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Hengl, Tomislav
http://raumplan.iaus.ac.rs/APP/faces/author.xhtml?author_id=orcid%3A%3A0000-0002-9921-5129&item_offset=0&project_offset=0&sort_by=dc.date.issued
Hengl, Tomislav (1)
OdrΕΎivi razvoj i ureΔenje banjskih i turistiΔkih naselja u Srbiji
Mapping population change index in Southern Serbia (1961-2027) as a function of environmental factors
Bajat, Branislav; Hengl, Tomislav; Kilibarda, Milan; KruniΔ, Nikola
AU - Bajat, Branislav
AU - Hengl, Tomislav
AU - Kilibarda, Milan
AU - KruniΔ, Nikola
UR - https://raumplan.iaus.ac.rs/handle/123456789/188
AB - Niche analysis methods developed within the biogeography community are routinely used for species distribution modeling of wildlife and endangered species. So far, such techniques have not been used to explain distribution of people in an area, nor to assess spatio-temporal dynamics of human populations. In this paper, the MaxEnt approach to species distribution modeling and publicly available gridded predictors were used to analyze the population dynamics in Southern Serbia (South Pomoravlje Region) for the period 1961-2027. Population values from the census administrative units were first downscaled to 200 m grid using a detailed map of populated places and dasymetric interpolation. In the second step, a point pattern representing the whole population (468,500 inhabitants in 2002) was simulated using the R package spatstat. MaxEnt was then used to derive habitat suitability index (HSI) as a function of gridded predictors: distance to roads, elevation, slope, topographic wetness index, enhanced vegetation index and land cover classes. HSI and environmental predictors were further used to explain spatial patterns in the population change index (PCI) through regression modeling. The results show that inhabiting preference for year 1961 is mainly a function of topography (TWI, elevation). The HSI for year 2027 shows that large portions of remote areas are becoming less preferred for inhabiting. The results of cross-validation in MaxEnt show that distribution of population is distinctly controlled by environmental factors (AUC > 0.84). Population decrease is particularly significant in areas >25 km distant from the main road network. The results of regression analysis show that 40% of variability in the PCI values can be explained with these environmental maps, distance to roads and urban areas being the main drivers of migration process. This approach allows precise mapping of demographic patterns that otherwise would not be visible from the census data alone.
T2 - Computers Environment and Urban Systems
T1 - Mapping population change index in Southern Serbia (1961-2027) as a function of environmental factors
DO - 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2010.09.005
UR - Konv_272
author = "Bajat, Branislav and Hengl, Tomislav and Kilibarda, Milan and KruniΔ, Nikola",
abstract = "Niche analysis methods developed within the biogeography community are routinely used for species distribution modeling of wildlife and endangered species. So far, such techniques have not been used to explain distribution of people in an area, nor to assess spatio-temporal dynamics of human populations. In this paper, the MaxEnt approach to species distribution modeling and publicly available gridded predictors were used to analyze the population dynamics in Southern Serbia (South Pomoravlje Region) for the period 1961-2027. Population values from the census administrative units were first downscaled to 200 m grid using a detailed map of populated places and dasymetric interpolation. In the second step, a point pattern representing the whole population (468,500 inhabitants in 2002) was simulated using the R package spatstat. MaxEnt was then used to derive habitat suitability index (HSI) as a function of gridded predictors: distance to roads, elevation, slope, topographic wetness index, enhanced vegetation index and land cover classes. HSI and environmental predictors were further used to explain spatial patterns in the population change index (PCI) through regression modeling. The results show that inhabiting preference for year 1961 is mainly a function of topography (TWI, elevation). The HSI for year 2027 shows that large portions of remote areas are becoming less preferred for inhabiting. The results of cross-validation in MaxEnt show that distribution of population is distinctly controlled by environmental factors (AUC > 0.84). Population decrease is particularly significant in areas >25 km distant from the main road network. The results of regression analysis show that 40% of variability in the PCI values can be explained with these environmental maps, distance to roads and urban areas being the main drivers of migration process. This approach allows precise mapping of demographic patterns that otherwise would not be visible from the census data alone.",
journal = "Computers Environment and Urban Systems",
title = "Mapping population change index in Southern Serbia (1961-2027) as a function of environmental factors",
doi = "10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2010.09.005",
url = "Konv_272"
Bajat, B., Hengl, T., Kilibarda, M.,& KruniΔ, N.. (2011). Mapping population change index in Southern Serbia (1961-2027) as a function of environmental factors. in Computers Environment and Urban Systems
Elsevier Sci Ltd, Oxford., 35(1), 35-44.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2010.09.005
Konv_272
Bajat B, Hengl T, Kilibarda M, KruniΔ N. Mapping population change index in Southern Serbia (1961-2027) as a function of environmental factors. in Computers Environment and Urban Systems. 2011;35(1):35-44.
doi:10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2010.09.005
Konv_272 .
Bajat, Branislav, Hengl, Tomislav, Kilibarda, Milan, KruniΔ, Nikola, "Mapping population change index in Southern Serbia (1961-2027) as a function of environmental factors" in Computers Environment and Urban Systems, 35, no. 1 (2011):35-44,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2010.09.005 .,
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Front page - Fighting the U-boats - Allied Warship Commanders
Listing of officers
Commander finder
Allied Warship Commanders
Lionel William Lendon Argles DSC, RN
Birth details unknown
If you can help with photo or any information on this Officer please
use our comment form.
1 May 1932 S.Lt.
1 Feb 1934 Lt.
1 Feb 1942 Lt.Cdr.
30 Jun 1946 Cdr.
30 Jun 1952 Capt.
Retired: 10 Jun 1961
3 Apr 1942 Mentioned in Despatches (MID)
21 Aug 1945 DSC
18 Sep 1945 Mentioned in Despatches (MID)
10 Jun 1961 CBE
Warship Commands listed for Lionel William Lendon Argles, RN
Ship Rank Type From To
HMS Chiddingfold (L 31) Lt. Escort destroyer 12 Aug 1941 Apr 1943
HMS Vigilant (R 93) Lt.Cdr. Destroyer 22 Jul 1943 Jul 1945
Upon his retirement from active service in 1961 he became Captain Superintendant of HMS Worcester, The Incorporated Thames Nautical College, at Greenhithe Kent. He was the last serving captain to 'Worcester' until the closure of the ship to cadets in 1968.
Events related to this officer
Destroyer HMS Vigilant (R 93)
16 May 1945 (position 4.49, 99.42)
On 9 May 1945 the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro and the Japanese destroyer Kamikaze (both offsite links) left Singapore for a transport run to the Andaman Islands. They were sighted the next day in Malakka Strait by the British submarines HMS Statesman (Lt. R.G.P. Bulkeley, RN) and HMS Subtle (Lt. B.J.B. Andrew, DSC, RN). To intercept the Japanese ships a task force made up of 2 battleships, 1 heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers, 4 escort carriers and 8 destroyers left Trincomalee. Aircraft from the escort carriers attacked the Nicobar Islands on the 11th, forcing Haguro and Kamikaze to head back to Singapore.
On the 14th the Japanese ships again depart from Singapore for the Andaman Islands. They were spotted the next day north-east of Sabang by aircraft the British escort carrier HMS Shah (Capt. W.J. Yendell, RN). A few hours later they were attacked by aircraft from the British escort carrier HMS Emperor (Capt. Sir C. Madden, RN) causing light damaged to Haguro. In the meantime Japanese aircraft have sighted Allied destroyers closing in on Haguro and once again the Japanese ships reverse course.
In anticipation on the Japanese reversal of course the commander of the British 26th DF, Capt. M.L. Power, CBE, DSO with Bar, RN on board HMS Saumarez and the other British destroyers HMS Venus (Cdr. H.G.D. De Chair, DSC with Bar, RN), HMS Verulam (Lt.Cdr. D.H.R. Bromley, DSC, RN), HMS Vigilant (Lt.Cdr. L.W.L. Argles, DSC, RN) and HMS Virago (Lt.Cdr. A.J.R. White, DSC, RN) plotted a course to intercept the Japanese ships which they did shortly before midnight on the 15th. After careful manoeuvring the destroyers began attacking the Japanese ships from all sides shortly after one o'clock on the 16th. The Haguro was hit by torpedoed and gunfire and sank around 0230hours in position 04Β°49'N, 99Β°42'E but not before she hit the Saumarez with gunfire. The escorting Japanese destroyer Kamikaze escapes with only minor damage.
You can help improve officers Lionel William Lendon Argles's page
Click here to Submit events/comments/updates for this officer.
Please use this if you spot mistakes or want to improve his page.
Allied Commanders main page
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Home / Books / Books
How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
by Franklin Foer
Soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It's a perfect window into the crosscurrents of today's world, with all its joys and sorrows. In this remarkably insightful, wide-ranging work of reportage, Franklin Foer takes us on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shining a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything in between. How Soccer Explains the World is an utterly original book that makes sense of our troubled times.
How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization quantity
Transit Maps of the World
The Famine Ships: The Irish Exodus to the United States
Russ & Daughters: Reflections and Recipes from the House That Herring Built
Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever
Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?
Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York's Other Half
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IMDb may have just accidentally revealed that this MAJOR "Game of Thrones" character is coming BACK
Meaghan Kirby
Updated Aug 08, 2017 @ 11:56 am
This post contains spoilers for Season 7 of Game of Thrones so if you haven't seen it or honestly don't want to know anything about upcoming episodes, row away as fast as you can!
We've been talking about this for weeks but it appears it's finally here: The long-awaited return of Gendry. The budding blacksmith and last remaining bastard of Robert Baratheon was last seen in season three, rowing away from Dragonstone after being rescued by Ser Davos. But now, he's finally rowing back into our lives during next week's episode "Eastwatch" β according to IMDb, that is.
The IMDb page for "Eastwatch" features Joe Dempsie in the cast listing for the first time since 2013:
Credit: IMDb
That's right, wedged between Liam Cunningham and Peter Dinklage is one Joe Dempsie!
This guy:
Credit: HelloGiggles / HBO
Much like IMDb announced Ed Sheeran's appearance in the Season 7 premiere, the entertainment website has revealed that we'll be meeting up with the beloved character in just a few days. Gendry's reappearance in the series has been speculated for years but Dempsie's appearance at the Season 7 premiere β not to mention being spotted in GoT's top filming site in Belfast β confirmed that we'd be seeing him again soon.
While we have no idea where Gendry will be making his grand reappearance β he *did* tell Davos that he knew nothing about swimming nor boats before rowing away β chances are, he'll quickly stumble into some drama. We honestly hope he reemerges The Hound-style or runs into Hot Pie, who will give him the SparkNotes version of everything he's missed.
Regardless, we have a feeling he'll find himself back in business as a blacksmith because Jon Snow will need one now that he's mining dragonglass. Seriously though, there's no way David Benioff and D.B. Weiss spent *that* much time telling us Gendry's an amazing blacksmith only to have him never forge anything again.
Credit: HBO
Gendry's long been one of the most curious characters on the HBO series.
During the first three seasons, he was an integral part of the drama over the Iron Throne before literally sailing off into the sunset (okay, rowing off in the middle of the night). That makes his return all the more interesting, seeing as most of the people who knew of his existence are either dead, or would assume he's long dead. But it seems the long absent character will return with a vengeance and once again become integral to the plot. In addition to being speculated as the blacksmith who will help Jon Snow forge his weapons to defeat the White Walkers, it's also been theorized that Gendry will revive the presumed dead House Baratheon.
While everything surrounding Gendry's reappearance on the show is a mystery, we're so happy to finally have him back. Now can he PLEASE reunite with Arya?!
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Watching nanofluids flow in 4D real-time (w/video)
(Nanowerk News) At the nanoscale, where objects are measured in billionths of meters and events transpire in trillionths of seconds, things do not always behave as our experiences with the macro-world might lead us to expect. Water, for example, seems to flow much faster within carbon nanotubes than classical physics says should be possible. Now imagine trying to capture movies of these almost imperceptibly small nanoscale movements.
This artistic rendering depicts fluid-filled nanotubes changing with time. Caltech researchers used four-dimensional electron microscopy to visualize and monitor the flow of molten lead within single zinc oxide nanotubes in real time and space. (Image: Caltech)
Researchers at Caltech now have done just that by applying a new imaging technique called four-dimensional (4D) electron microscopy to the nanofluid dynamics problem. In a paper appearing in the June 27 issue of Science ("Observing liquid flow in nanotubes by 4D electron microscopy"), Ahmed Zewail, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics, and Ulrich Lorenz, a postdoctoral scholar in chemistry, describe how they visualized and monitored the flow of molten lead within a single zinc oxide nanotube in real time and space.
The 4D microscopy technique was developed in the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology at Caltech, created and directed by Zewail to advance understanding of the fundamental physics of chemical and biological behavior.
In 4D microscopy, a stream of ultra-fast-moving electrons bombards a sample in a carefully timed manner. Each electron scatters off the sample, producing a still image that represents a single moment, just a femtosecondβor a millionth of a billionth of a secondβin duration. Millions of the still images can then be stitched together to produce a digital movie of nanoscale motion.
When this lead-filled zinc oxide nanotube was laser-heated, some of the molten lead squeezed out of the tube through a leak. This video shows the extrusion being reabsorbed once the tube cooled.
In the new work, Lorenz and Zewail used single laser pulses to melt the lead cores of individual zinc oxide nanotubes and then, using 4D microscopy, captured how the hot pressurized liquid moved within the tubesβsometimes splitting into multiple segments, producing tiny droplets on the outside of the tube, or causing the tubes to break. Lorenz and Zewail also measured the friction experienced by the liquid in the nanotube.
"These observations are particularly significant because visualizing the behavior of fluids at the nanoscale is essential to our understanding of how materials and biological channels effectively transport liquids," says Zewail. In 1999, Zewail won the Nobel Prize for his development of femtosecond chemistry.
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Candente Copper to Form a New Copper and Base Metals Exploration Company
Vancouver, British Columbia, May 17th, 2011. Candente Copper Corp. (TSX:DNT, BVL:DNT, US:CDOUF) ("Candente Copper") is very pleased to announce its Board of Directors have unanimously approved a proposal to undertake a spin-out transaction that would reorganize the business and capital structure of the Company into two separate public companies to allow Candente Copper to focus on the development of its flagship CaΓ±ariaco copper project.
Pursuant to the proposed transaction, Candente Copper will incorporate a new subsidiary, ExploreCo ("ExploreCo") to which it will transfer 100% of its indirect interest in all of its Peruvian exploration properties, other than the CaΓ±ariaco and Jehuamarca claims, which cover the CaΓ±ariaco Norte Deposit as well as the CaΓ±ariaco Sur and Quebrada Verde prospects by way of a Plan of Arrangement to be completed under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) (the "Proposed Arrangement").
In addition to the transfer of the properties, Candente Copper also intends to subscribe for common shares of ExploreCo as part of the Proposed Arrangement in order to provide ExploreCo with approximately Cdn$6 million in working capital.
Candente Copper intends to initially retain a position (approximately 15%) in ExploreCo and distribute the remaining common shares it receives of ExploreCo to its current shareholders on a pro-rata basis (expected to be 1 share of ExploreCo for every 5 shares of Candente Copper held) by way of a reduction of the capital of Candente Copper pursuant to the Proposed Arrangement.
ExploreCo will seek to list its common shares on either the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") or the TSX Venture ("TSX.V") and the Bolsa de Valores de Lima ("BVL ") stock exchanges.
The Proposed Arrangement remains conditional on the approval of final documentation by the Board of Directors of Candente Copper, the approval of the Proposed Arrangement and the listing of the shares of ExploreCo by the TSX or TSX.V (if applicable), the approval of the shareholders of Candente Copper and the approval of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, amongst other things.
Additional details of the Proposed Arrangement will follow upon completion of definitive documentation and will be described in detail in the information circular to be mailed to shareholders of Candente Copper in connection with the Company's annual general and special meeting at which approval by the Company's shareholders of the Proposed Arrangement will be sought.
About Candente Copper
Candente Copper Corp is a TSX and BVL listed mining company focused on exploration and development of base metal mining projects in Peru and Latin America. Candente Copper's flagship project is the 100% owned CaΓ±ariaco copper project located in northern Peru's prolific mining district.
Mr. Sean Waller, P.Eng., President of Candente Copper is a Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this release, and is responsible for the information contained in this release.
This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geotechnical assumptions, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles or permits, potential mineral recovery processes, the timing and structure of proposed transactions, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Candente relies upon litigation protection for forward-looking statements.
CAUTIONARY NOTE TO U.S. INVESTORS
We advise U.S. investors of terms that are not recognized by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including "mineral resources", "measured resources", "indicated resources" and "inferred resources". The estimation of measured and indicated resources involves greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic feasibility than the estimation of proven and probable reserves. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that mineral resources in these categories will be converted to reserves. The estimation of inferred resources involves far greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic viability than the estimation of other categories of resources. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that estimates of inferred mineral resources exist, are economically mineable, or will be upgraded into measured or indicated mineral resources. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that mineral resources in any of these categories will be converted into reserves.
On behalf of the Board of Candente Copper Corp.
"Sean Waller" P.Eng.
President & Director
John Foulkes
VP Corporate Development
toll free: 1 (877) 689-1964 ext 2
Manager, Investor Relations
Nataly Reategui
Investor Relations, Peru
Tel.: (511) 715-2001 ext 107
[email protected]
NR-023
View previous (Apr 6, 2011)
View next (Jun 6, 2011)
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Headline: Hongkong Theatre: Old Land Office Building
On Apr 14, showing the thrilling serial, 11th and 12th episodes of 'Peg O' the Ring'; war graphic and Keystone comics; on Apr 18, continuation of 'Terence O' Rourke,' 4 & 6 episodes.
On Jun 5 at 5.15 pm, in aid of The Portuguese Red Cross Society, programme: War Graphic; Liberty (1st and 2nd episode); 'Foolshead Mistaken for Jim,' a Portuguese comic.
War Graphic; 'Two Mothers,' a beautiful Italian drama in 3 reels; 'The Child,' a sensational drama in 3 parts; also comics; don't forget on Jun 9, 'Liberty.'
Two great Italian dramas: 'An Ignored Mother' in 3 parts; 'The Outcast's Return' in 3 parts; War Graphic & comics; on Jun 15, string band night.
