View allAll Photos Tagged proofreading
Currently re-reading this by a local author . Despite finding a typo on p 44, para 4 (which as an occasional proofreader is liable to put me off ) it really is a good book . See if you can spot the mistake yourself - in comments
exciting description coming soon!
Ok, so here it is. Basically, I'm broke and shouldn't be spending any money. But then me and my friend Derek (the handsome fellow up above) decided to go to this adorable little vintage shop called the Honeymoon Bungalow and there we found a beautiful Canon tx staring at us begging to be bought. So me being the kind, generous soul that I am bought the poor baby for $25 not knowing if it even worked. So Derek and I rushed to Wal-Mart, bought film, went around the store and took pictures, brought them to get developed, waited an hour, found out after an hour that they hadn't even started, then waited another 45 minutes, and finally got the roll back. These were a couple of the results. Nothing too too beautiful, but I'm just beyond thrilled that the photos came out as something other than a blank black piece of paper. The camera works! I'm ecstatic! and I can't wait to shoot film again. I said I was going to stop because it's an expensive hobby and I can't afford it, but I don't care. I'm so excited I have a new camera and I can tell I'm going to go crazy with it. So I just wanted to post this photo to commemorate my first day with my beautiful new baby. Hoorayyy! Now I don't know if any of this makes sense, but I gotta go so perhaps I'll proofread this sucker another time. Byeee!
Our latest poster was in the making for over a year and features ALL available 14 Poecilotheria species in the hobby, including all the adult males, in a total of 30 stacked images! With over 650 Megapixels it shows this genus with all the details it deserves and is the biggest, most advanced and detailed Poecilotheria poster ever made. Prints up to 4 meters are easily possible. All images are stacked and often made up of 3 to 8 individual images to give an entirely sharp image. It also features the location and body length for every species and additional text with general information.
It’s worldwide available again via arachnogear.com. This poster is great for teachers, entomologists, students, or other tarantula-lovers in your life. It looks great as a decoration for a classroom, office, tarantula enclosure areas, or anywhere else that could benefit from the presence of our furry fanged friends. It’s a great addition to the already available Poecilotheria spp. leg key we made last year. flic.kr/p/GkndJs and flic.kr/p/Fsme53 which shows all adult females ventral, including the rare P. rajaei!
This project is the second cooperation with Patrick Meyer aka @poeci1.de You can find some behind the scenes footage on his Facebook page and everything else you need to know about Poecilotheria on his website www.poeci1.de. Thanks to Dennis Van Vlierberghe for this excellent text and Danniella Sherwood, Tobias Hauke and Andrea van der Zwet-Jonkman for additional proofreading and suggestions. Special thanks to Ron P., Amadou B., Malte B. and everyone else who helped with this project over the last year.
The two ventral images will be replaced when we have another species in the hobby, also some of the images will be featured on the next version of the „Tarantulas Of The World“ poster which is in the making right now, previous versions are available on ArachnoGear.
arachnogear.com/shop/posters/poecilotheria-tarantula-genu...
www.facebook.com/mygalephotography/
All rights reserved © 2016-2017
I think this is the final layout for our Easter worship guide. It's gone to our proofreader now. If you see anything glaringly bad, I'd love to know before we print thousands of these.
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
I grabbed a screen from this YouTube video and played with it in PSP for We’re Here!
Asimov wasn’t a Robot, but our group for the day is dedicated to him: I ROBOT.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGib6vIuVds
Fun facts:
- Isaac Asimov was the son of a Russian immigrant who owned a candy shop in Brooklyn.
- He wrote over 500 books, both scientific and in the science fiction genre. He is most famous for the “I, Robot” and “Foundation” series.
- Asimov won more than a dozen annual awards for particular works of science fiction and a half-dozen lifetime awards.
- Asimov was his own secretary, typist, indexer, proofreader, and literary agent.
- He received 14 honorary doctorate degrees from universities.
- Asimov coined the terms "robotics" and “positronic”.
- President of the American Humanist Association.
- Asimov was a claustrophile: he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces.
- He was afraid of flying and took only 2 flights in his life.
- Participated in The Wolfe Pack, a group of devotees of the Nero Wolfe mysteries
- Prominent member of The Baker Street Irregulars, the leading Sherlock Holmes society.
- Joined the Dutch Treat Club in 1971, a group that met for lunch every Tuesday at the Regency Hotel in New York.
- A P. G. Wodehouse fan, and a member of The Wodehouse Society. The club formed the basis for his Black Widower mystery short stories.
- Member of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and occasionally served as toastmaster at benefit shows.
- Member, and notable critic, of Mensa.
- Founding member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, CSICOP (now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry).
- In a 1971 satirical piece, The Sensuous Dirty Old Man, Asimov wrote: "The question then is not whether or not a girl should be touched. The question is merely where, when, and how she should be touched.” Unhappily, Asimov's actual behavior, as a leading science-fiction author and personality, contributed to an undesirable atmosphere for women in the male-dominated science fiction community.
- Asimov became a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party during the New Deal, and thereafter remained a political liberal.
- Died of HIV, Contracted from a blood transfusion in 1983. This was the early days of AIDS / HIV, and a time of great fear and stigma. His condition was kept secret until 10 years after his death in 1992.
www.britannica.com/biography/Isaac-Asimov
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov
www.themarginalian.org/2013/08/13/isaac-asimov-religion-s...
I keep trying to get some thoughts down and it just keeps coming out as whining and somewhat needy or maybe a very confused human being. Trust me, I am far from that. But where I am these days is what I am wondering about. I listen…a lot. I read…a lot. I observe…a lot. From what I have seen in others I just don’t seem to be finding me anywhere in these observations. Maybe looking for a label or tag or whatever to call myself is wrong. I just feel that if I can find that “thing” that “identity tag” then I can have more of a group or personal identity to fall back on. In recent years I began seeing a category or maybe more of a placement on where I always saw for me fitting under the Trans Umbrella as a solid descriptor of ME but I am now beginning to question that.
“Always support your team” is such a strong thing that I have lived by and over the years of actually playing sports or being a fan, I have maybe just been a wee bit at fault of taking those four words a bit too strongly. I have always hoped that putting yourself fully in – heart, mind, body that that would be enough. Satisfaction would come from that. So when I embraced this journey of true self that not only would I find myself but also others that are at a similar point. I am beginning to see and understand that that may not be true. While we may appear to be similar in dress or pose or smile, we have so many differences. I guess that is OK. I seem to have taken a left turn there. Where my head is at and has been at for awhile is the idea of a label equating to identity and purpose. Find that and then one will be able to support that.
If I were to have that perfect label for myself then that would help shape and define my identity. I keep putting this label in front of me or that label in front of me, much like I would do if I was out trying on a dress, to see if it was right for me and I keep having to put that label back on the rack and go look for another one to try on. I never saw a concept web until I was in University (oh the sheltered life I lead) and when it was described to me on what to do with it, I found out that I was doing them wrong, or so it appeared because shockingly mine was totally different from everyone else. Maybe all of this, this that I share herewith you is not a concept web but a Venn diagram. Maybe that is what this is. Maybe all of this nothing more than a Venn diagram. One great big group of intersecting circles. Sure, I can live with that. A bit of this and a touch of that. Kinda how my Grandma baked a pie and also why those written down recipes on the faded cards never turned out the same.
I can hear myself telling others about what I think they should do “just relax” “enjoy the journey” “be happy for yourself” “have fun” “smile”. Maybe taking the advice I offer to others and giving it to myself would be wise. How much do we have to do??? Not sure. When will we get there??? Not sure. What is the most important thing??? Not sure. Where is this leading??? Not sure. Why is this all taking place??? Not sure. Who do you need to impress??? Yourself. Ya. You. Impress yourself. I am confident it will all work out. I mean, it will right?
Plus the best thing to do is not proofread what you have been typing at 3AM and then just post it out into the world. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
I am fine by the way. A-OK 100% so no comments that way please and thank you.
copyright © Mim Eisenberg/mimbrava studio. All rights reserved.
My father died on October 25th 20 years ago. I still feel bereft. As did Barack Obama's grandmother, Toot, he and my mom poured all they had into me, and I am who I am because of what they taught me with great love. Though he couldn't read a note, my dad loved music, especially classical. He had perfect pitch and a sweet tenor voice that I can still hear when I listen hard enough.
One of the benefits I get from being the proofreader for the Chopin Society of Atlanta is that I get to see some world-class recitals, such as this one last week by violinist Mariusz Patyra. This shot was taken with my S5 (on silent mode), handheld at 12x zoom, and without flash, hence the long exposure. I like the sense of motion the image evokes. My father would have loved watching this virtuoso artist perform with dazzling finger speed and awesome bowing technique.
EDIT: A male cousin to whom I sent a link to this dedication wrote something that brought tears to my eyes for something that it revealed about my dad that I hadn't realized, and for how much an impact it made on my cousin: "One thing your dad taught me (which I pass on to all younger men in my family) is that it's OK for boys to kiss men & men to kiss men. Your father never let a greeting pass (even before I showed him his Tastycakes) without first getting a kiss. A hug wasn't enough, nor was a passing peck on the cheek. It was always a kiss - like I'd give to my mom. I loved him for this (and other things) and will never forget the lesson he taught me."
Sunday was Janoid's birthday. Please go to her stream if you'd like to send her good wishes.
I would be grateful if you would look at the new pool I started to help Sylpics (Sylvia), whose car was broken into and $4200 worth of camera and camera gear was stolen. Even if you can't help with a contribution of cash or equipment, I'd be grateful if you'd join and pass along an invitation to the group to fellow photographers who might wish to help Syl. Thank you.
I hope to catch up with you all later, but that may not be possible, as I am off to vote and expect to spend many, many hours on line, after which I've got to buckle down to work. Or vice versa since it's 32º outside at the moment, and I may delay voting till the afternoon. Reports are that people stood on line throughout Atlanta for three to eight hours due to heavy turnout compounded by system-wide computer breakdowns. But I do thank you for dropping by, as always.
See my shots on flickriver:
This restoration is being performed by the "US Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District". They are also working with "Eco & Associates Inc.", "LA County Parks and Recreation", and the "U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service"! Please note in the Project Purpose, the word "Breading" (printed) instead of "Breeding", and the "Vireo" (printed) instead of "Verio"... With four large & important agencies being mentioned on this sign, who does their proofreading? My Tax Dollars at Work!
The Flock of Words is a 300‑metre typographic artwork created in 2003 as part of Morecambe’s Tern Project, designed to celebrate the birdlife of Morecambe Bay through poems, quotations, and word‑based sculpture.
The Flock of Words is one of Morecambe’s most distinctive pieces of public art—an outdoor literary walkway that blends typography, sculpture, and local identity. Installed in 2003, the artwork forms part of the wider Tern Project, an arts‑led regeneration scheme designed to revitalise Morecambe’s seafront by celebrating the rich ornithological heritage of Morecambe Bay. The installation stretches approximately 300 metres, linking the town’s railway station with the promenade.
The project emerged from Lancaster City Council’s ambition to use public art to help reverse the decline of Morecambe as a seaside resort. The Tern Project, led by artist Gordon Young, sought to create a trail of artworks themed around birds—reflecting the bay’s status as one of Britain’s most important habitats for migratory species. The Flock of Words was conceived as a way to bring this theme literally under visitors’ feet.
The installation was a six‑year collaboration between:
Gordon Young – public artist
Andy Altman of Why Not Associates – typographic designer
Russell Coleman – sculptor and technical lead
Their shared interest in text‑based art shaped the project’s unique character.
The walkway is composed of poems, proverbs, nursery rhymes, jokes, and literary quotations, all connected by the theme of birds. Sources range from Genesis and Chaucer to Shakespeare, Robert Burns, and Spike Milligan.
Multiple materials: granite, concrete, bronze, brass, stainless steel, and cut glass
Eric Gill typefaces, linking the work to Gill’s carvings in the nearby Midland Hotel
Words arranged in all directions, encouraging visitors to wander, pause, and read
Authentic historical spellings (e.g., “turtel”, “pecok”), which caused proofreading challenges during production
The manufacturing process pushed technical boundaries. Engineers repeatedly froze and thawed the concrete to ensure durability, and sands and gravels were sourced from Spain, Scotland, and Devon to achieve the desired colours.
At the seaward end of the path stands the Genesis Tower, a 9‑metre‑high triangular steel structure topped with a dove—symbolising the biblical story of Noah and the dove returning with an olive branch. This tower acts as a visual anchor and thematic culmination of the walkway.
Cultural and Regenerative Impact
The Flock of Words is more than a decorative feature; it represents a shift in how Morecambe reimagined its public spaces in the early 2000s. By integrating literature, local ecology, and urban design, the installation encourages residents and visitors to engage with the town’s heritage in a new way.
The artwork also complements other Tern Project pieces—such as bird sculptures, stone eggs, and the Eric Morecambe statue—creating a cohesive cultural trail that supports tourism and community pride.
Today, The Flock of Words stands as a testament to Morecambe’s creative regeneration. It transforms a simple walkway into a living anthology, celebrating the language, wildlife, and imagination associated with Morecambe Bay. Through its blend of art, typography, and local identity, it remains one of the town’s most engaging and meaningful public installations.
For about 2 years during the mid-1980's I was the editor/publisher of the Norton Rag monthly newsletter for the San Diego (California) Norton Club, now defunct. Except for material submitted by club members, I found myself working on every aspect of producing the periodical including the creation of the line art for the covers and for some features. (I also edited, typed out and proofread the text, created the camera-ready paste-ups, arranged for printing and finally mailed them out to the club members.) This was years before desktop publishing with computers was available.
The pinstripe outlined Norton Rag heading at the top was my work as well.
By then I was already a regular customer of the Pasty Kitchen in Los Alamitos, California. Because the pasty originated from the Cornish Peninsula of England, and because the Norton was a prominent motorcycle brand from England, I created this illustration of a Norton Commando Fastback juxtaposed over the front of the business for the October, 1986 issue.
Note that the bike is parked as if it approached from the left which would be the norm in Britain.
The Norton Rag was the second periodical on which I worked. The first one was the student-produced 49er Engineer magazine at Long Beach State University.
Katherine spends most of the flight triple proofreading the report she wrote for NASA concerning the Apollo mission.
