Survivors
The Pilgrims, themselves, lived on the edge of survival that first winter. They had begun well enough. After 66 days crossing the stormy Atlantic, 104 Pilgrims beheld the New World, including a baby boy, Oceanus, born at sea.
"Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land," wrote Governor William Bradford, "they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element."
But within four months, scurvy, pneumonia, and a virulent strain of tuberculosis had cut down whole families of Pilgrims. As the sickness raged, only six or seven persons in the whole company were strong enough to tend the sick and comfort the dying.
Six died in December, then eight in January, seventeen in February. Of March, Bradford wrote, "This month thirteen of our number die ... scarce fifty remain, the living scarce able to bury the dead." Of eighteen married women, only three remained. Baby Oceanus died.
Indian Aid
But in April, when it was time to put in gardens, the Indians whom they feared came to their aid. One day, unannounced, the tall, powerful warrior Samoset strode into their camp, armed with a bow and arrows, nearly naked except for a leather string around his waist "with a fringe about a span long, or a little more," the embarrassed Bradford recorded. To the Pilgrims' surprise, Samoset greeted them with the word, "Welcome!" He had learned some English from fishermen in his native Maine. Later, he introduced the Pilgrims to Massasoit, chief of the neighboring Wampanoag tribe, and to Squanto, last known survivor of the Patuxets.
Though the Wampanoag braves towered over the short Englishmen, and outnumbered their tiny militia 60 to 20, they reached a treaty of peace that stood for forty years until Massasoit's death.
Squanto, who had been kidnapped and lived for a while in England, spoke their language, too. He taught the Pilgrims where to trap eels and how to plant corn. The Pilgrims, who had pilfered Indian corn the previous December, may not have been deserving. But this unexpected help made the difference for them between survival and starvation. Settler Edward Winslow described it thus:
"We set the last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and peas, and according to the manner of the Indians, we manured our ground with herrings or rather shads, which we have in great abundance, and take with great ease at our doors. Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown, they came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom."
Nevertheless, the harvest was good and the Pilgrims' food ration increased substantially. By fall, eleven houses lined the street of Plymouth Colony, seven private homes and four common buildings. The dying had stopped, and trade had begun with the Indians.
A Thanksgiving Celebration
To celebrate, the Pilgrims invited Massasoit to a harvest festival, and a hunting party shot enough waterfowl to feed the company for a week. But when Massasoit arrived, he was joined by ninety ravenous braves. For their contribution the Indians went out and returned five deer. It was a three-day feast of venison, roast duck, roast goose, clams and other shellfish, succulent eels, white bread, corn bread, leeks and watercress, with wild plums and dried berries -- all enjoyed with wine newly made from grapes that grew wild in the forest.
It was a feast of thanksgiving, of thankfulness to God. Edward Winslow wrote to friends in December, "Although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."
The goodness of God was often on their minds. Though the Pilgrims had suffered great loss and hardship, they also were aware of God's great blessing: the produce of the land, peace with the natives, the joy of life, and homes snug for winter.
"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,and into his courts with praise.Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting;and his truth endures to all generations." (Psalm 100:4-5)
Russia is dong what the American people wanted done. Is to drill off the coast and now they will will be tapping some of the best oil and we again will have it washed up on the shore, killing our animals and we won't be getting anything from it. The irony is people will sue the government for the oil spills and get reimbused for damages that we did not cause or create. If it was so stupid it would be funny. You can not make up how stupid out government can be sometimes.
Official: Russians want to search for oil off Cuba
November 23, 2008 - 2:24pm
HAVANA (AP) - Russian oil companies could soon begin searching for oil in deep Gulf of Mexico waters off Cuba, a top diplomat said just days before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits the island.
Russian oil companies have "concrete projects" for drilling in Cuba's part of the gulf, said Mijail Kamynin, Russia's ambassador to Cuba, to the state-run business magazine Opciones.
Kamynin also said Russian companies would like to help build storage tanks for crude oil and to modernize Cuban pipelines, as well as play a role in Venezuelan efforts to refurbish a Soviet-era refinery in the port city of Cienfuegos, according the article published this weekend.
