text:
You threw out the body of your dead hamster?
Jim Henley reminds me that I'm not really such a bad parent. But then, my kid can't IM yet.
Jason Kuznicki
/// June 16, 2010
Jim Henley reminds me that I'm not really such a bad parent. But then, my kid can't IM yet.
Jason Kuznicki
/// June 16, 2010
They're desperately incompetent morons with a taste for porn and bestiality. Yes, there's propaganda value in showing the dumber side of al Qaeda. But we gave up habeas corpus for fear of them?
Jason Kuznicki
/// June 16, 2010
David Brooks, yesterday: In the state capitalist world there are government-run enterprises like Gazprom, Petrobras, Saudi Aramco, Petronas, Petróleos de Venezuela, China National Petroleum Corporation and the National Iranian Oil Company. These companies create...
April 27, 2020
February 2, 2020
Presented without further comment, because I'm sure you folks will do plenty of that:
"I love history, I love poster art," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday. He also loves deploying a mountain analogy to describe New York's fight against COVID-19 and his and the state's efforts to flatten the curve of new infections. He declared that New York was "on the other side of the mountain" during one of his then-daily coronavirus press conferences in early May. Then, at the end of June, after COVID-19 infections began spiking throughout much of the rest of the country, Cuomo shockingly unveiled a huge model of an actual mountain during another press conference to physically illustrate the analogy again, even using his hand to demonstrate New York's journey up and over the metaphorical pandemic mountain:
While Cuomo has not yet held a coronavirus press event using the Catskills, on Monday he unveiled, for the second time this year, an old-timey campaign poster devoted to himself depicting not only his pandemic mountain but illustrating numerous other elements related to both New York's fight against the coronavirus and the quirky asides the governor liked to make across his more than 100 daily pressers during the outbreak.
Both posters have been based on Cuomo's own sketches and painted in a style inspired by a 1900s campaign illustration for a Nebraska politician named William Jennings Bryan. The first poster, released in January, depicted Cuomo's accomplishments as governor utilizing a ship as a metaphor for the state.
The poster, available from the State of New York for the low, low prince of $14.50 plus shipping and handling:
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[caption id="attachment_333095" align="alignleft" width="1024"] Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne (1589-1662) - Peasants Dancing - [Public Domain][/caption]
So how, one might ask, did I find myself on the day my city "reopened" walking around downtown giggling uncontrollably with my friend Abraham* both out of our minds on acid? Well, let me explain.
It was a few weeks ago that Ontario officially began its "reopening," a term that evokes a department store sale and entails widening the range of businesses allowed to operate under the shadow of the pandemic. It was a surprisingly grim affair: I had the sense that the general public and average workers were far less keen to "return to normal" than business owners and politicians. My social media feed was engorged with restaurateurs trying to line up reservations on one side, and servers asking people not to go out and eat on the other. Four months into our relationship with this virus and we still have a great many mysteries about how it spreads and what damage it does. The people who are nearest to being our test subjects tend to be in jobs with little pay and meager social esteem. Asking them to put their lives on the line so white-collar professionals can avoid learning how to cook for themselves seems a bit crass; the weekend had all the atmosphere of a childhood party arranged for kids who aren't actually friends and don't want to be there.
In fact, by the time it finally happened, the spectacle of reopening had taken on a carnivalesque tone, a sort of sideshow tent hucksterism that seemed breathless and hysterical: Come see the half-living economy and be amazed! Keep children's fingers away from its jaws! No one over the age of 65 will be admitted! To sociologists, the carnivalesque is a "liminal" state, in which the normal rules of social life are suspended and held up to ridicule. Which is pretty much what the virus has done. Using LSD seemed a bit superfluous, but not inappropriate.
Abraham is about as much like myself as I can stand in a friend. He's Jewish, and I'm more Jewesque. We're both middle-aged, divorced, socially-alienated, slightly neurotic cynics. He has a bit more equanimity than I do; I have a bit more unfounded hope left. We both have an uneasy relationship with academia after entirely too much experience. He's trying to get his life together, although certain events have made it difficult. His old life has effectively come to an end and a new life is taking shape, slowly and painfully. I am dimly aware that the contours of my own life no longer match what's in my heart. I work sporadic maintenance shifts at the university where he studies, have a book coming out this winter and hope to have another out next year, and am only happiest doing this: assembling sentences and paragraphs. Neither of us is particularly suited to ever "return to normal."
I think all of us have had the occasional sense that our lives are performances for someone else's benefit, be they teachers, parents, bosses, or spouses. Sartre called this a type of "bad faith," which he attributed, somewhat dickishly, to the "ceremonial" aspect of certain trades, writing about the waiter whose actions are a little too waiterly, and who is aware of the disconnect between the role he is playing and the self playing it. Sartre spent a lot of time writing in cafes and it's a somewhat acrid image to imagine him sitting there writing about the waiter's supposed fear of freedom.
He had a point though that society tends to "work hard to imprison a man in what he is, as if we lived in perpetual fear that he might escape it, that he might overflow and suddenly elude his condition." We are most offended, as he puts it, by a grocer who dreams. We want things to function smoothly without real investment on our part. How much more coercive is it when the waiter is on the "front lines" of a viral outbreak, being told it is fundamental to our society that he keep serving tapas and sugary deserts. At the very least, few could have anticipated the apocalypse would have frozen yogurt.
This social pressure is a bit more red-faced and spittle-flecked in a "revitalizing" city like ours, one of a great many North American hamlets where the local government has attempted to supplant a moribund- although, not as much in decline as purported- industrial economy with a service economy of high end boutiques and gourmet restaurants. A great many hopes are hanging on the very thin reed of our becoming a "foodie destination." In reality, we excel in neither type of industry: ours is a real estate economy. The boutiques are window dressing. The real money is in financialized real estate speculation. The waiters can barely afford our rents. Normal was already built on sand before the deluge.
Abraham had purchased tabs of acid and found the first one didn't work for him the week prior; he was willing to try again though. I came over to his house around noon on a day in which the heat enshrouded you and hung off your face, and I was already a bit delirious. We both had to gulp down mason jars of cold water before we could begin and lie on the couches for a bit because our backs and feet hurt. If anything says middle-aged Jewish man more than dropping acid and talking about your back pain, I don't know what it is.
As everyone knows, LSD takes a certain amount of time to be absorbed and take effect, and when it does, I find it's a bit of a telescoping effect: things become at once more distant and more vibrant. The fish tank across the room looked as if it was situated down a dark hallway and as radiantly illuminated as a shrine. Shadows slithered up the walls and the floor dropped out of sight. It was a pleasant sensation. I enjoy acid; you become a stickler for details. Everything seems luminous and significant, but also hilarious in its mundaneness.
I enjoyed this contrast for either five minutes or six hours when my friend said "We should probably go get alcohol." I'm not a drinker really- when I take acid, I usually want tart candies. And I was not feeling inclined to surf the streets on acid. It seemed like a misguided idea all around, so I agreed to it.
The sun was an interrogator's floodlight as we set off down Main Street feeling every hitch and buckle of a sidewalk like broken piano keys. The buildings leaned down to watch us from above and the occasional lone woman glided by like a feather, her lacquered fingernails gleaming. Gender is somehow an indicator of gentrification. You can always tell when you're in a poor neighborhood because you see more young males on the street; young women are more dominant in higher-income spaces. We were approaching one of those areas. I avoided eye contact for the normal reason: I don't want them calling the police.
We passed a fenced-in vacant lot teeming with garbage and overgrown weeds.
"Imagine how many small varmints must be in there," Abraham said.
"My cat would love it," I said. "Someone should turn it into a safari for bored housecats."
"Drive them around in little Jeeps? Stop and let them out when they see a mouse?"
"Outfit them in pith helmets. I'd pay for this service." I would too.
Up the block, we passed City Hall and an old hotel with a sign by the door reading "No Peddlers Allowed." This amused my friend. "Do you think they have a problem with peddlers sneaking in and selling their wares? Off little tables?"
"Oh, like the cigarette girls with the trays around their necks?"
"Yes, I just imagine the peddlers hide them under black trench coats and sneak in."
"I wouldn't put it past a peddler. I also have a theory that many of the so-called people who are opposed to removing statues are really groups of pigeons in black trench coats."
"Yeah, that makes sense. Let's cross." We cross the courtyard of the local art gallery to the Northwest entrance of the mall that occupies several blocks of downtown. This is the only entrance open and, in order to enter, you have to first line up and get past two security guards. We queue up and everyone in the line is given a paper ticket to deposit at the store of their choice. Nearly all of the stores are closed; everyone in line is there for the LCBO (Licquor Control Board of Ontario). When we're handed the tickets, I make the obvious comparison.
"I hope this is a good ride."
"Disneyland has really gone downhill."
"This is the Children of Men ride, right?"
On the sidewalk, a cluster of holloweyed heads perched on piles of clothing watch a stocky street preacher ranting about getting right with God before death comes, while his assistant yowls in tongues behind him. It feels a bit too on the nose for me. "I'm glad he's here," I comment, "I'd feel cheated off a bit if he wasn't."
