Challenges to Comprehension Implied by the Logo
of Laetus in Praesens
University of Earth Alternative view of segmented documents via Kairos

Meeting Industrialization and Package-Processing of Participants

Report on the Millennium Leaders Summit for the International Meetings Industry
Kuala Lumpur (14-15 June 2000)

- / -

This is an unofficial summary of the proceedings and conclusions of the Summit. The event was organized on behalf of the Joint Industry Meetings Council (JMIC), an informal forum for exchange of views amongst 13 international bodies representing a range of interests connected with the business associated with the organization of certain international events. JMIC was founded in 1978. The author represented the Union of International Associations (UIA) at the event. The UIA is a founding member of JMIC.

The Summit was organized as the result of a decision taken by a number of JMIC members on the initiative of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), which became the lead agency in planning and managing the event itself. ICCA members are divided into a range of categories including: *****. The bodies in each such category may also have their own international associations, independent of ICCA, and in some cases also members of JMIC. Their participation in ICCA is primarily associated with its focus on international meetings. ICCA has endeavored to position itself as the 'International Meetings Association'.

Traditionally a very high of competitiveness has characterized the relations between meeting industry bodies. The Summit was supposedly designed to address the dysfunctional aspects of this in order to achieve more fruitful collaboration amongst interested parties in their exploitation of business opportunities in relation to international meetings.

A particular concern was to ensure appropriate recognition for the international meetings industry, whether by governments, the media or the tourism industry in general -- within which it tends to be absorbed in practice and in any market analysis. Indeed many of the industry associations have an extensive preoccupation with tourism-related revenue.

Organization of the Summit

Consistent with its objective of positioning itself strategically and ensuring its own financial viability, the organizers entered into a series of partnerships. Partners included Tourism Malaysia and Malaysian Airlines. The Summit was held in the luxury Mines Resort complex on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. The event was opened by the Prime Minister, currently a somewhat controversial figure on the international scene.

Despite the many challenges of an underfunded event for a highly competitive group of bodies, it brought together 100 participants ***, of which a significant proportion were from Malaysia and Singapore. Technically the organization was extremely smooth.

Following the formal opening, the keynote speech was given by the Chief Editor of the Economist -- one of the strategic partners in the initiative. This was designed to establish the economic significance of the meetings industry, although meetings were the topic of only one of the 35 slides in the presentation. Unfortunately the content of the excellent presentation was irrelevant to the challenges of the Summit itself and significantly avoided the issues for which it was convened.

As a prelude to the working sessions, a digital voting system was used in the plenary to enable participants to express their views regarding the desirability of a number of strategic options in relation to the meetings industry, notably issues relating to the need for greater coherence. This procedure was coordinated by a representative of IACVB who provided an verbal interpretation of the results of each vote.

Working sessions

Participants were then split by the organizers into five smaller groups on the basis of undefined criteria. The groups each met for five 90 minute sessions to address each of five pre-selected topics deemed essential to successful reframing of the meetings industry. The topics were: Globalization, Technology, Standards and Best Practice, Education and Professional Development, and Industry Recognition. These had been selected by the organizers, apparently without consultation with JMIC members.

Each topic was facilitated by a single facilitator. The five facilitators thus encountered each group in turn as they rotated through the topics over the five sessions. The format worked well although the facilitators had very different styles and the topics did not evoke the same degree of interest or participation. Facilitators took few, if any, notes and no other recording system was used. Some facilitators were disarmingly frank in describing their methods as getting participants to say what they as facilitators wanted them to say -- and it was interesting to note how points made by participants were selectively emphasized, reframed or ignored.

Concluding plenary

Facilitators then met together to compare and adjust their individual verbal reports back to the plenary session on the consensus emerging on the five themes (in the light of their treatment by each working group in succession). It was presumably during this session that a new round of questions was formulated for the subsequent digital voting process.

The plenary session heard the reports. Questions and remarks were mainly offered by the moderator of the plenary session whose task it was to identify emergent threads. She was frank in her analysis and insightful in her remark that the Summit had enabled her to understand why the United Nations did not work.

The digital voting system was then used again to allow participants to vote on a series of views and options highlighted in the reports of the facilitators. These options were structured to determine the degree of consensus amongst participants on the need and possibility of some major initiatives to achieve a higher degree of coherence.

The main focus was on the need for the creation of a new "peak institute" for the meetings industry. There was consensus on the need for rapid follow up towards its creation through a Steering Committee. It was agreed that next steps should be taken rapidly with a view to clarifying these options at a second Summit before the end of 2000.

The session was then closed by the current president of JMIC.

Next steps ?

Strangely no attempt was made to elect the required Steering Committee on which a degree of consensus had seemingly been achieved. During the plenary session it had been clear that there were strong reservations about the value of JMIC (labeled without challenge as a "toothless talking shop") - although the Summit had been organized in its name. These reservations were repeatedly reinforced by its president (a member of MPI) and the case was made for extending its membership to make it more representative. No attempt was made to do so. Although JMIC members were briefly convened before the Summit opening (to ensure consensus on collective responsibility for any financial deficit), no attempt was made to reconvene after its closure.

Given that JMIC is an informal group meeting twice a year, it is totally unclear who is now empowered to act on the views expressed in the closing plenary, especially if JMIC is considered by consensus to be inappropriate to the task. Given that the Summit was effectively organized by a subset of JMIC, and that the operational organization was largely undertaken by ICCA (with the support of IACVB and MPI), perhaps these now consider themselves as empowered to take the next steps in forming a Steering Committee of their choice?

There was some implication that reports of the facilitators, plenary moderator, and plenary sessions would be prepared (depsite the lack of any notes or record) for distribution to participants (and more widely) as a basis for further action. However it was not clear who was empowered to do this or indeed where the resources would be found to do so.

Given the careful structuring of all other processes - even arousing some suspicion of a hidden agenda - why the failure to address collectively the process of the crucial next step towards which the Summit had been organized?Was it the intention to create a power vacuum?

Promotional trap of meetings industry acronyms

The meetings industry, with the notable support of ICCA (as the "international meetings association") has sought to promote and define itself through the acronym MICE. This stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Events. It was for the MICE industry that the Summit sought recognition.

During the plenary some participants at the Summit acknowledged that this acronym was a promotional disaster -- forcing some to change the name of national MICE bodies. But the attempt to promote it signals some of the implicit dimensions of the industry's strategic challenge. Why favor an acronym with such metaphoric connotations? It conjures up an image of ineffectual busybodies preoccupied feverishly with nourishing themselves at the expense of others. In the light of some of the points below, might it be useful to see MICE as standing for "Mercenary Initiatives for Conference Exploitation"?

What is the environment on which MICE seeks to nourish itself? Is the meetings industry effectively nibbling away at a block of "cheese" that exceeds its comprehension - making gruyere holes in it that it sees as the scope of its strategic preoccupation. Maybe the MICE Summit strategy should be defined as CHEESE namely the "Comprehensive Homogenization of the Event Environment for its Systematic Exploitation".

What might then be the underlying significance of the promotion of DOME by the Summit? Is there some sense in which MICE need to hide under a dome and protect and distance themselves from the larger reality of the meeting phenomenon? Maybe the DOME initiative should be understood as 'Dominance of the Meeting Environment", or Designing out marginal events" or perhaps "Denial of meeting environment"? Should DOME be envisaged as a kind of "cheese dish" to protect the 'CHEESE' for 'MICE'?

There is also an intriguing kind of inversion in using MICE to gain industry recognition when the industry tends to treat its ultimate clients -- the participants -- as mice for which process labyrinths have to be designed.

MICE 'consensus' and Summit representativity

The Summit claimed to represent a consensus for the MICE industry. This consensus was necessarily based on those present, whether as representatives of international bodies representing service providers, or members of such bodies. A significant number of such bodies were not represented and they were largely outnumbered by their members, or representatives of bodies not members, or by unaffiliated persons.. Many bodies were represented by a number of people.

Given the criteria applied to membership by some of the more exclusive meetings industry bodies (eg permitting only one member per country), it is not clear whether those excluded from such bodies were effectively represented, however legitiamte their concerns within the meetings industry.

** see list

Interpreting "inadvertent" signals

1. ICCA vs. JMIC: As the organization in the hot seat of making the Summit work, ICCA clearly had a challenge in communicating with the various strategic partners essential for the financing of the event, and with others in Malaysia unfamiliar with the inter-group politics and turfism of the meetings industry. It was unfortunate that the banner greeting delegates at the airport had the Summit as being organized by ICCA rather than JMIC. Clearly this inadvertent error, about which ICCA claimed to have protested, was not to ICCA's disadvantage in its own efforts to position itself within the industry and in the eyes of the media on that occasion.

