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Monthly Archives: May 2017

CRunner (C++) is released

Here is one program that was born as a spin-off of Runner-QT. Meet CRunner: a program written with C++ and using Gtk+. The program is about 60 lines long and heavily commented -> you can easily follow the code.

gmrun alternatives, linux run dialog, linux program launcher

CRunner accepts programs and programs with arguments. For example: firefox and firefox are both accepted. The later opens firefox window with in it.

/*CRunner v.1 Copyright (c) 2017 JJ Posti <>
#This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY;
#for details see:
#This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under
#GPL Version 2, June 1991″)*/ Continue reading

PostX programs: Quick terminal, Power manager PostX calendar

19th of May 2017: The following changes apply.
* Quick Terminal 0.5.2, minor upgrade: some entries moved to right-click menu.

* Obsolete CSS removed from Quick Terminal.
* Power-manager-QT v.5.1: Icons removed. Now, labels with texts.

linux screenshots, linux screenshots

Screenshot showing postx-programs upgrade (as it was during May 2017)

Continue reading

Runner-QT v.2 arrives

19th of May 2017: Runner-QT is upgraded to version 2. Dependencies remain the same. Interface is simplified and intuitive. There is also less code now  (about 46 lines).  Runner-QT v.2 should fit nicely to all kinds of desktops by default.

sudo apt-get install python-pyqt5 python python3

Run the program: python /home/some_person/some_folder/

If needed make the program executable with:  chmod +x /home/some_person/some_folder/ Continue reading


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World's Last Male Northern White Rhinoceros Is Dead: Is This The End Of The Species?

Sudan, the last male northern white rhinoceros has died but his death did not extinguish hope to save the species from extinction.

Gentle Giant

The "gentle giant" lived in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya before his death on Monday, when he was put down due to the severity of pain from a degenerative illness. He is survived by two females, his daughter and granddaughter, with which conservationists hope to save the species.

Population Decimated By Conflict, Hunting, And Poaching

Northern white rhinos used to roam central Africa and numbered about 2,000 in the 1960s. Conflict, uncontrolled hunting, and poaching for their ivory horns, however, have decimated their number. By 1984, the population of this subspecies dropped to just 15.

"We can only hope that the world learns from the sad loss of Sudan and takes every measure to end all trade in rhino horn. While prices of rhino horn are falling in China and Vietnam, poaching for horn still threatens all rhino species," said Peter Knights, CEO of environmental organization WildAid.

Not The End Of The Species

Conservationists, however, hope that Sudan's death would not be the end of his species. Their hope lies in successfully inseminating Sudan's 27-year-old daughter Najin, or his 17-year old granddaughter Fatu through artificial means. The two still remain at the Ol Pejeta reserve.

Before euthanizing the 45-year-old Sudan, park staff collected genetic material from the animal with the hope that advanced cellular technologies and in vitro fertilization could prevent the extinction of the species.

One plan to save the species was to have eggs from the remaining females inseminated with sperm samples from now-deceased males before these are implanted to a surrogate female southern white rhino, a related subspecies with a population of about 20,000.

Last year, Sudan joined Tinder for a public awareness campaign that aimed to raise the money needed for research that could save his species from extinction.

"The funds raised will go towards ongoing research into Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) by a consortium of institutions. Once perfected, this technology, in particular in vitro fertilization (IVF), will aid to achieve successful pregnancies to gradually build up a viable herd of northern white rhinos," the campaign page reads.

Old And Sick

The veterinary team decided to euthanize Sudan after his condition worsened over the weekend, which left him with bad skin wound. The rhino was no longer able to stand and was obviously suffering.

ⓒ 2018 All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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business address / small business advice

Ways to grow your small business quickly

Growing your small business is not as easy as you think – and it is not as easy as just throwing money back into it. Most often the way your business needs to grow is by adding team members to manage the operations and service your customers. Housing all your employees in one place is no longer necessary in business. These days the jobs done by your staff can be done remotely.

A great deal of small business owners avoid the thought of managing a virtualized workforce out of fear of losing the ability to track employee workflow and progress. But with the right guidelines and tools, that doesn’t have to be a concern. As a small business owner, you just need to establish your company’s core values and have clear and frequent communications with staffers. It’s easy to streamline workflow between onsite and remote employees.

So how does it work? You, as the small business owner, just need to put the plan in place and set up the guidelines. Sounds like a big job, but it does not have to be if you make it a process that is followed with every new remote hire.

The first step in making a remote worker fit is to get him or her comfortable with your company and your company goals and mission. Because of not needing extra office space or office furniture, a remote team can be set up quickly and easily at little to no cost. But having remote workers visit head office on a regular basis can keep them up with changes, and also give you a chance to watch them at work in person.

If you business is a retail outlet or you have a lot of personal contact with customers, you could consider opening another location to grow your business. It is not always easy to open a second location, but it can be if you have the business plan and management team to take care of the first location, while you are getting the second location up and running. This is especially true if your goal is franchise future locations. When you sell a franchise, you are selling your processes and procedures, so your second location has to be working first using those same procedures.

Before considering franchising your business, you might want to think about licensing your product or brand to other businesses. This can be an effective, low-cost growth strategy, particularly if you have a process service product or branded product. Before you reach out to potential licensees, be sure to have all your documents and agreements drawn up by a lawyer who specializes in intellectual property matters. A good legal document can save you a lot of hassles down the road and it will also minimize the risk of losing control over your product or branded service.

If franchising or licensing your product or service in a second location is not an option, consider product diversification. This means selling other products that are complimentary to yours. They could be your own new products or ones that you can buy wholesale and sell it alongside yours. For example, if you make and sell custom bicycles online, you might also want to sell bicycle helmets, locks, lights and other accessories that people need when they buy a bicycle. That example was a little simplistic, but check out how online retailers will suggest other complimentary products and add-ons when you are looking at a particular item.

There are other ways you can diversify your brand and your customer base – you just have to think of novel and efficient ways to do it. Back to the bicycle example. You could hold clinics and classes on bicycle maintenance and repair. You could offer a free clinic about basic repair to attract customers into paying for more extensive repair classes. Now you are seen as not only a maker, but as an expert. When diversifying, choose the right product or strategy that will not take your focus off of your core business. The only reason to take your focus off of you primary core, is if the diversification becomes more profitable and helps you grow even faster.

Another way to grow your business fast is to acquire or merge with a competitor or a company in your supply chain. If one of your competitors or supply chain partners is thinking of retiring or is in financial trouble, you might consider buying his or her assets and customer list. Piggybacking on an existing customer base can be a lot easier than trying to build a new one. This can be especially beneficial if the company you acquire or merge with has a completely different customer base than you currently have.

About Ian Payton

Responsibilities: Social Media Coordination and content creation for companies like the Toronto International Bicycle Show. Outside of work for primary clients,work was done for smaller clients like branches of the Royal Canadian Legion designing and revitalizing web sites. Conceptualizing strategies for online and offline marketing as well as promotional activities for other companies.

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Auto Showroom - Car Dealership Joomla Template

Type: Joomla Joomla 3.x Updated on 12 May 2018 Version: 1.2.0 Share:

Auto Showroom Joomla Template is modern design which is useful for Car Dealer, Auto Dealer, Automotive and any other automotive dealership business, who sell, buy or lease vehicles via website.

It includes well-designed inventory system, it will help you to setup and customize for your vehicle inventory. Includes a completely customizable, filterable and sortable inventory search to search your vehicle listings.

Its stunning beauty, fashionable clean look and proper execution, accompanying with making use of SP Page Builder, Plazart Framework, TZ Portfolio+, Bootstrap 3, will help you to own an amazing site.

  • Responsive Design
  • Compatible with Joomla 3.x
  • Bootstrap 3
  • Hikashop Support
  • Auto addon for TZ Portfolio+
  • SP Page Builder Drag ‘n drop
  • TZ Portfolio+ Support
  • Many feature pages as About Us, Gallery, Testimonial, Practice Areas, Attorneys, FAQs, Contact
  • Fully responsive
  • Drag’n Drop layout builder
  • Plazart Framework
  • Mega Menu Support
  • Dynamic Google Web Font
  • Carousel And Filterable Portfolio
  • Custom Background/Patterns Blocks
  • Custom 404 Page
  • Google Map API
  • Powerful Shortcodes
  • FontAwesome 600+ Icons
  • Cross Browser Compatible (IE9/10/11, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari)
  • Pretty CSS3 Effects and Animation
  • Optimized and Clean Code
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  • Fully Customizable, step-by-step documentation included
  • And much more…
Download Live Demo Documentation Need a help?

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Peripatetic Teacher of Clarinet & Saxophone, Andover, Hampshire

Closing date:

Farleigh SchoolAndover, Hampshire

Date posted:
Start date: January 2018
Contract type: Part Time
Salary: £35.00 per hour
Contract term: Permanent

Farleigh School is a vibrant and thriving co-educational Prep School rated ‘excellent’ in all aspects following its most recent ISI inspection. The Music Department is one of the largest in the school enjoying an enviable reputation having been awarded The Week’s Independent Schools Guide (Spring/Summer 2018) ‘Great for Music’ accolade.

We seek a talented, inspirational and enthusiastic Woodwind Teacher to join this vibrant and highly-successful music department. With 25 ensembles, 60+ performance opportunities each year and over 380 individual lessons taking place each week, it is a fast-paced but rewarding and friendly environment in which to work.

The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of success in both performance and teaching and be willing to contribute fully to the life of the department. The current requirement equates to around 2 days per week but this may vary according to demand.

