text:
A petition started by an Albemarle County resident to remove a monument to Confederate soldiers outside the county courthouse is gaining traction.
Activist Matthew Christensen authored the petition to urge the county Board of Supervisors to vote to remove the statue as soon as possible.
Some people Christensen has spoken to have told him that the statue should be left alone to preserve the past and impart lessons for the future, he said.
“The reality is that the history we’re learning is not accurate and it’s not complete and we can’t learn from it correctly if it’s not what actually happened,” he said. “We need to learn what happened in the first place and struggle with the darkness of it and the damage that was done so that we can learn from it.”
About 450 people had signed the petition by Saturday afternoon.
The monument, a bronze, life-size Confederate soldier in uniform, sits in front of the Albemarle Courthouse on county land that was never annexed by the city, facing south toward East Jefferson Street. It was erected in 1909 and paid for by the county, the city and the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
A state law adopted in 1950 authorizes localities to build and permit monuments to veterans of any war or major conflict, but it also says that it “shall be unlawful for the authorities of the locality, or any other person or persons, to disturb or interfere with any monuments or memorials so erected.”
On Saturday, more than 30 community members, including county Supervisors Ned Gallaway, Diantha McKeel and Rick Randolph, took a guided tour of Court Square in Downtown Charlottesville. The tour, led by Jalane Schmidt, a local activist and University of Virginia professor, and Andrea Douglas, director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, began at the slave auction block plaque and ended in Market Street Park.
Schmidt said the Albemarle statue was meant to send out a message about who has ownership over public space.
“This is the ‘you will not replace us’ of 1909, we’ve heard those guys coming around here chanting this, the paranoia about being overwhelmed demographically, these young alt-right haters today,” she said.
Douglas said that by 1890, the African American community in Charlottesville was starting to really coalesce, gain monetary power and buy property in the area. The community was also politically active, she said.
“Why do you need to assert a modicum of power within this particular moment in time?,” she said. “You’ve got to read these within the history of the space as well. They are not pure, benign placements and they shouldn’t be seen in that way.”
The tour also took community members to Court Square Park and discussed the history of the Stonewall Jackson statue and the park, and to the Robert E. Lee statue.
Charlottesville is currently facing a lawsuit over its intention to remove the statues. The suit also sought to preclude the city from renaming the parks, which had been named after Lee and Jackson, but a judge ruled park names were not protected.
Randolph said he thought the tour was outstanding.
“It’s such a need within the community to educate people about the history of this area, not just Charlottesville but this area, and just seeing how deeply seeded racism is within Charlottesville and Albemarle,” he said.
McKeel said she was glad she went on the tour and that, despite living here for 40 years, she learned a lot.
“I’ve heard over the years bits and pieces of history — this connected the dots in a way and helped me see in totality how racism and how rewriting history worked to create the picture that many of us grew up with,” she said.
The information, she said, helped her better understand how textbooks played into why many people believe what they believe.
“We have a wonderful opportunity with the city parks and our downtown courthouse to really contextualize and help educate everyone that comes here, not only our citizens and our young people but tourists, about the history of what really happened in this community,” McKeel said.
Randolph said he thought the petition was “barking up the wrong tree.”
“We don’t set that law; that was set by the general assembly,” he said. “You want to see the state change its law, put the pressure on the state legislature and get them to change the law, because in the end, what Albemarle County’s Board of Supervisors says doesn’t really matter.”
He said it would be “a mistake” to remove the statues from downtown, but would like to contextualize them.
McKeel said she thought the statues should be brought down off of the pedestals, brought away from the center of the parks and contextualized.
She said she thought a lot of the tour discussions were around social justice, such as education, the ability to vote and equality.
“Having said that, when you go to our courthouse and you talk about our courthouse, you talk about criminal justice,” she said. “You look at our current criminal justice system and then you have this historic courthouse, where currently we have African Americans that are coming into this courthouse with the expectation of criminal justice, and are we sending the right message?”
“I’m not in favor of tearing all this down, I just think we have to somehow or another contextualize it, and our general assembly legislators really need to help us with the permission to do some of this,” McKeel said.
Randolph asked why the community should be a party to maintaining the deceit and said the statues send an important message to coming generations.
“We know the truth, and the truth shall set us free, because we, white and black, cannot be truly free unless we acknowledge this racist legacy that’s here in the county and in the city,” he said.
Later Saturday morning, the community was invited to a presentation and panel discussion on “Lost Cause” images in public spaces and schools. Representatives from the Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County, a group urging Albemarle County Public Schools to ban all symbols of racial and ethnic hatred, spoke at the event.
Albemarle County School Board member Katrina Callsen, who also went on the tour, was joined by School Board Vice Chairman Jonno Alcaro at the discussion.
Both Schmidt and Christensen said the Board of Supervisors need to support including language in the state code that would allow localities to remove the statues in its legislative packet that gets presented to area legislators ahead of the General Assembly session.
“We’re coming to them and saying ‘this is what needs to change,’ they need to step up, take that leadership role and push for changes,” Christensen said.


text: The birth of Harvey occurred on Sunday August 13th, 2017 as a tropical wave emerged off the west coast of Africa, eventually merging with a broad area of low pressure near the Cabo Verde Islands. At first, it was thought the wave and the low pressure area would have a more west-northwest track, threatening the Lesser Antilles. However, this low stayed more on a westward course as it moved over the open Atlantic Ocean toward the Eastern Caribbean Sea. For a few days on its westward track, "Harvey" remained disorganized, and there was some uncertainty whether the low would become a tropical cyclone. However, by Thursday August 17th, the National Hurricane Center began issuing advisories and forecasts on Tropical Cyclone Nine Thursday morning, and Tropical Storm Harvey Thursday afternoon. Tropical Storm Warnings were issued that afternoon for Martinique, St. Lucia, Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Tropical Storm Harvey impacted the Windward Islands on Friday, August 18th, entering the Eastern Caribbean Sea as a minimal tropical storm, and eventually weakening to a tropical wave late Saturday evening. Although there was some potential for the remnants of Harvey to reorganize into a tropical cyclone, a tropical cyclone failed to form as the remnants of Harvey moved into the Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday morning, August 22nd.