2. DOME: One of the issues of concern to the industry is the nature and scope of the meeting statistics provided. The principal source of such statistics since the 1940s has been the Union of International Associations (UIA), one of the founding members of JMIC. UIA has collaborated with the European Commission's Eurostat to develop a cross-national statistical methodology for meeting information. In recent years ICCA has also endeavored to provide statistics on a more limited range of meetings (but with more information on items such as hotel use, exhibition space, etc). In a competition typical of the meetings industry, ICCA appears to be positioning its statistical report to replace that of the UIA. ICCA, together with IACVB ****, has been developing a relationship with DOME (a project, not yet operational, based at George Washington University). ICCA and IACVB are members of the DOME consortium. DOME proposes to collect and analyze meeting-related information using a methodology partly developed at the University of Vienna in association with a member of ICCA. Although is not yet operational but is "ready to roll". In the light of these factors it is perhaps not surprising that:

Is DOME to be considered as a kind of Trojan horse for a strategic initiative by some coalition of meetings industry bodies? Does this initiative seek Domination Of the Meeting Environment (DOME) through the 'peak' industry body on which some consensus was achieved.

As part of the ongoing campaign by ICCA, its current statistical report now endeavours to distinguish at length its own data from that of the UIA****

3. Imposing standards: Various points were made by facilitators, both within sessions and in their reports, pointing towards the possibility of imposing standards and practices in the meetings industry. One facilitator even used the term enforcing. Seemingly there is a desire on the part of some bodies in the meetings industry to force meeting organizers to conform to practices that suit those selling services to them. There was a sense that some body would be empowered in some way to impose such standards, and to sanction those that fail to conform to them. It was clear that there was a move towards evaluating both service providers and their clients in terms of the quality of their mode of operation.

4. Strategic financial partnerships: In envisaging the operation and financing of the proposed "peak" industry body, and in the light of the airline alliances (with which all participants were familiar), strong points were made about the possibility of strategic partnerships:

The sensitive political issues relating to such partnerships were ignored in a manner typical of the widely criticized US-style approach to globalization as a reflection of the American way. The fact that the lucrative nature of the market would quickly engender competing systems (as in the case of airline reservation systems) was not discussed. Whether or not preliminary discussions with interested potential partners had already been undertaken by some of those present in an effort to "take over the meetings industry" was necessarily far from clear. But the point was made that some such parties would be happy to invest several million dollars in an appropriate initiative that offered the possibility of some form of monopoly control of the meetings market.

5. Reorganizing industry meetings: The point was made that there were too many meetings supposedly of relevance to bodies representative of the meetings industry and that this was an unnecessary burden on their resources. It was recommended that industry meetings should be held together back-to-back, presumably on the occasion of the largest such event. The unstated implication was that this would be the ICCA conference. The effect on other such events, or the bodies responsible for them, was not discussed. Nor, pursuing this logic, was there any discussion as to why such an event should not be back-to-back with some larger tourism conference (the closing Gala Dinner of the Summit was with 100 travel agents). Despite a Technology theme at the Summit, no effort was made to explore how some of these meeting processes could not be run as standing electronic conferences (listservs, rather than video)

6. Relationships between industry associations: The event was designed to look to the future, and a significant investment was made in the skills of five facilitators (from ICCA/MPI). However, no effort whatsoever was made to apply those skills to the issues and dynamics that fragment the industry in ways acknowledged by all as dysfunctional. The process focused on what was desirable but not on why the desirable had proven historically to be unobtainable and how turfism had come to dominate. Whilst it was recommended that industry meetings be coordinated back-to-back, no mention was made of how this was to be achieved given the disadvantages to some. Furthermore, pursuing this logic, why should the many industry associations not simply be merged to create the new "peak" industry body - given the degree of overlap and duplication between their programs. Alternatively, rather than merger, why not use ICCA, for example, to absorb the various industry associations and programs reflected in its membership - a process consistent with its current strategies? The views of MPI and IACVB on these matters would have been most enlightening.

7. Issue avoidance: As the two previous points illustrate, the Summit was characterized by a degree of issue avoidance, exemplified by the keynote speech and the function of the facilitators. A notable issue inadvertently avoided is the degree of corruption in the bidding process (discussed at a recent seminar of IAPCO) that would need to be addressed in any effort to rationalize the meeting industry as a whole. The results therefore took the form of wishful thinking unchallenged by realities familiar to all in the industry and acknowledged by the moderator of the closing session in endeavoring openly to avoid being cynical.

8. Digital voting methodology: Given the call for greater methodological rigor with regard to meeting data, it is important to recognize that questions familiar to survey specialists could be raised about the framing and voting on issues during the Summit plenaries. Questions can be inadvertently selected and framed to elicit a pattern of desired responses and to marginalize unwanted perspectives. Since much was made of the degree of consensus achieved at the Summit in the light of the digital vote, it is important to examine the design of the questions submitted to participants in plenary. It is well-known to opinion poll analyssts that bias can be introduced into surveys, whether inadvertently or not. There are essentially two types of survey questionnaires - open-ended and directive. 'Open-ended Questions' do not provide the respondent with possible answers whereas 'Directive Questions', used by digital voting, require little time and thought because alternative answers to the questions are given. However, a downside of this type of survey is that it can potentially result in biased responses because it leads respondents to a particular answer.

'Push polling' has become a feature of democratic politics. Push polls use deliberately biased questionnaires or samples. Some seek to produce false poll findings in support of a particular issue. Others use biased questions in an attempt to convince those being interviewed to support a particular point of view. In both cases the "poll" is a deliberate attempt to manipulate opinion.

Issues of concern in avoiding survey bias include:

It is unfortunate that a 60 percent response on an issue was interpreted to the plenary as 'consensus' so as to ignore contrary views reflected by the remaining 40 percent.. Can new global structures be built on such "consensus" and are alternative perspectives simply to be marginalized? As a demonstration of such technology, it is also important to recall the non-transparent and unverifiable nature of such voting in sensitive situations -- notably those vulnerable to the creative skills of the hacking community.

9. Information on bodies represented: For a meeting organized by meeting professionals, it was interesting to note the manner in which participants were discouraged from laying out brochures to inform others of their role and position within the meetings industry. The opportunity to present information of this kind was reserved for strategic partners who made a presentation during coffee breaks. One consequence is that many particiupants new to the meetings industry were mystified by representatives of bodies only identified by acronyms.

10. Strategic positioning: To what degree was the Summit organized as a strategic positioning operation by ICCA and some others in order to marginalize other bodies associated with the meetings industry and gain competitive advantage? Why give such prominence to a non-operational initiative such as DOME? Why ignore the role of UIA, which through its early series of International Congresses on Congress Organization had endeavored to achieve many of the declared objectives of the Summit - and in fact led to the creation of a number of the existing meeting industry bodies? Why ignore the UIA role in maintaining extensive databases on meetings and associations (see) to which many bodies in the meetings industry have long had access as UIA Associate Members? Why ensure the selective presentation of ICCA statistics to the Summit by one of its sponsors?

Questionable preoccupations 1. Delimiting the meetings industry: Many of the sessions were concerned with identifying the meetings industry as a basis for developing industry recognition. Unfortunately the Summit inadvertently failed to envisage the scope of the meetings phenomenon outside its immediate business concerns:

The conventional meetings industry needs to recognize the possibility that it may be marketing an outdated and ineffectual product whose prime purpose is increasingly indistinguishable from promotional initiatives and tourism and increasingly divorced from knowledge management in the emerging information society. The nature and scope of "meeting" has been transformed under the very eyes of the meeting industry without its being able to understand how what it sees as its market is no longer where the action is.

Whilst the total number of "meetings" is expanding exponentially, the proportion of conventional meetings in this "market" may in effect be declining because of their inherent and costly inefficiencies. The meetings market is expanding undetectably by avoiding face-to-face and "industrialized" gatherings. The MICE industry may effectively be seeking recognition as the "typewriter industry" of an information society that is increasingly defined by other technologies - a classical challenge in strategic positioning. The meetings industry has been overtaken by the transformation of the information society. Ironically the events industry might be said to have been 'overtaken by events' -- beyond its ken.

In seeking recognition for the meetings industry, the president of JMIC stressed the philosophy that "one only existed to the extent that one was perceived to exist by others". However, it may be that the meetings industry is itself a victim of its own inability to perceive the wider processes of which it is a part.

2. Failure to recognize the ultimate client: The meetings industry is almost completely preoccupied with clients that are not the ultimate end user of meeting facilities but merely intermediaries acting for those end users. As a gathering of "middle men", the Summit made no effort to reflect the views of participants at meetings. And yet it is potential meeting participants who are increasingly choosing to interact outside the scope of the conventional meetings on which the meetings industry is focused, namely in electronic contexts or in "non-industrialized" events. The meetings industry is conditioned by a "package mindset", namely how groups of participants can be processed as a package within a meeting environment. Desirable clients "deliver" larger packages and the larger the package the more desirable is the event for that industry. In this sense the meetings industry has become the "participant processing" industry. This mindset has completely undermined the capacity of the meetings industry to understand what quality meetings are about in the information society of the 21st century faced with challenges of knowledge management.

