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Infosecurity Magazine Home » News » Third-Party Hack Exposes NHS Wales Staff Details
13 Mar 2017 News
Third-Party Hack Exposes NHS Wales Staff Details
Steve Evans Freelance journalist, copywriter and editorial consultant
Follow @Evans_Steve
Thousands of NHS Wales staff have had their details exposed after a data breach at a private contractor.
According to the BBC, hackers gained access to IT systems belonging to a company called Landauer, who handles data on behalf of NHS Wales. The stolen information included names, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers. Radiation doses were also accessed during the breach, as the affected staff worked with x-ray machines.
Radiographers, cleaners and other staff at a number of NHS Wales boards were affected by the breach, the BBC said. Included in this number are around 530 people working for the Velindre NHS Trust, the organization in charge of coordinating the radiation dosimeter badges in Wales.
A further 650 staff working for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board had their data accessed, as did some people working for private dentists and vets and NHS staff in England and Scotland.
Infosecurity Magazine has reached out to Landauer but they had not responded at the time of publication. The ICO said in a statement: “We are aware of this incident and are making enquiries. The organizations impacted should be informing staff if they have been affected.”
A spokesperson for Betsi Cadwaladr health board told the BBC: “No patient information has been affected, 654 of our staff, current and past, have been affected by this security breach. We have contacted all the staff affected to reassure them that Landauer has acted swiftly to secure its servers and that, since the attack, it has undertaken significant measures in connection with its UK IT network to ensure that no further information can be compromised.”
The statement added that all staff had been given free access to credit monitoring service Experian.
It appears the breach happened back in October 2016, but the Trusts were only made aware in January 2017, and staff were told in March.
Clwyd West AM Darren Millar criticized the delay in revealing the breach. “This really is an astonishing data security breach," he told the BBC. “You've got thousands of NHS workers who've had their personal details compromised. The delays in informing those who've been affected are completely unacceptable.”
Andrea Hague, cancer services director at the Velindre health trust, said they were in discussions with Landauer about the notification delay.
Rashmi Knowles, CISSP chief security architect EMEA for RSA, criticized the notification delay.
“The Welsh NHS must consider itself very lucky that the EU GDPR is not yet in play. Otherwise it would be facing a colossal fine, and rightly so. The breach itself is not even the biggest issue. The most disappointing part is the way that the NHS responded to it or, more accurately, failed to respond. The EU GDPR stresses privacy by design, meaning that following bad processes is what will cause the biggest fines – as is the case here. Under the new regulations, all organizations will need to disclose within 72 hours of the breach being discovered,” she said.
Marc Agnew, vice-president, ViaSat Europe, said that third-party security is an increasing concern for public sector organizations. “Increasing financial pressure means that sub-contracting is likely to become common in more parts of the public sector. As vital tasks become shared across more and more organizations, it’s crucial that the NHS control not only its own data protection policies, but also those of any contractors,” he said.
“Indeed, data security should form a key part of any contract that is signed and should be monitored rigorously, with failure to comply being met with hefty penalties. Thankfully, no patient data was affected. However, the NHS needs to ensure that all data is encrypted, and both patient and employee confidentiality is preserved as we move into the age of digital health services,” Agnew added.
This is the second data breach in recent weeks to impact NHS services in Wales.
UK Healthcare Accounts for 43% of all Breaches
Nurse Fined After Admitting to Accessing Patient Records
Quarter of NHS Trusts Have No Security Pros
Cool Heads and Clear Minds: Getting Your Incident Response Plan Together
2016 Year of the Mega-Breach, More to Come?
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The insider scoop on locals' favorite Shore spots and events
by Amy S. Rosenberg, Posted: July 18, 2017
Lifeguards shows off their prowess, swimming, and rowing in competitions all summer.
TOM BRIGLIA
Great things happen at the Shore, and delightful places exist, that locals treasure — and that many visitors don’t even know are there. Here’s a handful.
Lifeguard races
Act like a local — take a shoulder cooler packed with beer or your vodka drink in a water bottle — and cheer as the lifeguards show off their prowess, swimming and rowing in competitions throughout the summer. It all culminates in the South Jersey Championships, to be held this year on Aug. 11 in Longport because Longport won last year's event, which was held in Avalon because Avalon won the year before. Don't expect to know exactly what's going on or even who won. But it's beautiful to see the Van Duyne surf boats from towns up and down the Shore lined up on the beach. And it's a party, with some close finishes (follow the crowd flow). Dates for all the summerlong preliminary events are here. And you can get into the act yourself Aug. 12 at the Pick Your Poison Five-Miler on the bay, sponsored by the Long Beach Township Beach Patrol. Red Bull also has gotten involved, sponsoring a surf and rescue championship featuring 50 beach patrol teams on July 18 at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. Atlantic City's Lifeguard Classic, is Friday (July 21) at 6:30 p.m., Albany Avenue beach.
ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer )
Miss Tennessee Hannah Robison during the 2015 Show us Your Shoes Parade on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. ( ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer )
Miss America “Show Us Your Shoes Parade”
This is a real locals event, with regulars lining the parade route in rented rolling chairs as the contestants go by in convertibles and show off their shoes. The Miss America preliminaries at Boardwalk Hall used to be a regular event for year-rounders, though the pageant’s seven-year Las Vegas exile has dampened the routine somewhat. But they are still a hoot to see in person, especially with the comic ex-Miss New Jersey Dena Blizzard as host. They also make you a font of knowledge along the parade route. Prelims: Sept. 6, 7 and 8. Parade: 5 p.m. Sept. 9.
Truck Beach at the Brigantine Jetty
You can drive your truck right on the beach and tailgate looking at the end of Atlantic City. It’s a great place to view fireworks (except when the empty Revel blocks the view). Grab some raspberry-ginger barbecue-smoked whole chicken wings from the Cove (3700 Brigantine Blvd.) on your way in, or snag something from the jetty regular known as Rich the Butcher, who’s usually slinging steaks and custom burgers.
West Cape May Farmers Market
This rare evening market at 732 Broadway runs every Tuesday from 3 to 7:30 p.m. starting in June, with entertainment beginning at 5. You might say all of West Cape May is a hidden gem, with its quirky shops, farms — Beach Plum Farm at 140 Stevens St. offers a host of activities — wineries, cafes, artist cooperative gallery, and Higbee’s Beach. Cape May Food Tours (www.CapeMayFoodTours.com) offers a tour of West Cape May all by itself.
Gardner’s Basin
Whether for breakfast at Gilchrist’s, during the day for boat whale-watching tours, at sunset at Back Bay Ale House looking toward the Borgata, or at night for food trucks and an outdoor bar, this is Atlantic City’s casual beach-vibe version of Philly’s Spruce Street Harbor Park. Some years, there is music at night and on weekends — always an unexpected treat.
Ocean City Nor’easters
With home games at Carey Stadium (“the Beach House”) in the shadow of Gillian’s Wonderland, this Premier Development League soccer team — 50 former Nor’easters have gone pro — gets a boost from its mascot, Bobby the Storm Chaser (oceancityfc.com). Farther up the coast are the Lakewood Blue Claws, a Phillies minor league team. (Blueclaws.com)
Did you know you can get great seafood from a small counter inside Randall’s in Pleasantville, just outside Atlantic City, where the clammers drop off their haul? And amazing produce at the nearby Asian Supermarket? And superb chicken and waffles and weekly jazz at Sam’s Rialto Grill? (OK, that one was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, so maybe you did.)
The entire month of September
On the beach, anywhere at the Shore. Apologies to everyone who leaves on Labor Day and thinks the season’s over, but as any local can tell you, in September the water’s still warm, the beaches are free and unpoliced, the weather is less oppressive, the bike hours are relaxed, the crowds gone, the gorgeousness returned to us. And all the way to December, there are the miracles visible from the Hawk Watch Platform in Cape May Point State Park. Amazing. (Sorry!)
Want more of the Shore? Pick up a copy of our 2017 Shore Guide, packed with the sights, sounds, and tastes of summer.
Posted: July 18, 2017 - 1:16 PM
Amy S. Rosenberg | @amysrosenberg | arosenberg@inquirer.com
An old firehouse, not tax breaks, brought this company to Camden | Inga Saffron
Inga Saffron
Behind the scenes of Made In Philly
Aneri Pattani
Dear Abby | Structure of dad’s will leaves his daguhter feeling left out
Horoscopes: Monday, July 15, 2019
Holiday Mathis
Where in the world is André 3000? In Philly — with a flute.
Brandon T. Harden
South Jersey stroke victim customizes Little Tikes Cozy Coupes for sick kids - and lifts his own spirits at the same time
Tommy Rowan
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Here’s Why Justin Bieber Wants To Wait To Get Wife Hailey Baldwin Pregnant
Justin Bieber just revealed he is in no rush, but why?
Nicholas Hunt / Getty Images
Lindsay Cronin
Justin Bieber told fans he was not “in a rush” to have kids with wife, Hailey, earlier this week on Instagram, but what prompted his change of heart?
After previously telling fans he was looking forward to going on “daddy daughter dates” with his future child, a new report from Hollywood Life has revealed that Bieber recently had a change of heart regarding his past plans to start a family with Hailey soon after their marriage.
According to the report, Bieber changed his mind about becoming a father soon after learning his wife hopes to focus on her modeling career for at least a couple of years before getting pregnant.
“[Hailey] was the one who actually wanted to wait and pump the brakes on all of that talk because she is still young and she wants to pursue more TV and modeling opportunities,” the source revealed, adding that because of Hailey’s career goals, she simply does not have the time to devote towards being a mother right now.
“Justin has since agreed to her wishes because he loves her and he wants her to be happy and they will have a family when it is the right time for both of them,” the insider continued.
As the insider explained, rushing a pregnancy would likely be a mistake as they are quite happy at the moment and very “in unison” with their future plans.
Love dates with you baby.. one day Ill be doing daddy daughter dates….. not hinting at anything soon I’m not in a rush. i just wanna enjoy you by yourself for a while! #Disneyworld
A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on Jul 10, 2019 at 11:11pm PDT
Prior to getting married, Justin and Hailey were involved with a number of other celebrities, including Selena Gomez and Shawn Mendes, respectively.
As fans well know, Bieber and Gomez’s on-again, off-again relationship has been highly publicized over the past several years and, because there has been so much back and forth between the two of them, many of their fans have believed it would be Gomez who Bieber ultimately married. Meanwhile, after rumored romances with Drake and Cameron Dallas, Baldwin was linked to Mendes for several months. In fact, just months before her Bahamas engagement to Justin, Hailey seemingly went public with her romance with Mendes while attending the 2018 Met Gala.
Bieber and Baldwin became engaged in The Bahamas last July and, in November, Bieber confirmed they had wed.
Although Justin and Hailey have not yet celebrated their marriage with a formal wedding, they are expected to do so at some point in the future. That said, an exact date or season has not yet been specified.
Kailyn Lowry Claps Back As Wet ‘Wave’ Beach Pic Storm Turns Ugly: ‘Go Away’ July 15, 2019
Is The ‘Real Housewives Of New York City’ Cast Jealous Of ‘Younger’ And ‘Single’ Tinsley Mortimer? July 15, 2019
NBA Rumors: Andre Iguodala’s Top Suitors Are Rockets, Clippers July 15, 2019
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Wire: Death of Newspapers by 2022, says Leading Media Futurist
Duncan Riley
Sydney, Australia (Inquisitr Wire): “By 2022 newspapers as we know them will be irrelevant in Australia,” says leading media futurist Ross Dawson. “However the leading newspaper publishers of today may have transformed themselves to thrive in what will be a flourishing media industry,” he says.
Dawson is giving the closing keynote at the Newspaper Publishers Association’s Future Forum in Sydney on 26 August. Dawson’s global reputation as a prescient futurist was established by his acclaimed 2002 book Living Networks, in which he wrote about social networking and micro-blogging many years before Facebook or Twitter existed.
Topics that Dawson will cover in his speech to Newspaper Publishers Association include:
• Media revenues will soar but will be unevenly distributed. We are shifting to a “media economy” dominated by content and social connection. Yet established media organisations will need to reinvent themselves to participate in that growth.
• The successors to the iPad will be our primary news interfaces. Australians will most commonly consume news on portable devices, of which the iPad will be recognised as the forerunner.
• Digital news readers will cost less than $10. By 2020 entry-level devices to read the news will cost less than $10 and often be given away. More sophisticated news readers will be foldable or rollable, gesture controlled and fully interactive.
• Journalism will be increasingly crowdsourced. Substantial parts of investigative journalism, writing and news production will be ‘crowdsourced’ to hordes of amateurs overseen by professionals.
• The reputation of individual journalists will drive audiences. Many journalists, most leading experts in their fields, will still be employed in Australia, with public reputation measures guiding audiences on how much to trust their work.
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Lagranja Design Brings Beachy Grandeur to Spain’s ME Sitges Terramar Hotel
By Suzanne Wales
PROJECT NAME Me Sitges Terramar Hotel
LOCATION Sitges, Barcelona
FIRM Lagranja Design
Fabrica is a creative boot camp near Venice funded by Benetton. It’s there that Gerard Sanmarti and Gabriele Schiavon met, studying under the expert eye of photographer Oliviero Toscani, who shot the brand’s advertising campaigns. Like many Fabricantes, Sanmarti and Schiavon went on to form their own business, theirs being Lagranja Design, a multidisciplinary studio focusing on interiors, furniture, and installations. Its name, Spanish for the farm, was copied from the street where their first studio was located. With Sanmarti being Spanish and Schiavon Italian, coupled with their unorthodox training, their initial projects brimmed with color and southern European irreverence. At Singapore restaurant Pim Pam by Foc, for instance, Catalan folkloric characters painted on walls have an anime aesthetic. “More than a style,” Schiavon says, “Lagranja is an attitude.”
> Project Resources
Patricia Urquiola chairs pull up to the custom reception desk, topped in ash and faced in marble-resin panels. Photography by Joan Guillamat.
Regional craftsmanship, however, was the thrust of a recent project, ME Sitges Terramar Hotel outside of Barcelona, Spain, which originally opened as the Hotel Terramar in the 1930’s but is now operated by ME by Meliá. Lagranja’s challenge was to bring grandeur back to the rundown seaside relic, its 10 floors housing 213 guest rooms and suites. At the firm’s nearby studio, a 19th-century former biscuit factory, model-makers, artists, and local artisans developed the decorative elements that would accompany the project’s myriad furniture pieces, both custom and production. “We’re very unconventional, which means we look at projects from different viewpoints and perspectives,” Sanmarti explains.
Polyester forms the firm’s production pendant fixture in the lobby. Photography by Joan Guillamat.
Since Sitges is referred to as the Saint-Tropez of Spain, the hotel’s overall mood is breezy and beachy, with touches of cheek. In the lobby, for example, a school of 163 fish handmade in white gypsum swims across a wall in the lobby, where a structural column is clad in wicker, a nod to traditional basket-weaving. Similarly, in the restaurant, floor-to-ceiling partitions are cotton and hemp macrame, resembling fishnets.
See more from the June 2018 issue of Interior Design
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Sovereign wealth funds get comfortable with real estate investment
Already a significant player in the real estate space, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are set to further increase their allocation to real estate.
Fadi Moussalli
Preferred sectors include core office and retail assets as well as open-ended funds and listed REITs (real estate investment trusts) with allocations to steadily increase over the foreseeable futureSWF’s allocations to alternatives – which includes real estate and infrastructure – have increased significantly across most portfolios, according to Nick Wilson, from JLL’s Asia Pacific Capital Markets Research team, noting that drivers include low correlation to traditional asset classes, such as equities and fixed income, and the potential for high risk-adjusted returns
Based on Preqin data, 74 percent of global sovereign wealth funds now invest in at least one alternative asset class with real estate and infrastructure the most favoured asset class.
In an August 2017 report, the firm cited alternative assets such as real estate as long-term investments and hence “suitably aligned with sovereign wealth funds’ investment horizons.” These funds are also able to “afford the illiquidity associated with these types of investments,’ it said.
The shift towards direct investment
The report also noted that, while these funds have traditionally relied on external fund managers to help with real estate investments, many are beginning to lead their own direct deals in an effort to boost yields and cut costs.
The Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan (GPIF)—the world’s largest pool of retirement savings and a relatively new investor in alternative assets—may follow the same path.
In December last year, GPIF picked Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking to manage its holdings in real estate. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, “the pension giant will adopt a ‘fund of funds’ strategy – managing funds that invest in other funds – for the first time.” GPIF is expected to invest up to five percent of its 156 trillion yen (US$1.37 trillion) holdings in alternative assets such as infrastructure projects, private equity and real estate.
Among the most recent investments in real estate by a sovereign wealth fund is Norway’s joint purchase, with Tokyu Fudosan Holdings, of five commercial buildings in Tokyo for around US$1.2 billion. Norges Bank Real Estate Management will pay 92.75 billion yen for its 70 percent interest in the assets while Tokyu Land will acquire the remaining 30 percent interest and manage the properties on behalf of the joint venture, according to a company statement. It is the fund’s first real estate investment in Asia.
While the fund has been active in Asia for some time, it has had difficulties finding suitable real estate assets that meet the strict investment criteria in which the fund operates, according to Wilson.
As sovereign wealth funds grow, it’s likely that their investment in real estate will rise steadily. According to PwC, sovereign investors held US$11.3 trillion in 2015, a figure that’s predicted to grow to US$15.3 trillion by 2020. In 2015, 59 percent of sovereign wealth funds invested in real estate. By 2017, this share has reached 63 percent.
Oil-funded funds dominate
By sources of capital, more than half of the world’s sovereign wealth funds are funded by hydrocarbon, according to Preqin. Hydrocarbon-funded sovereign wealth funds make up 53 percent of total industry capital, and include many of those in the oil-dependent Middle East such as Kuwait Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
The recent rise in oil prices to the highest in three years is expected to improve Mideast sovereign wealth funds’ cash allocation, said Fadi Moussalli from JLL’s International Capital team in Dubai. This is positive for economic outlook, as higher oil prices will help boost confidence and investment sentiment of Gulf based investors he says.
Middle Eastern investors have traditionally preferred to invest in the UK, notably in London, but allocations to Asian real estate are expected to rise as some of the region’s major SWFs make moves to balance their global exposure,” says Moussalli.
Some stat
Another stat that may be longer.
A third state for the row.
Square Metres
A fourth stat that may or may not have been curated to test a longer sentence.
How facilities management is moving into the on-demand era
Sink or swim in the digital age: Are you keeping up?
Blog Post: The Trend of Co-Working Spaces in Dubai
Why real estate needs tech experts
The digital shift: Taking building design to the next virtual level
Why the Nordics are attracting more international investment
What lies behind Stockholm’s tech success stories?
How delivery firms are making the last mile electric
How Amsterdam’s tech scene is staying at the top of its game
Modern stadiums boost their foodie credentials
How flexible space is leading companies to rethink their real estate
How tech is opening new doors for Nairobi
Big hotel brands set their sights on Portugal’s cities
Real estate revolution on Blockchain Alley
Why global real estate is taking up the sustainability challenge
Smart technology heads into homes
Renovating to stay relevant: Big hotel refurbishments in 2019
The Real Views wrap: How has real estate changed in 2018?
Why scaffolding is a sign of the times for retailers
New Business Districts Cropping Up Across Asia Pacific
Effective Retail Roll Out Strategy
How Europe’s cities are embracing flexible space
British firms face up to a new business world
Foreign investment pushes into India’s nascent multifamily sector
In-store meets online for the world’s biggest shopping event
Six ways big data will revamp supply chains
SWFs return to real estate with oil price boom
Why flexible space is appearing in office investment portfolios
How Europe’s cities are overhauling their docklands
Why Europe’s listed real estate companies need economies of scale
Can PPPs drive change for real estate investment in the Middle East?
What does Dubai’s growing digital economy mean for real estate?
High transparency gives mid-sized cities an edge
How building design is better adapting to local climes
How drones are covering new ground in real estate
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This summer Ibiza enters a new chapter with the launch of Hï Ibiza, the brand new club by Ushuaïa Entertainment. From May through until September Hï Ibiza will play host to selectors from the global electronic music scene, including Canadian deadmau5, who will join Eric Prydz at his debut Ibiza residency for two exclusive dates this summer. Few acts in electronic music compare to six-time GRAMMY-Award nominee deadmau5, aka Joel Zimmerman, whose sounds, live performances and iconic mouse head have made him a household name in dance music and well beyond since exploding onto the international scene nearly a decade ago.
Despite his popularity, with headline performances at festivals around the world, Zimmerman remains somewhat of a rarity on the White Isle, playing only a few select shows there in recent years. Though it’s hardly surprising that Eric Prydz now heralds his return for the first time since 2014.
Prydz’s big room progressive and techno sounds and love for immersive performances closely mirror Zimmerman’s in the best possible ways. Zimmerman’s shows with Prydz at Hï will be his only dates in Ibiza this summer, playing in the Main Room on 18 July and 22 August.
With Hï Ibiza offering the Prydz team a blank canvas to work their magic, they will be debuting a bespoke production built specifically for the residency, creating a stage for Eric to present his blend of house and techno across his Pryda and Cirez D, aliases. The Prydz residency will bring a singular visual and audio experience to the Ibiza season, with Prydz curating the lineup for each party.
In addition to deadmau5, guest acts lined up for the summer include Matthew Dear, Kölsch, Pig & Dan, Agoria, Catz 'N Dogz, Tube & Berger, Dusky and more.
tagPlaceholderTags: Ibiza17, April17
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<< DirecTV epilogue
REMINDER: MONSTERS ARE REAL. >>
Furries
Tonight at the club I had no less than three people ask me, "What's with the furries?" These conversations went approximately like: "Why are you asking me?" "You're from the Internet." "Ok, which part confuses you?" "How many parts are there?" And then I referred them to the CSI episode.* It's fairly definitive.
"Uh oh. Semen."
Tags: dnalounge, firstperson, furries, perversions
Current Music: Giana Factory -- Pixelated Truth ♬
James C. says:
How does being from the Internet mean that you know anything about some bizarre subculture? It’s not as if you hang out on furry sites or post constantly to /b/ or something. It would make more sense for people to ask you about Google or something.
Jonn says:
The person who knows the most about the internet in any given group almost invariably becomes "the computer guy", meaning people come to ask him about everything. I work in an electronics store, and my entire immediate family comes to me for everything.
Mike Marion says:
This happens to me lot (sadly even by Sysadmin coworkers at times). Essentially they're treating you as a human google proxy.
LafinJack says:
It’s not as if you hang out on furry sites or post constantly to /b/ or something.
...that we know of.
Kyzer says:
Being from the internet means you've crossed paths with published sci-fi authors, Trekkies, anime fans, slashfic writers, LARPers, Ren Faire folk, etc. as well as furries and/or otherkin.
It just seems natural that, if you like 2400 baud modems or VGA cards, you must also like Piers Anthony and self-identify with an anthropomorphic cartoon animal.
ryanlrussell says:
Were there furries there at the club?
Different Jamie says:
I like the idea of there being no furries present, with these three people having gone to the club on a fact-finding mission after having been sitting around at home wondering, "what's up with the furries?"
"I know how to get to the bottom of this! Let's go ask jwz!"
Yes, and with some regularity.
Speaking as the guy who wrote this, I don't think that episode is particularly accurate.
The real furry fandom can be much, much worse.
DNA related. Saw this, thought of jwz-blog: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/14/1090159/-Fly-in-the-Urinal
....in that.... you would be The Guy Who Might Know if anyone has crafted a urine-proof video game urinal -- a urinal with a MOVING fly/target, but only moving close to the drain, so that it really is a matter of focus and aim to hit the target. Let them earn points! Seems like that would reduce at least some of the maintenance hassles that I swear I've read y'all have to deal with at the Lounge.
hattifattener says:
I've wondered about that when I've seen the fly story make the rounds. Displaying the fly wouldn't be too hard technically, assuming a glass or clear plastic urinal would last (I assume you'd have to be more careful cleaning the thing than with porcelain or steel). But how would you detect the, er, cursor position? Capacitively? Surface acoustic waves? FTIR?
Lun Esex says:
You wouldn't need to actually detect the point where the stream is landing. You just keep the fly moving randomly and the "player" gains points as long as their stream is hitting anywhere on the "playing field," regardless of whether they're hitting the fly or not.
The goal is to merely get them to get it in the bowl, so they should be "rewarded" just for that. It'll be drunk people who are "playing," so they probably won't notice too well that their score isn't really all that dependent on actually hitting the fly.
The highest scores will always go to the people with the largest bladders, anyway.
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karina killjoy
karinakilljoy.com
Posts tagged trauma
Call for Chapters: Underserved Patrons in University Libraries: Assisting Students Facing Trauma, Abuse, and Discrimination
We are seeking chapter proposals for a new volume, Underserved Patrons in University Libraries: Assisting Students Facing Trauma, Abuse, and Discrimination, edited by Julia Skinner and Melissa Gross and published by Libraries Unlimited.
We are seeking proposals from professionals across the field of librarianship, broadly defined. This includes professional librarians as well as graduate students, faculty, and paraprofessionals.
We are particularly interested in chapters that consider the intersection of theory and praxis, and which offer actionable advice to improve programs and services.
While case studies of individual programs will be considered, these should be contextualized within the larger discourse of the field (e.g. what gaps in service was this filling? How is this instance different from other offerings at other institutions? How does it relate to the literature, and how does sharing this case move the literature beyond where it is now?)
In all cases, our role as providers of information and resources, and creators of valuable programming is emphasized: We do not seek to situate library professionals in other professional contexts (such as counseling) that require duties they may not be qualified to perform. Subjects to cover include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Assisting students attending school after a period of incarceration
• Providing information services to sexual assault and abuse survivors
• Providing information services to survivors of domestic violence
• Information work with immigrants and refugees
• Information services for students with mental illness
• Information assistance for non-English speakers
• Working with students attending school while facing financial difficulties and/or homelessness
• Addressing the information needs of dual-enrolled high school students
• Serving international students in the academic library
• Serving older adult students in the academic library
• Offering meaningful library services to queer and trans* communities
• Working with patrons facing racial discrimination
• Stigma and the differently abled community on campus
• The importance of visibility and representation for underserved and marginalized communities in library programming, staffing, and collections
• Cultural competency: Information services for multicultural students
• Neurodiversity: Serving students on the spectrum
• Assisting patrons with HIV/AIDS and other stigmatizing illnesses
• When religious identification is a concern for students seeking information
• Critical illness
• First generation college students
• Serving student veterans
To submit a proposal:
Chapter proposals of roughly 250-500 words are due by January 15, 2019 and should address the chapter’s approach and structure, and how the chapter expands upon existing literature. Please also include a brief bio for each author.
Send completed proposals to JuliaCSkinner@gmail.com and mgross@fsu.edu
Authors will be notified of editor decisions by March 1st, 2019, and chapters will be due to the editors on November 1st, 2019.
About the Editors:
Dr. Julia Skinner received her Ph.D. in Library and Information Studies from Florida State University. She is involved in community work personally and professionally and emphasizes the intersection of theory and praxis in her teaching and research work. She is a member of the Georgia State Board for the Certification of Librarians, a former department director, and the owner of Root, a small business exploring the intersections between food and community. She has written 2 books,13 single-author articles and chapters, and 12 reviews, and co-authored 1 book and 3 articles. She has won numerous awards, including a Phyllis Dain dissertation award honorable mention, Beta Phi Mu membership, ALISE featured presentation, and Salem Press Best Newcomer Award (won in collaboration with the rest of the Hack Library School blogging team).
Dr. Melissa Gross is a professor in the School of Information at Florida State University and a past president of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1998 and was awarded the prestigious American Association of University Women Recognition Award for Emerging Scholars in 2001. Dr. Gross has published extensively in a variety of peer reviewed journals including Library and Information Science Research, Library Quarterly, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, and College & Research Libraries. She has authored, co-authored, or co-edited nine books. Her forthcoming edited book, with co-editors Shelbie Witte and Don Latham, is Literacy Engagement through Peritextual Analysis (Chicago, IL: ALA Editions).
karina hagelin October 16, 2018 librarianship, call for proposals, traumaComment
New Zine: Femme Filth #4 - The Healing Issue
Femme Filth #4: The Healing Issue is a 20-page, full-color, digital zine about radical vulnerability, femme magic, healing, mental health, and survivor solidarity from the perspective of a perspective of a sick & disabled, queer femme, survivor.
This zine covers the politics of survivorship; thoughts on healing & vulnerability; guides on creating affirmation lists; helpful apps for survivors; things that have helped me heal; tips on supporting survivors in tangible & concrete ways; rants, musings, & scraps from my diary; & so much more. Written in Aries season of Spring 2018 ♈️
Buy it here on my Etsy!
karina hagelin June 27, 2018 zines, trauma, survivorComment
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PEMBUATAN pASPOR hALAMAN pENUH
Dwi Kewarganegaraan Ganda Terbatas
PEMBUATAN PASPOR BIASA (HILANG)
pEMBUATAN PASPOR BIASA (RUSAK)
SOCIAL CULTURE VISA
DIPLOMATIK AND SERVICE VISA
Surat Keterangan Mengemudi (SIM)
Surat Keterangan Kematian
Customs & LEGALIZATION
Document Legalization
Taking Prescribed Medicine
Taking Ashes
Submission of Visa Application
Collection of Documents
Indonesian Passport Services
Closed on Indonesian and ACT Public Holidays
Indonesian Embassy in Canberra
Address : 8 Darwin Avenue, Yarralumla, ACT 2600
Email : konsuler.canberra@kemlu.go.id
Hotline/Emergency Contact : +61 4504 75094 (only for Indonesians in emergency situation)
Press Release - INDONESIA IS NOT EXPERIENCING ACTIVE ZIKA VIRUS TRANSMISSION
Indonesia is not experiencing an endemic Zika virus
Indonesian Ministry of Health
Jakarta, 20 June 2016
Press Release – Unofficial translation
INDONESIA IS NOT EXPERIENCING ACTIVE ZIKA VIRUS TRANSMISSION
The Indonesian Ministry of Health has confirmed that Indonesia is not experiencing an endemic local transmission of the Zika virus. Please refer to the Indonesian Ministry of Health release: the English translation in the following page of this release and in Bahasa Indonesia at http://www.depkes.go.id/article/view/16062100002/indonesia-bukan-negara-endemis-ataupun-daerah-tertular-zika.html
The World Health Organization (WHO) in its 15 June 2016 release reported that Indonesia is not among the countries experiencing a first outbreak of Zika virus since 2015. Please refer to the WHO’s release at http://www.who.int/emergencies/zika-virus/situation-report/16-june-2016/en/
Local and national health authorities together with the community and members of the public throughout Indonesia including Bali have been taking vigorous steps to prevent the spread of the Zika vector (the type of mosquito that can spread Zika).
International travelers in Indonesia, like in many other tropical countries, are exposed to mosquito-borne viruses. We urge holidaymakers to take adequate protection against mosquito bites.
For further information, please contact the Embassy of Indonesia in Canberra on +61 2 6250 8642 and Twitter @INAEmbAUS.
Indonesia is not among the 46 countries experiencing a first outbreak of Zika virus since 2015. Indonesia is not among the 14 countries that have reported evidence of Zika virus transmission as stated by dr. Mohammad Subuh, Director General for Prevention and Control of Disease, Ministry of Health of Indonesia.
This statement is consistent with the WHO data on Zika transmission. In its 15 June 2016 release, the WHO reported that 60 countries and territories report continuing mosquito-borne transmission. Furthermore, the WHO reported that 46 countries are experiencing a first outbreak of Zika virus since 2015, with no previous evidence of circulation, and with ongoing transmission by mosquitos. In addition, 14 countries reported evidence of Zika virus transmission between 2007 and 2014, with ongoing transmission.
Moreover, the WHO reported that four countries or territories have reported evidence of Zika virus transmission between 2007 and 2014, without ongoing transmission: Cook Islands, French Polynesia, ISLA DE PASCUA – Chile and YAP (Federated States of Micronesia). In the week to 15 June 2016, no new country reported mosquito-borne or person-to-person Zika virus transmission.
The Zika virus was first detected in the saliva of monkeys in Uganda. It was detected as part of the yellow-fever monitoring program in 1947. In 1952, the Zika virus was reported to infect humans in Uganda and Tanzania.
This release is published by the Communication and Public Service Bureau of the Ministry of Health of Indonesia. For further information, please contact Halo Kemkes at the Indonesian local numbers of +62 1500-567, text +6281281562620, fax +62 21 5223002, 52921669, and email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For the original article in Bahasa Indonesia please refer to: http://www.depkes.go.id/article/view/16062100002/indonesia-bukan-negara-endemis-ataupun-daerah-tertular-zika.html
Consulate Generals of Indonesia in Australia
Consulate General of The Republic of Indonesia for New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia, Based in Sydney
A : 236-238 Maroubra Road, Maroubra, NSW 2035,
P : +61 2 8347 6881
E : paspor.sydney@kemlu.go.id
visa.sydney@kemlu.go.id
W : www.kemlu.go.id/sydney
Consulate General of The Republic of Indonesia in Melbourne-Victoria
A : 72 Queens Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3004
E : consular@kjri-melbourne.org
W : www.kemlu.go.id/melbourne
Consulate General of The Republic of Indonesia in Perth
A : 134 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth, WA 6004
P : (61-8)9221 5858
E : perth.kjri@kemlu.go.id
W : www.kemlu.go.id/perth
kjri-perth.org.au
Consulate of the Republic of Indonesia in Darwin N.T., Australia
A : 20 Harry Chan Avenue - Darwin N.T. 0800
GPO BOX 1953, Darwin N.T. 0801
P : +61 (08) 8943 0200
E : kridrw@indoconsdarwin.org.au
W : www.kemlu.go.id/darwin
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Artbound Season 9
Huell Treks to an Extinct Volcano in the Mojave Desert
Take a sizzling trip to the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County and its many unknown desert destinations, including the tiny town of Amboy.
In Chengdu, a snack is called a small bite, or 'xiao chi'. But a 'xiao chi' is really a lot more than just a simple snack.
Earth Focus Season 2
Steven Raichlen's Project Fire
Brisket 24/7
Today's show is all about brisket, complete with fail proof methods for smoking it right every time.
Artbound Season 9 | KCET
S9 E8: The Art of Basket Weaving
Native American basketry has long been viewed as a community craft, yet the artistic quality and value of these baskets are on par with other fine art.
Cultural Politics
S9 E7: Artist and Mother
There's a persisting assumption in contemporary art circles that you can't be a good artist and good mother both. These fou artists are working to shatter this cliché, juggling demands of career and family and finding ways to explore the maternal.
S9 E6: No Trespassing - A Survey of Environmental Art
Throughout its history, the natural beauty of California has inspired artists from around the world. Today, as artists continue to engage with California’s environment, they echo and critique earlier art practices that represent nature in California.
S9 E5: La Raza
In East L.A. during the 1960s and 1970s, a group of young activists used creative tools like writing and photography as a means for community organizing, providing a platform for the Chicano Movement.
S9 E4: Variedades - Olvera Street
This look at Los Angeles’ Olvera Street is part-history lesson and part-immersion in stereotype of the birthplace of Los Angeles.
S9 E3: Electric Earth - The Art of Doug Aitken
For more than 20 years, Doug Aitken has shifted the perception and location of images and narratives. His diverse works demonstrate the nature and structure of our ever-mobile, ever-changing, image-based contemporary condition.
S9 E2: Desert X
The vast, strange, sometimes contradictory world of the urban desert and its people are explored in 11 public art exhibits and their respective locations scattered throughout Coachella Valley.
S9 E1: That Far Corner - Frank Lloyd Wright In Los Angeles
Frank Lloyd Wright accelerated the search for L.A.'s authentic architecture. This episode explores the provocative theory that his early homes in L.A. were also a means of artistic catharsis for Wright.
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Los Angeles River
Los Angeles River | KCET
Five Structures That Defined L.A.’s Age of Concrete
Nathan Masters
The progress concrete once embodied seems today as brittle as some of its aging structures.
Microbeads: More than Just a Facial Scrub
It’s a new kind of plastic that is too small to recycle and too tiny to filter out of our waste water. They are called microbeads.
The Southern California Deluge of 1938
It was the flood that convinced Southern California to dam and channelize its untrustworthy rivers.
L.A. River
L.A. River's Homeless Find Shelter During El Niño
Lucy Guanuna
With homeless funding stalled and the nearest services as far as Skid Row and Glendale, Recycled Resources decided to take the homeless crisis into its own hands.
Photos: How Rain and Floodwaters Literally Built the Southland
L.A. and its surrounding valleys sit upon thousands of feet of thick sediment deposited by eons of floodwaters.
Arbor Study
Mayor and U.S. Army Corps Announce Milestone For L.A. River
A $1.3 billion plan to restore a portion of the Los Angeles River continues to clear hurdles as it makes it way to Congress for final approval.
The 98 Million-Gallon "Trickle": Water Conservation Projects
The city's increasing need for water is pushing lawmakers and water agencies to use the river's function as a flood control channel to their advantage.
What's Taking L.A. River Revitalization So Long?
Carren Jao
As anyone who's ever set out to build in Los Angeles knows, things aren't always as simple as they seem. A vision becomes reality at a glacial pace, which can be a good or bad thing.
L.A. River Plan May Help Boost Projects in South East L.A.
Efforts to transform the concretized Los Angeles River have reached critical mass this year and it seems that before the ink dries on newly penned river projects, another project starts taking shape.
The Commission that Shaped the L.A. River's Bridges
Though the Sixth Street Viaduct of yore will soon be a thing of memory, it and its sister bridges across the Los Angeles River played a pivotal role in the making of Los Angeles.
Preparing for El Niño on the LA River
The recent storm was just a fraction of what is to be expected if the predictions for a "Godzilla" El Niño this winter are realized.
South East L.A. Reclaims Their Part of the L.A. River
The event, #ReclaimingtheLAriver, was a guerrilla-style, bike-in film screening and photography exhibit organized by East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ).
Integrating Arts and Culture into LA River Revitalization
A team of designers, architects, and artists are seeking to unify and build arts and culture infrastructure into river revitalization projects through public art interventions.
elysian valley
Q Conditions: Limiting Development in Elysian Valley
Los Angeles may be in the midst of a housing crisis but the solution isn't always to increase density.
Herons and Concrete: Redefining What Nature Means on the L.A. River
D. J. Waldie
Revitalizing the Los Angeles River could redefine what nature means to the city. But contending definitions of nature, re-greening, utility, and even the river must be reconciled first.
Brewing Coffee Along the L.A. River
On a crisp morning in Elysian Valley, Damian Robledo, a longtime employee of the area, was biking down the Los Angeles River Bike Path and a thought came to him, "Why can't I get a cup of coffee on the river?"
Fresh Air Ahead: Curbing the Foul Air in Boyle Heights
Boyle Heights long plagued by foul odors from sewer lines is getting relief with the opening of an air treatment facility.
A Gehry-fied River Exposes LA's River Anxieties
The Los Angeles River isn't just a waterway wrapped in concrete. In the decades since tons of gloomy gray matter was poured over this wild river, it has morphed into a symbol of hope yet to be realized.
L.A. River Habitat Restoration: Where Will the Money Come From?
The recommended plan offers two options -- it would have the city cost-sharing the project at 88% or 73%, possibly leaving the city to shoulder more than $1.18-billion of the cost.
Malibu Lagoon Project Shows Improved Water Quality and Smell
Two years after opening, a report shows that the lagoon has highly improved water quality and oxygen flow, and increased wildlife.
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Terry Mancour's Spellmonger
Bringing Terry Mancour's Spellmonger series to the Pathfinder RPG and the Fifth Edition of the Worlds most popular role playing game.
Shreveport, LA Tabletop Games
Now, Terry Mancour's Spellmonger series is soon coming to a fantasy rpg near you from Battlefield Press International. This will be a setting book for the Fifth Edition of the world's most popular role playing game and the First Edition of the Pathfinder Role Playing Game.
And now for the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition RPG!
REVIEWS FOR THE SPELLMONGER NOVEL
" If you are into magic, wizardry, fantasy and badass spellmongers this is the book for you. " - Kindle Customer (posted on Amazon.com)
" In Spellmonger by Terry Mancour, we have a pretty much textbook case of Minalan the mage, who just wants to be a simple village spellmonger, but the local goblins have other ideas. They decide to attack his village, along with several others. Of course, being an Academy trained veteran Warmage, he steps in to combat the gurvani, as they call themselves." - David Fernau (posted on Otherworldly Gazette)
Minalan gave up a promising career as a professional warmage to live the quiet life of a village spellmonger in the remote mountain valley of Boval. It was a peaceful, beautiful little fief, far from the dangerous feudal petty squabbles of the Five Duchies, on the world of Callidore. There were cows. Lots of cows. And cheese.
For six months things went well: he found a quaint little shop, befriended the local lord, the village folk loved him, he found a sharp young apprentice to help out, and best yet, he met a comely young widow with the prettiest eyes . . .
Then one night Minalan is forced to once again pick up his mageblade, this time to defend his adopted home from the vanguard of an army of goblins, or gurvani as they call themselves, bent on a genocidal crusade against all mankind, and that’s the good news. The bad news is that their shamans are armed with far more magical power than has been seen since the days of the ancient Imperial Magocracy. This gurvani army, led by a mysterious, vengeful force of hate and dark magic, is headed directly to Boval Vale to strike the first blow in their crusade, and all that stands between the gurvani horde and the people of the Five Duchies is one tired, overwhelmed baker’s son who wants nothing more than to be a simple village spellmonger.
The Gurvani
WHAT THIS BOOK CONTAINS
This book contains rules on adapting Terry Mancour's Spellmonger series to the 1st edition of the Pathfinder RPG and the Fifth Edition of the worlds most popular role playing game.
Included in the books for both editions:
New Archetypes for classes, especially for the various types of magic users.
Information on how the existing classes fit inside the world of Callidore
Write ups on the pantheon of Callidore
New spells and magical developments, including how divine magic works in the realm.
Rules concerning the witch stone, irionite, and its usage.
Information on the Censorite, an organization of magic users designed to limit the abilities of mages.
Details on mage blades used by the warmages in the realm.
Background information and maps of the five duchies and the location of the conquered lands
Information on the Farisian Campaign.
History of Callidore from the Magocracy to the Five Duchies, terminating in the Gurvani and the Dark Lord, Shereul the Dead god's, attack on the Boval Vale.
Write ups on non human races such as the Alka Alon, the Karshak Alon (the Stonesingers), the Gurvani, and others.
Character write ups on the notable characters.
Bestiary of Callidore
ABOUT THIS SETTING
A Brief History of Humans on Callidore
It is said that when humanity appeared, they arrived in great sky ships, descending from the heavens above Callidore and there found that it was inhabited by two races. The first race, now called simply the Seafolk, for the seas is where they lived, and the more numerous, the Alka Alon, who lived on dry land. These newcomers had come looking for a new home and after negotiating with the Seafolk and the Alka Alon, humanity was allowed to settle upon a small part of Callidore, with the primary concentration for its new home being an archipelago called the Isles of Perwyn, from which the humans slowly spread.
Now humanity’s power was great, but it was a power of machines and constructs such as is seen in their sky ships and many other such cunning and powerful devices. It is with such power that they changed their environment and built their new home. The Alka Alon and the Seafolk had power of their own. An inborn power that could reach out and affect the world directly. A power that the Alka called rajira, or magical talent. After but a few generations on Callidore, humanity began to feel the stirrings of rajira in the unsuspecting population. The effects were erratic and ambiguous, at first, but soon it became clear that the conscious (or unconscious) manipulation of reality was emerging in a small percentage of the humans. While considered an “acceptable evolutionary anomaly” by the sages of the humans, it soon became evident that the emergence of rajira in a scant few would have massive implications for humanity’s tenure on Perwyn, and on all of Callidore.
In an effort to contain humanity’s emerging Talent in a peaceful way, the Alka Alon sent learned masters to act as midwives through the process. Adapting their sophisticated magic to the simpler-minded mortals was a challenge, but within a decade the Alkan songmasters and human sages had mapped what they felt were the limits of the change and had contrived a means of giving humans some control over their new powers: the basis for the Imperial System of magic.
Alas, the manifestation of simple magic was compounded by the emergence with what became known as the Divine Powers: the personified manifestation of subconscious human desires, fears, and emotions. The Gods. Unique in the history of Callidore, the appearance of the first of these quasi-independent entities was met with amazement by the Alka, who had never encountered such random, wild powers before. The gods could do things that ordinary magic could not, and belied explanation by the immortals. The gods were uncontrollable, unmanageable, and were apt to disappear back into the ether as fast as they came.
The Early Magocracy and the Fall of Perwyn
Just as the implications of these manifestations were becoming clear, a series of events plunged Perwyn into the first of a series of disasters. Though the details have been lost in the mists of time and are preserved in part in only a handful of records, a rebellion amongst the humans and an incident with the Alka Alon sparked a dramatic change in Perwyn’s government, and the fate of humans over-all. The great sky ships were removed from common use and most humans were left alone on the world to fend for themselves while powerful magi ruled using their powers to make up for the loss of their ships.
For nearly three hundred years a series of Archmagi ruled Perwyn and the mainland communities in relative peace. While there were rebellions and an increasing threat of independence from the various mainland communities, the military and magical power of the Archmagi successfully maintained the nations it grew into the lands that had been prepared for it. Skirmishes with the Sea Lords of Cormeer, the dour Northmen, Narasi tribes on the northern steppes, the raiders from the Eastern lands, and even the Unstarans were kept in place as the great river valleys of Merwyn and Vore were settled. The few sky ships left were used by the Archmagi to dominate their potential rivals, eventually evolving into a powerful empire. Yet even as the sophistication of their magic grew, the Archmagi indulged in petty struggles to maintain their secular power.
As time passed, the island became crowded and fewer were willing to relocate from its rich and well-developed cities, until the last Archmage of the Early Magocracy, Kephan the Damned, undertook a Great Work: to raise a portion of the seabed around Perwyn with magic, to increase its arable lands. It was a mighty and ambitious undertaking and many in the Magocracy and among the Alka Alon objected to the feat. But Kephan persisted and, at first, his spells were effective, and the land began to rise. But whether by chance or by design, something went horribly awry. Instead of creating hundreds of hectares of croplands for the island, Kephan’s spell, over the next two years, sunk most of the island into the sea.
While most of the folk of Perwyn were able to evacuate, much of their great machines, were abandoned to the sea. For almost fifty years there was chaos as the humans, with the help of the Alka Alon, resettled and re-organized themselves on the mainland. This was the time of the great Mage Wars, as various families and factions of the old Magocracy fought for control over the colony’s remaining resources. It took half a century for one of them to assume control over the others and re-found the empire as the first Archmage of the Later Magocracy.
The Later Magocracy of Merwyn
By this point, most of humanity had devolved to being smallholding farmers, woodsmen, and even subsistence-level peasants. The great promise of human civilization, a power that had overcome short life and crossed the Void, had failed. As potent as the gods were in this new world, their interventions were haphazard, short sighted, and bound by the limits of human need. Even as the study of Imperial Magic reached its zenith in the great cities of Merwyn, the last useful remnants of human civilization all but collapsed, leaving humanity at the mercy of its own frailties.
The effort to preserve humanity from itself led the Archmagi to slowly accumulate the magical irionite, called witchstones by the common folk, that allowed the Magelords of the Empire to utilize magic to its greatest extent. Originally gifts from the Alka Alon and used to assist humanity in exploring their rajira, the stones had become hereditary objects used by various noble families against each other. They became instrumental tools of the great magelords of the day to support and reinforce their control. Mid-way through the Later Magocracy, in an effort to save humanity, or so say the Imperial Histories, from the terrors of its elite, or as a means to consolidate his own absolute power, according to his opponents, over the Empire, the Archmage disposed of the majority of irionite at sea, over the site of drowned Perwyn.
The Narasi Conquest
If left unmolested, there’s no doubt that the Magocracy would have eventually recovered some of the functionality of the early colony, but fate intervened, and history was changed. Ancient settlers in the far northern steppes above the fertile lands of Vore had greatly decivilized into horse-riding nomadic tribes. When raiding their southern neighbors proved profitable, a regular series of harassing attacks forced the Archmage to deploy troops to defend Vore. Over the years the size and intensity of the attacks grew, as did the Imperial response. Eventually, some of the barbarian Narasi were hired to screen off their kinsman from further attacks. Chief amongst these mercenaries was Klaven the Great, also known as Kamaklavan.
Klaven was a chief with three legitimate sons and two bastards, all great horsemen and cunning warriors. After three years of successfully keeping the rest of the Narasi at bay, a dispute over pay with the Governor of Upper Vore saw Klaven withdraw at the end of his contract. The next year, when no attacks came, the Archmage withdrew many of the troops in the north to face the rebellious Cormeeran Sea Lords in the south. In their place he sent warmagi, as the Narasi feared the powers that only their greatest shamans possessed.
Alas, Klaven was not merely sulking on the steppes; he took his knowledge of Imperial defenses and the wealth he’d accumulated as an Imperial auxiliary, and he hired four other clans to ride south with him and overwhelm the citadels of the Empire. Though skeptical, his sons led the mercenaries in a surprise attack that was the first success of the Conquest. For six years Klaven and his sons ransacked Vore, Upper and Lower, and made steady incursions into Merwyn, the heart of the Empire.
The long, brutal campaign that followed is detailed elsewhere in the histories, but after six years Klaven and his sons and their Narasi barbarians overwhelmed one Imperial army after another. Magic helped keep the invaders at bay, but the powers of the magi were greatly diminished, after giving up their irionite. Eventually Kamaklaven was crowned King, and made each of his sons dukes over portions of his kingdom. When he refused to name a successor among the jealous brothers, the kingdom fractured into the Five Duchies: Vore, Merwyn, Remere, Castal, and Alshar. For a time, Imperial forces withdrew to pockets of resistance in Alshar, Wenshar, and Farise, but eventually all but Farise fell to the Narasi horsemens’ fearsome blades.
The Alka Alon who had been serving as advisors to the Magocracy were horrified at the bloody, anti-magical regime that now treated respected scholars like peasants. Thousands of books were burned by the suspicious and illiterate Narasi, and the magi were imprisoned or executed for resisting the barbarians. Survivors were forced to police themselves by means of the Censorate of Magic, an order of warmagi responsible only to the King, charged with regulating magic and magi within the kingdom and empowered to take life, liberty, or property from those who violated their strict terms. For the most part, the Alka Alon withdrew in disgust from the affairs of men after the Conquest. Watching a brilliant civilization to succumb to barbarism, ignorance, and squalor in less than one of their lifetimes was too disheartening for the Alon to witness.
The Five Duchies
The death of Kamaklaven was the birth of the five feudal duchies that ruled over most of the human lands of Callidore for four hundred years of purposeful ignorance. The Narasi warriors quickly settled into the role of an equestrian aristocracy, intermarrying heavily with the native nobility in Vore, Merwyn, and Remere. In Castal and Alshar, the original Narasi bloodlines and culture were preserved more intact, though they, too, underwent a transformation. The priesthoods of the two cultures merged and the Magelords eventually accepted their subservience to the chivalry, becoming mere artisans in a tightly-regulated environment . . . not lords of the world, as before.
Though thousands of petty feudal domains permit a subsistence existence to the majority of people in the Five Duchies, the Censorate of Magic maintains its ancient prerogatives and acts without restraint. Each Ducal house has a long history of both warring and wedding the others, and vicious court politics has shaped the destinies of millions. Rarely does one have the ambition, drive, or means to improve their power over the others . . .
