text:
So it seems that white people are having trouble dismantling racism in the lindy hop world.
Despite at least 30 years* of hard work, we haven’t seen dancers deconstruct systems that privilege white men (for DJing, teaching, MCing, band, and other high profile gigs).
Because the people with the power are white men, who, when it comes down to it, just don’t want to give up their own spot on a prestigious teaching/DJing/band/event team.
I can count on the fingers of one finger the number of times I’ve seen a white person give up a high profile gig _publicly_ for a person of colour. And that was a genderflex person. I know people** surely do this stuff in private…
…wait. Do they? I know women and trans folk who do. But straight white cismen? Hm.
Basically, if we want shit to get sorted, white bros have to sit the fuck down. Or better yet, book the room, put the kettle on, and get in the kitchen to keep the cake coming, so everyone else can get shit done.
You know, watch and learn, rather than trying to manage other people into doing what they want. Again.
I know that my job, as a white woman, is to shoosh. It’s to be that person who clears the path so that Aunty can get to her seat and sit down comfortably before bringing the smackdown. I know that my job is to get people of colour – particularly women of colour – onto stages, with microphones in their hands to talk about anything they like. To give them the physical space in a class to do and say and teach anything they want. I also know it’s my job not to interrupt a group of black women deep in conversation in the bar, even if I really want to hang out with them.
Sit down and listen, white people. The adults are talking.
I’m actually a fan of letting go of how we (white people) have been doing things _generally_. Maybe waiting for black leadership to get behind isn’t the way forward?
It’s something I’m really interested in.
Instead of assuming that things are basically ok as they are, they just need more melanin, we could start by assuming that we’ve been making a mess here, white people. So stop with the white supremacy. White ideas do not reign supreme; white ways of doing things are not the best.
White people: instead of pushing for assimilating poc colour into white institutions, why not just assume the institutions are inherently racist, and learn something from Black culture about how to do things in different ways?
It’s an idea I’ve been chasing in my thinking about gender roles in lindy hop.
White people: instead of trying to salvage 1950s gender roles and the way they’ve been mapped onto lindy hop, why not just assume _these_ institutions are hopeless, and learn something from Black culture about how to do gender? I mean, Black dancers have been trying to tell us for years and years: we don’t do gender like that, so don’t go reading Black heterosexuality like it’s white heterosexuality. So, white people, why don’t we just believe them? Is it that we just don’t trust Black people to truly be right?
So I’m thinking (especially in this moment of pause, where covid19 is giving us a chance to reboot), why don’t we just assume the way we’ve been doing things in lindy hop is dumb and restart?
I know white people and especially white men, abhor a power vacuum, and perceive alternative modes of interaction as vacuum (do straight white men see in the egalitarian spectrum?), but hold off trying to fix things for just a tick.
Nathan Sentance wrote a great article called ‘Diversity Means Disruption’, and I went to town on it here, so I won’t go into it again now. Also it is bedtime for me
*People have been talking and acting on this same old shit since lindy hop got popular with white people (again).
**And by people I mean white cismen.
I like to think of Frankie Manning’s birthday as the day we white people kick off a week of deep diving into supporting black civil rights. Here in Australia, it’s reconciliation week. This land is home to the oldest culture on earth. And some of the most persistent and terrifying racism.
If you don’t have the stomach for reading about the horrors of black history here and in the US, focus on digging out and supporting black artists, thinkers, activists, workers. Be the person who clears a space so they can stand. Still your voice so they can speak.
This iconic image is by aboriginal photographer Mervyn Bishop. He composed and shot the image.
…on 16 August 1975, he covered a historical event at Wattie Creek in the Northern Territory. This significant moment in Australian history followed a nine-year strike over the working conditions and request for traditional lands to be returned to the Gurindji people. This photograph captures Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pouring soil into the hand of Aboriginal rights activist, Vincent Lingiari on the occasion of the successful passing of the revolutionary act of parliament.
-> land rights + labour rights + black civil rights
Useful topics to follow up:
– Wave Hill Walk-Off (1966-1975)
– Gurindji people
– Vincent Lingiari
– Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act (1976)
I really like the way this story is reframed to focus on a queer black man as hero by this queer black jewish man*.
*Michael Twitty is a cook and scholar who focusses on the black jewish food traditions of America and the African diaspora. He has a book, goves good twitter, and could tell you exactly what ingredients were in a cake walk prize.
I want to keep sharing photos of black men like this, rather than bad white people, because they are an antidote to the bad news. ❤✊🏽
And this is why we need queer histories of jazz dance. Without them, it’s too easy for white people to position themselves as saviours ‘reviving’ the black dance of a doomed or negligent people. “Black gay men have incomparable strength and courage.” White people, it is not ok to position ourselves as ‘preserving’ black culture. Just get out of the goddamm way.
If you’re interested, queer black men’s experience in dance under slavery is one of Tommy DeFrantz’ research interests. His book ‘Dancing Many Drums’ has some good bits on this tooic.
Sydney now has a very strong culture of ‘anyone can lead or follow if they like, and it’s ok if you just want to do one and it happens to align with your gender ID’.
There are a number of reasons for this – a queer swing dance school who also run a big event; women leads on the floor; women teachers who teach as leads; people being publicly intolerant of anti-social behaviour; a growing ‘be good to each other’ discourse in event promotion, etc.
And where I write ‘women’, please include transwomen. I’ve noticed it’s easier for normcore folk to include transmen in their ideas of ‘men’, than it is to include transwomen in their category ‘women’.
It’s also been super important to see how welcoming and supportive our scene has been of people who’ve transitioned while being in the scene. ie they first presented as one gender, then transitioned to another. On the whole, teachers and dancers have been openly supportive, and more importantly, no-big-deal about changing pronouns, etc. It may have been harder for them one-on-one (all new things are tricky), but on the whole, it’s been ok. Not perfect, but ok. More work to do there.
Note: if a scene is ok with women leads and men follows, it is more welcoming to transpeople and queerpeople. Because a scene that has flexible ideas about gender and dance is a more welcoming, safer place.
If my leading has ever helped pave the way for a shy dyke lead or transwoman follow, then I feel very proud. It was worth it.
One of the most interesting things I’ve noticed, is that this general trend has been working in concert with peer-motivated anti-sexual-harassment actions. ie women are more likely to say no when a creeper asks them to dance, and they will also step in and check in on other women if they see creepers maccing on them.
There’s also been a scene-wide ‘fuck that; we do not tolerate harassment or assault’ public discussion from teachers (even if the organisational policies haven’t been in place).
And _this_ trend has seen us get a more ethnically diverse cohort of dancers. In part because one of the main creepers was targeting asian women. Boy, did he get his arse handed to him. And because women of colour just get fucked off by carrying the double burden of racism and sexism.
I noticed that once he and his gross mates were absent from events, we saw an increase in men following. It seems that this racist creeper was also intimidating other men _implicitly_. And that the men who liked to follow also liked women who lead (or the women who’d had a gutful of that creeper).
So when we addressed all these issues – sexuality, ethnicity, gender, etc – at the same time, we saw a general improvement in the vibe of parties and classes. People felt more comfortable being themselves.
And then it snowballed, and we saw exponential improvements.
So if your goal is ‘more women leads’, you need to address a range of issues. You’ll get a bunch of lovely good results as a consequence.
But speaking as a woman lead, things that were important for me:
– Teachers who openly said ‘women are leads as well as men’. The importance of this cannot be overstated. I remember the handful of times I’ve heard teachers say it in the last 20 years. But don’t be afraid to be pro-active on this. Not just saying ‘anyone can lead’, but “Women can lead.”
– Teachers saying to me “Don’t ever stop leading.” A woman teacher said this to me quietly one night after class, and it was the most important thing anyone has ever said to me about dancing.
– Seeing women teachers lead socially.
– Seeing other women ask women teachers to lead them socially.
– Having women teachers ask me to dance (and lead)
Things I wish people had done:
– Stepping on students in class who say ‘you’re being the man/boy?!’ with surprise.
I’ve never heard a teacher say this, but it would be solid gold if they said “hey, follows, don’t say this to your partners. It makes them sad.”
I’ve only ever been at two weekend events where no one has said this to me. In 22 years of lindy hop classes and workshops. Each time someone expresses surprise and expects me to justify leading, it wears me down just a little bit. So a) fuck you women follows, and b) teachers, get your students’ backs.
– Never used gendered pronouns in class, or used gendered language and concepts to describe leading.
Things that shat me to tears:
– Male teachers who try to make me try a move as a follow in class, when I’m leading. Sure, it might help my learning, but would you ask a male lead to do this, even if you knew they followed? And also, whatever your norm is, do this thing: treat women leads like they are leaders, not follows who sometimes lead.
– Teachers who kept ‘forgetting’ to use gender neutral language.
– Teachers who use sexy jokes in class, because most of those jokes were heterocentric and/or relied on the idea of a lead being a straight man.
I’m going to assume that you know what Herrang dance camp is, and that you have some passing familiarity with concerns about the enterprise. People who know me are surprised that I keep returning to an event that seems to break all my personal and professional rules. Why do I keep going back, trying to be useful and to contribute to constructive political work at this huge, rambling pile of a dance event?
Why do I go back each year?
It’s a huge enterprise. 300 odd paid staff + volunteers + 20-odd DJ + dozens of musicians + dozens of teachers, over 5 weeks of camp programming, and two additional weeks of set up and bump out in a small village in rural Sweden.
There is no other event like it in the world.
Buildings need to be cleaned, food cooked, classes taught, music played, bills paid, cars driven, sound gear fixed, dance courses administered, classrooms booked, dance floors built and repaired, sets built. For 7 weeks. Each week a new group of staff needs to be inducted. A huge, volunteer and largely untrained staff. Managers start from scratch, with staff of varying ability and inclination.
Because it’s the only long term event in the world, we get to see processes and ideologies play out in real time, in a durational sense. We see the usual tensions of late nights and high adrenaline play out over a longer time. Which means that we see things that we don’t at other events. We see how humans from a range of cultures and language groups interact with each other in a pressure cooker environment. Structures or systems that might be stable over a weekend or a just a week might not remain stable over 5 weeks. Ideas or processes that work for 3 days with a staff working to the brink of exhaustion show cracks over longer periods, where staff must begin thinking about care, rest, recuperation, down time. All elements that don’t come into play at other dance events.
Sexual harassment and assault are symptoms of power relationships and dynamics between individuals and within groups of humans. They aren’t inevitable, but they are characteristic of patriarchy. They can be managed and eradicated, but only through concentrated, strategic planning and policy. And most of this work is conducted by inexperienced ordinary people. This work is increasingly professional and sophisticated. I often wonder, though, if the codes of conduct and safety policies of American events, for example, would stand the test of a five (or seven) week time frame. They are, essentially, experiments in social politics, and working largely against the broader patriarchal culture of their home societies. Would Lindy Focus’s exceptional approach to sexual violence remain steady over five weeks? I think that it could, perhaps, but it would require a lot of on-the-ground, real time adjustment and tinkering. Because shit changes over time.
While Herrang does not have an over-arching code of conduct or safety policy, each of its many departments _does_ have a particular set of rules and guidelines for determining how staff and volunteers should treat each other and the general campers. As DJs, for example, we were reminded again in week 3 that drinking to excess while DJing is not ok. That we have to treat fellow DJs with respect and professionalism, by turning up on time for our sets, checking in with our DJ peers, and being supportive of their work. We were reminded of emergency procedures and shown how to use the emergency phones placed around the camp.
Each of Herrang’s departments change staff each week, so the managers and more permanent staff have the opportunity to edit, change, and adjust processes to respond to their participants’ changing needs. And the work of training and enculturating an entirely new group of people each week.
This agile people management is the most fascinating part of Herrang. Shane and Spela are juggling hundreds and hundreds of staff members across hundreds of roles. They are dealing with changing and unpredictable conditions (too many campers! a water shortage! disease! excessive heat!) within a framework that has to be reflexive and responsive. It’s a truly impressive thing to see in action.
These staff coordinators manage a base of general staff and volunteers, but work through and with a group of department managers. Each of those managers juggles a 24 hour schedule and a shifting group of workers of various skill, ability, and inclination. If you thought it was difficult managing entitled middle class white men on the dance floor, imagine trying to get them to work hard in an industrial kitchen for a black woman manager.
One of the primary concerns of the staff coordinators and managers is morale. How do you keep so many people feeling good over a long period of time under difficult circumstances? They don’t sleep enough, they don’t eat properly, they’re saturated in endorphines and adrenaline, and they’re doing unfamiliar work. How do you keep the whole machine running?
Herrang has a broad system of processes for handling these issues, from staff appreciation parties to balanced shift lengths and times, and a fairly efficient process for handling complaints, concerns, and questions. It is certainly not perfect, and it has flaws. But not because no one is trying. The staff managers and coordinators are caring people, and they work hard to improve processes every year. They’re also clever and inventive. Because they are also jazz dancers :D
What I’ve noticed about Herrang, is that the more permanent staff (people who are there for more than two weeks) tend to be curious, inventive, industrious, cooperative people. To the point of obsessive. Living in the countryside for 7 weeks, they start making things. Inventing things. Experimenting with things. While a conventional office workplace might foster pranks, Herrang staff move beyond your random ‘wrap a car in toilet paper’ prank to ‘wrap every item in the camp in toilet paper’. They come up with brilliant ideas, but then they truly relish figuring out how to execute these plans, and then do so within a contracted time span and limited resources. Someone might decide that the theme for this party is ‘Savoy’, and by the end of the day, staff have build an entire New York neighbourhood out of cardboard, wood, and fabric. A woman might have lost her phone, and by the end of afternoon, staff have built a human sized phone, put a jazz band on a truck (including a piano) and moved the whole thing across the village to her dinner table where she’s serenaded by her friends and peers. And giant phone. Someone else finds a giant glowing model moon, and by the end of the week she’s not only suspended above the square, she’s lit from within with a suspended table and chairs beneath her to be enjoyed by dining lovers.
This is the part of Herrang I like most. It’s exciting. It’s stimulating. Over-stimulating. I really enjoy real-time problem solving at the best of times, but on this scale it’s invigorating. Thrilling. Dangerously addictive.
I really like working with such a clever, creative group of people from all over the world. They manage language differences, tiredness, negative budgets, and sexual tension with enthusiasm and professionalism. And good will. Yes, people crack the shits and get overtired. But they also laugh a lot every day, and seek out ways to delight each other.
They’re also some of the kindest, most generous-hearted people I’ve ever met. One of the most common things I see and hear in the camp is a person going to great lengths to find out what their colleague likes best, hunting it down (even going driving hours to find it), then surprising them with it. Just because they looked tired or a bit sad. Or because they love them. Yes, there are pranks, but they aren’t cruel pranks. They’re loving, affectionate pranks. Filling a new teacher’s classroom with balloons for their first class. Swapping wardrobes with another dancer for a day. Learning an entire, complex jazz routine in a day, then recruiting a jazz band to surprise someone with it in their office at lunch time. Organising a parade of children and adults playing musical instruments and wearing costumes to tramp through the camp, just to entertain the participants and audience. Leaving a punnet of perfect strawberries on a colleague’s desk, because you know they are lovely.
And on top of all that, they love to dance and sing. To eat and cook and make love. To work hard and sleep deeply. To argue and talk and laugh.
These are the reasons I, personally, go back to Herrang. I like to spend my days visiting people’s offices, learning about their work, seeing how they do things. Watching people be kind and generous. Laughing til I can’t breathe.
I’ve seen this image being circulated a bit on facebook this week.
“My body, my choice” only makes sense when someone else’s life isn’t at stake.”
Fun fact: If my younger sister was in a car accident and desperately needed a blood transfusion to live, and I was the only person on Earth who could donate blood to save her, and even though donating blood is a relatively easy, safe, and quick procedure, no one can force me to give blood. Yes, even to save the life of a fully grown person, it would be ILLEGAL to FORCE me to donate blood if I didn’t want to.
See, we have this concept called ‘bodily autonomy’. It’s this…cultural notion that a person’s control over their own body is above all important and must not be infringed upon.
Like, we can’t even take LIFE SAVING organs from CORPSES unless the person whose corpse it is gave consent before their death. Even corpses get bodily autonomy.
To tell people that they MUST sacrifice their bodily autonomy for months against their will in an incredibly expensive, invasive, difficult process to save what YOU view as another human life (a debatable claim in the early stages of pregnancy when the VAST majority of abortions are performed) is desperately unethical. You can’t even ask people to sacrifice bodily autonomy to give up organs they aren’t using anymore after they have died.
You’re asking people who can become pregnant to accept less autonomy than we grant to dead bodies.
I have a few problems with this chunk of text.
The first is that it’s based on a false premise: that ‘we’ all have the same bodily rights, and that these rights are applied to us equally. I’m going to assume that the author was writing in, and about the US. And I want to state, very clearly, that even beyond the world of childbirth and reproductive medicine, we do not all have the same bodily autonomy. Women of colour, people of colour, first nations people, women, children, gay men living with AIDS… basically everyone other than straight, white, wealthy men have their right to bodily autonomy curtailed by the law, by the state, by medical institutions.
The history of the US is based upon slavery, the clear legal fact that some people can be owned by other people. First nations people were not (are not?) considered people at all by invading colonisers. People of colour are more likely to be incarcerated. Women’s accounts of their own physical pain or illness are less likely to be taken seriously by doctors than men’s accounts. Children are legally not capable of bodily autonomy.
..and so on.
We cannot talk about abortion without also talking about social context. Women and girls are not considered capable human adults or citizens in the way that white men are. We are not considered capable of making sensible, logical decisions. About anything. Let alone our bodies.
I feel that a debate about abortion is a misdirect.
Access to free, safe contraception and good sex education are the demonstrably better way to reduce abortion rates. And incidentally increase women and girls’ autonomy and social power.
By focussing on abortion, rather than sexual health, the discussion is framed as one of individualism, rather than collective responsibility. If we focus on women’s choices, we can avoid a discussion about the state’s role in health care. If we suggest that women’s bodies and their choices are the problem, the we don’t have to talk about the importance of the welfare state in caring for children. Because there, of course, we are reminded that women were once girls, and girls’ education and bodily autonomy is the real issue here.
The abortion debate is about legislating women’s bodies, but more importantly, it’s also about restricting women and girls’ knowledge of their own bodies. I want to expand from this to tie contraceptive rights to access to education generally in a more direct way.
We know that access to education – going to school – generally reduces birth rates (ie girls are less likely to have babies, and fewer babies). For a range of reasons including (but expanding far beyond) knowledge and tools for preventing pregnancy.
The thing I’m often struck by in this sort of debate is the implication that the only reason women and girls have lots of babies is that they don’t know how to stop themselves getting pregnant. Or that they don’t know penetrative vaginal sex with a man leads to pregnancy.
But we know that choosing when and how to have a baby is about more than knowing how to stop sperms get into eggs. It’s also about having a range of choices and options for employment, education, community participation, etc etc etc.
Good education isn’t just about ‘not getting pregnant’ it’s about being able to choose when and how we do have children.
An educated girl is a mighty person. She knows how to access all sorts of resources. She’s not confined to a domestic space and domestic isolation. She’s a _citizen_. This is far more frightening for fundamentalist christians and other patriarchal institutions.
