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Poland on the SuperEnduro Calendar Until 2021!
A few weeks before the start of the season, ABC Communication and Sport Up agency signed a 3-year contract which guarantees a Polish round until 2021!
This decision was supported by the great success of the Grand Prix at the Tauron Arena in Krakow this year. Where the local promoter, Tomasz GAGAT (Sport Up), beat his own spectator record from 2017 by welcoming nearly 13,500 fans to kick off the 2019 season in Taddy BLAZUSIAK (PL - KTM)’s home land...
Bastien BLANCHARD, CEO of ABC Communication: "Poland is the oldest date on the SuperEnduro calendar and we have been working with Sport Up for three years now, with each round being a great success. Tomasz GAGAT and his agency brought another dimension to this ever exciting destination. Extending our collaboration for three more seasons just made sense. We’re already looking forward to returning to the Tauron Arena where the atmosphere was incredible again this year, certainly one of the most intense in SuperEnduro."
Tomasz GAGAT, CEO of Sport Up : « Sport UP Agency is an organizer of many sports events in Poland. In recent years we have had a great pleasure to create Poland's only 3-day Hard Enduro rally "Beskid HERO", Freestyle Motocross World Championship - Night of The Jumps round, Downhill European Championship round and SuperEnduro World Championship round. The last one is our key event. It's the most important element of our hard work. In this demanding discipline we have a great local hero - Taddy BLAZUSIAK, a huge star, living legend, who can electrify the polish crowd like no one else can. To sum up, we are glad and very proud that for the next two years Poland will be the host of Maxxis FIM SuperEnduro World Championship and we are sure that our cooperation with Bastien and Alain BLANCHARD will keep up the great work in delivering world class events. »
ABC Communication, promoter of the Maxxis FIM SuperEnduro World Championship, and Sport Up have just extended their contract for an additional three seasons... great news for the discipline which is hugely successful in this Eastern European country!
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Menu K G
Swaffham CE VC Infant and Nursery School
Learn to Love – Love to Learn!
K Friends of Swaffham
G Facebook
Plants and Growing
Rainforests and Africa
Nurture Classroom
Nursery Curriculum Map
Reception Curriculum Map
Early Reading
Bacon Butty and Books
Bonfire and Books
Reading Cafes
Talk for Writing
Video of the Deer class performing their T4W story
Video of a nursery Child retelling a story
Video of how to pronounce the sounds
Video showing how to blend sounds
Video of part of a phonics lesson
Phonics sounds
Photos of Phonics Fun!
Reading Book Colour Bands
Maths in the Early Years
Maths No Problem- KS1
Reading cafe
Year 2 Norwich Castle
Year 1 African Drumming
Year 1 Banham Zoo Trip
FOSI
Swaffham Church of England VC Primary and Nursery School. Welcome to our new school website. Our new website is currently awaiting content and will be updated regularly in the coming weeks. We look forward to launching in the coming weeks.
Learn to Love - Love to Learn!
We aim to provide a safe, nurturing environment and a rich variety of experiences so that all pupils are able to flourish and discover their unique strengths and talents. Our mission is to enable every child to enjoy a life filled with meaning and purpose, underpinned by Christian values, a love of learning and an eagerness to make the world a better place.
"Live life in all its fullness" (John 10:10)
Our vision is based on Jesus' two greatest commandments, love God and love one another. The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) guides our school family to extend love, compassion and respect to all God's people.
We aim to achieve this through our key values
Friendship - We are loving and kind. We know how to learn and play together.
Compassion - We understand our own and others feelings. We care for ourselves and for others. We forgive each other when we make mistakes.
Respect - We value ourselves and others. We delight in our differences.
Service - We look for ways to help others.
Responsibility - We make good choices for ourselves, our community and our environment.
Courage - We feel confident enough to challenge ourselves, take risks and make mistakes. We stand up for what is right.
The Christian ethos is important to our school and as such we maintain close links with the Diocese of Norwich and St Peter and St Paul Church in Swaffham. We promote Christian values in our school through the experiences we offer our pupils and develop their understanding of Christianity. We also explore other faiths and cultures so that differences are valued and equality assured.
All website content copyright © Swaffham CE VC Infant and Nursery School
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The weather in Syros is:
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SYROS, THE ISLAND OF 4 SEASONS
4 SEASONS AT SYROS
ΜUSEUMS
THEATER APOLLON
ACADEMIC RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS
TOURIST AGENTS
ENTERTAINMENT IN SYROS
FLAVORS OF SYROS
GASTRONOMIC TOURISM
ΜARINE TOURISM
ALTERNATIVE ACTIVITIES
ATHLETIC TOURISM
WEDDING & ROMANCE
WEATHER IN SYROS
Archaeological Museum Of Ermoupoli
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STANDS OUT FOR:
Address: Emmanuel Benakis, on the northwest side of the City Hall
Tel. +30 22810-88487
Archaeological Museum Of Ermoupoli on the Map: Dimitriou Karaoli, Ermoupoli 841 00, Greece
The archaeological museum of Ermoupolis is one of the oldest museums of Greece that is worth visiting.
The archaeological museum of Syros was founded in 1834 and it is one of the oldest museums of Greece. Since 1899 it is housed in 4 rooms of the City Hall of Ermoupolis and offers an independent entrance from the historic square. The Museum’s collections include exhibits such as the Amfikypellon, a tubular cup 15 cm in height from the end of the 3rd millennium, a compass, a vase 7 cm in height from the second half of the 3rd millennium, a marble statuette of a female figure 35 cm in height from 730 BC and other artifacts, sculptures and inscriptions from the early Cycladic and Byzantine period. The museum also hosts works of the archaeologist Christos Tsountas.
NEARBY LOCATIONS All Μuseums Attractions Settlements Nightlife Restaurants & taverns Associations Rooms for Rent
THE TOWN HALL OF ERMOUPOLIS
The City Hall of Ermoupolis is an architectural, cultural and historic gem worth discovering.
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MIAOULI SQUARE
The historic Miaoulis square is the cultural hub of the island.
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MUNICIPAL LIBRARY
The municipal library of Syros is the gate to history, knowledge and culture.
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HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF THE CYCLADES
The Historical Archive of the Cyclades welcomes visitors to familiarize with the martial and cultural history of the island through scripts from different eras.
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CULTURAL CENTER OF ERMOUPOLIS
The cultural center of Syros adorns the city with its impressive architecture and cultural identity.
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MUSEUM OF CYCLADIC ART REPLICAS
The Museum of Cycladic Art takes visitors to bygone eras through the magnificence of the cycladic civilization of the 3rd millennium BC.
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HERMOUPOLIS
The capital of Syros as well as of the insular complex of the Cyclades exudes an aura of neoclassical romance harmoniously combining elements from ancient Greece and Western Europe. Visitors are welcome to follow the narrow streets through the picturesque neighborhoods, discover images and experiences of a bygone era and encounter monuments along with neoclassical buildings from the imperious history. From the impressive Town Hall in Miaouli square, inspired by Ernest Ziller and the palaces of Troy, the Apollon Theater which is a miniature of Scala di Milano, the mansions in the charming area of Vaporia, the municipal library and the remarkable museums of the island…
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A SPORTS BAR & DINNER
A Sports Bar & Dinner is an impressive coffee bar in the heart of the city. It is a great hangout for sports fans and the ideal place to enjoy a coffee and unique dishes with cold beer watching the match of one’s beloved team. Tel.: +30 22810 81981 Email: [email protected]
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Elia bar-restaurant is the ultimate Art space that combines fun with entertainment at one of the most historic buildings of the city centre. There, you can enjoy unique culinary creations and refreshing cocktails in a truly spectacular atmosphere. Tel.:+30 2281076301
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The Apollo Municipal Theater is an impressive cultural center with influences from the Italian and French architecture.
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ELLINIKO KAFENEIO
Housed in a marble neoclassical building in the heart of Miaouli square, Elliniko Kafeneio emanates the nostalgia and elegant vibes of a bygone era allowing guests to unwind in an environment reflecting the grandeurs of the past. From scrumptious breakfast choices prepared with the finest local ingredients, to authentic flavors with gourmet touches of inspiration,…
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THE PHILHARMONIC OF ERMOUPOLIS
Wanting to promote and expand the island’s cultural heritage the municipality of Syros decides to establish the Municipal Philharmonic Company of Ermoupolis in 1869 under the supervision of the teacher at the time Delfino Spineli. Unfortunately this attempt was unsuccessful and thus the Philharmonic was dissolved around 1872. In 1880, the School for the Needy…
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THE HIGH SCHOOL OF SYROS
The High School of Syros was the cornerstone for the further development of education as the first high school of the Greek Νation.
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ANEMOLOGIO
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SYROS LYCEUM OF GREEK WOMEN
Continuing its long history since it was founded in 1915 as the first regional senior high school, Syros Lyceum of Greek Women still holds the leading role in all cultural events of Syros by preserving and spreading the national traditions, the manners and customs of the island. Among other things The Lyceum features a locker…
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ITHAKI TOU AI
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ARCHONTARIKI TIS MARITSAS
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Greco Café is an atmospheric Café in Ermoupoli where guests can enjoy their coffee and relax with their friends. Tel.: +302281081513 Mobile.: 6936334452 E-mail: [email protected]
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PETRINO
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The Seminario restaurant is located rear mail office, in traditional narrow with the bougainvilleas and offers great service, alternative Greek cuisine and many vegan and vegeterian choices. Greek Kitchen, Mediterranean, vegan, vegeterian Working Hours Every day 12:00pm till 01:00mm. Tel: 2281301339 Mob: 6942803508 E mail: [email protected] Website: http://seminariosyros.wixsite.com/seminariosyros Social media: facebook/seminario
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SYRA
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AERIKO
Contact Τel: 2281080445 Mob: 6937114521 E mail: [email protected] Social media: facebook/aeriko-aeriko
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SYROS CHESS CLUB
Syros Chess Club was founded in 1976 and counts 82 members between the ages of 5 and 74 years old. It organizes national championships, representing the island of Syros in the Aegean Championship having already won some major distinctions. It also cooperates with the primary schools of Syros with chess tutorials in order to preserve…
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The rooms En Ermoupoli are housed in a picturesque building of 1908 that has managed to preserve intact some elements of the past while offering all the modern amenities for a comfortable and relaxing accommodation in Ermoupoli. Guests can relax in the blissful environs, enjoy a refreshing drink at the Roof Garden and explore the Lady of Cyclades from side to side without the use of any kind of transportation. Open all year round Year of construction: 1908, Last Renovation: 2013 Room types 1 single room 4 double 1 triple room 1 studio 2 suites 1 two rooms- apartment Contact: Manager: NOMIKOS GIORGIS…
SEVERO CAFE-BAR
Severo starts the new season with a new striking identity. The new renovated space comes to revolutionize the nights of its guests with a unique energy and elegance. The evenings gain character and style with the accompaniment of the most distinct musical choices and fresh cocktails. Tel.: +30 2281 088243
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KOUZINA
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APERGI’S ROOMS
Apergi’s rooms and apartments are located in a three-storey building in the historic center of Ermoupolis, just a few steps from the Town Hall, the Apollo Theater and the Church of St. Nicholas. In a quiet district in the heart of the city, Apergis rooms offer a comfortable and relaxing stay with all modern comforts expected thus ensuring a truly enjoyable stay in Syros. Within walking distance from the rooms there are various cafés, restaurants and bars allowing guests to enjoy a stroll nearby day and night. Contact: Tel: 0030-22810 85800, Fax:…
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The neoclassical building hosting the Iliada rooms is nuzzled in the heart of the cosmopolitan capital amidst the mansions and buildings inspiring a special architectural finesse. All rooms are elegantly decorated and fully equipped to offer all modern comforts to travellers, while also boasting magical views to the Aegean Sea, the Harbour and the mansions…
ECCLESIASTICAL MUSEUM ΟF ERMOUPOLI
The ecclesiastical Museum of the island stands out for its excellent collection of ecclesiastical exhibits from all islands of the metropolis.
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THE ARCHIVES OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF ANO SYROS
Organize your “favourite” trip to Syros
Every individual has its own unique character, just as Syros does and so this portal couldn’t really function without a “favorites” application, making every trip to Syros a one of a kind experience. Select your favorite landmarks, beaches, restaurants, hotels and events, click on the heart button and create your own personal list of favorites.
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BOAT TIMETABLE
ΜINIBUS TIMETABLE
Ermoupolis, 84100, Syros
Tel. 22813-61002
If you have a business based on Syros and does not appear on our Website’s business directory or if you have changed some of your contact info, please let us know here: [email protected] The listing service on our business directory with contact details is provided for free.
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Fri, Apr 17, 2015 - Page 3 News List
Groups demand air quality action
STANDARDS:The EPA said it is thinking about raising its standards for air quality, but has a priority to control pollutants where they are released
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
Representatives from environmental groups protest outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning, urging the government to set stricter regulations regarding air quality in southern Taiwan.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Representatives from several environmental groups protested outside the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning, urging the government to set stricter regulations to prevent further deterioration of the air quality in southern Taiwan.
Protesters said that they were enraged by a statement made by Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國), who said that people cannot find high-tech jobs in southern Taiwan.
The protesters said that what Mao will not find in southern Taiwan is clean air, which they need for a healthy life.
They asked how people in the south are able to find jobs without being in good health.
Regulations say that schools are obliged to fly a red flag when the pollution standard index reaches 100 or PM2.5 levels exceed 36 micrograms (mcg) per cubic meter. The flag means that people with certain health issues should avoid outdoor activities and be aware of changes in their health.
PM2.5 is an indicator of airborne particles measuring 2.5 micrometers or less.
Citizen of the Earth Foundation Taipei office director Antonio Chou (周東漢) said that an experiment had been conducted in an elementary school in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營) from November last year to last month that showed a red flag was raised on 64 of the 85 school days during the period.
Chou said the findings showed that people in southern Taiwan should not engage in outdoor activities 75 percent of the time.
Foundation deputy executive director Wang Min-ling (王敏玲) said that she is used to wearing a face mask all year round having lived in the Kaohsiung-Pingtung County area for many years.
Wang said that the air is dense with particulate matter from autumn to spring, adding that the air quality changes for the better in summer, but ozone issues arise when the weather is hot.
The average ozone density in Kaohsiung’s Linyuan District (林園) in October last year was 58.5 parts per billion (ppb), which was higher than the government standard of 30ppb, she said.
She asked why 3.61 million residents in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County should continue putting up with contaminated air.
The PM2.5 standard set by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for safe values is between 35mcg and 53mcg per cubic meter, she said, but the WHO has a 25mcg per cubic meter standard.
Using the WHO’s standard, children could never play outside, she said.
“A study showed that the risks of not exercising are similar to those associated with high blood pressure, Wang said. How can people in the south go outside and exercise in these circumstances?”
Taiwan Healthy Air Alliance founder Yeh Guang-peng (葉光芃) said that Puli Township (埔里) in Nantou County as well as Mailiao Township (麥寮) in Yunlin County have the poorest air quality in Taiwan.
While Puli residents are set to march on Saturday [tomorrow], the central government is still sleeping, Yeh said.
Chen Hsien-heng (陳咸亨), director-general of the EPA’s Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control, said that the administration is considering raising its standards for air quality.
However, its focus is on regulating pollutants at their source, Chen said.
Chen said that the move by six cities and counties in southern Taiwan to ban the burning of coke and coal was admirable, but a similar move nationwide would require further consideration.
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Sat, Dec 08, 2018 - Page 3 News List
Law change creates ‘grand chambers’
REOCCURRING ISSUE:The nation’s highest courts are to create such chambers to reduce the number of cases in which courts at different levels hand down contradictory verdicts
By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
A crowd is reflected in the doorplate of the Supreme Court in Taipei on Aug. 16.
Photo: CNA
The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed amendments to the Court Organic Act (法院組織法) and the Administrative Court Organization Act (行政法院組織法), making way for the establishment of collegiate grand chambers to resolve a recurring issue of courts at different levels issuing conflicting rulings in a case.
The amendments stipulate that the Supreme Court is to assemble a civil grand chamber and a criminal grand chamber of 11 judges each, while the Supreme Administrative Court is to have a grand chamber comprised of nine judges, with the chief justice of each court serving as the presiding judge of their respective chambers.
To ensure fairness in judgements by the grand chambers, the number of division chief judges doubling as chamber judges must not exceed half of each chamber’s makeup, one amendment says.
Should the legal basis invoked by either court contradict that cited by a high court, resulting in contradictory rulings on a case, the superior court should address the dispute by submitting a request for the corresponding grand chamber to state its opinions, the amendments say.
That grand chamber must issue a ruling on a dispute within 30 days, the amendments say, adding that while the grand chamber’s verdict is not the final ruling in a case, it should serve as the basis on which the presiding court must base its final verdict.
Recognizing that litigants have the most crucial role in a lawsuit, the amendments afford them the right to request that the Supreme Court or the Supreme Administrative Court exercise its authority to file an arbitration motion with a grand chamber.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chou Chun-mi (周春米), cochair of the legislature’s Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, said that the amendments are expected to lower the occurrence of courts passing down conflicting rulings, which she called a much maligned issue that has plagued the nation’s judiciary.
Additional reporting by Peng Wan-hsin
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Wed, Jan 07, 2015 - Page 6 News List
Monsoons put Malaysian palm oil output in danger
A worker loads harvested oil palm fruit into a wheelbarrow at the Bell Eco Power palm oil plantation in Batu Pahat, Malaysia, on March 3 last year.
Photo: Bloomberg
A monsoon surge that brought the worst floods in decades to Malaysia, hurting palm oil output in the world’s second-largest grower, is forecast to move south this week, risking further inundations in Johor and Sarawak.
Heavy rains are set to start today or tomorrow in the two states and could last two or three days, potentially causing floods, according to Malaysian Meteorological Department officer Ambun Dindang. Johor, at the southern end of Peninsular Malaysia, and Sarawak in Borneo Island account for about one-third of the nation’s total production.
Palm oil rallied last week to the highest level in almost two months after the severe flooding in some states in the north hurt harvesting, and Ambun’s forecast raises the possibility of a second wave of disruptions further south. The wetter-than-usual weather that stretched from southern Thailand, through Malaysia and into Indonesia also triggered rubber supply concerns, sending futures into a bull market.
“At the moment, the cloudy areas are more towards the sea, just at the northeast of Johor and northwest of Sarawak,” Ambun said in a telephone interview yesterday from Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur. “These patches of clouds are still hovering over this place. So once it moves in, you can see some increase in rainfall amount, especially in Johor and Sarawak.”
Palm oil for March delivery yesterday dropped 0.1 percent to 2,280 ringgit (US$641) per tonne at the midday break on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives. Last month, most-active futures advanced 4.3 percent as the floods spread in Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang, three states that lie north of Johor along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The price rallied to 2,308 ringgit on Dec. 29, the highest since Nov. 4 last year.
“At the beginning of the monsoon season in November and December, normally the northeastern part of Peninsular Malaysia will get this impact of the monsoon surge, and then it propagates to the south,” said Ambun. “Floods are possible,” he said, referring to areas in Johor and Sarawak.
Malaysian output might have dropped 22 percent to 1.36 million tonnes last month, CIMB Investment Bank Bhd analyst Ivy Ng wrote in a report on Monday, citing a survey by the bank’s futures team. Inventories probably declined to 2 million tonnes, providing short-term support to prices, Ng said.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is suffering from E. coli after visiting the flood-hit areas, his media office said in a Twitter posting. Flood victims are concerned about diseases caused by contaminated water, garbage and carcasses, the Star newspaper reported on its Web site yesterday.
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Home Punjab News Residents shoot video as priest dies crying for help
Residents shoot video as priest dies crying for help
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, April 8
Balbir Kumar, a 50-year-old priest of Baba Balaknath Mandir, was murdered in the early hours here today.
Sources said some armed assailants had attacked the priest, who was found profusely bleeding at 3.30 am by a sevadar.
They claimed that the priest was alive after the attack, but no one immediately came to his rescue or took him to hospital as everyone was busy shooting his video. It was after much delay that an ambulance was called. The delay caused his death as he had lost lot of blood due to injuries from sharp weapons.
Balbir’s wife and his son were away to Haryana. While the temple is located at crowded Khatika Mohalla, Sadarpur, in Kartarpur, neighbours said they did not see any assailant.
Police sources said a Jammu-based devotee, who is a regular visitor to the temple, is suspected to be behind the attack. Witnesses said the priest had also mentioned a Jammu-based man before succumbing to his injuries.
An FIR has been lodged under Section 302 IPC against unidentified persons. DSP Kartarpur Ranjit Singh said, “The attackers fled after committing the crime. Their identity is not known yet, but we are following leads to crack the case.”
Apathy galore
Sources claimed that the priest was alive after the attack, but no one immediately came to his rescue or took him to hospital as everyone was busy shooting his video. It was after much delay that an ambulance was called. The delay caused his death as he had lost lot of blood.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS 2/9
Adult Faith Formation SurveyThe Adult Faith Formation Committee is currently preparing a 5 year recommendation for Adult Faith Formation activities for the parish. We need your help! Could you please fill out the survey located on the table next to the basket in the vestibule.
ST JOHN VIANNEY
THE GOSPELS OF MATTHEW AND MARK Sunday, February 9th, 1pm-5pm
Rick Keller-Scholz from the Archdiocese of Seattle will present The Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Reflect upon two of the Synoptic Gospels and their sources, themes, theological emphasis, literary forms, and social and historical contexts. Prayerfully meditate upon the Parables and open your heart to the messages that can be gleaned for the modern Catholic. Please remember to bring your Bible. The presentation is free and child care is provided.
PRAYER - CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION Sunday, February 23rd, following the 10:30am Mass
Sister Joyce Cox, BVM, will be with us on February 23rd to meet with all interested parishioners during the coffee hour to talk about Prayer. Bring your questions and embrace this opportunity to deepen your understanding of the call to a Life of Prayer. Learn about Spiritual Direction, an honored practice whose roots lie deep in Catholic tradition.
SPIRITUAL DIRECTION Friday, February 28th, following the daily Mass
Sister Joyce Cox, BVM, will be at the parish on Friday, February 28th from 10:30am-2:30pm, for Spiritual Direction. If you would like to meet with Sister Joyce during this time, please contact Connie Walker at netwalker@centurylink.net or 463-9871.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL A collection for St. Vincent de Paul will be taken after the masses this weekend.
Thank you for your generosity.
CATHOLIC ADVOCACY DAY IN OLYMPIA, FEB. 21Join members of our parish St. Vincent de Paul Society at Catholic Advocacy Day in Olympia on Friday, Feb.21 to talk with state lawmakers about proposed legislation that would help the poor and vulnerable. Areas include housing, economic justice, health care, child welfare, life issues, environment, and criminal justice. The day begins at 9 am at St. Michael Church with a legislative briefing and Mass celebrated by Archbishop J. Peter Sartain. Mid-day is devoted to pre-arranged meetings with lawmakers. The day concludes at 3 pm.
You can register online at www.ccsww.org/advocacy or at the event itself. If you would like a ride from Vashon, contact John McCoy (johnamccoy@yahoo.com)
CYO SUMMER CAMPCYO Summer Camp information is here. You will find it on the Faith Formation table in the social hall.
Human Trafficking Prayer Service, Feb. 8COME PRAY... Sat. Feb. 8, 12:00 @ St. Patrick's, 1001 N "J", Tacoma, 98403. St. Patrick Parish in Tacoma is hosting a prayer service concerning human trafficking - it is a call for prayers against human trafficking and for those who work in this field. This service remembers St. Josephine Bakhita and all victims of human trafficking. For more information, contact Angela Connelly, 253-208-7099.
St. Vincent de Paul- More than $30,000 in help given through SVdP in 2013 - Winter 2014
Through the generosity of SJV parishioners, the parish St. Vincent de Paul Society was able to provide more than $30,000 worth of housing, utility, food, clothing, and other assistance to islanders in need in fiscal year 2013.
The St. John Vianney wood crew, partnering with SVdP, made more than 60 deliveries of donated firewood valued at about $10,000 to low-income families for whom wood is the primary winter heating source.
Parish Vincentians made over 200 home visits and provided over 700 hours of service during the year. They were also able to give Thanksgiving dinner provisions to 19 families and Advent Tree gifts purchased by parishioners to 23 families at Christmas time. “Because our parishioners give so generously, we are able to meet the emergency needs of almost every islander who calls us,” said Diane Kajca, president of the parish SVdP conference.
SVdP TAKES ON RESPONSIBILITY FOR EIGHT COMMUNITY MEALS IN 2014 Volunteers are sought to work with Vincentians in preparing, serving, and sharing in the Vashon community meals. The parish SVdP is responsible for meals on the fifth Mondays and fifth Fridays of the month in 2014.
The fifth Monday meals are at the Methodist Church; the fifth Friday meals at the Lutheran Church. Both are from 5 to 6:30 pm.
If you can help on Monday, March 31, and other fifth Mondays, contact Lucy Clarke (lehellier@gmail.com). For fifth Fridays, contact John McCoy (johnamccoy@yahoo.com)
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JURASSIC PARK Meets THE RUNNING MAN In THE JURASSIC GAMES Trailer
The monster mash comes to VOD in June.
Director Ryan Bellgardt's The Jurassic Games imagines a future where Death Row inmates are forced to take part in a Running Man style game show, battling not only each other but a horde of hungry dinosaurs.
The film stars Ryan Merriman, Perrey Reeves, Katie Burgess and Adam Hampton.
The Jurassic Games will be available on Digital June 12th and DVD July 3rd from Uncork'd Entertainment.
The official synopsis reads:
Every year, 10 of the world’s most lethal death row criminals are chosen to compete for their freedom in The Jurassic Games, a television show where contestants must survive against a variety of ferocious dinosaurs. The players all die gruesomely in the game zone except for one, the last one standing, the winner, who is granted not only his freedom, but fame and fortune. Survive the dinosaurs. Survive each other. Survive…The Jurassic Games.
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The Commie Revolution Thread
Page 60 of 64 First ... 10505859606162 ... Last
Thread: The Commie Revolution Thread
Slave Region 10
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
"You think a wall as solid as the earth separates civilisation from barbarism. I tell you the division is a sheet of glass."
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir of Enfield (1875-1940): Author and Diplomat
Schumer wants an intervention
The next false flag now being OPENLY pushed by Democrats: They say they need “a new massacre” to succeed with gun control
PatriotRising -
Emboldened by ongoing and obvious witch hunts of the president, the co-opting of governmental institutions, Democratic gains in the House, and the dominance of “progressive” ideology in academia and pop culture, the American Left is making a full-on push to steal all remaining power in the country and, when obtained, use it to crush all political opposition.
That is, all conservative, pro-Trump opposition.
Case in point: The Atlantic’s Dick Polman actually suggested in a story published this week that more Americans needed to be slaughtered by a madman so that Democrats could use the “new massacre” to elevate gun control to “a first-tier story.”
It’s thinking like this that would have made “Uncle” Joe Stalin and Adolph Hitler blush. (Related: Dems’ gun control push won’t be enforceable without a national gun registry.)
As reported by Breitbart News, Polman, a contributor to the Left-wing magazine, acknowledged that Democrats took over control of the House in the November midterms with one of their political objectives being new restrictions on the Second Amendment.
Democrats have, indeed, begun their push, introducing legislation that criminalizes private gun sales by requiring Americans to get government permission, via a background check, beforehand.
Gun control fail
However, Breitbart’s Awr Hawkins reports:
Polman notes that the gun control bill did not garner major airplay in the establishment media, leading him to suggest a “new massacre” will be key in getting the push more attention. He wrote: “The Democrats’ championing of gun reform is not currently a first-tier story, but a new massacre would likely make it so.”
Polman lamented that the Jan. 23 SunTrust Bank shooting failed to elevate gun control to the top of Democrats’ political agenda. As Hawkins noted, the real lesson to glean from the murders is that once again, gun control failed to keep Americans safe — and in particular, Florida’s red flag law and waiting periods.
The Democrat Party has transformed itself into an authoritarian party of death. When it isn’t celebrating infanticide in New York, it is praying for Americans to be gunned down over a political agenda. Sick.
Read more about Democrats’ push for new gun control measures at Guns.news.
Incendiary Devices Found Outside Eugene Police HQ after Police Shooting of Armed Antifa Radical
By Debra Heine January 30, 2019
chat 310 comments
Eugene Police Dept. (Image via Facebook)
Following the shooting death of a local antifa radical earlier this month, police in Eugene, Ore., on Monday found incendiary devices planted outside their headquarters. "I don't know what kind of damage they could have done," Lt. David Natt said. "This is not a hoax device. These are very serious matters."
KMTR reported:
The devices are now at the Eugene Police forensics lab for processing. "Our hope is we get some physical evidence off it, and that physical evidence leads us to potentially somebody involved in the production and/or deployment of these devices," Natt said.
Natt declined to describe the devices or say how many devices were found.
"We kind of hang on to some of the details for the purposes of bettering the investigation," he said. "When we are in a position to release more details about style, type, make, model, that kind of stuff as it pertains to what was found, we're more than willing to do that. But we want to give our investigators the best start we can to get to the bottom of what this is all about."
On January 11, the attempted arrest of antifa activist Charlie Landeros at a Eugene middle school went horribly awry when the armed radical decided to fight the police. Police were called to the school amid a child custody dispute between Landeros and his ex-wife. During the confrontation, Landeros, wearing a “Smash the Patriarchy” t-shirt, pulled a 9mm handgun from his holster and pointed the weapon at the school resource officer attempting to make the arrest.
As the other officer tried to take control of the weapon, Landeros again pointed the gun at the school resource officer and fired two shots, according to district attorney investigators.
"Officer Timm recognized that the situation was dangerous and needed to be controlled. Both were in fear of their own death or the death of other bystanders or students in the area," District Attorney Patty Perlow wrote. "Officer Johns said he knew that if he let go of Landeros’ hand in the struggle, they were going to be killed. Officer Timm fired one bullet directly at Charles Landeros, striking Landeros in the temple, which was the cause of death."
Investigators from the DA's office determined that the shooting was justified based on video evidence and witness statements.
The Eugene Police Department last week released body camera video of the incident:
Landeros was reported to the FBI in 2018 for threatening to kill "the pigs" in a Facebook comment.
"In 2018, the FBI received information on a tip line that Charles Landeros was posting violent anti-government messages on social media," according to the DA. "The information was referred to the local FBI office, who concluded there was insufficient information to substantiate that a crime had been committed."
On January 9, two days before the deadly shooting outside the school, police in nearby Springfield received a screenshot of a Facebook comment on a story about a man shot and killed by police in Portland. A comment posted by "Charlie Landeros" read, "Time to start killing pigs," investigators wrote.
The investigation also found that Landeros served in the Army from June 2006 to June 2012 and was honorably discharged.
Landeros, who used they/them/their pronouns, was a member of Community Armed Self-Defense (CASD), according to the Daily Emerald.
CASD was created as a “new liberatory and inclusive space for all oppressed peoples to learn about armed self-defense,” according to the group’s Facebook page, which is no longer publicly available.
Community Armed Self Defense’s Facebook page said that they could not count on the police to protect marginalized people, and that firearms help marginalized groups protect themselves.
“The police are not here to protect us. They are more likely to harm us themselves than they are to ‘serve or protect’ us,” said the group's Facebook page description.
Watch Our Trending Videos
Interestingly, Landeros said in an October 2017 interview in Eugene Weekly, “I believe that there is going to be a high likelihood of a violent hate crime on this campus from the alt-right.”
Less than two years later, he pulled a gun on two cops inside a school and tried to shoot them.
Naturally, a Portland-based antifascist group is accusing the police of murdering their "comrade."
Meanwhile, the Eugene Police are investigating in earnest the explosive devices left outside their headquarters, although they have not yet publicly linked the case to the police shooting of Landeros.
"We're going to ask our neighbors for any footage, and we're going to review any footage that we have," Natt said.
"I don't have any motivation. We have no suspect information at this time. We're just taking this set of circumstances very seriously," he said. "Cases like this can be difficult. Somebody out there knows something about it, and we'd like to hear from them."
Violent ‘Art Exhibit’ Invites Visitors to Throw Crumbs at Vacuuming Ivanka Trump Lookalike
by Cristina Laila February 4, 2019 157 Comments
An art exhibit at CulturalDC’s former Flashpoint Gallery in the nation’s capital allows visitors to throw trash at a vacuuming Ivanka Trump lookalike.
A press releases celebrates the sexist and demeaning event as ‘art performance’ and says throwing crumbs at ‘Ivanka Vacuuming’ is ‘surprisingly pleasurable.’
“Inspired by a figure whose public persona incorporates an almost comically wide range of feminine identities – daughter, wife, mother, sister, model, working woman, blonde – Ivanka Vacuuming is simultaneously a visual celebration of a contemporary feminine icon; a portrait of our own relationship to that figure; and a questioning of our complicity in her role-playing,” the press release says.
“While Ivanka smiles and vacuums, graciously, elegantly, willingly, for the duration of the performance, the viewer is the one who shifts the action, throwing a handful of crumbs from a pedestal onto the carpet. Ivanka vacuums whether crumbs are present or not.”
The artist then takes her taunting to the next level in the press release and asks, “Do we throw them to help her fulfill her duty? Are we complicit? Do we throw them because it’s fun to subjugate her in this act of classic feminine domestic drudgery? Maybe she’s just asking for it, right? But what does our degradation of her say about us?”
“The public is invited to throw crumbs onto the carpet, watching as Ivanka elegantly vacuums up the mess, her smile never wavering. This process repeats itself for the entire duration of the performance.”
Photo of the pile of crumbs visitors will be able to throw at ‘Vacuuming Ivanka’:
Why aren’t the feminists defending Ivanka Trump, or women in general over this exhibit that reflects every ugly stereotype that they claim to fight against?
This Ivanka Trump lookalike (Jennifer Rubell) is also shaming stay-at-home wives and mothers who choose to forgo a career to rear children and take care of the household.
Ivanka Trump is a business owner, mother, wife and philanthropist — a woman who would be celebrated by feminists worldwide if not for the sin of her being Donald Trump’s daughter.
MS-13 takes over Blue Cities
Bezukhov
Providence, R.I.
It's over. They've won.
Capitalist elites cave in to protesters: Global utopia to begin immediately
https://chaser.com.au/news/world-ban...n-immediately/
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium.
I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery.
I think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard was not what I meant.
“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.”
My Disqus channel:
https://disqus.com/by/PierreBezukhov1812/
All Too Familiar
Originally Posted by Bezukhov
Man Arrested in Kentucky After Pulling Gun on a Couple Over Their MAGA Hats
by Cassandra Fairbanks February 17, 2019 540 Comments
UPDATE: The Gateway Pundit has interviewed the victim.
A Tennessee man was arrested on Saturday after pulling a gun on a couple over the fact that they were wearing a Make America Great Again hats.
Terry Pierce and his wife were wearing MAGA hats at a Sam’s Club in Bowling Green, Kentucky, when James Phillips flipped them off.
Pierce told 13 News that he was shopping with his wife when Phillips “Pulled a .40 caliber out and stuck it in my face, backed up and said, ‘It’s a good day for you to die.'”
“I have as much right to wear that hat and support my country and my president as he has not to,” Pierce said.
Phillips reportedly left the store after flipping the couple off — so Pierce went outside to confront him.
“I went out the front of the store to confront him again and that’s when I got him in his car. He couldn’t leave because his mother was still in the store. And we were having a verbal altercation outside,” said Pierce. “He tried telling me I assaulted him and I said, ‘I never touched you.'”
The police report says that surveillance footage from the store confirms that Pierce had not touched Phillips.
“The report does mention that witnesses and Pierce said Phillips pulled a gun on Pierce inside the store but this couldn’t be seen on surveillance video due to Phillips backing out of the view of the camera,” 13 News reports.
Phillips was armed with a Glock .40 caliber with a round chambered and two additional magazines, according to the police report. He reportedly has a concealed carry permit in Tennessee.
Phillips is currently being detained in the Warren County Regional Jail and is charged with wanton endangerment first degree.
President Trump Lashes Out at “Treasonous” McCabe and Rosenstein Over Plot to Remove Him From Office
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...m-from-office/
Trump Rages Against Mueller – Quotes Rush Limbaugh: Mueller Investigators ‘Ought to be in Jail’ For Cover-up of Attempted Coup
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...ttempted-coup/
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Behind the headlines - conspiracies, cover-ups, ancient mysteries and more. Real news and perspectives that you won't find in the mainstream media.
Browse: Home / ISRAEL, not Iran has been calling to “wipe Iran off the map” all along!
“Holocaust” declared 7 years before there was a “Holocaust”
By wmw_admin on December 13, 2014
The New York Times was already reporting of Jewish persecution and an ongoing “Holocaust” in May 31, 1936
Category: Essential Reading, Hidden and Revisionist History, Israel, 'Anti-Semitism', Zionism and US-UK allies
CEO of MGM Grand – Which OWNS Mandalay Bay Casino Hotel Where Shooting Took Place – SOLD-OFF HIS MGM STOCK in the weeks before the attack!
By wmw_admin on October 9, 2017
Did he have prior knowledge of the attack and got rid of the stocks before the price plummeted?
Category: 'False flags', Essential Reading, Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay Hotel Shooting
Who Really Murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman?
By wmw_admin on February 28, 2015
Revelations that a US soldier was the killer would have jeopardised public support for the “War on Terror”. Hence a frame-up was required. A Joe Vialls classic recovered.
Category: "The War on Terror", Essential Reading, Hidden and Revisionist History
Waco: The Untold Story.
By wmw_admin on May 6, 2006
The real story behind Waco. A shocking revelation that ultimately led to the death of the man who sought to expose it, attorney Paul Wilcher.
Category: Essential Reading, Waco
“WIPED OFF THE MAP” – The Rumor of the Century
By wmw_admin on January 21, 2008
How President Ahmadinejad’s words were mistranslated and deliberately distorted. So that the term “wiped off the map” has now become synonymous with the Iranian leader’s attitude to Israel – even though he never uttered those words
Category: Essential Reading, Iran, Israel, 'Anti-Semitism', Zionism and US-UK allies, The Media
Americans are training Syria rebels in Jordan: Spiegel
By wmw_admin on March 10, 2013
This was shortly before they joined Islamic State
Category: Behind The "News", Essential Reading, Syria
Anne Frank Diary Fraud Finally Admitted
By wmw_admin on April 3, 2019
After decades of deception the Anne Frank Foundation has finally admitted that Anne’s father, Otto Frank, co-authored large parts of her famous diary
Category: Commentary, Essential Reading, Hidden and Revisionist History
The Advent of the Anti-Christ II
By Rixon Stewart on August 6, 2010
If or more likely when war erupts with Iran it will herald the appearance of an ominous figure long foretold. And guess what? We think we’ve spotted him
Category: Essential Reading, The Anti-Christ
Fake Terrorism: The Road to Dictatorship
By wmw_admin on October 10, 2008
Throughout history “terrorist” acts have been carefully staged and used to further the power of the ruling elite. In the light of the latest “terror” plot we repost an old favourite as a reminder
Category: Essential Reading, Political Intrigue
Who Are The Illuminati?
By wmw_admin on April 24, 2004
Conspiracy theory is now an accepted turn of phrase but sometimes one hears the expression, sometimes whispered rather than spoken. “The Illuminati”.
Category: Essential Reading, The New World Order
ISRAEL, not Iran has been calling to “wipe Iran off the map” all along!
By wmw_admin on November 7, 2011
Nashid Abdul-Khaaliq – Ascertain the Truth 21 February 2009
ISRAEL, not Iran has been calling to “wipe Iran off the map” all along! A big fuss is being made in main stream media about Iran wanting to “wipe Israel off the map”. In any discussion about Iran, that point is brought up over and over again to show the “Hitler” qualities of Iran that must be checked by a nuclear attack from the U.S. But the reality is that it is a bold faced lie. The Israeli government has been calling for the extermination of Iran publicly numerous times for many years now. No one made a fuss about that? Here are just a few examples (and I can list many more) taken from headlines of articles calling for Iran’s extermination by Israel — long before anything was claimed to be said about Israel by Iran.
It is a sad state of affairs and very ugly indeed when things have to be fabricated or made up to make others appear evil and even genocidal, when in truth they are not. The truth is Ahmadinejad never said “wipe Israel off the map”. That phrase is an invention by MEMRI – the neocons propaganda tool that mistranslates articles written in the Middle East and demonizes Arabs and Islam. The “wipe off the map” statement, attributed to Iran, provides Jews another opportunity to go on a self pitying, persecution campaign as they are doing now to justify attacking Iran. It is a bold faced lie like so many others they have told in the past. What Ahmadinejad did say was to repeat Khomeini’s statement about regime change in Israel similar to what happened in South Africa. It was not a genocidal statement like these lying, self pitying, desperate for world sympathy Jews have been pushing. But it was a statement reflecting a change in government providing justice to all unlike the racist, barbaric Jewish regime ruling over the Palestinians today.
But let’s look at Jewish actions against Iran like in the following article:
Boxer, AIPAC lead efforts to cut off Iranian exports
At the top of AIPAC’s 1996 agenda, Grossman said, is legislation to boost Israel’s military technology and to put the squeeze on Iran.”If you think about the strategic threat to Israel long-term,” Grossman said, “it’s the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and…the spread of Islamic fundamentalism.” Iran excels in both areas, he said…
When do you think this article was written? Recently? No, it was written in December, 1995!!! It was published long before Amadinejad was elected president and before Iran announced it was interested in developing nuclear energy. In effect, the Israeli Lobby had declared its own war on Iran long before the current situation. Read the article to see how vehement AIPAC was even back then in seeking Iran’s destruction.
A big fuss is being made in main stream media about Iran wanting to “wipe Israel off the map”. In any discussion about Iran that point is brought up over and over again to show the “Hitler” qualities of Iran that must be checked by a nuclear attack from the U.S. But the reality is that it is a bold faced lie. The Israeli government has been calling for the extermination of Iran publicly numerous times for many years now. Did anyone make a fuss about that? Here are just a few examples (and I can list many more) taken from headlines of articles calling for Iran’s extermination by Israel — long before anything was claimed to be said about Israel by Iran:
November 5, 2002 “Times/UK”
“Attack Iran the day Iraq war ends”, demands Israel!
By Stephen Farrell, Robert Thomson and Danielle Haas
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1105-02.htm
September 30, 2004 “The Insider”
Israel Instructs America To Attack Iran And Syria
http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=0614
March 16, 2005 “U.S. Crusade”
Israel’s Broken Record – Attack Iran
By Kurt Nimmo
http://www.uscrusade.com/index.php?blog=3&cat=16
February 6, 2005 “WhatReallyHappened”
U.S. – Israel Plans To Strike Iran’s Nuclear Sites Finalized
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/archives/week_2005_02_06.html
June 14, 2005 “The NewYork Sun”
SPY CASE REVEALS ISRAELI PLOT TO PLANT IRAN WMD DATA
BY ELI LAKE – Staff Reporter of the Sun
http://www.nysun.com/national/details-of-a-plot-unveiled-in-case-against/15374/
Dec 5, 2005 “MichNews”
Netanyahu: “If elected, I won’t hesitate to order a pre-emptive strike on Iran”
By Ryan Jones, JNewsWire.com
http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_10634.shtml
YouTube – Israel / U.S. Plans To Nuke Iran – what will …
What terrible plans may be in store for Iran if the neo-cons …
Watch video – 4 min 53 sec –
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaH41xRt3og
Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran – Times Online ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1290331.ece – Similar pages
April 18, 2009 “From The Times”
Israel stands ready to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites�
The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government…
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6115903.ece
Israel plans to nuke Iran. In the reports below, The Sunday Times have just revealed new evidence that Israel is currently planning to launch a nuclear attack against Iran. …
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=4380
Now, imagine if Iran had been saying those things about Israel? Today’s demonization of Iran claiming that Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, Iran’s pursuit for nuclear weapons and their desire to “wipe Israel off the map” is a ploy, an excuse presented to non-Jews to give Israel the justification for what they have been wanting to do all along. For the record the following is what Iran’s president said. Compare it to what Israel has been saying about Iran for many years now, as in the articles above, and judge for your self which statements are more genocidal:
The Actual Quote:
So what did Ahmadinejad actually say? To quote his exact words in Farsi:
“Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad.”
That passage will mean nothing to most people, but one word might ring a bell: rezhim-e. It is the word “regime.” pronounced just like the English word with an extra “eh” sound at the end. Ahmadinejad did not refer to Israel the country or Israel the land mass, but the Israeli regime. This is a vastly significant distinction, as one cannot wipe a regime off the map. Ahmadinejad does not even refer to Israel by name, he instead uses the specific phrase “rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods” (regime occupying Jerusalem).
So this raises the question.. what exactly did he want “wiped from the map”? The answer is: nothing. That’s because the word “map” was never used. The Persian word for map, “nagsheh” is not contained anywhere in his original Farsi quote, or, for that matter, anywhere in his entire speech. Nor was the western phrase “wipe out” ever said. Yet we are led to believe that Iran’s president threatened to “wipe Israel off the map.” despite never having uttered the words “map.” “wipe out” or even “Israel.”
‘Wiped off the Map’ – The Rumor of the Century
Posted in Iran, Israel, 'Anti-Semitism', Zionism and US-UK allies, The Media
wmw_admin
Teaching Holocaust
By Philip Giraldi on July 16, 2019
Philip Giraldi examines how education is now being used to instil politically correct attitudes in America. And how those who question this pay the price
Category: Feature Posts, Hidden and Revisionist History
What is the Illuminati?
By wmw_admin on July 16, 2019
The Illuminati reorganized in 1776 and quickly took over the world.
Category: Commentary, Feature Posts
Idiots Driving World to War
By Finian Cunningham on July 16, 2019
A week before he tried to calm tensions with Iran, UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt vowed to increase military spending if he became prime minister. Citing Iran as the main reason
Category: Commentary, Feature Posts, Iran
Who Remembers the Sandy Hook School Shootings?
By Paul Craig Roberts on July 16, 2019
Two forensic experts who examined copies of the death certificate of one of the Sandy Hook victims declare it to be a “forgery”
Category: Feature Posts, Sandy Hook Shooting
Ex BBC presenter exposes the dark side of Panorama’s ‘incredibly suspect’ episode on Corbyn
BBC edited out the Jewish identity of Labour Party members in recent documentary who were accused of anti-Semitism
Category: Feature Posts, Israel, 'Anti-Semitism', Zionism and US-UK allies, The Media
Strait of Hormuz: The Most Dangerous Place on Earth
Trump’s sanctions on Iran have created a tinderbox in the region that only needs a slight misunderstanding to ignite
Category: Feature Posts, Iran
British warship HMS Duncan en route to Gulf on high alert after Iranian bomb boat found
Remote controlled ‘bomb boat’ found on the destroyer’s route as she sails to Middle East. Or so claim Saudi intelligence
Category: Current Affairs, Feature Posts, Iran
Poof! One day in occupation causes young Jews on Zionist tour to question Zionism — ‘NYT’ reports
Now not even the New York Times can deny the ugly reality of Zionism
Flashback: Interviews with Whistle Blower Ronald Bernard Provides Insight into Epstein Affair
Interview with Illuminat defector offers insight into the ties between power and sexual abuse
Category: Commentary, Feature Posts, Sexual abuse/historic sexual abuse
Donald Trump, Netanyahu and 9/11
By Christopher Bollyn on July 15, 2019
Donald Trump claims that he puts U.S. interests first, but in the Middle East his policies do not benefit America, writes Christopher Bollyn. They only benefit Israel
Category: Commentary, Feature Posts, Israel, 'Anti-Semitism', Zionism and US-UK allies
Copyright © 2019 The Truthseeker
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More stuff to click on
Sideblog
Arkansas Pie
Classic Eats
Hear Kat Speak
Editorial: The Raw Milk Bill.
One of Kent Walker's marvelous cheeses. (Grav Weldon)
I have a confession to make. I love cheese. I mean, we’re talking serious affection here. If I had to choose between giving up cheese or chocolate for the rest of my life, there would be no choice – I’ll take salty, savory and even musty cheeses over the finest cocoa nibs.
I’m also a big fan of Arkansas foods… homegrown, native, created and shared. The seeds of the locavore movement planted in the past decade have blossomed into readily available fruits and vegetables, meat and dairy year-round. Not only can I take home these locally produced ingredients, but I can also dine on creations from these same products in an expanding number of local restaurants. After all these years, there is now the possibility and reality of truly “eating Arkansas.”
At least, to a point. There are some things we cannot change. We’ll always be a landlocked state, which means saltwater seafoods are just not something that comes from here. I doubt we’ll ever have syrup-producing maple. But there are some things we can change.
Now, a disclaimer. I’m not a political animal. I spent too many years trying desperately to follow the Cronkite model in a succession of newsrooms. For the most part, my politics are my own and are relegated to my voting booth experience. Food is the one arena in which I will speak out – whether it’s the production, the promotion, the availability to others and the feeding of the hungry.
That’s why I have to talk to you about House Bill 1536 in the Arkansas Legislature. Please, stick with me. It’s just a few lines of government-speak, but it’s important. The measure reads:
AN ACT TOI PROMOTE THE USE OF LOCALLY PRODUCED MILK PRODUCTS; TO ALLOW THE INCIDENTAL SALE OF LOCALLY PRODUCED WHOLE MILK THAT IS NOT PASTEURIZED; TO ALLOW THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH TO MAKE RULES FOR THE SALE OF LOCALLY PRODUCED WHOLE MILK THAT IS NOT PASTEURIZED; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
The subtitle of the measure:
TO PROMOTE LOCAL MILK PRODUCTS; TO ALLOW THE INCIDENTAL SALE OF WHOLE MILK THAT IS NOT PASTEURIZED; AND TO ALLOW THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH TO MAKE RULES FOR THE SALES.
Chilled milk. (Kat Robinson)
The measure, known commonly as The Raw Milk Bill, would amend Arkansas Code 20-59-248, which currently allows only for the sale of raw goat’s milk – to the tune of just 100 gallons sold per farmer each year. The changes proposed would extend the same to dairy cattle farmers and such, who would be allowed to sell up to 500 gallons of raw cow’s milk each year. That increased limit would also apply to goat’s milk.
That may seem like a lot of milk – but if you think about it, it’s really not. The average American drinks 20.1 gallons of milk a year (2010 numbers, compared with 44.7 gallons of SODA each year), according to the USDA. 500 gallons-worth could conceivably just cover 25 people….
What would be done with this unpasteurized milk? Well, if the measure passes and is signed into law, raw cow’s milk becomes available to the consumer in a variety of ways. The obvious answer is that it may appear in local markets, probably for a higher price than what you pay for regular milk. It also becomes available for other applications. The one I am interested in, is cheese.
Yes, you can make cheese out of pasteurized milk. I have good friends who do this on a fairly regular basis, creating a soft cream cheese from whole milk with the addition of vinegar or lemon juice. I’m also a fan of Kent Walker’s fine artisanal cheeses. Kent’s been creating some marvelous cheeses right here in Little Rock at Trinity Cathedral Episcopal Church, in its kitchen (which has become a fine incubator for locavore pursuits as of late). He’s already reached beyond Feta to hard cheeses like his Bluff Top Gouda, Habanero Cheddar and Ophelia – a lovely goat milk cheese that could best be compared as a fragrant variant of French Munster. Thing is, he makes Ophelia out of raw goat’s milk – and it is fabulous.
Most of the milk you can purchase these days is homogenized – which means it’s the milk of so many cows all poured in together and pasteurized together, giving it a very uniform flavor. The non-pasteurized raw milk we’re talking about that’s covered in this bill would be the milk from small local farms, where cows get to graze outside on grasses and which will each have their own flavor. To some it will be slight; to others, significant. That might freak some of you out. But imagine the cheeses that could come from that.
There are some big foes against raw milk and cheeses made from it, I have to tell you. There are even websites that talk about the dangers – and if you are interested in reading them, you can find some of those warnings here. You can also find information about why raw milk is a good thing, here. There are good arguments on both sides of the case.
Thing is, passing this measure won’t mean you HAVE to drink raw milk or consume raw milk products. The milk you get from most of those commercial operations will still be the same product you buy today at your local grocery. But the bill will open up the possibility of purchasing these items yourself.
It’ll also help these small dairy operations to flourish – which, in the age of the growing locavore movement, seems like a no-brainer. Helping these farmers create markets in which to sell their products can only benefit them and encourage others to follow suit, offering more local dairy options for the discerning consumer.
When it comes down to it, it’s a matter of choice. I’ll be watching the progress of this measure in the days to come. It’s currently set to be heard Friday morning in the House Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development. You can follow it here.
Told by Kat Robinson at 10:00:00 AM
Labels: arkansas, Arkansas food, Arkansas Legislature, HB 1536, Kent Walker, raw milk, raw milk cheese, The Raw Milk Bill
wynnsfolly April 4, 2013 at 5:52 PM
I must bring up a point of order, while you can certainly use the term "homogenized" the way you have, you know that is not what is meant when you see it on the milk label. ;-)
While I'm pondering the lack of availability of any type of cream-line milk, I'm thrilled at the thought that someone wants to promote small dairy production here in AR.
The current pasteurization processes in commercial milk make it really difficult to make much of anything beyond a soft cheese, and forget about using ultra-pasteurized cream products in any type of homemade cheese.
thanks for the heads-up.
Kat, thank you for supporting HB1536 , we have been making Cheese , Butter etc, from our Family Cows for 5 + years, it has been a delight , we give away presently any extra Fresh Farm Real Milk, with this bill we could recoup some of our expenses of Hay , Minerals and some grain due to drought conditions .
We pasture our "Girls" , on pesticide free Pasture, and our Cows are Healthier for it . Thanks for Sharing , AJ and Denise N AR
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Remarkable Recovery: Man who Rescued Driver from Wicomico River - WBOC-TV 16, Delmarvas News Leader, FOX 21 -
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ccoles@wboc.com
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Forget Bordeaux and Parker: welcome to sustainable California
There was one very noticeable absence on the recent Wine Institute of California’s UK trade trip. Robert Parker. Not the great man himself. He wouldn’t have qualified. But his all pervading influence which normally dominates any debate about premium Californian wine. On my last trade trip to California some years ago much of the conversation amongst the UK visitors was about alcohol levels and wood. Not this time. California has moved on. This time the key theme was all around sustainability and the many initiatives, programmes and guidelines there are now to help growers and producers certify their vines and make wine in a sustainable way. Which, in turn, has encouraged, if not forced, producers to turn their focus away from their shiny wineries to what is happening in the vineyards.
By Richard SiddleMay 7, 2019
Richard Siddle, looks at how the desire to make wines sustainably is changing the face and dynamics of the premium Californian wine scene.
Taking steps to make your vineyards sustainable is what is driving many producers like here at Tablas Creek (Picture: Brittany App)
It might seem strange to talk about Californian winemakers still looking for their own identity and place in the winemaking world when you consider the state is home to some of the industry’s most iconic wines, and is responsible for producing 90% of all wine made in the United States. What’s more its global reputation for producing super quality wines that regularly rattle up to 95 to 100 points on the Parker richter scale, attract a staggering 24m tourists to the region every year.
But for all its fame, particularly around the pomp and circumstance that has surrounded some of the biggest names and price points in Napa, there is also a recognition, admitted publicly or not, that a lot of its reputation has been built on trying to be something its not.
First, like so much of the New World, there was a burning desire to be taken seriously by the French with so many of its wines made from all the classic Bordeaux varieties, pivoted around Cabernet Sauvignon.
All of which culminated in California beating the French at their own game at Steven Spurrier’s famous Judgement of Paris tasting in 1976 – a moment in California’s history that still has huge significance today – mentioned at every winery visit we made, in Napa in particular.
Then came the power of Robert Parker and the necessity of making wines that suited his palate, and more importantly the points he gave you. Could you really afford to break free and make a wine that did not get 90 plus Parker points and continue to make wine in this super competitive – and expensive – state?
Doing things for themselves
California is now looking to do things differently says wine writer, Elaine Chukan Brown
But, as with so many other countries and regions in the New World, most notably South Africa and Australia, the penny has finally dropped that to make the best wines they can, in all areas of California, producers need to stop coveting the French and following the whims of a powerful wine critic. Instead they need to look only at themselves, their properties, their vineyards, soils and the climate they are grown in and make wine based entirely on those factors.
The fact you might still be using all the classic Bordeaux Cabernet Sauvignons, Merlots and Petite Syrahs to do so is just part of the answer, it’s not the beginning, middle and end.
“California is now looking to do things differently rather than just do things the way they were,” is how respected US wine writer and critic, Elaine Chukan Brown puts it. “It’s now all about interpreting what you have in your own vineyards.”
And like so many other New World wine regions that wake up call has also coincided with a greater understanding and widespread sharing of information of how their individual and collective vineyards work. It’s no coincidence that California’s new found confidence over the last 10 to 15 years to make wines that are true to their state has also seen the introduction of a myriad of new AVAs (American Viticultural Areas). Each of which can pin point exactly the right kind of varieties to be grown there, and what viticultural practices to use to make the most of them. Of the 188 AVAs in the US, 138 are in California, of which close to 40 have been formed in the last 15 years, which govern the use of 110 different grape varieties.
It’s when you analyse where those AVAs are situated that you see where California’s power base is. For Napa might only be responsible for 4% of California’s total production, it has 14 separate AVAs covering its 45,000 acres of vines. Neighbouring Sonoma racks up 18 AVAs and 60,000 acres of vineyards.
There is talk of plenty more AVAs to come as winemakers and viticulturists alike dig even deeper into their soils and climates to assess what can be grown where. Which is not surprising when you consider California as a whole has 2,800 soil types to play with.
This better understanding of what vineyard can do what is also, in part, a factor in the growth of so many prestigious red blends now being produced in California, says Chukan Brown. Which in turn has helped “revive” so many vineyard areas and vines, particularly older vines.
“Take mountain Cabernet. It has emerged as a style that is now a robust category in its own right,” she adds. “These vines and wine have always been there, but it is only now that we are recognising and distinguishing the real differences that they have.”
Part of that change in approach, and philosophy if you like, has also been reflected in the enormous steps the Californian wine industry has taken to invest in sustainability schemes that are arguably now as much a part of the region’s DNA as their Cabernets, Zinfandels, Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. Initiatives that are now some of the leading sustainability schemes in the world, like Lodi Rules and Napa Green, culminating in the all encompassing Certified Sustainable scheme, whose logo you can now start seeing on bottles and labels.
As the tagline says it is all about tracking ‘Sustainability from Grapes to Glass’. To qualify a wine has to be made in a certified winery and any particular label has to include a minimum 85% of grapes from certified vineyards, with 100% of them coming from California.
All of which has given producers and winemakers a whole new way of looking at their vines and vineyards. An approach to winemaking that starts with truly understanding the climatic and soil conditions where they are making their wines.
Sustainability numbers
In fact you can’t realistically talk about Californian wine, without also talking about its sustainability. Just look at the numbers:
California now has 300,000 hectares and growing of certified vineyards, which is ahead of South Africa, Chile, New Zealand and Australia in that order.
Over 400m cases of certified sustainable wine is now produced in California that far outstrips that being produced across the rest of the New World.
Which means 70% of wine cases are now produced in a certified winery which is expected to go up to 80% when the next sustainability report is published in 2020.
75% of vineyards are participating in sustainable programmes including 140 vineyard practice and 104 winery practices
647, 537 cases of California’s 2017/2018 vintages are covered by the certified wine label notification scheme.
The Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing programme was the state’s first third-party formal initiative, started in 2005, and now covers 47,000 acres in 13 crush districts across California. In Lodi itself 24,129 cases of certified wine are produced each year, from 28,000 certified acres.
Since its inception in the early 2000s, more than half of all vineyard acreage in Napa County (25,000 acres) has been certified and more than 80 Napa wineries have enrolled – accounting for 40% of all sustainable winery certifications statewide.
In 2015 Napa Valley Vintners pledged 100% of its members would participate in in the certification scheme by 2020; currently more than 70% of eligible members are involved.
Napa Green Certified wineries implement more than 100 measures, going beyond regulatory compliance, to achieve certification.
The challenge, however, is to get even more wineries and growers involved and then look at how it then best communicates what these sustainable measures actually mean when looking to export and market its wines around the world. How can it make them as relevant as possible to the demands and needs of buyers at major retailers, particularly the Scandinavian monopolies, that each have their own assessments and guidelines of what they mean by sustainability that are not easy to come by.
It’s all about the sea
The winds and temperatures that come off the Californian coast, like here close to Bodega Bay, have an enormous influence over the style of wines that can be made
The biggest influence on Californian winemaking is no longer Bordeaux, but the all conquering influence of the Pacific sea that runs up the 1,300km of Californian coastline. Everywhere you go winemakers will talk about the “maritime influence” on their vines and grapes with the sea acting like a cooling blanket across the region, particularly across northern California.
You really have to experience the brutal winds that come in off the Pacific for yourself to really appreciate what they mean by “maritime influence”. It also means that for large parts of the day many Californian vineyards are covered in a bitter fog that slows burns off during the day, only to return again in the evening and night.
It is those huge swings in temperature that give the grapes their unique characteristics with the cold winds and fog from the west clashing with the heat from the east to create California’s very own micro climate.
Matt Stamp, the respected local Master Sommelier who runs his own wine bar and restaurant, Compline in Napa, describes it as the region’s very own “air conditioning” system. “It is what helps preserve the acidity in out wines,” says Stamp. “That diurnal shift is key to defining the styles of wine we make here.”
Each AVA will be influenced by the sea, the winds, the fog and big temperature changes in their own way. It’s why it’s common to see many of the Napa and Sonoma producers, for example, taking fruit from a wide range of growers, covering different zones of vines.
Black Stallion Winery, part of the Delicato Family Vineyards, for example, sources fruit from each of the Napa AVAs to help make its range of blended wines, particularly for its Transcendent, Bucephalus and Barrel Reserve premium blends. It’s like a chef picking the best fresh ingredients for a dish. If you have the choice available then it makes sense to make the most of it, says David DeBoer, Delicato’s general manager for exports and international division.
Delicato’s export general manager, David DeBoer, says it takes its grapes from multiple sites.
Driving growth
This drive to make more premium wines that are true to their place is also being pushed so heavily in California because so much of its wine is produced by such dominant and influential wine families. Businesses that are looking at their vineyards as assets to be used by their respective families for generations to come, and not the short term decision making of shareholder driven conglomerates.
E&J Gallo might be by far the biggest, but as well as having the world’s largest family-owned wine business, the region can also boast to have the second biggest with Trinchero Family Estates, the owner of the Sutter Home wine brand, that produces some 13 million cases a year.
It is these families, that are behind so many of the sustainable initiatives in the region. Trinchero’s 250 acres of Napa vineyards, for example, are all certified Napa Green, whilst its 7,000 acres in Lodi are under the Lodi Rules programme.
Gallo has a commitment that it will only ever convert a maximum 50% of the land it owns for a particular producer to vines. Dedicating the rest to improving the overall biodiversity of the land. The Frei Brothers property, for example, covers 1,200 acres of which 630 are planted with vines, the rest it looks to manage with cover crops that will naturally benefit the future health of the vines.
The fact it owns so many properties in different regions and AVAs means it can also widen the experience of its winemaking team and share their expertise working on different properties, explains, Edouard Baijot MW, Gallo’s head of fine wine.
Sustainable through acquisition
These families are also behind most of the recent acquisitions that have taken place in California. After all it is one thing knowing where to go to make the best wines, it does not mean a lot if you don’t have any access to the best fruit being grown there.
Whilst E&J Gallo is clearly leading the way on the acquisition trail, it has seen more medium sized players like Delicato expand out of their heartland in Lodi and look to acquire properties in more premium regions like Napa. Which for Delicato saw the purchase of the Black Stallion winery in 2010.
“We have had great success with our wines in Lodi and Monterey and we wanted to showcase what we could do in Napa. Having a winery in Napa means we also now have multiple tiers of quality in our range. It’s part of having a tiered approach to your portfolio,” explains DeBoer.
Delicato, which is now distributed in the UK through Bancroft Wines, sees that approach as also being key to its export strategy, which makes up around 19% of its production, driven largely by its Gnarly Head Zinfandel brand from Lodi which is 22% exported.
“We have a real commitment to exports and happy to see that figure up 19% compared to a lot of Napa wineries which will only be exporting 8% to 10%,” adds DeBoer.
With land so expensive in Napa and Sonoma it is also vital for producers such as Delicato to develop long term contracts with growers so that they can source the best quality fruit from the most coveted AVAs. It’s why where possible it will put in place contracts that might be for 10 years with certain growers so that it can guarantee their supply. Which even includes helping to finance their growth and development.
Different approaches
Tres Goetting says Californian winemakers are becoming more confident in their own distinctive styles of wine
With such a diversity in supply, it means it can also take a different approach in how it makes different wines, says Delicato’s chief winemaker, Ralf Holdenried. “In some vineyards we might do open fermentation, and whole bunch pressing, in another we could do a cold soak and some de-stemming,” he says. “We are certainly not making wine to a specific palate. We want to show what Napa, say, can do stylistically with different wines.”
“It’s fair to say that 20 years ago winemakers were trying to mimic Bordeaux, but we now realise we can make wine that is more in tune with Napa, its climate, its soils,” he adds.
It therefore makes both environmental and commercial sense to look after those all important soils and vines. The fact areas such as Napa and Sonoma are blessed with such natural resources is a gift that keeps on giving to those winemakers and producers willing to go the extra steps to make sure they are looking after them.
As Tres Goetting, winemaker at Robert Biale Vineyards, says Napa producers have one great advantage: “We have the confidence here to make good wine because we are working with such quality fruit. Even in a bad harvest we still have good fruit to work with.”
They are also lucky, he adds, to be working with some of the oldest vines in the state – in his case heritage vineyards of Zinfandels that date back to the 1880s.
Everywhere you turn in California it feels producer after producer is trying to go the extra step to be more sustainable. Rather than drag their feet, they are jumping forward looking to find new ways of working.
Real recognition
Crucially they are also being recognised for their efforts. The Sustainable Winegrowing Leadership Awards are now into their fifth year giving recognition to those producers that are leading the way. It is also importantly a joint awards scheme that covers the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, California Association of Winegrape Growers, Wine Institute, Lodi Winegrape Commission, Napa Valley Vintners, Sonoma County Winegrowers and the Vineyard Team ensuring all their interests are covered.
The most recent recipient of the Leader award, given for their environmental, social and economic practices was Silver Oak Cellars.
Old vines dating back to the 1880s are attracting more ambitious winemakers to Lodi
Then there is the Historical Vineyards Society that was set up in 2011 by a number of influential producers such as Robert Biale and Joel Peterson to act as a non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation, and also the registration and recording of California’s historic vineyards. Many of which date back to the 1880s.
The initiative is helping to “revive” so many vineyard areas and vines, particularly older Zinfandel vines, says US wine writer Elaine Chukan Brown. “The Historic Vineyard Society, with the help of winemakers such as Joel Peterson, has helped give a new meaning to these vines and is helping to make more site specific wines.”
The fact that many of these old vineyard plots are now so sought, is good news not only for the future of these historical vines, but what they can do to educate and inform future winemakers about what needs to be done for a sustainable future for the region.
They also reflect the changing face of California where it is what in your soils that really determines you as a winemaker, not the points of a wine critic.
Over the coming weeks The Buyer will be running a series of articles, insights, profiles, and interviews on different aspects of the Californian wine scene in a new link-up with the Wine Institute of California.
You can find out more about what the Institute is doing to promote Californian wines around the world as well as explore the whole region in terms of its styles, grape varieties and key trends at its main US website here.
You can also explore statistics and fact sheets on different grape varieties, or take a deep dive into the different sustainable practices and schemes in California here as part of the dedicated UK site for the Wine Institute.
Sign up to its monthly newsletter here.
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How Lodi is one of California’s premium wine regions
Gallo deals are the gifts that keep on giving for premium wine
Best sub-£50 Californian wines revealed at Essential California
Welcome to the Motel California: Essential California ‘budget’ wine
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Difference between revisions of "Being Someone by Adrian Harvey"
From TheBookbag
Sue (Talk | contribs)
|date=May 2014
|isbn=978-1909273092
|website=http://adrianharvey.com
|website=https://twitter.com/ade_harvey
|video=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909273090</amazonuk>
Being Someone by Adrian Harvey
Buy Being Someone by Adrian Harvey at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Literary Fiction
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: The story of a relationship - of all relationships - of how it grows, of how early on the seeds of destruction are sown. An intriguing tale, exquisitely written. Highly recommended.
Buy? Yes Borrow? Yes
Pages: 288 Date: May 2014
Publisher: Urbane
External links: Author's website
The relationship between a mahout and his elephant is close: some have said that it's rather like a marriage. On the surface it seems almost idyllic with an obvious affection between man and beast - that their spirits were water of the same pool, but all is not quite as it seems. Iravatha was the magnificent elephant who, year in, year out, led the Maharajah's parade only this year there was a dreadful accident and Annayya, his mahout, slipped beneath the elephant's foot - and was killed. They'd been together for more than half a century and beautiful, intelligent Iravatha knew what this meant.
James was not quite whole. He worked in the art world, although not as an artist, but it seemed that he might have met his soulmate when he encountered Lainey Driscoll - an American, a professional woman, working in London. At first it was her beauty which attracted him but the relationship developed and they eloped to Gretna Green. Corny - yes - but they wanted to do it that way and when they went to India Lainey understood his love of the country. But James was flawed. There came a time when loving was no longer enough for him. He missed the taste and feel of being in love - and began an affair.
The first point which you need to understand is that the writing is exquisite. Adrian Reynold is the sort of author who could write about the phone book and you wouldn't be able to stop reading. There's a passage about the young Annayya being up on Iravatha for the first time. He captures the fear, the resentment of the boy, the almost vertiginous height and the gradual adjustment as he becomes aware of the beast and its pleasure at feeling Annayya's hands on his skull. It's less than a page, but I've read it several times and on each occasion I'm conscious - vividly conscious - of how the boy must have felt. It's just a small part of the story but it tells you what you need to know about the whole.
India is captured, with kindness and understanding. The colours and scents rise sharply from the page, but in many ways that's easier than making rainy, workaday London come to life, particularly parts such as Balham and Bermondsey, but Reynolds does it well and you sense a love of the city, that it's a pleasure for him to use it as the background to his story.
It's a while since I last read Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje but in Being Someone I had that same sense of not knowing where the story was going but being more than happy to leave myself in the hands of the storyteller, confident that all would be revealed and so it was although not until the very last pages of the book did everything come together. Like Divisadero it's a book I'll return to, happy to know that knowledge of the ending will not in any way spoil the pleasure of the reading. I'd like to thank the publisher for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag.
For a harsher look at modern India, have a look at The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.
You can read more book reviews or buy Being Someone by Adrian Harvey at Amazon.co.uk
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Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site.
Retrieved from "http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Being_Someone_by_Adrian_Harvey&oldid=69208"
Adrian Harvey
Reviewed by Sue Magee
4.5 Star Reviews
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Filthy Club Collection 01 Lookbook
Filthy Club return with their first full collection titled “Collection 01″ presented in this zine-inspired lookbook.
Spawning from the popular FucknFilthy, we first announced the news that the brand may be adopting a new name back in July and it’s been a long awaited return from the brand directed by photographer Joshua Gordon. There hasn’t been a full collection from Joshua since the FF2012/01 Collection in July 2012, so we’re expecting a lot of happy customers as the brand returns in it’s long awaited new form.
Inspired by “the gritty underbelly of the weird and wonderful”, the collection playfully nods to British rave culture and the psychedelia of Acid House. Enlisting the creative talents of artists Jiro Bevis, Michael Willis, Tom Darracott and Peter Doyle for illustrations and graphics, the collection is tightly uniformed in it’s direction considering the amount of people involved in it’s creation. This is without a doubt down to the creative direction and vision of the singular person stood behind the brand and although people seem to love to highlight the fact that almost all the design work is not done in-house by the creative director himself, I don’t see this as a negative when strong, uniform collections are the end result. It’s a strength to know where your weaknesses lie and to counter them with other people’s expertise and talents.
The lookbook reflects the collaborative culture of the brand, with the photography being provided by both Joshua Gordon and Leonn Ward and the visual concept coming from Tim Head, referencing the fanzine culture and promotional material aesthetics of the ’90s British rave movement. In the words of Joshua Gordon:
“Each shot brings clarity and context to the collection’s referential designs and celebrate the raw talent that lies within our shores.”
You can pick up items from Collection 01 from the Filthy Club website now.
Alex Synamatix
One of three co-founders at THE DAILY STREET, Alex is our Editor-in-Chief, overseeing all TDS activity. Outside of TDS, Alex is a respected creative in his own right, from art directing club nights (comm•une) to consulting for some of the largest global brands.
Written by: Alex Synamatix 20th December, 2013
Clothing / Filthy Club / Lookbook / Mens
FucknFilthy to return under new name ‘Filthy Club’?
Palladium – Streets In Focus: Joshua Gordon
Skull and Bones Boys Club ‘Antichrist Bootcamp’ Summer…
Ugly Kids Club 3 Lions collection
Lazy Oaf Drawing Club Collection
“Hot Girl Summer in the City” by Joshua…
Tall person
Let’s hope they aren’t made for midgets this time round. A toddler wouldn’t have fit in the XL from the last drop
Killer, executed very nicely.
Lovely lookbook, backdrops are a nice touch
John Connor?
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Everything We Know About Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Next Royal Tour
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Posted an Adorable New Picture of Baby Archie For Father’s Day
Elise Taylor
Everything We Know about Archie Mountbatten-Windsor’s Royal Christening
How Prince Harry Is Carrying On Princess Diana’s Legacy
Why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Son, Archie, Doesn’t Have a Royal Title
Two days after his birth, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle revealed the name of their baby son at Windsor Castle. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are delighted to announce that they have named their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor,” they said in a statement. While most reactions focused on the first and middle monikers (particularly the first’s association with a beloved American comic-book character) others noticed what wasn’t included: a royal title.
Sources later confirmed to multiple outlets that the couple chose not to give him one at this time.
It’s said he could have had a title—specifically, the Earl of Dumbarton, which is currently held by Prince Harry. Children of nobles are allowed to use one of their father’s lesser titles (Harry’s primary title is duke) as a courtesy.
But why the decision not to?
It was first reported by the Times of London that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were considering not giving their child a formal label, in hopes of giving him or her a “a relatively normal life.”
“That word ‘normal’ looms very large for Harry and Meghan when it comes to their child’s future,” the source told the outlet.
Allegedly, they also felt that in addition to normalcy, the lack of a title would keep their child out of the limelight. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex consider their son to be a ‘private citizen’ and feel strongly about ‘shielding’ him from excessive scrutiny,” sources told The Times of London this past Sunday.
Harry and Meghan aren’t the only royals to go this route. Princess Anne chose not to give her children titles either, for similar reasons. “I’m very lucky that both my parents decided to not use the title, and we grew up and did all the things that gave us the opportunity to do,” her daughter, Zara Tindall (née Phillips), told the press a few years ago.
But that doesn’t mean one isn’t in Archie’s future. The Evening Standard reports that once Charles becomes king, Archie will become a prince “with his parents’ blessing.” This follows what’s known as the George V ruling: that all children and grandchildren from the direct male line of the Sovereign have “HRH,” His or Her Royal Highness, status. (There are exceptions to this: Queen Elizabeth issued a revision allowing the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s children—her great-grandchildren—to have “HRH” in their titles.)
However, for now, it's just “Master Archie.”
TopicsPrince Harry
Revisiting Villa Guardamangia, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s Dreamy Malta Villa
Prince George and Princess Charlotte Have a Budding Artistic Hobby
Heidi Schreck Wore Prada to Make Broadway History
Janelle Okwodu
Irina Shayk and Stella Maxwell Are Modeling’s Most Stylish BFFs
? 2019 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 5/25/18) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 5/25/18) and Your California Privacy Rights. Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices
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When 9/11 is Used as a Pretext for Drone Warfare: AE911Truth Speaks Out
Code Pink Drone Summit 2013Even after 12 years, 9/11 is still used as a justification for US drone strikes. The ongoing use of 9/11 to justify all manner of US government policies makes the input of AE911Truth experts imperative to any discussion of these policies. To that end, AE911Truth was represented with a table at the 2013 CodePink Global Drone Summit, held at the Georgetown University School of Law auditorium in Washington DC. There were over 400 attendees, plus thousands watching the live stream and C-SPAN coverage, and over 150 press clips, including one on NBC news.
The summit was organized by CodePink.Org's progressive think-tank Institute for Policy Studies, The Nation Magazine, and National Lawyers Guild (Georgetown Chapter). It brought together drone survivors and families of victims from Pakistan and Yemen, human rights advocates, lawyers, authors, social media experts, technology experts, artists and musicians, and grassroots activists. More information is at this article.
Controversial ReThink911 Canadian Tour Draws Mainstream News Coverage
A Special Update from Canada
MP Megan Leslie, member of Canadian Parliament and the Deputy Leader of the New Democratic Party, came under attack for her community events web page, which included a mention of AE911Truth and Richard Gage, specifically his lecture in HalifaxSince the advent of the first ReThink911 campaign last fall, there has been a sea change in the media’s response to skepticism about the official account of 9/11.
This is nowhere more apparent than in the generally neutral character of mainstream media coverage of Richard Gage's Canadian tour. Here’s a recap of the coverage to date:
CBC in Prince George interviewed event coordinator Bev Collins, followed by Victoria's leading radio station, CFAX1070, hosting local engineer Werner Simbeck and Gage tour organizer David Long for 25 minutes.
The Vancouver event was very well covered in two issues of the popular alternative monthly Common Ground, and in Canada's largest urban weekly, the Georgia Straight.
In Winnipeg CKUW 95.9 FM discussed a breakthrough in 9/11 evidence in 2014, and Toronto`s largest newspaper, the Toronto Star, covered the ReThink911 video ads in the Toronto subway showing the collapse of WTC7 – reporting the group's belief in controlled demolition as the cause.
New York Times Face Off with ReThink911
Written by Dennis P. McMahon, Esq
“Gray Lady of 43rd St.” Found Wanting
By now, as most AE911Truth supporters are aware, the ReThink911 campaign ran a billboard ad directly across the street from the NY Times Building for two months. It asked the self-proclaimed “Paper of Record,” ‘Where is your story on the collapse of Building 7?’ The massive sign, which also points out that over 2,000 architects and engineers cite evidence of the controlled demolition of Building 7, was called to the attention of New York Times reporters and employees, and (an estimated) 100,000+ passersby, as memorialized in our incisive two-minute video starring one of our top AE911Truth Action Group leaders – Austin Farwell.
Farwell has been working with AE911Truth as a volunteer since he moved to New York in 2012. He was one of the many activists hitting the street in New York City, and a key part of the events surrounding the NY Times Billboard Campaign. “It was a great experience filming that day,” Farwell said. “I was so pumped to see people really getting into conversations with staff from the NY Times and articulately stating our case. The key is outreach, exposure and creativity. There are so many smart, encouraging people involved with this grass roots group. We have centralized our arguments and have become a concerted voice.”
FAQ#13: Who was Responsible for the Controlled Demolition of the WTC Skyscrapers?
Arguably, no question surrounding 9/11 arouses more intense interest than this one. An investigation of 9/11 will certainly not be complete until we know who perpetrated the crimes and until they are brought to justice.
Crime scene investigators know that,
“Physical evidence cannot be wrong; it cannot perjure itself; it cannot be wholly absent. Only its interpretation can err.” (Paul Kirk, Crime Investigation)
Gathering and studying the physical evidence, then, is the crucial first step. The fact that the crime scene was disturbed and that evidence was hastily removed and destroyed has created challenges for investigators. Fortunately, evidence such as eyewitness accounts of explosions, the discovery of nano-thermite in the debris, and photographic evidence of molten steel in the rubble, revealed the effects of controlled demolitions and disproved the official story that three WTC high-rises were brought down by office fires and jet plane crashes.
AE911Truth’s Top Two DVD’s: Get them Both Today and Take 50% off
Written by Tracy Biggs
9/11: Blueprint for Truth &
9/11: Explosive Evidence – Experts Speak Out
Are you a “Conspiracy Nut?”
I’m not, and I would bet you aren’t either, but that’s the accusation from ignorance if you ask questions about 9/11. Your quickest recovery? Two Thousand architects & engineers. They have laid out the evidence, and it’s easy enough for all to understand.
AE911Truth has produced two compelling DVDs that detail the scientific evidence surrounding the collapse of all three World Trade Center skyscrapers. You can get 50 per-cent off when you order both DVDs as a combo package in our online store. You must use coupon# BFT-ESO-COMBO when you check out of the store. Sale ends March 31.
Our classic work 9/11: Blueprint for Truth (BFT) has earned its place in the tool chests of more than 10,000 9/11 activists and researchers over the last seven years. It is the highly praised and widely disseminated multimedia presentation by San Francisco Bay Area architect Richard Gage, AIA. Professionally recorded in a studio before a live audience, it carefully covers most of the overwhelming evidence. (The original Research Edition presents two full hours of solid evidence and may be purchased separately). The Companion Edition, available with this offer includes 10-, 30-, and 60-minute cuts from the 2-hour edition. Watch the trailer to get a feel for this landmark video from AE911Truth and to see all the languages into which it has already been translated.
BFT includes the examination of sudden onset of destruction, symmetrical collapse and progression, squibs, explosions, demolition waves, near free-fall acceleration, total dismemberment, lateral ejection of steel, adjacent structures, sounds, flashes, explosions, pyroclastic-like clouds, iron spheres, molten metal, thermite, ASCE, FEMA and NIST reports, whistle blowers, destruction of evidence, expert corroboration, and foreknowledge.
AE911Truth to Address Major Truth Conference
“United We Stand” by FreeandEqual.org
UCLA - Los Angeles, CA
We have been encouraged to speak at the “United We Stand” truth and music festival by host “Free & Equal” at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles on May 10, 2014.
The UWS Festival will showcase music as well as panels of musicians, actors, writers, journalists, and other speakers. Fundraising for this major event began at Indiegogo and ran through February 15. We encouraged everyone through our social media platforms to support the event at Indiegogo. You can also reserve your tickets – it will sell-out.
We have the opportunity here to bring 9/11 truth from the World Trade Center to more than a thousand folks who are newcomers to the explosive evidence. We will be addressing audience members who arrive not only to see their favorite rock bands like Immortal Technique and Wu-Tang Clan, but those who have come to hear other experts in the fields of the Patriot Act, NDAA, NSA, war on drugs, drones, foreign policies, GMO, Internet freedom, election reform and more. Speakers include RT’s Abby Martin, Ben Swann, Congressional Candidate Marianne Williamson, Christina Tobin, Ellen Brown, Kimberly & Foster Gamble, Luke Rudkowski, Sherriff Richard Mack, and a dozen other inspired speakers. This is the largest assembly of newcomers to the 9/11 truth issue that AE911Truth will have had the chance to speak to. The events will be recorded and broadcast globally.
Written by Frances T. Shure
Part 4: Doublethink
© by Frances T. Shure, 2014
Editor’s Note: Frances Shure, M.A., L.P.C., has performed an in-depth analysis addressing a key issue of our time: “Why Do Good People Become Silent—or Worse—About 9/11?” The resulting essay, presented here as a series, is composed of a synthesis of reports on academic research as well as clinical observations.
In answering the question in the title of this essay, last month’s segment, Part 3, addressed the topic “Obeying and Believing Authority,” which reported on the experiments by Stanley Milgram, Jane Elliott, and Philip Zimbardo, all of which demonstrate our human proclivity to trust and obey authority, even in violation of cherished moral values, leading to the development of faulty identities and beliefs as well as resulting in flawed decisions which often negatively affect others.
We continue Ms. Shure’s analysis this month in Part 4 with the concept “doublethink,” developed by George Orwell.
We shall begin on the lighter side with George Orwell’s brilliant concept of “doublethink.” In Orwell’s classic novel, 1984, doublethink means the capacity to hold two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accept both of them.
In Orwell’s not-so-fictional novel, the term “doublethink” is a Newspeak word that is replacing the Oldspeak term, “reality control.” Newspeak is a new politically correct language with a very limited vocabulary, developed by the controlling powers (the High) for the purposes of controlling the public’s worldview and limiting the possibility of independent thought. In other words, controlling words permitted in the language would result in controlling the thoughts people would be able to have.
William Pepper, Attorney at Law, Pursuing NIST via OIG Re: Fraudulent WTC 7 Report
AE911Truth to Present WTC Evidence in 17-Stop ReThink911 Canada Tour March 13 to April 1, 2014
Want to hold NIST accountable? Become a member for just $2.50/month
Claim your poster & DVD set today – Become a Member for $2.50/mo
AE911Truth Store Special: 50% Discount Blowout on Classic 3-Beam Poster!
Don't miss it! AE911Truth is gearing up…
Conclusion of Our Report on September Congressional Outreach
New Award-Winning Documentary Exposes Taboo, Challenges Intellectuals to Face Discomforting 9/11 Facts
Two More Calls to C-SPAN…Two More Members of Congress…
Divided Federal Appeals Court Panel Rules: Negligence Did Not Cause Building 7’s Collapse; Dissenting Judge Asks, ‘What Did?’
September 11 – The New Pearl Harbor
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A Stampede of Hysterics
On February 16, 2013 By Michael J. MikulkaIn Sequestration
This article orginally appeared on ForeignPolicy.com.
I read two critically important reports this week on the impact that sequestration would have on national defense. That possible reduction in military spending — $48 billion, or 7.4 percent of the $645 billion currently appropriated for fiscal year 2013 — is being characterized by the stampede of hysterics who run the Pentagon as the virtual end of national security as we know it. What these two reports show is that we should now consider the Pentagon as morally and mentally broken as Congress.
The first report, by Chuck Spinney, who spent a few decades inside the Department of Defense evaluating budgets, weapons, and bureaucratic behavior, was published at Counterpunch and Time‘s Battleland blog. The second was a Congressional Research Service report by Amy Belasco, who has spent the last few decades at CRS and the Congressional Budget Office parsing defense budgets and their implications.
Both authors indirectly address the testimony this week of the deputy secretary of defense and the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff at the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. To a man, they lent all the rhetorical and substantive support they could muster to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta‘s depiction of sequestration as “doomsday” and to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey‘s description of it as an “unprecedented crisis” — a characterization he augmented by adding that he was “jumping up and down.” He truly was.
Put simply, the chiefs and their ostensible civilian masters plan to implement the cuts mandated by law in the most destructive, negative way possible, which has the convenient effect — for them — of pushing Congress and the White House to cough up more money. According to their testimony, the Army will reduce training levels to such a low point that units cannot be sent to Afghanistan. The Navy plans to postpone, if not cancel, maintenance for ships in a fleet already at historic lows for upkeep and repair, and deployments to the Persian Gulf have already been postponed. The Air Force is going to further reduce its historically low training of pilots, and maintenance will also hit new lows. Throughout the services, civilian maintainers, auditors, and program overseers will be furloughed, aircraft will be grounded, and ships held in port.
However, there is no reason for this to be so. Had Spinney and Belasco also been testifying at these hearings — had anyone in the committees been even slightly interested in a little balance or a few budget facts with cogent historic and objective perspective — the chiefs would probably have experienced a bureaucratic form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
What Spinney might have told the committees can best be summarized by this graph from his article:
For its part, Belasco’s CRS report looks into the weeds of sequestration and finds that the chiefs are proposing to cut about twice as much as they need to from the central military readiness account in the operations and maintenance part of the Pentagon budget. They plan to lop off 20 percent, instead of the 10 to 12 percent that they could limit themselves to. They could be obviating many of those horrendous readiness cuts by hitting up less readiness-critical operations and maintenance accounts. But, of course, they chose not to.
And — not coincidentally I suspect — after all the cutting is done as planned, the chiefs will find themselves with even more money than they requested for some of their favorite hardware items. After the sequester has taken a cut out of the Pentagon’s (separate and legally distinct) procurement account, the Air Force funding for aircraft will increase by $829 million; Navy shipbuilding will have $155 million more than requested for 2013 waiting to be spent, and the weapons and tracked combat vehicles account in the Army budget will have $404 million too much. Only in the collective of mindlessly selfish and careerist politicos in today’s Congress and Pentagon “leadership” can a budget doomsday result in more than was asked for in certain — apparently covertly preferred — categories. It’s quite staggering, but it’s laid out explicitly in Belasco’s report.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Cater put the cherry on top of this pile of absurdity when he testified that, when he was offered the flexibility to cut where he deemed appropriate (rather than the across-the-board cuts mandated by Congress), he actually declined.
What we have here is the mother of all Washington Monument budget drills: A classic Beltway gambit where agencies warn that any budget cuts whatsoever will force them to end their core mission, rather than cut out the fat. (The head of the National Park Service was fabled to testify that any cuts in his agency budget would force him to close the highly popular Washington Monument to the public.)
Today, Congress professes itself all too eager to fall for the ruse. At the hearings this week, members railed on about the stupidity of the laws the vast majority of them voted to enact; several of them even purported that it was all the Pentagon’s fault, which didn’t exactly go over well with the money-grubbing Joint Chiefs.
The irony, however, is that the rancor, self-aggrandizement, and cowardice that dominates so thoroughly in Congress means that the dreaded sequester is almost sure to take place on March 1. While both parties in both the House and the Senate have prepared bills to divert it, each side has — very consciously — written legislation that they know the other side will enthusiastically reject: The Democrats want tax increases to pay off the sequester; the Republicans want to decimate the federal work force. More intended for fund-raising and election-maneuvering, the bills were not just dead on arrival; they were dead in procreation.
Thus, we have a freakishly large budget being characterized by the Pentagon’s military and civilian leadership as so small that they must literally destroy the armed forces’ ability to fight. We have a Congress of Republicans and Democrats who declare themselves near universally dedicated to fixing the problem — with more money — while at the same time they work feverishly to make sure nothing happens. And just to reinforce just how serious they are, their action in the immediate aftermath of the hearings is to go on vacation for a week.
The biggest loser — and fall guy — in all of this is Chuck Hagel, who is anxiously trying to squeak by in his effort to replace Leon Panetta as secretary of defense. It comes after a profoundly depressing performance in his confirmation hearing, at which he inarticulately but effectively ate his own words on issue after issue in order to curry favor with even the most junior member of the Armed Services Committee. Eschewing also the opportunity to inject badly needed insight, information, and spine into the budget situation, Hagel also pandered eagerly to conventional wisdom, calling the sequester a “straightjacket” that would “devastate” the military and require DOD to “significantly revise the defense strategy.”