3. "Industrializing meetings": The Summit could be seen as an initiative to systematically industrialize the meeting environment - to trigger an "industrial revolution" (that may have already happened without it being aware of it). Associated efficiencies and economies of scale were a preoccupation of the discussions of the Summit themes of: globalization, technology, standards and best practices, education, and industry recognition. Within the industry, "meeting quality" has become confused with the luxuries offered in "quality tourism". It is totally divorced from enhancement of quality communication amongst participants - however much it may pay lip service to this notion as part of its marketing hype. It focuses instead on communication to participants, as part of the package processing mindset - and the enhancement of techniques for doing so at a minimum cost per participant. This is how cost/effectiveness is defined by the meetings industry as reflected in ICCA statistical criteria.

In this sense the Summit was focused on what might be termed "assembly line" events. It is worth comparing the evolution of the tourism industry with that of the conference industry. Conventional tourism has become increasingly focused on package holidays whereas quality tourism has sought to escape such experiences - whether for the wealthy or those on low budgets.Most discerning travelers attach great value to avoiding what the tourism industry seeks to offer. The meetings industry may therefore be seeking to define its future as an analogue to the package tour industry with which it so closely associates itself - and is seen to associate itself in any economic analysis of the industry. This is clearly a strategic trap. But a trap is a function of the nature of the trapped.

Post-Summit conclusions?

Some feedback, protesting issues raised by the first draft of this report circulated to participants, stressed the 'positive' nature of the gathering and the sense of achievement. The protest generally avoided addressing the issues signalled in this report.

There would appear to be an underlying challenge of comprehension of scope. The scope of the universe of 'meetings' is far broader than that which MICE includes. It is also broader than that reflected in ICCA statistics. The bodies representing the MICE industry were not all represented at the Summit that claims to represent a consensus of that industry.

In comparing its strategic opportunities to those of the airline industry, the meetings industry might usefully review the reasons for the emergence of the International Airline Passengers Association (IAPA) and the recent articulation of a passenger charter. Issues of concern have been lost baggage and those giving rise to "air rage" -- especially how passengers are handled and packaged. Maybe it is time to create an International Network of Meeting Participants and a participant charter. It is perhaps time to articulate standards for meeting services from a participant perspective and to rate providers in the light of participant feedback. There may be increasing justification for "meeting rage", notably in relation to the failure of meeting processes to handle delivery of the conceptual "baggage" for which participants congregate in a meeting -- or to facilitate their interaction. This is the challenge of knowledge management at any gathering, electronic or otherwise.

creative commons license
this work is licenced under a creative commons licence.


Zero Waste Latvija

latvija flag map zero waste weekMy country does not have a common waste management mechanism.

Waste management is the responsibility of each municipality.

In my municipality, the main waste collection point is “EKO Kurzeme” and the Environmental Services Group.

Unfortunately, lately there is evidence that garbage from other countries is imported into Latvia. They are stored in landfills.

There is a small group in Latvia who is thinking of life without waste. This is something new in our consumer society.

We have a group

There we exchange information, ideas, new experiences.

This year, we tested the supermarket’s attitude towards its packaging, its wrapping bag, and the paper bag.

To reduce waste, we sew fabric shopping bags, we make our own woven sanitary napkins, baby nappies, read the rubbish we find in the park, sort the waste, etc.

In Latvia, in general, there is still a lot of work in society that needs to change thinking about nature for good and living without waste.

Submitted by Inese Vilmane


Sunday, 24 May 2015

Apple Rose Tarts

You eat with your eyes - so they say.....

Aren't these little apple rose tarts gorgeous to look at? They tasted good too! The tarts featured on a dessert menu I had to develop for one of the units of my Patisserie and Confectionery NVQ Course. The menu needed to have a floral theme and be designed for an establishment catering for visitors to the Chelsea Flower Show.

These tarts are actually relatively easy to make, if a little time consuming, and can be prepared in advance for a stunning dinner party dessert to impress friends. The sweet pastry cases, which do not need blind baking, have a couple of tablespoons of apple custard mixture placed into them and are topped with rolled up apple 'petals'. These are made by cutting red skinned apples into thin semi circular slices and simmering them in apple juice and sugar for about 15 minutes until soft and pliable. After cooling the petals are rolled up and carefully arranged into the tart cases. The pink tinged cooking syrup is further reduced and used to glaze the tart and dress the plate after the tarts have been cooked.

In my virtual restaurant the tarts would be served with a drizzle of syrup on a plain white plate and a small jug of homemade Creme Anglaise.

One other dessert on my 'menu' was a daisy shaped meringue shell with mango ice cream and mango fruit coulis. Presentation wise it needed a bit of refinement but it tasted good.

I also created some chocolate tulip shaped shells using small water balloons and tempered white and dark chocolate. Once the chocolate had set the balloons were carefully deflated, filled with chocolate mousse and served with raspberries and raspberry coulis.

Thankfully I have family and friends who don't mind being guineau pigs when it comes to testing my creations and they went down well too!

  1. You are a genius. These are beautiful

  2. Ahhh.... thank you. Only one more practical session left at college now....I'm going to miss my weekly sessions.


Oh SE, Yeung C, Babaei-Rad R, Zhao R

BMC Res Notes 2014;7:643

PMID: 25216779

A highly charged region in the middle domain of plant endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-localized heat-shock protein 90 is required for resistance to tunicamycin or high calcium-induced ER stresses

Chong LP, Wang Y, Gad N, Anderson N, Shah B, Zhao R

J. Exp. Bot. 2015 Jan;66(1):113-24

PMID: 25297550

Heat-shock protein 90 (HSP90) is a highly conserved molecular chaperone that is involved in modulating a multitude of cellular processes under both physiological and stress conditions. In Arabidopsis, there are seven HSP90 isoforms (HSP90.1-HSP90.7) that are localized in the cytoplasm/nucleus, mitochondrion, chloroplast, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) where protein folding actively takes place. In this study, we analysed the sequence of ER-localized Arabidopsis HSP90.7 and the other ER GRP94 proteins from plants and animals, and identified a short, charged region that is specifically present in the middle domain of plant-derived GRP94 proteins. To understand the role of this charged region, we analysed transgenic plants that expressed a mutant protein, HSP90.7(Δ22), which had this charged region deleted. We showed that seedlings expressing HSP90.7(Δ22) had significantly enhanced sensitivity to ER stress induced by tunicamycin or a high concentration of calcium, although its general chaperone activity in preventing the model protein from heat-induced aggregation was not significantly affected. We also analysed the ATP-binding and hydrolysis activity of both wild-type and mutant HSP90.7 proteins, and found that they had slightly different ATP-binding affinities. Finally, using a yeast two-hybrid screen, we identified a small set of HSP90.7 interactors and showed that the charged region is not required for the candidate client interaction, although it may affect their binding affinity, thus providing potential targets for further investigation of HSP90.7 functions.

A tetratricopeptide repeat domain-containing protein SSR1 located in mitochondria is involved in root development and auxin polar transport in Arabidopsis

Zhang M, Wang C, Lin Q, Liu A, Wang T, Feng X, Liu J, Han H, Ma Y, Bonea D, Zhao R, Hua X

Plant J. 2015 Aug;83(4):582-599

PMID: 26072661

Auxin polar transport mediated by a group of Pin-formed (PIN) transporters plays important roles in plant root development. However, the mechanism underlying the PIN expression and targeting in response to different developmental and environmental stimuli is still not fully understood. Here, we report a previously uncharacterized gene SSR1, which encodes a mitochondrial protein with tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domains, and show its function in root development in Arabidopsis thaliana. In ssr1-2, a SSR1 knock-out mutant, the primary root growth was dramatically inhibited due to severely impaired cell proliferation and cell elongation. Significantly lowered level of auxin was found in ssr1-2 roots by auxin measurement and was further supported by reduced expression of DR5-driven reporter gene. As a result, the maintenance of the root stem cell niche is compromised in ssr1-2. It is further revealed that the expression level of several PIN proteins, namely, PIN1, PIN2, PIN3, PIN4 and PIN7, were markedly reduced in ssr1-2 roots. In particular, we showed that the reduced protein level of PIN2 on cell membrane in ssr1-2 is due to impaired retrograde trafficking, possibly resulting from a defect in retromer sorting system, which destines PIN2 for degradation in vacuoles. In conclusion, our results indicated that SSR1 is functioning in root development in Arabidopsis, possibly by affecting PIN protein expression and subcellular targeting.