As an addendum, I’ll also note that good sex ed isn’t just about how not to get pregnant or STDs. As that story about the young Swedish men who intervened in a rape in America shows, good sex ed also teaches men and boys about how to communicate with and empathise with their partners’ needs and desires. I think that this is the other thing that terrifies the patriarchy: that men and boys might begin to think of us as humans.
A few years ago, in 2015, I did a survey of Australian dance events, to see if they included a code of conduct on their event websites. There were mixed results, including a fairly unpleasant email from the organiser of an event which did not have a CoC at the time, and has since folded.
I (or someone else!) should at some point revisit this survey, to see if things have changed much in Australia. Do we see CoC at all Australian events? If not, which events don’t have them, and why not?
But that’s not the topic of this post.
Now I’m wondering if events (including local party nights) have follow-up processes to accompany their CoC. It’s all very well to have a list of things attendees cannot do at the event, but I have some questions.
Does the CoC provide specific examples of what constitutes sexual harassment or assault in a dance setting?
What are the consequences for people who break the rules?
Who enforces the rules?
Is there a spectrum of responses from warning, through banning, to calling the police or evacuating a building?
If these responses exist, are they listed in the CoC?
What is the in-house process for these responses?
Who has the authority to call for a consequence and then enforce them?
How are these actions documented?
How are these documents stored?
Who has access to them?
Is there any follow-up on these actions?
Is there any scope for the repatriation of banned offenders?
What are the terms for their return to the event?
Who monitors this process?
How is information about who is banned passed between generations of staff at an event?
How does this communication of knowledge account for Australian defamation laws, which would deem this publication of a potentially defamatory statement?
If a banned person does decide to sue for defamation, who would they sue – the organisation/business? An individual working at the event? If the latter, how does the host organisation respond to and support this person?
How does the host organisation ensure that staff are not exploiting their power to break the CoC rules? What measures are in place to police the policers?
I feel at this point the majority of events have gone no further than simply cutting and pasting a CoC. These later questions all ask for a fair bit of work. And I know there are some organisers which do not prioritise safety to the extent that they would invest in this sort of labour.
On the face of it, nothing. There is nothing wrong with teaching a class where students experiment with ‘gendered’ movements. In fact, a class like that is very powerful and empowering, because it teaches us how gendered movement is constructed and learnt through the way we hold our bodies, the speed of our movements, how we occupy space, the way we hold our head, our gaze and eye line, etc etc etc.
I’ve seen a number of classes where this has been done very cleverly, and very well. Once Marie N’diaye was teaching a chorus line class at Herräng, where students were taken through the ways in which chorus lines in the 30s were gendered: how to emphasise your hips v your shoulders, how to turn your head, present a particular profile, focus on shapes or sizes of movements. I’ve also seen ‘girls’ hip hop’ classes taught by a man at a local street dance studio, where the students were taken through very femme movements and choreography employed by women dancers in music videos.
All of these classes make it clear (implicitly) that gender is something you can perform. That you can put on gender and take it off again, like a suit of clothes. And this idea of ‘performing gender’ is borrowed from Judith Butler’s book ‘Gender Trouble’. This is very important. Let me make it clearer: Butler (and other feminists and transpolitics writers) lay out very good cases for the idea that gender is something we _do_, not something we _are_. We learn to behave in ways which align with a particular gender role. This gender role is constructed by the culture in which we live. And the gender we choose is often chosen for us, by our families, our schools, our communities.
Right here and now, we can borrow from black feminists, who point out that there is no single way of being ‘female’ or ‘male’, and that these gender identities are culturally specific. So authors like bell hooks in We Real Cool point out how the dominant masculinity in modern American culture is _white_. It’s informed by race as well as gender. And then authors like Thomas Defrantz in Dancing Many Drums go further, pointing out how black masculinity isn’t just regulated by white ideas of what it is to be a man, but by heterocentric ideas of what a man should be.
In sum, gender is made.
Gender is not just about skin colour or the food you eat. It’s about class, it’s about sexuality, it’s about age, it’s about who we are and how we live every day.
And there are ‘dominant’ ideas of gender in different cultures. By dominant, I mean ‘most preferred’, or ‘seen most often’ or most favoured’. In some cultures there are more than two acceptable gender identities. But within western capitalist heterosexuality, there are only two. In this limited world, there is a dominant, hegemonic masculinity. This idea of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ is culturally specific. I like this term ‘hegemonic masculinity’ because it asks us to talk about class – capitalism – as well.
An ‘ideal masculine’ varies between cultures. If we’re talking about lindy hop, then, we need to allow for the fact that lindy hop today is a cross-cultural, international activity and community. There are different types of masculinity. Many cultures go another step further, and order different gender identities (or ways of being masculine or feminine) in hierarchies. Or, some ways of being a man or being a woman are considered ‘better’ than others.
So what is the ‘hegemonic masculinity’ at work in today’s lindy hop? The answer is going to be different, depending on which country and which city and which local community you’re considering. Let me start with Australia, because that is where I live. And let me start with white, mainstream culture. Here, hegemonic masculinity is:
white (anglo-celtic, coloniser)
Where did I get this list?
Well, if we have a look at a few things in my culture, we can find answers very quickly:
The nation’s political leaders (prime minister, cabinet ministers, etc);
The people with the most money (millionaires, industrialists, business owners);
Religious leaders in the most popular religions (bishops, ministers);
The most commonly-seen and employed actors and entertainment figures.
All of these people are male. And until very very recently, openly heterosexual (often ‘proved’ by having a wife and children), white, able-bodied. Rich. Coloniser.
You can do the same sort of exercise with the dance world. What are the most powerful roles in the modern lindy hop world? How many of these roles are filled by men, or filled by women? And what types of men and women fill these roles? How does your local scene compare with what you see in the videos and websites for huge international American, European, or Asian events? How does your national scene compare with these?
But what about women?
Hegemonic masculinity cannot exist without a dominant model for ‘femininity’. This ‘ideal woman’ is:
white (anglo-celtic, coloniser)
But she is dependent on a male partner, as she is also
physically weak or vulnerable
economically weak or dependant
Her heterosexuality is proven by her ability to have children, and her physical appearance (her sexual appeal). This ‘appeal’ is again contextually dependent. In Australia, she is slim, long-legged, pale-skinned, long (straight) haired, has small feet and hands, clear skin, ample bosom (but not too ample), hips (but not too broad)… and so on.
In fact, her body is an impossible ideal. Women are trained to pursue this impossible ideal at the expense of all else. They are trained to spend more time on how their body looks, than on how it works. To spend more time thinking about what they look like, than on what they can do. They spend time in the gym working on their body’s appearance, rather than their body’s functionality.
From here this ideal femininity and masculinity can also be defined by how they behave, or how they act. Men are active, physically tough, powerful, defensive and offensive agents. They take up physical and aural space in public. Women are passive, acted upon, vulnerable, hurt, weak. They make themselves small and speak softly so they don’t take up space. These two models are used to justify the relationship between the ideal male and ideal female: the female requires a strong man to protect her. The strong man requires the vulnerable female to give him children (and incidentally prove he’s not gay :D ) and keep his home. The active, fierce man is complemented by the passive, emotional, gentle woman.
And so on.
All of the things I am writing here are old news to anyone who’s done any feminist reading. I myself have two theses and a bunch of articles drawing on extensive field work and textual analysis to prove these ideas. In fact, my doctoral thesis looked at how this stuff plays out in the lindy hop world.
Let’s go all the way back to that first question:
What is the problem with teaching ‘traditional’ gender roles in lindy hop?
Nothing. While some feminists would disagree with me, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being vulnerable or small or pale or delicate. Or strong and bold and heterosexual. But I do think there’s a very big problem with a) these models being presented as the only ways of being a man or woman, b) with ‘man’ and ‘woman’ being the only options, and c) with these dichotomies (either-or options) being the most preferred models.
In lindy hop today, we see traditional white, heterosexual gender roles rewarded and valorised across cultures.
Take a look at the winning ‘couples’ at ILHC, the Savoy Cup, or any of the other big competition events. Who wears the dresses? How does each partner move independently, and in reference to their partner? What is their ethnicity? What angles and lines do their bodies make?
The competition finalists and winners are almost exclusively white, heterosexual-presenting, and adhere to these very conventional gender roles. We can make occasional exceptions, we might even see one same-sex couple. There may be a few women wearing trousers. But taken as a whole the repeating, and therefore dominant elements do nothing to reconstruct or challenge the gender norms. We never see women leads in winning couples. We never see men as winning follows. In fact, we rarely see a deviation from this gender binary: man/woman. How dull. How dangerous.
What’s the problem with this?
If these winners align with the dominant values of their community, is there anything particularly wrong with this?
This is where things get really interesting.
What exactly is the problem with these two gender roles?
These two roles encourage particular types of behaviour. That’s a very general comment, so let’s get specific. I’m going to take an issue that’s very important: safety.
How do these roles contribute to sexual assault and harassment in the modern lindy hop world?
I’m going to assume that you agree with me that sa and sh are bad things. Remember, this isn’t a universal belief. There are plenty of people who don’t believe that sh and sa are actual real things. I believe that they are. I believe that they are bad, not only for the people involved, but also for the community as a whole.
sa and sh physically hurt people, but they also discourage women from entering high profile or well paid roles (DJing, teaching, MCing, organising). This means that sh and sa limit the way our communities grow and do things. It makes us ordinary.
Let’s take that dominant feminine identity and apply her to lindy hop.
The follow role is associated with the feminine
We only have women or femme folk teach as follows at big events, we see workshops in ‘feminine styling for follows’ (but rarely other gendered options).
Follows are ‘quieter’
She doesn’t initiate moves or outshine the lead. She doesn’t interrupt or speak louder than the lead in class.
Follows are objects that things happen to
She doesn’t turn or spin; she is spun. She doesn’t decide where to move; she is moved. She doesn’t choose moves; the moves are chosen for her. She isn’t an equal partner; she makes the lead’s moves ‘work’.
Follows ‘look beautiful’ – they have long legs, small hands and feet, a slim build (with bosom, but not too much), they have pale skin, they have long straight hair
She wears clothes that exaggerate these elements – dresses and skirts, form fitting trousers, high heels (to make her legs seem longer and her feet smaller), make up. She dances in ways that exaggerate these elements – she points her toes and straightens her legs and arms, she extends her neck and drops her shoulders, she opens her arms with the palms up and open.
SHE IS WHITE. SHE HAS STRAIGHT HAIR. SHE HAS PALE SKIN. SHE HAS A SMALL ARSE AND THIN THIGHS. SHE HAS SMALL MUSCLES, NOT BIG, STRONG MUSCULATURE.
Follows are helpful, polite, and unaggressive
She does as she’s led, she doesn’t abort moves. She spins as many times as the lead wants. She turns in the direction the lead wants. She doesn’t interrupt the lead’s moves, or distract from him. She is passive and helpful. She does not solo dance alone. She looks at the lead all the time. She does not say no to dances. She does not stop dances mid-way. She doesn’t tell men to stop hurting or touching her. She will compromise her rhythm or timing for the sake of the lead’s rhythm or timing.
Follows are vulnerable; things happen to them, which they need to be protected from
She is vulnerable to kicks and accidents on the dance floor, and has to be protected by her lead. She is vulnerable to sh on the dance floor, so she needs a man to protect her. She doesn’t say no to dances. She must be walked to her car.
The follow is dependent on a (male) lead
She doesn’t say no to a dance; she cannot solo dance (she’s too afraid, she doesn’t know what to do). She cannot dance with a woman; only men can/are lead properly. Dancing with a woman would make people think she was a lesbian. She gains her worth from her heterosexual relationship with a man. She doesn’t tell a harasser to STOP; she reports him to a (male) organiser.
And so on and so on.
But remember: you cannot have this ideal femininity without an ideal masculine, and vice versa. Because in this story, the ideal fem or masc is heterosexual. Without a man, a woman is a lesbian (or a failure). Without a woman, a man is gay (or a failure).
We can do the same exercise with men and this ideal masculinity.
Can you do that? I’m a bit tired of typing, so I’ll leave you to make a little list. Write it down. What are the ways ‘leading’ is gendered hegemonic ‘masculine’?
These are all things that happen on the dance floor. But the modern lindy hop culture encourages us to see dance floor behaviour as the ideal model for off-floor behaviour. The most influential and powerful people at events are teachers and competition winners – people valued for their dance skills.
What happens when we extend this idea that a woman never says no to an invitation to dance? She is, in effect, told that she cannot say no to a man wanting to touch her. That she should smile and facilitate all the things that he wants to do to her body.
I wish that I could dismiss this as an exaggeration. But if we keep in mind the whole rest of the culture in which lindy hop is embedded, then we see that it’s not only unlikely, it’s also very difficult for a woman to say ‘NO’ to a man’s desire to touch her body. On and off the dance floor.
Here, look: this is how a dominant gender model informs lindy hop culture, and how this gendered dancing enables sexual assault and harassment.
Let’s go back a step.
Because I can’t stop there. I can’t stop at this feminist analysis. I need to do some feminist activism as well. I need to do and say something that will make it possible for me to go to lindy hop events. Make it possible for me to dance.
What are the problems?
1. We are using only white, middle class, mainstream Australian culture as a source for gender identities.
2. We haven’t considered this dance in historical context. What was happening in terms of gender in the 1920s and 30s?
3. We haven’t considered this dance in historical cultural context. What was happening in terms of black gender in the 1920s and 30s?
4. We haven’t considered this dance in contemporary cultural context. What is happening in terms of black/Asian/poc gender in Australia today? What is happening in terms of black gender in America today?
There are ways we can rethink gender in lindy hop: by actually watching and listening to black dancers.
In other words: thinking intersectionally about lindy hop (decolonising lindy hop; taking it out of white hands) will help us prevent sexual assault and harassment. I’m saying it clearly: there’s a problem with white, middle class, mainstream masculinity and femininity. And it has done bad things to lindy hop. Bad things to black lindy hoppers as well as white.
So, as a white women, I need to get my learn on.
For me, the first thing I have to do is sit down and listen. Stop talking. I need to watch and see what black dancers are already doing. I don’t ask them to come and give a lecture or wait at my beck and call in a dance class. I look at their work now.
Let’s look at those examples I listed above, where we had men dancing the ‘femme’ role. Let’s look at vogueing. Here, at first glance, we have ‘men’ performing that dominant femininity. But that sentence doesn’t go anywhere near explaining all the things that are happening. For a start, the categories of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ and ‘female’ and ‘masculinity’ seem awfully limited.
Who are these people dancing? Would they describe themselves as men? As women? As trans? As nonbinary (enby – N.B.)? As soon as we ask these questions, and we ask these people these questions, we get a sudden explosion of gender and identity. I like to imagine that a black and white binary drawing (man/woman, male/female, strong/weak, good/bad) just opens up in a massive rainbow spectrum of colour and identity. Strength, weakness, power, vulnerability, creativity, gentleness, violence, beauty, ugliness.
Right here, we see a whole range of ways to do femininity or masculinity. Lots of different ways to be a man or a woman. Or to be a person that doesn’t want to fit into this binary.
Queer studies gives us lots of ways of to think about gender and human relations.
Let’s go back again. Remember where I mentioned Tommy Defrantz? Where I talked about the kneebone bent?
Defrantz is a queer black dancer, whose book looks at black dance history in America and asks ‘where is the queer black masculinity here?’ He himself offers us a very different way of moving his body:
Dood is extremely gay. He is so gay. He is the gayest. And he’s out. And he’s black. And he’s political. He’s also a dancer. A street dancer. A concert dancer. An academic. A thinker. An activist. He is all these things at once, AND he’s a man. This is a different way of embodying masculinity. Look at him while speaks the language of tertiary academia, the academy, territory of white masculine power.
But listen to his higher pitched voice. Look at the way he holds his hands close to his body, taking up less space. The way he shifts from foot to foot, implying uncertainty or a lack-of-obstinant-determination. Then watch all that change as he STAMPS into the ground with the buck dances. The way he embodies this role of the ‘buck‘: aggressive, fierce, determined, sexualised, large. And then he shifts again, demonstrating the wing dances, which he morphs until THERE! we see vogueing, and the ballrooms of 1980s queer black Harlem.
In this single two minute clip Defrantz takes us through a hundred years of black dance and black masculinity. He shows us how rhythm can be style. He shows us how rhythm can be black masculinity. And because he can then take it off again, he shows us – all of us, whatever our gender – that this masculinity can be put on and taken off at will! Imagine a black woman putting on that identity for a moment. Buck dancing!
But what if we actually look at a black woman dancing lindy hop. First ‘vanilla’, then ‘with sauce’. Here, Cookie (Angela Andrew) shows us how to dance as a follow, as a woman, as a black woman. Her skin is black. Her hair is up in a turban. She wears loose trousers and shirt. She addresses the camera. She is with her partner, but she is also taking creative space, saying I AM HERE with her clarity of rhythm. HERE I take a triple step and make it a stomp off. HERE I pause, I stop moving, I hold the time in my body and groove it on down. And HERE I suggest a rhythm to my partner, and because he listens to me, because he is open to my contributions, he takes it up and he joins me. We are together in this moment as equals.
And what is the next step?
I actively choose not to hire teachers who run workshops which prioritise gender norms, or who exploit those gender norms. That means that I don’t hire teachers who’ve been reported for sexual assault or harassment. I don’t hire their friends who’ve stood by them and not called them up on their behaviour.
I do not hire teachers who’ve done publicly racist or antisemitic things. Nor do I hire their friends who’ve stood by them and not called them out on their behaviour.
I hire dancers of colour. I pay them good cashmoney for their work. I choose to hire teachers who are either actively engaging with gender, in a critical way, or I choose to hire teachers who are implicitly engaging with gender in an active way. Simply through being and dancing gender in different ways. This means that I can hire white teachers who talk the talk and attempt to walk the walk, and I can can hire dancers of colour who are teaching me about being gender simply by dancing-while-black.
More importantly, I can take their classes. Yes, that means you, dancer who thinks they’re too good to take classes any more. Be humble. Show you are willing to learn from this person of colour. Say, with your open face and willingness ‘I value what you have to teach.’ Be present in that class, be mindful. Learn. Assume that you don’t know how this works. Learn. Be open. Learn.
I think this is important: it’s not ok for me to ask teachers or dancers to articulate exactly what they are doing that makes them ‘black’. It is my job to learn to see how ethnicity informs who we are and how we move. It is my job, as a white woman, to stop seeing ‘whiteness’ as a default ‘norm’. It is my job to take my assumptions about what ‘good lindy hop’ is, and to see how my own privilege as a white women has shaped this set of values. All of this jargon – frame, connection, musicality, tone, leading, following – all of it is language circulated and controlled by white teachers, and commodified in formal dance classes. It is, truly, the colonisation of black dance.
It is my job to learn how to learn in new ways. To learn how to be in a class with a teacher and see how their movements, their ways of holding their bodies, of taking, of looking at students and each other, of being inform their dancing. Whether they are black or white, hispanic or asian. If dance is culture, then I need to do more than just ‘have a class with a black teacher’. I need to learn how my entire understanding of dance and classes is informed by my own ethnicity.
Here is a list of people you may choose to hire, who are not skinny white heterosexual women and men. Some of them are lindy hoppers, some tap dancers, some do dances traditional to their peeps, some are musicians. I haven’t even really gotten into Asia with this list, and it is totally not exhaustive.
And please note: being the old black/queer/asian in the village can be tiring and intimidating. Why not hire two! Or three! Or ALL of them!
After dealing with sexual assault and harassment in public dance forums for a number of years now, I’ve noticed a clear ‘type’.
He presents as a feminist ally, someone who knows a lot about antisocial behaviour and feminism, and professes to be very anti-hegemonic masculinity.
Yet he’s always the loudest voice in a fb conversation, dominating discussion and correcting others.
And he later proves to be an offender.
I don’t want to think on it too much as it’s too upsetting, but this feels like a type of gaslighting: I’m an ally, I can’t be an offender! Look at me talking the talk online!


