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Keep up with the latest Institute news with Institute Pulse, our quarterly newsletter. Enjoy a delicious (and healthy) recipe, a staff profile, and program updates.
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1/18/21 – Just posted! Presentations from Institute staff and fellows at the December 2020 inVIVO Project Earthrise 9th annual conference. The theme of the event, Project Earthrise, challenged us to imagine a better world, and to pose fundamental questions about how we live on our planet, how we see ourselves, and how we treat others.
11/20/20 – Cochrane Complementary Medicine newsletter includes details on a bursary award and reviews on topics including cannabis use in older adults and the quality of online CAM-related health information.
10/2/2020—Dr. Chris D'Adamo, Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Institute, joins the nutritionists at the Giant Food Nutrition Made Easy Podcast to discuss lifestyle activities and foods that can help support a healthy immune system.
10/2/2020—In this week's "Quick COVID-19 Primary Care Survey," 41 percent of clinicians say the health of those with chronic conditions is noticeably worse and 86 percent report a pandemic-specific decline to mental health. The primary care workforce is stretched thin as 74 percent of clinicians say they are working between six and 20 hours unpaid per week, and 53 percent of clinicians report their mental/emotional exhaustion is at an all-time high. For more information on this survey or past results, click here.
09/30/2020—Institute Scholar Sara Warber, MD, co-authors paper titled "Methods for Integrating Transdisciplinary Teams in Support of Reciprocal Healing: A Case Study".
9/25/2020— Chris D'Adamo, PhD, was featured on FOX45 Baltimore to discuss the upcoming publication discussing the addition of spices and herbs to vegetables in the National School Lunch Program at a local predominantly African-American high school.
9/18/2020—Chris D'Adamo, PhD, Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and program director at the Institute for Integrative Health, was interviewed by WTOP News about the publication Spice My Plate program at Baltimore's Cristo Rey Jesuit High School.
9/1/2020—Institute program team's paper was accepted for publication featuring the SpiceMyPlate program titled "The addition of spices and herbs to vegetables in the National School Lunch Program increased vegetable intake at an urban, economically-undeserved, and predominantly African-American high school."
9/1/2020— InVIVO Planetary Health and the Institute publish paper in Challenges "Project Earthrise: Inspiring Creativity, Kindness, and Imagination in Planetary Health."
8/11/2020—Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field publishes its second quarterly newsletter, which includes an update from its satellite groups around the world. To read more, click here.
8/4/2020— Institute Scholar, Steven Woolf, MD, MPH, co-authors new paper in The Milbank Quarterly, looking at policies, politics, and life expectancy in the USA.
Some people are talking about re-imagining healthcare and others are focusing on the way that the virus has been shining a bright light on the gross inequities in our country. I don't think that re-imagining is enough. I don't even think that healthcare is the subject. And I don't think that the conversation starts with trying to answer the question, "How do we fix a broken system?" It is time for a paradigm shift. For radical change. Read More
What is the State of Primary Care During COVID-19?
The Institute's Visiting Visionary, Dr. Rebecca Etz, of the Larry A. Green Center, is conducting a weekly nationwide clinician survey to better understand the response and capacity of US primary care practices to COVID-19.
In these challenging times of a global pandemic, many of us are concerned about our health and what we can do to help maintain or improve our overall health and resilience. As part of our mission to empower individuals and promote health, our Institute team offers suggestions for tools and strategies that can be incorporated into everyday living. Learn More
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Spartans Gym
Spartans Warrior Zone
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Spartans Gym + Fitness
Spartans Gym was the result of Australian Body Building Champion Don Mahoney's dream to set up one of the first world class gyms in Australia.
Established in 1991, Spartans Gym was the result of Australian Body Building Champion Don Mahoney's dream to set up one of the first world class gyms in Australia. Spartans is widely renowned as a real 'results' gym, where people from all walks of life come to get fit and maintain a healthy and active lifestyle. Our Gym is affordable for all and features a huge range of modern cardio-vascular equipment, resistance machines, free weights, fitness classes, steam and sauna room, and an indoor running track.
In September of 2011, Spartans Gym was purchased by long term member Danny Vorhauer. The new owner has vowed to maintain the core values and friendly atmosphere that has been synonymous with the Spartans name over the past 20+ years, as well as implementing a number of upgrades to the gym facilities and increasing the quality of service provided to our members.
Spartans Gym covers a MASSIVE 38,000 square feet and includes many different areas dedicated to all types of fitness, weight loss and weight training.
15,000 sqft of fully equipped training space suitable for a large range of different training styles. Cardio machines, old school body building equipment and brand new specifically built bio-mechanically precise machines, competition grade power lifting benches, racks, platforms and functional training space equipped with all that is required for a functional session, rehabilitation work or just general warms ups. The main gym also features a large projector, over 10 fans, evaporative cooling and the Spartans 'fitness for everyone' vibe.
13,000 sqft of pin loaded machines, free weights, barbells and dumbbells to work every part of your body. With a 50m running track around the perimeter of the room, you can jog a lap to keep up you work-out intensity or take a walk around in-between exercises! This area also features our Group Fitness room which hosts over 50 classes a week, as well as a boxing area, stretching space, a private infrared sauna & a specialized Older But Stronger and Body Building Posing room. There's even some space for some mat work and rehab exercises. You'll never run out of things to do in this space!
The 10,000 sqft new Spartans Warrior Zone is not just a fitness arena, it is a community where we come together with like minded people to support & encourage one another. Build each other up to be healthier & the best version of oneself. We offer a range of classes including Boot Camps, Altitude Cycle Room, Meditation, Barre Classes, Reformer Pilates & Crèche.
Spartans Gym has everything you need to achieve your health and fitness goals!
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From Horror to Homelessness: Filmmaker Shifts Gears to Tackle Crisis
Source: Spectrum News 1
LOS ANGELES – Filmmaker Ozlem Altingoz loves horror movies. She came to Los Angeles from her native Turkey to study filmmaking and most of her films thus far have explored the creepy and macabre; but, her work took a turn in response to L.A.'s growing homelessness crisis.
"Since I was a child, I always liked watching the horror movies with my sister," said Altingoz. "Gory stuff, like bloody, something like that. I'm crazy!"
MORE HOMELESSNESS STORIES:
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LA to Transform Rec Centers into Shelters Amid Pandemic
Altingoz, who already has several horror films to her credit, said when she noticed more and more tent camps on the streets of L.A., she couldn't ignore the problem.
"I didn't realize anything [at first], but years passed, years passed and then I saw the big issue about homeless people," she said from My Friend's Place in Hollywood, a resource center for homeless youths that has been operating since 1988. "I was like, 'What's going on?' I need to tell the story about it."
Altingoz worked with the folks at My Friend's Place to make her documentary film, Los Angeles: City of Dreams and Fallen Angels, which is now ready for the film festival circuit.
She was able to work with and tell the stories of several homeless youths who are struggling to build their lives and to thrive in a city that presents many challenges to the "have nots."
"I learned what they have been through, what their stories are," said Altingoz. "I understand them more right now."
Heather Carmichael, executive director of My Friend's Place, said, "Bringing [Ozlem] here was super interesting to us. There's that weird intersection of like, 'horror?' Well, of course that makes sense. Ozlem is accustomed to being able to look into kind of the deep crevices of the psyche, of the community. And then on the social level, we have to wrangle with a really big crisis that many people are terrified of, but this isn't an issue that we can run from. It's one we have to run to."
"My hope is that people have to take action about the homeless people. They have to realize what's going on, they have to try their best."Altingoz added, "My hope is that people have to take action about the homeless people. They have to realize what's going on, they have to try their best."
While making her film, Altingoz could not have predicted how the current COVID-19 pandemic would complicate matters even more, but for now, My Friend's Place is continuing their services, albeit in a more limited capacity, as the city figures out how to shelter L.A.'s most vulnerable population.
Ozlem Altingoz Is Challenging Human Empathy with the Documentary Film "Los Angeles City of Dreams and Fallen Angels"
Source: Emonthlynews In the world of endless opportunities is a crisis that is bound to affect everyone. While only a few seem to care about its existence, homelessness is a reality that will continue to haunt the depths of human empathy
New Documentary 'Los Angeles City of Dreams and Fallen Angels' by Ozlem Altingoz Is a Reminder That Homelessness Is A Crisis, and an Urgent One
Source: theamericanreporter Of all the horror films she has produced ever since, this award-winning filmmaker, Ozlem Altingoz's latest documentary Los Angeles City of Dreams and Fallen Angels, is by far more terrifying than any paranormal activity, after all, it is reality. Ozlem is a US
Multi-Talented Ozlem Altingoz is Making Her Mark in the Filmmaking Industry
Source: theamericanreporter The filmmaking industry is a competitive field to be in. Hollywood, in particular, is known to consist of the best of the best, with directors, producers, and other artists vying for success and having their names engraved in a


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Maurice Pink, Royal Marine bandsman and one of the last men to survive the sinking of the battleship Repulse – obituary
Maurice Pink
Telegraph Obituaries
8 December 2019 • 5:39pm
Maurice Pink, who has died aged 97, was a bandsman in the Royal Marines and one of the last survivors of the sinking of the battleship Repulse, an event which shook the British Empire.
