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The rapture is coming -- again. A new television series, "The Messengers," premieres at 9 p.m./8 p.m. Central today, April 17, on The CW because "the wheels of Revelation have begun to turn." The end is near, and "angels" or Messengers, have appeared.
The Messengers are five select people, men and women, unknown to the others, who are gifted with the ability to heal others. Then there is "The Man" (Diogo Morgado), who wields death and destruction even though he looks like a totally hot guy.
As I watched the pilot -- where most of the action takes place in a Texas hospital, at a space observatory station in the desert filled with military tanks and personnel, and a Christian church with the pastor liking his income and the son spewing out hellfire and brimstone -- I could only think that this is what a Christian zombie movie might look like before society, American society, caved in on itself.
Everyone wants to get in on the Christian audience.
We have had two film versions of the rapture novel "Left Behind," and now the same theme is being created for the smaller screen.
I remember posting on Facebook that I didn't watch "The Walking Dead," a post-apocalyptic show that pits survivors and zombies against each other. One Facebook friend responded, "What? And you call yourself a Catholic? Because the themes are very Catholic." This may be true, but I have seen it twice, and I just don't like the violence.
In "The Messengers," we are once again getting not only explicit violence, but also the theology of "the rapture" -- again. This does not come from mainstream Christianity, Catholic or Protestant. It emerged in the early 19th century in England through the Plymouth Brethren sect and made its way over to the fundamentalist preachers of the American South and beyond. True, the Book of Revelation does inspire great visuals in one's religious imagination, but it is not to be taken literally. "The Messenger" inspires fear, but the Book of Revelation was meant as consolation for early Christian communities. For Catholics who complain that the church does not have teaching on the end times, please refer to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
If you want to watch a television show with a dramatic take on biblical themes and theology in the tradition of awesome literature (think Flannery O'Connor), try "Rectify" on the Sundance Channel. The first two seasons are on Netflix, and the third is in production.
As for "The Messengers," if it makes it, perhaps it will show mercy and that the American military cannot win against supernatural powers. Time will tell.
[Sr. Rose Pacatte, a member of the Daughters of St. Paul, is the director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles.]


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TORONTO – Erik Feig has received a promotion at Lionsgate.
The executive, who also inked a new long-term contact with the mini-studio, has been upped to co-president of Lionsgate's motion picture group.
The move follows Lionsgate generating more than $2.3 billion at the global box office in 2013.
STORY: Erik Feig to Head Movie Production at Combined Summit-Lionsgate
Feig joins Steve Beeks in overseeing feature film development and production for the Lionsgate and Summit movie labels.
He will continue to report to motion picture group co-chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger.
"Erik has assembled a tremendous production slate over the past two years, and he will be a critical, innovative and disruptive part of our future as we continue to evolve as a next-generation global content leader," said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer in a statement Tuesday.
Feig headed up production at Summit Entertainment for 11 years before joining Lionsgate in 2012.
His film credits include The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the Twilight franchise, Now You See Me, Warm Bodies and the Oscar winner The Hurt Locker.
Movies in the Lionsgate pipeline include Divergent, the next two installments of the Hunger Games franchise, Mockingjay parts 1 and 2, and the action comedy Mortdecai, starring Johnny Depp.
"It has been a thrilling ride since Lionsgate first acquired Summit just over two years ago, and I have loved every minute of it," said Feig in his own statement.
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Of course the real humor here is that the less worried the citizens are, the more worried the government tends to be, as it becomes harder and harder to scare people into submission with the 'But terrorists!' cry.
TIME/CNN Poll Shows Increasing Number Of Americans Won't Give Up Civil Liberties To Fight Terrorism
from the the-government-can't-give-you-safety,-but-it-can-take-your-rights dept
When discussing NYPD Police Chief Ray Kelly's assertion that "privacy is off the table" as a result of the Boston bombing, I mentioned I hadn't heard any public outcry demanding the government and law enforcement step in and do something (i.e., curtail civil liberties) in response to the tragedy. The responses we were seeing seemed to be nothing more than legislators and law enforcement officials pushing their own agendas.
This isn't just me not hearing what I don't want to hear. There's actual data available that explains the lack of concerned noises from Americans. A CNN/TIME poll shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans aren't interested in sacrificing rights to combat terrorism.
When given a choice, 61 percent of Americans say they are more concerned about the government enacting new anti-terrorism policies that restrict civil liberties, compared to 31 percent who say they are more concerned about the government failing to enact strong new anti-terrorism policies.
This is a vast improvement over 1996, when a post-Atlanta Olympics bombing poll showed only 23% opposed giving up freedom in exchange for fighting terrorism.
Breaking it down further, the poll also shows a bit of split along party lines. Self-identified Democrats are most likely to put their faith in government/law enforcement to make the U.S. "safer" by curtailing freedoms (51%). Republicans are less likely to favor this exchange (41%). For independents, less than a third (32%) are willing to give up some freedom to combat terrorism.
There is a bit of bad news contained within this generally positive indicator that Americans are less willing to give up something of theirs in exchange for the vagaries of "safety." The percentage of respondents who support additional surveillance in public areas has increased to 81% from 63% the week after the 9/11 attacks. On the other hand, there's a growing reluctance among Americans to allow the government to expand its surveillance efforts to cover more private venues, like email or cell phones. Only 38% approve of these efforts, down from 54% after 9/11.
Now, when legislators and law enforcement reps make strides towards reducing civil liberties, they do have some support. Those over the age of 50 (across all political parties) are most likely to support a loss of freedom (50%, as compared to only 34% for those under 50). Tellingly, this is pretty much the same demographic that feels video games are a bigger "safety threat" than guns (72% of respondents over the age of 45).
Unfortunately for the under-50 crowd, the over-50 demographic is historially the most active at the polls. If this perception of widespread support for invasive policies and legislation is going to change, the under-50 demographic is going to need to do a whole lot more voting. If not, these politicians are going to be able to truthfully say they have support for these policies — at least, the only support that matters: die-hard voters.
Filed Under: civil liberties, fear, fud, terrorism, the public


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Movie Review: Marti Noxon's 'To the Bone' a deeply moving debut
Writer-director Marti Noxon's deeply moving feature debut, "To the Bone," isn't just about a young woman confronting anorexia; it's a story about coming to terms with the ridiculous, awkward, beautiful and painful realities of adult life.
Without judging or romanticizing, Noxon presents a heartfelt and heartbreaking portrait of a 20-year-old girl trying to cope with the challenges of growing up by obsessively restricting calories.
Noxon and star Lily Collins – who both have personal experiences with eating disorders – have created an indelible character in Ellen/Eli, the eye-rolling, over-it millennial at the heart of the film. Like a next-generation "Juno" steeped in bitters, Eli is all fragile vulnerability and stubborn defiance – a sneering mix of fear, arrogance and angst, simultaneously yearning for and fearing adulthood.
Eli has been in and out of treatment for her eating disorder. She's so skeletal and drawn, her eye sockets seem oversized and her skin looks gray. But she insists everything is under control. Like, get over it.
Her family begs her to try yet another inpatient program, and she agrees to join a group home where half a dozen other young bulimics and anorexics ("rexies") are living in various states of recovery. The house's lone male resident, Luke (newcomer Alex Sharp), takes an instant liking to her.
Her formal treatment includes a disastrous family therapy session with her new-age mother (Lili Taylor) and well-meaning but often inappropriate stepmother (an outstanding Carrie Preston). Informally, it includes a fledgling romance with Luke and a bizarre bottle-feeding ritual with her mom.
The film presents eating disorders almost like a form of addiction. Keanu Reeves plays Dr. Beckham, whose approach is to encourage patients to decide for themselves what their future lives should look like. In one of the film's most poignant scenes, he reveals one of adulthood's great and troubling secrets.
"Things don't all add up," he says. "But you are resilient. Face some hard facts and you could have an incredible life."
And right there is why this film is universal, even if you're not a young person with an eating disorder. Growing up means realizing life isn't always fair and there's no guarantee everything will be all right. Eli shrinks away from this truth.
Collins and some of the other actresses are so painfully thin that parts of the film are uncomfortable to watch. It's also hard to see the young characters so tormented and consumed with body image. One describes a famous (and unquestionably thin) actress as "kind of fat, don't you think? Like at least a size 6."
But the story is not all bleak. Noxon, a veteran writer and producer of such TV hits as "UnREAL," "Mad Men," "Glee" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," deftly manages her film's tone, blending humor and heart without being saccharine or trite. She treats Eli's struggles seriously but not too earnestly, a delicate balance obviously aided by the loving perspective of personal experience.
The film's optimism shines through in a magical sequence set inside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's "Rain Room" exhibit. Beckham takes his patients on a field trip there, and their experience of the space where water miraculously rains down from the ceiling but doesn't get visitors wet is a cinematic metaphor for the delicious thrill of discovery – a perk of being alive.
"To the Bone" is a beautiful achievement. It illuminates the compulsions and dangers around disordered eating – a potentially deadly condition that affects 30 million Americans – and the struggles of so many teens and adults who channel their concerns and fears about life into hatred of their own bodies. It gives voice to the experience of girls, who are rarely prepared for the onslaught of male attention that comes with puberty and adolescence. It underscores the importance of family, however dysfunctional. It's a story about the difficulty of being human and the bravery it takes to grow up.


