title: Development communication

text: Three broad and dynamic disciplines are presented. It is then instructive to highlight their commonalities or similarities to affirm their interface: (1) systematic (planned, organized, designed, or an approach); (2) change-oriented, preferably for the better if not the best (public good); (3) holistic and multidimensional; (4) pro-people or advocates of equity or social justice, and (5) largely participatory.


title: Development communication

text: Development education, being the youngest field or discipline, has two distinct emphases: sustainable development and global citizenship (Bourn, 2015). A number of modifiers have come before the term development over time, but the most recent is sustainable, hence, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Guru (2016) defines it as "a vision of the future that provides necessary blueprint through which the developmental activities of individuals and institutions can be streamlined on the basis of ethical, humanitarian, and professional considerations" (p. 85). It has three dimensions: social, economic, and environmental (World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002 in Guru, 2016). In fact, it is imperative for both development practitioners and policy makers to understand these dimensions.


title: Development communication

text: In the context of globalization, the need for communication is increasing. Many countries has invested in developing their technology which in turns speed up the exchange of information across different countries. This has led to a more complex work context in different institutions especially in business, education, and non-profit organizations. Employees not only has to deal with a lot of things that are not present in a very homogenous environment like observing other religious holidays, communicating in different languages, and also understanding different preferences on certain things. In a multi-cultural environment, organizational culture becomes more complex.


title: Development communication

text: There were countless of research that show how poor communication can lead to poor organizational performance. It is important for every organisation to develop an effective means to communicate internally and externally in the organization and find ways to develop a health knowledge sharing culture. Understanding the impact of globalisation is crucial for any organisation to be competitive in the global market. In this context, effective communication is expected to create a healthy organizational culture by providing necessary information that will bridge many gaps in the organization.


title: Development communication

text: Flor (2007) noted that "communication and culture are inextricably linked" (p. 112). Seemingly, communication constitutes culture and vice versa in any organizational engagement internally and externally. From time immemorial, effective internal organizational communication which reduces uncertainties and increases productivity in the workplace has been the common goal of many organizations worldwide. Consequently, effective communication processes could mean effective communication policies are in place explicitly or have been legitimized in practice. Making this complicated is perceived in how decision-makers, policy experts and organizational members interact in furthering organizational communication processes. Flor (2007) describes potential complexities at work that could burden more than could help the organization's communication culture.The really difficult part of communication work (and perhaps the most time consuming) is pleasing everybody from your superior, to the subject matter specialist and, finally, to the user whose opinions (and tastes) may altogether vary from those of the decision-maker. This potentially is the most time consuming particularly since, right or wrong, everyone believes that he is a communication expert (p.167-168).


title: Development communication

text: The roots of participatory approaches in development communication according to Yoon (1996) can be found in the early years of the 1970s when many people in the development community began to question the top-down approach of development dominant in the 1950s and 60s which targeted the economic growth of countries as its main goal. Development according to Yoon (1996) was "thought to be triggered by the wide-scale diffusion and adoption of modern technologies". Such modernization Yoon (1996) further expounds, was planned in the national capitals under the guidance and direction of experts brought-in from developed countries. Often, the people in the villages who are the "objects" of these plans were the last to know when "strangers from the city turned-up, frequently unannounced, to survey land or look at project sites". However, the demarcation of the First, Second and Third Worlds by the late 1960s to early 1980s has broken down and the cross-over centre-periphery can be found in every region, a need for a new concept of development which emphasizes cultural identity and multidimensionality is raised (Servaes and Malikhao, 2005). Servaes and Malikhao (2005) posit that the'global' world, in general as well as in its distinct regional and national entities, is confronted with multifaceted crises. Apart from the obvious economic and financial crisis, they elaborate that one could also refer to social, ideological, moral, political, ethnic, ecological and security crises thus the previously held dependency perspective has become more difficult to support because of the growing interdependency of regions, nations and communities in the globalized world. A new viewpoint on development and social change has come to the forefront according to them which "the common starting point is the examination of the changes from 'bottom-up', from the self-development of the local community".


title: Development communication

text: At first, speech, traditional and folk media, and group activities were considered the most appropriate instruments for supporting participatory communication hence, the practitioners in the mass media responded by innovating their own approach towards participatory communication (Yoon, 1996) which brought the emergence of community radios. The historical philosophy of community radio is to use this medium as the voice of the voiceless, the mouthpiece of the oppressed people and generally as a tool for development. Yoon (1996) articulates that in community radios, the people "produced and voiced the programs which were focused on local issues which were the most current and important making way for participatory communication to be practiced at both the community or village level and at the broader regional or sub-regional level". Most of the successes of community broadcasting are to be found in the non-formal education sector (Beltran,1993 in Yoon, 1996). Literacy programs have been effectively conducted via community radio and television stations. Other subjects covered by these stations include gender issues, farming, health, income-generation, workers' safety and occupational health, land tenure, and religious matters (Yoon, 1996).


title: Development communication

text: Mhagama (2015) posits that participatory development projects such as community radio employ a participatory approach to decision making processes and enable marginalized people to "define their own development path through the identification and implementation of projects that are initiated by them". He stresses that "participatory communication gives the local community a right to freely share or exchange information and to reach a consensus on what they want to do or to be done and how to do it". Tamminga (1997) in Mhagama (2015) addresses that in community radio the dichotomy between the rich and the marginalized sectors like women, indigenous peoples and the poor is broken by "allowing listeners an opportunity to shape the medium to meet their own specific needs and breakdown the monopolies of knowledge and power that marginalize them politically, economically and socially". In one project of UNESCO in partnership with the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), and the Philippine government a participatory communication project using community radio dubbed as ""Tambuli"" (Tambuli is a Filipino term referring to a traditional way of calling villagers to an important meeting)(Jayaweera and Tabing, 1997) was launched in 1991. According to Howley (2005) the project was able to make the community residents come to appreciate radio's potential as a forum to discuss issues of mutual concern allowing the local populations to give immediate and sustained feedback to local, regional and even national political leaders and authorities which afforded them greater opportunity to chart their own destiny.


title: Development communication

text: Howley (2010) as cited in Mhagama (2015) stressed that "community radio highlights people's ability to alter and rearrange existing media structures to better suit their needs". This is made possible Servaes (1996) in Mhagama (2015) concludes because community radio allows non-professionals to participate in media production, management, and planning of the communication systems.


title: Development communication

text: Flor (n. d., as cited in Academia, 2015) states that policy sciences and development communication have seemingly identical underlying function in society: to solve societal issues and make social change possible for the benefit of the greater majority. Development communication and policy sciences share key characteristics. First, both policy sciences and development communication are purposive. They serve specific and systematic functions to achieve a common goal which is to solve issues and problems in society in order to achieve change. Second, both policy sciences and development communication believe that, at times, power and corrupt practices in the government have the potential to undermine reasoned logic. This is evident in the commercialisation of mass media that advances profit over social responsibility. Thus, development communication and policy sciences have the role to combat such corrupt practices. The third characteristic that policy sciences and development communication share is to heed action for policies to take effect. Policies that remain in print/word without action is a futile enterprise. A policy to be effective needs to be implemented, monitored, assessed and sustained. For development communication and policy sciences to make great impact to the world, participation or engagement of stakeholders is necessary. Below is an analysis of a few studies that deal with how development communication relates with policy sciences, and how they fuse in order to effect change in the larger society. In a discussion on the policy sciences, Allen (1978, as cited in Flor, n. d.) states:Since communication permeates every facet of a person's behaviour, the study of communication is no less than one way to study policy making. Communication is a useful concept precisely because it is one more handle whereby we can effectively study policy making. Communication is one of those few variables through which any policy decision is dependent (p.69).


title: Development communication

text: Another example where development communication takes an important role is in the global health space. International organizations such as the World Health Organization, the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, ASEAN, and the United Nations have all used the principles of development communication to achieve global impacts. Specifically, on 8 August 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which was then composed of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand was established with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration). In the succeeding years, other Southeast Asian countries have joined, including Brunei (1984), Viet Nam (1995), Lao PDR (1997), Myanmar (1997), and Cambodia (1999) (ASEAN 2012a: 1). It was established to accelerate the economic growth, social progress, and cultural development in the region; promote regional peace and stability; promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest; provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities; and collaborate more effectively for the greater utilization of their agriculture and industries; among others (ASEAN 2012a: 1). Criticisms on the ASEAN have, however, noted various failures in the regionalism efforts in Southeast Asia. Previous studies have defined regionalism as "more than an institutional process of multilateral policy coordination and the negotiation of competing stakeholder interests... [It is a] collective and intersubjective identities" (Elliott 2003: 29–52). Recent regionalism efforts worldwide also worked either institutionally or through cooperation among governments (Anonymous2005: 2291–2313). Although some argues that the ASEAN's regionalism efforts were seen as more of cooperation among the governments rather than an institutional one, development communication can play a key role in bridging these countries and towards commitment to the Declaration.


