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The week in review
Latest BoV gaffe: UVA foregoes the chance to entice a $20-million donor with naming rights to build a new wing for the cramped University Art Museum when it accepts the art collection of former Visitor Heyward Fralin and his wife Susan. Art experts describe the 41 paintings as "minor works" and "modest-quality paintings by B-plus artists." The Fralin gift comes with no cash, and the museum doesn't get the collection until Fralin and his wife die, but his BoV buddies put his name on the museum anyway. Sandy Hausman has the story on WVTF.
Latest 5th District congressional candidates: The Green Party's Kenneth J. Hildebrandt, 52, from Halifax County, is running in support of industrial hemp and against the wars in Afghanistan and on drugs, according to a Graham Moomaw story in the Daily Progress. Ben Hudson, 51, a retired U.S. Army officer living in Palmyra, is running as an independent write-in candidate.
Worst guy to lend your car to: James C. Rush, 28, is charged with reckless driving and leaving the scene after allegedly crashing into the white house facing the U.S. 250 Bypass at Hillcrest Road, hitting a retaining wall, and landing the car on its roof around 3am September 14, the Daily Progress reports. The miraculously uninjured Rush reportedly flees the scene, and police say the late model Audi A8 he borrowed is a total loss.
Worst clerk's office: Albemarle Circuit Court Clerk Debbie Shipp gets slammed again in an audit, which claims funds are not deposited in a timely manner and that sloppy housekeeping could open the door to fraud, according to Samantha Koon in the Progress.
Worst first: The West Nile virus claims its first Virginia fatality in the northwest part of the state, the Department of Health reports. Nine state cases have been reported, including two in central Virginia.
Longest Planning Commission meeting: Black Market Moto Saloon at the entrance to Woolen Mills neighborhood wins conditional approval to play music in a four-hour meeting, Moomaw reports in the Progress. The commissioners, by 5-1 vote, approved a special use permit requiring the Saloon, which was shut down in July for having live music without a permit, to stop music at 10pm on weeknights, 12:30am on weekends, and forego live music Sundays and Mondays. The permit goes to City Council in October.
Most sudden loss of a local historian: Preston Coiner, 72, dies unexpectedly September 10. The lifelong Charlottesville resident was a partner in Coiners' Scrap Iron and Metal until its sale in 2008, a vice president of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, a member of the Board of Architectural Review, and was working on the "Celebrate 250," the city's quarter-millennial celebration.
Most fraud counts: Commercial real estate developer (and brother to the Albemarle sheriff) Michael Wayne Harding, 59, is indicted September 13 on two counts of mortgage fraud, two counts of money laundering, and three counts of bankruptcy fraud, according to a release.
Most constitutionally questionable: Federal Judge Hannah Lauck upholds the state's ban on alcohol advertising in the Cavalier Daily and Tech's Collegiate Times because of the state's interest in "combating the serious problem of underage drinking and abusive drinking by college students," the Progress reports.
Biggest perv: Joseph Bell, a military intelligence analyst, is sentenced to 30 years in prison September 11 on seven counts of distribution of child porn, according to the Newsplex. He'd recently moved into a Gordonsville home with three children.
Oddest alliance: Midwestern powerhouse Notre Dame joins the Atlantic Coast Conference for all sports– except football.
Least effective PR per dollar spent: Board of Visitors member/beer magnate John L. Nau III pays $208,577.36 as the tab for Hill + Knowlton, the firm Rector Helen Dragas hired to help her through the summer's presidential ouster debacle, the Progress reports. Dragas tells the Washington Post she spent another $45K on a separate PR firm.
3 comments
The renaming of the art museum is another example of the myopic, narcissistic decision making of our esteemed BOV. Not only did they make a decision that reeks of conflict of interest, apparent in the Hausman interview with BOV member Fralin, but, they failed to consult any of the Art Faculty and just as important, the major fundraisers for the museum - the Museum Board, who were left in the dark. Now they are expected to go raise the 20+ million for a new wing, acquisitions, and the care of an art collection that comes with no endowment of it's own, and only at the donors death ( with contingencies, should the surviving spouse need the money)
No wonder they're outraged !
I am shocked by the decisions that the Board of Visitors have made that are negatively impacting the financial health of the University as well as it's reputation.
The legislature must find a better system of appointing this group or continue to see millions of dollars and the good name of the University squandered by self serving wealthy donors.
This is an every week story. Thanks Skip for these pictures of the ongoing destruction of the Ragged Mt. Natural Area to build a dam we don't need with money that we don't have.
Does anyone remember the glorious fall colors of the magnificent hardwood forest in our once treasured urban park .
What a tragic decision for our community !
Let us never forget what we have lost .
So sad that the same groups and individuals fighting the Western Bypass, and championing the scenic Albemarle landscape were the major supporters of this act of needless habitat destruction and loss of wilderness experience for urban dwellers .


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Last week's post on emotional eating [1] got people talking – about the personal struggles they've had and the mental games they've learned to avoid in their quest for health. One such game, I think, is what we call treating ourselves. How many people justify bad eating habits [2] because they tell themselves they deserve the treat? "Can't I just enjoy a little pleasure in life?" "Aren't I entitled?" Sometimes it takes on context. "With all I put up with…" "Why can't I just have this one thing?" "This is the one thing I do for myself."
Treating ourselves. When the noun morphs into the verb, there's a subtle but significant distinction. Treating ourselves invites us to step outside our normal life for the promise of something of sweeter – and "better." On occasion, it can be a lighthearted dalliance. For too many people, however, it becomes a continual path of self-sabotage. We all want to believe we deserve more, deserve better than what we come to feel is the mundane. Advertisers leap on this low hanging psychological fruit. Our culture as a whole promotes the immediate gratification of it. There are days when the most resolute among us might at least consider the question. Maybe it's been one of those days…or years. We're going through a tough time. We might feel like this momentary extravagance [3] really is all we have to salvage the day.
We can feel like we're justifiably soothing ourselves or we're valiantly snubbing our noses at the world that abused us so heinously, but the truth is we're only robbing ourselves of our own health and wellbeing. Sure, a "treat" distracts us in the moment. The taste, texture, and concept numb us for a short time to whatever emotion, issue, or task we're hoping to escape. In and of itself as an occasional choice, it doesn't seem like any real harm. Usually, it isn't [4].
The problem is, the concept can take on a life of its own [5]. We treat ourselves enough, and it becomes more than a momentary indulgence but an ongoing excuse [6] to delude ourselves into living – and eating – in an alternative reality. As reader Chica put it last week [7], the treating/cheating concept places the possibility of making healthy choices outside ourselves and onto an invented "authority." We give up our own authority and sell out our own intention in doing so. A treat in this context can convince us on some level we've "freed" ourselves from that imposition for a few minutes. It might make x, y, or z situation feel comfortably remote for a time, but sooner or later that same vexation comes back into focus again. By eating out of avoidance or entitlement, we're not fixing the original problem. To boot, we eventually find we've created new issues. We put on weight. Our health markers take a downturn. Money we'd budgeted for healthy food has now been spent on junk food. The literal and figurative cost can add up quickly.
Sure, there are conscious, legitimate reasons for choosing to eat a piece of holiday pie, a friend's birthday cupcake, or other non-Primal food. Telling yourself you "deserve" it, I'd suggest, isn't one of those. As the 80/20 guide [8] explains, sometimes there's nothing wrong with pleasure for pleasure's sake – no strangled mental justification required. An excuse, I would argue, is nothing but a game.
What do you deserve then? It's a question I think we all need to ask ourselves at some point. What do you feel you deserve, and how does your answer genuinely serve your wellbeing? Do our indulgences (food and otherwise) mollify us or nourish us, numb us or fulfill us? Do we even regularly give ourselves those things that we feel we deserve? If not, why not? Do we accept other, lesser things in their place? What does this denial (full or partial) do to our life satisfaction, and how does it perhaps influence less healthy choices we make in a day – whether it be food or something else?
Ultimately, we decide what role pleasures and rewards will play in our lives and what they will be. The best indulgences I would argue, aren't those that remove us from our healthy intentions but those that leave us with a broader, more expansive vision of what they could be.
Thanks for reading. Share your views on treating yourself to what you deserve. Have a good end to the week, everyone.


