#EYLS reporting | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

paralleljulieverse · 5 years ago

Photo

LILI IN LONDON: Darling Lili Makes Her European Bow

Fifty years ago this week, Darling Lili had its official European Premiere at the Plaza Cinema in London on 1 October, 1970. It wasn’t the film’s first international release -- that honour fell to Japan, where Darling Lili opened at the Cinerama Theatre Tokyo on 4 July, barely two weeks after the film’s US opening. However, the London premiere was a significant occasion in the film’s wider global rollout. It was, after all, Julie Andrews’ hometown and there was considerable hope local audiences would give the film a warmer reception than had been the case in North America.

Accordingly, the UK branch of Paramount Pictures afforded Darling Lili a high profile release. They exhibited the film as a full roadshow attraction, complete with widescreen 70mm print, overture and exit music, and a 24-page souvenir programme (Klar 1970). In keeping with the era’s norms of variegated international film marketing, completely new promotional artwork was commissioned for the UK release. Featuring a central image of Julie/Lili bursting into song with her arms outstretched -- a clear nod to The Sound of Music -- with a cloudburst of narrative scenes from the film fanning across the bottom of her billowing skirt, it was an arresting design that served as a ready-made marketing logo for the campaign that could be emblazoned across the full range of advertising and merchandising (Paramount 1970).

The gala premiere took place on Thursday, 1 October -- Julie’s 35th birthday, incidentally — at the Plaza Cinema in Lower Regent Street, just off Piccadilly Circus. Popularly dubbed the “Home of Paramount Pictures”, the Plaza had long been the London venue of choice for the studio’s biggest film premieres (Eyles, 26-28). Though not an official Royal Performance, the European Premiere of Darling Lili was a major society charity event with proceeds going to the Printer’s Pension Corporation, one of the oldest royally-sponsored occupational charities in the UK. Tickets were available from £1 to £5 in the stalls and £10 to £20 in the Circle with the event raising over £6000 for the charity (”Darling Lili Aids”, 12).

Official patrons of the Printer’s Pension Corporation, Lord and Lady Hartwell presided over the evening, welcoming a line of society notables and assorted local celebrities including Sue Lloyd, Judy Geeson, Clodagh Rogers and Julie Ege (“Darling Lili Has”, 32). Neither Julie nor Blake was able to make the premiere, though Julie’s parents were in attendance as honorary guests. Representing the cast, Lance Percival, who plays the comic support role of T.C. Carstairs in the film, “arrived at the Plaza in a vintage white Rolls Royce driven by a female chauffeur” (ibid.). Press reports noted that the “premiere drew large numbers of films fans to the theatre” and “the capacity audience...repeatedly applauded during the presentation of the film” (ibid.)

Following the premiere, Darling Lili opened the next day on 2 October to the general public. In a way that paralleled the experience at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, the decision to stage the film as a special event prestige picture worked well. Lili ran in roadshow release at the Plaza for over three months till 6 January 1971. It then continued to play in general release at various venues throughout London such as the ABC Cinema-Edgeware Rd well into late-1971.

Critical responses to Darling Lili in the London press ran the gamut. The film garnered several positive notices. Patrick Gibbs of the Daily Telegraph rated it “a very amiable and romantic comedy-thriller” (P14). The film “offers many pleasures,” declared the Daily Mail, with “Miss Andrews singing, dancing, delighting...with some very pretty songs...and amusing performances” (Cable, 9). The critic for the Evening Post opined:

“It is fashionable to sneer at Julie Andrews’ films as being sickly-sweet and 20 years out of date--but I can only say I enjoyed this one...Darling Lili is an enjoyable, emotional, light-hearted love story with a strong comedy element” (Watson, 7).

Other reviewers were less enthusiastic. The critic for the Daily Mirror was unsure “what kind of film Darling Lili was supposed to be”:

“Taken as a spy send-up, it’s harmless enough and drags only occasionally, but the comedy doesn’t always blend with the drama. The ending...is a cloyingly sentimental cop-out and a shade nauseating” (Richards, 19).

More than a few UK commentators baulked at the film’s irreverent treatment of World War 1--perhaps unsurprisingly given the enormous significance of the “Great War” to British history and national mythology. The critic for The Tablet, for example, called the film “a monstrous betrayal of the period.” Its “trivialisation of the issues is outrageous...I have no doubt it will be popular, but it shouldn’t be.” Still, he conceded, the film’s “photography...is very pretty and Miss Andrews’s voice is as pure as ever” (Burke, 959).

Critical concessions to “our Julie” were a notable feature of many London reviews. The all-important Times review declared:

“I wish I could like Darling Lili more. I love musicals and remain unrepentantly devoted to Julie Andrews, but this lavish new vehicle for her talents is the most upsetting sort of misfire--the sort which could so easily have been put right, with a little more thought (or a little less worry), a little more confidence in hitting the right tone and sticking to it...a disappointing waste of all the talent and money so evidently lavished on it” (Taylor, 13)

It was a sentiment echoed in The Illustrated London News:

“Miss Andrews sings well, acts decently, and even does a strip number that reveals a new side to her talent as well as a gorgeous, long-concealed, pair of legs. But, alas, not even she can save this ponderous film with its strange blend of old-and-new songs, its heavyweight prankishness, and its inordinate length” (Billington, 31).

Or again the review in The People:

“Julie has charm, grace, plus a good singing voice and Henry Mancini’s music is haunting. But the character she portrays...is hardly endearing. The story...is improbable too, even for a musical. But there are some smashing flying sequences and I like Julie’s style--so I wish it well” (Nunn, 7).

While Darling Lili opened with a splash and did decent enough business in London, it faced very different prospects elsewhere in the UK where the film became something of an inadvertent hostage in an ongoing industrial dispute. At issue was an attempt by US distributors to loosen the stranglehold and perceived old-fashioned exhibition practices of the two big regional UK chains: ABC and Odeon (“Elvin Raps”, 196; “Compromise Ends”, 24). Unable to agree on new terms, the distributors withheld several big features, including Lili, from release to these chains. As a result, Lili’s broader UK rollout was held up for months and, in some cases, years. The film didn’t get a Midlands release, for example, till April 1971 when it opened for a fixed season at the Regal Cinema in Leamington, “an independent theatre whose booking agents were able to come to terms with the distributors” (“Regal Breaks,” 2). The film then popped up intermittently at other independent theatres across the UK: Margate in September, Liverpool in October, and Belfast in January 1972.

