This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Ukraine’s endurance is a strategic victory in itself and author of the newly released book ‘The Land of Great Sacrifice: How Russia Defies Western Logic.’ Van Bladel dissects the latest developments in the Ukraine war in an interview with RFE/RL’s Georgian Service the enduring flaws and strengths of Russia’s military mentality and the unpredictable role of US President Donald Trump in shaping the next phase of the conflict — or in potentially — and perhaps unintentionally — handing the Kremlin a new “Yalta.” the Kursk offensive has more or less run its course What effect that will have on the overall course of the war This also leads us to the fundamental question: what was the strategic intent of this incursion It was a very difficult endeavor to sustain especially given Ukraine’s limited resources The chief goal – to divert large numbers of Russian forces from Donbas to Kursk – clearly didn’t work out in the end to an extent due to the arrival of the aforementioned North Koreans This takes us back to the realization that kinetic warfare is still very much here Technology can replace many aspects of war but here we saw that the superior numbers in manpower and firepower had their say The conventional warfare element is still essential to this war Russia is utterly confused by the incoherence that they have made Russians unable to achieve any strategic breakthrough over such a long period The entire world is watching how a regime that has done what Russia did in Ukraine is rapidly reintroduced and given back its former status on the international scene I fear Washington is greatly underestimating the skill and grit of the Kremlin diplomatic corps I fear it’s not Donald Trump that is making a deal with the Kremlin—the Kremlin is playing Trump Russia is using its well-honed negotiation tactics to manipulate him extracting maximum advantage while disregarding any so-called agreements the moment they no longer serve its interests And to circle back to your initial question this new Yalta- they will only get it if President Trump allows it to happen It’s quite telling that if you look at the Russian reactions to the Riyad and Jeddah talks they are utterly confused by the incoherence One side effect of it all is that we’ve seen Europe mobilizing taking defense and security more seriously But I doubt whether that effect was intentional President Trump’s claim that Ukrainian forces are encircled in Kursk: Trump’s claim is based on a Russian setup he impulsively picked up without verification It reflects his habitual reliance on spontaneous unverified assertions rather than a well-considered strategy The Ukrainian denials underscore the disconnect between Trump’s rhetoric and battlefield realities Let’s turn to the Russian military mentality – a subject you explored in depth in your latest book – and its role these three years what old truths have been reaffirmed and what new things have we learned We have once again seen that a lot of the elements in Russian military culture and mentality haven’t changed at all A big chunk of its organizational culture has stayed the same There is an aspect to the Russians that we may be underestimating in the West: the willingness to fight on and so on and see the same kind of behavior that we see now in Donbas the Russian armed forces underwent a period of modernizing and reforming Why Silknet's eSIM could be your top choice in Georgia  Since its introduction Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application Cremation will take place at Trimble Crematory under the direction of Cremation Society of the Quad Cities Robert enjoyed participating in the Toys for Tots Motorcycle Run In lieu of memorials please feel free to donate to Toys for Tots in memory of Robert.  Following his sales career he worked his favorite job as a driver at The Fountains Senior Living in Bettendorf.  Robert was a member of Bettendorf Presbyterian Church Blue Knights Motorcycle Club and Masonic Bend of the River Lodge #626 racing dirtbikes in his younger years and watching the Minnesota Vikings.  Sarah (Greg) Van Bladel and John (Michelle) Lewellan; grandchildren Colin Lewellan and Caitlin Lewellan; sister Valerie (Angie) Kounkel and Jody (Dan) Swensen; and nephews Dennis (Shawnda) Sturges and Neal (Jill) Kounkel He was preceded in death by his parents; sister Condolences may be shared at CremationQC.com This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Background: Mental practice with motor imagery has been shown to promote motor skill acquisition in healthy subjects and patients. Although lesions of the common motor imagery and motor execution neural network are expected to impair motor imagery ability, functional equivalence appears to be at least partially preserved in stroke patients. Aim: To identify brain regions that are mandatory for preserved motor imagery ability after stroke. Method:Thirty-seven patients with hemiplegia after a first time stroke participated. Motor imagery ability was measured using a Motor Imagery questionnaire and temporal congruence test. A voxelwise lesion symptom mapping approach was used to identify neural correlates of motor imagery in this cohort within the first year post-stroke. Results: Poor motor imagery vividness was associated with lesions in the left putamen, left ventral premotor cortex and long association fibers linking parieto-occipital regions with the dorsolateral premotor and prefrontal areas. Poor temporal congruence was otherwise linked to lesions in the more rostrally located white matter of the superior corona radiata. Conclusion: This voxel-based lesion symptom mapping study confirms the association between white matter tract lesions and impaired motor imagery ability, thus emphasizing the importance of an intact fronto-parietal network for motor imagery. Our results further highlight the crucial role of the basal ganglia and premotor cortex when performing motor imagery tasks. Volume 10 - 2016 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00005 Background: Mental practice with motor imagery has been shown to promote motor skill acquisition in healthy subjects and patients Although lesions of the common motor imagery and motor execution neural network are expected to impair motor imagery ability functional equivalence appears to be at least partially preserved in stroke patients Aim: To identify brain regions that are mandatory for preserved motor imagery ability after stroke Method: Thirty-seven patients with hemiplegia after a first time stroke participated Motor imagery ability was measured using a Motor Imagery questionnaire and temporal congruence test A voxelwise lesion symptom mapping approach was used to identify neural correlates of motor imagery in this cohort within the first year post-stroke Results: Poor motor imagery vividness was associated with lesions in the left putamen left ventral premotor cortex and long association fibers linking parieto-occipital regions with the dorsolateral premotor and prefrontal areas Poor temporal congruence was otherwise linked to lesions in the more rostrally located white matter of the superior corona radiata Conclusion: This voxel-based lesion symptom mapping study confirms the association between white matter tract lesions and impaired motor imagery ability thus emphasizing the importance of an intact fronto-parietal network for motor imagery Our results further highlight the crucial role of the basal ganglia and premotor cortex when performing motor imagery tasks The parts of the neural system that are most frequently reported to be involved in motor imagery are the supplementary motor area, the premotor area, posterior parietal regions, the basal ganglia and the cerebellum (Munzert et al., 2009; Liepert et al., 2012; Hétu et al., 2013) Several investigators have explored motor imagery ability in stroke populations. Due to the loss of integrity of the motor planning network (including premotor, posterior parietal, and prefrontal regions), motor imagery ability is expected to be impaired accordingly in these patients. Damage to the parietal cortex has been shown to impair the generation of movement images (Sirigu et al., 1996; McInnes et al., 2015) the reader is referred to Supplementary Table 1 The patients were recruited via the University Hospital and from hospitals in East and West Flanders to the Rehabilitation Centre Participants were eligible if they: (1) had experienced a first time stroke less than 1 year before entering the study; (2) were between 16 and 70 years old and (3) did not suffer from psychiatric symptoms or any other neurological disease All subjects provided written informed consent according to the Declaration of Helsinki This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Ghent University Hospital (registration n° B67020084961) Motor imagery vividness was assessed using a self-report questionnaire, developed and validated by Hall et al. in order to assess visual and kinesthetic modalities of movement imagery (Hall, 1997). A revised version, the MIQ-RS was developed by Gregg et al. (2010) for use in people with limited mobility and validated by Butler et al. (2012) for evaluating motor imagery ability in stroke populations The MIQ-RS is composed of 2 sub-scales of 7 relatively simple movements (like bending forward or pulling on a door handle) the starting position of the movement is described by the examiner and the subject is asked to assume it the movement is described and the subject is asked to perform it the subject is asked to reassume the starting position and imagine producing the movement (no actual movement is made) the subject is instructed to rate the ease/difficulty with which he/she imagined the movement on a 7-point scale where 1 is very difficult and 7 is very easy to picture (the visual sub-scale MIQ-RSvis) and to feel (the kinesthetic sub-scale The patients are seated in a chair and instructed to first imagine and then to physically perform 5 stepping movements placing their foot on a board in front of them The examiner records the duration of real and imagined stepping movements According to the mental chronometry paradigm it is expected that movement times in both conditions will be similar with the imagined/actual movement time ratio equalling one The behavioral results from 37 subjects with sub-acute stroke are summarized in Table 2 The vividness of motor imagery was measured using a validated motor imagery questionnaire The mean total MIQ-RS score was 60.84 (SD ± 20.13) The mean score for the MIQ visual subscale was 32 The mean score for the MIQ kinesthetic subscale was 29 with a range of 8 to 47 We found a significant correlation between kinesthetic and visual MIQ-RS subscales (r = 0.82 Performance of stroke patients on behavioral motor imagery ability tests According to the MI Ability Assessment Scale a total MIQ-RS score ≤ 48 indicates MI inability, a score between 49 and 73 indicates MI impairment, whereas a score ≥74 indicates preserved MI ability (McInnes et al., 2015) The temporal congruence test scores revealed a statistically significant correlation between imagery stepping time and actual stepping time (r = 0.78 The MIQ-RStot score was not significantly correlated with the results of the mental chronometry test (r = 0.004 Overlap of the binarized lesions of the 37 stroke patients included in the study Lesions are displayed over horizontal sections parallel to the AC-PC line Brighter regions indicate a greater degree of overlap of lesions Results of the VLSM analyses on motor imagery vividness and temporal congruence performance indices The present study used a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping analysis to explore the relationship between motor imagery ability and brain lesion localization after stroke The predictive value of motor imagery ability tests to determine who might be the best potential candidates for mental practice, has not been fully established yet. Moreover, in a previous study we found no significant correlation between initial MIQ-RS scores, changes of the MIQ-RS scores and motor improvement, indicating that poor imagers can equally benefit from motor imagery training (Oostra et al., 2015) it seems important to screen for motor imagery ability to be able to estimate the need to teach motor imagery practice through an individually tailored initiation program We are aware that screening for motor imagery ability on the basis of lesion localization is insufficient but it may possibly give an indication which stroke survivors are potentially poor imagers Our present study results indicate that lesions in the left hemisphere more specifically the left putamen and left ventral premotor cortex were associated with poor motor imagery vividness in stroke patients as measured with the MIQ-RS questionnaire We further demonstrated the importance of an intact frontoparietal functional network for motor imagery lesions in the transition area between the anterior corona radiata and the superior fronto-occipital fasciculus and the more ventrally situated fibers near the claustrum were shown to be associated with impaired motor imagery vividness Poor temporal coupling between real and imagined movements was solely associated with lesions in the white matter tracts localized in the superior part of the corona radiata of the left hemisphere We further defined significant voxels in the left opercular part of the inferior frontal cortex to be associated with poor