We enter the mall and leave our tickets in a bowl. There is a metal table of hand sanitizers and four staff members huddled off to the side nervously giggling. My friend grabs handfuls of the most bizarre bottles he can find and we line up again. At the cash register, there is a plexiglass partition and after every few customers, a girl runs up with a spray bottle and a cloth and cleans it as quickly as possible, while her coworkers laugh and cheer. I whisper to Abraham: "Just imagine how many young people are coming of age right now and will have lifelong sexual fantasies about the plexiglass cleaner girl. Just like those roller-skating waitresses from the 50s."
We depart and, as my apartment is on the other side of the mall, decide to traverse the building by its large and decrepit 70s architecture rooftop "social area," which I cleaned for a year and still refer to as the J.G. Ballard Memorial Rooftop. Usually, there are homeless men up there drinking or shooting up or smoking marijuana, but it is eerily abandoned today. The only person we pass is an attractive young woman who eyes me seductively, or at least I think. Maybe she didn't. I keep my head down.
After this point, our perceptions are equally out-of-whack, but I think the following happened. We walked the sidewalk around the building. Are we being perused by horses? I wondered. No, there was a woman in high heels on the sidewalk. We walked past the large empty parking garage that feeds into the large empty mall. "Did you hear that?" Abraham asked. It sounded like a woman's voice deep within in the parking garage screaming and singing like a siren. On the next block, a group of gym-toned muscle men in short pants stood outside of a bubble tea and sweets place eating from tiny cups of ice cream and giggling together. We crossed to avoid them.
We headed to my apartment and its expansive roof, which has become a distanced meeting place for friends and other recovering adults throughout the pandemic. Me and Abraham sat on the roof and watched clouds roll and mushroom, twist and deflate.
As it happened, my roommate was having people on the roof for her friend's birthday that night and "perhaps she might not want to deal with two guys who are tripping balls" it was politely explained to us. After making sure to visit my cat Iggy and tell him how wise I think he is, we left for the basement record store I help run. We passed a restaurant patio with three people dining and a lineup of young people waiting for take out pizza. My friend asked them repeatedly what they were watching, unconvinced they were just there for oven-baked pizza. Otherwise, the downtown shopping district was vacant.
Once safely hidden in the basement, Abraham and I listened to the most horrific music we could find- Throbbing Gristle, Lingua Ignota, Napalm Death, etc. and still laughed. It felt as if we were huddling underground while brutal storms ravaged the aboveground, rivers of disease flowing down the stairs to the shop. Another existential gen holds that all human be-ing is directed into the future and is ultimately being-towards-death. It felt like we were at the rotten heart of that trip, at its final destination, still laughing. After months of platitudes about normalcy, it felt cathartic and necessary.
The strangest part of this pandemic time is how death and horror have been domesticated and defanged, incorporated into our narcoleptic routines of work and consumption and killing time. I keep thinking of Death in Venice and its dissolute artist in the Grand Hotel resort trying to get anyone to tell him if people are really dying of cholera throughout the city, while he clings to an image of youth as cold and distant as the moon.
Abraham's girlfriend came and picked us up in her car and drove us back to his house. She was exhausted after a 12-hour shift and so he made us sausages and played us records and then it was time for the two of them to go to bed. I excused myself and walked back home through a poorer part of the city that seemed closer to pandemonium. Young men were yelling on corners, walking into traffic, starting fights, breaking windows, fireworks exploding just above our heads. If a society is a vehicle that helps transport us through our lives, there seems to be a part broken, maybe for a long time now. There's a feeling that someone else is driving and it's not clear where we're going. Certainly not back to normal.
I had been slightly deranged for eight hours by this point and was now alone, sweating, my thoughts like a skull full of hornets. But, I had survived on this side of sanity. And it seemed that Abraham and I had caused no real damage. This is good. There's already a surplus of indolent men like us with too much education and no idea how to make anything better. The best we can hope is to do no harm.
Half exhausted, I returned to the record store and I listened to gospel music until the sun came up.
(*Not his name, of course.)Comment →
One of my besetting quirks (or maybe it's a sin?) is nostalgia. I tend to wax nostalgic over even the worst times of my life. Maybe others share that quirk, and maybe it's a human quirk. Or maybe it's peculiar to only a small number of people. Maybe it would be different if I had had objective, according-to-Hoyle "bad" times in my life.
So I find now, in summer 2020, I'm nostalgic about the good old days, in late winter 2020, when the shelter in place orders were just beginning. I might have been a little hopeful then that things would resolve in a couple weeks or a month. But otherwise, it was quite a despairing time, at least for me. It was something I knew I would have to endure. However quickly it might be resolved, the bad parts were still ahead and there was little to look forward to in the near future. It wasn't a good feeling.
And now, I look back on those days and miss them. Maybe I'd feel differently if Covid had harmed me more directly, or if I wasn't so well off to begin with.
But I miss it. I miss the sinking feeling as the numbers of new cases started mounting. I miss being confined inside when it was cold. I miss the shortages (which are still here but less severe) (which never affected me very severely in the first place). I miss doing laundry by hand (though I don't miss it because it sucks, and I only stopped doing it last week during my first visit in three months to the laundromat and I may or may not be too scared to go back next week).
I have lived a (mostly) charmed life, but these last few months have been among the worst of times, at least for me. And yet I miss them. In a few months time, if I'm still alive, I'll probably be missing now.Comment →
[caption id="attachment_331847" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] British Women Gardening. Photo Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]
There are four of us in a garden working to spend the rest of the university's budget: myself and three women; we have been pressed into landscaping detail. Ordinarily, we work for "facility services," which encompasses everything from locksmithing to parking detail to janitorial work; to borrow Erving Goffman's terms, we are the backstage to the university's frontstage. This is perhaps the thorniest part of the job; a university is a wholly bourgeois space, so working "labor" in that space is like being in the world, but not of the world. You have to keep things running, while not breaking the fourth wall of social class. I find it much easier to minister to the buildings when they are empty.
We make a strange cadre, three somewhat older women and me landscaping an empty campus whose buildings gleam and whir somnolently inside like the setting for a slightly amoral psychological experiment. Completely vacant academic buildings seem haunted, but comfortingly so. You imagine, were the dead to come around a corner, you might greet them cheerfully, happy to have someone with whom to discuss philosophy or literature. I prefer this type of solitude.
We were laid off for six weeks, when Ontario ordered universities to close. Now, they've brought back some of the maintenance staff, but not the students- there will be no in-person classes for the rest of 2020. And so, in two months, they will likely lay us off again. But who knows? Plans change from day to day and I am pleasantly surprised to find that I care not a whit. For me, it's all a matter of which location I am using to sit quietly and read, or write.
And I find that I love gardening for the same reasons I love writing; you work and worry the same space, over and over, with aesthetic focus and force of mind, and pleasing forms slowly emerge from the raw material of your perception. Before long, the rhythms of nature will insinuate themselves; you become more measured in thought and deed.
The women with whom I work are each over 60 and they are angrier than me in a way which is harmless and endearing. Not a morning goes by without them unloosening a good vigorous tirade on the unfairness of managers, the stupidity of the general population, or the futility of all human efforts in any direction. Everyone is an idiot and a moron and absolutely worthless. Everything is priced too high. When they get tired of this, or run out of topics, they bitch about each other. They each think the others are crazy, and I wouldn't say that any of them are particularly wrong in this.
My favorite is the tiny woman with the most energy on reserve who rants hilariously whenever she is breathing, and is intensely alive mentally, but who unknowingly gets most proper names wrong: we work with a woman named Candice, who she calls "Kansas"; we're trying to minimize the spread of "covert," rather than Covid; and I am the worker with the most "sonority," having been employed the longest.
By the same token, the health and safety inspector of my own age, who comes to check on us and make sure we're keeping our distance from each other, rails endlessly against "management" in a way I find enervating. They do everything wrong, they don't care about us, we're all expendable to them, and so forth. He sounds like a heartbroken teenager, and I come to realize that I need to pull out the bitterness that has taken root in my own heart or it will poison me, such that when physical death comes, it will be simply a formality.
When the older women bitch, they do so gloriously, and with real joy. They were lonely and bored when they were at home, and not here working for the "morons." The pointlessness became oppressive for them. As the tiny one puts it, "it's stupid to let the covert change our lives!" None of them have children, and they're fairly isolated, although we all have cats and we all love our cats. We're all alone otherwise. The tiny woman's husband took his own life a few years ago, unable to suffer through cancer any longer. The one who drives the truck lost her husband in a horrific incident: beaten to death by bikers in a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Life can be inexplicably harsh and come at you mercilessly, like a wave, especially at our level. I let them bitch. They are strong and I have no doubt they'll survive "the covert".
And the strategies for dealing with this virus have been frustratingly ad-hoc and jumbled. At our first meeting, we were told not to wear masks, which would increase the spread. A week later, we were told to always wear masks and gloves. Then, we were told not to wear gloves, which transmit disease. We were told to come to work, then to stay home, and then to come back, but maybe go home. And stop standing so close to one another!
To the conspiracy-minded, all the confusion reveals purpose: the powers-that-be can't keep their stories straight! Can't you see? This proves they're in control! As you get older, you start to realize that no one is in control of anything. We think of "nature" as the bear: learn his habits and instincts and his hunger, and you can avoid him. Viruses have no will, no instincts, no mind, no hunger, are arguably not really alive. This is more of a natural disaster: lay low, wait for it to pass, keep your wits about you. But remember that all human plans are provisional.