Many major provincial markets missed out on the film completely. In a disgruntled letter to the local newspaper in early-1972, one Birmingham fan wondered if “there is a particular antipathy to musicals in our city. We have yet to see Darling Lili (Julie Andrews) and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (Barbra Streisand), both of which have been shown in London” (Krober, 6). In a similar vein, a Reading filmgoer complained that his local ABC cinema was screening endless reissues while many new films “have yet to play in Reading..that are certainly worth a showing” such as “Julie Andrews and Rock Hudson in Darling Lili” (Suter, 10).

The UK distribution dispute was eventually resolved and Darling Lili managed to make its way out to a broader range of provincial centres including Birmingham, where it opened at the Odeon in April 1973. But by this stage the film was hardly new and whatever marketing impetus was there from the London campaign had well and truly evaporated. It was an unfortunate fizzling out for what could have otherwise been an effective national release for the film. Still, UK filmgoers who missed Darling Lili in theatres didn’t have to wait too long to catch it on the small screen. It made its British television debut as the ‘Film of the Week’ on BBC-1 on 2 April 1976 (“Film of the Week”, 22).

Sources:

Billington, Michael. “Cinema: An Ode to Lost Innocence.” The Illustrated London News. 3 October 1970: 31.

Burke, J.A.V. “Darling Lili.” The Tablet. 3 October 1970: 959.

Cable, Michael. “The Sweet English Rose is Among the Guns.” Daily Mail. 30 September 1970: 9.

“Compromise Ends US Majors’ Fight Vs. UK Circuits Over Sunday Rentals.” Variety, 13 October 1971: 24.

“‘Darling Lili’ Aids Printers’ Charity.” The Daily Telegraph. 2 October 1970: 12.

“‘Darling Lili’ Has Glittering London Bow.” The Calgary-Herald. 10 October 1970: 32.

“Elvin Raps ‘Oldfashioned Methods’ of UK Pic Biz, Hits Chains’ Bookings.” Variety. 29 April 1970: 196.

Eyles, Allen. London's West End Cinemas. Swindon : English Heritage, 2014.

“Film of the Week: ‘Darling Lili’.” Radio Times, 1 April 1976: 22.

Gibbs, Patrick. “Films: Spying With a Song.” Daily Telegraph. 2 October 1970: P14.

Harmsworth, Madeleine. “New Film.” Sunday Mirror. 4 October 1970: 29.

Klar, Arthur. Darling Lili [Souvenir Book], London: National Publishers, Inc, 1970.

Krober, Kenneth S. “Letters to the Editor: Antipathy To Musicals.” Birmingham Daily Post, 7 February 1972: 6.

Mallett, Richard. “Cinema.” Punch. No. 6787, 7 October 1970: 510.

Nunn, Ray. “But Will Lili Keep ‘Em Singing?” The People. 4 October 1970: 7.

Paramount Pictures (UK). Your Promotion Guide: Darling Lili [Advertising Campaign Manual], Chiswick, 1970.

“Picture.” Daily Telegraph. 2 October 1970: P17.

“Regal Breaks Stranglehold.” Birmingham Daily Post. 27 April 1971: 2.

Richards, Dick. “I Spy a Send-Up.” Daily Mirror. 1 October 1970: 19.

Suter, Les. “Letters to the Editor: Old Films.” Reading Evening Post. 15 June 1972: 10.

Taylor, John Russell. “Purple Passages in Paris.” The Times. 2 October 1970: 13.

Watson, Albert. “At the Cinema: Yes, I Enjoyed Julie Andrews!” Evening Post. 10 October 1970: 7.

#Darling Lili #julie andrews #european premiere #film premiere #london #plaza theatre #paramount #blake edwards #rock hudson #film history #classic film #old hollywood

11 notes · View notes

worklabournewsresearch · 5 years ago

Text

Generation Covid: Emerging Work and Education Inequalities

“More than one in 10 people aged 16 - 25 have lost their job, and just under six in 10 have seen their earnings fall since the coronavirus pandemic began, new research shows. The study found young workers to be twice as likely to have lost their jobs compared to older employees and that employment and earnings losses are more pronounced for women, the self-employed and those who grew up in a poor family. The survey, carried out by academics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Exeter University, provides further evidence that young people are suffering substantial and sustained losses, not only to their employment, but also their education.”

“Professor Lee Elliot Major, Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter and report co-author, said: ‘We are seeing large and sustained losses in education for school pupils and university students in the wake of the pandemic, with those from lower-income backgrounds particularly suffering. The big danger for pupils is that they suffer permanent educational scarring - missing out on key grades that can shape future life prospects.’”

London School of Economics (LSE), October 26, 2020: “One in 10 young people lost their job during covid-19 pandemic”

Generation COVID: Emerging work and education inequalities: A series of background briefings on the policy issues arising from the Covid-19 pandemic . A CEP Covid-19 analysis Paper No.011 by Lee Elliot Major, Andrew Eyles Stephen Machin (14 pages, PDF)

BBC News, October 26, 2020: “'Generation Covid' hit hard by the pandemic, research reveals”

BBC Media Centre, September 10, 2020: “New global poll documents the pandemic’s impact on inequality”

and in Canada ...

“The COVID-19 pandemic has already resulted in a considerable slowdown in economic activity in Canada. Young people have been hit particularly hard. This article presents estimates of the cumulative earnings losses in the first five years after graduation that this year's graduating class could experience, depending on the depth of the economic downturn. Specifically, five scenarios for this year's youth unemployment rate are examined.”

Statistics Canada, StatCan COvid-19, July 28, 2020: To what extent might COVID-19 affect the earnings of the class of 2020? (14 pages, PDF)

iPolitics, October 9, 2020: “September may be the last month of rapid job growth in Canada for a while,” by Jolson Lim.

0 notes

livingwellpage · 6 years ago

Text

Trump Executive Order to Mandate Price Transparency for Providers

As the N.Y. Times reports, more transparency is coming to provider prices.

The White House released an executive order Monday afternoon intended to require insurance companies, doctors and hospitals to give patients more information about precisely what their care will cost before they get it.

More transparency is generally good and surprise billing for out-of-network costs has been a major problem. However, health care prices are complicated. Many people already receive a “THIS IS NOT A BILL” invoice statement from providers which is totally incomprehensible. It will be important that any additional disclosure is easy for consumers to understand. Further, value-based payment means that the amount that providers receive for care may change after the fact. For instance, the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program gives hospitals financial penalties if there readmission rates are too high. Are these value-based payment adjustments to be included in the price reported? The details are left to be worked about through the rulemaking process.

