#Joachim's two cents

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 3.30 (before 1940)

598 – Avar–Byzantine wars: The Avars lift the siege at the Byzantine stronghold of Tomis. Their leader Bayan I retreats north of the Danube River after the Avaro-Slavic army is decimated by the plague. 1282 – The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers. 1296 – Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England. 1699 – Guru Gobind Singh establishes the Khalsa in Anandpur Sahib, Punjab. 1815 – Joachim Murat issues the Rimini Proclamation, among the earliest calls for Italian unification. 1818 – Physicist Augustin Fresnel reads a memoir on optical rotation to the French Academy of Sciences, reporting that when polarized light is "depolarized" by a Fresnel rhomb, its properties are preserved in any subsequent passage through an optically-rotating crystal or liquid. 1822 – The Florida Territory is created in the United States. 1841 – The National Bank of Greece is founded in Athens. 1842 – Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long. 1844 – One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros. 1855 – Origins of the American Civil War: "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature. 1856 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War. 1861 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium. 1863 – Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece. 1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about two cents/acre ($4.19/km2), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. 1870 – Texas is readmitted to the United States Congress following Reconstruction. 1885 – The Battle for Kushka triggers the Panjdeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the Russian and British Empires. 1899 – German Society of Chemistry issues an invitation to other national scientific organizations to appoint delegates to the International Committee on Atomic Weights. 1900 – Archaeologists in Knossos, Crete, discover the first clay tablet with hieroglyphic writing in a script later called Linear B. 1912 – Sultan Abd al-Hafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate. 1918 – Beginning of the bloody March Events in Baku and other locations of Baku Governorate. 1939 – The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph (745 km/h).

#Events

[petnews2day]

Lipsticks, lattes . . . and now labradors: JAB’s bet on pets

New Post has been published on https://petnews2day.com/pet-industry-news/pet-financial-news/lipsticks-lattes-and-now-labradors-jabs-bet-on-pets/

Lipsticks, lattes . . . and now labradors: JAB’s bet on pets

After spending more than $50bn on coffee chains, restaurant groups and cosmetics companies, JAB Holdings has found a cute solution to boosting its mixed returns.

The European group, which manages money for Germany’s billionaire Reimann family and outside investors, is hoping that pets can outperform its previous investments in a tougher economic climate.

Over the past four years, JAB has spent more than $9bn on acquisitions to become one of the world’s largest operators of veterinary practices and invested more than $2bn to acquire pet insurance companies that will cover more than 2mn pets next year.

With pet ownership surging during the coronavirus pandemic, the sector looks more reliable for JAB than lipsticks or lattes. But regulators are becoming concerned about the pace of acquisition and subjecting JAB to ever-closer scrutiny.

The US Federal Trade Commission last month ordered JAB to divest vet clinics twice in less than a month, alleging that two proposed transactions could have created monopolies. The antitrust regulator told JAB to sell 11 clinics before completing the purchases of Sage Veterinary Partners for $1.1bn and Ethos Veterinary Health for $1.65bn.

The JAB measures are “part of our actions to heighten our scrutiny of private equity-driven merger activity”, an FTC official told the Financial Times. “We’re hoping it will have somewhat of a deterrent effect.”

You are seeing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is most likely due to being offline or JavaScript being disabled in your browser.

At first glance, JAB is an unusual target of the FTC’s tougher stance on private equity.

The group’s roots trace back to the 1820s in Pforzheim, Germany, as a chemicals and industrial business. In 1981, former management consultant Peter Harf was hired by the Reimanns to revitalise the family-held company and build a broader business empire.

After listing on public markets and merging with Reckitt & Colman in 1999, Harf, over the past decade, has transformed JAB from a family office into a diversified holding company, which also manages $17bn on behalf of endowments and sovereign wealth funds.

“We are not the typical private equity firm,” said Joachim Creus, a managing partner at JAB. “We are not there to buy an asset, cut costs and then sell it a few years later. We are really an evergreen investor with a significant amount of permanent capital.”

JAB initially cobbled together small publicly traded and independent coffee roasters into a portfolio that now sells more coffee than Starbucks. It expanded into restaurants and beverages with its $7.5bn purchase of Panera Bread in 2017 and Dr Pepper a year later for $18.7bn.

Before the pandemic, it began forming a theory that the model could be applied to pet care.

Olivier Goudet, JAB’s chief executive, was hired in 2012 from Mars, the consumer goods giant, which has large pet care operations. In 2019, JAB sparked a legal battle after it poached Jacek Szarzynski, a Mars finance executive, soon after Mars’ $7bn takeover of animal hospital chain VCA.

Pet care attracted JAB because of the increase in ownership in the US and the “humanisation” of domestic animals. Owners do not treat vet visits as an optional purchase, JAB believes, and yet fewer than 3 per cent of them buy insurance coverage.