Medvedev comes to former Cold War ally Cuba on Thursday, part of a tour of Latin America to strengthen his country's economic and political ties in the region. Kamynin said trade between Russia and the island would top $400 million this year.
Washington's nearly 50-year-old trade embargo prohibits U.S. companies from investing on the island. But Cuba's state-run oil concern has signed joint operating agreements with companies from several countries to explore waters that Cuban scientists claim could contain reserves of up to 20 billion barrels of oil.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited Cuba in October for the signing of agreements allowing state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA to invest $8 million initially for a seven-year, deep-water exploration project north of the famed beach resort of Varadero. If reserves are confirmed, Brazil would produce oil and natural gas recovered there over the next 25 years.
Opciones did not give details on what the Russian proposals would entail.
The Soviet Union was communist Cuba's chief economic benefactor until it disbanded, throwing the island's economy into disarray. Cuba-Russia relations soured after that, but warmed when President Vladimir Putin visited in 2000.
Steel has to go down, with much less building a buildings and cars, the price had to fall.November 23, 2008 - 4:08pm
By DANIEL LOVERING
AP Manufacturing Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Just weeks after posting record profits, steel makers are facing a harsh new reality: dwindling orders, production cuts, layoffs. And tougher times lay ahead, analysts say.
The steel industry had been riding high earlier this year, as surging demand from China and other countries, coupled with soaring prices for materials used in steel making, produced the most lucrative market for the metal in more than 60 years.
But the credit crisis and global economic slowdown have undercut customers in key markets _ construction, automobiles and industrial equipment _ sending prices tumbling and prompting steel companies to slash production, scale back shipment forecasts, delay expansion plans and furlough workers.
Lower revenues and more layoffs loom in the months ahead, and production may not return to levels seen earlier in 2008 for more than two years, according to some analysts.
"The downturn has been dramatic, both in the speed and the magnitude," said Christopher Plummer, managing director of Metal Strategies Inc., a consulting firm in West Chester, Pa. "It's quite concerning and alarming."
John Anton, a steel economist with IHS Global Insight, said he expects U.S. steel production to fall next year, and that steel companies will be lucky to make about 65 percent as much as they did in 2008. Revenues could fall 35 to 40 percent, and pre-slowdown production levels may not return until 2011.
Layoffs and production cuts are inevitable, but "as long as (steel companies) saved some of the huge profits they made in 2008 ... they should survive," he said.
The U.S. steel industry has been particularly hard hit by a decline in the number of new houses being built after multiple years of excessive construction, Anton said. While little steel is used in new residences, they bring shopping centers, hospitals and schools _ buildings made from larger amounts of the metal.
"The real big drop in steel demand hasn't happened yet _ that's the decline in nonresidential construction," said Charles Bradford, an analyst with Bradford Research/Soleil Securities. "That's just beginning to show up."
Booming demand from China, particularly construction, helped revive the steel industry after a severe downturn from 1998 through 2002 caused by the Asian economic meltdown and other financial crises, as well as a strong dollar that made U.S.-produced steel more expensive on the world market.
Steel prices also got a boost from companies passing along the rising costs of raw materials and services used in steel making: iron ore, coke, metallurgical coal, ocean shipping.
Then demand suddenly began drying up in August. China's expansion waned partly due to a drop in demand for Chinese goods, while North American and European construction tailed off. U.S. auto makers reported plummeting sales and continued shifting toward smaller cars that require less steel. The dollar strengthened, dampening exports, and steel distributors liquidated their inventories.
"Best I can tell, the buyers went on strike in August and they haven't come back yet," said Bradford.
The drop in demand has pulled down prices. Scrap steel, used by steel mills, recently slid to about $90 per gross ton after trading around $550 in July. The metal, from junked cars and other refuse, is considered a market indicator.
Meanwhile, hot-rolled sheet steel, used in autos, office furniture and appliances and considered the industry's benchmark product, dropped to about $785 per ton a few weeks ago from $1,080 in July. It had reached that lofty level after surging from $570 at the end of 2007.