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Veteran IDs now available statewide on licenses
HARWINTON >> Harwinton is creating initiatives to assist veterans in being honored by the state and their communities.
Back in November, Governor Malloy and Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman announced that military veterans could begin to apply to have their veteran's status marked on a Connecticut driver's license or state issued I.D.
On Jan. 2. The Department of Motor Vehicles and AAA offices began issuing driver's licenses and I.D. cards that included the symbol of an American flag to identify veteran status.
The veteran's identity on the driver's license or state-issued ID card will help first responders, emergency rooms and healthcare providers to spot veterans that are eligible for programs and services from the Department of Veterans' Affairs, according to Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Linda Schwartz.
"We hope that veterans will see this as a symbol of our pride in them," Schwartz said.
The process for applying for the veteran status is that at least 30 days prior to visiting a DMV or AAA office, veterans must submit to the state Department of Veterans' Affairs a completed application and proof of honorable discharge, such as a DD-214. The Department of Veterans Affairs will verify the veteran's military status and electronically notify DMV of the request prior to the driver's license or ID card being issued.
Veterans with their identified status on a state I.D. will no longer have to carry proof of their military status for services. The flag symbol will be added to a veteran's license or ID card at no additional cost, either at renewal time or when it is first issued.
With the applications available on online, some veterans recently complained of not being able to access the applications because lack of a computer.
"It's a valid request. Many of our senior veterans do not have computers or access to one," said Harwinton Selectman Michael Criss. He will be directing the town officials to send all the veterans in town a registration form and also have the forms available at town hall.
"We owe these men and women a lot and if we can make getting them their information easier we will, it's the least we can do," Criss said.
Criss also stated that he hopes to continue with an entire veterans committee, which will result from the already in place Veterans Memorial Committee.
"This committee would help veterans with rides to the Veterans' Affairs, filling out forms and updating lists of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice."
The Veterans Memorial Committee will send out a mass mailer to the town in order to start raising funds for the new war memorial that is planned to be built in the fall. The new memorial will honor all veterans that participated in any war or conflict in United States history, according to the first selectman.
"The monument will also serve as a 9/11 memorial for the town. It will allow anyone to sit and reflect on a loved one or even just thank the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice with a prayer or a simple thank you," said Criss.
For more information or to download an application online, visit the Department of Veterans' Affairs website at www.ct.gov/ctva. Veterans can request a flag symbol by mailing an application and additional documentation to the state Department of Veterans' Affairs at: CT Department of Veterans' Affairs, Attention: Veteran's Flag on Driver License or ID Card, 287 West Street, Rocky Hill, CY 06067.
Reach Sarah Bogues at 860-489-3121, ext. 328.


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I cannot reveal the source of this great biscotti recipe, because it was given to me years ago by a wonderful woman who wouldn't want her name announced on the world wide web. Suffice it to say that this recipe comes from the heart of a very special person that came into my life for a very short while. This woman arrived at my doorstep with a basket of chocolate chip AND chocolate – chocolate-chip biscotti PLUS the recipe printed out, PLUS a brand new serrated knife that I should use when making this her crunchy treats. Just as she share her recipe with me, I'm so happy in turn, to share it with you.
Enjoy!!! Marlene
Recipe for Secret Biscotti
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups of flour
- (for a double chocolate flavor- use 1 1/2 cups of flour, and 1/2 cup of cocoa instead of 2 cups of flour)
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 package of chocolate chips (not artificially flavored chips!!)
- optional- add whole or sliced almonds. (whole almonds make the biscotti harder to slice)
Mix all wet ingredients in a kitchen aid.
Mix in dry ingredients.
Spoon and shape onto sprayed parchment paper into 2 long logs.
Sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees or until top is not doughy.
Take out of the oven, cook on a rack.
Remove the logs with a spatula and place on a cutting board. (These will break easily so use special care!)
With a long, sharp, serrated knife, slice diagonally for long pretty biscotti make sure to push down gently yet firmly so the slices don't crack.
Place sliced biscotti back on the baking tray and place in the oven at 325 degrees for an additional 15 minutes.
Bake for an extra 5 or 10 minutes if you like them really crunchy.
Happy Holidays!


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Mossley Hill, Calderstones Park, Speke, Garston, Allerton & Hunts Cross, Childwall, Gateacre, Woolton, Belle Vale, Cressington and Mossley Hill.
For daily updates, to support us further or to join in the conversation: Follow us on Twitter @YOLiverpool / Like our Facebook Page: @yoliverpoolpics / Join the Facebook Group: YO! Liverpool Pictures


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Ol' Jerry gave his own Checkers speech earlier today in front of the Centre County (Pa.) Courthouse. "Now I can't take our dog on my deck and throw out biscuits to him," he said. That's because people were apparently filming him taking his dog on his deck and throwing biscuits out to it. You can watch the video below, but be warned: Sandusky apparently now prefers Cleveland Browns gear to his usual Penn State attire. [via]
More from Deadspin


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(WASHINGTONPOST) — So, what happens if Hillary Clinton doesn't run in 2016?
It is hard to imagine the presidential field without a woman contender, and here's one to keep your eye on: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Napolitano is quietly making it known that she is considering the race, and there is reason to take her seriously.
Before coming to Washington, Napolitano was a highly regarded and very popular governor in Arizona, a state not known as a hospitable one for Democrats. In 2005, Time Magazine named her one of the nation's five best governors, noting: "Positioning herself as a no-nonsense, pro-business centrist, she has worked outside party lines since coming to office in January 2003 to re-energize a state that, under her predecessors, was marked by recession and scandal."
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Before adopting the name Bonnie 'Prince' Billy in the late 1990s, Will Oldham recorded a series of releases under the name Palace and a variety of modifiers: Palace Brothers, Palace Music, Palace Songs. If there was significance in the regular change in name it was one Oldham was uninterested in explaining.
Similarly any attempt to differentiate between the work of Bonnie Prince Billy and the earlier Palace recordings has also been dismissed. Instead it's perhaps best to see Oldham's fondness for changing names as a way of avoiding anything as significant or prosaic as a band or project title and the kind of career path orthodoxies that such a fixed, professional approach implies.
Each Palace record features a different set of musicians and a revolving cast of contributors. Consequently each Palace album has a unique tone and atmosphere in which Oldham's cracked voice and remarkable song writing are the constant, beguiling presence.
This band shares a member with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy.


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I'm old enough to remember Republicans dismissing Obama in 2008 as a young, charismatic, but untested naif whose career as a state legislator and brief service in the Senate made him woefully unqualified for the presidency. What better way to celebrate the validation of that criticism than by nominating someone … who fits exactly that description, right down to the trailblazing racial angle? Fortysomething guy with a thin record who gives good speeches 2016!
In fairness to Rubio, I think he answered this question as well as one can. If he says, sure, I'm ready, he sounds arrogant. If he says, no, no freshman senator is ready and cites the guy in the Oval Office right now as Exhibit A, he's handing Jeb, Christie, and Scott Walker an easy soundbite to use against him in 2016. (One difference between Rubio and Obama is that O could — and did — get away with saying something like that, shortly after he won his Senate seat.) So he splits the difference: Yes, he's ready, but so are a bunch of other people in the Republican field. That defuses the arrogance problem and avoids handing his opponents ammo. A good example of Rubio's retail smarts on the fly.
Watch to the end to see how he fields a new question about climate change, a topic Rubio palpably would rather avoid, especially now that he's eyeing establishment support and national office. There's some difference-splitting in that answer too, as he concedes that it's worth taking mitigation measures against the effects of global warming but refuses to endorse the idea that it's man-made. Something for everyone in that answer. As for his would-be candidacy, here's something I've been thinking about: Is it better or worse for Rubio if Ted Cruz runs? Ideally he'd like to position himself between Chris Christie in the center and Rand Paul on the right, since each of those guys have flaws that might lead people to look for a compromise candidate like Rubio. His problem if Cruz runs is that many conservatives who have issues with Paul might opt for Cruz in that case instead of the more centrist Rubio. On the other hand, having Cruz in the race splitting right-wing votes with Paul would help Rubio if he can consolidate support in the center by knocking out Christie early. Hard to believe that neither Jeb nor Christie would run, but if that happens, it's Rubio's dream scenario.


