make-Whole Amount” means, as determined by the Quotation Agent, the sum of the present values of the principal amount of the notes to be redeemed, together with the scheduled payments of interest (exclusive of interest to the redemption date) from the redemption date to the Par Call Date of the notes being redeemed, in each case discounted to the redemption date on a semi-annual basis, assuming a 360-day year consisting of twelve 30-day months, at the Adjusted Treasury Rate, plus accrued and unpaid interest on the principal amount of the notes being redeemed to the redemption date. “Adjusted Treasury Rate” means, with respect to any redemption date, the sum of (x) either (1) the yield for the maturity corresponding to the Comparable Treasury Issue, under the heading that represents the average for the immediately preceding week, appearing in the most recent published statistical release designated “H.15” or any successor publication that is published weekly by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and that establishes yields on actively traded United States Treasury securities adjusted to constant maturity under the caption “Treasury Constant Maturities” (provided, if no maturity is within three months before or after the remaining term of the notes being redeemed, yields for the two published maturities most closely corresponding to the Comparable Treasury Issue will be determined and the Adjusted Treasury Rate will be interpolated or extrapolated from such yields on a straight line basis, rounded to the nearest month) or (2) if such release (or any successor release) is not published during the week preceding the calculation date or does not contain such yields, the rate per year equal to the semi-annual equivalent yield to maturity of the Comparable Treasury Issue, calculated using a price for the Comparable Treasury Issue (expressed as a percentage of its principal amount) equal to the Comparable Treasury Price for such redemption date, in each case calculated on the third business day preceding the date that the notice of redemption is delivered, and (y) %. “Comparable Treasury Issue” means the United States Treasury security selected by the Quotation Agent as having a maturity comparable to the remaining term of the notes to be redeemed (assuming, for this purpose, that the notes matured on the Par Call Date) that would be utilized, at the time of selection and in accordance with customary financial practice, in pricing new issues of corporate debt securities of comparable maturity to the remaining term of the notes to be redeemed (assuming, for this purpose, that the notes matured on the Par Call Date). “Comparable Treasury Price” means, with respect to any redemption date, (x) the average of three Reference Treasury Dealer Quotations for such redemption date, after excluding the highest and lowest Reference Treasury Dealer Quotations so obtained, or (y) if fewer than five Reference Treasury Dealer Quotations are so obtained, the average of all such Reference Treasury Dealer Quotations so obtained. “Quotation Agent” means the Reference Treasury Dealer selected by the indenture trustee after consultation with UDR, Inc. “Reference Treasury Dealer” means any of Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, a primary U.S. Government securities dealer selected by PNC Capital Markets LLC, a primary U.S. Government securities dealer selected by U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc. and two other nationally recognized investment banking firms selected by UDR, Inc. that are primary U.S. Government securities dealers and their respective successors and assigns. “Reference Treasury Dealer Quotations” means, with respect to each Reference Treasury Dealer and any redemption date, the average, as determined by the indenture trustee, of the bid and asked prices for the Comparable Treasury Issue (expressed in each case as a percentage of its principal amount) quoted in writing to the indenture trustee by such Reference Treasury Dealer at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on the third business day preceding the date that notice is delivered for such redemption. For a description of the U.S. federal income tax consequences applicable to an investment in the notes, please see the discussion under the heading “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences” beginning on page S-29 of the prospectus supplement. You should consult your tax advisor concerning the U.S. federal income tax and other tax consequences of your investment in the notes in your particular circumstances, including the application of state, local or other tax laws and the possible effects of changes in federal or other tax laws. Subject to the terms and conditions stated in the third amended and restated distribution agreement dated September 1, 2011, as amended on July 29, 2014, April 27, 2017 and May 7, 2020, the underwriters named below have severally agreed to purchase, and we have agreed to sell to each underwriter, the respective principal amount of notes set forth opposite the underwriter’s name. Principal Amount of Notes Wells Fargo Securities, LLC U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc. TD Securities (USA) LLC The third amended and restated distribution agreement, as amended, provides that the obligations of the underwriters to purchase the notes included in this offering are subject to approval of legal matters by counsel and to other conditions. The underwriters are obligated to purchase all the notes if they purchase any of the notes. The underwriters propose to offer some of the notes directly to the public at the public offering price set forth on the cover page of this pricing supplement and some of the notes to dealers at the public offering price less a concession not to exceed % of the principal amount of the notes. The underwriters may allow, and dealers may reallow, a concession not to exceed% of the principal amount of the notes on sales to other dealers. After the initial offering of the notes to the public, the underwriters may change the public offering price and concessions. The following table shows the underwriting discount that we are to pay to the underwriters in connection with this offering (expressed as a percentage of the principal amount of the notes). Paid by % In connection with the offering, the underwriters may purchase and sell notes in the open market. These transactions may include over-allotment, syndicate covering transactions and stabilizing transactions. Over-allotment involves syndicate sales of notes in excess of the principal amount of notes to be purchased by the underwriters in the offering, which creates a syndicate short position. Syndicate covering transactions involve purchases of the notes in the open market after the distribution has been completed in order to cover syndicate short positions. Stabilizing transactions consist of certain bids or purchases of notes made for the purpose of preventing or retarding a decline in the market price of the notes while the offering is in progress. The underwriters also may impose a penalty bid. Penalty bids permit the underwriters to reclaim a selling concession from a syndicate member when, in covering syndicate short positions or making stabilizing purchases, the underwriters repurchase notes originally sold by that syndicate member. Any of these activities may have the effect of preventing or retarding a decline in the market price of the notes. They may also cause the price of the notes to be higher than the price that otherwise would exist in the open market in the absence of these transactions. The underwriters may conduct these transactions in the over-the-counter market or otherwise. If the underwriters commence any of these transactions, they may discontinue them at any time. We estimate that our total expenses (excluding the underwriting discount) for this offering will be approximately $ and will be payable by us. We have agreed to indemnify the underwriters against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or to contribute to payments the underwriters may be required to make because of any of those liabilities. The underwriters or their affiliates have performed investment banking and advisory services for us from time to time for which they have received customary fees and expenses. The underwriters and their affiliates may, from time to time, engage in transactions with and perform services for us in the ordinary course of their business. U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc., one of the underwriters, is an affiliate of the trustee. Certain of the underwriters or their affiliates may hold positions in our commercial paper. Furthermore, certain of the underwriters or their affiliates are lenders under our working capital credit facility. Accordingly, those underwriters or affiliates may receive a portion of the net proceeds from this offering. In addition, in the ordinary course of their business activities, the underwriters and their affiliates may make or hold a broad array of investments and actively trade debt and equity securities (or related derivative securities) and financial instruments (including bank loans) for their own account and for the accounts of their customers. Such investments and securities activities may involve securities and/or instruments of ours or our affiliates. If any of the underwriters or their affiliates have a lending relationship with us, certain of those underwriters or their affiliates routinely hedge, and certain other of those underwriters or their affiliates may hedge, their credit exposure to us consistent with their customary risk management policies. Typically, these underwriters and their affiliates would hedge such exposure by entering into transactions which consist of either the purchase of credit default swaps or the creation of short positions in our securities, including potentially the notes offered hereby. Any such credit default swaps or short positions could adversely affect future trading prices of the notes offered hereby. The underwriters and their affiliates may also make investment recommendations and/or publish or express independent research views in respect of such securities or financial instruments and may hold, or recommend to clients that they acquire, long and/or short positions in such securities and instruments. Since trades in the secondary market generally settle in two business days, purchasers who wish to trade notes on the date hereof or the next succeeding seven business days will be required, by virtue of the fact that the notes initially will settle in T+10 to specify alternative settlement arrangements to prevent a failed settlement. Notice to Prospective Investors in Canada The notes may be sold only to purchasers purchasing, or deemed to be purchasing, as principal that are accredited investors, as defined in National Instrument 45-106 “Prospectus Exemptions” or subsection 73.3(1) of the Securities Act (Ontario), and are permitted clients, as defined in National Instrument 31-103 “Registration Requirements, Exemptions and Ongoing Registrant Obligations.” Any resale of the notes must be made in accordance with an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the prospectus requirements of applicable securities laws. Securities legislation in certain provinces or territories of Canada may provide a purchaser with remedies for rescission or damages if this pricing supplement, the accompanying prospectus and prospectus supplement (including any amendment thereto) contains a misrepresentation, provided that the remedies for rescission or damages are exercised by the purchaser within the time limit prescribed by the securities legislation of the purchaser’s province or territory. The purchaser should refer to any applicable provisions of the securities legislation of the purchaser’s province or territory for particulars of these rights or consult with a legal advisor. Canadian purchasers are hereby notified that pursuant to section 3A.3 of National Instrument 33-105 Underwriting Conflicts (“NI 33-105”), the underwriters are not required to comply with the disclosure requirements of NI 33-105 regarding underwriter conflicts of interest in connection with this offering. By purchasing the notes in Canada and accepting delivery of a purchase confirmation, a purchaser is representing to us and the dealer from whom the purchase confirmation is received that: the purchaser is entitled under applicable provincial securities laws to purchase the notes without the benefit of a prospectus qualified under those securities laws as it is an “accredited investor” as defined under National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions, the purchaser is a “permitted client” as defined in National Instrument 31-103 - Registration Requirements, Exemptions and Ongoing Registrant Obligations, where required by law, the purchaser is purchasing as principal and not as agent, and the purchaser has reviewed the text above under Notice to Prospective Investors in Canada. Prohibition of Sales to EEA and United Kingdom Retail Investors The notes may not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any retail investor in the EEA or in the United Kingdom. For the purposes of this provision: (a)the expression “retail investor” means a person who is one (or more) of the following: a retail client as defined in point (11) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II; or a customer within the meaning of the Insurance Distribution Directive, where that customer would not qualify as a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II; or not a qualified investor as defined in the Prospectus Regulation; and the expression “offer” includes the communication in any form and by any means of sufficient information on the terms of the offer and the notes to be offered so as to enable an investor to decide to purchase or subscribe for the notes. Notice to Prospective Investors in the United Kingdom Any invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of Section 21 of the FSMA) in connection with the issue or sale of the notes may only be communicated or caused to be communicated in circumstances in which Section 21(1) of the FSMA does not apply to us or UDR LP. All applicable provisions of the FSMA must be complied with in respect to anything done by any person in relation to the notes in, from or otherwise involving the United Kingdom. Notice to Prospective Investors in Hong Kong The notes have not been offered or sold and will not be offered or sold in Hong Kong, by means of any document, other than (a) to “professional investors” as defined in the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571) of Hong Kong and any rules made under that Ordinance; or (b) in other circumstances which do not result in the document being a “prospectus” as defined in the Companies (Winding Up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 32) of Hong Kong or which do not constitute an offer to the public within the meaning of that Ordinance. No advertisement, invitation or document relating to the notes has been or will be issued or has been or will be in the possession of any person for the purposes of issue, whether in Hong Kong or elsewhere, which is directed at, or the contents of which are likely to be accessed or read by, the public of Hong Kong (except if permitted to do so under the securities laws of Hong Kong) other than with respect to the notes which are or are intended to be disposed of only to persons outside Hong Kong or only to “professional investors” as defined in the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571) of Hong Kong and any rules made under that Ordinance. The contents of this pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus have not been reviewed or approved by any regulatory authority in Hong Kong. The offer of the notes is personal to the person to whom this pricing supplement and/or the accompanying prospectus supplement or prospectus have been delivered, and a subscription for the notes will only be accepted from such person. No person to whom a copy of this pricing supplement and/or the accompanying prospectus supplement or prospectus is issued may copy, issue or distribute this pricing supplement and/or the accompanying prospectus supplement or prospectus to any other person. You are advised to exercise caution in relation to the offer. If you are in any doubt about the contents of this pricing supplement and/or the accompanying prospectus supplement or prospectus, you should obtain independent professional advice. The notes have not been and will not be registered under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law of Japan (Law No. 25 of 1948, as amended) (the “Financial Instruments and Exchange Law”) and accordingly, have not been and will not be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, in Japan or to, or for the account or benefit of, any resident of Japan (which term as used herein means any person resident in Japan, including any corporation or other entity organized under the laws of Japan), or to others for re-offering or resale, directly or indirectly, in Japan or to, or for the account or benefit of, any resident of Japan, except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of, and otherwise in compliance with, the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law and any other applicable laws, regulations and ministerial guidelines of Japan. Notice to Prospective Investors in Singapore This pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus have not been and will not be registered as a prospectus under the Securities and Futures Act, Chapter 289 of Singapore (the “SFA”) by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the offer of the notes in Singapore is made primarily pursuant to the exemptions under Sections 274 and 275 of the SFA. Accordingly, this pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus or any other document or material in connection with the offer or sale, or invitation for subscription or purchase of the notes may not be circulated or distributed, nor may the notes be offered or sold, or be made the subject of an invitation for subscription or purchase, whether directly or indirectly, to any person in Singapore other than (i) to an institutional investor (as defined under Section 4A of the SFA) (an “Institutional Investor”) pursuant to Section 274 of the SFA, (ii) to an accredited investor (as defined in Section 4A of the SFA) (an “Accredited Investor”) or other relevant person (as defined in Section 275(2) of the SFA) (a “Relevant Person”) and pursuant to Section 275(1) of the SFA, or to any person pursuant to an offer referred to in Section 275(1A) of the SFA, and in accordance with the conditions specified in Section 275 of the SFA and (where applicable) Regulation 3 of the Securities and Futures (Classes of Investors) Regulations 2018, or (iii) otherwise pursuant to, and in accordance with, the conditions of any other applicable exemption or provision of the SFA. It is a condition of the offer that where the notes are subscribed for or acquired pursuant to an offer made in reliance on Section 275 of the SFA by a Relevant Person which is: (a) a corporation (which is not an Accredited Investor), the sole business of which is to hold investments and the entire share capital of which is owned by one or more individuals, each of whom is an Accredited Investor; or a trust (where the trustee is not an Accredited Investor), the sole purpose of which is to hold investments and each beneficiary of the trust is an individual who is an Accredited Investor, the securities and securities-based derivatives contracts (each term as defined in Section 2(1) of the SFA) of that corporation and the beneficiaries’ rights and interest (howsoever described) in that trust shall not be transferred within 6 months after that corporation or that trust has subscribed for or acquired the notes except: to an Institutional Investor, or an Accredited Investor or other Relevant Person, or which arises from an offer referred to in Section 275(1A) of the SFA (in the case of that corporation) or Section 276(4)(i)(B) of the SFA (in the case of that trust); where no consideration is or will be given for the transfer; where the transfer is by operation of law; or as specified in Section 276(7) of the SFA. SFA Product Classification – Solely for the purposes of its obligations pursuant to Sections 309B(1)(a) and 309B(1)(c) of the SFA, the issuer has determined, and hereby notifies all relevant persons (as defined in Section 309A of the SFA) that the notes are “prescribed capital markets products” (as defined in the Securities and Futures (Capital Markets Products) Regulations 2018) and “Excluded Investment Products” (as defined in MAS Notice SFA 04-N12: Notice on the Sale of Investment Products and MAS Notice FAA-N16: Notice on Recommendations on Investment Products). The notes have not been, and are not being, publicly offered, sold, promoted or advertised in the United Arab Emirates (including the Dubai International Financial Centre) other than in compliance with the laws of the United Arab Emirates (and the Dubai International Financial Centre) governing the issue, offering and sale of securities. Further, this pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus do not constitute a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (including the Dubai International Financial Centre) and are not intended to be a public offer. This pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus have not been approved by or filed with the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, the Securities and Commodities Authority or the Dubai Financial Services Authority. This pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus relate to an Exempt Offer in accordance with the Markets Rules 2012 of the Dubai Financial Services Authority (“DFSA”). This pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus are intended for distribution only to persons of a type specified in the Markets Rules 2012 of the DFSA. They must not be delivered to, or relied on by, any other person. The DFSA has no responsibility for reviewing or verifying any documents in connection with Exempt Offers. The DFSA has not approved this pricing supplement or the accompanying prospectus supplement or prospectus nor taken steps to verify the information set forth herein or therein and has no responsibility for this document. The securities to which this pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement or prospectus relate may be illiquid and/or subject to restrictions on their resale. Prospective purchasers of the notes offered hereby should conduct their own due diligence on the notes. If you do not understand the contents of this pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus, you should consult an authorized financial advisor. In relation to its use in the Dubai International Financial Centre, this pricing supplement and the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus are strictly private and confidential and are being distributed to a limited number of investors and must not be provided to any person other than the original recipient, and may not be reproduced or used for any other purpose. The interests in the notes may not be offered or sold directly or indirectly to the public in the Dubai International Financial Centre. The validity of the notes, including the guarantee, will be passed upon for us by Morrison & Foerster LLP, Washington, D.C. Certain legal matters will be passed upon for the underwriters by Sidley Austin LLP, New York, New York. (To Prospectus dated March 3, 2020) Due Nine Months or More from Date of Issue, Fully and Unconditionally Guaranteed by The following terms will generally apply to the medium-term notes that we will sell from time to time using this prospectus supplement and the attached prospectus. Ranking as senior indebtedness under the company’s senior indenture and fully and unconditionally guaranteed by our subsidiary, United Dominion Realty, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership Mature nine months or more from the date of issue May be subject to redemption at our option or repurchase at the option of the holder Fixed or floating interest rate. The floating interest rate formula may be based on: CMT rate Commercial paper rate Eleventh district cost of funds rate Federal funds rate Prime rate Another rate or formula set forth in the applicable pricing supplement Fixed rate notes may bear no interest when issued at a discount from the principal amount due at maturity Certificated or book-entry form Payments in U.S. dollars or one or more foreign currencies Interest paid on fixed rate notes and floating rate notes will be paid on the dates specified in the pricing supplement The final terms of each note will be specified in the applicable pricing supplement which may be different from the terms described in this prospectus supplement. Investing in the notes involves risks. See “Risk Factors” beginning on S-3 of this prospectus supplement and on page 3 of the accompanying prospectus and the risks set forth under the caption “Item 1A. Risk Factors” included in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K or quarterly report on Form 10-Q and other periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, which are incorporated by reference herein. Neither the SEC nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus supplement, the accompanying prospectus or any pricing supplement. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense. Price to Public We may sell notes to the agents referred to below as principal for resale at varying or fixed offering prices or through the agents as agent using their reasonable efforts on our behalf. We may also sell notes without the assistance of any agent. TD Securities BNY Mellon Capital Markets, LLC The date of this prospectus supplement is May 7, 2020. S-1 Our Company Description of Preferred Stock Description of Guarantees of the Debt Securities Description of Warrants This prospectus supplement, the accompanying prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, include statements about future events and expectations that constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements concerning property acquisitions and dispositions, development activity and capital expenditures, capital raising activities, rent growth, occupancy, and rental expense growth. Words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results of operations or plans expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could be inaccurate, and therefore such statements may not prove to be accurate. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking statements included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by us or any other person that the results or conditions described in such statements or our objectives and plans will be achieved. The following factors, among others, could cause our future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements: the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (“COVID-19”) pandemic and measures intended to prevent its spread or address its effects; general economic conditions; unfavorable changes in apartment market and economic conditions that could adversely affect occupancy levels and rental rates, including as a result of COVID-19; the failure of acquisitions to achieve anticipated results; possible difficulty in selling apartment communities; competitive factors that may limit our ability to lease apartment homes or increase or maintain rents; insufficient cash flow that could affect our debt financing and create refinancing risk; failure to generate sufficient revenue, which could impair our debt service payments and distributions to stockholders; development and construction risks that may impact our profitability; potential damage from natural disasters, including hurricanes and other weather-related events, which could result in substantial costs to us; risks from climate change that impacts our properties and operations; risks from extraordinary losses for which we may not have insurance or adequate reserves; risks from cybersecurity breaches of our information technology systems and the information technology systems of our third party vendors and other third parties; uninsured losses due to insurance deductibles, self-insurance retention, uninsured claims or casualties, or losses in excess of applicable coverage; delays in completing developments and lease-ups on schedule; our failure to succeed in new markets; risks that third parties who have an interest in or are otherwise involved in projects in which we have an interest, including mezzanine borrowers, joint venture partners or other investors, do not perform as expected; changing interest rates, which could increase interest costs and affect the market price of our securities; potential liability for environmental contamination, which could result in substantial costs to us; the imposition of federal taxes if we fail to qualify as a real estate investment trust, or REIT, under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Internal Revenue Code, in any taxable year; our internal control over financial reporting may not be considered effective which could result in a loss of investor confidence in our financial reports, and in turn have an adverse effect on our stock price; and changes in real estate laws, tax laws, rent control or stabilization and other laws affecting our business. Please also refer to the section entitled “Risk Factors” in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and the other information that we file with the SEC from time to time and incorporate by reference herein for further information on these and other risks affecting us. See “Where You Can Find More Information.” We caution you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because our future results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by them. We do not intend to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, relating to the matters discussed in this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, except as required by law. From time to time, we intend to use this prospectus supplement, the accompanying prospectus, and a related pricing supplement to offer the Medium-Term Notes, Series A, Due Nine Months or More from Date of Issue, Fully and Unconditionally Guaranteed by United Dominion Realty, L.P., which we refer to, along with the related guarantee offered under this prospectus supplement, as the “notes.” We refer to the guarantee offered under this prospectus supplement as the “guarantee.” You should read each of these documents before investing in the notes. This prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus do not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the notes in any jurisdiction in which that offer or solicitation is unlawful. The distribution of this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus and the offering of the notes in some jurisdictions may be restricted by law. If you have received this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, you should find out about and observe these restrictions. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus must inform themselves about and observe any restrictions relating to the distribution of this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus and the offering of the notes outside of the United States. See “Plan of Distribution.” This prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus are not prospectuses (and together is not a prospectus) for the purposes of the Prospectus Regulation (as defined below). This prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus have each been prepared on the basis that any offer of the notes in any member state of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or in the United Kingdom (each, a “Relevant State”) will only be made to a legal entity which is a qualified investor under the Prospectus Regulation (“Qualified Investors”). Accordingly any person making or intending to make an offer in that Relevant Member State of the notes which are the subject of the offering contemplated in this pricing supplement, the accompanying prospectus supplement and prospectus may only do so with respect to Qualified Investors. Neither we nor any of the underwriters have authorized, nor do we or they authorize, the making of any offer to Qualified Investors. The expression “Prospectus Regulation” means Regulation (EU) 2017/1129. PROHIBITION OF SALES TO EEA AND UNITED KINGDOM RETAIL INVESTORS - The notes are not intended to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any retail investor in the EEA or in the United Kingdom. For these purposes, a retail investor means a person who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client as defined in point (11) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU, as amended (“MiFID II”); or (ii) a customer within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2016/97 (the “Insurance Distribution Directive”), where that customer would not qualify as a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II; or (iii) not a qualified investor as defined in the Prospectus Regulation. Consequently, no key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014, as amended (the “PRIIPs Regulation”), for offering or selling the notes or otherwise making them available to retail investors in the EEA or in the United Kingdom has been prepared and therefore offering or selling the notes or otherwise making them available to any retail investor in the EEA or in the United Kingdom may be unlawful under the PRIIPs Regulation. The communication of this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus and any other document or materials relating to the issue of notes offered hereby is not being made, and such documents and/or materials have not been approved, by an authorized person for the purposes of section 21 of the United Kingdom’s Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as amended (the “FSMA”). Accordingly, such documents and/or materials are not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom. The communication of such documents and/or materials as a financial promotion is only being made to those persons in the United Kingdom who have professional experience in matters relating to investments and who fall within the definition of investment professionals (as defined in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the “Financial Promotion Order”)), or within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Financial Promotion Order, or to any other persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be made under the Financial Promotion Order (all such persons together being referred to as “relevant persons”). In the United Kingdom, the notes offered hereby are only available to, and any investment or investment activity to which this prospectus supplement and the S-1 accompanying prospectus and any other document or materials relating to the issue of notes offered hereby will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person in the United Kingdom that is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this prospectus supplement, the accompanying prospectus or any other document or materials relating to the issue of notes offered hereby or any of their contents. MiFID II product governance / target market – The pricing supplement in respect of any notes may include a legend entitled “MiFID II Product Governance” which will outline the target market assessment in respect of the notes and which channels for distribution of the notes are appropriate. Any person subsequently offering, selling or recommending the notes (a “distributor”) should take into consideration the target market assessment; however, a distributor subject to MiFID II is responsible for undertaking its own target market assessment in respect of the notes (by either adopting or refining the target market assessment) and determining appropriate distribution channels. A determination will be made in relation to each issue about whether, for the purpose of the MiFID Product Governance rules under EU Delegated Directive 2017/593 (the “MiFID II Product Governance Rules”), any agent subscribing for any notes is a manufacturer in respect of such notes, but otherwise neither the agents nor any of their respective affiliates will be a manufacturer for the purpose of the MiFID Product Governance Rules. For each offering of notes, we will issue a pricing supplement which will contain additional terms of the offering and a specific description of the notes being offered. The pricing supplement also may add, update, or change information in this prospectus supplement or the accompanying prospectus, including provisions describing the calculation of interest and the method of making payments under the terms of a note. We will state in the pricing supplement the interest rate or interest rate basis or formula, issue price, any relevant index or indices or other reference asset, the maturity date, interest payment dates, redemption or repayment provisions, if any, and other relevant terms and conditions for each note at the time of issuance. The pricing supplement also may include a discussion of any risk factors or other special additional considerations that apply to a particular type of note. The pricing supplement can be quite detailed and always should be read carefully. Any term that is used, but not defined, in this prospectus supplement has the meaning set forth in the accompanying prospectus. References in this prospectus supplement to “UDR,” “we,” “us,” “our” or “the company” are to UDR, Inc. References in this prospectus supplement to “UDR LP” or “the guarantor” are to United Dominion Realty, L.P. Investing in the notes involves risks. Before investing in the notes, you should carefully consider, among other matters, the risk factors below and information set forth under the heading “Risk Factors” in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and other periodic reports, which are incorporated by reference into this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, as the same may be updated from time to time by filings under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, that we incorporate by reference herein. Notes Indexed to Interest Rate, Currency or Other Indices or Formulas May Have Risks Not Associated with a Conventional Debt Security If you invest in notes indexed, as to principal, premium, if any, and/or interest, if any, to one or more interest rate, currency or other indices or formulas, you will be subject to significant risks not associated with similar investments in a conventional fixed rate or floating rate debt security. These risks include, without limitation, fluctuation of the particular indices or formulas and the possibility that you will receive a lower, or no, amount of principal, premium or interest and at different times than you expected. We have no control over a number of factors, including economic, financial and political events, which are important in determining the existence, magnitude and longevity of these risks and their results. In addition, if an index or formula used to determine any amounts payable in respect of the notes contains a multiplier or leverage factor, the effect of any change in the particular index or formula will be magnified. In recent years, values of certain indices and formulas have been volatile and volatility in those and other indices and formulas may be expected in the future. Redemption May Adversely Affect Your Return on the Notes If your notes are redeemable at our option, we may choose to redeem your notes at times when prevailing interest rates are relatively low. In addition, if your notes are subject to mandatory redemption, we may be required to redeem your notes also at times when prevailing interest rates are relatively low. As a result, you may not be able to reinvest the redemption proceeds in a comparable security at an effective interest rate as high as the current interest rate on the notes being redeemed. There May Not Be a Trading Market for Your Notes; Many Factors Affect the Trading and Market Value of Your Notes Upon issuance, your notes will not have an established trading market. A trading market for your notes may not develop or be maintained if developed. In addition to our creditworthiness, many factors affect the trading market for, and trading value of, your notes. These factors include: the complexity and volatility of the index or formula applicable to your notes, the method of calculating the principal, premium and interest in respect of your notes, the time remaining to the maturity of your notes, the outstanding amount of notes related to your notes, any redemption features of your notes, the amount of other debt securities linked to the index or formula applicable to your notes, and the level, direction and volatility of market interest rates generally. There may be a limited number of buyers when you decide to sell your notes. This may affect the price you receive for your notes or your ability to sell your notes at all. In addition, notes that are designed for specific investment objectives or strategies often experience a more limited trading market and more price volatility than those not so designed. You should not purchase any notes unless you understand and are able to bear the risk that the notes may not be readily saleable, that the value of the notes will fluctuate over time and that these fluctuations may be significant. Foreign Currency Notes are Subject to Exchange Rate and Exchange Control Risks If you invest in notes that are denominated and/or payable in a currency other than U.S. dollars, referred to in this prospectus supplement as “foreign currency notes,” you will be subject to significant risks not associated with an investment in a debt security denominated and payable in U.S. dollars, including, without limitation, the possibility of material changes in the exchange rate between U.S. dollars and the applicable foreign currency and the possibility of the imposition or modification of exchange controls by the applicable governments or monetary authorities. We have no control over the factors that generally affect these risks, including economic, financial and political events and the supply and demand for the applicable currencies. Moreover, if payments on your foreign currency notes are determined by reference to a formula containing a multiplier or leverage factor, the effect of any change in the exchange rates between the applicable currencies will be magnified. In recent years, exchange rates between U.S. dollars and certain currencies have been highly volatile and volatility between these currencies or with other currencies should be expected in the future. Depreciation of the currency applicable to your foreign currency notes against the U.S. dollar would result in a decrease in the U.S. dollar equivalent yield of your foreign currency notes, in the U.S. dollar equivalent value of the principal and any premium payable at maturity or any earlier redemption of your foreign currency notes and, generally, in the U.S. dollar equivalent market value of your foreign currency notes. Governmental or monetary authority exchange controls could affect exchange rates and the availability of the payment currency for your foreign currency notes on a required payment date. Even if there are no exchange controls, it is possible that the currency in which your foreign currency rates are payable will not be available on a required payment date due to circumstances beyond our control. In these cases, we will be allowed to satisfy our obligations in respect of your foreign currency notes in U.S. dollars. Investors in the Notes Assume the Credit Risk of UDR and UDR LP in the Event that UDR Defaults on its Obligations Under the Notes; UDR’s Credit Ratings May Not Reflect All Risks of an Investment in the Notes The notes are issued by UDR and guaranteed by UDR LP, UDR’s subsidiary. As a result, investors in the notes assume the credit risk of UDR and UDR LP in the event that UDR defaults on its obligations under the notes. This means that if UDR and UDR LP become insolvent, default or are otherwise unable to pay their obligations under the notes, you could lose some or all of your initial principal investment. The credit ratings assigned to our medium-term note program may not reflect the potential impact of all risks related to structure and other factors on any trading market for, or trading value of, your notes. In addition, real or anticipated changes in UDR’s credit ratings will generally affect any trading market for, or trading value of, your notes. Accordingly, you should consult your own financial and legal advisors as to the risks entailed by an investment in the notes and the suitability of investing in the notes in light of your particular circumstances. Our Payment on the Notes Will Be Subordinated to Secured Indebtedness to the Extent of the Value of the Collateral and Effectively Subordinated to any Indebtedness of Our Non-Guarantor Subsidiaries As described below in “Description of Notes,” the notes offered hereby will be our unsecured general obligations, and will rank equally with all of our other unsecured and unsubordinated indebtedness outstanding from time to time. As a result, our payment of amounts due on the notes will be subordinated to all of our existing and future secured obligations to the extent of the value of the collateral pledged toward any such secured obligation. Our payment of amounts due on the notes also will be effectively subordinated to all liabilities, whether secured or unsecured, of any of our non-guarantor subsidiaries because, in the event of a bankruptcy, liquidation, dissolution, reorganization or similar proceeding with respect to such subsidiaries, we, as an equity holder of such subsidiaries, would not receive distributions from such subsidiaries until claims of any creditors of such subsidiaries are satisfied. The following description of the terms of the notes supplements, and to the extent inconsistent replaces, the description of the general terms and provisions of debt securities contained in the accompanying prospectus. The pricing supplement for each offering of an issue of notes will contain the specific information and terms for that offering. The pricing supplement may also add, update or change information contained in the accompanying prospectus and this prospectus supplement. It is important for you to consider the information contained in the accompanying prospectus, this prospectus supplement and any pricing supplement in making your investment decision. We will issue the notes as a series of Debt Securities under an indenture, referred to in this prospectus supplement as the “Indenture,” dated as of November 1, 1995, as amended, supplemented or modified from time to time, with U.S. Bank National Association, successor trustee to Wachovia Bank, National Association (formerly First Union National Bank of Virginia), as trustee. The Indenture is subject to, and governed by, the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, as amended. The following summary of certain provisions of the notes, including the guarantee, and the Indenture does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the actual provisions of the notes, including the guarantee, and the Indenture. Capitalized terms used but not defined in this prospectus supplement shall have the meanings given to them in the accompanying prospectus, the notes, including the guarantee, or the Indenture, as the case may be. The term “Debt Securities,” as used in this prospectus supplement, refers to all debt securities issued and issuable from time to time under the Indenture, including the notes offered by this prospectus supplement, as well as the guarantee. The following description of notes will apply to each note offered hereby unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement. All of our Debt Securities that we have issued or will issue under the Indenture, including the notes offered hereby, will be our unsecured general obligations and will rank equally with all of our other unsecured and unsubordinated indebtedness from time to time outstanding. UDR LP will fully and unconditionally guarantee payment in full to the holders of our Debt Securities, including the notes offered hereby. All such payments are subject to the credit risk of UDR LP, as the guarantor. The Indenture does not limit the aggregate principal amount of Debt Securities that we may issue thereunder. Accordingly, we may issue Debt Securities from time to time in one or more series up to the aggregate initial offering price authorized by us for the particular series. We may, from time to time, without the consent of the registered holders of the notes offered hereby, issue medium-term notes that are part of the same series as the notes or other Debt Securities under the Indenture in addition to the notes offered hereby. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, notes that bear interest will either be fixed rate notes or floating rate notes, as specified in the applicable pricing supplement. We may also issue discount notes, indexed notes and amortizing notes, as specified in the applicable pricing supplement. Each note will mature on any day nine months or more from its date of issue, referred to herein as the “stated maturity date,” as specified in the applicable pricing supplement, unless the principal thereof (or, any installment of principal thereof) becomes due and payable prior to the stated maturity date, whether, as applicable, by the declaration of acceleration of maturity, notice of redemption at our option, notice of the registered holder’s option to elect repayment or otherwise (the stated maturity date or any date prior to the stated maturity date on which the particular note becomes due and payable, as the case may be, is referred to as the “maturity date” with respect to the principal of the particular note repayable on that date). Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, the notes will be denominated in, and payments of principal, premium, if any, and/or interest, if any, in respect thereof will be made in, U.S. dollars. The notes also may be denominated in, and payments of principal, premium, if any, and/or interest, if any, in respect thereof may be made in, one or more foreign currencies. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, payments in respect of foreign currency notes will be made in the currency in which those foreign currency notes are denominated. See “Special Provisions Relating to Foreign Currency Notes — Payment of Principal, Premium, if any, and Interest, if any.” The currency in which a note is denominated (or, if that currency is no longer legal tender for the payment of public and private debts in the country issuing that currency which is then legal tender) is referred to as the “Specified Currency” with respect to the particular note. References to “U.S. dollars” or “$” are to the lawful currency of the United States of America. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, you will be required to pay for your notes in the Specified Currency. At the present time, there are limited facilities in the United States for the conversion of U.S. dollars into foreign currencies and vice versa, and commercial banks do not generally offer non-U.S. dollar checking or savings account facilities in the United States. The agent from or through which a foreign currency note is purchased may be prepared to arrange for the conversion of U.S. dollars into the Specified Currency to enable you to pay for your foreign currency note, provided that you make a request to that agent on or prior to the fifth business day (as defined below) preceding the date of delivery of the particular foreign currency note, or by any other day determined by that agent. Each conversion will be made by an agent on the terms and subject to the conditions, limitations and charges as that agent may from time to time establish in accordance with its regular foreign exchange practices. You will be required to bear all costs of exchange in respect of your foreign currency note. For more information, see “Special Provisions Relating to Foreign Currency Notes” below. Interest rates that we offer on the notes may differ depending upon, among other factors, the aggregate principal amount of notes purchased in any single transaction. Notes with different variable terms other than interest rates may also be offered concurrently to different investors. We may change interest rates or formulas and other terms of notes from time to time, but no change of terms will affect any note we have previously issued or as to which we have accepted an offer to purchase. We will issue each note as a book-entry note represented by one or more fully registered global securities or as a fully registered certificated note. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, the minimum denominations of each note other than a foreign currency note will be $1,000 and integral multiples of $1,000. We will make payments of principal of, and premium, if any, and interest, if any, on, book-entry notes represented by global securities through the trustee to The Depositary Trust Company or its successor or assigns, referred to in this prospectus supplement as the “Depositary.” In the case of certificated notes, we will make payments of principal and premium, if any, due on the maturity date in immediately available funds upon presentation and surrender thereof (and, in the case of any repayment on an optional repayment date, upon submission of a duly completed election form if and as required by the provisions described below) at the office or agency maintained by us for this purpose in the Borough of Manhattan, The City of New York, currently the corporate trust office of the trustee located at 100 Wall Street, Suite 600, New York, New York 10005. We will make payments of interest, if any, due on the maturity date of a certificated note to the person to whom payment of the principal thereof and premium, if any, thereon shall be made. We will make payments of interest, if any, on a certificated note due on any Interest Payment Date (as defined below) other than the maturity date by check mailed to the address of the registered holder entitled thereto appearing in the security register. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we will make payments of interest, if any, due on any Interest Payment Date other than the maturity date to each registered holder of $10,000,000 (or, if the Specified Currency is other than U.S. dollars, the equivalent thereof in the particular Specified Currency) or more in aggregate principal amount of certificated notes (whether having identical or different terms and provisions) by wire transfer of immediately available funds if the applicable registered holder has delivered appropriate wire transfer instructions in writing to the trustee not less than 15 days prior to the particular Interest Payment Date. Any wire transfer instructions received by the trustee shall remain in effect until revoked by the applicable registered holder. For special payment terms applicable to foreign currency notes, see “Special Provisions Relating to Foreign Currency Notes — Payment of Principal, Premium, if any, and Interest, if any. The term “business day” means any day, other than a Saturday or Sunday, that is neither a legal holiday nor a day on which commercial banking institutions are authorized or required by law, regulation or executive order to close in The City of New York; provided, however, that, with respect to foreign currency notes, the day must also not be a day on which commercial banking institutions are authorized or required by law, regulation or executive order to close in the Principal Financial Center (as defined below) of the country issuing the Specified Currency (or, if the Specified Currency is Euro, the day must also be a day on which the Trans-European Automated Real-Time Gross Settlement Express Transfer (TARGET) System is open); provided, further, that, with respect to notes as to which LIBOR is an applicable Interest Rate Basis, the day must also be a London Banking Day (as defined below). “London Banking Day” means a day on which commercial banking institutions are open for business (including dealings in the Designated LIBOR Currency (as defined below) are transacted in the London interbank market. “Principal Financial Center” means, as applicable: the capital city of the country issuing the Specified Currency; or the capital city of the country to which the Designated LIBOR Currency relates; provided, however, that with respect to U.S. dollars, Australian dollars, Canadian dollars, Euros, South African rand and Swiss francs, the “Principal Financial Center” shall be The City of New York, Sydney, Toronto, London (solely in the case of the Designated LIBOR Currency), Johannesburg and Zurich, respectively. Book-entry notes may be transferred or exchanged only through the Depositary. Registration of transfer or exchange of certificated notes will be made at the office or agency maintained by us for this purpose in the Borough of Manhattan, The City of New York, currently the corporate trust office of the trustee located at 100 Wall Street, Suite 600, New York, New York 10005. No service charge will be imposed for any such registration of transfer or exchange of notes, but we may require payment of a sum sufficient to cover any tax or other governmental charge that may be imposed in connection therewith (other than certain exchanges not involving any transfer). The defeasance and covenant defeasance provisions contained in the Indenture shall apply to the notes. On September 30, 2010, UDR LP, a Delaware limited partnership and a subsidiary of UDR, guaranteed certain outstanding securities of UDR. These guarantees, including the guarantee offered under this prospectus supplement, provide that UDR LP, as primary obligor and not merely as surety, irrevocably and unconditionally guarantees to each holder of such securities and to the trustee and their successors and assigns under the respective indenture (a) the full and punctual payment when due, whether at stated maturity, by acceleration or otherwise, of all obligations of UDR under the respective indenture whether for principal of or interest on the securities (and premium, if any), and all other monetary obligations of UDR under the respective indenture and the terms of such securities and (b) the full and punctual performance within the applicable grace periods of all other obligations of UDR under the respective indenture and the terms of such securities. UDR LP will fully and unconditionally guarantee payment of any principal, premium and interest in respect of the notes in full to the holders thereof. The guarantee forms part of the Indenture under which the notes will be issued. If, for any reason, we do not make any required payment in respect of our notes when due, UDR LP will cause the payment to be made to or to the order of the applicable paying agent on behalf of the trustee. Holders of our notes may enforce their rights under the guarantee directly against UDR LP without first making a demand or taking action against UDR or any other person or entity. UDR LP may, without the consent of the holders of the notes, assume all of our rights and obligations under the notes and, upon such assumption, we will be released from our liabilities under the Indenture and the notes. Redemption at Our Option; No Sinking Fund If an initial redemption date is specified in the applicable pricing supplement, we may redeem the particular notes prior to their stated maturity date at our option on any date on or after that initial redemption date in whole or from time to time in part in increments of $1,000 or any other integral multiple of an authorized denomination specified in the applicable pricing supplement (provided that any remaining principal amount thereof shall be at least $1,000 or other minimum authorized denomination applicable thereto), at the applicable Redemption Price (as defined below), together with unpaid interest accrued thereon to the date of redemption. We must give written notice to registered holders of the particular notes to be redeemed at our option not more than 60 nor less than 30 calendar days prior to the date of redemption. “Redemption Price,” with respect to a note, means an amount equal to the initial redemption percentage specified in the applicable pricing supplement (as adjusted by the annual redemption percentage reduction, if applicable) multiplied by the unpaid principal amount thereof to be redeemed. The initial redemption percentage, if any, applicable to a note shall decline at each anniversary of the initial redemption date by an amount equal to the applicable annual redemption percentage reduction, if any, until the Redemption Price is equal to 100% of the unpaid principal amount thereof to be redeemed. For a discussion of the redemption of discount notes, see “ — Discount Notes.” The notes will not be subject to, or entitled to the benefit of, any sinking fund. Repayment at the Option of the Holder If one or more optional repayment dates are specified in the applicable pricing supplement, registered holders of the particular notes may require us to repay those notes prior to their stated maturity date on any optional repayment date in whole or from time to time in part in increments of $1,000 or any other integral multiple of an authorized denomination specified in the applicable pricing supplement (provided that any remaining principal amount thereof shall be at least $1,000 or other minimum authorized denomination applicable thereto), at a repayment price equal to 100% of the unpaid principal amount thereof to be repaid, together with unpaid interest accrued thereon to the date of repayment. A registered holder’s exercise of the repayment option will be irrevocable. For a discussion of the repayment of discount notes, see “ — Discount Notes.” For any note to be repaid, the trustee must receive, at its corporate trust office in the Borough of Manhattan, The City of New York, not more than 60 nor less than 30 calendar days prior to the date of repayment, the particular notes to be repaid and: in the case of a certificated note, the form entitled “Option to Elect Repayment” duly completed, or in the case of a book-entry note, repayment instructions from the applicable Beneficial Owner (as defined below) to the Depositary and forwarded by the Depositary. Only the Depositary may exercise the repayment option in respect of global securities representing book-entry notes. Accordingly, Beneficial Owners of global securities that desire to have all or any portion of the book-entry notes represented thereby repaid must instruct the Participant (as defined below) through which they own their interest to direct the Depositary to exercise the repayment option on their behalf by forwarding the repayment instructions to the trustee as aforesaid. To ensure that these instructions are received by the trustee on a particular day, the applicable Beneficial Owner must so instruct the Participant through which it owns its interest before that Participant’s deadline for accepting instructions for that day. Different firms may have different deadlines for accepting instructions from their customers. Accordingly, Beneficial Owners should consult their Participants for the respective deadlines. All instructions given to Participants from Beneficial Owners of global securities relating to the option to elect repayment shall be irrevocable. In addition, at the time repayment instructions are given, each Beneficial Owner shall cause the Participant through which it owns its interest to transfer the Beneficial Owner’s interest in the global security representing the related book-entry notes, on the Depositary’s records, to the trustee. If applicable, we will comply with the requirements of Section 14(e) of the Exchange Act and the rules promulgated thereunder, and any other securities laws or regulations in connection with any repayment of notes at the option of the registered holders thereof. We may at any time purchase notes at any price or prices in the open market or otherwise. Notes so purchased by us may, at our discretion, be held, resold or surrendered to the trustee for cancellation. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, each interest-bearing note will bear interest from its date of issue at the rate per annum, in the case of a fixed rate note, or pursuant to the interest rate formula, in the case of a floating rate note, in each case as specified in the applicable pricing supplement, until the principal thereof is paid or duly provided for. We will make interest payments in respect of fixed rate notes and floating rate notes in an amount equal to the interest accrued from and including the immediately preceding Interest Payment Date in respect of which interest has been paid or duly provided for, or from and including the date of issue, if no interest has been paid or duly provided for, to but excluding the applicable Interest Payment Date or the maturity date, as the case may be (each, an “Interest Period”). Interest on fixed rate notes and floating rate notes will be payable in arrears on each Interest Payment Date and on the maturity date. The first payment of interest on any note originally issued between a Record Date (as defined below) and the related Interest Payment Date will be made on the Interest Payment Date immediately following the next succeeding Record Date to the registered holder of such date on the next succeeding Record Date. The “Record Date” shall be the fifteenth calendar day, whether or not a business day, immediately preceding the related Interest Payment Date. Interest on fixed rate notes will be payable semiannually in arrears on June 15 and December 15 of each year or on any other date(s) specified in the applicable pricing supplement (each, an “Interest Payment Date” with respect to fixed rate notes) and on the maturity date. Each payment of interest on an Interest Payment Date will include interest accrued to but excluding such Interest Payment Date. Interest on fixed rate notes will be computed on the basis of a 360-day year consisting of twelve 30-day months. If any Interest Payment Date or the maturity date of a fixed rate note falls on a day that is not a business day, we will make the required payment of principal, premium, if any, and/or interest on the next succeeding business day with the same force and effect as if made on the date such payment was due, and no additional interest will accrue on such payment from and after such Interest Payment Date or the maturity date, as the case may be. Interest on floating rate notes will be determined by reference to the applicable Interest Rate Basis or Interest Rate Bases, which may, as described below, include: the CMT Rate, the Commercial Paper Rate, the Eleventh District Cost of Funds Rate, the Prime Rate, any other Interest Rate Basis or interest rate formula as may be specified in the applicable pricing supplement. The applicable pricing supplement will specify certain terms of the floating rate notes being offered thereby, as described below, including: a “Regular Floating Rate Note,” an “Inverse Floating Rate Note,” Index Maturity, Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, the interest rate derived from the applicable Interest Rate Basis will be determined in accordance with the applicable provisions below. The interest rate in effect on each day will be: if that day is an Interest Reset Date (as defined below), the rate determined as of the Interest Determination Date (as defined below) immediately preceding that Interest Reset Date, or if that day is not an Interest Reset Date, the rate determined as of the Interest Determination Date immediately preceding the most recent Interest Reset Date; provided, however, that the interest rate in effect for the period, if any, from the date of issue to the first Interest Reset Date will be the “Initial Interest Rate.” The “Spread” is the number of basis points to be added to or subtracted from the related Interest Rate Basis or Bases applicable to a floating rate note. The “Spread Multiplier” is the percentage of the related Interest Rate Basis or Bases applicable to a floating rate note by which the Interest Rate Basis or Bases will be multiplied to determine the applicable interest rate of such floating rate note. The “Index Maturity” is the period to maturity of the instrument or obligation with respect to which the related Interest Rate Basis or Bases will be calculated. Regular Floating Rate Notes. Unless a floating rate note is designated as a “floating rate/fixed rate note,” or an “inverse floating rate note,” or as having an Addendum attached or having Other/Additional Provisions apply, in each case relating to a different interest rate formula, the particular floating rate note will be designated as a “regular floating rate note” and will bear interest at the rate determined by reference to the applicable Interest Rate Basis or Bases: multiplied by the applicable Spread Multiplier. Commencing on the first Interest Reset Date, the rate at which interest on a regular floating rate note is payable will be reset as of each Interest Reset Date; provided, however, that the interest rate in effect for the period, if any, from the date of issue to the first Interest Reset Date will be the initial interest rate (the “Initial Interest Rate”). Floating Rate/Fixed Rate Notes. If a floating rate note is designated as a “floating rate/fixed rate note,” the particular floating rate note will bear interest at the rate determined by reference to the applicable Interest Rate Basis or Bases: multiplied by the applicable Spread Multiplier. Commencing on the first Interest Reset Date, the rate at which interest on a floating rate/fixed rate note is payable will be reset as of each Interest Reset Date; provided, however, that: the interest rate in effect for the period, if any, from the date of issue to the first Interest Reset Date will be the Initial Interest Rate, and Inverse Floating Rate Notes. If a floating rate note is designated as an “inverse floating rate note,” the particular floating rate note will bear interest at the Fixed Interest Rate minus the rate determined by reference to the applicable Interest Rate Basis or Bases: multiplied by the applicable Spread Multiplier; provided, however, that the interest rate on an inverse floating rate note will not be less than zero. Commencing on the first Interest Reset Date, the rate at which interest on an inverse floating rate note is payable will be reset as of each Interest Reset Date; and provided, further, that the interest rate in effect for the period, if any, from the date of issue to the first Interest Reset Date will be the Initial Interest Rate. Interest Reset Dates. The applicable pricing supplement will specify the dates on which the rate of interest on a floating rate note will be reset (each, an “Interest Reset Date”), and the period between Interest Reset Dates will be the “Interest Reset Period.” The Interest Reset Dates will be, in the case of floating rate notes which reset: daily- each business day, weekly- the Wednesday of each week, with the exception of weekly reset floating rate notes as to which the Treasury Rate is an applicable Interest Rate Basis, which will reset the Tuesday of each week, except as described below under “- Interest Determination Dates,” monthly- the third Wednesday of each month, with the exception of monthly reset floating rate notes as to which the Eleventh District Cost of Funds Rate is an applicable Interest Rate Basis, which will reset on the first calendar day of the month, quarterly- the third Wednesday of March, June, September and December of each year, semiannually- the third Wednesday of the two months of each year specified in the applicable pricing supplement, and annually- the third Wednesday of the month of each year specified in the applicable pricing supplement, provided however, that, with respect to floating rate/fixed rate notes, the rate of interest thereon will not reset after the particular fixed rate commencement date. If any Interest Reset Date for any floating rate note would otherwise be a day that is not a business day, the particular Interest Reset Date will be postponed to the next succeeding business day, except that in the case of a floating rate note as to which LIBOR is an applicable Interest Rate Basis and that business day falls in the next succeeding calendar month, the particular Interest Reset Date will be the immediately preceding business day. In addition, in the case of a floating rate note as to which the Treasury Rate is an applicable Interest Rate Basis, if the Interest Determination Date would otherwise fall on an Interest Reset Date, the particular Interest Reset Date will be postponed to the next succeeding business day. Interest Determination Dates. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, the interest rate applicable to an Interest Reset Period commencing on the related Interest Reset Date will be determined by reference to the applicable Interest Rate Basis as of the particular “Interest Determination Date,” which will be: with respect to the Federal Funds Rate and the Prime Rate- the business day immediately preceding the related Interest Reset Date, with respect to the CMT Rate and the Commercial Paper Rate- the second business day preceding the applicable Interest Reset Date, with respect to the Eleventh District Cost of Funds Rate- the last working day of the month immediately preceding the applicable Interest Reset Date on which the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco publishes the Index (as defined below), with respect to LIBOR- the second London Banking Day preceding the applicable Interest Reset Date unless the Designated LIBOR currency is British pounds sterling, in which case the Interest Determination Date will be the applicable Interest Reset Date, and with respect to the Treasury Rate- the day in the week in which the applicable Interest Reset Date falls on which day Treasury Bills (as defined below) are normally auctioned (i.e., Treasury Bills are normally sold at auction on Monday of each week, unless that day is a legal holiday, in which case the auction is normally held on the following Tuesday, except that the auction may be held on the preceding Friday); provided, however, that if an auction is held on the Friday of the week preceding the applicable Interest Reset Date, the Interest Determination Date will be the preceding Friday. The Interest Determination Date pertaining to a floating rate note the interest rate of which is determined with reference to two or more Interest Rate Bases will be the latest business day which is at least two business days before the related Interest Reset Date for the applicable floating rate note on which each Interest Reset Basis is determinable. Each Interest Rate Basis will be determined on the Interest Determination Date, and the applicable interest rate will take effect on the related Interest Reset Date. Calculation Dates. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, U.S. Bank National Association will be the “Calculation Agent.” The interest rate applicable to each Interest Reset Period will be determined by the Calculation Agent on or prior to the Calculation Date (as defined below), except with respect to LIBOR and the Eleventh District Cost of Funds Rate, which will be determined on the particular Interest Determination Date. Upon request of the registered holder of a floating rate note, the Calculation Agent will disclose the interest rate then in effect and, if determined, the interest rate that will become effective as a result of a determination made for the next succeeding Interest Reset Date with respect to the particular floating rate note. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, the “Calculation Date,” if applicable, pertaining to any Interest Determination Date will be the earlier of: the tenth calendar day after the particular Interest Determination Date or, if such day is not a business day, the next succeeding business day, or the business day immediately preceding the applicable Interest Payment Date or the maturity date, as the case may be. Maximum and Minimum Interest Rates. A floating rate note may also have either or both of the following: a maximum numerical limitation, or ceiling, on the per annum rate of interest in effect with respect to such note that may accrue during any Interest Reset Period (a “Maximum Interest Rate”), and a minimum numerical limitation, or floor, on the per annum rate of interest in effect with respect to such note that may accrue during any Interest Reset Period (a “Minimum Interest Rate”). S-12 In addition to any Maximum Interest Rate that may apply to a floating rate note, the interest rate on floating rate notes will in no event be higher than the maximum rate permitted by New York law, as the same may be modified by United States law of general application and the interest rate on the floating rate notes will in no event be lower than zero. Interest Payments. The applicable pricing supplement will specify the dates on which interest on floating rate notes is payable (each, an “Interest Payment Date” with respect to Floating Rate Notes). The Interest Payment Dates will be, in the case of floating rate notes which reset: daily, weekly or monthly- the third Wednesday of each month or the third Wednesday of March, June, September and December of each year, as specified in the applicable pricing supplement, quarterly- the third Wednesday of March, June, September and December of each year, semiannually- the third Wednesday of the two months of each year specified in the applicable pricing supplement, and annually- the third Wednesday of the month of each year specified in the applicable pricing supplement. In addition, the maturity date will also be an Interest Payment Date. If any Interest Payment Date other than the maturity date for any floating rate note would otherwise be a day that is not a business day, such Interest Payment Date will be postponed to the next succeeding business day, except that in the case of a floating rate note as to which LIBOR is an applicable Interest Rate Basis and that business day falls in the next succeeding calendar month, the particular Interest Payment Date will be the immediately preceding business day. If the maturity date of a floating rate note falls on a day that is not a business day, we will make the required payment of principal, premium, if any, and interest on the next succeeding business day with the same force and effect as if made on the date that payment was due, and no additional interest will accrue on the payment for the period from and after the maturity date to the payment on that next succeeding business day. All percentages resulting from any calculation on floating rate notes will be rounded to the nearest one hundred-thousandth of a percentage point, with five-one millionths of a percentage point rounded upwards. For example, 9.876545% (or .09876545) would be rounded to 9.87655% (or .0987655). All dollar amounts used in or resulting from any calculation on floating rate notes will be rounded, in the case of U.S. dollars, to the nearest cent or, in the case of a foreign currency, to the nearest unit (with one-half cent or unit being rounded upwards). With respect to each floating rate note, accrued interest is calculated by multiplying its principal amount by an accrued interest factor. The accrued interest factor is computed by adding the interest factor calculated for each day in the particular Interest Period. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, the interest factor for each of those days will be computed by dividing the interest rate applicable to such day by 360, in the case of floating rate notes as to which the Commercial Paper Rate, the Eleventh District Cost of Funds Rate, the Federal Funds Rate, LIBOR or the Prime Rate is an applicable Interest Rate Basis, or by the actual number of days in the year, in the case of floating rate notes as to which the CMT Rate or the Treasury Rate is an applicable Interest Rate Basis. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, the interest factor for floating rate notes as to which the interest rate is calculated with reference to two or more Interest Rate Bases will be calculated in each period in the same manner as if only the applicable Interest Rate Basis specified in the applicable pricing supplement applied. The Calculation Agent shall determine the rate derived from each Interest Rate Basis in accordance with the following provisions. “H.15” means the weekly statistical release designated as H.15, or any successor publication, published by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. S-13 “H.15 Daily Update” means the daily update of H.15, available through the website of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System at http:/www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15/update, or any successor site or publication. (a) the percentage equal to the yield for United States Treasury securities at “constant maturity” having the Index Maturity specified in the applicable pricing supplement as published in H.15 under the caption “Treasury Constant Maturities,” as the yield is displayed on Reuters (or any successor service) on page FRBCMT (or any other page as may replace the specified page on that service) (“Reuters Page FRBCMT”) or, if not so displayed, on the Bloomberg service (or any successor service) on Page NDX 7 (or any other page as may replace the specified page on that service) (“Bloomberg Page NDX 7”), for the particular Interest Determination Date, or (b) if the rate referred to in clause (a) does not so appear on Reuters Page FRBCMT or Bloomberg Page NDX 7, as the case may be, on the related Calculation Date, the percentage equal to the yield for United States Treasury securities at “constant maturity” having the particular Index Maturity and for the particular Interest Determination Date as published in H.15 under the caption “Treasury Constant Maturities,” or (c) if the rate referred to in clause (b) does not so appear in H.15, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date for the period of the particular Index Maturity as may then be published by either the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors or the United States Department of the Treasury that the Calculation Agent determines to be comparable to the rate which would otherwise have been published in H.15, or (d) if the rate referred to in clause (c) is not so published on the related Calculation Date, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent as a yield to maturity based on the arithmetic mean of the secondary market bid prices at approximately 3:30 P.M., New York City time, on that Interest Determination Date of three leading primary United States government securities dealers in The City of New York (which may include the Agents or their affiliates) (each, a “Reference Dealer”), selected by the Calculation Agent from five Reference Dealers selected by the Calculation Agent and eliminating the highest quotation, or, in the event of equality, one of the highest, and the lowest quotation or, in the event of equality, one of the lowest, for United States Treasury securities with an original maturity equal to the particular Index Maturity, a remaining term to maturity no more than 1 year shorter than that Index Maturity and in a principal amount that is representative for a single transaction in the securities in that market at that time, or (e) if fewer than five but more than two of the prices referred to in clause (d) are provided as requested, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent based on the arithmetic mean of the bid prices obtained and neither the highest nor the lowest of the quotations shall be eliminated, or (f) if fewer than three prices referred to in clause (d) are provided as requested, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent as a yield to maturity based on the arithmetic mean of the secondary market bid prices as of approximately 3:30 P.M., New York City time, on that Interest Determination Date of three Reference Dealers selected by the Calculation Agent from five Reference Dealers selected by the Calculation Agent and eliminating the highest quotation or, in the event of equality, one of the highest and the lowest quotation or, in the event of equality, one of the lowest, for United States Treasury securities with an original maturity greater than the particular Index Maturity, a remaining term to maturity closest to that Index Maturity and in a principal amount that is representative for a single transaction in the securities in that market at that time, or (g) if fewer than five but more than two prices referred to in clause (f) are provided as requested, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent based on the arithmetic mean of the bid prices obtained and neither the highest nor the lowest of the quotations will be eliminated, or (h) if fewer than three prices referred to in clause (f) are provided as requested, the CMT Rate in effect on the particular Interest Determination Date. S-14 (2) (a) the percentage equal to the one-week or one-month, as specified in the applicable pricing supplement, average yield for United States Treasury securities at “constant maturity” having the Index Maturity specified in the applicable pricing supplement as published in H.15 opposite the caption “Treasury Constant Maturities,” as the yield is displayed on Reuters (or any successor service) on page FEDCMT (or any other page as may replace the specified page on that service) (“Reuters Page FEDCMT”) or, if not so displayed, on the Bloomberg service (or any successor service) on Bloomberg Page NDX 7, for the week or month, as applicable, ended immediately preceding the week or month, as applicable, in which the particular Interest Determination Date falls, or (b) if the rate referred to in clause (a) does not so appear on Reuters Page FEDCMT or Bloomberg Page NDX 7, as the case may be, on the related Calculation Date, the percentage equal to the one-week or one-month, as specified in the applicable pricing supplement, average yield for United States Treasury securities at “constant maturity” having the particular Index Maturity and for the week or month, as applicable, preceding the particular Interest Determination Date as published in H.15 opposite the caption “Treasury Constant Maturities,” or (c) if the rate referred to in clause (b) does not so appear in H.15 on the related Calculation Date, the one-week or one-month, as specified in the applicable pricing supplement, average yield for United States Treasury securities at “constant maturity” having the particular Index Maturity as otherwise announced by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the week or month, as applicable, ended immediately preceding the week or month, as applicable, in which the particular Interest Determination Date falls, or (d) if the rate referred to in clause (c) is not so published on the related Calculation Date, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent as a yield to maturity based on the arithmetic mean of the secondary market bid prices at approximately 3:30 P.M., New York City time, on that Interest Determination Date of three Reference Dealers selected by the Calculation Agent from five Reference Dealers selected by the Calculation Agent and eliminating the highest quotation, or, in the event of equality, one of the highest, and the lowest quotation or, in the event of equality, one of the lowest, for United States Treasury securities with an original maturity equal to the particular Index Maturity, a remaining term to maturity no more than 1 year shorter than that Index Maturity and in a principal amount that is representative for a single transaction in the securities in that market at that time, or (e) if fewer than five but more than two of the prices referred to in clause (d) are provided as requested, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent based on the arithmetic mean of the bid prices obtained and neither the highest nor the lowest of the quotations shall be eliminated, or (f) if fewer than three prices referred to in clause (d) are provided as requested, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent as a yield to maturity based on the arithmetic mean of the secondary market bid prices as of approximately 3:30 P.M., New York City time, on that Interest Determination Date of three Reference Dealers selected by the Calculation Agent from five Reference Dealers selected by the Calculation Agent and eliminating the highest quotation or, in the event of equality, one of the highest and the lowest quotation or, in the event of equality, one of the lowest, for United States Treasury securities with an original maturity greater than the particular Index Maturity, a remaining term to maturity closest to that Index Maturity and in a principal amount that is representative for a single transaction in the securities in that market at the time, or (g) if fewer than five but more than two prices referred to in clause (f) are provided as requested, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent based on the arithmetic mean of the bid prices obtained and neither the highest or the lowest of the quotations will be eliminated, or (h) if fewer than three prices referred to in clause (f) are provided as requested, the CMT Rate in effect on that Interest Determination Date. S-15 If two United States Treasury securities with an original maturity greater than the Index Maturity specified in the applicable pricing supplement have remaining terms to maturity equally close to the particular Index Maturity, the quotes for the United States Treasury security with the shorter original remaining term to maturity will be used. the Money Market Yield, (as defined below), on the particular Interest Determination Date of the rate for commercial paper having the Index Maturity specified in the applicable pricing supplement as published in H.15 under the caption “Commercial Paper — Nonfinancial,” or (2) if the rate referred to in clause (1) is not so published by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, the Money Market Yield of the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date for commercial paper having the particular Index Maturity as published in H.15 Daily Update, or such other recognized electronic source used for the purpose of displaying the applicable rate, under the caption “Commercial Paper — Nonfinancial,” or (3) if the rate referred to in clause (2) is not so published by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent as the Money Market Yield of the arithmetic mean of the offered rates at approximately 11:00 A.M., New York City time, on that Interest Determination Date of three leading dealers of U.S. dollar commercial paper in The City of New York (which may include the Agents or their affiliates) selected by the Calculation Agent for commercial paper having the particular Index Maturity specified in the applicable pricing supplement placed for industrial issuers whose bond rating is “Aa,” or the equivalent, from a nationally recognized statistical rating organization, or (4) if the dealers so selected by the Calculation Agent are not quoting as mentioned in clause (3), the Commercial Paper Rate in effect on the particular Interest Determination Date. “Money Market Yield” means a yield (expressed as a percentage) calculated in accordance with the following formula: Money Market Yield = where “D” refers to the applicable per annum rate for commercial paper quoted on a bank discount basis and expressed as a decimal, and “M” refers to the actual number of days in the applicable Interest Reset Period. the rate equal to the monthly weighted average cost of funds for the calendar month immediately preceding the month in which the particular Interest Determination Date falls as set forth under the caption “11th District” on the display on Reuters (or any successor service) on page COFI/ARMS (or any other page as may replace the specified page on that service) (“Reuters Page COFI/ARMS”) or, if not so displayed, on the Bloomberg service (or any successor service) on page ALLX COF (or any other page as may replace the specified page on that service) (“Bloomberg Page ALLX COF”) as of 11:00 A.M., San Francisco time, on that Interest Determination Date, or (2) if the rate referred to in clause (1) does not so appear on Reuters Page COFI/ARMS or Bloomberg Page ALLX COF, as the case may be, the monthly weighted average cost of funds paid by member institutions of the Eleventh Federal Home Loan Bank District that was most recently announced (the “Index”) by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco as the cost of funds for the calendar month immediately preceding that Interest Determination Date, or (3) Federal Funds Rate. Federal Funds Rate Notes will bear interest at the rates (calculated with reference to the Federal Funds Rate and the Spread and/or Spread Multiplier, if any) specified in such Federal Funds Rate Notes. The Federal Funds S-16 Rate will be calculated by reference to either the Federal Funds (Effective) Rate, the Federal Funds Open Rate or the Federal Funds Target Rate, as specified in the applicable pricing supplement. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, “Federal Funds Rate” means the rate determined by the Calculation Agent as of the applicable Interest Determination Date (a “Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date”) in accordance with the following provisions: If “Federal Funds (Effective) Rate” is the specified Federal Funds Rate in the applicable note, the Federal Funds Rate as of the applicable Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date shall be the rate with respect to such date for United States dollar federal funds as published in H.15 opposite the caption “Federal funds (effective),” as such rate is displayed on Reuters on page FEDFUNDS1 (or any other page as may replace such page on such service) (“Reuters Page FEDFUNDS1”) under the heading “EFFECT,” or, if such rate is not so published by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the Calculation Date, the rate with respect to such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date for United States dollar federal funds as published in H.15 Daily Update, or such other recognized electronic source used for the purpose of displaying such rate, under the caption “Federal funds (effective).” If such rate does not appear on Reuters Page FEDFUNDS1 or is not yet published in H.15, H.15 Daily Update or another recognized electronic source by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, then the Federal Funds Rate with respect to such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date shall be calculated by the Calculation Agent and will be the arithmetic mean of the rates for the last transaction in overnight United States dollar federal funds arranged by three leading brokers of U.S. dollar federal funds transactions in The City of New York (which may include the agents or their affiliates) selected by the Calculation Agent, prior to 9:00 A.M., New York City time, on the Business Day following such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date; provided, however, that if the brokers so selected by the Calculation Agent are not quoting as mentioned in this sentence, the Federal Funds Rate determined as of such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date will be the Federal Funds Rate in effect on such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date. (2) If “Federal Funds Open Rate” is the specified Federal Funds Rate in the applicable note, the Federal Funds Rate as of the applicable Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date shall be the rate on such date under the heading “Federal Funds” for the relevant Index Maturity and opposite the caption “Open” as such rate is displayed on Reuters on page 5 (or any other page as may replace such page on such service) (“Reuters Page 5”), or, if such rate does not appear on Reuters Page 5 by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the Calculation Date, the Federal Funds Rate for the Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date will be the rate for that day displayed on FFPREBON Index page on Bloomberg L.P. (“Bloomberg”), which is the Fed Funds Opening Rate as reported by Prebon Yamane (or a successor) on Bloomberg. If such rate does not appear on Reuters Page 5 or is not displayed on FFPREBON Index page on Bloomberg or another recognized electronic source by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, then the Federal Funds Rate on such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date shall be calculated by the Calculation Agent and will be the arithmetic mean of the rates for the last transaction in overnight United States dollar federal funds arranged by three leading brokers of United States dollar federal funds transactions in The City of New York (which may include the agents or their affiliates) selected by the Calculation Agent prior to 9:00 A.M., New York City time, on such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date; provided, however, that if the brokers so selected by the Calculation Agent are not quoting as mentioned in this sentence, the Federal Funds Rate determined as of such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date will be the Federal Funds Rate in effect on such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date. (3) If “Federal Funds Target Rate” is the specified Federal Funds Rate in the applicable note, the Federal Funds Rate as of the applicable Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date shall be the rate on such date as displayed on the FDTR Index page on Bloomberg. If such rate does not appear on the FDTR Index page on Bloomberg by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the Calculation Date, the Federal Funds Rate for such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date will be the rate for that day appearing on Reuters Page USFFTARGET= (or any other page as may replace such page on such service) (“Reuters Page USFFTARGET=”). If such rate does not appear on the FDTR Index page on Bloomberg or is not displayed on Reuters Page USFFTARGET= by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, then the Federal Funds Rate on such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date shall be calculated by the Calculation Agent and will be the arithmetic mean of the rates for the last transaction in overnight United States dollar federal funds arranged by three leading brokers of United States dollar federal funds transactions in The City of New York (which may include the agents or their affiliates) selected by the Calculation Agent prior to 9:00 A.M., New York City time, on such Federal Funds Rate Interest Determination Date. With respect to any Interest Determination Date relating to a floating rate note for which the interest rate is determined with reference to LIBOR (a “LIBOR Interest Determination Date”), LIBOR will be the rate for deposits in the Designated LIBOR Currency having the Index Maturity specified in such note as such rate is displayed on Reuters on page LIBOR01 (or any other page as may replace such page on such service for the purpose of displaying the London interbank rates of major banks for the Designated LIBOR Currency) (“Reuters Page LIBOR01”) as of 11:00 A.M., London time, on such LIBOR Interest Determination Date. If no such rate so appears, LIBOR on such LIBOR Interest Determination Date will be determined in accordance with the provisions described in clause (2) below. (2) With respect to a LIBOR Interest Determination Date on which no rate is displayed on Reuters Page LIBOR01 as specified in clause (1) above, the Calculation Agent shall request the principal London offices of each of four major reference banks (which may include affiliates of the agents) in the London interbank market, as selected by the Calculation Agent, to provide the Calculation Agent with its offered quotation for deposits in the Designated LIBOR Currency for the period of the Index Maturity specified in the applicable note, commencing on the related Interest Reset Date, to prime banks in the London interbank market at approximately 11:00 A.M., London time, on such LIBOR Interest Determination Date and in a principal amount that is representative for a single transaction in the Designated LIBOR Currency in such market at such time. If at least two such quotations are so provided, then LIBOR on such LIBOR Interest Determination Date will be the arithmetic mean calculated by the Calculation Agent of such quotations. If fewer than two such quotations are so provided, then LIBOR on such LIBOR Interest Determination Date will be the arithmetic mean calculated by the Calculation Agent of the rates quoted at approximately 11:00 A.M., in the applicable Principal Financial Center (as defined below), on such LIBOR Interest Determination Date by three major banks (which may include affiliates of the agents) in such Principal Financial Center selected by the Calculation Agent for loans in the Designated LIBOR Currency to leading European banks, having the Index Maturity specified in the applicable note and in a principal amount that is representative for a single transaction in the Designated LIBOR Currency in such market at such time; provided, however, that if the banks so selected by the Calculation Agent are not quoting as mentioned in this sentence, LIBOR determined as of such LIBOR Interest Determination Date shall be LIBOR in effect on such LIBOR Interest Determination Date. “Designated LIBOR Currency” means the currency specified in the applicable note as to which LIBOR shall be calculated or, if no such currency is specified in the applicable note, U.S. dollars. “Principal Financial Center” means (i) the capital city of the country issuing the specified currency or (ii) the capital city of the country to which the Designated LIBOR Currency, if applicable, relates, except, in each case, that with respect to United States dollars, Australian dollars, Canadian dollars, Euros, New Zealand dollars, South African rand and Swiss francs, the “Principal Financial Center” shall be The City of New York, Sydney, Toronto, London (solely in the case of the Designated LIBOR Currency), Wellington, Johannesburg and Zurich, respectively. the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date as published in H.15 under the caption “Bank Prime Loan,” or (2) if the rate referred to in clause (1) is not so published by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date as published in H.15 Daily Update, or such other recognized electronic source used for the purpose of displaying the applicable rate, under the caption “Bank Prime Loan,” or (3) if the rate referred to in clause (2) is not so published by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent as the arithmetic mean of the rates of interest publicly announced by each bank that appears on Reuters on page USPRIME1 (or any other page as may replace such page on such service for the purpose of displaying prime rates or base lending rates of major United States banks) (“Reuters Page USPRIME1”) as the applicable bank’s prime rate or base lending rate as of 11:00 A.M., New York City time, on that Interest Determination Date, or (4) if fewer than four rates referred to in clause (3) are so published by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent as the arithmetic mean of the prime rates or base lending rates quoted on the basis of the actual number of days in the year divided by a 360-day year as of the close of business on that Interest Determination Date by three major banks (which may include affiliates of the Agents) in The City of New York selected by the Calculation Agent, or (5) if the banks so selected by the Calculation Agent are not quoting as mentioned in clause (4), the Prime Rate in effect on the particular Interest Determination Date. the rate from the auction held on the particular Interest Determination Date (the “Auction”) of direct obligations of the United States (“Treasury Bills”) having the Index Maturity specified in the applicable pricing supplement under the caption “INVEST RATE” on the display on Reuters (or any successor service) on page USAUCTION 10 (or any other page as may replace that page on that service) (“Reuters Page USAUCTION 10”) or page USAUCTION 11 (or any other page as may replace that page on that service) (“Reuters Page USAUCTION 11”) or, if not so displayed, on the Bloomberg service (or any successor service) on page AUCK 18 (or any other page as may replace the specified page on that service) (“Bloomberg Page AUCK 18”), or (2) if the rate referred to in clause (1) is not so published by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, the Bond Equivalent Yield (as defined below) of the rate for the applicable Treasury Bills as published in H.15 Daily Update, or another recognized electronic source used for the purpose of displaying the applicable rate, under the caption “U.S. Government Securities/ Treasury Bills/ Auction High,” or (3) if the rate referred to in clause (2) is not so published by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, the Bond Equivalent Yield of the auction rate of the applicable Treasury Bills as announced by the United States Department of the Treasury, or (4) if the rate referred to in clause (3) is not so announced by the United States Department of the Treasury, or if the Auction is not held, the Bond Equivalent Yield of the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date of the applicable Treasury Bills as published in H.15 under the caption “U.S. Government Securities/ Treasury Bills/ Secondary Market,” or (5) if the rate referred to in clause (4) not so published by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date of the applicable Treasury Bills as published in H.15 Daily Update, or another recognized electronic source used for the purpose of displaying the applicable rate, under the caption “U.S. Government Securities/ Treasury Bills/ Secondary Market,” or S-19 (6) if the rate referred to in clause (5) is not so published by 3:00 P.M., New York City time, on the related Calculation Date, the rate on the particular Interest Determination Date calculated by the Calculation Agent as the Bond Equivalent Yield of the arithmetic mean of the secondary market bid rates, as of approximately 3:30 P.M., New York City time, on that Interest Determination Date, of three primary United States government securities dealers (which may include the Agents or their affiliates) selected by the Calculation Agent, for the issue of Treasury Bills with a remaining maturity closest to the Index Maturity specified in the applicable pricing supplement, or (7) if the dealers so selected by the Calculation Agent are not quoting as mentioned in clause (6), the Treasury Rate in effect on the particular Interest Determination Date. “Bond Equivalent Yield” means a yield (expressed as a percentage) calculated in accordance with the following formula: Bond Equivalent Yield = where “D” refers to the applicable per annum rate for Treasury Bills quoted on a bank discount basis and expressed as a decimal, “N” refers to 365 or 366, as the case may be, and “M” refers to the actual number of days in the applicable Interest Reset Period. With respect to the notes offered under this prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus, the covenant limiting our incurrence of debt as set forth in Section 1004(a) of the Indenture and described beginning on page 15 of the accompanying prospectus under the heading “Description of Debt Securities-Covenants Under the Senior Indenture,” shall be superseded by a similar covenant that changes the limitation of our outstanding debt on a consolidated basis determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles from 60% to 65%. For the notes offered under this prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus, the new covenant that replaces the covenant set forth in Section 1004(a) of the Indenture (and which is described beginning on page 13 of the accompanying prospectus) provides that we will not, and will not permit any subsidiary to, incur any Debt (as defined beginning on page 16 of the accompanying prospectus) if, immediately after giving effect to the incurrence of the additional Debt and the application of the proceeds from the Debt, the aggregate principal amount of all of our outstanding Debt on a consolidated basis determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles is greater than 65% of the sum of, without duplication: our Total Assets (as defined beginning on page 16 of the accompanying prospectus) as of the end of the calendar quarter covered in our Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as the case may be, most recently filed with the SEC, or, if the filing is not permitted under the Exchange Act, with the trustee, prior to the incurrence of the additional Debt, and the purchase price of any real estate assets or mortgages receivable acquired, and the amount of any securities offering proceeds received, to the extent the proceeds were not used to acquire real estate assets or mortgages receivable or used to reduce Debt, by us or any subsidiary since the end of the calendar quarter, including those proceeds obtained in connection with the incurrence of the additional Debt. In addition to the covenants discussed in the accompanying prospectus under the section entitled “Description of Debt Securities,” we are required to maintain Total Unencumbered Assets of not less than 150% of the aggregate outstanding principal amount of our Unsecured Debt. For purposes of this covenant, the following capitalized terms are defined as follows: “Total Unencumbered Assets” means the sum of (i) those Undepreciated Real Estate Assets not subject to an encumbrance and (ii) all other assets of UDR and its Subsidiaries not subject to encumbrance determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (but excluding accounts receivable and intangibles). “Subsidiaries” or “Subsidiary” means a corporation, a limited liability company or a partnership a majority of the outstanding voting stock, limited liability company or partnership interests, as the case may be, of which is owned, directly or indirectly, by UDR or by one or more other Subsidiaries of UDR. For purposes of this definition, “voting stock” means stock having voting power for the election of directors, managing members or trustees, whether at all times or only so long as no senior class of stock has such voting power by reason of any contingency. “Undepreciated Real Estate Assets” as of any date means the original cost plus capital improvements of real estate assets of UDR and its Subsidiaries determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. “Unsecured Debt” means debt of UDR or any Subsidiary that is not secured by any mortgage, lien, charge, pledge or security interest of any kind upon any of their properties. Other/Additional Provisions; Addendum Any provisions with respect to the notes, including the specification and determination of one or more Interest Rate Bases, the calculation of the interest rate applicable to a floating rate note, the Interest Payment Dates, the stated maturity date, any redemption or repayment provisions or any other term relating to the notes, may be modified and/or supplemented as specified under “Other/Additional Provisions” on the face of the applicable notes or in an addendum relating to the applicable notes, if so specified on the face of the applicable notes, and, in each case, as specified in the applicable pricing supplement. We may from time to time offer notes, that we refer to herein as “discount notes,” that have an Issue Price (as specified in the applicable pricing supplement) that is less than 100% of the principal amount thereof (i.e., par) by more than a percentage equal to the product of 0.25% and the number of full years to the stated maturity date. Discount notes may not bear any interest currently or may bear interest at a rate that is below market rates at the time of issuance. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, the difference between the Issue Price of a discount note and par is referred to as the “discount.” In the event of redemption, repayment or acceleration of maturity of a discount note, the amount payable to the holder of a discount note will be equal to the sum of: the Issue Price (increased by any accruals of discount) and, in the event of any redemption of the applicable discount note, if applicable, multiplied by the initial redemption percentage specified in the applicable pricing supplement (as adjusted by the annual redemption percentage reduction, if applicable), and any unpaid interest accrued on the discount notes to the date of the redemption, repayment or acceleration of maturity, as the case may be. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, for purposes of determining the amount of discount that has accrued as of any date on which a redemption, repayment or acceleration of maturity occurs for a discount note, a discount will be accrued using a constant yield method. The constant yield will be calculated using a 30-day month, 360-day year convention, a compounding period that, except for the Initial Period (as defined below), corresponds to the shortest period between Interest Payment Dates for the applicable discount note (with ratable accruals within a compounding period), a coupon rate equal to the initial coupon rate applicable to the discount note and an assumption that the maturity of a discount note will not be accelerated. If the period from the date of issue to the first Interest Payment Date for a discount note (the “Initial Period”) is shorter than the compounding period for the discount note, a proportionate amount of the yield for an entire compounding period will be accrued. If the Initial Period is longer than the compounding period, then the period will be divided into a regular compounding period and a short period with the short period being treated as provided in the preceding sentence. The accrual of the applicable discount may differ from the accrual of original issue discount for purposes of the Internal Revenue Code, certain discount notes may not be treated as having original issue discount within the meaning of the Internal Revenue Code, and notes other than discount notes may be treated as issued with original issue discount for U.S. federal income tax purposes. See “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences.” We may from time to time offer notes, referred to herein as “indexed notes,” with the amount of principal, premium and/or interest payable in respect thereof to be determined with reference to the price or prices of specified commodities or stocks, to the exchange rate of one or more designated currencies relative to one or more other indexed currencies or to other items, in each case as specified in the applicable pricing supplement. In certain cases, holders of indexed notes may receive a principal payment on the maturity date that is greater than or less than the principal amount of such indexed notes depending We may from time to time offer notes, referred to herein as “amortizing notes,” with the amount of principal thereof and interest thereon payable in installments over their terms. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, interest on each amortizing note will be computed on the basis of a 360-day year of twelve 30-day months. Payments with respect to amortizing notes will be applied first to interest due and payable thereon and then to the reduction of the unpaid principal amount thereof. Further information concerning additional terms and provisions of amortizing notes will be specified in the applicable pricing supplement, including a table setting forth repayment information for such amortizing notes. We have established a depositary arrangement with The Depository Trust Company with respect to the book-entry notes, the terms of which are summarized below. Any additional or differing terms of the depositary arrangement with respect to the book-entry notes will be described in the applicable pricing supplement. Upon issuance, all book-entry notes of like tenor and terms up to $500,000,000 aggregate principal amount bearing interest (if any), at the same rate or pursuant to the same formula and having the same date of issue, specified currency, Interest Payment Dates, if any, stated maturity date, redemption provisions (if any), repayment provisions (if any) and other terms, will be represented by a single global security. Each global security representing book-entry notes will be deposited with, or on behalf of, the Depositary and will be registered in the name of the Depositary or a nominee of the Depositary. No global security may be transferred except as a whole by a nominee of the Depositary to the Depositary or to another nominee of the Depositary, or by the Depositary or another nominee of the Depositary to a successor of the Depositary or a nominee of a successor to the Depositary. So long as the Depositary or its nominee is the registered holder of a global security, the Depositary or its nominee, as the case may be, will be the sole owner of the book-entry notes represented thereby for all purposes under the Indenture. Except as otherwise provided below, the Beneficial Owners of the global security or securities representing book-entry notes will not be entitled to receive physical delivery of certificated notes and will not be considered the registered holders thereof for any purpose under the Indenture, and no global security representing book-entry notes shall be exchangeable or transferable. Accordingly, each Beneficial Owner must rely on the procedures of the Depositary and, if that Beneficial Owner is not a Participant (as defined below), on the procedures of the Participant through which that Beneficial Owner owns its interest to exercise any rights of a registered holder under the Indenture. The laws of some jurisdictions require that certain purchasers of securities take physical delivery of securities in certificated form. Such limits and laws may impair the ability to transfer beneficial interests in a global security representing book-entry notes. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, each global security representing book-entry notes will be exchangeable for certificated notes of like tenor and terms and of differing authorized denominations in a like aggregate principal amount, only if (i) the Depositary notifies us that it is unwilling or unable to continue as Depositary for the global securities or the Depositary has ceased to be a clearing agency registered under the Exchange Act and, in any such case we fail to appoint a successor to the Depositary within 90 calendar days, (ii) we, in our sole discretion, determine that the global securities shall be exchangeable for certificated notes or (iii) an Event of Default (as defined in the Indenture) has occurred and is continuing with respect to the notes under the Indenture and beneficial owners representing a majority in principal amount of the book-entry notes represented by the global securities advise the Depositary to cease acting as depository for the global securities. Upon any such exchange, the certificated notes shall be registered in the names of the Beneficial Owners of the global security or securities representing book-entry notes, which names shall be provided by the Depositary’s relevant Participants (as identified by the Depositary) to the trustee. The following is based on information furnished by the Depositary: The Depositary will act as securities depository for the book-entry notes. The book-entry notes will be issued as fully registered securities registered in the name of Cede & Co. (the Depositary’s partnership nominee). One fully registered global security will be issued for each issue of book-entry notes, each in the aggregate principal amount of such issue, and will be deposited with the Depositary. If, however, the aggregate principal amount of any issue exceeds $500,000,000, one global security will be issued with respect to each $500,000,000 of principal amount and an additional global security will be issued with respect to any remaining principal amount of such issue. The Depositary is a limited-purpose trust company organized under the New York Banking Law, a “banking organization” within the meaning of the New York Banking Law, a member of the Federal Reserve System, a “clearing corporation” within the meaning of the New York Uniform Commercial Code, and a “clearing agency” registered pursuant to the provisions of Section 17A of the Exchange Act. The Depositary holds securities that its participants (“Participants”) deposit with the Depositary. The Depositary also facilitates the settlement among Participants of securities transactions, such as transfers and pledges, in deposited securities through electronic computerized book-entry changes in its Participants’ accounts, thereby eliminating the need for physical movement of securities certificates. Direct Participants of the Depositary (“Direct Participants”) include securities brokers and dealers (including the agents), banks, trust companies, clearing corporations and certain other organizations. The Depositary is owned by a number of its Direct Participants and by the New York Stock Exchange, Inc. and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc., or FINRA (formerly the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc.). Access to the Depositary’s system is also available to others such as securities brokers and dealers, banks and trust companies that clear through or maintain a custodial relationship with a Direct Participant, either directly or indirectly (“Indirect Participants”). The rules applicable to the Depositary and its Participants are on file with the SEC. Purchases of book-entry notes under the Depositary’s system must be made by or through Direct Participants, which will receive a credit for such book-entry notes on the Depositary’s records. The ownership interest of each actual purchaser of each book-entry note represented by a global security (“Beneficial Owner”) is in turn to be recorded on the records of Direct Participants and Indirect Participants. Beneficial Owners will not receive written confirmation from the Depositary of their purchase, but Beneficial Owners are expected to receive written confirmations providing details of the transaction, as well as periodic statements of their holdings, from the Direct Participants or Indirect Participants through which such Beneficial Owner entered into the transaction. Transfers of ownership interests in a global security representing book-entry notes are to be accomplished by entries made on the books of Participants acting on behalf of Beneficial Owners. Beneficial Owners of a global security representing book-entry notes will not receive certificated notes representing their ownership interests therein, except in the event that use of the book-entry system for such book-entry notes is discontinued. To facilitate subsequent transfers, all global securities representing book-entry notes which are deposited with, or on behalf of, the Depositary are registered in the name of the Depositary’s nominee, Cede & Co. The deposit of global securities with, or on behalf of, the Depositary and their registration in the name of Cede & Co. effect no change in beneficial ownership. The Depositary has no knowledge of the actual Beneficial Owners of the global securities representing the book-entry notes; the Depositary’s records reflect only the identity of the Direct Participants to whose accounts such book-entry notes are credited, which may or may not be the Beneficial Owners. The Participants will remain responsible for keeping account of their holdings on behalf of their customers. Conveyance of notices and other communications by the Depositary to Direct Participants, by Direct Participants to Indirect Participants, and by Direct Participants and Indirect Participants to Beneficial Owners will be governed by arrangements among them, subject to any statutory or regulatory requirements as may be in effect from time to time. Neither the Depositary nor Cede & Co. will consent or vote with respect to the global securities representing the book-entry notes. Under its usual procedures, the Depositary mails an Omnibus Proxy to a company as soon as possible after the applicable Record Date. The Omnibus Proxy assigns Cede & Co.’s consenting or voting rights to those Direct Participants to whose accounts the book-entry notes are credited on the applicable Record Date (identified in a listing attached to the Omnibus Proxy). Principal, premium, if any, and/or interest, if any, payments on the global securities representing the book-entry notes will be made in immediately available funds to the Depositary. The Depositary’s practice is to credit Direct Participants’ accounts on the applicable payment date in accordance with their respective holdings shown on the Depositary’s records unless the Depositary has reason to believe that it will not receive payment on such date. Payments by Participants to Beneficial Owners will be governed by standing instructions and customary practices, as is the case with securities held for the accounts of customers in bearer form or registered in “street name,” and will be the responsibility of such Participant and not of the Depositary, the trustee or us, subject to any statutory or regulatory requirements as may be in effect from time to time. Payment of principal, premium, if any, and/or interest, if any, to the Depositary is the responsibility of the company and the trustee, disbursement of such payments to Direct Participants shall be the responsibility of the Depositary, and disbursement of such payments to the Beneficial Owners shall be the responsibility of Direct Participants and Indirect Participants. If applicable, redemption notices shall be sent to Cede & Co. If less than all of the book-entry notes of like tenor and terms within an issue are being redeemed, the Depositary’s practice is to determine by lot the amount of the interest of each Direct Participant in such issue to be redeemed. A Beneficial Owner shall give notice of any option to elect to have its book-entry notes repaid by us, through its Participant, to the trustee, and shall effect delivery of such book-entry notes by causing the Direct Participant to transfer the Participant’s interest in the global security or securities representing such book-entry notes, on the Depositary’s records, to the trustee. The requirement for physical delivery of book-entry notes in connection with a demand for repayment will be deemed satisfied when the ownership rights in the global security or securities representing such book-entry notes are transferred by Direct Participants on the Depositary’s records. The Depositary may discontinue providing its services as securities depository with respect to the book-entry notes at any time by giving reasonable notice to us or the trustee. Under such circumstances, in the event that a successor securities depository is not obtained, certificated notes are required to be printed and delivered. We may decide to discontinue use of the system of book-entry transfers through the Depositary (or a successor securities depository). In that event, certificated notes will be printed and delivered. The information in this section concerning the Depositary and the Depositary’s system has been obtained from sources that we believe to be reliable, but neither we nor any agent takes any responsibility for the accuracy thereof. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, foreign currency notes will not be sold in, or to residents of, the country issuing the Specified Currency. The information set forth in this prospectus supplement is directed to prospective purchasers who are United States residents and, with respect to foreign currency notes, is by necessity incomplete. We and the agents disclaim any responsibility to advise prospective purchasers who are residents of countries other than the United States with respect to any matters that may affect the purchase, holding or receipt of payments of principal of, and premium, if any, and interest, if any, on, their foreign currency notes. These purchasers should consult their own financial and legal advisors with regard to these risks. See “Risk Factors — Foreign Currency Notes are Subject to Exchange Rate and Exchange Control Risks.” Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, we are obligated to make payments of principal of, and premium, if any, and interest, if any, on, a foreign currency note in the Specified Currency. Any amounts so payable by us in the Specified Currency will be converted by the exchange rate agent named in the applicable pricing supplement (the “Exchange Rate Agent”) into U.S. dollars for payment to the registered holders thereof unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement or a registered holder elects, in the manner described below, to receive these amounts in the Specified Currency. Any U.S. dollar amount to be received by a registered holder of a foreign currency note will be based on the highest bid quotation in The City of New York received by the Exchange Rate Agent at approximately 11:00 A.M., New York City time, on the second business day preceding the applicable payment date from three recognized foreign exchange dealers (one of whom may be the Exchange Rate Agent) selected by the Exchange Rate Agent and approved by us for the purchase by the quoting dealer of the Specified Currency for U.S. dollars for settlement on that payment date in the aggregate amount of the Specified Currency payable to all registered holders of foreign currency notes scheduled to receive U.S. dollar payments and at which the applicable dealer commits to execute a contract. All currency exchange costs will be borne by the registered holders of foreign currency notes by deductions from any payments. If three bid quotations are not available, payments will be made in the Specified Currency. Registered holders of foreign currency notes may elect to receive all or a specified portion of any payment of principal, premium, if any, and/or interest, if any, in the Specified Currency by submitting a written request to the trustee at its corporate trust office in The City of New York on or prior to the applicable Record Date or at least fifteen calendar days prior to the maturity date, as the case may be. This written request may be mailed or hand delivered or sent by cable, telex or other form of facsimile transmission. A holder of foreign currency notes may elect to receive all or a specified portion of all future payments in the Specified Currency and need not file a separate election for each payment. This election will remain in effect until revoked by written notice delivered to the trustee on or prior to a Record Date or at least fifteen calendar days prior to the maturity date, as the case may be. Registered holders of foreign currency notes to be held in the name of a broker or nominee should contact their broker or nominee to determine whether and how an election to receive payments in the Specified Currency may be made. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, if the Specified Currency is other than U.S. dollars, a Beneficial Owner of a global security or securities which elects to receive payments of principal, premium, if any, and/or interest, if any, in the Specified Currency must notify the Participant through which it owns its interest on or prior to the applicable Record Date or at least fifteen calendar days prior to the maturity date, as the case may be, of its election. The applicable Participant must notify the Depositary of its election on or prior to the third business day after the applicable Record Date or at least twelve calendar days prior to the maturity date, as the case may be, and the Depositary will notify the trustee of that election on or prior to the fifth business day after the applicable Record Date or at least ten calendar days prior to the maturity date, as the case may be. If complete instructions are received by the Participant from the applicable Beneficial Owner and forwarded by the Participant to the Depositary, and by the Depositary to the trustee, on or prior to such dates, then the applicable Beneficial Owner will receive payments in the Specified Currency. Unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement, we are obligated to make payments of the principal of, and premium, if any, and/or interest, if any, on, foreign currency notes which are to be made in U.S. dollars in the manner specified herein with respect to notes denominated in U.S. dollars. We will make payments of interest, if any, on foreign currency notes which are to be made in the Specified Currency on an Interest Payment Date other than the maturity date by check mailed to the address of the registered holders of their foreign currency notes as they appear in the security register, subject to the right to receive these interest payments by wire transfer of immediately available funds under the circumstances described under “Description of Notes — General.” We will make payments of principal of, and premium, if any, and/or interest, if any, on, foreign currency notes which are to be made in the Specified Currency on the maturity date by wire transfer of immediately available funds to an account with a bank designated at least fifteen calendar days prior to the maturity date by the applicable registered holder, provided the particular bank has appropriate facilities to make these payments and the particular foreign currency note is presented and surrendered at the office or agency maintained by us for this purpose in the Borough of Manhattan, The City of New York, in time for the trustee to make these payments in accordance with its normal procedures. Availability of Specified Currency If the Specified Currency for foreign currency notes is not available for any required payment of principal, premium, if any, and/or interest, if any, due to the imposition of exchange controls or other circumstances beyond our control, we will be entitled to satisfy our obligations to the registered holders of these foreign currency notes by making payments in U.S. dollars on the basis of the Market Exchange Rate, computed by the Exchange Rate Agent, on the second business day prior to the particular payment or, if the Market Exchange Rate is not then available, on the basis of the most recently available Market Exchange Rate or as otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement. The “Market Exchange Rate” for a Specified Currency other than U.S. dollars means the noon dollar buying rate in The City of New York for cable transfers for the Specified Currency as certified for customs purposes (or, if not so certified, as otherwise determined) by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Any payment made in U.S. dollars under such circumstances shall not constitute an Event of Default (as defined in the Indenture). All determinations referred to above made by the Exchange Rate Agent shall be at its sole discretion and shall, in the absence of manifest error, be conclusive for all purposes and binding on the registered holders of the foreign currency notes. Under current New York law, a state court in the State of New York would be required to render a judgment in respect of a foreign currency note in the Specified Currency, and a judgment in the Specified Currency would be converted into U.S. dollars at the exchange rate prevailing on the date of entry of the judgment. Accordingly, registered holders of foreign currency notes would be subject to exchange rate fluctuations between the date of entry of a foreign currency judgment and the time when the amount of the foreign currency judgment is paid in U.S. dollars and converted by the applicable registered holder into the Specified Currency. We have not consented to be sued in New York state court and it is not certain whether a New York state court would otherwise have jurisdiction to enter a binding judgment against us in respect of a foreign currency note. It is also not certain whether a non-New York state court would follow the same rules and procedures with respect to conversions of foreign currency judgments. We will indemnify the registered holder of any note against any loss incurred as a result of any judgment or order being given or made for any amount due under the particular note and that judgment or order requiring payment in a currency (the “Judgment Currency”) other than the Specified Currency, and as a result of any variation between: the rate of exchange at which the Specified Currency amount is converted into the Judgment Currency for the purpose of that judgment or order, and the rate of exchange at which the registered holder, on the date of payment of that judgment or order, is able to purchase the Specified Currency with the amount of the Judgment Currency actually received. This section supplements the discussion under the caption “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences” in the accompanying prospectus. The following discussion describes the material U.S. federal income tax consequences relating to the ownership and disposition of our notes. Because this is a summary that is intended to address only material U.S. federal income tax consequences generally relevant to all holders relating to the ownership and disposition of our notes, it may not contain all the information that may be important to you. Except as discussed under the captions “Taxation of UDR” and “Taxation of REITs in General” below, this discussion does not address any aspects of U.S. federal income taxation relating to our election to be taxed as a REIT. A summary of material U.S. federal income tax consequences relating to our election to be taxed as a REIT is provided in the accompanying prospectus. We urge you to consult your tax advisor regarding the specific tax consequences to you of the acquisition, ownership, and disposition of our notes and of our election to be taxed as a REIT. Specifically, you are urged to consult your tax advisor regarding the U.S. federal, state, local, foreign, and other tax consequences of such acquisition, ownership, disposition, and election, and regarding potential changes in applicable tax laws. Taxation of UDR We elected to be taxed as a REIT under the U.S. federal income tax laws commencing with our taxable year ended December 31, 1972. We believe that we have been organized and operated in such a manner as to qualify for taxation as a REIT. The law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP has acted as our tax counsel in connection with the filing of this prospectus supplement, and we received an opinion of Kutak Rock LLP to the effect that commencing with UDR’s taxable year ended on December 31, 2012 we have been organized in conformity with the requirements for qualification and taxation as a REIT under the Internal Revenue Code, and that our actual and proposed method of operation will enable us to continue to meet the requirements for qualification and taxation as a REIT for the taxable year ending December 31, 2020 and in the future. It must be emphasized that the opinion of Kutak Rock LLP is based on various assumptions relating to our organization and operation and is conditioned upon fact-based representations and covenants made by our management regarding our organization, assets, and income, and the future conduct of our business operations. While we intend to operate so that we will qualify as a REIT, given the highly complex nature of the rules governing REITs, the ongoing importance of factual determinations, and the possibility of future changes in our circumstances, no assurance can be given by Kutak Rock LLP or by us that we will qualify as a REIT for any particular year. We asked Kutak Rock LLP to assume for purposes of its opinion that any prior legal opinions we received to the effect that we were taxable as a REIT are correct and the conclusions reached in the opinion of Kutak Rock LLP are expressly conditioned on the accuracy of such assumption. The opinion is expressed as of the date issued. Kutak Rock LLP has no obligation to advise us or our stockholders of any subsequent change in the matters stated, represented or assumed, or of any subsequent change in the applicable law. You should be aware that opinions of counsel are not binding on the IRS, and no assurance can be given that the IRS will not challenge the conclusions set forth in such opinions. Qualification and taxation as a REIT depends on our ability to meet on a continuing basis, through actual operating results, distribution levels, and diversity of stock and asset ownership, various qualification requirements imposed upon REITs by the Internal Revenue Code, the compliance with which will not be reviewed by Kutak Rock LLP. Our ability to qualify as a REIT also requires that we satisfy certain asset tests, some of which depend upon the fair market values of assets that we own directly or indirectly. Such values may not be susceptible to a precise determination. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that the actual results of our operations for any taxable year will satisfy such requirements for qualification and taxation as a REIT. Taxation of REITs in General In brief, provided that we qualify as a REIT, generally we will be entitled to a deduction for dividends that we pay and therefore will not be subject to U.S. federal corporate income tax on our taxable income that is currently distributed to our stockholders. This treatment substantially eliminates the “double taxation” at the corporate and stockholder levels that generally results from investment in a corporation. In general, the income that we generate is taxed only at the stockholder level upon a distribution of dividends to our stockholders. If we fail to qualify as a REIT in any taxable year, and the relief provisions do not apply, we would be subject to tax on our taxable income at regular corporate rates. We cannot deduct distributions to stockholders in any year in which we are not a REIT, nor would we be required to make distributions in such a year. Unless we are entitled to relief under specific statutory provisions, we would also be disqualified from re-electing to be taxed as a REIT for the four taxable years following the year during which we lost qualification. Additional information concerning the U.S. federal income tax consequences of our qualification as a REIT and the requirements of qualification and taxation as a REIT can be found in the accompanying prospectus. Tax Consequences of an Investment in Our Notes The following summary describes certain material U.S. federal income tax consequences relating to the purchase, ownership, and disposition of the notes as of the date hereof. This discussion does not cover every type of note that we might issue. Any additional U.S. federal income tax consequences relevant to a particular issue of the notes (for example, special considerations relevant to indexed notes, amortizing notes, notes providing for contingent payments, or notes denominated in a currency other than the U.S. dollar) will be provided in the pricing supplement for such notes. Except where noted, this summary applies only to notes held as capital assets and does not apply to special situations, such as those of dealers in securities or currencies, tax-exempt organizations, individual retirement accounts and other tax deferred accounts, financial institutions, life insurance companies, persons holding notes as a part of a hedging or conversion transaction or a straddle, or persons (other than Non-U.S. holders, as defined below) whose “functional currency” is not the U.S. dollar. This summary does not discuss the application of the alternative minimum tax to the notes. Except as otherwise indicated, this disclosure is addressed only to persons who acquire the notes at original issue and does not address the tax consequences to subsequent purchasers of the notes. The discussion below is based upon the current U.S. federal income tax laws and interpretations thereof as of the date hereof. Such authorities may be repealed, revoked, or modified, potentially on a retroactive basis, so as to result in federal income tax consequences different from those discussed below. Furthermore, except as otherwise indicated, the following summary does not consider the effect of any applicable foreign, state, local, or other tax laws or estate or gift tax considerations. As used herein, a “U.S. holder” of a note means a beneficial owner of a note that, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, is: an individual citizen or resident of the United States for U.S. federal income tax purposes; a corporation (including an entity treated as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes) created or organized under the laws of the United States, any of its states or the District of Columbia; an estate whose income is subject to U.S. federal income taxation regardless of its source; or any trust if (1) a U.S. court is able to exercise primary supervision over the administration of such trust and one or more “United States persons” have the authority to control all substantial decisions of the trust or (2) it has a valid election in place to be treated as a “United States person”. A “Non-U.S. holder” means a beneficial owner of a note that, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, is not a U.S. holder or entity or arrangement taxable as a “partnership” for such purposes. If an entity treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes holds notes, the tax treatment of a partner in the partnership will generally depend upon the status of the partner and the activities of the partnership. If you are a partner of a partnership holding our notes, you are encouraged to consult your tax advisor regarding the tax consequences of the ownership and disposition of the notes. We urge you to consult your tax advisor regarding the specific tax consequences to you of the acquisition, ownership and disposition of the notes. Specifically, you are encouraged to consult your tax advisor regarding the federal, state, local, foreign, and other tax consequences of such acquisition, ownership and disposition of the notes and regarding potential changes in applicable tax laws. U.S. Holders The following is a summary of certain U.S. federal income tax consequences that will apply to U.S. holders of notes. Payments of Interest on Notes Except as described below in the case of interest on a note issued with original issue discount, as defined below under “— U.S. Holders — Original Issue Discount,” interest paid on a note (including qualified stated interest, as defined below under “Original Issue Discount”) generally will be taxable to a U.S. holder as interest income at the time it is received or accrued, in accordance with the U.S. holder’s regular method of accounting for tax purposes and will be ordinary income. U.S. holders that use an accrual method of accounting for U.S. federal income tax purposes and file certain financial statements generally are required to include amounts in income no later than the time such amounts are reflected as revenue on such financial statements. Recently issued proposed regulations, on which taxpayers may rely, state that original issue discount and market discount will not be subject to these special timing rules. U.S. holders that use an accrual method of accounting should consult with their tax advisors regarding the potential applicability of this legislation to their particular situation. Original Issue Discount U.S. holders of notes issued with original issue discount (“OID”), other than short-term notes with a maturity of one year or less from the date of issue, will be subject to special tax accounting rules, as described in greater detail below. A U.S. holder of such “OID notes” generally must include OID in gross income in advance of the receipt of cash attributable to that income, regardless of the holder’s usual method of tax accounting. However, U.S. holders of OID notes generally will not be required to include separately in income cash payments received on the notes, even if denominated as interest, to the extent those cash payments do not constitute “qualified stated interest.” OID generally will arise if the “stated redemption price at maturity” of a note exceeds its “issue price” by an amount equal to or greater than a specified de minimis amount, which is generally 0.25% of the stated redemption price at maturity multiplied by the number of complete years to maturity. The “issue price” of each note in a particular offering will generally be the first price at which a substantial amount of that particular offering is sold to the public (ignoring sales to bond houses, brokers, or similar persons or organizations acting in the capacity of underwriters, placement agents, or wholesalers). The “stated redemption price at maturity” of a note is the sum of all payments to be made on the note other than “qualified stated interest.” The term “qualified stated interest” generally means stated interest that is unconditionally payable in cash or property (other than debt instruments of the issuer), or that is treated as constructively received, at least annually at a single fixed rate or, under certain circumstances, at a variable rate. If a note bears interest during any accrual period at a rate below the rate applicable for the remaining term of the note (for example, notes with teaser rates or interest holidays), then some or all of the stated interest may not be treated as qualified stated interest. U.S. holders of OID notes with a maturity of more than one year from issuance generally must include OID in income on a “constant yield” basis, regardless of their usual method of tax accounting and in advance of the receipt of some or all of the related cash payments. Accordingly, a U.S. holder may be required to include OID in income in advance of the receipt of some or all of the related cash payments. The amount of OID includible in income by the initial U.S. holder of an OID note is the sum of the “daily portions” of OID with respect to the note for each day during the taxable year or portion of the taxable year on which that U.S. holder held such note. This amount is referred to as “accrued OID.” The daily portion is determined by allocating to each day in any “accrual period” a pro rata portion of the OID allocable to that accrual period. A U.S. holder can use accrual periods of any length from one day to one year to compute accruals of OID, provided that in determining the OID allocable to an accrual period the yield to maturity is adjusted to reflect the length of that accrual period, and further provided that each scheduled payment of principal or interest occurs either on the first or the last day of an accrual period. The amount of OID allocable to any accrual period is an amount equal to the excess, if any, of: the product of the note’s “adjusted issue price” at the beginning of the accrual period and its yield to maturity, properly adjusting for the length of the accrual period, over the aggregate of all qualified stated interest payments allocable to the accrual period. The yield to maturity of a note equals the discount rate that, when used to compute the present value of all principal and interest payments under the note, produces a present value equal to the issue price of the note. The “adjusted issue price” of a note at the beginning of any accrual period generally is equal to its issue price: increased by the accrued OID for each prior accrual period, determined without regard to the amortization of any acquisition or bond premium, as described below; and reduced by any payments made on the note, other than payments of qualified stated interest, on or before the first day of the accrual period. Under these constant yield rules, a U.S. holder will have to include in income increasing amounts of OID in successive accrual periods. Additional rules applicable to notes with OID that are denominated in or determined by reference to a currency other than the U.S. dollar are described under “— U.S. Holders — Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Notes” below. In the case of a note that is a variable rate note, special rules apply. In general, if a note qualifies for treatment as a “variable rate debt instrument” under Treasury Regulations and provides for stated interest that is unconditionally payable at least annually at a variable rate that, subject to certain exceptions, is a single “qualified floating rate” or “objective rate,” each as defined below, all stated interest on the note is treated as qualified stated interest. In that case, both the note’s “yield to maturity” and “qualified stated interest” will be determined, solely for purposes of calculating the accrual of OID, if any, as though the note will bear interest in all periods throughout its term at a fixed rate generally equal to the rate that would be applicable to interest payments on the note on its date of issue or, in the case of an objective rate (other than a “qualified inverse floating rate”), the rate that reflects the yield to maturity that is reasonably expected for the note. A U.S. holder of a variable rate debt instrument would then recognize OID, if any, that is calculated based on the note’s assumed yield to maturity. If the interest actually accrued or paid during an accrual period exceeds or is less than the assumed fixed interest, the qualified stated interest or OID allocable to that period is increased or decreased under rules set forth in Treasury Regulations. Special rules apply for determining the amount of OID for other variable rate debt instruments, such as instruments with more than one qualified floating rate or instruments with a single fixed rate and one or more qualified floating rates. A note will qualify as a variable rate debt instrument if the note’s issue price does not exceed the total noncontingent principal payments by more than the lesser of: (i) .015 multiplied by the product of the total noncontingent principal payments and the number of complete years to maturity from the issue date, or (ii) 15% of the total noncontingent principal payments; and the note provides for stated interest, compounded or paid at least annually, only at one or more qualified floating rates, a single fixed rate and one or more qualified floating rates, a single objective rate, or a single fixed rate and a single objective rate that is a qualified inverse floating rate. Generally, a rate is a qualified floating rate if variations in the rate can reasonably be expected to measure contemporaneous fluctuations in the cost of newly borrowed funds in the currency in which the debt instrument is denominated. If a note provides for two or more qualified floating rates that are within 0.25 percentage points of each other on the issue date or can reasonably be expected to have approximately the same values throughout the term of the note, the qualified floating rates together constitute a single qualified floating rate. Generally, an objective rate is a rate that is determined using a single fixed formula that is based on objective financial or economic information such as one or more qualified floating rates. An objective rate is a qualified inverse floating rate if that rate is equal to a fixed rate minus a qualified floating rate and variations in the rate can reasonably be expected to inversely reflect contemporaneous variations in the qualified floating rate. A variable rate note generally will not qualify for treatment as a “variable rate debt instrument” if, among other circumstances: the variable rate of interest is subject to one or more minimum or maximum rate floors or ceilings or one or more governors limiting the amount of increase or decrease in each case which are not fixed throughout the term of the note and which are reasonably expected as of the issue date to cause the rate in some accrual periods to be significantly higher or lower than the overall expected return on the note determined without the floor, ceiling, or governor; in the case of certain notes, it is reasonably expected that the average value of the variable rate during the first half of the term of the note will be either significantly less than or significantly greater than the average value of the rate during the final half of the term of the note; or the value of the rate on any date during the term of the note is set earlier than three months prior to the first day on which that value is in effect or later than one year following that first day. In these situations, as well as others, the note generally will be subject to taxation under rules applicable to contingent payment debt instruments. U.S. holders are urged to consult with their own tax advisors regarding the specific U.S. federal income tax consequences with respect to these notes. If a U.S. holder purchases an OID note for an amount greater than its adjusted issue price (as determined above) at the purchase date and less than or equal to the sum of all amounts, other than qualified stated interest, payable on the OID note after the purchase date, the excess is “acquisition premium.” Under the acquisition premium rules, in general, the amount of OID which must be included in income for the note for any taxable year (or any portion of a taxable year in which the note is held) will be reduced (but not below zero) by the portion of the acquisition premium allocated to the period. The amount of acquisition premium allocated to each period is determined by multiplying the OID that otherwise would have been included in income by a fraction, the numerator of which is the excess of the cost over the adjusted issue price of the OID note and the denominator of which is the excess of the OID note’s stated redemption price at maturity over its adjusted issue price. If a U.S. holder purchases an OID note for an amount less than its adjusted issue price (as determined above) at the purchase date, any OID accruing with respect to that OID note will be required to be included in income and, to the extent of the difference between the purchase amount and the OID note’s adjusted issue price, the OID note will be treated as having “market discount.” See “— U.S. Holders — Market Discount” below. If a U.S. holder purchases a note (including an OID note) for an amount in excess of the sum of all amounts payable on the note after the purchase date, other than qualified stated interest, such holder will be considered to have purchased such note with “amortizable bond premium” equal in amount to such excess. A U.S. holder may elect to amortize such premium as an offset to interest income using a constant yield method over the remaining term of the note based on the U.S. holder’s yield to maturity with respect to the note. A U.S. holder generally may use the amortizable bond premium allocable to an accrual period to offset interest required to be included in the U.S. holder’s income under its regular method of accounting with respect to the note in that accrual period. If the amortizable bond premium allocable to an accrual period exceeds the amount of interest allocable to such accrual period, such excess would be allowed as a deduction for such accrual period, but only to the extent of the U.S. holder’s prior interest inclusions on the note that have not been offset previously by bond premium. Any excess is generally carried forward and allocable to the next accrual period. If a note may be redeemed by us prior to its maturity date, the amount of amortizable bond premium will be based on the amount payable at the applicable redemption date, but only if use of the redemption date (in lieu of the stated maturity date) results in a smaller amortizable bond premium for the period ending on the redemption date. An election to amortize bond premium applies to all taxable debt obligations held by the U.S. holder at the beginning of the first taxable year to which the election applies and thereafter acquired by the U.S. holder and may be revoked only with the consent of the Internal Revenue Service. Generally, a holder may make an election to include in income its entire return on a note (i.e., the excess of all remaining payments to be received on the note over the amount paid for the note by such holder) in accordance with a constant yield method based on the compounding of interest, as discussed below under “— U.S. Holders — Election to Treat All Interest as Original Issue Discount.” If a holder makes such an election for a note with amortizable bond premium, such election will result in a deemed election to amortize bond premium for all of the holder’s debt instruments with amortizable bond premium and may be revoked only with the permission of the Internal Revenue Service. A U.S. holder that elects to amortize bond premium will be required to reduce its tax basis in the note by the amount of the premium amortized during its holding period. OID notes purchased at a premium will not be subject to the OID rules described above. If a U.S. holder does not elect to amortize bond premium, the amount of bond premium will be included in its tax basis in the note. Therefore, if a U.S. holder does not elect to amortize bond premium and it holds the note to maturity, the premium generally will be treated as capital loss when the note matures. Market Discount If a U.S. holder purchases a note for an amount that is less than its stated redemption price at maturity, or, in the case of an OID note, its adjusted issue price, such holder will be considered to have purchased the note with “market discount.” Any gain on the sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition of a note with market discount generally will be treated as ordinary interest income to the extent of the market discount not previously included in income that accrued on the note during such holder’s holding period. In general, market discount is treated as accruing on a straight-line basis over the term of the note unless an election is made to accrue the market discount under a constant yield method. In addition, a U.S. holder may be required to defer, until the maturity of the note or its earlier disposition in a taxable transaction, the deduction of a portion of the interest paid or accrued on any indebtedness incurred or maintained to purchase or carry the note in an amount not exceeding the accrued market discount on the note. A U.S. holder may elect to include market discount in income currently as it accrues (on either a straight-line or constant yield basis), in lieu of treating a portion of any gain realized on a sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition of the note as ordinary income. If an election is made to include market discount on a current basis, the interest deduction deferral rule described above will not apply. If a U.S. holder makes such an election, it will apply to all market discount debt instruments acquired by such holder on or after the first day of the first taxable year to which the election applies. The election may not be revoked without the consent of the Internal Revenue Service. U.S. holders should consult with their own tax advisors before making this election. If the difference between the stated redemption price at maturity of a note or, in the case of an OID note, its adjusted issue price, and the amount paid for the note is less than 0.25% of the debt instrument’s stated redemption price at maturity or, in the case of an OID note, its adjusted issue price, multiplied by the number of remaining complete years to the note’s maturity (“ de minimis market discount”), the note is not treated as having market discount. Generally, a holder may make an election to include in income its entire return on a note (i.e., the excess of all remaining payments to be received on the note over the amount paid for the note by such holder) in accordance with a constant yield method based on the compounding of interest, as discussed below under “— U.S. Holders — Election to Treat All Interest as Original Issue Discount.” If a holder makes such an election for a note with market discount, the holder will be required to include market discount in income currently as it accrues on a constant yield basis for all market discount debt instruments acquired by such holder on or after the first day of the first taxable year to which the election applies, and such election may be revoked only with the permission of the Internal Revenue Service. Election to Treat All Interest as Original Issue Discount A U.S. holder may elect to include in income all interest that accrues on a note using the constant-yield method applicable to OID described above, subject to certain limitations and exceptions. For purposes of this election, interest includes stated interest, acquisition discount, OID, de minimis OID, market discount, de minimis market discount, and unstated interest, as adjusted by any amortizable bond premium or acquisition premium, each as described herein. If this election is made for a note, then, to apply the constant-yield method: (i) the issue price of the note will equal its cost, (ii) the issue date of the note will be the date it was acquired, and (iii) no payments on the note will be treated as payments of qualified stated interest. A U.S. holder must make this election for the taxable year in which the note was acquired, and may not revoke the election without the consent of the Internal Revenue Service. U.S. holders should consult with their own tax advisors before making this election. In addition, if this election is made with respect to a note having market discount, then the U.S. holder will be deemed to have made the market discount election with respect to all market discount debt instruments acquired by such holder on or after the first day of the first taxable year to which the election applies. Similarly, if this election is made with respect to a note having amortizable bond premium, then the U.S. holder will be deemed to have made the amortizable bond premium election with respect to all debt instruments having amortizable bond premium held by the U.S. holder at the beginning of the first taxable year to which the election applies and thereafter acquired. Some of our notes may be issued with maturities of one year or less from the date of issue, which we refer to as short-term notes. Treasury regulations provide that no payments of interest on a short-term note are treated as qualified stated interest. Accordingly, in determining the amount of discount on a short-term note, all interest payments, including stated interest, are included in the short-term note’s stated redemption price at maturity. In general, individual and certain other U.S. holders using the cash basis method of tax accounting are not required to include accrued discount on short-term notes in income currently unless they elect to do so, but they may be required to include any stated interest in income as the interest is received. However, a cash basis U.S. holder will be required to treat any gain realized on a sale, exchange, or retirement of the short-term note as ordinary income to the extent such gain does not exceed the discount accrued with respect to the short-term note, which will be determined on a straight-line basis unless the holder makes an election to accrue the discount under the constant-yield method, through the date of sale or retirement. In addition, a cash basis U.S. holder that does not elect to currently include accrued discount in income will be not allowed to deduct any of the interest paid or accrued on any indebtedness incurred or maintained to purchase or carry a short-term note (in an amount not exceeding the deferred income), but instead will be required to defer deductions for such interest until the deferred income is realized upon the maturity of the short-term note or its earlier disposition in a taxable transaction. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a cash-basis U.S. holder of a short-term note may elect to include accrued discount in income on a current basis. This election will apply to all short-term debt instruments acquired by such holder on or after the first day of the first taxable year to which the election applies. If this election is made, the limitation on the deductibility of interest described in this paragraph will not apply. A U.S. holder using the accrual method of tax accounting and some cash basis holders (including banks, securities dealers, regulated investment companies, and certain trust funds) generally will be required to include accrued discount on a short-term note in income on a current basis, on either a straight-line basis or, at the election of the holder, under the constant-yield method based on daily compounding. Regardless of whether a U.S. holder is a cash-basis or accrual-basis holder, the holder of a short-term note may elect to include accrued “acquisition discount” with respect to the short-term note in income on a current basis. Acquisition discount is the excess of the remaining redemption amount of the short-term note at the time of acquisition over the purchase price. Acquisition discount will be treated as accruing on a straight-line basis or, at the election of the holder, under a constant yield method based on daily compounding. If a U.S. holder elects to include accrued acquisition discount in income, the rules for including OID will not apply. In addition, the market discount rules described above will not apply to short-term notes. Sale, Exchange, or Retirement of Notes Upon the sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition of a note, a U.S. holder will recognize gain or loss equal to the difference between the amount realized upon the sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition (less an amount equal to any accrued interest not previously included in income if the note is disposed of between interest payment dates, which will be included in income as interest income for U.S. federal income tax purposes) and the U.S. holder’s adjusted tax basis in the note. The amount realized by the U.S. holder will include the amount of any cash and the fair market value of any other property received for the note. A U.S. holder’s adjusted tax basis in a note generally will be the cost of the note to such U.S. holder, increased by any OID, market discount, de minimis OID, de minimis market discount, or any discount with respect to a short-term note previously included in income with respect to the note, and decreased by the amount of any premium previously amortized to reduce interest on the note and the amount of any payment (other than a payment of qualified stated interest) received in respect of the note. Except as discussed above with respect to market discount, or as described below with respect to non-U.S. dollar denominated notes, gain or loss realized on the sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition of a note generally will be capital gain or loss and will be long-term capital gain or loss if the note has been held for more than one year. The ability of U.S. holders to deduct capital losses is subject to limitations under the Internal Revenue Code. Certain of the notes may provide for an alternative payment schedule or schedules applicable upon the occurrence of a contingency or contingencies, other than a remote or incidental contingency, whether such contingency relates to payments of interest or of principal. In addition, certain of the notes may contain provisions permitting them to be redeemed prior to their stated maturity at our option and/or at the option of the holder. Notes containing these features may be subject to rules that differ from the general rules discussed herein. U.S. holders considering the purchase of notes with these features should carefully examine the applicable supplement and are urged to consult their own tax advisors regarding the U.S. federal income tax consequences to a U.S. holder of the ownership and disposition of such notes since the U.S. federal income tax consequences with respect to OID will depend, in part, on the particular terms and features of the notes. Additional considerations apply to a U.S. holder of a note payable in a currency other than U.S. dollars (“foreign currency”). We refer to these notes as “Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Notes.” In the case of payments of interest, U.S. holders using the cash method of accounting for U.S. federal income tax purposes will be required to include in income the U.S. dollar value of the foreign currency payment on a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note (other than OID or market discount) when the payment of interest is received. The U.S. dollar value of the foreign currency payment is determined by translating the foreign currency received at the spot rate for such foreign currency on the date the payment is received, regardless of whether the payment is in fact converted to U.S. dollars at that time. The U.S. dollar value will be the U.S. holder’s tax basis in the foreign currency received. A U.S. holder will not recognize foreign currency exchange gain or loss with respect to the receipt of such payment. U.S. holders using the accrual method of accounting for U.S. federal income tax purposes will be required to include in income the U.S. dollar value of the amount of interest income that has accrued and is otherwise required to be taken into account with respect to a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note during an accrual period. The U.S. dollar value of the accrued income will be determined by translating the income at the average rate of exchange for the accrual period or, with respect to an accrual period that spans two taxable years, at the average rate for the partial period within the taxable year. A U.S. holder may elect, however, to translate the accrued interest income using the exchange rate on the last day of the accrual period or, with respect to an accrual period that spans two taxable years, using the exchange rate on the last day of the taxable year. If the last day of an accrual period is within five business days of the date of receipt of the accrued interest, a U.S. holder may translate the interest using the exchange rate on the date of receipt. The above election will apply to all other debt obligations held by the U.S. holder and may not be changed without the consent of the Internal Revenue Service. U.S. holders are urged to consult their own tax advisors before making the above election. Upon receipt of an interest payment (including, upon the sale of the note, the receipt of proceeds which include amounts attributable to accrued interest previously included in income), the holder will recognize foreign currency exchange gain or loss in an amount equal to the difference between the U.S. dollar value of such payment (determined by translating the foreign currency received at the spot rate for such foreign currency on the date such payment is received) and the U.S. dollar value of the interest income previously included in income with respect to such payment. This gain or loss will be treated as ordinary income or loss. OID on a note that is also a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note will be determined for any accrual period in the applicable foreign currency and then translated into U.S. dollars, in the same manner as interest income accrued by a holder on the accrual basis, as described above (regardless of such holder’s regular method of accounting). A U.S. holder will recognize foreign currency exchange gain or loss when OID is paid (including, upon the sale of such note, the receipt of proceeds which include amounts attributable to OID previously included in income) to the extent of the difference between the U.S. dollar value of such payment (determined by translating the foreign currency received at the spot rate for such foreign currency on the date such payment is received) and the U.S. dollar value of the accrued OID (determined in the same manner as for accrued interest). For these purposes, all receipts on a note will be viewed: (i) first, as the receipt of any stated interest payment called for under the terms of the note, (ii) second, as receipts of previously accrued OID (to the extent thereof), with payments considered made for the earliest accrual periods first, and (iii) third, as the receipt of principal. The amount of market discount on Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Notes includible in income generally will be determined by translating the market discount determined in the foreign currency into U.S. dollars at the spot rate on the date the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note is retired or otherwise disposed of. If a U.S. holder elected to accrue market discount currently, then the amount which accrues is determined in the foreign currency and then translated into U.S. dollars on the basis of the average exchange rate in effect during such accrual period. A U.S. holder will recognize foreign currency exchange gain or loss with respect to market discount which is accrued currently using the approach applicable to the accrual of interest income as described above. Amortizable bond premium on a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note will be computed in the applicable foreign currency. If a U.S. holder elected to amortize the premium, the amortizable bond premium will reduce interest income in the applicable foreign currency. At the time bond premium is amortized, foreign currency exchange gain or loss will be realized based on the difference between spot rates at such time and the time of acquisition of the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note. If a U.S. holder does not elect to amortize bond premium, the bond premium computed in the foreign currency must be translated into U.S. dollars at the spot rate on the maturity date and such bond premium will constitute a capital loss which may be offset or eliminated by foreign currency exchange gain. If a U.S. holder purchases a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note with previously owned foreign currency, foreign currency exchange gain or loss (which will be treated as ordinary income or loss) will be recognized in an amount equal to the difference, if any, between the tax basis in the foreign currency and the U.S. dollar fair market value of the foreign currency used to purchase the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note, determined on the date of purchase. Upon the sale, exchange, retirement, or other taxable disposition of a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note, a U.S. holder will recognize gain or loss equal to the difference between the amount realized upon the sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition (less an amount equal to any accrued and unpaid interest not previously included in income, which will be treated as a payment of interest for U.S. federal income tax purposes) and the adjusted tax basis in the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note. The adjusted tax basis in a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note will equal the amount paid for the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note, increased by the amounts of any market discount or OID previously included in income with respect to the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note and reduced by any amortized acquisition or other premium and any principal payments received in respect of the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note. The amount of any payment in or adjustments measured by foreign currency will be equal to the U.S. dollar value of the foreign currency on the date of the purchase or adjustment. The amount realized will be based on the U.S. dollar value of the foreign currency on the date the payment is received or the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note is disposed of (or deemed disposed of as a result of a material change in the terms of the note). If, however, a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note is traded on an established securities market and the U.S. holder uses the cash basis method of tax accounting, the U.S. dollar value of the amount realized will be determined by translating the foreign currency payment at the spot rate of exchange on the settlement date of the purchase or sale. A U.S. holder that uses the accrual basis method of tax accounting may elect the same treatment with respect to the purchase and sale of Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Notes traded on an established securities market, provided that the election is applied consistently. Except with respect to market discount as discussed above, and the foreign currency rules discussed below, gain or loss recognized upon the sale, exchange, retirement, or other taxable disposition of a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note will be capital gain or loss and will be long-term capital gain or loss if at the time of sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition, the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note has been held for more than one year. Net long-term capital gain recognized by an individual U.S. holder is generally taxed at preferential rates. The ability of U.S. holders to deduct capital losses is subject to limitations under the Internal Revenue Code. A portion of the gain or loss with respect to the principal amount of a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note may be treated as foreign currency exchange gain or loss. Foreign currency exchange gain or loss will be treated as ordinary income or loss. For these purposes, the principal amount of the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note is the purchase price for the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note calculated in the foreign currency on the date of purchase, and the amount of exchange gain or loss recognized is equal to the difference between (i) the U.S. dollar value of the principal amount determined on the date of the sale, exchange, retirement or other disposition of the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note and (ii) the U.S. dollar value of the principal amount determined on the date the foreign currency note was purchased. The amount of foreign currency exchange gain or loss will be limited to the amount of overall gain or loss realized on the disposition of the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note. The tax basis in foreign currency received as interest on a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note will be the U.S. dollar value of the foreign currency determined at the spot rate in effect on the date the foreign currency is received. The tax basis in foreign currency received on the sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition of a Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Note will be equal to the U.S. dollar value of the foreign currency, determined at the time of the sale, exchange, retirement or other disposition. As discussed above, if the Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Notes are traded on an established securities market, a cash basis U.S. holder (or, upon election, an accrual basis U.S. holder) will determine the U.S. dollar value of the foreign currency by translating the foreign currency received at the spot rate of exchange on the settlement date of the sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition. Accordingly, in such case, no foreign currency exchange gain or loss will result from currency fluctuations between the trade date and settlement date of a sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition. Any gain or loss recognized on a sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition of foreign currency (including its exchange for U.S. dollars or its use to purchase notes) will be ordinary income or loss. For the special treatment of Non-U.S. Dollar Denominated Notes that are also contingent payment notes, see the applicable supplement. Additional Medicare Tax on Unearned Income Certain U.S. holders, including individuals, estates and trusts, will be subject to an additional 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income. For individual U.S. holders, the additional Medicare tax applies to the lesser of (i) “net investment income” or (ii) the excess of “modified adjusted gross income” over $200,000 ($250,000 if married and filing jointly or $125,000 if married and filing separately). “Net investment income” generally equals the taxpayer’s gross investment income reduced by the deductions that are allocable to such income. Investment income generally includes passive income such as interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, rents, and capital gains. U.S. holders are urged to consult their own tax advisors regarding the implications of the additional Medicare tax resulting from an investment in our notes. The following is a summary of certain U.S. federal income tax consequences that will apply to Non-U.S. holders of notes. Payments of Interest S-38 Under current U.S. federal income tax law and subject to the discussion below concerning backup withholding, principal (and premium, if any) and interest payments, including any OID, that are received from us or our agent and that are not effectively connected with the conduct by the Non-U.S. holder of a trade or business within the United States, or a permanent establishment maintained in the United States if certain tax treaties apply, generally will not be subject to U.S. federal income or withholding tax except as provided below. Interest, including any OID, may be subject to a 30% withholding tax (or less under an applicable treaty, if any) if: a Non-U.S. holder actually or constructively owns 10% or more of the total combined voting power of all classes of our stock entitled to vote; a Non-U.S. holder is a “controlled foreign corporation” for U.S. federal income tax purposes that is related to us (directly or indirectly) through stock ownership; a Non-U.S. holder is a bank extending credit under a loan agreement in the ordinary course of its trade or business; the interest payments on the note are determined by reference to the income, profits, changes in the value of property or other attributes of the debtor or a related party (other than payments that are based on the value of a security or index of securities that are, and will continue to be, actively traded within the meaning of Section 1092(d) of the Internal Revenue Code, and that are not nor will be a “United States real property interest” as described in Section 897(c)(1) or 897(g) of the Internal Revenue Code); or the Non-U.S. holder does not satisfy the certification requirements described below. A Non-U.S. holder generally will satisfy the certification requirements if either: (i) the Non-U.S. holder certifies to us or our agent, under penalties of perjury, that it is a non-United States person and provides its name and address (which certification may generally be made on an Internal Revenue Service Form W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E, or a successor form), or (ii) a securities clearing organization, bank, or other financial institution that holds customer securities in the ordinary course of its trade or business (a “financial institution”) and holds the note certifies to us or our agent under penalties of perjury that either it or another financial institution has received the required statement from the Non-U.S. holder certifying that it is a non-United States person and furnishes us with a copy of the statement. Payments not meeting the requirements set forth above and thus subject to withholding of U.S. federal income tax may nevertheless be exempt from withholding (or subject to withholding at a reduced rate) if the Non-U.S. holder provides us with a properly executed Internal Revenue Service Form W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E (or successor form) claiming an exemption from, or reduction in, withholding under the benefit of a tax treaty, or Internal Revenue Service Form W-8ECI (or other applicable form) stating that interest paid on the notes is not subject to withholding tax because it is effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the United States as discussed below. To claim benefits under an income tax treaty, a Non-U.S. holder must obtain a taxpayer identification number and certify as to its eligibility under the appropriate treaty’s limitations on benefits article. In addition, special rules may apply to claims for treaty benefits made by Non-U.S. holders that are entities rather than individuals. A Non-U.S. holder that is eligible for a reduced rate of U.S. federal withholding tax pursuant to an income tax treaty may obtain a refund of any excess amounts withheld by filing an appropriate claim for refund with the Internal Revenue Service. Sale, Exchange, or Retirement of Notes A Non-U.S. holder generally will not be subject to U.S. federal income or withholding tax on any capital gain or market discount realized on the sale, exchange, retirement, or other disposition of notes, provided that: (i) the gain is not effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the United States, or a permanent establishment maintained in the United States if certain tax treaties apply, (ii) in the case of a Non-U.S. holder that is an individual, the Non-U.S. holder is not present in the United States for 183 days or more in the taxable year of the sale, exchange, or other disposition of the note, and (iii) the Non-U.S. holder is not subject to tax pursuant to certain provisions of U.S. federal income tax law applicable to certain expatriates. An individual Non-U.S. holder who is present in the United States for 183 days or more in the taxable year of sale, exchange, or other disposition of a note, and if certain other conditions are met, will be subject to U.S. federal income tax at a rate of 30% on the gain realized on the sale, exchange, or other disposition of such note. Income Effectively Connected with a Trade or Business within the United States If a Non-U.S. holder of a note is engaged in the conduct of a trade or business within the United States and if interest (including any OID) on the note, or gain realized on the sale, exchange, or other disposition of the note, is effectively connected with the conduct of such trade or business (and, if certain tax treaties apply, is attributable to a permanent establishment maintained by the Non-U.S. holder in the United States), the Non-U.S. holder, although exempt from U.S. federal withholding tax (provided that the certification requirements discussed above are satisfied), generally will be subject to U.S. federal income tax on such interest (including any OID) or gain on a net income basis in the same manner as if it were a U.S. holder. Non-U.S. holders should read the material under the heading “— U.S. Holders,” for a description of the U.S. federal income tax consequences of acquiring, owning, and disposing of notes. In addition, if such Non-U.S. holder is a foreign corporation, it may also be subject to a branch profits tax equal to 30% (or such lower rate provided by an applicable U.S. income tax treaty) of a portion of its earnings and profits for the taxable year that are effectively connected with its conduct of a trade or business in the United States, subject to certain adjustments. Backup Withholding and Information Reporting In general, in the case of a U.S. holder, other than certain exempt holders, we and other payors are required to report to the Internal Revenue Service all payments of principal, any premium, and interest on the note, and the accrual of OID. In addition, we and other payors generally are required to report to the Internal Revenue Service any payment of proceeds of the sale of a note before maturity. Additionally, backup withholding generally will apply to any payments, including payments of OID, if a U.S. holder fails to provide an accurate taxpayer identification number and certify that the taxpayer identification number is correct, the U.S. holder is notified by the Internal Revenue Service that it has failed to report all interest and dividends required to be shown on its U.S. federal income tax returns or a U.S. holder does not certify that it has not underreported its interest and dividend income. In the case of a Non-U.S. holder, backup withholding and information reporting will not apply to payments made if the Non-U.S. holder provides the required certification that it is not a United States person, or the Non-U.S. holder otherwise establishes an exemption, provided that the payor or withholding agent does not have actual knowledge that the holder is a United States person, or that the conditions of any exemption are not satisfied. However, we and other payors are required to report payments of interest on your notes on Internal Revenue Service Form 1042-S even if the payments are not otherwise subject to information reporting requirements. In addition, payments of the proceeds from the disposition of a note to or through a foreign office of a broker or the foreign office of a custodian, nominee, or other dealer acting on behalf of a holder generally will not be subject to information reporting or backup withholding. However, if the broker, custodian, nominee, or other dealer is a United States person, the government of the United States or the government of any state or political subdivision of any state, or any agency or instrumentality of any of these governmental units, a controlled foreign corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes, a foreign partnership that is either engaged in a trade or business within the United States or whose United States partners in the aggregate hold more than 50% of the income or capital interest in the partnership, a foreign person 50% or more of whose gross income for a certain period is effectively connected with a trade or business within the United States, or a United States branch of a foreign bank or insurance company, information reporting (but not backup withholding) generally will be required with respect to payments made to a holder unless the broker, custodian, nominee, or other dealer has documentation of the holder’s foreign status and the broker, custodian, nominee, or other dealer has no actual knowledge to the contrary. Payment of the proceeds from a sale of a note to or through the United States office of a broker is subject to information reporting and backup withholding, unless the holder certifies as to its non-United States person status or otherwise establishes an exemption from information reporting and backup withholding. Any amounts withheld under the backup withholding rules will be allowed as a refund or a credit against a holder’s U.S. federal income tax liability provided the required information is furnished to the Internal Revenue Service. Holders should consult their own tax advisors regarding application of backup withholding to them and the availability of, and procedure for obtaining an exemption from, backup withholding. Guarantee Payments Payments (if any) made to holders on the notes by UDR LP pursuant to the guarantee shall be treated, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, in substantially the same manner as payments made on the notes by UDR. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act imposes a 30% U.S. withholding tax on certain U.S. source payments, including interest (and original issue discount) income payable on the notes and on the gross proceeds from a disposition of property of a type which can produce U.S. source interest such as the notes (“Withholdable Payments”), if paid to a foreign financial institution (including amounts paid to a foreign financial institution on behalf of a holder), unless such institution enters into an agreement with the Treasury Department to collect and provide to the Treasury Department substantial information regarding U.S. account holders, including certain account holders that are foreign entities with U.S. owners, with such institution. The legislation also generally imposes a withholding tax of 30% on Withholdable Payments made to a non-financial foreign entity unless such entity provides the withholding agent with a certification that it does not have any substantial U.S. owners or a certification identifying the direct and indirect substantial U.S. owners of the entity. Under certain circumstances, a holder may be eligible for refunds or credits of such taxes. These withholding and reporting requirements generally apply to U.S.-source periodic payments and to payments of gross proceeds from a sale or redemption. Under proposed Treasury regulations that may be relied upon pending finalization, the withholding tax on gross proceeds would be eliminated and, consequently, FATCA withholding on gross proceeds is not currently expected to apply. If we (or an applicable withholding agent) determine withholding under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is appropriate, we (or such agent) will withhold tax at the applicable statutory rate, without being required to pay any additional amounts in respect of such withholding. Foreign financial institutions and non-financial foreign entities located in jurisdictions that have an intergovernmental agreement with the United States governing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act may be subject to different rules. Holders are urged to consult their own tax advisors regarding the possible implications of this legislation on their purchase, ownership and disposition of our notes. Under the terms of a third amended and restated distribution agreement dated September 1, 2011, as amended on July 20, 2014, April 27, 2017 and May 7, 2020 and as further amended or supplemented from time to time, or the “distribution agreement,” we are offering the notes on a continuous basis through or to J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, BofA Securities, Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc., Jefferies LLC, PNC Capital Markets LLC, Regions Securities LLC, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., TD Securities (USA) LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, RBC Capital Markets, LLC, MUFG Securities Americas Inc., BNY Mellon Capital Markets, LLC and Samuel A. Ramirez & Company, Inc., referred to in this prospectus supplement individually as an “agent” or collectively as the “agents.” The agents, individually or in a syndicate, may purchase notes, as principal, from us from time to time for resale to investors and other purchasers at varying prices relating to prevailing market prices at the time of resale as determined by the applicable agent or, if so specified in the applicable pricing supplement, for resale at a fixed offering price. However, we may agree with an agent for that agent to utilize its reasonable efforts on an agency basis on our behalf to solicit offers to purchase notes at 100% of the principal amount thereof, unless otherwise specified in the applicable pricing supplement. We will pay a commission to an agent, ranging from .125% to .750% of the principal amount of each note, depending upon its stated maturity, sold through that agent as our agent, unless otherwise agreed. We will negotiate commissions with respect to notes with stated maturities in excess of 30 years that are sold through an agent as our agent at the time of the related sale. Some of the agents and their affiliates have engaged in, and may in the future engage in, investment banking and other commercial dealings in the ordinary course of business with us or our affiliates. They have received, or may in the future receive, customary fees and commissions for these transactions. In addition, in the ordinary course of their business activities, the agents and their affiliates may make or hold a broad array of investments and actively trade debt and equity securities (or related derivative securities) and financial instruments (including bank loans) for their own account and for the accounts of their customers. Such investments and securities activities may involve securities and/or instruments of ours or our affiliates. Certain of the underwriters or their affiliates that have a lending relationship with us routinely hedge their credit exposure to us consistent with their customary risk management policies. Typically, such underwriters and their affiliates would hedge such exposure by entering into transactions which consist of either the purchase of credit default swaps or the creation of short positions in our securities, including potentially the notes offered hereby. Any such credit defaults swaps or short positions could adversely affect future trading prices of the notes offered hereby. The agents and their affiliates may also make investment recommendations and/or publish or express independent research views in respect of such securities or financial instruments and may hold, or recommend to clients that they acquire, long and/or short positions in such securities and instruments. Any note sold to an agent as principal will be purchased by that agent at a price equal to 100% of the principal amount thereof less a percentage of the principal amount equal to the commission applicable to an agency sale of a note of identical maturity. An agent may sell notes it has purchased from us as principal to certain dealers less a concession equal to all or any portion of the discount received in connection with that purchase. An agent may allow, and dealers may reallow, a discount to certain other dealers. After the initial offering of notes, the offering price (in the case of notes to be resold on a fixed offering price basis), the concession and the reallowance may be changed. The notes will not have an established trading market when issued. Also, the notes will not be listed on any securities exchange. An agent may make a market in the notes, as permitted by applicable laws and regulations, but is not obligated to do so and may discontinue any market-making at any time without notice. A secondary market for any notes may not develop, and purchasers of notes may not be able to sell notes in the future. Each purchaser of a note will arrange for payment as instructed by the relevant agent. The agents are required to deliver the proceeds of the notes to us in immediately available funds, to a bank designated by us in accordance with the terms of the distribution agreement on the date of settlement. Each agent may be deemed to be an “underwriter” within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. We have agreed to indemnify the agents against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act, or to contribute to payments that they may be required to make in connection with such indemnification. We have agreed to reimburse the agents for certain expenses, including the reasonable fees and disbursements of counsel for the agents. We reserve the right to withdraw, cancel or modify the offer made hereby without notice. We have the right to accept offers to purchase notes and may reject any proposed purchase of notes as a whole or in part. The agents will have the right, in their discretion reasonably exercised, to reject any offer to purchase notes, as a whole or in part. In connection with the purchase of notes by an agent, as principal, for resale at a fixed price, such agent may engage in transactions that stabilize, maintain or otherwise affect the price of the notes. Such transactions may consist of bids or purchases of notes for the purpose of pegging, fixing or maintaining the price of the notes. Specifically, such agent may over-allot in connection with such offering, creating a syndicate short position. In addition, such agent may bid for and purchase the notes in the open market to cover syndicate short positions or to stabilize, maintain or otherwise affect the price of the notes. Finally, such agent or its syndicate may reclaim selling concessions allowed for distributing of notes in the offering, if such agent repurchases previously distributed notes in the market to cover overallotments or to stabilize the price of the notes. Any of these activities may stabilize or maintain the market price of the notes above independent market level. The agents are not required to engage in any of these activities and may end any of them at any time. Concurrently with the offering of the notes through the agents, we may issue other securities as contemplated in the accompanying prospectus. The agents and certain of their affiliates may engage in commercial or investment banking or advisory services with and perform services for us and certain of our affiliates in the ordinary course of business. We have a lending relationship with U.S. Bank National Association, the trustee under the Indenture for the notes. U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc., one of the agents, is an affiliate of the trustee. Prohibition of Sales to EEA and United Kingdom Retail Investors The notes may not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any retail investor in the EEA or in the United Kingdom. For the purposes of this provision: (a)the expression “retail investor” means a person who is one (or more) of the following: a retail client as defined in point (11) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II; or a customer within the meaning of the Insurance Distribution Directive, where that customer would not qualify as a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II; or not a qualified investor as defined in the Prospectus Regulation; and the expression “offer” includes the communication in any form and by any means of sufficient information on the terms of the offer and the notes to be offered so as to enable an investor to decide to purchase or subscribe for the notes. Notes which have a maturity of less than one year may not be offered or sold other than to persons whose ordinary activities involve them in acquiring, holding, managing or disposing of investments (as principal or as agent) for the purposes of their businesses or who it is reasonable to expect will acquire, hold, manage or dispose of investments (as principal or agent) for the purposes of their businesses where the issue of the notes would otherwise constitute a contravention of Section 19 of the FSMA by us. Any invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of Section 21 of the FSMA) in connection with the issue or sale of the notes may only be communicated or caused to be communicated in circumstances in which Section 21(1) of the FSMA does not apply to us or UDR LP. All applicable provisions of the FSMA must be complied with in respect to anything done by any person in relation to the notes in, from or otherwise involving the United Kingdom. We are subject to the information requirements of the Exchange Act, which means that we are required to file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC, all of which are available on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. You may also access our SEC filings free of charge on our website at www.udr.com. The information on, or accessible through, our website is not part of this prospectus supplement and should not be relied upon in connection with making any investment decision with respect to the securities offered by this prospectus supplement. We have filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-3 (Registration File No. 333-236846) covering the notes offered by this prospectus supplement. You should be aware that this prospectus supplement does not contain all of the information contained or incorporated by reference in that registration statement and its exhibits and schedules. You may inspect and obtain the registration statement, including exhibits, schedules, reports and other information that we have filed with the SEC, as described in the preceding paragraph. Statements contained in this prospectus supplement concerning the contents of any document we refer you to are not necessarily complete and in each instance we refer you to the applicable document filed with the SEC for more complete information. The SEC allows us to “incorporate by reference” the information we file with the SEC, which means that we can disclose important information to you be referring you to those documents. The information incorporated by reference herein is an important part of this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus. Any statement contained in a document which is incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus is automatically updated and superseded if information contained in this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, or information that we later file with the SEC prior to the termination of this offering, modifies or replaces this information. UDR, Inc. and United Dominion Realty, L.P. incorporate by reference into this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus the documents listed below (excluding any portions of such documents that have been “furnished” but not “filed” for purposes of the Exchange Act): Annual Report of UDR, Inc. on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 18, 2020; Annual Report of United Dominion Realty, L.P. on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 18, 2020; Quarterly Report of UDR, Inc. on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020, filed with the SEC on May 7, 2020; Quarterly Report of United Dominion Realty, L.P. on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020, filed with the SEC on May 7, 2020; Current Reports of UDR, Inc. on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on January 3, 2020, February 12, 2020 and February 28, 2020; Definitive Proxy Statement of UDR, Inc. dated April 2, 2020, filed with the SEC on April 2, 2020, in connection with UDR, Inc.’s 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders; and Description of the capital stock of UDR, Inc. contained in the Registration Statement on Form 8-A/A dated and filed with the SEC on November 7, 2005, including any amendments or reports filed with the SEC for the purpose of updating such description. UDR, Inc. and United Dominion Realty, L.P. also incorporate by reference any future filings made with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act between the date of this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus and the date all of the securities offered hereby are sold or the offering is otherwise terminated, with the exception of any information furnished under Item 2.02 and Item 7.01 of Form 8-K, which is not deemed filed and which is not incorporated by reference herein. Any such filings shall be deemed to be incorporated by reference and to be a part of this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus from the respective dates of filing of those documents. As explained above in “Where You Can Find More Information,” these incorporated documents (as well as other documents filed by us under the Exchange Act) are available at the SEC and may be accessed in a number of ways, including online via the internet. We will provide without charge to each person, including any beneficial owner, to whom this prospectus supplement and the accompany prospectus are delivered, a copy of any of the documents referred to above by written or oral request to: We maintain a website at www.udr.com. The information on our website is not considered a part of, or incorporated by reference in, this prospectus supplement, the accompanying prospectus, or any other document we file with or furnish to the SEC. The validity of the notes, including the guarantee, and certain U.S. federal income tax matters will be passed upon for us by Morrison & Foerster LLP, Washington, D.C., and certain U.S. federal income tax matters will be passed upon for us by Kutak Rock LLP. Certain legal matters will be passed upon for the agents by Sidley Austin LLP, New York, New York. The opinions of Morrison & Foerster LLP and Sidley Austin LLP will be conditioned upon, and subject to certain assumptions regarding future action required to be taken by us and the Indenture trustee in connection with the issuance and sale of any particular notes, the specific terms of the notes and other matters which may affect the validity of the notes but which cannot be ascertained on the date of such opinions. The consolidated financial statements of UDR, Inc. and United Dominion Realty, L.P. appearing in UDR, Inc.’s Annual Report (Form 10-K) for the year ended December 31, 2019 including schedules appearing therein, and the effectiveness of UDR, Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019, have been audited by Ernst & Young LLP, independent registered public accounting firm, as set forth in their reports thereon included therein, and incorporated herein by reference. Such financial statements are, and audited financial statements to be included in subsequently filed documents will be, incorporated herein in reliance upon the reports of Ernst & Young LLP pertaining to such financial statements and the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of the respective dates (to the extent covered by consents filed with the SEC) given on the authority of such firm as experts in accounting and auditing. Common Stock Warrants We may from time to time offer to sell together or separately in one or more offerings: common stock; preferred stock represented by depositary shares; debt securities, which may be senior, subordinated or junior subordinated, convertible or non-convertible and guaranteed by certain of our subsidiaries, including United Dominion Realty, L.P.; warrants to purchase common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares or debt securities; subscription rights to purchase common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares, debt securities or other securities; purchase contracts; and purchase units. This prospectus describes some of the general terms that may apply to these securities. We will provide the specific prices and terms of these securities in one or more supplements to this prospectus at the time of the offering. You should read this prospectus and the accompanying prospectus supplement carefully before you make your investment decision. We may offer and sell these securities through underwriters, dealers or agents or directly to purchasers, on a continuous or delayed basis. The securities may also be resold by selling security holders. The prospectus supplement for each offering will describe in detail the plan of distribution for that offering and will set forth the names of any underwriters, dealers or agents involved in the offering and any applicable fees, commissions or discount arrangements. Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the trading symbol “UDR.” Each prospectus supplement will indicate if the securities offered thereby will be listed on any securities exchange. Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. See “Risk Factors” on page 3 before you make your investment decision. Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus or the accompanying prospectus supplement is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense. The date of this prospectus is March 3, 2020. Our Company Description of Preferred Stock Description of Guarantees of the Debt Securities Description of Warrants ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS This prospectus is part of a registration statement that we filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) using a “shelf” registration process under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). Under this shelf registration process, we may sell any combination of the securities described in this prospectus in one or more offerings. This prospectus only provides you with a general description of the securities we may offer. Each time we sell securities, we will provide a supplement to this prospectus that will contain specific information about the terms of that offering, including the specific amounts, prices and terms of the securities offered. The prospectus supplement may also add, update or change information contained in this prospectus. You should carefully read both this prospectus and any accompanying prospectus supplement or other offering materials, together with the additional information described under the heading “Where You Can Find More Information.” You should rely only on the information contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus. We have not authorized anyone to provide you with different information. If anyone provides you with different or inconsistent information, you should not rely on it. We are not making an offer to sell these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. This prospectus and any accompanying prospectus supplement or other offering materials do not contain all of the information included in the registration statement as permitted by the rules and regulations of the SEC. For further information, we refer you to the registration statement on Form S-3, including its exhibits. We are subject to the informational requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (“Exchange Act”), and, therefore, file reports and other information with the SEC. Statements contained in this prospectus and any accompanying prospectus supplement or other offering materials about the provisions or contents of any agreement or other document are only summaries. If SEC rules require that any agreement or document be filed as an exhibit to the registration statement, you should refer to that agreement or document for its complete contents. You should not assume that the information in this prospectus, any prospectus supplement or any other offering materials is accurate as of any date other than the date on the front of each document. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since then. In this prospectus, unless otherwise specified or the context requires otherwise, we use the terms “UDR,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” to refer to UDR, Inc., and the term “Operating Partnership” to refer to United Dominion Realty, L.P. UDR is a self-administered real estate investment trust (“REIT”) that owns, operates, acquires, renovates, develops, redevelops, disposes of, and manages multifamily apartment communities generally located in high barrier-to-entry markets throughout the United States. The high barrier-to-entry markets are characterized by limited land for new construction, difficult and lengthy entitlement processes, low single-family home affordability and strong employment growth potential. The Operating Partnership owns, operates, acquires, renovates, develops, redevelops, disposes of, and manages multifamily apartment communities generally located in high barrier-to-entry markets located throughout the United States. UDR conducts a substantial amount of its business and holds a substantial amount of its assets through the Operating Partnership, and, by virtue of its ownership of a substantial majority of the limited partnership interests (“OP Units”) of the Operating Partnership and being the Operating Partnership’s sole general partner, UDR has the ability to control all of the day to day operations of the Operating Partnership. UDR has elected to be taxed as a REIT under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Internal Revenue Code”). To continue to qualify as a REIT, we must continue to meet certain tests which, among other things, generally require that our assets consist primarily of real estate assets, our income be derived primarily from real estate assets, and that we distribute at least 90% of our REIT taxable income (other than our net capital gains) to our stockholders annually. As a REIT, we generally will not be subject to U.S. federal income taxes at the corporate level on our net income to the extent we distribute such net income to our stockholders annually. UDR was formed in 1972 as a Virginia corporation. In June 2003, we changed our state of incorporation from Virginia to Maryland. The Operating Partnership is the successor-in-interest to United Dominion Realty, L.P., a limited partnership formed under the laws of Virginia, which commenced operations in 1995. The Operating Partnership was redomiciled in 2004 as a Delaware limited partnership. Our corporate offices are located at 1745 Shea Center Drive, Suite 200, Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80129 and our telephone number at that address is (720) 283-6120. Our website is www.udr.com. The information on, or accessible through, our website is not part of this prospectus and should not be relied upon in connection with making any investment decision with respect to the securities offered by this prospectus. Additional information regarding UDR and the Operating Partnership is set forth in documents on file with the SEC and incorporated by reference in this prospectus and any accompanying prospectus supplement, as described in the section of this prospectus entitled “Where You Can Find More Information.” You should consider the specific risks described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, the risk factors described under the caption “Risk Factors” in any applicable prospectus supplement and any risk factors set forth in our other filings with the SEC, pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, before making an investment decision. Each of the risks described in these documents could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, and could result in a partial or complete loss of your investment. See the section of this prospectus entitled “Where You Can Find More Information.” Unless we state otherwise in the applicable prospectus supplement, we intend to use the net proceeds from the sale of the securities offered by this prospectus and the accompanying prospectus supplement for general corporate purposes. General corporate purposes may include additions to working capital, capital expenditures, repayment of debt, funding improvements to properties, and acquiring and developing additional properties. Pending application of the net proceeds, we intend to invest the proceeds in interest bearing accounts and short-term, interest bearing securities. Unless otherwise set forth in a prospectus supplement, we will not receive any proceeds in the event that the securities are sold by a selling security holder. This prospectus contains summary descriptions of the common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares, debt securities, guarantees of debt securities, warrants, subscription rights, purchase contracts and purchase units that we may offer and sell from time to time. These summary descriptions are not meant to be complete descriptions of each security. The particular terms of any security will be described in the applicable prospectus supplement. Our authorized capital stock consists of 350,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, 50,000,000 shares of preferred stock, without par value, and 300,000,000 shares of excess stock, par value $0.01 per share. As of December 31, 2019, 294,588,305 shares of our common stock were issued and outstanding and 26,641,828 shares of our common stock were reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding stock options, convertible notes and convertible preferred stock and redemption of units in the Operating Partnership and UDR Lighthouse DownREIT L.P. (the “DownREIT Partnership”) exchangeable for our common stock. We currently have two designated series of preferred stock that are outstanding or could be issued. We have designated 2,803,812 shares as Series E Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock (“Series E Preferred Stock”), of which 2,780,994 shares were outstanding as of December 31, 2019. We have designated 20,000,000 shares as Series F Preferred Stock (“Series F Preferred Stock”), of which 14,691,274 shares were outstanding as of December 31, 2019. The following is a description of our capital stock and certain provisions of our charter, bylaws and certain provisions of applicable law. The following is only a summary and is qualified by applicable law and by the provisions of our charter and bylaws, copies of which are included as exhibits to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Common Stock We have one class of common stock. All holders of our common stock are entitled to the same rights and privileges, as described below. Voting Rights. Holders of our common stock are entitled to one vote per share with respect to each matter presented to our stockholders on which the holders of common stock are entitled to vote and do not have cumulative voting rights. In any uncontested election of directors, directors will be elected by a majority of total votes cast for and against such director nominees. In any contested election, directors will be elected by a plurality of the votes cast by the stockholders entitled to vote on the election. Dividends. Holders of our common stock are entitled to receive proportionately any dividends as may be declared by our board of directors, subject to any preferential dividend rights of outstanding preferred stock. Liquidation and Dissolution. In the event of our liquidation or dissolution, the holders of our common stock are entitled to receive ratably all assets available for distribution to stockholders after the payment of all debts and other liabilities and subject to the prior rights of any outstanding preferred stock. Other Rights. Holders of our common stock have no preemptive, subscription, redemption or conversion rights. The rights, preferences and privileges of holders of our common stock are subject to and may be adversely affected by the rights of the holders of shares of any series of preferred stock that we may designate and issue in the future. Restrictions on Ownership and Transfer. Our charter contains ownership and transfer restrictions relating to our stock that are designed primarily to preserve our status as a REIT. These restrictions include but are not limited to the following: no person may beneficially own or constructively own shares of our outstanding “equity stock” (defined as stock that is either common stock or preferred stock) with a value in excess of 9.9% of the value of all outstanding equity stock unless our board of directors exempts the person from such ownership limitation, provided that any such exemption shall not allow the person to exceed 13% of the value of our outstanding equity stock; any transfer that, if effective, would result in any person beneficially owning or constructively owning equity stock with a value in excess of 9.9% of the value of all outstanding equity stock (or such higher value not to exceed 13% as determined pursuant to an exemption from our board of directors) shall be void as to the transfer of that number of shares of equity stock which would otherwise be beneficially owned or constructively owned by such person in excess of such ownership limit; and the intended transferee shall acquire no rights in such excess shares of equity stock; except as provided in the charter, any transfer that, if effective, would result in the equity stock being beneficially owned by fewer than 100 persons shall be void as to the transfer of that number of shares which would be otherwise beneficially owned or constructively owned by the transferee; and the intended transferee shall acquire no rights in such excess shares of equity stock; and any transfer of shares of equity stock that, if effective, would result in us being “closely held” within the meaning of Section 856(h) of the Internal Revenue Code shall be void as to the transfer of that number of shares of equity stock which would cause us to be “closely held” within the meaning of Section 856(h) of the Internal Revenue Code; and the intended transferee shall acquire no rights in such excess shares of equity stock. Listing. Our common stock is listed on the NYSE under the symbol “UDR.” Under our charter we are authorized to issue up to 50,000,000 shares of preferred stock, without par value, in one or more series. Our board of directors may authorize the issuance of preferred stock in one or more series and may determine, with respect to any such series, the powers, preferences and rights of such series, and its qualifications, limitations and restrictions. We currently have two designated series of Preferred Stock that are outstanding or could be issued. We have designated 2,803,812 shares as Series E Preferred Stock, of which 2,780,994 shares were outstanding as of December 31, 2019. We have designated 20,000,000 shares as Series F Preferred Stock, of which 14,691,274 shares were outstanding as of December 31, 2019. Series E Preferred Stock Ranking. The Series E Preferred Stock ranks pari passu with any of our other capital stock designated as ranking on parity with the Series E Preferred Stock (“Parity Stock”), with respect to payment of dividends and amounts upon liquidation, dissolution or winding up, and senior to our common stock, the Series F Preferred Stock and any other class of our capital stock now or hereafter issued and outstanding that ranks junior as to the payment of dividends or amounts upon liquidation, dissolution and winding up to the Series E Preferred Stock or any Parity Stock (collectively, “Junior Stock”). While any shares of Series E Preferred Stock are outstanding, we may not authorize or create any class or series of capital stock that ranks senior to the Series E Preferred Stock with respect to the payment of dividends or amounts upon liquidation, dissolution or winding up, or reclassify any of our authorized capital stock into any such shares, or create, authorize or issue any obligation or security convertible into or evidencing the right to purchase any such shares, without the consent of the holders of a majority of the outstanding Series E Preferred Stock. Dividends. Holders of the Series E Preferred Stock are entitled to receive, out of funds legally available for payment, cumulative preferential cash dividends at an annual rate of 8% of the liquidation preference (equivalent to $1.3288 per share of Series E Preferred Stock), until such time as the dividend on the common stock is equal to or exceeds this amount for four consecutive calendar quarters, at which time the dividends will adjust to match the dividend on the common stock. Dividends on each share of Series E Preferred Stock accrue and are cumulative from and including the date of original issue and are paid quarterly in arrears on the last day, or the next business day, of January, April, July and October, commencing July 31, 2003. Dividends on each share of Series E Preferred Stock are cumulative to the extent not declared and paid in full whether or not there exists funds legally available for the payment of such dividends or such dividends have been authorized. Accumulations of dividends on the Series E Preferred Stock do not bear interest and holders of the Series E Preferred Stock are not entitled to any dividends in excess of full cumulative dividends. Dividends payable on the Series E Preferred Stock for any partial dividend period will be computed on the basis of a 360-day year consisting of 12 30-day months. Dividends payable on the Series E Preferred Stock for each full dividend period are computed by dividing the annual dividend rate by four. Until such time as the dividend on the common stock is equal to or exceeds $1.3288 per share per annum for four consecutive calendar quarters, no dividend (other than in Junior Stock) will be declared or paid on any Junior Stock unless full cumulative dividends have been declared and paid or are contemporaneously declared and funds sufficient for payment set aside on the Series E Preferred Stock for all prior dividend periods, nor shall any Junior Stock or any Parity Stock be redeemed, purchased or otherwise acquired for any consideration (or any moneys paid to or made available for a sinking fund for redemption of any shares of Junior Stock or Parity Stock) (except by conversion into or exchange for other Junior Stock or Parity Stock). We may not declare, pay or set apart funds for the payment of any dividend on share of Series E Preferred Stock at such time as the terms and provisions of any agreement to which we are bound, including any agreement relating to out indebtedness, prohibits such declaration, payment or setting apart for payment or provides that such declaration, payment or setting apart for payment would constitute a breach or a default under such an agreement, or if such declaration or payment is restricted or prohibited by law. Liquidation Preference. The holders of Series E Preferred Stock are entitled to receive in the event of any liquidation, dissolution or winding up of UDR, whether voluntary or involuntary, $16.61 per share of Series E Preferred Stock, which we refer to in this prospectus as the “Series E Liquidation Preference,” plus an amount per share of Series E Preferred Stock equal to all dividends (whether or not earned or declared) accrued and unpaid thereon to, but not including, the date of final distribution to such holders. If, upon any liquidation, dissolution or winding up of UDR, the Series E Liquidation Preference and any amounts payable as a liquidation preference to other shares of Parity Stock are not paid in full, the holders of the shares of the Series E Preferred Stock and any such Parity Stock will share ratably in the distribution of our assets in proportion to the full respective liquidation preferences to which they are entitled. Voting Rights. The holders of our outstanding Series E Preferred Stock are entitled to vote on an “as converted” (one-for-one) basis as a single class in combination with the holders of our common stock at any meeting of stockholders for the election of directors or for any other purpose on which holders of our common stock are entitled to vote. Conversion Rights. Each share of the Series E Preferred Stock is convertible into 1.083 shares of common stock, subject to adjustment for (a) capital reorganization or reclassification, (b) a merger, consolidation, statutory share exchange, self tender offer for all or substantially all of the outstanding shares of our common stock or sale of all or substantially all of our assets or (c) a dividend or other distribution payable in securities issued by us. No fractional shares will be issued upon conversion of the Series E Preferred Stock. In lieu of issuing fractional shares that would otherwise be deliverable upon the conversion of one share of Series E Preferred Stock, we will pay to the holder of such share an amount in cash equal to such fraction multiplied by the closing sale price on the trading day immediately preceding the date of conversion. If after the original date of issue we make or issue, or fix a record date for the holders of our common stock entitled to receive, a dividend or other distribution payable in securities issued by us, then and in each event, we shall make such provision so that each holder of Series E Preferred Stock will be entitled to receive, upon conversion of the Series E Preferred Stock, in addition to the shares of our common stock receivable upon conversion, such number of such securities as such holder would have received if the holder had converted the Series E Preferred Stock immediately prior to the date of such event and had continued to hold such securities until the conversion date. In connection with a special dividend (declared on November 5, 2008), we reserved for issuance upon conversion of the Series E Preferred stock additional shares of common stock which a holder of the Series E Preferred Stock would have received if the holder had converted the Series E Preferred Stock immediately prior to the record date for this special dividend. Listing. The Series E Preferred Stock is not listed on any exchange. Series F Preferred Stock Existing holders of OP Units in the Operating Partnership and units of limited partnership interest in the DownREIT Partnership (“DownREIT Units”) may purchase one share of Series F Preferred Stock for each OP Unit or DownREIT Unit, as applicable, that they hold, at a purchase price of $0.0001 per share. No Dividends or Liquidation Rights. The Series F Preferred Stock is not entitled to receive dividends or otherwise participate in our earnings or assets. Upon a voluntary or involuntary dissolution, liquidation or winding up, the holders of shares of the Series F Preferred Stock then outstanding will not be entitled to receive or be paid out of the assets of the corporation legally available for distribution to its stockholders. The holders of the Series F Preferred Stock as such will have no right or claim to any of our assets. Voting Rights. Except as otherwise required by law or provided in our charter, and subject to the express terms of any other series of preferred stock, each share of Series F Preferred Stock will entitle the holder thereof to one vote for each share of Series F Preferred Stock held by such holder on each matter submitted to a vote at a meeting of the stockholders upon which holders of common stock are entitled to vote. The holders of Series F Preferred Stock will be entitled to receive notice of all meetings of the stockholders at which the holders of common stock are entitled to such notice. Conversion Rights. The Series F Preferred Stock is not convertible into or exchangeable for any other property or securities of the corporation. Redemption. Each share of Series F Preferred Stock will automatically be redeemed by UDR for no consideration without notice to its holder and without further action by UDR if the OP Unit or DownREIT Unit underlying such share of Series F Preferred Stock is no longer outstanding. Listing. The Series F Preferred Stock is not listed on any exchange. Anti-takeover Effects of Our Bylaws and Maryland Law Our bylaws and Maryland law contain provisions that could have the effect of delaying, deferring or discouraging another party from acquiring control of us. These provisions, which are summarized below, are expected to discourage coercive takeover practices and inadequate takeover bids. These provisions are also designed to encourage persons seeking to acquire control of us to first negotiate with our board of directors. Bylaws. Our bylaws establish an advance written notice procedure for stockholders seeking to nominate candidates for election as directors at any annual meeting of stockholders and to bring business before an annual meeting of our stockholders. Our bylaws provide that only persons who are nominated by our board of directors or by a stockholder who has given timely written notice to our secretary before the meeting to elect directors will be eligible for election as our directors. Our bylaws also provide that any matter to be presented at any meeting of stockholders must be presented either by our board of directors or by a stockholder in compliance with the procedures in our bylaws. A stockholder must give timely written notice to our secretary of its intention to present a matter before an annual meeting of stockholders. Our board of directors then will consider whether the matter is one that is appropriate for consideration by our stockholders under the Maryland General Corporation Law and the SEC’s rules. Certain Maryland Law Provisions. As a Maryland corporation, we are subject to certain restrictions concerning certain “business combinations” (including a merger, consolidation, share exchange or, in certain circumstances, an asset transfer or issuance or reclassification of equity securities) between us and an “interested stockholder.” Interested stockholders are persons: (i) who beneficially own 10% or more of the voting power of our outstanding voting stock, or (ii) who are affiliates or associates of us who, at any time within the two-year period prior to the date in question, were the beneficial owners of 10% or more of the voting power of our outstanding stock. Such business combinations are prohibited for five years after the most recent date on which the interested stockholder became an interested stockholder. Thereafter, any such business combination must be recommended by the board of directors and approved by the affirmative vote of at least: (i) 80% of the votes entitled to be cast by holders of the outstanding voting shares voting together as a single voting group, and (ii) two-thirds of the votes entitled to be cast by holders of the outstanding voting shares other than voting shares held by the interested stockholder or an affiliate or associate of the interested stockholder with whom the business combination is to be effected, unless, among other things, the corporation’s stockholders receive a minimum price for their shares and the consideration is received in the form of cash or other consideration in the same form as previously paid by the interested stockholder for its shares. These provisions of Maryland law do not apply, however, to business combinations that are approved or exempted by the board of directors prior to the time that the interested stockholder becomes an interested stockholder. Also under Maryland law, “control shares” of a Maryland corporation acquired in a “control share acquisition” have no voting rights except to the extent approved by a vote of two-thirds of the votes entitled to be cast on the matter, excluding shares owned by the acquirer or by officers or directors who are employees of the corporation. “Control shares” are shares of stock which, if aggregated with all other shares of stock owned by the acquirer or shares of stock for which the acquirer is able to exercise or direct the exercise of voting power except solely by virtue of a revocable