motor imagery vividness. The crucial role of this area in motor imagery and performance of visually guided movements is in agreement with Binkofski et al. (2000) They demonstrated that a left hemispheric activation of this region was associated with motor imagery from a first person perspective while the imagery of a moving target was associated with activation of the right ventral opercular cortex Our aim was to focus on motor imagery from one's own movements and activation of the left ventral premotor cortex (vPMC) was confirmed A preserved function of the IPL was shown to be critical for learning the cognitive aspects of a skill via MI practice Vry et al. (2012) describe a similar dorsal network activated during motor imagery and motor execution in a healthy population they localize the dorsal network more laterally corresponding to those fibers of the superior longitudinal fasciculus These authors further describe an imagery-specific left hemispheric network with more ventrally localized fibers converging into the subinsular white matter near the claustrum This finding could be relating to those voxels that we identified in the claustrum region Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) study results identified that this area was connected with the premotor cortex with fibers converging to form the corticospinal tract examining brain activation patterns during the imaging of movements has shown a close relationship between the motor imagery vividness scores and the level of brain activation The use of an implicit motor imagery measure such as the hand laterality test would have been a more objective measure of motor imagery ability. On the other hand, de Vries et al. (2013) demonstrated that implicit and explicit motor imagery were differently affected in stroke patients The patients in their study cohort scored below controls for both aspects (visual and kinesthetic) of the MIQ-RS while accuracy scores of an implicit motor imagery task did not significantly differ from the control group There are further limitations in the interpretations of our study that relate to the involvement and connectivity of white matter tracts allowing more precise identification and reconstruction of the involved white matter tracts seems essential to enable us to gain a greater understanding of our findings the small sample is a limitation of this study not all brain regions were sufficiently covered Only one patient with a cerebellar lesion was included Given the variability in lesion location coupled with the small sample size it is possible that the distribution of MIQ scores is not completely reflective of the true distribution that would be observed in a larger sample Our results confirm the importance of an intact functional fronto-parietal network for preservation of motor imagery ability after stroke Voxel-lesion symptom mapping further identifies the role of the basal ganglia and premotor cortex when performing motor imagery tasks All authors contributed equally to this study revised the work critically and approved the final version The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest Lauwers who controlled the lesion tracings and to Dr Lannoo who provided the neuropsychological data of the participants The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00005 Keeping memory clear and stable-the contribution of human basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex to working memory Cerebral correlates of motor imagery of normal and precision gait CrossRef Full Text Broca's region subserves imagery of motion: a combined cytoarchitectonic and fMRI study Burianová Multimodal functional imaging of motor imagery using a novel paradigm Mental practice with motor imagery: evidence for motor recovery and cortical reorganization after stroke The movement imagery questionnaire-revised second edition (miq-rs) is a reliable and valid tool for evaluating motor imagery in stroke populations Effects of motor imagery training on balance and gait abilities in post-stroke patients: a randomized controlled trial Brain activation in primary motor and somatosensory cortices during motor imagery: correlates with motor imagery ability in stroke patients Mentally simulated movements in virtual reality: does Fitts's law hold in motor imagery Motor imagery ability in stroke patients: the relationship between implicit and explicit motor imagery measures Impact of neurologic deficits on motor imagery: a systematic review of clinical evaluations Contributions of the basal ganglia and functionally related brain structures to motor learning The anatomy of fronto-occipital connections from early blunt dissections to contemporary tractography The post-stroke hemiplegic patient: a method for evaluation of physical performance Partially overlapping neural networks for real and imagined hand movements The MIQ-RS: a suitable option for examining movement imagery ability PubMed Abstract | Google Scholar Contribution from neurophysiological and psychological methods to the study of motor imagery Functional neuroanatomical networks associated with expertise in motor imagery Measuring Movement imagery abilities: a revision of the movement Imagery questionnaire Google Scholar Cued motor imagery in patients with multiple sclerosis The neural network of motor imagery: an ALE meta-analysis CrossRef Full Text Mental practice with motor imagery in stroke recovery: randomized controlled trial of efficacy Motor imagery-based brain activity parallels that of motor 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in five different disciplines Motor imagery after stroke: relating outcome to motor network connectivity a backdoor to the motor system after stroke Congruent unilateral impairments for real and imagined hand movements The mental representation of hand movements after parietal cortex damage Lateralization of motor imagery following stroke and passive wrist movements in healthy volunteers and stroke patients Effect of mental practice on the improvement of function and daily activity performance of the upper extremity in patients with subacute stroke: a randomized clinical trial Ventral and dorsal fiber systems for imagined and executed movement Test of Attentional Performance Version 2.3 Vanhoonacker ACL and Vingerhoets G (2016) Damage to Fronto-Parietal Networks Impairs Motor Imagery Ability after Stroke: A Voxel-Based Lesion Symptom Mapping Study Received: 30 October 2015; Accepted: 11 January 2016; Published: 01 February 2016 Copyright © 2016 Oostra, Van Bladel, Vanhoonacker and Vingerhoets. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Kristine M. Oostra, a3Jpc3RpbmUub29zdHJhQFVaR2VudC5iZQ== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish In a press release, Staatsloterij announced that the grand prize of its most successful New Year’s Eve lottery ever has been won by two lucky participants in Heemskerk and the municipality of Bladel Each winner will receive 15 million euros tax-free was sold as two half tickets.The winner in the municipality of Bladel purchased the ticket online and is already known to Staatsloterij the winning ticket in Heemskerk was purchased at CIGO Gelukszaak Bekker Staatsloterij has urged the Heemskerk winner to come forward and claim the prize “What a fantastic end to 2024 for these winners we’ve had the pleasure of making dozens of people millionaires but distributing 15 euros million twice is truly extraordinary,” Rosner said Staatsloterij provides winners with comprehensive support dubbed "First Aid for Happiness." Rosner added “We look forward to congratulating the winners and connecting them with a financial advisor We’ll discuss who they might want to share the news with and offer guidance on adjusting to such a life-changing event.” a longstanding Dutch tradition alongside oliebollen and champagne tickets were sold at a rate of 40 per second — equivalent to 2,424 tickets per minute and 145,479 per hour 7.6 million tickets were sold for this year’s drawing the 30 euros million grand prize also went to the southern Netherlands with the winning ticket sold in the municipality of Woensdrecht That winner took 11 days to come forward and claim their prize Staatsloterij keeps their identities confidential Staatsloterij is the oldest lottery in the Netherlands MCMURRAY — Peanut butter crackers That’s what Moon Area’s Ben Bladel had to eat early Saturday morning before he boarded his team’s bus to complete its postponed contest from Friday night against Peters Township It’s not what one would normally think of as a solid pregame meal but following his performance against the Indians an argument could be made that what Bladel ate will replace Wheaties as the new ‘Breakfast of Champions.’ From Friday night’s start to the Saturday morning finish Bladel had his fingerprints all over the Tigers’ 29-26 victory over the Indians at Peters Township High School leaving a huge impact in every phase of the game that would not be good for us," Moon quarterback Tyler McGowan said after the win "He's probably the biggest force I've ever seen play football Watt but in all three phases of the game.  "He's an animal," Tigers' head coach Ryan Linn said He's probably the best all-around football player in our conference old school kid that would fit in at a small school like Burgettstown or South Side He plays with that type of mentality."  Bladel had something to do with every single score Moon Area had against Peters Township A strip sack early in the first quarter set up the Tigers offense with prime field position resulting in a 34-yard touchdown pass from Tyler McGowan to Taite Beachy After falling behind 13-7 in the second quarter Bladel made a game-changing play to wrap up the first half With nine seconds left on the clock and Peters Township with the ball on fourth down Linn decided to call a timeout rather than let the clock run out and send the two teams into the locker room a forced punt with just seconds remaining isn’t a moment of opportunity Bladel had 14 career blocked kicks – which includes punts Bladel added one more to that total in the second quarter when he got his hands on a point after attempt on the Indians’ second score What Peters Township didn’t know was that Bladel was just getting warmed up As the Indians attempted a roll-out punt in their end zone Bladel was there to not only block the kick giving his team a 14-13 lead with just three seconds remaining in the second quarter "It's just effort," Bladel said when asked how he's able to block so many kicks "I know I've done it before and I can just keep doing it A storm just two plays into the second half postponed the contest until 9:30 a.m Faced with a third and long on its first possession of the resumed game Plack found his team in an all too familiar situation Rather than risking another block in the end zone the Indians elected to shock everyone both on the field and in attendance and punt on third down Initially the decision was a head scratcher until multiple members of the Peters Township coaching staff confirmed to the Times after the game that Bladel was in fact the reason behind their rare strategy "They came out on the field on the 50 yard line before the game and were telling us that we were scared," Bladel said "I told them we'll see who was really scared The quick punt from quarterback Sam Miller caught Moon off guard resulting in a good return and great field position once again McGowan found Beachy on a deep ball for their second scoring connection of the game on what might have been the best ball the Tigers’ senior signal caller has ever thrown "That was a phenomenal ball," Beachy — who caught eight passes for 104 yards and two touchdowns — said He was window shopping today."   but that was a hell of a catch by Taite," McGowan who completed 14 passes on 22 attempts for 144 yards and two touchdowns, added.  Back-to-back Peters Township scores gave the Indians a 26-21 lead entering the fourth quarter killing a drive that could’ve put the game out of reach he then delivered perhaps the most significant play of the Tigers’ season The Tigers' normally dominant run game had been eliminated thanks to an impressive effort from the Peters Township defensive front and a standard pass to Beachy seemed too predictable Similar to what the Philadelphia Eagles ran near the end of the first half in their upset victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII the Tigers’ gadget play was a reverse pass where the quarterback – who initially drifts off after tossing the ball following the snap – then runs to an open spot in the end zone McGowan was there to haul in the throw for a touchdown The pass of course came from who else but Bladel Similar to another Ben in the area known for throwing touchdown passes before hitting McGowan for the game-winning score.   "The kids get on him all the time when we run that play in practice," Linn said 'Ben's gonna pump fake!' Well thank god he did that today."  "I think [Pat McDonnell] stayed in on the flat and came up on me," Bladel said "I gave him a little pump fake and he jumped I went around him and threw it to Ty for a touchdown."  