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This evening in Berlin, the Jamaican sprinter broke his own world record of 19.30 at the 200 meter sprint with a time of 19.19 seconds.
The M3-flipping Bolt is now the man who holds the world title, the Olympic title and the world record in both the 100 meters and the 200 meters: he set the former on August 16 with a time of 9.58, besting his previous record of 9.69 from last summer at the Beijing Olympics.
With first places worth $60,000 and world records worth $100,000, the lanky Jamaican bagged a cool $320,000 at the Berlin world championships-more than enough to replace his crashed BMW M3 for his 23rd birthday, which is tomorrow.
(Yes, the clock reads 19.20 on the photo above, but his official time is 19.19 seconds.)
Photo Credit: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images, OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images, Sky News


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BANGKOK – Oil prices rose above $93 per barrel Monday amid hopes that the European Central Bank, meeting later this week, would act to shore up economic growth.
Benchmark crude for June delivery was up 38 cents to $93.38 a barrel at midafternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 64 cents to close at $93 in New York on Friday after the U.S. government released economic growth figures that disappointed markets.
Growth accelerated to an annual rate of 2.5 per cent from January through March from an anemic pace in the previous quarter. Markets were expecting growth of 3 per cent or better.
The disappointing growth figure for the economy has reinforced expectations that Federal Reserve policymakers will stick with their easy money policies when they meet Wednesday in Washington. Analysts believe the European Central Bank will head in the same direction when it meets Thursday.
Michael Hewson of CMC Markets said in an email that "there is increasing speculation that the ECB could well cut interest rates this week."
Brent crude, which is used to price oil from the North Sea used by many U.S. refiners, dropped 7 cents to $103.09 on the ICE futures exchange in London.
In other energy futures trading on Nymex:
— Wholesale gasoline was down 1.7 cents at $2.811 a gallon.
— Heating oil fell 1.3 cents to $2.853 a gallon.
— Natural gas added 3.6 cents to $4.259.


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BBC Radio Play Review: Choice of Straws
BBC Radio 4 rebroadcast an adaptation of Afro-Guyanese writer E. R. Braithwaite's novel Choice of Straws. The BBC Radio 4 website describes the radio play as follows:
Choice of Straws by ER Braithwaite. London's East End 1960. Twins Jack and Dave Bennett are a happy-go-lucky, rootless pair of Teddy boys. If they do occasionally rough-up a black guy it's just a game to them. Until a victim in Whitechapel fights back and Dave pulls a knife. From the writer of To Sir With Love.
Jack…..Harry Hepple
Dave…..Luke Norris
Michelle…..Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Mum…..Ellie Haddington
Dad…..David Hargreaves
Ruth…..Annabelle Dowler
Mr Spencer….. Alex Lanipekun
Officer…..Stephen Hogan
Dramatised by Roy Williams
Director Claire Grove
About the Play
Edward Ricardo Braithwaite is best known as the author of To Sir, With Love, the 1959 novel that was adapted into the 1967 hit film To Sir, With Love, starring Sidney Poitier, and the hit song To Sir, With Love, sung by Sidney Poitier's co-star Lulu. His lesser known novel, a Choice of Straws, was originally published in 1965.
Choice of Straws is told from the perspective of Jack, a White East Londoner, who usually follows along with his Twin Brother Dave, who, while being inadvertently stabbed while attacking and killing a Black man, ends up dying in a car crash in a car driven by another Black man, a Medical student named Bill Spencer. Jack tells the truth to his parents about what happened and tries to dodge police inquiries. He also begins to discover himself as an individual, no longer in his brother's shadow. This involves getting a girlfriend (Ruth) and losing his virginity while pursuing a romantic relationship with Bill's sister Michelle.
Through Jack's relationship with Michelle, Braithwaite revisits the divisions that race and class construct in people's lives that he explored in To Sir with Love. In To Sir, With Love, the educated and sophisticated Afro-Caribbean Teacher is a victim of racism, however his pupils are victims of classism, which has meant that they have received a completely inadequate education to prepare them for anything but work as common labourers. Jack is working-class while Michelle is middle class and has a university education. She ends up ending their relationship for fear that Jack is just using her in order to experience dating a Black girl. This has happened to her before. Even the issue of Jack and Dave attacking the Black man is complicated by the fact that late in the radio play we learn that their father was assaulted by Black men during the 1958 Notting Hill Riots.
Choice of Straws doesn't provide any easy answers to the racial and class conflicts that still divide Britain into many small islands, but it is a great exploration of these divisions and is itself an action of walking in the "other's" shoes.
About E. R. Braithwaite
E.R. Braithwaite was born in Guyana in 1920. He was raised in a relatively privileged Afro-Guyanese family, both his parents were graduates of Oxford University. He served in the Royal Air Force as a pilot during World War II. He attended the University of Cambridge where he earned a doctorate in Physics. Like many people of colour in Britain after World War II, despite his qualifications, he found it hard to find employment in his field so was forced to take a job as a teacher in East London. The book, To Sir, with Love, was based on these experiences. Braithwaite pursued a career in social work and ended up getting a job finding foster homes for non-White children for the London County Council. He based his second novel, Paid Servant, published in 1962.
Braithwaite's books were banned in Apartheid-Era South Africa until 1973. At this time, Braithwaite applied for a visa to visit South Africa. His visa as granted and he was given the status of "Honorary White", which gave him far more freedoms and privileges than the indigenous Black population. He wrote about his experiences traveling in South Africa in the memoir Honorary White, published in 1975.
Braithwaite has worked as an educational consultant and lecturer for UNESCO, as the permanent representative for Guyana to the United Nations, as the Guyanese Ambassador to Venezuela, and as Writer in Residence at Howard University. Most recently, he has been a visiting professor at Manchester Community College. He now lives in Washington, D.C.
About the Notting Hill Race Riots
The 1958 Notting Hill Race Riots raged over the August Bank Holiday in Nottingham. Although dismissed by police at the time as just hooliganism perpetrated by White and people of colour alike, In 2002, theLondon Internal Metropolitan Police released documents related to the riots which told a different story:
The Met commissioner was told that of the 108 people who were charged with offences ranging from grievous bodily harm to affray and riot and possessing offensive weapons, 72 were white and 36 were "coloured".
It is popularly believed that the riot began on the night of Saturday August 20 when a 400-strong crowd of white men, many of them "Teds", attacked houses occupied by West Indians. Among the victims was Majbritt Morrison, a young white Swedish bride of a Jamaican. She was pelted with stones, glass and wood, and struck in the back with an iron bar as she tried to get home.
The internal police witness statements provide graphic evidence of the motives of the mobs – at one point crowds several thousand strong roamed the streets of Notting Hill, breaking into homes and attacking any West Indian they could find.
PC Richard Bedford said he had seen a mob of 300 to 400 white people in Bramley Road shouting: "We will kill all black bastards. Why don't you send them home?" PC Ian McQueen on the same night said he was told: "Mind your own business, coppers. Keep out of it. We will settle these niggers our way. We'll murder the bastards."
The fact it is believed one of the first people attacked by Whites was a White woman in a romantic relationship with a Black man just demonstrates how subversive such unions were perceived as at the time. My own mother used to be called a "Nigger Lover" and "Race Traitor" jokingly by her family members when she married my father. The level of contempt that White women who agreed to be in romantic relationships with men of colour at this time, and in some places even now, is a phenomenon which I feel has not been explored well enough in anti-racism circles' discussions around White Privilege.
The Notting Hill Carnival, an annual street festival led mainly by Britain's Trinidadian and Tobagonian community, began in 1959 as a community response to the Notting Hill Race Riots. The first festival was organized by Claudia Jones, a Trinidadian American Communist and journalist who had been granted asylum in Britain in the late 195os after having been imprisoned and eventually deported from the United States due to her communist activities. In 1958, she founded the West Indian Gazette, the first newspaper printed in London for the Black community. She is considered "The Mother of the Notting Hill Carnival". Black Academic Carole Boyce Davies has written her biography, Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones. The title of the book refers to the fact that Jones, who died in 1964 due to heart disease and tuberculosis, is buried in London's Highgate cemetary to the left of Karl Marx.
About Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Mixed Race British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw has recently gained recognition in the United States as the star of the cancelled J.J. Abrams' TV Series Undercovers. I can't help but suspect that Undercovers partly failed because it had two Black leads playing "non-traditional Black roles". Of the top of my head, I can't think of any American TV Series with Black Leads, other than comedy series, that have survived very long. Despite this, Gugu's beauty and talent has been "discovered" and we will be seeing more of her on the American screen. Gugu was born in 1973 in Oxford, England to South African doctor Patrick Mbatha and English nurse Anne Raw, who met while working together at a hospital . Her full name, Gugulethu, means "Our Pride" in Zulu. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. I first saw her in the British Sci-Fi TV Series Doctor Who, portraying Tish Jones, the sister of Doctor Who's First Black Companion, Martha Jones. In 2009, Gugu played Ophelia opposite Jude Law in Donmar West End and Broadway Production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. We will be seeing her on the big screen soon in the comedy drama Larry Crowne starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts and in the American Supernatural Thriller "Odd Thomas".
Further Reading:
E.R. Braithwaite
To Ricky with Love by Caryl Phillips (2005 Guardian article available online)
Notting Hill Race Riots
After 44 years secret papers reveal truth about five nights of violence in Notting Hill by Alan Travis (2002 Guardian article available online)
The Forgotten Race Riot (2007 BBC article available online)
Long History of Race Rioting (2001 BBC article available online)
Profile of Claudia Jones available online
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Interview (2009) in The Guardian available
Interview (2009) in The Telegraph available online
Video Interview (2010) available online
Black British Literature
Black British Literature since Windrush by Onyekachi Wambu (BBC History article available online)


