"At the moment we are seen as some kind of non-commissioned officer for the religious affairs of Israel. Netanyahu doesn't take us into account. Not with regard to the Supreme Court, not with regard to freezing, not with regard to appointing Ehud Barak as defense minister."
That was how Naftali Bennett explained his decision to run for the leadership of the Habayit Hayehudi party and to remodel it. It was not by chance that he chose the metaphor of an NCO for religious affairs: It represents the "old-time religious" young man, the kind who came to terms with the fact he would have a marginal status in the army.
Naftali Bennett, on the other hand, represents the "new religious" young man, the kind who was motivated to throw off the image of the NCO for religious affairs and who, in the 1980s and 1990s, enlisted with a great deal of self-confidence in the combat units and gained a prominent place in the command hierarchy. There are other figures alongside Bennett who are identified with the newly combative religious young men, the most conspicuous being Moti Yogev and Maj. Yoni Shatbon. Bennett's generation succeeded in bringing about a profound change in the Israel Defense Forces.
Now he is going on to the next stage of this transformation - attaining a political position. Habayit Hayehudi under Bennett is appropriating as its own the enterprise of the religious preparatory military courses and the hesder yeshiva program in the army, making the party no longer merely identified with this enterprise, as was Habayit Hayehudi's predecessor, the National Religious Party.
Bennett was elected party leader after making efforts to enlist masses of students at the preparatory courses and hesder yeshivas and getting thousands to join the party. There was even an attempt to place polling booths in the hesder yeshivas during the party primaries.
The large presence of religious soldiers in the field units and positions of command, in combination with powerful political representation, will significantly increase that camp's bargaining chips vis a vis the army's top brass and the political echelon.
Until now, the influence of Bennett's generation had led to limitations on the freedom of action of the army and its cultural mold, in a manner that weakened its secular identity. But this influence was limited as long as NRP/Habayit Hayehudi showed only passive involvement in what was happening in the army. Exclusion of women, threats to refuse to evict settlers, cooperation between soldiers and settlers, control by the military chaplaincy of some of the educational system - none of these aroused active support and involvement on the part of the religious politicians.
The change is likely to come now with the changing of the guard in the national religious leadership and the retirement of the relatively moderate generation led by Zevulun Orlev, or that of Brig.Effi Eitam, an opinionated officer who became newly religious but was not part of the "knitted kippa" generations that saw the army as a flag to be captured.
The trend came to the forefront during an interview last week with Bennett on Nissim Mishal's program on Channel 2. Bennett explicitly declared that a soldier should refuse to carry out an order to evict a Jew from his home, even at the price of going to prison. He said quite simply that this is an order he would not be able to carry out. Even the statement of reservation that he later published is not able to erase this: For the first time, the person claiming to represent the collective identity of the religious soldier supports refusal to follow orders.
The significance of this is that the ability of religious soldiers to bargain over the issue of which mission will be placed on the army has been strengthened even further. That capacity to bargain found clear expression on the eve of the disengagement from Gaza, when the army sent a large number of religious soldiers away from the focal points of the eviction, and even more so afterward, in a way that led the army to demand of the political decision-makers not to force it to deal with future evacuations of settlements, including the illegal outposts in the territories.
Now, however, this is no longer merely a question of negotiations within the army, or between the army and the hesder rabbis. Another important player has been added, in the form of one of the large factions in the Knesset, and apparently a partner in the next government. There is no doubt about it - the generation of grandsons of the NCO for religious affairs will certainly have their say.
Your stress level could be measured on the Richter Scale. It's the week before Christmas, so there are a zillion people at the airport. Your flight has been delayed. The kids are crying. Your husband is yelling. Starving, you find the nearest food vendor and order a $12 basket of chicken fingers with fries.
Been there? Done that? Eating healthy on the road has long been a struggle for holiday travelers. It's one of the many reasons people tend to gain a couple extra pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's.
The good news is that consumers are demanding more nutritious options when they fly -- and the industry is responding, says Renate DeGeorge, director of culinary services for HMSHost, which operates dining facilities at more than 100 airports worldwide.
In recent years HMSHost has made several changes to their menus, including adding a variety of new salads, offering hummus plates as an appetizer and providing whole-grain bread for sandwiches.
"Most places now offer a variety of healthy options no matter where you stop, so that every traveler can find something they are looking for," DeGeorge wrote in an email.
Platkin publishes an annual food investigation survey that ranks the snacks and onboard food-service offerings from most major airlines.
"When you're a passenger on an airplane, you don't really have much choice," he says. "You're a captive audience and that creates a higher standard that airlines need to have."
Virgin America and Air Canada each earned four stars on Platkin's site for offering plenty of healthy options and providing calorie information for consumers. Platkin recommends Virgin's snack boxes -- like the protein meal with hummus -- and Air Canada's Roasted Chicken Wrap with salsa. You can check out his recommendations for other airlines here.
Most of us have at least a general idea of what's good for our bodies (a fruit plate) and what's not (a king-size chocolate bar). Making smart decisions is half the battle.
The other half is knowing where hidden dangers lie. Platkin cautions consumers to be wary around anything that comes with a sauce, whether it's salad dressing, mayonnaise on a sandwich or caramel dip for your apple slices. Even an extra tablespoon can add unnecessary calories.
Also be on the lookout for packaged snack foods like chips or crackers that are probably high in sodium. "Look for things that are in their natural state," he says.
Most importantly, avoid fried food, DeGeorge says. Anything smothered in batter then dipped in hot oil isn't good for your health, even if it did at one time resemble a vegetable.
2012年12月25日星期二
2012年12月23日星期日
Guns Don't Kill People, Video Games Do
The charade of Friday's NRA press conference was best summed up by one of the last lines uttered at it by NRA President David Keene: "...this is the beginning of a serious conversation. We won't be taking questions today."
Of course, neither Keene nor NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre would be taking questions. This "press conference" was not the beginning of any conversation -- it was the NRA leadership telling us all that we were wrong.
They were there to enlighten us so that we understood that: "It's not guns that kill people, it's video games." It's movies. It's the media. It's "monsters." It's a society that worships celebrities and money. It's greedy corporate executives and shareholders. It's foreign aid to other countries.
The one thing that Wayne LaPierre apparently doesn't believe is responsible in any way for shooting deaths are guns. Not the guns used in the Newtown shooting that took the lives of 20 young children and 6 adults. Not the guns used in July to kill 12 and wound 58 in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater. Not the guns used to kill six people at a Sikh Temple in August. And not the guns used to kill 94 more people in the U.S. since the Newtown shooting. Yes, 94 people have been murdered by gun violence since December 14.
While LaPierre claimed that violence in movies and in video games like "Grand Theft Auto," caused gun violence, he offered no explanation for why people in other countries where they watch the very same movies and play the same video games have remarkably lower numbers of people killed by guns. For example, "Grand Theft Auto" broke UK sales records for fast selling video with over 600,000 units sold in its first day. However, in the UK, only 51 one people were killed by guns in 2011. In contrast, in the US, 8,583 people were murdered by guns in 2011.
The real difference between the U.S. and UK isn't that they are watching different movies or playing different video games. It's guns. We have close to 300 million guns legally owned while the UK has only approximately 1.8 million guns.
What the NRA leadership should have said -- and what I know from twitter some NRA members expected they would say -- is that the NRA was going to embrace sensible "human safety" laws. (To me, we should stop using the term "gun control" -- I'm not concerned with controlling people's guns, I'm concerned with saving lives.)
At the very least the NRA should have called for a few common sense changes to our laws. The first and most obvious being to close the "gun show loophole." Our current federal law only requires background checks to determine if the purported gun buyer has a criminal record or history of mental illness if the gun is so sold by a licensed firearm dealer. But that only accounts for 60% of the guns legally sold. Meaning, 40% of the guns legally sold are to people who have had no background check at all.
Only 19% of Americans polled want to keep the law the way. The problem is that the NRA leadership is part of this 19% and has lobbied to keep the gun hole loophole intact.
How can any organization that truly cares about saving the lives of Americans ever oppose a law to ensure that the mentally ill and criminals are prohibited from buying firearms?
So what did the NRA called for at its press event? More guns. LaPierre proposed that every school in America should have an armed guard. There are roughly 100,000 public schools meaning a boon in gun sales to arm these new guards.
But here's a glaring problem with the NRA's proposal. At the horrific Columbine High School shooting in 1999 that left 15 dead and 23 wounded, there was an armed guard. A 15-year veteran of the Sheriff's office was on the location. While he exchanged gunshots with one of the two shooters, he was unable to stop the shooting. How could the NRA leadership not be aware of this fact? And does this mean that every school would need two armed guards?
Will the NRA next suggest we have armed guards at every movie theater, shopping mall, Sikh temple, workplace, church -- or any of the other location where mass shootings have recently occurred?