Shereul the Dead god
Where is this money going?
It would be remiss of us to not tell you what we are going to use this money for, as it is your right to know. We are going to do the following things with the funds:
Pay the authors that have worked on the project.
Pay the layout and graphic design personnel.
Pay for printing.
Buy art (what is a book without art?)
Pay for advertising space
Pay for any incidentals that may come up after the KS finishes
+$10 - Pregenerated Characters. For this add-on you get a book of pregenerated characters for play in PDF. These will be characters suitable for conventions, one shots or even for your gaming group if someone should not want to go through the time of making up a character or if they are new to your group. You must purchase one separately for each game system. Print copies will be made available via BackerKit. Release date TBD.
+$10 - Mini Adventure Path. For this add-on you will get an adventure path booklet for Spellmonger in PDF. This will contain about four separate but linked adventures for your Spellmonger gaming. You must purchase one separately for each game system. Print copies will be made available via BackerKit. Release date TBD.
Agents of Gaia for 5e (+$12), Pathfinder (+$12), and Savage Worlds (+$12) in PDF, You have always seen a glimpse of the strange and unknown out of the corner of your eye. You dismissed it from the time you were little until now. You knew that your friend was attacked by werewolves when you were fifteen, even though the entire block was looking for a stray dog. You continued to experience these events as an adult until one day you could not let the attacks go. You had to report something to the authorities, you had to tell someone that Mr. Mason next door was attacked by a mummy in his front yard, no matter how crazy that sounds. Your report did not go unnoticed, as you were visited by a government agency you had never heard of before. The agents that arrived on your doorstep informed you that you were one of the Veil-born, and have the gift of seeing things not seen or believed by most of the populous. You have been recruited by the agency and you are now part of the group called G.A.I.A. an organization designed to protect people from the strange and unusual that exists out there. Must purchase each game system separately. Print copies will be made available via BackerKit.
Gaslight Victorian Fantasy for 5e (+$15) and Savage Worlds (+$12). A Victorian Fantasy where technology meets sorcery, where fantasy meets history. A world where Humans co-exist with Vampires, where fantasy meets history. Beast Men, Werewolves and Wildlings. A land of secret organizations and hidden agendas. Welcome to a Victorian world of magic, non humans and technology all trying to take their rightful place in society. Meet Vampire Detectives, Beast Men Sheriffs, and Wildling Rogues. Non humans in society exist from their counterparts in Victorian literature. Print copies will be made available via BackerKit.
Sherwood: The Legend of Robin Hood for Pathfinder (+$10), 5e (+$15) and Savage Worlds (+$10). Welcome to Sherwood Forest, a place of mystery and excitement. Band together to oppose the forces of the Sheriff and Prince John in England during the Third Crusade. Create your characters to do whats best for England and King Richard by protecting his interests at home. This setting book allows you to play in the Medieval England of the period of the Third Crusades. There are classes designed specifically for that period. The book is designed to not only emulate the historical period, but also the mythical one as well. Play in any level you would like from historical to mythical, emulating various novels, stories and tv shows about Robin Hood.This setting can be played in either historic or mythical mode. Historic is more realistic, leaving out magic, but in mythical mode, magic has been added to the setting allowing you to play in the fantastic. In addition to this we have a special type of Action Points called Swashbuckling Points. What these do is allow your character to do the impossible, from swinging on a rope chandelier to climbing up the wall using only a knife. In a style that emulates the early fantastical stories of the genre. Print copies will be made available via BackerKit.
Stretch Goals
$21,000 - If we reach this stretch goal you will get a brand new novella containing a story set during the Farisian Campaign. This will be given to all backers as a pdf and mobi file. Release Date March 2020
$25, 000 - If we reach this stretch goal we will publish the Atlas of the Five Duchies. All backers will receive a free PDF, and will get an opportunity afterwards to purchase a print version. Release date TBD.
SHIPPING THE REWARDS
Shipping is not included in the pledge levels. That's because for this Kickstarter campaign, we're going to send out surveys and collect shipping fees through BackerKit once we're ready to ship out all physical rewards. This not only means all funds raised in the Kickstarter are going towards covering the costs of production. The cost of production include licensing fees, layout, and printing) but it gives us plenty of time to source the best and least expensive international shipping options through fulfillment agents in Europe and Asia. Thanks for being understanding! We know that for some it's much easier just to take care of the total costs all at once upon pledging, but we hope you'll see that this approach is not only better for the project but affords you the lowest shipping costs when the time comes.
Author and Artist Bios:
Terry Mancour (Co-Author & Setting creator): Terry Mancour is a science fiction and fantasy writer, author of more than 32 books and innumerable articles under various pseudonyms, including the New York Times Best Selling Star Trek Novel "Spartacus", the sequels to H. Beam Piper's Space Viking, and his original epic fantasy series The Spellmonger Series. He lives in Durham, North Carolina with his beautiful wife and three children.
Jonathan M. Thompson (Co-Author & Publisher): A gamer since 1980 Jonathan has always been fascinated with the art of design. He designed Robotech: Macross for Savage Worlds (with Jason Lang), The Dinosaur Protocol for Savage Worlds (with Chris Halliday), Gaslight Victorian Fantasy (with Stephen J Miller), Agents of G.A.I.A (with Alan Bahr), Ninja High School the Anime and Manga RPG, Cityscape: City on the Nexus of the Omniverse (with B.L. Sisemore and Ian Liddle), Open Core gaming system (with Christopher Helton), Sherwood: The Legend of Robin Hood (with Wil Upchurch) and Pulp Fantastic (with Christopher Helton & Christopher Halliday). He is responsible for additionally publishing Eldritch Skies and Kaisers Gate.He has also worked freelance for such companies as Amarillo Design Bureau and Modiphus Entertainment. He currently is the head of the ENnie Award winning publishing company Battlefield Press. He lives in Shreveport, Louisiana with his games, books, a son and five cats.
Morne Shaap (Graphic Design): Graphic designer, gamer and rpg publisher for going on 18 years. Enjoys making battle maps for epic battles and creating beautiful books that really draws in the reader. Morné's only regret that he can't have himself cloned, so he has time to write down all the adventures and settings drifting in his imagination.
The estimated delivery date is intended to serve as our hope as to when you will receive rewards. Setbacks are possible with any project. Like other projects of this type, this project is not without risks. Delays can happen, as we are only human. We will keep in contact with you concerning potential delays and such. The biggest possible delay will come from any stretch goals that we may include. The risk of delay happens anytime you put control in the hands of another person, who has their own issues they must deal with as well.
5e PDF only
With this pledge level you get the PDF of the book.
Pathfinder PDF only
Savage Worlds PDF only
5e and Pathfinder PDF both
You get the PDF for both the 5e and Pathfinder versions.
Any two PDFs
You get the PDF for both any two versions.
5e PDF and Hardcover Print
This tier is for a print version of Terry Mancour's Spellmonger RPG setting book. Shipping to be collected after the end of the Kickstarter via BackerKit.
Pathfinder PDF and Hardcover Print
Savage Worlds PDF and Hardcover Print
5e and Pathfinder PDF plus print choice
You get the PDF for both versions and a print book of your choice. This print book can be either the Pathfinder or the 5e version of the book.
Print and PDF of both 5e and Pathfinder
This tier is for a 5e and Pathfinder print version of Terry Mancour's Spellmonger RPG setting book. Shipping to be collected after the end of the Kickstarter via BackerKit.
Print and PDF of any two versions
This tier is for any two print version of Terry Mancour's Spellmonger RPG setting book. Shipping to be collected after the end of the Kickstarter via BackerKit.
5e Retailer level
This level is for brick and mortar retail stores only! Yes, we will check. You get three copies of Terry Mancour's Spellmonger. Shipping to be charged later. Note that the book will be offered through distribution so you'll be able to get it that way if you prefer. If you want to support us now though, great!
Pathfinder Retailer level
Savage Worlds Retailer level
Pathfinder PDF and Signed Print
This tier is for a print version of Terry Mancour's Spellmonger RPG setting book. Signed by both Terry and Jonathan. Shipping to be collected after the end of the Kickstarter via BackerKit. Extra time required due to time to get signatures.
5e PDF and Signed Print
Savage Worlds PDF and Signed Print
Print and PDF of all three versions
This tier is for all three versions of Terry Mancour's Spellmonger RPG setting book. Shipping to be collected after the end of the Kickstarter via BackerKit.
PDF & Signed print of 5e and Pathfinder
This tier is for a 5e and Pathfinder print version of Terry Mancour's Spellmonger RPG setting book. Signed by Terry and Jonathan. Shipping to be collected after the end of the Kickstarter via BackerKit. Added time due to signature collection.
PDF & Signed print of any two
This tier is for any two print versions of Terry Mancour's Spellmonger RPG setting book. Signed by Terry and Jonathan. Shipping to be collected after the end of the Kickstarter via BackerKit. Added time due to signature collection.
PDF & Signed print of all three
This tier is for a Savage Worlds, 5e and Pathfinder print version of Terry Mancour's Spellmonger RPG setting book. Signed by Terry and Jonathan. Shipping to be collected after the end of the Kickstarter via BackerKit. Added time due to signature collection.
Feb 18, 2019 - Mar 20, 2019 (30 days)
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ASHLEY YOUTH DETENTION CENTRE - VISITS
PRISONS YOUNG PEOPLE
4260 Meander Valley Road, Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia
http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/youth/youth_justice/...
Ashley Youth Detention Centre is located near Deloraine in the North of the State and houses youth juvenile offenders of both sexes aged 10-18 years old.
It has a 51 bed capacity and comprises four accommodation units – Bronte, Huon, Franklin and Liffey.
Visiting days and times:
Wednesday: 12.00pm – 3.15pm
Saturday and Sunday: 10.30am – 3.15pm
Visits must be booked in advance, bookings can be made during normal business hours Monday – Friday 9am to 5pm.
Mailing address: 4260 Meander Valley Highway, Deloraine TAS 7304
AUSTRALIAN CHILDHOOD FOUNDATION - FAMILY VIOLENCE COUNSELLING FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
FAMILY & OTHER RELATIONSHIPS YOUNG PEOPLE FAMILY VIOLENCE
info@childhood.org.au
The Australian Childhood Foundation provide counselling to children and young people who have been affected by family violence.
Children and young people can access this service if they:
are 17 years of age or younger
have been affected by family violence at home
are not in foster car or kinship care
have a parent, carer or significant adult who can support them through counselling
are not currently involved in another similar counselling service
BAPTCARE FAMILY & COMMUNITY SERVICES TASMANIA - Southern Region
SERVICES FOR THE DISABLED FAMILY & OTHER RELATIONSHIPS YOUNG PEOPLE
4/95 Albert Road, Moonah TAS 7009, Australia
1800 171 233 Referrals and assistance1800 171 233 Referrals and assistance
http://www.baptcare.org.au/services/family-yout...
Baptcare is a purpose driven organisation focused on delivering the best of care to people of all ages, cultures, beliefs and circumstances. Through our social enterprise model, we deliver better outcomes for people in our community; combining the best commercial practice with a social heart.
Baptcare has more than 150 staff who work throughout Tasmania to deliver the best of care to people in Family and Children Services, Foster Care, Disability Services and Residential Aged Care.
CHILD & ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE (CAMHS) NORTH WEST
MENTAL HEALTH YOUNG PEOPLE
5th Floor, Reece House, Burnie 7320
6477 73006477 7300
camhs.nw@dhhs.tas.gov.au
CAMHS is available to young people who require assistance in managing emotional, social and behavioural difficulties. Can assist with depression, anxiety, self harm, eating disorders, compulsive behaviours, fears and phobias, hallucination and delusional thinking, sleeping problems and Autism Spectrum Disorders.
CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION SERVICE (CAPS)
SEXUAL ASSAULT YOUNG PEOPLE
Ashfield, NSW, 2131, Australia
http://www.childabuseprevention.com.au/
The service aims to alleviate child abuse by providing support to parents, carers and families. National, confidential video counselling by appointment, offering counselling, education and support services. Child abuse prevention information and protective education available via an online video materials and Safe Program Booklet for parents and childcare centres, schools. Etc.
CHILD SAFETY SERVICE
LEGAL ASSISTANCE YOUNG PEOPLE
http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/children/child_prote...
Division within the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services which holds the statutory responsibility for intervening legally to protect child from abuse and neglect by their parents or other carers. Any suspected circumstances of child abuse can be reported.
CHILDREN'S CONTACT SERVICE
FAMILY & OTHER RELATIONSHIPS YOUNG PEOPLE
http://www.tas.relationships.org.au/
A service providing safe and positive contact arrangements for children whose parents are separated.
The Children’s Contact Service makes it possible for contact arrangements to take place with minimum stress both for children and their parents. It can also help with establishing a relationship between child and parent when there has been a period of limited or no contact.
The services that are provided include:
planning, negotiation and setting up of contact arrangements
facilitated changeover to enable the child to be transferred smoothly from one parent to the other at contact times
supervised contact visits to enable child and visiting parent to enjoy quality time together
separate appointments for both parents
an established children’s centre with toys, games and equipment
practical, sensible security including separate entrances and exits for each parents wherever possible.
Advantages of using the service include:
contact can be made using an independent third party
parents do not have to deal directly with each other
it provides a relaxed, safe and neutral environment for children and parents
both parents can feel they are doing the best for their child.
Costs involved:
Intake – free
Supervised Visits and Changeovers – a fee is payable by both parties. Reduced rates are available for concession card holders.
Children’s contact services are located in Hobart, Launceston, Devonport and Burnie.
COLVILLE PLACE
YOUNG PEOPLE YOUNG PEOPLE
https://www.colony47.com.au/
Colville Place provides short term accommodation (6-12 weeks) for young people aged 12-15 who may not have a safe place to stay. Colville Place promotes healthy relationships and supports young people to engage with education, develop living skills, emotional resilience, interpersonal skills and to reconnect with family where appropriate. Any person can make a referral for a young person.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF TASMANIA - LEARNING SERVICES NORTHERN REGION
EDUCATION YOUNG PEOPLE
1 Fenton Street, Devonport Tasmania, Australia
learning.services.nr@education.tas.gov.au
https://www.education.tas.gov.au/
If you have a complaint arising from a State Public School, you should first raise the issue with the school. If there is no resolution, you can contact the Education Department Learning Services in your area.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TASMANIA - LEARNING SERVICES NORTH WEST REGION
1 Fenton Street, Devonport, Tasmania, Australia
http://www.education.tas.gov.au/About_us/public...
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TASMANIA - LEARNING SERVICES SOUTHERN REGION
30 Raminea Road, Lindisfarne Tasmania, Australia
Learning.Services.S@education.tas.gov.au
If you have a complaint about an issue arising from a State Public School, you should first raise the issue with the school. If there is no resolution, you can contact the Education Department Learning Services in your area.
eSAFETY COMMISSIONER
INVESTIGATION SERVICES YOUNG PEOPLE GENERAL
https://www.esafety.gov.au
The eSafety Commissioner (eSafety) was established in 2015 to serve as Australia’s national leader, regulator and coordination body for a range of online safety issues. eSafety is committed to helping Australians have safer experiences online through a range of prevention, education and early intervention measures.
eSafety provides Australians with a place to report serious cyberbullying, image-based abuse, and illegal online content including child sexual abuse material.
FAMILY PLANNING TASMANIA (INC) - North West
FAMILY & OTHER RELATIONSHIPS GENERAL HEALTH RESOURCES YOUNG PEOPLE
1 Pine Avenue, Upper Burnie, Tasmania, Australia
burnie@fpt.asn.au
http://www.fpt.asn.au/
Family Planning Tasmania provides sexual and reproductive health services through bulk billing clinics, school education programs, training and health promotion activities.
Opening hours: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 9am – 5pm.
FAMILY PLANNING TASMANIA (INC) - Northern Region
269 Wellington Street, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
lton@fpt.asn.au
Opening hours: Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm.
FAMILY PLANNING TASMANIA (INC) - Southern Region
421 Main Road, Glenorchy, Tasmania, Australia
info@fpt.asn.au
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm.
FAMILY VIOLENCE COUNSELLING & SUPPORT SERVICE - Statewide phone number
FAMILY & OTHER RELATIONSHIPS COUNSELLING & SUPPORT YOUNG PEOPLE FAMILY VIOLENCE
http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/service_information/...
Department of Health and Human Services Family Violence Counselling and Support Service offers professional and specialised services to assist children, young people and adults affected by family violence. This service is part of the safe at home initiative (http://www.safeathome.tas.gov.au/).
FOSTER AND KINSHIP CARER'S ASSOCIATION OF TASMANIA
4 Hart Place, Rokeby Tasmania, Australia
1800 149 994 (24 hour assistance and support)1800 149 994 (24 hour assistance and support)
admin@fkat.org.au
http://fkat.org.au
The Foster and Kinship Carer’s Association of Tasmania (FKAT) is a member of the Australian Foster and Kinship Carers Partnership. They provide support and assistance for foster carers, kinship carers and people interested in becoming carers.
Services Provided by FKAT:
Telephone support and referral service
Support during case planning
Support during family conferences
Advocacy and support for carers through the Foster Care Advocacy and Support Team (FAST)
GATEWAY SERVICES
FAMILY & OTHER RELATIONSHIPS YOUNG PEOPLE COUNSELLING & SUPPORT SERVICES FOR THE DISABLED
Can assist individuals and families through the provision of information and advice, brief intervention and referral to appropriate services. Works with families from all cultural backgrounds, provides family support where a disability may be present. Offers an Integrated Family support Service (IFSS), Targeted Youth Support Service (TYSS), family support for Grandparents and Relatives raising children.
HEADSPACE - Devonport
49 Liverpool St, Hobart, TAS, 7000, Australia
headspace@csys.com.au
http://www.headspace.org.au/
A free, youth-focused mental health service for young people aged 12-25. A team of professionals specialising in health related issues can help.
Opening hours: Thursday 9am – 5pm. Appointment on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
HEADSPACE - Hobart
headspace@thelink.org.au
Headspace is the national youth mental health foundation. For young people aged 12-25yrs.
Headspace can help with: general health, mental health and counselling, education, employment, alcohol and other drug services.
Monday – Friday from 9am-5pm
Tuesdays from 11am-7pm
HEADSPACE - Launceston
Corner of Brisbane and Wellington Streets, Launceston
0458 610 022 - for sms only0458 610 022 - for sms only
KENNERLEY CHILDRENS HOME
EMERGENCY ACCOMMODATION YOUNG PEOPLE YOUNG PEOPLE
PO Box 576 Glenorchy Tasmania 7010
sue@kennerleykids.org.au
http://kennerleykids.org.au
Provides respite care for children aged 0-18 years, as well as providing short term care for up to 28 days and long term care for children under Protection Orders.
There is also a living-in program for 16-25 year olds.
KIDS HELP LINE
COUNSELLING & SUPPORT YOUNG PEOPLE
1800 55 18001800 55 1800
admin@boystown.com.au
Free confidential and anonymous 24 hr telephone and on-line counselling service for children and young people aged between 5-25 years.
Mental Health Services (Statewide)
http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/mentalhealth
Mental Health Services in Tasmania provides assistance to people of all ages with serious mental health issues. Services are delivered regionally throughout Tasmania within four service streams: Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Adult Community Mental Health, Older Persons Mental Health and Inpatient and Extended Treatment Mental Health. Access to all services is via the Mental Health Services Helpline. The Helpline is a confidential phone service that you can call 24 hours, 7 days a week for advice, assessment and referral. The Mental Health Services Helpline may refer you to a specialist mental health service or provide details for another service to assist you
OPTIONS - Parent, Adolescent Mediation and Counselling (Glenorchy)
http://www.anglicare-tas.org.au
Options is a mediation and counselling service for young people aged 10-21 and their families or caregivers. The Option program offers group sessions for families experiencing conflict or relationship issues, individual counselling appointments for family members facing personal difficulties.
OPTIONS - Parent, Adolescent Mediation and Counselling (Hobart)
18 Watchorn Street, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Run by Anglicare Tasmania, Options is a mediation and counselling service for young people aged 10-21 and their carers. Offers family counselling for families experiencing conflict or relationship issues and individual counselling for family members facing personal difficulties.
OVERSEAS CHILD ABDUCTION
EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE GENERAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE YOUNG PEOPLE
finass@ag.gov.au
https://www.ag.gov.au/LegalSystem/Legalaidprogr...
The Attorney-General’s Department may provide legal financial assistance for parents or guardians whose children are being retained in another country, by another person, without their consent.
Applications can be made to the department for grants to cover:
the overseas legal costs of obtaining a court order for the return of a child to Australia
flights for the return of a child to Australia
flights for people who are required to attend overseas legal proceedings or to escort a child back to Australia.
The department cannot cover:
costs for access or visitation with a child
any Australian legal costs.
The department will not, generally, cover the cost of any legal fees or expenses incurred before an application is made or if the applicant meet the cost without incurring serious financial difficulty.
More information regarding legal financial assistance for overseas child abduction can be found at our website; http://www.ag.gov.au/LegalSystem/Legalaidprogrammes/Commonwealthlegalfinancialassistance/Pages/Overseaschildabduction
You can contact the Department via the below means:
Telephone (within Australia): 1800 117 995
Telephone (outside Australia): +61 2 6141 4770
Email: finass@ag.gov.au
PULSE YOUTH HEALTH SOUTH
YOUNG PEOPLE GENERAL HEALTH RESOURCES
404 Main Rd, Glenorchy TAS, Australia
pulse@ths.tas.gov.au
Pulse Youth Health South is a free and confidential health promotion, prevention and early intervention service for young people aged 12-24 years. Provides a mix of clinical services, education and health promotion programs to assist young people to address a wide range of health issues. Has a Worker on Duty to provide individual support for young people, a sexual health GP clinic, psychological services. Young people can self refer. Appointments not needed to access the Worker on Duty service.
RECONNECT - Anglicare (Burnie)
6 Strahan Street, South Burnie, TAS, 7320, Australia
Reconnect is an Anglicare program which supports young people, aged between 12-18 years, in North-West Tasmania to reconcile with their families.
Reconnect is a free program that can be used to build bridges with family. Reconnect can help with:
Opportunities to get involved with education, training, work and community activities
RECONNECT - Anglicare (Devonport)
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Law Offices of Julie Ellen Landau
Practice limited to all aspects of matrimonial and family law
Landau Law
Julie Ellen Landau
Alexander Merritt McGee
Child Support and Child Custody
Mediating Divorce Agreements
The New Child Support Guidelines
Wellness Readings
Email: jlandau@landaulaw.com
One of Baltimore’s premier divorce attorneys, Julie Landau maintains a visible position in Maryland’s family law arena, where she has practiced for more than 30 years. Providing caring, personal representation with a knack for resolving complex financial issues and asset distributions, Julie’s practice focuses on all aspects of matrimonial and family law. If resolution outside of the courtroom cannot be achieved, her clients can depend on her for zealous representation at trial.
Julie astutely integrates her knowledge of business and tax law into her practice. A court-approved and experienced mediator and certified collaborative law professional, Julie supports the resolution of legal issues by alternative dispute resolution. Her credentials include teaching continuing legal education on litigation and strategy.
Many of Julie’s clients come to her in a difficult time and she effectively and efficiently helps them on many different levels. She has authored a substantial number of published articles and lectures on family law and related topics. AV Pre-eminent rated, the highest rating available from Martindale-Hubbell, speaks to the quality of representation Julie continues to provide her clients. Her clients’ recommendations and repeat representation exemplify the personal and professional connection that Julie builds with each representation.
Julie’s active involvement in several local philanthropic organizations evidences her commitment to helping the community as well as her clients. A member of the Equal Justice Council, Julie is committed to the rights of low-income individuals to maintain quality legal representation.
A graduate of Goucher College and the University of Maryland School of Law, Julie’s significant professional affiliations, presentations and articles are set forth below.
Areas of Practice:
Family law, representing individuals in negotiation, litigation, and appeals of domestic matters, including separation, divorce, support, custody, division of property and prenuptial agreements.
Mediation and Neutral Case Evaluation of Family law matters
Certified Collaborative Law Professional
Admitted to Practice:
Maryland Court of Appeals (1980)
United States District Court for the District of Maryland (1984), including Trial Bar
Rating/Awards:
AV Pre-eminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell
Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers
Leadership in the Law, November 2012, The Daily Record
Maryland "Super Lawyer" 2007-2018
- Top 100 Maryland Lawyers, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018
- Top 50 Maryland Women Lawyers, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018
Women Leaders in the Law, 2014, Fortune Magazine
Maryland Top 100 Women, May 2011, The Daily Record
Top Women Lawyers in the Northeast, July/August 2011, Arrive Magazine
J.D., University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore, Maryland (1980)
B.A, Goucher College, Towson, Maryland (1976)
Certified Collaborative Law Professional, The Administrative Office of the Courts (2012)
Mediation Certificate, Center for Divorce Mediation, New York, New York (2012)
Mediation Certificate, Circuit Court for Baltimore City (1989)
Equal Justice Council, Member
Collaborative Professionals of Baltimore, Member
Signal 13 Foundation, Inc. – Board of Directors
Attorney Grievance Commission, Peer Review Committee - appointed member -(2001 - 2003)
Attorney Grievance Commission, Inquiry Panel - appointed member (1994-2000)
Maryland State Bar Association
- Family Law Section
- Bench Bar Committee
Women’s Bar Association
Judicial Nominating Selection Committee
Baltimore County Bar Association
- Bench-Bar Committee
Baltimore City Bar Association
- Family Law Section (1980-present)
- Gender Bias Committee (Chair, 1991),
- Law firm Professionalism Committee,
Life Member, National Registry of Who's Who
American Bar Association, Member
- Family Law Committee, Member
Appointed Member, Court of Appeals of Maryland, Special Committee on Pro Bono
Presentations and Articles:
June 7, 2016, Bar Library of Baltimore City, speaker “Family Law & Practice Appreciation Night"
November 10, 2015, Baltimore County Bar Assn, speaker “Direct and Cross Examination of a Custody Evaluator”
March 21, 2013, “Ethical Issues That Arise When Lawyers Hang Out Their Own Shingle” Panel Member, Milton Talkin Lecture Services
November 2012, “Path to Excellence,” Panel Member for The Daily Record
April 2012, “Alimony in Maryland”, speaker for joint meeting Baltimore City/Baltimore County Family Law Committees
November 2010, “How to Get and Keep Clients”, speaker for MSBA Solo and Small Firm Conference
92.3 FM WERQ: Best Guest Award from 92.3 FM WERQ 2006
92.3 FM WERQ: Guest speaker for family law related questions and answers
May, 2005: "Family Law In Maryland", speaker for Lorman Education Services for seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
May, 2001: “Marketing for Solo Practitioners”, written analysis for Maryland State Bar Association Journal
January 30, 2001: “Maryland Custody Issues”, speaker for Lorman Education Services, seminar conducted in Baltimore Maryland
September 13, 2000: “Equitable Distribution in Divorce Settlements in Maryland”, speaker for National Business Institute seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
September 29, 1999: “Family Law for Social Workers, Counselors and Other Helping Professionals”, speaker for Lorman Educational Services Seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
June 22, 1999: “Family Law Litigation”, speaker for National Business Institute seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
April 15, 1999: “Mediating Divorce Agreements”, written legal analysis for Maryland State Bar Association Bar Bulletin Newsletter
May 21, 1997: “Child Custody and Visitation in Maryland”, speaker for National Business Institute seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
February 27, 1997: “Hot Tips in Family Law Impact of the Child Welfare Reform Act”, speaker for MICPEL seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
May 30, 1996: “Effective Family Law Practice in Maryland”, speaker for National Business Institute seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
November 14, 1995: “Child Custody and Visitation in Maryland”, speaker for National Business Institute seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
February 16, 1995: “Domestic Law in Maryland”, speaker for National Business Institute seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
January, 1995: “What's Love Got to Do With It”, written legal analysis for Maryland Family Law Monthly
October 28, 1994: “Child Custody and Visitation in Maryland”, speaker for National Business Institute seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
October 27, 1994: “What They Never Taught You in Law School - Life as a Solo Practitioner”, speaker in a Maryland State Bar Association Program
June 21, 1994: “Divorce with Dignity”, speaker for Jewish Family Services seminar
June 25, 1994: “Marketing for the Lawyer”, speaker for Maryland State Bar Association program on establishing and marketing a law practice
October 27, 1993: “Legal Issues in Separation and Divorce”, lecture conducted for Maryland New Directions for Women, Baltimore, Maryland
October 27, 1993: “Rainmaking for Women Lawyers”, speaker for seminar conducted by Maryland Institute for Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers, Baltimore, Maryland
October 7, 1993: “Whose Mortgage is it Anyway”, Executive Women's Network seminar on legal, psychological and tax issues arising in divorce, Baltimore, Maryland
June 24, 1993: “Effective Family Law Practice in Maryland”, speaker for National Business Institute seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
May 17, 1993: “Domestic Law in Maryland”, lecture conducted for Jewish Family Services
February 8, 1993: “Domestic Law in Maryland”, lecture conducted for Jewish Family Services
November 7, 1992: “Whose Mortgage is it Anyway; Contributions by Separated Spouses”, The Daily Record
October, 1992: “Domestic Law in Maryland”, speaker for National Business Institute seminar conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
June, 1992: “Domestic Law Tax Issues”, speaker at Annual Convention of National Society for Certified Women Accountants, conducted in Baltimore, Maryland
April, 1992: “Anatomy of a Custody Case”, speaker for Maryland Volunteer Lawyer Service Training and accompanying manual
March, 1992: “Legal Issues in Separation and Divorce”, Maryland New Directions for Women, Baltimore, Maryland
December, 1991: “Domestic Law Tax Issues”, The Daily Record
October, 1991: “Anatomy of a Custody Case”, Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service Training and accompanying manual
June, 1991: “Sex, Laws and Videotape”, producer and speaker for a videotape and panel program addressing gender bias concerns of legal employers, Maryland State Bar Association Annual Meeting, Ocean City, Maryland
April, May, 1991: “Use of Expert Witnesses in Contested Custody Matters”, speaker for a seminar conducted by Maryland Institute for Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers, Inc. (MICPEL)
October, 1990: “Privileged Communications Waiver of the Psychiatrist - Patient Privilege in Domestic Law Matters”, speaker for Maryland Psychiatric Society
September, 1990: “The Legal Rights of Women in Marriage and Divorce”, (revised 1990), published by Maryland Commission for Women
June, 1990: “Recent Changes in Alimony Law”, moderator of an all day symposium, conducted by Women's Law Center
September, 1989: “Money, Power & Gender, The EconomicImpact of Divorce”, speaker at seminar sponsored by the Women's Law Center, Inc.
June, 1989: “Legal Issues Affecting Psychologists in Contested Domestic Matters”, speaker, Annual Convention, Maryland Psychological Association
The Law Offices of Julie Ellen Landau is a Maryland sole proprietorship engaged in the practice of law. The information on our website is provided for general informational purposes only. The information offered should not be construed as legal advice on any matter, and visitors to this website should not rely upon its content in making legal decisions. Access to information on this website, in whole or in part, its transmission, and its receipt are not intended to, and do not create, an attorney-client relationship between the Law Offices of Julie Ellen Landau and any visitor, nor between any of the firms attorneys and any visitor, unless a written retainer agreement is executed by the client and the Law Offices of Julie Ellen Landau.
Links to other resources on the Internet are offered at this website only as a convenience. The Law Offices of Julie Ellen Landau takes no responsibility for the content, accuracy, or currency of those other websites. Moreover, we do not endorse any commercial product that may be advertised or available at those websites. The Law Offices of Julie Ellen Landau has endeavored to comply with all applicable legal and ethical requirements in compiling this website. We will not, under any circumstances, undertake any work or engagement that conflicts with any applicable, ethical or statutory requirement pertaining to the performance of professional legal services.
Maryland Daily Record
Maryland can manufacturer says tariffs have hurt its bottom line
Baltimore Homecoming Hero Award semifinalists named
Leadership Howard County’s Premier class graduates
Route One Apparel branches out in Las Vegas
Tufaro: State decision to keep MIA downtown ‘stinks to high heaven’
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Eric Posner Book Release & Discussion: "Radical Markets & Democracy in the Information Age"
Add to Calendar 2018-05-04 11:00:00 2018-05-04 13:00:00 Eric Posner Book Release & Discussion: "Radical Markets & Democracy in the Information Age" Event details: https://www.law.uchicago.edu/events/eric-posner-book-release-discussion-radical-markets-democracy-information-age Saieh Hall for Economics (Room 203) Chicago - US University of Chicago Law School web@law.uchicago.edu America/Chicago public Friday, May 4, 2018 @ 11:00am — 1:00pm
Saieh Hall for Economics (Room 203)
5757 S. University Ave
The Becker Friedman Institute (BFI) invites you to a special conference event to explore Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society, a new book by Eric Posner of the University of Chicago Law School, and Glen Weyl of Microsoft Research New England. A diverse group of University of Chicago scholars, including Steve Levitt, Karin Knorr, Andrew Chien, and Jennifer Pitts, will discuss Posner & Weyl’s vision. In Radical Markets, the authors sketch a path to prosperity, inclusion and justice through radically rethinking property, representation, and association, leveraging increased competition and decentralized information, and unleashing emerging technologies from the Internet to big data and AI.
This event is co-sponsorship by Knowledge Lab & Computational Social Science program.
*Free copies of Posner & Weyl’s book Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society, Princeton University Press, to the first 30 to sign-up. They will be available at the event.
Details and RSVP
Eric A. Posner
Kirkland & Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law, Arthur and Esther Kane Research Chair
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Geoffrey R. Stone on the Campus Free Speech Debate
The State of the Campus Free Speech Crusade
Alice B. Lloyd
September 4, 2018 The Weekly Standard
Condemning the listmakers also comes easily to actual educators. “Publishing lists of names of professors or students potentially for the purpose of castigating them is generally not a good idea,” said the University of Chicago’s Geoffrey Stone, a First Amendment lawyer, legal scholar, and professor who’s long defended the intellectual freedom for which the University of Chicago is known. “It’s meant to be an effort to intimidate and to invite others to engage in intimidation.”
“On the other hand, if students feel there are certain professors who are advocates of certain views a student group finds offensive or irresponsible,” Stone said, “[There’s] nothing wrong with that.” He briefly entertained a comparison to students’ filing and following course evaluations, then adding that, “Everybody knows that’s not what this is about.” TPUSA’s professor watchlist provokes something different from the passive action (not taking someone’s class) that a critical eval would cause. “It’s like putting up lists of people you accuse of being Communists,” Stone said, alluding to an earlier chapter in his university’s history: Stone’s 2012 “Statement on principles of free inquiry,” aka the Stone Statement, crystallized the school’s long-held commitment before campus speech reached the level of a widely perceived “crisis” three years ago.
Read more at The Weekly Standard
Campus free expression
Geoffrey R. Stone
Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law
Campus free expression Faculty books
Stone and Bollinger's The Free Speech Century Reviewed in New York Law Journal
New York Law Journal
Geoffrey Stone on President Trump's Free Speech Executive Order
Leiter: A Philosopher Makes the Case against Free Speech
Vox.com
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Honors Projects
For Honors Committee Representatives
Summer Institute for International Students
Lawrence University CS-L and Pathway Program
Student-Initiated Courses
Student-Designed Majors
Fellowship and Scholarship Opportunities
For Honors Faculty Advisors
Criteria for Honors
Honors Projects FAQs
Procedures and Guidelines
Honors Projects in Progress
Previous Honors Projects
Harrison Symposium
The Committee on Honors assigns a representative to act as the non-voting moderator during the oral examination. Sitting members of the Committee on Honors serve as Honors Committee representatives. Other members of the Lawrence University community may also be asked to serve as Honors Committee representatives. The Honors Committee representative reports the results of the examination to the Committee on Honors prior to its last meeting. The Committee on Honors reviews the recommendations of each examining committee and submits its recommendations for Honors in Independent Study to the faculty for final approval.
The Oral Examination
The primary role of the Honors Committee representative at the oral exam is to conduct the exam and to ensure all of the guidelines are followed.
The Honors Committee representative:
asks the student and advisor before the exam begins if there will be a summary. In the sciences, it is customary for the student to present a brief summary of the project (typically no longer than 15 minutes). Students from other disciplines may or may not present a summary, depending on the recommendation of the advisor.
calls the examination to order when all members of the examining committee and the student are present and asks the student to present the summary, if applicable
opens the floor to questions from the examining committee members after the summary. The faculty advisor typically does not begin the questioning. As a courtesy to the non-voting member of the examining committee, the Honors Committee representative may also ask questions but allows the examining committee to ask the majority of the questions. Although circumstances vary, the examination of the candidate typically lasts no longer than one to one and a half hours.
excuses the student from the room when the examination draws to a close
outlines the procedures to be followed in the examining committee's deliberations
distributes the "Criteria for Honors in Independent Study" and instructs the Examining Committee members to review the criteria for cum laude
ensures that all of the relevant criteria for determining honors are addressed during the discussion. Examining committee members must be reminded that to be awarded honors the thesis, project, and oral examination must meet all of the standards listed in the "Criteria for Honors" sheet.
takes notes during this discussion for the report to the Honors Committee
solicits an initial recommendation from one of the examining committee members other than the project advisor as to whether or not the project should be awarded honors
calls the matter to a vote, polling each of the voting members of the committee after the discussion of whether honors should be awarded reaches a consensus or an impasse and records the vote tally
directs the committee's attention to the criteria for magna cum laude and summa cum laude and solicits opinions from the voting members of the committee other than the advisor if the majority of the committee votes that honors should be awarded
again solicits recommendations for awarding higher level of honors and tallies the vote
adjourns the meeting after a consensus has been reached on the level of honors
writes a brief report for the Honors Committee
Procedures for Handling Dissenting Opinions
On occasion, members of the examining committee may not agree upon the awarding of honors/no honors or the degree of honors to be awarded. Such dissent may be handled in one of two ways:
The dissenting member of the committee, while unable to support the decision of the other members of the committee, may not disagree so strongly as to challenge the decision. In this instance, the inability of the committee members to come to a mutual decision should be indicated in the report submitted by the student's adviser to the Committee on Honors.
The dissenting member of the committee may vigorously disagree with the decision, believing that inappropriate standards were applied or that incorrect evaluations were made in judging the project. In this situation, the dissenting member submits a written statement to the Committee on Honors, challenging the legitimacy of the decision and, in effect, requesting the Committee to reconsider the decision. The student's adviser should also include information concerning the disagreement in the report sent to the Committee on Honors.
In either instance, all members of the examining committee will sign the adviser's report to the Committee and the signature page which will later be attached to the library copy of the paper.
The Committee on Honors representative will also include a brief summary of the dissent in his/her report to the Committee.
Forms and Documents for Honors Committee Representatives
Oral Examination Guidelines
Guidelines for Projects in the Arts
Signature Page
Oral Examination Report form
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The following senior U.S. defense or White House officials are among those who declined, personally or through their representatives, or ignored McClatchy requests for interviews:
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
Sandra Hodgkinson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs.
William Haynes II, former Department of Defense general counsel.
Marshall Billingslea, former acting assistant U.S. secretary of defense for special operations/low-intensity conflict and current deputy undersecretary of the Navy.
David Addington, longtime legal adviser and now chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Jack Goldsmith, former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.
Timothy E. Flanigan, former deputy assistant to President Bush and deputy White House counsel.
Alberto Gonzales, former White House counsel and attorney general.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England.
The 15 questions from Oct. 1, Keck's response and the three questions from Oct. 9, which were never answered, are listed below in their original forms. These don't include e-mails and phone conversations that took place during many other attempts to lobby Keck for interviews with defense officials.
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 10:11:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: "tom lasseter"
Subject: RE: RE: Media Request/McClatchy Newspapers (UNCLASSIFIED)
To: "Keck, Gary L Col OSD PA"
Col. Keck,
I am looking to have a pretty broad conversation about all three installations. We have interviewed more than 60 former GTMO detainees, and a large number of political/security officials in Afghanistan, NGO officials, etc.
That said, I'm listing several questions below to give you an idea of what sorts of things I'd like to talk about.
(Also — A list of former detainees interviewed is attached. I would look forward to any information about their cases. We have the CSRT/ARB transcripts for most of them. There is, of course, a wide gulf between what most of these former detainees say they were doing when detained, and what the charges in the CSRT/ARB transcripts reflect.)
1. I would like to discuss the evolution of the detention facilities at Kandahar, Bagram and Guantanamo. What were the discussions about setting them up? What was the initial thinking about how long the facilities would operate?
2. Once decisions were made to open these facilities, what sort of training was implemented for the units who would be assigned to those locations? Were there any reporting/supervisory mechanisms outside of the normal chain of command put in place to ensure that the installations operated appropriately?
3. In interviews with more than 60 former detainees, most said that they were hit, kicked or abused in other ways at Bagram or Kandahar. They described those two places as being far worse than Guantanamo in terms of physical treatment, especially in the early years of late-2001 to 2004. There are also many allegations of interrogators in those two places using guards to soften detainees before questioning. Was there any concern at the time about misconduct by guards and/or interrogators at those two installations?
4. How did practices such as hanging detainees by their wrists, and delivering knee strikes as a corrective measure, come to be SOP at Bagram?
5. Many detainees described instances in which guards threw Qurans into buckets used as latrines at Kandahar before the detention facility there was closed. Were there ever any formal allegations about this sort of behavior? If so, was there an investigation?
6. Why was the detention facility at Kandahar closed?
7. There appear to be several Afghans who were sent to Kandahar/Bagram and then to GTMO based on false allegations made by tribal/political rivals. What safeguards were in place to prevent this sort of thing in Afghanistan, a country notorious for deeply-rooted tribal and political conflict? Many political/security officials interviewed in Afghanistan pointed to this as a particular blind spot for U.S. forces there.
8. Many of the detainees spoke about Forced Cell Extractions by the IRF at GTMO, often describing pretty rough physical treatment. Have there been reviews of the SOP of the IRF? Were there ever concerns along those lines?
9. There appears to have been a relatively sophisticated network of religious leadership among the detainees at GTMO that called for hunger strikes and suicide attempts as forms of protest. Were there concerns about such leadership in the cell blocs?
10. Are there concerns that GTMO has served as a sort of intellectual Jihadi finishing school for detainees? That it in some cases took men who were criminals or low-level insurgents and turned them into something much harder/radical by the time they were released?
11. I would like to discuss the CSRT/ARB process — how the process was designed, the fact gathering behind the cases against detainees, the criteria for decisions re: whether a detainee was an enemy combatant, attempts to collect witness testimony from Afghanistan, etc.
12. Is there any concern about GTMO sliding into prison culture in which detainees and guards get locked into a back and forth struggle — detainees throw feces/urine/water, guards call the IRF, detainees throw more feces, etc.? Does that sort of situation open the door for detainees being held at GTMO as much for their behavior in the cell blocs as the allegations against them re: insurgent/terrorist ties?
13. There has been a broad range of allegations about Quran abuse, harassment during prayer times by guards, etc. at these three installations. Is there any truth to that? Has there been a concerted effort to exploit religious/cultural sensitivities of detainees to manipulate them for interrogation purposes?
14. What steps are taken to try to prevent detainees being subjected to abuse when they are transferred back to their home countries?
15. Also — In addition to Kandahar, Bagram and Guantanamo, several of the ex-detainees spoke about mistreatment at FOBs in eastern and southern Afghanistan where they were held before being transferred to Kandahar/Bagram. I would like to discuss this.
Thank you for your time, Tom
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 09:57:13 -0400
From: "Keck, Gary L Col OSD PA"
To: "tom lasseter"
Since we have had the same kinds of questions from many reporters over the years we have found it useful to provide the following responses on this general subject. You can certainly contact the GTMO or Afghanistan public affairs office for more information on either of their detainee operations if you would like. If you really want to have a process discussion on CSRT/ARBs while you are here next week, give me a call when you get to town.
You can attribute to a department of defense spokesman:
"The Department of Defense policy is clear — we treat all detainees humanely. The United States operates safe, humane and professional detention operations for unlawful enemy combatants at war with this country. These unlawful combatants have provided valuable information in the struggle to protect the U.S. public from an enemy bent on murder of innocent civilians. As instructed by Al Qaeda training documents such as the Manchester Manual, detainees have frequently made allegations of abuse while in detention in order to garner public support."
"There have been 13 major reviews conducted of detention operations over the past several years, none of which found there was any policy that ever condoned abuse. The reviews have resulted in numerous recommendations which have been implemented and have improved our detention operations. Any credible allegations of illegal conduct by U.S. military personnel are taken seriously and looked into in painstaking detail. If and when applicable, offenders have been punished under the Uniform Code of Military Justice."
"Detainees who are cleared by the US Government for transfer from Guantanamo depart once their respective governments (1) provide credible assurances that they will be treated humanely and (2) that the countries will take tangible steps to mitigate the threat that these individuals pose to the United States and its allies. Detainees are not repatriated to countries where it is more likely than not that they will be tortured. Of the 445 who have departed, less than 10% were determined to be "no longer enemy combatants" (NLEC). While the vast majority of those who departed Guantanamo were still considered "enemy combatants," when repatriated, nations accepting them have agreed to manage their threat."
I don't think we can really give you any help from the policy level on these types of questions beyond what I have provided. Almost everything you are asking about would be handled well below the OSD level. If you can narrow allegations to specific individuals then the service PA representatives might be able to track down action taken by a commander if warranted.
Gary L. Keck
COL, US Army
Director, DoD Press Office
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 12:31:27 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: FW: Fwd: RE: RE: Media Request/McClatchy Newspapers (UNCLASSIFIED)
I am interested to speak with someone about current detainee operations at Bagram and Guantanamo.
I would like to ask them:
1. Are there currently any concerns about mistreatment of detainees at those installations?
2. What sort of intelligence value do the detainees at those installations represent? Are most detainees held in those two installations former commanders/high-level operatives of al Qaida or other terrorist organizations?
3. How many detainees are currently being held at Bagram and Guantanamo?
Thank you, Tom
Let me see what I can do.
On May 21, McClatchy sent a final note asking Keck whether the Defense Department would have any further comment:
From: tom lasseter
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 6:17 PM
To: Keck, Gary L Col OSD PA
Subject: Media Request/McClatchy Newspapers (UNCLASSIFIED)
Sir, this is Tom Lasseter from McClatchy. I wanted to submit a request againto discuss the questions I forwarded to you last year, which are listedbelow. (Refers to questions sent Oct. 1, 2007)
RE: Media Request/McClatchy Newspapers (UNCLASSIFIED)
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 12:36 PM
To: Tom Lasseter
I'll see what I can do. Much of your request is about allegations ofabuse. I doubt I can get anyone at the DoD level to discuss these asallegations of abuse are handled by the specific commands who haveresponsibility for facilities. Your questions about GTMO are best addressedby JTF GTMO as there have been many changes over the years. There have beennumerous investigations into allegations of abuse and when they weredetermined to have occurred then people have been held accountable. It maybe difficult to get folks who know the thought process for sure pertainingto decisions made in the early days of the War on Terror. Many officialshave changed since those days. We can give you current information only onour policy on detention operations.
Director - DoD Press Office
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 2:21 PM
I have had our folks take a look at these and we don't feel thatwe can provide you with any specifics that would be of great value. Therehave been lots of changes over the past 7 years. We have made every effortto conduct detention operations in a safe and humane manner. Specificquestions about GTMO should be addressed to them. Many reporters havevisited GTMO - you may consider requesting a visit with JTF-GTMO to learnmore firsthand. Since 2002, JTF-GTMO has hosted over 3,000 media visits,including roughly 70 from McClatchy/Miami Herald. Cmdr. Storum's number is(contact information removed).
I can provide you with this for your piece if you decide to write:
"Our policy is, and always has been, to treat detainees humanely."
"All credible allegations of abuse are thoroughly investigated andindividuals are held accountable for their actions."
"13 major reviews of detention operations have not found any policy thatever condoned or tolerated abuse of detainees. Recommendations resultingfrom those reviews have improved our operations over time."
"It should be noted that the Manchester Manual instructs al Qaeda members onthe legal and public relations benefits of publicizing mistreatment while indetention."
"The closing chapter of the Manchester Manual teaches al Qaeda operativeshow to operate in a prison or detention center. It directs detainees to"insist on proving that torture was inflicted" and to "complain ofmistreatment while in prison."
"We typically do not respond to each and every allegation of abuse made bypast and present detainees."
Chess & Baseball: The thinking man’s games
This nonprofit offers social and financial support to Macon college students
Diner closed, new traffic light and other Middle Georgia news you might have missed
Bulldogs Beat
Q&A: The Macon nonprofit is giving free books to children. Here’s how you can get involved.
Westside looking to ‘get over the hump’ and into state title game this season
Georgia man died vacationing in Dominican Republic in March, 11th US tourist death: State Department
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Tom Coughlin Praises Jaguars QB Blake Bortles Before Training Camp
Zach Goodall
May 26, 2017; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin (center) looks on during organized team activities at Everbank Field. Mandatory Credit: Logan Bowles-USA TODAY Sports
On SiriusXM NFL Radio this morning, Jaguars’ Executive Vice President of Football Operations Tom Coughlin had nothing but praise for quarterback Blake Bortles as he heads into his fifth training camp in Jacksonville.
.@Jaguars EVP of Football Operations Tom Coughlin told @BobPapa_NFL & @davediehl66 that he likes what he saw from QB Blake Bortles last season.
?AUDIO? pic.twitter.com/pbibEgbEWs
— SiriusXM NFL Radio (@SiriusXMNFL) July 25, 2018
“He’s [Bortles] a tough, resilient son-of-a-gun”, spoke the second year executive and former Jaguars’ head coach.
“I like the way he responds to adversity. He’s taken a lot of shots over the course of his very young career, but if you do realize anything about football, in the playoffs he played his best football, and we did not turn the ball over in the playoffs. That’s a rare, rare occasion. It gave ourselves every opportunity to win. We have an outstanding defense, [and] Blake plays right to the defense.”
Coughlin went on to address the negative criticism Bortles’ has received in the past. “His resilience, his toughness, both mentally and physically, his response to opportunity to be in big games. He’s very level-headed. You don’t see one way or the other, just as [Basketball Hall of Fame UCLA basketball coach] John Wooden said ‘You can’t be affected one way or the other’, whether people are blowing smoke at you or telling you ‘you stink’, you’ve to be to able to maintain, and he’s been able to do that.”
Heading into last season, there were reports that Coughlin wasn’t a fan of Bortles as the team’s quarterback. However, after a much-improved 2017 season that led to playing in the AFC Championship, it appears Bortles’ has earned the legendary football Czar’s trust.
Related Topics:Blake BortlesFeaturedJaguarsNFL TodayTom Coughlin
2018 Jaguars Training Camp: Three Bold Predictions
2018 Jaguars Training Camp: Twitter Mailbag!
Zach Goodall covers the Jacksonville Jaguars for the Locked On Jaguars podcast and website. Follow him on Twitter @zach_goodall.
Get Locked on Jaguars in Your InBox Today!
53 Man Roster
Jaguars 2019 position group breakdown: Running Backs
Brandon Carroll
Dec 23, 2018; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette (27) runs down the field during the second half against the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Similar to their quarterback situation, the Jacksonville Jaguars have attempted to answer some questions in terms of the run game in this year’s offseason. Jacksonville went through a full remodel in an attempt to add veteran presence that can sustain the ground attack if injury strikes the team yet again in 2019.