domain: geography


text:
In a Scottsdale community governed by a homeowners association that prohibits overnight parking on its streets, a car is properly left in a driveway early one evening. The next morning, the owner discovers that all four wheels have been stolen from the vehicle, which now rests on wooden blocks left there by conscientious thieves. The police are called and a report is filed.
Two days later, the owner of the home where the vandalized vehicle was parked receives a notice from the HOA, warning that the CC&Rs (covenants, conditions and restrictions) prohibit working on a vehicle and leaving it in on blocks in a driveway.
“If they were so vigilant,” the homeowner says, “why didn’t somebody see the guys who were stealing the wheels?”
Whether residents love or hate them, HOAs appear to be here to stay. Nationally there are about 250,000 HOAs and their numbers are increasing. In 1998, there were 205,000, according to the Community Association Institute, a nonprofit group.
Cities welcome an HOA because it relieves them of the responsibility for maintenance of some common areas like parks and swimming pools. Builders like them because a well-run HOA keeps properties looking presentable. They also allow homeowners to go to a board to vent complaints about barking dogs or a neighbor’s weeds. However, the same powers that help keep a neighborhood neat and tidy have also been accused of overstepping their bounds. One critic says members of HOAs are “second-class citizens” with few rights or protections.
At The Legislature
Every year emotions run high at the Legislature as attempts are made to curb the powers of HOAs. One measure introduced last session, S1151, was loaded with 54 provisions that sought to do just about everything but outlaw HOAs. It was defeated in a committee, 2-7, and never surfaced again.
Another, S1318, sponsored by Sen. Toni Hellon, R-Dist. 26, was an attempt to require HOAs to hold board meetings in Arizona. You wouldn’t think a law was needed to compel in-state meetings, but Ms. Hellon says some HOAs with board members who live elsewhere were conducting business in their other home state.
“HOA bills have trouble getting through, especially in the Senate, because people tack too much on them as they go through the process,” Ms. Hellon says. “People tried to do it to my bill, but simple things can be taken care of without adding anything else on it.”
Ms. Hellon says House Majority Leader Eddie Farnsworth, R-Dist. 22, approached her shortly before final passage asking if he could add “his controversial amendment” to her bill.
“To his credit, he asked,” Ms. Hellon says, noting that Mr. Farnsworth probably could have attached his amendment without her permission. “I looked at it, told him we needed to keep the bill clean, and said no.”
The bill, which states legal challenges to the actions of a homeowners’ association board of directors are no longer limited by a requirement that at least 10 percent of the voting power or at least 50 members join the action, was signed by the governor May 12. Ms. Hellon says she has problems with HOAs and the power they wield. She could support portions of some bills, but other provisions were so egregious that she opposed them, like requiring a huge percentage of residents to approve any changes in HOA rules.
“There are a lot of things that residents think are unfair,” she says. “An association can take punitive action against a homeowner who fails to keep their property up. Some go overboard — weeds, grass needs cutting, too many cars, the color of paint.”
HOA problems generally involve fees and when an association can take legal action against a homeowner. Also, when an HOA incurs legal expenses, who pays the association’s bill? Ms. Hellon says the homeowner pays his own legal expenses and indirectly pays the expenses of the HOA through his dues.
“The rules say they have the right to take action,” she says, “but who reads all that tiny print? No one.”
Misuse Of Power Vs. ‘Heavy-Handed Bills’
Rep. Pete Hershberger, R-Dist. 26, who supported Ms. Hellon’s bill, says misuse of power by HOAs against residents seems to be widespread and needs to be addressed by the Legislature.
Nevertheless, he says, “Some of the bills are a little heavy-handed. We need to find a medium, balanced approach.” If all of the powers are taken from HOAs, that would hurt developers, he says. “We can’t leave them powerless,” he adds. “I haven’t seen that balance.”
Mr. Hersberger says a bill pushed by Mr. Farnsworth “went well beyond reason.” HOAs can’t be prohibited from taking action against residents who are delinquent in paying their dues or if their conduct goes too far, Mr. Hershberger says.
“For the good of the residents an association has to have some ability to maintain consistency,” he says.
One local HOA critic is George Staropoli, president of the Citizens Against Private Government HOAs, based in Scottsdale. Mr. Staropoli, who has served on HOAs in Pennsylvania and New York, says he was opposed to S1151, an omnibus bill that targeted HOAs, because “the language was vague and it would have hurt homeowners.”
“They had three years to work on the bill and they still didn’t get it right,” he says. “They haven’t done their homework. It was too big. They need to cut it down to a smaller bill.”
Mr. Staropoli says his nonprofit organization (www.pvtgov.org) provides “full and material disclosure of all the factors that can have profound effects on your decision to buy into an HOA controlled property.” He notes that an HOA is a private, nonprofit corporation that is subject to corporation laws and not municipality laws.
On his Web site, Mr. Staropoli says, “The HOA is allowed to bypass fundamental governmental protections, including due process against arbitrary actions and the equal protection of the law for homeowners who have grievances against their board of directors.”
He says members of HOAs “are second-class citizens with less protection than minorities, women, the handicapped and even gay people.” Asked to recall a “horror story” related to an HOA, Mr. Staropoli says, “There are so many.”
He tells of a case in which a lawyer sent dunning letters to a condominium owner whose hot water tank was alleged to have caused damage to a condo on the floor below. The lawyer wanted $5,000 to cover the insurance deductible, but the owner of the faulty hot water tank says he never saw any repair work being done or written documentation of the work, Mr. Staropoli says. Eventually, Mr. Staropoli says, he intervened and the lawyer backed off.
“Without proof, that was extortion,” he says. Three fixes are needed to better serve homeowners, he says. They are:
• Restore homestead protections.
• Get rid of or restrict foreclosures. CC&Rs are interpreted as a contract. Mr. Staropoli says it’s an “adhesion contract,” similar to a non-negotiated guarantee or warranty that a person receives after buying an appliance. Such contracts, he says, give one party tremendous power over the other party. “It’s unconscionable and against public policy,” he says.
• Require full disclosure of documents. “There is nothing in the CC&Rs that tells you the impact, that you lose your constitutional rights,” Mr. Staropoli says.
Group Backs HOAs, Says They Can Be Made Better
The Communities Association Institute (www.caionline.org), which has two chapters in Arizona, bills itself as “the only national organization dedicated to fostering vibr
ant, responsive, competent community associations.” Its mission is to “assist community associations in promoting harmony, community, and responsible leadership.”
Curtis Ekmark of Scottsdale, president of the Central Arizona Chapter, says the task is “to figure out ways to make them [HOAs] better.” Developers generally decide whether they want an HOA and in some cases municipalities mandate them.
“It’s a win-win situation,” Mr. Ekmark says. “It’s a great way for a city to keep taxes lower because the association maintains such things as streets and swimming pools and keeps curb appeal up for developers.”
Like Mr. Staropoli, Mr. Ekmark has three recommendations for improving HOAs, which he says would eliminate 90 per cent of the problems.
• Make it easy to amend “bad” CC&Rs.
• Give residents an efficient way to remove board members they don’t agree with. HOAs are required to hold annual elections, Mr. Ekmark says, but sometimes a problem arises two months into a board member’s term.
• Give associations a way to recover monetary damages from developers who leave major construction defects behind. Mr. Ekmark says, “Some developers are writing into CC&Rs that neither individuals nor homeowner associations can bring action against homebuilders. If you get a number of roofs that leak, now you have to pass a special assessment. We need law that says sweetheart provisions in CC&Rs are unenforceable.”
Veto Of H2034
Mr. Ekmark applauds Governor Napolitano’s veto of H2034, which was backed by the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona. It would have required an HOA to obtain the approval of a majority of its members voting on the issue before it could file a lawsuit against the builder for a construction defect. The original version would have required approval of a majority of all members of the HOA before a suit could have been filed against a builder.
In her veto message, Ms. Napolitano said homebuilders were given protections in 2002 against potentially frivolous lawsuits and she feels it was unwise to make it even more difficult to file defective-housing lawsuits.
Spencer Kamps, deputy director of the Home Builders, says he was “surprised and disappointed” by the veto. “We did support the amended version,” he says. “It was a bipartisan bill that we felt was good public policy. We wanted homeowners to have a voice when they put the assets of their HOA at risk [by filing a lawsuit].”
Mr. Kamps says builder involvement with HOAs generally ends with the sale of the last home in a development.
An Economic Force
Grant Parker, president of the Southern Arizona Chapter of the Communities Association Institute in Tucson, says HOAs are a major economic force. Nationally they receive and spend $23 billion a year on goods and services.
“They are in business for one purpose — to provide services and amenities outlined in CC&Rs, such as for landscaping, pools, common areas, playgrounds, tennis courts, club houses and various buildings,” says Mr. Parker, who is director of management services for Cadden Community Management in Tucson. “Homeowners associations are tailored to fit the needs of every demographic group, whether they live on the beach, in the mountains, on a golf course, or in the desert.”
The Institute has developed a 67-page policy manual that covers myriad situations. Listed alphabetically, the first deals with Aesthetics As An Economic Issue and states that the organization “opposes any and all attempts at the federal, state and local levels to enact laws or regulations that ignore or negate the economic importance of aesthetic controls.”
Mr. Parker says H2307, which was sponsored by Mr. Farnsworth and was defeated in a Senate committee, would have crippled HOAs. According to a legislative staff report, the bill would have allowed an HOA to place a lien on a unit for monetary penalties only after a favorable judgment in court and would have prohibited foreclosure of the lien for monetary penalties. It stated that monetary penalties, fees, charges, late charges or interest charges unrelated to the payment of assessments are not enforceable as assessments.
“We were against it,” Mr. Parker says. “Every association has the absolute right to collect dues, and to limit an association’s ability to do that would do harm to the association.”
Polls have shown, Mr. Parker says, that 75 per cent of homeowners are satisfied or very satisfied with having purchased a home in an HOA community. He sees as one of the biggest challenges the fact that HOAs are largely run by volunteers. “They have no training, no experience, no code of ethics, and they don’t know the statutes that govern corporate board members,” he says. “There is room for abuses. Some members get on the board for the wrong reason.”
Mr. Parker believes it is important that property owners understand their rights. He also says HOAs would benefit from a national uniform certification process established by the industry, not government, for property managers so they could “demonstrate to a board of directors that they have a baseline knowledge of the fundamentals of managing homeowners associations.”
Will there be another round of HOA bills next year? “You can count on it,” says Ms. Hellon, a Tucson Republican, “but if people are smart, they’ll try to do a little at a time.”
Mr. Hershberger hopes that before next year’s legislative session interested parties will get together and take a measured approach to resolving association issues.
Mr. Kamps of the Home Builders declines to speculate on future legislation, except to say the debate will focus on a “balance between the homeowner’s voice and HOA authority.” —