Lower scrap prices have helped companies such as Nucor Corp., which turns the used metal into steel in electric arc furnaces. But even the Charlotte, N.C.-based company _ which relies on so-called minimills that can be shut down and restarted quickly to adjust for demand _ has declined to forecast its future financial performance.
AK Steel Holding Corp. earlier this month said it was temporarily closing plants in Ohio and Kentucky because of sharply lower demand, laying off as many as 1,190 workers, though a small number will stay to maintain the facilities. Earlier, the West Chester, Ohio, company lowered its projected fourth-quarter steel shipments by about 14 percent.
Also this month, Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp., which posted record profits for the three months ended in September, said it was laying off 675 workers in the U.S. and Canada due to weaker demand amid the economic downturn.
The company said earlier it had reduced production to match declining order rates and warned of weaker results for the rest of the year due to weakening demand in North America and Europe. It also postponed plans for a $450 million plant in Alabama.
ArcelorMittal SA, the world's largest steel producer and operator of 21 plants in the United States, plans to cut output by nearly a third and has predicted tougher times ahead. It cited a need to rebalance supply and demand and put on hold an expansion plan that would have boosted steel shipments by a fifth by 2010.
In a very short period, steel went from its worst market since World War II, from 1998 to 2002, to its strongest, said Plummer, of Metal Strategies. "And now you can see we're in a significant free-fall."
U.S. steel mills are now probably operating at less than half their capacity, down from full capacity in August, said industry analyst Michelle Applebaum. That would be their lowest point since the early 1980s.
Industry analyst John Tumazos said he estimates the weekly operating rate for U.S. steel mills will not bottom out until the December holidays. "Some of the workers being furloughed may not get back soon," he said.
The domestic industry has changed drastically since the 1970s and 1980s, when it collapsed partly due to competition from imported steel and broader economic problems. U.S. mills have become consolidated among relatively few international players.
Annual global steel production last declined in 2001, said Anton, of IHS Global Insight, citing figures from the American Iron and Steel Institute. The U.S. industry has been more erratic, with a 7 percent gain in 2006 and a 1.5 percent decline last year, he said.
China, the world's biggest steel-making country, has responded to sinking demand this year by cutting output 20 percent. Over the past 12 years, China's steel industry _ once comparable to the U.S. industry's output of about 100 million metric tons per year _ has added mills that together produce more than four times the amount of steel made in the United States.
In North America, about 40 percent of steel demand comes from the devastated construction market, while 20 percent comes from hard-hit automakers and another 20 percent comes from industrial equipment makers. The rest is split among smaller markets, such as the energy sector _ which uses steel pipe _ appliances, office furniture, and food cans and other containers.
But the industry's sudden pain will be felt universally.
"Steel production is going to be bad," Anton said. "It's going to be bad everywhere in the worl
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=1524678
I guess we need to figure out a way to make a buck off of Thanksgiving.
Historic Plymouth, Mass., hopes to become movie Mecca
But the staid and historic image of Plymouth could soon be tempered by a decidedly modern attraction: a $488 million film and television studio, complete with 14 sound stages, a 10-acre back lot, a theater, a 300-room upscale hotel, a spa and 500,000 square feet of office space.
The thought of turning Plymouth into a movie Mecca has won the enthusiastic support of many residents, but some don't like the idea of adding Hollywood to their history.
"We don't need you; we've already got Plymouth Rock," says Laurien Enos, one of just three of 116 Town Meeting members who voted last month against allowing the developers to build the studio on a golf course here, about 40 miles south of Boston.
While Enos and others worry about traffic and Hollywood glamour changing their town, most residents have embraced the studio.
More than 1,100 people showed up at a recent jobs fair hosted by the project's developers.
"I think it's a great idea," said Renee Stoddard, a waitress at The All-American Diner. "It's going to bring lots of jobs and more people into Plymouth, and more business for us. It couldn't be a better time for that. We get plumbers and carpenters in here all the time and they're saying there's no work."
Even though construction isn't expected to begin until at least April once the final approvals are set — and the studio won't be ready before late 2010 or early 2011 — developers Plymouth Rock Studios LLC have pre-leased about 60% of the office space they'll need.