“The love of pets and the importance of pets will continue to be important no matter what the economic environment is,” said David Bell, a senior partner at JAB who helps oversee the firm’s pet investments.

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Mars’s takeover of VCA also underscored the ability to quickly build scale. Private buyers including midsized buyout funds have for decades consolidated individual vet clinics into regional pools. It gave JAB the ability to build a broad platform with just a few acquisitions.

JAB’s first two deals, Compassion First and NVA, were both private equity roll-ups. When merged, it instantly made JAB one of the largest players in the industry with 1,500 practices, from which it could expand into higher-margin specialised pet healthcare services. The firm’s most recent funds have focused their investment exclusively on pet care.

The push has come as JAB has accepted that its initial wave of acquisitions in consumer goods has not achieved its initial targets.

“Our internal yardstick is to generate a long-term absolute compounded total shareholder return of 15 per cent for our entire evergreen vehicle, regardless of economic cycles,” JAB told its investors in March. “As such there is nowhere to hide . . . ”

JAB was forced to recapitalise Pret A Manger during the coronavirus pandemic © Charlie Bibby/FT

Coty, its perfume and cosmetics platform, has struggled amid quickly changing consumer spending habits. “The company has clearly been our well-documented and commented ‘problem-child’,” JAB said in the letter.

Earlier this month, Panera Brands, its portfolio of restaurant assets, terminated a deal to go public amid a broad market sell-off. JAB also was forced to recapitalise Pret A Manger during the pandemic.

One bright spot has been its takeover of Dr Pepper. The investment by JAB and its investors has doubled in value, according to documents.

Pet care, though, has been its big outperformer. “Our initial returns have been well above our expectations,” JAB told its investors in March. “[B]ut we do not count our chickens yet as we are only in the first quarter of the game.”

Vet centres remain ripe terrain for consolidation, with many top dealmakers closely watching the FTC’s increased hostility.

“Most veterinarian businesses are small practices run by vets who are essentially doctors who love pets. They are typically not world-class business operators,” said one rival private equity executive, who noted that family-run practices often had succession issues if the next generation chose another career.

“If I can get some liquidity and sell it to someone who rolls it up and does the stuff I hate like paperwork and customer acquisition, it is awesome,” said the executive. “They will eventually all be rolled up, as was in the case with dental practices and doctors’ offices.”

A hospital director at a US veterinary clinic owned by JAB said having a corporate owner had made the facility less nimble. “If tomorrow I decide I want to build [a new hospital], it’s no longer a three- or four-person decision. It’s a 40-person decision,” the director said.

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But the ownership also came with stronger financial backing that allowed the clinic to “think futuristically a little bit more” and no longer “make every decision with money in mind”, the director said. Benefits also included centralised legal or human resources departments.

Veterinary businesses carry less risk than traditional healthcare investments, which have attracted heavy private equity investment, often with terrible results. “From a legal perspective, there is a low reimbursement risk,” said Christopher Atkinson, co-chair of the M&A and private equity practice at law firm Katten.

Moreover, private equity investors including Sweden’s EQT believe the sector is highly resilient to a downturn. One prominent firm has uncovered data from the 2008 financial crisis that indicated pet owners prioritised spending on their pets’ health over their own prescriptions.

Private equity’s push into veterinary care has come under criticism for pushing profits over customers. A firm owned by one of JAB’s rivals jacked up the price of medication by 78 per cent in one case after it took over, one vet told the FT.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has investigated two acquisitions in the sector this year, signalling growing scrutiny in Europe of veterinary care consolidation.

JAB cannot afford to fall out with the FTC as it has more pet deals to do, having announced two acquisitions of European pet insurance businesses last week © Sam Panthaky/AFP via Getty Images

In the US, JAB must now seek the FTC’s approval before acquiring a veterinary clinic within 25 miles of a JAB-owned facility in five states and the District of Columbia. JAB must also notify the regulator 30 days ahead of buying a clinic within the same range anywhere in the US. The measures — which will last for 10 years — are unprecedented for a private equity-backed deal, according to the FTC official.

Two Republican FTC commissioners characterised the manoeuvre as over-reach, though the agency’s Democratic-appointed chair Lina Khan said it was “warranted” because of JAB’s previous business practices. These types of orders would “allow the FTC to better address stealth roll-ups by private equity firms like JAB/NVA and serial acquisitions by other corporations”, added Khan.

Recommended

Drew Maloney, head of the American Investment Council, a lobbyist for the private equity industry, said: “[I]t is concerning that the FTC appears to be targeting private equity because of who they are rather than what they have done.”

JAB, though, cannot afford to fall out with the FTC as it has more pet deals to do. Just last week, it announced two acquisitions of European pet insurance businesses. Last month, it also invested $1.4bn to acquire a large pet insurer from Fairfax Financial Holdings.