Royal Marines bandsmen were particularly adept at working the complex analogue computers which were used to turn visual and radar reports of targets into firing solutions, ranges and elevations for heavy naval guns. For protection, the fire control computer was situated at a transmitting station in the bowels of the ship, and there Pink found himself in Repulse on December 10 1941, three days after the Japan's pre-emptive strike on the US Navy at Pearl Harbor.
That morning, Repulse and the modern battleship Prince of Wales (which formed Force Z, the deterrent to aggression against British possessions in the Far East) were overwhelmed in the South China Sea by waves of Japanese land-based bombers and torpedo-carriers.
Manoeuvring violently for more than three hours, Repulse survived repeated attacks, was hit by one bomb, but avoided some score of torpedo attacks. Then at about 12:20 she was hit by several torpedoes in succession and, as she listed heavily to port, Captain William Tennant ordered "Abandon ship!"
Pink, fourth from the left, back row, with his Repulse bandmates
Within about six minutes, Repulse rolled over. Pink, in the transmitting station, was thrown against the bulkhead and deafened by the blast of explosions. Disorientated, he had little chance of survival but for a teenage Australian midshipman, John Austin, who led the way in the dark through heavy hatches and up ladders to the open deck.
As Repulse sank bows first with the loss of more than 500 crew out of her 1,300 ship's company, Pink found himself swimming naked for two hours in oily water. Looking up, he saw RAF fighter cover appear overhead. Eventually hauled from the water by the destroyer Electra, he was taken to Singapore.
There, on December 19, he was among 730 survivors from Repulse and Prince of Wales packed into the British India troopship Erinpura and sent to Colombo: other Royal Marines friends were sent to guard the naval wireless station at Kranji and were taken prisoner by the Japanese.
When Pink eventually reached England, in SS Empress of Russia, he rejoined the Royal Marines school of music at their wartime base in Scarborough and received treatment for injuries to his ears.
The Repulse crest
Maurice Alfred Pink was born on May 13 1922 in Barton-upon-Humber in North Lincolnshire, where his father was in the coastguard. After many moves, including to Scotland, and finally to Lytham St Annes, his mother, Elizabeth, said "that's it – no more moves". He was brought up with his siblings in the strict Pentecostal religion; his mother believed in the manifestation of the Holy Spirit and she translated when it spoke in tongues.
When Pink, who was educated at St John's School, Lytham, developed the habit of drumming with knives and forks at the table, his parents decided he should go into the Royal Marines as a Boy Bandsman. So, barely aged 14, he was taken to Blackpool station, put on a train and waved goodbye.
Pink spent two years at the Royal Naval School of Music at Deal in Kent, where he showed a natural gift for music. He specialised in the cornet, but could play many instruments by ear, and his party piece was to play the kettle (but with a mouthpiece covertly inserted).
In July 1943 Pink joined the light cruiser Spartan, seeing action in the Home and Mediterranean fleets, and was in her during the landings at Anzio in January 1944 when she was struck by a glider-bomb. Pink survived, and briefly joined the cruiser Aurora, but his nerves were shattered, and he spent time in hospital suffering from constant, severe headaches, panic attacks and tinnitus.
Memorial to HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales at the National Arboretum
Postwar, Pink continued as a solo cornetist in the Royal Marines band service, playing at ceremonies throughout Britain for more than two years. He met Sylvia Dakin when cycling into Ipswich, and they married in 1949.
Next, he trained as a carpenter, but he was not comfortable on noisy building sites and chose to work on the railway, where he maintained points and signals. He later took a residential electrical course at Ilford before becoming a signalman. His signal box at Sproughton was carpeted and curtained by Sylvia. It was in a remote location and gave him the perfect place to practise dancing: when the box closed in 1984, he retired from the railways.
Pink had played goalkeeper for the Royal Marines and every ship he served in, and for over 60 years supported Ipswich Town. He was at the World Cup final at Wembley in 1966, taking his family to the post-match dinner, where he was photographed proudly holding the trophy.
He saved for four years to travel to Mexico in 1970 and was amazed to find himself staying in the same hotel as the England team. There, Pink, who had been teetotal, was told that he could only get into the team's hotel if he also ordered an alcoholic drink: after his first taste of rum it became his favourite tipple.
In later life he took up bowls, representing Suffolk and winning many trophies and medals. He also liked to write and to recite verse, including "The Lion and Albert" in the style of Stanley Holloway.
Pink served for many years as chairman and then president of the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse Survivors' Association, campaigning strenuously through The Daily Telegraph against the looting of the wrecks, which were designated as war graves, in the South China Sea.
The association raised £12,000 needed to build a permanent memorial to the lost ships and men at the National Memorial Arboretum in Derbyshire, which was unveiled in 2011 on the 70th anniversary of their sinking. In 2017 Pink represented the survivors' association at the naming of the new aircraft carrier Prince of Wales at Rosyth, when he was proud to be presented to the Prince of Wales.
Aged 94, Pink survived a major operation for bowel cancer. When his wife developed Alzheimer's six years ago, he took on the shopping and cooking, and he died 13 days after his beloved Sylvia.
They are survived by their two sons.
Maurice Pink, born May 13 1922, died October 27 2019
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Home / Voices Of Flying / Unusual Attitudes / Why Me, Lord?
FLYING Magazine
Why Me, Lord?
It turns out that bad things happen in threes.
By Martha Lunken
[Illustration by Joel Kimmel]
Bad karma? Gremlins? Maybe Voodoo? It must be something really ugly since I'm finding myself grounded again—this time without both wings and wheels. I'm trying to look at it as a valuable learning process—getting a "crash" course in dealing with insurance companies.
A couple of weeks after the examiner gave me that wonderful gift on Christmas Eve last year and I was back to being a genuine, certified, legal, private pilot, my Cessna 180 went into the shop for annual inspection. It began in mid-January and dragged on well into February, but no problem—the weather was pretty gruesome around here, and I can't yet do any cloud aviatin'. Come March, and I was flying the wings off 72B in spite of an unusually stormy, wet spring in the Midwest. I was nearing the point where I could again hand-fly my auto-pilot-less airplane under the hood while manipulating ForeFlight and a WAAS-enabled Garmin GNS 430 in preparation for the instrument practical test.
It was a glorious morning in early May, when I flew the 180 up the road to Lebanon's Warren County Airport (I68). I think most of us critique ourselves after every flight, usually finding something we could have done better. But this, albeit short flight, was flat-out perfect. I pushed the right buttons, twisted the right knobs, flew a perfect RNAV approach, and even ended with one of those rare "squeaker" landings when you're not sure if you're really on the ground. (And there haven't been many of those lately.)
Lebanon was pretty quiet, so after talking to Mark Day—he's a technician with inspection authorization, or IA—and avionics guru Pete York about an avionics installation, I cranked up to head home. Sitting in the runup area and fiddling with the 430, I suddenly felt a considerable jolt and heard a big thud. Was it a blown tire…a humongous vulture…an earthquake? Maybe an FAA special operations agent trying to keep me away from bridges? Whatever, I shut down and climbed out to see the left wing of a Smith Miniplane embedded in my rudder.
Naturally, my first thought was, "Well, at least I didn't cause this one." A cursory look had me hoping the Miniplane driver just dented my rudder. But a closer look showed the whole tail bent and ominous wrinkles in the vertical stabilizer. My tail (this time the metal one) was back in trouble.
The other pilot knew me and was hugely embarrassed and upset. He's a good guy but was taxiing too fast and not S-turning, so he simply never saw me sitting there. The damage to his airplane seemed limited to a considerable, but fixable dent in his left wing. He was so upset I put my arm around him (stifling the urge to squeeze really tight) and said it wasn't the end of the world (well, not quite), so be thankful that nobody was hurt, take some deep breaths, and calm down.
After Mark Day came out and took a look, he confirmed I wasn't going anywhere. But where would I rather be than here at his shop? We got it in a hangar and the consensus was that calling the FAA was a bad idea. "Heck, nobody is going to say anything." I agreed that calling the FAA was ugly, but I also knew that within hours, the news would be all over the Midwest. And the damage did seem to be "substantial" so I made the call…or tried to. Evidently, the FAA doesn't answer telephones these days; you just leave a message, and if your government is at work, I guess it's from home.
Fast forward to Sunday—four days later—waiting for some word from the Miniplane's insurance adjustor, and driving home from Mass, I hit the world's biggest pothole in a city (Cincinnati) that holds the world record for potholes. My little Beemer nearly disappeared, and it took a tow, two weeks, and $7,500 to straighten out the front end.
Still trying to build a fire under the well-known aviation insurance company to move on the 180 damage, Mark took the tail off, and a friend trucked it to Williams Airframe Components in Kendallville, Indiana. Airframe expert Nathan Whetzel said they were working five weeks out. But sobbing over the phone and sending a big jar of chocolate-covered peanuts seemed to motivate them.
Well, two "events," but I'm not superstitious about bad things happening in threes. Wrong! Some wonderful friends offered their Cessna 182s for my IFR prep, but I decided to wait on 72B and treated myself to a Cub fix at Stewart's Field in Waynesville. It was a perfect Cub morning with puffy white clouds dotting a blue, blue sky over the green, green farm fields of southern Ohio. After a few landings, I left the pattern for some "contour flying" and a few whifferdills. Of course, the door and window were open but I'd forgotten about the iPad mini I'd tucked under my leg. Something felt wrong, and after a thorough search of the Cub, I uttered a string of unrepeatable words, realizing that the iPad was in somebody's corn or soybean field.