Bladel and McGowan switched back to their normal roles on the two-point conversion attempt connecting on a throw to put them ahead 29-26 Peters Township looked to have enough for at least a shot to tie the game efficiently moving downfield into reasonable range for a last-minute kick when Bladel broke through the Indians’ line to devour Miller for his third sack of the day Peters Township attempted two deep balls that both fell to the turf and a countless amount of pats on the back later His breakfast doesn’t sound incredibly appetizing but perhaps Linn’s next move as a head coach is to make sure peanut butter crackers milk and a few ibuprofens will be on the menu next Friday relying on Bladel to continue to lead his team seems to be a solid fall back option Contact Noah Hiles at nhiles@gannett.com. Follow him on twitter @_NoahHiles ROCKFORD — Reigning Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Alexi Bladel of Rockford has been relieved of her duties after enlisting in the U.S The decision by the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs has Bladel’s family crying foul but the chairman of the Queen Pageant Committee said Bladel's decision to join the Army was not a factor in relieving her of her duties "It certainly was not anything related to her military service That was considered a positive," IAAF Queen Pageant Chair Bill Jennings said Jennings said a news release would be sent at a later time with more information was crowned 2019 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen in January but was notified by the Association of Agricultural Fairs on Sept 25 that she was being relieved of her remaining obligations as the reigning queen Bladel was named queen at the 60th annual state pageant No previous queen has been relieved of her duties “The basis of the board’s action is the recognition of challenges you have had and will have in meeting the terms and conditions of the Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Contract,” the association said in a letter to Bladel “You will retain your crown as the 2019 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen until January 19 and will not be replaced during this remaining time period of your reign.” gifts and benefits she received as Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Bladel acknowledged that her obligations as a reservist would interfere with some of her duties as queen She said she would miss some meetings but would be home for the annual pageant in January according to a letter that she sent to the association say the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs announced without explanation on Sept 27 that Alexi Bladel was no longer the reigning fair queen and would not be permitted to crown the 2020 Miss Illinois Fair Queen pageant winner “Alexi has been publicly stripped of her title as the 2019 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen without her prior knowledge and in contradiction to the letter she received from the IAAF board as a direct result of the timing of her service in the United States Army,” Bladel’s parents said in a message to the Register Star The Bladels are asking the IAAF board to retract statements made during the board’s Sept “We are asking the IAAF board to consider letting Alexi participate and then address this issue by making any rule changes needed to address these specific circumstances in future years,” the Bladels said in the message expressed disappointment in the decision to relieve Bladel of her duties and is asking the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs to reconsider the decision “Alexi fulfilled her responsibilities this summer traveling across the state to county fairs promoting Illinois agriculture,” Sosnowski said in a statement “She is now being unduly punished for her decision to enlist in the U.S We should celebrate her commitment to serve our country Bladel earned a degree in fire science at Rock Valley College in pursuit of her goal of becoming a firefighter The Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs plans to issue a press release to clarify Alexi Bladel's status and the reasons behind the decision to relieve her of her duties there are two sides to this story," Jennings said "As we have with all of our queens in the past we wish them the best and we're striving to do the best for her." Ken DeCoster: 815-987-1391; kdecoster@rrstar.com; @DeCosterKen Former Labor MP Fran Bladel has been remembered in the Tasmanian Parliament as a “one-of-a-kind” mentor and trailblazer for women in politics who passed away last December at the age of 90 served as the Member for Franklin from 1986 to 2002 and held several ministerial portfolios in the Bacon Government former Labor leader Rebecca White became emotional as she paid tribute to Bladel with the late MP’s family looking on “I will forever be grateful to Fran for the support and encouragement that she gave to me from the time that I nominated as a candidate for the Labor Party to run in the seat of Lyons,” she said you were an inspiration and you will forever live on in the memories of all those who were fortunate enough to know you and who were the beneficiaries of your kindness and encouragement.” White acknowledged that she may not have entered politics without Bladel’s influence and mentorship “I know that she so desperately wanted to see us win the recent state election and that she was so hopeful to see another woman as Premier of this state,” White said but that day will come and I hope that when another woman is elected as Premier of Tasmania they might be able to take a quiet moment of reflection to visit Fran’s portrait hanging on the walls of Parliament House and pay tribute to her for helping to pave the way.” White described Bladel as an inspiration and said she will live on in the memories of those who knew her and benefited from her kindness and encouragement she was intelligent and she could be forthright but she was also incredibly compassionate and she had an ability to empathise with others,” White said “Perhaps because she had suffered her own heartache and knew what it was like to feel desperate or sad or sometimes angry that meant people could confide in her with the safe knowledge that she wouldn’t be a harsh judge.” “She stood ready at all times to progress opportunities for women She was relentless in her endeavour to promote opportunities for women and to encourage their participation in the political process.” White said she benefited from Bladel’s “glass ceiling shattering efforts” as a minister in government and that Bladel used her time in public office to continue teaching and inspiring others “She was forceful but graceful at the same time,” White said I wish I knew her better because there is so much to Fran that I would love to learn more about and there are so many conversations that I’ll never get to share with her that I think would have been a lot of fun to have as well as incredibly thought-provoking.” Send your photos, videos and tip-offs to[email protected], use our News Tips form or call and leave us a message on 03 6124 2526 Pulse Tasmania is published by Pulse Media Group Pty Ltd Jean Van Bladel, who received his MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from UW-Madison in 1949 and 1950 before serving on the faculty from 1956 to 1964 Van Bladel founded the electromagnetics research group at Ghent University in Belgium During his almost seven-decade-long career Van Bladel made seminal advancements in the field of fundamental electromagnetic theory and its applications in electrical engineering Van Bladel continued to contribute to the research community he was awarded the Henrich Hertz Medal of the IEEE and he presided as secretary general of the International Union of Radio Science for 14 years ROCKFORD – Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Alexi Bladel of Rockford will complete her reign as queen without any restrictions after her dispute with the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs was settled this week “I am pleased to share that Alexi Bladel will be permitted to complete her reign as Miss Illinois County Fair Queen without any restrictions after a positive discussion with the members of the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs (IAAF) over the past week I would like to thank the IAAF for their determination to reach a solution to Alexi’s status that is acceptable to both sides," Sosnowski said in a statement released Friday afternoon for coming together in a bipartisan way to join me in advocating for Alexi She will be permitted to participate in the January 2020 pageant to crown the next queen We applaud Alexi’s commitment to serve our country as a member of the U.S Army Reserve and wish her all the best in her future endeavors.” The news came after Bladel enlisted in the U.S The association said the decision had nothing to do with her military service but rather the challenges the association said Bladel had in meeting the terms of her contract as the state's county fair queen She left for basic training in September but was expected to graduate in November and planned on being back in time to crown the next queen in January the fair association said in a statement that Bladel would be relieved of all duties and would not participate in the pageant The association has now extended an invitation to Bladel to rejoin the January pageant "we look forward to you joining us for the 2020 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen pageant in January culminating your reign as the 2019 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen and crowning 2020 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen." Moon had its best football season in 15 years and now the Tigers have a couple of all-state players to show for it Senior defensive lineman Brenden Luffey and sophomore defensive lineman Ben Bladel were both named to the Class 5A all-state football team Friday posted 9 1/2 sacks and 20 tackles for a loss He was also one of six finalists for the inaugural Bill Fralic Award Bladel was a breakout player in the region as a sophomore believed to be among the most in the WPIAL this season 225-pound Bladel also had an interception return for a touchdown Cocalico’s Noah Palm was named the Class 5A Player of the Year after he threw for 1,014 yards accounted for 44 total touchdowns on offense Cheltenham’s Ryan Nase was named Coach of the Year ROCKFORD — Alexi Bladel of Rockford remains the 2019 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen the organization that runs the pageant said Saturday but the group has not explained why she is no longer allowed to perform any duties associated with the crown The reason why Bladel was released from her remaining duties as queen has touched off a dispute between the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs Bladel's family contends that her decision to join the U.S but the fair board of directors says her military service had nothing to do with the decision “We have released her from any remaining obligations she would have as the reigning 2019 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen between now and January 2020,” reads a Saturday statement from the fair board of directors “Alexi remains the Queen until her successor is named in January and she will remain on our historical roster with all of our past queens recognizing their year of service gifts and benefits she has received as our Queen this year We greatly appreciate Alexi’s service on behalf of Illinois agriculture and Illinois county fairs and wish her well in her future endeavors including her decision to serve our country Out of respect for the privacy of Alexi and all pageant participants No previous Miss Illinois County Fair Queen has been released from her obligations during the course of her reign IAAF Queen Pageant Chairman Bill Jennings told the Register Star on Friday he said that Bladel's military service was considered a positive Bladel expects to graduate from basic training on Nov One key remaining duty she wants to perform as queen is the crowning of the winner at the next pageant in January Bladel's parents are asking the IAAF to reconsider its decision to leave her out of the 2020 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant The timing of the IAAF'S response to Bladel informing the organization of her enlistment and basic training obligation “is all too coincidental,” her parents said in a message to the Register Star “If there was an issue that warranted a release of her duties that was in breach of contract it should have been discussed at the time it happened and she should have been relieved of her duties then,” the message says Alexi served her title and state with professionalism There was no indication of her having done anything wrong let alone something that would warrant her being released from her duties.” Ken DeCoster: 815-987-1391; kdecoster@rrstar.com; @DeCosterKen Malicious insiders often don’t get caught because of stovepiped security monitoring systems the former FBI agent who led the investigations into Edward Snowden and former CIA Director David Petraeus Bladel told MeriTalk that many government and private sector organizations have good detection and monitoring tools but that those tools rarely talk to each other resulting in an incomplete picture of the organization’s insider threats they’re generally stovepiped,” or segmented adding that combining HR data with downloading trends and online behavior will lead to a more accurate understanding of an employee’s state of mind “You would get a whole picture of somebody losing faith in the firm.” Bladel added that malicious insiders can take advantage of this stovepiped system by explaining away individual discrepancies without having to address the larger trend of their behavior Bladel said