To22, active from 2000 to 2008 was a highly influential conceptual design team founded by Efe Buluc, Mark Goetz and Todd Bracher. To22 was the first design team that suggested the power of imperfection in design, depicting movement in stationary objects by introducing film making to the design process and approaching design as discovery rather than self expressionism. To22 earned global acclaim through lectures and exhibitions as well as publications by the world press. Many concepts set forth by the group are still relevant today and continue to inspire both the public and designers alike.
A product which functions in 4 dimensions, capturing the flight of a moth attracted to a flame. Moths fly in circular patterns and when you record this flight as it happens without any artistic interpretation...The moth designs the product, not we. The product has no function...it IS the function.

Second skin is a multi function bowl that is designed by placing various fruits in a plastic bag.The form that the plastic bag takes is scanned and materialized, the fruit is removed and the result is the second skin bowl in porcelain.

22 ways to sit, a furniture piece which depicts 22 sitting positions from laying down completely to having your back 90 degrees straight. This object not only is a strong visual statement about furniture as art but also an example of how to depict movement through an object, futurism philosophy meets industrial design. 22 ways to sit was exhibited in the main lobby of international contemporary furniture fair in new york in 2003 and received great publicity.
Universe ring, reveals a microscopic rendition of our known universe devised by stephen hawking. looking at the universe through a microscope and wearing it on your finger to remind you how insignificant yet precious you are.
Everyone has coat hangers at home, if you have alot of them, you can have this!
un-brella is an umbrella that doesnt just defend you from rain but gathers rain water in its stem...so you can experience rain water rather than reject it. the un-brella comes home and finds new life as a vase.
Olive fits in the middle gap and keeps the martini inside the funnel shaped glass. making the olive the most important functional element. unlike ordinary martini's...where the olive is the least essential part.

Conception chair starts its life as a sketch and remains a sketch.
The original sketch is rendered in three dimensions and cut from steel by water jet. This product magnifies the importance of the first ever sketch a designer does during their design process. To22 eliminated the rest of the development process and presented the final form of the chair as it was first conceived.

This design deconstructs and re-constructs and blends nature with man made ideology.
how do you discover shapes rather than creating them from knowledge or imagination?...you let it happen, such as gravity in this case.


AEO status shorten Customs clearance lead time 0.1 hour

Japanese Ministry of Finance ("MOF") have investigated customs clearance turn around lead time in Japanese air/sea port, and have released the result in every 3 years time.
On July 16, 2009, MOF released the latest customs clearance turn around lead time, and found AEO related shipment shows very short lead time, as 0.1 hour in both sea and air customs clearance. For MOF in Japan, this short lead time is honorable to demonstrate its AEO initiative they have endeavoured to set up for years.

The definition of customs clearance lead time is from customs declaration time to customs approval time in import customs procedure. Therefore, this lead time does not include cargo handling time such as vessel port loading time or container de-vanning time.

The comparison with normal non-AEO shipment is as follows.
- AEO shipment: 0.1 hours (both air and sea)
- Normal shipment (Air): 0.4 hours
- Normal shipment (Sea): 3.1 hours

MOF encourage traders to apply and make use of AEO, by emphasizing this favorable result.

In order to understand whole picture of Japanese import operation time, below lead time should be noted. This lead time is from the vessel (or flight) arriving time to customs import approval time.

- Air cargo: 34 hours (1.4 day)
- Sea cargo: 62.4 hours (2.6 days)

Also, from this arriving - customs clearance lead time, the AEO shipments shows much shorter lead time as follows.

- Air cargo: AEO 20 hours (0.8 day) vs Normal 34 hours (1.4 day)
- Sea cargo: AEO 38 hours (1.6 day) vs Normal 62.4 hours (2.6 day)

The specific lead time varies depending on the cargo type (container, bulk or courrier etc) and the relevant legal requirement (food, alcohol beverage or medical etc).
The more in depth investigation result is available in appendix of below MOF web site.

0 件のコメント:


Prototype 1: Autonomic Feedback Glove

During the last couple of days I have been working on a prototype to test a concept of my master thesis at Leiden University’s Media Technology program: Wearable devices that provide subtle autonomic feedback to their users. In this case we are talking about a  glove that can measure its wearers heartbeat and vibrates along in the rhythm. Continue reading

Changing virtues in media-based knowledge-sharing

How the transition from books to social media changes our understanding of what it means to be knowledgeable

A transition in the dominant medium of knowledge-sharing is taking place: The book is being replaced by social media. Based on the premise that the epistemic practice of media-based knowledge-sharing is crucial for our understanding
of knowledge, I try to investigate the changes that this transition in the media landscape causes. An attempt is undertaken to chart some of the emerging virtues governing practices of media-based knowledge-sharing, and to relate these to the
transition in the media landscape from books to the web. Continue reading


  I know not that there is anything in nature more soothing to the mind than the contemplation of the moon, sailing, like some planetary bark, amidst a sea of bright azure. The subject is certainly hackneyed: the moon has been sung by poet and poetaster. Is there any marvel that it should be so?  7
  Modesty is policy, no less than virtue.  11
  Neither praise nor blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe and honestly to award—these are the true aims and duties of criticism.  12
  Philosophy is reason with the eyes of the soul.  18
  Stagnation is something worse than death, it is corruption also.  21
  Tact is one of the first of mental virtues, the absence of which is frequently fatal to the best of talents. Without denying that it is a talent of itself, it will suffice if we admit that it supplies the place of many talents.  22
  The birth of a child is the imprisonment of a soul.  25
  The death of censure is the death of genius.  27
  The effect of character is always to command consideration. We sport and toy and laugh with men or women who have none, but we never confide in them.  28
  The wonder is not that the world is so easily governed, but that so small a number of persons will suffice for the purpose. There are dead weights in political and legislative bodies as in clocks, and hundreds answer as pulleys who would never do for politicians.  33
  There is no doubt such a thing as chance, but I see no reason why Providence should not make use of it.  35
  To feel oppressed by obligation is only to prove that we are incapable of a proper sentiment of gratitude. To receive favors from the unworthy is simply to admit that our selfishness is superior to our pride. Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful for them. The proud are made sour by the remembrance and the vain silent.  36
  Vanity is so constantly solicitous of self, that even where its own claims are not interested, it indirectly seeks the aliment which it loves, by showing how little is deserved by others.  38
  Vanity may be likened to the smooth-skinned and velvet-footed mouse, nibbling about forever in expectation of a crumb; while self-esteem is too apt to take the likeness of the huge butcher’s dog, who carries off your steaks, and growls at you as he goes.  39
  We must calculate not on the weather, nor on fortune, but upon God and ourselves. He may fail us in the gratification of our wishes, but never in the encounter with our exigencies.  40
  Who is it that called time the avenger, yet failed to see that death was the consoler. What mortal afflictions are there to which death does not bring full remedy? What hurts of hope and body does it not repair? “This is a sharp medicine,” said Raleigh, speaking of the axe, “but it cures all disorders.”  43


Angela Hayward and Barbara Thomas

Angela and Barbara 1

Memories of Widden Infants School and Central School in Derby Road

Angela and Barbara 2

Angela's memories of The Picturedrome Cinema in the 1950s

Angela and Barbara 3

Barbara's memories of minors at The Picturedrome on a Saturday

Angela and Barbara 5

Barton Street culture, atmosphere, and "cantin'"

Memories of the Streets and Buildings of Barton

By Ollie Taylor

Angela Hayward and Barbara Thomas remember growing up in Barton.  Their school days at Widden Infants School, their memories of The Picturedrome in the 1950s, and the shops, such as Hutchins, in which they used to buy bread and groceries.

In the final clip, Angela and Barbara recall the atmosphere of Barton Street in their childhood years, and how certain local characters used to spend their days "cantin'", a Gloucester phrase for "chatting".

This page was added by Ollie Taylor on 04/12/2011.


1. Measuring household well-being

Measuring household well-being

Income, expenditure and saving-related indicators, when taken together, provide holistic insights into levels of household well-being

By: and | Published: April 29, 2016 5:35 AM

The most important monetary measures of well-being, among others, are household income, expenditure and saving. Yet we have very little reliable data on such indicators. In view of this, ICE 360° surveys have been instrumental in building and disseminating high-quality, interconnected, reliable and up-to-date data to capture the ground realities of households, on how the country earns, spends, saves, lives, thinks, accesses public goods, and on inclusion, employment and infrastructure. We have attempted to understand dimensions of well-being using income, consumption and saving as composite indicators available from ICE 360° surveys, 2014.

