Monthly Archives: June 2017

In Starks, Maine’s pot haven, passion doesn’t burn evenly – Press Herald

Posted: June 18, 2017 at 11:05 am

STARKS There was a moment in August 1994 when Don Christen realized his idea for a big outdoor party to celebrate marijuana was really catching on.

I woke up on Saturday and the field was just covered with blankets and tents from people who slept there overnight, said Christen, 64, recalling that years Hempstock festival in Starks. We recorded 12,500 people through our gates. The issue back then was so important to people that they just had to be there.

By drawing crowds of 10,000 or more pot smokers and activists, Hempstock helped this rural town of 640 people become known as an epicenter of marijuana advocacy in Maine. Though the names have changed and crowds have grown smaller over the years, cannabis-friendly festivals have been held on Harry Browns 70-acre farm every year since the first Hempstock in 1991. The next one, Harrys Hoe Down, takes place Friday through June 25.

So it may seem ironic that, with marijuana now legal in Maine, Starks voters approved an ordinance in March making their town one of only a handful of marijuana-dry towns in the state, banning any marijuana-related retail business by a vote of 61-39. A majority of Starks voters also opposed the new state law allowing marijuana use, when it was on the ballot in November, 185-167.

But people in Starks say the twist is not so surprising. Residents have long been split over the festivals, which are held on private land and have become tightly regulated by the town. Some residents support the festivals cause and say the area, where making a living isnt easy, has a history of people putting food on the table by growing and selling cannabis. But many didnt like the traffic jams, the noise and the headlines about drug arrests in their town. Many in Starks, founded in 1795, have come to resent the towns reputation as a pot haven.

From my perspective the festivals have had an overall negative impact on the town, and I think a lot of people in town feel that way. Thats why they voted the way they did when they got the chance to weigh in, said Paul Frederic, 74, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, whose family goes back more than 200 years in Starks. I know some people in town support (the festivals) but so many find it an irritant, to have this reputation, to have our town known as a hotbed of marijuana.

Hempstock security personnel read through a search warrant served by Maine State Police before a brief search of the festival site in Starks in this 2002 file photograph. Staff photo

SOMETIMES PERFECT IS THE ENEMY OF GOOD

Christen and Brown, the two Starks residents most responsible for Hempstocks reputation and the towns notoriety, no longer work together. With Christen as the main organizer and Brown as the landowner and host, the two collaborated on festivals that were essentially rallies for marijuana-related causes for about 17 years. They parted ways in 2008 over money and the direction of the festival.

Both men have been jailed over the years for marijuana-related charges, and both say they are still committed to the cause of educating the public on cannabis products and broadening existing laws. But neither supported the successful campaign to legalize marijuana in Maine last fall. They both feel the state law doesnt go far enough and that personal possession should not be limited to 2 ounces.

It seems ironic to me that this was a bill to legalize marijuana, with some regulation, and that these guys couldnt support it. Sometimes perfect is the enemy of good, and from an activist standpoint this was a good initiative, said David Boyer, Maine political director of the Marijuana Policy Project, who managed the pro-legalization campaign. But I certainly respect what these guys have done over the years and the groundwork they laid. They helped change attitudes.

So the festivals in Starks, begun when marijuana was not legal in Maine, will continue even with the new law in effect. Harrys Hoe Down will be the first of three scheduled for this season in Starks. Browns farm also will host Green Love Renaissance Aug. 18-20 and Harvest Ball Oct. 6-9. Each festival includes a mix of bands, people speaking about marijuana laws and ongoing efforts to broaden them, as well as nonprofits giving out information on medical marijuana and cannabis-related businesses. Bands scheduled to perform this year include Max Creek, Bellas Bartok, Wobblesauce and Roots of Creation. No alcohol is sold.

Selling marijuana anywhere in Maine is not yet legal, as state lawmakers work to set up a regulatory system to oversee the industry.

Brown and other organizers say the Starks festivals are about peaceful social change of all kinds.

The reasons for celebrating our freedoms are more now, not less, said Brown, 68, standing on the porch of his small home. The law needs to be broader; there is still too much ignorance of the herb.

The Starks prohibition on marijuana sales, which both Christen and Brown opposed, was approved by town voters March 10. It bans retail marijuana establishments, which include stores, testing facilities, manufacturing facilities, social clubs and commercial growing operations.

The town ordinance did not address personal use of marijuana, though the state law allows people to grow six plants for that purpose. Since the state law went into effect in January, many towns have considered temporary moratoriums.

But only a handful, including Oakland, Skowehgan, Norway, York and Lebanon, have bans similar to the one in Starks, said Ted Kelleher, an attorney with Drummond Woodsum in Portland whose practice focuses on regulated substance issues. Others are considering bans and moratoriums. Kelleher said some town officials have considered bans because their voters strongly rejected the state legalization.

The ban on marijuana businesses was proposed by the town planning board. Board chairman Kerry Hebert declined to comment for this story. In a message to residents on the town website, board members said the ban was proposed partly because town voters rejected the state marijuana law and partly because voters at the 2016 town meeting had voted for a 180-day moratorium on marijuana businesses.