As reported on NPR, Matt Eyles, the CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) stated:

“Publicly disclosing competitively negotiated, proprietary rates will reduce competition and push prices higher — not lower — for consumers, patients, and taxpayers.”

Thus, the net effect on prices paid to hospitals, physicians and others is not entirely clear.

The executive order also had some other provisions as well. As PBS NewsHour reports, these include:

Expanded uses for health savings accounts, a tax-advantaged way to pay health care bills that has long been favored by Republicans. Coupled with a lower-premium, high-deductible insurance plan, the accounts can be used to pay out-of-pocket costs for routine medical exams and procedures.

A plan to pull together the government’s various health care quality rating systems for hospitals, nursing homes, and Medicare Advantage plans, improving reporting of information to consumers.

More access by researchers to health care information, such as claims for services covered by government programs like Medicare. The data would be stripped of details that could identify individual patients.

As a researcher, more access to data would be a great thing. Health savings accounts have the potential to make health care more efficient in theory, but in practice (i) prices aren’t known and (ii) patients often end up foregoing care rather than using HSA to better shop around.

Trump Executive Order to Mandate Price Transparency for Providers published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

billy-batson · 8 years ago

Note

lena….a r/eyl/o shipper just infiltrated my domain, commenting about shipping a pedophilic ship (a totally different but equally disgusting ship) “is pretty easy actually” ………i am on the verge of blocking…kind of want to reply “wtf no” and kind of don’t…what should i do??

BLOCK AND REPORT

3 notes · View notes

usgag · 5 years ago

Text

Health insurer profits amid pandemic prompt federal probe

US health insurance giants doubled their profits as the coronavirus pandemic killed thousands of Americans — sparking a federal investigation.

Three of the nation’s largest health insurers raked in a collective $10.7 billion in profits from April through June with the virus raging across the country, up from just $5.3 billion in the same period last year, financial statements show.

That included $6.6 billion in net earnings for UnitedHealth, the biggest US health insurance firm, which reported earnings of roughly $3.3 billion in the second quarter of 2019. Indianapolis-based Anthem’s net income climbed to $2.2 billion from $1.1 billion last year, while Humana’s surged to $1.8 billion from $940 million a year ago.

CVS Health, the pharmacy giant that owns the insurer Aetna, also saw its profits jump to nearly $3 billion from some $1.9 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

The windfall was so staggering that it’s prompted a probe from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which said it is examining health and dental insurers’ business practices amid the pandemic.

One reason for the surge is that insurers paid out less money in medical claims as the pandemic forced patients to put off elective surgeries and doctors’ appointments while slammed emergency rooms battled the virus, according to the New York Times, which first reported on the spike last week. The Guardian also reported on the profits Friday.

But federal health care laws also require insurers to spend between 80 percent and 85 percent of the premiums they collect to pay for their customers’ medical expenses. Under the Affordable Care Act, revenues collected in excess of those caps must be returned to consumers in the form of rebates.

“In a time of national crisis and when many families are struggling financially, the insurance industry must do its part to assist individuals who are deferring medical procedures, avoiding doctors’ offices, or otherwise not using the health insurance for which they are paying,” three Democratic lawmakers wrote in a Thursday letter to nine insurance companies.

America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group, defended its response to the pandemic last week, noting that insurers have eliminated patient cost-sharing for COVID-19 testing and treatments while expanding access to telehealth and mental health services.

“The second half of the year could see a lot more care, and higher costs, than the first half of 2020,” Matt Eyles, the group’s president and CEO, wrote in a blog post.

“However, if these costs never materialize and remain below certain levels, American consumers, businesses, and taxpayers are protected by provisions in federal and state laws that require health insurance providers to deliver premium rebates and put money back into their pockets.”

The post Health insurer profits amid pandemic prompt federal probe appeared first on The Lastes US & World News - Opinion, Entertainments, Sports,....

from Bussiness – The Lastes US & World News – Opinion, Entertainments, Sports,… https://ift.tt/30ZcpLw via https://usagag.com

#bussiness gag

0 notes

shaqohel · 5 years ago

Text

Pre-qualified Enumerators - Mogadishu - Hudur - Wajid, Elbarde - Yeed - Garowe - Eyl

Pre-qualified Enumerators - Mogadishu - Hudur - Wajid, Elbarde - Yeed - Garowe - Eyl #somalia #somalijobs #shaqohel

Duty Stations: Mogadishu, Hudur, Wajid, Elbarde, Yeed, Garowe and Eyl.

Reporting to: M & E Officer

Contract duration: Need basis for the year 2020-2021

Organisational background:

Action Against Hunger-USA is part of the Action Against Hunger International network, which provides humanitarian relief in over 40 countries worldwide in the sectors of nutrition, health, water/sanitation, and food…

View On WordPress

0 notes

maxihealth · 6 years ago

Text

Trump Executive Order to Mandate Price Transparency for Providers

As the N.Y. Times reports, more transparency is coming to provider prices.

As reported on NPR, Matt Eyles, the CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) stated:

“Publicly disclosing competitively negotiated, proprietary rates will reduce competition and push prices higher — not lower — for consumers, patients, and taxpayers.”

Thus, the net effect on prices paid to hospitals, physicians and others is not entirely clear.

The executive order also had some other provisions as well. As PBS NewsHour reports, these include:

A plan to pull together the government’s various health care quality rating systems for hospitals, nursing homes, and Medicare Advantage plans, improving reporting of information to consumers.

Trump Executive Order to Mandate Price Transparency for Providers posted first on https://carilloncitydental.blogspot.com

0 notes

kansascityhappenings · 6 years ago

Text

Trump signs order that aims to reveal real health care costs

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday that calls for upfront disclosure by hospitals of actual prices for common tests and procedures to help keep costs down .

The idea is to give patients practical information that they can use to save money. For example, if a hospital charges your insurer $3,500 for a type of echocardiogram and the same test costs $550 in a doctor’s office, you might go for the lower-price procedure to save on copays.

But insurers said the idea could backfire, prompting hospitals that now give deeper discounts to try to raise their own negotiated prices to match what high earners are getting. Hospitals were skeptical of the move.

Trump’s order also requires that patients be told ahead of time what their out-of-pocket costs like deductibles and copays will be for many procedures.