Two years ago, the Jaguars were a team that led the NFL in rushing at 527 attempts throughout the regular season. Nearly 50 carries ahead of any other team in the league. On those 527 attempted the Jaguars saw heights in production not seen since the Maurice Jones-Drew.
That production staggered in yardage and overall sustainability of the offense with their lackluster quarterback play last season. This was all due to the injuries of star running back Leonard Fournette and the majority of the offensive line. Without Fournette, the Jaguars only accumulated half the yardage in 2018 Fournette produced in 2017 with T.J. Yeldon and Carlos Hyde leading the affair.
Being a strong part of the offensive system, the Jaguars win total saw a sharp decrease and the team swagger that carried them to the 2017 AFC playoffs had vanished.
Jacksonville looked to replenish their running back room and get back to the strong, effective run game they saw in 2017 that made them so successful.
Adding Alfred Blue, Benny Cunningham, Thomas Rawls and more through free agency, as well as, drafting former Temple running back, Ryquell Armstead the Jaguars made a good move in adding reliable to back up Fournette in the backfield.
Projected Running Back Depth Chart:
*italicized indicates starter, underline indicates picked up via draft/free agency
Leonard Fournette, Alfred Blue, Benny Cunningham, Ryquell Armstead.
Leading the pack coming into 2019 is Leonard Fournette. Fournette is a player that has all the major attributes to be a star player in the NFL if he could just stay healthy. Fournette missed eight games last season and seven due to injury which caused the Jaguars offense to stall in his absence.
He is a player that combines strong downhill running with game-breaking speed. Abilities not many can combine nevertheless replace. He is a generational talent who looks to return to his rookie form in 2019.
Fournette looks to be getting back on track this season and “refocused on football.” Him being able to stay on the field will be a huge plus for a Jaguars team that has struggled offensively for many years.
The next two players on the depth chart are veteran backs Alfred Blue and Benny Cunningham.
Blue being a signee from the Houston Texans roster and an experienced back who knows how to get yardage necessary to sustain drives. While receiving very little touches in the Houston offense he played the backup role well and was a reliable source of receiving out of the backfield.
Blue will be used more as a third-down back in the Jaguars offense.
The same goes for Cunningham. Coming over from the Bears, which last season saw two top-caliber running backs in Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen sharing carries, Cunningham got lost in the shuffle. Cunningham is a great receiving threat out of the backfield and can play solid minutes in his role on his new team.
Having two players that can play roles, and play them well is vital for any team in the NFL. Taking fatigue and potential injury into account getting Cunningham and Blue was one of the more important moves the Jaguars made this offseason. The Jaguars acquired two reliable backs for new quarterback Nick Foles to work with on downs where Fournette is not in the game.
Next on the team’s depth chart is the Jaguars 2019 fifth-round pick out of Temple, Ryquell Armstead. In his senior year, Armstead scored 13 touchdowns and averaged nearly 6.5 yards per carry. Armstead’s progression through his college career was a sight to see. After starting his career as a bulkier strong runner, Armstead slimmed down to become a more complete back and utilized his opportunity at Temple to make it to the NFL.
Posting 2,987 yards and 34 touchdowns over his career, Armstead looks to carry on those impressive numbers at the next level. Armstead is a runner with great field vision and patience behind the line of scrimmage. He bursts through the open hole and is willing to lower the shoulder to gain extra yardage. Armstead says that he models his game after former Giants running back Brandon Jacobs.
He describes himself as an angry runner. “I run angry, I run violent. I look for contact— that’s something that makes me unique.” Armstead stated in an interview with CBS sports.
The type of physical running Armstead brings to the table is something the Jaguars have had success within recent memory. That willingness to create contact and run hard for his team to succeed is an attribute any team would love to have with their running back.
A player that very strongly resembles Leonard Fournette in terms of running style was a guy the Jaguars looked at as a potential steal in the fifth round. An aggressive, one-cut runner who can run over opponents or bounce it to the outside and take off down the sideline.
Armstead had the second-fastest time in the 40-yard dash among eligible running backs at the 2019 NFL combine at 4.49 seconds. Being a player with blazing speed mixed with a downhill running style, Armstead could see minutes directly behind Fournette later in the season. Armstead is an intriguing prospect but his development as a pass-catcher out of the backfield will need to improve for him to solidify the playing time this season.
While the Jaguars have many running backs on the roster, all of them cannot stay. Unless there is a huge jump of progression when training camp starts later in the month, Thomas Rawls and Taj McGowan have very little shot of making the team.
After last season, the Jaguars have done whatever it takes to assure they have depth at this position. Being able to provide multiple sources of production is important for any team. By providing this depth, the Jaguars hope it can get the job done and they can return to the success seen in the running game just two seasons ago.
REPORT: Jaguars to sign former WVU WR Marcus Simms
Demetrius Harvey
Oct 13, 2018; Ames, IA, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers wide receiver Marcus Simms (8) runs the football against the Iowa State Cyclones at Jack Trice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports
The Jacksonville Jaguars have made a roster move signing former West Virginia WR Marcus Simms according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. Simms was slated to participate in the supplemental draft after filing the paperwork on June 20th.
Source: The #Jaguars are signing former West Virginia WR Marcus Simms, pending a physical tomorrow. Had several offers after today's supplemental draft ended. One to watch in camp.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 10, 2019
Simms will make for interesting competition for the Jaguars as we inch closer to training camp. Simms accumulated 87 receptions for 1457 yards and eight touchdowns in his three-year career at West Virginia. Simms has also made his name known in the return game totaling 992 yards as a kick returner. According to reports, Simms ran the 40-yard dash in 4.4-4.49 seconds, with a vertical jump of 36″, a broad jump of 10-2 and three-cone time of 6.91 seconds. After his physical tomorrow, the Jaguars will have to make a corresponding move.
Simms will look to compete for a bottom-of-the-roster position with players such as Terrelle Pryor and Keelan Cole. If the Jaguars intend on retaining six receivers Simms will have a good shot at making the roster. By all accounts, Simms was a draftable player.
2019 Jacksonville Jaguars Fantasy Football: Nick Foles Preview
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Jan 6, 2019; Chicago, IL, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles (9) throws a pass against the Chicago Bears in the first half a NFC Wild Card playoff football game at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Quinn Harris-USA TODAY Sports
Quarterback Nick Foles signed a four-year, $88 million dollar contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars this offseason. Foles is a much-needed upgrade behind center and may be the best signal-caller the franchise has had in the past decade. Jaguars fans have high expectations for how he’ll do on his new team. Here’s what you should expect how he’ll do on your fantasy team.
Poor Fantasy History
Throughout the entirety of Foles’ career, his fantasy football production has been underwhelming. Foles has only finished as a top-25 fantasy quarterback once in his seven years in the league.
Part of the reason Foles never produced solid fantasy numbers due to the fact he has never played a full 16-game season — the most games he’s played is 13 back in 2013 when he was fantasy’s QB9. Foles played more than eight games just one other season. To remove the effect of the number of games played, we can look at fantasy points per game (PPG), but those statistics are also disappointing:
-Foles averaged 20.46 PPG in 2013, his best fantasy season. His second-best fantasy season was last year when he scored 15.00 fantasy PPG, which was tied for 24th — with Eli Manning. His career mark is 13.04 fantasy PPG.
-For comparison, Blake Bortles’ best fantasy season was in 2015, when he finished with 20.25 fantasy PPG. In 2018, he scored 13.31 fantasy PPG, which was 28th. His career mark is 15.88 fantasy PPG.
Bortles has been a viable fantasy option partly because of garbage-time opportunities in his first couple years and increased rushing production in the last couple years, but it’s still a tough look for Foles to have worse career fantasy numbers than Bortles by over two points. Long story short, Foles has frankly been a bad fantasy quarterback throughout his career save for one good season.
Fewer Passing Attempts
Another warning sign for Foles is a likely decrease in passing attempts after playing for the Philadelphia Eagles the past two seasons.
-In five regular-season starts last season, Foles had 39.0 attempts per game and averaged 15.04 fantasy points per game.
-In 12 regular-season starts last season, Bortles had 33.0 attempts per game and averaged 13.32 fantasy points per game.
-Foles and Bortles each averaged 0.35 fantasy points per dropback, per Player Profiler.
Foles finished with more fantasy points per game than Bortles, which was partly due to Foles simply throwing the ball more often. Foles’ higher passing rate can essentially be boiled down to two factors: team defense and rushing rate. Jacksonville’s 8thranked defense last season allowed the Jaguars the freedom to run more often and Philadelphia’s 18thranked defense sometimes forced the Eagles to pass more often (weighted defensive efficiency rankings via Football Outsiders). Additionally, Jacksonville (49%) ran at a higher rate than Philadelphia (43%) in game-script positive situations (rushing rates via Sharp Football Stats). To summarize, due to differences in defensive production and offensive play calling, the Eagles pass a lot more than the Jaguars.
Despite the new additions of Foles and offensive coordinator John DeFilippo, the Jaguars will likely continue to rely on running and defense. As a result of transitioning from Philadelphia to Jacksonville, Foles will almost certainly throw fewer passes, and therefore is unlikely to produce numbers like he did last season- which already weren’t exceptional.
Fewer Red Zone Opportunities
Foles also isn’t likely to have as many opportunities to score in the red zone as he did with the Eagles, which is another fantasy red flag.
-In the past two seasons, 36.1% of Foles’ fantasy points have come from in the red zone, while 32.5% of Bortles’ fantasy points have come from in the red zone, per fantasy data.
-In the past two seasons, the Eagles passed on 53% of red-zone plays, while the Jaguars passed on 47% of red-zone plays. The Eagles passed on 57% of red-zone plays in games Foles started, and the Jaguars passed on 42% of red-zone plays in games Leonard Fournette started.
-In the past two seasons, the Eagles averaged 3.4 red zone attempts per game, while the Jaguars averaged 2.6 red zone attempts per game, per Team Rankings.
Based on the 2017-18 seasons, Foles may not reach the red zone as much nor pass in the red zone as much as he was accustomed to in Philadelphia.
Offensive Talent Downgrade
One of the more talked about storylines regarding Foles’ signing with the Jaguars is his prior supporting cast in Philadelphia compared to his current one in Jacksonville. Foles must transition from a receiving core of Zach Ertz, Alshon Jeffery, and Nelson Agholor to Dede Westbrook, Marquise Lee, and rookie tight end Josh Oliver. The difference in each group’s production is obvious:
-Ertz, Jeffery, Agholor, and Golden Tate (who played for Philadelphia in the second half of last season) all surpassed 100 fantasy points and 60 receptions last season. They have four combined career Pro-Bowl appearances.
-Westbrook was the only Jacksonville receiver to surpass 100 fantasy points and 60 receptions last season. In fact, he is the only player on the current roster who caught over 40 passes last season. The Jaguars receivers have zero combined career Pro-Bowl appearances.
The argument that Westbrook is as good as Agholor is feasible, but Agholor was Philadelphia’s third receiving option at best last season, and Jacksonville has no weapons who can come close to the skillset or production of Ertz and Jeffery. Additionally, Foles targeted Ertz a lot and he generated impressive numbers – which creates a lot of buzz for the imminent Foles-Oliver connection – but Ertz’s success was likely due more to his own talent than Foles’ supposed rapport with tight ends:
Per Sports Info Solutions, Foles targeted tight ends at the highest rate in the league (35%) last season. However, he posted a worse completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown percentage, interception percentage, and quarterback rating when throwing to a tight end than the wide receiver or running back last season. Foles also ranked 42ndamong all quarterbacks (min. 10 attempts) in passer rating when targeting tight ends. Ertz finished top-three in targets, receptions, yards, touchdowns, and total fantasy points among tight ends last season. However, he ranked only 20thin fantasy points per target and 18thin yards per target among tight ends (per Player Profiler), which suggests that his massive target volume was a big benefactor towards his production. That large target volume combined with Ertz’s individual talent masked Foles’ below-average efficiency when targeting tight ends.
Now Foles is in Jacksonville, and his top tight end has yet to play an NFL snap. 2019 third-round pick Josh Oliver has a lot of potential to succeed in John DeFilippo’s tight end-friendly offense, but it is unreasonable to expect him to approach Ertz’s skill level or production in his first season. It should also be noted that rookie tight ends historically don’t have a large impact– in the past 15 years, only two rookie tight ends have surpassed 600 receiving yards, and only two have finished as a top-five fantasy tight end. Consequently, Foles may have even worse ratings when targeting tight ends this year. Foles’ supposed strength of throwing to tight ends could be revealed to simply be a result of having an All-Pro tight end to throw to ten times a game in Philadelphia. Overall, Foles is leaving a group of proven/productive receivers and joining a group of young/inconsistent receivers.
One last personnel issue to consider is the strength of Foles’ offensive lines. According to Football Outsiders, the Eagles ranked 17thin pass protection last season and gave up 40 sacks. The Jaguars ranked 27thin pass protection and gave up 53 sacks. Jacksonville’s linemen couldn’t stay healthy as it seemed like backups of backups were starting late in the season. If rookie tackle Jawaan Taylor makes an impact and the starters stay healthy this season there shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but it is worth mentioning that Foles’ new offensive line is just one more variable that could hypothetically make 2019 harder on him and hinge his fantasy potential.
Foles Overall Outlook
Foles ranks 12thin career winning percentage (per Football Database) but 34thin career fantasy points per game among all active quarterbacks (minimum 10 starts). Foles can win games without having to put up lucrative passing numbers, which is exactly what the Jaguars are expecting of him. Based on his past fantasy performances and his new environment in Jacksonville, Foles doesn’t have much of a fantasy ceiling and should not be drafted in single quarterback leagues. He has value as a streaming option/cheap DFS play when he has favorable matchups against weak pass defenses, but for the most part, it’d be wise to look elsewhere when finding a fantasy quarterback.
Note: All fantasy numbers are in standard format (non-PPR). Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are via Pro Football Reference.
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CHÂTEAU OF CHENONCEAU
From €14.5 / person
Château de Chenonceau © Gillard et Vincent
Château de Chenonceau © C. Mouton
Château de Chenonceau © P. Forget
Château de Chenonceau © S. Sevrin
Château de Chenonceau © F. Charel
Château de Chenonceau © D. Darrault
Château de Chenonceau © J.F. Souchard
Chenonceau encapsulates feminine gracefulness, from its delicate and pristine silhouette down to its lavishly decorated interior. It is also called the “Ladies’ Château” because it won the hearts of a number of women, who became quite devoted to it. It is a Renaissance masterpiece with priceless collections of art, immaculately preserved rooms and flower gardens that guarantee an enchanting visit.
A Renaissance masterpiece, the Château of Chenonceau is a stunning sight with its white walls and curved turrets. It boasts an elegant, feminine style that reveals the architectural influence on it by renowned Ladies of the past.
The keep and well testify to the original medieval structure, which was pulled down in the 16th century by the Secretary General of Finance to King Francis I, Thomas Bohier. He built the current building on the foundations of an old fortified mill on the banks of the river. The square section containing accommodation was unusual for this period, with the rooms laid out on either side of a central hall and accessed by an angular staircase, directly inspired by Venetian Palaces. The unique design was repeated a few years later when Catherine de’ Medici built a two-floor gallery on the bridge spanning the Cher River.
The interior of the Château reveals all the splendour of the time, while the rich furnishings and decoration from room to room are enchanting. The rooms have been so well restored that at times they give the impression that time has simply stopped. The room belonging to Louise of Lorraine is a fine example, where the sepulchral decor testifies to the mourning of Henry III’s wife who spent her final years hidden away here in this black-walled room filled with funeral items. While walking along the majestic Medici Gallery, it is easy to imagine ladies’ robes swirling over the checked floor during grand Court parties. The kitchens, which nestle in the bridge’s piers, have also been strikingly restored and you can almost smell the aroma of cooking pots wafting through the dining room, slaughterhouse, food storehouse and kitchen containing numerous period items. The period decor in each of the rooms makes a visit to the château all the more interesting. The whole estate cultivates the art of detail and refinement.
The park and gardens are immaculately designed, with the circular labyrinth, climbing roses in the Diane de Poitiers garden, flower parterres in the Catherine de’ Medici garden and the Flower Garden which testifies to the French tradition of garden design. Alleys of orange trees, shrubs and swathes of flowers offer a perfect setting for a stroll, in particular during one of the night-time walks organised to a gentle accompaniment of music. Alongside these incredible gardens are the Coach gallery with its collection of horse-drawn carriages dating from the late 18th to the early 19th centuries, and the Gallery of Domes containing souvenirs of the Military Hospital housed in Chenonceau during the First World War.
The Château-Museum
The splendour of Chenonceau is unveiled through its sumptuous Renaissance furniture, Flemish tapestries and collections of works by great artists embellishing the château walls. This exceptional museum collection is a priceless treasure that the château preserves with the greatest care.
Magical bouquets in the flower studio
Chenonceau upholds the time-old tradition of making bouquets for every room and every occasion.
The Ladies’ Château
They say that behind every successful man is a woman... Behind the Château of Chenonceau there was not one, but several women who were passionately devoted to it.
News from the château
Homage to the “Builder Queen” at the Château of Chenonceau
Start 20/07/2019
DEGUSTATION SOUS LES ETOILES
CHENONCEAUX - 37
PROMENADE NOCTURNE ET MUSICALE DANS LES JARDINS DU CHATEAU DE CHENONCEAU
CHATEAU DE CHENONCEAU
Château de Chenonceau
37150, CHENONCEAUX
Show telephone number
+ opening times
+ prices
From € 14.5 / person
Things to see in the area
Information points
The Château of Chenonceau is 25 min by train from Tours. The stations in Tours and Saint-Pierre-des-Corps are both connected to Paris-Montparnasse by a 1-hour train journey. The A10, A85 and A71 motorways all lead to the château, which is 2 hours by car from Paris. The airport in Tours provides links to Portugal, Ireland, Great Britain and Morocco.
Visits around the Château of Chenonceau
DOMAINE DU CLOS ROUSSELY
+ Getting there
DOMAINE DE CHAUMONT-SUR-LOIRE
ILE DE LA FOLIE
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Kaminsky Claims Victory in Close Race for Skelos’ Seat; McGrath Not Conceding
From left: Todd Kaminsky, Chris McGrath and Lawrence Seth Hirsh
Democrat Todd Kaminsky declared victory in Tuesday’s special election for a New York State Senate seat that could sway the balance of power in the chamber, but Republican Christopher McGrath hasn’t conceded.
Kaminsky, a freshman state Assemblyman and former federal prosecutor from Long Beach, leads McGrath, an attorney and first-time candidate from Hewlett, by 780 votes, according to unofficial results tallied by the Nassau County Board of Elections. If confirmed, a Kaminsky win could give state Senate Democrats a majority for the first time since 2009—although that also hinges on whether a handful of breakaway Democrats who caucus with Republicans rejoin their party.
“They got close but they didn’t get close enough,” Kaminsky told a crowd of cheering supporters at The Park, a bar in Long Beach, two hours after the polls closed Tuesday night.
The special election in the ninth State Senate district, which covers southwestern Nassau County, is to fill the seat vacated by Dean Skelos, the former state Senate Republican majority leader, who was expelled from office upon his conviction on federal corruption charges in December. Skelos and his son, Adam, who was also convicted, are appealing.
Kaminsky touted his prosecutorial credentials as giving him the experience needed to bring ethics reform to the State Legislature. McGrath countered that he would keep the State Senate in Republican control, thereby not ceding power to New York City Democrats, who, McGrath said, want to raise taxes on Long Island.
McGrath’s campaign maintains that he still has a chance to win once absentee and other paper ballots are counted.
“This race is too close to call,” he said in a statement. “It will not be decided tonight. All the votes will have to be counted in the coming days.”
Of the 68,324 votes cast, Kaminsky won 33,978, just shy of 50 percent. McGrath won 33,198, or just under 49 percent. Laurence Seth Hirsh, an accountant from Valley Stream running on the Green Party line, came in third place with 772 votes, or 1 percent. There were also 56 write-ins.
Kaminsky and McGrath each also had several minor-party lines. Kaminsky also had the endorsement of the Working Families Party and the Women’s Equality Party. McGrath was additionally running on the Conservative Party, Independence Party, Tax Revolt Party and Reform Party lines.
The party affiliations of the voters whose absentee ballots are being counted in the race include 1,318 Democrats, 1,169 Republicans, 26 Conservatives and 206 unaffiliated voters.
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Stop Stealing from Wineries. Because I Said So.
In Community, Public Safety
By Nancy Bauer
Owner, Virginia Wine In My Pocket
The cat. Everyone agrees it was the worst. It wasn’t a pet. More of an outside cat, a vineyard cat, if there is such a thing. But it had its peeps: Keswick Vineyards staff, and customers who kept an eye out. Pounce was her name. And then one day, gone. Pffft. Buh-bye kitty.
No, not the long slink over the rainbow bridge. Misappropriated. Nabbed. Catnapped. One bright, happy day at the winery, a customer stole Pounce.
For real, people?
Pounce wasn’t the only goodie customers helped themselves to.
“When I was working in the tasting room I remember we had lots of glasses taken,” said Kat Schornberg, whose parents own Keswick Vineyards. “Also corkscrews, wine chilling buckets (we used to be cleared out of those like every weekend!), cutting boards, wine, decorations.”
“We started our year with almost 2,000 Riedel [wine glasses] and I now have 180,” Jen Breaux at Breaux Vineyards in Purcellville said. “I’ve had 42 bread knives stolen, 20-something cutting boards, and this past weekend somebody literally was walking out of my grounds with my corn hole boards in their hand and the beanbags, too. “I’m so incredibly dismayed,” she added.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of Northern Virginia, Cindi Causey, co-owner of Potomac Point Vineyards, reports equally ballsy thefts: a painting, a 4-foot by 3-foot tapestry…statues stolen right off the winery’s patio.
“We even had a half barrel stolen from the tasting room,” Causey said.
“Is this exclusive to Virginia?” Breaux wondered. “Or is this epidemic?”
It’s Not All About Us
I asked Donniella Winchell, executive director of the Ohio Wine Producers Association, to pose the issue of customer theft to her members. The replies immediately poured in.
“You must have hit a nerve,” Winchell said.
In Ohio wineries, patio chairs have gone missing. Staff cash tips on the tasting counter. A wine competition medal, right off the bar. Framed art work. Photos of the winery from years gone by. Bathrooms signs. Even a decorative stone pediment.
“They stood on the stair columns and pried the stone free of the epoxy cement,” according to one aggrieved winery owner. Bacchus must have been keeping an eye out; a fisherman found it a month later in a nearby river. He recognized it and returned it to the winery.
You Can’t See Me
Is this a big winery versus small winery phenomenon, I wonder? When the owner is pouring for me and creating a personal connection, am I less likely to walk away with her corn hole boards?
Maybe. Both Breaux Vineyards and Potomac Point Vineyards are large by Virginia standards, and have dozens to hundreds of customers on the grounds any given day. Both work hard to connect with their guests, but it’s not the same as Granite Heights Winery in Warrenton, where visitors enter through the front door of an 1800’s farmhouse. Sitting in the cozy parlor or library, there’s no avoiding eye contact with owners Toni and Luke Kilyk—they’re right there.
Toni Kilyk says they haven’t experienced this sort of theft, yet. “Maybe because we’re small and new still, or because the seating areas are close by the house such that we can see, or because of the intimate and personal tastings where our guests meet us and hear our story.”
Craig Root, a consultant in Napa Valley who advises winery clients on theft prevention, says it’s important to greet customers within 15 seconds. It’s just good customer service, but it also lets the customer know they are being observed, so they’re less likely to steal.
“There’s almost a curtain that falls behind the first row of customers at the tasting bar,” Root said. “Tasting staff need to look beyond the first row, use their ‘big eyes.’”
Other tips Root shares with clients include keeping an eye out for people who work in pairs—typically, a man, who creates a distraction, while a woman slips wine or gift shop items into a large purse—and to be aware that shoplifters tend to scan the room much more than others.
“Shoplifters typically look around 80 percent of the time and spend only 20 percent of the time looking at the merchandise—the opposite of actual shoppers.”
Root also suggests having a designated staffer make regular rounds of the patio and picnic tables, chatting with customers to help build relationships, and also check for the dumb-drunk sort of behavior that leads to lawsuits—and to stealing corn hole boards and statuary.
“Stupid alcohol syndrome” is what many wineries blame as the biggest driver for petty thieves, though they’re much too polite to say this for attribution.
“As we all know, alcohol makes people do really stupid stuff. Really stupid stuff,” Adale Abel Henderson of The Local Taste/Slater Run Vineyards said. “I could write a book.”
“I believe that it’s more of a ‘what can I get away with’ mentality that we’re seeing here after people have been drinking,” Aubrey Rose of Rosemont Vineyards in southern Virginia said.
What’s Yours is Mine
Some wineries report what may point to a growing sense of entitlement by customers.
“When the guy was walking out with the corn hole boards, his answer to me for taking it was that he spent enough money here,” Breaux said.
Rose thinks that sounds right.
“[Breaux] brings up a good point—perhaps people think that it’s okay to take it. Like the wineries are making enough money off them—purchasing wines and tastings—that they feel that they are ‘owed’ something.”
And that behavior hurts.
“I’m not really sure,” Rose said, “but especially with smaller wineries that don’t have the sales numbers that the larger wineries have, it really does hurt the bottom line.”
Money doesn’t grow on trees, you know.
You Brought This On Yourself
At Potomac Point Winery, “We had to implement a policy to hold guests’ licenses when they take wine outside so we get our glasses and chill buckets back,” Causey said.
Rose shared one of Rosemont’s solutions.
“I think smaller things tend to wander off easily—especially wine glasses. That’s why we made the decision to raise the price of our tasting and give the wine glass as a souvenir,” she said. “People were stealing them and taking them in their purses or bags, so why not just give it to them and actually recover our costs for the glasses they want anyway?”
Wendy DeMello of DeMello Vineyards/Third Hill Winery in the Shenandoah Valley reports that they’ve lost about one-third of their glasses.
“Now we taste out of branded glasses, but serve unbranded glasses with bottles purchased,” she said.
“At First Colony, we have at least a case of wine glasses a weekend walk off. We used to use Riedel. No more,” says Heather Austin Spiess, owner of the Charlottesville winery.
Knock it Off
Stealing is stealing. A glass, a corkscrew, a cute little necklace in the gift shop (which, by the way, you just stole from the artist, not the winery, you…you…philistine). It’s not yours to take. If you want a souvenir, buy one. And when a friend tells you that hilarious story about how she catnapped Pounce, the winery cat, don’t laugh. Shame her.
Spiess also said that patrons walk off with the toilet paper. So if you don’t knock it off, you know where this is headed, right? Leave the cats alone.
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Subscribe to Publishers Daily
How To Turn Your Inventory Into A Valuable Commodity
by Bill Rowley , May 10, 2012
Everyone needs water -- and, not that long ago, we used to get it for free. But I’ll go out on a limb and guess the last time you quenched your thirst with some refreshing H2O, it wasn’t from the tap. Most of us have grown accustomed to purchasing bottled water, whether it’s an economy brand or some esoteric brand touting water from the oldest glacier in the world. The bottom line is, we’re fueling a billion-dollar industry profiting from something that is essentially free and abundant.
This is where publishers can learn a valuable lesson.
Digital media inventory is a lot like water: abundant and, if not free, increasingly inexpensive. Whether it’s being given away as a value-add or being sold for just pennies, as an industry we’re drowning in undifferentiated inventory.
According to a study by Ignition One, CPM rates for online display advertising have fallen 23.4% year-over-year despite a healthy 21.0% increase in ad spend. The advertising industry is clearly experiencing a severe supply-and-demand imbalance. Based on comScore figures, 2012 should see 4 trillion display ads served. There’s simply not enough demand to fill those impressions, and prices are falling. The solution to date has been to create additional inventory to make up the difference, a tactic that’s not working. However, if publishers follow the lead of the bottled water industry, they will see a better approach.
Just as water morphed from the tap to Perrier, advertising has gone from standard display to rich media. The inventory is the same, but the packaging has changed; it’s more engaging and cooler. And it’s worth more. Publishers can follow some of the same steps the bottled-water companies employed when making consumers not think twice about spending hard-earned money for water.
1. Remove the impurities: The first big marketing push for selling bottled water was that it was better because all harmful impurities were removed. Similarly, publishers can remove the impurities around their sites. By cleaning the clutter and placing ads next to relevant content above the fold, performance will increase.
2. Packaging: Stroll through the bottled water aisle, and you’ll find options that are almost like sculptures. Elaborate bottle designs and artistic images are designed to grab consumers’ attention and imagination. Like the designer bottle, ads come packed with many eye-catching layers that are made to engage users. High impact units like IAB’s Rising Stars offer sight, sound and motion. Whether it’s video, photo galleries, or interactive maps, these units are packaged as more then a standard static banner ad.
3. Customization: There’s a water variety for every lifestyle and every taste. From vitamin-enriched varieties to sports-themed bottles to energy water, the bottled water manufacturers have a product that targets every type of demographic. Publishers should also be able to target any type of audience. Leverage your audience data and build rich audience segments for advertisers looking to reach a specific audience. You can segment your readers by demographics, behavior, psychographics, or other custom segments that increase the value of your available inventory.
4. Influential: The bottled water craze had a time when it was about feeling exclusive, sophisticated and classy drinking a Perrier or an Evian. As more and more people began buying bottled water, celebrities were used to sell specific brands and everyone wanted to be like the influential personalities pushing the product. You can turn your own ad inventory into an influential tool by building social media sharing plug-ins into your creative. This helps create a social chain reaction of additional eyeballs viewing a particular ad, and ultimately your Web site. The benefit is not only the recommendations but also the ability to share and to accumulate those recommendations so that someone outside the social network of the viewer can find it.
5. Tell a story: There are a number of varieties of water that try to tell a story to the consumer: what far off land it comes from, how old the water source is, etc. The product is tied back to a compelling story. Your ad inventory should be tied to original content. Work with your editorial team to produce engaging content that can be sponsored by a relevant brand. Advertisers want to be part of the story.
The above is pretty basic marketing – differentiate your product. But the rewards are still out there for the publishers who do these basic things well. Think about it the next time you pay $4 for a SmartWater.
advertising, online publishing
BILL ROWLEY,
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TRUE SYSTEMS P2 STEREO MIC PRE TRUE Systems offers the P2 Analog 2-channel microphone preamplifier, a hybrid, totally balanced, dual-servo, high-voltage
TRUE SYSTEMS P2 STEREO MIC PRE
TRUE Systems offers the P2 Analog 2-channel microphone preamplifier, a hybrid, totally balanced, dual-servo, high-voltage design for improved transient response, headroom, imaging and noise performance. Distributed in the U.S. by Neumann (www.neumannusa.com), the P2 Analog features a selectable M-S decoder, active DIs with impedance-modification capability, dual gain-range selection and a multi-frequency highpass filter. In addition, the P2 Analog features a Stereo Phase-Correlation display that assists in optimizing microphone placement for stereo recording. The P2 contains many military-grade, hand-matched components, and signal switching is done via high-reliability, gold-contact relays in order to maintain a short signal path and eliminate distortion and noise.
CEDAR NOISE SUPPRESSOR FOR PRO TOOLS
CEDAR (www.cedaraudio.com) has introduced the DNS2000, an automated implementation of its noise-suppression technology designed specifically for Pro Tools users. Connected to a Pro Tools-host system via a USB cable, the DNS-2000 processor unit provides 24-bit AES/EBU and S/PDIF I/O for the system, plus the DSP necessary to process two independent audio channels simultaneously with virtually zero latency. DNS2000 Remote-Control Software provides a fast, intuitive user interface based on CEDAR's award-winning DNS1000 noise suppressor, and runs on all suitable Macintosh-based Pro Tools systems. Fully integrated within the Pro Tools environment, the software controls all aspects of the DNS-2000, as well as automating all its operating parameters. The DNS2000 incorporates advanced timecode capabilities, and up to 126 processor units (252 channels of digital audio) may be processed simultaneously.
UNIVERSAL AUDIO MIC PRE
Universal Audio (www.uaudio.com) has released the 2108 2-channel microphone and instrument preamplifier. Designed around discrete, solid-state, Class-A circuitry inspired by the legendary 1176LN compressor/limiter, the 2108 emulates the warm sound and musical tone of the 1176LN. In addition to a balanced microphone input, each channel of the 2108 includes switchable input impedance, phantom power, switchable input and output signal metering via a 3-stage lamp, and front panel polarity reverse and power switches. I/Os are transformer coupled, and the unit also features dual, front panel, hi-Z instrument inputs. The Universal Audio 2108 is available at a special introductory price of $1,695.
ROLAND MIC-MODELING PREAMP
Roland (www.rolandus.com) is now shipping the MMP-2 Mic-Modeling Preamp, a 2-channel desktop microphone preamp that features 24-bit/96kHz A/D conversion and COSM Mic Modeling, which emulates the sound of vintage and high-end studio mics. The MMP-2's USB port can connect the MMP-2 to any Mac or PC with a USB port, enabling users to draw EQ curves and set compressor parameters via the included software's graphic interface. Users can also use the USB connection to download new effect plug-ins. Featuring the same analog circuits as in Roland's VS-2480 mic preamps, the MMP-2 also includes four bands of fully parametric EQ, modeled tube compression, an enhancer and a de-esser. Mic inputs (two) are XLR/TRS, and outputs are balanced XLR. The MMP-2 also has a coaxial digital input and S/PDIF and AES/EBU digital outputs.
ILLBRUCK SONEX CORNER TRAPS
New from Illbruck Inc. (www.illbruck-sonex.com), SONEX® Corner Traps provide up to 12 sabins of sound absorption below 500 Hz. Measuring 24 inches high by 12 inches deep, the triangular-shaped, gray, polyurethane foam Corner Traps absorb unwanted low-frequency sound waves in recording studios and other critical listening environments. Providing adequate sound control when stacked two high in each corner, Corner Traps may also be stacked from floor to ceiling for optimal sound control.
SOUNDTRACS DIGITAL CONSOLES
Soundtracs (www.soundtracs.co.uk) has introduced the D4 and DS-3B digital consoles. The D4 is based on Soundtracs' touch screen worksurface topology, and provides for up to 320 full-audio channels and 124 output buses, all controlled by automation. The D4 is available in various frame sizes (16-fader up to 96-fader) with optional rack expanders. Multiple consoles can be linked to create a surface with an almost unlimited number of faders and channels addressing 124 assignable output buses. The DS-3B console is a 32-bit, floating-point, digital production console that incorporates touch screen technology, and the system operates at 96 or 48 kHz with 24-bit conversion. Each of the 64 or 96 channels offers 4-band equalization and dynamics sections, and there are 32 output buses (each with limiters), and stereo, LCRS and 5.1 output formats. The DS-3B is supplied standard with 25 motorized faders, but a new version includes 33 faders and an extra TFT screen. A comprehensive 32×6 monitor matrix is also included. Both the D4 and DS-3B run Soundtracs' onboard digital FX package.
QUESTED STUDIO AMP
The AP500 from Quested (www.quested.com) is the smallest of the AP Series of power amplifiers. Like the AP800 and AP1300, the AP500 features complementary Class-A/B bipolar outputs with a floating drive stage, providing exceptional sonic performance. The design also provides for “soft start” power-on sequencing and sophisticated monitoring of load, temperature and other operating parameters to ensure safe operation at all times. Loudspeaker protection is provided by internal audio limiters that are inaudible during normal operation. The AP500 provides an output per channel of 300 watts into 8 ohms, and 500 watts into 4 ohms.
ADAM P-SERIES MONITORS
The ADAM P-Series powered Analytical Monitors from McCave International Inc. (www.mccave.com) are designed for professional project studios, broadcast facilities and post-production facilities. Featuring the proprietary ADAM folded-ribbon HF driver, the new line of powered monitors includes the P11-A, the P22-A and a matching powered subwoofer, the Sub-P. ADAM folded-ribbon technology is designed to provide a nearly 3:1 advantage in terms of effective diaphragm area, and a 4:1 improvement in transient air-pressure rise time when compared with conventional voice coil, electrostatic or magneto-static transducers. The result is significantly greater precision in imaging and high-frequency detail. Prices for the P-Series units are: P11-A, $1,895 per pair; P22-A, $2,495 per pair; and Sub-P, $1,695/each.
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John McCain’s Farewell Message: “Do Not Despair of Our Present Difficulties”
The moving message also included pointed criticisms of Donald Trump.
News and Engagement EditorBio | Follow
In his final message to Americans that he arranged to be read following his death, Sen. John McCain urged the country not to “despair of our current difficulties” while warning against “walls” and divisive politics that lead to hatred and violence.
“We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been,” McCain wrote. He died from glioblastoma, an incurable brain cancer, at the age of 81.
“Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here,” the letter continued. “Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.”
Rick Davis, a longtime aide to McCain, read the full letter to reporters on Monday, holding back tears as he relayed McCain’s messages of gratitude for his family and for the opportunity to serve his country for decades.
Though he was not mentioned by name, McCain’s letter was also seen as a pointed, veiled rebuke of President Donald Trump, who he explicitly asked not to appear at his memorial service. Three summers ago, Trump, a then-candidate for president, suggested that McCain was not a war hero because he was captured during the Vietnam War.
Aside from a single pro forma tweet on Saturday expressing condolences to the family, Trump has yet to say publicly a single word on McCain’s death. Instead, the president has attracted widespread condemnation for his failure to issue a proclamation ordering flags nationwide to fly half-staff in honor of the late Arizona senator, whose service to the country started more than six decades ago at the US Naval Academy.
White House flag back at full staff today says it all. #NoRespect https://t.co/o8Sn6sOfmy
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) August 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/JeffreyGoldberg/status/1034036744625299457
You can read the full letter below:
My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for sixty years, and especially my fellow Arizonans,
Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.
I have often observed that I am the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I have loved my life, all of it. I have had experiences, adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.
I owe that satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes — liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people — brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.
‘Fellow Americans’ — that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.
We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.
We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.
Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening.
I feel it powerfully still.
Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.
Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America.
Sarah Palin Says John McCain “Had Some Strange People Around Him”
John McCain Dies at 81
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National Deaf Center
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Defining deaf
Deaf Student Orientation Guide
Topics: DSP Toolkit
Useful For: Disability Services Professionals
Student orientations are an opportunity for students to learn about the support services available on campus, including when and how to access them. At the end of orientation, deaf students and the disability services staff should have a shared understanding of expectations, roles, and protocol for accessing auxiliary aids and services. This guide offers strategies for building an orientation program for deaf students.
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The Navy’s Sea, Air and Land Forces – commonly known as SEALs – are expertly trained to deliver highly specialized, intensely challenging warfare capabilities that are beyond the means of standard military forces.
Their missions include: direct action warfare; special reconnaissance; counterterrorism; and foreign internal defense. When there’s nowhere else to turn, Navy SEALs achieve the impossible through critical thinking, sheer willpower and absolute dedication to their training, their missions and their fellow Special Operations team members.
SEAL - SO
Established by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, the Navy SEALs are a nimble, elite maritime military force suited for all aspects of unconventional warfare. In this role, you will provide immediate military options amidst crises around the world.
Your duties as a SEAL may include, but are not limited to:
Conducting insertions and extractions by sea, air or land to accomplish covert, Special Warfare/Special Operations missions
Capturing high-value enemy personnel and terrorists around the world
Collecting information and intelligence through special reconnaissance missions
Carrying out small-unit, direct-action missions against military targets
Performing underwater reconnaissance and the demolition of natural or man-made obstacles prior to amphibious landings
There are no part-time jobs available for this career track.
Navy SEALs train and work in all manner of environments, including desert and urban areas, mountains and woodlands, and jungle and arctic conditions. Typical missions may involve insertion into a combat objective by any number of means: parachute, submarine, helicopter, high-speed boat, foot patrol or by a combat swimmer insertion.
SEALs operate not only as highly capable individuals, but also as members of tightly knit units.
Training & Advancement
SEAL training has been described as "brutal", preparing you for the extreme physical and mental challenges of SEAL missions. Preparation consists of more than 12 months of initial training that includes Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL BUD/S School, Parachute Jump School and SEAL Qualification Training (SQT), followed by an additional 18 months of pre-deployment training and intensive specialized training. It’s all designed to push you to your physical and mental limits. If you’re up to the task, you’ll emerge in incredible physical shape and possess the necessary confidence, determination and teamwork to succeed in any combat environment. Get full details on SEAL training.
Promotion opportunities are regularly available, but are competitive and based on performance. It’s also important to note that specialized training received and work experience gained in the course of service can lead to valuable credentialing and occupational opportunities in related fields.
For those SEALs with further leadership aspirations and a college degree, Officer roles are available – providing opportunities to lead SEAL units and train aspiring SEAL warriors.
Members of the Naval Special Warfare/Naval Special Operations (NSW/NSO) community have any number of unique opportunities to advance their knowledge. Navy training provides everything from the fundamentals of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) to knowledge of chemical and biological warfare, military tactics, deep-sea diving or a number of other tactical military procedures.
Beyond offering access to professional credentials and certifications, Navy training in the NSW/NSO community can translate to credit hours toward a bachelor’s or associate degree through the American Council on Education. You may also continue your education through opportunities like the following:
Navy College Program and Tuition Assistance
Post-9/11 GI Bill
No college degree is required to become an Enlisted Navy SEAL, but the standards of qualification require the kind of mental and physical fortitude that few possess. For those making the cut, immense challenges and constant training are a way of life.
Upon joining the Navy, you must:
Meet specific eyesight requirements: 20/40 best eye; 20/70 worst eye; correctable to 20/25 with no color blindness
Meet the minimum Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) score: GS+MC+EI=170 or VE+MK+MC+CS=220 or VE+AR=110 MC=50
Be 28 years of age or younger
Pass a physical examination required for divers
Be a U.S. citizen and eligible for security clearance
Find the current minimum Navy Physical Screening Test (PST) requirements for Navy Challenge Programs here.
NOTE: You should consult your physician or other health-care professional before starting any exercise regime or other fitness program to determine if it is right for your needs. This is particularly true if you (or your family) have a history of medical illnesses or ailments that could be made worse by a change in physical activity. Do not start a fitness program if your physician or health-care provider advises against it.
General qualifications may vary depending upon whether you’re currently serving, whether you’ve served before or whether you’ve never served before.
To recruit, train, equip, and organize to deliver combat ready Naval forces to win conflicts and wars while maintaining security and deterrence through sustained forward presence.
America's Navy
© Navy Recruiting Command
5722 Integrity Drive, Bldg 784 Millington, TN 38054 | 1-800-USA-NAVY
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Charles M. Marcus
Universitetsparken 5, bygn. D, 2100 København Ø, HCØ, Building: D406
marcus@nbi.ku.dk
http://qdev.nbi.ku.dk
Phone: +45 20 34 11 81Mobile: +45 20 34 11 81
Current Research Interests
Experimental condensed matter physics
Physical realizations of quantum information systems in semiconductors and superconductors
Topological materials, Majorana modes, and quantum information
Superconductor-semiconductor hybrid devices
Spin qubits and electron-nuclear interaction in qubits
Novel approaches to magnetic resonance imaging
Ph.D. in Physics, 1990, Harvard University
A.M. in Physics, 1987, Harvard University, Dissertation title: "Dynamics of Analog Neural Networks"
B.S. in Physics with Honors and Departmental Distinction, 1984, Stanford University
2017-present Professor, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
2016-present Principal Researcher, AI&R, Microsoft Corp.
2012-2017 Villum Kahn Rasmussen Professor, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
2009–2010 Visiting Professor, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
2000–2012 Professor, Department of Physics, Harvard University
1999–2000 Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Stanford University.
1992–1999 Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Stanford University
Scientific Advisory Board, KTH Center for Quantum Materials, Stockholm, Sweden
External Advisory Board, CUNY Advanced Science Research Center, NY USA
Director, Center for Quantum Devices (DNRF Center of Excellence), 2012-
Scientific Director, Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems, 2004-2009
Site Director, National Nanofabrication Infrastructure Network, 2004-2009
Scientific Advisory Board, QSIT, Swiss Federal Science Foundation Research Center
Scientific Advisory Board, Freiburg Institute of Physics, Freiburg, Germany
Organizer, Simons Research Conferences, 2012, 2014
External Advisory Board, Georgia Tech MRSEC
Executive Advisory Board, QIST Grand Challenge, Sandia National Laboratories
External Board, Physics Frontier Center, Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland 2008-2011
Director, School on Nano-Electronics, ICTP, Trieste, Italy, 2006
Organizer, Aspen School on Interactions, Coherence & Control in Mesoscopic Systems, 2006
Advisory Board, Theory Institute, Argonne National Laboratory
EU Quantum Information Processing IRC International Advisory Group
Advisory Board, Massachusetts Nanotechnology Initiative
Series Editor, Mesoscopic Physics, Oxford University Press
Advisory Board, Wonderfest, A Festival of Science
Director, Workshop on Quantum Systems Out of Equilibrium, ICTP, Trieste, Italy, 2004
Director, Workshop on Mesoscopic Physics and Electron Interactions, ICTP, Trieste, Italy, 2001
Director, Extended Workshop on Mesoscopic Physics, ICTP, Trieste, Italy, 1998
Organizer, National Academy of Sciences "Frontiers of Science", 1995
Member, National Academy of Sciences, 2018
Meservey Lecturer, MIT, 2018
Chapman Lecturer, Rice University, 2018
Award for Research Excellence in Nanotechnology, University of Pennsylvania, 2014
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2013
Foreign member, Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, 2012
Aalto Lectureship, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 2010
Poynting Lectureship, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK, 2010
Fellow, American Physical Society, 2009
AAAS Newcomb-Cleveland Prize, 2006
Ehrenfest Lecturer, Leiden University, 1997
N.S.F. Presidential Faculty Fellow/PECASE 1997
A.S.S.U. Teaching Award, Stanford University, 1996
A.R.O. Young Investigator Award, 1995
A. P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, 1994
N.S.F. Young Investigator Award, 1994
O.N.R. Young Investigator Award, 1994
Terman Fellowship, Stanford University 1994
IBM Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1990
AT&T Bell Laboratories Ph.D. Scholarship, 1985
National finalist, Apker Award for Undergraduate Research in Physics, 1984
Rebecca L. Carrington Memorial Award, Physics Department, Stanford University, 1984
Member of Phi Beta Kappa, elected 1984
Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Scholarship, 1981
Parity lifetime of bound states in a proximitized semiconductor nanowire
Controlled Fabrication of Metallic Electrodes with Atomic Separation
Experimental Realization of a Quantum Spin Pump
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Ed Sheeran's unveils project with all-star line-up
London |Friday, 2019 9:15:05 PM IST
International pop star Ed Sheeran has unveiled his highly-anticipated collaboration LP, "No.6 Collaborations Project", which has an all-star line-up including Cardi B, Camila Cabello, Eminem, Justin Bieber and Bruno Mars.
The 15-track album features a staggering 22 collaborators.
"Thanks to all my collaborators, producers, fans and label for making all this happen. Hope you enjoy it, it's been a wild ride," Sheeran posted on Instagram.
Prior to its release, the Grammy winner released five tracks from the LP: "I don't care" with Bieber, "Cross me" featuring Chance The Rapper, "Beautiful people" featuring Khalid, "BLOW" with Chris Stapleton and Bruno, and "Best part of me" featuring YEBBA.
--IANS nn/vnc
Hashtag campaign to bar TV show from being taken off
Release of Boney Kapoor's first Tamil film advanced
'Rajjo' Sonakshi sends love to fans
A violent thriller with an all-female cast
Rohan Sippy tackles criticism around 'The Office'
Suriya launches poster of wife Jyothika's next
Deepika attends Wimbledon final with sister Anisha
Dulquer Salmaan is 25 films old
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ISL helped our players become better by playing with top footballers: Chhetri
Ahmedabad |Saturday, 2019 4:15:05 AM IST
Iconic footballer Sunil Chhetri on Friday stressed on the impact of the Indian Super League (ISL) on Indian football, saying that his national teammates have improved a lot in the last five years by rubbing shoulders with some of the top players in the world.
Chhetri was speaking to the media on the sidelines of India's Intercontinental Cup campaign where they take on DPR Korea on Saturday.
In the opening match of the tournament, India lost 2-4 to Tajikistan despite taking a 2-0 lead in the first half. Chhetri netted a brace in that match.
Chhetri plays for defending champions Bengaluru FC in the ISL, which made its debut in 2014.
Citing the example of Sandesh Jhingan who plies his trade for Kerala Blasters, Chhetri said he had a conversation with the India defender about how the players came up against better footballers in the ISL as compared to the Asian Cup earlier in the year.
India were clubbed with Thailand, UAE and Bahrain in group A and finished last despite a strong 4-1 victory over Thailand in Asian Cup.
"Sandesh Jhingan is much more aware than any player you could think may be 15 years back. He is more knowledgeable. He is much more equipped to do well," Chhetri said.
"I told this to Sandesh that when we played Bahrain, UAE and Thailand, he did not face a Miku, (Manuel) Lanzarote, Coro (Ferran Corominas), but in the ISL he faces them.
Miku is Chhetri's teammate at Bengaluru FC while Lanzarote plays for ATK and Corominas turns out for FC Goa.
"Those were top teams but they didn't have a Coro, a Miku or a Lanza. They are good players. I am not saying they are world class, but these are top players.
"So Jerry (Lalrinzuala), Sandesh and Anas (Edathodika) are playing with them and that's why they have improved. Whatever improvement you are seeing is because they are training with them," said Chhetri, who recently won the AIFF Player of the Year award for a record sixth time.
"These are small things that have changed in the last five years. But where you want to reach is here. That's why whatever we do is less. We need to put our heads down and keep working hard," he concluded.
--IANS dm/arm
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Celebrate Passover Passover Food
Eating Matzah At the Seder
The bread of poverty has a rich history in Rabbinic literature.
By Jeffrey Spitzer
The Passover (Pesach) Seder
Passover (Pesach) 101
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The holiday of Passover has a complex set of rules regarding what may be eaten. Since one is obliged to eat matzah on Passover, it is no surprise that much has been written about matzah, not only when to eat, it but how much must be eaten and who must fulfill this obligation. This article looks at a number of texts dealing with the intricacies of consuming matzah on Passover. To read the texts in Hebrew and English, click here.
When Is One Obligated to Eat Matzah?
The command to eat matzah appears ten times in the Torah. Nine times the command is for seven days, “Seven days shall you eat matzah” (Exodus 12:15). The tenth time, however, says, “Six days you shall eat unleavened bread” (Deuteronomy 16:8).
A simple and obvious statement of the law (which did not, however, become the accepted practice) is stated by the tanna (rabbi of the Mishnaic era) R. Shimon, originally in the Sifre Deuteronomy (a Tannaitic Midrash):
“Has it not already been said, ‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread’? Then why does the Torah say ‘You shall eat no leavened bread (hametz) with it’? When one is obligated to eat matzah, there is also a prohibition against hametz; when there is no obligation to eat matzah, there is no prohibition against hametz” (Bavli Pesachim 28b, cf. Sifre Deuteronomy 130).