Visits to the school are welcomed and encouraged.

For further information and an application pack please contact Human Resources on 01264 712863 or email

Closing date: Thursday 18th October 2018 at 12 noon.

Interviews are expected to be scheduled during the week commencing 29th October 2018

Farleigh School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. You will be required to undergo appropriate Child Protection Screening, including checks with past employers and an enhanced DBS disclosure.

Job location

More about Farleigh School
Type: Mainstream School
Phase: Primary
Funding status: Independent
Gender: Mixed
Age Range: 3 - 13 years
Denomination: Roman Catholic
Address: Red Rice, Andover, Hampshire, SP11 7PW, United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 1264 710766
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• To share with parents in the spiritual, moral and intellectual development of their children in a Catholic community, this welcomes all faiths.
• To provide a first class education striving for excellence in all academic, cultural a...


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Reading Recovery Teacher, West Drayton

Closing date:

West Drayton AcademyWest Drayton

Date posted:
Start date: September 2018
Contract type: Part Time
Salary: £27,187 - £37,645 or £39,519 - £42,498 (FTE)
Contract term: Maternity Cover

Reading Recovery Teacher

Part Time (0.6), Maternity Cover

£27,187 - £37,645 per annum inclusive of Outer London Weighting (Academy MPR)

£39,519 - £42,498 per annum inclusive of Outer London Weighting (Academy UPR)

Salary to be pro-rated according to hours worked

REF: SCH/16155TR

Location: West Drayton, Middlesex

Start Date: September 2018

Work Pattern: Part-time 0.6 (4 mornings plus 1 afternoon per week); additional cover teaching may be available for candidates wishing to work more hours

West Drayton Academy would like to appoint a qualified Reading Recovery Teacher to cover our current teacher’s maternity leave. We are looking for somebody with experience of working as a Reading Recovery Teacher and of accelerating progress for children experiencing difficulties with learning to read and write.

We believe that every child should leave primary education as fluent and passionate readers. We are looking for somebody who enjoys a challenge and who strives for excellent results no matter what the barriers are.

This is an opportunity to make a real difference in children’s lives.

The successful applicant will join our friendly and knowledgeable Inclusion Team and will have access to all appropriate resources.

West Drayton Academy is an expanding, popular and oversubscribed school. Visits to the Academy are warmly welcomed. For further information, please contact the Vice Principal, Helen Jackson-Brench (01895442904; email

CLOSING DATE: 01 June 2018 - NOON

INTERVIEW DATE: 08 June 2018

CVs will not be accepted

The School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS check, satisfactory references and other pre-employment checks.

Job location

More about West Drayton Academy
Type: Mainstream School
Phase: Primary
Funding status: State - Academy
Gender: Mixed
Age Range: 4 - 11 years
Address: Kingston Lane, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 9EA, United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 1895 442904
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By Tod J. Everage

The modern day contract is a direct result of trial and error. Generally speaking, transactional lawyers try to negotiate “bulletproof” contracts providing exactly what their client wants or needs. Despite their best efforts, litigators in later disputes try their level best to find the “errors” in those contracts that could benefit their client. Then the pattern repeats. Take Seismic Wells, LLC v. Sinclair Oil and Gas Co., 2018 WL 43377234 (5th Cir. 9/13/2018), for example. In that dispute, the parties had included a “prevailing party” fee provision in their Joint Operating Agreement (JOA): “In the event any party is required to bring legal proceedings to enforce any financial obligation of a party hereunder, the prevailing party in such action shall be entitled to recover … a reasonable attorneys’ fees.” At first blush, this provision appears fairly standard and innocuous. But, with over $1 million at stake in attorneys’ fees, the meaning of every word in that provision is fair game.

The facts leading up to the dispute aren’t relevant here, other than Seismic sued Sinclair under various agreements when it was concerned that Sinclair would not be holding up their end of the bargain. Seismic’s amended complaint included 17 counts, including claims of fraud, breach of contract, conspiracy, tortious interference, defamation/libel, and business disparagement. At the end of Seismic’s case at trial, the court granted Sinclair’s motion for judgment as a matter of law. Sinclair then moved for over $1 million in attorneys’ fees incurred in defending itself, citing specifically to the prevailing party provision in the JOA. The district court denied the motion for three reasons: (1) failure to properly plead under RFCP 9(g) (failure to plead special damages); (2) the provision did not apply because Seismic’s suit was not a legal proceeding brought to enforce a “financial obligation under the JOA”; and (3) Sinclair did not adequately segregate its fee to isolate the work performed defending fee-eligible claims. The Fifth Circuit only addressed the second issue.

The Fifth Circuit agreed that Sinclair was obviously the “prevailing party,” a decision the Court had previously affirmed. The operative question though was whether Sinclair was the prevailing party in a lawsuit “to enforce any financial obligation of a party” under the JOA. The first issue was one of context. How was the dispute brought? The prevailing party provision applies when a party brings a legal proceeding to enforce a financial obligation. The Court noted that many of the claims Seismic brought against Sinclair alleged fraud that induced Seismic to sign the contracts; those claims sought to void the contracts, not enforce them. In other words, those claims sought to render the contract unenforceable and therefore would not satisfy the fee provision.

Two other claims though asserted breach of contract allegations; however, only one of those claims was grounded in the JOA, so the Court focused in there. Count 12 provided that Sinclair breached the JOA by refusing to assign Seismic a leaky well or operate that well on its terms. So, it appeared that this provision did seek to enforce the JOA. But, that was not enough because the legal proceeding must be brought to enforce a financial obligation under the JOA. The Fifth Circuit noted that “financial obligation” is synonymous with “monetary obligation,” and was not persuaded that Seismic’s claim seeking monetary damages made this claim a financial one. Rather, this claim was to turn over a leaky well, which the Court held was not a financial obligation. As such, the prevailing party fee provision was not triggered.

Seismic filed this lawsuit, lost, then got away without having to pay for Sinclair’s attorneys’ fees under a provision that Seismic probably would have sought to enforce itself if it had won at trial. Without knowing anything about the negotiations, including the term “financial obligation” in the JOA’s prevailing party provision narrowed the remedies available to either party in this dispute. Using the term “enforce” arguably did as well given Seismic’s attempts to invalidate the contract. Whereas, had the parties used the more boilerplate language awarding attorneys’ fees to the prevailing party in any legal proceeding brought by “any party arising under this Agreement,” Sinclair may have recovered. Well, assuming that was their original intent.

This case presents a good example of the interplay between the words used in the contract, and the words used in the complaint filed to enforce/or invalidate that same contract. Both transactional lawyers and litigators should take note.

By Hattie Guidry

On October 1, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a Texas Supreme Court’s ruling finding Noble Energy Inc. (“Noble”) liable for cleanup costs paid by ConocoPhillips Co. (“ConocoPhillips”) to settle a separate Louisiana oilfield legacy case. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Noble inherited the indemnity obligation to ConocoPhillips from its predecessor, which bought oil and gas assets from Alma Energy Corp. (“Alma”) at an auction sale through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Noble Energy, Inc. v. ConocoPhillips Co., 532 S.W.3d 771 (Tex. 2017).  View the document here.

The underlying oilfield legacy case was filed in 2010 in the 38th Judicial District Court, Cameron Parish, Louisiana, by the State of Louisiana and the Cameron Parish School Board against ConocoPhillips and other oil and gas companies for environmental damage and contamination of the Johnson Bayou Oil and Gas Field.

Based on the indemnity language, ConocoPhillips made demands for defense and indemnity, but they were denied. ConocoPhillips filed suit in Harris County, TX district court in 2011 for breach of the defense and indemnity provisions, as well as the provisions concerning environmental cleanup.

While this matter had unique issues related to bankruptcy law, it is consistent with a growing trend of oil company defendants in Louisiana legacy cases making indemnity demands based upon provisions in purchase and sales agreements.

By Tod J. Everage

Contractual indemnities are important and valuable in the oil patch. When they are enforceable, they have the potential to end litigation completely or at least the financial burden for a particularly well-positioned indemnitee. But, with “anti-indemnity” statutes in play in several jurisdictions (including Louisiana), the enforceability of these indemnity provisions rely (barring exceptions) on the application of general maritime law.

It is a common practice to select general maritime law as the governing law in any oilfield MSA – at least within the Fifth Circuit – but simply saying it applies doesn’t actually make it so. As a result, jurisprudential tests have emerged to determine what law actually applies to torts depending on where the incident occurred, as well as to the contracts themselves. When the services provided under the contract are obviously maritime in nature, such as a contract for vessel support services, there is little to dispute. But, especially when there is a high-dollar potential exposure riding on the enforceability of an indemnity obligation, there have been persuasive arguments made on both sides of the maritime vs. state law debate governing contracts for other, less obvious, oilfield services.

Most recently, the US Fifth Circuit addressed this dispute over plugging and abandoning services (“P&A work”) on three wells in coastal Louisiana waters in In re: Crescent Energy Services, No. 16-31214 (5th Cir. July 13, 2018). Crescent agreed, amongst other things, to provide three vessels to perform the work and to indemnify Carrizo against any claims for bodily injury, death, or damage to property. One of Crescent’s employees was injured on one of Carrizo’s fixed platforms during the P&A work, and unsurprisingly, Carrizo’s indemnity demand from the resulting claim was denied by Crescent under the Louisiana Oilfield Indemnity Act. The district court, applying the former Davis & Sons test, found the contract between Carrizo and Crescent to be a maritime contract and granted summary judgment in favor of Carrizo on its indemnity claim.