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There is a common saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. Currently Nassau County tax dollars are invested in a failing incarceration system, which fosters recidivism, hopelessness and retribution. Imagine investing in rehabilitation, dignity and restoration of human potential!
Join the Nassau County Jail Advocates for a lively discussion:
When: Thursday, March 14th, 2019 Doors open at 6:15 PM Program starts at 6:30 PM
Where: YES Community Counseling Center 152 Center Lane, Levittown NY 11756
Guest Speaker: Lauren Jones, Senior Planner, Vera Institute of Justice
Refreshments will be served RSVP: email@example.com
The exterior of the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow, shown on Dec. 25, 2011. Photo Credit: Daniel Brennan
Sponsoring organizations:
YES Community Counseling Center, FIIRE – Formerly Incarcerated Individuals Redefining Equity, Social Justice Committee of the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, Prison Families Anonymous, Inc., New York Communities for Change, Gender Equality New York (GENY),
New Hour for Women & Children – LI, New York Civil Liberties Union (Nassau County Chapter), Second Chance Re-entry, National Alliance for Mental Illness
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This beautiful and unique wood-burned cutting board is great for a wedding, wedding shower, birthday, mother's day, Fathers Day, Anniversary, Christmas gift and more.
Text, such as family names, company names and sports teams, along with any artwork needed are added using Pyrography, aka wood-burning. Pyrography is laser engraved so the words will not rub off. You are able to chop on the same side of the design.
Cutting Board Sizes:
Dark Groove Large: 16"x11.5
Dark Groove Medium: 13"x10.5"
Dark Groove Small: 11.5x8"
Bamboo Groove Large: 15"x10"
Bamboo Groove Medium: 12"x8"
Bamboo Groove Small: 9"x6"
Bamboo Large: 13"x9.5"
Bamboo Medium: 11"x8.5"
Bamboo Small: 8"x6"
I welcome any questions, suggestions or ideas for any personal styles or modifications to make each sign a custom-made one-of-a-kind product for each individual purchaser.
If you would like to follow us on social media please follow us here>>
Facebook Page:
Facebook Group: (for the best updates on notifications of new items!)
Thank you for visiting my shop and shopping with small business! Behind every small business is a family ❤
Come Again!
MixMatched Creations


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Is Your Product Ready For Take Off? | Print On Demand
Here's a good analogy. I kind of think that a good product, like imagine an airplane, right? Like a Boeing triple seven or something like that. A good product is like the engines on your Boeing triple seven. Does everybody know what a Boeing triple seven looks like? We're gonna pull one up. Boeing triple sevens. I've flown on a bunch of these things. When I lived in India, we fly back and forth, like almost once a month. And these things are like masterpieces in the engineering world. Right? There's a Boeing triple seven, those engines are gigantic. They're gigantic, the plane seat three, three and three, if you're on a single decker and they're just huge. They're just really big planes. And it's hard to believe that you can get this entire thing up off the ground with two little guys in this cockpit up here at the beginning. In fact, I would even say that's made me feel unsafe flying in these on more than one occasion. Because like how it just doesn't even seem like it should be possible. You got two little guys up here flying this giant machine. And by the way, we're not on the ground when they're operating it just anyway. Okay. So my point, though, is that, if you imagine an airplane, a winning product, to me, is like the engines, right? Like, if you don't have a winning product, it doesn't matter how well the rest of this machine was built. It's not going anywhere. It's not getting off the ground, it's not moving down the runway, nothing like you wouldn't be able to get out of the hangar, you've got to have good engines on it, if you really want to fly, right? And winning products are like these engines, in my opinion. Right? If your airplane does not have a winning product, it's not getting off the ground, right? If your campaigns don't have winning products, they're not getting off the ground. So the winning products to me are like the engines on an airplane. That's one way you can think about it. The rest of this stuff, it doesn't matter how beautiful the rest of this is. If those if your product is not a winner, if this engine is not big enough, you cannot get that airplane into the air.
To further confuse people with this analogy. One thing I'd like to say is view the ShineOn product as the airplane and your message card as the engines. An airplane is an airplane, it holds people, there's wings, it'll fly, but how well it flies really comes down to that engine. And that's what makes it powerful. So, you can have a great looking airplane that can't take off because the message card's not helping it, but once you pair that beautiful airplane with those really big engines, that's when you have a winning product. So that message card is really an important thing.


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California needs more wines like this! Tocai Friulano, aka Friulano in its homeland of Friuli, Italy and Sauvignon Vert in California (unless it's Muscadelle…yeah, it's confusing) has about 50 acres planted in California. That number recently went down when THIS vineyard, "Graziano" in Mendocino's Potter Valley, was converted to Vermentino. Quoting Prima Materia's Pietro Buttitta, it's "probably a good idea, but a wistful one as this bottling has great tension and complexity." This is true.
Good Tocia Friulano needs to breathe and stretch. And enjoyed chilled not cold: 60 degrees is good. My Prima Materia Tocai Friulano 2017 tasting notes include beeswax, wildflowers, dried lemon peel, green tea and mango. True to the grape, it's awkward just opened: a little too floral and sweet-smelling. An hour of good breathing and away we go: citrus and orchard fruits, lemongrass and other stuff back up for the floral sensations. Medium-bodied the way a crisper, lighter Chardonnay feels. A joy to drink. 48 cases made. Everything I see and taste point to a $40 price tag, except for the demand. It's $25 – amazing bargain. A well-deserved Hall of Fame Value.
Read all my Prima Materia wine reviews HERE


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Here's the latest article from the Southeast Asia site at BellaOnline.com.
A Different Vietnam in Da Lat
Situated in the hills of southern Vietnam, Da Lat is famous for its moderate temperature and lush landscape.
Please visit southeastasia.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Southeast Asia .
To participate in free, fun online discussions, this site has a community forum all about Southeast Asia located here -
I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback!
Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!
Teresa Coates, Southeast Asia Editor
One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com


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Sarah Beckenhauer knows the struggle that comes with being marginalized for her sexuality, even within the LGBT+ community.
Beckenhauer, a University of Nebraska at Omaha freshman majoring in English, identifies as asexual.
Asexuality, or ace spectrum, is an identity not associated with the sexual desires that allosexual people, people who have sexual desires, have, said Jessi Hitchens, director of the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center at UNO.
Beckenhauer said she first discovered her sexuality by spending time with friends who would tell dirty jokes or talk about their sex lives, but she never really understood what they found so great.
"I wasn't getting turned on by anything," she said.
It's hard to tell how many people at UNO identify as ace or on the ace spectrum, Hitchins said.
"There are no good numbers because we live in a sexual society, where everyone thinks everyone else is allosexual," she said.
Hitchins said asexuality is a spectrum that ranges from feeling no sexual desire to only very limited sexual desire or to only feeling desire in special cases. Asexual, or ace, she said, is used as an umbrella term. Asexual people may have romantic relationships or may even have sex.
"These are not people with low libido," Hitchins said. "These are not people who are survivors of sexual assault. They're not people that are abstaining. Those folks all have sexual desires."
Hitchins parodied a tagline used in the movie "Love, Simon," which came out in March. She said she loved "Why is straight the default?" but changed it up to "why is allosexual the default?"
The LGBT+ community has been growing worldwide, Hitchins said, and she believes that numbers for ace spectrum will also be on the rise as people become more comfortable with being their full, authentic selves.
"Once asexuals have a more specific platform, because they're still not in the media in any real way, that will change how other people feel comfortable identifying," Hitchins said.
Beckenhauer said her coming out process took time. Her mother didn't believe that asexuality was real.
Beckenhauer said her mother has claimed that she just needs to have sex to know or that she just needs to find the right person. She said one of her coworkers has told her that he would have sex with her and change her mind. She also mentioned someone she knows often asks her, in passing, if she is sure she is ace.
"He isn't doing it to be mean or anything. He's just joking…it was hard to wrap his head around it," Beckenhauer said.
Hitchins said many people within the LGBTQ community may not be aware of asexual people or acknowledge their existence.
"So asexual people experience marginalization from both the queer and trans community as well as the straight and cis community," she said.
Beckenhauer said that the LGBT community could do a better job recognizing the ace community.
Be mindful that this is an identity that people hold, Hitchins said.
"Don't bully people to be outside of who they really are."
Despite difficulty building meaningful relationships, Beckenhauer said she stands proudly with the asexual flag, surrounded by black, gray, white and purple.


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Next week at the 2017 Esri User Conference there will be an area dedicated to ArcGIS Pro virtualization. The Virtualization Island will be adjacent to the ArcGIS Pro Island and is focused exclusively on how to virtualize ArcGIS Pro both on-premises and in the cloud.
When you visit the Virtualization Island you will learn exactly what it takes to virtualize ArcGIS Pro, what hardware and virtualization technology is needed and why.
At the Virtualization Island you will see the great user experience that is possible when virtualizing ArcGIS Pro in a number of well-designed and optimized virtualization environments. The on-premises virtualization environments include VMWare vSphere 6.5 with both VMware and Citrix XenDesktop VMs. The cloud environments include AWS Workspace Graphics Bundles, Azure NV-Series 6, and Frame.
At the Virtualization Island we will have two Cisco C240s and four Cisco M200 blades to support on-premises virtualization. The C240 graphics capability is powered by Nvidia Tesla M60s and the B200 blades each have a Nvidia Tesla M6.
You will not only see the great user experience but will also be able to try Pro in these environments. You can use ArcGIS Pro with a variety of data, 2D and 3D, including
- Phillidelphia 3D
- San Francisco 3D
- Montreal 3D
- San Diego LIDAR
- Denver 2D
A common and very important question is "how many ArcGIS Pro VMs can be put on a specific server configuration?". We will demo the VM/server density that is possible in these environments. The density demos include 12, 20 and 31 VMs concurrently on a Cisco C240, and we will monitor the hardware and virtualization metrics. Those demos will be at the Virtualization Island at:
- Tuesday July 11 @ 2pm
- Thursday July 13 @ 10am
Special Note: The ArcGIS Pro System Requirements page will be updated showing both AWS Graphics Bundle Workspaces and Azure NV-Series 6 VMs as officially supported environments.
Nvidia, a User Conference Gold sponsor will have a large booth on the Showcase floor. They will also demo ArcGIS Pro in a VMware environment running on a Dell R730 powered by two Tesla M60s.
We hope to see you next week with all of your ArcGIS Pro virtualization questions.