title: Development communication

text: The youths hold a pivotal role in making a difference in society. Being digital natives, they communicate efficiently, develop networks pervasively, and create, influence and change social norms and practices. In short, being communication natives who can create a collective voice, they have the power to influence policies and change perspectives deeply rooted in society. For instance, during disasters, the youths are viewed as passive victims with no role in communicating risks or preventing and responding to disasters. Since disaster management seems to be predominated by top-down strategies, not bottom-up, the youths are seen as weaklings who are at the receiving end of calamity relief operations. However, Mitchell, Haynes, Hall, Wei and Oven (2008) seem to have refuted this perception based on the findings of their case studies in El Salvador and New Orleans. Mitchell et al. (2008) concluded that children and youths can be potential informants within informal and formal risk communication networks. Their case studies have shown that:children and youth can become effective conduits, vehicles and bridges as they are embedded within the household and community and can act as trusted two-way "translators" and communicators. Overall, children and youth were found to be effective communicators of risk when language barriers exist increasing the agency of young people, an outside agent has helped support the organization of youth groups, the community has strong social cohesion, and there is a level of distrust in political sources (such as police impunity) (p. 269).In the Philippines, a study by Fernandez and Shaw (2013) found that even until today, "young people are not given an active role in (or worse, are excluded from) the action toward disaster risk reduction" (p. 135). Fernandez and Shaw's (2013) review of national policies of the Philippines related to youth council participation in disaster risk reduction (DRR) shows discrepancies between ideal scenarios and actual youth participation in DRR in practice. So much more needs to be done in engaging young people in helping build disaster resilient communities. However, although these discrepancies exist, there are many success stories of Filipino youths involved in development programs with the aim to prepare communities for disasters. The National Youth Commission (NYC, 2013) believed that children and youth are not just a vulnerable group, but can play vital roles in their communities to prepare for future disasters. For instance, the Tanay Mountaineers Youth Arm, a Ten Accomplished Youth Organization (TAYO) 2013 winner, has been responding to victims of disasters not only in Tanay, Rizal but even in Quezon Province since Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) hit their town in 2009 (Rappler.com, 2014). The local government of Tanay has tapped the Tanay Mountaineers as the official disaster response team of the municipality. Another TAYO 2013 winner, the Hayag Youth Organization, carried out the "Langoy para sa Kaluwasan," a Swim Camp Disaster Preparedness and Open Water Safety Training for children and youth from impoverished communities in Ormoc City, Leyte. This is in response to the fact that many youths in Ormoc still do not know how to swim apart from the fact that water safety skills are not taught to them in school (Rappler.com, 2014). Despite scepticism, there still exists a growing optimism that policy scientists and communication policy developers can help review and reaffirm existing youth policies in the Philippines in engaging youth groups themselves for DRR projects, among others. Fernandez and Shaw (2013) posited that open and engaging communication is necessary so that the youths become more involved in disaster management and risk reduction efforts in their communities.


title: Development communication

text: Globalisation has been shaping this world into a small village. With this phenomenon comes urbanisation or massive urban planning that governments and private industries are advancing. With policies being created and governance being mandated, remote heartlands of countries are now slowly being transformed into urbanised places and spaces which in turn produce setbacks such as pollution, health issues and other social problems. However, one trend that is becoming popular in some countries is urban forestry which somehow demands for sound scientific information and public participation. According to Janse and Konijnendijk (2007), urban society's manifold perceptions, preferences and demands for urban forest goods and services indicate the necessity for socially inclusive policy planning processes. They said that successful policies can only be formulated by establishing close links with, for example, urban planning and municipal policies. Inherently, this means that close ties between research and policy are required. They discussed the outcomes of the NeighbourWoods research and development project in which a wide range of tools for public participation were tested in six urban woodland case-studies across Europe. Findings confirmed that a set of tools comprising a step-wise process from informing the public in an attractive way, collecting information on public opinion, towards fully participatory approaches such as direct involvement in decision-making is most likely to ensure socially inclusive planning. Communication with policy-makers requires a high degree of openness, clearly explaining every phase of the process, being open about each other's expectations, and developing relationships based on mutual trust (Janse & Konijnendijk, 2007).


title: Development communication

text: Despite power issues that lurk in most organisations and governments, Development Communication and policy sciences seem to advance specific and systematic functions to achieve a common goal for the benefit of the majority. This is shown in an increasingly global India, whereby an agricultural community in Pune, Maharashtra was faced with losing farmland to urbanisation and devised an unusual solution (Sami, 2013). Pooling their land together, the farmers in this community leveraged their social and political networks to take advantage of the changing economic climate in Pune and built a mixed-use township on their 400 acres of farmland (Sami, 2013). They formed alliances with other stakeholders, both internally within the agricultural community and externally at the city and state levels. Sami (2013) concluded that "ad-hoc coalitions in the power and politics of urban processes in an Indian city have emerged as a result of a political will and leadership vacuum in Indian cities in the face of the changing focus and priorities of national and regional governments as well as a growing gap in urban service provision" (p. 151).


title: Development communication

text: If highly urbanised and wealthy cities or countries are advancing urban agriculture, it cannot be denied that many of the Third World countries are also at par when it comes to improving agricultural processes and policies and in the informatisation of agriculture. In Malawi, one of the poorest regions in Africa, Agunga (2012) emphasised that the success rate of poverty-reduction programming could be greater if C4D education was provided for development decision-makers and field staff, especially agricultural extension workers. Agunga (2012) further stated that agricultural extension education can impact development by focusing on how C4D can strengthen agricultural extension performance. He implied that educating policymakers about C4D will increase donor investments in pilot C4D projects, a strengthening of agricultural extension systems, and success of poverty-reduction programs (Agunga, 2012).


title: Development communication

text: In the Philippines, a book by Flor (2007) entitled Development Communication Praxis discussed a rice scandal such that in the last quarter of 1990, the Philippines groaned as the price of rice and other commodities went up. Flor (2007) said: Rice farmers who were expected to gain from the situation were likewise disadvantaged. They were not able to sell their produce at reasonable prices. On one hand, their bumper crop entailed expensive inputs – certified high yielding varieties, irrigation, pesticides and fertilizer. On the other, middle men bought their harvest at cutthroat prices leaving them penniless and in debt... the nature of the rice industry is such that information, particularly market information, means money and power. For all practical purposes, the Philippine rice industry is controlled by a group of obscure Filipino-Chinese businessmen called the Binondo Rice Cartel... Employing a nationwide marketing network composed mainly of fellow Filipino-Chinese traders, the cartel has held a viselike grip over rice trading since the post World War II years that enable them to virtually dictate the buying price of dried paddy all over the country (pp. 114–115).What was done when this happened? Did development communication come into the picture? Was change sought? There were a few discussions on alternatives such as proper use of funds since it was observed that international donations for the agricultural farmers were spent more on the informatisation of agriculture (increasing need for computers, logistical aids, etc.) instead of investing into more practical and realistic methods to empower the farmers and improve their farming methods. Attention was also given to the rise of white-collar jobs which was cutting down the numbers of agricultural farmers tilling the land (Flor, 2007). The youths became more attracted to the life in the city and to seek for office or desk jobs than remain in the province and till the farm. With this, Flor (2007) suggested policy rationalisation: Rationalisation need not mean a reduction of monies awarded to the information sector. It primarily means the rearrangement of priorities and the increase of allotment to actual farming activities in the case of agriculture or to direct social services in the case of rural development. (p. 123).However, with the seemingly hegemonic influence of the internet and the impact of globalisation, the field of agriculture needs to adapt to radical changes in society for it to become sustainable. As policy sciences and development communication suggest, the goal of communication and policies is to empower individuals or groups, and this empowerment necessitates crucial adaptation to an ever-changing world. This brought agriculture into another layer: e-agriculture. What is e-agriculture? The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO, 2013) defined this as: <block quote>An emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved information and communication processes. More specifically, e-Agriculture involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture (p. 1).


title: Development communication

text: In a post on e-Agriculture webpage, Walter (2009), indicates that the Philippines has launched a Knowledge Working Towards Enhancing Agricultural Communities Program or K-Agrinet project with the aim to promoting the use of ICT to attain agricultural sustainability and competitiveness for the country's farmers. The project is a collaborative effort amongst the country's diverse agencies to utilize information technology (IT) as a tool to fast-track the dissemination of agriculture and natural resources information and technologies to farmers, upland dwellers, and rural entrepreneurs in the Philippines. The institutional key players in the agricultural and natural resource sectors are: (1) the e-Learning led by the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture of the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) which focuses on e-extension and distance learning for agriculture extension workers; (2) the e-Consortia led by the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCARRD) which intensifies technology and knowledge generation and exchange amongst existing partner R&D Institutions through improved ICT tools and applications; (3) the e-Farm also led by DOST-PCARRD that promotes e-commerce by initiating e- based farm to market opportunities through the FITS centers and their respective farmer-scientists; and lastly, (4) the e-Agrikultura led by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) tasked at mobilising and generating the participation of agrarian reform communities into the program (Walter, 2009, p. 1).


title: Development communication

text: Indeed, the goal of C4D and e-agriculture is clear: to improve the lives of people especially the poor and the marginalised. This entails educating and empowering them for the impact of change to be sustainable.