In the final analysis, Congress will do something to accommodate the budget protection gambit being performed by the real masters of the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Meanwhile, the new secretary of defense, who has pre-emptively capitulated to the chiefs’ budget fancies, as he has to everyone else, has made it abundantly clear that he will sit on his hands as the Pentagon decimates military readiness.
Chuck Spinney has tracked for decades our military forces as they have shriveled — counter-intuitively — at ever-increasing cost, and Amy Belasco has reported to Congress time and time again opportunities for doing things smart, not ugly. Both will be foregone for the easier and politically remunerative way the current system prefers to do things: stupid, crooked, and ever-so expensive.
By: Winslow Wheeler
Director, Straus Military Reform Project, CDI at POGO, POGO
Mr. Wheeler’s areas of expertise include Congress, the Defense Budget, National Security, Pentagon Reform and Weapons Systems
Congressional Budget OfficeJoint Chiefs of StaffLeon PanettaMartin DempseyPentagonPersian GulfUnited States Department of DefenseUnited States Secretary of Defense
The $360 Billion Gorilla in the Sequestration Debate
Two Weeks Before Sequestration, Congress Takes a Vacation
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Home Politics Muslim woman flying United Airlines refused can of coke, staff said she’d...
Muslim woman flying United Airlines refused can of coke, staff said she’d weaponize it
United Airlines is facing a customer backlash after discriminating against a Muslim passenger. Tahera Ahmad was on an internal US flight when she was refused an unopened can of soda. The flight attendant believed she would use it as a weapon.
Ahmad, a Muslim chaplain from Northwestern University, was traveling from Chicago to Washington, DC, for a conference aimed at promoting dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian youth.
During the flight, she asked the flight attendant if she could have a can of diet coke. However, the 31 year-old’s request wasn’t granted. The attendant told her: “Well I’m sorry I just can’t give you an unopened can so no diet coke for you,” Ahmed wrote on her Facebook page.
Moments later, the passenger sitting next to her was given an unopened can of beer. This prompted Ahmad to ask the flight attendant why she hadn’t been given an unopened can of diet coke.
“We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon on the plane,” the attendant is reported by Ahmad to have said.
An astounded Ahmad tried to ask her fellow passengers to support her claim, but unfortunately she only received more abuse… see more
source: rt
Airline Staff
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Home Laws Saudi women defy warnings to break driving ban
Saudi women defy warnings to break driving ban
A few women filmed themselves driving in Saudi cities on Saturday, defying government warnings of arrest and prosecution to take part in a campaign against men-only road rules, activists said.
But some others stayed at home, put off by phone calls from men who said they were from the Interior Ministry, reported organisers of the demonstration against an effective ban on women drivers.
Police put up checkpoints in some parts of Riyadh, Reuters witnesses said, and there appeared to be more traffic patrols than usual on the streets of the capital – the latest sign of the sensitivity of the issue in the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom.
“I know of several women who drove earlier today. We will post videos (online) later,” one of the campaign organisers told Reuters by phone.
Five videos were published on the campaign’s YouTube feed and Twitter on Saturday morning, dated Oct. 26 and purporting to show women driving in Riyadh, the oasis region of al-Ahsa and the city ofJeddah.
It was not possible to verify when they were filmed.
King Abdullah has pushed some cautious reforms, expanding female education and employment. But he has also been careful not to open big rifts with conservative clerics.
Mosques across Saudi Arabia broadcast sermons on Friday telling women to stay at home.
Protests are illegal in Saudi Arabia, and public demands for political or social change have traditionally been interpreted by the authorities as an unacceptable challenge to the ruling al-Saud family’s authority, local analysts say.
However, organisers said their call for women to drive on Saturday was not a political protest as they had not called for gatherings, rallies or processions of cars.
Instead they have asked women with foreign driving licences to get behind the wheel accompanied by a male relative and drive themselves when performing everyday tasks.
A website set up by the campaigners to petition the government appeared to have been hacked on Saturday morning, displaying a black background illuminated by glowing red lightning bolts and bearing the message “Reason for the hacking: I am against women driving in the land of the two holy shrines”.
The kingdom’s powerful religious establishment is lavishly financed by the state, but it has opposed numerous government efforts to gradually increase women’s public role in society.
On Tuesday, around 150 conservative clerics gathered outside the royal court in a rare protest against the pace of social reforms in Saudi Arabia, including women’s rights. One prominent cleric, SheikhNasser al-Omar, was filmed describing the campaign for women to drive as “a conspiracy”.
However, supporters of the campaign can point to increasingly public support for the idea of women driving in the media and among prominent Saudi figures.
This month three women in the Shoura Council, an appointed quasi-parliament set up by King Abdullah to advise the government on policy, said the Transport Ministry should look into allowing women to drive.
They argued that the ban made it hard for women to work or look after their families and that it caused financial hardship for families who had to employ a full-time driver.
Some Saudi newspapers have also published editorials arguing women should be allowed to drive.
source: arabianbusiness
women drive
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Saudi Arabian Ministry of Interior has received more than 120,000 applications for driving licenses so far
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Part Five: Chapter 26
"Well, Kapitonitch?" said Seryozha, coming back rosy and good- humored from his walk the day before his birthday, and giving his overcoat to the tall old hall porter, who smiled down at the little person from the height of his long figure. "Well, has the bandaged clerk been here today? Did papa see him?"
"He saw him. The minute the chief secretary came out, I announced him," said the hall porter with a good-humored wink. "Here, I'll take it off."
"Seryozha!" said the tutor, stopping in the doorway leading to the inner rooms. "Take it off yourself." But Seryozha, though he heard his tutor's feeble voice, did not pay attention to it. He stood keeping hold of the hall porter's belt, and gazing into his face.
"Well, and did papa do what he wanted for him?"
The hall porter nodded his head affirmatively. The clerk with his face tied up, who had already been seven times to ask some favor of Alexey Alexandrovitch, interested both Seryozha and the hall porter. Seryozha had come upon him in the hall, and had heard him plaintively beg the hall porter to announce him, saying that he and his children had death staring them in the face.
Since then Seryozha, having met him a second time in the hall, took great interest in him.
"Well, was he very glad?" he asked.
"Glad? I should think so! Almost dancing as he walked away."
"And has anything been left?" asked Seryozha, after a pause.
"Come, sir," said the hall-porter; then with a shake of his head he whispered, "Something from the countess."
Seryozha understood at once that what the hall porter was speaking of was a present from Countess Lidia Ivanovna for his birthday.
"What do you say? Where?"
"Korney took it to your papa. A fine plaything it must be too!"
"How big? Like this?"
"Rather small, but a fine thing."
"A book."
"No, a thing. Run along, run along, Vassily Lukitch is calling you," said the porter, hearing the tutor's steps approaching, and carefully taking away from his belt the little hand in the glove half pulled off, he signed with his head towards the tutor.
"Vassily Lukitch, in a tiny minute!" answered Seryozha with that gay and loving smile which always won over the conscientious Vassily Lukitch.
Seryozha was too happy, everything was too delightful for him to be able to help sharing with his friend the porter the family good fortune of which he had heard during his walk in the public gardens from Lidia Ivanovna's niece. This piece of good news seemed to him particularly important from its coming at the same time with the gladness of the bandaged clerk and his own gladness at toys having come for him. It seemed to Seryozha that this was a day on which everyone ought to be glad and happy.
"You know papa's received the Alexander Nevsky today?"
"To be sure I do! People have been already to congratulate him."
"And is he glad?"
"Glad at the Tsar's gracious favor! I should think so! It's a proof he's deserved it," said the porter severely and seriously.
Seryozha fell to dreaming, gazing up at the face of the porter, which he had thoroughly studied in every detail, especially the chin that hung down between the gray whiskers, never seen by anyone but Seryozha, who saw him only from below.
"Well, and has your daughter been to see you lately?"
The porter's daughter was a ballet dancer.
"When is she to come on week-days? They've their lessons to learn too. And you've your lesson, sir; run along."
On coming into the room, Seryozha, instead of sitting down to his lessons, told his tutor of his supposition that what had been brought him must be a machine. "What do you think?" he inquired.
But Vassily Lukitch was thinking of nothing but the necessity of learning the grammar lesson for the teacher, who was coming at two.
"No, do just tell me, Vassily Lukitch," he asked suddenly, when he was seated at their work table with the book in his hands, "what is greater than the Alexander Nevsky? You know papa's received the Alexander Nevsky?"
Vassily Lukitch replied that the Vladimir was greater than the Alexander Nevsky.
"And higher still?"
"Well, highest of all is the Andrey Pervozvanny."
"And higher than the Andrey?"
"I don't know."
"What, you don't know?" and Seryozha, leaning on his elbows, sank into deep meditation.
His meditations were of the most complex and diverse character. He imagined his father's having suddenly been presented with both the Vladimir and the Andrey today, and in consequence being much better tempered at his lesson, and dreamed how, when he was grown up, he would himself receive all the orders, and what they might invent higher than the Andrey. Directly any higher order were invented, he would win it. They would make a higher one still, and he would immediately win that too.
The time passed in such meditations, and when the teacher came, the lesson about the adverbs of place and time and manner of action was not ready, and the teacher was not only displeased, but hurt. This touched Seryozha. He felt he was not to blame for not having learned the lesson; however much he tried, he was utterly unable to do that. As long as the teacher was explaining to him, he believed him and seemed to comprehend, but as soon as he was left alone, he was positively unable to recollect and to understand that the short and familiar word "suddenly" is an adverb of manner of action. Still he was sorry that he had disappointed the teacher.
He chose a moment when the teacher was looking in silence at the book.
"Mihail Ivanitch, when is your birthday?" he asked all, of a sudden.
"You'd much better be thinking about your work. Birthdays are of no importance to a rational being. It's a day like any other on which one has to do one's work."
Seryozha looked intently at the teacher, at his scanty beard, at his spectacles, which had slipped down below the ridge on his nose, and fell into so deep a reverie that he heard nothing of what the teacher was explaining to him. He knew that the teacher did not think what he said; he felt it from the tone in which it was said. "But why have they all agreed to speak just in the same manner always the dreariest and most useless stuff? Why does he keep me off; why doesn't he love me?" he asked himself mournfully, and could not think of an answer.
Return to the Anna Karenina Summary Return to the Leo Tolstoy Library
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Where aligned instructional materials and practice meet
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Classroom Strategies, Research and Reflections
A year of school visits highlights what makes curriculum work
By: Barbara Davidson, Susan Pimentel
Posted: 07/07/19 07/04/19
This article originally appeared in The Learning Professional: The Learning Forward Journal. It has been reproduced here, with permission
K-12 education has witnessed a sea change in attitudes about curriculum as a serious reform
strategy. The movement gained traction in the wake of the Common Core State Standards, when newly created curriculum products emerged.
Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow and vice president for external affairs at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, called curriculum “the last, best, juiciest piece of low-hanging fruit left in our efforts to improve student outcomes” (Pondiscio, 2015).
“One of the things I love about this is that I don’t have to keep looking for different things to work on specific skills [with students].”
— Amanda Barger, 4th-grade teacher at Saville Elementary School in Riverside, Ohio
While there are an increasing number of high-quality, content-rich curriculum products available, as well as venues to assist schools and districts in evaluating them, selecting a high-quality curriculum is only the first step. How teachers make the curriculum their own in the classroom is every bit as critical.
The Knowledge Matters Campaign is a coalition of education leaders encouraging schools to focus on developing students’ foundation of content knowledge. Earlier this year, Knowledge Matters members visited seven elementary schools that embrace high-quality, content-rich English language arts curricula.
The schools use a variety of instructional approaches and represent different geographic locations, demographic diversity, and governance structures. Their common feature is a commitment to knowledge-rich schooling and belief in comprehensive, high-quality curriculum, implemented schoolwide, as a means of achieving it.
As we toured these seven elementary schools, we sought to discover what kinds of professional learning teachers found most helpful in transitioning to a new curriculum. Four primary lessons for administrators and teachers emerged about what it takes to implement a high-quality, content-rich curriculum well.
LESSONS FOR ADMINISTRATORS
Embrace a “we’re-in-this-together” school leadership stance. Teachers and coaches stressed the vital role of school leaders in driving robust implementation. Most important to staff was the passion that leaders conveyed about the learning the school was undertaking.
Teachers at Monticello-Brown Summit Elementary School in Greensboro, North Carolina, remember the tears of gratitude shed in a staff meeting when the principal, Christopher Scott, pulled everyone together at the start of the school year to prepare them to implement the new American Reading Company English language arts curriculum, ARC Core, in their classrooms.
Addressing teachers’ anxiety about the change, Scott made it clear they would be in it together and that continuous improvement mattered, not perfection. By lowering the cost of making mistakes and providing safe spaces for teachers to experiment, Scott and his team created an environment in which teachers relaxed and expressed openness to learning new ways of instruction.
Principals in the schools we visited were constantly in and out of classrooms, as much to learn and grow themselves as to observe how teachers were doing. Teachers expressed their deep appreciation for the presence in their classroom of leader learners, rather than leader evaluators.
Adrian Monge, principal of Detroit Achievement Academy in Detroit, Michigan, said it was important that she “norm perseverance and taking risks” by doing the planning and teaching alongside her teachers. The school had recently transitioned to a new, more structured version of the EL Education K-5 Language Arts curriculum. “It sends an essential message to the faculty that I chose to spend my time learning the curriculum, too,” Monge said.
Tend to the hearts and minds of teachers by sharing the philosophy and research behind the new curriculum.
Teaching to the rigor in the Common Core State Standards involves significant instructional shifts. There is a not-to-be-ignored hearts and minds aspect to setting aside old ways of instruction so that faculty can move forward together to make real progress for their students.
In the case of English language arts, which was our focus during the school tour, the instructional shifts include regular practice with complex texts and their academic language; reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from texts; and building knowledge through content-rich curriculum. The teachers and coaches with whom we spoke considered it monumentally important to ground teachers in the research behind these shifts and study the new curriculum to see how the shifts show up.
The experience of building authentic faculty buy-in and enthusiasm, based on a shared understanding of the philosophical underpinnings and research base for the curriculum, contrasts sharply with how new curriculum is typically rolled out.
Most new curriculum professional learning tends to focus on orienting teachers to the products, perhaps highlighting some of the design features. Quite often, teachers don’t even have materials in front of them. But as Shannon Vaka, instructional coach at Monticello-Brown Summit Elementary, said, “That’s not how teachers learn.”
Make professional learning curriculum-specific.
What characterizes the professional learning opportunities described to us by teachers and coaches in the schools we visited is that they’re messy. By this, we mean they’re experiential. The process is similar to the Japanese concept of lesson study.
Shannon Vaka characterizes it this way: “With Kelly (ARC coach), we never did sit-and-get. If we were going to roll it out in 3rd grade, she’d say, ‘Let’s start there.’ She’d take the framework and walk through the lesson with us. She’d demonstrate a lesson, and we’d talk about it together. Or we’d all sit around and plan a lesson together and then draw straws and someone would have to teach the lesson.”
What’s most compelling — and we would argue very different — about this kind of professional learning is that it’s collaborative and often co-led by teachers or early adopters of the curriculum. Grade-level and cross grade-level teams are rolling up their sleeves and working together, engaging in the content of what they’re teaching in the classroom and figuring out the best way to deliver it, leaning heavily on the curriculum.
Amanda Barger, a 4th-grade teacher at Saville Elementary School in Riverside, Ohio, talked about the impact on her practice: “We didn’t have a systematic way of teaching K-4 and were seeing lots of holes. … One of the things I love about this is that I don’t have to keep looking for different things to work on specific skills.”
Invest in your teachers through yearlong professional learning systems.
In the schools we visited, gone were the one- or two-day, right-before-school curriculum dives that are hardly worth the time. In their place was significant time for ongoing, sustained professional learning. For example:
Teachers at Kinder Elementary in Kinder, Louisiana, who are using the new state-developed Louisiana ELA Guidebooks 2.0, said they plan lessons together with their grade level team every day.
Coverage is provided at Detroit Achievement Academy for teachers to use recess and lunchtimes for planning, and students are released early every Friday for teacher collaboration time.
Staff from the Bryant School of Arts & Innovation in Riverside, California, participate in a districtwide teacher collaboration time every Wednesday afternoon when students are released early.
In addition to site-based professional learning opportunities, the Great Hearts network of classical charter schools, which includes Maryvale Preparatory Academy in Phoenix, Arizona, asks faculty to read books (“anything from Plato to Pinocchio”) and offers year-round institutes that deepen the teams’ understanding of a range of curriculum and content-specific topics.
During the coming school year, all schools in Guilford County, North Carolina, will get 10 to 12 coaching days to work on curriculum implementation.
Teachers in Mad River Local Schools in Dayton, Ohio, implementing the Wit & Wisdom humanities curriculum, get a full day to work together in teams to prepare for each new module in the curriculum.
Of course, the elephant in the room of successful implementation is the need for resources required for this kind of professional learning. But there is a payoff for such an investment: Researchers report that teachers who participated in sustained, discipline-specific professional learning that dealt concretely with what they were teaching in the classroom — professional learning that averaged 49 hours across nine separate studies — saw student achievement increases of about 21 percentile points.
ADVICE FROM TEACHERS TO TEACHERS
Teachers and coaches we talked to shared their biggest challenges implementing a new high-quality curriculum as well as some advice.
Be gentle with yourself about pacing.
Teachers revealed some real difficulties with pacing in the first year of implementation. Valerie Sanchez is a 4th-grade teacher at Bryant School of Arts & Innovation, which uses the Core Knowledge Language Arts program. Sanchez said, “I cried so much that first year because it was hard to fit in all the content, and I felt I couldn’t do it all. … The first year is about trial and error. You can’t expect perfection — try everything. The next year is about adjustment and fine-tuning.”
Saville Elementary was in its second year of implementation when we visited in March, and one of the teachers said she was 17 weeks ahead of where she was in the curriculum at the same time the previous year. As Amanda Barger said, “I’m better this year than last, and I’ll be better next year than I am this year.”
Rely on the wisdom of the group when deciding whether (and how) to adapt the curriculum.
Not knowing when to modify the curriculum to fit classroom circumstances, and when to resist the temptation to do so by following faithfully what was written, was a question that dogged teachers in their first year of implementation.
Similar questions confounded coaches as well — for example, how to balance the desire to encourage teacher ownership with a confidence in the elegance and scaffolds built into the curricular design. There are no clear right and wrong answers to these questions, and, in the end, it was the discussion of the questions during professional learning communities time that teachers found informative and empowering.
It was when they engaged in this collaborative discussion that teachers had insights into why they (often unnecessarily) felt a modification was needed, found support in staying the course, and got reinforcement that something really wasn’t going to work and help in figuring out a solution.
Shift the lift of the work to students.
A few coaches told us that teachers tended to compensate for their unfamiliarity with the curriculum by talking much more than needed while teaching the lesson. They surmised that teachers were, in part, anxious about students’ readiness for the material.
Eventually, the teachers realized they were working harder than they were asking the kids to work. A number of the teachers we met with on the school tour were candid about saying they had initially doubted their students could handle the rigor of the new high-quality curriculum. “The hardest thing, if I’m really honest, is believing my kids can do this — that they can tackle these topics,” said one 4th-grade teacher. Many teachers told us they had doubts the students could handle the texts and they had to learn to back off and let students struggle.
Norming risk-taking and perseverance, to include a willingness to be videotaped or have a colleague observe a lesson, can pay enormous dividends and help identify delivery hiccups — like talking and doing too much in lessons — before they catch hold.
By putting their faith in the curriculum and that it will all come together, teachers have enjoyed the kind of experience every teacher hopes for, as expressed by this Mad River Local Schools teacher: “You put them out there with a partner to struggle, and they’re so engaged when they come back together.”
Take the long view.
As instructional coaches Amy Holbrook, Becky Parker, and Mandy Polen from Mad River are fond of saying, you better be in it for the long haul. “We view implementation as a journey, not a destination,” said Holbrook. “A huge part of that journey involves honest reflective dialogue as a way to foster growth. We celebrate small victories.”
STRUGGLES AND SATISFACTION
Every teacher and administrator we spoke to at the seven schools felt the struggle to learn the new curriculum was worth the effort. When asked to describe the changes they’d seen in their classrooms, respondents often became emotional. Why? It is our conviction that success in implementing a high-quality, content-rich curriculum has permitted these dedicated professionals to experience the professional satisfaction of seeing their students engaged and learning.
“I feel like I experience more of those ‘lights on’ moments.” — Amanda Barger, 4th-grade teacher, Saville Elementary School.
“Every teacher in the building would have a different answer. For some, it’s that kids now love to read. For others, it’s the way they’re writing. In 5th grade, it’s the way they’re able to argue and disagree and back it with information from their reading.” — Shannon Vaka, instructional coach, Guilford County, North Carolina.
“The work is so conceptually beautiful in idea and execution. When we think about what we value as adults, it’s the quality of one’s work. They’re proving they’re capable of so much more.” — Adrian Monge, principal, Detroit Achievement Academy.
“I could never go back to what we did before because now I’ve seen how beautifully it can be pulled together.” — Crystal Gleason, 8th-grade teacher, Mad River Middle School.
“They [students] will have this for the rest of their lives.” — Katie Luedtke, 3rd-grade teacher, Saville Elementary School.
Talking with these teachers about their experiences was deeply affirming. While everyone said the shift to a new high-quality, content-rich curriculum was one of the hardest things they had tackled in their teaching careers, they also said it was among the most rewarding.
Pondiscio, R. (2015, May 29). Common Core’s first breakout hit. U.S. News & World Report. Available at www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/2015/05/29/is-common-core-spurring-a-curriculum-renaissance.
Aligned systems
About the Author: Barbara Davidson (bdavidson@standardswork.org) is executive director of the Knowledge Matters Campaign and president of StandardsWork.
About the Author: Susan Pimentel (spimentel@standardswork.org) is a co-founder of StandardsWork and Student Achievement Partners and was the lead author of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts/Literacy.
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Research & Analysis / FairVote Blog / FairVote Proposes Solutions to Florida's Congressional Redistricting Dilemma in 2014
FairVote Proposes Solutions to Florida's Congressional Redistricting Dilemma in 2014
by Devin McCarthy , Rob Richie // Published August 8, 2014
Yesterday my FairVote colleagues and I released a memo explaining how Florida can move forward with its 2014 elections while remedying its violation of its state constitutional provisions involving fair redistricting. Today we updated the memo to reflect a proposed new congressional district plan introduced yesterday by Florida state legislative leaders.
Following is a summary of the memo, along with a map relating to our analysis. The full memo can be downloaded as a PDF. In addition, I recommend reading the Florida page and explanation of open ticket voting from our Monopoly Politics 2014 and the Fair Voting Solution report and our discussion of the Louisiana congressional election system in our 2010 analysis of ways to improve California's Top Two primary.
Last month, Judge Terry P. Lewis found Florida’s congressional redistricting plan to be in violation of the state constitution. Judge Lewis ordered the Legislature to submit a new district map by August 15th that will remedy constitutional violations in two districts, which will also affect up to ten surrounding districts and has the potential to throw the state’s plan for primary and general elections into disarray. The Florida legislature began a special session on August 7th and proposed a plan that made relatively minor adjustments to seven district. In this memo, we propose two short-term remedies to allow a constitutional plan to be used in Florida’s 2014 election cycle. Although one of the remedies conflicts with federal law, there is precedent from Louisiana in 2008 for state action overriding federal law involving congressional elections in a state crisis.
Districts affected by violations of Florida's state constitutional provisions on redistricting could be combined into a multi-seat district for upcoming elections, avoiding the need to redraw district lines when elections are fast-approaching.
Fair representation voting in a multi-seat district involving affected districts: The best and simplest approach would be to combine the five most directly affected congressional districts (as illustrated in the image above) and enact the open ticket method of voting in a multi-seat district election in November. Doing so provides the best assurance of fair representation and meaningful choices for all voters. It is simple and administratively feasible. Although this approach would be in tension with a 1967 federal law mandating single member districts, there is precedent from Louisiana in 2008 for unilateral state action to resolve a state crisis.
Louisiana election system in redrawn districts: The second best approach would be to redraw the affected congressional districts in a way that remedies the violation, then re-open candidate filing for all districts affected and implement Louisiana’s current congressional election system in the affected districts, as was ordered by a federal court in August 1996 after a similar situation involving 13 Texas congressional districts being redrawn after the state had already held primary elections. Louisiana’s system involves holding a general election in November among all candidates seeking the office, with a contingent runoff between the top two candidates in December if no candidate secures an absolute majority of the votes in November. This remedy does not violate federal law, unlike an approach where the primary would take place in November and a general election in December.
Click here to view the full memo.
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Akshar Dismisses Allegations as Political “Smear Attempt”
Facebook/Fred Akshar
New York State Senator Fred Akshar is responding to calls for his resignation by saying they are part of a "concerted, politically-motivated smear attempt."
In a video posted to his official Senate Facebook page late Sunday, the Endwell Republican declared: "Enough is enough."
The three-minute recording was released one day after Broome County Democratic Committee chairman Timothy Grippen called on Akshar to resign.
Grippen's statement came in the aftermath of a Gannett news report focusing on Akshar's conduct with the mother of a town of Binghamton murder victim. According to the article, Akshar acknowledged he had a "brief, consensual relationship" with Mirella Masciarelli after he had been involved with the investigation into her son's death in 2013. Akshar was a Broome County Sheriff's Office captain at the time.
Following the news story, Masciarelli asserted in an online statement that she had not been capable of consenting to the sexual encounter with Akshar.
In his video statement, Akshar accused Grippen and Michael Korchak, a candidate for Broome County District Attorney, of trying to use the matter for political gain.
Akshar said "it's beyond shameful" that they would "exploit these completely false and, frankly, disgusting accusations for petty political attacks."
Akshar said "no laws or codes of ethics were violated at any time." He said Masciarelli previously had described their brief relationship "as ending as friends."
Akshar said Masciarelli has repeatedly attempted to harass him. He said "it's no coincidence" Masciarelli elevated her attacks against him after he endorsed Paul Battisti for district in his primary race against Korchak.
The senator said he "will never let rumor, innuendo, false accusations or threats influence me or distract me from working for the people."
This is Senator Fred Akshar's statement posted on Facebook on Sunday afternoon.
Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: bob@wnbf.com
Source: Akshar Dismisses Allegations as Political “Smear Attempt”
Categories: Articles, Local News, Newsletter
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payment Stories November 3, 2015
Apple, Google, PayPal & others form coalition to ensure lawmakers understand financial tech
Ben Lovejoy
- Nov. 3rd 2015 4:06 am PT
@benlovejoy
Apple Pay Google Paypal Government Law
With Apple Pay, Google Wallet and other services transforming the way people carry out transactions, Apple has joined forces with four other companies to ensure that lawmakers don’t end up ‘inadvertently’ stifling innovation in the financial services field.
Technology industry leaders Amazon, Apple, Google, Intuit and PayPal today announced the formation of Financial Innovation Now, a coalition that will promote policies to help foster greater innovation in financial services.
While the new organization uses relatively diplomatic language, it’s pretty clear that the aim is to ensure that politicians don’t screw things up by introducing poorly thought-out legislation, like the infamous example proposed by Democratic Rep. Joshua Peters … expand full story
payment Stories October 11, 2014
iOS 8 How-to: Use Camera to enter in credit card info
Sarah Guarino - Oct. 11th 2014 9:00 am PT
With iOS 7, Apple added a new feature in iBooks, iTunes and the App Store that allowed users to scan iTunes gift cards with the device’s camera rather than manually entering the string of characters on the back of the card. Now in iOS 8, you can use the device’s camera to scan and enter credit card information.
To add your credit card for purchases open up Settings and tap on Safari.
payment Stories October 7, 2014
Square’s Cash iOS app adds ‘Nearby Payments’ for sending money over Bluetooth
Jordan Kahn - Oct. 7th 2014 8:48 am PT
Cash, the app launched by payments company Square last year for personal money transfers, today updated with a new way to send money on iOS 8 over Bluetooth LE. The feature is called Nearby Payments and allows users to send and receive payments by using Bluetooth to find and connect with nearby users. That’s opposed to the previous methods the app already offered including sending payments via text message and email. In case you’re wondering why it’s iOS 8 only:
@bzamayo Apple significantly improved BLE in iOS 8, which allowed us to build a reliable experience for paying people nearby.
— Square Support (@SqSupport) October 7, 2014
Square notes that users will be able to select preferences for nearby visibility to allow either everyone or only contacts to see their availability. Today’s update to version 2.1 also includes the ability to “Quickly approve or decline money requests with actionable push notifications.”
The updated Cash app by Square is available for free on the App Store now.
Have R2-D2 help you code with the $75 littleBits Droid Inventor Kit at 25% off
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payment Stories June 5, 2014
Safari in iOS 8 uses camera to scan and enter credit card info
Jordan Kahn - Jun. 5th 2014 5:47 pm PT
In iOS 8, Apple has a new feature in Safari that allows users to scan a credit card with the device’s camera rather than manually entering the number when making a purchase online.
When entering a credit card number into a form online to, for example, make a purchase, Safari already allowed users to quickly select credit cards stored in its Passwords & AutoFill settings. You can still do that, but in iOS 8 you’ll now also have the option to select “Scan Credit Card” and snap a picture of the card. Apple then uses optical character recognition of sorts to input the number into the text field in Safari. There’s also a way to scan and save cards using the camera directly from within the Passwords & AutoFill settings.
Website developers don’t have to do anything to enable the feature, as Safari appears to automatically detect when a credit card number is being requested and presents the option to scan above the keypad.
Safari received some other updates announced this week at WWDC too, including a redesign in OS X Yosemite on the Mac, and highly requested features on iOS like the ability to request a desktop site and a tab view for iPad.
payment Stories January 30, 2014
PayPal feels the threat from Apple’s mobile payment plans, says it ‘wants to help’
Ben Lovejoy - Jan. 30th 2014 7:29 am PT
PayPal is clearly feeling the threat posed by Apple’s plans to use Touch ID to facilitate payment for physical goods from other retailers: re/code is reporting that the company has offered to help.
PayPal is essentially willing to white label parts of its payment service to be used in an Apple mobile payments system — anything from fraud detection to back-end infrastructure, even possibly down to the processing of payments.
“They’re telling them, ‘We’ll do it in the background,” one of these people said. “Basically, it’s just, ‘We want to be a part of this.’”
The plea is likely as desperate as it sounds, with two of the three payment industry execs re/code spoke to saying it’s unlikely Apple has any need of PayPal’s assistance. Apple has over 575 million iTunes accounts, most linked to credit cards, and already allows purchases from its own retail stores using the Apple Store app on iPhones. Apple also has patents in place for payment via both NFC and Bluetooth electronic wallet systems, so there doesn’t appear to be any part of the process the company couldn’t handle unaided.
PayPal’s relationship with Apple seems set to remain limited to that of a payment option for iTunes and online store purchases, and a reseller of iTunes gift cards.
payment Stories April 22, 2013
iPhone 4 owners begin receiving their $15 ‘Antennagate’ settlement checks from Apple
- Apr. 22nd 2013 7:40 pm PT
AAPL Company iPhone Apple Tips and Tricks iphone 4
Payday has come for some of the first responders to the iPhone 4 class action lawsuit. Last February a settlement was reached that granted iPhone 4 owners who had not previously received a free bumper for their “defective” iPhones a $15 payout. Several of our readers are now reporting that they received their settlement checks today. The first checks were issued on April 17 2013 and are void after July 16th. Unfortunately the deadline for submitting a claim has passed so if you missed out the first time around it seems you are out of luck.
In case you forgot, the settlement found:
Apple was “misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4–particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software.”
Apple paid out a total of $53 million in the settlement, which was lawyers took a hefty $16M chunk.
http://twitter.com/bradkellyfilms/status/326481430584627200/
Best Apple deals from 9to5Toys
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Best Prime Day Mac deals: Save on MacBooks, iMacs, Mac mini, and more
Amazon’s Prime Day Apple event has Apple Watch deals, iPad Pro, more
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The Fall Guy (1981–1986)
Season: 1 2 3 4 5
Year: 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986
S5, Ep1
Dead Ringer
Colt goes to work for a new bail bonds woman named Pearl. She wants him to find a guy, a convicted forger on parole, who was charged for burglary and is also an Elvis impersonator. She sends them to Las Vegas to find him but unfortunately there's an Elvis competition going on. Eventually they find him and he claims that someone wants him to forge a will, and when he refused they framed him. He came to Las Vegas because he wants to show everyone his talents and convinces Pearl to let him. When someone tries to grab him, Colt thinks he's telling the truth so tries to ...
The King of the Stuntmen
Colt goes to a stuntman competition where he meets some old friends, there is a prize of $50,000 to the winner, and there is a thief on the loose.
Pearl sends Colt to bring in a murderer she bailed out. She tells him to keep an eye on the witness who's going to testify against him. While waiting they see someone approach the witness and they jump him thinking he works for the guy but he turns out to be an FBI agent who is also looking for the murderer and he threatens to charge him unless he helps him.
A Fistful of Lire
While working in Italy Howie falls for a local girl who is working on the movie. Her brother invites Colt to their village. But when they get there. they learn that the brother wants to pit them against a criminal who is terrorizing the village. They also learn that the brother is also looking for a treasure which the criminal also wants.
Colt is sent to bring in a man who broke into the DMV. The man claims that he is looking for his daughter who was kidnapped and the only lead he has is the type of car that was seen, which is why he broke into the DMV. Colt lets him check the car he was checking when Colt grabbed him. After talking to the owner and his employee, Colt suspects the employee so they follow him.
October the 32nd
Be the first one to add a plot.
Seavers: Dead or Alive
While tracking a skip, Colt witnesses the man with another. And while trying to get him, a rival bounty hunter tries to take him from Colt but with Howie's help they outsmart him. Later, Colt is approached by a prosecutor who wants him to testify about the man he saw his skip talking to before he caught him. It seems the man is an elusive criminal. Colt agrees. Later he is framed. When Colt is about to go to court, the prosecutor tells him that she suspects the man he is going to testify against framed him to not only discredit him but to cease them from investigating...
Escape Claus
No Rms Ocean Vu
S5, Ep10
Miami's Nice
Colt goes to his high school reunion and connects with the sister of a classmate who is a jeweler. Later some men rob her brother and take her hostage. Colt wants to help find her but the Sheriff who is another classmate who hates him tells him to back off. Colt then suspects something and confronts her brother who admits he set the whole thing up cause he needs the insurance. But the men he hired double cross him and want more.
While working in Thailand, an old Army buddy of Colt approaches him and tells him that another friend of theirs is still a POW and he found him. He wants Colt to help. Colt's a little hesitant cause of something that happened between them. But he goes anyway. But when the chopper that's suppose to pick them up is damaged Howie scrambles to get it repaired. And when Colt rescues his friend, he tells Colt there's another prisoner, they have to get him too.
In His Shadow
The Lucky Stiff
A loser whose money making schemes always go wrong, is thrown out by his wife. And wanting to make it up to her he takes out a contract on himself so that his wife could get his insurance. Moments after meeting with the one who will execute it, he wins the lottery. At the same time, it seems that one of his schemes got him arrested and the one who bailed him out wants Colt to bring him in. Now the guy after claiming the money, is caught by Colt. He asks Colt to make a phone call and the one he calls is the man he hired and he tells him to call it off but the man is ...
Beach Blanket Bounty
While working in Florida, Colt gets a call from Pearl telling him to find a guy who stole some plans. Colt finds him but at the same time some guys who owns a club are looking for him because he stole the money they were going to use to pay the loan on the club. After they find him, a fence whom he approached to sell the plans tries to get him back because they want the plans.
The Last Chance Platoon
An Army buddy of Colt's drafts him into helping find out who on the base is stealing army equipment. He makes Colt a drill sergeant for a special platoon consisting of deadbeats whom he has to shape up. He brings Howie and Jody in to help him. And they keep their eyes on a man whom the Colonel knows has to be involved hoping he'll lead them to the rest of the ones involved.
I Now Pronounce You... Dead
When Colt is sent to get a guy at his wedding. But when they do a woman pulls out a gun and tries to shoot him. That's when two men grab him. They learn that the woman is his wife. She agrees to help them as long as she can tag along. She takes to where he has a business and they discover she has another wife. And it seems that one of the men who grabbed him, entrusted him with his money and it seems he used it to support his wives.
Two on a Skip
Lady in Green
War on Wheels
The Bigger They Are
« Season 4 | Season 5
The Fall Guy (TV Series)
Série vue TV passé incomplet
Serien aus der Kindheit
80s TV SERIES
Childhood & Adolescence
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Archives Hub
WithinNew Search
Holst archiveImogen HolstImogen Holst's scrapbooks and scrapboxesImogen Holst's scrapbook vol 1Postcard South Aisle, Winchester Cathedral
Postcard South Aisle, Winchester Cathedral
Archive Unit
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Cite this description
Bookmark:https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb1111-hol/hol/2/7/1/243
This material is held at
Britten-Pears Foundation Archive
GB 1111 HOL/2/7/1/243
Dates of Creation
On page 39 of scrapbook 1.
This material is made available under the standard conditions of the Britten-Pears Foundation. Readers will be required to produce proof of identity and to sign a Reader’s Undertaking form.
Physical Characteristics and/or Technical Requirements
Archive Record|Table of contents
Holst archiveHOL
Gustav HolstHOL/1
Imogen HolstHOL/2
Music manuscripts of Imogen HolstHOL/2/1
Copies of Imogen Holst's music manuscripts held elsewhereHOL/2/2
Transcriptions and work in progress on editions and arrangementsHOL/2/3
Published music of Imogen HolstHOL/2/4
Performance parts for Gustav Holst worksHOL/2/5
Manuscript and printed music of other composers belonging to Imogen HolstHOL/2/6
Imogen Holst's scrapbooks and scrapboxesHOL/2/7
Imogen Holst's scrapbook vol 1HOL/2/7/1
Leaflet about the General StrikeHOL/2/7/1/1
Photograph of folk dancers at ThaxtedHOL/2/7/1/2
Photograph of Brook End, Easton ParkHOL/2/7/1/3
Photograph of Rufty Tufty and Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/4
Photograph of the garden at Brook EndHOL/2/7/1/5
Photograph of the barn at Brook EndHOL/2/7/1/6
Photograph of dancersHOL/2/7/1/7
Newspaper cutting re Great Easton FeteHOL/2/7/1/8
Photograph of Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan WilliamsHOL/2/7/1/9
Photograph of Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/10
Photograph of Gustav HolstHOL/2/7/1/11
Photograph of Thaxted churchHOL/2/7/1/12
Photograph of Herbert HowellsHOL/2/7/1/13
Photograph of Brook EndHOL/2/7/1/14
Programme of ParsifalHOL/2/7/1/15
Photograph of Thaxted fieldsHOL/2/7/1/16
Letter from Kathleen Long to Mrs O'NeillHOL/2/7/1/17
Cutting about 14th Cent. miracle playHOL/2/7/1/18
Letter from Mrs O'Neill to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/19
Photograph of Marquis d'Oisy's gardenHOL/2/7/1/20
Card of 1926 Cambridge summer music teaching courseHOL/2/7/1/21
Photograph of Imogen Holst punting at CambridgeHOL/2/7/1/22
Photograph of 'Backs' at CambridgeHOL/2/7/1/23
Photograph of St John's bridge, CambridgeHOL/2/7/1/24
Photograph of picnic group under treeHOL/2/7/1/25
Open air photograph of folk dancers at CambridgeHOL/2/7/1/26
Pen and ink cartoon ('Alf's elephant')HOL/2/7/1/27
Newspaper photograph of Schofield weddingHOL/2/7/1/28
Photograph of view from flat in Trinity Street, CambridgeHOL/2/7/1/29
Photograph of Morris Dancers in open airHOL/2/7/1/30
Letter to Imogen Holst from Janet Cunningham of DublinHOL/2/7/1/31
Postcard of Bank of Ireland, DublinHOL/2/7/1/32
Programme of Abbey Theatre, Dublin, for first night of the play 'The Big House 'HOL/2/7/1/33
Card of painting by Jack B. YeatsHOL/2/7/1/34
Envelope addressed to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/35
Postcard portrait of Sir Hugh AllenHOL/2/7/1/36
Postcard of Royal College of Music, LondonHOL/2/7/1/37
Lyric Theatre Hammersmith Programme for 'The Would-be Gentleman'HOL/2/7/1/38
Cut out of printed list of Imogen Holst's principal studiesHOL/2/7/1/39
Programme for a concert at the Royal College of MusicHOL/2/7/1/40
Ticket for Royal Philharmonic Society 115th seasonHOL/2/7/1/41
Royal College of Music teachers' terminal report for Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/42
Party invitationHOL/2/7/1/43
Letter from John Thompson to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/44
Catalogue of exhibition by Alexander WalkerHOL/2/7/1/45
Postcard of JerusalemHOL/2/7/1/46
Newspaper cutting photograph of English Folk Dance Society rehearsalHOL/2/7/1/47
Competitor's ticket for English Folk Dance Society's FestivalHOL/2/7/1/48
Programme cutting of English Folk Dance Society FestivalHOL/2/7/1/49
Letter to Imogen Holst from Mark ArthurHOL/2/7/1/50
Letter to Imogen Holst from Arthur SomervellHOL/2/7/1/51
Letter from Muriel Potter to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/52
Photograph of the Barn, Little EastonHOL/2/7/1/53
Photograph of Queens' College, Cambridge, from riverHOL/2/7/1/54
Programme of Kathleen Long recitalHOL/2/7/1/55
Programme of Royal College of Music concertHOL/2/7/1/56
Photograph of Kathleen LongHOL/2/7/1/57
Newspaper cutting about Gustav Holst and 'The Morning of the Year'HOL/2/7/1/58
Performer's ticket for Prince of Wales visit to Royal College of MusicHOL/2/7/1/59
Invitation card to Cosi fan TutteHOL/2/7/1/60
Programme sixth concert of Royal Philharmonic SocietyHOL/2/7/1/61
Memorial service programme for Edward Rex BurryHOL/2/7/1/62
Director's addressHOL/2/7/1/63
Note by Herbert HowellsHOL/2/7/1/65
Programme of concerts at Cheltenham Town HallHOL/2/7/1/67
Newspaper cutting about Cheltenham Gustav Holst Festival.HOL/2/7/1/68
Photograph of some attendees at Cheltenham Gustav Holst Festival.HOL/2/7/1/69
Menu of Holst Fesrtival LunchHOL/2/7/1/71
Postcard addressed to Miss HolstHOL/2/7/1/73
Report of visit of English Folkdance and Song Society to BayonneHOL/2/7/1/74
Two tickets for Bayonne visitHOL/2/7/1/75
Illustration of open air dancingHOL/2/7/1/76
Poster or programme advertising Gd Match de Pelote BasqueHOL/2/7/1/77
Postcard of Maison Louis XIV, St Jean-de-LuzHOL/2/7/1/78
Ticket for Pelote BasqueHOL/2/7/1/79
Tram ticketHOL/2/7/1/80
Newspaper photograph of Morris dancers at BayonneHOL/2/7/1/81
Postcard of street with large church in backgroundHOL/2/7/1/82
French newspaper cartoonHOL/2/7/1/83
Postcard of FuenterrabiaHOL/2/7/1/84
Programme of Danses de DemonstrationHOL/2/7/1/85
Colour picture of FuentarrabiaHOL/2/7/1/86
Newspaper cutting reviewing Bayonne FestivalHOL/2/7/1/87
Programme of Queens' Hall concertHOL/2/7/1/88
Newspaper review of new Gustav Holst workHOL/2/7/1/89
Photograph of Mill Fields, ThaxtedHOL/2/7/1/91
Photograph of Morris dancers in streetHOL/2/7/1/92
Newspaper cutting 'Dancing at a wedding'HOL/2/7/1/93
Photograph of interior of Thaxted ChurchHOL/2/7/1/94
Letter from Ethel Sincoe to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/95
Programme Royal College of Music ConcertHOL/2/7/1/96
Newspaper cutting review of new Gustav Holst choral ballet 'The Morning of the Year'HOL/2/7/1/97
Newspaper cutting review of new Gustav Holst ballet 'The Morning of the Year'HOL/2/7/1/98
Acknowledgement of application for Royal College of Music open scholarshipHOL/2/7/1/100
Photograph of Brook EndHOL/2/7/1/101
Programme of Royal College of Music College Concert (No. 854)HOL/2/7/1/102
Letter from Royal College of Music announcing award of open scholarship to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/103
Newspaper cutting from Daily TelegraphHOL/2/7/1/104
Congratulatory telegram to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/105
Newspaper photograph of Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/106
Letter from Kathleen Long to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/107
Press cutting about Imogen Holst's open scholarshipHOL/2/7/1/108
Letter from WG Whittaker to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/109
Press photograph and caption about Imogen Holst's open scholarshipHOL/2/7/1/110
Letter from Miss Ethel Standwick to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/111
Press cutting of Royal College of Music open scholarshipsHOL/2/7/1/112
Press cutting about cutting serviceHOL/2/7/1/113
Press photograph and caption stating that Imogen Holst has won open scholarshipHOL/2/7/1/114
Programme English Folk Dance SocietyHOL/2/7/1/115
Envelope addressed to Gustav HolstHOL/2/7/1/116
Portrait photograph of Elgar and Programme for concert of chamber musicHOL/2/7/1/117
Programme for concert by Oriana Madrigal SocietyHOL/2/7/1/118
Programme Serge Diaghileff Season of Russian BalletHOL/2/7/1/119
Programme Royal College of Music Union concertHOL/2/7/1/120
Photograph of Morris dancersHOL/2/7/1/121
Menu of Royal College of Music Union dinnerHOL/2/7/1/122
Cutting describing Royal College of Music Union dinnerHOL/2/7/1/123
Newspaper photograph of Harold SamuelHOL/2/7/1/124
Programme Informal Concert Royal College of Music (No 110)HOL/2/7/1/125
Press cutting from Daily TelegraphHOL/2/7/1/126
Magazine cutting re Informal concertsHOL/2/7/1/127
Photograph The Concert Hall, Royal College of MusicHOL/2/7/1/128
Photograph Magdalen College and Bridge, OxfordHOL/2/7/1/129
Programme Informal Concert (No 112) Royal College of MusicHOL/2/7/1/130
Signature of Herbert HowellsHOL/2/7/1/131
Magazine cutting about opera scenesHOL/2/7/1/132
Cast list of 'Carmen' (Act II)HOL/2/7/1/133
Programme of 'The Mastersingers' and 'Fidelio'.HOL/2/7/1/134
Newspaper photograph of Mr Cairns JamesHOL/2/7/1/135
Letter from the secretary of The English Folk Dance Society to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/136
Royal College of Music Teachers' Terminal Report, Midsummer term 1927HOL/2/7/1/137
Letter from Secretary of Morley College, London, to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/138
Programme for The English Folk Dance Society DemonstrationHOL/2/7/1/139
Programme of Shaw's 'Pygmalion'HOL/2/7/1/140
Ticket for English Folk Dance Society' summer schoolHOL/2/7/1/141
Announcement about English Folk Dance Society summer schoolHOL/2/7/1/142
Postcard from Gustav Holst to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/143
Photograph of Sherborne Abbey interiorHOL/2/7/1/144
Letter from Florence Hardy to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/145
Words for Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues by Ebenezer ProutHOL/2/7/1/146
Photograph of Vicky [Reid] and Imogen Holst in garden at Ellon, AberdeenshireHOL/2/7/1/147
Postcard to Imogen Holst from Gustav HolstHOL/2/7/1/148
Photograph of 'The Braes at Waterton'HOL/2/7/1/149
Photograph of 'View from the top of Benachie'HOL/2/7/1/150
Photograph of 'The Braes'HOL/2/7/1/151
Watercolour sketch of ColliestonHOL/2/7/1/152
Postcard of Lochnagar, BalmoralHOL/2/7/1/153
Postcard of Lochnagar, from Tullich, BallaterHOL/2/7/1/154
Photograph of Vicky Reid and Imogen Holst at BenachieHOL/2/7/1/155
Photograph of Gobbo in the garden at EllonHOL/2/7/1/156
Photograph of Margaret [Reid]HOL/2/7/1/157
Postcard of Balmoral and LochnagarHOL/2/7/1/158
Watercolour sketch of Vicky [Reid] sketching the YthanHOL/2/7/1/159
Fragment of postcard from Gustav Holst to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/160
Postcard of The Feugh (in flood), BanchoryHOL/2/7/1/161
Telegram to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/162
Newspaper review of Promenade ConcertHOL/2/7/1/163
Letter from Margaret ReidHOL/2/7/1/164
Dinner menuHOL/2/7/1/165
Note from bursar Royal College of Music to Miss HolstHOL/2/7/1/166
Promenade concert programme at Queen's HallHOL/2/7/1/167
Programme of recital by International String QuartetHOL/2/7/1/168
Postcard to Imogen Holst from George Dyson.HOL/2/7/1/169
Letter to Imogen Holst from Katharine AsquithHOL/2/7/1/170
Programme of Wigmore Hall piano recital by Myra HessHOL/2/7/1/171
Letter to Imogen Holst from H P ThompsonHOL/2/7/1/172
Invitation to Miss Holst to exhibition of works by Mukul DeyHOL/2/7/1/173
Catalogue of drypoints and etchings by Mukul DeyHOL/2/7/1/174
Letter to Imogen Holst from Marion ScottHOL/2/7/1/175
Part of programme of Annual General Meeting of Royal College of Music UnionHOL/2/7/1/176
Grotrian Hall programme of piano recital by Kathleen LongHOL/2/7/1/177
Programme of recital of recent works by Arnold BaxHOL/2/7/1/179
Programme of 'Tristan and Holst'HOL/2/7/1/180
Part of Apollo Thetare, London, poster advertising CyranoHOL/2/7/1/181
Ticket for 'Cyrano' by Edmond RostandHOL/2/7/1/182
Wigmore Hall poster for recital by Jelly D'Aranyi and Myra HessHOL/2/7/1/183
Times review of Royal College of Music 'Pelleas et Melisande'HOL/2/7/1/184
Programme of Royal College of Music 'Pelleas et Melisande'HOL/2/7/1/185
Cutting of review of Royal College of Music 'Pelleas et Melisande'HOL/2/7/1/186
Programme for Grotrian Hall piano recital by Kathleen LongHOL/2/7/1/188
Programme of Royal Collegeof Music Informal Concert (No. 116)HOL/2/7/1/189
Poster announcing English Folk Dance Society's Folk Dance FestivalHOL/2/7/1/191
Part of programme of Gustav Holst's 'Hymn of Jesus'.HOL/2/7/1/192
Christmas terminal report for Imogen Holst, Royal College of MusicHOL/2/7/1/193
Postcard of Count of Flanders Castle, Ghent, BelgiumHOL/2/7/1/194
Postcard of Bruges, BelgiumHOL/2/7/1/195
Railway map of Britain and Northern EuropeHOL/2/7/1/196
Postcard of torture chamber Count's Castle, Ghent, BelgiumHOL/2/7/1/197
Postcard of St Gudule Church, Brussels, BelgiumHOL/2/7/1/200
Postcard of audience chamber Count of Flanders Castle, Ghent, BelgiumHOL/2/7/1/201
Postcard of A van Ostade paintingHOL/2/7/1/202
Postcard of Peter Breughel painting 'The Census of Bethlehem'HOL/2/7/1/203
Postcard of Peter Breughel painting 'The Procession''HOL/2/7/1/204
Postcard of G van Tilborgh painting' The five senses: hearing'HOL/2/7/1/205
Postcard of mediaeval streetHOL/2/7/1/206
Pamphlet of Thomas Hardy poem 'Yuletide in a younger world'.HOL/2/7/1/207
Photograph of Imogen Holst with 'Rufty', the dog, in snowHOL/2/7/1/208
Photograph of snow scene with treesHOL/2/7/1/209
Announcement about Chelsea bazaar for English Folk Dance SocietyHOL/2/7/1/210
Competitor's admission ticket for English Folk Dance Society's FestivalHOL/2/7/1/211
Programme Royal Philharmonic Society's concert at Queen's HallHOL/2/7/1/212
Card from John Thompson to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/213
Letter from Penelope Spencer to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/214
Letter from Katleen Long to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/215
Concert programme of Royal College of Music Annual General MeetingHOL/2/7/1/216
Postcard of Thomaskirche, LeipzigHOL/2/7/1/217
Wigmore Hall programme recital by Adila Fachiri, violin, and Friedrich Wuhrer, pianoHOL/2/7/1/219
Wigmore Hall programme recital by Orrea Pernel, violinHOL/2/7/1/220
Queen's Hall programme of Bach Choir and London Symphony Orchestra ConcertHOL/2/7/1/221
Aeolian Hall programme of Gerald Cooper Chamber ConcertHOL/2/7/1/222
Royal College of Music concert programmeHOL/2/7/1/223
London Symphony Orchestra concert programme at Queen's HallHOL/2/7/1/224
British Broadccasting Corporation concert programme at Queen's HallHOL/2/7/1/225
Royal Philharmonic Society concert programme at Queen's HallHOL/2/7/1/226
Letter from Thomas Hardy to Gustav HolstHOL/2/7/1/227
Map of Central London showing Imogen Holst's new addressHOL/2/7/1/228
Sketch of street sceneHOL/2/7/1/229
Royal College of Music programmeHOL/2/7/1/230
Review of students' ballet and operaHOL/2/7/1/231
Pen and ink autograph of Penelope SpencerHOL/2/7/1/234
'The Times' review of students' ballet and operaHOL/2/7/1/235
Letter from Gustav Holst to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/236
Programme for Queen's Hall Lener Quartet concertHOL/2/7/1/237
Agenda for Royal College of Music Union meetingHOL/2/7/1/238
Letter to Imogen Holst about her employment as accompanist at the Winchester and County Musical FestivalHOL/2/7/1/239
Drawing of side of a church or cathedralHOL/2/7/1/240
Postcard St Catherine's Hill, WinchesterHOL/2/7/1/241
Programme Seventh Winchester and County Music FestivalHOL/2/7/1/242
Postcard South Aisle, Winchester CathedralHOL/2/7/1/243
Postcard of Winchester Cathedral, Chapel of Holy SepulchreHOL/2/7/1/244
Programme Royal College of Music Informal Concert (No. 122)HOL/2/7/1/245
Photograph lane near ThaxtedHOL/2/7/1/246
Photograph Imogen Holst and two dogsHOL/2/7/1/247
Photograph Imogen Holst's mother Isobel at wheel of carHOL/2/7/1/249
Programme orchestral concertHOL/2/7/1/250
Royal College of Music Terminal report Easter 1928HOL/2/7/1/251
Photograph Great EastonHOL/2/7/1/252
Note to Imogen Holst from Gustav Holst about her Oboe QuartetHOL/2/7/1/253
Programme for Queen's Hall symphony concertHOL/2/7/1/254
Vocal score of Gustav Holst's 'Gird on thy Sword'HOL/2/7/1/255
Note from Gustav HolstHOL/2/7/1/256
Letter from Robert Bridges to Gustav HolstHOL/2/7/1/257
Letter from Alfred Peck to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/258
Postcard of The Row, ChesterHOL/2/7/1/259
Round coloured badge, possibly for buttonholeHOL/2/7/1/260
Card from Chester SchoolHOL/2/7/1/261
Postcard of interior of Chester CathedralHOL/2/7/1/262
Postcard of exterior of Milan CathedralHOL/2/7/1/263
Postcard of street in SiennaHOL/2/7/1/264
Postcard of San GimignanoHOL/2/7/1/265
Postcard of Siena CathedralHOL/2/7/1/266
Postcard of La Cisterna, San GimignanoHOL/2/7/1/267
Postcard of St Lorenzo, PerugiaHOL/2/7/1/268
Postcard of Antico Pazzo del Popolo, PerugiaHOL/2/7/1/270
Postcard of church side AssisiHOL/2/7/1/271
Postcard of fresco, Virgin and child, AssisiHOL/2/7/1/272
Postcard of entrance gate to street, AssisiHOL/2/7/1/273
Postcard of street, AssisiHOL/2/7/1/274
Postcard of Piazza del Duomo, AssisiHOL/2/7/1/275
Postcard of painting of Virgin, AssisiHOL/2/7/1/276
Postcards of Street, AssisiHOL/2/7/1/277
Postcard of Hotel du Corbeau, StrassbourgHOL/2/7/1/278
Postcard of Hotel du Corbeau, Strassbourg, showing towerHOL/2/7/1/279
Programme for Harold Samuel recitalHOL/2/7/1/280
Letter from Arthur Heffer to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/281
Card from Registrar Royal College of Music to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/282
Letter from Rolf Gardiner to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/283
Photograph of Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/284
Programme Informal concert Royal College of Music (No. 153)HOL/2/7/1/285
Actor's pass for Canterbury CathedralHOL/2/7/1/286
Postcard of The Weavers,CanterburyHOL/2/7/1/287
Postcard of The Crypt, Canterbury CathedralHOL/2/7/1/288
Postcard of TheTomb of St Thomas a Becket, Canterbury CathedralHOL/2/7/1/289
Plan of Canterbury CathedralHOL/2/7/1/290
Postcard of Mercury Lane, CanterburyHOL/2/7/1/291
Postcard of Nave, Canterbury CathedralHOL/2/7/1/292
Cutting about John Masfield's play 'The Coming of Christ'HOL/2/7/1/293
Cabaret programme Royal College of MusicHOL/2/7/1/294
Letter Helman Fernbeck to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/295
Postcard interior Thaxted ChurchHOL/2/7/1/296
Cutting from Royal College of Music magazineHOL/2/7/1/298
Programme for Sonata RecitalHOL/2/7/1/299
Postcard from Dr G Dyson, WinchesterHOL/2/7/1/300
Opera programme Royal Court TheatreHOL/2/7/1/301
Postcard of Mediterranean beachHOL/2/7/1/302
Plans for Cambridge dance tour in GermanyHOL/2/7/1/303
Postcard from Isobel Holst to Imogen Holst from ProvenceHOL/2/7/1/304
Postcard of St John's College, CambridgeHOL/2/7/1/306
Ticket from Harwich to OldenzaalHOL/2/7/1/307
Postcard of RotterdamHOL/2/7/1/308
Photograph 'At Rotterdam'HOL/2/7/1/309
Group photograph, probably in BerlinHOL/2/7/1/310
Plan of college, probably in BerlinHOL/2/7/1/311
Photograph of SpandauHOL/2/7/1/312
Photograph of sewing party at SpandauHOL/2/7/1/313
Photograph of young men in carriageHOL/2/7/1/314
Photograph of line of childrenHOL/2/7/1/315
Newspaper photograph of dancersHOL/2/7/1/316
Picture of Brandenburg Gate, BerlinHOL/2/7/1/317
Picture of Schloss and National Monument, BerlinHOL/2/7/1/318
Postcard of Alexanderplatz, BerlinHOL/2/7/1/319
Overground and underground railway ticket, BerlinHOL/2/7/1/320
Typescript programme of a masqueHOL/2/7/1/321
Map of Halle, Germany, and surroundingsHOL/2/7/1/322
Postcard of Halle churchHOL/2/7/1/323
Photograph of open air Morris dancingHOL/2/7/1/324
Postcard of Handeldenkmal, Halle, GermanyHOL/2/7/1/326
Postcard of Liszt's House,Weimar, GermanyHOL/2/7/1/328
Map showing Weimar and the rest of Western EuropeHOL/2/7/1/329
Postcard of street in Gottingen, GermanyHOL/2/7/1/330
Photograph of woods near Gottingen, GermanyHOL/2/7/1/331
Photograph of Schloss Belvedere, Gottingen, GermanyHOL/2/7/1/332
Postcard of St Johanniskirche, Gottingen, GermanyHOL/2/7/1/333
Postcard of Markt, Gottingen, GermanyHOL/2/7/1/334
Photograph of open air Moris dancingHOL/2/7/1/335
Postcard of Johannes Strasse, Gottingen, GermanyHOL/2/7/1/336
Postcard of Gottingen, Germany, and surrounding countrysideHOL/2/7/1/337
Postcard of Gottingen town centre, GermanyHOL/2/7/1/338
Photograph of Morris dancers in open airHOL/2/7/1/339
Postcard of timbered house in townHOL/2/7/1/341
Photograph of open air cafe sceneHOL/2/7/1/344
Photograph of woods with church in distanceHOL/2/7/1/345
Photograph of river with low hillsHOL/2/7/1/346
Photograph of river with man on boatHOL/2/7/1/347
Postcard of Hamm-MundenHOL/2/7/1/348
Photograph of Imogen Holst and Rolf Gadiner on a boatHOL/2/7/1/349
Photograph of Greta, George Gotsch and Rolph on a boatHOL/2/7/1/350
Photograph of boat and riverHOL/2/7/1/351
Photograph of group on boatHOL/2/7/1/352
Photograph of town buildingsHOL/2/7/1/353
Postcard of Rathaus, Hann-Munden, GermanyHOL/2/7/1/354
Programme of Tanzerspiel (Masque)HOL/2/7/1/355
Photograph of old houses, probably in MarburgHOL/2/7/1/356
Picture of Marburg, with river and housesHOL/2/7/1/357
Postcard of Marburg, with entrance gate in wallsHOL/2/7/1/358
Postcard of Marburg, with entrance gateand housesHOL/2/7/1/359
Photograph probably of Marburg, with surrounding hillsHOL/2/7/1/360
Picture probably of Marburg, with riverHOL/2/7/1/361
Photograph probably of Marburg town centreHOL/2/7/1/362
Picture of MarburgHOL/2/7/1/363
Photograph of Morris dancers in town centreHOL/2/7/1/364
Commorative card for Travelling MorrisHOL/2/7/1/365
Photograph of market place, probably MarburgHOL/2/7/1/366
Photograph of church spire, probably in MarburgHOL/2/7/1/367
Photograph of old house, probably in MarburgHOL/2/7/1/368
Envelope addressed to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/369
Photograph of theatreHOL/2/7/1/370
Photograph of Morris dancers in town centre, probably MarburgHOL/2/7/1/371
Photograph of Morris dancers on open air theatre stage, probably MarburgHOL/2/7/1/372
Photograph of town and countryside, probably MarburgHOL/2/7/1/373
Photograph of crowd in town centre, probably MarburgHOL/2/7/1/374
Photgraph of Morris dancerHOL/2/7/1/375
Unstamped German postcard addressed to Imogen Holst in MarburgHOL/2/7/1/376
Picture of Castle Coffee House, MarburgHOL/2/7/1/377
Photograph of Morris dancers on stageHOL/2/7/1/378
Coloured postcard 'Gruss aus Hessen'HOL/2/7/1/379
Black and white photograph of Cologne Cathedral across the RhineHOL/2/7/1/380
Postcard of interior of Cologne CathedralHOL/2/7/1/381
Postcard of exterior of Cologne CathedralHOL/2/7/1/382
Photograph of Rhine Bridge at CologneHOL/2/7/1/383
Photograph of Rhine Bridge and Cathedral at CologneHOL/2/7/1/384
Pamphlet 'The Travelling Morrice'HOL/2/7/1/385
Postcard of exterior Cologne CathedralHOL/2/7/1/386
Handwritten music manuscript of 'El Salterello' and 'The Virgin'HOL/2/7/1/387
Photograph of open air dancersHOL/2/7/1/388
Photograph of groupHOL/2/7/1/389
Photograph of seated manHOL/2/7/1/391
Photograph of laden dinner table, with standing group in backgroundHOL/2/7/1/392
Photograph of two men at ends of seesaw, with another standing in middleHOL/2/7/1/394
Photograph of two men and a womanHOL/2/7/1/395
Photograph of two men on a seesawHOL/2/7/1/396
Photograph of woman in bushesHOL/2/7/1/397
Photograph of group sitting on luggageHOL/2/7/1/398
Magazine cutting about 'The Travelling Morrice'HOL/2/7/1/399
Programme of Diaghileff BalletHOL/2/7/1/400
Metropolitan Cricket Club complimentary ticketHOL/2/7/1/401
Handwritten concert programmeHOL/2/7/1/402
Postcard of The Old Windmill, LittlehamptonHOL/2/7/1/403
Photgraph of Imogen Holst at pianoHOL/2/7/1/404
Letter from Louise Dyer to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/405
Letter from Douglas Kennedy to Imogen HolstHOL/2/7/1/406
Card with timetable for folk dancing classesHOL/2/7/1/407
Cutting from programme of English Folk Dance Society Summer School at BuxtonHOL/2/7/1/408
Terminal report for Imogen Holst, Royal College of MusicHOL/2/7/1/409
Printed report of 'The Travelling Morrice tour to Germany 1928'HOL/2/7/1/410
Imogen Holst's scrapbook vol 10HOL/2/7/10
Imogen Holst's file of scrapbook material for 1942HOL/2/7/11
CorrespondenceHOL/2/8
Engagement diaries of Imogen HolstHOL/2/9
Journals and travel diariesHOL/2/10
PhotographsHOL/2/11
PersonalHOL/2/12
Articles, programme notes, lectures and broadcastsHOL/2/13
Files concerning Gustav Holst's music and legacyHOL/2/14
Holst relationsHOL/2/15
Administrative and work filesHOL/2/16
Publisher's and peforming rightsHOL/2/17
Publications filesHOL/2/18
Published books by Imogen HolstHOL/2/19
Books and publications by authors other than Imogen HolstHOL/2/20
Aldeburgh Festival programme booksHOL/2/21
RecordingsHOL/2/22
Index cardsHOL/2/23
G and I Holst Ltd.HOL/3
Holst FoundationHOL/4
Rosamund StrodeHOL/5
Isador CaplanHOL/6
Leslie PeritonHOL/7
Additional Gustav and Imogen Holst papersHOL/8
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NTSB: Autopilot steered Tesla car toward traffic barrier before deadly crash
Model X "began a left steering movement," then sped up, report finds.
Gen. R. E. Lee
There was a deadly S10 accident here too and Ars didn't report on it?
djsmiley2k
Man doesn't control his car, crashes into wall.
Humanity, you can't have nice things.
Guess Tesla's getting a jump on their compact car production.
zarakon
Raptor wrote:
Smaller, lighter, with an innovative two-wheeled design
YodaMcFly
I'm getting prompted to enter credentials when trying to follow the link to the NTSB report.
Edit: it's working now. Must have been the Ars effect.
Last edited by YodaMcFly on Thu Jun 07, 2018 11:43 am
Syonyk
Tribus: North of the Snake
Gen. R. E. Lee wrote:
Did the S10 autonomously guide itself into a barrier while trying to sort out a confusing hunk of road with cameras and computers?
I'd assume not, or it would likely be of interest to Ars.
Bongle
Was the S10 being controlled by a new and novel control system?
Did the S10's crash result in the NTSB investigating?
I'd bet that if the S10 had an autonomous or semi-autonomous system installed, it would join the GM Bolt, Uber Volvo, and various teslas in having tech-site reporting about its accident.
Last edited by Bongle on Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:59 am
Its almost as if the car was suicidal and depressed.
glogloglo
I feel like I recently read an Ars commenter mention that it is inevitable that someone will die as a result of automated driving... and while sad... it will reveal glaring issues that must be resolved ahead of time... is this the first known death of an automated driving crash killing the driver?
YodaMcFly wrote:
Yeah, the report was publicly available at that link an hour ago. Now they seem to have pulled it down for some reason.
glogloglo wrote:
Tesla has had two previous fatal crashes. The first was Josh Brown in Florida in 2016.
No, there have been other Teslas.
I think the first one was in Florida - the camera system didn't see a white 18-wheeler turning in front of it (the sky was also white) and the car plowed under it.
zarakon wrote:
Wait, I thought Tesla said they weren't doing motorcycles...
/bin/bash
Please consider how Huang's family would react to reading your posts before commenting. Thank you.
Last edited by /bin/bash on Thu Jun 07, 2018 11:02 am
Jackattak
Tribus: Portland, OR
Already broke one of the Laws of Robotics. That didn’t take long.
That this needed to be explained should make "Gen. R. E. Lee" reevaluate his confidence in his intelligence.
No, really, cut it the fuck out with this "hurr hurr I'm smart and clever no one else thought of this!" This is so fucking STAGGERINGLY stupid.
muckz
Seems like electric vehicles have another risk - catching fire in serious crashes. Gasoline cars don't have to worry about it as much (ever since the Ford Pinto days), but a serious frontal crash, or a T-bone (or anything that impacts and deforms batteries) may set EV batteries on fire.
Beddict
Perhaps they suddenly got a lot more traffic on their site than they usually have to deal with and pulled it until they can handle it.
Jackattak wrote:
It's just getting started with the robot uprising.
realwarder
Ouch. Car steers itself towards a metal/concrete barrier and doesn't slow itself.
We are in the early days of driving assistance I guess. Plenty of improvements required yet, but still doesn't deter me from thinking that ultimately this technology is an overall benefit for an aware driver. The mistakes come when drivers trust it and stop actually driving the car.
If I'm reading this right, the Tesla stopped properly following the vehicle in front for 7 seconds after which the crash occurred. The victim last had his hands on the wheel 6 seconds before the crash. In essence, he could've been paying attention "most" of the time (by proxy since he had his hands on the wheel for over 50% of the last minute before the crash), but he took his eyes off the road for 6 seconds and had a fatal accident?
That paints a different picture than I had originally envisioned, where I was under the impression driver was zoned out for a long period of time and was ignoring warnings up to the crash. This really illustrates to me why the gaze warnings in Super Cruise are so important.
*edited for clarity
Last edited by yh852 on Thu Jun 07, 2018 11:09 am
jmarchel
Well. I guess the report proves how much smoke an mirrors is in anything Tesla engineered.
danbert2000
I don't know what percentage of the fault lies with the driver and what lies with Autopilot, but it was clearly a software error that should not have happened. This is why everyone is saying that Tesla needs LIDAR in their system. How can the car not recognize a barrier approaching at 70 mph? Was the radar overridden? The site says it has a 160m range, you'd think that there would be a rule in the Autopilot software to slam the brakes when a stationary object is detected. I wouldn't trust a system that can't do the basic prioritization of rules to do an emergency brake even if it was otherwise confused about the road layout.
There's a software update that started going out this week that causes Traffic-Aware Cruise Control to decelerate if the vehicle goes into a highway junction/off-ramp, may be related?
killerhurtalot
danbert2000 wrote:
Well, as uber has proved, having a lidar doesn't mean shit when the software doesn't stop the car from the inputs.
gijames1225
yh852 wrote:
If I'm reading this right, the Tesla stopped properly following the vehicle in front for 7 seconds after which the crash occurred. The victim last had his hands on the wheel 6 seconds before the crash. In essence, he could've been paying attention "most" of the time (just over 50% of the last minute before the crash), but he took his eyes off the road for 6 seconds and had a fatal accident?
Yeah, this definitely located this event in the realm of 'this could be me on an off day'.
Really terrifying, but we'll keep improving.
solomonrex
Tribus: Alexandria, VA
It's possible good hands slipped, too. Driver error is not always a negligent choice.
Good to see Tesla grow up a little and let this stand for once without Trump esque hyperbole levelled at customers.
Z06 Vette
The cruise control increase 4 seconds prior to crash is curios. Was this definitely a driver input item? You would think it would indicate he was paying some kind of attention while very close to the divider.
edit: but it also says his hands were not on the wheel. Is cruise control set by things attached to the steering wheel, or are they done through the display/voice?
edit2: OK, so the car was on adaptive cruise control and the increase does not indicate anything about the driver.
Last edited by Z06 Vette on Thu Jun 07, 2018 11:37 am
Ysleiro
I can't reasonably trust myself to remain engaged if someone (something) else is driving. Until these cars can autonomously drive themselves I can't see myself using any "Autopilot" feature. It feels like a beta test.
I feel like Tesla is being misleading on their blog.
They stated that he was given "several warnings". He was given two (several is defined as "more than two but not many") , and they were both way before the crash totally unrelated to the crash.
They make it sound terrible that he had his hands off the wheel six seconds before the crash but Elon Musk has repeatedly demonstrated taking his hands off the wheel.
During that six seconds, autopilot decided to stop following the car in front of it, steer towards the barrier and accelerate.
He could have just been texting or reading something in his other hand...
It's not like having a hand on the steering wheel means he's paying attention.
Azethoth666
/bin/bash wrote:
It’s humor. It is not required to be politically correct. There is no stupid “now is not a right time to discuss gun control” zone like with mass shootings. It is possible to feel slightly sad for the victim and yet not care that much because you don’t know him or his family or friends or their family and friends. All of the worlds sadness does not rest on your shoulders.
If you are a family member and someone hassles another family member, feel free to say something in person to a real event that actually happened right after it happens. Otherwise it is just dumb triggering and virtue signaling.
Z06 Vette wrote:
Oh good point, are there wheel inputs he could have accidentally gripped?
muckz wrote:
The problem with this is more that the risk of EV battery fires is delayed. For a gasoline vehicle, there's a high initial risk if the tank is ruptured (or enough of the engine bay is destroyed), but, in general, if it doesn't ignite quickly, it won't ignite. And after it's been cold for a few hours, it won't ignite at all.
EVs violate that assumption quite substantially, because the battery pack contains quite a bit of energy, and, importantly, can release that energy as thermal energy a good bit later. There are a wide variety of ways to stress a lithium battery such that it can undergo failure some time later, and the heat released will typically propagate to other cells. In normal operation, the Tesla pack's fusing features and coolant loop will take away the heat of a single cell runaway such that it won't propagate, but after a crash, the coolant loop may be empty, and the electronics that control the coolant system almost certainly won't operate.
So, a cell that got banged up in the crash but didn't immediately failure may fail a few days later. Or, water in the pack may short something out and cause a failure at a later point that leads to another battery fire.
And, unfortunately, there exists no particularly safe way to discharge a severely damaged battery pack. If the pack has already caught fire, the best thing to do is pretty much let it burn out, because a half-burned pack will almost certainly not let you discharge it through the main connections, and almost certainly contains more than enough energy in the remaining cells to re-ignite later on.
solomonrex wrote:
No. If you ever take a Tesla test drive, you will experience it adjusting speed based on traffic. You set the cruise and it maintains that. But slows down for traffic in the lane. Later it speeds up if they speed up or leave the lane.
It is also scary as hell because you can see how you would start to trust it because it already drives better than the worst drivers you know.
Or perhaps it was that that the adaptive cruise control probably detected that there's no longer another vehicle to slow it down and it started accelerating (or at least that's how the relevant part of the article reads as)
By the way, I wonder if Tesla had christened this driver assist module something like "Co-Pilot" there'd be as much negative press or incidents with people paying attention to anything but the car/road?
Dzov
killerhurtalot wrote:
We are under the assumption that these programmers/managers/architects aren't as stupid as those at Uber.
Last edited by Dzov on Thu Jun 07, 2018 11:15 am
As it explains, it accelerated because he had his speed set faster than traffic and traffic was no longer in front of the car. That's what traffic-aware cruise control does.
LJ wrote:
The whole point of having something like autopilot is that allows you pay less attention to driving. If you're required to pay exactly as much attention as if you were driving the car then the system is useless. Even people on Ars who say they understand the restrictions of autopilot will admit they occasionally take their hands off the wheel to grab something quickly. This crash indicates that even that short period of time could kill you.
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India pulls out of hockey event because Pakistan’s participating
ARY Sports
Pakistan' Shakeep Butt Ammad gestures to spectators to keep quiet as he and teammates celebrate their victory over India during their Hero Hockey Champions Trophy 2014 semi final match at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on December 13, 2014. — AFP
India will not feature in the upcoming Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia for the second time in a row citing Pakistan’s presence in the event, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Thursday.
Hockey India (HI), the country’s administrative body for the game, said the Sultan of Johor Cup is an invitational tournament and it would continue it’s stand of not taking part in any tournament featuring Pakistan until their hockey authorities tender an unconditional apology for the 2014 Champions Trophy controversy.
The event, which will be held in October, is not a global tournament held under the supervision of Federation of International Hockey (FIH) or any other continental body.
In January, HI announced its decision not to play any tournament against Pakistan until they submit a apology for the alleged unprofessional behaviour by the Pakistan team during the Champions Trophy in India in 2014.
This was not the only concern HI voiced. Before the 2016 Junior World Cup in Lucknow, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) alleged that India did not want Pakistan to take part in the tournament. India had rejected the claim outright. Eventually, Pakistan did not take part in the tournament.
“Though Hockey India and its players had let go of the hurtful incident in 2014, it was the recent allegations by PHF [during the Junior World Cup] that has resulted in India pulling out of this tournament. By not fielding the Indian team at the Sultan of Johor Cup, we have stood our ground to not take part in any series against Pakistan until they submit an unconditional apology for what happened in 2014,” said Hockey India spokesperson RP Singh.
“Since the Sultan of Johor Cup is not a mandatory tournament, Hockey India has decided that it will withdraw from the tournament. We had not brought up the bad behaviour on part of Pakistan during the Champions Trophy in 2014 for a very long time.
“It is actually PHF who bring it up again and levy baseless allegations against Hockey India to hide their own incompetency. It is about time PHF takes responsibility for it’s incapability,” he added.
India Hockey
Pakistan Hockey
PHF
Sultan of Johor Cup
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Honda Cars India Ltd
HCIL
Honda to increase WR-V production to reduce waiting period
Since its launch in March, the company has received over 23,000 bookings for the model but has been able to deliver around 16,000 units till date.PTI | July 19, 2017, 15:29 IST
New Delhi: Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) is increasing production of its compact crossover model WR-V to around 5,000 units a month to cut long waiting period for the vehicle.
Since its launch in March, the company has received over 23,000 bookings for the model but has been able to deliver around 16,000 units till date.
"The model is doing well and we still have a substantial waiting period of up to two months currently for the vehicle," HCIL Senior Vice President Marketing and Sales Jnaneswar Sen told .
He further said: "So we have initiated the process to ramp up the production of the model from the current 3,400 units a month to around 5,000 units a month."
The company plans to cut the waiting period for the model before the festival season sets in, which usually witnesses increased sales of automobiles.
"By raising the output now, we will be able to cut the current waiting period and get ready for the festival season as well," Sen said.
Also Read: TVS Motor announces TVS Zest 110 Himalayan Highs Season 3
WR-V, which comes with both petrol and diesel versions, is the first model developed by Honda R&D India in association with Honda R&D Co Ltd, Japan.
The Japanese firm manufactures WR-V at its plant in Tapukara (Rajasthan).
Tags : Passenger Vehicle, UVs, WR-V, new launch, Honda Cars India Ltd, Honda, HCIL
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Fruits Basket (2019) 13 (The Charismatic Brother’s Visit)
Fruits Basket (2019) 13
フルーツバスケット 13
Furuba episode 13
Story Summary/Synopsis
Tohru is out with Yuki at his garden. She leaves to go into the house and make lunch, but encounters clothing on the path. She suspects a member of the zodiac is nearby. A snake slithers to her and inside her clothing, causing her to scream. Yuki comes running and seeing the snake, enters the house and tells Shigure to skin the snake. Shigure explains that this is Ayame, Yuki’s older brother.
Ayame transforms back to his human self, where Tohru discovers his personality is nothing like Yuki’s, though they look alike. Kyo and Yuki don’t think Ayame is treating Tohru with respect, so he takes her to a restaurant for a gyoza lunch. There, he opens up to her about the situation between him and Yuki. He also expresses his desires to bridge the gap to his little brother. Tohru recounts words of wisdom from her mother, which Ayame likes.
The next morning, Kyo is not happy to wake to see Ayame sleeping next to him. At school, Torhu informs Momiji and Haru that Ayame has come to visit. That afternoon, Yuki and Kyo are not happy to see Ayame is still there. Ayame proceeds to tell of how he was allowed to keep his long hair in high school. At Shigure’s prompting, Ayame tells of how he helped some students who’d gotten caught in a sex oriented place. His solution was not approved of by Yuki, who wants his brother gone.
Hatori shows up and tells Ayame it is time to go. Ayame gets up and leaves after saying farewell. Shigure explains that Ayame has only ever listened to Hatori because he respects Hatori. Meanwhile, Ayame speaks to Hatori about the difficulty in bridging the gap with Yuki.
Thoughts/Review
For Fruits Basket (2019) 13, chapters 21 and 22 from the source manga were used in the adaptation. As has been the case of late, TMS continues to nail it on the adaptation.
Ayame Arrives
Ayame’s introduction into the Fruits Basket story caused a massive splash in the manga. And with Fruits Basket (2019) 13, there was no less of a splash. I was a little worried about how Ayame’s seiyuu would be. But he does sound rather similar to the original seiyuu to my ears (different, but similar). So no issues there.
Anyway, Ayame’s arrive meant for some hilarity as well as some lovely character work. I’m really glad TMS is doing all of this right with their anime adaptation. And this is why I’m loving the new anime series so much.
Changes to the Source Material
TMS continues to make only minor modifications to the source manga material. The only thing that really stood out to me is that Ayame and Tohru’s lunch scene was extended a bit to show them starting to eat. Also, Ayame asking Shigure if he could spend the night was cut. But otherwise, nothing really stood out to me.
Subtitle Mess Continues
Man, the subtitles are really a mess in Fruits Basket (2019) 13. I kinda get the feeling that whomever translated or adapted the series really doesn’t like Japanese honorifics, but have been forced to use them. Again, any time a full name is used, the adapter decided, “Frak the honorifics!” All instances of -sama were dropped for other things ’cause “reasons.” And there was an instance where Shigure is teasing Kyo and calls him “Kyo-chan,” but the subtitles say, “darling.” 😑😑😑
There was an adaptation issue that goes beyond honorifics though. During Tohru’s conversation with Ayame at the restaurant, she gets through telling Ayame things her mother would say, then apologizes. The subtitles have Ayame saying, “No, I was just impressed that you said that.”
Tohru responds cheerfully, stating how awesome her mom is.
This makes no sense and makes Tohru sound stupid. Except Tohru isn’t stupid. She’s responding to Ayame giving her a compliment, that could be interpreted as praising her mom.
In the original manga, the Twins show Ayame saying, “I was just thinking that was a beautiful thing to say.” And when you listen to Ayame’s words, one of the words he says is “suteki,” which means great, lovely, splendid, or wonderful. So the Twins use of “beautiful” is a fine one, and fits with Tohru’s response. The subtitles in this episode don’t.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
In the end, Fruits Basket (2019) 13 is a well-adapted anime episode, making good use of the source manga material. I love Ayame’s introduction into the anime. It is just a shame that the translation and adaptation of the English isn’t so good.
Posted in Anime, AstroNerdBoy, Contributing Writers Tags: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket 2019, Furuba, What I'm Watching
« Sister Princess and Translating “Brother”
Tonikaku Cawaii Chapter 67 (Kissing Game) »
2 Responses to “Fruits Basket (2019) 13 (The Charismatic Brother’s Visit)”
NullApostle says:
Ayame, a man like a storm.
He’s hilarious. Too bad it’s gonna take a while for him to show up again.
As for subs, well, the subs on ALL the streaming services are pretty bad. The ones by Netflix have probably the least errors. Funimation and Crunchyroll are pretty bottom-of-the-barrel.
Also, honorifics seem pretty universally hated by the English services. I wonder how the subs in other languages are.
AstroNerdBoy says:
Yeah, I’m noticing that the streaming subs are getting worse and worse. 😑
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E07: The Bear and the Maiden Fair
How would you rate episode 307?
By Ran, May 12, 2013 in E07: The Bear and the Maiden Fair
The Bear and the Maiden Fair
GRRM
763 members have voted
1. What's your rating from 1-10, with 10 being the highest/best
protar
Queen of the Draenei, The Rhoynar and The First Men
Gave it a 7. A decent episode of Game of Thrones, but a very mediocre episode by Martin's standards, far to slow and without direction. Fortunately it was redeemed by the Bear-pit and awesome dragons.
WhatIsDeadMayNeverLive
it had no memorable scenes except for the bear pit, which was not that good. all in all a very average and slightly boring episode in the style of season 2. 5 of 10.
Rabid Grunt
Up till this episode, I thought this would be the best season yet. Now I'm thinking that's pretty unlikely.
Oh, I wouldn't be so sure. I imagine the next three episodes will be awesome.
Khal-a-bunga
Serf's Up
Location:U.S.
I gave it an 8/10, but would have deducted a .5 from the total score if the option was there (7.5/10 or a B-). I watch each episode twice before deciding what to give it, and I definitely enjoyed this one much more upon a re-watch. That said, it felt like the least cohesive episode of the season. I don't take any issue with changes from the source material, so that's not a big deal for me on any front, but I do hope that Catelyn is given some more screen time prior to the Red Wedding. I don't even care if it happens in that episode, but I really love Michelle Fairley in the role and would like to see her given some more to do. I'm also glad that this is likely the last time this season we'll spend any significant amount of time with Theon & "Boy". I agree with the decision to keep Theon involved in the story line, and I've quite 'liked' how it has been handled so far, but I think the only thing left to gain from these scenes will be the reveal of the identity of the person torturing Theon. The bear pit was great, and the scene between Tywin and Joffrey was also great. All in all, definitely the weakest of the season to date, but the positives heavily outweighed the negatives. Just on a visual and aural front, this episode was fantastic, so I don't really get all of the 1/10 votes...
Location:Leeds , UK
Gave a 6 , Tired of Theon torture now , this weeks is the first episode that I haven't immediately rewatched upon the end credits this season , very disappointing since this is one of the episodes I was most looking forwards to.
pleonasm
I am just trying to imagine how low the ratings for this episode would have been if Benioff and Weiss hadn't decided to shift the "Bear Pit" sequence into this episode? its doubtful that sequence was even written by George.
I am fine with any changes to the source material is fine as long as its smart, believable to the world of Ice and Fire, and dramatically rich, unfortunately, so many of the changes fail to meet any one of those criteria. I gave it a 3 out 10.
Edited May 13, 2013 by pleonasm
AdiTarg
I thought this was the worst episode of the show yet. I can't believe GRRM wrote this.
My main critic is the direction and photography, probably the worst yet. Some stuff looked like they were shot with an amature camera man, or a tv day time flick. If you compare it to the previous two it's really the lowest of the low.
Just bad. Gave it a 2.
The Monkey
7/10. No great scenes, but plenty of good ones. A significant improvement on the last episode.
The Robb and Jon Snow scenes were well-written for the first time in a while. The KL material was solid, especially Tywin/Joffrey. I enjoyed the Dany scenes as well.
Downpoints were the Theon scenes with unnecessary nudity and the Arya scene, which felt rushed. Unlike most, I actually liked the bear scene quite a bit, I only wish they had included "I dreamt of you."
Edited May 13, 2013 by The Monkey
Ha, so much this. I forgot to address Ygritte in my comments, but good grief has she ever gotten boring. At this point in their relationship, you'd think she'd be past mocking every fucking word out of Jon's mouth.
Thank you! I thought I was the only one who was finding Ygritte to be over the top (so to speak) in her negative, derisive comments to him. Any guy I've ever known would put up with about 1/10th of the raking she's given him through the course of their relationship. If I were given to psychoanalysis for fictional characters, I'd say either he doesn't have very good self-esteem or he's used to being treated like crap because of the way Catelyn treated him throughout his time at Winterfell, or both. Or maybe he just has colossal patience with women, but that would be a stretch even for the most saintly man among us.
Their relationship is turning into the old idea about "Why do the nice guys always seem to end up with the mean girls?"
Joyful Union
Location:France
There's also the angle that if he wasnt sleeping with Ygritte, it would be really suspicious, since he's meant to be breaking his Nightswatch vows.
The Boar of Gore
Lord of the Forest
Still good, but not as good as episode 6 with the great speech by LF, and not nearly as good as the awesome episodes 5 and 4. And of course enough with the Theon torture.
Shadow on the Wall
This episode should have been awesome. Now I'm not so sure that the last few episodes will deliver...
Ravi Seaworth
Just because we had two slower episodes? Episodes 3, 4, and 5 were pretty good, so why all the pessimism? I may be completely wrong about this, but I'm positive that the lack of WOW moments is what made these last two episodes less interesting.
drstrangelove
I gave it an 8 just because.
Live-blogging:
Ygritte is an irritating little shit. I think she and Dirty-Face Bird Man would make a great couple. Jon needs to smack that guy with a nice big sword, just like he did to Half-Hand. In exactly the same way. Hmph.
What is the purpose of the nudie scene with Robb and Florence Nightengale? Wasted film space. She could have told him in a 30-second scene, except I loved Blackfish's earthiness ("wet shit") - ewww. Keepin' it classy, Riverrun style.
Tormund is giving sexual advice to Jon Snow, who made Miss Annoying say "...oh!..." - what was the purpose of that scene?
Orell makes his move. Yay. Let that go somewhere, please. Let Ygritte realize Dirty-Face Bird Man is far and above superior to pretty Jon Snow, who after all, knows NOTHING.
Sansa, Sansa, Sansa. Don't believe anything the Tyrells say to you. Any of them.
Bronn - still one of my favorite characters. Love the guy, he lives by his own rules. Righteous. "You'll end up the most popular dead man in town." True dat.
Tywin beards the lion in his den. Wise, experienced grandfather head to head with psychopath grandson. Delicious. Joffrey whines about having to climb all those stairs, poor little puke. Aha, he's aware of Dany and her dragons. The thot plickens. Tywin talks history. Joffrey is impatient, petulant and rude, of course. That's just the kind of shithead he is.
Dany and her two advisors are plotting. Dang, Grey Worm could be King Obama's son, if King Obama had a son.
Here comes the High and Mighty Yunqai guy - Yurkhai zo Yunzak? - in his litter. Apparently he's a Wise Master. Ooh, presents. We love presents. She's still on the freeing the slaves kick. No, no, that's HER gold now. Go away. Now she wants his powerful friends.
Dany's no dumb blonde. I must say, that dress would win a Project Runway episode. Easily.
Oh, here we go. Shea and Tyrion, her boyfriend who's marrying someone else. She's got a tongue like a razor blade when she wants to. Vicious little ho, and I've got a bad feeling she's going to try to mess up the Sansa/Tyrion wedding. Or not. Poor Tyrion tries to placate her, but she's not having it. She's probably being a lot more realistic than he is about the whole awkward situation.