Shane Sours, 42, whose family once ran the only store in town, opposed the ban.

Were already known for marijuana, so what would it hurt if we had a dispensary or a business selling it? he said. It might bring jobs. I think the people who voted for (the ban) want to change this towns image.

Not everyone saw the vote as a referendum on the towns reputation. Ernest Hilton, a 66-year-old lawyer and member of the Board of Selectmen, said he voted for the ban because he could not see very much positive about allowing marijuana businesses in town. But he said he could have accepted a rejection of the ban as well.

It could have gone either way for me, Hilton said. It was not an issue that raised a huge emotional response with everyone.

The history of marijuana festivals in town wasnt a factor for him, he said: Those festivals will continue whether this ban was voted on or not, so to me theyre not related.

FROM ONE HEMPSTOCK COME MANY

Starks is about 20 miles east of Farmington, in rolling hills near the western mountains. It was named for Revolutionary War hero Gen. John Stark of New Hampshire and has a history of attracting independent-minded people.

Brown grew up in Connecticut and moved to Starks in the late 1970s for a freer lifestyle, closer to nature. He sells his artwork at a store in Farmington, H. Brown Fine Art, and has been involved in protests against war, nuclear power and Wall Street. As a user of marijuana, he has long found it a lot of nonsense that the federal government can classify it as a dangerous drug and incarcerate its citizens because of it.

Christen grew up in the nearby paper mill town of Madison and has been advocating for the abolition of legal restrictions on marijuana most of his adult life. His father was a health inspector and town official in Madison and Anson, and Christen has worked various skilled labor jobs, including in paper mills. He says he grew up with friends and neighbors who grew marijuana to make ends meet, to cobble together a living along with whatever else they could manage.

The reason I started doing this is because Ive never felt like I was a criminal for smoking pot and growing pot. There are so many people around here who have grown it for years, to put food on the table, said Christen. One day when I was young, I was sitting around with some friends at the kitchen table, complaining (about marijuana being illegal), my father said, Why dont you do something about it instead of just bitchin about it?

Christen started Maine Vocals, a group working to promote the legalization of marijuana and was looking for like-minded people to help when he met Brown. So when Christen wanted to start a festival to push his cause, he asked Brown for use of his 70-acre farm.

Out-of-work carpenters in the area helped quickly build a stage for the first festival, in 1991, Brown remembers. About 400 to 500 people showed up that year, and throughout the 1990s the festival grew markedly. Starks residents themselves helped promote the towns reputation as a center of cannabis advocacy in 1992 when they approved a resolution asking the state to legalize the growing of marijuana and possession of small amounts. The vote was 45-42, but the gesture, at a time when police helicopters were buzzing central Maine fields looking for marijuana farms, got national attention.

Harry Brown, whose 70-acre farm in Starks was the longtime site of the annual Hempstock, has parted ways with festival organizer Don Christen. But Brown still hosts music festivals that are about peaceful social change of all kinds. Staff photo by Ben McCanna

PARTNERSHIP ENDED IN 2008

There were sometimes arrests during festivals, including for people selling marijuana or paraphernalia. In June 2016, a New Hampshire man was arrested after leaving an event at Harry Browns Farm and charged with possession of hashish, a marijuana derivative, and refusing to submit to arrest. Police said they stopped him after he was seen speeding on Starks Road.

The partnership between Christen and Brown ended about 2008, around differences over the direction of the festival and financial matters. Christen says Brown and his family wanted more money than what he was willing to pay to rent the land. Brown said he didnt get paid for some years of the festival, that very little money was used to maintain the festival site, and that the crowds were getting edgier and drunker and more intoxicated as years went by. He says that in the years Christen organized Hempstock, letting the music get too loud upset townspeople.

Christen says he paid as much as $18,000 a year in rent for three festivals and that Brown wanted more. He called the festivals orderly, with less trouble than youd see in a bar in Waterville on a Friday night. Town officials did not agree, and shortly after the 1994 Hempstock they began crafting a 15-page mass gatherings ordinance that requires a public hearing to be held before each festival is approved, with very specific requirements about all facets of the festivals, from toilets and water supplies to the number of parking spaces and the location of all parking supervisors.

Over the years the crowds at Starks festivals have been much smaller, though Brown and the people who help him organize the festivals now say they dont keep an exact count.

Christen kept the Hempstock name and moved his festivals to a piece of land he owns in Harmony, another very rural town about 25 miles east. He holds about six a year, under various names, including Hempstock, Freedom Fest and Heads in Harmony. The three-day Freedom Fest was to be held this weekend and to wrap up Sunday. His next festival, Somerset County Jam Fest, is scheduled July 14-16. His festivals have bands, speakers and vendors, too, and attract a few hundred people, he said. No alcohol is sold.

Christen has been jailed in Maine three times, including stints in 2007 and 2008 that totaled about 10 months, after being charged with aggravated cultivating of marijuana.