Clearly, the NRA leadership is not prepared to have an honest conversation on the issues about the role that GUNS play in the deaths of Americans. The one bright spot is that the rank and file members of the NRA disagree with the NRA elite on a growing number of issues, including 69% who favor closing gun show loophole.
The NRA leadership is at a crossroads. It can either begin to embrace policies that will save American's lives or find the NRA marginalized to the fringes of American society. While I know that NRA leaders LaPierre and Keene aren't taking questions right now, they may want to consider this one.
Each Nextdoor neighbourhood is a closed loop in the area it serves, to ensure the residents’ privacy and security. Members are only accepted after Nextdoor has verified their addresses. The size and area of each neighbourhood varies by its location. In a big city, a Nextdoor neighbourhood could be limited to just a few blocks, whereas it could cover entire townships in more sparsely populated areas.
Nextdoor serves as a virtual chat room, where neighbours exchange referrals on local businesses, buy and sell items or even alert each other about illnesses or crime in their area.
“We have an elderly neighbour who has cancer and is quite frail. She had a security issue and when other neighbours got wind of it through Nextdoor, they came out of the woodwork to offer assistance,” says Bob Thornburg, a resident of Sante Fe, New Mexico.
A user in California, Nicole Perkins, says when a teenager in her area was diagnosed with meningitis, his parents used the network to alert their neighbours, so that other children could get tested immediately. “The ability to broadcast the news very likely saved lives,” says Perkins.
Other uses include quick retrievals of a lost special needs child, and even a duck and a puppy, thanks to watchful neighbours alerted via Nextdoor. In other words, the concept of the neighbourhood watch gone virtual.
Says Tolia, “Many social networks are about status updates, photo sharing, but that’s not what we are about. Nextdoor is about utility, it’s about finding a plumber, selling a used car, learning about a gas leak. It’s about all the things that you’d want to know, given that you live in a particular area.”
In fact, in over 60 cities, including big ones such as Atlanta, Dallas and San Jose, local governments and police departments are partnering with Nextdoor to communicate with their residents. For instance, in Oakland, near San Francisco, members used Nextdoor to alert their neighbours about two young men going door-to-door, posing as salesmen. Police asked one resident to get their photo when they came to her door. With this information, they later arrested the two men and recovered goods stolen from a neighbourhood home, which was reported on Nextdoor as having been burglarised.
Of course, neither Keene nor NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre would be taking questions. This "press conference" was not the beginning of any conversation -- it was the NRA leadership telling us all that we were wrong.
They were there to enlighten us so that we understood that: "It's not guns that kill people, it's video games." It's movies. It's the media. It's "monsters." It's a society that worships celebrities and money. It's greedy corporate executives and shareholders. It's foreign aid to other countries.
The one thing that Wayne LaPierre apparently doesn't believe is responsible in any way for shooting deaths are guns. Not the guns used in the Newtown shooting that took the lives of 20 young children and 6 adults. Not the guns used in July to kill 12 and wound 58 in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater. Not the guns used to kill six people at a Sikh Temple in August. And not the guns used to kill 94 more people in the U.S. since the Newtown shooting. Yes, 94 people have been murdered by gun violence since December 14.
While LaPierre claimed that violence in movies and in video games like "Grand Theft Auto," caused gun violence, he offered no explanation for why people in other countries where they watch the very same movies and play the same video games have remarkably lower numbers of people killed by guns. For example, "Grand Theft Auto" broke UK sales records for fast selling video with over 600,000 units sold in its first day. However, in the UK, only 51 one people were killed by guns in 2011. In contrast, in the US, 8,583 people were murdered by guns in 2011.
The real difference between the U.S. and UK isn't that they are watching different movies or playing different video games. It's guns. We have close to 300 million guns legally owned while the UK has only approximately 1.8 million guns.
What the NRA leadership should have said -- and what I know from twitter some NRA members expected they would say -- is that the NRA was going to embrace sensible "human safety" laws. (To me, we should stop using the term "gun control" -- I'm not concerned with controlling people's guns, I'm concerned with saving lives.)
At the very least the NRA should have called for a few common sense changes to our laws. The first and most obvious being to close the "gun show loophole." Our current federal law only requires background checks to determine if the purported gun buyer has a criminal record or history of mental illness if the gun is so sold by a licensed firearm dealer. But that only accounts for 60% of the guns legally sold. Meaning, 40% of the guns legally sold are to people who have had no background check at all.
Only 19% of Americans polled want to keep the law the way. The problem is that the NRA leadership is part of this 19% and has lobbied to keep the gun hole loophole intact.
How can any organization that truly cares about saving the lives of Americans ever oppose a law to ensure that the mentally ill and criminals are prohibited from buying firearms?
So what did the NRA called for at its press event? More guns. LaPierre proposed that every school in America should have an armed guard. There are roughly 100,000 public schools meaning a boon in gun sales to arm these new guards.
But here's a glaring problem with the NRA's proposal. At the horrific Columbine High School shooting in 1999 that left 15 dead and 23 wounded, there was an armed guard. A 15-year veteran of the Sheriff's office was on the location. While he exchanged gunshots with one of the two shooters, he was unable to stop the shooting. How could the NRA leadership not be aware of this fact? And does this mean that every school would need two armed guards?
Will the NRA next suggest we have armed guards at every movie theater, shopping mall, Sikh temple, workplace, church -- or any of the other location where mass shootings have recently occurred?
Clearly, the NRA leadership is not prepared to have an honest conversation on the issues about the role that GUNS play in the deaths of Americans. The one bright spot is that the rank and file members of the NRA disagree with the NRA elite on a growing number of issues, including 69% who favor closing gun show loophole.
The NRA leadership is at a crossroads. It can either begin to embrace policies that will save American's lives or find the NRA marginalized to the fringes of American society. While I know that NRA leaders LaPierre and Keene aren't taking questions right now, they may want to consider this one.
Each Nextdoor neighbourhood is a closed loop in the area it serves, to ensure the residents’ privacy and security. Members are only accepted after Nextdoor has verified their addresses. The size and area of each neighbourhood varies by its location. In a big city, a Nextdoor neighbourhood could be limited to just a few blocks, whereas it could cover entire townships in more sparsely populated areas.
Nextdoor serves as a virtual chat room, where neighbours exchange referrals on local businesses, buy and sell items or even alert each other about illnesses or crime in their area.
“We have an elderly neighbour who has cancer and is quite frail. She had a security issue and when other neighbours got wind of it through Nextdoor, they came out of the woodwork to offer assistance,” says Bob Thornburg, a resident of Sante Fe, New Mexico.
A user in California, Nicole Perkins, says when a teenager in her area was diagnosed with meningitis, his parents used the network to alert their neighbours, so that other children could get tested immediately. “The ability to broadcast the news very likely saved lives,” says Perkins.
Other uses include quick retrievals of a lost special needs child, and even a duck and a puppy, thanks to watchful neighbours alerted via Nextdoor. In other words, the concept of the neighbourhood watch gone virtual.
Says Tolia, “Many social networks are about status updates, photo sharing, but that’s not what we are about. Nextdoor is about utility, it’s about finding a plumber, selling a used car, learning about a gas leak. It’s about all the things that you’d want to know, given that you live in a particular area.”
In fact, in over 60 cities, including big ones such as Atlanta, Dallas and San Jose, local governments and police departments are partnering with Nextdoor to communicate with their residents. For instance, in Oakland, near San Francisco, members used Nextdoor to alert their neighbours about two young men going door-to-door, posing as salesmen. Police asked one resident to get their photo when they came to her door. With this information, they later arrested the two men and recovered goods stolen from a neighbourhood home, which was reported on Nextdoor as having been burglarised.
Asperger's Syndrome Not Linked To Killings In Newtown
It has been more than a week since the massacre of 20 children, and six adults took place in Newtown, Conn. As the time has passed, and people around the world are mourning the lives lost, answers continue to be sought, and new details revealed, though many questions still remain unanswered.
Much is still unclear about the shooter, who originally was reported as Ryan Lanza, but was later apparently identified as Adam Lanza, age 20, Ryan Lanza's younger sibling (click here for the original article by The Alternative Press), a resident of Newtown.
Adam Lanza reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after taking the other lives that day.
Ryan Lanza of Hoboken, N.J. was interviewed by police right after the shooting, and according to news sources, was released as a suspect. Reports also indicate Ryan Lanza said he has been estranged from his brother since 2010, and Adam Lanza dealt with Asperger's syndrome, and personality disorders.
According to Wikipedia, Asperger syndrome (abbreviated as "AS," and also known as "Asperger's syndrome, and "Asperger disorder," is "an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development. Although not required for diagnosis, physical clumsiness and atypical (peculiar, odd) use of language are frequently reported."