Mel - witchy poo - ultimate MILF, and Gendry, handsome bastard who's just discovering he's something quite different than he thought. Not one to be distracted from the goal, she once again beats the "I want your blood" drum.
Yay, Arya's back - with these two BwB clowns. They disappointed her - it's never wise to disappoint a woman warrior. I think they're about to find that out. She's got more sack than any of those guys, than all of them put together. Run, Arya, run! Oops, crap. The dog got her.
Jaime and Brienne, our pseudo-love story. Is friendship possible between a man and a woman? We covered that question in "When Harry Met Sally" but apparently it hasn't been done to death yet. Fond farewells ensue. Lord Bolton and Jaime exchange "regards" messages, and the Goat gives Jaime a hint at what's to come regarding Brienne. More thot plickening.
Poor Theon, we despise him, we pity him. He's been having a series of Very Bad Days, and probably wonders when it's going to end. So the two girls are a momentary distraction, but his bad days haven't ended yet. Poor, poor Theon. He's having a few alterations done.
I don't care if Ygritte can kill a deer. She still annoys the crap out of me. She's full of it and isn't half the warrior woman that is Arya, at half her age. Good for Jon Snow, finally telling Redheaded Bag of Wind the truth about their cause.
Osha knows about the White Walkers and is trying to let her companions know how dangerous they are. She knows it takes fire to stop them. Bran looks older each episode. The actor must have been going through a growth spurt during the filming of these episodes.
Qyburn is a vivisectionist, a right proper creeper, that one. Shudder. Jaime's recovery seems to be proceeding apace. He's still stuck on "My father..." this, my father that, however it did get him back to Harrenhall in time to help Brienne, so that's good.
"Sorry about the sapphires." Ha. Good parting shot.
absolutely love your commentary. Please do more.
Favorite was Jaime and Brianne/ when harry met sally.
I'm not all that pessimistic - I have loved this season a lot. I was expecting episodes 7, 8, 9 and 10 to be fantastic but as it turns out episode 7 wasn't. Clearly my expectations aren't right, so I'm accepting that I may be wrong about episodes 8, 9 and 10.
I do still think they will be great...but I'm not so sure. My rankings so far:
Ep 1: 8
Ep 4: 10
Edited May 13, 2013 by steiner
7V3N
Location:VA, USA
I gave it a 6. It was another set-up episode.
Tywin vs. Joff was perfect. My friend said to me, "Wow, Jaime always brings up his daddy." I responded by saying "Would you ever cross Tywin Lannister?" I think the scene of Tywin vs. Joff really showed who has been running the realm, who keeps people in line, who really has power in Westeros.
I am liking parts of Robb's story. I like how they are using his bannermen and Cat to show how foolish it was to marry Talisa. But I also hate how they take every opportunity to showcase their 'young, sexy babe' in Talisa. It is clear that Robb loves this woman, we understand that. We have since he married her. Her pregnancy does nothing, except makes me think she will be killed and that all of Jeyne Westerling's story has been cut for the future.
The Osha vs. the Reeds is annoying. Osha has witnessed Bran's powers (Bran and Rickon saw Ned in the crypts before hearing of his death), so it makes no sense that she is so suspicious of Jojen. IMO, Bran's scenes should be all content - deeper discussions about his powers, what is North, what is the 3EC, etc.
This was the first episode where Kit Harrington satisfied me with his acting. Unfortunately, the content of his scenes made no sense when compared to what they previously said. Ygritte would have slit Orell's throat. The wildlings are toned down. There is romance in them, but the show uses the Southern romance, rather than the wildling "stealing" type. Ygritte loved Jon because she respected him - his power, will, and in some ways his ignorance (I always saw it as her trying to break down his misconceptions of free folk, because she knew that deep down Jon did see them as people). TV!Ygritte is instead acting like a poor girl who needs her man. But then the content went poorly. They tried to bring up Jon's conflict - is he a free man or a black brother? - through Ygritte but it just was so poorly conveyed. It made it look like Ygritte was clueless as to where Jon's loyalties lie - where in fact it was always Jon who was confused. How did we so quickly go from Jon and Ygritte being "us vs. the world" back to "free folk vs. black brothers?"
Ramsay has been done wonderfully. My friend has no idea who the torturer is. But he recalls the horn outside of Winterfell. He just hasn't connected it to the Bastard of Bolton. It also shows us just how Theon becomes "Reek." We see that Theon has learned that any bit of happiness is just a trick. He can't enjoy anything because he knows, as Ramsay said himself, there is no happy ending.
I really hated the bear pit scene. It seemed rushed and lacked some real power of emotion. Reading the scene, you understand just how powerful the emotions are because it was a defining moment for Brienne and Jaime - it was the moment they sort of agreed "We're in this together - for real this time." It was the moment where we see Jaime's good side and his honor break through. This TV scene was rushed, and they decided to instead focus on the physical danger presented by the bear. I also was hoping Jaime would throw Locke into the pit.
I also expected Tyrion and Sansa's wedding to open this episode. I was surprised that it wasn't even in the episode. I did like one small thing though - hands of gold are always cold.
Overall just an okay episode. Really looking forward to the last few.
ETA: I totally forgot to mention this - I LOVED the shots of the dragons. What a great scene that was! I am so glad this show is finally getting the CGI bill it needs and deserves.
Edited May 13, 2013 by 7V3N
Jaqen H'gcarl
I think it was one of the best this season, yes, not much happened, but I think it was a awesome awesome episode.
It was absolutely brilliant, LOVED the Daenerys scenes.
DarkAndFullOfTurnips
The only major moment was the Bear part, though. But even for a "slower" episode the dialogue just went in weird directions.
- Why did they decide to make Osha hate the Reeds? Every week it's the same...Osha is suspicious, acts a little crazy, nothing really happens. If they just got along they could actually insert some dialogue that's interesting.
- Then Sansa and Marg...I love both the actresses but surely Marg could've comforted her at the wedding.
- Blackfish telling everyone how much he hates Walder Frey while Cat says he's prickly...yeah we get it. I think it was a good thing to bring back up how much of a bastard he is, but how about some real dialogue and not something about wet shits. Let Cat speak as well.
- Does anyone really care about Orell's feelings at this point?
This episode was set up for a lot of powerful dialogue that sets up the epic finish. But instead we got some pretty decent seems and some just flat out awkward scenes where no one really said anything remarkable or impressive and everything just seemed like something we'd seen before. On the bright side E08 should have a ton of events occurring.
I was still entertained, but keeping my initial rating of 6 as a standalone episode.
Edited May 13, 2013 by DarkAndFullOfTurnips
rumple9
Location:Leeds England
10 - Loved it - great story telling episode. i even liked that whiney cow ygritte for once
Song of the North
My kneejerk reaction too was that it was one of the best this season, but eh, what do I know, I haven't read the books (well, midway through Book 1 but am not really sure I want to let fidelity to source material sway me from enjoyment of the show, so I'm not sure I want to finish it anytime soon...). It's kind of blowing my mind that people can say that nothing happened. lots of setup I agree, but I didn't feel like anything was terribly extraneous..maybe annoying (i.e Theon/torture, Robb/Talisa, but I see why they're doing it, and the nudity/sex doesn't bother me at all either). I was actually dreading the bear pit scene thinking it might be too brutal, but it was nicely done and while I would've loved to see Jaime toss Locke into the pit I loved that they choose to end it that way, with him sheathing his sword with disgust as the the Rains of Castamere began to play. I loved this episode! not the best but worth rewatching (as opposed to The Climb - the first GoT episode I had no desire to rewatch). and the DRAGONS.
Go To Topic Listing E07: The Bear and the Maiden Fair
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Spurrier-Snyder Rink
Support Hockey
Men’s Ice Hockey Returns to NESCAC Semifinals
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The seventh-seeded Wesleyan University men's ice hockey team is ready to compete in its first NESCAC Semifinal game since 2010-11. The Cardinals will take on the No. 1 seed and host, Hamilton College at Russell Sage Rink on Saturday March 4th at approximately 4:15 p.m.
NESCAC RELEASE l CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL
Wesleyan is looking to make its first NESCAC Finals appearance in team history, and in order to do so, it will have to upset a higher seed on the road once again. Last week, the Cardinals defeated No. 2 Colby, 5-4. The Mules came into the quarterfinal match-up ranked No. 13 in the country, and had won their previous three games.
The Continentals, who are currently the eighth-ranked team in Division III, are in search of their first NESCAC Title as well. Hamilton advanced to the semifinals with a 4-2 victory over No. 8 Bowdoin in the first round.
Saturday's first semifinal game will feature No. 3 Trinity against No. 4 Williams at 1 p.m. The winners of each semifinal will advance to the title game, which will be held at Sage Rink at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 5th. The champion will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Northeast Sports Network (NSN) will provide a live webcast of all games, and live stats will also be available for all three games.
SCOUTING WESLEYAN (13-8-4, 7-7-4 NESCAC)
Schedule * Roster * Stats
The Cardinals returned to the tournament after a two-year hiatus with a 7-7-4 record in league play. Senior James Kline leads the team with 25 points, while NESCAC Rookie of the Year Walker Harris '20 is second with 21. Senior Dawson Sprigings and sophomore George Blinick have both seen time between the pipes this season. Blinick ranks second in the NESCAC in goals-against average (1.66) and save percentage (.944), and has three shutouts to his credit. Sprigings has started 16 games and owns a .906 save percentage with a 2.55 goals-against average. Wesleyan remains tops in Division III in penalty kill as it has successfully killed off 93.7% of penalties (74-of-79).
The 13 wins by the Cardinals is currently tied for the best in program history, joining the 1980-81 and 1988-89 teams. Wesleyan also won its first outright Little Three title since the 1986-87 season.
SCOUTING HAMILTON (18-3-4, 11-3-4 NESCAC)
The Continentals have earned the top seed with their 11-3-4 conference record, and are making their first semifinals appearance since 2010. They sport the league's best defense allowing just 1.60 goals per game. Goaltender Evan Buitenhuis, who was named NESCAC Player of the Year, is the conference leader in goals per game (1.52) and save percentage (.948). Hamilton's offense is led by Neil Conway (24 points) and Brandon Willett (21 points).
During the season, the Cardinals went 0-1-1 against the Continentals with a 2-0 defeat at home and a 3-3 tie on the road. The two teams have met once in the postseason as Wesleyan upset Hamilton in the first round in the 2010-11 season. The Cardinals, who were ranked eighth, defeated the top seeded Continentals 5-2 on the road.
SCOUTING TRINITY (16-6-3, 11-5-2 NESCAC)
The Bantams, who are the defending champions, entered the tournament as the third seed with a 11-5-2 record in NESCAC play. Trinity advanced to the final four with a 4-1 victory over No. 6 Tufts in the quarterfinals. The league's top scoring offense (4.24) is led by Sean Orlando and Ryan Whitney, who have 31 points each. To go along with the high-powered offense, the Bantams also sport the conferences' second-best defense, allowing just 1.84 goals per game.
Wesleyan and Trinity have met 87 times overall and twice in the tournament. The Bantams have come out on top in the two postseason meetings, and swept the regular season series by scores of 7-2 and 3-0.
SCOUTING WILLIAMS (14-8-3, 10-5-3 NESCAC)
The fifth seeded Ephs owned a 10-5-3 mark in league play this season, and came from behind to defeat No. 6 Amherst by a score of 2-1 in the first round. David Italiano is tied for the NESCAC lead in points (31) and assists (19). Williams has made the finals on four different occasions, but is still searching for its first title.
The Cardinals have never faced the Ephs in the postseason, and went 1-1-0 against their Little Three rival this season. The 3-2 victory at Williams snapped the Ephs' five game unbeaten streak against Wesleyan.
TEAM COMPARISONS
No. 1 Hamilton
No. 3 Trinity
No. 5 Williams
No. 7 Wesleyan
Save Percentage
Goals Against Avg.
Penalty Kill
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March 31, 2017 Chad Malinowski '19 Named to the New England Hockey Writers Division II/III All-Star Team
March 4, 2017 No. 7 Cardinals Fall to No. 1 Hamilton in NESCAC Semifinals, 5-4
March 1, 2017 Men’s Ice Hockey Returns to NESCAC Semifinals
February 28, 2017 Harris Named NESCAC Men’s Ice Hockey Rookie of the Year; Malinowski Earns Second Team Honors
February 27, 2017 Holze Named NESCAC Men’s Ice Hockey Player of the Week
February 25, 2017 Men's Ice Hockey Upsets Colby, 5-4, In NESCAC Quarterfinal Action
February 24, 2017 No. 7 Men’s Ice Hockey Heads to Maine to Take On No. 2 Colby in NESCAC Quarterfinals
February 22, 2017 Wesleyan Athletics Announces the Jim Langlois Assistant Coach Endowment for Men’s Ice Hockey
February 18, 2017 Cardinals Defeated by Trinity, 3-0
February 17, 2017 Men's Ice Hockey Wins Little Three Title; Falls to No. 12/14 Trinity, 7-2
February 11, 2017 Men's Ice Hockey Falls to No. 13/15 Colby, 3-2
February 10, 2017 Walker Harris' Three Points Helps Lead Men's Ice Hockey to a 5-3 Victory Over Bowdoin
February 4, 2017 Cardinals Score Two Goals in 24 Seconds as They Come From Behind To Defeat Little Three Rival Williams, 3-2
February 3, 2017 Men's Ice Hockey Drops 1-0 Decision to Middlebury
January 28, 2017 Cardinals and No. 8 Hamilton Skate to a 3-3 Tie
January 27, 2017 Cardinals Come From Two Goals Down to Tie No. 12 Amherst 2-2
January 24, 2017 Wesleyan Men’s Ice Hockey Drafts 9-Year Old Connor from Team IMPACT
January 24, 2017 McCusker's Three Points Helps Lead Men's Ice Hockey to a 4-0 Victory Over Assumption
January 21, 2017 Vincent Lima Scores Twice as Men's Ice Hockey Defeats Tufts, 4-1
January 20, 2017 Cardinals Score Four Third Period Goals as they Come From Behind to Tie Conn. 4-4
January 14, 2017 Men's Ice Hockey Ties Colby, 4-4
January 13, 2017 Men's Ice Hockey Scores Four Third Period Goals in Comeback Victory Over Bowdoin, 5-3
January 7, 2017 Cardinals Fall to Little Three Rival Williams, 4-1
January 6, 2017 Men's Ice Hockey Defeats Middlebury 3-2
December 31, 2016 Dylan Holze Nets a Hat Trick as Men's Ice Hockey Defeats Castleton, 3-0
December 30, 2016 Men's Ice Hockey Falls to Plattsburgh St., 5-3
December 10, 2016 Men's Ice Hockey Cruises to a 5-1 Victory Over Stonehill
December 3, 2016 Cardinals Fall to Hamilton, 2-0
December 2, 2016 Men's Ice Hockey Shuts Out Little Three Rival No. 13 Amherst, 3-0
November 27, 2016 James Kline Tallies Four Points as Men's Ice Hockey Defeats Franklin Pierce, 8-1
November 26, 2016 Men's Ice Hockey Shuts Out Southern Maine, 2-0
November 19, 2016 Men's Ice Hockey Falls to Tufts, 4-2
November 18, 2016 Men's Ice Hockey Opens Season With a 3-1 Victory over Conn. College
November 15, 2016 Youth and Experience Looks to Lead Men’s Ice Hockey to a Successful 2016-17 Season
Sat, 03/02 | Men's Ice Hockey vs. Amherst L, 1-0 (Final - 2OT) RC | BX | BX | PH | V
Sat, 02/23 | Men's Ice Hockey vs. Middlebury W, 4-1 (Final) RC | BX | PH
Sat, 02/16 | Men's Ice Hockey at No. 11 Trinity L, 3-2 (Final) RC | BX
Fri, 02/15 | Men's Ice Hockey vs. No. 11 Trinity L, 6-5 (Final) BX | PH
Sat, 02/09 | Men's Ice Hockey vs. Colby L, 4-1 (Final) RC | BX | PH
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Home New Vinyl VAN HALEN - 1984
VAN HALEN - 1984
Format: Vinyl>New
Limited 180 gram vinyl LP pressing. Digitally remastered edition of this 1984 album. Six years and five albums after their debut, Van Halen had become one of the biggest bands in world around the release of 1984, which includes a number of the bands most legendary songs such as the #1 hit, "Jump", "Panama" and "Hot For Teacher". Mastering engineer Chris Bellman, who remastered the original albums at Bernie Grundman Mastering Studios, was enlisted for this new version. In order to produce the original sound the band intended, Bellman cut straight from the quarter-inch tapes.
1. 1984 (2015 Remastered Version)
2. Jump (2015 Remastered Version)
3. Panama (2015 Remastered Version)
4. Top Jimmy (2015 Remastered Version)
5. Drop Dead Legs (2015 Remastered Version)
1. Hot For Teacher (2015 Remastered Version)
2. I'll Wait (2015 Remastered Version)
3. Girl Gone Bad (2015 Remastered Version)
4. House Of Pain (2015 Remastered Version)
Related to the VAN HALEN - 1984
Midnight Oil - Breathe Tour '97 (Red / White Vinyl)
THE BEATLES - AUSTRALIA FESTIVAL HALL, MELBOURNE, 17TH - Vinyl New
Jazz Butcher, The - Sex and Travel
QUEEN - GREATEST HITS - Vinyl New
FLEETWOOD MAC - RUMOURS - Vinyl New
BROCKHAMPTON - IRIDESCENCE - Vinyl New
AC/DC - BACK IN BLACK - Vinyl New
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Memories of Ewart Hall
Alumni share their memories of the historic Ewart Hall at AUC.
Click here for a history of Ewart Memorial Hall.
Ewart Home
By Nagla Rizk ’83, ’87
Nagla Rizk ’83, ’87 (right) with her late mother Madiha El Safty ’72, ’76.
I cannot exactly remember the first time I set foot in Ewart Hall. Unlike new students who walk in for their English exam or orientation sessions, I walked into Ewart Hall as a small child in 1968 or 1969. Ten years after marrying at a very young age, my mother decided to go to school and get her degree. I remember being overwhelmed by Ewart Hall … the high ceiling, the curtains, the stage and the smell. I was at Ewart Hall when my mother’s name was called at the Honors Assembly. I was at Ewart Hall when my mother received her BA. I clapped hard when they called her up to receive the AUC President’s Cup. I was there when she received her MA. All those caps and gowns, the music, the clapping and the standing ovations. I was there, wide-eyed and in awe. Several years later, I walked into Ewart Hall as one of the youngest AUC applicants to take my English (then called Michigan) exam. That date I remember. It was early September of 1979. I sat there, a big girl now, in one of those seats that took me in as a child. And I still looked at the high ceiling. Next to me was a young man who I got to know as Ibrahim Hegazy. I took a deep breath, held my pencil and wrote the exam. Two weeks later, I got into AUC. Over the course of the four years of my undergraduate years, I frequented Ewart Hall constantly. There were no auditoriums then. There was Oriental Hall, of course, but Ewart was where it all happened. All those lectures, debates, concerts, talent shows, the Thursday night movies, and yes, the Honors Assembly — me this time. In June 1983, I walked down the BA graduation procession in Ewart Hall. My mother, now teaching at AUC, was in the procession. My professors walked by, and I remember Dr. Galal Amin shaking my hand as he walked down the aisle. I was one of those capped and gowned people I gaped at in my childhood. As my name was called, I walked up the stage to receive my degree, then down again, thinking that would be my last experience with Ewart Hall. Little did I know. Four years later, in June 1987, I was up there receiving my MA. Ten years later, I was up there, again in cap and gown, sitting among AUC faculty at the graduate commencement. I have continued to do that until this very day. In 2005 and 2006, four commencements, I hooded our graduates. I was chair of my department then, and sitting next to me was none other than Ibrahim Hegazy, my Michigan exam friend, now chair of the management department. Ibrahim and I were up there in 2005 and 2006 at the Honors Assembly, honoring our top students. I lectured at Ewart Hall. In 2000, I sat up there and talked to freshman students about the digital economy, the internet and all that. As I spoke, I could not help drifting to the time I sat on those very chairs and listened. I kept wondering how many students had been held by those seats, how many faces had been greeted by those lights and how many lives had been embraced by those walls. Mine is but one. I drift back and remember my first dance class as an undergraduate student on the stage of Ewart Hall, with Indji El Solh as my instructor.
Photo by Ahmad El-Nemr
At that time, it was an extracurricular activity; I heard it became a credit course years later. For a whole year, every Monday afternoon, I would head to Ewart’s backstage dressing rooms, and I would stay late practicing on Ewart stage under the watchful eye of Ewart’s high ceiling. In the spring of 1994, the curtains of Ewart Hall gently opened up to reveal Indji El Solh’s four-year-old ballet dancers. When the performance began, the stage must have recognized a familiar footstep as my daughter gently danced on that same stage that felt her mother’s steps several years ago. Later in 1999, when my daughter did a solo dance, again within Indji’s program, Ewart stage recognized her immediately. As a birthday present to my mother, I put her name on a plaque on an Ewart Hall seat. I chose a seat close to where I had sat at my graduation ceremonies. It was the perfect spot: one that I could see from where I had been sitting there in my cap and gown in both ceremonies. I was fulfilled. I think of Ewart Hall and wonder. How many years have passed, when did it all happen and where did the years go? How many people have I met in this very place, how many activities have I experienced and how many lives have been touched? I have lived a journey at Ewart Hall, from a child fascinated by grown-ups in caps and gowns to a department chair hooding master’s students. I have lived several experiences and several roles, indeed several lives, at Ewart Hall. I am the small child, the student, the amateur dancer, the faculty member, the speaker on stage, the department chair and the proud mother in the audience. Ewart Hall has witnessed all this, embraced all this and understood. I leave Ewart Hall with a lump in my throat. It has been home to many meaningful moments in my life and the lives of loved ones around me. My mother’s name is still there, and so are my cherished memories.
Nagla Rizk ’83, ’87 is professor of economics and founding director of AUC’s Access to Knowledge for Development Center.
This article was first published as part of AUC Memories (www1.aucegypt.edu/aucmemories) before the University’s move to New Cairo in 2008.
Ewart Hall: From Folklore to Live Lectures
By Sophie Farag ’90, ’93
Sophie Farag ’90, ’93 (left) performs in Ewart Memorial Hall as part of the AUC Folklore Group in 1988.
I joined AUC as a student in Spring 1986 and have been there ever since, first as a student doing my BA and MA, then as an English instructor in the Intensive English Program (IEP). As a student, I was a member of the AUC Folklore dancing group from 1986 to 1991, and I enjoyed this activity very much. I made many good friends and have a lot of very special memories. Most of these memories are of practice sessions we had after our classes and at weekends, and they usually were several hours long. We would take our books and try to fit in some studying during the breaks in training, but we mainly enjoyed ourselves and had a good time. These rehearsals took place anywhere that we could reserve (it was difficult to find reservations even in those days!), including the sixth-floor Hill House Lounge, Howard Theater and classrooms, but we usually had our practice on Ewart Hall stage. Our trainer would sing us the songs while we learned the steps, then we would repeat the steps endlessly to the song played on a tape recorder. When we were not needed on stage, we would practice our moves in the aisles or watch our colleagues from the seats in the hall. We had two formal performances every year in Ewart Hall, and on these occasions, we wore beautiful costumes. During the previous weeks, we would spend hours sitting on the stage sewing sequins on these costumes. On the big day, we would be frantically putting on our costumes, helping each other with our headscarves and practicing our steps. We’d peep out excitedly from behind the curtain to see if our families and friends had arrived in the audience yet, with our trainer constantly telling us not to let anyone see our costumes so as not to ruin the surprise. I even first met my husband at one of these performances! These are fond memories I have of wonderful times spent in Ewart Hall.
My connection to Ewart Hall is still strong even as a teacher. I am always delighted to hear that any of my students have joined the folklore group, and it’s been fun to attend their performances as a spectator. I have assigned my students the task of reading the inscription above the stage, which I puzzled over as an undergraduate. I have attended public lectures, conference keynote speeches and special events in this hall. The IEP assessments take place in Ewart Hall, and I am often required to proctor. The IEP live lecture series takes place in this hall, and since I am currently responsible for organizing these lectures, I check the set-up on stage, try out the microphones and ensure the speakers are working. Ewart is a beautiful hall that carries many memories for all AUCians, especially for those, like me, who were lucky enough to have such varied experiences in it, and it will surely be missed. I hope the coming generations of AUCians enjoy their memories of the new campus as I have enjoyed mine of Ewart Hall.
Sophie Farag ’90, ’93 is senior instructor II in AUC’s Department of English Language Instruction.
TagsEwart • graduates • memories
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Home Hot And Sexy Actress Pictures 49 Sally Field Hot Pictures Are So Hot That You Will Burn
Sally Field Hot Pictures
49 Sally Field Hot Pictures Are So Hot That You Will Burn
Sally Field pictures are so hot that you will burn. While we are talking about her performances and the actress as a whole, we want to now take you on a ride through a Sally Field bikini photo gallery. This curated image gallery will showcase some of the sexiest Sally Field bikini pictures that will make you fall in love with her. Sally Field is very sexy and these Sally Field hot images will leave you drooling. So sit back and enjoy a thrill-ride of Sally Field big booty pictures. These Sally Field big butt pictures are sure to leave you mesmerized and awestruck. In this section, enjoy our galleria of Sally Field near-nude pictures as well.
Sally Field is a very famous American actress and also a director. Sally Field has been the recipient of a lot of awards, like three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Academy Awards, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and Sally Field has been nominated for a Tony Award and also two BAFTA Awards.
Sally Field had started her career on TV in The Flying Nun(1967–1970), Gidget (1965–1966), The Girl with Something Extra (1973–1974). Sally Field’s career had then seen a turning point when she had earned a lot of fame of her role in Sybil, for which v had earned the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. Sally Field’s movie debut had been as an extra in Moon Pilot (1962), and she has starred in and the Bandit (1977), Stay Hungry (1976), Smokey Heroes (1977), Hooper (1978) and also, The End (1978).
Sally Field’s career had then expanded, and she had earned the Academy Award for Best Actress for Norma Rae (1979) and also, Places in the Heart (1984).
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25 Hot Pictures Of Milly Hedgeland Will Prove That She Is...
Robert Evans - March 19, 2019
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ASUS Eee Pad Slider appears on German Amazon site
Zach Epstein @zacharye
June 9th, 2011 at 7:45 AM
More than 100 tablets were unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show this past January, but only a few of them really caught our attention. Among those select few were the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer — a tablet that saw high demand at launch, though it may now be waning — and the ASUS Eee Pad Slider. When the slider was announced back in January, ASUS said it would launch in May and we expected it to cost between $499 and $799. While exact pricing remains a mystery, May has come and gone, and the month was decidedly Slider-less. A launch in some regions may be fast approaching, however, as Amazon’s German website now displays the Eee Pad Slider alongside an option to be emailed once the slate becomes available. ASUS already covered most of the specs when the convertible tablet was announced, though Amazon.de does indicate that it will sport a new 1.2GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, known previously as the Tegra 2 3D.
Thanks BH
Tags: 1.2GHz, amazon, Amazon.com, Android, Android 3.0, Android 3.1, Asus, Asustek, dual core, Eee Pad, Eee Pad Slider, honeycomb, launch, release, slider, tablet, Tablets, Tegra 2, Tegra 2 3D
AirPods 2 and AirPods with Wireless Charging Case are both on sale for Prime Day
Everything new coming to Netflix this week, and everything leaving (week of July 14)
By Jacob Siegal 2 days ago
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058058 752752 Church Reform, Foreign Affairs, Knowledge, Modern-day Israel, Palestine, Police State, US Government, War 8 Comments apartheidAshkhenazimdownfallHamasheidHezbollahhubrisinjusticeIranislamjudaismknowledgeland theftLebanonMiddle EastModern-day Israelmulti-front warPalestinepeacesettlersSyriaterrorterroristUkraineviolencewarzionist
Following Which Its End Will Come
“Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, devastation and destruction are in their paths.” Isaiah 59:7
If the past is any indication, Israel’s bloodlust will never be satiated. And with Washington allowing it to run roughshod, only the rest of the world can bring this rogue state to heel.
Israel is destroying innocent lives
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (DBS) movement will pick up speed, and numerous lawsuits will be filed against Israel at the Hague and other venues for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. Israel will be under so much pressure that it will feel cornered.
Such a predicament will be the catalyst for one of two outcomes. It will either be the push needed to force Israeli leaders into crafting a genuine peace deal with the Palestinians, or hubris will once again get the better of them and they will allow Israel’s economy to collapse, along with its Apartheid walls, a la South Africa.
However, there’s a third possibility.
It’s the one Israeli leaders have always used since the founding of their country. War. It is the only method they know well. They’ve been using it deftly to distract their people and the Jewish Diaspora from the reality that is Israel: a monstrous Apartheid criminal state, worse than Apartheid South Africa.
THE BIG WAR
If Israel were to go down the war path again, this time it would be a multi-front war. A war they’ve been preparing for years. Israel would target Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine (Gaza), and Assad’s army in Syria.
To help Israel on the Syrian front, especially since Russia is now involved, the US would use its naval fleet in the Mediterranean and possibly NATO’s forces on the Turkish border, under the pretexts of destroying ISIS and removing the “animal” Assad, as the sexual deviant Trump called him.
Thus Israeli troops would concentrate on a) bombing Gaza mercilessly and indiscriminately, like they always do, b) invading Lebanon to try to dismantle Hezbollah, and c) partially invading Syria to try to oust Assad, and protect the Golan Heights which they already stole from Syria. However, since Russia is a Syrian ally, it would also get in the fight, even if covertly.
Further, Syria and Iran have a mutual defense pact, therefore Iran would most likely join in; or at the very least provide soldiers and weapons to Syria and Syria’s ally, Hezbollah.
The goal of the recent conflicts in Syria (orchestrated by the US for Israel’s benefit) and Gaza was an attempt to destroy two fronts, so as to hopefully avoid the multi-front war. Thus Israel would have concentrated on just one front, Lebanon, in order to better smash Hezbollah’s military which, according to Israeli Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, is now stronger than most countries.
Unfortunately for Israel, Hamas and Syrian forces have not only become better fighters because of these conflicts, they are still standing and are now more popular with their people. And when Hezbollah is added to the equation, they form a trio of worthy adversaries that cannot be easily defeated.
If such a war were to indeed take place, and especially if Iran were to get involved, a Jewish-only (i.e., only racist Jews allowed as full-fledged citizens) state of Israel would not survive.
Millions of Israeli Jews would be fleeing their war-torn country, while millions of Palestinians, living in refugee camps in Arab countries surrounding Israel, would be returning home.
A glimpse of things to come?
That very scenario could be the reason why they’ve been readying us for a post-Israel Middle East. If so, Zionism would meet its demise, and Palestine would become a full-fledged binational state with pre-1948 borders.
But where would all these Israeli Jews be fleeing to?
There are two schools of thought: 1) Argentina’s Patagonia, and 2) Ukraine, the original birthplace of the Ashkenazi Jews.
ISRAEL 2.0
Patagonia, Argentina
There’s a current Jewish Israeli exodus to Argentina, and it has prompted popular resistance.
According to The Guardian, ” Israeli tourists have been the victims of a violent attack in the southern Patagonia region of Argentina, which has led to the targeted hostel being closed down by its owners. The attackers screamed ‘You shit Jews, you are trying to take over Patagonia.’”
Argentina’s Army Chief of Staff, General Roberto Bendini, warned of the danger in Patagonia posed by the unholy interest shown by the Israelis in the region. The local newspaper La Nacion wrote that “there is no doubt that there are Israelis all over the Patagonia. They have only taken off their Israeli Army uniforms.”
Adrian Salbuchi, Argentinian analyst and TV commentator, explains the obsession of Zionist Jews with Argentina thus:
“Since the founding of International Zionism by the Russian Jew León Pinsker (whose main writing was ‘Self-Emancipation’) and Viennese lawyer Theodor Herzl, these founding fathers of Zionism thought in terms of creating TWO Jewish States: one in Palestine (finally imposed by force in 1948 by Zionist terrorist groups, notably Irgun Zvai Leumi, Stern Gang and Hagganah, with the support and abetment of the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union), and the other in Argentina.“
“Pinsker called the former the ‘ideal State’ (i.e., in Palestine which they claimed as a Jewish homeland), and the latter as the ‘practical state’ (i.e., in Argentina). Herzl wrote a chapter that carries the eloquent title of “Palestine or Argentina?” in which he says, ‘Which shall we choose, Palestine or Argentina?… The Argentine Republic would have the greatest Interest to cede to us a part of its territory.'”
The conflict in Ukraine started as a so-called revolution of the people. However, it was engineered by the Jewish Ashkenazi Victoria Nuland in the US State Department, with her Jewish neocon Ashkenazi husband Robert Kagan working in the background via powerful organizations such as Project for a New American Century, the Brookings Institution, and Council on Foreign Relations. The Jewish Ashkenazi George Soros also contributed financially to the Ukrainian Maidan “Revolution.” See The Truth About the Conflict with Russia.
“Many of the participants in Kiev’s ‘EuroMaidan’ demonstrations were members of Soros-funded NGOs and/or were trained by the same NGOs in the many workshops and conferences sponsored by Soros’ International Renaissance Foundation (IRF), and his various Open Society institutes and foundations,” wrote William F. Jasper in The New American. “The IRF, founded and funded by Soros, boasts that it has given ‘more than any other donor organization’ to ‘democratic transformation’ of Ukraine.”
Then came the removal of the duly elected President of the country, followed by the installation of a puppet government with a new Prime Minister named Arseniy Yatsenyuk who, according to The Guardian, is playing down his Jewish roots (Arseniy Yatsenyuk was recently replaced by another Jew, Volodymyr Groysman, with a Jewish President, Volodymyr Zelensky, recently “elected”).
The possibility of turning Ukraine into a New Israel is no longer farfetched and might even be the Zionists’ preferred option at this point, especially with Odessa having a substantial Jewish population and Ukraine itself being the original birthplace of the Ashkenazim. Something that insidious must have been the reason why Putin hurriedly annexed Crimea.
Apartheid Israel will collapse with either a whimper or a bang, because its hateful spirit will cause it to continue in its path toward self-destruction.
So when it finally goes the way of Sparta, pieces would have already been in place so that fleeing Israeli Jews would have a place of refuge, especially in Ukraine where they would be more than welcome by its current Jewish Prime Minister.
“For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” Matthew 26:52
“We Jews, we, the destroyers, will remain the destroyers forever.” – Maurice Samuel
Bolshevik Revolution: The Jewish Bolsheviks, who took over the Russian government in the 1910s, killed 66 million Christians, including 200,000 members of the Christian clergy, and destroyed 40,000 churches.
World War 1: Britain was losing the war against Germany. The Zionists stepped in and bribed President Wilson to get the US into the war to help them. In return, the Jews asked the British Empire to deed them Palestine to create Israel. Their wish was granted in the form of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which cost the world 18 million dead.
World War 2: The Zionists fomented that war (just like they’re doing today with Iran and other countries in the Middle East), so that European Jews could feel threatened. The deception worked as European Jews fled in droves to Palestine and took over the homes of Palestinians, who were evicted at gunpoint and then either massacred or driven out of their land into neighboring Arab countries. With enough Jews on the ground, Israel was created in 1948 at a cost of 80 million dead.
World War On Terror: Jewish neocons, in cahoots with their bought-and-paid-for politicians in the US government, perpetrated their act of terrorism on 9/11. Then they conveniently blamed it on Muslims so as to obtain a green light to destroy the Middle East using the armies of the US and NATO and the terrorist groups they finance, with the ultimate view to creating Greater Israel. So far, the death toll is over 3 million, including Christians.
World War 3: With Russia protecting Syria and Iran from Israel’s Machiavellian design, will the Zionists succeed in bringing the world once again to the brink of disaster to create Greater Israel? If they do, will it instead bring about their downfall?
Sequitur: As befitting the deceivers and murderers that they are, the Zionist VICTIMIZERS of the world shamelessly camouflage themselves as VICTIMS, with Israel, their monstrous spawn, carrying on their blood-filled legacy. Indeed, apartheid Israel is a scourge, a cancer that needs to be dealt with.
Appeal: Every conscientious individual should implement a personal boycott of Israel and everything made there.
8 thoughts on “Israel Prepares For The BIG War”
This war was always about ethnic cleansing. All Israelis wars are about ethnic cleansing. Hamas was created by Israel to create the situations necessary for Israels ethnic cleansing wars.
Alabama Mothman , 764764 at 02f5
So very true Hamas was created by Israel. Checkout my recent film footage with Texe Marrs- Mark Dankof-Pete Topete.
Wayne , 776776 at 02f5
You know Israel is lying when their lips move. Talmud specifically authorizes such behavior
legal eagle , 856856 at 02f7
Texe-Marrs is a joke, outed a thousand times, just like the Patriot Movement, a totally controlled Rockefeller op. In fact, check out who actually plays the role of Marrs (he’s a Rockefeller in case you haven’t noticed).
And of course Hamas is their creation. Dan Dicks performs as the head man.
Rock , 088088 at 30f1
Anyone can say that someone’s an op. Where’s the proof? Where was Texe outed? Who’s playing him?
Israel seems to be itching for its own destruction.
lookie here , 836836 at 01f7
These people are truly possessed with an evil spirit of hate and destruction.
norm , 394394 at 21f8
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Wisconsin Reads with Roberta Hill
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, 13466 W Trepania Rd, Hayward, WI 54843
An NEA Big Read will take place at the Native American Literary Feast and Festival this Saturday at LCO Ojibwa Community College in Hayward, Wisconsin.
Saturday’s festival will bring BEI Emeritus Fellow Roberta Hill, author Louise Erdrich and poets William Bearheart, Kim Blaeser, and Heidi Erdrich. Readings are schedule from 2 to 4 p.m., drumming from 4 to 4:30 p.m., a prayer and feast from 4:30 to 6 p.m. and a reading by Louise Erdrich from 6 to 7:30 p.m. There is no charge for tickets.
Louise Erdrich’s book “The Round House,” which received the National Book Award for Fiction in 2012, explores the fine line between justice and revenge in a Native American community. The book is told from the perspective of Joe Coutts, a 13-year-old Native American boy growing up on a North Dakota reservation who experiences the trauma of a brutal sexual assault on his mother. The book describes the impact of the assault on the boy, his stepfather and the small community where they live, as well as the legal system that prevents many rapes from being prosecuted on tribal lands.
Register for Event: Wisconsin Reads with Roberta Hill
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Home > Abt Exclusive > Halloween Movie Marathon!
Abt Exclusive October 24, 2016
Halloween Movie Marathon!
We love costume contests and and bags of candy, but one of our favorite parts of Halloween is the scary movies. When the sun sets and the wind picks up outside, there’s nothing quite like settling down with a big bowl of popcorn, turning the lights out and hitting play on a creepy movie. And while going to the video store to find a Blu-ray does have a certain charm, the selection of movies available for streaming these days means you can have your pick of literally hundreds of the scariest movies ever made. Watch them when you want, where you want. To help sort through the myriad choices, we picked out some of the best Halloween Movies on Netflix . So fire up the Roku or Apple TV, there’s something here for everyone in the family!
Watching with kids [G/PG]
This, of course, is a tricky situation to make recommendations for, and every parent is going to know what’s best for their kids. We’ll reference Common Sense Media’s age appropriateness rating (when available) for all of the kids and family flicks.
Curious George: A Halloween Boofest – Curious George and Bill go on a Halloween adventure to find the mysterious “No Noggin,” a scarecrow that’s been spooking the countryside. Common Sense Media rates it appropriate for ages 3 and up, with the story treating “spooky Halloween images (for example, ghosts and spiders) with gentle humor and a very mild “boo” factor.”
Hotel Transylvania 2 – Picking up seven years after the original movie, this sequel returns to the Transylvanian hotel, and a world that now knows monsters exist. The whole cast of kooky characters is there, including Mavis and Johnny’s new son, who may or may not have inherited his mother’s vampiric powers. There are no real scares, but a bit of rude humor so it’s suggested for ages 7 and up.
DreamWorks Spooky Stories & Spooky Stories 2 – These collections of animated shorts put everyone’s favorite Dreamworks characters into a series of spooky settings. Watch as Shrek and friends spend the night in Lord Farrquaad’s haunted castle, or see Susan Murphy and the monsters from Monsters vs Aliens take on mutant pumpkins from outer space. Common Sense Media rates it appropriate for ages 6+, saying “there are no worries for most kids, though very young ones might be frightened…”
Corpse Bride – From the mind of Tim Burton, this stop-motion musical is reminiscent of his iconic holiday hit The Nightmare Before Christmas. It follows the adventures of Victor, as he works to escape the netherworld and return to his beloved Victoria, just days before they’re set to be married. Suggested for ages 10+ due to some animated scares, Corpse Bride has an overall positive message.
Goosebumps – Based on the best-selling children’s horror fiction book series, this movie brings R.L. Stine’s literary monsters to life, literally. Jack Black stars as the author whose imaginary creatures escape from the book pages and descend on his Delaware hometown. Its up to his daughter and her friends to save the town from terror. Suggested for ages 9+ due to the variety of monsters and some “rude humor.”
The Boxtrolls – This beautiful, stop-motion animated fantasy film explores the world of trash-collecting trolls who live beneath the hill-top town of Cheesebridge. Though peaceful, the town fears them, and Lord Portley-Rind has set out to exterminate every one of them. Along with their friend, the human boy Eggs, the Boxtrolls must find a way to show the townspeople that they are peaceful. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Rated for ages 9+ due to “tense moments and a very unpleasant villain,” but filled with positive messages.
[PG-13]
Jaws – The movie that made two chords strike fear in the hearts of beach-goers around the world. It turned forty last year, but thanks to Steven Spielberg’s tight directing, it still holds up as a stellar example of using suggestion to scare. So while there’s not much screen-time directly devoted to the beast, the movie is still filled with tense moments and a fair bit of blood. Officially rated PG, it would likely be a PG-13 by today’s standards.
Practical Magic – This fantasy film follows the Owens sisters (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman) as they use their powers of magic to protect their loved ones from evil forces. Not the scariest flick, but a Halloween favorite that’s found a fond following thanks to the charisma of the leads.
Trollhunter – While not a “horror” movie in the normal sense of the word, Trollhunter is a Norwegian “found footage” fantasy flick chronicling the adventures of a group of—you guessed it—troll hunters. And don’t be turned off by the found footage aspect, this movie uses the trope to its advantage. The result is a tense, often comedic journey through the Norwegian countryside while the hunters pursue an elusive giant mountain troll.
Big Trouble in Little China – Arguably the greatest of the campy 80s action fantasies, if not the greatest movie ever. Kurt Russel plays Jack Burton, a hapless truck driver who is pulled into a mysterious, magical world located under San Francisco’s Chinatown. He teams up with mystical allies to take on the evil sorcerer Lo Pan and save his friend’s fiancee from a curse in this cult classic from horror and sci-fi master John Carpenter.
Hellboy – “There are things that go bump in the night…and we are the ones who bump back.” So says Professor Bruttenholm, head of the Bureau of Paranormal Resarch and Defense, the organization that protects the world from mysterious supernatural forces in this cult comic-book adaptation. Leading the charge is Hellboy, a demon summoned by the Nazis in a last-ditch effort to win WWII. Hellboy, though crude and bad-tempered, now fights for the good guys. A solid action flick filled with dark, foreboding atmosphere.
Blade II – The second movie in a trilogy is often the best (see: Empire Strikes Back, Godfather II, T2, Aliens) and that seems to be the case with this entry in the Blade trilogy. Directed by master of horror Guillermo del Toro, this sequel finds Blade in an uneasy alliance with his vampire enemies in order to combat an even worse evil force.
The Machinist – Christian Bale famously lost over 60 lbs to play the lead in this psychological thriller. The movie traces his descent into madness and delusion as an extended bout of insomnia has him questioning what is real and what is just paranoia. This thoroughly unsettling movie will have you guessing til the end.
The Amityville Horror – Ryan Reynolds plays George Lutz in this remake of the 1979 horror classic. Lutz and his family move into a haunted house and get tormented by evil spirits in this allegedly true tale.
The Relic – While not a straightforward horror movie, this thrilling sci-fi flick follows a detective and anthropologist as they encounter—and try to survive—a mysterious creature running amok in Chicago’s own Field Museum of Natural History.
The Babadook – This indie movie, about an evil monster from a children’s book, made waves when it debuted at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Critics raved about it, praising its ability to genuinely scare viewers without resorting to cheap gimmicks and jump scares. Keep a light on when you watch.
The Crow – Two decades before the current superhero comic book movie explosion, there was The Crow. This dark, noir-ish action/fantasy film is based on the comic book of the same name, and follows Eric Draven, a rock star who comes back from the dead to avenge his and his fiancee’s murders. Dark in every sense of the word, the perfect adult watch on Halloween night.
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil – By turns gruesome and hilarious, this cult comedy/horror film is unlike anything else you’re likely to watch this Halloween. This less you know going into this one the better, but if you want to laugh while getting grossed out, there’s no better film on Netflix for it. Fans of Shaun of the Dead will likely appreciate this flick.
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How could the EU Referendum affect expats?
5th May 2016 | Written by Jonathan Watson
Moving Abroad, Politics & Economics
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How could a potential ‘Brexit’ affect British expats living overseas, and how may it impact exchange rates?
Obama’s intervention in April, initially with gentle suggestions that then digressed into more heavy-handed economic ‘reality checks’ as he put it, allowed some pressure on the Pound to be lifted. This allowed buying Euro rates to move up by just over seven cents as an example, running parallel to the rise in the Remain camp’s share of the vote of most polls conducted.
Markets have made no secret that they would prefer for the status quo to remain, and regardless of your own political opinion, this consensus is the governing factor in how buying rates for Euros and the various Dollars will be affected this month.
By now we’re assuming you’ve heard all about the EU Referendum, not only is it littered across all newspapers with comments from banking and financial firms, the government have now started pushing leaflets through the doors of millions of homeowners as to why a ‘stay’ vote is crucial to the UK economy.
Needless to say, the EU referendum has become a hot political topic in recent months. Whether you like it or not, a potential ‘Brexit’ could impact you whether your buying your first dream home abroad or want to get the best exchange rates for your big day. Here at currencies.co.uk we’ve explored an array of possibilities based on the outcome of the Referendum and this article will tackle the different possible economic, political and social implications.
How could the EU Referendum impact exchange rates?
Back in December 2015, GBP/EUR exchange rates were in the 1.40’s, now, 4-months later rates are struggling to break the 1.25 mark. This highlights a perfect example of political uncertainty and the impact it can have on a given currency. Investors will be watching closely for any news of a potential ‘stay’, the polls will play a huge part with the run up to the results and any positive poll figures will keep GBP afloat.
The Telegraph reported in April that the remain camp has 52% of the vote, with a leave vote holding 43% of the vote, with the rest making up the unsure camp..
If the poll data continues to favour a stay vote, the uncertainty would start to lift and so confidence could build and as a result I would be surprised if we saw GBP/EUR exchange rates drop below the 1.20’s.
As it stands prior to the results, those looking to purchase Pounds with Euros may well want to jump on the opportunity sooner rather than later, as a stay vote will most likely secure a new confidence for investors and could push GBP/EUR rates higher post-referendum.
But what if you’re looking to transfer GBP to Euro? Waiting until after the EU referendum could provide some benefit if the UK votes to stay but the levels of uncertainty are so high that waiting for such a close referendum could be very risky. If the UK votes to leave there have been reports from UBS who warn the Pound could fall to Parity against the Euro in the event of a ‘Brexit’.
Therefore, it is worth considering your options. For example, if you want to remove the uncertainty and take away some of the risk we at currencies.co.uk offer a forward contract, this would allow you to lock in current exchange rates for up to a year giving you peace of mind.
How will it affect British Expats?
This question is much harder to answer, given that no country has ever left the EU it’s difficult to know what, if anything, will change for British expats overseas. There are 3 possibly outcomes of a ‘leave’ vote;
1. The UK continues its relationship with the EU as an EEA member (European Economic Area). This would be the best case scenario for expats and would allow them to retain most of their rights (due to free movement agreements).
2. The UK and EU come to an ad hoc agreement which allows for controlled free movement with other EU states. This scenario is the most unpredictable and could see a change in taxes and social charges for British expats.
3. There is no agreement between the UK and the EU and expats would fall under the category of 'third country' nationals. This outcome is the worst case scenario and most unlikely, it is in the interest of the UK and the EU to maintain a strong relationship given that the UK is one of the major contributor to the EU.
At this stage, it\'s worth mentioning article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, which in the event a country leaves the EU, a two year cooling off period is invoked allowing for new agreements to be made with the EU and the country in question.
What this means for expats is that in the event that the UK leaves the EU, they would have a minimum of 2 years to make an informed decision as to whether they wish to remain in their country of residence and seek a suitable visa or return home to the United Kingdom.
No country has ever left the EU and article 50 has never been utilised and with so much uncertainty surrounded the EU referendum it’s difficult for us to advise on best practise. However, if you are concerned about the outcome of the referendum you should think carefully about the implications of a 'Brexit'.
Taxes and Healthcare
In the ideal circumstance, the UK contains its relations with the EU as an EEA or EFTA member similarly to Switzerland, separate bilateral agreements on free movement are still agreed between the UK and the EU. This ideal circumstance should have little impact on tax and healthcare changes and in the worst case scenario, UK citizens may have to apply for a permanent residency certificate which becomes available after 5 years of residency.
In the worst case scenario, the UK and the EU reach no bilateral agreements over free movement and expats are subject to the same status as “third country” residency. This scenario is very unlikely to occur but could see expats being treated as immigrants (although, UK expats have been living in France and Spain well before the EU came into play).
British expats in France looking to sell their property may have to pay an extra 10% in tax. As it stands, British expats are capped at 39.5% due to agreements with the EU. However, in the event a Brexit occurs and no bilateral agreements are agreed, British expats could end up paying 33.3% tax on capital gains and 15% on social charges.
Double tax relief would continue to be available to British expatriates in France as bilateral treaties on death duties, income and corporation tax are already in action. However, most other tax matters would be subject to renegotiation.
If Britain no longer issued S1 forms UK pensioners living in France would likely be subject to a further 7.4% in social charges on their British pension income. Although this is a minor issue given that the impacted could simply sign up for private health care, the alternative could mean stringent assessments for pensioners’ means to make sure they are not a ‘burden’ to France.
This is the absolute worst case scenario and we do not envisage this to occur, it’s important here at currencies we cover all potential outcomes for our clients.
It’s equally as difficult to know how Travel would be impacted by a \'Brexit\', but we do know how existing EU regulations have helped Brits travel;
1. Financial protection for packaged holidays – Get your money back if a holiday company goes bust
2. Compensation for delayed flights
3. Access to free or reduced healthcare – in the event you are ill abroad you are covered by cheap travel insurance
4. Open flight market – EU regulations have opened flight zones allowing for cheaper flights to EU destinations.
5. Caps on mobile phone charges – charges are set to be abolished altogether in 2017
6. Border free travel – travel freely through EU countries without checks at borders
7. Bring home unlimited goods – no restrictions or limits on goods from EU countries
8. Freedom to work – you have the ability to work and set up a business in EU countries
In the event we left the EU, and new agreements could not be made between us and the EU there is a chance we may lose most of these benefits. Although unlikely, there is always a possibility. In the event we came to bilateral agreements or joined as a member of the EEA and thus free movement was still actioned, most if not all of these added bonuses would remain intact.
With very little known about the outcome of a ‘leave’ vote, it’s difficult to say with any certainty what a post-Brexit UK would look like, or how it would manage its ongoing relationship with the EU.
If the polls are correct, a ‘stay’ vote is marginally ahead and come June 23rd the uncertainty should be lifted.
If the polls are not correct, then we can expect some shift in expat rights but we do not expect the UK to separate entirely from the EU. UK trade makes up 40% within the EU and it would be counter-productive to ignore this fact. A strong possibility is that the UK will agree bilateral agreements with the EU which would be the most logical answer to a ‘leave’ scenario.
Either way, be cautious of overly fear-mongering comments, British expats lived in Spain, France and Ireland well before the EU and this won’t change regardless of June’s outcome.
We would however, suggest considering your options ahead of the referendum if you are planning to move abroad, speak to one of our currency brokers sooner rather than later to discuss your requirements.
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Moving Abroad: things to get done before you leave
By Jessica Roberts
Moving Abroad Living Abroad
Moving to portugal for work: things to consider
Moving abroad: which country should I pick?
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They made the transfer of 20,000€ to Spain a very simple and stress free transaction. I got a good exchange rate and the transfer was speedy and efficient. Would certainly (and have) recommend them to friends and family.
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Announcing feature-length documentary “Raising Kratos”
New behind-the-scenes look at the making of God of War to premier on YouTube
By Scott Rohde
Game Development Head of Worldwide Studios, America
“Doubt is the demon that lives in the ear of every person in this industry…”
– Cory Barlog
On the one-year anniversary of its release, we’re excited to share this peek behind the curtain of God of War’s very own Santa Monica Studio with a trailer for our upcoming film, Raising Kratos. This full-length feature documentary, coming very soon to PlayStation YouTube, is an exploration into the massive undertaking required to change the course of the God of War franchise.
More importantly, this is the first time PlayStation has taken a chance in telling a story about the people who created this work of art. With clips and interviews chosen from hundreds of hours footage captured during the production of the game, we hope you’ll enjoy this cinematic journey of second chances, rooted in family, sacrifice, struggle, and doubt.
The ultimate goal of this documentary was to go beyond a ‘making of’ piece and dig deeper into the experiences of those who spent countless hours and huge effort in aspiring to make something great. All creative endeavors, especially those of this magnitude, require an incredible amount of dedication and focus. With a team comprised of hundreds of people, and a development timeline spanning years, teamwork was paramount to the game’s success.
Delicate and crucial decisions were made daily, with each choice affecting the final game in sometimes unexpected ways. Our hope is that once people see the experience of Santa Monica Studio unfold on the screen, they will be able to appreciate the incredible passion the studio have for their work and the remarkable respect they have for their craft. For God of War specifically, fans have shown a great deal of love and loyalty, which has earned them an everlasting seat at the Santa Monica Studio family table.
The creative people at Santa Monica Studio and all throughout PlayStation are eager to offer a glimpse into the heartfelt development of this world that means so much to all of us. We sincerely express our thanks to the fans that have celebrated God of War with us over the years and we’re so excited to use this new medium to introduce our world to new fans who have yet to discover its wonders.
20 Apr ‘19
God of War™ Digital Deluxe Edition
thedarkdad3 20 April, 2019 @ 16:08
cant wait!!!!!!!
Alex79uk 21 April, 2019 @ 08:35
Awesome! Look forward to watching this.
Pringle72 21 April, 2019 @ 10:20
This is an industry I would love to work in…. But from everything I’ve read and currently watched (Netflix Documentary – For Honor). It seems to be one of the most stressful environments to be in. I admire any game developer that can fight for a vision and able to deliver on what they set out on. Will be watching this for sure.
Carnivius_Prime 21 April, 2019 @ 12:51
This is cool. Look forward to watching it.
OnikenUK 22 April, 2019 @ 10:06
This is gonna be great, thank you!
Paranoimia 22 April, 2019 @ 13:47
I’d never played the GoW series before as I wasn’t that into button-mashy beat-em-ups, but this being more story-driven got my interest. I was given it as a Christmas present last year, but only started it recently due to having quite a backlog of games.
For me personally, it is a fantastic game, but there are a few issues which prevent it being the masterpiece it is for others. That said, I’m enjoying it immensely.
But I’m not happy that it made me kill a dragon.
GSB1986 22 April, 2019 @ 20:25
You do also release some though ;)
Tiago_Ruivo 24 April, 2019 @ 00:18
You also need the nostalgia from playing the previous games to agree its a masterpiece.
I’ve been playing since the first when I was little and even the psp and its really something else this one. Because they didn’t just rebooted it, you’ll know if you reached that scene
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee?
Josip_Jukic 25 April, 2019 @ 19:58
Looking foward to seeing how they reinvented the series, love how Sony and PlayStation give us this behind the scenes look at what it takes to develop game of this scale and with expectations it had. We take final product for granted but it is amazing task by pepole who work in this industry and give us masterpieces like this hats off to all developers and studios wheather they are indie or AAA the job of developing someone vision is a big task..
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Throw a Glamping Party at Home
Warm summer nights are perfect for glamping dinner parties. Invite friends to enjoy nature views and delicious meals under the stars for a glamorous camping experience, all without forgoing the luxury of home.
View HGTV’s idea slideshow
Posted on April 1, 2012 June 6, 2013
Glamping Brings Luxury To Camping
As summer vacation season approaches, you may feel drawn to the fresh air, quiet and rugged beauty of the great outdoors. But if you’re looking for accommodations that fall in between a Five-Star hotel and a pup tent, consider glamping. This glamorous version of camping (hence the name) lets vacationers trade sleeping bags and freeze-dried food for safari-style tents, yurts and teepees that provide a touch of luxury alongside the nature walks and wildlife sightings.
While the movement (and the moniker) has been around for a few seasons, the meme has seeped into the mainstream, with high-end camping reservations site GlampingHub.com launching last month and recent references such as Tommy Hilfiger’s summer ad campaign.
“People love to camp, but they’re looking for a little more luxury,” says Isabel Hedges, reservation manager at Fireside Resort in Wilson, Wyo., near Jackson Hole. It’s one of many resorts capitalizing on the trend, and is planning to add six glamping tents to its current collection of wood cabins for the 2013 summer season. For about $200 per night, guests can check into a one-room tent with a hardwood floor and king-size bed with a down comforter, along with cleaning services, and a campfire and picnic area. A shared bathhouse is on the lower end of the luxury scale, but it’s a tradeoff for the chance to see the elk and moose that occasionally wander through the eight-acre property on the outskirts of Grand Teton National Park.
One of the best-known glamping spots is The Resort at Paws Up, a hilly retreat in Greenough, Mont., about 35 miles northeast of Missoula. The 37,000-acre property has four separate campsites—pick from pine forests or cliff-top bluffs—with 24 ultra-luxury tents. Available late May through September, nightly rates run from $1,025 for a one-bedroom tent to $1,776 for a two-bedroom tent perched on a private bluff overlooking the spot where Blackfoot River and Elk Creek meet. There’s no DIY tent-pitching here—all the tents sit on elevated hardwood platforms and are equipped with king-size beds, 300-thread count linens, ceiling fans, private decks with Adirondack chairs, and en suite bathrooms with showers, heated floors and granite counters. You’re not alone with Mother Nature, here, either. The tents also come with housekeeping, laundry services, nightly bonfires with s’mores, and access to the 24-hour butler and the camp chef (think venison meatballs with huckleberry barbecue sauce).
In the hills of northwest Santa Barbara, El Capitan Canyon is another glamping venue that rents classic safari-style tents on a private campground turned 300-acre nature resort. Single-room tents—with hardwood floors, your choice of one queen or two double beds, private decks, fire pits, picnic tables and housekeeping—cost between $135 and $155. You can borrow a beach cruiser bike for a ride to El Capitan State Beach, only a half-mile away. This breed of high-end camping makes for better sleep, but proximity to wildlife and natural landmarks still matters—even glamping won’t feel authentic without a little bear spray.
Rough It? Uh, No Thanks, Toss Me That ‘Glamping’ Catalogue
Gone are the days when camping was synonymous with roughing it — a lesson my family learned when we joined friends at a campground on the Southeast coast of England. We arrived with two-man pup tents, flannel sleeping bags, and a cooler full of hot dogs, marshmallows and beer, climbed out of our mini-van and saw a whole new world of outdoor accoutrements.
The campground was dotted with a dizzying array of futuristic-looking tents in all kinds of sizes and colors, the most impressive being an enormous, domed, family tent for 10 with separate sleeping alcoves, awnings and what looked like a front porch. Salmon steaks were grilling and Chardonnay was being consumed from plastic flutes.
Later that night, when a storm rolled in, blowing over our leaky canvas tents, we zippered our way into another family’s sturdy, nylon shelter, all of us soaking wet as their solar-powered lantern quickly revealed.
For this summer’s outing I’ve been looking for both cool and practical camping equipment. I want to go “glamping” — or glamorous camping, as upscale camping has been called.
“Like everything else in the modern world, and along with the ongoing ‘boutiqueification’ of our lifestyles, camping was due to get a makeover,” said Garri Rayner, the founder and owner of Go Glamping, a camping directory in the United Kingdom that offers everything from tents, yurts and tipis to Airstream caravans.
Chris Brayton, an avid camper since childhood and the founder of www.family-tents.net, recommend the Eureka Copper Canyon 1312 for our family. It sleeps eight people (it is 12 by 13 feet, or 3.6 by 3.9 meters) and has a removable curtain to divide the interior space. It also has six, large, zippered windows, a detachable awning and clear panel skylights for stargazing. The tent costs from $300 to $350.
I was tempted by the funkier tipi-style tents. One popular model, according to www.campr.co.uk, is the Outwell Indian Lake Tipi Tent, which sleeps up to six people and has four panoramic windows with roll down curtains. They cost around £700, about $1,100.
I added to my equipment dream list a Hennessy Hammock. My first choice was the Expedition Asym Classic for $159.95, which lets you wrap yourself up like a bat and hang between two trees. It weighs less than three pounds, or 1.4 kilograms, and comes with webbing straps to protect the bark of trees.
I was happy to find the MontBell Ultralight Super Spiral Down Hugger ($400). Made of top quality 800-fill down by MontBell, an outdoor products company that was started in 1975 in Osaka, Japan, by three mountaineering partners, it has both a stretchy shell material and elasticized seams.
With our accommodations and bedding sorted, I moved onto cookware, quickly settling on the Primus Firehole Stove at www.primuscamping.com, a Scandinavian company started in 1892 by two inventor-adventurers who say they have created the first soot-free, packable stove. Running on a one-pound propane canister and boasting an easy carry handle, it is light but has two burners and can boil water in three minutes. The stoves range from $149 to $295
I was also tempted by the new Biolite CampStove, $129, which does not require petroleum or gas. Not only does the BioLite allow you to cook cleanly and safely with wood — you gather twigs which pop in to ignite it — but you can also recharge your phones, iPods, lights and other gadgets; it converts heat into electricity.
I also thought it would look great next to the Light My Fire Mealkit I want to buy for $21.99 at www.industrialrev.com/mealkit.com. It is a set of brightly colored plastic dishes, a cup, a cutting board-colander and a spork (a spoon-fork combo) that fits into a small triangular box.
For light I turned to www.campinglanterns.net and the SolaDyne 12 LED Camp Lantern. For $24.95 I will have seven hours of battery-free light every night if we’ve had 10 hours of sunshine, or 30 minutes of light for one minute of hand-cranking in cloudy weather. In the event of a storm, my family should stay dry in our waterproof tent, be warm in our down sleeping bags and beautifully lit by our solar lantern. Roughing it is clearly overrated.
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Benjamin Alborough
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A Chradvent Carolendar #1: Scrooge (1935)
Posted on December 1, 2017 December 2, 2018 by BenjaminAlborough
The Rules of Chradvent:
#1: I must consume one adaptation of A Christmas Carol every day of Advent to finally identify which is Superior
#2: The adaptations must be evaluated in chronological order
#3: Nothing under 25 minutes
#4: No watching or writing up in advance. Each day. A new film.
I wanted to start in the silent era but the first feature length adaptation of A Christmas Carol, The Right to be Happy (1916), has been completely lost to time. Everything we know about it is from one scathing review in the New York Dramatic Mirror which says that the Christmas scenes were “staged under a blazing California sky amid the luxuriant green foliage of Mid-Summer”. I’m as furious that I didn’t get to watch it as they were that they did.
Instead, we’re jumping straight into 1935’s Scrooge, produced by a man called Julius Hagen who went bankrupt two years later because he spent too much money on 1935’s Scrooge. By now we’re almost ten years into the sound era and people have pretty much got a grip on how to make movies. It is unfortunate, then, that the first thing you hear in the film is one of the oddest, most tuneless renditions of The First Noel I’ve ever heard. I’ve clipped it below.
https://benjaminalborough.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/noelnoel.mp3
If Scrooge had to put up with that every Christmas then I don’t blame him for anything.
Straight into the credits.
Don’t worry lads, Charlie’s on hair.
Within five minutes we have the “surplus population” line and by 13 minutes Scrooge is on his way home. Fine. But the story then diverts, for FIFTEEN minutes to a banquet hosted by the Lord Mayor who we never see again. There then follows a FURTHER FIVE minutes of comedy vignettes. Here’s an exciting bit with some jellies.
At one point during the banquet everyone stands and, facing in different directions, sings the first verse of the National Anthem. Even the kids outside stop being hungry and ask God to save the Queen. Nice of them.
We only see Marley once, when his face is superimposed onto Scrooge’s knocker. When he appears later he does so as a disembodied voice. He comes into the house, immediately declares that only Scrooge can see him then sits down in a chair. Ghosts get tired too, even conveniently invisible ones. Throughout, Scrooge helpfully points at where he’s supposed to be. Thanks Scrooge.
I’ve read that, in the Director’s cut, Scrooge continued to helpfully point at Marley as he got up from his chair and made increasingly wild movements around the room, backflipping between cabinets at max speed. The G forces involved nearly shattered Scrooge’s wrist. Sadly, the Dickens estate came down hard on this interpretation and Julius Hagen lost a cool 100k on reshoots.
We skip the “more of gravy than a grave” line then Marley says “Look to see me no more” and jumps out the window.
This is all rather forgivably camp. No-one involved had any idea how to make ghosts look good on film. Why not excise them completely? (maybe “exorcise them completely”? – Ed)
I find it interesting that Claude Rains, the actor playing Marley, a tiny role with almost no screen time, is by and far the biggest name in this entire film. For an actor contemporaneously co-starring with Cary Grant I can only assume that he agreed to this dispassionate 2 minute voice over as terms of his own Scrooge-like rehabilitation.
This is how they handle the Ghost of Christmas Past. Pretty neat effect and some good hair work from Charles.
We don’t see much of Scrooge’s past. No schoolhouse, no Fezziwig, just a scene where an only slightly younger Scrooge refuses a loan extension. His fiancée threatens to leave him and in response Scrooge says “I’m ready to make allowances to your feelings as a woman” which is nice of him, that he’d make allowances for those.
We cut to the ex-fiancée years later surrounded by an uncountably huge number of children. I’ve included the clip below and I challenge you to count for yourself – I think there are around twenty but past a dozen my eyes begin to cloud over. Scrooge gets sad because they’re not his kids but I don’t envy him. Or his wife. Or his wife’s pelvic floor.
The ghost dies when Scrooge snuffs out the candle and we quickly meet the Ghost of Christmas Present.
The Ghost of Christmas Present is the only ghost the audience ever see and he delivers his lines in an awkward, stilted monotone that feels like he’s reading off cards. This version of the spirit isn’t especially jolly or conciliatory and, as he disappears, he mockingly laughs at Scrooge through flames.
Curious, I looked up the actor and his name is Oscar Asche, one of the biggest stars of contemporary stage. He was most famous for an insanely racist musical called Chu Chin Chow which ran for over 2,200 performances, holding the record for over fifty years. He wasted nearly all of his money from the show on greyhounds. Here he is in costume.
Scrooge was one of the last things he ever did, as “in his final years, Asche became obese, poor, argumentative and violent”. Living the dream, my son.
We meet Tiny Tim here, and spend some time with the Cratchit family.
There was something annoying me about the actor playing Bob Cratchit and I couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was. Then I realised it was because he looked like the potara fusion of Marty Feldman and Ken Branagh from the 2012 Olympics.
The Ghost of Christmas Present says his bit about seeing a vacant seat in the chimney-corner and then we’re taken on a magnificent tour of the other sets that were set up in Twickenham Film Studios lot at the time. A lighthouse, a ship in a storm, the works.
We also get a nice model shot of London where the only landmark is St Paul’s.
I’ll freely admit that the effect for The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come’s visions is insanely cool. I mean, I’m not too sure what’s going on but I like it.
The only thing about this effect is that producing it clearly required Scrooge to keep his head perfectly still throughout. The result is that he cannot move or emote while talking, which is fun. The conceit falls apart a bit when he has to get mopey on his grave and brush off the snow but it’s nice looking enough for the rest of the time.
Oh, in this version we see Tiny Tim’s corpse.
Who here’s willing to bet that the lifeless body of Bam Bam pops up in A Flintstones Christmas Carol? I’ll take those odds.
Ebenezer has his little character arc in the graveyard and we’re all done with the Spirits by 65 minutes into the movie, with another 15 to go. Worth noting at this early stage that only 45 minutes of this 80 minute long movie is spent in the company of ghosts. This is a clear repudiation of Charles Dickens as The Ghost Novelist. I can happily announce that this title can now return to Chuck Tingle.
The epilogue to this is enormous and completely uninteresting. It hits all the beats in the way you’d expect. The story then takes a dark twist when Scrooge, drunk on bonhomie, decides to play a nasty prank on Bob. Feigning x-mas rage, Scrooge roughly shoves him into a door frame. This is the last straw for the impoverished, overworked Mr Cratchit. He sees red and snaps. Fumbling for a weapon, he raises a steel rod high over his head and is only stopped from caving in Scrooge’s skull when offered a pay rise. Psychopath.
Scrooge also says “Hello Marley” instead of the original “I shall love it, as long as I live! I scarcely ever looked at it before. What an honest expression it has in its face! It’s a wonderful knocker!”. Brevity is the soul of, etc.
What a wonderful knocker indeed. This isn’t, altogether, a bad adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Not seeing any of the ghosts means you do get a nice sense that Scrooge’s experiences may not have been literal. However, the weird way in which story was adapted means its almost impossible to follow Scrooge’s emotional journey and his transformation from being complicit in child manslaughter to benevolent philanthropist is not at all clear. Seymour Hicks does a fine job as Scrooge. It’s a little overplayed but he has some nice flourishes towards the end.
5 ½ furious, fat, destitute racists out of 10
As we have not opened any other doors on the Chradvent Carolendar this is, by default, the most Superior version yet. I have a strong suspicion, however, that I will completely forget it almost immediately.
Posted in chradvent, Wildly Emotional Criticism Leave a comment
A Chradvent Carolendar #2: A Christmas Carol (1939)
https://benjaminalborough.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/campbell.mp3
You’d be surprised how far they get into this before they say the words “A Christmas Carol”.
We’re at 1939 and my first and only chradventure into radio is in the company of sleigh mogul/ bored Transformer Orson Welles. Two months after the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast, the Mercury Theatre’s radio company was bought by Campbell’s soup. It was only natural, therefore, that a year later they’d do an adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
We start with another rendition of The First Noel though thankfully this one is considerably more tuneful than the one in the 1935 version. This gives way to the meat of the performance; Orson Welles rambling about Lionel Barrimore, “the best loved actor of our time”. Barrimore would later go on to play Mr Potter in It’s A Wonderful Life, the #6 most hated villain in all film.
Another short ad for soup and then we’re off! Orson jumps straight in with “Marley was dead to begin with”. I paused at this point because I could’ve sworn he was playing Scrooge. Some further investigation revealed that his company had, in fact, done five separate versions of A Christmas Carol and this was the only one where we don’t get to see Ebenezer Welles. But this was also the only one with such an overwhelming emphasis on soup, my favourite of all the semi-liquid foods.
When you take out the soup ads and Orson’s tangential monologues about acting, the piece is about 40 minutes long. We get no Marley knocker but are instead treated to the ghost Marley scene in full. We miss out Old Joe, post-rehabilitation Christmas Day and vast, vast swathes of Christmas Present. These are all good cuts, especially the Old Joe segment, which I have decided I hate. Are we meant to be held in suspense over whose drapes they’re trying to flog? Is Scrooge a moron? What is with this ongoing cultural association of ghosts and terrible mysteries?
The good news is that after the Ghost of Christmas Past there’s an ad break for soup.
As a completely silent character, The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is very difficult to portray on radio. They get around this issue by having Scrooge narrate every single thing that is happening at all points.
https://benjaminalborough.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/spirittalking.mp3
As you can see (hear – Ed), they make no attempts at English accents.
One of the stranger cuts is the second appearance of the gentleman collecting for charity -“the chugger”. In the original he is introduced and reintroduced to demonstrate in the simplest possible terms that where Scrooge was once miserly now he is magnanimous. In this timeline we can then assume that either the Poor Law Act of 1834 was repealed over Christmas Eve or that he himself died that Tiny Tim may live.
That’s basically it. It’s actually a very strong adaptation and really shows how much brevity is the etc of etc. There are a few upcoming adaptations that are over 2 hours long and I am beginning to dread them.
We’re hit with another ad for soup and then we go straight into Orson Welles dedicating the performance to all of his friends and all the members of the cast and crew. It’s very luvvie and very sweet and very Orson and I love it and him.
We then get a very quick interview with our lead actor, the great Lionel Barrimore, and it quickly becomes apparent that his seemingly overacted old man Scrooge voice is his natural speaking voice. I can only hope the rest of the cast went equally as method, especially Tiny Tim (who is insanely pretentious here).
I still wish I’d listened to Orson Welles’ Scrooge though.
6½ tins of Campbell’s tomato soup out of soup. I mean 10.
Sad that I won’t get to listen to any other radio adaptations, this was really fun. But there are so many that I doubt I’d even fit them into one Advent.
A Chradvent Carolendar #3: The Christmas Carol (1949)
Day three is a made for TV movie narrated by Vincent Price. Oh boy! I wonder who’s playing…
Ebeneezer Scrooge? Well hopefully they spent all the proofreading money on incredible special effects!
XmasFlix.com will be a very close friend of mine over this month. They seem to have almost every single non-commercially viable Christmas film uploaded to their YouTube channel and maintain an active but completely anonymous social media presence. I’ve no idea what they could be getting out of it other than satisfying a substantially deep, year-long fetishistic obsession with Christmas. That is, after all, why I’m doing this.
Vincent Price introduces The Christmas Carol while holding a copy of a book that says A Christmas Carol.
I’m guessing this was simply for convenience. After all, “The” is considerably easier to say than “A”.
Taylor Holmes’ Scrooge is bad, poor thing. Listen to how he manages to turn “be here all the earlier” into one syllable. It’s almost commendable.
The staging of that clip is fairly typical of the rest of the film. Flat and boring. Done in one take.
Never before have overacting and underacting been blended together so marvelously as when Marley’s ghost enters.
Low budgeted films like these can often lead to interesting directorial decisions; like the decision to have Marley explode whenever he passes through a door.
This is probably an allusion to Dickens, who used to explode when he passed through doors.
Vincent Price announces that Scrooge fell asleep without undressing. It’s a neat coincidence that that would’ve allowed them to get filming done in a day with only one set of costumes.
We then meet the Ghost of Christmas Past. I presume he’s standing behind this man dressed as Mother Theresa.
The screen fades to black and then we’re in the schoolhouse. At this point I feel the weight of terrible direction far overshadows any one individual’s bad acting. Scrooge is dispassionate and reacts weirdly to action, delivering a lot of lines like he has no idea what he’s saying.
For instance, he delivers the line “my playmates , they didn’t like me” with whimsy and, upon seeing himself as a boy, remarks that he regrets not giving some money to a caroler we heard earlier singing The First Noel. The good news here is that Scrooge is already reformed! The spirits did it one night! The bad news is that The First Noel plays a bigger part in this story than the Ghost of Christmas Present.
Speaking of which, Hello.
On closer inspection he looks like John C Reilly, never mind.
In this version Tiny Tim doesn’t get to talk much, only to say “God bless us, every one” and when he does everyone drinks and looks around like it’s really awkward.
At least it’s a change from all of the pretentious Tiny Tims who genuinely deserve to die.
They really hit on something with the sound effect transitions here.
It’s time for the future ghost. I wonder what cool lighting or camera tricks they’re going to use?
Well this is definitely the only version I’m aware of where the Ghost of Christmas Future is visibly shorter than Scrooge by several inches. And if nothing else this is technically the first western Ninja film.
It’s about this time that I realise that I haven’t seen Vincent Price in a while.
We miss Old Joe (thank god) but do get the bankers talking about the death of a mysterious gentleman (Scrooge is so stupid) and jump straight into the gravestone reveal. It’s all academic of course because Scrooge reformed 40 seconds after meeting TGOCPast. We cut to him sitting up in bed (filming him lying down would have required maneuvering the camera between the bedposts) and we get this fun laugh:
Either he’s very happy or about to commit suicide. Whatever happens I’m just glad he’s confident enough to share his feelings.
We then go to the Cratchit’s house and Fred is there too I guess. Scrooge turns to Tiny Tim and says he’s going to give him surgery but Tiny Tim hasn’t to this point actually shown any signs of disability. If anything his freakish height seems to indicate almost superhuman vigour.
Wondered if the title card was a typo?
Wrong, bitch, this production had a systematic misunderstanding of the letter E. You’d think adapting from a book would make misspelling the name of the main character extremely difficult. Wrong again.
This was a bad adaptation. Cute and campy but I can safely say it is not Superior.
I give this 3 extremely mighty Tiny Tims out of 10
3 days in and I’m already starting to get tired of the story. I’m sure this will pass.
Right, this one is really, really good.
When people talk about their favourite version of A Christmas Carol it’s invariably the 1970 Albert Finney musical, the version The Muppets did or this. Having sat through three adaptations in a row I was skeptical how you could execute the story well enough for it to be definitive. Surely it’s just hitting the beats with an acceptable level of technical competence? That’s what the 1935 and 1939 versions did and they were fine.
But Scrooge (1951) doesn’t do that – it is not a straight adaptation and is largely not faithful to the source material. Instead, it takes the basic elements of the original story and twists them into fun, creative shapes. It treats Scrooge like a human being and not a cartoon character. It’s just really, really good.
Opening credits then.
What’s that?
This bodes extremely well.
I wondered how long it’d be before we got to the first Noel.
Look at that deep focus. It’s so pretty and this is just the first shot!
Going to get on my wanky high horse and start comparing this to Citizen Kane. It almost feels like the similarities are deliberate – both films use deep focus extensively, both use striking, expressionist cinematography and both follow a dispassionate businessman who left his friends and family behind in pursuit of wealth and glory.
Usually Scrooge’s past is glossed over; he was a lonely schoolboy who traded bonhomie for bond equity (nice – Ed), but Scrooge (1951) fills in the gaps in wonderful, unexpected ways that give Scrooge’s character such depth and texture that I have no idea why other versions didn’t adopt what happens here as the new Canon.
We spend a full 30 minutes – more than 1/3 of the total running time – with the Ghost of Christmas Past. Seven new segments are added that flesh out Scrooge’s relationship with his sister (Fred’s mother who died in childbirth) and Jacob Marley. We are actually shown Scrooge being a ruthless businessman rather than just a) being told he is and b) having him wish the poor to die. Even his reluctance to participate in charity is justified during a scene where we learn that he was traumatised by the death of his sister.
“One must stele oneself to survive [modern life]. Not be crushed under by the weak and infirm.” he says to a young Robert Marley in the scene immediately after her death.
The film is not so much about Christmas as it is about Scrooge’s redemption arc. It just so happens that his redemption arc coincides with the Christmas. I cannot overstate how important this is to the interpretation. Scrooge does not hate Christmas, he is indifferent to and bemused by it.
“Christmas has even less to do with it, my dear sir, than your wife has or l have. You still owe me twenty pounds and you are not in the position to repay it if was in the middle of a heat wave on August bank holiday. Good afternoon.”
Scrooge is intelligent, sarcastic and witty. His grave/ gravy joke should be a natural tell for this but Alastair Sim is the first Scrooge so far to deliver it while not sounding like an alien. Scrooge is a political animal and fully self assured in the conservatism that feeds his downward trajectory. You can feel Dickens’ contemporary satirical edge here when Scrooge wearily corrects the chuggers, stating that his taxes pay for the institutions designed to support the poor (workhouses, debtors prisons) and that those are sufficient. He is less of a miser and more of an Adam Smith Institute sanctioned neoliberal.
“The world, that can be so brutally cruel to the poor, professes to condemn the pursuit of wealth in the same breath.”
That could almost be a tweet by Daniel Hannan.
Another perfect shot.
Look at the way the direction of the lighting and the placement of the staircase draws your eyes to Scrooge who’s positioned quite non-naturally in the northeast of the frame.
This is also the only Marley so far that remotely approaches being terrifying. I suggest skipping to 3.40 in the clip below.
I’m going to draw another Citizen Kane parallel here; during TGOCPast we learn that Mr Jorkin, pictured below on the left, wants to first buy Fezziwig’s firm. He is unsuccessful but then manages to recruit Scrooge after flattering his intelligence. Scrooge’s relationship with Fezziwig, his trusted and benevolent employer, is ruined forever.
Remember the bit Citizen Kane where Charles continually forfeits family for wealth in the name of ambition? The difference here is that Scrooge’s failures in life are entirely of his own doing and were not set in stone from his youth.
Jorkin on the left, Young Scrooge (Thursdays at 8:30/7:30c on CBS) on the right
The scenes where Scrooge witnesses his sister dying and where he undercuts his old firm to turn a quick profit are so rich and well executed that I’m including them in full below. I hope you appreciate that I had to individually convert them from mkv to mp4 then painstakingly edit, upload and embed them just for this.
They’re short and I recommend you watch them.
The dialogue is tightly written and delivered well enough that you can’t really hear the (sometimes) distracting Dickensian verbiage. This is the only adaptation so far to do that.
Christ, I haven’t even touched on half of what makes this incredible yet. Remember early on in the story when Scrooge asks Bob Cratchit
“I suppose you’ll be wanting the whole day off tomorrow?” and Bob replies
“If it’s not inconvenient”?
Well in this version they’ve been having that same exchange every Christmas for years. Ebenezer checks whether or not Bob still insists on this very silly idea while Bob nervously treads around him. It’s almost a ritual. It’s such a simple addition that adds so much depth to what is nominally a throwaway line that it makes me want to give up Chradvent four days in. That and the brain ache.
Consistently throughout the night Scrooge shows small signs of regret before going back to insisting that he is too old to change, that he is tired and that he wants to be left to keep Christmas in his own way. His remorse builds naturally with each visitation and the gravestone is only a tipping point rather than the set piece of Scrooge’s rehabilitation.
Despite the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come being just a man in a black veil I still believe that Scrooge is more scared of him than any other spirit.
The brilliant way in which he is introduced somewhat mediates the lackluster costume.
Hand shown to scale.
Remember the Old Joe segment and how I hate it? Yeah well guess what, it’s really good here. For a start, it’s fairly clear that Scrooge is aware of who they’re talking about throughout (did you know? it was him!).
Secondly, instead of the three skivs being generic working class thieves, they each have a distinct characterisation and relationship with Joe. The maid knows him well, the undertaker is out of his depth etc. The filmmakers also take a while to reveal exactly why they’re there, giving us a couple of minutes of fun as they establish themselves.
Mrs Cratchit is Ellen from Mary Poppins.
Step in time, Tiny Ti- oops.
They even managed to make Tiny Tim’s speech about Jesus helping the lame to walk not totally shitty and pretentious. Also the Cratchit children drink gin throughout and eat boiled Christmas pudding if you wanted some indication of the libertarian hell hole in which Scrooge the AnCap would have us live.
I’m going to force myself to stop now because almost every single shot in almost every single scene deserves an entire dedicated day of Chradvent. Maybe next year. Safe to say, the film ends with Scrooge doxxing the Cratchits (2 Porter Street, Camden Town).
As I mentioned in the intro, the very important message to take away from this is that when you are adapting a property, it’s probably far more worth your time to focus on translating it for the medium for which it is intended rather than simply copying the text. Scrooge (1951) plays fast and wild with the original but is, I imagine, exactly how Dickens would have wanted Scrooge to have been portrayed provided the man himself didn’t have a crippling fear of deep focus. He died in 1870 so we’ll never know for sure.
Watch this version, Muppet lovers.
9 fucking awful boiled puddings out of 10
I’d say this only loses points for not making enough use of the Mechanical Victorian Dolls, so torturously teased in the opening credits.
Side note: I’m having to be fairly brutal with what I pick for this month and am missing out a film from 1938 notable for featuring a massively fat Bob Cratchit. This depressing compromise was alleviated by only finding out about it well after I could’ve had a look at it, per rule #2 of Chradvent. There’s a thin blue line separating society from chaos and I intend to respect it.
A Chradvent Carol #5: A Christmas Carol (Shower of Stars) (1954)
Posted on December 5, 2017 December 10, 2018 by BenjaminAlborough
Day five and we’ve hit our first musical! I’ve no idea what to expect.
Hello, my old friend.
We start with some gaslighting.
This is an absolutely hideous opening shot but I guess we can’t all be Scrooge (1951).
Straight into music – some carolers wander around the streets of London singing hymns. I assume they’re original; I don’t recognise them and can barely hear the lyrics. It all sounds fairly generic. I wonder what poor soul got given the task of writing it?
Oh sure, only one of the single greatest and most prolific film composers of all time. Way to make me look like an asshole, facts.
There’s a nice slow reveal of Scrooge hampered only by the fact that he is an almost cartoonishly large hooked nose.
He looks like a goblin. Specifically, this goblin from the first Harry Potter film. They look so similar that I do not believe it was coincidental.
To its credit, this whole sequence does do quite a nice job of framing him Scrooge an outsider. He alone stands against Christmas and boy, how. This Scrooge hates Christmas! More on that later. For now enjoy this thing Scrooge does with his face after the “surplus population line”.
Now we meet Fred. Oh dear. I do not think I have seen anyone so totally misjudge the character of Fred as the actor who plays him here. He is a big booming lumberjack of a man, straight out of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
That’s a shot of him having just shouted “and a happy new year!” at max volume straight into Scrooge’s face. Look how happy he is. I don’t blame this Scrooge for not wanting to spend Christmas dinner with this Fred. He’s a dickhead. Dickfred.
No songs yet. As Bob Cratchit leaves the office the carolers start singing the same hymn from the beginning and I wonder: “is that it? Is this one of those cases where someone on IMDb misremembered that this was a musical because it just had the same interminable hymn fucking repeated constantly?”. Hoo boy, if only.
Look how much this Scrooge hates Christmas. He wont even TOLERATE the MENTION of the word.
Also, if you’re thinking that Fredric March”s Ebenezer Scrooge sounds like Christopher Lloyd’s Doc Brown then I suggest you read all 600 youtube comments saying exactly the same thing.
We get to midnight and Jacob Marley’s ghost. It is completely unclear what Scrooge is meant to be reacting to as he arrives. Is it… is it the incidental music? It can’t just be the chiming of one clock. If you have any guesses feel free to leave a comment on my webzone.
Basil Rathbone is Jacob Marley. Like Fredric March, he is completely wasted here (possibly in more ways than one). However, his arrival opens up a mystery.
During the visitation, a temporarily tangible Marley picks up a ledger from Scrooge’s desk detailing their money lending (careful of the flame, Jacob). For some reason Scrooge seems pained to look at it and it’s all very odd. But then:
Marley, ledger in hand, turns intangible again. The ledger follows suit. Then, Marley tosses the ledger to the floor. Both remain intangible throughout. I cannot overstate how huge the implications are for human/ ghost interactions. First of all, does the intangible book rest on the ground or fall through to the centre of the earth? If it does rest on the ground does it remain intangible forever? Would Scrooge ever be able to pick it up again? What if there are important tax documents in there?
I was considering pausing the movie here to consult a psychic but then Scrooge does a lot of work for me:
Still, the implications remain huge. There is clearly a cooling off period for spectral intangibility. What if you turn tangible again when halfway through a door? I will have to put this on the back burner for now because we are only 1/3 of the way into this movie.
In the scene following Marley’s exit, Scrooge is spooked and goes around his study nervously. It was probably shot with very little direction because it just looks like there’s a bee trapped in the room.
Huh? What’s this?
An odd use of the present continuous tense and an ill omen generally.
Power steering, eh? Turns out A Christmas Carol (Shower of Stars) is so-called because it was part of a CBS variety show called Shower of Stars which was sponsored by Chrysler I guess. Chrysler was such a beloved brand that they didn’t even take their ads out of the home video release.
At this point part of me wondered if the jingle at the end of that ad that qualified this as a musical because, Christmas carols aside, we’ve had nothing yet.
Aha! The first woman ghost! Who said corporations don’t have a social conscience? (Though I hear that in the 1938 version – which I’m increasingly annoyed that I missed – she was also a woman).
I looked back at the original text because I was sure Past was a described either as a woman or not specifically as a man. Looks like Past was originally described as being androgynous and white robed. However, Past was also originally described as:
“being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible in the dense gloom where in they melted away”
I’d pay to see Robert Zemeckis CGI that. Sounds like the biblical descriptions of angels.
When Scrooge remarks that Fezziwig is alive again, the Ghost of Christmas Past normally corrects him and says “These are the shadows of things that have been.” In this version, we get the rather terse rebuff: “No, not alive, this is Christmas past.” Then Scrooge pulls a face.
Young Scrooge doesn’t have a massive hooknose.
We can only assume he got it later in life after trapping it in that unnecessarily large semi-tangible ledger.
Canny individuals will note that the same actress playing Scrooge’s fiancée, Belle, also plays the Ghost of Christmas Past.
They take each others hands and part waltz over to the staircase as the harp begins to play.
Could… could this be the first song?
I wouldn’t bother watching that video. Fun fact: I got a copyright claim on it so someone, presumably at Chrysler Corp, is still getting money for this. I’d cut your losses short if I were you, mate.
At one point Belle starts singing directly into the camera which is a bit unnerving but was not uncommon for the time.
There’s a dumb bit where it looks like Old Ebenezer has just worked out that Belle looks like Past despite mentioning exactly that a bit earlier. But there’s also a nice moment as he reacts with melancholy to his younger self singing.
Then young Scrooge straight up yells in Belle’s ear.
Look guys, if you really don’t know what to get each other for Christmas then maybe you shouldn’t be together. This isn’t a problem for long though, because the second they stop singing they break up with each other.
That’s it for Christmas Past. The ghost disappears and Scrooge runs back to bed.
It’s time for Christmas Present. Oh dear. Oh no. It’s Fred. Oh dear. Oh no. This is the comedy character.
The song is so awful and repetitive I’m not even going to clip it for you. Here are the lyrics.