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Convicted of recruit's murder, soldier blames anti-smoking drug
By MICHAEL DOYLE | McClatchy Washington Bureau | Published: May 4, 2014
WASHINGTON — Early one Sunday evening six years ago, Army Pfc. George D.B. MacDonald made his way through his Fort Benning barracks to the bunk where a 23-year-old recruit named Rick Bulmer lay sleeping.
They were strangers.
Wielding a 3-inch, double-edged knife, MacDonald stabbed and slashed Bulmer more than 50 times. He started with the throat, but didn't stop there. Bulmer awoke and fought back, but he never had a chance.
With the May 18, 2008, homicide, MacDonald ended one life and tore apart many others. The 19-year-old onetime Eagle Scout created a widow and a fatherless child. He stole a son and took a beloved brother.
"I snapped and didn't like it," MacDonald wrote, about nine hours after the killing. "I was stretched and it made me crazy."
What triggered the promising young paratrooper's homicidal outburst?
MacDonald blames Chantix, a smoking-cessation drug used to wean people from their addiction to nicotine. A military jury didn't buy his story, and in December 2009 he was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
While his homicidal claim is rare — MacDonald may be the first, and so far only, murder defendant to go all the way to trial with a Chantix defense — questions about the drug's safety are not.
Others have blamed the prescription pill for suicides, suicidal thoughts or other psychiatric problems. More than 2,000 joined in lawsuits against Pfizer, the drug's manufacturer. Most have largely since been settled, at a cost to Pfizer of at least $299 million.
Chantix sales, meanwhile, totaled $486 million during the first nine months of 2013.
On May 13, MacDonald will get one more chance to plead his case when the nation's top military appeals court will decide whether the trial judge erred when he quashed a wide-ranging subpoena for Pfizer documents. The documents, MacDonald's lawyers say, might have helped prove the potential dangers of Chantix.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces will also examine the judge's decision not to tell jurors about the defense of "involuntary intoxication."
"He was denied the right to present his defense," said MacDonald's appellate attorney, William E. Cassara.
Whatever the court decides, a McClatchy review of thousands of pages of transcripts, court documents and regulatory filings found that the medical and legal twists and turns in MacDonald's case have lagged behind the safety alarms over Chantix.
The McClatchy review shows:
- Two days before Bulmer's killing, the Food and Drug Administration warned that Chantix patients who develop neuropsychiatric symptoms should cease taking the drug and contact their doctors immediately. By then, MacDonald would later say, he was suffering from morbid nightmares and a growing sense of unreality. MacDonald apparently never learned of the warning.
- Five days after the homicide, the Defense Department declared that missile crews and air crew members should avoid taking Chantix. Pentagon officials explained that it was essential that service members "are given and use medications that do not put them and others at increased risk of injury or death."
- One month after the slaying, in June 2008, the Department of Veterans Affairs began contacting 32,000 veterans who'd been prescribed Chantix, advising them of potential side effects, including suicidal behavior.
- One week after the trial judge refused on June 24, 2009, to compel Pfizer to comply with a wide-ranging subpoena, the FDA imposed a "black box" warning on Chantix, citing the potential for "serious neuropsychiatric" problems, including hostility. The warning — the most serious a medication can carry and still be sold in the U.S. — was followed by some 2,700 civil claims asserting Chantix had caused suicides, suicidal thoughts or other problems.
"It is important to note that there is no reliable scientific evidence that Chantix causes serious neuropsychiatric events including those at issue here," Pfizer said in a recent statement to McClatchy.
What there's no doubt about is the anguish the case has caused Bulmer's loved ones, who learned about MacDonald's pending appeal only from a reporter. In an interview in March, his widow, Beth Bulmer, recounted a conversation she had with her 5-year-old daughter, Izzabella.
"It was father-daughter dance at her school last month," Bulmer said, "and the day she came home with the permission slip she was so upset. She just held me and cried. She said, 'Everyone's gonna be there with their daddies. Why can't I have my daddy? Why did God have to take him, mommy?' "
Wendy Smith, Rick Bulmer's birth mother, said in a telephone interview, "I don't think Chantix had anything to do with what he did. He killed my son; that's a fact."
Army attorneys, in a brief filed April 23, dispute the potential effects of Chantix and MacDonald's need for more Pfizer documents.
"Even if the materials sought by defense counsel proved that Chantix caused (MacDonald) to suffer from a severe mental disease or defect, there is overwhelming evidence that shows (MacDonald) was able to understand both the wrongfulness and magnitude of his crimes," Army Capt. David M. Goldberg declared in the government's brief.
Chantix, also known as varenicline, combats nicotine addiction. Nicotine stimulates the brain receptors that are responsible for releasing a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Scientists sometimes liken dopamine to strong coffee. A little can increase alertness and the sense of well-being. A lot can breed jitters, anxiety, paranoia.
Chantix stimulates those same receptors, blocking the nicotine but releasing enough dopamine to ease withdrawal. Tests show it can work.
In pre-approval clinical studies of more than 6,000 patients, 44 percent of those who used Chantix and received counseling over a 12-week period successfully quit smoking. Only 18 percent of those given a placebo and counseling quit.
"Chantix is an important, effective, FDA-approved treatment option for adult smokers who want to quit," Pfizer said in its statement. "Chantix is approved for use in more than 100 countries and has been prescribed to over 20 million patients worldwide, including more than 10 million in the United States."
MacDonald's brief military career began in June 2007, when he enlisted along with his identical twin, James. The New York City natives had been inseparable through an unconventional childhood. Unpaid bills repeatedly drove them from private schools and apartments. MacDonald eventually had to drop wrestling because one prior school, citing the family's nonpayment, refused to release his transcripts. Though he has a superior IQ score, he dropped out of a rural Virginia high school.
At the same time, MacDonald periodically showed grit and promise.
"I plan … to spend the youth of my twenties giving back to the country that has given me so much," he wrote in an Eagle Scout essay in 2006, further vowing "to do something that changes many people's lives positively, because a life is so valuable."
The Army seemed welcoming at first.
The MacDonald brothers shared top enlisted graduate honors at Airborne School. Both were selected for the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School, giving them a future shot at West Point, though at times George MacDonald's fellow soldiers quietly voiced some doubts, according to trial testimony.
On the morning of April 18, 2008, MacDonald went to Fort Benning's Troop Medical Clinic 5 and explained that he'd been smoking off and on for several years and wanted to quit. He wasn't alone. The number of Chantix prescriptions for military personnel reached 67,580 in 2007, according to the Pentagon.
After medical staff met with him for about 25 minutes, the doctor prescribed a "starter pack" of Chantix, good for 12 weeks.
MacDonald said he was soon beset by vivid nightmares and strange feelings.
"I remember the two of us waking up at night having really weird dreams, scary dreams," James MacDonald, who was also given Chantix, wrote in a 2010 clemency request for his brother. "I remember commenting to my brother that life started to feel like a video game in that I was disconnected from my body. He agreed that he felt the same way."
In 2013, James MacDonald would kill himself by jumping off a 19-story building in Philadelphia. There's been no public explanation for his death. His half sister, Paige MacDonald, said James had never recovered from his grief over his brother's ordeal.
On May 17, 2008, the day before Bulmer's death, MacDonald asked his girlfriend whether she'd still love him if he killed somebody. She did not pursue the topic.
Bulmer also experienced a rocky childhood. His father died in a 1987 motorcycle accident that cruelly injured his mother. He ended up in foster care, living with his new family in rural Squaw Valley, Calif., while she learned to walk again.
When Bulmer was a senior at Madera High School in the San Joaquin Valley, he badly injured his right leg when he was struck by a car, nearly derailing his Army ambitions.
Bulmer and his younger brother John had originally planned to enlist together, but his leg injury made that impossible. Gary Bulmer, Rick's foster dad, testified that Rick took several jobs and secured the insurance needed to pay for eventual removal of the titanium rod that had been inserted into his leg after the accident.
Standing 6 feet 2 inches tall, Bulmer worked hard at his physical therapy. For pleasure, widow Beth Bulmer said, he loved Western movies. They scouted out property where they might settle after his Army career.
"He always made it known to people around him, 'This is where I'm going. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going in the Army,' " Bulmer's mother, Wendy Smith, testified.
Beth was pregnant when Bulmer left for basic training, which formally began for him on May 16, 2008.
"He was so excited about it," she recalled. "He was ecstatic."
On Sunday, May 18, during drills, his leg apparently hurt and he returned to the barracks. It was just past 6 p.m.
Bulmer fell asleep on his bunk. Elsewhere in the same barracks, MacDonald was reading "Lord of the Rings."
MacDonald got up to do laundry and without knowing why, he said later, slipped a 3-inch knife into his pocket. He left his room, and came to Bulmer's bunk. He said later that he thought for about 30 seconds. Then he attacked.
MacDonald fled after other soldiers arrived, alerted by screaming. Medics transported Bulmer to a hospital in nearby Columbus, Ga. Smith was finally reached and a nurse placed a phone next to her unconscious son.
"I just talked to him and told him how proud I was of him and that I loved him, that we all loved him and that he had done such honor to us," Smith testified.
At about 3 in the morning, Bulmer succumbed.
Finally caught after a chase and a struggle, MacDonald ultimately agreed to talk. At about the same time that Bulmer died, MacDonald sat on the floor of a holding room and confessed to an Army Criminal Investigation Command agent. The agent asked him what he was thinking of during the assault.
" 'I wish I didn't have to do this,' " MacDonald recalled thinking. " 'I hate this.' "
Tish Wells contributed to this report.