Reports in the media, especially a December 22 Associated Press article, have noted Adam Lanza rarely spoke publicly, typically wore the same outfit to school, pushed himself next to walls as other students would pass him in the hallways at school, and, even during a presentation at school, permitted his computer to speak for him, rather than presenting the material himself.
The same article alleges Adam Lanza had an obsession with computers, and was often sequestered in the family's basement room, which was equipped with couches, a flat-screen TV, computer, and video games. A former classmate of Lanza's in high school said Lanza once played the video game "Counter-Strike" with him, a game featuring terrorists, and counter-terrorists, and chose a military assault rifle and Glock to use during the game (a Glock 10 mm handgun, and a Bushmaster AR-15 were purportedly two of the weapons used by Lanza during the killings).
Adam Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, who was reportedly the first victim of the December 14 killing spree, is said to be the registered owner of all of the weapons used by Adam Lanza in the slaughter. Reports from ABC News indicate as well, Nancy Lanza directed Adam Lanza's steps in life in diffierent instances; a former babysitter has now come forward stating Nancy Lanza told him to never let Adam Lanza out of his sight when caring for him, requesting he not even use the bathroom when watching the boy. Hairstylists who used to cut Adam Lanza's hair every six weeks when he was a teenager, said his mother would always accompany him on the appointments, and instruct Adam Lanza when he was permitted to move in the chair; according to the stylist, he never uttered a word, and only stared at the floor tiles as they cut his hair.
The Alternative Press interviewed Johnny Regan, a Sussex County resident, who was diagnosed as an adult with Asperger's syndrome in 1999. Previous to that, Regan, who said he is also a cancer survivor (a blood disorder, which he is now cancer free from for seven years), was told he was "neurologically impaired," before the Asperger's diagnosis. However, Regan has been able to hold down a job, including having worked 17 baseball seasons at Skylands Park as a scoreboard operator. Regan is also very involved in the Sussex County NJ Sports Hall of Fame (click here for a previous article by The Alternative Press), as the group's historian. At the recent induction dinner, he introduced one of the speakers from the podium, and spoke to many of the attendees during the evening.
Coincidentally, when The Alternative Press of Sussex County released the first article about the shooting in Newtown, Regan was a reader who reached back when a request for comment was posted on Facebook looking for comments about the tragedy, and indicated a friend of his lives in Newtown, Conn. When Regan first heard of the shooting, he said he immediately called his friend to check on his well-being, and learned his friend was safe, and, the friend's children were as well; they were too young to attend Sandy Hook Elementary School. Click here for the story.
Of the possibility of Adam Lanza having Asperger's syndrome, Regan commented, about the link some news outlets have attempted to make between Adam Lanza's supposed issues with Asperger's, and the violence committed. "It doesn't apply to everybody."
"The chilling fact is you don't have to be mentally ill to be violent," Cherney said. "There's nothing definitive between Asperger's, or any other disorder. It's a myth."
Cherney described Asperger's syndrome as, "sustained impairment in social interaction that starts in youth. It's one of the defining features."
Cherney said another defining feature can be the "restricted range of activity. They [those with Asperger's] can be acutely interested in certain subjects and goals with great intensity. Restricted focused activities are a hallmark."
This can create disturbances, and difficulties, from work and especially in the relationship domain, in which those with Asperger's may have difficulty interpreting non-behavioral cues, and gestures, which, in turn, can impact the development of peer relationships.
"Categorical schemes don't try to capture reality, where intensity or spectrum can shade one into the other," Cherney said. "This has created diagnostic disputes, and it's not settled."
The fourth edition of the DSM, the "DSM-IV," was published in 1994. Of the revision of the newest manual, and, who decides what is kept, and what is axed, according to the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 website, the planning stages for the upcoming version started in 1999; and between 2006 and 2008, the co-chairs to help bring about the revised manual were chosen, as well the task and work groups formed. Since then, field trials, and tests have taken place, and the draft put together.
The DSM-5 draft manual is scheduled for printing on December 31, and is planned for unveiling at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif., in May 2013.
In regard to the building process of the manual, Cherney said, "They [the creators] land somewhere by consensus in the building process. It doesn't mean everyone is in favor."
Wikipedia notes Asperger's syndrome was named by Hans Asperger, an Austrian pediatrician, in 1944, to describe four of his patients. The children had difficulties socializing, which Asperger called "autistic psychopathy." Yet, he also said his patients were "little professors," for their high intellectual abilities, and potential for achievement in their adulthoods.
Much is still unclear about the shooter, who originally was reported as Ryan Lanza, but was later apparently identified as Adam Lanza, age 20, Ryan Lanza's younger sibling (click here for the original article by The Alternative Press), a resident of Newtown.
Adam Lanza reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after taking the other lives that day.
Ryan Lanza of Hoboken, N.J. was interviewed by police right after the shooting, and according to news sources, was released as a suspect. Reports also indicate Ryan Lanza said he has been estranged from his brother since 2010, and Adam Lanza dealt with Asperger's syndrome, and personality disorders.
According to Wikipedia, Asperger syndrome (abbreviated as "AS," and also known as "Asperger's syndrome, and "Asperger disorder," is "an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development. Although not required for diagnosis, physical clumsiness and atypical (peculiar, odd) use of language are frequently reported."
Reports in the media, especially a December 22 Associated Press article, have noted Adam Lanza rarely spoke publicly, typically wore the same outfit to school, pushed himself next to walls as other students would pass him in the hallways at school, and, even during a presentation at school, permitted his computer to speak for him, rather than presenting the material himself.
The same article alleges Adam Lanza had an obsession with computers, and was often sequestered in the family's basement room, which was equipped with couches, a flat-screen TV, computer, and video games. A former classmate of Lanza's in high school said Lanza once played the video game "Counter-Strike" with him, a game featuring terrorists, and counter-terrorists, and chose a military assault rifle and Glock to use during the game (a Glock 10 mm handgun, and a Bushmaster AR-15 were purportedly two of the weapons used by Lanza during the killings).
Adam Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, who was reportedly the first victim of the December 14 killing spree, is said to be the registered owner of all of the weapons used by Adam Lanza in the slaughter. Reports from ABC News indicate as well, Nancy Lanza directed Adam Lanza's steps in life in diffierent instances; a former babysitter has now come forward stating Nancy Lanza told him to never let Adam Lanza out of his sight when caring for him, requesting he not even use the bathroom when watching the boy. Hairstylists who used to cut Adam Lanza's hair every six weeks when he was a teenager, said his mother would always accompany him on the appointments, and instruct Adam Lanza when he was permitted to move in the chair; according to the stylist, he never uttered a word, and only stared at the floor tiles as they cut his hair.
The Alternative Press interviewed Johnny Regan, a Sussex County resident, who was diagnosed as an adult with Asperger's syndrome in 1999. Previous to that, Regan, who said he is also a cancer survivor (a blood disorder, which he is now cancer free from for seven years), was told he was "neurologically impaired," before the Asperger's diagnosis. However, Regan has been able to hold down a job, including having worked 17 baseball seasons at Skylands Park as a scoreboard operator. Regan is also very involved in the Sussex County NJ Sports Hall of Fame (click here for a previous article by The Alternative Press), as the group's historian. At the recent induction dinner, he introduced one of the speakers from the podium, and spoke to many of the attendees during the evening.
Coincidentally, when The Alternative Press of Sussex County released the first article about the shooting in Newtown, Regan was a reader who reached back when a request for comment was posted on Facebook looking for comments about the tragedy, and indicated a friend of his lives in Newtown, Conn. When Regan first heard of the shooting, he said he immediately called his friend to check on his well-being, and learned his friend was safe, and, the friend's children were as well; they were too young to attend Sandy Hook Elementary School. Click here for the story.
Of the possibility of Adam Lanza having Asperger's syndrome, Regan commented, about the link some news outlets have attempted to make between Adam Lanza's supposed issues with Asperger's, and the violence committed. "It doesn't apply to everybody."
"The chilling fact is you don't have to be mentally ill to be violent," Cherney said. "There's nothing definitive between Asperger's, or any other disorder. It's a myth."
Cherney described Asperger's syndrome as, "sustained impairment in social interaction that starts in youth. It's one of the defining features."
Cherney said another defining feature can be the "restricted range of activity. They [those with Asperger's] can be acutely interested in certain subjects and goals with great intensity. Restricted focused activities are a hallmark."
This can create disturbances, and difficulties, from work and especially in the relationship domain, in which those with Asperger's may have difficulty interpreting non-behavioral cues, and gestures, which, in turn, can impact the development of peer relationships.
"Categorical schemes don't try to capture reality, where intensity or spectrum can shade one into the other," Cherney said. "This has created diagnostic disputes, and it's not settled."