Halfway through the week, we receive a message from our nominal "supervisor": he's been called away, he's exhibiting symptoms and has to be tested, keep working on our own. The women don't know what to do without someone there to instruct us. Do we go home and self-isolate? Do we keep working until further notice? Having the most "sonority," I say we keep gardening. Nevertheless, the situation feels a bit like living in a country that has been occupied by an invading army. The rules and regulations seem to change without warning or explanation several times a day.Comment →
Their pants never seem to fit right, it's the first thing you notice about the older men who stand and lounge languidly in the hot doorways on my street; the seat hangs too low or they've pulled the waistband up too high; probably the most common look is shapeless and somewhat inflated clown trousers. And I get it because my pants are invariably walked through in the cuffs or have a flowering hole in the knee or some pattern of bleach stains.
It's definitely a class marker though. The wealthy newcomers in town all have tailored jeans; they fit perfectly. There was a store on the street where you could buy a close approximation, but they started out at over a hundred dollars, and none of us could spend that much for a pair of jeans; it's obscene really. So, if the options are to look like a slovenly hobo in thrift store pants, who doesn't really fit into the world somehow OR to look like a dummy who spends too much on clothes, might as well be a girl really, well it's better not to maintain the pretense of fitting in anywhere.
And trust me, this does matter now because every man you see on the street these days is a little past middle-aged and appropriately overweight and they're all standing around smoking or shuffling through their lottery tickets, and every one of them is in ill-fitting pants. Not one of these men is wearing a cloth mask over their mouth and nose. This time last year these men would have been here, invisibly, but they would have been outnumbered by bespoke young men in bespoke jeans and young women who will walk you off the sidewalk three abreast. All of those weekly-haircut, tailored jeans people are gone now, of course. And the expensive jeans place is gone too. So are two other clothing stores and three restaurants recently closed. And who really cares?
It was in January we started hearing about people dying in China and elsewhere with something that was probably just like the flu really. And, in February, we heard about people in Europe and even the states with it, but the survival rate was tremendous. By March, it was here in Canada too and people were starting to stay home. By April, everyone was staying home, except for the few thousand homeless people who drift like ghosts throughout our city. In May, those men seem to have been raptured and replaced by the middle-aged men whose pants don't fit- nor their lives. The wealthy newcomers have begun to visit a little, in their cars, for a few hours a day, like an evening tide of money, or colonial administrators in a third world village. The louche older men in the doorways of newly-shuttered clothing stores and restaurants watch them come and go, smoke, shuffle their lottery tickets like talismans.
And those older men are the ones most likely to die, should they get this foul disease that seemed to terrify everyone else who was less likely to die. At least, they're more likely to die than to win the lottery. Yet they take no precautions and pay it no mind. They intrude on your space in stores or on the sidewalk; a dynamic plenty of women have noted in the past. They're not exactly living free of all fear I don't think. It's more like they accept it as inevitable. I've heard a few of them say something like this: "if you're going to get it, you're going to get it, there's nothing you can do," as if they were talking about fate or predestination or the furies.
As if it was a matter of accepting one's lot in life. There are people who do this, you know: they shoulder the burden, whatever it is. They expect the worst, and they're seldom disappointed. Disappointment is a privilege, you know. All of these older men seem to know the facts of the matter; I don't get the feeling they're misinformed, uninformed, conspiratorial, or oblivious. I don't think it's "toxic masculinity" either. I think it's fatalism. If death comes for them, well, so be it.
And here's the thing to remember: to some extent, we all live in obligation to one another. But, after a certain age, living is a responsibility that no one places upon us. We retire from jobs; marriages come to an end; our kids move away and barely see us; we keep going in the absence of any expectation. So, it's a hard thing not to become a little indifferent to one's ongoing survival. Who for? You can't see the ocean in the darkness, but you can hear it lapping at the shores, and in the middle of the night it sounds a little like it might be calling for you. So, why not walk towards it?
Of course, this short circuits one of the cherished tenets of Enlightenment societies: that people will act rationally in their own self-interest, if they can only be given accurate information. There are plenty of times we don't, in ways big and small. We stay in bad relationships for too long, do things that aren't healthy or wise. We ignore safety regulations at work. We drive like maniacs. We've all gulped down micro-doses of death to see how close we could come to the edge of something that was deafening and annihilating.
And, in terms of the old men in poorly-fitting pants, what's been the most disheartening about all of this is that, without exactly saying the words aloud, the rest of us seem to have collectively decided that, if the elders and the "immunocompromised" are the ones most likely to die of this virus, it should be up to them to fend for themselves- for the good of the community. They have a responsibility not to interfere greatly with the functioning of our economy (which we've misidentified as a society). So, we've politely withdrawn their social obligation to survive.
Of course, it's too horrible to say any of this so baldly, so we find nice ways to phrase it. But I think that does us no good, recoiling into a cozy bed of euphemisms. Instead, we should learn from the horror. We know the reality in our guts, which is that this in not how healthy cultures survive. Sericide, or geronticide, exists more in myth than in any historical reality. The Japanese practice of ubasute -- leaving elders to die atop mountains -- was a folk legend that most likely never happened, a cautionary tale. Inuit leaving the elders on ice floes likely only happened during times of extreme famine. The Nordic Ättestupa cliff jumps have no basis in historical fact. We're not in a pre-civilized time and modern post-industrial societies are not facing starvation or mass suicides if the service economy remains closed longer than we'd like. These are folk tales.
Believe it when I say that talking in platitudes about letting the elders self-isolate and fend for themselves is something really pretty novel in the modern world. There have been cultures that did this; none of them lasted more than a few decades. At the very least, if you don't value your old men and women in poorly-fitting pants, you should hope your own children aren't taking notes for when you get old and the waves are lapping at the shore in the darkness. Clutch your talismans tightly regardless.Comment →
Full-time minimum wage workers cannot afford a two-bedroom rental anywhere in the U.S. and cannot afford a one-bedroom rental in 95% of U.S. counties, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's annual "Out of Reach" report.
In fact, the average minimum wage worker in the U.S. would need to work almost 97 hours per week to afford a fair market rate two-bedroom and 79 hours per week to afford a one-bedroom, NLIHC calculates. That's well over two full-time jobs just to be able to afford a two-bedroom rental.
(Featured image is "File:Adam Smith.jpg" by Adam Smith Business School and is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.)Comment →
From the official twitter account:
— Washington Redskins (@Redskins) July 13, 2020
(Featured image is "Hold on, Folks." by gettheshot75 and is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.)Comment →
Commuting on a Friday night, Tweet about it all Saturday morning...or something.
Comment →
President Donald Trump said Saturday that Roger Stone was entangled in "an illegal Witch Hunt," offering his first comment since the White House announced Friday night that Trump commuted the prison sentence of his former campaign aide, sparing his longtime adviser from having to report to prison next week.
"Roger Stone was targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place. It is the other side that are criminals, including Biden and Obama, who spied on my campaign - AND GOT CAUGHT!," Trump tweeted Saturday morning.
Trump continued to tweet about other players involved in the Russia investigation, including his former attorney general Jeff Sessions and the former British spy Christopher Steele.
"This man should be extradited, tried, and thrown into jail," Trump wrote of Steele. "A sick lier who was paid by Crooked Hillary & the DNC!"
Trump shared multiple articles about Steele, who was ordered by a British court earlier this week to pay damages over "inaccurate" claims in the dossier that he became known for during the 2016 campaign.
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS)– Joliet police Sgt. Javier Esqueda blew the whistle on the death of Eric Lurry in police custody, and now he has been stripped of his police powers and placed on administrative leave.
Meanwhile Tuesday evening, there were growing calls to fire the two officers involved in Lurry's death, and sources said the Joliet City Manager has quit.
As CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini reported, Sgt. Esqueda said he thought he could lose his badge over all this, and he did lose it.
(Featured image is the official Seal of the city of Chicago)Comment →
From Elizabeth Picciuto's "The Real Free Speech Violations":
Their primary concern is that social, cultural, and institutional (but not governmental, except perhaps in its role as an employer) pressures will be brought to bear on people simply for expressing their beliefs. Their letter decries that people have been fired and publicly shamed for their words, that certain works of journalism or art have not been published or exhibited, that creators and academics feel constricted in what they can express without retribution.
They write, "The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation."
An intolerant society can sometimes inhibit speech wrongly. But it is absolutely not the equivalent of a repressive government inhibiting speech.
They are missing the free speech forest for a few free speech trees. Government inhibition of speech is wrong, full stop. Threatened and actual violence in retaliation for speech are wrong, full stop. Firings, deplatformings, and social stigma for self-expression are not always wrong. They are wrong on a case-by-case basis.
(Featured image is "Well, Vercovicium" by Rudi Winter and is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)Comment →
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July 9, 2020
July 10, 2020
This morning as we were walking the dogs we saw a woman strolling down the sidewalk wearing a tinfoil hat. No, I mean a literal hat made of aluminum foil with some sort of pointy thing at the top.
Had I been aware of this poster I would have asked her [...]


