I have always possessed three treasures that I guard and cherish.
The first is compassion,
The second is frugality,
The third is not daring to be ahead of all under heaven.

Now,

Because I am compassionate, I can be brave;
Because I am frugal, I can be magnanimous;
Because I do not dare to be ahead of all under heaven, I can be a leader in the completion of affairs.

Be courageous while forsaking compassion,
Be magnanimous while forsaking frugality,
Get ahead while forsaking the hindmost,
That would be death!

In war brings victory,
In defense brings invulnerability.

Whomsoever heaven would establish,
I surrounds with a bulwark of compassion.

(trans. Victor H. Mair)

Take a look at this TED lecture by Karen Armstrong. It's about twenty minutes long,
but well worth the time. She talks about a lot of things, but what I want to emphasize is her idea that the core of religion is not belief but rather action. Moreover, the specific action at the core of all religions is that of living a life of compassion. And the way to act out our compassion is by following the so-called "golden rule". That is to say, don't do anything to anyone else that you wouldn't want done to yourself.

According to many religious teachers, such as Karen Armstrong, this is not just one of the key principles of religion, it is the core principle. Moreover, many believe that it is not just core to some religions, it is core to all religions.

The Scarboro Missions have put out a poster that has quotes from the largest religions of the world that supports this point of view. (I have a copy on the wall of my living room. It was given to me by the Scarboro brothers for giving a talk on Daoism for one of their retreats.) (Incidentally, the Daoist quote is: "Regard your neighbour's gain as your own gain and your neighbour's loss as your own loss." Lao Tzu, T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien, 213-218. I believe that this is one the popular Daoist scriptures that circulated amongst the literate lower classes.)

This is not a common way for people to think and feel about others.

Sometimes we see them not as subjects within their own rights, but simply as means to an end. Mostly people understand that this as a bad thing, but even the best of us fall prey to it once in a while. Unfortunately, a great many elements of our society foster, encourage and reward this type of thinking. For example, business people ultimately have to think about how to make money off the work of their employees if they want to be really successful. While sometimes business models are so very innovative or productive that an owner can pay his staff really well and still make a tidy profit, this rarely happens. And when it does, competition usually conspires to drive down profits to the point where labour invariably becomes part of the equation. Finally, even if it were possible to pay workers exceptionally well, this leads to the issue of how much the owners are thinking of the well-being of their customers.

Unfortunately, many business leaders seem to be of the opinion that life is inevitably a "war" of all against all, and that this gives them the "right" to squeeze as much as they possibly can from their employees no matter how profitable their business is. (I had a friend who worked for a big accounting firm which allowed her to have a priviledged insight into the interal finances of some local businesses. She said that there didn't seem to be any correlation at all between how profitable a business is and how it paid its employees. Some made a huge profit and payed the minimum wage---others were barely afloat and paid their people well.)

Most people who do not have economics degrees would agree that greed is a vice. But a lot more people believe in the concept of "justice", which I would suggest is just as damaging to the ideal of compassion.

Justice seems to be based upon two different elements that seem to me to be totally antithetical to the idea of compassion.



First of all, Justice is supposed to be totally the same for everyone. This is symbolized on the statues of "Justice" by portraying the woman as being blindfolded. At first blush, this seems like a good idea. We don't want rich and powerful people allowed to get off simply because they are rich and powerful. This ideal is also sometimes described in terms that "justice should fit the crime and not the person". The problem with this is that when this principle is pushed to extremes, it can forbid the justice system from trying to understand the psychology of the individual criminal. And once we really do try to understand people, it becomes a lot less easy to harshly judge some of them.

This came home to me in an article I read in the "New York Times Magazine" about a lawyer who specialized in sentencing hearings. The reporter mentioned a specific case where an armed robber had stolen some money from the cashier, was walking out the door, turned and totally gratuitously fired on the person at the till, killing him. This was all recorded on video camera, so the issue of guilt or innocence was not up for discussion.

As you might imagine, the jury was howling for this guy's blood. The sentencing lawyer brought in evidence of this person's background that totally turned around their opinion. He brought in evidence that this fellow had been horribly, savagely abused during most of his childhood. One thing I remember was that he had literally been kept in a cage in a dank, dark basement by his father for long, long periods of time. This guy was a menace to society, so the jury had to do something about him. But because the sentencing lawyer had forced the jury to understand some of the motivation that went behind the "senseless act of violence", it was able to develop some compassion towards the situation he found himself in.

A second element that creates a clash between Compassion and Justice is that of "punishment". This is represented by the sword that lady Justice carries. In our society the legal concept of punishment has two elements. At its best, the idea is that if people experience a significantly unpleasant result of a behaviour, they will stop the behaviour. It is also hoped that others watching the punishment will learn a vicarious lesson and avoid copying the convicted criminal's behaviour in order to avoid suffering his fate as well. (My understanding is that both of these justifications are demonstrably false, most criminals are people with bad impulse control who never think that they are going to get caught---so deterrance simply doesn't work. And incarcerating people with signficant internal anger problems only adds fuel to their fire.)

At its worst, however, punishment becomes a public ritual where both the victims of this particular criminal's crime, others who have been subjected to similar crimes, and others who feel outrage at the existence of all crime, are able to give vent to their anger. It used to be that the actual execution used to be public. Now, however, the only venue that people are allowed to give vent to these sorts of violent emotions tend to be the trial itself, pages of newspapers and political debates. I suspect that one of the latest versions of this type of emtional spectacle has been the trial of Omar Khadr.


On the face of it, it seems cruelly absurd that this young man, who was raised in a crazy, pro-Al-Qaeda household and who was captured during a horrific fire-fight with special forces at the age of fifteen, would be convicted as a war criminal and sentenced to 40 years in prison. (The argument was that he is a war criminal because he was out of uniform---under that reasoning one would think that every single Taliban fighter in Afganistan would also be considered such. It appears that the real sentence will be eight years in Canada due to a deal negotiated earlier in exchange for a guilty plea.)

In contrast to these notions of retributive justice, there are alternative models of "restorative justice", that try to step beyond issues of "right" and "wrong", and instead consider how to heal the dislocations that crime creates in society. Similarly, models of "rehabilitation" try to use the best knowledge gained from psychology and sociology to try and understand why people commit crime and help the criminal work out ways of becoming a more productive member of society. As I see it, these systems of "justice" could be made to be compatible with compassion, but the fact of the matter is that it seems that they are becoming unpopular with our current popular opinion, which seems wedded to a retributive model based on venting strong emotions and punishing offenders.

I've put considerable amounts of space in this post to the criminal justice system not because I have any very cogent argument on the subject, but rather in an attempt to try and give people a chance to "walk through" the emotions involved in trying to understand compassion. As I it seems to me, compassion is a specific type of love that builds bridges between you and another person. In contrast, when we label someone as "evil" or "hated", we are building a wall between us. And I think that if Karen Armstrong and the Scarboro Missions are right (which I think they are), then when we call someone else "evil" and start to hate them we are walling ourselves off from the "divine" (I choose to call this "the Dao", but others will call it "God".)

There is a teaching story that talks about a man who is trapped on a cliff. Above him is a ravening tiger, below a pack of wolves. He can't climb up, he can't climb down. But right in front of his face there is a trickle of honey from a bee hive farther up. He sticks out his tongue and tastes the honey---nothing ever tasted so sweet.

When I was younger I thought that the "moral" of the story was that we face signficant problems in life and instead of dealing with them, we distract ourselves. As I've grown older, I realize instead that the story is about the fact that we face problems with no solutions at all. So all we can do is reach out and taste what sweetness that life does offer us.

The sense of peace and love that comes from honestly feeling compassion towards another human being is that sweet taste of honey that is the consolation of life. It is what people have called "God" or the "Dao". And the honey gets sweeter and deeper the more we expand our circle of compassion so it includes not just our family, or our friends, or the people on "our side", but also the dirty, the smelly, the angry, the wicked and our enemies. It even extends beyond the human race to all the creatures of the earth. Maybe in future generations our compassion will be stretched to include creatures from other planets.

But if it does, the honey of life will become that much sweeter.

Another long, rambling mess of a post. But if you wade through it, I think there are at least one or two things of value.

Filed under: Professional Profiles, Celebrity News

In our latest installment of our new series featuring top business people using social media to their advantage, we had the opportunity to interview well-loved actress LisaRaye McCoy. As you will see below, LisaRaye is an afficiando on Twitter who uses the platform to enhance her business enterprises in addition to her personal brand. Learn more about how this veteran of the large and small screens is using the power of the Web to create financial opportunities -- for herself and others.

What is your name and what do you do?
LisaRaye McCoy -- I'm a former First Lady, actress and businesswoman.

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By Al Giordano

September 11, 2001, was a defining moment for those of us who are authentic native New Yorkers.

But not in the way that many people think.

Sometimes my West Coast friends ask me to critique their artwork or their song or their prose. They say, "You're from New York, you won't lie to me like these California hippies who say everything is great and then trash talk us behind our backs." And they're right. If it sucks, I'll tell you it sucks. And if I say it's good, that's because it is great.

And you know what else sucks, kind Field Hands? Everything that is going to happen today in the name of my town is going to be ridiculous, my homeland to which I would like to return to someday, but not until that day when we will take it back.

I would like to share with you what I wrote in response to September 11, in October of 2001. I published it in The Nation, because Narco News back then still had fewer readers than The Nation. Now I pretty much only write for Narco News, because, well, the people who make history happen - you know who you are - are here in greater numbers than anywhere else on the Internet. You are the future.

We'll be back to our regular programming by Monday, but for today I wish to share something from the heart with you. My thoughts in the autumn of 2001, which are still alive today. Edelweiss:

 

Never Shut Up, New York

The courage of New York firefighters was honored during the "Concert for New York" at Madison Square Garden on October 20, and David Bowie noted the privilege he felt to play for his "local ladder" heroes, who step into danger to save innocents and extinguish fires. Among the entertainment all-stars present, the actor Richard Gere didn't merely talk or sing about courage: He did something brave.