This is a mini version of the cover and some pages from her actual work.
Katherine Johnson Barbie 2018 rebodied on MTM and redressed in repro Barbie "Fashion Editor: (1965-66)
Black bag: vintage Barbie flight attendant uniform
Paper report and tickets: printed/assembled by me
Floor and walls: Foam board, one wall covered in scrapbook
paper
Airport seating: I made it from foam board, craft foam, and popsicle sticks
Counter: I made it from a graham cracker box, cereal cardboard, scrapbook paper, and foam board
Its been a while since I've posted. I must confess to being both busy and suffering from "builders block"! I just didn't feel the mojo for building for quite some time. Thankfully, that phase is over! I'm back to building!
I've been going through some unfinished projects. The first among these projects is the instructions for my British Rail Polybulk covered hopper wagon. As with most of my instructions, it has resulted in a complete redesign of the model! This revised design is much better in several ways:
1) Much more robust and strong
2) Hopper body profile is much closer in shape to the prototype.
3) The wagon's scale dimensions are nearly a perfect match to the prototype.
4) More efficient use of parts--only 535 pieces.
Shown above is my first "test drive" of the instructions. I kitted out the parts required and took this photo just before building a second copy of the wagon based on the instructions. This is a process I've had to learn to perform more rigorously than my previous kits. Its amazing how many errors, improvements, etc. that you identify when sitting down to build the kit from the perspective of someone else. It has to be more than proofreading the instructions themselves; you actually have to physically build it. You can't identify areas of structural weakness or inconvenient building steps unless you physically handle the model as you build.
In any case, I did identify a couple of improvements and have updated the instructions. I just have to prepare sticker graphics and then this new kit should be in the store at www.brickdimensions.com in a few days! Stay tuned!
“REUSABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE ART CONCEPT --- This art concept is McDonnell Douglas/Boeing’s X-33 concept of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV).
ERRATUM: COLOR
REUSABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE ART CONCEPT --- Rockwell International’s Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) X-33 comparison concept.”
Although at a useless resolution, at least accompanied by the following brief, yet superior caption: “Rockwell X-33 and Full-Scale RLV Vehicles”:
www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Design-Options-and-Issues/1...
Credit: ‘SEMANTIC SCHOLAR’ website
“ERRATUM”. Really? A $25 word normally associated with legitimate scholarly & literary works/publications, here applied to the correction of a half-assed $1.01 caption. A laughable use of a new word the NASA ‘proofreader’? came across in “It Pays to Increase Your Word Power”…while looking at the pictures in the Reader’s Digest magazines in his doctor’s waiting room.
Additionally:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlHjcIFVtKU
Credit: user 'Retro Space HD'/YouTube
As expected, the image is not to be found at the “NASA Image and Video Library” website, only of Lockheed Martin’s winning VentureStar proposal. A minor miracle in and of itself.
The original competing proposals:
archive.org/details/NIX-EC95-43320-1
Credit: Internet Archive website
“CONCEPT OF VIKING LANDER TO BE LAUNCHED TO MARS IN 1975
Robot Spacecraft to Search for Life in the Martian Soil.”
Also:
“The Viking lander design went through a number of versions in 1968 and 1969. The three-legged September 1969 design added a second camera for stereophotography and moved the meteorology instrument to the high-gain antenna mast.”
At:
history.nasa.gov/SP-4212/p218b.html
Disregard the terminal propulsion nozzles (3 places) being also labeled as “fuel tanks”…ugh. Proofreading anyone?
Possibly on display…at Martin Marietta’s Denver HQ?
A subsequent design iteration…also in the same…building…lobby?
www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-viking-lander-w...
Final proofreading now, book should go to the publisher next week, then await galley proofs and final okay to go to publishing, and hopefully it'll be available in August or September!
Already starting on book four...stay tuned!
WARNING: THIS SERIES FEATURES DARK THEMES SUCH AS ALCOHOL, RAPE, DRUGS AND VIOLENCE. WHILE THESE TOPICS MAY OR MAY NOT BE IN THIS PARTICULAR ISSUE, THE SERIES IS MORE ENJOYABLE IF READ BEGINNING TO FINISH, SO IF YOU FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE READING ABOUT THESE TOPICS, THIS IS NOT THE SERIES FOR YOU
Speeding past a receptionist, Dorothy Walker waltzed into her daughter’s hospital room. She sprinted straight to the bed Trish was lying atop, immediately giving her a hug.
Trish: H-… Hey, mom…
Trish said over her mother’s shoulder, stuttering as caught off guard by her mother’s sudden appearance.
Dorothy: I’m so glad that you’re okay, you nearly gave me a heart-attack!
Dorothy announced while stepping away from the warm embrace. Now standing farther back, she took notice of the plastic vase with a pink tulip and a rose sitting beside Trish. The shadow of the rose was cast across Trish’s shoulder.
Dorothy: Who got you these?
Trish: Jess. I don’t think she paid for it, she was probably re-gifting.
Dorothy: That’s in-character. Well, I also got you some things…
Dorothy reached into her purse, and out of it pulled out a plastic bag, placing it beside Trish. Trish rummaged through it, finding several comic books reading “Patsy Walker” or “Patsy and Hedy” on each of the covers.
Dorothy: I brought you more unfinished Patsy issues so you can proofread them for accuracy.
Trish: Gee, thanks…
She rolled her eyes while giving her sarcastic reply. Trish didn’t care much for these comics, Dorothy started the line to get Trish more publicity, which is something Dorothy is always doing. Always trying to make her daughter a household name, getting Trish things like her podcast, the TV series Trish was the star of as a child, or the previously mentioned comics.
Trish: Did you bring any of my scripts?
Dorothy: Oh, please, you’re not fit to host a podcast, look at yourself. Hedy’s filling in for you until you’re out of the hospital.
Trish: Mom, I got stabbed in the stomach, that doesn’t make me unfit to talk into a mic.
Dorothy: You have bandages around your head, how do I know you didn’t get a concussion?
Trish: I hit my head on a brick wall when I fell, but it barely hurt. I’m fine, trust me.
Dorothy: How many fingers am I holding up?
She faced her palm towards Trish, all 5 fingers pointing upward.
Trish: 5.
Dorothy: The correct answer was 4, thumbs aren’t fingers.
Trish: Whatever..! Forgetting thumbs aren’t fingers doesn’t mean I’m unfit to host Trish Talk, I’m still going to.
Dorothy: No, you’re not.
Trish: Mom, please, I have to-
Dorothy: Nah-ah-ah! Mother knows best.
Trish: Ugh, fine!
Dorothy: I’ll be back on Friday, then I’ll reevaluate whether or not you’re able to come back to hosting.
Dorothy slowly walked backwards toward the door.
Trish: Okay, bye.
Dorothy: Bye, love you.
Dorothy stood in the doorway for a second…
Dorothy: I’m waiting.
Trish: …Love you too.
Dorothy: There it is..!
Dorothy left the room, smiling, before shutting the door behind herself. Before the door was shut, Trish saw what she swore to be a large yellow wheel of some kind being driven by a man wearing green across the road.
Trish: ...The f#ck..?
~Madam Web
captainkimo.com/west-virgina-drought
Here is an HDR photo from West Virginia. This was one of the first HDR shots that I took during my trip up north to shoot the fall leaves. This fall season was a little disappointing, as you can see. There was a drought throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland. This caused the leaves to lose most of its color during this autumn season. Nevertheless it was still beautiful throughout the countryside. I had a blast during my trip all thanks to a couple of my photographer buddies. I am certainly looking forward to traveling back next year, hopefully it'll be a better autumn season.
A lot of people have asked about the ebook, yes I'm still working on it. I have a couple more weeks until I finish writing the book, but then I still need to go over and proofread everything, and that'll take at least another week. Please be patient, a book like this is a lot of work, especially for one person.
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(I'm not gonna proofread this btw ) So I was actually planning on making a video to talk about what came up on SDCC. However, I just got a wisdom teeth extraction yesterday night and my face is sore af. I can barely talk and I just don't sound good or professional to make a video (not saying I was ever professional) so for this post, I'll talk about the big budget superhero movie trailer.
I'll post some stuff about few things like that lego batman trailer, the spiderman homecoming concept art and stuff like that. If anyone can give me a complete list of stuff in SDCC I would gladly appreciate it because I'm an lazy asshole to research it myself
So enough wasting time, let's move on to my quick thoughts
Wonder Woman-
This is the movie I am looking forward to. Now I'm not a big fan of BVS, I'm kinda phantom menacing it right now. It lacked many things that makes a movie... a movie. However, I do had some enjoyment and one of them was wonder woman. She felt tacked on and kinda unnecessary in BVS sure, but she was fucking badass and beautiful. Since Marvel fucked over Patty Jenkins (I believe she was suppose to direct Thor the Dark World) I'm glad she's directing Wonder Woman. This trailer looks very colorful and even though the only thing different is the shield I believe, her outfit just looks different for some reason. I'm getting a Captain America: The First Avenger vibe of from this movie so far which is great I think. I personally think The First Avenger is an underrated movie, not a lot of people talk about it. Now I'm not saying DC is copying Marvel, calm your tits, but I am saying is that I like that type of movie, taking fictional characters and put them in historical events and see how it translates to fun- action summer blockbuster. It is quite intriguing to me, just as long as the film doesn't go too far into realism unless you want to go Christopher Nolan and focus more on story-telling. Also what notice, this film looks like fun, which is at least what I want in a superhero film. With the exception of the Dark Knight trilogy, all superhero movies are just a dumb comic book movie but only certain movies have entertainment, a story that makes sense, and good characters to make me care about the action. Wonder Woman gave me enough to make me excited. It didn't show too little and it didn't show me too much. Only certain scenes and cool shots to make me excited. That is all I want and I'm starting to have hope for the DCEU.
Suicide Squad Comic Con Trailer-
Well obviously I am excited to see this and it shows a little more scenes but not much to spoil anything. That's basically it. We had like enough trailers now for this movie. I REALLY love the music choice for this movie. It has that mature/fun tone to it that does fit with these worst heroes ever. I think I'm starting to get addicted to twenty-one pilots now. Song is just fantastic
Dr. Strange-
So the second trailer dropped and it looks cool. I'm not super hyped for Dr. Strange as much as suicide squad or rogue one this year tbh but i have to admit it looks really cool. I like the choice of music, I even like cumberbatch, and I like how they showed ore reality bendy thing. I have a feeling Dr. Strange would be the most creative marvel movie to date because it's introducing something new. As much as I love most of the MCU movies, I have to admit majority of it is formulaic. Even Guardians of the Galaxy felt unoriginal with storytelling despite how much fun I had. Now I get it, usually big franchises follow a certain formula and they usually work, such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones (except for the prequels and kingdom of the crystal skull, fuck those movies) but in such a big superhero company, both Marvel and DC, who produce so many comic books from their ass, I expect something different at least with storytelling, even if the characters are likable and the action is fantastic. Now Dr. Strange may have a forgetable villain, repetative story, setting up infinity war like 47 times, and have a blue beam somewhere idk, two end credits scenes but nevertheless, as long as the characters are good, and the action intrigues me, then that's all that matters.
JUSTICE LEAGUE!!!!!!!-
It seems like Warner Bros finally learned their lessons and they have the main guy, Geoff Jones, in charge who has a clear vision on what he is doing than some talentless hack fuck shit up.Just like wonder woman, it looks like fun and it should be. This is a movie about a guy dressed up as a bat, a guy who runs fast, a half robot, a 5000 year old goddess, and a dude who talks to fish, I would never think "Wow, these characters should be in the real world like Nolan's batman" Uh no, it's a comic book film and comic book films are made to entertain. Now I kow some people are gonna say DC is copying marvel now....... and please shut up. It's like the Rossboi situation but in a larger scale. I like Batman's new suit. I didn't notice the difference at first and what's sad is I just recently updated my batman AGAIN. Now I realized that was a waste of time because he has a different suit....Wonder Woman looks the same and I swear if they changed her costume in a last minute I'm throwing my wonder woman figure away. Cyborg looks sweet and it kinda reminds me of the New 52 version which looks great. SUPERMAN IS SMILING!!!!!!!!!!!!! No suit change for him which makes sense. I prefer shirtless Aquaman though, I don't mind how he looks in the concept art but I just want to see that nice man body of his #nohomo. I totally understand they have to make Aquaman a silent badass and I think it works better for aquaman unlike his campy ridiculous comic book counterpart. Now for the Flash.... yeah I'm probably the only one who thinks this but I don't like his costume at all and the blue lighting effect for him just ruins it for me. I'm sure Ezra Miller will do a GREAT job as Barry Allen but if only they give him a better suit and change the color of his speed force lightning, I'll be fine.
I am awar that flash has a mechanical suit in other comics, but I even think those are dumb as well. If Batman can get a rubber comic book accurate suit then why not give it to flash also? I prefer the CW version much better because it is a perfect blend with the modern world and the comic world. Giving him a mech suit just ruins it for me..... but who wants to be I'm still gonna make a custom regardless lol. So yeah overall, I do enjoy this trailer. It didn't give us too much which I completely understand. They didn't show steepenwolf, or superman which is good. I don't want to see too much shit crammed in a trailer (looking at you BVS trailer 2). Now of course I do have some doubts because it's once again directed by Zack Snyder. He is an overrated talentless hack who's like Michael Bay, focuses on visuals too much rather than substance. Now I liked some of his works before. 300 was pretty good, haven't seen watchmen, and I enjoyed Man of Steel unlike most people. But who knows, maybe Zack doesn't have complete creative control and the future of the DCEU will be saved.
So who's the winner of comic con???????????
I don't give a shit. Both companies did well. Marvel gives us very short tease of what's to come while DC goes all out to win people back. DC certainly won me back and I'll give them a second chance. I fee like Marvel knows that their movies are gonna make a billion anyway so that's why they didn't bring much but overall. I'm liking this so far. What do you think? I'm surprised if you even read this far lol
Hop to see you guys are brickfair if you are going and I hope my mouth heals faster so I can enjoy real food again. I'm already sick of fucking soup
Groß St. Martin and The Kölner Dom - Köln, Germany.