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The last remaining ship of the Battle of the Atlantic - the longest continuous military campaign in World War II- made its way along Matanzas Pass off Fort Myers Beach and reached its final port on San Carlos Island last week.
The former USS Mohawk (WPG-78) is currently docked at Kelly Brothers Marine Construction off of Main Street and is waiting to be transformed for her final service as a veterans' memorial reef -just days before Memorial Day- in the Gulf of Mexico off of Sanibel. It departed Key West Monday afternoon for her two-day, farewell journey to this part of Southwest Florida and arrived at its current location shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday.
The claim to fame of the former U.S. Coast Guard cutter was being the last ship to radio Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower that the weather was clearing for the D-Day invasion in 1944. That legacy is considered one of her most famous deeds.
Article Photos
The former USS Mohawk is towed around Bowditch Point an into Matanzas Pass.
"This ship is most likely one of the most historically significant pieces ever to be used for this purpose. We are very lucky," said Mike Campbell, the project coordinator and Lee County's Natural Resources senior environmental specialist. "It's all about honoring our veterans and providing a positive economic impact on our community."
The Miami Dade Historical Maritime Museum donated the 165-foot cutter to Lee County. PNL Towing out of Miami was the main towing vessel in front of the historic relic, while Kelly Brothers supplied the assist tug from behind.
Campbell said County officials were notified that the museum was looking at options to get rid of the historic vessel before it sank at its dock. The most sensible option was to donate it for an artificial reef, although breaking it down for salvageable parts would have netted close to a $250,000.
"The museum actually had plans to scrap the ship," he said. "It could not afford to fix it or keep the ship anymore. It's old, dilapidated and couldn't stay afloat anymore because it's rusting through the bottom.
"But, being a museum, it didn't want to just scrap this piece of national history. Doing the honorable thing was what they wanted. We were able to take them up on that offer."
A grant from the West Coast Inland Navigation District will cover the $1.3 million needed to prepare and sink the vessel.
"We are over-preparing on this, just to ensure that it will be environmentally safe," said Campbell. "We are actually cleaning all the PCBs that may be aboard as well as the wiring and the hydrocarbons and asbestos as needed. We are also outfitting it with four-ton trim, twin machine gun replicas. So, we are not stripping it down to bare bones."
The preparatory process will take one to 1-1/2 months. San Carlos Maritime Park, next door to Kelly Brothers, is also being used as a staging area.
"It's a commercial boat ramp that the county uses for derelict vessels and stuff like that," the project coordinator said. "After we get it clean and safe, it'll be towed out to the reef area.
Wrecks and man-made reefs are known to restock our waters with fish for the benefit of scuba divers and fisherman alike. More than a dozen artificial reefs lie within a 15-mile radius off Sanibel and Captiva, making these Florida barrier islands great for snorkeling and scuba diving.
"The man-made reefs contribute to the positive influences on the fish population," said Campbell.
The Mohawk's sinking is scheduled for July about 20 miles offshore. Divers and anglers will find her in 90 feet of water near Charlie's Reef, which was installed on July 1999, located 28 miles due west of Red Fish Pass.
Commander Mark Fedor, captain of the current Mohawk, called the plan "an honorable continuation of the legacy of the Mohawk and the United States Coast Guard."
Commissioned in 1935, the USS Mohawk was assigned to the North Atlantic escort operations. She launched 14 attacks against submarine contacts between Aug. 27, 1942, and April 8, 1945.
A recent study by Florida Sea Grant and University of Florida researchers estimates that anglers and divers who use Lee County artificial reefs spend nearly $60 million annually.
"I'm really proud as a community we were able to take part in this just from honoring our veterans to the economic prospects of it," he said. "Every place that I am aware of using ships as artificial reefs have made a very significant impact on that community.
Campbell referenced the Vandenburg in Key West and ships sunk in the Pensacola area to value the increased economic revenue in those parts of Florida.
"They made a tremendous amount of money in business taxes and jobs. The Tourist Development Council of Pensacola loaned the project $1 million. They got their money back in three days off increased bed tax revenue," he said.
"It is a great honor. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Lee County to be able to participate. This is the last ship of the Battle of the Atlantic, the last ship of what they call the famous class of ships."

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Each week, The Splendid Table brings you stories that expand your world view, inspire you to try something new, and show how food brings us together. We rely on you to do this. You have the power to keep us cooking, sharing these stories, and helping you in the kitchen.
Donate today for as little as $5.00 a month. Your gift only takes a few minutes and has a lasting impact on The Splendid Table.
Reprinted with permission from The Nourished Kitchen written and photographed by Jennifer McGruther (Ten Speed Press, © 2014).


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Christmas tree may have sparked 3-alarm Lawrence blaze
17 residents in two homes displaced
Several people have been displaced after a massive fire in Lawrence Friday night.
The blaze broke out inside a two-family home on Lafayette Street at about 11 p.m. and quickly reached three alarms.
Fire officials said at least one woman jumped from the second floor of the building to escape the flames. She suffered minor injuries. Eight other residents suffered smoke inhalation and minor injuries.
Authorities said much of the building collapsed and it has been deemed a total loss. Four nearby buildings also suffered damage from the intense flames.
A cause has not been determined but Rose Matias, who lived at the home, said a dry Christmas tree is being considered as a possible cause.
"What we know is the Christmas tree lit on fire, and it immediately got the living room into flames," she said. "And everybody just tried their best to get everybody out. My brother was the one that took people and rescued everyone, basically."
Matias said it was her grandmother and aunt who jumped to safety.
"My brother was downstairs with his friends, and they told my grandmother to jump. And then, she jumped and they caught her, and my aunt, as well," Matias said.
The American Red Cross is assisting 17 people with emergency clothing and shelter.


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Looks like Bobby Brown may cash in on Whitney Houston's death! Turns out the New Edition member planned to release a tell-all book about his life with his ex-wife in 2008 but it was never published.
A publishing insider told The Huffington Post, "Back in 2008, the interest in a book on Whitney Houston wasn't that great. Whitney had fallen off the radar back then. But now, following her tragic death, the market has changed. Now is the time for a book that details an honest look into the life of Whitney."
The only glitch? Bobby signed a confidentiality agreement after divorcing Whitney but it sounds like he may be a man on a mission to get the book released while his late ex-wife's name is on everyone's mind.
A friend of Whitney's pointed out to The Huffington Post, "This is a man who left his ex-wife's funeral because he didn't like his seats and went to a paying gig that night. He didn't get on stage that night because he needed to sing his greatest hits or because Whitney would have wanted him to entertain his fans, he did it to get a paycheck — the same reason he now wants to write a tell-all book."
What do you think? Should Bobby write the book and strike while the iron is hot to cash in? Or is it simply downright cheesy and money hungry? Weigh in below!
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Programming in standardized high level languages has the benefit of being readily portable across architectures. One would think that portability exists as long as programmers constrain themselves to features specified by the language standard and employ compilers that are dutiful in implementing to the standard. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Migration of software between architectures becomes problematic when byte order dependent code [8] exists in the source code base only to be discovered when runtime problems surface. In large, legacy code bases consisting of millions of lines of code, it is very difficult to find and address all of the byte order dependencies using known techniques [1] into endian-neutral code.
The Bi-Endian Compiler (BEC) enables applications to execute with the byte order semantics as they were designed. For example, the BEC implementation discussed in this article enables applications to execute with big-endian semantics on a little-endian processor. Employing BEC requires the programmer to designate the byte order of all data. During compilation, BEC inserts code sequences, where necessary, to load data into processor registers such that the data is in native byte order before operations are performed. Subsequently, code sequences are inserted that transform the results in native byte order into the resulting data's declared byte order before storing to memory.
This article first provides background on the subject by reviewing byte order dependencies and current techniques to mitigate issues involving them. The BEC is then introduced [2][6], discussing the language features necessary to express byte order and the underlying compiler implementation. The porting process is discussed showing how to effectively apply the compiler and its features to port an application. Performance optimization and evaluation is then detailed, showing techniques used to improve the performance of the implementation. The conclusion summarizes and offers thoughts on future directions.
Endianness, or byte order, is the format of how multibyte data is stored in memory [3][10]. It specifies the location of the most significant and least significant bytes that comprise a multibyte type such as a 32-bit integer. The two types of endian architectures are termed Big-Endian and Little-Endian. Discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of each has been characterized as being akin to a religious war [4][7]. Regardless, both big-endian and little-endian architectures exist and this can cause problems when migrating between architectures due to byte order dependent code. Example 1 shows a code snippet that returns differing output samples depending upon the byte order of the processor architecture used to execute the code. On a big-endian processor, where the most significant byte is stored in the lowest memory address, the pointer
ap points to 0x12. On a little-endian processor, where the least significant byte is stored in the lowest memory byte address, the pointer
ap points to 0x78. Legacy code bases built up over several years by many different programmers can be littered with such snippets of code motivated in many cases by optimization; assuming the location of a smaller subset of bytes in a multibyte element can save in terms of memory transactions.
#include <stdio.h> int a = 0x12345678; char *ap = (char *)&a; printf("%2x %x\n", *ap, a); Output on a big-endian processor: 12 12345678 Output on a little-endian processor: 78 12345678
Example 1: Byte order dependent code example and output (Source: Intel Corporation).