To look at the sensitivity of the results of the choice of consumption or income or saving, we considered all three indicators and computed a transition matrix. We divided the population into per capita quintile groups—with each of them representing 20% of the population, from the poorest 20% to richest 20%. Each household belongs to only one quintile for each indicator, but some households belong to one quintile for income and another for consumption, in which case many households would not belong to the diagonal of the matrix. This matrix provides 13 categories in which income has been considered as base. Based on per capita savings, 6.5% of Indian population belongs to top income quintile (Qi5) and bottom four expenditure quintiles (Qe1 to Qe4). This indicates that top 5% ‘affluent’ population are the highest income earners but, relatively speaking, their expenditure level is lower. Similarly, the most ‘vulnerable’ population (5%) belongs to the bottom income quintile (Qi1) but rank among the top four expenditure quintiles (Qe2 to Qe5).

The most affluent households save 51% of their earning, while the most vulnerable dis-save 60%. Vulnerable households borrow 60% of their earnings, mostly from informal sources, to meet basic needs. On one hand, the income-to-expenditure ratio of most vulnerable households lies in range of 0.18-0.78, which indicates they have extremely low income levels in proportion to their expenditure levels. On the other hand, the income-to-expenditure ratio of most affluent households is in range of 1.94-5.83, which depicts high levels of income in comparison to lower expenditure levels.

Looking at policy perspective, a layer of insight emerges when we try to probe deeper into the characteristics of these two extreme sets of population groups. Our findings reveal that 36% of affluent households belong to the general caste, which is 5% higher than the national average. Significantly, 12% of vulnerable households are also Scheduled Tribes, whose share is 2% more than the overall share of households. Also, more than half (52%) of vulnerable households are those that can be categorised as BPL households.

When looked through the lens of educational status, chief wage earners of 60% of affluent households have completed higher secondary education; however, similar percentage of vulnerable households is only below primary. The probability of a household becoming vulnerable is higher if chief earners are low literate. Considering occupational pattern, a majority (48%) of affluent households are self-employed (agriculture and non-agriculture), followed by 30% in regular salaried employment, with only 16% working as labourers. In contrast, vulnerable households are engaged in labour (44%), agricultural self-employment (39%), while just 11% have salaried employment. Thus, labour households, particularly those in agricultural self-employment, are among the most vulnerable, while salaried income households are predominantly affluent.

Layering consumption and expenditure patterns of households provides even more insights into the vulnerability status. The average household in India has an annual income of R3,35,630 ($5,048 per annum) and an expenditure of R2,76,036 ($4,152 per annum), leaving it with a surplus of R59,594 ($896 per annum) to save and invest. The average annual household income of the most affluent households is R5,68,489 ($8,550), about four times higher than the average annual income of the vulnerable group at R1,42,031 ($2,136). Similarly, the average annual total household expenditure of affluent households is R2,76,683 ($4,161), which is 1.21 times higher than that of the vulnerable group. The average annual household surplus income of the affluent is R2,91,806 ($4,389), while vulnerable households borrow about R85,555 ($1,287) to meet basic requirements.

Among routine expenditure, 62% vulnerable households spend on food, which is 54% for affluent households. The top three items of spending in the non-routine expenditure share of vulnerable households are social obligation (32%), health (22%) and education (16%). Affluent households spend mostly on social obligation (26%), education (17%) and travel (15%).

The basic difference between the vulnerable and prosperous groups is savings. There has been a significant change in savings of these two groups during last five years. Little over double (56%) of affluent households confirm that their savings increased during the last five years, compared to just 21% for vulnerable households. While there has been no change in savings for 42% of vulnerable households mentioned, only 22% of affluent households fall in this category. The basic reason for vulnerability among 39% households is that they are spending more than their income and have no money left to save.

The tough conditions of their financial status are reflected in the response of vulnerable households when asked about how confident they feel about their financial situation. An overwhelming 61% of vulnerable households’ wage earners say they have difficulty in meeting their basic needs. Lack of confidence about the stability of their major income source is cited as the main reason. Only 27% of the vulnerable households express confidence about income stability, compared to 57% for affluent households. On the positive side, there is a sense of optimism about the future, with 29% vulnerable households asserting that their economic situation will remain the same and another 29% hopeful that their financial status will improve in the next five years. Nearly 40% affluent households are absolutely confident that their economic situation will improve in the next three years.

This analysis reflects that arguing over the best approaches of well-being measurement is futile. Instead, income, expenditure and saving-related indicators, when taken together, are better able to provide insights into levels of household well-being and a holistic picture of economically vulnerable segments of society. Policy-makers need to focus on vulnerable households that are on the brink of poverty. If the tide can be stemmed, it would have a major impact on overall poverty alleviation in the country.

Shukla is director and CEO, Shree is research fellow, People Research on India’s Consumer Economy

  1. No Comments.

Go to Top


Carnaval, carnaval!

Today was the much-anticipated event post-Christmas: Carnaval (or Carnival). I listened to this song a minimum of twenty times today, the accompaniment to scene changes and pre- and post-celebration celebrations. (Yes, I know I repeated that word twice.) Our school's theme was Communities of Spain, and each grade chose a different community to represent in dress and song. My second grade students represented Andalucia, and more specifically, the region of Sevilla, while the third graders represented Extramadura. I was very impressed with the dance second grade performed, which included some traditional Sevillana choreography and all of the girls were decked out in their finest Sevillana dresses, shoes, hair pins, and fans (see photo above). Adorable! Watching the children and teachers perform, dressed up in traditional clothing, was both a beautiful learning experience about the country I currently reside in, but it also made me a little bit homesick for my country.

I felt a little bit more like an outsider than normal today, craving the comforts of home and my own language. It was yet another reminder of the constant tension of living in a foreign country: there's excitement and delight in the unknown and the new, frustration with the same, and yearning to understand and be understood. But when I remember this time is limited--no matter how long we stay, we aren't permanent citizens here--it makes me appreciate this sense of otherness more.


Data Science for Entrepreneurs

Data Science is changing the world every day. Brought upon by smarter machines and people realizing there is power buried in the data. In this course I wanted to share with people new to Data Science how to go about getting started.

There are many ways this path can take you, and here I try to simplify the various routes and steps in the journey. As always, if you have any questions or anything do not hesitate to reach out.


Posted on

Naturalista Feature: Heather, Curlkit CEO

Check out this Naturalista Feature introducing you to the woman behind Curlkit, Heather!

1. How long have you been natural? What inspired your decision to wear
your natural texture?
I returned to my natural texture in 2002. My inspiration was based on my struggles with what beautiful hair was.  I finally found that I already had beautiful hair underneath the relaxed and straight styles I was wearing.
2. Do you think the growing popularity of naturally textured hair is a  trend? Why or why not?
The popularity of naturally textured hair has recently caught on to the mainstream beauty industry, but this is not a trend but more a coming to the realization of the diversity of all hair textures. Naturally textured hair was looked at or perceived as “unkempt” by mass media standards, but many women are now embracing a once unaccepted and excluded aspect in the ideals of beautiful hair.
Heather, CEO of Curlkit
Heather, CEO of Curlkit
3. What is your go-to hairstyle?
 Right now as a mom of 2 boys under 3, my go-to style is a short tapered wash and go if there is a style for that, I just made it up based on my very busy schedule.
4. Do you have staple products? What are they?
The first staple for my hair is water, drinking tons of it and using it on my hair. My key staple products are Conditioners that have great slippage and moistening agents and oils. I use refresher sprays to maintain moisture, and I add oils, specifically carrier oils like safflower and avocado to hair to seal in moisture when needed.
5. Do you have a hair crush? If so, who is it?
It is very hard to pick one person because my hair crush is everyone I see that walks taller and smiles wider because they are wearing their natural texture.  I love seeing women with short, long, curly, kinky coily, hair take selfies of their hair. I get so motivated by what they can do with their texture. It’s really hard to pick just one hair crush honestly.
6. What advice would you give to a new naturalista or someone considering wearing their hair in its natural state?
My advice to someone who considers wearing their natural texture is to first feel confident and accept what you have. I remember when I first wore my texture, I didn’t feel like part of the crowd, but I soon realised that I wasn’t part of the crowd because my hair stood out and made a statement. This gave me the confidence to wear my texture without the fear of judgment or criticism.
7. Where can our readers find you online?
 I am on most social media channels, but to specifically connect with me and I am on Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. I love reading and connecting with those in the natural textured community.
Thank you for allowing us to feature you Heather!
If you’ve got your eyes on Curlkit and want to save some coins, click here to get a 10% discount on your order. #winning
To Your Beauty,


Eureka! You've found it!

Archaen Butterstone

Archaen Butterstone exhibits evidence of the earliest forms of life on earth, in the form of micro fossils of blue green algae stromatolites. These specimens date to over 2500 million years old - long before dinosaurs roamed the earth. From the Greenstone Belt of South Africa.

Metaphysical Properties: Grounding, hope, healing, perserverance, resilency, stability, connection to life.These stones hold the energy of the most ancient life on earth. Promotes perseverance, strength, stability, connection to life. The stone has a "warm" feeling, and is very smooth to the touch on its polished surfaces. Very pleasant to hold and rub - you will see why it's referred to as "buttery."