Dumb? Well, yes, since I should have had it strapped securely to my leg. But the bigger question is, what kind of a jerk takes an iPad to track with ForeFlight when flying a Cub? I deserved to lose the damned thing.
I knew I could pinpoint the location where the skydiving iPad landed but decided against it; it was likely shattered, and from my FAA days working with crop dusters in Illinois, I knew the chemicals in fertilizers and insecticides could be deadly.
Besides, I like to think about the speculation of anthropologists or archeologists 2,000 years from now when they unearth this strange gadget in an area where the Mound Builders, and later, Tecumseh and the Shawnees roamed.
I can picture their astonishment when they uncover the strange little device which seems to prove ancient people flew airplanes and shopped on something called Amazon.
Martha Lunken
Martha Lunken is a lifelong pilot, former FAA inspector and defrocked pilot examiner. She flies a Cessna 180 and anything with a tailwheel, from Cubs to DC-3s.
More From FLYING Magazine
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Martha Lunken Earns Her Wings (Again)
Parking the 'Flying Fortress'?


Award winning mystery novelist Steve Hamilton: "The best crime fiction comes out of real life"
Posted 12:25 AM, June 7, 2016, by peterzimmermanwgnam
Steve Hamilton and Justin Kaufmann
New York Times best-selling author Steve Hamilton joins Justin to talk about his new book, "The Second Life of Nick Mason." Steve discusses his writing career, how he always wanted to be a writer, working a day job while writing his books, leaving his longtime publisher for a new publisher, setting this new novel in Chicago, the research that went into writing the book, creating the Nick Mason character, thinking about this character and novel as a new series of stories, how crime fiction is sometimes truer than non-fiction and if he ever sees himself writing stories other than crime fiction.
Follow Justin on Twitter and give him a like on Facebook
Topics: Alex McKnight, author, Awesome, Chicago, crime, Detroit, Justin Kaufmann, mystery, Nick Mason, Steve Hamilton, Thriller
Steve and Johnnie
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Justin Kaufmann Pete McMurray
Pete McMurray Full Show 12-17-19: Jake Clemons, Roy Firestone and your favorite concert ever
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Award-winning investigative journalist and author Ben Westhoff: "I think we really need to start thinking of fentanyl and heroin abuse more as a disease and try to treat it"
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The story of musician Jason Narducy's childhood punk rock band is coming to the Chopin Theatre
Actor, activist and Chicago music legend Common: "This environment, as tough as it can be, is also a beautiful way to learn about life and yourself"


Worst movies ever made/ So bad they are funny
By sabu,
December 11, 2014 in General Discussions
I just saw 'Prehistoric Women' for the first time on TCM today. It belongs in the Category: Worst Movies Ever Made. Better yet, it should be in the sub-category: So Bad They are Funny, with 'The Conqueror' starring John Wayne, and "The Tartars" with Victor Mature/Orson Welles (Yes Orson is in this dog).
Since the latter two films are about the same characters in different time periods, but different casting. I would suggest TCM put them together for holiday/weekend viewing as: World's Worst Double-Feature.
traceyk65
My favorites of these are The Giant Claw (giant vulture from an anti-matter universe comes to our universe to lay her eggs (whaaat?) and starts attacking planes) Night of the Lepus (giant mutant bunnies terrorize a small western town, with Janet Leigh rocking disco pants at 45) and The Killer Shrews (mutant shrews (dogs with bath carpets on their backs) lay seige to a small group of people on an island).
roverrocks
LocationMontrose, Colorado
Currently viewing "One Million Years BC". Never watched it before. Utterly absurd but Raquel is quite watchable. This is such a bad movie that there is no dialog except grunts apparently. Too bad to be even funny. So bad it has cult status I believe. Not sure if I can watch till the end. Must have cost about $100 to make it.
LocationMassachusetts
Killer Shrews!!! These are the kind of movies I love to watch when I need a laugh. I have one of those 50 box DVD sets with all sorts of bad movies. Little Shops of Horrors is a fave, most any Roger Corman.
Notan
All excellent nominees below!
I'll throw in Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959).
AndyM108
LocationKensington, MD
In the usual ways that "so bad it's sublime" is thought of, Reefer Madness would be an easy winner.
But with the pretentiousness factor added in, My Dinner With Andre wins in a walk.
Bogie56
LocationTralfamadore
Xanadu followed by Sextette. Like being high on acid without the acid!
Timothy Dalton serenading Mae West with "Love Can Keep Us Together" has to be seen to be believed.
"Trog" (1970), Joan Crawford must have been hitting to booze to do that one. Ah, long gone the glamour days of Hollywood. LOL!
speedracer5
LocationOn a date with my man, Errol Flynn
I love Xanadu! I also second the vote for Reefer Madness. Hilarious.
I'd like to nominate my favorite-- UHF starring Weird Al Yankovich. Amazing film with low production values and cheesy sight gags. Love it!
"Xanadu" does have one nice quality...the theme song "I'm Alive" by ELO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWB3D66-6qU
GladysLipschutz
Absolutely! I really love when poor old Bela Lugosi dies in real life, yet the film marches on with a replacement (never mind he looks NOTHING like Lugosi) LOL!!!
mr6666
aaaaww Traceyk, ya don't think this guy at least deserved a supporting actor oscar nomination???
cmovieviewer
So I can finally appreciate your avatar, mr6666.
What an awesome trailer!
Thank you for mentioning what I was hesitant to state, AndyM. In my earlier days I recall seeing many glowing reviews of MDWA, including one of the original Siskel & Ebert shows. For whatever reason I never watched the movie until I caught it on TCM just this past year, and I couldn't believe how disappointing it was. My initial thought was perhaps it just didn't age well, but I'm not sure how all the new age discussion could have ever been convincing. Unfortunately for me I didn't find it to be bad to the point of approaching funny, as I mostly just felt lost while watching it.
cigarjoe
LocationNY
I'll nominate Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) & The Crawling Eye (1958)
primosprimos
Sound of Music. No contest.
Tikisoo
LocationSyracuse, NY
For me THE KILLER SHREWS hilarity isn't about the silly dog's costumes, but the idea the people try escaping by crab walking through the "shrews" under metal garbage drums!
And NIGHT OF THE LEPUS is particularly funny when there is a close up of a cute bunny face with the big cheeks chewing carrots (in slow motion to make it seem BIGGER) with weird unearthly growling noises added on!
"Monster" movies of the 50's-60's were low budget cheap stuff anyway. They knew they weren't making "art", just crankin' it out for the teen drive-in crowd.
What I find much funnier is the "serious" movies that are just awful misses, like the afore mentioned "DINNER".
There's another one "The Green Slime" (1968), don't know what's more laughable, the monster or the special effects.
Is that a rocket or a submarine?
Who built the space station...Hasbro?
While a list of contenders is surprisingly large (some are mentioned here), for me the prize goes to THE CREEPING TERROR(1963?). You gotta love a movie where a slow moving quilt from outer space slithers along causing havoc to the countryside around Lake Tahoe. It even manages to eat many of the attendees of a record hop in a school gym. Despite having no visible limbs (except from the humans involved in the mechanics of its motion, inadvertently filmed), it's spaceship features knobs made to be operated by hands similar to our own. Best of all, most of the story is narrated, with some cheesy piano music, and an occasional call of "Bobby", because the soundtrack was lost, and there was no money to dub in the dialogue.
I used to love to watch it as a kid on KCOP Channel 13, in their "Saturday night at 11, Sunday afternoon at 3" weekend movie series.
midwestan
Like I said, with Raquel Welch on the set, who needs dialogue?
While a list of contenders is surprisingly large (some are mentioned here), for me the prize goes to THE CREEPING TERROR (1963?). You gotta love a movie where a slow moving quilt from outer space slithers along causing havoc to the countryside around Lake Tahoe. It even manages to eat many of the attendees of a record hop in a school gym.
That one was featured on MST3K. The comments made during the dance scenes were as side-splittingly funny as anything I've ever heard.
That movie played my neighborhood theater where I was an usher back in '67. One of the other ushers would stand at the top of the aisle watching and drooling every night at the bare-legged, gams-gifted Raquel as she trudged around in that dumb picture. He was s-m-i-t-t-e-n.
He told me several times about how "she's perfect". He couldn't stop saying it.
Little Shops of Horrors is a fave, most any Roger Corman.
I don't think that's a so-bad-it's-funny film, it's just plain ol' great and hilarious. The script is a standout, it's really clever. I watched it recently on TCM for the first time since I was a kid and I was taken by surprise.
One film that jumps to the front of my mind is Hell Squad (1986). A team of Vegas babes become special forces commandos for some reason I forget. They spend most of their time cruising in a jeep and taking group baths (at which times the phone, on the other side of the room, invariably rings.) Very silly and funny, with many more draws than just the over-the-top sexy stuff.
(P.S. I feel inclined to jump to the defense of My Dinner With Andre. I really liked it when I watched it recently. Though maybe if you dislike Andre as a person it would diminish the enjoyment. Remind you too much of someone you've met, maybe?)