Gere knew what he was stepping into. Five days prior to the concert, he had been slapped by The New Republic and its adolescent "Idiocy Watch" column for using words as inappropriate as "love and compassion" and speaking of the "negative karma" of terrorists. At the concert, Gere steered clear of any reference to his well-known Eastern religious tendencies, but he did repeat the newly explosive Western expletives. He seemed to anticipate, anyway, the boos that hailed down upon him from many of the 20,000 seats. His response was decidedly different from that of Sinead O'Connor, who had once burst into tears upon being jeered at a 1992 MSG all-star show. The officer and gentleman of the silver screen utilized the rejection artfully, like an expected stage prop, to remark that it is the same "love and compassion" that the firefighters demonstrate when saving lives. "That's apparently unpopular now," Gere closed, implicitly acknowledging that booing is, too, a form of speech, "but that's OK." It was a classy New York minute.

It took guts for Gere to turn the hose of his art upon the flames of wartime in a crowded arena. In that, he deployed a decidedly New York weapon: Speech.

New York City's historic refusal to shut up is now one of the national treasures that some newly minted sunshine patriots wish to bulldoze under the rubble of Lower Manhattan. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer lectured that we must "watch what we say" after the September 11 attacks, and even some journalists--formerly the warriors who defended free speech--have signed up as speech cops. As the networks obey federal "requests" to deny airtime to Osama bin Laden, some journalists have argued that Al Jazeera, the Qatar TV network, should be censored too. CNN sent six questions to bin Laden but roared that it will air the responses only if they are "newsworthy," while a Fox news official criticized CNN for even asking the questions. TheNew York Times and an illustrious media partnership spent a million dollars to recount the Florida 2000 presidential vote but have now bounced the project from public view on the grounds that the results--the elite of the Fourth Estate, alone, have seen the data--might have "stoked the partisan tensions," according to one Times reporter. (This suggests that the next Daniel Ellsberg may have to leak documents from inside the Times rather than to the newspaper.)

Is all this watching of what we say really how we are supposed to honor our dead in New York? Is that the way to pay our respects in the city that never sleeps nor shuts up?

Before speech becomes a "quality of life crime," artists and communicators are going to have to face the crowd, as Gere did, employing all the creativity and chutzpah we can muster. The changing political landscape is not entirely negative for this effort: The imminent exit of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani--he was pro-censorship before censorship was cool--further heightens the unpredictability of the drama now under way. To shut up or not to shut up? That is the question. It's up to you, New York, New York. To wit:

New York's greatness was not built of "tower(s) to the sun, brick and rivet and lime"--but by the likes of Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney, penning "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" in the wake of the last huge disaster to hit the nation through New York: the Great Depression. The Broadway show for which they wrote the song, New Americana, lacked paying customers, had to close its doors, and the cast was laid off. Two days later, in October 1932, Bing Crosby went into a New York studio to record that protest and lament. It became the number-one song of the year as it lifted the hearts of down-but-not-out Americans higher than any elevator could ever take us.

Now, in place of the authentic one, we're being fed a virtual New York: that of Gordon Gekko snarling from virtual Wall Street, "When I get ahold of the son of a bitch who leaked this, I'm gonna tear his eyeballs out and I'm gonna suck his fucking skull"; of Rudy Giuliani poking around the rubble looking for his unconstitutional term extension and for sheiks to scapegoat for the loss of liberties that he was already busy eliminating himself; of Donald Trump calling for us to build new phalluses into the sky where David Rockefeller's twin vanity towers stood; and of New York bankers lobbying in Washington so that the hunt for the terror money trail looks under every rock except theirs.

The Jets and the Sharks were street gangs in Hell's Kitchen who danced and sang in rhyme. Our reality was portrayed through utopian vision. In recent decades, virtual chic displaced all suggestion of Utopia-on-the-Hudson, evicting or jailing the hardscrabble Jets and Sharks alike. New York--indeed, all America--no longer reflected a dream but rather a sterile "economic opportunity." Now Boeing jets crash into towers and White House sharks seize upon the pain and fear of millions to install a New World Order that attempts to bury the Authentic New York in its censorious wave--the City of Speech; of workers, of poor folks, of artists and immigrants and utopian dreamers (there's a place for us, somewhere a place for us!), the people who built this city, whose uniting quality is precisely the refusal to shut our mouths.

Being a New Yorker has become, in this era, something akin to being a Vietnam veteran: Nobody who wasn't there wants to see what you've really seen or hear what you've really heard. Authentic New York--transgressive, messy, noisy, never particularly loved by so many of those who today advocate war in its name--had to be filtered by its artists, creamed and sweetened for world consumption; in songs from the Brill Building, from Broadway, and from the Bowery and Bleecker--hold the sugar--where the late Joey Ramone sang about turning tricks for smack at 53rd and Third.

Audible New York was brought to the screen by Lithuanian immigrant Asa Yoelson, a k a Al Jolson, who as The Jazz Singer headed to Broadway and ad-libbed for the camera: "You ain't heard nothin' yet," thus laying waste to the silence of film.

From a cabin on Kingsbridge Road in the Bronx, Edgar Allan Poe heard "the loud alarm bells, Brazen Bells! What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!... Too much horrified to speak, they can only shriek, shriek, out of tune.... How the danger sinks and swells-by the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells..."

From Harlem, Langston Hughes asked, "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?... Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?"

New York is where Allen Ginsberg saw the best minds of his generation "destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night."

New York is not a skyline; but it is Emma Goldman standing up to declare, "If I can't dance I don't wanna be in your revolution." New York is Ring Lardner Jr., the Daily Mirror reporter, blacklisted, imprisoned for refusing to snitch during the red scare, the Hollywood Ten screenwriter who wrote A Star Is Born and M*A*S*H, thirty-three years apart. And authentic New York is Leonard Alfred Schneider, a k a Lenny Bruce, shouting, as they dragged him in and out of New York courts, "in the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls," who died in 1966, convicted of obscenity, of not watching what he said.

New York is also John Peter Zenger, who 266 years ago dared to call the Colonial Governor an "idiot" and a "Nero"--imagine, at a time like that!--who was charged with libel for his seditionary patriotism. And New York is, above all, The People, the jury that disregarded the judge's instructions and acquitted that 34-year-old printer.

Now I hear Poe's bells every time I turn on the TV or pick up the newspaper, "too much horrified to speak, they can only shriek, shriek, out of tune," and I think of Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

From there I can see Our Lady of Mercy Hospital--it was called Misericordia when I was coaxed into the world at that spot--and I can touch the grave of my great grandfather, a construction worker from the hills outside Naples. There, I will sit silently to listen over the rustle of autumn leaves for the eternal speech from 350,000 tombs of my fellow New Yorkers, native and imported, who, even in death, demand that we never fall silent. They include: Irving Berlin; Duke Ellington; Bat Masterson; Sir Miles Davis; Maximillian Berlitz; George M. Cohan; W.C. Handy blowing his trumpet; Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes (who spoke out against the first red scare hysteria, of 1919); Oscar Hammerstein still humming the New York folk song "Edelweiss, Edelweiss, bless my homeland forever"--it was not in fact Austrian--which he wrote knowing that he was dying; the suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton; the Cubist Alexander Archipenko; the Bulova brothers making time tick; "Madame C.J.," the first black millionaire, and her daughter A'Lelia Walker Robinson, whom Langston Hughes called the "Joy Goddess of Harlem"; Herman Melville; Elizabeth Cochrane Seamans, a k a the authentic journalist Nelly Bly; Joe Pulitzer; Otto Preminger (Batman's Mr. Freeze); the Harlem blackbird Florence Mills; the publisher Generoso Pope Sr.; Antoinette Freauff Perry, immortalized by an award named Tony; Henry Gaylord Wilshire, for whom the LA boulevard is named but who got no rest in Hollywood, so he came to lie in New York; the rapper Christopher "The Big Pun" Rios, who died last year at 28; Anton Kliegl still shining his lights; second baseman Frankie Frisch--the Fordham Flash--resting now at home plate. Fiorello La Guardia--the florid-tongued New York mayor who stood up against anti-immigrant hysteria, reminding, "my dog came from a distinguished family tree, but he was still a son of a bitch"--is buried here too; so is Joseph "King" Oliver, the jazz pioneer, and Rudolph Schaeffer pouring a beer.... This is a crowd, like that on any other block in these five boroughs, that couldn't agree on lunch. But one sacred mission united them over the expanse of generations: to never shut up in New York.

More than 4,000 New Yorkers joined the Woodlawn 350,000 on September 11. We're each going to join them sooner or later. But authentic New York, the City of Speech that survived a revolution, a Great Depression, and two red scares, history's grand engine of free-speaking culture, will survive this hit too-if, and only if, we refuse to remain silent about anything and everything at this hour of moral crisis. Start spreadin' the news...loudly and without biting your tongue: New York shall rise again, not through war, but by speech.

• Hit F5 for the latest or select the auto-refresh button below
• Pakistan embroiled in no-ball betting scandal v England
• Man arrested over on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud
• Pakistan on the brink as England show no mercy
• Email all your thoughts to barney.ronay@guardian.co.uk

33rd over: Pakistan 121-9 (Mohammed Asif 1, Umar Akmal 55) Swann continues and Akmal blocks the first four balls before driving to mid-off for a scampered single. Now he's coaching Asif mid-over on how to bat, showing him how to play a defensive shot. He does just that. The partnership is 24 from 26 balls. Clive Morris points out: "The Pakistan tests vs. Australia over here were titled the 'MCC Spirit of Cricket' series. It wasn't used for this series, which now seems very (and sadly) apt." Geh. Neil Mackie worries: "With the allegations today, I'm more concerned that this will be an additional stick that certain people will use to beat Test Cricket with. It's evidently so much easier to manufacture no balls in Tests than it would be in T20, as there are little or no repercussions from no balls in tests. The longevity of the format also allows things to be pre-ordained irrespective of required runs or the balance of the match, whereas this would (hopefully) be much more difficult in the shorter forms of the game." Not sure about that. It's not specific to Tests. ODIs have had plenty of this stuff rumbling about.

32nd over: Pakistan 120-9 (Mohammed Asif 1, Umar Akmal 54) Anderson has gone one-day here in response to Umar Akmal, bowling a couple of fizzing yorkers as Akmal looks to "clear his front leg" but can't get a good swing at the ball. He eventually digs out a single off a high full toss to leave Mohammed Asif one ball to face. He survives I think my Pakistani man of the series is either the now-injured replacement wicket-keeper, who seemed to want to win a lot, or Ramiz Raja in the Sky box, who has been great. Sean Moore mopes: "Has anyone got any suggestions as to what I can do this afternoon when this sorry affair is over, to enable me to forget about for a while. Apart from getting blind drunk, obviously."