United Opposition close ranks on demonetisation
A united opposition on Wednesday protested against demonetisation outside Parliament as Mamata Banerjee hit the streets of Delhi once again demanding the Prime Minister’s ouster as “country was not safe in his hands”, but the government ruled out revoking the exercise, declaring rolling back something is “not in Modi’s blood”.
Opposition parties have called for a countrywide protest on November 28 against the cash crunch faced by the public. Earlier on Wednesday morning, opposition party MPs gathered at Mahatma Gandhi’s statue outside Parliament and marched together after linking their arms to form a human chain.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who had taken up cudgels against Modi on the issue, termed demonetisation of high-value currency notes as the world’s “biggest impromptu financial experiment” about which even the Finance Minister and the Chief Economic Adviser were clueless before the announcement was made.
He reaffirmed the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into alleged leak of demonetisation decision prior to its announcement by Modi, and participation of the Prime Minister in a debate on the exercise.
Meanwhile, in a show of strength, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday rallied four parties behind her with a demonstration against demonetisation and attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying the government must go because the country was not safe in his hands.
Flanked by leaders of SP, JD-U, NCP and AAP, Banerjee addressed a gathering at Jantar Mantar where she alleged the BJP dispensation had lost all its “credentials and credibility” because of the currency restrictions.
“This government will have to go...I am sorry to say, the country is not secure under you Modiji. You do things at your whims and fancies,” she said.
Banerjee alleged that abolition of high-value currency notes had heaped pain on people and snatched away democratic rights of almost every section of the society including farmers, youth, women, labourers and traders, besides halting the country’s economic growth.
Accusing the BJP-led dispensation of “looting” the common man, she wondered why those having Swiss bank accounts were “not touched at all”, and warned that people will teach a “good lesson” to the ruling party in the upcoming assembly polls for implementing a “black law”.
“I can challenge that no one will vote for BJP. If I were you (PM), I would have apologised to the public. Why are you are so egoistic? You have branded everyone in the country a black marketeer and have yourself turned into a saint ,” she said.
In his address, JD-U leader Sharad Yadav questioned the legality of the demonetisation exercise and challenged the Prime Minister to explain to the Parliament how the decision will benefit the country. The presence of Yadav at the protest assumes significance as Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U chief Nitish Kumar continues to support the measure. The protest was also addressed by SP’s Dharmendra Yadav, AAP’s Raghav Chadha and NCP’s Majid Memon.
Referring to Tuesday’s bypoll results, the TMC chief said BJP’s victory margins have come down significantly in Madhya Pradesh and that Modi has left the country in the lurch (Modiji ne desh ka barah baja diya).”
She said she will support a country-wide protest called by the Opposition parties on November 28 against demonetisation.
Unfazed by the protests and continued stalling of Parliament, government rejected outright the possibility of withdrawing the exercise midway.
“Wapas lena Modi ji ke khoon mein nahi hai (Roll back is not in Modiji’s blood,” Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu asserted, making clear that the decision to withdraw the old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes “will not be taken back in any situation”.
Naidu, however, said the government was “ready to make improvements” in easing the difficulties faced by the common people. Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh accused Modi of being “too arrogant” and said that “does not augur well” for democracy.
Opposition snubs govt overtures
In a bid to break the logjam in Parliament over demonetisation, government on Wednesday reached out to the Opposition with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar holding talks with Congress and TMC leaders.
Opposition leaders were, however, cool to the government overtures. There were even rumours of the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee being sounded out by the PMO on a possible one-to-one meeting with Modi.
“These are merely rumours. It is an attempt to break opposition unity. The PM should take all opposition parties into confidence,” Banerjee said.
Kumar and some other leaders in the government will continue deliberations with floor leaders of various political parties on Thursday. “Nothing has been achieved by holding up the Parliament proceedings. Everybody feels that there should be action against black money.
The opposition parties apprehensions are about only implementation of demonetisation, we have been saying that we are ready to listen to their concerns. “I have again requested them to start discussion where they can express their view points on this issue, which government will listen and consider,” Kumar said.
The government’s action comes in the backdrop of continued stalling of both the Houses of Parliament by the opposition which is demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence and participation in the debate on demonetisation. Government sources indicated that Modi may be present in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.