The obligation to eat matzah and the prohibition against hametz are co-extensive. Since the prohibition against hametz is clearly for seven days, the obligation to eat matzah, according to Rabbi Shimon, also lasts seven days. This is also the approach of the apocryphal book of Jubilees, and is also the custom of the Karaites and the Samaritans, groups that broke off from the main body of the people of Israel. The most common rabbinic interpretation of the verse from Deuteronomy that prescribes six days rejects this early understanding:
“One verse says, ‘Seven days you shall eat matzah,’ and one verse says, ‘Six days you shall eat matzah.’ How can both of these verses be maintained? The seventh day was included (in the first verse) but then excluded (from the second verse). That which is excluded from a more inclusive statement is meant to teach us about the whole statement. So, just as on the seventh day it is optional (r’shut), so all the other days, it is optional. Does this mean that it is optional on the first night too? The verse ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day in the evening, you shall eat matzah’ (Exodus 12:18) fixes it as an obligation (hovah) to eat matzah on the first night” (Mekhilta, Pischa 8).
According to this midrash, Deuteronomy refers to the first six days, and accordingly, the seventh day of the holiday has no obligation to eat matzah. But since there is no essential difference between the seventh day and any of the other days, the rabbis argue, what is true of the seventh day must be true of all of the days. Therefore, there is no general obligation to eat matzah throughout the holiday. On the other hand, the explicit verse from Exodus 12:18 does create a requirement to eat matzah on the first night. Outside of the land of Israel, Jews who observe two days of the holiday are rabbinically obligated to eat matzah at each of the seders, but not on the other days of the festival.
How Much Matzah is One Supposed to Eat?
During the seder, one makes two different blessings over the matzah. The first blessing is hamotzi (“…who brings forth bread from the earth”), which is recited whenever one eats bread, and which is obligatory at any festival meal. The second blessing recalls the particular obligation to eat matzah (“…who has sanctified us with the commandments and commanded us concerning the eating of matzah”). In general, when one is obligated to eat something, the standard amount is a volume equivalent to that of an olive, a k’zayit.
How should one fulfill this obligation to eat matzah? Hamotzi on other festivals is usually said on a whole loaf of challah, so on Passover should one eat the olive’s-bulk of matzah from the top of the three matzot on the seder plate, which is still whole and is therefore analogous to a loaf? Or should one eat from the middle, broken matzah for the fulfillment of the obligation to eat matzah?
Joseph Karo writing in the standard code of Jewish law, the Shulhan Arukh, predictably requires a bulk of matzah equivalent to two olives:
“One washes one’s hands and makes the blessing and takes the matzot… in hand and makes the blessings ‘hamotzi’ and ‘on eating matzah.’ Then one breaks from the top, complete matzah and the broken middle piece, both together… One eats an olive’s bulk from each of them while reclining. If one cannot eat matzah equivalent to the bulk of two olives together, eat the one for hamotzi first and then the one [for the blessing] on eating matzah. Then one takes an olive’s bulk of bitter herbs… and makes the blessing on eating bitter herbs and eats it without reclining. Then one takes the third matzah and breaks a piece from it to wrap with the bitter herbs” (Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim 475:1).
Modern authorities have debated whether the air pockets in matzah count toward measuring an olive’s bulk, and most say that they do not. They also have debated about whether an olive’s bulk is really the size of a modern olive, or whether it is actually the bulk of an egg. That makes a single “olive’s bulk” equivalent to approximately two-thirds of a standard, machine-made matzah or the area equivalent to an average adult hand of hand-made matzah. In addition, modern authorities also define a time limit within which one should, ideally, consume the matzah.
Is All Matzah the Same?
In order for dough to become matzah, it must at least have the potential to leaven. According to the rabbis, leavening (himutz) only occurs when flour from the five grains (wheat, oats, barley, rye, or spelt) is moistened with water (by their definition). Flour that is moistened with wine, oil, honey, eggs, or fruit juice does not leaven; the fermentation that occurs is called sirchon (rotting). Despite the negative category name, sirchon is different leavening, which is the category with which the Passover prohibitions are concerned.
Therefore, the matzah-like product made with flour and apple juice that is called “egg matzah” or matzah ashirah (rich matzah) is not subject to leavening, just “rotting,” and is theoretically acceptable for Passover use. Widespread custom, however, rejected its use. The Ashkenazic (East European) authority, R. Moses Isserles (known as the Rema), however, is wary of this permission and gives the custom legal force:
“Eggs and other liquids are all considered like fruit juice (which lead to rotting, not leavening). Rema: But in our communities, we do not knead (matzah) dough with fruit juice… And one should not change from this unless in a time of emergency for the sake of a sick or old person who needs this” (Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim 462:4).
The Ashkenazic restrictions on use of “egg matzah” are usually printed on the box. Even according to Sephardic (Mediterranean) practice, however, one cannot fulfill the obligation to eat matzah at seder with “egg matzah.” First, the obligation must be fulfilled with real matzah, and real matzah must have the potential to leaven, which egg matzah does not. Second, the command is to eat “matzah, the bread of poverty” (Deuteronomy 16:3) and not egg matzah, which is also known as rich matzah.
An additional concern comes from the Torah’s command, “You shall watch the matzot” (Exodus 12:17). This is understood by the midrash as “watch it so that it does not become unfit” (Mekhilta Pischa 9), that is, it should not be allowed to leaven. When one begins to watch the dough is a matter of some controversy. The earliest sources assume that the watching begins with the kneading of the dough. The common practice today is to watch the flour from time it is ground. Most commercial matzah is watched from the time of grinding.
The most strict approach, however, is to watch the grain itself from the time it is harvested.
“[Rava] said to those who were turning over the sheaves of wheat (during the harvest): ‘When you flip them over, do so for the sake of the mitzvah.’ From this we can reason that watching is required initially from the beginning to the end” (Bavli Pesachim 40a).
Matzah made from flour ground from grain which has been watched since harvest is called shemurah matzah (watched matzah). Many Jews choose to use shemurah matzah, especially hand-made shemurah matzah, for fulfillment of the obligation to eat matzah at the seder.
Who is Obligated to Eat Matzah?
The eating of matzah is a positive commandment (as opposed to not eating hametz, which is a negative commandment) that takes place at a specific time. There is a general rule in talmudic literature that women are exempt from positive commandments that take place at a specific time (Mishnah Kiddushin 1:7). Indeed, women are exempt from reciting the shema, wearing tefillin (both in Mishnah Berakhot 3:3), sitting in the sukkah (Mishnah Sukkah 2:8), shaking the lulav, blowing the shofar, and wearing tzitzit (all three in Bavli Kiddushin 33b).
On the other hand, women are obligated to observe other positive, time-specified commandments such as fasting on Yom Kippur (Bavli Sukkah 28a), lighting Hanukkah candles (Bavli Shabbat 23a), reciting the megillah on Purim (Bavli Megillah 4a), and eating three meals on Shabbat (Rabbenu Nissim on Shabbat 44a). Based on the association of not eating hametz with the positive command of eating matzah (akin to the midrash of Rabbi Shimon, above), women are also obligated to eat matzah at the seders (Bavli Pesachim 43b). For that matter, women are also obligated to drink the four cups of wine (Bavli Pesachim 108a-b), to recite the Haggadah, and to chant the Hallel (psalms of praise) at the seder (Mishnah Berurah 472:14).
hametz
Pronounced: khah-METZ or KHUH-metz, Origin: Hebrew, bread or any food that has been leavened or contains a leavening agent. Hametz is prohibited on Passover.
hamotzi
Pronounced: ha-MOE-tzee, Origin: Hebrew, blessing said over bread. On Shabbat Hamotzi is usually said over challah.
Pronounced: KHAH-nuh-kah, also ha-new-KAH, an eight-day festival commemorating the Maccabees’ victory over the Greeks and subsequent rededication of the temple. Falls in the Hebrew month of Kislev, which usually corresponds with December.
Pronounced: MISH-nuh, Origin: Hebrew, code of Jewish law compiled in the first centuries of the Common Era. Together with the Gemara, it makes up the Talmud.
Pronounced: PUR-im, the Feast of Lots, Origin: Hebrew, a joyous holiday that recounts the saving of the Jews from a threatened massacre during the Persian period.
Pronounced: seh-FAR-dik, Origin: Hebrew, describing Jews descending from the Jews of Spain.
Pronounced: shuh-BAHT or shah-BAHT, Origin: Hebrew, the Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.
Pronunced: TORE-uh, Origin: Hebrew, the Five Books of Moses.
Pronounced: yohm KIPP-er, also yohm kee-PORE, Origin: Hebrew, The Day of Atonement, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar and, with Rosh Hashanah, one of the High Holidays.
Empower your Jewish discovery, daily
Types of Matzah
Traditional Jews refrain from using certain types of matzah at the seder.
How to Conduct a Passover Seder
The 14 steps of a traditional seder.
The Seder Plate
The placement and symbolism of the items on the seder plate.
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Photos: Kojo Antwi honoured in Burkina Faso
Source: Ghana/Peacefmonline
Kojo Antwi on stage with his award in Burkina Faso
Multiple award-winning musician The Maestro Kojo Antwi, also known as Mr Music Man, has been honoured in Burkina Faso.
The first-ever Ghanaian honoree at the BET Awards who has also received the Kora Award was honoured at the Marley D'or 18 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on Friday, May 11, 2018.
The date marked 37 years since the death of Reggae Music legend Bob Marley. In commemoration of the legacy of Bob Marley, the positivity of his lyrics, the potency of his social, cultural and political commentary, the beauty of his music and the worldwide promotion he gave the Reggae music genre, organizers honoured Reggae musicians of African heritage who continue to bear the torch.
The Marley D'or celebrates Reggae music icons whose craft helps identify African music in a world now mostly fixated on pop and its quick imitation for commerce.
Whilst imitating or drawing inspiration from hit songs and recent commercial successes from different parts of the world to create substitution for imported genres, it is vital to the cultures of Africa and her sons and daughters in the diaspora, the Caribbean included, that some skilled and creative artistes identify with a decidedly African sound, record, perform and promote to showcase the uniqueness of our cultural products from others.
Alpha Blondy, Kojo Antwi and Lucky Dube are outstanding performers of Reggae music who have inspired and influenced many in Africa from the 80s to date. It is thus not surprising that this honour was conferred on one of them at this year's event.
The singer-songwriter and outstanding live performer's honour was for his notable contribution to Reggae music and its promotion of culture and tourism.
"Believing in our art and maintaining our difference, like Bob Marley did, are what make African musicians and creatives like Mr. Music Man KOJO ANTWI unique and timeless", said the organizers.
Celebrated reggae artistes at the Marley D'or 18 event included Ishmael Isaacs (Ivory Coast) Solo Koko Dembele (Mali) Oscibi Johan (Burkina Faso) Hah Hunt (Ivory Coast and Kwamy Mensah (Spain).
The Marley D'or 2018 adds to The Maestro Kojo Antwi's many national and international honours. He has over 130 songs to his credit, many of them Reggae, Highlife or Afro Pop.
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Why Am I a Proud Fan of Salman Khan (Bhai) Films and Eagerly Wait for Them!
Boss: Dude, are you sure you can handle all of it, you have multiple tasks...
Me: Maine Ek baar Jo commitment kardee....
Well I do regret saying that, in over 26 years, It was the first time I skipped Diwali and put my best to finish the tasks. But, it wasn't about the tasks, was it?
All You Need To Know About ALTBalaji's Next Web Series: Gandii Baat
By Deblina Dutta | 1.9k | 02 May 2018
After producing hit original shows like Bose: Dead/Alive and Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat, ALTBalaji is all set to flabbergast us with their boldest and darkest show yet, Gandi Baat.
Low-Budget Hollywood Movies That Excelled in Theatres
Every year there are numerous movies that are produced, directed and released. Some have enormous budget, going as high as $400 million as in the case of Avengers: Infinity War. On the other hand, there are movies whose budget doesn't even reach a million. Here's a list of such movies that despite having low-budget turned out to be blockbusters:
Most Entertaining Double Roles In Bollywood
Bollywood has always brought different concepts and stories on screen for it's viewers. Be it a comedy movie or serious action thriller. We always get to see something unique and different in their creative aspect. Talking about creativity, there have been a number of such movies that have thrown light to bring on double roles and entertain you with their twists and turn. A little confusion, lots of drama and full on entertainment. Let's go around and check across the best of double role plays from Bollywood Movies.
The Case of Rampant Sexism in Hollywood
Sexism, according to the dictionary, means prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.
Top Indian Web-series of 2017 That Are Definitely Worth Your Time
In India, the Over The Top(OTT) market picked up steadily in the past 2 years with a lot of focus on home grown web series. With players like AltBalaji, Dice Media, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Viu, Voot etc. 2017 saw a lot of webseries streamed that have left a mark on young people. Let us peek into the top web series of 2017.
Gopal Datt: The Multi-Faceted Talent of Indian Web Series
What is common between all the viral web series on internet? If you are a fan of Indian web series, then this man isn't unknown to you. From Pitchers to TVF Bachelors , to Arre's Official Chukyagiri , he is right now almost everywhere in India's rising web series.
Regional movies that Bollywood should never go for a remake. #bestofentertainment
By Samia Suhail | 1.2k | 30 Jun 2018
Bollywood has gained a vast experience from making new fresh movies to opting for a remake from other regional movies. But there few such options that never should hit the screens in any other language. Regional movies have their own charm and such role plays that probably no one can act again. Here's a big screens to some of the great movies around !!!!
Game Of Thrones vs Breaking Bad.
By Vishnu Ch | 2.7k | 23 Dec 2017
Whenever you hear people arguing about the greatest television show ever made, it all boils down to two choices. Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones. The first thing you have to know is that they belong to two separate genres. One is an intense journey of the psyche of a man pushed to his limit, and the other has dragon eggs and demon babies. They both have carved their pages in the book of television, and pretty long ones in it. With that being said, I am going to do the impossible today. I am going to clear one of them out as the ultimate winner. So, I expect you to read with an open mind and wish me luck. Alright then. Into battle.
Bengali Web-Show Buffet: What's On The Menu?
As soon as the OTT platforms started hitting sixes with the Indian audience, the contents online became as diverse as the regional cuisines available in this country.
Bengali artists brought their A-game too and now we have a full course buffet of Bengali web shows to feast on.
Bon Apatite!
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Text 'NEWS' to 77453 for Alerts
Report: USAA may sell wealth-management business for about $2B
Unbowed by furor over tweets, Trump says 'leave'
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/us-world/border-mexico/article/Photos-show-tourists-Marines-on-Cancun-beaches-13625136.php
Photos show tourists, Marines on Cancun beaches days before suspected cartel gunman kills 5 in bar
Updated 11:30 am CST, Monday, February 18, 2019
Mexican marines patrol the beach of Playacar, near the seaside tourist resort of Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo State, on February 14, 2019. - Playa del Carmen and nearby Cancun are the top tourist destinations in Mexico, famous for their turquoise waters and white-sand Caribbean beaches. (Photo by Daniel SLIM / AFP) (Photo credit should read DANIEL SLIM/AFP/Getty Images)
Mexican marines patrol the beach of Playacar, near the seaside tourist resort of Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo State, on February 14, 2019. - Playa del Carmen and nearby Cancun are the top tourist destinations
Photo: DANIEL SLIM/AFP/Getty Images
Days before gunmen burst into a bar in Cancun and opened fire, tourists were photographed frolicking on beaches, taking photographs and strolling along the popular Fifth Avenue.
On Saturday, five people were killed and five more were wounded in the Caribbean resort city that has seen crime stats increase at an alarming rate.
RELATED: Vintage photos show carefree Mexican vacation hotspots before cartel violence struck
Quintana Roo state prosecutors said in a statement that the attack took place in a club called La Kuka, which is located on a main avenue in central Cancun about 4 miles (6 kilometers) away from the seaside tourist hotel zone.
Prosecutors said four men carrying a long gun and three handguns entered and began shooting. Two of the injured were in critical condition.
Violence has been rising in Cancun and Quintana Roo as a whole amid reports of the Jalisco New Generation cartel moving into the area and fighting local gangs for control.
RELATED: 13 gangs and cartels that are working together in Texas
Last month federal authorities reported that 774 people had been killed in the state last year, more than double the 359 killings recorded in 2017.
Also in January, gunmen shot and killed seven people at a house in Cancun, an incident that authorities attributed to a dispute between street-level drug dealers. State police said at the time that a suspected gang leader linked to the Jalisco gang was believed to be behind the attack.
Sign up for instant alerts from MySA by texting NEWS to 77453.
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Child's cry for help to teacher leads to San Antonio man's sex crime arrest
SUV that fled police wrecks, killing 15-year-old boy
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China Tells Farmers To Grow More Soybeans Amid Trade Fight With U.S. After hitting U.S. soybeans with retaliatory tariffs, China is seeking alternatives to supply its important crop.
China Tells Farmers To Grow More Soybeans Amid Trade Fight With U.S.
China Tells Farmers To Grow More Soybeans Amid Trade Fight With U.S. 3:08
June 19, 201811:16 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
Rob Schmitz
A single soybean plant grows in a field in the village of Sandaogou, China. Rob Schmitz/NPR hide caption
Rob Schmitz/NPR
A single soybean plant grows in a field in the village of Sandaogou, China.
The order came in April. China's government instructed farmers in the country's northeastern breadbasket region to grow more soybeans, calling it "a political priority."
But soybean fields lay empty in the village of Sandaogou, which means "Three Ditches," in Liaoning province. It has been a dry spring.
"We've had a drought this year, so we planted soybeans late. The seedlings should be out by now. We need more rain," says farmer Liu, who only gives her surname for fear of trouble with local authorities. Soy, after all, has become "political."
Stock Markets Drop Amid Escalating Tariff Threats
China is the world's largest consumer of soybeans, a key product for making things like oil and pig feed, and is America's biggest buyer of the beans. But China has raised tariffs on a number of items including soybeans shipped from the U.S., in retaliation against new import duties on Chinese goods imposed by the Trump administration. On Monday, President Trump ordered his trade representative to draft a new list of $200 billion in Chinese goods for further tariffs, in a sharp escalation of the trade fight between the world's top two economies.
Trump Threatens Tariffs On $200 Billion Of Chinese Goods
In May, China's agriculture ministry said the country will reduce its soybean imports for the first time in 15 years. To make up for part of the loss, the central government ordered local authorities to set aside 1.6 million acres of land to grow more soybeans. The country already cultivates nearly 21 million acres of the crop.
But here in Sandaogou, farmer Liu says while she grows soy on a collective farm she works on, she prefers to grow corn on her own plot of land.
"It's too risky to grow soybeans, and the income is less stable than growing corn," says Liu. "You don't lose money growing corn. Soybean yields are too low."
Workers transfer bags of soybean meal at a port in Nantong in China's eastern Jiangsu province. AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Workers transfer bags of soybean meal at a port in Nantong in China's eastern Jiangsu province.
China produced 14.2 million metric tons of soybeans last year and imported almost 100 million more to meet domestic demand, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A third of those imports were from the U.S.
"None of us wants a trade war," says Si Wei, an expert in the soy trade at China Agricultural University. "But if it happens, we need to think about what's important."
Si says Chinese tariffs on imported U.S. soybeans will have a big impact on both the American and Chinese markets.
Trump Touts Economic Gains, As Trade War Looms
"Judging from the land and water resources we have, I don't think it's realistic to grow all the soybeans we need ourselves and completely replace U.S. imports. We use U.S. soybeans mostly for oil. We'd have to replace it with peanut and rapeseed oil," he says.
Si says China can import those oils from Australia, Canada and Central Europe instead, but it won't be an easy transition for China.
Trump Hits China With Tariffs On $50 Billion Of Goods; China Says It Will Retaliate
Back on the soybean farm in Three Ditches village, farmer Liu says she hasn't heard about the trade spat between the U.S. and China. She unplugged her television months ago so that her son would focus on his studies.
But if the government asks her to grow more soybeans, she says she will — if the money is right.
She adds: "If they give me a better subsidy and provide sales channels for me, then why not?"
NPR News Assistant Yuhan Xu contributed research to this report.
China trade
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National Park Utah
The night sky has inspired humans for centuries. Ancient people throughout the world named the constellations and told stories of their creation. Stars were used as a navigational tool and as a calendar to determine when to plant or harvest crops. Today, those same stars that guided us and inspired myths and legends are vanishing from our view.
Since the invention of the light bulb, humans have illuminated the night. Though convenient, the increase in artificial light has decreased the visibility of the night sky. Nearly two-thirds of Americans today live in an area where it is difficult to see the stars because of light pollution.
Humans are not the only creatures impacted by a brighter night sky. Nocturnal animals and insects rely on darkness to hunt or hide. Circadian rhythms of many plants and animals, including humans, are all negatively affected by light pollution.
National parks are some of the few places left in the country to see dark skies, and many are working to protect this endangered resource. The Colorado Plateau Dark Skies Cooperative, a voluntary partnership of agencies, communities, and individuals, was formed in 2013 to celebrate and protect the exceptional night skies found in this region. Zion National Park has installed night-friendly fixtures at the Zion Canyon Visitor Center, Zion Human History Museum, and Zion Lodge that direct light downward instead of casting it upward into the sky. Visitors are encouraged to take advantage of dark skies while in the park – on any clear night, head outside and look skyward to see views that rival the daytime scenery that Zion is known for.
You can help protect this resource by turning out lights when not in use, using outdoor lights only where necessary, and shielding outdoor lighting so that it points downward. Lowering window blinds at night will keep artificial light contained within a house rather than allowing it to radiate outside into the night, affecting nocturnal animals and insects. Host a star party with your friends and encourage others to marvel at the night, just as people have done for thousands of years.
Learn more about the night sky in your national parks, and how you can help.
See what Zion is doing to preserve dark night skies.
Find tips for stargazing in Zion.
1 Zion Park Blvd.
State Route 9
Springdale, UT 84767
Staffed daily from 9 am - 1 pm. Recorded information is available 24 hours a day. If you are unable to reach someone by phone, please email us at zion_park_information@nps.gov.
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…with compassion and care
Advocating
…to ensure rights
…to increase skills
…to enable choice
Abortions in Ireland & Overseas – All You Need To Know
Abortion Clinics For Ireland & Northern Ireland Abortion
Abortion in the Republic of Ireland is only available on a limited basis. Abortion in Northern Ireland is available in mainland UK and is funded by the British Government.
Every year, thousands of women who live in Ireland travel to the UK to have access to abortion services. NUPAS UK provides abortions as a pregnancy advisory service for up to 17 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy in our UK clinics.
If you need information and advice or have already made the decision to have an abortion, you will need to make arrangements to attend our clinic.
You can call:
Republic of Ireland (01) 874 0097
Other Overseas 0845 359 6666
You will be able to speak to an advisor from 8am-10pm, 7 days a week by telephone or online. Alternatively, you can use our call back request service or email any questions to info@nupas.co.uk and an advisor will contact you.
We understand how difficult it can be to make a decision regarding an abortion in Ireland or Nothern Ireland, especially if you are travelling from Ireland and other overseas areas to a UK clinic. Our abortion services are tailored to meet the needs of Irish and other overseas visitors, which enables you to travel to our clinic and return home the same day.
Overseas Abortion Clinics
Currently all of our overseas clients including those from Ireland & Northern Ireland are directed to our NUPAS South Manchester Private clinic in Stockport. Included in our Irish and overseas abortion package, we will arrange for you to be collected from the airport and taken back for your return flight. We want to make this process as simple as we can and ensure that your stay with us is as comfortable and as stress free as we can make it.
You are able to access any of our other UK abortion clinics but we will not be able to arrange transport as part of the package. Click here for a full list of clinics.
The services available to you include
Abortion Consultation
Abortion with Sterilisation
If you require counselling or any further post-abortion check-ups, you can either contact us or visit the useful contacts page to find your nearest service.
Overseas: 0845 359 6666
Talk to one of our team now on live chat
Send a message to our team and we’ll call you back
June 7, 2019 /by chameleon
May 4, 2018 /by chameleon
September 17, 2017 /by NUPAS
Full contraception service/contraception/
NHS – Sexually Transmitted Infections
Brook – Sexual and wellbeing for under 25s
Irish Family Planning Association
To Helen at NUPAS.
“I’d like to say how much I appreciate everything you did for me the other day. I know what I did took courage. And I know couldn’t have done it without you next to me guiding me through. It’ll never be forgotten”
“I’d just like to say a huge thank you for the treatment and care I received. Your friendliness and kindness was hugely appreciated and I truly feel that the experience could not have been made any better by anyone that I came into contact with. Thank you again.”
Manchester Clinic Client
“Jordan is amazing, thanks for being so understanding and incredible at your job.”
“Just a note to thank you all for the care and kindness you gave to my daughter. It was a tough decision for us as a family to make but the kindness of all the staff made it somewhat easier.”
Stockport Clinic Client
“Kay was very kind and no judgement at all, she shone out of all the staff. She was brilliant and an example of wonderful staff.”
“All staff were fantastic. My nurse was so lovely, I was very nervous and she made me feel calm and reassured. Thank you very much”
Stoke Clinic Client
“Laura is a credit to your team and most helpful. She makes you feel at ease.”
“Kris the nurse was fantastic- I can’t thank her enough!”
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DOS Information
Home Companies index W WE WE
We Are Here, Inc. company details
Type: Foreign Not-for-profit Corporation
3 years on market
Established 10/02/2015
We Are Here, Inc.
DOS Process Name
320 7th Avenue, #263
DOS Process Address
DOS Process City
DOS Process State
DOS Process Zip
We Are Here, Inc. is a business registered at 320 7Th Avenue, 263, Brooklyn. It was set up as a foreign not-for-profit corporation in Kings county, under DOS id number 4828980 on 10/02/2015, 3 years ago.
The data below is presented in a way identical to how it exists in government databases. Several companies can exist nationwide under the same name. Please be advised to check whether the information provided pertains to the specific company you are looking for.
As far as we managed to find out, the Patent and Trademark Office reports that 2 trademarks submitted on behalf of We Are Here, Inc. can be found. We Are Here, Inc. trademarks include: live/registered (registered) trademark filed on 2016-01-27 and registered on 2017-04-25. Trademark's identification is "WE ARE HERE".
The second trademark is live/pending (first extension - granted) and is identified as "WE ARE HERE". The trademark was filed on 2016-01-27 with a serial number 86887907. As stated in the latest trademark submission with a serial number 86981900, We Are Here, Inc. can be reached at: Brooklyn, NY, postcode - 11215, address - C/o Leigh Blake, 420 12Th Street, b1L.
Mark identification
01/27/2016 Live/Registered We Are Here, Inc. c/o Leigh Blake, 420 12th Street, #B1L
Brooklyn, 11215 WE ARE HERE
01/27/2016 Live/Pending We Are Here, Inc. c/o Leigh Blake, 420 12th Street, #B1L
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Resolutions Now, LLC
Park Slope Express Inc.
Domestic Business Corporation
Michelle Housecare Incorporated
New Brownstone Cleaners Inc.
Brownstone Cleaner, Inc.
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Turnage Wins BMX National
Talented Oakdale BMX rider, Eli Turnage, shows off his stuff at the Spreckels Park BMX Park in Manteca. Photo Contributed
Ike Dodson
Updated: April 23, 2013, 10 p.m.
Eli Turnage defies gravity.
The farther north the 11-year-old Oakdale resident and Hickman Charter School student travels, the higher he places in world-class BMX races.
Turnage was first and second in both races of the under-12 intermediate class across two days of action at the American Bicycle Association BMX Oregon Nationals on April 13 and 14.
The victories propelled Turnage up the ABA points ladder and paved the way for an expected appearance at ABA BMX Grand Nationals in Oklahoma in November.
The Oregon finish is the top moment in a brilliant young career for Oakdale’s two-wheeled frenzy. He was seventh and eighth at the Arizona National in March, and opened the year with a third and eighth place finish at the Reno National.
Turnage was a semifinalist at last year’s Grand National, where he beat out 60 other riders to reach the second stage of competition, but just missed a trip to the world finals.
It was an emotional ride for the youngster, who for the first time in his life, competed without the presence of his father and former BMX enthusiast, Jason Turnage, who lost a four-year battle with colon cancer.
Jason’s wife and Eli’s mother, Rachel Turnage, said Eli is scrambling to race in as many nationals as he can in 2013 in an effort to compete in his father’s honor.
Eli was present at the Spreckels Park BMX Park in July of 2012 to award scholarship money from the Jason Turnage Memorial Fund to seniors in the BMX racing community.
Eli, who accepted a sponsorship by Team Icee in 2009, raced in his first national the same year. This year, he plans to take on action at national events in Bakersfield, Utah, Las Vegas and Reno amidst the whirlwind tour to honor his late father.
SPORTS SLATE 1-09-19
Oakdale Soccer Girls Earn VOL Road Win
Varsity Basketball Boys Open League With Losses
Gators Find Success At Turlock Invitational Meet
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A three-thousand-year-old ruin with its own web site
Archaeologists find a pottery fragment with the oldest known example of written Hebrew at the Elah Fortress(YT) in Israel - or maybe not [more inside]
posted by XMLicious at 10:05 PM PST - 8 comments
Terror takes the sound before you make it...
Yet another Thriller cover. One man. 64 channels of a cappella. SLYT
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:29 PM PST - 30 comments
Early spirit photography
Ghosts, apparitions, angels, spiritual visitations and views of the future "The relationship between photography and the spirit world of ghosts, apparitions and angels during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was a blending of popular belief and scientific fraud. The lack of sophistication in the public in an age of deeply held religious values and the generally accepted belief that the camera recorded truth allowed the unscrupulous to exploit the situation for financial gain...This online exhibition explores the diverse interactions between mortals and the spiritual world..." [via Bouphonia]
posted by mediareport at 8:19 PM PST - 6 comments
We pick up our mail in the 1800s
The Online Time Travel Pharmacy. It is the combination of Indian manufacturers and Canadian pharmacists working together that allows us to do this. By the same guy who brought you this and this. [more inside]
posted by not_on_display at 8:11 PM PST - 13 comments
"Elke Wisbey, 6, was born with brain damage and cannot walk or speak. After her community raised funds to purchase a state of the art communication device for Elke, the little girl was able to use tiny eye movements to speak her first words through the machine: 'I love you.'"
posted by An Infinity Of Monkeys at 7:59 PM PST - 17 comments
Pink Tentacles
Red paper lantern medusa
posted by vronsky at 5:48 PM PST - 26 comments
A warm cup of Halloween cheer
"How would you like to tour my famous tomb?" he asked. "It's impossible to be buried alive there."
This gentleman is almost alone in his concerns today, thanks to modern medicine's advances (and advances in embalming). But in the 19th century, plans to prevent live burial were frequent. Timothy Clark Smith of Vermont had a window installed in his grave, where you can check on him to this day. The Germans instituted Leichenhauser (or "waiting mortuaries"), halls in which corpses rested among flowers, their fingers tied to alarm bells, until it was clear to everyone that it was time for their burial. [more inside]
posted by Countess Elena at 5:34 PM PST - 27 comments
Apparently, the bird has a good chance for the VP nom in '12
A short video of a starling saying something.
posted by 31d1 at 5:00 PM PST - 32 comments
swept into the world on a churning rapid of blood
Hey, Natalie Dee had a baby
posted by JohnR at 3:43 PM PST - 82 comments
Steeerike 'em in the head!
Flash Halloween Friday Fun: Zombie Baseball. John and Sam are the only remaining humans left on Earth due to a horrible virus gone wrong. Sam drops baseballs and you (playing John) hit them into zombies...Rinse and Repeat! The obligatory upgrades and special bats as you increase levels.
posted by schyler523 at 3:34 PM PST - 15 comments
Mod chip? I don't need no stinkin' mod chip!
The Mother of all Wii Hacks: Early on in the life of the Wii, hackers discovered a bug in "Zelda: Twilight Princess" and exploited it to create the Twilight Hack. From that came the Homebrew Channel, a software browser, and even DVD capability. [more inside]
posted by Brodiggitty at 3:25 PM PST - 28 comments
How do wines taste?
How do different wines taste? An interesting visualization tries to answer the question of what is different about a Shiraz vs. a Pinot vs. a Cab, built from scanning keywords on 5,000 tasting notes over a five year period.
posted by mathowie at 2:42 PM PST - 42 comments
RIP Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel has passed. Author, actor, oral historian, storyteller.
posted by me3dia at 2:31 PM PST - 107 comments
The last ones leave us now.
Fewer than 100 survived Treblinka. I am the last one.
posted by allkindsoftime at 1:19 PM PST - 30 comments
DesignFilter: Walking house designed to beat the floods [pics and vid] l Wearable Gadgets [pics and vids] l Backpacks l Commuting by JetPack l Blog Designs l Twitter Clapper l and for Halloween, some awesome [whoa] carved pumpkin designs.
posted by nickyskye at 1:06 PM PST - 13 comments
The World's 9 Scariest Monsters! With Carol Vorderman (1,2) - watched by Lee and Herring
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:59 PM PST - 6 comments
Sarah Palin's Church: Prayer Warriors, Spirit Mapping & FEMA
Thomas Muthee, the witch-hunting prayer warrior who anointed Sarah Palin, is part of a much larger movement called the New Apostolic Reformation. Researchers at religious watchdog site Talk2Action have released a 36 page report on the NAR (part 1, part 2, part 3 & PDF). Learn about Palin confidant Mary Glazier, the Queen of Heaven, the Christian Emergency Network and much, much more.
posted by scalefree at 12:42 PM PST - 75 comments
The Golden Calf
And the LORD said to Moses, "Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!'"
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:41 PM PST - 60 comments
Can I pay my taxes with a student loan?
After an historic near-collapse (p), a federal bailout to the tune of $85,000,000,000, a second federal bailout to the tune of $37,800,000,000 and one hell of a party (p), the news on A.I.G. just keeps getting better. Now: Fed arbitrage! Paying down a 9% taxpayer loan with a 2% taxpayer loan? Genius!
posted by jckll at 12:31 PM PST - 7 comments
Missing Vincent
Every Halloween I think about him Vincent never wanted to be an actor. What with the degree from Yale in Art History and English. His intent was certainly not to be one the classic Masters (YTV) of Macabre (YTV). Never the less his legend surpasses his own humble ambitions. Part of our collective childhoods (MP3) gone but not forgotten. [more inside]
posted by tkchrist at 12:15 PM PST - 28 comments
The Isle of the Dead
The picture of a boat approaching a wooded island held a strange sway over the early twentieth century imagination. Strindberg closes The Ghost Sonata with the image; Rachmaninoff brought forth a symphonic poem from it; Freud, Lenin, and Clemenceau all owned prints, while Hitler hung one of the original five paintings on his wall. The work's creator, a Swiss Symbolist painter named Arnold Böcklin, never cared to give it a name. It was an art dealer who first called it Die Toteninsel — "The Isle of the Dead."
posted by Iridic at 10:49 AM PST - 27 comments
If this story is made into a movie, Zack Snyder will not be directing
What a way to go
posted by ericbop at 9:45 AM PST - 95 comments
Given that you're a Metafilter user, if you're also a Firefox user, you may want to check out the Read It Later extension. It's not an unfair assumption to assume that Metafilter users tend to do a lot of online reading (who, us?), and the Read It Later extension is well-suited to help you manage your online reading while not cluttering up your bookmarks. It began as a bookmarklet but now has its own online site, RSS feed, intracomputer syncing, caching of pages for offline use, integration with Google Reader, and customizable keyboard shortcuts, and has really matured into a really great (free) extension. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike at 9:31 AM PST - 35 comments
100 Illustrated Horror Film Posters part 1 and 2 [more inside]
posted by Mitheral at 9:05 AM PST - 27 comments
I like the cut of your jib
Flash Friday Fun with Splitter. Cut things to solve puzzles. Sort of a destructive Incredible Machine.
posted by Lord_Pall at 8:05 AM PST - 26 comments
Red Sex Blue Sex
Evangelicals are very good at articulating their sexual ideals, but they have little practical advice for their young followers. Social liberals, meanwhile, are not very good at articulating values on marriage and teen sexuality—indeed, they may feel that it’s unseemly or judgmental to do so. But in fact the new middle-class morality is squarely pro-family.
The New Yorker discusses the red-state/blue-state divide in attitudes about premarital sex, sex education, and teen pregnancy: Red Sex, Blue Sex.
posted by Who_Am_I at 8:03 AM PST - 153 comments
ML73-3356, ML73-3378
For many people who lived in Houston in the early 1970s, trick or treat brings up memories of "The Candy Man," serial killer Dean Corll. He, along with accomplices David Brooks and Wayne Henley (YouTube), kidnapped, raped, and tortured to death 27 boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen between 1970 and 1973. Thirty-seven years after the bodies of their victims were discovered in mass graves in southwest Houston and the Bolivar Peninsula, three still were unidentified until recently when the efforts of forensic anthropologist Sharon Derrick identified victim ML73-3349, now known to be Randall Lee Harvey.
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:01 AM PST - 32 comments
tolerate this, suckers
Israeli court approves construction of Museum of Tolerance. With a design by starchitecht Gehry, whats not to like? Well, for one, it is being built on an ancient Muslim burial site. [more inside]
posted by yonation at 7:58 AM PST - 56 comments
Sports.... in space!
Former Redskins linebacker Ken Harvey wants to bring sports to space. He calls it Space Sportilization
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 7:48 AM PST - 15 comments
I heard there was a secret chord
Mathematician Cracks Mystery Beatles Chord. Not to be confused with the Hendrix chord or the sacred chord.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:29 AM PST - 44 comments
The most obscure but perhaps the most important economic indicator we've got
How best to take the pulse of the global economy? While market driven rates such as LIBOR or US Government T-Bills reveal the state of fixed income and Credit Default Swaps tell the observer much about possible default rates, many analysts prefer a more basal view. The Baltic Dry Index is one such indicator. [more inside]
posted by Mutant at 4:25 AM PST - 27 comments
Hypnobamatist
Fringe Friday: Obama is a hypnotic and entrancing public speaker. No, really, he's hypnotic and entrancing. [PDF] via
posted by Rykey at 4:14 AM PST - 89 comments
"You do understand that you are entering a dangerous area, and that the possibility of injury or death is real."
Bob Harris visits the North Korean border
posted by alby at 2:11 AM PST - 32 comments
олигáрх
Moscow is home to the largest number of billionaires and in Russia, there are nearly 100 billionaires. Due to recent economic developments and the drop in oil prices, the oligarchs, who rose to prominence under Gorbachev, have lost a combined total of $200 billion. Help is here.
posted by gman at 7:17 PM PST - 21 comments
radiant and reverent: religious festivals in China and Tibet
Armchair travel via three superb audio slide shows by photographer Reinhard Krause:
Monlam, the Tibetan Great Prayer Festival - Aba China
Catholics celebrate Christmas in rural China
Tibetan prayer meeting in Tongren [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive at 6:52 PM PST - 9 comments
What's that in dog sock-puppet years?
The :CueCat finally received its patent this month, eight years after its abject failure in the marketplace. [more inside]
posted by jamaro at 6:44 PM PST - 46 comments
The Resting Place of the Fallen Flowers of Yoshiwara
浄閑寺—Jokanji, the "Throw Away" Temple "From the street, it looks like many other Tokyo temples, but behind the new main building is an old cemetery that has one particular point of interest, a crypt and monument to twenty-five thousand prostitutes interred there."
posted by gomichild at 6:42 PM PST - 14 comments
2008 AD: Horace Rumpole makes an FPP
70,000 BC: The Earliest Known Examples of Paleolithic Art
668 BC: Ashurbanipal Attempts to Collect all Knowledge
150 BC: Earliest Analog Computer
593 AD: First Mention of Printing in China
1454 AD: The Gutenberg Bible
1964 AD: Creation of ARPANET
From Cave Paintings to the Internet, a timeline of the history of information technology. [more inside]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:18 PM PST - 10 comments
The Free Site Validator
The Free Site Validator is for all y'all web designers who are tired of putting each and every page through the W3C Markup Validation Service. Enter the URL you'd like checked, start the report and you'll soon have every page of the site examined for valid markup and link rot. It also uses OpenID so you might already have an account! [via 456 Berea Street] [more inside]
posted by sciurus at 5:13 PM PST - 13 comments
iBioSeminars
iBioSeminars is a new project from the American Society for Cell Biology to release freely available lectures from leading scientists on the web. It features talks on such diverse areas as stem cells, malaria, HIV, and biofuel production.
posted by pombe at 4:36 PM PST - 4 comments
Eagle Ager
posted by geos at 4:30 PM PST - 16 comments
Alton Ellis, RIP
"The King of Rock Steady," (or "Godfather" as he was sometimes known) Alton Ellis, passed away earlier this month at the age of 70. A romantic at heart with one of my favorite voices, he leaves 20 children two weeks after finally receiving royalties for the Sean Paul song "Still in Love With You". [more inside]
posted by sleepy pete at 4:24 PM PST - 17 comments
Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple? "Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Turkey's stunning Gobekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization."
posted by homunculus at 3:30 PM PST - 28 comments
The Unfinished Swan is an unfinished video game set in an entirely black and white world. Players can splatter paint to help them find their way through an unusual garden. A video of the gameplay.
posted by GuyZero at 3:22 PM PST - 32 comments
The 123 Year Old Eyes
Bernt Aune's corneas are 123 years old, which possibly makes them the oldest living human tissue on record. [more inside]
posted by andeles at 2:30 PM PST - 27 comments
DENTIST LIVES HERE.
The Kid's Halloween Candy Code from cockeyed.com. [more inside]
posted by loquacious at 1:48 PM PST - 65 comments
clean type is godly type
We've seen it done before with Ms. Dewey (previously), but all the same, meet Max Kerning. He's also on Facebook and Twitter. He's a total shill (Sutcase Fusion 2) but still worth checking out. [more inside]
posted by cjorgensen at 1:22 PM PST - 13 comments
Ink dance
Dancing with Ink: by Taiwanese photographer Liu Chunxing (刘纯兴).
posted by of strange foe at 1:04 PM PST - 9 comments
In praise of small banks
The nine biggest US banks aren't using $125 billion in federal bailout money to make loans. They're going to use taxpayer dollars to buy other banks. [more inside]
posted by up in the old hotel at 12:43 PM PST - 80 comments
That's no meteorite!
Seventy years ago today was the original broadcast of "The War of the Worlds". Listen to it, uninterrupted, here. The program reportedly caused a mass panic across much of the Northeast. [more inside]
posted by backseatpilot at 12:31 PM PST - 13 comments
Roadside vernacular
The phenomenon of homemade roadside signage for Obama is not much in evidence on the other side. See also Obama signage and other art at The Obama Art Report, and many individual homemade Obama signs. Neither campaign is, shall we say, overly happy with renegade signage, however.
posted by beagle at 12:10 PM PST - 40 comments
Obama just got endorsed by The Economist.
Obama just got endorsed by The Economist. Yes that Economist. My favorite economic publication and often noted for its pragmatic conservative-centrist approach. Good stuff here.
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 12:05 PM PST - 131 comments
Lovely Package
Lovely Package: The leading source for the very best that package design has to offer.
posted by chunking express at 11:39 AM PST - 28 comments
Making Statues
Making the Sculpture. Tom Otterness, the guy behind those sculptures that make riding the A almost bearable (aka Life Underground), explains how bronze casting is done in a way even an idjit like me can understand.
posted by dame at 11:12 AM PST - 16 comments
Winter's Beauty
Steve Winter has won Wildlife Photographer Of The Year. More shortlisted images. Previous winners.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:53 AM PST - 6 comments
Of All the People in the World
Of all the People in the World "uses grains of rice to bring formally abstract statistics to startling and powerful life" . via
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 10:46 AM PST - 13 comments
How To Find Yourself In One Easy Step
Approximately two years ago, James Kim died after he and his family were stranded, snowbound, in their car on the Oregon coast (Previously, previously, and (selflink) previously). But what if he'd had a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB)? [more inside]
posted by scrump at 10:33 AM PST - 36 comments
The Big Chart
We need a way to have, buy, and sit on fewer and better things. — from the CICINA, a 20 minute video presentation on their effort to compare all things in a massive bracketed set of 214 binary judgements. Which is better: Apples or Oranges?
posted by blasdelf at 9:44 AM PST - 22 comments
A host of golden crackwhores
Marina Hyde blogs on the Guardian website about the ludicrous press release circulating about Lily Allen's new album, referring to her as 'the Wordsworth of her generation'. Then Lily herself uses her right to reply,snipes about the journalist's affair with Piers Morgan, and debate ensues about the difference between her cheeky public persona and the fragile, defensive lass within. [more inside]
posted by mippy at 9:41 AM PST - 32 comments
For the Halibut
SLYT. From the creator of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, NC Neighbors, Vote 08 (NSFW). [more inside]
posted by pearlybob at 9:05 AM PST - 28 comments
Deep Throat director six feet under
Back in 1972, there was a fellow who had a novel idea for a porno flick. But when his producer objected to the movie's title, fearing no one would understand it, Gerard Damiano reassured him: "Don't worry, "Deep Throat will become a household word." And indeed it did. Now, 36 years after the infamous and influential film's release, director Gerard Damiano, aka Jerry Gerard, has gone on to that deep, deep throat in the sky. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:29 AM PST - 73 comments
Reports of the Demise of Materialism Are Premature
"You cannot overestimate how threatened the scientific establishment is by the fact that it now looks like the materialist paradigm is genuinely breaking down.", argues psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz, part of a growing "non-material neuroscience" movement, an approach that evokes Cartesian dualism - the belief that the mind is not linked to the body, taking on the qualities of a soul. However growing the movement might be, others argue that the end of materialism is far from nigh. (via)
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:42 AM PST - 263 comments
David Tennant Calls Time On Dr Who
The Doctor is set to regenerate once again as David Tennant calls time on Doctor Who. "When Doctor Who returns in 2010 it won’t be with me" Tennant, widely acknowledged as one of the most popular actors ever to play the Doctor, said. "Now don’t make me cry. The 2009 shows will be my last playing the doctor.” [more inside]
posted by Effigy2000 at 11:19 PM PST - 160 comments
Mad artist in ancient sinister house draws things. What were his models? Glimpse.
"Mirage in time—image of long-vanish’d pre-human city." - "Ancient and unknown ruins—strange and immortal bird who SPEAKS in a language horrifying and revelatory to the explorers." - "A very ancient colossus in a very ancient desert. Face gone—no man hath seen it." - Images based on the commonplace book of HP Lovecraft. [more inside]
posted by Artw at 11:10 PM PST - 62 comments
And the Philadelphia Phillies are the 2008 World Series Champions.
posted by VicNebulous at 8:21 PM PST - 108 comments
The Sweet Science
Legendary Nights -- The tales of Arguello vs. Pryor: Chavez vs. Taylor.
The works of the Beard family
Let boys make their own kites and bows and arrows; they will find a double pleasure in them, and value them accordingly, to say nothing of the education involved in the successful construction of their home-made playthings. -- The American Boy's Handy Book
In the late 19th- and early 20th-century, the Beard family—Daniel Carter, Lina, and Adelia Belle—wrote a number of books on outdoor activities, woodcraft, and other recreational activities for boys and girls. Many of these books are in the public domain now: (The American Boy's Handy Book, The Field and Forest Handy Book, The Outdoor Handy Book, The Jack of All Trades, The American Girl's Handy Book, On the Trail: An Outdoor Book for Girls). Others, such as Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties and Boat-Building and Boating, are excerpted online. Some highlights include throwing tomahawks, making candy, and building tree houses, sleds, catapults, and rafts. [more inside]
posted by Upton O'Good at 7:42 PM PST - 40 comments
Corpse Craft
Corpse Craft is a flash game -- a puzzle/ strategy hybrid that's one part Same Game and one part Tower defense and one part Edward Gorey. Decent art, sound, story and gameplay.
posted by boo_radley at 5:18 PM PST - 19 comments
What's Blue, Yellow, and Hot?
Messenger has just made another flyover of Mercury, revealing hidden features. Watch the animation to see the blue volcanoes.
posted by Xurando at 4:33 PM PST - 24 comments
In the 13th century, thrifty monastic scribes erased an old Archimedes manuscript they had lying around and reused it. Thankfully, they didn't do a very thorough job. Ten years ago today, an anonymous American collector purchased the Archimedes Palimpsest, and has since funded the project to conserve, image, and study the manuscript, which contains several otherwise unknown works. Today, the Archimedes Palimpsest Project has released all its data and images under a Creative Commons license.
Neural Correlates of Hate
Brain's 'Hate Circuit' Identified. "People who view pictures of someone they hate display activity in distinct areas of the brain that, together, may be thought of as a 'hate circuit', according to new research by scientists at UCL (University College London)."
These shoes are ripe for crafting
While you may not be the shoe hoarder some people are, you have shoes in your closet you never wear and you'd like to know what to do with them. Are they just boring? In that case you could just experiment with new ways to lace them, or find a way to make them light up when you walk into a room. Or you could draw on the shoes with markers or sharpies. You could also paint them, going with the theme of your choice: Art Nouveau, Picasso, Day of the Dead, or any of the ideas here. You could cut motifs from fabric and glue them on to your lace-ups, cover your flats with new fabric, bling up a pair of strappy shoes with glitter, or embellish your flip-flops with some yarn. Is the old upper worn out? Knit or crochet a new one. Want to get where you're going faster? Make custom roller skates, or modify your bicycle. Do your shoes hurt your feet? Put them on your face instead as a wrestling mask, or turn them into an iPod case. Your shoes could also become a birdhouse, a planter, a centrepiece, or an integral part of a coat rack, bookends or leg lamp. If you're really not up to crafting, here are 11 non-crafty ways to recycle old shoes. But what fun is that?!?
posted by orange swan at 2:41 PM PST - 22 comments
Ubersuper - Stefan Sicher shares inspiration and has fun.
Ubersuper is the place where Stefan Sicher shares inspiration and has fun. It has lead me to Soviet Propaganda Posters, Generating Art from Computer Games, Bruce Mozert's Underwater Photos, a cool stop motion video and much more.
posted by sciurus at 1:35 PM PST - 3 comments
Kraft durch (Schaden)freude
Short selling is basically the practice of selling borrowed shares, with the intention of purchasing them back later at a lower price. It amounts to a placing a bet on the share value dropping, is a favoured move of hedge funds, and has been recently blamed for much of the current economic mayhem. However, when last Sunday Porsche tersely announced that, in addition to its 44% of Volkswagen's shares, it had secured 31% through cash-settled call options, the invisible hand of the market gave those short-sellers an atomic wedgie: Since the German state of Lower Saxony holds just over 20% of VW, Porsche's disclosure meant that, in fact, there were only 5% of VW's shares left on the market, whereas traders were shorting for about 13% of those shares. This set off the "Mother of All Short Squeezes". [more inside]
posted by Skeptic at 12:53 PM PST - 98 comments
CONDOS NOW SELLING
Elbow's video for their song One Day Like This is pretty simple, but you'd be surprised how much a nice song and some slow motion can make something totally awesome. [more inside]
posted by mathowie at 12:34 PM PST - 51 comments
Not your average Halloween Costume
Building a Steampunk Cane. Inspired by GirlGenius and involving breadboard electronics, molten acrylic, and a little light metalwork. Parts 2, 3 and 4 plus the whole Flickr photoset.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:31 PM PST - 57 comments
Green hands and rears
Using copper alloys for surfaces we touch could help control bugs Replacing stainless steel with copper for commonly touched surfaces such as taps (faucets), toilet seats and door push plates make it harder for bacteria to survive on the surfaces [more inside]
posted by bluefin at 12:18 PM PST - 37 comments
Not a "basketball mom."