The Cologne Cathedral always takes top billing being the city's most visited and photographed attraction. The other churches pale in comparison, as you can see here in this image. The cathedral is, without a doubt, in a league of its own.
To the south of the cathedral, close to the Rhine, stands the church of Groß St. Martin, the church you see in the center of this image. It was consecrated in 1172, has a massive tower over the crossing and richly articulated walls.
Camera | Lens: Nikon D700; 24-70mm f/2.8;
Exposure: 20.0 sec; Aperture: f/16: ISO: 200: Focal Length: 56mm;
Copyright 2010 | Yen Baet | All Rights Reserved.
Do not use any of my images without permission.
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I've officially joined the blogging community. Still at its early stages and might need more work and proofreading, but it's up and running. I would rather call it a travel notebook - a documentation of my travels - before, during and after.
It's aptly titled WHEN IT'S NOT BLUE. Do visit if you have time.
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Week 25: Vintage Vibe (June 18th - 24th)
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An antique bottle, Mellin's Infant's Food, Aqua, Circa 1880, Baby Food, Baby Formula, Tooled Cap Seat Top, Embossed, Large Size
Aqua antique bottle with a tooled cap seat top. This is embossed "Mellin's Infant's Food, Doliber-Goodale Co Boston. The bottle is from circa 1880. This is the oldest style of the Mellin's baby food bottles.
Justus Von Liebig who was a German scientist is credited with inventing and being the first to sell an infant food around 1867. His formula was a blend of cow's milk, wheat, flour and malt flour mixed with bicarbonate of potash.
Gustau Mellin from England would modify Liebig's formula and it would become one of the most popular infant foods in the United States. Mellin's product was marketed by Theodore Metcalf of Boston. Around 1880 the agency for Mellins Baby Food was taken over by Thomas Doliber and Thomas T. Goodale. Both were former employees of the Metcalf Co. The company advertised it's baby food as the "Only Perfect Substitute for Mothers Milk".
----------------------------------
PHOTO INSET:
• Trade card for Murdock's Liquid Food, Murdock Liquid Food Co., Boston, Mass., 1889
• Mellin's Food for infants and invalids, The Doliber-Goodale Co., 41 Central Wharf, Boston, Mass., 1891 (current record)
Image source:
www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/cap...
----------------------------------
Additional info from another source:
Mellin's Food Company was a maker of Mellin's Food for Infants and Invalids in Boston, Massachusetts.
The company started when the English food chemist Gustav Mellin developed an infant formula in 1866. Mellin's formula was a simplified version of one which had been recently invented by the German chemist Justus von Liebig. It wasn't a total nutritional supplement, the powder was diluted with cow's milk and water and was called a "milk modifier". It was a "soluble, dry extract of wheat, malted barley and bicarbonate of potassium." The formula was advertised with the slogan: "Mellin's Food for Infants and Invalids: The only perfect substitute for Mother's Milk".
By the 1890's Mellin's Food was the most popular of the infant foods sold in the United States. This success was due primarily to aggressive marketing — advertisements for Mellin's often included supposed testimonials from parents that Mellin's had brought their children back from the brink of death.
----------------------------------
Since my background is a graphic designer and I designed quite a few product labels and boxes over the years. I couldn't help but notice that on the bottle the INFANT'S appears with an apostrophe before the "S" yet on the photo of the wrapper it is spelled INFANTS', with the apostrophe after the "S" . . .
A proofreaders nightmare!
I can't find much about this mural, but I can say that Michael Polakowski and Sheila Nicolin are both Detroit-based, are graduates of the College for Creative Studies, and have worked together before.
Both artists have photos of this mural on their Instagram accounts, but all either says about it is "Bright Walls." From their other work I'd guess that Sheila's primarily responsible for the person in the foreground and Michael designed the background--but I'm certain things aren't that simple. It's a fine mural.
==========
Here we have a curiosity. According to this page of the Bright Walls website, this mural was painted by Polakowski and Nicolin, but according to this map that wall was painted by Jesse Kassel. It gets worse: Bright Walls spells Nicolin's first name two different ways on these pages.
It could be the Bright Walls website needed a proofreader.
Someone needed to proofread this sign.....
When I saw this was on Explore I was a bit perplexed... I have some 'artistic' shots taken with my 'real camera' and this is the one that made it??
Thank you all for looking at it :-)
In exactly 28 days—four calendar weeks—on April 14, my book will be available all over the country.
Almost every part of this book was fun: writing it, getting an agent for it, selling it, writing more of it, interviewing, researching (more than just Internet research*, thank you very much), tasting, chewing, eating, reading, photographing. The only things that haven't been fun were the proofreading, the endnotes, and this phase right here.
The books—two copies—came last Thursday morning. I brought them in, opened to the acknowledgments, and saw someone's name. I gasped. Did I spell that right? Forget the fact that I had typed pages of corrections three separate times from dozens of people. I was in a panic.
One of the books immediately fell on the floor beside my chair, between it and the wall. I didn't pick it up until yesterday. And with the exception of the page I opened at my daughter's school the other day to show a teacher who is in it, this is the only time I've opened it since that moment.
It is perfectly normal—not that I'm even close to perfectly normal—for first-time authors (even mere freelancers such as Miller here)—to be freaked. Some people have to go to therapy. It's traumatic. You are really out there, a visible target.
But hey, an agent loved it, a couple of editors loved it, a couple of publishing companies loved it, and my editor and agent both called me when they were finished reading it to say so once again. A couple of friends read it and laughed out loud.
These are the things I will have to remember when the critics decide it wasn't worth their time.
Is it self-indulgent to write a book about cake? Absolutely. What book isn't? What work of art isn't? We create because we are compelled. We choose our subjects because they fascinate us.
We share because we don't want to feel alone.
*Not that there's anything wrong with using the Internet to do research when you are trained to know the good sites from Joe's Shakespeare Korner.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
This article is about the group of viruses. For the disease involved in the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, see Coronavirus disease 2019. For the virus that causes this disease, see Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
Orthocoronavirinae
Coronaviruses 004 lores.jpg
Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of avian infectious bronchitis virus
SARS-CoV-2 without background.png
Illustration of the morphology of coronaviruses; the club-shaped viral spike peplomers, colored red, create the look of a corona surrounding the virion when observed with an electron microscope.
Virus classification e
(unranked):Virus
Realm:Riboviria
Phylum:incertae sedis
Order:Nidovirales
Family:Coronaviridae
Subfamily:Orthocoronavirinae
Genera[1]
Alphacoronavirus
Betacoronavirus
Gammacoronavirus
Deltacoronavirus
Synonyms[2][3][4]
Coronavirinae
Coronaviruses are a group of related viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, coronaviruses cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses include some cases of the common cold (which has other possible causes, predominantly rhinoviruses), while more lethal varieties can cause SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. Symptoms in other species vary: in chickens, they cause an upper respiratory tract disease, while in cows and pigs they cause diarrhea. There are yet to be vaccines or antiviral drugs to prevent or treat human coronavirus infections.
Coronaviruses constitute the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, in the family Coronaviridae, order Nidovirales, and realm Riboviria.[5][6] They are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a nucleocapsid of helical symmetry. The genome size of coronaviruses ranges from approximately 26 to 32 kilobases, one of the largest among RNA viruses.[7] They have characteristic club-shaped spikes that project from their surface, which in electron micrographs create an image reminiscent of the solar corona from which their name derives.[8]
Contents
1Discovery
2Etymology
3Morphology
4Genome
5Life cycle
5.1Entry
5.2Replication
5.3Release
6Transmission
7Taxonomy
8Evolution
9Human coronaviruses
10Outbreaks of coronavirus diseases
10.1Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
10.2Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
10.3Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
11Other animals
11.1Diseases caused
11.2Domestic animals
12Genomic cis-acting elements
13Genome packaging
14See also
15References
16Further reading
Discovery
Coronaviruses were first discovered in the 1930s when an acute respiratory infection of domesticated chickens was shown to be caused by infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). In the 1940s, two more animal coronaviruses, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) and transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), were isolated.[9]
Human coronaviruses were discovered in the 1960s.[10] The earliest ones studied were from human patients with the common cold, which were later named human coronavirus 229E and human coronavirus OC43.[11] Other human coronaviruses have since been identified, including SARS-CoV in 2003, HCoV NL63 in 2004, HKU1 in 2005, MERS-CoV in 2012, and SARS-CoV-2 in 2019. Most of these have involved serious respiratory tract infections.
Etymology
The name "coronavirus" is derived from Latin corona, meaning "crown" or "wreath", itself a borrowing from Greek κορώνη korṓnē, "garland, wreath". The name refers to the characteristic appearance of virions (the infective form of the virus) by electron microscopy, which have a fringe of large, bulbous surface projections creating an image reminiscent of a crown or of a solar corona. This morphology is created by the viral spike peplomers, which are proteins on the surface of the virus.[8][12]
Morphology
Cross-sectional model of a coronavirus
Cross-sectional model of a coronavirus
Coronaviruses are large pleomorphic spherical particles with bulbous surface projections.[13] The average diameter of the virus particles is around 120 nm (.12 μm). The diameter of the envelope is ~80 nm (.08 μm) and the spikes are ~20 nm (.02 μm) long. The envelope of the virus in electron micrographs appears as a distinct pair of electron dense shells.[14][15]
The viral envelope consists of a lipid bilayer where the membrane (M), envelope (E) and spike (S) structural proteins are anchored.[16] A subset of coronaviruses (specifically the members of betacoronavirus subgroup A) also have a shorter spike-like surface protein called hemagglutinin esterase (HE).[5]
Inside the envelope, there is the nucleocapsid, which is formed from multiple copies of the nucleocapsid (N) protein, which are bound to the positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome in a continuous beads-on-a-string type conformation.[15][17] The lipid bilayer envelope, membrane proteins, and nucleocapsid protect the virus when it is outside the host cell.[18]
Genome
See also: Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus § Genome
Schematic representation of the genome organization and functional domains of S protein for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV
Coronaviruses contain a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA genome. The genome size for coronaviruses ranges from 26.4 to 31.7 kilobases.[7] The genome size is one of the largest among RNA viruses. The genome has a 5′ methylated cap and a 3′ polyadenylated tail.[15]
The genome organization for a coronavirus is 5′-leader-UTR-replicase/transcriptase-spike (S)-envelope (E)-membrane (M)-nucleocapsid (N)-3′UTR-poly (A) tail. The open reading frames 1a and 1b, which occupy the first two-thirds of the genome, encode the replicase/transcriptase polyprotein. The replicase/transcriptase polyprotein self cleaves to form nonstructural proteins.[15]
The later reading frames encode the four major structural proteins: spike, envelope, membrane, and nucleocapsid.[19] Interspersed between these reading frames are the reading frames for the accessory proteins. The number of accessory proteins and their function is unique depending on the specific coronavirus.[15]
Life cycle
Entry
The life cycle of a coronavirus
Infection begins when the viral spike (S) glycoprotein attaches to its complementary host cell receptor. After attachment, a protease of the host cell cleaves and activates the receptor-attached spike protein. Depending on the host cell protease available, cleavage and activation allows the virus to enter the host cell by endocytosis or direct fusion of the viral envelop with the host membrane.[20]
On entry into the host cell, the virus particle is uncoated, and its genome enters the cell cytoplasm.[15] The coronavirus RNA genome has a 5′ methylated cap and a 3′ polyadenylated tail, which allows the RNA to attach to the host cell's ribosome for translation.[15] The host ribosome translates the initial overlapping open reading frame of the virus genome and forms a long polyprotein. The polyprotein has its own proteases which cleave the polyprotein into multiple nonstructural proteins.[15]
Replication
A number of the nonstructural proteins coalesce to form a multi-protein replicase-transcriptase complex (RTC). The main replicase-transcriptase protein is the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). It is directly involved in the replication and transcription of RNA from an RNA strand. The other nonstructural proteins in the complex assist in the replication and transcription process. The exoribonuclease nonstructural protein, for instance, provides extra fidelity to replication by providing a proofreading function which the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase lacks.[21]
One of the main functions of the complex is to replicate the viral genome. RdRp directly mediates the synthesis of negative-sense genomic RNA from the positive-sense genomic RNA. This is followed by the replication of positive-sense genomic RNA from the negative-sense genomic RNA.[15] The other important function of the complex is to transcribe the viral genome. RdRp directly mediates the synthesis of negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules from the positive-sense genomic RNA. This is followed by the transcription of these negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules to their corresponding positive-sense mRNAs.[15]
Release
The replicated positive-sense genomic RNA becomes the genome of the progeny viruses. The mRNAs are gene transcripts of the last third of the virus genome after the initial overlapping reading frame. These mRNAs are translated by the host's ribosomes into the structural proteins and a number of accessory proteins.[15] RNA translation occurs inside the endoplasmic reticulum. The viral structural proteins S, E, and M move along the secretory pathway into the Golgi intermediate compartment. There, the M proteins direct most protein-protein interactions required for assembly of viruses following its binding to the nucleocapsid.[22] Progeny viruses are then released from the host cell by exocytosis through secretory vesicles.[22]
Transmission
The interaction of the coronavirus spike protein with its complement host cell receptor is central in determining the tissue tropism, infectivity, and species range of the virus.[23][24] The SARS coronavirus, for example, infects human cells by attaching to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor.[25]
Taxonomy
For a more detailed list of members, see Coronaviridae.
Phylogenetic tree of coronaviruses
The scientific name for coronavirus is Orthocoronavirinae or Coronavirinae.[2][3][4] Coronavirus belongs to the family of Coronaviridae.