“The dialogue and the discussion with the FTC was fully anticipated,” said JAB’s Bell, who added he was “grateful” for the regulator’s work. “The end result was in line with what we anticipated.”

#Pet Financial News

[seventeenlovesthree]

Löw and Bierhoff asking for "respect" and claiming that the "new kiddos" are unfairly treated is so hilarious to me.

1. They say that they still have Götze on their radar (good for him!), but still wholeheartedly refuse to give three certain players a chance that keep shining these days. Yet L+B imply the fans treat the additional players poorly, even though they personally are not even the issue. They simply aren't. The issue is that good performances are still being ignored, while "usual suspects" keep getting invited. Respecting an individual person should never be a question - but these decisions are not to be respected.

2. Travel policies still haven't changed. Not only the constant flying, but the fact that Corona is still not over, still on the rise, worse than ever and some players even HAD it. If they had any dignity, they would have cancelled all remaining matches for thr year, to RESPECT their players and to stop the spreading.

3. Demanding things when lacl fan closeness, ticket prices, kick off dates etc. still haven't changed and the aura of arrogance is greater than ever - is absolutely hilarious to me.

I

#die mannschaft #german nt #germany nt #dfb #jogi löw #oliver bierhoff #joachim löw #my two cents

[joachimnapoleon]

I'm reading a preview of Charles-Eloi Vial's "Histoire des Cent-Jours" on Amazon, in which the author mentions that when Napoleon was on Elba, he reconciled with Murat. Do you know anything about this matter?

The subject of the reconciliation between Napoleon and Murat is one of those things about which I still have as many questions as answers.

Correspondence between the two during Napoleon’s exile on Elba is borderline nonexistent; I haven’t come across any letters from Murat to Napoleon from this time, so unless there’s something locked away in the private Archives Murat in the French National Archives, it probably no longer exists.

But, there was certainly some correspondence between them. There’s really no way to know how much, but Napoleon’s Correspondance Générale contains letters to Murat during the Elban exile and also references to other letters between them made by Napoleon to Bertrand. I was surprised to learn recently--thanks to @josefavomjaaga for sending it to me from her volume of the Correspondance--that Napoleon actually wrote to both Murat and Caroline shortly after his arrival on Elba. Both letters are dated 11 May 1814; Napoleon informs both of them of his having just arrived on Elba. He tells them both of Pauline’s impending arrival and asks for Caroline to send him news through someone she trusts.

Pauline arrives on Elba, and then leaves for Naples almost immediately after; I don’t think she’s on Elba for more than a couple days before she departs for Naples. She remains in Naples for months before her return to Elba, and it’s generally believed that she served as the go-between to effect the “reconciliation” between Murat and Napoleon. It’s assumed she was sending letters back and forth between the two. How many letters? What were the contents? There’s really no way to know. Napoleon references one specific letter from Murat, in September 1814, while writing to Bertrand on 9 September:

I have received a very tender letter from the king of Naples; he claims to have written to me several times but I doubt it, it seems that the affairs of France and Italy set his head straight and make him affectionate.

There’s nothing else until the eve of Napoleon’s departure from Elba. He fires off two letters to Murat on 17 February 1815 to let him know he’s sending him a man by the name of Colonna “in order to communicate to you some important and urgent matters,” no doubt about Napoleon’s upcoming return to France. Colonna, he tells Murat, “is authorized to sign every convention Your Majesty may desire with regards to our affairs…. Your Majesty must in particular trust in everything he tells you about my attachment and the high consideration with which I remain.” The second letter from the same day thanks Murat “for what you have done for the countess Walewska,” reiterates that Colonna is coming and “will tell you some big and important things. I’m counting on you and most importantly on utmost speed. Time is pressing. My love to the queen and to your children.” An undated, ciphered letter from Portoferraio, believed to be written between 22-26 February, tells Murat that he’s just waiting for favorable conditions to make his escape: “The winds have been increasing for the last three days and have forced the English warship to move somewhat away from our shores. But it can return any moment and my brick is not capable of competing with it. If I had one of your vessels, I would leave in broad daylight and I would sink anything that stood in my way.” Murat actually does end up sending a vessel, but by the time it gets to Elba, Napoleon has already left.

So, there probably was more correspondence between them, either written or verbal--but there’s just no record of it.