Little will change right away. The executive order calls for a rule-making process by federal agencies, which typically takes months or even years. The details of what information will have to be disclosed and how it will be made available to patients must be worked out as part of writing the regulations. That will involve a complex give-and-take with hospitals, insurers and others affected.

Consumers will have to wait to see whether the results live up to the administration’s promises.

“For too long it’s been virtually impossible for Americans to know the real price and quality of health care services and the services they receive,” Trump said at the White House. “As a result, patients face significant obstacles shopping for the best care at the best price, driving up health care costs for everyone.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters earlier that the order “will put patients in control by increasing choice and competition.”

Lack of information on health care prices is a widespread problem . It’s confusing for patients, and experts say it’s also one of the major factors that push up U.S. costs. The same test or procedure, in the same city, can cost widely different amounts depending on who is performing it and who is paying the bill. Hospital list prices, which are available, don’t reflect what they are paid by insurers and government programs.

The health insurance industry said disclosing negotiated prices will only encourage hospitals that are now providing deeper discounts to try to raise their rates to match the top-tier facilities. “Publicly disclosing competitively negotiated proprietary rates will reduce competition and push prices higher — not lower — for consumers, patients, and taxpayers,” Matt Eyles, head of the industry group America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement.

The Federation of American Hospitals, representing for-profit facilities, warned that if the Trump administration regulations take the “wrong course,” they may “undercut the way insurers pay for hospital services, resulting in higher spending.”

While the prices Medicare pays are publicly available, private insurers’ negotiated rates generally are not. Industry officials say such contractual information is tantamount to trade secrets and should remain private.

Azar pushed back against that argument, saying insurers do ultimately disclose their payment rates when they send individual patients an “explanation of benefits.” That’s the technical term for the form that patients get after they’ve had a procedure or seen the doctor.

“Every time any one of us goes to a doctor or a hospital, within a couple of weeks in our mailbox arrives an explanation of benefits. (It) contains the list price … the negotiated rate … and what your out-of-pocket is,” Azar said. “This is not some great state secret out there.”

Patients should have that information ahead of time to help them make decisions, he added.

Trump’s executive order also calls for:

—expanded uses for health savings accounts, a tax-advantaged way to pay health care bills that has long been favored by Republicans. Coupled with a lower-premium, high-deductible insurance plan, the accounts can be used to pay out-of-pocket costs for routine medical exams and procedures.

—a plan to improve the government’s various health care quality rating systems for hospitals, nursing homes and Medicare Advantage plans.

— more access by researchers to health care information, such as claims for services covered by government programs like Medicare. The data would be stripped of details that could identify individual patients.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/06/24/trump-signs-order-that-aims-to-reveal-real-health-care-costs/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/trump-signs-order-that-aims-to-reveal-real-health-care-costs/

0 notes

dorcasrempel · 6 years ago

Text

MIT celebrates 50th anniversary of historic moon landing

On Sept. 12, 1962, in a speech given in Houston to pump up support for NASA’s Apollo program, President John F. Kennedy shook a stadium crowd with the now-famous quote: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

As he delivered these lines, engineers in MIT’s Instrumentation Laboratory were already taking up the president’s challenge. One year earlier, NASA had awarded MIT the first major contract of the Apollo program, charging the Instrumentation Lab with developing the spacecraft’s guidance, navigation, and control systems that would shepherd astronauts Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong to the moon and back.

On July 20, 1969, the hard work of thousands paid off, as Apollo 11 touched down on the lunar surface, safely delivering Armstrong and Aldrin ScD ’63 as the first people to land on the moon.

On Wednesday, MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) celebrated the 50th anniversary of this historic event with the daylong symposium “Apollo 50+50,” featuring former astronauts, engineers, and NASA adminstrators who examined the legacy of the Apollo program, and MIT faculty, students, industry leaders, and alumni who envisioned what human space exploration might look like in the next 50 years.

In welcoming a large audience to Kresge Auditorium, some of whom sported NASA regalia for the occasion, Daniel Hastings, head of AeroAstro, said of today’s prospects for space exploration: “It’s the most exciting time since Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon.”

The event kicked off three days of programming for MIT Space Week, which also included the Media Lab’s “Beyond the Cradle: Envisioning a New Space Age” on March 14, and the student-led “New Space Age Conference” on March 15.

“We could press on”

As a “baby boomer living through Apollo,” retired astronaut Charles Bolden, NASA’s 12th administrator, said the Apollo program illustrated “how masterful we were at overcoming adversity.” In a keynote address that opened the day’s events, Bolden reminded the audience that, at the time the ambitious program got underway in the 1960s, the country was in the violent thick of the civil rights movement.

“We were killing each other in the streets,” Bolden said. “And yet we had an agency like NASA, and a small group of people, who were able to bear through everything and land on the moon. … We could recognize there were greater things we could do as a people, and we could press on.”

For MIT’s part, the push began with a telegram on Aug. 9, 1961, to Charles Stark Draper, director of the Instrumentation Laboratory, notifying him that NASA had selected the MIT lab “to develop the guidance navigation system of the Project Apollo spacecraft.” Draper, who was known widely as “Doc,” famously assured NASA of MIT’s work by volunteering himself as a crew member on the mission, writing to the agency that “if I am willing to hang my life on our equipment, the whole project will surely have the strongest possible motivation.”

This of course proved unnecessary, and Draper went on to lead the development of the guidance system with “unbounded optimism,” as his former student and colleague Lawrence Young, the MIT Apollo Program Professor, recalled in his remarks.

“We owe the lighting of our fuse to Doc Draper,” Young said.

At the time that MIT took on the Apollo project, the Instrumentation Laboratory, later renamed Draper Laboratory, took up a significant footprint, with 2,000 people and 15 buildings on campus, dedicated largely to the lunar effort.

“The Instrumentation Lab dwarfed the [AeroAstro] department,” said Hastings, joking, “it was more like the department was a small pimple on the Instrumentation Lab.”

Apollo remembered

In a highlight of the day’s events, NASA astronauts Walter Cunningham (Apollo 7) and Charles Duke SM ’64 (Apollo 16), and MIT Instrumentation Laboratory engineers Donald Eyles and William Widnall ’59, SM ’62 — all from the Apollo era — took the stage to reminisce about some of the technical challenges and emotional moments that defined the program.