BTW, they're showing The Manitou later on Underground again tonight
though it's followed by Beast with Five Fingers with Peter Lorre & Robert Alda


Home News Windows 10 to Get Spotlight-like Launcher in May This Year
Windows 10 to Get Spotlight-like Launcher in May This Year
Last Updated: April 18, 2020 9:29 am
I've been both a macOS and Windows 10 user in the past couple of years. And one of the handiest features of macOS will definitely have to be Spotlight. It's a system-wide search feature that lets you easily look for files, folder, settings, and more on your PC. Windows 10 is now rumored to be getting a similar feature in May later this year.
As per The Verge, Microsoft has been hard at work building a Spotlike-like launcher to replace the current Win + R shortcut. The latter offers limited functionality and power users nowadays want quick and easy access to files and features. The Win + R shortcut is also not truly accessible to casual users – who don't know all of the commands.
The new launcher, however, will make it simpler for users to search for apps and files across Windows 10. It will live under PowerToys, which saw its revival earlier last year. The company recently renewed focus on this much-loved feature from the past and it may arrive as PowerLauncher, as per the PowerToys Github, to replace Win + R.
Microsoft will offer a modern Fluent Design UI, something close to the current search functionality already baked into Windows 10. But, it will certainly be flush with more features as compared to search. The company also plans to make it customizable with the use of plugins.
Further, Microsoft PowerToys lead Clint Rutkas shared a poll on Twitter earlier this week, asking users to help name the new launcher. There's still a few hours to go and "PowerToys Run" seems to be in the lead, so go ahead and vote for your choice right here:
Help us name our Win+R project (we call launcher internally) for Power Toys. It can do more than just launch apps so trying to be sure we have a great, straight forward name that works for everyone
— Clint Rutkas (@ClintRutkas) April 15, 2020
Note: The launcher image used above is only for representational purposes. It is a concept by UX designer Niels Laute. But, it would be amazing if PowerToys Launcher did look like that.
If recent reports are to be believed, then Microsoft will most likely release a public beta for PowerLauncher to Windows 10 testers in May 2020.
Featured Image Credits: Medium/Niels Laute
Asif Shadab Malick Apr 19, 2020 At 7:11 am
You have got it wrong. This is different. It's about the run command which most common people aren't aware of or don't use. What you are referring to,
"system-wide search feature that lets you easily look for files, folder, settings, and more on your PC"
already exists. Just tap the windows key and search your query. It will search across all the files, apps, programs on your pc as well as cloud. Not just that, it will even search for a particular word you may be looking for in a pdf file, or a word document, or may be even just a picture of a document you took using your phone and show it in the results. It's that powerful and it has been there for a long time. The only prerequisite is that your files from which you wish to search be either stored locally or in your OneDrive.
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ArtWork Analysis
Art Analyzes
Narkissos - Caravaggio
Garden and Water Lilies in Giverny - Claude Monet
"Philosophy-Medicine-Law" - Gustav Klimt
The Kiss - Gustav Klimt
Self-Portraits - Albrecht Dürer
The Kiss, 1907-1908, Oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm, Belvedere Museum, Vienna, Austria.
Being one of the most popular paintings of Gustav Klimt from 1907-08, "The Kiss" is also considered as the most successful work of the artist. This painting represents the culmination of the period in which Klimt's in the "golden period". In this period, "gold assets" are used extensively in the tables. Klimt described in the picture a man hugging a woman and kissing her. In this illustration, he made an illustration of the theme of the embracing of the people seen in his previous works. His work on the Beethoven frieze for the Beethoven exhibition in Vienna in 1902, entitled "Praise for Joy," was an example. Here he had drawn a pair of naked, wrapped around each other, symbolizing the hug that embraced the whole world. In 1904, Klimt painted a series of murals adorning the dining room of the Stoclet Villa in Brussels. The painter depicted two people wrapped in each other on the mural. This painting symbolized the "reunion". The same motif soon emerged in the "The Kiss" table as an even more obvious indication of the reconciliation and unity between the two genres in an improved form.
In Klimt's depictions of people who embraced each other, while the face of the man was not shown, all the emphasis was made on the woman. Women were Klimt's favorite subjects. Men's faces were usually covered or hidden. In this picture, a man leaned on a woman, pressed his lips to his cheek, and his face was turned away from the viewer. The woman, whose head was bent at an unnatural angle, was depicted as ecstatic in the man's arms.
Klimt emphasized the painting surface by reminiscent of the Byzantine mosaics. In his design, he used both geometric shapes and abstract decorative shapes with floral patterns. It was seen that the couple in the picture was left out of the woman's feet with only the head and hands. They kneeled in a balanced manner on a ground covered with flowers. The background was quite plain and empty. The lack of a distinctive decor led to the impression that the painting might have come from any time and place. Klimt was thus brought a cosmic dimension of love as if it were possible only beyond the real world. There was an ivy crown at the beginning of the man, and the woman had flowers in her hair. There were golden clothes on the couple and the contrasting patterns in their clothes attracted attention. The man's clothing was decorated with angular shapes and black and white rectangles. The woman's garment was wrapped with bright colored rounded with items to create a contrast. Klimt's formal choices evoked the differences between men and women. Although the different patterns define the bodies of the figures, these patterns overlapped and symbolized their togetherness. At the same time, the yellow strips pouring out of the woman's feet and the flower bundle covering the lower right part of the table are associated with the woman's garment, but the possibility of them being stylized hair curls.
Klimt described the association between the two sexes in this table. But there were also those who argued that the tensions between man and woman were depicted masterfully and subtly. Decorations on the couple's clothing; The two contradictions caused the opposite elements to complement each other or create an uncompromising contradiction. The decorations of the couple's clothes depicted in the painting; The two contradictions caused the opposite elements to complement each other or create an uncompromising contradiction. The woman didn't resist but her hands were tense and she grasped the rock with her toes. This situation has revealed two opposite views with women's comments based on pleasure or anger. Although the couple hugged, it was like there was no relationship between them. The pair's distance from each other showed another contrast.
In the picture, which was full of uncertainties, they were seen that at first glance, the man built his physical superiority. However, the woman was on the knees and the equality of the height of the male standing was also interpreted as the female is longer than the male.
While Klimt was a peremptory woman in his previous works, it was an innovation in his painting that he was a submissive woman in "Kiss". This time was the dominant man and he had the initiative of kissing. The models depicted in the picture were thought to be Klimt himself and Emilie Flöge. Emilie Flöge was a comrades friend to Klimt from 1891 to his death.
Klimt had used a gold powder coating technique to create a shiny background in "Kiss". He applied shiny gold foil to the clothes of the figures and made decorative spirals and folds on gold. Klimt, who started his acquaintance with Gold in his father's jewelry shop, was also interested in the rich gold mosaics. At the age of 14, he learned this technique at the School of Applied Arts in Vienna. Klimt developed this technique in 1903 when he saw it in Byzantine mosaics on a trip to Ravenna, Italy.
"The Kiss" had eliminated the question marks that led to the ambiguities and controversies about the art of Klimt and gained great success. "The Kiss", which was shown in 1908 at the "Art Show" (Kunstschau) exhibition, was considered a masterpiece despite the negative criticism of the exhibition.
Products designed for "The Kiss"
Bibliography;
Lunday, E., (2013). Büyük Sanatçıların Gizli Hayatları, Beşinci Baskı, Domingo Yayınevi, İstanbul.
Çev:Kundakçı, D., (2004). ArtbookKlimt Altın Renkli Bir Arka Plan ve Sezession, Birinci Baskı, Dost Kitabevi, Ankara.
Neret, G., (2006). Klimt, Birinci Basım, Taschen/Remzi Kitabevi, İstanbul.
Dickins, R., (2013). Ünlü Resimler, İkinci Baskı, Sıfıraltı Yayıncılık, Ankara.
Farthing, S., (2014). Sanatın Tüm Öyküsü, İkinci Baskı, Hayalperest Yayınevi, İstanbul.
-----------. Klimt, Birinci Baskı, Boyut Yayın Grubu, İstanbul.
Klimt - Quinary Magnet Set
Picasso - Quinary Magnet Set
Van Gogh - Quinary Magnet Set -II-
Degas - The Star - Necklace
Vermeer - Girl with a Pearl Earring - Necklace
Da Vinci - Mona Lisa - Earring
Frida - Self-Portrait - Wooden Candle Holder
Klimt - Stoclet Frieze - Wristband
Klimt - Stoclet Frieze - Ring
Van Gogh - Sunflowers - Ring
Van Gogh - Sunflowers - Socks
Hokusai - The Great Wave of Kanagawa - Socks
Alexandros - Venus de Milo - Socks
Dali - Melting Watch - Necklace
Gauguin - Woman With Flower - Small Size Notebook
Steinlen - Chat Noir - Medium Size Notebook
Klimt - The Kiss - Canvas Art Print
Picasso - Guernica - Canvas Art Print
Magritte - The Treachery of Images - Canvas Art Print
Van Gogh - Painting / Project Bag
Monet - Water Lilies - Wristband
Botticelli - The Birth of Venus - Backpacks
Van Gogh - Starry Night - Shoulder Bag
Degas - The Star - Bookmark
Klimt - The Kiss - Bookmark
Van Gogh - Starry Night - Bookmark
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The amazing Jade Helm conspiracy theory, explained
By Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesias May 6, 2015, 1:30pm EDT
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The UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour presented by Heineken at the Alamo on April 15, 2015, in San Antonio, Texas. (Photo by Rick Kern/Getty Images for Heineken)
Rick Kern/Getty Images
From July 15 to September 15, a large body of American military personnel will sweep through the Southwestern United States to conduct Jade Helm 15, which, depending on whom you ask, is either an unusually large training exercise or a plot to shred the Constitution and place Texas under martial law.