31st over: Pakistan 117-9 (Mohammed Asif 0, Umar Akmal 53) Oh yes, that's pure talent: Umar Akmal comes down the pitch and launches Swann for a big six over cow-ish corner. That was a very easy, free-flowing hit. Then he gets to his 50 with a square slog-sweep for four that beats the man out there. 50 off 40 balls with seven fours and a six. Not exactly what Pakistan needed today, but it's all they've got and he has played with great freedom and verve. Neal Geach asks: "How can it be Salman Butt when he is alledgedly the team's ringleader in this whole sorry episode. If we overlook this then it should still be Amir as he has bowled beautifully." Yeah, I know - embittered sarcasm. I just feel particularly let down by him: all summer he has seemed genuinely frustrated by his team's performances. I've talked him up elsewhere as a potentially very good leader. And then all this.

30th over: Pakistan 103-9 (Mohammed Asif 0, Umar Akmal 39) The 100 is up for Pakistan as Akmal plays a lovely lofted drive over extra cover for four. The next ball he plays a wild, slashing attempted pull and edges it into his pad. Anderson tries to look cross, scary and also forbiddding. It doesn't work. Two ball later Akmal thrashes the ball absolutely miles up in the air over mid off and just about beats the desperate charge back by Cook. More unhappy staring by Jimmy but this is at least entertaining in a slapstick kind of way. Ant Pease yawns: "I've just woken up. Have I missed anything?"

29th over: Pakistan 98-9 (Mohammed Asif 0, Umar Akmal 34) Akmal takes a ginle and leaves Asif with one delivery to face. He blocks stoutly. Guy Hornsby sighs, along with the rest of you, "Like many previous emailers on here, this has turned overnight from one of the best Test matches I can remember in a long time to one of the saddest. It had everything, and I guess, if the allegations are proven, it really will have had everything. So many great things - Broad and Trott's partnership, Swann's fantastic bowling, but more than anything, Amir and Asif's fantastic morning on Friday." Seems quite a while ago, all that.

WICKET! Saeed Ajmal run out 8 (Pakistan 97-9) Ah - a pointless run out now. Ajmal tries to scamper a single that was never there, Broad throws the ball in from extra cover and hits the stumps. Ajmal carries on running. This is all but over. The only remaining moment of potential match-drama: Swann can still get his fifth wicket.

28th over: Pakistan 96-8 (Saeed Ajmal 8, Umar Akmal 32) Here we go. Umar Akmal Twenty20-swats Anderson's first delivery of the over for a double-bounce four over mid-on, then swipes a single to deep square leg. Anderson doesn't like it and he gives him an angry stare. Akmal is batting with - if not exactly freedom - then a kind of desperate impatience. He has 32 off 28 balls so far. Dan Holt writes: "While I'm devastated by the present allegations, I think we should be cautious about extending suspicion to all the dropped catches. Given that the fielding team can't control the number of chances that come their way, it's quite a stretch to imagine this is something worth trying to influence. Unless most England teams of the 90s were also on the take..." They might be trying to chuck the whole thing. They might just be distracted by remembering when to bowl their no-ball or whatever. We're through the looking glass people.

27th over: Pakistan 89-8 (Saeed Ajmal 7, Umar Akmal 26) Swann carries on and tosses up a beauty to Umar that turns too much, hitting him on the defensive pad and probably missing leg stump. Lovely hard-spun off-break. Umar slog-sweeps violently at the next ball and whaps Alastair Coook on the foot, the ball rolling out to deep square leg for a single. Tom England points out: "First point: being labelled 'anti-screws.' That's what my mates generally say as well. Second point: I wasn't having a pop at the NOTW's reporting, but the sight of an old, blazer wearing man in a grand old building reading the screws struck me as incongrous. I made a cheap joke about it. Sorry." Fair enough, sorry about that, just not really got past the terrible, creaking solemnity of the whole thing.

26th over: Pakistan 86-8 (Saeed Ajmal 2, Umar Akmal 24) Ajmal defends stoutly as Anderson runs the ball in to him, then edges one on the bounce to Collingwood, who stops it but seems to have stung his finger a bit. Ajmal then glances nicely as Anderson drifts one in too far and picks up four. Ajmal actually looks a lot more solid in defence than some of those higher up the order. Peter Flanagan wonders: "Who is Pakistan's man of the series now? At close last night it would have had to be one of Mohammeds Asif or Amir. Now what? Can't be a batsman surely?" Salman Butt. He has captained with an exasperated dignity.

25th over: Pakistan 82-8 (Saeed Ajmal 2, Umar Akmal 24) Swann carries on and both Akmal and Ajmal have a bit of a waft at him. He won't mind. The ball is still turning. Tom Wootton is extending a qualified olive branch with full reservations:"This is not a defence, but cricket has been peculiarly susceptible to crooked practice since it began when it was heavily betted on back in Victorian times (wonderful scene at the beginning of Flashman's Lady, as always impeccably researched). It's not new, and it's not local to Pakistan (although it's again sad that the allegations are so easy to believe). There should not be finger pointing but soul searching. Pakistan have been marginalised in so many ways, and yet they're such a wonderful cricketing nation - this should not be an excuse for further marginalisation, but for inclusiveness and help."

24th over: Pakistan 75-8 (Saeed Ajmal 1, Umar Akmal 18) Anderson continues to move the ball both in and away from the right-handed batsman. And as Nasser Hussain points out the real sadness today - in isolation - is the come down from those two greta days we've had, both of which now seem tarnished. Joe Ludlum wants a bit more levity: "Come now Rohan (16th over), let us play nice. Keith Flett has previous for blaming anyone clean-shaven for anything, and Tom was clearly cracking wise about the stereotypical Times-reading Lords geriatric. Sad day as this is for cricket, surely the OBO of all places can provide sanctuary to make the odd joke through the tears?" Yeah, maybe. Just doesn't feel that funny. My joke bag is empty this morning. Anyone got any humour to spare?

Some analysis from our man at Lord's.

"This might not be a very sensible day for Guardian readers to parade some of the knee-jerk anti News of the World sentiments already displayed on the OBO, writes David Hopps. Like it or not, if the allegations are true then it would be far wiser to put the focus entirely on the true state of Pakistan cricket and thank the NOTW for doing a service to the game.
I bought my News Of The World from a newsagent on Finchley Road, where the guy behind the counter, a Pakistani lad as it happens, was poring over the story. "These are my heroes," he said. "No-one teaches them how to behave." He said a lot of other things as well, but they cannot be printed. But that's his dream destroyed. he deserves to know the truth, whatever the truth might be.
Some more points for discussion arising from the News of the World allegations:
(i) Match-rigging, or spot-fixing, is harder than it was, but if a cricket agent who claims to be responsible for managing ten players really is involved then how can you possible stop that?
(ii) Shahid Afridi, who is returning as one-day captain, has an undamaged reputation as does the bowling coach Aqib Javed - the man who complained about match-fixing to the Qayyum Enquiry between 1998-2000, an enquiry which resulted in Salim Malik being banned for life.
(iii) The defence that the cricket betting mafia can be frightening, and that the players have reason to be cocnerned for their safety, would not be so convincing were it proved that they were actively involved in a scam with their own agewnt.
(iv) Pakistan's astonishing collapse from a winning position in the Sydney Test - a Test when Kamran Akmal missed four catches and a run out - looks ever more interesting in light of today's allegations.
(v) Can Pakistan really field some of these players in the upcoming one-day series on the principle of innocent until proven guilty?
(vi) What of the so-called Essex police investigation into spot-fixing allegations made by Essex players against Danish Kaneria and Mervyn Westfield (since released)? What is the priority of this investigation? Slightly higher than putting it at the bottom of a drawer somewhere?
(vii) Will these allegations impact upon charities working in Pakistani flood relief? Would any players involved in spot-fixing therefore be tarnishing the image of their nation so much that they could be putting lives of the needy at risk?

23rd over: Pakistan 73-8 (Saeed Ajmal 0, Umar Akmal 11) Swann continues to find turn and Wahab looks a little out of his depth starting against this and swishing stiffly from his crease. And there we are it's a WICKET! Wahab Riaz c Pietersen b Swann 0 (Pakistan 65-7) as Wahab lofts a weak attempt at a very loose on drive straight to Pietersen. That was really a very lame appearance at the crease.

22nd over: Pakistan 72-7 (Wahab Riaz 1, Umar Akmal 10) Anderson continues, in search of some cheap mopping up scalps and Umar continues to play attacking shots, crunching a wide short on through square point for four. Like a young Robin Smith, that one, only without all the twitchy bicep flexing grrr stuff. Eoin Morgan is off: he's lost a contact lens. And Ali Shurmahi is on the full-expunge side of things: "Hi Barney, this surely is a terribly sad day for cricket. If those in question do turn out to be guilty, surely the whole series has to be expunged. Doubt lingers on in my mind about all those miss fields and especially those dropped catches. How many 1st class international teams drop that many simple catches? You have to feel for Broad and Trott especially."

21st over: Pakistan 67-7 (Wahab Riaz 1, Umar Akmal 5) Actually that was a genuinely lovely, ball-of-the-century-esque style off-break from Swann to the left-hander. What a way to get your man, pitching on middle and leg, opening the batsman up, and then turning sharply to clip the off stump. That was good enough to get even a batsman (and a proper one) who was - what shall we say - supremely motivated. Jordan Hackney says it all: "The involvement of Amir in this is obviously the saddest part of the whole affair. I remember in the days after the olympics worrying that there would be news of Usain Bolt failing a drugs test, and how disappointing that would be in light of his achievements and the subsequent affection from the public. Had it been Saeed Ajmal for example, it would have still been massively damaging but you could almost have tolerated it, Amir had been the real success for Pakistan in this series and it was exciting to think how good he might be and what records he might break."

WICKET! Mohammed Amir b Swann 0 (Pakistan 65-7) And now he can go and hide back in the pavilion again. On the up side - that was an absolutely wonderful delivery from Swann, beating the forward push on the outside and hitting off stump. A match that started with such vim and life for Amir ends with a shame-faced pair. This is hurrying along now towards a very early end. Three wickets for Swann.

20th over: Pakistan 64-6 (Mohammed Amir 1, Umar Akmal 5) Amir leaves and prods and misses at Anderson's away-nippers while some wag in the crowd shouts no-ball repeatedly (how long will this go on you wonder?). A good start for Jimmy today and these are his conditions: I reckon he'll go through Pakistan this morning.