Genus: Alphacoronavirus
Species: Human coronavirus 229E, Human coronavirus NL63, Miniopterus bat coronavirus 1, Miniopterus bat coronavirus HKU8, Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, Rhinolophus bat coronavirus HKU2, Scotophilus bat coronavirus 512
Genus Betacoronavirus; type species: Murine coronavirus
Species: Betacoronavirus 1 (Human coronavirus OC43), Human coronavirus HKU1, Murine coronavirus, Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5, Rousettus bat coronavirus HKU9, Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2), Tylonycteris bat coronavirus HKU4, Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, Hedgehog coronavirus 1 (EriCoV)
Genus Gammacoronavirus; type species: Infectious bronchitis virus
Species: Beluga whale coronavirus SW1, Infectious bronchitis virus
Genus Deltacoronavirus; type species: Bulbul coronavirus HKU11
Species: Bulbul coronavirus HKU11, Porcine coronavirus HKU15
Evolution
The most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all coronaviruses has been estimated to have existed as recently as 8000 BCE, though some models place the MRCA as far back as 55 million years or more, implying long term coevolution with bats.[26] The MRCAs of the alphacoronavirus line has been placed at about 2400 BCE, the betacoronavirus line at 3300 BCE, the gammacoronavirus line at 2800 BCE, and the deltacoronavirus line at about 3000 BCE. It appears that bats and birds, as warm-blooded flying vertebrates, are ideal hosts for the coronavirus gene source (with bats for alphacoronavirus and betacoronavirus, and birds for gammacoronavirus and deltacoronavirus) to fuel coronavirus evolution and dissemination.[27]
Bovine coronavirus and canine respiratory coronaviruses diverged from a common ancestor recently (~ 1950).[28] Bovine coronavirus and human coronavirus OC43 diverged around the 1890s. Bovine coronavirus diverged from the equine coronavirus species at the end of the 18th century.[29]
The MRCA of human coronavirus OC43 has been dated to the 1950s.[30]
MERS-CoV, although related to several bat coronavirus species, appears to have diverged from these several centuries ago.[31] The human coronavirus NL63 and a bat coronavirus shared an MRCA 563–822 years ago.[32]
The most closely related bat coronavirus and SARS-CoV diverged in 1986.[33] A path of evolution of the SARS virus and keen relationship with bats have been proposed. The authors suggest that the coronaviruses have been coevolved with bats for a long time and the ancestors of SARS-CoV first infected the species of the genus Hipposideridae, subsequently spread to species of the Rhinolophidae and then to civets, and finally to humans.[34][35]
Alpaca coronavirus and human coronavirus 229E diverged before 1960.[36]
Human coronaviruses
Illustration of SARSr-CoV virion
Coronaviruses vary significantly in risk factor. Some can kill more than 30% of those infected (such as MERS-CoV), and some are relatively harmless, such as the common cold.[15] Coronaviruses cause colds with major symptoms, such as fever, and a sore throat from swollen adenoids, occurring primarily in the winter and early spring seasons.[37] Coronaviruses can cause pneumonia (either direct viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia) and bronchitis (either direct viral bronchitis or secondary bacterial bronchitis).[38] The human coronavirus discovered in 2003, SARS-CoV, which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), has a unique pathogenesis because it causes both upper and lower respiratory tract infections.[38]
Six species of human coronaviruses are known, with one species subdivided into two different strains, making seven strains of human coronaviruses altogether. Four of these strains produce the generally mild symptoms of the common cold:
Human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43), of the genus β-CoV
Human coronavirus HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1), β-CoV, its genome has 75% similarity to OC43[39]
Human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E), α-CoV
Human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63), α-CoV
Three strains (two species) produce symptoms that are potentially severe; all three of these are β-CoV strains:
Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
The coronaviruses HCoV-229E, -NL63, -OC43, and -HKU1 continually circulate in the human population and cause respiratory infections in adults and children worldwide.[40]
Outbreaks of coronavirus diseases
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
Main article: Severe acute respiratory syndrome
Characteristics of human coronavirus strains
MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2,
and related diseases
MERS-CoVSARS-CoVSARS-CoV-2
DiseaseMERSSARSCOVID-19
Outbreaks2012, 2015,
20182002–20042019–2020
pandemic
Epidemiology
Date of first
identified caseJune
2012November
2002December
2019[41]
Location of first
identified caseJeddah,
Saudi ArabiaShunde,
ChinaWuhan,
China
Age average5644[42][a]56[43]
Sex ratio3.3:10.8:1[44]1.6:1[43]
Confirmed cases24948096[45]1,601,018[46][b]
Deaths858774[45]95,718[46][b]
Case fatality rate37%9.2%6.0%[46]
Symptoms
Fever98%99–100%87.9%[47]
Dry cough47%29–75%67.7%[47]
Dyspnea72%40–42%18.6%[47]
Diarrhea26%20–25%3.7%[47]
Sore throat21%13–25%13.9%[47]
Ventilatory support24.5%[48]14–20%4.1%[49]
Notes
^ Based on data from Hong Kong.
^ Jump up to: a b Data as of 10 April 2020.
vte
In 2003, following the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which had begun the prior year in Asia, and secondary cases elsewhere in the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a press release stating that a novel coronavirus identified by a number of laboratories was the causative agent for SARS. The virus was officially named the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). More than 8,000 people were infected, about ten percent of whom died.[25]
Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
Main article: Middle East respiratory syndrome
In September 2012, a new type of coronavirus was identified, initially called Novel Coronavirus 2012, and now officially named Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).[50][51] The World Health Organization issued a global alert soon after.[52] The WHO update on 28 September 2012 said the virus did not seem to pass easily from person to person.[53] However, on 12 May 2013, a case of human-to-human transmission in France was confirmed by the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.[54] In addition, cases of human-to-human transmission were reported by the Ministry of Health in Tunisia. Two confirmed cases involved people who seemed to have caught the disease from their late father, who became ill after a visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Despite this, it appears the virus had trouble spreading from human to human, as most individuals who are infected do not transmit the virus.[55] By 30 October 2013, there were 124 cases and 52 deaths in Saudi Arabia.[56]
After the Dutch Erasmus Medical Centre sequenced the virus, the virus was given a new name, Human Coronavirus—Erasmus Medical Centre (HCoV-EMC). The final name for the virus is Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The only U.S. cases (both survived) were recorded in May 2014.[57]
In May 2015, an outbreak of MERS-CoV occurred in the Republic of Korea, when a man who had traveled to the Middle East, visited four hospitals in the Seoul area to treat his illness. This caused one of the largest outbreaks of MERS-CoV outside the Middle East.[58] As of December 2019, 2,468 cases of MERS-CoV infection had been confirmed by laboratory tests, 851 of which were fatal, a mortality rate of approximately 34.5%.[59]
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Main article: Coronavirus disease 2019
In December 2019, a pneumonia outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China.[60] On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of coronavirus,[61] which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO),[62][63][64] later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Some researchers have suggested the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market may not be the original source of viral transmission to humans.[65][66]
As of 10 April 2020, there have been at least 95,718[46] confirmed deaths and more than 1,601,018[46] confirmed cases in the coronavirus pneumonia pandemic. The Wuhan strain has been identified as a new strain of Betacoronavirus from group 2B with approximately 70% genetic similarity to the SARS-CoV.[67] The virus has a 96% similarity to a bat coronavirus, so it is widely suspected to originate from bats as well.[65][68] The pandemic has resulted in travel restrictions and nationwide lockdowns in several countries.
Other animals
Coronaviruses have been recognized as causing pathological conditions in veterinary medicine since the 1930s.[9] Except for avian infectious bronchitis, the major related diseases have mainly an intestinal location.[69]
Diseases caused
Coronaviruses primarily infect the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of mammals and birds. They also cause a range of diseases in farm animals and domesticated pets, some of which can be serious and are a threat to the farming industry. In chickens, the infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), a coronavirus, targets not only the respiratory tract but also the urogenital tract. The virus can spread to different organs throughout the chicken.[70] Economically significant coronaviruses of farm animals include porcine coronavirus (transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus, TGE) and bovine coronavirus, which both result in diarrhea in young animals. Feline coronavirus: two forms, feline enteric coronavirus is a pathogen of minor clinical significance, but spontaneous mutation of this virus can result in feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a disease associated with high mortality. Similarly, there are two types of coronavirus that infect ferrets: Ferret enteric coronavirus causes a gastrointestinal syndrome known as epizootic catarrhal enteritis (ECE), and a more lethal systemic version of the virus (like FIP in cats) known as ferret systemic coronavirus (FSC).[71] There are two types of canine coronavirus (CCoV), one that causes mild gastrointestinal disease and one that has been found to cause respiratory disease. Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) is a coronavirus that causes an epidemic murine illness with high mortality, especially among colonies of laboratory mice.[72] Sialodacryoadenitis virus (SDAV) is highly infectious coronavirus of laboratory rats, which can be transmitted between individuals by direct contact and indirectly by aerosol. Acute infections have high morbidity and tropism for the salivary, lachrymal and harderian glands.[73]
A HKU2-related bat coronavirus called swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV) causes diarrhea in pigs.[74]
Prior to the discovery of SARS-CoV, MHV had been the best-studied coronavirus both in vivo and in vitro as well as at the molecular level. Some strains of MHV cause a progressive demyelinating encephalitis in mice which has been used as a murine model for multiple sclerosis. Significant research efforts have been focused on elucidating the viral pathogenesis of these animal coronaviruses, especially by virologists interested in veterinary and zoonotic diseases.[75]
Domestic animals
Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) causes avian infectious bronchitis.
Porcine coronavirus (transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus of pigs, TGEV).[76][77]
Bovine coronavirus (BCV), responsible for severe profuse enteritis in of young calves.
Feline coronavirus (FCoV) causes mild enteritis in cats as well as severe Feline infectious peritonitis (other variants of the same virus).
the two types of canine coronavirus (CCoV) (one causing enteritis, the other found in respiratory diseases).
Turkey coronavirus (TCV) causes enteritis in turkeys.
Ferret enteric coronavirus causes epizootic catarrhal enteritis in ferrets.
Ferret systemic coronavirus causes FIP-like systemic syndrome in ferrets.[78]
Pantropic canine coronavirus.
Rabbit enteric coronavirus causes acute gastrointestinal disease and diarrhea in young European rabbits. Mortality rates are high.[79]
Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PED or PEDV), has emerged around the world.[80]
Genomic cis-acting elements
In common with the genomes of all other RNA viruses, coronavirus genomes contain cis-acting RNA elements that ensure the specific replication of viral RNA by a virally encoded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. The embedded cis-acting elements devoted to coronavirus replication constitute a small fraction of the total genome, but this is presumed to be a reflection of the fact that coronaviruses have the largest genomes of all RNA viruses. The boundaries of cis-acting elements essential to replication are fairly well-defined, and the RNA secondary structures of these regions are understood. However, how these cis-acting structures and sequences interact with the viral replicase and host cell components to allow RNA synthesis is not well understood.[81][5]
Genome packaging
The assembly of infectious coronavirus particles requires the selection of viral genomic RNA from a cellular pool that contains an abundant excess of non-viral and viral RNAs. Among the seven to ten specific viral mRNAs synthesized in virus-infected cells, only the full-length genomic RNA is packaged efficiently into coronavirus particles. Studies have revealed cis-acting elements and trans-acting viral factors involved in the coronavirus genome encapsidation and packaging. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of genome selection and packaging is critical for developing antiviral strategies and viral expression vectors based on the coronavirus genome.[81][5]
It's not easy being a proofreader by nature. Can you spot the improper usage on the billboard? Here's a hint:
"It's no fun to feel envy or jealousy because both make you feel inadequate. Envy is when you want what someone else has, but jealousy is when you're worried someone's trying to take what you have. If you want your neighbor's new convertible, you feel envy. If she takes your husband for a ride, you feel jealousy." www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/envy-jealousy/
Correcting this sign is child's play in comparison with solving the seemingly intractable problems that plague Portland today. Foremost among them are historically unprecedented numbers of homeless people, a record number of homicides and the catastrophic wounds inflicted on Portland's once-enviable downtown by the pandemic and repeated destructive rampages by the city's illiberal and nihilistic anarchists (as if there were any other kind).
Only a spin doctor on the payroll of the city or Multhomah County would have the gall to claim our elected officials are equal to the challenge of arresting the city's decline and leading it back to its once-enviable status as the city where young people go to retire. www.cnsnews.com/blog/lars-larson/portlandia-no-joke-city-...
Enter People for Portland, the activist organization whose billboard appears above. I am surely not alone in being relieved that a group of savvy and experienced grownups with a record of accomplishments is pressuring City Hall to make desperately needed reforms.
Here is People for Portland's pitch:
Had enough?
Politicians at all levels of government are doing too little, too slowly, to rescue our broken city.
Take action today. Make your voice heard.
DEMAND ACTION NOW
SHARE YOUR STORY
DONATE
Let’s come together and demand bold, urgent action from City Hall.
Portland: What Needs to Happen
End the Humanitarian Crisis on Our Streets
Transition homeless Portlanders from inhumane, dangerous camps to safe, sanitary temporary housing solutions with access to mental health and addiction services
Strengthen Accountability & Justice
Require body cameras on all police to ensure transparency and accountability for those who enforce the law and those who break the law
Reform & Reinvest in Public Safety
Expand the Portland Street Response to engage those with mental health and addiction challenges; add more police for neighborhood patrols and to reduce rising violent crime
Restore Cleanliness & Pride
Initiate immediate government action for sustained citywide clean-up of garbage, dangerous waste, and graffiti.
=======================================================
Naturally, People for Portland (P4P) has attracted naysayers, all of them on the left.
The woke accuse P4P of wanting to perpetuate a racist status quo.
Some of the uncomprehending youngsters on Reddit are spooked by things they lack the knowledge and experience to understand. They see lobbyists and substantial sums of money and assume the worst, namely that P4P is a front organization for our corporate overlords, the bad actors who are bent on keeping us in our place.
I believe P4P is inviting criticism by not disclosing its donors and by being insufficiently transparent about its organizational structure.
However, considering the alternatives, which range from the hopelessly naive and incompetent to the hard left who believe in property damage provided it targets race and class enemies, for the time being I'm betting on P4P to make a difference.
I was named 2014 Volunteer of the Year for the proofreading work I do for the Roswell Photographic Society. When I was asked for a photo, I decided to take a selfie* with my new puppy, so here we are.
*EDIT: I was just told that when there are more than one person (or dog) in the frame, it's called an "ussie."
I am making some headway with getting Molly to come on command, though she still resists. But this grown lady is not going to let a 2.76-pound critter out-alpha her! On the other hand, Molly is learning SO MUCH! She hasn't gotten to the point of reliably getting the named toys I've given her, but we're up to 16 toys and 41 commands. Really! And she's only going to be 15 weeks old tomorrow.