domain: news


text:
In my last post on health, I wrote about emotions and chronic illness. In that post, I mentioned about my hormones being out of balance. This has been something I have been diligently working on for the past two years. It was exciting to find out from the lasts blood test that the hormones had balanced and normalized. Only the cortisol was still a little high, but it had come down quite a bit.
Another good change recently is that my Vitamin D levels have come up from 16.4 to 22. This is not a lot, but it is going the right direction. It will be a goal this year during the warm weather to spend some time outside every day as long as the weather is nice.
Some of the changes that occurred in the past few months are good changes. I am feeling a little stronger and have more energy. I thank the Lord for these good changes.
Not So Good Changes
One change recently that has not been good is that my ferritin levels have come down. Two years ago they were tested, and they were 13. The reference range was from 15 to 150, so I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t realize that anything below 20 was considered an unhealthy level. Why then does the reference range go from 15 to 150? Some doctors consider anything below 30 to be unhealthy.
Ferritin is the body’s stored supply of iron. This is stored in the liver. My hemoglobin and serum iron are still normal. Sometimes the body will take from its iron stores to normalize iron levels in the blood. The hemoglobin and normal serum iron levels may continue until my stored iron has become more depleted. Two years ago my ferritin was 13. Now it is 8. That is a fairly big drop. At that rate, my iron stores could be depleted within two to three years.
There are several things that can contribute to low ferritin levels. Some of these are genetic conditions. Celiac and Irritable Bowel Disease can contribute to it as well. A low ferritin level is usually caused by blood loss of some sort that is occurring over time.
Considering the significant GI symptoms I have been experiencing the last few years, some sort of bleeding along the intestinal tract is definitely a possibility. In my case, Celiac is not likely to be the problem as I have not been eating grains. IBD could certainly be a contributing factor. With low ferritin levels along with GI symptoms, there is the possibility of colon cancer. I’ve dealt with GI problems caused by various things for over twenty years now. These problems were bad in my early twenties, and they have worsened again somewhat over the last three or four years.
My doctor was able to give me some dietary help that regulated things a bit. He gave me some very good advice. There was one thing I could not do, however – add more fiber. More solid foods and more fiber just caused things to quit “moving.” My diet changed to mostly soft or blended foods. Many of my foods (such as soups) I strain and drink the liquid. Even though things have improved, and my big belly is not so big anymore, my doctor was not thrilled with this. He was frustrated that I would not add more fiber rich foods or a fiber supplement. However, these things pretty much stopped the lower GI tract from “moving” all together, so I could not do them.
My doctor also wanted me to have some other tests. I did not commit to them at the time, knowing that funds are limited. The blood tests I did get done via Life Extension. The other test he wanted was a virtual colonoscopy. That is understandable. However, if something shows up, then I would have to follow with a regular colonoscopy. If something were found there, surgery would probably be recommended after that. These things are pretty much out of the question financially. The doctor’s concerns were legitimate, and I do understand his frustration. However, something did occur as I was leaving that may keep me from going back to that office.
What Will I Do?
So, what will I do? That is something over which I have spent many hours in prayer and research. Although IBD could certainly be a cause of the low ferritin, it is important to look at all factors and possibilities. There is no way to know without testing if there is any kind of cancer, or maybe a genetic disorder, or something like that. Even if I found out I had one of these things, what could I do? Lack of finances prohibits many avenues of taking care of them. Most likely I would take the natural route anyway. So, that is the direction I decided to go.
How to start?
Well, one thing to consider is that, with so many GI problems for so long, my body is probably not utilizing nutrients like it should. Many illnesses can result from various nutritional deficiencies. There is a test that can check for deficiencies in just about every area, but it is nearly $400. The test is not an option now, but maybe it can be done in the future. In light of that, a good overall nutrient packed diet is probably a good place to start.
How Does One Go About It?
Considering that I have many food allergies or sensitivities and am unable to digest a lot of foods, how would I go about this? One possibility is food powders. Christy discovered a place that sells organic food powders. This was a huge answer to prayer. I do get cranberry powder from Bulk Supplements. In addition to this, I decided to try papaya powder, lemon powder, kale powder, and taro powder from a company called Biofinest. Those powders came about a week ago. They smell good and fresh. A taste test revealed that they taste good too. Here is how I plan to use them.
To the Superfood Powder, I added
1 Tbsp. Lemon powder
1 Tbsp. Papaya powder
1 Tbsp. Kale powder
1 Tbsp. Cranberry powder and
1 Tbsp. Orange peel vitamin C powder
These were all shaken up. Their pretty colors turned into brown when they were all shaken together. These can be added to smoothies or yogurt or other drinks to make a high powered nutritional drink. I will add a Tbsp. at a time. This should last five days. Then I can make the mix again if my body seems to tolerate them well.
The taro powder will be added to soups. It will help make them nice and smooth. Taro is good for the digestive tract. It is one food that we got in Papua New Guinea that I really miss here.
Note: I did try these. I think I will put less lemon powder in next time and have the cranberry powder separate. Otherwise, this worked fairly well. It makes the yogurt taste good too.
The goal is to work on this new diet and regimen for six months. Then ferritin and Vitamin D will be retested. Vitamin C is often low if ferritin is low, so that will be tested next time too. If things have improved, I will keep going on the regimen. If things have not improved, we will make a decision what to do at that time.
Thank you so much for reading this very long post. Maybe it will help someone.

domain: health


text:
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-This long-winded faux folktale concerns "a tribe of bears called the Brunov" who are "only the size of your thumb!" One year, four little bears set out in search of sunshine and warmth instead of staying safely at home and sleeping through the winter. So, Urso Brunov, the "Little Father of All Bears," has to rescue them. His trip takes him from snowy woods to high mountains and dry deserts. He meets other animals (normal sized) and tricks, bullies, or cajoles them into helping him. Urso discovers the bears and many other animals trapped in a zoo. He rescues them all and leaves the guards and their leader imprisoned in the cages. Jacques's plot has a traditional folktale pattern and his choice of language and the frequent use of repetition (particularly the protagonist's admonition that others should "Believe me, for I am Urso Brunov!") enhance this feel. Urso is a typical folktale hero, plucky, brave, self-confident, and successful. Unfortunately, the very predictability of the story, along with its length, may make it difficult for the book to find an appreciative audience. Children young enough to enjoy Natchev's richly colored and beautifully composed paintings may find it hard to sit through the lengthy text, while older fans of the author's work will likely be disappointed by the slim story.Lisa Dennis, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 2-4, younger for reading aloud. Urso, Little Father of All Brunov Bears, is the mightiest, wisest, and strongest of any living creature, even though he's no bigger than a thumb. He proves his mettle when he must retrieve four little bears who escape hibernation and are kidnapped and taken to a desert zoo by the Lord of All Sands. Jacques displays his usual flare for animal characters and clever details in this nicely packaged original folktale, with richly hued artwork that enlivens the story. Although several of the pictures don't quite match the accompanying text (Urso's "fine red coat" appears to be a yellow shirt on the opening spread), children may overlook the discrepancies in the face of Urso's delightful ingenuity, as when he uses a goose feather and a flute to make a sailboat. Adding to the charm is the small circle in the upper right corner of each spread, which becomes part of a flipbook of Urso dancing. A colorful initiation to Jacques' animal-fantasy magic. Julie CumminsCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