Brown served more than four months in Maine jails after being arrested just a month after the first Hempstock and charged with drug trafficking. Police found 10 pounds of marijuana, which he says was not his, at his farm. Four other men were arrested as well, including two from Starks and one from Anson, one town over.

SOMETHING IN THE WATER?

The reasons Starks become known as a flash point in the fight to legalize marijuana go beyond Christen and Brown. The town, and the wider area of Somerset County near the western mountains, has long attracted back-to-the-landers and people seeking more personal freedom. The hardscrabble nature of getting by in such a rural area seems to make people a little more independent-minded, said Gerry Boyle, a former Maine newspaper reporter who based his 1997 novel Potshot loosely on Starks-area people and events.

When I was covering that area, it wasnt drug cartels up there. It was a lot of old bikers and old hippies and people growing marijuana on their farms, Boyle said. It was people who felt their rights were being trampled on.

Boyle covered marijuana-related issues in Maine in the 1980s and 1990s, around the time Hempstock started and police were targeting marijuana farming and retail operations in the area. He researched Potshot by talking to Brown and many others in the area. Those conversations inspired characters in the book, like a father who publicly stumps for marijuana so zealously that he embarrasses his children, Boyle said. But he says no one in the book is a real-life Starks resident.

He wanted to write the book because he was intrigued by the area, its people and their struggle as they saw it.

There is something otherworldly about their connection to the outside world, Boyle said. There are a lot of people who are tough, self-sufficient and want to be left alone.

Ray Routhier can be contacted at 210-1183 or at:

[emailprotected]

Twitter: RayRouthier

See the original post here:

In Starks, Maine's pot haven, passion doesn't burn evenly - Press Herald

Posted in Abolition Of Work | Comments Off on In Starks, Maine’s pot haven, passion doesn’t burn evenly – Press Herald

Zuma: Political freedom without economic freedom is not complete freedom – Eyewitness News

Posted: at 11:02 am

Zuma: Political freedom without economic freedom is not complete freedom

The president says poverty, inequality and unemployment began when black people were dispossessed of their land.

President Jacob Zuma in Hammarsdale at a Youth Day celebration. Picture: Ziyanda Ncgobo/EWN.

HAMMARSDALE - President Jacob Zuma says political freedom without addressing the economy is an incomplete democracy.

Zuma was speaking in Hammarsdale at a Youth Day celebration organised by the eThekwini region today.

He says poverty, inequality and unemployment began when black people were dispossessed of their land.

Zuma has been warmly welcomed by the eThekwini regions youth who have come to listen to programmes for their development by the municipality.

This is in contrast to the reception the president got in the North West earlier this week.

He says the youth must lead the charge for economic freedom.

Political freedom without economic freedom is not a complete freedom.

Zuma has urged young people to be champions of radical economic transformation.

(Edited by Refilwe Pitjeng)

However, we will NOT condone the following:

- Racism (including offensive comments based on ethnicity and nationality) - Sexism - Homophobia - Religious intolerance - Cyber bullying - Hate speech - Derogatory language - Comments inciting violence.

We ask that your comments remain relevant to the articles they appear on and do not include general banter or conversation as this dilutes the effectiveness of the comments section.

We strive to make the EWN community a safe and welcoming space for all.

EWN reserves the right to: 1) remove any comments that do not follow the above guidelines; and, 2) ban users who repeatedly infringe the rules.

Should you find any comments upsetting or offensive you can also flag them and we will assess it against our guidelines.

EWN is constantly reviewing its comments policy in order to create an environment conducive to constructive conversations.

See the original post here:

Zuma: Political freedom without economic freedom is not complete freedom - Eyewitness News

Posted in Freedom | Comments Off on Zuma: Political freedom without economic freedom is not complete freedom – Eyewitness News

Laughter can ease life’s pain – we must protect the freedom to joke – New Statesman

Posted: at 11:02 am

The world is in serious need of a laugh right now. A ridiculous, oversized belly laugh would let the tension ease out. We are on edge, with that nasty grating feeling, a bit like when theres raw skin in your mouth and you cant stop touching it with your tongue.

Politics. Life. Everything.

When things are at their most difficult, the extreme moments in life, when you cant talk about Brexit one more time without screaming, then comedy can ease the pain. Stand-up comedian and writer Grainne Maguire believes that trauma sometimes brings out the best laughs. Comedy is a challenge to heartbreak, says Maguire, who writes for 8 Out of 10 Cats and BBC Radio 4s Now Show.The Irish comedian, who tweeted updates on her periods to the Irish Taoiseach as part of an original attempt to bring attention to the countrys ridiculously historic abortion laws, believes that comedy gets to truth and authorities dont like that.

And so it is in Spain right now. Comedy, it turns out, is touching a nerve, as it often does, and rather surprisingly the lawyers are getting involved. Comedy is not only a threat, but under threat.

Whats bizarre is, this is Spain, a modern democracy, a solid, sensible country at the centre of Europe. Locking people up for making a joke, thats something you might expect from an authoritarian and struggling state. But Spain?