A merry, a merry, a merry, merry Christmas. [repeat x34]
The sequence largely consists of Present pointing and singing at Scrooge then performing close-up magic tricks.
I wouldn’t hang that up mate, you don’t know where it’s been.
He fucks up the clock
He bodily possesses Scrooge
I don’t even know what’s happening here but I don’t like it.
The whole thing is extremely distressing. The truth is that there are so many odd moments in this sequence that I physically cannot gif them all. I’ve already dropped half a gig of wordpress storage on gifs out of a total 6 and I’m barely a week into Chradvent.
He does his whole exhausting, infuriatingly bad spiel and then just sits down normally like nothing happened. This man is clearly a psychopath.
Scrooge asks him who he is and he STARTS SINGING THE FUCKING SONG AGAIN.
Thankfully, we cut to Bob Cratchit’s house before anything else happens. Ghost of the Present, I hate you more than any spectre I have yet seen.
We’re treated to a bit of dialogue about the dressing for the goose, presumably sponsored by Chrysler kitchen, and are introduced to Tiny Tim, who is the only character in this film to have an English accent.
The Fred and Cratchit scenes from the Present are combined because the raw power of Ray Middleton’s acting means he cannot play both Fred and Present in the same scene (like Sally Fraser did effortlessly for Belle and Past). The problem with this is that Fred’s mean game of 20 questions where the answer is Scrooge is now delivered by Bob Cratchit, who also insists on toasting to Scrooge’s health and thanks him for the meal against his wife’s wishes. An extremely dumb editorial decision.
The third song of the film, if you count the second song as a song, is “God Bless Us Every One” delivered by Tiny Tim. Unlike Belle, who directed her solo straight into the camera, Tiny Tim directs it literally everywhere other than the camera.
It’s completely unremarkable, don’t bother to look it up.
Then we see the following exchange after the Ghost of Christmas Present tells Scrooge that he sees a vacant seat and a crutch without an owner.
Present: These shadows may be altered only by the spirit of the future.
Scrooge: Where do I find this spirit of the future?
Present: Look within yourself for if you continue as you are then the answer is there before you.
What the fuck does that mean? The spirit of the future can alter shadows of the future? I thought the whole point was that that was exactly what the ghosts couldn’t do? The spirit of the future is within Scrooge? Is the future ghost metaphorical now? If so, why weren’t the others?
I calm down assured that my questions will be answered soon. Perhaps the ghost of future will be another cameo – maybe the chuggers or even Tiny Tim himself? That’d be cool.
Is that… is the bird from this gif from earlier?
Christ knows. Anyway, Scrooge is in the graveyard now and he sees his gravestone and also Tiny Tim’s and there’s a moment where he’s sobbing over Tim’s grave in sadness and it’s clearly made out of polystyrene.
We get no future ghost – unless the bird counts (is it a moorhen?) – so that means Jacob Marley lied when he said Scrooge would be visited by three spirits.
Scrooge wakes up etc donates some money to the chuggers etc goes and says hello to Fred and asks to save him a mince pie as “he’s about to rejoin the human race”.
You and me both, Fred.
Scrooge then pays an unannounced visit to Bob Cratchit’s house, immediately raises his salary and invites himself in for Christmas dinner. Bob is clearly uncomfortable with this and the whole scene is very odd. Fred, who had specifically invited Scrooge for dinner, is rejected in favour of this very large, very poor family who are clearly struggling to make ends meet. Peter Cratchit was earlier reprimanded for eating a scrap of gingerbread dough before it was ready, so poor are they. Scrooge takes Bob’s place at the table and the family introduce themselves. When we get to “I’m Tim” Scrooge says “I know you are”, the creepiest possible thing you could say in that moment.
Tim sings us out and we spend the last minute of the film watching Scrooge’s face as he listens to the song. What is obvious is that Fredric March has not heard the song because his face shifts from sad to pensive to happy every few seconds regardless of any emotional shifts in the music.
I hated this. This film was terrible. It was more technically competent than 1949 but less charming and with an obviously higher budget so less can be excused.
3 hideous, hateful renditions of the Ghost of Christmas Present’s song out of 10
Next week’s episode: Ethel Merman’s Show Stoppers (is presenting by Chrysler)
A Chradvent Carolendar #6: A Carol For Another Christmas (1964)
A Carol for Another Christmas was the first in a series of television specials commissioned by the United Nations to promote and educate viewers about its mission. With an elevator pitch like that we can’t go wrong, can we? Can we? Can we?
Turns out we can’t, this was pretty good. Horribly depressing but good.
A lot of very talented people worked on this. It was directed and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, written by Rod Serling, with music by Henry Mancini, and starring Sterling Hayden and Peter Sellers among many others.
There’s a lot to dissect. It’s bleak, it’s political and it’s heavily didactic. It makes George Bernard Shaw look like Roy Chubby Brown. I shall warn you, this blog post will be extremely light on jokes. If you want jokes I suggest going back to #5 and rereading that. (You are reading these in order as they come out, right?)
The film takes its time to establish itself and over the first four minutes we get four extended sequences. The first is a series of outside wintertime establishing shots. The second follows Charles, an African-American butler, as he tends to his duties around a mansion. As you can see, the table is set for two. The third sees a solemn figure sitting in total darkness listening to upbeat wartime music. In the fourth we see him wring his hands as he pores over a collection of medals and old photographs. With no narrator or dialogue we have already established a few of essential facts about what is obviously our Scrooge.
He is more alone than he wants to be, he is wealthy, and he has a relationship with the military. This film was made at the height of the Cold War so will it be about The Bomb?
You might be thinking that Charles the Butler is our Bob Cratchit. Well you’d be quite wrong, you absolute moron. We get Fred, Scrooge, a bit of Marley, the spirits and that’s it, very little of the original story remains. We also get a hospital scene where some children, in the aftermath of Hiroshima, are shown to have literally had their faces melted off. I’m fairly sure that was in early drafts of the Dickens.
This version of Fred might be my favourite version of Fred. He’s more solemn, isn’t simply a vessel for bonhomie, and sounds like Bing Crosby. He has a complicated relationship with his Uncle, whose name we learn is Daniel Grudge, fostered on political disagreements. They constantly snipe at each other in the way that only people who know each other extremely well do.
“Well now nephew, which one of your many causes brings you out into the snowy night? What is it this time, a movement to donate the Mississippi river to the Sahara desert?”
“You can do better than that.”
“Not with a full stomach I can’t.”
Sharp, witty, full of character. At one point halfway through this film I realised I was just transcribing dialogue rather than taking notes. The script is by far the strongest part of this film (though it is also beautifully directed).
We learn that Grudge has used his considerable unseen influence to block an educational exchange programme at a local University between an American and a Polish professor. Grudge is fearful of Communists and does not like the progressive, humanitarian work that Fred does with what we presume is the UN (we only get a brief namedrop until the last 15 minutes of the film).
Grudge believes that every man is an island. It is Scrooge’s “let me keep Christmas in my own way” extrapolated to it’s logical contemporary extreme; nationalist conservative politics. This is Grudge’s equivalent to a hatred of Christmas. The problem is that the execution of his redemption arc is incredibly confusing. The film is anti-war but pro-intervention. A full half of the Ghost of Christmas Past is an argument where Grudge argues with the spirit that the World Wars were not America’s to fight but also that the only humanitarian aid the poor need is the shelter provided by America’s nuclear umbrella.
It is the kind of moral ambiguity that can only have come from an extremely specific commission brief from a 1960s UN that needed to both a) protest the use of nuclear weapons and b) be prepared to justify intervention into countries prepared to use nuclear weapons. On paper these may sound compatible but they do not convert into the black and white moral message dictated by the A Christmas Carol story.
Here we see Fred and Grudge, with Grudge’s dead son Marley in portrait form between them. Clever shot that visually demonstrates the structure of the Uncle-Nephew relationship. Marley is the reason the two still talk to each other and his death is the driving force behind Grudge’s anti-interventionist ideology. He died in World War Two and is for whom Grudge sets the table on Christmas Eve.
Marley never says a word and is only briefly glimpsed here in what is also the coolest, most eerie revelation of his I’ve seen yet.
They don’t need Marley to say that Grudge is going to be haunted because it’s all cleverly implied in the previous Grudge/ Fred conversation. (Note – I later learned that they did film a scene like that but it got cut.)
The Ghost of Christmas Past is a WW1 soldier who first argues with Grudge on a boat carrying corpses home and then shows him Grudge’s own visit to Hiroshima in the September after the war. Here we meet the aforementioned butchered children. The exact dialogue in the build up to the reveal is between a Japanese doctor and Grudge, a colonel at the time, and is as follows:
“When the plane flew overhead these children looked up at the sky. Their faces were upturned to the blast. They suffered what we call flashbang. It is a term we used to describe instantaneous thermal radiation.”
“How badly were they burned?”
“They have no more faces, Commander.”
The doctor tells the children (who are still alive, by the way) that the American naval officers have come to “wish them well”. The irony is not lost on the audience or by the actor, who delivers it perfectly.
There’s a lot of this kind of stuff and I won’t go into it all. It’s fairly grim and at times narratively messy but always very sharply written and directed.
Grudge is extremely mercenary and is obsessed with statistics and military utilitarianism. He makes the old argument about the necessity of dropping the bomb to shorten the war. So then why is he so anti-interventionist? By this point his son had died, surely?
The following clip from a scene with the Ghost of Christmas Present has him directly confront that aspect of Grudge’s personality. (It’s also, simultaneously, the best acted scene in the film and representative of all of its problems.)
There are lots of well made humanitarian points throughout these segments:
“If you shared a loaf of bread with them how would you be relinquishing your freedom? If you joined other nations to administer vaccines to their children how would you have desecrated your flag?”
It reads like Marx. I admire the boldness of programming something so dark, heavy handed and didactic, billing itself as an adaptation of A Christmas Carol, on prime time ABC in the 60s. But I can’t help but feel that it’s not the kind of thing that an audience that broad would respond to well. The channel executives knew best I suppose!
Superb transition into the Future Ghost. Shows how much you can do with a small television budget and precipitates what Rod Sterling would later do in The Twilight Zone. 1949’s adaptation has no excuse.
We’re in the nuclear apocalypse now and Peter Sellers takes over as Imperial Me, a satirical non-interventionist and social libertarian. Maybe he’s meant to be an objectivist; he actively espouses the worth of greed and self interest. Did Rod Serling and Ayn Rand ever meet? I’d watch that biopic. Regardless, it’s very out of tone with the rest of the film and by far the most heavy handed scene. Grudge says the crowd are insane and we get a moment where Future turns to him and says Aha! But it’s what YOU believe!!
Peter Sellers is quite good but I have no idea what accent he is going for here. I think it’s Louisiana.
A future version of Charles stands as the sole voice of reason delivering a passionate speech about the values of diplomacy, democracy and international cooperation to a crowd that boos him so vociferously that he breaks into tears.
Interesting to note that a black actor has a major role in a mainstream American drama from 1964 where his race is never mentioned or openly politicised.
There’s no tacked-on gravestone sequence just because “that’s what you do”. I like that.
You’d think the resolution would be that Grudge would wake up, announce to Fred that he would allow the cultural exchange and then invite him over for dinner to sit in Marley’s seat. Instead, he merely apologises and then looks pensive drinking his morning cup of coffee as the credits play.
I usually like it when the message isn’t spelled out but Grudge’s resolution here is extremely unsatisfying. Because it’s difficult to pinpoint his precise politics at the beginning it’s difficult to see how he’s changed and how his actions will have consequences, especially as how the only person with whom he ever interacts is Fred.
I have a lot of sympathies with this production; it was broadcast with no commercial breaks and the actors all waived their fees (with the exception of Sellers who took a reduced fee of $350 from $750,000). It was clearly made with good intentions even though the internal politics are extremely confusing and heavy handed.
I’d actually thoroughly recommend this if you’re into alternative Christmas films and Cold War domestic American politics. The dialogue is really fun to listen to and the acting is universally pretty great.
7 nuclear warheads aimed directly at Charles Dickens’ face out of 10
Wow, this one was really was light on jokes. Realistically depicted nuclear holocaust will do that to you, I suppose.
Who here likes fun? Yesterday’s entry was as bleak and depressing as a book by Charles Dickens so for day seven we’re jumping straight into a musical. A real musical, not this tepid bullshit.
Albert Finney stars as Scrooge in Scrooge with music by Leslie Bricusse, a man whose musical prowess sits at the intersection of Willy Wonka and Goldfinger. Directed by the Poseidon Adventure guy. Ok.
I groaned when I saw the length. I’ve already sunk over seven hours of film watching time into this fucking project. Lucky, most of that extra length in this film comes from musical numbers and not bloated storytelling. (I then checked the length for some of the upcoming adaptations and they are not so kind.)
[Joke time] Who needs an entire film to tell us what Han Solo got up to before Star Wars?
Rob by name rob by nature [smuggling joke]
The title cards for this film are all really beautifully drawn by Ronald Searle and MUST be appreciated. Take some time to appreciate them now, please.
We’re now in colour! We’re also now in cockney accents, the first I’ve heard all December. People actually look grimy and Victorian and no-one more so than our Ebenezer Scrooge.
This Scrooge is a pantomime Scrooge; a true miser who walks around with a crooked spine and an old man voice. He leaves his house undusted, he keeps a purse of money around his neck at all times and keeps keys for safes inside other safes (saves? – Ed). Contrast him to the well-dressed, city boy Alastair Sim Scrooge. I think they’re good examples of how far in either direction you can go with naturalism and still deliver a good performance. There’s nothing realistic about Albert Finney’s performance but nor does there need to be. It is campy and fun and right for a musical.
Odd moment as he reproaches Fred for marrying “that idiot lovesick female”. Either he’s a misogynist, he’s envious of Fred’s romantic success or he’s gay. I shall bare these in mind as I proceed.
We spend some time with Bob Cratchit going about doing Christmas business and when he bursts into this song I suddenly sat up, something was weird. Then I realised I hadn’t heard a proper song in my real life since starting this project a week ago. That was a big moment. (This project takes about 5 hours every day in watching/ writing/ editing.)
Roy Kinnear is one of the chuggers! Fun little play on the scene that is usually really boring to watch.
This is one of those Christmas Carols where Scrooge hates the poor and wants them to die. I’ll give him that – it’s a non political family movie, he’s allowed to be the villain. It’s exemplified in the next musical number:
And it’s during this number that I realise: this is a proper musical. Oh it’s a proper musical! With choreography and talent involved! Praise the fucking lord.
Fight me or die, coward.
There’s lots of faff and ghost stuff then Alec Guinness waltzes in (literally).
“If I’m going to play a fucking ghost I may as well have fun with it.”
Funny little moment when Scrooge asks him to sit.
Another version where we skip the grave/ gravy line. Odd because the tone’s campy enough for it to fit.
Cute moment where we can see the strings holding up Alec Guinness.
The arrow wasn’t in the blu-ray release by the way, I did that in MS Paint. It would’ve been even more obvious had they added it though, so I can understand why they didn’t.
Only the second film (after 1951) to show the wandering phantoms. Cool little visual effects and Alec Guinness even gets his own beat poem.
Dirty, dirty, DIRTY fingernails. I guess this was Scrooge’s Manus Horriblus.
Then, as quickly as Alec Guinness dances in, Alec Guinness dances out.
The Ghost of Christmas Past, who is played by Lady Bracknell and is an insanely uninteresting characterisation, takes us back to Scrooge’s childhood fairly promptly. We see children leaving the school dressed in their Traditional Christmas Costumes (?) such as Statue of Liberty, Indian Sikh and Carrot.
Scrooge’s sister Fanny is in this version, a lesson well learned from 1951, but she doesn’t appear beyond a couple of scenes early on in Christmas past to establish that their father was neglectful to Scrooge. We do not see how he was neglectful and we do not know if Scrooge staying at school over Christmas was his decision. The ghost mentions that Fan “died a woman” (odd, not sure what they meant) and that Fred was her son but we do not go into the maternal mortality territory of the Alastair Sim version. I can understand why but committing to go halfway seems a bit pointless.
To Fezziwig then. Scrooge was apprenticed alongside a man called Dick. We are treated to the following homosexual outburst from Scrooge:
“My word I am a good looking chap. Strong too; I used to carry sacks around all day. That’s Dick Wilkins. Nice young fellow. Very attached to me, was he.”
Was he now, Ebenezer.
Young Scrooge is later asked to dance, says no and, when asked why, old Scrooge replies “Because I couldn’t do it”.
I DON’T BLAME YOU.
At this point I stopped to marvel at how much young Scrooge looked like Albert Finney. Two seconds of research revealed to me, the idiot, that young Scrooge was Albert Finney. he was then aged up for the rest of the film. Comparison shot:
42 years earlier and still better looking than Peter Weyland.
The scene that shot is from is the scene where Belle (revealed to be Fezziwig’s daughter) leaves Scrooge because he bloody loves his money so much. It’s broadly the same scene as the 1951 version but lacks the same emotional resonance because Scrooge has not been shown to have the ideological investment in capitalism that Alastair Sim did; he just bloody loves money. There’s a lot of focus on Belle in this segment and the two even get one of these.
Scrooge cries after the visitation.
Then it is time for the of Christmas Present.
I feel like this is probably the most visually faithful depiction of the spirit yet and Kenneth More does a great job. However, this spirit has an odd way of talking and is insanely rude to Scrooge; he invites him to “come up here, you weird little man”, calls him a “funny looking little creature” and then says Earth is a “puny little planet”. What is he, a fucking alien?
They fly like that bit in Superman over to the Cratchit house. Mrs Cratchit is played by the Grandma from Friday Night Dinner and, upon the controversial toast to Mr Scrooge, they have a short Marxist exchange.
We don’t get an “empty crutch” line and Present leaves us on: “My time upon this little planet is very brief. I must leave you now.” Back to fucking Mars presumably.
We then meet the Ghost of Christmas Present. I’m sorry, but I can’t not look at him and see Cool Guy.
An extremely positive change: almost all of the Future scenes have been completely reworked and turned into this one musical number, which is also the best number in the entire film:
It’s a nice alternative to the awful, obvious stuff in the original. Here, the coffin is revealed to the audience but not to Scrooge. It is just as convenient for the story without being lame and boring. But then, learning about the death of Tiny Tim he says “Spirit, you have shown me a Christmas yet to come that mingles great happiness with great sadnesss”. The true nature of the parade is forever left unknown to Scrooge. He identifies his gravestone but doesn’t appear to make a conscious connection to the parade at all. I feel like we missed out on a potentially tragic moment there.
In the graveyard then, we pan over a series of gravestones, some with amazing faux-Dickensian names, to meet Bob.
Bob says goodbye to Tiny Tim, we get Scrooge’s gravestone reveal and he promises to reform.
But no! That is not the end! The Future Ghost takes off his cloak to reveal a skull and Scrooge, in shock, falls backward into the now bottomless grave. We get the following scene that looks and sounds like a cross between 2001: A Space Oddyssey and the opening minute of the 1989 version of the BFG.
Scrooge is now in Hell because this is the 1970s, baby. The Beatles are dead and so is God. The following shots look more like something from Dune than A Christmas Carol.
Oh yeah, Alec Guinness is back! He shows Scrooge his future room in Hell and says that Lucifer has made Scrooge his personal clerk. Scrooge begs him, saying “that’s unfair” but I dunno man, sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. I doubt Satan has much in the way of deductables.
Scrooge is then bound in chains by who I can only describe as four huge hot sweaty men.
A literally frigid prisoner of his own repressed homosexuality.
Scrooge wakes up, he’s light as a feather, happy as a schoolboy, buys a turkey yada yada yada. He diverts to the toy shop and enlists – quote – “the services of several boys” to help him deliver presents to the Cratchit’s house (sure, whatever). He also puts on a Father Christmas outfit on the way. He gives the Cratchit girls some dolls, Peter Cratchit an entire armful of miscellaneous weapons (0.26 in the clip below) while Tiny Tim gets a toy carousel and some free surgery.
With the reprise of the following song, Scrooge’s arc is completed:
The Thank You Very Much song comes full circle and Scrooge’s fantasy interpretation is realised (not that he ever thought otherwise).
Was hugely disappointed when the newly adorned Alec Guinness-knocker didn’t wink.
This is the first truly family friendly adaptation of A Christmas Carol and it ends on a true musical finale. It’s joyous. Scrooge is a caricature yes, but the specific aims of this version have to be appreciated – it is a huge success in what it sets out to accomplish and should be measured by those goals and not simply comparing it to the original Dickens.
7 1/2 huge hot sweaty men out of 10
I wish I could give this higher, I wish I could. I’m trying to keep my ratings objective – after all, we’re here to identify which adaptation is Superior – but even joy, wonder and musical magic can’t make up for the fact that this Scrooge is underdeveloped and overacted.
First cartoon of Chradvent!
A Christmas Carol (1971) was animated by Richard Williams (the mastermind behind the animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the essential Animator’s Survival Kit and semi-lost animated feature The Thief and the Cobbler).
Also on the team was Ken Harris who animated the greatest animated short of all time with the producer of this film Chuck Jones. As a result, this is fucking beautiful.
Remember the incredible title cards from the 1970 version?
Yeah well fuck you how about 24 of those every second?
Alastair Sim and Michael Horden reprise their roles from the 1951 film as Scrooge and Marley respectively. Their performances are nowhere near as dynamic or interesting as in 1951 because these versions of the characters are severely abridged to make way for reproducing A Christmas Carol as simply as possible. Each essential beat of the story follows the previous. Marley knocker. Marley ghost. Grave/ gravy. Christmas Past. The bare essentials. There is no story department because the story is a wire frame from which to hang some very pretty pictures. As such, all things considered, this is probably the most faithful adaptation yet.
This is the opening shot; an extended pan and zoom using extreme perspective and fluid camera movements to introduce us immediately to Scrooge. No messing around.
Props to Richard Williams for being the first director to faithfully adapt the original description of the Ghost of Christmas Past that I mentioned previously as:
Although, to their credit, I suppose replicating the effect in live action would probably put too much strain on the actor’s spine.
The character animation is incredible. Ken Harris was responsible for Scrooge; I’ve clipped him delivering his surplus population line. So, so good.
And here when we see Scrooge aging up, transitioning between segments in the Past stave.
The film races through Christmas Past, faithfully hitting each essential story beat for the bare minimum amount of time necessary. It was only scrolling through the YouTube comments afterwards did user 2071Johnny raise a very good point about the inclusion of the scene where Belle breaks up with Scrooge:
“You could’ve fast forwarded past that, spirit. In not one single installment has the lose end of his love life ever been tied up. Kind of a harsh filler.”
And you know what, he’s absolutely right. The other segments of Past (school, Fezziwig) allow Scrooge to reflect on his issues around loneliness and making merry. They’re both tied up in the end as part of Scrooge’s redemption arc. But the love angle of the Scrooge story is literally never resolved. It is established across multiple versions that Belle was the only person Scrooge ever loved and it is always left unresolved. Always.
[Edit: I have been informed that the arc is resolved in Scrooged. I look forward to watching it later this month.]
And while we’re on the subject, why does Scrooge die if he doesn’t reform? Does he get murdered? Do the spirits murder him? Does Bob Cratchit murder him? Is it the raw power of Christmas bonhomie that keeps his yuletide heart beating?
Back to pretty shots.
There really isn’t much else to say. I would only remark that Alastair Sim is probably there for nostalgia; he is not replicating his 1951 performance as his version of Scrooge is very different to Richard William’s version of Scrooge. That was fine for that and this is fine for this. Sim reads the lines well and you can tell the voice direction was good but it does not reach the lofty heights of his 1951 characterisation.
You have to consider what a project is trying to achieve when evaluating how good it is. This project achieved exactly that which it set out to achieve; to animate A Christmas Carol. It was unconcerned with frills or interpretation.
As such rating it as I have done this past week becomes incredibly difficult. As an adaptation of A Christmas Carol it is far from Superior but as a short film in its own right it is absolutely exceptional.
6 Garrett Gilchrist restorations out of 10 with the caveat that in any other context it’d be a 9 or 10
I might retcon this rating later, I’m more uncertain of this than any rating yet. It’s a third rate adaptation but a first rate cartoon.
A Chradvent Carolendar #9: Rich Little’s Christmas Carol (1979)
I have no idea who Rich Little is. You probably don’t either. What matters is that he was important enough in the late 70s to get his very own Christmas special.
Does… does that say merriest or messiest? I’ve legitimately no idea but either way we’re in for a treat.
Here’s our man of the hour, Rich Little, who looks exactly like Peter Serafinowicz’s impression of Alan Alda.
It quickly becomes clear that impressions are exactly what Rich Little is known for as the title crawl then lists all the famous people he’ll be caricaturing (always a sign of confidence in the impersonator). Is he really planning on recreating A Christmas Carol with various forgotten celebrities?
No, that can’t be it.
Scrooge is W. C. Fields, a man known exclusively for his work in such toilet literature classics as “Grumpy Old Wit” and “1000 Brilliant Quotes”. I had to look up YouTube clips of W. C. Fields shortly after starting because there was no way that a human being could sound like Rich Little does here and not be terminally ill.
Bob Cratchit is Paul Lynde (me neither) and, instead of being money lenders, the two own a “Boat and Bottle” business, whatever the fuck that is. Rich Little invented an entire industry just so the narrator could say “Bob built the boats and Scrooge emptied the bottles” because Rich Little was unable to do his impression of W. C. Fields without making constant references to the man’s crippling alcoholism.
The jokes are staggeringly weak. They’re not even jokes. Scrooge sings “I’m dreaming of a tight Christmas”. Before asking Scrooge if he can put another log on the fire, Bob jumps up and down and says he’s doing a new dance called “freezing and shivering”. It brings me no great pleasure to say that I’ve seen funnier moments in Scooby Doo.
There’s an odd moment where Bob has his hand on the stove pipe then realises and draws it away in pain. I am not clear if he is doing that because it is hot (which doesn’t make any sense) or because it is cold (which doesn’t make any sense).
It would make more sense if it his hand froze to the pole but then why would he have this reaction?
I’m not going to dwell on this. Fred enters and it’s Johnny Carson. There’s some terrible continuity editing.
Pause.
Ever wondered what celebrities think about other peoples impressions of them? Here’s Johnny Carson on Rich Little, straight from Wikipedia:
“Little’s impersonation allegedly got under the skin of Carson and he was permanently banned without notice or reason [from The Tonight Show] after his August 1982 appearance according to Little’s biography, and this claim was supported by Henry Bushkin, Carson’s long-time lawyer, who stated that nobody got under Carson’s skin more than Little.”
You almost gotta try hard to be that bad. The article goes on to say that he hosted the 2007 White House Correspondents Dinner.
“Although President George W. Bush was reported to have enjoyed Little’s performance, it was panned by some reviewers for “his ancient jokes and impressions of dead people””.
I went back and watched that Correspondents Dinner and… my god. In this clip below, which I implore you desperately to watch, Little tells an extremely prolonged joke about hunters who confuse deer tracks with train tracks, berates the audience for not “getting the joke”, then, for no reason, singles out and insults journalists from the New York Times, promising to send them copies of Bill O’Reilly’s book “Culture Warrior”.
The chuggers are Laurel and Hardy.
His Stan is fine but his Oliver is awful. There is a lot of slapstick in this movie and it is all awful.
It’s even worse with sound – you can hear his feet hitting the bottom of the door frame way before his face makes contact, completely telegraphing the joke.
Someone made this! Money, time and effort went into this!
Very odd sequence:
Scrooge sees Cratchit working, sneaks up on him, causes him to break the boat he’s made and then reprimands him for not doing the work he was just doing. Very out of character for both Scrooge and W. C. Fields. Also I’m not sure that’s quite how you get a boat into a bottle.
Scrooge enters his house and his nose glows. Took me a while to get this one before I realised it was meant to imply he was drunk. Undercut by 1) his nose not being red in any other scene before or after and 2) by it being a clearly visible comic relief-style prop red nose.
Jacob Marley is Richard Nixon.
I will give this film its credit, there are four (4) good jokes in total and two of them are here. The first is that instead of Marley’s chains he has the reels of the Watergate tape. The second is his line
“Expect the first ghost when the bell tolls one. The second 18 and a half minutes later.”
Even then it’s a 3 out of 5. Then he goes ahead and ruins the joke 10 seconds later by turning to the camera and saying “they’ll never let me forget those 18 and a half minutes”. Why does every line in this sound like it was written by an alien?
The grave/ gravy joke is gone because it would make Rich Little’s material look weak by comparison. I double checked and, yes, Rich Little is the only credited writer.
The Ghost of Christmas Past is Humphrey Bogart.
By now we see a pattern. The impression appears, with a heavy reliance on costume, and delivers a few lines from their original property with a Christmas twist. Except here Humphrey Bogart doesn’t even bother festivising it:
“In all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world I had to walk into his”
He takes us back to Fezziwig’s “boat and bottle warehouse” party where Jimmy Stewart plays Dick Wilkins (remember that unforgettable timeless character) who lectures Scrooge for being miserly. I thought the whole point was that Scrooge only became miserly when he turned his back on Fezziwig’s outlook later in life?
Also Fezziwig is Groucho Marx.
We get a musical number here called “Typical Office Party” where Groucho goes around pinching womens’ bums. Oof.
Did you know HBO made this? I’ll never be able to watch The Sopranos again.
Ok, past is over now. Time for Present. Who could it be?
Oh, it’s Columbo. Hello Columbo.
I won’t fault him when he succeeds, his Peter Falk is fairly good. But he brings us into the most batshit insane Christmas Present segment I’ve seen yet.
For a start, Mrs Cratchit is Edith Bunker. From All In The Family.
But here’s the best bit. Stop the fucking presses everyone, Tiny Tim is TRUMAN CAPOTE played by an ACTUAL CHILD.
Not only this, but we never get a single line of dialogue to suggest that Tiny Tim is ill. Nor do we ever see him again. He’s not even mentioned. We don’t see the grieving Cratchits or Tim’s gravestone. The entire centrepiece of A Christmas Carol is chucked out of the fucking window.
Disappointingly, we cut to a closeup of Rich Little for a couple of Tim/ Truman lines. The bad news is that I was expecting the child to do it. The good news is that Rich Little’s impression sounds like Droopy Dog.
Following exchange between Peter Cratchit and Bob:
“What do you think of the meal we’ve prepared for you father?”
“Offensive.”
If I was Tiny Tim with a father as mean spirited as that (probably as a result of a lifetime of repressed homosexuality) I’d happily welcome death.
Who’s the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come?
Fuck off. Inspector Clouseau? It’s not even an impression. It’s just a French accent. That’s it! There is literally no more to it than an accent, the costume and the Pink Panther theme playing in the background. That is not an impression. That is nothing. It is a true void of creativity and the single worst characterisation for Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come possible. It is. I have thought about it and there is no worse candidate for the Ghost of Christmas Future than a bad impression of Inspector Clouseau. It is the endgame. “It’s a comedy” I hear you say. “Live a little” I hear you say. Well it’s also a story, and up to this point it has at least attempted to hit some of the beats of the classic it is attempting to replicate. So go fuck yourself.
The placement of impressions is arbitrary. It’s totally random. Paul Lynde is Bob Cratchit simply because Rich Little can do Paul Lynde and needed to put him in somewhere. No more thought went into it.
As a result of the Pink Panther theme forming a large part of his impression of Clouseau, this becomes the second film of Chradvent to feature the music of Henry Mancini. Rich Little seems to have a bit of a history with Blake Edwards; he occasionally provided the voice for the otherwise silent cartoon Pink Panther character (foreshadowing Clouseau’s loud Future ghost) and provided the dub for David Niven in some of the Panther sequels. Why? Who knows. I suppose this also makes this the second film of Chradvent to feature Peter Sellers, in one way or another. No wonder he died the next year.
We then cut to the future as the gentlemen outside the bank discuss the death of a mystery man (hint: it’s Scrooge). We get James Mason
John Wayne? In full cowboy gear? Mr Little, is your impression of him really so bad that you have to dress him like a cowboy even though everyone else is dressed like a Victorian?
Don’t answer that.
We get one of the four good jokes in the graveyard scene.
“You have never lifted a finger to help anyone!”
“That’s not true. I’ve given many people who needed my help the finger.”
It’s then immediately undercut by some fucking stupid awful unfunny slapstick. Not even going to clip it. Clouseau falls in the grave. When helping him up, Scrooge notices that his own name is on the gravestone and drops Clouseau back in again. He promises to reform and give up liquor and we return to the present.
Scrooge has now given up liquor, completely destroying his business model. If Bob built the boats and Scrooge emptied the bottles then what possible role in the business could Scrooge now occupy? He’s definitely shown no marketing or sales acumen heretofore. This also throws Bob’s situation directly into question and could jeopardise the life of Tiny Tim even further if only he hadn’t been introduced and then immediately forgotten.
The fourth good joke comes as Fred offers a reformed Scrooge a belt of scotch. It’s more like a half good joke.
“A drink? No, I cant stand the sight of the stuff”
“I know, that’s why you drink, to get it out of your sight.”
It’s uneven. The idea is there, but the execution is way off.
Oh, not to worry, they get Dean Martin to empty the bottles instead – except his voice is off screen because Rich Little can’t do a convincing enough physical impression/ doesn’t have access to a tuxedo. And it still means that Scrooge’s role in the business is completely redundant. Good. I hope he dies.
At the end of the film, all the characters we now know and love turn to the camera and personally thank Rich Little.
What a shitshow. This might be the worst thing I’ve ever seen.
Almost gave this a 0 but, to be fair, his Columbo was good. That said, I have no reservations in describing this as the most Inferior adaptation of any property across all media and time.
A Chradvent Carolendar #10: Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)
Posted on December 10, 2017 December 1, 2018 by BenjaminAlborough
Yesterday’s Chradvent left me completely emotionally drained. It was very kind then of Disney to make theirs the next chronologically. Mickey’s Christmas Carol is typical cartoon fun; it’s nothing special but I’d say it’s probably the best family friendly, 25 minute long adaptation you could make bearing in mind the source material.
Let’s see who worked on this, then.
Ah, Glen Keane. He’d go on to do some incredible character animation during the Disney renaissance and recently went viral for an appearance on The Late Late show where he drew a 3D picture of Ariel in real time in VR. Who else?
Joh- ah. Never mind.
Can you guess which beloved Disney character is playing the part of Ebenezer Scrooge? Let’s just throw a dart at something. There isn’t a W. C. Fields Mouse which immediately throws the whole thing into contention. Let’s us probe the depths of the Donald Duck universe, which apparently exists and is distinct from the Mickey Mouse universe. But who? Who??
Ok enough it’s Scrooge McDuck.
Considering the title is Mickey’s Christmas Carol I thought Mickey might be our Scrooge. It seems obvious now that Scrooge McDuck would play Ebenezer Scrooge but bear in mind this was a good four years before Ducktales came out and McDuck was not a well known character outside of the comic books.
The premise here is very similar to Duck Dodgers or… ugh… Rich Little’s Christmas Carol in that established characters are actors in the story of A Christmas Carol. Scrooge McDuck plays Ebenezer Scrooge and is referred to as such. Mickey Mouse is Bob Cratchit, etc.
Right away we can see why each character was cast; Mickey Mouse makes sense as the good natured Bob Cratchit. Donald Duck is maybe the most obvious casting, being both the real (read: in Duck Universe) nephew of Scrooge McDuck and the fictional (read: fictional within Duck Universe) nephew of Ebenezer Scrooge; Fred. Makes Rich Little’s characterisations look even more arbitrary and stupid. Paul Lynde for Bob Cratchit? Inspector Fucking Clouseau as the Ghost of – no, no. It’s over now. I can stop.
Fred invites Scrooge over for Christmas dinner. He specifically mentions that they’ll be eating goose. Fatalistic. I presume this cartoon is set in the same universe, where famine has driven the desperate Donald to avian cannibalism. It’s even worse because later a named sentient goose shows up at Fezziwig’s party.
The animation is really smooth and pleasant to look at. Paused on some really good inbetweens that show great squash and stretch.
Next up are the chuggers. Who do we think, Chip and Dale maybe?
I, uh – who? Is that… Rat and Mole from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad? Christ, it is. Ok. I didn’t even think anyone at Disney had seen that.
There’s a nice bit where Scrooge palms them off by saying:
“You realise if you give money to the poor they wont be poor anymore, will they? And if they’re not poor any more then you won’t have to raise money for them anymore. And if you don’t have to raise money for them anymore then you’d be out of a job. Please gentlemen, don’t ask me to put you out of a job – not on Christmas eve.”
At least it’s something a bit different. It’s also closer in line to the sarcastic, witty Scrooge of 1951 than any version since.
Bob Cratchit goes home at 7pm (10 hour workdays, 6 days a week, thank god for the labour movement) and asks for half the day off for Christmas. This is the first version where he asks rather than being offered and where he only wants half the day rather than all of it.
Now, who did they choose to play Marley?
Goofy? Why the fuck would anyone want to go into business with Goofy? I literally can’t imagine anyone worse as a business partner. He’s got a massive gambling problem for a start.
I disagree with this casting; Goofy is playing out of type here and is not by nature a Jacob Marley. Oh well, at least he gets to do his signature yell.
Jiminy Cricket is the Ghost of Christmas Past. That makes sense. We get taken straight to Fezzywig’s [sic] party and are introduced to the sentient goose that Donald plans to butcher and ingest.
Lots of cameos in this scene. As you can see, we get the rabbit children from Robin Hood along with a few Aristocats and Extended Duck Universe characters.
Fezzywig [sic] is…
Mr Toad? From The Adventures of Ichibod and Mr Toad? Not Baloo or… ok, sure, whatever.
We pan over to a young Ebenezer who is described as a “shy young man”. His Belle is Daisy Duck which raises a lot of questions re: intergenerational incest with Donald. (We never meet Fred’s wife in this version, maybe there’s a reason Scrooge disapproves.)
The Ghost of Christmas Present is Willie the Giant from Mickey and the Beanstalk. I guess he retrained following the famine.
He was probably chosen for his size (described in the novella as a “jolly Giant”) but if anything this role could’ve been swapped with Marley. The giant of the Beanstalk story hoards wealth like Marley and Goofy is easily good-spirited and jolly enough to be the Ghost of Present.
There are natural comparisons to be made between this and the 1971 Richard Williams version and yet the animation styles could not be more different. Both are good in their own rights but I’m struggling to pick out any scene or sequence in this that is particularly well animated or stylishly done. It sometimes feels like it’s going through the motions.
Bob Cratchit’s house then.
I understand why they wanted to cast only existing Disney characters into existing roles but they were scraping the bottom of the barrel here. The Cratchit children are quoted as being drawn from Minnie & Mickey’s nieces and nephews; Millie, Morty, Melody and Ferdie, forgotten ancients who haven’t appear outside of a few comic strips from the 1930s and Disney Golf for the Playstation 2. They are played so far out of character here though that they are essentially different characters.
The Ghost of Christmas Present tells Scrooge he sees an empty chair etc and Scrooge says “You mean the boy will…” because they can’t say the word “die” in a Disney film. This is immediately followed up by a horrifying scene set in a graveyard with lots of references to graves, dying and death.
(Ignore the ending to that clip.)
The reveal of Pete as Christmas Future is done in two stages and is altogether pretty menacing.
He’s smoking! You can ___ from smoking.
The shot where Scrooge falls into the grave is reminiscent of the scene from the 1970 version.
Also the weasels from The Fucking Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad are there. Someone in the production team really liked The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad.
Scrooge wakes up a reformed man etc. He accidentally busts his top hat on the way out, which is exactly what happens when Mr Banks reforms in Mary Poppins (maybe this was deliberate?).
Scrooge McDuck then gives 100 gold sovereigns to the chuggers which is a bit less than £5000 in today’s money. We can equivocally state that this is the most generous Scrooge yet. Also, what’s his actual net worth? I hope this is established at some point. That’s a lot of money to just chuck at someone on a whim. Proper philanthropy requires forethought and planning. What an amateur.
We don’t get a “why sir, it’s Christmas day” moment.
This is the first to have Scrooge visit Bob’s house to play a prank on him. Also, Scrooge offers Bob partnership in his business instead of just a raise. I hope Scrooge’s generosity hasn’t gone to his head and Bob has demonstrated enough acumen for this to be worth it. Wouldn’t want to jeopardise the business as a whole. Though I suppose anyone’s better than fucking Goofy.
That’s it really. There aren’t really any clever twists on the original that you would expect from a better Disney cartoon and it’s a fairly straightforward march through the story beats. Well animated but not really well animated.
6 1/2 Victories Through Air Power out of 10
Rule #5 of Chradvent was “easy on the cartoons”. I’ve limited myself to 5 for this month because almost every single cartoon you can think of has done their own version of A Christmas Carol. I think it might be the most adapted property outside of… The Bible? Maybe one of Grimm’s fairy tales.
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IIR Energy Market Breakers
planned refinery turnarounds, Irving Oil, Natural Gas, Unplanned Nuclear Outage, Ontario Power Generation
Ontario Power Generation Incorporated incurred an unplanned outage on the 881-megawatt (MW) Unit 3 at its Darlington Nuclear Power Station in Bowmanville, Ontario. The company cited cracks and leaks in a suction line. The outage is expected to end Friday, November 18.
Entergy Arkansas Incorporated is extending a planned maintenance outage on the 842-megawatt (MW) Unit 1 at the Arkansas Nuclear One plant in Russellville, Arkansas. The outage covers refueling and maintenance; balance-of-plant maintenance; cooling system inspections; steam generator and reactor head inspections; maintenance on coolant pumps, fans, motors and piping systems; control rod adjustments; instrumentation and controls calibrations and testing; turbine generator inspection and testing; and oil-system lubrication. Originally set to end today, it instead will last through Wednesday, November 30.
Irving Oil restarted the 150,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Crude 3 Unit, which was included in the fall turnaround event known as “Operation Red Fox,” at its 300,000-BBL/d refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, on Sunday, November 13. The associated 55,000-BBL/d Vacuum 3 Unit will remain offline for an additional three to four weeks from this past weekend, as repairs are being made following a vacuum tower fire on Sunday, October 30. All other units, which include the 24,000-BBL/d Naphtha Hydrotreater Train 1, the 24,000-BBL/d Naphtha Hydrotreater Train 2, the 25,000-BBL/d Rheniformer 2 and the 40,000-BBL/d Diesel HDS 135 units, have been restarted and are back online.
TransCanada Corporation has halted its open season for a new fixed-price toll proposal to flow natural gas along the Canadian Mainline from the Empress receipt point in Alberta to the Dawn hub in Southern Ontario. The open season for the proposed service resulted in bids that fell well short of the volumes required to make the proposal viable, according to the company.
For more information, please subscribe to the Industrial Info blog.
U.S. Crude Throughput Grows 300,000 BBL/d for Second Week in a Row
U.S. crude oil throughput increased by more than 300,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) for the second…
Report: Government Decision Imminent on Dakota Access Pipeline
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could make a decision as early as Monday whether to allow completion…
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« The Spandrellian trichotomy
Supposedly black Egypt »
Ferguson chimp out
Short recap of the Ferguson story:
Michael Brown, a huge black man helped himself to some tobacco in a shop, then strong armed the shopkeeper rather than paying. He then walked down the street, expecting traffic to get out of his way. When a policeman told him to stop jaywalking, he attacked the policeman, forced his way into the policeman’s car, and attempted to take the cops gun. The cop shot him.
According to heavily tattooed gang members wearing clothes intended to intimidate, after being shot, Michael Brown ran with his hands in the air, and the policeman shot Michael Brown again while he was holding his arms in the air and running.
This might well nonetheless be true, at least the part about him being shot while running, though not the part about his hands in the air, for if Michael Brown attacked me I might well do the same thing. He is big, scary, violent, thuggish, and crazy. Yeah, it would be the wrong thing to do, but when a big crazy guy attacks one out of the blue, one is apt to do the wrong thing.
The blacks proceeded to loot and burn. The local police, facing collective criminal conduct, responded militarily, engaging in collective violence to crush collective violence – a military style response.
This “military”, which is to say collective, violence of course horrified the press, who blamed the police, and in particular the white cop in charge. So a black cop was put in charge, and a huge round of news stories proceeded about peaceful protests and how everything was wonderful in peaceful civilized harmony, blithely ignoring events running contrary to story, blithely ignoring that the blacks were taking out one cop after another by collective violence, which the individual violence of the cops was ineffectual in preventing. And then, contrary to story, the black cop had to resort to collective military style violence to keep his cops alive.
This is analogous to events in Gaza. One might well believe that Israel blockades Gaza because they are evil racists, but when Egypt blockades Gaza, people of the same race and religion as themselves, it’s pretty obvious that the problem is terrorists operating out of Gaza, not Gaza’s neighbors. And, similarly, the problem in Ferguson is individual and collective black violence, which collective violence has to be met by collective violence.
The larger story is that blacks destroyed Saint Louis, then, fleeing their own destruction of the city and each other’s violence, proceeded to move into a white suburb, which they are now in the process of destroying in turn.
This is a reason that the cost of housing is so high. If wealthy people got to live where they chose, and poorer people got to live in the less desirable places, the inner city would be full of rich people, and poor black thugs would live in the exurbs. The city would be safe and orderly, while slums far away from the center, places that no one ever goes to or cares much about, were dangerous and disorderly. If, however, we look at where people live, it is clear that black collective violence trumps money, which forces up the cost of housing as white people bid up the small and shrinking pool of safe housing, which is usually located in places inconveniently far from the city center, forcing them to perform long commutes.
The white man buys a house. To support his crushing mortgage he makes a long commute every day, along a highway with big wall to protect it from black people living much closer to his workplace than he does. And then some section eight women and her nine kids by nine different thugs is plonked beside his house, and while he is at work, the section eight woman terrorizes his wife, breaking one of his windows and threatening to force entry.
This makes it hard for white men to reproduce, that white men are not able, not allowed, to protect their wives and children, in part because blacks can engage in collective violence against white people, and white people are not allowed to collectively defend themselves. To have a safe place for one’s wife and children, it has to be possible to run bad people out of that place.
That blacks live close to where white people work, while white people are forced to live far from where they work, tells us that blacks have the upper hand over whites. Slavery worked. Jim Crow sort of worked. Civil rights has been a disaster.
Tags: affirmative action, appeasement, decline of the west, race
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 17th, 2014 at 03:16 and is filed under culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
62 Responses to “Ferguson chimp out”
>white people are not allowed to collectively defend themselves.
Passive voice. Or something. You know what I mean.
I’m sure you know this, but it needs to be said explicitly. Some white people are collectively preventing other white people from collectively defending themselves from blacks.
By ‘money’ I hope you mean what lastPsych calls the aspirational 14%. The actual 1% or 0.01% live as they please, because they have the prole 85% by the balls.
There is much truth in the statement that it is the Jews, in that the civil rights movement was primarily a movement of progressive reform Jews, but the reason that that movement worked for the Jews that they were out holying a White Anglos Saxon Protestant left that was already extremely holy and was getting ever holier, and was vulnerable to being guilted by higher levels of holiness. If ordinary Americans had said “You are Jews”, that would not have worked, because they would be conceding the greater holiness of Jews, but if they had instead said “blacks need to be treated differently to whites, because men were not created equal, are not equal, not individual men, nor groups of men, nor categories of men, nor are women equal to men”, if they had not conceded the superior holiness of the civil rights movement, that would have worked. The competition to be ever more holy in the treatment of blacks started long before Jews got involved in it.
The national socialist position that all whites are equal does not work, because if you claim all whites are equal, someone who claims that all people are equal is even holier than you are, so if you start worrying about blacks making family formation by whites unaffordable, you should not at the same time complain about the wealthy one percent.
Thrasymachus says:
All whites are equal to the extent all European nations norm at around 100 IQ. Furthermore a society of all white people will function quite well.
…depending on government, of course. The type of society is strongly constrained by genetics, but the USSR was the USSR, and if it had not collapsed in less than a hundred years, it may have began modifying the genetics of the Russians, like how several thousand years of Asiatic despotism affected the Chinese. I suspect that the Chinese started out behaviorally more similar to the Koreans and Japanese, who are almost like Europeans.
The difference between the top sixth of whites and the bottom sixth is twice the difference between whites and blacks. If you propose equality for whites, but not equality for blacks, you have conceded the holiness of equality, and have now been out holied.
Van Phauc says:
IQ is not the only trait that makes black people suck.
Conscientiousness, aggression, etc also play roles.
More research is needed to make the case that 15% of whites are anywhere near as bad as blacks.
The problem is conforming elites of all races.
At 2% of Americans, there’s far too many Jews for them all to be true leader elites. It’s once again the fact that Jews have proportionally a high level of elites.
If America somehow survives another fifty years, you’ll see discussions exactly like this about Asians. They also have extra elites, and their collectivism makes them well-suited to parroting progressivism. Indeed the antisemites and the anitsinos will probably squabble with each other about who is most to blame.
I believe the ruling class is still over 50% white. Note that bureaucrats follow thought leaders, but these leaders never show up in the news so we don’t know their names.
Lots of Asians have been in California and Hawaii for a long time. Why aren’t they accused of the same things that the Jews are? Could it be that they are different from the Jews?
It’s also funny how the Parisis, that other famous race of ultra-high IQ middle man minorities, are renowned not for Jewing people, but for honesty and truthfulness in business, in keeping with the core values of their Zoroastrian religion.
Some enlightenments just too dark for the Darkly Enlightened.
There is no end of things wrong with Jews, some of which I attribute to a religion of exile, and some may be the result of selection for the outsider role. But they are not responsible for the modern trend left.
Asians don’t get the same rap because they do their own work. Jewish existence is largely parasitical on it’s host population while Asians actually build, work hard and get their hands dirty. Don’t get me wrong, having a large Asian population is no use in maintaining America civilization in the long run, but they don’t go out of their way to shit where they live like the Jews do.
There’s also the issue that Asians favor their own families over the group and tend to hate other Asian groups with a much larger passion that they hate whites. Where the Jews are always united about how horrible the goyim are, a group of Chinese guys is far more likely to be pissed at the local Cambodians or Japanese.
There’s also Asian corruption vs Jewish corruption. Jews are currently looting the city of Chicago down to the pipes in the street where as corrupt Asians tend to take a nice manageable cut from the top while maintaining an actual functioning system to some degree.
by the way, the other day I saw some progressive throw around the word ‘scotched’, because at one point Maryland and Virginia farmers were getting scotched. There probably are countries where some word for Chinese is a slur; but Jews are know to jew people everywhere and by everyone since the first written words about them by others.
Jamarion says:
Dass Rayciss yo!
Ansible says:
Draconian crimes call for draconian punishment. If the Ferguson PD had balls they would shoot looters on sight. The unrest would end faster than you can say “abra-ca-dabra”. The feral humans would run away screaming from the boomsticks.
Also, in the article you linked I noticed that the man in the left corner at the start of the video looks remarkably similar to Dorian Johnson. Same facial structure, exact same haircut, carries himself in the exact same way… one could say they could be twins. He also has a black shirt slung over his shoulder and it is clear from your link that he wears a white shirt underneath his black shirt. That’s some pretty damning evidence that even a prog couldn’t ignore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlMjhoYPmZ8
Ferguson chimp out | Reaction Times says:
tg moderator says:
Civil rights has been a disaster, but in a sense segregation is still with us. Consider the population of 17 to 30 yr. old black males in prison. It may not be cost effective, but it is segregation. Since we will never get along, one culture must dominate, or the cultures must separate. It seems hard to dominate another group long term when that group is more than 10% of the population. Separation is a better goal, but costly. The situation with native Americans remains an issue even after all these years. I traveled in the Pine Ridge Res. this summer, and they have problems. George Washington, our original liberal, tried to help the Indians by sending them spinning wheels, and farm implements. His efforts to help Indians assimilate helped part white Cherokee like James Vann become very wealthy. (Kind of like Steve Sailer’s mulatto elite today) Pure blood Indians usually did not assimilate during the period for 1776 to 1803, and were near starvation. President Jackson’s solution, what is now called the trail of tears, worked for white civilization. Not so hot for the Indians. If we continue to see more Ferguson type events we will eventually have another trail of tears, but to where?
Segregation, plus slavery and gelding for the hard cases, plus open a prison colony in Africa for the hard cases that no one wants to buy, which I suspect will be most of them.
Candide III says:
Probably don’t even need an actual colony. Bribing one of the African strongmen presidents to accept the people would be cheaper. Italy ran this sort of scheme on the quiet with Libya, paying it money to accept deported “asylum seekers”, until the Libyan unrest made the international community sufficiently aware of the scheme and it was shut down.
40 million Blacks in the US * 250$ one way air fare to Liberia = 10 billion dollars
Throw in another 20 billion dollars to give the government 500$ for each resettled.
Throw in another 40 billion dollars to give each resettled 1000$ each.
Worth it? Oh, so worth it.
Food stamps cost 76 billion dollars in 2013, but only a third of food stamps are used by Blacks. Section 8 costs 20 billion each year. But how much do affirmative action and white flight cost?
The ones who won’t cut it would be eaten by the Liberians. Human flesh is still openly consumed in the capital.
Anon. says:
My comments aren’t coming through, unless I do somersaults and hand-stands.
A.J.P.
Nice descriptivism, Jim. You’ve done well.
Quote In a healthy society, The Cities are the most conservative Unquote
Alan J. Perrick says:
Perhaps it was the italics I tried to use
We are serving technology It is not serving us Exclamation point End Rant
nydwracu says:
Yeah, comments that contain HTML won’t go through. I think you can’t use the less than or greater than signs, but ” ? ! should all work.
> goes through, but the other one doesn’t.
I don’t know what the problem is. No one else seems to be having it. It looks like when it tries to check wordpress tags to see if they are permitted, it runs into a missing page
I will check the error logs
I will attempt to reinstall wordpress
Seems the reinstall meant the old RSS feed broke and I had to get a new one. I didn’t try it before the reinstall, but attempting to comment html is giving me a 403 error.
I reinstalled to try to fix the 403 error.
Did not work.
But when I re-install to a different blog address, works.
Notably I don’t care, I’m just letting you know in case you do.
Why wont any blogger talk about the importance of routine in religious practice Question Mark
Too Quote boring Unquote Question Mark
Too Quote unsexy Unquote Question Mark
… shoot looters on sight…
That used to be the rule in wars, earthquakes, revolutions and mass disorders. I saw it applied during the October 1956 Hungarian Revolution. There was remarkably little looting of private and State property.
outsider says:
Unfortunately there appears to be no peaceful solution to this problem.
Outside in - Involvements with reality » Blog Archive » Chaos Patch (#23) says:
[…] some communists (++), tortured left liberals, tortured conservatives, establishment libertarians, outer right curmudgeons, white nationalists. This line of approach makes a lot of sense to me. Ferguson […]
Dan Kurt says:
Solution of Colored Problem (Black and Brown):
1) If economy holds together America with open borders gradually enters the Third World as the 2nd Brazil–low probability.
2) Economic collapse somewhat contained world wide with North America, Europe and China main players–low probability. Result: Left discredited; Central Banks hung with blame; authoritarian government in USA able to contain disorder caused by shrinkage of welfare; Hispanics deported in mass with border in South moved into Mexico by 100 miles as a buffer and the Baja depopulated of Mexicans; Blacks treated like Japanese on West Coast during WW2 as Nation tries to cope with Black unrest. Eventual deportation of Blacks to Africa in millions.
3) Economic collapse world wide with regional wars and revolutions–probable future. Europe suffers some Nuclear damage and then reacts by removing all Blacks, Browns from Europe. Middle East convulses with many nuclear weapon releases with the result that Israel is gone but so is Turkey, Iran, the Gulf States with the Muslim holy sites vaporized. India fights Pakistan in nuclear war killing off hundreds of millions, China fights itself as warlords arise and famine returns also killing hundreds of millions, North Korea is nuked after South Korea is overrun probably by a Japan which has the Nuclear weapons. The USA takes a few nukes and gives a few world wide then breaks up into independent regions but Blacks really overreact and are killed off in mass as are those Hispanics who don’t emigrate South. Illusions of the brotherhood of man vanish from the USA as Welfare disappears as well as the Federal Government. Ultra authoritarian regional governments will arise, population will fall and democracy will become a swear word. BTW, the Jews will get blamed.
In all scenarios there will be massive population decline in the world as trade falls and food supplies collapse.
Dan Kurt
In the likely case that deporting blacks and browns is too expensive or complicated (e.g. too many new borders to cross), the undesirables will simply be adopted out to poor hungry white families, and no further inquiry will be made regarding their welfare.
I’d rather eat bark.
Lars Grobian says:
“Left discredited”?
Nah, Left is never discredited. Left is Media. Who’ll broadcast the fact that broadcasters are a bunch of lying swindlers?
No. The only future is third worldification and soft collapse.
Barnabas says:
“Jaywalking” is generous. Much more likely he was walking down the center of the road daring motorists to do anything about it. That’s an implicitly violent behavior meant to intimidate his neighbors. Its also the type of thing that race hucksters and the media can present as completely innocent.
need Russian-style dash cams
For this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_HqZYdm7g
Clicked because I knew what it would be.
While we’ve all been distracted by the race riots that always seem to happen when a location gets above a certain critical mass of Negroes – this is how they announce that the location is theirs, force the rest of the Whites out, and demand that the government be handed over to them – what just happened in Hawaii, the loss of the governor in his primary, is the biggest story of the decade. It marks the end of the Democratic coalition that these riots are a part of.
I checked DailyKos, they have no idea what happened. We talk about race-whipped conservatives acting like colorblindness is cool; race-whipped liberals will be colorblind on demand and then instantly switch to being explicitly anti-White on demand. They were being colorblind this time, because what happened was a diversity won the primary. Not due to any ideological differences, but because the diversity was a diversity.
Thus the giving diversities free stuff in exchange for votes and riots is over, not because the United States is out of free stuff to give to the diversities, but the diversities seem to be able to demand more than the NPR listeners are willing to give.
Unless the swipples can figure out how to shove the diversities back to the back of the bus, it’s over for their party.
Chris B says:
Nice to see someone else has noticed the link between Gaza and Ferguson.
I was far too emotionally invested in the Trayvon Martin case to follow the evidence to this situation with any degree of rigor. However, it appears the evidence is piling up against the retard.
Not surprising.
Jim, let me get serious for a moment…
Is this blog archived somehow? That is to say, whatever happens, your words, if desired, will live on…?
This blog is archived only on my personal computer and personal backups, which I don’t think anyone else would be able to utilize.
On reflection, I think I will place a copy of recent backups on the web page in the form of a zipfile, for the convenience of anyone who wants to reproduce the blog.
Lightning Round – 2014/08/20 | Free Northerner says:
[…] Media draws map to home of officer who shot Michael Brown. Related: What happened to Officer Friendly? Related: Obama suppressed Michael Brown robbery video. Related: Why don’t the cops shoot? Related: The thedish logic of political coalitions. Related: Bonfire: A new show about our racial realities. Related: In defence of the militarization of police. Related: The confluence of police and rioters. Related: Radical chic: if you’re worried about riots, you’re not upper-class enough to not worry. Related: Radical chic in Ferguson. Related: Ferguson explained. […]
Stephen W says:
Cell phone video of the shooting released:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=df3_1408576637
He was did not have his hands in the air. He was not surrendering. He was within reaction distance and charging them.
But in the last news bulletin I watched there was no mention of this video they where just repeating the same old misinformation. The media seem to be doing the best aggravate black riots and hatred of white people. Whatever happened to all that “avoiding increasing racial tensions” excuse the media use when they suppress information on numerous unprovoked black on white murders seems to go out the window as soon as a white or semi white person successfully defends themselves from a an attack. Suddenly you hear the phrases like “unarmed black boy” and “white shooter” over and over again. The medias slavish devotion to promoting hatred of whites with lies and suppression of truth is becoming quite obvious and blatant.
Oops, wrong shooting.
Barry Wright says:
I completely agree except for the analogy to Hamas. Gaza as well as the West Bank is legally owned by Palestinians with deeds, but Israel wants them all out so it can have their land. If someone dares throw a rock at an
Israeli ( US made of course, we’re the only backers of Israel, financially and in our media) for tearing down the house they legally own, they are often shot and killed by snipers. This is NOT how it is in Ferguson. Please don’t confuse rightful objections to illegal military occupation ( Israel) with mob looting and violence in Ferguson MO. ( USA). I mean, if someone tried to take your house what would you do? Be upset of course. The last recourse after more than 40 years of being attacked by a surrounding military force might be to take a poke at the bastards, don’t you think? Our media never shows us the truth about Gaza or the West Bank, Palestinians are all ‘terrorists’ because they don’t go along with the program to just die out, so they must be killed. Nazis operated pretty much the same way against Jews, but the roles are now reversed.
Supposing all that is entirely true, why does Egypt blockade them?
Secondly, the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza shows it is not true.
And if it was true, well, the Australian and American natives have made their peace. Refusing to recognize the white seizure of the land would just tick people off.
Was Enlightened says:
“Nazis operated pretty much the same way against Jews, but the roles are now reversed.”
Hey Barry, tell us what would happen if a community of Palestinians lobbed rockets at Nazi Germany from across the Rhine or the Vistula.
The answer is that there would be Palestinians left alive only to the extent that I G Farben ran out of cordite.
>Gaza as well as the West Bank is legally owned by Palestinians with deeds
Amazing. Especially given that the vast majority of that land was owned by the Ottoman Empire, and they certainly didn’t sell it to the refugees and migrant labor that came flowing in around the end of the 19th century. For instance, today what you call a fair-colored Arab in Palestinian Arabic is “Bushnak.” This is the word that Bosnians call themselves, and indeed many came as refugees. For another instance, many of the Arabs have the last name Al Masri, which means “Egyptian.” For a third, the ones that are black were largely imported as field laborers in the 19th century to work on plantations in the lowlands. Etc.
>If someone dares throw a rock at an Israeli ( US made of course, we’re the only backers of Israel, financially and in our media) for tearing down the house they legally own, they are often shot and killed by snipers.
The rock is US-made? Your grasp of English is as bad as your grasp of reality. I would love for it to be the case that throwing a rock at a Jew would bring instant death, but unfortunately that’s nowhere near reality.
>Palestinians are all ‘terrorists’ because they don’t go along with the program to just die out, so they must be killed.
I would love for that to be the program (with the correction that I’d rather see them expelled than killed, and that the ones who pledged fealty could stay, possibly.) But as we can see from the fact that Israel has the ability to kill the entire population of Gaza overnight has killed about 2000 of them in six weeks of fighting, this is not the case. Ah, a guy can hope, though, right?
By the way, when the rightful Native American owners of your house come along and stab up your family, I hope you’ll understand.
A good friend of mine had Grandparents in St. Louis. They bought a house and over time the area became diversified. They couldn’t sell it. When they finally paid the mortgage off they just walked away. The house was worth nothing because of diversity.
Thales says:
…aaand no indictment. 🙂
I turn on the news “Unarmed peaceful black man shot by police”. No mention of why the cop was acquitted.
Prez who just went around Congress on Amnesty now says we’re a nation of laws.
ADOLF HITLERR says:
well said JIM DEATH TO THE BLACKS. AROUND BLACKS NEVER RELAX OOGA BOOGA
Shlomo says:
> “One might well believe that Israel blockades Gaza because they are evil racists, but when Egypt blockades Gaza, people of the same race and religion as themselves, it’s pretty obvious that the problem is terrorists operating out of Gaza”
Just like Americans killing each other in the Civil War showed WE were evil, right?
Jews were banned from nearly every country, so the problem as the Tribe…right?
Plus even Jews hated Jews, shown by kapos and sonderkommandos working for Adolf, Inc. So the shoah was kosher, right?
Plus Jews at Masada loved death so much they killed their own kids, purportedly to save money on deli meat.
See how easy it is to interpret things they way you want/need to see them?
Leave a Reply for Candide III
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New Client APIs for Android and Java SE
We are very excited to announce early availability of brand new client APIs for Android and Java SE. The new APIs follow the Lightstreamer Unified Client API model, which was first introduced with the JavaScript client API.
This means that developers of applications for different client platforms will be given the same programming model when using a Lightstreamer client library. Same abstractions, same interfaces, same features, and same internal mechanisms. Developers will be able to move from a client platform to another seamlessly, without having to learn a new Lightstreamer API, or having to deal with caveats specific to each platform. At the same time, the Unified Client API implementations respect all the peculiarities of each platform, in terms of naming conventions, packaging, etc. So, developers of each platform will feel "at home" when using the new APIs.
The implementations of the Lightstreamer Unified Client API for the different platforms and languages are all fully asynchronous. All the API calls that require any action from the library itself are queued for processing by a dedicated thread before being carried out. The same thread is also used to carry notifications for the appropriate listeners as provided by the custom code. Blocking operations and internal housekeeping are performed on different threads.
The library offers automatic recovery from connection failures, automatic selection of the best available transport, and full decoupling of subscription and connection operations.
Today, we have released a new version of the Lightstreamer distribution, which includes the two new SDKs (in addition to the previous ones):
sdk_client_android_alpha: Alpha release of the unified version of the Android client API (v.2.0 a1). It provides full functionality, except for Mobile Push Notification support, which is lacking.
sdk_client_java_se_beta: Beta release of the Unified version of the Java SE client API (v.3.0 b1). It provides full functionality.
The new client libraries are now distributed through a Maven repository and their dependencies can be fully managed via Maven, Gradle, Ivy, and any compatible tool.
If you are already familiar with the Lightstreamer JavaScript client API, it will be straightforward to use the new Android and Java SE APIs. In any case, the new SDKs include links to online API reference docs and online examples, with full source code hosted on GitHub. You will get started very quickly!
For the impatient, here are direct links to the docs and the examples:
Android: API docs; examples
Java SE: API docs; examples
We encourage you to play with the new APIs and report any feedback back to support@lightstreamer.com. This is an important step forward in the evolution of the Lightstreamer client ecosystem, simplifying the way applications are developed, while expanding the feature set and increasing reliability and performance. Even if we guarantee support on the old API models for a reasonable time, the sooner you get started with the new APIs, the easier it will be to upgrade. Download the latest Lightstreamer distribution now.
While the Android and Java SE APIs move to the final stable release, we will be working on the iOS and .NET versions as well.
Lightstreamer and OpenFin Integration
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The Politics of Industrial Renaissance
Business and government may waver, but the American
people want more manufacturing.
So who's for reviving American manufacturing? American manufacturers? Well, some of them, under certain conditions. The American people? Most of them, under most conditions. The American government? Well, parts of it. Sometimes.
Reviving American manufacturing may be an economic and strategic necessity, without which our trade deficit will continue to climb, our credit-based economy will produce and consume even more debt, and our already-rickety ladders of economic mobility, up which generations of immigrants have climbed, may splinter altogether. That's no guarantee, however, that American manufacturing will actually be revived. The forces arrayed against it -- chiefly, finance and big retailers, Wall Street and Wal-Mart -- have tremendous political clout.
The epochal shift that's overtaken the American economy over the past 30 years -- from making things to making debt -- is not easily reversed. The two main economic sectors to have profited by that shift -- finance, which has compelled manufacturers to move offshore in search of higher profit margins, lower wages, and fewer regulations; and retailers, who have compelled manufacturers to move offshore in search of lower prices for consumers and higher profits for themselves -- have a clear interest in perpetuating the current economic order. Time was when the largest American private-sector employer was General Motors, which paid its workers enough for them to buy its product. Today, the largest American private-sector employer is Wal-Mart, which pays its workers so little that they are compelled to shop at Wal-Mart and take on levels of debt that have swelled the big banks' coffers.
Creating the better paid, less debt-ridden work force that would emerge from a shift to an economy with more manufacturing and a higher rate of unionization would reduce the huge revenue streams flowing to the Bentonvilles (Wal-Mart's home town) and the banks. And as retail and finance have grown, so has their political power. The campaign contributions from the financial sector to Democrats and Republicans alike now dwarf those from manufacturing -- a major reason why our government's adherence to free-trade orthodoxy in what is otherwise a mercantilist world is likely to persist.
You might think that American manufacturers, at least, would seek to defend domestic manufacturing. But the majority of major manufacturers have already offshored much of their production. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama sided with a complaint brought by the United Steelworkers against China, which by flooding America's low-end tire market with its exports was costing American jobs. By the terms of the trade agreement we reached with China in 2000, the president is allowed to mitigate the effect of this kind of import surge by imposing a temporary tariff, which is just what Obama did. What was striking in the Steelworkers' complaint, however, is that no U.S. tire manufacturers joined it. The problem was that almost all the tire makers with plants in the United States -- Bridgestone, Cooper, Goodyear, Michelin, and Pirelli -- also have factories in China. Worse, the Chinese government often requires them to export all the tires they make in China (Cooper recently opened a factory under just such a mandate), essentially compelling them to defend their Chinese factories over their American ones.
So if finance, retail, and much of American manufacturing won't stand up for American manufacturing, that leaves only the American people among those willing to take that stand. In 2006, Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, conducted a survey for the Public Policy Fund that showed support for manufacturing was broad and, among some groups of Americans, deep. More Americans (88 percent) called manufacturing extremely or very important to the American economy than those who assessed services (70 percent), finance (69 percent), or information (69 percent) the same way. But while Americans believed we led the world in services, finance, and information, they believed by an overwhelming margin (72 percent to 23 percent) that we no longer led the world in manufacturing. Luntz's respondents were plainly unhappy that America had lost its lead: Asked to choose between leaving manufacturing to other nations while we focus on cultivating our service and professional sectors, and fostering domestic manufacturing because it spurs economic growth, 81 percent chose the latter.
That's not to say that the public's backing of governmental support for manufacturing is a slam dunk, as the opposition to the General Motors and Chrysler bail-outs made clear. Luntz's survey, unsurprisingly, showed that public support rises when the manufacturing in question is high-tech and futuristic (never mind that many GM and Chrysler factories, if not the cars themselves, are precisely that). But at a time when the finance-led economy of the past quarter-century is in a shambles, the opportunity to promote more investment and manufacturing in America has clearly emerged.
At one level -- certainly, the level of rhetoric -- President Obama knows this. "We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand," he said in a speech this April. "We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity -- a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad."
To its credit, the Obama administration has directed billions of dollars in its stimulus package to such clean-energy industries as electric-car battery factories. It has appointed Ron Bloom, who represented the Steelworkers throughout the restructuring of the steel industry and then served on the administration's auto task force, to coordinate its efforts to jump-start manufacturing. It has levied the tariff on Chinese tires. But it still shuns the words "industrial policy," and, more important, it largely shuns the substance of industrial policy as well. It opposed domestic content requirements in its stimulus legislation and has offered scant opposition to China's ongoing manipulation of its currency, which boosts Chinese manufacturing and decimates ours and much of the rest of the world's.
Other Democratic leaders have gone well beyond the president in their support for efforts to bolster manufacturing, none more than Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. A rising star in the liberal firmament, Brown was elected to the Senate in 2006 after a campaign in which he stressed the need for a trade policy that benefited Ohio workers rather than Chinese industrialists and American financiers. Today, he is beating not only that drum but the industrial policy one as well. The case for manufacturing, he says, "appeals to a broader section of the public than trade does. When I say we should do more training for manufacturing workers, help the alternative-energy industry, file more 301 cases [which prohibit foreign companies from dumping subsidized products on American markets], I only get push-back from the anti-big-government guys."
"It's made new friends for me," Brown continues. "Not Democrats, necessarily, but people who understand that this guy is fighting for manufacturing. That's a plus, especially when it's manufacturing related to national security." (Luntz's 2006 survey showed, in fact, that respondents who voted for George W. Bush in 2004 were more concerned than those who backed John Kerry about the offshoring of military-related manufacturing, though heavy majorities in both categories opposed the practice.)
Brown says he's "working with the White House" on a program to help domestic manufacturing, which would make permanent the tax business credit for research and development and help auto-parts plants convert into alternative-energy technology factories. (The Waxman-Markey climate-change bill, which has passed the House, authorizes $30 billion in loans over two years for that purpose.) He's authored a bill to alter worker-training programs so that local boards can match the curricula to the local economy. And he continues to promote a trade policy that helps rather than hinders domestic production.
While Brown believes that promoting manufacturing presents a clear political opportunity for Democrats, he acknowledges that as manufacturing employs a steadily smaller share of the American work force, "younger people probably don't think about it as much" as their elders -- an impression that Luntz's survey confirms. Politically, American manufacturing is in a race against time: As manufacturing becomes more alien to a growing number of Americans, its support may dwindle, even as the social, economic, and strategic need to bolster it becomes more acute. That makes push for a national industrial policy -- to become again a nation that makes things instead of debt, to build again our house upon a rock -- even more urgent.
How Centrists Misread Scandinavia When Attacking Bernie and Elizabeth
Commentators like David Brooks love Scandinavian economics—except the part about unions.
Handicapping the Democratic Field After the First Debates
Never Mind the Russians. It’s the Court That Rigs Our Elections.
The five Republican justices’ gerrymandering decision ensures GOP rule even when the party’s in the minority.
Harold Meyerson is editor at large of The American Prospect. His email is hmeyerson@prospect.org.
Follow @HaroldMeyerson
Articles By Harold Meyerson
RSS feed of articles by Harold Meyerson
Machinery of Progress
Obama Year One
Listening to Afghanistan
Gentrification Hangover
The Work Around
The Ruse of the Creative Class
A Teachable Collapse
Not Everything Has Changed
A Museum of One's Own
New Year's Resolutions for Improving Political Dialogue
The Health-Care Ultimatum
I Love You, Man
The Plight of American Manufacturing
Playing Ourselves for Fools
FDR Had It Right
Losing Our Future
Industrial Policy: The Road Not Taken
The Great Industrial Wall of China
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BIF 2017: The Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer Program
David Patterson
What are the challenges facing the beef industry?
Reluctance to adopt new technology
Aging producer population
Rising input costs
Declining markets
Increasing global competition
Perceived lack of incentives
However, we have several opportunities, including on-the-shelf technology not being used (that works!), increasing domestic and global demand for high-quality beef, and marketing incentives that will add value.
In the U.S., we have 69% of beef farms as secondary income, 50% using a defined breeding season, and 10 to 15% using artificial insemination (AI).
Since 1996, the Show-Me-Select program has contributed great than $120 million to the Missouri economy. Over 32,000 heifers have sold through the program. Many more have stayed on the farm.
In 1998, heifers averaged $767 in Show-Me-Select sales. In 2014, they averaged $2,944. In 2015 heifers averaged $2,242. Base-line heifers sold through the program sell for $200 more than national averages.
The Extension and Land Grant System were founded to use and apply research based knowledge in agriculture production. The Show-Me-Select Heifer program has been a great resource to obtain funding and achieve successful research projects.
CSS certified semen has a large impact on pregnancy rates in a timed AI protocol. Herds that did not use CSS semen had lower pregnancy rates.
Through the program, they have seen increased use of ultrasound pregnancy diagnosis. This allows to tell which pregnancies are AI bred and which are natural service.
Carrying an AI pregnancy added $184 premium to heifers. Having the sire identified (Tier II heifer) added $68. Having a Tier II heifer (sired by high accuracy AI sire) and carrying an AI pregnancy adds about $400.
"Take a breath and don't stop doing these things when the market drops," Patterson said. These practices added equity into your cowherd.
In 2015, a new designation was added for heifers, Show-Me-Plus. A Show-Me-Plus heifer is a heifer with a genomic prediction. We predict that this adds a $200 premium to heifers in the sale.
From the Thompson Research Center herd, steers who graded Prime earned $169 more dollars than steers that qualified for CAB, and 286 more dollars than steers that graded Choice.
In 2010, 68% of the heifers in the Show-Me-Select program were artificially inseminated at least one time. In 2016, 91% of the heifers were AI'ed at least one time. This rate of adoption is much higher than industry average.
The heifers are managed with a health program. Further, all heifers are evaluated for a Reproductive Tract Score. A Reproductive Tract Score measures whether or not heifers are pre-pubertal. Heifers with a RTS of 1 only get bred 6% of the time. Heifers with a RTS of 2 have a 29% AI pregnancy rate. Heifers with RTS of 3, 4, and 5 have AI pregnancy rates of 48, 51, and 52%, respectively.
Heifers on an MGA protocal that were non-cycling had an AI pregnancy rate of 35%. Heifers on a 14-Day CIDR protocol that were non-cycling had an AI pregnancy rate of 47%.
Patterson made the point that the beef industry needs more and better reproductive data. Open vs pregnant is not enough. Reproductive tract scores and precise pregnancy dates from ultrasound aid in evaluating reproductive success.
BIF 2017: Economic Impact of Estrus Synchronizatio...
BIF 2017: The Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer Pr...
Respond to Survey, Be Entered To Win $100!
BIF Is Coming
Angus Single-Step Has Launch Date
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Now HIRING! Looking for talented postdoctoral fell...
Brangus Journal: Gene Editing: What Beef Producers...
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Read now, pay later: Is LaterPay the longed-for silver bullet?
The debate over paywalls, freemium and online subscriptions continues to rage as publications try to find the best way to monetise their product. Amidst it all, a German start-up has quietly been developing what they think could be the solution - LaterPay.
LaterPay is the brainchild of Cosmin Ene and Jonas Maurus, and it's a simple idea. Instead of signing up for websites or paying several smalls sums for reading articles, users simply “read now and pay later”.
When they reach 5 euros, a bill arrives. This avoids complicated sign-ups, or the transaction charges associated with multiple small payments for each article. It does require an element of trust, however - no payment details are requested at first, so a user can simply choose not to pay and accept their device being blocked from the service.
The app takes “a user-centric approach” providing readers with what they want: easy, affordable access, and privacy. LaterPay is also targeted at everything from microblogs to worldwide news organisations.
As Ene told WAN-IFRA, “by offering pay-per-use and combining this with subscription models, LaterPay offers content providers a toolbox which enables them to address their occasional users and their heavy users at the same time.”
One of Ene’s most intriguing ideas is that the approach could actually encourage people to subscribe, by easing them into the idea of paying for content: “We believe that pay- per-use may become the best subscription generator of all, as people experience the content first, see what they get, get used to it, and may subscribe after they repeatedly like it. Convincing users with pay-per-use has more power than forcing them into subscriptions.”
LaterPay’s CEO also dismisses the notion that people don’t want to pay: “If you let them experience the benefit first, treat them well and protect their privacy, and make it convenient for them to use, the’ll pay. The key words are: benefit, convenience, reasonable pricing, privacy protection.”
If LaterPay works, it could also help the content. Ene believes readers paying for what they read and nothing else means that journalists will respond by producing better material. As he elegantly puts it in what he calls “unquotable terms”, “paid content may become a self-saucing pudding. The more you bite off, the more juicy it gets.”
Despite its founder’s wonderful turn of phrase, LaterPay isn’t the only micropayment method out there.
As we reported last month, Dutch website Blendle has been making waves in the Netherlands with its prepaid system, integrating all of the country's newspapers on their website so that users can read and pay in one seamless process. The website also allows you to see what's popular with people you follow, as well as encouraging readers who use content from one particular publication to buy a subscription.
Blendle is currently hatching plans to move into the German market, while LaterPay has seen interest from some of “the largest players in the market”. The key difference, though, is that the nature of Blendle’s service means it has to start anew in each country. LaterPay can integrate into any publication, anywhere in the world, with little difficulty. This could just give it the edge.
LaterPay
micropayment
paid online content
paywalls
Douglas Grant
E-Mail: dcigrant@gmail.com
The World Editors Forum is the organisation within the World Association of Newspapers devoted to newspaper editors worldwide. The Editors Weblog (www.editorsweblog.org), launched in January 2004, is a WEF initiative designed to facilitate the diffusion of information relevant to newspapers and their editors.
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Home / Books / Book Reviews / Book Review: ‘The Second Letter’ by Robert Lane
Modern wisecracking noir thriller is set on the West Coast of Florida.
Book Review: ‘The Second Letter’ by Robert Lane
Jack Goodstein April 2, 2014 Comments Off on Book Review: ‘The Second Letter’ by Robert Lane 53 Views
The Second Letter marks the entry of Robert Lane into the thriller market with his glib, wisecracking hero, ex-Special Forces operative, Jacob, (call me Jake) Travis. Recruited for off-the-books, contract work for the government, Travis operates with something of a poor man’s version of the Mission Impossible crew. The problems are not quite as earth shaking, the scheming not quite as convoluted, but if a Jake Travis series materializes, as it gives every promise of doing—a second book is promised for this fall—earth shaking and convolution are no doubt in the cards.
Set on the West Coast of Florida with plenty of heat, boats and sand, The Second Letter has Travis on the trail of a sealed letter hidden just after the Bay of Pigs fiasco which is being used as bait to get the I.R.S. off the back of a strip club owning, crime boss “wannabe.” Details of the letter’s contents are not revealed until the very end of the novel, but in event, they prove essentially irrelevant to the plot of the novel. Indeed, as Travis and a gaggle of helpers he has around for grunt work, pursue the letter, the letter itself begins, at least for this reader, to take second place to other concerns—blackmail and child sex slavery most notably. Although it starts slowly with an introduction detailing the origin of the letter, and the major characters, the story fairly rapidly picks up pace, and pulls you along page by page more urgently the deeper you get into it.
Travis himself is in many respects a modification of the typical, mocking noir hero, both he and his creator come across as quite a bit more literate and intelligent than the run of the mill model. There are quips and remarks, both clever and cringe worthy aplenty, but most considerably better than the hoary “call me a doctor” line trotted out late in the novel. The quick witted Lane manages to find material for the repartee of the quick witted Travis as well as his quick witted lady friend, the beautiful Kathleen in Shakespeare, Churchill, Twain, Trotsky and Wagner, as well as John Lennon and Yogi Bear for the less literate among us. Whether one cringes or smiles at this sort of banter, be prepared it comes by the bale.
In his villain, the Cuban strip club operator, Raydel Escobar, Lane creates a more rounded character than the normal thriller, evil gangster. Sections narrated from Escobar’s point of view reveal something more of his character than we get when we see him through Travis’s eyes. Not that he ever becomes a sympathetic character, but he does show some of his other sides.
The cast of characters is large, some are types like the nerdy P.C. and his partner, the ‘malaproping’ Boyd, Olivia the disapproving housekeeper and especially the larger supporting roster of crooks and thugs, but since these are lesser figures, the stereotyping is easier to take.
In sum, if you’re up for a readable thriller with a groaner or two, The Second Letter is worth your time.
[amazon template=iframe image&chan=default&asin=0615841880,B00IBK76Z8]
Tags noir fiction Robert Lane The Second Letter Thriller
About Jack Goodstein
Book Review: ‘The Traitor’s Niche’ by Ismail Kadare
Book Review: ‘Season of Fury and Wonder’ by Sharon Butala
Movie Review: Lin Shaye in ‘Room for Rent’
Familiar character actor Lin Shaye has a field day portraying a lonely widow who is driven over the edge by pent-up frustration.
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So Screwed
Melissa Marino
He's charming, wicked, and handsome . . . and she needs to stay away
For Evelyn Owen, work comes first. Being a wedding planner to the city's elite fills her nights and weekends, and she doesn't have time for distractions. Especially in the form of a sexy bartender with killer dimples . . .
Abel Matthews knows how to serve the ladies. But lately, the only woman he wants is just out of reach. That's because Evelyn has already been warned about his playboy ways. Still, there's something about her that makes Abel want more than a quick fling.
Evelyn knows that she shouldn't trust Abel. Yet she's seen a side of him no one else knows, and she can't turn away. But Abel is hiding something from her . . . and if he doesn't confess soon, it will tear them apart.
Don't miss these other Bad Behavior novels:
So Twisted
So Wicked
More Books by Melissa Marino
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Lake Mead/Hoover Dam
Boulder City NV
>> Community
Cothran on Rochester Institute’s dean’s list
March 9, 2016 - 3:06 pm
Hailey Cothran of Boulder City was named to the dean’s list at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York for the fall 2015 semester. Cothran is studying in the professional photographic illustration program.
Degree-seeking undergraduate students are eligible for dean’s list if their term GPA is greater than or equal to 3.4; they do not have any grades of incomplete, D or F; and they have registered for, and completed, at least 12 credit hours.
Rochester Institute of Technology is home to leading creators, entrepreneurs, innovators and researchers. Founded in 1829, RIT enrolls 18,600 students in more than 200 career-oriented and professional programs, making it among the largest private universities in the U.S.
Hance named to Curry College dean’s list
Elizabeth Hance of Boulder City has been named to the dean’s list for the fall 2015 semester at Curry College in Milton, Mass.
To qualify for the dean’s list, students must earn a 3.30 GPA, have no incompletes, and have no grade lower than a “C” for the semester. Full-time students must carry 12 or more graded credits for the semester.
Founded in 1879, Curry College is a private, four-year, liberal arts-based institution.
Posted on: Community
Transparency seems AWOL
City played role early in DiCaprio’s career
Redevelopment agency grants funds for downtown improvements
Eagles return the favor: Alumni spend summer coaching young players
Rising waters: Heavy snow in Colorado expected to increase level at Lake Mead
Cardboard boats to race Wednesday
By Boulder City Review
The 19th annual cardboard boat races are Wednesday, July 17, and this year’s theme is “Wreck-it Ralph.”
Boulder’s Best: Great spots to get wet
By Celia Shortt Goodyear Boulder City Review
Today ushers in a heat wave for Boulder City with temperatures expected to be 107 degrees and higher. To help residents survive the heat, the Boulder City Review has compiled a list of places to cool down, swim or just play in some refreshing water.
Seen on Scene: At the Damboree
By Hali Bernstein Saylor Boulder City Review
Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Cpl. Matthew A. Commons Post 36, of Boulder City presented the colors to kick off the 71st annual Damboree parade through downtown July 4.
Protect your pets from extreme heat
By Norma Vally Home Matters
The expression “dog days of summer” originated from Greek and Roman astrology, when the rising of Sirius (dog star) kicked off the hottest, most uncomfortable days of summer. For our furry friends, “dog days” can be downright deadly.
American classic salad gets practical update
By Patti Diamond Divas on a Dime
When was the last time you had a wedge salad? Doesn’t the very thought make you smile?
Community Briefs, July 11
Voter registration topic for club
Senior Center, July 11
Hours of operation: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday at 813 Arizona St., 702-293-3320. Visit the center’s website at www.seniorcenterbouldercity.org.
Restaurants to showcase best dishes at new event
Visitors and residents will have the opportunity to sample the menus of local restaurants while raising money to help culinary arts students during the first Boulder City Best Dam Restaurant Week in August.
Cool down this summer with frozen pops
There are few things more refreshing on a hot summer’s day than cooling down with a flavorful ice pop. But before you dash to the grocery store, consider making frozen pops at home. Store-bought pops are often chockablock full of sugar, artificial flavoring and dyes. How else can you get those neon colors not found in nature? While it’s fun for the kiddies to stick out their electric blue tongues, we can make better-for-you pops they will love.
Hali Bernstein Saylor/Boulder City Review
Las Vegas Review-Journal
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Skip Navigation LinksHome > Best Practice Journal > 2012 > BPJ: 42 > Substance misuse in adolescents
This item is 7 years and 5 months old; some content may no longer be current.
Child healthMental healthPublic healthSexual healthSmoking, alcohol, and drug misuse
Substance misuse in adolescents: alcohol, cannabis & other drugs
The risk of injury or death during adolescence is two to three times higher than it is during childhood. The main reason for this increase is the emergence of risk-taking behaviour occurring at a time when many adolescents first experiment with sex, smoking, alcohol and other drugs. It is important to identify substance misuse in people in any age group, however, identifying problems and providing intervention for adolescents can help to avoid serious substance misuse and addiction in adulthood.
Substance misuse is a significant problem in New Zealand
Treating adolescents for substance misuse in primary care
N.B. While smoking is an important issue for all ages, including adolescents, it is not covered in the following article.
Each year in New Zealand, a large proportion of adolescents are likely to experiment with alcohol, cannabis or other drugs. For some this will be an isolated incident, but for many, this experimentation may be the beginning of a much more serious problem.
Alcohol consumption among New Zealand adolescents is high by international standards.2 It is estimated that 90% of New Zealand adolescents will have tried alcohol before age 14 years.2 Excessive use of alcohol is also common, with a major study reporting that one-third of secondary school students admitted to binge drinking (more than five drinks in four hours) in the past four weeks.3 Drinking is also particularly problematic among Māori adolescents.4
The 2007/08 Alcohol and Drug survey revealed that the most common illegal drug used by New Zealanders aged between 16 and 17 years was cannabis.5 Almost one quarter of females and 15% of males in this age group had also used benzylpiperazine (BZP or “party pills” - now banned) and approximately 5% of 16 and 17 year olds had used either stimulants or hallucinogenics, with sedatives, nitrous oxide and injected drugs being less common.5
Although the causes of such behaviours are complex, what is clear, is that the earlier that adolescents experiment with alcohol and other drugs, the more likely they are to develop substance misuse issues later in life.2
Alcohol is commonly misused by adolescents
In the 2007 National Survey of Health and Wellness among New Zealand secondary school students, it was identified that:3
34% had undertaken binge drinking within the previous four weeks
22% had received an alcohol related injury
16% had been told by family or friends to “cut-down” on their drinking
14% had unsafe sex due to alcohol
7% had unwanted sex due to alcohol
Motivations for adolescent drinking fall into three broad categories:6
Social facilitation - increased social and sexual confidence
Individual benefits - escapism, getting a “buzz”, having something to do
Social influences - peer pressure, wanting respect, image, accepted culture
What does the law say?
People aged under 18 years can be supplied with alcohol for responsible consumption in a private home or function by a parent, or legal guardian. People aged under 18 years cannot buy alcohol, or ask anyone else to buy it for them, or drink in a public place, or enter a pub or bar without their parent or legal guardian. It is also illegal for any person aged under 20 years to have a blood alcohol concentration above zero while driving.
The Alcohol Reform Bill was passed in September 2011. This Bill provides further guidelines for reducing the impact and harms from drinking in New Zealand.
For full details of the laws around alcohol, see: www.parliament.nz
Short-term effects of alcohol
Alcohol consumption increases risk behaviours by reducing inhibition and motor control and impairing judgement. Among adolescents alcohol consumption has been shown to increase the risk of sustaining serious injury, having a fatal motor vehicle accident, committing or being the victim of crime (including sexual assault), contracting a sexually transmitted disease and becoming pregnant.2
The lethal dose of alcohol is 5 - 8 g/kg. In a 60 kg person this would equate to approximately 1 L of spirits or four bottles of wine drunk over a short period of time.7 Adolescents who binge drink are most at risk of alcohol toxicity. Symptoms of acute alcohol intoxication include nausea, vomiting, dehydration, slowed respiratory rate and loss of consciousness.