Leather sheath with a ferro rod for the fixed blade knives 7-9″. This sheath is attached on free suspension. This makes it easy to use – during bending and moving it will hang freely on the belt and will not hinder from movement. There is also a possibility of fixed suspension of the sheath on the belt.
The sheath has a loop to fix the flint. The flint is 8 mm in diameter.
The sheath is made of genuine leather, glued and stitched with a strong nylon thread. Leather thickness – 3 mm. An additional insert under the wedge allows you not to cut through them with the sharpened part of the blade.
Length with mount on the belt – 12,2 inches(310 mm)
Length – 9,2 inches (235 mm)
Width – 2,3 inch (60 mm)
Weight – 3 oz (85 gr)
Please keep the sheath dry and clean. This will help protect your knife from damage and corrosion.
The knife is not included.


text:
College Football Week 11: #8 Florida State At Virginia Tech
|Florida State’s shocking loss to North Carolina State a month ago continues to make you scratch your head. Jimbo Fisher’s squad has dominated every other team on its schedule.||Coaching||Frank Beamer is allowed to have one bad season every now and then, right? The Hokies are just 4-5, meaning their eight-year run of 10-win seasons will come to an end. If VT doesn’t rebound next season there is cause for concern.|
|FSU fields the top offense in the country as far as yards per play. The Seminoles are coming off a bye week; only rust can slow down this unit. E.J Manuel is the second-most efficient quarterback in the country.||Offense||The Hokies have been inconsistent on offense all season. Logan Thomas has been dangerous on the ground and through the air, at times, but he threw two interceptions and lost a fumble in last week’s 30-12 loss to Miami.|
|Guess what? The ’Noles also have the top defense in the country, giving up just 3.5 yards per play. The light schedule is certainly a big factor, but Virginia Tech doesn’t have the type of offense that will scare FSU.||Defense||VT has forced just 14 turnovers this season, not enough to offset its mediocre defense.|
|FSU has one of the most reliable kickers in the country and has been well above average on kickoffs and kickoff returns.||Special Teams||Given all of Virginia Tech’s struggles, perhaps the most surprising has been the special teams play. The Hokies allowed an 81-yard kickoff return, missed an extra point, and had a punt blocked last week.|
The winner is
More Tales of the tape
NCAA Championship Game: #1 Louisville Vs. #4 Michigan
Rick Pitino has been here before, after making his 7th Final Four appearance, he’s now in his third go-round in the title game. He’s got plenty of experience on the big stage and he has the Cardinals playing high level basketball at the right time.
NCAA Tournament Championship Weekend: #4 Michigan Vs. #4 Syracuse
No. 4 Michigan and No. 4 Syracuse square off in Atlanta this weekend with the winner getting a shot to play for the National Title.
NCAA Tournament Championship Weekend: #1 Louisville Vs. #9 Wichita State
Rick Pitino and No. 1 Louisville take on No. 9 Wichita State in Atlanta this weekend for a shot to play in the National Title game on Monday.
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domain: news