BREAKING!! Jade Helm 15 Is Martial Law in The USA, Russia To Arm Insurgents In The USA! https://t.co/bg7DjttCRW
— PredictionMan (@PredictionMan) March 30, 2015
As far as conspiracy theories go, it's not especially juicy. But it's gained legs because Texas Republican politicians have been curiously reluctant to actually say that the US isn't attempting a military takeover of Texas. Instead, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the State Guard* to monitor the exercise, while Ted Cruz reached out to the Pentagon seeking more details. Each politician who goes fuzzy on Jade Helm further fans the flames of in-state paranoia and out-of-state media rubbernecking, driving this sideshow story deeper into the national spotlight.
What is Jade Helm 15?
It sounds like a Magic: The Gathering card or a Dungeons & Dragons artifact, but Jade Helm 15 is what the Defense Department calls a realistic military training (RMT) exercise. According to the Pentagon, American special operations forces will do some make-believe counterinsurgency in the Southwestern United States. The scenario planning includes this slide, which, if you are reading it very literally and completely out of context, could be construed as an effort to label the conservative states of Utah and Texas as hostile territory primed for a military takeover.
Jade Helm 15. (DOD)
Related to some of the conspiracy theorizing is that hostile territory is colored in red and friendly territory is in blue. In military exercises it's convention to label the hostile force the red team; this convention, by coincidence, lines up with the post-2000 convention of labeling Republican-held states as red and Democratic-held ones as blue, and that's helped fan the flames of paranoia about President Obama trying to occupy Texas. Even Chuck Norris is worried.
What are some versions of the conspiracy theories around Jade Helm?
Unfortunately, the nature of conspiracy theories is that they don't always exist in canonical form. The funniest version of the Jade Helm conspiracy comes from the website All News Pipeline, which connected the dots between Jade Helm and the closure of several Texas Walmarts to ask, "Will these massive stores soon be used as 'food distribution centers' and to house the headquarters of invading troops from China, here to disarm Americans one by one as promised by Michelle Obama to the Chinese prior to Obama leaving the White House?"
Ahiza Garcia of TPM obtained an official denial from Walmart that the store closures were related to an imminent military takeover, but of course that's what you would expect them to say.
Alex Jones's Infowars has walked a tight line on the story, eager to attract the attention of the conspiracy-minded with heavy Jade Helm coverage while also being clear to add disclaimers like, "That is not to say that a military takeover is imminent." Rather, Jones's milder version of the theory is that Jade Helm basically is a training exercise, just a training exercise whose purpose is to practice a military takeover of Texas.
How did this become a national news story?
It's basically Texas Governor Greg Abbott's fault. Internet conspiracy theories are fun, but a little commonplace. Things took a turn on April 27 when a crowd of about 150 people turned up to a county commissioners' meeting in Bastrop County, southeast of Austin, full of Jade Helm concerns.
The next day, Governor Abbott sought to put those fears to rest without wanting to sound dismissive of his constituents' anti-Obama paranoia. Consequently, he wrote a letter to the Texas State Guard requesting that they monitor the proceedings, because "it is important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed." This managed to elevate the level of attention on the issue, to validate the conspiracy theorists, and to give bored reporters the opportunity to ask other Texas politicians to weigh in.
That's how we got Senator Ted Cruz asking the Pentagon for reassurances. (The Pentagon's official line is that they are not planning a takeover, but again, that's what you would expect them to say.)
But it took Rep. Louie Gohmert to really kick things up to a level of gross irresponsibility. In a statement on the matter he says he "certainly can understand" the Jade Helm worries, and casts blame for the matter not on conspiracy theorists but on the military and the Obama administration:
Once I observed the map depicting 'hostile,' 'permissive,' and 'uncertain' states and locations, I was rather appalled that the hostile areas amazingly have a Republican majority, 'cling to their guns and religion,' and believe in the sanctity of the United States Constitution. When the federal government begins, even in practice, games or exercises, to consider any U.S. city or state in 'hostile' control and trying to retake it, the message becomes extremely calloused and suspicious.
Is Gohmert even characterizing the map accurately?
No. It is true that Utah and Texas are Republican-majority areas, but the map also depicts Southern California in red, solidly Republican Arizona in blue, and Democratic-leaning New Mexico in brown ("leaning hostile"). That's because it is not a map of partisan politics in the United States. It is a map of a military training exercise.
What larger point about American politics does this illustrate?
Ezra Klein recently wrote about new political science research into an interesting paradox — Americans are growing less likely to identify as Democrat or Republican, but more likely to exhibit highly partisan voting behavior. The reason, it turns out, is that partisanship is increasingly driven by hatred and fear of the other guy rather than love of your team.
Jade Helm illustrates this in two directions.
On the one hand, the willingness of Texas conservatives to believe that Obama wants to go beyond the whole job-killing tax hike agenda to actually facilitating a Chinese takeover of the US Southwest says a lot about where we are hatred-wise, and what some of us, at least, are willing to believe about the other side.
At the same time, perhaps more telling is the response of elected Texas Republicans who are showing they are aware, on some level, that their own standing in office depends more on their constituents' hatred of the other guys than on affection for themselves. Consequently, while they certainly don't want to embrace wild conspiracy theories, they want to signal solidarity for the over-the-top anti-Obama zeal that gives rise to them.
* Correction: An earlier version of this story said the letter was sent to the Texas National Guard; the Texas State Guard is a different institution.


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Stats NZ Home > Browse for statistics > Industry sectors > Alcohol availability > Alcohol and Tobacco Available for Consumption: Year ended December 2009
Alcohol and Tobacco Available for Consumption: Year ended December 2009
The statistics contained in this release are a measure of the amounts of alcoholic beverage and tobacco released to the market, and therefore available for consumption. The statistics do not necessarily apply to actual consumption. Information is not available to measure the change in the level of stocks that may be held pending sale, and therefore not yet consumed. The figures also exclude the production of alcoholic beverages by households.
The volume of beer available for consumption is obtained from New Zealand Customs Service (NZCS) figures on beer produced for local consumption on which duty has been paid, and Statistics New Zealand external trade statistics. Domestically produced beer with less than 1.15 percent alcohol content is excluded from these statistics. The estimates of beer available for consumption also exclude beer produced by private individuals with home-brewing equipment.
The volume of alcohol available from beer is calculated using the five categories used to calculate excise duty. These categories are:
not more than 1.15 percent alcohol volume (external trade statistics only)
more than 1.15 percent but not more than 2.5 percent alcohol volume
more than 2.5 percent but not more than 4.35 percent alcohol volume
more than 4.35 percent but not more than 5 percent alcohol volume
more than 5 percent alcohol volume.
The volume of beverage in each category is multiplied by 0.0115, 0.01825, 0.04, 0.04675, and 0.051, respectively. This converts the volume of beer available for consumption to the volume of alcohol available for consumption.
The factor of 0.04 was chosen to calculate the volume of alcohol of beer containing more than 2.51 percent but not more than 4.35 percent alcohol because the majority of beers produced in this range have 4.0 percent alcohol content.
The volume of wine available for consumption is obtained from NZCS figures on wine produced for local consumption on which duty has been paid, and from Statistics NZ external trade statistics. Domestically produced wine with less than 1.15 percent alcohol content is excluded from these statistics. The estimates of wine available for consumption also excludes wine produced by private individuals with winemaking equipment.
The volume of table wine available is multiplied by 0.11, and the volume of fortified wine is multiplied by 0.18, to calculate the volume of alcohol available in these wines. Results of the Study of the Alcohol Content of Alcoholic Beverages conducted by the then Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) between 1976 and 1987 are used to determine the average alcohol content of table and fortified wine.
The volume of spirits and spirit-based beverages available for consumption is obtained from NZCS figures on locally produced/bottled spirits on which duty has been paid, and from Statistics NZ external trade statistics.
The data used to calculate available spirits is expressed in absolute alcohol content. However, spirit-based beverages which have an alcohol content of less than 23 percent are expressed in litres. The volume of alcohol content in spirit-based drinks is calculated using the five categories used to calculate excise duty. These categories are:
not more than 2.5 percent alcohol volume
more than 2.5 percent but not more than 6 percent alcohol volume
more than 6 percent but not more than 9 percent alcohol volume
more than 9 percent but not more than 14 percent alcohol volume
more than 14 percent but not more than 23 percent alcohol volume.
The volume of beverage in each category is multiplied by 0.015, 0.045, 0.08, 0.11, and 0.18, respectively. This converts the volume of spirit-based drinks available for consumption to the volume of alcohol available.
Alcohol per person
Statistics NZ quarterly population estimates are used.
Cigarettes and tobacco
The amount of cigarettes and tobacco available for consumption is obtained from Statistics NZ external trade statistics and NZCS figures on tobacco products cleared for local consumption on which duty has been paid.