She passed an important test last night when for the first time she heard thunder and I learned, with relief, that she is not scared of it. A loud clap woke us at 4 a.m., and then for the next hour or so there were flashes of lighting and the rumbles of distant thunder, and she was unflappable. But she got spooked when I made an indoor wind chime chime (until I brought her up to it and she understood what it was) and when somebody came in to visit through the garage door instead of the front door.
She is a delightful little puppy.
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copyright © Mim Eisenberg/mimbrava studio. All rights reserved.
See my photos on fluidr.
I invite you to stroll through My Galleries.
#NP1015 | Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large | Available for exclusive use
The sun makes the plants grow...if it ever decides to reappear.
About this photo:
The crocus are blooming. I drove by one yard that was entirely covered in the purple flowers. I took this photo earlier this week during a period of sunshine. I think today we may see some more sunshine, although right now it is very hazy outside.
About the process:
This is a single-process HDR (to make the sun rays pop) and I applied a high pass filter.
Also...I have posted tutorials! on my website
The first is how to use layers to enhance color and contrast without sacrificing detail
The second is how to apply the high-pass filter to clarify and/or selectively soften the image
I will be honest with you, I have not proofread these yet, so if you find mistakes please send me a message and let me know. Thanks!
© Copyright Arielle Kristina
We’re proud to present a new poster! Our latest project „10 Facts about Tarantulas“ was in the making for over 2 months and features over 1800 words and 9 images. The topics are wide varying so they cover lots of different aspects of theraphosids. This is the first version with more basic facts for people who are new to this, an advanced version is planned.
Designed for 90x60cm/36x24in prints with 300dpi.
Check arachnogear.com for other posters!
Text: Danniella Sherwood & Dennis Van Vlierberghe
Proofreading: Andrea van der Zwet-Jonkman, Michael Pankratz
Like to join the team? PM!
v 1.1
copyright © Mim Eisenberg/mimbrava studio. All rights reserved.
I'm the proofreader for the Chopin Society of Atlanta, an organization founded in 2000. The artists that Doroto Lato, its president, selects (as seen in the above link) are world-class musicians whose performances never cease to thrill the audiences that fill the concert hall in Roswell.
Sunday's recital by Alexander Kobrin continued that tradition. As a reviewer in The Washington Post said of a previous performance, “The pianist commanded the keyboard with such songful purpose that not a single phrase escaped his fingers without expression and thoughtfulness.” This excerpt, from the pianist's website, will give you an example of his artistry. It is the ending of Schumann's Kreisleriana. If you prefer Brahms, listen to his rendition of the Rhapsody, Op. 79, No. 1.
The Flock of Words is a 300‑metre typographic artwork created in 2003 as part of Morecambe’s Tern Project, designed to celebrate the birdlife of Morecambe Bay through poems, quotations, and word‑based sculpture.
The Flock of Words is one of Morecambe’s most distinctive pieces of public art—an outdoor literary walkway that blends typography, sculpture, and local identity. Installed in 2003, the artwork forms part of the wider Tern Project, an arts‑led regeneration scheme designed to revitalise Morecambe’s seafront by celebrating the rich ornithological heritage of Morecambe Bay. The installation stretches approximately 300 metres, linking the town’s railway station with the promenade.
The project emerged from Lancaster City Council’s ambition to use public art to help reverse the decline of Morecambe as a seaside resort. The Tern Project, led by artist Gordon Young, sought to create a trail of artworks themed around birds—reflecting the bay’s status as one of Britain’s most important habitats for migratory species. The Flock of Words was conceived as a way to bring this theme literally under visitors’ feet.
The installation was a six‑year collaboration between:
Gordon Young – public artist
Andy Altman of Why Not Associates – typographic designer
Russell Coleman – sculptor and technical lead
Their shared interest in text‑based art shaped the project’s unique character.
The walkway is composed of poems, proverbs, nursery rhymes, jokes, and literary quotations, all connected by the theme of birds. Sources range from Genesis and Chaucer to Shakespeare, Robert Burns, and Spike Milligan.
Multiple materials: granite, concrete, bronze, brass, stainless steel, and cut glass
Eric Gill typefaces, linking the work to Gill’s carvings in the nearby Midland Hotel
Words arranged in all directions, encouraging visitors to wander, pause, and read
Authentic historical spellings (e.g., “turtel”, “pecok”), which caused proofreading challenges during production
The manufacturing process pushed technical boundaries. Engineers repeatedly froze and thawed the concrete to ensure durability, and sands and gravels were sourced from Spain, Scotland, and Devon to achieve the desired colours.
At the seaward end of the path stands the Genesis Tower, a 9‑metre‑high triangular steel structure topped with a dove—symbolising the biblical story of Noah and the dove returning with an olive branch. This tower acts as a visual anchor and thematic culmination of the walkway.
Cultural and Regenerative Impact
The Flock of Words is more than a decorative feature; it represents a shift in how Morecambe reimagined its public spaces in the early 2000s. By integrating literature, local ecology, and urban design, the installation encourages residents and visitors to engage with the town’s heritage in a new way.
The artwork also complements other Tern Project pieces—such as bird sculptures, stone eggs, and the Eric Morecambe statue—creating a cohesive cultural trail that supports tourism and community pride.
Today, The Flock of Words stands as a testament to Morecambe’s creative regeneration. It transforms a simple walkway into a living anthology, celebrating the language, wildlife, and imagination associated with Morecambe Bay. Through its blend of art, typography, and local identity, it remains one of the town’s most engaging and meaningful public installations.
RELEASE DATE: 1987
MANUFACTURER: Original Appalachian Artwork
DOLLS IN LINE dates vary: Baby Otis; Baby Marilyn Suzanne; Baby Tyler Bo; Baby Sybil Sadie; Baby Dorothy Jane
BODY TYPE: Stuffed; tag 1978, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1987; made in Cleveland, Georgia; '87 embroidered signature
HEAD MOLD: Soft sculpture
IMPORTANT NOTES: Otis was a Collectors Club Exclusive, with only 1275 dolls in production.
PERSONAL FUN FACT: To say I fell in love with Baby Otis the moment I first saw him would be a gross understatement. We were destined to be together! I rediscovered my long buried passion for Cabbage Patch dolls during the summer of 2021. While doing research and browsing the web, I somehow learned about the soft sculptured dolls. For whatever reason, I had my heart set on getting a softie for my collection. Preferably, I wanted a boy....a bald one! I was on Mercari shortly after finding Baby Martin at an antique store that July (my first CPK). I typed in something along the lines of "bald soft sculpture CPK." A Baby Otis popped up in the results. He had already sold, sadly. But his bright blue eyes and dimpled cheeks caught my attention anyways. Immediately I felt my heart skip a beat. I said out loud, "That's my baby! Someone else got my baby!" I didn't know anything about Baby Otis. I had no idea he was a character doll. I assumed he was just a random soft sculptured doll from the 1980s, that someone bought from Babyland. The doll on Mercari sold for super cheap (less than $50 if I'm not mistaken). So this also added to my mistaken theory that he was an average softie. I was devastated that the baby that spoke to me so instantaneously and intensely now belonged to someone else. I knew I'd never forget this Baby Otis.
It was less than a month later when Colleen was checking eBay listings for soft sculptured dolls. She knew I wanted one for my small collection (at the time it was tiny). It was then that a second Baby Otis popped up in the search results. This dude was a "Buy It Now" price (for around $100 all said and done). At first, I thought the person who got Otis on Mercari had relisted him on eBay. The only difference was that the baby blanket from Mercari was gone. I remember feeling infuriated...some jerk bought MY baby and stole his blankie!!! After calming down, it occurred to me that logically there must be more than one Baby Otis. I did a quick search online and discovered he was a Collector's Club exclusive. After some contemplation, I decided I would buy this eBay Baby Otis. My birthday was approaching, and I had my heart set on a bald softie. Plus, Otis was MY baby after all, and it seemed like fate that Colleen found him online that day. I felt elated and euphoric as we went to eat dinner and watch a movie. It was less than 45 minutes later, when Colleen popped onto eBay to check on Otis (sometimes sellers print shipping labels immediately or send messages). To her horror, the seller CANCELLED the order. Their reasoning was that they listed Otis for the wrong price. They meant to put $185 rather than $85. But they would kindly take $5 off the asking price due to the inconvenience. I was shattered and also fuming. My baby slipped through my fingers all because this eBay seller didn't proofread. I'd say that we all make mistakes, but this seller clearly made a habit of cancelling orders when they didn't make enough money. I saw them do the same thing to people who won bids on dolls. Then the items would get relisted for double the price. This is not how eBay intended the cancel order option to work (that's why there is a "reserve bid" feature). Every time I ordered something for my Cabbies after this incident, I was paranoid that it would get cancelled. I was also very leery of buying any soft sculptured doll online. From this disappointment, I did add a beautiful Preemie boy to my collection. Colleen found my beloved "Baby Ralphie" on Mercari the next night because she felt so bad for me. Ralphie was wearing human baby clothes and did not have any sort of papers with him. But his sweet green eyes and charming bald head were irresistible.
Even though I learned to "love the one your with" when it came to Ralphie, Otis was never far from my mind. He became like Rebecca Rubin or Cecile Rey (the coveted American Girls that haunted us for years). It wasn't a matter of "if" we got Otis. No, it became a hard "WHEN" we got him. Another Baby Otis got listed sometime in the early fall. He was very incomplete--missing his hat, socks, rattle, papers, and blanket. But I decided to bid on him anyways. His listing was quite long, expanding over a week if I'm not mistaken. By the day the auction ended, the price was already more than I wanted to pay. I thought maybe his incompleteness would deter other people from bidding more. So I contemplated the most I was willing to pay for this little dude and hoped for the best. As I figured, we lost the bid on this Baby Otis. Despite his condition, he sold for quite a bit of money. I was once again heartbroken..and feeling even more jaded about getting a Baby Otis someday. I had stopped checking online for him altogether, because I was so disappointed.
It was sometime Thanksgiving week that year, when Colleen discovered another Baby Otis on eBay. She was diligent in checking for him regularly, unlike myself. This guy was super cheap with a $35 starting bid and inexpensive shipping. He also came complete with everything, including papers, minus the baby blanket. The elusive duck rattle was even part of the lot. I immediately took the pessimistic stance that such a cheap starting bid would surely attract other interested buyers. I resolved that this Baby Otis would end in the same bitter disappointment as the others. But strangely, as the days went on, only one solitary bid remained. Once again my negative thoughts echoed, "This buyer must have a very high max bid. I'm NEVER going to get this doll. There is hardly a point in keeping up with him." It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving when the auction ended. Colleen and I paused our "The Secret Garden" DVD we were watching, in order to make the bid. We came up with a price we both agreed was fair. I was willing to pay a little more for this dude, since he was so complete (and the paper work was an added bonus). I couldn't even watch the screen for long periods of time, because I was SO sure it wouldn't work out. But when the last second disappeared from the timer, I was stunned to see Baby Otis in our "won" items. The price had gone up, as I knew it would. But it turns out he was more or less the same price as the first guy I bought (actually I think with shipping and tax he was a few dollars cheaper). I couldn't believe it...we won THE Baby Otis for $107 all said and done.
I was still very wary about this win. I didn't celebrate it...well I tried not to. Every day I checked eBay whenever I could. I was waiting for that message, "Sorry, the bid was too low. I am going to relist Baby Otis for one million dollars. But you can have him for $10 off if you are still interested." Finally on Tuesday, the seller printed the shipping label. He wasn't dropped off at the post office until Wednesday. Every day I kept checking...several times if you must know. Surely this was too good to be true? Surely this would be jinxed? This might be surprising to hear, but I'm naturally a pessimist. It's a survival skill I learned after dealing with traumatic events as a kid. I learned to expect the worst, that way you aren't disappointed. I was using this same coping mechanism towards Baby Otis. I didn't want to count my eggs before they hatched. He was scheduled to arrive on a Saturday. He'd even arrived in our state the night before. On Saturday morning, after I finished feeding the pets and doing some chores, I decided to check Otis's tracking info. I wanted to make sure he was out for delivery. When I looked his number up, it said he was already delivered. "WHAT?" I thought to myself, "It's only 7 in the morning...how is that even possible?" I went outside and checked everywhere. I looked on the porch, in the mail box, and even in my Jeep. When we were kids, the UPS guys would leave our American Girl packages in Dad's Bronco or van (he would leave the windows open, and in those days we didn't have a porch to protect the boxes). I double checked the tracking...it was quite weird how it was phrased: "Delivered to garage or other safe location." Well, it said something along those lines. This never happened before...I was panicking. Then I calmed myself down and looked at the situation rationally. He arrived at our town's post office a little after 7AM. A few minutes later, he was listed as "Delivered." It must have been a clerical error. An hour or so later, the number was updated as being "out for delivery."
Colleen and I had just finished lunch, when she checked the porch. There was Baby Otis's box, in all its glory. He was packed inside a Target box, which we knew was him based on the label (and the fact we hadn't ordered anything from Target). This was the moment I'd been waiting for...I was terrified something would go wrong. The moment I cracked the lid and caught a glimpse of him, I squealed in delight. Like Ralphie, Baby Otis was stuck inside a large ziploc bag. I gingerly pulled him out, and discovered he was coated in layers of dust. Immediately, Colleen's allergies began to flare up. That didn't stop her from taking Baby Otis from me and giving him a hug. By this point, she was as obsessed with my baby as I was. It was clear he needed a TON of work. The photos on eBay looked questionable. But I wasn't sure if they were simply bad quality. It turns out, Otis was SO dusty, that it made photographing him difficult. It also made him appear blurrier, because his features were so filthy. His diaper and hat were no longer white, but instead a splotchy light brown. His light blue socks and shirt were also speckled with dark stains and coated in grime. His rattle was completely tarnished, to a very dark brown color (almost a bronze). His accompanying papers were the only clean thing about Otis...since they were tucked away in an envelope.