It’s important to point out that Murat’s “allies” (particularly the British) were looking for any excuse they could find during this period to justify turning on and dethroning him. Proof of a correspondence with Napoleon would’ve given them all the ammunition they needed. This is where it gets interesting. Napoleon will claim later on Saint Helena that the allies “doctored” Murat’s papers (to prove there was a correspondence between the two during the Elban exile). And there is an interesting excerpt from the memoirs of Dedem, who claims that the Congress of Vienna received, via the French Bourbons, copies of letters between Murat and Napoleon, left by a careless person close to Murat. I’m assuming that this individual (whom Dedem leaves unnamed save his first initial) is M. de Baudus, former tutor of the Murat children, sent by Napoleon to Toulon as an intermediary after Murat’s defeat at Tolentino; Baudus was to inform Murat that Napoleon would not receive him in Paris, that he was to stay put for the time being under a sort of house arrest while events played themselves out (Napoleon was on the way to Waterloo), and that Napoleon blamed Murat for having “ruined” France in 1814 and having “compromised her and ruined himself” in 1815. Anyway, here is the excerpt from Dedem:

The Tuileries cabinet had sent copies of his correspondence with Napoleon, and it was on these certified copies that Joachim was tried and condemned. Well, thanks to the thoughtlessness of the Count de B… who forgot (in following the King to Ghent) all his correspondence in an armoire at the chateau, we now know that all these letters had been truncated. Napoleon found the originals with the minutes of the copies drawn up in a way which served to lose Joachim; all the copies were in the hand of M. de B… attached by pins to the letters of the King of Naples.

Dedem includes the following footnote at the end of this paragraph:

It is from a man very worthy of trust, whom Napoleon had recalled to him in his cabinet during the Hundred Days and who neither loved nor complained of Joachim, that I have these details. He assured me that he had seen and re-read the letters several times.

So the Bourbons either found enough damning correspondence between Murat and Napoleon--or altered it enough to make it look damning--and sent it on to the Congress of Vienna so they could justify removing Murat from his throne once and for all.

Now, as to the matter of how sincere the “reconciliation” between Murat and Napoleon was… that’s another story. Louise Murat’s take is that the reconciliation was more sincere on her father’s part than on Napoleon’s:

So it was not long before the reconciliation took place and, if we can affirm that, for his part, it was as complete as possible, I do not know if… we will be able to affirm likewise that all traces of the past were also erased from the Emperor’s mind.

This subject bears some remarking on the relationship between the two men in general. There was a lot of bad blood between them by the time of Napoleon’s first exile, going back years before Murat’s treaty with Austria in 1814. Murat had felt ill-used and mistreated by Napoleon since at least 1809, things had gotten downright ugly between them in 1811, and in the aftermath of the 1812 campaign Murat was increasingly resentful of Napoleon’s treatment of him. Napoleon, for his part, had been incapable of trusting Murat since being informed, in 1809, of a scheme between Fouché and Talleyrand to have Murat succeed him in the event that Napoleon died without a legitimate male heir; much of his conduct towards Murat from that time forward comes across as deliberately spiteful and intentionally humiliating. Murat was vain and proud and it took him a long time to get over these kinds of slights and embarrassments. But, he was also capable of forgiving people he believed had wronged him--for example, Murat had restored Lavauguyon to his service years later after having suspected him of having an affair with Caroline in 1811. And I personally believe he retained a certain amount of affection for Napoleon even in spite of their nearly constant quarrels, and kept hoping to find some way to regain Napoleon’s affections, which he felt he had lost without ever quite understanding why; he concludes a letter to Napoleon in 1810 with “Love me as in Poland, as in Prussia, and I will love life again.” He didn’t enter into his decision to leave Napoleon in 1814 easily, and from everything I’ve seen it seems to have been extremely agonizing for him, and the news that the Allies had driven Napoleon from his throne and into exile in 1814 devastated both Murat and Caroline.

All of that being said, there was still some amount of self-interest in Murat’s attempting to aid Napoleon in 1815, and also in his striking out against the Austrians shortly after Napoleon reached France. Caroline believed that Napoleon would eventually drive them from the throne of Naples if he managed to keep his own, and Murat himself very likely saw the reason in this, and hoped he might safeguard himself by claiming all of Italy.

For Napoleon’s part, I tend to think Louise Murat was probably right; I think he saw Murat, being the only member of his family still on a throne, as a useful tool for his own eventual restoration. There’s a footnote in Bertrand’s Saint Helena cahiers basically saying that Napoleon never gave any indication of having genuinely forgiven Murat for 1814, and I personally think that’s probably the case. In mid-April of 1815--not even a week after sending Murat a letter from Paris, assuring Murat “You can count on my attachment,” Napoleon sends a note to his Minister of Foreign Affairs ordering a report on Murat’s conduct in 1814. My guess is, if Napoleon had triumphed at Waterloo and secured his throne, Murat still would’ve found himself in a world of hurt eventually. Murat seems to have anticipated this himself; in June 1815--actually the day after Waterloo, about which he was still oblivious--he is writing once more to Napoleon--the last letter he will ever write him--basically offering himself up on a silver platter:

I have nothing more to ask of Your Majesty, he can pronounce my fate unsparingly; your wishes, whatever they may be, will be carried out. Glad to be lost for you, no complaints will be heard from my mouth, but you can dispense with sending me in the future what they want to call consolations by people named as my friends; may your ministers make positively known to me the place of my exile; I will go there without a murmur.