that former NSA insider Edward Snowden was actually caught twice taking data without authorization but was able to talk his way out of both instances because nobody connected the two Employees should also have an outlet for reporting suspicious behavior as his FBI investigations uncovered many government employees who noticed something off before an incident but didn’t say anything because they didn’t think it was their place who currently works as executive director of Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services at Ernst & Young said that an important part of his job is to “make people aware that their systems aren’t speaking to each other.” He added that most organizations only set up the necessary security protocols after there is an issue Bladel was adamant that employee monitoring systems should not be set up in secrecy and should instead maintain communication with employees “I think the best way to start is with transparency,” said Bladel explaining that organizations should let people in sensitive roles know that they will be monitored and explain why it’s important to do so I think that would be one of the biggest mistakes you could make because you lose the faith of your employees.” Bladel also uses a system that assigns numbers to the data “I don’t like the word ‘monitoring,’ ” said Bladel explaining that the word comes across as very Orwellian and that he prefers to think of insider threat programs as an “internal firewall.” Bladel said that he thinks government has a leg up in the insider threat arena because of data classification and security clearance protocols but that security systems and agencies still do not communicate with each other enough “I think it’s much larger than people realize,” said Bladel adding that people are starting to pay more and more attention to it Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Home / News / Government & Politics / State Government Kim Reynolds violated the law by ending federal pandemic unemployment benefits early A U.S. District Court judge on Friday dismissed a class-action lawsuit over Iowa Gov Kim Reynolds’ decision to end pandemic-related jobless assistance to roughly 30,000 Iowans early Reynolds announced in May 2021 that Iowa Workforce Development would terminate the state’s participation in pandemic-related unemployment programs wholly funded by the federal government 2021 — approximately 12 weeks before the programs were set to expire that chose to terminate the federal pandemic-related unemployment assistance before the programs expired in September 2021 Iowa and other states did so largely in response to labor shortages claiming the enhanced benefits were encouraging people to remain unemployed rather than return to the workforce the federal government attempted to pay able-bodied people to stay home instead of seeking employment to keep our economy on track,” Reynolds said in a statement Friday “Republican governors around the country stood up to protect the livelihoods of our citizens getting people back to work when it was desperately needed we value hard work and recognize the dignity a good job can bring I appreciate the court’s decision.” Lawyers for Smith and Bladel argued in court filing that Reynolds and Townsend violated Iowa law which requires the state to “cooperate with the United States Department of Labor to the fullest extent” to secure and make available to Iowans “all advantages available under the provisions of the Social Security Act that relate to unemployment compensation.” Download: Amended complaint -- class action COVID benefits lawsuit.pdf They argue Reynolds’ decision to prematurely end the pandemic-related jobless assistance deprived Smith Bladel and other Iowans of “life-sustaining benefits,” and “constituted an unlawful exercise of executive authority.” They sought class-action status in an effort to recover federal funds they allege the state illegally withheld for thousands of Iowans they allege were harmed by Reynolds’ decision say they were not provided adequate notice and were not given a hearing or opportunity to contest the termination of their jobless benefits The pair claim eligibility letters they received outlining their benefits under the federal government programs “vested them in a constitutionally protected property interest of which they could not be deprived without due process or just compensation.” Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to address mass layoffs business closures and soaring unemployment The act extended and provided enhanced unemployment benefits to workers who had exhausted or were otherwise ineligible for regular unemployment insurance benefits Smith and Bladel’s attorneys stated in filings that termination of the pandemic benefits left the pair unable to cover basic living expenses Smith worked at a convenience store when the pandemic hit She stated in the lawsuit her doctor told her a preexisting lung condition made it dangerous for her to continue working in a retail setting that had yet to install plexiglass dividers at workstations and didn’t require face masks Smith said she quit her job to self-quarantine and began collecting emergency unemployment benefits of $408 per week in addition to benefits to pay for food Reynolds’ and Townsend’s decision to terminate Iowa’s involvement in the federal programs left Smith without a critical source of income just as the Delta variant surged Bladel worked for a restaurant and gas station and stated she was replaced after seeking time off to care for an elderly relative who was immunocompromised and at risk for COVID-19 She began collecting benefits used to buy food and pay for other expenses until Iowa terminated its involvement Chief District Judge Stephanie Rose dismissed the claims noting that participating in the federal CARES Act program was optional for each state Smith and Bladel were not entitled to and cannot establish a property right to the pandemic-related benefits “Despite their repeated assertion that the pandemic-related unemployment insurance benefits bestowed a statutory entitlement they can point to no language in the CARES Act to support their position,” Rose wrote in her order “ … The Supreme Court has rejected the notion that every government benefit is a property interest of its recipient.” Download: CARES Act Ruling 5.10.24.pdf the court order notes eligibility for unemployment insurance is determined weekly in Iowa and was not altered by the CARES Act plaintiffs could not have had ‘entitlement through a date certain’ if there were other contingent factors,” the ruling stated A footnote included in the judge’s order dismissing the case also states “the decisions to terminate the pandemic-related unemployment insurance benefits after COVID-19 vaccines became widely available do not ‘shock the conscience.’ ” “Any alleged violation of the law occurred nearly three years ago … If plaintiffs desired an injunction to prevent the state from withdrawing its participation they had an opportunity during the 30-day notice period required by the CARES Act,” Rose wrote “The request for an injunction (is) untimely.” An attorney for Smith and Bladel did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com Covering Iowa politics, including the Iowa Legislature and campaigns. Get the On Iowa Politics Newsletter The Gazette has been informing Iowans with in-depth local news coverage and insightful analysis for over 140 years independent journalism with a subscription today © 2025 The Gazette | All Rights Reserved Share on FacebookShare on X (formerly Twitter)Share on PinterestShare on LinkedInRockford native Alexi Bladel will complete her reign as Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Joe Sosnowski (R-Rockford) says a dispute has been settled with the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs The association wrote a letter to Bladel saying it would welcome her participation in the upcoming annual Miss Illinois County Fair Pageant in January 2020 we look forward to you joining us for the 2020 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen pageant in January culminating your reign as the 2019 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen and crowning the 2020 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen," says the a queen pageant chair for the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs by the association that she was being relieved of her remaining obligations as the reigning queen This had been announced after she previously enlisted with the U.S Sosnowski says the situation has been resolved and released the following statement: “I am pleased to share that Alexi Bladel will be permitted to complete her reign as Miss Illinois County Fair Queen without any restrictions after a positive discussion with the members of the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs (IAAF) over the past week. I would like to thank the IAAF for their determination to reach a solution to Alexi’s status that is acceptable to both sides State Representative Mike Marron (R-Fithian) and State Representative Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego) for coming together in a bipartisan way to join me in advocating for Alexi She will be permitted to participate in the January 2020 pageant to crown the next queen.. Bladel has worked for the department for 27 years most recently as assistant chief since 2016 He says some policies don't improve relationships in neighborhoods and with people of color So the department has changed to implement Gun Violence Intervention and crime analytics programs The goal is to involve the community every step of the way Bladel says recruitment and retention will be big challenges The Davenport Police Department is down about eight sworn officers due to retirements and resignations (The city is allowed to hire 167 sworn officers.) Bladel's official swearing-in ceremony is set for September 7th She was chosen on one of the coldest nights of the season but the young woman who will reign over the 2019 Illinois and Du Quoin State Fairs wants to pursue a much warmer career "My grandfather was a fire chief and I grew up around so many other firefighters and hearing their stories encouraged me to want to do that," said 19-year-old Alexi Bladel from Rockford "I wanted to have a career that would keep me on my toes and I knew looking more into it that was something that God had in store for me." Bladel was selected the 2019 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen on Sunday evening from among 71 contestants during the 60th annual pageant at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Springfield She will be a summer employee of the Illinois Department of Agriculture and will be the official hostess of the Illinois and Du Quoin State Fairs "This was a dream I've had since I've been a little girl My mom ran for Miss Vermilion County where we are originally from and she competed at this state pageant as well," Bladel said and to promote agriculture and the importance of it is something that I've always wanted to do." She is currently attending Rock Valley College to obtain an associate degree in fire science She grew up on a small family farm in Vermilion County before the family moved to Rockford Bladel wants to promote more agricultural education in Illinois classrooms worked on the issue with Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara and "would love to get at least 15 minutes with Governor Pritzker to talk to him about that," Bladel said Four central Illinois county fair queens were among the top 15 finalists on Sunday evening They included Miss Sangamon County Fair Chloe Leonard and Miss Macoupin County Fair Anni Ibberson “I never even imagined that I would win the county pageant so being here at the state pageant is absolutely amazing,” said the 19-year-old Leonard and getting to know the girls was just an amazing time.” had her Morgan County Fair Board as part of her cheering section over the weekend It's been all kinds of different emotions but overall it's been just amazing,” Long said I did that at the Morgan County Pageant and everything turned out amazing there.” also had an “oops” moment over the weekend “Right before I went out for my speech I spilled water all over my suit The pageant crew had to help me dry it with fans and a blow dryer,” Carlock said and my mom and the rest of my supporters in the audience didn't even know Ibberson didn't experience any mini-emergencies during the pageant but she was witness to one “I walked in for the preliminaries and a girl was stuck in a chair in her evening gown so that was kind of a sight to see,” said Ibberson “Getting up on stage and competing and being able to represent where we are from and our county is a true experience and I'm so glad I was able to be a part of it.” Twenty-year-old Amy Stich of Athens has many fond memories of the four-day pageant and had several had unusual experiences “One odd thing is always getting your butt glued to your swimsuit that's an interesting part of the weekend,” said Stich Miss Christian County Fair Aly Moore had a small crisis during the pageant my feet were swelling and they started turning purple,” said the 20-year-old Moore “So my director and her assistant went to a store and got 24 pairs of shoes for me to try on I ended up finding the perfect pair so I was ready for competition.” experienced no major difficulties over the weekend but still had the jitters “I had been falling on stage in my