proxy, would entitle the acquirer to exercise voting power in electing directors within one of the following ranges of voting power: one-tenth or more but less than one-third, one-third or more but less than a majority, or a majority or more of all voting power. Control shares do not include shares the acquiring person is then entitled to vote as a result of having previously obtained stockholder approval. A “control share acquisition” means, subject to certain exceptions, the acquisition of, ownership of or the power to direct the exercise of voting power with respect to, control shares. The control share acquisition statute does not apply to shares acquired in a merger, consolidation or share exchange if the corporation is a party to the transaction or to acquisitions approved or exempted by the charter or bylaws of the corporation. Our bylaws contain a provision exempting from the control share acquisition statute any acquisitions by any person of shares of our stock. Under Title 3, Subtitle 8 of the Maryland General Corporation Law, a Maryland corporation that has a class of equity securities registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and that has at least three directors who are not officers or employees of the corporation, are not acquiring persons, are not directors, officers, affiliates or associates of any acquiring person, or are not nominated or designated as a director by an acquiring person, may elect in its charter or bylaws or by resolution of its board of directors to be subject to certain provisions of Subtitle 8 that may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of the corporation. These provisions relate to a classified board of directors, removal of directors, establishing the number of directors, filling vacancies on the board of directors and calling special meetings of the corporation’s stockholders. We have not made the election to be governed by these provisions of Subtitle 8 of the Maryland General Corporation Law. However, our charter and our bylaws permit our board of directors to determine the number of directors subject to a minimum number and other provisions contained in such documents. Under our charter we are authorized to issue up to 50,000,000 shares of preferred stock, without par value, in one or more series. Our board of directors may authorize the issuance of preferred stock in one or more series and may determine, with respect to any such series, the powers, preferences and rights of such series, and its qualifications, limitations and restrictions. The prospectus supplement relating to any series of preferred stock that we may offer will contain the specific terms of the preferred stock. These terms may include the following: the title of the series and the number of shares in the series; the price at which the preferred stock will be offered; the dividend rate or rates or method of calculating the rates, the dates on which the dividends will be payable, whether or not dividends will be cumulative or non-cumulative and, if cumulative, the dates from which dividends on the preferred stock being offered will cumulate; the voting rights, if any, of the holders of shares of the preferred stock being offered; the provisions for a sinking fund if any, and the provisions for redemption, if applicable, of the preferred stock being offered; the terms and conditions, if applicable, upon which the preferred stock being offered will be convertible into our common stock, including the conversion price, or the manner of calculating the conversion price, and the conversion period; the terms and conditions, if applicable, upon which the preferred stock being offered will be exchangeable for debt securities, including the exchange price, or the manner of calculating the exchange price, and the exchange period; any listing of the preferred stock being offered on any securities exchange; whether interests in the shares of the series will be represented by depositary shares; a discussion of any material U.S. federal income tax consequences applicable to the preferred stock being offered; the relative ranking and preferences of the preferred stock being offered as to dividend rights and rights upon liquidation, dissolution or the winding up of our affairs; any limitations on the issuance of any class or series of preferred stock ranking senior or equal to the series of preferred stock being offered as to dividend rights and rights upon liquidation, dissolution or the winding up of our affairs; information with respect to book-entry procedures, if any; and any additional rights, preferences, qualifications, limitations and restrictions of the series. Upon issuance, the shares of preferred stock will be fully paid and nonassessable, which means that its holders will have paid their purchase price in full, and we may not require them to pay additional funds. Holders of preferred stock will not have any preemptive rights. We may, at our option, elect to offer depositary shares, each of which would represent an interest in a fractional share, or multiple shares, of our preferred stock instead of whole shares of preferred stock. If so, we will allow a depositary to issue to the public depositary shares, each of which will represent an interest in a fractional share, or multiple shares, of preferred stock as described in the prospectus supplement relating to such series of depositary shares. The shares of the preferred stock underlying any depositary shares will be deposited under a separate deposit agreement between us and a bank or trust company acting as depositary with respect to those shares of preferred stock. The prospectus supplement relating to a series of depositary shares will specify the name and address of the depositary. Under the deposit agreement, each owner of a depositary share will be entitled, in proportion of its interest in a fractional share or multiple shares, of the preferred stock underlying that depositary share, to all the rights and preferences of that preferred stock, including dividend, voting, redemption, conversion, exchange and liquidation rights. Depositary shares will be evidenced by one or more depositary receipts issued under the deposit agreement. We will distribute depositary receipts to those persons purchasing such depositary shares in accordance with the terms of the offering made by the related prospectus supplement. The depositary will distribute all cash dividends or other cash distributions in respect of the preferred stock underlying the depositary shares to each record depositary shareholder based on the number of the depositary shares owned by that holder on the relevant record date under the terms specified in the deposit agreement and the related prospectus supplement. If there is a distribution other than in cash, the depositary will distribute property to the entitled record depositary shareholders, unless the depositary determines that it is not feasible to make that distribution. In that case the depositary may, with our approval, adopt the method it deems equitable and practicable for making that distribution, including any sale of property and the distribution of the net proceeds from this sale to the concerned holders. Each deposit agreement will also contain provisions relating to the manner in which any subscription or similar rights we offer to holders of the relevant series of preferred stock will be made available to depositary shareholders. The amount distributed in all of the foregoing cases will be reduced by any amounts required to be withheld by us or the depositary on account of taxes and governmental charges. Withdrawal of Stock Upon surrender of depositary receipts at the office of the depositary and upon payment of the charges provided in the deposit agreement and subject to the terms thereof, a holder of depositary receipts will be entitled to have the depositary deliver to such holder the applicable number of shares of preferred stock underlying the depositary shares evidenced by the surrendered depositary receipts. There may be no market, however, for the underlying preferred stock and once the underlying preferred stock is withdrawn from the depositary, it may not be redeposited. The terms on which the depositary shares relating to the preferred stock of any series may be redeemed, and any amounts distributable upon our liquidation, dissolution or winding up, will be described in the applicable prospectus supplement. Upon receiving notice of any meeting at which preferred stockholders of any series are entitled to vote, the depositary will mail the information contained in that notice to the record depositary shareholders relating to that series of preferred stock. Each depositary shareholder on the record date will be entitled to instruct the depositary on how to vote the shares of preferred stock underlying that holder’s depositary shares. The depositary will vote the shares of preferred stock underlying those depositary shares according to those instructions, and we will take reasonably necessary actions to enable the depositary to do so. If the depositary does not receive specific instructions from the depositary shareholders relating to that preferred stock, it will abstain from voting those shares of preferred stock, unless otherwise discussed in the prospectus supplement. Charges of Depositary We will pay all transfer and other taxes and governmental charges arising solely from the existence of the depositary arrangements. We will also pay all charges of each depositary in connection with the initial deposit and any redemption of the preferred stock. Unless otherwise specified in the deposit agreement and the related prospectus supplement, depositary shareholders will be required to pay any other transfer and other taxes and governmental charges and any other charges expressly provided in the deposit agreement to be for their accounts. Miscellaneous Each depositary will forward to the relevant depositary shareholders all our reports and communications that we are required to furnish to preferred stockholders of any series. The deposit agreement will contain provisions relating to adjustments in the fraction of a share of preferred stock represented by a depositary share in the event of a change in par value, split-up, combination or other reclassification of the preferred stock or upon any recapitalization, merger or sale of substantially all of our assets. Neither the depositary nor UDR will be liable if it is prevented or delayed by law or any circumstance beyond its control in performing its obligations under any deposit agreement. The obligations of UDR and each depositary under any deposit agreement will be limited to performing their duties in good faith and without negligence (in the case of any action or inaction in voting preferred stock represented by depositary shares), gross negligence or willful misconduct, and UDR and the depositary will not be obligated to prosecute or defend any legal proceeding in respect of any depositary shares or preferred stock unless they are provided with satisfactory indemnity. They may rely upon written advice of counsel or accountants, or information provided by persons presenting preferred stock for deposit, depositary shareholders or other persons believed to be competent and on documents believed to be genuine. Resignation and Removal of Depositary A depositary may resign at any time by issuing us a notice of resignation, and we may remove any depositary at any time by issuing it a notice of removal. Resignation or removal will take effect upon the appointment of a successor depositary and its acceptance of appointment. That successor depositary must be appointed within 60 days after delivery of the notice of resignation or removal. We may offer debt securities, in one or more series, which may be senior debt securities or subordinated debt securities, in each case under an indenture entered into between us and a trustee. The debt securities will be our direct obligations. We will describe the particular terms of each series of debt securities offered, including a description of the material terms of the applicable indenture, in a prospectus supplement. This description will contain all or some of the following, as applicable: the title of the debt securities and whether the debt securities are senior debt securities or subordinated debt securities; the aggregate principal amount of the debt securities being offered, the aggregate principal amount of debt securities outstanding, and any limit on the principal amount, including the aggregate principal amount of debt securities authorized; the terms and conditions, if any, upon which the debt securities are convertible into our common stock, preferred stock or other securities, including the conversion price or its manner of calculation, the conversion period, provisions as to whether conversion will be at our option or the option of the holders, the events requiring an adjustment to the conversion price and provisions affecting conversion in the event of the redemption of the debt securities; the percentage of the principal amount at which we will issue the debt securities and, if other than the principal amount of the debt securities, the portion of the principal amount payable upon declaration of acceleration of their maturity, or, if applicable, the portion of the principal amount of the debt securities that is convertible into our capital stock, or the method for determining the portion; if convertible, in connection with the preservation of our status as a REIT, any applicable limitations on the ownership or transferability of our capital stock into which the debt securities are convertible; the denominations of the debt securities, if other than denominations of an integral multiple of $1,000; the date or dates, or the method for determining the date or dates, on which the principal of the debt securities will be payable and the amount of principal payable on the debt securities; the rate or rates, which may be fixed or variable, at which the debt securities will bear interest, if any, or the method for determining the rate or rates, the date or dates from which the interest will accrue or the method for determining the date or dates, the interest payment dates on which any interest will be payable and the regular record dates for the interest payment dates or the method for determining the dates, the person to whom interest should be payable, and the basis for calculating interest if other than that of a 360-day year consisting of 12 30-day months; the place or places where the principal of, and any premium or make-whole amount, any interest on, and any additional amounts payable in respect of, the debt securities will be payable, where holders of debt securities may surrender for registration of transfer or exchange, and where holders may serve notices or demands to or upon us in respect of the debt securities and the applicable indenture; any provisions for the redemption of the debt securities, the period or periods within which, the price or prices, including any premium or make-whole amount, at which, the currency or currencies, currency unit or units or composite currency or currencies in which, and other terms and conditions upon which the debt securities may be redeemed in whole or in part at our option, if we have the option; our obligation, if any, to redeem, repay or purchase the debt securities pursuant to any sinking fund or analogous provision or at the option of a holder of the debt securities, and the period or periods within which or the date or dates on which, the price or prices at which, the currency or currencies, currency unit or units or composite currency or currencies in which, and other terms and conditions upon which the debt securities will be redeemed, repaid or purchased, in whole or in part, pursuant to the obligation; if other than United States dollars, the currency or currencies in which the debt securities will be denominated and payable, which may be a foreign currency or units of two or more foreign currencies or a composite currency or currencies; whether the amount of payments of principal of, and any premium or make-whole amount, or any interest on the debt securities may be determined with reference to an index, formula or other method, which index, formula or method may be based on one or more currencies, currency units, composite currencies, commodities, equity indices or other indices, and the manner for determining the amounts; whether the principal of, and any premium or make-whole amount, or any interest or additional amounts on the debt securities are to be payable, at the election of UDR or a holder, in a currency or currencies, currency unit or units or composite currency or currencies other than that in which the debt securities are denominated or stated to be payable, the period or periods within which, and the terms and conditions upon which, the election may be made, and the time and manner of, and identity of the exchange rate agent with responsibility for, determining the exchange rate between the currency or currencies, currency unit or units or composite currency or currencies in which the debt securities are denominated or stated to be payable and the currency or currencies, currency unit or units or composite currency or currencies in which the debt securities are to be so payable; any deletions from, modifications of or additions to the events of default or covenants of UDR with respect to the debt securities, whether or not the events of default or covenants are consistent with the events of default or covenants set forth in the applicable indenture; whether the debt securities will be issued in certificated or book-entry form; the applicability, if any, of the defeasance and covenant defeasance provisions of the applicable indenture; whether and under what circumstances we will pay additional amounts as contemplated in the applicable indenture on the debt securities in respect of any tax, assessment or governmental charge and, if so, whether we will have the option to redeem the debt securities rather than pay the additional amounts, and the terms of the option; any restrictions or condition on the transferability of the debt securities; the exchanges, if any, on which the debt securities may be listed; any other material terms of the debt securities and the applicable indenture. The debt securities may be original issue discount securities, which are debt securities that may provide for less than their entire principal amount to be payable upon declaration of acceleration of their maturity. Special U.S. federal income tax, accounting and other considerations applicable to original issue discount securities will be described in the prospectus supplement. Unless we specify otherwise in the applicable prospectus supplement, we will issue our senior debt securities under an indenture dated as of November 1, 1995, between us and the trustee under the indenture, which is U.S. Bank National Association (successor trustee to Wachovia Bank, National Association, formerly known as First Union National Bank of Virginia). We refer to this indenture as the “Senior Indenture.” Unless we specify otherwise in the applicable prospectus supplement, we will issue our subordinated debt securities under the indenture dated as of August 1, 1994, between us and the trustee under the indenture, which is U.S. Bank National Association (successor trustee to SunTrust Bank, formerly known as Crestar Bank). We refer to this indenture as the “Subordinated Indenture.” The Senior Indenture and the Subordinated Indenture are sometimes referred to in this prospectus individually as an “Indenture” and collectively as the “Indentures.” As trustees, U.S. Bank serves two roles. First, the trustees can enforce your rights against us if we default on the debt securities. Second, the trustees assist in administering our obligations under the debt securities, such as payments of interest. Below, we describe the Indentures and summarize some of their provisions. However, we have not described every aspect of the Indentures or the debt securities that we may issue under the Indentures. You should refer to the actual Indentures for a complete description of their provisions and the definitions of terms used in them. In this prospectus, we provide only the definitions for some of the more important terms in the Indentures. Wherever we refer to defined terms of the Indentures in this prospectus or in the prospectus supplement, we are incorporating by reference those defined terms. The Senior Indenture and Subordinated Indenture are exhibits to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part. General Terms. The Indentures do not limit the aggregate principal amount of debt securities that we may issue and provide that we may issue debt securities from time to time in one or more series, except that the Senior Indenture contains limitations on the amount of indebtedness that we may incur, as described in more detail below. The senior debt securities issued under the Senior Indenture will be unsecured obligations and will rank on a parity with all of our other unsecured and unsubordinated indebtedness. The subordinated debt securities issued under the Subordinated Indenture will be our unsecured obligations and will be subordinated in right of payment to all senior debt. Each Indenture allows for any one or more series of debt securities to have one or more trustees. Any trustee under either Indenture may resign or be removed with respect to one or more series of debt securities, and a successor trustee may be appointed to act with respect to the series. If two or more persons are acting as trustee with respect to different series of debt securities, each trustee will be a trustee of a trust under the applicable Indenture separate and apart from the trust administered by any other trustee. Unless this prospectus or the applicable prospectus supplement states differently, each trustee of a series of debt securities may take any action that we may take under the applicable Indenture. We will provide you with more information in the applicable prospectus supplement regarding any deletions, modifications or additions to the events of default or covenants that are described below, including any addition of a covenant or other provision. Denominations, Interest, Registration and Transfer. Unless the applicable prospectus supplement states differently, the debt securities of any series issued under an Indenture in registered form will be issuable in denominations of $1,000 and integral multiples of $1,000. Unless the prospectus supplement states otherwise, the debt securities of any series issued under an Indenture in bearer form will be issuable in denominations of $5,000. Unless otherwise provided in the applicable prospectus supplement, the trustees will pay the principal of and any premium and interest on the debt securities issued under an Indenture and will register the transfer of any debt securities at their offices. However, at our option, we may distribute interest payments by mailing a check to the address of each holder of debt securities that appears on the register for the debt securities. Any interest on the debt securities not punctually paid or duly provided for on any interest payment date will cease to be payable to the holder on the applicable regular record date. This defaulted interest may be paid to the person in whose name the debt security is registered at the close of business on a special record date for the payment of the defaulted interest. We will set the special record date and give the holder of the debt security at least 10 days’ prior notice. In the alternative, this defaulted interest may be paid in any other lawful manner, all as more completely described in the applicable Indenture. Subject to any limitations imposed upon debt securities issued under an Indenture in book-entry form, the debt securities of any series will be exchangeable for other debt securities of the same series and of a like aggregate principal amount and tenor of different authorized denominations upon surrender to the applicable trustee of the debt securities. In addition, subject to any limitations imposed upon debt securities issued under an Indenture in book-entry form, a holder may surrender the debt securities to the trustee for conversion or registration of transfer. Debt securities surrendered for conversion, registration of transfer or exchange will be duly endorsed or accompanied by a written instrument of transfer from the holder. A holder will not have to pay a service charge for any registration of transfer or exchange of any debt securities, but we may require payment of a sum sufficient to cover any applicable tax or other governmental charge. If the prospectus supplement refers to any transfer agent, in addition to the applicable trustee that we initially designated with respect to any series of debt securities, we may at any time rescind the designation of the transfer agent or approve a change in the location through which the transfer agent acts, except that we will be required to maintain a transfer agent in each place of payment for the series. We may at any time designate additional transfer agents with respect to any series of debt securities issued under an Indenture. Neither we nor the trustees under the Indentures will be required to: issue, register the transfer of or exchange debt securities of any series during a period beginning at the opening of business 15 days before any selection of debt securities of that series to be redeemed and ending at the close of business on the day of mailing of the relevant notice of redemption; register the transfer of or exchange any debt security, or portion thereof, called for redemption, except the unredeemed portion of any debt security being redeemed in part; or issue, register the transfer of or exchange any debt security that has been surrendered for repayment at the holder’s option, except the portion, if any, of the debt security not to be repaid. Merger, Consolidation or Sale. The Indentures generally provide that we may consolidate with, or sell, lease or convey all or substantially all of our assets to, or merge with or into, any other entity, provided that: either we will be the continuing entity, or the successor entity formed by or resulting from the consolidation or merger or that will have received the transfer of the assets is an entity organized and existing under the laws of the United States or any state and will expressly assume payment of the principal of, and any premium or make-whole amount, if any, and interest on all of the debt securities issued under the Indenture and the due and punctual performance and observance of all of the covenants and conditions contained in the Indenture; immediately after giving effect to the transaction and treating any resulting indebtedness that becomes our or any subsidiary’s obligation as having been incurred by us or the subsidiary at the time of the transaction, no event of default under the Indenture, and no event which, after notice or the lapse of time, or both, would become an event of default, will have occurred and be continuing; and we receive an officers’ certificate and legal opinion as to compliance with these conditions. Covenants Under the Senior Indenture. The Senior Indenture provides that we will not, and will not permit any subsidiary to, incur any Debt (as defined below) if, immediately after giving effect to the incurrence of the additional Debt and the application of the proceeds from the Debt, the aggregate principal amount of all of our outstanding Debt on a consolidated basis determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles is greater than 60% of the sum of, without duplication: our Total Assets (as defined below) as of the end of the calendar quarter covered in our Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as the case may be, most recently filed with the SEC, or, if the filing is not permitted under the Exchange Act, with the trustee, prior to the incurrence of the additional Debt; and the purchase price of any real estate assets or mortgages receivable acquired, and the amount of any securities offering proceeds received, to the extent the proceeds were not used to acquire real estate assets or mortgages receivable or used to reduce Debt, by us or any subsidiary since the end of the calendar quarter, including those proceeds obtained in connection with the incurrence of the additional Debt. In addition to the foregoing limitations on the incurrence of Debt, the Senior Indenture provides that we will not, and will not permit any subsidiary to, incur any Debt secured by any mortgage, lien, charge, pledge, encumbrance or security interest of any kind upon any of our or any subsidiary’s property if, immediately after giving effect to the incurrence of the Debt and the application of the proceeds from the Debt, the aggregate principal amount of all of our outstanding Debt on a consolidated basis that is secured by any mortgage, lien, charge, pledge, encumbrance or security interest on our or any subsidiary’s property is greater than 40% of our Total Assets. In addition to the foregoing limitations on the incurrence of Debt, the Senior Indenture provides that we will not, and will not permit any subsidiary to, incur any Debt if the ratio of Consolidated Income Available for Debt Service (as defined below) to the Annual Service Charge (as defined below) for the four consecutive fiscal quarters most recently ended prior to the date on which the additional Debt is to be incurred will have been less than 1.5, on a pro forma basis after giving effect to the Debt and to the application of the proceeds from the Debt, and calculated on the assumption that: the Debt and any other Debt incurred since the first day of the four-quarter period and the application of the proceeds therefrom, including to refinance other Debt, had occurred at the beginning of the period; our repayment or retirement of any other Debt since the first day of the four-quarter period had been incurred, repaid or retired at the beginning of the period, except that, in making the computation, the amount of Debt under any revolving credit facility will be computed based upon the average daily balance of the Debt during the period; in the case of Acquired Debt (as defined below) or Debt incurred in connection with any acquisition since the first day of the four-quarter period, the related acquisition had occurred as of the first day of the period with the appropriate adjustments with respect to the acquisition being included in the pro forma calculation; and in the case of our acquisition or disposition of any asset or group of assets since the first day of the four-quarter period, whether by merger, stock purchase or sale, or asset purchase or sale, the acquisition or disposition or any related repayment of Debt had occurred as of the first day of the period with the appropriate adjustments with respect to the acquisition or disposition being included in the pro forma calculation. The Subordinated Indenture does not limit the incurrence of Debt. The following terms used in the covenants summarized above have the indicated meanings: “Acquired Debt” means Debt of a person (i) existing at the time the person becomes a subsidiary or (ii) assumed in connection with the acquisition of assets from the person, in each case, other than Debt incurred in connection with, or in contemplation of, the person becoming a subsidiary or the acquisition. Acquired Debt will be deemed to be incurred on the date of the related acquisition of assets from any person or the date the acquired person becomes a subsidiary. “Annual Service Charge” as of any date means the maximum amount that is payable in any period for interest on, and original issue discount of, our Debt and the amount of dividends that are payable in respect of any Disqualified Stock (as defined below). “Capital Stock” means, with respect to any person, any capital stock, including preferred stock, shares, interests, participations or other ownership interests, however designated, of the person and any rights (other than debt securities convertible into or exchangeable for corporate stock), warrants or options to purchase any capital stock. “Consolidated Income Available for Debt Service” for any period means Funds From Operations (as defined below) plus amounts that have been deducted for interest on Debt. borrowed money or evidenced by bonds, notes, debentures or similar instruments; indebtedness secured by any mortgage, pledge, lien, charge, encumbrance or any security interest existing on property owned by UDR or any subsidiary; the reimbursement obligations, contingent or otherwise, in connection with any letters of credit actually issued or amounts representing the balance deferred and unpaid of the purchase price of any property or services, except any balance that constitutes an accrued expense or trade payable, or all conditional sale obligations or obligations under any title retention agreement; the principal amount of all obligations of UDR or any subsidiary with respect to redemption, repayment or other repurchase of any Disqualified Stock; or any lease of property by UDR or any subsidiary as lessee that is reflected on UDR’s consolidated balance sheet as a capitalized lease in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles to the extent, in the case of items of indebtedness under the first three bullet points above, that any of the items, other than letters of credit, would appear as a liability on UDR’s consolidated balance sheet in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and also includes, to the extent not otherwise included, any obligation of UDR or any subsidiary to be liable for, or to pay, as obligor, guarantor or otherwise, other than for purposes of collection in the ordinary course of business, debt of another person, other than UDR or any subsidiary. Debt will be deemed to be incurred by us or any subsidiary whenever we or a subsidiary creates, assumes, guarantees or otherwise becomes liable for that Debt. “Disqualified Stock” means, with respect to any person, any capital stock of the person that by the terms of the capital stock, or by the terms of any security into which it is convertible or for which it is exchangeable or exercisable, upon the happening of any event or otherwise: is convertible into or exchangeable or exercisable for Debt or Disqualified Stock; or is redeemable at the option of the holder thereof, in whole or in part, in each case on or prior to the Stated Maturity of the series of debt securities. “Funds From Operations” for any period means income before gains or losses on investments and extraordinary items plus amounts that have been deducted, and minus amounts that have been added, for the following items, without duplication: provision for property depreciation and amortization; and the effect of any adjustments for significant non-recurring items, including any noncash charge resulting from a change in accounting principles in determining income before gains or losses on investments and extraordinary items for the period, as reflected in our financial statements for the period determined on a consolidated basis in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. “Total Assets” as of any date means the sum of: our Undepreciated Real Estate Assets; and all of our other assets determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, but excluding intangibles. “Undepreciated Real Estate Assets” as of any date means the original cost plus capital improvements of our real estate assets on the date, before depreciation and amortization determined on a consolidated basis in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Except as described above, the Indentures do not contain any provisions that would limit our ability to incur indebtedness or that would afford holders of the debt securities protection in the event of a highly leveraged or similar transaction involving us or in the event of a change of control. However, our charter contains ownership and transfer restrictions relating to our stock that are designed primarily to preserve our status as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes. The Internal Revenue Code generally provides that concentration of more than 50% in value of direct or indirect ownership of our stock in five or fewer individual stockholders during the last six months of any year, or ownership of our stock by fewer than 100 persons on more than a limited number of days during any taxable year, will result in our disqualification as a REIT for such purposes. Provisions of our charter that are intended to prevent concentration of ownership may prevent or hinder a change of control. You should refer to the applicable prospectus supplement for information with respect to any deletions from, modifications of or additions to the events of default or covenants of UDR that are described in this section, including any addition of a covenant or other provision providing event risk or similar protection. Covenants Under Both Indentures. Each Indenture includes the following covenants: Existence. Except as described above under “Merger, Consolidation or Sale,” we will do or cause to be done all things necessary to preserve and keep in full force and effect our existence, rights, both under our charter and statutory, and franchises. However, we will not be required to preserve any right or franchise if our board of directors determines that its preservation is no longer desirable in the conduct of our business and the business of our subsidiaries as a whole and that the loss thereof is not disadvantageous in any material respect to the holders of the debt securities of any series. Maintenance of Properties. We will cause all of our properties used or useful in the conduct of our business or the business of any subsidiary to be maintained and kept in good condition, repair and working order and supplied with all necessary equipment and will cause to be made all necessary repairs, renewals, replacements, betterments and improvements thereof, all as in our judgment may be necessary so that our business may be properly and advantageously conducted at all times. However, we will not be prevented from selling or otherwise disposing of for value our properties in the ordinary course of business. Insurance. We will, and will cause each of our subsidiaries to, keep all of our insurable properties insured against loss or damage in an amount at least equal to their then full insurable value with financially sound and reputable insurance companies. Payment of Taxes and Other Claims. We will pay or discharge or cause to be paid or discharged, before the same becomes delinquent: all taxes, assessments and governmental charges levied or imposed upon us or any subsidiary or upon our or any subsidiary’s income, profits or property; and all lawful claims for labor, materials and supplies that, if unpaid, might by law become a lien upon our or any subsidiary’s property. However, we will not be required to pay or discharge or cause to be paid or discharged any such tax, assessment, charge or claim whose amount, applicability or validity is being contested in good faith by appropriate proceedings. Provision of Financial Information. Whether or not we are subject to Sections 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, we will, to the extent permitted under the Exchange Act, file with the SEC the annual reports, quarterly reports and other documents that we would have been required to file with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13 and 15(d) if we were subject to those Sections. We will also in any event: within 15 days of each required filing date, transmit by mail to all holders of debt securities, as their names and addresses appear in the security register, without cost to the holders, copies of the annual reports and quarterly reports that we would have been required to file with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act if we were subject to those Sections; within 15 days of each required filing date, file with the trustee copies of the annual reports, quarterly reports and other documents that we would have been required to file with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act if we were subject to those Sections; and within 15 days of each required filing date, if our filing the documents with the SEC is not permitted under the Exchange Act, promptly upon written request and payment of the reasonable cost of duplication and delivery, supply copies of the documents to any prospective holder. Events of Default, Notice and Waiver. Each Indenture provides that the following events are “events of default” with respect to any issued series of debt securities: default for 30 days in the payment of any installment of interest or additional amounts payable on any debt security of the series; default in the payment of the principal of, or any premium or make-whole amount on any debt security of the series at its maturity; default in making any sinking fund payment as required for any debt security of the series; default in the performance of any other covenant of UDR contained in the Indenture, other than a covenant added to the Indenture solely for the benefit of a series of debt securities issued under the Indenture other than the series, continued for 60 days after written notice as provided in the Indenture; default under any bond, debenture, note, mortgage, indenture or instrument under which there may be issued or by which there may be secured or evidenced any indebtedness for money borrowed by us, or by any subsidiary, the repayment of which we have guaranteed or for which we are directly responsible or liable as obligor or guarantor, having an aggregate principal amount outstanding of at least $10,000,000, whether the indebtedness now exists or will later be created, which default will have resulted in the indebtedness being declared due and payable prior to the date on which it would otherwise have become due and payable, without the acceleration having been rescinded or annulled within 10 days after written notice as provided in the Indenture; the entry by a court of competent jurisdiction of one or more judgments, orders or decrees against us or any subsidiary in an aggregate amount, excluding amounts covered by insurance, in excess of $10,000,000 and those judgments, orders or decrees remain undischarged, unstayed and unsatisfied in an aggregate amount, excluding amounts covered by insurance, in excess of $10,000,000 for a period of 30 consecutive days; certain events of bankruptcy, insolvency or reorganization, or court appointment of a receiver, liquidator or trustee of UDR or any significant subsidiary or for all or substantially all of either of their properties; and any other event of default provided with respect to the series of debt securities. The term “significant subsidiary” means each significant subsidiary, as defined in Regulation S-X promulgated under the Securities Act, of UDR. If an event of default under either Indenture with respect to debt securities of any series at the time outstanding occurs and is continuing, then in every case the trustee or the holders of not less than 25% in principal amount of the outstanding debt securities of that series may declare the principal amount, or, if the debt securities of that series are original issue discount securities or indexed securities, the portion of the principal amount as may be specified in their terms, of, and any make-whole amount on, all of the debt securities of that series to be due and payable immediately by written notice to us, and to the trustee if given by the holders. However, at any time after the declaration of acceleration with respect to debt securities of the series, or of all debt securities then outstanding under the applicable Indenture, as the case may be, has been made, but before a judgment or decree for payment of the money due has been obtained by the trustee, the holders of not less than a majority in principal amount of the outstanding debt securities of the series, or of all debt securities then outstanding under the applicable Indenture, as the case may be, may rescind and annul the declaration and its consequences if: we will have deposited with the trustee all required payments of the principal of and any premium or make-whole amount and interest, and any additional amounts, on the debt securities of the series, or of all debt securities then outstanding under the applicable Indenture, as the case may be, plus certain fees, expenses, disbursements and advances of the trustee; and all events of default, other than the nonpayment of accelerated principal, or specified portion thereof and any premium or make-whole amount, or interest, with respect to the debt securities of the series, or of all debt securities then outstanding under the applicable Indenture, as the case may be, have been cured or waived as provided in the Indenture. Each Indenture also provides that the holders of not less than a majority in principal amount of the outstanding debt securities of any series, or of all debt securities then outstanding under the applicable Indenture, as the case may be, may waive any past default with respect to the series and its consequences, except a default: in the payment of the principal of, or any premium or make-whole amount, or interest or additional amounts payable on any debt security of the series; or in respect of a covenant or provision contained in the applicable Indenture that cannot be modified or amended without the consent of the holder of each affected outstanding debt security. Each trustee is required to give notice to the holders of debt securities within 90 days of a default under the applicable Indenture. However, the trustee may withhold notice to the holders of any series of debt securities of any default with respect to that series, except a default in the payment of the principal of, or any premium or make-whole amount, or interest or additional amounts payable, on any debt security of the series or in the payment of any sinking fund installment in respect of any debt security of the series, if the trustee considers the withholding to be in the interest of the holders. Each Indenture provides that no holders of debt securities of any series may institute any proceedings, judicial or otherwise, with respect to the Indenture or for any remedy thereunder, except in the case of failure of the trustee for 60 days to act after it has received a written request to institute proceedings in respect of an event of default from the holders of not less than 25% in principal amount of the outstanding debt securities of the series, as well as an offer of reasonable indemnity. This provision will not prevent, however, any holder of debt securities from instituting suit for the enforcement of payment of the principal of, and any premium or make-whole amount, interest on and additional amounts payable with respect to, the debt securities at their respective due dates. Modification of the Indentures. We and the applicable trustee may modify and amend either Indenture with the consent of the holders of not less than a majority in principal amount of all outstanding debt securities issued under the Indenture affected by the modification or amendment. However, we must have the consent of the holders of all affected outstanding debt securities to: change the stated maturity of the principal of, or any premium or make-whole amount, or any installment of principal of or interest or additional amounts payable on, any debt security; reduce the principal amount of, or the rate or amount of interest on, or any premium or make-whole amount payable on redemption of, or any additional amounts payable with respect to, any debt security, or reduce the amount of principal of an original issue discount security or make-whole amount, if any, that would be due and payable upon declaration of acceleration of its maturity or would be provable in bankruptcy, or adversely affect any right of repayment of the holder of any debt security; change the place of payment, or the coin or currency, for payment of principal of, and any premium or make-whole amount, or interest on, or any additional amounts payable with respect to, a debt security; impair the right to institute suit for the enforcement of any payment on or with respect to any debt security; reduce the percentage of outstanding debt securities of any series necessary to modify or amend the applicable Indenture, to waive compliance with any provisions of that Indenture or any defaults and consequences thereunder or to reduce the quorum or voting requirements set forth in the Indenture; or modify any of the foregoing provisions or any of the provisions relating to the waiver of certain past defaults or certain covenants, except to increase the required percentage to effect the action or to provide that certain other provisions may not be modified or waived without the consent of the holder of the debt security. The holders of not less than a majority in principal amount of outstanding debt securities issued under either Indenture have the right to waive our compliance with some covenants in the Indenture. Subordination. Upon any distribution to our creditors in a liquidation, dissolution, reorganization or similar proceeding, the payment of the principal of and interest on subordinated debt securities issued under the Subordinated Indenture will be subordinated to the extent provided in the Subordinated Indenture in right of payment to the prior payment in full of all senior debt. Our obligation to make payment of the principal and interest on the subordinated debt securities will not otherwise be affected. No payment of principal or interest may be made on the subordinated debt securities at any time if a default on senior debt exists that permits the holders of the senior debt to accelerate its maturity and the default is the subject of judicial proceedings or we receive notice of the default. After all senior debt is paid in full and until the subordinated debt securities are paid in full, holders will be subrogated to the rights of holders of senior debt to the extent that distributions otherwise payable to holders have been applied to the payment of senior debt. By reason of this subordination, in the event of a distribution of assets upon insolvency, certain of our general creditors may recover more, ratably, than holders of the subordinated debt securities. Senior debt is defined in the Subordinated Indenture as the principal of and interest on, or substantially similar payments to be made by UDR in respect of, the following, whether outstanding at the date of execution of the Subordinated Indenture or thereafter incurred, created or assumed: our indebtedness for money borrowed or represented by purchase-money obligations; our indebtedness evidenced by notes, debentures, or bonds, or other securities issued under the provisions of an indenture, fiscal agency agreement or other instrument; our obligations as lessee under leases of property either made as part of any sale and lease-back transaction to which we are a party or otherwise; indebtedness of partnerships and joint ventures that is included in our consolidated financial statements; indebtedness, obligations and liabilities of others in respect of which we are liable contingently or otherwise to pay or advance money or property or as guarantor, endorser or otherwise or which we have agreed to purchase or otherwise acquire; and any binding commitment of us to fund any real estate investment or to fund any investment in any entity making a real estate investment, in each case other than the following: any indebtedness, obligation or liability referred to in the above bullet points as to which, in the instrument creating or evidencing the same pursuant to which the same is outstanding, it is provided that the indebtedness, obligation or liability is not superior in right of payment to the subordinated debt securities or ranks pari passu with the subordinated debt securities; any indebtedness, obligation or liability that is subordinated to indebtedness of UDR to substantially the same extent as or to a greater extent than the subordinated debt securities are subordinated; and the subordinated debt securities. At December 31, 2019, our senior unsecured debt, net totaled approximately $3.6 billion. Discharge, Defeasance and Covenant Defeasance. Under each Indenture, we may discharge certain obligations to holders of any series of debt securities issued under the Indenture that have not already been delivered to the applicable trustee for cancellation and that either have become due and payable or will become due and payable within one year, or scheduled for redemption within one year, by irrevocably depositing with the applicable trustee, in trust, funds in the currency or currencies, currency unit or units or composite currency or currencies in which the debt securities are payable in an amount sufficient to pay the entire indebtedness on the debt securities in respect of principal, and any premium or make-whole amount, and interest and any additional amounts payable to the date of the deposit, if the debt securities have become due and payable, or to the stated maturity or redemption date, as the case may be. Each Indenture provides that, if the provisions of its Article Fourteen are made applicable to the debt securities of or within any series pursuant the Indenture, we may elect: “defeasance,” which is to defease and be discharged from any and all obligations with respect to the debt securities, except for the obligation to pay additional amounts, if any, upon the occurrence of certain events of tax, assessment or governmental charge with respect to payments on the debt securities and the obligations to register the transfer or exchange of the debt securities, to replace temporary or mutilated, destroyed, lost or stolen debt securities, to maintain an office or agency in respect of the debt securities and to hold moneys for payment in trust; or “covenant defeasance,” which is to be released from our obligations with respect to the debt securities under provisions of each Indenture described under “Covenants Under the Senior Indenture” and “Covenants Under Both Indentures” above, or, if provided pursuant to Section 301 of each Indenture, our obligations with respect to any other covenant, and any omission to comply with the obligations will not constitute a default or an event or default with respect to the debt securities issued under the Indenture. In either case upon our irrevocable deposit with the applicable trustee, in trust, of an amount, in the currency or currencies, currency unit or currency units or composite currency or currencies in which the debt securities are payable at stated maturity or Government Obligations, (as defined below), or both, applicable to the debt securities that through the scheduled payment of principal and interest in accordance with their terms will provide money in an amount sufficient to pay the principal of, and any premium or make-whole amount, and interest on the debt securities, and any mandatory sinking fund or analogous payments thereon, on the scheduled due dates therefor. Such a trust may only be established if, among other things, we have delivered to the applicable trustee an opinion of counsel, as specified in each Indenture, to the effect that the holders of the debt securities will not recognize income, gain or loss for U.S. federal income tax purposes as a result of the defeasance or covenant defeasance and will be subject to U.S. federal income tax on the same amounts, in the same manner and at the same times as would have been the case if the defeasance or covenant defeasance had not occurred. In the case of defeasance, the opinion of counsel must refer to and be based upon a ruling of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) or a change in applicable U.S. federal income tax laws occurring after the date of the Indenture. “Government Obligations” means securities that are: direct obligations of the United States of America or the government that issued the foreign currency in which the debt securities of a particular series are payable, for the payment of which its full faith and credit is pledged; or obligations of a person controlled or supervised by and acting as an agency or instrumentality of the United States of America or the government that issued the foreign currency in which the debt securities of the series are payable, the payment of which is unconditionally guaranteed as a full faith and credit obligation by the United States of America or any other government, which, in either case, are not callable or redeemable at the option of the issuer, and will also include a depository receipt issued by a bank or trust company as custodian with respect to any Government Obligation or a specific payment of interest on or principal of any Government Obligation held by the custodian for the account of the holder of a depository receipt, provided that, except as required by law, the custodian is not authorized to make any deduction from the amount payable to the holder of the depository receipt from any amount received by the custodian in respect of the Government Obligation or the specific payment of interest on or principal of the Government Obligation evidenced by the depository receipt. Unless otherwise provided in the prospectus supplement, if after we have deposited funds and/or Government Obligations to effect defeasance or covenant defeasance with respect to debt securities of any series issued under an Indenture: the holder of a debt security of the series is entitled to, and does, elect pursuant to Section 301 of the Indenture or the terms of the debt security to receive payment in a currency, currency unit or composite currency other than that in which the deposit has been made in respect of the debt security; or Conversion Event (as defined below) occurs in respect of the currency, currency unit or composite currency in which the deposit has been made, the indebtedness represented by the debt security will be deemed to have been, and will be, fully discharged and satisfied through the payment of the principal of, and any premium or make-whole amount, and interest on the debt security as they become due out of the proceeds yielded by converting the amount deposited in respect of the debt security into the currency, currency unit or composite currency in which the debt security becomes payable as a result of the election or cessation of usage based on the applicable market exchange rate. “Conversion Event” means the cessation of use of: a currency, currency unit or composite currency, other than the ECU or other currency unit, both by the government of the country that issued the currency and for the settlement of transactions by a central bank or other public institutions of or within the international banking community; the ECU both within the European Monetary System and for the settlement of transactions by public institutions of or within the European Communities; or any currency unit or composite currency other than the ECU for the purposes for which it was established. Unless otherwise provided in the prospectus supplement, all payments of principal of, and any premium or make-whole amount, and interest on any debt security issued under an Indenture that is payable in a foreign currency that ceases to be used by its government of issuance will be made in United States dollars. If we effect covenant defeasance with respect to any debt securities and those debt securities are declared due and payable because of the occurrence of any event of default, the amount in the currency, currency unit or composite currency in which the debt securities are payable, and Government Obligations on deposit with the trustee, will be sufficient to pay amounts due on the debt securities at the time of their stated maturity but may not be sufficient to pay amounts due on the debt securities at the time of the acceleration resulting from the event of default. This situation will not apply in the case of an event of default described in the fourth bullet point under “Events of Default, Notice and Waiver” of either Indenture, which sections would no longer be applicable to the debt securities or described in the last bullet point under “Events of Default, Notice and Waiver” with respect to a covenant as to which there has been covenant defeasance. However, we would remain liable to make payment of the amounts due at the time of acceleration. The prospectus supplement may further describe the provisions, if any, permitting defeasance or covenant defeasance, including any modifications to the provisions described above, with respect to the debt securities of or within a particular series. Book-Entry System. We may issue debt securities of a series as one or more fully registered global securities. We will deposit the global securities with, or on behalf of, a depository bank identified in the prospectus supplement relating to the series. We will register the global securities in the name of the depository bank or its nominee. In that case, one or more global securities will be issued in a denomination or aggregate denominations equal to the aggregate principal amount of outstanding debt securities of the series represented by the global security or securities. Until any global security is exchanged in whole or in part for debt securities in definitive certificated form, the depository bank or its nominee may not transfer the global certificate except to each other, another nominee or to their successors and except as described in the applicable prospectus supplement. The prospectus supplement will describe the specific terms of the depository arrangement with respect to a series of debt securities that a global security will represent. We anticipate that the following provisions will apply to all depository arrangements. Upon the issuance of any global security, and the deposit of the global security with or on behalf of the depository bank for the global security, the depository bank will credit, on its book-entry registration and transfer system, the respective principal amounts of the debt securities represented by the global security to the accounts of institutions, also referred to as “participants,” that have accounts with the depository bank or its nominee. The accounts to be credited will be designated by the underwriters or agents engaging in the distribution or placement of the debt securities or by us, if we offer and sell the debt securities directly. Ownership of beneficial interests in the global security will be limited to participants or persons that may hold interests through participants. Ownership of beneficial interests by participants in the global security will be shown by book-keeping entries on, and the transfer of that ownership interest will be effected only through book-keeping entries to, records maintained by the depository bank or its nominee for the global security. Ownership of beneficial interests in the global security by persons that hold through participants will be shown by book-keeping entries on, and the transfer of that ownership interest among or through the participants will be effected only through book-keeping entries to, records maintained by the participants. The laws of some jurisdictions require that some of the purchasers of securities take physical delivery of the securities in definitive certificated form rather than book-entry form. Such laws may impair the ability to own, transfer or pledge beneficial interests in any global security. So long as the depository bank for a global security or its nominee is the registered owner of the global security, the depository bank or the nominee, as the case may be, will be considered the sole owner or holder of the debt securities represented by the global security for all purposes under the Indenture. Except as described below or otherwise specified in the applicable prospectus supplement, owners of beneficial interests in a global security: will not be entitled to have debt securities of the series represented by the global security registered in their names; will not receive or be entitled to receive physical delivery of debt securities of the series in definitive certificated form; and will not be considered the holders thereof for any purposes under the applicable indenture. Accordingly, each person owning a beneficial interest in the global security must rely on the procedures of the depository bank and, if the person is not a participant, on the procedures of the participant through which the person directly or indirectly owns its interest, to exercise any rights of a holder under the applicable indenture. The depository bank may grant proxies and otherwise authorize participants to give or take any request, demand, authorization, direction, notice, consent, waiver or other action that a holder is entitled to give or take under the indenture. We understand that under existing industry practices, if we request any action of holders or any owner of a beneficial interest in the global security desires to give any notice or take any action that a holder is entitled to give or take under the indenture, the depository bank for the global security would authorize the participants holding the relevant beneficial interest to give notice or take action, and the participants would authorize beneficial owners owning through the participants to give notice or take action or would otherwise act upon the instructions of beneficial owners owning through them. Principal and any premium and interest payments on debt securities represented by a global security registered in the name of a depository bank or its nominee will be made to the depository bank or its nominee, as the case may be, as the registered owner of the global security. None of us, the trustee or any paying agent for the debt securities will have any responsibility or liability for any aspect of the records relating to or payments made on account of beneficial ownership interests in any global security or for maintaining, supervising or reviewing any records relating to the beneficial ownership interests. We expect that the depository bank for any series of debt securities represented by a global security, upon receipt of any payment of principal, premium or interest, will credit immediately participants’ accounts with payments in amounts proportionate to their respective beneficial interests in the principal amount of the global security as shown on the records of the depository bank. We also expect that payments by participants to owners of beneficial interests in the global security or securities held through the participants will be governed by standing instructions and customary practices, as is now the case with securities held for the accounts of customers registered in street name,” and will be the responsibility of the participants. If the depository bank for any series of debt securities represented by a global security is at any time unwilling or unable to continue as depository bank and we do not appoint a successor depository bank within 90 days, we will issue the debt securities in definitive certificated form in exchange for the global security. In addition, we may at any time and in our sole discretion determine not to have the debt securities of a series represented by one or more global securities and, in that event, will issue debt securities of the series in definitive certificated form in exchange for the global security representing the series of debt securities. Debt securities of the series issued in definitive certificated form will, except as described in the applicable prospectus supplement, be issued in denominations of $1,000 and integral multiples thereof and will be issued in registered form. Trustees. U.S. Bank National Association (successor trustee to Wachovia Bank, National Association, formerly known as First Union National Bank of Virginia) is the trustee under the Senior Indenture and is the trustee (as successor trustee to SunTrust Bank, formerly known as Crestar Bank) under the Subordinated Indenture. U.S. Bank has a lending relationships with us. If specified in the applicable prospectus supplement, certain of our subsidiaries, including the Operating Partnership, will guarantee the debt securities. The particular terms of any guarantee will be described in the related prospectus supplement. We may issue warrants for the purchase of common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares or debt securities. We may issue warrants independently or together with any offered securities. The warrants may be attached to or separate from those offered securities. We will issue the warrants under one or more warrant agreements to be entered into between us and a warrant agent to be named in the applicable prospectus supplement. The warrant agent will act solely as our agent in connection with the warrants and will not assume any obligation or relationship of agency or trust for or with any holders or beneficial owners of warrants. The prospectus supplement relating to any warrants that we may offer will contain the specific terms of the warrants. These terms may include the following: the title of the warrants; the price or prices at which the warrants will be issued; the designation, amount and terms of the securities for which the warrants are exercisable; the designation and terms of the other securities, if any, with which the warrants are to be issued and the number of warrants with each other security; the aggregate number of warrants; any provisions for adjustment of the number or amount of securities receivable upon exercise of the warrants or the exercise price of the warrants; the price or prices at which the securities purchasable upon exercise of the warrants may be purchased; if applicable, the date on and after which the warrants and the securities purchasable upon exercise of the warrants will be separately transferable; a discussion of any material U.S. federal income tax consequences applicable to the exercise of the warrants; the date on which the right to exercise the warrants will commence, and the date on which the right will expire; the maximum or minimum number of warrants that may be exercised at any time; information with respect to book-entry procedures, if any; and any other terms of the warrants, including terms, procedures and limitations relating to the exchange and exercise of the warrants. Exercise of Warrants Each warrant will entitle the holder of the warrant to purchase for cash the amount of common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares or debt securities at the exercise price stated or determinable in the applicable prospectus supplement for the warrants. Warrants may be exercised at any time up to the close of business on the expiration date shown in the applicable prospectus supplement, unless otherwise specified in such prospectus supplement. After the close of business on the expiration date, unexercised warrants will become void. Warrants may be exercised as described in the applicable prospectus supplement. When the warrant holder makes the payment and properly completes and signs the warrant certificate at the corporate trust office of the warrant agent or any other office indicated in the prospectus supplement, we will, as soon as possible, forward the common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares or debt securities that the warrant holder has purchased. If the warrant holder exercises the warrant for less than all of the warrants represented by the warrant certificate, we will issue a new warrant certificate for the remaining warrants. The description in the applicable prospectus supplement of any warrants we offer will not necessarily be complete and will be qualified in its entirety by reference to the applicable warrant agreement and warrant certificate, which will be filed with the SEC if we offer warrants. For more information on how you can obtain copies of any warrant certificate or warrant agreement if we offer warrants, see the section of this prospectus entitled “Where You Can Find More Information.” We urge you to read the applicable warrant certificate, the applicable warrant agreement and any applicable prospectus supplement in their entirety. We may issue subscription rights to purchase common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares, debt securities or other securities. We may issue subscription rights independently or together with any other offered security, which may or may not be transferable by the stockholder. In connection with any offering of subscription rights, we may enter into a standby arrangement with one or more underwriters or other purchasers pursuant to which the underwriters or other purchasers may be required to purchase any securities remaining unsubscribed for after such offering. The prospectus supplement relating to any subscription rights we may offer will contain the specific terms of the subscription rights. These terms may include the following: the exercise price payable for each share of common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares, debt securities or other securities upon the exercise of the subscription rights; the number of subscription rights issued to each security holder; the number and terms of each share of common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares, debt securities or other securities which may be purchased per each subscription right; the extent to which the subscription rights are transferable; any provisions for adjustment of the number or amount of securities receivable upon exercise of the subscription rights or the exercise price of the subscription rights; any other terms of the subscription rights, including the terms, procedures and limitations relating to the exchange and exercise of the subscription rights; the date on which the right to exercise the subscription rights shall commence, and the date on which the subscription rights expire; the extent to which the subscription rights may include an over-subscription privilege with respect to unsubscribed securities; and if applicable, the material terms of any standby underwriting or purchase arrangement entered into by us in connection with the offering of subscription rights. The description in the applicable prospectus supplement of any subscription rights we offer will not necessarily be complete and will be qualified in its entirety by reference to the applicable subscription rights certificate or subscription rights agreement, which will be filed with the SEC if we offer subscription rights. For more information on how you can obtain copies of any subscription rights certificate or subscription rights agreement if we offer subscription rights, see the section of this prospectus entitled “Where You Can Find More Information.” We urge you to read the applicable subscription rights certificate, the applicable subscription rights agreement and any applicable prospectus supplement in their entirety. We may issue purchase contracts for the purchase or sale of common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares or debt securities issued by us or by third parties as specified in the applicable prospectus supplement. Each purchase contract will entitle the holder thereof to purchase or sell, and obligate us to sell or purchase on specified dates, such securities at a specified purchase price, which may be based on a formula, all as set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement. We may, however, satisfy our obligations, if any, with respect to any purchase contract by delivering the cash value of such purchase contract or the cash value of the securities otherwise deliverable, as set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement. The applicable prospectus supplement will also specify the methods by which the holders may purchase or sell such securities, and any acceleration, cancellation or termination provisions or other provisions relating to the settlement of a purchase contract. The price per security and the number of securities may be fixed at the time the purchase contracts are entered into or may be determined by reference to a specific formula set forth in the applicable purchase contracts. The purchase contracts may be issued separately or as part of units consisting of a purchase contract and debt securities or debt obligations of third parties, including U.S. treasury securities, or any other securities described in the applicable prospectus supplement or any combination of the foregoing, securing the holders’ obligations to purchase the securities under the purchase contracts, which we refer to herein as “purchase units.” The purchase contracts may require holders to secure their obligations under the purchase contracts in a specified manner. The purchase contracts also may require us to make periodic payments to the holders of the purchase contracts or the purchase units, as the case may be, or vice versa, and those payments may be unsecured or pre-funded on some basis. The prospectus supplement relating to any purchase contracts or purchase units we may offer will contain the specific terms of the purchase contracts or purchase units. These terms may include the following: whether the purchase contracts obligate the holder to purchase or sell, or both, our common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares or debt securities, and the nature and amount of each of those securities, or method of determining those amounts; whether the purchase contracts are to be prepaid or not; whether the purchase contracts are to be settled by delivery, or by reference or linkage to the value, performance or level of common stock, preferred stock or depositary shares; any acceleration, cancellation, termination or other provisions relating to the settlement of the purchase contracts; and whether the purchase contracts will be issued in fully registered global form. The description in the applicable prospectus supplement of any purchase contract or purchase unit we offer will not necessarily be complete and will be qualified in its entirety by reference to the applicable purchase contract or purchase unit, which will be filed with the SEC if we offer purchase contracts or purchase units. For more information on how you can obtain copies of any purchase contract or purchase unit we may offer, see the section of this prospectus entitled “Where You Can Find More Information.” We urge you to read the applicable purchase contract or applicable purchase unit and any applicable prospectus supplement in their entirety. The following is a summary of the material U.S. federal income tax consequences of an investment in common stock of UDR, Inc. For purposes of this section under the heading “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences,” references to “UDR,” “we,” “our” and “us” mean only UDR, Inc. and not its subsidiaries or other lower-tier entities, except as otherwise indicated. This summary is based upon the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), the regulations promulgated by the U.S. Treasury Department, rulings and other administrative pronouncements issued by the IRS, and judicial decisions, all as currently in effect, and all of which are subject to differing interpretations or to change, possibly with retroactive effect. No assurance can be given that the IRS would not assert, or that a court would not sustain, a position contrary to any of the tax consequences described below. We have not sought and will not seek an advance ruling from the IRS regarding any matter discussed in this prospectus. The summary is also based upon the assumption that we will operate UDR and its subsidiaries and affiliated entities in accordance with their applicable organizational documents or partnership agreements. This summary is for general information only and is not tax advice. It does not purport to discuss all aspects of U.S. federal income taxation that may be important to a particular investor in light of its investment or tax circumstances or to investors subject to special tax rules, such as: financial institutions; insurance companies; broker-dealers; regulated investment companies; partnerships and trusts; persons who, as nominees, hold our stock on behalf of other persons; persons who receive UDR stock through the exercise of employee stock options or otherwise as compensation; persons holding UDR stock as part of a “straddle,” “hedge,” “conversion transaction,” “synthetic security” or other integrated investment; and, except to the extent discussed below: tax-exempt organizations; and non-U.S. stockholders (as defined below). This summary assumes that investors will hold their common stock as a “capital asset,” which generally means as property held for investment. The U.S. federal income tax treatment of holders of our common stock depends in some instances on determinations of fact and interpretations of complex provisions of U.S. federal income tax law for which no clear precedent or authority may be available. In addition, the tax consequences to any particular stockholder of holding our common stock will depend on the stockholder’s particular tax circumstances. You are urged to consult your tax advisor regarding the federal, state, local, and foreign income and other tax consequences to you in light of your particular investment or tax circumstances of acquiring, holding, exchanging, or otherwise disposing of our common stock. Taxation of UDR We elected to be taxed as a REIT under the U.S. federal income tax laws commencing with our taxable year ended December 31, 1972. We believe that we have been organized and operated in such a manner as to qualify for taxation as a REIT. The law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP has acted as our tax counsel in connection with the Registration Statement of which this prospectus is a part. In connection with the filing of our prospectus, we received an opinion of Kutak Rock LLP to the effect that commencing with UDR’s taxable year ended on December 31, 2012, we have been organized in conformity with the requirements for qualification and taxation as a REIT under the Code, and that our actual and proposed method of operation will enable us to continue to meet the requirements for qualification and taxation as a REIT for the taxable year ending December 31, 2019 and in the future. It must be emphasized that the opinion of Kutak Rock LLP is based on various assumptions relating to our organization and operation and is conditioned upon fact-based representations and covenants made by our management regarding our organization, assets, and income, and the future conduct of our business operations. While we intend to operate so that we will qualify as a REIT, given the highly complex nature of the rules governing REITs, the ongoing importance of factual determinations, and the possibility of future changes in our circumstances, no assurance can be given by Kutak Rock LLP or by us that we will qualify as a REIT for any particular year. We asked Kutak Rock LLP to assume for purposes of its opinion that any prior legal opinions we received to the effect that we were taxable as a REIT are correct and the conclusions reached in the opinion of Kutak Rock LLP are expressly conditioned on the accuracy of such assumption. The opinion is expressed as of the date issued. Kutak Rock LLP has no obligation to advise us or our stockholders of any subsequent change in the matters stated, represented or assumed, or of any subsequent change in the applicable law. You should be aware that opinions of counsel are not binding on the IRS, and no assurance can be given that the IRS will not challenge the conclusions set forth in such opinions. Qualification and taxation as a REIT depends on our ability to meet on a continuing basis, through actual operating results, distribution levels, and diversity of stock and asset ownership, various qualification requirements imposed upon REITs by the Code, the compliance with which will not be reviewed by Morrison & Foerster LLP. Our ability to qualify as a REIT also requires that we satisfy certain asset tests, some of which depend upon the fair market values of assets that we own directly or indirectly. Such values may not be susceptible to a precise determination. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that the actual results of our operations for any taxable year will satisfy such requirements for qualification and taxation as a REIT. Taxation of REITs in General As indicated above, our qualification and taxation as a REIT depends upon our ability to meet, on a continuing basis, various qualification requirements imposed upon REITs by the Code. The material qualification requirements are summarized below under “—Requirements for Qualification—General.” While we intend to operate so that we qualify as a REIT, no assurance can be given that the IRS will not challenge our qualification, or that we will be able to operate in accordance with the REIT requirements in the future. See “—Failure to Qualify.” Provided that we qualify as a REIT, generally we will be entitled to a deduction for dividends that we pay and therefore will not be subject to U.S. federal corporate income tax on our taxable income that is currently distributed to our stockholders. This treatment substantially eliminates the “double taxation” at the corporate and stockholder levels that generally results from investment in a corporation. In general, the income that we generate is taxed only at the stockholder level upon a distribution of dividends to our stockholders. Most U.S. stockholders (as defined below) that are individuals, trusts or estates are taxed on corporate dividends at a maximum rate of 20% (the same rate applicable to long-term capital gains). With limited exceptions, however, dividends from us or from other entities that are taxed as REITs generally are not eligible for this rate and will continue to be taxed at rates applicable to ordinary income. However, for taxable years prior to 2026, generally individual stockholders are allowed to deduct 20% of the aggregate amount of ordinary dividends distributed by us, subject to certain limitations. See “Taxation of Stockholders—Taxation of Taxable U.S. Stockholders—Distributions.” Net operating losses, foreign tax credits and other tax attributes generally do not pass through to our stockholders. See “Taxation of Stockholders.” If we qualify as a REIT, we will nonetheless be subject to U.S. federal tax in the following circumstances: We will be taxed at regular corporate rates on any undistributed “real estate investment trust taxable income,” including undistributed net capital gains. If we have net income from “prohibited transactions”, which are, in general, sales or other dispositions of inventory or property held primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of business, other than foreclosure property, such income will be subject to a 100% tax. See “—Prohibited Transactions” and “—Foreclosure Property” below. If we elect to treat property that we acquire in connection with a foreclosure of a mortgage loan or certain leasehold terminations as “foreclosure property,” we may avoid the 100% tax on gain from a resale of that property (if the sale would otherwise constitute a prohibited transaction), but the income from the sale or operation of the property may be subject to corporate income tax at the highest applicable rate (currently 21%). If we fail to satisfy the 75% gross income test or the 95% gross income test, as discussed below, but nonetheless maintain our qualification as a REIT because we satisfy other requirements, we will be subject to a 100% tax on an amount based on the magnitude of the failure, as adjusted to reflect the profit margin associated with our gross income. If we violate the asset tests (other than certain de minimis violations) or other requirements applicable to REITs, as described below, and yet maintain our qualification as a REIT because there is reasonable cause for the failure and other applicable requirements are met, we may be subject to an excise tax. In that case, the amount of the excise tax will be at least $50,000 per failure and, in the case of certain asset test failures, will be determined as the amount of net income generated by the assets in question multiplied by the highest corporate tax rate (currently 21%) if that amount exceeds $50,000 per failure. If we fail to distribute during each calendar year at least the sum of (a) 85% of our REIT ordinary income for such year, (b) 95% of our REIT capital gain net income for such year, and (c) any undistributed taxable income from prior periods, we would be subject to a nondeductible 4% excise tax on the excess of the required distribution over the sum of (i) the amounts that we actually distributed and (ii) the amounts we retained and upon which we paid income tax at the corporate level. We may be required to pay monetary penalties to the IRS in certain circumstances, including if we fail to meet record keeping requirements intended to monitor our compliance with rules relating to the composition of a REIT’s stockholders, as described below in “—Requirements for Qualification—General.” A 100% tax may be imposed on transactions between us and a “taxable REIT subsidiary” (“TRS”) (as described below) that do not reflect arms-length terms. If we acquire appreciated assets from a corporation that is not a REIT (i.e., a corporation taxable under subchapter C of the Code) in a transaction in which the adjusted tax basis of the assets in our hands is determined by reference to the adjusted tax basis of the assets in the hands of the subchapter C corporation, we may be subject to tax on such appreciation at the highest corporate income tax rate then applicable if we elect to recognize such gain immediately or subsequently recognize gain on a taxable disposition of any such assets during the five-year period following their acquisition from the subchapter C corporation. The earnings of our subsidiaries, including any TRS, are subject to federal corporate income tax to the extent that such subsidiaries are subchapter C corporations. We may elect to retain and pay income tax on our net capital gain. In addition, we and our subsidiaries may be subject to a variety of taxes, including payroll taxes and state, local, and foreign income, property and other taxes on our assets and operations. We could also be subject to tax in situations and on transactions not presently contemplated. Requirements for Qualification—General The Code defines a REIT as a corporation, trust or association: 1) that is managed by one or more trustees or directors; 2) the beneficial ownership of which is evidenced by transferable shares, or by transferable certificates of beneficial interest; 3) that would be taxable as a domestic corporation but for its election to be subject to tax as a REIT; 4) that is neither a financial institution nor an insurance company subject to specific provisions of the Code; 5) the beneficial ownership of which is held by 100 or more persons; 6) in which, during the last half of each taxable year, not more than 50% in value of the outstanding stock is owned, directly or indirectly, by five or fewer “individuals” (as defined in the Code to include specified tax-exempt entities); and 7) which meets other tests described below, including with respect to the nature of its income and assets and the amount of its distributions. The Code provides that conditions (1) through (4) must be met during the entire taxable year, and that condition (5) must be met during at least 335 days of a taxable year of 12 months, or during a proportionate part of a shorter taxable year. Conditions (5) and (6) need not be met during a corporation’s initial tax year as a REIT. Our charter provides restrictions regarding the ownership and transfer of our shares, which are intended to assist us in satisfying the share ownership requirements described in conditions (5) and (6) above. To monitor compliance with the share ownership requirements, generally we are required to maintain records regarding the actual ownership of our shares. To do so, we must demand written statements each year from the record holders of significant percentages of our stock pursuant to which the record holders must disclose the actual owners of the shares (i.e., the persons required to include our dividends in their gross income). We must maintain a list of those persons failing or refusing to comply with this demand as part of our records. We could be subject to monetary penalties if we fail to comply with these record-keeping requirements. If you fail or refuse to comply with the demands, you will be required by Treasury regulations to submit a statement with your tax return disclosing your actual ownership of our shares and other information. In addition, a corporation generally may not elect to become a REIT unless its taxable year is the calendar year. We have adopted December 31 as our year-end, and thereby will satisfy this requirement. The Code provides relief from violations of certain of the REIT requirements, in cases where a violation is due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect, and other requirements are met, including, in certain cases, the payment of a penalty tax that is based upon the magnitude of the violation. See “—Income Tests” and “—Asset Tests” below. If we fail to satisfy any of the various REIT requirements, there can be no assurance that these relief provisions would be available to enable us to maintain our qualification as a REIT and, if such relief provisions are available, the amount of any resultant penalty tax could be substantial. Effect of Subsidiary Entities Ownership of Partnership Interests. If we are a partner in an entity that is treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes, Treasury regulations provide that we are deemed to own our proportionate share of the partnership’s assets, and to earn our proportionate share of the partnership’s income, for purposes of the asset and gross income tests applicable to REITs. Our proportionate share of a partnership’s assets and income is based on our capital interest in the partnership (except that for purposes of the 10% value test, our proportionate share of the partnership’s assets is based on our proportionate interest in the equity and certain debt securities issued by the partnership). In addition, the assets and gross income of the partnership are deemed to retain the same character in our hands. Thus, our proportionate share of the assets and items of income of any of our subsidiary partnerships will be treated as our assets and items of income for purposes of applying the REIT requirements. A summary of certain rules governing the federal income taxation of partnerships and their partners is provided below in “Tax Aspects of Investments in Partnerships.” Disregarded Subsidiaries. If we own a corporate subsidiary that is a “qualified REIT subsidiary,” that subsidiary is generally disregarded for U.S. federal income tax purposes, and all of the subsidiary’s assets, liabilities and items of income, deduction and credit are treated as our assets, liabilities and items of income, deduction and credit, including for purposes of the gross income and asset tests applicable to REITs. A qualified REIT subsidiary is any corporation, other than a TRS, that is directly or indirectly wholly-owned by a REIT. Other entities that are wholly-owned by us, including single member limited liability companies that have not elected to be taxed as corporations for U.S. federal income tax purposes, also generally are disregarded as separate entities for U.S. federal income tax purposes, including for purposes of the REIT income and asset tests. Disregarded subsidiaries, along with any partnerships in which UDR holds an equity interest, are sometimes referred to herein as “pass-through subsidiaries.” In the event that a disregarded subsidiary of ours ceases to be wholly-owned—for example, if any equity interest in the subsidiary is acquired by a person other than us or another disregarded subsidiary of ours—the subsidiary’s separate existence would no longer be disregarded for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Instead, the subsidiary would have multiple owners and would be treated as either a partnership or a taxable corporation. Such an event could, depending on the circumstances, adversely affect our ability to satisfy the various asset and gross income requirements applicable to REITs, including the requirement that REITs generally may not own, directly or indirectly, more than 10% of the securities of another corporation. See “—Asset Tests” and “—Income Tests.” Taxable Subsidiaries. In general, we may jointly elect with a subsidiary corporation, whether or not wholly-owned, to treat the subsidiary corporation as a TRS. We generally may not own more than 10% of the securities of a taxable corporation, as measured by voting power or value, unless we and such corporation elect to treat such corporation as a TRS. The separate existence of a TRS or other taxable corporation is not ignored for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Accordingly, a TRS or other taxable corporation generally would be subject to corporate income tax on its earnings, which may reduce the cash flow that we and our subsidiaries generate in the aggregate, and may reduce our ability to make distributions to our stockholders. If a TRS owns more than 35% of the total voting power or value of the outstanding securities of another corporation, such other corporation also will be treated as a TRS. We are not treated as holding the assets of a TRS or other taxable subsidiary corporation or as receiving any income that the subsidiary earns. Rather, the stock issued by a taxable subsidiary to us is an asset in our hands, and we treat the dividends paid to us from such taxable subsidiary, if any, as income. This treatment can affect our income and asset test calculations, as described below. Because we do not include the assets and income of TRSs or other taxable subsidiary corporations in determining our compliance with the REIT requirements, we may use such entities to undertake indirectly activities that the REIT rules might otherwise preclude us from doing directly or through pass-through subsidiaries. For example, we may use TRSs or other taxable subsidiary corporations to conduct activities that give rise to certain categories of income such as management fees or to conduct activities that, if conducted by us directly, would be treated as prohibited transactions. Other than some activities relating to lodging and health care facilities, a TRS generally may engage in any business, including the provision of customary or non-customary services to tenants of its parent REIT. In order to qualify as a REIT, we must satisfy two gross income requirements on an annual basis. First, at least 75% of our gross income for each taxable year, excluding gross income from sales of inventory or dealer property in “prohibited transactions,” certain hedging transactions, and certain foreign currency gains, generally must be derived from investments relating to real property or mortgages on real property, including interest income derived from mortgage loans secured by real property (including certain types of mortgage-backed securities), “rents from real property,” dividends received from other REITs, and gains from the sale of real estate assets (other than gain from the sale of a nonqualified publicly offered REIT debt instrument as defined under Section 856(c)(5)(L)(ii) of the Code), as well as specified income from temporary investments. Second, at least 95% of our gross income in each taxable year, excluding gross income from prohibited transactions, certain hedging transactions and certain foreign currency gains, must be derived from some combination of such income from investments in real property (i.e., income that qualifies under the 75% income test described above), as well as other dividends, interest, and gain from the sale or disposition of stock or securities, which need not have any relation to real property. Rents we receive from a tenant will qualify as “rents from real property” for the purpose of satisfying the gross income requirements for a REIT described above only if all of the following conditions are met: The amount of rent must not be based in any way on the income or profits of any person. However, an amount we receive or accrue generally will not be excluded from the term “rents from real property” solely because it is based on a fixed percentage or percentages of receipts or sales; We, or an actual or constructive owner of 10% or more of our stock, must not actually or constructively own 10% or more of the interests in the assets or net profits of the tenant, or, if the tenant is a corporation, 10% or more of the voting power or value of all classes of stock of the tenant; Rent attributable to personal property, leased in connection with a lease of real property, must not be greater than 15% of the total rent received under the lease. If this condition is not met, then the portion of the rent attributable to personal property will not qualify as “rents from real property”; and We generally must not operate or manage the property or furnish or render services to our tenants, subject to a 1% de minimis exception and except as provided below. We may, however, perform services that are “usually or customarily rendered” in connection with the rental of space for occupancy only and are not otherwise considered “rendered to the occupant” of the property. Examples of these services include the provision of light, heat, or other utilities, trash removal and general maintenance of common areas. In addition, we may employ an independent contractor from whom we derive no income to provide customary services, or a TRS, which may be wholly or partially owned by us, to provide both customary and non-customary services to our tenants without causing the rent we receive from those tenants to fail to qualify as “rents from real property.” Any amounts we receive from a TRS with respect to its provision of non-customary services will, however, be nonqualifying income under the 75% gross income test and, except to the extent received through the payment of dividends, the 95% REIT gross income test. We generally do not intend, and as the general partner of certain subsidiary partnerships do not intend to permit our subsidiary partnerships, to take actions we believe will cause us to fail to satisfy the rental conditions described above. In addition, with respect to the limitation on the rental of personal property, we have not obtained appraisals of the real property and personal property leased to tenants. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that the IRS will agree with our determinations of value. Income we receive that is attributable to the rental of parking spaces at the properties will constitute rents from real property for purposes of the REIT gross income tests if certain services provided with respect to the parking facilities are performed by independent contractors from whom we derive no income, either directly or indirectly, or by a TRS, and certain other conditions are met. We believe that the income we receive that is attributable to parking facilities meets these tests and, accordingly, will constitute rents from real property for purposes of the REIT gross income tests. We and our subsidiaries may enter into hedging transactions with respect to our liabilities from time to time. Any such hedging transactions could take a variety of forms, including the use of derivative instruments such as interest rate swap contracts, interest rate cap or floor contracts, futures or forward contracts, and options. Except to the extent provided by Treasury regulations, any income from a hedging transaction we enter into will not constitute gross income for purposes of the 75% or 95% gross income test. A “hedging transaction” means (1) a transaction entered into in the normal course of our business primarily to manage risk of interest rate or price changes or currency fluctuations with respect to borrowings made or to be made, or ordinary obligations incurred or to be incurred, to acquire or carry real estate assets, which is clearly identified as specified in Treasury regulations before the close of the day on which it was acquired, originated, or entered into, including gain from the sale or disposition of such a transaction, (2) a transaction entered into primarily to manage risk of currency fluctuations with respect to any item of income or gain that would be qualifying income under the 75% or 95% income tests which is clearly identified as such before the close of the day on which it was acquired, originated, or entered into, and (3) a new transaction entered into to hedge the income or loss from prior hedging transactions, where the property or indebtedness which was the subject of the prior hedging transaction was extinguished or disposed of. To the extent that we enter into other types of hedging transactions, the income from those transactions is likely to be treated as non-qualifying income for purposes of both of the 75% and 95% gross income tests. We intend to structure any hedging transactions in a manner that does not jeopardize our qualification as a REIT. We may conduct some or all of our hedging activities (including hedging activities relating to currency risk) through a TRS or other corporate entity, the income from which may be subject to federal income tax, rather than by participating in the arrangements directly or through pass-through subsidiaries. No assurance can be given, however, that our hedging activities will not give rise to income that does not qualify for purposes of either or both of the REIT income tests, or that our hedging activities will not adversely affect our ability to satisfy the REIT qualification requirements. We may directly or indirectly receive distributions from TRSs or other corporations that are not REITs or qualified REIT subsidiaries. These distributions generally are treated as dividend income to the extent of the earnings and profits of the distributing corporation. Such distributions will generally constitute qualifying income for purposes of the 95% gross income test, but not for purposes of the 75% gross income test. Any dividends that we receive from a REIT, however, will be qualifying income for purposes of both the 95% and 75% gross income tests. Interest income constitutes qualifying income for purposes of the 75% gross income test to the extent that the obligation upon which such interest is paid is secured by a mortgage on real property. If we receive interest income with respect to a mortgage loan that is secured by both real property and other property, and the highest principal amount of the loan outstanding during a taxable year exceeds the fair market value of the real property on the date that we acquired or originated the mortgage loan, the interest income will be apportioned between the real property and the other collateral, and our income from the arrangement will qualify for purposes of the 75% gross income test only to the extent that the interest is allocable to the real property. In the case of real estate mortgage loans secured by both real and personal property, if the fair market value of such personal property does not exceed 15% of the total fair market value of all property securing the loan, then the personal property securing the loan will be treated as real property for purposes of determining whether the mortgage is a qualifying asset under the 75% asset test and whether the interest income is qualifying income for purposes of the 75% gross income test. Even if a loan is not secured by real property, or is undersecured, the income that it generates may nonetheless qualify for purposes of the 95% gross income test. If we fail to satisfy one or both of the 75% or 95% gross income tests for any taxable year, we may still qualify as a REIT for such year if we are entitled to relief under applicable provisions of the Code. These relief provisions generally will be available if (1) our failure to meet these tests was due to reasonable cause and not due to willful neglect and (2) following our identification of the failure to meet the 75% or 95% gross income test for any taxable year, we file a schedule with the IRS setting forth each item of our gross income for purposes of the 75% or 95% gross income test for such taxable year in accordance with Treasury regulations yet to be issued. It is not possible to state whether we would be entitled to the benefit of these relief provisions in all circumstances. If these relief provisions are inapplicable to a particular set of circumstances, we will not qualify as a REIT. As discussed above under “—Taxation of REITs in General,” even where these relief provisions apply, the Code imposes a tax based upon the amount by which we fail to satisfy the particular income test. At the close of each calendar quarter, we must also satisfy five tests relating to the nature of our assets. First, at least 75% of the value of our total assets must be represented by some combination of “real estate assets,” cash, cash items, U.S. government securities, and, under some circumstances, stock or debt instruments purchased with new capital. For this purpose, real estate assets include interests in real property, such as land, buildings, leasehold interests in real property, stock of other corporations that qualify as REITs, some kinds of mortgage-backed securities and mortgage loans, certain personal property leased in connection with real property and debt instruments issued by “publicly offered REITs.” Assets that do not qualify for purposes of this test are subject to the additional asset tests described below. Second, the value of any one issuer’s securities that we own may not exceed 5% of the value of our total assets. Third, we may not own more than 10% of any one issuer’s outstanding securities, as measured by either voting power or value. The 5% and 10% asset tests do not apply to securities of TRSs and qualified REIT subsidiaries and the 10% asset test does not apply to “straight debt” having specified characteristics and to certain other securities described below. Solely for purposes of the 10% asset test, the determination of our interest in the assets of an entity taxable as a partnership in which we own an interest will be based on our proportionate interest in any securities issued by such entity, excluding for this purpose certain securities described in the Code. Fourth, the aggregate value of all securities of TRSs that we hold may not exceed 20% of the value of our total assets. Fifth, not more than 25% of the value of our total assets may be represented by debt instruments of “publicly offered REITs” to the extent those debt instruments would not be real estate assets but for the inclusion of debt instruments of “publicly offered REITs” in the meaning of real estate assets described above. Notwithstanding the general rules above, if we hold indebtedness issued by a partnership, the indebtedness will be subject to, and may cause a violation of, the asset tests unless the indebtedness is a qualifying mortgage asset or other conditions are met. Similarly, although stock of another REIT is a qualifying asset for purposes of the REIT asset tests, any non-mortgage debt that is issued by another REIT may not so qualify (such debt, however, will not be treated as a “security” for purposes of the 10% asset test, as explained below). Certain securities will not cause a violation of the 10% asset test described above. Such securities include instruments that constitute “straight debt”. A security does not qualify as “straight debt” where a REIT (or a controlled TRS of the REIT) owns other securities of the same issuer which do not qualify as straight debt, unless the value of those other securities constitute, in the aggregate, 1% or less of the total value of that issuer’s outstanding securities. In addition to straight debt, the Code provides that certain other securities will not violate the 10% asset test. Such securities include (1) any loan made to an individual or an estate, (2) certain rental agreements pursuant to which one or more payments are to be made in subsequent years (other than agreements between a REIT and certain persons related to the REIT under attribution rules), (3) any obligation to pay rents from real property, (4) securities issued by governmental entities that are not dependent in whole or in part on the profits of (or payments made by) a non-governmental entity, (5) any security (including debt securities) issued by another REIT, and (6) any debt instrument issued by a partnership if the partnership’s income is of a nature that it would satisfy the 75% gross income test described above under “—Income Tests.” In applying the 10% asset test, a debt security issued by a partnership is not taken into account to the extent, if any, of the REIT’s proportionate interest in the equity and certain debt securities issued by that partnership. No independent appraisals have been obtained to support our conclusions as to the value of our total assets or the value of any particular security or securities. Moreover, values of some assets, including instruments issued in securitization transactions, may not be susceptible to a precise determination, and values are subject to change in the future. Furthermore, the proper classification of an instrument as debt or equity for federal income tax purposes may be uncertain in some circumstances, which could affect the application of the REIT asset requirements. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that the IRS will not contend that our interests in our subsidiaries or in the securities of other issuers will not cause a violation of the REIT asset tests. We will not lose our status as a REIT for failure to satisfy the asset tests at the end of a quarter solely by reason of changes in asset values from a prior quarter. If we fail to satisfy an asset test because we acquire securities or other property during a quarter (including as a result of an increase in our interest in any partnership or limited liability company), we may cure this failure by disposing of sufficient non-qualifying assets within 30 days after the close of that quarter. In addition, certain relief provisions are available to allow REITs to satisfy the asset requirements or to maintain REIT qualification notwithstanding certain violations of the asset and other requirements. One such provision allows a REIT which fails one or more of the asset requirements to nevertheless maintain its REIT qualification if (1) the REIT provides the IRS with a description of each asset causing the failure, (2) the failure is due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect, (3) the REIT pays a tax equal to the greater of (a) $50,000 per failure, and (b) the product of the net income generated by the assets that caused the failure multiplied by the highest applicable corporate tax rate (currently 21%), and (4) the REIT either disposes of the assets causing the failure within six months after the last day of the quarter in which it identifies the failure, or otherwise satisfies the relevant asset tests within that time frame. In the case of de minimis violations of the 10% asset tests, a REIT may maintain its qualification despite a violation of such requirements if (1) the value of the assets causing the violation does not exceed the lesser of 1% of the REIT’s total assets and $10,000,000, and (2) the REIT either disposes of the assets causing the failure within six months after the last day of the quarter in which it identifies the failure, or the relevant tests are otherwise satisfied within that time frame. If we fail to cure any noncompliance with the asset tests in a timely manner, and the relief provisions described above are not available, we would cease to qualify as a REIT. In order to qualify as a REIT, we are required to distribute dividends, other than capital gain dividends, to our stockholders in an amount at least equal to: (A) the sum of (1) 90% of our “REIT taxable income,” computed without regard to our net capital gains and the deduction for dividends paid, and (2) 90% of our net income, if any, (after tax) from foreclosure property (as described below), minus Our deduction for net business interest expense may be limited to 30% of our taxable income, as adjusted for certain items of income, gain, deduction or loss. However, we may be eligible to elect out of such limitation and, if we do, although we would not be subject to the interest expense limitation described above, our depreciation deductions may be reduced. In either case, our REIT taxable income for a taxable year may be increased. We generally must make these distributions in the taxable year to which they relate, or in the following taxable year if declared before we timely file our tax return for the year and if paid with or before the first regular dividend payment after such declaration. In order for distributions to be counted as satisfying the annual distribution requirements for REITS, and to provide us with a REIT-level tax deduction, the distributions either must not constitute “preferential dividends” or we must qualify as a “publicly offered REIT”. We believe that we are, and expect we will continue to be, a “publicly offered REIT.” To the extent we distribute at least 90%, but less than 100%, of our “REIT taxable income,” as adjusted, we will be subject to tax at regular corporate tax rates on the retained portion. We may elect to retain, rather than distribute, our net long-term capital gains and pay tax on such gains. In this case, we could elect for our stockholders to include their proportionate share of such undistributed long-term capital gains in income, and to receive a corresponding credit for their share of the tax that we paid. Our stockholders would then increase their adjusted basis of their stock by the difference between (a) the amounts of capital gain dividends that we designated and that they include in their taxable income, and (b) the tax that we paid on their behalf with respect to that income. To the extent that we have available net operating losses carried forward from prior tax years, such losses may reduce the amount of distributions that we must make in order to comply with the REIT distribution requirements. Such losses, however, generally will not affect the character, in the hands of our stockholders, of any distributions that are actually made as ordinary dividends or capital gains. See “—Taxation of Stockholders—Taxation of Taxable U.S. Stockholders—Distributions.” If we should fail to distribute during each calendar year at least the sum of (a) 85% of our REIT ordinary income for such year, (b) 95% of our REIT capital gain net income for such year, and (c) any undistributed taxable income from prior periods, we would be subject to a non-deductible 4% excise tax on the excess of such required distribution over the sum of (x) the amounts actually distributed, and (y) the amounts of income we retained and on which we paid corporate income tax. It is possible that, from time to time, we may not have sufficient cash to meet the distribution requirements due to timing differences between our actual receipt of cash, including receipt of distributions from our subsidiaries and our inclusion of items in income for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Alternatively, we may declare a taxable dividend payable in cash or stock at the election of each shareholder, where the aggregate amount of cash to be distributed in such dividend may be subject to limitation. In such case, for federal income tax purposes, the amount of the dividend paid in stock will be equal to the amount of cash that could have been received instead of stock. In the event that such timing differences occur, in order to meet the distribution requirements, it might be necessary for us to arrange for short-term, or possibly long-term, borrowings or to pay dividends in the form of taxable in-kind distributions of property. We may be able to rectify a failure to meet the distribution requirements for a year by paying “deficiency dividends” to stockholders in a later year, which may be included in our deduction for dividends paid for the earlier year. In this case, we may be able to avoid losing REIT qualification or being taxed on amounts distributed as deficiency dividends. We will be required to pay interest and a penalty based on the amount of any deduction taken for deficiency dividends. Prohibited Transactions Net income that we derive from a “prohibited transaction” is subject to a 100% tax. The term “prohibited transaction” generally includes a sale or other disposition of property (other than foreclosure property, as discussed below) that is held primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of a trade or business by us or by a borrower that has issued a shared appreciation mortgage or similar debt instrument to us. Generally, we intend to conduct our operations so that no asset that we own (or are treated as owning) will be treated as, or as having been, held for sale to customers, and that a sale of any such asset will not be treated as having been in the ordinary course of our business. Whether property is held “primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of a trade or business” depends on the particular facts and circumstances. No assurance can be given that any property that we sell will not be treated as property held for sale to customers, or that we can comply with certain safe-harbor provisions of the Code that would prevent such treatment. The 100% tax does not apply to gains from the sale of property that is held through a TRS or other taxable corporation, although such income will be subject to tax in the hands of the corporation at regular corporate rates. Foreclosure property is real property and any personal property incident to such real property (1) that we acquire as the result of having bid in the property at foreclosure, or having otherwise reduced the property to ownership or possession by agreement or process of law, after a default (or upon imminent default) on a lease of the property or a mortgage loan held by us and secured by the property, (2) for which we acquired the related loan or lease at a time when default was not imminent or anticipated, and (3) with respect to which we made a proper election to treat the property as foreclosure property. We generally will be subject to tax at the maximum corporate rate (currently 21%) on any net income from foreclosure property, including any gain from the disposition of the foreclosure property, other than income that constitutes qualifying income for purposes of the 75% gross income test. Any gain from the sale of property for which a foreclosure property election has been made will not be subject to the 100% tax on gains from prohibited transactions described above, even if the property would otherwise constitute inventory or dealer property. To the extent that we receive any income from foreclosure property that does not qualify for purposes of the 75% gross income test, we intend to make an election to treat the related property as foreclosure property. Failure to Qualify If we fail to satisfy one or more requirements for REIT qualification other than the income or asset tests, we could avoid disqualification if our failure is due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect and we pay a penalty of $50,000 for each such failure. Relief provisions are available for failures of the income tests and asset tests, as described above in “—Income Tests” and “—Asset Tests.” If we fail to qualify for taxation as a REIT in any taxable year, and the relief provisions described above do not apply, we would be subject to tax on our taxable income at regular corporate rates. We could not deduct distributions to stockholders in any year in which we are not a REIT, nor would we be required to make distributions in such a year. In this situation, to the extent of current and accumulated earnings and profits, distributions to U.S. stockholders that are individuals, trusts and estates generally would be taxable at capital gains rates. In addition, subject to the limitations of the Code, corporate distributees could be eligible for the dividends-received deduction. Unless we are entitled to relief under specific statutory provisions, we would also be disqualified from re-electing to be taxed as a REIT for the four taxable years following the year during which we lost qualification. It is not possible to state whether, in all circumstances, we would be entitled to this statutory relief. Tax Aspects of Investments in Partnerships We may hold investments through entities that are classified as partnerships for U.S. federal income tax purposes. In general, partnerships are “pass-through” entities that are not subject to U.S. federal income tax. Rather, partners are allocated their proportionate shares of the items of income, gain, loss, deduction and credit of a partnership, and potentially are subject to tax on these items, without regard to whether the partners receive a distribution from the partnership. We will include in our REIT taxable income our allocated share of these partnership items. Moreover, for purposes of the REIT income and asset tests, we will include in our calculations our proportionate share of any income received or assets held by subsidiary partnerships. For purposes of these tests (and not, for the avoidance of doubt, the determination of our REIT taxable income), our proportionate share of a partnership’s assets and income is based on our capital interest in the partnership (except that for purposes of the 10% value test, our proportionate share is based on our proportionate interest in the equity and certain debt securities issued by the partnership). See “Taxation of UDR—Effect of Subsidiary Entities—Ownership of Partnership Interests.” Any investment in partnerships involves special tax considerations, including the possibility of a challenge by the IRS of the status of any subsidiary partnership as a partnership, as opposed to an association taxable as a corporation, for U.S. federal income tax purposes. If any of these entities were treated as an association for U.S. federal income tax purposes, it would be taxable as a corporation and therefore could be subject to an entity-level tax on its income. In such a situation, the character of our assets and items of gross income would change and could preclude us from satisfying the REIT asset tests or the income tests as discussed in “—Asset Tests” and “—Income Tests,” and in turn could prevent us from qualifying as a REIT, unless we are eligible for relief from the violation pursuant to the relief provisions described above. See “—Asset Tests,” “—Income Tests” and “—Failure to Qualify,” above, for discussion of the effect of failure to satisfy the REIT tests for a taxable year, and of the relief provisions. In addition, any change in the status of any subsidiary partnership for tax purposes might be treated as a taxable event, in which case we could have taxable income that is subject to the REIT distribution requirements without receiving any cash. Tax Allocations with respect to Partnership Properties Under the Code and the Treasury regulations, income, gain, loss and deduction attributable to appreciated or depreciated property that is contributed to a partnership in exchange for an interest in the partnership must be allocated for income tax purposes so that the contributing partner is charged with, or benefits from, the unrealized gain or unrealized loss associated with the property at the time of the contribution. The amount of the unrealized gain or unrealized loss generally is equal to the difference between the fair market value of the contributed property at the time of contribution and the adjusted tax basis of such property at the time of contribution (a “book-tax difference”). Such allocations are solely for federal income tax purposes and do not affect the book capital accounts or other economic or legal arrangements among the partners. To the extent that any of our subsidiary partnerships acquires appreciated (or depreciated) properties by way of capital contributions from its partners, allocations would need to be made in a manner consistent with these requirements. Where a partner contributes cash to a partnership at a time that the partnership holds appreciated (or depreciated) property, the Treasury regulations provide for a similar allocation of these items to the other (i.e., non-contributing) partners. These rules may apply to a contribution that we make to any subsidiary partnerships of the cash proceeds received in offerings of our stock. As a result, the partners of our subsidiary partnerships, including us, could be allocated greater or lesser amounts of depreciation and taxable income in respect of a partnership’s properties than would be the case if all of the partnership’s assets (including any contributed assets) had a tax basis equal to their fair market values at the time of any contributions to that partnership. This could cause us to recognize, over a period of time, taxable income in excess of cash flow from the partnership, which might adversely affect our ability to comply with the REIT distribution requirements discussed above. Partnership Audit Rules The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 changed the rules applicable to U.S. federal income tax audits of partnerships. Under the new rules, among other changes and subject to certain exceptions, any audit adjustment to items of income, gain, loss, deduction, or credit of a partnership (and any partner’s distributive share thereof) is determined, and taxes, interest, or penalties attributable thereto are assessed and collected, at the partnership level. Among other potential consequences of these rules, it is possible a partnership in which we directly or indirectly invest will be required to pay additional taxes, interest and penalties as a result of an audit adjustment, and we, as a direct or indirect partner of such partnership, could be required to bear the economic burden of those taxes, interest, and penalties even though we, as a REIT, may not otherwise have been required to pay additional corporate-level taxes as a result of the related audit adjustment. Taxation of Stockholders For purposes of the following discussion, the term “U.S. stockholder” means a beneficial owner of our common stock that, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, is: an individual citizen or resident of the United States for U.S. federal income tax purposes; a corporation (including an entity treated as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes) created or organized under the laws of the United States, any of its states or the District of Columbia; an estate whose income is subject to U.S. federal income taxation regardless of its source; or any trust if (1) a U.S. court is able to exercise primary supervision over the administration of such trust and one or more “United states persons” have the authority to control all substantial decisions of the trust or (2) it has a valid election in place to be treated as a “United States person”. A “non-U.S. stockholder” means a beneficial owner of our common stock that, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, is not a U.S. stockholder or entity or arrangement taxable as a “partnership” for such purposes. If an entity or arrangement taxable as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes holds our common stock, the U.S. federal income tax treatment of an owner of the entity or arrangement generally will depend on the status of the owner and the activities of the entity or arrangement. Entities or arrangements taxable as partnerships and their owners should consult their tax advisors regarding the consequences of the ownership and disposition of our common stock. Taxation of Taxable U.S. Stockholders Distributions. So long as we qualify as a REIT, the distributions that we make to our taxable U.S. stockholders out of current or accumulated earnings and profits that we do not designate as capital gain dividends generally will be taken into account by stockholders as ordinary income and will not be eligible for the dividends-received deduction for corporations. With limited exceptions, our dividends are not eligible for taxation at the preferential income tax rates for qualified dividends received by U.S. stockholders that are individuals, trusts and estates from taxable C corporations. However, for taxable years prior to 2026, generally individual stockholders are allowed to deduct 20% of the aggregate amount of ordinary dividends distributed by us, subject to certain limitations. In addition, such stockholders are taxed at the preferential rates on dividends designated by and received from REITs to the extent that the dividends are attributable to: income retained by the REIT in the prior taxable year on which the REIT was subject to corporate level income tax (less the amount of tax); dividends received by the REIT from TRSs or other taxable C corporations; or income in the prior taxable year from the sales of “built-in gain” property acquired by the REIT from C corporations in carryover basis transactions (less the amount of corporate tax on such income). Distributions that we designate as capital gain dividends generally will be taxed to our stockholders as long-term capital gains, to the extent that such distributions do not exceed our actual net capital gain for the taxable year, without regard to the period for which the stockholder that receives such distribution has held its stock. Dividends designated as capital gain dividends may not exceed our dividends paid for the taxable year, including dividends paid the following year that are treated as paid in the current year. We may elect to retain and pay taxes on some or all of our net long-term capital gains, in which case provisions of the Code will treat our stockholders as having received, solely for tax purposes, our undistributed capital gains, and the stockholders will receive a corresponding credit for taxes that we paid on such undistributed capital gains. See “Taxation of UDR—Annual Distribution Requirements.” Corporate stockholders may be required to treat up to 20% of some capital gain dividends as ordinary income. Long-term capital gains generally are taxable at maximum federal rates of 20% in the case of stockholders that are individuals, trusts and estates, and 21% in the case of stockholders that are corporations. Capital gains attributable to the sale of depreciable real property held for more than 12 months are subject to a 25% maximum federal income tax rate for taxpayers who are taxed as individuals, to the extent of previously claimed depreciation deductions. Any dividend that we declare in October, November or December of any year and that is payable to a stockholder of record on a specified date in any such month will be treated as both paid by us and received by the stockholder on December 31 of such year, provided that we actually pay the dividend before the end of January of the following calendar year. Distributions in excess of our current and accumulated earnings and profits generally will represent a return of capital and will not be taxable to a stockholder to the extent that the amount of such distributions do not exceed the adjusted basis of the stockholder’s shares in respect of which the distributions were made. Rather, the distribution will reduce the adjusted basis of the stockholder’s shares. To the extent that such distributions exceed the adjusted basis of a stockholder’s shares, the stockholder generally must include such distributions in income as long-term capital gain, or short-term capital gain if the shares have been held for one year or less. To the extent that we have available net operating losses and capital losses carried forward from prior tax years, such losses may reduce the amount of distributions that we must make in order to comply with the REIT distribution requirements. See “Taxation of UDR—Annual Distribution Requirements.” Such losses, however, are not passed through to stockholders and do not offset income of stockholders from other sources, nor would such losses affect the character of any distributions that we make, which generally are subject to tax in the hands of stockholders to the extent that we have current or accumulated earnings and profits. Dispositions of UDR Stock. In general, capital gains recognized by individuals, trusts and estates upon the sale or disposition of our stock will be subject to a maximum federal income tax rate of 20% if the stock is held for more than one year, and will be taxed at ordinary income rates if the stock is held for one year or less. Gains recognized by stockholders that are corporations are subject to federal income tax at a maximum rate of 21%, whether or not such gains are classified as long-term capital gains. Capital losses recognized by a stockholder upon the disposition of our stock that was held for more than one year at the time of disposition will be considered long-term capital losses, and are generally available only to offset capital gain income of the stockholder but not ordinary income (except in the case of individuals, who may offset up to $3,000 of ordinary income each year). In addition, any loss upon a sale or exchange of shares of our stock by a stockholder who has held the shares for six months or less, after applying holding period rules, will be treated as a long-term capital loss to the extent of distributions that we make that are required to be treated by the stockholder as long-term capital gain. If an investor recognizes a loss upon a subsequent disposition of our stock or other securities in an amount that exceeds a prescribed threshold, it is possible that the provisions of Treasury regulations involving “reportable transactions” could apply, with a resulting requirement to separately disclose the loss-generating transaction to the IRS. These regulations, though directed towards “tax shelters,” are broadly written and apply to transactions that would not typically be considered tax shelters. The Code imposes significant penalties for failure to comply with these requirements. You should consult your tax advisor concerning any possible disclosure obligation with respect to the receipt or disposition of our stock or securities or transactions that we might undertake directly or indirectly. Moreover, you should be aware that we and other participants in the transactions in which we are involved (including their advisors) might be subject to disclosure or other requirements pursuant to these regulations. Additional Medicare Tax on Unearned Income. Certain taxable U.S. stockholders, including individuals, estates and trusts, will be subject to an additional 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income. For individuals, the additional Medicare tax applies to the lesser of (i) “net investment income” or (ii) the excess of “modified adjusted gross income” over $200,000 ($250,000 if married and filing jointly or $125,000 if married and filing separately). “Net investment income” generally equals the taxpayer’s gross investment income reduced by the deductions that are allocable to such income. Investment income generally includes passive income such as interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, rents, and capital gains. Investors are urged to consult their own tax advisors regarding the implications of the additional Medicare tax resulting from an investment in our stock. Passive Activity Losses and Investment Interest Limitations. Distributions that we make and gain arising from the sale or exchange by a U.S. stockholder of our stock will not be treated as passive activity income. As a result, stockholders will not be able to apply any “passive losses” against income or gain relating to our stock. To the extent that distributions we make do not constitute a return of capital, they will be treated as investment income for purposes of computing the investment interest limitation. Taxation of Non-U.S. Stockholders Ordinary Dividends. The portion of dividends received by a non-U.S. stockholder that is (1) payable out of our earnings and profits, (2) not attributable to our capital gains and (3) not effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business of the non-U.S. stockholder, will be subject to U.S. withholding tax at the rate of 30%, unless reduced or eliminated by treaty. In general, non-U.S. stockholders will not be considered engaged in a U.S. trade or business solely as a result of their ownership of our stock. In cases where the dividend income from a non-U.S. stockholder’s investment in our stock is, or is treated as, effectively connected with the non-U.S. stockholder’s conduct of a U.S. trade or business, the non-U.S. stockholder generally will be subject to federal income tax at graduated rates, in the same manner as U.S. stockholders are taxed with respect to such dividends. Such income generally must be reported on a U.S. income tax return filed by or on behalf of the non-U.S. stockholder. The income may also be subject to the 30% branch profits tax in the case of a non-U.S. stockholder that is a corporation. Non-Dividend Distributions. Unless our stock constitutes a “United States real property interest” (a “USRPI”), distributions that we make which are not dividends out of our earnings and profits will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax. If we cannot determine at the time a distribution is made whether or not the distribution will exceed current and accumulated earnings and profits, the distribution will be subject to withholding at the rate applicable to dividends. A non-U.S. stockholder may seek a refund from the IRS of any amounts withheld if it subsequently is determined that the distribution was, in fact, in excess of our current and accumulated earnings and profits. If our stock constitutes a USRPI, as described below, distributions that we make in excess of the sum of (a) the stockholder’s proportionate share of our earnings and profits, and (b) the stockholder’s basis in its stock, will be taxed under the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act of 1980 (“FIRPTA”) at the rate of tax, including any applicable capital gains rates, that would apply to a U.S. stockholder of the same type (e.g., an individual or a corporation, as the case may be), and the collection of the tax will be enforced by a withholding at a rate of 15% of the amount by which the distribution exceeds the stockholder’s share of our earnings and profits, which withholding may be refundable to the extent it exceeds such stockholder’s substantive tax liability. Capital Gain Dividends. Under FIRPTA, a distribution that we make to a non-U.S. stockholder, to the extent attributable to gains from dispositions of USRPIs that we held directly or through pass-through subsidiaries, or USRPI capital gains, will, except as described below, be considered effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business of the non-U.S. stockholder and will be subject to U.S. income tax at the rates applicable to U.S. individuals or corporations, without regard to whether we designate the distribution as a capital gain dividend. See above under “—Taxation of Non-U.S. Stockholders—Ordinary Dividends,” for a discussion of the consequences of income that is effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business. In addition, we will be required to withhold tax equal to 21% of the maximum amount that could have been designated as USRPI capital gains dividends. Distributions subject to FIRPTA also may be subject to a 30% branch profits tax in the hands of a non-U.S. stockholder that is a corporation. A distribution is not a USRPI capital gain if we held an interest in the underlying asset solely as a creditor. Capital gain dividends received by a non-U.S. stockholder that are attributable to dispositions of our assets other than USRPIs are not subject to U.S. federal income or withholding tax, unless (1) the gain is effectively connected with the non-U.S. stockholder’s U.S. trade or business, in which case the non-U.S. stockholder would be subject to the same treatment as a U.S. stockholder with respect to such gain, or (2) the non- U.S. stockholder is a nonresident alien individual who was present in the United States for 183 days or more during the taxable year and has a “tax home” in the United States, in which case the non-U.S. stockholder will incur a 30% tax on his or her capital gains. A capital gain dividend that would otherwise have been treated as a USRPI capital gain will not be so treated or be subject to FIRPTA, and generally will not be treated as income that is effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business, and instead will be treated in the same manner as an ordinary dividend (see “—Taxation of Non-U.S. Stockholders—Ordinary Dividends”), if (1) the capital gain dividend is received with respect to a class of stock that is regularly traded on an established securities market located in the United States, and (2) the recipient non-U.S. stockholder does not own more than 10% of that class of stock at any time during the year ending on the date on which the capital gain dividend is received. We anticipate that our common stock will be “regularly traded” on an established securities market. In addition, distributions to certain non-U.S. publicly traded shareholders that meet certain record-keeping and other requirements (“qualified shareholders”) are exempt from FIRPTA, except to the extent owners of such qualified shareholders that are not also qualified shareholders own, actually or constructively, more than 10% of our capital stock. Furthermore, distributions to “qualified foreign pension funds” or entities all of the interests of which are held by “qualified foreign pension funds” are exempt from FIRPTA. Non-U.S. stockholders should consult their tax advisors regarding the application of these rules. Dispositions of UDR Stock. Unless our stock constitutes a USRPI, a sale of our stock by a non-U.S. stockholder generally will not be subject to U.S. taxation under FIRPTA. Our stock will not be treated as a USRPI if less than 50% of our assets throughout a prescribed testing period consist of interests in real property located within the United States, excluding, for this purpose, interests in real property solely in a capacity as a creditor. Even if the foregoing 50% test is not met, our stock nonetheless will not constitute a USRPI if we are a “domestically-controlled qualified investment entity.” A domestically-controlled qualified investment entity includes a REIT if less than 50% of its value is held directly or indirectly by non-U.S. stockholders at all times during a specified testing period. We believe that we are, and we will be, a domestically-controlled qualified investment entity, and that a sale of our stock should not be subject to taxation under FIRPTA. However, no assurance can be given that we are or will remain a domestically-controlled qualified investment entity. In the event that we are not a domestically-controlled qualified investment entity, but our stock is “regularly traded,” as defined by applicable Treasury regulations, on an established securities market, a non-U.S. stockholder’s sale of our common stock nonetheless would not be subject to tax under FIRPTA as a sale of a USRPI, provided that the selling non-U.S. stockholder held 10% or less of our outstanding common stock during the one-year period ending on the date of the sale. We expect that our common stock will be regularly traded on an established securities market. In addition, dispositions of our capital stock by qualified shareholders are exempt from FIRPTA, except to the extent owners of such qualified shareholders that are not also qualified shareholders own, actually or constructively, more than 10% of our capital stock. Furthermore, dispositions of our capital stock by “qualified foreign pension funds” or entities all of the interests of which are held by “qualified foreign pension funds” are exempt from FIRPTA. Non-U.S. stockholders should consult their tax advisors regarding the application of these rules. If gain on the sale of our stock were subject to taxation under FIRPTA, the non-U.S. stockholder would be required to file a U.S. federal income tax return and would be subject to the same treatment as a U.S. stockholder with respect to such gain, subject to applicable alternative minimum tax and a special alternative minimum tax in the case of non-resident alien individuals, and the purchaser of the stock could be required to withhold 15% of the purchase price and remit such amount to the IRS. Gain from the sale of our stock that would not otherwise be subject to FIRPTA will nonetheless be taxable in the United States to a non-U.S. stockholder in two cases: (1) if the non-U.S. stockholder’s investment in our stock is effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business conducted by such non-U.S. stockholder, the non-U.S. stockholder will be subject to the same treatment as a U.S. stockholder with respect to such gain, or (2) if the non-U.S. stockholder is a nonresident alien individual who was present in the United States for 183 days or more during the taxable year and has a “tax home” in the United States, the nonresident alien individual will be subject to a 30% tax on the individual’s capital gain. In addition, even if we are a domestically controlled qualified investment entity, upon disposition of our stock (subject to the 10% exception applicable to “regularly traded” stock described above), a non-U.S. stockholder may be treated as having gain from the sale or exchange of a USRPI if the non-U.S. stockholder (1) disposes of our common stock within a 30-day period preceding the ex-dividend date of a distribution, any portion of which, but for the disposition, would have been treated as gain from the sale or exchange of a USRPI, and (2) acquires, or enters into a contract or option to acquire, other shares of our common stock within 30 days after such ex-dividend date. Estate Tax. If our stock is owned or treated as owned by an individual who is not a citizen or resident (as specially defined for U.S. federal estate tax purposes) of the United States at the time of such individual’s death, the stock will be includable in the individual’s gross estate for U.S. federal estate tax purposes, unless an applicable estate tax treaty provides otherwise, and may therefore be subject to U.S. federal estate tax. The U.S. federal taxation of non-U.S. stockholders is a highly complex matter that may be affected by many other considerations. Accordingly, non-U.S. stockholders should consult their tax advisors regarding the income and withholding tax considerations with respect to owning UDR stock. Tax-exempt entities, including qualified employee pension and profit sharing trusts and individual retirement accounts, generally are exempt from federal income taxation. However, they may be subject to taxation on their unrelated business taxable income (“UBTI”). While some investments in real estate may generate UBTI, the IRS has ruled that dividend distributions from a REIT to a tax-exempt entity do not constitute UBTI. Based on that ruling, and provided that (1) a tax-exempt stockholder has not held our stock as “debt financed property” within the meaning of the Code (i.e., where the acquisition or holding of the property is financed through a borrowing by the tax-exempt stockholder), and (2) our stock is not otherwise used in an unrelated trade or business, distributions that we make and income from the sale of our stock generally should not give rise to UBTI to a tax-exempt stockholder. Tax-exempt stockholders that are social clubs, voluntary employee benefit associations, supplemental unemployment benefit trusts, and qualified group legal services plans exempt from federal income taxation under Sections 501(c)(7), (c)(9), (c)(17) and (c)(20) of the Code are subject to different UBTI rules, which generally require such stockholders to characterize distributions that we make as UBTI. In certain circumstances, a pension trust that owns more than 10% of our stock could be required to treat a percentage of the dividends as UBTI if we are a “pension-held REIT.” We will not be a pension-held REIT unless (1) we are required to “look through” one or more of our pension trust stockholders in order to satisfy the REIT “closely-held” test, and (2) either (i) one pension trust owns more than 25% of the value of our stock, or (ii) one or more pension trusts, each individually holding more than 10% of the value of our stock, collectively owns more than 50% of the value of our stock. Certain restrictions on ownership and transfer of our stock generally should prevent a tax-exempt entity from owning more than 10% of the value of our stock and generally should prevent us from becoming a pension-held REIT. Tax-exempt stockholders are urged to consult their tax advisors regarding the federal, state, local and foreign income and other tax consequences of owning UDR stock. Other Tax Considerations Stockholders participating in our common stock dividend reinvestment program are treated as having received the gross amount of any cash distributions which would have been paid by us to such stockholders had they not elected to participate in the program. These distributions will retain the character and tax effect applicable to distributions from us generally. Participants in the dividend reinvestment program are subject to U.S. federal income and withholding tax on the amount of the deemed distributions to the extent that such distributions represent dividends or gains, even though they receive no cash. Shares of our common stock received under the program will have a holding period beginning with the day after purchase, and a tax basis equal to their cost (which is the gross amount of the distribution). Information Reporting Requirements and Backup Withholding We will report to our stockholders and to the IRS the amount of distributions that we pay during each calendar year, and the amount of tax that we withhold, if any. Under the backup withholding rules, a stockholder may be subject to backup withholding (at a rate of 24%) with respect to distributions unless the stockholder: provides a taxpayer identification number, certifies as to no loss of exemption from backup withholding, and otherwise complies with the applicable requirements of the backup withholding rules. A stockholder who does not provide us with its correct taxpayer identification number also may be subject to penalties imposed by the IRS. Any amount paid as backup withholding will be creditable against the stockholder’s U.S. federal income tax liability. In addition, we may be required to withhold a portion of capital gain distributions to any stockholders who fail to certify their non-foreign status to us. Backup withholding generally will not apply to payments of dividends made by us or our paying agents, in their capacities as such, to a non-U.S. stockholder provided that such non-U.S. stockholder furnishes to us or our paying agent the required certification as to its non-U.S. status, such as providing a valid IRS Form W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E, as applicable, or W-8ECI (or any applicable successor form), or certain other requirements are met. Notwithstanding the foregoing, backup withholding may apply if either we or our paying agent has actual knowledge, or reason to know, that the holder is a ‘‘U.S. person’’ that is not an exempt recipient. Payments of the proceeds from a disposition or a redemption of our common stock that occurs outside the U.S. by a non-U.S. stockholder made by or through a foreign office of a broker generally will not be subject to information reporting or backup withholding. However, information reporting (but not backup withholding) generally will apply to such a payment if the broker has certain connections with the U.S. unless the broker has documentary evidence in its records that demonstrates that the beneficial owner is a non-U.S. stockholder and specified conditions are met or an exemption is otherwise established. Payment of the proceeds from a disposition of our stock by a non-U.S. stockholder made by or through the U.S. office of a broker generally is subject to information reporting and backup withholding unless the non-U.S. stockholder certifies under penalties of perjury that it is not a U.S. person and satisfies certain other requirements, or otherwise establishes an exemption from information reporting and backup withholding. Backup withholding is not an additional tax. Any amounts withheld under the backup withholding rules may be refunded or credited against the stockholder’s U.S. federal income tax liability if certain required information is furnished to the IRS. Stockholders should consult their own tax advisors regarding application of backup withholding to them and the availability of, and procedure for obtaining an exemption from, backup withholding. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act imposes a 30% U.S. withholding tax on certain U.S. source payments, including interest (and original issue discount), dividends, other fixed or determinable annual or periodical gain, profits, and income, and on the gross proceeds from a disposition of property of a type which can produce U.S.-source interest or dividends (“Withholdable Payments”), if paid to a foreign financial institution (including amounts paid to a foreign financial institution on behalf of a holder), unless such institution enters into an agreement with the Treasury Department to collect and provide to the Treasury Department substantial information regarding U.S. account holders, including certain account holders that are foreign entities with U.S. owners, with such institution. The legislation also generally imposes a withholding tax of 30% on Withholdable Payments made to a non-financial foreign entity unless such entity provides the withholding agent with a certification that it does not have any substantial U.S. owners or a certification identifying the direct and indirect substantial U.S. owners of the entity. Under certain circumstances, a holder may be eligible for refunds or credits of such taxes. These withholding and reporting requirements generally apply to U.S.-source periodic payments and to payments of gross proceeds from a sale or redemption. Under recently proposed Treasury regulations that may be relied upon pending finalization, the withholding tax on gross proceeds would be eliminated and, consequently, FATCA withholding on gross proceeds is not currently expected to apply. If we (or an applicable withholding agent) determine withholding under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is appropriate, we (or such agent) will withhold tax at the applicable statutory rate, without being required to pay any additional amounts in respect of such withholding. Foreign financial institutions and non-financial foreign entities located in jurisdictions that have an intergovernmental agreement with the United States governing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act may be subject to different rules. Holders are urged to consult their own tax advisors regarding the possible implications of this legislation on their purchase, ownership and disposition of our common stock. State, Local and Foreign Taxes We and our subsidiaries and stockholders may be subject to state, local or foreign taxation in various jurisdictions including those in which we or they transact business, own property or reside. We may own properties located in numerous jurisdictions, and may be required to file tax returns in some or all of those jurisdictions. Our state, local or foreign tax treatment and that of our stockholders may not conform to the federal income tax treatment discussed above. We may pay foreign property taxes, and dispositions of foreign property or operations involving, or investments in, foreign property may give rise to foreign income or other tax liability in amounts that could be substantial. Any foreign taxes that we incur do not pass through to stockholders as a credit against their U.S. federal income tax liability. Prospective investors should consult their tax advisors regarding the application and effect of state, local and foreign income and other tax laws on an investment in our stock. Information about selling security holders, where applicable, will be set forth in a prospectus supplement, in a post-effective amendment, or in filings we make with the SEC under the Exchange Act, which are incorporated by reference. We may sell the securities offered by this prospectus from time to time in one or more transactions, including without limitation: directly to one or more purchasers; through agents; to or through underwriters, brokers or dealers; through a combination of any of these methods. A distribution of the securities offered by this prospectus may also be effected through the issuance of derivative securities, including without limitation, warrants, subscriptions, exchangeable securities, forward delivery contracts and the writing of options. In addition, the manner in which we may sell some or all of the securities covered by this prospectus includes, without limitation, through: a block trade in which a broker-dealer will attempt to sell as agent, but may position or resell a portion of the block, as principal, in order to facilitate the transaction; purchases by a broker-dealer, as principal, and resale by the broker-dealer for its account; ordinary brokerage transactions and transactions in which a broker solicits purchasers; or privately negotiated transactions. We may also enter into hedging transactions. For example, we may: enter into transactions with a broker-dealer or affiliate thereof in connection with which such broker-dealer or affiliate will engage in short sales of the common stock pursuant to this prospectus, in which case such broker-dealer or affiliate may use shares of common stock received from us to close out its short positions; sell securities short and redeliver such shares to close out our short positions; enter into option or other types of transactions that require us to deliver common stock to a broker-dealer or an affiliate thereof, who will then resell or transfer the common stock under this prospectus; or loan or pledge the common stock to a broker-dealer or an affiliate thereof, who may sell the loaned shares or, in an event of default in the case of a pledge, sell the pledged shares pursuant to this prospectus. In addition, we may enter into derivative or hedging transactions with third parties, or sell securities not covered by this prospectus to third parties in privately negotiated transactions. In connection with such a transaction, the third parties may sell securities covered by and pursuant to this prospectus and an applicable prospectus supplement or pricing supplement, as the case may be. If so, the third party may use securities borrowed from us or others to settle such sales and may use securities received from us to close out any related short positions. We may also loan or pledge securities covered by this prospectus and an applicable prospectus supplement to third parties, who may sell the loaned securities or, in an event of default in the case of a pledge, sell the pledged securities pursuant to this prospectus and the applicable prospectus supplement or pricing supplement, as the case may be. A prospectus supplement with respect to each offering of securities will state the terms of the offering of the securities, including: the name or names of any underwriters or agents and the amounts of securities underwritten or purchased by each of them, if any; the public offering price or purchase price of the securities and the net proceeds to be received by us from the sale; any delayed delivery arrangements; any underwriting discounts or agency fees and other items constituting underwriters’ or agents’ compensation; any discounts or concessions allowed or reallowed or paid to dealers; and any securities exchange or markets on which the securities may be listed. The offer and sale of the securities described in this prospectus by us, the underwriters or the third parties described above may be effected from time to time in one or more transactions, including privately negotiated transactions, either: at a fixed price or prices, which may be changed; at market prices prevailing at the time of sale; at prices related to the prevailing market prices; or at negotiated prices. Any public offering price and any discounts, commissions, concessions or other items constituting compensation allowed or reallowed or paid to underwriters, dealers, agents or remarketing firms may be changed from time to time. Underwriters, dealers, agents and remarketing firms that participate in the distribution of the offered securities may be “underwriters” as defined in the Securities Act. Any discounts or commissions they receive from us and any profits they receive on the resale of the offered securities may be treated as underwriting discounts and commissions under the Securities Act. We will identify any underwriters, agents or dealers and describe their commissions, fees or discounts in the applicable prospectus supplement or pricing supplement, as the case may be. Underwriters and Agents If underwriters are used in a sale, they will acquire the offered securities for their own account. The underwriters may resell the offered securities in one or more transactions, including negotiated transactions. These sales may be made at a fixed public offering price or prices, which may be changed, at market prices prevailing at the time of the sale, at prices related to such prevailing market price or at negotiated prices. We may offer the securities to the public through an underwriting syndicate or through a single underwriter. The underwriters in any particular offering will be mentioned in the applicable prospectus supplement or pricing supplement, as the case may be. Unless otherwise specified in connection with any particular offering of securities, the obligations of the underwriters to purchase the offered securities will be subject to certain conditions contained in an underwriting agreement that we will enter into with the underwriters at the time of the sale to them. The underwriters will be obligated to purchase all of the securities of the series offered if any of the securities are purchased, unless otherwise specified in connection with any particular offering of securities. Any initial offering price and any discounts or concessions allowed, reallowed or paid to dealers may be changed from time to time. We may designate agents to sell the offered securities. Unless otherwise specified in connection with any particular offering of securities, the agents will agree to use their best efforts to solicit purchases for the period of their appointment. We may also sell the offered securities to one or more remarketing firms, acting as principals for their own accounts or as agents for us. These firms will remarket the offered securities upon purchasing them in accordance with a redemption or repayment pursuant to the terms of the offered securities. A prospectus supplement or pricing supplement, as the case may be will identify any remarketing firm and will describe the terms of its agreement, if any, with us and its compensation. In connection with offerings made through underwriters or agents, we may enter into agreements with such underwriters or agents pursuant to which we receive our outstanding securities in consideration for the securities being offered to the public for cash. In connection with these arrangements, the underwriters or agents may also sell securities covered by this prospectus to hedge their positions in these outstanding securities, including in short sale transactions. If so, the underwriters or agents may use the securities received from us under these arrangements to close out any related open borrowings of securities. We may sell the offered securities to dealers as principals. We may negotiate and pay dealers’ commissions, discounts or concessions for their services. The dealer may then resell such securities to the public either at varying prices to be determined by the dealer or at a fixed offering price agreed to with us at the time of resale. Dealers engaged by us may allow other dealers to participate in resales. We may choose to sell the offered securities directly. In this case, no underwriters or agents would be involved. We may authorize agents, dealers or underwriters to solicit certain institutional investors to purchase offered securities on a delayed delivery basis pursuant to delayed delivery contracts providing for payment and delivery on a specified future date. The applicable prospectus supplement or pricing supplement, as the case may be will provide the details of any such arrangement, including the offering price and commissions payable on the solicitations. We will enter into such delayed contracts only with institutional purchasers that we approve. These institutions may include commercial and savings banks, insurance companies, pension funds, investment companies and educational and charitable institutions. Indemnification; Other Relationships We may have agreements with agents, underwriters, dealers and remarketing firms to indemnify them against certain civil liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Agents, underwriters, dealers and remarketing firms, and their affiliates, may engage in transactions with, or perform services for, us in the ordinary course of business. This includes commercial banking and investment banking transactions. Market-Making, Stabilization and Other Transactions There is currently no market for any of the offered securities, other than the common stock which is listed on the NYSE. If the offered securities are traded after their initial issuance, they may trade at a discount from their initial offering price, depending upon prevailing interest rates, the market for similar securities and other factors. While it is possible that an underwriter could inform us that it intends to make a market in the offered securities, such underwriter would not be obligated to do so, and any such market-making could be discontinued at any time without notice. Therefore, no assurance can be given as to whether an active trading market will develop for the offered securities. We have no current plans for listing of the debt securities, preferred stock or warrants on any securities exchange or on an automated quotation system; any such listing with respect to any particular debt securities, preferred stock or warrants will be described in the applicable prospectus supplement or pricing supplement, as the case may be. In connection with any offering of common stock, the underwriters may purchase and sell shares of common stock in the open market. These transactions may include short sales, syndicate covering transactions and stabilizing transactions. Short sales involve syndicate sales of common stock in excess of the number of shares to be purchased by the underwriters in the offering, which creates a syndicate short position. “Covered” short sales are sales of shares made in an amount up to the number of shares represented by the underwriters’ over-allotment option. In determining the source of shares to close out the covered syndicate short position, the underwriters will consider, among other things, the price of shares available for purchase in the open market as compared to the price at which they may purchase shares through the over-allotment option. Transactions to close out the covered syndicate short involve either purchases of the common stock in the open market after the distribution has been completed or the exercise of the over-allotment option. The underwriters may also make “naked” short sales of shares in excess of the over-allotment option. The underwriters must close out any naked short position by purchasing shares of common stock in the open market. A naked short position is more likely to be created if the underwriters are concerned that there may be downward pressure on the price of the shares in the open market after pricing that could adversely affect investors who purchase in the offering. Stabilizing transactions consist of bids for or purchases of shares in the open market while the offering is in progress for the purpose of pegging, fixing or maintaining the price of the securities. In connection with any offering, the underwriters may also engage in penalty bids. Penalty bids permit the underwriters to reclaim a selling concession from a syndicate member when the securities originally sold by the syndicate member are purchased in a syndicate covering transaction to cover syndicate short positions. Stabilizing transactions, syndicate covering transactions and penalty bids may cause the price of the securities to be higher than it would be in the absence of the transactions. The underwriters may, if they commence these transactions, discontinue them at any time. Unless otherwise indicated in the applicable prospectus supplement, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Washington, D.C. will provide opinions regarding the authorization and validity of the securities and certain U.S. federal income tax matters, and certain U.S. federal income tax matters will be passed upon for us by Kutak Rock LLP, Little Rock, Arkansas. Any underwriters will also be advised about legal matters by their own counsel, which will be named in the prospectus supplement. The consolidated financial statements of UDR, Inc. and United Dominion Realty, L.P. appearing in UDR, Inc.’s Annual Report (Form 10-K) for the year ended December 31, 2019 including schedules appearing therein, and the effectiveness of UDR, Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019, have been audited by Ernst & Young LLP, independent registered public accounting firm, as set forth in their reports thereon included therein, and incorporated herein by reference. Such financial statements are, and audited financial statements to be included in subsequently filed documents will be, incorporated herein in reliance upon the reports of Ernst & Young LLP pertaining to such financial statements and the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of the respective dates (to the extent covered by consents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission) given on the authority of such firm as experts in accounting and auditing. This prospectus, any accompanying prospectus supplements and the documents incorporated by reference contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements concerning property acquisitions and dispositions, development activity and capital expenditures, capital raising activities, rent growth, occupancy, and rental expense growth. Words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “likely,” “will,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results of operations or plans expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition to any factors that may be described in this prospectus, any accompanying prospectus supplement and the documents incorporated by reference, such factors include, among other things, unfavorable changes in the apartment market, changing economic conditions, the impact of inflation/deflation on rental rates and property operating expenses, expectations concerning availability of capital and the stabilization of the capital markets, the impact of competition and competitive pricing, acquisitions, developments and redevelopments not achieving anticipated results, delays in completing developments and redevelopments, delays in completing lease-ups on schedule or at expected rent and occupancy levels, expectations on job growth, home affordability and demand/supply ratio for multifamily housing, expectations concerning development and redevelopment activities, expectations on occupancy levels and rental rates, expectations concerning the joint ventures and partnerships with third parties, expectations that automation will help grow net operating income, expectations on annualized net operating income and other risk factors discussed in documents filed by the Company with the SEC from time to time, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and the Company’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Actual results may differ substantially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements and such risks, uncertainties and other factors speak only as of the date of this prospectus or the applicable document incorporated by reference herein, and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, to reflect any change in the Company’s expectations with regard thereto, or any other change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except to the extent otherwise required under U.S. securities laws. UDR, Inc. and United Dominion Realty, L.P. file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC under the Exchange Act, all of which are available at the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. You also may access our SEC filings free of charge on our website at www.udr.com The SEC allows us to “incorporate by reference” information into this prospectus and any accompanying prospectus, which means that we can disclose important information to you by referring you to other documents filed separately with the SEC. The information incorporated by reference is considered part of this prospectus, and information filed with the SEC subsequent to this prospectus and prior to the termination of the particular offering referred to in such prospectus supplement will automatically be deemed to update and supersede this information. UDR, Inc. and United Dominion Realty, L.P. incorporate by reference into this prospectus and any accompanying prospectus supplement the documents listed below (excluding any portions of such documents that have been “furnished” but not “filed” for purposes of the Exchange Act): Annual Report of UDR, Inc. on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 18, 2020; Annual Report of United Dominion Realty, L.P. on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 18, 2020; Current Reports of UDR, Inc. on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on January 3, 2020, February 12, 2020 and February 28, 2020; Definitive Proxy Statement of UDR, Inc. dated March 27, 2019, and definitive Additional Materials filed with the SEC on March 27, 2019, both filed in connection with UDR, Inc.’s Annual Meeting of Stockholders held on May 16, 2019; and Description of the capital stock of UDR, Inc. contained in the Registration Statement on Form 8-A/A dated and filed with the SEC on November 7, 2005, including any amendments or reports filed with the SEC for the purpose of updating such description. UDR, Inc. and United Dominion Realty, L.P. also incorporate by reference any future filings made with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act between the date of this prospectus and the date all of the securities offered hereby are sold or the offering is otherwise terminated, with the exception of any information furnished under Item 2.02 or Item 7.01 of Form 8-K, which is not deemed filed and which is not incorporated by reference herein. Any such filings shall be deemed to be incorporated by reference and to be a part of this prospectus from the respective dates of filing of those documents. We will provide without charge upon written or oral request to each person, including any beneficial owner, to whom a prospectus is delivered, a copy of any and all of the documents which are incorporated by reference into this prospectus but not delivered with this prospectus (other than exhibits unless such exhibits are specifically incorporated by reference in such documents). We will provide without charge to each person, including any beneficial owner, to whom this prospectus is delivered a copy of any of the documents referred to above by written or oral request to: We maintain a web site at www.udr.com. The reference to our web site does not constitute incorporation by reference of the information contained at the site and you should not consider it a part of this prospectus or any other document we file with or furnish to the SEC.	462,207
Hi, I’m Duane Mitchell. Let me be the first to welcome you to my new website. I chose the real estate industry in Atlanta because I love helping people realize their dreams. Through my experiences of working in new construction, the foreclosure market, and resales, I have learned to ensure my buyers and sellers are well protected in their investments. When we work together, you get the power of my entire team. We are elite professionals, committed to your best outcome throughout the buying and selling process. It is truly all about you and your real estate journey. as seen on: Duane has been our agent on two properties. His knowledge, judgement and following up on details kept us on schedule to meet a quick closing date. We appreciate his expertise and look forward to working with him again.	858
So you want to get in shape but you haven’t exercised in years, or maybe ever. Getting started is a daunting task and you are motivated to get moving, which is great, but you are also worried about getting injured which would put your goals on hold. What does it mean to be in shape? Being in shape can be either individually defined or defined by achieving a pre-determined standard. A pro hockey player has to be in a different type of shape than a marathoner. In addition, we don’t have to be in the same type of shape as the pro athletes to consider ourselves in shape. The problem with a pre determined standard is that we push ourselves to achieve that goal possibly more rapidly than our body is capable of achieving which leads to the body breaking down and injuries happen. So how can you get in shape without getting hurt? Here are some of my tidbits of advice on preventing injuries. Simply put, exercise in an environment that you can control. Make sure the surface you are exercising on is clear of debris, the surface is even and you have adequate gripping for your feet (surface/shoes). If you plan to go on a bike ride choose a safe route rather than one in high traffic or on a challenging off road path (not that off roading is a bad activity, it’s more of a safety issue). Many people get hurt because they don’t watch where they are going and what they are doing. Be aware of your surroundings. Be Well Rounded We tend to do the things we like to do and neglect the things we find are difficult, boring or tedious. This can result in imbalances and repetitive strain. For example, the body builder may be very strong and has big muscles but if that is all he does he may not have the flexibility to move those muscles through a full range of motion. The aerobics instructor may be able to exercise for 90 minutes but can she carry the 30lbs bag of dog food to the house? When it comes to being in shape, developing a program that addresses the different aspects of being in shape; muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility/mobility, aerobic endurance and anaerobic endurance helps you to be able to handle a variety of physical feats. Start by taking one or two categories of fitness, as you develop a habit for exercising, then add another category of fitness. Most people getting in shape would do well with developing aerobic endurance/muscular endurance along with flexibility and then adding the other aspects of fitness as they become more fit. This gives you variety, lessens repetitive strain and helps with the monotony of performing the same program over and over. Start slow and go slow When starting an exercise program we have a tendency to push ourselves harder than our body is capable of handling. We want to get in shape now and we will push ourselves to achieve it. We buy DVDs of the next greatest workout program guaranteed to loose weight. We jump full into the program only to discover our body is not yet ready for that type of program. You may not have the physical ability to perform the exercises, your technique may be horrible or your body fatigues too quickly and you get hurt. Start with the basic of all exercise, walking, biking, basic stretching, body weight exercises and then slowly increase the volume, intensity or complexity of the activity. It is generally accepted that increasing your volume or intensity of exercise, every week or two, by 10 percent is a safe approach. Eg. Lifting weights by increasing only the volume: Week one: 1 set of 10 repetitions – total 10 repetitions Week two: 1 set of 11 repetitions – total 11 repetitions Week three: 2 sets of 6 repetitions – total 12 repetitions Week four: 2 sets of 7 repetitions – total 14 repetitions Week five: 2 sets of 8 repetitions – total 16 repetitions Week six: 3 sets of 6 repetitions – total 18 repetitions You have to remember that getting in shape does not have an end point. Once you are in shape you can’t just stop, you have to continue to maintain. Take it slow and you will still achieve your goals. Don’t perform any exercise if technique is poor. It is better to build your body on a strong foundation than on a weak foundation. It is better to perform 5 high quality repetitions than it is to perform 10 poor quality repetitions. Also, performing exercises that require you to be quick but alters your technique should be avoided until technique is perfected. If you need to cheat to complete a repetition or if your movement becomes faulty, stop. Find someone who is trained in recognizing poor movement (personal trainer, athletic therapist, some chiropractors, and some physiotherapists). It is better to pay for this service now than when you have to pay for help in the healing process of your injury. Injuries can be the result of joint immobility, muscle inflexibility, poor muscle motor control or poor strength. Having someone assess you to discover these imbalances may help prevent further injury. Don’t over work the show off muscles (chest, arms, quadriceps), this causes imbalances. I often recommend a two to one ratio of exercise between the show muscles (front) and the opposing muscles. Don’t perform the same mode of exercise over and over, this causes imbalances and repetitive strain. Change it up. For the general public and for athletes these are the most common muscles that I find that are inflexible: These muscles are often a problem in those who have jobs that require them to sit for long periods of time or with those with poor posture. Don’t over stretch muscles that are already flexible. This may lead to hypermobility which can be another cause of injury. Muscles I find that are typically weak are as follows: Serratus anterior Get Balanced One of the leading cause of falls in the elderly is poor balance. Balance, or proprioception, tells our brain where our body is in space which then helps the muscles around our joints to help keep up upright. Training with dumbbells or one legged activities helps develop proprioception. A good way to start developing your balance is by, each morning while your brush your teeth, stand on one foot when you brush the top row of teeth. When you brush the bottom row, switch to the other leg. As you get better at this, and you can stand without wavering, then close your eyes. As you improve, then other more challenging activities can be added. Learn to Hip Hinge Back, knee, ankle and foot pain may be a result of poor motor control at the hip. I see this in many injured people. Poor squatting technique and poor lifting techniques is often a result of poor movement at the hips. In the case of lifting injuries the back flexes more than the hips thus causing more strain on the back. Many people can’t complete a full squat without knee pain. Often, this can be associated with poor movement at the ankle and at the hip. Vary your Volume and Intensity In the art of strength and conditioning, strength coaches develop programs in the attempts to improve performance but also to prevent over training. This type of training approach is called periodization. In essence, it is a program that has changes in either volume of work or the intensity of the work. Over the course of a training period, say 6 weeks, you would see throughout the week the intensity/volume change. One day would be harder than average, another day may be lighter and another might be average but by the end of that training program the athlete is capable of performing more work or work at a higher intensity. Training at high intensity all the time can wear down the body and cause injury or ove rtraining. Recognize Over training The signs of over training are as follows: Difficulty sleeping Getting sick more frequently Unable to accomplish workouts you used to perform Fatigue, lack of interest to work out, depression Decreased appetite Weight loss Increased rate of injury I suggest monitoring your heart rate every morning upon waking. Monitoring yourself now will allow you to see your heart rate decrease as you get in shape. If you are over training or you are coming down with a cold your morning heart rate may be approximately 10 beats a minute higher than normal. Pain that persists after a warm up, worsens throughout the workout or results in increased pain after a workout should be avoided. Working through the pain may only result in being out of commission for a longer period of time. If you can, reduce the volume and intensity of your exercise by at least 50%. If pain still persists then seek treatment. In the meantime, as you heal, choose different exercises that do not cause pain. Reduce the Stress on the Joints Every time we run/jog there is a significant increase in force on the body (about 2 to 3 times your body weight. Our joints have to be able to withstand these forces or else they are going to get damaged. If you have joint pain or want to prevent joint pain chose exercises that are less stressful on the joints. Speed walking is far better on the joints and actually burns more calories. Other exercise methods are exercising in the pool (pool running) or using a stationary bike or elliptical. As your conditioning improves as well as your strength then it may be possible to increase the stress on the joints, depending on the reason for joint pain. Though many people exercise at the same time as restricting calories we need to adequately fuel our body so that it can refuel and repair our body. Recent research has even found that those who restrict their fat consumption below 30% tend to have a great chance of injury. If you are looking at building muscle to help with fat loss then ensuring adequate protein in your diet is important. Amino acids are the building blocks of muscle. Even the best athletes take a break from time to time. We get stronger and more fit when we rest. Constant training prevents you from recuperating therefore having days of rest or light activity can help you improve and prevent injury. Every six to eight weeks take a break and just go for a light walk, lift some light weights, do some light yoga. Remember, not all injuries are preventable. When starting take it slow, be well rounded, work on imbalances, perform with excellent technique, vary your workout and every once in a while take a break. Getting in shape is not a race and you don’t win because you get there first. You win because you get in shape and become healthier.	10,835
RSIS Commentary is a platform to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy-relevant commentary and analysis of topical and contemporary issues. The authors’ views are their own and do not represent the official position of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU. These commentaries may be reproduced with prior permission from RSIS and due credit to the author(s) and RSIS. Please email to Editor RSIS Commentary at [email protected]. As economic nationalism rises in some industrialised countries, the public and private sectors need to unite to defend the system that has underpinned growth. Commentary IN 1998 world leaders from Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela to Bill Clinton and Tony Blair met to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the multilateral trading system. Now, trade agreements are being rejected by political leaders in some industrialised countries and economic nationalism is resurgent. The public and private sectors in this region need to unite in defending the system that has underpinned its growth. In fact, the problems of the older industrialised economies have more to do with a failure to adjust to de-industrialisation. Long-term policy failures in key sectors – education, social investment, regional policy, infrastructure – have left people in the former industrial heartlands marginalised and resentful. Trade, like immigration, has become a lightning rod for this resentment and populist politicians are only too willing to exploit it. If there is little sign so far of a similar anti-globalisation backlash in Southeast Asia, this can be ascribed to better economic growth, productivity and job creation, a relative lack of “rustbelt” industries, investment in education and upskilling, and willingness to embrace new technologies. The benefits of global value chains are still more apparent than any downside, and the memory of past poverty still fresh enough to counteract nostalgic nationalism. There are no grounds for complacency, however. For one thing, as economies mature they begin to confront some of the same structural problems linked to higher costs and relatively slower growth combined with rising expectations. It would be unwise to assume that there is a long-term Asian immunity from the resentments that have surfaced in Europe and the US. And, of course, the region has its own trade tensions. Furthermore, the global integration that has fuelled growth has increased interdependence. This is already apparent in the repercussions from the Trump Administration’s decision to pull out of TPP, in which this country and its regional partners have invested heavily. Then there is the uncertainty factor. The overall trend in the United States, for example, appears to be towards a more narrowly nationalistic view of trade, emphasising bilateral reciprocity and the reduction of trade deficits. However, we still do not know how this will play out in action. Even if we avoid the most disastrous scenarios, a global climate of unpredictability is not a good basis for planning or investment in either the public or the private sector. The new trade nationalism calls for an effective and rapid response. There are several possible elements, one of which is shaping a positive trade narrative. It is true that job losses in some sectors can be attributed to competition from imports. It is equally true that many more jobs depend on trade. In any case, changing technology is a much more important factor, accounting for around 8% of manufacturing job losses. These jobs will not come back by putting up barriers and limiting opportunity. There is no reason why the success stories of trade agreements in terms of job creation and upskilling cannot be communicated with just as much immediacy and empathy as the negative story. Of course, it takes someone to invest money and commitment. This is an area where business groups could make an important contribution. The private sector also needs to renew its active support for the multilateral system. After all, the Trade Facilitation deal is evidence that the WTO can indeed deliver results that are of direct relevance to business. Furthermore, whatever the pace of negotiations, the business sector continues to need the security and predictability of the multilateral rules. The WTO Secretariat has been stepping up its outreach to business, but it has institutional constraints. Business groups themselves could usefully take a lead, for example in establishing regular consultative processes like those that exist in APEC and ASEAN. Government Action as Back-up The positive trade narrative needs to be backed up by government action. The effort being made to continue the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without the US is important. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is another positive example, as are the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations and the APEC trade agenda. In their differing ways, these initiatives all make a positive statement about the will of governments in the region to pursue open trade policies. Given the economic weight of the region such a commitment carries global weight. Singapore’s chairmanship of ASEAN next year can help keep the focus on key areas like the digital economy, as the Trade Minister has indicated. Reinforcing the structures of international trade and economic co-operation is also important. The 2008 financial crisis proved the worth of WTO rules and commitments in countering the sort of protectionist stampede that turned the events of 1929 into the Great Depression. The WTO Ministerial Conference in December this year will be an important opportunity to reaffirm the value of the system. This must mean actions as well as words. Governments should implement WTO commitments fully and promptly. This is particularly relevant to the findings of Dispute Settlement cases, as the credibility of the system rests on it. But it is also true of a range of other existing commitments. One immediate need is to ensure that domestic procedures are in place to implement the Trade Facilitation Agreement, which has just entered into force. Governments also need to ensure that traders are fully aware of the advantages the Agreement offers them. Smaller Players are Important At the government level, smaller players can make a big difference. There are many cases of smaller countries taking a lead in developing ideas and positions that have influenced the direction of the system. If they act together their effect is multiplied. TPP began as the P4, after all. The Cairns Group did much to define the agenda for agriculture negotiations. Singapore is the prime example of a smaller economy exerting disproportionately significant weight in the multilateral trading system. It has been doing so at least since it hosted the first WTO Ministerial Conference in 1996. This region depends upon a stable and open trading system; its leaders, government and business alike, have the strength and credibility to defend it effectively. They should unite in doing so. About the Author Evan Rogerson is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS), S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. He is the former Director of the Agriculture and Commodities Division of the WTO Secretariat, Geneva. RSIS Commentary is a platform to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy-relevant commentary and analysis of topical and contemporary issues. The authors’ views are their own and do not represent the official position of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU. These commentaries may be reproduced with prior permission from RSIS and due credit to the author(s) and RSIS. Please email to Editor RSIS Commentary at [email protected]. As economic nationalism rises in some industrialised countries, the public and private sectors need to unite to defend the system that has underpinned growth. Commentary IN 1998 world leaders from Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela to Bill Clinton and Tony Blair met to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the multilateral trading system. Now, trade agreements are being rejected by political leaders in some industrialised countries and economic nationalism is resurgent. The public and private sectors in this region need to unite in defending the system that has underpinned its growth. In fact, the problems of the older industrialised economies have more to do with a failure to adjust to de-industrialisation. Long-term policy failures in key sectors – education, social investment, regional policy, infrastructure – have left people in the former industrial heartlands marginalised and resentful. Trade, like immigration, has become a lightning rod for this resentment and populist politicians are only too willing to exploit it. If there is little sign so far of a similar anti-globalisation backlash in Southeast Asia, this can be ascribed to better economic growth, productivity and job creation, a relative lack of “rustbelt” industries, investment in education and upskilling, and willingness to embrace new technologies. The benefits of global value chains are still more apparent than any downside, and the memory of past poverty still fresh enough to counteract nostalgic nationalism. There are no grounds for complacency, however. For one thing, as economies mature they begin to confront some of the same structural problems linked to higher costs and relatively slower growth combined with rising expectations. It would be unwise to assume that there is a long-term Asian immunity from the resentments that have surfaced in Europe and the US. And, of course, the region has its own trade tensions. Furthermore, the global integration that has fuelled growth has increased interdependence. This is already apparent in the repercussions from the Trump Administration’s decision to pull out of TPP, in which this country and its regional partners have invested heavily. Then there is the uncertainty factor. The overall trend in the United States, for example, appears to be towards a more narrowly nationalistic view of trade, emphasising bilateral reciprocity and the reduction of trade deficits. However, we still do not know how this will play out in action. Even if we avoid the most disastrous scenarios, a global climate of unpredictability is not a good basis for planning or investment in either the public or the private sector. The new trade nationalism calls for an effective and rapid response. There are several possible elements, one of which is shaping a positive trade narrative. It is true that job losses in some sectors can be attributed to competition from imports. It is equally true that many more jobs depend on trade. In any case, changing technology is a much more important factor, accounting for around 8% of manufacturing job losses. These jobs will not come back by putting up barriers and limiting opportunity. There is no reason why the success stories of trade agreements in terms of job creation and upskilling cannot be communicated with just as much immediacy and empathy as the negative story. Of course, it takes someone to invest money and commitment. This is an area where business groups could make an important contribution. The private sector also needs to renew its active support for the multilateral system. After all, the Trade Facilitation deal is evidence that the WTO can indeed deliver results that are of direct relevance to business. Furthermore, whatever the pace of negotiations, the business sector continues to need the security and predictability of the multilateral rules. The WTO Secretariat has been stepping up its outreach to business, but it has institutional constraints. Business groups themselves could usefully take a lead, for example in establishing regular consultative processes like those that exist in APEC and ASEAN. Government Action as Back-up The positive trade narrative needs to be backed up by government action. The effort being made to continue the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without the US is important. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is another positive example, as are the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations and the APEC trade agenda. In their differing ways, these initiatives all make a positive statement about the will of governments in the region to pursue open trade policies. Given the economic weight of the region such a commitment carries global weight. Singapore’s chairmanship of ASEAN next year can help keep the focus on key areas like the digital economy, as the Trade Minister has indicated. Reinforcing the structures of international trade and economic co-operation is also important. The 2008 financial crisis proved the worth of WTO rules and commitments in countering the sort of protectionist stampede that turned the events of 1929 into the Great Depression. The WTO Ministerial Conference in December this year will be an important opportunity to reaffirm the value of the system. This must mean actions as well as words. Governments should implement WTO commitments fully and promptly. This is particularly relevant to the findings of Dispute Settlement cases, as the credibility of the system rests on it. But it is also true of a range of other existing commitments. One immediate need is to ensure that domestic procedures are in place to implement the Trade Facilitation Agreement, which has just entered into force. Governments also need to ensure that traders are fully aware of the advantages the Agreement offers them. Smaller Players are Important At the government level, smaller players can make a big difference. There are many cases of smaller countries taking a lead in developing ideas and positions that have influenced the direction of the system. If they act together their effect is multiplied. TPP began as the P4, after all. The Cairns Group did much to define the agenda for agriculture negotiations. Singapore is the prime example of a smaller economy exerting disproportionately significant weight in the multilateral trading system. It has been doing so at least since it hosted the first WTO Ministerial Conference in 1996. This region depends upon a stable and open trading system; its leaders, government and business alike, have the strength and credibility to defend it effectively. They should unite in doing so. About the Author Evan Rogerson is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS), S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. He is the former Director of the Agriculture and Commodities Division of the WTO Secretariat, Geneva. Copyright © S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. All rights reserved. This site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. By continuing, you are agreeing to the use of cookies on your device as described in our privacy policy. Learn more OK Latest Book As economic nationalism rises in some industrialised countries, the public and private sectors need to unite to defend the system that has underpinned ...	15,843
Used to be that when you'd get the family together for a long road trip; one of the parents (usually Dad, who refused to ask anyone for directions) would load up the glove box of the family car with those fold-out paper maps -- you know, the kind that featured an oil company logo on the front and never folded back to its original configuration! Dad would go down to the local gas station, and while the attendant filled up the car, checked the oil, put free air in the tires and washed the windows, Dad would go inside and grab some free maps for the trip. If you were AAA members, though, Dad would most certainly have already ordered the TripTik, which gave him turn-by-turn directions and stamped-on warnings about construction that would cause Dad to want to leave at o-dark-thirty in order to "beat the traffic." These days, though, you can hardly find a paper map at the gas and sip, and, even if you do, you'll have to pay for it after you pump your own gas, check your own oil, and find quarters to activate the air hose. Then again, you probably don't need the map anyway because you have a GPS on the dashboard or you downloaded the directions off of Google Maps or MapQuest, or you know you can look up your current location on your smartphone. Even if you're off-road, a hand-held GPS can tell you your current location within a couple of feet. With all that gadgetry available to you, even if you're in the middle of nowhere, you can determine that you are at least somewhere. Paper maps seem to be going the way of the cassette tape and the black-and-white TV. You might even want to ask your congregation for a show of hands of who has maps in their cars right now. Chances are that nobody under the age of 50 has one. Many would say that we're at the point of simply not needing them anymore. But are we there yet? Will paper maps someday be something we only see in museums? Well, not so fast, says Rand McNally, the nation's largest mapmaker: "I don't think paper maps are going anywhere, but people may be using them differently, more as a companion to the online or digital map." In fact, the paper map may be the only truly reliable full-time form of navigation. Despite the ease and convenience of technology, batteries go dead, a spilled coffee can fry a GPS unit, or you may be in a place where the signal is weak, not to mention the fact that the GPS is sometimes just dead wrong. Bob Kaylor reports that people using GPSes to find his church always wind up on the back side of the property, acres away from the church, where there is no road to get there from the GPS destination. He has a map to the church printed on the back of his business card and tells people that the map is always the best way to find it. The other reason why maps aren't going anywhere is that they provide one thing that GPS and online directions -- despite their colors, detail and satellite imagery -- cannot: context. While a GPS can tell you where you are and what's immediately in front of you, it can't show you all the alternate routes, the possible shortcuts, the way to get around that traffic jam. It won't lay out the whole trip for you in one panoramic view (unless you relish trying to read fine print while driving at 70 mph). "Paper maps offer big-picture geometry," says Debra Turner, vice president of marketing for Compass Maps. "They can show you four or five counties, and not just the neighborhood you're driving in." Where a GPS chirps "Recalculating!" when you veer off the route, a paper map will quietly show you all the possible ways to get there that you may never have considered. The book of Acts reads like a travelogue for first-century Christianity. Indeed, it's helpful to have a paper map nearby when you're reading it just to track where all of the apostles are going. This week's text isn't strictly a geographical travel narrative, though Peter does travel back up to Jerusalem from Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast at the beginning of the passage. Really it's more of a spiritual TripTik outlining the direction God was taking the early church. When Peter goes to Joppa and eats with the Gentile Roman centurion Cornelius, the other "apostles and believers" think he has marched completely off the map, their criticism sounding like that voice on a GPS calling for Peter to "recalculate" his ministry back to the circumcised Jews and away from the pagan Gentiles (Acts 11:1-3). But where the other apostles and believers only saw the narrow route laid out by their old downloaded GPS (Genesis to Prophets Scriptures) -- a route that they perceived to be only about the way and law of God's chosen people, the Jews -- Peter explains to them that God had showed him the context of a much larger map that revealed the new road God was building toward inclusion of the Gentiles in the church. The context that God shows Peter, came in the form of a threefold dream, where a large sheet was lowered from heaven full of animals he and his fellow Jews considered to be unclean. God's command to Peter was, essentially, to march off the long-held maps Peter and his people had walked for thousands of years by eating only kosher foods permitted by the law of Moses. "Get up, Peter; kill and eat," says God, inviting Peter to eat food that was only suitable for Gentiles (v. 7). God was carving out a new route that would bring Jews and Gentiles together: "What God has made clean, you must not call profane" (v. 9). God, in fact, doesn't just give Peter the map but also the direction of the Spirit to go with the Gentile guides to Caesarea (v. 11-12). Because Peter marches off the old route, he begins to see how God's plan for the whole world is unfolding like a huge gas station map. Cornelius had also received a vision from God, which altered his maps as a Roman centurion and citizen who likely had seen a lot of the world. The Holy Spirit sent Peter, a Jew; and Cornelius, a Gentile, off their prescribed routes to meet each other as an example of the new route God was showing the church. No longer would Jews and Gentiles run separate paths, but they would serve the same Lord as part of the same church. As Peter put it, "I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" (v. 16-17). A GPS can be a great tool, but it can also lead to a kind of tunnel vision that causes drivers to focus so much on the route on the screen and the directions given by the voice that they fail to see the full picture of the road in front of them. In 2011, for example, three women were in a rental SUV on their way to a Costco convention in Washington state when they followed their GPS instructions to the letter: down a boat ramp and straight into a lake. Neither of the other two passengers in the car stopped the driver. They just did what they were told. A lot of Christians may view God's instructions the same way, focusing only on what we perceive to be our one and only path and not on the big picture context of God's mission in the world. Many are the Christians who have doggedly stuck to their own theological or hermeneutical interpretation of Scripture without listening to the Spirit's guidance for the larger context. As a result, they wind up off track and in deep water. We can become like the Pharisees whom Jesus called "blind guides" who "strain out a gnat but swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:24) -- another way of saying that we sometimes miss the forest for the trees! God invited Peter to unfold a much larger map that reveals a world of possibilities for people of all kinds, united around the singular direction of God's grace and God's redemptive mission in the world. What is the current path that you're on that keeps you from seeing God's big picture? Who are the people whom others consider to be off the map and outside God's grace? How will you, like Peter, listen to the Spirit's direction and march off the map to reach those whom the rest of the world whizzes by? 1 view0 comments Post not marked as liked Recent Posts 00 Post not marked as liked 00 Post not marked as liked The Meaning of the Advent Candles and Wreath We come to the symbolism of the candles. If you will notice, on the outside there are three lavender or purple candles. Historically, the primary color of Advent is purple. This is the color of royalt	8,532
I am honored to serve as the state representative for the 29th House District and am proud to be a strong advocate in Lansing for the residents and families of our community. Please encourage your friends and family to stay connected and subscribe to this e-newsletter. It will keep you up-to-date on legislation and policies coming from the Capitol, as well as my coffee hours and other community events I host both virtually and in person. In this issue: Small Business of the Month Insurance Town Hall Executive Update Please join me for my next community conversation hour on Monday, June 14, at 8 a.m. This is an opportunity to ask me anything! You can join on Zoom or Facebook. Appropriations Town Hall Please join me for an Appropriations Town Hall on Monday, June 14, at 1 p.m. We will talk about the appropriations process from the federal level to the county level during this town hall. There will also be a question and answer section. If you are curious about how money flows in government, this event is for you! You can join on Zoom or Facebook. Small Business of the Month Our business spotlight for May is Dimitri’s Opa Restaurant and Bar in Auburn Hills. Their establishment has enhanced the dining experience for the Auburn Hills area and is delightful to visit. Small businesses are the heart of our communities, and the dedicated people who operate them deserve their hard work and contributions to be acknowledged. If you know of a small business we should spotlight for June, please send nominations to [email protected]. Nominated businesses must be located within Pontiac, Auburn Hills, Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake or Orchard Lake Village. If you missed our town hall with the Department of Insurance and Financial Services regarding the upcoming changes to Michigan’s auto insurance laws, you can watch a replay here and enter passcode:^!540Q1u. We discussed the changes in great detail, and I was so glad to offer an opportunity for our community to get their questions answered. If you have additional questions or need resources, you can go to https://www.michigan.gov/autoinsurance. Executive Update As many employers return to in-person work this week, Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (MIOSHA) has updated its COVID-19 emergency rules. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has also updated its COVID-19 Gatherings and Face Masks epidemic order, eliminating outdoor capacity limits and increasing indoor social gatherings to 50% capacity, which is set to take effect on June 1. MIOSHA has updated other aspects of the emergency rules to reflect the recent order from MDHHS and guidance from the CDC. Those changes include: Employers may allow fully vaccinated employees to not wear face coverings and social distance provided they have a policy deemed effective to ensure non-vaccinated individuals continue to follow these requirements. The rules have been reformed, focusing on performance and eliminating industry-specific requirements. Definitions have been updated to more clearly reflect changes in close contact and quarantining requirements for fully vaccinated employees. Cleaning requirements have been updated to reflect changes in CDC recommendations. Employers should continue to have and implement a written COVID-19 preparedness and response plan following the updated rules. Recently, the House passed 16 departmental budgets for the 2022 fiscal year and a series of supplemental budget bills to allocate billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funding. Unfortunately, this irresponsible budget proposal reads more like a partisan agenda than actually providing the support and relief that Michiganders need now. It includes 75% funding cuts for many state departments, focuses on unnecessarily paying off bonds early instead of investing in transformational projects and ties many vital programs to removing gubernatorial authority. House Democrats proposed nearly 50 amendments to right the many wrongs in this proposal, almost all of which were rejected. The budget bills went on to pass largely along party lines. In the wake of the worst crisis we’ve seen in our lifetimes, now is the time to invest in our people, economy and infrastructure, but the budgets that passed last week fail to deliver.	4,406
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Volunteer People Log in Volunteer People tv American Perspectives CSPAN July 17, 2010 8:00pm-11:00pm EDT elbows with elite media members in idaho. it is a shame that he could not be in chicago to hear the voices of the people that his agency is charged with protecting. i look forward to hearing from my fellow panelists as well as members of the public. >> denied, three political debates. at the michigan governors republican primary debate. after that the tennessee governor's debate. after that, a democratic debate for rhode island's first district house seat. now, the tennessee governor's debate where we will hear from the state's lieutenant governor, those seeking to replace phil bredesen. 8:01 pm this is about one hour. >> live from oakland university. we prevent decision 2010, the republican gubernatorial debate -- present decision 2010, the republican gubernatorial debate. >> good evening and welcome to our exclusive coverage of the final republican gubernatorial debate. we're coming to you live from the metal broke theater in route -- from the meadow brook theater. i know you have helped me -- and these questions from the dozens and dozens of phone calls and e- mails that have come in over the past couple of weeks. first off, the rules for tonight's debate. each candidate will have a one- minute opening statement. we'll get 30-second closing statements at the end of the evening. we will have questions and answers. i am the moderator this evening. i will be asking the questions. you will have one minute to answer the question. you are allotted two rebuttals offerings tonight, 30 seconds apiece. if there is an answer to which you would like to rebut, i will call on you. the republican candidates are sheriff mike bashar, attorney general mike cox, centered on george, congressman pete hoekstra, and businessmen rick snyder. we're pleased to have three weeks till the primary. senator george, congressman hoekstra -- gentleman, thank you for being here tonight. as for george, we begin with you. >> good evening. just as many of you are facing financial hardships, our state is nearly broke and approaching bankruptcy. to preserve our solvency, we need to cut spending. the biggest expense in stake in vermont has become health care. -- in state government has become health care. the missing element is personal responsibility. my opponents have all promised massive tax cuts and spending increases. the sacred -- the secret formula for potable -- for political success which has given us $13 trillion of federal debt. we have an opportunity in november to approve the call for constitutional convention and reform government itself, reopening michigan for business. i'm the only candidate who seized the advantage. you can read about me online. we will fix michigan together. >> sheriff mike bouchard. >> many of you know me as the oakland county sheriff, the job by love and i am passionate about. i have been the sheriff for 11 years. i've been in law enforcement for 24 years. my wife and i have three kids. if someone does not get into the job as governor and know what to do, how to do it and is willing to do it with a sense of urgency, all of our kids and families will have to leave the state to find their future. it is unacceptable. i am the only one running that knows what to do, how to do, and is willing to do it. i was part of doing it in the 1990's with the governor then. we're one of the best states when i left government. we have to get jobs back to keep our families here. it is about the next generation, not the next election. i will do whatever it takes to give the kids a future in this state. >> mike cox. >> good evening. 8:05 pm i am mike cox. i am asking for your vote. i want to thank all of you who are viewing, as well as the grizzlies of oakland university for hosting this. my parents came to this great country 60 years ago. they chose to go to the economic engine of america -- michigan. we have fallen over the past 60 years. they enjoyed the prosperity of michigan. the promise of prosperity is being lost for our children. it will take strong leadership. we have to decrease the size of state government by over $4 billion and pushed through a $2 billion tax cut to provide relief for every single working person in this country -- in this state and job creators as well. please join me, michigan right to live, and the statewide chamber of commerce, in this campaign to create a reformed michigan. >> congressman pete hoekstra. >> thank you. it is good to be here. we have heard the stories of our friends and neighbors. the american and michigan dream has been taken away from them. government has gotten in the way. i hear the stories of people who wanted to invest, who wanted to grow jobs, to achieve their dream and their vision. but the state as graded barriers. we need well leadership that -- but the state has created the barriers. we need leadership. we need to streamline and reduce the cost of government. we need to reform the worst tax code in this country to get michigan moving again. thank you. >> you did your opening statements in exactly 60 seconds. i will be polite, but ruthless and the question of the answer -- question and answer, it is possible to be both. -- if it is possible to be both. let's start with jobs. you have little bit of a divided over what the governor can do when it comes to creating jobs. to go out of every three e-mails i have received -- two out of every three e-mails i have received has been about jobs. what is your plan for putting michigan back to work? >> state government helps mold the environment that can be conducive to job growth. it regulates business, invest in infrastructure, educate our children. these all require resources. those resources have been shifted to social programs -- welfare and medicaid. we used to have 5 million people working in michigan and 1 million on state aid. now we have 4 million working in a 3 million receiving state aid. those programs need to be redesigned to free up resources in change the environment. first and foremost, michigan has to remain solvent. we cannot afford tax cuts or do those things until we cut spending to balance our books. that is the order of the day. >> same question, sheriff mike bouchard pierre >> i do not believe government creates one drop. in punishes job creators -- creates one job. it punishes job creators. we need to focus on being competitive. we have to realize we're like a hamburger stand. if our hamburgers cost more and our lines are twice as long, they go somewhere else. once we are competitive, they will come here to grow. we did that in the 1990's. we cut taxes, spending or form, the regulatory process. it is like the movie "field of dreams," if you build it, they will come. government does not create jobs, but the internment for entrepreneurial activity -- but the environment for entrepreneurs real activity. >> mike cox. >> thank you. imagine going out tomorrow and you walk up to a store. the store says, come shop with us. we have a third-highest prices in the mall. would you go into that store? of course not. michigan has the third-highest job tax in the country. is it any wonder that we are now second in unemployment? hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens are working -- looking for work. my friends, neighbors, brother- in-law. we need to lower the price. we need to reduce the size of state government. we can do a $2 billion tax cut to move michigan from the third- worst drop tax in the country to the seventh-best. -- job tax in the country to the seventh-best. we will have freedom, prosperity, and opportunity. that is why the chamber of commerce is on my team. thank you very much. >> congressman hoekstra. >> it is time we get on the side of the people in this great state. they say get government out of the way. listen to the stories of ryan and grant haven. the power plant has been completed. he was excited, but as he thought he would be able to build the power plant in rogers city. government got in the way. this governor said no. bill is in the tree harvesting business. the state says you cannot harvest trees anymore. we're changing the life of bill and his family in generations to come. tim runs a business here in southeast michigan. the tax code says you are better off if you go out and buy a used equipment, rather than buying the best equipment to enable you to compete with other states and globally. create an environment that allows the people of michigan to achieve their dreams. get government out of the way. >> time. we have orbital request from senator george. -- are but a request from senator george. >> imagine going to a state where the check bounces. it is marked insufficient funds. a state that cannot pay its obligations, like california. the republican governor there is leading with tax cuts. stained -- saying he will eliminate the business tax in your first month of august -- of office is a pipe dream. businesses will not come to a state that cannot pay its bills. >> i would like to talk about china. several business leaders i know have been dismayed to hear republicans are doing with the other -- arguing with each other over who had sent jobs to china. they have done it to grow their footprint, and wayne -- amway being one notable example. the governor has not done anything to visit the world economy. the business leaders are concerned that there is a similar china-phobia. is china a threat or an opportunity? >> certainly china and other countries, where we're selling our products, we can grow our footprint. the challenge has been for the government which has been chasing jobs elsewhere at the expense of companies here. i was one of only four people to vote against the creation of a mega -- of mega. they give out tax breaks at the expense of folks here. the men and women here want to start companies here. by chasing companies all around the globe and subsidizing them, we ignore our own self- sustaining ability. it is not sustainable. do i want our companies to be global? absolutely. we have to make sure michigan is a place to grow and start a business. >> mike cox. >> i think that perhaps those business leaders were confused. one of the folks in the campaign who is not here tonight claimed to be a job creator. none of the jobs were created here. they are in the pacific rim. china is an opportunity that we ought to take advantage of. gm sells more cars to china than they do here in north america. as gm realigns itself, as ford realigns itself, with the design and engineering talent right here in michigan, i see a day where chinese and indian -- east indian, as well as indonesian's, brazilians -- they will want to buy great american cars, designed and built here in michigan. i will tell you that, if we -- i do plead guilty to being a tax- cutter. we will become more competitive. we will be a great place to do business. >> congressman hoekstra. >> i may have an interest of -- interesting perspective being on the intelligence committee. china cheats on national security and a cheat on economic security issues. until we told china accountable to live by the agreements that they make with us, whether our national security or trade, they are a threat. they need to live by the agreements. they need to be held accountable. when we hold them accountable, they become an opportunity. that is how we treat with china. on our side, we need to make sure we put in place the right policies that enabled american and michigan workers to complete global the -- to compete globally. if we put in too much red tape and the government spends too much, we're burdening our workers, making it difficult for them to compete on a global basis. >> that is time, congressman. senator george. >> we need to look for opportunities, including china. growth will be in small business. i am only one here that works in a small business. i am a practicing physician. i have been in the legislature for the past decade. we need to focus on business. i would institute a business advisory department -- a business insistence department to help businesses with permitting. we can facilitate sweeping away rules and regulations for small business growth. that is the engine of the economy. the sheriff says he is against picking winners and losers and a mega grants, but at the eight- mile blvd. association meeting, he said he was in favor of -- that is picking a winner versus a loser. listen to what they say in front of different groups. will not need someone to promise one thing or the other. we need a governor who will be -- >> that is time. lansing and washington are polarized places. it is customary for one party to amass enough votes to get something to pass unilaterally, and then the other party sits back and hopes it fails. we have had two government shutdowns in michigan in the last couple of years. the current state budget is developing not familiar odor. what will you do to create an atmosphere of cooperation and bipartisanship in lansing? >> thank you. i will do what i do now as attorney general -- but for strong ideas and follow through with leadership. -- put forward strong ideas and follow through with leadership. people complain about partisanship. people don't complain about it when things are getting done. the current governor does not provide leadership. you end up with more sniping. her allies realize it is not worth sticking with her. her opponents realize they can outwait her. i will be a strong leader, emphasizing the things i learned as a young man in the marine corps, as a homicide prosecutor, and as attorney general. i will stand up for the right things and build a coalition. that is what i have done as your attorney general. that is why i am endorsed by the michigan chamber of commerce. they understand a team builder when they see one. >> we will do the same thing that we have done and that i have done in all of my career. we bring the other teams of people from the diverge for rescue -- the diverse background to bring to market different products. i bring my skills to pass a intelligence reform, working with people like joe lieberman. we have a shared vision for keeping america safe, with a willingness to compromise to get to a solution. at the end of the process, it may not be everything we hoped for, but it is better than what we had before. working on federal prison industry to protect mission -- michigan jobs. maile co-sponsors are john conyers and barney frank -- my lead the co-sponsors are john conyers and barney frank. >> senator george. >> thank you. i have the best record a bipartisan accomplishment. i have had to work with democrats. i have found a way to do it. one of by first packages a bill was end of life care legislation. it was meant to bring better care to dying patients. i have worked on smoke-free air regulation, which would not have passed the michigan senate without my help. i'm working on a bipartisan package of bills to help facilitate new uses for abandoned and tax reverted properties. there are nearly 70,000 in michigan. bipartisanship is necessary. working together with the other side to get things done for the common good of the citizens. >> share of bouchard. >> thank you. i do not think the last eight years have been a success story. we need to move things for dramatically. i was the majority floor leader in the senate before i left, the assistant before that, the president pro tem. i know how get votes. that is what a leader does. governor has not introduced one bill -- does not introduce bills or have a vote. you have to know the process of the legislature. i'm the only one has been a leader in the michigan legislature and got things done. the average legislature would put one thing into a lot every year. i averaged 10. be 55 out there'll of 110 state representatives who are brand new and 30 out of 38 senators who are brand new. we cannot afford to have a governor with training wheels. we need someone who knows the issues and the process. that is why i will -- where i will be on day one. >> they think michigan need not only change in its business culture and strategy, but also its reputation. it has been a nonstarter issue for years. some believe it is time for debate shoot -- a debate on the issue of right to work. do you support the right to work? congressman hoekstra? >> i will focus on issues that will put people back to work. i will focus like a laser. if we go right to work, what the next governor is saying is we will create divisions in this state between business and labor, between republicans and democrats appear to get right to work past, you have to go about it, an initiative, and michigan would have an era of uncertainty, probably 18 months. that would poison the well. it would not lead us to embark on the job of changing rules and regulations. it would make it difficult to cut the costs of government that we need to cut to ensure our state is competitive. we will not be allowed to do what needs to be done in terms of reforming taxes. right to work is not a priority in my agenda. >> right to work is one of the series and necessary reforms. the other is having a part-time legislature, better budgeting rules. oakland county has 62 townships and villages and 28 school districts. michigan cannot afford its governance structure. the best opportunity to make the changes is a constitutional convention. the writers of our fourth constitution in the 1960's knew that this time would come here they put in a provision saying that every 16 years the people would have the choice of reviewing the constitution. that will be on the ballot this fall. that is your best opportunity for those reforms. there is no way you can get there without turning government, constitutional convention back to the people. that is the ticket to reopening michigan to business. >> i said i would find right to work. michigan needs to be bold in the future and send a clear sign that we're open for business. anything that stands in a way of future business opportunities will be looked at, including what my good friend tom talked about. i talk about a part-time legislature, part-time pay, no benefits. the budget done by may 15. every day after that, the governor and legislators lose one day's pay. a two-year budget with a three- year look out, independently verified by outside economists. we can do this without an expensive constitutional convention that could cost up to $40 million of money that we do not have. we need to individually and selectively go in and fix the problems across the board. we will send it out for an affirmation vote, which can be done on any given general election in november. whatever it takes -- i will do whatever it takes to keep us in this state, which means taking out any group that stands in the way. >> that is time. mike cox. >> thank you. i grew up in a union household. for my uncle's retired at of the uaw. -- four of my uncles retired out of the uaw. my -- i will consider anything and everything that will move michigan ahead to create jobs, jobs, and jobs. we need to focus on our tax and spending structure. if you go to my website, you can see the details of my tax cuts, and reductions in spending. my daughter, right now, living outside of them this -- of memphis, a right to work state. as we have shrunk down the per- capita wealth, we are now 37 -- 14 right to work states have passed us by. that is where our jobs are going. >> senator george has asked for a rebuttal. >> we share interest in the structure reforms. 