View as
Sort by
Display per page

Archaen Butterstone

BTS-1 Archaen Butterstone, approximately 2 inches in size.

Archaen Butterstone

BTS-1b Archaen Butterstone, approximately 1.75 inches in size.


Author: Irene Pepperberg
ISBN 13: 9780061673986
ISBN 10: 61673986
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: 2009-09-01
Format: Paperback
Pages: 232
List Price: $13.99

The fame that...

Publishers Weekly

Alex is the African gray parrot whose ability to master a vocabulary of more than 100 words and answer questions about the color, shape and number of objects-garnered wide notice during his life as well as obituaries in worldwide media after his death in September 2007. Pepperberg, who teaches animal cognition, has previously documented the results of her 30-year relationship with Alex in The Alex Studies. While this book inevitably covers some of the same ground, it is a moving tribute that beautifully evokes "the struggles, the initial triumphs, the setbacks, the unexpected and often stunning achievements" during a groundbreaking scientific endeavor spent "uncovering cognitive abilities in Alex that no one believed were possible, and challenging science's deepest assumptions about the origin of human cognitive abilities." Pepperberg deftly interweaves her own personal narrative-including her struggles to gain recognition for her research-with more intimate scenes of life with Alex than she was able to present in her earlier work, creating a story that scientists and laypeople can equally enjoy, if they can all keep from crying over Alex's untimely death. (Nov.)


◄ Paper 123
Part 4 ▲
Paper 125 ►
p. 1,366
Paper 124

The Later Childhood of Jesus

ALTHOUGH Jesus might have enjoyed a better opportunity for schooling at Alexandria than in Galilee, he could not have had such a splendid environment for working out his own life problems with a minimum of educational guidance, at the same time enjoying the great advantage of constantly contacting with such a large number of all classes of men and women hailing from every part of the civilized world. Had he remained at Alexandria, his education would have been directed by Jews and along exclusively Jewish lines. At Nazareth he secured an education and received a training which more acceptably prepared him to understand the gentiles, and which gave him a better and more balanced idea of the relative merits of the Eastern, or Babylonian, and the Western, or Hellenic, views of Hebrew theology.

1. Jesus’ Ninth Year (A.D. 3)

Though it could hardly be said that Jesus was ever seriously ill, he did have some of the minor ailments of childhood this year, along with his brothers and baby sister.

School went on and he was still a favored pupil, having one week each month at liberty, and he continued to divide his time about equally between trips to neighboring cities with his father, sojourns on his uncle’s farm south of Nazareth, and fishing excursions out from Magdala.

The most serious trouble as yet to come up at school occurred in late winter when Jesus dared to challenge the chazan regarding the teaching that all images, pictures, and drawings were idolatrous in nature. Jesus delighted in drawing landscapes as well as in modeling a great variety of objects in potter’s clay. Everything of that sort was strictly forbidden by Jewish law, but up to this time he had managed to disarm his parents’ objection to such an extent that they had permitted him to continue in these activities.

In the latter part of June, Jesus, in company with his father, first climbed to the summit of Mount Tabor. It was a clear day and the view was superb. It seemed to this nine-year-old lad that he had really gazed upon the entire world excepting India, Africa, and Rome.

Jesus’ second sister, Martha, was born Thursday night, September 13. Three weeks after the coming of Martha, Joseph, who was home for awhile, started the building of an addition to their house, a combined workshop and bedroom. A small workbench was built for Jesus, and for the first time he possessed tools of his own. At odd times for many years he worked at this bench and became highly expert in the making of yokes.

This winter and the next were the coldest in Nazareth for many decades. Jesus had seen snow on the mountains, and several times it had fallen in Nazareth, remaining on the ground only a short time; but not until this winter had he seen ice. The fact that water could be had as a solid, a liquid, and a vapor—he had long pondered over the escaping steam from the boiling pots—caused the lad to think a great deal about the physical world and its constitution; and yet the personality embodied in this growing youth was all this while the actual creator and organizer of all these things throughout a far-flung universe.

The climate of Nazareth was not severe. January was the coldest month, the temperature averaging around 50° F. During July and August, the hottest months, the temperature would vary from 75° to 90° F. From the mountains to the Jordan and the Dead Sea valley the climate of Palestine ranged from the frigid to the torrid. And so, in a way, the Jews were prepared to live in about any and all of the world’s varying climates.

Even during the warmest summer months a cool sea breeze usually blew from the west from 10:00 A.M. until about 10:00 P.M. But every now and then terrific hot winds from the eastern desert would blow across all Palestine. These hot blasts usually came in February and March, near the end of the rainy season. In those days the rain fell in refreshing showers from November to April, but it did not rain steadily. There were only two seasons in Palestine, summer and winter, the dry and rainy seasons. In January the flowers began to bloom, and by the end of April the whole land was one vast flower garden.

In May of this year, on his uncle’s farm, Jesus for the first time helped with the harvest of the grain. Before he was thirteen, he had managed to find out something about practically everything that men and women worked at around Nazareth except metal working, and he spent several months in a smith’s shop when older, after the death of his father.

When work and caravan travel were slack, Jesus made many trips with his father on pleasure or business to near-by Cana, Endor, and Nain. Even as a lad he frequently visited Sepphoris, only a little over three miles from Nazareth to the northwest, and from 4 B.C. to about A.D. 25 the capital of Galilee and one of the residences of Herod Antipas.

Jesus continued to grow physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually. His trips away from home did much to give him a better and more generous understanding of his own family, and by this time even his parents were beginning to learn from him as well as to teach him. Jesus was an original thinker and a skillful teacher, even in his youth. He was in constant collision with the so-called “oral law,” but he always sought to adapt himself to the practices of his family. He got along fairly well with the children of his age, but he often grew discouraged with their slow-acting minds. Before he was ten years old, he had become the leader of a group of seven lads who formed themselves into a society for promoting the acquirements of manhood—physical, intellectual, and religious. Among these boys Jesus succeeded in introducing many new games and various improved methods of physical recreation.

2. The Tenth Year (A.D. 4)

It was the fifth of July, the first Sabbath of the month, when Jesus, while strolling through the countryside with his father, first gave expression to feelings and ideas which indicated that he was becoming self-conscious of the unusual nature of his life mission. Joseph listened attentively to the momentous words of his son but made few comments; he volunteered no information. The next day Jesus had a similar but longer talk with his mother. Mary likewise listened to the pronouncements of the lad, but neither did she volunteer any information. It was almost two years before Jesus again spoke to his parents concerning this increasing revelation within his own consciousness regarding the nature of his personality and the character of his mission on earth.

He entered the advanced school of the synagogue in August. At school he was constantly creating trouble by the questions he persisted in asking. Increasingly he kept all Nazareth in more or less of a hubbub. His parents were loath to forbid his asking these disquieting questions, and his chief teacher was greatly intrigued by the lad’s curiosity, insight, and hunger for knowledge.

Jesus’ playmates saw nothing supernatural in his conduct; in most ways he was altogether like themselves. His interest in study was somewhat above the average but not wholly unusual. He did ask more questions at school than others in his class.

Perhaps his most unusual and outstanding trait was his unwillingness to fight for his rights. Since he was such a well-developed lad for his age, it seemed strange to his playfellows that he was disinclined to defend himself even from injustice or when subjected to personal abuse. As it happened, he did not suffer much on account of this trait because of the friendship of Jacob, a neighbor boy, who was one year older. He was the son of the stone mason, a business associate of Joseph. Jacob was a great admirer of Jesus and made it his business to see that no one was permitted to impose upon Jesus because of his aversion to physical combat. Several times older and uncouth youths attacked Jesus, relying upon his reputed docility, but they always suffered swift and certain retribution at the hands of his self-appointed champion and ever-ready defender, Jacob the stone mason’s son.

Jesus was the generally accepted leader of the Nazareth lads who stood for the higher ideals of their day and generation. He was really loved by his youthful associates, not only because he was fair, but also because he possessed a rare and understanding sympathy that betokened love and bordered on discreet compassion.

This year he began to show a marked preference for the company of older persons. He delighted in talking over things cultural, educational, social, economic, political, and religious with older minds, and his depth of reasoning and keenness of observation so charmed his adult associates that they were always more than willing to visit with him. Until he became responsible for the support of the home, his parents were constantly seeking to influence him to associate with those of his own age, or more nearly his age, rather than with older and better-informed individuals for whom he evinced such a preference.

Late this year he had a fishing experience of two months with his uncle on the Sea of Galilee, and he was very successful. Before attaining manhood, he had become an expert fisherman.