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PARIS >> The Belgian extremist suspected of masterminding the deadly attacks in Paris died a day ago along with his female cousin in a police raid on a suburban apartment building, French officials said Thursday, adding it was still not clear exactly how he died.
The body of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, was found in the building targeted Wednesday in the chaotic, bloody raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis and was identified based on skin samples, the Paris prosecutor's office said Thursday.
Abaaoud ended up near Paris after reportedly being in Syria but officials have not said how he managed to travel across so many borders en route to the French capital. In addition, authorities have not detailed his exact whereabouts or actions during the deadly rampage that killed 129 people last week in Paris.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said France did not know before last week's deadly attacks that Abaaoud was in Europe, but said he was believed to be behind four of six attacks thwarted since spring by French authorities.
Three police officials have told The Associated Press that a woman who died in the police raid was Abaaoud's cousin. One said the woman, Hasna Aitboulahcen, is believed to have detonated a suicide vest Wednesday in the building after a brief conversation with police officers.
The official confirmed an audio recording, punctuated by gunshots, in which an officer asks: "Where is your boyfriend?" and she responds angrily: "He's not my boyfriend!" Then loud bangs are heard.
The bodies recovered in the raid were badly mangled, with part of Aitboulahcen's spine landing on a police car, slowing down the identification process, according to one of the officials.
The three all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to divulge details of the investigation.
French police launched the operation after receiving information from tapped phone calls, surveillance and tipoffs suggesting that Abaaoud was holed up in the apartment. Eight people were arrested in the raid.
In Belgium, authorities launched six raids in the Brussels region Thursday linked to Bilal Hadfi, one of the three suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside the Stade de France.
An official in the Belgian federal prosecutor's office told The Associated Press the raids were taking place in the suburb of Molenbeek and other areas of Brussels. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said the actions were focusing on Hadfi's "entourage."
With France still reeling from the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 129 and wounded hundreds, France's lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, voted Thursday to extend a state of emergency for three months. The measure now goes to the Senate, where it likely will be approved.
The state of emergency expands police powers to carry out arrests and searches, and allows authorities to forbid the movement of people and vehicles at specific times and places.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls had pressed for the state of emergency extension, warning that Islamic extremists might at use chemical or biological weapons.
"Terrorism hit France not because of what it is doing in Iraq and Syria … but for what it is," Valls told lawmakers. "We know that there could also be a risk of chemical or biological weapons."
Valls did not say there was a specific threat against France involving such weapons, however.
Elsewhere in Europe, jittery leaders and law enforcement moved to protect their citizens as Rob Wainwright, director of the European Union's police coordination agency Europol, warned of "a very serious escalation" of the terror threat in Europe.
—In Italy, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said law enforcement was searching for five people flagged by the FBI in response to a U.S. warning about potential targets following the Paris attacks. The State Department issued a warning Wednesday that St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Milan's cathedral and La Scala opera house, as well as churches, synagogues, restaurants, theaters and hotels had been identified as "potential targets."
— Danish and Norwegian police were asked to be on the lookout for a man who Swedish authorities said is wanted in connection with an investigation into "preparing for a terrorist offense." Sweden's Security Service, known as SAPO, said the request was not linked to the Paris attacks.
— In Belgium, where many of the Paris attackers lived, Prime Minister Charles Michel announced a package of additional anti-terror measures, and said 400 million euros ($427 million) would be earmarked to expand the fight.
Michel told lawmakers that security personnel will be increased and special attention will be paid to eradicating messages of hate. He also called for more international cooperation, and said he wants to amend the Belgian constitution to extend the length of time terror suspects can be held by police without charge.
"All democratic forces have to work together to strengthen our security," Michel said.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged the international community to do more to eradicate the Islamic State group, which has claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 attacks on a rock concert, Parisian cafes and the national stadium.
Fabius, speaking on France-Inter radio, said the group "is a monster. But if all the countries in the world aren't capable of fighting against 30,000 people (IS members), it's incomprehensible."
France has stepped up its airstrikes against extremists in Syria, and French military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron said Thursday that French forces have destroyed 35 Islamic State targets in Syria since the attacks on Paris.
French President Francois Hollande is going to Washington and Moscow next week to push for a stronger international coalition against IS. Speaking after the seven-hour siege in Saint-Denis, Hollande said that France was "at war" with the Islamic State group.
In its English-language magazine, Islamic State said it will continue its violence and "retaliate with fire and bloodshed" for insults against the Prophet Muhammad and "the multitudes killed and injured in crusader airstrikes."
Francois Molins, the Paris prosecutor, said Wednesday that investigators found a cellphone in a garbage can outside the Bataclan concert hall in eastern Paris where 89 attack victims died. It contained a text message sent about 20 minutes after the massacre began. "We're off, it's started," it read.
Molins said investigators were still trying to identify the recipient of the message.
Seven of the Paris attackers died on the same night as the attacks. French authorities have said most of the attackers — five have been identified so far — were unknown to them. But two U.S. officials said that many, though not all, of those identified were on the U.S. no-fly list. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
A Spanish security official said French authorities had sent a bulletin to police across Europe asking them to watch out for a Citroen Xsara car that could be carrying Salah Abdeslam, whose brother, Brahim, was among the attackers who blew themselves up.
French authorities declared a state of emergency after the attacks, and security forces have conducted 414 raids, making 60 arrests and seizing 75 weapons, including 11 military-style firearms.
Casert reported from Brussels. John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels and Lori Hinnant in Paris also contributed.
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3 Starting a project with CVS ***************************** Because renaming files and moving them between directories is somewhat inconvenient, the first thing you do when you start a new project should be to think through your file organization. It is not impossible to rename or move files, but it does increase the potential for confusion and CVS does have some quirks particularly in the area of renaming directories. Moving files. What to do next depends on the situation at hand.
* Setting up the files Getting the files into the repository * Defining the module How to make a module of the filesInfo Catalog (cvs.info.gz) Repository (cvs.info.gz) Top (cvs.info.gz) Revisions


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Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
There are 116 County owned t-hangars, 46 shade hangars, and 10 corporate box hangars. Hangar space is at a premium at Napa County Airport. In addition, there are 95 tie-down spaces. For information on rental availability, call 707-253-4300.