11 out of the 16 structural reforms he called for our constitutional in nature. he is not going to lead 11 different constitutional drives. republican party just tried to get a measure on the ballot and they did not even get half of the signatures they needed. the best opportunity to reform the structure betterment with a constitutional convention. i trust the citizens of michigan to do the right thing. >> senator george, you will be first on the next question. arizona has been a crystal ball on the nation's immigration debate. there is passion and volatility. would you like the same shouldn't adopt a similar approach to that law passed in arizona? -- would you like to see michigan adopt a similar approach to that law passed in the arizona? >> michigan would be best-served by a temporary worker program, managed by the federal government. people who are migrating here to work temporarily should only be here properly and legally. that is what the federal government can do to help us. they can protect our borders, but we cannot abandon our agricultural industry. we have two signed up -- help- wanted and go away. we cannot give those mixed messages and expect people to not want to come here illegally. we have to fix the system. it is the federal government's duty to do that. >> i serve on the joint tourism task force. a number of these issues related to homeland security -- it is one of my responsibilities today and will be as governor. i was asked what a thing about illegal immigration. -- what i think about illegal immigration. if it starts with "illegal" i'm going to be against it. somehow that is not clear to the folks in washington. i will uphold the law. i will sue the government for a failure to do their job, failure to secure our border, and inflicting economic cost of our state that they have driven here in the first place. the northern border is twice as long as the southern border and has one half of the agents. the only terrorist stop on the way to commit a terrorist act was stopped on the northern border. is rule of law issue. >> i think the guy next year has similar hangups about that. >> my mom carried a green card religiously before she became a citizen. she kept it right next through driver's license. it is not unreasonable for folks to come to this country to provide documentation when stopped by the police, it is a reasonable stop. i was just talking about that with governor brewer of arizona this afternoon. i am gathering other states to intervene to mark in the federal court out in arizona, to stand with arizona, michigan, we will defend our borders and our rights under the constitution. we will defend the idea that states should be able to -- should be allowed to work with the federal government to keep the illegal immigrants out of our country. that is only a common-sense idea. i will stand up on this issue as i have against obama-care. >> congressman hoekstra. >> i have the opportunity to go down to the board -- a few years ago, i had the sad opportunity to go down to the border in arizona. a young man who had a dream to go work in our national parks was able to fulfill that dream, but he went to a national park in arizona and, in his duties along the border, he came across illegals coming into the country. he was outgunned and killed. it is a national security issue for arizona -- issue. for arizona, a but -- a public safety issue. the federal government does not enforce the law, the governor and the people of arizona have the right and responsibility to do that. we need is an together in demand that the federal garment u.s. job to secure the borders. -- we need to stand together and demand that the federal government do its job is secure the borders. >> all four of you are publicly employed. some of you are on your second or third position in publicly- funded occupations. this may seem an indelicate question. i am curious as to what the value of your pension is that you're expecting from the public employment that you have enjoyed. is it fair or is it symbolic of the problem that many people believe exists in michigan and beyond? >> thank you. you raise a very salient point. is government out of step with the black -- with the private sector? wichita the private and public sectors together -- we should tie the private and public sectors together. we must reflect the workers that we're supposed to be serving. patterson is one of the only counties in america where the pre funded health care and returns have not gone out of business. we have defined contributions. i have a 401k, as does every employee in oakland county. we have to do that with every public employee to reflect the people we serve. no one in the private sector is getting a pension anymore, and neither should new hires in the government. they could not get it done in lansing. they did a blended plan. >> i must have missed about you of your pension. >> i am on a defined contribution. $1,500 or $2,000, i never looked at it. >> from the time i was a marine, a homicide prosecutor, to being attorney general -- i am the one person on the stage to does not have a defined- benefit pension. i do not know the number, but you can look at my website and you can look at all my assets. you can look at by pension. you can look at what my wife and i make. i am proud to show you all of my assets. there is no conflict of interest. i agree with everyone out there that the premise of why anyone has anything beyond a 401k these days escapes me. however, we do need pension reform. i have a 401k that has been hammered just like yours has. look at the website. i do not know today. it depends on thie stocks. >> that is time. >> the point of the question is exactly right. to many public-sector workers still have our range of benefits and salaries that are significantly higher in the private sector. federal employees, of which i am one, i have the same benefit plan that every federal employee has. we still receive a defined- benefit plan, just like many public servants in michigan. federal employees, federal office holders, which followed in the same direction to define contributions -- to defined contribution. it brings equity between public workers and private sector employees. working for the state and federal government, county government -- it needs to be a good job. it cannot be an elite job. it cannot receive better pay and better compensation than what the people we work for received. >> senator? >> he is not the only one up here with a defined-benefit contribution plan. i have for 1 k plan as well. this date switched to that in the late-1990's. -- i have a 401k plan as well. this state switch to that in the late-1990's. go to my website and scroll through the press releases where i have linked my tax returns. you can read all about me and my plan to fix michigan. it involves public employee retirement reform. i am the only one who has voted for that. i have also voted for state employee retirement reform. i actually have votes on record. like mr. cox, i have a 41 k -- but 401k. >> you all have health care for life, is that correct? among them is not correct. -- >> that is not correct. >> one local school district -- it is below will issue -- though definitive issue. the last two governors have played dramatic roles in this. i will you creates excess -- how will you create success in the state's largest, but sadly, most troubled school district? >> i worked for 13 years as a prosecutor. i saw many of the children who graduated from detroit public- school. whether you call the gates foundation, which has a graduation rate as low as 23%, it is an obama-nation. it is an economic and social and moral bill. we have to change that. i am proud to represent robert bob, doing a greatgjob as -- a great job as efm. we need to take some of the recommendations, including more charter schools. we need alternate teacher decertifications. we need an engineer to be able to teach a great match. -- eighth grade math. when we love to compete. we need to see how every school is doing. >> that as time. congressman. >> local schools, local school districts. the competition between who is running the schools locally, the state, and there was this bill called no child left behind, which took control from local school districts, by passing lansing, to go all the way to washington. we have forgotten about important ingredients in education reform. it isn't about the system. it is about the kids. they deserve high-quality education. it is their future. the system has failed them. we have forgotten about the most important ingredient -- having a caring adult in their lives. we need to do all that we can to reform public education and create a system that opened the doors into a city like detroit of private and parochial education. >> i like the fact that the city is using robert brock, the former city manager from kalamazoo, to help support its problems. parental choice and involvement is the driver in student performance. giving parents engaged in their children's education is key. -- getting parents engaged in their children's education is key. i support the expansion of charter schools. we have trouble funding our schools. we have 551 school districts. 21 in oakland county. the layers of local government stem from our territorial days and are no longer affordable. we need major structural reforms to diminished administrative costs and drive more money into classrooms. the best way to do that is by constitutional convention. you'll not get the change you need without that. you can talk about reform, but if you don't change the constitution, it will not happen. >> we faced some of these very same and actually worse problems when i was the chairman of education. we did charter schools and a lot of the things that haven't talked about. it is important. it is abysmal that we of one of the worst graduation rates in america. it is not acceptable. we're throwing away a generation. our children need the opportunity for a better future. i believe in charter schools, parental choice, and one of my friends once talked about freedom schools where parents could gather together the parents of the school to make changes and take control of the school. who has a more best interest in that? someone who was a bureaucrat in washington, or the parent? i say the parent. it is time to empower parents, students, teachers. >> rebuttal from congressman hoekstra. >> it is great that we're talking about empowering parents. we need to give them the mechanism to do that. i have a proposal of their debt has been expected by republicans and democrats across the country -- out there that has been accepted by republicans and democrats across the country. people will voluntarily, with an incentive from the state, contribute to public schools or parochial schools. >> that is time. senator george has brought this issue up a number of times. i know you were not wild about a constitutional convention, but it is on the ballot. when it is on the ballot, they typically pass. let's assume that a constitutional convention is coming. what should it address? >> there are a lot of things. the economic climate. the tax code. school funding. social issues. all of those things. if you vote for a constitutional convention, you will create an era of uncertainty in the state of michigan for probably one year and half with no certainty that a constitutional convention and a new constitution will actually pass. what happens when you have uncertainty? capital stays on the sidelines. businesses who are thinking about investing put off those decisions until they have a clear idea as to where they will be moving in the future. a constitutional convention will put michigan's economic recovery on hold for year-and-a-half at a minimum. there will be all kinds of good ideas talked about. there'll also be bad ideas. >> senator george, the question is yours. >> i disagree. the things that create the most uncertainty is the state going bankrupt. the congressman talked about education tax credits. that is a new expense. those are tax. it sounds great. attorney general cox has a measure to waive taxes for new graduates from college. i graduated this spring, i will not pay taxes, but i will get a check. it will be great. we'll have $2 billion worth of tax cuts, putting us in the hole for $4 billion. we agree to cut waste. there are millions of dollars there. cut our universities -- $1.4 billion. you are not even halfway there. fiscal insolvency is that threat, not a constitutional convention. >> share of bouchard -- sheriff bouchard. >> i do not believe in a constitutional convention. people have rejected it in the past. it costs about $40 million to have it. you get a huge document with the big yes or no vote. there could be a lot of bad things were a lot of good things or both. that is why i think we need to put it out in a readable and understandable way to fix one problem at a time. one vote, yes or no. people will know what they're voting for and they do not have to take the hooks with the rest of the fish. he did not know oakland county well enough to know that 14 of those committees contract with police for and with me. we share services. we to overhead in a consolidated manner. they get to make local decisions. of wisdom hastain been broken. >> mike cox. >> thank you. the time and money would be horrible for michigan right now. we're the second worst in unemployment with hundreds of thousands of people looking for work right now. a constitutional convention would mean $45 million that we don't have. we would waste one year that the next governor needs to get going in order to give you a $2 billion tax cut and $4 billion in the reduction of the size of the state government. i disagree with tom. a taxthe taxpayers get u cut, they do not get a check for the government -- from the government. they keep their own money and spend it as they want. would not need another garage -- we do not need another barrage right now. we have amended the constitution 31 times, including getting rid of racial preference. >> that is time. this question may be a bit esoteric. what do you suppose is the least popular position that you hold, but you would refuse to give up? >> it was probably voting for the smoke free air precision. the tax credits -- he has two of them in his plan. a tax credit for home renovation -- that is a check from the state, not a tax deduction. the second one is for elder care. look at his plan. tax cuts, more spending, it does not add up. as to consolidation and cooperation -- more power to him. you have 600,000 public employees in michigan. only 55,000 are state employees that the governor contracts with. if you want to decrease the size and scope of government in michigan and make it more efficient, the governor cannot do it alone. it shift power away from the governor and back to the people where it belongs. the question was about your least popular position. smoking. >> on my website, i talk specifically about something that is unpopular with many. that is to take, in the education process, food, transportation, etc., and bid to share and consolidate services. we could probably save $250 million doing that. it is not public. we need to consolidate at every level. what we're doing now is unsustainable. it needs to be done across this state. as governor, i will drive that. this is not about being popular. i am willing to be a one-term governor. this is about the children. it is not about getting reelected or being popular. >> mike cox. >> thank you. the most unpopular thing i have proposed is up to $4 billion in government spending cuts. it would allow us to lower the tax rate and keep more jobs here. do you know that we would save $800 million if state employees like myself and school employees just had the average health care? get rid of the defined benefits for all brand new teachers. that is another $250 million. we start to run our prison system like indiana where it costs $10,000 less per inmate and save $600 million. the governor has started an indirect -- and earned income tax credit during the one of -- during one of the worst recessions that we have had. it has become a three in your $25 million boondoggle. -- $325 billion boondoggle. -- million boondoggle. congressman hoekstra. >> the topic that is the most difficult and the one that people on the street are ready for, but perhaps the political establishment is not -- that is to have a discussion about how we finance case through 12 education -- k through 12 education. parts of it have worked very well in terms of capping tax increases. part of it have not worked well, because our schools are in crisis. with an education system that is in crisis. -- we have an education system crisis.' in in i want all of our kids to get a great education. you the people will be the ones that make decisions about whether you accept the change or not. >> america has been in the midst of a great debate about health care. mental health care is not discussed. we cover her rent is crimes every week. i am stunned -- we cover horrendous crimes on the news every week. he believes 70% of the inmates in the county jail have some kind of mental illness. our corrections system appears to be our mental health system. the you have a plan to change that, given the lack of dollars? >> that is the way it is and it should not be. i was one of the few, as a senator, to vote against the closing of the lafayette clinic facility in detroit and the clinton valley facility. we're playing for it in one of the most -- paying for in one of the most cost-incentive -- cost- intensive sessions. we have between eight and 13%- 8% and 13% of my population on psychotropic med. where do we best serve them and our community and our taxpayers? it is not in jail or prison. there are alternatives. they are more cost-effective and more humane, and more efficient on every level. that is what i will do as american and i fought for as senator. >> mike cox. -- that i will do as governor. i fought for it as senator. >> mike cox. >> if you look at the structure across the state, there is a mixed bag of authorities and agencies. there are 25 or 26 different melt help -- different mental health agencies. why do we not run it like we run the medicare service? we did that out to the private sector -- bid that out to the private sector and do away with some of the agencies in the middle bureaucracy. we get more dollars to the patients that need it and have more transparency. that is my initial idea. i would be open to other ideas from experts in the field. >> as you go around the state, use the parts of the state are dealing with this in creative ways. there is a delivery of social services which is a key function of state government. it does not mean that it has to be done by state government. you going to kent county, where you have a unique collaboration of people coming together to serve the needs of people in the community who are in need. that may be a model for other parts of the state. it is probably not a single model that works all over. we need to provide the flexibility to local units of government, working in collaboration with the state, to design systems that fully involve the experts in the public and private sectors, and provide the services to people in communities who need them. it is a key issue and one that a lot of people have talked to me about. it needs to be addressed. we need flexibility and creativity to make it work. >> i worked in a psychiatric hospital for two years and sometimes it feels like i still do. [laughter] closing the psychiatric hospitals was not the wrong thing to do. the laws have not been sufficiently updated. i worked with then senator bernero. i'm not a preparations. i cannot let a couple things go by. we need to privatize, but you will not say to under $50 million. there are tens or maybe hundreds that you can say. when the sheriff says. it to renegotiate government, he says, all of the lead of gm and chrysler. remember, they went bankrupt first and then renegotiated. that is not the path to follow. >> share of bouchard -- sheriff bouchard. >> we have done a number of things specifically. we have a partnership with easter sales and -- easter seals and cma each -- and cmh. police agencies are looking at adopting these programs. we can do this better, cheaper, more humanely. >> thank you, gentlemen, that brings us to our closing statements. the hour has whizzed by. you have 30 seconds apiece. we will begin with senator george. >> thank you for watching. when you go to vote in three weeks, ask yourself, what does michigan need in its next governor? a career politician, help from washington, another attorney general, or a physician-governor who understands what is missing. personal responsibility. i understand the best way to fix michigan and make structural forms. join my team. we can fix michigan. >> thank you. >> thank you. to use an anachronism, the prescription for fixing lensing is send a share of the town -- lansing is send the sheriff to town. we have to get michigan back to work. i'm doing for my kids, your kids, the families in this state. i will do whatever i have to do to get it done. i am asking for your help, support, and prairies. join this sheriff's posse. >> try to stay within the time. >> thank you. if you want to fight the hill, get a marine to charge that hill. i am not marine. i learned that leadership matters. i have relearned that and applied that as a homicide prosecutor and as attorney general. i have stood up for you when it mattered. folks who understand leaders are on board with me. the michigan right to life, the chamber of commerce, job creators. >> time. >> michigan has suffered under a deficit of leadership. this is about electing a leader who understands that you have to check behind to make sure there are people following. those are the people that you work for. you serve those people. you are accountable to them. you have to leave those people with integrity and character. this election is all about leadership and doing the right things, and powering the people. >> gentlemen, thank you all for this evening. it has been a fascinating conversation. thank you to the people at home and the people who sent in questions. we're so glad you were with us. our thanks to this university. our conversation will continue over on the webcast. we will look closely at these issues. a couple of these candidates, maybe all of them, will make their way out to those weathercast cameras. -- webcast cameras. we're doing everything we can to help you be equipped as you can be as you head into the voting booth. that is three weeks from tonight. we have some undecided voters. we will have their reflections coming up tomorrow morning. make sure everybody was minding their peace and used -- p's and q's. a round of applause. see you later. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> the election takes place august 3. the general election is rated as "republican-leaning." now, a tennesse governors' debate where we will hear from the democratic candidate, and from republican candidates. they're seeking to replace phil bredesen. this event is about one hour. >> live from belmont university in national -- nashville, this is a statewide debate. >> good evening. not too long ago, the men who wanted to be president squared off in this hall. tonight, it is four men who wanted the governor. -- who want to be governor. . >> and wherever you are in tennessee, we want you to connect with us as well on facebook. here is a look at the page. it is the statewide debate. you can submit questions for the candidates or just share your comments. the facebook page is the statewide debate. >> the order on stage were selected by random drawing. not go near bill husted. businessman mike the quarter, lieutenant governor run ramsey. tonight's format is a little different. we have a combination of questions from the moderators. videotape questions from voters around tennessee as well as questions from you via facebook. we will also have one or more chances for candidates to ask questions of each other. each candidate is going to have 30 seconds to answer each question. we will be keeping time on a clock in front of the stage and we have a backup system in case that clock should fail. when time is up, you will hear the sound. that bill means that time is up. we will have closing statements as well at the end of this program for all of the candidates to answer some questions and then close their statements out. the first questions will be coming from us. i think you have the first question. >> gentleman, all candidates talk about fiscal responsibility and reducing spending. name one specific program you know that you will target to reduce spending. . >> let me say thank you to everyone here and the viewers ross the strait. especially to the tennessean is that are standing in harm's way on our behalf and i hope that they have a chance to vote as well. instead of in individual program, i think we are all one to have to tighten our belts. we have to pull down and get through this downturn. i think we are going to all have to reduce spending 3% or 4% starting next january. >> mr. haslam? >> a specific program we can do better is looking at how we do purchasing to read we spend $28 billion in tennessee and other states have done purchasing reform and have saved hundreds of millions of dollars. that is a great place for us to start. >> mr. mcherter. i think he has done a good job controlling our budget. i would not want to identify one specific thing that i would say that i would cut at this time. what i would want to say is i want to focus on job creation. if you get people back to work, we will have the revenue to run this state. >> mr. ramsey? >> it is obvious that i am the only one that has a plan. we're going to have to make of specific cuts. i want to look at what other states have done. we need to take the politics out of the appointments and job hiring, but also save money. we need to use the health department to provide primary care for our recipients. i have a lot of plants. i am one to be a governor that will jump at the bit to get there. >> power stations and their camera crews across the state to record questions from voters in all of the grand divisions. audience, you can watch on the big screen. candidates, look at the tv monitor to your right. >> our first voter question comes from right here in nashville. >> the united states is a union of immigrants. but i would like to know is during your term as governor, do you foresee tennessee taking a similar stance on immigration as arizona? >> we are a nation of immigrants. as mayor, i go to naturalization ceremonies all the time were you see people coming in illegally. illegal immigration is where the government has not done their job and the states are paying the price for that. arizona is reacting because they see so much of it. in tennessee, we need to do the same thing. i propose to cut off the job source and it will turn and go home. >> i think that illegal immigration is the responsibility of the federal government. if we can secure the borders between north korea and south korea, we can secure our borders in our home country. i want to encourage the federal government to do that. i think that it is unfortunate that arizona had to pass that law. what i think is even more unfortunate is that the government is suing them over that. i want to make sure the federal government is doing their job, not trying to sue our individual states. >> mr. rancid? >> you are going to see some real differences here tonight. i am proud of gov. jim brewer and when i am governor, i would enact a law just like that. we are a nation of legal immigrants. the federal government is failing us and that is another area where the federal government is failing us. we can pass strong laws and test the citizenship of every person arrested in the state of tennessee. >> legal immigration has made our nation great and strong, but illegal immigration is a rule of law issue. the word illegal, we cannot get around that. arizona has done the right thing. if the federal government will not enforce immigration laws, the state government should have the right to do it. in the course of doing law enforcement, and they find somebody that is here illegally, they can remove them. i would do the same thing. >> let's go to the auditorium. that is where bob sellers is. >> amanda, which you tell us a little bit about yourself. >> i am originally from knoxville, tennessee. now i live in nashville. >> what is your question? >> how would you drive innovation in public education around the state and what is your plan to move to tennessee from #42 to the top tended >> we will start with mr. mcwherter. >> i will be broke quick. i think that we need to keep a focus on prekindergarten. i think early childhood development is something that we need to focus on i applaud -- to focus on. as the next governor, i will be the next person to implement that program and i think it is terribly important that this goes with all the people in tennessee. >> i am not for universal prepaid. i think it takes money away from classes. we have to start thinking outside the box. what can we do best to use taxpayer dollars the best way. there are three classrooms and the students rotate between the classrooms. it's a is a tremendous amount of money and provides a good education. that is exactly what we will have to do to provide the best bang for the buck of taxpayer dollars. >> my 20/20 vision includes a specific early childhood reading initiative where we benchmark every child to see if they are meeting basic reading in basic math skills. if they are not, we will intervene. it is called corrective action to we will give them tools like phonics. good third grade readers are productive citizens. if you are not reading well by third grade, you're likely to drop out of high school. >> first, we need to raise standards. the higher standards, the better the results. every institution has a great leader. focus on those to make sure they are well-trained and well selected. at the end of the day, all of us have had teachers that may all of the difference in the world to us. we need to use that to help parents and teachers know when to intervene. >> the viewers are taking our advice and posting questions on facebook. first, a question from a viewer in the chattanooga market. >> i am a brick mason. i really have a question for the candidates. i would like to know why we cannot either cut or reduce the sales tax on food for low-income people. >> let me assure you that for several years, i have fought in income tax here in the state of tennessee. we are a sales tax base state. there are certain taxes we can't cut here in tennessee. this is a great place to live but a terrible place to die. we need to make sure that we ratchet down the income tax. we should ratchet that down to get a solid sales base and increase revenue by lowering these taxes. >> mr. -- mr. wamp? >> we should look at this only when the economy improves. right now, we need to reform the way state government does business and hold the line on spending. we cannot reduce things like this right now, but it will be one of the things that the legislator -- the legislature should consider with me. . building things to help grow and expand our economy, we have a problem in tennessee. we are $1.5 billion upside down. this is due to the removal of stimulus plan money. as much as we would like to talk about removing the sales tax, i do not think that we can do that until the economy turns around. >> here is where there is a real distinction between the democrat running in this race and the republicans. there is no question about my priority to my plan. my second priority is going to be about reducing the sales tax on groceries. if there is revenue to reduce tax on the state, that is great. our next round of questions should be pretty interesting. each engine and will ask a question of their choosing to one fellow and it. >> please let your questions to 15 seconds. >> i will ask mayor mr. haslam a question. when al gore first ran for president, you chose to give money to his campaign and now you say you are a conservative candidate for governor for tennessee to a little white was it worth your resources? >> i have an incredible track record over a long period of years in a lot of candidates that are strong conservatives that have helped move our state forward. >> i will return the favor. just two weeks ago, you said that you would not run negative ads on tv, but you found a commercial attacking me. why are you saying one thing and doing another? >> i did not say anything at all about what i would do. i said that i have precious resources and it was a limit on how to spend those precious resources. there is so much propaganda with all of your money about creating a person that is not mr. haslam. i will stand on the truth because it is time to stand on the truth. you are not the guy that all of your money says that you more. -- that you more. >> zak, maymr. haslam raised taxes. i think that is outrageous. i want to know what you think about it. >> i appreciate that. the higher you are on the flagpole, the harder the wind blows. here is what i will say about all of this. he is the only one who chose not to turn over his tax returns for information. you did it because you said that your dad was governor. this is a problem for tennessee. we need full disclosure and transparency, especially in our government. >> i think i should have the chance to answer a question that was really asked of me. >> i want to talk about disclosure because i have disclosed everything that is required. i have actually disclosed more than anyone on this stage has. everybody knows exactly what i own. there is no secret where my income comes from. i want to be real clear about that. >> mr. ramsey, ask your question. >> mr. haslam decided to join mayor bloomberg of mayors against guns. last march, he joined in our re. i want to know what changed your views on guns in the last year. >> that was a long 15 seconds. >>i promise you that i will protect your second amendment rights. i joined a group focused on doing that. i am telling you face-to-face that i will protect your second amendment rights. >> thank you. >> we are coming to you live from the belmont university campus and we are debating the issues tonight. questions are coming from all across the state. >> here are some other groups that have gathered to watch tonight's exchange. the university of memphis campus and tennessee state university campus in johnson city. you have still got time to submit a question. let's go back to our town hall group. >> a thank you, very much. i am talking to tracy. she is a small business owner. could you tell us what your question is? >> my question is that the federal government has offered temporary tax breaks to small businesses in an effort to encourage employment in the current economic times. what is your plan on the state level to aid small businesses for the creation of jobs? fo>> mr. haslam? >> in the state, we have the same issue. we are $1.5 billion under water. small businesses are were jobs are created. about two-thirds of the new jobs in our state are created by small business. i do not think when we are $1.5 billion under water that we can start a new program. >> mr. mcwherter? >> there is no question in my mind that we do tax credits for large corporations whenever we bring them in here. we can have a similar program for small business in this state. i am the only candidate that has been advocating for that because we know that that is a proven model and that it will generate revenue. it puts people to work and they become consumers and the program pays for itself. that is something that only a small businessman can understand. >> mr. ramsey? >> i am the only one on the stage that has started two and businesses from scratch. i have been second to none on business issues because the way we get out of this environment that we are in is to grow a little bit. i figured out that they will get my way, i will create the jobs. >> we need clear leadership of the economy. we have a lot of advantages as a state. as i travel all 95 counties, small business is where the action is. i helped bring volkswagen to tennessee, but they will be hard to find financing. rural economic development is needed today outside of our major cities. >> we will have another town hall question, here. >> whitney, will you stand up please? >> i have been in tennessee since 2000. i work in the banking industry and marketing. >> what is your question? what's my question is, do you believe in intelligent design or evolution being talked in public schools? what's i think there is a place for talking about evolution in our schools. there is no question about that. the bottom line is that i much prefer a more traditional curriculum for our school students, especially at a very early age. we can blend of science and religion in that regard, and the to do not have to contradict each other. as long as we are responsible with it, we can give our students what they need to progress. >> i know that i was created by god. i understand that. that is what i want my children to learn. there may be a place for evolution in schools as well, but we need to tell both sides of this. god created us and the universe and god created everything we see, no and do. -- know and do. >> my world view is that man is not the center of the universe, god is. we are made by him to serve him and to serve each other. i believe that it should be family policy and government policy. if there is we to be teaching of evolution in the schools, it should be alongside got it centered education. we have the bible in our schools. >> i believe in an intelligent designer and i think that we are created in the image of god. i also am not afraid of science being taught in school. i want to get the kind of feedback that we are getting at home. that does not scare me at all. >> gentleman, thank you. >> i am happy to report that we have dozens of comments on facebook. they are encouraging you to be real. that is what we are hearing tonight. we have a question from angela johnson. >> the question is, what is your stance on green power development and protecting the environment? >> mr. ramsey, we will start with you. >> we are leading the way in biofuels. at the same time, we have 200 years worth of coal in the ground and we have other natural products in the ground. we need science and emotion. we need this energy for -- that god gave us to use so that we do not buy energy from countries that want to kill us. >> yes, mr. wamp. >> for two years, i helped write the energy policy act of 2005 on the energy renewal policy. this is an opportunity for money. this is a great opportunity for us in manufacturing of new energy technology to help the world. we do it out of tennessee. this is a great opportunity. we can create the strongest economy in america and help the country. >> we have a great head start in tennessee. we are building down in bradley county and hemlock down in clarksville. we also have a research project. those solar projects are wonderful. eventually, we have to crack the nut of making solar market competitive. we have a chance to do that. if they do that, tenn. can be a real leader, not just in the production of solar power. but also the research. >> unlike mr. ramsey, i will be very real about this. i am totally against mountain top mining. i am delighted to know that the governor has led the way. tennessee is one of three states in this country. we have got to keep the focus on that. weekend built on a volkswagen being here and that will be my direction. >> back to the questions recorded on video. >> our next voter question comes from the heart of west tennessee, memphis. what's the regional medical center is critical. what would you, as the next governor, do to make sure that short-term and long-term by militants of the med? >> i lost a campaign a few months ago -- i launched a campaign a few months ago that memphis matters. so it goes, so do we. there is more potential in memphis tennessee that anywhere in the entire south the spirit we have to embrace memphis. i want the entire legislature to go with me and look at the medical centers. i am the only one of your that signed a pledge to fully fund the met. it matters. sodas' memphis. >> the will matter is not just meant the spirit is a trauma center and a burn center. it matters to the whole state. if you train that you to medical school, there is a good chance they did their training right there. i visited with their management team and got their perspective on what we need to do. it is hard to make this be competitive with current facilities. that is going to be the issue we have to address. it is hard to operate efficiently in an incredibly inefficient building. >> as most people know, i am from west tennessee, and i grew up watching how this progress over the years. the president of the united states comes to tennessee and the maed is where he is taken to have something happens to him. it is a regional hospital. it gets patients from mississippi. its patients from arkansas. we need to make sure they get the proper medicaid and medicare dollars back into support that institution. >> it doesn't surprise me that he signed that pledge. he has a history of spending money that we do not have. he never saw a spending bill that he did not like. it is a huge issue in memphis, tennessee. memphis does matter. one out of 10 people live in shelby county. it is the largest medicare provider in mississippi and arkansas. that is a problem that we need to work on. >> thank you, gentlemen. our next question is coming from the moderator. recent proposals to build new mosques have been controversial. is there were an obligation to build a mosque in your neighborhood, how would you respond? >> there is nothing more important in america that our state. as it is what defines us and it is sometimes what divides us. that is an issue that is a local zoning issue. i have seen this as mayor, but there are local land use issues. >> mr. mcwherter? >> the first amendment, freedom of religion, there is a reason that our forefathers adopted that into our constitution. having said that, i truly understand the concerns of some of these neighborhoods about bringing these kinds of institutions in. he just cannot drop these into the middle of a very quiet neighborhood and expect the same client -- the same kind of quality of life. as long as developers will put them in places where they can work with the neighborhood, i would be supportive. >> obviously, our funding fathers were brilliant. there was divine intervention in that room when they wrote the constitution and the bill of rights. we have freedom of religion and freedom to assemble. i think we need to remember those when we approach this problem. this is a zoning issue. it is my understanding that this was approved in 17 days, and it makes you wonder how much review they really gave. it is a local issue. i do not like the government influencing us. >> we are respectful of all religions. we do have a judeo-christian foundation. i have read many books. after september 11, i became a student of this particular problem and i would ask 1st how you feel about sharia law, because we do not want that in this country. we do not want to allow that to fester or grow in this country, but we respect all religious views. it i think that the other men are right. we have to be careful with this issue, but sharia law cannot spread in america. >> we want to take another look at our for reaching audience tonight. groups have gathered on the campus of the university of memphis and east tennessee university. >> if you have an issue that has not been addressed tonight, let us know. post your question on facebook. the page is the statewide debate. >>the canada is now to question one another. >> each candidate chooses a canada and poses a question of their own choosing and the question can last 15 seconds and the answer no longer than 30 seconds. >> bill, i will address it to you, this time. i am interested in to corporations. i heard that you did not want to disclose this because of family privacy unions -- privacy issues. what are you hiding? >> i am not hiding anything. i have disclosed more than the law requires and everybody knows what i own, there is no secret. the leader of your party said that that was manly politics and that when your own dad was governor and he set up a blind trust, he wanted it to be a venetian blind trust because he might want to peak at it now and then. >> mr. ramsey, choose your candid and pose your question. >> sack, you were one of seven congressmen have voted for tart and spent more than $400 billion. >> i was not one of seven, so your facts are all the wrong. i voted against every bailout, ever stimulus, all the bad legislation, except the second tarp vote. like senator alexander and others, we were at the cliff and i became very concerned that people i represent would not be able to get their own money out of the bank's the next morning. we were at the cliff. we had no choice at that moment on the second time. >> i will ask the mayor another question. in your campaign material, you say that you are remarkable business leader, even though your your brother ran pilot and your dad ran pilot, and you left and went with another company. that is not underestimate. you lost $35 million. why is it not part of what you say is responsible business? f>> we were starting an internet retail business and taken vantage of the saks fifth avenue name and we hired a management team to come up with a business plan that was profitable. that business team that i hired, most of it is still there and it is recognized throughout the internet retail world as a great team. that team is very successful. 9:35 pm i am proud of what we did there. >> mr. mr. haslam, take a breath and ask your question. >> i have heard you talk about expanding three k, but we all know that we are $1.5 billion in bohol. what taxes will you raise to pay for these new programs? >> bill, what i talked about is that i think that we need to be working towards a solution, not trying to sue the federal government over this issue any more than the federal government should be suing the state of arizona over an immigration issue. we can work with our congressional delegation and i do not agree and i am not fine with the administration's bill as it is right now, but i feel that we can work with our congressional delegation to make sure that this is a deal that will help tennessee but not burden our tennessee taxpayers. >> canada's, thank you very much. from memphis to the tri-cities and points in between, we are coming to you live from the center at the campus of belmont university. we have a studio audience and a web audience tonight. we are in johnson city at eastern tennessee state. thank you for being with us tonight. wave at us. there might be some delay there. now we have more questions. >> i am a firefighter and the question i pose is this. are you for or against collective bargaining which would allow us to negotiate directly with our employer it over issues and if you are against it, why? >> mr. ramsey, we will begin with you. >> i have been opposed of collective bargaining for public employees for years to read my daughter just married a firefighter. i understand the plight of firefighters, but we have looked to what is going on in cities around this nation and states around this nation that have allowed public employees to unionize, allow public employees to have collective bargaining and it breaks the bank. we have seen states like california go under because of the collective bargaining that public employees have had. >> mr. wamp? >> i have worked for firefighters in my public service. firefighters deserve everything that we can possibly do. this bill was offered by jimmy duncan of knoxville, a conservative republican. after a critical review, i took my name off of it because of exactly what ron said. we cannot force this on to the fire department or local government. we have more collective bargaining then we can have. we are a right to work state. new capital investment are coming to tennessee. >> as mayor, i love working with our fire department. the russian to buildings with other people are running out. we cannot force collective bargaining. every mayor that i know is against this. i am glad to say that you are against it. we are facing pressures and to have washington tell us that we have to recognize unions is wrong. >> scott, i appreciate that question very much. i would agree on this general principle. i am not a person who is going to go out and it endorsed collective bargaining for city employees, however, i will understand the memorandum of understanding and what we need to do to put city employees first. i want to make sure that that memorandum is understood and can be enforced on both sides, both on the city and for the people that are working for the city. >> it is time to revisit our town hall participant. >> mr. wamp this will be for you. i know that you are a vietnam veteran. >> my question is, there were tennessee state mercy comes for veterans -- nursing homes for veterans. they are -- there are currently two homes waiting to be built. would you endorse this? >> i and the ranking member of the subcommittee in washington and it is the highest honor i have had in my professional life. general day and would is here tonight in support of me. we owe our veterans everything. i will do everything in my power to get these homes built as quick as i can, given the budget constraints. i know more about this issue for veterans than anyone on the stage probably will in their lifetime. >> but you come a sergeant major. we had one built in our county several years ago and i think it was the most recent one bill. it was a long process and involve federal money in state money and finally some local money as well. we have to do something. there is a long waiting list. i have friends whose parents are on waiting lists. the state should work with them. with local government and with federal government, they need to make it happen. >> that is the longest title i have ever heard of anybody that is a committee chairman. i was in jack's borrow. i have a gentleman call into a radio talk-show and really and for me about many of the issues that veterans are facing that we really have to address. as funding becomes available, i will become 100 percent behind that. i will be behind it even before funding becomes available because we owe that to our veterans. >> thank you for your service. i took my father to a nursing home in johnson city, tenn. on august 28. my father passed away in the johnson city nursing home for veterans. i saw firsthand and i will commit to build those homes. it should be our number one priority to take care of those citizens that sacrificed so much so that we could be here tonight. >> after more than 40 years without an execution, there have been six in the state of tennessee since the start of this millennium. the state is set to execute a woman on september 28. under what circumstances would you commute a death sentence and would you consider commuting gail owens' execution? i will not comment on gail owens because i've been not think it is -- i do not think that it is appropriate. the only exception would be new information that comes to light that would drastically change a jury's decision. it is my program to follow what the jury recommends. >> mr. wmr. mcwherter? >> i started out my career as a lawyer. i fought in front of the supreme court. i saw firsthand just how the process works when you go through a death penalty case. there is a tremendous of vetting process. if there is new evidence that comes to light, the governor should intervene, but otherwise we should enforce the law. >> i am in favor of the death penalty and i think it is a deterrent to crime. the process has been played out through the jury system and it takes years. i cannot understand anyway why we would commute the death sentence if it went through that process. i sponsored a bill in the state legislature a few years ago that was revolutionary that required us to take dna from convicted felons for the first time in our state. sometimes and dna convicts people, but the dna proves innocence at times, too. i think there it would be less and less likely that we execute the wrong person. >> let me say that i will defend all innocent life from conception through their natural live with every ounce of my energy as long as i'm governor of tennessee. this is the toughest thing that i think the governor can do, but there has to be a range of deterrence all the way to capital punishment. the only way that the governor should not carry out his constitutional obligation based on the death penalty is if there is new dna related type evidence, compelling evidence to not go forward. >> we have another panel question. mr. mcwherter, he will take this first it what did you learn from the recent flood that we have and what would you do to protect homes, businesses and infrastructure from the next flood? >> i was out putting sandbags to levy against the cumberland river. i learned that i used muscles that i that i have not used in a long time girded we have incredible -- in a long time. we have incredible leadership. we have to make sure that we do not allow developers to continue to put homes in areas that are flood prone land. they lose everything in that regard. >> i learned what a great state we live in, the great state of tennessee. we are called the volunteer state. that goes back to the day that we volunteered for the army, but you did not hear anyone in or complaining. -- any wining or complaining. i am proud of what happened. we need to look about building in flood zones. i learned how talented, how resilience, how hard working tennessean are. >> i did not learn that, already knew that. tennessee is an extraordinary group of people. i heard from fema that they had never seen anywhere in this entire nation what they saw in terms of people taking care of people. it is extraordinary what we saw. that is what tennessee is. that is why i cannot wait to serve the state as the 49th governor. there were a lot of people caught up not having a flood insurance because they were nowhere near a flood plain. we need to reach calibrate that whole equation in tennessee. -- we need to recalibrate the whole equation in tennessee. >> i went to perry county two weeks after the flood and sought a peaceful stream that was a raging river and literally took a home down the river and killed a father and his daughter. in millington, a flotilla of bass boats gathered in a gas station parking lot to go out to neighborhoods and bring people into rid of that is the kind of response i saw. folks were being readied to get deployed and were showing up to help. >> our camera crews have been busy gathering questions around tennessee. here is something on the mind of a gentleman. if you can keep the answers to 15 seconds, we want to try to compress and get as many questions as we can. >> i would like to know why the gulf spill -- what would you do in your first six months to increase tourism for the state of tennessee from memphis to the smoky mountains? >> i live about 2 miles from there and i will encourage the local industry to join with the state of tennessee as we have for many years and, what to make sure we are advertising the state of tennessee properly. the tourist attractions are there but we encourage local governments to join with those businesses in advertising. >> the tennessee department of economic and community development needs to spread the incentives for investments around the small businesses to answer your question, and the tourism industry. we are losing in motion pictures because we do not incentivize film production in tennessee. >> of the gulf spill is a tragedy that the world will be suffering from for a long time. in tennessee, we need to extend the stay of our tourists that come here. when they come to see the grand ole opry, it is a great time to see the smoky mountains. >> for every dollar invested in tourism in tennessee, it returns approximately $7. you do not have to be a genius to figure out that supporting the tourism industry in this state returns revenue to our state and helps us move forward. >> we have reserved some time at the end of to reexamine some of the answers and perhaps give the candidates a chance to expand or clarify their positions. >> mr. ramsey, we will start with you. if you support arizonas erasion law, how would you pay for the inevitable legal battle involved? >> son things are worth fighting for. we have an illegal immigration problem and it is worth fighting for. i encourage people to look at what arizona is actually doing. do not listen to the rhetoric, look at what they are actually doing. they ask the federal government to come down and enforce the law. the federal government has failed us. when they did not, they said they would enforce law and now the obama administration is suing the state of arizona. just when you thought that washington could not get any crazier, it did. >> mr. wamp, do you believe you mr. haslam is disingenuous? >> a lot of money is being spent, here. it will probably be $15 million in this primary. will a billionaire family tried to buy the government of tennessee? he has not been transparent. he has not been fully disclosed. he has refused. no one has refused. if wall street is too big to fail, in tennessee, are you too big to live under the same rules as anybody else in regards to turn away? >> can you give us an idea why you are not telling everything? >> the only people that bring this up or politicians. i have spent time in every county, knocking on doors. i have spoken with over four or 500 -- over 400 or 500 groups. the people that asked about this are asking from a political standpoint. everyone understands my political campaign. more people have given to our campaign and they have given to any campaign in the history of tennessee. i think at that says volumes about the support that we have. >> mr. mcwherter, what needs to be done to make this place a better place to live and work? >> tough question. we have to get people back to work. i have talked about two things about how to do that. i believe we have a great foundation. we have to go out and target the associated industries and spread jobs all over tennessee. the second thing i talked about is having tax breaks and tax incentives for businesses all across the state that are creating jobs. if we can get people back to work, we have consumers and revenue and we can move the state forward. that is what i will do. >> it is time for each of our candidates to give a summary statement in closing. the order of the statement was determined by a drawing. we begin with mr. ramsey. >> thank you. you have a tough decision to make. when you make that decision, analyze the candidates. we do not need washington ways here in nashville. mr. haslam is trying to buy the race by spending a lot of money. what we need in the state of tennessee is good common-sense conservative leadership. gun owners of america have endorsed me. the tea party groups understand that i am the only one that knows that this country isn't a heck of a shed and it will be up to governors to push back on a washington d.c. that has gone absolutely crazy. i was named the tennessee right- to-life legislator of the year. i would appreciate your support, your prayers, and your vote. the key for having us here tonight. >> mr. mcwherter? >> first, i want to thank channel 4 and belmont for hosting this event today. i am a businessman. i am not a career politician. i am the one candidate in this race that has grown a business, met a payroll, built a budget from scratch and live within it. everybody up here wants to talk about jobs. i have actually created jobs. i know what it takes to create more jobs. i am the one candidate in this race that has been talking about the fact that we need to have tax incentives and tax breaks for businesses in this state that are creating jobs. as i have travelled across this state, i have had a chance to work alongside some of the hardest working people in tennessee. i pulled plywood, i've bused tables, i have work on assembly lines. in tennessee, we have the work ethic. we have the values. now, we need the jobs. as governor, my priority is for me to put tennessean back to work. >> mr. wamp? >> the holy scripture says that where there is no vision, people perish. i have been in politics long enough to see that the problem 9:55 pm is that in politics there is very little vision. tennessee needs a vision for the future. how do we create a dynamic state? it is on my website. this is a 20/20 vision to create a strong economy and improve education with an early childhood reading initiative, to become a preventive health model state. we are almost dead last in health care and we have to change the culture of the next generation. all the while, we need to claim state sovereignty because the federal government is raining down on us to protect our way of life. we need to make tennessee a better and stronger state. in many ways, we have to protect our own faith and values as well. this is like david vs. goliath with all this money. there are spending their own money, now. i have great faith in the people of tennessee. i have great faith in god that he has already decided who will be governor. >> i want to thank you all for doing this tonight. i want to thank the people of tennessee. my wife and i have travelled across the state. you have welcomed us into your homes and introduced us to your friends and many of you have financially supported our campaign. he shared with us your struggles in your hopes for your children. democracy is a long and hard process, but the result is that it makes you a better leader when you're elected to office. if you will let me, i promise you two things. we will be faithful stores of your tax dollars. i will use every bit of experience and expertise and energy that i have to bring jobs to tennessee. we can be the best location in the southeast. we will have reform in education. we cannot have thousands of children drop out in tennessee. i will work hard for values that make tennessee such a special place for all of us to live. it has been a log 18 months, but it has been a good one. i am asking you for your vote. early voting starts in four days. >> who will be with us on october 11 for second debate. >> everybody? what's everybody. >> have a good night, thank you, tennessee. ho[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> the cook political report rates this race and says that it leans republican. >> tomorrow, senator john corn and. he chairs the national republican senatorial committee and talks to us about the gop strategy for winning more seats in the 2010 campaign. the committee is likely to provide over $4 million for republican candidates. our interview, tomorrow at 8 -- at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> c-span is now available in over 100 million homes, bringing you a direct link to public affairs, politics, history and nonfiction books, all as a public service. created by american cable companies. >> next, democrats debate for rhode island's house seat to replace patrick kennedy, who is not running for reelection. this event took place at the performing arts center and providence, rhode island. it is posted by wpri-tv. >> the following program is a special presentation by eyewitness news. >> eyewitness news brings you live coverage of now, a campaign 2010 debate, u.s. house district 1, democrats. they face off in a prime-time debate, live, right now, all wpri 12 and wpri.com. >> this is the first live televised debate four democrats in the 1st congressional district. each of these men is hoping to succeed rep patrick kennedy in washington and for each one, it is his first run for u.s. congress. tonight, we will be talking about some very important issues that affect all families in the state of rhode island. first, we want to thank all the candidates for participating in tonight's debate and we want to remind you that this is live on wpri-12 and it is also live on our web sites wpri.com. after a televised portion, the debate will continue on wpri.com with even more questions, including those submitted by eyewitness news viewers. be sure to log on to that beginning at 8:00 p.m.. we begin with opening remarks for each of the canvas. the order was determined by a growing. up first is mr. gemma. he is the founder of a marketing firm. this is mr. gemma's first run for office. >> thank you very much. i want to thank channel 12 for hosting this event this evening. i want to thank patrick kennedy for his years of service for the people of rhode island. i want to thank you, the viewers, for taking time out of your schedule to hear what we have to say this evening. . . >> now david segal. he works as a policy researcher and paralegal. >> thank you. my name is david segal. i'm running because the people of ryland want and deserve the congress member who will stand up a powerful interest and when real victories for families. we need washington to do more to address our serious challenges. the big corporations, big banks, big insurance companies have far too much power and influence. the hard-working families in our communities have too little. i want to be a voice for those working families. as a providence city council member and now as this decrepit the -- the state rep, i have stood up to loans that were making predatory loans and for closing in homes and our neighborhood. i have stood up against developers who took millions of dollars and refused to hire residents to work on their projects. i pushed back against national grid to bring grain jobs and renewable energy to rhode island for the first time. i worked to reform political corruption in campaign finance. -- and campaign finance. that is why i am asking for your vote. >> thank you. david cicilline has been the mayor of providence since 2002. he served four terms as a state representative. before being in politics, he was an attorney in criminal defense and civil rights. your opening remarks. >> thank you for organizing this debate. our state is facing some enormous challenges, as is our country. --re worried about future the future, the ability to support themselves, paying bills. rhode island has the fourth highest unemployment rate in the country. we see oil gushing into our oceans in the gulf. parents are disappointed when their children have to leave for thailand to find work. it cannot watch their grandchildren grow up here. i want to -- have to leave ryland to find work. they cannot watch their grandchildren grow up here. i know what works and what does not. i know how to get things done. we need leadership which will fight for working families, putting them first, and deliver rhode island. i will work hard every single day for the families of our state. >> thank you. >> and now, bill lynch. he is former chairman of the state democratic party. he served as the city councilor for six years. your opening remarks. >> thank you to all of you for being here tonight. most of all, thank you to the people at home who have taken the time to watch us tonight. it is pretty obvious to most everybody here in rhode island that washington does not work for working people. our friends, families, and neighbors are out of work, out of hope, and out of patience with washington. i am running for congress to do what i have done my whole life here in rhode island -- fight for our families. i announced my support for term limits for members of congress yesterday. if elected, i pledge to you that i would only serve 12 years in the congress. we need to change washington from the bottom up with significant and real change. term limits will do that. washington is broken. it is time to make profound changes. there is no time to waste. too many politicians are looking out for themselves. tonight, i look forward to talking about fixing those problems. i respectfully ask for support and your vote in september. thank you. >> we actually have another debate scheduled before the general election. each of the candidates has agreed to appear on that debate, should they win the democratic primary in september. let's start on the issues that are vital to families in rhode island. . >> thank you. good evening. it is safe to say many voters know little about each of you. we hope to change that. there is no strict format to this debate. however, we want to cover a lot of ground. if i feel you are going to -- and not answering the question, i will jump in. mr. lynch, it being your birthday, might give to you is the first question. -- my gift to you is the first question. >> i told my wife we were going out for my birthday. i do not think this is what she had in mind your >> the economic recovery -- in mind. >> the economic recovery has been slow to take hold. the last thing many people here want to see is more taxes. in 2011, the bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire. which of those tax cuts would you allowed to expire? >> as a country, the last thing we can do is tax our way out of this economic crisis. as someone who has run all law office for almost 25 years now and represented many small businesses, and here every day that they are taxed to the hilt. there is no more money to pay. as a priority, we need to, in order to ensure and grow jobs here, reduce the tax pressure on these businesses. one way to do that is to look at the bush tax cuts -- the consequence of the bush tax cuts. they saved the wealthiest, to the detriment of the middle class. >> if at all possible, we need to look at protecting and preserving the middle class families in ryland -- rhode island. >> according to the congressional budget office, the bush tax cuts only favored 25% of the rich -- those households over $250,000. what about the death tax, the marriage tax, low-income families who will see their income tax rate jumped five percentage points? >> we have to address these issues in a way that benefits average, hard-working families, not the wealthiest among us. if there has to be a decision made as to who has to pay more, frankly, i think it has to fall more on those that have done better and continue to make enormous amounts of money. >> mr. gemma, which of the bush tax cuts should go? >> we are facing a $1.4 million deficit in -- $1.40 trillion deficit in our country. the real problem is about creating jobs. we're working on creating a jobs plan to bring real jobs to the people of our state and our nation. we want to lessen the burden and the pressure. i do believe that the middle class is the one that is really suffering. we have to help them. >> you started that answer by citing the deficit. are you saying that the bush tax cuts are taking a heavy hand in the deaths at? >> the real issue with the books-cuts -- the bush tax cuts is that they probably need to be repealed. >> all of them? even the child tax credit, the marriage tax, the death tax? >> all of them. $1.4 facing a deficit of million -- hard decisions will need to be made. i believe the tax cuts should be allowed to expire. >> according to the government site, $266 million in stimulus money has been spent on grants, loans, and contracts in rhode island, in the first congressional district alone, which netted about 213 jobs. are you ok with those numbers? >> that number is a wall full return on investment. -- a wall full -- woeful return on investment. we need to keep businesses moving. we need to visit the state future commerce and tax revenues. -- we need to facilitate future commerce and tax revenues. as a state representative, it has been apparent to me that rhode island would have been suffering much more without the stimulus. there would of been further cuts to schools, municipalities , and increases in property taxes. >> would you support a second stimulus? >> i would support the stimulus that focuses on jobs, infrastructure, green jobs, in for structure that helps facilitate commerce down the line, and kickstart our economy in the long term. >> he is looking for a bigger stimulus. >> this is the example -- an example where the perspective of a mayor would have been very beneficial. we argued for real investment in infrastructure. rebuild bridges, roads, water systems, technology. get people working right away to create a national infrastructure bank with a public-private partnership. we have over 300 structurally- deficient bridges in the first district alone. we need to invest in infrastructure. it helps create a plaque for rick -- platform for rebuilding the economy. only a small portion of the recovery package went to infrastructure. it was not a failure, but we have not seen the kind of job creation that we should have. most of it went to this day. we have unfortunate and aggressive. we competed for grants. we brought tens of millions of dollars into our state. we were competitive. we examined every opportunity. we created jobs. if there is going to be additional investment, it has to be targeted and very smart. >> you are talking about additional investment. >> one answer is raising the retirement age. do you support that? >> no. i think there are ways to generate revenue without raising the retirement age. >> what are those ways? among you continue to make the right investments that will rebuild our economy. invest in our manufacturing. understand that manufacturing in the first district is the backbone of our economy. many generations of families made a good living in manufacturing. we need to have a national manufacturing policy, trade policies to allow us to compete globally, tax policies to support american businesses. we need to make things again. we need to rebuild our economy. we need to understand that budgets are about setting the right priorities. we have sufficient resources to do the things we need to do. i believe it is time to bring our troops home from afghanistan. >> i do not want to get off subject. the cost of entitlements an entitlement programs have been going through the roof. is this not an area you would look at? >> you have to look at everything. you asked if i would support raising the retirement age. i was at a boat building facility a few days ago. it is hard work. at the time that they are ready to retire, they ought to be ready to retire. we should keep our commitment. we created the social security trust fund in anticipation of the baby boom. what is happening now is exactly what was predicted. we need to understand that we made a commitment to the american people and we need to keep that commitment. >> you have said everything is on the table for you. you would not rule out some sort of privatisation. can you clarify? >> we should prioritize -- not prioritize social security. we should maintain our promise. >> when i asked you your views on social security, you said everything was on the table. >> we met to two weeks ago. i have done my research and my homework. i do not believe that is the way we shall go. we have a promise to our seniors and we should deliver on that promise. not for someone that is in the workforce, relying, to their detriment, on our poor planning. >> what about entitlement programs? he was reluctant to approach the costly entitlement programs. are there any you would be willing to look at? >> i do not believe that is where the cuts should come from. my dad used to say you fail to plan, plan to fail. we have failed to plant as a state and a nation. that is why we are in this predicament. if you think about the question you asked previously about jobs, we have created 209, 213 jobs -- $1.2 million per job. it is not the return on investment we're looking for. that is poor planning. >> this bipartisan commission is looking to raise the retirement age. >> i would not support that. we have one of the highest percentages of seniors and people approaching that age in the country. we have made a commitment and i will keep that commitment. we need to prioritize our spending in washington. that is where the problem lies. that is where we have gotten completely off track. people are beginning to recognize that. the easiest way is to stop spending $910 billion in afghanistan and iraq. we should not have a bridge between providence and put it that we have to wait six or seven years repaired, when we are spending $40 billion fixing roads and bridges in iraq. add this point in time, we are a generous country. we're very generous people here in our state. we need to tighten our belts and so does congress. we need to look at where we are spending hard-earned tax money, particularly around the world. is it being spent appropriately? should it be reduced? it should help people who need help here. >> can you answer the social security question -- raising the retirement age to 70 years old -- would you support that? >> i would not support such changes. looking at adjustment for people who are younger, living longer, that might be reasonable, but social security is not in the crisis that the right wing wants us to believe it is in. paul krugman have made clear that the amount of revenue that is necessary to make up the projected gap years down the line is equal to about 1/4 of the cost of the bush tax cuts. it is less than the cost of the wars in afghanistan and iraq right now. there are other options to look at. >> paul krugman can ignore $1.40 trillion deficit. how would you shrink it? >> some of them have been spoken to already. a job-inducing stimulus will pay for some of itself, because it will facilitate commerce down the line, while keeping people employed, and increasing tax revenues. ending the bush tax cuts where people are making over $250,000 per year is a reasonable measure to take. we need to rein in spending on the war. >> can you answer how to shrink the deficit? >> the first and most important way is to bring our troops home as responsibly and quickly as we can. we have spent more in afghanistan and iraq -- $4 billion per month. that is a little bit less than the entire community development block grant for the entire country. we're rebuilding schools, bridges, roads have lawyer around the world, but we have them here in our own country that are crumbling. we have to be strong direct home and make the right investments in america. the second way is to repeal the $3 billion in subsidies that go to the big oil companies and shift that to investments in renewable energy. >> $3 billion? is that not a drop in the fiscal budget? >> it is an important investment and the way to repeal interests that are undermining us. >> i will move onto a rapid-fire session. i will ask you a yes or no question. i'm looking for just a yes or no. we will start left to right. >> what happens if we do not say yes or no? >> it is up to you if you want to give the people at home the question -- the perception that you cannot answer a yes or no question. would you vote to repeal the military policy don't ask, don't tell? >> yes. >> yes. >> yes. but i guess. -- >> absolutely. >> from right to left, would you vote to approve money to close guantanamo bay? >> i believe so. >> no. >> no. >> it would depend what would be done with the prisoners there. [laughter] >> one of the proposals is to move the detainees to an underused prison in illinois. that is one proposal. >> if i were satisfied they would be in a secure facility, yes. >> yes. for the people that answered yes, the proposal was to move it to an underused prison in illinois. we happen to have an underused prison here in rhode island. would you be willing to allow those detainees to be moved to there? >> i have full faith and our law enforcement officers to protect our country and ourselves, so yes. >> no. it is not a question of a lack of confidence in the facility or personnel. this facility in illinois is a very high level security. >> i agree with david cicilline. it is a rural area of illinois. >> at this moment, would you vote to retain nancy pelosi as speaker of the house? >> yes. >> depending on what she promised for my state. >> is that yes? is she doing a good job? >> i think she is doing a good job. i would want to secure as much as i could for rhode island. >> i do not think she really cares. if i were elected and she were the leader of the party, i would vote to support her and my party in congress. >> i believe so. yes. >> next question. right to left. if in congress at the time, would you have voted to pass a national health care reform act? >> i would have, but i would have pushed hard for a public option. >> i would have reluctantly, but i would plan on revisiting at for an amending. >> yes, but i would have pressed hard for a public option. i understand this is just the first step. we have a lot more to do. >> yes. following the rules. >> good for you. the top priority of labor is to get the legislation passed. would you vote to do away with secret ballot in union legislation? >> it is in the senate right now. secret ballots would not be included. i would not vote for the house version. >> our entire delegation supports the version you are talking about and i would as well. >> i agree with the mayor. people should be able to vote without the fear of facing intimidation. >> i am proud to support that. ledproud to have delegations of representatives into the masonic temple hotel where 85% of workers -- >> your answer is yes. >> my answer is yes. >> final question -- i will allow you to explain this one more if you need to. do you support a woman's right to choose? >> yes. but absolutely, i always have. >> yes. >> i am pro-life with the inception -- with the exception incest.and >> there was a very public fight between patrick kennedy and congressman. should someone be allowed to take communion if they support the policy the contradicts their faith? >> yes. that whole issue could have been better handled as a private matter between them. i feel that the bishop has an absolute right to speak out and criticize where he feels appropriate if there is someone belonging to his church who does not adhere to the teachings of the church. i have long said and will continue to say that there are some issues, frankly, that i am not in lockstep with the orthodox part of the catholic church. that is an issue between myself and my god. someday we will meet, i hope, and discuss is. in the meantime, i will continue to follow my conscience on those issues. >> do you agree with that? you will not be in opposition to the church, but you think politicians who are should be allowed to take communion? >> yes, i do. i do not believe that those differences should have been aired in a public forum. i believe that elected officials should be able to receive communion. been a few became a democrat in may of this year. -- >> you became a democrat in may of this year. you have been the work -- a contributor to republican. those were looking to make the decision, how do you reconcile your record? >> i reconcile it like this. like overset -- like over 60% of the population i and disconnected. -- we are disconnected and unaffiliated. i would say that -- >> be specific with the governor. >> i did donate to that governor. i did donate to seven democrats at the same time. i donated for one specific issue. i supported how hard he pushed for the separation of powers. it was a single-issue donation. >> your donation was in 2006, $1,000. separation of powers was passed in 2004, two years before your donation. >> if you follow my focus plan, i have a 23-page focus plan to get citizens back involved with their government, the core comes from the separation of powers. what happened was this -- when it was pushed to the voters, 73% voted in favor of separation of powers, which became a political mandate for elected officials to vote for it. that includes the governor's implementation. that is the core of my plan. we need to get citizens involved with the government so they can make decisions and tell us how they feel and how we should vote on a specific issue. >> the political question to you as well -- for the past 12 years as chairman of the state democratic party, you have been -- >> i am proud of the job i did. that was my job. i do not hold elective office. i have never served in the house or senate. i took on the responsibility because i believe that the democratic party has been a party of working families, particularly here in rhode island. i am proud to have played even a very small part of that tradition. . >> i was never afraid to stand up and speak my mind. frankly, i think that is something the people of rhode island want and need them. i think they need it now in washington. >> mr. segal, you were once a progressive democrat. you are now a green party member. our liberal views opening your to greater risk of defeat in a general election? >> i would disagree strongly with that. i think my views right now are almost non-ideological. a bleak corporate power in washington has run amok and we need to push back against the banks, insurance companies, and utility companies, to do right by americans. i think that is something most non-conservatives believe as well. >> there are pretty nasty polls that came up today, the abc washington poll. it showed that most americans would like to see a republican- controlled congress as opposed to a democratic-controlled congress. why should people vote for you? >> that is a pool of most americans, not most rhode island doors. the reason that are fed up with congress is it is to contingent upon the will of all the campaign contributors and corporate interests that have rammed through the bailout of banks and the lack of a public option as part of the insurance reform package. i have always stood in stark opposition to such corporate control of our elections. >> mr. cicilline, you have a record people can scrutinize a little more than others. you came in as mayor promising reform for a clock -- a corrupt city hall. your administration had a share of blemishes. two police officers are charged in a drug ring. how can we trust you to be a reformer in washington, when many question whether you were able to do it right here in providence? >> i am proud of the work we have done in the city of providence to restore honesty and integrity. i am proud of the results in terms of new investment to the city, the lowest crime rate in three decades, creation of a high-quality national model of an after-school programs, improvements in our schools. providence continues to be a place where businesses are coming. it gives us a knowledge economy. i am proud of our work and of my team. i work for city government. with respect to how does that position before washington, what we need is someone who is going to stand up and fight for hard- working middle-class families, something i have done every day as mayor of this city, something i have seen every day throughout my city. we stood up to banks. a proposed an ordinance to require banks to give people a mediation process before it forecloses on them. deutsche bank and wells fargo sydney. i won. we issue processes of contingency to keep people in their homes. i took on all the institutions and brought honor and integrity to government. i will fight in washington. >> i want to move on to immigration. lynch, mr. you support a pass to citizenship for illegal immigrants. what do you want to sit for this to happen? specifically, do you think as part of the pack to citizenship illegal immigrants should have to learn english and pay back taxes? >> absolutely. it is frustrating for me and others to see what is happening around the country because of the complete failure of the congress to deal with immigration comprehensively on a federal basis. that is what you see the problems we have in arizona. that is where you see the problems in rhode island. they are all the same issue. they are a direct result of the congress's failure to act on a critical issue that has been before them for several years. back in 2004-2005, there was a bipartisan bill in congress that such a clear framework to resolve these issues, including securing our borders, using the national guard as appropriate, a press which is citizenship for the 12 million people we know are here, learning english, paying taxes, paying a fine, and not in favored treatment. the congress should have done that. they should be ashamed to work away from that issue. now they, like arizona, are suffering the consequences. we need to fix that nationally, and now, not when they feel like getting around for it. >> gemma, any bill that came on abortion to e-1/2ver andify -- and a bill that came out of washington would like ely have an e-verify component. as a businessman, what do you think of that? >> until it is as reliable as it needs to be, i would not support it until we know it is accurate. >> many people entered the country legally and overstay a be so like a tourist visa. hearty chuckle the statistic if you do not -- how do you tackle this statistic if you do not crack down on the employers? >> whinney to hold them accountable for hiring them. here is a bigger problem. there is 11 million undocumented workers in the united states now. they have over 4 million children. these are now american citizens. the problem is bigger. their status brings -- it would take $300 billion to deport them. the answer is looking down the borders. it does not make any sense. >> should they have to learn english and payback taxes? >> they should. they should have to pay a fine as well. the budget is about $66 billion over 10 years. >> for mr. cicilline, the proposed unaggressive withdrawal from afghanistan, earlier than the president has called for. some congressmen are voting against additional funding for the war. how serious are you about getting out of that country? >> i am very serious about getting out. i think we have to do it as quickly and responsibly as we can. i am arguing for a smaller footprint, and more strategic presence. >> would you vote against funding? >> no. i believe so long as there are men and women in afghanistan which have an obligation to support them with the resources they need. a decision has to be made by the civilian leadership, not be the military leadership. i believe the time has come to bring our troops home, to reduce the size of that book front, to be more counterinsurgency and strategic. that will allow the afghanis to stand up with their own political institutions and military, which is the best way to stabilize that region. when need to do that in a responsible and expeditious way. we are responsible for giving the men and women there the resources they need. >> would be declaring victory in afghanistan donne's >> victory will be declared when there is a stable government in afghanistan and the evgeny people are supporting their own civil institutions. there has to be a political solution, not a military solution. we are spending $4 billion and month of taxpayer money. studies conclude that 40% to 70% of that money is going to corrupt officials. taxpayer money is in the hands of corrupt officials. that is a disrespect to america. we need to do what we can to protect our long-term national security. that can be done by ensuring that afghan military and civilian institutions exist and we support that. that is not the presence we have. >> mr. segal, on defense spending, do you support scheme in but the guards if so, what do you say to people and district 1 who rely on defense spending for work? >> i would vote against the spending bill before the congress right now. i believe we should support the troops that are there. i think we support them best by funding their stake -- their safe return home. i do not think there is a clear path to resolution. i would vote against spending. >> he would vote to return them home but not for their -- >> yes. exactly. the other question -- i believe that we should convert some of our spending away from military spending and toward other things that also serve a productive purpose. in rhode island we have lots of people who are working for raytheon. those companies do more than more for the military. we should do more than encourage them to skew their technology toward the domestic economy, green technology. i think we could vastly improve public transit and infrastructure in rhode island. i think all those workers are smart engineers. those firms have an important role to play in an effort. >> are you saying stop making -- stop doing business for the military, and convert them to other types of work dark squawks not stop. we have the best military in the world. i think that is a good thing. we should be able to defend our borders. i think we can skew our government spending is commensurate with those mandates and federal priorities. weekends do that toward things that help build domestic infrastructure. >> president obama supported education commissioner deborah gives money teachers were laid off at the city's underperforming press cools. did you support the move to fire the teachers? >> i believe there should have been a little more dialogue and a little more diplomacy. i believe deborah gibbs had to eventually fire them. i hoped it would not come down to that, but unfortunately it did. i believe as far as education is concerned we are not embracing some of the best and brightest in the country. under our plan, we will focus on a financial transparency and accountability. i see a citizen-driven government. i see schools driving educational excellence. there are great institutions throughout our country that we can emulate. we are not solving some of the best and brightest and bringing that information of best practice. >> what specifically can you do from washington to improve on that performance? >> under my plan, and would create work groups for specific areas. one would be for education. when people are disengaged with their government in the state of rhode island and nationally, which would bring them into the work group to form policy. what has happened is a lot of people are disconnected. the best and brightest have this information. we can filter out and get to the best information possible. >> mr. segal, those who want federal money it must base hiring and firing on student performance. do you support merit pay for teachers? >> i do not. it has been demonstrated to be costly and ineffective. it undermines the from work. as it relates, i believe that every student in the state deserves a high-quality education. that is what i support the firing of bad teachers. it sends a message to bad teachers that they should avoid central -- it's a message to good teachers that they should avoid central falls, because they can be fired even if they did nothing. i think evaluation systems should take student performance into account, but take into account professional development and less-quantifiable and outputs. i think there should be teacher evaluations, to use the test: does not do right by teachers and servants. >> i have a specific question for you. he pledged to address the providence public school system when he took office, cicilline mr.. but the worst performing schools are in your city. >> about the central falls issue -- i am proud of what we are doing. it is a stark contrast with what happened in central falls. i believe it is the collective responsibility of the community. parents, teachers, and students have to work together to achieve success for our kids. in provenance we have led the nation with san francisco on extended learning opportunities, crediting after- school programs and a new school day from early in the morning to late at night. we have a districtwide curriculum. we are in the middle of a teacher evaluation that will be a national model. providence is one of only two districts in the state that signed on to "race to the top." that happened because of collaborative partnership. we are all working together. i believe what happened in central falls is bad for kids and bad for teachers, but we have to change the results. we all the kids in the state and our country access to the best quality of public education. we are not just competing with the next town and state. we are competing with india, china, and germany. to give them the opportunity to succeed, which have to raise student achievement. that means investing in facilities, like in providence. we are building a modern, safe building for education. it has the best technical academy in the northeast. we have school funding. we have fairness in funding public education. >> on the central falls issue, are you saying you are against the firing? >> what i am saying is the approach we used in providence, to work in partnership. we are the first district in the state where teachers are not hired based on seniority. we have merit-based tire. >> you are not giving me the answer to that question. >> i do not believe the wholesale firing of teachers was good for the students, the community, or the teachers. there is a better way to do it. the way we did it was by real partnership. at the end of the day, we are accountable to our kids for the quality of their education. >> mr. lynch, should twitter's be held accountable? >> ahsha course they should be held accountable. it was never shown to me that the mass firing of all the teachers in central falls was a solution to the problem. it clearly was not. they have not been able to mediate their differences to move forward. i take issue with the mayor on a few things he says about problems. unlike every other town in rhode island, the mayor of providence controls the school system. the superintendent serves at the pleasure of the mayor. providence has had and still has, unfortunately, some of the lowest performing schools in this area. and for the last seven years, prior to president obama and secretary duncan taking the lead in getting communities like providence involved in waste to the top, which i also support -- seven years of inaction with in the providence school system. those children are lost. something should have been done. i believe the mayor should have done it sooner. >> the work that has been done began the day i took office, both in terms of work on a cordial one, work and professional development, work to identify new superintendents, work on a new model of an after-school program, the extended morning, new investment in facilities, new teacher evaluation tools -- all that preceded race to the top. umag to complement the school board. this was all done when the state was reducing and $20 million in its investment in education. the worst that was done was done in the context of making the right investment. >> we are running out of time. 30 seconds, if we could. this weekend, attorney general eric holder said he is concerned that the mastermind of the 9-11 attacks may not face the death penalty if he pleads guilty in a military court rather than being tried in the civilian proceeding where the death penalty applies. i am a jury is for you feel about it personally. should he be put to death? >> i am not in favor of the death penalty under any circumstance. i am not in favor of the death penalty. i am like every other american mortified at someone that sinister. i am not in favor of the death penalty. >> i oppose the death penalty, but i hope that his punishment is harsh and along. i think you can argue that life imprisonment without any option of parole is a very severe penalty. >> i want to be very clear. i have consistently said i differ with some of the other people on the stage. any terrorist whose goal is to hurt innocent americans who is captured should be tried, convicted if appropriate, and the death penalty is appropriate. i do not believe -- i disagree with some people here and also with the president of the united states. i do not believe that terrorists, when captured, should be afforded all of the rights of citizens to civil trials. >> i believe in the use of our criminal courts. in hundreds of cases before september 11 and after september 11, terrorists were tried in criminal courts and published -- and punish. in military courts, only three it were tried. in two cases, the sentence was less than a year. >> mr. gemma, if you could, president obama is in a legal battle to contain all -- to to continue the temporary ban on deepwater oil drilling. do you support the ban? >> i do. >> a cicilline mr.? >> yes. this is important as they try to ram things through our waters. i strongly support the president. >> i am a lng. about for months i have been outspoken. this is one of the worst proposals ever to come before the state of rhode island. with regard to the moratorium, there has been no enforcement or oversight of that industry. that has become clear. i will not support a long-term plan debt moratorium for the simple reason that it will bankrupt multiple businesses in that area. i think it needs to be done expeditiously to be sure those wells are safe, but that businesses all over the country are not part in further trouble. >> i strongly support the moratorium. i can't support renewable energy in the state. i have worked on the wind turbines to see popping up in portsmouth and along highway, where more solar panels. i think congress should start showing for the oil companies and promote renewable energy in earnest. >> we will be back briefly. we are out of time for the first hour. >> we are talking about some very important issues facing all of rhode island. this is going to continue for another 30 minutes. right now, we want to give the candidates an opportunity to deliver their closing statements. we want to remind you that the debate is not over. it will continue from 8:00 until 8:30, right after the candidates make some brief remarks. the order of statements was determined by a drawing. after that, the candidates will give the audience an opportunity to applaud. >> this election is about one thing -- who is on your side? but the corporations and special interests, we stand with you, working families of rhode island. i first ran for office eight years ago to be able is for people who did not have much. and every chores, i have made the people of our state first -- not the corporations, not the developers, not the lobbyists, but you. indeed a congressman who is not afraid to stand strong for our values not just when it is easy and popular, but every time in matters for working families. that is the kind of congressmen are one to be in washington. >> thank you again for doing this debate. this is a time in our country when we need new thinking, new ideas, and a sense of commitment to share american values. we need to let people go to congress and fight for working families -- someone who has a record of delivering results, who understands what we need to do to fix our state. i have a record as mayor of the city of providence the last eight years. i know what works. i can deliver for our state. >> mr. gemma? >> i want to thank everyone for listening. i also want to remind you of our mission. i want to reinvigorate public service for the 21st century. it is about listening to our government. it is about listening to our people. u.s. seen it yes or no questions. it is about listening. it is about me endangering ree re-engaging. >> a lynch mr. -- mr. lynch? >> tonight you have had a lot of talk about who can best stand up for you. if you are happy with the course the state is on in providence and you want to see more of the same, you have options to vote for other candidates. but if like me you are fed up with washington and looking for someone who will call it as it is, if you believe it is time for term limits in congress, i ask for your support and will advocate for you on a daily basis. >> thank you to the candidates. thank you for a wonderful audience. they have been waiting to applaud the candidates. here is your opportunity to applaud the four candidates. [applause] we are not done yet. we have more coming up. but before we go off the air, i want to thank the providence performing arts center for hosting our debate tonight. we have tackled a lot of questions and issues so far. we have much more coming up on our website. we will be doing that from a clock until endicott 30. will have a complete wrapup coming up tonight falling the all-star game. once again, thanks for watching. we are still on w onpri.com -- a wpri.com.stillo on [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] clark's welcome back to the campaign 2010 debate, continuing live. let us head right to our viewer questions. what you think is most important to focus on right now? not a year from now, but right now? job creation or deficit reduction? >> job creation, definitely. if we get our people back to work it will help the economy. that will help the deficit on the other side. job creation without doubt. >> how as a congressman at do you get people back to work? >> i am the only candidate year that has created jobs in the business sector. i am probably the strongest suited to do that. i am going to look at it as a leg of a stall. one of those legs is aligning our government with what it is strong at. rhode island is most strong in education, and health care, in the construction sector. the other leg of the stool is having rhode island become the health and wellness capital of america. that is a multi dollar industry we can bring to our state. that would allow us to create jobs. it would not only create jobs for consulting, it would create manufacturing jobs to make exercise bikes. it is an industry that if we commit tax credits we could stretch. that is my approach to getting people back to work. >> we will go down to the wind. it is job creation or deficit reduction. i am anticipating job creation to be your answer, but the part to is -- what about mr. gemma's charge? he is a businessman. is he the only one who can create jobs? >> i have done so in the city. this is something i can talk about. i recently talked to a young man who had been out of work for two years. he had been back to work. he said, "i could pay my first bill this week." the most important thing is to create conditions for job creation. we have the fourth highest unemploymente CSPAN July 17, 2010 8:00pm-11:00pm EDT News/Business. Historical and recent cultural and political events.	132,386
There's no doubt that bricklaying is a skill that is often perfected over time and with a lot of practice. Very few people can get a great result without some brick laying experience and a few expert tips. For any DIY enthusiasts planning their own building projects, it can be a great idea to attend a bricklaying course before commencing with any works. This can help to ensure that the correct methods are used and that guidance is received re: tips and tools of the trade. So, how do you go about finding a great bricklaying course? There are certainly a lot of them out there - perhaps due to the fact that more of us are now taking on our own home DIY projects. Bricklaying courses are available in a number of formats - from short, intensive courses to longer term learning experiences as part of another qualification. Many people will opt for a number of related courses to build on their overall knowledge base. The content of bricklaying courses can differ depending on the tutor, programme and the location of the course. However, you can generally expect to receive training on the following areas of brick laying; Understanding the correct tools to use and how to use them correctly How to correctly mix mortar (i.e. products/ratios/consistency) The basics of bricklaying gauge, level, plumb and range Calculating and using measurments How to spread out and roll mortar How to build various different corners with bricks How to set out your project and work to sepcific measurements How to set out large lengths of brickwork using dead men corners How to build a conservatory base How to build walls (with an without double skin) Learn various different methods of pointing How to introduce a damp proof course into the brick work How to introduce lintels and vents into the brickwork If you decided to go for an intensive level bricklaying course, once completed, you will have the skills needed to build straight level and structurally sound brickwork. This you will enable you to complete any home DIY projects that need brickwork such as garden walls, ponds, small outbuildings or extensions etc. A bricklaying course is definitely a positive step for a DIY enthusiast wanting to take their skillset to the next level.	2,290
People protest against the death of Iranian Mahsa Amini, in Zurich, Switzerland, on Saturday Oct. 1, 2022. Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in Iran while… People protest against the death of Iranian Mahsa Amini, in Zurich, Switzerland, on Saturday Oct. 1, 2022. Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in Iran while in police custody, was arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating its strictly-enforced dress code. (Michael Buholzer/Keystone via AP) Swiss police violently disperse anti-Iran protest at embassy Posted: Oct 2, 2022 / 06:02 AM EDT Updated: Oct 2, 2022 / 08:21 AM EDT People protest against the death of Iranian Mahsa Amini, in Zurich, Switzerland, on Saturday Oct. 1, 2022. Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in Iran while… People protest against the death of Iranian Mahsa Amini, in Zurich, Switzerland, on Saturday Oct. 1, 2022. Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in Iran while in police custody, was arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating its strictly-enforced dress code. (Michael Buholzer/Keystone via AP) Posted: Oct 2, 2022 / 06:02 AM EDT Updated: Oct 2, 2022 / 08:21 AM EDT BERLIN (AP) — Swiss police used rubber bullets to disperse protesters in front of the Iranian Embassy in Bern after two men climbed over the embassy’s fence and pulled down the Iranian flag from a flagpole in the yard. Police said late Saturday that nobody was injured and that the “large crowd” of protesters was dispersed after the use of rubber bullets. The two protesters who entered the embassy’s grounds were detained, according to police in the Swiss capital. Police said they used rubber bullets after several other protesters at the unauthorized demonstration tried following the two men who had first entered the embassy’s yard and also attempted to access the premises. It wasn’t immediately clear if more protesters were detained. Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets over the last two weeks in protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the morality police in the capital, Tehran, for allegedly wearing her mandatory Islamic headscarf too loosely. Outside of Iran, thousands of protesters have also staged demonstrations in European countries and elsewhere over the death of Amini. They’ve also expressed anger over the treatment of women and wider repression in the Islamic Republic. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.	2,602
They were only around for a few years but the first openly gay country band was formed right here in Seattle! One of the founders of Lavendar Country, Patrick Haggerty, was raised in Port Angeles and discharged from the Peace Corps in the 1960s for being gay. He attended the University of Washington, and formed a band that performed at Seattle’s first Pride Parade, in June of 1974. You can read more about the band in this Stranger article from 2014, marking the 40th anniversary of the Pride Parade. But, right here, you can listen to some of their music. Enjoy! We are writing features over the next few days to celebrate #PrideWeek. Did you catch yesterday’s item? Pride Week You may also like Published February 25, 2016 Enjoy 1962 Oscar for Best Original Song, “Moon River,” as it’s played during the mysterious opening sequence to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” If you […] Published June 23, 2016 Pride Week #4: Stonewall Riots and Orlando Shooting “We Shall Overcome” is an anthem often sung to evoke a feeling of struggle. Here, we recall how the LGBT community sung it at Stonewall in 1969, and as seen in these video clips, sung again the wake of the Orlando shooting at Pulse nightclub. Published February 23, 2016 As we learned from yesterday’s Oscar Music post, Randy Newman certainly doesn’t have the most nominations in the music category but his […] Published September 23, 2015 #OTW Nirvana Week: Day 3 There are some conflicting dates about exactly when “In Utero” came out. Some say 9/21/93 and others say 9/13/93. We say, why […]	1,647
I've spent half a century writing for radio and print (mostly print). I hope to still be tapping the keys as I take my last breath. For single women of the moneyed classes the problem of a pregnancy could be handled discreetly. Being pregnant outside the bonds of marriage brought shame and ostracism upon the mother in Victorian England. Sometimes, unscrupulous women took on the job of looking after the infants for a fee. Some of these surrogate caregivers found that dead babies were cheaper to raise than live ones. In the 19th century, contraception was primitive, and yet becoming pregnant outside the sanctity of marriage was deeply frowned upon. Poor women could throw themselves and their children on the mercy of the parish and enter the horrible world of the workhouse. Others had to go into the prostitution trade to feed their youngsters because few employers would hire a female shamed by being an unwed mother. Some resorted to abandonment, but if the mother was discovered, the courts were very unsympathetic. The very desperate resorted to infanticide, but this was a crime that carried the death penalty if discovered. A few were lucky enough to find a good family to adopt their child. For young women from middle- and upper-class families, there were baby farmers. For a fee, women undertook to raise infants and remove the stain of scandal from a family’s reputation. Paid caregivers had been around long before the Victorian era, but the strict and largely hypocritical prudery of that age gave the trade a boost. Advertisements started to appear in newspapers offering to foster or adopt unwanted newborns. For a lump-sum payment, the baby would be placed with a woman loosely referred to as a nurse. The families were likely assured the infant would be raised in the best of all possible worlds and the caregivers would do everything necessary to find the child a high-quality permanent home. Perhaps the family might leave the infant behind with a few qualms, but at least the little problem had been made to go away and Daisy’s reputation was intact; that’s what mattered. No doubt some of these “nurses” were well-intentioned; others were not. And that brings us to Margaret Waters. For women who lived in the slums, there were few legal options for dealing with an unwanted child. Widowed before she was 30, Margaret Waters turned to baby farming to make a living. She charged eight to ten pounds (about $980 to $1,225 in today’s money) to take care of an unwanted child at her home in Brixton, south London. In the beginning, she passed the infants on to other baby farmers and kept about two pounds as her commission. However, she figured out that she could keep the full amount by keeping the child and disposing of it in other ways. It became her practice to dose the babies up with laudanum, an opiate that was freely available from tobacconists, barbers, and even stationers. This killed their appetites and sedated them so that didn’t make any noise. After a few days, the youngsters died of starvation. Wrapped in rags or brown paper, the victims would be left in back alleys or under railway arches. Eventually, the number of children dying in Waters' care was noticed and a policeman was sent to her address to have a look. He testified about what he found: “Some half-dozen little infants lay together on a sofa, filthy, starving, and stupefied by laudanum.” The youngsters were immediately put into state care but most were too weakened to survive. It’s thought she killed a total of 16 children, perhaps more. According to a contemporary report in The Guardian: “She considered the parents of illegitimate children who wanted to get rid of them by any means were more to blame than persons like herself. If there were no parents of this class, there would be no baby farmers.” Margaret Waters is depicted by the Illustrated Police News disposing of a child's body. Trial and Execution of Margaret Waters The case came up in September 1870 at the Old Bailey. Margaret Waters faced five murder charges, but only one conviction was needed for the sentence of death by hanging to be passed. Appeals and other delays were speedily dealt with in those days so, on October 11, 1870, Margaret Waters was put in the hands of William Calcraft, Britain’s official hangman at the time. The following day, The Times opined that “A most just sentence has thus been executed, and the law has conspicuously fulfilled its appointed office of being a terror to evil-doers. A more terrible case, with respect both to the heinousness of the offence and to the unexpected vengeance which has overtaken it, has never occurred.” Waters was the first baby farmer to be executed but not the last; that distinction went to Rhoda Willis. A sketch of Rhoda Willis probably done at her trial. Rhoda Willis had a good education and a solid middle-class upbringing, but life was not kind to her. Her husband died young. She lived with another man but that relationship fell apart and she started drinking. Desperate for money, she decided to take up baby farming. Through an advertisement, she was contacted by a woman whose unmarried sister was pregnant. The baby was born on June 3, 1907, and, by arrangement, the newborn was handed over, along with a fee of £8 the next day. The transfer took place at a railway station north of Cardiff, Wales. By the time Rhoda returned by train to her lodging in Cardiff, the newborn was dead. A couple of days later, Rhoda came back to her lodging drunk and as her landlady helped her to bed, she noticed a bundle. It was the dead child. Rhoda Willis was executed on August 14, 1907, the last woman to be hanged for a baby-farm murder. Amelia Dyer was a baby farmer who is thought to have murdered hundreds of children. Finally, we come to the person who was probably the worst baby killer of them all—Amelia Dyer—who acquired the unfortunate nickname of "The Ogress of Reading." Some experts believe she may have murdered as many as 400 children. Born in 1836, Dyer trained as a nurse, married, and became a widow in 1869. Without a husband for support, she took up baby farming, but babies kept dying in her care, leading to a conviction for neglect and a sentence of six months hard labour. She also spent time in several mental asylums. Released from incarceration, she changed her approach; instead of letting the babies die of starvation, she turned to strangling them. She escaped detection through frequent changes of her name and location. In 1896, she was in Reading, west of London, and her terrible history was about to catch up with her. On March 30, a bargeman found a package in the River Thames. It contained a baby girl identified as Helena Fry. Clever detective work found an address on the paper in which the infant was wrapped; it was the home where Amelia Dyer lived. She was arrested and her home was found to contain piles of baby clothing, but no babies. A search turned up six more babies in the River Thames. Confronted with the overwhelming evidence of her guilt, Dyer entered a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity plea. She made a big show of singing hymns and preaching while in prison, but she had used this tactic before when under suspicion, and the jury was not fooled. It took less than five minutes to return a verdict of guilty. As she waited in her cell for the executioner's knock on the door, she wrote out her confession, filling five exercise books with a catalogue of her dreadful crimes. When asked on the gallows if she had any final words, she said: “I have nothing to say.” With that, at precisely 9 a.m. on June 10, 1896, one of the world's most prolific serial killers dropped into oblivion. In the 1840s, the infant mortality rate in Britain was about 150 per 1,000. Rapid urbanization causing pollution and poor sanitation saw that number shoot up over the next few decades. As a result, it was easy for corrupt baby farmers to pass off the deaths of children in their care as part of the overall death rates. In June 1914, Chicago’s The Day Book ran an article under the headline “Rich Fathers of Nameless Kids Sought in Baby Farm Probe.” The newspaper reported: “It is believed that some of these farms are working in league with shady doctors who attend unmarried mothers. It is known that the keepers of these farms shake down mothers, and then if trouble comes up threaten exposure and the girls are forced to keep silent.” In 1907, a report exposed a baby farm in Perth, Australia. Of the 87 children a Mrs. Mitchell had been paid to look after, none survived. A court decided she had willfully neglected the infants, although public opinion was that she was a serial killer. “The Tale of Margaret Waters, Brixton’s Notorious 1870 Baby Farmer, as Reported in the Spectator’s Archives.” Stevie, Brixton History, June 10, 2013. “Baby Farmers and Angelmakers: Childcare in 19th Century England.” The Ultimate History Project, undated. © 2018 Rupert Taylor Comments Richard Green from New Mexico on November 03, 2018: Chilling! I didn't know about baby farming until today. Liz Westwood from UK on November 03, 2018: This is a very sad tale, made sadder by its truth. © 2022 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.	10,093