His physical development continued; he was an advanced and privileged pupil at school; he got along fairly well at home with his younger brothers and sisters, having the advantage of being three and one-half years older than the oldest of the other children. He was well thought of in Nazareth except by the parents of some of the duller children, who often spoke of Jesus as being too pert, as lacking in proper humility and youthful reserve. He manifested a growing tendency to direct the play activities of his youthful associates into more serious and thoughtful channels. He was a born teacher and simply could not refrain from so functioning, even when supposedly engaged in play.

Joseph early began to instruct Jesus in the diverse means of gaining a livelihood, explaining the advantages of agriculture over industry and trade. Galilee was a more beautiful and prosperous district than Judea, and it cost only about one fourth as much to live there as in Jerusalem and Judea. It was a province of agricultural villages and thriving industrial cities, containing more than two hundred towns of over five thousand population and thirty of over fifteen thousand.

When on his first trip with his father to observe the fishing industry on the lake of Galilee, Jesus had just about made up his mind to become a fisherman; but close association with his father’s vocation later on influenced him to become a carpenter, while still later a combination of influences led him to the final choice of becoming a religious teacher of a new order.

3. The Eleventh Year (A.D. 5)

Throughout this year the lad continued to make trips away from home with his father, but he also frequently visited his uncle’s farm and occasionally went over to Magdala to engage in fishing with the uncle who made his headquarters near that city.

On Wednesday evening, June 24, A.D. 5, Jude was born. Complications attended the birth of this, the seventh child. Mary was so very ill for several weeks that Joseph remained at home. Jesus was very much occupied with errands for his father and with many duties occasioned by his mother’s serious illness. Never again did this youth find it possible to return to the childlike attitude of his earlier years. From the time of his mother’s illness—just before he was eleven years old—he was compelled to assume the responsibilities of the first-born son and to do all this one or two full years before these burdens should normally have fallen on his shoulders.

About the middle of May the lad accompanied his father on a business trip to Scythopolis, the chief Greek city of the Decapolis, the ancient Hebrew city of Beth-shean. On the way Joseph recounted much of the olden history of King Saul, the Philistines, and the subsequent events of Israel’s turbulent history. Jesus was tremendously impressed with the clean appearance and well-ordered arrangement of this so-called heathen city. He marveled at the open-air theater and admired the beautiful marble temple dedicated to the worship of the “heathen” gods. Joseph was much perturbed by the lad’s enthusiasm and sought to counteract these favorable impressions by extolling the beauty and grandeur of the Jewish temple at Jerusalem. Jesus had often gazed curiously upon this magnificent Greek city from the hill of Nazareth and had many times inquired about its extensive public works and ornate buildings, but his father had always sought to avoid answering these questions. Now they were face to face with the beauties of this gentile city, and Joseph could not gracefully ignore Jesus’ inquiries.

The only time Jesus ever saw his father angry with him was that night in their room at the inn when, in the course of their discussions, the boy so far forgot the trends of Jewish thought as to suggest that they go back home and work for the building of an amphitheater at Nazareth. When Joseph heard his first-born son express such un-Jewish sentiments, he forgot his usual calm demeanor and, seizing Jesus by the shoulder, angrily exclaimed, “My son, never again let me hear you give utterance to such an evil thought as long as you live.” Jesus was startled by his father’s display of emotion; he had never before been made to feel the personal sting of his father’s indignation and was astonished and shocked beyond expression. He only replied, “Very well, my father, it shall be so.” And never again did the boy even in the slightest manner allude to the games and other athletic activities of the Greeks as long as his father lived.

4. The Twelfth Year (A.D. 6)

Joseph entertained a growing belief in the spiritual nature of Jesus’ mission. And but for other and more important reasons it does seem unfortunate that he could not have lived to see the fulfillment of his concept of Jesus’ bestowal on earth.

Throughout this and the two following years Jesus suffered great mental distress as the result of his constant effort to adjust his personal views of religious practices and social amenities to the established beliefs of his parents. He was distraught by the conflict between the urge to be loyal to his own convictions and the conscientious admonition of dutiful submission to his parents; his supreme conflict was between two great commands which were uppermost in his youthful mind. The one was: “Be loyal to the dictates of your highest convictions of truth and righteousness.” The other was: “Honor your father and mother, for they have given you life and the nurture thereof.” However, he never shirked the responsibility of making the necessary daily adjustments between these realms of loyalty to one’s personal convictions and duty toward one’s family, and he achieved the satisfaction of effecting an increasingly harmonious blending of personal convictions and family obligations into a masterful concept of group solidarity based upon loyalty, fairness, tolerance, and love.

5. His Thirteenth Year (A.D. 7)

On the first day of the week, March 20, A.D. 7, Jesus graduated from the course of training in the local school connected with the Nazareth synagogue. This was a great day in the life of any ambitious Jewish family, the day when the first-born son was pronounced a “son of the commandment” and the ransomed first-born of the Lord God of Israel, a “child of the Most High” and servant of the Lord of all the earth.

Friday of the week before, Joseph had come over from Sepphoris, where he was in charge of the work on a new public building, to be present on this glad occasion. Jesus’ teacher confidently believed that his alert and diligent pupil was destined to some outstanding career, some distinguished mission. The elders, notwithstanding all their trouble with Jesus’ nonconformist tendencies, were very proud of the lad and had already begun laying plans which would enable him to go to Jerusalem to continue his education in the renowned Hebrew academies.

6. The Journey to Jerusalem

On their second day’s journey they passed by where the Jabbok, from the east, flows into the Jordan, and looking east up this river valley, they recounted the days of Gideon, when the Midianites poured into this region to overrun the land. Toward the end of the second day’s journey they camped near the base of the highest mountain overlooking the Jordan valley, Mount Sartaba, whose summit was occupied by the Alexandrian fortress where Herod had imprisoned one of his wives and buried his two strangled sons.

They pressed on, soon standing on the brink of Olivet, and Jesus saw for the first time (in his memory) the Holy City, the pretentious palaces, and the inspiring temple of his Father. At no time in his life did Jesus ever experience such a purely human thrill as that which at this time so completely enthralled him as he stood there on this April afternoon on the Mount of Olives, drinking in his first view of Jerusalem. And in after years, on this same spot he stood and wept over the city which was about to reject another prophet, the last and the greatest of her heavenly teachers.

But they hurried on to Jerusalem. It was now Thursday afternoon. On reaching the city, they journeyed past the temple, and never had Jesus beheld such throngs of human beings. He meditated deeply on how these Jews had assembled here from the uttermost parts of the known world.

Soon they reached the place prearranged for their accommodation during the Passover week, the large home of a well-to-do relative of Mary’s, one who knew something of the early history of both John and Jesus, through Zacharias. The following day, the day of preparation, they made ready for the appropriate celebration of the Passover Sabbath.

While all Jerusalem was astir in preparation for the Passover, Joseph found time to take his son around to visit the academy where it had been arranged for him to resume his education two years later, as soon as he reached the required age of fifteen. Joseph was truly puzzled when he observed how little interest Jesus evinced in all these carefully laid plans.

Jesus was profoundly impressed by the temple and all the associated services and other activities. For the first time since he was four years old, he was too much preoccupied with his own meditations to ask many questions. He did, however, ask his father several embarrassing questions (as he had on previous occasions) as to why the heavenly Father required the slaughter of so many innocent and helpless animals. And his father well knew from the expression on the lad’s face that his answers and attempts at explanation were unsatisfactory to his deep-thinking and keen-reasoning son.

On the day before the Passover Sabbath, flood tides of spiritual illumination swept through the mortal mind of Jesus and filled his human heart to overflowing with affectionate pity for the spiritually blind and morally ignorant multitudes assembled for the celebration of the ancient Passover commemoration. This was one of the most extraordinary days that the Son of God spent in the flesh; and during the night, for the first time in his earth career, there appeared to him an assigned messenger from Salvington, commissioned by Immanuel, who said: “The hour has come. It is time that you began to be about your Father’s business.”

And so, even ere the heavy responsibilities of the Nazareth family descended upon his youthful shoulders, there now arrived the celestial messenger to remind this lad, not quite thirteen years of age, that the hour had come to begin the resumption of the responsibilities of a universe. This was the first act of a long succession of events which finally culminated in the completion of the Son’s bestowal on Urantia and the replacing of “the government of a universe on his human-divine shoulders.”

As time passed, the mystery of the incarnation became, to all of us, more and more unfathomable. We could hardly comprehend that this lad of Nazareth was the creator of all Nebadon. Neither do we nowadays understand how the spirit of this same Creator Son and the spirit of his Paradise Father are associated with the souls of mankind. With the passing of time, we could see that his human mind was increasingly discerning that, while he lived his life in the flesh, in spirit on his shoulders rested the responsibility of a universe.

Thus ends the career of the Nazareth lad, and begins the narrative of that adolescent youth—the increasingly self-conscious divine human—who now begins the contemplation of his world career as he strives to integrate his expanding life purpose with the desires of his parents and his obligations to his family and the society of his day and age.