Well, it turns out, this is Spain in the 21st century. The list of comedy offences reported in the latest issue of Index on Censorship magazine is not short. Spanish comedian Dani Mateo was told to testify before a judge in May for telling a joke referring to a monument built by Francos regime as shit. He told the joke during a satirical show. Now it doesnt sound like the best joke in the world, but hell, we defend his right to tell it. And Mateo is not alone in the Spanish comic fraternity. Theres Facu Daz, who was prosecuted last year for posting jokes on social media; Cassandra Vera, who was sentenced to a year in prison for making jokes about a former Spanish president; and three women who were accused of a religious hate crime for mocking a traditional Easter procession. Then theres the two Spanish puppeteers whose Punch and Judy show included a sign for a made-up terrorist organisation carried by a witch. They spent a year fighting prosecution, unable to leave the country for weeks, receiving anonymous threats and having to report regularly to the police.

Jokes are a barometer of public mood, and as British comedian Andy Hamilton told this summers Hay Festival, you can even use them to test how much the public like or dislike a politician or public figure. He remembered making a joke about then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and being told by one of her staunchest supporters to expect a wave of outrage. On checking, he found just three complaints, and thats when, he said, he knew Thatcher was on the way out. Perhaps someone could test out a joke about Theresa May and see how the complaints barometer swings? Author John OFarrell says: Its such a sign of a healthy democracy that we can laugh at our leaders.

Jokes do take the temperature of the nation, and one of many reasons politicians fear them is, as Mark Twain said, Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.

Politicians fear being made fun of, and fear that a satirical representationmay take root in the electorates brain. They fear the public seeing their weaknesses. Some may remember how TVs Spitting Image reduced each member of the cabinet to a single ridiculous idea, a spitting former Home Secretary Roy Hattersley or a tiny David Steel tucked in the top pocket of David Owen (joint leaders of the SDP-Liberal alliance). Not good for their egos, not good for their future prospects. Steel said later that the sketch definitely affected his image.

Joke-telling is not the only ingredient in the comedy cupboard that upsets the powers that be. The most obvious creators of exaggerated portraits are newspaper cartoonists, who sometimes feel the long arm of the police on their shoulders as a result.

South African cartoonist Zapiro told Index on Censorship: We provoke thought, even if that thought is pretty outrageous. Others can do it too. We just occupy a space where you can really push the boundaries. Zapiro faced a six-year court battle with South Africas President Jacob Zuma over one of his cartoons. But Zapiro is just as feisty as ever, and reckons he is bolshier than the generations that have come after him. Meanwhile in Germany this February talk show host and comedian Jan Bhmermann was hit by a civil court action banning him from repeating a poem that was rude about Turkeys President Erdogan.

Cracking down on comedy is just one attempt to command and control society. And when solid modern democracies such as Spain and Germany start taking their comedians to court its a sign that society is feeling so out of sorts that they think free speech no longer feels important or worth defending. In fact it needs that key freedom now more than ever.

OFarrell believes authoritarians are wrong anyway, that comedy is less about power and more about releasing our Munch-like screams. Lets get our Adams apples warmed up.

Rachael Jolley is editor of Index on Censorship magazine. The summer issue is out next week and features an interview with Zapiro. On July 4, the Index Stand Up For Satire comedy night will feature Al Murray, Tim Key, Felicity Ward and more.

Continued here:

Laughter can ease life's pain - we must protect the freedom to joke - New Statesman

Posted in Freedom | Comments Off on Laughter can ease life’s pain – we must protect the freedom to joke – New Statesman

Slammers rout Freedom to take first two games of series, team tries to avoid sweep today – User-generated content (press release) (registration)

Posted: at 11:02 am

A four-run second inning in which the visiting Joliet Slammers batted through the order set the tone early Saturday night, as the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, suffered their worst defeat of the season by a final score of 12-2 at UC Health Stadium.

Following a perfect first inning, Freedom (21-11) starter Zach Wendorf (0-2) faced five batters in the second before recording his first out. Despite not collecting a single hit in the inning, the Slammers (14-18) took advantage of three walks and two Florence errors to build a 4-0 lead. Wendorf would recover to toss scoreless third and fourth innings, but gave up a home run to Juan Silva in the fifth before a walk and a hit-by-pitch ended his evening after just four-plus innings of work.

Edwin Gomez, Melvin Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez would also homer for Joliet in the game, as the onslaught continued against relievers Evan Bickett, Sam Brunner and Laetten Galbraith, each of whom allowed at least one run before Matt Pobereyko struck out the side in a perfect ninth.

Slammers starting pitcher Shane Bryant (0-2) stymied the Freedom through seven innings, limiting the home team to just two runs on sacrifice flies by Ryan Rinsky and Daniel Fraga in the second and fifth innings, respectively. Reliever Gibson Russ held Florence scoreless through the final two innings.

The loss set a new season-high in runs allowed by the Freedom, and the ten-run deficit was the largest for the team all year. Jose Brizuela, Collins Cuthrell and Austin Wobrock each registered two hits, but Andre Mercurio went 0-for-4 in the game, ending his hitting streak at 10 games.