Editors’ note: This issue of Still: The Journal marks our third birthday! To help us celebrate we asked Erik Tuttle and Nick Smith, the editors of Wind Magazine, if they would share the birthday letters they received while students at the University of Kentucky from their teacher, Gurney Norman, on their 21st birthdays. For several years, these letters were displayed in the Wind offices, and as far as we know, are published here publicly for the first time with permission from all parties involved. Gurney Norman, a prolific correspondent and former Kentucky poet laureate, enthusiastically endorsed our idea to reproduce these birthday letters in a digital format so that these missives could live in cyber-perpetuity. We thank Erik, Nick and Gurney for such a wonderful birthday gift that we can share with Still readers. June 24, 2004 Since your birthday comes so near the summer solstice, I must assign you some appropriate homework. As you know, in France and in pagan society, midsummer night, the longest night of the year, is when all of society's rules governing the expression of eros are suspended. I have heard that to this day there are pockets in the remote mountains of eastern Kentucky where this practice goes on today. Your assignment is to write a 80 page paper on this and related subjects. You have a year to complete your researches, through next summer solstice and your next birthday. As studies have shown, one of the great meteors that have struck Planet Earth since creation began landed in Knox County, Kentucky untold millennia ago. Erosion and shifts in the earth's tectonic plates and fiery upthrusts of the earth from below causing faults to occur have altered the landscape of Knox County in ways that, as science has proved, make it the very center of the world. Few know that sages around the world since human life began have quietly studied certain creation myths that tell how it all began in Knox County. In every generation for ten thousand years, this secret order of wisemen and women selects two new members of the order, young heroes sent through the mists of time to take their place among the sages, to spend their lives studying and telling the old tales to perpetuate this first original level of human culture, drawing from them the wisdom of meaning so that human life on earth can continue and evolve to ever higher planes. In alternate two-year periods, the chosen heroes are young women. Now on your 21st birthday Erik, it is time for you to officially know that you have been chosen to join the order of sages. (It is premature to announce this, but on his next birthday your noble comrade Nick Smith, also from Knox County, will also take his place with you in the order of wisdom seekers.) In your 80 page paper, then, you are asked to re-discover the lost connections between summer solstice, suspension of the rules of eros, the great meteor, the pockets of ancient sunworshipers in the mountains, the original roots of universal human Appalachian identity, and Knox County as the center of the world. Go forth, Erik the Bold, and write of your adventures to come. Good luck and God speed. Your old teacher, (from his lair here in Cudjo's Cave beneath the 80 million years old stalactite) September 8, 2004 Well you are having a birthday at a very inconvenient time for me. Nyoka and I are trying to pack for our trip to England September 17. Ideally I would write to you while in flight over the big ocean where I could talk to you about World War Two, the Battle of The Atlantic, U-boats, ships with a thousand people on them hit by torpedoes and sinking to the bottom, soldiers and sailors from the mountains, young guys, first trip out of the country, still down there in the briny deep. I still think about those WW II boys who never made it home again to see their mammies and pappies and their old homeplaces once more. I still need to have a sense of original homeplace kept alive by visits, stoking the old memories from my own early life. I go often to walk the old ground where my lost family walked in days of yore. There are places I still go to that will break your heart, free the feelings and the tears, calling it all back to life again. Sitting by the creeks I hear their voices in the flowing water, mountain streams that have been flowing a million years. I'm sure you know it too, that sense of pattern on the land, the coherence of the flowing creeks and rivers shaped by natural forces including gravity, water always seeking the lower level. Then come the times when people built obstructions, distorted the original integrity. (Integrity: the quality of being whole, complete.) For all the destructive human imprint laid down on the land in our time, there is much of the old that remains; part of our task is to search around and find those early traces when the only human imprint was natural, organic, in accord. The mountain land still has much to say to us. I'm reminded just now of James Still's poem “Leap Minnows, Leap”: The minnows leap in drying pools, In islands of water along the creekbed sands They spring on drying tails, white bellies to the sun, Gills spread, gills fevered and gasping. The creek is sun and sand, and fish throats rasping. One pool has a peck of minnows. One living pool Is knuckle deep with dying, a shrinking yard Of glittering bellies. A thousand eyes look, look, A thousand gills strain, strain the water-air. There is plenty of water above the dam, locked and deep, Plenty, plenty and held. It is not here. It is not where the minnows spring with lidless fear. They die as men die. Leap minnows, leap. The land, the water, this poem, Mr. Still, now you own it all, Nick. You have earned it; you know what to do with it. Nourish it and it will nourish you. Before I go, Nick, let me say happy birthday. You might be interested to know that now in my UK office I am listening to Ravi Shankar play his sitar, ragas. Songs of the universe. clarity. It is changing my mood. Last sunlight of the day outside. Evening approacheth. Have you got hold of Chuck Kinder's new novel The Last Mountain Dancer yet? A wild and original novel, purest kind of hillbilly, gonna rattle some people, make 'em get some new thought patterns going, enough repetition already. Why don't you review it for some publication? Bill the Conqueror is my ancestor, the Normans were Vikings originally. Grrrrrr. Let's be Vikings! Run around wild and dangerous all over the place. Rob the rich and give it to the poor. I live in myth much of the time. From mythland the ordinary world looks quite strange, unknown, beautiful too. Have you discovered Leonard Roberts' work yet? If not, leave the party this instant and go get a copy of Up Cutshin and Down Greasy. Them old tales they told all around the hills back before television, talk about myth. Sometimes I think I'm Jack, hopping from adventure to adventure. Now here I get ready to go to the old country. You get ready too. Go off and be Nick the Mighty, get used to having power. Same for that redneck boy you run with, ol Erik the Bold.	7,395
Disney animation artists introduced that skill and love for the artwork of animation to bear on Aladdin, Game of Sultans the video game. These artists created all of the sport’s sprite November 28, 2017 December 16, 2019 kiwasofttechnologies_l3gh74ni How to choose game of bones for your kids to play Parents need Game Of Bones which their kids play in their home. Kids are easily addicted to Game Of Bones and they spend all their time on gaming only. So parents There are different games are here which are played by kids and also good for their heath. Parents allow their children to play with their friends because it good for the fitness of their kids to play different games which is good for physical health of their kids. It is very important for parents to teach their kids about all games and also their rules. It helps kids to play punctually and follow all the rules to with their friends. Games are best for the health of kids and are also type of exercise. There are number of games are there which can be played by people and are also enjoyable for people of all ages. Kids have too much interest in playing games with their friends so parents have to take it seriously. Kids have their own interest in any game and pay them regularly. Archives Select Month December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 July 2021 June 2021 March 2021 February 2021 December 2020 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 December 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 November 2017	1,883
What happens when an education technology company begins to fall under the radar as its competitors gain market share? This was the case with Skilled Up (a speciality division of the larger Apollo Education Group), whose professional education courses are designed for Gen Z consumers. The company was feeling the pressure of competitors who were picking away at their market share and more aggressively promoting their similarly positioned online career development courses. As a smaller division of a large global company, they had limited access to the marketing support that other areas received. I proposed that they create news by fielding a consumer survey. Preliminary search revealed that web developers were extremely well paid. So I identified and collaborated with a market research firm on a survey that asked working web developers about their level of career fulfillment as well as the income levels they had achieved. The results provided the news nuggets we were looking for - that web developers are among the happiest workers who are most fulfilled in their careers while simultaneously earning big bucks. Based on the survey results, we created an eye catching infographic which told the story visually, and pitched it to top tier consumer and business media. A storm of results included USA Today Snapshots on the front page of the Business section with their own infographic; a feature story in Mashable (shared 6,000+times), America’s Happiest Job Pays Up to $150,000 a Year, and a full page feature in Metro.US New York, Web Developers Are Happy, Earn More Greenbacks. All of this coverage came to a total of more than 75 million media impressions. A unique exercise product for kids and adults, developed by an Idaho Falls grandmother, grew like wildfire into a $20 million DTC (direct to consumer) e-commerce business over the course of just 5 years. On such a fast track, management was preoccupied with product development, meeting safety standards and getting overseas factories to ship on time. The Director of Product Development was also overseeing Marketing, but needed a well-connected New York City-based PR partner to continue developing grassroots awareness, secure major media placements and national consumer interest while driving website traffic. To capture the attention of a broad cross section of journalists including reporters who covered parenting, exercise, general interest, entertainment and health, I launched an aggressive media relations effort, identified and secured relationships with top social influencers, constructed Instagram photo contests and executed a monthly branded e-newsletter to keep the product and its breadth of designs top of mind. A 3-minute video feature on Today.com for their Wacky Workouts series (the producer even participated in a unique exercise class featuring the product) led to spin off coverage in Self, Bustle, Elite Daily, Pop Sugar and more. It was the brands’ top web site driver for the entire year and increased the brand’s Instagram and Facebook followers by 15%. Next Tribe, the digital magazine (for women 45+) needed to present Poise with a plan to lessen the stigma around its Poise feminine care products and drive sales for a new “active” product line in targeted US regions (Los Angeles, Dallas and New York City). To deepen engagement and develop brand trust with target customers, I presented the creative concept, “Straight Talk About Women’s Health,” a series of exclusive, community building events where aging, beauty and light bladder leakage were addressed by female thought leaders in comedy, health, wellness, and the arts, with humor and irreverence. Each event was produced via Facebook Live in a talk show format moderated by NextTribe editor, Jeannie Ralston In addition, we produced related editorial content, a series of three Facebook Live events (broadcast from the in-person events) plus an Instagram “Stay Amazing” contest timed to dovetail with National Women’s Health Week, distributed product samples and discount coupons good toward a future purchase. Doing Facebook Live from in person events attracted a highly engaged audience with reactions, comments and shares while LIVE and then in the repost of the LIVE video. This was a more targeted way of interacting with the audience who wanted to know more about LBL. Results included 12 million social media impressions. Her life changed forever because of a drug’s side effects. When a patient advocate launched her passion project - a nonprofit dedicated to informing the public about the side effects of prescription medicine, she needed to make it known among people with chronic health issues including baby boomers, in order to drive website traffic and attract sponsors. Since the nonprofit and its founder had little if any public awareness, my immediate goal was to build the founder’s expert credentials. Because the FDA approves drugs. I applied to and secured an appointment for the founder to serve a three year term on the FDA Advisory Committee on Drug Safety and Risk Management. In addition to identifying qualified medical experts for the board of directors, I built a MedShadow roster of subject matter experts including a pharmacist, pharmacologist, osteopath, psychologist as well as the founder, a patient advocate, which allowed us to provide expert commentary on the side effects of medicine to the press. By establishing relationships with leading consumer publications including Everyday Health, Healthy Women, Radio MD, Reader’s Digest and Next Avenue (baby boomers), MedShadow’s roster of experts regularly contributed bylined articles on the side effects of medicine and offered tips on living a holistic and medicine- free lifestyle. I secured Op Eds in STAT News, the influential healthcare publication owned by the Boston Globe, and a series of opinion pieces on FDA legislation in The Hill, the leading Capitol Hill publication. Over a two year period, media coverage accounted for a 40% increase in website traffic and more than 100,000 Facebook followers.	6,337
Home › Forums › The World Am Bulletin Board › Who's played the World Am: How many years. › Reply To: Who's played the World Am: How many years. August 16, 2016 at 8:33 pm #35801 12 years straight for me, and would have been in since day one if I had known about it. Made some good friends and shot my best score in my life at Tigers Eye (80) in 2007. Enojy running the skins games and meeting newer players.	430
Red House is Tim Scott, Robin Crane, W. Michael Jaap & Mark Noftsger--a musical experience. Red House isn’t just a Blues band. They embrace many of the idioms that sprang from the Blues; R&B, Soul, Funk and even a little Jazz. And each musician brings to the table almost 50 years of experience and expertise. That’s one reason why Red House is the band other bands come to see. They’ve been in the studio and just released a 4 song EP, titled “Over Yonder” —one cover tune and 3 original songs. They’re back in the studio now recording a follow-up CD. If you haven’t heard Red House, check them out. You’ll be glad you did. 0:00/??? 0:00/4:37 0:00/5:02 Press links ”I first learned about Red House a couple years ago. I saw their show at the Mt Baker Blues Festival. When they performed, I heard some audience members debate about whether it was blues or jazz. There was no debate at the September Blues Bash, because they did a great blues set that had blues dancers on the floor the whole time and the crowd cheering in triumphant blues fan celebration of the healing power of the blues. The world was perfect at this point. The three-part harmony of this four-part band is one of the best I have heard anywhere. The fourth member does not sing, but he is a guitar monster. I was very impressed by the sound of the band together as well as collective and individual vocals. The guitar playing is Best of the Blues Award-nomination quality, and this band sure sounds like it is ready for the big time. This should be a national act: you can not only quote me on that, but have me say it in print, on the air waves, online, or on stage, any-time. They should not only return to the Mount Baker Blues Festival, but also debut at the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Chicago Blues Festival, or the Intergalactic Blues festival aboard the International Space Station sponsored by Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos in their super-secret space-tourism ventures.”	2,056
Pan is a simple and enjoyable card game. You can choose up to 3 opponents and try to get rid of your cards before they do. The Nine Heart is always first and if you have a card of the same rank or higher you can put it on the top. Otherwise it is the time for taking from the table. Can you handle it? To manage the game just simply touch the cards and drag them over. Sliding left and right allows you to select more cards at once. Main features: local multiplayer up to 4 players user friendly design and navigation simple and enjoyable card game reasonably smart AI customizable number of opponents & game difficulty Let me know about your opinion and good luck with the game! Previous Next Pan is a card game for 2 to 4 players. The goal is to get rid of all cards as soon as possible. The game ends when there is only one player left – this player gains a negative point. The match is over when one of the players earns 3 negative points (one for each letter of the game name “PAN”). Player with the smallest number of negative points wins – it can be more than one winner of the match. The Suits of the cards are ignored (apart from the game beginning) and the Ranks determine the strength of the card which is in the following order (from the weakest): Nine, Ten, Jack, Queen, King & Ace. The game starts a player who holds a card Nine Heart by placing it in the middle of the table (creates a pile). This card cannot be taken and remains there for the whole time of the game play. Players do their moves in turns (which go clockwise) by putting card or cards on the pile or taking card or cards from the pile. Only 1 or 4 cards (of the same Rank) can be placed per user turn. The exception is for Nines – if player holds three Nines but none of them is Nine Heart than they can be placed together if the move is valid. The card to be placed on the table must be at the same or higher Rank as the top one of the pile. Cards can be taken from the pile if there is at least one card over the Nine Heart. Player is obliged to take 3 cards if no other move is possible or if player wants to. If there are less than 3 cards available the remaining ones should be taken (2 or 1) – Nine Heart has to stay on the table. Sometimes you can spot that if remaining players are computer only the game stops even it is not finished properly. This happens when the sequence of moves is repeated and prevents game from endless loop. An interesting variant of this game is something called “Reversing Spades”. If there is any card with Spade suit on the top of the table – put directly or revealed by taking the last three cards – then the turn goes to the previous player (not the next one). If there are only 2 players in the game the move gets back to the same player again.	2,833
Variety – the Children’s Charity is all about supporting kids and communities in need and, after some of the toughest years on record for Victorian children, the charity is now taking applications from those looking for assistance. From 1 August until 25 September 2022, Variety will be accepting applications for assistance for children and organisations that support kids in need. Variety – the Children’s Charity CEO Mandy Burns shared “we are thrilled to open our Grant Round to support individuals and community groups to offer the much-needed support. Our individual grants help kids and families facing challenges by providing them access to things like mobility equipment, communication devices, learning aids and technology. We also offer grants to support schools and community groups for children living with disability or disadvantage. We know for so many it’s been an incredibly challenging two years and providing much-needed assistance is something we’re very proud of”. The support does not stop with individual and community Grants. Applications are also open for Variety Heart Scholarships and are distributed up to $5,000. The Variety Heart Scholarships help enable kids to reach their full potential. There are two types of scholarships: Existing Talent and Education and Technology. Existing Talent scholarships supports children with a demonstrated talent who are living with disability or illness or experiencing disadvantage, to reach the next stage of development in their talent. Scholarships range from the arts (including visual and performing arts), sport (including esports) and technology (including accessible technology). Recipients could be a future Olympian, a champion pianist, or a gifted coder. Education and Technology scholarships support children who are experiencing disadvantage assistance to cover their basic educational needs. A new school uniform, a device to help with schooling and homework, books, and resources. Applications for Variety Heart Scholarships close 5 October 2022. Families, schools, and organisations can learn more and apply for help by following the below link Learn more and apply today You may also want to read August 2, 2022 by Variety - the Children's Charity Variety – the Children’s Charity thanks Melbourne Zoo who hosted over 4,000 kids experiencing... July 29, 2022 by Variety - the Children's Charity Thanks to your incredible support of Variety – the Children’s Charity this year, kids... June 17, 2022 by Variety - the Children's Charity Variety partners with Bicycle Network Bicycle Network is proudly announcing a new partnership with Variety – the Children’s Charity, which kicked off this week with a donation of bikes to Waaia Yalca South Primary School in northern Victoria.	2,828
Dinner service is offered on Friday and Saturday beginning at 5:00 pm through October 24, 2020. During the COVID-19 Business Restrictions, our seating will be limited to three tables available during the 5:00 pm or 7:00 pm hours. RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. Reservations should be made by calling 585-572-3005 during business hours. If leaving a message, please provide your name, a good phone number to call back along with the desired date, time, and size of your party for the reservation.	495
The museum closed its physical location several years ago, but the collections are still housed at UConn and they trot out some exhibits at the library and other buildings around campus every so often. I am a proud University of Connecticut alumnus. I enjoyed my time there and made several lifelong friends – and I continue to enjoy the national powerhouse sports programs. More importantly (to me) is that the state also poured a ton of money into the school’s academics and facilities. The campus is remarkably better than it was just 10 years ago; it’s downright beautiful these days. The University is home to a bunch of CTMQ stuff, so I better get crackin’. EdHill and I were winding down a long day of CTMQ’ing, but little did we know that August 25th was the Saturday thousands of students were returning to school. Despite entering campus from “the back way,” traffic was still a nightmare. Parking (for free) was worse. But we found a good legal spot and took off for the William Benton Museum of Art. It was closed for some inexplicable reason so CTMQ was still without an art museum on its resume. Our spirits were lifted, however, by the ample views of the scenic “wildlife.” Prepping for the natural history museum was easy with so much “natural beauty” on the way there. Gosh, I never thought I’d feel so old while surrounded by 19-year-olds. Our next stop was Gampel Pavilion, home of multiple national championship basketball teams. We weren’t there for basketball though, we were there in search of the J. Robert Donnelly Husky Heritage Sports Museum deep within the bowels of the building. It, too, was closed but Ed noted a rare species from a distance. There I am, down near the basket we’ve all seen on television a million times… We approached our quarry… quietly… slowly… There! An attractive six foot plus female of the species! Ed was beside himself! But we had other places to be, and more wildlife to study, so we left Gampel to go to the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History. It was more-or-less right next door. Back when I attended UConn, this museum was housed in a different building altogether. I distinctly remember happening upon it one day and spending a good hour there checking out the displays. (My degree IS in Biology after all.) Most notably, there was a huge Great White Shark “swimming” above my head, hung from the ceiling. It was impressive to say the least (I’ve since learned in my CTMQ research that this shark is the largest on display in New England.”) I was excited to see it again. Now, the museum is in an old brick building that used to be part of the agricultural school; upstairs was the “Apple Sorting Room.” Sort of a step down from the central location of years past, but it would do. Ed and I entered and chatted with the young co-eds working at the museum desk. They seemed rather surprised to have a) visitors, and b) visitors with ample gray hair. We got the quick speech about the museum layout and were ushered upstairs to check it out. The girl was very nice and well-informed – and cool enough to let us alone to learn about Connecticut’s Natural History – in (what we very quickly learned) a very unique way. Yes, that says “The Natural History of Shopping” I don’t know what that means either. This is a very small museum; just one room and it is very dark and very multi-media-centric. It was hard to get over the shock of a Natural History museum of such small scale. We’ve all been to these types of museums and they are invariably very large; they simply have to be with giant dinosaur and wooly mammoth displays. Here? Not so much. They’ve taken a different approach – one which involves a lot of televisions and video screens. Also, there is a very different take on “natural history” as well. That’s not to say that it’s a “wrong” take – just different. There are a few different sections to the museum: Archaeology, Geology, Biodiversity, and Climatology – okay. But also “Natural History of Work,” and “Natural History of Comfort” displays. Each display encompasses one wall, so if you’re looking for a thorough study of these things, I suggest you look elsewhere. But, when you think about it, this place is more-or-less for college students. Pot-smoking hungover college students… attention spans aren’t their strong suit. Archaeology: They have a nice Mastodon bone and a bunch of Native American artifacts. Geology: A nice write-up about the famous New England stone walls and some information on the dominant rock formations of the area. Biodiversity: Here, a pleasant bird-chirping soundtrack bludgeons you as you read about the importance of animals you never thought were important. But there was some interesting stuff about diseases in the state over the last 400 years; from none (Natives usually died of accidents early back then, rather than disease) to smallpox epidemic to tuberculosis to the more recent Lyme disease, named after Connecticut’s own Old Lyme. But all that stuff was expected and presented better at other museums. The Natural History of Comfort area was pretty cool. From the earliest settlers living off the land and building log cabins up through modern times and McMansions. I got to fake-chop wood: The Natural History of Work was similar; taking visitors through from the 100% DIY ethic of the colonialists to the Industrial Age’s effect on the state, through to the modern DDAFYYLB era. (Don’t Do Anything For Yourself You Lazy Bum.) Lastly, the Climatology section was very informative. I’m sure the scientists from Exxon-Mobil would dispute the facts presented, but that’s what they’re paid to do. (Although, re-reading it now I realize it actually is fairly tempered – example: “The burning of fossil fuels, especially since the 1940’s, has amplified this natural trend, leading to present concerns about global warming.” It went on to say, “Climate scientists are in agreement that the New England climate will continue to warm significantly. By the end of the 21st century most of New England will no longer have a 30-day seasonal snow cover. Sugar maples will gradually disappear in the southern range, only able to survive in more northern climates. Many streams will become too warm to support trout. Bird migrations will change or cease. The entire woodland ecosystem will be impacted. The changes that we have imposed on the environment will, in turn, change the way we live in it.” Phew. To top off the somber mood that display left us in, the shark was gone! Sigh. I asked the girls about it and they seemed a bit clueless, noting, “I don’t know, like, it’s probably in like storage somewhere.” How could the museum so flippantly discard the largest fish display in New England like that?! Ed and I left out into the warm sunshine surrounded by youthful idealism, hoots and hollers of friends reuniting after the summer, and lots of really hot young students who don’t care about the climate catastrophe or mastodon bones. Sponsored Links Comments Lizardqueen says November 3, 2007 at 6:28 am But how much wood could a Wood chuck if a Wood actually COULD chuck wood? And FYI- the museum is pretty kid friendly. They do fun Sunday activities and stuff for for dorky kids and their dorky parents. honeybunny says November 4, 2007 at 4:47 pm That is one big bone. hb more lyies says February 13, 2011 at 2:25 am “Climate scientists are in agreement that the New England climate will continue to warm significantly”….if they really wanted to cut back on co2s they would stop making soda pop Dave says April 4, 2015 at 1:41 pm You can still see the Great White Shark, now in the Project O building on the UConn Avery Point Campus.	7,864
It is as important to know or to understand what co-operation is, when to co-operate and when not to co-operate. It is important to co-operate and also it is important to find out when not to co-operate. You heard recently this report read in English, it indicates that there is no co-operation. But to understand the state of mind that will not co-operate one also must learn what it means to co-operate; both are important. Surely most of us co-operate when there is self-interest, when we see profit or pleasure or gain in co-operating, which is based on self-interest, then we generally do co-operate, put our hearts and our minds into it, give ourselves over to a commitment, to something that we believe in and with that we co-operate, with that authority, with that ideal, with that necessity. But also it seems to me it is very important to learn when not to co-operate. Because most of us are unwilling when we are in a mood to co-operate to find out what it is not to co-operate. The two go together really. And it's very important it seems to me to understand this thing. If we co-operate round an idea, round a person, take a stand about something around which we will co-operate, then it ceases to be co-operation. Because when that idea, when that authority, when that interest ceases then we break away from it, and try to co-operate with another or with another idea or with another authority. But all that co-operation, surely, is based on self-interest. And when that self-interest no longer brings any profit, gain or pleasure, then we do not co-operate. But to understand when not to co-operate is as important as when to co-operate. And this co-operation really must come out of a totally different dimension, and that's what we are going to talk about presently. We said when we last met here: what is the essential question, the essential issue in our human life? I do not know if you have gone into it, if you have thought about it. But what do you think is really the central issue in human life to be lived in this world with all the turmoil, chaos, misery, confusion, people trying to dominate each other and so on and on and on. I wonder what you think about it, what to you is the central issue or the only challenge in life that must be responded to when you see what is actually taking place throughout the world, the conflict of various kinds - from the student to the war, the political conflict, the division between man and man, the ideological differences for which we are willing to kill each other, the religious differences, which begets intolerance, various forms of brutality and so on. Seeing all that in front of us, actually, not theoretically - what is the central issue? The speaker will point out what the central issue is. Please don't agree or disagree. Examine it, look at it, whether it is true or false. To find out what is true one must not only look at it objectively, critically, but also one must look at it intimately. Look at it with that personal interest that you give when some crisis in your life happens, when your whole being is challenged. The central issue is complete, absolute freedom of man; first, psychologically, inwardly, then outwardly. There is no division between the outer and the inner, but for clarity's sake one must first understand this inward freedom - whether it is at all possible living in this world, not retiring to some monastery, which is quite neurotic, or secluding oneself in an isolated tower of one's own imagination - living in this world, that's the only challenge one has - freedom. Because if there is no freedom inwardly then the chaos begins. There are innumerable psychological conflicts, oppositions, indecisions, lack of clarity, lack of deep insight, which expresses itself obviously outwardly - belonging to no political party, either communism or capitalism, belonging to no religion, accepting no authority outwardly, in the sense one has to follow the laws of the country and all the rest of it, keeping to the right or the left when you are driving. But the decision to obey, to comply comes from inward freedom, the acceptance of the outer demands, outer law is the acceptance of an inward freedom. I think that is the central issue - and there is no other issue. Because we human beings are not free, we are heavily conditioned by the culture we live in, by the social environment, by religions, by vested interests of the army, or the politicians, or the ideological commitment to which we have given ourselves over. So we are as human beings conditioned. And being conditioned we are aggressive. This aggression, the sociologists, the anthropologists and the economists are explaining. They have two theories: either you have inherited it from the animal, this sense of aggressive spirit, or the society which each human being has built impels you, compels you, forces you to be aggressive. The fact is more important than the theory, whether it is derived from the animal, or the society that makes you, that is irrelevant. We are aggressive, we are brutal, we are incapable of looking at another's suggestion, view, thought, examination, impartially. And being conditioned life becomes fragmentary. Life, which is the everyday living, the everyday thought, the aspirations, the sense of self improvement - which is such an ugly thing - that's all fragmentary. That is, this conditioning makes each one of us a self-centred human being, fighting for himself, for his family, for his nation, for his beliefs. And so ideological differences arise - you are a Christian and another is a Muslim or a Hindu. You two may tolerate each other but basically, inwardly there is a deep division, contempt - one feels superior and all the rest of that. So, this conditioning makes us not only self-centred but also in that very self-centredness there is a process of isolation, a separation, a division, which makes us utterly impossible to co-operate. And, is it possible to be free? Is it possible as we are - conditioned, shaped by every influence, by propaganda, by the books we read, the cinemas, the radios, the magazines - all impinging on the mind, shaping it - is it possible to live in this world completely free, not only consciously but at the very roots of our being? That, it seems to me, is the challenge, is the only issue. Because if one is not free there is no love - there is jealousy, anxiety, fear, domination, the pursuit of pleasure, sexually or otherwise. If one is not free you cannot see clearly, if there is no freedom there is no sense of beauty. This is not mere arguments, supporting a theory that man must be free - which again becomes an ideology, which again will divide people. So, if to you that is the central issue, that is the main challenge of life - not whether you are happy or unhappy, all that becomes secondary - whether you can get on with others or whether your belief, your opinions are more important than another - all those are side issues which will be answered if this question is fully, deeply understood and answered. If you really feel that is the only challenge in life seeing the actual facts around you, and the actual fact inside yourself, how narrow, petty, small we are, anxious, guilty, fearful, hanging on to other people's ideas, opinions, judgements, worshipping public opinion, having heroes, examples - when you see all that in yourself, actually, which breeds fragmentation, a division, if to you that is the only challenge, the challenge of freedom - and not because the speaker says so, but because you yourself have observed it, you yourself have seen very clearly when you examine the whole map of human existence - the nationalities, the wars, the division of gods and the priests and the ideologies, all that, the conflict, the misery, the sorrow. If this is the central issue, for each one of us, and nothing else, because unless one is free you cannot see what is truth, unless there's complete freedom inwardly love becomes a pleasure-pain; unless there is complete inward sense of freedom, not given by another, not as an idea, not as a something to be aspired to, then there is no fear of death. If this is the central issue then you and the speaker are in communion, you and the speaker can communicate with each other, whether it is at all possible, and we can then go into it step by step. But if to you that is not the main interest, that is not the main challenge - but whether if you ask is it possible for a human being to find God, truth, love and all the rest of it - how can you find anything if you're not free? How can you explore, take a voyage, if all the things that you have accumulated through generation after generation, that burden you carry with you, all the fear. So it seems to me that is the only issue, and, is it possible for human beings - you and I - for us to be really free? Perhaps you might say 'Can I be free from physical pain?' If you are really free you will know how to deal with pain, because most of us have had physical pain of some kind or other. And if we are frightened, not being free, then disease becomes an astonishingly burdensome thing. So, if you and the speaker see this thing clearly - not that the speaker is imposing that as an idea, or influencing you, or because of his emphasis you also unconsciously or consciously accept it, then there will be no communication between us. Please do see the importance of this. If you also see the truth of it then we two together can find out whether it is at all possible to be completely, wholly free. All right? Can we start from there? As we begin to examine and understand the issue it'll become more and more clear, the implications of it, the enormous nature of it, the quality of it. But if you say, it is not possible, or, it is possible, then you have ceased to enquire, ceased to feel your way into it. So, if I may suggest, don't say to yourself it is possible, or, it is not possible. There are a whole group, intellectuals and others say, it is not possible and therefore let's condition the mind better, let us brainwash it first and then make it comply, obey, follow, accept - both technologically outwardly, and inwardly, the authority of the state, of the guru, of the priest, of the ideal and so on, so on. And if you say, it is possible, that's just an idea; it's not a fact. And most of us love to live in a vague, ideological world. So, a mind that is willing to examine this question deeply must be free to look, and therefore must be free from saying to itself, it is possible, or, it is not possible. So, to examine this question you begin with freedom, freedom is not at the end. Right? Here is the question: whether a human being, you, the individual, living in this world, going to the office, keeping a house, having children and so on and on, living in a very, very complex society, living intimately in a relationship, whether it is possible to be free and yet live in this world, live with a man, a woman, a relationship in which there is complete freedom, in which there is no domination, no jealousy, no obedience; and therefore perhaps a relationship in which there is love. Now is this possible? First of all, I don't see how one can see anything clearly - the trees, the stars, the world which man has created, which is yourself - the world is yourself, the society is yourself - whether you can see all that clearly if there is not freedom. If you come to it with an idea, with an ideology, with fear, with hope, with anxiety, with guilt and all the rest of the agony - obviously you cannot see. And when one is young one doesn't see all this, therefore one revolts. The revolt that's going on among the students throughout the world, they are young, fresh, they want things changed - quite rightly - to break up the society, to create a different kind of society. But the politician steps in and the older generation are scared stiff and want their security, their car, and all the rest of it. They vote for the man. And so it goes on. Audience: We can't hear back here. K: You can't hear? What am I to do? Will that help? (microphone readjusted) Is that all right? The loudspeaker doesn't work? Does it work now? So I hope - I don't mean that. If this is so for you as well as for the speaker, the importance of being completely free - from fear, from jealousy, anxiety, fear of death, the fear of not being loved, the fear of loneliness, the fear of not becoming successful, famous, achieving, the fear of not being loved, you know, all the fears - if this is the central issue, and it is the only issue in human existence - we are not being dogmatic, because man has sought freedom from the very beginning of time. Only he said, there is freedom in heaven, not on earth. Each group, each community translates this freedom in different ways. Discarding, putting aside all that - we are asking, living here, now, is it possible to be free? If you and I see this common factor as the only challenge in life then we can begin to find out for ourselves in what manner, how to approach, how to look at it, how to come by it. Right, shall we start from there? First of all, is there a system? Please think this out together. Is there a system, a method? Everybody says there is a method: do this, do that, follow this guru, follow this path, do, meditate this way - you follow? A system, a gradual, step by step achievement, a mould into which you fit in, hoping at the end you are going to come to this extraordinary freedom which they all promise. So, that's the first thing one has to enquire - not verbally, but actually, break it down if it is not a fact, so that you will never, under any circumstances, accept a system, a method, a discipline. Please see the importance of the words which we are using. A system means acceptance of an authority who gives you the system and following that system implies discipline, doing the same thing over and over and over again, suppressing your own revolts, suppressing your own demands, responses and all the rest of it - in order to be free. Is there truth in this whole business of a system? Follow this carefully, both inwardly and outwardly. And the communist promises Utopia, or when the guru, when the teacher, the saviour says, do these things you will have heaven. Right? With all the implications of it. We don't want to make it too complex at the beginning, it will become quite complex as we go on. But, if you accept a system whether it be in a school, in politics or inwardly, then there is no learning if there is no communication between the teacher and the student in a school or in the university. When there is no distance between the professor and the student, then they're both examining, discussing, then there is freedom to look, to learn. And, if you accept a rigid regime laid down by some unfortunate guru - and they are very popular at the present time throughout the world - and you follow them, what actually has taken place? You are destroying yourself in order to achieve freedom promised by another, destroying yourself, handing over yourself to something which may be utterly false, utterly stupid, has no reality in itself at all. So one must be very clear on this right from the beginning. And if you are very clear you have discarded it completely, you'll never go back to it. You understand, not only outwardly, you no longer belong to any nation, to any ideology, to any religion, to any political party, because they all are formulas, ideologies that promise, systems, and no system outwardly is going to help man. On the contrary systems are going to divide people. And that's what's happening in the world. And inwardly, to accept another as your authority, to accept the authority of a system - do listen to all this, please give your mind and heart to all this to find out - and, inwardly, if you have a system, a formula, an ideology, then you live in isolation, in separateness, therefore there is no freedom. So, to understand freedom or come by it, which comes naturally - it isn't something that you grope after, clutch or cultivate. When you cultivate something it is artificial. So, if you see the truth of all systems, methods, whether it be methods of meditation, methods of - you know, all that - systems, method, when you see the truth of it, it has no value at all, therefore you have broken down one of the greatest factors of conditioning. When you see the truth that no system is ever going to help man to be free - when you see the truth of it, you're already free of that tremendous falsehood. Right? Now are you free of that? Not tomorrow, not in days to come, but actually? We cannot go any further until everyone of us has understood this. Not, abstractly, not as an idea, but actually see the fact of it, and when you see the fact of something it's gone, finished, the truth of it. Can we discuss that? Not as an argument, pro and against, but actually look at it, examine it, talk it over together as two friends to find out the truth of it. You understand what we are doing? Seeing the factors of conditioning - seeing, not doing something about it. Seeing it is the very doing of it. Right? If I see an abyss I act, there is immediate action. If I see something poisonous I don't take it, it's finished. The action is instantaneous. So do we see this fact that one of the major conditioning factors is this acceptance of systems, with all the authority, with all the nuances involved in it? Can we discuss it? Or am I, or is the speaker overwhelming you? I hope not. Questioner: It is very easy to follow you verbally, in words, in ideas it is not very difficult. K: I understand, sir. I understand your question. I have to repeat the question therefore I have to make it brief, or if you don't mind you have to make it brief. The questioner says that it is easy to follow you verbally, but to actually shake off the acceptance of systems is quite another matter. Isn't that right, sir? What do you mean, sirs, when you say, I follow you verbally, clearly. Do we mean, we understand the words you are speaking, hear the words, and nothing happens? Which means what? You are looking, or listening to words. And obviously you can listen to words that have no meaning whatsoever. So the question is, how is it possible to listen to the words and at the same time the very listening is the action? Right, sir? Right? Are you - don't bother about that gentleman, it's the same question for all of us. We say, I intellectually understand what you are talking about. The words are clear, perhaps the reasoning is fairly good, somewhat logical and so on and so on, I understand all that intellectually, but the actual action doesn't take place. I am not free of the systems completely. Now, how is this gap between the intellect and the action to be bridged? Is that clear? I understand very well intellectually what you have said previously, this morning, but there is no actual freedom from that understanding, and how is this intellectual concept and action to take place instantly? Right? Now why is it that we think we understand intellectually? Why do we place understanding intellectually first? Why has that become dominant? You understand my question? I'm sure you all feel, 'I understand it intellectually, very well, what he is talking about'. Then you say to yourself, how am I to put that into action? So the understanding is one thing, and action is another. Then we battle to bridge the two. So, is there understanding at all intellectually? It may be a false statement which becomes a block, a hindrance. You see, look, watch it carefully. That becomes the system - you follow? - the system is which everybody uses, 'intellectually I understand'. And it may be utterly false. All that we mean is, I hear what you are talking about - 'hear' - the vibrations of those words pass through my ears and that's all, nothing happens. It's like a man or a woman who has got plenty of money, hears the word 'generosity' and feels vaguely the beauty of it, and he goes back to his miserliness, to his ungenerosity. So, don't let us say, I understand, don't let us say, I have grasped what you are talking about. What would be a factor in truth is that we have heard a lot of words. Then the question is, why don't you see the truth that no system outwardly or inwardly is going to bring freedom, free man from his misery? Why don't you see the truth of it instantly? That is the problem, not, how to bridge the intellectual grasp of something and then put it into action, why don't you see the complete truth of this fact? What is preventing? Q: We believe in the system. K: 'We believe in the system'. Why? That's your conditioning. So your conditioning dictates all the time. So, unless you see the truth of one of the major factors of life which conditions man to accept the system, the class difference, the system of war and the system that promises peace which is destroyed by nationality - which is another system - the ideologies of religious as well as political, economic, all those systems - why don't you see the truth of it? Because you have vested interest in them? If you saw the truth of it you might lose your money, you might not get a job, you would be alone in a monstrously ugly world. So you, consciously or unconsciously, say, 'by Jove, I understand very well what you are talking about but I can't do it, good morning', that would be the end of that. That would be most honest. Q: Sir, for us to communicate either with you or each other we have to be in movement, and movement takes a lot of energy, and the question is, why is it that sometimes we can bring up this energy and sometimes we can’t. K: The questioner says, asks, to understand this question we need energy. Sometimes we have it and other times we don't have it. Let's leave the 'other times'. Now, as you are listening to this question, why don't you see the truth of this fact that systems are destructive, separative? To see that you need energy. Why don't you have the energy now to see it? Now, not tomorrow. Is it, you haven't the energy to see it now because you're frightened - unconsciously, deep down there is a resistance against it, because it means you have to give up your gurus, you have to give up your nationality, you have to give up your particular ideology, and so on and so on. Therefore you say, please, I intellectually understand. Q: The system prevents you. K: 'The system prevents you.' Which is true, too. Which is, the system educates you, establishes you, gives you a position, so you never question the system both outwardly and inwardly. A communist well-placed in the communist field or in the communist work or in the communist world will never question it because the very questioning of it is to destroy it. Therefore tyranny is important, both outwardly and inwardly. So that is not the question we are asking. Why is it as you are listening you don't have the energy to look? That is, to have this energy to look you must be attentive, you must give your mind, your heart to the thing to look. Why don't you? Q: What do you say to the man who is afraid to look? K: 'What do you say to the man who is afraid to look?' You can't force him to look, obviously. You can't cajole him, you can't promise. You can't say, well, my dear chap, do look and you'll get something out of it. Don't bother to look, but be aware of your fear. Don't bother to look at this factor of the systems that have been developed through centuries that hold you, don't bother about that, but be aware of your fear. But you say, well, I don't want even to be aware of it, I don't want even to touch it, go near it. Then I'm afraid one can't do anything, can one? Because you yourself are preventing yourself from looking, because you think by looking you'll lose your family, your money, your position, your job, your - all the rest of it. Which means security. Therefore you're frightened to lose your security. Look what is taking place, - which is just an idea - you follow? You may never lose your security, something else may take place. But thought says, be careful, don't look. So thought creates fear. Thought prevents you from looking. Thought says, if you do look you may create such confusion in your life - as though you are not living in confusion now. So thought begets fear and therefore you can't see, see the truth that no system on God's earth, or in the world of any guru, saviour, commissar is going to free you. Q: Perhaps a person cannot realise fear because he knows not what it is. K: Oh, well, if you don't know what fear is, then there's no problem. Then you're free. Even the poor birds are frightened anyhow. We'd better stop now. We'll go on with this the day after tomorrow morning. This is one of the major blocks in the human mind, which has accepted systems as inevitable. And these systems have been created by man in his search for security, and the search for security through systems is destroying man. Which is obvious when you see outwardly what is taking place - between the communist world and the varieties of communism, and opposed to capitalism. And the same thing is happening inwardly - my guru and your guru, my truth and your truth, my path and your path, my family and your family. And it's all preventing us from being free. Being free then family may have a totally different meaning, sex may have a totally different meaning. Then there'll be peace in the world, not this division between man and man. So you have to have energy to see. Which means giving your heart and mind to look - not looking with words, with eyes full with fear. Right, sirs. Welcome to the Krishnamurti Portal! As the word suggests, a portal is a door or entrance, an approach to a bridge, an organism’s communicating part or area, and, in the context of a website, a guide or point of entry to material that includes a search engine to content typically arranged by topic. Indeed, the K-Portal is all this and more with respect to the content of the talks, discussions and writings of Krishnamurti. This K-Portal is an initiative of the of the Krishnamurti Foundations, spearheaded by the KFA to enter, wander through and explore the teachings and insights of J. Krishnamurti. Its content is authentic; it is freely available to everyone; there is no charge for its use; and the content is downloadable. The content accessed through this portal includes a significant number of Krishnamurti’s published works to date (starting in 1933 and ending at the time of his death in 1986), along with transcripts of several hundred of his audio and video recordings. An exhaustive listing of the various topics that were addressed by Krishnamurti is provided, which are embedded in brief quotes, which then in turn are embedded in the complete transcript of the text or audio/video recording in which they are contained. You, the user, are able to seamlessly jump between different quotes on a given topic, and also across different topics. You can access these topics via the comprehensive and alphabetized list that is provided, or via the search engine that also is provided here. You also can “like” and comment on these quotes and share them with others on your own social media platforms. Topic Posts J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986) did not expound any philosophy or religion but rather talked of the things that concern all of us in our everyday lives The anxiety, the guilt, the fear, the responses that is all we know, is it not? And what is the totality of the mind, as we know it? I want a permanent relationship with my friend, with my wife, with my whatever it is, and the demand for a permanent relationship is the system… Receive Our Articles By Email This website is one of the official repositories of the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, made possible by the Krishnamurti Foundations (KFT, KFA, KFI, FKLA) © 2022	28,145
Msg&data rates may apply. To unsubscribe, text STOP to 7606703130. For help text HELP anytime. Available in USA. Up to 200 msg/mo. Your privacy is always protected and your information will not be shared. Powered by Group Texting Featured Audiobook Fanged After Forty, Book 3 Available at Amazon Forty and fanged. That’s only half of who Hailey Whitfield is. She’s also a bounty hunter and the true mate to the vampire master who made her. The latter is something she isn’t sure she is ready for. She’d previously sworn off marriage. Never again. A true mating bond, though, seems like so much more than a marriage! She has two months to figure out the bonding thing and she plans to put a pin in it for now. A more important mission had come up. Her friend and fellow bounty hunter, Chloe, is missing, and it’s up to the Bond Girls to bring her home. The case takes a dangerous turn that sends Hailey and her team undercover to get an invite to the largest masquerade ball on the east coast. Is it wrong to be excited about the ball and scared for her friend at the same time? Probably. But Hailey is taking the world by storm, one case at a time. Reviews from Goodreads.com A few months ago, I was a woman who’d been stood up on my wedding day by a man who’d never made me a priority, never been honest, never been worthy of my time, but I’d been living a typically normal life. I’d gone to work, I’d come home, generally, I’d watched a little TV and had gone to bed with a man who’d slept soundly without so much as giving me a second glance. As far as self-esteem went, it’d been soul-crushing. In stark contrast, having a neighbor who had proposed a mating bond with me was a big boost in the how-I-viewed-myself department. I loved the idea of being someone’s forever, someone’s life partner in all things that mattered. I know, I know, when I started this new chapter in my life at the ripe old age of forty, I’d said I would never love again. Well, suck it up, buttercup. Things change. However, that didn’t mean I liked the fact that the vampire elders had put Jax and me on a ticking time clock to complete our bond. It crushed all the romance out of the whole meet my mate and fall in love thing. Really, how well could I get to know someone after a few months when those said months were filled with one crisis after another? We’d barely had a moment to breathe, much less bond. At least my future mate was hot with his shoulder-length strawberry-blond hair, big hazel eyes that changed colors depending on the color of his shirt and mood, and a body that could’ve made a grown woman weep with joy at just seeing him shift a shoulder or clench a muscle. Believe me, I’d had to resist the urge a few times. He had a way of wearing jeans that made me grateful I had eyes. Despite his bodily excellence, Jaxson Parsons was so much more than eye candy. He was a strong, fierce leader of the United States vampires and a compassionate friend. Friend, not lover, because we hadn’t yet done the deed if you know what I mean. You… you know what I mean, right? The deed. The big kahuna. Bumping uglies. Taking a trip to Pound Town. Knocking boots, checking the oil. Two-person push-ups, the no-pants dance. Oh, sorry. You did understand what I meant. Sex. The idea of mating with the beautiful brooding vampire from across the street, the guy who’d saved my life, the guy who looked at me like I used to look at dessert, wasn’t a completely unwelcome thought. At least, not when I was alone in my room in the dark of night fantasizing about it. About him. As far as fantasies went, rolling through the sheets with him was one of my faves, but knowing the choice was out of my hands was on the ugly side of overwhelming. During all this chaos, I’d also started a new business with my best friend, and that took up a significant amount of time. We were the Bond Girls Recovery Agency; skip tracers. Move over Dog, the Bond Girls were on the case. And we were good. Like, really good. We’d learned most of what we knew from Cleo, a seasoned bounty hunter who was happy to teach us everything she knew. Of course, a little magic and vampire speed helped too. I thought about all of this as I lay in the bed on the jet flying us home from Europe because Cleo had gone missing. Missing. Our mentor was MIA, and it was going to be on me, on the Bond Girls, to find her. As far as my new vampire status, time was on my side. Or would have been if I hadn’t wasted so much of it in Milan having to justify my existence to a council who blamed Jax for turning me without permission. Never mind I would’ve died from Zara draining me. They’d rather I have died. More wasted time in the air when I should’ve been sleeping, but couldn’t because…mating bond, missing friend. Sleeping wasn’t exactly something I was going to be able to manage until this was all handled, at least. The pull was still incredibly strong, though. This was the first time I’d been able to resist it. When the plane rolled to a stop on the tarmac, I rolled out of the bed, ready to face whatever I had to in order to get Cleo back. I followed Jax through the airport with my phone pinging notifications as if I’d been out of touch for weeks, months even, rather than the hours I’d been in the air from Milan. We had to meet Luke and Kendra—they’d accompanied us to the council meeting—then we could be off to find Cleo. They were on the same flight but didn’t have to be confined to the light-tight rooms. I saw Kendra first. She was tall in her heeled boots and her hair was pulled back in a long cascade of ebony—she’d had a spa day in Milan that included a chemical refresh of her hair color—but since she was as close to Cleo as I was, her face was drawn with worry. “I did a spell on the plane.” She kept her voice low because we were in public. “I sensed Cleo, so I’m almost certain she’s alive.” A weight like a cinder block lifted from my chest. This was good news. Her spells were at least sixty percent how we found our skips and she was hardly ever wrong. “I have at least ten missed calls from Jordan and Tracy combined.” Tracy, Cleo’s daughter, had brought the abduction to our attention, and she was understandably frantic. Jordan, as Cleo’s boss and the possible reason she was abducted, was also understandably hysterical. Without Cleo, he was twenty percent down in terms of his workforce. And teeny tiny Jordan, who had Michael Jackson’s voice and Danny DeVito’s comb-over, needed his entire workforce to keep him solvent. Plus, I suspected he had a thing for Cleo. For her badassery, her class and her ability to shoot the wings off a fly in the dark just by hearing it flap its little wings. There was a lot for Jordan to admire about Cleo. A lot for all of us to admire, but he took it to ever-flirting extremes. Luke walked up to us, not quite as worried. He knew Cleo, but only in passing. “Come on,” I said. “We’ll drop you off on the way.” Nash and Grim—part of Jax’s creatures of the night team—were going to meet us at Jordan’s office, so off we went. Jax drove, because it was his car, and he didn’t mind driving, although as vampires, we could run like the wind, and it probably would’ve been faster than battling traffic. However, that kind of speed through a very busy city was a bit hard to explain to humans who chose to act as if witches and vampires and fae were the stuff of folklore, not living right under their noses. I texted Cleo’s daughter, Tracy, to let her know we were going straight to Jordan’s and then on to finding her mama. “Where are Paige and Ransom?” I asked as Jax navigated the streets of downtown Philadelphia, heading for Jordan’s. “Dealing with my kingdom,” he said. “Just normal stuff. Property rights disputes, a petition for a new club in Seattle. That sort of thing.” I touched his hand on the gearshift. “Thanks. I’m glad you’re here, helping with this.” He easily could’ve delegated finding Cleo to his subordinates or left it to me. It was my problem, not his. He cared because I did, and that meant a lot to me. By the time we arrived, Nash and Grim were stationed outside like trench-coat-wearing secret service agents. Except these guys had fangs and were cold to the touch. They didn’t care much for taking chances in the sunlight. Hence, our movements tended to be under cover of darkness. It gave us the element of surprise. The ability to sneak better than we could in daylight excursions. I walked inside and stared at Jordan, who had bitten his nails down to the knuckle. Not really, but you get the point. When his eyes met mine, he started talking in fast, high-pitched sentences. “Where have you been, little lady? Do I not have enough to worry about with Cleo missing? Then you take off, too? And no call, no email, no word whatsoever.” I would have interrupted and told him that I definitely informed him that I was going to be away by phone and email, but he hadn’t taken a breath yet. “I left you eleven voicemails,” he squeaked, his voice higher than normal thanks to his worry. It’d only been seven, but Jordan was prone to exaggeration. “I was ready to file a second missing person report.” He was on a roll. I hated to interrupt his tirade, but I had questions. “You filed a missing person on Cleo?” That meant cops would be involved, which would make finding her much harder because we would be limited about how involved we could be, or at least, how much we could let them know we were involved. He huffed out a breath, folded his arms, unfolded them and rubbed his hands over his hips then folded his arms again. “Well, no. But I wanted to. I just thought you might have a better chance of finding her. Your success rate is a hundred percent better than theirs.” I would’ve basked in the praise had Cleo not been missing. “Jordan?” “Yes, yes.” He fastened his fanny pack around his waist. I didn’t know what he kept in that thing. I’d never had the courage to ask, but he never left home without it—assuming, and I did, that the back room here doubled as his living space. He was going somewhere. It took a second for me to figure out he meant to go with us. “What are you doing?” I wasn’t as high-pitched as Jordan, but it had been a while since he’d gone out on the streets, although Cleo had repeatedly vouched for his greatness. Still, it worried me. Plus, he didn’t know how the Bond Girls had such a high success rate. And if he went with us, we’d have to act totally normal. “I’m coming along.” He cocked a brow. It was his version of a silent dare. “No, no. That’s a bad idea.” I didn’t know why. Gut feeling, maybe. And I trusted those a lot more than I trusted a hobbit to be helpful. Plus, the whole, we needed to be able to use our powers thing. “Hails, can I see you outside for a minute?” Kendra laid a hand on my shoulder, intervening before Jordan and I came to verbal or physical blows. The office wasn’t small but looked like it was because of the amount of furniture in the place. Chairs, tables, desks, all in such disarray that Kendra and I had to maneuver around because Nash, Grim, Jax, and Jordan were positioned in the empty spaces. I walked out first and the bell on the door jingled. I’d made Jordan put it on the door after the first time we walked in on him half naked so he’d know when we arrived, giving him time to put on a shirt and pants before he came out of the back room. I turned to Kendra as she asked, “What do we do?” “About what?” Like I said, I’d spent a few hours too many on a plane. My brain was fuzzy. “Jordan can’t go with us without finding out that you have a very specific skill set these days.” She made it sound like I was the guy from that movie. “He’ll know you’re… special, and he has no inside voice. No filter. He’ll tell everyone in a ten-mile radius just by breathing.” I nodded because her point was valid. Plus, I’d been thinking the same thing. “What do you want me to do? You know how he feels about Cleo.” Being left behind wasn’t an option for Jordan. He wouldn’t listen if we told him to stay. Pfft. We wouldn’t even be able to keep him semi-quiet. Moonlight glinted off of Kendra’s shiny hair as she sighed and tossed it behind her shoulders. “Maybe we should just tell him. Get it out in the open. Here. Now. Let him see it isn’t a big deal.” Her idea made sense. We could use his own walls to contain his enthusiasm about me. He was sure to freak out one way or another. “You can’t tell him about vampires.” The voice came as a whisper inside my head, a sexy, low purr of a whisper that traveled down my body like a caress. Jax. He couldn’t read my mind or hear my thoughts, nor could I read his. However, we could send our thoughts to one another like telepathy. Another of those handy new skills for this amazing skillset was the hearing of a bat or a moth. “Jax says we can’t tell him about my personal… abilities,” I whispered. She did a full spin. “Oh, Jax says, does he?” “Easily agitated, isn’t she?” Jax’s voice made my body vibrate, and I lip-twitched away a smile. I loved hearing him whisper like that. It was so dang sexy. I let my head wave from one side to the other, then crossed my arms and assumed an all-business face. No need to make her think I wasn’t taking her seriously. “He does.” “Well, maybe you could ask him what we should do here? How we should force Jordan to stay here.” “You should tell him that Kendra’s a witch.” Holy catnip, this man had a way about him. A voice. A body. Intelligence. He was the full package. But no way was Kendra going along with that idea. Still, it was my duty as a vampire to protect the identity of my kind, because there were predators. The Salem witch trials ended a long time ago, but since that danged Buffy and those Winchester boys on TV, amateur fang hunters were everywhere. “Jax thinks we should tell Jordan about you.” “I hope you mean that you’re going to tell him that I cook a mean linguine alfredo, that I can ballroom dance, that I know the value of a dollar in ways that a lot of women don’t when it comes to buying designer shoes.” Her eyes flashed then went dark with the challenge. “Yes, Ken, I’m going to give Jordan the headlines from your Tinder profile.” I rolled my eyes and tapped one foot. “Listen, sister, just because you’re getting the goods from Count Hotpants doesn’t mean you should demean my online dating.” Now she was getting huffy, and we were so far off-topic I was going to need a tractor-trailer and a crane to bring us back around. And for goodness sake, he could hear us and was chuckling in my ear. Well chuckling in my mind via telepathy. “I’m not getting the goods from anyone.” Sweet holy hominy, getting the goods? I wished. “Could be.” It was him again. And he knew we were talking about sweeping the proverbial chimney. And he wanted me to know we could be sleeping together. Thank goodness he couldn’t read my mind unless I let him. Cause then he’d know I’d be bright freaking red right now if I were still a human. “Hush.” Kendra’s head jerked up. “Did you just tell me to hush?” “No, I…” Lord. I couldn’t tell her he was listening. Although maybe she knew already. “I would never. What I’m saying is…” What the hell was I saying? “What I’m saying is…” I came out stronger, still didn’t have a big finish. “What I’m saying is that telling Jordan about vampires is dangerous, but letting him see you do a simple spell, maybe scry for Cleo’s location is enough to keep him watching you in case I give myself away.” “Nice. Way to keep it focused on her.” I didn’t need the cheering section, but I didn’t mind the praise, even if it was in a whisper and only I could hear it. Kendra sighed, then threw her hands up, and growled. “Fine. We’ll tell him I’m a witch.” She turned and walked back inside. To myself—more to Jax—I muttered, “You’d better hope this works.” We walked inside. Jordan was still fumbling with his fanny pack and Nash and Grim were as focused as ever. Jax wore a smirk and ridiculously, even that was endearing on him. That wasn’t something I wanted to unpack right now, so I slipped it in with all my other Jax thoughts to be contemplated at a later time. I glanced at Jordan. He’d finally managed to fasten his belted bag around his waist and huffed an impatient sigh. “Why are we all just standing here?” Kendra had never been shy before about who she was. For those of us who knew about her, her powers were just a part of what made her the fun-loving, slightly eccentric, always beautiful woman she was. But she was looking at Jordan as if we were sending her in front of the firing squad. “Oh, fine.” Finally, she stepped forward. She took Jordan’s tiny shoulders in her hands and spun him to face her. “I’m going to tell you something.” He pulled his head back as if she’d just threatened to kill him. “And if you ever tell anyone, I will yank your ears off and use them to make tiny man soup before I shove you in the pot. You hear me?” He cocked an eyebrow, and the unflappable Jordan looked ever so slightly flapped. “I hear you.” This was the most solemn I’d ever seen him. Instead of explaining, Kendra took a piece of paper and wrote Cleo’s name in bold, black marker. Then she closed her eyes and waved one finger over the page so that the words rose off the page and into the air. The letters straightened into a line that formed an arrow and then pointed outside. “Let’s go.” Jordan stared hard. First at the arrow then at Kendra. He didn’t move more than a couple of inches and then only because Nash stepped around him and bumped Jordan’s shoulder. “What in sam blasted hell is going on?” Jordan yelped. I moved forward. “Jordan, you know that there are things in the world that happen that people think are unexplained?” He nodded but kept his gaze on the arrow that was scrunching then straightening as if telling us to get out the door. “Kendra is one of those unexplainable explanations.” Blinking rapidly, Jordan braced himself on a nearby chair with one hand and waved the other in the air as he spoke. “So you’re like that wizard kid in the movies? The one with the round glasses and the warthog?” His details were fuzzy, but I knew who he meant. Unfortunately, being compared to that kid was something that set Kendra’s hair on fire. She narrowed her gaze and stared hard at Jordan. A lesser, smaller man would have shriveled, but this guy lifted his chin. “What?” “Not at all like the kid.” Even though she kind of was. Her eyes flashed, and I shrugged at Jax whose smirk had flattened into a thin line that was still adorable. Jordan hadn’t stopped staring at Kendra. “Can you wiggle your nose to cook dinner?” “Why would I do that?” Her gaze pinched. “Can you grant me three wishes?” “That’s a genie, Einstein.” Every word he spoke deepened her frown. “Can you teleport? Transform into a dragon? Do you dine on the souls of little children?” He rattled off a couple more Hollywood versions of witchy powers. I had to bite back giggles at his reaction. He’d taken it like a pro. “Yes, you butthead. I breakfast on seven-year-olds or tiny little men with screechy voices.” She shrugged like the difference didn’t matter. I hid a smile behind my hand. “Maybe we should go. Cleo’s still missing.” Jordan nodded at me. “Yes, we should.” We drove to Cleo’s house because to scry for her location, we needed something of hers along with the city map I’d pilfered from under the counter in Jordan’s office. Jax drove me, and Jordan while Nash and Grim followed behind with Kendra. She’d ridden with them because leaving her in the back seat with Jordan wasn’t safe for him. When we arrived, Kendra stopped me at the door as I was about to put my key into the lock. “What about Tracy?” She wasn’t aware of the supernatural, and the fewer people who knew—it was bad enough we’d had to tell Jordan—the better. Jax took the key from my hand and looked inside the apartment. “She’s asleep on the sofa.” I nodded. “I’ll just run inside for a second.” It was all too easy to stay quiet, thanks to my preternatural powers, and soon came back out with a necklace of Cleo’s and handed it to Kendra. We didn’t have to be inside the apartment. The hallway would work. Heck, anywhere would work as long as we had an item of Cleo’s. Nash stood guard on one side, Grim on the other, as Kendra kneeled on the floor to work her magic with the map and necklace. Jordan chortled and giggled as the necklace pointed us to Cleo’s location. “I have got to learn how to do that.” Then he looked up at me. “This is how you catch them all, isn’t it?” I chuckled. No way was I telling him anything. “Sorry, Jordan. A girl has to have her secrets.” I smiled as we walked to the stairwell. There were some things he didn’t need to know. How we were going to manage to keep them from him, I had no clue.	21,021
This post is in response to Hippo’s call for academic, historical, critical, and/or cultural essays that our readers might possibly have lying around. Is that you? Email [email protected] for a chance to be featured here. Read parts one and two here. In the last century or so the notion of progress through economic development has proved so popular that governments positively encourage it. The mindset has moved from suspicion to imperative. Innovation has become a buzz word: sometimes it’s “innovation for its own sake” and sometimes it’s “innovation as rhetoric” and these only complicate the three responses to change we have already identified: optimism, pessimism and fatalism. Remember none of these is uncontested, but they are all expressed with totally unwarranted certainty — if is not one thing then it must be another — and the very human faculty of cognitive dissonance means that we can hold elements of them all, in varying measure, at the same time. We ought to be alarmed by any government’s adoption of an act of faith as policy, especially if they are unaware that it is one. But Progress has momentum. In 1965 Gordon Moore was asked what would happen in the silicon components industry over the next ten years. His prediction proved accurate enough to be called “Moore’s Law.” Forty years later he reflected: There was no way we could predict very far down the road what was going to happen. It was just a lucky guess…but the industry made it a self-fulfilling prophesy, now the industry road maps are based on that continued rate of improvement, various technology nodes come along on a regular basis to keep us on that curve, so all the participants in the business recognize that if they don’t move that fast they fall behind technology, so essentially from being just a measure of what has happened, it’s become a driver of what is going to happen. —Intel Corporation website Futurologist Ray Kurzweil sees a principle of accelerating returns in Moore’s Law with the dramatic conclusion that immortality is just around the corner. The argument, in a nutshell, is that life expectancy has increased year on year. It has increased by more than ten years in the last fifty. If it continues to increase exponentially soon the rate of increase per year will be more than one year. And if your life expectancy increases faster than you grow old you will live forever. The illusion of finality once more — the key word is if: “Much virtue in If.” There are consequences to innovation developing a life of its own. Donald T. Campbell describes what happens when the measure becomes more important than what it is supposed to be measuring in Campbell’s Law: The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor. And “laws” like these become part of the cultural baggage: The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas. — The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money, J.M. Keynes (1934) One idea that has been encroaching gradually is a distinction between two phases in the lifetime of anything new: radical change followed by incremental change. If we use the language of business, an innovative product or service is introduced and then the production/delivery process is honed and refined over time until it is replaced by something better. And so we have periods of acknowledged uncertainty interrupting periods of (unwarranted) certainty. The pace of change is vital to our understanding of the history of innovation. In ancient times change was slow enough to go unnoticed. By Victorian times technological innovation was undeniable. Marcus Aurelius saw nothing new after the age of forty; Prince Albert was less than thirty when he spoke of a period of wonderful transition; but almost anyone born today will have seen constant change by the time they reach adulthood. We have all seen innovations rise, fall and die in a matter of a few years – remember the pager, floppy discs, the electric typewriter? These were not failures, they returned on investment, but they were short-lived and easily forgotten. The gales of creative destruction blow louder and faster. Meanwhile the so-called benefits of progress are challenged, confidence is undermined and no one can tell if or when we might get “back to normal.” Short-termism or inertia are seen as the only safe bets — for investors the exit strategy has become all-important. Even supposedly serious news organizations are unable to present anything more than a couple of minutes long. For example the BBC’s flagship news program which broadcast a timely piece on the dangers of short-termism on the day before the U.S. government was due to default. Asked why short-termism is so prevalent Pascal Lamy, launching the report Now For The Long Term, suggested one reason is technology: If you look at how the financial markets work now it’s all about short term; the news business is very much about short term. You probably had a bit of a time finding a bit of a slot on BBC Today this morning saying I’m going to have to talk about long term — “ooh ooh long term that doesn’t make sense for our listeners.” Asked how would we change thinking he explained that some global issues such as Y2K, the millennium bug, and HIV Aids have been reasonably well addressed. On the other hand , “Oceans, over fishing — a catastrophe; climate change — gridlock…” His report has analyzed these contrasting cases to draw some conclusions leading to “a few provocative proposals.” At this point the interview, which has lasted around 90 seconds, is wrapped up with these words: “We may have to wait until next time to hear exactly what those proposals are, but Pascal Lamy thanks very much for joining us. And now — sport.” — BBC Radio Four Today 16/10/2013 So what are we to make of it all? Adam Smith, writing of the need for political wisdom in times of disorder described the challenge as: When to re-establish the authority of the old system, and when to give way to the more daring, but often dangerous spirit of innovation. —The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) Quite how dangerous that spirit can be is illustrated by the words of Saint-Just, arguing for continuing revolution: Sadly for St-Just it was he who was found to be pernicious — a few months later along with Robespierre he met the latest judicial innovation: the efficient and “humane” Madame Guillotine. Most of us, whether in favor of or against any particular change, look forward to the calm after the storm and want to achieve some sort of balanced view of a way ahead. Misia Landau asked, “Can science use literary theory?” We can ask, “Can literary theory help us understand crisis?” An argument from another revolutionary decade: Our own epoch is the epoch of nothing positive, only of transition. Since we move from transition to transition, we may suppose that we exist in no intelligible relation to the past, and no predictable relation to the future. — The Sense of an Ending, Frank Kermode (1967) This loss of confidence has consequences, as per sociologist Robert Holton: Those who believe in crisis cannot give us a convincing account of whether new patterns of normalcy will be established. Without any clear sense of the possibility of new patterns, crisis becomes a more or less permanent condition — a chronic illness or a dream without end. In place of the epic narrative we now have the soap-opera. — Problems of Crisis and Normalcy in the Contemporary World (2002) Advice for the rationalist at the gate of the year The contrast between epic and soap sounds pejorative but if we must explain culture in narrative terms consider this: The thing about epics is that they always have an ending — they are not sustainable. Towards the close of Morte D’Arthur, the king sails off to Avalon leaving behind his old friend Bedivere who asks: What shall becom of me, now ye go frome me and leve me here alone amonge myne enemyes? To which Arthur replies; …do as well as thou mayste, for in me ys no trust for to trust in. To which Bedivere must have thought, “Well thanks a bunch! Now you tell me. That sword might have come in handy.” Actually soap operas are not that bad: many of them are long lived and successful, they are built to last and are capable of great change and innovation during their lifetimes. They only get into serious trouble when they try to be epic. Epics get into trouble when they try to become soaps. There should be room for both in the schedules. Epics might have higher status but they don’t have the staying power. Some entrepreneurs and inventors fill the epic role of “great men” but most innovation is carried on by the rest of us with a lot less fanfare. If instead of always trying to cast ourselves as heroes, we recognized ourselves as actors (some of us bit players, most of us mere extras) in a larger, evolving story which requires us to interact with a multiplicity of possibilities, we might be able to look at the new season with a little more confidence. Featured image courtesy of the Library of Congress. “The Essay is the Genre of Presence”: An Interview with Nicole B. Wallack About The Author Paul Kirkham is a Researcher in the field of entrepreneurial creativity at the Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Nottingham University Business School. Prior to joining the institute he worked for 35 years in the manufacturing industry.	10,187
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The best is when I'm tied up so my man can watch you make love to me and I'll scream with pleasure. You can be free on Saturday. We have no problem receiving you for this meeting or setting an appointment where you desire. I am on this libertine site in order to discover myself between like-minded people. My man is fully aware of this announcement. I'm looking for a hot and well-endowed guy so my man can see me having a great time. We want to see your hottest proposals. I hope to see your comments. Kisses! See you later. Student looking for fun on Dunn A hot date should make me come. I want a guy who's a good licker. I'm also a fan of gentle anal sex. I'm personally in favor of a date in nature if you're an exhibitionist. I'm attracted to a naughty guy who knows how to take charge during our dirty evening. I'm only here to enjoy myself. We can meet up in Dunn and its surroundings. I am usually available for an interview in the early evening. I prefer a man who is fairly hot and, most importantly, has a long penis to give me a lot of pleasure because I am a greedy girl. I know how to handle my hookups to make them want me. I want to be in the company of this lover who can quickly fulfill all my hot desires. I look forward to hearing from you. I look forward to meeting you. Bye. A hot woman on Dunn wants to have a naughty guy for some no-strings attached fun very soon First name: Soumeyya, Age: 43 yo, City: Dunn (NC) Hi guys, I'm a 43 year old woman and my name is Soumeyya. I've been single for a long time because I prefer to play with men. I'm always very sexy. I'm attracted to guys who are very muscular. I also need a hot rabbit that is well-endowed, otherwise I don't feel anything. I just want to fuck well. You can make an appointment in an unusual place for this sex plan. I am also available at night and on Sundays. I want to meet a guy for sex because I love having wild, taboo-less sex with guys I don't know. I personally love naughty positions so I want a libertine with experience. Now, I'm asking you to send me a message if you're interested in a one-night libertine plan with a charming cougar player. I'll be waiting for you, see you later.	7,512
It is becoming increasingly hard for photographers to know what they can and cannot do when it comes to legalities. To make matters more complicated, every state has its own set of laws that govern photography. Therefore, photographers need to fully understand the law in their respective state. In most instances, there are only two ways in which a photographer can be sued: intentional (criminal) conduct and negligence (civil) conduct. Criminal conduct consists of actions that a person clearly understands as illegal but still takes such action anyway. It is also possible for a photographer to be sued for negligently violating certain laws or statutes even if they did not commit any intentional act. On top of complying with the law, there are other things that photographers need to take into consideration before taking photographs—for example, privacy issues and rights of publicity (when one’s photograph can be used commercially without permission). Knowing about these two areas could save a photographer from being sued in the future. Dan Doyle Pleasantville photographer and entrepreneur provided us some basic information about each issue along with helpful hints and advice on how to avoid a potential lawsuit. Privacy refers to an individual’s legal right not to have their name, likeness or other personal information revealed to anyone else without their permission. This can be violated through unauthorized use of a photograph or video that reveals people’s faces and bodies when they expect such matters to remain private. Resolution: If you want to take photographs of someone (e.g., in an exhibition or display), make sure that person has given written consent for the photograph(s) to be taken and displayed. A lot of times you will find this clause printed on official documents such as licenses, entry forms, and waivers—like those found at amusement parks. Photographers should also be aware that consent will not always be enough protection against privacy violation claims arising from the acts of others. For example, if you have an employee or assistant who takes your photographs but then posts them on social media, you may be held liable for that person’s conduct and for the subsequent privacy violations caused to another person. Also, if someone asks you not to take their photograph and respect their privacy, do not take such a photograph even if they consent to it afterward. It is always better to be safe than sorry! In general terms rights of publicity are used in legal claims when one’s name or likeness is used commercially without prior written consent by a person. Resolution: Woman holding both hands out, palms first; image by M.T ElGassier, via Unsplash.com. Photographers need to take care in photographing or videotaping the likeness of a person for any purpose, including commercial purposes. They should also understand that they may be liable even if they unknowingly took someone’s photograph without their permission (i.e., accidental infringement). If you are concerned about infringing on rights of publicity, then you can simply ask for permission from each subject prior to taking their photograph and make sure to display your model release form before anyone signs it. You may also want to include a clause in all applicable contracts that prohibits you from using contributors’ names or likenesses on promotional materials unless written consent has been obtained beforehand. Photographers may encounter criminal conduct by someone who is angry about the way they were photographed, which resulted in an unflattering or embarrassing image. Resolution: If you are going to take portrait photographs of people, it is absolutely important that you understand model releases because they clearly state the scope of rights granted to the photographer for using such images commercially. You will need this contract if someone decides to sue you in the future alleging that they never gave consent for their likeness to be used commercially (e.g., on websites, marketing materials, etc.). 4) Photographers’ Liability Insurance for Lawsuits When a photographer or videographer is sued, the subject(s) in their images may claim that they suffered harm as a result of the publication of such images. In this regard, it is always prudent for photographers to seek professional advice from a lawyer before taking photographs and videos of individuals. Resolution: Any photographer can get liability insurance for bloggers and online publishers that protects them from some type of claims arising from the photographs they have taken. However, keep in mind that you will need to pay a very considerable amount before purchasing this coverage. Furthermore, it is important to note that all lawsuits are different in nature and may require unique planning depending on specific circumstances. Therefore, I highly recommend that you obtain legal counsel first to deal with whatever situation you encounter. Ensure that an agreement is reached between yourself and any party or parties involved as soon as possible before the shoot commences. For example, if a professional model releases you from any liability, you would want to make sure that they sign a contract agreeing to this. You also need to specify the number of photographs that will be taken and how they may be used in your advertising. Resolution: When you are planning to photograph someone for commercial purposes (e.g., editorial use on websites, marketing materials, etc.), it is always better to have a detailed discussion with the person about what exactly you want them to do and how long it’s going to take because such information will help control your financial risk more effectively. Recently, there are new apps offered on the market for digital editing and manipulation of photographs. In particular, the content-aware tool in Photoshop CS5 allows users to select areas or objects within an image that they would like to remove. The software then automatically fills out any background components without leaving a noticeable gap in the composition. Resolution: The process of removing elements from images is called “cloning” and it’s a technique used by many professional photographers today because it has become so popular amongst enthusiasts worldwide. However, keep in mind that if you do not own the copyright to these photos, you need permission from the photographer who took them. They will usually require money for granting you such permission as well. Many digital photo shooters today are interested in repurposing their images by using them on different products without having to take additional photos. So when you find out that someone has used your photos on calendars, postcards, websites, etc., then they may not have actually obtained a model release from the person who was photographed. This means that it is illegal for the use of such photographs and can cost you time and money to enforce your rights as an owner for any court action related to taking legal action against a company or other individuals who have infringed upon your copyright protection. Resolutions: Contact a lawyer for further advice regarding how best to protect yourself from financial losses that may inevitably occur if you do not have a model release form in your possession. 8) Photographer’s Responsibility in a Public Event In public events, it’s usually illegal for you to take photographs of a crowd without having the permission of event organizers. This is often determined by the size and location of such an event. For instance, if you are filming at or near a concert venue that has over 5,000 attendees, then you need permission from the live music promoters who organized the concert in order to be completely legal about taking pictures/videos. Resolutions: Contact your local authorities regarding any laws pertaining to photography and videography at public venues so that photographers can protect themselves from potentially expensive lawsuits down the road. Also contact event organizers where applicable prior getting official permission for shooting video or photography during an event as well. That way you’ll be able to establish clearer boundaries in how you may want to use any footage/photos that were taken during the event. Professional photographers often operate under works-for-hire agreements where clients pay for their services directly upfront through a model release form that grants editors/ownership rights over any content that is used as part of a commercial project. This type of arrangement ensures that photographers will be compensated for their work if they are injured when shooting in a public location. Resolution: If you are not operating under such an agreement, then I recommend getting insurance coverage so that you will be covered in case someone gets hurt during your photography shoot and you’ll have to pay any medical bills out-of-pocket while also losing time from your schedule. There are many insurance companies that specialize in the photography and videography industry so choose carefully when finding an affordable plan for your needs. It’s important to learn about licensing issues beforehand so that you can protect yourself from unnecessary legal costs down the road. You also don’t want to make mistakes that could potentially cause serious harm to innocent bystanders who may get injured by someone else’s carelessness while filming a public activity. Resolving licensing issues in these ways means that photographers will have better control over what they may be allowed to legally do regarding photography or videography on various levels depending on what type of project they are working on for clients. It’s important to learn the law when it comes to your profession so that you can protect yourself from avoidable lawsuits while safeguarding your reputation as a professional. A photographer should know the law in their state before they start taking pictures. Some states require a model release form, which is especially important when you are photographing children or people who might be vulnerable without explicit consent. Other states have different laws for commercial and personal use that may not apply to every type of photography. Please enable JavaScript to view comments powered by Disqus. Behind the Story of Ghostbed vs. Purple Mattress Lawsuit How Green Are Those New Cassava Bags? Amanda Moore is the Director of Customer Success at DiamondLinks.com and has spent several years across various industries including SEO, manufacturing, analytics, & content marketing. With a diverse background, along with a Master's in Business Administration, Amanda has become an expert at connecting the dots to find good solutions. Amanda has a passion to ensure that those searching for good content are able to find and utilize what they need quickly and efficiently. Read more articles by Amanda Moore drone photographyphotographphotographsphotographyright to privacy Legal Reader is devoted to protecting consumers. We take pride in exposing the hypocrisy of corporations, other organizations, and individuals whose actions put innocent people in harm’s way. We are unapologetic in our dedication to informing the public and unafraid to call out those who are more focused on profits than people’s safety.	12,020
We stay here for couple hours to waiting for ferry to Isle of Man, beach view, no overnight. We paid £4 for 4 hours. But if you park over the Barri... on 21-08-2020 by Lidanmeredith Very big farm, most is flat. just drive in, toilet is clean , quite in night. We stay two nights here. on 04-03-2020 by Lidanmeredith This car park have barrier height 2.75m, We parked our motorhome at Mount wise 2, just up right , £1 for 24 hours. Over night. on 04-03-2020 by Lidanmeredith Very quite at night, but there isn’t signal on phone or TV. on 04-03-2020 by Lidanmeredith We went there, they put on sign no over night parking. on 04-03-2020 by Lidanmeredith Big car park, parking fee start April to Oct, no overnight sign on. Toilet beside the park, but not open all the time. Lovely bay to walk, and caf... on 23-01-2020 by Lidanmeredith Daytime we parked at NCP city centre , walk around enjoy the historic areas, before 6:00pm we drive here park over night. Free from 18:00-8:00. Lo... on 22-01-2020 by Lidanmeredith Free park over night, couple minutes walk to jolly sailer pub. No service . on 22-01-2020 by Lidanmeredith We stay here for one night, parked at long stay, very quite, plenty shops and restaurants around. Next morning we drove to Eling walk around.	1,261
News flash: not all drama is the same. Camelot Theatre in Talent is embracing the drama of dialogue—complete with music and sound effects—in their audio drama series. The next installment is War of the Worlds, running July 23 – 25. And, while the whole series will be aired on Jefferson Public Radio, audio dramas are not to be confused with radio dramas. “It is like the difference between a TV show [radio drama] and a movie,” clarifies Jonathan Pratt, Resident Sound and Video Designer at Camelot Theatre. “In a TV show, you are constrained by content and time; with movies, you have more time and freedom.” That said, Pratt seeks to truly embrace the genre. Specifically with War of the Worlds, the setting for Camelot’s audio drama will be in the late 1890s, when the piece was originally written by H.G. Wells. Numerous adaptations have spanned the years, most notably with the 1938 radio broadcast (which some took to be a report of a true alien invasion) and the 1953 theatrical film (which made the story in the present-day of 1953). “It is always interesting in science fiction, which is a forward-thinking drama, when you are looking to the past,” says Pratt. “War of the Worlds narration intro is usually cut out because of all its narration, but we get to keep it.” Pratt, who handles 160 shows per year at Camelot (he says he practically lives there and keeps a blanket in his booth), has been “fascinated by doing these live,” and has written, directed, and composed all the shows in the series. “I like to think of myself as a very economical director,” he says. “I like to use my time wisely; only 13 days from start to finish.” And while the preparation for such a production is minimal compared to full acting performances, the art form lends itself to challenges, also due to the fact that the performances are recorded live. “The action is suggested, not acted out,” says Pratt. “You don’t have the visuals.” He adds that audio dramas are excellent for beginning actors who won’t have to memorize their lines or aging actors who are having memory problems. “It is like an open book test; the notes are right in front of you.” Great success with The Curios Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde last Halloween and Jane Eyre this past April is leading into the previously mentioned War of the Worlds this summer and Dracula this October. And, in addition to being aired on Jefferson Public Radio, all the productions will be available on a new podstreaming platform coming in early June, found through the Apple, Google, Spotify and more favorite podcast platforms under “Camelot Theatre.” Pratt says he is always thinking of new ways to present these audio dramas. “What does the audience know? What are you telling them? How do I make it different? I don’t just want to remount what has been done 100 times,” he says. July 23—25 The Author Sara has been involved with the Rogue Valley Messenger from its inception, innocently responding to a craigslist ad asking for writers back in 2012, because she figured, why not? She had received her B.A. in Journalism/Mass Communications from Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, in 2007 and was itching to put it to good use back where she was born and raised, in Grants Pass. Little did she know that the then online paper would end up in print, or that she would find herself in the esteemed position of Associate Editor two short years later. She and her husband and daughter, Seth and Lavender, have a small farm outside Grants Pass, where they primarily raise goats and rabbits and sell their products at their farm stand, L-Mae Essentials. They aspire to add produce to their repertoire in coming years. In her spare time, she also works as a Surgery Assistant/Implant Coordinator at Associates for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Grants Pass and Medford. Leave a reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Print Issue Availability We won’t be distributing a print issue this month due to limitations on locations available. We promise to get back to printing the Messenger as soon as it makes sense to do so.	4,296
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Please call before you visit the shop. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 9 ft. oak tree carving of a hawk, owl and fox located near Charlottesville, Virginia. Finished with Ben Moore Arborcoat oil- 326-10 and a bottom through cut with metal spacers creating a thin air gap to prevent rot coming up from the Earth inside the tree. Thanks for looking! I’m working on a 9 ft. stump carving in central Virginia this week. The design has a perched hawk on top, an owl in the middle and a fox on the bottom. Stay tuned, more pics to come. 5.5 ft. oak bear, burned before oil finish. Finished the U of H logo and the rocks. This has been an enjoyable carve here in Houston. Thanks for looking! Making progress on this cougar stump carving… thanks for looking. Doing an on-site stump carving of a cougar in Houston, TX this week! Oooo it’s much warmer here than Virginia right now. Passed some wild gators along the water’s edge near the highway coming here. That’s a first! I hope you are all enjoying the fall colors. This is a custom 6.5’ tall mailbox bear carved in pine, finished with Arborcoat oil and spray painted with natural colors. I’m grateful to have another happy and excited customer! A person saw an eagle sculpture as a wall decoration in a store and wanted to purchase it, but found out it was not for sale. They took a picture of it and sent it to me to see if I could replicate it. Here are the steps I took: Worked on a Native American today with my friend, John Wallin. We’re doing a collaboration carving. A 5 ft. tall x 5 ft. wide custom concrete whale’s tail installed at a residence in Cape Cod, MA. Get in touch if you’re interested in one for your property! This is a 5 ft. Whale’s tail with a welded frame made up of 1/4” steel rod and rebar with a skin of metal lath. Then, 3/4” thick vertical concrete mix from #buddyrhodesconcrete and finally, 2 coats of clear gloss concrete sealer. This my first time trying this vertical mix concrete and I really like it. One happy discovery I made was that I could sand this concrete after it set up and the sanded areas blended in with the non sanded areas very nicely. Great mix #buddyrhodes ! This is my third commission for a concrete whale’s tail. Each time I’m getting more comfortable with the process. I had my cnc draw out a template line drawing that I used as a map to bending the 1/4” steel rod. A lot of trial and error with each piece until it matched my line drawing. Then, I welded all the pieces together with a mig welder. Then, welded the metal lath to the rod as a skin. I feel like I’m getting better and better at welding with each piece. Next, I mixed up bags of Buddy Rhodes Vertical Mix concrete and applied it by hand to the metal lath and finished it smooth with a rounded trowel. Once it sets, I will seal it with a gloss sealer to give it a wet look. It is very satisfying to create a sculpture that will stay the way I made it, that will endure harsh weather with no future maintenance required. As opposed to wood that moves and changes and demands future care / maintenance. Finished pics to come. Stay tuned!! More shots of this momma and cubs. This a 5 x 10 sign made of aluminum composite board with aluminum frame and vinyl letters. The background gradient was sprayed. I fabricated aluminum flat bar into hanging brackets while my friend welded a post to a bracket. Then it was ready for install! Mama and cubs carved in pine, for a cabin in Kingsport, TN. Thanks for looking! Applying wood preservative to this Mama bear and cubs. Carved in white pine. Thanks for looking! Mama bear with 2 cubs on this one… This is a 30” x 11 ft. cherry stump full of burls that we debarked. Then, we carved a scrollwork design over the entire surface using imagery of vines, leaves and flowers. We utilized the hollows to create contrasting negative space. We cleaned out the hollows and made sure the water could drain well. Then, we saturated the inside and outside with an oil wood preservative and mounted it on a custom concrete pad. It took two weeks to carve and oil and is located in the garden of a residence in Georgetown, Washington DC. We used the following tools:	5,567
A godly and biblically-based devotional to help people with their faith and confidence; to encourage, educate, and inform. Come everyday for inspiration. Almost everybody is going through something and you can get through it with Jesus. I am a witness to that fact. Never give up on the great blessings God already has lined up for you. Jeremiah 29:11 says, 'He knows the plans He has for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' God is with you right now May 09, 2018 Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Do you know that just as the air is flowing through the atmosphere, God is with you? He will never leave you or forsake you. Sometimes we feel all alone, we may feel like nobody gets us, and we may feel like God has forgotten about us, but know this: we're not alone, somebody else is feeling exactly the same way we are, and God remembers us. You see, God knows the exact plans He has for each of us. He is keeping us safe and ensuring we're not put in any harm. He is putting things in place for our prosperity and He is giving us a hope and a future. How do I know? Because Jeremiah 29:11 tells me so. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God's words have many purposes. Maybe just maybe He has you listening to this podcast and reading this blog post at this very time for such a time as this in your life. Could it be that He knew that maybe you needed a stirring of your faith today? We all need encouragement from time to time. God knows that and let me tell you, He is with you right now. God is here and He knows what we need. We have to stand firm on His word, the bible, and never give up on it. Do you believe God's word? It never falls to the ground. It stands strong against anything, anyone, and any place at anytime. So I want to come to encourage you today and to remind you that God is still the Great I Am (Exodus 3:10). He still reigns from heaven above and His power and presence are mighty everywhere. Therefore, He's thinking about you right now and He's with you, as well. Yes you. Other Apps Other Apps Comments Popular posts from this blog I feel free January 31, 2019 Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. How are you feeling today? What kind of head space have you been in lately? I ask, because I'm just wondering if anybody feels like me -- free like me. Free as an eagle. Free as can be. That's right, out with doing business the old stale way and in with a fresh new operation. It's a shifting happening in the atmosphere of Sharon's life and I'm moving on to the big and awesome things God has for me. What do you say for yourself? What are you speaking over your life? What it is for you? For me, I am no longer afraid to go out in the deep end. I am no longer afraid to fly higher, I am no longer concerned about what I have or do not have, and I am no longer concerned about what anybody thinks or says. Who the heck cares anymore? I don't. Because God tells me he doesn't give me a spirit of fear or timidity ( 2 Timothy 1 :7) , but He gives me a spirit of love, confidence, power, self-control, and Other Apps Read more God blesses whomever he wants to bless, whenever he wants to bless them August 12, 2019 Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. When I was going through a dark time -- when I had nothing -- there was a certain person who helped me sometimes. She helped me whenever she basically felt like it, but she did help, and for that I'm appreciative. But, something interesting happened after I started growing out of my despair. Something interesting started happening when I no longer needed her for anything. And something interesting happened even though I remained kind and grateful towards. The interesting thing that happened was that she started hating on me. She started treating me differently. At first I was really bothered by it, because I thought she and her husband were nice people I wanted in my life. I liked that they had a sense of compassion and were interested in helping people who were down and low. That really appealed to me, because I was raised that way; my mother was raised that way; her mother was raised that way, and it goes back to as fa Other Apps Read more October 10, 2020 Click to listen to current podcast episode. “Never Giving Up” are power-words — strong affirmations that give us momentum and movement. That’s what’s up. We can do so much more in our lives when we have momentum and movement. It’s about standing, literally and not sitting or laying around feeling sorry for ourselves. I used to do that once upon a time and that sorrowful thinking is for the birds. We don’t have to be down. We can get up and get going even if we start small. In fact, I love starting small, because it helps set a firm foundation of habits and routines. Momentum and movement will help us get and maintain a position of strength to do what God says we can do. CLICK to get my latest ebook collection that will help you get MOVING regarding the things you want in your life.	5,562
Every horse owner has questions, which is why Purina is bringing expertise from its 1,200 acre nutrition research farm, the Purina Animal Nutrition Center, to their communities by partnering with local independent dealers to host in-person Horse Owners Workshops (HOW). At a local HOW events, horse owners can See live demonstrations by equine experts on topics like nutrition, veterinary care, management care, training and more. Enter to win prizes, including a year’s supply of Purina horse feed, an all-expense paid trip to the Purina Animal Nutrition Center and more. Receive a frequent buyer punch card toward a free bag of any premium Purina feed. And if attendees bring a friend, they can receive an extra punch. Talk with experts for advice on topics relevant to caring for their horses. Get answers to specific questions by using #HOWanswers on Twitter and following Purina on Facebook. Speak with their local independent Purina dealer about IMPACT horse feeds, introduced this year. Developed by Purina PhD equine nutritionists, these feeds are backed by more than 85 years of research and provide premium, affordable nutrition. February through April 2014. Horse owners can find a free event near them by visiting purinamills.com/horse-feed/how/. WHY: One Purina dealer that frequently hosts events partners with Purina PhD equine nutritionists and a prestigious local veterinary clinic to bring cutting-edge research to its customers. “Horse owners sometimes develop habits and routines that cause them to forget some of the things they learned years ago,” says Curtis Spencer, owner and president, Spencer’s Feed & Seed, Folsom, Louisiana. “Horse Owners Workshops can help refresh their memories and break through the routines they’ve developed to bring them back to the basics.” Purina Animal Nutrition LLC (purinamills.com) is a national organization serving producers, animal owners and their families through more than 4,700 local cooperatives, independent dealers and other large retailers throughout the United States. With an uncompromising commitment to animal excellence, Purina Animal Nutrition conducts industry-leading R&D initiatives that create and sustain a valued portfolio of complete feeds, supplements, premixes, ingredients and specialty technologies for the livestock and lifestyle animal markets. Species served by Purina Animal Nutrition include both large and small animals, including cattle, horses, swine, chickens, hamsters, gerbils and rabbits. Headquartered in Shoreview, Minnesota, Purina Animal Nutrition LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Land O’Lakes, Inc. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Maximum of one (1) entry per person. Enter at Purina Horse Owners Workshop events or by mail. Sweepstakes starts 1/27/14 and ends 5/30/14. Visit purinamills.com/horse-feed/how/ to find a Purina Horse Owners Workshop event and for complete rules. Void where prohibited. What did you think of this article? Submit Rating Thank you for your feedback! Related Equine Industry and Animal Welfare Organizations Announce Collaborative Effort to Ban Horse Slaughter	3,179