I wasn't fussed about all the work Baby Otis would need. He was finally here!!! I also looked forward to the transformation. Honestly, the dirtier the doll, the more fun I have. I was beyond excited that his paperwork was included. I got to learn what number of 1275 he was, his specific birthday, and even about his journey over the years. The Babyland envelope that the paperwork was stashed in had writing on the front. It said what doll he was and had "$500 firm" written beneath it. This leads me to believe Otis changed hands several times. He was initially ordered by one person. Somehow he ended up for sale at some kind of antique store (thus the $500 firm notation). I'm not sure if the original owner did this, or maybe a relative if they passed away. The person from eBay must have either bought Otis from the antique store, or acquired him through someone else. I'd imagine they had him for years or got him from a different person for less than $500 (why else would their starting bid be so low?). Then Baby Otis got listed on the world wide web.
Presently, at the tender age of 34 years old, he is finally getting to enjoy life. He got the full spa treatment, his clothes and accessories were cleaned up, and he has an official family. As much as I adore his iconic outfit, Baby Otis doesn't wear it much. The day he arrived, Colleen and I made a trip to Walmart to buy him special clothes. I was taken aback by how fat he was...and that enormously cute, melon sized head. He couldn't wear most of my existing CPK clothes (or preemie human outfits we had). He even got to steal Baby Martin's "throne" (aka a wooden highchair I painted specially for my Cabbies). Even when Baby Otis was dirty, he received warm hugs. But naturally, he was cuddled and snuggled even more once he was sanitized and clean. He gets to change outfits, make photo/video appearances, watch movies, get cuddled, and just enjoy the good life of being a pampered doll. I felt like I was being reunited with a long lost friend the day Baby Otis arrived. I admit it was hard leaving him behind to go to work and to hang out with my friend the next day. Baby Otis was a doll that chose me. I didn't want him because he was collectible, or because he was rare or desirable. I needed Baby Otis because the moment I saw him, I knew he was mine. As I said that summer day in 2021, "That's MY baby!" I never stopped feeling that way, even when luck wasn't on our side. Now that we are finally together (not that I even had to wait that long), I feel even more conviction in that statement. I admit, he's cast me under a spell....I still adore my other dolls of course (but poor Ralphie's tiny stature comparatively makes him feel like a McDonald's toy). Baby Otis has found his forever home...in my heart!
I am Looking for Media managers communication specialists who develop and implement all targeted content for various media platforms. They research, write, proofread, and edit all media content, implement and manage media campaigns, and deliver public relations and communications plans. If you love social media then this is for you. Compensation will be given as well. Thank you.
After a day behind the laptop both Flickring and Proofreading , a visit to the beach was much needed. I got drenched , but nicely drenched because the rain felt so refreshing after the warm weather of late
Another shot of sazanka, this time, a white one.
I will have finished my work(proofreading) in a few days.
This is the dual cabinet competitive version of the 1997 Sega Motor Raid arcade game, from Out Run creator Yu Suzuki, in the mini-arcade inside the South Keys Cineplex-Odeon multiplex in Ottawa South.
It's a futuristic Akira-inspired motorcycle racing game, where you can knock other players off their bikes Road Rage-style.
What raised my ire is that the tagline below the logo reads, and I quote exactly, "No mercy for anyone who get's in the way." What? Why is there an apostrophe in "gets"? That is not correct punctuation! "Gets" is not a contraction! Sega of Japan needs a better proofreader! "I sure hope someone got fired for that one!" ;-)
Kamera: Nikon FM
Linse: Nikkor-S Auto 55mm f1.2 (1970)
Film: Rollei P&R 640 @ box speed
Kjemi: Rodinal (1:25 / 13:30 min. @ 20°C)
-Monday 26 February 2024: What an eventful day - so many things happening all at once - all of which deserves looking further into:
- US Air Force soldier Aaron Bushnell self-immolates in a shocking protest outside the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C and dies from his injuries.
- Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh (b. 1958) and his PA government resigns.
- Jordanian Air-Force airdrops humanitarian aid of food and other supplies in Gaza
- Last day of the ICJ hearing on the legality of Israeli occupation of West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
- Final day for Israel to deliver their report to the ICJ in the South Africa vs. Israel genocide case on what measures they have been taking in order to prevent genocide - it was delivered just hours before the deadline.
While we try to digest the rapid bombardment of suddenly fast-forward development, news and unexpected flux - for a better understanding of the context, I want to share with you a worthwile broadcast which goes deeper into the history of Palestine, the PLO and the PA:
COLONIAL LAW AND THE ERASURE OF PALESTINE
by Chris Hedges (b. 1956), The Real News Network February 2, 2024 [See and listen here]
For a century, international law derived from British colonial rule has been premised on the non-existence of Palestinians as a people.
In Palestine, the law has been used as a tool of oppression to legitimize and advance the dispossession of the Palestinian people for more than a century. From the theft of Palestinian land by legal mechanisms to the non-recognition of Palestinians as a people with the inalienable right of self-determination, the law is yet another weapon wielded against the Palestinian people by Israel and its patrons. Activist, attorney, and Rutgers University professor Noura Erakat joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the use of lawfare against Palestine and her new book, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine.
Studio Production: Cameron Granadino
Post-Production: Adam Coley
TRANSCRIPT
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Chris Hedges:
“Time and time again,” the human rights attorney, Noura Erakat (b. 1980), writes, “we see evidence of the laws assumed insignificance in the dispossession of Palestinians. Great Britain remained committed to establishing a Jewish national homeland and Palestine, despite its legal duties as the mandatory power to shepherd local Arab peoples to independence. The permanent mandates commission remained committed to the incorporation of the Balfour Declaration into the Mandate for Palestine in contravention of the covenant of the League of Nations, which in discussing the dispossession of the communities formally belonging to the Turkish empire, stated that the wishes of these communities must be a primary consideration.”
“The United Nations proposed a partition of Palestine without legal consultation and in disregard of the existing populations wellbeing and development, which the same covenant had declared to be a sacred trust of civilization. Zionist militias established Israel by force without regard to the partition plans stipulated borders.”
“The United Nations accepted Israel as a member despite the state’s violation of the non-discrimination clauses of the partition plan and of the UN’s own condition that Israel permit the return of forcibly displaced Palestinian refugees. The very origins of the Palestinian Israeli conflict,” Erakat continues, “suggests that it is characterized by outright lawlessness and yet few conflicts have been as defined by astute attention to law and legal controversy as this one.”
“Do Jews have a right to self-determination in a territory in which they did not reside but settled? Are Palestinians a nation with the right to self-determination or are they merely a heterogeneous polity of Arabs eligible for minority rights? Did the United Nations have the authority to propose partition in contravention of the will of the local population? Are the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip occupied as a matter of law that is, are they recognized as such by law?”
Does Israel have the right in law to self-defense against the Palestinians living in the occupied territories? Do Palestinians have the right to use armed force against Israel? Is the root of Israel’s separation barrier built predominantly in the West Bank illegal? Is Israel an apartheid regime?
Joining me, discussing these issues examined in her book, Justice For Some: Law and The Question of Palestine, is the human rights attorney and assistant professor at Rutgers University, Noura Erakat (b. 1980).
You begin the book, I think making a crucial point, and that is that the entire legal system, and this predates the establishment of the state of Israel under the British mandate, is grounded in the denial of sovereignty to the Palestinian people. And I, as we said before I went on air, reminded me very much of the construction of the American legal system, another settler colonial project, basing it on Locke’s primacy of property. So you build a legal system on a distortion. And this was something that the British imposed. Let’s go back and look at that.
Noura Erakat:
Absolutely. And so I think that the invocation of John Locke (1632-1704) is very apt here. Specifically as we were discussing earlier, Locke theorizes the social contract as was later applied in the United States as a social contract for settlers only through the exclusion of indigenous peoples and their erasure. And here what you’re describing as the perversion and the denial of sovereignty to Palestinians is what I capture as a colonial erasure, the erasure of the juridical status of Palestinians as a international people with the right to self-determination. There was never a denial that there were people on these lands, but that there was an outright denial whether these people constituted a political community with the right to exercise self-determination, what we’re using interchangeably here with sovereignty, though I would caution that sovereignty has come to take on quite new meaning beyond just statehood and self-governance. But in so far as we’re discussing this particular moment, it’s the aftermath of the First World War.
And the British have basically promised Palestine to its native peoples and promised self-determination across the former Ottoman territory is what they describe as the area a mandate. They’ve also promised Palestine and designated it as a site of Jewish settlement as captured by the Balfour Declaration, which was approved by British Parliament in 1917. That later becomes the Preambular text for the Palestine mandate, which governs the regulation of this mandate territory. Now, in so doing, and this is why I examine the language of the Balfour Declaration, the declaration itself only recognizes Jews was having a right to self-determination when they designated as a site of settlement and recognizes the original inhabitants, but only describes them as having a right to civil and religious rights. So they have the right to practice their religion freely and to move about freely, but they do not have a right to political rights.
And that’s what I capture as the colonial erasure. Once the British do that, and now it’s incorporated in the Palestine mandate in 1921, it becomes, I suggest, not just British colonial prerogative as the mandatory power. It now becomes international law and policy by which the entire permanent mandate commission, which is overseeing the governance of all the mandates. Now remember the mandates are set up as being trusteeships that will be shepherded to self-determination. But as Timothy Mitchell points out, this was about the consent of the governed. That self-determination here only meant that the governed decided who would be their mandatory power. But this becomes an other way to continue French and British colonial penetration into the Middle East and North Africa without necessarily granting independence to these peoples who have to fight for their independence. But even within that construction, they set apart Palestine as a part of international law and policy.
They set it apart from the other class A mandates in saying unlike those mandates that are being shepherded to independents that have a provisional government, that are able to represent themselves, Palestine because of its designation as a side of Jewish settlement has to be now developed in another way. And so they suppress any form of Palestinian sovereignty and self-determination even in contravention of the League of Nations covenant, which regulates the mandate territories, the mandates themselves that says, for example, “You cannot contravene the wishes of the original inhabitants.” Well, obviously we know that the inhabitants rejected Zionism and wanted self-determination, that there should be some sort of self-government, but they wouldn’t allow representative self-government because if they did, that would contravene the Balfour Declaration.
And now the Balfour Declaration was part of the Palestine mandate, which was international law. The PMC resolves this in basically saying, “Why don’t we first prioritize the settlement of Jewish persons and then we’ll move on to resolve the issue of the rights of the original inhabitants?”
And this points out to something interesting, Chris, which is often I think we give too much credit to Britain and to this imperial access of having a plan, that they planned that there would be a Jewish state. And I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I think that they wanted to thwart self-determination in general and maintain Palestine as a site where they can continually justify their intervention and their colonial penetration in order to basically compete with the French in the MENA region as well as to justify their presence through some sort of colonial benevolence.
And what crystallizes later is why this becomes the demand. Now, the Zionist demand for a Jewish state is not something that they necessarily intended and why it becomes a blunder. This becomes a blunderous policy for them as we see in the aftermath of the Second World War, when the British leave and they give this to the United Nations and they say, “We don’t know what to do anymore. We can’t resolve this. We’ve made too many promises, we’ve created a bit of a Frankenstein here.” But all that to say is that it was through their 30 years of that mandatory authority that they create the conditions that basically make ripe Zionist militias to then establish a Jewish state themselves, a Zionist state with a solid Jewish demographic majority that is contingent on the removal and dispossession of the original Palestinian people.
Chris Hedges:
Well, at the inception, the Jews and Palestine who were a small minority were essentially seen as colonial administrators. And during the Arab Revolt, 37, 38, 39, the British were arming the Zionist militias as auxiliary units. You’re write, all of it backfired. But from the inception, and this was I think the underlying point of the Balfour administration, it was through the Jewish community that essentially they were going to maintain this colony. Isn’t that correct?
Noura Erakat:
Yeah, very interesting here. This is also part of a broader colonial trope that they wanted to protect the minority Jewish population as a religious population, and it’s under this kind of benevolent auspices that they can justify their own intervention, right? But they wanted, for example, to maintain direct access and build a railroad from Haifa to Baghdad as part of a broader British vision, that this wasn’t about creating a homeland for Jews, for the British as much as it was about achieving their policy as you’re describing. A few things about the Great Revolt. The Great Revolt is so significant, not only because here the British are arming the Jewish Yeshu, the Zionists and training them in this moment leaving arms to them. At the same time, Rashid Khalidi (b. 1948) points out to us that through the course of the Great Revolt, the British actually end up decimating 10% of the male adult population either through imprisonment, exile, or outright killing.
And so this makes the Palestinians, in fact, some 10 years later when now they’re facing off with the Zionist militias in the falling apart of the partition plan, unable to resist I think more forcefully. So that’s absolutely significant.
The second thing I’ll say about the Great Revolt is that it changed British policy that whereas the British refused to reexamine their commitment to Zionism between 1917 and 1936 in the aftermath of the Great Revolt because they realized that they could not resolve this forcefully, they could not partition Palestine as a matter of force, that the Palestinians refused that outcome, that it would have to be done by force. They actually revised their Zionist policy for the first time when they issue the white paper and they walk back that policy and now say that the future will be determined by a referendum and that there will somehow be an Arab federal state instead. Obviously, none of this comes to fruition, not least of which because the Second World War begins.
Chris Hedges:
And I just, as you point out in your book, the Arab Revolt was actually quite successful. I think they even occupied, as you say, Jerusalem for five days, huge parts of the country. And the British declared martial law and brought in, was it a hundred thousand or 200,000 British troops? So it required Draconian British military power, in essence to crush these aspirations. And then as you point out, left the Palestinians weakened. You had a Jewish brigade of course in World War II incorporated into the British Army, and then they pushed through the seizure of land, 78% of land 1948 when they created the state of Israel, which is an important part.
Noura Erakat:
Before you go there, Chris, I just want to point out this point about martial law significant in three ways, I should say. Number one, the martial law regime that the British apply during the Great Revolt in order to basically crush the Palestinian insurgency and uprising is something that they’re applying across their colonial geographies and their colonial holdings, whether it be in Malay, in Kenya, in India, this is a form of their suspending all civil rights in order to be able to exercise whatever they deem necessary for their national interests. And so the colonial legacy, here, I say that to just emphasize that as exceptional as many aspects of the Palestinian struggle for liberation are, that it’s actually quite common and emblematic of a broader colonial history. The second thing that I want to point out is that upon its establishment, Israel, one of the first act of the Knesset is to adopt Britain’s emergency regime, almost verbatim, almost verbatim, for the purpose of achieving its settler colonial ambitions.