Mohammed Amir walks out to one or two boos, but otherwise a potent silence.

WICKET! Kamran Akmal c Prior b Anderson 1 (Pakistan 64-6) It's worse now. Oh dear Kamran Akmal. 85mph, little bit of away nibble, decent line in the corridor outside off, a tame prod, a nothing shot and Prior takes a simple catch. Kamran is off in no time at all and guess who's coming out to bat now?

Pakistan, by the way, still trail by 308 runs following on. This is a proper walloping .

19th over: Pakistan 64-5 (Kamran Akmal 1, Umar Akmal 5) One lovely shot from Umar Akmal, leaping back very quick on his feet and cutting very hard for four just backward of point. He looks like he really wants to attack the spinner today - and who knows maybe one of these batsmen can go out there and just play with a kind of open-minded freedom and give us something to remember Pakistan by warmly. I'm not sure if that was a deliberate over-spinner from Swann but it's certainly very confusing for the batsman. That ball went straight on. The first one to Kamran Akmal turns viciously. David Carslake wonders:"Are there really honest punters out there who want to bet on such pointless, arcane details as when a no-ball is bowled? If I were a bookie, I'd smell a rat if anyone wanted to put money on something like that. "What do they know, that I don't"?, I'd wonder."

WICKET! Azhar Ali b Swann 12 (Pakistan 63-5) And there we go: Swann has gone for a couple of boundaries but gets Ali with a ball that goes on with the arm and he's bowled in defence playing for the spin. A very tame way to go, and now we have the Akmal brothers out there together at the end of a rocky Test tour for both.

18th over: Pakistan 56-4 (Azhar Ali 10, Umar Akmal 5) Anderson jags a couple away, bowling at 83mph and then sees Ali push an ambled couple through the covers. A bit wide from Jimmy, a bit of swing and seam but not making the batsman play enough. On expunging Graham O'Reilly writes: "Entirely agree with the posts at 10.44 and 10.46, except expunging the Test Match. I can't see any reason to penalise Trott and Broad for this." For the good of the game - how about that? But Trott and Broad are victims too, no doubt.

Finn was just finishing from last night. Here's Anderson to take over.

17th over: Pakistan 52-4 (Azhar Ali 3, Umar Akmal 5) Swann from the other end and as usual he is bang on first ball, a beauty that beats Ali's prod and there's a big appeal for a stumping but his foot was anchored. Hurray for England and they're unambiguous, undiluted desire to win. Ali then drives nicely for another three. I wonder if there will be any chat out there. Bet they've all been told to keep it clean. Umar Akmal reminds us that Pakistan can also play by driving the last ball of the over for a lovely easy four to the cover ropes where there is a huge gap.

16th over: Pakistan 45-4 (Azhar Ali 3, Umar Akmal 1) Akmal gets off the mark with a gentle pull for one and Azhar follows with a nudge through midwicket. Pakistan players and officials are out on the balcony reading a printed statement. Wonder what it is. They look very very sombre. Rohan Grove writes: "Tom and Keith: pathetic. You're the sort that give guardian readers a bad name. Talk about shoot the messenger. I'm no fan of some of the Murdoch empire's tactics but fair play to the paper today. A sad day for cricket."

10.59am: Ravi laments, and I'm sure many of you will agree: "The last two days have been among my favourite two days ever of test cricket. Today I feel as if there's no point. Should I watch the F1 instead? What a way to take away any joy I've taken in all this..." Well, not perhaps F1 if you want a proper sport, but I know what you mean. Finn will open the bowling.

10.58am: Robert Scott writes, and he's right: "The ECB should refund all ticket money for today's test. It is no longer a cricket match and even if it does start it will be over quickly. There is no way the Pakistan team(or England) can focus on cricket. The ECB, PCB and ICC have no balls of their own. If proven guilty there should be life bans on the players concerned. But it wont happen; they will get a ban and then get re-instated in 12 months. That is the history. The whole summer series looks tarnished : For instance how about the 11 dropped catches at Edgbaston? Most if them easy."

10.56am: The umpires are out on the field, looking a little rueful. I think everyone just wants this over and done with now. Pakistan's bowlers, remember, still have to bat.

10.55am: David Mayo writes: "You can't expunge it. It would be nice if you could, but how far back do you go? This test? This series? The recent Australia series over here? The series in Australia, where there were murmurs of match fixing? Every match for the last two and a half years? Without any hard information about every incident, you're just guessing. And the historical precedent, I believe, is to let the result stand." Yes you can. If this is proven - ie you have hard information - then expunge it. And any other game where dishonesty is proven (not just suspected) then take it out of the record books. Seems very clear to me.

10.53am: Nasser Hussain on Sky Sports News: ": "Part of me says you've got to make a statement, and say: 'Right, ban for life'. If you come down tough maybe it says to everyone, 'Don't get involved, that's the end of your career'. But another part of me says, 'Should you give a person another chance?'. Let's give all these guys the benefit of doubt that they deserve." I would ban anyone with any previous form on this sort of thing for life. Someone like Amir: you've got to give him another chance.

10.51am: Michael Vaughan on Twitter: ""Anger is my thought at the moment.. I don't see how they can get out of this one ... it's just a great shame why this has to happen. Very sad." Pakistan have failed to appear at Lord's. No warm-up, just a last-minute creeping in. It's not an admission of guilt exactly, but it's certainly not a denial and it's all just extremely sad.

10.48am: Tom England is also anti-Screws: "Possibly the saddest aspect of recent events is that Sky have just shown an MCC member reading the News of the World in the pavillon. That's the real scandal." Don't blame the press. No no no. They just sniffed a weakness, heard the rumours we'd all heard and this is the only way to bring it to light and not get sued. You have to have proof.

10.47am: Keith Flett has another view, but I'm not buying it. "Blimey all is not what it seems in modern capitalism or 'all that is solid melts into air' as Marx noted. I blame the clean shaven Murdochism of the News of the World for fake sheikhery and entrapment." Come off it.

10.47am: James Walsh on the sadness: "I missed yesterday's play because I was at a wedding, so woke up this morning looking forward to working my way through yesterday's OBO in its entirety before eating sausages. Instead I see headlines about 'match-fixing' and my day is ruins. Not that it is actually match-fixing, but still. Oh, cricket." Oh indeed.

10.46am: And just to come on all Guardian for a moment: all crimes have their origin in a combination of dishonesty, weakness and major economic inequity. Why is it Pakistan players who are doing this? Certainly they don't have access to the riches their international colleagues do. Pakistanis are still banned from the IPL. They must, on some level, feel excluded and a little bitter. Cricket is awash with riches for the first time, unless you're from Pakistan. Commensurate to talent their best players are massively under-paid. No excuse at all. But maybe some kind of explanation.

10.44am: To date the word is play will start on time as usual. Pakistan have crept in to Lord's and skipped the warm-up. Feelings are already running high. These are mine for what they're worth:
1. These are just allegations so far. Nothing has been proved.
1. Still, this Test Match now seems entirely irrelevant. I feel for Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad, but if it is proven the match - and maybe the series - should be expunged. Just my view, but I'd feel much, much better if it was.
2. Mohammed Amir: innocent until proven. But if so... what a tragedy.
3. You can say the bowlers were clearly trying to get England's batsmen out, and that this is just a side issue, but it doesn't work like that. You can't switch your focus on and off. This is endemic.

10.34am: Hello and welcome to - what exactly? Suddenly this - the stuff on the pitch, with England needing six wickets to seal the hollowest of victories - all seems deeply irrelevant. Terrible, terrible news overnight that Pakistan players may have been involved in alleged spot-fixing. Suddenly everyone just feels absolutely terrible about all this.
This is of course a matter of sporting principle, but it is also to do with context. this isn't some pointless ODI in Dubai - it's a Lord's Test. I feel like I've had to watch someone giving Nelson Mandela a Chinese burn, or jabbing the Queen in the eye.
Very interested to hear your thoughts today. And we will of course have all latest from around the ground from David Hopps as soon as any further news breaks.

Barney Ronay will be here shortly. In the meantime, here was the dramatic news that broke late last night, as reported by Vic Marks:

Pakistan lost 14 wickets in a day at Lord's, which means that they are bound to lose both the fourth Test and the series against England, but last night this seemed to be the least of their concerns.

The Pakistan camp was subjected to allegations of corruption by the News of the World. The paper claims that a middle-man, Mazhar Majeed, had accepted £150,000 and it is alleged that in return the Pakistan pace bowlers, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, delivered no-balls on purpose at preordained moments in the match.

Asif said: "I have spoken to the management and they have told us something happened, but not what. The management will tell us more later. We are 100% focused on the match tomorrow."

Yawar Saeed, the Pakistan tour manager, said: "I can confirm that we are aware of the allegations and Scotland Yard police are with us now at the hotel and we are helping them with their enquiries."

Read the rest of his report here.

The youngest survivor of this month's deadly plane crash in Alaska will be honored by the Washington Redskins prior to their preseason clash with the Baltimore Ravens tomorrow night.

13-year-old Willy Phillips was one of four survivors of the Aug. 9 plane crash, which killed five people, including former Senator Ted Stevens and Phillips's father, attorney and lobbyist Bill Phillips. Willy, who suffered a broken ankle in the crash, would have been a first-year offensive/defensive tackle on the MSFL Lions of the Rockville Football League. The Lions were invited to scrimmage on the FedEx Field turf at halftime of Saturday's exhibition game against a team from Prince George's County at the beginning of August, according to the team's head coach, John Strittmatter.

"The kids are all rallying around Willy," said Strittmatter of his 20-man team. "What the Redskins are doing for him is unbelievable."

"It was very tough for me to ask Willy if he wanted to do this," Strittmatter continued, "so I went to Willy's older brother Andrew and asked him to approach Willy. This was while he was still [recovering] in Alaska. Andrew came back and told me that Willy's whole face just lit up. And when I gave him his ticket to the game, he looked at me and said 'thank you so much.'"

In addition to scrimmaging at halftime, all the Lions, including Willy, will be introduced prior to the national anthem. The game is scheduled to kick off at 7:00.

"The kids are ecstatic," Strittmatter said. "Even though they'll only be out there for a very short time, they're still very excited."