In January, the US Fifth Circuit pared down its maritime contract test (from Davis & Sons) to focus on only two factors: (1) “is the contract one to provide services to facilitate the drilling or production of oil and gas on navigable waters?” and (2) “does the contract provide or do the parties expect that a vessel will play a substantial role in the completion of the contract?” In re Larry Doiron, Inc., 879 F.3d 568, 576 (5th Cir. 2018). Both factors must be affirmed before maritime law may be applied to the contract.

On the first factor, Carrizo asserted a creative and ultimately successful argument that P&A work is “part of the total life cycle of oil and gas drilling.” Because plugging and abandoning a drilled well is part of the agreement with the State of Louisiana to get an initial permit to drill, the US Fifth Circuit was persuaded that the contract for P&A work involved “the drilling and production of oil and gas.” The Court then re-iterated its departure from Davis & Sons and its concern about where the incident occurred. In Doiron, the US Fifth Circuit stated: “The facts surrounding the accident are relevant to whether the worker was injured in a maritime tort, but they are immaterial in determining whether the workers’ employer entered into a maritime contract.” Doiron, 879 F.3d at 573-74. The US Fifth Circuit is “no longer concerned about whether the worker was on a platform or vessel.” Rather, the question is whether the contract concerned the drilling and production of oil and gas on navigable waters.

On this point, Crescent’s insurers argued that Doiron’s analysis on the P&A work resulted in inconsistencies with other Fifth Circuit precedents finding that torts occurring on and during the construction of fixed, offshore production platforms on the OCS are generally not governed by maritime law. Also, wireline work – which comprises much of the P&A work – had also traditionally been found to not be a maritime activity. The Court declined the invitation to review those OCSLA cases: “We are not concerned here with those OCSLA issues of whether to borrow state law as surrogate federal law, which leads to analyzing whether maritime law applies of its own force, which requires determining the historical treatment of certain contracts. We do need to analyze, though, whether this is a maritime contract. Doiron now controls that endeavor.” But these statements do not make clear whether the rejection of the OCSLA cases was because Crescent Energy Services is not an OCSLA case itself, or whether that distinction no longer has a difference in oil and gas contract review.

The Fifth Circuit then quoted commentary from Professor David W. Robertson discussing contract disputes on the OCS: “If the contract is a maritime contract, federal maritime law applies of its own force, and state law does not apply. If the contract calling for indemnity is not a maritime contract, the governing law will be adjacent-state law made surrogate federal law by OCSLA § 1333(a)(2)(A).” Why bring this up if the Court is ignoring OCSLA cases on the grounds of distinction? The Court doesn’t directly clarify. Instead, it said the reference was “to show that Davis previously and Doiron now are performing the task of determining how to classify contracts.” It further stated that Davis (a Louisiana waters case) did not offend OCSLA cases, so neither does Doiron.

The Fifth Circuit seemed concerned about this argument though and the perception of the Court’s abandonment of long-standing precedent. Surely, this will be the continued topic of attack from potential indemnitors. In addressing those criticisms, the Court stuck with its more back-to-basics theme: “We are here classifying a contract for a certain purpose, a juridical activity that has been done consistently with the 1969 Rodrigue decision at least since our 1990 Davis decision. We en banc eliminated most of the factors, narrowing our focus, but we did not fundamentally change the task. Doiron is the law we must apply.” On the one hand, the Court’s statements seem to firmly reiterate that Doiron is the law going forward when analyzing the maritime nature of a contract regardless of the location of the work. But, the Court’s avoidance of the OCSLA issues and the narrowed “certain purpose” of their decision begs for more direct guidance from the Fifth Circuit on Doiron’s geographic reach.

The Fifth Circuit could have unequivocally proclaimed that the breadth of Doiron extended to OCSLA cases, in whatever capacity, if that were its intent; but it did not. So then, what is the expected effect of Doiron on those contract cases involving a controversy on the OCS, where OCSLA statutorily provides its own choice-of-law provision? Does Doiron actually supplant Grand Isle Shipyard, Inc. v. Seacor Marine, LLC, 589 F.3d 778 (5th Cir. 2009), since it called the case “un-useful” to its task? If the situs of the controversy is no longer appropriate, then it seems that Doiron may be the answer.

Grand Isle was a contractual application of test articulated in Union Texas Petroleum Corp. v. PLT Engineering, Inc., 895 F.2d 1043 (5th Cir. 1990) which starts by finding that the dispute arises on the OCS; otherwise, now, Doiron surely is the test. The second PLT factor determines whether the OCSLA choice-of-law provision applies by looking to see if federal maritime law applies of its own force. This is where Crescent’s insurers’ historical argument would come into play. To determine whether federal maritime law applies of its own force, the US Fifth Circuit: (1) identified the historical treatment of contracts such as the one at issue, and (2) applied Davis & Sons. It seems obvious that this factor will likely at least be revised to substitute Doiron for Davis & Sons. The less obvious question is whether the historical treatment factor is relevant at all going forward.

In Doiron, the Fifth Circuit criticized those “historical” opinions that “improperly focus[ed] on whether the services were inherently maritime as opposed to whether a substantial amount of the work was to be performed from a vessel.” Thus, it is possible that the second PLT factor simply becomes the Doiron test. But, if so, then that would effectively eliminate the necessity of the PLT test for OCS contract law disputes, because the Courts have long since acknowledged that the relevant application of Louisiana law to the contract does not conflict with federal law. If this analysis is correct then Doiron should be the standing legal test for the determination of applicable law in an oilfield contract regardless of the location of the work (OCS vs. State waters).

A comment the Fifth Circuit made in its analysis of another earlier issue seems to bolster that conclusion: “If the contract here is maritime, the fact that it was to be performed in the territorial waters of Louisiana does not justify causing the outcome of this lawsuit to be different than if the contract was for work on the high seas. Consistency and predictability are hard enough to come by in maritime jurisprudence, but we at least should not intentionally create distortions.” After lauding the directness of its new test in Doiron (notwithstanding their use of the unpredictably applied term “substantial role”), the Fifth Circuit could have assisted practitioners with a bit more directness in Crescent Energy Services.

Despite the historically non-maritime nature of P&A work in the Fifth Circuit, the outcome of Crescent Energy Services is not surprising given the necessity of the vessels used for the work. In that respect, this decision is consistent with the Fifth Circuit’s continued primacy – now, by way of the Doiron test highlighting its importance – of the “substantial role” that a vessel will play in the work being done under the contract. While the Fifth Circuit may have left a gap in its recent holdings for the next OCSLA-based contract dispute, we see no reason why Doiron would not be at least a part of that new analysis.

By statute, royalties on oil and gas production are due on or before 120 days after the end of the month of first sale of production from the well. This gives operators about four months after a well begins producing to obtain title curative, set up a pay deck for the well, issue division orders to the various owners, and start paying royalties. Thereafter, royalties are payable 60 days (for oil) and 90 days (for gas) after the end of the calendar month in which subsequent production is sold. Please note that these time periods may be modified by the lease form.

Notwithstanding the foregoing time periods, operators do not have to make timely royalty payments if a royalty owner refuses to sign a division order or if the royalty owner’s interest is subject to a title defect.

Section 91.402(c)(1) of the Natural Resources Code states that as a condition to payment, an operator is entitled to receive a signed division order (that contains only the statutory provisions) from the royalty owner. By implication, an operator must actually send a division order to the royalty owner and have it rejected in order to rely on the statute. And, also implied by the statute, operators should (but don’t always) send out division orders before the date the first royalty payment is due. Note, however, that it is becoming more common to see leases that expressly negate the statute by stating that a lessee does not have the right to condition payment upon receipt of a signed division order – in other words, the royalty owner does not have to sign a division order to receive royalties.

Section 91.402(b) of the Natural Resources Code also authorizes an operator to withhold royalty payments when there is either (i) a title dispute, (ii) a reasonable doubt that the payee has clear title to his interest, or (iii) an unsatisfied title opinion requirement that pertains to the payee’s title, identity, or whereabouts. Additionally, effective September 1, 2017, Section 91.402(b)(2) allows an operator to withhold royalties from a payee when the payee’s interest is subject to a child support lien or order of withholding under the Family Code.

If a royalty owner believes its royalties are being unlawfully withheld (in “suspense”) by the operator, it must contact the operator and request an explanation/demand payment as a prerequisite to filing suit. The operator then has 30 days to respond with a reasonable cause for maintaining the royalties in suspense or pay over the undisputed royalties. If the operator fails to do so (or the royalty owner believes the operator’s explanation is not legally justified), the royalty owner can then file suit against the operator. If the royalty owner obtains a favorable judgment, it is entitled to statutory interest on the withheld royalties in addition to a mandatory award of attorney’s fees.

Kean Miller is growing again, opening offices in The Woodlands, Texas, and Lafayette, Louisiana, by combining with the energy-focused law firm Dupuis & Polozola.

This expansion builds on Kean Miller’s Houston office opening in 2017 and strengthens the firm’s portfolio of legal and business services to energy, oil & gas, and petrochemical industry clients.

The 10 lawyers with Dupuis & Polozola are experienced in all phases of upstream oil and gas exploration and production, handling transactional, regulatory, and litigation matters, as well as business and corporate, and real estate matters.  The firm’s clients include global exploration companies and small independents operating in Texas, Louisiana, Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota and New Mexico.

“Lafayette is the hub of the south Louisiana energy corridor, and The Woodlands continues to experience unprecedented growth in corporate headquarters,” said Blane Clark, managing partner of Kean Miller. “Our two new offices strengthen our ability to offer strategic legal resources to our clients from east of New Orleans to the energy corridor of West Houston, and from the Gulf of Mexico to West Texas and beyond.”