◄ Paper 123
Paper 125 ►
The Urantia Book


Voices of Now and Tomorrow / by Collage New Music

Voices of Now and Tomorrow

An interview with the composers

By Talia Amar

I am thrilled and honored to have my composition, “Reminiscence,” premiered in tonight’s concert along side of three composers that I very much admire. In preparation for the concert, I have interviewed David Rakowski, Yehudi Wyner, and Chaya Czernowin. This is what they had to say about their pieces:

David Rakowski “Stolen Moments” (2010)

The piece is dedicated to the composer and educator Yehudi Wyner. What is your relationship with him?

I know Yehudi only slightly before I came to Brandeis in 1995. But then I got to know him quite well when I started at Brandeis, and we were colleagues for about 10 years before he retired. I sometimes helped him with his computer in his office, he sometimes came into my office while I was giving lessons and told great stories (or just commented, “I said no tritones!”). And of course we got to know each other’s music pretty well over that time. I had a couple of piano trios right around 1995 that had syncopated rhythms that could conceivably called “jazzy” — but not jazz — and Yehudi’s wonderful Horn Trio from that time consciously had some things that borrowed from jazz idioms. Yehudi commented that jazzy must have just been “in the air” at the time.

My assignment for this piece was “Classical composers respond to jazz”. It reminded me of me and Yehudi and our “jazzy” conversations of so many more years earlier. And, as it turns out, it was right around the time of his 80th birthday.

The piano has a special role in the first and fourth movement. However, in the second and third the piano almost doesn't play. Was this a conscious decision?

I knew the original pianist would be Tony de Mare, and he has a reputation for being a badass pianist. Nonetheless, the stride that I wrote in the first movement and the long bebop solo at the beginning of the last movement were such monster parts that it felt like with all those notes to learn, Tony should have much easier stuff for the rest of the piece. Also: I knew what other pieces were to be performed on the concert when my piece was premiered, and it included a tango set by Tony. Thus, I omitted Tony from the tango movement, because why not? He was already playing four tangos.

The piece has Jazz elements in it. Is it something you like to use in other pieces of yours? How do you reconcile Jazz, which traditionally has harmonic progressions, with atonal music?

Well, with this question I have to go into the terms of the commission.

Greg Evans was the director of programming at Merkin Hall in New York, and he had played horn in a piece of mine in NYC in 1996 (he seemed to have liked his part). In the 2008-9 season, he had programmed a series of classical composers interacting with jazz idioms, featuring three ensembles: the Lark Quartet, Zephyros Winds (wind quintet) and Tony de Mare. Greg’s idea for the commission was to bring those three groups together into a single piece with me doing my own interactions with jazz. It turns out I don’t listen to a lot of jazz and I don’t know so much about it, except blues scales et al — but I’d gotten a reputation for jazziness in some pieces, and I had put videos on YouTube of a stride piano etude and a bebop piano etude. Greg liked how I responded to challenges like that, so he proposed a much larger version of that challenge, at least 20 minutes. (Greg also mentioned that not a lot of rehearsal time was budgeted, so naturally I did a lot of writing for the ensembles by themselves so less putting-together in rehearsal would be necessary. Which also explains the big piano solos).

In a way, some of Stolen Moments became larger versions of the Stride and bebop etudes, but with more kinds of stuff layered in. A lot of the chords I use are already chords that could be considered jazz chords in a different context, but I use them differently. I wouldn’t consider my music atonal, anyway, more of a hyper-chromatic kind of tonality that I can’t explain. There’s voice leading and pitch centers and pitch goals in my music (I think) that, if they have a system, it’s a secret one. If someone figures out how it works, please make sure you don’t tell me.

Yehudi Wyner “The Second Madrigal: Voices of Women” (1999)

Where does the title come from?

One of the ten songs (number 5) is called The Second Madrigal. That is the only reason it is called that way.

Your piece is based on ten different poems. What made you choose these poems?

The texts are from “A Book of Luminous Things”, an international anthology of poetry edited by Czeslaw Milosz. Milosz was a great man and a great poet who was polish and survived the Nazi war. He is a man of great courage and strength. His philosophy of poetry is that poetry should not be obscure, it should be very straightforward, very clear, it should communicate, and be very concrete. I went through that book and the poems that captioned my attention the most are the ones about women. I don’t know why.

I want my music to speak with the poetry. The most extraordinary poems are by the polish poet Anna Swir. I used three of her poems in my piece. The frankness, the honesty, the courage to say what she says is just very powerful. This suggested to me what kind of music I should write.

How do you express the text in your music? Do you follow the general atmosphere of the poem, or do you follow the individual words and phrases?

I think both. I use the general atmosphere of the poem, if it’s passionate or angry, the music should not be like Debussy. On the other hand, it is a bad idea to start a dreamy poem about nature with big stormy music. Now, this has to go hand in hand with the text.

The melodies are not standard in this music, but every phrase has a melodic shape. The melodic shapes are very carefully built and meant to be memorable.

Did you try to unify the whole piece considering it is based on different poems?

No, I did not try to unify the piece. But while I began writing the notes I realized there was an arch. It went somewhere and from that point went somewhere else. The piece begins with a young woman who is flirtatious, who is looking forward maybe to an affair. Another woman is looking to getting out of bed and putting on her makeup. It goes to the point where women are deeply involved in their passions, and the affairs of their lives. From there it goes on to decline. Towards the last song there is a poem about a woman who is totally destroyed. The end of her life is nearby, and she hates the way she looks. Then we get to the very last poem (the only one that was written in English), which is about death. A lot of things fell into place without my intending them to. Another thing that helped to keep things unified was not having long postludes and things like that.

Chaya Czernowin “Lovesong” (2010)

Your piece is called “Lovesong”. Was there an underline text for the love song? Or is it more a song without words?

 It’s a song without words. The piece starts with a memory of something that could have been a love song and slowly layers of this memory are peeled away and we remain with something very fractured. For me, this really talks about the sustainability of love, not in the first moment, which is always so exciting, but how does it grow. We have fragile textures that are all the time in danger of getting cut or getting thrown away. It always continues to grow. That is actually the real love song.

Are you expressing your own love song or should the listeners think about their own experience? Are you expressing an internal feeling or a universal one?

It is both. For me music is always a little bit about both. If this succeeds to communicate something internal in a very very strong way, then it means that it can project something, which is to some extent universal. I start and end with something that is mine because that is what I know. The question is how do you succeed to objectify it by some extent even if it is very subjective, how do you succeed to communicate it so it is able to convey to everybody else also something very prominent.

Around the end of the piece (minute 7) there are more aggressive moments followed by fragile textures. What did you have in mind when you composed this passage?

There are fragile and melodic lines, which are very tenuous, very hard to catch, it is not a real melody. But it is always going on, always continuing and always developing. In spite of all these catastrophes and all those glares by fate or some external very strong power, it still goes on. That is the sustainability of love in a very very dramatic way. In a way I always thought that this piece is like a big opera in a bottle. Because it is extremely dramatic with a huge spectrum but actually it is in a tiny piece, just ten minutes long. It contains all this dramatic density. The story and the theme are very dense. You can hear a lot of things happening.


dimanche 27 novembre 2011

The Lynx Network in France

            Originally, it was a commission established in France in 1936, following the appearance of the lynx in France, to appraise the damage caused by the big cat to other animals. From April 1989 the Ministry of Environment put the ONCFNational Hunting and Wildlife Agency – in charge to lead the commission to monitor the lynx population in France
            I summarize the Network operation below:

Now the Lynx Network has over 1 000 people with different sensitivities (vet, forest ranger, association for nature conservation, naturalist, wolf-hunting lieutenant, hunters…etc) known as “correspondents”.
These people are trained to identify signs of the presence of lynx (prey remains, hairs, footprint…etc) and take testimonies on adapted forms.

If you see a lynx or signs of its presence, they are the ones you have to contact. You should never handle a dead lynx for example; it is protected specie so only a person authorized of the Lynx Network can.

            Then they pass all their signs at departmental director (the Network is currently present in 18 department of Alps, Jura and Vosges).
The ONCFS centralizes and analyzes the data collected each semester and distributes a newsletter twice a year, open to all: the information bulletin.

The information bulletin of the Lynx Network was an information and linking document for the correspondents. Over time, still retaining its original spirit, it became the only general information document on the monitoring of the species in France.
An annual meeting hosted by the national coordinator takes place in each department.

The method of collecting signs of the presence of lynx is standardized and the success of this monitoring entirely depends on the mobilization of the correspondents of the Network.

The absence of signs of the presence of lynx does not mean the absence of lynx : it can be a sign of low pressure of observation or a lack of monitoring (ex. : places which are hard to reach in the Alps).

Aucun commentaire:

Enregistrer un commentaire