Sarah Palin's "folksy" approach has been examined and dissected by the "main stream media." But Anil Dash cuts to the core of what Sarah Palin is saying.
posted by jdfan at 9:11 AM PST - 184 comments
And the B-Boy Shall Bust Moves To The Bluegrass
And the B-Boy Shall Bust Moves To The Bluegrass.
posted by eustacescrubb at 9:09 AM PST - 25 comments
Oh shi... IT'S ON!!
[SLYT, ElectionFilter, 2:40] Dance-off!! The teams: Obama Dance Crew vs. John McCain's Grand Old Posse. It's ON!!
posted by not_on_display at 9:01 AM PST - 23 comments
Hilda Magazine ― prose, poetry, illustrations, photography, video, and music from a wide assortment contemporary artists. [contains some nude art images] [more inside]
posted by netbros at 8:25 AM PST - 3 comments
North Korea Regime Collapse?
North Korea's Kim suffers 'serious' setback from stroke. When Will North Korea Collapse? Should it happen, US, South Korean, and Chinese troops could charge into North Korea to secure its nuclear facilities-and confront each other, says RAND corp and others. However it is "far from certain that the regime would collapse like a puffball", and even John Bolton thinks The World Shouldn't Fear The Collapse of North Korea . But it's all probably a mugs game, In ’97, U.S. Panel Said North Korea Could Collapse in 5 Years, and in 2004 Talk was Swirling of a North Korean Regime Collapse.
posted by stbalbach at 8:07 AM PST - 23 comments
Take these chains...
A World Enslaved: There are now more slaves on the planet than at any time in human history.
Restaveks are Haitian child slaves.
To understand more here is a Modern Slavery 101 and a BBC special. Slavery is often hidden as Bonded Labour.
On the positive side in Niger an ex-slave wins a landmark case .
Here is a country by country report.
posted by adamvasco at 7:54 AM PST - 41 comments
Host your own illegal fundraiser!
British students, ambassadors, even singers are all at it. Don't you want to host a political fundraiser too?
posted by kothar at 7:23 AM PST - 15 comments
Halloween in the Time of Cholera
Fabulous vintage Halloween Photos that just might show up in your nightmares. (via Wired.com)
posted by mattholomew at 6:43 AM PST - 19 comments
Kazuhira Takeshita and his songs from Amami
In case you've never heard him, I'd like to introduce you to the sublimely soulful music of Kazuhira Takeshita, from Amami. [more inside]
Man, that's a lot of food
"Features the only hint of vegetable in the form of a few shreds of iceberg lettuce, the nutritionally bankrupt variety. Also features a vile khaki-colored sauce with black flakes we assumed to be pepper. Made it about 80% through before throwing in the towel." An unboxing of the new Guitar Hero: World Tour KFC Fully Loaded Box Meal. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 5:11 AM PST - 79 comments
Yamamaya!
On a Japanese island just east of Taiwan lives the Iriomote wildcat. Numbering between 60 and 100, this creature has been critically endangered since its discovery in 1967, although it has likely never numbered more than a few hundred in the 200,000 years it's lived on the island. The Iriomote wildcat is protected, and endearing to many Japanese - it was even featured in the popular anime Azumanga Daioh (warning: English dub). The chances you'll see one are slim, but conservation efforts continue.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:23 AM PST - 15 comments
Stumblebum Brass
Fresh and Tasty band that puts on shows for thousands a day but only listened to by dozens. (NSFW lyrics) [more inside]
posted by BrnP84 at 12:07 AM PST - 18 comments
My friends, here's to HOPE!
Synchronized Presidential Debating
posted by blue_beetle at 8:44 PM PST - 31 comments
The Movement Begins...
Generation WE: How Millennial Youth Are Taking Over America And Changing Our World Forever (via) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 8:22 PM PST - 111 comments
A Volunteer Meets the Presidential Candidate
Charles Meets Barack [SLYT]
posted by MaxK at 7:14 PM PST - 238 comments
Free Codeweavers Products!
Codeweavers is offering their product line for free until midnight Central time tonight. They implement versions of WINE, which allows one to run Windows programs under Mac OSX and Linux, including implementations focused on running games. [more inside]
posted by Kwine at 6:35 PM PST - 40 comments
Bottleneck Whirl Toss.
Blocks with letters on. Blocks with letters on. Blocks with letters on.
posted by Sitegeist at 6:02 PM PST - 15 comments
browsable peeks into the British past
Odeon cinemas l Domestic service in Victorian and Edwardian England l English house and brickwork l Merchant Palaces l Stonehenge: presentation and interpretation are among dozens of Photo Essays on ViewFinder: A browsable picture library of historic images from The National Monuments Record at English Heritage. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 5:37 PM PST - 6 comments
Come light, Shaker light, come life eternal...
The Shakers ...the definitive film on the Shaker movement. --- The New Yorker (30 min, QT)
Brand, Ross, Brown, Sachs, Fawlty, Baillie, Cameron, Hitler
This is Georgina Baillie [slightly NSFW], aka Voluptua of Satanic Sluts Extreme, aka the granddaughter of Andrew Sachs, aka Manuel off of Fawlty Towers; This is Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of Great Britain; This is David Cameron, the leader of the opposition; This is Ofcom, the British media regulator; This is The Mail On Sunday, the pro-Hitler anti-BBC newspaper beloved of the British middle class; These are 10,000 concerned Britons. Collectively, they're calling for the heads of Russell "Bush is a retarded cowboy" Brand and Jonathan "£18m of TV licence fee payers' money" Ross after the pair apparently left lewd messages about Ms Baillie on Mr Sachs' answerphone during Brand's BBC radio show. Here's the timeline.
posted by cillit bang at 4:10 PM PST - 65 comments
Class War on the Dancefloor
As laddish 'landfill indie' bands take over the British charts and the previous vanguard of art-school bands trouble the mainstream less, the old debate on class in pop music rears its head once again.
posted by mippy at 3:16 PM PST - 41 comments
Ending Chaos in Afghanistan and Pakistan
From Great Game to Grand Bargain. "The crisis in Afghanistan and Pakistan is beyond the point where more troops will help. U.S. strategy must be to seek compromise with insurgents while addressing regional rivalries and insecurities." A new piece in Foreign Affairs by Barnett R. Rubin and Ahmed Rashid. [Via]
BARacK Obama!
Bassets for Obama! Of course, they aren't the only dogs campaigning for Obama . [more inside]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:13 PM PST - 32 comments
Who saves the saviors?
In the field of humanitarian aid, personnel decisions are life and death business. The UN knows all too well the costs of poor oversight, but aid worker and blogger Michael Kleinman makes another observation, far more disturbing. In the multi-billion dollar humanitarian aid business, some lives are worth less than others, and not only among the populations served. [more inside]
posted by cal71 at 1:57 PM PST - 11 comments
"...after all her message for 30 years has been 'Hey, how hot is Jesus?'"
Madonna is pop art
posted by Artw at 1:13 PM PST - 40 comments
At least they still have the Mapparium
Newsfilter: "After a century of continuous publication, The Christian Science Monitor will abandon its weekday print edition and appear online only, its publisher announced Tuesday." [more inside]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 12:48 PM PST - 35 comments
The Hardest Rapper Alive
The Hardest Rapper Alive (SLYT; NSFW language)
posted by educatedslacker at 12:38 PM PST - 35 comments
Just a little cute.
I like these pictures. They are cute and whimsical. (Some slightly NSFW.)
posted by dame at 12:26 PM PST - 30 comments
The word 'zoo' is elephant speak for Guantanamo
Q: Why did the elephant cross the road? A: Chicken's day off. Or, according to this article, or this one, or this one, or this one it didn't. Doesn't explain this video, or this video, or this video. [more inside]
posted by cjorgensen at 11:58 AM PST - 12 comments
Google settles suits
"The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and Google today announced a groundbreaking settlement agreement on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers worldwide that would expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search."
posted by Knappster at 11:48 AM PST - 35 comments
Because bra burning is so passé
Got a stack of bras you don't know what to do with? Charities will accept secondhand bras in good condition, but if you're in the mood to be creative there are bra crafting ideas on the net. You could make a bra wristlet, and then make a sleep mask out of the rest of the bra fabric, earrings out of the hardware, and a toy out of inserts. You could make a lavender sachet out of a bra and use it to perfume your lingerie drawer. One seemingly popular idea is to make a cute and feminine evening bag or, as one woman who wears a 36F quipped in a comment, luggage. If you're an especially sassy member of the Red Hat Society, you could make a purse that matches your hat. Some people even make hats out of the bras, though perhaps not every woman would care to so obviously wear a bra on her head. If you're a breast cancer survivor and want to avoid buying expensive and uncomfortably heavy prosthetics, you could knit yourself a pair of tits and go right on wearing your favourite bras. You could also make an art installation: a 5' bra ball. Here's a list of 28 things to do with old bras. And yes, I realize this post will make many of the men of MeFi want to get a lot of puns/juvenile comments off their chests, but titter away. You're probably just jealous you can't make such cool crafts out of your jock straps.
posted by orange swan at 8:38 AM PST - 49 comments
Going to any length.
A couple of Neo Nazis were going to kill 88 blacks and behead another 14, culminating in the assassination of Barack Obama. They aren't the first to attempt to keep him out of the White House.
posted by gman at 7:13 AM PST - 278 comments
What flies and creeps, what strives and hovers What swims and flows, yes all that ever lives Flees from death, yet there's no place On earth, where death would not be.
posted by 445supermag at 6:53 AM PST - 11 comments
BBBRRRPPP-tschk BBBRRRPPP-tschk phhtt-phhtt-THPPPPUUUUT-wrrrrp
Awesome beatboxing gals are doing it for themselves.
A Random Walk Down Wallstreet
Another stock market post. Technical traders (or charters) don't look at the fundamentals of an investment, like the earnings per share or even macro economic indicators to understand how a stock will move. Instead, they look at the movements in the market. While many of us might think prices are now low, technicians have the reassurance of fibonacci sequences, relative strength indexes, support levels and other "blackbox" ratios to determine their investments. There are some who blame them for a lot of woe, but they also provide a ray of light when everything else looks glum. Despite some evidence it doesn't work, or at least doesn't work over the long term, the number of true believers in the market mean even true fundamentalists can't ignore their impact. [more inside]
posted by bystander at 6:10 AM PST - 74 comments
When your dream of perfect beauty comes true
Nelsonica ’08 is sold out. But for those who won’t be at the Official Bill Nelson Fan Convention in Yorkshire this weekend, comfort yourselves with these blazing live performances by the guitar god and his band Be Bop Deluxe: Maid in Heaven, Dangerous Stranger, Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape. [more inside]
posted by grounded at 12:43 AM PST - 16 comments
Clearly more study is required
A taxonomy of the costumed pet.
posted by 31d1 at 10:03 PM PST - 29 comments
One closer to 60
Sen. Stevens (R, AK) found guilty of of seven corruption charges. Stevens was behind in the polls before this point anyway, so it looks like a solid Dem gain at this point. Palin has obviously thown him under the bus.
posted by jaduncan at 9:00 PM PST - 131 comments
Videos set to music
MTVMusic Music to your eyes.
posted by ColdChef at 8:25 PM PST - 84 comments
Spanning centuries
Daughter of a slave casts vote for Obama. As the centenarian looks forward to turning 110 later this year, let's all take a moment to celebrate centenarians... and, of course, try to work out just how on earth they made it this far. High levels of vitamins A and E seem to play a role, or of course you could just be lucky enough to be from Okinawa or Sardinia. Whatever the reason, they sure know how to live. And as we've seen previously, they're fascinating people.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:50 PM PST - 35 comments
Free 'How-To' Tutorial Videos
MonkeySee provides free access to a large collection of professionally-produced and user-generated how-to videos. Some of the more interesting tutorials include How To Apply Heath Ledger Joker Makeup, How to Tell if Your Food Has Gone Bad, How to Build a Terrarium, How To Tell If Someone is Lying To Me and How to Get Out of a Speeding Ticket.
posted by Effigy2000 at 6:40 PM PST - 17 comments
Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.
On Oct. 27th, 1915. Sir Ernest Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship, moving the crew and supplies off of the ice bound Endurance. The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition would never achieve it's goal of crossing the continent, instead Shackleton would become famous for somethings far greater: his masterful and amazing ability at leadership and survival for himself and his crew of 27 men under the harshest conditions imaginable. [more inside]
posted by mrzarquon at 5:59 PM PST - 59 comments
Plainview is a free full-screen web browser for your mac.
Plainview is a free full-screen web browser for your mac. Until now, you had two options for showing Internet work: capture it all to Quicktime and throw it into Powerpoint or Keynote (looks nice but no interactivity as everything has to be canned) or show it in your browser (interactive but with ugly chrome distracting people from your beautiful sites). So here's a third option. Fire up your full-screen browser and let your audience focus on the work. [more inside]
posted by krautland at 4:51 PM PST - 52 comments
The creator of Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn died last night. His books were enjoyed by many. Tony Hillerman was 83.
posted by bjgeiger at 4:25 PM PST - 40 comments
metaphors be with you
Link found between physical and emotional warmth l Metaphors of the Mind: Why Loneliness Feels Cold and Sins Feel Dirty. "Our mental processes are not separate and detached from the body". Sensory metaphors l The Metaphor Observatory, top 10 metaphors of 2007.
The Chainsaws Of November
CliffyB Knows Fun (single-link New Yorker)
posted by turgid dahlia at 4:04 PM PST - 33 comments
Quantum of culture. Terminology from quantum theory shows up frequently in art, films, poetry and sculpture. Robert P. Crease gauges the impact of quantum mechanics on popular culture. [Via]
Cadle's Flag of the Earth
The Flag of Earth is often flown at locations doing SETI work in order to indicate that the search is the "work of humanity and not a specific country or organization." The creator of this flag of the Earth (there are others) James W. Cadle died in 2004, but he left the design in the public domain. The flag is now supported by the North American Astrophysical Observatory.
posted by acro at 2:12 PM PST - 53 comments
What to do if your vote is suppressed
Do you know what to do if your vote is suppressed?
GOODVOTE.ORG is a group of volunteers from the technology community and blogosphere who simply want the will of the voters to be reflected in the result of the 2008 election. Our only purpose is to make sure that when legitimate voters are challenged they know who to turn to for help.
posted by mecran01 at 2:02 PM PST - 36 comments
Rauschenberg Memorial
As was noted previously, Robert Rauschenberg left us ealier this year at age 82. The webcast of a private memorial for Robert Rauschenberg’s friends and family will be viewable tonight for one time only at 9 p.m EST.
posted by R. Mutt at 1:57 PM PST - 13 comments
Hearing Spooky Voices
Hearing Voices [prev, prev] has a devilishly viscera-soaked Halloween broadcast: Bloody Hell: The First Half is Bloody. The Second Half We Go to Hell. So, turn the lights out, press play, and grab your favorite token of comfort. (It won't help.) [more inside]
posted by not_on_display at 1:56 PM PST - 3 comments
Historical Popular Vote Maps
Electoral maps, going all the way back to the beginning.
posted by interrobang at 1:42 PM PST - 36 comments
Memes in Motion
Shifting the Debate. Track the movement across the blogosphere of the top 100 political videos on YouTube with this amazing Flash applet.
posted by scalefree at 1:42 PM PST - 8 comments
electric stimulus to face
posted by chrismear at 1:07 PM PST - 41 comments
Miss Frozen Face
Back in 1940, a young singer called Virginia O'Brien made her debut in the LA production of "Meet the People" when she was seized by a paralyzing case of stage fright. The policeman daughter nevertheless bravely kept on singing while the audience roared with laughter. Surprisingly, her frozen-faced delivery, far from cutting her career short, created a unique niche for her instead (her wide vocal range and stunning looks also helped). Within short, she'd be appearing as deadpan "featured singer" in a number of golden-age MGM comedies, such as the "In the Storehouse", "Panama Hattie", or, most memorably, "Du Barry was a Lady". It's a bit sad that such a singing and acting talent was reduced to a novelty act, but, damn, what an act!
Smithore for sale
Let's play M.U.L.E! [more inside]
posted by roaring beast at 12:17 PM PST - 25 comments
Blotchmen and other comics by Kevin Cannon
Blotchmen is a short comic by Kevin Cannon that collides Watchmen with children's books. Other short comics by Kevin Cannon can be read on his site under Grab Bag and on his blog, Freshman for Life. His professional work is done through Big Time Attic which he founded with Shad Petosky and not-brother Zander Cannon.
posted by Kattullus at 12:12 PM PST - 8 comments
The case of the disappearing Toff
The Bullingdon Club is an elite drinking dining club for members of Oxford University in England. Its alumni include the London Mayor, Boris Johnson; the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron and the shadow Chancellor, George Osborne - in other words the three most powerful Tories in the UK. Photographs of the club are already extremely rare, but recently it surfaced that one of the two in wide circulation, might have been doctored. [more inside]
posted by MrMerlot at 11:36 AM PST - 26 comments
Flashed by Rorschach
Original character designs for Watchmen, including a (dropped) full body suit for Rorschach, by Dave Gibbons. (Also it looks like the movie version will have a different ending, so fears of a non-sucky Alan Moore film can be put to rest.)
posted by Artw at 11:13 AM PST - 163 comments
To get you in the Halloween spirit: Yume Nikki - a strange and sometimes scary game (that's free to download) where you play a girl who spends her days in a tiny room, but in her dreams goes exploring. Some rave about it, others find it overwhelming, while others still provide many helpful guidelines. Try it yourself - if you're lucky, maybe you'll see Uboa (3:26).
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 10:57 AM PST - 5 comments
Experience the censored Chinese internet at home!
China Channel Firefox Add-on: Experience the censored Chinese internet at home! [more inside]
posted by chunking express at 8:48 AM PST - 15 comments
The Koln Concert remembered, and despised.
It is the most successful solo jazz album of all time, but Keith Jarrett wants to see each of the 3.5 million copies of "The Köln Concert" stomped into the ground.
posted by mattholomew at 8:25 AM PST - 118 comments
Abu Nidal mystery solved
Remember Abu Nidal? The "Bin Laden" of the 70s and 80s, he mysteriously committed suicide in Baghdad on the eve of the 2003 invasion. New documents have come to light suggesting Nidal was working for the USA "trying to find evidence linking Saddam and al-Qa'ida." [more inside]
Syria's business
"US helicopter raid" in Syria. Could this be an October Surprise? Many have hinted this election's October Surprise will be the capture of Osama Bin Ladin or a resurgence of terrorist activity. As we recall, news media had jumped on a McCain Aide who claimed a terrorist attack would benefit McCain in the Election.
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 7:02 AM PST - 91 comments
Hip Hop's First Battle
Way back in 1984, when rap was still in its infancy, a now-obscure Brooklyn trio called UTFO released a record entitled "Roxanne, Roxanne". UTFO cancelled an appearance at a show promoted by now-legendary figures Mr. Magic and Marley Marl, and when a teenage girl named Lolita Shante Gooden overheard them discussing the cancellation and their anger over it, she offered to record a diss track as the titular Roxanne, and became Roxanne Shante. UTFO responded with their own "Real Roxanne", and thus began a ridiculously long series of answer records involving everyone from the fictional Roxanne's doctor to her grandmother. Now you can listen to them all without spending a fortune: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10 [more inside]
posted by DecemberBoy at 6:41 AM PST - 40 comments
A Boy's Life
The November Atlantic on transgender children: "Since he could speak, Brandon, now 8, has insisted that he was meant to be a girl. This summer, his parents decided to let him grow up as one. His case, and a rising number of others like it, illuminates a heated scientific debate about the nature of gender—and raises troubling questions about whether the limits of child indulgence have stretched too far." [more inside]
posted by dgaicun at 2:53 AM PST - 117 comments
100,000 faces. Your name.
Turn your name into a face is a tool that creates icon-style faces based on your name. It is an example of an Identicon, automatically generated avatars that serve a security purpose. Another cool example is Monster ID, which each name creates a unique monster.
posted by blahblahblah at 11:58 PM PST - 53 comments
Gross Beauty
Up close and personal with insects.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:05 PM PST - 19 comments
John Hodgman: A brief digression on matters of lost time
Perhaps the sweetest discourse on the subject of aliens & earth that you will ever hear — from a 2008 TED talk. (via BoingBoing)
posted by spock at 7:54 PM PST - 50 comments
Sharpen your pencils!
Mark Kistler has spent over two decades inspiring kids to pick up their pencils and draw. If you're a child of the 80s, you'll remember him as Commander Mark, host of The Secret City Adventures on PBS—some episodes of which are conveniently archived on YouTube for your nostalgic viewing pleasure. [more inside]
posted by greenie2600 at 7:24 PM PST - 15 comments
Does what it says on the tin
Robocop on a Unicorn
posted by brett at 7:11 PM PST - 44 comments
"Lucy is the famous, uh..."
I Love Lucy Pilot (1951). Originally unaired. More about this. Of related interest, the audition for the I Love Lucy Radio Show.
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:06 PM PST - 15 comments
The Nerd Handbook
Are you a nerd? Have you ever dated a nerd? Are you dating or married to a nerd right now and you don't understand the person you sleep next to every night? Don't worry, help is here.
posted by SpecialK at 5:56 PM PST - 52 comments
The Right to Sleep
Crimes of Necessity On Oct. 14 2008 the B.C. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision declaring that, due to the lack of adequate homeless shelters, it was unconstitutional for the City of Victoria to prevent homeless individuals from erecting temporary structures for protection from the elements. The ruling culminates a multi-year campaign by David Arthur Johnston to establish the "right to sleep". As the decision is based on an interpretation of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the ruling applies to every municipality in Canada. In the wake of the decision, Victoria City Council passed a resolution which stipulates that such shelters must be removed by 7:00 each morning. [more inside]
posted by dinsdale at 5:02 PM PST - 100 comments
Death and Taxes: 2009
"Death and Taxes: 2009" is a representational poster of the federal discretionary budget; the amount of money that is spent at the discretion of your elected representatives in Congress. Basically, your federal income taxes. (previously)
posted by Knappster at 4:25 PM PST - 14 comments
BIGFOOT FOUND ...a nice pair of boots.
BIGFOOT FOUND.
The Noisy Drinking Cat. More videos of animals having fun. Who says that animals don't experience pleasure? [Scroll down for some of the interesting things animals enjoy.] Love Songs Bring Pleasure to Bird Brains. [more inside]
It started in 1956 and led in 1969 to Quicksilver Messenger Service recording the song as an entire side on the Happy Trails album. This song was later to be covered by The Doors (1970); The Band + Ronnie Hawkins (1976); George Thorogood (1978) among many. The second side also featured a composition by the same writer; performing here with Tom Petty. Hey Bo Diddley
posted by adamvasco at 3:02 PM PST - 23 comments
The One Machine
Evidence of a Global SuperOrganism. "My hypothesis is this: The rapidly increasing sum of all computational devices in the world connected online, including wirelessly, forms a superorganism of computation with its own emergent behaviors." [Via]
The uptick rule
Rule 10a-1, otherwise known as the uptick rule, provided that, subject to certain exceptions, a listed security could only be sold short at or above the last sale price. The uptick rule was introduced in 1934 when the public blamed bear traders for the 1929 crash, and was eliminated in July of 2007 after a temporary pilot program. The SEC is now considering reinstating the rule, an effort buoyed by rumours that downtick short-selling may have facilitated an alleged 'bear raid' on Bear Stearns.
posted by anotherpanacea at 12:04 PM PST - 14 comments
Trevor and Ryan Oakes' perspective easel
Twin brothers Trevor and Ryan Oakes have a new technique for drawing perspective. Unlike the camera obscura and camera lucida (allegedly) employed by Renaissance masters, their method uses an easel with a curved steel frame which splits the artist's view into a grid and a skullcap to lock his head into place. By employing an optical trick similar to magic-eye stereoscopy, the artist can superimpose what he sees onto a thin strip of his paper. The result? Richly detailed line drawings on concave surfaces. Their website. (Look for Trevor's pipe cleaner weavings and the see-through concave cardboard wall). More, more and more.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:43 AM PST - 24 comments
Lou Dorfsman - CBS Imagemaker
Long-time CBS in-house designer Lou Dorfsman passed away this week. He did a lot of great work, but let's just focus on one part: His cafeteria wall at CBS, dubbed Gastrotypographicalassemblage. More about the wall. And an interview with Mr. Dorfsman about the wall.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 10:28 AM PST - 14 comments
Physics Invader
Physics Invader takes the classic Space Invaders idea and, as you might guess from the name, adds physics. Extra points awarded for pushing the heaps of Invader corpses off the edge of the screen! PEW PEW PEW! [more inside]
posted by 40 Watt at 9:11 AM PST - 19 comments
Martha Copeland, 20s-era blues singer
Though Bessie Smith is regarded as the queen of the early blues singers, Martha Copeland was singing the blues and its variants (and doing a fine job of it) back in the 20s as well. Head over to Internet Archive to hear Martha sing her versions of two of the tunes that made Bessie so famous: I Ain't Got Nobody and St. Louis Blues, the latter with backing vocal chorus from the Hall Johnson Choir. Check out her Dying Crap Shooter's Blues and Sorrow Valley Blues. And there's plenty of Martha Copeland goodness for your ears (RealPlayer) here and here. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:06 AM PST - 9 comments
Aboot time those hoosers let us in EH!
Are you a Democrat who drinks lattes? eats arugula? Does the thought of another Republican president fill you with dread? Canada's E.L.I.T.E. immigration plan is right for you! [more inside]
posted by afu at 9:02 PM PST - 102 comments
Thou Shalt Diggeth The Relaxation
Calgon! (Gregorian Chants) Take Me Away!!!!! [more inside]
posted by snsranch at 8:52 PM PST - 13 comments
"Demonstrations” by Caleb Charland
Caleb Charland's photographs artistically demonstrate the laws of physics. In "Solid, Liquid, Gas," for example, three similar glass-tumbler shapes are positioned on a film of water. One glass is filled with a separation of water, oil and alcohol. Another, overturned, contains an extinguished candle which, having burned up the oxygen inside the vessel, created a vacuum that sucked the water inside. The third vessel and the other pictures are just cool.
posted by Surfin' Bird at 4:43 PM PST - 26 comments
Think. Again.
From The Atlantic, a fun bunch of montages of interesting people answering questions like "What is the cost of being a nerd?", "When is evil cool?" and "Are good books bad for you?" (Accompanies a redesign of magazine as well as of the web site. In seeking readers and advertisers, publications like The Atlantic and The Economist, known as thought-leader magazines, have long tried to make up in cleverness what they lack in wallet power.)
posted by Non Prosequitur at 3:40 PM PST - 27 comments
The History of Mother 1 (NES)
The History of Mother 1 (NES) In honor of the new fan translation of Mother 3 (or Earthbound for the GBA), I've decided to post an article explaining what ever happened to the English port of the first game in the Earthbound/Mother trilogy.
posted by AZNsupermarket at 2:53 PM PST - 19 comments
Waking from "‘the deep slumber of a decided opinion"
Financial Regime Change? Robert Wade, professor of political economy and development at the London School of Economics, "argues that we are exiting the neoliberal paradigm that has held sway since the 1980s" and considers the "causes and repercussions of the crisis, and errors of the model that brought it to fruition." Prof. Wade was making similar predictions last year.
posted by Abiezer at 2:39 PM PST - 24 comments
Taylor Negron
I wish I was more like Kenny G. Put a little insanity on your potato. I love smoking a little pot, listening to Joni Mitchell, and eating Grape Nuts without milk. Get the Clorox. Bella, bella, belly button. (all links NSFW, contain gratuitous Taylor Negron)
posted by Meatbomb at 2:38 PM PST - 11 comments
"Al Franken has written so-called comedy routines about raping women!"
Norm Coleman mails "rape" comic book to kids. Just about the most negative advertising possible, in comic book form, slamming Senator Franken. Not the first use of comic book form to slam opponents, of course. Would be much better if they were used in more positive ways.
posted by Kickstart70 at 2:21 PM PST - 40 comments
Much of the extraordinary variety of traditional art from Africa comes from the countries in West and Central Africa, because of the availability of wood (often called exotic woods) and metal. Hamill Gallery has organized their excellent site to show the materials, including textiles, metals, beads used, as well as the names of the many tribes and categories, such as animals. The images are accompanied by information about the art. The Yale University Art Gallery also has a nice selection of African art with information. The Africa Image Library offers an archive of images, which give a little backdrop to the lives and environment of the artists and artisans in various parts of Africa. [more inside]
Oral History of Black Leadership
Explorations in Black Leadership is a collection of video interviews with prominent African-Americans, focusing on activists of one sort or another. 34 people are interviewed, including Nikki Giovanni, John Lewis, Barbara Lee, Bobby Rush, Dorothy Height and Amiri Baraka. There are full transcripts of every interview. Here's an excerpt from the Nikki Giovanni interview: "The kids today have to have a voice. I'm amazed that they found it. I remember Sugarhill Gang with Sylvia, you know: "Uptown, Downtown, the Holiday Inn." You know, things like that. Then, of course, I remember the explosion of Tupac Shakur. Losing Tupac was a great loss for this generation. I have a tattoo--it says "Thug Life" --because I wanted to mourn with this generation. I don't see how people can knock the kids…paying so little attention. I had deep regrets--and I know Rosa Parks, you know, we don't hang out but I know her--I so regretted that she lent her name to be used against Outkast, because Rosa Parks is a wonderful--is a wonderful tune. And they were giving her problems. If people don't--if the younger generation doesn't sing the praises of the older generation they get forgotten."
posted by Kattullus at 1:52 PM PST - 8 comments
I Contain Multitudes
First Person Plural. "An evolving approach to the science of pleasure suggests that each of us contains multiple selves—all with different desires, and all fighting for control. If this is right, the pursuit of happiness becomes even trickier. Can one self bind another self if the two want different things? Are you always better off when a Good Self wins? And should outsiders, such as employers and policy makers, get into the fray?" [Via]
This is Hank William's guitar. I try to do the right thing with the guitar. You don't want to stink with Hank's guitar.
The Martin D-28. You have heard it thousands of times before. Its modest appearance belies its history and influence; there have been several changes in its design and construction over the years, but it remains largely the same since its introduction in 1934. [more inside]
posted by jimmythefish at 11:54 AM PST - 24 comments
simple minded dream 79-80-81-82-83-84
They got overshadowed by Bono in their interviews, their videos hardly rocked the zeitgeist, their lead singer looked way too much like the weird kid who played little Hitler in the Boys From Brazil, but for a while in the late 1970s and the early 1980s (before the release of a certain annoying movie), it was sometimes claimed that Simple Minds were the best band in the entire history of the Universe, if not the world ... and the groove goes on.
posted by philip-random at 11:33 AM PST - 53 comments
What happens at Fantasy Fest stays at Fantasy Fest
It's Parade Day, the culmination of the island's biggest and best party of the year, Key West's Fantasy Fest 2008. It's a small party, (in that Key West is only 4-by-2 miles in size), but it increases Key West's population from 27,000 to over 100,000! What's the attraction? Well aside from the body painting [NSFW], casual debauchery [NSFW, GGW, and possible WTF], great freakin' music, freaks getting freaky over freak nakedness, photo ops [again, NSFW], and a pretty much non-stop outrageous gay-straight-bi-leather-whatever One Human Family sexy fun fun fun [NSFW] celebration, Parade Night is miles and miles/five hours of out-of-this-world partying island festival [possible NSFW, whatchutink]! Come now!
posted by humannaire at 11:13 AM PST - 6 comments
Fear of writing
Derrida's fear of writing. ("I have a nap or something, and I fall asleep" in English, rest in French with subtitles).
posted by internationalfeel at 9:36 AM PST - 20 comments
Orson Welles in the Arena, BBC; 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: with Jeanne Moreau, Peter Bogdanovich, John Huston, Charlton Heston. More Arena documentaries: Buddy Holly: Joe Orton: Elvis: Peter Sellers: Superman: David Lynch on surrealism: Philip K. Dick.
posted by vronsky at 7:43 AM PST - 18 comments
Almost 100 years ago Bessie Smith sung the blues
posted by Mblue at 7:13 AM PST - 16 comments
Dee Dee Warwick, RIP
Dee Dee Warwick, sister of Dionne and a fine soul singer in her own right, recently passed on to that other shore. This blog entry on Dee Dee features mp3 links to her wonderful cover of the Elvis Presley hit Suspicious Minds and the heartrending She Didn't Know. More: I'm Gonna Make You Love Me, Monday Monday and Foolish Fool.
U.S. Ex. Ex. 1838-1842
The United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 — Authorized and funded by the U.S. government, six ships sailed with 346 men (including officers, crew, scientists, and artists) on a four-year scientific and surveying mission, logging 87,000 miles around the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Two ships and 28 men were lost, and the Expedition's contentious commander Charles Wilkes was court-martialled for his erratic behavior, and was sued by former officers and crew members. During the Civil War in 1861, he boarded a British ship, seized two Confederate agents, and nearly provoked military retaliation by England (he was court-martialled once again in 1864 for insubordination.) Wilkes' 1845 Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition and the Ex. Ex.'s journals were published by Congress, and some 40 tons of Expedition specimens and artifacts became the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution's collections. [Nathaniel Philbrick (video lecture) chronicles this almost-forgotten voyage in his 2003 book Sea of Glory (NYT review).]
posted by cenoxo at 3:26 AM PST - 21 comments
Remember to Forget
Dr. Joe Z. Tsien has previously created a strain of mice unable to form memories, one with much improved memory - "Doogie" mice - and can now erase single mouse memories. "Our work reveals a molecular mechanism of how that can be done quickly and without doing damage to brain cells." Remembering to forget....
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 11:12 PM PST - 45 comments
A Presidential Word-a-Day
The wonderful wordsmith, Anu Garg, at Wordsmith.org has posted five words this week: "To barrack"."Bidentate"."Meeken". "Palinode". "Obambulate". Definitions inside. [more inside]
posted by Tarn at 10:00 PM PST - 26 comments
Les moulins de mon cœur
The first time I encountered this song was on an Anita Kerr Singers record I found in my dad's basement. The original was composed for The Thomas Crown Affair. When the film was remade in 1999, the song was performed by Sting, but his was far from the first recurrence. It inspired numerous covers, perhaps most popularly by Dusty Springfield. I find Jose Feliciano's version to be particularly soulful. Dorothy Ashby layed down some of the funkiest harp you'll ever care to hear. My personal favorite is Peter Nero's performance of the windmills on a Moog synthesizer. Cameron Carpenter puts the phantom to shame with his rendition. New Dawns Show Choir do it with jazz hands. Arturo Sandoval uses his jazz hands to a slightly more impressive effect. I could keep going but I feel like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream. Oh. The Muppets did it, too.
posted by _aa_ at 9:32 PM PST - 19 comments
Ernie Pook's Reflections On Being
Lynda Barry update Magazine Book Gorgon New Website [more inside]
posted by hortense at 8:27 PM PST - 18 comments
What a great homemade witch costume! Um, you were supposed to be a princess? Oh.
Halloween is lurking ever nearer, and you need costumes and home decorations. Even if you're not as crafty as a witch, Halloween is a good time to start because the results are supposed to look deformed and grotesque. And you're dreaming of a green Halloween. Fortunately I just happen to have a few links to get you started. This garlic wreath could help you keep the vampires away, and this eyeball wreath may work on everyone else. For a geek-style Halloween, make a Mac-o-lantern. You could also decorate the house with a vinyl record cat clock, tin can candle lanterns, a ghost mobile, CD cat coasters, or a skeleton doll made out of old socks. For outdoor decorations, lawn tombstones can be made out pizza boxes and old newspapers, a skeleton out of old plastic containers, and there could be a ghost or two hanging about. You could adorn yourself with a skeleton brooch made out of tin cans, and if you've got old clothes or linens lying about the children in your life might like a few cute monsters to cuddle. If your kids (or you) have finally outgrown dolls, give the dolls a zombie makeover. For costume ideas, check out the Daily Green's list of the best recycled costumes on the Web, then send the kids trick or treating with pumpkin or black cat canisters. Just please be careful with those shears and x-acto knives or the blood and gore on your costume may be a little too organic.
Forever? Changes?
Love Story: the 2006 documentary about the obscure, semi-legendary 60s L.A. psychedelic band Love, and its leader Arthur Lee. One week only on Pitchfork.TV previously 2001 and 2006 [more inside]
posted by msalt at 4:44 PM PST - 38 comments
Origami inspired bamboo and paper modular buildings for use as temporary shelters, by Ming Tang.
Be thankful these black swans didn't fly
Seven Close calls in the Nuclear Age Previously
posted by lalochezia at 4:34 PM PST - 13 comments
Stealing your time since...
Did you like Spy Hunter? Then you'll probably like The Heist, for even more Friday Flash Fun! It's a similar vertical scroller, but you lose points when you hit cars (if you destroy cop cars, you add points.)
Holmes' and Watson's World
One minute and four seconds in London, 1904. Birkbeck College professor Ian Christie rediscovered this footage in an archive in Canberra, shot for a travelogue by film pioneer Charles Urban.
posted by digaman at 4:01 PM PST - 67 comments
Web of Horror!
Web of Horror #1 (December 1969): Re-presenting the short-lived and impossibly obscure horror comics magazine that featured early work from such luminaries as Ralph Reese, Jeff Jones and Bernie Wrightson. Link via Journalista (may be NSFW). [more inside]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:44 PM PST - 23 comments
Tip: Meat is Murder. Tasty, Tasty Murder...
Some more Flash Friday Fun! Edmund McMillen, creator of indie platforming physics-based game darling Gish and "Experimental game" Aether has a new game called Meat Boy, about a chunky block of meat with a face and appendages, he must rescue his girlfriend, Bandaid Girl, from the clutches of the bad guy. To that end, Meat Boy must travel through more than 56 levels spanning four chapters.
posted by Del Far at 3:20 PM PST - 8 comments
Cuddle 'n Coo 'n Proselytize
The Mattel toy company insists that their Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo dolls do not utter the phrase "Islam is the light." You be the judge.
Wassupdate
The Wassup boys have had a tough eight years, but things are looking up. (SLYT.)
posted by william_boot at 2:33 PM PST - 59 comments
New Internet Dramedy Hits Internet
History and the Universe , mentioned months ago in a NYTimes travel feature, has finally gone live. This Internet TV channel has two shows so far: Big Book of Lies and Emily Time, both filmed in Buenos Aires. Video is high quality, even filmic at times. Favorite characters include Buck Chomsky, the disaffected son of you-know-who, and Exon, a 5'3 Colombian gangster with a penchant for Apple products.
posted by spigoat at 1:57 PM PST - 3 comments
You are the vent-exhaust beneath my wings.
Flash Friday! John Calhoun's classic mac game Glider Pro, now in flash form. [previously] [more inside]
posted by hellojed at 1:38 PM PST - 9 comments
Merl Saunders, RIP
Keyboard wizzard and Jerry Garcia Band collaborator Merl Saunders dead. More in the Wiki entry.
posted by fixedgear at 1:37 PM PST - 25 comments
The fun can not be halted
posted by Scoo at 1:01 PM PST - 47 comments
When you hear those spirits calling, ain't no use to fight
To celebrate the build up to the spookiest time of the year (which is almost certainly a co-opted Celtic end of the year festival), here are some spooky songs about endings from the marvelous Jason Webley: the end of the month, the end of the year, the end of life (with bonus ballet!), the end of the world, and the reason that we have endings. [more inside]
posted by Caduceus at 12:59 PM PST - 15 comments
Giordano Bruno: Philosopher, Heretic, Troll.
posted by homunculus at 12:45 PM PST - 23 comments
White House Tower Defence
Friday Flash Fun! It's two great flavors that taste great together in White House Tower Defence!
posted by GuyZero at 11:04 AM PST - 24 comments
3 € bill.
After recently leading his far right wing party, Alliance for the Future of Austria, to shocking gains at the polls, Jörg Haider, was killed this month whilst driving drunk. His 27 year old replacement, Stefan Petzner, was sacked after admitting to having a special relationship with Haider.
posted by gman at 10:08 AM PST - 52 comments
And protected from witchcraft, too!
Palin for 2012? She's popular with conservatives, and even before any potential makeover 6 out of 10 evangelicals think she is experienced enough to be president. She'd potentially get the Huckabee evangelical vote in the primaries *and* the talk radio wing. If Obama succeeds in taking moderates, the evangelical and talk radio wings will only be stronger. And the GOP would appear to already be talking about it.
posted by jaduncan at 9:01 AM PST - 317 comments
To be born English is to win first prize in the lottery of life
"No other country could have produced the Specials. Terry Hall grew up with Jamaican culture as well as English culture, that’s the only way The Specials could have happened. If you listen to American ska bands, they don’t sound authentic, it's like surf music with reggae mixed with it." Tricky talks about Englishness.
posted by parmanparman at 8:50 AM PST - 84 comments
God schmod. I want my monkey man.
"We'll breed him and we'll see if his kids glow, too!" Meet Mr. Green Genes: (No, not that Mr. Green Jeans) Pic. Pic. [more inside]
posted by cjorgensen at 7:37 AM PST - 30 comments
You don't really own the shares you think you own
All the stocks and bonds you think you own are actually owned by a company you've probably never heard of, a company owned by the same people who own the US Federal Reserve. [more inside]
God is cruel
'Around my house we kinda laugh when Sarah Palin comes on TV, and we say, "That's Greg Stillson as a woman."' Interview with Stephen King on the thirtieth anniversary of The Stand.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:40 AM PST - 121 comments
Kuroda Sensei
Kuroda Tetsuzan Sensei is an incredible Japanese martial artist. As a skilled swordsman, he practices very old and unusual forms of iaido, kenjutsu as well an interesting form of ju jutsu. He is both incredibly still and incredibly fast and he knows a few tricks too. [more inside]
posted by salishsea at 1:06 AM PST - 60 comments
To Idi Amin: I'm a idiot.
This isn't exactly the scarlet letter, but it might be a sign of something we've seen before (or maybe not, depending who you ask.) Still, you should probably get yourself one of these [see also] if you're planning to cry wolf! (You can also make your own.) [more inside]
posted by davejay at 12:04 AM PST - 125 comments
Plaid Stallions!!
All Kinds of 70's awesomeness!! Plaid Stallions!!
posted by pearlybob at 10:12 PM PST - 19 comments
Czech this out
If americans are compensating by driving SUVs...then what the hell is up with these europeans?
posted by 445supermag at 8:46 PM PST - 50 comments
And here I was worried about my cellphone cooking my brain...
UCLA researchers produce X-Rays by unpeeling Scotch Tape. That's right, Scotch Tape. [more inside]
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 7:41 PM PST - 35 comments
Vinni Puh
Vinni Puh only because, with all the hate and nasty stuff happening, we need something to just make us smile. (SLYT) via
posted by HuronBob at 7:04 PM PST - 33 comments
Confused about what caused this whole credit crisis?
Confused about what caused this whole credit crisis? Let me Paddy Hirsch from Marketplace explain it to you in this surprisingly entertaining and easy to understand video. While you're there, check out his explanation of short selling and credit default swaps. I wish this guy was my finance professor.
posted by JPowers at 5:20 PM PST - 23 comments
A testament to the power of the netroots
8 Against 8 Last weekend, a ragtag group of 8 lesbian bloggers slapped together an idea - join forces to raise $8,000 in 8 days to defeat Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that would eliminate same-sex couples' right to marry in the State of California. They set up a donation page and launched 48 hours later (midnight this past Monday). None of them were expecting the immediate and passionate response. Within 24 hours, they had raised $2,500. In 2 days, over $5,000. Yesterday, before day 3 out of 8 ended, they had already shattered their goal of $8,000. Blogs and the media started buzzing with 4 days to go. Moral of the story: it doesn't take months and a huge budget to run a successful fundraiser, just a crazy idea and a few laptops.
posted by notoriousbhc at 5:07 PM PST - 44 comments
America must look negative ads in the eye and try not to vomit
Last week, an absentee ballot request mailer was sent out locally by the Republican Party of Virgina. The return envelope bears an ambiguous, yet eerily familiar, picture along with some strong words. Some bloggers weigh in. via
posted by phunniemee at 4:54 PM PST - 87 comments
20 significant American comics
The 20 most significant comics in American comics history, according to Steven Grant.
Benjamin Darling and the Maroon Society of Malaga Island
The story of Benjamin Darling and his descendants begins with a dramatic shipwreck and ends, generations later, in a dark moment of human injustice [more inside]
posted by Foam Pants at 3:07 PM PST - 5 comments
We've got games your 10 year old wouldn't be good at.
Wanna play the first two Fallout games for totally cheap? Good Old Games is now open to the public. Via Blue's News, some interesting discussion there about "DRM Free" claims and whether or not Freespace 2 is really "free."
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:38 PM PST - 60 comments
Hey Everybody, Clap Your Hands!
The Women of ENIAC
It's hardly the case today (unless you live in Iran), but once upon a time, all computer programmers were female. While the (male) engineers who built ENIAC, the world's first modern computer, became famous and lauded, the six women who actually programmed ENIAC have been largely overlooked. Now a team of researchers and programmers is trying to raise money to tell the story of these pioneering women in a new documentary, before it's too late. [more inside]
posted by Asparagirl at 2:22 PM PST - 25 comments
A Genuine Fake Poniatowski Gem?
The Neoclassical Gem Collection of Prince Poniatowski - Prince Stanislas Poniatowski was the vastly wealthy nephew of the last King of Poland. Living in Rome, he built up a stunning collection of gems depicting scenes like Hercules Bagging the Pygmies in the Skin of the Nemean Lion. The collection was sold by Christie's at auction in 1839 and that's when the questions started… [pdf]
posted by tellurian at 2:19 PM PST - 15 comments
Starch and Sniff
During The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the SAS came up with a very creative way of identifying and apprehending PIRA bomb-makers: They set up a laundry.
posted by Cobalt at 1:58 PM PST - 35 comments
Chugging beat
Olle Hemmingsson´s Trio. Quartet live. (SLYT, via)
posted by bonefish at 1:40 PM PST - 4 comments
Will the Mormon Church decide who gets married in California?
Prophets and politics. "The Mormon Church works to ban gay marriage in California, even as gay people in places like Rexburg, Idaho, come out of the LDS closet."
Religious Ikons
Ikons painted by Ilian Rachov of Bulgaria.
posted by RussHy at 12:19 PM PST - 6 comments
Cyberbattles in the shadows
Hacking Al-Qaeda's websites: Hacker wars are the latest front in the fight against Al Qaeda. CNN says here that AQ may be unable to post propaganda videos as a result. But who is attacking? As far back as 2002, people speculated that Western intelligence agencies had compromised them, and a pornographer claimed he did. More recently, there are Shiite vs. Sunni battles, as when Ayatollah Sistani's website was cracked. In 2004, Zarqawi's site was breached.
posted by msalt at 12:16 PM PST - 11 comments
buy-ology blue
"You aren't in as much control as you think you are." Buyology by Martin Lindstrom. Cigarette Health Warnings Stimulate Smoking. Subconscious Encounters: How Brand Exposure Affects Your Choices . A sign is anything that can be used to tell a lie. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 12:02 PM PST - 27 comments
KUCINICH: IM A BARD
The 2008 Presidential Election as an AD&D campaign. [more inside]
posted by Afroblanco at 11:26 AM PST - 93 comments
Aunt Bee and Big Al say vote McCain!
Okay, this election is officially weird. Opie, Andy, Richie and the Fonz apparently want us to vote Obama. Sadly, it's missing the kind of catchy songs featured in Fonzie's other PSA (NSFW).
posted by miss lynnster at 10:51 AM PST - 55 comments
Studio Veldkamp
Lars Veldkamp. I happened upon Lars through his Flickr sets, in particular Typocalypse.
posted by netbros at 10:46 AM PST - 12 comments
Hey Look! The Harvey Kurtzman Archives!
"Almost all American satire today follows a formula that Harvey Kurtzman thought up." - Richard Corliss [Via Tom Spurgeon's TCR]
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:34 AM PST - 10 comments
America's Secret War
America's Secret War: charming Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to the Iraq-Iran border to investigate claims that the United States is supporting militant groups that are attacking Iran.
posted by Surfin' Bird at 8:55 AM PST - 31 comments
eCycling.
Electronic waste is a massive worldwide problem. Some deal with it themselves and profit from it, whilst others dump their waste on other countries. Some stats and an eWaste Guide.
posted by gman at 8:46 AM PST - 27 comments
100 years of Guardian photography. Including Don McPhee and Denis Thorpe.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:50 AM PST - 5 comments
The Return of Terry Tate
Terry Tate would like to let you know to Get Out The Vote! He also has a couple of messages for Sarah Palin. He's coming From Russia With Love to tell you Reading Is Fundamental to establishing your world view. [more inside]
posted by P.o.B. at 12:38 AM PST - 43 comments
The International Reply Coupon
"When one writes to a stranger and requests a reply, it is considered polite to enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope. This works well when both persons live in the same country; however, if they are from different countries, the enclosed postage stamp will not be valid." The solution, introduced in 1906, was the international reply coupon. Like nearly everything else stamps-related, they are collectible. Brought to you by the Universal Postal Union. [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious at 12:06 AM PST - 17 comments
Gay Advertising
posted by serazin at 10:42 PM PST - 58 comments
Like one of those magical closets you see in the movies
Modista [via mefi projects] [more inside]
Boogeyman, boogeyman, boogie man!
Michael Myers is to be feared in ways you don't realize. You may know Michael Myers by his main body of work, but his on-screen performances only scratch the surface of his talent. Besides piano, he's skilled at bass, guitar, ukulele, multiple personality metal band, many styles of dance, and motorcycle riding. this guy has nothing to fear.
posted by dr. fresh at 8:43 PM PST - 20 comments
Chicago Pedway
Wait - Chicago has a pedway?
posted by LSK at 8:34 PM PST - 53 comments
Sartorial swoonage
Gentlemen, are you searching for that special something to wear to the Paris Court Ball? Ladies, do you long to don a pelisse and kid shoes for your next round of afternoon calls? Vintage Textile can help. [more inside]
posted by chihiro at 6:44 PM PST - 28 comments
Obama Wins in a Landslide
If the World Could Vote
posted by bwg at 6:13 PM PST - 86 comments
Oxford Podcasts
Forget again to enroll at Oxford? Some of what you've been missing.
posted by Rykey at 4:53 PM PST - 25 comments
Apparently Some Barriers Need to be Broken More than Once
October 18, 1997, Liz Heaston becomes the first woman to score points in a college football game (NAIA), kicking for Willamette in their victory over Linfield College. August 30, 2001, Ashley Martin kicks three extra points for Jacksonville State University, helping them in their 72-10 defeat of Cumberland, and becoming the first woman to score points in a Division 1 game. August 30, 2003, Katie Hnida becomes the face of women in college football when she scores two extra points in New Mexico's victory over Texas State University. She received harassment and (alleged) assault from her former teammates at Colorado University before becoming the first woman to core points in a Division 1-A game, as well as the first to suit up for a bowl game. Five years later, Kacy Stuart, a 14-year-old High School Freshman who can kick 50-yard Field Goals, is facing opposition for suiting up for the New Creation Center Crusaders, first from the league, and now from the other teams...
posted by Navelgazer at 4:17 PM PST - 41 comments
Words fail me, and drawing's too hard.