Bill Phillips's funeral was held today at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in Potomac, Md. He and his wife Janet had four sons, of whom Willy was the youngest. All three of his older brothers, Andrew, Colter, and Paul play Division I college football. Andrew is a fifth-year senior guard at Stanford. Colter is a sophomore tight end at Virginia, while Paul is a freshman tight end at Indiana. The elder Phillips played college football at the University of Evansville in the 1970s.

'

Yesterday I bought a bowl of soup – I'm away from home, my hotel room doesn't have en suite soup – I feel this was a not unreasonable lunchtime move on my part. The soup was verbally described as chicken. It was down on the blackboard in neat little chalky letters as chicken. And yet… it was clearly something involving wet cheese, chopped spaghetti and then more spaghetti. I found this surprising.

"You say this is chicken soup?" Yes, it's chicken. "Um… I hate to be picky and it is nice soup – despite its gently conveying the impression that someone ate macaroni cheese earlier, found it terminally indigestible, and I am now eating it again… I'm not actually complaining, I'm not the type, but… chicken? Really?" It's special chicken. "In the sense that it contains no chicken at all? Well, yes, that would be special, as chicken soups go – fairly unique, in fact." It's chicken.

And so it went on – inescapably reminding me of the very thing I was trying to avoid by voting postally and then fleeing the country – the election. I am currently in Guernsey (I didn't flee far, I'm old and tired) because politicians keep on telling me they're serving chicken and keep on dishing out nothing of the sort. They've spent the last month or so telling us they're sorry (ish) and now it will be chicken and yet in all probability they will – once again, and in wibbly coalition – be doling out the vomit of strangers. But you and I will, of course, be paying for chicken. Well, more like paying for gold-inlaid sturgeon, stuffed with moon diamonds and special wish-granting leprechauns during a period of already intense economic hardship. I'm so looking forward to that.

Meanwhile, I don't think I was utterly alone in finding the UK's whole psephological orgy of media whoring, media pimping, head-holding, lens-staring, fear-stroking and fibbing more than averagely nauseating. Yes, of course, on the night I sat up from Bridget Phillipson onwards and suffered the competing channels' computer graphics and the talking heads and the wait-and-seeing and nice Mr Dimbleby looking as if he wanted to give everyone a Werther's Original, because it was all turning out to be so uncalled-for and complicated. But I was only really watching to keep an eye on them, in case the Tories sprinted ahead and declared martial law overnight, or the whole pack of them legged it with what's left of our family silver before Greece drags us all into the pit.

Suffice it to say that it takes a lot to set me wandering the streets of Guernsey – already dampened by the communal expectation of a renewed and vigorous Tory supremacy – when anyone can tell at a glance, apparently, that I'm a passé, UN-civil-rights-hugging, Celtic leftie who should be flogged without mercy – nothing like extra suffering to relieve a recession – and then thrown to the genetically modified crustaceans rumoured to defend the Barclay brothers' island lair on Brecqhou. Given that so many of our representatives have poured so much energy into behaving like partners of the type who spend your housekeeping money on shoes for their other lovers – the type that apologise a lot and then do it again a lot – I reached the end of my tether long ago and had no desire to watch them photo-opping and gurning at me for weeks, just as I now have no desire to watch them playing multi-party moral Twister to hold on to power. I am a political animal but this wasn't – and isn't – politics, it's substandard music hall with a bit of three-card monte and nightmare thrown in. I was – and still am – as angry as Couldn't-vote-in-Sheffield-andgotinterviewedalot Lady – and that's angry. (She was great – articulate, passionate about democracy, reasonable… she'd get my vote.) And that's before I even consider the postal-vote fiddles, the lock-outs, the electoral-roll pruning and short-changing on ballot papers – moves familiar to anyone who's studied the very grubby republican playbook on how to steal elections.

Oh, but that's me getting paranoid. And depressed. And, incidentally, wondering why some polls deliver their results so much earlier than others – do they have earlier voters, trained winged monkeys to assist? That's never been satisfactorily explained to me… What has been very satisfactorily explained are the reasons for my despair. Although there was much – apparently pointless – talk of change and political reform during this election, there was never a mention of reforms that would save us from good MPs (and there must be some) going bad. For more than four decades sound, repeatable experimentation has shown that perfectly ordinary, normal people can do appalling things if they are removed far enough from the consequences of their actions, if their moral guidance is stressfully ambivalent and if they are sure they are free from meaningful oversight. If you don't believe me, look up the work of Philip Zimbardo – it'll give you something to do while Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales try to strongarm England for more cash. (Sorry, England…) Add in the fact that human beings tend to do what everyone around them is doing and that they defer to authority, no matter how insane, bizarre, or self-generated that authority is (Google Stanley Milgram for that) and you'll already – because you're bright and deserve better – have worked out that the Houses of Parliament are no place to put anyone who isn't already a sociopath – because, once installed, they'll almost inevitably start to act like one. The situational pressures to which we subject our MPs are intolerably destructive and that's bad and dangerous news for everyone.

Whoever ends up leading us will work in a psychologically corrosive atmosphere while being soaked in a culture which embraces good intentions. In business, in law, in politics, in the torture cell – we are being encouraged to accept that good intentions are more important than good actions. So tormenting a prisoner to death is supposed to be OK if you didn't think you'd kill him, utterly ill-prepared military adventures are fine because they meant well, BP will weasel out of its responsibilities because it didn't foresee how its actions could do harm, manifesto promises are more important than results… So stupidity, incompetence and disingenuous harm are encouraged in an already toxic environment and their results, no matter how dreadful, are politely talked away.

Which means we'll be having the special chicken again – until it chokes us. Bon appetit.

When a family member is hurt, injured, or sick, you want to know that their hospital has a good reputation with few serious medical errors. You expect doctors and nurses to treat your loved ones with the respect, care, and caution that is owed to them to ensure that they get better, not worse.  

The frequency and prevalence of medical malpractice and medical errors, especially those medical errors leading to serious injury or even death, are significant factors when choosing a hospital. Illinois has made it easier for patients to know how frequently medical errors occur at hospitals with the Illinois Hospital Report Card and Consumer Guide to Health Care.  

In 2009, Illinois launched the Illinois Hospital Report Card and Consumer Guide to Health Care website in an effort to increase transparency about the quality of health care provided in Illinois hospitals. This website, driven by the Hospital Report Card Act (Public Act 93-0563), which was passed in 2004, gives consumers the information necessary to make more informed healthcare choices. The website provides the following information:

• Volume and cost of services in hospitals and ambulatory surgery treatment centers
• Quality and safety data
• Nurse staffing data
• Patient satisfaction surveys
• Summaries and links to Illinois laws that ensure consumer protection

Information Contained on Report Card

The Hospital Report Card Act requires that all Illinois hospitals compile, maintain, and report the following information to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH):

• Nurse staffing
• Infection prevention measures
• Hospital acquired infections
• A typical Hospital Report Card includes the following information:

Overview

• Name
• License Number
• Address
• Phone Number
• State Designations

Process of Care and Inpatient Quality

• Process of Care (indicators are used to measure how often hospitals use recommended treatments known to get the best results for certain conditions)
  • Overall Heart Attack Care
  • Overall Heart Failure Care
  • Overall Pneumonia Care
  • Inpatient Mortality
    • Mortality Rate: Congestive heart failure
    • Mortality Rate: Stroke
    • Mortality Rate: Hip Fracture
    • Mortality Rate: Pneumonia
    • Mortality Rate: Inpatient Heart Attack Deaths
    • Mortality Rate: Hip Replacement
  • Inpatient Utilization (examines procedures whose use varies significantly across hospitals and for which questions have been raised about overuse, underuse, or misuse)
    • Incidental Appendectomy in the Elderly
    • Bi-Lateral Cardiac Catheterization
    • Cesarean Section Delivery
    • Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (minimally invasive gallbladder removal)

Safety Measures

• Surgical Care Improvement
• Pre-Surgical Antibiotic Given at the Right Time – Overall Rate
• Surgical Patients Given the Right Kind of Antibiotic – Overall Rate
• Preventative Antibiotics Stopped at Right Time – Overall Rate
• Pre-Surgical Antibiotic Given at the Right Time – Knee Arthroplasty
• Surgical Patients Given the Right Kind of Antibiotic – Knee Arthroplasty
• Preventative Antibiotics Stopped at Right Time – Other Cardiac Surgery
• Health Care-Associated Infections
  • Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infections in Medical/Surgical ICU
  • Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infection Rate in the Surgical ICU
  • Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infections in Medical ICU
  • Central Line Associated Blood Stream (CLABSI) Infection Rates – Detailed Report
  • Patient Safety
  • Unexpected Deaths
  • Accidental Puncture and Laceration
    • Latrogenic Pneumothorax (health care-associated collapsed lung)
    • Foreign Body Left During Procedure
    • Postoperative Hip Fracture

Satisfaction Survey Responses

• Percent of Patients Highly Satisfied
• Doctors Always Communicated Well
• Nurses Always Communicated Well
• Patient Always Received Help As Soon As They Wanted
• Staff Always Explained About Medicine
• Pain Was Always Well Controlled
• Patient’s Room Always Kept Quiet At Night
• Patient’s Room and Bathroom Always Kept Clean
• Patients Given Information About Recovery At Home
• Patients Would Definitely Recommend This Hospital to Friends and Family

Services

• Patients, Median Length of Stay, and Median Change
  • Appendectomy
  • Asthma
  • C-section
  • Chest Pain
  • Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
  • Diabetes
  • Gallbladder Removal
  • Heart Failure
  • Normal Newborn
  • Pneumonia
  • Vaginal Delivery

Beds – Nursing Staffing

• Nurse Staffing
  • Hospital-Employed Nurses
  • Contract Staff Nurses
  • Percent RN Nursing Staff Hours
  • Percent LPN Nursing Staff Hours
  • Percent Nursing Assistant Staff Hours

• Authorized Beds
  • Bed Type
    • Medical-Surgical Beds
    • Intensive Care Beds
    • Pediatric Beds
    • OB/Gynecology Beds
    • Long-Term Care Beds
    • Neonatal ICU Beds
    • Acute mental Illness Beds
    • Long-Term Care Acute Care Beds
    • Total Beds

The Consumer Guide to Health Care uses discharge data from hospitals and ambulatory surgical treatment centers to report “the conditions and procedures demonstrating the widest variation in changes and quality of care.” The website will also include “inpatient and outpatient data with current comparison information related to volume of cases, average charges, mortality rates, complications and hospital associated infections.”