4th and 5ht episodes of 'Liberty'; War Graphic and comics.
Two sensational dramas: 'The Song Which Grandmother Sang' in 3 parts; 'A Missionary Sister' [sic] in 3 parts; War Graphic and comics.
6th episode of 'Liberty' entitled 'The Desert of Lost Souls'; a thrilling drama 'A Circus Heroine' in 3 parts; war graphic and 'Max on the Briny' (comic).
Tonight, the great Trans-Atlantic serial 'Liberty,' 7th and 8th episodes entitled 'Liberty's Sacrifice' and 'Clipped Wings'; war graphic; comics: 'Both in the Same Boat,' 'The Two Merry Tramps,' and 'Rosalie, Detective.'
Headline: Hongkong Theatre
Tonight, Florence Reed in 'The Eternal Sin' in 6 parts. At 7.15 p.m., 'Peg O' the Ring' episodes 1, 2 and 3.
A real sensation, Herbert Brenon presents the great wonderful production 'The Eternal Sin' with the beautiful Florence Reed. A very sad story of tragedy.
A very attractive programme is to be shown at the Hongkong Theatre for the week commencing this afternoon till Friday next, a drama 'Who Will Marry Me?' featuring the star Carmel Myers, is one of the first productions from the Universal Film Company. There is also a splendid pictureβ¦
The China Mail (4)
South China Morning Post (3)
Comic films (43)
The Diamond from the Sky (20)
Keystone Comics (19)
The Adventures of Peg o' the Ring (19)
The Goddess (11)
The Trey o' Hearts (11)
Mysteries of the Grand Hotel (8)
New Screen Magazine (8)
Neal of the Navy (6)
The Screaming Shadow (6)
The Woman in the Web (6)
The Iron Test (5)
Borrowed Clothes (4)
Gaumont Graphic (4)
The Carter Case (4)
The New Adventures of Terence O'Rourke (4)
The Secret of the Submarine (4)
Love Letters (3)
Neptune's Daughter (3)
The Belle of New York (3)
The Cabaret Girl (3)
The Crucible of Fate (3)
The Fly Cop (3)
The Right to Happiness (3)
What Happened to Mary (3)
A Child of the Paris Streets (2)
A Modern Enoch Arden (2)
Back of the Man (2)
Barbary Sheep (2)
Easy Street (2)
His Naughty Thought (2)
Lost in Transit (2)
Max Comes Across (2)
Out of the Drifts (2)
The Double Standard (2)
The Immigrant (2)
The Judgement House (2)
The Return of Draw Egan (2)
The Scholar (2)
The Yankee Girl (2)
(-) War graphics (8)
(-) The Eternal Sin (2)
Bijou Theatre (16)
The Palace Picture House (2)
(-) Hongkong Theatre (11)
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VIDEO: Bandits come back to beat Dragons, 4-2
BROOKS, AB (January 6, 2018) β The Brooks Bandits (28-11-1) came back from a first period 1-0 deficit on Saturday night, downing the visiting Drumheller Dragons (20-18-2) by a 4-2 final score at the Centennial Regional Arena.
After allowing an opening power play goal, the Bandits held Drumheller to just 10 shots for the rest of the game, scoring three times in the span of 4 minutes and 34 seconds in the second period to take the lead.
The win keeps the Bandits 7 points back of Okotoks for first place in the AJHL South, but extends their gap over Drumheller for second place to 15 points.
Drumheller's first power play of the game led to the opening goal at the 9:12 mark when Alex Rotundo scored on a wrist shot from the slot. It was the third time in four meetings that the Dragons had opened the scoring against Brooks.
But after outshooting Drumheller by a narrow 11-8 margin in the first, the Bandits outshot their opponents 25-10 the rest of the way, seizing control of the game just over the halfway mark. Arnaud Vachon (Ajax, ON) got tangled up with a forechecking Dragon, with the two colliding into the half boards. As a Drumheller defender came over to challenge Vachon, Carter Wolski (Sexsmith, AB) took the puck and charged to the front of the net unopposed, sliding a shot five-hole on Hunter Virostek to make it 1-1 and extending his point streak to 6 games.
Less than three minutes later, Nathan Plessis (Salmon Arm, B.C.) fired a pass along the blue line that Jakob LaPointe (Leduc, AB) drove a slap shot on; the puck glanced off a Drumheller stick and then off VIrtostek's glove and in to give Brooks its first lead. Plessis' assist also extended his point streak to 6 games.
At the 16:20 mark, Simon Boyko (Mississauga, ON) carried in along the left side, stopped up at the point, and fired a perfect pass across to Matt Cassidy (Medford, NJ) at the right circle. His one timer tipped off a Dragon stick and over Virostek's glove hand for the eventual game-winning goal.
In the third, the Bandits converted on their first and only power play when a Shane Bear (Calgary, AB) point shot was deflected in behind Virostek, where Plessis poked the puck over the goal line to make it 4-1. Drumheller got one back with 1:34 left in the game on a Bradley Stonnell power play point shot that went post and in.
Mitch Benson (Windsor, ON) made 16 saves on 18 shots for his league-leading 28th win, while Virostek had the loss with a 32-save performance on 36 shots against. The Bandits went 1 for 1 on the power play while the Dragons were 2 for 6.
The Bandits hit the road on Tuesday night for the first of consecutive games against Olds, first in the Grizzlys' barn at 7 PM before returning home to take them on Friday night at the CRA at 7 PM.
Previous PostBandits win streak snapped with 4-2 loss in OkotoksNext PostMakar wins Gold at World Juniors, named Tournament All-Star
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Sweet Magnolias Season 2 Release Date, Synopsis and More
Based on books of the same name by Sheryl Woods, Sweet Magnolias revolves around the lives of mainly three women from Serenity that share a unique and strong bond as they overcome challenges. Season 1 was a huge hit. And it ended with the kind of cliffhanger that makes you impatiently wait for more episodes. And hence, since then, viewers have been waiting for Sweet Magnolias Season 2.
There is no reason to believe that there won't be another season. We feel that there will probably be a season 3 as well. As there is enough content and the show has received a lot of appreciation.
Here is everything about Sweet Magnolias Season 2!
Sweet Magnolias Season 2 Release Date
The show was renewed for another season in July 2020. At the time of renewal, Sheryl Anderson, the showrunner of the show, said:
"I'm thrilled and excited to come back with a cast and a crew that I love so much. It's such a valentine to everybody who worked so hard to make Serenity such a beautiful place. JoAnna, Brooke, and Heather and I were jumping up and down while texting each other, and we look forward to doing that over Zoom too."
Moreover, an official release date hasn't been revealed yet. But it has been confirmed that sweet magnolias season 2 will be out in 2022. We are expecting a release date at the beginning of 2022 or mid-2022. If we get any more updates on the release date, we will share them with you.
Sweet Magnolias Season 2 Cast
Here is a list of all the cast members that viewers can expect to watch in the much-awaited season:
JoAnna Garcia Swisher as Maddie Townsend
Heather Headley as Helen Decatur
Brooke Elliott as Dana
Logan Allen as Kyle Townsend
Chris Klein as Bill Townsend
Anneliese Judge as Annie Sullivan
Carson Rowland as Tyler Townsend
Justin Bruening as Cal Maddox
Al-Jaleel Knox as Gabe Weatherspoon
Dion Johnstone as Erik Whitley
Frank Oakley III as Harlan Bixby
Jamie Lynn Spears as Noreen Fitzgibbons
Brandon Quinn as Ronnie Sullivan
Chris Medlin as Isaac Downey
Bianca Berry Tarantino as Katie Townsend
Allison Gabriel as Mary Vaughn Lewis
Brittany L. Smith as Peggy Martin
Tracey Bonner as Pastor June Wilkes
Charles Lawlor as Collins Littlefield
Harlan Drum as CeCe Matney
Sam Ashby as Jackson Lewis
Hunter Burke as Trotter Vidhyarkorn
Michael Shenefelt as Ryan Wingate
Michael May as Simon Spry
Sweet Magnolias Season 2 Synopsis
No official plot details have been shared yet. But, we think that season 2 will open the door to mee mysteries and hopefully answer the mysteries of season 1.
Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger with Kyle in an accident. However, we still don't know who was with Kyle in that accident.
On the other hand, Maddie is perplexed as her ex-partner tries to get back in the picture. He has asked her for another chance and used their kids as a good reason for her to give him a chance. But, what does Maddie decide? Only season 2 can answer that!
Then there is Helen, who just ended things with her on and off boyfriend. So what will she do now? As she wanted to have a child of her own.
Additionally, Dana is suffering to make ends meet with her business. Also, she has recently been brought face-to-face because her estranged son is working in her very own kitchen.
So, what are the women of Serenity going to do? How are they going to face their challenges? Will Kyle and the passenger with him survive? All of this and more will be happening in Sweet Magnolias Season 2.
Sweet Magnolias Season 2 Trailer
A trailer for Sweet Magnolias Season 2 hasn't been released yet. And it will probably be a little more while until that happens. As the season won't be released until 2022.
How many episodes will be there in season 2?
Season 2 will probably have ten episodes 40 to 55 minutes long, just like season 1. A few titles of the episodes have also leaked. They are:
Episode 1 β Casseroles and Casualties
Episode 2- So Much To Say
Episode 3 β The More Things Change
Episode 4 β Walk of Faith
Has filming for Sweet Magnolias Season 2 begin?
Yes, filming has not only begun, but it has also ended for the upcoming season. Initially, Sheryll Woods, the author of the books, informed everyone that filming would begin in 2021. Then, in February 2021, the production team was in Georgia to get the sets ready and map out the entire season.
The show is filmed in Georgia, Atlanta as there is no real town named Serenity in South Carolina. Serenity is an imaginative town where the story takes place.
Filming finally began in early April as cast members posted pictures of back to filming on April 6, 2021.
Then, filming finally ended in mid-july as JoAnna Garcia Swisher, one of the cast members, posted a video on Instagram. Here is what the text with the video said:
"Last day in the chair with my sister, @symartmakeup, as we wrap up season 2 of #sweetmagnoliasnetflix! Bittersweet feelings because I'm going to miss this group so much. But I'm so proud and EXCITED for all of you to see what we have been cooking up in Serenity and can't wait for this dream team of a cast and crew to (hopefully!) be reunited ASAP to continue the journey!"
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Home > Where to start a business
#22 Starting a business in Oxford
Boasting business survival rates of 44%, Oxford is bursting with talent and business support. But is it the right location for your start-up?
by Ryan Platt
Updated: Jan 7, 2021 Published: Aug 21, 2017
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Talent Support Funding Quality of life Case study
Why should you start a business in Oxford?
One of the oldest and most prestigious seats of learning in the world, Oxford continues to be at the forefront of cutting-edge developments in a variety of sectors. Businesses in knowledge-based industries like aerospace, engineering and life sciences choosing to locate here will find a wealth of expertise, infrastructure and collaboration opportunities in the city.
The world-class University of Oxford is closely connected with business activity in the city, and many successful start-ups begin as spin-outs from the institution. Notable alumni from the university include LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Eventbrite co-founder Kevin Hartz.
The well-educated talent base in the city has also given rise to a burgeoning technology and creative cluster, earning Oxford recognition as one of the UK's top 10 creative "hotspots" (according to innovation charity Nesta).
Despite its rather small size, Oxford has good transport links, with London Paddington just one hour away by train. Oxford Airport is located close by, but only serves regional destinations; for international links, the busy London Heathrow is around an hour's drive. The picturesque city is quiet and compact, and getting around it is a fairly simple process.
Access to talent in Oxford
72,500: Working age population with NVQ Level 4 and above (2015)
Β£589: Average full-time weekly earnings (2016)
2: Universities
The University of Oxford almost needs no introduction. One of the oldest universities in the world, it is consistently ranked amongst the top five globally and enjoys a peerless reputation amongst employers. Local businesses looking to recruit will find more than 22,000 of the UK's best and brightest students and graduates right on their doorstep.
The University's technology transfer subsidiary, Oxford University Innovation β changed from Isis Innovation in 2016 β helps businesses and academics research and commercialise their ideas and technology through a three-pronged business model. It has helped to launch more than 110 companies in the last 25 years with the start-up incubator supporting over 40 entrepreneurial ventures thus far.
Number of new start-ups (2015): 685 β see how this compares with other cities
Oxford is also home to the modern Oxford Brookes University, located just outside the city centre. Whilst it lives in the shadow of its more prestigious neighbour, it is a well-regarded institution in its own right (ranked in the top 50 in the UK) with a particularly strong pedigree in architecture.
The universities' dominating presence in the city has unsurprisingly resulted in a highly educated and qualified population. 63.4% of the workforce have NVQ Level 4 qualifications or above, second only to Cambridge (66.5%). Additionally, almost a quarter of employment in the Science Vale cluster is in professional, scientific and technical activities, compared with a South East regional average of just 8%.
While salaries are still considerably lower than London, the access to high numbers of skilled personnel has seen the weekly average increase, with Oxford now joint highest with Cambridge at Β£589 per week on average.
Access to business support in Oxford
1: Accelerators
3: Science parks
Business support in the Oxfordshire LEP is centred around the Science Vale UK Enterprise Zone, one of the most well-regarded science park complexes in the UK. Located 20 minutes drive from central Oxford, the 92-hectare site offers world-leading science facilities and access to research, alongside an extensive range of options when it comes to laboratory and office space.
Science businesses choosing to locate in Science Vale will be working alongside several leading science and technology companies including Infotec, Infineum, and Oxford Instruments, and will benefit from the usual range of incentives offered to Enterprise Zone businesses, including simplified planning, business rates discounts of up to Β£275,000, and superfast broadband.
Survival rates (2010-2015): 45%
In line with Oxford's reputation as an innovation centre, small businesses in the area can also access R&D tax credits of 225%. The Science Vale Enterprise Zone encompasses the two separate sites of Harwell Oxford and MEPC Milton Park β Harwell, in particular, is known for its work with the European Space Agency.
Science and technology businesses looking for nurturing environments elsewhere are spoilt for choice in Oxfordshire. Culham Science Centre, owned by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, specialises in cutting-edge nuclear fusion research and plays host to a number of commercial technology organisations alongside smaller start-ups hosted in its Innovation Centre.
Oxford Science Park is another option β operated as a joint venture between the University's Magdalen College and Prudential, the site aims to become a "centre of excellence" for science, technology and business occupiers.
Most of these complexes offer some forms of support, knowledge transfer and networking opportunities to start-ups. More intensive support is available for software business through the Isis Software Incubator, which supports nascent ventures in the development of products or services through its facility in Summertown (although it doesn't provide any direct investment).
Businesses in other sectors looking for office, lab or warehousing space have a good range of options. There are a number of commercial property parks in the surrounding Oxfordshire area, including Abingdon Business Park, Banbury, and Oxford Business Parks β a full list can be found here.
Oxford currently has a number of co-working facilities β WORKSPACE OXFORD, located a short walk from the city centre, The Old Music Hall, operated by Ethical Property and offering shared meeting rooms and a "communal breakout space" and HATCH, a co-work space and makervault (a converted vault set up for experimentation and prototyping, including a 3D printer and other tools).
Access to grants and funding in Oxford
Whether you are a seed-stage start-up or a fast-growth business, Oxford offers a good number of options when it comes to funding. Straightforward grant funding for non-social enterprises is, however, thin on the ground.
For smaller businesses, the Oxfordshire LEP offers 'Innovation Support Vouchers' which allow small and medium-sized enterprises to claim 50% (up to a maximum of Β£5,000 per voucher) of the cost of business training, mentoring, or access to specialised facilities which will drive the creation of jobs. This opportunity is currently closed, but future schemes will be announced on the website so it's worth checking back.
Additionally, if you are experiencing difficulty obtaining funding from traditional sources, the Fredericks Foundation could help; the charity offers business advice and loans to start-ups struggling to raise the finance they need elsewhere.
Number of business deaths (2015): 480
On the angel investment side, Oxford Early Investments provides backing of between Β£25,000 and Β£250,000 to innovative early-stage companies through its network of investors. The network is not sector-specific, and backs companies in the early stages of technical and commercial development with high growth potential.
For larger companies, the Oxford Investment Opportunity Network typically invests larger amounts of between Β£200,000 and Β£2m through its network. Whilst funding is, again, not sector specific, the organisation has a "particular interest" in companies with innovative or patented disruptive technologies.
Oxford's pedigree and network of support means that its start-up companies do especially well compared to the rest of the country and it has a start-up survival rate of 45% (businesses launched in 2010 and still trading in 2015), however this is markedly less than its rival Cambridge which boasts survival rates of 49%.
Quality of life in Oxford
Β£427,140: Property price average (September 2016)
30.71: Crimes per 1,000 people (June 2015)
22.5mbps: Average broadband speed (2014)
Oxford is one of the best known historic cities in the UK, and boasts an enviable array of cultural, historic and entertainment attractions for such a small city. As you might expect, the University's long presence here (the first colleges were established in the mid-1200s) provides the lynchpin of much of the city's employment and lifestyle. Many of the colleges themselves feature appealing historical architecture, and are tourist attractions in their own right.
The Ashmolean Museum is one of the world's most famous historic museums and contains artifacts and archaeological finds from across history, sourced from around the world. The stately home of Blenheim Palace, a stunning example of 18th century Baroque architecture, is another popular attraction. These are just some of many; the Visit Oxford site contains a more detailed index of the myriad diversions available.
The city has particularly impressive architecture, some of which dates back to the late Saxon period. The landmarks of Christ Church Cathedral, St. George's Tower, the Church of St Mary the Virgin and more contribute to Oxford's world-famous 'dreaming spires', and it is little wonder that the area continues to inspire authors, artists and filmmakers. The city is built around several rivers, most notably the River Isis (what the Thames is known as in Oxford) and the River Cherwell, famous for its punting and rowing.
Oxford's large student population also drives a lively nightlife and live music scene across the centre, so it is not all Inspector Morse and punting by any means.
As you might expect, the trade-off of living in such a prosperous, picturesque city is a high cost of living. The average house price in Oxfordshire stands at a steep Β£427,140 second only to rival university city Cambridge (Β£446,796). Crime, on the other hand, is at the opposite end of the spectrum, coming in at the lowest on our list.