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| 3.6°C Belfast
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is to go head to head with Ukip's Nigel Farage in two broadcast debates on the European Union in the run-up to the May 22 elections to the European Parliament.
Following negotiations between the parties and broadcasters, a radio debate will take place on LBC on March 26, hosted by Nick Ferrari, and a televised debate on BBC2 on April 2, hosted by David Dimbleby.
The fiercely pro-European Deputy Prime Minister challenged Mr Farage to a debate a fortnight ago, and the announcement of the arrangements came as Mr Clegg used a speech in London to ramp up his attack on the eurosceptic party's leader.
Mr Clegg said: "I challenged Nigel Farage to a debate because I wanted the British people to see that there is a very real choice at the upcoming European elections: between the Liberal Democrats as the party of 'In' and Ukip as the party of 'Out'.
"I am delighted that it has been confirmed that these debates will now definitely happen. I'm relishing the prospect of talking about how the Liberal Democrats are fighting to keep Britain in Europe to protect British jobs while Ukip want to yank us out and threaten our recovery."
In a speech to the Centre for European Reform think-tank today, Mr Clegg accused Ukip of having "let down" British interests within the EU.
"You would have thought that if your world view was based on the idea that it has been bad for Britain for us to be part of the EU, a party such as the UK Independence Party would have used its berth in the European Parliament to find every possible opportunity to promote reforms that create British jobs, enhance British security and that enhance the British way of life in the European Union," he said.
"Yet the record shows almost precisely the reverse. Ukip leaders don't turn up to vote most of the time.
"Nigel Farage hasn't tabled a single amendment to the flow of legislation passing through the European Parliament since July 2009.
"They have not only let down the case for the reform of the European Union, they have let down British interests within the heart of the European Union."
He said Mr Farage and his colleagues had failed to support issues that would help Britain - pointing out that they abstained on the EU-US trade agreement and voted against mobile phone roaming regulations that cut costs for holidaymakers.
Mr Farage responded: "Nick Clegg has some cheek raising attendance and voting records. Although Nick Clegg ... lives in London, between 2010 and 2014 he has voted in Westminster only 22.6% of the time.
"By contrast, I live eight hours away from Strasbourg, lead a national party and have voted 55% of the time in the European Parliament.
"Furthermore, from 2005 to 2010 Nick Clegg's voting record in Westminster was only 42.5% and for much of that period he was not leader of the Lib Dems. Can you please explain the criticism, Mr Clegg?
"And by the way, some of our Ukip MEPs have a very high voting record, with Stuart Agnew 91%, Derek Clark 80%, and Roger Helmer 88%."
Mr Clegg also hit back at his Conservative coalition partners after Chancellor George Osborne used yesterday's meeting of the Cabinet to suggest an EU referendum bill should be included in the Queen's Speech.
He warned that Tory plans to renegotiate the terms of Britain's membership and then stage a straight in/out referendum after the general election were doomed to failure.
"I think their view is misguided, mistaken and cannot be delivered," he said.
"It would condemn the next government to years and years and years of mind-numbing travel and negotiations to try to cobble together a package that will never satisfy (arch-eurosceptics) Bill Cash and Liam Fox."


text:
In a little over five minutes, I can show you why people who play the strangely-named video game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron rave about its graphics.
I knew this game was going be a visual feast. I knew it was our video game Fantasia (and an odd, interactive quasi-religious text). But until I started playing it about a week ago, I underestimated how visually diverse and stunning the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game is.
Take a look. What you'll see is just a handful of the many visual styles I've encountered in the first half of the game. These are graphical spoilers that I think you'll enjoy.
You can contact Stephen Totilo, the author of this post, at firstname.lastname@example.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.