Harm reduction when drinking
Encouraging adolescents to plan ahead for any social occasions involving alcohol may reduce the risk, or severity of intoxication. Specific advice for adolescents who will be drinking alcohol may include:
Eating before going to a party and during the event if food is available
Drinking slowly and alternating alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks
Making prior arrangements for safe transport home
Looking after friends
Long-term effects of alcohol in adolescents
Excessive drinking is a health problem at any age, however, alcohol misuse during early adolescence is of particular concern as it is a risk factor for alcohol dependence later in life.8 Māori males are particularly at risk as they are twice as likely to consume a large amount of alcohol when aged 14 years or younger than other New Zealand males.8 A 2009 Australian study reported a lifetime prevalence of alcohol dependence of 47% amongst individuals who began drinking before age 14 years compared to 9% among those beginning after age 21 years.9 Early and persistent use of alcohol during adolescence increases the risk later in life of anxiety, eating disorders, suicide, cirrhosis of the liver, cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke.10 Māori are four times more likely than non-Māori to die of an alcohol related condition.11
Cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug in New Zealand
It is now estimated that by the age of 21 years, 80% of New Zealanders will have tried cannabis on at least one occasion, with 10% developing signs of dependence.2 Previous figures from the 2007/08 New Zealand Alcohol and Drug use survey showed that almost half (46%) of people aged 16 to 64 years reported using cannabis at some point in their life.5 Cannabis use was higher amongst Māori with almost two-thirds (63%) of Māori aged 16 to 64 years reporting having used it.5
Short term effects of cannabis
The main psychoactive component of cannabis is delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The effects of THC are wide ranging and include:
Relaxation and laughter
Increased appetite
Confusion, paranoia and hallucinations
There have been no reported fatalities from cannabis overdose. However, in the 2007/08 Alcohol and Drug use survey, one in six people reported having experienced a harmful effect with cannabis and 2% reported having sustained an injury in the past 12 months due to cannabis use.5 Cannabis is also reported to be a major contributor to road deaths.12
Long term effects of cannabis
Evidence is increasing that the adolescent brain is particularly sensitive to the effects of heavy cannabis use.13 The following long-term adverse effects have been reported in adolescent cannabis users:
Poor educational outcomes are more common amongst adolescents using cannabis than those that are not. Adolescents who use cannabis are more likely to drop-out of school, less likely to enter University and less likely to earn a University degree.2
Other illegal drug use has been shown to be approximately 70 times higher amongst weekly cannabis users, compared to non-users.14 Cannabis is described as a “gateway drug” as its use often precedes the use of other illicit substances.15 Tobacco use prior to cannabis experimentation is also common.
Mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts are more common amongst adolescents who are heavy cannabis users.2
Adolescents who are heavy users of cannabis are two to 2.5 times more likely to develop psychosis or schizophrenia than non-users.16
Young people who start using cannabis before age 18 years are eight times more likely to develop symptoms of dependence later in life. This is of particular concern for Māori, who are significantly more likely to have tried cannabis before the age of 14 years than non-Māori.5,17
Other drugs of misuse
Until BZP based “party pills” were banned in 2008, they were a significant source of drug misuse among adolescents, particularly young females.5 While BZP is still illegally available in some areas, it is likely that in the absence of an easy supply of this drug, alternative substances are now being used more frequently. It can be helpful for clinicians to be familiar with current drug trends among adolescents and the street names used to describe these drugs (see Table 1).
Table 1: Illicit drugs reportedly used by adolescents in New Zealand
Category Drug Street name(s) / notes
Stimulants Amphetamines
P (pure methamphetamine)
Ice (crystal methamphetamine)
Speed (amphetamine sulphate)
Cocaine (cocaine hydrochloride powder for inhaling)
Crack cocaine (freebase form for smoking)
Prescription stimulants
Duromine (phentermine)
Dexamphetamine, modafinil
Pseudoephedrine based decongestants
Hallucinogenics Synthetic hallucinogens
LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide): Acid, Trips
DMT (dimethyltryptamine)
N.B. usually prepared for ingestion by infusion into blotting paper
Natural hallucinogens
Magic mushrooms (Blue Meanies, Gold Tops - contain psilocine and psilocybine)
Datura and angel’s trumpet (Solanaceae - contain atropine-like substances)
Morning glories (Ipomoea - contain psychogenic alkaloids)
Peyote cactus (contain mescaline)
Ketamine Special K, Vitamin K, Kitkat
Ecstasy Ecstasy
Has both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. Main component is generally MDMA, but active constituents can vary considerably, e.g. BZP, mephedrone, methylone, caffeine
Sedatives Gamma-hydroxybutyrate
GHB, Fantasy, Grievous Bodily Harm, Liquid E, Liquid X
Kava (Piper methysticum) Also widely used in Pacific communities for ceremonial purposes
Prescription sedatives
Barbiturates, benzodiazepines, zopiclone
Downers, Reds, Purple Hearts
Nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide
NOS, Laughing Gas
Opiates Natural opiates
Heroin, poppy seeds (tea), homebake (monoacetylmorphine)
Prescription opiates/opioids,
Morphine sulphate (MST, Misties), oxycodone, methadone
Inhalants Amyl nitrite, butyl nitrite
Solvents Aerosols, glue, petrol, butane, paint thinners, paint, methylated spirits Huffing
Steroids Testosterone
Roids, Juice, Gear
N.B. Used for image enhancement and sporting performance
Assess for substance use and mental health problems using HEEADSSS
In general, adolescents, especially young males, do not frequently consult with a primary care provider. Therefore, every encounter should be regarded as an opportunity to perform a mental health assessment and in particular, to ask about substance use. New Zealand guidelines recommend that every adolescent’s psychosocial welfare should be routinely assessed using a standardised interview format such as HEEADSSS (see below).18
It is preferable to conduct the interview when the patient is otherwise well. However, the acute distress of a crisis may assist in revealing important information.
Identifying substance misuse or dependence
During a HEEADSSS assessment, if an adolescent discloses alcohol or drug use, this should be assessed further with more direct questioning.18 Verbal or physical aggression, academic under-performance, impulsivity, hyperactivity, depressed mood and poor social skills may also be indicators of substance misuse.19
CRAFFT is a set of questions designed to detect alcohol and substance misuse in adolescents:20
Have you ever been in a Car driven by someone (including yourself) who had been using alcohol or drugs?
Do you ever use alcohol or drugs to Relax, feel better or “fit in”?
Do you ever use alcohol or drugs when you are Alone?
Do you ever Forget things you did while using alcohol or drugs?
Have Family or friends ever told you to cut down your use of alcohol or drugs?
Have you ever got into Trouble while you were using alcohol or drugs?
Answering “yes” to two or more questions indicates that substance misuse may be a problem. Red flags for a more serious problem are:
Substance use when the adolescent is alone
Friends expressing concern about usage
Co-existing mental illness
It is estimated that 60-75% of adolescents with a substance misuse disorder also have some other form of mental illness.19 The most common mental disorders amongst adolescents in New Zealand are anxiety, depression and conduct disorders.18 All people identified with a substance misuse disorder should be also screened for mental health disorders and treated appropriately.
For further information see: “Depression in young people”, BPJ special edition (Jan, 2010).
Goals of treatment
The overall objective of treatment for substance misuse is to return the patient to a state of medical and social wellbeing. The combination of education and harm reduction strategies has been shown to reduce substance misuse in adolescents.21
Psychological treatments are recommended first-line in adolescents. There is little evidence supporting the use of pharmacological treatments (e.g. benzodiazepines) for adolescents with substance misuse problems. Substitution medication (e.g. methadone) is also not recommended for young people.21
It is important that adequate follow-up and support is provided. The aim is for the general practice team to be viewed as helpful, accessible and safe. Text messages are a non-confrontational way of maintaining contact with adolescents and reminding them of future appointments. Phone calls and face-to-face contact with practice nurses can also promote accessibility to the general practice team. A multidisciplinary approach involving social agencies, school counsellors and other health professionals is often required.
Treatment techniques
Self-management involves reducing drug and alcohol consumption and avoiding triggers which may cause a relapse, by encouraging positive daily routines. Examples of this include; exercise, sleep hygiene, scheduling of activities, keeping a diary and stress management.18 For further information about self-management see “Treatment resources” (see below).
Brief interventions of five to ten minutes, where the adolescent is given advice on the harms of excessive consumption, can be effective in reducing alcohol and other drug use.21 Practitioners should discuss the health consequences of the substance misuse and ask if the adolescent is willing to try to change their behaviour. Those who are willing should be encouraged to set a goal (e.g. not using cannabis for a week) and be provided with supportive educational material.
Motivational interviewing is a form of brief intervention which can help a person to make the decision to stop misusing a substance by highlighting and resolving factors such as denial and ambivalence.22 The aim is to encourage people to recognise that there is a problem, to make a change and to stick with it. Motivational interviewing is of particular benefit in encouraging engagement with more intensive treatment for substance misuse for those who require it.23
For further information see “Motivational interviewing”, BPJ 17 (Oct, 2008)
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a technique used to help the patient identify their thoughts, beliefs and feelings which may be contributing to their behaviour. With the assistance of the therapist over a series of sessions, the patient develops coping strategies for events that may trigger substance use. CBT should only be performed by a health professional trained in the technique.
Best Practice Tip: “Become a coach”
Negative health behaviours such as substance misuse are often the “tip of the iceberg” in adolescents. Psychosocial issues that underpin behaviours will influence any health intervention that occurs. For example, an adolescent will smoke marijuana to cope with chronic stress (e.g. financial problems, abusive parents, relationship problems), and they are unlikely to successfully address the substance misuse problem without also making a positive change in their circumstances (e.g. finding employment). Merely supplying information on the harms of cannabis by itself would be ineffective. Primary care clinicians have an important role in coaching adolescents so that they can make positive changes in their social circumstances and learn coping skills to manage their reactions to adversity. An example of coaching may be: “You can’t change the situation, but you can change how you deal with it”.
Substance misuse amongst adolescents is associated with increased numbers of sexual partners and unprotected sex, leading to higher rates of sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy and abortion.2 In some cases sexual abuse may be a causative factor in substance misuse. Adolescents may find it difficult to confide in someone about their sexual behaviour - particularly if they do not identify as being heterosexual. A confidential and non-judgemental approach is required to build trust and communication.
Adolescents should be instructed and encouraged in the consistent and correct use of condoms. Condoms can be obtained under “Practitioner’s Supply Order” or prescribed fully subsidised on the Pharmaceutical Schedule. Sexually active adolescent females should be encouraged to use condoms and one other form of contraceptive. Long-acting forms of contraception may be considered for adolescent females who may have difficulty with daily contraceptive compliance.
A Public Health Officer or Child, Youth and Family Services (CYF) should be contacted where a person aged under 16 years is having consensual sex with a person significantly older than them, or where there are issues that may place the young person in danger. Where non-consensual sex or any other form of abuse is involved, the police or CYF should be contacted and, if necessary, a paediatrician consulted. If local resources are limited, it is essential for the practitioner to give advice on how the adolescent can remove themself from harm. In all cases the safety of the adolescent is the paramount consideration.
For further information see “Treatment resources” (below) and “Let’s talk about sex”, BPJ 20 (Apr, 2009).
A searchable directory of addiction treatment and advice services (including Kaupapa Māori) in New Zealand is available from: www.addictionshelp.org.nz
The alcohol drug helpline is available from 10 am - 10 pm, Ph: 0800 787 797 or visit: www.alcoholdrughelp.org.nz
Education material is available from: the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC) at: www.alac.org.nz , the Alcohol and Drug Association of New Zealand (ADANZ) at: www.adanz.org.nz and the Foundation for Alcohol and Drug Education (FADE) at: www.fade.org.nz
The Low Down is a Ministry of Health sponsored website focused on self-management of adolescent problem solving, and is available from: www.thelowdown.co.nz
Family planning provide resources for promoting sexual health. Clinics are available around the country or visit: www.familyplanning.org.nz
Rainbow Youth is an organisation for gay, lesbian and bisexual youth, run by youth. Visit: www.rainbowyouth.org.nz
Training in cognitive behavioural therapy is available from The Werry Centre in Auckland, which has occasional seminars on CBT and has strong links with Auckland University which offers several papers in CBT, for further information visit: www.werrycentre.org.nz
Performing a HEEADSSS assessment with an adolescent
Step 1 - Discuss confidentiality: The patient should be told that their personal information will not be disclosed without their permission, unless the information reveals that someone might harm them or they might harm themselves or someone else.18 Parents or caregivers should not be present during the interview.
Step 2 - Begin the interview: The interviewer creates their own questions which relate to the subjects which make up the HEEADSSS acronym. The interview itself, including the order of questioning should not be treated rigidly and should evolve naturally, based on the direction of conversation. More specific questions can be asked at the interviewer’s discretion. Questions should cover:
Education/employment
Suicide/depression
Questions should be open-ended and non-judgemental. It is important not to make any assumptions about the adolescent’s personal, family or social circumstances. In some cases it may be appropriate to discuss issues of culture and spirituality. Questions that require a description, rather than an opinion, help to avoid a “dunno” type of response. Some examples of questions are shown in Table 2.
It is recommended that the adolescent is asked if they have a trusted adult they can discuss personal matters with.24 A connection to supportive parents or other adults has been shown to be protective against a range of negative behaviours, including substance misuse.25
Step 3 - Wrapping up: By the end of the session, the interviewer should have a clear idea about how the adolescent feels about their home-life, schooling or employment, interactions with peers and sexuality. The interviewer should also have identified any factors such as peer pressure, bullying or substance misuse which may be placing the adolescent at risk. The adolescent also needs to be given the opportunity to raise any concerns, or request further information on specific topics.
It is important that the interview should also highlight the successful elements of an adolescent’s life. Commenting on things that are going well provides a positive aspect to the interview and a source of encouragement for the adolescent.
Best Practice Tip: For a useful and detailed account of how to perform an effective HEEADSSS assessment see: Goldenring J, Rosen D. Getting into adolescent heads: An essential update. Contemporary Pediatrics 2004;21(1):64-89.
Table 2: Examples of positive questions that may be asked and negative questions that are discouraged during a HEEADSSS assessment
Ask questions more like Ask questions less like Reason
Home Where do you live and who lives there with you? Tell me about your mother and father? If the person’s situation does not conform to the question then they may be defensive
Education or employment What are your favourite subjects at school? What marks are you getting at high school? Open-ended questions allow adolescents to present their own views
Eating What do you like and not like about your body? Do you think you are overweight? Issues of body image are often complex
Activities What do you and your friends enjoy doing? What sports do you play? Try not to restrict self-expression with narrow questions
Drugs Have any of your friends experimented with tobacco, alcohol or other drugs? Do you take drugs? Asking about friends allows the adolescent to reveal information without implicating themselves
Sexuality Have you ever been involved in a romantic relationship? Describe the people that you have been “seeing”. Have you ever had any unpleasant sexual experiences? Have you ever had sex? Asking about “having sex” is an ambiguous question and avoids wider issues such as sexual preference
Suicide Have you ever felt sad or down? Have you ever tried to kill yourself? These questions should focus on identifying thoughts or feelings that may lead to suicidal ideation
Safety Are there any people or situations which make you feel unsafe? Are you being bullied at school? Open-ended questions are more likely to uncover issues of concern
Thank you to Dr Sue Bagshaw, General Practitioner, President of the International Association of Adolescent Health, Christchurch for expert guidance in developing this article.
Pharo H, Sim C, Graham M, et al. Risky Business: Executive function, personality and reckless behavior during adolescence and emerging adulthood. Behav Neurosci 2011;125(6):970-8.
Office of the Prime Minister’s Science Advisory Committee. Improving the transition: Reducing social and psychological morbidity during adolescence 2011. Available from: www.pmcsa.org.nz (Accessed Dec, 2011).
Adolescent Health Research Group. Youth ‘07: The health and wellbeing of secondary school students in New Zealand. Initial findings. Auckland: The University of Auckland, 2008.
Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC). Māori action plan 2009-2012: ALAC, 2009.
Ministry of Health. Drug use in New Zealand: Key results of the 2007/08 New Zealand alcohol and drug use survey. Ministry of Health, Wellington. 2010.
Ministry of Health. Alcohol use in New Zealand: Key results of the 2007/08 New Zealand alcohol and drug use survey. Wellington: Ministry of Health. 2009.
Coleman L, Cater S. Underage ‘risky’ drinking. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2005.Available from: www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/1859352812.pdf (Accessed Dec, 2011).
Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC). Alcohol poisoning - from drunkenness to death. Available from: www.alac.org.nz (Accessed Jan, 2012).
Sartor C, Lynskey M, Bucholz K, et al. Timing of first alcohol use and alcohol dependence: Evidence of common genetic factors. Addiction 2009;104(9):1512-8.
Case S. Indicators of adolescent alcohol use: A composite risk factor approach. Substance use and misuse 2007;42:89-111.
Connor J, Broad J, Jackson R, et al. The burden of death, disease and disability due to alcohol in New Zealand. Wellington, New Zealand: ALAC; 2005.
Poulsen H. Alcohol and other drug use in New Zealand drivers, 2004-2009: Environmental Science and Research Ltd (ESR), 2010.
Ashtari M, Cervellione K, Cottone J, et al. Diffusion abnormalities in adolescents and young adults with a history of heavy cannabis use. J Psychiatric Res 2009;43:189-204.
Fergusson D, Boden J, Horwood L. Cannabis use and other illicit drug use: testing the cannabis gateway hypothesis. Addiction 2006;101:556-69.
Mayet A, Legleye S, Falissard B, Chau N. Cannabis use stages as predictors of subsequent initiation with other illicit drugs among French adolescent: Use of a multi-state model. Addict Behav 2012;37(2):160-6.
Fergusson D, Poulton R, Smith P, Boden J. Cannabis and psychosis. BMJ 2006;332:172-6.
Dennis M, Muck R, McDermeit M, editors. The need for developing and evaluating adolescent models. NY: Haworth Press, 2002.
New Zealand Guidelines Group (NZGG). Identification of common mental disorders and management of depression in primary care. NZGG, 2008.
Griswold K, Aronoff H, Kernan J, Kahn L. Adolescent substance use and abuse: Recognition and management. Am Fam Physician 2008;77(3):331-6.
Knight J, Sherritt L, Shrier L, et al. Validity of the CRAFFT substance abuse screening test among adolescent clinic patients. Arch Pediatr Adolesc 2002;156;607-14.
Toumbourou J, Stockwell T, Neighbours C, et al. Interventions to reduce harm associated with adolescent substance use. Lancet 2007;369:1391-401.
McLellan A, Lewis D, O’Brien C, et al. Drug dependence, a chronic medical illness: implications for treatment, insurance and outcomes evaluation. JAMA 2000;284(13):1689-95.
Dunn C, Deroo L, Rivara F. The use of brief interventions adapted from motivational interviewing across behavioral domains: a systematic review. Addiction 2001;96(12):1725-42.
Goldenring J RD. Getting into adolescent heads: An essential update. Contemp pediatr 2004;21(1):64-90.
Resnick M BP, Blum R, et al. Protecting adolescents from harm. JAMA 1997;278:823-32.
This article is 7 years and 5 months old.
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The Ancient Egyptian World
Cline, Eric H.
Taking readers back 4,000 years, to the fertile land around the Nile River, The Ancient Egyptian World tells the stories of the kings, queens, pharaohs, gods, tomb builders, and ordinary citizens who lived there. Using papyri, scarabs, tomb inscriptions, mummies, and a rich variety of other primary sources, Eric H. Cline and Jill Rubalcaba uncover the fascinating history of ancient Egypt. Scarabs, which scholars call "imperial news bulletins," record important moments in a pharaoh's reign.
The Edwin Smith Papyrus details the injuries sustained by the builders of the great pyramids, and the remedies used to treat them. For a worker who has had a stone fall on his head, it suggests: "bind it with fresh meat . . . and treat afterward with grease, honey and lint." A complex recipe for a top-of-the-line mummy describes a process that could take 70 days and involved drawing the brain out through the nose with a crooked piece of iron.
These primary sources also tell the stories of the people of ancient Egypt: Pepi II, the six-year-old boy king who commanded armies; Ramesses II, whose mortuary temple boasts of his expertise in battle against the Hittites; Queen Hatshepsut, the only woman to rule Egypt as pharaoh; and Cleopatra, who courted Roman statesman Mark Antony as part of her quest to extend the Egyptian empire. The Ancient Egyptian World honors the history of a civilization whose monuments and tombs still capture the imagination of the world thousands of years later.
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 2005
Branch Call Number: DT61 .C54 2005
Characteristics: 190 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm
Additional Contributors: Rubalcaba, Jill
Read more reviews of The Ancient Egyptian World at iDreamBooks.com
Egypt — Civilization — To 332 B.C. — Juvenile Literature
Egypt — Civilization — 332 B.C.-638 A.D. — Juvenile Literature
Find it at BPS
Alternate Catalog
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Beyoncé and Blue Ivy wear matching mother-daughter florals in Paris
Beyoncé's mini-me daughter Blue Ivy is following in mom's fashionable footsteps, so much so that the two were twinning as they stepped out in Paris. Blue posed up a storm with her mom in an adorable matching dress – both from Gucci, no less.
In photos shared on Beyoncé's website, the mother-daughter duo is seen laughing and jumping in the air against a stunning backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.
TAP TO VIEW FULL GALLERY
The adorable mother-daughter duo posed up a storm
The family were on a European break in the City of Light and looked to be having a ball.
Beyoncé also took part in a solo photoshoot, showing off the stunning Gucci dress with a series of smouldering poses.
On Wednesday it was revealed that the singer has earned 11 nominations for this year's MTV Music Video Awards for her visual album Lemonade.
They were dressed in matching Gucci gowns
The 60-minute film is in the running for best longform video, while the first single, Formation, is up for video of the year.
Adele follows close behind with eight nominations, including seven for her Hello video.
Beyoncé had a solo photoshoot against the stunning backdrop
Kanye West's Famous video, which shows the rapper in bed with waxwork figures of naked celebrities including Taylor Swift and Donald Trump, received two nominations.
The awards take place on 28 August at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Blue Ivy proves a model in the making in stylish new photos
Beyoncé causes a fan frenzy as she hits the shops in Milan
Beyoncé gives a behind-the-scenes look at her Formation tour wardrobe
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Chelsea Opera Group Chorus & Orchestra
Verdi’s Un giorno di regno
Saturday 12 October 2019, 19:00
Prices from £15.00 to £38.00
Chelsea Opera Group Chorus & Orchestra Book Now
Verdi Un giorno di regno
Tom Seligman conductor
Chelsea Opera Group Chorus
Chelsea Opera Group Orchestra
Soloists tba
www.chelseaoperagroup.org.uk
Frustrated lovers, the pursuit of money, inter-generational rivalry, and a false identity: Un giorno di regno has all the ingredients for a classic Italian comedy. But Un giorno di regno was a notorious failure at its world premiere and soon disappeared from the stage.
A new critical edition has revealed just how much care Verdi put into the work – re-directing attention to its succession of brilliant arias, comic mishaps and poignant emotion. The time is ripe for Verdi’s comedy to be heard again, reminding us all of the truths to be uncovered in mischievous fantasy.
Concert performance in Italian with English surtitles.
5.45pm: Pre-concert talk by Ditlev Rindom (ticket holders only)
Duration: approx. 2 hours 15 mins (incl. interval)
2019-10-12 19:00:00 2019-10-12 21:10:00 Europe/London Chelsea Opera Group Chorus & Orchestra Verdi’s Un giorno di regno Cadogan Hall or one of the supported venues. Please contact the box office for more details.
£38, £33, £25.50, £15
All orders are subject to a transaction fee, except if made in person. See booking information for details, payment methods and delivery options.
Book Now View Seating Plan
The Tallis Scholars
Special Palestrina
Wednesday 2 October 2019, 19:30
The Tallis Scholars perform rarely heard Palestrina choral music alongside pieces by Byrd, Gallus and de Morales.
Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Youth Chorus & Orchestra
Richard Blackford: Pietà
The Bournemouth Symphony Chorus proudly presents the London premiere of Pietà, a major cantata commissioned from Richard Blackford. A powerful setting of the Stabat Mater for soprano, baritone, strings and saxophone, with additional poems by the Rus...
Wimbledon Choral Society
Saturday 2 November 2019, 19:30
‘One of the most substantial and formidable choirs in London’ joins forces with Farnham Youth Choir (Choir of the Year winners, World and European Choir Games gold medallists) to bring you Carl Orff’s rumbustious take on the pleasures and pitfa...
Mozart: Così fan tutte
Classical Opera Company
Wednesday 6 November 2019, 19:00
Following their critically acclaimed concert performances of Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni at Cadogan Hall, Ian Page and The Mozartists bring their trademark dynamism, insight and dramatic flair to Mozart’s third and final masterpiece wri...
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nicki minaj diddy chris brown lil wayne kim kardashian Paul McCartney jessica simpson r. kelly blake shelton jennifer lopez justin bieber a$ap rocky remy ma camila cabello cardi b nipsey hussle t.i. shawn mendes jermaine dupri tyga 50 cent lady gaga pink
Home » Music
George Michael “wanted to die” says His Lover, but was He Hacked?
Ashley Mitchell Jan 2, 2017 8:30 AM PDT
Source: iheart.com
Amid the real tragedies taking place especially towards the end of the year, there was also some fake news that shocked the internet users only to be quickly debunked.
We have regrettably announced the deaths of Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and George Michael only in the last week. Furthermore, Britney Spears and even Queen Elizabeth were announced dead by hacked social media accounts, spreading confusion all around.
Now, the latest celebrity to have his Twitter account hacked is Fadi Fawaz, late George Michel’s mourning lover.
The hacker maliciously chose to add salt to the wound by spreading unconfirmed information about the late singer. His boyfriend discovered that someone had tweeted from his account, claiming that George Michael had an entire history of suicide attempts and that he actually wished to die before finally getting his wish on Christmas day, when he passed away.
Since then, the tweets have been deleted but they read: “not sure who that nasty close friend of george but i was in relationship with george michael till i found him dead in bed.”
Another said: “the only thing George wanted is to DIE” and “he tired [sic] numbers of time to kill himself many times…”
“and he finally managed”
“we loved each other very much and we were together almost 24 hours a day…”
Obviously the tweets were not sent out by Fawaz, as they sound like cruel trolling by a 12 year old, but Michael’s lover still wanted to clear things out, assuring everyone he was in fact hacked. Shortly after, Fawaz closed his Twitter account indefinitely.
“I am shocked with what’s going on with the Twitter thing. My Twitter account was hacked and closed.”
“It’s a bit scary to be honest. I did not send those tweets. I woke up at 11:30am to the news. I am not going to worry about these things.”
Read more about fadi fawaz george michael hacker lies lover suicide twitter
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Jul 13, 2019 11:31 PM PDT
Channing Tatum Loses It Over Astrology App In New Bizarre Video Rant
Tara Reid’s Father Dies Just Days After Christmas
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All interested individuals will receive consideration and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or protected veteran status. SOSi takes affirmative action in support of its policy to advance diversity and inclusion of individuals who are minorities, women, protected veterans, and individuals with disabilities.
1-190607-9153: Court Interpreter - Lahu - Multiple Locations
Location U.S. - Multiple Locations
Open Date 6/7/2019
SOS International LLC (SOSi) is seeking qualified, professional, and experienced Lahu Court Interpreters to support a federal government customer. Our job is to support our customer’s ongoing court cases by providing Lahu language interpretation.
These cases are supported on an as-needed basis and require interpreters with flexible schedules. Hours will differ from assignment to assignment, based on needs of the customer. We provide the interpreter with as much notice as possible, anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks ahead of time. From time to time, we have rush requests due to a cancellation.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES
• Provides consecutive and simultaneous interpretation between Lahu and English and vice versa
• Leads three-way telephonic interpretations between Government representatives and low English proficiency individuals as required
• Performs sight translation, occurring when an interpreter is given a written document in one language and asked to read it aloud in another language
• Provides quality control review of translated documents as required
• Performs other duties as required
• Legal ability to work in U.S.
• Certified Interpreter (Federal, State or NAJIT certified) or possess one (1) year of experience interpreting in a judicial environment
• Highly proficient in both English and Lahu vocabularies typically used in formal, consultative, and casual modes of communication in justice system contexts, including colloquial slang, idiosyncratic slang, and regionalisms
• Knowledgeable of specialized vocabulary (terminology) in both English and Lahu related to legal and criminal justice system terminology and immigration procedures, particularly with regard to terminology typically used in Immigration Court hearings
• Ability to speak English and Lahu fluently, including high to low levels of language register, regional colloquialisms and slang expressions, and do so with clear and intelligible pronunciation
• Ability to perform simultaneous, consecutive, and sight translation in a manner that is factually and conceptually accurate without changes, omissions, or additions
• Ability to preserve the tone and emotional level of the speaker, as well as manage the delivery, speed and length of the statement (projection, pace and pausing) of the speaker
• Ability to maintain appropriate speed and projection while rendering interpretation, and request and incorporate clarification of speaker’s statements only when justified
• Federal, State, National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), or Judiciary Interpreters and Translators Certification Examination (JITCE) certification in interpretation
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Koenigsegg Agera
Latest News/ Super Cars/ Videos
Porsche 918 Spyder vs Koenigsegg Agera R (VIDEO)
What will come out on top in this high-speed hypercar battle – new hybrid tech or raw horsepower?
These are two of the fastest production cars in the world right now. Producing over 2000hp combined, both will hit 62mph in under 3 seconds and do well over 200mph flat out.
The Porsche is arguably the more technologically advanced car with its unique hybrid powertrain and all-wheel drive system. The rear wheels are driven by a 4.6-litre naturally aspirated V8 that revs past 9000rpm and features electrical assistance to give extra low-end torque.
The front wheels are also connected to an electric motor which gives all-wheel drive capability. Combined output is 887hp, and weight is a relatively heavy 1640kg with the Weisach Pakcage that is fitted to the car in this video.
Porsche’s hybrid hypercar can also run in silent zero emissions full-electric mode for up to 12 miles.
The Koenigsegg is different, it has no electric mode. It has no electric motors to speak of, just an 1140hp 5.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that seems like it escaped from a mental hospital. Like the Porsche, the Agera R is all carbon fiber, but because it doesn’t have to lug around heavy batteries it weighs 1435kg.
On paper at least, it would seem the Swedish Koenigsegg should embarrass the German Porsche 918 in a straight-line drag race. In practice, well, watch the video. And remember, Koenigsegg’s new car – the 1360hp One:1 – is even faster than this Agera R…
December 10, 2014 Carhoots
Koenigsegg Agera One:1 Has Bugatti In Its Sights At Geneva
The Koenigsegg Agera R is about to become more insane than ever. The Swedish supercar-maker is teasing the hot new Koenigsegg Agera One: 1 ahead of its Geneva debut, and Koenigsegg promises big power, and even more impressive performance from its ultra-rare exotic.
The Koenigsegg Agera One:1 is named after its power to weight ratio: one metric horsepower for every kilogram of weight. That means the 1340 kilogram (2954 pound) Swedish sensation will pack 1340 metric horsepower – 1321 hp to you and I – under its mid-mounted carbon-fiber engine cover. That’s 187 hp more than what the regular Agera R’s twin-turbo 5.0-liter V-8 makes.To put that in perspective, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport ‘only’ makes 1184 hp using a quad-turbo 8.0-liter W-16 engine, and it weighs in at around 4100 pounds.
I’ll pause for a second to allow you to pick your jaw up off the floor.
Not only does Koenigsegg promise that the Agera One:1 beats Bugatti in power and curb weight, but claimed performance, too. The automaker told the Wall Street Journal that the Agera One:1 will accelerate from 0-249 mph in less than 20 seconds.
Koenigsegg then says that its hypercar will be able to come to a standstill from 249 mph in less than 10 seconds. Meanwhile, the Veyron Super Sport needs 25.6 seconds to accelerate from zero to just 200 mph and then back to zero again.
February 10, 2014 February 11, 2014 Carhoots 0
Super Cars/ Top 10s
10 Most Expensive Cars In The World For 2014 (PHOTOS)
If you have yet to write your car list for yet for 2014, you best get a move on. But before you do, it is maybe worth having a look to see if you can afford one of these bad boys as we bring you the 10 most expensive cars for 2014.
10) Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG Coupe – $215,500
Engine: 621-hp, 6.0-liter, bi-turbo V-12
0-60 mph: 4.2 seconds
9) Aston Martin Vanquish – $279,995
Engine: 565-hp, 6.0-liter V-12
0-62 mph (that is, 100 km per hour): 4.1 seconds
8) Bentley Mulsanne – $298,900
Engine: 505-hp, 6.75-liter, twin-turbo V-8
7) Ferrari F12 Berlinetta – $315,888
Engine: 740-hp, 6.3-liter, V-12
6) The Rolls-Royce Phantom Extended Wheelbase – $298,900
Engine: 453-hp, 6.75-liter V-12
5) Porsche 918 Spyder – $845,000
Engine: 887 hp (total output), 4.6-liter V-8 with two electric motors
4) Hennessey Venom GT – $1.2 million
Engine: 1,244 hp, 7.0-liter, twin-turbo V-8
0-60mph: 2.7 seconds
3) Koenigsegg Agera – $1,520,000
Engine: 1,030 hp, twin-turbo, 5.0-liter V-8
2) Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse – $2.5 million
Country of Origin: France
Engine: 1,200 hp, 8-liter, 16-cylinder
1) Lamborghini Veneno Roadster – $4.5 million
Engine: 750-hp, 6.5-liter, 12-cylinder
via: Forbes
December 20, 2013 February 7, 2014 Carhoots
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Availability and requirements
Methodology article
Bayesian coestimation of phylogeny and sequence alignment
Gerton Lunter1Email author,
István Miklós2,
Alexei Drummond3,
Jens Ledet Jensen4 and
Jotun Hein1
BMC Bioinformatics20056:83
© Lunter et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2005
Accepted: 01 April 2005
Two central problems in computational biology are the determination of the alignment and phylogeny of a set of biological sequences. The traditional approach to this problem is to first build a multiple alignment of these sequences, followed by a phylogenetic reconstruction step based on this multiple alignment. However, alignment and phylogenetic inference are fundamentally interdependent, and ignoring this fact leads to biased and overconfident estimations. Whether the main interest be in sequence alignment or phylogeny, a major goal of computational biology is the co-estimation of both.
We developed a fully Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo method for coestimating phylogeny and sequence alignment, under the Thorne-Kishino-Felsenstein model of substitution and single nucleotide insertion-deletion (indel) events. In our earlier work, we introduced a novel and efficient algorithm, termed the "indel peeling algorithm", which includes indels as phylogenetically informative evolutionary events, and resembles Felsenstein's peeling algorithm for substitutions on a phylogenetic tree. For a fixed alignment, our extension analytically integrates out both substitution and indel events within a proper statistical model, without the need for data augmentation at internal tree nodes, allowing for efficient sampling of tree topologies and edge lengths. To additionally sample multiple alignments, we here introduce an efficient partial Metropolized independence sampler for alignments, and combine these two algorithms into a fully Bayesian co-estimation procedure for the alignment and phylogeny problem.
Our approach results in estimates for the posterior distribution of evolutionary rate parameters, for the maximum a-posteriori (MAP) phylogenetic tree, and for the posterior decoding alignment. Estimates for the evolutionary tree and multiple alignment are augmented with confidence estimates for each node height and alignment column. Our results indicate that the patterns in reliability broadly correspond to structural features of the proteins, and thus provides biologically meaningful information which is not existent in the usual point-estimate of the alignment. Our methods can handle input data of moderate size (10–20 protein sequences, each 100–200 bp), which we analyzed overnight on a standard 2 GHz personal computer.
Joint analysis of multiple sequence alignment, evolutionary trees and additional evolutionary parameters can be now done within a single coherent statistical framework.
Multiple Alignment
Homology Structure
Dynamic Programming Algorithm
Data Augmentation
Alignment Column
Two central problems in computational biology are the determination of the alignment and phylogeny of a set of biological sequences. Current methods first align the sequences, and then infer the phylogeny given this fixed alignment. Several software packages are available that deal with one or both of these sub-problems. For example, ClustalW [1] and T-Coffee [2] are popular sequence alignment packages, while MrBayes [3], PAUP* [4] and Phylip [5] all provide phylogenetic reconstruction and inference. Despite working very well in practice, these methods share some problems. First, the separation into a multiple-alignment step and a phylogenetic inference step, is fundamentally flawed. The two inference problems are mutually dependent, and alignments and phylogeny should ideally be co-estimated, a point first made by Sankoff, Morel and Cedergren [6]. Indeed, a proper weighting of mutation events in multiple sequences requires a tree, which in turn can only be determined if a multiple alignment is available. For instance, ClustalW and T-Coffee compute their alignments based on a neighbour-joining guide tree, biasing subsequent phylogenetic estimates based on the resulting alignment. Moreover, fixing the alignment after the first step ignores the residual uncertainty in the alignment, resulting in an overconfident phylogenetic estimate.
This leads on to the second issue, which is that heuristic methods are used to deal with insertions and deletions (indels), and sometimes also substitutions. This lack of a proper statistical framework makes it very difficult to accurately assess the reliability of the alignment estimate, and the phylogeny depending on it.
The relevance of statistical approaches to evolutionary inference has long been recognised. Time-continuous Markov models for substitution processes were introduced more than three decades ago [7]. Inference methods based on these have been considerably improved since then [8], and now have all but replaced older parsimony methods for phylogeny reconstruction. With alignments, progress towards statistically grounded methods has been slower. The idea to investigate insertions and deletions in a statistical framework was first considered by Bishop and Thompson [9]. The first evolutionary model, termed the TKF91 model, and corresponding statistical tools for pairwise sequence alignment were published by Thorne, Kishino and Felsenstein [10]. Its extension to multiple sequences related by a tree has been intensively investigated in the last few years [11–17], and has recently also been extended to RNA gene evolution [18]. Current methods for statistical multiple alignment often computationally demanding, and full maximum likelihood approaches are limited to small trees. Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques can extend these methods to practical problem sizes.
Statistical modelling and MCMC approaches have a long history in population genetic analysis. In particular, coalescent approaches to genealogical inference have been very successful, both in maximum likelihood [19, 20] and Bayesian MCMC frameworks [21, 22]. The MCMC approach is especially promising, as it allows the analysis of large data sets, as well as nontrivial model extensions, see e.g. [23]. Since divergence times in population genetics are small, alignment is generally straightforward, and genealogical inference from a fixed alignment is well-understood [20, 24–26]. However, these approaches have difficulty dealing with indels when sequences are hard to align. Indel events are generally treated as missing data [27], which renders them phylogenetically uninformative. This is unfortunate as indel events can be highly informative of the phylogeny, because of their relative rarity compared to substitution events. Statistical models of alignment and phylogeny often refer to missing data. Not all of these can be integrated out analytically (e.g. tree topology), and these are dealt with using Monte Carlo methods. The efficiency of such approaches depend to a great extent on the choice of missing data. In previous approaches to statistical alignment, the sampled missing data were either unobserved sequences at internal nodes [28], or both internal sequences and alignments between nodes [13], or dealt exclusively with pairwise alignments [29, 30]. In all cases the underlying tree was fixed. In [31] we published an efficient algorithm for computing the likelihood of a multiple sequence alignment under the TKF91 model, given a fixed underlying tree. The method analytically sums out all missing data (pertaining to the evolutionary history that generated the alignment), eliminating the need for any data augmentation of the tree. This methodology is referred to in the MCMC literature as Rao-Blackwellization [32]. As a result, we can treat indels in a statistically consistent manner with no more than a constant multiplicative cost over existing methods that ignore indels.
The only missing ingredient for a full co-estimation procedure is an alignment sampler. Unfortunately, there exists no Gibbs alignment sampler that corresponds to the analytic algorithm referred to above. In this paper we introduce a partial importance sampler to resample alignments, based on a proposal mechanism built on a partial score-based alignment procedure. This type of sampler supports the data format we need for efficient likelihood calculations, while still achieving good mixing in reasonable running time (see Results).
We implemented the likelihood calculator and the alignment sampler in Java, and interfaced them with an existing MCMC kernel for phylogenetics and population genetics [22]. We demonstrate the practicality of our approach on an analysis of 10 globin sequences.
Definition of the TKF model
The TKF91 model is a continuous-time reversible Markov model describing the evolution of nucleotide (or amino acid) sequences. It models three of the main processes in sequence evolution, namely substitutions, insertions and deletions of characters, approximating these as single-character processes. A sequence is represented as a string alternatingly consisting of links and characters connected by these links. This string both starts and terminates with a link. Insertions and deletions are modeled through a time-continuous birth-death process of links. When a new link is born, its associated character (by convention, its right neighbour) is chosen from the equilibrium distribution of the substitution process. (The original TKF91 model used a simple substitution process, the Felsenstein-81 model [27]. It is straightforward to replace this by more general nucleotide or amino acid substitution models [33].) When a link dies, its associated character dies too. The leftmost link of the sequence has no corresponding character to its left, and is never deleted. For this reason it is called the immortal link.
Since subsequences evolve independently, it is sufficient to describe the evolution of a single character-link pair. In a given finite time span, this pair evolves into a finite subsequence of characters and links. Since insertions originate from links, only the first character of this descendant subsequence may be homologous to the original character, while subsequent ones will have been inserted and therefore not be homologous to ancestral characters. The model as applied to pairwise alignments was solved analytically in [10], see also [34]. Conceptually, the model can be trivially extended to trees, but the corresponding algorithms for likelihood calculations have been developed only recently [11, 12, 14–16].
Because the TKF91 model is time reversible, the root placement does not influence the likelihood, an observation known as Felsenstein's "Pulley Principle" [27]). Although the algorithms we developed are not manifestly invariant under changes in root placement, in fact they are. We have used time reversibility to check correctness of our implementations.
Computing the likelihood of a homology structure
The concept of homology structure [31], also known as effective alignment [35], refers to an alignment of sequences at leaves without reference to the internal tree structure, and without specifying the ordering of exchangable columns (see below for more details). We derived a linear-time algorithm that computes the likelihood of observing a set of sequences and their homology structure, given a phylogeny and evolutionary parameters, under the TKF91 model [31]. By definition, this likelihood is the sum of the probabilities of all evolutionary scenarios resulting in the observed data. It was previously shown that such evolutionary scenarios can be described as a path in a multiple-HMM ([13, 28]), and the likelihood can thus be calculated as the sum of path probabilities over all such paths, in time polynomial in the number of states. However, this straightforward calculation is infeasible for practical-sized biological problems, since the number of states in the HMM grows exponentially with the number of sequences [16]. Since our algorithm does not feature this exponential blow-up of Markov states, we termed it the one-state recursion. In contrast to previous approaches [13, 28], the one-state recursion relieves us from the need to store missing data at internal tree nodes, allowing us to change the tree topology without having to resample this missing data. This enables us to consider the tree as a parameter, and efficiently sample from tree space. The concept of homology structure referred to above is key to our algorithm, and we will presently define this concept more precisely. Let A1, A2, ...A m be sequences, related by a tree T with vertex set V. Let denote the j th character of sequence A i , and let denote its k long prefix. A homology structure on A1, ..., A m is an equivalence relation ~ on the set of all the characters of the sequences, C = { }, specifying which characters are homologous to which. The evolutionary indel process generating the homology structure on the sequences imposes constraints on the equivalence relations that may occur. More precisely, the equivalence relation ~ has the property that a total ordering, < h , exists on C such that
(Here, a = h b is equivalent to: a ≮ h b and b ≮ h a.) In particular, these conditions imply that the characters constituting a single sequence are mutually nonhomologous. The ordering < h corresponds to the ordering of columns of homologous characters in an alignment. Note that for a given homology structure, this ordering may not be unique (see Fig. 1). This many-to-one relationship of alignment to homology structure is the reason for introducing the concept of homology structure, instead of using the more common concept of alignment.
Alignments and homology structure. (Left:) Two alignments representing the same homology structure. A "homology structure" is defined as the set of all homology relationships between residues from the given sequences; residues are homologous if they appear in the same alignment column. Our recursion includes contributions from all alignments compatible with a given homology structure (itself represented by a single alignment). (Right:) Due to the evolutionary process acting on the sequences, homology relationships (arrows) will never 'cross' as depicted. This restriction on the equivalence relation ~ is codified by < h (see text).
The one-state recursion, which calculates the likelihood of a homology structure, is a convolution of two dynamic programming algorithms. The top-level algorithm traverses the prefix set of the multiple alignments representing the homology structure (see Figure 2). This repeatedly calls on a reverse traversal algorithm on the phylogenetic tree, which sums out the likelihood contributions of substitutions and indels under the TKF91 model. See [31] for full details.
Dynamic programming table traversal. The multiple alignment prefixes (represented by o symbols) traversed by the one-state recursion, when the input is the homology structure of Fig. 1. (For clarity, the vectors are plotted in two dimensions instead of the actual three.) The homology structure is represented by the graph, and each directed path on this graph uniquely corresponds to an alignment that is compatible with the homology structure.
A partial Metropolized independence sampler
Because our algorithm does not require the phylogenetic tree to be augmented with missing data, proposing changes to the evolutionary tree is easy, and mixing in tree space is very good. The drawback however is that without data augmentation, it is unclear how to perform Gibbs sampling of alignments, and we have to resort to other sampling schemes. One straightforward choice would be a standard Metropolis-Hastings procedure with random changes to the alignment, but we expect slow mixing from such an approach. Another general approach is Metropolized independence sampling. Its performance depends on the difference between the proposal distribution and the target distribution, and this will inevitably become appreciable with growing dimension of the problem, as measured by the number and length of the sequences to be aligned. We therefore opted for a partial Metropolized independence sampler [36], where we partly defy the "curse of dimensionality" by resampling only a segment of the current alignment. Above increasing the acceptance ratio, this method has the added advantage of being a more efficient proposal scheme, since the time complexity of the algorithm is proportional to the square of the window size, and so leads to an effective increase in mixing per processor cycle. Metzler et al. [29] followed a parallel approach, using a partial Gibbs sampler, and showed that this resulted in faster mixing compared to a full Gibbs sampling step. Since the realignment step may change the window length (measured in alignment columns), to have a reversible Markov chain we need all window sizes to have positive proposal probability. We chose a geometric length distribution, but other distributions can be considered equally well.
The proposal algorithm
The proposal algorithm is as follows. A window size and location is proposed, the alignment of subsequences within this window is removed, and a new alignment is proposed by a stochastic version of the standard score-based progressive pairwise alignment method. First, dynamic programming (DP) tables are filled as for a deterministic score-based multiple alignment, starting at the tree tips and working towards the root, aligning sequences and profiles. We used linear gap penalties, and a similarity scoring matrix that was obtained by taking the log-odds of a probabilistic substitution matrix. The underlying phylogeny was used to define divergence times, and served as alignment guide tree. After filling the DP tables, we applied stochastic traceback. The probabilities for the three possible directions at each position was taken to be proportional to exp(αs), where s is the deterministic score and α is a scale parameter (see Fig. 3). The set of paths that emerged in this way then determined the multiple alignment. All possible alignments can be proposed in this manner, and the proposal as well as the back-proposal probabilities can be calculated straightforwardly.
Generating the proposal alignment. This figure illustrates the stochastic sequence aligner. In the deterministic fill-in process, the three scores are s1, s2 and s3, hence the value in this cell is max{s1, s2, s3}. In the stochastic traceback phase, the three neighbor cells are choosen with probabilities proportional to exp(αs i ), where α > 0 is a scaling parameter. The chosen traceback path corresponds to the proposed alignment in the usual way.
Correctness of the sampler
There are two problems with the proposal sampler introduced above. First, we propose alignments instead of homology structures. We need the latter, since the algorithm derived in this paper calculates the likelihood of the homology structure, not the particular alignment. Although it would be conceptually and (for the sampler) computationally simpler to use alignments, we are not aware of any efficient algorithm that can calculate such alignment likelihoods. The second problem is that calculating the proposal probability of a particular alignment is not straightforward. Any choice of window size and location may result in the same proposal alignment. To calculate the true proposal probability of particular alignments, we need to sum over all possible windows, which is prohibitively expensive.
Fortunately, we can solve both problems efficiently. We can sample alignments uniformly inside a homology structure, and at the same time sample homology structures according to their posterior probabilities. As biologically meaningful questions refer to homologies and not particular alignments, it seems reasonable to impose a simple uniform distribution over alignments within homology structures. The second problem is solved by not calculating an alignment proposal probability, but the proposal probability of the combination of an alignment and a resampling window. For a proposal of alignment X2 and window w from a current alignment X1, we use the following Metropolis-Hastings ratio:
where H1 and H2 are homology structures corresponding to the alignments X1 and X2 respectively, |H1| and |H2| are their cardinalities (i.e. the number of alignments representing these homology structures), and T is the proposal probability. Using this ratio, the Markov chain will converge to the desired distribution π(X) = π(H)/|H|, since the detailed balance condition is satisfied. Indeed,
where the final equality holds because of the symmetry of the left-hand side. The cardinality of a homology structure, |H1|, is the number of possible directed paths in the graph spanned by the one-state recursion; in other words, the number of permutations of alignment columns that result in alignments compatible with the given homology structure (see Fig. 2). This number can be calculated straightforwardly using a dynamic programming algorithm that traverses the one-state recursion graph [31, 37].
The one-state recursion provides a method for calculating the likelihood L = Pr{A, |T, Q, λ, μ} of observing the sequences with their homology structure (loosely, "alignment") given the tree and model parameters. Here A are the amino acid sequences, is their homology structure, T is the tree including branch lengths, Q is the substitution rate matrix, and λ, μ are the amino acid insertion and deletion rates. To demonstrate the practicality of the new algorithm for likelihood calculation we undertook a Bayesian MCMC analysis of ten globin protein sequences (see Additional file: 1). We chose to use the standard Dayhoff rate matrix to describe the substitution of amino acids. As initial homology structure we used the alignment computed by T-Coffee. We co-estimated homology structures, the parameters of the TKF91 model, and the tree topology and branch lengths. To do this we sampled from the posterior,
where Z is the unknown normalising constant. We chose the prior distribution on our parameters, f (T, λ, μ), so that T was constrained to a molecular clock, and λ = μ L/(L + 1) to make the expected sequence length under the TKF91 model agree with the observed lengths; here L is the geometric average sequence length. All other parameters were sampled under uniform priors. We assume a molecular clock to gain insight into the relative divergence times of the alpha-, beta- and myoglobin families. In doing so we incorporate insertion-deletion events as informative events in the evolutionary analysis of the globin family. The posterior density h is a complicated function defined on a space of high dimension. We summarise the information it contains by computing the expectations, over h, of various statistics of interest. We estimate these expectations by using MCMC to sample from h. Marginalizations for continuous variables can be done in a straightforward manner; see for example Figure 4, which depicts the marginal posterior density of the μ parameter for two independent MCMC runs, showing excellent convergence.
Posterior distribution of deletion rate μ. Estimated posterior densities of the deletion rate μ sampled according to h (see text), for two independent runs, suggesting excellent convergence. The sampled mean is 0.0207; the 95% highest posterior density (HPD) interval was estimated to be (0.0121, 0.0316).
For alignments, the maximum a-posteriori alignment is very hard to estimate from an MCMC sample run, as there are typically far too many plausible alignments contributing to the likelihood. Indeed, we found that almost all alignments in a moderately long MCMC run (50000 samples) were unique. However, it is possible to reconstruct a reliable maximum posterior decoding [38] alignment from such a moderate long sampling run. This alignment uses the posterior single-column probabilities, which can be estimated much more reliably since many alignments share particular columns, to obtain an alignment that maximizes the product of individual column posteriors. This alignment can be obtained by a simple dynamic programming algorithm [39], see Fig. 5. It is hard to visualise alternative suboptimal alignments, but the individual posterior column probabilities clearly reveal the more and less reliable regions of the alignment. We found that the reliable alignment regions broadly correspond to the alpha helical structure of the globin sequences.
Maximum posterior decoding alignment, and column reliabilities. The maximum posterior decoding alignment of ten globins (human, chicken and turtle alpha hemoglobin, beta hemoglobin, myoglobin and bean leghemoglobin). Posterior probabilities for aligned columns were estimated as their rate in the Markov chain. Common alpha helices are indicated with 'α' symbols under the alignment. A broad correspondence between peaks in the posterior alignment reliability and the position of conserved secondary structure is apparent.
Figure 6 depicts the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate of the phylogenetic relationships of the sequences. This example exhibits only limited uncertainty in the tree topology, however we observed an increased uncertainty for trees that included divergent sequences, such as bacterial and insect globins (results not shown).
Maximum a-posteriori phylogeny. The maximum a posteriori tree (black) relating the ten globins of Fig. 5, and 95% confidence intervals of the node heights (grey boxes). Most of the tree's topology is well determined, with the exception of the myoglobin sub-tree. Alpha and beta chain sub-families both support the traditional ordering of birds, turtles and mammals, while the three myoglobin sequences support an unconventional phylogeny, as previously observed by Hedges and Poling [41]. However, the posterior probability for the topology of the myoglobin subtree is smaller than that for the remaining topology. The marginal posterior probability (estimated from the MCMC chain) for the monophyly of human and chicken myoglobin is 83.1%, followed by the conventional grouping of turtle and chicken at 11.9%. The third topologlcal arrangement of myoglobin occurred the remaining 5% of the time, suggesting significant homoplasy in this sub-family.
The estimated time of the most recent common ancestor of each of the alpha, beta and myoglobin families are all mutually compatible (result not shown), suggesting that the molecular clock hypothesis is at least approximately valid. Analysis of a four sequence dataset demonstrate consistency in μ estimates between MCMC and previous ML analyses [16] (data not shown). Interestingly, the current larger dataset supports a lower value of μ. This is probably due to the fact that no indels are apparent within any of the subfamilies despite a considerable sequence divergence. The indel rate estimated by the current cosampling procedure is greater than the estimate on a fixed multiple alignment [31] (0.0207 vs. 0.0187), but this discrepancy is not significant for the current dataset. It should be stressed that the two MCMC analyses of the globin data set presented here are purely illustrative of the practicality of the algorithm described, and no novel biological results were obtained. The two MCMC runs of 5 million states each required less than 12 hours of CPU time each on a 2.0 GHz G5 Apple Macintosh running OS X, using an unoptimised implementation of the algorithm. From these runs we sampled 50000 states each. The estimated number of independent samples (estimated sample size, ESS) for the posterior probabilities was 250 and 240, respectively (see [22] for methods), while for the indel rate μ the ESSs were calculated at 5400 and 4000. We expect analyses of data sets of around 50 sequences to be readily attainable with only a few days computation.
In this paper we present a new cosampling procedure for phylogenetic trees and sequence alignments. The underlying likelihood engine uses recently introduced and highly efficient algorithms based on an evolutionary model (the Thorne-Kishino-Felsenstein model) that combines both the substitution and insertion-deletion processes in a principled way [31]. We show that the proposed method is applicable to medium-sized practical multiple alignment and phylogenetic inference problems.
One motivation for using a fully probabilistic model, and for using a co-estimation procedure for alignments and phylogeny, is that this makes it possible to assess the uncertainties in the inferences. Fixing either the alignment or the phylogeny leads to an underestimate of the uncertainty in the other, and score-based methods give no assessment of uncertainty whatsoever.
We show that the confidence estimates so obtained can contain biologically meaningful information. In the case of the multiple alignment of globin sequences, peaks in the posterior column reliabilities correspond broadly to the various conserved alpha helices that constitute the sequences (see Fig. 5). In the case of the tree estimate, the non-traditional phylogeny supported by the myoglobin subtree coincided with a significant polyphyly, as indicated by the posterior tree topology probabilities, and graphically represented by significantly overlapping 95% node height confidence boxes (see Fig. 6). It is clear that such confidence information significantly contributes to the usefulness of the inference.
At the heart of the method lies a recently introduced algorithm, termed the "indel peeling algorithm", that extends Felsenstein's peeling algorithm to incorporate insertion and deletion events under the TKF91 model [31]. This renders indel events informative for phylogenetic inference. Although incurring considerable algorithmic complications, the resulting algorithm is still linear-time for biological alignments (see also Figure 1). Moreover, our approach allows efficient sampling of tree topologies, as no data is presented at internal nodes.
We also developed a method for sampling multiple alignments, which is applicable for the data augmentation scheme we used for the efficient likelihood calculations. By combining the two samplers, we can co-sample alignments, evolutionary trees and other evolutionary parameters such as indel and substitution rates. The resulting samples from the posterior distribution can be summarized in traditional ways. We obtained maximum a-posteriori estimates of alignment, tree and parameters, and augmented these with estimates of reliability.
As was already mentioned in [10], it would be desirable to have a statistical sequence evolution model that deals with 'long' insertions and deletions, instead of single nucleotides at a time. For score-based algorithms, this is analogous to the contrast between linear and affine gap penalties. It is clear that the extension of the model to include long indels would result in considerable improvements, but the algorithmic complexities are considerable. We have made progress on a full likelihood method for statistical sequence alignment under such an evolutionary model [17], but the generalization of this method seems nontrivial. We believe that here too, Markov chain Monte Carlo approaches, combined with data augmentation, will be essential for practical algorithms. However, we also believe that in certain restricted but biologically meaningful situations, such as highly conserved proteins, the TKF91 model is reasonably realistic for the co-estimation procedure presented here to be of practical interest.
The BEAST package (AJ Drummond and A Rambaut), which includes the algorithm described in this paper, is available from http://evolve.zoo.ox.ac.uk/beast, with full installation and requirement details. The data set used in this paper is avaliable (see Additional file: 1)
The authors thank Yun Song, Dirk Metzler, Anton Wakolbinger and Ian Holmes for several useful suggestions and discussions. This research is supported by EPSRC (code HAMJW) and MRC (code HAMKA). I.M. was further supported by a Békésy György postdoctoral fellowship.
12859_2005_408_MOESM1_ESM.xml Additional File 1: This XML file specifies the MCMC run for the example phylogeny and alignment co-estimation given in this paper (see Figs. 4, 5, 6). To run, download the BEAST package (AJ Drummond and A Rambaut, http://evolve.zoo.ox.ac.uk/beast.) (XML 10 KB)
12859_2005_408_MOESM2_ESM.eps Authors’ original file for figure 1
IM conjectured and GL proved the one-state recursion. GL and IM independently implemented the algorithms, and wrote the paper. JLJ simplified the proof of the recursion, GL suggested to use it within an MCMC phylogeny cosampler, and IM suggested to use a Metropolised importance sampler and proved its correctness. GL and AD interfaced the Java algorithms to the BEAST phylogeny sampling package [40], and AD carried out the MCMC analysis. JH provided project management. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3TG, UK
MTA-ELTE Theoretical Biology and Ecology Group, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK
Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Aarhus, Ny Munkegade, Building 530, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
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Genetic associations in community context: a mixed model approach identifies a functional variant in the RBP4 gene associated with HDL-C dyslipidemia
Erfan Aref-Eshghi1,
Oliver Hurley1,
Guang Sun1,
Alvin Simms2,
Marshall Godwin1,
Pauline Duke1,
Mehdee Araee1,
Masoud Mahdavian1 and
Shabnam Asghari1Email authorView ORCID ID profile
BMC Medical Genetics201819:205
Accepted: 14 November 2018
The objective of this study was to examine individual and community factors that influence high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) dyslipidemia in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), a genetically isolated population in Canada with a high prevalence of HDL-C dyslipidemia.
First, a group of single nucleotide polymorphisms from 10 metabolic trait candidate genes was tested using a multivariate logistic regression model. The significant SNPs were entered into the second phase, where a mixed logistic model incorporated the community disease risk factors together with the individual factors as the fixed part of the model and the geographic region as a random effect.
Analysis of 1489 subjects (26.9% HDL-C dyslipidemia) identified rs3758539, a non-coding variant in the 5’UTR of RBP4, to be associated with HDL-C dyslipidemia (odds ratio = 1.45, 95% confidence interval = 1.08–1.97, p = 0.01). The association remained significant, and the effect size did not change after the incorporation of individual and community risk factors from 17 geographic regions (odds ratio: 1.41, 95% confidence interval = 1.03–1.93, p = 0.03) in NL. Besides this variant, sex, BMI, and smoking also showed significant associations with HDL-C dyslipidemia, whereas no role was identified for the community factors.
This study demonstrates the use of community-level data in a genetic association testing. It reports a functional variant in the promoter of RBP4, a gene directly involved in lipoprotein metabolism, to be associated with HDL-C dyslipidemia. These findings indicate that individual factors are the main reason for a higher prevalence of HDL-C dyslipidemia in the NL population.
Dyslipidemia
RBP4
Mixed model
Low serum levels of High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C) is the most common lipid abnormality found among patients with coronary artery disease [1, 2]. HDL-C dyslipidemia is a complex trait resulting from the cumulative and interactive effects of numerous genomic variants and environmental factors. It has a strong genetic component, such that through twin studies its heritability has been estimated to be around 40–60% [3]. Our previous study has shown that the prevalence of dyslipidemia of HDL-C is 11% higher in the Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) province of Canada compared to the rest of the country (38% vs. 27%) [4, 5]. It is not clear what causes an increased rate of HDL-C dyslipidemia in this population; however, the unique population history of NL can lead to clues as to what factors might be involved.
The majority of today’s NL population descend from 20,000 migrants who arrived in NL from England and Ireland in the mid-1700s [6]. This founding population experienced a low rate of in-migration over centuries, which resulted in NL to be one of the few remaining isolated founder Caucasian populations worldwide. As a result, the NL population has a unique cultural and genetic background, both of which can contribute to a higher rate of dyslipidemia. This makes NL a unique population for studying both the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to a human complex trait, e.g., dyslipidemia. In population genetics terms, NL has been shown to encompass a reduced rate of heterozygosity, increased runs of homozygosity, and extended genomic linkage disequilibrium [6, 7]. This founder population, however, does not have an entirely homogenous genetic structure, and according to the religion (i.e., Catholic vs. Protestant) and the ethnicity of the founding groups (i.e., British vs. Irish) which tended to reside and remain in different geographical areas, the current NL population can be grouped into multiple clusters [7]. This geographic variability in the NL’s population structure enables studying, simultaneously, both individual- and community-based factors that contribute to a complex human trait.
Traditional genetic studies of complex traits use epidemiological approaches to search for the association of genetic variants with the trait of interest. Such studies are performed on an individual level basis, and often the environment in which the individual resides is not considered [8, 9]. Mounting evidence suggests that an individual’s health is directly influenced by the community health indices of the society they live in [10, 11], including the community’s disease status, availability of health care and treatment, and the level of exposure to hazards. Therefore, a study that takes into account both individual- and geographical/community-level data may add more to the mechanism of involvement of a candidate genetic variant or other risk factors in a complex trait, e.g., HDL-C dyslipidemia.
Mixed models have been introduced as an advanced analytical tool to model the population stratification and unequal relatedness among individuals in genetic association studies [12]. The present study utilized a mixed model design to examine the individual (genetic and non-genetic) and community factors that contribute to a higher rate of HDL-C dyslipidemia in the NL population.
Source of data
We conducted a secondary analysis of individual and community level data from three existing databases. The study only included individuals over 20 years of age living in NL at the time of blood test, excluding pregnant women. The first dataset was only used to obtain individual-level data, whereas the other two datasets provided the community-level data. These data sources include:
COmplex DIseases in the Newfoundland population, environment, and Genetics (CODING) study: this ongoing study explores genetic, endocrine and nutritional links to metabolic traits in NL [13]. At the time of the study, over 3200 third generation Newfoundlanders participated in the program. Recruitment criteria were as follows: (i) at least third generation Newfoundlander; (ii) healthy, without any serious metabolic, cardiovascular or endocrine disease; and (iii) not pregnant at the time of participation. Extensive measurements including a complete lipid profile, history of diabetes, smoking, blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) were completed for these participants. All participants provided blood samples following a 12-h fasting period. Serum was isolated for measuring the concentrations of lipoproteins using Synchron reagents, which was performed on an Lx20 analyzer (Beckman Coulter, Fullerton, CA). Additionally, genotyping of 40 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 10 genes associated with metabolic traits was performed for a subset of the cohort. Tagging SNP selection was done according to the linkage disequilibrium (LD) block patterns of every gene to maximize the gene coverage using a pairwise R-squared approach (SNPbrowser Version 3.5; Applied Biosystems; based on HapMap data for CEU population). Genomic DNA was isolated from ∼5 ml of whole blood using the Wizard Genomic DNA Purification kit (Promega, Madison, WI). Genotyping was performed using Taqman validated or functionally tested SNP Genotyping Assays (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) on an ABI Prism 7000 Sequence Detection System (Applied Biosystems). All experiments were conducted according to the manufacturers’ protocols. To assess the reproducibility of genotyping, 5% of the samples were randomly selected and re-genotyped, all of which were confirmed to match their original called genotypes. Only subjects for whom complete genotyping was performed were included in the analysis.
Newfoundland and Labrador Laboratory Information System (LIS) Data: for each laboratory service provided in NL, the patient’s identification, date of service, and laboratory test results are entered into this database. Therefore, this dataset represents all of the HDL-C measures that were reported by the clinical laboratories across the province. From this dataset, we obtained all of the HDL-C test results performed in NL during January 2011 and December 2011, along with the sex of the patients. The year 2011 was chosen because it encompassed the most comprehensive data across all of the three databases in this study. It was also the year in which the majority of the CODING study participants were recruited.
Digital Epidemiology Chronic Disease Tool (DEPICT) Data: DEPICT is a spatiotemporal information system in NL which collects disease and demographic information on adults with chronic diseases from provincial medico-administrative data. For this study, we obtained population age and prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in the year 2011.
HDL-C dyslipidemia in both the CODING and LIS datasets was defined as HDL-C levels ≤1.0 mmol/dl for males and ≤ 1.3 mmol/dl for females according to the Canadian guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of dyslipidemia [14].
Determination of geographic/community level
For community-level analysis, the collected data was aggregated by a geographic stratifier. The level of geography to be used for this purpose was determined by examining the ratio of individuals included in the above datasets in each existing geographic unit in NL to the total population count living in that region. Canadian postal codes are composed of six alphanumeric characters, the first three of which are called the forward sortation area (FSA). Using sensitivity analysis we found that FSA has the best distribution of the records across the three data sources, providing the most optimal representation of NL’s population distributions. Therefore, the variables from the community-level data (DEPICT and LIS) were aggregated by FSA.
Individuals with HDL-C dyslipidemia were compared with those with normal levels of HDL-C. The analysis was performed in two steps:
The first step was conducted on the CODING study data only at the individual level. All of the SNPs were tested for the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium among the control group using a Pearson chi-squared test, and those with a P-value< 0.01 were determined to be deviating from the equilibrium and were excluded. With the assumption of an additive genetic effect, a multivariable logistics regression model was fit between HDL-C dyslipidemia and every SNP. The genotypes were coded as 0, 1 and 2, representing individuals with zero, one, and two copies of the risk allele for every SNP to allow for testing the association between the SNPs and HDL-C dyslipidemia. Individual factors related to dyslipidemia including sex, age, smoking, BMI, hypertension, and diabetes were treated as covariables in the model. Using the median values as cut-offs, these continuous variables were transformed to binary categorical variables to improve the model’s goodness of fit. Male was considered as the base for the sex variable.
The SNPs that resulted in a p-value of less than 0.05 were used in the second step of the analysis. In this step, a multilevel logistic regression modeling was performed. The individual-level variables from the CODING study along with the community-based factors from the LIS and DEPICT were fit as the fixed effect, while the community classification code (FSA) together with the same community factors from LIS and DEPICT were incorporated as the random effects. The community-based data from these two datasets were obtained by aggregating the variables on the FSA level. These include mean population age and sex compositions, as well as the rate of HDL-C dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes in every FSA unit. The individual level HDL-C dyslipidemia from CODING was treated as the binary outcome. Residual plots of the fitted models were inspected to ensure no deviation from normality or homoscedasticity was present. The analysis was performed using the lme4 package in R 3.3.2 [15].
The CODING dataset was composed of 962 males and 2358 females aged 42.6 ± 13.2 with a mean BMI of 26.7 ± 5.2. Among this population, 4.0% were diabetic, 32.6% had hypertension, and 15.3% were smokers. The prevalence of HDL-C dyslipidemia in this cohort was 26.9%. The SNP genotyping was performed for 1489 subjects, who were included in the analysis. Characteristics of the healthy and dyslipidemic groups are presented in Table 1. The risk allele, its frequencies among those with and without HDL-C dyslipidemia and the overlapping genes are shown in Table 2 for every SNP.
Individual characteristics of CODING study with/without HDL-C dyslipidemia
Individual characteristics
Normal HDL-C (n = 1191)
HDL-C Dyslipidemia (n = 298)
42.3 ± 11.3
Sex (F)
BMIa
26.1 ± 4.6
aMean ± standard deviation
SNP characteristics and multivariate logistics regression analysis
Risk Allele Frequency
Odds Ratio (95% Confidence Interval)
Normal HDL-C
Abnormal HDL-C
ADFP
C/T
ADIPOQ
ATGL
T/C
GHRL
G/T
MCHR1
MCHR
0.015*
rs779604024
TTS2.2
PLA2G16
G/C
*P-value< 0.05; All analyses were adjusted for age, sex, BMI, smoking, and comorbidities (diabetes and hypertension)
The LIS dataset contained 121,090 records. The mean age was 56.0 ± 14.1 years, and 23.1% were classified as having HDL-C dyslipidemia. DEPICT data was composed of 226,530 electronic records (52.0% females). Table 3 shows this information for every FSA region.
Population variations in community risk factors, obtained from LIS and DEPICT
Count (Total = 1230)ab
Total Populationd
HDL-C Dyslipidemia Prevalencec
Population Proportion of Femalesd
Average Population Ageb
Hypertension Prevalenced
Diabetes prevalenced
A1N
A1W
a259 individuals had no postal codes or resided in areas with less than a total sample of 5 individuals and therefore were excluded from the initial 1489 cohort. bCODING data; cLIS Data; dDEPICT data
Identification of the genetic variants associated with HDL-C dyslipidemia
This phase was performed on individual-level data from the CODING cohort. All of the available SNPs (n = 40) were queried using the SNP Annotation and Proxy search tool (SNAP Version 2.2; BROAD Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US) for pair-wise LD measurements, eight of which were found to be in high LD (r2 > 0.8) with the others. Following the removal of these 8 SNPs, 32 SNPs were included in the analysis. All SNPs had a minor allele frequency above 5%. One of the SNPs deviated from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium and thus was excluded from the analysis. Among the remaining 31 SNPs, only one, rs3758539, located in RBP4, obtained a p-value < 0.05 (odds ratio: 1.45, 95% confidence interval: 1.08–1.97, p-value: 0.01). The risk allele frequency of this SNP was 4% higher in the dyslipidemia group compared with the healthy group (87% vs. 83%). Other co-variables which showed a significant association with HDL-C dyslipidemia were female sex (odds ratio: 2.25, 95% confidence interval: 1.52–3.41, p-value: 7.86e-05), BMI (odds ratio: 1.12, 95% confidence interval: 1.09–1.15, p-value: 3.30e-16), and smoking (odds ratio: 1.71, 95% confidence interval: 1.15–2.50, p-value: 0.006). The complete results of the analyses for these 31 SNPs are shown in Table 2.
Identification of individual and community factors influencing HDL-C dyslipidemia
The second phase of the study linked the LIS and DEPICT datasets to the CODING data using the geographic identifier (FSA). The postal code information was available for about 80–85% of the subjects in the CODING dataset. NL is composed of 35 FSA regions (Fig. 1). The total number of FSA regions with at least five records in the CODING data for every variable was 17. Table 3 shows the level of variation in the community-level data as well as the risk allele frequency of rs3758539 across these 17 FSA regions. These results indicate a degree of variability for the calculated indices across these FSAs.
FSA codes in Newfoundland and Labrador. The square represents the region included in the study, where the majority of NL’s population resides
The inclusion of community-level factors was performed in two steps. First, only the geographic identifier was included as a random effect into the original model fitted earlier, which did not significantly change the parameters of the observed associations (Table 4), indicating that the variability between different communities for these factors is minimal. Next, the community-level factors were added as both the fixed effect and the random effect to the model. It was observed that the effect of these community factors on the individual factor associations is also negligible (Table 4). None of the community-level factors showed any association with HDL-C dyslipidemia or affected its association with individual-level factors. The analysis was also repeated after removal of the community-level factors from the random effect, which produced a similar result (data not shown). This final model indicated that only individual factors of sex (Odds Ratio: 2.10; 95% confidence interval: 1.36–3.23), BMI (Odds Ratio: 1.12; 95% confidence interval: 1.08–1.15), and smoking (Odds Ratio: 1.69; 95% confidence interval: 1.12–2.55) besides rs3758539 influence HDL-C dyslipidemia.
Multilevel modeling of individual and community risk factor associations with HDL-C dyslipidemia
Model 1: Intercept only
Model 2: + Individual variables
Model 3: + Community variables
Fixed Effects
< 0.0001
0.003 (0.001–0.009)
Individual-level variables
Sex (M = 0, F = 1)
Community-level variables
Prevalence of HDL dyslipidemia
Population Proportion of Females
Population Mean Age
Prevalence of Hypertension
Prevalence of Diabetes
Random Effectsa
Community classification code (FSA)
aValues represent variance
This study attempted to use a multilevel modeling approach to identify individual and community level factors that influence HDL-C dyslipidemia in NL, a genetically isolated population. Mainstream studies of individual, genetic or community factors in complex traits do not combine these lines of investigations despite their interactive role in the development of complex conditions. This is particularly important in genetic association testing where the majority of the reported genetic associations are known to be population specific, and replication rates are as low as 5% [16, 17], despite controlling for population structures. One reason for this, which has not been investigated enough, might be the variations in the community disease risks across different populations and/or subpopulations. We used a mixed model approach to model the community factors into the association between genetic variants and HDL-C dyslipidemia. Mixed models in genetic association studies have the advantage of preventing false-positive findings due to population or family-relatedness structures and increasing the power by applying a correction to them [18]. As such, this approach would have increased the power in our study by correcting for sub-population variations in the community risk factors of HDL-C dyslipidemia. Our study, however, did not find that community factors can significantly influence the association between a SNP and HDL-C dyslipidemia. Yet, this should not lead to the conclusion that community-level factors do not alter the associations of genetic or non-genetic factors in complex conditions, since we did not test the multitude of other genomic loci associated with dyslipidemia or did not extend the study to other complex traits.
Our study found that the risk allele (C) of SNP rs3758539 (C > T), adjusted for other individual risk factors, is associated with ~ 1.40 increased odds of having HDL-C dyslipidemia, and this association remains significant when other individual- or community-based factors are taken into account. This SNP has a potential to be a causal variant in HDL-C dyslipidemia. rs3758539 is located in the 5’UTR of the Retinol Binding Protein 4 (RBP4) gene. This region is an active promoter and harbors an enhancer element. A query in HaploReg v4.1 database (BROAD Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US) reveals that it encompasses regulatory chromatin features and is in high LD (r2 > 0.8) with multiple other functional SNPs. In vitro studies show that alternative alleles of this variant induce a differential transcriptional activity and variable binding affinities to the transcription factor hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 alpha (HNF1α) [19]. The minor allele (T) is specifically shown to be associated with a higher expression of RBP4 in adipocytes [20]. Multiple sequence alignments of human, mouse, rat, and cattle RBP4 promoter also indicates that the SNP is within a conserved element harboring seven transcription factor binding motifs [20]. Human genetic studies suggest that rs3758539 is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes [19] and obesity [21]. Another SNP (rs12265684), which is in a tight LD with rs3758539, is associated with serum levels of triglycerides, and insulin resistance [22]. The present study will be the first report to directly associate this variant with HDL-C dyslipidemia. A previous study comparing 304 lean and 283 obese Caucasian children found a slight increase in the risk allele of this SNP in the obese group and those having more undesirable cardiometabolic parameters including dyslipidemia, being consistent with the findings of our study; however, their analysis failed to produce a significant p-value (p = 0.3) likely due to insufficient sample size [23]. Another study in a Chinese cohort did not identify any association between HDL-C levels and rs3758539 [24]. The same observation has been found in a second Chinese cohort [25]. These studies indicate that the observed association is most likely specific to the Caucasian population, yet not all ethnic groups have been explored. A previous study in NL population by Shea et al. [26] did not find an association between this variant and HDL-C serum levels. Instead, they found two other RBP4 variants (rs10882280 and rs11187545) associated with the serum levels of HDL-C. These two SNPs are not in LD with our SNP (r2 = 0.01), but have a strong LD with each other (r2 = 1.0). We tested one of them in our database and did not observe an association with HDL-C dyslipidemia (Table 2). The putative reason for the discrepancy between these two studies might be related with designing of the outcome variables in the two studies (HDL-C serum levels vs. HDL-C dyslipidemia). HDL-C dyslipidemia is defined using different serum HDL-C cut-offs for males and females, and this gives a differential weight to males and females in statistical modeling, which cannot be resolved simply by adjusting for the sex co-variable. Regardless of which approach is the most appropriate, both studies identify RBP4 as a potential candidate for HDL-C dyslipidemia.
The RBP4 gene encodes a binding protein to retinol (vitamin-A alcohol) which is involved in preventing vitamin-A loss during glomerular filtration and delivering it from the liver stores to the peripheral tissues. It is assumed that RBP4 regulates lipid homeostasis by the activation of nuclear receptors through retinol metabolism [27]. This regulation has been under such scrutiny that recent studies have attempted to use RBP4 as an early marker of metabolic abnormalities including dyslipidemia [28, 29]. Serum levels of RBP4 have also been reported to be positively correlated with HDL-C serum levels [30]. This is consistent with our finding that the risk allele (C) of rs3758539, being associated with a lower expression of RBP4 [20], confers a risk towards having HDL-C dyslipidemia. However, several studies have reported negative correlations between the serum levels of HDL-C and RBP4 [31, 32], and thus further research is warranted to assign a causal relationship between rs3758539 and HDL-C dyslipidemia.
Our data also identified female sex (odds ratio: 2.25) as the strongest associated factor with HDL-C dyslipidemia followed by smoking (odds ratio: 1.71) and BMI (odds ratio: 1.12). We also tested age and comorbidities, but no association was observed. Smoking and obesity are amongst the most well-known risk factors for HDL-C dyslipidemia. A higher rate of HDL-C dyslipidemia in females and smokers in this study is also consistent with our previous studies of the primary-care population in NL [33–36].
Low HDL-C level is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, the third cause of death worldwide. Knowing the genes involved in its pathogenesis is the frontline of further research for designing therapeutic and diagnostic interventions. Our study, for the first time, reports the association of a functional SNP with HDL-C dyslipidemia using a mixed model analysis, which is not frequently conducted in genetic association studies. Our study can be regarded as a proof of principle for incorporation of a multi-level approach in genetic association testings.
This study is limited by a few factors. Conducting a community-based study requires a large sample size from every geographic location. This is particularly important in genetic studies of complex traits where the effect sizes are expected to be small. In several of our geographic FSA regions, the sample sizes were not significantly large, and it is possible that this obscured the community effect that we expected to observe. It should also be noted that genetic associations are not valid unless replicated. This should be taken into account particularly in the presence of moderate effect sizes.
Using a multilevel modeling approach, this study identified a genetic variant with potentially functional attributes in the promoter of the RBP4 gene to be associated with HDL-C dyslipidemia. We found that this association is robust and is not altered if the community factors are taken into account. Also, our analyses did not establish any associations between the community level factors and HDL-C dyslipidemia in the NL population. However, we observed a significant role for individual obesity and smoking in suboptimal HDL-C levels. These findings suggest that the individual genetic and lifestyle factors are the main reason for a higher prevalence of HDL-C dyslipidemia in the NL province of Canada.
CVD:
HDL-C:
High-density lipoprotein cholesterol
LDL-C:
Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol
LIS:
TC:
TG:
This study was supported by a project grant from the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research. The funding agency was not involved in study design, conduct, or interpretation of the findings.
Due to the HREA conditions and to protect the identity of the subjects, the data used in this study is not publically available.
EA-E: data analysis and manuscript writing; OH: created Fig. 1; GS, AS, MG, PD, MA, MM: interpretation of the results and revisions; SA: study design and supervision of the study team; all authors have read and approved the manuscript.
This study has been approved by the Health Research Ethics Authority, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. All of the data were anonymized prior to analysis.
Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, M5M107 Medical Education Building, 300 Prince Philip Drive, St. John’s, NL, A1B 3V6, Canada
Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada
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Alice Notley’s Mysteries of Small Houses by David Trinidad
Part of the Editor's Choice series.
BOMB 67 Spring 1999
Elevator Repair Service by Coco Fusco
Mary Heilmann by Ross Bleckner
Zoë Wanamaker by Bette Gordon
Catherine Gund-Saalfield by Kendall Thomas
Alan Warner by Amy Hempel
Scott Spencer by Lorrie Moore
Cassandra Wilson by Glenn O'Brien
George Negroponte by Betsy Sussler
James Siena by Shirley Kaneda
Project Toward the Reconstruction of the Definitive Recording of Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor: Part I, Allegro by B.G. Firmani
Two Poems by Christopher Chambers
Four Poems by Glenn O'Brien
Salt by Ken Kalfus
Two Poems by Wanda Coleman
Suffer the Fool by Will Christopher Baer
Reading a Garden by Maya Lin & Tan Lin
A Day in Brasilia by Carlos Brillembourg
Revenge Effect by Vernon Reid
Shonagh Adelman by Grady T. Turner
RoseLee Goldberg’s Performance: Live Art Since 1960 by Saul Ostrow
Shohei Imamura’s Dr. Akagi by Lawrence Chua
Stefan Gritsch by Marjorie Welish
Roy Haynes’s Praise by Zoë Anglesey
Stupid Club’s Made to Feel by Suzan Sheman
Lhasa de Sela’s La Llorona by David Krasnow
Peter Guralnick’s Careless Love by Jim Lewis
Michael Ondaatje’s Handwriting by Rebecca Wolff
David Dante Troutt’s The Monkey Suit by Rone Shavers
Gregory Crane: The Four Seasons by April Gornik
Art, Danger, and Sacred Space by Katy Martin
Discover MFA Programs in Art and Writing
#67 Issue
In 1981, Alice Notley published two superb, groundbreaking collections of poetry, How Spring Comes and Waltzing Matilda . These books illustrated how a poet can absorb her influences (in this case, mostly male) and assert her own complex, unique, and deeply experimental sensibility. A prolific “process” poet, Notley has published numerous volumes since the early ’80s, including a dark epic poem, The Descent of Alette .
In her latest, Mysteries of Small Houses , Notley undertakes an investigation of the self, using her own self as an example. She draws from a lifetime of rich experience—her childhood in the Mojave desert, her “outlawish poet’s life” in the ’60s and ’70s (moving from San Francisco to England to New York), her marriage to poet Ted Berrigan and their life in the St. Mark’s poetry scene, and her life now in Paris. Progressing chronologically, the poems convey, through idiosyncratic mental shifts and leaps and utterly natural line breaks and phrasings, the poet’s ever-evolving emotional, artistic, and spiritual personality. Most of the poems seem to spring directly from Notley’s inner core, their origin dreamlike, otherworldly.
Some of the more memorable pieces include “The Future May Contain Me More,” about young Notley’s thirst for literature (“I’m way down the left wall looking—this / book looks interesting, woman in Shakespeare’s times / becomes lover of Christopher Marlowe—who’s he?”); “As Good as Anything,” about Notley’s graduate studies at the University of Iowa (“You can write your first poems / thinking you might as well / since the most stupid people in the universe / are writing their five hundredth here”); and the chilling “I Must Have Called and So He Comes,” in which Notley has a dialogue with the dead Ted Berrigan. Notley recounts the deaths of her father, brother, husband, friends—all from alcoholism—and the scenes of her grief and turmoil are searing. Throughout, Notley peels away layer after layer of experience. By the end of the experiment, having stripped herself bare, she uncovers the true nature of the self—poverty—and is freed from both the past and material restrictions. It’s a profound, liberating conclusion.
In a time when most so-called experimental poets were born yesterday, Notley is, and always has been, the real thing. Mysteries of Small Houses is the result of decades of dedication and hard work, of risk-taking and continual reinvention. Her endeavor has brought something remarkable to light.
—David Trinidad
Mysteries of Small Houses was recently published by Penguin Books.
biographical poetry
experimental poetry
new york school
Four Poems by Michael Lally
I only wanted to go far, be a star,
Living with Contradiction: On Weight of the Earth, David Wojnarowicz’s Tape Journals by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
The real-time making of an artist.
Visual Poems by Jeffrey Grunthaner
A print project glitched by digital media.
Originally published in
BOMB 67, Spring 1999
Featuring interviews with James Hyde, Mary Heilmann, Alan Warner, Scott Spencer, Catherine Gund-Saalfield, Cassandra Wilson, Revenge Effect, Elevator Repair Service, Zoe Wanamaker, and A Day in Brasilia.
The black figure has always been a subject of entertainment in popular culture, as well as an image to sell things. In some ways, that’s how people relate to us—because they’ve seen us on television.
Derrick Adams
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The Church is not a building. The Church is its congregation wherever they are, Where can I find one around Blackpool? Often in Church buildings! Read on..
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What is the Nature and Purpose of the Church?
The word ‘Church’ has to be one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. It has confused both saints and sinners alike for Millennia. I will suggest that the Church is both the medium for God’s purposes on earth and contains the divine message. As the Twentieth Century philosopher Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message” (McLuhan:1964). The Church’s Mission is God's mission.
What is the Church?
If you asked a person in the street where the church was you would get different answers. A non- churchgoer will direct you to a church building. Going there you, enter a peaceful but usually empty building. It would not necessarily be a church our founding fathers would have recognised. To fulfil God’s purpose a church needs people and they would say the people are the Church.
If the person you asked was a traditional churchgoer, they might direct you to the same church building but add a service time. You might go, hopefully be warmly welcomed and enjoy the service. This would start to be an expression of God’s mission in the 21st Century – but what about the other seven days in the week? God’s mission and purpose would only be being partly fulfilled.
If the person you asked was an enthusiastic member of a house church, they might say that they don’t meet in a ‘church’ at all. You might be taken to a house, industrial building or community hall on the edge of town which was full of a welcoming, believing church community. The Apostles would not only have recognised this as God’s Church but probably gone up to the front and contributed! This church would be not only by its nature a ‘church’ but be fully performing the purpose of ‘the Church’.
During the first four centuries of its existence the early Christian Church had no great church buildings. The disciples and apostles created the ‘divine firestorm’ of the early church without buildings. The nature of the early Church was just its people. Their role was simply reaching and preaching to more and more people. This were both the Church’s nature and function. The more there were, the bigger it got and the more of the Church function they achieved. However, the success of the early Church created logistical problems. Gradually congregations became too numerous to meet in people’s houses. How were large numbers of worshipers to gather together for regular worship and to hear the word of God if they were not protected from the elements? The Church needed church buildings. This is when the Church started to get complicated and institutionalised.
Over time, the Church and church fabric became confused – not only by the average person in the street but by saints like St Francis. When he was worshiping in the little dilapidated church of San Damiano in 1205 and heard the divine command to ‘Rebuild my church, which is in ruins.’ he misunderstood the instruction. ‘He (St Francis) thought God meant the building. It was to be the most significant moment of his life, a command that determined his future vision and direction. However, initially he misunderstood and like so many of us today, became preoccupied with rebuilding the fabric of the tiny church building. Two other churches were similarly repaired before Francis grasped the enormity of what God was asking of him’ (Day: 2017). The Holy Spirit was of course asking Francis to rebuild the Church as a whole – not just the three little churches he restored!
How and why churches and the Church had to happen
What if our street enquirer had been sent to the first church, found a great crowd of people, been warmly received and then participated in an uplifting and inspiring service? From this we can conclude that the Church was not the building but the building facilitated the worship. It may or may not be called a church. However most of the great Church denominations would include their buildings as a part of their nature and function. Without them they would find it hard to express the purpose and mission of Christ. They create focus, inspiration and above all a space to worship and learn of God and the value of religious life. Equally, inspirational church music, art and liturgy are an integral part of worship and so a part of the nature of the Church. Church buildings can also be places of refuge for the sick, homeless or abandoned. Compassion and healing were a key part of our Lord’s ministry (Mat. 25 34-46). St Martins in the Fields in London personifies the way Church buildings can be used to shelter and minister to thousands of lonely and rejected rough sleepers. Saint Teresa of Calcutta did the same for the destitute and orphaned of Calcutta. All over the world the Church performs charitable work with the help of church buildings.
Our churches and church organisations are only one part of the great Universal Church. However, the tail must not be allowed to wag the dog. The fact that Francis was confused by the nature and purpose of the Church suggests that we need to think more deeply and historically about the evolution of the Church that we see today. As Alister McGrath observes:
Ecclesiology was not a major issue in the early church. The Eastern Church showed no awareness of the potential importance of the issue. Most Greek patristic writers of the first five centuries contented themselves with describing the Church using recognisably scriptural images, without choosing to probe further (McGrath: 356).
In spite of Paul creating one of the first Christian congregations in Europe in Philippi, it was four centuries before its bishopric was established. Many generations of that congregation saw no need to have one. Their concept of Church, as an organisation was based on the Old Testament one where groups of believers were simply the ‘called out ones’ or Ekklesia. The congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness – referred to in Old Testament were the Ekklesia. (Halls:12)
When our Lord appointed Peter to lead his ‘Ekklesia’ He described the nature and purpose of the Christian Church he was to establish in (Mat 16:13-19). ‘The word Ekklesia appears 115 times in the New Testament (Ibid). Equally, it is the name given to the company of original disciples at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:47).