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Psst, FYI – this post may contain affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission (at absolutely no extra cost to you). Thanks for supporting the free content on this site (and for sponsoring more doggy treats for little Albus!)
Toronto, or The Six, as Drake (yes papi) so affectionally refers to it, is a vibrant, bustling metropolitan city located in the Eastern Canadian state of Ontario. Being the largest city in Canada, it's also a melting pot of cultures, which gives Toronto that special allure many people come for. Here is the ultimate Toronto itinerary so you can have the best time in TO.
Getting Around
Toronto is pretty well connected via public transportation, or the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission), as the locals call it, with its extensive network of trains, buses and streetcars. Most of the city is connected by the PATH system which is an underground system built to beat the bitter cold Toronto winter days. Most locals don't even have to surface above ground during the winter months since you can get almost anywhere via the PATH system.
I don't recommend driving around the city, as parking can cost quite a bomb. In fact, I walked most of the time during my time in Toronto, and you probably will too!
Where to Stay
When I first marked out my points of interest on Google Maps, everything looked so close to each other. When I finally got to Toronto and started walking, I realised one thing – the map is hugely deceiving. Because Toronto is HUGE. And I mean, YUGE.
If it's your first time in Toronto and you're only visiting for a few days, it makes sense to stay downtown. I recommend staying around Yonge-Dundas Square due to its central location and proximity to shopping malls and plenty of eateries.
Here are some recommended hotels for your visit:
- The Drake Hotel from $209
No, it wasn't named after the famous Champage Papi, but for a taste of luxury, this elegant hotel should be your top pick.
- DoubleTree by Hilton Toronto Downtown from $150
Can't go wrong with a Hilton, this 4-star hotel is strategically located in Downtown Toronto and a stone's throw away from the train station and the underground maze of shopping malls!
- Fairmont Royal York Hotel from $180
If you'll be taking the intercity train quite a bit, The Fairmont is located right across from Union Station. It's also super close to CN Tower and the Harbourfront.
- Budget option! The Rex Hotel Jazz & Blues Bar from $80
Excellent location, excellent price. Bonus if you appreciate a bit of live music every night, it's one of downtown Toronto's most iconic locations.
Toronto Itinerary
Day One
If you read my other guides, you'll know the first thing I like to do when I get to a new city is to join their free walking tour. It's a quick and economical way of getting your lay of the land, and getting some insider tips on that city.
CN Tower
That tall pointy building you see peeking above Toronto's skyline is the infamous CN Tower. It's probably the #1 thing to do when you're in Toronto as it gives you sweeping views of the city. I recommend coming just before the sun sets to enjoy the sky turning colours! And if you've got balls of steel, maybe take a step out onto the Edgewalk!
Distillery District
This was probably one of my favorite areas in Toronto. I loved the whole feel of the place, with the bare brickstone buildings and cobblestoned streets. These buildings used to house a large whiskey distillery, not to mention one of the largest in the world! There are cute little shops, art galleries and cafés for you to spend a couple hours here. You'll usually find performances here too so you'll sure to be kept entertained.
Toronto Sign
You can't miss snapping a picture here when you're in Toronto! If you get the chance, come by in the evening when the Toronto sign is all lit up in multiple colors!
Gooderham Building
Did you know that Toronto has its very own Flatiron Building like the one in NYC? It's much smaller in size, but this is the OG flatiron building, predating the one in New York by 10 years!
Ripley's Aquarium
If you're a bit of an animal lover like me, you'll love Ripley's Aquarium that hosts over 16,000 aquatic creatures – it's a sure hit with the kids and adults alike.
Royal Ontario Museum
Toronto's weather can be pretty brutal sometimes, and museum hopping is a perfect indoor activity. So why not drop by Canada's largest and one of North America's largest museums?
Day Two
Toronto Zoo
Another one for the animal lovers! And if you loooove animals, you'll love that the Toronto Zoo is one of the most ethical zoos in the world.
Save money on admission fees with the CityPASS!
Casa Loma
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A castle in North America? They are pretty few and far between, so don't pass up the chance to visit this architectural marvel! Movie buffs might like to know that this castle served as a location for several movies such as X-Men, Chicago and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Potterhead fun fact!: Casa Loma was transformed into Hogwarts for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!
Toronto Island
If you're found yourself with awesome weather and the sunny sun sun out, please do yourself a favor and catch the first ferry out to Toronto Islands! It's the perfect way to spend a couple hours, or even a whole day out. Here you'll find biking trails, picnic spots and an amusement park for all ages. You also get unobstructed views of the Toronto cityscape — magnifico!
Day Three
Niagara Falls
If you have an additional day in Toronto, you can't miss a trip to the infamous Niagara Falls. It's a quick 1-hour drive from Toronto, which makes it an easy day trip. The best part is, you get to experience the falls from the Canadian side, which most people agree is the better side 😉
How to Save on Entrance Fees in Toronto
If you plan to do some sightseeing, entrance fees can really add up. The best way to go about this to purchase the CityPASS that saves you up to 38% off on admission fees. Save yourself time and hassle of queuing at each attraction as well, with the CityPASS, you skip the line – one simple purchase gets you in in no time!
CityPASS Admission Includes the attractions I've mentioned above including:
- CN Tower ($38)
- Ripley's Aquarium of Canada ($33)
- Casa Loma ($30)
- Royal Ontario Museum ($23)
- Toronto Zoo ($29) OR Ontario Science Centre ($22)
The total price for all these attractions is $153, while the CityPASS costs only $92. That's a whopping $61 of savings, which can go to an excellent meal and even some sumptuous dessert!
Click here to get your CityPASS!
Where to Eat
When I think of Toronto, I think of food. The amalgamation of cultures and ethnicities in Toronto has produced some of the best gastronomic options sure to satisfy all kinds of tastebuds. Here are some of my favorite picks:
Lady Marmalade
My travel buds always ask why there's a line outside every eatery I pick – well, you gotta treat your tummy to the very best right? We waited almost an hour in the blistering wind on a weekday afternoon, and was it worth it? You've gotta try it yourself and decide. Serving up some pretty inventive dishes, it's a perfect brunch spot. I loved the bright and airy interior that complimented my brunch (and Instagram).
I'll let the long queues outside this establishment speak for itself. For some seriously good Northern Thai food, come to Pai. Come for the food, stay for the super chill vibes (oh, and the Thai beer).
St Lawrence Market
Who doesn't love a good food market? Toronto has it's very own St. Lawrence Market. Ask any local and you will be directed here for their peameal bacon sandwich, almost autonomous with Toronto food. Thank me later!
General Assembly
If I could have one food for the rest of my life, it probably would be pizza. Don't take my word for it, but I'm pretty sure it is. So everywhere I go, I like to try some good ol' cheesy delights. And I'm happy to report that General Assembly serves up a mean pizza. They've got a pretty extensive menu so a repeat visit is almost warranted. Doesn't hurt that they've got a few branches across the city!
Where to Coffee
I love my coffee, and if you've read my other travel guides, I always scout for the best coffee joints in that particular city. These are some of the bestest places to get your caffeine fix.
- Boxcar Social
Located right by the ferry terminal, Boxcar Social is an excellent place to wind down and chill. There were quite a few people working on their laptops here too, as the ambiance is really chill and I loved the light flooding in through the big glass windows. They offer coffee flights as well if that's your cup of tea. TIP: I can't recommend the food!
- Dineen Coffee Co.
- Propeller Coffee Co.
- Strange Love Coffee
- Sam James Coffee Bar
- Jimmy's – Kensington Market
- Balzac's – Distillery District
SPECIAL! For the Harry Potter Fans
If you're a Potterhead like moi, you're gonna go cray cray at these two locations I'm gonna introduce to you:
Curiosa: Purveyors of Extraordinary Things
Wands Wallets at the ready! Not sure how many rounds I walked around this shop, but I guess it's a norm as the staff did not shoot me any weird looks. Here you'll find all sorts of Harry Potter collectibles including Limited Edition MinaLima prints (!!!). For the Muggles in the back, MinaLima is the graphic design company that designed most of the graphic art like posters and book covers for the Harry Potter universe. Each limited edition poster has a special serial number, so you'll know you're one of the lucky few to own a piece of magic history. Not sure if there's anything cooler than that?
The Lockhart
I had this place bookmarked on my maps but unfortunately had no time to make my way here as it is a little out of town. :sadface: But I know the next time I am in Toronto, this will be my first stop! The Lockhart is a cocktail bar inspired by the Harry Potter franchise. Serving up cocktails like Gin's Weasley, The Marauder served in a flaming cauldron (!!!), and The Dementor's Kiss which has a glaring disclaimer stating that this is not fit for human consumption (pfft, challenge accepted!).
Further reading: Lonely Planet Canada Travel Guide is an up-to-date guide on what to see and skip, and the hidden secrets Canada holds. It features color maps and images, highlights and itineraries, insider tips, essential info, honest reviews and tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots.
For a limited time only, get 3 books for the price of 2!
Visiting New York Checklist
⇢ Compare flight prices to Toronto
⇢ Compare accommodation options and prices on Booking.com | HotelsCombined.com | Agoda | Airbnb
⇢ Book your Toronto CityPASS
⇢ Don't forget travel insurance! Travel insurance is the most overlooked purchase when traveling, but one of the most essential. Anything can happen when you're on holiday and you'd want to be covered in the case of travel mishaps such as flight delays, personal accidents or theft. Choose World Nomads Travel Insurance, designed by travelers for travelers.


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Clients are always asking me how I maintain my perfect skin. The truth its part science, part consistency of home care and yes, professional care.
Let's start back from the beginning, shall we…In my teens, through my early twenties, I suffered from acne. I tried topical medication, prescribed medication and yes, birth control. Most of the time, these treatments managed my acne from a grade 3 to 4 to a grade 1 to 2. In case you're wondering grade 3 to 4 is the most severe types of acne. Then in my mid-twenties, I met an esthetician who was renting an office from my chiropractor and she began treating my acne with regular facials. Not only were the treatments relaxing but in 6 months my acne was gone. From that point on I wanted everyone to know about the benefits of regular facials. This is before social media so I told everyone I knew…my family, my co-workers, my neighbors, strangers on the streets…Eventually, this revelation led me to leave my corporate job to pursue aesthetics.
From additional hours of training and first-hand experiences and thousands of facials, I've learned that the skin like our body works best when it's in perfect pH balance. I'm not the best at science but what I do know that we should strive to maintain the balance of alkalinity and acidity in our bodies and tissues in order to get the best results. BTW, pH stands for "power of hydrogen"
The skin's sweet spot or the protective layer referred to as the acid mantle should be at 5.5 pH balance. The pH scale ranges totally acidic at 0.0 to totally alkaline at 14.0, making 7.0 neutral. The higher the pH number of something over 7.0 the more alkaline it is. So what does it mean for our skin? It means our skin prefers a slightly acidic state. That said, all sorts of external (pollution, sun exposure, products) and internal factors (poor diet, sleep, stress) can break down the acid mantle causing the skin to appear too oily or too dry.
How do you maintain optimal pH balance for your skin? Regular facials are a great start, that's why my skin was able to clear up very quickly. My acid mantle's pH was corrected with every facial and my home care supported and maintained my pH balance which helped fight off bacteria and maintain my oil production. Also, most over-the-counter products that you purchase at the drug store or at your local big stores, like Target and Wal-Mart tend to be more alkaline and filled with un-necessary parabens and fragrances. You can test your home skin care products by purchasing an at-home pH testing kit at one of those local stores. That said, as a licensed esthetician it's my job to know the pH of the products I carry in my shop and it's my job to match the proper pH product to my client's skin type. In addition, when I'm dealing with different skin conditions like acne, rosacea, eczema or psoriasis, it's my goal to re-establish the pH balance of the skin through proper and customized treatment in order support the skin's efforts to protect it from infections and diseases.
So you see, you too can be part of the perfect skin care club.