domain: artistic


text:
Edited and Published by Hale Sweeny
Web Site: http://www.lapidarydigest.com
Associate Editors: Geo. Butts, JR Shroeder, Steve Henegar
and Margaret Malm
This list digest contains the following message subjects:
1. LapDigest News for Issue No. 216 - Tues 6/29/99
2. NEW: Suiseki - Is It a Form of Lapidary?
3. NEW: Black Jade from Costa Rica
4. NEW: Polishing with TXP and #61 compounds
5. NEW: Want to Build a Large Flat Lap
6. NEW: What Happened to Star Diamond?
7. NEW: Who Can Straighten Large Diamond Blades?
8. NEW: Making Diamond Core Drills at MK Diamond
9. RE: Upgrading from a Cabmate
10. RE: What is Lapis Nevada?
11. RE: What is Lapis Nevada?
12. RE: Do-It-Yourself Drip Tank Plumbing
13. RE: Rotten Stone
14. BIO: Messelt
15. BIO: Dave Garner
16. BIO: Vi Jones
Subject: LapDigest News for Issue No. 216 - Tues 6/29/99
Had a great scare today -- lost my monitor, but thought it
was the hard drive or motherboard! Using my old monitor
till I can see if they can repair the broken one.
Then, on checking, realized that my backup system wasn't up
to snuff. So after I get this issue out, I'm going to spend
time worrying about backup.
Next week, I will be at the AFMS and SFMS meetings in
Nashville. If you are going, please look me up or stop me
if you see me and lets chat! That is a sneaky way of saying
that there probably won't be two issues published next week.
Take care of yourselves -- and be sure to hug those you
love. Try it, you will find that it is FUN!! (smile)
Subject: NEW: Suiseki - Is It a Form of Lapidary?
In Japan there is an art form called suiseki involving the
study and enjoyment of individual, naturally formed stones
as objects of beauty. Many devotees hunt for rocks which
have natural beauty and which strongly suggest an image of
an object or scene from nature (called 'suggestiveness').
Once found, they are studied to find the most appealing
part of the stone, and the stone is then displayed to
emphasize that part; in some cases, this entails cutting
off part of the stone so the base will be flat. As far as
I could tell, cutting the base is about the maximum big
scale alteration most devotees will tolerate.
I knew nothing about it, so went to Alta Vista and did a
search on the word SUISEKI, and AV found almost 900 pages
in which this word appeared. I briefly scanned a dozen or
so of them, and the best site I found was
www.felixrivera-suiseki.com. Looking at the rocks in the
picture gallery in this site, I was attracted to the beauty
of the stones and their presentations as shown there. I
highly recommend that you tour his website, and several
others, to gain a whole new perspective on rocks. The word:
Suiseki (pronounced su-e-seck-e) is derived from the
Japanese characters for water (sui) and stone (seki), hence
a 'water stone' - but more correctly a stone shaped by the
erosive action of water. And partially shaped by the owner
of the stone.
Is this part of lapidary? I think you may argue both ways
on this, but selfishly, I would include it at the edge of
lapidary as I would like to have it a part of lapidary.
Subject: NEW: Black Jade from Costa Rica
While in Costa Rica, I received a couple of carvings from a
lady who is the historian for the Bri Bri Tribe of indians,
and a full blooded Bri Bri herself. This tribe inhabits the
southeastern part of Costa Rica. She is also a professor of
anthropology at one university and a professor of forestry
at another. She said they were carved from Black Jade which
she said is unique to Costa Rica.
Is anyone familiar with Black Jade from Costa Rica. Is it
really jade or something else?
Subject: NEW: Polishing with TXP and #61 compounds
I came across some polish compounds that I have no idea
what they are good for. One is called TXP and another
is called # 61. Since I have acquired several bags of TXP
and # 61, I would like to use them with my tumbling. If
anyone knows what material they will work best with, and
how to use them, I would appreciate the information.
Subject: NEW: Want to Build a Large Flat Lap
I finally need your help, too. Just finished sending an
e-mail to Andy in UK asking for his help if he has plans
to build a large flat lap. I need something large to
accommodate large glass bowls, such as punch bowls, etc.
The All-U-Need's 8-inches is a bit small and the center
post gets in the way. I would probably spend big bucks to
get magnetic grinding plates in course and fine grits.
Any ideas? Thanks,
Bryan/College Station, Texas
Ron: Since you mention All-U-Needs, I assume that you are
focusing on rotating laps? Have you considered vibrating
flat laps? They are made in quite large sizes. I know we
have a number of members who are experienced on using them,
and I hope we hear from some of them. hale
Subject: NEW: What Happened to Star Diamond?
<Vance McCallum wanted to know what happened to Star
Diamond saw company (they are gone!) and who does their
blade straightening now. We received several answers, shown
below. These answers have been edited to remove repetitions.
I have been a subscribing member since issue #33 and enjoy
every one. About Vance McCallum's request for information
regarding Star Diamond's departure from the diamond blade
manufacture and repair scene, I think I can help. I have
been a slab dealer in Northern California and do my own
slabbing and have dealt with Star Diamond and the company
that has taken over their business.
Star Diamond blade repair is now being done by: Barranca
Industries, 1825 So. Broadway Street, Gardena, CA 90248,
Dale Brown (firstname.lastname@example.org)(www.rockhoundsesq.com)
Delahaut, President of Barranca Corp. in Gardena has
recently acquired the former Star Diamond Industries
West lapidary blade (notched rim) factory near Los
Funny you should ask. Yesterday I went to MK Diamond to
drop off my blade to be straightened. When I priced blades
two(?) years ago I was struck by the fact that everyone
quoted exactly the same price for the blade size I wanted.
I came to the conclusion then that most if not all blades
were actually made by the same company. Seems companies
move around and fade away: MK used to make Highland Park
equipment (and Frantom (the maker of my saw) was just down
MK Diamond 1315 Storm Parkway, Torrance CA, 90509-2803
The big news is that they run their oven once a month and
that is next week. I should get my blade back ~ July 1.
If you dont want to wait a month it might be Fed-Ex time.
You might want to call the guy who does the actual
straightening at Barranca Corporation to ask if its not too
late. The address of Barranca is different and MK carries
the blades over to them.
The address of Barranca Corp is 18205 South Broadway Street,
Gardena, CA 90248-3535, phone 310 523 5867, fax 310 523
5869. I do not know if it is appropriate to send blades
directly. I do know they want payment in advance. The rates
are surprisingly low: for 20" blade its $38 including
Interestingly Barranca Corp. is run by the son of an/the
owner of MK diamond.
Subject: NEW: Who Can Straighten Large Diamond Blades?
Hale posted a brief request on my behalf for information on
where to contact Star Diamond Company or whoever bought them
out, since I needed to send them one of my 14 inch diamond
blades to be straightened.
Right after the last Digest came out, I got my answer. (see
above) I called Barranca, and they said it would take a
month to do the job.
So, I am wondering if anyone knows of another place to send
blades to be straightened that might be faster and - since
I am in S.C. - closer than California to send it to.
Earth Relics Company
"Ready-to-wear pendants made from
the finest agates and jaspers"
Vance: You live smack-dab (that's what they say down where
Vance lives!!) in the middle of a large logging and lumber
area; both rough and finished sawmills use large circular
blades which need straightening from time to time. I suggest
you look in the Yellow pages for sawmills, lumber and the
like and ask the sawyers where they send their saws.
Probably to some skilled mechanic just in the next town!
Subject: NEW: Making Diamond Core Drills at MK Diamond
While I was dropping off my blade for repair (see above),
Roland at MK Diamond spontaneously offered to give me a
tour of their factory where they make a BEAUTIFUL core
drilling machine and assemble tile saws. They had stacks
of the tile saws boxed and ready and a bunch of people
assembling more and he said they were 35,000 units behind.
It was noisy and I tell myself I must have misheard. I
guess if you sell your tools to Home Depot you sell quite
The core drills were VERY nice. Sleek looking two speed
motor (900 & 450 rpm). Apparently their competitors use
a casting for the hub of the bit so their tubes wobble a
little. MK's are machined from hex stock and welded. They
are made backwards, so the final steps in drilling and
threading the bit are done last so they are assured to be
coaxial with the tube. OK, here is their diamond trick:
They make little curved blocks of sintered diamond and
"laser weld" them onto the edge of the tube. If you knock
off a block you cut off the last half inch of the tube and
weld on a new set.
They are going to Madras next month to show off their core
drill and some kind of system by which they make 4 or 6 cuts
to preform a sphere. Another reason to wish I were there
this summer. How 'bout a report from someone going to the
Flint: To me, the most exciting thing you report was on
their new system for cutting sphere preforms; I hope that
some list member who goes to Madras or some list sphere
maker in California near the plant will go over and get
full details on this and write it up for the Digest. I
had heard that there already was such a device available,
but could never run it down.
Sounds like you enjoyed your tour, Flint. Thanks for the
Subject: RE: Upgrading from a Cabmate
Bob Lombardi has invited advice from others who have tackled
the limitations imposed by use of a Graves "Cabmate" with
it's ability to spin only a single device at a time, be it
wheel, grinding disc, polishing pad or saw blade. He points
to the hassle of changing wheels between grades of grit and
to problems with overheating when using a dry diamond disk.
I started cabbing with a Cabmate about 20 years ago and
faced these same problems; I felt that my equipment was
limiting my output. I investigated and considered many other
machines, including the Pixie, the Genie and the Titan. In
the end, I decided that I really didn't want to give up the
tremendous versatility provided by my Cabmate and so I
found a way to overcome it's limitations. Rather than
upgrading from a Cabmate, I upgraded my Cabmate and the
equipment I now use is, I believe, the best available.
Everything is cut wet. When I use a diamond disk, I lead
water to the center of the disk, near the spindle, and
centrifugal force spreads it all over the disk. Thus, no
overheating and no flying stones. To make the plastic water
tube stay where you put it, it helps to thread a copper
wire up inside it.
To get over the problem of having to change wheels, I got a
6" diameter by 2 1/2" wide rubber expanding drum. This fits
nicely on the Cabmate and although I was worried that it
might be too heavy, I've used it for several years with no
trouble. I had to extend the splash guard with a bit of
flexible plastic, but this was very simple. I use diamond
belts in a range of grits. To change abrasive I just stop
the drum and slip one belt off and another on; it takes less
than 10 seconds.
I have about a dozen belts that I have accumulated over the
years, in various diamond grit sizes and various states of
wear and I use them in different combinations, depending on
what material I'm cutting, for everything from rough shaping
to prepolish. Overall, they range from 60 grit to 3600 grit.
I have tried several brands of diamond belt and have been
best pleased with those by Crystallite, although there are
some new ones by Ebersole, available from the Rock Peddlar,
that also seem to be good and are much less expensive. I've
recently tried the Ebersole 60 grit belt, and it is
astonishing! It chews through Morrisonite at incredible
speed; one would never use it for opal!
For polishing, I use either 14,000 grit spray diamond on a
polypad on a rubber faced disk, or cerium oxide on wet
leather; the latter for quartz or feldspar type stones and
the diamond for everything else. Once again, I direct a
water supply to the center of the disk and find that
regulating the drip speed is important for getting a good
With my upgraded Cabmate, I can cut any material, from the
softest soapstone to the toughest jasper, from 2 mm
hemispheres, dopped on toothpicks for mouse eyes, to big
chunks for belt buckles and bolas. I particularly enjoy
cutting opal and spectrolite for pendants and earrings and
my machine is perfect for this. I like it so much that I
bought a second one to have in our mountain cabin, so that
I am not deprived when we go up there for summer weekends.
I hope this helps;
Note: I have seen Jeff work on his modified Cabmate, and, it
may be the way he works, but it appears to be just as fast
as I could work on a Genie, with the added advantage that
he is able to select - not only the grit - but the degree
with which the grit is worn. And this can be very useful,
especially when working stones such as jade. hale
Subject: RE: What is Lapis Nevada?
Good thing I wrote this down years ago. The query about
Nevada Lapis reoccurs periodically. It was discovered in
1954, and is composed of zoisite var. thulite, scapolite,
sericite, diopside and epidote, with minor feldspar, quartz,
zoisite, clinozoisite, actinolite and apatite
Source: Colored Stone, Jan./Feb., 1991, p. 21
Subject: RE: What is Lapis Nevada?
I found one answer, given below, in a search of the 'Net;
it came from "Ask Prof Gem" (aka Jamie Foster), whose web
page is at URL =
This is reproduced below with his permission.
What is Nevada Lapis?
April 7, 1997
This turned out to be an interesting question.. The original
questioner described some recently purchased beads as
"mottled moss-green and soft pink". The buyer was told they
were "Nevada Lapis".
Finding no reference to such in my library, I did what any
good cyberjocky would do - post some questions and make some
email contacts. And the good folks at Rio Grande responded,
"Nevada Lapis is a form of chalcedony from the Orient,
varying in shades from pastel pink, green, beige, gray,
yellow, and white. Essentially, Nevada Lapis looks like an
agate in pastels. Nevada Lapis, or Nevada stone, is a form
of chalcedony. It is a relatively safe material (can be
cleaned in an ultrasonic machine), it's relatively stable
(it can take light), and the name Nevada Lapis is a
misnomer, because it is neither from Nevada nor in the
lapis family of stones. The product manager likens it to
unakite, with a different color scheme."
The folks at the Four Clover Mine (Castro Valley, CA,
510-537-7868) tell us about "Lapis Nevada" which they
carry. Here is a report by Michael R. Smith, Geologist:
"The scientific name for Lapis Nevada is thulite-diopside
skarn. It is a rock composed of at least ten distinct
minerals including: thulite, diopside, clinozoisite
(locally Mn-rich), microcline, sericite, titanite, epidote,
plagioclase, scapolite, actinolite and quartz. The pink
color is due to the presence of thulite and Mn-rich
clinozoisite, the green is due to diopside, and the cream
color is mostly due to the presence of Mn-poor clinozoisite,
microcline and scapolite. The Lapis Nevada skarn is of
hydrothermal origin, having been formed from a granite
which is 171 million years old."
"All of the minerals forming this "gem skarn" are silica
rich, which gives Lapis Nevada its hardness and ability to
take a polish. Skarn has never before been found to occur
as a gemstone."
"The minerals in the Lapis Nevada indicate that the original
rock (protolith) was granitic in composition. The general
character of the endoskarn is very similar to that of
Yerington Batholith rocks. These batholitic rocks, ranging
in composition from diorite to granite, are known to exist
in the east side of the Pine Nut Range. The age (K/Ar
determination of these rocks has been well established at
171 m.y.b.p. (million years before present). These rocks
are associated with the giant porphyry copper deposit near
"This author knows of no other place in the world where
skarn is found to occur as gem-quality material. This type
of skarn is known from various places around the world, but
nowhere is it as colorful as Lapis Nevada. The brightness
of the pink thulite and green diopside in combination is
unique in the world."
Hope this helps
Subject: RE: Do-It-Yourself Drip Tank Plumbing
<<...Almaden (not an endorsement) recently introduced an
all plastic valve with a rotational handle to control flow
on its boxed wine. I have adapted one to my drip tank.
It provides almost infinite control and hasn't clogged
Interesting use of recyclable material. I use a gallon milk
jug that has an IV tube and control valve inserted through
a hole in the top. The tube is long enough to reach from
the shelf above my machine to the old water can carrier.
The IV tubes can be had by having surgery, or visiting a
friend in the hospital. You don't need the needles, just
the tube and small plastic control with the wheel (the
cut-off doesnt work too well for a controlled drip rate).
Earl: Don't you think that having surgery just to get
an IV-drip set is a little drastic? (smile) hale
Subject: RE: Rotten Stone
On Fri, 25 Jun 99, email@example.com wrote:
<<Does anybody out there in "LapDigest World" know where
"rotten-stone" might be available. Sinkankas (in Gemstone
and Mineral Data Book, p. 72) described it as a deeply
weathered siliceous limestone.>>
We received three replies:
"Rottenstone and pumice are used in finishing furniture.
You should be able to find it in a woodworker's supply,
a hardware store, or a paint store. by Al Balmer
"Rotten stone is some times used in finishing furniture; it
is used to rub out finishes much like powdered pumice. You
may try a paint store (larger commercial) or a good old time
hardware store. It does have a bit of a earthy smell too it
hence the name. by Jeff in Kalamazoo
"I used to buy rottenstone and pumice at Standard Brands
Paint Stores. Don't know if the stores are still around.
You might be able to buy rottenstone at a 'good' wood
refinishing supply shop. by Bill Eisenberg
Subject: BIO: Messelt
Hi, I'm Messelt from Rancho Cucamonga, CA.- an at-home mom
with three kids and caring for my Dad. I'm new to lapidary
and the net and exploring both for free time (ha-ha)
pleasure and possible income later down the line when I know
more about what I'm doing.
I live in the San Bernardino County/L.A. County area, and
am looking for a club to join, classes to take and people
to talk to about stone carving.
My email address is:
Any help would be much appreciated.
Subject: BIO: Dave Garner
Hi, I started collecting gem stones about 5 years ago and
thought it would be fun to make some of my own. Labradorite
and Opal are some of my favorites with a side interest in
asterism type stones.
I have now a rock rascal 6" trim saw and am getting a
Graves Cabmate soon . As you can tell I would appreciate
any and all suggestions.
Happy cabbing to all.
Subject: BIO: Vi Jones
I like to consider myself a "jewelry artist" constructing
truly original works of art. My art starts with cutting
the stone (faceting, carving or cabochon(s) and then
designing and completing the metalwork. I am retired and
have been working in this hobby since 1989 when I was able
to join the Skagit Rock & Gem Club.
I have a complete shop and have recently purchased a
Gryphon stone lathe (at the NFMS show silent auction in
Hillsboro). If anyone out there is doing any turning--I
would like to hear from you, although I know a young lady
who can teach me the rudiments.
I've done quite a few soapstone carvings and maybe will
enter them in competition some year. Competing is
interesting and challenging. My husband and I still enjoy
collecting, have lots of lapidary friends and are active
in club work.
To unsubscribe from the Lapidary Digest, send a message to
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the subject of the message. Other commands you may use are:
SUBSCRIBE DIGEST to join, HELP to receive a page of help
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domain: hobby