Techniques of transforming byte order dependent code into endian-neutral code are well understood [1][8]. In the aforementioned example, macros could be defined whose implementation would be platform dependent, but would agree upon which byte of a larger component would be considered first, second, and so on. The techniques require the programmer to first identify byte order dependent code and make manual code changes to enforce endian neutrality. In comparison, BEC does not require the programmer to find the specific byte order dependent code, but to only identify the byte order of the data. The compiler enforces that the correct byte order semantics are being executed. In the example from Example 1, if the code was written to assume big-endian order, the programmer only specifies that the variable a is big-endian and the compiler ensures that the expectation is met. In the conservative case, the programmer could communicate that the entire program should execute with big-endian semantics and the compiler would enforce.
A second approach to migrating byte order dependent code is encapsulated by binary translation techniques [9]. These techniques encompass more in that they enable execution of one processor's instruction set architecture (ISA) on a processor with a different ISA by intelligently and efficiently translating between the two. This approach is attractive due to its relative ease of use for the customer; Apple employed its Rosetta technology to help migrate from the PowerPC architecture to Intel architecture. compared with BEC, this approach typically incurs greater overhead as the application is translated during runtime without the benefit of aggressive static compiler optimization techniques.
Bi-Endian Evolution and Implementation
The BEC has extensions to C and C++ in which byte order is a type attribute and can be bound to a built-in type,
typedef, or to a type as part of a variable declaration. The byte order attribute can be bound to pointer types, floating point types, and be part of a type chain consisting of multiple pointer indirections, integral, and floating point types. The following sections describe the evolution of the BEC, its language extensions, the dataflow analyses implemented, and big-endian data initialization.
As the early proposals for a BEC prototype were discussed, it was necessary to dispel a common misconception. Often, engineers and managers reviewing the proposal voiced concerns that the compiler would be unable to determine the intentions of the programmer. They viewed byte order dependencies as they are encountered in a debugger or binary translator. It was often necessary for the prototyping team to explain that if the byte order of types was part of the program specification, the intentions of the programmer are clearly stated. It only became necessary to provide mechanisms for explicitly declaring byte orders at varying granularities of scope.
The earliest proof-of-concept BEC was demonstrated using the C benchmarks in SPEC2000. These benchmarks were compiled such that all types were declared as big-endian. The resulting executables were run on a processor that supports only little-endian. The next large scale demonstration involved compiling the Linux operating system. The byte order of the fields within the Internet Protocol (IP) header in the network stack is maintained as big-endian by using
ntoh() and
hton() macros, converting between network order, which is big-endian and the host byte order, which is little-endian. As a demonstration of the BEC capabilities, the header fields were explicitly declared as big-endian and the macros were removed. The functionality of the compiled operating system was unchanged. The BEC technology is an alternative to the use of
ntoh() and
hton() macros to maintain network byte order.
Debugging of mixed endian code, which is code containing uses of both big-endian and little-endian types, was supported by modified versions of a proprietary debugger and GNU gdb. The DWARF v3.0 specification provides a means for specifying byte order. Various other DWARF mechanisms allow specifying the location of pieces of data, as would be necessary when the actual byte order of data is other than specified by the programmer. An example where byte order of data can differ from its specification is when a value declared as big-endian is operated upon, such as an addition. During execution time, the data element is represented in a register in little-endian format (on a little-endian processor) for correct operation. Display of the data in a debugger would need to understand this difference. In a large development project, the person who is debugging such code may not be aware of the actual byte order of the data.
Language Features
The primary function of the language extensions is to enable the programmer to communicate the byte order of compilation units, code sections, and individual declarations to the compiler. Example 2 is a code sample employing each of the above. The source file, file.c, is compiled using the
dependencieslittle-endian option, which specifies all data declarations in the compilation unit are little- endian. Similarly, the compiler supports a
-big-endian option, which specifies all data declarations in the compilation unit are big-endian. Declarations that are impacted by these options are said to have been declared implicitly in either a big-endian or little-endian context. The variable,
a, in the example would be stored in little-endian byte order. For convenience, we refer to such a variable as a little endian variable. In the file,
#pragma byte_order (push, bigendian), specifies that declarations following the pragma are big-endian. The variable,
b, would be stored in big-endian byte order. In addition, the optional parameter
push specifies that a stack of byte orders is maintained that enables byte order declarations spanning nested
include files. This declaration method is also implicit and overrides the byte order specified at the command line. A section of code that has an implicit declaration bound to it is termed a big- or little-endian section (depending on the specified byte order). At the finest granularity an explicit declaration occurs via a byte order attribute. The variable,
c, would be stored in big-endian byte order. The byte order attribute overrides both implicit methods.
icc -little-endian file.c
icc -little-endian file.c /*file.c*/ int a = 0x12345678; /*little-endian*/ #pragma byte_order (push, bigendian) int b = 0x12345678; /*big-endian*/ #pragma byte_order(pop) int __attribute__((bigendian) c=0x12345678; /*big-endian*/
Example 2: byte order-dependent code example (Source: Intel Corporation).
By default, the byte order of system include files are the same as the target architecture. The BEC allows specification of the implicit byte order of individual compilation units, for instance include files, without modification of the source code. The BEC provides command line options to specify directory sub-trees and to specify the implicit byte order of the compilation units contained in the sub-tree. The sub-tree identification mechanism is based upon regular expression matching of the directory path name. The implicit byte order specification is by way of source code prolog and epilog files that contain
#pragma byte order specifications. The prolog and epilog files become part of the post-preprocessor file that is actually translated by subsequent phases of the compilation.
Compilation Phases
Similar to many modern compilers, the BEC consists of multiple phases, transforming one representation of the code to another, beginning with the source code and concluding with the executable. Figure 1 illustrates the compilation phases.
Figure 1: BEC Compilation Phases (Source: Intel Corporation, 2011).
The front-end phase parses the source code and transforms it into an abstract syntax tree (AST). During this phase, byte order attributes are associated with the program types represented in the AST and are dependent upon the byte order context at the point of declaration and as discussed in the previous section.
The BEC employs a proprietary intermediate language (IL) to represent the program under compilation. The IL translation phase converts the AST representation into this IL representation. Translated variables may have byte order conversion operations (BOCOs) placed both before and after the variable in cases when its type has a byte order opposite that of the underlying target.
The optimization phase operates on the IL representation to make execution of the code on the target platform more efficient. Since the BOCOs are represented in the IL just as any other instructions, standard compiler optimization can be applied. These optimizations and a description of each include:
- Common subexpression elimination: removes redundant BOCOs for unused data.
- Code motion: moves BOCOs up to the function entry, which reduces the number of BOCOs.
- Constant propagation: determines if a constant that requires a BOCO has already been loaded (and converted), which eliminates unnecessary BOCOs.
In addition, an optimization solely designed to remove redundant BOCOs is invoked through an optimization termed the "bswap elimination optimization," which will be discussed in greater detail later in this article.
The code generator phase converts the IL representation into the binary code specific to the target platform. BOCOs are implemented using either hardware shift instructions or BSWAP instructions. Hardware BSWAP instructions provide an efficient method of converting between byte orders.
Data Initialization
In the BEC, pointer data types can also be attributed with a byte order. As a result, there may be situations where a pointer has the opposite byte order as the target platform. Pointers of the opposite byte order must be byte-swapped upon initialization. This presents a challenge when pointers are initialized by link time constants because these constants are unknown at compile time and are resolved later during the linking stage.
For the initial proof-of-concept BEC, the linker was modified to support other-endian, linker or loader resolved constants. This created an unnecessary dependency within the tool chain with respect to the new technology. Subsequent versions of the BEC employed a flexible set of alternatives for resolving such constants.
In order to perform the necessary byte swap operations for pointers, the compiler generates and places special initialization data in a section of the object file, the .
initdata section. This information is used in a three-step data initialization process detailed as follows:
- At the static data initialization step, a post link tool is employed, which initializes data that can be initialized statically, such as data that does not have relocations associated with it.
- At the dynamic loader initialization step, a dynamic loader has an opportunity to complete initialization based on the information from the .
initdatasection. This step is optional and requires a modified operating system loader.
- The dynamic runtime initialization step, employs a runtime routine to initialize data stored in the opposite byte order from the underlying platform. This routine is automatically invoked prior to passing control to the main routine.
Porting Process
Porting of the application from a big-endian architecture to a little-endian one consists of three main steps:
- Compile the application with the BEC in big-endian compilation mode. Resolve compiler-diagnosed issues such as warnings.
- Employ a symbol consistency checking mechanism to resolve possible incompatibilities between different compilation units.
- Manually review the code and debug with BEC technology-enabled debuggers.


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Summary of Diminishing Dependence
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Peaking in 2005, the United States' dependence on oil imports has plunged since 2008, thanks to rising domestic supplies and falling domestic demand. This shifting trend is sending ripples across the global energy sector. The Economist Intelligence Unit's analysis doesn't merely check the tires of the energy market vehicle; it gets under the hood to examine the engine of change that is driving America's dynamic oil industry. getAbstract recommends this report to energy investors and to US policy makers who need to plan for America's future energy needs.