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Perched on the first floor, the 400 sq ft rooms come with an intimate sit out terrace on one side and access to the common lounge and balcony on the other. Exposed laterite walls add the old-world charm to these spaces. Taken along with the Moira suite, these three rooms together, can be a spacious exclusive space to a group of up to six.
A dreamy private courtyard for two sets this 650 sq ft room apart. Highlights of the room also include easy access to the sprawling gardens and the pool, all which combine to give these rooms a distinctly spacious and airy feel.
Spread over 750 sq ft these rooms come with a mezzanine floor and can house up to four guests. A private outdoor shower allows you a relaxed bath with a background soundtrack of the rustling leaves and bird songs.
Overlooking the quaint village of Moira, the 1100 sq ft suite comes with an adjoining living area, and a step out balcony. Row windows, wooden flooring and the four-poster bed, give the suite a generous sense of room and warmth.


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Esquire Magazine recently launched a mentoring initiative to create 100,000 new mentors by 2020. The campaign seeks to "make a tremendous impact" on the lives of young men that are caught in a cycle of failure.
Esquire asked 50 high-profile men including James Franco, Sen. Marco Rubio, Samuel L. Jackson, David Petraeus, Lenny Kravitz, Matthew Broderick and Joel Osteen: "Who made you the man you are today?"
It sounds like a worthwhile undertaking, so who could possibly argue with this campaign?
I could. Here's why …
The whole need for mentors has arisen because of the destruction of the family. Liberals helped to destroy the family and devalue fathers, and now they want to "save" society. No-fault divorce, welfare, man-hating feminism and rampant immorality in Hollywood movies have contributed to the breakdown of the family and created the need for mentors.
Read the rest here


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There are a number of ways you can support the LibraryMuseum and Lavington Library.
Become a Friend
The Friends of Albury Libraries and Museum are a community liaison group that provides feedback and support to develop programs, services and collections. The Friends committee meets on the last Wednesday of each month between 4.30pm and 5.30pm at the LibraryMuseum.
- are involved in events and fund-raising activities such as the regular book sales to support our programs, services and collections.
- provide voluntary assistance across a range of areas including assistance with shelving and book processing, local history projects, exhibitions and delivering books to housebound readers.
- provide input and feedback on library and museum operations.
- enjoy social activities and receive invitations to and information about our cultural services programs and exhibitions.
- receive 10% discount on LibraryMuseum shop items.
Become a Volunteer
As a volunteer you'll increase your knowledge of our amazing programs, exhibitions, events and collections, and meet other community members, artists and cultural professionals. Volunteers receive training and support and automatically become a member of the Friends of the Albury LibraryMuseum.
Volunteers assist at the LibraryMuseum and Lavington Library in the following areas:
- Museum and Social History Collection and Research
- Libraries Collection and information Services
- Exhibition attendant
- Learning and Outreach
- Home Library Service
If you are interested in volunteering, please read the Volunteer application pack for further information and complete the application form. You can contact the LibraryMuseum on 02 6023 8333 to discuss further.
Become a Donor
We are always interested in donations that help us preserve our sense of history for current and future generations.
Our collection would not be what it is without the generosity of donors. With their help we are able to preserve objects of significance for the benefit of the wider community. Potential donations are considered in the context of the AlburyCity Cultural Assets Development and Management Policy, existing collection holdings, provenance, conservation requirements and storage constraints.
To discuss making a donation contact:
Albury LibraryMuseum
Museum & Social History Team
Phone: 02 6023 8333
Email: email@example.com


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project documentation
Louis Khan
Fisher House
Fisher House
This is the Program diagram of Louis Khan's famous Fisher House in which you can say are two boxes. But the square is tilted 45 degrees and and the rectangle is connected to the square. Which are separated into the square being the private zones. The rectangle is the living zone which can be living room ,kitchen,etc.
Parti diagram of the Fisher house, . I separated them which the square was the private zones and separated in four little squares which are bedrooms. The rectangle is the living zone which can be living spaces in the house.
This is the Floor Plan of the House I worked on in which you can see and look at the way the first floor is set up to be. The house has a remarkable fire place in the living space area. You can see how Louis Kahn used his creative mind and made basic shapes into something more than that.
The Elevation of the house was something new to me in which we could see how it lined up with the floor plan to be completed. Here you see the side of the house which the house was made of wood and the bottom of it is raised by stone.
This is the Perspective Drawing where you can see how the house is set to be from a perspective. I worked on this using the floor plan,which lined everything down. Its amazing how much you can do with a floor plan.
On this project I made it in the purpose to show how Louis Khan used geometry in his work. I added pieces of his work in the drawing and added different elements of color and materials to make this a good representation of what Louis Khan was as an architect.
Starting out the project I began collecting ideas and trying to put them together to make a house for someone or a family with low income.So I wanted to make something small but really nice. At the beginning I wanted to make a dome like structure but decided to make it something simple which was square or rectangular shape. I was inspired by Louis Khan fisher house and at first I wanted two boxes separating the private and public places.Here are one of my study models and sketches to come up with a small house that is a two story. This project's goal was to make a small safe living space for someone that lives in New Orleans, Ninth Ward,where there had been destruction from a strong hurricane years ago. We wanted to keep the house at a low cost that someone that their social standard is low could afford.
I began making my design from my last sketch and made it on the computer.I rose the house off the floor about 6 feet to protect them from floods making it safer for the people.I wanted this house to be more for people that like being inside rather than outside. I went with a much smaller house which ended up being 16 by 36 feet. Being 576 sf.
My 3D printed mass model.
Final Model
I made a model of my house being able to get and idea of how it would look like with wooden material on this.


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Crystal Vision releases downconverter with time code, closed-captioning support
New from Crystal Vision is the Q-Down-AT 3G, a broadcast downconverter and distribution amplifier, which incorporates support for time code or closed-captioning. The Q-Down-AT 3G can downconvert 1080p, 720p, 1080i and SD at both 50Hz and 59.94Hz.
When downconverting 59.94Hz video, the Q-Down-AT 3G takes the HD closed-captioning (CEA-708) and extracts the data it needs to insert the corresponding SD closed-captioning (CEA-608) into the SD output stream. With closed-captioning normally inserted on Line 21 in the vertical blanking, the Q-Down-AT 3G has the flexibility to insert closed-captioning information on any lines between 12 and 21, allowing Line 21 to be used for other data instead.
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New law will protect homeowners and businesses from skyrocketing property tax hikes
Albany, NY – July 5, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today traveled to Erie County to sign New York's first property tax cap.
The tax cap, a hallmark of Governor Cuomo's campaign and a priority of his administration's first year, will finally deliver relief to millions of homeowners and business owners across the state who for too long have been burdened by out-of-control property taxes.
Governor Cuomo signed the property tax cap at the home of Ian and Jenny Martin in Lancaster. Like many taxpayers in Erie County, the Martins, parents of three children, have made sacrifices to afford the state's skyrocketing property taxes. Ian is the IT Director for Dave and Adam's Card World and Jenny teaches group fitness at Gold's Gym. They pay more than $6,000 annually in property taxes, almost twice the median property tax bill in New York state. This law will provide meaningful tax relief to the Martin family and other homeowners across New York.
"For too long, New York families like the Martins have been forced to deal with out-of-control property taxes," Governor Cuomo said. "Many families and businesses have already left Western New York and this tax cap will help stem the tide and bring much-needed relief to taxpayers across the state. New York will no longer be the tax capital of the nation and this tax cap will go a long way toward revitalizing the state's economy."
Taxpayers in Erie County, like the Martins, pay among the highest property taxes in the nation, with a median property tax bill of $3,990 per household. In comparison, the median U.S. property tax bill is $1,917, while in New York the median property tax bill is $3,755.
Under the new law, property tax increases will be capped at 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. Local communities and local voters could override the cap with a 60 percent vote on the budget for school boards or relevant legislative bodies.
Senator Patrick Gallivan said, "Thanks to Governor Cuomo's leadership, New York now has a property tax cap that will keep families in their homes, grow our communities, and foster economic development. We worked hard over the past months to bring this much-needed relief to the taxpayers of New York. This is a major step in revitalizing our state's economy and I look forward to continuing working with Governor Cuomo to rebuild New York state."
Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak said, "This tax cap is a victory for all New York taxpayers. We are tired of seeing businesses and families move out of Erie County because of the crushing property tax burden. I applaud Governor Cuomo for his leadership and determination in making this property tax cap a reality. The taxpayers' voices have been heard and I look forward to working with Governor Cuomo and my colleagues to help our great state get back on track to financial and economic prosperity."
This cap on property taxes includes safeguards to ensure delivery of critical services for New Yorkers. There will be limited exceptions to the cap, including:
- Judgments or court orders arising out of tort actions that exceed 5 percent of the localities' levy
- Certain growth in pension costs where the system's average rate increases by more than 2 percentage points from the previous year; the amount of contributions above the 2 percentage points will be excluded from the limit
- Growth in tax levies due to economic development
The new law institutes a property tax cap to protect homeowners and businesses from skyrocketing property tax hikes for the first time in New York history. For more than 15 years, both houses of the Legislature along with three governors have talked about a property tax cap for New York's overburdened homeowners with no results. New York's property taxes are among the highest taxes in the nation:
- The median U.S. property tax paid is $1,917; in New York, it's $3,755 – 96 percent higher than the national average
- As a percentage of personal income, New York has the highest local taxes in the nation – 79 percent above the national average
- From 1998 to 2008, property tax levies in New York grew by more than 73 percent – more than twice the rate of inflation during that span
- Companies pay five times more in property taxes than they do in corporate taxes
- New York – especially Upstate New York – continues to hemorrhage population and jobs at a greater rate than the national average
Governor's Press Office
NYC Press Office: 212.681.4640
Albany Press Office: 518.474.8418
press.office (at) exec.ny (dot) gov