text:
A 47 year old woman is the second person to contract COVID-19 in Fiji and is also the first local transmission of the virus.
The Lautoka resident is the mother of the 27 year old flight attendant who is patient number 1.
She and 10 other of patient 1’s family are in the COVID-19 isolation ward of Nadi Hospital.
Patient 1 remains in stable condition at the Lautoka Hospital where he has been kept since he presented himself there already showing symptoms on Tuesday March 17 .
While delivering an update on the COVID-19 situation, Prime Minister Bainimarama said the 11 members of patient 1’s household were taken to the isolation ward at Nadi Hospital when they were picked up on Thursday during the contact tracing exercise undertaken on Thursday.
“These individuals were transported in a secure, hygienic medical vehicle directly to the isolation ward at Nadi Hospital. There was zero contact made with any persons in Nadi or anywhere outside of the Lautoka confined area,” he said.
Four members of the household displayed symptoms after they were isolated, after which they were tested. Once the mother tested positive, she was then isolated within the COVID-19 ward, away from the rest of her family.
The other 10 patients remain in isolation for the next 12 days. World Health Organisation recommends a 14 day quarantine period for suspected of having contracted the novel coronavirus.
Among the family are four children and according to PM Bainimarama, the youngest is a 1 year old toddler.
The second patient was asymptomatic when first isolated and it was only after she and three others started to display flu-like symptoms, did the medical staff test for COVID-19.
Aalisha SahuKhan, the government’s Head of Health Protection clarified that those isolated to contain the spread of the virus are only tested when they display symptoms of the disease.
“We know from the experience of other countries that those most at risk of catching COVId-19 are household contacts because you are living in close proximity to other people, it’s likely that one person can spread it to others living in the house,” she said.
“This is not unexpected. This is why the Ministry of Health and Medical Services moved very quickly to isolate his entire household at Nadi Hospital as soon as we knew that we had a confirmed case. Both of these cases are in stable condition in Lautoka Hospital and Nadi Hospital.”