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Christianity: Where Every Foreign Country Is Fatherland and Every Fatherland Is Foreign:
From the unknown author of The Epistle to Diognetus, Chapter 5, written perhaps between 117 and 225 AD, capturing the paradoxical nature of Christian identity and practice:
For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom.
For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric way of life.
This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and reflection of ingenious people, nor do they promote any human doctrine, as some do.
But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one's lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship.
They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners.
Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign.
They marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring [to kill them].
They share their food but not their wives.
They are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh.
They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.
They obey the established laws; indeed in their private lives they transcend the laws.
They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted.
They are unknown, yet they are condemned; they are put to death, yet they are brought to life.
They are poor, yet they make many rich; they are in need of everything, yet they abound in everything.
They are dishonored, yet they are glorified in their dishonor; they are slandered, yet they are vindicated.
They are cursed, yet they bless; they are insulted, yet they offer respect.
When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; when they are punished, they rejoice as though brought to life.
By the Jews they are assaulted as foreigners, and by the Greeks they are persecuted, yet those who hate them are unable to give a reason for their hostility.


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OCEAN CITY — The time has finally come for the final decision from the state on whether the Roland E. Powell Convention Center is ready for an upgrade.
Timing seems to have been the main tripping point for the town-approved convention center renovation, as they have been waiting on the decision from the state's Board of Public Works, who will decide on Jan. 6 whether or not to allow the Maryland Stadium Authority to partner with the town of Ocean City to fund $4.8 million of the $10.4 million project.
"We knew that with everything going on in Annapolis concerning the recession, that we needed to wait before we went before the Board of Public Works," said Mayor Rick Meehan. "I am confident, however, that we will get the answer that we are looking for next week."
Last February, the City Council voted 5-2 to move forward with a proposal that would not only double the amount of space in the 41st Street convention center, but would also transform one of the main exhibit halls into a 1,200-fixed seat performing arts center. In the process, the council also voted to cut the food and beverage tax, which essentially acts as the funding source to pay back the project in half from 1 percent.
"Any way you look at it, we are still gaining 10,000 square feet of exhibit space, and with the lowering of the food tax, it makes it an even better plan," said Meehan. "I have been a huge supporter of getting a performing arts center in Ocean City, and I think the state will see the project as a revenue generator, and it will be a great thing to have for not only the visitors of Ocean City, but also the residents. We can't forget to do something good for the town that will be fun for our whole community."
Next Wednesday, Meehan and several other town officials will travel to Annapolis and go before the Board of Public Works and state the case for the planned project, which could take anywhere from 20 to 24 months to complete, according to City Engineer Terry McGean.
City Manager Dennis Dare said on Tuesday, however, that even though the town has waited almost a year to get the final concurrence from the state, the project will not be breaking ground immediately.
"We have basic renderings and plans for the expansion, and we have the architect hired for the project [Salisbury-based Becker Morgan Group]," said Dare, "but we have to wait to do the full design of the project until after the money has been allotted and the project green lighted by our partner, the Maryland Stadium Authority. I will say, though, that if it gets approved on Jan. 6, we will be getting to work on Jan. 7 with the design."
The plan, as approved by the City Council last February, includes not only enclosing the existing bay front deck, but also expands it to the west and the south, achieving 20,000 square feet of new space for exhibits and dining, as well as $600,000 in energy and heating efficiency improvements that will be paid for by a stimulus grant, as well as the aforementioned 1,200-fixed seat performing arts center.
"This expansion is virtually the equivalent of the existing main ballroom," said McGean, "and it will enable us to convert a portion of the existing ballroom to a fixed-seat auditorium while maintaining a full 20,000 square feet of exhibit space in a single room."
The Maryland Stadium Authority and the town of Ocean City have acted as partners before during the 1995 expansion of the Convention Center, and that fact, coupled with conversations Meehan has had with state officials, has him feeling hopeful that the drive home from Annapolis will be a happy one next week.
"It's extremely important that we continue to increase our value as a convention destination and our amenities that we offer to our residents and visitors," said Meehan. "I think it will help us capitalize on the visitors who are already here, help to bring in new ones and help to build up the shoulder months in the resort. I think the state realizes that the project will bring in revenue for the state, so I'm very hopeful that things will go well and we can finally get this project going."


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My daughter Nina's birthday. Always an exciting time. We went to the store the night before to buy cookies for her class. 24. One for each student and the teacher. Go home, make dinner, finish dinner, start to clean up and what do I see but a box of cookies. Take one out, take a bite and --
"What are you doing?" she screams.
"I don't know."
"We just bought those cookies for tomorrow." Tears now stream from her eyes. You'd think I was beating a puppy with a turtle. "What kind of animal are you?"
"I don't know. I just --"
"How old are you? Are you like a baby that just eats things randomly?"
"I didn't remember --"
"From an hour ago? Our special trip to the store?"
Sadly, no. I did not remember. Or, more exactly, I did not try to apply any memory or mental function at all. I'm sure my age does play a roll in eating the cookie, though not the way she surmised, and I guess, when it comes right down to it, I am some kind of treat eating animal.
I put the cookie with a bite out of it in a baggie and set it aside. I'm not sure why.
The Cookie Monster is real. And it's me.


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« PreviousContinue »
Abandonment. — See Insurance, 3.
Action. — See Costs, 1; Executors And Administrators, 1; Frauds,
The Court of Admiralty is the tribunal to determine whether a vessel owned by a sovereign prince, but apparently not a vessel of war nor a vessel employed for purposes of state, is entitled to the immunity from arrest enjoyed by ships of war and ships used for government purposes. Writ of prohibition refused. — In the Matter of The Chdrkieh, L. R. 8 Q. B. 197.
Admiralty Court. — See Bottomry Bond.
The court can allow permanent alimony upon a petition filed after decree of divorce. — CoveU v. Covell, L. R. 2 P. & D. 411.
Amalgamation. — See Company, 3.
W., who had a power of appointment over a fund subject to a trust to herself for life without power of anticipation, executed the power in favor of her mother. Subsequently she purported to execute the power in favor of her husband, who was enabled, by depositing the appointment as security, to obtain advances from the plaintiff. Held, that the plaintiff was not entitled to impound the income of said fund during the life of W. — Arnold v. Woodhams, L. R. 16 Eq. 29.
Appeal. — See Tender.
A testator devised property in trust for A. for life and after A.'s death upon trust for A.'s children or some of them, as A. should by deed or will appoint. A. by will appointed a sixth of said property in trust for each of her six children living at the testator's decease for life, remainder to be held upon such trusts and for such purposes as each child should by will appoint, with limitations over in default of such appointment. Held, that A.'g power of appointment was well executed. — Slark v. Dakyns, L. R. 15 Eq. 307.
See Anticipation; Lien, 2; Power, 1; Priority; Settlement.
By statute, notice of appeal must be signed "by the person giving the same or by his attorney." A notice of appeal signed by a clerk of the appellant's attorney with authority of the appellant, held, valid. — Regina v. Justices of Kent, L. R. 8 Q. B. 305.
Advertising a sale by auction does not amount to a contract with any one who may act upon the advertisement, that there will be a sale. — Harris v. Nickerson, L. R. 8 Q. B. 286.
See Vendor And Purchaser, 1.
Award. — See Specialty Debt.
1. A plea that the plaintiffs claim on a contract, giving them a fraudulent preference, must aver that proceedings in liquidation had begun or were imminent when the contract was entered into. — McKewan v. Sanderson, L. R. 15 Eq. 229.
2. Where a person had been adjudicated insolvent upon his own petition in Australia, upon a question whether a fund belonged to the insolvent in England, the court refused to consider whether claims allowed in Australia had been there properly proved. — In re Davidson's Settlement Trusts, L. R. 15 Eq. 383.
3. By statute all goods in the possession, order, or disposition of a bankrupt trader by consent of the true owner, of which goods the bankrupt is reputed owner, are property of the bankrupt divisible among his creditors. Certain butts of whiskey were sold by C. in Liverpool, and delivery orders sent to the purchaser, and a warrant stating that C. held said butts to the order of the purchaser, who was to pay a warehouse rent. It was shown to be the custom of the spirit trade of Liverpool for a purchaser to allow his goods to remain in the vendor's warehouse after they had been paid for, until required by the purchaser for use. Held, that said custom excluded the presumption that said butts belonged to C, and that they did not pass to his trustee in bankruptcy. — Ex parte Watkins, In re Couston, L. R. 8 Ch. 520.
4. The bankrupts owed P. a certain cash balance at the time of their bankruptcy. Bills in part-payment had been accepted by the bankrupts and negotiated by P. and proved by the holder. P. had accepted also bills for the bankrupts for a consideration which had failed, and the bills were in the hands of third parties who had proved them. Held, that P. could only prove for the cash balance less the amount of the bills given in part-payment thereof.—Ex parte, Macredie. In re Charles, L. R. 8 Ch. 535.