Richard Thompson (no, not that one) is the writer and artist behind Cul-de-Sac, a delightful comic chronicling the lives of Alice and Petey Otterloop. [more inside]
posted by god hates math at 3:39 PM PST - 14 comments
If you play the CD backwards on your PC it installs Duke Nukem Forever
Guns and Roses to finally release Chinese Democracy after all these years.
posted by Artw at 3:07 PM PST - 130 comments
Powerful, quiet photos of Barack Obama.
Powerful, quiet photos of Barack Obama. Callie Shell captures Barack Obama in private and mundane moments that happen to say a lot about him. Highlights include two little kids literally looking up to him, Barack doing pull-ups, waiting in a stairway, and cleaning up after himself at an ice cream parlor.
posted by ignignokt at 1:22 PM PST - 319 comments
Cavern of Crystal Giants
Crystal Palace. "Cavers in Mexico confront extreme conditions and find extraordinary beauty." (Previously.)
We never saw him walking on the sky.
5 reasons Luke Skywalker is a complete idiot
Luke Skywalker the whiny farmboy
Luke "Jesus" Skywalker
Worst Luke Skywalker moments
posted by swift at 11:49 AM PST - 86 comments
The broccoli is smiling at you
"She handed me the box and I studied it carefully, squinting, even allowing my eyes to blur, to try and see what I was missing. She pointed- 'Do you see?' See what? I didn't see anything. Just broccoli. Her finger tapped on a certain part of the box and she urged me to look closer. 'There- right there. Do you see it? I'm not going to tell you what it is if you don't see it.' And then, it suddenly became clear to me. WHAT THE HELL?"
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:43 AM PST - 67 comments
Big savings? You betcha!
Big Lots, the mega-retailer that specializes in really low prices on really odd assortments of stuff - basically, whatever their supplier has too much of - just launched its new website with a Woot-like "Deal of the Day" section. But perhaps most interesting is cartoon spokesmodel Anita Deal, who bears a striking resemblance to a certain vice-presidential candidate.
posted by jbickers at 10:41 AM PST - 93 comments
Russian sausage culture
Six Russian artists have created reproductions of world-famous paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh and Picasso entirely out of sausage, earning a Guiness record certificate . This exhibition of perfectly edible art pieces took place a few weeks ago in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to celebrate the centennary of a local meat-processing factory. Close-up photos of the pieces at English Russia. [more inside]
posted by wretched_rhapsody at 9:57 AM PST - 24 comments
Kittens of the Sea
Fish. They're ugly and they smell. You can't find many calendars with them on, and they lose out to pandas when it comes to zoo adoption. But wait! PETA are going to save fish through canny PR. Say hello to Sea Kittens.
The biggest hacker in China
Microsoft is taking unprecedented measures to combat China's piracy. The people aren't happy. Is the company shooting itself in the foot?
posted by strangeguitars at 8:41 AM PST - 66 comments
Basketball rats
Basketball rats. So the folks at the Finnish Science Centre Heureka have trained rats to play basketball.
Any tame rat can learn to play basketball, but brave rats which are relaxed playing in front of an enthusiastic audience will be the best professionals!
Video here and more here. Via TrueHoop.
posted by i_cola at 8:34 AM PST - 18 comments
Leadership for the 21st Century
Leadership for the 21st Century Harvard Business School hosts moderator Charlie Rose in a roundtable discussion concerning the credit crisis, housing, American leadership and foreign affairs. Participants are the 2008 HBS Alumni Achievement Award recipients, including eBay (and McCain advisor) CEO Meg Whitman, GE CEO Jeff Immelt, Venture Capitalist extrordinaire John Doerr, Indian business juggernaut Anand G. Mahindra, and former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn. This aired on PBS last night and it was some of the most honest, intelligent, and inspiring discussion I have heard in some time. While the only transcript I could find is a paid one here, this 100 minute video should be required viewing for anyone working in a fortune 500 company, or those interested in politics, environmentalism, technology, foreign policy or the election. [more inside]
posted by daHIFI at 7:56 AM PST - 18 comments
Block the Vote
A veeeery interesting article in Rolling Stone magazine, described by these words: Block the Vote, Will the GOP's campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president? The article is signed by R.F.Kennedy Jr. and G. Palast
posted by acrobat at 7:38 AM PST - 176 comments
Crafting for Change!
As the U.S. election approaches, you're getting fidgety. You've donated, you've volunteered for your candidate's campaign, but you've still got time on your hands for election-themed activities. What to do? Well, you could make some snazzy Obama or McCain earrings to wear to the polls on decision day. You could make presidential candidate finger puppets out of yarn, paper, or felt and re-enact the debates. You could knit a party animal so as to have something to snuggle up to at night when you wake from nightmares of stolen elections. You could decorate some oranges. Slate has a slideshow of political craft ideas, my favourite of which is probably the Homeland Security Quilt. For more ideas, check out the Obama Craft Project, where crafters are crafting for change and fundraising. There you'll find everything from Obamaware to a cool Yes We Can scarf, to a cross-stitch portrait, to a cozy Obama cap. Lest you think I'm being too partisan here, I'll say I did search for Republican-oriented crafts and there just didn't seem to be many. It seems Obama's got the crafting demographic, um, all sewn up.
CLAPDRINKUNDRESSSHOOTSPIN
SOMEHOW, THE FOLLOWING VIDEO CLIPS SEEMED APPROPRIATE FOR INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY: WORLD'S FASTEST CLAPPER - WORLD'S FASTEST DRINKER - WORLD'S FASTEST UNDRESSER - WORLD'S FASTEST SHOOTER and WORLD RECORD 124 HEADSPINS.
SARAH PALIN'S BAADASSSSS SONG
PALIN SONG
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 3:29 AM PST - 58 comments
International Caps
In 1886, Association Football adopted a new tradition: "That all players taking part for England in future international matches be presented with a white silk cap with red rose embroidered on the front. These to be termed International Caps."
posted by Wolfdog at 3:12 AM PST - 14 comments
Embryonic Journey
Using ground-breaking photography techniques, revolutionary 4D scanning techniques and anatomically accurate models, Channel 4 shows us Extraordinary Animals in the Womb.
posted by chuckdarwin at 2:28 AM PST - 8 comments
Moon OK Please
"India on Wednesday became the sixth nation to launch a moon mission when indigenously built PSLV-C11 rocket blasted off from the spaceport here carrying with it Chandrayaan-I, which will map the lunar surface." For India, The Future Is Here. [more inside]
posted by ageispolis at 1:08 AM PST - 38 comments
For use on slow zombies only.
Can't decide on what would serve you best in the next zombie outbreak? Zombie Tools has you covered. Each weapon is handmade from tempered spring steel and designed specifically for dispatching the undead. [more inside]
posted by Telf at 11:31 PM PST - 51 comments
We've met before, haven't we?
The City of Absurdity - The Mysterious World of David Lynch
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:07 PM PST - 48 comments
Presenting African Swim
African Swim is the newest free album being offered by Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. This time the album features South African hip hop groups.
posted by drezdn at 11:02 PM PST - 12 comments
Shantaram
Shantaram is the story of a violent man's search for the man of peace within himself. Gregory David Roberts, clip 1, clip 2, 3 and 4, is an ex-junkie, former gun runner; drugs, forged passports and black market currency dealer; was a member of the Bombay Mafia and close with a Mafia don there; acted in Bollywood movies; fought with the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan; imprisoned in an Australian maximum security prison with a 19 year sentence and escaped to the Bombay slums, where he set up a free clinic. His semi-autobiography is called Shantaram, which means man pf peace. Review on Shunya. His website. Movie due out in 2009. [more inside]
Phishing in Plain English
The latest paper-based video from the folks at Common Craft. This video explains the ins and outs of phishing scams. Show it to your less web-savvy brethren.
posted by dbarefoot at 10:13 PM PST - 5 comments
posted by vronsky at 9:59 PM PST - 2 comments
Derek Powazek Closing Up Pixish
Pixish is Closing. Today, Derek Powazek announced on his blog that the collaborative website for creative and design work will close on October 31, openly admitting "We underestimated the 'spec work' issue." [more inside]
posted by pineapple at 9:25 PM PST - 37 comments
YAD KCOL SPAC
OCTOBER 22 IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY!!! EVERY YEAR WE GET TOGETHER AND MAKE SALMON FOR TOAST, EVERY YEAR WE GET A CROCKETY BLOAT, EVERY YEAR WE GET DRUNK ON THE DOCKS, AND EVERY YEAR WE HAVE SEX WITH OUR CAPS LOCKS!!!!!!
posted by chrisamiller at 9:00 PM PST - 256 comments
Flow of Time is a BBC documentary that "tries to explain time and covers the different ways we have used to understand Time, religion, mathematics, relativity, and quantum mechanics." Part 1, 2, 3, 4
posted by nola at 8:33 PM PST - 10 comments
Toilet Paper: More Than Just Something To Wipe With
This post is all about toilet paper, such as its history, toilet paper art, toilet paper facts, and toilet paper commercials. There's even links to toilet paper museums, detailed facts and scans of toilet paper from Germany and alternatives to toilet paper (both physical and virtual), which is great since finding ways to reduce your toilet paper consumption might just help save the planet or, at the very least, solve The Toilet Paper Problem.
Flawlesss Aircraft Emergency Landings (QLYTP)
Flawless Aircraft Emergency Landings (QLYTP). Breatheless reporting aside, it looks like when a pilot can control the landing, these aircraft are tough enough that no one need be hurt. Many more excellent videos in the post-video links, too.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:24 PM PST - 40 comments
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.
Friedman under attack More than 100 faculty at the University of Chicago, where Milton Friedman won the 1976 Nobel Prize in economics, are trying to stop the university from putting Mr. Friedman's name on a $200-million (U.S.) research centre. The opponents argue that the Milton Friedman Institute would compromise the academic integrity of the university and serve as a monument to Mr. Friedman's world outlook, which they say has largely been discredited. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 7:23 PM PST - 31 comments
More proof that dogs totally rock. :)
posted by miss lynnster at 6:11 PM PST - 51 comments
Ghostwriter. What a trip.
He's a ghost, and he writes to us: GhostWriter. In 1992, PBS launched a new TV show designed to teach 7-to-10 year-olds to love reading and writing. The show initially featured a team of 5 characters (Rob joined the team a few episodes later, and by the end there were a few additional characters) in Brooklyn, NY solving mysteries. It had cameos by Julia Stiles, Spike Lee, and Samuel L. Jackson and one of the characters even had her own music video. So what happened to it? Well, it's available on VHS, but has not been released on DVD. Don't worry! There's an online petition!
posted by lunit at 4:49 PM PST - 41 comments
I ain't on some, "oh I'm a celebrity" / I deal with the real, so if it's artificial let it be
post a celebrity and i will TRY to tell you a story about them. Amhir "?uestlove" Thompson, drummer for the Legendary Roots Crew regales the crowds at Okayplayer with tales from the life of a professional musician. [more inside]
posted by cosmic osmo at 3:34 PM PST - 23 comments
So you ditched your car - here's help with public transit
NextBus uses GPS to tell you the predicted time of the next bus. Google maps show buses in real time, and you can get updates on your phone/PDA. The coverage is limited to certain agencies within the US, so these other sites might be useful: Hopstop covers subways and buses in NYC, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, DC, and more. (mobile version) Google Transit has many US metro areas in addition to Canada, Europe, and Japan. (previously) Many more locations inside. [more inside]
posted by desjardins at 2:58 PM PST - 36 comments
Blood of the Lamb, motherfucker.
Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:43 PM PST - 45 comments
Internet overload
Internet Overdose Song (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by pearlybob at 1:39 PM PST - 23 comments
NATO war in Afghanistan "Doomed to Fail"
With election season in the US, it's probably hard to get a less than Gung-ho picture of the war in Afghanistan, but this Spiegel Online article paints a dark picture. "Pessimism about the situation has never been so high." High level NATO commanders are using phrases like "Doomed to Fail," "We are trapped," "repeating the same mistakes as the Soviets", military victory "neither feasible nor supportable," "downward spiral." For some it is so dark the only beacon of light would be peace talks with the Taliban. [more inside]
posted by stbalbach at 1:36 PM PST - 35 comments
This cake's not a lie
Do you miss blasting with your orange and blue space-warping cannons? Surely you miss Companion Cube... Nine months of work by a dedicated modder: NykO18 (and team) has crystallized into what amounts to an epic prequel to Portal, called Portal: Prelude, whose story arc focuses on the "pre-GlaDOS epoch". It's said to have more gameplay than even the original: 8 chapters, 48 challenges, 6 advanced maps and more than 400 lines of speech. [more inside]
posted by tybeet at 12:25 PM PST - 58 comments
Climate Futures
New Year’s Day 2030. A new report from Forum on the Future, Climate Futures (6.7MB PDF), maps out five possible scenarios for how climate change might affect our collective future by 2030. Meanwhile, the WWF has released a report, Climate Change: Faster, Stronger, Sooner (1.65MB PDF) which claims that global warming is accelerating at a faster rate than climate change experts had previously predicted. [Via Gristmill and Disinformation]
Before They Were UFOs
Before They Were UFOs, back when the only flying objects were arrows, birds, and clouds, how did people describe them? [more inside]
posted by not_on_display at 12:00 PM PST - 52 comments
Before Abu Ghraib, there was Area 2.
For nearly 20 years, Chicago has known about police torture of suspects. Torture at the city's notorious Area 2, under Commander Jon Burge, resulted in numerous false confessions in the 1980s, including the men who became known as the Death Row 10. The Death Row 10 case was among the reasons former Gov. George Ryan's called a moratorium on capital punishment in Illinois in 2000 and pardoned four in 2003. Burge, fired in 1993, retired to Florida on his police pension, where he seemed to escape any measure of justice. Until today. [more inside]
posted by scody at 11:34 AM PST - 45 comments
When Borrowing to Save Actually Makes Sense
Portland's got white ones, Austin has yellow ones, Vassar has them in pink. What are they? Community bikes. Colleges, universities, even whole cities are seeing the benefits of offering their students and citizens an alternative to cars, fossil fuels, and parking lots. Want to start a shared bike program in your community? Here's how. (previously)
posted by Toekneesan at 10:03 AM PST - 42 comments
Cultural voyeurism
ChinaSMACK. English China. (Occasionally NSFW)
posted by klue at 8:46 AM PST - 11 comments
Grace Chang
In the 1960s and 1970s Hong Kong had a thriving film industry, dominated by studios such as Cathay Studios. One of Cathay's most fabulous stars was Grace Chang (Ge Lan), referred to by some as the Marlene Dietrich of Hong Kong Chinese cinema. Her greatest hit was The Wild Wild Rose (Ye mei gui zhi lian), based on Bizet's Carmen. The showstopper is her version of Habanera (YT). [more inside]
posted by carter at 8:44 AM PST - 16 comments
Build bridges, don't burn them...
Wooden Paths is a flash game where you solve puzzles to complete bridges connecting two land masses with progressively more difficult levels and new challenges. [more inside]
posted by schyler523 at 7:13 AM PST - 13 comments
You can't say that!
The U.S. Constitution protects your right to bear arms. And it supposedly protects your right to mock nearly-bare bears. Speech is definitely subject to supply and demand. So why does the FCC feel the need to regulate swearing on the airwaves? Steven Pinker complains. [via ALDaily]
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 6:27 AM PST - 82 comments
“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
The Atheist Bus Campaign rolls out today in London.
posted by plexi at 5:34 AM PST - 273 comments
ChinAfrica
China, Africa see closer cooperation since Beijing Summit. Others see it a bit differently: 'We never pay,' he said, 'because once you pay you become their bitch; you will pay for ever and ever.' The phenomenon even has a name on the ground in the sub-Sahara: the Great Chinese Takeout. China, Africa and Oil: China's national oil companies are, in some cases, politically stronger than the government agencies charged with regulating them. previously
posted by allkindsoftime at 5:28 AM PST - 22 comments
Decisions, decisions...
The Choice 2008 is the newest report from PBS's Frontline. It examines the backgrounds, both personal and political, of John McCain and Barack Obama. You can also watch the entire two-hour show on YouTube.
posted by aheckler at 4:22 AM PST - 34 comments
The website to tie in with the BBC series Imagine: The Story Of The Guitar has video interviews with The Edge, Bob Brozman, Johnny Marr, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Charlotte Hatherley and BB King. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:29 AM PST - 27 comments
Warfare: 1917 gives you a taste of the trenches.
posted by chuckdarwin at 1:34 AM PST - 47 comments
The Typography of Change
Vote for Hope [more inside]
posted by clearly at 10:19 PM PST - 43 comments
online services and tools
200+ Tools for Surviving the Economic Crisis l Free printable Basic Budgeting Worksheet l Building Your First Budget l How To Create a Budget l How to Make a Budget and Stick to It l Frugal Family Recipes. [more inside]
The Vital Triangle: China, the United States, and the Middle East
"The Vital Triangle: China, the United States, and the Middle East"- seeking to understand the effects of the China-Middle East relationship on the United States, the U.S. Middle East relationship on China, and the Sino-American relationship on the Middle East. Book excerpts (Chapter 1) (Chapter 3). Interview with Jon Alterman, co-author. Via the very useful SUSRIS.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:28 PM PST - 4 comments
The life and times of cultic ham Romeo Stepanenko
The life and times of cultic ham Romeo Stepanenko: 1 & 2 & 3.
posted by Taksi Putra at 8:11 PM PST - 8 comments
Spy Pigeons
Iran says it caught two pigeons spying on it's nuclear reactor. It sounds crazy, but it's not as farfetched as you might think. The lowly pigeon has been used in military operations since the 12th century. Commando the Pigeon flew 90 missions in German-occupied France during WWII. Pigeons like Commando, Winkie, and Paddy had a lock on the Dickin Medal for animal bravery during WWII. Then again, maybe it's just crazy. Last year Iran said it had arrested 14 squirrels for espionage.
posted by up in the old hotel at 8:08 PM PST - 40 comments
Triple the fun from double-fine.
Double-Fine, when they aren't creating the videogames classics like Psychonauts and the upcoming Brütal Legend, have been busying themselves putting cute mini-games online. Tasha's Game is probably the best of the bunch.
posted by empath at 7:58 PM PST - 12 comments
Wet photography
Things look good underwater.
Personal Genome Project
Volunteers from the general public working together with researchers to advance personal genomics. 10 volunteers, among them noted author and cognitive psychologist Stephen Pinker, have open sourced (so to speak) their genetic information. [more inside]
posted by thatbrunette at 6:20 PM PST - 13 comments
Free music!
Celebrating 120 years, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is offering 10 symphonies as free downloads, available until November 24! [more inside]
posted by LooseFilter at 5:37 PM PST - 17 comments
Fall is here and if you're in the mood for barbeque why not make your own? Here is a helpful guide.
I said BOWLing at the White House...
Long discussed, searched for and even relocated, the White House Bowling Alley has been closed to league members since 9/11. The most avid (p)residential bowlers? Lady Bird Johnson and Richard Nixon. (his ball, previously) [more inside]
posted by jessamyn at 3:47 PM PST - 37 comments
Lord Love a Duck!
Ever wonder what a quocker-wodger was? Just what did they mean when they said that you were all kippers and curtains? Worldwidewords.org has the answer. "More than 1600 pages on the origins, history, evolution and idiosyncrasies of the English language worldwide." Word geeks, say goodbye to the rest of your afternoon.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 3:14 PM PST - 17 comments
WWIII is upon us!
The warm and fuzzy one, not the end of civilization as we know it. For the third year in a row, a whole gaggle of artists have donated original art for a silent auction to benefit domestic violence shelters and a crisis line in Portland, OR and Fleminton, NJ. One (prolific and admittedly talented) guy's obsession turned to good. [more inside]
posted by yiftach at 3:04 PM PST - 5 comments
Talkin' Sh*t
Let's talk crap. An interesting interview about toilets (NSFW, music, talking, interesting) and bathroom habits and expectations. Greasemonkey script for Salon premium-pass.
posted by nevercalm at 2:42 PM PST - 25 comments
Thunderbirds Are Go!
DARPA , the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has issued a call for proposals for submersible aircraft concepts. Although the idea has some pedigree, and there was actually a flying, diving prototype called the Reid Flying Submarine RFS-1 back in the sixties, one must wonder whether it is really of any use. [more inside]
posted by Skeptic at 2:34 PM PST - 19 comments
Meet the new Twin Peaks, (mostly) the same as the old Twin Peaks
Locations in Twin Peaks, then and now
posted by [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] at 2:21 PM PST - 44 comments
Jane Meyer of The New Yorker explains how John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin [more inside]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:55 PM PST - 189 comments
Truth will never be denied.
Don Quixote - or a superhero? Judge Baltasar Garzón has launched a criminal investigation into the fate of tens of thousands of people who vanished during the country's civil war and General Francisco Franco' s dictatorship. This is upsetting some people. The Spanish Civil War left an estimated half a million people dead. [more inside]
posted by adamvasco at 12:43 PM PST - 12 comments
Dolemite was his name, and f@#*in' up motha f$#@as was my game!
Rudy Ray Moore, known to most as Dolemite, has passed away of apparent complications due to diabetes. His movies Dolemite (1975) and the Human Tornado (1976) are Blaxploitation classics and bits of his more than 2 dozen party records have been sampled by countless rappers. Even in an era of raunchy party records Rudy pushed the envelop of taste, but always had fun doing it. (The general rule is that most things Rudy Ray Moore are NSFW).
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 12:03 PM PST - 52 comments
Verve Photo. Photographer and photo editor Geoffrey Hiller has created Verve to feature photos and interviews by the finest young image makers today. Verve is a reminder of the power of the still image. Verve will also point you to new photo agencies, publications and inspiring multimedia projects.
posted by chunking express at 11:32 AM PST - 6 comments
International Music Score Library Project has reopened!
Rejoice, classical music lovers! After closing in October 2007 due to copyright issues, the International Music Score Library Project (previously) has reopened! (In June, but there's no FPP about it.) From a quick overview, it seems the site has most of every major (pre-20th-century?) composer's opus - far more than any other "free sheet music" website.
posted by archagon at 11:14 AM PST - 10 comments
If that's not enough, they're also closely related to boobies.
Gannets like sardines. Gannets like sardines so much that they will fly high in the air and then dive at speeds of up to 100 km/hr, up to 22 meters below the water, to catch them. (Youtube videos have commentary and occasional music.)
posted by voltairemodern at 11:11 AM PST - 20 comments
A View from Iran
A view from Iran: Golboo Fiuzi, a young resident of Tehran, talks to fellow Iranian citizens about why they think the US hasn't attacked yet, their political views, opinions about globalization and their lives under UN imposed sanctions.
posted by Surfin' Bird at 10:36 AM PST - 24 comments
Internet premier of Princess of Nebraska on YouTube
The Princess of Nebraska premiered on YouTube this weekend (unrated by MPAA, but 18A+ rating, but on YouTube, so maybe mild NSFW). Often focusing on Chinese immigrants in America and culture gaps (NPR interview; text and audio) between both their new country and across generations, director Wayne Wang has returned to his roots after several more traditional Hollywood movies (Wayne Wang Is Missing). (Known for "Chan Is Missing" and "The Joy Luck Club", he has made movies such as "Maid in Manhattan" recently.) "Princess" is intended as a double feature with traditionally released "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," "Princess" might "be the first feature feature film by a major director to premiere" only on the internet. Both are based on short stories by Yiyun Li.
posted by skynxnex at 9:07 AM PST - 3 comments
Biblioburros
Luis Soriano, with his donkeys Alfa and Beto, brings books to small villages in Colombia.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:27 AM PST - 16 comments
talkin' 'bout my puh-puh-puh-plagiarism...
There were four young and energetic lads (especially that drummer, wow!) who used to really get the Mods out on the dance floor over in London town, circa 1964. Called themselves The High Numbers. It must be said, though, these blokes weren't above a little bald-faced plagiarism now and again. Well, anyway, a little later they changed their name, and got kinda famous. [more inside]
Devil's in the details
Tampa Bay Rays beat Red Sox, head to World Series - The Tampa Bay Devil Rays began the 2008 season having never made the playoffs and or finishing the season above .500. Motivated by skipper Joe Madden's mathematically questionable slogan "9 = 8" ("9 players going hard for 9 innings means 1 of 8 playoff spots") but not considered a competitor for the AL East top spot by most fans and analysts, the Rays used their new name, uniforms and confidence to slowly emerge as one of the best teams in baseball this year. [more inside]
posted by null terminated at 9:44 PM PST - 115 comments
Don't the Norwegian players know that "Rock is for Rookies?
The Yahoo! 2008 World Rock Paper Scissors (RPS) Championships will be held in Toronto, Ontario on October 25. First prize: $10,000. Norway has publicly stated that they aim for a Norwegian world champion by 2010. RPS trading cards can be found here. Graham Walker, co-founder of the World Rock Paper Scissors Society, discusses the sport on CBC here. Amusing posters and other kitsch. [more inside]
The lively, compelling, rarely-updated Waggish
Waggish would be one of the choicest blogs around if he updated more, but I suppose I can settle for what there is. If you've never read it, you'll know how good it is when I tell you about a few of the coolest posts: an inquest on "left-brained" literature, a short review of John Williams' Stoner, an appreciation of the great Shohei Imamura and three part coverage of the ultimate film, Béla Tarr's Sátántangó.
posted by colinmarshall at 6:43 PM PST - 23 comments
Carol finished Cooking Keller
Carol Blymire recently finished cooking every single recipe in the formidable French Laundry cookbook. Here are some of her reflections on the journey, including favorite recipes, recipes to break your Thomas Keller cherry, and seasonal menus.
posted by AceRock at 6:42 PM PST - 19 comments
"Yeah... looks like."
The Simpsons movie references, side-by-side. (two, three) Site is in Spanish.
posted by starman at 6:30 PM PST - 29 comments
Sign Stealing
Caught on Video: Stealing Obama Sign , and again, and again, and again, and this crazy lady, here, here, and here.! WTF . . . over.
posted by augustweed at 6:07 PM PST - 121 comments
Elemental ‘Earth Art’: 15 Epic Land Formations. 15 Epic Water and Ice Formations and Phenomena. 12 Elemental Fire and Light Formations and Phenomena: Flares, Lightning, Smoke and Meteors. 10 Breathtaking Natural Cloud and Color Formations.
Halloween and the Black Cat: Superstition as Urban Legend?
Were black cats ever in danger during Halloween? For the past decade or more, animal shelters have been holding back their black cats at Halloween, for fears of obsessed youths sacrificing them in ritualistic slaughter (or other cruelties, some involving duct tape). Some experts say it's a myth, or an urban legend with no basis in fact. The origins of the idea are often cited as ancient influence.
posted by Brian B. at 4:43 PM PST - 46 comments
visual connections
Pattern Recognition, mostly serene paintings, illustrations and photographs from a variety of sources, grouped according to similar motifs: Interiors in paintings and more l moon l napes l light and shadow l moments of quiet intimacy, daydreams, dreams l very early Vogue and Vanity Fair covers 1, 2 and 3 l portraits of children and more l children's book illustrations l flora. [more inside]
Oh, God! Oh God!
Christian Nymphos: Not an exploitation site but an apparently sincere, sex-positive celebration of faithful sex. Reclaiming the word Nympho, no less. (NSFW) [more inside]
posted by msalt at 1:47 PM PST - 272 comments
Fired Up? Ready to Carve!
Yes We Carve. Barack O'Lantern stencils to politicize your Halloween.
posted by spiderskull at 1:01 PM PST - 27 comments
Harold "Herk" Harvey, a director of educational and industrial films for the Centron Corporation, was driving through Utah when he spotted the derelict Saltair Resort squatting on a mudded lakebed. The sight charged him with ideas, and when he returned home he recruited his Centron colleages and an unknown method actress to make a psychological horror movie. The atmospheric result, shot over three weeks at locations in Kansas and Utah, was 1962's Carnival of Souls. [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 12:44 PM PST - 10 comments
Military-Grade Moe-Anthropomorphism
Military equipment drawn as anime girls. Probably SFW, but good luck explaining it to the boss. Wikipedia explains.
posted by mccarty.tim at 12:30 PM PST - 34 comments
Ret. Gen. Colin Powell endorses Senator Obama
Former US Secretary of State and retired General Colin Powell, a controversial, if reluctant supporter of the war on Iraq, offers his endorsement (Flash video) of Senator Barack Obama for the office of President of the United States. [more inside]
And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.
Spider eating a snake [more inside]
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:14 AM PST - 77 comments
Sweater Reincarnation: giving old, ruined sweaters new life forms
You've been getting your sweaters out for the cold season, and finding that moths have been picknicking on them all summer. Or your significant other did the laundry and threw your favourite handwash-only sweaters into a hot water wash and/or the dryer. Or your children have outgrown the sweaters Grandma made them. However your sweaters became unwearable, it's time to make like a surgeon and do some cosmetic reconstruction. (If the old sweaters are at least 50% wool, you may be able to felt the material first.) You can make extra long gloves from sweater sleeves, mittens, a scarf, or slippers, legwarmers, a tote bag, a few handbags, or a coin purse. If the kids don't want to let go of their favourite sweaters, they can be pacified with building blocks, a bunny, snail, or seahorse, or diaper-coverup pants. If the cat feels left out, make it a pet bed. Or you can make things the whole family can enjoy: throw pillows, a quilt, or felted bowls. Since Christmas is approaching, Christmas stockings or a wreath might come in handy. If you want to get into needle felting and start sculpting with the felted fabric, you could make virtually anything, including, oh, say, a robin in a nest, Anne of Green Gables, a zebra, or art for the wall. And best of all, by the time you're done you no longer want to throttle your laundry-challenged significant other! As much.
posted by orange swan at 10:02 AM PST - 11 comments
If Anything Can Go Wrong, It Will
Whenever a system becomes completely defined, some damn fool discovers something which either abolishes the system or expands it beyond recognition. There's a Murphy's Law for most fields of endeavor. [more inside]
posted by netbros at 7:29 AM PST - 24 comments
New art from Juxtapoz
Melted street signs, Art + Auction = Obama 08, Mr Brainwash's political satire, Amused Loon, Tyler Stout, and Robert Williams's Dream Detective video (parts 1, 2, 3, 4). All adds up to the latest art, courtesy of Juxtapoz magazine.
posted by internationalfeel at 3:05 AM PST - 7 comments
Stories from Hogar de Don Guido - the DX shack in the Galapagos.
posted by Taksi Putra at 12:31 AM PST - 5 comments
James Jamerson: Motown's Secret Weapon
"[James] Jamerson terrified bassists all over the world. Still does." [more inside]
posted by edverb at 10:28 PM PST - 32 comments
The majestic Synthaxe
In the wide world of synthesizer guitars, the Synthaxe may well be the choicest both in its aesthetics and its raw awesomeness could. John Hollis tells us what we're missing. Some guy demonstrates it. Allan Holdsworth whips it out in concert. Also, a music video from Lee Ritenour's Synthaxe-heavy Earth Run album.
The future belongs to the robots.
"Fuhrer, we have some unexpected news: the band you hired tonight have broken down in their van ... we have already hired a replacement band. They play... jazz." Ah, silly Nazi henchmen! They should've hired The Trons. Yes, The Trons. Surely the Fuhrer would've enjoyed The Humans Are Dead. But let's go behind the scenes and meet Greg Locke, the human behind the Trons, who, by day, designs blueberry sorting machines, and has been kind enough to create a Trons MySpace page. But the Trons will ultimately have to go modular. It's the only way a robot band can hope to reform for the inevitable reunion tour. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:41 PM PST - 14 comments
The T'ang Dynasty
China's Golden Age.
The Perfect Game for the Global Economic Meltdown
Karoshi Suicide Salaryman challenges you to maneuver yourself into hazards rather than around them. And it's free, a quality we could all use more of in these trying times.
posted by mattholomew at 4:52 PM PST - 32 comments
I think there is something missing here.
An entire beach in Jamaica has been stolen. Although much of the sand has been found, it is estimated that it will take up to 100 years for the beach to be rebuilt. People now think that there is a coverup operation. [more inside]
posted by ooklala at 4:43 PM PST - 26 comments
Michael Palin is not the funniest Palin anymore.
John Cleese talks Election 08 with Seesmic (YT) and discusses his views on American Politics, and americans in general. (via)
Science! And lots of it!
The Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics hosts a treasure-trove of online scientific talks from leading scientists in their fields. [more inside]
posted by nowonmai at 1:08 PM PST - 5 comments
Mr. Universe
Canadian founder of the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) and Napoleon Bonaparte theorist, Ben Weider has died.
Indian royalty
Until 1947/48, the complex political map of India (by which I mean pre-Independence India, including Pakistan and Bangladesh) included over 650 quasi-independent Indian Princely States. Indian royalty: In hats, turbans and, more turbans, sometimes colorful, often decorated with amazing gems ("It is believed that the entire collection of Pearls in the Nizam's collective collection could fill up an Olympic size swimming pool.") like emeralds, diamonds (large diamonds), pearls, sapphires. Usually with beards and moustaches, on a throne. Princesses. Reflections of a Princess (audio and video). Queen mothers (in animation). The Royal Houses Of Punjab. The Maharaja of Patiala had 365 wives. In satins and brocade, with swords. Owners of stylish cars, like a 1937 Delahaye Type 135 Figoni & Felashi, bottled water, extraordinary interior design, lavish architecture, in their many palaces, from a place to watch cockfights to special palaces to keep their harem. [more inside]
Is Haskell Failing?
Haskell has a sort of unofficial slogan: avoid success at all costs says one of its inventors, Simon Peyton-Jones. But will the advanced purely functional programming language[, a]n open source product of more than twenty years of cutting edge research remain true to its roots? Things look rather bleak for the obscurity of Haskell. In the wake of Peyton-Jones's own A taste of Haskell, and with the imminent publication of Real World Haskell by O'Reilly and the emergence of the Haskell Platform, comes BONUS's fun, colorfully illustrated Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!. [more inside]
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:38 AM PST - 61 comments
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room It's been a few years since this documentary came out, and if you haven't seen it yet, you must. Just click and watch. The film is artistically made, enlightening, and ultimately infuriating. It takes on greater resonance in light of the current economic climate. (Too many previous posts to list.)
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 7:57 AM PST - 70 comments
Gospel bluegrass from the Del McCoury Band
Get Down on Your Knees , Crying Holy (Unto the Lord) with Vince Gill, and Working on a Building with Patty Loveless. Some gospel music from Del McCoury.
posted by RussHy at 5:11 AM PST - 17 comments
Bachall Isa
The O'Donnell clan claims descendancy (like, dare I say, a significant part of the Irish population), from Niall of the Nine Hostages, legendary High King of Ireland. The O'Donnell clan ruled over the kingdom of Tyrconnell, in modern-day County Donegal, well into the modern age. However, after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, Rory O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, fled Ireland together with Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, in the Flight of the Earls. [more inside]
posted by Skeptic at 4:55 AM PST - 19 comments
Whoa, Nellie! The Great Epizootic of 1872
Running Like Wildfire — Imagine a national disaster that stopped 99% of American transportation in its tracks; shut down the country; halted shipping and trade; hobbled counter-insurgency operations, and helped Boston burn down. It spread from Canada southward to Cuba and westward to the Pacific, crippling all that Americans took for granted: their cities and towns; their supplies of food and consumer goods; their jobs, businesses, and the national economy. Such was the Great Epizootic of 1872.
Chairman Martin Unleashed and Unlicensed
FCC paves way for free use of vacant airwaves -- white space -- available in February as TV spectrum is cleared up by digital conversion. Apparently another vote for change will take place November 4. The FCC btw also recently backed a free (ad-supported) nationwide wireless broadband plan in another hunk of spectrum to be auctioned off in 2009.
posted by kliuless at 12:34 AM PST - 19 comments
Kobloin' in the wind...
Koblo, a company from Denmark that makes virtual synthesizers, seeks to reinvigorate it's name with a mash-up of social networking, distributed music production and interactive music distribution. [more inside]
posted by Pecinpah at 11:09 PM PST - 14 comments
RIP TRL, Viva YouTube!
Six new directors who are making music video cool again:
Cat Solen (see also)
Rik Cordero (see also)
Matthew Cullen (see also) (previously)
Vincent Moon (see also)
Vincent Morisset (see also)
Keith Schofield (see also)
How to create life
In 1953 a student named Stanley Miller did an experiment showing that the simple chemicals present on the early Earth could give rise to the basic building blocks of life. Miller filled a flask with water, methane, hydrogen and ammonia—the main ingredients in the primordial soup. Then he zapped the brew with electricity to simulate lightning, and, voila, he created amino acids, crucial for life. Now, scientists have reanalyzed this classic experiment, and found that the results were even more remarkable than Miller had realized.
posted by Mr_Zero at 7:28 PM PST - 49 comments
Romance Novel Cover Design
The Best Romance Novel Covers of the year - click on the winner of each category to see the Top Ten and explanations. Also the site doesn't avoid the snark with a worst cover category [The winner is Big Spankable Asses [maybe NSFW]].
posted by meech at 7:23 PM PST - 44 comments
Calling sister midnight
Iggy Pop chats with Dinah Shore in 1977. Performs Sister Midnight and Fun House with David Bowie and then opens up a bit. [more inside]
posted by milarepa at 6:05 PM PST - 16 comments
Stephan Kinsella's rulings on term coolness
Annoying and/or pretentious terms: "jejune", "pyjamas", "piping hot", "social justice". Cool terms: "cogitate", "cul-de-sac", "high dudgeon", "orangutan".
posted by colinmarshall at 5:30 PM PST - 112 comments
Voices and Music of Both World Wars
Voices and Music of World War I and Voices of World War II: Experiences From the Front and at Home both feature spoken word, sheet music and songs galore (all audio RealPlayer). The Great War site has plenty of stuff, but the core is the collection of songs, anti-war, patriotic, France-themed, Kaiser-knocking and so forth. The WWII site also has a whole bunch of music, demonstrating the changing mood of the US, from conflicted feelings about the start of the war to conflicted feelings about the atomic bomb. Among the artists are Nat King Cole, Leadbelly, Benny Goodman and Fats Waller. But in addition the wonderful songs there are newscasts, speeches, propaganda and other radio broadcasting of all kinds.
posted by Kattullus at 5:26 PM PST - 10 comments
This thingy is a bitch!
Prepping for the Digital Conversion is Harder When You're a 99-Year-Old Grandmother. (SLYT)
posted by shockingbluamp at 4:59 PM PST - 39 comments
We wanted to hold onto them for as long as possible. Not as much as a tribute to the early history of MAD... but because these paintings were covering up quite a few holes in the walls.
posted by R. Mutt at 4:42 PM PST - 8 comments
Jason Hackenwerth's balloon twisting sculptures
posted by chuckdarwin at 4:19 PM PST - 17 comments
Andrew Lahde's goodbye letter
Retiring hedge fund manager Andrew Lahde: "All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America."
posted by finite at 3:44 PM PST - 37 comments
Mother 3 Fan Translation
Mother 3 fan translation completed. Earthbound (known as Mother 2 in Japan) is one of the most highly regarded RPGs for the Super Nintendo. The game suffered disappointing sales in America, but has since gained the status of a cult classic. A sequel, Mother 3, was released for the Game Boy Advance, but it has never been officially translated into English. After a long development, a fan translation patch has just been released. Trailer. [more inside]
posted by painquale at 3:35 PM PST - 44 comments
Chicago Tribune Endorses First Democratic Nominee in 161-Year History
The Chicago Tribune has been a bastion of Republican endorsements, having consistently endorsed every single Republican presidential nominee since it was founded in 1847. One of its earliest managing editors, Joseph Medill, was a founder of the Republican Party. Today, it endorsed its first Democratic presidential candidate in its 161-year history. And it certainly did not do so halfheartedly. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike at 2:35 PM PST - 65 comments
Return to the Valley of Death. In this Vanity Fair article, Sebastian Junger describes life with the men of Battle Company at their Korengal Valley outpost in Afghanistan. In Rolling Stone, Nir Rosen describes his journey into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan: How We Lost the War We Won.
Invading spider is invading.
Spiders invading Europe. Spiders invading England. Spiders invading Pittsburgh. Spiders invading your produce section. Spiders invading other spiders. [more inside]
posted by longsleeves at 2:21 PM PST - 53 comments
The Tao that can be played is not the eternal Tao
The Way is a 2D Japanese-style rpg you would do well to play if you are interested in the genre. It invests in characters, keeps you wanting to see what happens next and has one on one duels that are usually a part of the storyline. It's all fun and games until (your) blood gets spilt on the screen. First stop: Episode 1. [more inside]
posted by ersatz at 1:28 PM PST - 13 comments
In the event of a breakup, reformat all memory sticks and hard drives.
Revenge porn involves posting your ex's nude pics or video to the Web. It can be difficult to prosecute because it's not a specific crime and pornography "performers" hold no copyrights, but it's easier to press charges when the victim is a minor. A victim speaks out: "There's a reason I don't like having my picture taken." Sometimes it's not even real porn. (all links SFW)
Akira on blu-ray
20 years after its cinematic debut, Akira is being released on bluray. [more inside]
posted by slimepuppy at 1:07 PM PST - 96 comments
Lethal harvest
"When you’re on your own in that pit with the bomb in the middle of a city, it’s strange how everything suddenly goes totally quiet..." Interview with one of Germany's most experienced bomb disposal experts as he retires. Photogallery.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:46 PM PST - 19 comments
Too much dignity to play for small stakes
Another member of the "Pants Down Republicans" in trouble: PJ O'Rourke has cancer. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:29 PM PST - 60 comments
LittleBigPlanet Recalled
LittleBigPlanet, the highly anticipated create your own platformer game by Media Molecule, originally set to release next week, has been recalled. The reason? Apparently one of the music tracks used in the game, "Tapha Niang" by Grammy Award winner Toumani Diabate, contains verses from the Qur'an. As it's a no no to mix Islamic holy text with music, Sony has pulled the game after complaints. The problem has been fixed, but no new release date has been announced.
posted by yellowbinder at 11:52 AM PST - 61 comments
Friday Flash Fun: Test your geography skills.
Free Poverty. Kinda like freerice.com but they're giving water to places that need it. [more inside]
posted by Nauip at 11:06 AM PST - 32 comments
Barack Obama vs. the Pirates of Witchita
A cry went up. The Audacity had pulled astern of us, and dropped anchor, and pinned us with her swivel guns. I heard a snap of cording, and a thump, and then the man Obama stood on our deck, still gripping the rope he had swung over on. [more inside]
posted by Biblio at 10:35 AM PST - 45 comments
Levi Stubbs...Tears
Levi Stubbs. Tears.
posted by Webbster at 10:19 AM PST - 42 comments
I'd love if this forum was all about if Shepard Fairey is a sellout.
The Art of Politics. The 2008 election, regardless of the winner, has created opportunities for so many new stakeholders to take part in our national dialogue and be heard be seen. With only weeks left, let us pause to gaze upon the mainstream embrace of political street art. At least we have Bush to thank for something.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 10:06 AM PST - 8 comments
Stayin' Alive. Literally.
The Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive can be used as a training tool for CPR, because it has a near-perfect rhythm for timing compressions, it's well-known and it has a tendency to get stuck in your head. Unfortunately, another song useful for training, with a similar rhythm, isn't quite so uplifting.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:41 AM PST - 36 comments
Andy Kaufman - I'm From Hollywood -- with Jerry Lawler, Tony Danza, Robin Williams, Marilu Henner and Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart.
You've got dysentery!
The Top 10 Most Influential Educational Video Games from the 1980s. (via)
posted by lunit at 8:56 AM PST - 78 comments
Forty Four Presidents and a letter to a cat...
Forty Four Presidents and a letter to a cat. Starring: Grover Cleveland's love life! McKinley's untimely death! Truman singing! Taft in the bath! & more...
posted by jim in austin at 8:40 AM PST - 14 comments
For Sale: Underground Secret Lair
In the 1940's the British Government set about creating eight deep level shelters underneath central London. Now, one of them is up for sale (Photos)
posted by vacapinta at 3:51 AM PST - 42 comments
Afterlife and the Mind
Never Say Die: Why We Can't Imagine Death. Why do we wonder where our mind goes when the body is dead? Shouldn’t it be obvious that the mind is dead, too? Examining self-consciousness and mortality.
posted by amyms at 10:07 PM PST - 219 comments
Adventures with heart failure
Artist's notebook. "...But once we saw Dr. Kukin's office, complete with a photo of the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl, a photo of Babe Ruth, and various signed balls, we were put at ease. The message? Heart failure is like bank failure: Bailout is possible. Life goes on. Plus, he had a plastic heart that comes apart; I just love playing with those things."
posted by spish at 9:40 PM PST - 12 comments
McCain and Obama at the Al Smith Dinner
Events are moving fast in my campaign. And, yes, it is true that this morning I dismissed my entire team of senior advisors. All of their positions will now be held by a man named 'Joe The Plumber.' No, not Saturday Night Live, but the real John McCain at this year's Al Smith dinner, where he and Obama poked fun at each other as well as themselves. McCain's funny and graciously touching speech: McCain Part 1. McCain Part2. Obama's speech is here: Obama Part 1. Obama Part 2.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 9:10 PM PST - 164 comments
Russian Experimental Tanks
Footage (in Russian) of some concept tanks. Includes human tanks, hydrofoil tanks, rocket assisted tanks and many many more. SLYT I know, but Rockets! And Tanks!!!
posted by fingerbang at 8:56 PM PST - 9 comments
It's the final countdown!
KazooKeylele. Europe's "The Final Countdown" played on a combination kazoo, baby keyboard, and ukulele. Single link YouTube awesomeness. (Via)
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:11 PM PST - 20 comments
First, we need to find out where he stands on legalizing Tickle-Torture...
Who is the mysterious Shadow Candidate for Shadow Senator of the District of Columbia? Marx Cafe Bartender Damien Ober, kind of. Ober wrote a series of campaign ads (which can alternate between provocative, sophomoric, and simply creepy, depending on your point of view) in response to D.C.'s lack of congressional representation, and hired an actor to sit in the darkness portraying his unnamed candidate. After viewing the videos on youtube, however, the D.C. Libertarian Party has decided to give him a for-real shot at the for-fake position.
The Things He Carried
The Things He Carried. "Airport security in America is a sham—'security theater' designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease."
posted by chunking express at 5:33 PM PST - 91 comments
In fashion, one day you’re in and the next you’re out...
This years Project Runway is over and the winner has been announced, coming out top when the three remaining finalists showed their collections at at Bryant Park. But what they didn't tell you is that they also had some of the other contestants show there as well, to throw would-be spoilers off the track, and now thanks to the wonders of YouTube you can see them too.
No Mudslinging.
Batman vs. The Penguin. SLYT
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the plurality of clients was business administration majors
Remember Laura K. Pahl, the girl who was famously humiliated for trying to buy a term paper over the internet? Perhaps she should have gone to a professional.
posted by Afroblanco at 3:45 PM PST - 67 comments
"Can I interest you in a faith-based account?"
The ailing economy has given rise to excellent gallows humor. [period is NSFW, MLYT/MLNews]
posted by Korou at 3:40 PM PST - 3 comments
The culture writing of Adam Cadre
If you've never heard of Adam Cadre, then Adam Cadre is the best internet writer you've never heard of. He's a novelist and interactive fiction (a.k.a. "text adventure") author, but his site is packed with some of the clearest, most entertaining (and most personal) cultural writing around. It's a blog-esque sort of deal with posts prompted by films, books and other. Choicest articles include a to-the-point takedown of Stranger in a Strange Land, thoughts on Lanark and trolls who have never known love, an exegesis of the virtues of The Sweet Hereafter and the story of his near-lifelong relationship with Cosmos.
Debunking the Bradley Effect
The Persistent Myth of the Bradley Effect proposes that even if racists lied to pollsters in the 1980s, there's no evidence of that happening in 2008. The Bradley Effect - Selective Memory goes further: "The Bradley Effect was born amidst some major polling errors and a confusing array of mixed predictions, hardly a firm foundation to construct a theory."
posted by shetterly at 2:03 PM PST - 62 comments
Go! Raze the land! Boil the seas!
Mastermind: World Conquerer puts you in the role of the evil Mastermind, supergenius bent on destroying* the world. A great ending and some hilarious dialogue make this game a gem. Hey, it's Friday in Australia by now, right? (via jig) [more inside]
posted by Eideteker at 1:38 PM PST - 17 comments
brief glimpses into living abroad
Expat Interviews With People Living In Countries Like Japan - Holland - China - Thailand And A Lot More.
Lead singer of seminal Canadian punk band Teenage Head dies
Frank Kerr died on Wednesday, October 15th of throat cancer. The 51-year-old was better known as Frankie Venom, the lead singer of Teenage Head, a punk band from Hamilton, Ontario that some have called Canada's version of The Ramones. The Glasgow native formed the band in 1975 with some high-school friends and they released several popular albums and played at least two shows that ended in riots. After splitting with the group in 1985 due in part to lifestyle issues, Venom later rejoined and began touring again. In 2003, Teenage Head recorded a special cover album with Ramones drummer Marky Ramone that was just released earlier this year. One fan got some video of one of Frankie's last shows in Hamilton.
posted by mathewi at 11:46 AM PST - 18 comments
Pseudopod
Pseudopod - a podcast of short horror stories.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:14 AM PST - 9 comments
"You can't sue God if you can't serve the papers on Him."
The case against God brought by Ernie Chambers (previously on MeFi) has been thrown out. (title via News Now Network, although I added a capital H.)
posted by homelystar at 11:03 AM PST - 22 comments
Get Down Shep!
50 Years of Blue Peter. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:21 AM PST - 17 comments
Man Booker Prize 2008
Aravind Adiga, a 33 year-old first-time author from India, won the Man Booker Prize yesterday with his novel The White Tiger. It's a story about the underclass of India which he found "similar to black Americans, with a sense of humour you would associate with the Jewish population in the ghettos". The prize selection was very heated and "brought all of the male judges to tears" over the winner and one other work (unnamed). Some critics find it a "left field" choice. The complete review. Excerpts.
Shortage of Business Faculty
There is a potential crisis (PDF) looming in business education. Unlike many other fields in higher education, demand for qualified faculty well outstrips supply. The result is a strong job market and high pay (PDF). In response to this potential shortage a number of things are being done. The accounting profession has recently started a program designed to increase the number of professors in the field called the Accounting Doctoral Scholars Program. This program provides fellowships of $30,000 a year for 30 students. The AACSB has created a website to promote getting a PhD in business. The PhD project is designed to increase the number of minority PhD business professors. [more inside]
posted by bove at 9:21 AM PST - 32 comments
June Carter and Johnny Cash with Pete Seeger
June Carter and Johnny Cash appear on Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest. June reminisces about the Carter family and A.P. Carter. They all sing It Takes a Worried Man. Johnny sings As Long as the Grass Shall Grow. Finally, June sings I Am Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes.
posted by RussHy at 7:47 AM PST - 8 comments
Standards fail.
Only 4.3% of the web validates. Opera have finished a scan and validation check of the net using their new MAMA spider and have got an extremely interesting dataset. Did you check your website today?
posted by jaduncan at 7:26 AM PST - 81 comments
Under [his] gloves, were a pair of softer gloves.
Cartoon-Off. XKCD's Randall Munroe v. New Yorker's Farley Katz. FIGHT.
posted by spec80 at 6:48 AM PST - 59 comments
Yes, exactly like a hole in the head!