title: Development communication

text: Reports and studies show that women are mostly victims of many kinds of abuse. For instance, Kaunda (1990) described that a smallholder development strategy in Malawi, Africa puts emphasis on commercialization of agriculture, combined with decision making processes which are centralized in the bureaucracy, serving only to reproduce and perpetuate historical forms of social differentiation which are the basis of the women's subordination and/or subjugation.


title: Development communication

text: However, it can be seen in the past few decades that women have been successful in championing a cause and in letting their voices be heard in the society. Women from all walks of life have been engaging themselves into some development projects. For Instance, in the Philippines, the World Food Programme (WFP, 2012) launched a project in the Philippine island of Mindanao to helping women kick start agriculture in the region by providing them with the training they need to become successful farmers. This shows that women can be empowered and independent – two qualities that development communication and policy sciences are championing. HumanaPeopletoPeople (2012) is also promoting gender equality in India, whereby, to release the empowerment of women, the women in their communities have formed coalitions such as women self-help groups focusing on community projects. The women are empowered to bargain, to have economic influence, to earn money for improvement of health and education of the family and to gain a stronger social standing.


title: Development communication

text: Either in the First World or in the Third World nations, a huge number of women are making a difference in a lot of fields with the goal to contribute to character and nation-building. In the field of developing women's capacities to run and manage their small-medium enterprises (SMEs), Gail Romero, the founder and CEO for Collective Changes, has been providing effective technology platforms to business mentors for women's SMEs in developing nations. Gail continues to drive support for empowering women in business and global recognition of the economic engine that women can provide to their nations. Gail is also Senior Advisor for MacKenzie-Romero Consulting, Executive Producer for Rainmakers TV and carried the title of Ambassador for Global Health for the American Cancer Society until August 2011. Gail has spent the last two decades creating and directing the development and integration of innovative economic ideas and campaigns and strategic alliances with policy makers to advance women in leadership throughout the world... She has held numerous corporate board positions for start-up companies and guided new social venture partnerships. She has served as a visiting professor and international speaker and presenter on social justice, women's issues and education. Gail is a recent TED Prize nominee for her work to leverage technology to grow women's business skills ("Advancing Women in Leadership", 2014).Development communication and policy sciences have gone a long way to advancing the rights and freedom of people – children and youths, women, farmers, labourers, etc., with the goal that they become more informed and empowered to make decisions for themselves and their communities, to realise their full potential and to become a catalyst for change as Flor (2007) postulated.


title: Development communication

text: Agenda setting is an important topic in the Development Communication and policy sciences because it sets problems and issues into policies. It sets the tone of how policies are crafted, based on the needs of the public. Equally important in this discussion is understanding the Agenda Setting Process by which problems and alternative solutions gain or lose public and elite attention (Birkland, 2011). It is in this area where individuals take collective action and vie for attention. According to Schattschneider (1960), groups that successfully describe a problem will also be the one to define the solutions to it, thereby prevailing in public debate.


title: Development communication

text: Another idea offered by Schattschneider is the Theory of Group Mobilization & Participation in Agenda Setting wherein the issues are more likely to be elevated to agenda status if the scope of conflict is broadened. There are 2 ways to broaden an issue:


title: Development communication

text: When powerful groups lose control of the agenda, they are said to enter into policy debates to gain attention (Baumgartner & Jones), while other groups do venue shopping and ally with those who are able to advance their issues.


title: Development communication

text: From the vast field of issues (Agenda Universe), groups push issues meriting public attention "within the legitimate jurisdiction of existing governmental authority" (Birkland, quoting Cobb and Elder), moving to the next level (Systemic Agenda). Ideas that gain active and serious consideration of decision/policy makers go the next level (Institutional Agenda). If acted upon, it reaches Decision Agenda—the last level in the policy making process. Within these levels there are push and pull actions that happen between and among interest groups in order to pursue or challenge such initiatives.


title: Young Bosnia

text: Young Bosnia () was a separatist and revolutionary movement active in the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary before World War I. Its members were predominantly young male students, primarily Bosnian Serbs, but it also included Bosnian Muslims and Croats. There were two key ideologies promoted amongst the members of the group—the Yugoslavist (unification into a Yugoslavia) and the Pan-Serb (unification into Serbia). Philosophically, Young Bosnia was inspired by a variety of ideas, movements, and events, such as German romanticism, anarchism, Russian revolutionary socialism, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the Battle of Kosovo.


title: Young Bosnia

text: The rise to power of the popular Karađorđević dynasty in Serbia in the 1900s after the May Overthrow of the Obrenović dynasty by the Serbian Army in 1903, stimulated support by both Serbs and South Slavs for their unification into a state led by Belgrade. Support for revolutionary Yugoslavism in Bosnia grew with the rise of the Serbo-Croatian Progressive Organization in 1911, and drew in support for the cause from Serbs as well as Croats and some Bosniaks. Bosniak members of the movement included Avdo Sumbul and Behdžet Mutevelić.


title: Young Bosnia

text: There were a number of youth-oriented organizations before the rise of Young Bosnia, such as United Serb Youth in the 1860s and 1870s. Defining membership and the vague idea of "youth" (omladina) was debated at length among South Slavic intellectuals. One major obstacle to defining and organizing the youth in Bosnia-Herzegovina was the educational system, which underwent major changes in the Habsburg period. By 1900, a small but growing number of young men from Bosnia were studying in Prague, Zagreb, Vienna, Graz, Istanbul, and Belgrade. This put them in touch with Serbian and Croatian nationalist circles.


title: Young Bosnia

text: The Young Bosnia circle was formed after the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia in 1908, with significant influence from neighbouring Serbia. The ideologue of Young Bosnia and tyrannicide as its method of the political struggle, was Vladimir Gaćinović. In one letter to Dedijer, one of revolutionaries from Herzegovina (Božidar Zečević) stated that the name of Young Bosnia was first mentioned by Petar Kočić in journal "Homeland" () in 1907; according to some sources Zečević was mistaken about the year of publication. In 1911 Gaćinović published an article titled "Young Bosnia" in Almanac () published by Prosvjeta. The Serbian National Organization of Petar Kočić had ties with the Young Bosnia.


title: Young Bosnia

text: The members were predominantly school students, primarily Serbs but also Bosniaks and Croats. There were several motivations promoted amongst different members of the group. There were members who promoted Yugoslavist aims of pan-South Slav unification of territories including Bosnia into a Yugoslavia. There were members who promoted Serbian nationalist aims of pan-Serb unification into Serbia. Young Bosnia was inspired from a variety of ideas, movements, and events; such as German romanticism, anarchism, Russian revolutionary socialism, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the Battle of Kosovo.


title: Young Bosnia

text: Young Bosnia received some assistance from the Black Hand – a secret organization founded by members of the Serbian Army. On the other hand, Vladimir Gaćinović was the only Young Bosnia leader to join Black Hand, although after the First World War broke out he condemned the assassination in a letter (presumably as a way to evade responsibility).


title: Young Bosnia

text: Two notable organizations are referred to in connection with Young Bosnia: Narodna Odbrana and Black Hand.


title: Young Bosnia

text: During a Serbian Court Martial in French-occupied Salonika in 1916–17, Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis testified that he had organized the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, (the assassin was Gavrilo Princip). In the process, he used not only his power over elements of the Serbian military, but also the Black Hand. Leaders of the Black Hand in turn had penetrated Narodna Odbrana and used that organization to infiltrate the arms and assassins into Sarajevo.


title: Young Bosnia

text: ""The political union of the Yugoslavs [..] was my basic idea [..] I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be free from Austria""<br>-Gavrilo Princip during his trial


title: Young Bosnia

text: An evening before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Princip, Čabrinović and Ilić visited the grave of Bogdan Žerajić for the last time. Žerajić's proclamation "He who wants to live, let him die. He who wants to die, let him live", was quoted by Gavrilo Princip in one of the songs he wrote ().


title: Young Bosnia

text: The Museum of Young Bosnia was built in the period of SFR Yugoslavia in 1953, at the place where the assassination took place. It commemorates the assassins, popularly known in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as the "Vidovdan heroes". At the front of the museum was a plaque, inscribed: "From this place, on 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, expressed with his shot the people's revolt against tyranny and their centuries-old struggle for freedom. (Са овога мјеста 28. јуна 1914. године Гаврило Принцип својим пуцњем изрази народни протест против тираније и вјековну тежњу наших народа за слободом.)" In 1992, soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina destroyed both the plaque and Princip's footprints. German forces had removed the 1930 plaque in 1941. The museum still exists today, but nowadays documents aspects of life in Bosnia & Herzegovina during Austro-Hungarian rule.


title: Metacafe

text: Metacafe was an Israeli video-sharing website, launched in July 2003. During the mid-2000s, it was one of the largest video-sharing websites, though eventually began to be superseded by YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion. In August 2021, the platform's website became inactive, along with its social media pages being abandoned.