The Freedom will look to avoid the series sweep on Sunday at UC Health Stadium, with first pitch of the series finale scheduled for 6:05 p.m. Right-hander Tony Vocca (4-2) will take the mound for the Freedom against left-hander Tasker Strobel (1-1) for Joliet.

The Florence Freedom are members of the independent Frontier League and play all home games at UC Health Stadium located at 7950 Freedom Way in Florence, KY.The Freedom can be found online at FlorenceFreedom.com, or by phone at 859-594-4487.

Florence Freedom

See the original post:

Slammers rout Freedom to take first two games of series, team tries to avoid sweep today - User-generated content (press release) (registration)

Posted in Freedom | Comments Off on Slammers rout Freedom to take first two games of series, team tries to avoid sweep today – User-generated content (press release) (registration)

Juneteenth stresses freedom, education – Pueblo Chieftain

Posted: at 11:02 am

It's an annual commemoration dedicated to freedom; a celebration for freedoms already won in the knowledge that for all people of all colors to be truly free, the struggle must continue.

Nearing its 40th anniversary as a community institution, the 2017 Juneteenth Celebration -- its theme was "Bringing it Back Home" -- attracted people of all ages and backgrounds to Bessemer Park Saturday.

There, celebrants heralded the end of slavery via the Emancipation Proclamation -- read in its entirety as part of the ceremony -- while acknowledging the vast contributions blacks have made, and will continue to make, in society.

The future of young black leaders was ably represented in this year's royal court, led by Queen Brianna Forbes and Jr. Miss Juneteenth Serenity Sanford.

Supporting Forbes and Sanford were Queen attendants Kiaya Lucero-Lemons and Kiara Andrews, and Maelah Robinson-Castillo, this year's Jr. Miss Juneteenth attendant.

In addition to Forbes, Lucero-Lemons and Andrews, Anicca Roberts was selected as a 2017 scholarship recipient. All four young women, who are either in college or bound for it, read the well-scripted essays that helped secure them the educational stipend.

Thanks to those who come before, especially those who overcame the bonds of slavery, Andrews said today's generation has the "freedom to become what we desire, the freedom to live the way you want to live, the freedom to go any school, the freedom to say 'hi' to a stranger.

"The freedom to go and let your voice be heard."

Forbes and Sanford said that while they feel "humbled and blessed" to have been chosen as Juneteenth royalty, the meaning behind the celebration is what's most important to them.

"This means so much to me because I am a young African-American girl, and I see the hardships that African Americans go through, still to this day, even being free," said Sanford.

"Being American and being African-American, we're not as free as everyone else. So it's important for me to come out here with everyone and celebrate that I am black. This is who I am and this is what it means to me."

Being named Queen, Forbes believes, will allow her the opportunity "to step up in my community and really help unite Pueblo while making a stand for our black community.

"So this is a day to celebrate freedom and remember where we've come from -- how we've grown not only as a culture but as a nation. We have to remember to stand together as family and be thankful for the things we have today."

Gratitude also figured into the words of Rev. Shadrach J. Thomas, who delivered the invocation.

"We have a lot to be thankful for," he said. "As we look at this beautiful nation, our 45th president, where we are today: someone bled and died for this freedom."

The day was ushered in by a powerful performance of the national anthem by young Jaylen Sankey and an equally uplifting take on "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the traditional "Black National Anthem," by Sister Helen Wiley.

Celebrants also enjoyed a children's talent show, live music from local fave Carlos Crull and band, and smoky eats from Good in the Hood BBQ.

jpompia@chieftain.com

WHAT IS JUNETEENTH?

Also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas, and more generally the emancipation of African-American slaves throughout the Confederate South. A melding of "June" and "nineteenth," Juneteenth was first established in Texas as a state holiday in 1980.

By 2008, nearly half of the U.S. states observed the holiday as a ceremonial observance. And as of May 2016, when the Maryland legislature approved official recognition of the holiday, 45 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia have recognized Juneteenth as either a state holiday or ceremonial holiday, a day of observance.

See the rest here:

Juneteenth stresses freedom, education - Pueblo Chieftain

Posted in Freedom | Comments Off on Juneteenth stresses freedom, education – Pueblo Chieftain

Pies and Freedom: A Father’s Day Look at a Dad Who Roamed – Voice of America

Posted: at 11:02 am

MORRISTOWN, NEW YORK

A year ago this Sunday, I was making berry pies in the kitchen when I glanced outside: Dad had taken another face-plant in the grass.

Time to get a plastic chair, twist his limbs to a kneeling position and use his still-strong arms to get upright.

At 84, the former athlete-turned-dentist and father of four had been struggling with Parkinson's, the dementia that it often brings and the general indignities of old age. So the few choices he had left he cherished deeply, including being able to roam or nap or eat sweets whenever he wanted.

And roaming often involved, as care workers would say with a gasp, "A fall!"

Falls are the No. 1 cause of injury and deaths from injury for elderly people in the U.S, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Older Americans fell 29 million times in 2014, causing 7 million injuries and costing an estimated $31 billion in annual Medicare costs, the agency says, citing the latest statistics. Falls evict people from their homes, shorten their lives and destroy their quality of life.