The fourth edition of the DSM, the "DSM-IV," was published in 1994. Of the revision of the newest manual, and, who decides what is kept, and what is axed, according to the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 website, the planning stages for the upcoming version started in 1999; and between 2006 and 2008, the co-chairs to help bring about the revised manual were chosen, as well the task and work groups formed. Since then, field trials, and tests have taken place, and the draft put together.
The DSM-5 draft manual is scheduled for printing on December 31, and is planned for unveiling at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif., in May 2013.
In regard to the building process of the manual, Cherney said, "They [the creators] land somewhere by consensus in the building process. It doesn't mean everyone is in favor."
Wikipedia notes Asperger's syndrome was named by Hans Asperger, an Austrian pediatrician, in 1944, to describe four of his patients. The children had difficulties socializing, which Asperger called "autistic psychopathy." Yet, he also said his patients were "little professors," for their high intellectual abilities, and potential for achievement in their adulthoods.
2012年12月19日星期三
Five predictions for 2013
After riding out the economic storm that many of their OEM customers endured with some measure of success, moldmakers should be seeing some calmer waters. Many had high hopes at the beginning of 2012 for a banner year, but that didn’t materialize. Most now have a more realistic outlook that 2013 will be what they make it. Business over the last quarter of 2012 has been a bit slower, much of it due to the fact that tooling budgets are typically spent by October in preparation for the new year.
New business for the first quarter of 2013 appears to be spotty, depending on the markets being served and how much impact the various new taxes written into the Affordable Care Act (19 new taxes, to be exact) will have on their ability to hire and expand their business. Some moldmakers have commented to PlasticsToday that in light of the pull-back on new mold purchases over the past few years, many molds are on their last legs, and replacement molds are badly needed. An air of uncertainty still plagues many of these small-business owners as they take a “wait-and-see” stance with their OEM customers.
A Plante & Moran study of the North American Plastics Industry through 2011, and released in October, noted several interesting facts that favor moldmakers. Molders are seeing strong earnings. “Gross profits, which never varied more than a few percentage points for the past 13 years, increased almost 20% in 2010 and remained steady in 2011,” reported Plante & Moran. “We speculate that there are a number of reasons for the retention of the strong earnings in 2011.”
First, press utilization increased for a second year in a row, noted the Plante & Moran study. However, utilization is still “depressed” considering that average utilization is just 40% based on a 24/7 calculation. Typically, “increased utilization comes with increased complexity”—i.e. number of molds, part numbers and materials—“and thus with high labor costs.” Still, Plante & Moran’s report notes that this is only the fifth year out of the last 15 with an increase in utilization. “For those with good margins, any increase in utilization results in improved profits,” said the report.
Secondly, resin costs shrank an additional 1.6% in 2011, and again in 2012. Sales growth among molders “nearly doubled” in 2011, up 8.7% for the median processor. “The growth appears to have allowed processors to be more discerning with customer contracts as median complexity actually decreased from 2010,” said Plante & Moran. Larger molding companies enjoyed healthy growth, while smaller enterprises were still working to get back to pre-recession levels of production.
Third, business is strong for several industries, noted the Plante & Moran survey. For example, the automotive industry, which had a decent 2011 and an even better 2012, has managed to keep its Tier 1 and Tier 2 busy. They even softened their stance on payments for a while. However, Plante & Moran reported that it is “the aggressive supply chain practices that had taken a sabbatical during the recession that may have more impact on the desirability of the industry than a volume recovery.”
A number of mold manufacturers have found the aerospace industry to be a good fit with their automotive know-how as aircraft sales hit record highs in 2012, with builds out through 2015. That could mean good business for both molders/thermoformers and mold makers that specialize in this industry.
Other industries that are faring well include the industrial products sector that “enjoyed an increase in sales growth in 2011 for the first time in two years.” The construction and furniture industries, while still in the doldrums during 2011 when the Plante & Moran survey was being taken, has generally started on a slow upward trend in 2012.
Just when everyone thought it was safe (and profitable) to get into the medical industry to avoid the pitfalls of the automotive industry, medical and pharmaceutical are running into some headwinds. The medical device tax has many big OEMs in that sector rethinking their strategy, utilizing their foreign operations to a greater extent and even planning some “near-shoring” within North America.
A report from McKinsey & Company on the pharmaceutical industry said that “The good old days of the pharmaceutical industry are gone forever” as it heads “toward a world where its profit margins will be substantially lower than they are today.” With the rapid growth of generics, McKinsey noted that the expectation of “Big Pharma’s current level of R&D spending to become a luxury that investors no longer tolerate. . . as some investors and analysts believe that many of Big Pharma’s R&D investments destroy value.”
Given these new clouds on the horizon for both medical and pharmaceutical, moldmakers might be squeezed on price unless they provide the value proposition for molds with greater productivity for products sold in emerging markets.
Starborn Industries, a leading manufacturer and international distributor of premium fastening products, has introduced the new Smart-Bit for Fiber Cement Board. The tungsten carbide tipped pre-drilling and countersinking tool is designed to create a perfect hole and fit for matching fasteners, while ensuring consistently superior finishes.
Fiber cement board products are used in a wide variety of construction applications. The Smart-Bit for Fiber Cement is the first tool that makes it possible to pre-drill and countersink in one step at a consistent depth, without damaging the work surface. The Smart-Bit tool features a free spinning stop collar, which controls the depth of the drill and countersink. The stop collar is fitted with a rubber O-ring to prevent surface damage or marking. Once the stop collar stops spinning, the hole is complete. Additionally, the tool is able to keep debris away from the stop collar, with its built-in debris cavity, which allows for the tool to maintain a perfect and consistent depth compared to conventional flush mounted countersinks.
New business for the first quarter of 2013 appears to be spotty, depending on the markets being served and how much impact the various new taxes written into the Affordable Care Act (19 new taxes, to be exact) will have on their ability to hire and expand their business. Some moldmakers have commented to PlasticsToday that in light of the pull-back on new mold purchases over the past few years, many molds are on their last legs, and replacement molds are badly needed. An air of uncertainty still plagues many of these small-business owners as they take a “wait-and-see” stance with their OEM customers.
A Plante & Moran study of the North American Plastics Industry through 2011, and released in October, noted several interesting facts that favor moldmakers. Molders are seeing strong earnings. “Gross profits, which never varied more than a few percentage points for the past 13 years, increased almost 20% in 2010 and remained steady in 2011,” reported Plante & Moran. “We speculate that there are a number of reasons for the retention of the strong earnings in 2011.”
First, press utilization increased for a second year in a row, noted the Plante & Moran study. However, utilization is still “depressed” considering that average utilization is just 40% based on a 24/7 calculation. Typically, “increased utilization comes with increased complexity”—i.e. number of molds, part numbers and materials—“and thus with high labor costs.” Still, Plante & Moran’s report notes that this is only the fifth year out of the last 15 with an increase in utilization. “For those with good margins, any increase in utilization results in improved profits,” said the report.
Secondly, resin costs shrank an additional 1.6% in 2011, and again in 2012. Sales growth among molders “nearly doubled” in 2011, up 8.7% for the median processor. “The growth appears to have allowed processors to be more discerning with customer contracts as median complexity actually decreased from 2010,” said Plante & Moran. Larger molding companies enjoyed healthy growth, while smaller enterprises were still working to get back to pre-recession levels of production.
Third, business is strong for several industries, noted the Plante & Moran survey. For example, the automotive industry, which had a decent 2011 and an even better 2012, has managed to keep its Tier 1 and Tier 2 busy. They even softened their stance on payments for a while. However, Plante & Moran reported that it is “the aggressive supply chain practices that had taken a sabbatical during the recession that may have more impact on the desirability of the industry than a volume recovery.”
A number of mold manufacturers have found the aerospace industry to be a good fit with their automotive know-how as aircraft sales hit record highs in 2012, with builds out through 2015. That could mean good business for both molders/thermoformers and mold makers that specialize in this industry.
Other industries that are faring well include the industrial products sector that “enjoyed an increase in sales growth in 2011 for the first time in two years.” The construction and furniture industries, while still in the doldrums during 2011 when the Plante & Moran survey was being taken, has generally started on a slow upward trend in 2012.
Just when everyone thought it was safe (and profitable) to get into the medical industry to avoid the pitfalls of the automotive industry, medical and pharmaceutical are running into some headwinds. The medical device tax has many big OEMs in that sector rethinking their strategy, utilizing their foreign operations to a greater extent and even planning some “near-shoring” within North America.
A report from McKinsey & Company on the pharmaceutical industry said that “The good old days of the pharmaceutical industry are gone forever” as it heads “toward a world where its profit margins will be substantially lower than they are today.” With the rapid growth of generics, McKinsey noted that the expectation of “Big Pharma’s current level of R&D spending to become a luxury that investors no longer tolerate. . . as some investors and analysts believe that many of Big Pharma’s R&D investments destroy value.”