title: Metacafe

text: Metacafe Inc. was founded in July 2003 in Tel Aviv by Israeli entrepreneurs Eyal Hertzog (Chief Technical Officer) and Arik Czerniak (CEO) and raised $3 million from Benchmark Capital. In June 2006, the company closed a Series B financing round of $12 million. Investors included Accel Partners and Benchmark Capital. That September, the company moved its headquarters to Palo Alto, California and in October, Metacafe was ranked the third largest video site in the world according to comScore. It used to attract more than 13 million unique monthly U.S. viewers and streams more than 53 million videos in the U.S. each month, according to comScore Video Metrix (March 2011). The site's global audience was more than 40 million unique monthly viewers.


title: Metacafe

text: In its early years, Metacafe was similar to other video viewing websites such as YouTube or Dailymotion, but later turned into a short-form video entertainment. The company's partners had included marquee content providers such as major movie studios, video game publishers, broadcast and cable TV networks, music labels and sports leagues.


title: Metacafe

text: The site was supported through ads, and worked closely with brands in the entertainment, consumer electronics, telecommunications, consumer packaged goods, food & beverage, and automotive sectors.


title: Metacafe

text: In 2007, Erick Hachenburg, previously an executive with Electronic Arts, took over as CEO of the company.


title: Metacafe

text: In June 2012, it was reported that Metacafe had been acquired by digital talent agency, The Collective, it moved headquarters to San Francisco, California, with another office in Los Angeles.


title: Metacafe

text: In October 2006, Metacafe announced its Producer Rewards program in which video producers were paid for their original content. Through this program, any video that was viewed a minimum of 20,000 times, achieved a VideoRank rating of 3.00 or higher, and did not violate any copyrights or other Metacafe community standards was awarded $5 for every 1,000 U.S. views. Pay only for U.S. views.


title: Metacafe

text: The program had several success stories, some of which have been featured on national TV, such as The Can Tossing Video, the Beer Launching Fridge on David Letterman, and the Ron Paul Girl series by Liv Films, that has been featured on Fox News and CNN.


title: Elmore James

text: Elmore James ( Brooks; January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963) was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader. Noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice, James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. His slide guitar technique earned him the nickname "King of the Slide Guitar".


title: Elmore James

text: Elmore James was born Elmore Brooks in Richland, Holmes County, Mississippi, the son of 15-year-old Leola Brooks, a field hand. His father was probably Joe Willie "Frost" James, who moved in with Leola, and Elmore took his surname. He began making music at the age of 12, using a simple one-string instrument (diddley bow, or jitterbug) strung on a shack wall. As a teen he performed at dances under the names Cleanhead and Joe Willie James.


title: Elmore James

text: James was influenced by Robert Johnson, Kokomo Arnold and Tampa Red. He recorded several of Tampa Red's songs. He also inherited from Tampa Red's band two musicians who joined his own backing band, the Broomdusters, "Little" Johnny Jones (piano) and Odie Payne (drums). In the late 1930s, James worked alongside Sonny Boy Williamson II.


title: Elmore James

text: During World War II, James joined the U.S. Navy, was promoted to coxswain and took part in the invasion of Guam. Upon his discharge, he returned to central Mississippi and settled in the town of Canton with his adopted brother Robert Holston.


title: Elmore James

text: He began recording with Trumpet Records in nearby Jackson in January 1951, first as a sideman again for Sonny Boy Williamson II and for their mutual friend Willie Love and possibly others. He made his debut as a session leader in August with "Dust My Broom", which was a surprise R&B hit in 1952. His backing musicians became known as the Broomdusters.


title: Elmore James

text: James broke his contract with Trumpet Records to sign with the Bihari brothers through their scout Ike Turner, who played guitar and piano on a couple of his early Bihari recordings. His "I Believe" was a hit a year later. During the 1950s he recorded for the Bihari brothers' Flair Records, Meteor Records, and Modern Records; he also recorded for Chess Records and Mel London's Chief Records. He played lead guitar on Big Joe Turner's 1954 top 10 R&B hit "TV Mama".


title: Elmore James

text: In 1959, he began recording for Bobby Robinson's Fire Records, which released "The Sky Is Crying", "My Bleeding Heart", "Stranger Blues", "Look on Yonder Wall", "Done Somebody Wrong", and "Shake Your Moneymaker", among others.


title: Elmore James

text: James died of a heart attack in Chicago in 1963, as he was about to tour Europe with that year's American Folk Blues Festival. He was buried in the Newport Baptist Church Cemetery, in Ebenezer, Mississippi. Phil Walden of Capricorn Records raised funds for a granite headstone for James's grave. The headstone which reads "King of the Slide Guitar", features a bronze relief of James playing guitar. It was revealed at a dedication ceremony sponsored by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund in 1992.


title: Elmore James

text: James was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as an "Early Influence" inductee. In 2012, he was honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in Ebenezer.


title: Elmore James

text: James influenced many slide players, such as blues guitarists Homesick James, Hound Dog Taylor, and J. B. Hutto. His single string playing also influenced B.B. King and Chuck Berry. Rock guitarists Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Jeremy Spencer, and Frank Zappa have acknowledged his influence. In the Beatles' song "For You Blue", John Lennon plays a slide solo on a Höfner lap steel guitar; George Harrison encourages him with "Go, Johnny, go... Elmore James' got nothin' on this, baby".


title: Róger Guedes

text: Róger Krug Guedes (born 2 October 1996), is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a forward for Corinthians.


title: Róger Guedes

text: Born in Ibirubá, Rio Grande do Sul, Guedes started his career with Grêmio's youth setup, but was released in 2011. He moved to Criciúma shortly after, and finished his formation with the club. Guedes made his first team debut on 23 November 2014, coming on as a half-time substitute in a 1–1 away draw against Flamengo in Série A; he also assisted Cléber Santana for the equalising goal. His first senior goal came on 6 December, as he scored the equalizer in a 2–1 loss at Corinthians.


title: Róger Guedes

text: On 5 April 2016, Guedes signed a five-year contract with Palmeiras in the top tier; "Verdão" paid R$ 2.5 million for 25% of his federative rights. He made his debut for the club 14 days later, replacing Alecsandro in a 2–0 Campeonato Paulista home win against São Bernardo FC. Guedes scored during his top tier debut for the club on 14 May, netting the first in a 4–0 home routing of Atlético Paranaense. He scored four goals in 31 appearances during the season, as his side was crowned champions. On 31 January 2017, Guedes renewed his contract with Palmeiras, receiving a pay rise to upgrade his release clause.


title: Róger Guedes

text: In 2017, a video emerged of a Palmeiras training session where Guedes is seen taking part in a fitness session on a practise pitch from afar. His teammates would proceed to chase him off the pitch before pinning him to the ground and tying him up with wire with coaching staff and manager Cuca looking on. According to Guedes, this was not the first time he was physically harassed by Palmeiras players and that the justification for such cruelty was to toughen him up for big games.


title: Róger Guedes

text: On 27 December 2017, Guedes joined Atlético Mineiro on a season-long loan swap deal involving him and Marcos Rocha. He has said that the harassment he received while at Palmeiras by his teammates was the reason for the loan move.


title: Róger Guedes

text: On 13 July 2018, Guedes was loaned to Chinese Super League side Shandong Luneng Taishan for one year with an obligation to buy for €9.6 million. He made his debut for the club on 28 July in a 1-1 draw with Jiangsu Suning. After the loan move was made permanent, he would establish himself as a vital member of the team, being part of the team that won the 2020 Chinese FA Cup against Jiangsu in a 2-0 victory.


title: Róger Guedes

text: On 27 August 2021, Guedes signed with Brazilian club Corinthians, after rescinding with Shandong. Uniquely, he wore the number 123 jersey in his first season, because the number 23 (which he usually wears in honour of his son's birthday) was already taken by Fagner. After that, Guedes wore the number 9 jersey for the most part of 2022 season, later changing his jersey to number 10 when Willian rescinded his contract with Corinthians.


title: Rumeysa Gelgi

text: Rumeysa Gelgi (born 1 January 1997) is a Turkish advocate, researcher and front-end developer, who holds the titles of tallest living woman, largest hands (female), longest fingers (female), longest back (female) and previously held the title of tallest living female teenager by Guinness World Records. She is tall.


title: Rumeysa Gelgi

text: Gelgi lives in the Karabük province of Turkey. Her height is caused by Weaver syndrome, a rare condition which causes rapid growth among other abnormalities. It affects men three times more than women. Because of her condition, she usually uses a wheelchair to move, but can walk for short periods of time with a walker. Due to her condition, she cannot sit in seats under 50-55 cm.


title: Rumeysa Gelgi

text: Gelgi says that she wishes to use her title to raise awareness of diseases and conditions such as hers.