dreams at night so I definitely didn't stop thinking about it so it didn't happen on stage,” said Schempp “But I didn't fall in real life so that's good.” Jamie Franck of Henry County was named the pageant's first runner up Teaghan Callaway of Lake County was named the second runner up The annual Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant was part of the 109th annual meeting and convention of the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs and incense to mummify a small object one of the ingredients that Salima Ikram brought with her when she arrived on Yale’s campus this fall from Cairo to teach her new-to-Yale course “Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt,” in which her students will learn the ancient ritual of mummification Students in Kevin van Bladel’s new course on “Ancient and Medieval Astronomy” are building sundials as well as astrolabes special devices that are used to make astronomical measurements and calculations Those are topics that one would not normally think of when reading a Yale course catalogue these new faculty members in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) believe that the best way for their students to learn is to do equates it to reading a recipe versus cooking a dish to make students’ brains more “elastic.” I incorporate a combination of textbook reading and hands-on learning One of the things that is vital for a liberal arts education is that students learn the theory and the critical thinking “You need two wings to fly,” says van Bladel “You need knowledge and you need understanding “and understanding means having methods and techniques of interpretation You need both of those together and those are the two wings that will take you somewhere.” In addition to her course on animal burials and death Ikram is teaching a class on “Food in Ancient Egypt” or “Food for Pharaohs.” For its final project with each student contributing a dish that a pharaoh would eat They will research this dish and give a five-minute presentation on it to the class and I want these students to actually enjoy my courses and learn as much as they can Learning doesn’t have to be painful,” says Ikram This is the first time that van Bladel has taught the course on ancient astronomy and astrology is to put his students in the mindset of an ancient scientist He hopes his students will begin to see what they are learning in the classroom take shape — as soon as they step out of it “I told my students at some point during this course they are going to go outside and be aware of things around them differently Where the sun is — what does it mean about the season we are in How does that correlate with what they are studying in class This allows them to confirm the utility of the instruments that they make in class,” says van Bladel He adds: “It is my hope that my students will have that changed enriching perspective that goes with learning material that is strange and yet is based on experiences that we all have in common — some of which that we tend to filter out.” Both of these scholars agree that learning about topics in ancient and medieval civilizations isn’t just for students whose aim is to pursue a career in academia these topics give students practical knowledge and enhance a liberal arts education “They will learn about a civilization that existed 2,000 plus years ago but by looking at things that are core to human beings such as eating or dying It really closes the divide and emphasizes our common humanity,” says Ikram “Students don’t need to make sundials when they have clocks in their phones nor do they need to be able to create calendars,” says van Bladel explaining that he believes that learning about these topics makes students better educated citizens of the world you go through and you go as far beyond that door as you want to go Ikram and van Bladel also credit their students with teaching them valuable lessons in class — sometimes by reminding them that to err is human The simplest case of a student teaching the teacher “It means that they are really paying attention Students with no background in the subject that I am teaching usually lead me to articulate the basics in a way that is really refreshing because it is easy to forget the basics “The trick in being a teacher is you are never done learning the art of teaching,” continues van Bladel “One of my goals is to maintain conscious awareness of all of the steps that I took to get where I am Where I really get a kick out of teaching is when I can show them shortcuts that I never had.” “Students often provide a fresh perspective by asking unusual questions or by challenging long-held assumptions that force one to re-evaluate and rethink ideas This is particularly so if one has students from a variety of academic backgrounds which is the joy of a liberal arts education,” says Ikram ILLINOIS (WICS/WCCU) — Some little girls have dreams of becoming a pageant queen Others choose to serve their country as a member of the United States Army We think it creates amazing things in young women,” Heather Bladel said "There’s also what appears to be an ugly side to it." One Illinois family said their daughter is not being allowed to do both "I don't see joining the military as something she's done wrong," Bladel said Bladel said her daughter Alexi Bladel dreamed of being a pageant queen and joining the military Alexi was crowned 2019 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen in January "She enlisted in August and was expected to have a ship date of the week after the State Fair Queen Pageant in 2020." "There was nothing on her schedule that she had missed up to this time,” Bladel said Alexi wrote a letter to the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs (IAAF) Board explaining her situation "It states that she will retain her title she will remain on the historical roster of Illinois County Fair Queens." The letter also stated Alexi was released of her remaining obligations as the reigning 2019 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen It reads in part: "The basis of the board's action is the recognition of challenges you have had and will have in meeting the terms and conditions of the Miss Illinois County Fair Queen contract." it was announced that she was no longer the state queen," Bladel said Mike Marron (R-Fithian) also wrote a letter to the IAAF in support of Alexi We received a statement that reads in part: I reached out to the Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant Director Cathy Redshaw "It feels like female rights are being stripped from them," Bladel said Bladel said Alexi will not be able to crown her successor and he name won’t be in the roster of Illinois County Fair Queens "We don't have a definitive answer," Bladel said “We're getting contradictory information." "Opportunity for the Fair Board and the IAAF to celebrate something as spectacular as having their state queen as an enlisted soldier," Bladel said That's when Alexi’s family will share the news Heather thinks this situation will only encourage Alexi to keep fighting for what she believes in a group of Yale undergraduates and a smattering of professors filed into desks in a classroom in Yale’s new Humanities Quadrangle and there had been a mixup with the room assignment The audience in question was listening to a lecture by the near Eastern languages and civilizations professor Kevin van Bladel entitled “Western Civilizations and non-Western Civilizations: Genealogy of the Concepts in Higher Education.” van Bladel’s lecture was the first event of the year in a student-run initiative called ReDirected Studies which provides alternatives to the western canonical tradition widely taught at Yale and explicitly highlighted in the first-year Directed Studies program reading groups and more conducted its first full year of programming via Zoom in 2020–21 and is now operating with full force on campus In the words of its founding member and current director the organization is “subversive in its fundamentals.” It is committed to facilitating a “substantial reconsideration” of the boundaries of Western-ness and canonicity as organizing educational principles he was one of 100-ish first-years in Directed Studies the program consists of three courses: Literature Historical & Political Thought and Philosophy DS surveys the bedrock texts of what it calls “Western and Near Eastern traditions”— texts like Sophocles’ Antigone Plato’s Republic and Maimonides’ The Guide for the Perplexed asking students to turn in a paper every week and jumping from Homer to Virgil to Dante in a matter of weeks The program inspires cultish enthusiasm in many of its past and present participants Its website is studded with testimonials from alumni working in fields from film to finance “It taught me how to write,” gushes a now-law professor “I’ve been an architect and planner,” says another alumnus who describes his job as possessing a “breadth of activities tradition and innovation aspiring to that of DS.” writes that DS changed his understanding of his home country: “I saw our relatively younger societies falling prey to pitfalls that Aristotle and Plato wrote about over two thousand years ago.” He explained that he felt a “general dissatisfaction with the pedagogical approach of Directed Studies as a program,” which became the impetus for founding RDS Among the questions on his mind: What made the books on the DS syllabus western Bladel’s lecture addressed these very issues he explained how the idea of western civilization was constructed and how it manifests itself in Yale classrooms He told the RDS audience that delineated ‘civilizations’ are made to become “social realities” only in institutions of higher education Universities invented the concept of “Western civilization” and continue to adjudicate its borders Ideas of ‘the West’ originated in step with Christendom springing from Graeco-Roman heritage and morphing the so-called West is not nearly as closed or definite an intellectual domain as the academy claims He noted that Greek classical texts were brought into Asia and Africa and took on their own shapes when translated into such languages as Arabic and Indonesian though the ‘West’ by classical definition excludes Russia the course now includes Russian writers like Leo Tolstoy Russian work was decidedly non-western by the standards of those who first began to define the canon Its inclusion now seems to be a function of contemporary designations of whiteness and modern European politics not an authentic designation in intellectual history Notions of a cohesive West were not present in the official language used to describe DS until 1976 the program was transformed from a two-year learning community which allowed students to choose from a menu of humanities courses to the one-year intensive it is today Donald Kagan redesigned Directed Studies with an explicit emphasis on what he described in writing as “western civilization’s emergence as the exemplary civilization.” the program has added some variety to its author list since its inception “The western canon doesn’t mean work exclusively in Latin,” said Dr Freedman is a Medievalist and food historian who has been teaching on and off in the program since he arrived at Yale in 2004 He explained that DS’ History & Politics track has seen the addition of The Hebrew Bible and theory by Al Farabi and Maimonides These Near-Eastern texts now make up a small but non-negligible percentage of the DS reading list Their inclusion is an acknowledgement of a wider global dialogue though their placement in the syllabus still asserts the primacy of European thought Students are made to see how the monotheism of the Hebrew Bible transformed into Christianity and made its way to Rome They note how thinkers in the Ottoman Empire read and responded to Aristotle The program has also added a few English-language writers and thinkers from across the Atlantic world including the likes of Derek Walcott and Virginia Woolf Such writers appear largely in the latter half of the program calling them “diversity picks … backlogged” at the end of the syllabus without sufficient care or context “Suddenly we enter the period in which women and nonwhite people ostensibly just sprouted out of the woodwork And there was no other historical reference to them Which is clearly not an accurate historical narrative,” he said the program’s Eurocentrism meant a sloppy handling of texts with other cultural influences This crystalized during the reading of Derek Walcott’s Omeros a Caribbean poem which reimagines the works of Homer “Reading Omeros requires a tremendous amount of context that DS did not provide by the nature of the program,” Inojosa said He did not feel his professors were “equipped” to teach a “reappropriation” of the artform “in a distinctly Caribbean context … shaped by the effects of colonialism and slavery … forced immigration and alienation from certain cultural roots and practices.” These observations provided the basis for one of RDS’ core beliefs: “Diversification is not a sufficient tool.” Simply adding piecemeal to the DS syllabus would not be enough to address the program’s limitations Inojosa envisions a total transformation of Directed Studies into a broader humanities program with different tracks one where there is “room for doubt” about the works on the syllabus he wants to organize targeted RDS events with specific themes and ensure that the program can continue to exist as a social and