Gist36.com - Nigerian Entertainment, Politics and Breaking News Platform.
PDP Rejoices as Court Confirms Kashamu’s Sack
The People’s Democratic Party(PDP) has rejoiced over Senator Kashamu Buruji’s expulsion by Federal High Court, Abuja.
The party had moved for an expulsion to vindicated that Kashamu is not its governorship candidate in Ogun state.
PDP expressed its joy over the development some hours after the court confirmed the validity of Ladi Adebutu as the PDP’s governorship candidate in Ogun state.
In a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan, the national spokesperson of the PDP, the party said that the senator had lost membership of the arty following his expulsion in July 2018.
“Senator Buruji lost his membership of our party and as such, did not partake in any of our nomination processes; did not purchase the PDP governorship nomination form and did not participate in any way whatsoever in our Ogun state governorship primary, yet he had continued to cause confusion and parade himself as PDP candidate.
“The PDP invites Nigerians, the people of Ogun state and particularly the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take copious note of the judgment of the court, in suit no: FCT/HC/0303/2017, which today, December 13, 2018, affirmed the powers of the PDP, as provided in her constitution, to discipline and punish any member who contravenes any of the provisions of its constitution.
“By this judgment, it is clear that Senator Buruji Kashamu is not a member of the PDP, and cannot, under any circumstance whatsoever, claim to be the governorship candidate of the PDP in Ogun state, moreso, when he never participated in any of our nomination processes.
“While hailing the judgment as victory for democracy, the PDP charges INEC to copiously take note of the development and reflect such in every issue regarding the conduct of governorship election in Ogun state.
“Finally, the PDP commends the people of Ogun state for standing steadfast with its governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu, who is already coasting to victory in the 2019 polls.”


text:
Background: Ras homolog gene family, member A (RhoA)/Rho-associated coiled-coil forming protein kinase signaling is a key pathway in multiple types of solid organ fibrosis, including intestinal fibrosis. However, the pleiotropic effects of RhoA/Rho-associated coiled-coil forming protein kinase signaling have frustrated targeted drug discovery efforts. Recent recognition of the role of Rho-regulated gene transcription by serum response factor (SRF) and its transcriptional cofactor myocardin-related transcription factor A (MRTF-A) suggest a novel locus for pharmacological intervention.
Methods: Because RhoA signaling is mediated by both physical and biochemical stimuli, we examined whether pharmacological inhibition of RhoA or the downstream transcription pathway of MRTF-A/SRF could block intestinal fibrogenesis in 2 in vitro models.
Results: In this study, we demonstrate that inhibition of RhoA signaling blocks both matrix-stiffness and transforming growth factor beta-induced fibrogenesis in human colonic myofibroblasts. Repression of alpha-smooth muscle actin and collagen expression was associated with the inhibition of MRTF-A nuclear localization. CCG-1423, a first-generation Rho/MRTF/SRF pathway inhibitor, repressed fibrogenesis in both models, yet has unacceptable cytotoxicity. Novel second-generation inhibitors (CCG-100602 and CCG-203971) repressed both matrix-stiffness and transforming growth factor beta-mediated fibrogenesis as determined by protein and gene expression in a dose-dependent manner.
Conclusions: Targeting the Rho/MRTF/SRF mechanism with second-generation Rho/MRTF/SRF inhibitors may represent a novel approach to antifibrotic therapeutics.