title: Rumeysa Gelgi

text: On November 8, 2022, Gelgi was able to fly on an airplane for the first time in her life. Turkish Airlines had to remove six chair rows from one of their planes to make her trip from Istanbul to San Francisco, California, U.S. a possibility. The event got media attention.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Christopher Henry Smith (born March 4, 1953) is an American politician serving his 21st term as the U.S. representative for . Though it has taken various forms, his district has always been situated in central New Jersey. Currently, the district contains parts of Ocean and Monmouth counties.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith is the dean of New Jersey's congressional delegation and the longest-serving member of Congress in New Jersey's history. He has focused much of his career on promoting human rights abroad, including authoring the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 and several follow-on laws. From 1993 to 2019, he was the top House Republican on the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He has used his leadership positions, including chairmanships, to author multiple pieces of legislation focused on human rights and conduct aggressive oversight of human rights abuses, actions that have earned him scorn from abusing nations.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith was born in Rahway, New Jersey, on March 4, 1953. He attended St. Mary's High School in Perth Amboy, where he competed as a runner and wrestler.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: After graduating with a B.A. in business administration from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey), Smith worked in his family's sporting goods business. In the 1976 election cycle, he managed the Democratic primary challenge of Steven Foley, an attorney and anti-abortion activist, against incumbent Senator Harrison Williams; Foley received about 15% of the vote, losing to Williams. In 1978, Smith switched to the Republican Party, and became executive director of the New Jersey Right to Life Committee, a part-time role.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In 1978, while working at his family's sporting goods store, 25-year-old Smith ran for Congress as a Republican. He lost to longtime Democratic incumbent U.S. Congressman Frank Thompson 61%–37%.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In 1980, Smith ran against Thompson again. Initially, Smith was thought to have a very slim chance of winning, but Thompson was indicted as part of the FBI's Abscam probe. With the race now considered competitive, Republicans considered replacing Smith, but two alternative candidates seen as more competitive, Hamilton mayor John K. Rafferty and 1978 Senate nominee Jeff Bell, declined. Helped by Ronald Reagan's strong performance in the district, Smith defeated Thompson 57%–41%.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In 1982, Smith's district was redrawn to include more Democratic voters and his Democratic opponent was former New Jersey Senate President Joseph P. Merlino, who had directly controlled the redistricting process and run a competitive campaign for governor the year before. It was widely assumed that Smith's 1980 victory over the scandal-plagued Thompson was a fluke, and that he would lose to the better-known Merlino. At the end of one of their debates, Smith approached Merlino to exchange pleasantries. Merlino was quoted as saying "Beat it, kid."


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: During the campaign, Merlino ran a negative ad comparing Smith to Jimmy Stewart's character in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". In response, Stewart released a statement endorsing Smith and denouncing the ad: "When I played Mr. Smith in that picture, I did not think he was a naive hick. I thought he believed in honesty and integrity in government, the right of the people and the love of his country." Merlino pulled the ad.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Subsequently, a federal court found the 1982 redistricting was impermissible gerrymandering, and Smith's district was redrawn to more closely resemble the one used in 1980. He has not faced another contest that close since.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In 2010, Smith received 69.4% of the vote, ahead of Democratic nominee Howard Kleinhendler, Libertarian nominee Joe Siano, Green Party nominee Steven Welzer, and American Renaissance Movement nominee David Meiswinkle.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In 2018, Smith defeated Democratic nominee Joshua Welle with 55% of the vote to Welle's 43%. Smith was the only Republican to win a congressional race in New Jersey that year, reducing the GOP to its smallest presence in New Jersey's House delegation since 1918. This was Smith's closest election since 1982.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith was ranked the 17th most bipartisan member of the House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress (and the second most bipartisan from New Jersey) in the Bipartisan Index by the Lugar Center.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In November 1997, Smith was one of 18 House Republicans to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton. The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations. This was an early effort to impeach Clinton, predating the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. That scandal led to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998. On October 8, 1998, Smith voted in favor of legislation that was passed to open an impeachment inquiry. On December 19, 1998, he voted in favor of all four proposed articles of impeachment against Clinton (only two of which received the needed majority of votes to be adopted).


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: It was revealed in October 2015 that intern applicants for Smith's office were required to rate "27 different personalities, organizations and political issues to indicate whether they tend to agree with them, disagree with them or have no opinion or knowledge of them." Personalities and organizations included Rachel Maddow, the Pope, Planned Parenthood, and The National Right to Life Committee.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith has been nominated and confirmed twice to serve as a member of the United States delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. He was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2015 for the 70th session and by President Donald Trump in 2017 for the 72nd session.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith voted against both articles in the first impeachment of Donald Trump, and the sole article of the second impeachment of Donald Trump.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Unlike most House Republicans, Smith did not file an "amicus curiae" brief supporting Texas in "Texas v. Pennsylvania".


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: On February 4, 2021, Smith voted with 10 other House Republicans and all House Democrats to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her House Education and Labor Committee and House Budget Committee assignments in response to controversial political statements she had made. On November 5, 2021, Smith was one of 13 House Republicans to break with their party and vote with a majority of Democrats in favor of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In January 2001, Smith became chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee and pushed for policies Republican leadership opposed, including voting against the Republican and for the Democratic budget resolution because the latter included more spending on veterans programs. In 2004, Smith refused to endorse the Republican budget proposal unless it included more money for veterans. In a congressional hearing, Smith articulated his belief that the Bush Administration's budget request was $1.2 billion less than the Department of Veterans Affairs actually required, embarrassing the administration and Republican congressional leadership. During his four years as committee chair, Smith wrote 22 bills addressing veterans' issues. His unwillingness to follow the party line resulted in the House Republican Caucus removing him from his chairmanship (and from the committee altogether) in January 2005, at the beginning of the 109th Congress, with the chairmanship going to Steve Buyer instead, two years short of the normal six-year term. Veterans' groups such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Paralyzed Veterans of America praised Smith and criticized the decision to remove him.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: On May 6, 2014, Smith introduced the bill International Megan's Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking (H.R. 4573; 113th Congress), which would require the notification of foreign governments when an American registered as a sex offender of children travels to their country.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: As of April 2020, FiveThirtyEight reported that Smith voted in line with Trump's position 67.7% of the time, the third-lowest percentage among Republican members of Congress after fellow New Jerseyan Jeff Van Drew and Brian Fitzpatrick. Relative to the partisan lean of their respective districts, only Van Drew and Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie were less likely than Smith to vote with Trump.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In March 2021, Smith was one of eight Republicans to join the House majority in passing the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith is strongly anti-abortion. He is a co-chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus and is co-chair of the Trump Administration's Pro-Life Coalition. He supports the Mexico City policy, which blocks U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling or referrals, advocate to decriminalize abortion or expand abortion services. In 2000, he voted for the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2000.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith expressed support for the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, an amendment to America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith has introduced various forms of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, starting with the original proposal in 2011. The 2011 proposal prohibited federal funds from being used for health benefits that cover abortion, unless in the case of rape, incest or if the woman could die. It also disqualified abortions from being written off on taxes. In 2013, Smith reintroduced the proposal, which further restricted insurance coverage of abortions. The bill passed the House but has yet to be voted on by the Senate.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith voted for the original 1994 Violence Against Women Act and co-sponsored the reauthorization bills of 2000 and 2005, the latter of which provided $1.6 billion for investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose to leave un-prosecuted. Smith voted against reauthorizing the act in 2013, due to the Senate version of the bill's cutting of funding for the Trafficking in Persons Office at the State Department, which Smith's Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 created.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: As of 2020, Smith has a lifetime score of 62% on the National Environmental Scorecard of the League of Conservation Voters, the second-highest of any sitting Republican member (after Brian Fitzpatrick). He has said, "Climate change is a global challenge that must be addressed with a global solution."


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith backed a carbon emissions trading bill to tackle climate change, one of only eight Republicans in the House to do so.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith opposes concealed carry. In 2016, he was one of four Republicans to receive a 100% rating from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and has generally received low or intermediate ratings from pro-gun organizations Gun Owners of America and the National Rifle Association. Smith did not co-sponsor the Brady Campaign's proposed legislation to expand background checks for gun purchasers.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith was one of five Republicans to co-sponsor HR 8 in the 116th Congress, which would require mandatory background checks for gun sales.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith called the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting "tragic beyond words" and said, "The terrorist's motive, if linked to radical Islamist ideology, underscores the escalating national and worldwide threat from global jihad."


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Smith co-sponsored a ban on bump stocks with Leonard Lance.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith has written three major laws to address autism, including the most recent Autism CARES which included $1.3 billion in funding for research, services and supports and requires a report on aging out.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: On May 9, 2014, Smith introduced the bill Autism CARES Act of 2014, a bill that would amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize research, surveillance, and education activities related to autism spectrum disorders (autism) conducted by various agencies within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: On May 9, 2019, Smith was one of only three Republicans who voted for HR 986, a measure supported by all voting House Democrats intended to maintain protections of those with preexisting medical conditions to have continued access to affordable medical insurance under the existing provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Five weeks earlier, he had voted with seven other Republicans to pass a resolution condemning the Trump administration's efforts by Department of Justice to have the courts invalidate Obamacare.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith has been a longtime promoter of the medically unrecognized "chronic Lyme disease", and has pushed for the medical establishment to recognize the condition. The condition, not to be confused with genuine Lyme disease, is generally rejected by medical professionals, and its promotion is generally seen as health fraud. In 2019, Smith proposed an investigation into whether the Pentagon had released "weaponized" ticks infected with Lyme disease into the environment between 1950 and 1975. Scientists identified this proposal, which Congress did not adopt, as based on a conspiracy theory and claimed that an investigation was unnecessary and a poor use of funds.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith advocates for human rights, serving on numerous committees that seek to impact both national and international laws and legislation. He has stated that the bills he introduces to the house are meant to make the U.S. take "human rights seriously."