For more information, see alcohol for consumption statistics and cigarettes and tobacco statistics on the Statistics NZ website (www.stats.govt.nz).
Information obtained from Statistics NZ may be freely used, reproduced, or quoted unless otherwise specified. In all cases Statistics NZ must be acknowledged as the source.
While care has been used in processing, analysing and extracting information, Statistics NZ gives no warranty that the information supplied is free from error. Statistics NZ shall not be liable for any loss suffered through the use, directly or indirectly, of any information, product or service.
Timed statistical releases are delivered using postal and electronic services provided by third parties. Delivery of these releases may be delayed by circumstances outside the control of Statistics NZ. Statistics NZ accepts no responsibility for any such delays.
Alcohol and Tobacco Available for Consumption: Year ended December 2009 – Hot Off the Press (PDF, 10 pages, 129kB)
Alcohol and Tobacco Available for Consumption: Year ended December 2009 – Tables (Excel, 2 sheets, 37kB)


Approaching The Global Tax Pact from the Peripheral Economies' Viewpoint — Orbitax Expert Corner
1. Optionality: The Original Sin
The Final Report on Action 1 was the greatest failure of the BEPS Plan; it did not conclusively respond to the direct taxation issues posed by the digital economy and, instead, it suggested various options but recommended none, so that the issues remained open and countries became free to proceed unilaterally, which they did widely.
The optionality (come and take as you like) approach postulated by the Final Report to Action 1 opened the door to diverging unilateral responses in the subsequent years, including: (i) The UK-type DPT; (ii) the Indian equalization tax; (iii) the DST utilized all over Europe; (iv) the significant economic presence test used in a variety of jurisdictions, including, among others, Malaysia, Israel, the Slovak republic, and India; and (v) income withholding taxes (WHT) in conjunction with innovative source rules as adopted in Latin America.
2. Subsequent Developments: OECD 2.0 Project. Support from G-20 and the Inclusive Framework
OECD efforts to arrive at a uniform solution for the taxation of the digitalized economy was kept alive after 2015, and, indeed, the process was invigorated with a strong support from the G-20, and the pooling since 2016 of peripheral nations (approx. 140) in the process through the Inclusive Framework.
The creation of the Inclusive Framework allowed OECD to bring into the Project and aligned with the global objectives pursued by the leading nations, a meaningful group of peripheral economies (including the BRICS) gathered to that end, more or less unconditionally, and, at instances, even against their own particular interest. For instance, as a condition for the application of Pillar I on targeted MNEs, all previous unilateral experiments (DST, WHTs, and the like) are to be dismantled. Query whether WHTs are actually caught by the ban, though I definitively believe they should be: If Amount A were to be applied on top of existing WHTs without crediting them against the Amount A attributed to a given jurisdiction, the tax burden in market States would increase beyond what might have been expected by targeted MNEs, thus creating multiple layers of tax on the same item of income, and inter-nation inequities among market jurisdictions with or without existing digital service WHTs at the time of implementation of Pillar I.
3. The Unified Approach: Pillar I and II. Pros & Cons
The OECD Secretariat Proposal for a "Unified Approach" under Pillar I, released in November 2019, was aimed at reaching a viable solution that avoided complexities and increased certainty. To this end, a three-tier mechanism was developed, consisting of Amount A, Amount B as defined, as well as a binding dispute resolution mechanism.
After the final shaping of the Blueprints, later refined and agreed by G20 in October 2021, Amount A equals 25% of residual profits, defined as profits in excess of 10%; amount A is allocated to market jurisdictions in which targeted MNEs are deemed to meet a certain sales threshold, based on an allocation key and source rules. Targeted MNEs are groups with a global turnover of at least EUR 20 billion and a profit margin which exceeds10%.
Pillar I would entail the following advantage which benefits central and peripheral countries as well: It is a global unified response which materializes the pro-business objective of worldwide harmonization by preventing/minimizing the double or multiple taxation situation that otherwise would have arisen from the co-existence of diverging and conflicting unilateral systems of taxation.
Disadvantages for peripheral countries, instead, focus on (i) the excessive complexity for both taxpayers and tax administration, coming from formulary rules on the allocation of income to markets, which apply throughout the chain of entities belonging to targeted MNEs. This entirely new allocation system would co-exist with traditional TP rules, and might be far beyond the tax administrations' current human and technical capacities in peripheral countries; (ii) revenue dissatisfaction: A wide perception among peripheral countries that, under Pillar I, OECD lacked the flexibility required to arrive at a satisfactory outcome that genuinely contemplates their interest. In other words, that compared with competing alternatives (e.g., WHTs, DST) Pillar I would not change much in terms of an actual, meaningful allocation of taxing powers and resulting revenue collection; and (iii) particularly in LATAM, the highly improbable acceptance of binding conflict resolution procedures, bearing in mind that no LATAM country adopted similar procedures (tax arbitration) under the MLI. As designed, these binding procedures would be pivotal for the resolution of expected allocation conflicts in connection with the application of Amount A.
Starting with the mandate of a global minimum tax rate equal to an effective 15% computed on a state-by-state basis, Pillar II, provides a disruptive, innovative income inclusion rule (IIR) which allows the jurisdiction of the ultimate parent to tax controlled entities down the chain, up to the minimum effective 15% rate. Targeted MNEs are those with turnover in excess of EUR 750 million. The implementation of Pillar II would require domestic statutory changes, and if a State does not implement it, it must at least allow other countries to apply the Globe Rules of which IIR is the core.
The predicated advantage of Pillar II centers on the elimination of harmful tax competition (race to the bottom), an objective mainly associated with common practices among industrialized countries. It is worth mentioning, however, that among peripheral countries, the granting of tax incentives is more a pivotal tool associated with macroeconomic and tax policy design geared towards attracting FDI.
Meanwhile, Pillar II imposes a severe limitation on the market States' jurisdictional power to tax or exempt; and a transfer of public revenues to foreign countries (MNEs' home country) through the top up taxation (IIR), which do not appear to be entirely justified under current principles of international law.
Beyond the particular case of passive and other easily allocable income to foreign sources, under certain statutory conditions which are similar among countries, there is no opinion iuris in international tax law allowing one country to tax income that another country (not a tainted offshore jurisdiction) having a primary right to tax decides to exempt or otherwise privilege following its own criterion for tax policy design.
Besides, one may wonder whether this was the most adequate, proportional response to fight tax havens' proliferation: I am persuaded that there might have been others, less detrimental to peripheral countries that are not tax havens. Unless substantive business carve outs are finally contemplated (far beyond that presently contemplated), Pillar II interference with the market/source countries' right to design its tax policy on legitimate businesses operating within their borders is unguaranteed under international law and disproportionate with the objectives pursued.
4. On Winners and Losers: Particular Considerations Addressed to LATAM
Adhering to Pillar I would not be revenue neutral in LATAM. In the years following the 2015 Final Report on BEPS Action 1, WHTs on digital services spread over LATAM. Peru enhanced old rules on technical services to that effect, while Uruguay aimed at enhancing its jurisdictional reach on foreign digital services, adopted source rules which confer tax jurisdiction to the country where the customer or client is situated, regardless of the place where the digital service or goods supplier performs its activities. A similar rule for B2B services was proposed in Argentina in 2017, but eventually discarded. Although the Argentine income tax law has not been changed on point since 2017, the National Tax Directorate (the Argentine Competent Authority for treaty purposes) has issued a couple of opinions beyond the reach of the applicable statutory rules, which collide with the Argentine domestic and treaty rules (Uber and Facebook cases).
In Uber, based on an extravagant assimilation between the digital intermediation activity deployed by Uber from the Netherlands, and the underlying private transport business carried out locally by resident third parties which offer services through the digital platform, the National Tax Directorate found that Uber was engaged in transport business in Argentina; and, on that basis, built the argument that Uber had a Service PE in Argentina under the Argentina-Netherlands Treaty. In Facebook, reverting a binding opinion issued by the tax authorities less than 2 years before, The National Tax Directorate sustained that advertising services rendered from abroad should be characterized as telecommunication services covered by article 14 of the Income Tax Law, thus mixing up, mistakenly, the nature of the digital service provided by Facebook (advertising through a foreign digital platform without an actual transmission to Argentina) with the technological means through which the service is received by local users (the Internet), i.e., a different service usually provided by a third-party ISP to the end user.
Brazil traditionally applies WHTs on payment remittances for technical services rendered from abroad at a 15% rate (or 25% for black-listed jurisdictions), though specific treaties may contemplate lower rates, i.e.10%. Technical services is a concept which might be construed to embody digital services as well.
Most Brazilian treaties establish in their Protocol that technical services should be treated as royalties under article 12. Exceptions to this rule are the treaties with Austria, Finland, France, Japan and Sweden where technical services should be treated as business profits under article 7 as per the Brazilian Federal Revenue Interpretative Act 5/14. More recent treaties provide for technical services in dedicated treaty articles.
Chile, Colombia and Mexico have been, instead, more OECD-aligned concerning the direct taxation of digital services, though proposals have existed in Colombia and Mexico to proceed otherwise.