The firm now has more than 160 attorneys after the union with Dupuis & Polozola. Joining Kean Miller as equity partners are James H. “Jimmy” Dupuis Jr. in The Woodlands and Kyle P. Polozola in Lafayette. The Woodlands office is located at 8301 New Trails Drive, Suite 100. The Lafayette location is at 2020 W. Pinhook Road, Suite 303.

“Combining our law firms makes great sense.  We share a commitment to knowing our clients’ business inside and out, and to personalized client service,” said Mr. Dupuis. “Our clients will benefit from Kean Miller’s progressive approach and full-service offerings, and Kean Miller’s clients now have access to a team of upstream oil and gas attorneys experienced in Texas, Louisiana, and other producing states.”

Mr. Polozola said he looks forward to playing a part in the cooperative efforts of talented lawyers across Kean Miller’s operations. “Our Lafayette office magnifies the existing firm presence across Louisiana and in Texas.  With Kean Miller’s regional presence and deep bench of talented lawyers, we are an even more dynamic force in the Bayou State.”

Mr. Dupuis and Mr. Polozola, both experienced oil and gas and business attorneys, founded their firm in 2010. Mr. Dupuis earned his law degree from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert School of Law; Mr. Polozola’s law degree is from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

By Brian R. Carnie

For those who think the chance of being assessed penalties for non-compliance with the Affordable Care Act are slim to none, think again.  The IRS’ efforts to enforce the ACA’s employer mandate are alive and kicking.  Since late November 2017, the IRS has been sending out proposed penalty notices to companies they believe were not compliant.  For now, the IRS is only assessing proposed penalties for the 2015 calendar year.  The notices are rolling out slowly, and the IRS has only mailed out a fraction of the total number of notices expected for 2015.  Moreover, the IRS has indicated they have enough information to start sending out similar notices for 2016.

Because of unfamiliarity with these notices, we are seeing a trend where companies fail to deal with the notice in a timely manner.  They don’t realize they generally only have 30 days from the date the notice was mailed to respond.  In addition, the notices may not even be addressed to the right person at the company.  Or the person receiving it may set it aside with the intention of figuring out how to deal with later.

This could be very costly for your company.

  • In every instance where Kean Miller has seen one of these notices, the estimated penalties have been grossly overestimated.   The reasons for this are varied.  The company may have filled out the informational forms incorrectly, which happens often because there is a lot of room for confusion and error in the IRS forms (e.g., incorrect or omitted indicator codes on the 1095 forms), or the employees themselves may have mistakenly provided incorrect information when applying for subsidized health care on the ACA marketplace website.
  • If your company receives one of these letters from the IRS and doesn’t dispute the penalty amount before the deadline you will have waived your rights to contest the amount.   There are no second chances.  Same can be said if you don’t timely exercise your appeal rights once you receive the IRS response to your protest.
  • If the company does not respond or appeal, the next thing they can expect from the IRS is a demand for payment letter.  The time to dispute the amount will be over, and the IRS will start collection proceedings for non-payment.

In short, the penalty notice letters are real, there is a deadline, and the IRS is (as always) serious.  Non-compliance with the ACA is a legal matter that demands prompt attention to ensure protection of your company’s rights.


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textual is a socially responsible enterprise that operates sustainably. We use environmentally friendly office supplies (Bureaubewust, Neenah Paper) and green energy from Greenchoice and textual does its banking exclusively with Triodos Bank.

Sustainability manifests itself in the translations of Koert Braches as well in the form of clearly legible texts with high-calibre terminology that do not become antiquated and in translation work for publications and projects that make a contribution towards a sustainable society.

textual regularly donates to charitable organisations and in 2011 “adopted” the anatomical print ‘Anatomia der ynneren fleyschglyderen des Menschen: Anatomia corporis Humani’ (Wendelin Hock von Brackenau, printed by Joh. Schott, Straatsburg, 1517) of Museum Boerhaave as a patron.

Anatomische prent - Ink.S_7665_3


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Alzheimer Society Of Toronto Announces Benefit For Spirit Of The West’s John Mann

The Spirit of John is back for its second year, with Canada’s top musical talent performing to support those living with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. It happens on Thursday, June 2 at The Horseshoe in Toronto. Tickets Available at or

In 2014, John Mann, lead singer of Spirit of the West, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. At age 51, he was confronted with the reality that his poetic lyrics may not come to him as easily moving forward. The Spirit of the West has played their final show in Toronto, as shown in the recent documentary “Spirit Unforgettable,” and more recently said farewell in Vancouver.

On June 2nd, The Alzheimer Society of Toronto’s Music Project and sponsors TD Canada and Slaight Music are putting on a night of memorable live music at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. John Mann will perform a set at the event, as well as Jim Cuddy, Molly Johnson, Royal Wood, Tom Wilson, Chris Tait from Chalk Circle, Tomi Swick, and Michelle Willis – plus guests to be announced throughout May – will join him. Tickets are available for $40 (plus service charges) by visiting Concert-goers will be participating in the first ever Fund A Need, which aims to raise enough money to supply iPods for a month.

The Spirit of John concert is meant to bring awareness to a disease that affects both men and women, regardless of race, religion, or socio-economic background. It is not a normal part of aging. And, no one is immune.

Fortunately for people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, there is music. Music has been linked to beneficial effects on the brain, stimulating it and helping people feel happy and alive. Music brings memories back to life. The Alzheimer Society of Toronto developed the Music Project, to help those living with the disease reignite old memories and a feeling of joy by providing personalized iPod Shuffles at no cost.


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About Dummy Variables in SPSS Analysis

by Karen Grace-Martin

Whenever I get email questions whose answers I think would benefit others, I like to answer them here.  I leave out the asker’s name for privacy, but this is a great question about dummy coding:

First of all, thanks for all those helpful information you provided! Thanks sincerely for all your efforts!

Actually I am here to ask a technical question. See, I have 6 locations (let’s say A, B, C, D, E, and F), and I want to see the location effect on the outcome using OLS models.

I know that if I included 5 dummy location variables (6 locations in total, with A as the reference group) in 1 block of the regression analysis, the result would be based on the comparison with the reference location.

Then what if I put 6 dummies (for example, the 1st dummy would be “1” for A location, and “0” for otherwise) in 1 block? Will it be a bug? If not, how to interpret the result?

Thanks a lot!

Great question!

If you put in a 6th dummy code for Location A, your reference group, the model will actually blow up. (Yes, that’s a technical term).

This is one of those cases of pure multicollinearity, and the model can’t be estimated uniquely.

It’s the same situation you learned back in Algebra where you have two equations, one unknown.  The problem isn’t that it can’t be solved–the problem is there are an infinite number of equally good solutions.

If an observation falls in Location A, the reference group, we’ve already gotten that information from the other 5 dummy variables.  That observation would have a 0 on all of them.  So we already know it’s location is A.  We don’t need another dummy variable to tell the model that.  It’s redundant information.  And so perfectly redundant that the model will choke.

Dummy coding is one of the topics I get the most questions about.  It can get especially tricky to interpret when the dummy variables are also used in interactions, so I’ve created some resources that really dig in deeply.

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It is very goog. I like above this text becouse of interest to statistics.
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In Tel Aviv on Monday, Donald Trump will not receive a gleaming gold medal or join a boisterous sword dance. But his 28-hour stop in the Holy Land should have been the highlight of his first foreign tour as president of the United States. Israel’s ruling right-wing greeted his election with glee, and for good reason: The new president seemed ready to fulfill its deepest wishes.

During Trump’s campaign and transition, he vowed to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. (The United States, like most countries, keeps its mission in Tel Aviv to avoid wading into the dispute over the contested holy city.) He nominated a U.S. ambassador, bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman, who supports Israeli settlements—not only in his words, but as the president of a foundation that donated millions to Beit El, an ideological settlement outside of Ramallah. Trump said he would be open to a one-state solution, a statement that seemed to casually discard decades of bipartisan U.S. policy. Several hawkish lawmakers even started drafting a bill to annex large chunks of the West Bank, a step that would permanently foreclose a two-state outcome. “The era of a Palestinian state is over,” Naftali Bennett, the leader of the pro-settler Jewish Home party, cheered at the time. “Obama is history. Now we have Trump,” Miri Regev, Israel’s populist culture minister, declared.

Several months later, though, Trump arrives to bitter disappointment from his biggest fans in Israel. In his first talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in February, he asked him to “hold back” on settlement construction. The embassy hasn’t been moved yet—nor will it, at least in the near future. A group of settlers asked to meet with Trump on his visit, and were quickly rebuffed. Instead, there is enthusiastic talk from Washington about reviving the defunct peace process and striking what Trump calls “the ultimate deal” with the Palestinians.

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Trump’s about-face has become a gnawing political headache for Netanyahu, who, according to people close to him, spent the past few weeks in a state of mild panic, worried that his right-wing allies will blame him for the mercurial president’s metamorphosis. “The question is not Trump. The question is Benjamin Netanyahu,” Bennett told me. “I think we’re blowing it, this huge opportunity to form a new policy.”

As ever, the crisis stems from Netanyahu's conservatism—a prime minister known as “Mr. Status Quo” does not want to take dramatic steps in the occupied territories. Though he remains skeptical of a two-state solution, he fears the diplomatic consequences of a major push to expand settlements. He showed up for that first White House meeting without his own diplomatic plan. The Palestinians moved aggressively to fill the void, both in direct talks and through their Arab allies in Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf. Critics say Netanyahu hasn’t pushed on the embassy issue, either; Fox News reported last week that he even privately urged Trump not to move it, out of fear of the consequences. (His office denied the report.)