But not to fall means not to roam, which was a no-go for us.

So when nursing home officials or physical therapists asked "Has he fallen at any time in the last six months?" we were savvy enough to sidestep possible elder abuse lawsuits.

"Why yes, he has," was a fine reply. "About three times a day" was not.

Sometimes Dad was so black-and-blue from his falls that he looked like a boxer's punching bag. He had contusions on his head, his arms, his legs. Despite being wrapped like a mummy in Band-Aids, he bled across the house like a hemophiliac.

But after drinking milk every day of his life, Dad never did dent a single bone, while mom, his 80-year-old caretaker, cracked a toe, a finger or a rib every other month.

This is the first Father's Day since he passed away, so of course it's a kick in the gut.

Dad, however, would not have cared one whit. He was old school, honor thy father every day of the year, don't get sucked into this commercial hoopla - unless, perhaps, it's a gift of sturdy overalls that will be worn for years in the garden.

Richard Joseph Norman, born May 18, 1932, in the hard-luck upstate New York town of Ogdensburg, was an only child and a scholarship boy. So for the rest of his life, he concentrated on two things: family and charity. And he created those families wherever he went.

Drafted into the army as a dentist, Dad was Alan Alda 15 years before "MASH" went on the air, a maverick who brought wit and kindness to an institution not known for either quality. His bosses did never understand why so many enlisted men with girlfriends in distant cities had frequent dental problems on Friday afternoons.

Charity to Dad was not writing a check or attending a banquet. Every Thursday on his day off, Dad would drive around Rochester to round up supplies for the local homeless shelter - sacks of potatoes, onions and carrots, industrial-sized cans of beans or tomato sauce. On Monday nights in the fall, he would hold a free dental clinic for migrant workers.

At his office, those who came to work for him stayed for life. And Dad knew everything about his patients, not just how their cracked molars were doing, for long before Rochester folk embraced psychologists, everyone talked to their dentist.

In hindsight, we had plenty of signals of the end. Dad whose license and keys had long been taken away snuck out and crashed a car while mom was taking a nap. He blithely walked into a frigid river in his underwear for a swim. Plagued by insomnia, he ventured out in the snow to visit neighbors' porches or parked cars at 4 a.m. thank God no one shot him.

Once as I was trying to get Dad back into bed at 3 a.m., he became stressed and stepped back with his right foot. I felt sick, knowing that was just what a former black belt would do before delivering a kick that could shatter my tibia. I let him eat the cookies.

Still, Dad became lucid as a fox the day we had to put him in a nursing home.

"I did not sign up for this, Sheila," he said, eyeing the meager twin bed and the room's barren industrial patina. The snores of his new roommate reverberated through a flimsy curtain.

Dad lasted just over a month in that restricted setting.

The first few days he walked around its circular hallway compulsively, carrying his walker like a knapsack, seeking the one unlocked door that would lead to freedom. Within a few days, the facility's rigid fears about falls meant he was effectively locked into a wheelchair. Soon afterward, he struggled to swallow and gave up on eating.

So this year my berry pies have no ardent admirer and Dad's 12 grandchildren have no one to tease them. Two family weddings have brought us together but we still crumble at the sound of "Taps," remembering the yellow birch leaves that fluttered down on his grave.

Dad's lessons on family and charity will live on, however. So on this Father's Day, I want to celebrate a full life well-lived, a spirit that roamed and gave laughter and kindness to friends and strangers alike. There is no better legacy.

Visit link:

Pies and Freedom: A Father's Day Look at a Dad Who Roamed - Voice of America

Posted in Freedom | Comments Off on Pies and Freedom: A Father’s Day Look at a Dad Who Roamed – Voice of America

Emmanuel Macron’s Call To Action: Viva Technology! – Forbes

Posted: at 11:02 am


Forbes
Emmanuel Macron's Call To Action: Viva Technology!
Forbes
If you're in the fashion business, you come to Paris for fashion week; if you're in the aerospace business, you attend the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget; if you're in the film business you head to the Cannes Film Festival. If the new French President ...

and more »

Link:

Emmanuel Macron's Call To Action: Viva Technology! - Forbes

Posted in Technology | Comments Off on Emmanuel Macron’s Call To Action: Viva Technology! – Forbes

KCC bolsters community partnerships with technology – Herald and News

Posted: at 11:02 am

Klamath Community College is furthering its commitment to the community by sharing ideas with the Oregon Institute of Technology.

At Oregon Techs request, KCC recently led a small group of Oregon Tech staff members through two synchronous classrooms at the KCC Klamath Falls campus.

The synchronous system gives opportunities to community members who dont have access to higher education, said KCC Network and Systems Manager Mike Pearson, who led the tour. It puts college in front of them in the comfort of their own space.

KCC has five synchronous classrooms at the Klamath Falls campus, each costing several thousand dollars and funded by grant awards. The synchronous rooms include an audio/video control panel, a life-size video conference system, a 75-inch SMART TV, two 70-inch presentation TVs used to stream distance classes in real time, and an interactive podium for instructors to write on the screen without moving to a whiteboard or TV.