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Brock's new Women's Choir preparing for inaugural concert
Friday, November 23, 2018 | by Jaquelyn Bezaire
The Brock University Choirs rehearse for their upcoming performance on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Cairns Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.
Brock University's new Women's Choir is joining forces with the established Chamber Choir to perform its first concert next month.
Assistant Professor Rachel Rensink-Hoff will lead the Brock Choirs in Concert performance on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. It will take place at the Cairns Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines.
The concert is part of the Department of Music's Viva Voce! Choral Series, which begins its season Saturday, Nov. 24 with a performance by the Avanti Chamber Singers. The Women's Choir and Chamber Choir are each comprised of about 30 members from Brock University and the wider Niagara community.
Rensink-Hoff believes the concert provides a great opportunity to bridge the gap between students and the community and showcase the breadth of talented singers from the region as a whole.
"It's a neat dynamic as the students get to know the community members and vice versa," she said. "I've been trying to encourage interaction between the singers during breaks so that it feels as comfortable as possible and the singers can bond with each other."
The choirs will be joined on stage by the Walker String Quartet, which will also perform some solo pieces during the concert.
The Brock Choirs in Concert performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1 at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.
Tickets for the concert are $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and students. There is also a $5 option available for eyeGo program members. Tickets are available through the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre (PAC) Box Office at 905-688-0722 or on the PAC website.
The next performance in the Viva Voce! Choral Series will take place on Feb. 23 featuring the Avanti Chamber Singers. For more details on upcoming concerts, visit the Department of Music website.
Read more stories in: Humanities, News, People
Tagged with: brock university choirs, department of music, firstontario performing arts center, marilyn i. walker school of fine and performing arts, MIWSFPA, Rachel Rensink-Hoff, Viva Voce Choral Series
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Brock artists to draw inspiration from new bursary
Experience Expo to connect students with dozens of employers
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U11B NJ Stallions 06 Barcelona Take 2nd Place at 2016 BETHESDA PREMIER CUP
The U11B NJ Stallions 06 Barcelona EDP team traveled to Maryland in November to compete in the 2016 Bethesda Premer Cup, and finished as FINALISTS competing against top programs from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Over four games, the NJ Stallions boys finished with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. In game #1 they defeated the #3 Pennsylvania West ranked team, Beadling Boys 1-0, then in game #2 they fought hard to a 2-2 tie against a very talented Bethesda SC 06 Black team. In the semifinal game against Montgomery Academy Grey, they earned a 2-1 victory to get them into the Final where they eventually lost to SOCA Cville 06, a talented team from Virginia.
Coach Antonio Meza had this to say about his team, "The players showed great character competing and finding a way to get to the final. Coming back from losing 1-0 to turning it around in the semifinal to win 2-1 was great to watch. We will build on this when we train this winter and prepare for the Spring season".
Β© NJ Stallions. All rights reserved.
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CERN bails on Facebook's Workplace, cites cost
Editor's note: This story has been updated with new information about CERN's rationale for moving away from Facebook Workplace.
Research organization CERN will replace Facebook's Workplace with an open source alternative after deciding not to move to a new free version of the collaboration software that would eliminate enterprise management features.
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, first rolled out Workplace's free Standard version in 2016.
The organization has since been testing the premium version of the enterprise social network with staff, including CERN's HR and IT teams. About 1,000 staffers currently use Workplace, with around 150 active weekly users on the platform.
Facebook initially waived the costs of Workplace Premium, but then unveiled new payment plans last July. CERN was told to either begin paying for the full service or move to the free "Essential" version of the app. That change would have ended access to single sign-on and other enterprise features, CERN said.
"Paying for such features, for a tool that was not part of our core offering for the CERN community and where the existing level of control of our data did not correspond to CERN's needs, was not suitable. Therefore, we will end the trial of this platform," the organization said in a blog post.
CERN now plans to use Mattermost, an open-source tool, for instant messaging; it will join several other internal communications tools already available to staffers. It requested that all content hosted on Facebook's servers be removed.
CERN had initially said it planned to ditch Workplace because moving to the Essential tier would result in the loss of control of its data, which it said would be sent to Facebook. That statement was changed on Friday, with that claim retracted.
According to Facebook, a customer retains control over their data. "A community admin manages the community and the company owns and controls the data. The community admin can modify, delete or export your data at any time."
Facebook called CERN's fears about data control "inaccurate" and argued that cost was the primary reason CERN opted for Mattermost.
"Last year we announced an update to our pricing and packaging," a Facebook spokesperson said. "As part of this we moved from two tier offerings (one free, one paid) to three (one free, two paid). CERN [was] originally on our Premium tier for free, and we asked them to either pay for the technology or downgrade to our free tier. They declined for cost reasonsβ¦."
Alongside the free tier, Workplace now has two paid plans: Workplace Enterprise, which costs $8 per user per month, and Workplace Advanced, at $4 per user per month. The latter has limits on certain features such as storage and the number of people who can join group calls.
On all three tiers, "Facebook acts as the data processor, and our customers act as the data controller," the spokesperson said. "Our customers retain all rights, title and interest (including intellectual property rights) to their data.
"CERN saying that they were given a choice to pay or lose their administrative and data rights to Workplace is not accurate. They could join Workplace today on our Essential tier, which would allow them to use Workplace for free and retain the same admin and data rights."
CERN declined to discuss the move to replace Workplace in more detail.
Concerns over Facebook's use of data
There are 3 million paid Workplace customers, according to the most recent data on the app. That number includes deployments at large enterprise such as Nestle and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
However, concerns have arisen in the past about how controversies around handling of data in Facebook's consumer business might affect its enterprise operations. A survey by CCS Insight last year showed that 42% of employees felt their trust in Facebook had decreased in the last 12 months.
"β¦This is something we've seen become an increasing issue over the last couple of years following the Cambridge Analytica scandal," Angela Ashenden, a principal analyst at CCS Insight, said before CERN changed its explanation for the move to Mattermost.
"Overall, the Workplace team has done well to manage the impact of this on its enterprise business, but it's inevitable that there will be some fallout as a resultβ¦," she said.
Ashenden added that, while the Workplace free trial attracted a lot of interest from a range of companies and helped to kick-start its traction in the collaboration market, a move to a revenue model was inevitable, with most organizations accepting they have to pay for enterprise-grade security, governance and full control.
RaΓΊl CastaΓ±Γ³n-MartΓnez, senior analyst at 451 Research, said it's not unusual to see data management concerns among large organizations.
"This highlights that β¦ SaaS services like Workplace might not be a good fit for every company; this is further reinforced by the fact that CERN stated they are relying on services like Mattermost, which does provide companies with full control of their data.
"It is also notable that several members publicly stated that they did not trust Facebook in terms of data privacy," he said. "While Facebook has stated that its enterprise solution functions as a separate entity to their consumer services, they could benefit from expanding their efforts to address these concerns."
This story, "CERN bails on Facebook's Workplace, cites cost" was originally published by
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Books, Events, Uncategorized
V1 Editor, Fellow Elite Ogled at 'Donald'
Posted by Nick Curley Stephen Elliott and Eric Martin dropped a megaton truth bomb yesterday with the release of Donald, their fictional imagining of Donald Rumsfeld undergoing GITMO-style hospitality. It's hot soup delivered by a ramshackle imprint of meth-addled high schoolers called McSweeney's, and the industry's best and brightest partied down last night in celebration of this lil' opus. Photographed in style among them? One Juliet Linderman! Vol. 1 Brooklyn editor extraordinaire, resident estrogen supplier, and scribe of our #1 hit single Dick Watching. [β¦]
Conservative Blogger Confuses Antiwar Activists With Book Nerds
"Antiwar activists, remember? These people have issues, subscriptions, and complete print runs that have been specially bound. All self-published, of course: they're kind of market failures that walk, talk, and theoretically think." Via RedState blogger Moe Lane, discussing Stephen Elliott and Eric Martin's new book, Donald.
Cure Stephen Elliott's Weeps
We're conducting an independent survey to help cure Stephen Elliott's blues. How many Vol. 1 readers have read "The Adderall Diaries"? Raise your hand.
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Books, Film
Happy Stephen Elliott Day
It's a good day to be Stephen Elliott. According to the Observer, Perez Hilton (!?), and Elliott's Twitter, James Franco has optioned The Adderall Diaries. Not only that, but yesterday the book came out in paperback.
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Over that The Rumpus, a guy named Jason (great name) who is supposedly a Borders manager, explains how he plans to help his store sell even less books.
Pondering Underrated Writers
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The Black and White Literature of Chicago
Criminal Class Review Vol. 3 is 175 pages of stories and poetry by familiar names like Stephen Elliott, Jim Goad, and a host of people who've appeared in numerous lit. journals and mags that I like. It's sparse black & white layout makes the claim that it's celebrating "the art of noir fiction" seem totally valid. Is it too late to submit this to The Faster Times literary magazine guide?
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Indian Cricket Legend Sachin Tendulkar retires from one-day internationals
India batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has reportedly announced his retirement from one-day internationals, although he still plans to play Test matches.
"I have decided to retire from the one-day format of the game,'' said Tendulkar, who will also continue to play in the Indian Premier League for Mumbai Indians.
"I feel blessed to have fulfilled the dream of being part of a World Cup-winning Indian team. The preparatory process to defend the World Cup in 2015 should begin early and in right earnest.
"I would like to wish the team all the very best for the future. I am eternally grateful to all my well-wishers for their unconditional support and love over the years.''
Tendulkar, the most-capped player in one-day internationals with 463 games and also the batsman with most runs (18,426) and centuries (49), made the announcement as national selectors were in the process of announcing the team for a limited-overs home series against Pakistan.
Former chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth said he was shocked at the timing.
"Sachin's announcement has come as a big surprise,'' said Srikkanth.
"I thought he would play in the one-day series against Pakistan.''
Tendulkar had been selective in playing one-day games over the past two years but completed an unprecedented 100 international centuries earlier this year during the Asia Cup in Bangladesh.
The Mumbai batsman had the knack of being among the runs in big international tournaments like the World Cup and his retirement brings an end to a golden generation of cricketers in the one-day format that included former captain Sourav Ganguly, Dravid and Anil Kumble.
Tendulkar scored the maximum runs in two editions of the World Cup - 673 to ensure India made the final in 2003 and 523 when India made the semi-finals in 1996. In 2011, he was the second top run-scorer (482) behind Sri Lanka's Tillekaratne Dilshan (500) but winning the tournament more than made up.
His absence had also been felt in the 1999 World Cup when India failed to advance from the Super Eights, losing a crucial game to Zimbabwe when Tendulkar had to go home due to his father's death. He returned to England and made a century against Kenya but India could not reach the knockouts.
"Winning the World Cup (in 2011) is the proudest moment of my life ... I couldn't control my tears of joy,'' Tendulkar said after attaining a long-time dream at his home ground Wankhede Stadium on April 2 last year.
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Pastor Todd's Most Recent Sermons
"Anointed to Bring Good News", Luke 4:14-21, January 23, 2022
"Word, Flesh, and Light", John 1:1-18, January 2, 2022
"Connecting the Dots", Luke 2:41-52, December 26, 2021
"Christmas Eve Homily", Luke 2:1-20, December 24, 2021
"Prepare the Way of the Lord", Luke 3:1-6, December 5, 2021
"Stand Up and Raise Your Heads", Luke 21:25-36, November 28, 2021(First Sunday of Advent)
"Pilate's Five Questions", John 18:33-38, November 21, 2021 (Christ the King)
"Not One Stone", Mark 13:1-10, November 14, 2021
"Jesus Knows Better", John 11:32-44, November 7, 2021
"The Second Reformation", Mark 12:28-34, October 31, 2021
"Crying Out Loud", Mark 10:46-52, October 24, 2021
"You Want Some of This?", Mark 10:35-45, October 17, 2021
"Getting to 'Follow Me'", Mark 10:17-31, October 10, 2021
"Divorce", Mark 10:2-16, October 3, 2021
"Non Sequitur", Mark 9:38-50, September 26, 2021
"Greatness on Jesus' Terms", Mark 9:30-37, September 19, 2021
"From Mourning to Joy", Two Meditations on Pandemic and Faith, Psalm 116:1-9 and Mark 8:27-38
"Faith Finds Access", Mark 7:24-37, September 5, 2021
"From Within", Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23, August 29, 2021
"We Sing Together", John 6:51-58, Ephesians 5:15-20, August 22, 2022
"Many Turned Back", John 6:56-69, August 15, 2021
"Getting Personal", John 6:35, 41-51, August 8, 2021
"Christ Alone", John 6:24-35, August 1, 2021
"More Than Sufficient", John 6:1-21, July 25, 2021
"Driven By Desperation", Mark 6:30-34, 53-56, July 18, 2021
"Searching for Good News", Mark 6:14-29, July 11, 2021
"Soon I Will Be Done", Mark 5:21-43, June 27, 2021
"Get In the Boat", Mark 4:35-41, June 20, 2021
"Kingdom Parables", Mark 4:26-34, June 13, 2021
"The Only Unforgivable Sin", Mark 3:20-35, June 6, 2021
"Born of Water and Spirit", John 3:1-17, May 30, 2021
"The Holy Spirit: Proving the World Wrong", John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15, Pentecost! May 23, 2021
"Prayer for Unity: Prayer for Protection", John 17:6-19, May 16, 2021
"Chosen Friend", John 15:9-17, May 9, 2021
"I Am the True Vine", John 15:1-8, May 2, 2021
"The Good Shepherd", John 10:11-18, April 25, 2021
"Simply Be Peace", Luke 24:36b-48, April 18, 2021
"Recognition", John 20:19-31, April 11, 2021
"From Sorrow to Joy!", John 20:1-18, EASTER! April 4, 2021
"Five Good Friday Meditations", John 18:1-19:42, April 2, 2021
"Love One Another", John 13:1-17, 31b-35, Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2021
"For This Reason I Have Come", John 12:20-33, March 21, 2021
"The End of Condemnation", John 3:14-21 and Numbers 21:4-9, March 14, 2021
"Where God Abides", John 2:13-22, March 7, 2021
"Caesarea Philippi", Mark 8:27-38, February 28, 2021
"With Wild Beasts", Mark 1:9-15, February 21, 2021
"Approaching Inevitable Change", Mark 9:2-9, Transfiguration of the Lord, February 14, 2021
"Living Like Jesus", Mark 1:29-39, February 7, 2021
"Rescued from Impossible Bondage", Mark 1:21-28, January 31, 2021
"The Price of Discipleship", Mark 1:14-20, January 24, 2021
"Come and See", John 1:43-51, January 17, 2021
"Stand Up, Step Up", The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr keynote address, January 14, 2021
"The Word", John 1:1-18, January 3, 2021
"Seeing Salvation", Luke 2:21-40, December 27, 2020
"Draw Deep the Breath of Christmas", Luke 1:5-2:20, December 24, 2020
"That All Might Believe", Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 and John 1:6-8, 19-28, December 13, 2020
"Out of Wilderness: God is Further Revealed", Isaiah 40:1-11 and Mark 1:1-8, December 6, 2020
"Potter and Clay", Isaiah 64:1-9 and Mark 13:24-37, November 29, 2020
"Faith v Works", Matthew 25:31-46, November 22, 2020
"Joy or Weeping?", Matthew 25:14-30, November 15, 2020
"Staying Awake", Matthew 25:1-13, November 8, 2020
"Blessed are the Saints", Matthew 5:1-12 and Revelation 7:9-17, November 1, 2020
"Hear O Israel", Matthew 22:34-46, October 25, 2020
"Conflicting Loyalties", Matthew 22:15-22, October 18, 2020
"Many Called, Few Chosen", Matthew 22:1-14, October 11, 2020
"Producing Fruits of the Kingdom", Matthew 21:33-46, October 4, 2020
"High Stakes Showdown", Matthew 21:23-32, September 27, 2020
"What's in a Name?", Matthew 20:1-16, September 20, 2020
"Over the Top!", Matthew 18:21-35, September 13, 2020
"More Than Mere Recipe", Matthew 18:15-20, September 6, 2020
"Our Values", Romans 12:9-21, August 30, 2020
"#ChurchStrong", Matthew 16: 13-20, August 23, 2020
"Words Matter", Matthew 15:10-20, 21-28, August 16, 2020
"Peter and the Sea", Matthew 14:22-33, August 9, 2020
"Five Loaves | Two Fish", Matthew 14:13-21, August 2, 2020
"Parables of the Kingdom", Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52, July 26, 2020
"God's Prerogative", Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, July 19, 2020
"The Illusion of Independence", Matthew 10:40-42, June 28, 2020
"Do Not Fear", Matthew 10:24-39, June 21, 2020
"The Harvest is Plentiful - Volunteers are Few", Matthew 9:35-10:23, June 14, 2020
"C, E, and G" Trinity Sunday, June 7, 2020
"Moving Forward" Pentecost! May 31, 2020
"Honor, Proclaim, Pronounce, and Roll On the Power!", Luke 24:44-53, May 24, 2020
"Love and Responsibility", John 14:15-21, May 17, 2020
"Whatever You Ask", John 14:1-14, May 10, 2020
"Life Abundant", John 10:1-10, May 3, 2020
"Blind Spots", Luke 24:13-35, April 26, 2020
"Finding Peace in the Storm", John 20:19-31, April 19, 2020
"I Have Seen the Lord!", John 20:1-18, Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020
Good Friday Reflection, John 18-19, April 10, 2020
Maundy Thursday Homily, John 13:1-17, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, John 13:31-35, April 9, 2020
6 Lenten Reflections on Holy Communion, in the Middle of Pandemic
"Hosanna!" Zechariah 9:9-10, Matthew 21:1-11, 26:1-5, Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020
"God's Been Here Before" Ezekiel 37:1-14 and John 11:1-45, March 29, 2020
"Ten Simple Things" John 9:1-41, March 22, 2020
"A Woman's Witness" John 4:4-42, March 15, 2020
"Nicodemus" John 3:1-17, March 8, 2020
"Who Provides?" Matthew 4:1-11, March 1, 2020
"A Transcendent Breakthrough" Matthew 17:1-9, February 23, 2020
"Consider the Stakes Raised" Matthew 5:21-37, February 16, 2020
"Salt and Light" Isaiah 58:3-9a and Matthew 5:13-20, February 9, 2020
"Blessed" Matthew 5:1-12, February 2, 2020
"Come and See" John 1:29-42, January 19, 2020
"Renewal" Isaiah 42:1-9 and Matthew 3:13-17, Baptism of the Lord, January 12, 2020
"When Time Stands Still" John 1:1-18, January 5, 2020
Christmas Eve Homily Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 2:1-20
"What Did You Expect?" Matthew 11:2-11, December 15, 2019
"Preparing a Way" Romans 15:4-13 and Matthew 3:1-12, December 8, 2019
"History, Mystery, Majesty" Matthew 24:36-44, December 1, 2019
"This is My King!" Luke 23:33-43, November 24, 2019
"An Opportunity to Testify" Luke 21:5-19, November 17, 2019
"God of the Living" Luke 20:27-40, November 10, 2019
"Great is Your Reward" Luke 6:20-31, November 3, 2019
"The Upside Down World of Jesus" Luke 18:9-14, October 27, 2019
"Lessons from People Who Wear You Out" Luke 18:1-8, October 20, 2019
"Unlikely Gratitude" Luke 17:11-19, October 13, 2019
"The Size of a Mustard Seed" Luke 17:5-10, October 6, 2019
"Lazarus and the Rich Man" Luke 16:19-31, September 29, 2019
"Jesus and Two Rascals" Luke 16:1-13, September 22, 2019
"Sheer Joy!" Luke 15:1-10, September 15, 2019
"Counting the Costs" Luke 14:25-33, September 8, 2019
"An Invitation to the Table" Luke 14:1, 7-14, September 1, 2019
"Set Free" Luke 13:10-17, August 25, 2019
"Bringing Division? Oh, My!" Luke 12:49-56, August 18, 2019
"Our Father's Good Pleasure" Luke 12:32-40, August 11, 2019
"Foolish Abundance" Luke 12:13-21, August 4, 2019
"Praying with Persistence" Luke 11:1-13, July 28, 2019
"Only One Thing" Luke 10:38-42, July 21, 2019
"Love God, Love Neighbor" Luke 10:25-37, July 14, 2019
"The Harvest is Plentiful, but the Laborers are Few" Luke 10:1-11, 16-20, July 7, 2019
8:30AM and 10:45AM
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Upper New York Conference Requirements: https://www.unyumc.org/about/church-covid-19-guidelines
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Kansas Swimming and Diving Adds Seven
Women's Swimming and Diving Signees
Name Hometown
Hannah Angell Overland Park, Kan.