Section 166 of the Data Protection Act 2018 has produced a reasonable amount of litigation arising out of what appear to be repeated fundamental misunderstandings by data subjects as to what section 166 provides them with. The Upper Tribunal has authoritatively, on more than one occasion, sated that the right afforded by section 166 of the 2018 Act is limited and does not provide a route for an unhappy data subject to appeal the outcome of their complaint to the Information Commissioner. A recent FTT decision on section 166 took a slightly different approach, striking out the appeal on the grounds that the applicant had not even made a complaint to the Commissioner and so the Commissioner’s obligation to provide information as to the progress of the complaint was not even engaged. On 25 May 2021, the applicant copied the Information Commissioner’s Office into an E-mail that had been sent to various other organisations. In that E-mail, the applicant raised a number of issues, none of which seem to have engaged the data protection legislation. There was, attached to the E-mail, an annotated copy of an E-mail that she had received days earlier from the Home Office. On 8 June 2021, a case officer at the ICO wrote to the applicant to inform her that none of the issues she had raised fell within the jurisdiction of the Commissioner and advised her to complete one of the ICO’s complaint forms if she wished to raise a complaint under the data protection legislation. The Commissioner argued that as no valid complaint had been made to his office there was no complaint to progress and therefore the application under section 166 of the Data Protection Act 2018 had no reasonable prospect of success. Judge O’Connor agreed with the Commissioner and concluded that there was no reasonable prospect that the applicant could establish the contrary. Therefore, the application was dismissed. Judge O’Connor did go on to state that even if he was wrong on this, the Commissioner’s letter dated 8 June 2021 was a response and so the Tribunal would have had no jurisdiction under section 166 of the Act in any event. This case is rather different to the usual section 166 cases that have been seen until now. It suggests that the Information Commissioner is taking a robust approach to what is and what is not a complaint. It has been the case for many years that the ICO would not typically respond to E-mails where they have simply been copied in. The Tribunal appears to be willing, at least in this case, to conclude that no complaint in terms of Article 77 of the UK GDPR or section 165 of the Data Protection Act 2018 has been made to the Commissioner where that is appropriate, and strike out section 166 applications which follow on the back of correspondence not amounting to a proper complaint. Data Protection Act 2018 Judge O'Conner This blog is written for recreational purposes as an outlet for my thoughts and views on various legal topics. Nothing written on this blog should be relied upon as legal advice and should not be used as a replacement for proper legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances. Everything written here represents my own views and opinions and is not to be taken as he views or opinions of any organisation that I am associated with or of any employer I may be employed by now or in the future. A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. By using this site you agree to have cookies placed on your computer's hard drive. You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers are automatically set to accept cookies; however, if you do not want cookies to be placed on your computer's hard drive you can normally modify your browser settings to decline cookies. 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“Please listen to this story, which we pass down from generation to generation… Mother to daughter, father to son, elders to youngsters.” Ilona, a young journalist from Jakarta, searches for an elderly woman from Simeulue Island who survived the tsunami of 2004. The woman, Geumala, is among the 70,000 people who was saved due to the local wisdom called Smong – a bedtime story reminding people to head for higher ground when the tide recedes drastically following an earthquake. A storyteller herself, Geumala begins to tell the story of her sister, Nabeuët. Keenly attuned to the natural world, Nabeuët was misunderstood by other islanders. Nabeuët was highly sensitive to intuiting the Earth’s changes in her body to the point that she could hear the “whispers of the Earth.” She was the key for the survival of the people on the island. There was only one problem: Nobody believed her. How did the two of you meet? Was this your first collaborative effort together? AMAHL: Yes, this is our first collaborative effort together. Nadiyah contacted me first via Twitter. I’ve been following her work for awhile – I admire her a lot! I was very honoured when she told me about the project, and I said yes immediately. What was the creative process between the two of you working on “The Whispers of the Earth”? AMAHL: I wrote the draft and showed it to Nadiyah. I had some ideas about how we should tell the story, and asked her for guidance on how to write a script for a comic (this was my first time!) because I wanted to make sure that she could understand my writing. We kept communicating and gave each other suggestions. Nadiyah is very patient and encouraging. To be honest, it was not easy for me to finish the script because sadly during the time we were working on the project, my partner was dying from cancer. Nadiyah knew this and she kept encouraging me to do my best while at the same time saying that she would understand if I could not finish it. Her encouragement and support made me work even harder because I wanted to write a beautiful story for our first project together. What inspired you to send in your story to SOUND? NADIYAH: I’ve never done a “serious” comic before, and when I heard about the open call I thought that it was a challenging way to see what I could accomplish, and learn how to collaborate with a writer. We understand that “The Whispers of the Earth” is based on a real-life experience that is commonly referred to as “the tale of Smong”. Why did you both decide to adapt this folklore into a short comic for SOUND? NADIYAH: The origin story was actually a report by Tempo about a 112-year old woman who survived the 1907 tsunami, and I also read articles about how Smong saved thousands of lives when the 2004 tsunami took place. Then I invited Amahl to develop a story based on a similar premise, because he is Acehnese and more familiar with the culture. AMAHL: Nadiyah contacted me via Twitter and told me about this amazing story on Smong. Interestingly enough, I actually lost three cousins and an uncle because of the 2004 Earthquake and Tsunami. I immediately said yes when she asked whether I’m interested in writing a script – I used this as an opportunity to pay a tribute to my lost family members. I actually borrowed the name Ilona, the journalist in the script, from one of the cousins. What kind of research went into “The Whispers of the Earth”? NADIYAH: As an artist, the research I did was mostly to help me imagine what 1907 Simeulue would look like. At that time, the Dutch occupied the land, so it was pretty challenging to find the reference pictures from Dutch sources. As this comic is kind of historical, there’s a huge responsibility to portray it well and do the Simeulue people justice. I tried the best I could with the little resources that I had. AMAHL: Mostly desktop research! A lot of articles from experts and journalists covered Smong so as long as we diligently researched it, it wasn’t really that hard. I am still a little bit concerned, though, because at the end of the day, this is a work of fiction so of course there will always be some inaccuracies. However, I think we did our best to make sure that is not the case – we want to pay respect to the Simeuleue people. I do hope that this story can make more and more people aware about the importance of storytelling in the modern world. I learned to work in a team and, while I always respected comic artists, this experience really made me respect them even more. This is my first time writing a script for a comic so I still needed to get used with the format. What are your thoughts on the preservation of culture and history, especially in modern society where progress is often emphasised over tradition? AMAHL: I believe that there should be balance between the two. I am all for progress but at the same time there are some traditional values that are still relevant for our everyday living. We should embrace our past, while living for now. Because sometimes progress at one point can be turned into tradition. In the story, when the main character expressed her premonition to the villagers, they were adamant that she was delusional and later accused her of witchcraft – in the end, her legacy became a tradition. NADIYAH: I have very complicated feelings about this so I don’t know if I can air it out now... Did you have any message in mind when you created this story? AMAHL: I have always been a sucker for strong fictional women who were often misunderstood. Elphaba from Wicked was one of them. She’s a badass character but so misunderstood. So I wanted to write a similar story on how someone who perhaps was misjudged as evil, was actually good from the start. Of course, though, the main goal is to ensure that more and more people are aware about Smong and its history. I hope people won’t just stop at reading this short comic – I want them to even read more about the origins of Smong. What are some subject matters or themes that you hope to have an opportunity to work on in the future? AMAHL: Right now, I really want to write a love story between a same-sex couple in Southeast Asia, but set in the Dutch colonial era. NADIYAH: I don’t have anything in mind right now because I need to graduate soon. How important do you think it is for our regional comics creators to collaborate? AMAHL: I think it’s very important – we need more people to see that as Southeast Asians, we have plenty of stories to tell! And this kind of project really helps to showcase that. Do you think it is important to create comics inspired by or set in Southeast Asia? AMAHL: Yes, definitely. As far as I know, not even Disney has a story set in Southeast Asia. I heard they’re working on something soon but still it is like it’s been too long. Plus, I think not many Southeast Asian stories have been told yet – we do have amazing stories here! NADIYAH: Personally, I usually create art using elements that I’m already familiar with – therefore it’s usually set in Southeast Asia, since I was born and raised here. My opinion on this question is kind of complicated, since I think it depends on the audience. If I know that the art I’m going to make is going to be exposed to an international audience, I usually self-reflect a lot in the process to make sure that I don’t self-orientalise/exoticise. There’s also this kind of feeling that I have to “represent” Southeast Asia, which is an impossible task (and can be very problematic), so I try to avoid that. But if the audience are people who share the same backgrounds, I still think it’s important because it’s a way to connect to them and preserve our collective memory. As a comics creator, what do you hope to see more from our regional comics scene in the near future as well? AMAHL: Yes, please. I am so excited about this project. I can’t wait to read other stories from other creators – and will surely hope I can write more comic scripts in the future. Amahl S. Azwar is a freelance writer who currently resides in Chiang Mai, Thailand with plans to relocate to Bali, Indonesia, later this year. He has written for VICE, The Fix, Magdalene, and Esquire Indonesia. “The Whispers of the Earth” is his first comic project, in which he is delighted to collaborate with Nadiyah Rizki. Nadiyah is a freelance illustrator and comic artist based in Bandung, Indonesia. Her source of inspiration revolves around Indonesian culture and folklore. With her growing passion for visual storytelling, she makes art from stories she holds close to her heart.	8,804
It was the morning of Tuesday 16th January 2018. I was checking up on emails in bed. Most of them were the usual boring shite one would expect to see in the email account of a hotel manager, but one email, in particular, stood out to me. Not because it was addressed to me, but because of its content. The email started with the words ‘hi there’. When you read an email entitled ‘hi there’, you immediately feel a little neglected. You immediately feel that this person doesn’t care much for you. You feel that this person may not even know your name. It would appear that the sender has simply included you in a copy and paste email to many different recipients, not making you feel in any way ‘special’ at all. Suffice to say that the email didn’t get off to the best start. The email writer then proceeded to brag about how great she was, how popular she was. If her lack of care about who she was writing to wasn’t enough, the ‘me, me, me’ style of writing that ensued suggested that not only was the addressee of the email non-existent, but there was a particularly strong chance that no other human being on planet earth existed, other than the emailer. Most normal people would now exit the email function on their phone, get up and have a shower, or maybe put on a Nespresso to brew, but not me. I was amused. Greatly amused. I didn’t think it possible that somebody as self-centred as the emailer walked the face of the earth. How wrong was I. I kept reading. The writer then went on to advise that she was coming to Dublin for 4 nights just before Valentine’s Day. Why wouldn’t she? Dublin is a beautiful city. She continued to say that she noticed our hotel and thought it was “stunning”. When I read this word, I immediately smelt bullshit. We run a 3-star budget lodge. People have called it “nice” and “grand” and maybe even “good value”. On the odd occasion, people even refer to it as a “shithole”, but never in the 24 years that we have owned this building have I ever once heard it described as “stunning”. I am not ashamed to say this. It’s fact. At this point, I thought the email couldn’t get any worse. I mean, how could it? The writer then advised that she’d like to feature us in her videos. Again, this was of no real consequence to me, seeing as ‘we’ were no more and no less than any of the many other Dublin hotels she had spammed. She didn’t want to feature ‘us’ at all, she wanted to feature whatever hotel (if any) was gullible enough to believe that a ‘hi there’ email was actually addressed to them. It was, however, the next few words which made my blood boil. She would do these videos in return for ‘free accommodation’. When I read these two words, a whirlwind of emotions ran through my mind and a cacophony of expletives emanated from my oral cavity. A girl who has the gall to send a non-personalised email to a hotel she has done no research on is now looking for a free stay from said accommodation provider. I momentarily put myself in her shoes to see if I could come to some form of rational conclusion in my mind as to what she had done. However, I couldn’t find one. In fact, I couldn’t even begin to understand how any decent human being could be able to do something as shameful and cringe-worthy (in equal measure) as she had just done. Has this girl got no self-respect? Has she no shame? Where the fuck is her dignity? When I took my shower that morning, I wasn’t singing my usual rendition of ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Kate Bush in my best falsetto voice, it was much more along the lines of ‘Let’s Face The Music And Dance’ by Nat King Cole. I was hemming and hawing as to whether I would write a public response to this girl on the Facebook page, and after an internal debate in my head which lasted at least a full nanosecond, I arrived at the words ‘yes I will’. Before I shared her email, I needed to make sure none of her information was showing. I screenshotted the email and then cropped it to omit the sender’s details. I then edited the screenshot by scribbling out the personal details, using my fingers as a pen. I had to go over each word twice or three times to ensure full opacity. Once I was happy that I could not make out any of her personal data on the phone, I saved the edited changes and then began to write my reply. Please note the following (and for the purpose of emphasis, I am both emboldening and capitalising the words): In case you aren’t one of the 450 million people who’ve already read my reply, here it is: Unsurprisingly, there was a huge and immediate reaction to this post. I knew there’d be. I know that the vast majority of people on this planet work very hard for a living and would take issue with a self-entitled, self-proclaimed social media influencer with delusions of grandeur looking to blag a free room for 4 nights. I knew that people would be outraged, on so many levels. We have a chronic homeless crisis in this country at the moment. There are people living on the streets every single night of the week who would give their right arm to have shelter for one night, never mind a ‘stunning’ hotel for four. This was going to be massive. The internet was on fire. All because of my public reply. At this point, I think it’s important to note one thing. AT NO POINT THROUGHOUT THIS WHOLE DEBACLE HAVE I EVER MENTIONED THE NAME OF THIS PARTICULAR SOCIAL INFLUENCER. Not on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, PornHub, Grindr or anywhere else. I have never mentioned her name to my family, my friends, my dogs, the cat across the road who torments my dogs, my therapist, my alcohol anonymous colleagues, NOBODY. Indeed, I have made a point of not mentioning her once. For the purpose of this bog post, I will be referring to this girl as SMI (Social Media Influencer). I was in my car with Jason and our three children (Renko, Rocky and Disney) driving up to boarding kennels before we headed off to Amsterdam the next day for our 3-year anniversary, and my phone started to rattle furiously. People were sharing a video with me that SMI had just posted to her YouTube page. Jason started watching the video, and after about three minutes I told him to switch it off. Not because of what she was saying, but because of the number of fucking edits in the video. During the first 3 minutes we watched, there must have been at least 120 jump edits. Apart from the fact that I was more worried about the girls editing skills than I was her actual response, it was clear to me that this girl’s intention was to draw everyone’s attention to the story. Don’t forget, I hadn’t outed anyone so presumably the purpose of this edited-into-oblivion video was to out herself. In many ways, she was right to do this. At the end of the day, YouTube pays her money for the video views she gets. This was a controversial video full of amateur dramatics and tears. This was going to be a real money-maker. I had no issue with SMI capitalising on the controversy. After all, she has to make money some way and this was a far more inventive way of getting views than putting on tight pants and shaking her bottom on camera (which apparently is what she usually does). My issue was with her supporters and fellow SMIs. They were now bombarding my business with false 1-star reviews in their droves. A lot of these people were ‘influencers’ themselves. When you are a self-proclaimed influencer and you leave a fake review of a business, isn’t it reasonable to assume that those over whom you exert your influence will be influenced to do the same? But it’s not just the leaving of fake-reviews by influencers that calls into question the integrity of influencer marketing. SMI’s original proposal already did that quite effectively. If I had caved in to SMI and granted her request by giving her the free room, would her review have been fair? Would it have been biased on the basis that she wasn’t paying anything? Where is the transparency there for either those she influences and/or Joe Public? Businesses right across the globe are constantly looking for innovative ways to get their brand out to the world. They pay digital marketing agencies huge fees to obtain a decent reach. A respectable reach is only possible if their content is truly unique and appealing, and this is something you don’t see very often. In the past, I have used various different crises to make a name for ourselves. We’ve battled entitled vegans, people with make-believe diseases such as gluten intolerance, half of Brazil who got lost in translation, breastfeeding mums who didn’t get the joke and, on this occasion, the bloggers. The bloggers were an absolutely ideal portion of society to tackle. Why? Because of the size of their reach. Each blogger, whether you agree with the content they put forward or not, has a reach. If you can manage to piss them off, they will display their annoyance to their following in the form of talking to them about your business. Whether what they say is positive or negative doesnt really matter. In 6 weeks time their followers won’t remember why we’re ‘such monsters’, all they’lI remember is our name. I am kicking myself for not thinking of bloggers up until now. I have always said that the most ideal reaction to a social media post is where you get a 50/50 split i.e. 50% of people agreeing with you and 50% of people fucking hating you. This gets two armies of people fighting over you and all you have to do is sit back and watch while the cash register takings grow. Unfortunately for me, #bloggergate was more of a 90/10 split. However, this was not necessarily a bad thing. The very fact that the 90% was so impassioned in their fight against freeloaders, and because the 10% had an audience they could ‘influence’ to fight on their behalf, this had all the hallmarks of being one hell of a battle. This was a shit storm of unprecedented proportions. It was fucking awesome. When things would seem to be too one-sided, I’d lob in a post to keep the fighting going. To ignite the flame. To enrage the fury. My first poke came in the form of an official apology for not thinking of bloggers up until now. This really upset them. It resulted in some really horrible commentary. In other words, it was a huge success. The bloggers lost their shit, but not all of them. Just the useless ones. I like to divide bloggers into two very distinctive groups. The PIBs and the AIBs. The PIB is the ‘Professional Influencer Brigade’. These are people who have a huge following, they don’t go begging to brands, brands come to them, they have ‘real’ influence on people and, most importantly, they are good at what they do. The AIBs or ‘Amateur Influencer Brigade’ have a smaller following, they usually become a blogger because they are incapable of doing anything else with their lives. They beg for free stuff because they either can’t afford it or are just too cheap to pay for it. They have little dignity. Little talent. Their self-respect is non-existent. Sometimes AIBs can become PIBs purely on the basis of being good-looking, but usually, it’s because they possess talent. My fight with bloggers didn’t involve any PIBs, indeed most of the PIBs who did get involved did so purely on the basis of personal commentary. Two which come to mind are Keemstar and Philip DeFranco. The people fighting me were nearly all AIBs and any of the PIBs who did attempt to fight me will now find themselves veering towards the category of AIB, which is a shame for them. They have let themselves down (you know who I’m talking about – adventuregirl). I don’t have an issue with PIBS, indeed, I have given PIBS free food in the past, the main reason being that they never asked for their food to be free. The petulant, infantile outrage displayed by the AIBs got stronger and stronger. This brought the fight more and more towards the ideal 50/50 split, but unfortunately not quite. The people who didn’t agree with freeloaders still made up the majority. I had to find some way to enrage the bloggers more. How else could we do that other than to ban them from the café. I uploaded the following post and it did have the desired effect. The bloggers were up in fucking arms. Throughout the whole debacle, the one thing that amused me most was the fact that the bloggers didn’t think that people over 30 understood how social media works. Here I was, completely using them to help my business get worldwide publicity, for free, on social media, and I was the one who didn’t know what I was doing. The bloggers were now really angry. The negative reviews were pouring in. We even broke TripAdvisor. People tried to hack into my Facebook page. It was all kicking off just nicely. However, the blogger ban didn’t just throw the bloggers into a state of frenzy, it (unfortunately) garnered support from pretty much the rest of the world. 50/50 was still in reach, but the high-end news outlets running stories on us weren’t really doing much to help. We must be the only cafe in the world to have broken TripAdvisor Up until now some of the insignificant news outlets (like Lovin Dublin) had run pieces on us, but after the ban, the big knobs started to pick up on us. LadBible, George Takei, Daily Mail, Mashable, Imgur (the list goes on) were all running stories on us. Some PIBS started doing YouTube videos on us. While the 50/50 was still a good distance away, we were all over the fucking news, I mean EVERYWHERE. News outlets all over the globe wanted an interview with me and all I wanted to do was get stoned. I was in Amsterdam at this stage and, when in Rome, as they say. I felt sorry for Jason. Although he was having a great time troll bashing on Twitter, we were supposed to be enjoying our 3-year anniversary in the Dam. So, we went out to an Amsterdamian café and got monged. My favourite part by far of all the free news coverage was the fact that LadBible, who have 30 million followers, was calling our budget lodge a “luxury hotel”. This had a snowball effect. Other articles began referring to us as a ‘5-star hotel’. If that’s not a compliment, I don’t know what is. Jason and I were in Madame Tussaud’s in Dam Square when a Tweet entitled “We’ve crunched the numbers on #bloggergate. Take a look and see who has benefited most from the controversy” came in. My concentration on wax-constituted humans took a momentary pause while I checked out this Tweet from Clear Story. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The article indicated that our small little 35-seater café in Phibsborough had been featured in 53 news articles in 11 countries with a potential reach of 120 million people. Yes, you read that correctly, 120 FUCKING MILLION. It goes on to advise that if we were to have spent money to advertise our business in these publications, it would have cost us over €2,000,000. We had done this without being anywhere near 50/50. The lowest we got was, I’d say, 75/25. This was unprecedented. The article continued to point out that SMI was featured in 114 articles across 20 countries with a potential reach of 450 million people which would cost €4,300,000. While I must admit this pissed me off a little bit, as I thought the contest would have been a lot fairer, I was actually happy for SMI. Any feeling sorry for her after watching the first 3 minutes of her tear-and-edit-filled video now disappeared pretty much instantly. Not only was this girl creaming it in terms of publicity, but she was fucking beating me. I then figured that the reason she was featured in over twice the number of articles was that a lot of these articles would have been written by fellow bloggers who would have conveniently left out a small but significant piece of information – our name. Some of the bloggers may well have understood my game. A screenshot of just some of the news articles in which #bloggergate was featured, provided by the team at Clear Story Any hope of achieving the 50/50 split was now further and further away. The publicity tornado had 80-90% of people in my favour. The review rating on the Facebook page had originally gone from 4.1 to 4.0 on account of the bloggers, but the people supporting me had brought it back up to 4.7. This was not going my way. I had to do something to reignite the fury. So, I asked Ramesh our waiter to clean down the Gluten Free Breast Milk container so I could christen it with a name more appropriate to the current fiasco, and ultimately something that might bring us closer to the elusive 50/50. After some momentary vacillation, I decided that, by the power vested in me, the container would be named “Tears of Bloggers”. Did I leave the vegan container in the shot on purpose, you ask? Most certainly. The fact that the bloggers were not really making any ground made me think that we might need the vegans to come in to help them. A joint vegan-blogger coalition, as it were. Did this help? Nah. The story continued to spread like wildfire. Polls were created. An MTV poll indicated that people were still massively in favour of the Moose over the Freeloader. This didn’t mean that we weren’t still getting hate. The hate coming in from the blogging community and their followers was still very significant, but against the love and support we were receiving, it was a bit like Bray Head versus Mount Everest. It was by no means ideal. The Invoice Still dumbfounded as to how much publicity SMI had got, or more aptly, how much publicity I had got her, I decided to highlight this by way of an invoice. I needed to send out the message to anybody worried about her mental health that she was doing just fine, she was laughing all the way to the bank. Her video had nearly 1.5m views at this stage. She was killing it. Anyone who had managed to actually sit through her 17-minute video (without stabbing blunt pencils in their eyeballs as a result of the number of edits) may have jumped to the conclusion that the girl was genuinely upset. They needed to be put right. Some of them may not have understood that the ad preceding her video (that they can skip after 5 seconds) was in place to earn her money. SMI was making ‘dolla’ off the back of her amateur dramatics. The other purpose of the invoice was to keep the story going for as long as possible. I wasn’t happy that SMI had achieved a reach of 450 million people and I a paltry 120 million. As expected, news outlets picked up on the invoice story. Articles were again written all over the world and in many different languages. This was amusing. Highly amusing. Not only was the general public gullible enough to believe that the invoice was real, but supposedly upstanding and eminent authors from publications such as the Daily Mail fell for it too. This was outstanding. Just what I wanted. I am going to frame the invoice and place it here in the hotel for everyone to see. It’s just too good to throw in the bin. There is undoubtedly a monetary value to this piece of paper. The Press Conference We have done many videos in the past with various different videographers, but by far the best guy we have worked with is Gerard Walsh. He is a god when it comes to making videos. He came to me with the idea of a press conference video on Saturday afternoon, and I fucking loved it. I always believe that the best way of getting your message across is by using humour. This has always been my modus operandi, and it seems to work. I use humour to get an underlying message across to the audience i.e. our customers. The customers are therefore conditioned to behave in a certain way when they come to our hotel or café, all thanks to humour. For example, since the time I threatened to put Valium in the juice of screaming babies, the babies have stopped screaming. Since the time I threatened to shoot vegans dead if they came into the café, the vegan entitlement has dissipated. Since the time I demanded a doctor’s note for people requiring gluten-free food, people have copped the fuck on and started eating normal food like everyone else. A number of months before #bloggergate, Gerard and I produced a video called ‘House Of Influencers’. This was a house of cards style piss take on how social media influencers carry on. In the video, the social media influencer tries to blag free accommodation in the exact same style SMI uses 2-3 months later. I didn’t realise I had psychic powers but that’s definitely a skill I’ll be adding to the CV. The press conference video was an ideal opportunity to use humour to highlight the reality of the whole situation while giving people a chuckle (which is what I’m all about) at the same time. SMI’s video was growing and growing. This surprised me no end. I couldn’t believe there were actually people on this planet who could stomach a video as heavily edited without projectile vomiting onto their computer screens. But aside from people’s ability to stomach the 345,734 jump edits, one thing was certain, the money she was making on this video was growing in direct proportion to the growth in views. She wouldn’t be buying bags in Primark anymore, Louis Vuitton was putting out the red carpet for her imminent arrival. I couldn’t allow her to capitalise on this drama without doing so myself. So, I got #bloggergate t-shirts designed and started selling them online. Of course, the object of this exercise wasn’t solely to make money, it was to spark anger in the blogging community yet again. Guess what? It worked. But not only did it spark another wave of abuse, it created the impetus which led SMI to create yet another video. When I heard she had released a new video, another volcano of emotions erupted. The main one of which was fear, fear that this video would be edited to shit again. This new video had a very different message. Its sole purpose was to milk the cyberbullying card so that nobody could ever use it again, whilst demonising the White Moose Café and labelling us as “big bullies” in the process. The Cyber Bullying Card I was bullied in school. I absolutely despise bullies. However, I do believe that it is morally wrong to use the cyberbullying card as a means of generating cash. It makes light of the very worrying phenomenon that is cyberbullying, and those who are genuinely bullied (who don’t have the luxury of being able to cash in on their horrifying experience). The minute I heard that SMI was the target of unjustified and horrible comments, I took to Twitter and asked people to lay off her. This tweet was 2 days before her ‘cyber bullying’ video. Some of the comments the girl (who I have never once named) is getting on her Insta are horrible. I don’t condone these comments and I think it’s time people laid off her. Insult me all you like, but leave the girl alone. She fucked up. She’s learnt her lesson. The end. — Paul Stenson (@PaulVStenson) January 22, 2018 In her second video, SMI was very quick to tell the world that she received death threats and that people wished cancer upon her children. If this is true, I think it’s reprehensible. However, the cynic in me can’t stop thinking that the reason SMI broadcast this message so loudly was to generate views on her YouTube video. Let’s face it, at the end of the day, SMI is making money off this controversy. The more graphic she makes her videos, the more views it will get. The more she pulls at the heartstrings, the more people will feel sorry for her. This sympathy will ultimately translate into YouTube views and therefore CASH. For the record, but not that it matters, Jason and I received death threats too, the most serious of which was last October. It was quite a stressful time for us. It involved the Gardaí (Irish Police) and there was a good 2 week period where Jason and I could go nowhere without looking over our shoulders every few minutes. The person who had made the threats was a known criminal (as opposed to a fake social media profile) and there was a bench warrant out for his arrest. If we had played the victim in a YouTube video and informed the world that we were receiving genuine death threats, there is a fair chance the views on this video would have skyrocketed and we’d now be sitting on a nice paycheck, compliments of YouTube. Maybe we’re fools. Despite my efforts to defend her, the media still reported that we were the bullies. They ignored the very significant fact that it was SMI herself who drew all this attention to herself and we were getting the blame. This was not the end of the world as the 50/50 split was becoming more of a reality, but I found it intriguing how it took falsehoods to achieve the ideal split. Having made a point of defending SMI and telling people to leave her alone, there was a small part of me expecting that she would tell her followers to stop giving negative reviews and posting nasty comments on a café they had never visited before in her second video. Alas, I was wrong. I guess I shouldn’t have really expected this as it would go against the ‘me, me, me’ way of life to which this lovely lady was so accustomed. Again, I’m the bigger fool here. SMI prides herself on being a businesswoman. She puts herself forward as being a confident person who knows exactly what she’s doing. It’s curious how all of a sudden this strong independent woman persona disappears when she is called out. One minute she is a grown-up woman, the next a little girl. I would have thought that people who live their lives in the public eye should understand the vagaries of those who inhabit public life. Humans are weird. I don’t particularly like people. I much prefer dogs. But as someone who has chosen to put myself out there for the world to consume, I understand that the shit can hit the fan. I understand that people will call me nasty names, I may even get death threats. But I refer to this as ‘par for the course’. As the old saying goes “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”. If you are not fully prepared for the harsh reality that people can be assholes, the internet is perhaps not the best place for you. Putting things into perspective As someone who has a significant following, I too have been offered freebies. I can’t think of one occasion where I haven’t accepted them. I have been brutally honest about how I feel about the products (much to the disappointment of the sender on occasion), but I will accept them all the same. Whenever I stay in hotels, I will always ask for a special hotelier rate (which is the norm in the industry). Most of the time I’ll be given a preferential rate and/or a complimentary upgrade. But never, and I mean NEVER, would I EVER ask for anything for free. I just don’t have it in me. On the evening of Thursday 25th January 2018, I received a Snapchat message which really hit home and put everything into perspective. The message was from a girl who had been recently made homeless through no fault of her own. She and her partner had checked into Charleville Lodge that evening. They paid for their room on arrival. The girl’s message was one of thanks. She thanked Jason and I for making her laugh during dark times. Considering all that happened the week before, this struck a chord with me and brought everything home. Here is a couple who are in need of a home but want to pay for their hotel stay. It’s a bit like the situation a friend of ours is in. Her name is Niamh Flanagan. She’s living with a rare form of bone cancer called Osteosarcoma and whenever you ask her how she is, she says she “can’t complain’. She’s the brightest, bubbliest and loveliest girl we know and I am proud to say that she’s our friend. Needless to say, we refunded the guest’s card. They had already paid for their room on arrival, but they received their money back the next day. If anybody deserved a free stay, they did. This whole fiasco indicates that there is no authenticity, honesty or transparency in influencer marketing. I never intended to reveal her name, but as it so happens, the revealing of her name seems to have had a positive outcome financially on both parties involved. The person or people who doctored the image I shared in order to reveal her name are responsible for outing her. If you are a good blogger, the brands will come to you. Don’t go begging to them. Have some dignity. Play hard to get. I must be psychic. Using humour is a very effective method of getting an important underlying message across to customers. SMI uses dramatics as a means of making money. Using the cyber-bullying card as a means of ‘cashing in’ is not cool. If you are big and bold enough to put yourself in the public eye, you are big and bold enough to take whatever nastiness comes your way on the chin. Some people are more deserving of free accommodation than others. P.S. The final tally on publicity gained is in. This puts the total for White Moose at €8.4m and €20.7m for she who shall not be named. You’re welcome, SMI. See more stats, compliments of Clear Story, in this article January 26, 2018 at 7:13 pm Excellent really enjoyed reading it as fantastic beasts and where to find them played in the background and my attention was taken away by a line in the movie oh yes I want something much more important than money I want your influence sir thought it was very apt while reading this bog!! January 26, 2018 at 7:29 pm I simply love your posts Good luck and kisses for Niamh January 26, 2018 at 7:54 pm Jason this is priceless. I rarely read any shit bloggers have to say,I also find them annoying. But I actually could not stop reading it…. it was absolute gold ( now, all this nice words are not mentioned for an exchange for freebies) this time they come for free ( might charge next time lol). No, seriously, I certainly will visit your lovely 5 star hotel, again lol, next time I am around Dublin. Andrew and myself will re start our radio show very soon, after getting a new studio in Cork, hopefully with better internet speed ( unlike the last time). We don’t care about these stories at all, but care more for the real people behind businesses, the good and funny stories are nice as well but we like to get to know outstanding people like you. The kind of stories that matters, like that fundraiser for Mexico we talked about last time… I hope to get in touch with you soon and hopefully catch up with you and Jason for a full hour of chat and fun… Looking forward to hear from you. January 26, 2018 at 8:01 pm In june I will visit Dublin and (of course) the White Moose Cafe. As someone with a business of my own I am accustomed to haggling but also would never expect something for free. From my perspective you did everything right (and I can’t stand these vloggers either) January 26, 2018 at 8:12 pm I’ve been following the Moose for a while now. You make me laugh and I love you for that. You are kind and funny and you don’t take any crap. If I’m ever in Dublin, I’ll be a fully paying guest. In fact I am starting to see that I now that I am going to have to make a pilgrimage to see you. For what it’s worth, I STILL don’t know what her name is and it doesn’t and will never interest me. January 26, 2018 at 8:23 pm I can’t tell you how WONDERFUL it is to see an entitled blogger getting a taste of reality. If I were to add up how much in services and products I’ve been asked for by these “exposure experts” in the last 2 years it would easily be in the $300,00 to $500,000 range! The tone of the emails I get are always entitled and smug. God help every single one of us when these “business” experts bubble burst on social media and they have to get real jobs. They will be stumped as to why life isn’t just a case of demanding free stuff and having boxes of shite appear on their doorsteps. Bravo on your handling of these stupid request. I hope your business continues to grow and succeed for many years ahead. LikeLiked by 1 person January 26, 2018 at 8:59 pm Spot on ! Great read. Followed the shanannigans with much intetest. G’wan Paul xx January 26, 2018 at 9:02 pm Absolutely fantastic! 8.4m is still 8.4m regardless of what the other person makes……. January 26, 2018 at 9:06 pm Loved every minute of Bloggergate the only problem is you need a bigger Cafe now 8 of our scooter friends had breakfast in your resturant new years eve now the whole club of 37 want fed and watered January 26, 2018 at 9:57 pm Sharing this like all your posts. I also believe humor is the best way to tackle anything. Keep it up Paul. Im a food blogger from Lebanon and would gladly pay for a stay at your luxury hotel 🤣 What I would ask maybe is for cooking in your cafe and feature my cooking to the Dublin audience if I ever get there. January 26, 2018 at 10:31 pm I turned off her video after 20 seconds, lol. Really dreadful. Read every word of this though. Says it all really. January 26, 2018 at 11:00 pm You have been added to our list of places to visit. I look forward to one day being able to experience the humor and honesty you portray and emanate. January 26, 2018 at 11:20 pm The only thing to say about this article – preach, brother, preach More of you and Jason and your staff in the world, please. January 27, 2018 at 12:37 am This whole Bloggergate has been fantastic for some entertainment. Can’t wait to stay at the 5star luxury hotel again. January 27, 2018 at 12:39 am Love your work! January 27, 2018 at 12:47 am Absolutely on point! I have been with you and on your side ever since you first posted that response to the girl. I’m an English teacher and when I read her “business inquiry” to your hotel……I wanted to just print that e-mail out and set it on fire!! Business inquiry my a**!! I would throw that piece of writing right back at my student marked with a big red F! No one, absolutely NO ONE starts a business inquiry with a “hi there” and goes on to brag about themselves and then have the guts to tell you how they’re planning to spend an early Valentines Day/weekend/whatever and except you to provide them with free accommodation…in exchange for a feature in their videos on their Youtube channel or as pictures on Instagram. Nowadays, there are SO MANY so called “bloggers” and “influencers” out there that have the same amount of followers she has. It’s literally no big deal and doesn’t make her stand out in any way. No one knows these kids the moment they step out of their houses and apartments to participate in mundane, normal every day life like the rest of us. They are only famous online. Other than that, no one even cares for 90% of them. I furthermore cringed at how, as you said, it was an e-mail written in a very “me me me”-tone. Not once has she ever mentioned why she wanted to collaborate with you in the first place. What is it that she found so outstanding and stunning about your hotel in the first place that made her want to feature it in her videos above all the rest?? She never outlined anything about your business, never gave you any reason to believe you were somehow special as this e-mail was obviously copy-pasted and sent to numerous hotels in the hopes of getting free accommodation. So you treated her just like any adult with even the slightest bit of self respect would do: as a nobody. And as a nobody a nothing she will get. Props to you, dear sir! LikeLiked by 1 person eatdrinkstaydubai January 27, 2018 at 9:00 am Well done Paul; above anything, the writing and humour you’ve shown through this is tip-top. So many positives, not least raising awareness of those ‘blaggers’ whose only focuses are self and profit, rather than integrity – or shame. As you say fella, laughter trumps hate. Well done yourself. All the best. PS, Come to Dubai – you’d have a field day on ASis January 27, 2018 at 5:20 pm Paul and Jason – crikey, you’re both utterly great people. Screw the snowflakes and those cocking millenials. January 27, 2018 at 9:32 pm You’re very funny paul. You should write a book. I just heard about bloggergate on Quora, where someone asked: “What made you lose faith in humanity?” And apparently you did. I just had to check your blog after that, and you just made me laugh at the whole thing. Keep doing what you’re doing. Your cafe is definitely on my visit list and I won’t ask for freebies. January 27, 2018 at 10:31 pm January 28, 2018 at 12:01 pm I agree with a lot of this post and pre-empted the publicity angle last weekend with my post asking whether it was all a publicity stunt. Both you and the SMI have done well from the event in terms of theoretical reach and numbers of stories written about #Bloggersgate around the world. The ‘I was exposed’ video has earned the SMI 2.6m views. This is against her average views per video of circa 25k to 35k pre #Bloggersgate. Her YT channel has generated over 4m views in past 30 days (about x12 the usual figure). There are two areas I disagree with you on from your points of note: 1. Around authenticity: as more influencers and more brands pile into this influencer marketing space there will be more examples of good and bad actors. BUT commercial imperative as much as moral indignation will force a maturation of the influencer marketing industry. With increased influencer marketing spend comes a greater need to demonstrate value return on investment (ROI). Accurate data and robust, independent campaign performance evaluation, along with industry benchmarking, will become a fundamental part of the influencer marketing campaign planning process. The SMIs with a future are all honest, transparent and authentic. Those who aren’t will have to turn to alternative employment as they get called out. 2. It’s OK for SMIs to pitch brands. BUT, they should do their due diligence first and then deal in specifics about what they bring to the potential relationship in terms of reach, engagement rates, demographics etc. And what they would produce – “some exposure”? Or xx number of Instagram Stories, XX number of YT vlogs, XX number of blogs. How they will help promote the story and concrete examples of past successes – not just “it’s been amazing for them”! LikeLiked by 1 person Pingback: Filming Porn – Do not disturb \| Netzfundstück der Woche Pingback: Bloggergate auf Irisch – Rebelarmy Cork January 28, 2018 at 8:01 pm I live in the United States of America and I think you are brilliant! Good for you for maintaining your sense of humor and grace under pressure. We have a lot of these entitled folks in our country. We call them illegal immigrants. Now that Donald Trump is POTUS, they are finding out that their lifetime entitlements are ending. Don’t know if any of them are blogging about it though, they are too busy scurrying off to the Sanctuary cities to commit more criminal activities. Trump is handling that as well. January 29, 2018 at 3:30 am Great blog. Your irony throughout makes it easy to read and a great laugh to make your point. I would love to say I will drop in but I have a long way to travel so I might ask a sympathetic SMI to shout me the air fares. January 29, 2018 at 11:47 pm LikeLiked by 1 person January 30, 2018 at 2:50 am I have been following this story ever since it popped up on my newsfeed and I remember I was outraged when I saw her response. Being a designer, I get propositioned for free work all the time in return for ‘exposure’ by obscure brands. I loved your response and it hit home how you can’t pay your staff for work they do with exposure. Even though this did eventually help her get more publicity ( I won’t lie I looked her up too just to see what the fuss was about and all I saw was- you guessed it- booty shots) I think it’s time freeloaders get called out and put in their place. Thank you for the entertainment. I’m not sure when I will be visiting your establishment, but I am definitely following your page for the hilarious posts you put up.	41,805
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As L1 and I watched the news last week, it occurred to us that we’d arrived in New York in the midst of the Roy Moore scandal and will leave it just as Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the supreme court. What grim bookends to our stay here. Two accused assaulters, one of them, to quote my friend L, “a beer guzzling frat boy creep” who lied repeatedly and behaved like a poisonous, partisan lunatic in a senate hearing, and somehow managed to persuade President Trump and most of the GOP that he, rather than Doctor Ford, was the one deserving of the country’s sympathy and support. In between these two events, the MeToo movement had been unceasingly vociferous, but to what end? So that a man like Kavanaugh can be allowed to shape the laws pertaining to sexual assault, gay marriage, abortion rights and more for the next forty some years? So that he can rule to protect Trump from being indicted? It’s all very depressing, and I have an inbox full of emails telling me just how depressing it is. What is there to say except that I hope the Republican party gets a resounding ass- kicking in the upcoming mid-term elections, and that President Trump finally gets his come uppance at the hands of Robert Mueller. But these bleak bookends to our New York year aren’t the only thing we’ve been contemplating. As our departure date drew near, we found ourselves reflecting on everything we’d loved about the year. One evening a few weeks ago, we were sitting on a bench in Central Park and I asked L1 what he thought he would miss about living here. “Well, that view, for a start,” he said, pointing ahead. The view L1 will miss Thus began a conversation that lasted until the day he left for London. Naturally, I made notes. What will we miss about living in New York? Let me tell you… Being close to North American friends and family. This is definitely number one on the list. We’ve seen more of my sister and her family and my parents this year than in all of the three previous years combined, and enjoyed precious catch up time with friends from Rhode Island, Chicago, Colorado, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. What joy. America (and Canada) on our doorstep. We’ve spent time in some exceedingly beautiful places this year – Maine, Long Island, the Hudson River Valley, Half Moon Bay, Napa Valley, Montreal, Wyoming, Florida. It was a bonus to be able to get to them without a transatlantic flight and the attendant jet lag. Central Park. Especially the bit above 69thStreet. And the bits where you can go and sit on a rock overlooking a lake and imagine you’re in a remote forest location in British Columbia. Glorious. The Jackie Kennedy Reservoir in north Central Park Urban strolling: the fact that we walk virtually everywhere, and that there’s always something interesting to look at on the way. Walking to and from restaurants is a particular bonus. And being able to walk to the cinema means you’re more likely to go, and even go alone, as I did twice this past week. Everything within reach. There’s everything we could possibly need within two blocks of our apartment – supermarkets, drug stores, wine, gin, coffee, Lulu Lemon, Nike, Occitane. It’s so damned convenient. The package room boys, who receive all your deliveries from Amazon, UPS and Fedex and hold them till you call, then bring them up to your apartment. So, no schlepping down to the post office with one of those annoying little sorry we missed you cards, only to discover that the package has been returned to sender. Sunshine and crisp blue skies. Also, hailing a bright yellow cab under a crisp blue sky, which makes you feel as if you’ve stepped straight off the set of Sex and the City. Halloween done well. In the States, Halloween isn’t just a night, it’s a season. And they really go to town, starting on the 1stOctober, decorating their houses, gardens and shop windows with autumnal, harvest-festivally type features, including more types of pumpkin that you ever knew existed. When the actual day arrives, the streets are filled with joyful children in elaborately constructed costumes, and their equally joyful parents, some of them also in costumes. (We’ll be returning to the UK just in time to witness a Halloween that, in our neighbourhood at least, consists largely of teenage boys wearing ghost masks who throw your pumpkin against the door if you don’t give then enough candy.) Great Californian wines. They save all the best ones for domestic consumption, apparently, whereas in the UK we get the dregs. The Frick.I’ve mentioned this before. It’s a museum like no other. Intimate yet breathtaking. And those Holbeins – I could look at them a thousand times and not get bored. The Michael Kors store opposite Barney’s on Madison. A store? you say. How crass. How superficial. But I’ve had some excellent times in this particular store – with my sister and a Montreal friend when my sister was in a spendy mood; with L2 when he decided he needed to replenish his wardrobe L1 buying jeans and a shirt in Michael Kors and we became firm friends with the salesgirl; and with Toronto friends R and B, when B was obliged to do an impromptu catwalk show of everything he tried on, and we conspired to get him to buy much more than the single shirt he came in for. Dallas and Clint at the SCK Salon. They’re ludicrously expensive, but they’re excellent hairdressers and even better company. Clint, I’m sorry I never made it back in for that last trim and to say goodbye. Our only regret is not having tried Tony’s at Sixty Fourth and Third. It’s an old fashioned Italian trattoria – all red and white checked table cloths, candles in wine bottles, and white uniformed waiters with rococo moustaches. Groups of elated people are forever spilling out of its doors clutching balloons. We walked by it a hundred times and always said, we really should go there, but somehow we never did. Our NY friends, new and old.You know who you are. We’ve enjoyed helping you to keep the waiters up past their bedtime. Our apartment. It’s pretty and cosy and furnished just the way we would have furnished it ourselves. We love the wide open street and the gardens, and we love the Upper East Side location, which is like an oasis of civilised calm in what can sometimes be the abrasive rough and tumble of Manhattan. Cooper, the terrier who lives on our floor, and with whom we had many a pleasant conversation in the lift. The basement gym in our building. No question, having a gym just an elevator ride away ensures that you exercise more. There are no excuses. Andy Grant. A few months ago, L1 decided that, despite having access to a basement gym, he wasn’t feeling motivated or working hard enough. So, he engaged Andy Grant as a personal trainer. A former marine and amateur heavyweight boxing champion, Andy is a trainer like no other. After L1’s first session he returned to the apartment with jelly legs and had to lie down for an hour. He soon got used to Andy’s take-no-prisoners, surprise-your-body approach, but the workouts are never less than overwhelmingly challenging. I made sure to avoid being in the gym when L1 and Andy were in there because I was terrified I might also be lured into Andy land. Which, in the end, I was. During my last week in New York I did four sessions with Andy that transformed the way I think about fitness, strength and flexibility. It’s addictive. We’re now trying to work out how to keep Andy in our exercise lives via Sky The Arthur Murray Dance School on Fifth.We’ve had so much fun learning to dance, and spending time with the Arthur Murray gang. They’re an awesome group of people and we’re going to miss them. Although, L1 is threatening to book himself in for lessons whenever he’s back in New York, and I will certainly do the same, so we won’t be entirely without our Arthur Murray fix. Morning Joe, and the MSNBC news team in general. The handsome Ari Melber in particular. These people are a counter point to Trump’s craziness, a reassuring comfort zone of intelligence, reason and facts within the morality free maelstrom that is the Trump administration. This list is all very well. (And apologies to L1, who dislikes listy sorts of articles). But putting the list aside, there’s something bigger that we’ll miss. It’s the experience of doing something new and endlessly interesting, and doing it as a couple, without much having to consider anyone else. It has reminded me of being new to London and newly married, living in the first flat that we could call our own. It also convinced me that L1 and I will be alright in our empty-nest years. We won’t be looking at one another across a table and wondering what to say to one another, or worse, wanting to throttle one another. Phew. We expected to be sad when we actually closed the door on the apartment for the last time, and indeed we were. L1 left a week before I did due to business commitments back in Europe, so we both felt sad in different places. His early departure seemed to me to underline the poignant finality of our NY experience. I’m not going to lie – I had a day or so feeling very weepy and crying actual tears. But I had to pull myself together because there was stuff to do – more stuff than I’d anticipated. Despite having moved into a furnished apartment, we’d managed to accumulate an awful lot of clobber – books, pictures, small appliances, clothes – that had to be organised and shipped back. Once that was done, I had a fitting send-off in the form of an Arthur Murray competitive dance evening, during which I was paired with world champion Gherman to dance the hustle. You’d have thought that dancing with a world champion would make things easier, what with all that expert leading, but in fact I felt all at sea. Gherman’s hustle style bore little resemblance to the one that L1 and I had developed, and his feet moved at three times the speed. I just about made it through with my dignity intact. The Arthur Murray gang on competition night – that’s our instructor third from left and Gherman the hustle demon on the right On my very last night in New York, our dear friends C and I took me out to the very swanky Standard Rooftop Bar, where we sipped martinis while watching a spectacular sunset. We then went to dinner with some people from their building (who, alarmingly, were all under the age of thirty-two) and stayed up far too late, which meant that I was decidedly below par as I prepared to leave the apartment the following morning. After the doorman came up to collect my bags, I took one last look at the apartment, feeling wretched with heartache, then closed the door and went down to the lobby, whereupon I proceeded to dish out twenty-dollar bills to the various doormen who had played a role in getting my bags downstairs and into the taxi. At least I won’t have to do this anymore, I thought. I certainly won’t miss the constant tipping, and the constant wondering if you’ve tipped enough. Of course, the timing of our departure means that we will be spared the hemmorhaging of cash that is the Christmas tipping season. Perhaps we ought to have put a few thousand dollars into an envelope and given it to the building manager to put towards the Holiday Fund, but we skipped town instead. What would you have done? So, this is it folks. The last L2 blog. The last time I’ll have the pleasure of sharing our New York experiences with you all. Thank you for reading, and for writing me back. It’s been a blast. Excuses, excuses September 28, 2018 September 28, 2018 ~ jrbinmanhattan ~ 2 Comments “So you’ve been slacking off a little,” our friend, T, said as soon as he arrived from Colorado for dinner and a short stint in the spare room. “What’s going on?” T is right. The once weekly blog posts became twice monthly and then, more recently, monthly, and now they are more infrequent than that. A quick recce confirms that my last post was at the end of August and we are now approaching the end of September. So what is going on? First up in the line of excuses is visits from the likes of T, the frequency of which has escalated in the run up to our leaving New York in October. The steady stream of visitors started with the son and nephew in late August, and ended with daughter number one and the great Nanny J, who looked after all our kids when they were young and came to New York as part of her eightieth birthday celebrations. Touring New York with close friends and family in a cocktail induced haze is enormous fun, but hardly conducive to blogging productivity. Excuse number two is that I seem to have spent much of the last month entangled with the US medical establishment. Please don’t be alarmed. There’s no bad news at the end of this paragraph. But there is a story about the peculiarities, both good and bad, of US style healthcare. It all started back in May when I had some routine blood tests and a mammogram. These were all conducted as part of the health check mandated by our insurance provider. (Quite how I made it to late May before having them is something of a mystery.) Anyhoo, up I rocked for my tests, smugly expecting to be awarded an A* for all of them. Trips to the UK and Wyoming intervened, meaning that I didn’t follow up on the test results until late August. Then the fun began. Not all A*s after all. Much of the blood test report was incomprehensible to me (Leukocytes, anyone? Squamous epithelial cells? Methyllemonic acid? Me neither.) But a follow up discussion with the doctor confirmed that my cholesterol was a smidge out of whack and my blood glucose levels a trifle high, and that I was deficient in a couple of vitamins. And my mammogram looked “odd”. The vitamin issue was easy to fix. And Pink Robe prevented me from becoming overly concerned about the cholesterol readings. She sent me some pretty convincing evidence that worrying about LDL is so very last year; it’s the Triglyceride/HDL ratio that’s the key, and mine’s in pretty good shape. But the rest of the abnormal results would require looking into, and that meant being sent for a follow up mammogram, a couple of CT scans, a cystoscopy, a stress test and consultations with no fewer than four different specialists. And that’s where I’ve been for much of September. I kid you not. Let’s talk mammogram’s first. Every woman who’s ever had one knows how ghastly they are. For any male blog reader who might be unversed in this particular method of torture, a mammogram involves compressing the most sensitive part of your body inside a machine that’s akin to a giant toastie maker, whereupon the technician says, hold your breath! (You can’t breathe for the pain anyway), and then, “stay there a minute until I see if I’ve got everything”. (You couldn’t move if you wanted to, for fear of ripping your breast off) You then wait in an attractive paper gown while they check the images, often to be told that the technician would like to take a closer look from one particular angle, at which point you are forced to spend another excruciating few minutes trapped inside the toastie maker. So. One mammogram every eighteen months is bad enough. To be asked to repeat it within weeks is enough to make you jelly kneed with dread. These sorts of interventions are not only uncomfortable; they’re also a huge time sink. By my estimation, any thirty-minute consultation with a US specialist requires you to set aside an additional six to eight hours to deal with the attendant bureaucracy, including the before and after communications with the insurance company, the mountains of paperwork, the three assistants whom you must see before getting access to the specialist, and any pre-intervention assessment procedures deemed necessary. The specialists, once you get to see them, are invariably top notch, but my goodness, what a palaver. To give you an example, before one of my exploratory procedures (which, admittedly, would involve a very brief period under general anaesthetic), I was required to spend three hours in a pre-procedure assessment exam that involved in depth questioning about my lifestyle and every illness, minor or major, that I or anyone in my family had ever had, extensive blood tests, blood pressure monitoring, an ECG and an ultrasound of my heart. By contrast, a friend who was to have a much lengthier and more complicated operation in Canada recalls having had her heart rate and blood pressure taken and… that’s it. Another example. L1 went for a routine eye test because he needed a new supply of contact lenses. The visit – which, in the UK, would have taken fifteen minutes and cost forty quid – involved seeing three different people and spending an hour having weird liquids squirted in his eyes and cost eight hundred dollars. Eight hundred dollars! “But the opthalmologist was excellent and gave me some very good advice,” he said afterwards, still unable to see me clearly because of the lingering effects of the weird liquids. The US system is most definitely belt and braces, as in, I think it’s probably nothing, but let’s send you for a CT scan/cystoscopy/biopsy anyway, and if we need to intervene, lets test the Hell out of you first. This seems be driven by two things: money and litigation. There’s always money to be made by referring someone onwards and upwards through the system, so why not make it? And there’s always money to be lost if someone chooses to sue you because you missed something, so why would you risk it? No whining on the yacht, right? (C, that’s for you.) A lot of people in America would give their eye teeth and right elbow to have health insurance good enough to allow for this kind of over-zealous, over-engineered care. While I am racing all over Manhattan having every exploratory procedure known to medicine, many Americans can’t even afford to get an ear infection checked out. “Don’t even talk to me about it!” exclaimed T, flinging up his hands in anger and almost sending his glass of cabernet flying. But we talked about it anyway. T has experience of healthcare in the UK, Canada and the US, and is particularly enthusiastic about the publicly funded system in Alberta, which works, according to him, like a dream, for a great deal less money per capita than the US system and without hampering labour mobility, tying people to jobs they dislike or are no good at simply because they’re terrified of losing their insurance coverage. These big picture deficiencies aside, I guess your point of view on the efficacy of the US system will depend on how good your particular insurance cover is, and whether or not all the referrals and interventions uncover something nasty that can therefore be dealt with early. No one’s going to resent a just-in-case CT scan or a second mammogram that saves their life. And occasionally you find yourself dealing with a truly slick and impressive operation. Such was the case last Monday when I went to MEETH – the Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat Hospital – for a procedure that, ironically, had absolutely nothing to do with eyes, ears or throat. The hospital (which, conveniently, was all of a block from our apartment) has near seamless systems and appears to be staffed exclusively by charming and uber-competent professionals. (I was particularly taken by my anaesthetist – or anaesthesiologist, as they say here – and would have done just about anything she asked me to.) I met a lot of those professionals – I think there were no less than ten in the operating theatre when I strolled in for a routine procedure that was to last all of fifteen minutes. I felt in very safe hands indeed. L1’s experience hasn’t been quite so smooth. There was that business with the eye watering – in every sense – ophthalmology consultation. In addition, after three attempts to have an MRI on his knee (remember the knee that kept him from line-dancing in Wyoming?), all of them foiled by paperwork mishaps or inefficient communications between primary care physician, specialist and insurance company, he’s given up on the system and decided to wait until he gets back to the UK. His knee has all but healed anyway, of its own accord. But enough about healthcare and how it’s kept me from blogging. There’s a third excuse, and it’s this. Time is closing in on us. We have just a month left here in New York. (L1 has even less than this, as business requires him to be in Europe by early October). And as time runs out, I think we’ve become less interested in exploring new things (and writing about them), and more keen to savour the things we already know and love. We’re going to miss an awful lot about this city. I could list them all here and now, but I won’t. I’m going to save that for the next (and final) blog, just so T can’t accuse me of slacking. P.S. I can’t sign off without saying Bravo to Dr Christine Blasey Ford for her brave and entirely credible testimony in the senate hearing designed to determine whether Judge Kavanaugh is of sufficiently upstanding character to be given a life time appointment to the US Supreme Court. If you watched any of the proceedings, and witnessed Judge Kavenaugh’s petulant outbursts when questioned about his having frequently been drunk to the point of “ralphing” and falling off buses, you’ve probably decided, like a couple of people who emailed me, that regardless of whether or not he assaulted Dr Ford, he is probably not of the ideal temperament to sit on the highest court in the land. Thank God for the persuasiveness of senators like Senator Whitehouse and Senator Durbin who persisted in making the case for an FBI investigation, and for the fearless persistence of those women outside Jeff Flake’s lift who managed to make that investigation happen. August 22, 2018 ~ jrbinmanhattan ~ 9 Comments After ten days in Big Sky Country, we felt the shock of returning to New York like an oncoming train. We traded mountains for skyscrapers, the sound of gently flowing rivers for the rude report of horns, and the sight of roaming bison for that of rushing pedestrians. Fortunately, the boy accompanied us back to New York, and our nephew was waiting here for us, and the two of them were so excited about spending a week in the city that they managed to stir a little of that old excitement in us and helped to quash our hankering for cowboy country. The boys hit the streets early on Monday, heading to our favourite Union Square diner for breakfast before taking in Little Italy, China Town, Battery Park, the Statue of Liberty, the Financial District and the Meatpacking District, finally returning home at eleven pm. Good work. The Wyoming Holiday surpassed all expectations. We rendezvoused in Bozeman, Montana and drove to Gardiner, which sits on the border of Montana and Wyoming and near the North entrance to Yellowstone Park. The guidebooks refer to Gardiner as an old-fashioned cowboy town, and the reality didn’t disappoint. We ate top-notch pulled pork at the Cowboy Restaurant, devoured Coronas and chillie dogs at The Two Bit Saloon, and sampled the renowned hamburgers at The Corral, all the while seated beneath the stuffed bear, elk, moose and mountain lions mounted on the walls of virtually every establishment in town. (The taxidermy business is very big in and around Gardiner) Keeping the taxidermists in business We had our first wildlife experience without even leaving the town, spotting two large elk grazing in someone’s garden next door to our hotel. I crept to within twenty feet of the animals to take a photo, only to learn from our Yellowstone guide the following morning that several people had walked around corners and smack into surprised elks and barely lived to tell their tales. In a country that takes its health and safety and litigation very seriously, you’d have thought there might be the odd giant sign warning the likes of me to avoid getting too close. Then again, they don’t call it the Wild West for nothing. From our base in Gardiner we explored the north west corner of Yellowstone, expertly guided by wildlife and geology expert James. Three days later we drove through the park to West Yellowstone, then further south through the Teton National Park to spend two days in Jackson followed by three days at the Goosewing Ranch north-east of Jackson. Early highlights were the crack-of-dawn safari style expeditions into Yellowstone and Grand Teton, where we saw bears, elk, pronghorns, coyotes, red foxes, ground squirrels, eagles, hawks, deer, wolves, and my personal favourite, those magnificent bison. L1 kept calling them buffalo until he was corrected by one of our guides, who informed us that you only find buffalo in Asia, and that they have longer horns than bison and are an altogether different breed. “If they’re called bison, why wasn’t Buffalo Bill called Bison Bill?” L1 asked. His question rather flummoxed our guide, who didn’t seem to have heard of either Bill. “Beats me,” he said, leaving us none the wiser. To be fair, L1 wasn’t alone in his misconception – we regularly heard people referring to buffalo rather than bison throughout the holiday. Now you can rest smug in the knowledge that you know better. Those are bison, not buffalo The landscape in this part of the world is endlessly and jaw-droppingly beautiful. I distinctly remember the children being largely unimpressed by “scenery” when they were little, but on this trip, none of us could peel our eyes away from the scenes outside our windows or at the end of our telescopes. Whether we were driving with one of our guides or on our own, hardly a moment went by without someone saying, “look at that!” or “how amazing”, followed by a wistful sigh suggestive of a desire to somehow bottle the scene and keep it. Breakfast picnic spot in Yellowstone The mountains, grasslands, rivers, lakes and forests are one thing – a kind of beauty you might have seen in films and can begin to understand. Natural wonders like Mammoth Hot Springs or the Grand Prismatic Springs are in another category of amazing altogether, so eerily beautiful and unfamiliar that they seem to belong in another time, or on another planet. In fact, when I sent a picture of the multicoloured pool at the Grand Prismatic Springs to Pink Robe, she texted back, “I don’t really know what I’m looking at. Is it Mars?” Back to health and safety for a moment. You would think, wouldn’t you, that the boardwalk through and around pools that are hot enough to boil you into a dumpling might be bordered by a fence of some kind. But no. No fence. Nothing at all to stop you being elbowed by an overly enthusiastic selfie taker and sent plunging to your fiery and immediate death. I watched one child of about three bending down to dip her fingers into one of the pools and getting yanked up by her mother just in the nick of time. It was terrifying. Terrifying or not, those natural wonders bowled us over. As did the people we met. Those Montanans and Wyomingites (I promise you I looked that up) are a darn friendly bunch. L1 and I noticed it as soon as we boarded the short flight from Denver to Bozeman. Passengers laughed, talked and made jokes as they filed onto the plane. There was none of that head down, discrete, semi-defensive silence you get on a plane departing from Heathrow or JFK. This kind of warmth and jollity was in evidence everywhere we went. We loved our wildlife guides James and Trevor, the charming staff at the Comfort Inn, The Explorer Cabins and the Rusty Parrot, and absolutely everyone at Goosewing Ranch. Even the straight talking, no nonsense and initially intimidating head wrangler, Tom, turned out to be a charmer of the highest order. He accompanied the girls on two extraordinary private rides – through the sage brush, up and down mountains and through rivers – that they will never forget. Off they go Jamie and Trevor spend their summers sharing their vast knowledge of Yellowstone and the Tetons with the likes of us, and their winters travelling, making documentaries and taking photographs, mountaineering and skiing. They are permanently engaged with the outdoors. Head Wrangler Tom spends much of his time at Goosewing, but regularly manages to get high up into the mountains for days at a time with just his horses and a tent. Henry, the masseus at Goosewing, spends half his weeks giving people (quite stupendous) massages, and the other half riding horses or teaching art and drama in Jackson. Hearing these people’s stories reminded us that there are many ways to live a rich and fulfilling life and that they don’t have to involve owning a property in the vicinity of a metropolis and worrying about where your kids will go to school and how they’re ever going to get onto the property ladder. But those guys who ride the bulls and the bucking broncos? They’re just cotton picking crazy. The Jackson Rodeo was another high point of the trip, but I can’t say I didn’t flinch every time I watched an eleven-year old boy or a slight, forty-year old man trying to hang onto a raging beast for the requisite eight seconds before getting flung from its back. It was definitely exciting, but I preferred the barrel races, which involved feisty cowgirls tearing across the ring, weaving their horses around strategically placed barrels while the clock ticked. We learned many things on this holiday – about wildlife and geology and hot springs and people and rodeos. We also gleaned a few useful tips about what to do if you encounter a bear, which I’ll share with you now. Rule number one: make a lot of noise so the bear knows you’re coming and the encounter never takes place. Rule number two: if you do meet a bear, never, ever run away from it. Ideally, you’ll be carrying bear spray which you will spray expertly at the bear’s feet as it thunders towards you. If you’ve forgotten the bear spray, you’ll need to make a lightening quick assessment as to what type of bear you’re looking at, black or grizzly. (And don’t be fooled by colour, because black bears can be black, brown or white). If it’s a black bear, punch it in the nose. If it’s a grizzly, lie down, play dead and take your beating. If the beating goes on too long, however, it means the grizzly intends to eat you, so you should get up and punch it in the nose. Got that? Scouting for bears around Goosewing Now I know you’re all awaiting news of the line dancing, about which I’ve been banging on since February. There weren’t as many opportunities as we’d hoped for, but one did present itself after the Friday night cook-out at Goosewing. French wrangler Emilie called us all together – mums, dads, kids, grandmas and grandpas – and urged us to join in and follow her lead. Alas, L1 had injured his knee two days before leaving New York (did I mention that?) and it was still giving him jip, so he could only watch and record. The boy couldn’t dance either as he was nursing a fractured vertebra. So it was down to me and the girls and the boyfriend. I waited with bated breath, hoping Emilie was going to lead us through one of the half dozen line dances we’d learned at Arthur Murray. Perhaps the Copperheard Road, or the Fireball, otherwise known as “Pitbull Line Dance and Country Girl” (my personal dance of choice), or the simpler Cotton Eye Joe. “First we’re going to do something they call the Cotton Eye Joe,” Emilie announced, and I gave an inner yelp of joy. She proceeded to demonstrate. I watched. I watched more carefully. The steps bore no resemblance to the ones we’d learned. I frowned, confused. I tried to make my feet do what Emilie’s feet were doing. “There are lots of different versions of Cotton Eye Joe,’ Emilie chirruped. “This is my favourite.” It might have been her favourite, but it wasn’t mine. It was awfully damn complicated. I stumbled my way through it along with everyone else, eventually picking it up, sort-of, but failing to look in any way comfortable or graceful. Ok, that wasn’t so great. Maybe the next one would be better. I crossed my fingers, hoping for the Fireball. “This one is called The Mouche Bouche,” Emilie announced. Or maybe it was the Bouche Touche. Either way, I’d never heard of it. So off we went again, me leaning forward and craning my neck in order to see Emilie’s steps, dancing like a woman who’d never danced before, and definitely hadn’t had six months’ worth of line dancing lessons at the Arthur Murray Studio. There was a third dance, something I never did catch the name of. I didn’t know that one either. Was this what they call hubris? Or a simple case of best laid plans…. Never mind, it was enormous fun, even though I was thoroughly outshone by my daughters, who have more dancing talent in their little toes than I have in my entire body. The only person who didn’t outshine me was the boyfriend, who seemed to be facing a different way to everyone else at all times, all six foot five of his arms and legs flying wildly and joyously about. The entire experience of being under the Big Sky was joyous. We were all very, very sad to leave. The holiday was unanimously voted the best ever, which I thought was pretty good given our various injuries, all that driving around and living out of suitcases, the five am starts, and the fact that we are more accustomed to holidays that involve a great deal of lounging next to pools with ice buckets full of rose to hand. Wyoming, we loved you. We will be back. Saying goodbye to the ranch, and to Elaine (in blue), the Kiwi we had the great pleasure to spend time with July 24, 2018 July 24, 2018 ~ jrbinmanhattan ~ Leave a comment Apologies for my absence. We’ve been busy escaping. Everyone said you don’t want to be in New York all summer, it’ll drive you crazy, so we took them at their word and made plans to be in London in late June, then someplace different every weekend in July. Maine followed by Montauk followed by western Quebec. We drove to Prouts Neck in Maine to visit our Wimbledon based American neighbours D and M, who vacation there every summer. “That’s one ugly drive,” M said. (By which I think she meant long as opposed to visually ugly) “Why would you do that when you could fly there in an hour.” We did it because we wanted to see the countryside, and because, really, when you think about it, an hour’s plane ride always turns into a five hour journey by the time you account for the taxi to the airport, the hour getting through security, the hour or more for the inevitable delays, the long queue for the rental car at the other end. What’s an extra hour when you can spend it cruising along through upstate New York under a cerulean sky, stopping en-route to enjoy one of the two egg and sausage, road-trip McMuffins you allow yourself every year? Prouts Neck was even more beautiful than we’d anticipated after fifteen years of picturing our neighbours staying there. Stretching out into Saco Bay, with Portland to the North, Cape Elizabeth to the East and the Old Orchard Beaches to the West, it’s a little slice of New England paradise. A long, deep stretch of beach watched over by a white slatted wood beach club, weather beaten steps descending to the sand. New England style beach houses nestling in the sand and long grasses of the gentle slopes behind the beach, or sitting high amidst the rosa rugosa on the cliffs to the West of it. Miles of cliff walks during which you can breathe in the mist thrown up by the waves crashing onto the rocks below, while never being too far from the slip-of-foot-on-loose-pebble that could send you sliding down onto those same rocks. M, D and L1 ahead of me on the cliff walk. See those tree roots ready to trip you up? It’s a community – and I mean community, since successive generations of connected families have been vacationing there for decades and everyone seems to know everyone – that feels largely untouched by time. It could be nineteen fifty-three or nineteen eighty three, or indeed, twenty eighteen. There’s no wifi unless you want to make your way to the Blackburn Point Hotel and use theirs. People ride bikes everywhere – not slick racing bikes with the bottom bruising seats, but the kind with baskets on the front, and not sporting helmets and lycra, but wearing sundresses and sun hats, or tennis whites, and with rackets strapped to their backs. There’s a weekly, Sunday evening picnic on the rocks just beneath D’s father’s house (the extended family have a cluster of houses that they all share) to which the regular guests all contribute food and partake in the barbequeing and clearing up while the sun sets spectacularly behind them. Prouts Neck sunset after picnic on the rocks After the picnic a large contingent always head off to what’s called Sing, held in the hall of the sailing club. We’re no singers, but D wanted us to drop by and see what Sing was all about. What it turned out to be was a massive sing-along led by an enthusiastic song master, the white haired and the middle aged and the teen aged and the toddlers all holding song sheets and intoning about never trusting a sailor an inch above the knee. They were all having a whale of a time in what could only be described as a thoroughly joyous and unaffected atmosphere. “This is the very best of America,” L1 whispered to me as we watched from the doorway. Another woman, a local who’d introduced herself to us, shaking both our hands with a warmth rarely seen in New York or London, leaned in and said, “It is the best. But it’s also pretty weird. You gotta admit.” Now, our host, D, is an action man. He can’t really sit still for more than a minute or two at a stretch, and his idea of a perfect day is sport followed by more sport followed by more sport. So the Sunday picnic and Sing represented the culmination of an activity packed weekend. M had warned me before our arrival: “D has completely overscheduled the weekend. L1 will not have a moment’s peace. But don’t worry, you’ll be safe with me, do-nothing-M.” Don’t believe it for a second. There’s nothing do-nothing about M. She and D escorted us on a bike ride and a cliff walk the Friday afternoon we arrived before hosting a lobster dinner for twelve that evening. Then she was up with the birds, cycling off to the beach club to pick up coffees and returning to do yoga stretches on the deck before whipping up a delicious corn chowder for lunch, while the boys spent a few hours on the golf course. We had all of about an hour’s down time before we set off for a ferry ride to Great Diamond Island, where we dined on clam chowder and a myriad of delicious fish dishes before returning for a late evening browse through the lively streets of Portland. There was talk of an early boat ride and a fishing expedition on Sunday morning, but the weather failed to cooperate, so we rose a little later and walked the length of the beach (at a clip, I might add, because M doesn’t like to dawdle), stopped to chat with the various friends and family who emerged from their houses when they spotted us, then rode our bikes to the kayak club and kayaked across the sound towards lunch at a favourite oyster bar. L1 and I took the easy option of the double kayak while M powered ahead on her own and the mighty D paddle boarded his way across in the manner of a Viking leading a fleet of longships towards a raid. “You’re just lucky we weren’t with D’s sister,” M said as we pulled the kayaks up onto the shore. “She’d have had you kayaking all the way up the Nonesuch River and back before you’d be allowed any lunch.” I think this all qualified as a quite a slack itinerary for D and M. They couldn’t know that L1 and I regularly spend vast amounts of time sitting down, reading. Which we did the following weekend in Montauk. We rocked up to Gurney’s Inn Montauk (I know. It’s a terrible name, isn’t it?) at about noon on Friday after a three hour drive the length of Long Island, during which we passed through all the Hamptons – Westhampton, Southampton, Hampton Bays, Bridgehampton, East Hampton – to get to the eastern tip of the island. We promptly established ourselves on a couple of sun loungers on the beach, ordered two margaritas and opened our books. Every now and again we would spot a para glider overhead, or some kite surfers out at sea, and we would say, that’s probably D. He must have paddle boarded down from Maine to squeeze in a bit more action. The remainder of the Montauk weekend was much the same. Lying down reading followed by sitting up reading followed by lunch followed by a short stroll along the beach followed by more sitting down reading. The occasional short drive to take in the surrounding topography. No kite surfing. No para gliding. No kayaking. No death-defying cliff walks. Not that we hadn’t enjoyed the cliff walks and kayaking the weekend before, because we had. Immensely. But life is all about contrasts, right? Montauk, as most of you will know, is the home of The Affair, that addictive Showtime series about Noah and Alison and the affair between them that upends their lives as well as the lives of everyone around them. We did a fair amount of location spotting as we drove around, managing to identify the house where Helen’s rich parents lived, the motel where Alison holed up when it all went wrong, and of course the Lobster Roll, where it all began. The Lobster Roll is insanely popular. L1 and I had seen the cars jammed into its car park and along the adjacent roadside, so we thought we’d be clever and get there early for lunch on Sunday. We rolled up at eleven forty-five to find that we weren’t the only ones to have had that bright idea. The car park was thick with four by fours jostling for the right to claim the next available space, and there was a throng of people waiting for tables. But, being a party of two, we didn’t have to wait that long, and what wait we did have was well worth it. The lobster roll, advertised as the best in the country, certainly was. The landscape around Montauk is very Cornish, but with softer sand and better weather, and Montauk itself is a bit like Padstow, but on a bigger scale. Surf shops, pizza parlours and fish and chip restaurants, modest hotels and beach shacks overlooking the beach and more modest ones overlooking the car parks. It’s a different vibe altogether from that of East Hampton, ten miles away, which is more like Rodeo Drive or Bond Street. It’s full of chichi people and chichi shops – the ice cream parlour is tucked between Jimmy Choo, purveyor of the thousand dollar shoe, and Orlebar Brown, home of the five hundred dollar swimming trunk, just to give you an idea. There were also far too many silver foxes looking pleased with themselves in vintage soft top SL Mercedes 500s, which L1 declared to be a sad cliché. We preferred the more authentic, chilled out vibe of Montauk. And on the whole, it would be fair to say that if we had to choose between Prouts Neck and the Hamptons, (which we don’t) we would opt for the former. There’s something very uplifting about being surrounded by people who all wave and say hello, and kids cycling along dirt roads with tennis rackets slung across their backs. (Our only experience of cyclists in the Hamptons was of the ones who shouted ON YOUR LEFT! ON YOUR LEFT! before speeding past and disappearing in a flash of steel and lycra. But I’m sure there are other kinds there too.) That’s not to dismiss the Hamptons, or our hotel and its beach, which were dreamy. Our room was beyond dreamy. For some inexplicable reason, we were upgraded to a suite that afforded us simultaneous views of the ocean and the TV, which suited L1 down to the ground when it came to sneaking peeks at the British Open. Genius room design: the British Open AND the ocean in view And it was on the West side of the hotel complex, far removed and facing away from the beach bar. This turned out to be a real boon when hundreds of twenty somethings flooded in on Saturday afternoon and turned the place into an Ibiza beach club – all impossibly toned, tanned bodies lounging on beach sofas or dancing to unidentifiable, thumping tunes while waving champagne glasses in the air. Which brings me to telling you about a rather worrying incident which took place in the hotel restaurant on Friday evening. There we were, happily chatting away and minding our own business, when two glasses of champagne were delivered to our table. “We didn’t order those,” L1 said, gesturing to our still-half-full bottle of cabernet. “They’re a gift from the next table,” the waiter said. We glanced over to see a man and two women, all in their mid to late twenties. The three of them waved, then one of the women – no, let’s face it, she was a girl – came over. “This is so kind of you,” L1 said. “But what’s it for?” “We just thought you guys looked so cute,” she said. “So enjoy!” Back to her table she went, leaving us speechless. When we stopped being speechless, we started whispering. “Cute?” I hissed. “Is that what we are now? Cute?” “Be quiet,’ L1 said. “It was a nice gesture.” “But cute? I’d rather be interesting, or cool, or fun. Or terrifying. Anything really, but cute. Tell me, have we reached the age where we’re going to be patronised from now on?” I think I was particularly sensitive to the cute thing because the word had already been used to describe us back in New York. The lovely instructors at Arthur Murray seem to think we’re cute too. I have no idea why. Is it because we’re old – both compared to them, and generally? Old and still married? Old and still talking to one another? Old and learning to dance? “Maybe cute doesn’t mean what we think it means?” I said to L1 in a clutching-at-straws way the following morning. “Maybe in America it’s a catch-all word meaning…something else.” I consulted the thesaurus on my phone. Cute: sweet, endearing, charming, appealing, delightful, adorable. I still don’t like it. And here’s my pledge to all the seventy, eighty and ninety-year olds I know: I will never, ever refer to you as cute so long as we both shall live. But I mustn’t obsess. Or so L1 tells me. Move on. And we will. Back to Manhattan, and then on to Chateau Montabello in Quebec next weekend, where we’ll spend time with my family. Ten days after that we’ll face the moment of truth in Wyoming: have all those dance lessons paid off or not? Time is flying, and I’m both happy and sad about that. Happy that October will soon be upon us and we’ll be moving back home. Sad that October will soon be upon us and there’s so much we still haven’t done in New York. The Lincoln Centre. Sylvia’s in Harlem. Harlem. The Hudson River Boat tour. The Standard rooftop bar. So much theatre. L1 says I mustn’t obsess about that either. “The way to look at it,” he said, “is that we could have been going to the Lincoln Centre twice a week but we chose to learn to dance instead. You can’t do everything.” Spoken like a wise man, not a cute one. P.S. To our son and his friends, you might want to think about applying for a summer job at Gurney’s Montauk Inn. We met six twenty-one year olds from Cork who’d come over on J1 visas after graduating from university, and claimed to be having the time of their lives, doing everything from setting up beach chairs and umbrellas to delivering the (fantastically overpriced) room service meals in open topped buggies. An American boy claimed to work there every summer because he could make “upwards of twenty thousand dollars in just a few months.” Hmn. Might not have been the most diplomatic thing to say to two people who were growing weary of handing over ridiculously large tips for every mortal thing that was done for them, tips that undoubtedly made up the lion’s share of the twenty thousand dollars earned by each of the summer staff. Still, it was useful information to pass on to all you English boys and girls looking to make a killing in the summer. Better start applying for those J1 visas. All about shoes June 14, 2018 June 16, 2018 ~ jrbinmanhattan ~ 5 Comments An expat organisation recently stumbled across this blog and asked me if I’d like to be interviewed. The interview was carried out via email, which my journalist friend tells me is common practice these days. I answered five pages worth of questions about my experience of moving to New York: why had I come, what did I enjoy most about my host city, what did I miss about home, what adjustments had I had to make, what was the cost of living like, how was the public transport system, and healthcare? These were all relevant and interesting questions, but a few weeks after I’d whizzed off my answers I realised that there was one very important question that had been missing from the interview. A question about shoes. It might have been posed thus: how have you navigated the footwear dilemmas posed by your host city? Or perhaps thus: what is your footwear strategy for your host city given that you have no car and walk virtually everywhere? It turns out that I do actually have a footwear strategy. I wasn’t fully aware of it until my sister and a Montreal friend came to visit (let’s call them C1 and C2, although C1 also goes by the name Pink Robe). During the course of their three days here we had many fleeting conversations about what shoes would be most appropriate given the activities we were planning for that day. We also spent a lot of time buying shoes. (C1 was in the mood to shop.) And while we talked and shopped, my footwear strategy came to light. I think I said something like the following when we were in Bloomys: “I’ll have to go back to the apartment for a minute because I’m wearing my five block shoes and I’m going to need my fifty block shoes for this afternoon.” C1 and C2 had not heard of this block-based approach to shoe choice. They asked me to articulate it. And so I did, and so I will do here and now. Your fifty-block shoes are the Nike trainers or the white, Fit Flop trainers (a Godsend of a gift from our eldest daughter). In fifty-block shoes you can walk anywhere, for any length of time. North to Harlem. South to Soho. Across to Central Park, around and back again. (I had hoped that my very expensive, chic, black, Zadig and Voltaire walking boots would be fifty block shoes, but alas, the leather is too stiff and they start to torture my feet before I’ve even reached the lift in our building.) Your ten-block shoes are those pretty flat sandals or ballet pumps. They’ll serve you well for a walk to Barneys to have lunch, or a stroll to Bloomys or the Frick, but anything further afield and they will begin to rub and pinch and make you long to slip your feet back inside those Fit Flops. Your five-block shoes have heels. Not stiletto heels, but those chunky two-inch heels that have (thank the Lord) come back into fashion . These five block heels will just about get you from East 66thstreet to a dinner at August on Lexington, or Le Cognac on 70th. Or you could happily stand in them at a cocktail party for several hours without wanting to saw your own feet off. Then you have your one-block shoes, which, if we’re being honest, are really taxi shoes. These are basically anything with a thin, high(ish) heel and a pointed toe (or, it turns out, Zadig and Voltaire walking boots). You can’t walk any distance at all in one block/taxi shoes, not even a block, really, unless it’s the block between the door of the taxi and the entrance to the restaurant. I own one pair of these shoes. I purchased them in London because I thought they would be perfect for my new New York life, whatever that was going to be. They sit on the top shelf of my closet, unworn. (I should add, however, that you do see the odd woman walking through Central Park in one-block shoes. These women are usually young and hanging onto the arm of a man, and I guess they must either have bionic feet, or be so keen for passers by to liken them to gazelles that any amount of pain can be borne.) Last but not least, you have the shoes that have nothing to do with either blocks or taxis. They’re your specialist shoes. In my case, they are the black lace-up Cuban heels I wear at the Arthur Murray Studio. They are soon to be joined by a pair of low heeled suede cowboy boots (L2’s will be mid-brown leather) designed to improve our line dancing technique and help us to cut a dash around the camp fire in Wyoming later in the summer. Left to right: Fifty-block shoes (a bit of a disgrace, I now notice), ten-block shoes, five-block shoes, one-block shoes (unworn, waste of money), and speciality shoes. That’s a lot of shoes. Because it isn’t enough to own just one pair of shoes in each category. Obviously. Of course everyone has some sort of shoe strategy, no matter where they live. But I’d wager a bet that if you live in a city centre and you mostly walk rather than drive, your strategy will be more or less block based, even if you’ve not articulated it as such. As for living in Wimbledon, where I drove or took taxis almost everywhere, I could pretty much wear whatever shoes I felt like on any particular day, without giving more than cursory consideration to what the weather was like or where I was going. As it happens, the shoe theme that coloured the days I spent with C1 and C2 also coloured the days that followed. I flew up to Toronto to spend the weekend with my old college housemates, and as we strolled along Queen Street we found ourselves being lured into one shoe store after another. The best of them, by a long shot, was the fabulous John Fluevog store, which sells colourful, quirky shoes and boots that are hand-made in Vancouver. I very nearly succumbed to a pair of turquoise cowboy boots, but L1 sent me an in-the-nick-of-time text reminding me that we had already purchased our cowboy boots for the upcoming Wyoming trip. The cowboy boots that were so very nearly mine As if we hadn’t had enough of shoes, we then spent Sunday morning in Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum, where we took in a Manolo Blahnik exhibit and learned about all the shoes in the world that came before his, everything from Alaskan boots made from salmon skin cured with urine to Tibetan sandals on stilts. It turns out that most cultures have relied upon variations of the block strategy for footwear – the African king who wore the ornate gold sandals with the enormous chunk of metal between his toes while sitting on his throne certainly wasn’t planning to walk anywhere. Possibly the least comfortable sandals ever invented Shoes, as I’ve already said, are very important to dancing. (I should mention here that I am now segueing, hopefully with a reasonable degree of seamlessness, into a new topic. I feel obliged to announce this because I’ve been told by one or two blog readers that they don’t much like it when I change topics mid-blog because they don’t have enough headspace to accommodate more than one topic in something that’s supposed to take all of three minutes to read. So, my apologies to those readers, and to CC in particular, and this is for you: I AM SWITCHING TOPICS NOW. YOU MIGHT WANT TO CALL IT QUITS AND GO BACK TO THAT REPORT YOU WERE WRITING) So. Shoes. Dancing. You already know about the Cuban heels and the cowboy boots. I do hope the boots arrive before the end of this week, as we’re having our final batch of dance lessons before going back to London for three weeks, and we’d really like to see how much the boots improve our country and western creds. L1 has gone mad this week, booking us three private lessons, and suggesting that we participate in a couple of the group lessons in addition. The group lessons can be a bit traumatic for me. Participants are required to change partners every five minutes or so, and some of the men are both rhythmically and stylistically challenged. One in particular, let’s call him G, has what might be politely described as a frighteningly intense look in his eyes, and what would be diplomatically described as only a passing acquaintance with the deodorant stick. Also an inflated opinion of his own dancing prowess. Last week, when we were dancing the foxtrot together, he insisted that we should be zigzagging across the floor. I didn’t believe him, but it was difficult to argue, what with the forceful way he was pushing me backwards into a zigzag. After the group lesson, I sidled up to one of the instructors and told her that one of my dance partners had insisted on zigzagging throughout the foxtrot, and was that correct? “That must have been G, right?” she said, rolling her eyes. “Yes, it was.” “Well you should know that he and I don’t always see eye to eye. And no, you don’t zigzag in a foxtrot. Nor do you start the dance with one leg outstretched behind you at an angle, like this.” (She demonstrated. I recognised the stance.) I was vindicated. But that doesn’t help me much in group lessons when G is present. L1 doesn’t know how lucky he is. The worst thing he ever has to deal with is a case of flapping elbows or overactive knees, or – as was the case last week – both at once. The best group lessons, of course, are the ones with people you know. We enjoyed one of these when C1 and C2 were in town and Jacqueline agreed to teach all four of us together. To the accompaniment of Man I feel like a Woman and Sweet Home Alabama, C1 and C2 were treated to a whistle stop tour through the five or six line dancing steps that L1 and I have been practising for months, They picked the steps up in no time, and danced with amazing dexterity, rhythm and flair. It was most annoying. Under the High Line May 28, 2018 May 30, 2018 ~ jrbinmanhattan ~ 2 Comments A random Monday posting, and not the usual L2 fare. In the main, it’s a story, one of three that I’ve written for The Masters Review flash-fiction competition. The story is fictional, but it draws upon the many real-life tales told in a disturbing book titled Vanishing New York: How A Great City Lost Its Soul, by Jeremiah Moss. Our dear Torontonian friend, SL, was staying with us when I picked up the book in Barnes and Noble. “Good for you,” he quipped. “Now you can be one of those irritating people who are always banging on about how New York isn’t what it used to be.” What we didn’t know was that during the course of the weekend we would all become those people who said that New York isn’t what it used to be. Browsing through another book on our coffee table, 111 Places In New York That You Must Not Miss, SL identified Il Vagabondo, a small bar on East 62ndStreet, featuring an indoor bocce court, that was founded by proprietor Ernest Vogliano’s grandfather in the early 1900s to attract the Upper East Side’s Italian immigrants. We made a plan to go there for coffee or a glass of wine, only to discover that it no longer existed. “It’s fun to watch the competition from a courtyard table, sipping wine and savouring scrumptious Italian cuisine,” boasted our coffee table book, published in 2015. Fun we wouldn’t have in 2018. Shame. Next on SL’s list of places to see was The Essex Street Market on the Lower East Side. According to 111 Places, the market offered “a huge array of edible treats you’d otherwise have to hunt down all over town, and diverse merchants you wouldn’t think could coexist under one roof. Mom-and-Pop grocers, many there for decades, sell oxtails, oranges, cuchifritos and couscous, next to booths run by bankers-turned-bakers.” Not for much longer they won’t. Moss warns us that The Essex Street Market and indeed the entirety of Delancey Street is about to be eviscerated to accommodate the Essex Crossing, a $1.1 billion dollar “manufactured utopia of the future” featuring hulking glass towers comprising “luxury condos, office space, floors of interior shopping-mall-style retail, glamorized suburban food courts, and some “affordable” housing”. Moss asks, “In the glitzy future mall, expanded to accommodate more new upscale businesses, will the old school merchants survive?” There’s a similar story behind the High Line. Who, when visiting New York, hasn’t walked along the High Line and thought, how great is this? What a genius idea, and what a fun way to spend an hour or two. Read chapters 13 and 17 in Moss’s book and you might not feel quite so unadulteratedly positive. I enjoy a stroll along the High Line as much as the next person, but I have to admit that when I look at the immense, luxury condominiums that have sprung up alongside the tracks since the project was completed in 2011, and think about all the homes and small businesses that were wiped out to accommodate them, I can’t help but think that something has gone awry. Gentrification. Progress. The way of the world. There’s nothing new in that I suppose, except the sheer scale and pace of it in a city like New York. Perhaps it has ever been thus. Back in the late nineteenth century, the American writer, John Jay Chapman, wrote that “the present in New York is so powerful that the past is lost.” Even when that powerful present comes up with a genius idea for turning crumbling railway tracks into a raised walkway bordered by wildflowers in the middle of the city, the loss of the past is undeniably sad. And we are all a little bit complicit. Under the High Line Number One, Hudson Yards – forty floors of shimmering sapphire. A young woman emerges from its revolving doors into the oppressive late afternoon heat. Joanna, married to Zach, who is at that moment sitting in his sleekly furnished office in Bloomfield Place, cooking up deals and manoeuvring large sums of money in ways that Joanna does not even try to understand. Her work is with words, not numbers. Joanna walks east, towards the entrance to the High Line at West 30th. Partially constructed towers of steel and blue glass rise up around her like lumbering titans. She barely registers the intense noise that once overwhelmed her – the crashing of metal poles, the juddering of Jackhammers, the beep-beep of reversing cranes, the rude blasts of car horns that is the soundtrack to New York life. There were many things that had attracted them to their building, things that more than made up for the noise and the chaos that surrounded it: the river, just across the West Highway, and the amazing facilities in the building itself – a state of the art gym, a pool, an outdoor roof terrace and an indoor entertainment room, a basketball court, a bowling alley – a bowling alley! Everything you could possibly need, as well as a few things you definitely don’t, she and Zach are always saying to guests. Joanna’s favourite thing about Number One Hudson Yards is its proximity to the High Line, along which she can stroll amidst wildflowers, grasses and trees to get to the Meatpacking District. To her the High Line is an unequivocal marvel. A peaceful, rural experience amidst the grime and hurly-burly of the city. If she looks ahead, or straight up at the sky, she can forget that she is in a city at all. Of course, the illusion never lasts long. Not with those mega-condominiums (Number One Hudson Yards amongst them) looming on both sides. This afternoon, Joanna is headed towards The Lobster Place in Chelsea market, where she plans to purchase some fresh sea bass for supper. Somewhere below her feet, Louisa de Denartis is removing one last tray of Pignolli cookies from the oven at the back of the De Denartis Pasticceria and Caffé, founded by her great grandfather in 1910. Like her father and mother, Louisa has worked in the Pasticceria since she was small, learning to bake Biscotti and Bombolonas, Semifreddo and Sfogliatelle. She is an expert on Italian sweet delights, and on the habits of the customers who buy them. People like Al Baldiccio who ran the auto shop down the road for thirty years, and used to come in for a Cartocci and a cappuccino every morning, or Fran Merkowitz, who brings one or another of her grandchildren in for a hot chocolate and a Cannoli most Saturdays. “There must be a way,” Louisa had insisted, when her father had told her about the new landlord. “There is no way,” her father said, already defeated. “When the Big Guys decide to come to town, there’s no stopping them. Look at what happened to Al.” Progress, people call it. Louisa remembers hearing about the laudable project to develop the disused railway tracks that ran above the heads, homes and businesses of people like them, remembers thinking that it would enhance all of their lives and bring customers flooding into the Pasticceria. What she hadn’t realised – maybe nobody had – was that it would also bring the Big Guys with their money and their grand plans and their unblinking determination to demolish every pasticceria, auto shop, tailor, and coach house that lay in their path. Development and destruction, breakthroughs and burnt offerings. Bound together as surely as omelettes and eggs, with a logic that is so easy to spout but so difficult to live with if you live on the underside of the tracks. At four thirty, after closing the doors of the Pasticceria for the last time, Louisa dusts the Pignolli cookies with sugar and places them in a white pastry box. Leaving by the back door, she takes the box up onto the High Line, where she finds the spot she thinks must sit more or less directly above the Pasticceria. She sits down, cross legged, and opens the box in her lap. Some of the many people walking along fail to notice her until it is almost too late, and she is aware of their stumbled steps as they try to avoid her. She remains undaunted, offering Pignolli cookies with a quietly outstretched arm. A small boy takes one, but most people pass her by without understanding or even seeing the fragile beauty of her gift. Joanna, on her return journey from Chelsea Market and swinging a basket laden not just with plump sea bass, but with Pignolli cookies purchased from the giant food hall opposite The Lobster Place, sees the young woman sitting on the wooden boards and thinks that perhaps she’s in need of help. She kneels down. “Are you okay?” ‘Would you like a Pignolli cookie?” the young woman says, opening her palm. “Actually, I just bought some,” Joanna says, indicating the basket. The woman ponders Joanna’s basket. “They won’t be as good as these,” she says. “You have no idea what you’re missing.” She leans back, eyes narrowing as if to examine Joanna more acutely. A kind of silence expands around them, and between them, a thin, weighty line is pulled taught. It feels to Joanna as though she is being challenged, even accused of something. How ridiculous, Joanna thinks, and forces herself to break free of the young woman’s penetrating gaze. She stands and walks away, keeping her eyes on the path ahead and her thoughts on the fish in her basket, which she must get into the fridge. But she can’t seem to walk fast enough. Her mind is gripped by the idea that it is too late, that the sea bass has already gone off and will be inedible, everything ruined. Waddabout spring? L1 had warned me that New York doesn’t really do Spring. You can be catapulted straight from the icy winds of bleak mid-winter into the intense heat and blazing sun of summer in the blink of an eye. Straight from winter woolies to sundresses without even a nod to the light weight blouses and the perfect-shade-of-taupe raincoat you’d purchased for all those in between days. And that’s exactly what happened this week. On Monday it was 46 degrees, with a bone chilling wind and steady rain all afternoon. L1 came home soaked through and grumpy, declaring that he’d just had just about enough of the New York weather. I hadn’t even bothered to go out at all. I was still sulking about having had to leave the dolphins and pelicans behind at Casey Key. Anyway I had two cases to unpack, a shed load of washing to do, and an apartment to clean (Remember that New York dust I told you about? Imagine how thick it was after a month away). I couldn’t have gone out into the cold if I’d wanted to. Then on Tuesday the temperature soared to eighty, where it stayed for the rest of the week before hitting ninety on Thursday. And with the tropical temperatures came a transformation, as if the city had emerged from its cocoon. People were suddenly smiling and talking to one another in the lift. Having spoken to precisely five people in our building since November, I spoke to five at once on my way down on Tuesday. An elderly woman announced, by way of warning, I supposed, “It’s very warm out there.” Her husband concurred eagerly. Another woman entered the lift on the fourth floor wearing a long rain coat and with a pile of clothes over her arm. “Suddenly we’re all going out!” said the first woman. “Yes! Well, I’m only going to the valet to drop these off for dry cleaning,” said the rain-coated fourth floor dweller. “But it does look fabulous out there. I’m packing up the apartment. And I’m wearing nothing but long underwear underneath this coat!” Maybe a little TMI, but it certainly broke the ice. The elderly couple were keen to know about the packing up. “I spend half the year in Rio,” the woman explained. “I’m leaving tomorrow.” Bad timing, I thought. Just when the tulips are coming out. And the tulips are everywhere. There are red and yellow ones carpeting the grounds of our building, and red and white ones under every tree I pass on my way to Madison Avenue. It’s not just the chatty neighbours and the tulips brightening up the place. The streets now abound with pretty Chanel pumps, striped espadrilles, handbags in mellow yellow and cerulean, floaty floral sundresses and chic linen trousers. Fashion, in general, has come out from under its winter duvet. People don’t bother so much in the winter, or if they did, we wouldn’t see it anyway. We all look the same, in our hooded puffa-coats in various shades of black. The dog lovers are out in force too. Usually it’s just me bending down to say hello to other people’s dogs, but yesterday I saw others doing the same. It’s as if the warmth and sunshine has melted away all the barriers that normally exist between people in this city and softened the stiffness that passes as discretion. People talk in louder, more excitable voices instead of huddling up against the cold. They gesture, look up and around, and smile. I know that the residents of any country that has a winter will be celebrating the springing of spring. But I wonder if the transformation in people’s moods and behaviour is more marked when the winter is brutal, as it is in New York. I think that in the UK we get so used to the grey skies and drizzle all year round (except for about a week in June) that we just carry on, not much remarking when the weather shifts. In a place like New York, the contrast between winter and spring/summer is so dramatic that it seems to jolt people into a whole new way of being. In this weather, I no longer want to sit inside Shakespeare and Co, so I’ve switched my writing spot to the open air Pain Quotidien which sits on the shores of the lake in Central Park – the one with the Stuart Little boats. It can be difficult to find a table in the shade, but when you do, it’s bliss. It wasn’t so blissful in the Arthur Murray Studio on Thursday, where the air conditioning did little to combat the ninety degree heat. Our instructor, (whom I think I once called Louisa, but who is in fact called Jacqueline) took L1 and I through some challenging swing steps that had us both dripping inelegantly within minutes. My hair was so damp and flat I looked as if I’d been caught in a rainstorm. It was not a pretty sight. As we left the studio I reminded L1 that this, of course, was the primary reason I would never be able to appear on Strictly. But it wasn’t as hot in the Arthur Murray Studio as it is in the basement of our building, where the maintenance guys are stationed. Terry came up on Thursday to sort out a ceiling light that was misbehaving, and I asked him how it was down there in the bowels of Manhattan House. “No air conditioning down there,” he said in his Irish slash Brooklyn accent. “And we have to keep the heatin’ on because, ya know, it’s going to go down below fifty at night next week. So we gotta protect the pipes.” “You must be dying down there,” I said. He shrugged. “We’re used to it. New Yawk is like that – goin’ from winta to summa in one day. Boom! Waddabout spring?! It’s crazy.” I’d felt a little sheepish about dragging him up to attend to a ceiling light that I should probably have been able to fix myself, but then I realised that I’d actually done him a favour. I’d given him an excuse to escape the inferno for ten minutes. And he must have had thirty or forty of those excuses that day, because he actually looked quite fresh in his crisp white shirt. His hair was certainly in better shape than mine had been after an hour in the Arthur Murray Studio. Also, of course, he could count on the inevitable tip to lessen his pain. After I gave it to him, he positively skipped towards that lift. Until next time, April 25, 2018 April 25, 2018 ~ jrbinmanhattan ~ 3 Comments Do I actually live in New York City? My dad doesn’t think so, and he may have a point. Since L1 and I officially moved there in late October, I’ve spent five weeks in London, a week in California, and most recently, almost a month in Florida. That’s a sixty/forty split between New York and other places. So I guess our first six months on this side of the pond would more accurately be described as Our Big American Adventure rather than Our Big New York Adventure. The Florida part isn’t actually new to me – I’ve been coming here at least once a year since I was seventeen, and the kids have been coming since they were babies, courtesy of my parents having lived here part of the time for the past forty years. But the prospect of coming here never ceases to engender a ludicrous level of excitement in all of us, and particularly in daughter number two. (“We all love Florida,” said daughter number one, “but K REALLY loves it, in an almost crazy way.”). Apparently, during the month prior to their flying here, daughter number two’s boyfriend was subjected to the daily pronouncement that she just could not wait to get to Florida, she thought she might die if she didn’t get there soon, accompanied by much hyperventilating, squealing and hand waggling. Continue reading “Searching for Stephen King” → Will the real New York please stand up? March 31, 2018 April 1, 2018 ~ jrbinmanhattan ~ 1 Comment I’ve spent the week lying around, doing my best to recover from the debilitating lurgy that prevented me from making the planned trip back to London to surprise our youngest on his nineteenth birthday. Actually, Norwegian Airlines also did its bit to prevent me from going. Four hours before my scheduled departure at eleven am Thursday, they sent me a text informing me that my flight had been rescheduled to three am on Friday on account of the fact that they needed to comply with rules pertaining to rest periods for crew – rules to which they had, presumably, suddenly and surprisingly been alerted. They hoped this would not be too inconvenient. Thank you Norwegian Airlines. Now we know why your premium economy seats are so much cheaper than everyone else’s. You’re not actually a proper airline, with all that this implies in terms of logistical expertise and professional standards. You’re an illusion, a sham, a fake. But back to the lying around. While reclined, I did two things, in the main. The first was to binge watch Grace and Frankie. I know I’m late to the party, but what a party. Comedy gold. The trouble is, twenty four episodes in, I’m dangerously close to believing that I actually live in that beach house with Jane Fonda, and that I have access to her dreamy wardrobe of pastel coloured knits by Ralph Lauren and St John. At one point, L1 insisted that I leave the bedroom and come in to watch the news, just so I could regain some perspective on the world. I sat there, forcing myself to take in the latest revelations about how the leader of the free world had been paying porn stars to lie while colluding with the thug who’s in charge of Russia and a dodgy UK tech company and an even dodgier US tech company in order to subvert democracy, but I’m afraid none of it really made an impression. I was too busy longing to be back on one of those tasteful striped loungers on Jane’s deck, gazing out at the Pacific. Wary of getting lost in Grace and Frankie land, and unable to get out into the city to experience it, I decided that the next best thing would be to to read about the city. I happened to have two books about New York to hand – Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York, and New York Stories. And what I read really got me thinking. I thought about the city in the books and the city that L1 and I have been experiencing, and I wondered whether either version is what anyone would call the real New York, or if such a thing even exists. Continue reading “Will the real New York please stand up?” → Old Dogs and New Tricks March 17, 2018 March 23, 2018 ~ jrbinmanhattan ~ 7 Comments When we moved to this great city, we expected to see new things and meet new people. What we didn’t anticipate was that we might become new people. Please don’t be alarmed. I’m not talking about plastic surgery, or about any upending of character or values. I’m talking about small shifts in what we choose to do, how we opt to spend our time. Here’s what I mean. Back in London, L1 was not a shopper. If the trend over the past decade has been towards men making up at least fifty percent of supermarket traffic, L1 hasn’t been part of that trend. He’s been the anti-trend. And yet, within days of moving to Manhattan, he transmogrified into someone who positively embraces the supermarket shopping experience. Could he possibly pop into Morton Williams on his way home from work to pick up some milk and broccoli? No problemo. Does he want to accompany me to Whole Foods on Saturday morning to pick up some grass-fed beef for dinner, and the other twenty items we need for the week? Nothing would give him more pleasure. I’m enjoying this new supermarket persona, but every now and again, catching sight of him wheeling the trolley through the fresh produce aisles or testing the ripeness of an avocado, I have the odd sensation of wondering who he is and what he’s done with my husband. Continue reading “Old Dogs and New Tricks” → Older posts Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address: Recent posts So long, farewell …. October 15, 2018 Excuses, excuses September 28, 2018 Culture Shock August 22, 2018 The Great Escape July 24, 2018 All about shoes June 14, 2018 Previous posts Previous posts Select Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017	79,552