One of the recurring themes of their conversation was the observation that things simply got done faster back then. For instance, Duke remarked that it took just 8.5 years from when Kennedy first called for the mission, to when Armstrong’s boots hit the lunar surface.

“I would argue the proposal for such a mission would take longer [today],” Duke said to an appreciative rumble from the audience.

The Apollo Guidance Computer, developed at MIT, weighed 70 pounds, consumed 55 watts of power — half the wattage of a regular lightbulb — and took up less than 1 cubic foot inside the spacecraft. The system was one of the first digital flight computers, and one of the first computers to use integrated circuits.

Eyles and Widnall recalled in detail the technical efforts that went into developing the computer’s hardware and software. “If you’re picturing [the computer code] on a monitor, you’d be wrong,” Eyles told the audience. “We were writing the program on IBM punch cards. That clunking mechanical sound of the key-punch machine was the soundtrack to creating the software.”

Written out, that code famously amounted to a stack of paper as tall as lead software engineer Margaret Hamilton — who was not able to participate in Wednesday’s panel but attended the symposium dinner that evening.

In the end, the Apollo Guidance Computer succeeded in steering 15 space flights, including nine to the moon, and six lunar landings. That’s not to say that the system didn’t experience some drama along the way, and Duke, who was the capsule communicator, or CAPCOM, for Apollo 11, remembers having to radio up to the spacecraft during the now-famous rocky landing.

“When I heard the first alarm go off during the braking phase, I thought we were dead in the water,” Duke said of the first in a series of alerts that the Apollo astronauts reported, indicating that the computer was overloaded, during the most computationally taxing phase of the mission. The spacecraft was several miles off course and needed to fly over a “boulder field,” to land within 60 seconds or risk running out of fuel.

Flight controllers in Houston’s Mission Control Center determined that if nothing else went wrong, the astronats, despite the alarms, could proceed with landing.

“Tension was high,” Duke said of the moment. “You didn’t want to touch down on a boulder and blow a nozzle, and spoil your whole day.”

When the crew finally touched down on the Sea of Tranquility, with Armstrong’s cool report that “the Eagle has landed,” Duke, too wound-up to properly verbalize the callback “Tranquility,” recalls “I was so excited … it came out as ‘Twang,’ or something like that.’ The tension — it was like popping a balloon.”

Since the Apollo era, NASA has launched astronauts on numerous missions, many of whom are MIT graduates. On Wednesday, 13 of those graduates came onstage to be recognized along with the Apollo crew.

In introducing them to the audience, Jeffrey Hoffman, a former astronaut and now AeroAstro professor of the practice, noted MIT’s significant representation in the astronaut community. For instance, in the five missions to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, which comprised 24 spacewalks, 13 of those were performed by MIT graduates.

“That’s pretty cool,” Hoffman said.

On the horizon

The Apollo moon rocks that were were brought back to Earth have “evolved our understanding of how the moon formed,” said Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research and the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. These rocks “vanquished” the idea that the moon originally formed as a cold assemblage of rocks and “foo foo dust,” she said.

Instead, after carefully analyzing samples from Apollo 11 and other missions, scientists at MIT and elsewhere have found that the moon was a dynamic body, with a surface that at one time was entirely molten, and a metallic core, or “dynamo,” powering an early, lunar magnetic field. Even more provocative was the finding that the moon was not in fact “bone-dry,” but actually harbored water — an idea that Zuber said was virtually unpublishable until an MIT graduate reported evidence of water in Apollo samples, after which the floodgates opened in support of the idea.

To consider the next 50 years of space exploration, the MIT symposium featured a panel of faculty members — Paulo Lozano, Danielle Wood, Richard Binzel, and Sara Seager — who highlighted, respectively, the development of tiny thrusters to power miniature spacecraft; an effort to enable wider access to microgravity missions; an MIT student-designed mission (REXIS) that is currently analyzing the near-Earth asteroid Bennu; and TESS and ASTERIA, satellite missions that are currently in orbit, looking for planets and possibly, life, outside our solar system.

Industry leaders also weighed in on the growing commercialization of space exploration, in a panel featuring MIT alums who currently head major aerospace companies.

Keoki Jackson, chief technology officer of Lockheed Martin, noted the pervasiveness of space-based technologies, such as GPS-dependent apps for everything from weather and news, to Uber.

“[Commercial enterprises] have made space a taken-for-granted part of life,” said Jackson, noting later in the panel that in 2015, 1 billion GPS devices had been sold around the world. “This shows you what can happen exponentially when you come up with something truly enabling.”

“The challenge we face is talent, and in particular, diversity,” said John Langford, CEO and founder of Aurora Flight Sciences, who noted the panel’s all-male participants as an example. “It’s an industry-wide challenge. We’re working to reform ourselves, as we move from the brigade-type technologies that we grew up with, to incorporating technologies such as computer technology and artificial intelligence.”

Future missions

In a glimpse of what the future of space exploration might hold, MIT students presented lightning talks on a range of projects, including a custom-designed drill to excavate ice on Mars, a system that makes oxygen on Mars to fuel return missions to Earth, and a plan to send CubeSats around the world to monitor water vapor as a measure of climate change.

Audience members voted online for the best pitch, which ultimately went to Raichelle Aniceto and her presentation of a CubeSat-enabled laser communications system designed to transmit large amounts of data from the moon to Earth in just five minutes.

In the last keynote address of the symposium, Thomas Zubuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, told the audience that there is still a lot of research to be done on the moon, which he said is changing, as evidenced by new craters that have formed in the last 50 years.

“The moon of the Apollo era is not the same moon of today,” said Zurbuchen, who noted that just this week, NASA announced it will open previously unlocked samples of soil collected by the Apollo missions.

In closing the symposium, Dava Newman, the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics and former NASA deputy administrator, envisioned a future dedicated to sending humans back to the moon, and ultimately to Mars.

“I’m a rocket scientist. I got here because of Apollo, and Eleanor Roosevelt said it best: Believe in the beauty of your dreams,” Newman said. “The challenge is, within 50 years, to be boots on Mars. I think we have the brains and the doers and inspiration to really make that happen.”

MIT celebrates 50th anniversary of historic moon landing syndicated from https://osmowaterfilters.blogspot.com/

0 notes

up-label · 7 years ago

Text

“Raising White Kids,” by Denver Public Schools grad, confronts thorny subject for students, parents: white privilege

Parents of white children have an invisible luxury: They don’t need to start talking to their kids about the subject of race as young as preschool.