[Warning: Not Safe For the Squeamish] "An Illustrated History of Trepanation": Although the reasons for trepanning and the instruments used for the procedure differ with time and from culture to culture, the result is always the same: a hole in the head, usually made when the individual was fully conscious and, often, unanaesthetized. • • From an interview with Heather Perry, who trepanned herself: "I used a hand trepan initially, but that wasn't proving to be terribly successful. Then there was a problem with the people who owned the property we were staying in, so we decided we'd have to just leave it. I wrapped my head up in a towel and we got out of there. A couple of days later, we had another go. We abandoned the hand trepan and got an electric drill instead." • • And, of course, the home version of the game. [more inside]
Maybe a little too prepared ...
Meet Prepared, a World of Warcraft gamer who plays 36 separate characters simultaneously, with the use of an 11-computer rig - a one-man raid party who spends $5711 in subscription costs per year. In his own words: "I’m looking at it like it’s a hobby and there are more expensive hobbies out there than World of Warcraft."
Poetry mashups: These are not the beats you were looking for
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after. [more inside]
posted by mosk at 3:22 AM PST - 9 comments
All your base are belong to us?
Internet memes. Will they come and go, dying with their creators? Or will they continue to replicate, posing a danger to life as we know it?
Torturing Democracy
"Torturing Democracy" is a new documentary which details how the government set aside the rule of law in its pursuit of harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists. You can watch it online or on some PBS affiliates, but PBS won't run it nationally until January 21, 2009. Scott Horton suspects that may be because PBS is afraid of political retaliation. [Via]
posted by homunculus at 1:00 AM PST - 23 comments
The Rest is Noise Audio Guide
"Here you can listen to brief excerpts of some of the works discussed in The Rest Is Noise. There are also embedded videos, images, and links to archives, stories, and sound files elsewhere... Examples: THE GOLDEN AGE: Mahler, Strauss, and the Fin de Siècle l Apparition from the Woods: The Loneliness of Jean Sibelius l CITY OF NETS: Berlin in the Twenties l SUNKEN CATHEDRALS: Music at Century’s End l BEETHOVEN WAS WRONG: Bebop, Rock, and the Minimalists l THE ART OF FEAR: Music in Stalin’s Russia l MUSIC FOR ALL: Music in FDR’s America " and many more.[via]
posted by vronsky at 10:43 PM PST - 20 comments
Does this go above, next to, or below 'People who write erotic versions of Star Trek where all the characters are furries?'
In case you were wondering, yes. There is a republican furry community. The bigger question is: what consequences will this have for the geek chart?
posted by mullingitover at 5:41 PM PST - 101 comments
When She Turns 18, I Almost Guarantee She's Going to Rename Herself Michelle
Ava Marie Ciptak was born on Friday, October 10, 2008. Except that her name wasn't Ava Marie Ciptak. Her father, Mark, of Elizabethton, Tennessee, "sort of secretively went behind [his wife Layla]'s back and changed the paperwork" by using two separate birth certificate forms. Instead of naming his daughter John McCain — his initial plan — he named his daughter Sarah McCain Palin, "figuring hopefully [he] would get two weeks in the doghouse rather than two months."
US out of Iraq in the year 2525, er 2011
It's (semi) official: Washington and Baghdad have reached a final agreement after months of talks on a pact that would require U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraq by 2011, U.S. and Iraqi officials said on Wednesday. Additionally, "Iraq said it had secured the right to prosecute U.S. soldiers for serious crimes under certain circumstances" "Inside their bases, they will be under American law. Iraqi judicial law will be implemented in case these forces commit a serious and deliberate felony outside their military bases and when off duty." [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 5:12 PM PST - 36 comments
Brian Eno brings generative music to the iPhone.
Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty
AIDS Orphans in Kenya: a disturbing video report about the lives of Kenyan children forced to live on the street after their parents die of AIDS. The Kibera Slum where the disease spreads like fire and the incredible follow-up story, all submitted to raise awareness about poverty.
posted by Surfin' Bird at 3:32 PM PST - 5 comments
Atomic explosions
Atomic and nuclear explosions. [more inside]
posted by swift at 12:28 PM PST - 77 comments
The Geek ABCs
The Geek ABCs. A is for Alignment, which is why I stabbed you... G is for Grue, likely to eat you... R is for RuneQuest where old people roll the dice.
posted by GuyZero at 12:03 PM PST - 47 comments
Join ussss, join usssss NOW!
Remember Thief? When Looking Glass Studios originally released Thief: The Dark Project in 1998, it broke new ground by combining a first-person shooter with stealth-oriented gameplay. [more inside]
posted by dunkadunc at 11:51 AM PST - 125 comments
Entitled Opinions, the smartest podcast
Stanford Italian literature professor Robert Harrison does a conversational show on KZSU, the university radio station, called Entitled Opinions (on Life and Literature), which is also distributed as one of the most fascinating, engaging podcasts in any possible universe. Choicest topics include mimetic desire, Proust, the inflationary universe, 1910, American writers in Paris and the history of the book.
posted by colinmarshall at 11:00 AM PST - 8 comments
Elections are fun!
Welcome to The Sacramento County Republican Party. The official website has removed content calling for Obama to be waterboarded. But it still contains fake quotes supposedly from Obama's memoir. In this political climate, 33% of voters do not identify Obama as Christian, and 8% believe he is Muslim. Yet, the polls predict a landslide, hinted at by early voting. McCain needs something spectacular, and he may be regretting his decision to invoke Bill Ayers in tonight's debate; and perhaps other things.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 9:49 AM PST - 1600 comments
Neal Hefti, 1922-2008
Neal Hefti, trumpet player, arranger, big band leader and composer for film & televison, has died. This may be his most loved work.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 7:52 AM PST - 35 comments
I'm in ur head fixing ur brain
Bluegrass banjo player Eddie Adcock underwent brain surgery while awake and playing the banjo. [more inside]
posted by mandal at 7:05 AM PST - 37 comments
SLYT: Professor Savage shows how the density of various gases will affect your voice in different ways... the fun way (by inhaling them). [more inside]
Se necesita una poca de gracia...
It's not so often that a US Top 40 chart hit is a song whose origins can be traced back 300 years, and even less often that such a song would be sung in Spanish. So when Ritchie Valens went into a studio and recorded La Bamba 50 years ago this month, he carved himself what would become a special place in American pop music history. It was one of those cases of the B side becoming the hit, though: the A side was Oh Donna, which showcased a sweeter, croonier side of Valens (singing in English), but was a somewhat unremarkable tune on its own. Here's a live recording of La Bamba by Valens, who, of course, along with rock'n'roll legend Buddy Holly, lost his life in an airplane crash just as his career was blossoming. Almost 30 years after La Bamba's original release, a version by Valens' natural heirs Los Lobos became a hit once again. And, admittedly, I didn't make it through the entire clip, but it's perhaps worth noting, for the record, that a Barack Obama-related version is available for your listening and viewing, er, pleasure? [more inside]
"I don't talk about techniques"
In a new article in the Washington Post: "The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects". These documents were requested by then CIA director George Tenet, who told 60 Minutes last year (in conjuction with the publication of his book, In the Center of the Storm), ""The image that's been portrayed is, we sat around the campfire and said, 'Oh, boy, now we go get to torture people.' Well, we don't torture people. Let me say that again to you. We don't torture people. Okay?"
Brothels in Germany (pics): Photographer Patric Fouad's book, Frauenzimmer, takes a look at the insides of German brothels. (mostly SFW unless you are offended by the occasional sex toy hanging on the wall and blurry porn in the background)
posted by chillmost at 1:55 AM PST - 61 comments
Man and eagle soar over the French Alps
L'homme et l'oiseau au Mont-Blanc. Falconer Jacques-Olivier Travers runs the Aigles du Léman park on Lake Geneva where he teaches eagles raised in captivity how to fly. Here he is paragliding down the Alps with his student Sherkan.
posted by homunculus at 12:52 AM PST - 8 comments
Mad Meg revisited
Mad Meg. Since the beginning of 2001, I draw in small notebooks 11 cm X 15 cm (approximately), always with a ballpoint pen, always on same paper, always in black. (Some drawings are NSFW) Digestion Paintings, her renditions of paintings by other artists l Glam Freak Show l The Family Code l Chimères l The Patriarchs l Digestion Notebooks l Photos of Mad Meg setting up for her most recent exhibit at the Austin Gallery in London, which opened today. [more inside]
Uh oh, where's Russia?
Palin as President
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 11:26 PM PST - 155 comments
Here comes a Tory minority.
Any Canadians curious as to who their riding voted for? Nobody was willing to call this election and as it turns out the Conservatives won. Only a few ridings are left to be called. Here's what the CBC says about the results so far [more inside]
posted by Pseudology at 11:11 PM PST - 88 comments
Single link silliness.
The "best" of the internet.
posted by pedstel at 10:25 PM PST - 44 comments
Chomsky on the elections, economy
posted by Dragonness at 10:03 PM PST - 101 comments
Wreckers of civilization
Who's wrecked Britain? A three part list from the Daily Mail. [more inside]
posted by debord at 9:44 PM PST - 47 comments
Location-specific haiku
posted by harhailla.harhaluuossa at 8:50 PM PST - 23 comments
A Conservative Son Gone Bad?
Christopher Buckley endorses Obama and then is forced to resign from the National Review. Is he serious, or does he just want to let the Democrats f**k things up for a change? [more inside]
posted by sararah at 7:58 PM PST - 41 comments
another time sink
another day, another word
posted by netbros at 7:44 PM PST - 35 comments
It's about time someone took down that damned apple-throwing tree.
How to Beat Up Anything. [more inside]
Y Kant Tori Rite Musicals
"I don't want to be writing for a fuddy-duddy audience." Tori Amos follows up this year's Comic Book Tattoo (a graphic novel adaptation of 51 of her songs) with a musical version of George MacDonald's The Light Princess for the Royal National Theatre.
posted by crossoverman at 6:35 PM PST - 13 comments
"We were on our own resources and we knew it. And that's what this business is all about."
So you've finished hiking the Appalachian Trail, just came down from Mount Katahdin, and you're wondering what to do now. Well, there's always the International AT, which goes through the Chic-Choc Mountains on the Gaspé Peninsula before crossing over to Newfoundland. Then you'd have hiked the tallest mountains in Quebec, right? Wrong. 800 miles to the north, on the border of Quebec and Newfoundland, lie the Torngats. [more inside]
posted by A dead Quaker at 5:52 PM PST - 10 comments
Can't pirate, the IP Czar will eat me
The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act has added a whole other dimension to the term "copyright infringement." Sponsored by the US entertainment industry, it allows seizure of assets before the accused is found guilty and the creation of a new executive branch led by an "Intellectual Property Czar" who would report directly to the President on IP crimes--similar to the Drug Czar of the War on Drugs. Financial penalties for copyright crimes have increased dramatically. More information here, and a summary of critiques here. Is this a useful addition to the War On Copyright Infringement or just more bureaucratic red tape?
posted by schroedinger at 4:51 PM PST - 45 comments
Exploring The Ice Mountains
Beneath the Antarctica lies a hidden mountain range known as the Gamburtsevs. The mountains are at least 4km beneath the ice and present a puzzle for scientists who are unable to explain what the mountains are doing there. [more inside]
posted by panboi at 4:01 PM PST - 59 comments
Jump stuff
Parkour, it’s easier than you think to get started and you can keep your workout lively. Ryan Ford has a training center in Colorado , and there’s probably one right near you . Or DIY. [more inside]
posted by Smedleyman at 2:39 PM PST - 47 comments
I am Jack's raging bile duct, but I'm not CutoutDissection.com. Nope, that distinction goes to a woman formerly know as Jennifer Thornburg. I am also not a Nugget. Some have not been kind. Maybe you want the play at home game. Previously. Previously. Previously. (you get the idea.) Warning, PETA heavy links, but MetaFilter loves PETA. [more inside]
It started out with mom not knowing how to use the telephone and progressed from there.
New research suggests that low blood pressure is a symptom, not a cause, of Alzheimer's Disease. While the cause of the disease is still unknown, some research suggests stress exacerbates its progression. Also, the problem is growing across the globe. So, while you never forget the challenges and revelations of those living with the effects of Alzheimer's, try to laugh and smile a little more.
posted by Panjandrum at 11:29 AM PST - 20 comments
Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Troy Davis Appeal
The Supreme Court today issued a one line statement refusing to hear Troy Davis' appeal. Troy Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of a police officer in Savannah, GA, and sentenced to death solely on eyewitness testimony. No murder weapon or any physical evidence linked him to the crime. Since the conviction, seven of the nine witnesses have recanted or changed their stories, and one of the two who haven't changed their stories is the other suspect in the case. Things were looking good for Davis when the Supreme Court issued a stay two hours before his execution last month. Justice may really be dead in this country.
posted by x_3mta3 at 11:21 AM PST - 60 comments
Modern Day Tintypists
21st Century Tintypes : Modern day tintypists are Preserving the Past (A Natl. Geographic video on the tintype work of Robb Kendrick). An interview, NYTimes article and an NPR story, and a on Robb Kendrick. For some, like John Coffer, the process becomes an entire way of life. (Coffer also offers training.) View the work of a few other modern day tintypists. [more inside]
posted by spock at 10:29 AM PST - 12 comments
"It's not about the music."
Crate Digging, Don't Do It! [more inside]
Parallelograms are hard.
posted by Skorgu at 10:01 AM PST - 81 comments
Bringing Change You Can Believe In to Xbox 360
Obama Advertising in Video Games Obama campaigning in XBox 360's Burnout Paradise. Although Mark Warner did it first with his video appearance in Second Life, Senator Obama has gone one step further and is advertising on Xbox 360. [more inside]
posted by Ironmouth at 9:19 AM PST - 58 comments
Make Your Own Flash Game
Kongregate, the Flash game house has released Kongregate Labs, offering a series of "shootorials" to teach users how to create simple Flash games. "OMG LAZERS PEW PEW ... wait, this is actually pretty cool..." [more inside]
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:11 AM PST - 6 comments
Poster Blue
Antrepo Design have created an alternate set of film posters regarding the 'brand integration' ie product placement in a number of movies. Lynch on the matter (NSFW).
Rocketboom Founder Fighting for Father's Life
RocketBoom's co-founder Andrew Baron found out last week that his father had Multiple Myeloma, and likely less than 48 hours to live. Then a miracle occured. A drug that could save his father's life existed. However the drug was not approved by the FDA to be used this way. They sought and quickly got approval from the FDA. But now, the drug's manufacturer Biogen won't approve usage despite pleas to Biogen's president from Lance Burton, President Clinton, and others. Read this open letter and request for help from Andrew to learn what you can do to save his father's life.
posted by IndigoSkye at 8:36 AM PST - 66 comments
Broken Koans
Broken koans to amuse and enlighten.
I Can Has Mind Control?
Army Funds Synthetic Telepathy Research Inspired by video game research [previously] the army has issued funding to research the possibility of sending/receiving e-mail via brainwaves. Some progress has been made using EEGs already, although the army's motives don't seem so pure.
posted by jnaps at 6:31 AM PST - 29 comments
A galactic shadow cast on the election.
October surprise? Rumor has it that the Galactic Federation of Light, a fraternity of extraterrestrial beings, will visit our planet today--October 14, 2008. Blogs announced the visitation some time back, and are giddy with anticipation. View the announcement in video form. (Alert! Retinal searing imagery ahead.)
posted by Gordion Knott at 4:51 AM PST - 81 comments
The geography of fear. Children map the no-go areas that blight their lives.
posted by WPW at 4:46 AM PST - 30 comments
Someone is peeling Kundera's onion for him.
The czech magazine Respekt, known for its investigative reporting, has published a story claiming prize winning author and anti-communist dissident Milan Kundera denounced a young exile who was back in Prague to the communist secret police. [more inside]
posted by lucia__is__dada at 4:02 AM PST - 22 comments
The Quiet Thaw
NYT: A new generation of black elected officials are wooing white voters and winning local elections in predominantly white districts across the country.
The Stakes
The Stakes, 2008. Eight of the Washington Monthly's contributing editors "consider the looming challenges that America is likely to face—in the economy, education, the courts, and other areas—during an Obama or McCain presidency, and how, based on what we know about the two men, they are likely to handle them." [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 12:34 AM PST - 25 comments
data visualization toys
Spisi, spiral signal analysis, an infoviz toy by Bestiario. This application of theirs is also beautiful, heat C. A. "A simple cellular automata simulating heat dynamics". water, tissue and neurozapping are quite mesmerizing. Their birds flock makes me think of the starlings over Ot Moor.
posted by nickyskye at 11:45 PM PST - 6 comments
You think it's easy to choose a cardigan?
Election Day in Canada. Haven't followed the campaign? Summed up in images, it would probably look like this, or this. To our American friends, it probably looks a bit like this. Complete campaign chronology in cartoon form here and here. For those who like a little more meat, the Hill Times provides a campaign synopsis, and speculates about how the next minority Parliament may work. [more inside]
posted by Urban Hermit at 9:06 PM PST - 205 comments
Don't watch the Dow. Here’s the number that really captures the financial crisis [TED spread]
The Dow went up today.. don't watch the Dow. Here’s the number that really captures the financial crisis [TED spread]. [more inside]
The Sun [more inside]
posted by grouse at 8:33 PM PST - 49 comments
Mini Monkees
Mini Monkees Of Brazil
New AI "Elbot" Scores 20% On Turing Test!
Think you can stump the Elbot? Give it a try. Maybe your interaction will enable it to "learn" an extra 10% more to pass the 30% threshold of the Turing Test. The test is to fool a panel of people who talk with AI entities via text and guess if it's a real person or a robot.Mr Smarty Pants where are you?
posted by goodhelp at 4:07 PM PST - 93 comments
Fandom of the past
Lets Anime: Reminisces of early American Anime Fandom. Including discussions of 80's cosplay, the rise and fall of the Animanga APA and other zines, and early merchandising. For more old school goodness see part 1 and part 2 of Mike Toole's "Dubs that Time Forgot" at Anime News Network.
posted by zabuni at 3:52 PM PST - 42 comments
Don'tgive me no jibber-jabber
Man-up with Stephen King.
The World is An Unusual Place
OK, it's a little cheesy, maybe MeFark or Believe It or Not Only True, but this site has some hidden gems. Vagabonds in America (lifestyle of the New Depression?), the Road of Death, Lenin: Still Dead, and the always popular, almost finished, really genuinely tall Barj Dubai.
posted by cogneuro at 2:27 PM PST - 62 comments
Six weeks was enough time for Mozart to write three of his greatest symphonies.
A bunch of writers (42 to be exact), having decided civil liberties are important, have launched a website with poems, essays, and short stories protesting the extension of the pre-charge detention period in the UK from 28 to 42 days. Of course, Not everyone thinks it's a good idea. [more inside]
One person's old news can be another's person art form.
Perhaps in your non-Metafilter time or during the occasional power outtage you indulge in that charmingly antiquated past-time of reading a newspaper made out of actual paper. But, once you've read it, you're left with blackened hands and the necessity for putting that fragment of a dead tree somewhere or other. Aside from putting it in the recycling bin, which is responsible but kind of obvious (and therefore would not necessitate a MeFi FPP) what can you do? One option is to make handmade paper. If you're an outdoors type, you could make organic flower pots, some kites, or a dory. If you're more of a fashionista or home decorator, you could make a purse or a bead necklace, weave a basket or placemats, or make a bird. If you're a spinster, you could make some newspaper yarn as student Greetje van Tiem did for her Design Academy Eindhoven graduation show. The yarn can be woven into carpets, curtains and upholstery. Here's a tutorial on how to make the yarn. Then there's always papier maché. [more inside]
Up to a point, Lord Copper
The Daily Beast is the latest venture from Tina Brown. (mis)Named after the newspaper in Evelyn Waugh's (awesome) novel Scoop, the site is a mixture of original journalism and curated links from around the web, and of middle and low brow. Already it's attracted attention for both a (previously spiked) feature on Jennifer Lopez and for its logo, which some allege is remarkably familar. Reviews have been so so, but its stated aim to "sift, sort, and curate" finally allows us to get the best of the web...
posted by Hartster at 7:54 AM PST - 47 comments
Post(modern)-Apocalypse
'We are in (a period of) intense turbulence - fasten your seatbelts,' Gonzalez-Foerster told reporters. So why not shelter from the coming apocalypse in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, lying back on a bunk bed, listening to the rain, reading or watching some SF, looking at art.
The Nobel Prize is Shrill
"...For his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity," the 2008 Nobel Prize in economics has been awarded to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 5:56 AM PST - 94 comments
Tubular Bells for the C64
Tubular Bells, arranged for Commodore 64: Part 1, Part 2. (Tubular Bells for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum has been on MeFi previously, but this has far more ring modulation.)
What is the largest prime factor of the sum of the favorited comments from all fibonacci-numbered MeFites?
"Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. Although mathematics will help you arrive at elegant and efficient methods, the use of a computer and programming skills will be required to solve most problems."
Started in 2001 as a sub-section of Maths Challenge, it has since grown large enough to become its own entity. It now boasts over 200 problems, many of them insanely difficult. [more inside]
posted by mystyk at 3:34 AM PST - 31 comments
Essential Credit Crunch Reading
Afraid to read the daily news? Need some broader perspective on The Credit Crunch? There are lots of different ideas by lots of different authors floating about ... [more inside]
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (QT). The words of the Declaration are brought to life in honor of its 60th anniversary (also on YouTube). [Via Cool Hunting]
om sweet om
Contemporary architecture in India, a little look: Odd and unusual buildings l Mumbai 1, 2, 3 l Kerala backwaters l Kolkata l Architectural renderings from the Indian Skyscraper blog. [more inside]
$3 million virtual tour of the Forbidden City
A $3million dollar, 3-year project by IBM to create a virtual tour of China's Forbidden City was released Friday. It is a large download, but there is support for Mac, Linux and Windows. Unlike most virtual tourist projects, this one seems to foreground actual human beings, and not just artifacts (architecture, art). It is based on gaming software but with an emphasis on historical authenticity and "a sense of decorum", meaning "you can't run and you can't fly," in the Forbidden City.
Jazz For the Eye
The iconic photographer William Claxton has died at the age of 80. His unforgettable shots of Miles Davis, Steve McQueen,Chet Baker (the book of his Baker photos here), Bob Dylan, Charlie Parker, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Bill Evans, Lenny Bruce, Frank Sinatra and so many others are legend. His books "Jazz Life" and "Photographic Memory" are great collections, but his official site is probably the best way to appreciate the amazing legacy of work he left behind.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 8:37 PM PST - 13 comments
Ed Wood? Noooooooo!
Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans have been enjoying Rifftrax for a while now [previously], but the movie riffing experience just isn't the same without Mike and the 'bots at the bottom of the screen to watch the movie with us. Now a MST3K and Rifftrax fan has brought the 'bots back in this ten minute "proof of concept"-type video of a MSTed Plan 9 From Outer Space.
posted by Servo5678 at 5:45 PM PST - 26 comments
Colin - no relation to Conor - Oberst won the Hockey Night in Canada new anthem challenge with his entry Canadian Gold, beating out 13-year-old Robert Fraser Burke's Sticks to the Ice and (somehow) Logan Aube's Hockey Scores. (previously)
posted by mannequito at 5:00 PM PST - 35 comments
..an 19MB small, 56k modem capable, opensource, multiplayer Shooter
AssaultCube is a free first-person-shooter. Set in a realistic looking environment, it's fast and arcade-like. Available for Windows, OS X, and Linux (via)
Bad Physics
Recurring science misconceptions in K-6 textbooks: CLOUDS REMAIN ALOFT BECAUSE WATER DROPLETS ARE TINY? Wrong! SOUND TRAVELS BETTER THROUGH SOLIDS & LIQUIDS? No it doesn't. GRAVITY IN SPACE IS ZERO? It's actually strong. THE SKY IS BLUE BECAUSE OF COMPLICATED PHYSICS. No, it's simple. And many more.
posted by vronsky at 3:25 PM PST - 108 comments
Global Favela
The Places We Live is a new project by photographer Jonas Bendiksen from Magnum. Jonas (portfolio) is the author of the book Satellites [previously]. Interview (youtube) [+]
posted by ig at 3:24 PM PST - 8 comments
Remembering Matthew Shepard
Ten years ago today gay college student Matthew Shepard died after having been savagely beaten, left alone for 18-hours and found tied to a fence five days prior on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. America was stunned by the vicious hate crime. As his mother, Judy, pushes for passage of the Matthew Shepard Act, advocating for federal hate crimes legislation, and directs the Matthew Shepard Foundation, folks in Laramie ask: "...how has the town changed since 1998? ...how do we measure that change?" And yet 10 years after Matthew's death the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law has not been expanded to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability due to a veto threat by President Bush. [more inside]
posted by ericb at 12:43 PM PST - 170 comments
Interviews with Venturous Writers
Dalkey Archive conversations with William Burroughs, Angela Carter, Robert Creeley, William Gaddis, William H. Gass, Danilo Kis, Harry Mathews, Richard Powers, Raymond Queneau, Hubert Selby, William T. Vollman, David Foster Wallace, and many other writers.
posted by Iridic at 11:46 AM PST - 9 comments
New York City Studio Envy
Studio visits with artists Cynthia von Buhler, Joyce Pensato, and Ida Applebroog, all set to music.
posted by stagewhisper at 9:38 AM PST - 5 comments
R.I.P Good Times
Sequoia Capital presentation on the bleak scenarios for the economy and how start-ups should prepare. Last week the famous (the firm funded Apple, Oracle, Cisco and Google, among others) venture capital firm Sequoia Capital held a meeting for the firm’s portfolio companies. There, partners presented their views on what went wrong with the economy, what the prospects are for a quick recovery (Hint: the presentation is called 'R.I.P. Good Times' ) and what startups can do to survive. Here are the PowerPoint slides used in their presentation. I suggest a stiff drink before viewing. VIA [more inside]
posted by mojohand at 7:53 AM PST - 55 comments
Visual Comedy
Have you heard the one about the deaf comedian? John Smith is Britain's only BSL (British Sign Language) stand-up.
Credit Crunchy Granola Sweet
How will the financial mess affect you? Will you still have a job? Will your mortgage go up or down? Will your bank account pay more or less? What if you want to buy a house? Or a car? Or have a child? College? Insurance? What if you are dying?What about Religion? And what if you want to get a credit card? First time things get hard? If it is tough, there is always bartering. So, who is winning? [more inside]
Ritual and Witchcraft in Cornwall
Witches of Cornwall. "Macabre evidence of age-old spells surfaces in an archaeologist's front yard." [Via]
When I see three oranges, I juggle. When I see two towers, I walk.
When Man on Wire won a Grand Jury Prize: at Sundance this year, many could hazily remember Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between the World Trade Center Towers in New York in 1974 (previously) but few knew the extent to which the entire endeavor was a wacky multinational caper. [more inside]
looking through old photographs
People sleeping, gently vulnerable and evocative, vintage photographs. [more inside]
My New York
My New York : artists, writers, professionals, and New Yorkers of all stripes talk about what they look forward to seeing in the city this fall.
posted by shivohum at 5:32 PM PST - 17 comments
"...market fundamentalism for the last 25 or so years. And now that world is collapsing... "
Bill Moyers interviews George Soros on the financial crisis. Soros discusses market fundamentalism and the causes of the current crisis, as well as what can be done, and how this meltdown will change the global economy. (via The Big Picture) [more inside]
posted by [expletive deleted] at 5:24 PM PST - 44 comments
The Ham What Am/Not
The myth persisted over the years until it became real even though the truth was known. Now thanks to wonder of the net, we find out that Mama Cass did not die from eating a Ham Sandwich. NSFW
I HV DRM
The book artist Clifton Meador has dabbled in a few other projects, including I HV DRM, a version of Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic speech delivered at the 1963 March on Washington. Meador's edited out the words, leaving only the pauses and the audience response. "We can't remember the words anymore," he says. [more inside]
posted by liketitanic at 5:16 PM PST - 8 comments
Reigning in the beastiality contigent
Man sleeps with cat
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 5:07 PM PST - 67 comments
Climb Dance.
Climb Dance A short (and fast) film about a Pikes Peak International Hill Climb run from 1989. (Warning: Contains a small amount of jazzy piano sandwiched around about five minutes of very loud high RPM engine revving.)
unicode snowman for you
☃ [unicode snowman for you] [more inside]
John McCain and democracy
John McCain served on the advisory board to the U.S. chapter of an international group linked to ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America in the 1980s. As the head of the IRI, he helped finance coups against democratic governments in Haiti and Venezuela. Were those governments fairly elected? The 1984 elections were perhaps the freest and fairest in Nicaraguan history. Aristide...won the first free and fair election in the country’s history with 67 percent of the vote. In Venezuela, all of Chavez's victories in elections were monitored and certified by a variety of observers including the Organization of American States, the European Union and the Carter Center.
Piano Tuna... Parallax Error Beheads You.
M a x T un d r a :v:
Rebranding literature
Cormac McCarthy as “gay porn.” Literary site Bookninja holds a contest to rebrand literary classics with jarringly (but hilariously) out-of-place new cover designs. [more inside]
posted by joeclark at 12:43 PM PST - 53 comments
It’s a scientific fact that anyone entering the distance will grow smaller.
A man ambushed a stone. Caught it. Made it a prisoner.
Put it in a dark room and stood guard over it for the
rest of his life.
Russell Edson is an American poet. More of his work here (beware popups). An appreciation.
posted by generalist at 9:57 AM PST - 12 comments
The Weather Underground
Before it was a website, the Weather Underground[google video, 90 mins] was an off-shoot militant wing of the Students for a Democratic Society. It was responsible for a series of bombings of government buildings, banks and corporate HQ's, as well as Timothy Leary's breakout from prison. They eventually turned themselves in, but few were convicted of any crime, due to misconduct by federal authorities tasked with investigating them. [previously]
posted by empath at 8:30 AM PST - 81 comments
The Bridge to New Zealand
Why I'd Be a Better VP than Sarah Palin
posted by AstroGuy at 7:19 AM PST - 59 comments
Imagine being excited about a Paul McCartney album
Paul is NOT dead. Paul goes into the studio, alone, no songs prepared at all. Thirteen songs in thirteen days -- one each day -- Paul playing every instrument, writing lyrics on the fly, ripping a line from a poem, the next spontaneous, off the cuff, really gutsy. The album, Electric Arguments, to be released next month. [more inside]
posted by dancestoblue at 12:26 AM PST - 116 comments
We can now declare the next president!
There is a litmus test that has predicted the winner and loser of every presidential election over the past 100 years. If the Dow has risen 3.3 percent or more in October, the incumbent party has never lost. If the Dow has dropped 0.5 percent or more, the incumbent party has never won. That is, until 2004. Perhaps a more reliable test is the relative popularity of halloween masks; track your favorite candidate at Amazon or BuyCostumes.
posted by twoleftfeet at 12:05 AM PST - 31 comments
Farmer in Chief
"Dear Mr. President-Elect, It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food." Michael Pollan advises the next president on what he can and should do to remake the way we grow and eat our food. [Via]
Boyfriend proposes over Twitter - Girlfriend suggests space pirate wedding
Boy Tweets Girl Boy meets girl. Boy falls madly in love. Boy tweets marriage proposal. Girl accepts and suggests space pirate/ninja/zombie wedding.
posted by m2002 at 10:42 PM PST - 67 comments
Jan Lewan, Polka King of Swindle
A Metatalk Post about someone's birthday included a sound file that made me think of the Stock Market Slide. Not this one, but rather, this one. [more inside]
posted by Rafaelloello at 10:17 PM PST - 7 comments
Devils in the Details
A luminous dragon climbing the side of a building is almost certain to be fearsome; but, when executed properly, even a sculpture of a bunny rabbit can threaten.... Gargoyles and Grotesques. (some nsfw stonework) [more inside]
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 10:16 PM PST - 5 comments
Unto the combat, gauntlet or gospel, here I defy thee
You can't tase me bro, no, seriously, you can't. The Thor Shield is handy for all your not getting electrocuted needs.
posted by Smedleyman at 10:14 PM PST - 31 comments
For the low, low price of WTF...
Buy the opening page to the Internet!
Haitians are reduced to eating dirt.
Many poor Haitians, driven over the edge by world rising food prices, are now eating cakes of mud, salt and shortening in order to survive. This article in the September issue of National Geographic describes how, thanks to history and other factors such as hurricanes, Haiti has lost its ability to feed itself; more than 90% of the country is deforested. The picture caption in the print version, not seen online, uses the word "clay" instead of "dirt". Bill Quigley wrote about the U.S. role in Haiti's food riots, which claimed six lives last spring.
posted by Melismata at 7:49 PM PST - 33 comments
Say 'Hebbo' to Tarvuism!
Say 'Hebbo' to Tarvuism. Learn more at the Tarvupedia. It's SO easy to join!
posted by jack_mo at 7:39 PM PST - 21 comments
Retina-Searing Portraiture
We Have Lasers!!!!!! At one point in your childhood, maybe you did too?
“Ralph Nader of the cornfields”
Meet Andy Martin, aka Anthony R. Martin-Trigona, perennial losing candidate for public office and one of the truly great vexatious litigators. [more inside]
posted by enn at 6:58 PM PST - 13 comments
Legislative panel concludes that Palin abused the power of her office. A Republican-dominated Alaska State Legislative panel voted unanimously this evening to release to the public the results of the investigation into Governor Sarah Palin's dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. (Full report PDF here) Among four key points released in the report, the most significant "concludes that Palin violated the state's executive branch ethics act, which says that 'each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.'"
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:00 PM PST - 477 comments
flash friday
The 150 Best Online Flash Games grouped according to theme: Action, Aim and Shoot, Arcade and Classic, Escape the Room, Graphical Adventures, Guitar Hero, Jewels, Logic, Multiplayer, Physics, Puzzles, Racing, Reflex, RPG, Shoot It Far, Shoot-’em-Up, Skill, Sports, Strategy, Weird. Includes a link to every game on the list, a visual and mini description and how each one is played.
Hitmen For Destiny
Hitmen For Destiny: a weird, hilarious webcomic. Google suggests it's virtually undiscovered, but I think it's almost at Achewood level. The art seems crude at first glance, but with a little reading the distinctive brilliance becomes apparent. The plot appears to be something to do with monsters, alternate worlds, and destiny. Key features are odd humor and some insanely detailed taxonomy of imaginary creatures. There are many high points in the already long, convoluted story, but this installment may give as good an idea as any of the flavor. [more inside]
posted by misterzoo at 4:49 PM PST - 35 comments
Cursor.org RIP?
As of today, the truly excellent media filter & news digest Cursor.org is suspending publication. [more inside]
posted by jammy at 4:41 PM PST - 8 comments
Texas requires proof of legal status for a driver's license
As of October 1, 2008, the state of Texas now requires that driver's license applicants show proof of legal immigration status when getting an original, renewal, or duplicate license. For those who are not citizens or permanent residents, the license will have on its face an indication of the expiration date of legal status. [more inside]
posted by marble at 3:59 PM PST - 58 comments
The Iron Heel, published a century ago this year, is a novel by Jack London about socialist revolution in the United States. It is set mostly between 1912 and 1932, with a foreword and numerous footnotes written from the point of view of a historian who has just discovered the manuscript some 700 years later. Here is an excerpt (which is printed on the back cover of some editions) from chapter five:
"This, then, is our answer. We have no words to waste on you. When you reach out your vaunted strong hands for our palaces and purpled ease, we will show you what strength is. In roar of shell and shrapnel and in whine of machine-guns will our answer be couched. We will grind you revolutionists down under our heel, and we shall walk upon your faces. The world is ours, we are its lords, and ours it shall remain. As for the host of labor, it has been in the dirt since history began, and I read history aright. And in the dirt it shall remain so long as I and mine and those that come after us have the power. There is the word. It is the king of words--Power. Not God, not Mammon, but Power. Pour it over your tongue till it tingles with it. Power."
The horror... the horror
Mother's Cookies is no more.
posted by Reverend Robbie at 2:27 PM PST - 59 comments
Mailbox Art: 20 Cool and Creative Postboxes
posted by An Infinity Of Monkeys at 2:01 PM PST - 5 comments
Van Halen at the Woz's US Festival, 1983
In 1982, Steve Wozniak sank a lot of his own money into creating the US Festivals -- the first large concerts to celebrate the merging of music, technology (and money). For the second (and final) US Festival in 1983, Van Halen was given 1.5 million dollars, up front, to headline the 1983 US Festival. What did they give back to their fans? Well, about eighty-four seconds into their first song, David Lee Roth screamed, "I forgot the f@¢₭n' words!" Along with a swipe at the Clash, the set that followed remains evar a drunken classic of testosterone-fueled pop metal campiness. About 3:20 into this clip, DLR launches into his epic fail version of "God Bless the Child" -- 'nuff said.
Dear Santa, can I have one of these notebooks for Christmas please?
Notebook is a short animated film by Evelien Lohbeck. Just graduated from the St Joost Academy of Arts in the Netherlands, she is already creating wonderful animations. And Notebook has just been awarded first prize in the Netherlands Online Film Festival.
posted by ceri richard at 1:37 PM PST - 10 comments
Everyone gather 'round the piano!
Snoop Doggy Dogg and The Dogg Pound freestyling over Dre playing the piano. (SLYT)
posted by ignignokt at 11:43 AM PST - 33 comments
Firing Blanks
Jame's Gunn's PG Porn ('For people who like everything about porn...except the sex.') - Nailing Your Wife starring Firefly's Nathan Fillion. Interview.
Huh? What time is it?
You fell asleep, watching a dvd. It's Friday, so after a long week, you decide to put in a movie and tune out the world. When you regain consciousness, you wonder if you even made it 5 minutes in.
posted by ninjew at 11:20 AM PST - 57 comments
El Compa Vs The Cisco Kid
Would you like some Narco ballards with your network software?
posted by Artw at 10:47 AM PST - 9 comments
More shark, less snark
Shark Virgin Birth! Praise Jawsus! (punchline stolen from Halcyon) Meanwhile, in Dubai, they're so rich they can focus their attention on Sammy the Shark, and a museum in Hawaii is trying to dispel fears raised by recent shark sightings with an exhibition titled "Megalodon: Largest Shark That Ever Lived". And if you always wanted a shark of your own, contact Big Al. Just remember the words of Alby Singer.
posted by wendell at 10:18 AM PST - 12 comments
The states of marriage
Just as a California campaign for a Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage (allowed since June 16, 2008) is heating up the Connecticut Supreme Court has followed suit and overturned bans on same-sex marriage in that state. [more inside]
posted by liketitanic at 9:13 AM PST - 86 comments
*Censored*
Project Censored 2009 brings you 25 stories censored this past year. This essay by Amanda Witherall introduces Project Censored as well as summarizes the top 10 stories selected. [more inside]
posted by infini at 7:47 AM PST - 65 comments
Doctor assisted suicide for the terminally ill, or those in chronic pain, is an issue that some find themselves opposed to. Dan Savage, of Savage Love fame, writes about the death of his mother and the implications of religious opposition to such measures.
posted by sotonohito at 7:25 AM PST - 99 comments
Blind Muslims with guide dogs
Blind Muslims with guide dogs. Dogs are usually considered unclean, but one U.K. imam carried out research and determined that a dog in service to, or trained by, a person could be allowed in a mosque. [more inside]
posted by joeclark at 6:46 AM PST - 44 comments
You certainly do remind me of Adolf Hitler.
I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me. You too can win arguments. Simply follow these rules.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:43 AM PST - 53 comments
Pocketful of dough
Pocketful of dough - an article on where the art of, er, tipping up front can get you. Originally printed in a year 2000 edition of Gourmet. Via Juicy Tidbits.
posted by nthdegx at 6:05 AM PST - 59 comments
Let's sit down and talk this over.
President Martti Ahtisaari wins the Nobel Peace Prize. A former Finnish President, an UN envoy, a social democrat, a school teacher and founder of Crisis Management Initiative has negotiated for peace in many troubled areas for three decades. Last fall and last summer CMI (without Ahtisaari's presence) called former Northern Ireland and South African militants to use their experience for finding Iraqi factions a way out of bloodshed. A plan for Kosovo. Negotiations ending 30-year conflict in Aceh, Indonesia. Negotiating Namibia independence. Got conflict? Mr. Ahtisaari is your man.
posted by Free word order! at 4:30 AM PST - 16 comments
Another potentially huge settlement day for CDS contracts ...
Credit Default Swaps (CDS) are derivative instruments providing the purchaser with protection against default on an underlying financial asset. When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac technically defaulted on September 7th there was much speculation that the CDS market would collapse as a result of protection being invoked on $1.4 trillion dollars worth of debt. On October 6th these derivative contracts settled, and the CDS market didn't collapse with recovery rates of 92% being observed. Today CDS contracts protecting against the default of Lehman Brothers settle. The problem? Because industry lacks a central clearinghouse for these derivatives, nobody is really sure how many CDS contracts were written either by Lehman or by other banks providing protection against a Lehman default. Next on the list are CDS' covering Washington Mutual, which are due to settle October 23rd.
Meanwhile efforts to create a clearing house continue, as some folks speculate that the settlement of Credit Default Swaps is a major reason why banks are hoarding cash.
posted by Mutant at 2:32 AM PST - 155 comments
Branding TV and movies
Remember the days of ACME products and cans that simply said BEER? Product placement in television and film is so commonplace that "product integration" is where the money is now. Some writers are getting very good at it while others wonder if it will be possible to survive without it.
posted by kyleg at 12:58 AM PST - 43 comments
Man can moonwalk straight to the 9th Circuit
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rap, by the Notorious B.O.A.L.T. (audio NSFW) [more inside]
Paranoia is a heightened state of awareness
The fringes of knowledge Amok publishers specializes in collecting the finest of esoterica. Back before the Internet had everything, people with deviant tastes would have to rely on mail order catalogs such as Amok. It has published a compendium of bizarre books known as Dispatches since the 80s. [more inside]
posted by bodywithoutorgans at 8:07 PM PST - 26 comments
Boys and Girls: A Short Book about Choosing If and When to Have Sex. (Narrated by a sweet sounding lassie.)
The Palin Mob
The Palin Mob "It's no wonder that the slightest incitement from Sarah Palin or John McCain will turn one of their rallies into a lynch mob. Just talk to the folks who attend.
My camera was rolling for literally seconds before people happily said to me, on camera, that Barack Obama is a terrorist. If I hadn’t spent most of my time at the event inside, waiting for the candidates to show up, I could have gotten dozens of these people on tape."
Via Blogger Interrupted
posted by 4midori at 6:28 PM PST - 489 comments
Take It Slow, Take It Easy on Me
Control time... A face gets punched, a face gets water-ballooned, and a dog laps water (with its face!) at your accelerative discretion. (If that's not enough... Previously on Metafilter.)
posted by pokermonk at 6:14 PM PST - 6 comments
OMG life is just an imitation of art amirite
xkcd had an idea to counter YouTube comment stupidity, and apparently someone at YouTube was paying attention. Not everyone is convinced however. (And there's always Comment Snob).
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:53 PM PST - 31 comments
I Am Not Tom's Friend
Will You Be My Friend [Flash]
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 4:04 PM PST - 12 comments
Donna Brazile Is Not Going to the Back of the Bus
Donna Brazile Is Not Going to the Back of the Bus. Stirring remarks from an October 4, 2008, New Yorker panel discussion, "If I Were Running This Campaign." [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 3:56 PM PST - 44 comments
Grzegorz Jonkajtys / Ark
Grzegorz Jonkajtys's short films include Mantis, Legacy, and the Best of Show winner at Siggraph 2007, Ark. (All movies are QuickTime.) More on the making of Ark here. [via]
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 3:48 PM PST - 3 comments
USGS Photo Library
U. S. Geological Survey Photographic Library [more inside]
posted by sleepy pete at 3:36 PM PST - 8 comments
neurobiology of trust
As the market plummets, it might be interesting to look at the neurological background in the breakdown of trust. The author, Jonah Lehrer, is a young brainiac writer for Seed and the excellent Frontal Cortex. l Scientists immediately discovered a strong neural signal that drove many of the investment decisions. The signal was fictive learning. l One way to think of the financial markets right now is that instead of being populated by rational agents, they're full of people with borderline personality disorder. [more inside]
Geowanking
"We can have all the applications and Internet connectivity [...] but that still won't get at issues of lack of electricity and cartographic literacy and suppression of geospatial information by the state and their complicit corporations" reads a recent post on Geowanking, a mailing list for GIS nerds. [SLMLP] [more inside]
You Can't Do This To Me/Us, You Bastards
The New York Times reports that tens of thousands of voters from swing states have been illegally purged from voter registration lists using social security numbers. Unsure whether your vote will count? Check here.
Searching For Robert Johnson: Guitar expert spots new photograph on eBay auction
...As he pored over the mass of texts and thumbnail photos that the eBay search engine had pulled up on that day in 2005, one strangely worded listing caught Schein’s eye. It read, “Old Snapshot Blues Guitar B.B. King???” He clicked on the link, then took in the sepia-toned image that opened on his monitor. Two young black men stared back at Schein from what seemed to be another time. They stood against a plain backdrop wearing snazzy suits, hats, and self-conscious smiles. The man on the left held a guitar stiffly against his lean frame. Neither man looked like B. B. King, but as Schein studied the figure with the guitar, noticing in particular the extraordinary length of his fingers and the way his left eye seemed narrower and out of sync with his right, it occurred to him that he had stumbled across something significant and rare... the more convinced he became that it depicted one of the most mysterious and mythologized blues artists produced by the Delta: the guitarist, singer, and songwriter whom Eric Clapton once anointed “the most important blues musician who ever lived.” That’s not B. B. King, Schein said to himself. Because it’s Robert Johnson.
Searching for Robert Johnson reveals not only what may be the third picture of Robert Johnson but a Byzantine struggle over his legacy as well.
posted by y2karl at 12:26 PM PST - 29 comments
Beyond the Reach of God
Beyond the Reach of God. Thought experiments involving the God-universe and the Nature-universe, the Turing-complete Game of Life, and a lot of insightful back-and-forth in the comment section, to boot. One of the most interesting and thought-provoking essays I've read on the Internet in a very long time, by Eliezer Yudkowsky on his blog, Overcoming Bias (via).
posted by WCityMike at 12:25 PM PST - 64 comments
Skin Deep.
A beautification engine developed by computer scientists from Israel. Before and After shots.
posted by gman at 12:10 PM PST - 67 comments
Canary in the coal mine...
Iceland's last non state-owned bank is nationalised, with subsidiaries shut down in Finland, refusing to pay depositors in the UK and in adminstration in Luxemberg. Iceland has had to shut down trading on the stock market to stop panic dumping, and has become one of the most state run economies in the world. For everyone who wondered what true worst case is, this might be it (saving the Weimar scenario, but the US is too sane for that).
posted by jaduncan at 11:32 AM PST - 74 comments
Uncanny Carne?
Hot Dogs in Hot Love. Banksy is back with a gallery show in NYC featuring crazy robotic food. At least I hope these are robots.
posted by Paid In Full at 10:51 AM PST - 14 comments
A few words from a beloved U.S. President on the banking crisis
On the Oct. 7th Daily Show , Sarah Vowell mentioned that she is so desperate for Presidential leadership that she listened to FDR's Fireside Chats (from the Great Depression of the 1930s) and felt a little better. Beginning March 4th, 1933, and running through March 1st, 1945 FDR's fireside chats were a staple in American Homes. The news of the day, brought to you directly from the commander in chief himself. These are those broadcasts. (#2 is his first, on the banking crisis.)
China coal powerplant myths debunked
MIT report debunks China energy myth. A detailed analysis of powerplants in China by MIT researchers debunks the widespread notion that outmoded energy technology or the utter absence of government regulation is to blame for that country's notorious air-pollution problems. [more inside]
posted by stbalbach at 10:44 AM PST - 11 comments
That's so... the children's insult of choice!
AS OF 10/08/2008, THERE WERE OVER 80,100 PAGES ONLINE WITH THE PHRASE "That's so gay."
Hillary Duff is here to elevate teen discourse! And here's a handy printout.
How 'gay' became children's insult of choice.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:16 AM PST - 261 comments
NSA Has ‘Routinely’ Listened In On Americans’ Phone Calls, Passed Around ‘Salacious’ Bits
"Ever since President Bush confirmed the existence of a National Security Administration wiretapping program in late 2005, he has insisted it is aimed only at terrorists’ calls and protects Americans’ civil liberties ("This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America — and I repeat: limited.")....However, ABC News reports [text with embedded video] that the NSA frequently listened to and transcribed the private phone calls of Americans abroad....These conversations included those of American soldiers stationed in Iraq and American aid workers abroad, such as Doctors Without Borders."* [more inside]
posted by ericb at 9:51 AM PST - 75 comments
Nobel Prize Chemistry 2008: The notorious GFP
The 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to scientists who advanced the use of jellyfish green florescent protein, or GFP (previously), an indispensable tool in molecular biology. The man who discovered the GFP gene, however, is doing something quite different these days. [more inside]
posted by NikitaNikita at 9:38 AM PST - 13 comments
The other kind of free trade
Smuggler's Britain tells "the fascinating story of smuggling in 18th and 19th century Britain, when high taxes led to an dramatic increase in illegal imports. As the 'free trade'" grew, smugglers openly landed contraband in full view of the customs authorities: columns of heavily-armed thugs protected the cargoes." Includes a gazetteer with Google maps links so you can scope out some lonely cove to land contraband of your own in the footsteps of your forefathers and introduces you to famous smugglers like Isaac Gulliver, who never killed a man in a long career. Though of course, it was an enterprise where things often would turn ugly.
posted by Abiezer at 8:07 AM PST - 7 comments
5& 1/2 hour no-knead bread
Mark Bittman updates the no-knead bread recipe to make it faster, healthier. For the four of you that don't read Lifehacker or Mark Bittman's pieces in the New York Times, but who love baking bread. [more inside]
Zip code with a capital C O D E.
Return to sender: Artist puts Royal Mail to the test - "To put them to the test, Harriet Russell concealed the addresses of 130 letters to herself in a series of increasingly complex puzzles and ciphers. Among the disguises she employed were dot-to-dot drawings, anagrams and cartoons. The answer, it seems, was very far indeed. Amazingly, only 10 failed to complete their journey back to her." Be sure to click the "more pictures" link to the right for more samples. Via one.point.zero.
Isn't it a long way down?
Ain't this cute: The US State Dept. has outsourced a Private military contractor to investigate Blackwater. There are still some questions in the air for U.S. Investigations Services (USIS) regarding Ted Westhusing. There is Controversy In The Military; Will Anything Change? Remember that Military Rules Don't Apply when Outsourcing Fear. ( Related 1, 2, 3 ).
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio Receives Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature goes to French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. Here's an old interview, a short video interview (in French) and a short story (in English).
posted by Kattullus at 4:21 AM PST - 34 comments
Paavo Haavikko (1931-2008)
Paavo Haavikko, one of Finland's (and Europe's) foremost poets, died earlier this week. As well as poetry, his seventy or so published works included essays, novels, plays for the stage, radio & TV, and opera libretti. (via) [more inside]
posted by misteraitch at 1:28 AM PST - 8 comments
How We Evolve
How We Evolve: "A growing number of scientists argue that human culture itself has become the foremost agent of biological change, making us — for the past 10,000 years or so — the inadvertent architects of our own future selves." [more inside]
I drink it up. Everyday. I drink the blood of lamb from Bandy's tract.