text: Clostridioides difficile (Prevot) Lawson et al. (ATCC® 9689D-5™) Click here to learn about our Enhanced Authentication Initiative Strain Designations: Genomic DNA from Clostridioides difficile Strain 90556-M6S [ATCC® 9689™] / Type Strain: yes / Biosafety Level: 1 General Information Characteristics History Documentation Print Email Share Share this product Facebook Twitter Google+ Permits and Restrictions View Permits Deposited As Clostridium difficile (Hall and O'Toole) Prevot Verified By Whole-genome Sequencing Strain Designations Genomic DNA from Clostridioides difficile Strain 90556-M6S [ATCC® 9689™] Biosafety Level 1 Biosafety classification is based on U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines, it is the responsibility of the customer to ensure that their facilities comply with biosafety regulations for their own country. Product Format dried At least 5 µg in 1X TE bufferOD260/OD280: 1.6 to 2.0 Preceptrol® no Type Strain yes Comments This preparation of high molecular weight DNA is appropriate for use in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)* process and other molecular biology applications.*the PCR process is covered by patents owned by Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. Use of the PCR process requires a license. Name of Depositor ATCC Special Collection ATCC, DNA Permits These permits may be required for shipping this product: Customers located in the state of Hawaii will need to contact the Hawaii Department of Agriculture to determine if an Import Permit is required. A copy of the permit or documentation that a permit is not required must be sent to ATCC in advance of shipment. Basic Documentation Product Sheet Certificate of Analysis SDS FAQs Accessing genome sequencing dataDate Updated: 9/30/2019 Criteria for reference quality genomesDate Updated: 9/30/2019


text:
This fight has been getting a lot of press.
KO for big McLaren, but not a stylish victory. The kid he dropped was out of his depth and McLaren knew it.
Originally Posted by FerykOriginally Posted by Lily
Yes..the London Knights have won the OHL championship and made it to the Memorial Cup again.
Our team is awesome..
They are currently out in Saskatoon taking on the Blades for the big prize.
Here's Tie Domi's boy with a nice hit to set the tone.
Max isn't a fighter like his dad, he is a skill player. But that hasn't prevented him from becoming a fan favorite in London.
Go Knights !!!
First tilt between two heavyweights this season..
Hockey is back bitches !!!
Give the win to Parros.
They actually fought again in this game, and Parros accidentally fell over and smashed his face on the ice. He was taken off on a stretcher..just precautionary though, he was conscious and responding to the doctor. Big George will be alright.
Canadian National Women's Team VS US National Women's Team. Not often you see this sort of thing in women's hockey.


text:
MadeIn (Xu Zhen)
Xu Zhen, who lives in Shanghai, engaged with the concept of "build your own world" by attempting to alter the earth's topography in his video 8848 – 1.86 (2005). Zhen and his assistants used saws and rudimentary tools to cut 1.86 meters off the peak of "Mount Everest."
Adobe Youth Voices
In collaboration with Adobe Youth Voices, the Adobe Foundation's global youth media initiative(link), workshops will be held during the 01SJ Biennial from September 6th -14th at computer labs in South Hall as part of Out of the Garage into the World, and taught by leading artists and professionals in the field.
Jessica Findley
The Aeolian Ride (2010) is comprised of 52 suits that inflate when 52 people go for a bike ride. Participation in the ride is free and is open to the public. The spirit of riding a bicycle for the first time is embodied both by those riding and those watching.
Tim Hawkinson
Tim Hawkinson meticulously intertwined television antennas with string and rope to construct the towering sculpture Aerial Mobile (1998). Hawkinson explores vestiges of defunct technology: nineteenth-century ocean exploration vessels and twentieth-century communication devices.
Peter Chilvers
Sandra O'Neill
Air (2009) is a generative audio-visual app for the iPhone and iPod touch created by musician / software designer Peter Chilvers with Irish vocalist Sandra O'Neill.
Artists MTAA will conduct an old-fashioned barn-raising using high tech techniques.
Erik Klein
Altair Musical Interference (1975/ 2010) recreates the demonstration that entertained some of Silicon Valley's earliest computer users and industry pioneers.
Cyclecide Heavy Pedal Bike Rodeo
We see the bicycle as a malleable machine that can be altered and transformed for the sake of fun.
Nova Jiang
Archipelago (2010) seeks to address issues of urban isolation exacerbated by car culture. For this project and workshop, a collection of mobile "desert islands" will be constructed with help from the public.
Art Ark Gallery
In the spirit of the early vessels that once sailed the seas in search of new worlds. The Ark, an 18' long x 12' tall x 6' wide mobile vessel will bring interactive art to the streets of San Jose.
Slimm Buick
Slimm Buick is known as a bicycle advocate, as he was a big part of the early Critical Mass protests, attended the first AIDS ride, and is a former bike messenger.
Imin Yeh
The Art of Downloadable Crafts (ADC) is a curated forum for distributing free, interactive downloadable arts and crafts projects. Utilizing the internet and office supplies, the ADC challenges the physical boundaries that often limit exposure to and the experience of art.
Benoit Maubrey/ Audio Gruppe
The Audio Ballerinas (2010) use light sensors that enable them to produce sounds as they dance.
Thursday, September 16th, 6:45-8:15pm. Friday, September 17th, during AbsoluteZER0. Saturday, September 18th, 12:00pm, 2:00pm, 5:00pm & 7:00pm.
Frank Oppenheimer
This is one of the many bamboo canes owned and used by Dr. Frank Oppenheimer, physicist, educator, and founding director of San Francisco's Exploratorium.
Kitchen Budapest
Beat Your Mouse Movement (2010) strives to balance the growing hours spent in front of computer screens by offering a playful solution that motivates people to walk in order to get more exercise and become more conscious about their health and city environment.
Stephanie Rothenberg
Best Practices in Banana Time with Doctor Rodenberger (2010) is a mixed reality talk show that takes place in a real life venue and simultaneously in the 3D virtual environment of Second Life. Film Screening: September 17, 9:00pm, Empire Drive-In, South Hall. FREE with admission to South Hall (South Hall multi-day admission is $5).
Elliot Anderon
CathexiSpin harnesses bicycle generated electricity from the energy produced by a group of individuals riding them. CathexiSpin offers mobile spinning classes ready to be deployed in public places at sites where communities can come together.
Jed Berk
A Champion Flock of Weed Eaters (2010) reflects on the stewardship of land in urban space. Located on the greenway in front of Diridon station, the public artwork invites passersby to experience a fictive bucolic landscape populated with a flock of sheep and a curious "green" barn.
CCA URBANlab, School of Architecture, California College of the Arts
CITY/SPACE/SHARE (2010) is a pilot project intended to revitalize vacant storefronts and transform urban activity in the City Center of San Jose through spatial strategies that recuperate the street frontage, promote productive inhabitation and initiate micro-urbanisms that support the local neighborhood.
Daina Taimina
Day and Night (2007) mathematically represents the model of hyperbolic plane or the surface with constant negative curvature.