For now, at least, things will move slowly. Trump is not expected to announce a new round of talks, while plans for a trilateral meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were quickly scuttled. Both sides are instead focused on small-bore items. The Palestinians have presented Trump with an economic wish list, including new industrial zones and a resort on the Dead Sea. The Gulf states have offered Israel its own economic incentives in return, like overflight rights for the national carrier, El Al.

And there is good reason to believe Trump’s pursuit of a deal will quickly flounder. The Palestinians are hopelessly divided between the militant faction Hamas and the secular Fatah, the latter of which is led by Abbas, an unpopular octogenarian whose mandate expired eight years ago. Just four of Israel’s 20 ministers openly support a two-state solution. Though the White House has claimed otherwise, a century-old national and religious conflict is no simple real-estate deal.

If Trump gets both sides to the table, however, their talks will soon turn to serious issues. Here, he will run into trouble. Even a quiet construction freeze in the West Bank would be divisive for Netanyahu’s coalition, to say nothing of plans to evacuate settlements or divide Jerusalem.

Trump will also arrive to a chilly reception from Israel’s defense establishment, some members of which are furious that he shared classified information with the Russian foreign minister in their May 10 meeting in the Oval Office. The material reportedly came from an Israeli source embedded in the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate.

In public, at least, the Israelis have tried to downplay the flap. “The security relations between Israel and its greatest ally, the United States, are deep,” Avigdor Lieberman, the defense minister, said. “That is how it always was and how it always will be.”

But behind closed doors there have been shouting matches and angry recriminations. At least two former Mossad chiefs, Danny Yatom and Shabtai Shavit, have urged Israel to limit the intelligence it shares with the United States to avoid further leaks. On Sunday, the Israelis abruptly cancelled a dinner at the King David Hotel for visiting American officials that was meant to be hosted by Lieberman.

All of this has ruined what should have been a honeymoon. The stakes are high for Netanyahu, who had testy relations with both Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. This is his first chance in 11 years as prime minister to work with a sympathetic Republican in the White House and a GOP-controlled Congress. “We really do need to get along with him,” Zalman Shoval, who served two stints as the Israeli ambassador in Washington, told me. “Otherwise they’re going to wonder what we’re doing over here in Israel.”

There is an irony in all this. For all the public animosity between the two leaders, Obama gave Israel a record $38-billion, 10-year military aid package (the previous agreement, signed by George W. Bush in 2007, was for $30 billion in aid); he also won praise from generals and spies for his efforts to bolster the security relationship. And, aside from a symbolic Security Council resolution in December that condemned Israeli settlements, he offered solid diplomatic support to Netanyahu. Most important, from Netanyahu’s point of view, Obama was a useful scapegoat—a way to rein in his right-wing allies. He cited the perceived threat of retaliation from Obama to explain his reluctance to establish new settlements or annex territory.

With Trump, Netanyahu has no excuses, and the political price of indulging the new president could be steep. The prime minister’s aides have talked in recent weeks with the Zionist Union, the main center-left party, about the possibility of forming a unity government, one that would exclude Bennett, officials have told me. But the party is skeptical: They held similar talks last year, only to be humiliated by a bait-and-switch when Netanyahu used the threat of a centrist government to lure Lieberman into the coalition. They doubt his sincerity, too, and worry about serving as what one lawmaker called “a kosher stamp” for a doomed peace process.

So Netanyahu may find himself caught between his conservative coalition and the temperamental Trump. The last round of peace talks, which ended in 2014, caused deep cracks in what was then a center-right government. The current coalition—Israel’s most hawkish in decades—is unlikely to survive any serious effort to end the conflict.

“Do I topple a government because everything I want doesn’t happen? No,” Bennett said. “But giving up land is a red line.”


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April 8, 1999

"The American experience," the poet Philip Levine writes in (1994), "is to return and discover one cannot even find the way, for the streets abruptly end, replaced by freeways, the houses have been removed for urban renewal that never takes place, and nothing remains." What has remained for Levine -- born in Detroit, in 1928, to parents who were Russian-Jewish immigrants -- is memory. Few writers have made one time and place as singularly their own as has Levine in his elegies for the working-class life of the city he knew as a child and young man. Yet when Levine visited Detroit in the aftermath of the devastating 1967 riots -- an event that spurred him on to write one of his best-known and most indelible poems, "They Feed They Lion" -- it was a city that he no longer recognized.

The Mercy

Levine left Detroit in his twenties -- first to attend the Writing Workshop at the University of Iowa (where he was taught by Robert Lowell and John Berryman) and then Stanford University (where he was a Stegner Fellow under Yvor Winters) -- and his poetry has ranged far beyond the setting of his childhood, from California to New York to Spain. Running through it all is a strong narrative current. "Everyone has a story," he writes in a recent poem, and in his poetry history and autobiography flow together in a confluence that unites the past, present, and future. It is a narrative-lyric mode as uniquely his own as the stories he tells.

In his new collection of poems, (reviewed this month in The Atlantic), Levine returns to his perennial subjects -- obsessions, he might say. In the title poem he evokes his mother's journey to Ellis Island as a child; in "The New World" he re-imagines the urban-immigrant landscape of his grandparents' Detroit; in "The Return" he delves into the mystery of his father's life (which ended when Levine was five years old); and in "Salt and Oil" he captures the timeless, suspended layering of memory in one of his most affecting working-class poems since those published in the National Book Award-winning volume (1991). Yet there is another strain in this collection. In poems like "Joe Gould's Pen" and "'He Would Never Use One Word Where None Would Do,'" Levine expresses doubts about the permanence and efficacy of words. As he does so, however -- in language of the utmost simplicity and clarity -- these poems often take on an incantatory, almost prayerlike, intensity. It is as though the effort is to overcome the inadequacies of language through its sheer rhythmic and musical power -- a kind of primal power to enthrall, to entrance, and, as he says in the poem "These Words," to comfort.

Levine lives in Fresno, California, and taught for many years at the California State University there. The Mercy is his eighteenth collection of poems. In 1995, his collection won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

You're almost exactly the same age as the Beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder. Have you ever felt part of a generation?

Yes, I have. There was a period in my life, during the Vietnam War, when I felt very proud to be in the generation I'm in. We put away our petty divisions and labels and became co-workers, you might say, in the struggle against the war. I was reading with Ginsberg and Snyder -- and with Robert Bly and Galway Kinnell and W. S. Merwin and Adrienne Rich -- at various events. The first public readings I ever gave were in San Francisco with Gary Snyder in 1958.

What do you think of generations, schools, and movements?

I have mixed feelings. When I was at Stanford in the late fifties I got to know the British poet Thom Gunn, who was associated with "The Movement" -- which included other British poets like Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis. But they had nothing in common other than a reaction against the mysticism and the high seriousness that you got in Dylan Thomas and George Barker during and just before World War Two. I asked Gunn, "How do you feel about being labeled as a Movement poet?," and he said, "Well, it got me in the anthology."

I see that labeling schools and movements is a convenience for critics and readers, but when I look at, say, Ginsberg and Snyder -- two poets I really love -- I don't see that they have a hell of a lot in common.

Maybe a certain spirituality ...

Yeah, you're right -- the influence of Eastern religion.

But that doesn't have much to do with style.

No, they're very different. Allen comes so directly out of Whitman, and Gary comes so directly out of Asian poetry and Kenneth Rexroth. There's such an attention to natural detail and quiet movement in Snyder's work, and there's such marvelous rhetoric and bombast in Ginsberg's best work -- and also an enormous play of wit that you don't find in Snyder. I think they're both marvelous poets.

There's been such an emphasis recently on reading poetry aloud. Listening to some of the old recordings of modernist poets -- I guess some of the earliest recordings we have of poets reading -- they sound so markedly different from how people read today. Was there a moment when people started reading differently? Was it the Beats in the fifties?

No. Here in America it was one poet -- one poet changed everything. And curiously enough it was an English poet: Dylan Thomas. He came to the States and read with a fluency and ease and drama and power that nobody on the American scene commanded. I mean, William Carlos Williams was a terrible reader, for example. Wallace Stevens was pretty good, but he kind of droned on. e. e. cummings was a good reader. Edna St. Vincent Millay sounded hysterical -- as though her foot were in the oven and she were calling for the fire department. Mostly the readings were overly dramatic or hyperbolic -- or else they were just boring. When I heard W. H. Auden I hardly knew what he was saying. He was such a terrible reader -- and he was drunk....

Did you ever hear Pound read?

Only on records. Oh, very dramatic, with that screwball accent he had.

Do you think there's a relationship between the way poets were reading and the way they wrote? Did Dylan Thomas actually influence people that way?

Thomas had an incredible impact on American poetry. If you were to go back and look at Poetry magazine in the fifties -- when he was here in the States every season making money by giving readings -- you would discover that suddenly urban poets who had been writing about things like anti-Semitism and smog and overcrowding, and writing socialist poems, were suddenly out watching owls. Off in the distance are hay rakes, and farmers are burning the trash from last year, and planting season is coming -- I mean, these poems are coming right out of Manhattan! They invented a whole landscape -- and then they stopped. Thomas died, and everybody went back to what they were doing before.

I heard Thomas read several times and was hypnotized by him. But I was very young at the time, and I realized that in order to write like that there was a lot I was going to have to learn to be able to control the line so beautifully and to get that resonance that he had in his writing. And, of course, a lot of his poems are terrible. He could read the phonebook and make it sound terrific. At the end of his career he was largely just imitating himself, which was sad to see.