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Working at the Museum often brings experiences that one would have never imagined. Sometimes ordinary, sometimes extraordinary.
Several months ago I received a call that a family planned to gather at Crystal Bridges in August to celebrate the 90th birthday of the family's matriarch, and the family wished to arrange a special itinerary for the day. A fairly ordinary call. The caller then continued to share that the matriarch in question was the previous owner of Wayne Thiebaud's Supine Woman now in Crystal Bridges' collection. Extraordinary.
Recently I had the pleasure of hosting this lovely group at Crystal Bridges. Twenty family members traveled from all corners of the country—Florida, California, New York, Illinois, and others—to celebrate the birthday of their beloved mom and grandma (the most spry 90-year-old that I've met)! It was their first visit to Crystal Bridges and, for most, their first time in Arkansas.
Since Crystal Bridges opened on 11-11-11, Supine Woman has hung in the Twentieth Century Art Gallery among other works of its time by artists such as Warhol, Lichtenstein, Johns, Rauschenberg, Wesselman, and others. However, as we prepare for our upcoming exhibition State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, many of these works have been temporarily stored in our vaults to make room for this large-scale exhibition.
You guessed it. Supine Woman was not scheduled to be on display during this family's visit.
We made special arrangements, following Museum security and safety guidelines, for the family to visit the vault with our Registrar to view their beloved artwork. When the rolling rack was pulled out to reveal Supine Woman, the matriarch exclaimed "There she is!" It was a touching moment to see her and her children be completely consumed in seeing this old family friend. Family members told stories about it hanging in the master bedroom, where it was for 30 years, and jabbed at one family member for his careless play as a young boy that nearly damaged the work.
The matriarch and her late husband purchased Supine Woman from a gallery in 1964, one year after it was painted. Inspired by the unique look of Thiebaud's work, the matriarch also took painting classes from the artist, and eventually commissioned Thiebaud to paint a portrait of her children. She shared important documents regarding the provenance of the work, such as conversation records and purchase documents. Among these jewels was the confirmation that the model for Supine Woman is Thiebaud's daughter, Twinka Thiebaud.
Supine Woman happens to be among my favorite works in the Museum's collection. I affectionately call it "Working Mother." During a milestone birthday I celebrated this year, my family had an image of Supine Woman placed on my birthday cake. (The matriarch insisted on seeing a photo of Supine Woman on my cake!) From this point forward, Supine Woman will hold new meaning for me. I will not look at her without thinking about this extraordinary family who allowed me to step inside their story and a very special birthday celebration. Note: Crystal Bridges did not acquire Supine Woman directly from this family, the work was purchased at auction.
Wayne Thiebaud
|This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
|Wayne Thiebaud
Three Machines, 1963, De Young Museum,San Francisco
|November 15, 1920
Mesa, Arizona
|Sacramento State College
San Jose State College
Sacramento State
|Known for
|Painting, Printmaking
|Pop Art, New Realism, Bay Area Figurative Movement
|National Medal of Arts (1994)
Wayne Thiebaud (born November 15, 1920) is an American painter widely known for his colorful works depicting commonplace objects—pies, lipsticks, paint cans, ice cream cones, pastries, and hot dogs—as well as for his landscapes and figure paintings. Thiebaud is associated with the Pop art movement because of his interest in objects of mass culture, although his early works, executed during the fifties and sixties, slightly predate the works of the classic pop artists. Thiebaud uses heavy pigment and exaggerated colors to depict his subjects, and the well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements are almost always included in his work.
Early life and education[edit]
Thiebaud was born to Mormon parents in Mesa, Arizona, United States. His family moved to Long Beach, California when he was six months old.[1] One summer during his high school years he apprenticed at Walt Disney Studios drawing "in-betweens" of Goofy, Pinocchio, and Jiminy Cricket at a rate of $14 a week.[citation needed] The next summer he studied at the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles. From 1938 to 1949, he worked as a cartoonist and designer in California and New York. He served as an artist in the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1945.[2]
In 1949, he enrolled at San Jose State College (now San Jose State University) before transferring to Sacramento State College (now California State University, Sacramento), where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1951 and a master's degree in 1952.
Early career[edit]
Thiebaud subsequently began teaching at Sacramento City College. In 1960, he became assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, where he remained through 1991 and influenced numerous art students. He continues to hold a Professor Emeritus title there. Thiebaud did not have much of a following among Conceptual artists because of his adherence to basically traditional disciplines, emphasis on hard work as a supplement to creativity, and love of realism. Occasionally, he gave pro bono lectures at U.C. Davis.
On a leave of absence during 1956–57, he spent time in New York City, where he became friends with Elaine and Willem de Kooning[1] and Franz Kline, and was much influenced by these abstractionists as well as by proto-pop artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. During this time, he began a series of very small paintings based on images of food displayed in windows, and he focused on their basic shapes.
Returning to California, he pursued this subject matter and style, isolating triangles, circles, squares, etc. He also co-founded the Artists Cooperative gallery, now Artists Contemporary Gallery, and other cooperatives including Pond Farm, having been exposed to the concept of cooperatives in New York.
In 1960, he had his first solo show in San Francisco at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and shows in New York City at the Staempfli and Tanager galleries. These shows received little notice, but two years later, a 1962 Sidney Janis Gallery exhibition in New York officially launched Pop Art, bringing Thiebaud national recognition, although he disclaimed being anything other than a painter of illusionistic form.
In 1961, Thiebaud met and became friends with art dealer Allan Stone (1932–2006), the man who gave him his first "break."[2] Stone was Thiebaud's dealer until Stone's death in 2006.[3] Stone said of Thiebaud "I have had the pleasure of friendship with a complex and talented man, a terrific teacher and cook, the best raconteur in the west with a spin serve, and a great painter whose magical touch is exceeded only by his genuine modesty and humility. Thiebaud's dedication to painting and his pursuit of excellence inspire all who are lucky enough to come in contact with him. He is a very special man." After Stone's death, Thiebaud's son Paul Thiebaud (1960–2010) took over as his dealer. Paul Thiebaud was a successful art dealer in his own right and had eponymous galleries in Manhattan and San Francisco; he died June 19, 2010.
In 1962, Thiebaud's work was included, along with Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Phillip Hefferton, Joe Goode, Edward Ruscha, and Robert Dowd, in the historically important and ground-breaking "New Painting of Common Objects," curated by Walter Hopps at the Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena).[4] This exhibition is historically considered one of the first Pop Art exhibitions in America. These painters were part of a new movement, in a time of social unrest, which shocked America and the art world.
In 1963, he turned increasingly to figure painting: wooden and rigid, with each detail sharply emphasized. In 1964, he made his first prints at Crown Point Press, and has continued to make prints throughout his career. In 1967, his work was shown at the Biennale Internationale.
Wayne Thiebaud has been married twice. With his first wife, Patricia Patterson, he produced two children, one of whom is the model and writer Twinka Thiebaud. With his second wife, Betty Jean Carr, he had a son, Paul LeBaron Thiebaud, who became an art dealer. He also adopted Betty's son, Matthew.[5][6]
Thiebaud is well known for his paintings of production line objects found in diners and cafeterias, such as pies and pastries. As a young man in Long Beach, he worked at a cafe named Mile High and Red Hot, where "Mile High" was ice cream and "Red Hot" was a hot dog.[7]
He was associated with the Pop art painters because of his interest in objects of mass culture; however, his works, executed during the fifties and sixties, slightly predate the works of the classic pop artists, suggesting that Thiebaud may have had an influence on the movement. Thiebaud uses heavy pigment and exaggerated colors to depict his subjects, and the well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements are almost always included in his work.[8] Thiebaud is averse to labels such as "fine art" versus "commercial art" and has described himself as "just an old-fashioned painter".[9] He dislikes Andy Warhol's "flat" and "mechanical" paintings and does not count himself as a pop artist.[10][11]
In addition to pastries, Thiebaud has painted characters such as Mickey Mouse as well as landscapes, streetscapes, and cityscapes, which were influenced by the work of Richard Diebenkorn.[12] His paintings such as Sunset Streets (1985) and Flatland River (1997) are noted for their hyper realism, and have been compared to Edward Hopper's work, another artist who was fascinated with mundane scenes from everyday American life.[12]
Thiebaud is a voracious reader and is known for reading poetry to his students.[citation needed]
Notable works[edit]
- 1961 Pies, Pies, Pies
- 1962 Around the Cake
- 1962 Bakery Counter
- 1962 Candy Counter
- 1963 Cakes
- 1963 Three Machines
- 1963 Girl with Ice Cream Cone
- 1964 Three Strawberry shakes
- 1964 Lipsticks
- 1964 Man Sitting – Back View
- 1964 Lemon Cake
- 1966 Powder With Puff
- 1968 Coloma Ridge
- 1970 Seven Suckers
- 1971 Four Cupcakes
- 1975 Shoe Rows
- 1977 24th Street Intersection
- 1981 Hill Street (Day City)
- 1987 Two Paint Cans
- 1993 Apartment View
- 1993 Coastline (California Arts Council specialty license plate)[13][14]
- 1996 Farm Channel
- 1999 Reservoir
- 2002 Jolly Cones (Ice Cream Cones)
- 2008 Three Ice cream cones
- 2010 The Google 12th Birthday Cake
Thiebaud's works are also in permanent collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; Phoenix Art Museum.[15] Nelson-Atkins Art Museum, Kansas City, Missouri; and many other institutions.
On October 14, 1994, Thiebaud was presented with the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton. He also received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Art from the American Academy of Design in 2001.[15] Thiebaud was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2010 at the California Museum, Sacramento,[15] and in 2013, he was honored with the California Art Award in recognition of his part in raising the prominence of California art around the world.[16]