That’s a privilege not afforded black and Latino parents, many educators say, because their children’s lives and educations are literally at risk from the moment they enter society.

But even bringing up the issue causes problems, they have found. Meanwhile, incidents with racial overtones continue to dominate school-safety discussions, from the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting in February, to a Manual High School football game against a mostly white school last fall, during which students reported hearing racial slurs.

With more than half of its nearly 100,000 students minorities, Denver Public Schools is worried.

“It’s a hard conversation to have without context, or without helping people understand this is not about blaming, shaming or judging you,” said Allen Smith, chief of Denver Public Schools’ Culture, Equity and Leadership Team.

DENVER, COLORADO – APRIL 15: A portrait of Allen Smith, Denver Public Schools chief of equity and leadership team, Sunday, April 15, 2018 outside Ellis Elementary School. (Photo by Daniel Brenner/Special to the Denver Post)

That’s why Jennifer Harvey, a professor of ethics and religion at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, has devoted herself to bridging the gap. A graduate of Denver Public Schools, from Park Hill’s Stedman Elementary to East High School, and a mother of two elementary school kids, she sees only peril in ignoring the subject.

An ordained member of American Baptist Churches, she wrote the 2014 book “Dear White Christians,” and now, “Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America.”

“White privilege is a crisis for students,” Harvey said. “We’re telling them they are supposed to value equity and celebrate diversity. But we are not understanding that for them to do that, they also have to grow an anti-racist skill set. And it is complicated because they aren’t supposed to celebrate their whiteness. A few are going off in different ways and are ripe for the picking, like some of those who showed up in Charlottesville.”

Harvey came to Denver over the weekend, with the help of Park Hill Collective Impact and Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education, to give free, public lectures and workshops at Park Hill Library, Stedman Elementary, Montview Presbyterian Church and, on Monday, an 8 a.m. event at McNichols Civic Center building

The most immediate concern is violence. The Parkland shooting has been attributed, in part, to the alleged shooter’s racist radicalization. Swastika-carved rifle magazines were found at the scene, according to authorities, who also found connections to anti-black and anti-Muslim groups on social media.

But at a more basic level, ignoring white privilege continues cycles of segregation and misunderstanding, Harvey said — especially in schools, where students need all the peace and acceptance they can get to learn and grow.

“American schools are disturbingly racially segregated, period,” said Catherine Lhamon, head of the U.S. Education Department of Education’s civil rights office, in an October speech. Her remarks echoed recent studies showing that integration efforts have lost ground in recent years, returning racial demographics in U.S. education to the same divided levels as in 1968.

Diverse districts like DPS, where the student population is 55.5 percent Latino, compared with 23.2 percent white, according to a 2016 DPS report, need to confront it, and not only because the majority of educators are white women. The silence is also noticeable in majority-white areas, some students say.

“Hispanic kids are hanging out with Hispanic kids and white kids are hanging out with white kids,” said Alec Eyl, an 18-year-old junior at Boulder High School. “Even in a town like Boulder, which is something close to 85 percent white, it’s noticeable. People here like to say they’re liberal, but our demographics do not represent America.”

That’s why teachers and students need proper context to even begin talking about white privilege, proponents of the conversation say: one of cooperation and mutual respect. Otherwise, the topic can seem irrelevant, or, on the other side, as a personal attack designed to induce guilt over one’s race.

“I remember one (teacher) telling me she didn’t feel safe having the conversation because she didn’t want to make the wrong statement,” said Smith, who conducts bias training and “equity boot camps” for DPS educators. “But you have to start somewhere. This is about developing that muscle. It’s uncomfortable at first.”

The right context is hard to find, Drake University professor Harvey added, which is why she wrote the book “Raising White Kids.” And defensiveness is practically baked into the subject.

A flyer promoting an event for the book in January caused an uproar that a Des Moines CBS station attributed to its flashy headline: “Raising Healthy White Kids.” Harvey subsequently appeared on TV to defend herself against accusations that the event was a “white supremacist project.”

When Park Hill Collective Impact and Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education (PHNEE) brought Harvey to town over the weekend, organizers were careful not to give the same impression.

“We did chose a slightly different name, as the workshop (was) focused a bit more broadly than just (Harvey’s) recent book,” said Andrew Lefkowits, co-chairman of PHNEE.

“Given Park Hill’s history in fighting for integration (and) that it was at the center of court-ordered busing in Denver,” he said, “we felt that there was an opportunity to drive a conversation about equity in our schools.”

Some of Harvey’s practical tips in the book include age-appropriate teaching tools for kids, jettisoning the “color-blind” approach for a race-conscious one that acknowledges whiteness isn’t the standard for everyone, and encouraging parents to bring up the subject early and often.

If black parents are talking to their children about the increased dangers they face in society as a person of color, whether behind the wheel of a car or playing in a park, white kids should be aware of how they can use their privilege to help them, she said.

“This is a multi-racial project,” Harvey said. “I don’t want to break my kids’ hearts. I want them to think the world is amazing and it’s their oyster. But I also want them to have deep relationships with black and Latino and Asian people, and they can’t do that if I lie to them about how the world is.”

Source Article

The post “Raising White Kids,” by Denver Public Schools grad, confronts thorny subject for students, parents: white privilege appeared first on UP-LABEL.

Learn More: http://www.up-label.com/raising-white-kids-by-denver-public-schools-grad-confronts-thorny-subject-for-students-parents-white-privilege/

0 notes

markdewdney · 8 years ago

Link

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have heard it a million times before. You have the right to do this, the right to do that, but if you haven’t been paying attention lately, it’s all BULLSHIT!

The Declaration of Independence begins by stating that all men are created equal and that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. A concept even the authors do not believe themselves! They were all slave owners, so what they meant was THEY were all created equal. The slave was not human therefore had no rights. Funny that they used the word “inalienable” to describe these rights, which according to Dictionary.com is defined as:

inalienable [in-eyl-yuh-nuh-buh l, -e] adjective 1. not transferable to another or not capable of being taken away or denied; not alienable: inalienable rights, freedoms, and liberties; an inalienable territory; inalienable principles and values.

I’d like to repeat that, because it sounds vaguely important. “Not capable of being taken away or denied.”

Therefore, rights are things that cannot be taken away, but ask anyone who has had their rights violated in the 21st century whether that is true or not and, more often than not, they will tell you that is a lie! It is the biggest lie of all time in fact because they have managed to convince the entire world that it is true. Any rights that can be taken away are by definition, not rights at all! They are privileges that can be trampled by government agents at any time. Let’s break these supposed rights down one by one, shall we?