By the fourth century the Christian Church, or God’s mission, needed to be expressed in more formal terms. When the Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity in or around 312AD he not only ended the Roman persecution of the Christians but allowed church buildings to be constructed all over the Mediterranean and Near East. If we were to look at Philippi there was only one church building at the beginning of the Fourth Century but by the Six Century there were seven – a seven-fold increase. Similar rates of expansion were replicated across other early Christian communities. The nature of the Church had started to include buildings. These needed to be contextually appropriate. Thus, the new Trinitarian theology and Christology created Ecclesiology which help inform the church structures the congregations required. When the Romans adopted Christianity as their state religion church buildings became increasing recognisable. Christianity at once became mainstream and in ancient terms ‘world-wide’. Unfortunately, this new status came with it the trappings of power, status and political influence. These were eventually to enter the Church decision making processes and contribute to divisions within it. New denominations would be formed and its nature, if not its ultimate purpose, to mutate.
The Nature and Purpose of Church Evolves
Between the fourth and sixth centuries Donatist Controversy created one of the first major divisions within the Church. Donatist questioned the authority of bishops to ordain priests if they had at any time succumbed to the demands of the Diocletian persecution (303-313). They became known as ‘Traditores’. This schism, originating in the Church of Carthage, argued that clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective therefore their sacraments valid. St Augustine ‘healed’ the Church by pointing out that Christ’s message was all inclusive and was for sinners and saints alike (Luke 15). Augustine simply asked "Whenever did I describe the church as being without spot or wrinkle" (Ibid:30) Augustine stated that the ‘efficacy of a sacrament rests not upon the merits of the individual administering it but upon the merits of the one who Instituted them in the first place – Jesus Christ’ (McGrath:359). However, I do wonder whether the papal excesses which led to the Reformation would never have achieved a foothold if Donatist levels of ecclesiastical rigor had been applied to the Church clergy. We will never know but Augustine’s intervention has unquestionably become a changed both the functioning and the nature of the Church
More controversy was to follow. The Council of Ephesus in 432AD created a split which resulted in the Assyrian Church then later the Council of Chalcedon created the Oriental Orthodox denomination which held a different Christological position concerning the nature of Christ divinity calling it Monothelitism. The understanding of the nature of the Church was muted each time.
Even more radical developments were to come as the Great Schism of the 11th Century resulted in the remaining major body of the early Church splitting in two to create the Catholic and East Orthodox denominations. Although this schism was a result of deeply held theological beliefs, it could be argued that the causes of this breakup were as much political as religious and so did not actually effect the purposes and nature of the greater Church.
More fundamental was the effect of the Reformation. Although Pope Gregory IX supported Francis’s divine command to “rebuild my Church” his support did not result in the reforming of the Church – only in assistance in the foundation of the Franciscan Order. It took Martin Luther’s and Calvin’s protestant movements and those of the radical Reformation movements like the Anabaptists who shone a light on the self-serving excesses of the Catholic Church in the latter part of the middle ages. The Catholic church’s response was to establish its own Counter Reformation, beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563). This saw the nature of the Church mutate into something we can more easily recognize today. From then on there were Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox traditions. These three vast umbellar entities cover a huge range of liturgy and religious practice which most denominations trace their roots back to. They are the foundations of the nature the Church today.
Undoubtedly the Luther and Calvin driven Reformation helped to restore the ‘one to one' nature of our relationship with God. This was the nature and mission embedded in the early church. Those who wished had the option of abandoning the Catholic traditions that still assigns a central role to its priests. Further key developments occurred in 20th Century during 1962-65 Pope John XXIII initiated Catholic Church’s Vatican II Council. This transformed the nature accessibility of the Catholic Mass, made the Catholic church more ecumenical and so further evolved its nature in and direction.
Four Marks describe the Purpose and Nature of the Church as being One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
Ever since the Council of Constantinople in AD 381 created our Creed, the Church has declared itself to be at once One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.
Christ’s mission and therefore the Church’s mission is at once inclusive and universal. There are denominations within the Church but it is still only one Church. The nature of the Church is as Paul says, one body if containing very different elements and talents (1 Cor 12:27)’. Cyprian of Carthage calls the Church the ‘seamless robe of Christ’ which should not be divided (Cyprian of Carthage, AD 251): Chris Halls suggests that there are five different approaches to describing or predicating unity of the Church. These include the narrow Imperialist Sectarian approach, the Platonic empirical historical church, the Eschatological Church, the Biological tree like Church and the Theological approach. All ultimately unite the Church - either currently on the last day (Halls: slide 24) This said many may lean towards St Teresa of Ávila’s poetic approach when she says that we are the body of Christ through which He performs His Mission. The italics are mine.
Christ has no body but yours - nature
No hands, no feet on earth but yours, - nature
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world, - purpose
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, - purpose
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world - purpose
The Church is Holy because it has been initiated by Jesus Christ not because its members are holy. I have already quoted the pragmatic view of Augustine. Thomas Aquinas is equally practical ‘That the church will be… without spot or wrinkle… will only be true in our eternal home, not on the way there. We would deceive ourselves if we were to say that we have no sin, as 1 John 1:8 reminds us’ (Halls:31).
The purpose of the Church is apostolic because it originated with the apostles, teaches what they taught and carries on the succession of their apostolic ministry
If the Church were an animal it would have the nature of a chameleon. Whenever if faces trials or persecution it changes its colour to the colour of the times - while still staying one animal. For instance, when the Romans persecuted it the Church became Roman, when the czar Ivan the Terrible and later scientific socialism destroyed churches in Russia the Church remained its people and is now resurgent, rebuilding churches destroyed by the revolution. Currently, although Christianity flatlines in the West, Church activity flourishes in China and the southern developing countries to the point where overall numbers of Christians are increasing - thanks in large part to the Pentecostals.
However, there are examples of emerging church forms in the West which include the Alpha movement, Filling Stations, Missional Church, Deep Church, Messy Church Cafe Church, Liquid Church, Simple Church and the Purpose Driven Church. All are valid as important as the new expressions of Church as are virtually all denominations which are rooted in Christian spirituality. The first condition for expanding churches are that they are ‘Churches that cultivate earthed spirituality where people encounter God’ (Murray:64) The Centreing Prayer and contemplative traditions personified by the work of the Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohe are classic and expanding examples of this work in action.
Lastly when talking about the current nature of the Church must include the increasing role of laity and especially women clergy within many churches. The Church Times (2017, September 27) recorded that in September 2017 there were a record number of 5,690 women in full-time ministry just within the Anglican Church. (Williams:2017) They are making a crucial contribution to both the nature and function of our Church and the Church worldwide.
The nature and purpose of the Church today can be summarised as the Missio Deo mission. "Mission is God’s mission and it is a mission that goes beyond the church. It embraces everything that God is doing in the world through people and nations to establish His Kingdom here on earth. God's work is not limited to the endeavours of the church but the church does have a special role, sent by God to continue in His mission” (Robinson:1)
The Church’s mission is God’s mission. Although a work in progress the Church’s nature and function are both the medium and the divine message.
Richard Searight
Robinson, Alan (2017) Faithindevelopment.org, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies: Oxford
Dey, Gordon (2017) Rebuild My Church www.franciscans.org.uk/page/2?s 10th December 2017
Halls, Chris (2018) Ecclesiology; Christian Doctrine lecture, South West Ministry Training: Exeter
McLuhan, Marshall (1964) Understanding Media, Mentor: New York
McGrath, Alister (2017) Introduction to Christian Theology, Wiley & Sons: Chichester
Murry, Stuart (2008) Church After Christendom, Paternoster Press, Milton Keynes
Robinson, Alan (2017) www.faithindevelopment.org Tearfund or (OCMS) Oxford 28th April.2017
Williams, Hattie (2017) More Women Than Men Enter Clergy Training, Church Times 27th Sept. 2017
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NITA K II
$250,000 - $275,000 / WEEK
BUILT/REFITYEAR 2014/2016
NUMBER OFCABINS 5
CHARGESFROM $250,000
Beam 29.11 Feet
Draft 10 Feet
Refit 2014/2016
Builder Amels
CruiseSpeed 12.5 knots
MaxSpeed 15 knots
Engines Engines-2xCummins KTA38M2 Generators-2x145 kw Kilopak/1x40 kw Cummins 4B (emergency)
KidsSkis Yes
JetSkis 2
CaptainName Brian Muston
Flag Jamaican
SatTv Yes
Heads: 6
Refit: 2014/2016
Engines-2xCummins KTA38M2 Generators-2x145 kw Kilopak/1x40 kw Cummins 4B (emergency)
Cruising Speed: 12.5 knots
Max Speed: 15 knotsUS Gall/Hr
Winter Area: Caribbean Virgin Islands, Caribbean Leewards, Caribbean Windwards
Summer Area: W. Med -Naples/Sicily, W. Med -Riviera/Cors/Sard.
Sat Tv: -
Board Games: Yes
Sun Awning: Yes
Water Maker: Yes x 2
Water Cap: 4755 galllons
Internet Access: -
Hairdryers: Yes
Crew Smokes: Inq
Children Ok: Yes
Dinghy size: -
Water Skis Adult: Yes
Water Skis Kids: Yes
Jet Skis: 2
Wave Runners: -
Snorkel Gear: Yes
Wake Board: Yes
Kayaks 1 Pax: 1
Kayaks (2 Pax): 1
Beach Games: Yes
Fishing Gear: Yes
CAPTAIN ǀ Brian Muston
FIRST OFFICER ǀ Nick Grey
Nick grew up in the beach side town of Tauranga on the East Coast of New Zealand where his love for the ocean began. Growing up Nick was an avid sportsman and represented his states in both soccer and swimming. Nick left New Zealand to work as a sailing instructor at Club Med which was just the start of his dream to travel the world. After traveling extensively, Nick worked as a Dive Instructor for 5 years which gave him the best if both worlds-ocean and travel. Nick has been in the yachting industry for 11 years spending seasons in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the East Coast of the US and the Bahamas. Nick currently holds his Chief Mate license and is working towards achieving his Masters license. Onboard, Nick is in charge of deck operations and safety and enjoys interacting with guests during their time onboard.
BOSUN ǀ Douglas Norden
Douglas (Doug) is a South African born sport enthusiast who grew up on the East Coast of South Africa in the city of Durban. He was raised in a loving family where morals and values were installed in him together with his love for all sports and the outdoors. He played many sports growing up, most notably golf and cricket, where he is a single figure handicap golfer and represented his province in indoor cricket. His love for sports led him to study towards a degree in Sports Science and ultimately achieve an Honors Degree in Biokinetics from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. He has worked in a clinical setting as well as a gym setting, aiding athletes and sedentary individuals with their personal fitness and rehabilitation of injuries. His 4 year experience in the industry have added to his travel experiences as well as his relaxed interaction skills. A great sense of humor together with a good work ethic makes Douglas a great crew member to have on the team.
DECKHAND ǀ Petrus Smith
Petrus (Peaches) was brought up in a small town called Langebaan on the North Western coast of South Africa. He is a talented sailor having represented South Africa in the world championships and managed to place third overall. Having discovered a love for the ocean and the wind, he then pursued kiteboarding and became an instructor. After several years as an instructor he decided to take a new turn in his life and learn a new trade, the yachting industry.
DECKHAND ǀ Keagan Schiff
Keagan originates from the heart of South Africa. Having spent most of his years growing up in Johannesburg he found his passion whilst studying in the city of Cape Town. Living in the creative hub, he pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Brand Communications through Vega University. During his time in Cape Town he furthered his studies by completing a Diploma in Event Management and Graphic Design. He gained hospitalities experience working as a personal assistant for an events and promotion company and also worked his magic as a bartender for high end functions at private events. He has always had a massive passion for the ocean and believed that it would be a great opportunity to purse this adventure through yachting. He has always had an active interest in all sports and was constantly involved in multiple team sports were he represented the province in both rugby and water polo at a young age. His hobbies include traveling, wake boarding, scuba diving, hiking and design. Keagan understands the value of team work and is always keen to learn something new.
CHIEF ENGINEER ǀ Lasse Kynde
Lasse is from a fishing town on the West Coast of Denmark. There he did a four year apprenticeship as a maritime service engineer/ship fitter at a ship yard. He gained valuable experience repairing and building steel hull fishing vessels, 400 meter container ships for Maersk and yachts for Royal Denship. Lasse has done several refits, surveys for Lloyds and ABS. This has enabled him to have extensive knowledge in all ship systems, stabilizer systems, electronics and electrical equipment as well as all related compliance and documentation. Having completed serval transatlantic crossings on various vessels, Lasse has proven to be a true ship engineer. He holds a very high work ethic, not settling for anything less than exceptional. He carries a positive and friendly demeanor.
SECOND ENGINEER ǀ Stephen Hogg
Stephen is a proud South African from a small town known as Kokstad. As a young boy Stephen always showed a great interest in machinery and how it worked. This led him to study and later qualify as an electrical Engineer. He joined the yachting industry 4 years ago and has been responsible for the upkeep of the vessel’s exterior, as well as assisting with the maintenance of onboard systems. He enjoys, fishing, cooking, free diving and traveling. Stephen has a contagious sense of humor and makes for a great contribution to the team’s morale.
THIRD ENGINEER ǀ Viktor Lysak
Viktor was born in a small shipbuilding city called Kherson in the Southern part of Ukraine. After school Viktor entered the Poltava Pedagogical University specializing in mathematics and computer science. After completing his degree, Viktor served in the Ukrainian army and later worked as a mechanic at the Kiev Academy of Water Transport. Viktor also has work experience in engine repair and mechanics. He considers himself fortunate to be able to do the work he loves on a daily basis. He prides himself in meticulous work and great attention to detail.
HEAD CHEF ǀ Daniel Van Zyl
Originally from South Africa, Daniel has a great passion for food, wine and all things related to culinary arts. He understands the science of food. His style is fresh and uncomplicated with a contemporary flavor palette which includes your international favorites, modern trends and healthy options that every foodie will enjoy. Daniel is not only an exceptional chef, he has extensive knowledge in all aspects of food, restaurants and budgeting. Daniel studied at Prue Leith Culinary Institute and is fortunate to have been personally trained by top institutes in France, Italy and New York over several years. Daniel started in the yachting industry in 2008 as a sole chef on a 27m before proceeding onto a 50m motor yacht as Head Chef. When Daniel is not in the galley he enjoys being out in nature, doing adventurous things and spending time with his family.
CHIEF STEWARDESS ǀ Sarah Pitchford
Originating from the City of Gold, Johannesburg South Africa, Sarah joined the yachting industry 8 years ago. Passionate about the ocean, her career move to the yachting industry was a natural fit. She studied Brand Building and Management at the Vega School of Leadership and is also a qualified lifeguard. Sarah is an absolute foodie and fitness fanatic at heart. In her free time you’ll find Sarah scuba diving, attending fitness and yoga classes or participating in various outdoor adventures. She also loves to cook, capture moments through photography and experiment through mixology. Sarah has a very positive outlook in everything she does and works hard to ensure that everything is done to the highest level. With an ability to communicate well with guests she is a great asset to have aboard. Everyone who visits Nita K II feels immediately at ease around her. Sarah looks forward to welcoming you onboard.
STEWARDESS ǀ Carey Cawood
From Cape Town, South Africa, Carey studied Graphic Design and worked in an advertising agency for numerous years prior to yachting. In 2017 she completed her very first ocean crossing experience, sailing from Cape Town to Malta in a Leopard 58ft Catamaran. The two month voyage not only introduced Carey to a whole new and wonderful world at sea, but it educated her on some of the ins and outs of being a skillful sailor. Sailing soon lead Carey into super yachts, which is where you will now find her eagerly roaming about. She is an artistic and creative soul, with a bubbly personality and great passion for both people and adventure. She is an avid photographer, an eternal optimist and will always (always) make a cup of tea with love.
STEWARDESS ǀ Jessica Hughes
Jessica is a proud Australian girl that grew up in the town of Ballarat and later moved to Melbourne for her University studies. During this time she gained much experience in the hospitality industry working in a number of bars, cafes and restaurants. Jessica also resided there while working as a qualified Physiotherapist and Yoga Teacher for the past 4 years. Wanting to travel more of the world chasing the sun and to broaden her professional and life experiences, Jessica pursued a career change within the Superyacht industry and hasn't looked back. So far Jessica's yachting experience has expanded across Australia, the Mediterranean and the USA/Caribbean where Jessica joined Nita K II. Jessica's fun-loving nature and infectious energy will undoubtedly add to your experience onboard. As a lover of all things health and fitness related, Jess loves to run, hit up the gym or practice yoga routinely. In her spare time you'll find Jess at the beach working on her tan and sipping a Pina Colada.
Caribbean Virgin Islands, Caribbean Leewards, Caribbean Windwards
W. Med -Naples/Sicily, W. Med -Riviera/Cors/Sard.
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Tag Archives: Bill Duke
January 20, 2018 By Mariah "Tater Queen" Hanna in Film Review Tags: addiction, Album Review, and personal accounts and experiences., Andy Biersack, Ash Alvidsen, Ben Bruce, Bill Duke, Bill Goldberg, BooBoo Stewart, Denise Richards, Drake Bell, Educational, film, Film Review, Jesse Sullivan, Johnathan Davis, Kyle Lambert., Larry King, Lee McKinney, Malcolm McDowell, Mark Boone Junior, Matty Beckerman, Miramax films, Music, Nicholas O'Toole, Olivia Culpo, Remington Leith, Sebastian Gregory, sexual assualt, Sumerian Films, Tori Black Leave a comment
Chronic Potato Queen Writer would like to introduce you the reader what she got told in college by her college professor that is her calling in life. Reviewing films and music. I took a film 101 review class for my humanities for my failed nursing career. I would had a solid A+ in that class but I to fully withdraw from college in 2011 due chronic migraine plus my rare migraine condition spontaneous intracranial hypotension one in half a million births has, my disease is very debilitating. I will talk about it more further in the review.
I also would like to make a clause that I am dearly sorry to my long time readers. My health issues has not been great lately. I am struggling a lot. The crippling depression, constant migraines, and constant physical chronic pain has been keeping me pretty busy away from my hobbies and away from digital devices. So I am currently trying to keep myself above water and my pain levels at bay. I have been coping the best I can. But now that I am getting things together. My mental health and physical health somewhat are okay. I am well enough to tackle my love of rock and roll journalling. Let’s get this review started shall we.
As you all know I have wanted to review American Satan for the longest time. Well here we are. With huge topics we can talk about like the Illuminati, Satan himself, gluttony, sin, greed, drugs, sex, and rock and roll. This will get talked about a lot in my film review for American Satan which was written and directed by Ash Alvisden under his separate company Sumerian Films adjacent to his record company Sumerian Records. The soundtrack delivers a great various of ballads, hard hitters, and overall shit kickers that will crank out in any car stereo or any radio player.
The track list for the American Satan soundtrack:
Me Against The Devil
Hell Is For Children
Let Him Burn
We Lose Control
Save A Prayer
Cadeance Of My Heart
Forgive Me Mother
Hey, Hey, My, My( Into The Black)
Me Against The Devil Is very lyrically crafted to let to let listener know the tale of ones triumphs with there inner demons. Whether it be sex, drugs, rock and roll, alcoholism, etc. Whatever the reason the person dables with there inner demons with. This song showcases it well in a funky up beat rock and roll vibe with a hard rock twist.
On a off note: Remington Leith’s vocalations for Andy Biersack’s character Johnny Faust made me really want to sit in a dark room just to review this album so I can just imagine what I am going to be in for. Remington’s vocals are very unique and special. With his band Palaye Royale. I am fan of. I am not hardcore into them. But I am fan of them. They are one of those bands that are going to go far. Props to Sumerian Records for signing them. Much respect. Remington’s singing voice over for Andy Biersack’s character was a good choice. Even though there is comment threads out there that says other wise. The other muscians who lend there craft and work to make either the soundtrack or the score happen deserve all the awards. Even though the film has received tons of nominations and awards already for it’s feature.
Hell Is For Children is another lyrically crafted song. Actually telling children hell is for them is however no bueno. lol. But this song has any personal meaning that anyone can relate to if you are bullied in school or your a kid in the system like foster care. This song is for kids who go through hell everyday of there lives cause life isn’t what it was 20 years ago were we all can be carefree. Kids are being killed at school, sexual assualted ( my personal experience #MeToo), raped, etc. Even the school teacher is the predator nowadays. So if you are a parent, foster, or gaurdian. Let your young one listen to this song. It is from a fictional band. But the meaning and purpose behind it is what needs to be told to youth of today. You’re not alone. Keep fighting. Hang in there.
Let Him Burn is what I got introduced to the Relentless. It’s what introduced me to the theme of what Ash Alvidsen took American Satan down to. It was the first song that promotional the film. The lyrically content is badass in sorts of the imagery of what all the nooks and crannies American Satan entails.
Nights In White Satin is a slower song on the soundtrack. It showcase’s the prowlace and retrospect of the beauty of what American Satan has to offer. I believe this song can be interpreted into anything the reader pinpoints it to. It can be dedicated to anyone who wants to woo there significant other or crush in a rock and roll fashion. It’s a song anyone can joy and bond over. Hell I can have a elegant date with myself and have a huge bowl of mashed potatoes. This is what this song reminds me of. I am weirdo. But that’s beside the point. Since Valentine’s day is coming up. Dedicate this song to your crush, wife, husband, etc. It’s a beautiful song with no need to explain it.
We Lose Control is one of the main shit kickers on the soundtrack. It’s the main call to arms for the film for the support of the Relentless. The gang chants for “American Satan” at the end of the song are haunting enough. Even though these songs on this soundtrack are made for a fictional band that will never tour. It will forever saddened the hell out of me this song will never get played live. The message behind the song has helped me out in a weird way. It’s told me to loose control of my bad habits and enjoy life more. Life is too short.
Save A Prayer, regardless of ones religious beliefs. I am remaining secular on this. This song has a lot to offer. Rock and roll is universal in terms of bringing lots of ethnic groups and cultures together into a huge melting pot. The same goes for religion in rock music. It attaches so main people’s beliefs into one massive Vin diagram or bubble map. The songs moto through the fictional band the Relentless tells there audience to not hold back on anything. “To say a prayer for the morning after.” Everyone sins in the world no matter how little or big. But the songs main purpose is whether if people commit sin or not. You got to face the facts in the morning. LOL.
Cadence Of My Heart is one of the other in your face tracks on the American Satan soundtrack by the Relentless. This song has a lot of piss and vinegar but offers the listener positive feedback of “No we have heart. We are rock and roll. If you don’t like it. There is the door.” The kickass not giving a fuck what you think but stay true to yourself vibes of the song is a dying need in rock nowadays. I love songs like these that have messages of “Fuck the man. But you create your own man.” type of messages. Music is often monotone anymore. Some bands release not so great material. Here a fictional band puts out all killer and no filler soundtrack.
Personal Jesus is a cover song by Depeche Mode’s original song “Personal Jesus”. From my perspective the cover was done amazingly well. I have heard a dozen covers of the song in my day of being 26 years old. Remington Leith did a damn great job on the cover. The lyrics are very classic as in. “Reach out and touch faith” has been used by several marketing campaigns for Halloween ever. Great choice for a cover song for a fictional band for the soundtrack.
Forgive Me Mother is standout to me lyrically. It’s a huge love and apology letter to mother’s. It reminds me so hard of Danzigs “Mother”. When we are at lowest or we go through the toughest of times the one thing we reach out the most to is our moms. They are our rocks. They carry us for 9 months and raise us for 18 years of our lives. Only to hope to release us out into the world thinking that the apple of their eyes will achieve greatness and sometimes it goes to shit. I love how this song focused on apologizing for the father sins and wanting to make there mothers proud. It’s very heartfelt. A song to be time frame for generations to come to dedicate to our precious mother’s. Especially mine, love you Mom, her name is Amber.
Hey. Hey, My, My,( Into The Black) is another stand out track to me on the the Relentless soundtrack. I love the meaning behind it. It’s a tradgey that we live in a time that even our music icons die. Death is never easy to deal with whether it’s natural causes, cancer, suicide, etc. The pain from it hurts horribly. But the music will live on forever of what these late icons have made. Even if Gene Simmons himself told people that “Rock and Roll is dead” it’s not. His world of rock and roll is dead. But ours is a blooming Spud sprout on crack. All I can say is if you lost a loved one, a favorite icon, etc. My love and support is forever with you. My condolences are with you. This song is for you people who couldn’t make it. Our rock and roll candle light shines bright for you, always. 🕯
The entire album was a hit. I would recommend anyone to get it where digitally and physically you can get the Relentless soundtrack to American Satan. Each of the musicians who either contributed to the recording of the soundtrack or to the films score deserves high praise. Those musicians are Johnathan Davis of Korn, Nicholas O’Toole a film composer, and Born Of Osiris guitarist Lee McKinney.
As I conclude this part of the review. I am SO EXCITED to start the review for the next part. Let’s get started shall we….
American Satan was written by Ash Alvidsen and Matty Beckkerman. It was produced, written, and directed by Alvidsen and for Sumerian Films. Alvidsen had help for the making of American Satan from the following people, Matty Beckerman, Andy Gould, Sean E. Demott, Aimee Schooff, Isen Robin, and Jeff Rice. Cinematography done by Andrew Strahorn.
The film adaptation was created by Sumerian Films with help of partnership film companies such as Intrinsic Value Films, Jeff Rice Films, and Miramax films. With the main film adaptation under Sumerian Films which is adjacent to Sumerian Records which is owned and founded by the writer, director, and producer Ash Alvidsen.
The American Satan cast is:
Johnny Faust- Andy Biersack
Remington Leith- BTS Johnny Faust’s Character singing vox
Leo Donovan – Benjamin Bruce
Vic Lakota- BooBoo Stewart
Lily Mayflower- Jesse Sullivan
Kat Faust(Johnny Faust’s mother)- Denise Richards
Dylan James- Sebastian Gregory
Gabriel- Bill Duke
Hawk- Bill Goldberg
Gretchen(Johnny Faust’s Girlfriend)- Olivia Culpo
Cassandra-Tori Black
Elias- Mark Boone Junior
Mr. Capricorn- Malcolm McDowell
Damien- Drake Bell
Ricky Rollins- John Bradley
Larry King-Larry King himself
Side note- There was a huge on set call for real fans to show up to be casted in the film. The Asking Alexandria family, the Black Veil Brides army, etc showed up in stride to show there prescene for this film in rock and roll history. I am proud of the fans that were able to be casted. Way to show rock and roll history in that pretents.
So now that the politics of the American Satan have been addressed let’s start my full assessment of this rock and roll masterpiece of a film.
I will address these things in my assessment, the theatrics of Satan, sin, my personal accounts of addiction with drugs, how this film has a huge impact for the #MeToo campaign, etc.
Let’s get the big topic out of the bag and discuss why I think this film should be used as a big educational tool as in terms for Satan and Illuminati. These things have been deeply discussed since the beginning of time. The Illuminati has been only discussed and discovered by deep web leaks or government undeclassified documents being unfolded by the secret service or CIA. With these images throughout the entire film. I believe that governmental and biblical education should be an option to society but it’s so feared nowadays due to all the chaos that is going on in the world today with bombings, genocides, religious sacrifices, etc. This film portrays a lot of this. But I as the reviewer am secular to the readers religious beliefs and opinions on religion. Whatever you believe in. You are entitled to it. I am going to respect it. It is what it is. The Earth should be ran that way but it’s fear that runs through people’s mines that causes mass hysteria.
American Satan portrays the pinwheel of sin, sex/drugs/rock and roll which branches out into the seven deadly sins. With that heavily portrayed on each character in film. Everyone portrays each a trait of sin or multiple traits of sins. Like Gretchen and Johnny Faust’s mother Kat were the ones that had there minds set on right in the whole film but they portrayed greed. While the rest of the cast portrayed the entire buffet of sins. I will tackle more of this throughout the review.
Like I said in the last paragraph the pinwheel of sin was portrayed in America Satan. One of those huge sins was drugs. Major drug use was used in the film. With the epidemic of opioid addiction (I sadly have a huge experience with it) on the rise. This topic needs to be addressed. I decided to fully express my experience with drugs abuse and use this film as an example of why I let people know first they are not alone. Second, never feel shitty about getting the help you need. Third, do it for you and you only to get sober.
I got heavily into perscription narcotics, nsaids ( over the counter pain killers, like Tylenol and Ibuprofen), and opioids back in 2009. It all started in November of 2009. It all started with the migraine IV pain meds when I got admitted for the very first time for migraine. I remember the high I got from it. Even though my pain is legit. I wake up everyday in chronic pain every day. I blame the medical personnel in my town for getting me addicted. I strived to find that high. It was so fucking easy for me at the time to get narcotics due to my health condition. This film made me fucking cry hard cause I was in Lily, Johnny’s, Vic’s, Ricky’s, etc shoes. Especially during their rock bottom moments. During Johnny’s and Ricky’s overdose scenes were really fucking hard for me to deal with emotionally and mentally. Especially Johnny’s cause I was given a morphine overdose in the hospital by illegitimate staff. Now I am allergic to the narcotic cause I overdose cause I had to go do a migraine IV again cause my migraines are near or close to the pain that suicide (cluster migraines) migraineurs feel. It’s cause I leak cerebral spinal cord fluid in my ears and nose. I can’t patch the holes were they reside. The rare condition it’s called is spontaneous intracranial hypotension. Only 1 in 50 million births sees this.
During my drug addiction. I heavily popped handfuls or cocktails of Ibuprofen Tylenol, Naproxen, hydrocodone, and whatever else I could get. I would go through three bottles of pain killers in week that had 90- 120 pills inside. The darkness these characters had to portray nails what the true victims of the epidemic are going through. As a person who continues to struggles with addiction. Loves how Elias tried to get Johnny and Lily help even though Lily refused it cause she wasn’t ready. Johnny took the opportunity and did it for himself for his characters mom Kat Faust. It’s a small world cause I hated a band called Black Veil Brides during my junkie years. I absolutely hated myself. I was just a big pos. During those three prominent years I hated BVB, myself, etc I spiralled down a life I never wanted to live. Eating painkillers like candy wasn’t the life I didn’t dream about. But my rock bottom came on January 27,2013. The day I became a believer In Black Veil Brides and the start of my new life. I was in the middle of committing suicide but ” In The End” came on then I reexamined everything. As one of my past reviews coins, I once hated BVB but now I am in love with BVB. If you can’t be them, join them( BVB army). I went to a life changing and intervention type of doctors appointment in Seattle, WA two months after I became a fan of BVB’s. March 22,2013 is the day I became clean of all pain killers and drugs. It’s stayed that way ever since. Even though I have had four major surgeries that really tested my waters of my anxiety and struggles with addiction. I got told by the doctor if I continued to eat pain killers like I was doing. My insides would be fried and I would be in kidney renal failure. Better yet, I would be mostly likely dead in two to three years tops. I am still affected by addiction. The medical conditions from it are horrible. It permanently flared my irritable bowel syndrome to even a worse stage. Ibuprofen eats the lining of the stomach if you prolong the use.
What sucks is that I was trying to seek pain relief in drug use. Just like what the characters were doing in American Satan. Whether it be turning to drugs or alcohol. The characters had to turn to a crutch to get them by. I am happy that I no longer have one. Even though I have my daily perscribed migraine meds and other meds. I don’t really rely on a pain killer anymore. All I remember doing was eating pain killers and sleeping. That’s all I did. But for funny features. The CNN interview with Lily and Vic about the bullying situations going on. Vic telling the newscaster when Vic was on psychedelics that he wanted to “Go lay down” the newscaster responded with a snarky response with ” I would like to go lie down myself.” Even though drugs are terrible. That scene was funny as hell, even though drugs are no laughing matter at time we are in but still dark humor. But on a serious note I would like to say, here is to almost being 5 years clean in March. If you are struggling. Keep fighting on and hang in there. You will get through it.
The coverage of how people like myself are supported by this film being either a victim of sexual assualt or rape. As you read anywhere on the headlines anymore the sexual assualt or rape accusations towards people in bands, Hollywood icons, etc. American Satan touches on the reality of control. Why woman in a male dominated scene or feild often times get victimized. But men do get victimized to. It goes for the lbgtq community as well. But in the music scene. Woman get treated unfairly still to this day. But I believe that woman are fighting back nowadays. With woman rock icons and rockstars paving the way for younger transpersons or female demographic to become there own rockstar and for their own individuality.
The scene were Lily tells Johnny were she was raped by Damien cause she executed his band under her own recognition. But he had to go and be douchebag and ruin her life by raping her. Damien was going to be a sacrifice kill to The Relentless for their ritual for Mr. Capricorn. Johnny Faust was going to save his life. But however, karma got to Damien and he ultimately killed himself via electric fence. Karma is a bitch.
I was sexually assualted on a feild trip on the way to go scout out careers to a local college. I got gaslighted and accused of faking it. I have to say silent just like Lily has to stay silent about her rape by her ex Damien in order to play clubs. As a victim I think it’s utterly bullshit. It’s sad that one of the reasons Lily has to use(herione) is in order to get rid of the pain from her ex aka Damien and what he did to her. I fully understand Lily’s pure angst and rebellion in the film. Jesse Sullivan played Lily’s character very very well. I really connected with that scene and the intervention scene with Elias and Johnny. But nowadays it’s the sad truth of what is going on today with the drug epidemic, sexual assualt and rape accusations, etc. I am just happy that this film touched on these heavy hitting topics even before the film was released.
This film has a lot of informative matter or educational purposes of how a band gets it’s start. The politics of being in the industry. The pros and cons of being musicians. The life styles one chooses as there rockstar life. But the big thing is that it shows the humanity, trials, and tribulations musicians go through. It only makes them stronger people in the end. No matter how how much they change throughout their career.
The death of Ricky hit me hard. Especially Leo’s discovery of him dead(Ben Bruce’s performance killed me, hard). Loosing a friend, loved ones, and even a pet is a tragic time. I would like to pay my dues. I would like to send my condolences and wishes to Ricky’s character and the cast characters. Just cause it’s only right to. The funeral scene hit me hard cause that would have been me if I wouldn’t have gotten sober. The reality of the drug epidemic is scary. I don’t take it lightly. But that scene was very eye opening and heartbreaking.
I really hope that this film is used for educational matters in high school and college for music based purposes. It’s a film that I believe that should have been created 20-30 years ago but it got created today by phonomenal creators. With the CGI affects greatly done on the one scene of the human sacrifice of Damien(,I am still highly impressed with the editor work and effects done on that particular one), multiple scenes of the Relentless telling the truth and process of how a band is ran in the film, the wisdom of Gabriel, the conspiracy theories of Mr. Capricorn, Johnny’s stint in the slammer, the overdose of Johnny Faust but was recanted by Gabriel, and the list goes on what educational matters music teachers can teach there class about the politics of having a band nowadays.
Even though the film features pornography material not suitable for suitable for younger audiences. I do believe that some of the material in the film can be seen be the younger audience on the grounds for educational matters to be expressed with a teacher or a parental figure/guardian. Like Lily said “There needs to be less guns and more sex. Less wars and more love. More fucking sex” Even though the the younger audience don’t need to be apart of the sex thing yet. Nor the drugs. Just more education and positivity in the lives of the youth of today. That’s were Gabriel comes in handy.
I will concluded this sloth review for Chronic Potato Queen Writer for American Satan on a high note. This film has a huge impact on the music scene. If you are fan of such films like “Dazed and Confused”, “School of Rock”, “Airheads”, “Rockstar” ,”La Bamba”, “If I Stay”, etc among dozens of rock and metal documentaries. American Satan is for you. It’s for every rock and roll fan out there. It’s a staple film for rock and roll history. Even though the ending threw me off for a loophole. I am excited to see what the TV series is going to be like. But there is one thing I am going to rant and be sad about for a very long time. It’s the fact that the Relentless will never be a real life band. Who knew a fictional band could be so badass. I am forever a fan. Fictional or not. Long live American Satan and The Relentless.
Written by: Mariah Hanna @PotatoBVBQueen 1/20/2018
*See About on sharing my articles and reviews
Listen to American Satan’s The Relentless album here on Spotify
American Satan Twitter, contact.
Official American Satan Twitter fanpage
To watch American Satan trailer,etc.
American Satan Facebook
American Satan Instagram
Where to buy the film, about the cast, sign up for the newsletter, etc
P.S. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to read my review. It really means a lot. Like Elias said let’s all “Shove it right up the ass of bigots so they will be shitting out pentagrams.” I intend to do that. Even though my dream as a rockstar faded when I found out I have a permanent debilitating disease that caused me to be disabled. I was gifted a new rockstar dream. You are reading it. The power of the review. The sloth kind.
I didn’t want to over analyze the film for those of you who haven’t seen it yet or waiting for your order to come in. I am very happy to not spoil the entire film for you.
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chstarmac October 4, 2018 Image News
A Night to Remember: The Class of 2022 Make Lasting Memories at Freshman Homeroom Nights This Fall
By Brendan Lane ’20
Since arriving at 3C Week in August, the freshman class has been adjusting to life at Chaminade. Making new friends, finding out what clubs to join, and handling the schoolwork are challenges for all freshmen at the start of their high school career. One of the ways Chaminade helps the freshmen adjust to a new school is Freshman Homeroom Night, a night during which homerooms compete in games, eat tons of pizza, and make lasting memories.
Freshman Homeroom Night is a Chaminade tradition that has always been an integral part of the freshman year experience. “It has been done for as long as people remember,” said Mr. Gregory Gerner ’10. “Freshmen have always referred back to Homeroom Night as one of their best memories of freshman year.”
Competition rages in a game of basketball at Homeroom Night.
Homeroom-versus-homeroom competition is always the highlight of the night. Students compete in European handball, dodgeball, and basketball. The fierce competition for homeroom pride rages as the night progresses, and the unifying spirit of the games helps to build a sense of camaraderie among the students in each homeroom. “The games allow us to work together, which brought us closer together as friends,” said Joseph Mauro ’22.
Half-way through the night, all the homerooms gather in the cafeteria to eat all the pizza and soda they want from the Cugini’s Pizzeria and Restaurant, famous among Chaminade students. The students devour pies ravenously at each and every Homeroom Night. The simple meal is yet another chance for students to meet new people and socialize within their homerooms.
Bring on the pizza: The freshmen joke before the Homeroom Night pizza feast begins.
At then end of the night, the freshmen cool off with a dip in the pool. The kids line up as fast as they can to be first in line for the high dive board, which many have not stopped thinking about ever since they saw it at Chaminade’s Open House. The students then compete against each other to see who has the best dive or most powerful belly flop!
After a full afternoon of competition and food…more competition to end the night.
Starting freshman year at Chaminade can be a difficult transition, but Freshman Homeroom Night makes the process much easier. The night helps the students come out of their collective shells together. The competition, eating, and swimming break the ice among students and give them something to share together for the next four years. “I got to interact with people from my homeroom that I haven’t had a chance to meet,” said Joseph Mauro. By the end of the night, the students have evolved from being nervous “new kids” to feeling as though they belong to an extended family–the Chaminade family.
Homeroom Night stands out in the minds of all Chaminade students as one of their best memories from high school because students began to build the foundation of life-long friendships starting at Chaminade. Even the Monday after Homeroom Night, students are already reminiscing about their experience, sharing funny moments that they’ll never forget from that Friday night in fall.
This year, Chaminade hosts four different homerooms nights. There have already been two nights in September, on the 21st and 28th, and there will be two more in October. Homerooms 1C, 1D, 1E, and 1J embark on their Homeroom Night experience on October 5th, and homerooms 1F, 1G, and 1N have their night on October 19th.
Posted in News and tagged freshmen, Homeroom Night. Bookmark the permalink.
Another Year of Academic Success: Students and Faculty of Chaminade Gather for the Academic Awards Assembly
3 Up, 3 Down: October 5, 2018 Edition
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2016 Election, Cabinet, Opinion, Politics, Trump
Just Like His Businesses, Trump’s Cabinet Picks are Mostly Terrible
Date: December 7, 2016Author: Jesse A. 1 Comment
Trump University. Trump Steaks. Trump Airlines. Trump Taj Mahal. Trump Vodka. Trump Mortgage. These businesses (and several others) all have two things in common: Donald Trump and failure. Each venture was poorly conceived and poorly executed, bungled by a man who claims to be the greatest businessman the world has ever seen, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. He has at times succeeded, but almost as often, he has failed spectacularly and at staggering costs.
Donald Trump smooth-talked banks, potential investors, clients, and contractors for years, always managing to sidestep clear of his many crumbling edifices – no matter who else was caught in the collapse. Trump has now ridden that same bluster and braggadocio into the White House. So what happens when a con artist with no experience, a hostile temperament, and a childishly simple understanding of policy matters gets to pick people to run the country? Well, the cabinet operates like Trump “University” did: unqualified people end up in charge, lots of big promises get broken, and it’s bad for everyone who’s not already sitting at the top. Let’s take a look at some cabinet picks by the man who promised to “drain the swamp” and be the president for ALL Americans:
Chief Strategist Steve Bannon: Machiavellian provocateur who gave the racist alt-right a voice, promoted misleading and false information for years as editor of Breitbart, and idolizes authoritarian power figures such as Darth Vader (not a joke). Trump’s version of Karl Rove.
Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III: Career politician denied a federal judgeship over accusations of racism. Allegedly said he thought the KKK was “okay, until [he] found out they smoked pot.” Opposes legal marijuana and marriage equality. Could have a side hustle licensing his name to cartoons about Confederate Generals.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin: 17-year veteran and partner at Goldman Sachs and owner of OneWest Financial, which was repeatedly investigated for questionable foreclosure practices. Once foreclosed on a senior citizen who accidentally underpaid by 27 cents. Interesting choice for Trump, who as a candidate claimed he would look out for the little guy. Invested in multiple Trump projects. Avatar of big banks’ insensitive practices. Doesn’t get a pass for financing the movie Avatar.
HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson: African-American neurosurgeon and former Republican candidate with zero housing policy experience. Said he wasn’t qualified to head a Department, then agreed to head a Department. Believes in eliminating social safety net programs that create dependency in poor people; will oversee housing for poor people. Possible that Trump picked him because HUD includes the word “urban.”
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao: Surprisingly appropriate pick – even broken clocks are right twice a day. Served as Deputy Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Labor in prior administrations (both Bushes). Experienced and non-controversial. Married to Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell. Favorite animal: turtle.*
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt: Close ally of oil & gas industry who does not believe in climate change. Oklahoma attorney general, currently suing the EPA to stop its efforts to reduce power plant emissions. Does not believe the environment needs protecting; will be in charge of protecting the environment. Once ran a business raising hens with Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, which failed when they assigned foxes to guard their investment.**
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos: Faith-based proponent of school voucher programs who has never taught in a classroom or worked as a school administrator. Billionaire. Husband’s father founded multi-level-marketing company Amway, formerly called Quixtar. Brother founded Blackwater Security (yes, the one from the Bush-era Iraq war).
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross: 24-year veteran banker at Rothschild. Billionaire specializing in bankruptcies and distressed companies. Has paid out nearly $100 million in settlements and fines since 2014 for misappropriating fees and mishandling investors’ money. Currently being investigated for connections to the Sago Mine disaster, which killed a dozen miners in West Virginia. Instrumental in the rescue of failing casinos and businesses owned by… Donald J. Trump.
There you have it – the Trump cabinet so far. Billionaire bankers with villainous pasts. Long-time Wall Street and Washington insiders. Inexperienced activists. Climate change deniers. Big-business shills. Unqualified Trump cronies. Some of the cabinet picks above are ideologically opposed to the very missions of the Departments they will be leading. Expect to watch people – including Trump voters – lose services they rely on, like Medicare and health insurance. Expect to see public education slip farther into failure, while religious private schools benefit from a windfall of taxpayer dollars. Expect industrial pollution and climate change to accelerate unchecked. Expect the same huge banks that tanked the economy and ruined people’s lives in 2008 to run rampant again, unregulated, stuffing their executives’ pockets, heedless of potentially devastating consequences to the American people.
Why should we expect these things to happen? Because a minority of voters handed the reins of power to Donald Trump, in the misguided hope that he would bring his business skills to the White House… and it appears he has done exactly that. Careful what you wish for, folks, and next time do your homework before you pull the lever.
* Speculation for humorous effect. Elaine Chao may not like turtles.
** Hen story not true. Everything else unfortunately is.
2016 ElectionAttorney GeneralBannonBusinessCarsonChaoCommerceDeVosEPAHealth and Human ServicesHUDMnuchinPoliticsPruittRossSessionsTransitionTreasuryTrump
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Monster House (2006)
by Roger Malcolm on October 31, 2012 January 27, 2013
Monster House (2006) / USA / PG / 91 min / 6.7 IMDB / IMDB 3,177
By Roger Malcolm / Oct. 2012
A tale about the haunted house across the street comes ALIVE in Monster House. Executive Producers Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg present the second animated film utilizing extensive motion-capture technology not seen since Zemeckis brought us The Polar Express (2004), which best demonstrated the style. Based on a story by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, who teamed up with Pamela Pettler on the screenplay. Pettler handled screenplay responsibilites on Shane Acker’s incredibly interesting 9 (2009) and Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005).
The story starts with DJ, voiced by Disney Channel’s Mitchel Musso, spying on the neighbor across the street – the Steve-Buscemi-voiced Nebbercracker. Nebbercracker, an evil old man, who seems to have a knack for confiscating all the neighborhood children toys that end up in his yard, has DJ very suspicious. DJ’s oblivious parents (who of course don’t believe him), are leaving town, having arranged for DJ to be watched by their babysitter Elizabeth, voiced by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
The tension tightens once DJ’s best buddy – the hilarious and notoriously written Chowder – comes over and his basketball ends up rolling into Nebbercracker’s lawn. DJ attempts to get the ball back, only to have Nebbercracker come out hollering “DO YOU WANT TO BE A DEAD PERSON?!” DJ, frozen in fear, has his arm grabbed by Nebbercracker, who won’t let go. But after such a stressful time of things Nebbercracker collapses onto the ground, ending up hauled off in an ambulance. The mood quickly becomes more serious as the sun goes down on Halloween eve and the suspicions rise as Nebbercracker’s house starts to take on a life of its own.
Elizabeth shows up in a pink blouse with an E emblazoned on the front left side, reminiscent of the “L” Penny Marshall’s character wore on Lavern & Shirley. Once DJ informs Elizabeth his parents have already left, she removes her pink blouse revealing a sleeveless black shirt with “SKULL+BONES” across the front. She also removes her now unfitting pink head band, shaking her nicely-put-back hair into a hip layered style very similar to one Maggie Gyllenhaal, informing DJ the names “Zee”. She treats us to the sounds of Skull+Bones when she pops a cassette tape into the home’s player labeled “SKuLL+BONE’Ss LiVE AT THE SMELL”. What once seemed like a normal teenage girl ends up being quite questionable as a babysitter. Especially when her Jason-Lee-voiced boyfriend Bones, a typical metal head who enjoys bullying DJ, shows up.
Bones tells a haunting story of Nebbercracker taking his kite when he was young. He tells Zee he remembered seeing Nebbercracker kissing and talking to his house. Zee doesn’t take him serious but Bones replies everybody knows what he did to his wife. When Zee asks what it was he did, Bones comically shouts “HE ATE HER!” DJ overhears all of this and starts to become paranoid that Nebbercracker is haunting him after some very strange occurrences.
The ambiguous time-setting has multiple arcade machines utilizing graphics that look 8 bit at best inside a “GAMEZONE” at the local Pizza Parlor. This is where we are introduced to the smartest guy DJ and Chowder know – Reginald Skulinski, or Skull to the boys. Skull, voiced by Jon Heder (once famous from his role as Napolean Dynamite), we are told by DJ and Chowder, is the “3 time Tri-State over-14 ‘Thou Art Dead’ Champion” and that “He once played for 4 days straight, on one quarter, a gallon of chocolate milk and an adult diaper.” and they include “The man’s a legend.” The kind of video arcade dedication found in the documentaries Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007) and The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007).
Animated wonderfully with an autumn setting of orange and red leaves blowing around and across sidewalks in the fall wind, excellent motion-captured performance by the entire cast and a Monster House plot that pays homage to Stephen King’s epic Dark Towers series, even having a character shine a light on a toy monkey very reminiscent of the short story “The Monkey” in King’s Skeleton Crew. The voice work performances compliment the quality of the animation technology like never before, while still managing to be less creepy than Tom Hanks’ Polar Express incarnations.
A phenomenal, haunting, hilarious tale for when Halloween is in the air – from heartwarming moments of true love and friendship, to the lonely aching sadness felt within from being an outcast of society, to a climactic ending so over-the-top fantastic it’s only suitable for an animated film equally as grand. Monster House is a family’s best friend for a horror film with laughs throughout, all the way to the must-see Jack-O-Lantern-extinguishing dog.
Best Death: The best death comes in a haunting tale of society’s effect on an outcast named Constance. Once a circus attraction advertised as being as big as a house, she is tormented by the neighborhood children. She is at home when she loses her temper at some children, making her become disoriented with rage and causing her to fall to her death.
Best Scene: In an attempt to find the heart of the house, after learning from Skull about “domus mactabilis” (Latin for “deadly home”- where a human soul merges with a structure creating a possessed monster), the kids attempt to drug the house with cough medicine, hoping to put it to sleep. Once inside we discover the house’s uvula, to which Chowder declares ignorantly “Oh, so it’s a girl house.” Chowder’s childish innocence will have you laughing constantly, while adding to the tension for the other characters onscreen. All these pieces come together to make one MONSTER of an ending!
horror review
Monster House
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Home Cobb County Police Department
Motorcyclist killed in collision on Hartman Road in South Cobb
TOPICS:Hartman RoadSTEP Unit
Cobb Police Department Headquarters (photo by Larry Felton Johnson)
According to a report from Officer Sarah O’Hara of the Cobb County Police Department, the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) Unit is investigating a fatal collision on Hartman Road, north of Lake Careco Road in South Cobb, today at around 6:31 a.m.
STEP Unit investigators reported that a white 2007 motor coach with its four-way flashers on was in the turn lane of Hartman Road preparing to turn right into the Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral. A Harley Davidson motorcycle was heading toward the motor coach from the south. When the driver of the motor coach turned right, the motorcycle struck the motor coach.
James Dennis, 20, of Temple, Georgia, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital where he died of his injuries.
The driver of the motor coach, Fertissue Thomas, 45, of Morrow, was not injured in the collision.
A witness told police that immediately prior to the collision, the motorcycle had improperly passed her in the center turn lane at a high rate of speed. Investigators believe that excessive speed was a factor in the collision and do not expect charges to be filed in the accident.
According to the report, “The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact Cobb County Police Department’s STEP Unit at 770-499-3987.”
STEP Unit
The STEP Unit, which investigated this incident, is one of the department’s Special Operations units, and is described on the web page of the Cobb County Police Department as follows:
“The Selective Traffic Enforcement Unit is responsible for investigating all fatal traffic crashes, enforcement of traffic laws in those areas which analysis indicates an elevated amount of crashes. They are also responsible for the administration and execution of the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program. They also take part in special security details, and investigate crashes involving Department vehicles when requested.”
Fatal collision on I-75 in Cobb near Barrett Parkway under investigation
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UPDATED: Two teen pedestrians hit in crosswalks on Holt Road
Passenger killed in Powder Springs on July 4
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[Civil defense.]
[People waiting in line.]
Untitled (Gas Line)
[Line in an Army reception station.]
[Trolley.]
The stout gentleman hoped he had found a secluded spot for the honeymoon.
Bread Line -- No One Has Starved
Coney Island ferris wheel
View of the Wonder Wheel at Coney Island.
Roosevelt Hospital
Date of assignment September 11, 1949.
Orchard Beach Catering Company, Orchard Beach, Bronx.
[Interior, bank with customers.]
[Interior, elevator lobby.]
[Interior, lobby with reception desk.]
[Recruiting station with line.]
[Fifth Avenue looking north from above 40th Street.]
The Center Theatre, Rockefeller Center.
[Line into the Highways and Horizons exhibit in the GM building.]
[People in line with the Goodrich Building in the distance.]
74 Wall Street. Seamens Bank for Savings. Interior, depositors cashing Christmas Club checks, also opening new accounts for 1940
[People at the World's Fair, the Trylon in the distance.]
Untitled [Harlem, line portrait.]
Morse Dry Dock & Repair Co. Photographs [Voting in the Pipe Shop.]
"No, I don't think there's a children's camp around here. Why?"
"Sorry folks but the closing time is at five."
U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island, New York. Aliens Entering Buildings for Examination.
© 1925 D. T. MacGowan, Maplewood N. J. 5.
Laundry in Greenwich Village [Woman at a counter.]
[Cafeteria line at Ellis Island.]
Print made in 1996 from a photograph taken around 1951.
[Women standing in line in a church.]
["Flora, the Red Menace" theater still.]
NYC Defense Recreation Committee
Photographs of servicemen in uniform waiting in line at a ticket office. Date of assignment June 1945....
99 Park Ave., N.Y.--WWII Entertainment
Photographs of soldiers in uniform lined up to get tickets for various forms of entertainment--signs...
Kings County Alms House.
Hospital, Bellevue, Blackwell's Island (Welfare) Old & New Bldgs.
Theatrical, Castle Square Opera Co. Crowds at B'way Theatre.
Crowds outside the Castle Square Opera Company located at the Broadway Theatre. Signs outside theater...
The male almshouse.
Coney Island, "caterpillar" ride
[People waiting in line at the New York World's Fair.]
J Shuttle Bus Line, Rush Hour, 42nd St. and Lexington Avenue, Manhattan
[People waiting in line for the Futurama ride at the General Motors pavilion, New York World's Fair.]
[General Motors building at New York World's Fair, with people waiting in line for the Futurama ride.]
[People waiting in line for the Futurama ride at General Motors Highways and Horizons pavilion, New York World's Fair.]
[Concession stand at the New York World's Fair.]
[The City of Light at the New York World's Fair.]
[People waiting in line at the Ford pavilion, New York World's Fair.]
[People buying tickets to the New York World's Fair, with police headquarters visible in background.]
[74 Wall Street. Seamen's Bank for Savings, Christmas Club new accounts.]
[74 Wall Street. Seamen's Bank for Savings.]
[General Motors Building.]
Bronx (New York, N.Y.) (2)
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) (7)
Queens (New York, N.Y.) (23)
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All-Star Western
Exclusive Preview: All Star Western #34 By Darwyn Cooke
When the New 52 launched back in 2011, one of the interesting things about the lineup of titles was the presence of a lot of books that attempted to break out of the standard superhero genre, at least a little. There were horror, fantasy and war comics, but the most creatively and commercially succe…
Don’t Ask! Just Buy It! – June 27, 2012: Toss Them Up and Let Them Hit You on the Head
Reading Comics author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week.
% Spectacle
* Cash
^ History
^ % LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN VOL. 3: CENTURY #3 2009
Wow, it was really foresighted of Alan Moore to make a thinly disguised Christian Grey the final boss in …
Douglas Wolk
WildStorm and DC Integrate in ‘The Edge,’ ‘Blue Beetle’ and ‘Suicide Squad’ Announced [UPD…
DC announced their "Edge" lineup of titles this morning, featuring a huge number of the former WildStorm properties, as well as DC's, well, "edgier" characters, such as Deathstroke and their war and western franchises. Click below the jump to see the info, co…
David Uzumeri
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An Interview with Costume Designer Morrigana Pehlke
PrevPreviousAn Interview with Canadian Artist Myles Johnston
NextAn Interview with Canadian Artist Liene HarutaNext
Morrigana Pehlke is an Underground Couture Fashion Designer born in 1981 and raised in Perth County. Morrigana Pehlke started her career as a costume designer and over 5 years has amassed over 150 costumes from all eras including a set of Steampunk and Fantasy inspired work. Morrigana’s Steampunk designs have been published in several books, and her costumed events are a sought after experience in her home town of Stratford, Ontario.
I have the pleasure to interview Morrigana Pehlke on the occasion of her participation in the new Art Show “VERSE” on May 25th, presented by RAW: KITCHENER-WATERLOO.
Morrigana Pehlke Interview:
“There are ebbs and flows in the art world. You must learn to love both to be a success.”
Morrigana Pehlke, could you please tell us a bit about yourself and your universe?
I’m a 35 year old mom of 3, born in Stratford, Ontario where I currently reside. My kids keep me so busy, some days it’s hard to find the energy to be inspired! I also work a part time administration job to help pay the bills. Let’s face it, they don’t call it “starving artist” for nothing!
Were you always interested in art growing up? How did you come to Costume design?
When I was in school I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to travel around the globe and write stories for Time Magazine. The year I graduated, my English teacher (who was my favourite teacher that year) told me that if I wanted to travel that bad, I should become a stewardess. My dream died in a few off-hand words. It was that moment I decided not to pursue post-secondary education as well. However, out of that, I did learn a lesson…be careful what you say to young people, they take everything seriously!
I started costume designing when I was 28. I wanted to make my own Halloween costume. I had inherited sewing bits and ends from my paternal grandmother who, when I was a baby, had been a seamstress for the Stratford Festival Theater. I guess it was her that started me on my path, despite that it was long after she had passed.
Red – Morrigana Pehlke
White – Morrigana Pehlke
Do you have or have had a mentor or other special person to guide you?
As cliché as it sounds, my mom has always been my mentor and guide. She’s been there to encourage my dreams, and openly discuss where I might be going wrong in my path. She’s had great ideas about paths to take and I’ve learned a lot from her about business, and diplomacy. She’s also taught me how to fight for what I believe in. I’m grateful to her for everything!
The costumes you design are very creative and seem beyond reality. Where do you find your inspiration?
I find my inspiration from everywhere: movies, video games and television to name a few. I love historically and fantasy inspired things, including costume design, makeup and hair design. Art can be found in anything that you can think of. I’ve played with the idea of doing more headpieces and shoes to go with my outfits!
How has your style changed over the years?
I started off being very passionate about Steampunk. The idea of a Victorian Future drew my like nothing ever had. Before I knew it, my work was being photographed and published in several Steampunk inspired books, all of which can now be found in Chapters and on Amazon!
After the TV show The Tudors came out, I fell out of the Steampunk phase and into a historical one. I immediately designed and created nearly 20 costumes that drew from the histories of British and French Kings and their ladies.
Most recently, I have become passionate about fantastic evening wear. I have been commissioned for a few historically inspired wedding dresses, and the more I delve into the art of couture, the more inspired I am to see how wild I can get with it.
What are you currently working on? What is your dream project?
I am currently working on several high end couture costume commissions for clients, and I’m starting to design my costume for Halloween this year. As my birthday is on Halloween, I go big every year to really showcase what I can do. There’s never been a Halloween that I did not dress up on!
Is artistic life lonely? What do you do to counteract it?
I’ve never found anything in my life to be lonely. Though I prefer to work alone in my designing and creation process, I’ve enjoyed the partnership I’ve gotten with Maaike. I have always had large numbers of people interested in volunteering to model my designs, and everyone has always seemed so supportive of my grandiose dreams!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Persevere! There are ebbs and flows in the art world. You must learn to love both to be a success.
RAW Artists Kitchener-Waterloo presents VERSE Maxwell's Concerts & Events 35 University Avenue East, Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2V9
25may(may 25)8:00 pm26(may 26)1:00 amFeaturedRAW Artists Kitchener-Waterloo presents VERSE
RAW Artists Kitchener-Waterloo presents VERSE An evening featuring Visual Art, Photography, Fashion, Music, Performance Artists, Accessories, Hair and Make-Up Artists!Live performances, runway shows, live hair and make-up, accessory design and visual
RAW Artists Kitchener-Waterloo presents VERSE
An evening featuring Visual Art, Photography, Fashion, Music, Performance Artists, Accessories, Hair and Make-Up Artists!
Live performances, runway shows, live hair and make-up, accessory design and visual art displays! 30+ talented artists involved! Support local art and come out to see the vast talent that exists in Kitchener-Waterloo.
Events hosted by Jack Von Spad with a Music of Tony Smart
Thursday May 25th, 2017 at Maxwell’s Concerts & Events
8pm-11:30pm (Performances, Runways, Art Displays, etc.)
11:30pm-1am (After Party with music by Tony Smart)
Buy your tickets online or at door
$20 online
$25 at door
19+ event
What is RAW?
RAW: natural born artists is an independent arts organization that hand-selects and spotlights independent creatives in visual art, film, fashion, music hair and makeup artistry, photography, models and performing art.
RAW’s mission is to provide up-and-coming artists of all creative realms with the tools, resources and exposure needed to inspire and cultivate creativity so that they might be seen, heard and loved. RAW educates, connects and exposes emerging artists in over 60 artistic communities in the United States, Australia, Canada and the UK.
Discover Wonderful Artists like:
Morrigana Pehlke that we interviewed.
25 (Thursday) 8:00 pm - 26 (Friday) 1:00 am
Maxwell's Concerts & Events
35 University Avenue East, Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2V9
RAW:KITCHENER-WATERLOO
An interview with writer-director Vikkramm Chandirramani
Vikkramm Chandirramani is a writer-director from Mumbai, India. His new urban crime drama ‘The Perfect Murder’ has been getting rave reviews with many critics lauding the film. His last film ‘Destiny’ won several awards including ‘Best Foreign Film’ at The Ridgewood Guild International Film Festival, New Jersey and has crossed 4.3 million views on YouTube.
9 Famous Canadian Artists Worth Knowing About
Undoubtedly, Canadian Art is an attractive art melting pot composed of various cultures and influences. The incredibly diverse immigration in Canada brought in people from all over the world, bringing with them part of their culture which is eventually reflected in their various artistic. A small but deeply representative sample of this savory Canadian mix is given here with its 9 most representative artists. What do you think of these 9 Famous Canadian Artists we selected for you?
An Interview with Priyanka Lalwani: A development program for the Artists.
Priyanka Lalwani accepted a Q&A session with CreativInn, offering her advice to artists. Priyanka Lalwani has been a mentor and marketer at priyankalalwanimusic.com and Searchmktgpro.biz,
A Conversation with Music Composer Karkanawi
In light of the release of his latest album, Symphonic Oriental Images, a conversation with Karkanawi, the first Saudi Musicologist & Classical Composer.
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Is it safer to generate your own Diffie-Hellman primes or to use those defined in RFC 3526?
I was wondering if the prime numbers defined for use with Diffie-Hellman in RFC 3526 are more trustworthy than generating one's own, especially considering the recent Arjen Lenstra paper (Ron was wrong, Whit is right) which criticized the similarities detected in public keys and prime numbers across the Internet. Am I better off generating my own safe primes, or am I better off using the ones defined in RFC 3526?
diffie-hellman prime-numbers
kaepora
kaeporakaepora
Generating your own group for Diffie-Hellman is not a tough issue; but it is somewhat expensive (it depends on the context, but a 25 MHz ARM device would not like to do it often) and it is not really needed: a good point of DH (and DSA) is that the group parameters can be shared between many users, with no ill effect on the confidentiality of their respective private keys.
For plain Diffie-Hellman, what you need is $p$, $q$ and $g$, such that:
$p$ is a big enough prime (2048 bits are more than enough nowadays);
$q$ is smaller, but still big enough (say 256 bits), prime value which divides $p-1$ ;
$g$ is a generator of a subgroup modulo $p$ with an order that is a multiple of $q$.
The DSA standard (FIPS 186-3) includes a rather detailed procedure for generating adequate group parameters (see annex A), which would be fine for DH too.
There is another side to the issue. While randomly chosen $p$, $q$ and $g$ are good for DH with overwhelming probability, it is possible to specially craft $p$, $q$ and $g$ values such that breaking discrete logarithm modulo $p$ (with generator $g$) would be easy (or at least easier). This can be a problem if your application entails producing the DH group parameters and having other people use them for their own key pairs. If you generate the group parameters but do not tell how you generated them (in a verifiable way), then other people could suspect you of having purposely made them weak. For completely usable group parameters which are immune to such suspicions, you need "nothing up my sleeve" numbers. Annex A of FIPS 186-3 describes the generation process in full details precisely so that it can be verified to be random. RFC 3526 uses $\pi$ for the same reasons.
Therefore, reusing published group parameters is a good idea, both for performance (no need to do the generation yourself, you can save on CPU and also code size) and for trust that can be put into the results by other people.
Thomas PorninThomas Pornin
$\begingroup$ Can you recommend some material about deliberately weak $p$,$q$,$g$ sets? $\endgroup$ – CodesInChaos Dec 22 '12 at 21:08
$\begingroup$ I'd recommend that anyone reading this answer should research the recent Logjam attack on Diffie-Hellman exchanges. Everyone using well known primes from a small global list, may be vulnerable to a pre-computation attack. $\endgroup$ – Jeremy Lakeman Jun 7 '15 at 6:30
$\begingroup$ Logjam works against any too-small DH group; shared/global only increases the payoff. They argue 1024 is probably unsafe and recommend 2048 but don't criticize 1536, and those are the smallest values in rfc3526. $\endgroup$ – dave_thompson_085 Jun 10 '15 at 8:59
There's nothing wrong with generating your own primes for DH, as long as you know what you're doing.
On the other hand, if you are a bit weak on number theory (or just glad that someone else has done the work, and had it double-checked), there's also nothing wrong with the modulii and generators in RFC 3526.
As for the paper, well, it chiefly noted that when RSA keys are being generated in practice, a common implementation flaw is a lack of entropy. While bad for RSA (because the entire security of RSA assumes that the keys can't be guessed), that's rather irrelevent for DH, because we're going to tell everyone what DH group we're using.
In fact, the DH groups in RFC 3526 have no entropy at all; they all are of the form:
$p = 2^n - 2^{n-64} - 1 + 2^{64} \cdot ( \lfloor 2^{n-130} \pi \rfloor + i )$
where $n$ is the number of bits within the modulus (1436, 2048, etc), and $i$ is the smallest nonnegative integer that makes both $p$ and $(p-1)/2$ prime.
There was no entropy used to generate these primes, hence the observation that some implementations may not have great entropy is irrelevent when selecting the modulii. Of course, entropy is critical when actually performing the DH operation, but that's true no matter which group you pick.
For Diffie-Hellman or any variants like Elgamal or DSA, you're better off using the established primes. It doesn't matter what primes you use, really, as long as they're prime.
The standard primes have had someone nod at them. If you generate your own prime and there's a problem (e.g. it's not really prime), then you're on your own and we will all laugh at you. Non-primes for DH are bad news, as you'll end up with subgroups, and other issues that mean you're not secure.
But more to the point, most of the public primes are public, they are not a security parameter (i.e. a secret). That's an even better reason not to use your own primes.
The primality testing we do is probabilistic. There's no actual guarantee that the number is prime. However, if you found a number that the usual gang of primality tests said was prime and it wasn't, that would be worthy of a paper, if not an assistant professorship.
For RSA, however, it matters that the two number you generate are secret more than they're prime. There are even three-prime variants of RSA. The problem in that paper was that they weren't secret, not that they weren't prime.
The real lesson we learned in this paper is to let your RNG warm up before you use it. Ironically, if the people with the badly-seeded RNGs had thrown in something with very low entropy like time(0), we wouldn't have had this problem because there would have been no easy way to find their crap primes through a simple test like a GCD.
Jon CallasJon Callas
$\begingroup$ Thank you! I was wondering - are the primes defined in the RFC special in any other way than being derived from Pi? Have they undergone any other testing? If so, what makes them safer or better studied? $\endgroup$ – kaepora Mar 6 '12 at 2:16
$\begingroup$ Actually, it's not actually true that "it doesn't matter what prime you use"; certain primes (say, primes where $p-1$ is smooth) are a really bad idea. In addition, it's a good to generate $p$ so that you know a large prime factor $q$, so that you can generate a generator for a subgroup that size. $\endgroup$ – poncho Mar 6 '12 at 2:26
$\begingroup$ Thank you for the clarification, poncho. I was trying not to get into the details, but the gist of it. But you are correct, I should have been more weasely. $\endgroup$ – Jon Callas Mar 14 '12 at 3:01
$\begingroup$ @JonCallas: Won't RSA generally fail entirely (i.e. generate public and private "keys" which don't complement each other) if numbers that are supposed to be prime, aren't? Construction of an RSA key pair requires that one knows the prime factorization of the modulus. It need not have exactly two primes, but all primes within it must be known. While one might theoretically find a pair of numbers which aren't prime but yield an encryption/decryption pair, the I think probability of that happening by chance is essentially zero. $\endgroup$ – supercat Dec 18 '14 at 18:33
Unlike the primes used in RSA the prime used in DH does not need to be a secret, so using a well-known prime is not a problem from that point of view.
On the other hand much of the work in breaking dh is per-prime not per dh session. That doesn't change the cost of breaking the first session but it does change the average cost of breaking a session.
This is particularly significant for 1024 bit DH. Current estimates say that breaking a 1024 bit DH prime is likely to be very expensive but not totally infeasible. It is suspected that the NSA may have cracked one or more of the most common 1024 bit primes. https://weakdh.org/
So for a given prime length using your own prime is safer. On the other hand a shorter custom prime is generally worse than a longer well-known prime.
If at all possible you should move up to at least 2048 bit, but if you are stuck with 1024 bit then using a self-generated prime is safer than using one of the well-known primes.
Peter GreenPeter Green
$\begingroup$ This is an old question, asked and answered long before the WeakDH advisory was created, but I think this answer deserves more attention. This gist of this answer - that the most common 1024-bit primes are probably already broken, and you should use at least 2048-bit primes instead - is important. $\endgroup$ – CBHacking Jun 28 '18 at 22:20
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged diffie-hellman prime-numbers or ask your own question.
Generating Diffie-Hellman parameters efficiently
Why use variable p, q, g for Diffie-Hellman?
Can Diffie-Hellman generate values in a specified range?
Why routers don't just use Diffie-Hellman protocol?
Why use Needham-Schroeder if we have Diffie-Hellman?
Use ElGamal to solve Diffie-Hellman problem
Is it secure to use Diffie-Hellman key agreement to generate a nonce?
What Diffie-Hellman parameters should I use?
Is it insecure to generate a key with your own public and private DH keys?
What are the problems with Diffie-Hellman groups 3 and 4 (RFC 2409 + RFC 2412)?
Safety of using GPG's libgcrypt prime generation for generating ephemeral Diffie-Hellman primes?
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Why do we need Euler's totient function $\varphi(N)$ in RSA?
After we calculated $N = p * q$, we calculate $\varphi(N)$ and use it later to determine $e$ (PR) and $d$ (PU). But why?
For decryption and encryption we only use $N$ and don't need $\varphi(N)$. So why can't we find $e$ and $d$ without Euler's totient function? I know that $\varphi(N)$ is giving me the amount of numbers which are coprime to $N$ and if $N$ is a prime then it would be $\varphi(N) = N - 1$. But why is this useful? Or rather why is it a must for determing $e$ and $d$ in RSA?
Edit: And why does $e$ need to be smaller than $\varphi(N)$?
rsa prime-numbers
fkraiem
RimenRimen
$\begingroup$ Do you understand how $e$ and $d$ are generated in RSA key generation, and what relationship they need to satisfy? $\endgroup$ – pg1989 Mar 13 '16 at 23:25
$\begingroup$ $e$ does not need to be smaller than $\varphi(N)$. Everything works correctly if it is larger. $\endgroup$ – Martin Kochanski Jun 21 at 17:56
What we really need is a number $\lambda$ satisfying $x^{\lambda+1} \equiv x \pmod n$ for all integers $x$ (which, by induction, then implies that $x^{k\lambda+1} \equiv x \pmod n$ for any $k$).
Given such a $\lambda$, and an arbitrary encryption exponent $e$ which is coprime to it, we can then find the multiplicative inverse of $e$ modulo $\lambda$, i.e. a number $d$ such that $ed \equiv 1 \pmod \lambda$, or in other words, $ed = k\lambda + 1$ for some integer $k$. Such $e$ and $d$ then satisfy $$(x^e)^d = x^{ed} = x^{k\lambda+1} \equiv x \pmod n,$$ meaning that, if we encrypt a number by raising it to the $e$-th power modulo $n$, we can recover the original number by raising the result to the $d$-th power and again reducing it modulo $n$. This is what we need for RSA encryption and decryption to work correctly.
The smallest such number $\lambda$ is given by the Carmichael totient function, which, for a product $n = pq$ of two primes, is $$\lambda(pq) = \operatorname{lcm}(p-1, q-1)$$ where $\operatorname{lcm}(p-1,q-1)$ denotes the least common multiple of $p-1$ and $q-1$. However, since we don't necessarily need the smallest such number, it's also possible to use the Euler totient function $$\varphi(pq) = (p-1)(q-1)$$ which is, by definition, always a multiple of $\lambda$.
I'm not aware of any particular reason for preferring $\varphi$ over $\lambda$, except that it's slightly easier to compute $\varphi$ and to explain why it has the necessary property $x^{\varphi+1} \equiv x \pmod n$, which may be why introductory texts tend to prefer it. I do believe, however, that actual practical RSA implementations (insofar as they explicitly compute the decryption exponent at all, rather than e.g. using the Chinese remainder theorem) generally use $\lambda$ rather than $\varphi$, since doing so yields the smallest possible decryption exponent $d$.
Addendum: The reason why $\lambda$ (and $\varphi$) satisfies $x^{\lambda+1} \equiv x \pmod n$ is basically Fermat's little theorem, which says that, for any prime $p$ and any integer $x$, $$x^p \equiv x \pmod p.$$
This can be easily generalized to show that, for any multiple $k\lambda(p)$ of $\lambda(p) = p-1$, $$x^{k\lambda(p)+1} \equiv x^{\lambda(p)+1} = x^p \equiv x \pmod p.$$
In particular, since $\lambda(pq) = \operatorname{lcm}(p-1,q-1)$ is, by definition, a multiple (and in fact, the smallest common multiple) of both $\lambda(p) = p-1$ and $\lambda(q) = q-1$, it follows that $x^{\lambda(pq)+1} \equiv x$ modulo both $p$ and $q$, and therefore, also modulo $pq = n$.
Of course, since $\varphi(pq) = (p-1)(q-1)$ is also a multiple of both $p-1$ and $q-1$, it also has the same property, as does any other common multiple of those numbers.
The fact that $\varphi(n)$ also happens to be the order of the multiplicative group modulo $n = pq$ is basically a red herring; there's nothing special about $\varphi(n)$ among all the other multiples of $\lambda(n)$ as far as RSA is concerned. What's more relevant is that $\lambda(n)$ is the exponent of this group, which is essentially another way of stating the crucial property that $x^{\lambda(n)+1} \equiv x \pmod n$ for all $x$.
Ilmari KaronenIlmari Karonen
$\begingroup$ "... it's slightly easier to compute φ and to explain why it has the necessary properties". Sorry I do not see where you explained the properties? I just got the fact that you can use it, but not why you can use it. So now I know that phi(N) can be used to determine the lambda. But why? What has the number of integers which are coprime to N to do with this? $\endgroup$ – Rimen Mar 14 '16 at 13:44
$\begingroup$ What is interesting in $\phi(N)$ is not the number of coprime of $N$. But the property $\phi(N)=(p-1)(q-1)$. $\endgroup$ – Biv Mar 14 '16 at 14:49
$\begingroup$ @Biv Could you explain shortly in your words why this property is interesting? $\endgroup$ – Joey Mar 15 '16 at 7:34
To complete Ilmari great answer, I would like to quote the Handbook of Applied Cryptography (p 286,291):
Proof that decryption works. Since $ed \equiv 1 \pmod \phi$, there exists and integer $k$ such as $ed = k\phi +1$. Now, if $gcd(m,p) = 1$ then my Fermat's little theorem
$m^{p-1} \equiv 1 \pmod p$
Raising both sides of this congruence to the power $k(q-1)$ and then multiplying both sides by $m$ yields
$m^{k(p-1)(q-1)+1} \equiv m \pmod p$
On the other hand, if $gcd(m,p) = p$, then this last congruence is again valid since each side is congruent to $0$ modulo $p$. Hence in all cases
$m^{ed} \equiv m \pmod p$
By the same argument,
$m^{ed} \equiv m \pmod q$
Finally, since $p$ and $q$ are distinct primes, it follows that
$m^{ed} \equiv m \pmod n$
This emphasis the reason why the use of $k\phi + 1 = k(p-1)(q-1)+1$ (or $k\lambda+1$ in Ilmari answer).
And on the use of $\phi$ over $\lambda$:
8.5 Note (universal exponent) The number $\lambda = lcm(p-1,q-1)$, sometimes called the universal exponent of $n$, may be used instead of $\phi = (p-1)(q-1)$ in the RSA key generation. Observe that $\lambda$ is a proper divisor of $\phi$. Using $\lambda$ can result in a smaller decryption $d$, which may result in faster decryption (cf. Note 8.9). However, if $p$ and $q$ are chosen at random, then $gcd(p-1,q-1)$ is expected to be smallm and consequently $\phi$ and $\lambda$ will be roughly the same size.
8.9 Note (small encryption exponents)
(i) If the encryption exponent $e$ is chosen at random, then RSA encryption using the repeated square-and-multiply algorithm takes $k$ modular multiplications and an expected $k/2$ (less with optimizations) modular multiplications, where $k$ is the bitlength of the modulus $n$. Encryption can be sped up by selecting $e$ to be small and/or by selecting $e$ with a small number of 1's in its binary representation. [$\ldots$] Another encryption exponent used in practice is $e = 2^{16}+1 = 655357$. This number has only two 1's in its binary representation, so encryption using the repeated square-and-multiply algorithm requires only 16 modular squaring and 1 modular multiplication.
BivBiv
$\begingroup$ I don't get where k comes from? What does k stand for? Why does it need to be defined? $\endgroup$ – Rimen Mar 14 '16 at 14:03
$\begingroup$ Let's consider $p=5,q=11$ then $\phi=4 \times10=40$. Suppose $e=7$ then $d=23$. $e \times d=23 \times 7=161=4 \times 40 + 1$. Hence here $k$ is $4$. But this is not what really matters, the most interesting is that $ed=4 \times 40 + 1 \equiv 1 \pmod{40}$. $k$ is only here to make the link with the modulo. If you were to give it a name, $k$ is the quotient of the division of $ed$ by $\phi$. $\endgroup$ – Biv Mar 14 '16 at 14:46
$\varphi(N)$, in the original RSA specification, works because it is a multiple of $\lambda(N)$.
Exponentiation of ring $R_N$ creates a period of length $\lambda(N)$. The cycle of this period starts as $m^0\equiv1 \pmod{N}, m^1\equiv m \pmod{N},...$
Using any multiple $k\lambda(N)$, including $\varphi(N)$, to compute the multiplicative inverse $d$ of $e$ can be viewed two ways. The first, $ed \equiv 1 \pmod{\lambda(N)}$ results in $m^{k\lambda(N)+1} \equiv m^{ed} \equiv m^1 \equiv m \pmod{N}$. And second, $ed=k\lambda(N)+1$ where $k\lambda(N)$ is a multiple of the period and $+1$ then becomes the second element of the cycle, aka $m^1 \equiv m \pmod{N}$.
Why do we need $\varphi(N)$ to compute $d$?
As noted above, any multiple $k\lambda(N)$, including $\varphi(N)$, can be used to compute a valid $d$, and each result may be unique. Because, $k\lambda(N)$ is a multiple of the period and $ed$ is the first element in the cycle of the period. Therefore, $m^{k\lambda(N)+1} \equiv m^{ed} \equiv m^1 \equiv m \pmod{N}$.
You can us any number (almost) to create a multiplicative inverse, however the resulting $ed$ will not align with the period. Therefore will not recover $m$.
Why $e$ needs to be smaller that $\varphi(N)$?
Numbers are typically smaller than the modulus, $\varphi(N)$ in this case. Though, technically, it doesn't need to be. It does help the computation cost by keeping these exponents smaller. It also makes sense that when smaller than $\varphi(N)$, computing $e$ as the multiplicative inverse of $d$ will result in the same $e$.
Carl KnoxCarl Knox
The OP asks two questions. The first question is:
This is exactly the prescription on page 6 of the original RSA paper, where $n=p\cdot q$ is the product of two (very large) prime numbers, and, hence the number of integers relatively prime to $n,$ or Euler's totient function, is the multiplication $\varphi(n)=(p-1)\cdot(q-1).$ From the RSA paper:
You then pick the integer $d$ to be a large, random integer which is relatively prime to $(p − 1) · (q − 1).$ That is, check that $d$ satisfies: $\gcd(d,(p − 1) · (q − 1)) = 1.$
There are two points to explain in the way the OP is formulated. Firstly, the introduction of Euler's totient function stems from Fermat-Euler's theorem. Again quoting the RSA original paper, page 7:
We demonstrate the correctness of the deciphering algorithm using an identity due to Euler and Fermat: for any integer (message) $M$ which is relatively prime to $n,$ $$M^{\varphi(n)}\equiv 1 \pmod n$$
Multiplying each side by $M,$ and rearranging:
$$\begin{align} M^{k\,\varphi(n)}& \equiv 1 \pmod n\\ M\cdot M^{k\,\varphi(n)}& \equiv M \cdot 1\pmod n\\ M^{k\,\varphi(n)+1}& \equiv M \pmod n \end{align}$$
we get to the last equation showing that the message to encrypt ($M$) is unchanged under modular exponentiation by multiples ($k$) of Euler's totient function of $n$ plus $1$, i.e. $\varphi(n) +1.$ This is great news, because we can figure out an encryption ($e$) and decryption ($d$) set of keys such that
$$e\cdot d = k\,\varphi(n) +1$$
as $$d = \frac{k\,\varphi(n)+1}{e}.$$
Of note, $k\,\varphi(n) +1,$ with $k$ being an integer, is the mathematical formulation of $1 \pmod{\varphi(n)},$ or, equivalently, $$e\cdot d\equiv 1 \pmod{\varphi(n)}\tag 1.$$
[See below the post for a toy example of a manual solution.]
Therefore modular exponentiation of the message $M$ will render the original message if both keys, $e$ and $d,$ are known - in this way, one key can be made public, while the other key is kept private:
$$\begin{align} M^{k\,\varphi(n)+1}& \equiv M \pmod n\\ M^{e\cdot d}&\equiv M \pmod n \end{align} $$
As on the first quote from the RSA article, $d$ needs to be coprime to $\varphi(n)$ precisely so that (from the RSA paper):
...it has a multiplicative inverse e in the ring of integers modulo $\varphi (n).$
Hence, allowing a solution to Eq. (1).
This introduces the abstract algebra concept of the finite ring of integers modulo $\varphi(n),$ which can represented as $\mathbb Z/\varphi(n)\mathbb Z.$ At first sight this is scary, but it is simply saying that the set of integers in modular arithmetic form a finite ring with the operations of addition and multiplication, whereby an element of the set will have a multiplicative inverse provided it is coprime to the modulus. From Wikipedia:
A modular multiplicative inverse of an integer $a$ with respect to the modulus $m$ is a solution of the linear congruence $ax\equiv 1\pmod {m}.$ [...] a solution exists if and only if $\gcd(a, m) = 1,$ that is, $a$ and $m$ must be relatively prime (i.e. coprime).
For example, in the ring of of integers modulus $10,$ i.e. $\mathbb Z/10\mathbb Z=\{0,1,2,3,\dots,9\},$ the element $9$ being coprime to $10$ secures a multiplicative inverse, i.e. $9\cdot 9 =81\equiv 1 \pmod {10}.$
The idea is that modular exponentiation of $M$ to $e\cdot d$ equals exponentiation to $1,$ returning the original message.
The second question in the OP was:
And why does e need to be smaller than $\varphi(N)$?
follows as $e$ and $d$ are elements of the ring of integers modulus $\varphi (n),$ that is $e,d\in \mathbb Z/\varphi(n)\mathbb Z.$
Manual example:
Let's take $p=13$ and $q=23,$ yielding $n=299.$ The totient function is $\varphi(299)=12\times 22 = 264.$
To select the $e$ value we need a coprime to $\varphi(n)=264.$ Some of the coprime values of $264$ are $245, 247, 251, 257, 259,...$ If we select $e=245,$ the linear congruency to find a corresponding $d$ can be expressed as
$$245 d = 1 + 264k$$
This is equivalent to
$$245d + 264k =1\tag {*}$$
since is an arbitrary integer, $k\in \mathbb Z,$ and the rearrangement amounts to a change of sign, which wouldn't influence clock arithmetic.
Given that the values in equation $(*)$ are coprime, the expression amounts to Bézout's identity, $245x+264y=\gcd(245,264),$ and we can use the extended Euclidean theorem. This is explained in an example on this post.
Dividing the larger of the values ($\color{blue}{264}$) by the smaller value ($\color{magenta}{245}$) in the LHS of $(*),$ i.e. $\color{magenta}{245}d + \color{blue}{264}k =1,$ and keeping tally of the multiples in parenthesis, e.g. $\small\text{Dividend}=\text{Divisor}(\text{Quotient})+\text{Remainder}:$
$$\begin{align} \frac{\color{blue}{264}}{\color{magenta}{245}}=\color{tan}1{\small\text{, Rm }}\color{red}{19} \implies&\color{blue}{264}(1) = \color{magenta}{245}(\color{tan}1) + \color{red}{19} \\[2ex] \frac{\color{magenta}{245}}{\color{red}{19}}=\color{tan}{12} {\small\text{, Rm }}\color{purple}{17} \implies& \color{magenta}{245}(1) = \color{red}{19}(\color{tan}{12}) + \color{purple}{17} \\[2ex] \frac{\color{red}{19}}{\color{purple}{17}}=\color{tan}{1} {\small\text{, Rm }}\color{orange}{2} \implies& \color{red}{19}(1) = \color{purple}{17}(\color{tan}1) + \color{orange}2 \\[2ex] \frac{\color{purple}{17}}{\color{orange}{2}}=\color{tan}{8} {\small\text{, Rm }}\bf{1} \implies&\color{purple}{17}(1) = \color{orange}2(\color{tan}8) +\bf 1 \end{align}$$
Moving the remainders to the RHS...
$$\begin{align} \color{red}{19} &= 264(1) + 245(-1)\\ \color{purple}{17} &= 245(1) + 19(-12)\\ \color{orange}2 &= 19(1) + 17(-1) \\ \bf 1 &= 17(1) + 2(-8) \end{align}$$
Progressively linking these equations by substitution from the last one to the first, and distributing and rearranging terms...
$$\begin{align} \bf 1 &= 17(1) + \color{orange}2(-8)\\ &= 17(1) + \color{orange}{[19(1) + 17(-1)]}\bf{(-8)}\\ &= 17(1) + [19{\bf(-8)} + 17{\bf(8)}]\\ &= \color{purple}{17}(9) + 19(-8)\\ &= \color{purple}{[245(1) + 19(-12)]}{\bf(9)} + 19(-8)\\ &= [245{\bf(9)} + 19{\bf(-108)}] + 19(-8) \\ &= 245(9) + \color{red}{19}(-116) \\ &= 245(9) + \color{red}{[264(1) + 245(-1)]}{\bf(-116)}\\ &= 245(9) + [264{\bf(-116)} + 245{\bf(116)}]\\ &= \color{magenta}{245}(125) + \color{blue}{264}(-116) \end{align}$$
Comparing this last equation to $(*),$ the value of $d=125.$ And indeed, $245 \times 125 \pmod {264} = 1.$ The value $k=-116$ just spins the wheels on the clock face, and it is a single example of the general solution $1=245\times 125+264k.$
If we want to pass along the message "Hi", composed of the 8th and 9th letters of the alphabet, i.e. $89,$ we use the public key in the example, $(e,n)=(245, 299),$ and send the message $89^{245} \pmod {299}=111,$ which will be decrypted by the receiver by using the private key, $(d,n)= (125,299),$ exponentiating $111^{125}\pmod{299}=89,$ in other words, "Hi."
answered Jun 15 at 18:12
Antoni ParelladaAntoni Parellada
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2006: Year of the Imperial Woodpecker?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 26th, 2005
Could 2006 be the Year of the Imperial Woodpecker?
Clearly 2005 was the year of the ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis). As the #1 cryptozoology story of 2005, the rediscovery of the ivory-billed made a dramatic statement beyond the realm of zoology and cryptozoology that long-thought extinct animals may still exist. Has a recent sighting of the world’s largest woodpecker foretold another major forthcoming cryptozoological rediscovery? Are we prepared for another major avian event for 2006?
The Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis) was or is the world’s largest species of woodpecker; yes, it is even grander than its often-discussed relative, the ivory-billed woodpecker.
Measuring up to 22 inches (60 cm) long, they are a striking bird. The males have a red crest, but otherwise are black, apart from the inner primaries, which are white-tipped, and white secondaries. The females are similar in appearance but the crest is black, not red.
The Imperial Woodpecker were once widespread throughout the tropical rainforests in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico. They became endangered as a result of deforestation in its natural habitat.
The species was allegedly last seen in 1993, although the last positive sighting was in Durango, Mexico in 1958 (some say 1956, others 1960). It has officially never been found again, and has been presumed extinct for years.
But do they exist in a small remaining population, to be rediscovered in 2006?
Ron and Sarojam Makau, both biology professors at the University of California-Riverside and avid birders, who live part-time in Mexico, may give some hope. They claim, during a fall 2005 sighting, they saw a bird which could be a female of the Imperial Woodpecker. They observed the bird for two minutes on a tree on the north rim of Copper Canyon (Barranca del Cobre), Mexico. The Makaus, who have done birding around the world for years, are sure, absolutely certain, they saw an Imperial Woodpecker.
Robert Straub, Xalapa, Veracruz, of the National Birding Hotline Cooperative, reports from birder John Spencer: “They saw the bird about 30 feet up a pine tree, clinging to the trunk. They were about 50 to 60 feet away, with good light. They observed the bird for about 2 minutes, during that time the bird turned her head and the crest was seen at several angles, definitely matched the drawing in [Roger Tory] Peterson for the female. The bird flew off with slow heavy wing-beats (described as raven-like flight). No sounds were heard. The sighting was about 0700 on the trail near the big hotel on the canyon rim.”
The Makaus’ report needs and awaits further approval.
Be prepared for more exciting cryptozoology news in 2006!
Imperial Woodpeckers are infrequently seen in museums and on stamps, as special remembrances of a bird presumed extinct. The adult male (shown above) in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna was donated by Franz Steindachner in 1885 when he was director of the museum’s Zoological Department. (Photo courtesy Museum of Natural History, Vienna)
This male and female pair (below) of Imperial Woodpeckers are part of the collection of the Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso, and clearly show the black crest of the female, reported in the 2005 sighting. (Image courtesy of the Centennial Museum, The University of Texas at El Paso. Photograph taken by Scott Cutler)
Many thanks to Cryptomundo news tipster Ferd Blivid for alerting Cryptozoo News to this development.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
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This entry was posted on Monday, December 26th, 2005 at 10:14 am and is filed under Breaking News, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Extinct, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. You can follow responses via our RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is not allowed.