The synchronous KCC classes stream classes in real time to Bonanza, Lost River, Chiloquin, Lakeview, North Lake and Paisley high schools.

Tony Richey, OIT manager of IT operations and educational technology, said Oregon Tech would like to use synchronous technology to expand offerings at its Wilsonville campus, as well as at Chemeketa Community College and other colleges and high schools throughout the region.

According to Richey, Oregon Tech is in the process of creating a synchronous classroom design similar to KCCs, that will provide students with a full-blown classroom experience, allowing distance-education students to engage with faculty and other students and incorporating the social aspects of learning.

It will also offer them flexibility because there are a limited amount of times a class can be scheduled, Richey said.

Pearson pointed out that synchronous technology could also benefit Oregon Tech students pursuing a four-year degree who cannot travel due to finances or disabilities.

The courses OIT may initially offer via synchronous learning include engineering, mechanical and management, according to Richey.

I think synchronous delivery for distance education is part of the future, and Im glad other institutions are looking at the same technologies, Pearson said.

Read the original:

KCC bolsters community partnerships with technology - Herald and News

Posted in Technology | Comments Off on KCC bolsters community partnerships with technology – Herald and News

Technology and logistics, not fashion, makes today’s apparel CEOs – San Francisco Chronicle

Posted: at 11:02 am

Mickey Drexler wasnt just any retail executive. He was a merchant prince, a man whose fashion instincts helped rescue Gap Inc. in the 1990s when the San Francisco apparel chain was struggling to find relevance.

But Drexlers recent decision to resign as J. Crew CEO is perhaps the most stark reminder that fashion and marketing expertise alone cant rescue an industry besot by rapid demographic and technological change. Other big names in fashion, including Ron Johnson (J.C. Penney), Terry Lundgren (Macys), and Sharen Jester Turney (Victorias Secret), have vacated their posts in recent years. Kathryn Bufano (Bon-Ton Stores) and Linda Heasley (Lane Bryant) also resigned this year.

It might be tempting to say that Drexler lost his fashion touch and that people just dont want to buy J. Crew clothing. But the industry has been rapidly transforming.

Model Connor Keith (left) works with photographer Mark Fore and stylist Ronald Gravesande during a fashion shoot at the offices of Touch of Modern in San Francisco. The company offers men well-fitting, limited assortment clothes in the most convenient way possible.

Model Connor Keith (left) works with photographer Mark Fore and...

The populism we have witnessed in politics seems to be sweeping through the fashion industry as well. Whereas merchant princes and princesses once told us what to wear a year from now, Millennial shoppers look to the more fickle and unpredictable trendsetters on social media.

Drexler was the guy that everyone thought had the magic touch, said Chicago retail consultant Brian Kelly. But retailers today should be using data ... rather than attending last years fashion show.

The next generation of retail apparel leaders will not be experts in fashion. They will focus more on data and supply chains.

Walmart, which is known more for logistics prowess than for fashion, said Friday that it will buy online mens retailer Bonobos for $310 million.

Theres more to retail right now than just making nice clothes, said Mark Lovas, a former top executive at Bonobos who is now CEO of Trumaker in San Francisco, another online mens clothing shop. Apparel retailers must craft business models that deliver merchandise to customers and remove unsold clothing from inventory in the quickest, most cost-efficient way possible, he said.

Those skills seem at odds with the merchandisers and marketers who have traditionally run apparel chains.

In the first half of the 20th century, big family-owned department stores dominated the U.S. fashion industry. Customers would trek to a downtown Bloomingdales, Marshall Fields or Daytons to find the latest look.

A CEO typically would have started at the company as a buyer, traveling across the country and eventually around the world to meet designers and attend fashion shows. Drexler came from a fashion background: He was merchandising vice president at Abraham & Straus in New York and later worked at Ann Taylor, Bloomingdales and Macys. After his stint at Gap, he led J. Crew as CEO for 14 years.

But the world of merchant princes has been upended. The Internet has allowed shoppers to quickly find a wide range of information prices, styles, opinions beyond catalogs, magazines or Sunday newspaper circulars.

Most retailers enjoyed opportunistic time periods, said Alicia Hare, a former strategy executive at Target Corp. who is now a regional president for SYPartners, a consulting firm in San Francisco. But they had no sense of purpose. Why do they exist? During challenging times, if you cant fall back on some kind of North Star, its difficult to find a path through.

Some emerging e-commerce companies like Bonobos and Touch of Modern in San Francisco, by contrast, have a laser focus. Both offer limited assortments of well-fitting mens clothing in the most convenient way possible.

Jerry Hum, co-founder and CEO of Touch of Modern, said he and his friends created the startup partly because they hated shopping at malls. Whereas women will try out several outfits at a physical store, men will buy several colors of the same shirt they like, he said.

And though Hum and his employees had no previous experience in design or merchandising, they now feel confident enough to create their own brand of clothing lines.

These e-commerce startups enjoy a distinct advantage over chains like Gap and J. Crew: The chains must spend a lot of money operating physical stores. Thats why retail leaders must mind every penny and root out waste, especially in stores and the supply chain.