Of course, they become sovereign over 78% of Palestinian lands, but those lands still belong to Palestinians. It takes 12 years until 1960 in four phase plan where now the state of Israel, no longer the Zionist militias, are now the state forces, are incrementally taking that land through a regime of immigration law, property law, and emergency rule of which the military law is central as it’s applied solely to the Palestinian population that remains, that eventually become citizens of the state as well.
And then the third thing that I’ll say about that martial law is that once they lift the martial law, in 1966, this is precisely what now they apply to the Palestinians and the West Bank in Gaza to continue that settler colonial expansion. So the legacy, this broad global legacy of martial rule in order to achieve their colonial ambitions becomes a central organizing technology of Israeli governance in order to fulfill its own settler colonial ambitions, both within what becomes Israel as well as in what we describe as the occupied territories in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Chris Hedges:
So there were two key points I picked up from your book. One, this continuum between a legal system set up by the British settler Colonial project and the Israeli settler colonial project really almost seamless and premised on exactly the same point that the Palestinians have no sovereignty, the Palestinians, Golda Meir (1898-1978), I think said they don’t exist as a people. And so just the same legal tools that the British were using to dispossess and strip Palestinians of basic rights are no different from the tools that Israel uses. Is that correct?
Noura Erakat:
I’ll modify that slightly. And also, unfortunately, [inaudible 00:18:35] D. Muir says this in an interview with the International Herald Tribune where she says, “It’s not as if there was a land with a people that we dispossessed. It was a land without a people for a people without a land.” This is emphasizing that colonial erasure, Golda Meir, Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952), Arthur Ruppin (1876-1943), all of these founding figures, Zionist figures understand full well there are Palestinians, they just do not recognize them as a political community.
There’s this continuing discourse of savagery, barbarism, lack of civilization, do not know how to rule themselves. It’s a colonial project. Zionism is very much a settler colonial project, which makes this revisionism that we’re seeing today, describing it as a national self-determination movement, or worse as the greatest form of anti-colonial revolt. So laughable because it is exalted, self exalted as a colonial project. The other thing I’ll just modify slightly is that insofar as the British were concerned, it wasn’t just that they were targeting Palestinians, they were also suppressing any form of national self-determination because of their imperial interest.
They wanted to stay there, they didn’t want to leave. But the infrastructure that they set up for us, this emergency infrastructure in particular is what Zionists adopt in Toto, almost verbatim, when the Israel establishes itself and they do so whereas when the British passed, they actually impose the martial law and the emergency regime on everyone. The Jewish Zionists as well as Palestinians, when Israel adopts it in the Knesset, it’s imposed on Palestinians only in order to continue now a specific form of dispossession. What the British do is engage in immigration, which is engage in a discriminatory form of immigration that just doesn’t regulate the immigration of Jewish settlers. And also a land regime where we’re seeing a tremendous sale of lands that’s also unregulated, not regulating the market properly so that Palestinians are not necessarily stripped forcefully what they’re stripped of as their political right, their political right to represent themselves, their political right to organize their political right to make decisions on what this looks like.
But not in the same way of once Israel is established. At that point, the law is retooled specifically to transform Palestinian lands into Israel lands. And once in the form of Israel lands, that’s just the cover because if you say Israel, that means that, oh, everybody who’s a citizen of Israel. But in fact, it’s a cover to say Jewish national lands in particular because upon its establishment in 1950 and 1952, Israel bifurcates Jewish nationality from Israeli citizenship. And this is key. This is key especially to those who discuss apartheid because Israel doesn’t become an apartheid regime for failing to establish a Palestinian state and truncating Zionist sovereignty across the 1949 Armistice lines or what we know as the 1967 lines. Israel is predicated on a discriminatory framework that bifurcates Jewish nationality through which all rights flow.
This is an extraterritorial right that promises any Jewish person within outside, who’s never even heard of the state, who might be born today, to land, to employment, to housing, to education, to governance in a way that will never become accessible even to the Palestinian inhabitants that never leave. 20% of Israel’s population are the Palestinians that stay through the 1948 war, but even they don’t have those same rights. They’re only entitled to Israeli citizenship. And there’s a two-tiered system, one of nationality and citizenship, and one of citizenship only, and citizenship only is a form of second class citizenship or a fifth pillar. And so this too is part of a legal edifice that defines the state and its establishment.
Chris Hedges:
In the book, you talk about the legal recourses that Palestinians, in particular the PLO, and what I found interesting is that while they didn’t achieve their ultimate objective, they often achieve secondary objectives that benefited the Palestinian people almost by default. Can you explain that?
Noura Erakat:
Well, you’re leaving it very open-ended because as you know, I divide the book into five critical junctures. Each of those junctures is really catalyzed by some sort of violent confrontation that becomes an opportunity to recalibrate the balance of power. And in each of these episodes, that relationship between power and law becomes formative in both defining how we understand the question of what becomes the question of Palestine as articulated by the United Nations in 1948, it suddenly becomes a question, and defines the meaning of law in particular. So what the Palestinians do, and those junctures are 1917, in the aftermath of the first World War, 1967, the 1967 war, 1973, the October 1973 war, 1987, the First Palestinian Intifada and 2000, the Second Palestinian Intifada, which also shapes and defines ongoing warfare to this day when Israel shifts from a policy of occupation to explicit warfare against the Palestinians who live under its occupation.
So I say that all to lay out the audience, that I’ll just focus on the juncture and the aftermath of the 1973 war. When I articulate in the book that this was really the apex of when the Palestinian Liberation Organization due to the law astutely to achieve its national ambitions. Now, this is also nuanced because at this time in 1973, the PLO as defined by its militia forces who take over the PLO in 1968, their goal is full liberation. They want to liberate all of Palestine. They have no ambitions for a state. There’s no articulation of that. This is a decolonization movement they want to liberate. They want to free the land. In the aftermath of the 1973 war, and specifically we see this very explicitly in ’74, we might see it earlier, but very explicitly in ’74, there is now a seed planted that envisions the establishment of a truncated Palestinian state as either the stepping stone of full liberation or the final solution.
We don’t see that question resolved until 1988 when the Palestinians now enter Oslo. So I’m just setting this up for the audience to be able to explain that even we say, what do Palestinians want? At this point there’s a lot of nuance. There’s an explicit agenda of full liberation, but there’s also now a latent agenda by some elements of the PLO led by Fatah, and I would say even a very conservative element of Fatah, not all of Fatah at this time. So now what? Okay, so in ’74, the Palestinians basically make their first foray into the United Nations. Their objective is actually not to enter the United Nations. They want to enter the Middle East peace process now being shepherded by the Soviet Union, but by primarily the United States, by Nixon, who’s both the Secretary of State and the head of the National Security Council, who in pursuance of Zionist goals as well as US national interest, disaggregates the Arab Israeli question, or the Arab Israeli conflict, I should say, into an Egyptian Israeli track, a Lebanese Israeli track, a Jordanian Israeli track, a Syrian Israeli track, and leaves out the Palestinians altogether.
What the PLO really wants is to be able to negotiate on behalf of themselves and not by proxy. Failure to be able to incorporate themselves into that negotiating process, now they set their sights on the United Nations, and that’s when they enter in ’74 to pass Resolution 3236 and 3237, which together both affirms their Juridical status as a people when it says that the PLO is the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and not merely a [inaudible 00:28:23] of refugees in need of humanitarian assistance and establishes a corrective to Resolution 242, which doubles down on their erasure by describing them as refugees only, and establishes a quid pro quo arrangement whereby Israel will enjoy permanent peace in recognition for returning all of the territories. And so this is seen as an instrument of defeat. So that’s the first kind of what, I guess, one might describe as that’s not exactly what they wanted.
What they wanted was to enter into the negotiations. This is what they do, which is also very successful. That didn’t advance their cause as much. And in the summer of ’75, they decided that they wanted to expel Israel from the United Nations in the same way that the non-aligned movement had expelled South Africa and unseated it from the United Nations. But in their effort to do so, they were primarily blocked by Egypt under the leadership of Anwar El-Sadat (1918-1981), who saw that the only pathway forward was through some sort of US alliance in order to get the Sinai back to recoup the Sinai and wanted to continue negotiations with Israel. So actually stymied this initiative to unseat Israel from the United Nations. Instead, what the Palestinians do in the summer of ’75 at the International Women’s Conference, at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, at the non-aligned movement, amongst the organization of African Union is basically a condemnation of Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination.
That wasn’t the primary goal, but that was the consensus. So they come back to the general assembly and now work to create one of the most significant, I think, legal achievements when they amend the decade against racism that was targeting apartheid in Namibia and South Africa to also include a condemnation of Zionism. And we get Resolution 3379 that declares that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination that would only be rescinded by the PLO itself in 1991. And so I would say that these are just a few examples of what… I think I’m responding to your question of perhaps what Palestinians had sought and what they do instead using these legal maneuvers. And obviously all of this entry of foray is also restricting the Palestinians themselves, but it’s a restriction that they welcome in order to advance their other goals.
Chris Hedges:
Let’s talk about Oslo. You opened that chapter quoting Edward Said (1935-2003), who calls it a Palestinian Versailles, and really, I think, you make a very persuasive argument that it destroys the PLO as an effective resistance organization.
Noura Erakat:
When I started this chapter, I really was starting it and interested in it as a legal scholar, and I thought to myself, one of the offerings that I can make is to explain to a non-specialist, what did Oslo do in order to permanently subjugate Palestinians? Because that’s what it is. Oslo is a sovereignty trap. It doesn’t promise, there’s never even a mention of the Palestinian state. None of its negotiating terms promises an eventual outcome of a Palestinian state. Palestinians don’t get anything. And so I wanted to explain that, how does Israel create this new administration under Oslo to regulate access to water, access to land, access to movement? How does Oslo set up all of these strictures? But when I read the actual documents, the Declaration of Principles, also known as Oslo 1, when you read Oslo 2, that sets up this jurisdictional regime of area A, B, and C, when you read why and Taba and so on, it’s so obvious how Palestinians are subjugated that I thought to myself, well, you don’t need to be a legal expert to have this takeaway, you just need to be literate.
So instead, I decide to answer a question I don’t know the answer to yet, which is why? Why would the PLO enter into something so obviously devastating and self-defeating. And in trying to answer that question, what becomes clearer to me anyway, is that this really is about salvaging the PLO, that that’s what was being done. The PLO after its expulsion from Lebanon in 1982 in removal to Tunisia, is now no longer has a solid base where it almost oversees, one would say the infrastructure of a para state with a significant refugee population within Lebanon that constitutes an entire institution of representation and services and functioning, and also it doesn’t have the grounds for cross border attacks. That’s a significant blow. By 1987, they continue to weaken, not least because of the emergence of opposition like Hamas, that now becomes even more popular than the PLO struggle, as well as the fact that now there’s an organic movement within the West Bank in Gaza that’s leading an Intifada, an uprising so that the center of gravity shifts from the Palestinian diaspora to Palestinian lands themselves.
And this is undermining the PLO’s authority together with the fact now by the time Arafat throws his hat in and supports Saddam Hussein’s occupation of Kuwait, which in retribution Gulf states, Kuwait, number one basically says Palestinians out. And now there’s a whole loss of remittances to the Palestinians, as well as the fact that anybody that wants to support Palestine is going to support opposition and not the PLO itself. So all of these things come together to basically shape a moment where the PLO was at the edge of irrelevance, at the edge of irrelevance. And entering into the negotiations, they had a very adept team at Madrid, Washington, that saw the writing on the wall [foreign language 00:35:33] are very clear in their legal analysis in mourning that Israel is basically offering the same thing that was offered in the 1978 Middle East peace process in the negotiation between Sadat and Begin leading up to the 1979 permanent Egyptian Israeli peace, which is an autonomy framework.
That’s all they’re offering. They offered the same thing in ’78. The only difference now when they’re offering it in the lead up to the adoption of the Declaration of principles is that they’re saying that Palestinians will not only be able to govern themselves on these different plot of lands, but can also govern certain plots of land, but only there. They still won’t be able to exercise jurisdiction. And instead of electing a local government to do it, they’ll allow the PLO to do it. Those are literally the only differences between ’78 and what we ultimately see in ’93. One of the interesting things about doing this work, Chris, and this research, is that the legal literature is dominated by Israeli scholars, especially on these questions. So part of the work that I was doing was also helping to create a Palestinian archive to advance these legal arguments.
And doing that meant that I interviewed the interlocutors that were there. I interviewed the negotiators themselves, so Camille Mansour (b. 1945), who was there and was a negotiator and is a legal scholar. It’s his words where he illuminates that if you lose Palestinian representation, we go back to being just no people anymore. We had to save the PLO in order to save our status as a juridical people. But in exchange for that recognition, we basically relinquished Palestine.
The rescindment of the 1975 resolution declaring Zionism is a form of racism, is emblematic. The amendment of the charter that says that Palestinians will no longer resort to armed force when Israel is not making similar concessions. It doesn’t say we’re not resorting to armed force. The recognition of Israel. Palestinians recognize Israel. There’s no mutual recognition of a Palestine. And so Palestinians basically see and surrender what should have remained on the table as part of their negotiating leverage as a condition for entering into Oslo, which becomes the trap that they remained frankly ensconed within. Although we obviously see many, many cracks and Oslo has been dead, even though many have tried to keep it up on stilts. But that’s what’s happening. That’s what people are celebrating in 1993, even though though Edward Said, Haidar Abdel-Shafi, Nabil Shaath, and many others recognized as an instrument of defeat, this Palestine, it’s done, Palestine has been lost. And even Hanan Ashrawi (b. 1946), Dr. Hahan Ashrawi, who recognizes what a loss this is, also agrees that it was still worthwhile because they didn’t want to relinquish the status of the PLO. And so people are not stupid.
This was a very logical decision. The PNC approves Oslo, approves the DOP. So this is also not necessarily just betrayal by the PLO, even though it is betrayal by the negotiating team in Oslo, which was the back channel secret negotiation, but the negotiators in Washington had no idea about. But just adding nuance here that there was a lot. The PLO in its own documentation says that they entered into Oslo and Dr. Nabil Shaath (b. 1938), who’s also one of my interlocutors, says, “We knew it was bad, but we entered on good faith.” And that faith obviously didn’t bear out for them. It didn’t do what they had hoped.