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text:
How Many October Surprises Have There Been?
By Bonnie Goodman
Ms. Goodman is a graduate student at Concordia University and an HNN intern
The first election in which an "October Surprise" played a role in the campaign was in 1864. Thereafter it was a central concern in the campaigns of 1956, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1980, 1996, 2000, and 2004. The term "October Surprise" originated in the 1980 campaign, and was coined by then Republican vice presidential candidate, George H. W. Bush. The Reagan campaign was fearful that with the hostages still being held in Iran, that incumbent and Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter would negotiate their release just prior to the presidential election, thus ensuring he would win, hence the "October Surprise.
The term usually refers, as one website put it, to a "political revelation or dramatic policy move, made late in the campaign, designed to affect the outcome of a presidential election," which is usually engineered by the party in power. Princeton political science professor Fred Greenstein describes it as "the notion is that the October surprise is a Halloween trick for politicians." But it can also be defined loosely as an event taking place late in a campaign that dramatically affects the outcome. The capture of Osama bin Laden between now and the election would fit this definition.
In the spring of 1864 in the midst of the Civil War, Republican incumbent Abraham Lincoln was worried that he would go down to defeat. Two events helped propel him to certain victory. First, the Democratic Convention, held in Chicago, nominated the former union general, George McClellan, and adopted a peace platform, which called for a negotiated end to the war, as well as a repeal of the Emancipation Proclamation. The second was the increase in decisive Union victories: Admiral G. Farragut captured Mobile; two days after the Democratic convention General Sherman took Atlanta and began marching through Georgia, Ulysses S. Grant made made progress at Petersburg, and General Philip Sheridan began his devastation of Virginia.
These victories were a turning point, which almost guaranteed an end to the war, and a Union victory. The Albany Journal wrote, "If you want to know who is going to vote for McClellan, mention Atlanta to them. The long face and the low muttered growl is sufficient. On the other hand, every Lincoln man bears a face every lineament of which is radiant with joy." After these developments, the Radical Republican candidate, John C. Fremont, dropped out of the campaign, and the Radical Republicans supported Lincoln's re-election. Lincoln won a decisive victory in the election. Referring to the 2004 election, historian David Herbert Donald recently wrote: "I fear an October surprise, which, of course, Lincoln was able to produce with Sherman's help…. Then of course there's the other side of it. Lincoln's opponents in effect committed suicide. Put a general [George McClellan] on your ticket and a peace platform."
In the midst of the final days of the campaign between the Republican incumbent Dwight Eisenhower and Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson two foreign developments dominated the news. The first was the Suez Canal crisis. Egypt President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal which prompted the canal's stockholders, Britain and France, with the help of Israel to invade Egypt. They intended to get rid of Nasser and internationalize the canal. Their attack was kept secret from President Eisenhower, who saw this as a betrayal by America's allies. Eisenhower joined with the United Nations and Russia in condemning the Anglo-French-Israeli action and pressured them to withdraw their troops. Eisenhower backed up his words by imposing economic sanctions on the three countries; soon after they withdrew their troops.
Almost simultaneously Eisenhower was confronted by another international crisis. The Soviet Union brutally invaded Hungary, in an attempt to suppress the Hungarian government's threat to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact. Officials of the Eisenhower administration had previously shown support for liberating countries under Soviet domination. But Eisenhower chose not to come to the assistance of the Hungarian government, fearful that doing so might touch off a war with the Soviets. Instead, Eisenhower chose to condemn the invasion and to assist the Hungarian refugees. Although before these crises it was a forgone conclusion that Eisenhower would win his re-election bid, the events helped widen his margin of victory. The American people were not willing to change their president at a time of international uncertainty, and Eisenhower's military record and leadership experience was deemed by the voters as assets in this climate.
On October 19, two days before the final debate between Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican candidate Vice President Richard Nixon, civil-rights leader Martin Luther King was arrested. King was jailed along with 52 other blacks who were trying to desegregate a Georgia restaurant. He was sentenced to four months of hard labor based on breaking probation (King had previously been charged with driving without a license, when he actually had been driving with an Alabama license in Georgia). King's wife, Coretta, was frantic and called Harris Wofford, a Kennedy campaign aide , claiming that "they are going to kill him [King]." Wofford contacted Sargent Shriver, who was married to Kennedy's sister Eunice. Shriver convinced Kennedy that he should telephone King's wife, which he did, expressing his concern. Meanwhile, Kennedy's brother Robert negotiated with the judge and secured a promise that King would be released on bail.
In contrast, Nixon consulted with Eisenhower's attorney general, who advised him not to intervene in the matter. The Kennedys' intervention gained JFK support from blacks, including King's father, an influential minister who had previously supported Nixon. The senior King told the press, "I've got a suitcase of votes, and I'm going to take them to Mr. Kennedy and dump them in his lap." As Evan Thomas writes in Robert Kennedy: His Life, "Just two phone calls–one by JFK, one by RFK–decided the outcome of the election, and determined the course of racial politics for decades to come." Kennedy won the close election, 49.7 percent to Nixon's 49.5 percent.
On October 14, LBJ aide Walter Jenkins was arrested for disorderly conduct in a Washington YMCA under compromising circumstances. Jenkins, who held the position of special assistant to the president, was not only a close and loyal staffer but a family friend. Johnson campaign advisors believed that the incident would cause problems for Johnson's campaign, and that Johnson should distance himself from Jenkins, and campaign with his wife and daughters during the last two weeks of the campaign. Johnson immediately released a statement that Jenkins had resigned from his position, but did not clarify what the position was. However, Johnson did not personally distance himself from Jenkins, offering Jenkins a position as the manager of the Johnson ranch, while the First Lady issued a statement stating, "My heart is aching today for someone who has reached the point of exhaustion in dedicated service to his country. Walter Jenkins has been carrying incredible hours and burdens since President Kennedy's assassination. He is now receiving the medical attention that he needs."
Barry Goldwater, the Republican candidate believed that the arrest gave him the ammunition he needed to make the case of moral decline. Although no medical excuse could be found to cover the Jenkins story, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover decided to intervene, claiming that Barry Goldwater and his campaign had actually set-up Jenkins as part of a "Republican plot" to bring down Johnson. Hoover made this connection because Jenkins had served in the same Air Force unit which was commanded by Goldwater. In order to legitimize his claims, Hoover conducted an elaborate investigation. The Jenkins issue however, disappeared from the newspapers within days, and was eclipsed by foreign policy issues. Communist China successfully tested its first nuclear device and the Moscow politburo overthrew Nikita Khrushchev. The Jenkins issue became irrelevant in the campaign, and President Johnson won the election by a landslide.
In October, President Lyndon Johnson was attempting to reach an agreement with the North Vietnamese in the Paris peace talks. This would allow him to halt the bombing which would salvage Vice President and Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey's campaign. The Republican candidate Richard Nixon realized that Johnson was attempting to use the power of the presidency to help Humphrey, and accused him of doing so. Johnson denounced such claims as "ugly and unfair." However, five days before the election on October 31, President Johnson announced a halt in the bombing of North Vietnam, stating, "I have reached this decision on the basis of developments in the Paris talks, and I have reached the belief that this action will lead to progress for a peaceful settlement of the Vietnam War." Humphrey of course said he was pleased: "I have been hoping for months that it would happen, for months." The bombing halt allowed many people to conclude that the end of the war might be approaching, putting Humphrey in a favorable position. Humphrey went up in the polls, but when the South Vietnamese government indicated it would not negotiate, Humphrey's ratings again slid. Nixon won the election by a slim margin.
In the weeks leading up to the end of the campaign Nixon suspended bombing in Vietnam and engaged in secret negotiations with the National Liberation Front. Just before the election at an October 26 press conference, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger announced, "We did agree that we would make a major effort to conclude the negotiations by October 31. As far as Saigon is concerned, it is of course entitled to participate in the settlement of a war fought on its territory. Its people have suffered much and they will remain there after we leave. We believe that peace is at hand. We believe that an agreement is within sight, It is inevitable that in a war of such complexity that there should be occasional difficulties in reaching a final solution." Kissinger's announcement convinced many voters that the Vietnam War would soon be over, helping Nixon win a landslide victory against his opponent, Democratic candidate George McGovern, who ran on a peace platform.
Republican candidate Ronald Reagan's campaign strategists, fearful of a late-breaking deal ending the Iranian hostage crisis, warned the public about the possibility Jimmy Carter could use the presidency to manipulate events and win the election. To neutralize the effect on the country of an "October Surprise," Reagan and his strategists continually mentioned the possibility of something happening at the last minute. They believed that by bringing up the issue in advance the voters would see it as a cynical bid for votes rather than as the product of careful statesmanship. As Reagan said on a Tampa Bay television station in early October: "Presidents can make things happen you know." With the one year anniversary of the hostage taking approaching on Election Day, Reagan's comments were intended to cause public cynicism. Reagan ended up winning the election by a narrow popular margin. The hostages were released within an hour of Reagan's inauguration.
This was not however, the end of the story. Soon after Reagan was sworn into office there were theories that, as Gary Sick a former aide on the National Security Council staff for the Carter Administration wrote in a 1991 op-ed and later in a book, "individuals associated with the Reagan-Bush campaign of 1980 met secretly with Iranian officials to delay the release of the American hostages until after the U.S. election. For this favor, Iran was rewarded with a substantial supply of arms from Israel." The agreement also supposedly included a $40 million bribe. Sick believed that George Bush was one of those Americans that were associated with the negotiations. William Casey, a campaign adviser who was appointed head of the CIA, was also linked to the negotiations. The theory gained credibility when the Iran-contra affair was revealed. In exchange for help in releasing the American hostages held in Lebanon, the United States sold Iran truckloads of weapons. Two congressional inquiries have concluded that there is no proof the Reagan campaign made a deal with Iran in 1980.
Going into the election, the Republican candidate and incumbent president, George H. W. Bush, hoped the GATT talks would result in a free trade deal. This would have given Bush an advantage over Democratic candidate Bill Clinton. Instead the Friday before the 1992 election, former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who served in the Reagan administration, was indicted by independent counsel Lawrence Walsh in connection with the Iran-contra affair. The indictment distracted Bush's campaign and suggested to some that Bush, who had claimed he was "out of the loop," had possibly not been honest about his own role in the scandal.
President Bill Clinton the incumbent Democratic candidate looked to create his own October Surprise in his re-election bid against Republican candidate Bob Dole. In June Clinton met with top FBI and CIA aides in hope of organizing a successful sting against the Russian Mafia, which had ben rumored to be interested in selling a nuclear missile. The operation failed to become a real October Surprise, however. Clinton also hoped he might be able to broker a last-minute deal between the Palestinians and Israelis. The two sides however only agreed to more talks. Clinton nonetheless won reelection, the first Democrat to do so since Franklin Roosevelt.
In early November, just days before the election, police documents were leaked revealing that George W. Bush had been arrested for drunk driving in Kennebunkport, Maine in the mid 1970s. These revelations hurt Bush at the polls, and may have cost him a popular majority. Karl Rove, his chief political advisor, believes the news disillusioned millions of evangelical voters on whom Bush was counting. Bush of course won the election after the Supreme Court intervened.
In the presidential campaign's closing weeks, Democrats have been bracing for an October surprise, an event so dramatic it could influence the outcome of the election. Neither Republican incumbent George W. Bush nor Democrat John Kerry has a comfortable enough lead in the polls to afford an October Surprise. Possible surprises that could alter the election's outcome include: a major setback in the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, the capture of Osama bin Laden, a nuclear test by North Korea, an economic shock, or another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.