intellectual space in coming years He looks forward to transferring leadership to a successor during this school-year the success of RDS may become “an excuse [for DS] to offload its obligations” onto student organizers Inojosa believes that a flourishing RDS program can be an agent of change He is grateful for the support and cooperation of the DS faculty Lindskog wrote in an email that she is “wildly grateful and happy” about the existence of ReDirected Studies “Our program will be all the better for having people both within and without it questioning and challenging the kinds of texts and ideas that we debate in the classroom,” she added It is not clear how big the student audience for RDS truly is Those filling the desks at Bladel’s lecture comprise only a small percentage of the total DS community this might not be a direct indicator of interest; DS students and the profile of RDS as a program is still relatively low Attitudes about the program’s westernness vary from critical to indifferent to favorable a current DS student who did attend Bladel’s lecture criticized DS for implicitly saying: “We love the western canon We study the western canon because it is great.” To Delot-Villain the program “makes some kind of value judgment about what it excludes.” Other students simply feel they lack an awareness of what they are missing out on “I’m so entrenched in the western canon that I don’t really know what’s outside of it and I think that’s an issue,” said Jordan Davidson Davidson’s classmate Eli Buchdahl ’25 maintained that the “particular strain of thought” taught in DS “has been more influential in the way that our specific society and country is structured” than have others “If you are going to teach a program about a certain canon,” Buchdahl added “it’s good that it’s the one that has shaped the world that Yale students are living in.” questions of canonicity are somewhat secondary She emphasized that the central aim of DS is not “compiling knowledge” but “practicing skills of thinking about listening to multifaceted texts that don’t offer any easy answers about how to live and be in the world.” DS is about cultivating skills that are transferable across the many tasks of being a living Yale’s fervent humanists might be seen more as allies than as enemies — canonical disagreements notwithstanding trying to compete in a marketplace ruled by science and tech President Salovey’s ironically named “For Humanity’’ capital campaign has an explicit emphasis on the sciences — specifically it was believed that the “common life” could be enriched through the study of a survey of great works The program’s originators established DS as a bulwark for intellectual breadth the professional world has changed dramatically A list of Yale’s most popular majors is topped by Economics and Biology where History and English once led the pack Students and professors at Yale who are still committed to engaging with old humanistic texts are holding onto a rare conviction insisting on using their studies to consider life through a “non-utility lens,” as Dr as actively flouting trends toward STEM and general pre-professionalism but I’m not reading Aristotle with the idea [that] I’m going to now go into politics and apply these theories.” Delot-Vilain noted an “intrinsic happiness” which he feels when he is engaged in humanistic studies “I just genuinely really enjoy the structure of reading something and creating some sort of analysis,” he said He enjoys the way DS allows him to see intertextual relationships and understand the historical contexts which allowed for them He appreciates the humanistic texts for their concern with “how we live our lives how we order our lives,” questions he saw as being “of relevance to everyone.” “I’m going to graduate and have no hard skills and be unsure about my employment options but at least I will have thought about things that excite me,” Buchdahl joked It would be fair to view this attitude as a kind of luxury an indulgent approach to education which not everyone can afford “We cannot escape our human experience at all no matter how much we delude ourselves into thinking we can,” said Inojosa He acknowledged that DS taught him to conceptualize things in ways he wouldn’t have on his own and credits it with introducing him to thinkers he still draws from today who was considering dropping out of Directed Studies at the end of the fall semester to pursue fiction-writing and electrical engineering Marta Figlerowicz on Metamorphoses changed her mind Figlerowicz screened the music video for the rapper Lil Nas X’s hit single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” The video is ripe with influences from Ovid Davidson explained that the professor’s illumination of the through-lines from Greek myth to American hip hop “solidified the applications of DS to creating media to be consumed in [the] modern day.” This lecture prompted Davidson to rethink the program as a whole and its relevance and to enroll in its second semester after all and there will always be those who love Directed Studies exactly as it is — who are most alive when they are bringing traditions of thought and storytelling into the light But deconstructing DS’ representation of the canon may well be the path forward he cautioned against a false assumption that “the works that survive from antiquity survive because they’re the best.” There are works which survive which are not deemed ‘worth reading,’ and plenty of texts which we ought to read but do not One might then wonder whether the DS trademark contributes to a false sense of the program’s exhaustiveness Part of the fervor which motivates students to keep long hours in the library is a sense that the sum of a DS education will be something total A student might justifiably ask: If the syllabus is really just a selection of some texts worth reading why not switch a few of the texts out for other ones (or even cut a few and let students sleep more) A look at domain names and blockchain identifiers DNS has transformed our culture and the way we speak and think about websites Domains have also become an essential part of establishing the digital identities of entrepreneurs Behind the scenes, DNS quietly keeps the internet functioning across a multitude of platforms, including computers, mobile phones, tablets, cars and the expanding universe of smart devices comprising the Internet of Things (IoT) it benefits from the universal accessibility and uniqueness of DNS to stay connected we’ve seen the emergence of blockchain technology - a secure and decentralized ledger system that consists of linked records Blockchain records are distributed across a network of computers transaction integrity and resistance to tampering The most familiar application for blockchain technology is to support cryptocurrency transactions with the coins or tokens residing in users’ crypto wallets and just like the device IP addresses mentioned previously they are not human-readable or easily remembered Startups like Ethereum Name Services (ENS) and Unstoppable Domains have launched their own naming systems to issue blockchain identifiers (sometimes inaccurately called “blockchain domains”) as a means to link user-friendly strings to a unique wallet address.  The advantages of blockchain identifiers include decentralization which are small charges for processing transactions and applying blockchain identifiers to other services currently supported by DNS blockchain identifiers lack centralized oversight or tools to effectively address abuse or criminal activities associated with their name services and no one can “take down” an abusive blockchain identifier If this sounds like the ‘Wild West,’ that’s because it is The perceived advantage of not having policies and regulations could also be blockchain’s demise in situations where the need for protection against malicious activities becomes critical are these blockchain-based identifiers an improvement over DNS it's essential to first understand what problems they seek to address Implementation of technology shouldn’t merely be for the sake that it exists Many proponents of blockchain technology assert that it eliminates the need for entities like ICANN and registrars They also assert that blockchain addresses the issue of renewal fees providing a system free from expirations or deletions while these advantages may be compelling for some they are often outweighed by their technical limitations eroded user confidence or potential conflicts from name collisions Domain registries and registrars can support blockchain technology to bridge a gap that allows for a secure blockchain identifiers fall short of domain names due to their limited functionality complex user requirements and structural vulnerability and these shortcomings may be effectively addressed in the future it’s more likely that blockchain evolution will spur new use cases for DNS to bridge the two systems With GoDaddy domains supporting ENS wallets Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news features and guidance your business needs to succeed James Bladel is the Vice President Government & Industry Affairs at GoDaddy the journey for Moon Area football has been a roller coaster of emotions After making it to the WPIAL Class 5A Championship in 2021 falling to Penn-Trafford in a tight game the Tigers went on to win just one game last season posting a 1-9 record after losing a large majority of the team’s starting offense and starting defense in the 2022 season dropping their first three games of the season After dropping their first three games of the season there was the belief that was instilled from the veteran players that helped push them through the tough times early on in the year “It is just trust between the coaches and the kids,” Linn said “A lot of the team when we went to the WPIAL Championship are now juniors and seniors and they were there for the Heinz [Field} year so they knew that it was going to be okay I talked to the team and told them that we changed our offense and defense around a little and to trust that it is all going to come together We had costly mistakes from the West Allegheny game and then again playing Montour when we made some timely mistakes early We knew if we continued to fight and battle we would figure things out.” the veteran leaders on the team this year stepped up and began to show the team leadership in the early weeks of the season which senior running back Josh Bladel says is one of the key pieces of this team’s turnaround this season “The other captains got on us in practice,” Bladel said “Making bad mistakes in practice will translate into the game and we cannot have that so just having them hold everyone accountable helped us lock in." A major key for this Tigers team this year is the team’s mindset heading into games During their week of preparation for their game against Penn Hills when most teams would be down on themselves after dropping their first three games of a season that wasn’t the case for the Tigers as they were hungrier than ever heading into the game against the Indians “We were in those games early in the season and then going into the Penn Hills game I told them that they were a lot closer to 2-1 or 3-0 than you are 0-3 and we had a great week of practice that week and you could see that they wanted it," Linn said "I stressed to them to not fall into the rut of waiting for that other shoe to fall and then they went into that game against Penn Hills and battled and competed and made some great plays down the stretch to hold on and get the win.” Moon got back to its type of offense as they rushed for 212 yards as a team with Bladel leading the way for the Tigers with 128 yards on the ground on 14 attempts along with a 74-yard touchdown to put Moon ahead by one point in the later stages of the game Many people thought that the Tigers would have no shot at competing against the talented roster of Penn Hills but for junior running back Nazir Brookins there was always a belief that the team could compete with anybody and the win over the Indians helped Moon continue to push forward “It felt great to get the win,” Brookins said nobody thought that we were going to win that game but we turned things around and got the win and that felt great and with the energy that we got from that game we continued to push forward and kept on winning.” A big piece of the puzzle to the turnaround for Moon has been the team’s confidence and after winning just one game last season in 2022 the Tigers did not have a lot of confidence when going into games But after the win against Penn Hills the team built up that confidence and then defeated Mars after blowing a 19-point lead Moon learned how to play with confidence and that confidence has propelled them through the last three games "When we defeated Penn Hills who was the number one team in WPIAL Class 5A at the time that was great and we needed to follow it up we blitzed Mars for the first six minutes of the game and we were up 19-0 we needed to maintain our lead and keep our composure because we knew that Mars was not going to blink and they battled and came back," Linn said "Our guys could have easily been down in the dumps late in the game but one of their guys muffed a punt and we recovered and went on the score the game-winning touchdown Having that composure confidence and continuing to battle pushed us through that game.” Heading into this season after not having a lot of success on the offensive side