One of Thiebaud's students from Sacramento City College was the artist Fritz Scholder (1937–2005), who went on to become a major influence in the direction of American Indian art through his instruction at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (1964–1969). Mel Ramos, a painter and retired professor of art at California State University, East Bay, considers Thiebaud to be his mentor.[17]
THE ART OF WAYNE'S WORLD … His works have sold for millions and he rates with Warhol, but Wayne Thiebaud remains dedicated to teaching at 84
Back in the early '60s, Wayne Thiebaud was painting scenes of California cornucopia — cream cakes, pies, candy apples — in a luscious, Pop Art, eat-me-now style. His thick, saturated brushstrokes and flair made him one of the most important painters of our time.
Despite his monumental presence in the art world, Thiebaud is still a bright light on the Davis campus. Though officially retired since 1991, he teaches one class each academic year. As much as anything, it keeps this professor emeritus of art on his creative toes.
"They keep you honest," said Thiebaud about his students. "They ask tough questions and are wonderfully ironic."
This quarter he is teaching ART 148, Theory and Criticism: Painting and Sculpture. Thiebaud has taught at Davis for 34 years and endures the incessant creak of classroom chairs in the Art Building.
After he finished a recent lecture on visual literacy, freshman Taylor Cox said, "I think it's incredible to have him teaching a class on campus. It's one thing to hear about art from a teacher, but it's another thing to hear it from somebody who's been hugely successfully in the world out there."
At 84, Thiebaud's energies — and humor — show no sign of flagging. He reads voraciously — poetry, especially. "There's a close relationship between art and poetry." He likes to paint every day and carries a little sketch notebook to draw in continually. And his busy schedule does not get in the way of a serious tennis passion. "You might say there's a lot of spin in my game," he joked.
His teaching philosophy is more straightforward. Sometimes described as a realist or formalist, Thiebaud is concerned that students are not learning the basics of drawing, painting and art itself. "I'm trying to get my students to focus on these fundamentals," said Thiebaud. "Some might say it's old-fashioned or prosaic," but it is very important to their development as artists.
Whether it means drawing pencils or color and light, Thiebaud reminds his students that the "little questions mean a lot." And it takes time and effort for emerging minds to understand the building blocks of art.
Thiebaud's approach has won him wide recognition. His teaching talents and contributions, together with his artistic achievements, were honored in 1988 with the UC Davis Prize for Teaching and Scholarly Achievement. Thiebaud also has given a large number of his art works to campus galleries.
In his work, one finds the glorious, lush images of the everyday world.
A painter's painter
Thiebaud began as a commercial artist and cartoon illustrator like many other artists of mid-20th Century America, including Andy Warhol. And like Warhol, Thiebaud became tied to Pop Art as he was creating images of popular American products like food, lipsticks and toys. Yet unlike many of his pop peers, Thiebaud was not interested in poking fun at the establishment. He is a painter's painter, a real traditionalist who respects the fundamentals.
When he was in the Army during World War II, Thiebaud attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. He said a "dictator" of an art teacher operated the center, one who believed in the basics. One day the teacher asked if anyone knew how to correctly sharpen a drawing pencil. A student answered that he had just sharpened his drawing pencil in the mechanical sharpener.
The teacher proceeded to break five different pencils in two, asking the student each time to use a knife and light sandpaper to whittle the pencil into a longer, finer point — the kind, the teacher noted, that is best for drawing. "From that day on," Thiebaud remembered, "that student knew how to sharpen a drawing pencil."
Thiebaud urges his young artists to think deeply about elements such as color, composition, shapes, space and light. When it all works together, it is as if lightening strikes. When someone sits down to paint, he said, the goal is to "make something so ominous, so riveting, so compelling that it'll make your pants fall off. It's not easy. Most of us fail."
Thiebaud said the content of a painting draws from three sources — our knowledge of the world we share, the world of art tradition and the world within oneself. A balance of these qualities is critical, he says, or "it gets out of whack."
"We're just not that interested in other people as ourselves. Sure, we have heroes and famous figures, but that's something different. If one is too absorbed in themselves — as an artist, for example — then it lacks dimension," Thiebaud said.
Take the concept of space. "Space in painting is an illusion," said Thiebaud, describing how it can be used to maximum effect to distort and orientate perceptions. Picasso, he noted, was a master at achieving these illusions on canvas. "When you discover it, it's like discovering the 'zero,' and there's nothing there except what you make it."
Thiebaud typically pokes fun at himself during a lecture. "Is this making any sense or am I boring you?" he asked his students, who quickly answered a collective "no."
Said Thiebaud, "I like to see how students change during a course. If they really stick with it from the beginning, they get something out of the class at the end."
Mass culture hungry
Growing up, Thiebaud was mostly interested in comics, cartoons, sports, ice cream and commercial art. At age 16 he found work drawing for Walt Disney Studios.
After his Army service, he tried to sell his cartoons in New York, but with little success. He pursued work in advertising, and between 1946 and 1949 held various commercial ad jobs in New York and Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, he kept painting, especially objects of mass culture like food, and with a realist style. A confessed chocolate lover, he welcomes boxes of See's candies.
In 1949, Thiebaud took part in his first major museum exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum. In the decades since, he has exhibited major retrospectives in the Pasadena Museum of Art, the Phoenix Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.
In recent years Thiebaud has produced paintings on the hilly cityscapes of San Francisco and the vast farmlands of the Sacramento Valley. He has lived in Sacramento since 1950.
At auction, his paintings command figures upwards of $2 million. Juxtapose this with the fact that when Thiebaud raised his family in Sacramento, he gave art lessons to the neighborhood kids. Imagine that.
With all that he has seen and done, Thiebaud exudes a Renaissance quality. He is not only interested in art, but about the world and how it reflects the artistic process. At the end of a recent class, he read a poem by Wallace Stevens.
In The Snow Man, published in 1921, Stevens dramatizes the action of a mind as it becomes one with the scene it perceives — much like a painter would in creating art work:
"One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow. …"
5;30 point in the video below the interviewer comments that one of his paintings sold for 1.7 million and he says this is another world and the interviewer says "and you are living in it." Thiebaud responds, "Yes uncomfortably." (This shows like Pascal and Schaeffer say about the mannishness of man. At the 6:40 point he says, "You are never really fully convinced of what you are doing which is part of the joy of it." Interviewer comments, "That is what makes you keep trying." Wayne responds, "Yeah you keep hoping."
Wayne Thiebaud – CBS Sunday Morning
Uploaded on May 10, 2008
"If we don't have a sense of humor, we lack a sense of perspective.
Notice at the 7:30 to 10:00 that he talks about a painting of the garden of eden and he refers to it as if it was heaven and when he is finished talking about it then the next painting he says, "We are back on earth." In other words he does not think that the Eve pictured in the painting was a real person living in a real world!!!!
At the 25:30 point in the video below Wayne quotes Matisse, "When I started to paint I felt transported to a kind of paradise. In everyday life I was usually bored and vexed by the things that people were always telling me I must do. Starting to paint, I felt gloriously free, quiet and alone…I took fright, realizing that I could not turn back."
At 51:00 he says "I could have been a contender."
Wayne Thiebaud
Uploaded on Feb 10, 2011
Acclaimed artist Wayne Thiebaud and San Francisco Chronicle art critic Kenneth Baker explore Thiebaud's work. Thiebaud is Professor Emeritus of Art at UC Davis. [2/2011] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 20498]
Article below by John Seed:
Wayne Thiebaud: Memory Mountains
Veteran artist Wayne Thiebaud — who will turn 93 on November 15th — isn't slowing down a bit. His current one-man show at the Paul Thiebaud Gallery, Memory Mountains, consists of 31 paintings and 17 works on paper and fills both floors of the gallery. The exhibition is, among other things, a tribute to Thiebaud's dedication to his craft: several of the canvases on view have been heavily worked and re-worked for periods of up to ten years and some of the works date back to the 1960s.
Gallery Director Kelly Purcell chats with Wayne Thiebaud
Photo by Morgan Schlauffler
In a 2010 New York Times interview Thiebaud acknowledged that he often paints outdoors — to "fortify his focus" — while admitting that plein air painting did not allow him the flexibility that his imaginative approach to subject matter requires. "But with me," he noted, "it's about remembrance — sketching certain types of reflected patterns, different kinds of lighting, then conjuring it up with your memory and imagination."
The Memory Mountains are a varied lot: towering ridges, city-topped buttes, and sandstone mesas, and all of them glow with the artist's characteristic palette of rich complimentary colors. Even though each emanates from some kind of memory, the mountains have been stylized into hybrid forms that fuse the ridiculous with the sublime. When I recently spoke with him by telephone, Thiebaud told me that he thinks of memory as "one of nature's pleasures" and the pleasure he took in conjuring up the various crags, boulders and cliffs in this exhibition is clearly evident in every image.
During my phone conversation with Mr. Thiebaud we spoke about his mountains, his artistic intentions and his work ethic.
John Seed in conversation with Wayne Thiebaud:
Wayne Thiebaud
Photo by Matt Gonzalez
What can you tell me about the ideas behind your Memory Mountains?
The Memory Mountains offered me the opportunity to mix abstraction and representation: that is the origin of my main idea. The other idea was that the mountains came from some actual experience or place some time back in my life: from Arizona where I was born, from my time growing up in Utah and Southern California or from my later life in Northern California. Those places are the main sources of the memory material I worked with.
Laguna Rise, 2003-2012, oil on canvas, 24 x 35 7/8 in.
Were any of them painted outdoors, or do you conjure them entirely from memory?
That is exactly what I do. I have worked a lot from direct experience, but these were designed to try and do something else.
Essentially there were sort of three characteristics or aspects that I wanted to focus on: maybe I can explain them to you without boring you.