Graylyn Jones Marietta, Ga.
Lindsay Manning Spring, Texas
Allison Merecka Cypress, Texas
Leah Pfitzer Kingwood, Texas
Gretchen Pocisk Dayton, Ohio
Sammie Schurig Topeka, Kan.
LAWRENCE, Kan. β Kansas swimming and diving has signed seven student athletes including Olympic Trials qualifier and Topeka, Kan. native, Sammie Schurig, to National Letters of Intent during the fall signing period.
Schurig joins Hannah Angell, Lindsay Manning, Allison Merecka, Leah Pfitzer, Gretchen Pocisk and Graylyn Jones as student-athletes deciding to further their education and athletic careers at Kansas. The 2013 class spans four states, including two swimmers from Kansas, three from Texas, one from Ohio and a diver from Georgia.
"We are thrilled these seven athletes will be joining us next fall," Kansas head coach Clark Campbell said. "Each has the capability to help us immediately and make us a better team. Coach (Jen) Fox and coach (Eric) Elliott worked hard on this class for some time and we look forward to their arrival next season."
Schurig swam at Washburn Rural High School and for the Topeka Swim Association club team under head coach Barry Neville. She qualified for the 2012 Olympic Trials, where she swam with three current Jayhawks, with a time of 2:19.51 in the 200-yard backstroke at the USA Swimming Sectionals held in Jenks, Okla., last March. In addition to her specialty in the backstroke, Schurig will also compete in the individual medley and middle distance freestyle events at KU.
"We've had our eye on Sammie for a while," Campbell said. "Of our signing class, Sammie was the lone 2012 Olympic Trial qualifier. Her local ties will create excitement in the swimming community as she develops her talents as a Jayhawk."
Angell also has local ties; the Overland Park, Kan., native joins the Jayhawks as the other commitment from the state of Kansas for the 2013 signing class. Angell attended Blue Valley Southwest High School and swam for the Kansas City Blazers club team under head coach Gardner Howland. Angell was a Junior National qualifier and narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympic Trials last summer.
"Hannah is an athlete that we've watched for a while as one of the top Kansas swimmers in the class of 2013," Campbell said. "She has improved a lot and we're excited to start working with her, as she has big goals and will make an immediate impact."
Manning joins the Jayhawks from Spring, Texas where she attended Oak Ridge High School and swam for the Magnolia Aquatic Club under head coach Scott MacFarland. She earned the distinction of Junior National Qualifier in several distance freestyle events, which is where Campbell sees her helping next year's team the most.
"Lindsay will play a major role for us in the distance group," Campbell said. "She is fortunate working with Coach MacFarland, as he has a lot of experience developing athletes in her area of expertise. As one of the top distance swimmers in Texas, she will come in and help us as soon as she arrives in Lawrence."
Merecka is from Cypress, Texas where she attended Cypress Woods High School and swam for the Cypress Fairbanks Swim Club (FLEET) under head coach Clayton Cagle and swam with current Jayhawks junior Morgan Sharp and freshman Chelsie Miller. Like Manning, Campbell hopes that Merecka will impact the Jayhawks distance freestyle events next year.
"Allison is our third athlete from the FLEET program in the last three years," Campbell said. "She is a lot like Morgan (Sharp) and will help us in the middle-distance freestyle events. Our hope is that she develops into a Big 12-level miler as well."
Rounding out the Texas portion of the class, Pfitzer comes to Lawrence from Kingwood, Texas where she attended Kingwood High School and swam for Blue Tide Aquatics under head coach Charlie Fry. Pfitzer is also a Junior National Qualifier and will help the Jayhawks in the butterfly and sprint freestyle events.
"Leah rounds out our contingent from Houston," Campbell said. "Leah will come in and help right away in the sprint free and fly events. We believe she will benefit from our strength program and develop into a high level sprinter."
Pocisk has KU ties through her grandfather, Riley Donald, who played basketball at KU under legendary coach Dr. Phog Allen from 1950-51. Pocisk attended Oakwood High School in Dayton, Ohio and swam for the Dayton Raiders club team under head coach Kevin Weldon. When Pocisk joins the Jayhawks, she will be looked upon to contribute in the breaststroke, the individual medley and the sprint freestyle.
"Gretchen continues her family's tradition within Kansas Athletics," Campbell said. "She will help right away in her specialty, which is breaststroke. We are also looking forward to developing her sprint freestyle capabilities as well."
Jones joins the Jayhawks as the lone diving recruit for the 2013 class. Jones attended Wheeler High School in Marietta, Ga., and dove for the Metro Atlanta Divers club team under head coach Bill Humber. Jones picked up two top-15 finishes at the 2012 AAU Diving National Championships, finishing seventh in the one-meter (313.5) and 12th in the three-meter (307.7) event.
"I think she will be very good," diving coach Eric Elliott said. "She is one of those 'diamond in the rough' types that come under the radar. She is an extremely hard worker and will do whatever you ask her to do and that is big. You want kids that want to work and want to improve."
The Jayhawks are currently training for their spring 2013 schedule, which begins on Saturday, Jan. 12, when they travel to Los Angeles, Calif., for a double dual against San Diego State and host UCLA at the Spieker Aquatics Center. KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.
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Category Archives: prisons
While eyes are on Russia, Sessions dramatically reshapes the Justice Department
The Washington Post reports: For more than five hours, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sat in a hearing room on Capitol Hill this month, fending off inquiries on Washington's two favorite topics: President Trump and Russia.
But legislators spent little time asking Sessions about the dramatic and controversial changes in policy he has made since taking over the top law enforcement job in the United States nine months ago.
From his crackdown on illegal immigration to his reversal of Obama administration policies on criminal justice and policing, Sessions is methodically reshaping the Justice Department to reflect his nationalist ideology and hard-line views β moves drawing comparatively less public scrutiny than the ongoing investigations into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin.
Sessions has implemented a new charging and sentencing policy that calls for prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible, even if that might mean minority defendants face stiff, mandatory minimum penalties. He has defended the president's travel ban and tried to strip funding from cities with policies he considers too friendly toward undocumented immigrants.
Sessions has even adjusted the department's legal stances in cases involving voting rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in a way that advocates warn might disenfranchise poor minorities and give certain religious people a license to discriminate.
Supporters and critics say the attorney general has been among the most effective of the Cabinet secretaries β implementing Trump's conservative policy agenda even as the president publicly and privately toys with firing him over his decision to recuse himself from the Russia case. [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in Department of Justice, Donald Trump, law enforcement, News, prisons on November 26, 2017 by News Sources.
The disturbing lessons of Trump's shameful Arpaio pardon
Scott Lemieux writes: During his very loosely hinged extemporaneous remarks in Phoenix on Tuesday, President Trump strongly hinted that he would pardon the infamous former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. On Friday evening, with a frightening hurricane descending on Texas, Trump made it official. The decision to issue his first pardon to a public official who made his reputation, such as it is, through race-baiting and a contempt for both legal restraints and basic human decency tells us a lot about Trump β and none of it is good.
It is highly relevant that Trump and Arpaio first became allies while Trump was rising to prominence within the Republican Party by pushing the racist conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. The Arizona sheriff actually launched a farcical investigation into Obama's birth certificate, wasting taxpayer money to build his cred with his resentful white supporters. That Arpaio and Trump would become mutual admirers was inevitable.
It should go without saying that Arpaio is a terrible candidate for a pardon. If you have any doubts, read this chilling 2009 profile of Arpaio by William Finnegan in The New Yorker. Arpaio's first claim to local fame was to make the conditions of imprisonment for inmates under his jurisdiction as inhumane as possible β housing thousands of people in tents next to cites like dumps and waste disposal plants in the brutal Arizona heat. He fed inmates for 30 cents a meal, two meals a day, and then made the Food Network one of three channels available to prisoners. He put many people who were being held for trial and had not been convicted of any crime to work on chain gangs. Under his watch, guards were so consistently cruel to inmates that the county had amassed more than $40 million in civil damages from lawsuits. And he also engaged in egregious racial profiling when detaining people suspected of being illegal immigrants.
Arpaio's focus on abusing prisoners and arbitrarily detaining people of Latin American descent also made his "tough on crime" reputation grossly misleading. The resources wasted on his cruel publicity stunts took money away from law enforcement, slowing response times and leading to (among other problems) hundreds of botched or perfunctory sex crimes investigations. He did, however, find the time to file frivolous charges against two journalists who were looking into his suspicious property dealings, leading to another huge legal settlement for Maricopa County's taxpayers to pay off. [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in 2016 President Election, Analysis, Donald Trump, immigration, law, law enforcement, News, prisons, racism on August 26, 2017 by News Sources.
The incarceration industry was having a tough time. Then Trump got elected
James Surowiecki writes: Going into Election Day, few industries seemed in worse shape than America's private prisons. Prison populations, which had been rising for decades, were falling. In 2014, Corrections Corporation of America, the biggest private-prison company in the U.S., lost its contract to run Idaho's largest prison, after lawsuits relating to understaffing and violence that had earned the place the nickname Gladiator School. There were press exposΓ©s of shocking conditions in the industry and signs of a policy shift toward it. In April, Hillary Clinton said, "We should end private prisons." In August, the Justice Department said that private federal prisons were less safe and less secure than government-run ones. The same month, the department announced that it would phase out the use of private prisons at the federal level. Although most of the private-prison industry operates on the state level (immigrant-detention centers are its other big business), the news sent C.C.A.'s stock down by thirty-five per cent.
Donald Trump's victory changed all that: within days, C.C.A.'s stock had jumped forty-seven per cent. His faith in privatization is no secret, and prison companies aren't the only ones rubbing their hands. The stock price of for-profit schools has also rocketed. Still, the outlook for private prisons is particularly rosy, because many Trump policies work to their benefit. The Justice Department's plan to phase out private prisons will likely be scrapped, and a growing bipartisan movement for prison and sentencing reform is about to run up against a President who campaigned as a defender of "law and order." Above all, Trump's hard-line position on immigration seems certain to fill detention centers, one of the biggest money spinners for private-prison operators. [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in Analysis, Donald Trump, prisons on November 28, 2016 by News Sources.
Private prison companies ready to cash in on throwing out immigrants
The Daily Beast reports: When the children were released from the privately run immigration detention facility in Karnes City, Texas, they were immediately taken to the emergency room with pneumonia.
Over the past few months, several children who fled from violence in South and Central America with their mothers have been hospitalized after leaving the facility run by GEO Group, a private prison company that saw its stocks jump following Election Day. The children's health problems were the result of poor medical care inside what is essentially a prison for mothers and their children, according to Amy Fischer of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.
With Donald Trump now president-elect, the Karnes City facility and a dozen more like it across the country are preparing to fill even more beds with immigrants and refugees. GEO Group and another private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America, are also preparing for more large, lucrative contracts with the federal government to run the detention centers.
Both companies saw their stock prices soar following Trump's historic and shocking win. [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in Analysis, immigration, prisons, Trump administration on November 18, 2016 by News Sources.
Rebecca Gordon: Arresting our way to 'justice'
The figures boggle the mind. Approximately 11 million Americans cycle through our jails and prisons each year (including a vast "pre-trial population" of those arrested and not convicted and those who simply can't make bail). At any moment, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, there are more than 2.3 million people in our "1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 942 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,283 local jails, and 79 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, and prisons in the U.S. territories." In some parts of the country, there are more people in jail than at college.
If you want a partial explanation for this, keep in mind that there are cities in this country that register more arrests for minor infractions each year than inhabitants. Take Ferguson, Missouri, now mainly known as the home of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager shot and killed in 2014 by a town policeman. The Harvard Law Review reported that, in 2013, Ferguson had a population of 22,000. That same year "its municipal court issued 32,975 arrest warrants for nonviolent offenses," or almost one-and-a-half arrests per inhabitant.
And then there are the conditions in which all those recordβbreaking numbers of people live in our jails and prisons. At any given time, 80,000 to 100,000 inmates in state and federal prisons are held in "restrictive housing" (aka solitary confinement). And those numbers don't even include county jails, deportation centers, and juvenile justice institutions. Rikers Island, New York City's infamous jail complex in its East River, has 990 solitary cells. And keep in mind that solitary confinement β being stuck in a six-by-nine or eight-by-10-foot cell for 23 or 24 hours a day β is widely recognized as a form of psychosis-inducing torture.
And that, of course, is just to begin to explore America's vast and ever-expanding prison universe. The fact is that it's hard to fathom even the basics of the American urge to lock people away in vast numbers, which is why today TomDispatch regular Rebecca Gordon focuses instead on what it might mean for justice in this country if we started to consider alternatives to prison. Tom Engelhardt
There oughta be a lawβ¦
Should prison really be the American way?
By Rebecca Gordon
You've heard of distracted driving? It causes quite a few auto accidents and it's illegal in a majority of states.
Well, this year, a brave New Jersey state senator, a Democrat, took on the pernicious problem of distracted walking. Faced with the fact that some people can't tear themselves away from their smartphones long enough to get across a street in safety, Pamela Lampitt of Camden, New Jersey, proposed a law making it a crime to cross a street while texting. Violators would face a fine, and repeat violators up to 15 days in jail. Similar measures, says the Washington Post, have been proposed (though not passed) in Arkansas, Nevada, and New York. This May, a bill on the subject made it out of committee in Hawaii.
That's right. In several states around the country, one response to people being struck by cars in intersections is to consider preemptively sending some of those prospective accident victims to jail. This would be funny, if it weren't emblematic of something larger. We are living in a country where the solution to just about any social problem is to create a law against it, and then punish those who break it.
This entry was posted in prisons, TomDispatch, United States on September 26, 2016 by TomDispatch.
The U.S. is the largest jailer of children in the world
Liz Ryan writes: The mass incarceration epidemic in the US has been getting much-deserved attention in recent years. What's less well known is that some of the worst atrocities in the prison system are being committed against childrenβthe US is the largest jailer of children in the world. With the looming presidential election putting prison reform in the spotlight, now is the time to reverse decades of bad policies.
Putting children in prison has a devastating impact on their families and communities, as well as on young people themselves. There are many examples of these atrocities in action. The Lincoln Hills youth facility in Irma, Wisconsin, is one of the largest youth prisons in the US. In the past 18 months, the facility has been the subject of federal and state investigations stemming from allegations of physical and sexual abuse, as well as guards using intimidation tactics to discourage youth from reporting incidents of pepper spray use, strangulation, and suffocation. In one incident, a boy's toes were amputated after a staff member slammed a heavy door on his foot.
For the past several years, the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, Connecticut's largest youth prison, has been under multiple investigations by the Office of the Child Advocate for excessive use of isolation, overuse of restraints, inadequate suicide prevention, lack of appropriate staff support and training, inadequate and harmful crisis management, and scant available information on quality, public safety outcomes, and oversight. Last year, the Child Advocate's office released video of staff members conducting face-down restraints on young people at the training schoolβwhich are illegal in Connecticut schools and treatment centers. [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in Analysis, human rights, prisons, United States on September 1, 2016 by News Sources.
The secret U.S. prisons you've never heard of before
This entry was posted in Analysis, human rights, prisons, United States, US government on August 31, 2016 by News Sources.
Hate preachers to be held in separate prison units in England and Wales to curb radicalisation
The Guardian reports: Influential hate preachers will be held in separate prison units after an official inquiry found inmates were acting as "self-styled emirs" behind bars.
A government-ordered review into radicalisation in jails has concluded that some charismatic prisoners exerted a "radicalising influence" over fellow Muslims. It also claimed that some have attempted to engineer segregation, encouraged aggressive conversions to Islam, and been involved in the intimidation of prison imams.
The claims have emerged in a review led by former prison governor Ian Acheson and commissioned last year by then justice secretary Michael Gove. Such concerns in Whitehall were disclosed by the Guardian in February.
Its conclusions will overturn 50 years of dispersing the most dangerous prisoners across the prisons system. Critics have previously warned that such a move could also provide a focal point for public protests and claims of a "British Guantanamo". [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in ISIS, Islamic extremism, prisons, United Kingdom on August 22, 2016 by News Sources.