The methodology used by IDPH to produce the Hospital Report Cards includes using the following data sources to create composite measures and rates to assess the main information set, including: quality, surgical care improvement, infection rates, patient safety, satisfaction, services, and staffing. The data sources for the Hospital Report Card are as follows:

Quality-Recommended Care (how well a hospital cares for patients with specific conditions) – data comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Surgical Care Improvement Project – data comes from data submitted by Illinois hospitals to the Illinois Department of Public Health

Patient Satisfaction – data comes from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) surveys

Administrative Data (information on hospital stays) – data comes from the Illinois Department of Public Health’s Discharge Data Set

Volume (number of times a procedure was performed) – data comes from the Department of Public Health Hospital Discharge Data Set

Infection Data – data comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)

Facility Information – data comes from the Annual Hospital Profile and the Annual Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center Profile

Nurse Staffing Data – data comes from hospital reports submitted to the Office of Policy, pursuant to the Illinois hospital Report Act

Revenue – data comes from the Illinois Department of Public Health

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureaus (MRSA) Data – data comes from data submitted by hospitals to the Illinois Department of Health

Clostridium Difficile Data - data comes from data submitted by hospitals to the Illinois Department of Health

What does this mean for consumers?

The hope is that with better transparency into medical errors, hospitals will improve care, and these unfortunate situations where patients are actually injured by medical error can be avoided. The Hospital Report Cards provide one tool to ensure that you or your family member receives quality care in hospitals. 

However, be aware that medical errors can still occur even at hospitals with good report cards. Also, the Illinois Department of Health (IDPH) posts a disclaimer noting that while IDPH attempts to make efforts to ensure that the website provides accurate and reliable information, it does not guarantee that the information on the site is complete, accurate, or up-to-date. Therefore, it is still important that you question the doctors and nurses who are treating your family member to ensure that they receive quality care. So, remember, the Hospital Report Cards are just one tool you can use to guarantee that hospitals are safe and effective. 

I applaud this push towards transparency in the field of medicine.  For too long consumers have steering blindly when attempting to locate a hospital.  Hopefully, this tool will prove valuable not just in the selection process, but also in encouraging poorly performing facilities to improve care.

Thanks to Heather Keil, J.D. for her assistance with this Nursing Homes Abuse Blog Entry

Resources:

Illinois Department of Public Health: State Public Health Director Announces Launch of Hospital Report Card and Consumer Guide to Health Care Web Site

IDPH: Division of Patient Safety and Quality

ILGA: Hospital Report Card Act

Illinois Hospital Report Card

Illinois Hospital Report Card: Data Sources

Illinois Hospital Report Card: Disclaimer

The report card contains information on popular Chicagoland hospitals such as:

• Adventist Hinsdale Hospital (Hinsdale Hospital)
• Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital (La Grange Memorial Hospital)  
• Advocate Christ Medical Center
• Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital
• Downers Grove
• Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center
• Advocate Lutheran General Hospital (Advocate Lutheran General Hospital) 
• Advocate Trinity Hospital
• Alexian Brothers Medical Center
• Children's Memorial Hospital
• Elmhurst Memorial Hospital
• Gottlieb Memorial Hospital
• Holy Cross Hospital
• Jackson Park Hosp & Med Ctr. (Jackson Park Hospital)
• John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital
• La Rabida Children's Hospital
• Little Company Of Mary Hosp (Little Company Of Mary Hospital)  
• Loretto Hospital
• Louis A Weiss Memorial Hospital
• Loyola Univ Medical Center (Loyola University Medical Center)
• MacNeal Hospital (Mac Neal Hospital)  
• Mercy Hospital And Med Center (Mercy Hospital And Medical Center)
• Methodist Hospital Of Chicago
• Metro South Medical Center
• Mount Sinai Hospital (Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center)
• Neurologic And Orthopedic Institute of Chicago (Neurologic And Orthopedic Inst Of Chgo)
• NorthShore University HealthSystem
• Evanston NorthShore University HealthSystem Skokie Hospital
• Northwest Community Hospital
• Northwestern Memorial Hospital
• Norwegian American Hospital (Norwegian-American Hospital)
• Our Lady Of Resurrection Center (Our Lady Of The Resurrection Med Ctr)
• Palos Community Hospital
• Provident Hospital Of Cook County (Provident Hospital Of Chicago)
• Resurrection Medical Center
• Roseland Community Hospital
• Rush Oak Park Hospital
• Rush University Medical Center
• Sacred Heart Hospital
• Saint Anthony Hospital
• Saint Francis Hospital (Rhc St Francis Hospital) 
• Saint Joseph Hospital
• Shriners Hosps For Children
• South Shore Hospital
• St Bernard Hospital
• St Mary and Elizabeth Med Center (St Mary and Elizabeth Med Ctr-Claremont Campus)
• St Mary and Elizabeth Med Center (St Mary and Elizabeth Med Ctr-Division Campus)
• Swedish Covenant Hospital
• Thorek Memorial Hospital
• University Of Chicago Medical Center (University Of Chicago Hospitals)
• University Of Illinois Medical Center - Chicago (University Of Illinois Hospital)
• West Suburban Medical Center
• Westlake Hospital (Westlake Community Hospital)

iTunes has the list up right now. I’m working on it…

See the complete list HERE.  Compete list below (125 songs)

• At Your Best You Are Love – Aaliya
• Try Again – Aaliya
• Tell It Like It Is – Aaron Neville
• Let’s Stay Together – Al Green
• Tired of Being Alone – Al Green
• No One – Alicia Keys
• Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart – Alicia Keys
• Sweet Love – Anita Baker
• Chain of Fools – Aretha Franklin
• Respect Aretha Franklin
• You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman – Aretha Franklin
• Every Time I Close My Eyes – Baby Face
• Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love – Barry White
• Stand by Me – Ben E. King
• Don’t Be Cruel – Bobby Brown
• My Prerogotive – Bobby Brown
• A Song For Momma – Boyz II Men
• I’ll Make You Love to You – Boyz II Men
• It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday – Boyz II Men
• On Bended Knee – Boyz II Men
• Have You Ever – Brandy
• The Boy Is Mine (feat. Monica) – Brandy
• Back At One – Brian McKnight
• Rainy Night in Georgia – Brook Benton
• Tell Me Something Good – Chaka Khan & Rufas
• Forever – Chris Brown
• With You – Chris Brown
• Treat Her Like a Lady – Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose
• It’s All Right – Cutis Mayfield & The Impressions
• Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Diana Ross
• Let’s Groove – Earth Wind and Fire
• September – Earth Wind and Fire
• Knock on Wood  – Eddie Floyd
• I Heard it Through the Grapevine – Gladys Knight and the Pips
• Midnight Train to Georgia – Gladys Knight and the Pips
• (You’re Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher – Jackie Wilson
• I Want You Back – Jackson 5
• Never Can Say Goodbye – Jackson 5
• Who’s Lovin’ You – Jackson 5
• I Got You (I Feel Good) – James Brown
• On the Wings of Love – Jeffrey Osbourne
• What Becomes of the Brokenhearted – Jimmy Ruffin
• I Wanna Know – Joe
• Superwoman – Karyn White
• Here and Now – Luther Vandross
• If Only For One Night – Luther Vandross
• Never Too Much – Luther Vandross
• Stop to Love – Luther Vandross
• Love Won’t Let Me Wait – Major Harris
• Vision of Love – Mariah Carey
• We Belong Together – Maria Carey
• (Love is Like a) Heat Wave – Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
• Dancing in the Street – Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
• Nowhere to Run – Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
• Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
• I Heard it Through the Grapevine – Marvin Gaye
• Mercy Mercy me (The Ecology) – Marvin Gaye
• Be Without You (Kendu Mix) Mary J. Blige
• I Am – Mary J. Blige
• My Guy – Mary Wells
• Human Nature – Michael Jackson
• Rock With You – Michael Jackson
• Angel of Mine – Monica
• For You I Will – Monica
• Because of You – Ne Yo
• Mad – Ne Yo
• I’ve Been Loving You Too Long – Otis Redding
• (Sittin on) The Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding
• Georgia On My Mind – Ray Charles
• Unchain my Heart – Ray Charles
• Shut Up and Drive – Rihanna
• Umbrella – Rihanna & Jay-Z
• Hold On I’m Coming – Sam & Dave
• Soul Man – Sam & Dave
• Bring it on Home to Me – Sam Cooke
• Crusin’ – Smokey Robinson
• I Second that Emotion – Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
• The Tears of a Clown – Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
• The Tracks of My Tears – Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
• Home – Stephanie Mills
• Superstition – Stevie Wonder
• I Wish – Stevie Wonder
• Living For the City – Stevie Wonder
• Uptight (Everything is Alright) – Stevie Wonder
• Easy – The Commodores
• Watcha See is Whatcha Get – The Dramatics
• Baby I Need Your Loving – The Four Tops
• I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) – The Four Tops
• Reach Out I’ll Be There – The Four Tops
• People Get Ready – The Impressions
• It’s Your Thing – The Isley Brothers
• This Old Heart of Mine – The Isley Brothers
• Shop Around – The Miracles
• You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me – The Miracles
• Could It Be I’m Falling In Love – The Spinners
• People Make the World Go Round – The Stylistics
• You Make me Feel Brand New – The Stylistics
• Back in My Arms Again – The Supremes
• Stop! In the Name of Love – The Supremes
• Where Did Our Love Go – The Supremes
• You Can’t Hurray Love – The Supremes
• You Keep Me Hangin’ On – The Supremes
• Ain’t Too Proud to Beg – The Temptations
• Just My Imagination – The Tempatations
• Papa Was a Rolling Stone – The Temptations
• Don’t Leave Me This Way – Thelma Houston
• I Can’t Stand the Rain – Tina Turner
• We Don’t Need Another Hero – Tina Turner
• Waterfalls – TLC
• Un-Break My Heart – Toni Braxton
• Burn – Usher
• My Boo (feat. Alicia Keys) – Usher
• Nice & Slow – Usher
• U Got it Bad – Usher
• U Remind Me – Usher
• Save the Best for Last – Vanessa Williams
• Greatest Love of All – Whitney Houston
• How Will I Know – Whitney Houston
• Saving All My Love For You – Whitney Houston
• In the Midnight Hour – Wilson Pickett
• Land of 1000 Dances – Wilson Pickett
• Mustang Sally – Wilson Pickett

Last time was all about the witching hour. This week we're after songs that utilise a surprise

Hello, glad tidings and welcome. It's been a rum old week aboard the good ship Recommend. Mr Mac left us all with a request for midnight songs and hundreds of the buggers turned up. It's remarkable what a finely tuned oiling the whole concept of midnight can lend to an artist's creativity. Place your story, your characters, in the middle of the night and you can do anything you like. Lovers can lie, friendships can form, pigs can fly. All bets are off.