domain: medical


Explain the contract between Howard County and ICE.
Howard County has a long-standing contract with ICE to house individuals in ICE custody. The Detention Center does not accept any individuals held solely on administrative or civil immigration charges. Under the revised policy, the Howard County Department of Corrections will still accept ICE detainees who have been convicted of a crime of violence as defined in Md. Criminal Law Code Annotated section 14-101. The list of violent crimes included in the statute have been defined by the Maryland General Assembly and examples of such crimes include murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and more serious assaults and sexual offenses. However, pretrial detainees who have been only charged with crimes, including crimes of violence, but who have not yet been convicted, would no longer be eligible for being housed in the Detention Center.
What are the criteria for taking ICE detainees into the Detention Center?
Individuals are never detained solely because of their immigration status. The Detention Center only accepts ICE detainees under the conditions listed above.
What are some examples of the charges against those being detained?
As of June 29, 2020, 29 ICE detainees are housed in the Detention Center under the contract with ICE. Several have been convicted of or charged with CDS possession for substances other than marijuana, and several have been convicted or charged with DUI / DWI coupled with other misdemeanors, and in one case with three DUI / DWI offenses. The majority includes validated gang members and persons who have been convicted of or charged with felonies, including Murder, Attempted Murder, Armed Robbery, Arson, Rape-1st degree, Racketeering, Child Abuse, Sex Abuse of a Minor, Aggravated Cruelty to Animals, Handgun Possession, Conspiracy to Murder A Police Officer, Assault, False Imprisonment, Child Pornography, Sex Offense – Second Degree, Kidnapping, Manslaughter, and Carjacking.
Has the Howard County Detention Center ever housed any non-criminal ICE detainees under the contract with ICE?
In 2017, one person who did not meet the criteria was mistakenly detained and held for three days. Since then, the Detention Center has put enhanced screening and monitoring measures into place to ensure that it does not happen again.
What is the average length of stay for detainees?
Are the facilities overcrowded?
No, the Detention Center is at less than 50% capacity as of June 29, 2020.
Does the detention center house women and children?
The Detention Center does not and has never housed women or children.
What is the per diem rate paid by ICE to Howard County?
The County's current per diem rate is $110.00 per detainee per day. This covers food, medical care, and other costs, including overhead costs, associated with housing ICE detainees in the facility. Howard County provides very specific documentation to justify our per diem rate. A recent review showed that the actual costs associated with housing ICE detainees is $118.00 per detainee per day.
Are the detention center staff employed by Howard County or ICE?
Detention Center staff are employed by Howard County, with the exception of medical staff, who are employed by the medical contractor, ConMed.
Would CB9-2017 (Sanctuary legislation) have ended the ICE contract?
No. CB9 never called for a cancellation of the ICE contract with the Detention Center. The CB9 legislation, which was vetoed by the prior Administration, was primarily focused on ensuring Howard County officials, including our police officers, did not inquire about a person's immigration status or assist in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. In a January 10, 2017 statement from then Councilmembers Ball and Terrasa, the sponsors of CB9, reinforced why the legislation was important which included DACA students living in fear and victims of domestic violence who were afraid to call the police. They also noted in that same statement that CB9 did “nothing to jeopardize existing cooperation from ICE in targeting criminal activity within Howard County.” In 2017, the Police Department revised its policies to make clear that police officers do not ask about immigration status or take action based on a person's immigration status.
What are the nearest detention centers that have contracts with ICE?
Other in-state facilities that house ICE detainees are Worcester County (135 miles away) and Frederick County. The next closest facilities are located in Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Are there any state prisons in Howard County? If so, who has authority over them?
The Patuxent Institution, also located in Howard County, is a State correctional facility that operates under the authority of the State Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The Secretary of Public Safety is Robert Green. This facility has no connection to the County Detention Center.
Are the Howard County Police involved in transporting detainees?
Howard County police make arrests and transport individuals to the Detention Center only for violation of State criminal laws or under the authority of criminal warrants issued by State or federal judges. They are not involved in any way with taking ICE detainees into custody or transporting them to the Detention Center. When ICE agents make arrests, they process all intakes at their Baltimore field office and then a private contractor transports the detainees to the Detention Center.
Does Howard County use county resources to enforce federal immigration laws?
No, we do not use County resources to enforce federal immigration law. The contract between Howard County and ICE provides that the County is paid to house individuals in ICE custody who meet the criteria listed above. Howard County police do not take action based on immigration status or otherwise enforce federal immigration laws.
What is a 287(g) agreement and has Howard County entered into one?
The 287(g) program authorizes local law enforcement agencies to assist ICE with enforcement of immigration laws. Howard County does not and has never participated in the 287(g) program. Howard County police take action only for violations of State criminal law.
How can I find out if an ICE Detainee is in the Howard County Detention Center?
You would need to contact the Baltimore ICE office:
Acting Field Office Director
Baltimore Field Office
What is the process if someone thinks that someone is being held only because of a civil violation of federal immigration laws or does not meet any of the criteria?
Please call the Detention Center Director immediately at 410 313-5230.
What steps has the Detention Center taken to minimize the risk of exposure to COVID-19?
Protocols to minimize the risk of COVID-19 exposure have been in place since March 1. The protocols have been continuously revised based upon recommendations of the Health Department and CDC. Som


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Brothers Ernie and Gene Fodor remember their father, Jerry Fodor, and his orchestra playing in front of huge dancing crowds at The Gypsy Camp Nite Club at 1956 Front Street, Birmingham. The Gypsy Camp was originally named Strick’s Hall when it was built in 1902 and renamed The Playdium in the 1940s.
It was a lavishly designed recreational center equipped with a theater, bowling alley, and other activities for the Hungarian community, but it served people from throughout Toledo and Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. Jerry Fodor(fourth from the right) and his orchestra at the Playdium. The bar, which can be seen at far left, was constructed of wood imported from Hungary.(Photo courtesy of Gene Fodor) The Playdium was built in Second Empire Style with Hungarian embellishments — serving as a landmark for the Birmingham community for over a century. “It was all Old World — Hungarian,” said Gene Fodor, a retired police detective. “They had the hall upstairs, which was an old hall with a stage, and I was married upstairs there in 1954. There were some good people, including an opera star who sang at my wedding.” In recent years, the building has been vacant and fell into tragic disrepair. On January 25, the City of Toledo gave an emergency demolition order, calling it unsafe, dangerous to human life, a fire hazard, and structurally unsound because the roof had collapsed down to the first floor. Exterior walls were pushed out and were in danger of falling to the street below. Immediately after the order, the 40,800 square foot structure was demolished. “Nobody knew,” Gene Fodor said. “My former brother-in-law called me and said, ‘Gene, they are going to tear the Playdium down. I didn’t see anything in the paper. My wife went over there the other day and we picked up a couple bricks.” The owner is listed as Michael Mossing of South Avenue, Toledo, who bought it from Valued Homes LLC for $1,500 on Nov. 1, 2010. In late 1999, the building was appraised by Lucas County at $199,000. In 2006, after nine years of ownership by a non-local holding company, Jeeva, Inc., the now-defunct River East Economic Revitalization Corporation put a bid of $22,000 at an auction, but it never closed. At that time, East Toledo business officials along with then chief financial operating officer of Tony Packo’s Café, Rob Horvath, had a vision of creating a Hungarian village to emulate an historic German village in Columbus. After touring the building, they feared the wrecking ball was coming soon, and they were right. Horvath, a cancer survivor, compared the condition of the building to a cancer victim, adding that he does not want to offend anyone who has lived with cancer. “Restoration costs are easily seven figures,” Horvath said. “It’s well over a million dollars. It’s probably two million dollars. I don’t think you can make the numbers work with putting that kind of money into that building.” Ernie and Gene Fodor remember the Playdium under different names, including Front Street Gardens. Later as the Gypsy Camp, it was owned by their grandmother, Mary (Fodor) Horvath, and their uncle and aunt, John and Irene Virag, who managed it prior to World War II. The Playdium facing Front St. in 2006. (Press file photo by Ken Grosjean) An advertisement promoting The Gypsy Camp in a Hungarian publication. Their grandmother was in charge of the food — which was known for its Hungarian flavor. The waitresses were decked entirely in Hungarian “gypsy” skirts and embroidered blouses. Ernie and Gene were children at the time, and Gene recalls cleaning tables and washing dishes while their mother, Mary, and aunt, Betty Kinsey, served tables. Their father, Jerry Fodor, was a swing violinist who led an orchestra that also played at other popular venues across Toledo, including Frankie’s Nite Club, The Flame Room, the Rose Room, and Tony Packo’s Café. At the Gypsy Club, if you were lucky, a violinist would approach your table in Hungarian style and play a romantic tune. “Downstairs was a restaurant colored with Hungarian colors and theme and curtains. The crowds were very good. People came from all over the city of Toledo to eat there,” Gene said. Ernie adds, “It was a swinging place. It had upstairs a big auditorium and dance hall, and they had a balcony and they would put on plays and shows up there — what they would call grape festivals that the Hungarians celebrated. They rented the upstairs out for weddings and private parties and all kinds of things like that.” It also hosted beauty contests, vaudeville acts, and the original bar was worth a considerable amount of money because the wood was imported from Hungary. During its Gypsy Camp days, it was tended by John Virag. “That bar was a classic bar,” Ernie Fodor said. “It was solid walnut and cherry, and they bragged about that begin there. It was a work of art with a lot of design, including carved and engraved woodwork.” Strick’s legacyDr. Ted Ligibel, Ph.D. Honorary Co-founder of the Maumee Valley Heritage Corridor and director of Eastern Michigan University's Historic Preservation program, wrote that prominent immigrant and builder John Strick, a native of Abauj County in northern Hungary, was keenly interested in the welfare of fellow Hungarians. East Toledo historian and author Larry Michaels said the Playdium has “that Hungarian flavor to it,” and Dr. Ligibel confirms that’s where the architecture originates from. Dr. Ligibel believes the architect of Strick’s Hall was David L. Stine, also the designer of the Lucas County Courthouse, the county jail and sheriff’s residence, and the Libbey House. Stine also designed Strick’s summer home on Lake Erie. After settling in Cleveland and then Toledo seven years later, Strick participated in a variety of religious and secular activities in both cities. The book, Hungarians in America, describes Strick as “a very generous contributor to the church as well as every other worthwhile institution, and his participation in any welfare or cultural movement assured its success.” Dr. Ligibel wrote, “It is not surprising that he built a large hall, originally known as Strick’s Hall, to serve the social and cultural needs of his fellow immigrants. Strick’s Hall became the secular counterpart to the church. The hall served not only as the major tavern of the neighborhood, but offered recreational amenities as well, including a second floor meeting hall with stage and balcony and a basement bowling alley.” According to Dr. Andrew Ludanyi, professor of history at Ohio Northern University and an authority on Hungarian culture, the building’s design and pale yellow brick have direct, Old World Magyar antecedents. “Indeed, the graceful arches with quoined surrounds on the second floor and the heavily Renaissance-inspired cornice are hallmarks of many public and religious structures in Hungary,” Dr. Ligibel wrote. “Close inspection, however, reveals the most remarkable aspect of Strick’s Hall — that of its fantastic array of Hungarian ethnic symbols situated within the deteriorating tin cornice of the building’s roofline. Here, among Renaissance-inspired parapets and dormers, are the most revered symbols of Hungarian culture — the national coat-of-arms, the crown of St. Stephen, and the Hungarian cross.” Dr. Ligibel says even though the structure was architect-designed, “there is no better example of ethnic-influenced vernacular architecture on a secular building in the area.”