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Jun 25, 2016 · Parents, take note: 6 tips to help your children control their emotions
They throw temper tantrums. They hit their siblings. And when denied the tiniest desire, they can melt into inconsolable puddles.
Yet, somehow it’s up to you to help mold these little emotional tornadoes into reasonable human beings.
What’s a parent do?
Giving names to feelings is the first step to helping the under-8 set regulate their emotions, says Catherine Mogil, PsyD, an assistant clinical professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.
“When you think back to being a child, you’ll remember that emotions often washed over you, and you rarely had the words to express them,” said Mogil. “That can be frustrating and challenging.”
Therefore, teaching children to identify strong emotions – and the steps needed to regulate them — can go a long way toward helping them calm the storm within and get their needs met.
A licensed clinical psychologist, Mogil specializes in teaching families how to better cope in stressful situations. In her years as director of training and intervention development at the UCLA Nathanson Family Resilience Center, she has advised families with parents deployed in the military, foster families and children living in dangerous neighborhoods.
Her top six suggestions are:
Don’t hide your negative emotions. It’s natural for parents to want to shield their children from anything unpleasant. But make sure your children understand that, like them, you experience sadness, frustration and disappointment. Doing so not only shows them that these feelings are alright to have, but that you can manage them. Children who rarely see their parents express and cope with negative emotions worry that Mom and Dad can’t handle them, which is frightening for them.
Label your own emotions. Did you just get cut off in traffic? Calmly describe your sense of irritation to the little witness in the back seat. When you take real-life opportunities to put a label on an emotion that you’re feeling, you are teaching your children a better way of expressing what they feel but might not necessarily have the vocabulary yet to describe.
Label your child’s own emotional states. Notice that your daughter is struggling to assemble those last two pieces of a Lego set? Come right out and describe what she must be feeling. “Oh, how frustrating,” you might say. “You’re working really hard to get those Legos together, and they just won’t go.” By putting words to your children’s experiences they learn how to better express their own emotions. And if they can talk about their emotions, they’ll be less likely to act them out.
Define your own coping mechanisms. Did your child just witness your confrontation with a shopper who sharp-elbowed you out of a coveted sale item? Explain how you’re going to calm yourself down. And after you call your sister to laugh about the experience, explain how the step helped defuse your lingering irritation. Not only do children learn coping techniques from your example, but they also see how resilient you are.
Help your children identify their own coping mechanisms. After the best friend had to pack up and head home following a particularly fun play date, offer a hug — or whatever helps cheer your son up. But explain why you are doing so. “I’ve noticed that hugs tend to help you cheer up when you’re feeling sad,” you might say. Repeatedly matching successful coping mechanisms with specific feelings teaches children to reach for the right implement in their emotional tool box.
Don’t forget all the teachable moments that come up during play. Getting out dolls, trucks or books is not just an opportunity for fun – it’s an opportunity to understand emotions. Is Elmo happy because his best friend came over to play with him? Pretend you’re a sportscaster and provide emotional play-by-play of what the doll is feeling. Or if Elmo is sad because the best friend had to go home, ask your child to describe coping skills that might help cheer him up. Discussing the emotions of a play thing or fictional character can be less threatening than discussing one’s own emotions.
By instilling emotional regulation, you’re helping your child now and for the rest of their lives.
“Learning to regulate emotions is going to be the building block for a child’s future success in school, in work and in relationships,” Mogil said.
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Jun 21, 2016 · Kids coping with disaster need guidance. UCLA app helps parents give it
New UCLA app provides tips for coping with such natural disasters as wildfires.
When wildfires rage, anxiety can rise as high and as fast as temperatures.
In fact, little in life matches the stress of having to pack up your entire family and move to safety as fires race toward your home and all you hold dear.
“Evacuating with little to no notice in the face of a wildfire can be one of the most traumatic experiences that a family faces, especially if the family home or pet is lost, and the family’s dislocation proves lengthy,” said Melissa Brymer, a psychologist specializing in trauma at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.
Families in the path of a fire aren’t the only ones who can feel the heat. Parents whose little ones hear the sirens of firetrucks, see billows of smoke in the sky or watch raging flames in news coverage can find themselves trying to calm jangled nerves.
Enter “Help Kids Cope,” a mobile app that Brymer helped develop for families in the midst of natural disasters. The app provides guidance on coping with wildfires and other types of disasters, including earthquakes, extreme heat, floods, hurricanes, landslides, tornadoes, tsunamis, windstorms and winter storms.
Already downloadable from the Apple store, the app will become available July 15 for Android mobile phones. It is free, courtesy of UCLA.
Checklists to prepare the family before disaster strikes.
Safety and response tips in the event of a disaster.
Age-appropriate language to use “in the moment” to help calm and support kids.
Audio clips of parents recounting their own experiences in several natural disasters.
Explanations from child psychologists on how kids commonly respond during and after disasters.
Tips for parents to care for their own emotional needs during the stressful period.
Suggestions for no-supplies-needed activities to distract and entertain little minds.
Sources for the information include the Red Cross, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Recent wildfires underscore the need for marshalling coping materials into a single source such as the app, Brymer said. The situation, which prompted the county to declare a state of emergency, also highlights the value of downloading resources in well in advance of trouble.
“Having downloaded the app in advance will help you retain access to information in the event your phone loses coverage, electricity gets cut or internet sites crash due to a high volume of traffic,” Brymer said.
Brymer is the director of terrorism and disaster programs at the UCLA–Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, a network of 78 centers that supply psychological services in the event of disaster. Network colleagues helped produce the app, which was the brainchild of parents affected by the catastrophic multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin, Mo., five years ago.
“When the tornado tore through power lines and cell-phone towers, parents lost access to the web,” Brymer said. “While we were able to provide handouts with information, the paperwork often got lost as families moved between shelters and temporary housing. Parents kept saying, ‘We need an app.’”
Funding for the project was provided by the Missouri Foundation for Health, Ozark Center, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Apr 22, 2016 · New program helps vets suffering from invisible wounds of war
Guests attending the opening of UCLA Operation Mend’s new intensive mental health program wite messages of hope on rocks as inspiration for future patients.
Photo credit: Reed Hutchinson/UCLA
More than 100 well-wishers gathered April 13 at a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony for UCLA Operation Mend’s new program that is designed to heal the hidden, yet lingering, wounds of war.
“This is a new day, a program we can be proud of,” said retired General Peter W. Chiarelli an executive advisor to the Ronald A. Katz Center for Collaborative Military Medicine at UCLA, told L.A. Daily News reporter Susan Abrams.
In addition to Chiarelli, who is a former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army, dignitaries in attendance included UCLA Chancellor Gene Block; John Robert, executive vice president of warrior relations with the Wounded Warrior project; Ann Brown, medical center director of VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System; and philanthropist Robert Katz.
Wounded Warrior Project helped fund Warrior Car Network, which includes Operation Mend and similar programs at three other U.S. academic medical centers dedicated to addressing effects of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress in post-9/11 military veterans. Katz founded Operation Mend, which so far has served 152 patients in need of reconstructive surgery.
With three weeks of intensive care at UCLA and three weeks of follow up in the veteran’s community, Operation Mend’s intensive mental health program provides highly individualized, intensive treatment that draws on UCLA’s nationally recognized expertise in neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry and integrative medicine.
The service is provided at no cost to participating veterans or their families.
The clinic will treat seven to ten veterans and their families at a time for three weeks living on UCLA’s campus at the Tiverton House and then three weeks once they return home. Families participate too, Operation Mend program director Melanie Gideon explained to KPCC reporter John Ismay.
“Families are suffering along with our wounded warriors,” Gideon said.
For more information, visit http://www.operationmend.ucla.edu or call (310) 267-2251.
Apr 18, 2016 · Teaching the difference between bullying and playful teasing
Through Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital program that encourages community engagement, staffers (from left to right) Jamie Chazen, Erika Lozano, Robbie Harries-Depriest, Leilanie Ayala, Sunnie Dishman are raising awareness about bullying in Compton schools.
Maybe bullying would be easier to stop if kids themselves knew how to recognize it.
If so, a lesson in the differences between normal teasing and bullying might be best delivered in the location where so much teasing takes place: school.
To that end, a team from Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA recently led a six-session bullying awareness program in Compton Unified School District designed to teach kids the difference between teasing and bullying – and how to “act” to stop it.
The team – consisting of three registered nurses, a mental health practitioner and a recreational therapist – hopes to eventually establish a community-wide bullying intervention program in the district. More than a year in the planning, the anti-bullying effort is believed to be the first of its kind in Los Angeles County.
“Studies have shown that a lot of bullying experiences – in person and online — are not addressed because kids tend not to tell their parents or guardians about them,” explained Leilanie Ayala, a Resnick registered nurse who led the team.
Team members first gave an hour-long presentation to social workers, school counselors and school nurses in the district’s pupil services department. They then provided five sessions at Emerson Elementary School, including a 30-minute presentation to the school’s teachers and four hour-long group sessions with the school’s sixth graders.
Teaching from a curriculum previously used in a bullying awareness study conducted by the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., team members provided a clear definition of bullying and how to distinguish it from “playful teasing.” They also armed students with the acronym A-C-T:
A-ssess if the situation is bullying.
C-onfront the bullies if it is safe and if not
C-all for help and T-ell a trusted adult.
The team’s efforts were quite obviously needed, said Ayala, who is a nursing professional development specialist.
“In one of my group sessions, we discussed the effects of bullying and stress to an individual,” she said. “On the list shown to the participants, one of the students pointed on ‘wanting to hurt himself/herself.’ It was sad that at 12 he had those thoughts.”
The project was an initiative of the UCLA-Resnick Global Health and Community Outreach Committee, which encourages volunteer efforts among staff.
To thank the Emerson sixth-graders for their participation, the team is bringing them to campus April 25 for a tour.
“Some of the kids asked if UCLA was four hours away,” Ayala said. “We want them to be inspired and even imagine themselves getting accepted in UCLA someday.”
Other team members were Jamie Chazen, a mental health practitioner; Erika Lozano, a registered nurse; Robbie Harries-Depriest, a certified recreational therapist; and Sunnie Dishman, a registered nurse.
“The Office of Mark Ridley-Thomas, through Kathleen Austria, was instrumental in launching this project in partnership with the Pupil Service Department of the Compton Unified School District.”
Apr 11, 2016 · For schizophrenia patients, exercise can be a powerful therapy
Van Nuys maintenance worker Marco Tapia had a schizophrenic breakdown at age 24. His family thought he had been taking drugs because he was acting so … strange. When he tried to use a window instead of the door to get into their Van Nuys apartment, they realized something was terribly wrong. His parents then had him hospitalized.
After stabilizing him, Harbor UCLA Medical Center referred Marco to UCLA’s Aftercare Research Program. The program is a cradle for innovation and research on schizophrenia. Best of all, given the Tapia family’s modest means, the program was – and still is – absolutely free.
Marco enrolled in an intensive two-year research project, the results of which are in press now in Schizophrenia Bulletin. Preliminary findings from a follow-up study were recently presented at the biennial meeting of the Schizophrenia International Research Society.
The findings show that a rigorous regimen of specific brain games and physical exercise can help repair one of the least-known but most-debilitating aspects of schizophrenia — deficits in memory, problem solving, processing speed and social intelligence. These social and cognitive deficits are among the disease traits most likely to result in disability for people with schizophrenia.
The results are extremely promising, but researchers caution that interventions need to occur as quickly as possible after the first breakdown, because each recurrence leads to additional cognitive and social deficits. They also need to be used in conjunction with antipsychotic medications.
“What’s striking to us is the power of combination,” said lead investigator Keith Nuechterlein in an interview with Kaiser Health News. Nuechterlein is a professor at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. “Both [brain games and exercise] done separately help somewhat, but when done together, the boost in cognitive function is greater.”
The combination appears to stimulate the growth of neurons and connections between neurons, improving cognitive performance, researchers say.
As for Marco, 28, his conversation today reveals no trace of his prior problems. Four years after his breakdown, he’s employed, plays the guitar, has an active social life and is eager to let others know the importance of getting immediate help — and the right kind of help — for schizophrenia.
Neuchterlein ranked as one of most influential scientists in his field
Long-acting antipsychotic medication revolutionizes treatment of schizophrenia
Mar 31, 2016 · 6 Ways to help your child positively manage stress
As parents, it’s tough to see our children upset, worried or stressed. And while it’s natural to want to remove every hardship from their lives, letting them experience stress can actually be healthy. They will benefit in the long run from learning how to manage stress on their own, says Blanca Orellana, PhD, clinical psychologist at UCLA Nathanson Family Resilience Center and UCLA Family STAR Clinic.
Here are six ways you can help your child manage stress:
When stress is good: It’s OK if your child feels anxious about a book report, a ballet recital or a class presentation. Instead of trying to make the feeling go away, show your child how this stress can motivate him or her to work hard and rise to the challenge. The experience of feeling stress and overcoming it with hard work is invaluable. Learning these skills at a young age enhances a child’s ability to cope with stressful situations in the future.
Experiencing “fight-or-flight” response: When your child is overwhelmed, his or her body engages in “fight-or-flight” mode, which results in greater focus, strength and alertness. By teaching children to recognize these signs, they can learn how to take control of their stress and make confident, smart decisions.
Provide your child with a safe space: We all need a steady figure in our lives that helps us through turbulent times. For your child, you are that figure. Help children become more resilient and manage their stress by providing a safe and open environment in which they can safely express their emotions to you. Together, you can help your child develop and practice problem-solving skills and relaxation techniques.
Stick to a routine: Make sure your child gets plenty of sleep, eats a well-balanced diet and has a regular, predictable routine. These habits lay a strong foundation for strengthening your child’s coping skills.
Recognize signs of stress in your child: Know the signs and symptoms of stress in your child so you can be prepared to help him or her through it. These may include:
Rapid heartbeat
Difficulty separating from caregivers
Frequent headache and stomach pains
Changes in eating habits
Don’t be afraid to seek help: “Bad stress” is when your child is so overwhelmed with a problem that it is interfering with his or her ability to function normally. Don’t be afraid to seek help, both for your child’s sake and your own. A mental-health professional may use cognitive behavioral therapy to help your child learn how to cope with stressful situations and manage their time better to reduce stress. In certain cases, a doctor may recommend anti-anxiety medications.
To find a pediatrician, pediatric subspecialist or family doctor, visit the UCLA physician/provider directory.
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Suds Savant
Bridget Venatta
Mac Kilduff
Meet Richard Easterby, the enthusiast behind West Ashley’s new beer boutique
In his twenties, Richard Easterby wasn’t big on beer. He’d sip the occasional Michelob Ultra but considered himself to be more of a bourbon guy—until his brother-in-law gifted him a six-pack of Bell’s Two Hearted, and his perception of beer was changed forever. “That was my ‘gateway beer,’ the beer that blew my budget,” he says. “It’s an IPA, but without the chew-your-face-off bitterness.”
Now an avowed craft-beer devotee, Easterby loves helping others find their “gateway beer.” And if you already dig craft styles, he wants to introduce you to your next favorite pour. With Craft Conundrum, the new specialty beer store and bar he recently debuted in West Ashley, he’s created a platform for doing just that.
The venture is a five-year dream realized for Easterby and his wife, Karen. Before taking the plunge into entrepreneurship, both were longtime employees of the Piggly Wiggly. Richard was a store operator. Dubbed “the fixer,” he was tasked with turning around unprofitable locations. At the last two stores he helmed—one on James Island, the other in West Ashley—he accomplished this in part by dialing up the beer offerings (think less Bud Light and more Evil Twin, Stone, and Westbrook) and introducing growler-fill stations; Karen worked alongside him in the beverage department, setting prices and writing menus.
The robust suds selection helped perk up profits and draw customers, and soon, six beers on tap weren’t enough. Demand led Richard to design a patented growler-fill system called the “Frankenstein,” which allows him to keep a whopping 160 beers on tap at once.
When the Piggly Wiggly sold off its local stores in late 2013, Richard was left reeling—he’d been with the grocery chain for 17 years. But it didn’t take long for him to find a new outlet for his craft-beer passion: the day after he learned he’d be losing his job, one of his regular customers from the Pig—David Berger, owner of James Island’s How Art Thou Cafe—approached him about partnering up to launch a local craft beer biz, and Craft Conundrum was born. (Berger provides the financial backing, while the Easterbys handle the suds.)
The new spot aims to offer everything that attracted customers to Richard’s beer program at the Piggly Wiggly. A similar selection of craft brews will populate the shelves and, thanks to the Frankenstein system, some 160 options will be available on tap. What’s more, the customer experience will be more personal. Craft Conundrum is both a retail store and a bar, so the Easterbys hope people will stick around to sample a beer flight or bring in their laptops and take advantage of the space’s free WiFi while sipping a brew. They’re also excited to walk customers through tastings and to share their extensive knowledge of styles and breweries. “We actually love these beers—the process in which they’re made, the stories of the breweries, the details of how everything came to be,” Richard says.
Their passion is evidenced by handcrafted touches found throughout the space. Richard built the bar himself using metal roofing and reclaimed wood sourced from John’s Island. He carved the wooden tap handles and even made the beer-flight tasting paddles. And he’s using one of his freehand drawings—an image of a hop leaf and the store’s initials—as the venture’s logo.
“That’s the level of dedication we’ve put into this,” he says. “We set out to create a spot people would be proud to buy their beer from, and I think we’ve been successful.”
Art / John’s Island / 2013 / West Ashley / The Grocery / free / Craft Conundrum / craft-beer / Design / Beverage / Bourbon / James / breweries / Local / Grocery / platform / metal / ONE / Piggly Wiggly
Born Again Bar
Robbie George brings Ho¯M the bacon with his BLT Bloody Mary
The Good Earth
In Making Sense of Wine, Matt Kramer describes sipping a good bottle as “eavesdropping on conversations of the Earth.”...
You’ve heard of Pecha Kucha and TEDxCharleston; well now comes a thought summit for arguably the city’s most well-known...
Oak chef de cuisine Joseph Jacobson shares a portion-perfect alternative to the typical grill fare
Chef Craig Deihl partners with Slow Food Charleston to teach third graders how to eat right.
SNOB chef Frank Lee does South Carolina sweet onions three ways
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Electronic Keyboard Security
As I discussed in an earlier blog, when an electronic control system is part of the security protection system of a chemical facility, or is simply a component of the facility that requires protection as part of the Site Security Plan, on site access to that control system has to be protected. I have discussed using physical security of keyboards as a method of controlling that access. Now it is time to look at using electronic access controls as part of the security procedures for the facility.
The simplest way to protect access to a computer electronically is to require the user to sign on when turning the computer on and require the use of a password or biometric device to complete the sign-on process. At shift change, in control rooms for example, the outgoing operator would be required to log-off of the system and the on coming operator would then log on. To control mid-shift access the Screen Saver option can be used; requiring password or biometric verification to turn off the Screen Saver.
While this system is simple in concept, operationally it is abit more difficult. First it requires that each person authorized routine access to the control system as part of their normal duties has access to a unique computer or work station. While that access point can be shared across shifts, within a shift that person should be the only one with access through that keyboard.
Setting up this type of access control for an electronic control system is straightforward, requiring no real programming knowledge. It does, however, require some training as to why the operator has to go thru the extra work of repeatedly signing on to the work station or computer. If passwords are used, employees need to be trained on proper password selection, use, and protection; they must be taught the reason for the use of the password protection and monitored in their proper use of the password protection system.
A more efficient way of controlling access to the electronic control system requires some system engineering and programming. The first thing that must be done is to determine which portions of the control system are actually security related. For example control valves on a highly hazardous raw material tank might require access controls where the control valves of a nearby fatty alcohol would probably not. Identification of these controls should be covered in the Site Security Plan.
Once these controls are identified, it then becomes a programming function to require password or biometric identification to access those particular controls. Adding dual access control, two different people using separate passwords of biometric identification, for especially critical functions is not much more difficult.
While either method can limit access to critical portions of the electronic control system for the chemical facility, the selection of which system to use will depend on the facility. Where the facility only has a limited number of operations of the control system that directly affect the site security; the programmed system is better. If operators spend most of their shift in front of the keyboard so that they are not constantly re-logging onto the system due to screen saver shutdown, then the log on controls are probably adequate. The team designing the site security plan will have to take these variables into consideration.
Finally, these access controls, like the physical security controls discussed in the earlier blog, are only as good as the auditing system put into place to ensure their proper use. If management is not willing or able to periodically check that these programs are being used, operators will find ways to short cut the system to make their jobs easier; that is simply human nature. The auditing system does not have to be punitive, but it does have to be visible to be effective; management has to demonstrate that they believe that the systems are integral to the security of the facility.
Tags: Chemical Facility Security, electronic control systems, electronic access controls
ng2000news said...
See also: http://www.ng2000.com/fw.php?tp=keyboard
Ohio EPA pinpoints potential terrorist target
An Anhydrous Ammonia Attack Scenario
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Coast Guard Chemical Transportation Advisory Commi...
Congressional hearing on cyber security
“Were terrorists involved?”
Delivery of Hazardous Materials
DHS Changes CSAT Registration Manual Again
Whitley Fuel Depot Fire Arrest
How could a foundry be a terrorist target?
Protection against attacks on large propane storag...
DHS Website light housekeeping
Email Security Issues
Misplaced Chlorine Cylinders Injure 20 and Hospita...
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Home Business From compliance to belief
From compliance to belief
on: September 01, 2004 In: Business, Law & RegulationTags: No Comments
Although the government has trouble always keeping its word on such undertakings, the State Council said it would give up its power to regulate investments which do not involve government funds, adding that, "whoever invests makes the decision, earns the income and bears the risks."
That said, the council, China's cabinet, also released a list of 13 categories of investment projects which would still require its approval, but analysts seemed to agree that lower levels of government involvement would encourage more private investment – and also give banks more control over loans.
This points to even tougher times for state sector companies because any time a private sector looked like a threat in the past, the government could snuff out the problem in a wink. Now that will be less the case.
Premier Wen Jiabao did not exactly echo Hu's remarks but he said something in the same vein, promising that the state, henceforth, would treat private firms on the same basis that it dealt with government-owned firms. Further, the state would repeal restrictive laws which make competition between private and public sector companies unfair.
For his part, Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan said that private firms would have the same access to investment, taxation, land use and foreign trade as their state-owned counterparts. They would also be allowed to invest in utilities and other once restricted public projects, he added.
Premier Wen, using a phrase that still jars both communists and capitalists of the old school, said private firms were a "vital component of China's socialist market economy." In a way, Wen was really giving fresh voice to commitments China made to the WTO to dump laws that protect state-owned firms. But he also seemed to show that Chinese state was graduating from complying to believing.
State shares in big banks could be sold
ING in talks to acquire bank stake
Watchdog hands Anbang units to new insurance firm
S&P publishes first domestic credit rating for a Chinese issuer
Entertainment conglomerate becomes focus of China’s fraud probe
China restarts approval of domestically funded brokerages
Huawei CVs show close links with military; Fulbright Professor
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When Games Matter: Why Games Aren’t About Story
“The best games give us a sense that we are making our own story and our place in that story is absolutely essential.”
Citizenship Confusion: Do You Care What Others Think about You?
“Our culture delights in and rewards those who spread controversy, but do we? Should we?”
The Kiddy Pool: What’s in a Name?
“…children are not solely the property of their parents.”
Sacred Space: The Church Shouldn’t Make Voting Easy
“Jesus is not running this term, so the decision is hard.”
Eat Your Vegetables: “Inglorious Basterds” (Tarantino, 2009)
The thing that I admire most about “Inglorious Basterds” is that it enforces moral responsibility.
Christ and Pop Culture’s Best Features of 2011
Here are ten feature articles from the past year that you absolutely must read.
The Moviegoer: What’s Oscar Nostalgic For?
On Tuesday, the 2011 Oscar nominees were announced, and it seems that one of the year’s pet themes is nostalgia.
Music at Mars Hill: Most “Original” Score?
“I’m of the persuasion that the way we recognize and receive a medium like music or film is as important a cultural product as the art itself”
What Memes Mean: Attempting to Navigate #thatawkwardmomentwhen
“The times we braved the waters of awkwardness and realized that everyone’s in the same boat were gloriously freeing moments.”
When Games Matter: The Art of Story in The Binding of Isaac
“Isaac respresents a stellar achievement in storytelling by taking something as simple as “powerups” and using them to shed light on the troubling world in which a young boy lives.”
Watching Politics From the Pew: Gingrich, Romney, and Personal History
“Too often we allow ourselves to be caught up in gut reactions, jerked here and there by the most recent or loudest argument.”
Modern Family’s Cussing Controversy
“To what extent are audiences passive or active in the shaping of media, which, ultimately, must please the viewers in order to survive?”
Our Favorite Films of 2011
Our contributors weigh in on the most memorable films of 2011.
Citizenship Confusion: Why John Piper is Wrong and Why Racism Still Matters
“The Gospel must motivate us towards critiquing structural racism, as opposed to only looking to change some attitude inside of us and our neighbors.”
Sacred Space: iPads, Kindles, and Nooks, Oh My!
“For the first time ever, I am teaching a book study from an electronic device.”
Our Favorite Albums of 2011
Some of the year’s most excellent examples of the common grace of God in the world of music.
Can We Trust the Gospels? by Peter Williams, Free for CAPC Members
This book is great short read on the trustworthiness of the Gospels, and perhaps a good read to share as Advent turns our culture’s attention to these same documents.
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Conduct Surveillance
Exploring the future of conduct risk mitigation
90% of Global Banks Expect the Front Office Controls Mandate to Expand
The clear majority of surveillance leaders at 20 of the world’s leading financial institutions expect the mandate of the front office controls function to continue to expand. That’s one of the findings taken from the largest and most comprehensive surveys of front office controls organizations, conducted by 1LoD and co-sponsored by Digital Reasoning
The full report will be published in mid-July. However, we’re delighted to be able to share a preview with those receiving the content that forms part of our Wisdom & Wine series. Click below to view the results to the first of 30 questions covered the survey, with commentary provided by 1LoD.
Expert and Peer Group Insights, created and curated by Digital Reasoning
More than a decade after the financial crisis and the scandals that followed, compliance and front office control functions remain as dynamic as ever. Approaches to surveillance continue to evolve as regulators push the envelope. Investments in people and technology are driving change in how conduct risk is assessed and mitigated, and creating opportunities for compliance and control functions to generate value.
Digital Reasoning works with many of the world’s leading financial institutions, applying our technology to help them evolve their surveillance strategies and processes. This microsite brings together the content, recorded interactive sessions, and reports from our peer group events. We hope you’ll find this ever-growing library of insights to be useful as you explore the challenges of your role and debate the solutions.
Available and upcoming content includes:
Articles by Dr. Roger Miles, a leading expert and advisor to financial regulators and institutions about the analysis and reporting of behavioral risk
Articles by Danielle Tierney, a Senior Analyst at Aite Group and one of the foremost experts on market surveillance
Exclusive access to the 1LoD Annual Report and Benchmark Survey, offering the most comprehensive insights ever published into the state of front-office controls, supervision and surveillance
Early access to an Aite Group white paper exploring the evolution of compliance, controls and surveillance technology in response to regulatory focus on conduct risk
Live webinar and online peer group interactions enabling you to connect with experts and fellow practitioners about pressing surveillance challenges.
Explore our Conduct Surveillance content:
Where’s Behavioural Regulation Heading?
The Top 3 Goals for Conduct Monitoring: Intent, Intent, Intent
In Conversation: The Reality of Conduct Risk
From Compliance Culture to RegTech Strategy: The Scenic Route
London Marriott Hotel, County Hall
Wisdom & Wine: Conduct Surveillance Breakfast, London
Schedule a meeting with our sales team.
Interested in our upcoming events?
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Day 30 – Ocean to ocean conference calling
By Isabel Burnham
On 12 Jun 2015 in At Sea
Today started grey and misty but has gradually turned to another sunny afternoon. We have a NNE wind forecast for the next few days and hope to gain some speed. We reached a steady 2kts earlier, which is the average speed that we had hoped to travel for the duration of the row, although we have rarely moved faster than 1kt until now! Fingers crossed that this new trend catches on.
We continue to have great battery power. Our Victron batteries and charging system are working brilliantly and even on overcast days are charging fully from our Solbian solar panels. As a result, we have plenty of power for making water, charging the satellite phone etc, so are able to have our fab Fusion speakers blasting out tunes on deck. Today we had a Michael Jackson morning followed by Emma’s super mix in the afternoon.
Today’s highlight was using the magic of satellite communications to call Sarah Outen on the Atlantic. Sarah is currently rowing from Cape Cod to the UK on the final leg of her epic adventure London to London via the World. Over the last four years or so Sarah has cycled, sea kayaked and ocean rowed her way around the World. We have been tracking her progress with interest and since the early days of our project starting, Sarah has offered the crew invaluable advice and support. She is an inspiration and a lovely lady.
When we spoke to Sarah she was at 42*20′.44N 62*05′.03W, around 300 miles off the U.S. East Coast and celebrating one month at sea on her solo boat Happy Socks. Like us, she has had a bit of a slow start, with the westerly winds that she needed escaping her and some scarily strong winds keeping her on the para anchor at times. We had a great chat with her, passing the phone around between the four of us. We shared stories about conditions on the Atlantic and Pacific, wildlife, what we’ve been up to as a crew and how Sarah keeps herself motivated and amused on her own. It was amazing to speak to someone else doing the same as us, albeit so far away. I’ve spent time while on the oars thinking how tough it must be for solo rowers to do all this without company, and I’m in awe of Sarah’s achievements, both on Happy Socks and during the rest of her adventure. We wish her the best luck for the rest of her journey home.
Barney says:
Isabel, it seems there is another solo girl rowing an ocean and she is rowing from Tokyo to San Francisco. Her name is Sonya Baumstein and her website is theterramarproject.org. She is aiming to be the first woman to complete a solo crossing. It has been done before but by men.
Which raises the question of whether it is easier rowing west or east. In the days of sailing ships they would go out and back on the trade winds so they were pretty much all going in the same direction at the same time. There is a theory that the Chinese discovered America before Chris C did, sailing west around Africa and across the Atlantic.
I’m sure you or your team did some detailed research into winds and currents. Your average distance over the last 5 days is 25.7nm, giving you an eta in Hawaii in 61 days. Hope the Mars Bars will hold out!
Correction! Sonya’s website is http://www.expeditionpacific.com/ and if successful she would be the first woman to row non-stop. I think I got it right now!
Follow The Coxless Crew
A team unites!!
Another week of fundraising goes by for Coxless Crew…
Buckingham Palace and our EVENT!
Event date, update and winner of competition!
Update on the week and COMPETITION information!
We All Have Our Own Pacific To Cross - on
The Coxless Crew: six women aiming to set new rowing record on the Pacific — Limitless Pursuits on A Mother’s strength…
Judith and Alan Mills on A team unites!!
Sarah on A team unites!!
Mental and Physical Training
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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 43, 5 April 2004
Welcome to this year's 14th edition of DistroWatch Weekly. If you haven't had a chance to read our Fool's Day parody called "Operating Systems on a Collision Course", try to set aside a few minutes, especially if you enjoy a good laugh. The story was written by Robert Storey, a professional writer with a style that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. Enjoy!
Angry at Red Hat?
Trustix goes enterprise
March donation: GnuCash receives US$250
DistroWatch.com kicked out from Google AdSense
Upcoming release: Lycoris Desktop/LX Update 4
Get a DistroWatch T-shirt
New addition: BioBrew Linux
New on the waiting list: Gi-Pi Linux
Reader feedback: OS and browser statistics; Amazon links
Those of you monitoring the Fedora development mailing list had an opportunity to witness sparks flying around after the release of Fedora Core 2 Test2 a week ago. Several testers expressed strongly worded dissatisfaction over the quality of this release, even accusing Red Hat developers of neglect and poor work.
What's wrong with Fedora Core 2 Test2? Two things. The first CD fails to boot for a surprisingly high number of testers. Some of you might recall a similar problem with Mandrakelinux 10.0 Community, where a simple workaround was to boot from the second CD and replace it with the first one at the start of the installation. A similar workaround exists for this Fedora release, using the boot CD from Fedora Core 2 Test1. The second often reported problem was the integration of SELinux into this release, a major surgery with some unpleasant side-effects and occasional unexpected behaviour. While SELinux can certainly be justified on critical server installations, an average desktop user probably won't need it. If you fall into this category, try adding "selinux=0" to the kernel command line, or use "SELINUX=disabled" in your /etc/sysconfig/selinux to return to the standard kernel.
The unpleasant exchanges on the Fedora mailing lists last week lead to a simple conclusion: if you are new to Linux or if you are not interested in helping out with debugging, or indeed, if you cannot control your emotions, then stay away from Fedora Core 2 Test2. Like any beta product, it has serious bugs. But the last things the developers need right now is to deal with infuriated users accusing them of poor work.
The Fedora mailing list wasn't the only one with dissatisfied users, the mailing list of Trustix Secure Linux did not fare much better. The reason? After nearly 4 years of Trustix availability from FTP servers and mirrors, the free lunch came to an end last week. The developers announced that there will be one more free release, version 2.2 later this year, after which all work will go into Trustix Secure Enterprise Linux, a commercial product not available for free download. The pricing will start at US$149 per CPU without support, going up to US$349 with support.
Many users have reacted angrily. Not so much because they are opposed to paying for a product they use and enjoy, but because of the per-seat licencing model and the added complexity of keeping usernames, passwords, activation codes and similar records, which is so typical of the Windows world. Suddenly Trustix does not seem such an attractive product. The old conflict between the developers who enjoy their work and would love to provide their product for free forever, and the businessmen who need to convert their investments into an income producing entity, has resurfaced once again. Trustix Secure Linux is a great product, but will users be willing to pay US$149 - 349 per CPU? It doesn't seem likely.
Buffalo Linux 1.1.6
A new version of Buffalo Linux has been released: "Highlights in this release are: XFree86-4.4.0 and a DMA enabled hardrive 2.6.4 kernel. ALSA updated to 1.0.3 and openssl to 0.9.7d. A 63MB upgrade (1.1.5 to 1.1.6) is available for download. Also new in the 'extra_packages' directory is a bundle install package 'gnome-2.4-buff-1.bz2' for the GNOME lovers (not included in the ISO)." The full announcement.
Securepoint 4.0
Securepoint Firewall & VPN Server version 4.0 has been released: "New: Securepoint Firewall & VPN Server, version 4.0. Securepoint is an excellent and cost-effective choice for companies which wish to secure their Internet access, to protect the departments against each other and build up VPN nets between company and external locations." Visit Securepoint's product page for more information. Securepoint 4.0 is free for home and personal use.
MoviX 0.8.2
MoviX 0.8.2 has been released: "This release features full translations of MoviX and MPlayer menus in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish, MPlayer menu translation in Hungarian and partial MPlayer menu translation in a few other languages. There are also a few other minor improvements." Read more on the distribution's home page.
SLAX 4.0.4
A new version of the SLAX live CD is available: "This release contains a lot of new features and bugfixes: added XFree 4.4.0 (you can expect some improvements in gfx cards detection), KDE 3.2.1, ALSA 1.0.4rc1, K3B 0.11.9, KPlayer (KDE application for MPlayer GUI); added wheelmouse boot option to force imps/2 mouse protocol for X; added 845patch boot option for Intel's i845G chipset; fixed smbmount (finally!) by adding some IBM charset library; fixed ftp upload directory permissions; fixed moduse problem to locate liblinuxlive..." The full changelog.
LinuxDefender Live! 1.5.6
A new version of LinuxDefender Live!, based on Knoppix 3.4 CeBIT edition, has been released: "The LinuxDefender development team proudly announces the release of LinuxDefender Live! CeBIT edition. Linux Defender Live! is a bootable CD that contains a full-featured Linux distro, with BitDefender and third-party security tools included. The CeBIT edition is the latest incarnation of this great concept. New features in the CeBIT release of LinuxDefender include: the new 2.6 kernel alongside the 2.4.23-xfs; the new AntiSpam server module from BitDefender; BitDefender Remote Admin 1.5.6; GNOME Desktop Environment..." Read the announcement and visit the product's features page for further details.
Aurox Linux 9.3
Aurox Linux 9.3, code name "Wind", has been released: "We are pleased to announce the availability of Aurox Linux 9.3. Aurox 9.3 is based on Fedora Core 1, and includes updates published before the end of January. In Aurox you will find all the features of Fedora Core (eg. ACPI, very usefull for laptop users), and many additional things (ALSA sound system; multimedia support, including DVD, AVI, mp3; spellchecking in OpenOffice.org in German, French, Polish and Spanish; a Polish version of the installer; educational software; games; a light desktop based on Fluxbox, and many more features)." Existing Aurox 9.3 installations can be upgraded using yum or apt-get, while new users will need to download the ISO image set in one of the supported languages.
ByzantineOS 20040404
A new version of ByzantineOS is out. Changes: "ByzantineOS Customization Toolkit is now available (included is also the ByzantineOS_HDD_CF_HowTo); Java(TM) Plug-in 1.4.2; mplayerplugin-2.50; Gaim-0.76; Flash Player 6 for Linux Version 6.0.81.0; Xmodmap.arabic; Xmodmap.cs_CZ; Xmodmap.ru_RU; Xmodmap.ru_RU.yawerty." Read the rest of the release notes for information about updates and system requirements.
INSERT 1.2.7
The Inside Security Rescue Toolkit (INSERT) has been updated to version 1.2.7. Changes: "Thanks to the Multivalent PDF Tools it was possible to compress our included information material to about half its size! This made room for: avscan, a graphical frontend for the virus scanner clamav (was added), which should make it a bit easier for newbies to scan for viruses and which also generally is a quite-nice-to-have. This makes INSERT probably the first distribution providing a free, and easy to use virus scanner with a GUI. BashBurn and iftop and the full bash-programmable-completion were added. Rootkit Hunter was added..."
Development and unannounced releases
Fedora Core 2 Test2, the release notes
Vector Linux SOHO 4.0 RC1; the announcement
Astaro Security Linux 5.0 RC; the announcement
SoL 18.00 Beta; the announcement
Skolelinux pr47; the release notes
ClarkConnect 2.2-beta; the beta information page
Live CD Router 1.9.2
Kinneret 0.7.2
eduKnoppix 1.3.3
PHP Solutions Live 1.0.1
Screenshot: X-evian 0.4 - a well-designed Debian-based live CD for Spanish users
(full image size 252kB)
Lycoris Desktop/LX Update 4
The Lycoris Desktop/LX developers have released two developer newsletters with information about Update 4: "Last week I sent a message to the NDA group that requested they test the last version of Desktop/LX to contain KDE 2. They were told that KDE 3 was almost finished building on Desktop/LX and that they should expect to see it for the first time in a few days. There was quite a bit of excitement relayed to me via e-mail. I've been overseeing the final compilation of KDE 3.2.1 personally, and it's an impressive product. With the finishing touches we will put on it for the next Desktop/LX Amethyst release, Desktop/LX will not only continue to be powerful, productive, and fun, it will be cutting-edge too." The first two developer newsletters can be read here: Issue #1 and Issue #2.
As announced here two weeks ago, our donations programme to offer financial assistance to Free Software projects is under way. The March 2004 beneficiary of this program was the GnuCash project, which was awarded a donation of US$250. We haven't received any acknowledgement from anybody at GnuCash, but here is the PayPal receipt:
This email confirms that you have paid OSDN / VA Software $250.00 USD using PayPal.
Total Amount: $250.00 USD
Transaction ID: 2L364241CG479132U
Item Title: Donation
Invoice ID: 205778
Message: This is a donation by DistroWatch.com under the web site's programme to provide financial support for Free Software project. GnuCash was selected as the first benefactor of the programme. Thank you for your hard work :-)
DistroWatch.com kicked out of Google AdSense
Although this is not distribution related, I thought I'd share this as a curiosity, and also because it is a setback for our donations programme. DistroWatch.com's AdSense account was terminated last week. The reason? The Google support technician in charge of the account found, after "thoroughly reviewing and re-reviewing" this web site, that, wait for this, the DistroWatch.com's primary language is not English! As such, it was found guilty of violating the Google AdSense terms of use.
All my arguing and requests for explanation were met with a stubborn "if you continue to violate our terms of use...", until the support technician effected the threats and terminated the account. Needless to say, this has somewhat shaken my belief in Google as a professional, Linux-friendly organisation. Its recent idea to offer a "free" email service, while inserting keyword-based advertising in private email message has also angered some people, see Google mail is evil - privacy advocates.
Is Google changing? Has it become just another monopoly with all the usual symptoms, such as pathetic technical support and disrespect for the privacy of users? Anybody cares to comment?
DistroWatch T-shirts
Order your own official DistroWatch T-shirt from Hackerthreads (US$14.95).
BioBrew Linux. BioBrew Linux is an open source Linux distribution based on the NPACI Rocks cluster software and enhanced for bioinformaticists and life scientists. While it looks, feels, and operates like ordinary Red Hat Linux, BioBrew Linux includes popular cluster software e.g. MPICH, LAM-MPI, PVM, Modules, PVFS, Myrinet GM, Sun Grid Engine, gcc, Ganglia, and Globus, *and* popular bioinformatics software e.g. the NCBI toolkit, BLAST, mpiBLAST, HMMER, ClustalW, GROMACS, PHYLIP, WISE, FASTA, and EMBOSS. It runs on everything from notebook computers to large clusters.
New on the waiting list
GiPi-Linux. Gi-Pi Linux is a French Linux distribution partly based on Debian GNU/Linux.
Removed from the waiting list
Several distributions have been removed from the waiting list due to inactivity; these include O2 Linux, Ken-Zoe, Viper Linux, Gentooish Security Toolkit i386 LiveCD ant Antlinux.
Number of distributions in the database: 279
Number of discontinued distributions: 32
Number of distributions on the waiting list: 64
On OS and browser statistics
John S writes: "Thank you on behalf of all interested Linux users for your effort and dedication toward maintaining the excellent DistroWatch website. I have recommended Distrowatch many times to my friends and family as a valuable source of information."
"If I may make a suggestion, perhaps the DistroWatch webpage readers would be interested in seeing in addition to the Linux distributions page hit ranking, the total hits from Windows and Macintosh system users who have visited the DistroWatch page. It would be an interesting statistical comparison, and would show that users of other OS's are also interested in learning about Linux."
John, thank you for your kind words. The only statistical tool running on the server at the moment is Webalizer and you can access its statistics on this page. It does not break down the visitor data into "per OS" groups, but it does give information about browsers used to visit the site. With a 39% browser share last month, MS Internet Explorer is still the most frequently used browser to view DistroWatch, but its share has been dropping (from around 43% a year ago). The ratio of users browsing with Mozilla has increased from 24% a year ago to 32% last month. Opera is the 3rd most popular browser. Perhaps surprisingly, Firefox has yet to make an impact, with only slightly above 2% of users browsing the site with this new kid on the block.
It's worth visiting the webalizer page just to see the dramatic increase in the number of visitors on DistroWatch over the past year - it just about trippled(!) since May 2003. It goes without saying that the chart excludes those who visit one of the 13 DistroWatch mirrors, so the real figures are still higher! There is little doubt that more and more people choose to put the fun back into computing by running Linux :-)
On Amazon links
Mark E writes: "I'm looking forward to purchasing this upgrade (SUSE's MSRP: $59.95) and was wondering if I'll be able to click through to amazon.com via DistroWatch as I did when I purchased SUSE v9.0 Pro? I only ask because I haven't noticed recently any ads on your homepage that would enable me to do so. Please let me know if you still offer that capability. Thanks."
Yes, SUSE LINUX 9.1 is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de, so if you enjoy this site and would like to help us to earn a few dollars, pounds or euros, just shop via the links above. This goes for any other item you intend to buy from Amazon. As you know, 10% of our income from advertising and merchandise sale will be donated to various open source projects, so here is your chance to help. Not to mention that SUSE LINUX 9.1 is shaping up to be a very nice release, at least based on early beta reviews.
That's all for this week, see you next Monday :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
Robolinux
Robolinux is a user-friendly and intuitive operating system based on the latest long term support release of Ubuntu. One of the project's more interesting features is the availability of a pre-configured virtual machine support pack with Windows XP or Windows 7 - a VirtualBox setup which allows the user to install and run the Windows operating system seamlessly alongside Robolinux. This is an optional add-on that must be downloaded from the project's online store.
Questions and answers: Improving boot times
Tips and tricks: Gathering system information with osquery
Questions and answers: Modern software on older computers
Questions and answers: Questions about justification and diversity of Linux distributions
Tips and tricks: Quick tricks to fix small problems on Linux
Questions and answers: Accessing hard disk images and creating PDF/A documents
Questions and answers: Changing desktop background from command line
Questions and answers: Encrypting one's home folder
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Daniel Garber talks with filmmaker Adam Kossoff about his documentary The Anarchist Rabbi at TJFF
Posted in Anarchism, Art, Cultural Mining, documentary, Germany, Movies, Protest, TJFF, UK by CulturalMining.com on May 8, 2015
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/garber-may7-15-interview.mp3
When we talk about protests against the police, we think Baltimore, Maryland or Ferguson, Missouri.
But how about London, England a hundred years ago? Probably not. We don’t realize London, and particularly it’s impoverished East End was a seething cauldron of protest, unrest, and even revolution. Much of it
centred on Jewish immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe who fought internal battles, as religion and politics competed for dominance.
A new film documents this history with an impressionistic examination of London, then and now. Period photos and recordings share the screen with contemporary, sepia-toned shots of London’s East End. It’s having its Canadian debut today at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.
Its called The Anarchist Rabbi, and is narrated by actor/writer Stephen Berkoff, and written and directed by Adam Kossoff. Adam is a writer, artist and filmmaker who explores historically separate but site-specific videos.
I reached Adam by telephone in London. He talks about anarcho-syndicalism, Rudolph Rocker (1873-1958), London’s East End, strikes, revolution, Russian immigrants, his grandfather, Arbeter Fraynd, history, politics, the use of colour in film, memorials, Kropotkin, Emma Goldmann… and more!
Tagged with: Adam Rossoff, Anarchism, Anarcho-Syndicalism, East End, London, Rudolph Rocker, The Anarchist Rabbi, TJFF
Women in Movies for Mothers’ Day. Films Reviewed: Under the Skin, Ida, The German Doctor
Posted in 1960s, Argentina, Catholicism, Clash of Cultures, Communism, Cultural Mining, Drama, Movies, Nazi, Psychological Thriller, Scotland, Thriller, TJFF, UK, Uncategorized by CulturalMining.com on May 9, 2014
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/may8th-garber.mp3
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM, looking at high-brow and low-brow movies, indie, cult, foreign, festival, documentary, genre and mainstream films, helping you see movies with good taste, movies that taste good, and how to tell the difference.
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers of the past present and future. While all women aren’t mothers, all mothers are women. So, this week, I’m looking at three fascinating movies with girls or women as the main characters.
Two of the movies are historical dramas set in the early sixties, under the shadow of WWII. From Poland comes a drama about a young woman in a convent who discovers her past; from Argentina, a dramatic thriller about a 12-year-old girl who discovers secrets in an unusual village; and from the UK comes a science fiction / art film about a woman with a strange way of meeting men.
Dir: Jonathan Glazer
Laura (Scarlett Johannson) is a beautiful woman with black hair who lives in a rundown farmhouse. But she’s not from there. She likes going for drives in her white van, in the rolling hills and rocky roads of rural Scotland. She’s on the lookout for fit young men who are single and live alone. It doesn’t matter that she can’t understand a word they say. She asks for directions and then offers them a lift to some unspecified place down the road. And to no one’s surprise, they end up at her place for some impromptu casual sex.
Simple, right? No. This is where it gets weird, otherworldly, surreal. Basically, after they undress, she lures them across a shiny, black floor. She walks on the surface, but the men gradually sink down into a black pool, their bodies and minds suspended in a silent limbo. Not dead, but trapped somewhere.
Who is she? What is she? Laura speaks like an alien or a robot or a psychopath. It’s like she was handed an instruction booklet on how to talk like a human being. Her face and body were borrowed from someone else – she’s just a visitor. She doesn’t seem motivated by evil, and she’s not a cannibal or anything. She doesn’t even eat.
But her routine gradually goes astray. She gets corralled into a nightclub. She picks up an incredibly ugly man on the road. She loses her vehicle and is forced to take a bus. She meets another man who seems kind and cares for her, not just out for a quick roll in the hay. And she senses danger from a suspicious man wearing a jumpsuit. And then there’s the man on a motorcycle who follows her around: is he cleaning up after her mistakes? Or is he trying to stop her? It’s all very confusing.
Under the Skin is one weird movie. I liked it a lot, but beware: this is an experimental “art film” not a mainstream sci-fi pic. Modern, disturbing music, wonderful cinematography… and a baffling story.
Dir: Pawel Pawlikowski
Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a WWII orphan raised in a nunnery near Lodz. She wears a plain grey dress and covers her hair. She’s quiet and obedient. Now 16, she’s ready to take her vows as a nun, but the mother superior insists she first meet her only known relative, her aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza). But why?
Wanda is a woman of the world. She wears lipstick, smokes cigarettes and listens to jazz. And she sleeps with younger men she picks up in bars. She’s cold, cynical and bitter. She used to be a high-ranked communist party prosecutor, but has lost her status. And she’s Jewish. And that means Anna is, too. And, Wanda tells her, her real name is Ida.
Ida wants to see her parents’ grave. Wanda laughs: what grave? But they head out to the small town. The family living in her home denies Jews ever lived there and has never heard of her parents.
Wanda delves deeper as Ida discovers her own hidden history. Wanda warms toward her – she’s like her dead sister, with her red hair, and three dimples when she smiles. Ida dips her toe into the real world (jazz, alcohol, cigarettes, men). Will she live in cosmopolitan urban Poland or in a cloistered life behind the convent walls?
Ida is black & white, and only 80 minutes long. It’s subtle, compact, minimalist and exquisite. The two Polish actresses are both fantastic, with their subtle, contrasting personalities gradually melding. This is a perfect movie.
The German Doctor
Dir: Lucia Puenzo (Based on her novel)
12-year-old Lilith (Florencia Bado) lives in a barren and dusty part of Argentine Patagonia with her two brothers. Tiny Lilith is 12 but looks younger, and still plays with a doll given to her by her dad (Diego Peretti) — a professional doll maker. He makes handcrafted figures, each one unique. They’re moving to Ushuaia, an area with a large German population, to run a family hotel owned by her pregnant mom (Natalia Oreiro). Though Argentinian, her mom went to a German school. She shows Lilith old school photos filled with swastika flags.
The hotel is a beautiful chateau in the woods, overlooking a clear, blue lake against stark snow-covered mountains. Positively Alpine. And their first guest is a kindly, German man with a mustache (Alex Brendemuhl). He’s a doctor, but works injecting cattle with growth hormones. Heredity is everything he says, and he wants to create a perfect breed.
So when Lilith is teased and bullied at school he offers experimental hormone injections to help her grow. Lilith loves whatever is forbidden. She is entranced by the doctor, even though there’s something wrong, something sinister about him. And he offers Enzo, her dad – who objects to his experiments with Lilith – the chance to produce identical blond, blue-eyed dolls on a massive scale. Only Nora (Elena Roger), the mysterious school archivist, suspects he’s the notorious Dr. Mengele, known for his cruel experiments in Auschwitz. Based on real-life characters, the German Doctor is a tender, but haunting, coming-of age story played out against an Argentina filled with clandestine war criminals.
Under the Skin and Ida both open today in Toronto; check your local listings. The German Doctor also opens and is playing at Toronto’s Jewish Film Festival this weekend, along with many other great movies. Go to TJFF.com for more info.
Tagged with: Ida, Jonathan Glazer, Lucia Puenzo, Pawel Pawlikowski, The German Doctor, TJFF, Under the Skin
Daniel Garber talks to Peter Sanders about his new documentary ALTINA
Posted in Art, Cultural Mining, documentary, Family, Feminism, Movies, TJFF, Uncategorized by CulturalMining.com on April 17, 2013
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/garberapril11-13-interview2.mp3Altina Schinasi, a tobacco heiress born in a veritable palace in Manhattan, made her name as an artist, activist, designer, filmmaker, and as an openly-sexual woman, with four husbands over the course of her lifetime. Altina is a new documentary about this unknwon but fascinating character. Winner of the festival’s 2013 DAVID A. STEIN MEMORIAL AWARD, it’s having its Canadian premier at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. And I am pleased to have the award-winning filmmaker, Peter Sanders to talk to me about the film and its fascinating subject with me by telephone from New York.
Tagged with: Altina, Peter Sanders, TJFF
Mothers and Daughters. Movies reviewed: Hello I Must Be Going, Mama.
Posted in Cultural Mining, Feminism, Ghost Busters, Horror, Movies, Romania, Romantic Comedy, Thriller, TJFF, Uncategorized, US, Women by CulturalMining.com on January 26, 2013
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/garberjan17-13.mp3Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM, looking at high-brow and low-brow movies, indie, cult, foreign, festival, documentary, genre and mainstream films, helping you see movies with good taste, movies that taste good, and how to tell the difference.
Hollywood has turned into a place where women are treated as an afterthought. It’s not unusual to see movies with 10 or 20 main characters with only one woman. So this week I’m looking at two genre movies that are usually male-oriented, but in this case are both told from a female point of view (though both have male directors). One’s an indie rom-com about hidden love under their parents’ gaze, the other is a chiller-thriller about surrogate moms.
Hello I Must be Going
Dir: Todd Louiso
Amy Minsky (Melanie Lynskey) hates her life. She hasn’t been outside her parents home or changed her ratty T-shirt for about three months. Why? Because her career-driven entertainment lawyer husband dumped her and she has nothing to show for all those years of marriage. She let her own interests slide (she used to be an MFA grad student, a photographer) to support him and now she has nothing. Nothing!
So she’s back with her parents just as her dad setting up a big contract that will let him retire and to travel with mom (Blythe Danner) around the world. So Amy has to dress up pretty for a dinner party so she won’t spoil the deal.
At the dinner party she meets the deal partners’ son Jeremy, an actor. He’s also moved back to his therapist-mom’s house after years on a children’s TV show like The Wiggles. (He’s Mr Green)
Amy and Jeremy are both mortified by their parents’ conversations and find common ground.
She’s awkward. He’s an actor. Sparks fly.
They bond, and later enjoy passionate sex. Amy’s life seems to be turning around. But the last thing Amy wants is to ruin he dad’s deal, so they have to keep it hush-hush. She visits him in the middle of the night to throw pebbles at his window. They go skinny dipping and make out in the backseats of cars. It’s like she’s living as a teenager again, complete with nosy parents and furtive dates.
Oh yeah – I forgot to mention. Jeremy, though an accomplished actor and an adult… is a teenager! (He’s 19.) Oh, also his accepting mom, a therapist (c’mere, give me a hug!), thinks he’s gay. He’s actually a closet heterosexual who doesn’t want to upset his mother’s plans.
Can Amy and Jeremy’s relationship last? Will her parents ever respect her and treat her as an adult? What will the future bring? I liked this movie — Hello I Must Be Going (the title is a reference to a song in a Marx Brothers movie) is a very sweet, realistic romantic comedy, with a nice, indie feel (It played at Sundance last year).
The acting is good all-around. Melanie Lynskey is a Kiwi, who started as a girl in the fantastic movie Heavenly Creatures. Blythe Danner plays Amy’s mom in a not-so-sympathetic but multifaceted way; and you probably recognize Christopher Abbot, who plays Charlie, one of the boyfriends from the TV comedy Girls (He’s the one who gets dumped on for being way too nice and accommodating but in a smarmy sort of way. He looks and acts totally different in this role.) This is a fun, different kind of indie movie to see.
Dir: Andres Muschietti
Two girls are found by their uncle Lucas in a cabin in the woods. They’ve been missing for five years after a violent incident involving their parents. Somehow, they managed to survive there on nothing but wild cherries. But they went feral, and now run around like foxes or chimps or Linda Blair in the Exorcist, except without the crabwalk. The two girls barely talk to outsiders and know no basic social rules. So they need surrogate parents to raise them and a psychologist to study them.
So Lucas (Danish actor Nicolaj Koster-Waldau) gets his wild-ass girlfriend Annabel to move in with him and help take care of the kids. Annabel (Jessica Chastaine) is a rocker with a full sleeve tat and a foul mouth. She’s in a band, and does all the irresponsible things rock musicians are supposed to do. But when something happens to Lucas, she’s suddenly the de facto mother of these two crazy girls – Victoria and Lily (Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nelisse).
Victoria was older when she disappeared so she can communicate, but Lily is nearly a lost cause. They are used to a world of bugs and plants and dirt, of hollows they can hide in, not clean, lit rooms. But things are transforming around them. There are strange cracks that appear on walls, moths that fly out of holes, strange noises you hear through vents in the house.
The shrink says there’s an imaginary mother – they call her Mama – who they turn to for help. But is she real, imaginary, or something else? It’s up to Annabel to find out who is helping them, and where this Mama came from, if she actually exists.
This is a very good, female-centred chiller-thriller, where the girls, their heroine, and her nemesis are all women. It’s a B-movie, a genre pic, but it’s a good one. Mexican Guillermo del Toro, one of my favourite directors, was a producer for this one and it carries a lot of his trademarks: sounds through vents, scary houses, the possibly imaginary, and other-wordly lives of small girls, nice creepy production values, and lots of good, scary scenes. This is director Muschietti’s first feature, and I’d go to more of his movies.
Mama opens today, and you can catch Hello I Must Be Going at a special screening on Sunday, January 27th, as part of the Chai, Tea and a Movie series, sponsored by the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. Go to tjff.com for details.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com .
Tagged with: Andres Muschietti, Guillermo Del Toro, Hello I Must Be Going, Mama, Todd Louiso
Daniel Garber speaks with Argentinian director Ariel Winograd about his new film My First Wedding (Mi Primera Boda)
Posted in Argentina, comedy, Cultural Mining, Movies, Romance, Romantic Comedy, TJFF, Uncategorized by CulturalMining.com on July 20, 2012
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/arielwinograd.mp3
Can a wedding succeed when surrounded by squabbling family members whose own marriages are falling apart? A new Argentinian film, My First Wedding, which opens today in Toronto, asks that very question. A screwball comedy, My First Wedding is about a wedding gone astray when the groom — who loses his fiancee’s heirloom wedding ring — is forced to come up with a way to delay the ceremony without the bride discovering why.
I speak with the Argentinian director Ariel Winograd about his film, Daniel Hendler, Natalia Oreiro, Judd Apatow, Ariel’s personal connection to the story, his views on comedy, his influences, and more…
Tagged with: Ariel Winograd, Mi Primera Boda, My First Wedding
Love, Romance and Passion. Movies reviewed: Trishna, My First Wedding PLUS Burlesque Assassins
Posted in Argentina, Burlesque, Clash of Cultures, comedy, Cultural Mining, India, Movies, Romance, Screwball Comedy, TJFF, UK, Uncategorized, Uruguay, Women by CulturalMining.com on July 20, 2012
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/garberjuly19-12.mp3Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies, for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM, looking at high-brow and low-brow movies, indie, cult, foreign, festival, genre and mainstream movies, helping you see movies with good taste, movies that taste good, and how to tell the difference.
In the heat of the night, Toronto has been boiling over with record hot temperatures and high tempers, tragic shootings and a bizarre machete mugging.
But hot nights can also lead to steamy romance, passion and ultimately to love. So this week I’m looking at two movies that deal with romance. One’s about a wedding that might lead to disaster; another where the lack of a wedding might ruin the relationship.
Trishna
Dir: Michael Winterbottom
Jay (Riz Ahmed) is a confident Oxbridge toff touring India with his buddies. But when they see a young woman performing a dance at their hotel in Rajasthan Jay is smitten and decides to pursue her. And the dancer Trishna (Freida Pinto), notices him too — clearly the feelings are mutual. Jay’s father owns a palatial hotel in Jaipur, and since Trishna’s father’s accident (he was the jeep driver for the travelling Jay and his friends), her extended family has no income. So she takes him up on his offer and goes to work for the hotel, and study at the local college. All’s going well until she is accosted by some tuffs, rescued by her white knight Jay on a motorcycle and then taken back to the hotel, where they succomb to passion. But by the next morning she feels ashamed and what happens and flees home.
If this all feels like a Victorian novel, that’s because it is: it’s an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, but set in modern-day India. Scooters instead of horses, jeeps instead of stagecoaches, but class is still the big divider. Trishna comes from a poor family, and although given a taste of the high life — a Bombay apartment as Jay dabbles as a Bollywood producer, or in Jaipur at the posh hotel — there’s a clear difference between Jay’s status and hers. He moodily shifts from boyfriend to employer, and the dynamics of their relationship also changes. He says in the Kama Sutra there are three types of women you can sleep with: a sophisticated woman, a servant or a courtesan. He doesn’t mention wife. Trishna wonders which one she is. There relationship could be a passing fancy for him, but for a disenfranchised woman it’s all she’s got.
Trishna is a very moving and realistic romantic drama, partly scripted, partly improvised — almost documentary like. Pinto and Ahmed are both great as the lovers, and the director, Michael Winterbottom is as experimental and surprising as ever. His movies range from 24 Hour Party People to A Cock and Bull Story (a comic adaptation of another British novel — in this case Sterne’s Tristram Shandy)
While he has no specific style – his style can change drastically from film to film — Winterbottom’s always an interesting director who constantly expands the boundaries of what you can call a movie. Trishna follows a traditional story, but by shifting the culture and language from 19th century England to 21st century India Winterbottom can take the age old story of poor girl meets rich boy and turn it into an entirely new type of film.
My First Wedding
Dir: Ariel Winograd
Adrian and Leonora are a happy couple, dressed up and ready for their country club wedding outside Buenos Aries. The wedding planner is organizing everything, family and friends are all arriving, and a rabbi and a priest are being driven out there to officiate. Adrian (Daniel Hendler) is Jewish, while Leo (Natalia Oreiro) is Catholic. But as they separately rehearse their wedding vows, Adrian panics when he loses Leo’s wedding band. She’ll kill him if she finds out. so, to postpone the wedding, he must send the Priest and Rabbi off on a wild goose chase, hide the truth from his bride, and find the ring (with help from cousin Fede).
The wedding planner recommends they go through the wedding in reverse order — party, dine, drink, and dance… and say the vows at the end instead of the beginning. Sort of an upside down wedding. But things get even more complicated. Leo’s snobbish mother, herself divorced, is disappointed in her choice, Adrian’s family are all quarrelling, his grandfather wants to smoke pot, and past lovers — Leo’s former professor, the dashing Miguel Angel (Imanol Arias); and Adrian’s second cousin who still likes him — all seem to be working hard to ruin the wedding. Angel announces that marriages are like cities under seige: everyone inside wants to get out, while everyone outside is trying to get in. With the divorces and collapsing relationships all around them, the title (My First Wedding) begins to make sense.
This is a funny, classic screwball comedy about what can go wrong at a wedding. The two leads are great as is the very large supporting cast. It’s a light enjoyable rom-com from Argentina, told from the groom’s perspective.
Trishna and My First Wedding both open today in Toronto, check your local listings. Also playing tonight (at the Bloor Cinema) is a neo-burlesque, cabaret style movie called Burlesque Assassins (directed by Jonathan Joffe), about some killer spies (with names like Roxi D’lite) who double as cold-war exotic dancers as they travel the globe to catch the villains. Lots of guns, 1950’s uniforms, and more cleavage than you can shake a stick at. Also on this weekend is the documentary “They Call it Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain” about Burma and its people. It’s showing free at the East Gallery, just across the street from the AGO on Dundas.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies each Friday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM, with podcasts and complete reviews available on my web site CulturalMining. com.
Tagged with: Burlesque Assassins, My First Wedding, Trishna
History, Geography, Language TJFF 2011 Films Reviewed Acne, Jewish Girl in Shanghai, Names of Love, Between Two Worlds,Little Rose PLUS Meek’s Cutoff, Modra
Posted in Animation, Breasts, Canada, China, comedy, Comics, Coming of Age, Cultural Mining, Death, Drama, Family, Feminism, France, Hippies, Poland, Ralph Bakshi, San Francisco, Sex, Shanghai, TJFF, Uncategorized, Uruguay, Western, Women by CulturalMining.com on May 15, 2011
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/culturalminingmay12r.mp3Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies, for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto’s Jewish Film Festival, is on now and continues through the weekend. This is the first year I’ve attended their movies, my curiosity sparked by the fact they programmed Fritz the Cat last year.
This year, the festival is featuring an extensive series of films and documentaries about the three Lennies: composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, Montreal musician and writer Leonard Cohen, and comedian Lenny Bruce. But what I find really interesting were the rest of the movies programmed. There is a diversity to them – in geography, history, language and politics – that’s refreshing.
So today I’m going to talk about a few of the fascinating and very good films at this year’s festival. Plus I’ll review a western like no other.
Little Rosa (Rózyczka)
Dir: Jan Kidawa-Blonski
Rozek (Robert Wieckiewicz) is a hardboiled intelligence agent working for the Polish government in 1967. He’s always up for a hard drink or a fistfight. But he’s spotted having a passionate sexual liaison with a beautiful young woman. Word is sent to his department that there is to be a purge of crackdown on Jews or suspected Jews throughout Poland, following Israel’s victory in the 1967 war. He’s assigned to bring down a mark, Adam, a prominent writer and intellectual in his 60’s. Although his name is Polish sounding, they suspect his father had a Jewish-sounding name.
Rozek assigns his naïve lover, Kamila (Magdalena Boczarska), now with the code name “Rozsczka” (Little Rose), to get close to Adam and report back anything that could be taken as Jewish, anti-governmental, conspiratorial, or Zionist. But even as she writes the reports, her feelings for Adam grow, as does her anger at Rozek for pimping her out.
As she grows even closer to Adam (Andrzej Seweryn), the three sides of the unwitting love triangle in this historical dramatic thriller come to an inevitable explosion during a time of European unrest, youth demonstrations, nationalist sentiment, and a government crackdown. This is an intriguing, visually sophisticated, story full of surprising secrets, chronicaling unexpected changes in Poland in the sixties.
Dir: Federico Veiroj
In this cute, low budget film from Montevideo, Rafael (Alejandro Tocar), a 13 year old, pimple-faced boy has a crush on a girl. But he has yet to approach her, tell her what he feels, never mind kiss her. And he’s totally at a loss of what to do, sexually with a girl – he’s 13, remember. This is where it gets… interesting. Apparently, in this insular Uruguayan -Jewish community, it is customary to introduce boys to manhood by hiring a tutor – a prostitute – to initiate him into the adult world. Will he ever talk to the girl of his dreams? And where will he go now? Acne gives a fascinating glimpse of everyday urban life in a world I’d never even heard of before this movie.
Next, an animated film – from another distinctly different area; this time — China!
A Jewish Girl in Shanghai
Dir: Wang Genfa
Ah Gen, a boy who works for a street vendor who fries big pancakes meets a starving and pennyless, red-haired girl with almond-shaped eyes, Rina, on the streets of Shanghai. Rina’s a refugee from Nazi Germany, but is living in Shanghai with just her little brother. She doesn’t know what happened to her parents, but remembers them by playing a song her violinist mother wrote.
The movie shows the two friends’ adventures set in wartime Shanghai, when Europeans – including a sizeable Jewish community – a very large Japanese population, and local Chinese people all lived together in that cosmopolitan city. Tough Ah Gen has to deal with Japanese street thugs and soldiers, and corrupt Chinese collaborators and his own family difficulties; while pretty Rina must survive, play her violin, reunite her family and find out what became of her parents.
This is a fully animated film, similar to Japanese anime, aimed mainly at kids and teenagers and lovers of anime. It’s very interesting to see a Chinese view of the Jews of Shanghai and references to the holocaust. So Rina’s European memories resemble Heidi in the alps, Japanese bullies wear kimono and speak broken Chinese, and an erhu player finds common ground with a violinist. Violence is portrayed very differently than in western animated cartoons, sometimes as broad slapstick.
This movie is the first Chinese depiction I’ve ever seen of European kids interacting with Chinese kids in pre-1949 Shanghai. It gives a whole new perspective to Tintin’s The Blue Lotus, and JG Ballard’s Empire of the Sun.
This movie is in Chinese with subtitles, and is suitable for children.
Names of Love (Le Nom des Gens)
Dir: Michel Leclerc
Bahia (Sara Forestier) is a beautiful young, brash and lively, left-wing feminist, who enjoys using her sexuality to bring right-wingers to her side of the fence. She says she always goes to bed on the first date. But she meets her opposite in the dry-as-toast Arthur Martin (who shares his name with a ubiquitous, mundane line of cookware), a vet who only deals with dead birds. He is as bland and reserved as she is open, but, somehow, they end up together.
They are both assimilated French people of mixed background – she has a Muslim Algerian father, and a radical leftist, while his mother, who never talks about her past — was a Jewish girl hidden in a convent during the war, and with an extremely uptight father. My description of the characters in this romantic comedy don’t do justice to the humour and subtlety of this very charming movie. It’s clever use of memory has Arthur’s teenage self, as well as his imagined grandparents whom he’d never met appearing on the screen beside him to offer coments on what he’s doing wrong. While Bahia’s overt sexuality and indifference to her own nudity (with breasts casually falling out, here or there) is sometimes taken to an extreme degree – this is a French comedy after all – the home of gratuitous nudity only for it’s female roles — her character is very sweet and interesting and transcends the usual gags and situations.
Will the two of them ever find common ground? Are their politics really opposed? And can their families approve?
This is a great movie –the Canadian premier – and you should try to see it.
Dir: Debora Kaufman and Alan Snitow
(World Premier)
The founders of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival are pleased that they have inspired similar festivals across the continent, and says Kaufman, many people consider ot “one of their favourite Jewish holidays”. But in recent years, due to some controversial programming, the festival itself was embroiled in extremely divisive and politically mired fights, between left and right-wing Jewish groups and individuals.
To address this, they have made a personal documentary, about these issues and the seemingly intractable divisions within their own families. The issues discussed in the film — including the positioning of the Holocaust in present-day issues; religious identity, right and left wing viewpoints, censorship, lobbying, and boycotts from both sides; and the Israel/Palestine issue – give air time to advocates and activists from the various viewpoints, even when the differences seem unbridgeable.
They also bring in some fascinating personal details from the filmmakers’ own lives, including a religious divide within a family where somehow a secular, rightwing Jewish patriarch ended up with religious, Muslim grandchildren.
This is being shown on Sunday followed by a panel discussion moderated by the CBC’s Michael Enright. It should be very interesting.
Meek’s Cutoff
Dir: Kelly Reichardt
This is a western set in 1845, when a group of families head west in a wagon train on the Oregon Trail. But when they reach an anknown area, they hire a grizzled guide named Meek (Bruce Greenwood), to take them through a shortcut in Indian territory. With nothing to read but a bible, or listen to Meek’s stories, this diverse eastern group moving west falls into disarray as things start to go wrong. On the way, they capture a native man who speaks no English, whom they tie up and take with them. They eventually reach an agreement – without water they’ll die of thirst, and Meek doesn’t seem to be any help. The men are old, sick, or unstable, so it’s up to the women – especially Emily (excellently played by Michelle Williams) to do all the work and make all the crucial decisions.
Like the movie Days of Heaven, it’s a beautiful spare movie showing realistic daily life, rather than the dramatic hollywood-style glamorous
depiction of life in the old west. Nothing glamorous here. But it’s a very good western-slash-art film with a new perspective on the west. Great movie.
Also playing this weekend for one show only at the Royal is
Dir: Ingrid Veninger
a touching, light, hyper-realist drama, starring non-actors, about a girl who travels from Toronto to Slovakia to visit her relatives there, with a classmate pretending to her boyfriend. I enjoyed this Canadian movie at last year’s TIFF.
Most of the movies I reviewed will be playing this weekend, so be sure to come see some unusually good movies. The Toronto Jewish Flm Festival runs until May 15th, downtown, and up north in North York, and in Richmond Hill. Check on line at tjff.ca . And Meek’s Cutoff is showing once only this weekend at the Light Box – you should try to see them on the big screen while you can.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies for CIUT 89.5 FM, and on my web site, Cultural Mining.com.
Tagged with: Acne, Jewish Girl in Shanghai, Little Rose, Meek's Cutoff, Modra, Names of Love
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DARK EMERALD TALES
Folklore, Legends and Hauntings of Ireland
Tag Archives: Cork
January 13, 2016 by annmassey
IRELAND’S 10 MOST TERRIFYING ROADSIDE GHOSTS!
Driving and walking along lonely Irish roads in the howling wind and rain on a dark winter’s night is scary enough, without thinking about the ghostly figures you may encounter!
Ireland’s 10 most terrifying roadside ghosts – Spooky Isles
Posted in DEATH, FOLKLORE, GHOST HUNTING, GHOSTS, HAUNTINGS, IRISH HISTORY, MALEVOLENT, MURDER, Uncategorized
Tagged Cork, Country, Dublin, Ghost, Haunting, Hitchhiker, Ireland, Kerry, Kildare, Limerick, Monaghan, paranormal, Roadside, Wexford
October 6, 2015 by annmassey
IRELAND’S 8 MOST TERRIFYING HEADLESS GHOSTS!
When it comes to Spooky ghosts and Halloween, none are quite as unnerving as the Headless variety! Here I look at Ireland’s 8 most feared Decapitated Spectres!
http://www.spookyisles.com/2015/10/irelands-8-most-terrifying-headless-ghosts/
Posted in CASTLE, DEATH, DEMON, FOLKLORE, GHOST HUNTING, GHOSTS, IRISH HISTORY, MALEVOLENT
Tagged Blarney, Castle, Cork, Dead, Decapitated, Dublin, Ghost, Headless, Headless Horseman, Kerry, Kildare, Longford, paranormal
May 18, 2015 by annmassey
IRELAND’S FIVE MOST TERRIFYING POLTERGEISTS!
The media interest surrounding the Enfield Haunting and the associated television mini series has caused quite a stir more than 30 years after the original claims of activity.
Ireland has a history of poltergeists, much going back to the bloodshed and dark history in castles in ancient buildings. Such activity was deemed the work of demons and possession and the Catholic Church would not admit to its existence or any involvement in clearing such entities. As a result those affected would not come forward for fear of reprisals.
I was surprised therefore to find 20th and 21st century documented accounts, particularly in residential homes. Here are my top five Irish Poltergeist Hauntings.
Olympia Theatre, Dublin – home to poltergeist activity
Ireland’s Five Most Terrifying Poltergeists
Posted in CORK, DEATH, DEMON, DUBLIN, GHOSTS, HAUNTINGS, IRISH HISTORY, MALEVOLENT, MUNSTER, MURDER, PARANORMAL, Poltergeist
Tagged Cork, Dublin, Enniscorthy, Galway, Ghost, Haunting, Olympia Theatre, Poltergeist, Shaman, Wexford
May 5, 2015 by annmassey
GHOSTS OF RMS LUSITANIA AND THE PORT OF COBH
With a sea faring history going back hundreds of years, Cobh in County Cork is an unassuming port that continues to be visited by some of the largest ocean liners in the world today. A picturesque town with strong regal connections, it is hard to imagine that Cobh is synonymous with two of the biggest passenger liner tragedies of all time, just three years apart – RMS Titanic and RMS Lusitania.
7th May 2015 marks the one hundred year anniversary of the sinking of RMS Lusitania. As Cobh is making itself ready to remember the dead of this First World War tragedy, what part did the former Queenstown play in the disaster and why do some of the victims of the sinking refuse to leave?
CONSTRUCTION AND USE OF THE LUSITANIA
RMS LUSITANIA
Built in Scotland, the Lusitania was largely funded by the Admiralty, as Europe was in a state of unrest and conflict was believed imminent. By contributing to the cost and overseeing the construction, the Navy would be able to call on the 787 ft liner in the event of war, while in the meantime she was one of Cunard’s front running cruise vessels setting records for speed.
The Lusitania made 201 successful transatlantic voyages as a passenger ship since 1907. Once war broke out, the cruiser was also used to ship weapons to Britain with travellers knowing little or anything about the additional military cargo stored a few decks beneath their feet.
The Cunard liner was painted camouflage grey as war approached but continued to be used as a passenger vessel.
THE FATEFUL CROSSING
Pier 54, New York
On 1st May 1915, RMS Lusitania set sail from New York for Liverpool on her 202nd voyage with 1962 passengers and crew on board.
By now the cruise ship had been transformed to her initial glory from the camouflage grey, however she was not bearing flags in marked out war zones, contravening Cruiser Rules dictated by the First World War. These rules were set to safeguard passengers in the event of capture or attack and prevent any misidentification by the enemy.
The ship set sail from Pier 54 in New York despite the following statement from the German Embassy being printed in dozens of American newspapers:
Travellers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.
Imperial German Embassy
Washington, D.C., April 22, 1915.”
Although the ship’s manifest openly documented munitions in the cargo hold, the extent of undocumented firepower has never been fully disclosed and undoubtedly contributed to the Lusitania’s demise.
KINSALE AND THE TORPEDO
GERMAN U-20
As RMS Lusitania approached the south coast of Ireland, a German U Boat crossed her path and due to the nature of her cargo, prior warnings and without the relevant flags, the captain of the U-20 give an order to fire.
The Lusitania sustained a direct hit which in turn caused further explosions within the hull, most likely due to the extent of ammunition and artillery on board.
Due to the lack of lifeboats being launched, poor execution of evacuation and the way in which she tilted and descended, the Lusitania sank to the bottom of the sea, 11 miles from Kinsale, County Cork in just twenty minutes.
The sinking of the Lusitania, both in speed and manner was eerily reminiscent of RMS Titanic, just 3 years earlier. Despite rescue efforts from localised fishing vessels, 1201 souls were lost.
Sketch of the sinking of RMS Lusitania
Some of the deceased were brought to Kinsale by rescue boats and interred at St Multose Church, while it was also in Kinsale that the local Coroner launched an official enquiry the following day.
The majority of the bodies however, were either brought to or washed up in Cobh, (Queenstown as it was known at the time) along with the few survivors. In the Old Church Cemetery on the outskirts of Cobh, almost 200 of the victims of the tragedy are buried in mass and individual graves. Of course many more were never recovered at all.
Actual image of the Funeral Service for victims of RMS Lusitania
In a sickening coincidence, Ireland’s first custom built hotel, The Commodore opened for business in 1854 and its focus was to attract the many passengers embarking on voyages including the Titanic and Lusitania. At the time of the sinking of the Lusitania by a German U Boat, the hotel was under German ownership.
Otto Humbert and his family were forced to hide in the cellars as a crowd gathered and demanded the hotel be burned to the ground. The hotel itself was then converted into a hospital and makeshift morgue for the victims.
THE COMMODORE HOTEL, COBH
GHOSTS AND HAUNTINGS OF RMS LUSITANIA
While locals feel there must be some residual energy left from the fear and torment of the poor passengers within Cobh and particularly The Commodore Hotel, the haunting most reported is one witnessed on more than one occasion from a diverse section of the community including the White Witch of Cobh and a Graves Inspector.
This supernatural event is none other than the chilling sound of a mass funeral procession for the victims of the Lusitania which had taken place on 10th May 1915. The White Witch herself claims to have ‘seen’ it, however most accounts refer to many low murmuring voices and the sound of footsteps approaching the cemetery wall. Some have in fact assumed a current funeral was approaching and have looked up to see nothing but an empty road.
With so much maritime tragedy at its heart, it is little wonder that as the broken bodies of the victims of the RMS Lusitania lay in Cobh, the despairing spirits also remain.
Lusitania monument, Cobh, County Cork
More tales of Haunted Cobh can be found here! 5 Haunted Places to Visit in Cobh
Posted in CORK, DEATH, GHOSTS, HAUNTINGS, IRISH HISTORY, LUSITANIA, MUNSTER
Tagged 100 years, 1915, Anniversary, Centenary, Cobh, Cork, Cunard, First World War, Germany, Ghosts, Haunting, Irish History, Kinsale, Lustitania, New York, Pier 54, RMS Lusitania, Ship, U Boat, U-20
April 6, 2015 by annmassey
ON TRIAL FOR WITCHCRAFT – IRISH WOMEN OF SORCERY OR POWER?
Were some of Ireland’s most powerful and notorious women in actual fact Witches? Or were they victims of their own success falling foul of the jealous and fearful? Let’s take a look at three of the most well-known ‘Witches’ to be put on trial and find out!
DAME ALICE KYTELER
In Kilkenny you will find Kyteler’s Inn, the home and business of Alice Kyteler. Alice was the first person to be accused and charged with witchcraft in Ireland in 1324. A moneylender in the town, Alice was married a total of four times, with each husband dying under mysterious circumstances, leaving her more wealthy each time.
Kyteler’s Inn was a meeting place for local businessmen who all vied for the attention of the bewitching Alice, showering her with gifts and money. With her staff of luscious women, the premises were by far the busiest in Kilkenny.
As local envy and suspicion reached its peak, the surviving children of Alice’s four husbands had her charged with using poison, Sorcery, favouring her first born, denying the faith, blasphemy and animal sacrifices to the demons of the underworld.
Alice had many connections and her manipulative ways meant that she managed to avoid arrest for some time. After several twists including her accuser, the Bishop of Ossory being jailed himself, Alice was finally imprisoned to await trial.
First up for trial was Alice’s maid, Petronella de Meath who was tortured and confessed to practising Witchcraft with her mistress. Petronella was found guilty and burned at the stake. Alice’s first son William was also found guilty of among other things, perjury, extortion and heresy, however his was a more lenient sentence of three masses a day for a year and feeding the poor.
In 1325 Alice escaped, only to be tried in her absence and found guilty of Witchcraft. Alice Kyteler remained at large, never to be heard of again. Did she use magic to finally be rid of the threat of execution, or was she simply a smart woman, able to use her skills and charm to be a success and escape the stake?
Kyteler’s Inn, Kilkenny
FLORENCE NEWTON, THE WITCH OF YOUGHAL
Another sensational witch trial for Ireland was that of Florence Newton in 1661. She was accused of enchanting Mary Langdon, the maid of a prominent figure in the town called John Pyne.
Florence had called to the house during the winter of 1660 asking for meat from the master’s table. The maid refused and the slighted beggar left muttering curses. When Florence met Mary Langdon on the street, she grabbed her and gave her a vicious kiss, after which time Mary became violently ill. She suffered seizures and visions and the house of her master became subject to poltergeist activity.
When Newton was brought into Mary’s presence her sickness became worse and she began vomiting needles and nails. Mary claimed that Florence would appear in visions, sticking pins into her body.
Newton was also accused of causing the death of her jailer through sorcery, as his widow accused Florence of kissing her husband on the hand shortly before he dropped dead.
So important was the trial of the Witch of Youghal that the Irish Attorney General came to Cork to preside and it was assumed that Florence was found guilty and hanged. You see, despite well-kept records of the beginning of the trial, the remainder of them vanished completely so we will never know exactly what happened to Florence Newton. Did she also use Sorcery to survive?
BIDDY EARLY AND THE MAGIC BLUE BOTTLE
Biddy Early was born in 1778 in Kilenena, County Clare and took her mother’s maiden name. Ellen Early taught her daughter herbal cures, however both parents died when Biddy was sixteen and she was left in poverty and living in the poorhouse.
Marginalised for being aloof, rumour had it that Biddy had been talking to the fairies since she was a child and could control them at will. A good looking woman, Biddy met the first of her four husbands at market, a man twice her age.
Already making a name for herself as a healer, Biddy also opened a successful Shebeen, were the local folk would drink illicit alcohol and play cards. Within five years her husband Pat had died from alcohol consumption and she married her stepson John who also died from alcohol related issues. Her third husband died in 1868 when she was 70 and in 1869 she married a man in his thirties in exchange for a cure.
Biddy’s healing powers seemed to have centred on a mysterious blue bottle that was supposedly brought to her by a dead relative from the fairies. No one was allowed to touch the bottle and only true believers would receive help from Biddy.
If she knew you had been to a physician you were thrown out and priests in disguise would be regularly hunted away as they tried to get to the root of her power. Biddy publicly denounced the Catholic Church and was accused and charged with Witchcraft in 1865, which was very unusual this late on.
Fear took hold of those who had agreed to testify and Biddy was acquitted. On her deathbed she repented and at her funeral a gathering of priests asked the community to pray for the soul of Biddy Early.
Her cottage stands in ruins and her grave in Feakle is unmarked, however her blue bottle was not to be seen after she died. Did the fairies reclaim the source of Biddy Early’s power?
The Ruins of Biddy Early’s Cottage, County Clare
Skilled, manipulative and powerful all three, but were they Witches? That knowledge is lost forever, by way of Witchcraft or otherwise!
Posted in CORK, DEATH, FEMALE, FOLKLORE, IRISH HISTORY, MAGIC, SORCERY
Tagged Alice Kyteler, Biddy Early, Clare, Cork, Curses, Florence Newton, Folkore, Ireland, Kilkenny, Magic, Magic Blue Bottle, Sorcery, Spells, Witch, Witch Trial, Youghal
March 17, 2015 by annmassey
10 HAUNTED IRISH PUBS TO VISIT ON SAINT PATRICK’S DAY
Get in the spirit of Saint Patrick’s Day with 10 of Ireland’s Haunted Pubs!
10 Irish Haunted Pubs to visit on Saint Patrick’s Day.
Posted in HAUNTINGS, IRISH HISTORY, MAGIC, PARANORMAL, PUBLIC HOUSES, WITCHES
Tagged Alice Kyteler, Cork, Dublin, Ghosts, Glasnevin, Haunting, Irish Rebellion, James Joyce, Kerry, Killarney, Laois, Michael Collins, paranormal, Robert Emmet, Supernatural, Tipperary, W B Yeats, Witch, Wolf Tone
13 SHADES OF FEAR: IRELAND’S MOST COLOURFUL FEMALE GHOSTS
Ireland has long been famed for the number of female hauntings across the country and many of them have been associated with colour. Here I look at thirteen of the most colourful in more ways than one! 13 Shades of Fear: Ireland’s Most Colourful Female Ghosts
Posted in CORK, DUBLIN, FEMALE, GHOSTS, HAUNTINGS, IRISH HISTORY, PARANORMAL
Tagged Balllyshannon, Bandon, Castle, Charles Fort, Clare, Cork, Dead, Drimnagh, Dublin, Female, Ghost, Glencairn Abbey, Glendalough, Green, Leamaneh Castle, Leap Castle, Limerick, Louth, Offaly, Red Lady, red Mary, Saint Kevin, Waterford, Wicklow, Woman in White
SLANE CASTLE, METALLICA AND THE SUPERNATURAL
THE HISTORY, HERITAGE AND HAUNTINGS OF CURRAGHCHASE
AGHABOE ABBEY AND THE FLAMES OF IRISH HISTORY
SEDUCTION & DESTRUCTION – THE LURE OF THE GANCANAGH
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CELTIC GODS
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TUATHA Dé DANNAN
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MEGA Cheesy Pizza
Someone wise once said, “it ain’t easy bein’ cheesy.” Cheese is one of the most revered foods of all time, and one of the Original Gangsters of human culinary tradition. Cheese is actually older than history! That’s right, humans were making cheese before our we even started keeping a record of our history. It’s no surprise that we still love cheese today—especially on top of pizzas.
In celebration of cheese’s glory, we present you with our 15-cheese MEGA CHEESY PIZZA! We’ve loaded up one brave pizza with the culmination of over 10 millennia of cheese-making history. And you can taste that pungent history in every gooey, melty bite. Check out our Mega Cheesy Pizza recipe below, and explore the many wonders of cheese along the way. Because, to truly love the cheese, you’ve got to take the time to get to know the cheese. Respect the cheese.
Cheese as Old as Time
You guys, CHEESE IS OLDER THAN TIME as we know it. Just let that fact sink in for awhile. It’s thought that the first ancestral cheeses were being made as early as 6000 or even 8000 B.C.! Some of the oldest tangible evidence of cheese-making comes from 5500 B.C., in what’s now modern-day Poland. In those days, the milk was curdled INSIDE of the stomachs of actual animals! Those stomachs had a natural supply of rennet, the enzyme that causes milk to coagulate. All kinds of animal skins and inflated internal organs used to be repurposed into storage vessels. (What a crafty species we are.)
That curdled milk would then be salted and pressed into a harder, chunkier substance—a.k.a. CHEESE, though that name came much later on. In warmer climates, like in the Sahara grasslands, making cheese was the best way to keep milk from going bad. For longer preservation, they made hard cheeses that were heavily salted. But, in cooler climates, like Europe and the Middle East, cheeses could be less salty and less acidic. This allowed microbes and mold to form, which is a good thing on Planet Cheese. That mold is what gives the thousands of different cheeses their distinct (and often pungent) flavors.
Wherever they were made, early cheeses were generally pretty salty and sour. The texture is said to have been a cross between a chunkier cottage cheese and modern day feta cheese. (YUM.) Archaeologists have found carvings illustrating cheese making in Ancient Egyptian tombs. Then the Ancient Greeks continued the cheese-making tradition, and even had a myth to explain the origin of the magical, curdled-milk creation. The Greeks believed that cheese was discovered by Aristaeus, a giant Cyclops who was milking sheep and goats and storing the milk. Smart Cyclops, eh? Of course, the Ancient Romans eventually conquered the Greeks, and they turned cheese-making into an art form that spread across Europe. It was in Rome that cheese—in all its stinkiness—earned its rightful place as a common food group. Lucky for us, cheese shows no signs of slowing down its delicious dominance.
How Cheese is Made & How it Got its Name
Each cheese is unique, not unlike a snowflake, but there’s a common process used to produce them. Cheese comes from milk, but not just cow’s milk—there are cheeses made from goat’s milk, sheep’s milk, buffalo’s milk, horse’s milk, and even camel’s and moose’s milk! The milk has to be acidified, and then that enzyme rennet is added to cause the coagulation. It’s the casein (one of the proteins that’s in milk) that coagulates as the milk curdles from a liquid to a solid. Through this process, the solids are separated from the liquid, and those solids are then pressed into their final, cheesy form.