#Joachim Murat #Napoleon #Napoleon Bonaparte #Caroline Murat #Caroline Bonaparte #Pauline Bonaparte #Louise Murat #1814 #1815 #asks

[readingloveswounds]

My Great Big Reading List

Here it is! These are the books that I’m trying to read this summer - in the future, some of them could be part of an exam reading list, but that is to be fully and officially built at a later date. I do not necessarily anticipate finishing this list in its entirety, but it’s got a whole lot of fairly different works on it.

I made it along a couple themes, just to narrow down my choices - very generally they were violence, war, bodies, and identity. I also added some that I was just interested in (see a few in the 18th and 19th centuries).

Not all of these have been easy to find online or in paper!

A final warning because Saint-Cyr and de Sade are both on there - be careful with those two books and be sure you want to read them prior to doing so - looking at their descriptions and being aware of de Sade, they deal with a lot of brutality. These aren’t really the kind of thing you’d read on a whim.

***Note that while reading over the summer before grad school is great, there is no actual requirement for doing so in most cases (in the US, at least as far as I know).***

Medieval

La Chanson de Roland Lancelot (Charrette) - Chretien de Troyes La Folie d'Oxford - Béroul Erec et Enide - Chretien de Troyes La Mort le roi Artur - (from the Vulgate-Grail, I think?) Aucassin et Nicolette Le Livre du voir dit - Guillaume de Machaut La Prison amoureuse - Jehan Froissart Le Livre de la cité des dames - Christine de Pizan Le Petit Jehan de Saintré - Antoine de la Sale Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles Le Charroi de Nimes

16th Century

Les Tragiques - Agrippa d'Aubigné Discours des misères de ce temps - Pierre de Ronsard Histoires tragiques - Francois de Belleforest Abraham sacrifiant - Théodore de Bèze Lepante - Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas la "Monomachie de David et de Goliath" - Joachim du Bellay Porcie - Robert Garnier La Rochelleide - Jean de la Gessée Illustrations de Gaule et Singularitez de Troie - Jean Lemaire de Belges Discours de la servitude volontaire - Etienne de la Boétie Médée - Jean de La Péruse Pantagruel - Francois Rabelais

17th Century

Oeuvres poétiques - Theophile de Viau Le cid - Corneille Andromaque, Phèdre, et Britannicus - Racine Contes - Charles Perrault Les Aventures de Télémaque - Fénelon La Mort d’Achille, La Mort d'Alexandre, Coriolan - Alexandre Hardy Dom Juan - Molière

18th Century

Le Diable amoureux - Jacques Cazotte Le Paradox sur le comedien - Denis Diderot La dispute - Pierre de Marivaux L'Esprit des lois - Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu Pauliska, ou la Perversité moderne - Jacques-Antoine de Reveroni Saint-Cyr* Aline et Valcour - Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade* L'emigré - Gabriel Senac de Meilhan Paul et Virginie - Bernardin de Saint-Pierre Memoires du Comte de Comminge - Claudine-Alexandrine Guerin Tencin Traité sur la tolerance - Voltaire

19th Century

Atala - Chateaubriand La Chartreuse de Parme - Stendhal La fille aux yeux d'or - Balzac Lorenzaccio - Musset Le Dernier Jour d'un condamné - Victor Hugo La Sorcière - Michelet Carmen - Merimée La Morte Amoureuse - Gautier Les fleurs du mal - Baudelaire Les Diaboliques - Barbey d'Aurevilly Boule-de-Suif / Mademoiselle Fifi - Maupassant Les Chants de Maldoror - Leautreamont Igitur - Mallarme

20th Century

Cahier d'un retour au pays natal - Césaire Traversée de la mangrove - Condé Les Bonnes - Jean Genet Antigone - Anouilh La femme de Job - Chedid Nedjma - Kateb Yacine Le Cimetiere marin - Valéry La route des Flandres - Simon Stèles - Segalen La condition humaine - Malraux La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu - Giradoux Le dimanche de la vie - Queneau

#sophie creates a reading list #long post #if you're newer to the french language i'd suggest starting with the 20th century works #simply because the language is not as wildly complex #and if you want to read some of the med/ren ones id suggest plays #feel free to ask me qs about this bc while i have not read all the works #i did do at least some research on them as i was putting them on here #was somewhat hesitant abt posting w the st cyr + de sade books #but i'm here to be realistic #and they do both technically fit the themes #im not reading justine bc im not sure i could deal with that book #also lol can u tell im not the biggest fan of 17th century lit

[articlesofstyle]