Amendment I.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Taken one at a time, the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. In other words the right to protest. In Cleveland Ohio on May 23 2015, protesters were corralled into a corner downtown off W 6th street, and summarily arrested for following police orders. What they were really arrested for was protesting. They had been at it all day and the city of Cleveland decided they’d heard enough. Ademo Freeman was there documenting the whole thing. (video here)

During the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in 200o, protesters were arrested on their way to the protest by undercover police officers who were driving them there. The government tactics used to infiltrate peaceful protesters and the arrests before any crimes had been committed is well documented in the book, Crashing the Party: Legacies and Lessons from the RNC 2000

The right to a free press has been revoked in the Micheal Brown protests in St Louis in 2014 when reporters were harassed at a local McDonalds trying to get Wifi. Reporters were also shot at by police specifically targeting their camera equipment. When the reporters abandoned the camera, police ran over to it and pointed it at the ground. In more recent days, under Donald Trump journalists have been under attack and their work labeled as fake news.

If you have followed this website since its inception in 2010, you undoubtedly have seen several writers’ stories detailing them having had their freedom of speech, as well as the right to free press and the right to assemble, violated by police. The founders of CopBlock, Ademo Freeman and Pete Eyre as well as most writers here, have had their right to free speech violated numerous times.

You think you have a freedom of religion? Try smoking weed instead of drinking wine as your sacrament. Ask any Rastafarian in this country if the freedom of religion exists. Ademo attended the opening of the First Church of Marijuana in Indiana where the police watched every person that went into the church. They also sent undercover officers into the crowd to arrest anyone they caught smoking marijuana. So not only are they okay with restricting your freedom of religion, they do not mind desecrating your ceremonies either.

Amendment II

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Any gun law in effect today violates this particular amendment, but it doesn’t stop there. After hurricane Katrina the police and military went through New Orleans disarming people who were just trying to defend their property. A 90 year old woman was tackled by a police officer when she revealed she had an antique revolver for protection. Police are constantly shaking down legal gun owners. YouTube is loaded with videos of legal gun owners exercising their right to bear arms and being harassed and threatened by police. In the Youtube video linked above, an officer threatens to “put a round in” a legal open carry advocate. New York, New Jersey, Illinois and California all have very repressive laws against the open carry of firearms and even more repressive laws against concealed carry. Philando Castile was murdered for carrying a legal firearm. His murderer was just recently acquitted of any wrong doing and continues to be a cop. In addition, it is illegal for convicts or the mentally ill to own firearms, as if they have less right to defend themselves because of it. It is also well documented by people like Kory Watkins in Texas and in other videos that can be found on this website.

Amendment III

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Now this is a hard one to break. You can’t even find an example except when researching the Revolutionary War. Police really had to go out of their way to break this one. In other words, neither the military nor police can just take your house over to conduct surveillance, or run other operations. Not to let a little thing like rights get in the way, the police in Henderson Nevada arrested a family for refusing to let officers use their homes as lookouts for a domestic violence investigation of their neighbors in 2011. You do not have to take my word for it, you can read the link and check it out for yourself!

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I don’t think I have to go into this one too far. I think anyone who has been paying attention to this website or at least has not been living in a cave for the last 10 years, can argue that this particular right means nothing to state agents. These days the fourth amendment is the cornerstone of all discussions that involve violations of our supposed “inalienable rights.” From DUI checkpoints to stop and frisk laws. The drug war has enabled state agencies to violate the fourth amendment in ways we never thought possible.

Checkpoints are not just to stop lowly drug dealers and drunks (most of whom work for the state!) anymore. There are driver license checkpoints, state inspection checkpoints, drug checkpoints. In fact, the DUI checkpoint doesn’t even catch drunks anymore. So the whole reason the supreme court gives for granting this Fourth Amendment violation is invalid. It is set up to generate revenue for the state by giving citations for petty offenses such as malfunctions of your car. Checkpoints also exist 100 miles on this side of the border of the United States. People in Texas are well aware of the restrictive nature of these checkpoints, but people in Northern Ohio or Northern Montana do not realize they are subject to illegal search and seizure by several agencies. You can be stopped by Homeland Security and the Border Patrol, as well as local and state police.

Your Facebook account can also get you put in jail. Say the wrong thing (see 1st Amendment) on your Facebook page or create a fake page and you too could find yourself behind bars, as Anthony Novak found out the hard way in Parma Ohio. In conclusion, there are many ways you are not even aware of to violate your Fourth Amendment rights.

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

The United States has enacted a law called Civil Asset Forfeiture. According to Wikipedia, civil asset forfeiture is “a controversial legal process in which law enforcement officers take assets from persons suspected of involvement with crime or illegal activity without necessarily charging the owners with wrongdoing. While civil procedure, as opposed to criminal procedure, generally involves a dispute between two private citizens, civil forfeiture involves a dispute between law enforcement and property such as a pile of cash or a house or a boat, such that the thing is suspected of being involved in a crime. To get back the seized property, owners must prove it was not involved in criminal activity. Sometimes it can mean a threat to seize property as well as the act of seizure itself.” So much for the protection in this amendment. You do not even have to be convicted of a crime to have your private property seized without compensation this way.

Eminent domain is another state tool that is used to separate people from their rightful property. That is when the state deems your property useful to a public good and steals it from you if you do not sell it to them. This amendment is also used by people who do not want to incriminate themselves in a crime. You do not have to testify against yourself in court. I think the violation of this part of the right is when human nature assumes your guilt when you exercise it. People always assume you are guilty if you plead the fifth, as it’s more commonly known. Unless of course you are Oliver North, then you can make a career out of it.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense

These days the first thing you are expected to do at your arraignment in court after being charged with a crime is waive your right to a speedy trial. It is violated so often that it is now a part of the proceedings to get you to sign this right away. The state logic used to accomplish it is to tell you that if the court schedules you a court date and your father dies, you better miss the funeral instead of court! Be assured that they will still retain the right to reschedule for any trifle involving one of them.