Donald Trump marks Thanksgiving Day with threat to close Mexico border BelfastTelegraph.co.uk President Donald Trump made a Thanksgiving Day threat to close the US border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines that its southern ally has lost “control” on its side. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/donald-trump-marks-thanksgiving-day-with-threat-to-close-mexico-border-37556480.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article37556475.ece/00914/AUTOCROP/h342/bpanews_d72e6cd3-2afa-4fe8-9e05-a4c15b71a7aa_1 Email President Donald Trump made a Thanksgiving Day threat to close the US border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines that its southern ally has lost “control” on its side. Mr Trump also said he has given the thousands of active-duty troops he sent to the border before the November 6 midterm elections the “OK” to use lethal force against migrants “if they have to”. And he said US homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, whom he has faulted for not being tough enough on immigration, is “in there trying”. “It’s a tough job,” he said. The president would not discount the possibility of a partial government shutdown early in December over politicians’ refusal to allocate the billions of dollars he is demanding for a border wall, the central promise of his 2016 campaign. “Could there be a shutdown? There certainly could, and it will be… Read full this story
- Government response updates: Trump invokes Defense Production Act, closes southern border citing 'viral spread'
- Lindsey Graham says it's time for Donald Trump to use 'emergency powers' to build border wall
- Donald Trump impeachment inquiry latest updates
- A Trump adviser is working on plans to reinstate Muslim registry and build a U.S.-Mexico border wall
- Donald Trump: 'Pathetic' Joe Biden Makes Jimmy Carter Look Great
- Is Donald Trump strategically pushing out non-Americans from the United States?
- Donald Trump pardons ex-strategist Steve Bannon and dozens of others on leaving office
- Fears grow for future of British car manufacturing as Donald Trump’s steel tariffs threaten to spark full-scale trade war
- Donald Trump Legacy And Big Tech: Constantly Needling Tech Companies But No Clear Policy In Place
- Donald Trump says he is ‘very seriously’ looking at 2024 POTUS run in bombshell interview
Donald Trump marks Thanksgiving Day with threat to close Mexico border have 368 words, post on www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk at November 22, 2018. This is cached page on NGHONG. If you want remove this page, please contact us.


LOVE GHOST will play five dates across the country this December and January and are making a documentary on how they are received by their Irish audience.
Lead singer and guitarist, Finnegan Bell has always been fascinated with his Irish roots and it’s this fascination with adapting traditional folk music with grunge-rock influences that make the bands style unique.
While still young in age, the band have a genuine and developed grunge rock sound. They released their first full-length album Lobotomy in June. The album was recorded at London Bridge studios in Seattle and NRG Studios in Los Angeles. Their sound has been compared to Alice in Chains and Smashing Pumpkins.
Full list of tour dates below:
December 27, 2018 – Roisin Dubh, Galway
December 28, 2018 – Whelan’s Dublin
January 2, 2019 – Cleere’s Kilkenny
January 4, 2019 – Spirit Store, Dundalk
January 5, 2019 – Crane Lane, Cork
You can watch their multi-award winning video here for ‘Nowhere’ here:


text:
Hannah Arendt considered calling her magnum opus Amor Mundi: Love of the World. Instead, she settled upon The Human Condition. What is most difficult, Arendt writes, is to love the world as it is, with all the evil and suffering in it. And yet she came to do just that. Loving the world means neither uncritical acceptance nor contemptuous rejection. Above all it means the unwavering facing up to and comprehension of that which is.
Every Sunday, The Hannah Arendt Center Amor Mundi Weekly Newsletter will offer our favorite essays and blog posts from around the web. These essays will help you comprehend the world. And learn to love it.
Is Capitalism a Social Good?
A book captures the Zeitgeist rarely in the 21st century, especially a book written by an empirical economist, published by a University Press, and translated from French. And yet Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, published by Harvard University Press, is suddenly everywhere. Andrew Hussey at The Guardian interviews Piketty, who argues that capitalism does not improve the quality of life for everyone. Piketty seeks to prove that capitalism is rigged in favor of the wealthy. In other words, the wealth of the wealthy increases faster than the income of the workers. His main contention is that over the centuries since the emergence of capitalism, return on capital tends to be greater than the growth of the economy. Which leads to Piketty’s final conclusion that increasing inequality is inevitable within capitalism – and will only get worse: “When I began, simply collecting data, I was genuinely surprised by what I found, which was that inequality is growing so fast and that capitalism cannot apparently solve it. Many economists begin the other way around, by asking questions about poverty, but I wanted to understand how wealth, or super-wealth, is working to increase the inequality gap. And what I found, as I said before, is that the speed at which the inequality gap is growing is getting faster and faster. You have to ask what does this mean for ordinary people, who are not billionaires and who will never will be billionaires. Well, I think it means a deterioration in the first instance of the economic well-being of the collective, in other words the degradation of the public sector. You only have to look at what Obama’s administration wants to do – which is to erode inequality in healthcare and so on – and how difficult it is to achieve that, to understand how important this is. There is a fundamentalist belief by capitalists that capital will save the world, and it just isn’t so. Not because of what Marx said about the contradictions of capitalism, because, as I discovered, capital is an end in itself and no more.” That the wealthy get wealthier in capitalism may seem obvious to some; but capitalism is widely embraced by the poor as well as the rich because it increases productivity and supposedly makes everybody better off. Capitalism may make some filthy rich, so the story goes, but it also allows more mobility of status and income than pre-capitalist economies, thus opening possibilities to everyone. Piketty argues against these truisms. In the end, however, whether inequality is good or bad is not an empirical question, and no amount of empirical research can tell us whether capitalism is good or bad. What Piketty does show convincingly, is that capitalism will not lead to equality. For more on Piketty, see Roger Berkowitz’s essay at The American Interest.
Is Capitalist Inequality Really So Bad?
Perhaps the best review of Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century is by Martin Wolf, the Financial Times columnist. Wolf gives an excellent summary of Piketty’s four “remarkable achievements” and then considers what they mean. He makes clear the importance of Piketty’s book. But he also raises the question Piketty leaves unasked: “Yet the book also has clear weaknesses. The most important is that it does not deal with why soaring inequality – while more than adequately demonstrated – matters. Essentially, Piketty simply assumes that it does. One argument for inequality is that it is a spur to (or product of) innovation. The contrary evidence is clear: contemporary inequality and, above all, inherited wealth are unnecessary for this purpose. Another argument is that the product of just processes must be just. Yet even if the processes driving inequality were themselves just (which is doubtful), this is not the only principle of distributive justice. Another – to me more plausible – argument against Piketty’s is that inequality is less important in an economy that is now 20 times as productive as those of two centuries ago: even the poor enjoy goods and services unavailable to the richest a few decades ago.” This does not mean that Wolf thinks increasing inequality is unimportant. Rightly, he turns to Aristotle to make this most-important point: “For me the most convincing argument against the ongoing rise in economic inequality is that it is incompatible with true equality as citizens. If, as the ancient Athenians believed, participation in public life is a fundamental aspect of human self-realization, huge inequalities cannot but destroy it.” You can read Eduardo Porter’s excellent review of the literature on the impact of wealth inequality on economic growth here. Of course, you should all read Piketty’s book for yourselves.
In an online interactive feature from The New York Times, an excellent example of what internet journalism can do well, John Jeremiah Sullivan recounts his recent search for 1930s blueswomen Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley. Among his sources for the project was the blues scholar Mack McCormick, who has a mountain of blues material, photos and interviews as well as tracks, collected over several decades, and now organized into something called “The Monster.” McCormick has been largely unable to produce writing from his collection; as he’s sitting on sources that no one else has, and that few have access to, this failure represents an extraordinary series of lacunas in blues history. Sullivan notes, however, that McCormick is still as significant a figure as the field has: “He is on record (in one of two or three notably good profiles done on him over the years) as saying that the subject of [blues guitarist Robert] Johnson has gone dead on him. And he has said since that part of him wishes he hadn’t let that one singer, that riddle of a man, consume him. Which is a human thing to feel . . . except for when you happen to know more than anyone on earth about a subject that loads of people in several countries want to know more about. Then your inability to produce becomes not just a personal problem but a cultural one. It’s plausible that the scope of research finally got too large for any one mind, even a uniquely brilliant one, to hold in orbit. The point here is not to accuse or defend him, but rather to point out that even his footnotes, even the fragments from his research that have landed in other scholars’ pages, have been enough to place him among the two or three most important figures in this field. He’s one of those people whose influence starts to show up everywhere, once you’re sensitized to it.” Sullivan’s essay is an excellent walk through the historian’s craft, a peak into how the record is made, as it were. Although Arendt described the job of the historian as describing the world as it was, that task is more or less difficult depending on the preservation or availability of certain sources. Through a combination of resources and luck, Sullivan and his research assistant were able to piece together a little more than half the story he set out to tell; the rest is still absent, awaiting another curious investigator and another stroke of good fortune.
The Sacred and the Profane
There’s a Greek mountain, Athos, home to a number of Orthodox monasteries, and no females; no women, no female animals. In a short profile of the space, Tom Whipple notes that it is both sacred and profane: “Athos is a place where a bearded octogenarian who has not seen a woman in 60 years can venerate the bones of a two-millennia-dead saint, then pull out a mobile phone to speak to his abbot. Where a pilgrim with a wooden staff in one hand can have a digital camera in the other. And where, in the dim light of dawn matins, I can look on a church interior that would be instantly recognizable to a pilgrim from five centuries ago. Maybe this is part of the reason I come: to play the time-traveler?” Elsewhere on the peninsula is a monastery under siege for having broken with the Orthodox Patriarch, and another that is believed to be in part responsible for Greece’s financial crash more than half a decade ago. Even here, men who have repudiated the world find that they live within it.
Get To Work
In an interview that covers his views on Ireland as a post-colonial site and the importance of gay themes in the Canon, Colm Toibin gives some advice to young writers: “I suppose the thing really is, you could suggest they might finish everything that they start. And the reason for that is, certainly with me, what happens is that something—an image, a memory, or something known, or something half thought of—stays in our mind, at some point or other it becomes a rhythm, and you write it down. Part of that is, you know it; you sort of know what you want to do. The chances are high of wanting to abandon it halfway through on the basis of, it really ceases to interest you because you know it already. And then you have to really push yourself to realize that other people don’t know it. And that you’re writing for communication, and that is not a private activity. Therefore you have to go on working—that’s what the real work is maybe. But if you’re young and starting off, it’s so easy to abandon something at that point thinking, ‘Oh yeah, I’m not sure there’s any more I can gain from the writing of this.’ And the answer is: You don’t matter anymore. Get to work.”
Seeing The World Through God
Rod Dreher, who picked up Dante during a midlife crisis, suggests that the Divine Comedy is about learning to see the world as it is through the mediation of the divine: “Beatrice, a Florentine woman young Dante had loved from afar, and who died early, serves as a representation of Divine Revelation. What the poet says here is that on Earth she represented to him a theophany, a disclosure of the divine. When she died, Dante forgot about the vision of divine reality she stood for. He allowed his eyes to be turned from faith—the hope in ‘the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,’ as Scripture says—to a misdirected love for the transitory and worldly. This is how Dante ended up in the dark and savage wood. This is how I did, too. This is how many of us find ourselves there in the middle of the journey of our life. Dante’s pilgrimage, and the one we readers have taken with him, teaches us to see the world and ourselves as they really are and to cleanse through repentance and ascesis our own darkened vision through reordering the will. By learning to want for ourselves and for others what God wants, we become more like Him, and we come to see all things as He does.”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Second Opportunity on Earth
Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died. It is worth revisiting “The Solitude of Latin America,” Marquez’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech. The speech ends with these words: “On a day like today, my master William Faulkner said, ‘I decline to accept the end of man.’ I would fall unworthy of standing in this place that was his, if I were not fully aware that the colossal tragedy he refused to recognize thirty-two years ago is now, for the first time since the beginning of humanity, nothing more than a simple scientific possibility. Faced with this awesome reality that must have seemed a mere utopia through all of human time, we, the inventors of tales, who will believe anything, feel entitled to believe that it is not yet too late to engage in the creation of the opposite utopia. A new and sweeping utopia of life, where no one will be able to decide for others how they die, where love will prove true and happiness be possible, and where the races condemned to one hundred years of solitude will have, at last and forever, a second opportunity on earth.”
Is it Possible to Be a Jewish Intellectual?
In Haaretz (subscription required), sociologist Eva Illouz reprints her 2014 Andrea and Charles Bronfman Lecture in Israeli Studies, at the University of Toronto. Illouz considers Gershom Scholem’s accusation that Hannah Arendt had no lover for the Jewish people and her response, “How right you are that I have no such love, and for two reasons: First, I have never in my life ‘loved’ some nation or collective – not the German, French or American nation, or the working class, or whatever else might exist. The fact is that I love only my friends and am quite incapable of any other sort of love. Second, this kind of love for the Jews would seem suspect to me, since I am Jewish myself. I don’t love myself or anything I know that belongs to the substance of my being … [T]he magnificence of this people once lay in its belief in God – that is, in the way its trust and love of God far outweighed its fear of God. And now this people believes only in itself? In this sense I don’t love the Jews, nor do I ‘believe’ in them.” Illouz writes: “To better grasp what should strike us here, let me refer to another debate, one that had taken place just a few years earlier in France, where another intellectual’s position had also generated a storm. Upon receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm in 1957, Albert Camus was interviewed by an Arab student about his positions on the Algerian war. He famously answered, ‘People are now planting bombs in the tramways of Algiers. My mother might be on one of those tramways. If that is justice, then I prefer my mother.’ Camus’ statement provoked a ruckus in French intellectual circles. As Norman Podhoretz wrote, “When he declared that he chose his mother above justice, he was, as [Conor Cruise] O’Brien puts it, choosing ‘his own tribe’ against an abstract ideal of universal justice. A greater heresy against the dogmas of the left is hard to imagine.” Indeed, since the Dreyfus affair, at the end of the 19th century, intellectuals’ intervention in the public sphere had been defined by their claim to universality, a position that remained unchanged throughout the 20th century.… I evoke here Camus’ example only to better highlight how the position of the contemporary Jewish intellectual differs from what we may call the position of the intellectual in Europe. What was anathema to the European intellectual – to defend one’s group and family against competing universal claims – is, in fact, what is routinely expected from the Jewish intellectual – by which I mean not only the intellectual of Jewish origins, but the one who engages in a dialogue with his/her community…. Arendt’s refusal to respond to the needs of her group and the fury her positions generated is only one of the many occurrences in a long list of hostile reactions by the organized Jewish community to critique, defined here as a sustained questioning of a group’s beliefs and practices. (For a superb discussion of these issues, see Idith Zertal’s 2005 book Israel’s Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood.) In fact, over the last 30 years, one of the favorite exercises of various representatives of Jewish and Israeli communities has been to unmask the hidden anti-Zionist or anti-Jewish tenets of critique. I am not saying some of the critiques of Israel may not be motivated by anti-Semitism. I simply note that the suspicion of critique has become an elaborate cultural and intellectual genre in the Jewish world.
From The Hannah Arendt Center Blog
This week on the blog, Lance Strate considers Arendt’s quotation, “The end of the old is not necessarily the beginning of the new.” And in the Weekend Read, Roger Berkowitz looks at Timothy Shenk’s review of millennial Marxism and Thomas Piketty.

domain: literature


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Unveiling Linguistic Brilliance: Navigating Grammar Club Book 5
Introduction: Embark on a linguistic odyssey with ‘Grammar Club Book 5’. This blog serves as a comprehensive guide through the advanced features, educational insights, and intricate exercises that define this grammar resource, tailored for those seeking the epitome of linguistic mastery.
Discover the advanced principles and objectives that distinguish ‘Book 5’. Explore how this book represents the pinnacle of grammatical expertise, providing an avenue for learners to delve into the most intricate nuances of the English language.
Exploring Complex Contents
Take an in-depth tour through the structure and contents of ‘Book 5’. From sophisticated sentence structures to nuanced grammatical rules, gain insights into how the book is meticulously organized to facilitate profound learning at the highest level.
Advanced Exercises for Linguistic Excellence
Delve into the advanced exercises designed to elevate language proficiency in ‘Book 5’. From intricate drills to real-world applications, understand how these exercises challenge learners to think critically and apply the most complex grammatical concepts.
Thematic Mastery: Grammar Club Book 5
Explore the thematic chapters of ‘Book 5’. Navigate through linguistic precision, providing an unparalleled understanding of the subtleties. And intricacies of the English language, setting a new standard for mastery.
Educational Insights and Advanced Teaching Strategies
Gain insights into the educational value of ‘Book 5’. Whether you’re an advanced learner or an educator guiding students, discover effective teaching strategies. And how the book fosters a profound comprehension of the most advanced grammar principles.
Interactive Learning: Grammar Club Book 5
Explore supplementary resources and interactive elements accompanying ‘Book 5’. From online assessments to collaborative forums, understand how these components contribute to a holistic and engaging learning experience, fostering linguistic brilliance.
As we conclude our exploration of ‘Book 5’, it becomes evident that this resource is a testament to linguistic brilliance. Whether you’re an advanced learner striving for language proficiency or an educator guiding students through the most intricate linguistic intricacies, this book promises an enriching journey through the zenith of advanced grammar.

domain: library


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There are cases of overseas brides getting married to Chinese women of all ages. This really is one of the major human trafficking crime that transpires in the world today. The transgression usually takes place when a international national who’s having a difficult time adjusting to lifestyle in Chinese suppliers becomes shady that his loved ones happen to be being neglected or that they can be even currently being abducted and taken away. This kind of leads the man to get the victims, which in turn he usually does on-line using the Internet.
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domain: sociology