5. H. agreed to supply steam-power to S. for driving looms for twenty-one years at a certain rent for each loom payable in advance The agreement might be terminated at H.'s option in case of the bankruptcy of S. S. subsequently assigned the benefit of his agreement to W. H. then mortgaged his mill, containing the steam-power, and the mortgagee took possession and refused to supply W. with steam-power; and, in consequence, W. was obliged to pay a certain increased rent for steam-power. H. became bankrupt. Held, that said agreement was not unilateral, and that the damages were capable of being estimated and could be proved in the bankruptcy proceedings. — Ex parte Waters. In re Hoyle, L. R. 8 Ch. 563.
See Limitation; Partnershif, 2; Trover.
Bequest. — See Appointment; Charity; Class; Condition; Evidence; Limitation; Trust; Undue Influence; Vested Interest.
Bill In Equity.
The plaintiffs brought a bill to restrain the defendants from issuing a prospectus of a limited company to be formed to carry on auction and land-agency business. The bill alleged facts showing that said prospectus was calculated to make the public believe that said business of the defendants was the business carried on by the plaintiffs' well-known firm. The bill then stated that one of the defendants had been committed for trial on the charge of attempting to defraud by false checks; and that a correct report of the trial appeared in the Times, a copy of which was annexed; that the money in respect of which said charge was made was subsequently paid by a relative and said prosecution abandoned. Held, that the bill was scandalous. — Christie v. Christie, L. R. 8 Ch. 499.
See Discovery, 1.
Bills And Notes.
Declaration upon a bill of exchange payable four months after date. Plea traversing acceptance. Held, that under said plea the defendant might show that the original date of the bill had been altered to a later date. — Hirschman v. Budd, L. R. 8 Ex. 171. See Bankruptcy, 4.
Blank. — See Class.
Bottomry Bond.
The plaintiffs brought an action in a county court against the "owners unknown of the Elpis," and the case was removed to the Admiralty Court. The claim was for necessary repairs on the Elpis furnished upon the security of an instrument by which the master bound himself, the vessel and owners, to pay for the repairs except in case of the total loss of the vessel. Held, that said instrument was in effect a bottomry bond and that the county court had no jurisdiction; and that the Admiralty Court therefore had no jurisdiction, as the case came before it by removal from the county court. Also, that the plaintiff could not waive the bond and claim for necessaries independently of the bond; all claim for necessaries supplied was merged in the bond. — The Elpis, L. R. 4 Ad. & Ec. 1.
Cancellation. — See Will, 7.
By agreement between the defendant railway and the G. N. Railway it was provided that there should be a complete interchange of traffic from all parts of one company to all parts of the other, the stock of the two companies being treated as one stock; and that the two companies should aid each other in every possible way as if the whole concerns of both companies were amalgamated. The G. N. Railway received a cow from the plaintiff to be conveyed to S., a place upon the defendant's line, under a contract which provided that the G. N. Railway should not be liable for injury caused by the kicking, plunging, or restiveness of the cow. On arriving at S., the defendant's porter began to unfasten the railway truck to let the cow out, but was warned by the plaintiff not to do so. The cow was let out into a cow-pen, jumped out of the pen, and was killed. Held, first, that the action was rightly brought against the defendant, as under the above agreement it was either partner with the G. N. Railway Company or the latter company was acting as agent of the defendant in making said contract with the plaintiff; and, secondly, that the defendant was liable for want of reasonable care in delivering said cow, notwithstanding the terms of said contract; and that, as a matter of fact, the defendant's porter was guilty of negligence in letting -the cow out of the truck as above. — Gill v. Manchester Railway Co., L. R. 8 Q. B.186.
See Railway.
A testator devised certain houses to a corporation "for this intent and purpose, and upon this condition," that it should yearly distribute £8 in certaincharities; and he directed that the rest of the profits of the houses should be bestowed upon repairs; and in case the corporation should leave any of these things undone, then the testator's next of kin were to enter and hold the houses npon the same condition. At the testator's death the annual value of the property was £95.4, and its present value was £380. In 1790, over 200 years after the date of the will, the corporation purchased land adjoining the devised premises, and the two estates were thrown together and built over, and now formed one set of premises. Held, first, that the whole of said increased annual value was applicable to charitable purposes; secondly, that said land purchased by said corporation belonged to it, and that there must be a separation and division of the two pieces of land, or an apportionment of the rents arising therefrom. — Attorney-General v. Wax Chandlers' Co., L. R. 6 H. L. 1; s. C. L. R. 5 Ch. 603; L. R. 8 Eq. 452; 4 Am. Law Rev. 463; 5 Am. Law Rev. 298.
Charter-party. — See Contract, 2.
Bequest '* unto each of my four nieces, , the daughters of my
deceased brother Y., the sum of £500." Y. had five daughters at the date of the will and of the death of the testator. Held, that the above blank did not affect the general rule, and that said five children took £500 each as members of a class. —McKechnie v. Vaughan, L. R. 15 Eq. 289.
Codicil. — See Legacy, 4; Will, 5, 6, 8.
For discussion of duties of steam-vessels in navigating the Thames, see Maicomson v. The General Steam Navigation Co.; The Banger v. The Cologne, L. E. 4 P. C. 519.
See Penalty.
Common Carrier. — See Carrier.
L The A. company, limited, and the B. company, unlimited, consolidated A stockholder in the A. company applied, in June, for ten shares in the consolidated company " if limited." The directors of the consolidated company replied that they had allotted him ten shares in the "United Porta and General Insurance Company," being said consolidated company. Nothing more was done by the applicant until November, when the consolidated company was wound up. Held, lhat the absence of the word "limited" after the name of said consolidated company was notice to said applicant that the company was unlimited, and that under the circumstances said applicant had lost all rights to relief from being placed upon the list of contributories. — PerretVs Case, L. R. 15 Eq. 251.
2. The plaintiff through his broker sold fifteen shares of stock. The name of W. K. was given by the purchasing broker as that of his principal. \V. K. was an infant, and therefore the plaintiff's name was placed upon the list of contributories. The plaintiff filed a bill against the purchasing brokers, who disclosed as their principals A., B., and C, who were the purchasers of 30, 40, and 80 shares respectively; all of the shares having been bought at the same time, and including in their number said fifteen shares. Upon an amended bill, field, that the plaintiff was a trustee of said fifteen shares for A., B., and C, who were bound to procure a release of the plaintiff from the payment of calls, and to indemnify him against all expenses in respect of such shares. — Brown v. Black, L. R. 15 Eq. 363.
3. The A. and B. banks agreed to consolidate. The A. bank was to be wound up and new shares in the consolidated bank were to be issued to the stockholders in the A. bank on their paying £6 premium per share, and they were also to be credited £5 per share. The plaintiff was allotted twenty-five shares in the consolidated company, paid £150, and was credited with £125 in addition. Said amalgamation was declared ultra vires and void, and the plaintiff demanded return of £275. Held, that the plaintiff was entitled to the return of said £150, but not of said £125. — In re Bank of Hindustan, China, and Japan. Ex parte Alison, L. R. 15 Eq. 394.
4. An agreement to place shares is not equivalent to an agreement to take shares, and will not render the contracting party liable as a contributory. — Garrisson's Case, L. R. 8 Ch. 507.
A testator bequeathed £17,000 to F., provided F. relinquished, within six months after attaining tweuty-one, all his interest under his father's marriage settlement. In case of neglect the legacy to be reduced to £12,000, and £5000 to fall into the residue. F. was ignorant of the legacy until more than six mouths after his attaining twenty-one, but subsequently relinquished his interest


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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
In a 911 call released Wednesday, a friend of a Kaleb 'Fred" Langdale told the dispatcher: "A gator just got my friend," and that the teen's arm wasn't attached.
Langdale was swimming Monday in a Glades County river in Florida when an alligator bit off his right arm below the elbow. He remains in the hospital in good condition, but doctors were unable to reattach his arm when it was removed from the alligator.
On Friday, he told the Today show that in the days since the attack, he suffered the most pain Thursday night but that adrenaline kept him from feeling anything when it was happening. The teen said he knew what to do when the gator grabbed him from watching reality TV.
"My adrenaline was running so fast I didn't feel the pain and I knew if I freaked our or got scared, that was going to be the end of it," he told Today.
The Glades County area near Lake Okeechobee where Langdale was swimming is known for large alligators, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Jorge Pino said.
Alligators are more active this time of year because it's their mating season, which makes them more aggressive and inquisitive as they're looking for food and for mates. Wildlife officers warn that alligators can call just about any body of water in Florida home.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Every second Saturday of the month, Divine Liturgy in English of Sunday - Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family, Duke Street, London W1K 5BQ. Followed by refreshments.
3pm Great Vespers, 4pm Divine Liturgy for Sunday
To purchase The Divine Liturgy: an Anthology for Worship (in English), order from the Sheptytsky Institute here, or the St Basil's Bookstore here.
To purchase the Divine Praises, the Divine Office of the Byzantine-Slav rite (in English), order from the Eparchy of Parma here.
The new catechism in English, Christ our Pascha, is available from the Eparchy of the Holy Family and the Society. Please email email@example.com for details.
Thursday, 14 February 2019
The Face of God: Ian Knowles on Icons
Posted by Society of St John Chrysostom at 10:02
Labels: bethlehem icon school, icons
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Tesla is for real.
If you had any doubts, just look to Wall Street this morning. Shares of Tesla Motors stock (TSLA) have soared about 25 percent so far this morning. Over the last couple of months, the share price has doubled, adding close to four billion dollars to its market value.