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02 June, 2009 | (01 hr)
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Often seen as a process to assimilate new hires, on-boarding can be a tool for knowledge transfer, engagement, retention, and development. The war for talent may have calmed down due to the current economic climate. However, the lull in hiring, and thus on-boarding execution, combined with feedback from exit interviews, creates an excellent opportunity to reassess existing programs. The current talent pool has also created opportunities for organizations to bolster their human capital resources. This webcast shows participants how to integrate those new, and often untraditional recruits in a way that promotes long-term careers and avoids investment in those looking for an employment "stop-gap." In this webcast, participants will learn about the key pillars, phases, and design and implementation steps for an effective on-boarding program that is aligned with business strategy. Participants will also learn about opportunities to build the business case for world-class on-boarding that allows for critical leadership buy-in.
This webcast will discuss:
- Key on-boarding phases from the offer acceptance to the end of the first year.
- Four on-boarding "pillars" and specific best practices associated with each.
- Central steps from the diagnostic, solution conceptualization, and blueprinting through the detailed design, piloting and roll-out.
- Opportunities and challenges to build the business case for on-boarding.
Vicente Gonzalez, Sr.
Vicente Gonzalez is Senior Employee Development Manager in the Booz Allen Hamilton Learning and Development organization and has over 20 years of experience in learning, development, and performance management. Vince has presented at numerous conferences and recently gave the keynote at Training ...Full Bio
Mark Stein
Mark is a senior vice president and partner at Kaiser Associates. With 15 years of consulting experience, Mark is a co-leader of Kaiser's Organization Development and On-boarding Practice and has led hundreds of successful client engagements across a variety of industries and functions. Mark hold...Full Bio
Lars Wensel
Lars Wensel is a Senior Manager in Kaiser Associates Organization Development practice and has led numerous on-boarding redesign activities. Lars holds an MBA from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Maryland....Full Bio
Rene Carew, Ed.D.
Dr. Rene Carew is Program Director for The Conference Board Executive Coaching Conference. For several years she was also the Program Director for the Succession Management Conference. Rene has been an Organization Development Consultant, working with profit and not-for-profit organizations...Full Bio


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As we discussed in our introductory post, the Top 10 Technology Trends for advisors and their partners can be divided into three categories. The first of those, "Computing, Storage and Mobility," encompasses trends one, Increasing Technology Capability and two, Mobility.
The two macro trends within this fundamental category affect everyone and every industry. They are not specific to the advisory space; they cut across both consumer and business IT.
The first trend, Increasing Technological Capability, underpins all the other trends that we'll discuss in future posts. The concept of increasing technological capability covers a lot of territory and includes cheaper/faster storage, increasing processing power and increasing bandwidth/wireless speeds.
You may have heard of Gordon Moore's Law, which in essence argues that processing power doubles every 18 months. There are corollaries both in terms of storage and networking speeds as well. In terms of storage, processing power and bandwidth, what was in the past potentially unaffordable or impractical is now becoming both practical and affordable. For example, 100 megabytes of storage cost more than $100 just a few years ago. Today, that same amount of storage can be found for free as a trade show give-away in the form of a logoed memory stick.
Wireless bandwidth speed are expanding even faster. Users are getting actual 12 Mbps speeds (+/-) on Verizon and 18 Mbps (+/-) on AT&T using LTE on the newest iPad. Cellular wireless speeds are 200-300 times better than they were in 2000.
One of the effects of those expanded capabilities is that financial institutions can store more data than ever before at a cost that simply wasn't feasible in the past. The practical effect of that is financial institutions can use the extra data to ensure compliance with regulatory and legal requirements and store client and advisory data that was previously not retained. This will result in financial services companies investing more in 'Business Intelligence' to leverage this data in order to make better business decisions.
In addition, there are new platform-as-service capabilities that have emerged as a result of these developments. We'll talk more about them in an upcoming post about cloud computing. Cloud computing is more viable today, and is the most rapidly growing segment of the software industry, because of these trends.
If these trends continue at the pace that we've seen over the last five years— which we predict it will—then advisors and firms can expect an entirely new range of computer infrastructure management options that will open up capabilities that no one has yet thought about. Advisors will be able to leverage these capabilities and have access to enterprise-class computing capability that was previously unaffordable at the practice level. This will also result in increasing outsourcing of computing infrastructure to companies that provide this capability.
In the current environment of increased computing power, cheaper storage and faster network speed, firms should be thinking about what they can do to improve the quality of the client experience, make the underlying economics of the business more profitable and ensure compliance with all of the appropriate regulatory and legal requirements.
The macro future trend lies in thinking about how you can do those three things at once, now that you have access to a level of computing power that simply wasn't previously available at affordable prices.
We welcome your thoughts and suggestions along the way as everyone has a different perspective and set of experiences. Please e-mail [email protected] with thoughts or comments and we will do our best to address them in upcoming blogs.
View Spenser Segal's previous practice management primer blog series.