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In 1999, Smith proposed, as part of the American Embassy Security Act, to stop a U.S. sponsored program which provided training to Royal Ulster Constabulary with the FBI, due to claims of human rights violations, i.e. harassment of defense attorneys representing republicans in Northern Ireland. However, he voted no on a bill that halts arms sales to Saudi Arabia and removes troops from Yemen.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: He supported the return David Goldman's son in the Goldman child abduction case, which involved a trip to Brazil. Smith acknowledges the Armenian genocide and has made calls for the U.S. to recognize it.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In 2017, Smith co-sponsored an effort to prioritize human rights in Azerbaijan with Jim McGovern. The H. Res. 537 act also seeks to see further implementation of the Magnitsky Act regarding Azerbaijani officials, as well as a call for Azerbaijan to release all political prisoners. He supports efforts to deport Jakiw Palij, a denaturalized former American citizen residing in New York who failed to disclose he worked as a guard at a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. Smith condemned Turkey's wide-ranging crackdown on dissent following a failed July 2016 coup.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith has held congressional hearings and has proposed bills regarding human rights violations, specifically around women's sexual health, activism and religious groups, in China. He staunchly opposes the forced sterilization and forced abortions being implemented by the Chinese government towards women regarding China's one-child policy. Regarding the victimization of these women, Smith stated that "the agony that those women carry with them is beyond words. They talk about the pain that they carry for their child and for the violation by the state." In response, Smith wrote a bill, which was put into law in 1999, making it illegal for the U.S. to issue visas to foreign nationals who have been involved in forced abortion or sterilization.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith held a congressional hearing regarding the disappearance of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng. He attempted, in 2011, to visit Chen in China, when the activist was under house arrest, but was not granted permission. In response to the violations towards Chen and his family, Smith sponsored the China Democracy Promotion Act of 2011, which sought to prevent known Chinese human rights violators from entering the U.S.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In the wake of the 2014 Hong Kong class boycott campaign and Umbrella Movement, Smith co-sponsored the bipartisan Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, supporting Hong Kong's ongoing autonomy and the human rights of those Hong Kongers involved in nonviolent protests and/or those who have had their rights violated by the Chinese government.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In November 2018, Smith raised the issue of Xinjiang re-education camps and human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority. Smith said: "The internment of over a million Uyghurs and other Muslims in China is a staggering evil and should be treated by the international community as a crime against humanity. The Chinese government's creation of a vast system of what can only be called concentration camps cannot be tolerated in the 21st century."


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In October 2022, "Politico" reported that Smith criticized some US-based financial executives attending the Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit, saying that companies "that trumpet their so-called 'Environmental, Social and Governance Principles' at home are quick to discard these 'values' for a chance to make a profit from China."


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith has indicated his serious concern on the amendment of the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act in South Korea which passed the South Korean National Assembly on December 14, 2020. It penalizes activists who send anti-North Korean material across the border as balloon propaganda. It was passed by the super-majority of the ruling party of President Moon Jae-in who is keen to improve cross-border ties. Smith stated that "While I would hope that members of Korea’s Democratic Party would see how damaging this proposed legislation is to democratic principles and human rights, and thus reverse course, in the event that they pass such a law, I call upon our State Department to critically reevaluate the Republic of Korea’s commitment to democratic values in its annual human rights report, as well as in its report on international religious freedom. It may very well be that we will see South Korea put on a watch list, which would be a very sad development indeed."


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith supports religious rights regarding international human rights. He supports sanctions against Vietnam regarding its treatment of Catholics and China regarding the Uyghurs and Falun Gong.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith supported the Indonesian Family Refugee Protection Act in 2012, which would have extended the deadline for Indonesian immigrants to file for citizenship.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith authored the Global Online Freedom Act in 2007, but it did not become law. The proposed legislation was a bill "to promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect United States businesses from coercion to participate in repression by authoritarian foreign governments, and for other purposes." Specifically, the bill would prohibit American companies from turning over data about customers residing in "internet restrictive countries." The bill is supported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders. It is opposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: On May 19, 2021, Smith was one of 35 Republicans who joined all Democrats in voting to approve legislation to establish the January 6 commission meant to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In 2015, Smith said he did not consider same-sex marriage a fundamental human right as defined by the United Nations.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: In July 2022, Smith voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that required the U.S. federal government to recognize the validity of same-sex marriages.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith supports the Employee Free Choice Act. The AFL-CIO Legislative Scorecard, which tracks support for workers' rights, gives Smith a 61% lifetime rating, ranking him seventh of New Jersey's twelve Representatives, and 195th of the House's 435 Representatives.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: The AFL-CIO endorsed Smith for re-election in 2018, calling him one of the "best candidates for working people," due to his support for collective bargaining, opposition to the Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision, and support for infrastructure funding, among other reasons.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: As of March 2019, Smith is the only Republican co-sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act. He also supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which expanded the scope of the statute of limitations for pay discrimination.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith cited the example of Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement as a reason he support unions. He also said of his fellow Republicans, "What my Republican colleagues often don't understand is that labor is a human-rights issue".


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith has a "D" rating from NORML regarding his voting record on cannabis-related matters. He has consistently voted against the Veterans Equal Access Amendment, which provides veterans access to information regarding medical marijuana accessibility in their respective states.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Bob Wallace, executive director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars calls Smith "the best friend" of veterans. In 2004, Smith refused to endorse the Republican budget proposal unless it included more money for veterans. In a congressional hearing, Smith publicly articulated his belief that the Bush Administration's budget request was $1.2 billion less than the Department of Veterans Affairs actually required, embarrassing the administration and Republican congressional leadership. In 2005, Smith was removed from his chairmanship and membership on the Veterans Affair Committee for his aggressive role in seeking more funding for veteran-related causes.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith supports efforts to provide alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. In 2005, he co-sponsored a bill with Artur Davis to fund the creation of a network of national blood banks to distribute umbilical cord blood for stem cell research.


title: Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)