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Well, as anticipated, it's a neck-and-neck battle between Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII , which lead the pack into the second week of the Best PS2 RPG Poll voting.
Many will argue that the PS1 was the undisputed king of the role-playing genre, but the PS2 had its fair share of amazing RPG experiences. We would've thought Suikoden III and Shadow Hearts: Covenant would've fared much better, but it seems that few are willing to vote for anything that doesn't say "Final Fantasy" in the title. Still, Kingdom Hearts II – at least at this point – seems almost assured of the Bronze when all is said and done, while FFX and FFXII fight it out for the Gold. At first, due to the sheer number of RPGs on the PS2, we almost wanted to include another 10 titles. But then, we realized they'd all be superfluous due to the obvious fact that FFX and FFXII are gonna garner the vast majority of all the votes. It'll be interesting to see which one pulls it out; the two were only separated by a mere 4 votes!
The 5 that have made it into the second week are:
Okay, so vote away and let's see which of the two FF Goliaths come away with the Gold and earn a spot in the Best Overall PS2 poll. That's later, though; we have to establish all the genre winners first, remember? As always, you can talk about the poll and all its justices or injustices in the official thread in the forums.

domain: game


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Nigeria’s inflation rate jumped from 18.6% in June to to 19.6 % in July, the highest level since September 2005 and more than double the 9% ceiling of the central bank’s target band.
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, annual food-price growth soared to 22% from 20.6% in June and core inflation, which strips out food costs, quickened to 16.26% in July, compared with 15.75% the previous month. Prices rose 1.8% against the previous month.
Cost pressures are being fanned by a high import bill caused by surging commodity prices, supply shortages, and a slide in the Naira to record lows against the dollar.
The jump in inflation may persuade Nigeria’s monetary policy committee to raise its key interest rate for a third successive meeting on 27th September.
The MPC has hiked its interest rate by 250 basis points since May.

domain: finance


The Scarborough & District Evening Cricket League are celebrating 28 years of sponsorship from local company AndyHire.
Sharon Blackstone, Dean Thomas and Brad Davison the three directors and co-owners of AndyHire said: “We are delighted to continue our company’s sponsorship of the Scarborough Evening Cricket League continuing on from the last 28 years.
“Cricket in the Scarborough area is very strong and we are keen to help out to ensure the cricket enthusiasm continues.”
League secretary Bernard Goulding said, “The league committee, league club members andpPlayers are so pleased that Andy Hire are still supporting the league and because of the sponsorship the league can continue to give some of their income to local charities.”
The AndyHire League currently runs three divisions and have 26 teams across the Scarborough area.


text: Multiple organ systems, including the brain, which undergoes changes that may increase the risk of cognitive decline, are adversely affected by diabetes mellitus (DM). Here, we demonstrate that type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) db/db mice exhibited hippocampus-dependent memory impairment, which might associate with a reduction in dendritic spine density in the pyramidal neurons of brain, Aβ1-42 deposition in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus, and a decreased expression of neurostructural proteins including microtubule-associated protein (MAP2), a marker of dendrites, and postsynaptic density 95 (PSD95), a marker of excitatory synapses. To investigate the effects of the ZiBuPiYin recipe (ZBPYR), a traditional Chinese medicine recipe, on diabetes-related cognitive decline (DACD), db/db mice received daily administration of ZBPYR over an experimental period of 6 weeks. We then confirmed that ZBPYR rescued learning and memory performance impairments, reversed dendritic spine loss, reduced Aβ1-42 deposition and restored the expression levels of MAP2 and PSD95. The present study also revealed that ZBPYR strengthened brain leptin and insulin signaling and inhibited GSK3β overactivity, which may be the potential mechanism or underlying targets of ZBPYR. These findings conclude that ZBPYR prevents DACD, most likely by improving dendritic spine density and attenuating brain leptin and insulin signaling pathway injury. Our findings provide further evidence for the effects of ZBPYR on DACD.


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Mediacom’s Australian clients are set to benefit from a new branch of Mediacom Sport.
Mediacom Sport, which was set up in 2011 to provide Mediacom’s clients with sponsorship and sports rights strategies, has opened up shop in Singapore. The new Asian office is also serving as the company’s regional headquarters.
A statement from Mediacom Australia to B&T said: “We are very excited about the APAC evolution of Mediacom Sport, given the success it has had to date globally. As a key part of the APAC region, we look forward to supporting this specialist area and, as with any good business operation, we will look to localise it as needed for our clients.”
Mediacom Sport also has offices in the UK, Russia and Germany, with plans to open in the US and Brazil before the end of 2013.

domain: economics


The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) have enacted numerous policies that are aimed at ensuring environmental justice.
EPA’s Goals Related to Environmental Justice
One of the missions of the EPA is to promote environmental justice. The EPA defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”
The principle of fair treatment means that no group should have to bear a disproportionate share of the environmental impact of industrial, governmental, or commercial policies or operations. Meaningful involvement means that people should have an opportunity to play a role in making decisions that may affect their environment and their health. People and agencies with the authority to make decisions should ask for input from those who will be affected and consider their concerns when setting policies.
Role of the Office of Environmental Justice
The OEJ was created in 1992. Its mission is to reduce environmental burdens, increase environmental benefits, and work to create healthy and sustainable communities for vulnerable populations. The OEJ works toward those goals by providing technical and financial assistance to communities and by partnering with community organizations, business, industry, academia, and local, state, federal, and tribal governments. The overarching goal is “to establish partnerships seeking to achieve protection from environmental and health hazards for all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income.”
Focus on Consistency and Transparency
The EPA aims to provide consistency and clarity regarding issues related to environmental justice. The OEJ has created several tools and resources that take issues related to environmental justice into account when the agency is making decisions on policies and actions.
The EPA has released two documents to help the public better understand how environmental justice influences its decision-making process. Those documents, Guidance on Considering Environmental Justice During the Development of an Action and Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis, are aimed at providing clarity and consistency.
The National Environmental Policy Act provides a framework that can be used to consider environmental justice in federal decision-making processes. After a four-year review of agency practices, a list of guiding principles and steps was created.
The EPA relies on scientific data to make informed decisions on policies to protect the health and environment of vulnerable populations. EJSCREEN is a tool the EPA has created to provide nationwide data on environmental and demographic matters in a consistent format. The goal is to improve transparency so the public can better understand how the EPA weighs environmental justice when making decisions and helps stakeholders make informed decisions. EJSCREEN also facilitates dialogue between the EPA and others since all parties can begin discussions with a common set of data.
The National Environmental Justice Advisory Council provides the EPA’s administrator with independent advice and recommendations. It also holds public meetings to discuss matters related to environmental justice.
Training and Education
The Office of Environmental Justice provides training and coordinates workshops on environmental justice and equitable development for EPA staff, other governmental partners, other stakeholders, and the general public.
Civil Rights Protections
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires federal agencies to make sure that programs and activities that receive federal funding do not discriminate based on race, color, or national origin. The OEJ collaborates with the EPA’s External Civil Rights Compliance Office to share tools and best practices and to resolve complaints. The EPA’s Office of General Counsel has several discretionary legal authorities that it can use to more fully ensure that programs, policies, and activities it implements do not adversely affect the health and environment of low-income and minority communities.
Partnerships to Serve Communities
The OEJ focuses on helping underserved and overburdened communities find holistic solutions via government partnerships, the use of tools and guidance in measurable and significant ways, and measurable progress on significant environmental and health issues. The Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice is a collaborative effort involving 17 federal agencies and White House offices.
The EPA provides direct financial and technical support to help vulnerable communities develop holistic solutions to address environmental and public health concerns. The EPA awards funds through competitive grant programs.
The Technical Assistance Services for Communities Program educates people in vulnerable communities on environmental science, regulations, and EPA policies. It aims to allow people to take active roles in improving their communities.
The EPA is working to implement its policy on Environmental Justice for Working with Federally Recognized Tribes and Indigenous Peoples by partnering with tribes, indigenous organizations, federal agencies, states, and other interested parties.
The EPA also works with the State Department and other federal agencies to protect the environment and public health of vulnerable populations in other countries. It does that by sharing approaches and best practices.
Legal Assistance to Address Environmental Injustice
Although the government has made some positive steps toward environmental justice, many people in communities across the United States are still suffering. Ben Crump Law, PLLC has represented victims of environmental injustice and helped them pursue legal action to bring about meaningful change. Call our office at (800) 959-1444 to discuss how we may be able to help your community.