You touch on a good point: the difference between performance and actually writing poetry.

I don't think that performance has helped American poetry. I really don't. I think a number of American poets have almost ruined their careers by going out and getting that kind of attention -- going from campus to campus and being sort of awe-inspiring for an hour and a half, and feeding on the adulation. The process of writing poetry depends on being alone in a room, and being comfortable being alone for long periods of time -- almost reveling in solitude and slow time. I've had friends tell me, younger poets, that when they came back from their early reading tours they'd get very depressed. I guess they were waiting for applause as they picked up pen and pencil. But there is no applause.

Your new collection, The Mercy, is dedicated to the memory of your mother, who just died this past year at age ninety-four. Your parents and their experience loom large in your poetry -- as do your grandparents, your extended family. In the collection's opening poem, "Smoke," you speak of "the mythology of a family." What do you think about the idea that your work is a kind of "mythology" of an American family's experience?

When I speak of "the mythology" in that poem, I really mean a way of losing someone. It's something I've observed even with my own children -- they mythologize me, and in a sense they get it all wrong. I'm sure this is what I've done with my whole family: I've seized on certain things and raised them to the level of truth, whether they're true or not, and in focusing on these things I have, in a way, lost a good deal of the complexity of the living person.

You mention my "extended family." A lot of those people in my poems never existed. For example, sisters walk in and out of my poems, but I don't have any sisters. I used to say to my students, "Why be yourself if you can be somebody interesting? Imagine a life. Imagine yourself being something other than what you are."

In much of your work there's a recurring specificity of time (days, months, years) and of place -- "this was Michigan in 1928," to use one example. And yet many of your poems seem to inhabit the past, present, and future all at once. Can you comment on this?

It's something that I started to do in my late forties and early fifties, and I think the reason was that I came to an awareness that in my most inspired moments I was actually living in all three times. That is, I was obviously in the present, but there was a way in which I brought with me the reality of the past, and was in some ways trying to project it into the future, almost give it breath so that it went into the future. There were times when I really felt as though I were living in all three time "zones." I wanted to capture that quality -- a personal sense of being that I've found enormously thrilling.

The first time I captured it in a poem I can remember thinking, Well, that's what I wanted to capture. "New Season," it's called, in The Names of the Lost. It's a poem about the future and my son, and the past and my mother, and the present and myself. It's something I've tried to do since -- but not overdo. I think the poem "Salt and Oil," in The Mercy, is a poem like this. I think it's my favorite in that book.

What does your way of bringing narrative and lyric poetry together say about the relationship between history and autobiography?

I've always had a sense that history was far too selective, that a great many people -- which would include just about everybody I know -- have been deemed unsuitable subjects for history. I began as a fiction writer, and I had a real impulse toward narrative, toward storytelling. Then I saw in Yeats a capacity to merge extraordinary music, as in "Easter 1916," with the telling of a story. And I saw it in Hardy's poems, too. Beautiful. Hardy's such a storyteller. Yeats and Hardy are two very early influences on me -- really powerful influences. So, I thought, what if I use the vocabulary (and to some degree the movement) of William Carlos Williams but also swipe from Hardy and Yeats, and from Dylan Thomas, who was another great influence, and make a somewhat more-sonorous poem? To unite those elements, and then tell these stories that others weren't telling -- I guess that was my strongest impulse. I just wanted to tell the stories of people whom I found extraordinary and dear. I saw them pass from the world, and nobody said a goddamn word about them, so I said, "Well, this is a subject matter that is mine and mine alone."

You have a tendency in many of your poems to pause and inject a statement addressed directly to the reader, as though you're stepping out from behind the curtain. It's almost as though you're saying, "Look, I'm not going to bullshit you" -- or, "maybe I've been bullshitting you up to now, but ..." What's going on at these moments?

It's a technique, or a device, that I've found only partly fulfilled in W. H. Auden's early poems. He was a great love of mine when I was in my twenties and early thirties. I still love those poems. There's a way in which they're strategic poems. They seem to understand that if you're going to say something difficult or hard about the nature of our experience, the reader will resist, and so you have to involve the reader shrewdly.

It's my sense that the reader is so often a suburban person. I published a lot of my poems in The New Yorker for many years, and I got the idea that my readers were really suburbanites who maybe on the train pick up the magazine, thinking, I wonder what I'm going to get for dinner tonight -- and then they see this poem. I recognize that these are the hardest people to get to -- they're deeply protected, they've survived in the zoo of New York, and they're not going to let a goddamn poem upset their equanimity. What I saw in Auden was a shrewd way of getting to you, surprising you, getting you off balance. You're right about the fact that I like to construct what I hope are beautiful fabrics and then suddenly enter in and say, "Wait a minute" -- catch readers off balance, entangle them. I really think that's what Auden was doing: entangling us in the cloth of his poem, sort of confusing us, and then trying as best he could to make us spin out of it in some way and see the truth -- or what he thought was the truth.

I think the first time I used this well enough to entangle readers was in What Work Is, in a poem called "Coming Close." So I said, "Shit, I'll try that again." And I have, and you've noticed it. I guess I'm getting to the point where I'd better stop. Because if I start doing it too much it'll become a tick.

Fair enough. But the way you've used it so far, I think, is extremely effective. It seems to reveal something about your personality. It's likeable.

Well, thank you. I enjoy using it. There's another aspect, too. As you age you begin to build up levels of nonsense between you and the past. You used the term "mythologize" before -- to me, mythologizing is really a subtle way of saying you're lying. But you're only being dishonest to yourself. You construct a kind of history, a fabric, that in a way protects you from the past and its harsher, more difficult moments. A lot of this technique has to do with constructing one truth and then wiping it away with a second one. It's the process of writing: you start with a truth, and you break through to a deeper one.

There are a number of poems in the new collection in which you lament the failure of words to capture experience and do justice to memory. Have your feelings about the efficacy of language, and by extension poetry, changed over time?

Oh, they've changed enormously. Originally, my vision was for The Mercy to be a book about language. That wasn't going to be the open theme of it, but it was going to be the true subtext -- the failure of language, or the various successes and failures of language. And, in fact, I had picked out a title poem that is no longer in the book -- a poem called "On the Language of Dust," which I published years and years ago. As it turns out, the book now has more to do with journeys -- from innocence to experience, and youth to age, and clarity to confusion and back again, and life to death, et cetera -- and "The Mercy" is the central poem. A lot of poems that are obsessed with language didn't make it into the book. They'll go in another book, or they'll just swim out into the sea ...

To be truthful, when I began writing poetry I thought language could do anything. And I thought I could do anything with language. I'm talking about a guy who's sixteen or seventeen years old, saying, "I'll master this crap, and I'll do anything that's necessary." But as I got older, I began to realize, both in daily living and in what I read and what I wrote, that I was often coming up against the limits of my ability to use language, or my ability to comprehend language.

I also became more and more aware of how much idle chatter went on in the world. It seemed to me there was so much prattling, and that the world was full of meaningless words. In my second book, there's a poem called "Silent in America" (written around 1966) that was built around the fact that I was mugged once, and I got a broken jaw, and I couldn't talk because my jaw was wired together. I spent two months listening. I just listened to everybody: my children, my friends, my wife, my brother. They were boring the hell out of me! I became aware of how language was being used -- usually not to communicate but to disguise, to obfuscate. It was only two months of my life, but it was a powerful experience.

There's a poem in the new book -- "'He Would Never Use One Word Where None Would Do'" -- that gets its title from a quotation from the wife of a famous jazz saxophonist named Frankie Trumbauer, who played with Bix Beiderbecke. After he died his wife was interviewed about her life with Frankie, and that's what she said -- it was very nice living with him, but he almost never said anything. And I was just so thunderstruck by it. I read it at exactly the time that my wife was very sick, in the hospital in New York, and a friend of mine, knowing I needed some kind of comfort, spent a lot of time with me. He's a very laconic kind of guy, and he hardly ever said anything. (He's the guy in the poem.) But he was an enormous comfort, without saying anything. I could just feel his presence so powerfully, and his hopes for her recovery and my better spirits. It was so touching, and I thought, There are some things that don't require language and in fact can almost be ruined by language.

There's a great irony in all of this, of course ...

That's what I live by.

The Bread of Time

In your essay "The Poet in New York in Detroit," in The Bread of Time, you write about the influence of Keats and of the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. You give Lorca credit for enabling you to write a poem like "They Feed They Lion," a response to the Detroit riots of 1967. How has politics informed your poetry over the years? Have you ever found it difficult to reconcile poetic beauty and ugly political truth?

No. Let's put it this way: I think that in twentieth-century poetry the beauty is found in the fullness of the expression, and the degree to which the poet is able to capture, through detail and rhythm, a particular scene -- for example, in a poem like Robert Lowell's "The Mouth of the Hudson," a beautiful little poem about a hideous landscape. Or, say, in Hart Crane's "Repose of Rivers" -- he also has a river, the Mississippi, running into the sea in this gorgeous ecstatic moment when the river loses its identity by becoming one with the gulf. They're marvelous scenes, but what makes them marvelous is the degree to which they're captured, and not what the actual condition of the world was that inspired that poem.

As for Keats, I think he inherited an aesthetic that only allowed him to write about lovely things. Whereas Lorca inherited an aesthetic that allowed him to write about anything -- even what he didn't understand. And that was one of the wonderful things that I got from him, and later got from Pablo Neruda -- the idea that you could go after these very powerful centers of feeling in you, even if you couldn't parse them.