Given these new clouds on the horizon for both medical and pharmaceutical, moldmakers might be squeezed on price unless they provide the value proposition for molds with greater productivity for products sold in emerging markets.
Starborn Industries, a leading manufacturer and international distributor of premium fastening products, has introduced the new Smart-Bit for Fiber Cement Board. The tungsten carbide tipped pre-drilling and countersinking tool is designed to create a perfect hole and fit for matching fasteners, while ensuring consistently superior finishes.
Fiber cement board products are used in a wide variety of construction applications. The Smart-Bit for Fiber Cement is the first tool that makes it possible to pre-drill and countersink in one step at a consistent depth, without damaging the work surface. The Smart-Bit tool features a free spinning stop collar, which controls the depth of the drill and countersink. The stop collar is fitted with a rubber O-ring to prevent surface damage or marking. Once the stop collar stops spinning, the hole is complete. Additionally, the tool is able to keep debris away from the stop collar, with its built-in debris cavity, which allows for the tool to maintain a perfect and consistent depth compared to conventional flush mounted countersinks.
Washington Artist Ariane Luckey Shares Artistic ‘Soliloquy’
In the world of literature and theater, a soliloquy is defined as a dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a particular listener. It was a device used frequently in dramas, and used to great effect in particular by William Shakespeare in such famous speeches as “To be or not to be” in “Hamlet,” and Juliet’s “O, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?”
The literary device fell out of fashion, however, in the late 18th century, when tastes shifted toward realism.
Washington painter Ariane Luckey has not only revitalized, but redefined the term with her latest exhibition of paintings and pastels, aptly titled “Soliloquy,” which opened last weekend at the Minor Memorial Library Community Gallery in Roxbury. Instead of using words, Ms. Luckey discloses her feelings through paint, sharing with viewers her painterly view of our region’s historic architecture and its sweeping vistas and sylvan meadows, her brilliantly colored landscapes reminiscent of renowned representational painter Wolf Kahn.
She works, she said, to “celebrate the moment when seeing and feeling become one,” focusing her brush on the effects of light on the picturesque landscapes that surround her.
“I react to the moment when light becomes color,” Ms. Luckey explained of her work. “By working primarily on location, I find a direct and spontaneous response to the moment. I paint both with pastels and oil paints and try to evoke the mood instilled in me by the trees on a hill that make me think of sentinels or how the swaying grass of a summer meadow meets the cool shadows of the woods.”
The show will continue through Saturday, Jan. 19, during regular library hours, when the Community Room is not in use for a special program.
Just before her opening last Saturday, Ms. Luckey said she was looking forward to her first exhibition at the Minor Memorial Library, where natural light bathes her work in a warm hue, offering further dimension to the landscapes she has painted. But, in many ways, painting full-time has been a long time coming for the artist, who earned a B.A. in studio art at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. The self-proclaimed self-taught artist said her art was put on hold—or rather put into the closet—for years.
“I was always painting, but much of my work was kept in the closet,” she recalled. “Once my kids went to school, I was able to pursue it again. When my kids were little, I always said, ‘I wish I had time to paint.’ I suppose you should be careful what you wish for, because now I’m painting full time.”
Inspiration, she said, comes from the works of Monet, Cezanne, Bonnard, Hopper, Kahn and Diebenkorn, among others. But her biggest inspiration, perhaps, comes from the countryside around her Washington home. Actually, it’s her mother’s old home, a rustic structure set “way back in the woods, away from everything.” But, she said, its surrounding landscape has been an extraordinary muse, sparking the creativity within.
“It is the light and the color that draw me to a subject, the way light suffuses the landscapes in color and the moods they evoke. My work is expressive and loose in application, but there is a strong underlying composition. My paintings are loosely representational, celebrating the moment when seeing and feeling become one,” she explained of her work in an artist statement. “I try to capture the transitory quality of light in a moment with fleeting impressions. I frequently paint en plein air, which brings a direct and passionate response to a particular moment—the light changes, my hands get cold. … My goal is to share a simple enjoyment of the moment with the viewer.
Each painting, she said, begins as a pastel painted en plein air. “It’s like a dance. A very passionate dance,” Ms. Luckey explained. “Then I do a work in oils. Two winters ago, when we had all of that snow, I started painting in the studio and I discovered the joy of painting indoors, which is a very different experience.”
Ms. Luckey said she was introduced to painting on location by her mother, a plein air painter in San Francisco. Her mother’s father was also a painter who, she said, painted exquisite paintings in a style similar to the Hudson River School of painters.
Luckey has shown her work at the Washington Art Association—most recently in its 60th annual members show—at Carole Peck’s Good News Café in Woodbury, at The Silo Gallery at Hunt Hill Farm in New Milford, and at the Gunn Memorial Library in Washington, as well as other solo and juried shows throughout the region. Her painting, “Into the Hill,” was selected as the poster image for the 2010 “Celebration of Connecticut Farms.”
“Through her vibrant, high-key palette, innate sense of design and impressionistic method of mark making, Ariane creates pictures that are very engaging and pleasant to view,” said painter Robert Lenz, a juror of the “Still Life” show in which Ms. Luckey participated at The Silo Gallery in 2010. “Whether intentional or not, I see influences of Wolf Kahn, Henry Twactman and Pierre Bonnard. … I would hope that she will never lose her unique voice.”
Local artist Carol Brightman Johnson has long held a deep affection for the Steep Rock Association, which oversees three glorious preserves in town, two of them along the Shepaug River and the other containing a trail that leads up to The Pinnacle, overlooking Lake Waramaug.
If there were any way she could give something back to area’s premier land trust, one that oversees more than 5,100 acres of preserved land throughout Washington and adjacent towns in all, the oil painter would happily. It turns out that she’s found one.
In Washington Depot’s Marty’s Café, more than 20 of her landscape and other paintings make up her latest exhibit, “My Favorite Things.” The Roxbury resident’s showing is intended, in large part, to benefit the Steep Rock Association.
She specified that her donations to Steep Rock Association be used specifically for trail maintenance. “My Favorite Things” will be up until Dec. 31 at Marty’s Café.
Ms. Brightman Johnson is known in the area for her work, in which she depicts nature’s delicate nuances, from “the miracle of light falling on objects,” to roots burrowed in rock, and even the varying colors reflected upon water. She sees such phenomena as a gift, and her talent for painting as a way of examining the world and communicating its beauty. She shares these natural marvels, which she calls “many small discoveries,” by painting en plein air. During the last year she traveled the country to do just that.
“I paint to share my discoveries,” Ms. Johnson explained. “There is [so] much to explore, I often feel inadequate. Yet I cannot abandon the quest for everyday wonders or a higher level of skill. The process of painting requires total presence in the moment. Heightened concentration brings unexpected revelations, which I attempt to share. A successful painting communicates my vision and my feeling.
The literary device fell out of fashion, however, in the late 18th century, when tastes shifted toward realism.
Washington painter Ariane Luckey has not only revitalized, but redefined the term with her latest exhibition of paintings and pastels, aptly titled “Soliloquy,” which opened last weekend at the Minor Memorial Library Community Gallery in Roxbury. Instead of using words, Ms. Luckey discloses her feelings through paint, sharing with viewers her painterly view of our region’s historic architecture and its sweeping vistas and sylvan meadows, her brilliantly colored landscapes reminiscent of renowned representational painter Wolf Kahn.
She works, she said, to “celebrate the moment when seeing and feeling become one,” focusing her brush on the effects of light on the picturesque landscapes that surround her.
“I react to the moment when light becomes color,” Ms. Luckey explained of her work. “By working primarily on location, I find a direct and spontaneous response to the moment. I paint both with pastels and oil paints and try to evoke the mood instilled in me by the trees on a hill that make me think of sentinels or how the swaying grass of a summer meadow meets the cool shadows of the woods.”
The show will continue through Saturday, Jan. 19, during regular library hours, when the Community Room is not in use for a special program.
Just before her opening last Saturday, Ms. Luckey said she was looking forward to her first exhibition at the Minor Memorial Library, where natural light bathes her work in a warm hue, offering further dimension to the landscapes she has painted. But, in many ways, painting full-time has been a long time coming for the artist, who earned a B.A. in studio art at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. The self-proclaimed self-taught artist said her art was put on hold—or rather put into the closet—for years.
“I was always painting, but much of my work was kept in the closet,” she recalled. “Once my kids went to school, I was able to pursue it again. When my kids were little, I always said, ‘I wish I had time to paint.’ I suppose you should be careful what you wish for, because now I’m painting full time.”