of the ball Linn decided to switch up its rushing attack to gear it toward personnel That has paid dividends as the Tigers have seen the offense click over the past several weeks of the season we did not have the same bodies to fill in the rolls that we needed for that offense Last year we just looked at it and said lets throw something at the wall and see if it sticks," Linn said "We tried and not much stuck at times so going into the offseason I wanted to run an offense that had more ball control and more play action but also allowed us when a large group graduates we can go back to our roots as an offense.” Bladel and Brookins have been the focal point of the new style of rushing for Moon this season has paced the Tigers with 473 yards on the ground finding the back of the end zone five times this season The junior also has two 100-plus yard rushing performances through the first six games of the season For Bladel he has also had two 100-plus yard rushing performances rushing for 441 yards on the season with three scores With the rushing tandem combining for 914 yards and eight touchdowns it has given Linn flexibility when it comes to the usage of his two backs and the impact that it has on opposing defenses “It is a cool dynamic between those two guys,” Linn said “These two kids were both competing for the fullback main job in the offense and Josh started then Nazir took over and became that thumper that we needed so that allowed Josh [Bladel] to push to the wing and that allows us to wear teams down As Moon looks forward as they head into the late stages of the season the road gets tougher for the Tigers as they square off against Peters Township Friday who is currently at the top of the WPIAL Class 5A standings followed by a tough Bethel Park team and then Moon’s penultimate game of the season against Upper Saint Clair The Tigers have a huge bode of confidence heading into this stretch of tough games and look to continue to push forward and make a push to the playoffs as the final weeks of the regular season commence The city of Davenport announced today who will take over the role of police chief Davenport has named Major Jeffery Bladel as the city's new police chief He is set to step into the role after the current police chief Major Bladel has been assistant chief of police since 2016 and has been with the Davenport Police Department for 27 years He has a Bachelor of Science in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration from Western Illinois University and a Master of Science in Law Enforcement Intelligence and Analysis from Michigan State University Davenport City Administrator Corri Spiegel said in a press release: Major Bladel has devoted his life in service to the Davenport Police Department-protecting and caring for the well-being of our community and professional success at every level of leadership within the department make him an outstanding choice for this role Major Bladel said he looks forward to continuing to serve alongside the men and women of the Davenport Police Department I am honored to be named as the next Chief of Police for the city of Davenport Having been a lifelong resident of Davenport I care deeply for the residents and the safety of our community The Davenport Police Department is comprised of extraordinary men and women and I am honored to have worked with such a tremendous team over the years Major Bladel will be the Chief of Police effective August 30th Gallery Credit: Bill Stage The city of Davenport announced today who will take over the role of Police Chief.\nRead More MOON – The numbers tell the story in the Allegheny Six.  Clair quarterback Ethan Dahlem threw for 2,218 yards and ran for 951 yards while Panthers’ receiver David Pantelis caught 77 passes for 1,169 yards Peters Township QB Logan Pfeuffer threw for 2,368 yards and 24 touchdowns South Fayette quarterback Naman Alemada was even more prolific throwing for 3,004 yards and 32 touchdowns.  Bethel Park doesn’t have the standouts but the Black Hawks are a perennial contender for a playoff spot while West Allegheny has a promising quarterback in Gavin Miller and should have a healthy Nico Flati at running back “I’m going to echo the sentiment of every coach in our conference: This is the toughest conference in 5A we’re going to battle,” Linn said “It’s going to come down to who can limit mistakes Who can stay healthy – on the field and off the field That’s going to dictate a lot.” Peters Township has already had to postpone its opener against South Fayette because of COVID-19 cases in the district is on a Moon team that finally broke through to win a piece of a conference title last year Moon didn’t have many stars on that team and largely won via grit and determination.  “We won’t wow you with numbers We were very much team-oriented,” Linn said “We had two quarterbacks throw for 800 yards and a couple guys rush for 150 The flashiest numbers came from defensive end Ben Bladel and who figures to draw even more attention from opposing coaches this season Bladel isn’t the tallest at 5-foot-10 but Linn said the junior lives in the weight room keeping up with the speed and agility and stuff like that,” Bladel said.  “He benefited a lot last year – and everyone did on the defensive line – from Brendan Luffey He was taking up two or three guys on his own and Ben seemed to be the recipient of a lot of that,” Linn said “I think Ben’s going to draw a lot of attention from blockers and that’s going to open things up for Dalton and whoever that other defensive end may be.” Bladel and linebacker Jamal Littlejoin were all-section picks may play a pivotal role alongside Bladel in helping the front seven succeed again “One of the most mature kids I’ve coached in four years,” Linn said of Dobyns He’s one of those unsung guys who doesn’t get all the pub but he’s just a great teammate.” The keys to the offense now belong to junior quarterback Ty McGowan who started four games last year when starter Dante Clay was injured Ty just came in and kicked butt last year,” senior receiver Dawson Snyder said.  Snyder set a program record with 51 receptions last season and will be McGowan’s top target in 2020.  how can we get Dawson the ball?” Linn said but he also has trust in everybody else that he doesn’t have to force the ball to Dawson He has other weapons that can help him out.” No matter the shape the season takes on as football begins amidst a global pandemic Snyder believes that if Moon can keep the momentum it build last year “This whole corona thing is going to affect everything,” he said “but as long as we can stay together and stay tight we should be able to make it all the way until we can get a ring.” 2020 schedule: 9/11 West Allegheny; 9/18 at North Hills; 9/25 Fox Chapel; 10/2 at South Fayette; 10/9 Peters Township; 10/16 at Upper St MOON TWP. — One year after winning the 5A Allegheny Eight Conference the Moon Area Tigers' football team returned to earth in 2020 completing an up-and-down season that saw a three-game winning streak and a three-game losing streak on the way to a 4-3 finish.  expectations are again high for the Tigers under fourth-year head coach Ryan Linn who sees a handful of key starters on both sides of the football return this fall.  who could be one of the top lines in the WPIAL this fall.  the Tigers are ahead of the curve in terms of development Add in the return of three-year starting quarterback senior Tyler McGown and a group of returning skill guys in seniors Jeremiah Dean Dylan Sleva and Dante Docchio and the Tigers find themselves back on top of the 5A Allegheny Eight under veteran head coach Ryan Linn.  Like any good football team in today's era of the game Moon will go on both sides of the ball as the guys in the trenches go experience is a big calling card as Baumgartner and Bladel are four-year starters while Fraley — a Marshall recruit — and Docchio are three-year starters.  strength and experience will go a long way for the Tigers this fall under Linn making them arguably the team to beat in the 5A Allegheny Eight alongside Peters Township which has played in the last two 5A WPIAL championship games.  Moon opens the season August 27 on the road against Seneca Valley in a non-conference battle at 7:30 p.m 2020 records: 4-3 (1-3 in 5A Allegheny Eight) Offense:  This group has the chance to be flat-out dominant on the ground and through the air this fall.  McGowan returns with plenty of experience to lead the Tigers while the four maulers up front in Mazreku Dines and Fraley should be able to move bodies all over the field After putting up 23 points per game last fall the Tigers should easily eclipse that mark this season while being able to rely on a physical rushing attack.  "It's huge to have all those guys back," Linn said "We even saw it last week in heat acclimation week...those four guys up front look really smooth "They'll be able to help us control the ball grind some clock and control the line of scrimmage like we like to do here," Linn added a left-hander who can spin the football to all areas of the field and commands the huddle well entering his third season as a starter McGowan threw for 952 yards in seven games last season He'll have to work with some youth at the skill positions but his experience and leadership will go a long way under Linn.  coolest quarterback I've ever coached," Linn said "This offseason he's taken on more of a leadership role because we have so many young receivers He's always going to get us into a good position." Defense: With the Tigers being experienced up front on offense that same experience carries over to the defensive side of the football where Ryan Hazen and Sleva return at linebacker Fraley and Docchio return along the defensive giving the Tigers size and experience in the trenches.  Thanks to so much experience returning in the front seven the Tigers should be able to get after the quarterback and stop the run once again while attempting to improve on the 18.5 points per game the defense allowed in 2020.  "It's allowed for our defensive backs to succeed If we can get pressure up front with our front four it helps our linebackers and secondary players make plays Davenport leading effort to close loophole in 2022 law are pushing for a bill that would allow cities to file suit in court against strip clubs if the city or county attorney deem them to be a danger to public safety Legislators passed a similar bill covering bars in 2022 but city officials say a loophole exists for adult entertainment establishments that do not serve alcohol The bill, HF 2334 would allow cities and counties to ask a court to limit the hours of an "adult cabaret" if there's sufficient evidence that an owner employee or patron on or within 500 feet of the premises: • assaults another person with a dangerous weapon resulting in injury or death • engages in a riot at least three times The riot participants do not need to be the same each time The temporary injunction would limit the business hours to between noon and 10 p.m and prohibit the consumption of alcohol on the property if the court declares a public safety nuisance exists the court could order additional restrictions Davenport has two adult entertainment establishments within city limits Davenport Police Chief Jeff Bladel told a subcommittee of House lawmakers Monday Bladel said they've seen crowds of more than 150 which he said requires significant police resources to tamp down disturbances we've had shots fired at these establishments as well as even leading up to a homicide," Bladel said during the hearing all the things outlined in that bill for nuisances and what this does is it gives us an opportunity to put this in court but some of the challenges that we do get is that these are franchise businesses out of the state so we don't get a whole lot of responses as far as prevention intervention and how we can slow these issues." Managers of the club at the time said police calls for service were directed at people holding parking lot parties outside who had nothing to do with their business and that they'd tried various methods to disperse the crowds After the Legislature passed into law the nuisance bar bill in 2022 Bladel told lawmakers Monday that the city went through the court system to put sanctions on two bars within Davenport limits which represents the largest cities in Iowa and the city of Davenport are registered in favor of the bill Lobbyists for the cities of Waukee and Des Moines and the Iowa League of Cities spoke in support of the bill during the subcommittee hearing Monday Seldom does the best team capture the Colonial Athletic Association Baseball Championship but top-seeded James Madison did so Saturday downing second-seeded Old Dominion 10-1 for the crown at Brooks Field Outfielder Johnny Bladel was chosen Most Outstanding Player and it was not lost on him that the Dukes are the first CAA team to win both the regular season and tournament since 2003 “A lot of things happened and we dealt with a lot of adversity and lost some players and we started to mix the pitching up,” Bladel said “But coming in here there was not a guy on the team that thought we would lose JMU (40-17) wasted little time flexing its muscle The Dukes entered with 76 home runs and used the long ball during a six-run second inning sparked by Bladel’s three-run home run and David Herbek’s two-run shot Bladel mentioned All-CAA tournament pitcher Sean Tierney who shut out Georgia State 4-0 in the opener on Thursday as pivotal to