How safe is it to lock up Anjem Choudary in prison with Muslims he could radicalise?
Andrew Neilson writes: The conviction of the cleric Anjem Choudary for inviting support for the Islamic State (Isil) brings into sharp focus a longstanding concern about prisons and radicalisation. The spectre is that jailed Islamist extremists β or indeed any other kind of political extremist β find that there is no better recruiting ground for their cause than prisons themselves.
We know, for example, that a number of extremists behind recent terror attacks in France associated with Isil had spent time in the French prison system and had been radicalised there. Now a man described as the "most dangerous man in Britain", who counter-terrorism chiefs have spent the best part of two decades pursuing on charges of radicalisation, will most likely be sent to prison for many years. What might he achieve in the potentially fertile recruiting ground of British prisons?
As it happens, and possibly with the looming conviction of Choudary in mind, the former Secretary of State for Justice Michael Gove commissioned a review into Islamist extremists in prison. That review is yet to be published, and with the appointment of Elizabeth Truss to the Ministry of Justice its future is currently rather uncertain. We do know, however, that the review found that such extremism is a growing problem within prisons (although we do not know what data the review relied upon to reach this conclusion). The review also found the National Offender Management Service, which oversees the prison system, lacked a coherent strategy to deal with the problem. Some 69 recommendations were made for change. [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in Analysis, Islamic extremism, prisons on August 17, 2016 by News Sources.
'Abu Ghraib'-style images of children in detention in Australia trigger public inquiry
The Guardian reports: Australia's prime minister has launched a public inquiry following the broadcast of footage of children in detention being abused, hooded and bound in a manner likened to Abu Ghraib and GuantΓ‘namo Bay.
Malcolm Turnbull announced a royal commission hours after the national broadcaster aired shocking footage showing children in detention at the Don Dale facility outside Darwin in the Northern Territory.
Footage aired on the ABC's Four Corners program on Monday showed one youth being stripped and physically held down by guards.
In another scene that the program compared with images from GuantΓ‘namo Bay or the Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad, 17-year-old Dylan Voller was shown hooded and tied in a restraint chair for two hours. [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in Australia, News, prisons, torture on July 26, 2016 by News Sources.
How to stop prisons from turning criminals into terrorists
Cullen Thomas writes: Each time I learn of another terrorist who spent time in prison, I'm taken back to my own prison time. In 1994, I was caught smuggling hashish into South Korea and spent three and a half years imprisoned there. Since then I've struggled to understand the nature of confinement and its effects on the individual.
It's a striking and clear pattern that many of the most notorious terrorists of the modern era spent time in prison. Salah Abdeslam, the suspect behind the Paris and Brussels terror attacks, was imprisoned in Belgium with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who lead the Friday the 13th attacks in Paris last November.
ChΓ©rif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly, responsible for the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket attacks in Paris earlier in 2015, were imprisoned in France's massive Fleury-MΓ©rogis, Europe's largest prison.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, before he became right-hand man to Osama bin Laden, was radicalised in Egyptian prisons. As Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (2006), put it, Zawahiri 'entered prison a surgeon. He came out of it a butcher.' [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in Al Qaeda, Analysis, ISIS, prisons, terrorism on May 5, 2016 by News Sources.
Solitary confinement is 'no touch' torture, and it must be abolished
Chelsea E Manning writes: Shortly after arriving at a makeshift military jail, at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, in May 2010, I was placed into the black hole of solitary confinement for the first time. Within two weeks, I was contemplating suicide.
After a month on suicide watch, I was transferred back to US, to a tiny 6 x 8ft (roughly 2 x 2.5 meter) cell in a place that will haunt me for the rest of my life: the US Marine Corps Brig in Quantico, Virginia. I was held there for roughly nine months as a "prevention of injury" prisoner, a designation the Marine Corps and the Navy used to place me in highly restrictive solitary conditions without a psychiatrist's approval.
For 17 hours a day, I sat directly in front of at least two Marine Corps guards seated behind a one-way mirror. I was not allowed to lay down. I was not allowed to lean my back against the cell wall. I was not allowed to exercise. Sometimes, to keep from going crazy, I would stand up, walk around, or dance, as "dancing" was not considered exercise by the Marine Corps.
To pass the time, I counted the hundreds of holes between the steel bars in a grid pattern at the front of my empty cell. My eyes traced the gaps between the bricks on the wall. I looked at the rough patterns and stains on the concrete floor β including one that looked like a caricature grey alien, with large black eyes and no mouth, that was popular in the 1990s. I could hear the "drip drop drip" of a leaky pipe somewhere down the hall. I listened to the faint buzz of the fluorescent lights.
For brief periods, every other day or so, I was escorted by a team of at least three guards to an empty basketball court-sized area. There, I was shackled and walked around in circles or figure-eights for 20 minutes. I was not allowed to stand still, otherwise they would take me back to my cell. [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in Analysis, Defense Department, human rights, Obama administration, prisons, torture on May 3, 2016 by News Sources.
Little evidence to show that prisons have become 'universities of terror'
By Sarah Marsden, Lancaster University
From "shoebomber" Richard Reid, to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the attacks in Paris, there seem to be increasing examples of people becoming "radicalised" in jails. So how concerned should we be about the role of prisons in producing violent extremists?
Contrary to those who argue that jails are at risk of becoming "universities of terror" there is actually relatively little systematic evidence of a link between prison and involvement in terrorism.
That is not to say that apparently "radical" groups have not developed in prisons, or that there haven't been efforts to recruit people to militant Islamism in UK jails. Jamaal Uddin, who was convicted for assault and enforcing a "Sharia-controlled zone" in east London, boasted of his ability to "radicalise" people in the face of apparently powerless authorities. In the worst cases, such as in Iraq where several American-run detention facilities became pivotal in the development of what was to become Islamic State, prisons have been intimately implicated in terrorism.
This entry was posted in Analysis, ISIS, prisons on November 23, 2015 by News Sources.
The Kingdom of Silence: Literature from Tadmor prison
Linah Alsaafin reports: "When death is a daily occurrence, lurking in torture, random beatings, eye-gouging, broken limbs and crushed fingersβ¦ [When] death stares you in the face and is only avoided by sheer chanceβ¦wouldn't you welcome the merciful release of a bullet?"
This was taken from a report smuggled out in 1999 to Amnesty International by a group of former Syrian prisoners who had spent years in the infamous Tadmor (Arabic for Palmyra) prison, where unimaginable acts of torture took place against both dissidents and criminals alike.
Tadmor prison fell to the Islamic State group as it captured the city of Palmyra from government forces earlier this week, but the significance of its seizure has been overshadowed by widespread fears that IS could raze the UNESCO World Heritage site just south of the modern town. In fact the capture of the prison could be a much more important development, according to analysts and former inmates of the jail.
The prison, which used to be a French military barracks, is located in the desert in eastern province of Homs and is around 200 kilometres away from the capital Damascus. As previously reported by Middle East Eye, the massacre of hundreds of prisoners in 1980 after a foiled assassination attempt on then president Hafez al-Assad exacerbated the prison's symbolic status of repression.
Human rights reports were not the only medium to document what took place in what has been described as one of the worst prisons in the world.
The vicious reality of Tadmor, where the blood of those massacred in 1980 was not cleaned up resulting in the mass spread of gangrene amongst the rest of the inmates, created literary works written by survivors and former inmates that narrated their daily lives in stark detail. Whips were given human names, friendships were struck between prisoners and rats and cockroaches, and torture sessions were opportunities to experiment with excruciating devices.
This entry was posted in Analysis, prisons, Syria, torture on May 24, 2015 by News Sources.
This man came from Rome to show Americans why the death penalty is wrong
Cosimo Bizzarri writes: Today, 105 countries around the world have abolished the death penalty by law and 43 more have approved public or de facto moratoria against it. Among them are Gabon and Mongolia, Cambodia and Russia, Albania and Kyrgyzstan. In Cuba, death row is currently empty.
Worldwide, only a few dozens countries still stick to the death penalty, opposing the 2007 UN resolution that called for a global moratorium on its use. Among them, the most prolific executioners are China, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States, which has killed more than 1,400 people since 1976. Currently, the US holds more than 3,000 people in death row, including recently-sentenced Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
"Some US citizens, especially in the South, grew up with the idea that retributive justice is the only justice," explains Italian journalist and human right activist Mario Marazziti to Quartz. "This opinion is sometimes based on a fundamentalist reading of the Old Testament."
Marazziti, 62, is the spokeperson for the Community of Sant'Egidio, a Rome-based Catholic movement for peacemaking and human rights, and a co-founder of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. In the 1990s, Marazziti collected 3 million signatures in 157 countries calling for a worldwide moratorium against the death penalty. [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in Analysis, Ethics, prisons, United States on May 24, 2015 by News Sources.
The cruel and unusual execution of Clayton Lockett
Jeffrey E. Stern reports: On the morning of his execution, Clayton Lockett hid under the covers.
Before a team of correctional officers came to get him at 5:06 a.m., he fashioned a noose out of his sheets. He pulled the blade out of a safety razor and made half-inch-long cuts on his arms. He swallowed a handful of pills that he'd been hoarding. And on April 29, 2014, when the team of officers knocked on the door of his cell in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, Clayton Lockett β a 38-year-old convicted murderer β pulled a blanket over his head and refused to get up.
The officers left and asked for permission to tase him. While they were gone, Lockett tried to jam the door. They came back, forced their way in, tased him, and dragged him out.
Eleven hours later, at about 5:20 p.m., after a medical examination, Xβrays, eight hours in a holding cell, and a shower, Lockett was brought by a five-member strap-down team into the death chamber. It was a small, clinical-looking room with white walls and a polished floor that reflected the lights overhead. A gurney stood in the center of the room; above it hung a microphone for Lockett's final words. [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in Analysis, crime, Ethics, prisons, United States on May 15, 2015 by News Sources.
The use of force against the mentally ill incarcerated in America
Human Rights Watch: Jail and prison staff throughout the United States have used unnecessary, excessive, and even malicious force against prisoners with mental disabilities, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today.
The 127-page report, "Callous and Cruel: Use of Force against Inmates with Mental Disabilities in US Jails and Prisons," details incidents in which correctional staff have deluged prisoners with painful chemical sprays, shocked them with powerful electric stun weapons, and strapped them for days in restraining chairs or beds. Staff have broken prisoners' jaws, noses, ribs; left them with lacerations requiring stitches, second-degree burns, deep bruises, and damaged internal organs. In some cases, the force used has led to their death.
"Jails and prisons can be dangerous, damaging, and even deadly places for men and women with mental health problems," said Jamie Fellner, US program senior adviser at Human Rights Watch and the author of the report. "Force is used against prisoners even when, because of their illness, they cannot understand or comply with staff orders."
This entry was posted in Analysis, News, prisons, United States on May 12, 2015 by News Sources.
Mass incarceration: The silence of the judges
Jed S. Rakoff writes: For too long, too many judges have been too quiet about an evil of which we are a part: the mass incarceration of people in the United States today. It is time that more of us spoke out.
The basic facts are not in dispute. More than 2.2 million people are currently incarcerated in US jails and prisons, a 500 percent increase over the past forty years. Although the United States accounts for about 5 percent of the world's population, it houses nearly 25 percent of the world's prison population. The per capita incarceration rate in the US is about one and a half times that of second-place Rwanda and third-place Russia, and more than six times the rate of neighboring Canada. Another 4.75 million Americans are subject to the state supervision imposed by probation or parole.
Most of the increase in imprisonment has been for nonviolent offenses, such as drug possession. And even though crime rates in the United States have declined consistently for twenty-four years, the number of incarcerated persons has continued to rise over most of that period, both because more people are being sent to prison for offenses that once were punished with other measures and because the sentences are longer. For example, even though the number of violent crimes has steadily decreased over the past two decades, the number of prisoners serving life sentences has steadily increased, so that one in nine persons in prison is now serving a life sentence.
And whom are we locking up? Mostly young men of color. Over 840,000, or nearly 40 percent, of the 2.2 million US prisoners are African-American males. Put another way, about one in nine African-American males between the ages of twenty and thirty-four is now in prison, and if current rates hold, one third of all black men will be imprisoned at some point in their lifetimes. Approximately 440,000, or 20 percent, of the 2.2 million US prisoners are Hispanic males. [Continue readingβ¦]
This entry was posted in Analysis, crime, Department of Justice, inequality, law, prisons, racism on May 5, 2015 by News Sources.
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Depression in Primary Care: Clinical Epidemiology & Clinical Decision Aalysis
January-June 2006 Volume 3(1)
Special Article
Haider Naqvi
A clinical decision analysis (CDA) is a mathematical tool designed to facilitate complex clinical decisions in which many variables should be considered simultaneously. CDA is a feasible tool for multifaceted problem of management of depression in primary health care. It provides a systematic frame work for organizing all data relevant to the decision on recognition and management of depression. Clinical epidemiological perspective is used for assessing the validity of screening instrument. A decision matrix based on reported probabilities is also constructed. Chance nodes and decisions pertinent to comorbidities, illness severity and treatment options for depression are also presented.
Key words: Clinical epidemiology, Clinical decision Analysis, Depressive disorder, primary care, Pakistan.
New millennium has witnessed an epidemiological transition with rise in burden of non-communicable diseases. According to 1993 World Bank Report Neuropsychiatric diseases (including self-inflicted injuries) contribute 8.1% to the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD). Subsequently this contribution to GBD has been reanalyzed and found to be 10.5%. This is projected to increase to 15% by the year 2020. The "behavior related problems" contribute an additional 34% to GBD1.
Prevalence of common mental disorders is estimated to be 30 % to 50% in primary care settings of Pakistan. Most patients with mental disorders initially consult their general physicians (GP)2. Although CMD have been diagnosed in third of primary care attendees in developing Asian countries, primary care staff is generally reported to recognize only 10 % of the cases. Studies have shown that a substantial proportion of mental disorders in primary care are inadequately managed by the GPs3. There are many facets to this complex problem. Some issues are related to the physicians while other to the patients. Lack of time, awareness and general stigma related to mental illness poses a major problem for GPs4.
Patients presenting in primary care are much different from psychiatric settings. Generally they have concurrent medical illness, which remains the major focus of management. Another common reason for this under recognition is somatisation, i.e., presentation of psychological distress as somatic symptoms, and poor awareness of this in health professionals5.
A clinical decision analysis (CDA) appears to be a feasible tool for this multifaceted problem. CDA is a mathematical tool designed to facilitate complex clinical decisions in which many variables should be considered simultaneously. It provides a systematic frame work for organizing all data relevant to the decision. It also assigns a numerical value to various courses of actions, simplifying comparison among them6.
This is particularly relevant in the context of Pakistan, a South East Asian developing country. With the dearth of mental health professionals, management of common mental disorders is increasingly integrated in to primary health care. Complex clinical decisions are either delegated to clinical nurses or lady health workers. With explicit decision analysis, there is greater likelihood of adequate management of common mental disorders (depression and anxiety) in primary health care. CDA will also serve to promote informed consent as patients input can be taken in to account in evaluating outcomes.
Clinical Decision Analysis and Management of Depressive Disorder in Primary Health Care:
Major depression is a disorder characterized by persistent and pervasive low mood, anhedonia, impaired concentration, disturbed sleep, appetite and morbid death wishes. The point prevalence of major depression from community based studies is estimated to be between 25-66 % for females and 10-44% for males7,8. The prevalence estimates for MDD in primary care settings of Pakistan is estimated to be approximately 30% to 50%2. These are many times higher when compared with western countries. Additional problem is dearth of trained mental health professionals and scarcity of allocated resource.
A clinical decision analysis and algorithm appears feasible in order to address the above needs and rectify potential problems in the management of depression in primary health care. A rough guide and skeleton of the decision analysis is presented in Figures 1 and 2. Probability estimates of certain outcomes and potential multidimensional utility is presented when and where objective literature on the subject was available.
Fig. 1: Clinical decision Analysis: Management of Depression in Primary care.
CLINICAL DECISION ANALYSIS
D1: Decision Node 1; multiple somatic symptoms of Unknown origin.
C1: Chance node 1; Chance of Functional depressive illness (Pr 0.64)
C2: Chance node 2; Chance of Depression secondary to Co morbid medical condition (Pr 0.36)
C3: Chance node 3; Chances of no Thyroid abnormality (Pr 0.95).
C4: Chance node 4; Chance of Sub clinical Thyroid abnormality (Pr 0.05).
D2: Decision Node 2: Decision on severity of illness. C5: Chance node 5; Chance of mild-to-moderate depression (Pr 0.86; Detection rate 18.4%).
C6: Chance node 6; Chance of severe depression (Pr .13; detection rate 73%)
D3: Decision on Psychotherapy based on the severity (mild-to-moderate) and patient's preference.
D4: Decision on Antidepressants Medication based on severity.
D5: Decision to treat the underlying medical illness.
Figure 2: Clinical decision Analysis: Management of Depression in Primary care
(Final model after pruning the figure 1)
C1: Chance node 1; Chance of Functional depressive illness (Pr 0.64).
C2: Chance node 2; Chance of Depression secondary to Co morbid medical condition (Pr 0.36).
D2: Decision Node 2: Decision on severity of illness.
C5: Chance node 5; Chance of mild-to-moderate depression (Pr 0.86; Detection rate 18.4%).
C6: Chance node 6; Chance of severe depression (Pr .13; detection rate 73%).
D3: Decision on Psychotherapy based on the severity and patient's preference.
Somatic symptoms and high index of suspicion for depression (Node β D-1):
In primary care setting the most common presentation of patients' with depression is with multiple somatic symptoms. This premise is based on the comparative studies carried out by Mumford et al looking specifically at the somatic manifestation of psychological symptoms in the context of Pakistan. The sample population was group of people in Lahore, Pakistan and Leeds, U.K9,10. The decision node D-1 pertains to maintaining high index of suspicion for depression when patients' present with multiple somatic symptoms of unexplained nature. There is no study from Pakistan looking specifically at the characteristics or out come of this atypical presentation in Primary care.
The chance node C-1 pertains to the probability of somatic symptoms, given that the patient has underlying depressive illness (Pr 0.64). The chance node C-2 pertains to having somatic symptoms given that patient has underlying medical co morbidity.