Inspiration, she said, comes from the works of Monet, Cezanne, Bonnard, Hopper, Kahn and Diebenkorn, among others. But her biggest inspiration, perhaps, comes from the countryside around her Washington home. Actually, it’s her mother’s old home, a rustic structure set “way back in the woods, away from everything.” But, she said, its surrounding landscape has been an extraordinary muse, sparking the creativity within.
“It is the light and the color that draw me to a subject, the way light suffuses the landscapes in color and the moods they evoke. My work is expressive and loose in application, but there is a strong underlying composition. My paintings are loosely representational, celebrating the moment when seeing and feeling become one,” she explained of her work in an artist statement. “I try to capture the transitory quality of light in a moment with fleeting impressions. I frequently paint en plein air, which brings a direct and passionate response to a particular moment—the light changes, my hands get cold. … My goal is to share a simple enjoyment of the moment with the viewer.
Each painting, she said, begins as a pastel painted en plein air. “It’s like a dance. A very passionate dance,” Ms. Luckey explained. “Then I do a work in oils. Two winters ago, when we had all of that snow, I started painting in the studio and I discovered the joy of painting indoors, which is a very different experience.”
Ms. Luckey said she was introduced to painting on location by her mother, a plein air painter in San Francisco. Her mother’s father was also a painter who, she said, painted exquisite paintings in a style similar to the Hudson River School of painters.
Luckey has shown her work at the Washington Art Association—most recently in its 60th annual members show—at Carole Peck’s Good News Café in Woodbury, at The Silo Gallery at Hunt Hill Farm in New Milford, and at the Gunn Memorial Library in Washington, as well as other solo and juried shows throughout the region. Her painting, “Into the Hill,” was selected as the poster image for the 2010 “Celebration of Connecticut Farms.”
“Through her vibrant, high-key palette, innate sense of design and impressionistic method of mark making, Ariane creates pictures that are very engaging and pleasant to view,” said painter Robert Lenz, a juror of the “Still Life” show in which Ms. Luckey participated at The Silo Gallery in 2010. “Whether intentional or not, I see influences of Wolf Kahn, Henry Twactman and Pierre Bonnard. … I would hope that she will never lose her unique voice.”
Local artist Carol Brightman Johnson has long held a deep affection for the Steep Rock Association, which oversees three glorious preserves in town, two of them along the Shepaug River and the other containing a trail that leads up to The Pinnacle, overlooking Lake Waramaug.
If there were any way she could give something back to area’s premier land trust, one that oversees more than 5,100 acres of preserved land throughout Washington and adjacent towns in all, the oil painter would happily. It turns out that she’s found one.
In Washington Depot’s Marty’s Café, more than 20 of her landscape and other paintings make up her latest exhibit, “My Favorite Things.” The Roxbury resident’s showing is intended, in large part, to benefit the Steep Rock Association.
She specified that her donations to Steep Rock Association be used specifically for trail maintenance. “My Favorite Things” will be up until Dec. 31 at Marty’s Café.
Ms. Brightman Johnson is known in the area for her work, in which she depicts nature’s delicate nuances, from “the miracle of light falling on objects,” to roots burrowed in rock, and even the varying colors reflected upon water. She sees such phenomena as a gift, and her talent for painting as a way of examining the world and communicating its beauty. She shares these natural marvels, which she calls “many small discoveries,” by painting en plein air. During the last year she traveled the country to do just that.
“I paint to share my discoveries,” Ms. Johnson explained. “There is [so] much to explore, I often feel inadequate. Yet I cannot abandon the quest for everyday wonders or a higher level of skill. The process of painting requires total presence in the moment. Heightened concentration brings unexpected revelations, which I attempt to share. A successful painting communicates my vision and my feeling.
2012年12月16日星期日
Hollow victory
Although only half way through Egypt’s constitutional “referendum,” it seems that even if only a fraction of the charges against the process turn out to be accurate, the vote is far from democratic.
Seven rights groups, perhaps ironically including the state’s own body, the National Council for Human Rights, claim that Saturday’s vote was beset by violations, ranging from the standard – denying entrance to Christians, who were more than likely to vote “no,” and polls closing early – to the surreal, with power cuts occurring in tandem with the vote count, a phenomenon perhaps borrowed from Lebanon’s Kesrouan district.
But the vote was marred before it even began. The vast majority of judges boycotted the referendum, so most ballots were without neutral observation and rights groups have now alleged that some of those who identified themselves as judges Saturday actually presented false papers.
The lead up to the election had also paved the way for a rocky referendum, with violence between President Mohammad Mursi’s supporters and opponents leading to some 10 deaths and around 1,000 wounded.
After the first round of voting Saturday, the only cities to have a majority “no” vote were Alexandria and Cairo, perhaps not coincidentally the country’s two largest cities, and those areas with the highest levels of education and literacy.
Rights groups claim that in other areas, voters were actively encouraged to vote “yes,” by whispering Brotherhood members, often present within polling stations.
Asides from all these flagrant violations, the turnout for the referendum was low enough to render any verdict worthless. Around 32 percent of people voted, after the first round, with a 56 percent majority. So really, only 18 percent of Egyptians are in favor of the Constitution, if in fact, this was the option they chose, with their free will and without external pressure.
The overwhelming majority of Egyptians does not want the new Constitution then, or does not feel well enough informed or motivated either way. Short of a miracle, however, it seems the Constitution, which will affect the lives of all of Egypt’s citizens, will pass.
Without a large or at least comfortable popular majority, any referendum on a topic this decisive is destined to fail, in so much as its passing will undoubtedly lead to more of the street anger and violence which has already been seen. Passed in such a way, this referendum looks set to sow more dissension and sectarianism.
In this test, apparently designed to display the Muslim Brotherhood’s power, Mursi and his allies have failed. The president has revealed himself to be little more than a puppet for the party, and one happy to do their bargaining for him, no matter what the expense to the country and its citizens as a whole.
Since his election, Mursi has repeatedly acted as if he a representative of one sector of society, and not the country’s many diverse faiths, parties and classes.
This mistake will continue to haunt him, and the country. Making decisions based on the wishes of one party damages Egypt now and in the future.
In the short term it will continue to create strife on the streets, meaning the government will be unable to direct much-needed attention to the dire situation of the economy, the real issue affecting people’s lives.
In the long term it creates a system whereby each successive government will see fit to mold the country and the Constitution as it sees fit. A strong house is not built on shaky foundations. If Mursi does not realize this soon, the future of this new democracy is in jeopardy.
Then there are the two teams from the SEC that had good BCS credentials, but because of the two-team rule had no chance of getting that at-large spot: the Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks. The Gamecocks had numerous injury problems on offense with quarterback Connor Shaw missing a few games and running back Marcus Lattimore’s season ending early for the second year in a row thanks to a gruesome knee injury again. The Gamecocks still went 10-2 and put on particularly great defensive performances against the Bulldogs and later against Tajh Boyd & the Clemson Tigers. The Tigers also went 10-2, and their offensive issue throughout the year was quarterback Zach Mettenberger never fully getting into high gear, though he finally did late in the season.
And of course, there’s the Texas A&M Aggies. In their first year in the SEC, not much was expected out of them. Enter Johnny Manziel, or “Johnny Football” as he is now known to the country. Just a freshman, Manziel took the offensive approach that is more typical in the Big 12, brought it to the SEC, and ended up being the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. His numbers were huge, but the one really big game against a really big team that Manziel had this season was handing the Crimson Tide their only loss of the season. The Aggies finished 10-2 and will be playing in the Cotton Bowl.
And there you have it: six out of the 14 teams finished with ten or more wins and all six are in the current BCS top ten. This is the best conference in college football. Period. End of story. End of discussion. End of debate. Some may whine about favoritism with the rankings, and that may be true. However, you simply can’t deny the fact that this conference produces quality football teams practically in the old-school mold. And they win year after year after year. It’s a slap in the face to people who want to believe that defense and rushing are dead in college football, and I like that.
But the SEC’s continued success is further proof of a simple reality in college football that few people want to accept: it’s not about if you lose, but when you lose. Even if you lose during the season and it’s not too bad of a loss against a good enough team, you’re not out of the title hunt. Three of the SEC’s six straight national champions have had at least one loss. Why they were able to stay in the national title hunt is simple: they lost before the stuff hit the fan. If you look through these last seven seasons you will see the SEC’s best only lose early in the season or early in November. The rest of those in the title hunt each year tend to lose late in November, on Thanksgiving weekend, or on Championship Week. In other words, these teams tend to lose in any of the final three weeks of the season, a time when the SEC team or teams still in the title hunt are back to winning every week.
Robert and Judy Peeler have plastered their house and yard with 50,000 lights, which is actually down from their all-time high of 69,000, because Robert stayed away from his tallest trees this year.
Strings of cars, even buses, move slowly down this country road in eastern Rowan County to marvel at the Peelers’ Christmas decorations.