This week we had songs that complained about late night callers, another that expressed admiration for tambourine players, there was someone commenting on oddly-dressed clubbers, an old man talking about hoisting up his hosiery and one in a language I couldn't understand at all. Every single one of them was relating their actions to that special time when one day becomes another. That's a good result, surely?

That A-list in full: Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' At Midnight, JJ Cale - After Midnight, Bob Marley & The Wailers – Midnight Ravers, Gil Scott-Heron – Where Did The Night, Bobby Womack – I'm A Midnight Mover, Norma Waterson – Midnight On The Water, The Mamas & The Papas – Midnight Voyage, A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight, Francois Hardy – Minuit Minuit, The Shadows – Midnight.

And as for the B:

Pete "Guitar" Lewis – Oooh Midnight
"It's midnight", groans a woman who sounds as if she's clawing hungrily at the bedsheets and biting her bottom lip a lot. Meanwhile, Pete's band grind out the early 50s RnB bar-room niceness. If that woman is still alive she'd be about 80 now. Odd.

The Doobie Brothers – South City Midnight Lady
"Up all night I could not sleep," they sing, "the whisky I drank was cheap, with shaking hands I went and I lit up my last cigarette …" Yet there's still a beautiful woman asleep in the bed. How great would it be to be a Doobie Brother?

Count Basie – Midnite Blue
Jazz has picked up and run with the idea of midnight offering some sort of transgressive paradise more than any other genre outside of comedy metal. Here Count Basie paints the time as a surge of raw emotion sandwiched between the twin cushions of regular daily life. Or something.

The Airborne Toxic Event – Sometime Around Midnight
"And it starts sometime around midnight," they sing. "at least that's when you lose yourself for a minute or two …" This is a really quite beautiful hymn to a bout of seriously melancholic, alcohol-fuelled self-medication.

Ice-T – Midnight
One of the highlights of Ice's 1991 album, OG Original Gangster, Midnight is a string of "criminal gangster old-school stories" spat out over Led Zep drums and a Black Sabbath riff. And Randy Mac's on it. The phrase, "What's not to like?" was invented for this actual record.

Abba – Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After A Midnight)
The intro sounds like The Sisters Of Mercy, the verse sounds like Giorgio Moroder's much friendlier cousin and the chorus is just ridiculous pop genius. If a time machine is ever invented I will trade in my own children for a trip back here. Sorry kids.

The Fall – Midnight In Aspen
From 2005 – a softly grooving slice of the softer side of MES gets an outing during a tale of, well, who knows, really. But it seems at least to be a bit about the famous ski town ... and guns ... and a satellite. Lovely record.

The Carter Family – No Depression In Heaven
OK, so it's a wee bit more about the great depression than actual midnight, but, Jesus, what a tune. "This dark hour of midnight nearing, and tribulation time will come, the storms will hurl in midnight fear, and sweep lost millions to their doom…" Thanks for that. Great cover by the brilliant Uncle Tupelo here.

Chris Botti & The Blue Nile – Midnight Without You
Yes, yes, Botti is a silly name, you're right. But this is very unsilly – in fact it's decidedly grown up and serious. "Stars are falling, the time is changing," he sings, "to midnight without you…" Delightful record. Still, "Botti", eh!

Duke Ellington – Midnight Indigo
An utterly enchanting piece of music, and one that seems to really capture the rich confusion and crisp realities of the witching hour. Where Basie saw the possibility of change, Ellington sees only a foggy permanence (says the dork from Downbeat in the promotional polo-neck).

This week's topic is songs with sound effects – songs that find room to illustrate what it is they're on about in the most literal way possible for something that only exists in your ears. Perhaps it's a song about a cowboy that is enlivened by the sound of a whip or cattle moaning, perhaps it's a car horn or a dog barking or a bird singing. It could be anything you please. As long as it's an actual sound effect that's been shoe-horned in to (hopefully) support the lyric. I think this is going to be fun. No, really.

The rulebook:

DO NOT post more than a third of the lyrics to any one song.
DO Post your nominations before midday on Monday if you wish them to be considered.
DO Post justifications of your choices wherever possible.
DO Be nice to each other!

The toolbox:

Archive, the Marconium, The Spill, the Collabo.

Wed., Dec. 23

Supergirl!
What inspired this experimental video exhibition celebrating “superheroes, uber-women, meca-warriors and transforming characters”? According to Nick Cassway, Executive Director of Nexus/foundation for today’s art, a major muse was Hillary Clinton. During Bill’s 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary drew the ire of social conservatives with her unapologetic ambitions. “I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas,” the attorney said. “But what I decided to do is fulfill my profession.” Years later, Hillary has transformed from First Lady into a formidable political figure in her own right. Accordingly, Cassway contends that “in the new reality in which a leader of the free world could be a woman, the notion of the traditional superhero has changed.” Be sure to check out Miranda July’s piece Atlanta. The director of Me and You and Everyone We Know depicts split personalities—which should resonate well with women who regularly find themselves summoning their superpowers to battle society’s bipolar gender proscriptions. Gerald Johnson
Noon-6pm. Free. Crane Arts Building, 1400 N. American St. 215.684.1946. www.nexusphiladelphia.org

Anthony Green
Anthony Green toyed with power pop in his early stint with Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer, but he’s better known for fronting more aggressive outfits like Saosin, Circa Survive and the Sound of Animals Fighting. His solo debut, Avalon, returns to more melodic territory. Recorded Jersey shore-side with members of Good Old War, the album ditches eyelinered drama for sincerity, and pyrotechnics for jangly harmonies. Not that all is sunny in Green’s world. Strummy, buoyant “Devil’s Song” may sound like Dr. Dog on a warm afternoon, but it’s most memorable line is “This feels like a nightmare.” The show, however, will likely be rife with warm holiday cheer, as long-time friends and collaborators Good Old War open and join Green on stage. Jennifer Kelly
7pm. $18-$23. With Good Old War + Cheap Seats. World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut Street. 215.222.1400. worldcafelive.com

Super Galactic Expansive
Forget the backpacks, this is more like slide rule rap. In this home-grown duo, Jamie “Kilowatt” Watts lays down glossy futuristic beats and tomorrow-land synthetic hooks, while partner Anand “Amagine” Petigara splutters surreally complex imagery. Part of Philly’s trance-y, psychotropic Gaian Mind Collective, the two link sci-fi mysticism with sharp social commentary. On the debut album, Supersensible Science, strings of verbiage knot into conundrums. Sardonic jibes upend prophecies (the word “huh?” is a repeated element in the song “Broken Clocks”). Rational thought coexists with the trippiest kinds of spiritualist mumbo-jumbo. It’s the kind of thing that would only really work in an alternative universe. Fortunately, SGE has created one. J.K.
$10. With RinseRepeat, DJ Kilowatt + Vanek. M Room, 15 W. Girard. 215.739.5577. themanhattanroom.com

Decorative Arts Holiday Show
People can almost always spot a last-minute Christmas gift. They aren’t, however, so great at detecting bullshit. This is your last chance to save some cash and impress your loved-ones with quality hand-crafted gifts made by more than a dozen local artists. Since no one has to know how much it cost or where it came from, feel free to use your imagination when friends and family excitedly ask you where you procured such an amazing find. Perhaps it’s a one-of-a-kind 18th-century piece that you found in a charming little antique store and thought it was a bit pricey, but you just had to get it for them. Or maybe it’s your own custom creation that they personally inspired. Passing off someone else’s craftsmanship as your own is a lot better then whipping out your old Bedazzler and making some tacky piece of crap. Nicole Finkbiner
Free. Allens Lane Art Center, 601 W. Allens Lane. 215.248.0546. allenslane.org

Thurs., Dec. 24

Moo Shu Jew Show
It’s Christmas Eve and the gentiles are nestled all snug in their beds, visions of Target gift certificates dancing in their heads. Big bank-closing birthday coming up tomorrow. It’s all very exciting. But even if you don’t have your socks nailed to the mantle, there’s still fun to be had and noodles to be slurped. The Jews and the Chinese are teaming up for a night of comedy and MSG. Sit down for a banquet of vaguely authentic Chinese cuisine including Kung Pao chicken and Vegetable Lo-Mein. Then, just as you’re pulling that soggy fortune from your mouth, emcee Cory Kahaney takes the mic to make with the funny. Greg Rogell, Brad Zimmerman and Michelle Balan follow with embarrassing stories about their own parents. If you’ve already got plans tonight, Joy Tsin Lau is offering the same deal for lunch on Christmas day. Paul F. Montgomery
6pm. $62-$70. Joy Tsin Lau, 1026 Race St. 215.592.7228. mooshujewshow.com

Laser Mo
For decades, lasers have been the stuff of mad scientist plots, all-night bowling parties and lecture hall pranks. But more and more, contemporary artists like Morgan Martinson have been harnessing lasers for the pursuit of fine art. Using scripting and post-processing software, Martinson constructs atmospheric paintings, gradually burning and building up layers of acrylic with a heat laser. The resulting images are richly textured engravings, ranging from complex metallic constellations of cross-hatches to feathery pink cloud bursts. And while those final designs are dazzling, the real sinew is in their production and mode of fabrication. Her process is digital, but Martinson’s experimentation is anything but inorganic. If the tools are new, the drive for the proper balance remains the same. This is the last week to view her work at Amberella Gallery, where several triptychs and single canvasses are on sale through tonight. Grab a fluffy wad of cotton candy while you browse. P.F.M.
Through Dec. 29. Free. Amberella Gallery, 1050 N. Hancock St., 610.283.5669. amberellagallery.wordpress.com