And these powerful feelings might be political feelings?

Yeah. They might be rage. Lorca's Poet in New York is really at its best a book of rage -- of confusion. He doesn't understand what the hell New York is, he hates the sense of its commercial enslavement. He's a rural guy faced with the most industrialized and mechanized island in the world, and he's confused and enraged and, of course, bitterly lonely and isolated. And he writes a great book -- the best book of poems ever written about New York City. There's one particular poem, the one that I quote in that essay, called "New York: Office and Denunciation," in which you just hear that surging anger. It was a poem I read when I was very young and it just stayed with me, and I kept saying, "This is the avenue, this is the avenue. I've got to stop trying to be so rational about what I can't be rational about."

For me, the politics never come in very directly. They usually enter in through the characters and the story. I would never sacrifice the character -- the person who I felt something for -- for the politics. If this beautiful guy happens to own Sears, so be it. I'm not going to make him a farm worker just to make a point.

When you speak of rage, and of realizing you can't be rational, it sounds like the poem "They Feed They Lion." In terms of form and voice, that poem seems unique in your whole body of work. Is that fair to say?

Yes, it is. I really don't know how it came into being. But I do remember that I had the idea for it and waited several days before I wrote it. I kept saying to myself, "I'm not ready to write this. I want to wait, and just let it germinate."

What was that initial idea? Can you put it in a nutshell?

The first thing that came into my mind? I had the title, which derived entirely from a statement that was made to me. I was working alongside a guy in Detroit -- a black guy named Eugene -- when I was probably about twenty-four. He was a somewhat older guy, and we were sorting universal joints, which are part of the drive-shaft of a car. The guy who owned the place had bought used ones, and we were supposed to sort the ones that could be rebuilt and made into usable replacement parts from the ones that were too badly damaged. So we spread them out on the concrete floor, and we were looking at them carefully, because we were the guys who'd then do the job of rebuilding them. We had two sacks that we were putting them in -- burlap sacks -- and at one point Eugene held up a sack, and on it were the words "Detroit Municipal Zoo." And he laughed, and said, "They feed they lion they meal in they sacks." That's exactly what he said! And I thought, This guy's a genius with language. He laughed when he said it, because he knew that he was speaking an English that I didn't speak, but that I would understand, of course. He was almost parodying it, even though he appreciated the loveliness of it. It stuck in my mind, and then one night just after the riots in Detroit -- I'd gone back to the city to see what had happened -- somehow I thought of that line. "There's a poem there," I said. "But I don't know what it is. And I'm just going to walk around for a couple of days and see what accumulates."

I waited two days, got a good night's sleep, and got up in the morning and wrote the damn thing. It struck me that it was a long line, and that it would be out of the poet Christopher Smart. Do you know his work? He's an eighteenth-century mystical poet, a great poet, and his greatest poem was written in a madhouse. We only have a fragment of it. It's a sort of call-and-response poem -- very incantatory. I said, "That's the rhythm I'm going to try and use." It's the only time I've ever tried to utilize that rhythm.

There is a kind of incantatory mode in a lot of your other poems -- a repetition of verb phrases, for example -- that is very effective.

Yes -- as long as I don't get too carried away!

You've written a lot about Spain and your attraction to modern Spanish poets such as Antonio Machado and García Lorca. You've also been drawn to non-literary figures of the Spanish Civil War, such as the anarchist leaders Buenaventura Durruti and Francisco Ascaso. Why the strong identification with Spain? What drew you to anarchism?

As a young boy I was told that my ancestry was Spanish. Why my parents, both born in a little shtetl in western Russia, would tell me this, I have no idea. But it may have had something to do with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. I did notice when I lived in Barcelona that people would just walk up to me and start speaking Catalan, because I looked just like them. And then the Spanish Civil War was the war of my growing up, and a great many young men from my neighborhood went to it. About half of them came home. So this was my war, in a sense. I was growing up with the mythology of it.

As I got older I began reading the histories of the Spanish Civil War. In the Hugh Thomas history, which is sort of the official biography of the war, I came across the anarchists. They were the ones that impressed me the most, because they were by far the most idealistic, and they had, I thought, the most interesting vision of the future by far. You could also call them terrorists, or whatever you want to call them, but their willingness to sacrifice in an endless battle for human justice and decency -- their willingness to take everything the world could dish out and still keep coming back -- seemed boundless. I was just so filled with awe for them.

For a couple years, maybe four or five, I really thought of myself as an anarchist. And then I stopped. For one thing, I bought a house. I could no longer say, "Property is theft." I realized I wasn't up to that ideal -- no doubt because I didn't have the history of grief that they had. Life was becoming relatively easy for me, so I gave up my claim to anarchism. But these guys still remain my heroes, because of the intensity of their gift to humanity and their vision, which was large: we are the stewards of the earth, we don't own anything, and our function is to make it as good as possible and to pass it on to those who are to come. I thought that was a very beautiful vision.

And you saw it as something distinct from the socialism that you undoubtedly were aware of and were exposed to?

Oh, yeah -- I saw it as truly revolutionary. Socialism I saw as a kind of peel-and-patch process: peel off some of the uglier aspects and we'll patch it up a little. But anarchism was a radical change: we'll go right to the denominator and destroy it; we'll start all over. We'll abolish the notion of private property, we'll abolish money. Then we'll abolish, of course, all those relationships that are built out of money: marriage, serfdom, racism, colonialism, consumerism, the ills of America.

Did you really think this was something that might happen?

No -- I wasn't crazy! I thought it was something I could incorporate in the way I lived -- and incorporate in my poetry. But after four or five years I felt that if even I couldn't incorporate it in myself -- and I was given to a kind of awe toward it -- how the hell was it going to grab onto the American earth?

It's like asking somebody who's a practicing Christian whether they can really live by the Sermon on the Mount.

That's exactly right. What was I going to do, take these suburban Republicans and turn them into that little flock around Jesus Christ?

In The Bread of Time, you say that Antonio Machado's poetry is written "with such simplicity and clarity we come to believe him absolutely, and in doing so we come to understand our own deepest experiences and to believe entirely in their authenticity." And then you say, "It is hard to imagine a more useful poetry." What do you mean by a "useful" poetry? Useful in what way?

"Useful" in its largest sense -- that is to say, validating one's own experience, validating one's own sense of self. Experience is universal -- our experiences are what we share with others. That was something I found in Machado. The simple clarification of mood, of one's response to basic and simple things -- loneliness, the rhythm of walking out in the road, nightfall, dawn, the beauty of plants, the sound of water running downhill. He's able to transform all these essentially simple things into a kind of wholeness and holiness. And it seemed to me that Machado was able to validate these very basic experiences that we all share -- and that we begin to think of, in our busy lives, as marginal. But Machado brings them into the center of his experience and his poetry. And I thought, Oh, what genius that was, to take what we've marginalized and pull it into the center and make it what sheds light on everything else.

In that way it was a very useful poetry. It gave me a vision of the significance of what was around me, and of my own significance -- not because I was special, but because I was not special, or at least no more special than anybody else. There was a kind of soothing, almost religious dimension to him, without his ever insisting on being in the least religious. And I thought, This is a poetry that raises my spirits, that energizes me, that gives me hope to go on, hope that I can be of value. He's a poet I go back to all the time.

Auden said, in his great elegy for Yeats, "Poetry makes nothing happen." Do you believe that? I think the rest of the poem goes on to refute it, but how do you respond to that line? Poetry obviously makes something happen, doesn't it?

Oh, I think Auden knew that. I think he meant that poetry isn't going to have an immediate political impact -- you know, you won't make anarchists out of the Republican Ladies Club with poetry -- and if you need that change, do something else. If you're a writer you'd better write propaganda, you'd better write for television -- I don't know what you ought to write, but maybe words don't have that kind of impact. Maybe only power does.

But we know that poetry makes things happen. In the long run, look at the immense influence of a poet like Whitman. He really has influenced the way an enormous number of people feel about themselves and feel about America. It took a long time, but his influence just keeps rolling into us. Anybody who lives with "Song of Myself," I think, will feel about himself or herself rather differently because of the experience. That, to me, is the most profound thing. I remember reading Whitman when I was maybe in my early twenties, and coming across this line: "There is that lot of me and all so luscious." And I thought, That's not vanity! That is a kind of recognition of the beauty of the self, or the other self. As he keeps saying in the poem, "What I am, you are." And I said, "Why don't I just try to live that? Why am I being this muling, broke, dumb factory worker, and feeling sorry for myself, when I could get up in the morning and say, 'Philip, there is that lot of you and all so luscious!'" And I tell you, it's a line that just keeps resonating in my life and in my work.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.


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Home Shopping LEGO 2018 Holiday Shopping Recommendations

LEGO 2018 Holiday Shopping Recommendations

There’s less than three weeks left in the holiday shopping season and now is a good time for me to release my 2018 LEGO shopping recommendations as I’ve had some good feedback for them. Like with previous years, I’ll be categorizing this year’s LEGO sets into various price point groups. Note that some of these sets are currently on sale on Amazon.