Even more impressively (at least for me, a non stock holder), look at your local roadways. Teslas are everywhere these days. They're outselling The Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf, despite the fact that the Model S is much more expensive. What was at first a trickle of Teslas in the wild has become a steady stream.
According to the company's latest earning report, Tesla sold 4,900 cars over the last three months, with sales expected to pick up even more steam in the month ahead. Net income for the quarter was $11.2 million dollars, sharply up from the $89.9 million dollar loss recorded the year before.
On top of all that, Consumer Reports just published a very favorable review, giving the Model S a 99 out of a possible 100 rating. Yowza. This from the magazine that couldn't bring itself to recommend the iPhone 5.
There are, of course, future roadblocks in the way for Tesla. But recently, at least, this company has done just about everything right, and it's being richly rewarded.
Scott, who test drove the Model S, is on Twitter: @scottbudman


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2012 was a transitional year for the Phillies in Latin America. They continued to have teams in both the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, though most of their better International prospects skipped those leagues and went straight to the United States (usually to the Gulf Coast League).
The year was transitional because it also saw the debut of a new major league baseball international signing cap. In recent years the Phillies had been wary of bidding on top talent as the price of that talent had started to skyrocket. In 2012 all MLB teams were on an even footing with a $2.9 million spending limit (plus 6 $50,000 exceptions and an unlimited number of low priced below $10K signings). The Phillies finally started to loosen their purse strings and reportedly spent about $2,0 million fairly quickly on 5 players. We have seen announcements (or actual sightings in instructional league) of 4 players:
Jose Pujols – RF – 6'4″, 185 – A big, raw RF with lots of power potential – $540K, BA's #20 intl prospect
Deivi Grullon – C – 5'11", 195 – BA #15 intl prospect, Carlos Ruiz clone physically – $575K
Willerker Isava – SS – Venezuelan supposedly solid on defense though a question on offense ($200K)
Lewis Alezones – RHP – 6'3″, 170 – VZ pitcher with projection touches 90 ($320K)
There was one more high profile signing that was not announced and most likely a few other 2nd and 3rd tier prospects that will debut in the VSL or DSL. It would not bw surprising if the 4 mentioned above all went straight to GCL as they have already been part of instructional league. The new system appears to favor the Phillies' traditional strategy of going for multiple good prospects rather than 1 or 2 great prospects.
Last year's DSL and VSL teams were a mixed bag. The DSL team finished 6th in their division at 32-36 and did not feature a roster that was especially young. There seem to be a few potential prospects on the roster (see below) though there were no standouts (as in young players who were dominating). The VSL team dominated a 4-team league going 48-22 and winning the championships. Unfortunately it looks like the quality of VSL play has decreased substantially, so again it is hard to see if there were any great prospects on the roster.
The following are a couple of rough top 10 lists of the players that stood out most to me on each team. These lists are not based on scouting reports for the most part unfortunately. They are based on stats, the age of the players, their playing time, and occasional mentions of these players in the news. If the players played in instructionals last fall they also made these lists. If the Phillies like them enough to do that, they probably know more about whether they are a prospect than I do. Without further ado, here are the top 10 lists:
1. Samuel Hiciano (RF, age 18, 6'1″, 203) – Best offensive prospect hit .284 with a 789 OPS, 22 XBH including 4 HR and 16 SB
2. Olvy Marte (CF/2B. age 17, 5'9″, 154) – Speedy CF held his own hitting .277 with a .394 OBP and 21 SB
3. Elniery Garcia (LHP, age 17, 6'0″, 155) – Limited time and only 2-1, 4.18 ERA record, though the youngest pitcher to go to instructionals
4. Seranthony Dominguez (RHP, age 17, 6'4″, 183) – 4-4. 3.48 ERA, 67.1 IP, 63 H, 26 BB, 40 K. Young and tall and in the rotation all year. All good signs the Phillies like him.
5. Erick Cedeno (LHP, age 19, 6'3″, 220) 1-0, 1.32 ERA, 13.2 IP, 10 H, 6 BB, 19 K. – Older late signing also went to instructionals
6. Francibel Alejo (LHP, age 19, 6'3″, 170) 5-7, 3.06 ERA, 79.1 IP, 94 H, 8 BB, 46 K – Tall LHP did not take a step forward unfortunately and was a little too hittable.
7. Wilber Torres (C, age 18, 5'11", 206) – Catcher hit .241 with a .694 OPS
8. Gregorio Santos (RHP, age 19, 6'3″, 190) 4-3, 3.55 ERA, 76 IP, 84 H, 29 BB, 52 K – Another older starter that played pretty well.
9. Malquin Canelo (SS, age 17, 5'10", 156) Can't hit (.167), but started at SS at age 17 so he must be good defensively
10. Enmanuel Serra (2B, age 19) Hit .254 with a .362 OBP and 21 SB – A little old to be considered a prospect


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The importance of being not normal
Following on from my last post about learning technique, another thought following my recent travels. I was speaking about risk and decision making in bold climbing at the SAFOS seminar at EICA Ratho. One of the other speakers was Mark Williams who gave an excellent lecture summarising some of the fascinating research on skill learning in sport right now.
Mark talked a lot about practice, it's importance, just how much is necessary to reach your potential (a LOT) and crucially, what good practice consisted of. A key characteristic of good athletes in any sport is that they look for patterns in the vast amounts of basic data we absorb in our day to day practice and play. They don't just take in the data, they strive to understand it, make sense of it. There's a big difference. Understanding it means re-running it, either in the imagination (day dreaming, or in scientific terminology, visualisation) or by trying it again and tinkering with some aspect of it in order to understand it better.
In climbing terms this means trying the crux with the right foot on all the plausible options, then coming back next time and trying again, until something in your mind tells you you have 'understood' the move. Quite apart from the physical effort of practice, which has the side effect of getting you strong, it takes a huge amount of mental effort and focus.
After his talk I was very eager to ask Mark what, if anything, climbers could do to improve the quality of the practice since in climbing it is difficult to amass thousands and thousands of hours since our little forearms get tired and our skin wears out.
He told me that a big part of it comes down to this striving to 'understand' the movements. He reminded us that truly great athletes stand out because they are by definition 'not normal'. They verge on an obsessive, compulsive need to go back and analyse every detail.
So is this trainable. Well, much as an obsessive compulsive driven athlete would find it nearly impossible to simply drop this deeply held personality trait on demand, it's similarly hard to start acting like this if it's just not you.
However, just by recognising that this sort of time consuming, repetitive practice and reflection is what is necessary, we can at the very least remove some inhibitions that might hold us back from this sort of approach.
In my mind, modern life demands of us the need to preform a heck of a lot of repetitive yet skilled tasks with a great deal of concentration and effort in our working lives, that are lot more boring than training for climbing. I know we are ultimately climbing for fun, but if we are serious enough even to use the word 'training' to describe some of our climbing sessions, then surely we can apply a hardcore work ethic and up the ante a little. It's worth noting that one of Mark's points was that even the experts who absolutely love training often feel that the best practice sessions simply have to be so systematic and repetitive that they cannot be enjoyed.
But the results of those sessions certainly are enjoyed!


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Argent Wealth Management and Pillar Financial Advisors announced that they have merged their like-sized and similary focused RIA firms effective Nov. 1 under the name Argent Wealth Management LLC.
David DeVoe of DeVoe & Co., whose firm provided strategic consulting and valuation work to both firms, said the deal was a "strategic transaction" under which the two firms will be able to leverage their "complementary services," including the tax and estate planning expertise of Argent and Pillar's financial planning expertise, to grow the combined $1.2 billion firm.
In addition, growth among the high-net-worth and ultrahigh-net-worth clients who are the focus of both firms will be driven, DeVoe said, by the "strong referral network" enjoyed by Argent through Fidelity. The firms' typical clients have $5 million or more in assets, DeVoe said, and while they are concentrated in the Boston area, both firms have clients across the country.
"Each of these organizations are realizing the benefits of scale and the value of independence," DeVoe said, "leveraging the benefits of larger, more scalable organizations." In addition, the merger provides "a broader range of future succession options," DeVoe said, and "expands the management team at both companies." Mergers like this, said DeVoe, "help mitigate the risk around a principal being hit by a bus, while creating greater career opportunities for the staff."
The two firms will operate in their current locations until January, when they will merge operations in Waltham, Mass., where Pillar is based.
In passing, DeVoe observed that there have been a number of mergers and acquisitions of advisory firms in the Boston area lately, such as those involving The Colony Group's merger with Mintz Levin (under the Focus Financial Partners' aegis) and Banyan Partners' June purchase of Silver Bridge Advisors. Rather than there being anything in the water, DeVoe said that "each city and region is its own community, and as a series of transactions occur, more people start to become more curious about M&A."
Argent and Pillar are both fee-only firms that have been in business for more than 20 years. Argent, based in Weston, Mass., is led by president and founder David Duchesneau, while Pillar's president is Bill Baldwin, a past chairman of NAPFA. In a statement, Baldwin said that "Combining our firms gives us the ability to grow while remaining a private company, with capabilities that are among the most sophisticated, comprehensive and respected in our industry."