text: Smith voted against the 2017 Republican tax legislation backed by Donald Trump; he was one of five Republican representatives from New Jersey who joined Democrats in opposing the bill. Smith opposed the bill as "unfair to the taxpayers of New Jersey" because it dramatically limited the federal reduction of state and local taxes (SALT). and said he would be "forced to oppose" more tax cuts if legislation included a provision permanently extending the $10,000 cap on the SALT deduction.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The 2021 season was the New York Giants' 97th season in the National Football League (NFL) and their second and final under head coach Joe Judge. They failed to improve on their 6–10 output from the previous season and missed the postseason for the fifth consecutive year after a Week 16 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Following the season, general manager Dave Gettleman announced his retirement and head coach Joe Judge was fired.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Former Giants head coach turned Broncos Offensive Coordinator Pat Shurmur returned to MetLife Stadium with Teddy Bridgewater in his first start with the team.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: With 2:41 left in the second quarter and the Giants leading 7-3, their offense gave the Broncos the ball and didn't get back on the field until they were trailing 17-7. On the ensuing drive Daniel Jones had a key fumble giving the ball back to Denver, who then kicked a field goal to make it 20-7. Broncos RB Melvin Gordon later broke through with a 70-yard touchdown run, sealing the win for Denver. Shurmur won his revenge game, and the Giants were 0-1 for the fifth consecutive year and eighth time in nine years.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Despite a strong performance by Daniel Jones and scoring their season high in points, the Giants were plagued by miscues; a Jones touchdown run nullified by a holding penalty, a wide open touchdown drop by Darius Slayton, and finally an offside penalty by Dexter Lawrence during a missed field goal on the final play of the game, which gave Washington another chance. The Giants dropped to 0-2 for the fifth consecutive year and eighth time in nine years, and broke a five game winning streak against Washington, losing to them for the first time since 2018. The next day, it was revealed that Lawrence was not offside and in fact jumped when the ball was snapped. The Giants also lost starting center and team captain Nick Gates for the season.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Giants retired Eli Manning's number 10 at halftime. His first career start in 2004 and only home playoff win in 2011 were both against the Falcons.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: With 5:07 to go and a 14-7 lead, new cornerback Adoree Jackson dropped a possible game sealing interception in the end zone, and the Falcons tied the score 2 plays later on a touchdown pass to Olamide Zaccheaus. The Giants got the ball to midfield only to punt it away, and Falcons Pro Bowl kicker Younghoe Koo capped off a 6 play, 59 yard drive with a game-winning 41 yard field goal. For the second time in as many games, the Giants dropped potential game winning passes and lost on the last play of the game. The Giants were dealt another blow after the game when they learned linebacker and captain Blake Martinez suffered a torn ACL and would miss the remainder of the season.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Giants appeared all but down and out after two Taysom Hill rushing touchdowns for the Saints. After a 26 yard punt return, Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley gave the Giants new life on a 56 yard touchdown catch and run, and a 2-point conversion to make it a 21-18 game with 6:52 to play. After a defensive stop, Jones led the Giants on a game-tying drive forcing overtime. The Giants won the toss and immediately scored a touchdown on a 6-yard run by Barkley, winning their first game of the season and stunning the Saints fans in the Superdome.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: An already depleted Giants squad lost Saquon Barkley, Daniel Jones, and Kenny Golladay in the first half. A bright spot for the Giants was the breakout game for Kadarius Toney, who finished with 10 receptions for 189 yards. Despite the performance, Toney was ejected for punching a Cowboys defender in a skirmish late in the 4th quarter.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: In a Scorigami game where the Giants honored the 2011 championship team at halftime, they were down 28-3 after surrendering four 2nd quarter touchdowns. Daniel Jones, who cleared concussion protocol to start the game, threw for 3 interceptions.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Rookie Kadarius Toney suffered an ankle injury on the Giants opening drive and did not return to the game.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Giants won their second game of the season with dominant defensive play, holding the Panthers to 173 total yards, and benching quarterback Sam Darnold. After surrendering an opening drive field goal, they only allowed 7 first downs over the next 11 drives, 8 of which ended three-and-out. They also totaled a safety, interception, and 6 sacks.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Daniel Jones finished with 247 all purpose yards, including a 16-yard one-handed catch from wide receiver Dante Pettis in the 3rd quarter.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: It was later announced that captain and starting safety Jabrill Peppers tore his ACL in the contest and would miss the remainder of the season. He signed with the New England Patriots in the offseason.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Both teams played a sloppy and undisciplined game on a cold night in Kansas City. The Chiefs opened up with a 13 play drive only to be intercepted at the goal line. Daniel Jones threw a pick two plays later and Tyreek Hill opened the scoring for the Chiefs. The Giants managed to make some stops on defense and made the game competitive with a couple of scoring drives, including Kyle Rudolph's first touchdown with the Giants. Evan Engram scored his first touchdown of the season in the fourth quarter to give the Giants the lead, and the Chiefs tied it with a field goal of their own.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Throughout the game, penalties and clock mismanagement became an issue, especially for the Giants in the 4th quarter. In a 17-17 tie game, fullback Elijhaa Penny had a controversial taunting penalty nullify yardage gained from a first down, and a Patrick Mahomes interception on the next drive was nullified by an offsides penalty from Oshane Ximines. The Chiefs took advantage winding down the clock and kicking a game-winning field goal with 1:07 to play. The Giants didn't have any timeouts, and couldn't muster much of an opportunity to extend the game. With the loss, the Giants fell to 2-6 or worse for the 5th consecutive year.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Evan Engram scored a 30-yard touchdown on the Giants opening drive, and Hunter Renfrow responded in kind for the Raiders. After a Daniel Jones fumble in his own end, the Raiders kicked a field goal to lead 10-7. Both teams traded another set of field goals and the Raiders had a 13-10 halftime lead.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: On the opening drive of the second half, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr was intercepted by Xavier McKinney who scored a touchdown to make it 17-13 Giants. After trading another set of field goals, the Raiders subsequent red zone drive in the 4th quarter was cut short by a 25-yard missed field goal by Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson. McKinney recorded a second interception, and the Giants kicked a field goal after forcing the Raiders to burn their timeouts and led 23-16 for the final drive. Carr marched the Raiders down the field and into the red zone, but was strip-sacked by rookie Quincy Roche, his first in the NFL, which was recovered by Leonard Williams to seal the victory for the Giants. The Raiders outgained the Giants 403-245 in yards and 24-16 in first downs, but the Raiders were 1-6 in the red zone.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Giants improved to 3–6 with this win heading into their bye week. For his performance, Xavier McKinney was honored as the NFC Defensive Player of the Week.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Giants were overmatched coming out of the bye in front of a national audience and fell to 3-7 and last place in the NFC East. Their only touchdown was set up by an Adoree Jackson interception putting the ball on the 5 yard line, and offensive tackle Andrew Thomas scored his first career touchdown. The Buccaneers offense did not have a single play with negative yardage until Tom Brady was pulled from the game for backup QB Blaine Gabbert well into the 4th quarter.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: On the day the Giants retired Michael Strahan's 92, the defense rebounded from their lackluster performance in Tampa and played a masterful game. After a first quarter field goal, Eagles QB Jalen Hurts was intercepted by Darnay Holmes. The defense preserved the 3-0 first half lead on the last play by stopping an Eagles 15-play, 92-yard drive with a Tae Crowder interception on the goal line, a play that would prove disastrous for the Eagles.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: In the third quarter after a fourth down stop, the Giants opened up the scoring when Philadelphia native and Temple University walk-on Chris Myarick made an acrobatic touchdown catch, his first in the NFL, to give the Giants a 10-0 lead. Hurts threw an interception to Xavier McKinney, his third of the day. After that, the Eagles decided to aggressively run the football, rushing for 100 yards in the third quarter alone. Boston Scott got the Eagles on the board in the first play of the fourth quarter with a 1-yard touchdown run. After exchanging punts, Kenny Golladay had two critical first-down receptions putting the Giants in field goal range, extending the lead to 13-7 in the closing minutes.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: On the next possession with the Eagles driving, Dexter Lawrence forced a Scott fumble, which Julian Love recovered for the Giants with 1:39 to play. The Giants coaches opted to be extra conservative, making the Eagles burn all three timeouts in 23 seconds, giving them the ball back with 1:11 to play.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: After three completions from Hurts to rookie RB Kenneth Gainwell for 32 yards, the Eagles drove to the Giants 27-yard line with 37 seconds to play. On first down, Hurts threw a one-on-one ball to the end zone to Jalen Reagor which bounced out of his hands and into the waiting arms of Love, who himself couldn't hold on to the ball, giving the Eagles another chance. On fourth down after two stops, Hurts threw another pass to Reagor on the goal line, which he dropped again, turning the ball over on downs. It was their sixth of the game, and enough for the Giants to escape with the win.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: With the win, the Giants improved to 4-7. This was the first time the Giants had a winning streak against the Eagles since they won 3 in a row from 2007-2008. Joe Judge also improved to 4-0 at home against division rivals in his last win as Giants head coach. It was also their third home win in a row, the first time they had done so in five years.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: After the Eagles game, it was revealed Daniel Jones sprained his neck in the contest and was officially ruled out on December 3rd. Backup QB Mike Glennon would get his first start with the Giants.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The story in the first half was about field position. After the Giants were pinned deep and moved the ball to midfield, Glennon was intercepted by Xavien Howard who was touched down at the 3-yard line. A Dolphins three-and-out put the Giants in good field position for their next drive, and kicked a field goal to open the scoring. The Dolphins responded with a field goal of their own, and later capped off a 12-play, 89-yard drive to take a 10-3 halftime lead.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Giants kicked a field goal on their opening drive of the second half to make it 10-6, and there were 2 combined first down over the next 6 drives for both teams. Near the end of the third quarter after taking a sack, Joe Judge called timeout on 2nd and 23. Glennon was sacked on the following play and followed by a delay of game. This sequence deflated the Giants, who gave the ball back to the Dolphins in advantageous field position and scored to make it 17-6. The Dolphins missed a field goal to ice the game and gave the ball back to the Giants, who made it a one-score game again. The defense couldn't get any stops nor could the coaches keep stopping the clock, so the Dolphins kicked one last field goal and defeated the Giants 20-9, winning their fifth game in a row and reviving their playoff hopes.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Dolphins became the second team to ever win 5 games in a row after a 7 game losing streak (the first being the 1994 Giants). They snapped a 4-game losing streak against the Giants, defeating them for the first time since 2003, also their first time beating them in Miami. Dolphins WR Jaylen Waddle broke Jarvis Landry's franchise record with most catches in a season by a rookie (finished with 84 in 2014) with his 9-catch, 90-yard performance. The Giants fell to 4-8 on the season and backup QB Mike Glennon suffered a concussion in the loss.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The injury-ridden 4-9 Giants played against a 7-5 Chargers team in a must-win situation and were blown out. Kyle Rudolph had a career-long 66-yard reception which Elijhaa Penny capped off with his first career touchdown reception, which tied the game at 7-7 late in the first quarter. The Chargers scored 17 points on 4 possessions in the second quarter, including a 59-yard touchdown pass from Justin Herbert to Jalen Guyton. The Giants only gained 29 total yards in the 3rd quarter, and were down 37-7 before scoring two touchdowns late in the game. Saquon Barkley scored his first touchdown since Week 4, and Mike Glennon had his first career rushing touchdown.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Giants offense was listless for the fifth game in a row. After forcing a Cowboys punt to start the game, Mike Glennon was intercepted on the Giants first drive, which Ezekiel Elliott capped off with a 13-yard touchdown run. Greg Zuerlein made up for the missed extra point by scoring field goals on the next 3 Cowboys possessions to close out the first half and give the Cowboys a 15-3 halftime lead. The last of which was caused by the defense forcing a Saquon Barkley fumble, his first in the NFL.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Giants converted a 4th and 1 play with a 31-yard run by Devontae Booker, which set up another field goal to make it 15-6. On the next drive with 4th and inches on their own 29, Glennon was stuffed on a QB sneak. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott threw a touchdown pass to Dalton Schultz 5 plays later, but Zuerlein missed his second extra point of the game. Glennon was intercepted on the next drive, and after a series of punts, Lorenzo Carter strip-sacked Prescott to give the Giants the ball on the Cowboys 27 with 8:32 to play. Two plays later, Glennon threw a deep ball to the end zone which was intercepted by Trevon Diggs for his 10th of the season. The Cowboys burned the clock and punted to the Giants, who benched Glennon for Jake Fromm, a rookie QB from Georgia making his NFL debut after being on the Buffalo Bills practice squad just two weeks prior. Despite driving the Giants down the field, Fromm turned the ball over on downs, sealing the Cowboys 21-6 victory.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Giants fell to 4-10 and had their 5th season in a row of 10+ losses, and were swept by the Cowboys for the 4th time in 5 years, and the 6th time in 9 years. The Cowboys improved to 10-4 but failed to clinch a playoff spot when the 49ers and Saints both won later that day.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The next day, the Giants announced they were shutting down starting quarterback Daniel Jones for the last three games of the season.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Jake Fromm made his first career NFL start as the Giants visited the Eagles seeking to even their all-time series and complete their first season sweep of Philadelphia since the 2007 season.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: While New York got off to a sluggish start on offense in the first half, only scoring a Graham Gano field goal, the defense would pick up the slack, limiting Philadelphia to a field goal of their own. However, miscues on both sides of the ball for the Giants in the second half would lead to the Eagles blowing the game wide open. Fromm completed 6 of 17 passes for 25 yards and an interception before being benched in the third quarter for Mike Glennon. Glennon would finish 17 of 27 for 93 yards, a garbage-time touchdown to Evan Engram, and a pick-six by Alex Singleton. Lane Johnson had his first career touchdown for the Eagles late in the game.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: With the loss, New York failed to improve on their 6-10 record from the year before, and was eliminated from playoff contention for the 5th straight year. This was New York's eighth straight road loss to Philadelphia dating back to the 2014 season, as well as their 90th overall loss to their rivals.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Saquon Barkley had his first 100 rushing yard game since his ACL injury (also in Chicago), but the Giants fell to 4-12 and finished the game with -10 net passing yards, the worst by an NFL team since 1998. They also became the first team since 2009 to end a game with negative passing yards.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Robert Quinn set the Bears franchise record with his 18th sack of the season, passing Hall of Famer Richard Dent, and David Montgomery tacked on two rushing touchdowns for the Bears.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: In a near empty MetLife Stadium, the Giants offense only had 78 total yards through the first three quarters, including QB sneaks on back-to-back plays - 2nd and 11 on the NYG-2, 3rd and 9 on the NYG-4 - in the second quarter, to the chagrin of the fans in attendance. Washington had a 12-0 lead going into the fourth quarter after two first half field goals and a Bobby McCain pick six. Jake Fromm threw his first touchdown pass to Darius Slayton for the Giants, then Antonio Gibson scored a touchdown for Washington. After a Fromm fumble, Joey Slye kicked his third field goal of the game to close out the 2021 season for both teams.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: With the loss, the Giants finished the season 4-13 on a 6-game losing streak, all by double digits, the first such occurrence in franchise history. This was the second time in franchise history the Giants lost 13 games, and the first time the Giants had been swept by Washington since 2011. Joe Judge became the first Giants head coach to lose 13 games in a season. (Ben McAdoo only lost 10 games in 2017, as he was fired before the end of the season.)