Pillar II may also be costly to LATAM because of the wide use of the tax systems as a tool to attract FDI, including but not limited to free-trade zones which are significant in Brazil (Manaus), Uruguay (Montevideo, Nueva Palmira), Costa Rica, Argentina (Tierra del Fuego), and sectoral incentives to targeted industries. Query also whether corporate territorial regimes in the region (such as those in Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay) might be impacted by the minimum taxation under Pillar II. There is no readily available data in LATAM on the effect of eliminating current tax incentives to avoid IIR under Pillar II.
5. Soak Up Taxes Ahead
One possible development one might envision within peripheral countries unless business carve out under Pillar II becomes meaningful, is the proliferation of soak-up taxes to neutralize top up taxation, either under the form of a minimal 15% taxation on targeted MNEs, or a provision similar to that existing under Argentine Income Tax law (section 28), pursuant to which tax benefits afforded should not be effective whenever they result in a transfer of revenues to foreign treasuries as would happen with IIR.
Country Global
Author(s) Guillermo Teijeiro, Bomchil, Buenos Aires.
European Union - Greece
European Commission Closes Infringement Proceedings with Greece Regarding ATAD Reverse Hybrid Mismatch Rules
The European Commission closed infringement proceedings with Greece on 26 January 2023 in case INFR(2022)0058 regarding the implementation of the...


It's Not the Economy: Why Unique Baby Names Are Trending Up
What's your name cutie pie?
(Image: © Pshenina_m / Shutterstock.com)
Babies in the United States are less and less likely to share their names with other kids, new research finds.
The trend toward increasingly unique baby names is long-standing, but some researchers had speculated that parents might turn back to tradition amidst the uncertainty of the 2008 Great Recession. Not so, according to a new analysis of Social Security naming data published online Sept. 20 in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
"Through the recession and afterward, American parents continued the trend toward choosing more unique names for their children," said Jean Twenge, a psychologist at San Diego State University and author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled – and More Miserable Than Ever Before" (Free Press, 2007). "That's surprising, because the outsize individualism of the mid-2000s seemed to fade during the recession as the country tightened its belts." [Sophia's Secret: The 10 Most Popular Baby Names]
One-of-a-kind names
Twenge and her colleagues reported in 2010 that Americans had become more fixated on finding unique names for their children. An analysis of the Social Security name database, which contains the names of everyone with a social security number, revealed, for example, that about 40 percent of boys received one of the 10 most common names in the 1880s, but fewer than 10 percent of boys got a top-10 name in 2007.
Multiple lines of research suggest that American culture has been getting increasingly individualistic for at least a century. Surveys reveal more self-focus and less empathy in today's young people than the youth of previous generations, for example, and books are now more likely to contain individualistic words and phrases like "all about me" and "self." Baby names can be an "incredible" window into such individualism, Twenge said. Since choosing a baby's name is not just an attitude measured on a survey, but also a behavior, those names reveal how people are acting, not just what they're saying, Twenge told Live Science.
Twenge and her colleagues found that the percentage of babies receiving the most popular names continued its downhill slide between 2004 and 2015, with the recession causing nary a hiccup in the trend. Between 2004 and 2006, 10.09 percent of U.S. baby boys got a top-10 name. This percentage declined to 8.6 percent between 2008 and 2010, before falling to 8.15 percent between 2011 and 2015.
The increase in unique name choices was more extreme for boys than for girls, possibly because creativity in boy names has historically lagged behind creativity in girl names, Twenge said. Between 2004 and 2006, 8.2 percent of new baby girls got a top-10 name. From 2008 to 2015, that percentage declined to 7.88.
The same patterns held when analyzing the top 25 names or the top 50 names, and in fact were a little stronger, Twenge said. That was an interesting finding, because the popularity of top-50 names isn't as well publicized as the annual list of the top 10, she said.
It's not the economy
The researchers also examined the naming trends against the background of the economy. Some theorists had speculated that increased economic hardship might make people more focused on the community, and thus cause a decline in individualism. One study, published in 2013 in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, found increases of communal behavior like charitable activity among high-schoolers during the 2008 recession. But baby names didn't follow that pattern, Twenge said. [7 Baby Myths Debunked]
There was also no difference in the trend toward uniqueness between Texas and California, two states that were affected very differently by the recession. (All of the results were adjusted to take the immigration rate into account, as immigrants presumably bring new names with them into the country.)
"There's just a longer-scale trend toward uniqueness and individualism that isn't necessarily rooted in these economic cycles," Twenge said.
The researchers did find that higher median family income correlated with the trend toward fewer common names. Income inequality also correlated with fewer Sophias and Jacobs, which are two of the most popular baby names for girls and boys, respectively. These findings don't prove that income and relative income explain all the unique baby names out there. However, other scientists have found that income inequality correlates with higher self-regard.
"Maybe people feel like they need to stand out more because only some people make it," Twenge said.
It's important to note that, opinions on the name Nevaeh aside, today's Millennial parents aren't dramatically more monstrous than the Gen-Xers or Baby Boomers that came before. The change in individualism has been gradual, moving only a few points on the scale from generation to generation. And Americans still value friends and family as much as they ever did, even as they become less communal in other ways, according to 2012 research.
Besides, some facets of individualism are probably good. Millennials tend to value differences and practice tolerance, Twenge said. Individualism is a lens to help people understand cultural shifts, both good and bad, she added.
"I'd like to start a conversation, to have people talk about the changes in our culture," she said.


Madison West High School
Forever 18 A-G
Forever 18 H-M
Forever 18 N-Z
Nancy Allin Nelson Obituary
Robin Allin's Sister
This is a remembrance for a life fully lived. Nancy was born on October 4, 1947 in Madison, WI and she died peacefully at home, surrounded by family, on August 5, 2020 . In those intervening years she taught children, raised children (3), doted on grandchildren (7), nourished her community through volunteer service and non-profit work, and most significantly, gave a fierce love and devotion to her husband of 51 years, Russ. She was a strong believer in finding the joys in life and in advocating for positive change in the world. She found peace and wonder in the natural world – whether at her cherished cabin in Northern Wisconsin or on her many trips – with Russ, family, friends – to places of remarkable beauty in the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Arctic. Her photographer's lens was sharply focussed, on the stamens of lilies, the still waters of northern lakes, or the feathers of baby loons.
Nancy loved nothing more than to gather her people together. She brought deep love to her relationships: as wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, sister and friend. She was closely involved in her grandchildren's lives, actively involved in their early years, and nurturing their individual talents and passions as they have grown. Nancy kept in touch with many, both near and far, as evidenced by a dog-eared address book that charted each move and new addition to the extended network of Nelsons, Allins, and her ever widening circle of friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Dr. Robin and Ruth Emery Allin, and by her brother, Lyndon King Allin. She is survived by her beloved husband Russ Nelson, her children Matthew Allin Nelson (Kelley Nelson), Erica Marie Nelson (Dylan Howitt), and Marin Elizabeth Nelson (Darrin Kovar), and her grandchildren Tyler and Zachary (Matt and Kelley), Sylvie (Erica and Dylan), Teddy and Lincoln (Marin and Darrin), step-grandchildren Quentin and Ozzi (Darrin), brother Robin Allin Jr., best friend and sister-in-law Judy Nelson, niece Vicki Homuth and many other cherished family members.
Travelling back to a crucial juncture, Nancy first went to Knox College for her freshman year, then transferring to the University of Wisconsin – Madison to finish her undergraduate degree (and to be closer to her "sweet Russie"). She received her Bachelor of Science Degree with Honors in Elementary Education and a minor in French in 1969. She and Russ then embarked on a series of adventurous moves – first to Seattle, then New York City, and back to Madison teaching elementary school in each location. In 1978, she and Russ moved to Minneapolis and became official Twin Citians, raising their three children at 2817 Brookwood Terrace, near the banks of the Minnehaha creek.


Brennen Bryarly Looks Back at The Hundred's First Year Today
It was one year ago when I spoke with Brennen Bryarly about his idea: to top into 100 personally chosen tastemakers in Denver to be a part of a monthly community event that brought renowned dance music to the people. That first night on November 19, 2011 at Beauty Bar featured Damon Allen, along with Brennan, otherwise known as Option4, locals Mike D. and Peter Black.
It was an intimate but vibrant gathering of dance fanatics who would soon begin to become fast friends over the course of each party, month over month. With each act that popped on the bill, from Fred Falke and Moon Boots, to Gigamesh and Todd Edwards, excitement and popularity for The Hundred grew while retaining that level of community that became extinct long ago in most cities and dance culture, overtaken by 'massives' and large clubs.
Brennen, through his vision-turned-reality, has taken community-oriented dance culture back to its roots, putting the music itself and the passionate dance-heads at the center while pushing aside the dress-to-impress, bottle service, go-go dancer, twenty-bucks a head commercialized era of EDM that began over ten years ago.
"Early on when I realized that this was real; that this was something serious, that it was something legitimate, was when we threw our second party," Brennen recalled as we sat in the back room of the Marquis in the early hours following Kitsune Club Night, which featured The Twelves and Option4.
It was the second party for The Hundred that took place after Christmas in 2011. Brennen had booked San Francisco DJ Mike Hill, and as with any professional promoter, he needed to estimate what a given DJ would 'pull' here in Denver. While that pull may not be as strong here as say, in Los Angeles or Chicago, he has is an instinct for what works and how to make it work.