May 29th, 2007 4:00 PM EDT I probably spend more time online each day than any other single activity. True, this is partly because my job requires that I keep up with various online news sources. But even when I am off the clock, I am on the Web: from finding out who makes the best pizza to finding directions to get there; from buying a book to booking a hotel, from checking movie reviews to reviewing my stock portfolio. It is hard to imagine how life was before the Web, when I actually had to leave my house to do most of what I now easily do right from my desk. The Internet has also been the source of an incredible array of economic opportunity: from careers that didnit exist 15 years ago (Web development and design) to corporations that owe their existence to the Web (starting with Google and moving down to smaller stars such as The Mac Observer). Heck, the Internet even helped save the Mac. Back in the late 1990is, the Mac was teetering on the edge of extinction. As email and the Web became the primary forces driving sales of home computers, reasons to prefer a PC instead of a Mac began to evaporate. You could surf the Web equally well from either platform. The Mac rebounded. While we can applaud all that the Internet has wrought, it has its dark side. The Internet is also a serial killer (or perhaps mass murderer is a more appropriate metaphor). It has destroyed an assortment of competing technologies and businesses, industries that thrived prior to the arrival of ubiquitous email and the Web. The other day I was in a book store and noticed Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide. I used to buy a new edition of this book almost every year. Not so anymore. Why? Because of the Web. With free Web sites such IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, why should I depend on a book that requires that I shell out more than twenty books every year to keep it up-to-date? I suspect my logic is echoed by many other potential buyers, with the result being a significant decline in sales of Maltinis book. This same logic can be generally applied to a wide variety of other reference material, from many computer books to maps to encyclopedias. Indeed, printed versions of encyclopedias, once a staple in the homes of middle class America, have virtually vanished from the landscape. As for maps, sites such as MapQuest or Google Maps have all but eliminated the need for printed road atlases. It has completely abolished the market for road atlases on CD, a phenomenon that was briefly popular several years ago. The increasing presence of GPS devices has further eroded the map market. The Web is similarly destroying many of the retail stores where people go to buy those books that are still selling. Here in the Bay Area, we have a great independent book store called Cody’s. Last year, its original store on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley closed. This year, its San Francisco outlet closed, leaving only one branch alive. Another excellent local book store, Black Oak Books, is in danger of a similar fate. There are multiple contributing causes here, including competition from big box stores such as Borders and Barnes & Noble, but there is no doubt that online sales, from sites such as Amazon.com, have been a major factor. This shifting landscape has forced fundamental changes in that other bricks-and-mortar bastion for books — the library. Increasingly, libraries are retooling to focus on providing free access to online services, such as specialized search engines and databases, that would otherwise require a fee. Actual books are being pushed into the corners and back rooms. This is especially so in university libraries, where the focus is on research material. Circulation of daily newspapers continues to decline. The major paper in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Chronicle, fell 2.9% in just the last six months. As with book stores, multiple factors are behind this decline. However, the shift to getting news online is certainly a factor, especially among younger readers who canit recall when news was not available on the Web. At least equally culpable are sites such as craigslist.com and realtor.com, which offer free alternatives to the classified ads that were once a cash cow for newspapers. While most papers have a Web version, these sites typically do not generate enough revenue to compensate for the decline in sales of their print versions. Probably the best-known victim of the Internet is the music CD. The availability of music online, both legal and illegal, has precipitated such a huge decline in CD sales that many people predict these discs will all but disappear over the next few years. This in turn has led to the demise of many of the retail music stores that depend on CD sales. Here in the Bay Area, Tower Records is one such corpse. With the rise of movie downloads, there is a fear that the DVD (at least the non-HD DVD) is next in line for decline and eventual demise. Anything that increases movie viewing at home is also a threat to the existence of movie theaters, whose ticket sales are barely treading water in recent years. The ability to download or watch television episodes online is similarly shaking up the TV industry. I recently read that Nielsen ratings for Lost are down this year. What this overlooks is that Lost is one of the most watched shows by people who watch it at a time other than when it is first broadcast — such as by downloading it from iTunes, viewing it on the ABC Web site, or simply recording it to a DVR. This means that Lost’s true “rating” is significantly higher than its Nielsen number (which only tracks the initial broadcast audience). Eventually (and I predict this will happen by next year), ratings will be modified to include alternative viewing methods. Time-shifting, in turn, is having a big ripple effect on the advertising industry. Alternative modes of viewing either do not include the broadcast commercials or allow the viewer to skip past them. To compensate, advertisers are scrambling to find new ways to make sure you see their ads (such as embedding ads in the show itself). How this all shakes out remains to be seen. Finally, there is e-mail. Its popularity has precipitated a decline in the use of the Post Officeis services for any sort of personal message. I expect that online greeting cards (such as Appleis iCards) have had a similar negative impact on the sales of traditional greeting cards. You get the idea. In most cases, people do not mourn the passing of these victims of the Internet, any more than a prior generation mourned the loss of the horse-and-buggy at the hands of the automobile. On balance, for our society as a whole, the Internetis benefits have far outweighed its costs. So we welcome the change. Still, while we revel in the glories of the Internet, perhaps we should at least pause for a moment of silence in honor of those who have perished in its wake.	7,206
You might be here because, along with the quarter of all Australians[1] who will experience an anxiety condition in their lifetime, you know first-hand the sense of dread and lack of control that is trademark anxiety. The purpose of this article is to answer some questions you may have: What is anxiety? What is an anxiety disorder? Am I anxious or just stressed? Is it possible to get on top of my anxiety? How are anxiety and depression related? What do I do with the Bible’s command to not worry when I can’t help but worry? What kind of help can I get from mental health professionals? Does God care about my anxiety? You can read it from start to finish or jump it at a subheading that hits your specific area of interest. Either way, our prayer is that God would assure you of his nearness and love. Anxiety can be an isolating, crushing experience, but Jesus knows first-hand the loneliness of it. On the cross, Jesus meets us where we feel most at sea, most threatened, most fearful, and most lonely. May you find steps forward in these words, and a confidence that Jesus walks with you on this path through anxiety. [1] See the statistics compiled by Beyond Blue. They use statistics from trusted references and research. To find these statistics referring to a quarter of all Australians, choose the General statistics category. Anxiety: What is it? and What is it not? Anxiety seems to be talked about everywhere. In the news, in professional learning, across industries, in school curriculums, and of course, in our private conversations. Though it is a frequent topic of discussion, when it comes to defining anxiety, we are met with a problem of language. Colloquially, anxiety is often used interchangeably with terms like stress, worry, fear, over-concern, and not trusting God. In this murky blend of concepts, it can therefore be difficult to pin down what anxiety is in your experience of it, and to know when and how you should seek some help. In this section, we have two guiding questions that will move us toward clarity: What IS anxiety, and what is it NOT? What is going on for you in YOUR experience? 1. Anxiety is NOT stress, but they are interrelated. We often hear ‘stress and anxiety’ roll off the tongue together, and for good reason. Often the symptoms considered as signs of stress, such as sleeplessness, a pounding heart, feeling worried and tense, are the very same signs of anxiety! Understanding the distinction between stress and anxiety is important because when we are sleepless or on edge due to stress we can resolve the issue differently than if we’re anxious. One way to visualise the interrelationship of these two concepts is that anxiety is to stress what fuel is to a car engine. That is to say, stress is a complex machine made of lots of parts working together for a certain purpose, and anxiety is an ingredient that moves through the machine to help it go. Indeed, anxiety is not necessarily a bad thing! We’ll come to this soon, but first let’s start by looking at the complex machine: stress. Stress is our body’s reaction to a change or challenge in our environment. At the start of the day our bodies wake thanks to a surge of cortisol[1], commonly known as the ‘stress hormone’, and from that moment we are under varying levels of stress until we sleep. Upon waking, our senses deliver stimuli to our now alert brain, and we are required to respond: our muscles need to activate and coordinate themselves to get us out of bed. There may be household members who want our attention; perhaps we need to engage with people via our devices soon after waking. And usually, our minds are already gearing up for what we anticipate the day to hold. Though often referred to as a negative part of our experience—for example, ‘I’m stressed out!’—the ability to respond to stressors is an inescapable, necessary, and even wonderful part of our body’s design. Our stress responses are generated by the autonomic nervous system, a complex combination of nerves, hormones, and other chemicals. We need this system for survival as we adapt to and actively shape the ever-changing circumstances of our lives. We need this system for performance, as we strive toward goals that bring meaning to our lives. In fact, too little stress—or put another way, an environment that requires very little from us—can be stifling to our health and happiness. And of course, too much stress, or an environment that is demanding too much of us, can be stifling too. The space between these two poles represents a sweet zone where stress actually gets the best from us. An important feature of our autonomic nervous system is that it has two halves. The first half is the sympathetic system, or the ‘fight or flight’ response, and the second half is the parasympathetic system, or the ‘rest and digest’ response. These systems work inversely, so that when we are in fight or flight mode, the rest and digest response is turned down, and vice versa. Suppose someone standing behind you at a distance shouts your name. You turn and see them throw something quickly in your direction. In an instant—even before you have processed what you have seen—your brain will signal a release of adrenaline that sets off immediate changes in your body: your heart rate and breathing will speed up, your blood pressure and blood glucose level will increase, and blood will be redirected from your digestive system to your muscles so that you can attempt to catch the object (fight!) or get out of the way (flight!). This is the sympathetic system doing its job to protect something you value at a deep level (your safety from harm). This system is active during our waking hours, enabling us to tackle what comes our way, be it flying objects, social interactions, digital notifications, or travelling from one place to another, to name a few examples. It’s remarkable to consider just how engaged our bodies are in all the activities of the day, while our minds are often busy with other concerns at a conscious level. Once a challenge has passed, our body’s rest and digest response acts like a brake, dampening the surge of hormones that enabled us to fight or flee and taking us back to a baseline level of functioning. It also deals with various ‘housekeeping’ tasks that keep our body working well, including digestion and temperature balance. Read: we need to let our bodies rest to stay healthy and optimally primed to rise to the challenges of life. So, we’ve established that stress is essential to being awake and living life, that it is physiological in nature, and that a healthy stress response system regularly shifts between fight/flight and rest/digest modes. REFLECT: What is going on for you? As mentioned already, high levels of stress can be very uncomfortable. Some common signs of stress[2] include: It’s not fool proof, but a possible way to work out if your discomfort is because of STRESS rather than anxiety is to ask the question: If I changed the situation in some way, will I feel calmer? This question flows from our definition of stress as a physiological response to a change or challenge in your environment. When you are stressed, there are two options for changing the ‘situation’. First, you can change something externally in your environment. For example, I remember a very stressful drive to an event where I had to give a presentation, and traffic was moving at a painfully crawling pace. I had a headache, my hands were shaking, and my thoughts were racing through my options—which turnoff to take, how to contact someone at the event, and so on! STOP. “I’m stressed,” I thought. TAKE A BREATH. I took a breath. And suddenly noticed how loud the radio was blasting. “That’s not helping,” I observed to myself. So, I made a change to my environment and turned the radio off, which took one load off my stress response system and helped me think more clearly about what I needed to do to get there on time. The second way you can change the ‘situation’ is by internally accommodating to the environment. An example I regularly experience is dealing with crying or complaining toddlers. It’s astounding how much your ability to perform basic tasks diminishes in the presence of relentless whinging! So long as they’re safe and not in urgent need, I’ve learned that I’m often able to consciously choose to demote the importance of the foghorn blasting me for a response and raise the urgency of the task I’m trying to complete. Another example might be shifting your expectations on how something should go, for example, accepting that arriving late is not the worst possible case and even a tolerable one, as in my stressful drive above. If your answer to the italicised question above is, no—no matter what I change or do I cannot feel calmer, then perhaps you are experiencing ANXIETY rather than just stress. When lockdown ended in 2021, I found myself getting stressed at seemingly small things: for example, an innocuous invitation to lunch with a friend had my heart pounding and mind flooding with an instinct to bunker down and protect my calendar from intrusions bombing in. After a couple of weeks of heightened stress—and telling myself, “You’re just stressed at all the changes!”—it occurred to me that I couldn’t make the churning in my gut leave no matter what I did. Bingo: I wasn’t just stressed—I was experiencing anxiety. With that epiphany, I found some close friends who could patiently help me process on my thoughts and feelings and employed a few other strategies (keep reading!) to help get past the anxiety. Can you relate? Then let’s move onto building an understanding of anxiety. [1] For more about this, read ‘Avoid the endless trap of excess cortisol and sleep loss’. [2] You can read this to find a helpful list of common signs of stress. Put very simply, anxiety is an emotion. Of course, this is not to say that anxiety is a simple emotion! Quite the opposite. It is hardwired into our stress response system and therefore has a very physical expression. Let me share a personal moment of heightened anxiety that illustrates how this emotion operates within our stress response machinery. I was in a Bunnings carpark, strapping my two-year-old into the car while my baby daughter waited in the pram next to me. As the belt clicked into place, I turned to grab the pram, but instead got a handful of air! My heart leapt out of my chest as I looked up to see her rolling away, already a few metres from me, and a van on course to collide with the pram. I yelled and immediately ran to rescue her—thankfully, the driver had also seen us and slowed down in time! It all happened in an instant, but it took a while for my heart rate to decelerate and the tremble in my hands to settle. In that moment a cascade of physiological responses was triggered in my body, priming it for an immediate burst of energy and strength to respond to a challenge. On an emotional level I experienced a flood of anxiety—you could call it emotional hijack—where my mind was consumed by the imminent threat to something I valued highly. A fire alarm was triggered in my head, I identified the ‘fire’ threatening the life of my child, I leapt to action, the fire was ‘extinguished’ (thanks not only to my stress response, but the driver’s as well), and after a minute or two, the fire alarm in my mind was silenced and reset for the next emergency. When you think about your own experiences of anxiety, you might notice a similar theme: anxiety is often triggered when we sense a threat to something we hold as significant. The object in question may be someone you love, as in my example, but it could be all sorts of other (potentially valid) things, such as reputation, a sense of security, an envisioned future, comfort, success, or a material possession. Also, the threat in question might be less concrete or imminent than in my story. For example, the possibility of negative feedback on a piece of work may be keeping you up at night because it threatens the esteem you enjoy from your boss or a pathway to success. In this case, though you can’t literally see a vehicle about to wipe out your prized thing, the emotional hijack can be just as strong. Anxiety is also triggered when we anticipate the Worst Case Scenario. This is where our fire alarm may be a little too sensitive and is set off without sufficient cause. Imagining the disapproval of your superior might be enough to spark a level of anxiety disproportionate to the actual risk, where it feels as if your greatest fear will most certainly be realised. In this moment, you are bringing the future threat into the present, and anxiety has hijacked your stress response system to do something about it. But because it’s a future threat, you can’t resolve it in the here and now. This leaves you with a smouldering fire of anxiety which is difficult to extinguish, and which depletes your ability to engage with the actual demands of the present. Examining our thought patterns can be very helpful here. A tendency to catastrophise, for instance, can set off our anxiety fire alarm unnecessarily. If you want to read more on this, check out the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy part of the Treatment section below. A third key trigger for anxiety is when we find ourselves in a situation that had a bad outcome in the past. Perhaps you have submitted work in the past that has received unfavourable feedback, which impacted your self-esteem and general wellbeing, or prevented you from getting through an important barrier in your career progression. It can take an incredible amount of awareness and often help from trusted others to rescript these moments, enabling you to switch off the fire alarm and navigate the situation with a greater presence of body and mind. REFLECT: What is going on for you? Of the anxiety causes explained above, what resonated for you? It’s possible that you have a sense of the specific triggers that get your anxiety fire alarm sounding, but it’s equally possible that you don’t. When anxiety becomes a problem, it can feel like it lacks boundaries or a precise reason for being there. Before getting to the bottom of why you have anxiety, it might help to feel out the shape of it. How do you know that you’re inappropriately anxious? What signs tip you off? My carpark story is an example of anxiety serving its purpose: anxiety was triggered at an appropriate moment in a proportion that enabled me to act, and then the feeling retreated when the threatening event resolved. For the purposes of understanding problematic anxiety, let’s imagine that after that incident my anxiety didn’t die off. What would that look like? It could look like spiralling thoughts about my lack of fitness to look after my kids and a mushrooming fear that I will drop the ball at a life-and-death moment again. It could look like muscle tension, a headache, or an inexplicable panicky feeling when I visit the Bunnings carpark again. It could look like irritability directed at others when I’m in a similar situation of handling the kids near traffic. Problematic anxiety can manifest in a range of physical, emotional, and behavioural ways. Here is a non-exhaustive list from the Black Dog Institute. Why don’t you write down the signs that you’ve noticed in your own experience of anxiety? There may be others that the list hasn’t mentioned. Worried and afraid most of the time Detached from your body Are you experiencing…? ‘Pins and needles’ Excessive thirst Knowing your tell-tale signs for anxiety—be they physical, emotional, mental, or behavioural—is a good first step in evaluating what kind of action you should take. It’s the kind of information you could take to your GP to start a conversation about your experience. If you’re uncertain about whether this is a legitimate complaint to bring to a doctor, try something like this: “I’ve been noticing these symptoms (A, B, C and D) and I think it’s because I’m anxious. What should I do?” If your doctor has adequate training in mental health, they might try to understand the intensity and scope of your anxiety using a simple assessment tool and will have some next steps like a referral to a mental health professional. If you feel like you get nowhere with your doctor, ask around for another doctor who is good with mental health issues. It’s worth a second opinion, because anxiety can meet criteria for a mental health disorder. This is where we turn next. Sometimes anxiety can reach a level where it meets criteria for an anxiety disorder. In general, a mental disorder is a change in thoughts, emotions or behaviours that prevents you from being able to engage in relationships, work, and leisure in the way you normally enjoy. Is anxiety getting in the way of you living life? There are a range of anxiety disorders, defined by the triggers and nature of anxiety experienced by a person. These include: Social Phobia: extremely fearful or anxious when exposed to unfamiliar people or think you’re being judged by others Separation Anxiety Disorder: inappropriate and persistent fear about being separated from people you’re attached to REFLECT: What is going on for you? Is anxiety affecting the way you engage in relationships, your work, or your leisure? Or, for that matter, your experience of God and church? As mentioned, talking with a GP (especially one who is engaged with mental health issues) is a great place to start if you are regularly feeling a high level of anxiety. Talking with a trusted friend or mentor could also help, as these people know you more intimately than a doctor and may have useful feedback on what they’ve been noticing in you. Earlier, we looked at the interrelationship between our stress response system—our body’s way of responding to changes and challenges in our environment—and anxiety, the emotion operating within that system. If you’ll recall, our stress response system has two modes: 1) fight/flight, and 2) rest/digest. When one is dialled up, the other is dialled down in the same proportion, and we’re meant to move between the two modes regularly. The whole system is built to cope with acute (short-lived) stress, which can include contained time periods of stress, but struggles and even deteriorates when we are stuck in fight or flight mode and can’t properly rest. This is chronic stress. Circumstances that might lead to chronic stress include: a relentless workplace, financial insecurity, managing long term health concerns in yourself or a loved one, having to constantly adapt to shifting circumstances (like, in a global pandemic…), Additionally, chronic stress may not be the result of any one circumstance, but the frenzied cultural water we swim in. John Mark Comer compellingly emphasises how “hurry sickness”—an urgency to squeeze in more than humanly possible in the time we have at our disposal—has led to high rates of chronic stress and anxiety across Western societies and an erosion of our capacity to engage with God. Chronic stress is associated with a myriad of short- and long-term health problems. Included among them are anxiety and depression. Let’s put a magnifying glass on chronic stress and anxiety and depression. If you reflect on your own experience, you may notice that your anxiety varies in size and intensity at different times. Sometimes you are resilient to stressors, you can keep worries in proportion, and you are not monitoring for threats. And then at other times, seemingly small stressors can send you over the edge, your worries can dominate your thoughts, and you are scanning the environment for threats coming in. How can we make sense of this spectrum of coping? Psychologist Dr Dan Siegel described a framework called the window of tolerance[1], suggesting that we all have an optimal zone of ‘arousal’ where we function and deal with daily stressors effectively. In this zone we are in an alert and calm state; thinking and feeling can happen at the same time. Sometimes, like when we are chronically stressed and have little chance to reset our stress response system, we can be pushed outside of our window of tolerance. In these moments we can go up in a state of hyperarousal: anxiety is in full flight, we are ‘stuck on’ and have all our defences engaged, we find it difficult to sleep, and our thoughts are spiralling. Or, we can go down in a state of hypoarousal: we display symptoms more in line with depression such as numbed feelings, lack of energy, shame, and an inability to think or respond. And it’s also common to experience a combination of both hyper- and hypoarousal at these times. It’s like we are bouncing uncontrollably across our window of tolerance and can’t get a handle on our reactivity. Though they seem like opposites, anxiety and depression are connected because they are both predictable responses when life becomes too much. REFLECT: What is going on for you? Are you experiencing chronic stress? It’s often the case that when we hit breaking point, we are not able to make creative, strategic decisions that help us get out of or adapt to the circumstances. So, STEP ONE is to ‘defibrillate’—what do you need to do to get some immediate respite, such as a decent night’s sleep? STEP TWO is to find support—who can help you evaluate your situation and workshop ways to change things that will lead to better coping? Where are you in your window of tolerance? Are you generally coping with life, or have you noticed anxious or depressive signs presenting more frequently of late? What are your ‘red flags’ (thoughts, behaviours, emotions, physical symptoms) that tell you you’re at your limit? Do you typically go up in a state of anxiety, down with depression-like symptoms, or a combination? And what does thriving look like for you? 5. Anxiety is NOT the same as reasonable concern. Perhaps this goes without saying. The challenge, when we are highly anxious, is working out where the threshold is, marking the end of reasonable concern and the start of over-concern. The Bible’s teaching on worry can help us out here. Indeed, the Bible does talk about worry a lot! Helpfully, it does not discourage worry in every case, but sometimes condones it. In 2 Corinthians 11:28 the apostle Paul speaks about the daily pressure of his “concern” for all the churches, which is the same Greek term that he uses in Philippians 4:6 (“do not be anxious about anything”) and the same term used by Jesus in Matthew 6:25 (“do not worry about your life”). Therefore, the Bible gives some space for the possibility that worry/concern/fear can be an appropriate and proportional response to a circumstance. As Paul’s concern for the churches suggests, there is something about this kind of worry that flows from a love for others. To not have appropriate concern for those we’re in relationship with—to be completely ‘laid back’ and indifferent—is to not love at all! In fact, you could possibly map this idea of ‘appropriate concern’ onto the ‘appropriate anxiety’ demonstrated in my carpark story above—the kind of anxiety that floods our system in moments when we need to protect something important. Certainly, it takes some wisdom to discern where our concern or anxiety is appropriate and not over-concern. Pastoral care writer, Timothy Lane, suggests this rule of thumb: [Godly concern] leads to wise action and dependent prayer.[1] REFLECT: What is going on for you? In your worries, ask yourself: am I able to respond non-reactively? This is especially challenging where your actions are not able to solve the problem. Also ask: when I worry, is my reflex response to pray? If the answer is yes to these questions, then in this case you are likely dealing with reasonable concerns and not over-concern. If you have failed this litmus test, take heart, and keep reading. God’s Word is both clear and abounding in grace when it comes to the things that burden us. 6. Anxiety IS a spiritual issue, as well as physiological, psychological, and emotional. We’ve established that, according to the Bible, some concern or anxiety—at the right time and in the right proportion—is a good thing. We turn now to the kind of worry and anxiety that transgresses the boundaries of ‘appropriate’: let’s set up camp in the spiritual heartland of worry. Worry reflects something that is broken in us on a spiritual level. We know this because the most repeated command throughout the whole Bible is “Do not be afraid”[1]. There is something at stake in our relationship with God when we are anxious. Timothy Lane helps to define the kind of worry the Bible commands us to not engage in: Worry, or over-concern, thinks and acts as though everything is up to you, or completely out of control, and prays desperately, if at all.[2] Put another way, our worries or fears often betray a functional belief that we are in control, or at least, that God is not. Fear and awe are two sides of the same coin, such that our greatest fears reveal what our hearts are in awe of, what they love. Perhaps it’s the approval of others, perhaps financial security, perhaps certain pleasures, perhaps winning in the competitions of life. It is said that the human heart is an idol factory. There are no limits to our ability to displace a reverential love for God with something in the created realm. The tragedy of idolatry is that these things cannot give us the life and fulfilment we seek, but instead, ultimately consume us and make us less than what we were created to be. So, it stands to reason that the Bible keeps telling God’s people to not fear—God is jealous for our affection because he alone is worthy! REFLECT: What is going on for you? Tune in to your internal reaction to the words you’ve just read. Are you feeling conviction, defensiveness, cynicism, defeat, numbness, or something else? Pause on that feeling and say to yourself, isn’t that interesting. That feeling means something. Here is an opportunity to pray honestly. No matter where your heart is at—whether convicted of sin, defensive of things that God doesn’t seem to care enough about, cynical and hardened by the insensitivity of other Christians around your anxiety, defeated by the bodily and psychological experience of anxiety, or emotionally blocked up when it comes to God—he wants to hear it. Do you believe me? Since the Bible is so insistent that we shouldn’t worry, surely God must find our anxiety utterly tiresome! How can we know God’s posture toward us in our anxiety? [1] Scotty Smith, ‘A prayer about God’s most repeated command’ 3 October 2011 What is God’s Posture Toward Us in Our Anxiety? Let’s dive into a Bible story that features some intense fear to find out. Mary Magdalene and the other women tread a quiet path toward the tomb. The air is cool, the sun barely up. With anointing spices in arms and aching hearts in chests, their march is one of grieving devotion. But when they arrive, they are stunned to find the precious body of their Lord—stolen! And entering this bewildering scene appears an angel, wearing clothes that “gleamed like lightning” (Luke 24:4). Can you imagine the confusion and fright they must have felt in this moment? “Do not be afraid,” says the angel to the women, in Matthew’s retelling of this event. What a thrill for the angel, to share this incredible news for the very first time: He is risen! Look, see the spot where he lay, no body, just his clothes, he said this would happen, stone rolled away, unconscious soldiers… it all adds up! With too much to process the women hurriedly depart and find themselves suddenly in the presence of Jesus himself, though it takes them a moment to realise it’s him. “Greetings… Do not be afraid.” (Mt 28:9, 10) Jesus echoes the angel’s command to the women as they fall to his feet in wonder and worship. This is where you and I should bring our fears, worries, concerns, and anxieties: into this garden, just a few paces from an empty tomb and some burly, unconscious Roman guards. Drop those fears right at Jesus’ feet and listen for the warmth, the invitation, the love in his voice when he says to you, “Do not be afraid.” The resurrection is how we can have confidence that no matter how dire or frightening our circumstances, God is bigger. The story ends not in death, but life. And the resurrection is how we can have confidence that God loves us when we are anxious. Consider the lengths he was willing to go to rescue us from the black hole of death that undergirds all our anxieties. His posture toward you—no matter the concern you drop at his feet—is neither anger nor superiority, but wholehearted, tender embrace. Alison Courtney holds a Master of Arts in Counselling from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, USA. She is also a secondary school teacher with pastoral care experience in Christian education. Presently, most of her time is spent raising two young children. When spare time occasionally presents itself, Alison enjoys making art. Eight ways to care for survivors of natural disasters Natural disasters traumatic events. The threat to (or loss of) life, property, livestock and livelihoods that often accompany these events can be extremely distressing, made This is the tenth in a 14-week devotion series on the theme of resting, originally written for the Bible Society Australia. Join us as we Resting Devotion 9: Abundant Benefits This is the ninth in a 14-week devotion series on the theme of resting, originally written for the Bible Society Australia. Join us as we This is the eighth in a 14-week devotion series on the theme of resting, originally written for the Bible Society Australia. Join us as we The Mental Health & Pastoral Care Institute is a part of Mary Andrews College, an Anglican Deaconess Ministry.	31,030
“The following you shall abominate among the birds–they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, and the black vulture…” (Leviticus 11:13). The portion of Shemini deals with animals, birds, and fish permitted for consumption. We have written a separate article about the animals (see Pamphlet 3) and we are preparing another article which will soon be published. We have come now to speak about the birds. Before we look at the sages’ knowledge of birds, we should emphasize that this portion was duplicated by Moses in chapter 14 of Deuteronomy, with slight changes. We have already cited, in the portion of Tzav, Ibn Ezra on Exodus 20:1, that Moses duplicated the sections of the Torah and was careful only to maintain the sense of the words and was not careful to quote G-d’s statements verbatim. What have Chazal said about this duplication? Bechorot 6b: “Rabbi Simeon said, ‘it says camel twice’ [Rashi: once in Leviticus and once in Deuteronomy]. One is a camel born from a female camel and one is a camel born from a cow [both of which are prohibited for consumption. According to the sages’ opinion, a camel born of a cow is permitted for consumption! Any reasonable person understands that there is no such thing as a camel born of a cow]. But now [that we’ve learned a new rule from the duplication] why are the hyrax, hare, and pig duplicated? [What can you explain about them? (Rashi)] As the Baraita says: ‘Why were they repeated? In the animals because of the shesua [an imaginary animal which “has two spines and two backbones” and is not mentioned in Leviticus; Chazal added this imaginary animal, which does not really exist, and thereby even distorted the Scripture] and in the birds because of the ra’ah [which appears in Deuteronomy and not in Leviticus]. Camel is also repeated for the same reason, and why learn from it? [The camel is also repeated because of theshesua, and why does Rabbi Simeon learn from it a prohibition against a camel born of a cow?] It is a rule that what can be explained should be explained.” The duplication–“hyrax hyrax,” “hare hare,” and “pig pig”–from which we learn nothing, we attribute to the shesua, but the duplication of “camel camel,” from which something can be learned and explicated, we explicate. This is evidence that the learning of the sages, even on those things which make up the main body of the Torah, are from their own opinion, for were it from Sinai, why would there be a rule to explicate everything that can be explicated? For about things from Sinai there can be no such explication–what was said at Sinai was said. And understand this well, for there are many such things. In Medrash Tanaim on Deuteronomy 14: “Why were these things duplicated in Deuteronomy? The animals [were duplicated] because of theshesua, and the birds because of the ra’ah vulture–to teach you that a person should not be ashamed to say he had forgotten. It is an inference from minor to major–if Moses, the wisest of sages, father of the prophets, was not afraid to say he forgot, one who is not even one of a hundred thousand, of a million of his disciples’ disciples–how much more so should he not be afraid to say ‘I forgot’.” We have found something amazing in this Medrash! Moses wrote the section about the animals again because he forgot the shesua and thera’ah which G-d told him to write in Leviticus. When he remembered them, he decided to write them in Deuteronomy. So we learn that when it says “G-d said and Moses wrote” (Baba Batra 15), it does not mean he wrote it immediately at Sinai, but later on, and from memory. Some things he completely forgot to write and only later, when he remembered, did he repeat them in Deuteronomy. But who will reveal to us what he forgot and never did remember? The wise one will again be silent. Let us return to the matter of birds. In Leviticus 20 birds are listed, but in Deuteronomy there are 21 (the ra’ah is the bird Moses forgot to write about in Leviticus). But Abaye, in Hulin 63b, gives a different explanation: The da’ah in Leviticus is the ra’ah of Deuteronomy. And yet another thing said Abaye: “And the dayah and ayah of its kind” are the same bird. Why did Moses repeat the names? As we have learned in the Baraita: “Rabbi says: ‘the Scripture saysayah, why does it also say dayah?’ [Rashi: it would have been enough to call it an ayah, for that is a dayah, so why also call it a dayah?] So that there should be no opening to dispute, so that one should not call it an ayah and another adayah–you’ll see written dayah and he’ll see ayah. Therefore in Deuteronomy it is written, “and the ra’ah and the ayah and dayah of its kind’.” (Therefore, according to Abaye, only 20 birds are listed in Deuteronomy.) But Rabbi Abahu has another opinion: “The dayah, the ra’ah, the da’ah, and the ayah are the same (and so, in his opinion, there are only 19 birds). On this strange and puzzling issue it is enough if we mention the question of Rabbi Jonah, brought in Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 11:13, “How is it possible to say ‘beware the aryeh and layish [both: lion]’.” (If they are one and the same, why do we have to be warned about the ayah and also the dayah?) Ibn Ezra’s explanation cannot be reconciled with the words of Chzal; see Rav Saadiah Gaon’s commentary, where he explains that the ra’ah, ayah, and dayah are three separate birds. But how can you imagine that the sages were expert on birds? They state about themselves that they are not expert and that they didn’t even bother to check; they speak only from learning in the study hall and did not go out into the fields to see the birds. As Tosfot writes on Hulin 61a, second reference: “And if you say, “How was it clear to the rabbis [that each bird of prey is impure]; were they hunters or bowsmen who checked all the kosher birds and found no bird of prey?’…It may have been a tradition from the days of Noah, who sacrificed from every type of kosher bird and checked them all, and he handed this tradition down through the generations, that there is no kosher bird of prey.” We have already written in many places that our rabbis, when they had no source or reason, said, “it is a tradition given to the sages,” and really, they had no such tradition, but, as the Tosfot themselves prove, “it may have been a tradition.” So a doubtful tradition became an explanation. If this is not enough, the Gemara in Hulin 63b says: “A hunter can be trusted to say ‘this bird is kosher, as taught to me by my teacher.’ Rabbi Johanan said: ‘if he is expert in them and in their names.’ Rabbi Zira asked: ‘Is this “teacher” a rabbi or a hunting teacher?’ This is the answer; Rabbi Johanan had said that were ‘If he is expert in them and their names’ were spoken of his hunting teacher, it would be clear, but were it spoken of his rabbi–we may suppose he had learnt the birds’ names, but how can he be expert in the birds themselves?” This means that a sage may be indeed expert on the names of the birds, but cannot identify them in the nature. This is as we say, that Chazal had determined halacha without checking reality, and did not bother to go out to the field and check the birds with their own eyes. Therefore the Shach ruled, in Yoreh Deah 82, section 101: “[One may say,] ‘This bird was permitted me by my hunting teacher,’ but he is not trusted to say, ‘This bird was permitted me by my rabbi’.” You have here an explicit halachic ruling that we should not rely upon the sages, who are not expert in birds, but upon hunters or contemporary zoologists who for many years research the types and species of birds and animals. Therefore the Gemara also brought an incident in which the sages erred in permitting the eating of fowl–Hulin 62b: “Rav Papa said, ‘male water fowl is forbidden, female water fowl is permitted’…Mareimar learnt that the female water fowl is forbidden also, for it was seen killing its prey and eating it.” (From the words of the Gemara it seems that the male of the species is forbidden while the female of the species is permitted, though they are the same species. About this strange matter see the Tosfot in Niddah 50b, second reference.) So we find that Rav Papa did not know that the water fowl tarnegolta is also a bird of prey, and mistakenly permitted her. That is why Rashi wrote on Hulin 62b, based on this incident: “And we do not eat any bird except one our fathers have told us is pure; those they did not tell us about we doubt.” To illustrate the confusion in the identification of birds, come see what happened when they decided to check things against reality. We will quote the words of the Chazon Ish in Yoreh Deah section 13, “We must wonder why the Tosfot (on Hulin 62b, second reference) wrote that the Ribam checked the crow and found an extra protrusion and a pouch, and its gizzard cannot be whittled, while the Ran writes that crow has an extra protrusion and its gizzard can be whittled, but it does not have a pouch. It seems the bird the Ribam meant was a starling, and the one the Ran meant was a swallow. We also have to wonder why the Tosfot (Hulin 62b, second reference) checked a bird, similar to an owl, which has jaws like a person, and found in it an extra protrusion and a gizzard which can be whittled, but the Ran wrote in the name of the Ramban that the gizzard cannot be whittled…it is possible that the one the Ramban checked was of a different species.” The Chazon Ish himself did not bother to close the Gemara, go outside and check, ask the zoologists about the different species, and thus, scientifically, determine halacha. He sat in his study hall and through pilpul and learning wrote, “It is possible that the one the Ramban checked was of a different species.” He also mixes up the crow with the starling and the swallow, showing a complete lack of knowledge, simply because he saw in Hulin 62a that the starling has a pouch and the swallow’s gizzard can be whittled. After these words, we can do nothing but accept the words of Dr. Moredchai Broyer (and the opinion of Rabbi Shmuel HaCohen) brought in the journal “Megadim,” volume 14, 5751. In that journal there is an article by Rabbi Yaakov Meidan, an introduction to H. Hefetz’s article on the kingdom of Persia and Media. Even though the topic there is the knowledge of the sages in chronology and the discussion is about the disappearance of 170 years at the time of the kingdom of Persia (see what we have said in our article on Shemita), the matters there are also relevant to the knowledge of the sages about animals. “Dr. Mordechai Broyer published his article, ‘Teaching history and the faith of the sages” (“Shma’atin,” volume 9 [5733], issues 36-37) in which he claims that Chazal did not mean to pass down through the generations historical information, but to teach us a world view, and in any case we may skip over the opinion of Chazal when learning the chronology and history of the Persian kingdom…This is the approach adopted even by Rabbi Shmuel HaCohen in his book, ‘An Introduction to the Books of Return to Zion in the Scriptures’ in which he wrote: ‘Chazal saw that the words of the Prophets and Writings as ethical teachings intended to straighten the hearts of the people of Israel and their ways…Chazal did not investigate history and chronology and their words were said for educational reasons and based on a special view of historical events, different from the way simple people would see it’.” (See also the notes of Rabbi Meidan, who disagrees with them.) Our opinion is as theirs, not only on matters of history but also in all things connected with scientific research and zoological knowledge, for their words were not said as zoologists, or, as the Tosfot say: “And were they hunters or bowsmen that they checked all the birds?” They determined halacha from learning alone. We find that the world of the study hall is miles away from the real world. We will bring a wonderful example of this and you can draw the analogy to the rest. The Mishna, in Hulin 42a lists the treifot, and one of them is “the heart is punctured to its chamber.” The Tosfot, second reference: “About a removed heart and the lungs, it did not need to be repeated, for it is one of the punctures.” Through learning they forbade an animal whose heart was removed, and thus, without checking the facts, the Shulchan Aruch in Yoreh Deah 40, section 5, ruled: “If the heart is removed, whether by hand or by disease, it is treifah.” Only someone who has never lifted his eyes from the parchments to see reality could make such a mistake, to think an animal lives without its heart! The Yad Yehuda wrote about this in section 40, “It is clear as the sun that it is impossible for anything living to live without its heart, for it is the source and the first of all organs…therefore a woman who comes and says there was no heart found in the chicken is lying.” We learn that the Shulchan Aruch forbade what he did through learning and not through examining and checking reality, and it is clear as the sun that the Yad Yehuda checked reality in his decision making. But we will stand desolated. How is it that the sages determined halachot which have no standing at all in reality? It’s one thing when the matter is completely given over to man, things like tefillin or tzitzit which have no independent reality in nature. But matters of birds and animals, earth and the skies, anatomy and physiology–all a person has to do is to open his eyes and use his brain, to look and understand. Anyone who builds castles in the air and learns about reality from striking letters against each other and hitting verses together should not be surprised if the ground suddenly disappears from beneath his feet. This post is also available in: Hebrew, Russian About the Author ירון ידען (נולד בטבריה ב-8 בדצמבר 1961) הוא פעיל חברתי ומייסד ארגון "דעת אמת" העומד בראש מפלגת אור. Additional Weekly Portions The Sages learned the identify of the pure and impure birds without actually seeing them. Parashat Shemini “The following you shall abominate among the birds--they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, and the black vulture…” (Leviticus 11:13). The portion of Shemini deals with animals, birds, The story of creation is superfluous to the religious because it contains no commandments. We also discuss the Zohar's erroneous claim that the sun does not illuminate on its own and mistaken calculations of the coming of the Messiah. Sections of the Torah are written out of the order of occurrence. Chazal treated the Scriptural text as their own; a comparison of Torah laws and the laws of Hammurabi.	14,746
You've found a rare treasure trove of readable, thoughtful essays on game design theory, art and the business of design. November 3, 2005 by Daniel Cook comments 46 All / business / new product development Here’s a phrase from an earlier post that harkens back to the ancient days when game developers beat their dinner dead with bone weapons. “The best game designers are also programmers.” (Apologies to Dylan Fitterer for taking this out of context.) In the distant past, only a programmer could make a game. You could fumble through the tasks typically done by an artist, a game designer or a sound guy. All game designs from this era were created by programmers often for programmers. Most involve shooting or killing things and the industry bears the cultural bias of our founders to this very day. In under funded teams where there are one or two people involved, you still need the programmer-designer. For the clone-tastic fringe of indie game development, someone who is a renaissance talent with skills in programming, design, and illustration is essential. Most modern teams however, have grown beyond this limited and restrictive state of creativity expression and they are better for it. Modern game design is a specialized discipline that rarely correlates with a particular technical profession. Imagine the absurdity of the following statements. The best authors are also be typesetters The best directors are also camera men The best product designers are also engineers We have outgrown the need for all game designers to be programmers. The liberal arts game designer The best game designers certainly possess a passing understanding of the materials of their medium. This includes a knowledge of art, programming and sound. But it by no means suggests that in order to be a great designer you must also be a great programmer. Instead, game design has emerged as its own distinct discipline. A modern game designer should be someone who understands risk / reward systems, prototyping dynamics, human psychology and basic market dynamics. They should understand the process and practice of game design. They need familiarity, but not stunning expertise in other areas of the game creation process. They need to be able to communicate with people who possess specialized technical skills. The result is that designer works as part of cross functional team. It started with a simple idea. I thought: “I wonder what it would be like to have a character that bounces around. And the background should be a clear, blue sky.” I took that idea to a programmer, and we started working on it. Mario ended up being too big, so we shrank him. Then we thought, “What if he can grow and shrink? How would he do that? It would have to be a magic mushroom! Where would a mushroom grow? In a forest.” We thought of giving Mario a girlfriend, and then we started talking about Alice in Wonderland. Here is one of the greatest designers of our industry, working hand in hand with a programmer to bring his vision into reality. He focuses on the core game mechanics, the setting and how the prototype evolves. The programmer focuses on creating the prototype, rapidly implementing new features and communicating technical constraints with the designer. This setup augments the natural talents of both team members. The result is a product with great game design and great programming. You avoid creating a game that is restricted to the often limited talent palette of a single individual. The innovation explosion that comes from tapping non-technical creators In most forms of new media, we go through a period of time where an intimate understanding of technology is critical to the successful completion of the creative process. Early book authoring required the mastery of print making. Early movie auteurs built custom cameras from scratch. Photographers developed their own film for decades. With time, tools and team structures emerge that do away with the need for such jacks of all trades. Printers would turn an author’s raw manuscript into a finished book. Movie makers created the position of Director, Script Writer, and Camera man so that people with inherent skills could focus on what they did best. Most photographers eventually discovered that a digital camera and a print lab let them focus more fully on the creative aspects of their art. Specialization results in increased efficiencies and also impressively improved creativity. The unique voices of people that possess creative skills, but not technical skills are unleashed. In books alone, we would have lost 99% of all modern literature if typesetting was a hard prerequisite for writing a novel. Games are going through the same maturation process as other industries. Ultimately, by tapping into non-technical game designers, we can increase the talent pool of visionaries by a hundred fold. The dark side of a programmer worshipping game design culture Old habits still linger and not everyone has adapted to the new world of true cross functional game development. If your bias is that your game designers to be programmers and you work in a team larger than one person, you are doing your game a grave disservice. You eliminate out of hand talented individuals who are quite likely better suited for the position. If you look around, you may find artists with the correct skill set skill set. You may find programmers or writers. If you look even more broadly, you may find psychologists or housewives. Any cultural bias towards promoting programmers to game design positions is the equivalent of promoting only white men to positions of decision making authority. At the very least, this practice is morally repugnant. The limits of programmer design At the worst, game designs created by programmers tend to focus on a very limited spectrum of human experience. They involve spatial skills, not social skills. They involve risk mechanics focused on extreme die and repeat-style punishment, not exploration or discovery. This is a generalization to be certain, but one that is not far off from reality. By selecting game designers that are programmers, we let our incestuous history determine the creativity of our future. We build iteratively on the limited seeds of past efforts and create games for programmers and people who think like programmers. The result is more Doom 4 and less Nintendogs. If you really want to contribute to the growth of our art form, build a team that doesn’t have a programmer as the main designer. Think of it as affirmative action for the game industry. Be sure that they know the craft and techniques of game design. Be sure that they can talk the language of the people on their team. But never make elite technical skills a prerequisite for a game design position. I dream of seeing an explosion of vibrant game designs that expand our industry. This will only come about by putting people who are not traditional, technology-worshipping game developers in positions of great creative power. Take care Related Zoombapup says November 3, 2005 Oooooh Dan Dan Dan!What a can of worms (pun intended) you\’ve opened!While I don\’t disagree that we shouldn\’t accept designers from many different disciplines, I do definitely have a feeling that you are doing a disservice to the programmers amongst us who do actually contribute to game designs.I am not advocating that you simply alloy a programmer to become a designer if they have no creative talent, but this whole idea of having \”visionaries\” who have almost no technical background knowledge is a very scary thing indeed.I\’ve been on the recieving end of these types of designs from so-called \”designers\” who really have very little understanding of what it is about design they dont know. At least I\’m honest and accept that my designer side has a lot to learn, but these guys often have no clue at all.I certainly havent seen a profusion of programmer-designers within the industry at large.The way I see it, any given game is a mixture of design, technical tasks, artistic tasks and I much prefer to approach games with people in small creative teams, outside of the usual set roles. So a programmer can have a good design idea, an artist can have a good design idea. A designer can think of a unique way to make a feature work etc.Admittedly the large companies have moved towards ultra-specialism, but I\’ve spoken with a number of companies who have seen the value in having a capable programmer in a position to help design the key mechanics in a game, alongside artists, designers or whoever else.Thats what I really enjoy doing myself, working on specific mechanical problems and iterating them until I find a solution.I just hope you dont start talking about the great \”Designer as Director\” concept where the designer sees himself as the all-powerful god of the project and all else has little creative input.Teams make games after all, so I see the team dynamic as being a key factor in the successful execution of a game. So this reads like a sort of anti-programmer rant, which is a shame, because actually I\’ve rarely seen a project where it was marred by a programmer thinking they were a designer. I guess your experience contradicts mine there :)My biggest wish would be that I was capable of doing even rudimentary art myself, sadly thats a no-go :)Phil. Danc says November 3, 2005 I\’m a big fan of the cross functional team where everyone contributes. Everyone has interesting design ideas, though I do believe that the buck needs to stop someplace. There\’s a herding, guiding and culling aspect to game design that turns a thousand little ideas into coherent project. You comment about \’visionaries\’ who don\’t know squat about game design is a very valid one and is the topic for related essay. The role of game design is remarkably ill defined within the industry at large. The result is that it is often difficult to know when someone is competent or not. Until we get some broad concensus on the skills of a game designer, this will be problematic. I do apologize for seeming anti-programmer. It isn\’t an attack on individual programmers, but it is an attempt to point out some of the cultural biases that come from the game industry\’s short history. There is a strong emphasis on technology, both in terms of evaluating the final product and in terms of the skill set that is valued. When you can\’t accurately just \’game design expertise\’ what do you fall back on? I\’ve seen people fall back on technical expertise. I\’ve also seen people fall back on \”Man, this guy talks about game design a lot\”. That doesn\’t work so well either. We are in the middle of substancial industry change so it is hard to make any generalizations stick. The specializations are starting to emerging and solidify. Many highly successful groups are very content driven. Others are still technology focused. A few are driven by market-based product design techniques. A flaw in this essay, now that I re-read it, is that it doesn\’t offer enough alternatives so it comes across as a rant. To sum it up a bit better, the broadening of game design talent is an admirable goal and the relying predominantly on technically competant people who have historical done game design is not the answer. take careDanc. Elias says November 3, 2005 Phil, you\’ve brought up something I\’d like to touch on. When you talk about \”visionaries\” with no technical ability, you talk about it as a scary thing. I don\’t think it is even a problem. Quite frankly, whether a game designer understands a single line of code is unimportant in my mind. What is vital, however, is that they understand what can and cannot be done. A director doesn\’t need to know how to manipulate the film to create a washed out effect, he simply needs to know that it can be done. I would argue simply that programming and game design are two seperate skill sets. They often cross over in many individuals, but just as (obviously) not every programmer is a talented designer, neither is every designer a talented programmer. Imagine if creating games were limited by another skill, say being able to draw. Suddenly the majority of games to be made would be creative type exploration games. Keep in mind that no one is saying programmers create bad games, only that they may tend to make more reflex and reaction type games. This isn\’t a bad thing! Doom is an excellent game, but it does not appeal to all audiences.Just to mix things up, here are some other thoughts. Writers don\’t need to be typesetters, but they do need to be able to write. Time was, this was a specialized skill. Scribes were necessary to create literature if you were not literate. Also, most traditional photographers still do develop their own photos. Digital photography is different, but serious artists using film almost exclusively are hyper aware of the process involved in developing their work. Largely because the effects obtained through this process are what makes work outstanding as opposed to amateur.just thoughts.-e Scott Anderson says November 3, 2005 While, I understand your intentions, it is kind of starting to look like artist versus programmers :). Programmers do make good designers, and the best ones design games that transcend \”programmer design\” as you describe it. Games that appeal to a very wide variety of people. Sure, Miyamoto is a great example of an artist designer. Will Wright, Sid Meier, Alexei Pajitnov, many independent casual games developers, are programmer-designers that make games that appeal to a wide variety of people. While it\’s come up many times that programmers often end up as game designers because they have the skills to make a working game, one thing that hasn\’t come up is the other reason why programmers make good designers. The ability to think logically and design complex systems from smaller parts is very important when it comes to creating game rules. Does that make all programmers good game designers? Not at all. Does that mean people that aren\’t programmers don\’t have the same skills? No, of course not. But there is a connection.And yes, I know that modern video games are more than just pure rules and gameplay. There are plenty of \”game\” ideas that would be a lot of fun that are really interactive stories, creative toys, social experiences, etc. Perhaps non-programmers are better at designing such experiences, perhaps not? I think there is room for a variety of game and designer types.I believe there are other cultural forces in the game industry (mainly that\’s its still very much a young white male geek dominated industry) that are much stronger than a programmer or technology bias when it comes to making games that appeal to a wider variety of people. Danc says November 3, 2005 This comment has been removed by a blog administrator. Danc says November 3, 2005 grin I\’m actually more a fan of psychologists and anthropologists as game designers than artists. People who screw with paint all day long are far too flighty. Ability to think logicallyThe ability to think logically is certainly a benefit in game design. It is however, as you mention, a skill that is readily picked up. Most scientific training can provide a background in the creation and understanding of complex modular systems. On the programming specific side of things, I highly encourage any would be designer to take a class in object oriented programming concepts. I like what Elias is saying. Programming and game design are two seperate skill sets. There is some light overlap, but in general game design stands alone. Cultural IssuesThis is certainly a broader cultural issue. The concept of Programmer Design is really just a piece of the puzzle. Here\’s the quote from Ernest Adams that got me thinking down this path: \”…There is a natural inclination to see ourselves as artists, and this further reinforces that ideas that we should really be making games for ourselves. We\’re not doing it for money, so we must be doing it for love.This situation would not matter much if the demographics of the game industry matched that of the population at large; but they don\’t. Amoung game developers, young men predominate by a wide margin. There are comparatively few women, and almost no one over fifty. Most developers are white, middle-class, and based in western and northern countries (with the notable exception of Japan). South Americans, Africans, South and Southeast Asians, and peoples of the Middle East and Mediterranean Rim are so underrepresented amoung game developers as to be distinctly unusual when one does appear at a game conference or trade show. The result has, predictably, been thirty years of games built by young white western men for other young white western men. These games reflect the culture, worldview, and indeed prejudices of their makers, and often don\’t appeal to people outside that particular demographic. The market has become superstaurated with these games, while other demographics go unserved.\”take careDanc. N. Ng says November 3, 2005 I think we need more psychologists and cognitive scientists doing game design. More educators (the enlightened ones at least), too. And more writers (again, the enlightened ones at least).That being said,1. I think that any coder who has invested enough time into thinking HARD about design would realize that there\’s a need to go beyond our natural inclinations and design outside the standard \”coders love this stuff\” genres. (I\’m working on a shmup now – yeah, shoot me if you like, but remember first that the number of good shmups made by people outside Japan can be counted on the fingers of one hand. I also have some fairly nonstandard game concepts in mind, but those would require expert help in other domains to fly, so they\’re on the shelf for now.)2. Any individual who is too engrossed in his/her own (non-game-design) discipline will produce very predictable designs. That includes psychologists, cognitive scientists, educators and (especially!) writers. It\’s not limited to coders (or artists) alone.3. One thing I have to question is the lack of a \”design track\” at many major game companies. At a certain company I know of, the designers are pulled primarily from the production/project management track. IMO (personal bias), putting a manager in charge of designing a game is pretty damn boneheaded. (Although I\’ve heard of a number of aspiring designers putting up with management jobs in order to \”break in\”.) Dylan Fitterer says November 3, 2005 I think deep down you\’re of the belief that programmers make bad designers. That proficiency with c++ hinders your ability to create designs normal people will respond to.Two major ways to approach game design are to focus on theme or on mechanics. People who don\’t program tend to focus on theme. \”The game is about a young woman who raises giant butterflies and delivers flowers while riding on them\”. Programmer-types tend to focus on mechanics. \”The game is primarily a management sim and it also includes a simple flight mode\”.It\’s possible to make a great game from either starting point. If you start with theme, then mechanics have to be bent to fit around it. If you start with mechanics, then theme has to be adapted to fit. The best games are strong in both, but there is always a core where you start.Stories (theme) are powerful to people. Building your game from this core is a sure way to be able to communicate the product to customers (and team) easily. You can give them a clear picture of what to expect emotionally. The problem is that the appeal can be short-lived. The creator had a strong vision. That vision would probably have been better communicated with a book, a movie or a comic.Innovative mechanics are what make a game lasting. That\’s gameplay. A person who\’s great at innovating gameplay got those skills somehow. Maybe they got stuck into a designer position early due to their charm and had programmers at their command. Probably not.This discussion has to be somewhat black and white in order to say anything. Really though, everyone knows that a person who spends all their time with code is bound to be a poor designer. You have to have a broad background to succeed. Where we differ is that I think programming should be part of that background.By the way, I challenge you to find a director who does good work and can\’t use a camera. You won\’t find one and it\’s not because the film industry is immature. You have to cut your teeth somewhere and the fundamentals of the medium are a good place to do it. Anonymous says November 3, 2005 Imagine the absurdity of the following statements.And the statements then following are far from absurd. In contrary to what you call absurd many of the works I like are done by people who already worked in multiple fields already and as such have a better overview about what really matters instead isolating themselves in their specialized field. I consider it as a huge mistake to propose the latter kind as a solution to a problem which doesn\’t really exist when communication in the development team exist (and this is what your Miyamoto quote is really about. Just imagine if he was told to just to do what he does best, designing, and then the programmers would have adapted it to the screen without further feedback). As such \”innovation\” (you really overuse that meaningless word as of late) is not the result of specialization, but that of new combinations of good approaches which happen to work well together in the end. Zoombapup says November 3, 2005 I think thats it really isnt it.Isnt it better to have a designer who can at least create a simple test of thier design ideas?Of course its ok if you can match a designer (miyamoto) with a programmer and make them effectively work like one unit. Dont think for a second that mr programmer just sits there and does exactly as miyamoto bids without ANY feedback or challenge into the processes.But isnt it preferable that designers be able to prototype thier concepts in SOME medium. Thats why I prefer either artistic or programmer capable designers. Because otherwise how do you have any concept of the value of a design idea? If you cant tell wether it technically has merit, or wether it has thematic merit, then what do you end up with?Its not to say that you cant have others fill the gaps in technology or artistic skill, just that without either, you have a very big gulf between design concept and design practicality. Of course, that might be what you want. But it kind of sounds like the infinite monkeys concept. If you put an infinite number of random \”creative\” types in a room, you would eventually come out with a feasible game idea. But is it going to be created better or faster than a room full of artists and programmers?All of us can go and try and make a film, but are we as likely to mak a good film as people who have made it thier trade, who have some background knowledge in that field? Mory says November 3, 2005 Danc, this article is your first entry to this blog which I agree with 100%. Good programming skills are not necessarily enough to make a good game designer. But this raises the question: \”What does make a good game designer?\”.I think we need to split up our definition of \”game designer\”, for the simple reason that videogames are not one art form but many. For instance, Will Wright is a genius when it comes to simulations, but I doubt he could make a good platformer if his life depended on it. The field of videogames is so broad that game design is not one discipline but infinitely many. As such, we must distinguish between the specialized game designers, who focus on one field, and the \”holistic\” game designers who deal with videogames as a whole.First let\’s break down a few areas of game design, and the unique skill sets they demand. Simulation design demands the ability to create complex but intuitive rule sets- this is second nature for a good programmer. Sports design demands good management abilities, to maximize profit from the investment. Exploration design is for world designers- the world itself is the main attraction, so the designer must build the interface and experience around that world. Good shmup design demands some knowledge of music theory. Adventure design demands writing skills and some knowledge of filmmaking. Puzzle game design requires a more academic style of thought which a mathematician might have. The design of platformers and all related forms of entertainment (Ball Revamped, for instance) demands good aesthetic taste (to determine whether the controls feel right), which is why most good platformer creators are artists themselves. (I believe that the best platformers in the future will be created by ballet choreographers.)When it comes to either (A) more complex art forms which combine several simple art forms into their structures, or (B) new types of art; it is not enough to be a specialized game designer. This is when that rarest of game designers, such as Miyamoto, is necessary: the \”holistic\” game designer who approaches the project with the expertise of past generations in many fields. The holistic game designer must be a Renaissance man- he must be familiar with programming concepts, and the principles of the classical arts, and even social concepts, and furthermore he must understand how they all connect within the larger context of art/entertainment as a whole. Observe the \”metalude\”, the art form of \”The Legend of Zelda\” and \”Beyond Good & Evil\”. It contains many different types of gameplay, each demanding a different type of design, but they must integrate flawlessly, meaning that the central game designer must fully understand and be able to personally control every type of gameplay he wants to put in. To connect all the diverse elements together, he must understand classical concepts. Miyamoto is familiar with music, being part of a band, and there are clear musical cadences in his Zelda games to give him control of pacing and overall structure. Similarly, Michel Ancel uses a story he wrote himself to tie together the ten-or-so types of gameplay he introduces (all of which he integrates flawlessly). Both great game designers then focus on the subtleties of the experience the player will get as he plays- this is a brand new type of expertise, which demands some understanding of psychology but should come fairly naturally to one who has broadened his outlook to include the classical arts.The \”holistic\” game designer is also needed to introduce new art forms, for obvious reasons: If one is not familiar with the overall history of art, one cannot create a new art form which will be capable of standing up next to the established art forms, without being redundant but learning from other Forms\’ strengths. Zoombapup says November 3, 2005 I dont agree with all you said there Mory, but one of the things I\’ve seen that you hit the nail on the head with is the ability for a good designer to appreciate the field of art and design in other areas of expertise.There are many fields, such as architecture, engineering, classical art, photography, film etc that we can definitely learn from.To be a balanced designer kind of requires that you learn to balance many different compulsions.I just dont think ruling out one \”class\” of designer, in the programmer class, is a good direction to be thinking.The whole notion that programmer-related-design-killed-non-programmer-style-games is kind of flawed in my opinion. The fact is for the most part we driven by market factors rather than programmer desires.Sure, in the early days it might have been programmer based design, but modern games are far far beyond one person doing all the programming, art and design tasks.So you cant really blame programmers for the current state of affairs. Ian says November 3, 2005 Yes, designing and programming are two very different skill sets with some (but not much) overlap. Seeing both skills in the same individual is rare, but not unheard of. But I certainly wouldn\’t want to discriminate AGAINST someone who is fortunate enough to have both skill sets. Who wants to tell Sid Meier that he\’s a great designer, but he knows too much programming for his own good, so he really has no place on a dev team? Not me :)Being able to rapidly prototype your own design ideas is useful. The best design doc for showing a programmer what you mean is a working prototype. Can\’t do that if you can\’t program.This doesn\’t mean programming should be a prerequisite for design. The blog entry gives many valid reasons for this. But I would say that in a larger team, having at least one designer who has some technical skill will make the team more diverse. Having a programmer advocate in the design team is amazingly useful. JP says November 3, 2005 I went to art school, and in general my background is very arts n\’ humanities. For several years in the industry I\’ve done level design. At one point, however, I realized that there were things that were beyond my grasp… design ideas that I would have to expand my skillset in order to make happen. So I taught myself programming. I\’ve learned a number of high(er)-level languages like Java, ActionScript, Python and LUA. I didn\’t bother with much C++ because writing code for stuff like garbage collection doesn\’t really help me understand any aspect of game design better. It\’s an engineering detail. Control systems, art styles, and thematic ideas are not. It\’s those kinds of things I take very seriously. I care about the soul of the game.The dark side of the technically apt designer is someone who sees design as a collection of whiz-bang features, a lump of numbers with no soul. This mentality is evident in anything from certain recent FPSes to all the depressing little Asteroids clones that bring absolutely nothing new to the table creatively.The dark side of the NON-technically apt designer is a prolific crap factory with neither foot on the ground, a bunch of half-baked ideas and zero idea as to how to implement any of them. It falls to their programmers and (hopefully) subordinate designers to figure out how to make it all work. The quality of the game you get from that is the skill of the implementors, but even that can be sabotaged if the bozo at the top is a tyrant who insists on unworkable or ill-defined ideas. Any existing game examples of this I could name might spark a lot of political discussion, so I\’ll hold off.The challenge of the programmer-designer is to transcend mere technical knowledge and understand it as a means to a creative end. The challenge of the non-programmer-designer is to understand how systems work well enough that you can create designs that will bring your brilliant idea to life via code. Because, ultimately, the final design is in the source code.It may seem counter-intuitive, but the way to take back control of the creative process from the programmers is to learn about what they do, how to speak their language so we can tell them exactly what we want. As designers we can\’t afford to be ignorant of any discipline.One more point: I agree that cognitive science is a very interesting and applicable field to game design and I\’d really like to see people with a background in that getting into the industry. Colm Mac says November 4, 2005 My feeling on this is that a good game designer should be a balanced individual in the sense of a many different skills. She need not be a Programmer but must be aware of programming, not an Artist but possess an aesthetic sense, not a Psychologist but understand humans and so on. The problems arise when someone who is heavily focussed on Programming to the point that they don\’t have relevant secondary skills. That Programmer doesn\’t have the broad skill base required. I would expect the same would happen if a Psychologist who had spent his career in academic research on a single topic was asked to make a game design.I\’m also slightly curious about how the programmer and young white male geek points have been mixed up in this. To my mind these are separate issues. Since my young white male geek non-programmer friends seem to enjoy the same First-Person-Shooter and Space-Shooter, I don\’t think it is the programmer-bias in the game designer they are responding to.Colm Mac Kent Larsson says November 4, 2005 We should never forget that most successful game concepts were created by hardcore programmers.Just look back at Lemmings, Worms, Cannon Fodder, Gods, Shadow of the Beast, IK+, Kung Fu Master, Double Dragon, Hired Guns etc. The list is endless!Do we really have that much innovation today when pure game designers are bigger than ever?And what\’s innovation? To make the game mimic the structure of a movie as closely as possible? Do all games even need a thich lusterous story?If you ask me, no. It\’s enough with great game mechanics, which programmers have proved that they are able to produce since the invention of computer games. Anonymous says November 4, 2005 Is this a \”real\” issue? Most of the designers with whom I am most familiar are not programmer-designers (e.g. Cliff B., Miyamato, Tim Schaefer, Katamari guy). Where are you getting this perception that programmer-designers are so favored in current, industry efforts?It would be much more convincing if you were to cite modern examples from non-indy teams.[The Ernest Adams quote is the closest you seem to come, but that\’s not about programmers, it\’s about race and gender — replacing young white programmers with young white psychologists will still leave you with young white men, so even if Ernest is on to a real problem, your problem is orthogonal. And (based on other essays he\’s written) Ernest Adams seems pretty stupid, so I wouldn\’t take his word for here, even if it did apply to the issue you raised.] Raph says November 4, 2005 You can be a good designer without being a programmer.You can be a better designer if you can program. You can be a better designer is you can also draw, make music, manage, write, wire an electrical outlet, teach a college class, and give deep back massages.Some of these are more directly relevant than others, obviously. But programming is among the most relevant if you are working in the video game industry.The best directors DO know how to use a camera. The best product designers DO know the constraints of engineering.And the best video game designers know intimately what code can and cannot accomplish. They frequently can prototype their own work cheaply so in order to get to iteration faster. They may or may not use code THEMSELVES to do it (see my recent post on my blog about my prototype kit).But there\’s zero doubt in my mind that knowing how to program is an incredible asset. Hunty says November 4, 2005 Damn, everybody\’s already beaten me to everything I wanted to say. So, to reiterate the points I think are most important:The more diverse your knowledge, the better you will be at ANY creative job. Part of the reason you are such a great sprite artist, Dan, is that you understand 8-bit color and sprite sizes. That there\’s programmer territory. Rembrandt would probably not make as good a sprite artist. (I\’d originally named Salvador Dali, but the fact that he worked in MANY different media including animation means that he\’d probably be adaptable enough to grok the medium of CG.)I also don\’t agree with the linkage of \”trial and error\” gameplay to programmer-designers. The earliest single-player game I can think of would be a maze, which is all about trial and error, but was created long before programmers. Same goes for hopscotch. The first choose-your-own-adventure book was written by a writer, who was not a programmer. The video game of \”I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream\” was a typical \”trial and error\” adventure game, even though Harlan Ellison oversaw its creation. Orson Scott Card\’s \”Advent Rising\” bombed, and most of the reviews call it \”unoriginal\” and \”derivative\”.Conversely, name the top 5 \”non trial and error\” games that come to mind, and I\’d bet that most of them were designed by programmers.While I DO agree with your closing line that the game industry has outgrown the need for EVERY designer to also be a programmer, I think that the majority of designers do need to still have at least some programming background, and the successful games by designers with none will be very few and far between.Oh, incidentally, I\’ve been inspired by great video game blogs like yours to start my own. :)X sssd says November 4, 2005 Hey, you made it on Gamasutra\’s Blogged out if you didn\’t know already. Anonymous says November 4, 2005 A few questions popped into my head while I reading this:1)What is a designer? Furthermore, what separates a non-technical designer from your average game tester or gamer? If a non-technical designer is simply put into a design position, what were her qualifications for getting to the point? Is this easily quantifiable?2) What/how does a non-technical designer do to prevent herself from being a \”all-powerful overseer of ideas and vision?\” In other words, how does she separate herself from being \”just some person that builds the game using an editor.\” Anonymous says November 5, 2005 This isn\’t directed towards Danc, but rather to those who say one should or must have some programming background: I can\’t do math adequately; does that bar me from being a designer since it is near impossible for me to be a programmer (I tried -__-). Despite that, I feel I still have an understanding of what programming is, just as I understand physics concepts, but am barred from becoming something in the realm of physics because of math. I would think my other qualifications more than make up for my lack of programming skills.-LS Jeffrey Danc says November 5, 2005 Some great comments.Here\’s another couple of bits that comes from Chris Bateman\’s 21st Century Game Design on the \”hardcore conqueror\” market segment.\”The H1 cluster represents a player who is often interested in completely understanding and completing the game. The idea of not completing a game that they have committed to is somewhat alien to them. […] To some extent, the H1 player wants the game to kill their avatar — because only by reaching their limits in some way can they then come back and overcome that challenge.\”\”The Myer-Briggs types that dominate this cluster (INTJ, ISTJ) are two of four types that research has shown to be common to programmers, and indeed, Type 1 gameplay that dominates current game design assumptions in most developers and publishers.\” The arguement is very simple: – Most successful past game designs were developed by programmer-designers due to necessity. You literally could not easily be a game designer if you couldn\’t program. Nothing would get done in the early days of small teams. – Game design, however, is a discipline that understands programming concept, but is generally independent of it. – By having programmers be such a major influence on modern game designs, we are limiting the types of games that we create. Programmers tend to fall into the INTJ and ISTJ personality clusters of Meyer-Briggs and generally (though not always) prefer common game design elements that involve \’hard fun\’ and repetitive grinding-style game play (FPS, old school 2D platformers, RPGs, certain aspects of MMOGs, etc) – There are lots of other types of \’fun\’ that exist outside what an INTJ or ISTJ person might enjoy. By expanding the designer population to include these people we will expand both the types of game design and the audience of potential game players. Some other clarifications. When I mention programmers, they are merely the most obvious example of a group that Chris Bateman refers to as prefering a \’Hard Core Conqueror\’ style of game play. Due to the peculiar formation history of our industry, many of the game designers who are attracted to the job share many of the same personality traits and design limitations. Just because you aren\’t a programmer doesn\’t mean that you aren\’t part of the problem. And alternatively, there are certainly programmers who have personal preferences that are outside of the classic hardcore gamer. They are simply a bit more rare. It perhaps proves the point that some of the most popular programmer-designers (Peter Molyneux, Will Wright and Sid Meier come to mind) created designs that demonstrate a strong move away from the typical \’programmer design\’ that is sported by many game designs. By appealing to non-traditional gamers, these folks have dramatically increased the size of the market. Which is really the point of this whole discussion. :-)take careDanc. PS: If this doesn\’t make sense, I may have to blame it on my 101 degree fever. Getting sick right before a new job has to be the result of some sort of bad karma. Elias says November 5, 2005 I hope I\’m not repeating myself (or anyone else), but here goes:I\’d like to take things one step further and say that being able to create good game design has nothing to do with understanding programming. Being able to implement that design in a computor recquires knowledge of what can or can\’t be done. If you take a step back and will realize that excellent game design has existed before, during, and seperate from any sort of video games. Magic The Gathering, Chess, Monopoly, any and every traditional card game under the sun, and the list goes on. All of these came from somewhere, and that somewhere had nothing to do with knowledge of programming. Programmers can make great games, and no one is arguing that they can\’t. But let\’s not confuse the matter. Most popular genres in the market today have come from programmers. This does not mean that only those with the above mentioned skillz know how to make something fun. Does a screenwriter benefit from knowledge of how a camera works? 100% yes. Does a camera man know how to write a script? On average, probably not.Game design revolves around formal systems and an understanding of how those systems work, but a computor is just a means to that end. In mario, the game is making a little man on a screen jump on mushrooms etc. The game is not the code behind the scene that allows the pixels to dance. Huh. It\’s funny what gets people fired up, isn\’t it? I love this stuff.-e Dylan Fitterer says November 5, 2005 I\’m glad you directed the conversation towards Myers-Briggs instead of programming. Programming is a skill, not a personality type. Looking for new Types to take over designing game systems is probably not going to happen though. Interest in mastery of complex systems is, after all, part of personality.To anyone frustrated by programming I recommend trying a spatial programming tool such as Quest3D. Danc says November 5, 2005 grin I\’d respectively suggest Anark Studio instead of Quest 3D, but that may be a personal bias. Some data on programmer personality typesHere\’s another tidbit of information that I\’m drawing upon in my \’stereotype\’ of programmer personality and preferences and their influence on game design. Steve McConnell\’s Thoughts on Programmer Personality\”Some interesting statistics: – \”ISTJs comprise 25-40% of software developers.\” This is roughly a 2-3x over representation of this personality type compared to the general population. – 50-66% of the software development population is introverted compared to about 25% of the general population- \”80-90% of software developers are Ts, compared to about 50% of the general population. Compared to the average, Ts are more logical, analytical, scientific, dispassionate, cold, impersonal, concerned with matters of truth, and unconcerned with people\’s feelings.\”This personality profile is in the minority of the population. If our game designs target this group alone we are ignoring many of the other classes of player out there. We can no longer make games for ourselves. We must make games for our customers. There\’s at least another 50% if not another 80% of the population that is untapped by our current game designs. Focusing on game designs for programmers and people like programmers can be a poor marketing strategy if you want to compete in a broad market with little competition. take careDanc. Drew says November 5, 2005 Currently, I\’m a junior in my fall semester at college and I\’m incredibly disenfranchised from my major (Computer Science). Although the degree is a Bachelor of Arts, it just seems to get in the way of what I really love and thats history, language(I\’m also a linguistics major), and reading/writing.I\’m scared, though, to make such a drastic change this late in my college career, and my parents want me to \”get a real job\”. All I know, is that my strong suit throughout high school was english and social sciences, not math and science. I used to read all the time. I was happy then. Today, I just feel empty. Scott Anderson says November 5, 2005 If you take a step back and will realize that excellent game design has existed before, during, and seperate from any sort of video games. Magic The Gathering, Chess, Monopoly, any and every traditional card game under the sun, and the list goes on.Many people would argue that Monopoly is a bad game, and is sucessful due to marketing, coming out at the right time, and cultural reasons. While I can\’t attribute one designer to Chess or traditional card games, I can tell you that Magic the Gathering was designed by Richard Garfield, who has a degree in computer mathematics and worked at Bell Labs for a short period of time (I assume as a programmer.) He also has PHD in combinatorial mathematics. His personality type is probably the same as any programmer\’s. So while his current job is \”game designer\” and not, \”programmer\” he is definitely a very mathematical and logical guy. Richard Garfield Wikipedia. Jason Booth says November 6, 2005 Can you be a great composer without being a musician? My personal bias on this front is that I prefer the programer/designer, artist/designer, or musician/designer over a pure designer. The reason is that most of the \’pure\’ designers I\’ve worked with, with no background in other mediums except perhaps writing, are woefully unaware and unconcerned with the bulk of the day to day task of making a game. Perhaps I\’m showing my bias from working with MMP designers, who would rather type up 30 pages of NPC dialog than actually work on making the experience of the game reflect and immerse the player in the story.In my mind, there is very little difference between the story of doom and the story of Half Life. At the core, they are the same. What makes it different is how the medium expresses that story to you. In doom, it\’s a paragraph of text; while in Half Life, it\’s embeded into every piece of the experience. The difference is not one of programing skill, but rather artists/designers/etc working with the technology to create the effect.So while I would agree that you don\’t have to be a programer to be a great designer, I would say that you need some form of expressive skill which can be applied to your design directly; such as art, programing, music, etc. The practical application of said skill will help ground you into the realities of your design. Zoombapup says November 6, 2005 I think one of the things that screams out to me about your last comment Dan, was that its pretty bloody obvious that the majority of game developers (not just programmers, but ALL of us) will have a different personality type to someone else.There has to be something that makes people WANT to make games rather than play them right?For the most part, the people who arent already playing and buying games might actually not give a shit about them, so its unfair to say that this bias you aspire to is somehow dissuading the rest of the population.I\’m not arguing that current games are approachable enough for everyone, but I believe that we cannot appeal to all types either.At some point we have to realise there are other influences on games and thier reception within the population at large and I\’d dare to suggest that programmer personality bias is almost negligable compared with other social factors.For instance, people ask \”why arent there more girls in game development\”. Well, my experience recently doesnt actually point to a problem with the industry itself, but with the perception from outside of the industry.We took a college class for 4 weeks and taught them some fundamental level design techniques, we actively asked for females to be asked to come because we want to promote the activity of games development and design.So what do we get? Of all the people who came on the course, the females did REALLY well. They enjoyed it and were really into the creative aspect of the work.Then we later on asked them if they would consider a career in games and you know what? Not one of them was considering it.Why? because thier careers advisor has basically been biased against games as a career. As if often the case, games development was seen as a complete waste of time and a joke.Now you might say that the games industry doesnt help itself, with horrid working hours and conditions, that is true. But that is the same for BOTH sexes, so I dont think thats fair. I think the reality is that women tend to take more notice of thier peers and others when they are taking career advice. One thing I can say for sure, is that almost every development company I\’ve ever talked with would LOVE to have more women who were capable on board. If only the women would take the subject seriously as a career.Ok, so I\’ve sidetracked the issue here, but my point is that I think youre overplaying the internal makeup of developers and thier bias. As it is, we are simply providing what publishers are asking for. If publishers ask for exploration or social science games, then youre damn sure they would be produced. Josh B says November 7, 2005 I think that fundamentally, game design and programming are not exclusive crafts. At the \’bottom\’ level of game design, a designer thinks about things such as game mechanics and, at the very bottom, a finite set of rules and states in which the game is in. This is basically what an algorithm is. And algorithms are programming (or \”Computer Science\”).Where the programming comes in is understanding how the rules and states of the game translate into the computer code of the game, the hard, perhaps \’unfeeling\’ representation of what the design is. I don\’t think it\’s possible to fully extract game design from programming, as programming is not typing lines of code, but the idea of such things as iterative and conditional statements. The problem of programmers being designers is that a great programmer thinks in terms of things like iteratives and conditionals, rather than narrative or theme. This can reduce a game to little more than figuring out how to best attack the algorithm that has been implemented (I\’m thinking of older arcade games here) and reduce the \”fun\” for people who don\’t think like this. Take, for example, something like chess and compare it with something like D&D. Cael says November 7, 2005 There are certainly issues with programmers as designers and no-one can doubt it. Again, many make great games. But many don\’t. I think however, that the point has been missed and quite badly.The logical and modular thinking required for effective game systems design (not concept design, systems design) is not a function of programming.It is a function of analysis. The programmer/analyst with game or commercial experience will always outpace the liberal arts graduate when it comes to logical and modular analysis of how things work in real life and in games and how the two can be manipulated.Although the lib arts guy might well serve better French Fries with your burger. Elias says November 7, 2005 I want to make some interesting comments about personality types and games. This is completely unscientific and based singularly on personal experience, but here goes:My family on both sides have always loved games of all sorts. Every thanksgiving we would haul copies of scrabble, master clue, upwards, monopoly, and many more games with us. My grand mother always had some new game to show us. Games with creative names like \”jinco\” or \”the word.\” Much of the time, these games didn\’t even involve a board, but were about telling an ellaborate lie to other players, or hiding a coin among three people. Another game I loved to play as a kid was one entitled \”all the things you could think.\” One person would name a subject, say house or flower, and then the other players would make up a flower in their mind and describe it to other players. My father always had some blossom of untold beauty and grew on mount everestor something, while I tended more to the man eating types.Barely any of my relatives ever would touch computer games. Particularly as the industry matured, the different game types presented simply did not have any draw to them. My point is that each of these individuals should have been ideal candidates for gaming. An untapped market segment.I\’d ask the question, why doesn\’t gaming care? It seems to me that part of the reason at least is that the people currently making games aren\’t really interested in creating the types of games that would appeal to this group. Thats fine. But why hasn\’t anyone been actively seeking out people who are able to create these types of games? When the Sims came out, my mom loved it. Why was it so hard to make that game?There is definately new money to be made, but there are a lot of factors holding the industry back. How can we change this?-e Darius Kazemi says November 7, 2005 BugHunter says November 7, 2005 Very depressing thoughts I\’m seeing from you industry folk.The most disturbing thing I\’m reading is how often peole with technical software \”skillz\” are all lumped into the one big grouping of \”Programmer\”. While I completely agree that not all programmers are capable of development, design, project management, or many other skills, this is no different than any other industry where 80% of the workforce can only barely do their job at a mediocre level. The other 20% are very talented and can perform their duties on a much higher level.Many games are not software, much like monopoly as stated earlier. However, the people designing those games knew the limitation of their medium. Do you think that the designer of monopoly had to ask someone if the dice could be automatically read by a magic piece of cardboard and then have the game pieces get up and move the appropriate number of spaces by themselves? No. The designer knew the limitations.A designer of video games better know the limitations in order to be effective. This does include knowing how to program, but be one of the upper 20% of programmers who know what their doing. Software design specs can only be created by someone who knows software development, and thus a \”programmer\”.Is that all the game designer needs? No! Knowing 3D animation/art, music, human psychology, and so on, but to my knowledge there isn\’t a need for a technical document for any of the more right-brained type elements of a video game…that\’s why they are considered art, you let the artest do his artsy thing and get out of the way. You cannot just let the programmer\’s do their programming thing, so you must have documents that provide them direction. These documents can only be created by someone with a clue as to what will be done with them. Tiffany says November 7, 2005 It seems the one aspect that is being overlooked in this conversation is communication. A designer needs good communication skills. The designer does not personally need to know how to code, and may not know what the limits of the engine are, but if he/she has good communication with the programmer and the rest of the team, that is key. If I want the game to do X, I can talk to the programmer and find out whether that is acheivable and why or why not. Most of the posts seem to have a programmer in one box and a designer in another, without then actually talking to each other. Without communication, any project would be dead in the water, regardless of what background the designer comes from.I also found the conversation on who plays video games interesting. I think a lot of it is cultural. There is a cultural belief out there that video games are \”for kids\”, despite the fact that the average gamer is now in his/her 30s. But people my parents\’ age would never play games because they are \”for kids.\” Likewise, there is a cultural bias against women playing video games. Out of all my female acquaintances, I am the only one that plays video games, and none would ever consider trying it. It is really quite socially taboo for women to play video games, at least in my social strata, and this taboo actually is, interestingly enough, generated by women. The guys of my acquaintance think it\’s cool that I play video games. The women I know find it bizarre and rather \”unfeminine.\” nht says November 7, 2005 Hmmm…I think that drawing the distinction between programmer and non-programmer to be an artificial one when it comes to what to look for in a game designer.Great game designers (IMHO) designs games. Lots of them. The litmus test isn\’t (again IMHO) whether they have a particular skill/background or not but whether they have a portfolio of game designs that they have created (implemented or not).Massive bonus points for published and play tested in the real world.It is rare to see a great artist of any kind without a large body of work, whether or not they are in a published/finished form. Most will not be, but rather fragments created to learn a new technique or test a concept.Now, while the programmer does have an advantage to having created working video games (or mock-ups/prototypes), the non-programmer has access to the same pencil, paper and MS Word/Powerpoint design tools that the programmer has.The Shigeru Miyamoto story isn\’t one that suggests that someone with a liberal arts/non-technical background has more or less potential to great game design…but rather than an individual that constantly thinks about games and game designs has greater potential to be a great designer whatever their background/formal training.Execution is yet another story.nht Chris says November 8, 2005 Cael says November 8, 2005 \”Now, while the programmer does have an advantage to having created working video games (or mock-ups/prototypes), the non-programmer has access to the same pencil, paper and MS Word/Powerpoint design tools that the programmer has.\”Which are useless if the designer does not understand the limits of the medium. For example, a game designer on an MMO can very easily decide on a system where every player-made item is both unique and indestructible (because players dislike replacing them). The programmer, however, is likely to recoil in horror at the state of the database this will create and quite rightly so. nht says November 9, 2005 \”Which are useless if the designer does not understand the limits of the medium. For example, a game designer on an MMO can very easily decide on a system where every player-made item is both unique and indestructible (because players dislike replacing them). The programmer, however, is likely to recoil in horror at the state of the database this will create and quite rightly so.\”So after the initial design phase where the theme of \”unique indestructable items\” is chosen the technical team will negotiate the implementation based on the possible.In your example, perhaps player made items will be difficult to make since they represent \”masterwork\” items of the best craftsmen. Perhaps very expensive or perhaps simply an artificial limit to the number a craftsman can create (given the base monthly fee…more slot = more $$$). Mundane items are not unique. Besides, the initial design is just that…initial. You should limit the creativity at the early stages because you really don\’t know where the designs will evolve to. I\’d rather have a designer that has a good handle on \”fun\” design vs \”possible\” designs.As a coder, I\’m moderately arrogant about my abilities. There are very few designs that I don\’t think I can figure out how to implement the essense of the design (with the right team), even if the details aren\’t quite right.Even assuming the worst case above (player made items are common), I can imagine that the \”unique\” items could be encoded in a relatively small number of bits and reconstructed algorithmically when needed. This is not much different than the design that every item has a wear value to determine when it breaks or needs repair.nht nht says November 9, 2005 Nick Musurca says November 26, 2005 As a (aspiring) filmmaker, I can tell you straight out that absurd statement #2 is absolutely true. Stanley Kubrick (one of many examples) was a photographer long before he was a film director. He even collaborated on the design of the camera lens used for \”Barry Lyndon\” (allowing him to light the film entirely with candles and other available light). His deep knowledge of cinematography allowed him to create a unique visual effect in his films that is very hard to duplicate. Obviously, that wasn\’t his ONLY talent. He also knew how to direct actors and produce an original human effect.I can\’t see why this would be any different for the product designer/engineer. If you know the limitations and possibilities of the medium, you\’ll know how better to exploit it and produce an original effect. I don\’t disagree that we need more designers with a genuine interest in the humanities. But that doesn\’t release them from the requirement of technical proficiency.I should also point out that the author/typesetter example is a false analogy; you\’re confusing the production of the work with its reproduction. The equivalent would be to say that \”the best film directors also know how to press DVDs,\” which is clearly absurd. The correct analogy would be to say that \”the best authors also know how to write/type words on a page,\” which is clearly not. But of course that wouldn\’t work quite as well rhetorically.In an age where there are far too many unqualified people working in digital media, I think the need for designers to have technical skills cannot be overstated. It has certainly not been outgrown, and I doubt it ever will. Anonymous says May 24, 2007 Hi we’re the providers of the software program Video Game Design Pro which helps game designers create and manage their Video Game Design documents. I was specifically contacting you because I think that your blog, and its readers, would be interested in learning about a solution like ours and its benefits on the game design and development community. If you could please tell your readers about it, ask them to offer suggestions for improvement, or just simply link to our site so they could download a trial, it would be enormously appreciated because your blog seems to be extremely popular and it holds a lot of sway within the game development community.Before heading directly to our site to learn more about VGDP, why don’t you check out this funny “commercial” that we put together. It’s actually a nice (30 second) introduction to our program and concludes with a link to our site. http://www.thecorpament.com/Super%20Failure.htmI look forward to hearing back from you, thanks! P.S. – When the movie concludes it directs you to our website where you can download a trial version of the program or learn more about it…conversely, you could just go straight there: http://www.thecorpament.com/malta-online-gaming-license/ Anonymous says October 15, 2007 \”Creative\” design and technical design are not mutually exclusive. Both require creative thinking, and all humans have equal creative capacity. The questions is where you put this creative capability. Into drawing and story telling, or into application design? Or perhaps both, if a person has that much time.A lot of the time, it\’s the technical development that spawns game design ideas. It may be a mistake that a programmer makes during programming, which creates an unexpected result, which in turn sets of a creative spark that turns into a game design element. E.g. you could be coding a soccer game, and you mess up the gravity settings. Oh…now we have a soccer game on the moon. Cool eh? IndianGunther says September 20, 2011 Well, I am a well experienced C++ Programmer and also a 3d technical designer and also experienced mechanical Engineer.I don't care of programming languages or the tools. I care for making 3d games.Not even 2d.A Game programmer designer is not a programmer and neither a designer. He is a Game Developer. This is not programming only and its not designing only and not engineering. These field has evolved into something, it is called Game Developer. The product does not directly create something that produces or consumes Work Done(engineering) but it produces/enhances the feeling. So that is human. Human is not born an Engineer or an artist. He does things for bushiness and pleasures and survival. We are the next level.Even Engineers are supposed to document tenders, technical writing etc… A relevant term is Systems Analysts. These guys are experienced technical specialists with an all round knowledge. They are very much needed in the industry. Consider whatever you want yourself designer or a programmer, you will have an urge to do the other in a long run of life in game industry. You will wish if you were skilled for both instead of begging to someone who is your other half in the field. Another word that is very relevant to field of Game developer is Polymath. Search for Leonardo Da Vincy.Hence concluding with a Polymath reference straight from wiki:Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of \”unquenchable curiosity\” and \”feverishly inventive imagination\” IndianGunther says September 20, 2011 Well, I am an well experienced C++ Programmer and also a 3d technical designer and also experienced mechanical Engineer.I don't care of programming languages or the tools. I care for making games.A Game programmer designer is not a programmer and neither a designer. He is a Game Developer. This is not programming only and its not designing only and not engineering. These field has evolved into something, it is called Game Developer. The product does not directly create something that produces or consumes Work Done(engineering) but it produces/enhances the feeling. So that is human. Human is not born an Engineer or an artist. He does things for buisness and pleasurer and survival.We are the next level.Even Engineers are supposed to document tenders, technical writing etc… A relevant term is Systems Analysts. These guys are experienced technical specialists with an all round knoledge. They are very much needed in the industry. Consider whatever you want yourself designer or a programmer, you will have an urge to do the other in a long run of life in game industry. You will wish if you were skilled for both instead of begging to someone who is your other half in the field. Another word that is very relevant to field of Game developer is PolyMath. Search for Leonardo Da Vincy.Hence concluding with a Polymath reference straight from wiki:Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of \”unquenchable curiosity\” and \”feverishly inventive imagination\”	69,579
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