HAPPY FATHERS DAY POPS! • Let me tell you a story about Gerry Trepanier. • When he met my mother at age 19, they had nothing, and picked strawberries for 25 cents a quart. • Gerry went on to work 35 years at the Chrysler auto plant in Windsor – an hour drive from the farm where he lived. During those 35 years Gerry simultaneously farmed up to 700 acres of soybeans, corn and wheat. • This is two full-time jobs. Three, if you include the non-stop equipment maintenance that is necessary with farming big acreage. • During planting and harvest seasons, when the fields were finally dry and ready, Gerry would leave for work at 530am, work 7am-3pm in the auto plant, get home at 4pm, then work the fields from 5pm-3am. He would eat all of his meals in the truck or the tractor, and sleep for 2 hours if he was lucky. Many days, if something broke (which it almost always did), Gerry didn’t sleep at all. • This guy worked 120 hours/week, with his hands (which have become legendarily rough mitts), to support his family and give them an opportunity at a better life. • So when people call me a “hard-worker”, I can only laugh and brush it off with my soft e-commerce hands. • #FathersDay #FarmersFeedCities #GerryTrepanier #ArticlesofStyle (at St. Joachim) https://www.instagram.com/p/Byx8iorFlb5/?igshid=6k8cv468j8qa

#fathersday #farmersfeedcities #gerrytrepanier #articlesofstyle

[early20thcenturynerd]

Empress Eugénie, in mourning for her son’s death, 1880

“Your sore and wounded heart will bleed for the poor, poor Empress - who has lost her all, her only child and the only hope she had left. And in such a horrible way. Good, exemplary, brave but alas! far too daring young man, and to think of his being murdered in such a way - though I am sure it was the affair but of a few seconds - is enough for ever to haunt a mother’s heart. [...] 

Poor Lord Sydney had to tell her. It seems that by some mistake a letter written by a gentleman to M. Pietri got mixed with the Empress’s letters and she opened it, and suspected something though from its vagueness she did not realise what. [...] In the meantime she got up and Lord Sydney arrived and came up to her rooms with the Duc de Bassano and Doctor Corvisart (a very sensible man) and told her he had come with a telegram with bad news; she threw her arms up and asked ‘Qu’ est ce que c’est - dites moi’ [‘What is it - tell me’] and he said he was afraid it was the worst news.

Still she would not take it in and again and again he had to repeat the truth. She remained motionless supported by her two gentlemen but never fainted (as the papers said) at all; then threw herself on Lord Sydney and afterwards down on a low chair, and sobbed convulsively without tears. ‘Mon pauvre fils - seulement 23 ans’ [‘My poor son, only 23 years old’]. She kept repeating. [...] She could not eat or sleep. [...] Only the day before yesterday she had a letter with very good accounts of him and what care the would take care of him!! She kept telling the ladies again and said so continually after her dear child left her ‘Je n’ai plus rien, rien au monde’ [‘I have nothing, nothing in the world’] and then again ‘Je suis forte, je peut vivre cents ans - et a quoi bon’ [‘I'm strong, I can live a hundred years and what's the point’].”

- Queen Victoria to the Crown Princess of Prussia, 21st June 1879 [all french quotations are translated with google translate, I cannot say whether they are accurate or not]

“The Duchess de Mouchy, the Duc de Bassano, Prince Joachim took me upstairs to the door of the little antechamber at the dear Empress’s room where she stood pale and bowed down with grief - I clasped her in my arms and she sobbed, but quietly, and she then took me into her little boudoir which was very dark all the blinds being down where I had been with her after the Emperor’s death and sat an hour with her. She is so uncomplaining, so gentle so resigned not accusing anyone but utterly broken-hearted in her terrible grief. [...]

The Empress said everyone must bear their cross and some much more severely than others to which I replied hers was assuredly much heavier than that of others, God knows! She had just rearranged his rooms - and hoped it would please him. Angeli’s picture of him, which is very like, is a great comfort to her and hangs in her little room where in a group she has all her souvenirs. She cried very much at times - but could speak of all - only at moments she could not go on. When I begged her not any longer to call me Madame and Majeste but Soeur [sister] she burst out crying.

She cannot eat. A sort of nervous contraction in her throat prevents her from swallowing. She can only take fluids - neat milk and rum but she has some sleep. How willingly I would do anything for her but of what avail is it? Nothing can bring back in this world her precious child.”

- 23rd

#empress eugenie #1880 #1800s #queen victoria #letter #letters #mourning

[architectnews]

"There is a lot somebody working in the built environment can do to make a difference"

Following the release of the latest IPCC climate report, Joe Giddings of Architects Climate Action Network shares some practical advice for what architects and designers can do to help prevent catastrophic climate change.

Doom-laden headlines and apocalyptic imagery abound as dramatic wildfires in Southern Europe follow swiftly on the heels of the clearest and most alarming warning yet from the IPCC about the state of our climate.