The word “cheese” is thought to trace WAY back to Proto-Indo-European language (say that 5 times fast)—basically the old-schoolest form of language that gave birth to all of the Indo-European languages today. (Cheese is an OG, y’all.) In Proto-Indo-European language, the root *kwat- meant “to ferment, become sour.” That eventually morphed into caseus in Latin, which came to mean cheese (and is also where we got the word “casein”). The Latin form changed across all kinds of languages, like kaas in Dutch, Kees in Low German, and eventually chese in Middle English.
And, because cheese has been around and been talked about for so long, it’s woven its way into our lives and our language. You can be a turophile (toor-uh-fahyl), meaning a connoisseur or lover of cheese. (In Greek, tyros means cheese). As in, “If I could have every cheese on my pizza, I would, because I’m a bona fide turophile!” You can also become a cheesemonger, or a specialist seller of cheese—if you’re willing to dedicate yourself to years of formal education, cheese tasting, and hands-on experience. If you live in Wisconsin, you might just be a cheesehead. And, of course, you can be a cheeseball, someone who is corny, goofy, or ‘cheesy.’
Cheese for Thought
There’s a lot to say about cheese, and we can’t do it all in one day. Let’s face it, we’re Pizza Freaks—we’ll always be talking about cheese. But, for now, we’ve got some cheesetastic facts that are just too cool to not share with you!
Across the entire planet, more cheese is produced than coffee, tobacco, tea, and cocoa beans…COMBINED! Now that’s a lotta cheese, folks.
The most popular cheese in the world is gouda—it accounts for more than half of our global cheese consumption.
You need 10 pounds of milk just to make 1 pound of some cheeses!
It’s estimated that there are around 1,000 different French cheeses.
The holes created in cheese are caused by microscopic flecks of hay that get into the milk. As the cheese matures, those teeny flecks turn into bigger and bigger holes.
The smell of stinky cheese is caused by the Brevibacterium linens—which is the same bacterium that causes the smell of stinky feet!
Cheese contains trace amounts of naturally-occurring morphine—an opioid pain reliever, like heroin. That morphine comes from the cow’s liver, and cheese breaks back down into an opioid (casomorphins) when we digest it!
Mice actually DON’T like cheese! Say whaaat? Yes, a study in 2006 found that mice actually avoided cheese and dairy in general, opting for grains, fruits, and sweets instead.
The cheesiest pizza ever made was the Centouno Formaggio Pizza, made in Portland, Oregon using 101 different cheeses! The pizza parlor’s inspiration for their cheesy feat? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ 99-cheese pizza.
But Wait, Cheese Gets Weirder
Take a bite of any cheese and you’ll know what magic tastes like. And that kind of magic has taken cheese to some pretty weird places.
Stilton blue cheese has been known to cause especially odd and vivid dreams.
Edam cheese never goes bad—it only hardens!
The world’s most expensive cheese is pule cheese, and it costs around $600 per pound! It comes from the milk Balkan donkeys in Serbia, and there are only about 100 female donkeys that are milked to make this special cheese.
You can also get moose cheese for around $420-450 per pound. Moose cheese is one of the rarest foods on Earth, because there are only 3 moose on the entire planet that are used to make it! Those 3 moose live in Bjursholm, Sweden, and milking them takes nearly 2 hours and has to be done in complete silence.
American cheese isn’t actually cheese… Legally, in the U.S., it has to be labeled as “cheese product” or “American Singles” because the way the cheese is made is so different from any real cheese. Kraft Singles, for example, are less than 51% real cheese.
Andrew Jackson once had a block of cheddar cheese that was 4 feet across and 2 feet thick delivered to the White House! The cheddar block weighed almost 1400 pounds, but Jackson invited 10,000 people to the White House to eat it and it was gone in 2 hours.
Albertville, France’s electricity is actually powered by Beaufort cheese! Because the whey from the milk isn’t necessary to make the cheese, it’s kept and bacteria is added to it, which then transforms into biogas. That gas is fed through an engine, which heats up water, which then generates electricity!
There's No Such Thing as Too Much Cheese
It may be possible to have too much of a good thing, but not when it comes to cheese (or pizza). There’s always room for more pizza. And there’s always room for more CHEESE on top of a pizza. We piled 15 marvelous cheeses onto our Mega Cheesy Pizza—how cheesy can YOU get?
Parmesan Pizza Crust:
2 ¼ cup bread flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup parmesan
¼ tsp pepper
Mega Cheesy Sauce:
whipped cream cheese
gouda dip
Mega Cheesy Cheeses:
mozzarella slices
shredded sharp cheddar
4-cheese Mexican blend – Monterey Jack, mild cheddar, queso quesadilla, asadero natural cheeses
Colby Jack, shredded
gruyere, grated
Mega Cheesy Toppers:
blue cheese crumbles
tomato-basil goat cheese crumbles
queso fresco
*These are just les fromages that we used. Use whichever cheeses you like on your Mega Cheesy Pizza!
In a bowl, combine flour, yeast, parmesan, salt, and pepper. Whisk to combine.
Add water. Mix with wooden spoon until smooth and a soft dough forms.
Knead for 2-3 minutes on a floured surface until dough has loosened and is elastic.
Cover and rest 15 minutes.
Yields 2 servings of dough. Cut dough in half and roll out desired half to fit 12-inch pizza pan.
Remove crust from oven and allow to cool slightly.
Spread on your soft cheeses as your Mega Cheesy Sauce.
Layer on your sliced and shredded Mega Cheesy Cheeses.
Crumble and sprinkle on Mega Cheesy Toppers.
Return to oven to bake for 5-8 minutes, until cheese is golden brown and starting to blister.
Serve, slice, and Eat the Mega Cheesy Pizza already!
Yields 1 insanely awesome extra cheesy pizza.
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City of Schenectady, NY
Charter and Related Legislation
Ch C Charter and Related Legislation
Part I: Administrative Legislation
Ch 3 Accident Reports
Ch 6 Affirmative Action
Ch 8 Assessment Districts, Upper Union Street
Ch 9 Assessment Districts, Special Downtown
Ch 10 Assessment, Real Property
Ch 13 Capital Budget Process
Ch 14 City Bonds
Ch 16 City History Center
Ch 18 City Offices
Ch 20 Claim Releases; City Insurance
Ch 23 Clerk
Ch 26 Conferences, Municipal
Ch 28 Council, City
Ch 29 Counsel, Corporation
Ch 31 Court Clerk
Ch 33 Development, Department of
Ch 35 Economic Development Zone Administrative Board
Ch 39 Employee Organizations
Ch 42 Engineering and Public Works, Department of
Ch 54 Flag, Seal, Flower and Song, Official
Ch 57 Freedom of Information
Ch 59 General Services, Department of
Ch 60 Grievance Procedures
Ch 62 Purchasing
Ch 67 Housing Authority
Ch 68 Housing Standards Review Board
Ch 70 Industrial Development Agency
Ch 72 Land Reutilization Corporation of the Capital Region
Ch 73 Leasing of Restaurant Facilities: Sealed Bids
Ch 76 Legal Notices
Ch 86 Parks and Recreation Administration
Ch 87 Personnel
Ch 91 Planning Commission
Ch 92 Police
Ch 93 Civilian Police Review Board
Ch 95 Recreation Advisory Commission
Ch 96 Schenectady Heritage Area Advisory Council
Ch 97 Schenectady - Nijkerk Council
Ch 99 Solid Waste Department
Ch 100 Traffic Violations Bureau
Ch 102 Urban Homesteading
Ch 103 Urban Renewal Agency
Ch 109 Consumer Protection, Office of
Ch 111 Workers' Compensation
Part II: General Legislation
Ch 115 Adult Bookstores; Obscene Material
Ch 117 Advertising
Ch 121 Air Pollution
Ch 124 Alarms
Ch 128 Amusements
Ch 131 Auctions and Auctioneers
Ch 135 Bingo and Games of Chance
Ch 137 Building Code Administration
Ch 138 Building, Plumbing and Electrical Standards
Ch 140 Buildings and Lots, Numbering of
Ch 142 Dances and Dance Halls
Ch 144 Dogs and Other Animals
Ch 146 Energy Advisory Board
Ch 147 Environmental Quality Review: Supplement
Ch 148 Stormwater Management
Ch 149 Energize NY Benefit Financing Program
Ch 151 Excavations
Ch 152 Explosives
Ch 155 Fire Insurance Claims
Ch 157 Flood Hazard Control
Ch 158A Freelance Workers
Ch 159 Garage Sales
Ch 161 Garbage, Rubbish and Refuse
Ch 163 Gasoline and Motor Fuel: Sign Display
Ch 164 Group Homes
Ch 165 Golf Course, Municipal
Ch 167 Housing Standards
Ch 170 Iceboxes and Refrigerators, Abandoned
Ch 177 Massage Parlors
Ch 179 Merchants, Transient
Ch 186 Parks and Recreation
Ch 194 Peddlers and Vendors
Ch 201 Poles and Wires
Ch 203 Precious Metals Dealers
Ch 204 Public Assembly Areas
Ch 206 Property, Private
Ch 208 Rat and Pest Control
Ch 210 Rental Property
Ch 214 Sales, Special
Ch 215 Sale of Real Property
Ch 216 Scrap Processors and Junk Peddlers
Ch 217 Secondhand Dealers
Ch 224 Soliciting, Door-To-Door
Ch 232 Swimming Pools, Residential
Ch 236 Taxicabs
Ch 240 Trailer Camps
Ch 247 Vehicles, Abandoned and Unused
§ 247-3 Scope.
§ 247-4 Outdoor storage restrictions.
§ 247-5 Enforcement.
§ 247-6 Right to enter to inspect
§ 247-7 Violations.
§ 247-8 Penalties for offenses.
§ 247-9 Emergency action.
§ 247-10 Removal at owner's request; costs to become lien.
Ch 251 Vendors, Ice Cream Truck
Ch 256 Watershed
Ch 257 Wireless Telecommunications Facilities
Ch 258 Weeds and Offensive Accumulation
Ch 260 Weights and Measures; Trade Practices
Ch A270 Cable Television Franchise
Agendas Legislation Minutes
City of Schenectady, NY / The Code / Part II: General Legislation
Chapter 247 Vehicles, Abandoned and Unused
[HISTORY: Adopted by the Council of the Schenectady 4-13-1981 as Ord. No. 81-30. Amendments noted where applicable.]
Garbage, rubbish and refuse — See Ch. 161.
Scrap processors — See Ch. 216.
Vehicles and traffic — See Ch. 249.
The outdoor storage of junked, abandoned, unused or dangerous motor vehicles, or the parts therefrom, within the City of Schenectady is a hazard to the preservation of the public health, welfare and safety in that it constitutes a health, fire and safety hazard and is an attractive nuisance to children, which is a peril to their safety. Their outdoor storage constitutes a blight on the City's landscape, and they are generally unsightly, and their existence tends to depreciate the value of property in the neighborhood and the City generally. The control of the outdoor storage of junked, abandoned, unused or dangerous motor vehicles, or parts therefrom, within the City of Schenectady is therefore regulated for the preservation of the public health, safety and welfare of its residents.
Any motor vehicle, the ownership of which cannot be reasonably determined or of which the owner does not intend to recover possession.
COMPETITION VEHICLES
Those vehicles which have been so modified for use on a track or dragstrip that they cannot be legally operated on a public way.
Any motor vehicle which has smashed and broken windows and/or areas of sharp and torn metal edges and points and which cannot legally be operated upon a public way.
HISTORIC MOTOR VEHICLE
A motor vehicle manufactured more than 25 years prior to the current calendar year, which is owned and operated as an exhibition piece or collectors item and is used for participation in club activities, exhibits, tours, parades and for occasional transportation and similar uses, but not used for general daily transportation.
JUNKED
Any motor vehicle which is unregistered by the State of New York or any other state and is not operable.
A parcel of land as described on the City of Schenectady Tax Map.
A motor vehicle having a seat or saddle for the use of the rider and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, but excluding a tractor.
Every vehicle which, if operated on the highways of this state, would be required by law to be licensed by the Department of Motor Vehicles of the State of New York.
OPERABLE
Any motor vehicle which can be registered in the State of New York and which can be legally operated upon a public way.
Those vehicles which are either propelled by their own power or drawn on the public highways and which are used as temporary residences, such as tent trailers, travel trailers, campers or mini- and motor homes.
Any operable motor vehicle which is unregistered by the State of New York or any other state and/or upon which is not displayed a valid state inspection sticker.
Those vehicles having a seasonal or limited use, such as box trailers and construction trailers, and snow removal or snowplowing equipment.
VEHICLE OWNER
A person, other than a lienholder, having the property in or title to a vehicle. The term includes a person entitled to the use and possession of a vehicle subject to a security interest in another person, and also includes any lessee or bailee of a motor vehicle having the exclusive use thereof, under a lease or otherwise, for a period greater than 30 days.
This chapter does not apply to competition vehicles, recreational vehicles, utility vehicles, motorcycles or historic vehicles, unless such vehicle is abandoned or dangerous.
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation, either as owner, occupant, lessee, agent, tenant, trespasser or otherwise of or on any property within the City of Schenectady, to store or deposit or cause or permit to be stored or deposited a junked, abandoned or dangerous motor vehicle or vehicles, or parts therefrom, in the City of Schenectady except:
Within a wholly enclosed building, or in an area enclosed by a secured wall or fence and in conformity with other existing zoning ordinances as they relate to fences and similar enclosures.
[Amended 8-27-1984 by Ord. No. 84-71]
That no more than 10 such motor vehicles may be stored at one time in an open area at a gasoline filling station or outdoors at a New York State licensed repair shop for the purpose of repair or reconditioning, only provided that the outdoor storage of a specific vehicle shall not exceed 30 days.
That nothing herein shall restrict the storage of unused motor vehicles for sale by a duly licensed new or used car dealer.
As otherwise provided by law.
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation, either as owner, occupant, lessee, agent, tenant, trespasser or otherwise of or on any privately owned lot within the City of Schenectady, to store or deposit or cause or permit to be stored or deposited any unused vehicle for more than eight contiguous months in the City of Schenectady. This prohibition does not apply to the one allowable vehicle so long as the one vehicle stored or deposited on the lot is not stored or deposited in a manner which creates a hazard to the health, safety or morals of the occupant of a building or the public, and he shall place the vehicle out of public view whenever practicable.
[Amended 12-5-1983 by Ord. No. 83-98; 10-15-2002 by Ord. No. 2002-12]
Any junked, abandoned, unused or dangerous motor vehicle or vehicles, or parts therefrom, stored or deposited in violation of this chapter on any land in the City of Schenectady shall be removed by the vehicle owner, property owner, occupant, lessee, agent, tenant or other person, firm or corporation occupying, managing or controlling such land or vehicle.
This chapter shall be enforced by the Bureau of Property Management.
The Bureau of Property Management shall receive the assistance of the Building Inspector, the Department of Engineering and Public Works, the Fire and Police Departments or officers and all other municipal officials as may be required for the total enforcement of this chapter, to the extent and limit determined by the Mayor.
During regular business hours or in an emergency at any hour whatsoever, the Bureau of Property Management or its representative or any duly authorized City representative, upon the showing of proper credentials and in the discharge of his duties, may enter upon any premises where a motor vehicle is stored. If access to such property is refused, the Bureau of Property Management shall apply for a search warrant in an appropriate court, and a warrant shall be issued upon a showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that a junked, abandoned or dangerous vehicle, or parts therefrom, are stored or deposited on the property or that the owner of the property or the owner of the vehicle is in violation of this chapter.
The Bureau of Property Management or its representative or any duly authorized City representative may enter the premises without a search warrant in the case of an emergency which requires immediate action to abate a direct hazard or imminent danger to the health, safety, morals or welfare of the occupants of a building or the public.
Notice of violation. Whenever the Bureau of Property Management determines that there has been a violation of this chapter, he shall serve written notice upon the property owner, occupant or person having charge of such land upon which any vehicle is illegally stored or deposited and upon the vehicle's owner, if such party can be determined. Such notice shall specify the alleged violation, shall provide a reasonable time for compliance and shall advise the party of his right to appeal.
Notice shall be served, either personally or by registered mail, to the property owner at his last known address, as shown upon the latest assessment roll, and to the vehicle's owner at his last known address, as shown upon the latest records of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. If, after due diligence, an address for either party cannot be determined or if either party cannot be served in the above stated manner, then the Director shall cause a copy of such notice to be posted on the property or on the motor vehicle, or both.
Right of appeal. Any person affected by a notice of violation issued in connection with the enforcement of any provision of this chapter or any rule or regulation adopted pursuant thereto may request and shall be granted a hearing before the Bureau of Property Management if such person shall file with said bureau a written request for a hearing, setting forth the following: a brief statement of the grounds for the appeal, the name and address of a party upon whom orders may be served and the reasons why such notice of violation should be modified or withdrawn. This request must be filed within 10 days after the service of the notice of violation, and compliance with such notice shall not be required while the hearing is pending.
Failure to abate violations. In case the property owner, agent, operator, vehicle owner or occupant cannot be found within the time limit set for the abatement of said violations or if such owner, agent, operator, vehicle owner or occupant shall fail, neglect or refuse to abate such violations, the Corporation Counsel shall be advised of all facts in the case and shall institute appropriate action in the court to compel compliance.
A cause of action for recovery of penalties provided for in § 247-8 may be released, settled or compromised by the Bureau of Property Management before the matter is referred to the Corporation Counsel or thereafter by such attorney.
[Amended 4-27-1992 by Ord. No. 92-4]
Each violation of this chapter shall be a misdemeanor and shall be punishable by a fine not exceeding $150 or by imprisonment not exceeding 30 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment; or by a penalty of not less than $5 nor more than $500 to be recovered by the City in a civil action.
A separate offense shall be deemed committed on each day during or on which a violation occurs or continues unabated after the time limit set for the abatement of the violation.
Any person issued a notice of violation pursuant to any provision of this chapter, where the same has not been withdrawn by administrative appeal or dismissed by a court of competent jurisdiction, shall be subject to an administrative fee of $50, and such administrative fee shall be charged against the land upon which the notice of violation was issued as a municipal lien and, if unpaid, such administrative fee shall be added to the tax rolls as an assessment or levied as a special tax against said property or recovered in a civil suit against the person to which the notice of violation was issued.
[Added 7-1-1996 by Ord. No. 96-37]
In cases in which the Bureau of Property Management determines that immediate action to abate a direct hazard or imminent danger to the health, safety, morals or welfare of the occupants of a building or the public is required, he shall promptly cause the removal of the motor vehicle, vehicles or parts presenting such hazard or danger as a public nuisance, and the expense incurred by the City shall be assessed against the property upon which such vehicle was found, which assessment shall constitute a lien and charge on such property and be collected as provided by law for the collection of delinquent taxes.
[Added 2-2-1988 by Ord. No. 88-06; amended 4-27-1992 by Ord. No. 92-15]
The Bureau of Property Management of his or her representative or any duly authorized City representative is hereby authorized to remove any junked, abandoned, unused or dangerous motor vehicle or the parts thereof at the request of the property owner on whose property said vehicle or parts are stored. The cost of such removal shall be borne by the property owner making such request and shall be payable to the Bureau of Property Management. In the event of nonpayment, the cost may be assessed against the property upon which such vehicle was found, which assessment shall constitute a lien and charge on such property and be collected as provided by law for the collection of delinquent taxes.
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Participants observe map displays during GIS Day 2017. Photo credit: Danielle T. Tucker
Industry leaders share mapping insights during Stanford GIS Day
GIS, or geographic information system, is a modern mapping tool used by many researchers at Stanford Earth to better understand the planet using big data. Stanford’s 17th annual GIS Day offered students and faculty the opportunity to learn about the latest developments in the constantly evolving field.
BY Danielle Torrent Tucker
ClockDecember 21, 2017
Standing in front of a digital screen reaching from floor to ceiling, Stanford Geospatial Center manager Stace Maples discussed his recent work using satellite maps to understand where people live in Ethiopia.
Maples was speaking to a packed room at Stanford’s David Rumsey Map Center at Green Library, a treasure trove of collections for map enthusiasts, as he kicked off the 2017 GIS Day hosted by Stanford Libraries on Nov. 15.
GIS, or geographic information system, is a modern mapping tool used by many researchers at the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences to understand the evolution of the planet. From crop cover and water use to street routes and nomadic passages, experts use GIS to organize massive amounts of data so they can identify patterns. Social scientists and economists are also leveraging big data to analyze demographic and social trends to develop sustainable solutions to social challenges such as health care and access to clean water.
GIS is a boundless horizon right now...And this is where the connections happen.
GIS Day in 2017 featured talks from industry leaders at major corporations and breakthrough technology companies advancing the capabilities of mapping systems and data management, including Facebook and Google, and data visualization firms Stamen Design and Development Seed.
“I see people reconnecting with one another and that’s exactly what this day is about,” Maples said.
Speakers shared their latest projects to address problems like food shortages and poverty, as well as their efforts to push technological limits with machine learning.
“This wouldn’t have been possible without industry partners,” Maples said, emphasizing the difficulty of tracking nomadic pastoralists on remote terrain. “And now we’re bringing good maternal health practices because of these projects.”
Geospatial instruction and reference specialist David Medeiros, left, and Geospatial manager Stace Maples stand in front of one of the Rumsey Center's large screens used for displaying maps. Photo credit: Danielle T. Tucker
How we see the world
Drishtie Patel, a program manager for maps at Facebook, discussed her work expanding OpenStreetMap (OSM), a project to create a free and open map of the world. With 2 million registered users and 40,000 active users per month, the community-based project is being built globally and academics play a large role in its success.
“Maps are the basis for everything, whether you see it or not,” Patel said. “It’s how we see the world, it’s how things are represented, it’s how we live our day-to-day lives as easily as we do.”
Patel became involved with GIS Day after meeting Maples at a local map-a-thon, a gathering that brings volunteers together to map their local communities. GIS Day is a great way to make connections and learn about other projects in the field, she said.
“I’ve seen a lot of amazing research come out of students, so I think it’s nice to try and connect their work with the real world,” Patel said. “There’s definitely learning on both sides.”
Student perspectives
During a series of 7-minute flash talks, Stanford students shared their research using GIS to understand sanitation in rural India, disease spread in western Kenya, flood and landslide hazard patterns, urban recovery from earthquake damage, and the productivity of tropical plantation forests.
Devin McMahon, a PhD student in Earth System Science, discussed her work analyzing the land-use sustainability of eucalyptus forests in southeastern Brazil. Her research combines remote-sensing satellite data, soil chemistry and meta-analysis techniques to address concerns about water and nutrient depletion at large spatial and temporal scales.
“I thought this would be a good chance to connect with some of the speakers because I use the Earth Engine platform in my work,” said McMahon, who spoke with Google Earth Engine platform co-founder Matt Hancher during lunch on the Mitchell Earth Sciences patio. “It was also fun to see all the different applications people have for spatial research and think about other directions it could go and other tools you could use.”
What is your map?
Mapping has come a long way since traditional cartography, and digital tools are creating rapid change. Jordan Winkler, a geospatial big data product evangelist at DigitalGlobe, discussed his latest venture, Penny, in which programmers trained artificial intelligence to predict wealth from space. The project is a partnership with Eric Rodenbeck, the founder, CEO and creative director of Stamen Design – a collaboration that never would have happened if Winkler hadn’t connected with Rodenbeck’s colleagues during GIS Day two years earlier, he said.
“As soon as I saw what they were doing at the GIS Day presentation, I just knew that Stamen and DigitalGlobe had to work on something together,” Winkler said. “I keep coming back because this is one of the only places that GIS people are starting to think outside of traditional geographical spatial analysis.”
Discussing the challenge of leveraging 100 petabytes of data to understand the planet, he noted that humans may only be grasping a sliver of what it means to describe the physical world. Given the needs of mapping as an industry and where it’s going, maps are not going to be made to be digested by humans, Winkler said.
“GIS is a boundless horizon right now,” Winkler said. “And this is where the connections happen.”
Media ContactsM
Danielle T. Tucker
dttucker@stanford.edu
ESA Honors Rosamond Naylor
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) has named William Wrigley Professor and FSE Founding Director Rosamond Naylor as one of its 2019 Fellows.
Navigate to ESA Honors Rosamond Naylor
The Washington Post features play co-created by Stanford Earth PhD
"The Manic Monologues" is a confessional play co-produced by geological sciences PhD candidate Zack Burton that aims to destigmatize mental illness.
Navigate to The Washington Post features play co-created by Stanford Earth PhD
Stanford Earth alumnus receives 2018 Knowles Teaching Fellowship
San Lorenzo High School teacher Ian Hagmann, MS '15 has been awarded a five-year fellowship that includes stipends, funds for professional development, grants for teaching materials and opportunities for leadership development.
Navigate to Stanford Earth alumnus receives 2018 Knowles Teaching Fellowship
E-IPER students on winning team in cleantech hackathon
E-IPER students Valerie Shen, MS/MBA ’19, and Michael Levin, MS/JD ’19 competed on the team that received the grand prize for their ideas to optimize electricity use in the Stanford Cleantech Challenge.
Navigate to E-IPER students on winning team in cleantech hackathon
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Classical and Hybrid Modeling of Gene Regulatory Networks (2009)
Zeiser Stefan,
We present classical and hybrid modeling approaches for genetic regulatory networks focusing on promoter analysis for negatively and positively autoregulated networks. The main aim of this thesis is to introduce an alternative mathematical approach to model gene regulatory networks based on piecewise deterministic Markov processes (PDMP). During somitogenesis, a process describing the early segmentation in vertebrates, molecular oscillators play a crucial role as part of a segmentation clock. In mice, these oscillators are called Hes1 and Hes7 and are commonly modeled by a system of two delay differential equations including a Hill function, which describes gene repression by their own gene products. The Hill coefficient, which is a measure of nonlinearity of the binding processes in the promoter, is assumed to be equal to two, based on the fact that Hes1 and Hes7 form dimers.However, by standard arguments applied to binding analysis, we show that a higher Hill coefficient is reasonable. This leads to results different from those in literature which requires a more sophisticated model. For the Hes7 oscillator we present a system of ordinary differential equations including a Michaelis-Menten term describing a nonlinear degradation of the proteins by the ubiquitinpathway. As demonstrated by the Hes1 and Hes7 oscillator, promoter behavior can have strong influence on the dynamical behavior of genetic networks. Since purely deterministic systems cannot reveal phenomenons caused by the inherent random fluctuations, we propose a novel approach based on PDMPs. Such models allow to model binding processes of transcription factors to binding sites in a promoter as random processes, where all other processes like synthesis, degradation or dimerization of the gene products are modeled in deterministic manner. We present and discuss a simulation algorithm for PDMPs and apply it to three types of genetic networks: an unregulated gene, a toggle switch, and a positively autoregulated network. The different regulation characteristics are analyzed and compared by numerical means. Furthermore, we determine analytical solutions of the stationary distributions of one negatively, and three positively autoregulated networks. Based on these results, we analyze attenuation of noise in a negative feedback loop, and the question of graded or binary response in autocatalytic networks.
Establishment and application of non-2-D gel-based techniques for identification and quantification of challenging protein classes in Gram-positive bacteria (2009)
Wolff, Susanne
The introduction of two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) enabled the separation and visualization of a substantial fraction of an organism’s entire proteome, and when mass spectrometry entered protein science, these proteins became even amenable to identification on a grand scale. Nevertheless, important classes of proteins elude a separation on classical 2 D gels, as the ones showing extremes in isoelectric point or molecular weight, and foremost very hydrophobic proteins naturally embedded in lipid membranes. This thesis aimed at the establishment and adaptation of alternatives to 2-D PAGE. New techniques allowing for an identification and quantification of critical protein classes were designed and adopted to physiological questions in the Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus. In a comprehensive study on cytoplasmic proteins of S. aureus COL the number of proteins identified by a 2-D gel based approach could be extended by 650 proteins employing gel free technologies. Application of these complementary methods resulted in the establishment of a comprehensive reference map of the cytosolic proteome in growing and non-growing S. aureus cells which can serve as basis for further physiological investigations. Gel free separation of complex protein digests was likewise used in a quantitative study on heat stress in B. subtilis. By implementation of the iTRAQ® technology four different physiological states could be relatively quantified in one experiment. A parallel generation of 2-D gel based data enabled the depiction of strengths and weaknesses of protein quantitation by both, spot intensities on 2-D gels and iTRAQ® signal intensities in MS/MS spectra. Furthermore, new insights into heat sensitivity of pivotal enzymes involved in amino acid biosynthesis could be delivered. The institution of gel free approaches and advancements in 2-D PAGE provide the tools to penetrate into yet unamenable scopes of proteomes. A review on proteome coverage in B. subtilis gives an overview on the strategies which have been explored for most comprehensive protein identification in various sub-proteomes. Although more than one third of B. subtilis’ open reading frames could be demonstrated on protein level, one has to be aware of the fact that it still is a long way to achieve complete coverage of its proteome. Integral membrane proteins make up about one quarter of the entirety of proteins in a cell. Despite their large portion they are clearly understudied due to the intricacy of identification. Their low abundance and non-accessibility of membrane-spanning domains represent major experimental difficulties. The establishment of a protocol efficiently depleting cytosolic proteins by membrane shaving and targeting trans-membrane peptides by novel digestion strategies essentially facilitated identification of highly hydrophobic integral membrane proteins. This protocol was not only successfully applied to the membrane proteome of growing S. aureus cells, but was shown to be applicable in B. subtilis as well. Both studies displayed the novel membrane shaving approach to be highly complementary to a previously established separation of membrane proteins via 1 D PAGE. A combination of the two techniques resulted in identification of about half of the theoretical membrane proteome in both bacteria, and hence layed the foundation for advanced and quantitative analyses. In this regard, 14N/15N metabolically labeled membrane samples of growing and non-growing cells of S. aureus COL were relatively quantified revealing a significant difference in amount for more than one third of the proteins. A corresponding experimental setup was used to compare the membrane proteomes of S. aureus SA113 and its mutant deficient in the lysylphosphatidylglycerol synthetase MprF. Interesting quantitative differences were obtained for proteins most likely involved in the regulation of cellular surface net charge as well as for virulence-associated proteins.
New Enhanced Sensitivity Infrared Laser Spectroscopy Techniques Applied to Reactive Plasmas and Trace Gas Detection (2009)
Welzel, Stefan
Infrared laser absorption spectroscopy (IRLAS) employing both tuneable diode and quantum cascade lasers (TDLs, QCLs) has been applied with both high sensitivity and high time resolution to plasma diagnostics and trace gas measurements. TDLAS combined with a conventional White type multiple pass cell was used to detect up to 13 constituent molecular species in low pressure Ar/H2/N2/O2 and Ar/CH4/N2/O2 microwave discharges, among them the main products such as H2O, NH3, NO and CO, HCN respectively. The hydroxyl radical has been measured in the mid infrared (MIR) spectral range in-situ in both plasmas yielding number densities of between 1011 ... 1012 cm-3. Strong indications of surface dominated formation of either NH3 or N2O and NO were found in the H2-N2-O2 system. In methane containing plasmas a transition between deposition and etching conditions and generally an incomplete oxidation of the precursor were observed. The application of QCLs for IRLAS under low pressure conditions employing the most common tuning approaches has been investigated in detail. A new method of analysing absorption features quantitatively when the rapid passage effect is present is proposed. If power saturation is negligible, integrating the undisturbed half of the line profile yields accurate number densities without calibrating the system. By means of a time resolved analysis of individual chirped QCL pulses the main reasons for increased effective laser line widths could be identified. Apart from the well-known frequency down chirp non-linear absorption phenomena and bandwidth limitations of the detection system may significantly degrade the performance and accuracy of inter pulse spectrometers. The minimum analogue bandwidth of the entire system should normally not fall below 250 MHz. QCLAS using pulsed lasers has been used for highly time resolved measurements in reactive plasmas for the first time enabling a time resolution down to about 100 ns to be achieved. A temperature increase of typically less than 50 K has been established for pulsed DC discharges containing Ar/N2 and traces of NO. The main NO production and depletion reactions have been identified from a comparison of model calculations and time resolved measurements in plasma pulses of up to 100 ms. Considerable NO struction is observed after 5 ... 10 ms due to the impact of N atoms. Finally, thermoelectrically cooled pulsed and continuous wave (cw) QCLs have been employed for high finesse cavity absorption spectroscopy in the MIR. Cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS) has been performed with pulsed QCLs and was found to be limited by the intrinsic frequency chirp of the laser suppressing an efficient intensity build-up inside the cavity. Consequently the accuracy and advantage of an absolute internal absorption calibration is not achievable. A room temperature cw QCL was used in a complementary cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS) configuration which was equipped with different cavities of up to ~ 1.3 m length. This spectrometer yielded path lengths of up to 4 km and a noise equivalent absorption down to 4 x 10-8 cm-1Hz-1/2. The corresponding molecular concentration detection limit (e.g. for CH4, N2O and C2H2 at 1303 cm-1/7.66 μm) was generally below 1 x 1010 cm-3 for 1 s integration times and one order of magnitude less for 30 s integration times. The main limiting factor for achieving even higher sensitivity is the residual mode noise of the cavity. Employing a ~ 0.5 m long cavity the achieved sensitivity was good enough for the selective measurement of trace atmospheric constituents at 2.2 mbar. (A paperback version is published by Logos under ISBN 978-3-8325-2345-9.)
Late Cretaceous to Miocene tectonic reconstruction of the northwestern Caribbean - regional analysis of Cuban geology (2009)
Sommer, Max
The Caribbean is a geologically complex region with several different plate boundary interactions. Geodynamic reconstructions of the northwestern Caribbean region have been particularly controversial in terms of the number of arcs, subduction polarity, and timing of collision. This thesis develops a refined tectonic reconstruction for the northwestern Caribbean based on a review of geological data of Cuba and a regional analysis within the northwestern Caribbean context. With regard to plausibility, significant emphasis was put on the degree and qualitiy of visualization. Three crustal sections across key areas in western, central, and eastern Cuba have been constructed in order to conduct an evolutionary interpretation in three dimensions. Western and central Cuba constitute an orogenic belt resulting from the collision of a mid- to Late Cretaceous volcanic arc - the "Great Caribbean Arc" - with the southern paleomargin of North America. The collision process apparently started in the Campanian, but major north- to northeast-directed thrusting processes at the southern Bahamas margin culminated during the Paleocene. A continous southwest-dipping polarity of the "Great Caribbean Arc", at least from the Aptian-Albian, can be infered from (1) its Late Cretaceous approach towards the North American margin, (2) the magnitude of top to the north directed tectonic transport in the Cuba orogenic belt, and (3) the internal structures of the metamorphic fore-arc assemblages and their evolution on the north side of the arc. An Early Cretaceous southwest-dipping origin of the "Great Caribbean Arc" along the northern fringe of the Chortís Block appears to be in all probability. This concept provides a link between (1) middle Late Cretaceous collision processes along the Matagua suture zone, (2) the Turonian termination of "Great Caribbean Arc"-activity on Jamaica, and (3) the late Campanian onset of collision in the Cuba orogenic belt. The collision of the "Great Caribbean Arc" with the Bahamas margin hampered relative northward motion of the Caribbean Plate from the late Campanian onward. Continued northward push finally resulted in the commencement of north-dipping subduction. Late Cretaceous commencement of north-dipping subduction was accompanied by superposition of oceanic crust and large-scale north-directed gravity sliding on the upper plate, as documented by ophiolitic slide-masses and Maastrichtian olistostromes in eastern Cuba (Nipe - Cristal and Moa Baracoa ophiolite massifs) as well as on Jamaica (ophiolites of the Bath-Dunrobin Complex) and the southern peninsula of Hispaniola. Progress of north-dipping subduction was responsible for the emergence of a Paleocene to Middle Eocene volcanic arc which spanned the northwestern Caribbean along the southern boundary of the Yucatán Basin while the Chortís Block and the Nicaragua Rise were still in a paleoposition to the south of the Maya Block. North-dipping subduction and the associated volcanic arc isolated the Yucatán Basin from its original affiliation to the Caribbean Plate. Relative northward motion of the Caribbean Plate and activity of the Paleogene volcanic arc stopped after the Eocene arrival of thickened oceanic crust of the Caribbean Large Igneous Province at the north-dipping subduction zone. After the late Early Eocene commencement of spreading at the Mid-Cayman Rise, North America - Caribbean relative motion was taken up along the sinistral Oriente Fault with estimated amounts of 800 to 1000 km offset since the Middle Eocene. This transform margin dissmembered the northwestern Caribbean extend of the Paleocene to Middle Eocene volcanic arc. Its eastern bend was uncoupled in the course of this process and may be represented by the Aves Ridge. South-central Hispaniola can be restored to a Middle Eocene position to the south of eastern Cuba, which accounts for an approximate Cenozoic displacement of 200 to 300 km. Therefore, most of the western prolongation of the Oriente Fault must be accommodated at the northern bounding-faults of the southern peninsula of Hispaniola. The proposed synthesis is in clear accordance with the paradigm of plate tectonics, corroborating its capability to incorporate even a complex region like the Caribbean.
Discovery of novel Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenases and their application in organic synthesis. (2009)
Rehdorf, Jessica
The application of BVMOs in kinetic resolution is a versatile alternative for the synthesis of optically pure esters. Within this thesis BVMOs proved to be highly active against a broad range of linear and aryl aliphatic ketones yielding a variety of enantiopure products. Among the beta-hydroxy ketones several CHMOs and BVMOPsfl showed the best results (E > 100), whereas the application of the latter enzyme also allowed access to the abnormal esters (regioisomeric excess > 40%). Interestingly, some enzymes showed a reduced activity and selectivity with a growing chain length of the ketone, suggesting that middle-chain ketones (C8-C10) might be preferred. Moreover, the production of optically pure 1,2-diols was observed (yields 8-50%), resulting from an in vivo hydrolysis of the 2-hydroxy alkyl acetates. Regarding the N-protected beta-amino ketones, results were different. While the majority of CHMOs catalyzed linear substrates showing high enantioselectivities (for CHMOBrevi1 and CHMOBrachy E > 100, c = 40-50%), BVMOPsfl did not convert nitrogen bearing linear ketones, although this might also be justified with the methylcarbamate protecting group. Interestingly, the number of BVMOs catalyzing oxidation of spatially more demanding linear branched beta-amino ketones was greatly reduced, indicating steric hindrance that was also combined with a decrease in selectivity. Similar to the observation for beta-hydroxy ketones, also the 2 amino alkyl acetates hydrolyzed furnishing 2-amino alcohols (yields 9-52%). Moreover, hydrolysis of the “abnormal“ esters allowed an alternative access to valuable native and non-native β-amino acids. In a two step process, using CDMO from R. ruber and CAL-B, it was possible to generate N-protected (+)-beta-leucine. During kinetic resolutions of aryl aliphatic ketones it was observed that the highest enantio¬selectivities could be achieved utilizing HAPMOJD1, HAPMOACB and PAMO, enzymes typically preferring aromatic substrates. Biotransformation with 3-phenyl-2-butanone revealed an E-value > 100 for HAPMOJD1 (S-selective). Nevertheless, also BVMOPsfl converted this sub¬strate (E = 43), and also CHMOAcineto and CPMO oxidized it, although selectivity was rather low (E < 5). Interestingly, BVMOKT2440 was the only examined enzyme showing R selectivity (E = 13). Additionally, increasing the scale and performing biotransformation in a baffled flask could increase enantioselectivity of BVMOPsfl from E = 43 to 82. The discovery of novel enzymes with diverse properties is still a main goal of the biotechnological industry. Within these studies, two BVMOs (BVMOKT2440 and HAPMOJD1) could be successfully amplified from genomic DNA using different PCR-methods. Then, expression in E. coli was optimized, revealing that the reduction of expression temperature, implementation of E. coli JM109 or RosettaTM (DE3), possessing the pRARE plasmid to facilitate translation of rare codons in the latter case, and/or co-expression of chaperones (pGro7: GroEL/ES-familiy) could increase the amount of soluble and active protein. Both enzymes were subjected to biocatalysis and it was found that BVMOKT2440 preferentially oxidized linear ketones, while HAPMOJD1 dominantly converted aryl aliphatic ketones. The latter enzyme could be purified by anion exchange and affinity chromatography allowing examination of kinetic parameters. Thereby, HAPMOJD1 displayed lowest KM-values for acetophenone derivatives bearing their substituent in para-position (KM < 320 µM). Moreover, also aldehydes and heteroaromatic compounds were oxidized and also sulfoxidation was observed. Interestingly it was found, that both BVMO genes are located in the direct neighborhood of a dehydrogenase and a hydrolase. This led to the suggestion that these enzymes may be metabolically connected in the degradation of their natural substrate.
Molekulare Grundlagen der Neurorehabilitation nach einem Schlaganfall bei alten Ratten (2009)
Petcu, Eugen Bogdan
Age-related brain injuries including stroke, are a major cause of physical and mental disabilities. Therefore studying the basic mechanism underlying functional recovery after brain stroke in middle aged subjected it is of considerable clinical interest. Data from our lab and elsewhere indicate that, behaviorally, middle aged rats were more severely impaired by stroke than were young rats, and they also showed diminished functional recovery. Infarct volume did not differ significantly in young and middle aged animals, but critical differences were apparent in the cytological response to stroke, most notably an age-related acceleration of the establishment of the glial scar. The early infarct in older rats is associated with a premature accumulation of BrdU-positive microglia and astrocytes, persistence of activated oligodendrocytes, a high incidence of neuronal degeneration, and accelerated apoptosis. In middle aged rats, neuroepithelial-positive cells were rapidly incorporated into the glial scar, but these neuroepithelial-like cells did not make a significant contribution to neurogenesis in the infarcted cortex in young or middle aged animals. Stroke is accompanied by a strong inflammatory reaction in the brain. We hypothesized that a mild systemic inflammatory reaction as caused by periodontal disease prior to stroke onset, may exert a neuroprotective effect in a rat model of focal ischemia. To test this hypothesis, marginal periodontitis was induced in BB/LL Wistar rats for 3 weeks. Two weeks after periodontitis initiation, focal cerebral ischemia was produced by reversible occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery. After a survival time of 7 days after ischemia, rat brains were analyzed. In addition, markers of systemic inflammation were determined in a different group of laboratory animals at 14 days after the onset of periodontitis. We found that rats with a mild systemic inflammation had a significantly reduced infarct volume and a significant reduction in the number of brain macrophages in the infarcted area. Conclusions: The available evidence indicates that the middle aged brain has the capability to mount a cytoproliferative response to injury, but the timing of the cellular and genetic response to cerebral insult is deregulated in middle aged animals, thereby further compromising functional recovery. In addition we found that that mild systemic inflammation elicited prior to stroke onset may have a neuroprotective effect in rats by reducing the infarct volume and tissue destruction by brain macrophages.
Effect of surgical intervention on the activation status of circulating monocytes and T-cells (2009)
Kumar, Subramanian Suresh
Major surgery causes alterations in immune function which results in immune suppression in post surgical patients. Deactivation of monocytes in these patients is characterised by the reduced ability of these cells to produce pro-inflammatory cytokines on stimulation with LPS in vitro and by markedly reduced HLA-DR expression. Immune suppression in patients with systemic inflammation has also been associated with a high level of apoptosis in both the circulating T and B cell populations. In addition post surgical T cells have a reduced capacity to proliferate ex vivo in response to co-ligation of the T cell receptor and CD-28. Considering these impairments of immune system, this study aimed to define the extent of immune modulation in both innate and adaptive system in a cohort of surgical patients. Measurment of the level of HLA-DR expression of monocytes in these patients showed a considerable change in monocyte phenotype in the immediate post operative period. In line with previous work, all patients showed a considerable reduction in monocytic surface HLA-DR expression which persisted for many hours and those who had post surgical septic complications showed the most severe reduction. Importantly, patients with minor surgical intervention also exhibited decreased HLA-DR expression. Gene expression analysis of monocyte in these patients showed the up-regulated transcripts of genes involved in extravasation and realignment of the cytoskeleton. Analysis of periperal T cell demonstrated a significant reduction in their number in the circulation and a sharp raise in the number of apoptotic T –cells in the immediate post surgical period. Microarray analysis of T cells from patients who developed sepsis and patients with an uneventful recovery within the post-operative period (3 days) showed a substantial reduction in the transcriptional activity of many genes in both groups. However, this down regulation of T cell transcriptional activity appears to be a rather broad and non specific effect since it is not restricted to particular functional pathways. Real time PCR analysis of both the CD4+ and CD8+ populations using selected down-regulated genes showed that the change in transcriptional profile is equally evident both in CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells. The cause of this transient immune depression following surgery remains to be established and it may represent an important enabling factor which contributes to the development of post surgical infections and inflammatory complications.
HISTOLOGY AND ULTRASTRUCTURE OF SOLIFUGES - Comparative studies of organ systems of solifuges (Arachnida, Solifugae) with special focus on functional analyses and phylogenetic interpretations (2009)
Klann, Anja Elisabeth
Solifuges (Solifugae, Arachnida) are an important element of the fauna especially in arid and desert environments. Unfortunately, this animal group has only been extremely poorly studied not only in terms of morphology, but also ecology, physiology, systematics and phylogeny. The present study aimed to provide a detailed overview of their anatomy and ultrastructure. Representatives of these peculiar animals were investigated by means of light and electron microscopy in order to gain new insights in their functional morphology and also to evaluate potential characters for their systematic and future phylogenetic studies. The histology and ultrastructure of the following organ systems have been investigated: tarsal structures, sensory structures and nervous system, coxal glands, alimentary system, respiratory system, circulatory system and reproductive systems. Additionally, a camel spider in Baltic amber was described, representing the second known specimen of fossil Solifugae in Baltic amber. Further on, the entire mitochondrial genome of Nothopuga sp. was sequenced for comparison with other solifuges and chelicerates in order to reveal changes in their gene order.
Kinetic Simulations of Dusty Plasmas (2009)
Ikkurthi, Venkata Ramana
This thesis constitutes a computational study of charge and ion drag force on micron-sized dust particles immersed in rf discharges. Knowledge of dust parameters like dust charge, floating potential, shielding and ion drag force is very crucial for explaining complex laboratory dusty plasma phenomena, such as void formation in microgravity experiments and wakefield formation in the sheaths. Existing theoretical models assume standard distribution functions for plasma species and are applicable over a limited range of flow velocities and collisionality. Kinetic simulations are suitable tools for studying dust charging and drag force computation. The main aim of this thesis is to perform three dimensional simulations using a Particle-Particle-Particle-Mesh ($P^3M$) model to understand how the dust parameters vary for different positions of dust in rf discharges and how these parameters on a dust evolve in the presence of neighboring dust particles. At first, rf discharges in argon have been modelled using a three-dimensional PIC-MCC code for the discharge conditions relevant to the dusty plasma experiments. All necessary elastic and inelastic collisions have been considered. The plasma background is found collisional, charge-exchange collisions between ions and neutrals being dominant. Electron and ion distributions are non-Maxwellian. The dominant heating mechanism is Ohmic. Then, simulations have been done to compute the dust parameters for various sizes of dust located at different positions in the rf discharges. Dust charge and floating potential in the presheath are slightly larger than the values in the bulk due to the higher electron flux to the dust particle in the presheath. From presheath to the sheath the charge and floating potential values decrease due to the decrease of the electron current to the dust. A linear dependence of dust potential on dust size has been found, which results in a nonlinear dependence of the dust charge with the dust size when the particle is assumed to be a spherical capacitor. This has been verified by independently counting the charges collected by the dust. %where indeed it has been noted that the dust charge %scales nonlinearly with the dust size. The computed dust parameters are also compared with theoretical models. Simulated dust floating potentials are comparable to values obtained from Allen-Boyd-Reynolds (ABR) and Khrapak models, but much smaller than the values obtained from Orbit Motion Limited (OML) model. The dust potential distribution behaves Debye-H\"{u}ckel-like. The shielding lengths are in between ion and electron Debye lengths. % indicating shielding by both ions and electrons. Further, the orbital drag force is typically larger than the collection drag force. The total drag force for the collisional case is larger than for the collisionless case and it scales nonlinearly with the dust size. The collection drag values and size-scaling agrees with Zobnin's model. The charging and drag force computation is then extended to two and multiple static dust particles in the rf discharge to study the influence of neighboring dust particles on the dust parameters. Initially, the dust parameters on two dust particles are computed for various interparticle separation distances and for dust particles placed at different locations in the rf discharge. It is observed that for dust separations larger than the shielding length the dust parameters for the two dust particles match with the single dust particle values. As the dust separation is equal to or less than the shielding length the ion drag force increases due to the buildup of a parallel drag force component. However, the main dust properties like charge, potential, vertical component of ion drag are not affected considerably. This is attributed to the smaller collection impact parameter values compared to the dust separation. %This is because the %collection impact parameter values in the sheath and the presheath are smaller %than the smallest dust separation and in case of the dust in the bulk, the %collection impact parameter is comparable with the dust separation. Then the dust charges on multiple dust particles located at different positions in the discharge and arranged along the discharge axis are also computed. It is found that the charges of the multiple dust particles in the bulk or presheath do not differ much from the single particle values at that location. But the dust charges of multiple dust particles located in the sheath drastically differ from the single dust parameter values. Due to ion focusing from dust particles in the upper layers, the ion current increases to dust particles in the lower layers resulting in smaller charge values. This is as well the case where dust particles are vertically aligned as in the standard experiments of dusty plasmas. In conclusion, this work used a fully kinetic (PIC and MD or $P^3M$) model to study the physics of dust charging in rf plasmas. Our simulations revealed that the dust parameters vary considerably from the bulk to the sheath. The CX collisions increase flux to the dust thereby affecting the dust parameters and their scaling with dust size. Also, a dust particle affects the charging dynamics of its neighbor only when their separation is within the shielding length. In the plasma sheath, ion focussing can cause great reduction in dust charges.
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Pakistan Day: Malaysian PM, civil-military leaders attend military parade
Important News Pakistan
12:54 PM, 23 Mar, 2019
Islamabad (Staff Report/Agencies): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, top civil-military leadership, including President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, Army Chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa and the chiefs of Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Air Force witnessed a joint military parade at Parade Ground near Islamabad’s Shakarparian hills on Tuesday.
The nation is celebrating Pakistan Day across the country with traditional zeal and fervor.
Mahathir Mohamad, who was on a three-day visit to the country, was the guest of honour at the parade.
The Bahraini army chief, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Azerbaijan Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, and federal minister, including Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, were also present at the parade.
After the guests assembled on the stage, the parade began with the national anthem which was followed by a recitation of the Holy Quran.
Parade Commander Brigadier Naseem Anwar then requested the president to witness the parade.
In his address, President Dr Arif Alvi reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to regional peace and stability. He said Pakistan was ever willing to resolve issues through dialogue but also remained completely capable of defending itself against any aggression.
The president lauded the contribution of the armed forces towards Pakistan’s progress and cited the recent confrontation with India as an example of their proficiency.
Military contingents from China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka and Bahrain also participated in the parade.
Contingents of the three armed forces conducted a march-past, while a formation of Pakistan Air Force jets led by Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan presented a fly-past as a salute to the president.
Pakistan’s weaponry including Al-Zarrar and Al-Khalid tanks, a variety of armoured personnel carriers, and surveillance equipment such as the Giraffe radar was presented before the audience.
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The day dawned with thirty-one-gun salute in the federal capital and twenty-one-gun salute in provincial capitals, Radio Pakistan reported.
Special prayers were offered in mosques after Fajr prayers for the progress and prosperity of Pakistan.
Tagged pakistan day malaysian civil military parade neo tv
Nisar urges opposition not to play politics over civil-military ties
Pakistan Day: Military parade under way in Islamabad
Opposition parties hold APC in Islamabad to plan anti-govt movement
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Iranian Banks to privatize their properties and assets
Tehran, Iran, Jun. 24
Some $15.5 billion of Iran's budget has been allocated for bartering the government debts to banks, Iran`s Deputy Minister of Banking, Insurance and State Enterprises of Ministry of Economic Affairs Abbas Memarnejad said.
“The merger of banks in a single ank to reform the banking system of the country is a very important issue and the first experience at this level," Memarnejhad said, referring to the merger of IRGC`s banks with Sepah Bank, Trend reports, citing the official website of Sepah Bank.
“There is a huge balance sheet with large assets and liabilities in the merger of banks, he said. “Therefore, the basis for valuations is based on the rules and regulations.”
“Knowledge management, which takes shape during the merger, needs to be documented in order to use this experience in the future,” he added.
The Central bank of Iran (CBI) announced on March 2 that five banks and financial institutions affiliated with the Iranian Armed Forces will be merged into Bank Sepah.
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Azerbaijan to take part in 2019 International Army Games
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KFYI
This article is about the Phoenix radio station. For the Bay Area station known as KFYI in 1984-1985, see KDIA.
Broadcast area
Phoenix metropolitan area
News/Talk 550 KFYI
The Valley’s Talk Station
550 kHz (also on HD Radio)
95.5-2 KYOT-HD2
News/Talk
5,000 watts daytime
1,000 watts nighttime
Facility ID
Transmitter coordinates
33°23′16″N 112°0′24″W / 33.38778°N 112.00667°W / 33.38778; -112.00667Coordinates: 33°23′16″N 112°0′24″W / 33.38778°N 112.00667°W / 33.38778; -112.00667
Callsign meaning
K For Your Information
Former callsigns
KFCB (1922–1929)
KOY (1929–1999)
KGME (1999–2000)
Fox News Radio, Premiere Networks
(AMFM Radio Licenses, L.L.C.)
Sister stations
KESZ, KGME, KMXP, KNIX-FM, KOY, KYOT, KZZP
kfyi.iheart.com
KFYI (550 kHz AM) is a news/talk radio station based in Phoenix, Arizona. Its signal covers the Phoenix metropolitan area and it uses the slogan "The Most Trusted News in Phoenix." KFYI is owned by iHeartMedia. Its studios are located in Phoenix near Sky Harbor Airport and its transmitter is in South Phoenix near 36th Street and Southern Avenue.
KFYI transmits in analog AM.[1] The digital signal is also rebroadcast on the HD2 channel of co-owned 95.5 KYOT.
1 Programming
3 Controversy
Programming[edit]
KFYI's weekday lineup features a mix of national and local programming and news. Phoenix-based personalities heard on KFYI include Mike Broomhead (mornings), Chris Merrill (afternoons) and Rob Hunter (early morning news). The news staff (based in Phoenix) is Gregg Paul (managing editor & anchor); Ted Houston (reporter); and Sandra Haros (reporter). Former Congressman J. D. Hayworth resigned from KFYI in 2010 to pursue an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate against Senator John McCain.
Syndicated programming includes Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. The Glenn Beck Radio Program airs in the evening. Weekends include programs on money, health, "Handel on The Law" with Bill Handel and "The Kim Komando Show" featuring computer expert Kim Komando. Some weekend shows are brokered.
former logo
KFYI was first licensed, with the sequentially issued call letters KFCB, to the Nielson Radio Supply Company of Phoenix, Arizona on September 6, 1922.[2][3]
On February 8, 1929 the call letters were changed to KOY, which it would keep for 70 years. The station aired network programs in the pre-television era, then top 40 and from the 1980s, adult standards music. It was owned by Edens Broadcasting in the 1980s as the sister station to KOY-FM (Y95).
On May 7, 1999, the station's call letters were changed to KGME, and the KOY call sign was transferred to the former KISO, operating on 1230 kHz. A year later, there was a further call letter swap, as the Phoenix station on 910 AM became KGME, and its former format and call sign, KFYI, were transferred to 550 AM.
KFYI had originated in 1985 on 910 AM, which had been the signal of KPHO radio (co-owned with KPHO-TV, channel 5, until 1972). The call letters KFYI had been previously used by a station in Oakland, California, now KMKY.[4] KFYI signed on at 5:30am on July 10, 1985 with Morning Host Charlie Van Dyke, newsman Brad Messer and sports anchor Jim Jeffrey. KFYI host Barry Young served as the station's program director from 1988 until 1998, retiring from the station on November 7, 2014.
Controversy[edit]
On March 8, 2006 KFYI made news when fill-in host Brian James suggested that the United States National Guard and Border Patrol should shoot to kill people illegally crossing the US-Mexican border.[5] He also stated on the air that he would be "happy to sit there with my high-powered rifle and my night scope" and kill people as they cross the border. Those remarks prompted Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton to complain to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), calling the remarks "irresponsible and dangerous".[6]
^ http://www.freqseek.com/AZ/Phoenix/hd-radio-stations.aspx?page=1 Freq Seek list of HD radio stations in Phoenix
^ FCC History Cards (FCC.gov)
^ "New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, October 2, 1922, page 3.
^ History of the call signs of KMKY
^ Myers, Amanda Lee. "Radio host's call to kill border crossers dangerous". Associated Press. Retrieved 2019-06-09 – via Daily Herald.
^ Associated Press, April 10, 2006. Officials: Radio host's call to kill border crossers dangerous Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
Query the FCC's AM station database for KFYI
Radio-Locator Information on KFYI
Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for KFYI
FCC History Cards for KFYI (covering KFCB / KOY for 1927-1980)
Radio stations in the Phoenix metropolitan area
by AM frequency
by FM frequency
88.3 (KVCP1/KPHF2)
92.9 (KDWR-LP, K225CT)
99.3 (K257CD, KEMP, KRWV-LP)
102.9 (KDIF-LP, K275CP)
103.1 (KCDX, KSCW-LP)
106.5 (KKMR, K293CO)
by frequency & subchannel
100.3-1
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K229DB
K224CJ
K235CB
K240EU
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K287BX
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KALV-FM
KASC
KAZG
KBAQ
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KEC94
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KPNG
KPXQ
KQFN
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KRDE
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KSLX-FM
KSUN
KSWG
KTAR
KTAR-FM
KUPD
KVCP¹/KPHF²
KVIT
KVVA-FM
KWSS-LP
KXEG
KXXT
KYOT
KZON
KZZP
1260 KFAS
99.1 KFXY-LP
1-Daytime hours
2-Nighttime hours (KVCP and KPHF are timeshare stations)
Satellite radio local traffic/weather
XM Channel 219
Sirius Channel 157
Nearby radio markets
Flagstaff–Prescott
List of radio stations in Arizona
News/Talk radio stations in the state of Arizona
KAAA – Kingman
KATO – Safford
KAZM – Sedona
KBLU – Yuma
KBSZ – Apache Junction
KBTK – Kachina Village
KFNX – Cave Creek
KFYI – Phoenix
KNKI – Pinetop
KNST – Tucson
KNTR – Lake Havasu City
KTAR-FM – Glendale/Phoenix
KVWM – Show Low
KYCA – Prescott
KZZZ – Bullhead City
classic hits
other radio stations in Arizona
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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KFYI&oldid=901030971"
HD Radio stations
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Radio stations established in 1922
1922 establishments in Arizona
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20th World Conference on
Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology
September 18-19, 2019 Radisson Hotel Narita, Tokyo, Japan
Theme: Accelerations and Decelerations in Environmental Toxicology
Paula Moyano-Cires Ivanoff
Complutense University, Spain
Title: SN56 neuronal glutamate transmission dysfunction after 24 h and 14 days chlorpyrifos exposure
Submitted Date: May 30, 2019
Biography Abstract
Paula Moyano received his JD degree at the University Complutense University of Madrid in 2013. She has a Masters in Pedagogical Sciences 2017. She specialized in neurotoxicology and legal sciences and received his PhD in Toxicology and legal medicine in 2016
Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is an organophosphate insecticide described to induce cognitive disorders, both after acute and repeated administration. However, the mechanisms through which it induces these effects are unknown. CPF has been reported to produce basal forebrain cholinergic neuronal cell death, involved on learning and memory regulation, which could be the cause of such cognitive disorders. Neuronal cell death was partially mediated by oxidative stress generation, P75NTR and α7-nAChRs gene expression alteration triggered through acetylcholinesterase (AChE) variants disruption, suggesting other mechanisms are involved. In this regard, CPF alters glutamatergic transmission, which have been related with basal forebrain cholinergic neuronal cell death and development of cognitive disorders. According to these data, we hypothesized that CPF induces basal forebrain cholinergic neuronal disruption of glutamatergic transmission. We evaluated this hypothesis in septal SN56 basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, after 24 h and 14 days CPF exposure. This study shows that CPF increases glutamate levels. CPF increases glutaminase activity and upregulates the VGLUT1 gene expression, which could mediate the disruption of glutamatergic transmission. Our present results provide new understanding of the mechanisms contributing to the harmful effects of CPF, and its possible relevance in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases.
Javier Del Pino Sans
Title: Primary hippocampal neuronal cell death induction after acute and repeated paraquat exposures mediated by AChE variants alteration and cholinergic disruption
Javier Del Pino received his PharmD degree at the University Complutense University of Madrid in 2004. He has two Masters in Sciences 2009 and 2010. He specialized in neurotoxicology and neurodevelopmental toxicology and received his PhD in Toxicology in 2009. In 2010 he worked in Institute of Health Carlos III in the National Center of Environmental Health. From 2010 to 2012 he was Associated Researcher at University of Massachusetts (UMASS) working in Sandra Petersen´s Lab in a National Institute of Health (NIH) project on developmental effects of TCDD endocrine disruptor on sexual differentiation. In 2016 he got a position as Associated Professor of Toxicology at the Complutense University of Madrid.
Paraquat (PQ) is a widely used non-selective contact herbicide shown to produce memory and learning deficits after acute and repeated exposure similar to those induced in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the complete mechanisms through which it induces these effects are unknown. On the other hand, cholinergic system, mainly in the hippocampus, are involved on learning, memory and cell viability regulation. An alteration of hippocampal cholinergic transmission or neuronal cell loss may induce these effects. In this regard, it has been suggested that PQ may induce cell death and affect cholinergic transmission, which alteration could produce neuronal loss. According to these data, we hypothesized that PQ could induce hippocampal neuronal loss through cholinergic transmission alteration. To prove this hypothesis, we evaluated in hippocampal primary cell culture, the PQ toxic effects after 24 h and 14 consecutive days exposure on neuronal viability and the cholinergic mechanism related to it. This study shows that PQ impaired acetylcholine levels and induced AChE inhibition and increased CHT expression only after 14 days exposure, which suggests that acetylcholine levels alteration could be mediated by these actions. In addition, PQ induced, after 24 h and 14 days exposure, cell death on hippocampal neurons that was partially mediated by AChE variants alteration and cholinergic transmission disruption. Our present results provide new view of the mechanisms contributing to PQ neurotoxicity and may explain cognitive dysfunctions observed after PQ exposure.
20th World Conference on Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology
envitoxsummit@globalconferences.net
envitoxsummit@asiaconvention.com
envitoxsummit@asiameets.com
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Jan 03 19, 2:41 pm
VIRAL: Teacher shocked after only one of his students came to school after holiday
by Staff Report | Feature
Jan. 03, 19 | 2:41 pm
A teacher from Binalonan, Pangasinan returned to school ready to start his classes after two weeks of holiday vacation.
However, things didn’t go as he expected. Chito Grullo shared with GMA News that he was looking forward to meet his 32 students after the Christmas break but only one of his students showed up for class.
Grullo said he couldn’t help but laugh at the situation and take a selfie of him and his diligent student.
He commended the sole student who came to his class and even gave him extra credits for his efforts.
Grullo predicted that most of his students will most likely return on Monday, January 7, because they would like to make the most of their vacation.
He still left a message to his students saying that they should be ready for next week because vacations are over and it is now “back to reality”.
Story and photo credits: Chito Grullo via GMA News
Labor chief says dysmenorrhea leave possible if employers agree
Labor Chief Silvestre Bello said he is open to the possibility of granting a special leave for women suffering from menstrual cramps or dysmenorrhea. However, Bello was quick to clarify in an interview with ABS-CBN News that it's still an employee-employer bargaining...
More in Feature
WATCH: Khalid Al Ameri thanks Filipinos, UAE community for his fruitful 2018 journey
APO-ADAA, AUFWWAAD, PICE-UAE, lead blood donation drive in Abu Dhabi
PH Embassy, POLO-OWWA hold Outreach Program in Al Ain
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Allan Hunter
An elegant psychological thriller starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier
If Neil La Bute ever remakes Working Girl it might look a little like Love Crime. The last film from director Alain Corneau, who died in 2010, Love Crime is a typically elegant psychological thriller plunging into the murky waters of ruthless ambition, corporate ethics and merciless power games
The first half of the film is very much about work place politics as dedicated, doe-eyed assistant Isabelle (Ludivine Sagnier) learns the true measure of Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas), the ruthless boss that she idolises. Scott Thomas relishes the callous coldness of Christine turning on the charm with practised ease, flattering, seducing, exploiting the weak and clambering over the foolish in killer heels and a little black dress. Every word of encouragement is followed by a slap of humiliation as she exerts her power over the hapless Isabelle.
There are signs that Christine is not as invincible as she feels and that Isabelle is not as docile as she looks. There are echoes of All About Eve and hints of Single White Female as the relationship between the women twists and turns. A very big twist diverts the film towards more conventional territory with an intricately plotted perfect crime scenario that wouldn't seem out of place in an episode of Columbo, complete with black and white flashbacks to flesh out the details of a cunning plan.
It is less fertile territory than what has gone before but no less satisfying for mystery fans and Sagnier shines in a role that really does allow her to run the gamut from innocent victim to femme fatale. Brian De Palma has recently directed a remake Passion, co-starring Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace. Probably best to catch the original.
Selected release from Fri 14 Dec.
Love Crime trailer
Directed by: Alain Corneau
Written by: Alain Corneau/Nathalie Carter
Cast: Ludivine Sagnier, Kristin Scott Thomas, Patrick Mille
War breaks out between Christine, a ruthless executive and her assistant Isabelle, after Christine steals an idea from her protegee and Isabelle decides to get revenge.
Mesrine: Killer Instinct (l’Instinct de Mort) (30 Jul 2009)
Before the Winter Chill (28 Feb 2014)
Discordant drama/thriller from Philippe Claudel, Starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Daniel Auteuil
In Your Hands (17 Jul 2012)
Kristin Scott Thomas and Pio Marmaï star in this claustrophobic French drama
Un Secret (5 Jun 2008)
Darkest Hour (18 Sep 2017)
TIFF 2017: Gary Oldman puts all the other Churchills in the shade in the latest biopic of the iconic PM
Suite Française (9 Mar 2015)
Michelle Williams enters into a dangerous liaison in Saul Dibb's wartime drama
My Old Lady (10 Sep 2014)
Toronto International Film Festival: Maggie Smith excels in a witty, sophisticated drama
Love is in the Air (11 Feb 2014)
A fluffy French twist on a typical high concept Hollywood romantic comedy
Alain Corneau
Kristin Scott Thomas
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Lennox International Caps Year of Record Revenue, Profit and Cash Generation in 2018 and Reiterates Outlook for Strong Growth and Profitability in 2019
PR Newswire February 5, 2019
- 2018 GAAP revenue a record $3.88 billion, up 1%; adjusted revenue up 4% excluding the impact from divestitures; tornado impact of negative 3% on revenue growth for the full year
- 2018 GAAP EPS from continuing operations up 22% to record $8.77; adjusted EPS from continuing operations up 20% to record $9.42
- Generated $496 million of cash from operations and $411 million of free cash flow in 2018
- Fourth-quarter GAAP revenue down 5%; adjusted revenue up slightly excluding the impact from divestitures; tornado impact of negative 8% on revenue growth in the quarter
- Fourth-quarter GAAP EPS from continuing operations up 82% to fourth-quarter record $1.86; adjusted EPS from continuing operations up 18% to fourth-quarter record $1.93
- Reiterating 2019 guidance for revenue growth of 3-7%
- Reiterating 2019 guidance for GAAP EPS from continuing operations of $14.30-$14.90 and adjusted EPS from continuing operations of $12.00-$12.60
- Reiterating 2019 guidance for stock repurchases of $350 million
- Announcing plans to divest the company's Kysor Warren refrigeration business
DALLAS, Feb. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Lennox International Inc. (LII) today reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 results. All comparisons are to the prior-year period. The company's tornado references relate to the July 2018 tornado damage at a Residential manufacturing facility in Iowa. Adjusted revenue and profit exclude the non-core Refrigeration businesses divested in 2018 -- Australia, Asia and South America. In 2019, the company plans to divest its Kysor Warren business within its Refrigeration segment and is currently targeting to close the sale in the first quarter.
For the fourth quarter, GAAP and adjusted revenue was $844 million. GAAP revenue was down 5%, including the impact from divestitures and the tornado. At constant currency, GAAP revenue was down 4%. GAAP operating income was a fourth-quarter record $116 million, up 12%. GAAP earnings per share from continuing operations was a fourth-quarter record $1.86, up 82%.
Adjusted revenue, excluding the impact from divestitures, was up slightly in the fourth quarter. At constant currency, adjusted revenue was up 1%. The tornado had a negative 8% impact on revenue growth in the quarter. Total segment profit increased 7% to a fourth-quarter record $110 million, and total segment margin expanded 70 basis points to a fourth-quarter record 13.0%. Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations rose 18% to a fourth-quarter record $1.93.
For the full year, revenue was a record $3.88 billion on a GAAP basis, up 1% including the impact from divestitures and the tornado. Foreign exchange was neutral to revenue. GAAP operating income was a record $510 million, up 3%. GAAP earnings per share from continuing operations was a record $8.77, up 22%.
Adjusted revenue for the full year, excluding the impact from divestitures, was $3.81 billion, up 4%. The tornado had a negative 3% impact on revenue growth for the full year. Foreign exchange was neutral to revenue. Total segment profit increased 6% to a record $540 million, and total segment margin expanded 30 basis points to a record 14.2%. Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations rose 20% to a record $9.42 for the full year.
"Lennox International posted a record year for revenue, profitability, and cash generation in 2018 while working through the challenges from tornado damage at a large manufacturing facility and further focusing our business portfolio with refrigeration divestitures in Australia, Asia and South America," said Chairman and CEO Todd Bluedorn. "We plan another divestiture in 2019 with the sale of the Kysor Warren business within our Refrigeration segment to focus on our businesses that have strong market positions and fit our growth profile.
"In the fourth quarter, Residential reported tornado-impacted financial results of revenue down 3%, segment margin up 170 basis points to 17.7%, and segment profit up 7%. Residential revenue had $69 million of tornado impact in the fourth quarter, a 14% hit to top-line growth. Segment profit had $40 million of negative tornado impact in the fourth quarter, partially offset by $27 million of insurance proceeds received for third-quarter lost profits. We continue to expect fourth-quarter 2018 and 2019 lost profits from business interruption to be fully offset by insurance proceeds in 2019.
"In Commercial, revenue set a new fourth-quarter high and was up 9% at constant currency on strong and broad growth in North America. Segment margin declined 240 basis points in the fourth quarter and profit was down 7%, primarily from the timing of other product costs in the quarter, as well as labor inefficiencies and lower factory productivity. We expect these factors to be largely behind us in the first quarter and segment margin to expand in 2019.
"In Refrigeration for the fourth quarter, revenue at constant currency was up 1%, adjusted for the divestitures. Kysor Warren revenue was down significantly from the prior-year quarter, while the remainder of our North America revenue was up high-single digits. Europe revenue was up mid-teens at constant currency. Refrigeration segment margin declined 310 basis points to 9.2%, and profit was down 25% in the fourth quarter on mix and the timing of certain expenses and other products costs. As in Commercial, we expect organic margin expansion in 2019 for Refrigeration.
"Looking ahead for the company overall, the first quarter is off to a solid start, and we reiterate guidance for 2019. The company is well-positioned for a year of strong growth and profitability, and we will continue to invest in the business to drive future performance, grow the dividend with earnings over time, and repurchase stock, with $350 million planned for 2019."
Revenue: GAAP revenue for the fourth quarter was $844 million, down 5% including the impact from divestitures and the tornado. Adjusted revenue was up slightly. Foreign exchange had a negative 1% impact on revenue. Volume and mix were down, and price was up from the fourth quarter a year ago.
Gross Profit: Including the impact from the tornado and divestitures, GAAP gross profit in the fourth quarter was $225 million, down 14%. GAAP gross margin was 26.6%, down 250 basis points. GAAP gross profit was impacted by lower volume and factory absorption, unfavorable mix, unfavorable foreign exchange, higher commodity, tariffs, freight, and other product costs, and investments in distribution. Partial offsets included higher price and sourcing and engineering-led cost reductions.
Income from Continuing Operations: On a GAAP basis, fourth quarter income from continuing operations was $75.3 million, or $1.86 diluted earnings per share, compared to $43.1 million, or $1.02 diluted earnings per share, in the prior-year quarter.
On an adjusted basis, fourth quarter income from continuing operations was $77.9 million, or $1.93 diluted earnings per share, compared to $69.0 million, or $1.63 diluted earnings per share, in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted income from continuing operations for the fourth quarter of 2018 excludes net after-tax charges of $2.6 million: a charge of $10.5 million for other tax items, net; a charge of $4.4 million, net, for restructuring and various other items; a gain of $8.4 million from insurance recoveries, net of losses incurred; and a benefit of $3.9 million for excess tax benefits from share-based compensation.
Revenue: For the full year, GAAP revenue was $3.88 billion, up 1% including the impact from divestitures and the tornado. Adjusted revenue of $3.81 billion was up 4%. Foreign exchange was neutral to revenue. Volume and price were up, and mix was down from the prior year.
Gross Profit: Including the impact from the tornado and divestitures, GAAP gross profit for the full year was $1.11 billion, down 1%. GAAP gross margin was 28.6%, down 70 basis points. GAAP gross profit was impacted by the tornado and divestitures, unfavorable mix, higher commodity, tariffs, freight, and other product costs, and investments in distribution. Partial offsets included higher volume, price, and sourcing and engineering-led cost reductions.
Income from Continuing Operations: On a GAAP basis, income from continuing operations for 2018 was $360.3 million, or $8.77 diluted earnings per share, compared to $307.1 million, or $7.17 diluted earnings per share, in the prior year.
On an adjusted basis, income from continuing operations for 2018 was $385.9 million, or $9.42 diluted earnings per share, compared to $334.0 million, or $7.83 diluted earnings per share, in the prior year. Adjusted income from continuing operations for 2018 excludes net after-tax charges of $25.6 million: a net loss of $26.0 million on sale of businesses and related property; a net charge of $5.8 million for other tax items; a net charge of $12.5 million for restructuring and various other items; a benefit of $10.5 million for excess tax benefits from share-based compensation; and a gain of $8.2 million for insurance recoveries, net of losses incurred.
Free Cash Flow and Total Debt: For the full year, cash from operations was approximately $496 million compared to $325 million in the prior year. Capital expenditures were $95 million compared to $98 million in the prior year. Including $11 million from proceeds from damage to property, free cash flow was $411 million for the full year compared to $227 million in the prior year. In 2018, the company paid $94 million in dividends and repurchased $450 million of company stock. Ending the year, total debt was $1.04 billion, and the company's debt-to-EBITDA ratio stood at 1.7. Total cash and cash equivalents were $46 million at the end of the year.
BUSINESS SEGMENT FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
Residential Heating and Cooling
4Q18 revenue $461 million, down 3%; neutral foreign exchange
4Q18 segment profit $82 million, up 7%
4Q18 segment margin a fourth-quarter record 17.7%, up 170 basis points
2018 revenue a record $2.23 billion, up 4%; neutral foreign exchange
2018 segment profit a record $399 million, up 7%
2018 segment margin a record 18.0%, up 50 basis points
Fourth-quarter results were favorably impacted by tornado insurance proceeds for third-quarter lost profits, favorable price, sourcing and engineering-led cost reductions, and factory productivity. Partial offsets included the fourth-quarter tornado impact, lower volume, unfavorable mix, unfavorable foreign exchange, higher commodity, tariff, freight and other product costs, distribution investments, and higher SG&A. Full-year results were impacted by higher volume, favorable price, sourcing and engineering-led cost reductions, factory productivity, and tornado insurance proceeds. Partial offsets included the second-half tornado impact, higher commodity, tariff, freight, warranty, and other product costs, distribution investments, higher SG&A, and unfavorable foreign exchange.
Commercial Heating and Cooling
4Q18 revenue a fourth-quarter record $270 million, up 8%; up 9% at constant currency
4Q18 segment profit $41 million, down 7%
4Q18 segment margin 15.0%, down 240 basis points
2018 segment margin 15.3%, down 90 basis points
Fourth-quarter results were impacted by the timing of other product costs, lower factory productivity, higher commodity and freight costs, and higher SG&A. Partial offsets included higher volume, favorable price, favorable mix, and sourcing and engineering-led cost reductions. Full-year results were impacted by lower factory productivity and higher other product costs, higher commodity and freight costs, distribution investments, and higher SG&A. Partial offsets included higher volume, favorable price, favorable warranty, and sourcing and engineering-led cost reductions.
4Q18 revenue $113 million, flat; up 1% at constant currency
4Q18 segment profit $10 million, down 25%
4Q18 segment margin 9.2%, down 310 basis points
2018 revenue $545 million, up 1%; neutral foreign exchange
2018 segment profit $66 million, down 1%
Fourth-quarter results were impacted by unfavorable mix, higher commodity, freight, distribution and other product costs, and higher SG&A. Partial offsets included higher volume, favorable price, and sourcing and engineering-led cost reductions. Full-year results were impacted by unfavorable mix, higher commodity, freight, distribution and other product costs. Partial offsets included higher volume, favorable price, sourcing and engineering-led cost reductions, lower SG&A, and favorable foreign exchange.
2019 FULL-YEAR OUTLOOK
The company reiterates its financial guidance for 2019:
Revenue growth of 3-7%
GAAP EPS from continuing operations of $14.30-$14.90
Adjusted EPS from continuing operations of $12.00-$12.60
Corporate expenses of approximately $90 million
Effective tax rate of 22-23% on an adjusted basis for the full year
Capital expenditures of approximately $215 million, including $115 million in 2019 to complete the reconstruction of the Iowa manufacturing facility, funded by insurance proceeds
$350 million of stock repurchases
A chart of the company's current view on the tornado financial impact and insurance recovery for 2018-2019 is posted on the company's website at www.lennoxinternational.com.
For 2019, the company plans to shift financial reporting of the European Commercial HVAC business from the Commercial segment to the Refrigeration segment as the company will manage both its commercial HVAC and refrigeration operations in Europe together. In addition for 2019, Kysor Warren will be excluded from the 2019 adjusted financials due to the planned divestiture of that business. The company has posted on its website reclassified Commercial and Refrigeration segment revenue and profit for 2018 by quarter to reflect these changes.
A conference call to discuss the company's fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 results will be held this morning at 8:30 a.m. Central time. To listen, call the conference call line at 612-234-9960 at least 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time and use reservation number 462661. The conference call also will be webcast on Lennox International's web site at www.lennoxinternational.com. A replay will be available from 11:00 a.m. Central time on February 5 through February 19, 2019, by dialing 800-475-6701 (U.S.) or 320-365-3844 (international) and using access code 462661. The call also will be archived on the company's web site.
Lennox International Inc. is a global leader in the heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration markets. Lennox International stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and traded under the symbol "LII". Additional information on Lennox International is available at www.lennoxinternational.com or by contacting Steve Harrison, Vice President, Investor Relations, at 972-497-6670.
The statements in this news release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding the 2019 full-year outlook, expected consolidated and segment financial results for 2019, the financial and operational impact of the tornado damage to LII's manufacturing facility in Marshalltown, Iowa, planned divestiture of Kysor Warren, and expected share repurchases, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available as well as management's assumptions and beliefs today. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements, and investors should not place undue reliance on them. Risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements include, but are not limited to: the impact of higher raw material prices, the impact of new trade tariffs, LII's ability to implement price increases for its products and services, economic conditions in our markets, regulatory changes, the impact of unfavorable weather, and a decline in new construction activity and related demand for products and services. With respect to financial and operational impact of the tornado, the risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: (1) the impact on LII's results of operations and financial condition resulting from the tornado damage, (2) the cost and timing to rebuild the Marshalltown manufacturing facility and to repair or replace the necessary manufacturing equipment, (3) the timing of the receipt of insurance proceeds for property damage and business interruption losses and the dollar amount of these proceeds, and (4) the accounting treatment and related financial statement impact resulting from the tornado damage and insurance recoveries. With respect to the planned divestiture of Kysor Warren, the risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: (1) the ability to enter into definitive agreements and close the transaction, (2) the expected net proceeds from the planned divestiture, and (3) the anticipated timing of the divestiture. For information concerning these and other risks and uncertainties, see LII's publicly available filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. LII disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
LENNOX INTERNATIONAL INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
For the Years Ended
(Amounts in millions, except per share data)
Selling, general and administrative expenses
Losses (gains) and other expenses, net
Restructuring charges
Pension settlement
Loss (gain), net on sale of businesses and related property
Insurance proceeds for lost profits
Gain from insurance recoveries, net of losses incurred
Income from equity method investments
Other expense (income), net
Income from continuing operations before income taxes
Provision for income taxes
Income from continuing operations
Discontinued Operations:
Income (loss) from discontinued operations before income taxes
Income (loss) from discontinued operations
Earnings per share – Basic:
Earnings per share – Diluted:
Weighted Average Number of Shares Outstanding - Basic
Weighted Average Number of Shares Outstanding - Diluted
Cash dividends declared per share
Adjusted Segment Net Sales and Profit (Loss)
(Amounts in millions)
Adjusted Net Sales
Residential Heating & Cooling
Commercial Heating & Cooling
Refrigeration (1)
Adjusted Segment Profit (Loss) (2)
Corporate and other
Total adjusted segment profit
Reconciliation to Operating Income:
Special inventory write down
Special product quality adjustment
Items in losses (gains) and other expenses, net that are excluded from segment profit (loss) (2)
Operating loss (income) from non-core businesses
Excludes the non-core business results related to our business operations in Australia, Asia, and South America for 2018 and 2017.
We define segment profit (loss) as a segment's operating income included in the accompanying Consolidated Statements of Operations, excluding:
• The following items in Losses (gains) and other expenses, net:
◦ Net change in unrealized losses (gains) on unsettled futures contracts,
◦ Special legal contingency charges,
◦ Asbestos-related litigation,
◦ Environmental liabilities,
◦ Contractor tax payments,
◦ Other items, net,
• Special inventory write down,
• Loss (gain), net on sale of businesses and related property,
• Gain from insurance recoveries, net of losses incurred,
• Special product quality adjustment,
• Pension settlement,
• Operating loss (income) from non-core businesses; and,
• Restructuring charges.
(Amounts in millions, except shares and par values)
Accounts and notes receivable, net of allowances of $6.3 and $5.9 in 2018 and 2017, respectively
Inventories, net
Property, plant and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation of $778.5 and $774.2 in 2018 and 2017, respectively
Other assets, net
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' (DEFICIT) EQUITY
Short-term debt
Income taxes payable
Other liabilities
Stockholders' (deficit) equity:
Preferred stock, $.01 par value, 25,000,000 shares authorized, no shares issued or outstanding
Common stock, $.01 par value, 200,000,000 shares authorized, 87,170,197 shares issued
(188.8)
Treasury stock, at cost, shares 47,312,248 and 45,361,145 shares for 2018 and 2017, respectively
(2,895.5)
Total stockholders' (deficit) equity
Total liabilities and stockholders' (deficit) equity
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:
Gain on sale of real estate
Impairment/loss on the sale of Australia business
Impairment/loss on the sale of South America business
Dividend from Affiliates
Restructuring charges, net of cash paid
Provision for bad debts
Unrealized losses (gains) on derivative contracts
Stock-based compensation expense
Pension expense
Pension contributions
Other items, net
Changes in assets and liabilities, net of effects of divestitures:
Accounts and notes receivable
Income taxes payable and receivable
Net cash provided by operating activities
Proceeds from the disposal of property, plant and equipment
Purchases of property, plant and equipment
Net proceeds from sale of businesses and related property
Insurance recoveries received for property damage incurred from natural disaster
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities
Short-term borrowings, net
Asset securitization borrowings
Asset securitization payments
Long-term debt payments
Borrowings from credit facility
Payments on credit facility
Payments of deferred financing costs
Proceeds from employee stock purchases
Repurchases of common stock
Repurchases of common stock to satisfy employee withholding tax obligations
Cash dividends paid
Net cash used in financing activities
(Decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents
Effect of exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents
Supplemental disclosures of cash flow information:
Income taxes paid (net of refunds)
Insurance recoveries received
Reconciliation to U.S. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) Measures
(Unaudited, in millions, except per share and ratio data)
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
To supplement the Company's consolidated financial statements and segment net sales and profit presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, additional non-GAAP financial measures are provided and reconciled in the following tables. In addition to these non-GAAP measures, the Company also provides rates of revenue change at constant currency on a consolidated and segment basis if different than the reported measures. The Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures, when considered together with the GAAP financial measures, provide information that is useful to investors in understanding period-over-period operating results. The Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures enhance the ability of investors to analyze the Company's business trends and operating performance. In the first quarter of 2018, the Company announced the planned sales of its businesses in Australia, Asia, and South America. The results from operations for these businesses have been shown in the tables below as "Non-core business results". The sale of our business in Australia and Asia and the related property was completed in the second quarter of 2018 and sale of our business in South America was completed in the third quarter of 2018. The prior period results have been updated to provide period-over-period comparability.
Reconciliation of Income from Continuing Operations, a GAAP measure, to Adjusted Income from Continuing Operations, a Non-GAAP measure
For the Three Months Ended December 31,
Pre-Tax
Tax Impact (e)
Income from continuing operations, a GAAP measure
Special product quality adjustments (b)
Special legal contingency charges (a)
Asbestos-related litigation (a)
Net change in unrealized losses (gains) on unsettled future contracts (a)
Environmental liabilities (a)
Excess tax benefits from share-based compensation (c)
Other tax items, net (c)
Contractor tax payments (a)
Other items, net (a)
Non-core business results (f)
Adjusted income from continuing operations, a non-GAAP measure
Earnings per share from continuing operations - diluted, a GAAP measure
Net change in unrealized losses (gains) on unsettled future contracts (b)
Change in share counts from share-based compensation (d)
Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations - diluted, a non-GAAP measure
(a) Recorded in Losses and other expenses, net in the Consolidated Statements of Operations
(b) Recorded in Cost of goods sold in the Consolidated Statements of Operations
(c) Recorded in Provision for income taxes in the Consolidated Statements of Operations
(d) The impact of excess tax benefits from the change in share-based compensation also impacts our diluted share counts. The reconciliation of average outstanding diluted shares on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis is included in this document.
(e) Tax impact based on the applicable tax rate relevant to the location and nature of the adjustment.
(f) Non-core business results represent activity related to our business operations in Australia, Asia, and South America, not included elsewhere in the reconciliation.
For the Years Ended December 31,
Inventory write down (b)
Components of (Gains) Losses and other expenses, net (pre-tax):
Realized losses (gains) on settled future contracts (a)
Foreign currency exchange losses (gains) (a)
Loss on disposal of fixed assets (a)
Net change in unrealized losses (gains) on unsettled futures contracts (b)
Special legal contingency charges (b)
Asbestos-related litigation (b)
Environmental liabilities (b)
Contractor tax payments (b)
Other items, net (b)
Losses and other expenses, net (pre-tax)
(a) Included in both segment profit (loss) and Adjusted income from continuing operations
(b) Excluded from both segment profit (loss) and Adjusted income from continuing operations
Reconciliation of Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations - Diluted, a GAAP measure, to Estimated Adjusted Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations - Diluted, a Non-GAAP measure
For the Year Ended
Insurance recovery, net of other non-core EBIT charges, from tornado impact to damaged property
Reconciliation of Average Shares Outstanding - Diluted, a GAAP measure, to Adjusted Average Shares Outstanding - Diluted, a Non-GAAP measure (shares in millions):
Average shares outstanding - diluted, a GAAP measure
Impact on diluted shares from excess tax benefits from share-based compensation
Adjusted average shares outstanding - diluted, a Non-GAAP measure
Reconciliation of Net Sales, a GAAP measure, to Adjusted Net Sales, a Non-GAAP measure
For the Three Months
Ended December 31,
Net sales, a GAAP measure
Net sales from non-core businesses (a)
Adjusted net sales, a Non-GAAP measure
(a) Non-Core business represent our business operations in Australia, Asia, and South America.
Reconciliation of Gross Profit, a GAAP measure, to Adjusted Gross Profit, a Non-GAAP measure
Gross profit, a GAAP measure
Non-GAAP adjustments to gross profit
Gross profit from non-core businesses (a)
Adjusted Gross profit, a Non-GAAP measure
Reconciliation of Segment Profit, a GAAP measure, to Adjusted Segment profit, a Non-GAAP measure
Segment profit, a GAAP measure
Gross (loss) profit from non-core businesses (a)
Adjusted Segment profit, a Non-GAAP measure
Reconciliation of Selling, general and administrative expenses, a GAAP measure, to Adjusted Selling, general and administrative expenses, a Non-GAAP measure
Selling, general and administrative expenses, a GAAP measure
Selling, general and administrative expenses from non-core businesses (a)
Adjusted Selling, general and administrative expenses, a Non-GAAP measure
Reconciliation of Net Cash Provided by (Used in) Operating Activities, a GAAP measure, to Free Cash Flow, a Non-GAAP measure (dollars in millions)
Net cash provided by operating activities, a GAAP measure
Free cash flow, a Non-GAAP measure
Calculation of Debt to EBITDA Ratio (dollars in millions):
Months to
Adjusted EBIT(a) (a)
Depreciation and amortization expense (b)
EBITDA (a + b)
Total debt at December 31, 2018 (c)
Total Debt to EBITDA ratio ((c / (a + b))
(a) Adjusted EBIT excludes the non-core business results related to our business operations in Australia, Asia, and South America.
Reconciliation of Adjusted EBIT, a Non-GAAP measure, to Income From Continuing Operations Before Income Taxes, a GAAP measure (dollars in millions)
Income from continuing operations before income taxes, a GAAP measure
Items in Losses (gains) and other expenses, net that are excluded from segment profit
Inventory write down
Non-core business results (a)
Adjusted EBIT per above, a Non-GAAP measure
(a) Non-core business results represent activity related to our business operations in Australia, Asia, and South America, not included elsewhere in the reconciliation.
Lennox International Inc. corporate logo. (PRNewsFoto/Lennox International Inc.) (PRNewsfoto/Lennox International Inc.)
View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lennox-international-caps-year-of-record-revenue-profit-and-cash-generation-in-2018-and-reiterates-outlook-for-strong-growth-and-profitability-in-2019-300789419.html
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