Retail chains require a lot of labor, said Ash Fontana, a managing director with Zetta Venture Partners in San Francisco. Reducing labor costs requires using artificial intelligence systems and data analysis, he said.

For all of his talent on the runway, Drexler isnt particularly known for his expertise in technology and logistics.

Its an uncomfortable truth about apparel retailers: Clothes may make the man, but they no longer make the CEO.

Thomas Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. He is author of Rebuilding Empires (St. Martins Press) on how big-box retailers will adapt to the digital age. Email: tlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByTomLee

Read the original:

Technology and logistics, not fashion, makes today's apparel CEOs - San Francisco Chronicle

Posted in Technology | Comments Off on Technology and logistics, not fashion, makes today’s apparel CEOs – San Francisco Chronicle

Indian company eyes driver’s seat in driverless vehicle technology – Economic Times

Posted: at 11:02 am

NEW DELHI: Mid-summer, a group of IIT- graduates and their seniors were sweating it out in the outskirts of Gurugram, fiddling with their laptops to calibrate sensors as they prepare for yet another round of testing a fully driverless shuttle.

The campus of Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz Ltd offers very limited space for such testing but that has not stopped the company from developing Novus Drive autonomous shuttle that can ferry over six persons, which was showcased at the Auto Expo last year.

Gaurav Singh, alumni of Carnegie Mellon University has spent close to three years on the project and for him seeing the shuttle drive on its own is a feeling that words cannot easily describe.

"This is about passion. To come up with such a product out here in India and not America, also shows what we can achieve with dedication and hard work," he said.

The company, founded in 2004 by Anuj Kapuria, who dropped out of his PhD programme at Carnegie Mellon University, has been working silently over the last decade to master driverless vehicles technology -- a domain where Google and Tesla are the front runners.

However, being an Indian company in an area where not many have ventured into, it has not been an easy journey for Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz to come up with a driverless shuttle and such technology for other vehicles.

"One of the most challenging parts is the awareness and trust among global customers about the technology coming from India for self-driving vehicles," Kapuria told PTI.

Yet, he said the company has been able to overcome the hurdle through the intellectual property which it has generated over years both in the US, Europe along with India and other emerging countries.

When asked how confident is the company of competing with the likes of Google, Tesla and other global firms in the area of autonomous driving, he said: "We are competitive to the enabling tech if not better."

Elaborating further, he said: "When we compare with Google or Tesla, we still need to clock more self-driving miles to make our autopilot and fully autonomous algorithms more robust, which we are doing by collecting lot of data with our driver assistive systems."

Need for regulatory support Kapuria said while companies in India like Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz can play their part in the global pursuit for perfection of autonomous driving technology, the government also needs to play its role to support the industry.

"We still do not have the regulatory framework to enable testing of autonomous vehicles," he said.

Expressing similar views, Ritukar Vijay, head of Robotics - Tech and Strategy at the company said: "We have the technology ready but we need more trials on real-time traffic, which at the moment we are unable to do."

So it has been an uphill task to collate data from other driver assistive systems that the company has developed and integrate to pure autonomous driving technology, he added.

Kapuria is banking on "the current forward-looking government" so that India can be "very soon among very few countries in the world with regulatory frameworks and vision for the adoption of autonomous vehicles, specifically in smart cities".

Also, driver assistive systems are something which can be mandated or users can be incentivised for reducing the number of accidents in the country, he added.

Commercialisation of Technology With the presence in both mobile robots and drive assistive systems, the company has revenue of around $10 million at present. It has set an ambitious target of touching $350- 400 in the next five years.

"Our core tech is globally competitive and we already are in talks with few of the North American OEMs for enabling autonomous navigation for their vehicles," Kapuria said.

Reiterating that arrival of autonomous vehicles is inevitable in the coming times, he said "all the global players realise this multi-billion dollar opportunity, which will take the complete auto industry for an overhaul".

The company is preparing itself to cash in on the opportunities. It has already increased R&D headcount to 120 from around 50 three years back.

"We are living in exciting times. Being the early movers in developing the technology and intellectual property around underlying tech for autonomous and driver assistive systems, we are in a position to offer full spectrum of products ranging from Autonomy Level 0 till Level 5," Kapuria said.

The Gurugram-based firm is already working at various stages with all the major OEMs in India.

"Now we are looking outwards and going global with our proven track record and long-term contracts with blue chip OEMs for driver assistive systems, AEB, autopilots and fully autonomous vehicle technology (software + hardware)," he said.

Kapuria, however, said the road towards autonomous driving would be incremental in nature.

It will start from driver assistive systems such as forward collision and lane departure warnings, autonomous emergency braking, traffic assist to autonomous vehicles that ranges from highway autopilots, constraint environment autonomy till fully autonomous vehicles. Patience is the key here.

Go here to see the original:

Indian company eyes driver's seat in driverless vehicle technology - Economic Times

Posted in Technology | Comments Off on Indian company eyes driver’s seat in driverless vehicle technology – Economic Times