According to studies carried out in the west, significant depressive symptoms are seen in 36% of medically ill patients11. Those with dementia, diabetes, stroke, hypercortisolism, asthma and renal impairment have especially high rates of co- morbid depression. Conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, exists at the interface of medicine and psychiatry and are associated with major depressive disorder12,13.
Depression is also associated with use of medications. 3% of patients on high dose steroids report significant symptoms of depression. Calcium channel blockers, beta-blockers and digoxin are known to cause depression. Caffeine use may be associated with increased side effects and failure of some symptoms to improve (for e.g. anxiety and insomnia). Co morbid alcohol use and withdrawal from alcohol and stimulants are associated with depression14-16. Co morbid depression will require a similar treatment strategy as functional depression, besides the concurrent medical management.
Among these patients work up for thyroid abnormality should be carried out in order to rule out psychological symptoms secondary to thyroid abnormality (Node C-3). Thyroid abnormality typically mimics symptoms of depression and should be exclusively ruled out in the context of primary care. There are no studies from Pakistan on prevalence of abnormal thyroid hormones in the setting of primary care. However in clinical population (PC) from western countries it is estimated to be around 5 % (Node C4). In psychiatric subset with chronic treatment resistant depression, the prevalence of subthreshold thyroid abnormality is estimated to be much higher (around 50%)12.
After ruling out secondary and co morbid depression it is pertinent to establish the diagnosis of depression. Use of screening test/instrument is particularly relevant in the context primary care, where constraints of time and resources demands rapid assessment. It should be considered that any screening test, however robust it may be has its limitations. Result of screening instrument should be checked against a gold standard, measure of assessment. A brief discussion on the definition, process and limitations of screening is particularly relevant here, followed by issues pertaining to screening for depression in primary care setting.
Clinical decision analysis and disease screening:
Screening has been defined as "presumptive identification of unrecognized disease or defect by the application of test, examination, or procedure which can be applied rapidly to sort out apparently well person who probably have a disease from those who probably do not. A screening test is not intended to be diagnostic" (commission on chronic illness; italics added for emphasis). The whole process of screening appears to be quite simple but there are several underlying complexities, alike the subject of clinical epidemiology. There are concerns regarding the cost of screening which may be apparent or hidden. Cost can be related to screening process/instrument or treatment of additional cases however, identification of these subjects in the pre-clinical stage by astute screening instrument does make the early intervention possible. Thus screening can facilitate primary and secondary prevention.
Suitable disease & screening:
A variation among natural history of the diseases has an impact on the utility of early detection and treatment. A disease with long pre-clinical phase, like carcinoma of cervix, will definitely require early detection and screening, in order to modify its course. Besides the long latency period, severity of the illness also merits consideration while designing a screening program. A screening program for detection of upper respiratory tract infection will be less cost effective than screening program for breast cancer, solely based on the disease morbidity and mortality. In order to have effective screening program the disease under consideration should be an important health problem. The disease should be progressive with serious health consequences. An effective treatment at an earlier stage should be able to modify the natural history and course of illness17.
Major depressive disorder does full fill all these criteria. It is prevalent in community and primary health care setting, if undetected leads to progressive worsening with tragic loss of life by suicide. Long term vulnerability factors like loss of parent/s during child hood by death or separation and current non confiding spousal relations does lead to sub threshold symptoms. Thus detection of this preclinical phase of illness by screening test helps in early intervention and subsequent modification in its natural history.
Suitable test & instruments
There are certain consideration regarding the choice of screening test and instrument. Screening test should be inexpensive, easy to administer with minimal discomfort to the clients. Colonoscopy might be very effective in early detection of carcinoma of colon, but it has limited acceptability in routine use for apparently healthy subjects. Another important characteristic of good screening instrument is its ability to separate people with and without disease. A robust screening instrument should have high validity and reliability.
Validity & Reliability (Precision)
Simply stated, a test is said to be valid when it does what it is suppose to do. This is usually measured through its sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity can be described as the ability of the test to identify correctly those who have the disease. In conditional probability notation, sensitivity is written P (T+/D+). Specificity of the test is its ability to identify correctly those who do not have the disease. In conditional probability notation, specificity is written P (T-/D-). Sensitivity and specificity determined by comparing the result with a definitive diagnosis. It is important to note that sensitivity and specificity are reciprocal in nature18.
Consistency and reproducibility of the test is said to be its reliability. It depends upon variation inherent in the method. The variation can be inter-observer or intraobserver. A same individual can rate the same observation differently on different occasions. Alternatively there can be a natural variation among two raters. In rounding off some raters have preference for higher values while others for lower values.
Determining performance of screening instrument (AKUADS) and assigning probabilities:
While the specificity and sensitivity remain an important issue in considering the use of instrument for diagnostic and screening purposes, the psychometric measurement becomes an additional issue when an instrument is applied in a cultural setting which is different from the one in which it was originally developed. EMIC-instruments and questionnaires with cultural sensitive explanatory models are reported to be preferable over ETICinstruments (instruments developed in another cultural setting). But research findings of studies using EMICinstruments only, without established cross cultural validity are open to question.
Aga Khan University Hospital Anxiety & Depression Scale (AKUADS) is a 25 item screening instrument, developed indigenously in the primary health care and psychiatric setting of Pakistan, for screening depression and anxiety disorder. It incorporates culturally pertinent somatic metaphors of depressive disorder. It has an advantage over ETIC instruments, in assessing locally relevant idioms of distress in the primary health care settings in Pakistan. To assess the performance of a screening instrument i.e., AKUADS, we take a hypothetical population of 10000 and calculate the sensitivity, specificity based on the sensitivity and specificity found in the literature.
Sensitivity & Specificity of Aga Khan University Anxiety and depression scale (AKUADS) as a screening instrument*
Summary of test performance characteristics (as stated in the published reports)4
These test characteristics can be used to generate 2 x 2 tables, or decision matrix, using an arbitrary sample size of 10000 patients (table 1). This can be used to assign probabilities to the branch node C-2, thus an accurate estimate of how the screening instrument is functioning.
Bayes' rule is a mathematical formula that can also be used to calculate unknown conditional probability, such as predictive value positive [P (D+ /T+)] directly from the reported values for sensitivity [P (T+/D+) = 0.66], specificity [P (T-/D-) =0.79] and prior probability of major depressive disorder [prevalence, P (D+) = 0.30]19. Thus,
In above example 1-sensitivity will be interpreted as probability of test results as negative given the disease status to be positive. For any screening instrument false negative rate is a major concern. This is particularly so in the context of primary health care in Pakistan. FNR of 0.34 means that quarter of a patients attending primary health care will be misclassified, therefore, losing valuable opportunity of early recognition and intervention.
In this circumstances use of another screening instrument simultaneously or sequentially can serve to rectify this potential problem. Use of two screening instruments simultaneously will serve to increase the sensitivity while sequential use will increase specificity. The choice for either mode of screening depends upon the purpose of screening.
With a population to psychiatrist ratio of 1: 100,000, primary care in Pakistan serves as the sole care provider, unlike its filtering role in western countries20. Therefore high specificity is desirable in the contest of Pakistan. Thus sequential screening using AKUADS followed by another instrument/tool might be more desirable. Diagnostic confirmation based on DSM-IV diagnostic criteria described by Reza H et al can be used sequentially with AKUADS, in the context of primary health setting in Pakistan21.
Depression sub-typing: differences in primary care and psychiatry (Node D-2):
There are number of factors mentioned in literature regarding "type" of depressive disorder seen in primary care and psychiatry. Patients seen in the two settings may be quite different. Depression seen in primary care is less severe and less impairing. Evidence of this comes from Michigan Depression Project (MDP), a longterm study of depression in primary care that has provided valuable data regarding the similarities and differences between depressed patients in primary care and psychiatry and whether the same treatment is appropriate in both settings.
In its first phase, MDP screened 1928 adult patients from fifty family physicians practices in southeast Michigan and completed structured diagnostic interviews on 425 distressed primary care patients and 123 depressed psychiatric outpatients using the structured clinical interview for DSM-III-R (SCID). Clinicians were asked independently whether each of the patients was clinically depressed. The full sample received comprehensive assessment of stress, social support, overall health, health care utilization, and depression severity at intake and 4.5and 9 months after enrollment. Of the 425 depressed primary care patients, 13.5% were diagnosed with Major Depression, but over 40 % of those meeting the criteria for MDD were mildly depressed. Many of the primary care patients with mild or moderate depression were not diagnosed; family physician only diagnosed 35% with MDD and 28% patients with any depressive disorder22. However detection rate for severe depressive patients was significantly higher; 73% of severely depressed patients were selected compared with 18.4% of mildly depressed patients.
In case of functional depressive disorder severity of the illness has implication on detection rate (D-2). Detection rate for sever depressive disorder is 73 % while detection rates for mild-to-moderate depression is 18.4%. This is in the context when 80-to-86% of the Depressive disorders is mild-to-moderate in intensity. In primary health care mild-to-moderate depression is the most common presentation as compared to psychiatric setting23. The severity of illness has implications for treatment; as mild to moderate depression is best treated by psychotherapy. Sever depressive disorder will invariably require anti-depressants medication therapy. There are no studies on severity of illness and its subsequent detection rates in primary care setting from Pakistan. This is shown in chance node C-5 and C-6.
Treatment option in primary care (Node D-3):
The third decision (D-3) is related to the available choice of therapies. General Physicians can prescribe short term (8-10 sessions) psychotherapy. Mild-to-Moderate depression is preferably treated with short term psychotherapy/counseling, in the setting of primary health care. However, the option of psychotherapy needs to be discussed with the patient, with clear delineation of utility and outcome.
In a randomized control trial, Ali et al showed the effectiveness of psychotherapy when conducted by minimally trained therapist. Short term counseling was particularly effective in low income group and can be usefully delivered in primary health care setting24.
Chance nodes on remissions and relapses are given in the decision making tree. Unfortunately there is no literature on the long term outcome of specific treatments for depression from Pakistan. In cases of relapse of the illness it is advisable for the Primary care physician (health worker) to refer the patient to a psychiatrist.
Decision node D-4 pertains to choice of psychotropic medication in cases of depressive disorder with moderate to sever intensity. There are no studies on the long term outcomes of depression in the context of Pakistan. Extrapolating findings from western literature, around 60 % patients with depressive disorder relapse with in a year. This is in the situation of successful response to psychotropic medications. However in the context of primary care setting in Pakistan, any recurrent and relapsing case should be referred to a psychiatrist. There may be complicating psychosocial determinants or co morbid psychiatric problems (personality disorders), that may be safely treatment by mental health physician.
There are certain limitations to this decision analysis. The data on outcomes and utilities is based on western literature; its generalizibility to the culturally unique setting of Pakistan needs to be considered carefully. Prospective data from primary care settings is required, in order to develop any robust model that serves decision making for management of depression in the context of primary care in Pakistan.
The author wishes to acknowledge Dr. Esfandiar Maram, for his inspirational teaching of Epidemiology & Biostatics. His keen interest in psychiatric epidemiology led to initiation of this work.
Assuming 30 % prevalence rate of MDD in primary health care, in a hypothetical population size of 10,000 people, screened with AKUADS, with a sensitivity of 66% AKUHADS will correctly identify 2,070 individuals who has the disease. It will however fail to detect 930 individuals who have depressive disorder. Similarly with a specificity of 79 % it will detect their disease free status among 5,530 individuals out of 7,000. However it will misclassify 1470 disease free individuals as disease positive, thereby creating some, albeit transient anxiety among them.
1. Murray CJ, Lopez AD. The Global Burden of Disease: A comprehensive assessment of Mortality and Disability from Disease, Injury and Risk Factors in 1990 and projected to 2020. Boston: Harvard School of Public Health, WHO and World Bank, 1996.
2. Mirza I, Jenkins R. Risk factors, prevalence, and treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders in Pakistan: systematic review. BMJ 2004; 328: 794-7.
3. Patel V, Pereira J, Mann AH. Somatic and psychological models of common mental disorder in primary care in India. Psychol Med 1998; 28: 135-43.
4. Naqvi H, Khan MM. Depression in Primary care: Difficulties and paradoxes. J Pak Med Assoc 2005; 55: 393-8.
5. Naqvi H, Iqbal R. Prevalence of mental disorder in Pakistan: A need for integrating their management in primary care. Med Today 2003; 1: 107-11.
6. Sackett DL, Hayes RB, Tugwell P. Clinical Epidemiology: A basic science to clinical medicine. Boston: Little Brown, 1985.
7. Mumford DB, Nazir M, Jilani FU, Baig IY. Stress and psychiatric disorder in Hindukush: a community survey of mountain village. Br J Psychiatry 1996; 168: 299-307.
8. Mumford DB, Saeed K, Ahmad I, Latif S, Mubbashar MH. Stress and psychiatric disorder in rural Punjab: a community survey. Br J Psychiatry 1997; 170: 473-8.
9. Mumford DB, Tareen IA, Bajwa MA, Bhatti MR, Karim R. The translation and evaluation of an Urdu version of The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Acta Psychiatr Scand 1991; 83: 81-5.
10. Husain N, Chaudhry I, Asfar S, Creed F. Psychological distress among patients attending a general medical outpatient clinic in Pakistan. Gen Hosp Psychiatry 2004; 26: 277-81.
11. Frasure-Smith N, Lesperance F, Talajic M. Depression and 18-month prognosis after myocardial infarction. Circulation 1995; 91: 999-1005.
12. Pies R, Rogers D. The recognition and treatment of depression: A review for primary care clinicians. CME/ CE [On line] 2005 [cited on October 12, 2005]: Available from : URL: http://www.medscape.com.
13. Walker EA, Peter P, Katon WJ. Irritable bowel syndrome and functional psychiatric illness. Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147: 565-72.
14. Patten SB, Love EJ. Drug induced depression. Psychotherapy and psychosomatics 1997; 66: 63-73.
15. Peroutka SJ, Newman H, Harris H. Subjective effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine in recreational users. Neuropsychopharmacology 1988; 1: 273-7.
16. Kendler KS, Heath AC, Neale MC, Kessler RC. Alcoholism and major depression in women: a twin study of the causes of the Comorbidity. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1993; 50: 690-8.
17. Gordis L. Assessing the validity and reliability of diagnostic and screening test, In: Epidemiology Philadelphia, Elsevier Saunders 2004.
18. Fletcher RH, Fletcher SW, Wagner EH. Clinical Epidemiology: The essentials. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1982.
19. Feinstein AR. Clinical biostatistics. Clin Pahrmacol Ther 1979; 25:108-16.
20. Naqvi H, Khan MM. Pathways to psychiatric care in Karachi. J Coll Physicians Surg Pak 2006;16:438-9.
21. Reza H, Khan MM. Depression: Diagnosis and management in general practice in Pakistan. J Pak Med Assoc 2003; 53: 500-5.
22. Spitzer RL, Williams JB, Kroenke K. Utility of a new procedure for diagnosing mental disorder in primary care: the PRIME-MD 1000 study. J Am Med Assoc 1994; 272:1749-56.
23. Schwenk TL, Klinkman MS, Coyne JC. Depression in the family physicians office: what the psychiatrist needs to know: The Michigan depression project. J Clin Psychiatry 1998; 59: 94-100.
24. Ali BS, Bahbar MH, Naeem S, Gul A, Mubeen S, Iqbal A. The effectiveness of counseling on Anxiety and Depression by Minimally Trained counselors: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Am J Psychotherapy 2003; 57: 324-36.
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Home Β» Apprentice Storyteller Β» Ropes of Lightning
Ropes of Lightning
By Apprentice August 18, 2018 September 14, 2018 Apprentice Storyteller, Idea Pile, Story
NOTE: This post is inspired by This Reddit Post and as such, the idea is entirely credited to u/LeastCoordinatedJedi and his kid.
Captain's Log of the Vessel Wayward Cloud. Date unknown.
Note about time and date: Date is unknown due to total lack of celestial objects. I do not know if the stars or sun and moon are even present, as candles don't even shed light here β they are only a dim point in the shape of a flame β though the air itself seems to be giving off some unnatural light. It confuses me when I try to think about it, and gives me a headache. It has probably been about 3 weeks since our vessel was lifted off the waves.
Note about our ship: I would call our ship a Galleon, so we thought ourselves quite safe in these waters (what with a full compliment of crew to fight pirates or monsters). but we lost a mast, multiple spars, and many sails, so we are rigged almost like a schooner at this point. I do believe now that we will not be returning to port for repairs.
Enough about the ship. It's no longer in the waves. This story is being entered in the ships logs and my personal diary in hopes that my logs will find their way back to civilized lands where monsters do not roam about uncontested. I hope that either a college of sorcery will be made aware that one of their member are attacking ships off the coast, or that the powers of the empire will be alerted and focused on those that have so treacherously preyed upon ships in the region.
We begin with the child that we found on flotsam β the partial wreckage of at least 2 ships. He had quite the story to tell, and I didn't believe him, until I saw it for myself.
We found young J-dai (he insisted with the enthusiasm that only 5-year olds can generate that his name was spelled exactly this way) clinging to flotsam of a merchant ship that was obviously attacked by pirates. Pretty ballsy of the pirates β this was an important shipping corridor, so the imperial patrol and even privateers like us were often found in these waters, and no-one takes kindly to black flags. We found him among the wreckage of 2 other ships, and he claimed that a third had been lifted to the sky. At first, we thought that J-dai was only mistaken as not nearly enough wreckage was available to be from 3 different ships, but then we found separate main masts still connected to badly bent straps and bolts that could only have been ripped apart from below the deck of 3 different ships.
The crew felt that we should have left with haste, but I disregarded their protests as silly superstition and thought that staying would be a good way to increase the reputation of professional privateers on these waters. I decided to look for further survivors to return to their loved ones and perhaps cargo that I might return to their rightful companies (and of course, claim for myself if no company brand was found). To my great shame, I led my poor crew and my beloved ship to cursed clouds of demon light and no lands, and I fell in to this trap while selfishly trying to improve the lot of privateer captains. If only we could have sunken under the waves with the first blast.