The IPCC is the global authority on climate change and its latest report has been called a "code red" warning. It projects that we will pass 1.5 degrees Celcius of warming within the next decade or two and draws a clear link between human activity and the increasingly extreme weather events we’re experiencing.

All of this is enough to provoke understandable fear and anxiety over the future of our planet. But there is a lot somebody working in the built environment can do to make a difference.

New buildings often account for a tonne of embodied carbon emissions per square meter of construction and the message from the IPCC was clear: every tonne counts.

So here are some practical steps you can take as an architect, engineer or designer if you are worried about the climate following the IPCC publication.

1. Support the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) campaign for the regulation of embodied carbon emissions

As building designers, we always work to the standards set out in regulations and codes, but amazingly these emissions are still unregulated in the UK, despite accounting for a large proportion of every new building's carbon footprint.

New regulations could limit emissions arising from construction. France, Finland and the Netherlands have already introduced this so it's time the UK and others followed suit.

ACAN's campaign provides you with easy ways to take action, including a template letter and briefing note to send to your MP. Anybody is welcome to get more involved in the group and you can get in touch through the website.

2. Learn more about embodied carbon

LETI, another voluntary organisation, has written an extremely useful primer on the subject, which was published alongside its Climate Emergency Design Guide last year. You can find the primer on its website, which explains what embodied carbon is and how to reduce it.

If you are a visual learner, then Architects Declare has a fantastic recorded lecture series on its Vimeo page.

3. Specify sustainable products

It is difficult to find the right products, especially as most suppliers will claim their product to be "sustainable".

To check their credentials, you can request an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for the products you specify. These documents can be tricky to understand, but every EPD will have a measure of Global Warming Potential (GWP) and after comparing a few, they'll begin to make more sense.

To make things easier, The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products has made an interactive guide to help designers find sustainable options for various building elements.

4. Stop using concrete and steel. Use timber instead

Concrete and steel each account for around 8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The manufacture of structural timber products produces less carbon dioxide, and trees also sequester carbon from the atmosphere during their growth. This useful carbon capture and storage mechanism can help us mitigate climate change.

If you are sceptical, watch this brilliant talk professor Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber gave in April this year to launch the New European Bauhaus movement.

5. Become a certified Passivhaus designer

Probably the most rigorous course in building physics available. Those that have taken it will testify to its usefulness, regardless of whether or not your clients are aiming for Passivhaus accreditation.

Ask your practice to sign you up to one of the many courses available, but be prepared for a challenge!

6. Do less architecture

A controversial but simple point. The less we build, the less impact we have. We could all try working less to facilitate this, as studies have claimed that on a national scale a four day week could slash our emissions.

If you want to try having a wider impact during your working hours, there are plenty of opportunities. You could help shape public planning, through a Public Practice placement or by applying directly to the public sector.

You could look for roles at climate think tanks like E3G, which is increasingly turning attention towards buildings and cities.

You could take up teaching to support the next generation of designers. Many schools, including Central St Martins in London, are looking for tutors at the moment.

7. Make your pension work for the climate

Your pension is likely your largest pot of money, and all of it has been invested. These investments are often in things that contradict our values, from fossil fuels to meat and dairy.

The campaign group Make My Money Matter has put together a useful guide to help you change this.

8. Speak to those around you about ways that you've taken action

Talking about our anxieties helps to lessen them. Ask your friends and family to declare a climate emergency through Households Declare, you'll probably find that they care too.

If you find that this helps, you could find a local group or even start one in your area. ACAN has a growing number of international and regional groups, and Friends of the Earth has a network of local groups around the UK.

9. If you've done all of those things...

Well done, you've become an activist! Now relax a little bit, practice self-care, go for a bike ride or take up forest bathing. Make sure you don't burn out.

Joe Giddings is an architect and campaigner. He is campaigns coordinator at Architects Climate Action Network and project director for the Timber Accelerator Hub at The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products.

The post "There is a lot somebody working in the built environment can do to make a difference" appeared first on Dezeen.