the team’s winning its final 13 CAA games and current nine-game winning streak heading into an NCAA Regional next week our hitting has been there all year and so when the pitching came around that is when we could not lose,” Bladel said who made two scoreless appearances in the tournament and championship winner Alex Valadja were sensational Valadja (7-3) struck out a career-high nine and held the Monarchs (30-26) to only four hits in six innings they put a lot of pressure on our defense,” Monarchs coach Nate Goulet said play the short game and have guys who can hit the ball out of the yard They have good arms with their starters and good arms coming out of the bullpen the Dukes were in a bit of disarray because of injuries finger-pointing and a heated dugout exchange It was then JMU coach Spanky McFarland said the team settled disputes and picked up the pace “We started doing the little things well on the field and started being more positive toward each other,” he said it started working and we started winning ball games Some of our young pitchers started figuring it out Everything came together and we have played really well over the last month.” John Kamin would say a prayer with his wife May and then walk from his home on Spring Avenue to the Anna Maria Island Trolley with a small white harmonica he kept in a box He would ride the free trolley up and down the island for an hour or so playing the same three songs over and over again to the amusement of the locals who knew him and the visitors from around the world who didn't he only knew three songs — “Amazing Grace,” “Isn't She Lovely,” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You” — and he played them on the trolley nearly every day for 34 years 'They won't let me on without my harmonica,'” Stefanie Bladel To many he was simply the “Man with the Harmonica,” the quirky character who would also sing songs and pass out “Free Tickets to Heaven” to people on the trolley Whenever someone knocked on the door he and his siblings would jump out the window for fear the state would take them away and his family used railroad ties as firewood to keep the house warm He was a chef in the Navy during World War II and then he took a shift job for M&M Candies in New Jersey He retired in 1980 at age 58 and moved to Anna Maria Island with his wife May They met in San Diego when he was on leave During the dance he vowed he would marry her Every Thursday for many years he would go to the Port Manatee jail and preach to the inmates Then he would go home and document everything that happened in a journal Kamin's son John noticed his parents were starting to slip a little bit so he arranged for them to go to an assisted living facility in Bradenton They received rooms across the hall from each other It didn't take long before John Kamin — the son who lives in Indiana — began getting phone calls from the assisted living home saying “Your father's AWOL again.” had been leaving the home without signing out and walking to Manatee Avenue The bus would take him back to Anna Maria Island where he would hop on the free trolley and ride around playing “Isn't She Lovely” on his harmonica And now the quiet island is a little bit quieter John Kamin died peacefully in his sleep on Nov The nurses found him with a smile on his face when her son John arrived from Indiana for the memorial service he wasn't sure if she fully grasped what had happened because she looked at him and said “I heard your father's not doing too well.” she got dressed up and had her hair fixed just so But when someone asked if she was ready to go she said I think I'll just stay here” and the family decided it was best if she did a service that was as warm and light-hearted and funny as any could ever be if perhaps they shouldn't put the harmonica inside the casket and next to the man who loved to play it She wants to know she can take it out every once in a while and be reminded of the old man riding around on the trolley playing the only three songs he ever cared enough to learn Chris Anderson can be contacted at chris.anderson@heraldtribune.com Louis Bladel is the Managing Director of Assurance Services at EY he explains how he leverages AI and analytics to detect and investigate instances of fraud intellectual property theft and cybersecurity threats His work helps Fortune 100 companies and US governmental organisations safeguard and restore financial and brand reputations Global accounting firm EY enables companies to achieve their digital ambitions by becoming more data-driven As per Gartner’s 2021 research on Data and Analytics Service Providers EY has been recognised as a market leader in this segment EY business lines leverage data and analytics solutions through AI labs and innovation centres The research also reveals that EY’s top industries for data and analytics are financial services including banking and insurance To get a deeper insight into the use of emerging technologies at EY Samiksha Mehra of INDIAai spoke with Louis Bladel who is the Managing Director of Assurance Services at the US operations of Ernst and Young LLP his work helps companies and governmental organisations safeguard and restore financial and brand reputations.  forensics is a very thorough investigation and we use data to support our investigations,” explains Lou He uses AI to proactively understand the data for his high profile clients which include US federal agencies Fortune 100 companies and government regulators and machine learning is just making sure that you have the appropriate algorithms understand what ‘appropriate’ looks like and what ‘not appropriate’ looks like “I focus on risk identification and mitigation and counsel clients on how to best protect information and the systems that matter most to them I team with our clients to help transform their organisations to address a wide range of challenges through the use of data analytics.” his job is to analyse varying data sources to uncover links patterns and anomalies. Using advanced forensic technologies and data visualization tools his team at EY gathers facts and quickly detects fraudulent activities He then investigates and remediates instances of data theft, economic espionage insider threat, intellectual property theft and cybersecurity threats.  he has led the investigations into Edward Snowden Lou has managed to leverage his FBI experience to help corporations stay one step ahead of fraudsters and white collar criminals “I think most companies have historically been very reactive meaning that they won't do anything until they're faced with a problem We help them utilise their data to become more proactive and that’s why I'm valuable for EY because I use my FBI life on how we did investigations.” While Lou brings over 26 years of investigative experience to the table the Forensic Data Analytics professionals at EY are experienced in machine learning natural language processing and robotic process automation And this combination is what makes an ideal team Lou helps the companies understand what data is and how to use it for proactive anti-fraud detection “Most companies don't have any idea how much data they really have but they don't manipulate it or utilise it We build algorithms around that data to help machines interpret it and “Most companies are great with cyber defenses They have a very good moat or a wall around the company they're looking internally to make sure that their employees can't do them harm as well It's about using data that already exists to ensure that their employees are operating within the guardrails of what their current jobs are.” He explains how data is leveraged for this purpose this is an employee that could be doing harm for your company “One of the hardest parts about cyber or AI is that people say those words all the time but they don't really put any meaning behind them,” says Lou he helps big companies to make sense of the complex web of data and the increasing regulatory structures around responsible handling of sensitive data “We help companies with their policies and procedures on how long to keep the information and for what purposes Especially if it’s personally identifiable data associated with losing people's information.” “I've been amazed with how most companies don't deal with data and cyber security until there's a problem They'll sit back and wait until there's been some sort of a hack or data loss,” he says “Every time a company puts a new defence in place We always joke at work that if these fraud guys would put their mind to curing cancer but they put their minds to stealing from everyone,” says Lou Speaking on the use of emerging technologies for fraud detection I think that the technology has been around probably five to 10 years but as far as how aggressively they’ve being used the large banks are very good at detecting fraud.” He further throws some light on the work happening at EY in India “A lot of our data scientists are in India they are the ones who are really massaging and interpreting the data. We have many of our leading data scientists here who are Indian by birth,” he says Publish an article and share your insights to the world Twitter The Grant Parish Sheriff's Office recently made three arrests in separate burglary and theft cases two men were charged after an investigation into "several theft and burglary calls south of Pollock," reads a release Highway 1241 in Dry Prong were arrested after the investigation by Cpl John Giles and detectives Bruce Phillips and Kyle Martin illegal possession of stolen things and possession of drug paraphernalia Bladel was charged with felony illegal possession of stolen things misdemeanor illegal possession of stolen things and possession of drug paraphernalia READ MORE: Ball man accused in burglary deputy Jimmi McCully investigated a burglary that led to the arrest of a Colfax man of the 900 block of 6th Street was charged with simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling pictures in 2006.Former Field government minister Fran Bladel has died All articles from our website & appThe digital version of Today's PaperBreaking news alerts direct to your inboxInteractive Crosswords Sudoku and TriviaAll articles from the other regional websites in your areaContinueMs Bladel entered state parliament in 1986 as part of the Labor opposition and served until 2002 she worked as a cleaner and a barmaid before earning her university qualifications to become a high school teacher As a member of cabinet when Labor came to power in 1989 Ms Bladel was a minister for the status of women She served as secretary to cabinet in the Bacon government Ms Bladel was inducted to the Tasmanian Honour Roll for Women in 2006 for service to government Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White said Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White said Ms Bladel was a trailblazer for women and a lifelong advocate for the disadvantaged "I and the Labor family extend our sincere condolences to her family and loved ones," she said Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart. Today's top stories curated by our news team Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert Your digital replica of Today's Paper Test your skills with interactive crosswords Sudoku and TriviaAll articles from the other regional websites in your areaContinueMs Giddings has claimed "faceless men'' in the union movement were behind a push to install Infrastructure Minister David O'Byrne as premier but it is also understood discontent in some sections of the forestry sector may be driving some of the speculation It is understood people within Labor have been lobbied by a section of the forestry industry a senior Labor Left figure who remains an active ALP member at the branch level yesterday dismissed talk of a leadership challenge as mere speculation "There's a great deal of pride in the circles I move in and I'm secretary of a branch and branch members young and old are proud of the job Lara is doing because we understand how very hard it is,'' she said Ms Bladel said that a leadership challenge now would be damaging for David O'Byrne's two-year-old parliamentary career "I think he's too wise to even think of such a thing,'' she said "It takes a long time to get to know the Parliament.'' She offered this advice to Ms Giddings: ``I'd just say to her to retain her wonderful calm and keep doing the wonderful job she's doing.'' While he would not categorically rule out a challenge in the near future Mr O'Byrne yesterday appeared to agree with Ms Bladel's assessment "This is purely media speculation,'' he said "We are working together as a team to work through the issues that are confronting the Tasmanian community and we're not going to comment on idle speculation from the media.'' Tourism Minister Scott Bacon also said there was no leadership challenge "Lara Giddings is the right person for the job and has my full support,'' he said Ms Giddings must have heeded the assurances yesterday that her leadership was sound - for the moment A planned 2pm press conference where she was expected to announce a softening on health budget cuts did not go ahead It is understood that Ms Giddings had finally decided to pull back on the amount of money being demanded from the Health and Human Services budget and was about to announce it The move was seen as a way to appease her Cabinet members still wavering in their support for her as leader who was expected to leave this weekend for a month's holiday