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Tinubu eulogises late Yar’adua, vows to emulate good examples of past leaders
Nigeria’s president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has pledged to follow the guidance and footsteps of leaders like the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua when he assumes office on May 29.
Tinubu said this in a statement on Saturday, commemorating late president Yar’Adua, who died 13 years ago after a protracted illness
The former Lagos State governor said Yar’Adua performed excellently as governor of Katsina and as president after his emergence.
“May 5, 2010, may have long gone but, for some of us, the wound is still fresh. We remember the day as much as we remember the purposeful life lived by Mallam Umaru Yar’Adua,” he said.
Tinubu described the late elder stateman “as a friend and political associate”, adding that he will continue to cherish “the fond memories of honesty, steadfastness, patriotism and excellence in public service” that Yar’Adua left behind, both as governor of Katsina (1999 to 2007) and president of Nigeria (2007 to 2010).
He also expressed his determination to “follow the good examples set by leaders like Mallam Umaru Yar’Adua who showcased an exceptional sense of propriety and selfless service”.
“Rest on, dear brother. May your soul continue to find peace with your Maker, Ameen.”
In his part, President Goodluck Jonathan, who served as a vice to Yar’Adua from 2007 to 2010, described his former boss as a “man of peace, justice and accountability”.
He said, “On this day thirteen years ago, our nation lost a great and selfless leader, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. We look back with appreciation to God for the gift of his life and his impact on our nation. President Yar’Adua was an exemplary leader, who lived above ethnic and religious sentiment. And his public life inspired many positively.
“Today we remember him for his life of service, dedication and commitment to a united and prosperous nation. We will continue to remember him for his developmental strides and his commitment to the peace and progress of Nigeria”.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and other notable Nigerians also took to their social media accounts to recall how the former president was committed to ensuring that Nigeria thrives for all while serving as the country’s president.
He wrote, “In loving memory of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, a devoted leader, and a champion for democracy. As we mark the anniversary of his passing on May 5, 2010, we are reminded of his unwavering commitment to the people of Nigeria and his steadfast dedication to the sanctity of the ballot and his relentless pursuit of a fair and transparent electoral process.
“President Yar’Adua was a beacon of humility and integrity, acknowledging the shortcomings of the very election that brought him to power in 2007.
The PDP presidential candidate at the just concluded 2023 poll called on Allah to grant the late president the highest place in paradise.
“Thank you for your selfless service, Mr President. And may the Almighty Allah continue to grant you Al-Jannah Firdaus”.
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua GCFR was a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2007 to 2010. He was declared the winner of the Nigerian presidential election held on 21 April 2007, and was sworn in on 29 May 2007.


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domain: travel


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A reaction similar to the inactivation of prostaglandin hormones in animals has now been discovered in the larval guts of two plant pest species. The insects bear an enzyme which structurally modifies and hereby inactivates OPDA, a highly active plant hormone.
Herbivorous caterpillars ingest relatively high amounts of OPDA with the plant foodstuff they consume. If the substance is not inactivated, it has a negative impact on the development of the insect. The results illustrate the close relationships and interactions of hormone activities in the animal and plant kingdom. Herbivorous insect species developed an enzymatic system that can inactivate highly active agents in their food when it passes their midguts. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Early Edition, September 8, 2009)
Cis-OPDA (12-oxophytodienoic acid) is a highly reactive plant hormone which simultaneously serves as a precursor molecule of the metabolic "master switch" jasmonic acid. Both signal herbivory in leaves and shoots of plants and activate the plants' defense reaction against caterpillars. Cis-OPDA, when reaching the hemolymph of the caterpillar, has a negative effect on the animal, leading to premature pupation and, apparently, an impaired immune system.
Paulina Dabrowska, one of the very first PhD students of the Jena International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) who meanwhile earned her PhD, studied the whereabouts of plant hormones after they had been consumed by the caterpillars and had passed the insect gut. Are the hormones, which are known to severely influence development and metabolism of organisms even in the slightest dose, fully metabolized in the insect gut, just converted, or not influenced at all?
Studying the plant hormone cis-OPDA it became quickly evident that a conversion of the molecule must have taken place in the insect gut. The young chemist, originally from Poland, discovered that an enzyme must play a role in the chemical reaction observed: "First, we found that cis-OPDA was not present in the insect feces anymore. Instead of cis-OPDA, our mass spectrometers suggested iso-OPDA. However, iso-OPDA is only constituted by means of enzyme catalysis." Control experiments, solely performed in strong alkaline solutions as present in the insect gut (pH approx. 10), did not cause a cis-iso conversion. The test animals were Spodoptera littoralis (cotton leaf worm) and Helicoverpa armigera (cotton bollworm) larvae; both species are major cotton pests worldwide.
When isomerizing cis-OPDA to iso-OPDA, only one double bond in the molecule is relocated, drastically changing its spatial structure: An angulate molecule with a reactive double bond (cis-OPDA) becomes a planar molecule whose double bond can only react under forced conditions. A quite similar reaction has been previously described for prostaglandins, to be exact, the transformation of active prostaglandin A1 into inactive prostaglandin B1. OPDA and prostaglandins have a similar molecule structure and biosynthesis. Isomerization of these substances can be catalyzed by specific enzymes that, for instance, use glutathione as a substrate. Therefore, Paulina Dabrowska and Dalial Freitak, another former IMPRS student, looked for corresponding genes in the genome of Helicoverpa armigera that encode such enzymes and found 16 different glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) in the insect gut. Only one of the enzymes catalyzes the cis-iso conversion of OPDA. "This clearly demonstrates that of the 16 GSTs the cotton bollworm needs for many different metabolic pathways, this specific GST represents the evolutionary adaptation to its host plants," says Prof. Wilhelm Boland, in whose Department of Bioorganic Chemistry the studies have been carried out in cooperation with the Department of Entomology of Prof. David Heckel. The host spectrum of this insect pest is not limited to cotton, but includes many other plant species as well. The ability to inactivate cis-OPDA is especially found in host generalists (caterpillars with a broad food spectrum), but hardly ever in specialist insects [WB/JWK].
Dr. Jan-Wolfhard Kellmann | Max-Planck-Institut
Researchers identify potentially druggable mutant p53 proteins that promote cancer growth
09.12.2016 | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Plant-based substance boosts eyelash growth
09.12.2016 | Fraunhofer-Institut für Angewandte Polymerforschung IAP
Physicists of the University of Würzburg have made an astonishing discovery in a specific type of topological insulators. The effect is due to the structure of the materials used. The researchers have now published their work in the journal Science.
Topological insulators are currently the hot topic in physics according to the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Only a few weeks ago, their importance was...
In recent years, lasers with ultrashort pulses (USP) down to the femtosecond range have become established on an industrial scale. They could advance some applications with the much-lauded “cold ablation” – if that meant they would then achieve more throughput. A new generation of process engineering that will address this issue in particular will be discussed at the “4th UKP Workshop – Ultrafast Laser Technology” in April 2017.
Even back in the 1990s, scientists were comparing materials processing with nanosecond, picosecond and femtosesecond pulses. The result was surprising:...
Have you ever wondered how you see the world? Vision is about photons of light, which are packets of energy, interacting with the atoms or molecules in what...
A multi-institutional research collaboration has created a novel approach for fabricating three-dimensional micro-optics through the shape-defined formation of porous silicon (PSi), with broad impacts in integrated optoelectronics, imaging, and photovoltaics.
Working with colleagues at Stanford and The Dow Chemical Company, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign fabricated 3-D birefringent...
In experiments with magnetic atoms conducted at extremely low temperatures, scientists have demonstrated a unique phase of matter: The atoms form a new type of quantum liquid or quantum droplet state. These so called quantum droplets may preserve their form in absence of external confinement because of quantum effects. The joint team of experimental physicists from Innsbruck and theoretical physicists from Hannover report on their findings in the journal Physical Review X.
“Our Quantum droplets are in the gas phase but they still drop like a rock,” explains experimental physicist Francesca Ferlaino when talking about the...
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09.12.2016 | Health and Medicine

domain: chemistry


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You are invited to a presentation by Jim and Brandy Gilliam of Cadillac Art & Frame of Little Elm on the business of framing your artwork on Wednesday, September 6th from 7-9 p.m. , at the Patterson-Appleton Arts Center, 400 E Hickory St, Denton, TX.
Cadillac Art & Frame is a family owned business …
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Frame Destination is a framing supplies business located in Dallas with an online interface for ordering. You may have your ordered shipped but pickup is also available for local customers.
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Johnny (Mahto) Hogue Framing Workshop Saturday, November 15, 2014 – 10AM – 4PM
Johnny Hogue will be giving a workshop that will teach how to frame our artwork for presentation in public galleries and at juried shows. He will discuss archival framing, matting and mounting with preservation as well as beauty in mind.
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