“I live next door to it,” says daughter-in-law Vicki Peeler, one of several people who nominated the Peelers’ property for the newspaper’s “Yule Light Up My Life” contest. “He does a great job, and he made all the wood cut-outs that he uses and has Christmas music playing.”
Peeler told me he starts work on his house and yard two weeks before Halloween so it’s ready by Thanksgiving.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, the Peelers’ house makes the “Yule Light Up My Life” Top 10 list of places to see in Rowan County for holiday decorations.
I spent several nights during the past week visiting nominated locations for the “contest.” About 40 nominations came in, though many people mentioned the same properties.
In the end, I performed drive-by inspections of 22 different places, from one end of Rowan County to the other.
The goal of the contest was to come up with 10 places worthy of getting into your car and — except for the gas — having a cheap night’s entertainment by visiting sites that are jaw-dropping and suitable for all ages.
It’s definitely a G-rated tour and one worthy of taking if you’re into grand gestures, music, ingenuity, light pollution, moving parts, figurines and blowups, secular and religious themes and indomitable Christmas spirits.
Seven rights groups, perhaps ironically including the state’s own body, the National Council for Human Rights, claim that Saturday’s vote was beset by violations, ranging from the standard – denying entrance to Christians, who were more than likely to vote “no,” and polls closing early – to the surreal, with power cuts occurring in tandem with the vote count, a phenomenon perhaps borrowed from Lebanon’s Kesrouan district.
But the vote was marred before it even began. The vast majority of judges boycotted the referendum, so most ballots were without neutral observation and rights groups have now alleged that some of those who identified themselves as judges Saturday actually presented false papers.
The lead up to the election had also paved the way for a rocky referendum, with violence between President Mohammad Mursi’s supporters and opponents leading to some 10 deaths and around 1,000 wounded.
After the first round of voting Saturday, the only cities to have a majority “no” vote were Alexandria and Cairo, perhaps not coincidentally the country’s two largest cities, and those areas with the highest levels of education and literacy.
Rights groups claim that in other areas, voters were actively encouraged to vote “yes,” by whispering Brotherhood members, often present within polling stations.
Asides from all these flagrant violations, the turnout for the referendum was low enough to render any verdict worthless. Around 32 percent of people voted, after the first round, with a 56 percent majority. So really, only 18 percent of Egyptians are in favor of the Constitution, if in fact, this was the option they chose, with their free will and without external pressure.
The overwhelming majority of Egyptians does not want the new Constitution then, or does not feel well enough informed or motivated either way. Short of a miracle, however, it seems the Constitution, which will affect the lives of all of Egypt’s citizens, will pass.
Without a large or at least comfortable popular majority, any referendum on a topic this decisive is destined to fail, in so much as its passing will undoubtedly lead to more of the street anger and violence which has already been seen. Passed in such a way, this referendum looks set to sow more dissension and sectarianism.
In this test, apparently designed to display the Muslim Brotherhood’s power, Mursi and his allies have failed. The president has revealed himself to be little more than a puppet for the party, and one happy to do their bargaining for him, no matter what the expense to the country and its citizens as a whole.
Since his election, Mursi has repeatedly acted as if he a representative of one sector of society, and not the country’s many diverse faiths, parties and classes.
This mistake will continue to haunt him, and the country. Making decisions based on the wishes of one party damages Egypt now and in the future.
In the short term it will continue to create strife on the streets, meaning the government will be unable to direct much-needed attention to the dire situation of the economy, the real issue affecting people’s lives.
In the long term it creates a system whereby each successive government will see fit to mold the country and the Constitution as it sees fit. A strong house is not built on shaky foundations. If Mursi does not realize this soon, the future of this new democracy is in jeopardy.
Then there are the two teams from the SEC that had good BCS credentials, but because of the two-team rule had no chance of getting that at-large spot: the Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks. The Gamecocks had numerous injury problems on offense with quarterback Connor Shaw missing a few games and running back Marcus Lattimore’s season ending early for the second year in a row thanks to a gruesome knee injury again. The Gamecocks still went 10-2 and put on particularly great defensive performances against the Bulldogs and later against Tajh Boyd & the Clemson Tigers. The Tigers also went 10-2, and their offensive issue throughout the year was quarterback Zach Mettenberger never fully getting into high gear, though he finally did late in the season.
And of course, there’s the Texas A&M Aggies. In their first year in the SEC, not much was expected out of them. Enter Johnny Manziel, or “Johnny Football” as he is now known to the country. Just a freshman, Manziel took the offensive approach that is more typical in the Big 12, brought it to the SEC, and ended up being the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. His numbers were huge, but the one really big game against a really big team that Manziel had this season was handing the Crimson Tide their only loss of the season. The Aggies finished 10-2 and will be playing in the Cotton Bowl.
And there you have it: six out of the 14 teams finished with ten or more wins and all six are in the current BCS top ten. This is the best conference in college football. Period. End of story. End of discussion. End of debate. Some may whine about favoritism with the rankings, and that may be true. However, you simply can’t deny the fact that this conference produces quality football teams practically in the old-school mold. And they win year after year after year. It’s a slap in the face to people who want to believe that defense and rushing are dead in college football, and I like that.
But the SEC’s continued success is further proof of a simple reality in college football that few people want to accept: it’s not about if you lose, but when you lose. Even if you lose during the season and it’s not too bad of a loss against a good enough team, you’re not out of the title hunt. Three of the SEC’s six straight national champions have had at least one loss. Why they were able to stay in the national title hunt is simple: they lost before the stuff hit the fan. If you look through these last seven seasons you will see the SEC’s best only lose early in the season or early in November. The rest of those in the title hunt each year tend to lose late in November, on Thanksgiving weekend, or on Championship Week. In other words, these teams tend to lose in any of the final three weeks of the season, a time when the SEC team or teams still in the title hunt are back to winning every week.
Robert and Judy Peeler have plastered their house and yard with 50,000 lights, which is actually down from their all-time high of 69,000, because Robert stayed away from his tallest trees this year.
Strings of cars, even buses, move slowly down this country road in eastern Rowan County to marvel at the Peelers’ Christmas decorations.
“I live next door to it,” says daughter-in-law Vicki Peeler, one of several people who nominated the Peelers’ property for the newspaper’s “Yule Light Up My Life” contest. “He does a great job, and he made all the wood cut-outs that he uses and has Christmas music playing.”
Peeler told me he starts work on his house and yard two weeks before Halloween so it’s ready by Thanksgiving.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, the Peelers’ house makes the “Yule Light Up My Life” Top 10 list of places to see in Rowan County for holiday decorations.
I spent several nights during the past week visiting nominated locations for the “contest.” About 40 nominations came in, though many people mentioned the same properties.
In the end, I performed drive-by inspections of 22 different places, from one end of Rowan County to the other.
The goal of the contest was to come up with 10 places worthy of getting into your car and — except for the gas — having a cheap night’s entertainment by visiting sites that are jaw-dropping and suitable for all ages.
It’s definitely a G-rated tour and one worthy of taking if you’re into grand gestures, music, ingenuity, light pollution, moving parts, figurines and blowups, secular and religious themes and indomitable Christmas spirits.
Hudson’s C&M Machine Products expanding
The smell comes from the canola-based cooling liquid used in the many machines that churn out millions of small metal components for the family-owned “job shop.” The smell is evidence that C&M is not just surviving during the recession, it is growing.
“We had about 60 employees in 2008; now we have 100,” said CEO Dan Villemaire.
The firm is in the process of expanding and refurbishing a building in the Sagamore Industrial Park in south Hudson, where it has been located in various buildings for decades. When the work is finished by late winter, C&M will have 135,000 feet of manufacturing, office and warehouse space in two buildings a quarter-mile apart, roughly double its current footprint.
The expansion and move reflects the fact that C&M still has a lot of family involvement. It was founded by Villemaire’s late grandfather and his father, Paul, who is still a co-owner with Dan.
Ten family members work there in various capacities, including George Villemaire, Dan’s uncle, who as the company’s property manager has been in charge of the expansion.
“It’s going quite well. It’s on schedule,” George told a reporter during a recent tour, as they watched stucco being applied to the exterior of the new building.
“We were under budget until my father got involved,” added Dan. The two men laughed together.
Dan Villemaire says C&M has thrived by responding to the many pressures that result from bad economic times.
“A customer might have 3,000 vendors – buy components from 3,000 places – and wants to get it down to 1,500,” he said. “We have consistently come out on top of the supply chain.”
Making the manufacturing process faster and less expensive was key, through better processes, training, and better technology. The latter includes a $1.7 million rotary-transfer precision machining device from Hydromat which allowed C&M to reduce the turnout time for one piece from 90 seconds to 3 seconds.