We found scattered foodstuffs and a few bales of cotton (details in the clerks log). All the other cargo seems to have been sunk or taken by the attackers. We found no other survivors, and we found no dead bodies. It was almost as if someone had scoured the sea for men, living and dead, and plucked them up with no regard for the other valuables in the salt. This was odd, as almost anyone attacking a ship will take whatever food they can find to bolster their own stores, and we found many barrels of brandy, apples, wheat, and other food.
The boy told me a quick version of his story while recovering with some hot food and a little wine in the captain's cabin, and told a long version of his story later to some sympathetic sailors before we were attacked. I was not present for the long version, but here is my best recollection of his short version:
First off, I can tell is that he has no idea why they were on a ship. I did my best not to allow him to think that I thought his story was preposterous β young minds are very imaginative, but they often have the seed of truth to their stories. I realized quickly that I would not know where he embellished his imagination, but it turns out to be far less than I initially thought.
In his abbreviated version, he tells me that his father was a merchant company's ship captain and there being 2 other ships with him was quite notable β the little boy was very proud of his father for the promotion (his story kept changing the particular rank β captain, admiral, mate, etc.). It seems they had outrun a storm for nearly 2 days in the straights at the nearby islands and the crew was totally exhausted, so they dropped anchor to let the entire crew rest and eat well for a morning.
J-Dai says that when the sailors were getting ready to be under way, the cries went up that the storm had caught up to them again and the whole crew began desperately trying to get farther away from the rocky shore β the boy was very insistent that earlier there had been an argument between senior staff that they were too close to some rocks and "150 paces is too close after that storm" β and there was great confusion about which way to go. The boy said that a great wind came up as a dark cloud overtook them, and "a huge red frog fell out of the sky β a frog sailor with black pants, standing on two legs." When the frog-sailor fell on his ship, it cracked the planks near the main mast. He watched as this invader then tied "a piece of lightning" to the mast, which was suddenly met by the sky as well β with a "big giant noise" β lightning came down from the newly formed clouds to join the piece tied to the mast, and while he was watching this from the captain's cabin, he heard more noises and saw the other ships suffer a similar fate.
After this, his story gets even more confused, as the melee was joined in full β with apparently more monsters coming down the lightning to join the red frog sailor. He doesn't know when the masts were torn from their bolts, but his father threw him on a mast as it fell over, apparently to simply get his child off the doomed ship. The boy hid, terrified, under the sail on a spar and he heard a lot of things happening in the water, and then the sound like a waterfall β he peeked out at that point and saw the noise was from water falling off the hull of the last remaining ship being lifted by "ropes of lightning twisted into a braid" into a "great purple hole in the clouds" β and he saw a stone castle through the hole as well, swearing that a witch was watching the whole encounter while standing on the water. The witch apparently walked up in to the cloud as it was disappearing. He waited more than a day on the now-calm seas before we showed up.
Once his story was over, I let the senior crew know that we may have a pirate on our hands, and they may have a renegade sorcerer with them. I feel that I took warnings from young J-dai's story, but while correct, they were insufficient. Looking back, I was very prideful in thinking that our ship was impervious to a sorcerer-pirate. Even with a battle-tested crew, I should have taken the warning an weighed anchor immediately.
The boy ate voraciously β I did not doubt the time frames that he told us. After a few more hours of scouring the wreckage for salvage (it helped that the sea was very calm β more like a fishing-pond) I began to get uneasy after finding the third ship's mast β an experienced sailor could tell in only a few moments how many ships the discarded sails were from.
And then it happened. A shadow came over the waters, further out to sea than ourselves. Cast by a great purple cloud, it was boiling and moving and glowing with an energy that is foreign to my eyes. This witch-cloud was growing and moving quickly from the sea towards shore, but it never got to the shore β it found my ship and stayed over it, blocking the sun from our search β making it almost like twilight, it was so wide. Cast by a great roiling purple cloud, I began to give the boy's story more credence β this must be the work of some powerful magic-user, as it could not be a typical storm. I immediately gave the order go regather the men from the boats in the water β we either needed them for the fight, or we needed the boats to flee upon.
As the first men got up from the sea to the main deck, I heard a sound that was loud like a clap of nearby cannon fire, but distant and rolling like thunder. The men were armed with saber, hook, and crossbow, and to their credit not a single one turned to give me shame for staying in those haunted waters β they each took up their battle positions and got the last of the men from the boats. We all stood ready, weapons in hand, for a few very long minutes.
Almost I ordered the anchor weighed or perhaps even the ship abandoned β but before the orders were given, the sound of some kind of foreign drum rolled over us. At the same moment, and the whole crew and I were enraptured as we saw a hole begin to open β a great circle whose edge was naught but roiling storm cloud and small splinters of lightning. The noise happened again and again, and I realized that the portal was opening ever-wider with each strike of the distant drumhead. And as we watched the spectacle, the true horror of what we were seeing came upon us. In the distance through that portal, we saw a great palace upon a hill of rock and boulders.
There was something not right about the way that we were looking at it. Almost like we were above it, but also like the front gates, all the pillars around the outside, and the roof were connected by a single acute angle instead of many obtuse ones. Perhaps it is best to describe it like we were within a trick mirror that was pointed at the fortress? Bah! I consider myself a man of letters but cannot fathom the words that should successfully describe how the hill and fortress were oriented to us.
The building glowed with sickly inner light and my mate held a spyglass and yelled that there were great crystals on all the ramparts, attended by some kind of monster, and that the sounds were made by these crystals.
As he watched, he reported with shock that creatures were climbing these magical devices by the dozen, and these stood waiting, looking to our ship, and then with a terrified scream he said that they were being launched off of the crystals toward us. I told the mate to keep his gaze upon the first ones that went in this way, and tell us when they would land on us. In a quick whisper he related "Only a few moments! At least a dozen in the first volley!" was his report, and then dropping the spyglass he roared "BLADES READY!"
Just as he said this, there were the sounds that no sailor ever wants to hear β the cracking and splintering of the planks of the deck. As the splinters settled, we were able to see it clearly β a monster that was in the general shape of a giant man β all the sailors were too stunned to rush initially, so it stood up from it's landing crouch while we took in what we were seeing.
It's stance was like that of a great bear on two legs, but even less clear delineation between the skull and the muscles of the broad back, and no fur. It stood taller than any man I have ever seen β with sloped shoulders and great long arms. It stood on two legs and wore black pants. It's head was low to it's shoulders and wide, with eyes more on top than in front, and a great mouth that almost seemed to reach to the back to it's shoulders. It was colored a deep crimson, mottled with large brick-red spots on it's head and back. It was indeed exactly the beast from J-dai's story β somewhat frog-shaped in the face and wearing black pants. The invader was even holding a short length of chain that glowed bright like a blue sun. As we watched, it held one end of the chain in it's fist up to the mast; the way you might knock on a door while holding a tool in the same hand.
As he did this, the rest of the monsters were landing, also cracking boards with the force of impact. The noise shook us out of our astonishment and some men charged. The frog-men (who were made in various colors) had already rushed to defensive postures around this one, apparently so that he could finish his work.
I stayed back for a moment longer, in order to perhaps find an opportunity to get past the monster's companions and engage with it more fully. The chain which initially appeared very short suddenly wrapped itself around the mast and the crimson beast let go, just as a great bolt of lightning streaked out of the sky with a huge thunder clap and joined the chain. All the men disengaged and took a few steps back. Unlike lightning, this thing maintained its presence β as soon as it hit it fell slack like a great rope made of vibrant blue-white light.
As I stood back, the other sailors and I realized that we were bested physically β the monsters didn't seem interested in a fight and kept simply catching our arms as we swung blades and maces, and pushing us back as their companions continued their work with the chains and lightning β some of the other monsters that landed also had the glowing chains. We got a few good hits, but none that were mortal.
It was in that moment of tense, industrious calm that I realized the true horror of what was happening. The ropes of lightning were losing their slack β whatever great wheel that had these devices mounted to it is turning and tightening the ropes. We were being lifted to that infernal castle. The weight was being put on the masts and anything that looked like it could bear the load. There were at least a dozen points the ropes of lightning were connected.
Some of the points began to buckle β some were attached to rails, to spars, and some just to planks. The first of these to buckle shocked us out of our horror and I cried "Kill the invaders! Your life is in your hands!" and to my great pride, every single sailor rushed as one and we slew several of the frog-men in the initial rush. The invaders then began to take us seriously and truly fought back.
The larger invaders would cleave off a limb with a single swipe of their falchions, but we could not kill them without the concerted effort of a dozen of us. We could overwhelm a few more, but they only fought us until we could feel the ship -the entire ship- lifted from the water. We all felt it begin to spin, and the invaders immediately ran to the points where the ropes of lightning were attached, and they began to scramble up the blue lines. We got a few more of them, but our doom was sealed.
One by one, my sailors β my friends β turned from the spectacle above us to look to me for direction. When I realized they expected an order, I gave it. "Abandon ship. She's been captured, but we need not be captured as well." Several men went to the life-boats, but then one man just dove off the side. He fell up into the purple hole in the clouds. His confused yell turning to terrified screaming will haunt the rest of my short days. We watched him float up through the purple air, and fell past the hill that the palace is on, and then we heard it β a great cackling.
There was laughter coming from the sea.
There was a woman. A woman standing on the sea, apparently still casting a spell in a circle of torches that floated about her.
She was in thick, black robes. Her auburn hair was flat around her shoulders β no wind seemed to touch her. She was standing in a circle of torches that were arranged on the water below us. I do not know what magic she used to stand there, but considering the sight above us, it did not seem unfeasible. She did not seem young or beautiful, but she also did not seem old or ugly. But as we caught sight of her, we felt the power of her.
As we breached the purple cloud, she seemed to be finished, and ascended past us by walking on the air. A few of my men fired crossbows at her, and one even hit. She did not seem to notice that a bolt was pinning her robe to her ribs. We lost all spirit of violence at that.
We suffered from extreme horror then. We were being pulled from our native waters to be prisoners in a world where frogs command high magic and even geometry did not seem to make sense. We thought initially that we would be pulled to the rocks and dashed before the palace. But his was not so. We were merely tethered. The men waited in silent anticipation for hours.
And the terror passed.
Terror turned to boredom.
Initially, I kept the crew busy doing normal maintenance of the ship, and rigging her up as if we expected to be plopped back in the water any minute. There are a dozen or so other ships that we have been able to signal with flags and with oil lamps, but we cannot get close enough for real exchange of information. The crew is doing their best to stay entertained, but music doesn't seem to sound right, and both dice and cards seem silly when you will likely never see the use of money again.
So now we are waiting for the end. Some of my crewmates have hastened that for themselves β jumping off always seems to have them fall forever past the palace and the rocks. We do not know if they ever find a sea or land. Others tried to climb the ropes of lightning β but it feels to the touch like a greased pole of hot brass. The only distance you can go is determined by your initial jump, and you can't hold on for long, anyways.
We are beginning to come to the end of our food stores.
Some crew have suggested a feast of the last of the rations, since there is no hope of rescue. Force the sea witch to deal with us or let us die.
In the end, I do think something will happen. As I write this, I see that one of our fellow tethered ships is throwing all it's cargo over the side, and I can see the palace responding β the frog-men are launching again to them. Whether to deal with them properly as prisoners and feed them, or simply to slaughter them for wasting wealth I do not know, but it would certainly be better than this incessant waiting in the purple air.
Β« HELLO REDDIT
Getting back to it. Β»
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Abdominal Distension and Digestive Disorders
More in Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Causes & Diagnosis
Support & Coping
Barbara Bolen, PhD
Barbara Bolen, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and health coach. She has written multiple books focused on living with irritable bowel syndrome.
Medically reviewed by Emmy Ludwig, MD on August 05, 2016
Emmy Ludwig, MD, is board-certified in gastroenterology and hepatology. She practices at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Emmy Ludwig, MD
Peter Hince / Getty Images
Distension is defined as something that is enlarged or stretched beyond its normal state, typically from within. Abdominal distension is a sense of increased abdominal pressure that involves an actual measurable change in the circumference of a person's abdomen.
Distension can be measured through the use of a tape measure. Distension over the course of a day can be measured more reliably by a device known as ambulatory abdominal inductance plethysmography (AIP). Such a device would most likely only be used during the course of a research study.
How Is Distension Different than Bloating?
When a person feels bloated, they experience a sense of increased pressure in their abdomen, but without any measurable change. With distension, there is an actual widening to the size and circumference of the abdomen. Many people, including doctors, will often use the two terms interchangeably.
Although the causes of both bloating and distension have not yet been well-identified, there are some research indications that different (but related) mechanisms may be underlying each of the two problems.
Bloating and distension are symptoms that are most characteristic of a functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGD), such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
How many people who have IBS experience distension alongside bloating? Estimates range from 50 to 75%. These patients are more likely to report it as a highly bothersome symptom. Distension is more likely to be reported by patients who have constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C) as opposed to diarrhea-predominant IBS (IBS-D). Studies have shown that a slowing of the transit time of fecal matter through the gut is related to the experience of distension.
Typically, patients will report that distension is more likely to occur after meals and will worsen as the day goes on, with a reduction in the symptom overnight.
Distension that increases as the day wears on is most likely due to an FGD. Distension that occurs 24/7 may be indicative of a more serious health problem.
Although it seems like common sense to say that distension is related to excessive amounts of intestinal gas, this theory has not been fully supported by research. Rather, it may be that it is the way that the digestive systems of people who have IBS handle the gas that is the problem.
Another theory suggests that distension is related to a dysfunctional reflex of the muscles of the abdomen, triggered by the act of eating a meal. More research is needed to validate or discount this theory.
There are a variety of things that can cause abdominal distension (as well as bloating). Therefore there are no treatments identified that specifically target the symptom of distension. Instead, treatment focus on dealing with the symptoms of the overall digestive disorder.
One of the most challenging aspects of having IBS is trying to figure out what's safe to eat. Our recipe guide makes it easier. Sign up and get yours now!
Agrawal, A. & Whorwell, P. "Review Article: Abdominal Bloating and Distension in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders -- Epidemiology and Exploration of Possible Mechanisms" Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 2008 27:2-10.
Lea, R. & Whorwell, P. "Expert Commentary β Bloating, Distension, and the Irritable Bowel Syndrome" MedGenMed 2005 7:18.
Why Your IBS Causes You to Feel Bloated
Learn the Biology Behind Your Awful IBS Pain
The Diagnostic Criteria that Your Doctor Uses to Diagnose Your IBS
Find out What Causes Bloating and Get Tips to Help You Feel Better
How to Know If You Have IBS-D
Pain With Constipation May Be Constipation Predominant IBS
Symptoms of Common Digestive Problems
The Best Probiotic Supplements for IBS
What Is SIBO and What Does It Have to Do With IBS?
When Your IBS Causes Both Constipation and Diarrhea
What Tests Will Your Doctor Do If You Have too Much Gas?
When IBS and Gallbladder Problems Happen at the Same Time
How to Suppress Your Gastrocolic Reflex for IBS Relief
A Closer Look at Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Is Holding in a Fart Bad for You?
The Health Problems That Might Cause You to Have Pain After Eating
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Jack Allen's Kitchen 360 Is Now Open For Lunch, Dinner, And Brunch
It's Jack Gilmore's third restaurant.
by Nadia Chaudhury Apr 15, 2015, 12:30pm CDT
Share All sharing options for: Jack Allen's Kitchen 360 Is Now Open For Lunch, Dinner, And Brunch
Jack Allen's Kitchen 360
The Westlake location of Jack Allen's Kitchen is now officially open for lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch on Loop 360. The third restaurant is helmed by chef Jack Gilmore. The farm-focused kitchen will serve the same sort of Texan comfort food fare, with some additional new items to the menu and cocktail list. It's also the home of Jack Allen's first wood burning oven. Dinner tonight features fried quail legs, stewed red chile pork shoulder, and a strawberry rhubarb cobbler.
The space, designed by Mann & Mann Architects, includes canning jar chandeliers, plenty of reclaimed wood, and other vintage details. Outside, there is a patio with both a fireplace and television screen. 360 is open from Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m.-11 p.m.. Sunday brunch is served from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
The new restaurant took over the former Trento space last spring. The restaurant opened for dinner service only last week.
Jack Allen's Kitchen [360]
3600 N Capital of Texas Hwy Ste D, Austin, TX 78746
Tracking All of Austin's 2015 New Restaurant Openings
Portland's Voodoo Doughnut is Now Soft Open in Austin
Steampunk Saloon Will Take Over Former Opal Divine's On West Sixth
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Home/Health/Veteran suicide: How to help military members with mental health, PTSD
Veteran suicide: How to help military members with mental health, PTSD
Randy McDonald once oversaw the manufacturing of precision-guided munitions and cluster bombs at Minot Air Force Base, sometimes working alongside some of the highest-ranking airmen. Now in his mid-40s, he had to make sure 10,000 items sat where they should on sprawling shelves at Home Depot: tools, thermostats, humidifiers, duct tape β you name it. He missed the camaraderie and brotherhood that had defined the first half of his life. Now, it felt like his sole goal was unloading enough retail from semi trucks to earn a bonus check.
He felt like a burden. He thought about ending his life and leaving behind his two daughters and his wife. Leaving behind the three-bedroom stucco house where they lived in Minot, North Dakota, and its brick-lined, arched front door. He came up with a plan. He knew the date, the time and the place, and how he was going to die by suicide. But then, a small deviation in his well-oiled journey snapped him out of his funk. "What the hell are you doing?" he thought.
He realized how close to the abyss he was teetering, and this realization set him out on a new journey. What if he could reach out to other veterans before it was too late, he wondered, even those in the far reaches of North Dakota?
He knew he was hardly the first veteran to think about suicide. Across remote areas of the country, from Pennsylvania to Montana, from Wyoming to Nevada, thousands are going through the same trepidations. They face a fragmented social fabric, a byzantine path to receiving health care and a pervasive stigma surrounding mental health. This, combined with a dearth of community resources, at-times crippling isolation and a gun-friendly culture, makes rural veterans 20% more likely to die by suicide than veterans as a whole. These former servicemen die by suicide at such a high rate, in fact, that they're driving overall self-inflicted deaths in rural counties.
Deep in the Intermountain West, mental health researchers have developed a program they say could help stem this tide of veteran suicides. It hinges on a radical shift of paradigm: What if people like McDonald β not just mental health experts β were the first line of defense against suicide? What if it took a veteran to save a veteran?