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Giants recorded just 5 receiving touchdowns by wide receivers all season. Free agent signee Kenny Golladay and first round pick Kadarius Toney both failed to record a touchdown. Slayton's touchdown was the first by a Giants wide receiver since Dante Pettis in Week 7.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The Giants secured the 5th and 7th picks in the 2022 NFL Draft, the latter by virtue of the Chicago Bears in the Justin Fields trade.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: The following day, the Giants announced Dave Gettleman's retirement as General Manager after a 19-46 record over four seasons, and that Judge would remain as head coach in 2022. However, the team went back on that promise and fired Judge the following day, finishing with a 10-23 record.


title: 2021 New York Giants season

text: Notably, this was the last game the Washington Football Team played with their temporary moniker, rebranding as the Commanders ahead the 2022 season after changing their name in 2020 due to social unrest caused by the George Floyd protests.


title: Alpha compositing

text: In computer graphics, alpha compositing or alpha blending is the process of combining one image with a background to create the appearance of partial or full transparency. It is often useful to render picture elements (pixels) in separate passes or layers and then combine the resulting 2D images into a single, final image called the composite. Compositing is used extensively in film when combining computer-rendered image elements with live footage. Alpha blending is also used in 2D computer graphics to put rasterized foreground elements over a background.


title: Alpha compositing

text: In order to combine the picture elements of the images correctly, it is necessary to keep an associated "matte" for each element in addition to its color. This matte layer contains the coverage information—the shape of the geometry being drawn—making it possible to distinguish between parts of the image where something was drawn and parts that are empty.


title: Alpha compositing

text: Although the most basic operation of combining two images is to put one over the other, there are many operations, or blend modes, that are used.


title: Alpha compositing

text: In a 2D image a color combination is stored for each picture element (pixel), often a combination of red, green and blue (RGB). When alpha compositing is in use, each pixel has an additional numeric value stored in its alpha channel, with a value ranging from 0 to 1. A value of 0 means that the pixel is fully transparent and the color in the pixel beneath will show through. A value of 1 means that the pixel is fully opaque.


title: Alpha compositing

text: With the existence of an alpha channel, it is possible to express compositing image operations using a "compositing algebra". For example, given two images "A" and "B", the most common compositing operation is to combine the images so that "A" appears in the foreground and "B" appears in the background. This can be expressed as "A" over "B". In addition to over, Porter and Duff defined the compositing operators in, held out by (the phrase refers to holdout matting and is usually abbreviated out), atop, and xor (and the reverse operators rover, rin, rout, and ratop) from a consideration of choices in blending the colors of two pixels when their coverage is, conceptually, overlaid orthogonally:


title: Alpha compositing

text: As an example, the over operator can be accomplished by applying the following formula to each pixel:


title: Alpha compositing

text: Here formula_3, formula_4 and formula_5 stand for the color components of the pixels in the result, image A and image B respectively, applied to each color channel (red/green/blue) individually, whereas formula_6, formula_7 and formula_8 are the alpha values of the respective pixels.


title: Alpha compositing

text: The over operator is, in effect, the normal painting operation (see Painter's algorithm). Bruce A. Wallace derived the over operator based on a physical reflectance/transmittance model, as opposed to Duff's geometrical approach. The in and out operators are the alpha compositing equivalent of clipping. The two use only the alpha channel of the second image and ignore the color components.


title: Alpha compositing

text: If an alpha channel is used in an image, there are two common representations that are available: straight (unassociated) alpha and premultiplied (associated) alpha.


title: Alpha compositing

text: A more obvious advantage of this is that, in certain situations, it can save a subsequent multiplication (e.g. if the image is used many times during later compositing). However, the most significant advantages of using premultiplied alpha are for correctness and simplicity rather than performance: premultiplied alpha allows correct filtering and blending. In addition, premultiplied alpha allows regions of regular alpha blending and regions with additive blending mode to be encoded within the same image.


title: Alpha compositing

text: Assuming that the pixel color is expressed using "straight" (non-premultiplied) RGBA tuples, a pixel value of (0, 0.7, 0, 0.5) implies a pixel that has 70% of the maximum green intensity and 50% opacity. If the color were fully green, its RGBA would be (0, 1, 0, 0.5).


title: Alpha compositing

text: However, if this pixel uses premultiplied alpha, all of the RGB values (0, 0.7, 0) are multiplied, or scaled for occlusion, by the alpha value 0.5, which is appended to yield (0, 0.35, 0, 0.5). In this case, the 0.35 value for the G channel actually indicates 70% green emission intensity (with 50% occlusion). A pure green emission would be encoded as (0, 0.5, 0, 0.5). Knowing whether a file uses straight or premultiplied alpha is essential to correctly process or composite it, as a different calculation is required. It is also entirely acceptable to have an RGBA triplet express emission with no occlusion, such as (0.4, 0.3, 0.2, 0.0). Fires and flames, glows, flares, and other such phenomena can only be represented using associated / premultiplied alpha.


title: Alpha compositing

text: The only important difference is in the dynamic range of the color representation in finite precision numerical calculations (which is in all applications): premultiplied alpha has a unique representation for transparent pixels, avoiding the need to choose a "clear color" or resultant artifacts such as edge fringes (see the next paragraphs). In an associated / premultiplied alpha image, the RGB represents the emission amount, while the alpha is occlusion. Premultiplied alpha has some practical advantages over normal alpha blending because interpolation and filtering give correct results.


title: Alpha compositing

text: Ordinary interpolation without premultiplied alpha leads to RGB information leaking out of fully transparent (A=0) regions, even though this RGB information is ideally invisible. When interpolating or filtering images with abrupt borders between transparent and opaque regions, this can result in borders of colors that were not visible in the original image. Errors also occur in areas of semitransparency because the RGB components are not correctly weighted, giving incorrectly high weighting to the color of the more transparent (lower alpha) pixels.