The Hundred promotion wheels turned, pushing one of Mike Hill's new singles through the month leading up to the night of the party. Brennen explains the conversation he had with Hill after he picked him up from the airport, letting the SF DJ know what he'd been promoting for weeks. "[Hill] said, 'You know what? Maybe I'll drop the unreleased B-side [of the single] that never got out.' So I was like, yeah dude play it!"
As the night went on things were ramping up, getting hot and sweaty, when Hill dropped that B-side, a track that no one had ever heard. Because crowd were more than familiar with the original track, there was instant, instinctive recognition of Hill's new material by all the kids on the dance floor.
"Because the crowd knew what we'd been pushing all month, you see this uproar from the crowd singing the B-side. As an artist that's the most magical feeling in the world, when you play a song out that's yours, and you see the crowd and people already know it, and they sing the words, they vibe and they connect with it. To see people do that on something that [they hadn't] actually heard, 'cause it was unreleased, that's when I knew that we had a direct connection with these people. So when we push something, everybody gets involved. They're excited for the same reason. They're excited for the experience. They're excited for the music.
That was the first time I was like, 'Wow. This is Legitimate.' We can take somebody that doesn't have a lot of pull in Denver, promote the nonsense out of it, and then everybody's excited. They can't wait to see it 'cause its good quality music. And when it happens, people attach themselves to that. That was probably one of the best moments of the year for me…outside of Jacques Renault."
The private Hundred party that night surpassed Brennan's wildest dreams. Having already been a Renault fan, Brennen was more than excited to have the renowned DJ in Denver for his intimate event. He also kept the headliner a secret. And he made it free. Because all The Hundred peeps had the faith, there were two hundred or so boys and girls in attendance.
I knew he was super sick with a cold, but there he was smiling and dancing as if he was in tip-top shape. Because he was. "That was one of the most special moments of my life. It was a Sunday night. We put two hundred people in this building going ape wild crazy. Jacques was playing; he was having the time of his life. When the stage flooded, when 'Beat Me Up' went on…I'm looking at all these people. I know them all by name. 'Oh my god this is happening for free. This is what we spent our profit on.'"
In addition to solidifying his place and The Hundred's loyalty base here in Denver, as Option4, he's also been a busy guy, releasing an E.P., "Into The Night," in August of this year that went to number 6 it's first week on Beatport. In the last year Brennen's also given up his day job, which allows him to focus on music on a full-time basis, continue as the resident DJ at Lipgloss every Friday (at Beauty Bar), while also doing producing work for other artists and getting out on the road to tour.
With all this and more coming out from Brennen aka Option4, it was no surprise that his latest track is called "Do Work." If there's two things that Brennan knows well, it's music and hard work.
The Hundred Anniversary party takes place Saturday, November 24 at Beauty Bar, with Jerome LOL, Option4, Lust (Holy Underground), Narky Stares (Damn Gurl), ENSO (San Francisco), starting at 9pm and going until the morning hours. Cover is only $7. See you there.
Listen to the Kaffeine Buzz Show Interview with Option4 on Hoxton Radio by kaffeinebuzz
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How You Can Help Australia During Wildfire Crisis
Faith Strong Contributor
As bushfires continue to spread through rural communities, Australia is facing an unprecedented national crisis with loss of lives, wildlife, and homes. Authorities are calling for evacuations and citizens have taken to social media to ask for help. At the time of this writing, the fires have taken the lives of 27 people, including three firefighters, as well as over half a billion animals. Currently, 18 million acres of land have been incinerated.
The situation is grim and our prayers are with the country and the people of Australia. Additionally, Faith Strong Today has compiled a shortlist of organizations helping to provide relief amid this disaster. Below you will find just a few ways you can help through financial or practical donations.
A Few Ways to Help
Australian Red Cross – Providing practical, local support, the Australian Red Cross provides relief and supplies to the people impacted during disasters. They also provide non-financial ways to help, including donations of clothing and small homewares, volunteering roles, and blood drives. Donate here.
Victoria, Australia Fire Departments – Partnering with the Salvation Army and Bengido Bank to create the Victorian Bushfire Appeal, the Victoria Government is giving one hundred percent of the funds donated directly toward communities in need. Donate here.
New South Wales Rural Fire Service – Comprised of 2,100 rural fire brigades with a total of about 72,000 volunteer firefighters. Donations made to the NSW Rural Fire Service or local Rural Fire Brigade will directly benefit the organization's volunteers. Donate here.
Samaritan's Purse – Spearheaded by evangelical pastor Franklin Graham, Samaritan's Purse aims to provide "spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world." Donations help enable staff and volunteers to provide relief to those in need through relief supplies. Donate here.
Hillsong Church – In response to the unprecedented and ongoing devastation caused by the Australian Bushfires over the last several months Hillsong Church has organized a Global Bushfire Appeal. 100% of giving will go towards assisting volunteer firefighters across the country and supporting families directly affected by the fires. Donate here.
Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital – Bindi Irwin, the daughter of famed wildlife conservationist and "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, has been taking in many displaced animals to the Irwin family owned Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital. The zoo's Wildlife Warriors program is raising money for new enclosures to house flying foxes and koalas injured or displaced by fires. Donate here.
World Wildlife Fund Australia – This chapter of the international wildlife conservation organization is accepting donations to care for injured wildlife and, when the fires clear, to plant 10,000 native trees in critical koala habitat. Donate here.
Matthew McConaughey Talks Faith in Hollywood, Life Philosophy on Podcast


OCC names senior vice president, enterprise risk management
By Scuttlebutt2017-04-11T15:45:00+01:00
OCC, the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, has appointed David Ridgway, a former senior risk management executive with BNY Mellon, as senior vice president, enterprise risk management. Ridgway reports to Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer John Fennell.
Ridgway joins OCC from BNY Mellon, where he served from October 2013 to the present, most recently as North America head of risk, investment management. In this role, Ridgway was responsible for providing risk support, oversight, and advice across all risk classes with respect to the North American asset and wealth management business, distribution businesses, and support functions, with total assets under management of $1.6 trillion. He also was the risk management advisor for strategic growth initiatives, acquisitions and new business, and originated and led the implementation of risk appetite within asset management, partnering with the executive team and serving as a member of the investment management risk committee.
Prior to BNY Mellon, Ridgway was the interim head of corporate and operational risk for Threadneedle Investments from April to September 2013, where he had global responsibility for all aspects of corporate and operational risk management for the London-based asset manager with assets under management in excess of $100 billion. Previously, Ridgway was global head of operational risk for BlackRock in New York from November 2009 to March 2013, where he had global responsibility for all aspects of the firm's operational risk management across all products and geographies with assets under management of $3.8 trillion.
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A Tribute to Veterans
New York Times: FBI infiltrated Portland protests
Jim Redden
The Dec. 23 article said some FBI agents were concerned about violating First Amendment rights.
Undercover FBI agents infiltrated and sometimes videotaped political protests in Portland in 2020 and 2021, according to The New York Times.
Some of the protests were far away from any federal property, the Dec. 23, 2021, article said. Information provided by some of the agents contributed to an unspecified number of arrests.
According to the story, some FBI officials were concerned the tactics threatened First Amendment rights.
"The breadth of F.B.I. involvement in Portland and other cities where federal teams were deployed at street protests became a point of concern for some within the bureau and the Justice Department who worried that it could undermine the First Amendment right to protest against the government, according to two officials familiar with the discussions," said the article, headlined, "The FBI Deployed Surveillance Teams Inside Portland Protests."
The story also quotes Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden as saying he also is concerned.
"The Department of Justice needs to explain to me why it deployed those teams and provide a real record of their activities," Wyden said. "What were they there for? Were they there primarily to chill peaceful protesters, or were they there to protect federal property?"
The protests began after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was murdered by Minneapolis police on May 25 and continued for months. Although they subsided by the end of the year, one took place at the Democratic Party of Oregon headquarters after Joe Biden was elected president and others continued into 2021.
According to The New York Times, FBI agents were first deployed to Portland in June 2020 to help protest the downtown federal courthouse.
A D V E R T I S I N G | Continue reading below
"But the F.B.I. role quickly widened, persisting months after activists turned their attention away from the courthouse, with some targeting storefronts or local institutions whose protection would normally be up to the local police," said the article, which claims the surveillance continued into the start of 2021.
The article said that both local and federal law enforcement officials complained that lawful peaceful protests were hijacked in many cases by criminals, resulting in violent confrontations with police, arsons and vandalism.
According to the article, the surveillance and recording began in large part because black-clad protesters wearing masks were difficult to identify, even when they were seen throwing objects at police and public buildings, and vandalizing businesses. FBI agents also dressed in black and infiltrated the crowds during an unspecified number of protests, the story said.
The article said police officers made more than 1,000 arrests during the course of the protests, and more than 200 people ultimately faced criminal prosecution. More than 100 cases had to be dropped because there was not sufficient evidence, however.
But the article also quotes protest organizers who were told of The Times' findings as saying that surveillance agents recording and following protesters in the midst of a demonstration was a form of domestic spying.
"These are all insidious tactics that chill First Amendment expression and erode trust with local officials," Bobbin Singh, executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center, said in the article. He called the government's operations an "alarming" misuse of resources.
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