But even older, simpler computer-controlled machine tools are big and expensive. They can take a 12-foot rod of metal and turn it into thousands of pieces during a single autonomous run, and most cost six digits: This is a capital-intensive business. C&M has “oh, a least $20 million, probably a lot more” worth of devices on the floor, Villemaire estimated. The company has four full-time maintenance workers just to keep them humming.
C&M – a name taken from initials of early partners – was started in Lowell, Mass., in 1979 by Villemaire’s grandfather and father to make metal components used in other firms’ devices.
Such companies, called machine shops or job shops, have a long tradition in industrial manufacturing, and remain a large, if largely overlooked, component of the region’s business scene. In particular, they provide much of the area’s manufacturing employment for the technicians needed to operate the computer- controlled machines that shape the copper, aluminum or steel parts.
C&M moved to New Hampshire decades ago, and their best source of employees remains Greater Lowell Technical High School in Tyngsborough, Villemaire says, although C&M is working harder with New Hampshire high schools and community colleges.
The company’s customers include defense, automotive and firearm manufacturers, and it does product runs ranging from 500 pieces to millions at a time. One customer, which Villemaire declined to name, has such a large contract that it prompted the whole expansion and move.
Villemaire, 29, a 2002 graduate of Bishop Guertin High School, joined the firm six years ago after getting a finance degree from UNH’s Whittemore School of Business. Like many children of business founders, he says he was initially uncertain about following his predecessors.
The story of what’s happened to First Data since it was taken over by KKR is an instructive look into the growing impact of private equity firms here and around the world. KKR, Bain Capital and other private equity firms have bought up roughly $3 trillion worth of companies around the globe with the backing of pension funds, Wall Street banks, foreign nations’ investment funds and other backers.
After KKR bought First Data, thousands of jobs were shed. First Data’s debt rocketed past $22 billion — more than double its annual revenue — due to the junk bond-fueled deal. The company went from earning $1 billion-plus yearly profits to losses of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. And it recently had to renegotiate most of its debt to get more time to pay back the loans.
KKR “went really to the edge, and then the economy tanked,” said Eric Grover, a longtime veteran from the payments processing industry, now with consulting firm Intrepid Ventures. Since KKR’s acquisition, he said, First Data has done a good job of re-tooling and recovering under KKR’s direction. But the company remains vulnerable because of its huge debt load, he said.
“The good news is they have a long runway” because First Data got extensions on most of is debt to 2017 or after, said Grover. But, he added, “the business is over-leveraged.” If interest rates shot up, driving up the cost of its debt, “that company would tank,” he said.
First Data, with 24,000 employees, is the world’s largest processor of credit and debit card transactions. It moved its headquarters back to Atlanta from Denver in 2009, and now employs 1,200 in metro Atlanta and 200 in Columbus.
Other local companies wholly or partially owned by private equity firms include Alpharetta-based Colonial Pipeline (KKR); The Weather Channel (Blackstone Group) and Church’s Chicken (Friedman, Fleisher and Lowe). Bain Capital, the firm co-founded by former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, owns stakes in The Weather Channel, specialty credit card firm FleetCor; former Home Depot wholesale arm, HD Supply; and radio broadcaster Cumulus Media.
Private equity firms — once more commonly called leveraged buyout firms — amassed their huge portfolios using a strategy that hasn’t changed much over time. First, the firms assemble a buyout fund by wooing money from pension funds and other big investors who become partners in the fund. The buyout firms then use that money, plus billions more of borrowed money, to buy up companies in highly-leveraged deals that are akin to buying a house with a small down payment plus a big mortgage.
The buyout firms try to look for “fixer-upper” companies that are still basically solid. They spend a few years retooling them by cutting costs or coming up with new products or strategies, then sell them again to new owners or through a public stock offering. The buyout firms and their partners then split up the profits.
“We had about 60 employees in 2008; now we have 100,” said CEO Dan Villemaire.
The firm is in the process of expanding and refurbishing a building in the Sagamore Industrial Park in south Hudson, where it has been located in various buildings for decades. When the work is finished by late winter, C&M will have 135,000 feet of manufacturing, office and warehouse space in two buildings a quarter-mile apart, roughly double its current footprint.
The expansion and move reflects the fact that C&M still has a lot of family involvement. It was founded by Villemaire’s late grandfather and his father, Paul, who is still a co-owner with Dan.
Ten family members work there in various capacities, including George Villemaire, Dan’s uncle, who as the company’s property manager has been in charge of the expansion.
“It’s going quite well. It’s on schedule,” George told a reporter during a recent tour, as they watched stucco being applied to the exterior of the new building.
“We were under budget until my father got involved,” added Dan. The two men laughed together.
Dan Villemaire says C&M has thrived by responding to the many pressures that result from bad economic times.
“A customer might have 3,000 vendors – buy components from 3,000 places – and wants to get it down to 1,500,” he said. “We have consistently come out on top of the supply chain.”
Making the manufacturing process faster and less expensive was key, through better processes, training, and better technology. The latter includes a $1.7 million rotary-transfer precision machining device from Hydromat which allowed C&M to reduce the turnout time for one piece from 90 seconds to 3 seconds.
But even older, simpler computer-controlled machine tools are big and expensive. They can take a 12-foot rod of metal and turn it into thousands of pieces during a single autonomous run, and most cost six digits: This is a capital-intensive business. C&M has “oh, a least $20 million, probably a lot more” worth of devices on the floor, Villemaire estimated. The company has four full-time maintenance workers just to keep them humming.
C&M – a name taken from initials of early partners – was started in Lowell, Mass., in 1979 by Villemaire’s grandfather and father to make metal components used in other firms’ devices.
Such companies, called machine shops or job shops, have a long tradition in industrial manufacturing, and remain a large, if largely overlooked, component of the region’s business scene. In particular, they provide much of the area’s manufacturing employment for the technicians needed to operate the computer- controlled machines that shape the copper, aluminum or steel parts.
C&M moved to New Hampshire decades ago, and their best source of employees remains Greater Lowell Technical High School in Tyngsborough, Villemaire says, although C&M is working harder with New Hampshire high schools and community colleges.
The company’s customers include defense, automotive and firearm manufacturers, and it does product runs ranging from 500 pieces to millions at a time. One customer, which Villemaire declined to name, has such a large contract that it prompted the whole expansion and move.
Villemaire, 29, a 2002 graduate of Bishop Guertin High School, joined the firm six years ago after getting a finance degree from UNH’s Whittemore School of Business. Like many children of business founders, he says he was initially uncertain about following his predecessors.
The story of what’s happened to First Data since it was taken over by KKR is an instructive look into the growing impact of private equity firms here and around the world. KKR, Bain Capital and other private equity firms have bought up roughly $3 trillion worth of companies around the globe with the backing of pension funds, Wall Street banks, foreign nations’ investment funds and other backers.
After KKR bought First Data, thousands of jobs were shed. First Data’s debt rocketed past $22 billion — more than double its annual revenue — due to the junk bond-fueled deal. The company went from earning $1 billion-plus yearly profits to losses of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. And it recently had to renegotiate most of its debt to get more time to pay back the loans.
KKR “went really to the edge, and then the economy tanked,” said Eric Grover, a longtime veteran from the payments processing industry, now with consulting firm Intrepid Ventures. Since KKR’s acquisition, he said, First Data has done a good job of re-tooling and recovering under KKR’s direction. But the company remains vulnerable because of its huge debt load, he said.
“The good news is they have a long runway” because First Data got extensions on most of is debt to 2017 or after, said Grover. But, he added, “the business is over-leveraged.” If interest rates shot up, driving up the cost of its debt, “that company would tank,” he said.
First Data, with 24,000 employees, is the world’s largest processor of credit and debit card transactions. It moved its headquarters back to Atlanta from Denver in 2009, and now employs 1,200 in metro Atlanta and 200 in Columbus.
Other local companies wholly or partially owned by private equity firms include Alpharetta-based Colonial Pipeline (KKR); The Weather Channel (Blackstone Group) and Church’s Chicken (Friedman, Fleisher and Lowe). Bain Capital, the firm co-founded by former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, owns stakes in The Weather Channel, specialty credit card firm FleetCor; former Home Depot wholesale arm, HD Supply; and radio broadcaster Cumulus Media.
Private equity firms — once more commonly called leveraged buyout firms — amassed their huge portfolios using a strategy that hasn’t changed much over time. First, the firms assemble a buyout fund by wooing money from pension funds and other big investors who become partners in the fund. The buyout firms then use that money, plus billions more of borrowed money, to buy up companies in highly-leveraged deals that are akin to buying a house with a small down payment plus a big mortgage.
The buyout firms try to look for “fixer-upper” companies that are still basically solid. They spend a few years retooling them by cutting costs or coming up with new products or strategies, then sell them again to new owners or through a public stock offering. The buyout firms and their partners then split up the profits.
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