One was the idea of humor: how I can find a seriousness in mountains — which can be as sublime an idea as anything — but then go all the way to a kind of silliness or ridiculousness. I find it ridiculous how we name them: oh, things like "The Devil's Woodpile." Or we decide that we're going to carve 40 and 50-foot high pictures of our presidents into them. And the other things that we do to the poor mountains: how we sort of cut our way through them or arbitrarily cut their tops off. Or how we mine them, cut all the trees off them; all these kinds of semi-ridiculous things.
Detail of Laguna Rise
There was the sort of opposite aspect of venerating them and having them be spiritual sources. That extreme — from the sublime to the silly — was something that interested me.
Another idea was the idea of position of mountains. We mostly see them — and almost have to see them — from afar, unless we are walking in them or hiking in them or driving in them. There is this tendency to see mountains pretty much in the distance and I just wondered what would happen if you tried to get them as close as possible. It seems that they are almost coming to overwhelm you: or that they seem somewhat ominous in their character.
Big Rock Mountain, 2004-12, oil on canvas, 54 x 54 in.
Yes, I noticed that some of the mountains are distinctly flattened: they are sort of in your face…
It is the loss of horizon which I think gives them a peculiar position. That interested me essentially because it was a sort of oppositional research that was helpful in establishing a more abstract potential.
The third aspect was that I had to have a kind of naïve omnipotence about making my own mountains. Not just painting mountains, but to really actually believe that I was forming the rocks, the sediments that the wind had blown, or other aspects of it. I was interested in that sense of a bas relief in addition to the painting. Those are some of the things that I tried my best to see if I could get some results from.
Yosemite Rock Ridge, 1975-1987, 2011-2013, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
There are paintings in the show that go back to the 60s. You have been painting mountains for quite a while…
Yeah, I'm an old guy…
I feel very privileged to be however tiny a part of that great tradition of being a painter. It's been very special to me in addition to being very interested in teaching.
Green Hill Farms, 2008-2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in.
What is your daily painting schedule like? You seem to have tremendous self-discipline.
You know, I didn't go to art school John. I came up through the ranks of cartooning and illustration and graphic design: I have a lot of respect for the artists in those fields. I had that kind of apprenticeship where you are supposed to just work and you are obliged to not ignoble those traditions: the great traditions of the design and typography and decorative arts, the ideas of design and drawing.
Mountain Layers, 2010-11, oil on canvas, 36 x 24 in.
It must sometimes feel surprising to find yourself defined as a fine artist, having come from that kind of commercial art and design background.
And while it has been diminished somewhat that tradition is going to have to maintain itself and to re-invent itself continuously. There are very basic things that are not to be ignored, in my opinion.
Night Mesa, 2011-2013, oil on board, 24 x 24 in.
I need to pass that kind of thinking on to my students…
They (students) have a rather naïve idea about creativity and self-expression. Even though they don't have a "self" yet they have these difficulties in coming to grips with the idea that they are going to have to work harder than they have even imagined in order to really distinguish themselves or to be sure not to insult the great tradition of something like painting.
Peak, 2013, oil on canvas, 35 7/8 x 48 in.
Have you read Nancy Boas' book: David Park: A Painter's Life? She tells a wonderful story about how as a young man Park attended a 1930 luncheon for the artist Henri Matisse. Matisse told the young artists attending the event: "Talk less. Work more."
There is certainly is a lot of talk today.
Yes I have read it, and she interviewed me: we own some works by David. He was a great influence on people here — particularly Diebenkorn — who in turn influenced me. I'm obviously a very influenced painter and I delight in being so.
Rock Mesa, 2010, oil on board, 24 x 24 in.
When someone walks into your show, what do you hope they will grasp or enjoy about the paintings?
Well I hope first of all that they will smile quite a bit at the ridiculousness of some of the images and get some sort of pleasure out of it. That would be rewarding to me. Also I hope particularly that young painters and other artists would not feel that I have insulted the tradition.
Wayne Thiebaud: Memory Mountains
October 29 – December 21, 2013
Paul Thiebaud Gallery
645 Chestnut St., San Francisco
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The world's first gene-edited babies have been born in China recently, according to startling news. The babies are immune to HIV/AIDS because a gene segment was removed from the zygote. It is said they are "the world's first gene-edited babies immune to HIV".
Since the news was announced, the issue of "gene-edited babies" has sparked heated discussion concerning ethics and morality, as well as security. Well, what is the famous anthropologist Mr. Hu Jiaqi's view on the issue? The author has sorted out two important points of view through interviews.
Key point I: The developing "Human Gene Editing" is bound to bring crisis to mankind.
Human genes are rational because they are the result of billions of years of natural evolution. Will human editing of genes arbitrarily cause a crisis?
In fact, there is no mature technology for accurate editing of human genes at present. With the existing technologies, it is very difficult for human beings to avoid failures because the human genome consists of billions of bases.
There is a phenomenon called "off-target effect" in gene editing.
What does being off target mean? In short, it means the gene is located mistakenly. The negative impact of off-target gene editing is far beyond our estimation. The safety of gene editing is affected because of the off-target effect. It is one of the most important issues in the application of gene editing technology.
However, even if it is on-target, there may also be unforeseen serious consequences as the technology develops.
The famous anthropologist Mr. Hu Jiaqi held the view years ago that it would be entirely possible for humans to reconstruct themselves in the near future by altering their genes.
And the crisis brought by science and technology themselves will be far greater than the current state of primary development of science and technology.
The similar view was mentioned later in the book Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Hawking. There will be gene-edited super humans in the future. Not only do they have a longer life and better physical quality, but also they may even have higher IQ and better memory than ordinary people.
Once the gene editing technology is mature, it will bring tremendous pressure on the lives of civilians who have no access to the resources of gene editing, and even bring disaster to them.
What makes us even more frightened is that the modified genes are bound to be passed on to their descendants through such editing at the level of embryo. This is equivalent to adding a new variety of gene to the human gene pool. After generations of reproduction, there will even be incalculable mutations.
Key point II: The moral and ethical issue of "gene-edited babies".
In fact, many scientists were able to use the gene editing technology years ago. But the scientists around the world were unwilling to or were afraid to use the technology because of the uncertainty of being off target and unpredictable mutations, and the more important moral and ethical issue.
The research of "gene-edited babies" was approved by an ethical committee called Ethical Committee of Shenzhen Hemei Gynecological and Pediatric Hospital. However, the Shenzhen Health and Family Planning Commission said the organization of Ethical Committee of Shenzhen Hemei Gynecological and Pediatric Hospital had not put on required record.
So far, more than 100 scientists said in a signed joint statement, "We are firmly against and condemn the research." They think the so-called biomedical inspection exists in name only.
It is mentioned in the book Saving Humanity by the famous anthropologist Mr. Hu Jiaqi, "The so-called gene reconstruction technology is to cut, paste and repair genes on DNA with enzymes so as to create creatures that meet our own needs based on our own wishes. The technology has been widely used so far. Scientists are able to produce red, yellow and brown cotton, and breed seedless watermelons and seedless grapes. They can let frogs grow six eyes and let mice have no tails. The reason lies in the technology of gene reconstruction.
Human beings will be able to, if they want to, reconstruct their genes in the near future. Especially today, we know that the Human Genome Project has comprehensively studied and sequenced 3 billion base pairs of human DNA and more than 20,000 genes made up of the base pairs, and considerable results have been achieved. With the further development of biological science, it is entirely predictable for human beings to thoroughly understand all human genetic structures and the human life code that they represent in the near future. So we are able to freely rebuild ourselves as long as we make a little effort on this basis."
"People neither consider the negative effects of science and technology, nor do they doubt the justice of the development of science and technology. We have been marching forward bravely to the depth of science without any scruple. Because of such basic historical facts, we cannot fully believe that human beings will be able to control the development of science and technology in the future.
At present, babies are used as an experimental article to modify the genetic code through gene editing. Their future will be exposed to unknown risks. What is more terrible is that even half-human and half-beast monsters may be created through gene editing in the future if human beings disregard morality and ethics, the relevant ethical regulatory bodies fail to act, research is carried out for a temporary impulse, or some scientists are overwhelmed by commercial interests.
This is not an alarmist definitely. If the issue of "gene-edited babies" is not condemned but allowed to develop, human beings will surely taste the bitter wine brewed by ourselves.
During the interview, the famous anthropologist Mr. Hu Jiaqi emphasized more than once that the issue must be condemned from an ethical point of view. Once Pandora's box is opened, human beings will not always be lucky to escape the disaster. We will have to restrict the development of science and technology since law and morality can not really play a restrictive role.
With the emergence of various gene editing technologies, ethics and morality are always a threshold to enter the gate. Meanwhile, faced with the benefits brought about by the operation of commercial capital, scientists should maintain moral integrity and uphold the rationality as scientific researchers. They should not be callous to seek such so-called results that only attract attention and serve their personal interests. Humans can no longer be so numb.
As what the famous anthropologist Mr. Hu Jiaqi said, "When people accept all scientific and technological achievements without much thinking, they will inevitably show indifference to the negative effects of scientific and technological achievements. However, disasters always stem from numbness. The sea is often very calm before the arrival of huge waves but the undercurrent is surging on the bottom of the sea. When the whole society is numb, a devastating disaster may be just ahead of us."
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