Led by David Kirkpatrick, a former president of Paramount Pictures, with Earl Lestz, another former Paramount executive, Plymouth Rock Studios doesn't yet have financing. And that could prove a major obstacle given the current economy.
But Joseph DiLorenzo, chief financial officer of Plymouth Rock Studios and former CFO of the NBA's Boston Celtics, is confident lenders will come through. He notes that the film industry — though faltering now — has weathered recessions before and that the project offers sound stages where filmmakers can do everything related to production, including editing and scoring.
"Now that we know we can build on it, we'll go raise money," said DiLorenzo. "We've had letters from HBO, Warner, Paramount and Fox, saying, 'If you build it, we will come."'
Big-name producers and directors will come to Massachusetts because it offers filmmakers a sales tax exemption and a 25% tax credit for payroll and production expenses, DiLorenzo said.
For its part, in addition to a zoning change, Plymouth's Town Meeting gave the developers a 75% break on the studio's real estate taxes for the first five years. The exemption will gradually decrease over 20 years.
"We want to become the alternative to Hollywood for the film industry," said DiLorenzo.
That may be a tall order, given the competition Massachusetts faces from other states that also offer financial incentives, including neighboring Connecticut, which offers a tax credit of up to 30% for in-state production expenses, and Rhode Island, which gives a 25% tax credit on production costs for movies, videos or TV shows produced primarily in the state.
New York, which is widely seen as Hollywood's closest competitor, offers a 35% tax credit. And Michigan, also considered an attractive state for filmmakers, has begun refunding studios up to 42% of their in-state production expenses.
Nicholas Paleologos, executive director of the Massachusetts Film Office, calls the Plymouth proposal "enormously ambitious" but says Plymouth could be a big draw. The number of tourists visiting Plymouth has dropped in recent years from about 1 million a year to about 750,000.
"Plymouth is already a tourist attraction, and now, if you've got a place where people can visit the sets and take a tour of the back lots, it just enhances the tourist industry that's already there," Paleologos said.
Plymouth also is just 20 miles from picturesque Cape Cod, where ferries take visitors to the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, popular vacation spots for celebrities.
Since the first version of the incentive law went into effect in 2006, the state has seen a dramatic jump in the number of movies made here and the amount of money spent in the state by those productions.
The film industry spent about $6 million in Massachusetts in 2005 and $60 million in 2006. Direct spending more than doubled to $125 million in 2007, on eight major films, including: "The Women," starring Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan, and "Pink Panther 2," starring Steve Martin. Direct spending is expected to double again this year to $350 million to $400 million on 10 films, Paleologos said.
DiLorenzo said the developers expect the project to create about 1,000 construction jobs and another 2,000 permanent jobs at the studio, which is to be built on the Waverly Oaks Golf Course in a rural residential neighborhood in South Plymouth. The group secured the rights to the name "Hollywood East" from the Hollywood, Calif., Chamber of Commerce.
Even people who work at the historic sites in Plymouth like the thought of a movie studio in town.
Ann Young, the director of visitor services at Pilgrim Hall Museum, which houses the largest collection of Pilgrim artifacts in the world, said she isn't worried the glitz of a movie studio could taint Plymouth.
"We're all thrilled about it," Young said. "I think that (the developers) are trying to do something new. They are like pilgrims coming to Plymouth to start something new."
But some think the town has rushed, blinded by the thought of movie stars walking down the street.
Ann Marie Flanagan, a Town Meeting member who voted against the proposal, said the developers have not answered key questions, such as how they are going to finance the project and how much they hope the town will contribute in infrastructure improvements.
"People are just mesmerized," Flanagan said. "They're dropping names like Julia Roberts, and saying you're all going to have jobs."
DiLorenzo said the development group couldn't seek funding until Town Meeting approved the zoning change. The project also needs to get a state environmental permit and state approval for an access road.
The developers have pledged to provide buses to take tourists from the historic sites in Plymouth to the studio.
"We think people will come here for the tax credits and for the location," DiLorenzo said. "You have the ocean, the hills, foliage, the city — it's all here."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-11-23-plymouth-goes-hollywood_N.htm
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