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Directed thinking leads to an increase in exercise performance and fitness in sedentary individuals or so say researchers. In a study which asked subjects to think about ideas that fell into either the ‘reasons’ category or the ‘actions’ category the results showed a significant difference in the physical actions taken when comparing individuals from the two groups.
Participating as a member of the ‘reasons’ category involved listing reasons why the individuals thought they should be exercising. For example, for weight loss, improved stamina or better health, while the ‘actions’ category were busy listing actions they could take in order to increase exercise performance, such as joining a gym or going for a run.
This activity took place over an eight week period, with the ‘actions’ group coming out on top. Members of this group increased the level of exercise they were taking and improved cardiovascular fitness. Bringing to mind the reasons why you should exercise on a regular basis appeared to have no effect on increasing time spent exercising.
You may be able to think your way out of an unhealthy lifestyle by actively thinking about WHAT you can change to improve your lifestyle as opposed to focusing on WHY you should.
Ten Eyck LL, Gresky DP, Lord CG, Effects of Directed Thinking on Exercise and Cardiovascular Fitness, Journal of Applied Biobehavioural Research, 2007, 12(3-4):237.

domain: psychology


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Low birthweight is when a baby is born weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces. Some babies with low birthweight are healthy, even though they’re small. But having a low weight at birth can cause serious health problems for some babies.
What is the minimum birth weight?
If your baby weighs less than 2,500 grams (5 pounds, 8 ounces), they have a low birth weight. Babies weighing less than 1,500 grams (3 pounds, 5 ounces) at birth are considered very low birth weight. Babies who weigh less than 1,000 grams (2 pounds, 3 ounces) are extremely low birth weight.
Can low birth weight baby survive?
Nearly all low birthweight babies need specialized care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) until they gain weight and are well enough to go home. Fortunately, there is a 95 percent chance of survival for babies weighing between 3 pounds, 5 ounces and 5 pounds, 8 ounces.
What is the lightest baby ever born?
Little Kwek Yu Xuan was born via emergency C-section weighing about as much as a softball — just 7.5 ounces, or 0.4 pounds — making her by many accounts the lightest baby ever delivered.
What is the normal weight for 2 months baby?
Baby weight chart by age
|Baby age||Female : 50th percentile weight||Male : 50th percentile weight|
|1 month||9 lb 4 oz (4.2 kg)||9 lb 14 oz (4.5 kg)|
|2 months||11 lb 5 oz (5.1 kg)||12 lb 4 oz (5.6 kg)|
|3 months||12 lb 14 oz (5.8 kg)||14 lb 1 oz (6.4 kg)|
|4 months||14 lb 3 oz (6.4 kg)||15 lb 7 oz (7.0 kg)|
What is the heaviest baby ever born?
While touring in the summer of 1878, Anna was pregnant for the second time. The boy was born on January 18, 1879, and survived only 11 hours. He was the largest newborn ever recorded, at 23 pounds 9 ounces (10.7 kg) and nearly 30 inches tall (ca.
Is a 5lb baby small?
These babies have birth weight below the 10th percentile. This means they are smaller than many other babies of the same gestational age. Many babies normally weigh more than 5 pounds, 13 ounces by the 37th week of pregnancy. Babies born weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces are considered low birth weight.
What week can baby survive?
By the time you’re 24 weeks pregnant, the baby has a chance of survival if they are born. Most babies born before this time cannot live because their lungs and other vital organs are not developed enough. The care that can now be given in baby (neonatal) units means more and more babies born early do survive.
What is a healthy birth weight?
The average birth weight for babies is around 7.5 lb (3.5 kg), although between 5.5 lb (2.5 kg) and 10 lb (4.5 kg) is considered normal. In general: Boys are usually a little heavier than girls. First babies are usually lighter than later siblings.
What are the reasons for low birth weight?
Are you at risk of having a low-birthweight baby?
- Preterm labor. …
- Chronic health conditions. …
- Taking certain medicines to treat health conditions, such as high blood pressure, epilepsy and blood clots. …
- Infections. …
- Problems with the placenta. …
- Not gaining enough weight during pregnancy.
What causes a small baby?
The most common reason why a baby is smaller than average — weighing less than 2.5kg at birth — is prematurity (being born before 37 weeks’ gestation). The earlier the baby is born, the smaller they are likely to be. This is because the baby will have had less time in the womb to grow.


Modifying The Intake is one of those modifications that need to be done after some thought. There are a few things to think about if you debating whether or not to ditch the stock air-box. First and foremost, do you know how to re-jet a carburetor? Most of us do not, re-jetting is entirely necessary as the amount of air coming into the motor will be substantially more.
Second, do you have all the necessary air filters to replace all the open ends that will occur after you remove the air-box. By open end I mean this: there are a lot of hoses coming from the crank case, pvc valve, solenoid, etc… that all run to the air-box. All these need to have filters on them. This mod requires more than one air filter, it actually requires three, sometimes four depending on how you go about it.
Modifying The Intake Options
Intake Mod Pro’s
- Slightly More power
- Remains closer to stock
- Same reliability
- Looks Cool with the Big KN Snorkel
- Fairly affordable: all Filters roughly $90.00
Intake Mod Con’s
- Harder to Tune
- Throttle could be less responsive with no “vacuum” effect
- Jets are hard to find
Finally do you want to stick with the stock carb?, or just go all the way and get something like the JC20 Carb kit. If you choose this route, re-jetting will still be necessary, however I have heard this carb is outstanding on the Ruckus. Here are some pros and cons of going the carb kit route:
Entirely New Carb
Carb Kit Pro’s
- More power
- Easier to tune
- Parts availability
- Better Throttle Response
Carb Kit Con’s
- Takes longer to warm up
- going full throttle from idle will bog.
- Gas mileage will go down a bit
- A bit pricy: $200.00 – $300.00
After all that I decided I wanted to go the route of the Intake mod. I’m a fan of keeping the reliability of my Ruck, because its my daily driver, I might not get as much power as using a carb kit, but I’m ok with that. Also I am having my motor mechanic do the work. Jetting can be a huge pain in the you know what. I don’t have the time or the patients. What would take me 4 days, will take my mechanic an afternoon.
Back to all those wires coming out of the airbox, There is a an outstanding diagram that was done by sanjuro62, that will clear up all the issues around the air-box I highly recommend looking at it.
You get all the right equipment, get it jetted right, you should see at least 1-2 more MPH in your ruck. The one thing you will deffinately need is a intake mount when you remove the airbox there is nothing to hold the main intake. Thanks to the guys at MNNTHBX they got cha covered.
Custom Intake Tube From AutoZone:
The final Product, Looks so much More tough:


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Food File: Banh Xeo Quy Nhon
The first time I tried bánh xèo, about six years ago, I thought I’d been dudded. It was awful.
Since then I have tried bánh xèo at several places around Ho Chi Minh City and every single bite has confirmed my first impression of the dish.
The giant bright yellow “sizzling cake” is, to me, oily and bland. In Ho Chi Minh City, the fried rice flour crepe is stuffed with tasteless shell-on prawns, fatty pork and limp bean sprouts. Wrapping ripped-off portions of the greasy pancake in leaves and dipping the bundle into nước chấm doesn’t do enough to lift this dish out of blah-ness.
The fact that bánh xèo is mentioned in so many must-try lists of Vietnamese dishes is my pet peeve. I tell everyone who will listen to avoid bánh xèo like the plague.
So when we arrived in the central Vietnamese town of Quy Nhon, where the local version of bánh xèo is considered (locally at least) the best in Vietnam, I could not help but pull a lemon-sucking face.
I agreed to try some bánh xèo in the interests of research.
And so, our first night in Quy Nhon, Darling Man, Miss M and I made our way to the local “eating street”, quite a way from the touristy seaside strip.
I was not impressed with the greyish pancakes when they were first delivered to our table. They were a fraction of the size of the bánh xèo that’s served further south and not garishly coloured with tumeric.
The Quy Nhon bánh xèo are served with rice paper, a dish of cucumber, sprouts and herbs and a sweet dipping sauce.
I dutifully wrapped, rolled, dipped and bit. Oh my, this dish is totally different to the southern version. It’s DELICIOUS! It has what the southern version doesn’t – flavour! And the right combination of bean sprouts, pork and prawns.
The mini-pancakes are soft and warm, the cucumber is crunchy, the herbs are fresh and fragrant, the rice paper is slightly chewy and the dipping sauce is out of this world! All in all a winning combination.
Try these banh xeo at 12 Ngo Van So Street, Quy Nhon.
(But steer clear of the big yellow ones in Ho Chi Minh City.)
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7 years ago

domain: geography


The exploration of the outer Solar System has revealed a plethora of amazing worlds, the likes of which were little known or even unheard of just a decade ago. Among the most remarkable and tantalizing discoveries are the “ocean moons” such as Europa and Enceladus, which have oceans or seas of liquid water beneath their icy surfaces. Other moons like Titan, Ganymede, and Callisto may also have them, and even some asteroids. Titan also has seas and lakes of liquid methane/ethane on its surface. With all that water, these small worlds have become a primary focus in the search for possible life elsewhere in the Solar System. Now, a new NASA budget proposal wants to take that a step further and fund new missions to these watery moons.
With so much attention now on the rovers and spacecraft at Mars, Saturn, Ceres, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and, soon, Pluto, it may seem like Earth’s closest planetary neighbor Venus has been forgotten again. But no, Venus is still very much on the minds of researchers who are busy developing a concept airplane which could cruise for years in the hellish planet’s atmosphere.
The search for, and discovery of, exoplanets orbiting other stars has become a full-fledged endeavour in recent years, with thousands found so far and more being discovered practically every week. Now, NASA wants to take it a big step further by establishing a coalition of research groups and disciplines tasked specifically with this purpose.
The goal of sending astronauts to Mars is one that NASA has had for a long time now, and a conference this week in Washington, DC is hoping to bring that dream closer to reality.