Chris Hedges:
There was a lot of corruption. I was in Gaza after Oslo and the PLO leadership were importing their duty free Mercedes and building villas. As you point out in the book, the PA (Palestinian Authority) spends most of its budget on internal security functioning in essence as a colonial police force, the hierarchy that’s willing to do that dirty work can live very well. But we’ve now reached a point, and of course in the elections in 2006, the PA lost, Hamas won even in the West Bank. So in many ways, I don’t know if you would agree, it’s nullified itself as a credible movement on behalf of the Palestinian people at this point. Would you agree?
Noura Erakat:
100%. I think that this is consensus amongst Palestinians, which is what’s so troubling that the PA, even according to Oslo, the PA is only meant to be an administrative body. It should deliver mail. It should pick up the trash. It should complete administrative functions. It was never appointed to lead the Palestinian liberation movement, which should have remained within the purview of the PLO. But we see a collapse of the PA in the PLO in a way that blurs these lines on the firsthand. And then instead what we see, it was supposed to have a temporary function until we moved into permanent status negotiations and the establishment of the Palestinian state. There’s never a mention of the Palestinian state, Chris. Even the negotiators themselves, Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995) who is hailed as the peacemaker and assassinated for his willingness to enter into Oslo by an Israeli settler.
Even he says there will never be a Palestinian state. So this temporary arrangement should have only lasted for five years. Let alone now we’re above three decades, and the PA has been a very, very significant instrument part and parcel of Israel’s occupation regime. It is doing the work on behalf of Israel. It is coordinating security with Israel. It is arresting Palestinians. It is providing intelligence on where Palestinians are. It is actually entering into Palestinian public squares to beat Palestinians to suppress their protests, even now against the genocide in Gaza. Just think. Just think the fact that the public sector is bloated, but the primary part of the Palestinian public sector is the security sector. And that security sector is basically policing Palestinians to protect Israel settlement enterprises. I had said before, and I’m saying now again, that in contrast, there’s no dedication, for example, to invest in the agricultural sector.
Had the PA now collapsed with a PLO invested in an agricultural sector, it might’ve been able to create and cultivate an economy that can engage in boycott of Israeli goods even rather than be flooded with Israeli goods into the market. But this also goes hand in hand with the fact that the PLO has never even endorsed boycott. There’s still committed, even if it’s a state led, a truncated Palestinian state, to that structure at the expense of liberation. And why at the expense of liberation, because this is not inclusive of all Palestinians. It’s not inclusive of the Palestinian refugees. It’s certainly not inclusive of the Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, and it doesn’t have a vision of how is it that Palestinians are going to be free from Israeli dominance as opposed to what they’re banking on, which is an autonomy arrangement whereby they will forever receive certain incremental privileges from Israel and its patron, the United States, in exchange for being good natives.
And this is the trap that we remain in, and it puts Palestinians… It makes our struggles so much harder. And many people are asking, how is Gaza? And the West Bank too. I mean, obviously the West Bank is being subject to untold and unprecedented violence from the beginning of this year, but especially since early October. But Palestinians are not even able to mount a significant and a robust resistance to protect themselves because not only are they being attacked by Israel and their settler vigilantes who are being armed, but they’re also being attacked and policed by the Palestinian authority.
Chris Hedges:
You compare the PLO to the Namibians and you make some, I think, really important points about how they were far more astute. They rejected the South African peace process as an alternative. SWAPO refused to enter South Africa’s exclusive sphere of influence and maintain an adversarial position, unlike the PLO, which has committed to US mediated bilateral talks for 25 years, SWAPO never relinquished its right to the use of force, and it never ceased its armed struggle. Talk about the difference because they were far more successful. And then of course you had Cuban troops stationed in Angola.
Noura Erakat:
I bring up Namibia in the conclusion because there is, especially in the realm of Palestine, and we see this now because of the South Africa application at the ICJ, there is a way because of the failure of politics really, and a failure of a Palestinian leadership to articulate some sort of a political program and a resistance vision. And resistance here, I mean robustly like diplomatic resistance, economic resistance, popular resistance, cultural resistance, delegitimizing, a Zionist colonial project. Nothing. There’s nothing. And in the absence of that, unfortunately, human rights and rights-based programs have taken up an inordinate amount of space in a way that even supplants the language of politics that now Palestinian politics are hollowed out instead with principles of law, which is detrimental, is detrimental because the law is only a tool. That very same law like human rights law that Palestinians use to assert their right to family and their right to not be harmed.
Settlers in the West Bank are invoking that same body of law to say that it’s their human right to maintain these lands and to be protected and to be free of Israeli state violence. The law will set up a battleground only, but that can only be resolved through politics. And so I bring that to the fore to say, because so many people bring up Namibia as an example of a very astute use of the law. Here it is. Namibia waged a multi-year legal battle where they incrementally scaffolded a legal argument at the ICJ in order to demonstrate firstly and foremost the illegitimacy of South Africa as a mandatory power and a governing power in Namibia and South Africa. And then scaffolding on top of that other rights of their right to self-determination and so on and so forth. But it’s not because of this robust jurisprudence that the Namibians ultimately gain independence. That’s necessary.
That was strategic. That helped build a language to use. It helped cultivate international support. But ultimately it wasn’t a legal decision. South Africans don’t leave Namibia because the court said so, they could care less. Ultimately why they leave is because you have Cuban forces who are fighting alongside, who are in Angola that the US wants out of Angola. This becomes a proxy for the US and the Soviet Union and Cuba being involved, and part of that negotiation of withdrawal includes withdrawal from Namibia. So there are other things happening where this influences the United States and shifts its position on apartheid as well. But the Namibians, as you point out in and as I point out in the book, are also very astute. They never enter into a South African sphere of influence. They’re offered the same thing that Palestinians are offered in the form of black homelands and autonomous governance.
They reject that. They never rescind their right and to use armed force, which is enshrined as a result of the non-aligned movement, enshrined as a right for people living under alien occupation, racism and domination. So that matters too. Now, I say all that to say to the credit of the Palestinians that this environment in which Namibia is maneuvering or Namibians are maneuvering, excuse me, doesn’t exist by the time the Palestinians are entering into Oslo. In fact, we’re seeing Namibian and South African independence. Mandela has been released. We’re seeing the fall of apartheid. We see the fall of the Soviet Union. We see the emergence of a unipolar world. So this balance of power that really did enable a different kind of liberation struggle for Namibians is not available to the Palestinians at the time. And so we can sit here retrospectively and say, “Well, nothing could have been worse than what they’ve done now.”
But all of this is conjecture, obviously. I’m less concerned about the trap that Palestinians enter into based on this balance of power based on the political considerations. I’m more concerned that they haven’t shifted course and policy when it was clear. If you didn’t know the day of like Abdel-Shafi and Said than others, you certainly knew by 2000 when the Camp David agreement collapses. Now it’s over. [inaudible 00:51:44] is besieged and killed. That’s it. There’s no excuse. Because I want to give some benefit of the doubt that they thought they couldn’t get anything better. Fine. But by 2000, you knew that this was a dead end. So there’s absolutely no explanation why Palestinians would stay in that arrangement since 2000 through 2023, a quarter of a century, knowing full well, there’s no way out.
Chris Hedges:
Well, Palestinian Street. The average Palestinian has walked away from it. They walked away from it a long time ago.
Noura Erakat:
Even in this moment, the Palestinian liberation struggle’s not being led by an official Palestinian leadership, which makes this moment even more profound, that we’re Palestinian Diaspora, Palestinians on the ground. Everybody has been coordinating and working without a centralized governance system, certainly without any means and funding, and yet has been able to mobilize in a decentralized fashion.
The Boycott National Committee establishes itself in 2005, launches an international boycott divestment in sanctions movement. This is civil society. It has nothing to do with the Palestinian leadership. The way that Palestinians bring back a condemnation of Zionism, which we see first in the Durban Conference in 2001. The review conference of the decade against racism happens in Durban, South Africa in 2001, where Palestinians raise the banner and say, “Israel’s an apartheid regime, and Zionism is racism once again.” Palestinians have never relinquished that front, and we even see it in the realm of knowledge production where scholars have reconstructed very robustly, not only making clear that Israel is a settler colonial project, but that there’s an entire realm of Palestinian indigenous studies of tradition, of economy, of belonging, of family, all sorts of tradition of land use, of sea technology that could be studied, which brings us into 2024.
The reason we remain alive as a people is because the people have insisted that we are here.
Chris Hedges:
I want to close by talking about the resistance. That was more than a hundred days of saturation, bombing of Gaza, destruction of every form of infrastructure that can sustain existence from wells to hospitals, to bakeries to schools, horrific numbers of dead. I was in Sarajevo during the war, which was awful, three to 400 shells a day, four to five dead a day, two dozen wounded a day. I only say that as a comparison to Gaza, where hundreds of people are being wounded and killed a day just to point out the scale. And yet, US intelligence estimates that only 20 to 30% of resistance or fighters, Hamas fighters, have been killed. It’s becoming clear that if Israel does not achieve its goal, which I don’t see how it will of eradicating Hamas, and Hamas and the resistance survives, which I feel it will then in any way, the Palestinians win.
And however horrific Gaza becomes other than the Yemenis, the Houthis, nobody is intervening to halt this genocide despite all the legal bodies we have at the UN and everywhere else. But talk about the resistance and whether I know how I knew one of the founders of Hamas, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi (1947-2004) was in his house with him and his family. His wife was just killed on October 19th. And not by the way, the demonized image of a leader of Hamas. He was a pediatrician, highly educated, graduated first in his class from the University of Alexandria, very soft-spoken, brilliant figure, assassinated in 2004 along with one of his sons. Let’s talk about the resistance. And so whether you embrace the ideology of Hamas or not, for me, is irrelevant. I think it’s been amazingly successful.
Noura Erakat:
Well, I want to nuance this in many ways. I want to nuance this by having a lot of mixed feelings about strategy and moving forward. And I want to emphasize here, I think, and I understand, I understand this idea of that if they’re not defeated, they win, which is a tenant of asymmetric warfare and guerilla combat. But I can’t do that with ease, given the magnitude of loss and given just how painful it’s been.
Images that I saw last night are still ravaging me inside of what are we going to tell these kids who have suffered so much? 355,000 children because of dehydration are at risk of permanent, cognitive, under development and stunting, right? So it’s hard for me, Chris, as much as if they’re not defeated, obviously I don’t want them to be defeated. And what people don’t understand when they say that is because surrender doesn’t bring us back to an ordinary life, which is normally what war looks like. You fight, you fight, you fight, you fight, and then one party surrenders because then you just go back to ordinary life. Palestinians don’t go back to an ordinary life. So surrender is not an option. At the same time, I want to take time to mourn. Palestinians have not had time to mourn. There is such deep devastation that’s generational, that’s traumatic, that’s social, that’s political that I want to honor and hold here. And it’s very painful. It’s just very, very painful.
And I don’t know what we do. I don’t know what we do because not only are we holding onto that pain, but now we have in Israel a society that is not just quasi okay with an apartheid racist regime. They have literally become avid supporters of genocide as a matter of rights. They’re fascists, society, media, children are taunting their elders, their principal for expressing empathy for Palestinians. For me, I paused to say, what is the victory here when now we have to deal with a society? What is the exit plan? How do you defeat fascism in a world where it’s being nurtured by Germany and the United States and Britain and Canada? They’re applauding them. And so where is the accountability here? So I just countenance the language of victory, to be honest, and I know that puts me at odds and probably deflates a lot of people who want to hear something else, and I just want to ground this in something else of what it means that Israel cannot decimate Hamas military.
They cannot. There is no military solution. There is no military solution. They cannot decimate Hamas. They haven’t. Hamas is still firing rockets from the middle of Gaza City. As you point out, they’ve not even decimated half of their militants in the Gaza Strip. They’ve not turned the Palestinians against Hamas, which was part of their military objective. If anything, they’ve made Hamas more popular and robust, not only amongst Palestinians, across the air world and the world in general. And they’re not any closer to retrieving their captive, their captive military personnel or rescuing their civilian hostages, which they were only able to retrieve and return through diplomatic negotiations. Someone has to ask, how can you justify the 11th most significant military in the world? Be trust by US intelligence, with advanced weapons technology that has had no red lines for over a hundred days, that has not even come close to achieving any of its military objectives, but has certainly destroyed Palestinian life, conditions of life that’s promising devastation into the future.
We have to agree that anybody who’s now supporting this is outright supporting a terroristic program that’s basically targeting Palestinian civilians, as put by Professor [inaudible 01:01:51], Palestinian civilians are clearly the military objectives. Hamas is the collateral damage.
So I think that we have to use this to agree that there is no way out, but that the road ahead is what we absolutely need to keep our eyes on. For me, victory is liberation. Victory is a world where Palestinians are recognized as having human life that is sacred and worthy of protection and deserving of self-defense, which Palestinians have asserted over and over and refused to relinquish. I cannot believe this is in controversy.
And so insofar as the cessation, for me, first and foremost, the cessation of hostilities is necessary just to end the genocide. And then insofar as it demonstrates there’s no military solution and exposes that Zionism is predicated on just a genocidal program that’s an ongoing Nakba in their own words, Avi Dichter (b. 1952) said it clearly, “This is Gaza.” Gaza Nakba 2023. They’ve equated their peace and security to genocide and ethnic cleansing. In so far as it illuminates that in order to get us to the threshold that it’s not controversial, that it’s not controversial, that Palestinians deserve life.
Chris Hedges:
Thank you. That was Noura Erakat, human rights attorney and assistant professor at Rutgers University. I want to thank the Real News Network and his production team, Cameron Granadino, Adam Coley, David Hebden, and Kayla Rivara. You can find me at chrishedges.substack.com.
This article first appeared on The Real News Network and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
After a day behind the laptop both Flickring and Proofreading , a visit to the beach was much needed. I got drenched , but nicely drenched because the rain felt so refreshing after the warm weather of late
This is especially for Danny Liv... (RI295N) this stretch of road in Rhode Island was carved out between the deep rock formations that are prevalent in this state. The warning sign to watch for FALLING rocks reflects our New England accent, and as an amateur proofreader, never ceases to make me laugh!