$1-$25 Price Range

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Outrider Dropship Attack (76101) – $14.99

With the second Avengers: Infinity War movie coming out in a few months, why not give kids a head start on it with the Outrider Dropship Attack. For a smaller set, it does include a lot of minifigures including Captain America, Black Widow, and two Outriders.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Friends Service & Care Truck (41348) – $19.99

The LEGO Friends summer theme was go-kart related this year and one of the cooler looking budget-friendly sets was the Service & Care Truck as it includes two vehicles and an Olivia minidoll.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Wizarding World Grindelwald’s Escape (75951) – $19.99

With Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald just released in theaters, kids may enjoy a set from one of the scenes from the movie which includes exclusive minifigures of Gellert Grindelwald and Seraphina Picquery.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO DC Super Heroes Superman & Krypto Team-Up (76096) – $19.99

Super heroes sets seem to be very popular with fans from all ages and the Superman & Krypto Team-Up features some exclusives including Krypto and the anti-hero character, Lobo.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Quantum Realm Explorers (76109) – $19.99

Yet another Super Heroes set that makes this list with the Quantum Realm Explorers from the Ant-Man and the Wasp. Like with a few of the other sets on this list, this set recreates a pivitol scene from the movie.

Amazon | [email protected]

$25-$50 Price Range

LEGO BrickHeadz Go Brick Me (41597) – $29.99

Go Brick Me is probably my favorite set from this second price category as it allows you to basically recreate yourself as a BrickHeadz. There is a ton of detail options for you to choose from to brick yourself.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO City Pickup & Caravan (60182) – $29.99

The set has lots of fun play features and the camper van is very nicely designed that should fit into City layouts.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Unikitty! Unikingdom Fairground Fun (41456) – $39.99

If you’re looking for a set that’s fun and wacky, then the Unikingdom Fairground Fun is the set for you. Coming in at over 500 pieces, it has a couple of the newer roller coaster pieces and a lot of the characters from the show.

[email protected]

LEGO Star Wars Mos Eisley Cantina (75205) – $39.99

Recreate one of the most iconic scenes in Star Wars history with the Mos Eisley Cantina that features both Han and Greedo as well as Wuher for the first time.

LEGO Wizarding World Fantastic Beasts Newt’s Case of Magical Creatures (75952) – $49.99

Featuring a set from the first Fantastic Beasts movie, this set is is very well designed and I do like that they included some of the beasts which are equally good looking.

Amazon | [email protected]

$50-$75 Price Range

LEGO City Mountain Arrest (60173) – $59.99

This is a quirky adventure set that has a guy in boxer shorts. What more could you need?

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Friends The Big Race Day (41352) – $59.99

The Big Race Day is a very interesting racing set for the Friends go-kart theme. Some of the play features include some Technic brick launchers for the vehicles.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book (21315) – $69.99

The Pop-Up Book is the definition of what a LEGO Ideas set should be. It is very nicely designed and the play features are brilliantly integrated into the set.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Ideas Ship in a Bottle (21313) – $69.99

The Ship in a Bottle is another display model that I recommend. It looks great on a mantle or on a desk and you can even change out the ship for your own design if you desire.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Star Wars Snoke’s Throne Room (75216) – $69.99

This set recreates probably one of the best scenes from The Last Jedi with the “battle” between Rey and Kylo Ren against Snoke.

Amazon | [email protected]

$75 – $100 Price Range

LEGO Wizarding World Harry Potter Hogwarts Express (75955) – $79.99

Bound to be one of the more popular Harry Potter sets from this year, the Hogwarts Express consists of a decently sized train as well as a partial platform.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Creator Pirate Roller Coaster (31084) – $89.99

This is a well designed 3-in-1 set that is able to change to various fairground attractions which also incorporates the newer roller coaster pieces.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Creator Winter Village Fire Station (10263) – $99.99

Since it is almost Christmas, why not pick up the Fire Station to add to your existing Winter Village layout.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Wizarding World Harry Potter Hogwarts Great Hall (75954) – $99.99

The Hogwarts Great Hall is a sizable set with a whopping ten minifigures included. Inside the castle are a number of little details from the movies.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Sanctum Sanctorum Showdown (76108) – $99.99

Another Avengers: Infinity War set makes the list with the Sanctum Sanctorum Showdown. The set is highly detailed with a lot of play features included throughout.

Amazon | [email protected]

$100+ Price Range

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes The Hulkbuster: Ultron Edition (76105) – $119.99

The UCS Hulkbuster announcement was certainly unexpected but fans welcomed the large scale robot which makes both a great play set as well as a display piece.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Creator Downtown Diner (10260) – $169.99

The Downtown Diner from the beginning of the year is probably my favorite modular building that I’ve built so far as I love the style of the diner itself.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Ideas Voltron (21311) – $179.99

If you’ve been following me for a while, you would know that I’m a huge Voltron fan and this set is my definitive set of the year for 2018. Others may disagree but I felt this set had everything that I would like to have in a set: design, building techniques, price. It’s so good that I’ve even purchased another set alongside the one that LEGO sent in for review.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron (42083) – $349.99

The Bugatti Chiron the definition of what a supercar should look like in LEGO form. The iconic look of the vehicle is nicely translated by the LEGO designers. If you’re looking for something challenging, the Chiron is the way to go.

Amazon | [email protected]

LEGO Wizarding World Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle (71043) – $399.99

As one of LEGO’s biggest sets they have produced, the Hogwarts Castle certainly lives up to it. The detailing on it is amazing and you’ll be surprised to what you can find in it.

Amazon | [email protected]


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Study: Teens, college students favor Snapchat while Gen Z spends up to 11 hours per day on social

Teens, college students favor Snapchat

It may come as no surprise that Snapchat and Instagram have a solid lead over Facebook when it comes to the frequency that high school and college students use the social media channels, with young Snapchat users checking in at a rate of up to six times per day or more.

An online study of college and high school students found that 88% use Instagram and Snapchat compared to 81% for Facebook. Twitter appears to trail on all fronts, with only 66% reporting use and fewer than 50% using it often. Further, students report lower usage of Tumblr, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Snapchat is most valued for keeping in touch with friends (89%), sharing and creating videos, images and stories (56.8%). Further, 78% of students surveyed said they use Snapchat daily, compared to 76% for Instagram, and 66% for Facebook. 71% percent say they use Snapchat more than six times per day, and 51% note that they are on Snapchat more than 11 times per day. Students also report that they use up to five different social channels per day.

“With students – mostly GenZ – using up to five different screens over the course of the day and evening, it should be of no surprise that they are not married to just one platform," said Michael Cherenson, SCG's executive vice president for public relations. "Marketers and brands must be agnostic when it comes to platform. This means being open to use of several social media networks, often in unique ways."

Almost 90% of Snapchat users say they enjoy the GeoFilters, while 85% say they like Snapchat Lenses.

Students report little to no interest in ads that appear in stories.

"More than half of Snapchat users say they would feel disconnected from friends if not for Snapchat, which speaks volumes about the relationship students have with the platform and their peer networks," Cherenson said. "Almost 25 percent indicated Snapchat is essential to their relationships."

There also is a high degree of interest in content, particularly the types of "real stories or day-in-the-life," videos, "Behind-the-scenes videos," followed by 'How-To videos.' Further, when asked about what brands or companies have shown a mastery of Snapchat, Cosmo, Buzzfeed and the Kardashians were cited most frequently.

"Brands would be wise to use the platform for storytelling, providing new and interesting perspectives, and for engaging in a thoughtful, interesting and meaningful way with students," said Cherenson.

This webinar will be a major first step towards making brands more relevant to Gen Z. To register for it, click here

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Women in Entertainment

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Date(s) - Nov 05
12:00 am

Arclight Hollywood

Join us on Thursday, November 5 from 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM at ArcLight Hollywood for ArcLight Presents… Women in Entertainment, featuring a full day of innovative programming and conversations on topics that greatly impact women. We’ve assembled luminaries from all areas of the entertainment industry, exploring a variety of topics. The inaugural event will feature inspiring talks around the ideas and innovations shaping the future for women across entertainment. Housed in the iconic Cinerama Dome on Hollywood Blvd., the event will feature a series of keynotes, panels and fireside chats with some of the industry’s most successful and progressive minds. The event will conclude with a VIP cocktail reception with the select speakers.

ArcLight Presents… Women in Entertainment will provide a comfortable setting to gather friends of ArcLight and those women and men that are leaders in all fields of entertainment from film and television to sports, marketing, fashion and music, who are collectively dedicated to the advancement of women. The day of discussion is designed to spark a broader, more transparent dialog that focuses on current and emerging topics with analysis and depth that has not yet been explored by a dedicated program. Together we seek to find creative answers to the challenges they face as women in the entertainment industry. We’d love to see you there!


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3D Laser Scanned Orthotics

What are Orthotics? 3d-laser-scan

Orthotics are devices that are intended to correct an abnormal, or faulty lower limb biomechanics.  Despite common belief, orthotics are not just “arch supports”.  They perform functions that make standing, walking, and running more comfortable and efficient by altering not lower limb motions but the force driving lower limb motions.

We prescribe orthotics as a conservative approach to many foot problems or as a method of control after certain types of foot surgery; their use is a highly successful, practical form of treatment.

Orthotics take various forms and are constructed of various materials and depending on your presenting problems we will discuss which forms of orthotics are suitable for your problems.  All are concerned with improving foot function and minimizing stress forces that could ultimately cause foot deformity and pain.

Other Types of Orthotics

Various other orthotics may be used for multidirectional sports or edge-control sports by casting the foot within the ski boot, ice skate boot, or inline skate boot. Combinations of semiflexible material and soft material to accommodate painful areas are utilized for specific problems.

Orthotic Tips download

  • Wear shoes that work well with your orthotics.
  • Bring your orthotics with you whenever you purchase a new pair of shoes.
  • Wear socks or stockings similar to those that you plan on wearing when you shop for new shoes.
  • Return as directed for follow-up evaluation of the functioning of your orthotics. This is important for making certain that your feet and orthotics are functioning properly together.