Twenty-two. The numerals appear in white font on black rubber band bracelets worn by veterans β the estimated number of veterans who die by suicide every day. That figure has fluctuated over the years and now probably stands at around 17. But this issue has afflicted the U.S. military at least since the 19th century.
Rural veterans are 20% more likely to die by suicide than veterans as a whole.
While suicide was deemed morally repugnant at the time, many Civil War veterans traumatized by the war still took their own lives. Some of the soldiers who'd survived World War I didn't live much longer after the conflict ended: In 1921, a former colonel in the Army's Medical Corps testified in front of a Senate committee that 400 veterans had taken their lives in New York state just the previous year. And about 9,000 Vietnam War veterans are estimated to have died by suicide from the time of discharge through the 1980s.
The trauma associated with combat exposure has long been blamed for veteran suicide. It was once referred to as "nostalgia," then as "shell shock" during World War I, and as PTSD after Vietnam.
By the time James Peake, an Army doctor who'd served in Vietnam, was appointed as the U.S. Army Surgeon General in 2000, the crisis was well documented. That's why when the U.S. invaded Iraq, Peake made sure to send mental health experts to the front lines to "drive mental health (treatment) deeper into the units," he says.
Researchers think veterans could hold the key to preventing suicides among their peers.
Getty for the Deseret News
The experts found that not much had changed since the Civil War. A number of soldiers who went to Iraq and Afghanistan were diagnosed with Post-traumatic stress disorder and reported heavy drinking, among other stresses and disorders. What was different was the avalanche of deaths the post 9/11 era ushered in.
One Boston University study found that 30,177 active-duty personnel and veterans have died by suicide on American soil since the Twin Towers fell, compared to 7,057 service members killed in war theaters. There's no one explanation for that escalation. Experts point to the growing military-civilian divide, society's scorn for interventions in the Middle East and the military's failure to adequately prepare its members for civilian life. Some suggest that armed forces now attract a certain profile of people more likely to have experienced psychological trauma before. And then there's the trauma many experience while serving, whether deployed or not, including sexual assaults and physical abuses.
Here's something else that changed. For a long time veterans bore the responsibility for suicide, which was seen as a sign of moral weakness. But the onus is now on the government for failing to care for its veterans. When Peake, then VA secretary, was called in to testify before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs in 2008, lawmakers made clear something needed to be done. "We should all be angry at what has gone on here," one admonished him. Veteran suicide has since become one of the few nonpartisan issues on Capitol Hill. The last three VA secretaries all made it their top clinical priority, and Congress in recent years considered at least five bills or initiatives aiming to tackle suicides.
And yet, a rising number of veterans took their lives during the past decade, with the exception of a small dip between 2018 and 2019. Despite making up only 8.3% of adults, veterans today represent 14.3% of all suicides, according to the VA.
North Dakota hasn't been immune to this national trend. Veterans now make up less than 6% of the state's population but accounted for 17% of suicides in 2020. McDonald came perilously close to being one of them.
A burly man with kind eyes and a light brown beard, McDonald grew up in the college town of Morgantown, West Virginia, a Rust Belt community nestled in the Appalachian foothills, and the home of West Virginia University. It stands a few miles from the Pittsburgh coal seam and, at the height of the coal mining boom, men waiting to board buses for one of the 60 coal mines outside of town were a common sight. McDonald saw firsthand what mining will do to you. When his uncle died at 76, his lungs had soaked up about as much coal dust as tar from the three packs of cigarettes he smoked a day.
McDonald wasn't interested in suffering the same fate. He wasn't much interested in college, either, he says from a bakery in downtown Minot. He's brought lunch β a couple of turkey sandwiches and a bag of onion chips β but he barely touches it.
He says he did what many young men in rural areas do when faced with limited options. He walked into a military recruiting office and joined the Air Force. After training in San Antonio, he was put on the maintenance career track and was sent to Minot Air Force Base for three years. Now married, he was deployed to Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, where his first daughter was born. He went on to Virginia to work in a bomb shop at Langley Air Force Base, before spending a few more years in Minot, this time supervising one. With his wife, he bought a house a few blocks from the Souris River, which flows through Minot. After stints in Guam and Turkey, he retired from the Air Force in 2013. He'd seen the world and had had a rich career serving with men he admired. What else could he ask for?
He got a job at Nash Finch, a wholesale food distributor. It was an uneasy transition from manufacturing bombs, to say the least. He'd been managing 70 people in Minot Air Force base, having in effect the power of "life and death" over people in far-flung countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, often the bombs' final destinations. Now, he had to make sure grocery stores got their extra case of soda, or that the ice cream wasn't too soft. He grew agitated, seemingly unable to hold on to a job for more than a year or two.
None gave him the same pride and satisfaction he'd felt as an airman. He hit a new low when he found himself working the night shift at a Home Depot, missing out on evenings with friends. The long winters only compounded a growing sense of isolation. He all but gave up painting, a long-held passion, instead spending his days watching TV or reading books. "Those are the times where you really start sinking down into your negative thoughts," McDonald says.
One memory especially sticks out. He sees himself walking down the street outside of Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, where he's been stationed for a few months. It's 1999 and Albanian refugees have been pouring from war-torn Kosovo. A group of children materializes, swarming McDonald and other airmen, looking to thumb-wrestle for a soda or peddle $1 pieces of gum. Suddenly, a Turkish teenager watching from a distance pounces on an Albanian child. Airmen aren't allowed to intervene, and McDonald, about 24 at the time, watches powerless as the teenager beats the child, dragging him behind a corner.
He enters the rabbit hole. What happened to the kid? Did he lose his vision? Did he have broken bones? Sometimes positive thoughts put up a fight against the bad ones. Perhaps a church person or a doctor found the child and treated him? But more often than not, the good thoughts lose.
Due to the Air Force base, there's no shortage of veterans in Minot, where they make up nearly a tenth of the city's about 48,000 residents. The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and AMVETS all have chapters in town. But this doesn't necessarily translate into a tight-knit, multigenerational veteran community.
At Charlie's Main Street Cafe, you might see airmen in camouflage uniforms seated at one of the green upholstered booths, digging into a blueberry pie or wolfing down a hot beef sandwich. Veterans, on the other hand, don't wear uniforms, and many won't make their military history known.
In rural areas, 1 in 3 veterans isn't enrolled in VA health care, making it less likely they will be screened for depression as part of a routine checkup.
This means that former servicemen like McDonald can feel utterly isolated, even in a military town. The VA, of course, provides robust mental health services, including at the local clinic, a one-story building next door to a Little Caesars. But in rural areas, more than a third of all veterans aren't enrolled in VA health care, making it less likely they will be screened for depression as part of a routine checkup. For many who, like McDonald, suffered no service-related physical disabilities or injuries upon being discharged, receiving care through the VA isn't always the first option, especially if they have good private insurance.
"Once a service member leaves the service, there is nothing that overtly compels them to have contact with the VA," says Jeffrey Smith, an associate professor of history at the University of Hawaii Hilo who has studied military suicides. This makes it challenging for the VA to flag veterans who may be at risk. People sometimes think that "there's some kind of magic list with all the veterans, and that if we called all of them they wouldn't kill themselves," says Carl LoFaro, a suicide prevention social worker at the VA. "That's not really, unfortunately, how it works."
Historically, veterans clubs played a key role in suicide prevention, albeit not an explicitly defined one. Men sitting at the bar counter would suddenly spill out their guts in booze-fueled catharses, sharing harrowing war stories for the first time. But these days, mostly aging Vietnam veterans meet at vets clubs, a TV sometimes playing a black-and-white movie in the background. It can be hard for younger vets to feel welcome.
"We're having trouble recruiting new members," says Tammy VanWinkle, the head of the American Veterans' Minot chapter. This means that younger veterans, who research shows are more likely to commit suicide than older cohorts, aren't receiving the same informal peer support as their elders.
In this context, intervening before it's too late is akin to a crapshoot, especially in rural areas. Some groups like Forward Flag, a veteran nonprofit in New Mexico (it also has operations in Tennessee), have developed their own methods to ferret out former military members. There, volunteers drive a rusty Bluebird Wanderlodge bus deep into remote locales like the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation, and, once there, set up on well-trafficked parking lots. If they're lucky, a veteran's inquisitive grandmother or aunt will stop by and, later on, return with the veteran, opening up the possibility volunteers may identify signs of depression and direct them to mental health services.
In Minot, McDonald couldn't find the kind of peer support that would pull him out of the rabbit hole. A call with the ND Cares Coalition in Bismarck, a state-sponsored initiative that seeks to improve veteran-related services, finally brought him fresh answers. Someone, it turns out, was working on developing the sort of help he desperately needed.
The VA has been trying something new to make a dent in veteran suicide β make veterans themselves the first line of defense.
Nathaniel Mohatt, a research psychologist, stood in a conference room in front of a dozen veterans in Kalispell, Montana. It was early 2018 and he'd just flown with a team of experts from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, an interstate agency based in Boulder, Colorado. They had one goal: persuade the men to become the first line of defense against veteran suicide in northwest Montana.
Mohatt, a soft-spoken man with well-kept hair ββand tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses, knew a thing or two about rural veterans. In the 2010s, he'd worked on a mental health initiative targeting National Guardsmen in Kansas, and he'd studied ways rural primary care could better address suicide risks. In his years in the field, he'd noticed there weren't any structured, comprehensive programs in rural America. Rather, existing initiatives tended to be one-off, often led by counties' public health departments or by community behavioral health centers.
This observation led him and his colleagues at the VA-affiliated Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center for Suicide Prevention to develop a new approach. What if veterans were the ones doing suicide prevention, as opposed to experts in lab coats? After all, it'd long been documented that veterans were more likely to open up to one of their own.
But to get the VA to fund the new initiative, called Together With Veterans, he would need to ground it in solid evidence. So, Mohatt set out to find successful programs for inspiration. After rummaging through the academic literature, he found three. The first one was in Arizona, where the White Mountain Apache Tribe trained law enforcement, EMTs and community leaders to recognize warning signs of suicide, put together awareness campaigns and taught coping skills to at-risk youths. It managed to cut suicide rates by more than 38%. Then there was the Air Force, which worked to normalize help-seeking and reduce stigma around suicide.
But even more promising was the third initiative, which targeted a broad slice of the population, and not just subsets. In Germany, the Nuremberg Alliance Against Depression had taught 2,000 priests, teachers, pharmacists, policemen and other community facilitators how to identify people with depression. It'd achieved a 24% reduction in suicide attempts and completed suicides, and inspired the European Alliance Against Depression, an international nonprofit that brought the model to Chile and Australia.
"It's worked with native populations, it's worked in Europe, it's worked with the Air Force," Mohatt thought. What if rural veterans could be trained to deliver the same kind of intervention in their communities?
The suicide prevention center contracted with the Western Interstate Commission to design a program drawing on these efforts. Now, the researchers needed to test out their idea. After scouring suicide and population data, Mohatt's team identified four communities to try it on. One of them was in the Kalispell region, whose high concentration of veterans and high suicide rates made it an ideal candidate.
But the veterans gathered in the conference room in northwest Montana weren't biting. They sat squarely in their chairs, their arms crossed as a lunch of sandwiches, chips and cookies arranged on a table laid untouched. "It was like talking to a silent room," says Mohatt.
At the end of a 40-minute presentation, the team asked a simple question. "Do you want this in your community?" Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room changed. The veterans had been given a choice β this program wouldn't be imposed on them unless they wanted to participate. Slowly, the veterans started weighing in on Mohatt's idea. "They started eating our food," he says.
For a year, Western Interstate Commission representatives flew in from Denver to craft a plan alongside the veterans. "While we were rolling the wheel down the road, we were inventing it," says L.D. Gross, a veteran involved in the effort. They set the main goals for the grassroots organization: reduce the stigma attached to seeking help; promote gun safety; provide suicide prevention training β including to primary care providers; and link veterans to suicide hotlines and mental health centers. Now named the Veterans Coalition of Northwest Montana, the group would receive a $100,000 grant from the VA spread over three years. It would be on its own after that.
Once organized, the veterans moved fast. They put up two big billboards on either end of Kalispell, showing a casket draped with an American flag, the words "NO MORE SUICIDE" superimposed on it, as well as the phone number to a crisis helpline. They got trained to teach "Question, Persuade, and Refer," a program focused on discerning warning signs of suicide. Invariably wearing military baseball caps, they became fixtures at local gun shows, giving away gun locks β firearms are the method of choice for veterans committing suicide β and leaflets.
It's too early to say whether these actions have made a dent in suicides, Mohatt says, in part because it takes two years for statistics on suicide deaths to trickle down to national databases. But there have been encouraging signs. Since 2019, the coalition has delivered QPR training to 432 people, including in vets homes and farming communities. It had 10,000 people attend its events and, crucially, helped 731 veterans access housing, receive food assistance or get health care. This is an important metric because veterans enrolled in the VA are less likely to commit suicide.
Some benefits might not be easily measured but feel equally important. After Gross and two other veterans finished teaching a QPR course at an American Legion post on the Flathead Indian Reservation, two old farmers in overalls stood up to speak. They'd lost five family members to suicide, all veterans, they said, tears streaming down their faces. "You can run into some pretty emotional stuff," Gross says. Soon after, the veterans got a call from the post. Could they organize another class?
Back in Minot, McDonald hopped on a phone call in late 2020 with a consultant for Together With Veterans. The program was expanding to dozens of communities across the country. Maybe McDonald could start the first chapter in North Dakota?
The model made sense to McDonald. "I've always noticed that veterans can talk to veterans easier than they can talk to anyone else," he says. So, in January last year, he started reaching out to local veteran groups and nonprofits, hoping to recruit volunteers to help him set up the nonprofit.
But things didn't go as planned. His efforts got little traction, which he chalks up in part to a perceived lack of legitimacy. "I failed miserably," McDonald says. In the summer, however, he gave it another try, reaching out again. He'd quit his job at Home Depot and started a new position as an outreach specialist for disabled veterans, in addition to studying for a master's degree in mental health counseling. This time, he received positive feedback.
He joined forces with a female veteran who agreed to take on the paperwork, and in the fall, the chapter held its first meeting at the local post of Veteran of Foreign Wars. After reading about the event in the Minot Daily News, about 15 people showed up, most having no idea what the meeting was really about, McDonald remembers. "That brought out a mixed crowd." One participant had lost her brother, a veteran, to suicide in another state two days before and couldn't immediately be with her family. The group was the only source of healing she could find at the time.
"I've always noticed that veterans can talk to veterans easier than they can talk to anyone else."
McDonald felt unsure about the initiative. How, for instance, would he go about reaching veterans removed from society, those who elect to live on farms surrounded by dirt roads, dozens of miles away from the nearest city? His plan was for the group to team up with a San Diego-based nonprofit to build bunk beds for kids. Perhaps a carpenter living in a rural area would hear about the workshops and get Bob, his veteran neighbor, to lend a hand and nail a few planks. Bob would show up and find a community ready to welcome him with open arms. Perhaps the dark thoughts would go away then. Perhaps his life would be saved.
Still, McDonald had mixed feelings about being the face of this effort. How could he talk about saving veterans when he'd come so close to losing himself? "This is my first time admitting this publicly," he wrote on the group's Facebook page in September 2021. "I've kinda felt like a fraud putting together a non-profit that focuses on rural veteran suicide, knowing how close I was just a year ago." But, he continued, "This organization matters to me, veterans' matter to me, YOUR LIFE MATTERS TO ME!!!!!"
A dozen people emerge from the biting cold and file into a spacious conference room inside the Ward County Administration Building in Minot, a rotund edifice with sleek glass panels. The emblems for the five military branches hang on a black wall, bathed in white light. The Minot chapter of Together With Veterans has been scrupulously following a 187-page toolkit developed by the VA for local groups. This evening, they're tackling phase two of a five-step plan: a SWOT analysis β the acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats β of their community.
Ten fresh boxes of Papa John's pizza are stacked on a filing cabinet. The smell of hot, melted cheese fills the room. "Through this process, you guys are helping shape what this organization looks like," McDonald, wearing a cornflower blue polo shirt and a beige baseball cap, tells participants in a pep talk. They're mostly men, veterans ranging in age from mid-30s to late 70s. Some, sporting druid-like gray beards, resolutely prop up their elbows on one of four tables arranged in a rectangle. Others sit at a distance, coats still on. Some won't open their mouth once during the two-hour meeting, as though worried they may break a vow of silence.
Soon, among those willing to talk, the comments pour in. There are the long, depressing winters, says one. Surely that's a weakness. Old veterans have a hard time going grocery shopping, says another. A sexagenarian with a well-trimmed beard chimes in. "Does everybody in the community know that there is a veteran suicide issue?" An Iraq vet in a black hoodie emblazoned with an American flag holds up his smartphone and notes that there's no dedicated website for Together With Veterans. How is that for brand recognition? And by the way, how do we reach younger vets who don't read the local paper?
A man in a green sports jacket and brown boots notes another hurdle: How do we reach veterans with PTSD, who may steer away from big events? How about we do it in an open space, suggests someone. Green Jacket remarks drily that this leaves the group a 60-day window in the summer to organize meets, referring to the interminable North Dakota winters.
By the time the meeting is over, it's apparent the chapter has a lot on its plate. The group isn't even sure about the scale of the issue. When I point out to McDonald that only one veteran committed suicide in the county last year, according to provisional data provided by the North Dakota Health Department, he smirks. This number, he says "seems very, very low." But perhaps it doesn't matter if only one veteran in the whole county is saved. At the very least, veterans who didn't know each other six months ago have banded together, their eyes set on a larger goal than themselves, the despair they may experience at times receding in the depths.
McDonald knows what he's talking about. In the past months he has started meeting with a counselor, talking about his PTSD. Things are finally looking up. The sense of meaning that had eluded him all these years is slowly coming back, in no small part thanks to his involvement with the chapter. "It's a little self-serving, building this nonprofit itself," he says. "I get to accomplish what I need to accomplish for myself." Perhaps he's saved a life already.
Where to get help:
The Department of Veterans Affairs maintains a hotline for veterans in crisis that operates 24 hours a day.
Call 1-800-273-8255 and press 1. Online, visit veteranscrisisline.net/get-help/chat, or send a text message to 838255.
This story appears in the May issue of Deseret Magazine. Learn more about how to subscribe.
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