Fri., Dec. 25

World of Jewtopia
The ghosts of Christmas past, present and future are recovering from their late night and everyone in Philly is opening presents by the tree. Well, not everyone of course. If you’re looking for something to do on December 25, check out World of Jewtopia, making its Philly debut December 24 through December 27 at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater. An off-Broadway hit and a touring sensation, World (which is slated to open on Broadway) is a multimedia show that explores all things Jewish. Performed and created by comics Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson, the 90-minute one-act combines scenes from the original play Jewtopia (based on a book of the same name) with stand-up comedy and audience interaction. Harmless Hebrew-oriented fun, World is a novel Yuletide option not only for Jews but also Christians looking for any excuse to avoid their family. J. Cooper Robb
3pm and 8pm. $44.50-$52.50. Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Perelman Theater, Broad and Spruce sts. 215.893.1999. kimmelcenter.org

Sat., Dec. 26

Kwanzaa Celebration
On December 26, African Americans across the county will light the first in a series of red, black and green candles, pour libations and feast in celebration of the first day of Kwanzaa. The tradition, created by activist and author Ron Karenga, was born out of the Black Nationalist movement and represents a celebration of African-American culture. Each day recognizes a principle that participants are asked to focus on in the New Year. On day one, which represents Umonja or unity, the Unity Fellowship Church of Christ of Philadelphia, Beta Phi Omega Sorority, Inc., Colours and Philly Black Pride will kick off the week-long Kwanzaa holiday with a party at the William Way Community Center. This cultural experience is open to the public and will include dinner, vendors and live entertainment. Jazmyn Burton
6-9pm. Free. William Way Community Center, 1315 Spruce St. 215.732.2220. betaphiomega.net

Raccoon Fighter
Though a seven-piece during their formative Philly years, Racoon Fighter culled back to a duo upon moving to Brooklyn in ’08, and found a happy medium as a quartet this summer. Happy’s the right word because their music makes you wanna shake, rattle and roll. The guitars sparkle like shiny baubles caught in the moonlight, slinking past muscular rhythms and ahh-ing backing vocals. The ring and crash of six-strings suggest breakers on Jersey Shore whispering a bawdy come-on to a big-haired girl. The supple sonic waves hark back cross the pond to Brit Invasion trailblazers the Troggs and Hollies, before their antecedents locked themselves in the garage and turned that soulful R&B rock sound raw. Chris Parker
9pm. $8. With Autolyze, Young-Ice + the Fleeting Ends. Khyber, 56 S. Second St. 215.238.5888. thekhyber.com

Mewithoutyou
This local entrant in the proggy, hyper-caffeinated, spiritualist freak folk movement shares its musical aesthetic with bands like Akron/Family and Make A Rising, its philosophical underpinnings with Sufi mystics, St. Francis and Kurt Vonnegut. Two brothers—Aaron and Michael Weiss—make up the core of the band, along with rhythm section Greg Jehanian and Richard Mazzotta, and an occasional orchestra of brass, woodwinds and other old-time instruments. Mewithoutyou’s late spring release It’s Crazy! It’s All False! It’s a Dream It’s Alright sports a rollicking single called “The Fox, the Crow and the Cookie,” inspired by the teachings of Bawa Muhaiyadeen, a Sri Lankan Sufi teacher who settled in Philadelphia. J.K.
9pm. $14. Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford. 215.739.9684. johnnybrendas.com

Boxing Day Beer Festival
Sure, you know the real meaning of Christmas (getting shitfaced on eggnog and swapping dirty jokes with Grandma), but what about Boxing Day? In the mid 19th century, wealthy Brits would live it up and exchange presents with each other on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and established the 26th as a day to give gifts their servants, the lower classes and the homeless. The Memphis Taproom will continue to celebrate the spirit of the day this year when they open their doors early (8 a.m.!), roll out the winter beers—Sly Fox Christmas, St. Bernardus Christmas, Port Older Viscosity, Lost Abbey Angel’s Share, Victory Old Horizontal and a few English cask ales, among others—and give you a dollar off each brew for bringing in a gently used winter coat, blanket or three cans (Nourishing stuff, by the way. No lard or chipotles.) of food for distribution to families in need. Matt Soniak
8am. Pay as you go. Memphis Taproom, 2331 E. Cumberland St. 215.425.4460. memphistaproom.com

Ari Hoenig’s Oscillations Quartet
From the physical mayhem of Ari Hoenig’s drumming ‹ limbs flailing, face contorted in agonized delight ‹ comes music of unsurpassed depth and control. Little wonder the Philly native has become world-renowned, with two unaccompanied drumset albums and two more with full band under his belt, not to mention sideman work with post-bebop pianists Kenny Werner and Jean-Michel Pilc, thermonuclear jazz-rock guitarist Wayne Krantz, Philly legend Pat Martino and many more. In recent hometown visits Hoenig has featured his band Punk Bop. The Oscillations Quartet is more of a local product, with guitarist Tim Motzer, saxophonist Chris Cuzme and bassist Ben Bocardo bringing the metric intrigue and elasticity, making it look simple. David R. Adler
8pm. $20. Chris’ Jazz Cafe, 1421 Sansom St. 215.568.3131. chrisjazzcafe.com

Sun., Dec. 27

Swift Technique
Led by the showstopping bass grooves of Jake Leschinsky and the highly-improvisational lyrical firestorm of Sean McCann, Philly’s own Swift Technique is set on one goal: bringin’ the funk. And damn, they bring it hard. The seven-piece band, which includes a three-man horn section, showcases their first-class musicianship, chemistry and never-ending supply of energy at every opportunity. The guys are currently finishing up work on several new tracks, which they hope to make available for release in early 2010. Until then, they’ll continue performing up and down the east coast, rolling with more rhyme and reason than anyone else in town. Kevin Brosky
8pm. $9. With heylady + the Great Divide. World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. 215.222.1400. worldcafelive.com

Cro-Mags
I’ll always associate veteran New York hardcore band Cro-Mags with a car crash I was in back in college. There we were, me in the passenger seat, my buddy driving, both of us rocking out to the righteous thrash of 1986’s The Age of Quarrel. Fiddling with the tape deck, my pal neglected to see the red light ahead, and we rear-ended a stopped car. As the metal (or plastic, or whatever old Hyundai Excels were made of) twisted and cracked and our heads snapped toward the windshield in that slow-motion, oh-we-are-so-fucked auto wreck kinda way, either “Show You No Mercy” or “Malfunction” roared from the shitty speakers. It was perfect. M.A.G.
7pm. $15. With All Out War, Cold World, Wisdom in Chains + Foundation. First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St. 866.468.7619. r5productions.com

Mon., Dec. 28

AM/FM rock party
As the newest addition to the Gayborhood’s club scene, Q Lounge expects to bring a little edge to the area known for cheesy pop music and bass-heavy dance beats. Monday night’s am:fm party celebrates the cause by hosting a rock ’n’ roll themed shindig worthy of your best leather jacket and shredded denim. DJ RNG will spin tunes from across the decades, with music from the White Stripes and the New Pornographers merged with classics like the Rolling Stones. Drink specials include the Q Lounge’s version of a city wide special—a pint of Philly Brewing Co. with a shot of house whiskey—and gift cards for $50 off a tattoowill be given away throughout the night. A tramp stamp of the club logo? The possibilities are endless. Emily Freisher
8pm. Free. Q Lounge, 1234 Locust St., 215.732.1800. qphilly.com

Tues., Dec. 29

The Conversation
Once upon a time Francis Ford Coppola so owned cinema even his larks were loved by all. This year the winemaker continued his comeback—well, at least he’s actually making movies again—with Tetro, a quasi-autobiographical bitchslap to his tyrannical father that’s cherished by a small but dedicated coterie and ignored, or worse, by the rest of mankind. With that in mind, hop back to the last time he wrote a wholly original full-length script. In between two Godfathers he made The Conversation, first-rate Nixon-era paranoia in which Gene Hackman’s “electronic surveillance technician” stumbles upon a potential murder. Consider the obstacles: an intentionally confusing plot; a singularly unpleasant protagonist; and, most famously, a dense, looping sound design (courtesy Walter Murch) bound to exacerbate even the mildest migraine. And yet the movie scored a Best Picture nom (alongside the first Godfather sequel, which won) and made some bucks to boot. Once upon a time Coppola made having both critical and commerical success look so easy. Matt Prigge
7:30pm. $5-$9. Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 W Lancaster Ave. 610.527.9898. brynmawrfilm.com

Coliseum
When we last caught Coliseum live two years ago at the TLA to open a multi-band bill topped by the mighty High on Fire, and the impressive Louisville, Kentucky, trio more than held its own that night with its brutal, uncompromising blend of classic hardcore punk and doomy, walloping alt-metal. Led by burly, bearded singer-guitarist Ryan Patterson, Coliseum established an aggressive and intimidating (but not mookish or stupid, a la Hatebreed) presence, crashing wicked riffs against battery acid-scarred vocals and kidney-punching rhythms. If they bring the same intensity and volume to the comparatively smaller confines of Kung Fu Necktie, it’s going to be out of control. M.A.G.
8pm, $8. With 1994!, We Thieves + Tidal Arms. Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St. kungfunecktie.com

Blastoids
These Tennessee noise practitioners are as DIY as they get. Their blog is their website. They post their own pictures from tours, they tour nothing but weird venues, they load and unload, they crash in people’s warehouses. They also put on a whacked-out high energy set complete with the possible presence of paint, confetti and kitties. Openers the Owl Collective are big on percussion, vocal harmonies, throbbing synths and a dash of chaos, and their latest 2009’s Kids Hands Smell Like Glitter is drawing comparisons to Animal Collective and Wavves. Not bad. Bill Chenevert
8pm. $TK. With In Every Room + Dangerous Ponies. Danger Danger Gallery, 5013 Baltimore Ave, myspace.com/dangerdangergallery

Adalie
Love or detest it, there’s a pretty happenin’ emo/screamo/pop-punk scene in Philly that only continues to grow, and local four-piece Adalie has vaulted near the top of that heap of bands just two years after forming. Taking its cues from Taking Back Sunday, Jimmy Eat World and Glassjaw, among others, Adalie brings high-pitched vocals, the occasional raw-throated yowl, buzzsaw guitars, a healthy dose of sweet melodies and catchy choruses, and of course the requisite floppy hair ’n hoodie look together for a sound and vision that seems to charm the kids (and editors of Alternative Press magazine). It has already gotten them on tours like Warped and Taste of Chaos, and could make them one of Philly’s breakout acts of 2010. M.A.G.
7:30pm. $10. With Honah Lee, the Glory Days, St. James Hotel + Crows Crossing. Trocadero, 1003 Arch St. 215.922.6888. thetroc.com