Amendment VII

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

This amendment assures you of a trial by jury, but as usual there is a loophole that allows you to be tried without a jury. If the crime is not serious enough to warrant significant jail time, IE: misdemeanors, you can be tried without a jury. A bench trial allows the judge act as the jury, but since he works for the state what chance do you have? Traffic offenses and a slew of other victimless crimes do not require a jury.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

This amendment is violated so frequently we don’t even pay attention to it anymore. Go to jail. Go directly to jail and find out just exactly how cruel and unusual punishment is doled out. The Cuyahoga County Jail for example, is so old even the guards there say it should have been torn down five years ago. There are pods there with no natural sunlight. No windows, no fresh air, and no regard for basic human needs like toilet paper. If you are unfortunate enough to be sent there in the winter, prepare to freeze your ass off! The heat is never turned above 60. When it gets cold at night you can almost see your own breath.

This amendment also ensures that excessive bail can not be imposed. Where are all my drug war victims? How many of you have been arrested for weed with bail in excess of 10,000 dollars? 75,000 dollars for possession of a plant? I think we can all agree all bail is excessive. If you compare the cost of living and all the other mathematical factors that determine the standard, and when you consider that most bail amounts rival the cost of a house, all bail is excessive with the exception of being released on your own recognizance.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

This one basically says there are rights you have that are not stated here. But I mean hey, if they don’t care about the previous eight supposed “inalienable rights”, what makes you think they are going to take anything not included here seriously?! I have already debunked all the major rights that affect your everyday lives. Good luck defending a right you didn’t even know you had!

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

This one says that the states have the right to govern themselves. The problem here is that the Federal Government has set itself up to be the benefactor of the individual states, so they can choke the states into submission to federal law by cutting federal funding for things like roads, libraries and other state run programs. If the state had the power to make it’s own laws, why is Marijuana still federally prohibited? Why are legal marijuana dispensaries still being raided by federal police agencies?

SO there you have it. Your rights debunked. You have no rights that you are not willing to fight for. All you have are privileges that can be taken away just like your driver’s license. Your basic human rights as defined by the constitution can be taken away as easily as your right to travel, but that is a whole other article!

So you can all stop pretending that you have rights and that you are a free country. Your rights have be trampled. You have been tread upon by the boots of the very state agents you claim keep you safe! Your police, your soldiers, your leaders can stop pretending to fight for your freedom because your freedom has already been bought and sold, and all you got was that lousy American flag T-Shirt!

You Have No Rights! The Bill Of “Rights” is a FRAUD! is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

#Police Brutality #mark dewdney

0 notes

yahoonewsdigest-us-extra · 8 years ago

Text

11 Indian sailors on small boat hijacked off Somali coast

World

11 Indian sailors on small boat hijacked off Somali coast

Pirates have seized a small boat and kidnapped its 11 Indian crew members off the coast of Somalia, an investigator said Monday, the latest vessel targeted by the region's resurgent hijackers.The attack on the small ship happened Saturday as the vessel passed through the narrow channel between Yemen's Socotra Island and the Somali coast, said Graeme Gibbon Brooks, CEO of Dryad Maritime, a shipping security firm. The pirates are taking the vessel to the Eyl area of northern Somalia, he said.There was conflicting information over the boat's name and where it was heading.Brooks said the small dhow, a traditional wooden sailing ship common in regional waters, initially was heading from Dubai to Bosaso, Somalia.

The fact they've taken three now in a row is an indicator or a warning of a growing problem

George in New Delhi

"I don't think they are going to stop doing this." Associated Press writer Nirmala George in New Delhi contributed to this report.

#yahoo news digest #World

0 notes

laurenluckie-blog1 · 8 years ago

Text

Beach Litter in the UK.

More than 8,000 plastic bottles were collected by the Marine Conservation Society’s annual beach clean-up at seaside locations from Orkney to the Channel Islands on one weekend last September. On average, 99 bottles were picked up along every kilometre cleaned by volunteers. It is estimated that plastic bottles can take up to 500 years to break down once in the sea. The charity’s report reveals a 34% rise in beach litter overall between 2014 and 2015, the largest ever amount of litter per kilometre (3,298 pieces) and a record-breaking number of volunteers, just over 6,000, taking part.

The conservation charity said the “shocking” figures strengthened the case for the introduction of a refundable deposit on all ‘throwaway’ plastic and glass drinks bottles and aluminium cans. This would encourage consumers not to discard them, while boosting recycling rates and cutting the amount of litter. Small pieces of plastic topped the list of litter picked up, with 960 bits on average collected for each kilometre of beach cleaned. Shards of glass were the second most common rubbish, with 208 pieces on average per kilometre of beach.

The volunteers found 197 crisp or sandwich packets and lolly or sweet wrappers for every kilometre they searched. Other common litter included bottle caps and lids, string and rope, cotton bud sticks, cutlery, trays and plastic straws, as well as fishing nets and cigarette stubs. The numbers of plastic drinks bottles found in the beach clean were up 43% on 2014 levels while metal drinks cans were up 29% and lids and caps soared by 41%, the survey showed. “There have been increases in the number of plastic bottles found on beaches in England, Scotland, Channel Islands, and Northern Ireland”, said Lauren Eyles, MCS Beachwatch Manager. “The bottles we find on beaches are either dropped directly onto the beach, blown from land or sea, or end up there via rivers. The more we use as a nation, the more we’ll see ending up on our shores.”

All countries saw an increase in litter, except Wales, where litter levels dropped after a record rise last year . However, in the last decade, average litter levels on Welsh beaches have increased by 51%. England suffered record levels of litter across 189 beaches, with the highest levels of rubbish – averaging 5,170 items per kilometre – in the south-west.

Plastic bottles on beaches rose by 57.2% in England, 21.3% in Scotland, 6.3% in the Channel Islands and a whopping 235.3% in Northern Ireland. In Wales they dropped by 39.4 % but in line with the overall fall in the country’s litter levels. In Wales there were still 103 plastic bottles found per kilometre cleaned – higher than the national average. The charity is working with volunteers to try to reduce litter levels on UK beaches by half by 2020, as well as cutting sewage pollution.

The MSC said deposit return schemes – in use in other parts of the world – give value to items often regarded by consumers as having no value and disposed of irresponsibly. “Deposit return systems (DRS) are nothing new,” Eyles said. “Lots of people will remember taking pop bottles back to the shop and up until last year the makers of Irn-Bru were returning 30p on glass bottles. “Currently DRS schemes run successfully in Germany, Denmark, and some states in Australia and the USA. Studies have shown that a scheme can reduce the amount of littered drink containers, lead to more recycling and contribute to the circular economy.”

- Article on beach litter in the UK in The Guardian.

#thefuture

0 notes