#Architecture – Dezeen

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 3.30

598 – Balkan Campaign: The Avars lift the siege at the Byzantine stronghold of Tomis. Their leader Bayan I retreats north of the Danube River after the Avaro-Slavic hordes are decimated by the plague. 1282 – The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers. 1296 – Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England. 1699 – Guru Gobind Singh establishes the Khalsa in Anandpur Sahib, Punjab. 1815 – Joachim Murat issues the Rimini Proclamation which would later inspire Italian unification. 1818 – Physicist Augustin Fresnel reads a memoir on optical rotation to the French Academy of Sciences, reporting that when polarized light is "depolarized" by a Fresnel rhomb, its properties are preserved in any subsequent passage through an optically-rotating crystal or liquid. 1822 – The Florida Territory is created in the United States. 1841 – The National Bank of Greece is founded in Athens. 1842 – Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long. 1844 – One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros. 1855 – Origins of the American Civil War: "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature. 1856 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War. 1861 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium. 1863 – Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece. 1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about two cents/acre ($4.19/km2), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. 1870 – Texas is readmitted to the United States Congress following Reconstruction. 1885 – The Battle for Kushka triggers the Panjdeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the Russian and British Empires. 1899 – German Society of Chemistry issues an invitation to other national scientific organizations to appoint delegates to the International Committee on Atomic Weights. 1900 – Archaeologists in Knossos, Crete, discover the first clay tablet with hieroglyphic writing in a script later called Linear B. 1912 – Sultan Abd al-Hafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate. 1918 – Beginning of the bloody March Events in Baku and other locations of Baku Governorate. 1939 – The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph (745 km/h). 1940 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Jingwei. 1944 – World War II: Allied bombers conduct their most severe bombing run on Sofia, Bulgaria. 1944 – Out of 795 Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitos sent to attack Nuremberg, 95 bombers do not return, making it the largest RAF Bomber Command loss of the war. 1945 – World War II: Soviet forces invade Austria and capture Vienna. Polish and Soviet forces liberate Danzig. 1949 – Cold War: A riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joins NATO. 1959 – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet for India. 1961 – The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed in New York City. 1965 – Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the United States Embassy, Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others. 1967 – Delta Air Lines Flight 9877 crashes at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, killing 19. 1972 – Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam. 1976 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: in the first organized response against Israeli policies by a Palestinian collective since 1948, Palestinians create the first Land Day. 1979 – Airey Neave, a British Member of Parliament (MP), is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility. 1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; three others are wounded in the same incident. 1982 – Space Shuttle program: STS-3 mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. 2002 – The 2002 Lyon car attack takes place. 2008 – Drolma Kyi arrested by Chinese authorities. 2009 – Twelve gunmen attack the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan. 2011 – Min Aung Hlaing is appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar's armed forces. 2017 – SpaceX conducts the world's first reflight of an orbital class rocket. 2018 – Israeli Army killed 17 Palestinians and wounded 1,400 in Gaza during Land Day protests. 2019 – Pope Francis visits Morocco.

#Events

[diaspora9ja]

Germany reach historic low with worst competitive defeat in history against Spain

Luis Enrique’s facet ran riot towards the 2014 world champions in Seville, with Manchester Metropolis winger Ferran Torres starring with a hat-trick

Germany’s humiliating 6-0 defeat towards Spain on Tuesday evening was their worst defeat in virtually 90 years – and their worst aggressive defeat ever.

Joachim Low’s side were torn apart in Seville. Ferran Torres scored a hat-trick whereas Alvaro Morata, Rodri and Mikel Oyarzabal all obtained on the scoresheet even after Spain misplaced Sergio Ramos and Sergio Canales to harm within the first half.

The outcome surpassed well-known losses such because the 5-1 defeat to England in 2001 and the 8-3 defeat West Germany suffered to Hungary in the course of the 1954 World Cup.

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It was equalled solely by a 6-0 defeat to Austria in 1931, and overwhelmed solely by a 9-0 thrashing towards England Amateurs in 1909 – when the idea of a German nationwide group was in its infancy. The final time Germany conceded six in a recreation was in the course of the 1958 World Cup, within the third-place play-off towards France.

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Unimaginable!

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— Purpose (@purpose) November 17, 2020

The result will raise serious questions about Low’s position as manager, with a severe inquest certainly on the way in which after the way of the defeat.

Germany didn’t have a single shot on track in the course of the recreation, and had solely 30 per cent of possession. Serge Gnabry hit the bar however the hosts may have scored greater than the six they completed with, having 23 pictures – 16 of which got here from contained in the penalty space.

Man of the match Torres grew to become the primary participant to attain a hat-trick for Spain towards Germany, whereas it was additionally the primary time Spain had ever scored three objectives within the first 45 minutes towards Germany.

Morata opened the scoring early on from a nook. Morata arrived untracked to move previous Manuel Neuer, maybe evoking reminiscences of an unmarked Thomas Muller stroking house to open the scoring in Germany’s well-known 7-1 evisceration of Brazil in 2014.

The shortage of marking from Germany’s defence proved an indication of issues to return as Manchester City duo Torres and Rodri made the sport secure earlier than half-time.

Real Madrid captain Ramos walked off with what looked like a hamstring injury earlier than the break however the defender will little doubt have loved his facet’s second-half show with Torres including two extra and Oyarzabal including some ultimate gloss late on.

Tuesday’s outcomes imply Spain, France and Belgium have certified for the Nations League finals, with both Italy, the Netherlands or Poland to affix them on Wednesday.

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