Oil sands will pollute Great Lakes The environmental impacts of Alberta's oil sands will not be restricted to Western Canada, researchers say, but will extend thousands of kilometres away to the Great Lakes, threatening water and air quality around the world's largest body of fresh water. *****Report: How the Oil Sands Got to the Great Lakes Basin***** (pdf) Policy makers around the lakes, in both Canada and the U.S., are largely unaware that the tar sands will lead to massive industrial development in their region, and consequently have no strategy to minimize the environmental impacts. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 10:49 PM PST - 33 comments
Unprotected Memory
So, you watched the movie Tron, and now you want to run your computerized guy off of the game grid and into the rest of the computer system? That's exactly what Daniel Wellman did on his Apple IIgs.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 9:27 PM PST - 34 comments
P/E Ratios, The other elephant in the room
Down, but pehaps not down enough P/E Ratios historically revert to 11, at least from 1871-2003 after any bubble, but somehow they did not revert that far after the dot-com bust [more inside]
posted by Rafaelloello at 8:53 PM PST - 24 comments
Morbid viewer is morbid
Does this look infected to you? A Flickr pool that taps into the same part of your brain that makes you slow down to stare at a car accident. NSFL (lunch). [more inside]
Where billionaires shop to build their libraries
Jay Walker's Library was just profiled by Wired [via], but they failed to mention where many of those books came from. Big players like Maggs, Simon Finch and the Baumans still compose most of the rare book world. (Heritage is gone but Michael Sharp got four of their employees.) They're all excellent places to shop if you're building an Überlibrary, but, if you're Jay Walker, you start with Phillip J. Pirages. [more inside]
posted by nímwunnan at 6:50 PM PST - 30 comments
japanorama
Japanorama with Jonathan Ross, BBC (nsfw)::part 1::Keiichi Tanaami::urban vinyl::anime::gloomy bear::season 2::part 2::part 3::Takarazuka interview::season 3::2::3::Swords::Samurai::Ninja
An Important Angry Work Of Art
Charlie Brooker - Tapping The Wire (1, 2, 3).
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:09 PM PST - 69 comments
Right to Vote.
As we approach Nov. 4, I'm reminded that an estimated 5.3 million Americans are prohibited from voting because of a felony conviction. The ACLU breaks it down by state.
posted by lunit at 2:46 PM PST - 145 comments
Edits we can believe in
He holds a degree in jam-making. His stepmother is a former stripper by the name of Kandy Caine. He once appeared in a Backstreet Boys video. He's Senator Julian Polonius Foley Marcos DeWiki III, and he's running for President. (more) (via)
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:31 AM PST - 22 comments
Terminator, Phase One
Cyberdyne. Works on robotic systems that shouldn't kill you unless you are named John Connor. And, maybe not then. Cyberdyne. Works on robotic systems that could actually help you walk. Does it help any that they named it HAL?
posted by dwivian at 10:59 AM PST - 26 comments
Sad Guys on Trading Floors.
Sad Guys on Trading Floors. (via)
posted by longdaysjourney at 9:53 AM PST - 54 comments
"I wanted to hug him, for him to meet my son."
"Girl, he died a hero with tons of people loving him." A jack-of-all-trades worker from Florida came to Houston to help clean up in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, and was killed while trying to save three dogs on a freeway. At first, it seemed the man, while praised as a local hero, and receiving tons of support in death from animal lovers, would remain an unknown loner in death as he had been in life. Then a Google search and an exchange of e-mails led one Houston woman to the man's daughter, living in Pittsburgh. The young woman had been searching for her father for thirteen years.
I will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall.
Fire, brimstone & pee. (SLYT)
posted by felix betachat at 9:16 AM PST - 38 comments
Storytime with Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman's latest work, The Graveyard Book, is a kind of undead Jungle Book, with a man-child being raised by various ghosts and ghouls rather than animals. He's been the whole thing a chapter at a time on each stop of his American promotional tour, and posting the videos online (and blogging about it of course), which means that with tonights reading the entire thing will be available online.
posted by Artw at 9:03 AM PST - 38 comments
The scorched-birdfeeder response to information overload
"I'll argue for the sake of arguing that we as human beings have a finite supply of attention for ambient awareness of things around the world.... And the fact that I know just a little bit too much about popular television due to twitter has to be responsible for some other deficit in my life..." Twitter zero: One man's experiment in staying connected to the public-soundbite world without becoming overwhelmed by it.
posted by ardgedee at 8:57 AM PST - 10 comments
Always going to give you up.
YouTube, now in Quad-Resolution! (QLYT)
"I am not a violent person by nature. I do not enjoy the idea of walking up to strangers and punching them, even if they are fascists. It is just something that needs to be done."
Bash The Fash: Anti-fascist recollections 1984-93.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:39 AM PST - 26 comments
Yes, I remember the night...
I was dancing with my darling to the Tennessee Waltz when an old friend I happened to see I introduced him to my loved one and while they were dancing my friend stole my sweetheart from me... [NOTE: see hoverovers for link details]
Computer game forecasts EOTWAWKI by 2042
According to the Global Extinction Awareness System (GEAS, by the Institute For the Future) - a simulation based on "the worlds’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game" - by the year 2042 AD there is a potentially terminal combination of five so-called “super-threats” which represent a collision of environmental, economic, and social risks. Acting together, the five super-threats may irreversibly overwhelm homo sapiens ability to survive. Spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General “We are grateful for GEAS’ work, and we treat their latest forecast with seriousness and profound gravity.”[[press release]]. The game runs from Oct.8 to Nov. 6, players wanted.
Creative mind, troubled soul
"The arts are more dangerous [than other professions] because they require sensitivity to a large extent ... If you go too far you can pay a price -- you can be too sensitive to live in this world." Pondering the link between creativity and depression. [more inside]
Frugality may be termed the daughter of prudence, the sister of temperance, and the parent of liberty
If you listen to BBC radio, especially in these troubled times, you may have heard consumer expert Martin Lewis (on one, two or four). His moneysavingexpert site is comprehensive and UK-centric (and regularly referenced on the green). However, the real gem is the site's huge forum, with masses of information that might be useful to just about anybody. [more inside]
posted by primer_dimer at 3:56 AM PST - 12 comments
Contextual YouTube advertisement for Wii
A novel youtube page promoting Nintendo's latest platform game. The page itself adds context as the video progresses.
vegetarians on the cutting edge
[warning: not safe for anytime, extreme piercing] The Vegetarian Festival in Phuket, when hundreds of spirit mediums torture themselves by piercing sharp spears through their cheeks and other parts of the body. This is believed to avert evil spirits from the community. 28 September - 7 October 2008. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 2:42 AM PST - 20 comments
Icesave closes its doors
Icelandic internet bank Icesave has closed its doors. The Icelandic government has told the UK chancellor that it cannot pay back the money of UK depositors. [more inside]
posted by Happy Dave at 1:59 AM PST - 84 comments
Locked-In Syndrome
The Unspeakable Odyssey of the Motionless Boy. "How much of our humanity are we prepared to cede to machines? This is a dilemma of the future, but it's not much of a concern for Erik Ramsey. Erik can't move. He can't blink his eyes. And he hasn't said a word since 1999. But now, thanks to an electrode that was surgically implanted in his brain and linked to a computer, his nine-year silence is about to end." [Via]
Son of Citation Machine!!!
"Holy easy citation Batman!" [more inside]
posted by auralcoral at 11:36 PM PST - 27 comments
Reality sucks. Let's escape for a little while.
Here there be dragons. On 8 October 2008, the #1 book on Amazon.com was Christopher Paolini’s Brisingr, the third book of the Inheritance quartet. The books recount the adventures of Eragon and Saphira, the last Free Dragon, but they are hardly free from past influences. In medieval lore, dragons are man’s great foe, a monstrous version of the serpent from the garden of Eden. Raphael’s painting (c. 1506) of St. George and the Dragon evokes this idea, but dragons and their heraldic relatives, the wyverns, gained a more positive reputation over time. Look to Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle for the inspiration behind Paolini's dragons, or try Dealing with Dragons, geared towards younger readers. There be dragons on bookshelves everywhere.
posted by woodway at 11:03 PM PST - 45 comments
Mad tooth bar chin-up
Someone finally figured out the lyrics to the WKRP in Cincinnati closing theme song. (SLYT)
posted by evilcolonel at 10:49 PM PST - 34 comments
Space Tarzan
Aether: lonely boy befriends a mysterious monster, leaves Earth to explore the galaxy. A quick, relaxing, hypnotic, motion-aftereffect-inducing flash game. Programming/music/design by Tyler Glaiel with further art/design by Edmund McMillen. [more inside]
posted by Korou at 10:03 PM PST - 14 comments
Like nailing Jello to the wall.
"Nailing down Senator Obama's various tax proposals is like nailing Jello to the wall." Well, how hard is it, really? Initial attempts are not too promising. Some creative engineering fares better, but not a whole lot. Of course, Jesus can help. Oh well -- at least you can set it on fire. [more inside]
posted by limon at 9:28 PM PST - 33 comments
The wrong fonts in ‘Mad Men’ (and sometimes the right ones)
Definitive guide to fonts on Mad Men . Mostly the fonts that didn’t exist during the time of the show. Not every single thing is “historically accurate,” apparently. [more inside]
posted by joeclark at 9:18 PM PST - 23 comments
One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
A massive global study concludes a quarter of the 5,487 wild mammal species on the planet are threatened with extinction, according to a report released Monday at a World Conservation Congress in Spain. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 9:01 PM PST - 7 comments
Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
posted by phrontist at 8:34 PM PST - 28 comments
Well there goes Reykjavik
More subprime collateral damage. Iceland's now getting a $5B bailout from Russia. What does Russia want in return? Access to shipping lanes? The old US base? via
posted by blahblah at 8:29 PM PST - 48 comments
Free video game music - whoo-hoo!
CNet's Music site is one of my favorite sources of often surprisingly good independent music. As I write this, I'm listening to Zo Wanti Music's Lost Ship, a mellow New Age environmental piece that is very nice and relaxing. They have an enormous selection of music here, but one of the oddest and sometimes most rewarding to pick through is the game soundtracks/musical scores section. The artists listed here all compose music for video games (or have in the past). It's strangely fun to listen to some of their pieces and wonder what game that could belong to.
posted by Reverend Robbie at 7:20 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
Write In My Journal
Write In My Journal "I simply ask people to write in my journal. What they write is up to them...." Such a simple, elegantly beautiful idea.
posted by azul at 5:59 PM PST - 11 comments
Zeitgeist: Addendum
We already talked (self-link, sorta) about Zeitgeist: The Movie. Its author, Peter Joseph, recently released Zeitgeist: Addendum. (beware: last two links are two hour movies) This time, it’s about money and debt, scarcity and resources. The first, financial part may look like an extended Ron Paul ad, but then there’s a sudden turn towards resource-based utopian techno-communalism, and an endorsement for The Venus project. It seems to me like "Kropotkinian anarchism meets The Matrix". In these rough times, is it time for a big leap? [Also announced: The Zeitgeist Movement, still not active]
posted by Baldons at 4:40 PM PST - 21 comments
A More Palatable Proposal
Yes We Can (eat babies)!
posted by youarenothere at 4:21 PM PST - 41 comments
Screw Disneyland. We're Going to the St. Regis Resort Monarch Beach!
Last month (Sept. 16, 2008) the American taxpayers bailed out insurance giant American International Group (AIG) to the tune of $85 billion dollars. So, asked "what ya' goin' do now after the bailout?" top executives said "party it up at the St. Regis Resort Monarch Beach (Dana Point, CA) for a week (September 22 - 30, 2008). Total costs? Invoice: $443,343.71. "$200,000 dollars for hotel rooms. Almost $150,000 for catered banquets. AIG spent $23,000 at the hotel spa and another $1,400 at the salon." Said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD): "They were getting manicures, facials, pedicures and massages while American people were footing the bill. And they spent another $10,000 dollars for I don’t know what this is, leisure dining. Bars?"
posted by ericb at 4:00 PM PST - 147 comments
Ray and Roast Beef get physical
Chris Onstad's online comic Achewood has recently gotten some semi-mainstream media attention: A Salon piece and an NPR interview with the author related to the publication of a print version of the ultra-violent epic The Great Outdoor Fight of 2006. The online version in its entirety begins innocently enough here. previously.
Waiting on you hand and foot
A restaurant in Japan employs Monkey Waiters. They're not the worst waiters in the world and you only have to tip them with edamame.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 12:12 PM PST - 60 comments
"We had hoped to finish last, but Portugal decided otherwise."
Marc Moulin, Belgian pop culture polymath and electropop pioneer, has died. Moulin was probably best known outside of Belgium for the electronic group Telex, founded in 1978 with Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers. Telex scored an international hit with Moskow Diskow, made a great video for their version of Twist a Saint-Tropez, did anything but Rock Around the Clock and, most famously, entered the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest with a cheerfully mocking song titled Euro-Vision. [more inside]
posted by grounded at 12:09 PM PST - 8 comments
video art 1984 1- 4
Video Art 1984
posted by vronsky at 11:19 AM PST - 13 comments
Kilmer House
Kilmer House, the most engrossing corporate-based blog I've ever experienced, tells "The Story Behind Johnson & Johnson and Its People", from the days of the company's inception. Posts include strange products like silk and velvet Beauty Spots, a sherry-based cola drink, pain relievers laced with belladonna and kidney plasters; the difficulty marketing early feminine products to a prudish society; Doctor Dan the Bandage Man; why J & J is allowed to use the Red Cross on its packaging; and the iconic artistry behind the company's early ad campaigns.
posted by misha at 11:17 AM PST - 9 comments
Now we need to implement this for Metafilter comments.
Google rolls out Mail Goggles, designed to prevent drunk or otherwise impaired emailing by forcing you to answer basic math questions. And no, it's not April 1st.
posted by mattholomew at 11:11 AM PST - 67 comments
Sweden - a safe haven for... innovation?
Talking about Sweden and music has up until now either dealt with The Swedish Music Export Phenomenon or how Sweden is a safe haven for pirates. That might change now. Today Spotify launched (that is, for people in Sweden, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland or Norway). A streaming music application that provides full on demand playing. Available in ad-supported (30s twice per hour) free mode or premium mode (~$15 per month). [more inside]
posted by mnsc at 10:47 AM PST - 7 comments
Translated for Courage
“I have seen many Anne Franks in Cambodia. ...Under Pol Pot, many children were separated from their families. They faced starvation and were sent to the front to fight and die,” she explains. “Like Anna, they never knew peace and the warmth of a home.” Translated by Sayana Ser with help from the Dutch embassy in Cambodia (Kampuchea, Khmer), The Diary of Anne Frank has now become one of the most popular and discussed books in this war-torn country.
posted by parmanparman at 10:23 AM PST - 7 comments
Take THAT, Louis Phillipe!
Thomas Nast, Honoré Daumier, Bill Mauldin, David Low, Theodor Geisel, Herblock, and good grief, more Herblock! In honor of some sort of election that's apparently coming up, Comics Should Be Good! will be featuring one ink-stained satirist every day this October! Visit the Stars of Political Cartooning Month Archive for daily updates.
Metafilter -> MeFi -> Mefi
Evolution of Corporate Logos
posted by gwint at 8:50 AM PST - 76 comments
The women of Bamian.
"Far away from the Taliban insurgency, in this most peaceful corner of Afghanistan, a quiet revolution is gaining pace. Women are driving cars — a rarity in Afghanistan — working in public offices and police stations, and sitting on local councils. There is even a female governor, the first and only one in Afghanistan." Carlotta Gall writes about promising developments in Bamian. (NY Times; print version.)
posted by languagehat at 8:22 AM PST - 19 comments
Don Helms, steel guitar master, passes on.
Don Helms, the steel guitarist in Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys band, died on August 11. He was 81. Don provided the smooth-as-silk string stylings for over 100 of Hank's tunes, including Hey Good Lookin' and I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. See Don demonstrate some of that steel guitar goodness in a snazzy version of Blues Stay Away From Me, or this instrumental rendition of Hank's Cold Cold Heart, or this sprightly little number, Fireball Mail. [more inside]
Talking Points Memo: How it began
…if you are the single newspaper in San Francisco or Kansas City or St. Louis, you are just highly constrained about how rigorous you can be in the accuracy of your reporting. Because the whole model is: You are appealing to everybody. Because the whole model is: You are appealing to everybody. … That's why the existence of an independent media sector is so important.
Talking Points Memo is one of the more notable successes in independent journalism and using blogs as a format for journalism. It has broken at least a couple of stories that got picked up by the mainstream press: The Duke Cunningham bribery scandal, and the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal. It's grown from being a one-man shop in 2000 to a staff of ten today. Josh Marshall talks about how it came to be.
posted by adamrice at 7:13 AM PST - 51 comments
Town Meeting! Town Meeting!
Ah, the town-hall debate. Where Joe Sixpack and Jane Chardonnay can have their chance to ask a presidential candidate just about anything. Of course, such an open format can sometimes lead to uncomfortable moments for a candidate (although tonight might not have such fireworks). [more inside]
posted by shiu mai baby at 7:10 AM PST - 877 comments
Oasis have been accused of plagiarizing Cliff Richard. Does 'The Turning' have a certain resemblance to 'Devil Woman'? If so, it would not the first time... [more inside]
2008 Nobel Prize for Physics
Nobels for Physics announced. The prize will be shared between three individuals, including one American teaching at the University of Chicago. The other two winners are from Japan, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa .
posted by leybman at 5:38 AM PST - 19 comments
TIGsource Demakes competition results
Nearly a month ago jbickers made a post that mentioned the TIGsource Demakes competition. The competition is over, and the winners have been announced. All of these are playable. Most are for Windows, except for those that are Flash or something else:
1. Soundless Mountain II (Atari 2600 Silent Hill) (from previous post)
2. Gang Garrison II (Kyntt Stories-like Team Fortress 2, complete with multiplayer)
3. Aquarium (NES-ish Aquaria)
4. Little Girl in Underland (Soviet McGee's Alice)
5. House Globe (Homeworld)
6. S.T.A.C.K.E.R. (Nuclear Tetris)
7. Squish
(Crush is a PSP game where the player can switch the world between a 2D and 3D representation. Squish is a game in which the player switches between a 2D and a 1D representation. See for yourself.) 8. (tie) Fillauth and Advanced Set The Rope On Fire Cartridge (an Intellivision-like remake of this, previously mentioned)
9. Sexy Seaside Vollyball (NSFW, pixelated breasts) (Sinclair Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Vollyball)
10. Macarena of the Missing (A thematically-appropriate demake of Limbo of the Lost)
Lots more after the jump! [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 3:19 AM PST - 29 comments
ferroequinology, the study of iron horses
Trains of Russia, photos from Pavoroz.com, a site about the railways of Russia, the Baltics and the C.I.S. (Commonwealth of Independent States). More than 50 000 pictures of steam, diesel, and electric locomotives, EMU and DMU trains, draisines, stations, tracks, etc. The collection is updated daily. The Turkestan-Siberian railway. [more inside]
Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharped dress man (with a baby)
Yes we can (hold babies)!
Monolith delivery?
Discovered just last night by the Catalina Sky Survey at Mount Lemmon Observatory, asteroid 2008 TC will enter the upper atmosphere (and should explode spectacularly) over Northern Sudan in around 30 minutes.
posted by JaredSeth at 7:13 PM PST - 45 comments
A coup has taken place
Naomi Wolf: "A coup has taken place." An interview with Naomi Wolf author of "Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries" given October 4, 2008 on Mind Over Matters, KEXP 90.3 FM Seattle
posted by augustweed at 5:54 PM PST - 66 comments
Let's put a smile on that face
Toy Story 2 / Dark Knight mashup SLYT
posted by Manhasset at 5:36 PM PST - 21 comments
A Brimful Of Asha
Even if you only have a passing familiarity with Bollywood musicals, Asha Bhosle's voice will be familiar to you. As one of the most sought after playback singers in Bollywood, and an accomplished, versatile musician in her own right, she's reputed to have sung over 12.000 songs and may be the world's most recorded artist. She's certainly one of the most beloved.
Dacre Stoker presents: Dracula... the sequel!
YT comment: Sounds like Ween. Ha ha.
Public television viewers from the seventies may remember being hectored and freaked out by anti-pollution animations. Three of the more catchy and memorable Willie Wimple cartoons (don't kill trees, don't litter, don't pollute the water, lyrics) that scared us away from a lifetime of casual littering were actually directed by Academy Award winning animator Abe Levitow -- also co-director of The Phantom Tollbooth (intro, time song) and director of Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (full movie, songs: we're despicable, all alone in the world) -- as one of his final projects.
The "Ultimate 9/11 Truth Showdown": Taibbi vs. Griffin
Matt Taibbi vs. David Ray Griffin Taibbi, to whose writing Metafilter frequently links, and who is currently on retainer at Rolling Stone, takes on Griffin, who is perhaps the most prominent member of the so-called "9/11 Truth Movement," in a knock-down, drag-out multiple-round bout (in three parts). Part II. Part III.
posted by Hat Maui at 3:55 PM PST - 99 comments
Phony Draper-mania has bitten the dust!
Ossining Calling. Dyna Moe presents Mad Men Illustrated.
posted by scody at 3:35 PM PST - 15 comments
Taking Down Harper (part deux)
Anti-Conservative site Vote For Environment, has had over a million hits in just 12 days. Previously.
Obamix
The Obamix: King Most puts together the perfect soundtrack to pump Obama supporters up for that next phone bank or canvass. [more inside]
posted by rollbiz at 2:12 PM PST - 22 comments
Literal Videos
A-Ha's Take on Me, but done literally with lyrics changed to describe what was happening in the video, instead of the head-scratcher of a 80s video having nothing to do with the song. Also? A-ha still exists and the lead singer still looks the same. This meme of doing new lyrics to go with old videos is novel, previously people made videos to match the lyrics literally.
posted by mathowie at 1:16 PM PST - 168 comments
Reception of this FPP will be better if you move closer to the window.
Cell Phone Reception and Tower Search: "...searchable databases of over 130,000 cell phone tower locations registered with the FCC, and over 43,000 cell phone carrier comments submitted voluntarily from real customers using their service all over the U.S. ...and with our graphical tower location search, users can pinpoint nearby tower locations. Even to the exact rooftop with satellite imagery and the help of Google Maps!"[e.g. Casper, Wyoming] You can also search for dead spots, and see how your neighbors really, truly feel about their reception.
What attire can I wear to the polls on election day?
A dress code at the polls? Many states have 'electioneering' laws in place that can be broadly interpreted to mean that clothing with political messages is not allowed. Snopes put a page up advising voters to check with their board of elections. Some election officials have released statements attempting to clarify [pdf] the enforcement of their state's electioneering laws, though those statements aren't legally binding. Other election officials are suing to keep the broad definition of electioneering in place. If rules are interpreted to include campaign shirts and buttons, you will likely need to cover the item up, remove it, or otherwise conceal it. [more inside]
posted by cashman at 10:26 AM PST - 55 comments
4 Hour Tribute to the Notorious B.I.G.
On the 10 year anniversary of his death, Mr. Cee of New York's Hot 97 played a 4-hour tribute mix (with some interviews and such) dedicated to the Notorious B.I.G., a/k/a Biggie Smalls a/k/a Big Poppa a/k/a Christopher George Latore Wallace. Downloads in four parts available here. [more inside]
posted by kosem at 10:00 AM PST - 20 comments
Moral turpitude
As reported in the Guardian the US has cut funding for condoms in Marie Stopes' African clinics. In 2007 MSI provided 129 million male and female condoms. Since 2001 with the Mexico City Policy commonly known as " The Global Gag" The Bush administration has blocked birth control access at every turn. It has tried to redefine Contraception as Abortion. [more inside]
India's first virtual porn star.
Savita Bhabhi is India's First Virtual Pornstar (NSFW). A sexy, buxom, and lusty almond-eyed femme fatale, Savita, bearing the title 'bhabhi' which means 'sister-in-law' indicating that she's married, is the quintessential Indian male porn fantasy 'toon. Launched in March this year, the web site has proven to be a hit, incorporating South Asian themes such as sleeping with the servant boy; with a cousin; and, of course, the boys playing cricket next door.
posted by Azaadistani at 9:26 AM PST - 33 comments
Carrots might unlock the secrets of the universe
People who make music out of carrots via The World Carrot Museum, enjoy some vegetable music on a Monday afternoon. Flute N Veg. Ivan the Chef drills a carrot. The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. Carrot Pan Flute.
posted by grippycat at 9:25 AM PST - 7 comments
The Money Meltdown
The Money Meltdown is an excellent site clearly summarizing the banking crisis, with links to articles of varying complexity, including an dry (but readable) economics paper summarizing the lessons from 42 previous banking crises and a guide from the Brookings Institution on what the next President needs to do. And yes, they also reference the podcast just discussed.
posted by blahblahblah at 8:58 AM PST - 12 comments
flacid
"There is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the centre of the literary world... not the United States," he said. "The US is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature... That ignorance is restraining."
Nobel literature prize judge Horace Engdahl comes down hard against Don DeLillo, David Foster Wallace, and other crazy American shit that just can't cross the waters.
Prefabricated Housing
Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling comprises a selective survey of prefabrication in architecture, represented by a timeline, and a building project of contemporary prefabricated homes on the MoMA west lot that is available until October 20th. [more inside]
Signs, signs everywhere are signs
Top Ten Worst Traffic Signs you may disagree, but these are pretty bad and amusing if you don't have to deal with them during your Monday commute. via
posted by agatha_magatha at 7:50 AM PST - 63 comments
Imported beats domestic
Luc Montagnier, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen take the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discoveries of the AIDS virus and HPV, respectively. Take that Gallo.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:41 AM PST - 20 comments
Nothing But The Truth: Internet Hoaxes [more inside]
Fucked Up keep fucking things up
Aptly named hardcore deconstructionists Fucked Up are slated to play a free, 12-hour show in NYC on Tuesday, October 14th. The show will feature appearances from the likes of John Cale, Matt Sweeney, David Cross, Mobb Deep, Akon, Vivian Girls, U2's The Edge, and others.
posted by auralcoral at 12:57 AM PST - 13 comments
"There will be enormous, enormous losses..."
This American Life gives you Another Frightening Show About the Economy.. The guys who brought us The Giant Pool of Money (previously) explain the credit crunch and why it's so scary. And not in the Halloween fun-to-be-scared sense.
posted by justkevin at 9:04 PM PST - 169 comments
The unbearable weight of sports politics
Sports activism is dead? - so asks Andy Kroll in his review of Dave Zirin's new book, A People's History of Sports in the United States.
"And since the ‘80s, the money, TV time, and narcissism have only increased. Most professional athletes could care less — that is, if they even know at all — that their sponsors’ shoes and jerseys are made in squalid conditions in third world countries."
Author Zirin argues that “[w]e can pretend sports isn’t political just as well as we can pretend there is no such thing as gravity if we fall out of an airplane.” [more inside]
posted by Surfurrus at 7:54 PM PST - 38 comments
Hunch that thang
Hasil was kind of a mythic sort of figure, you know. And sometimes life is never that easy for a myth. -Dexter Romweber (the Flat Duo Jets on Hasil Atkins in the documentary MY BLUE STAR . Hubcap Hunch, No More Hotdogs. [more inside]
What is a trash-out?
What is a "trash-out?" When you see this, you feel like this. And some music to go along. After Monday, bunker or hunker ?
posted by wallstreet1929 at 6:00 PM PST - 37 comments
Because throwing neckties into the garbage is just so old school
Maybe you've left the corporate world and its dress code behind, you've decided you're not the Avril Lavigne type after all, or you're soon to be unemployed. Whatever the reason, you've got a lot of neckties you no longer wear. What can you do with them? Well, if you still want to wear them in some form, you can make daisy pins, a wrist cuff, a belt or two, a shoulder bag, a wallet or cellphone pouch, a skirt (long or short), a dress, or thong underwear. If you want to have the best dressed dog in your suburb, you can make a dog collar or leash. If you have kids, you can make a snake or cravat cats for them, or teach them how to use old silk ties to dye eggs. If you'd rather decorate the house, you can make baskets, a photo frame, a lampshade, a new chair seat, a floor mat, some throw pillows or some cool quilts. If you want to start getting ready for Christmas, you could make a Christmas stocking, a tree skirt, or an angel. In fact, there are so many ways to make things out of old neckties there's a blog devoted to the topic. Whatever your choice, your days as a corporate peon will be memorialized. As will the peanut butter and jam sandwiches you used to have for lunch.
Online public-domain children's literature
"The Baldwin Project seeks to make available online a comprehensive collection of resources for parents and teachers of children. Our focus, initially, is on literature for children that is in the public domain in the United States. This includes all works first published before 1923." [more inside]
posted by bitter-girl.com at 5:20 PM PST - 10 comments
reportage illustration
Overlooked New York, Impassioned New Yorkers from an Artist's Perspective by Zina Saunders, who is now becoming better known for her darkly humorous political images. Her blog on the illustrator blogsite, Drawger. [more inside]
Lacking Control Increases Magical Thinking
Of Jock Straps and Conspiracy Theories. A new study looks at how lacking control increases the tendency for magical thinking and illusory pattern perception. [Via]
wartime paratrooper dummies and decoys
Burlap paradummies called Ruperts were dropped during D-Day, later depicted in the film The Longest Day. But prior to D-Day, both the British and the Germans had used straw-filled decoys in various locations. Later in the war, the U.S. tested "Oscar" but found him lacking, adopting instead the PD Dummy. [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive at 2:04 PM PST - 11 comments
Clean! Jerk! Snatch! Meow!
Japanese Cat Weightlifting (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by essexjan at 1:50 PM PST - 41 comments
Generation Tehran
Generation Tehran A documentary short about the youth of Iran.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 1:46 PM PST - 8 comments
"Napster is refinishing furniture in Portland. He seems really happy."
Internet Party 2: An Intervention For Myspace The sad aftermath of the previous Internet Party Possible NSFW due to smooching.
posted by The Whelk at 1:15 PM PST - 15 comments
The other panda is vomiting a rainbow without photographs
The panda is vomiting a rainbow and photographs.
posted by ardgedee at 12:14 PM PST - 43 comments
What does Chrissie Hynde really do?
Chrissie Hynde: “[A] complete rock star in every sense of the word”? Nope: “I consider myself an animal activist first and my music as more of a hobby that gives me a platform to fight for animals.” [more inside]
posted by joeclark at 6:10 AM PST - 136 comments
Om nom nom nom
A Hunter-killer stalks its prey in your bloodstream.
posted by orthogonality at 5:08 AM PST - 30 comments
The fungi fire their spores up to 55 miles an hour–which translates to an acceleration of 180,000 g. Research from the lab of Nicholas Money. Music video by Dr. Money's students. (SLYT) via
posted by Slithy_Tove at 4:20 AM PST - 18 comments
Tilt-shift videos
We have already seen here tilt-shift still photographs. Here come real life miniatures videos: beach , Sydney harbor, Harrowdown Hill music video, Spanish neighborhood, bridges in Grand Rapids, cars in Matewan, WV, Multnomah Falls, train station in Bern. [via]
posted by b. at 9:40 PM PST - 32 comments
A Nun's Life
When I was growing up, I did not dress up as a nun for Halloween. When I was a young, impressionable Catholic school girl, I did not secretly (or otherwise) pine for the veils, habits, odd religious names, and overall mystique of the nuns who taught me. The whole “nun” thing kind of snuck up on me when I wasn’t paying much attention. A Nun's Life is the eclectic personal blog of Sister Julie, a Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and a Star Wars fangirl.
posted by amyms at 8:37 PM PST - 18 comments
Making A Bad Movie
It was the 80's. We were younger then, and anything seemed possible. So it all seemed part of Destiny when my very first screenplay was bought and produced; fame and fortune was surely just around the corner. HA! Fat chance.- The making of Forever Evil.
posted by Artw at 6:26 PM PST - 6 comments
Hey, buddy, you're full of *%#@!
In these final days the campaign,with the promise of more mudslinging looming large on the horizon, tempers flaring, political threads raging out of control, it's important to remember that religion and politics often make some people give way to ranting and raving and carrying on like emotional children... [more inside]
posted by louche mustachio at 6:22 PM PST - 23 comments
Akhenaten and Akhetaten
Akhetaten (a.k.a. Amarna) was the city built by Pharaoh Akhenaten, famous for his monotheistic beliefs and his queen, Nefertiti and son, Tutankhamun. The Amarna Letters has translations of correspondence sent to the Akhenaten, but a trove of it was found at the Amarna site. During his reign a distinctive style of art rose to prominence, only to vanish after his death. The Boston MFA has 40 objects from the era in its collection. Perhaps the most famous of the cultural artifacts of Akhenaten is the Great Hymn to Aten (hieroglyphics, four different English translations: 1, 2, 3, 4). This poem was set to music by Philip Glass for his opera Akhnaten (information about the opera). Some see direct parallels between The Great Hymn to Aten and Psalm 104. Though it was billed as a new beginning, like many utopias, Amarna was no haven for the regular folk who lived there.
From the original Greek, meaning 'I like big donuts'
A Brief History of English, with Chronology by Suzanne Kemmer is one of many articles at Words in English, a website designed as "a resource for those who want to learn more about this fascinating language – its history as a language, the origins of its words, and its current modern characteristics."
Not just another ghost story
Its Fall and a perfect time to make a road trip. Its more than just a hip movie location, Marfa, Texas is home to bizarre food options and of course the world famous Mystery Lights.
Iron-clad mini feet pounding the dust
Guide Horse Foundation - Guide Horse NO.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:58 PM PST - 27 comments
Plunka-plunka-plunk, plunka-plunka-plunk, plunk, plunk, plunk.
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performs the theme to "Shaft" (SYTL). Really, is any description needed? [more inside]
All-Art.org provides an extensive image library, essays and information on art history, organized by date and movement, up to the 20th century, including photography, design and classical music with audio samples. A small selection of the encyclopedic range offered: Erotica in Art l Paintings that changed the world l The Origins of Typography and Graphic design l Russian Silver Age l Japanese Prints l African l Posters l A Brief History of Western Literature l An illustrated dictionary of art and artists. [more inside]
Make-Believe Maverick
Make-Believe Maverick. "A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty."
posted by homunculus at 2:00 PM PST - 120 comments
We'll do it live!
The Li'l O'Reilly Factor SLYT
via Ectoplamosis, via The Percy Trout Hour
posted by JHarris at 1:31 PM PST - 30 comments
Tom Davis Gives Up
Tom Davis Gives Up (SLNYT). “Tell them about the important work we’re doing while Rome burns,” he said. A candid accounting of American politics from a member of the GOP disillusioned with both sides of the aisle and an overview of how he became that way.
posted by schroedinger at 12:52 PM PST - 39 comments
Sarah Palin's Poujadist Agenda
Sarah Palin has put a new face and voice to the long-standing, powerful, but inchoate movement in US political life that one might see as a mutant variety of Poujadism, inflected with a modern American accent.
[more inside]
posted by y2karl at 12:32 PM PST - 110 comments
What Are You Doing Here?
What Are You Doing Here? [more inside]
posted by feelinglistless at 9:44 AM PST - 33 comments
The Light and the Truth
Urim and Thummim were a mystical medium used by ancient Israelites to divine God's will and, according to some interpretations, to distinguish sinners from non-sinners. Todd Walker believes he has found the Urim and Thummim (in a Goodwill Superstore in Nashville, TN). He would like to share this miracle with you. Quicktime trailer
posted by kimdog at 9:29 AM PST - 30 comments
lions and other wildlife from the African bush
Brutal or Amazing? - this is just one of many fine posts on the Photo Africa Blog, an excellent source of in-the-wild animal and nature photos and reports from bush field guides. Also see: Madikwe Lions.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:49 AM PST - 20 comments
Bacon Cat in the New York Times
Bacon Cat in the New York Times With the presidential race heating up and the financial bailout package passing Congress on Friday, the New York Times thought this was the perfect time for a hard hitting look at straight, single men who own cats. So of course they wanted input from author John Scalzi, who by virtue of the fact that he is married, is not single. He does own Bacon Cat though.
posted by COD at 7:15 AM PST - 46 comments
Free for All!
"One dude's quest to save democracy!" Free for All! is a new documentary about the 2004 Ohio election results, which decided the presidential winner. It covers some familiar ground, but also a lot of details you might have missed. You can see it in theaters on October 8, or view it online right now. Here's Roger Ebert's review.
Woosta is an interview driven website that is dedicated to the promotion of artists and their work. [mild nsfw] [more inside]
The young Dylan on TV
Back in 1963, a TV special called "Folk Songs and More Folk Songs" aired, which featured a cross section of the "folk" artists who were at that time just beginning to receive wider media exposure. Aside from the squeaky-clean, white bread embarrassment of groups like The Brothers Four, the show redeemed itself with performances by a very young Bob Dylan, who sang The Ballad of Hollis Brown (with banjo and bass accompaniment) and Man of Constant Sorrow. And here's two more very early Dylan TV appearances, from Canada, 1964: A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall and Girl From the North Country. Here's the same Girl From the North Country performed years later, once again on broadcast TV, in duet with Johnny Cash, from the Johnny Cash Show. [more inside]
The Darker Side of Charity
Charity Navigator is most interesting for the CEO salaries, but non-profits are a huge segment of society. Melissa Data lists all the organizations with nonprofit status for your zip. This is an excellent rant on one of them.
posted by Bitter soylent at 3:03 AM PST - 31 comments
OJ to take his search for the 'real killers' into the Nevada state prison system
O.J. Simpson convicted of twelve counts of kidnapping, armed robbery. Background for this case. This conviction comes on the 13th anniversary of his acquittal for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldstein.
posted by Guy Smiley at 11:15 PM PST - 79 comments
The noble lies vs the crushing reality
Election woes: Or, why not to discount 26 year old lawyers.
posted by oxford blue at 10:49 PM PST - 27 comments
The Whole Earth Photolog
From grainy stills to gorgeous high-resolution portraits, from intimate pairings to stark contrasts, and from old standbys to little-known surprises, The Planetary Society's Earth galleries offer a rich collection of stunning photography and video footage of our world as seen from both planetary spacecraft and geostationary satellites. It is a vista that has inspired many a deep thought in the lucky few that have seen it firsthand [previously]. Oh, and the rest of the Solar System is pretty neat, too.
posted by Rhaomi at 10:34 PM PST - 9 comments
The Fifties: an invention of Sha Na Na / Scottish Highlanders / Rondald Reagan
Remember the Fifties? For a certain generation, who could forget those golden innocent days as depicted in shows like Happy Days, Grease and the band Sha Na Na. But it turns out that vision of the 50's is mostly fantasy and never existed, largely invented by a group of Columbia U students around 1969. [more inside]
VP debate highlights in song and dance
If you missed the VP debate last night, you might enjoy this video of VP debate highlights in song and dance by Michael Gregory. (Also available: Running From Your Shadow, presidential debate highlights in song and dance.) DLYT
posted by MegoSteve at 9:08 PM PST - 9 comments
Prog Rock Special - part 1
It’s been a long, weird and expensive week all over. Why not stay in tonight and watch guys (mostly) with long hair playing strange and difficult music from a long lost decade? [more inside]
posted by philip-random at 6:17 PM PST - 47 comments
One Hardscrabble Sumbitch
The John Mobberly Story (parts one through four) about a Confederate Guerilla who terrorized Loudoun county Virginia and the Harpers Ferry area, as written by blogger Neddie Jingo. [more inside]
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:47 PM PST - 8 comments
Man uses craigslist to form bank robbery plot
Escapes in inner tube in "the slowest getaway ever" . [more inside]
posted by fiercekitten at 3:50 PM PST - 31 comments
Suckers going down in Iceland
While the Wall Street financial crisis gripped the world Icelanders woke up one day to find that the Icelandic state had forcibly taken over the country's 3rd biggest bank, Glitnir. The worry is now that one of the two larger banks could also fail and the state wouldn't have the resources to do anything as the two remaining of the big 3 have assets totaling 10 times the GDP of Iceland. While the Central Bank claims it was the only option in a bad situation, prior bad blood between one of the Central Bank's directors, a former Prime Minister, and the main owner of Glitnir have some wondering if Icelanders have just been witness to "the biggest bank robbery in Icelandic history." [Warning: The story you are about to read may make you reconsider the verisimilitude of soap operas]
Steamcreditcrunch
A housing boom and bust, interbank lending rates reaching record highs, people losing faith in complex financial instruments, a stock market crash. We've seen it all before... The Great Depression of 1929? No, the Panic of 1837...
Choe U-Ram
Opertus Lunula Umbra. Kinetic sculpture by Choe U-Ram. [Via]
posted by homunculus at 1:48 PM PST - 4 comments
Project Vote 2008 aims to repair "vote caging" [discussed previously] by compiling Google spreadsheets of affected households. Check your own status, and alert friends or neighbors you find there that their voter registration status is at risk for "alleged or actual deficiencies." [more inside]
posted by jayCampbell at 1:31 PM PST - 27 comments
It's the commons, our right of birth
And to you who would own everything all around the Earth
Our future is your downfall, when we cut this ball and chain
You who'd sacrifice the public good for your private gain
The Mystery of Dorcas Snodgrass
What happened to Dorcas Snodgrass? I don't know who did this research on this nurse, but she's haunting me and the articles hint at a tragic mystery but leave many unanswered questions.
posted by chickaboo at 12:16 PM PST - 25 comments
Polka Power Digitized for Your Protection
Something to make the inner geek that is inside your inner geek do the boogie-woogie: "Weird Al" Yankovic announces that thanks to digital distribution, he will begin releasing songs as he records them, while the parodied song is still fresh in the public's mind, instead of waiting for an album release every three to four years. The first one will come out on October 7. iTunes will have first dibs on the new singles for the first 14 days, after which they'll go to other online music retailers. (via /.)
Oy, oy, oy...
Boy goes on "rampage" at Aussie zoo, killing rare reptiles and feeding them to a crocodile. [more inside]
posted by educatedslacker at 10:31 AM PST - 306 comments
To the bastards that stole my laptop...
Steal *MY* laptop, will you? Now I can track you down like the pathetic dickmonkey you are. Wish you could sneak up on the asshole who stole your laptop and beat the crap out of him/her with a baseball bat? Now you can! Thanks to the beauty and glory of open source and OpenDHT, researchers at University of California, San Diego and University of Washington have created free software that enables you to track down your missing laptop. The Mac OS version even has an option to capture photos of the aforementioned scumbag so you can know your victim before you beat him/her senseless. (Note: I'm not saying that you *should* beat someone up for stealing your stuff, I'm just saying you *could*.)
posted by Geekyblonde at 9:35 AM PST - 40 comments
Argent Bizarre
In 1684, the French Crown didn't send Quebec its yearly allotment of currency. Yet, the soldiers needed to be paid. [more inside]
posted by QIbHom at 9:30 AM PST - 18 comments
IfComp 2008
The 14th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition has been released. History of the competition. Previously on Mefi. Emily Short reviews this year's entrants. [more inside]
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 7:44 AM PST - 21 comments
"Putting your money where our mouth is."
Strategery is a unique hedge fund.
I want a girl just like the girl who married dear old Dad
Some people look like celebrities. Some people look like their pets. Some people look like monkeys or Kenny Rogers or old lesbians or video game characters. But I just want someone who looks like my parent so eventually we can look more like each other. (Obviously previous stuff: here and here and here. Familiarity breeds similarity!)
Take 10 grams of Opium and call me in the morning.
Vintage poison labels. "One year I put them on the cocktail glasses at my Halloween party." Via BoingBoing (no Katamari/papercraft/steampunk/DRM content).
"What has been said in here is off the record and doesn't go outside."
"You are negative bastards, the pair of you." That is about the most innocuous thing Joe Kinnear said in his first press conference as interim manager of Newcastle United. [more inside]
posted by ninebelow at 2:03 AM PST - 34 comments
Ludomancy
Ludomancy: Storyteller, I wish I were the Moon, The Trials, and Night Raveler and the Heartbroken Uruguayans. Flash gameplay experiments by Daniel Benmergui. windows bonus: Stars over Half Moon Bay and The Marriage by Rod Humble
posted by juv3nal at 12:48 AM PST - 2 comments
Aphrodisiology
Video of Dictyophora Indusiata. "When they find it, they sniff it. The scent of this mushroom causes sexual arousal, often to the point of orgasm." ^ Other interesting articles available from Aphrodisiology: List of Aphrodisiacs l Visual Stimuli l Pheromones & Perfumes. [more inside]
When the Wind Blows
This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service. This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons. Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known. We shall bring you further information as soon as possible. - The BBC releases its script for use in the event of nuclear war.
Fossett's Plane Found
American businessman Steve Fossett, who went missing last year after taking flight from Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch (previously and previously), and was declared dead last February, had left many questions unanswered, including the possibility that he faked his own death. However, remains of his plane have just been found.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 8:42 PM PST - 48 comments
501 things to do with your 501s
Your favourite jeans are giving out on you, but you don't want to let them go. These are the jeans you were wearing when you met your partner/got your all-time best score on Frogger/performed at your garage band's only ever paying gig/whenever you move out of, then back into, your mother's basement. They're not just jeans — they're your history. But since you can't wear them anymore, you think you could reincarnate them. You have many options, especially if you've got more than one pair due for retirement. You could make journal or photo album covers so your jeans can truly be part of your historical record. You could make a quilt or two or three, or a wall hanging, or some woven rugs. Or a Christmas tree. You could make a slipcover for a chair, pillows or placemats, or an apron or two. [more inside]
World Mapper
Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. There are now nearly 600 maps.
posted by y2karl at 3:21 PM PST - 28 comments
Mackerel Economics in Prison Leads to Appreciation for Oily Fillets - Wall Street Journal
As dollar flounders, inmates stack mackerel
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:01 PM PST - 70 comments
Geeky Cakes.
Cooking with Balls
Chef Ljubomir Erovic has written a cookbook drawing attention to the World Testicle Cooking Championship.
Specialization is for insects?
100 skills every man (or woman) should know (with videos!) from Popular Mechanics - learn how to split firewood or solder a wire, among others. Before you look, take the quiz and see how you stack up against people like our own Adam Savage. Need more? Esquire offers a more touchy-feely list of skills; the Art of Manliness has a list that includes how to land a plane and how to survive a street fight; and also a (PDF) book listing medical skills for surviving the end of the world. And if you prefer the fictional, there is also the classic list of skills from Robert Heinlein and the skills of a certain TV stuntman.
Mortal Kombat!
Kung Fu Election -- Someday, this is how all election campaigns will be fought.
posted by Class Goat at 11:34 AM PST - 25 comments
Birth of an Ocean
Birth of an Ocean: The Evolution of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. "Formation of an ocean is a rare event, one few scientists have ever witnessed. Yet this geophysical nativity is unfolding today in one of the hottest and most inhospitable corners of the globe." [Via]
"I can pin point the exact moment when the entire country realized what was happening"
Notes from an economic collapse. With the shaky state of the economy, some are modifying their retirement plans. Fortunately, we have helpful tips from survivors of other collapsed economies to help us weather the (possible) approaching storm. [more inside]
posted by mecran01 at 11:07 AM PST - 30 comments
Constantine's Sword
Constantine's Sword (google video) A former priest's personal journey through the tangled and sometimes violent history between Christians and Jews.
posted by empath at 10:56 AM PST - 14 comments
Don't vote.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 10:38 AM PST - 94 comments
I just enjoy slapping you!
Coming soon to a theater near you: An American Carol (not to be confused with the Dickens Christmas time classic). This new film by David Zucker features a slave-owning Michael Moore look-alike who is punched, slapped and otherwise cajoled by ghostly generals and country music stars into learning the true meaning of America, and a thing or two along the way about how to be a man.
posted by washburn at 10:30 AM PST - 100 comments
Life under Hyperinflation
Think you've got problems caused by economic meltdown? "Yesterday I had a balance in my account of $2,000 (at old value that is 20 trillion dollars / $20,000,000,000,000.00). This account is dormant, untouched for months. This morning I find I owe the bank $500,000 in service fees for one month’s bank charges to hold my $2,000. This is no joke." This is life in Zimbabwe under hyperinflation. [more inside]
posted by contessa at 9:56 AM PST - 13 comments
The seafood lover that's hopefully not actually IN you
Worms in your fresh fish? We've heard about them in sushi for years, but stories are on the rise of creeping condiments from supermarkets. The FAO says they're actually not uncommon though "worms are unsightly and consumers naturally object to their presence". One theory holds that they're on the rise due to cost-driven onshore processing. Icked-out consumers have been posting videos on YouTube 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, while others have sought solace in discussion forums. But the good news? Cook thoroughly and you'll be safe. Me, I'll be sticking to enchiladas.
posted by crapmatic at 7:53 AM PST - 71 comments
Stop this now!
What's the biggest problem facing America today? Gas prices? Healthcare? High taxes? No, it's far, far more serious than any of those things. I demand to know what the candidates intend to do for the American people in the face of this threat.
posted by essexjan at 7:50 AM PST - 39 comments
Beta-testing Chocolate
What happens when a former NASA software engineer and a co-founder of Wired magazine decide to start up a chocolate company? TCHO Ventures is trying to make single-bean varietal chocolate varieties that best express the component flavors of chocolate, which they've identified as "chocolate", "nutty", "fruity", "floral", "earthy", and "citrus". To test this concept, they've been "beta-testing" their chocolate in plain brown wrappers, and collecting feedback. The result is good chocolate, with just a hint of viral marketing.
posted by kaszeta at 7:43 AM PST - 26 comments
Becoming a Parent of Child with Down Syndrome
I Am Capable of More Than I Think I Am - Gregg Rogers discusses his introduction to being a parent of a child with Down syndrome for a segment of NPR's This I Believe. [more inside]
posted by plinth at 7:07 AM PST - 28 comments
Memories are really stories, stories about stories.
David Carr is a New York Times columnist and Oscar blogger. He also just published his memoir, The Night of the Gun, about his time as a crack addicted fat thug who beat up women and sold bad coke, using his journalistic skills to investigate events he barely remembers. Reviews have placed it head and shoulders above the recent spate of other junkie redemption narratives, with one reviewer stating his confusion as to "whether you’ve just seen the memoir redeemed or irrevocably dismantled."
He has some sort of potato fixation, too. [more inside]
posted by Panjandrum at 4:56 AM PST - 41 comments
This stinks
Imagine the worst, most foul thing you have ever smelled. An overpowering mix of rotting meat, old socks that haven't been washed for weeks - topped off with the pungent waft of an open sewer. Imagine being covered in the stuff as it is liberally sprayed from a water cannon. Then imagine not being able to get rid of the stench for at least three days, no matter how often you try to scrub yourself clean. Introducing Israel's new, non-lethal but highly effective and highly offensive weapon: Skunk.
Huck & Yogi Turn 50
The biggest show in town is Huckleberry Hound... and 50 years ago today, The Huckleberry Hound Show debuted. On a budget of $2,800 per half hour, this was the show that truly brought animation to TV... and limited to animation... and Daws Butler to fame as a voice actor. [more inside]
posted by wendell at 2:21 AM PST - 33 comments
Paintings of Mutated Insects
Cornelia Hesse-Honegger paints watercolours of mutated insects from radioactively contaminated areas in Ukraine, Switzerland, the United States, and Europe. She has recently published a scientific article incorporating these paintings (5 MB PDF). site also available in German
posted by Rumple at 11:45 PM PST - 26 comments
picturing childhood
FairyTaleFilter: SurLaLune Fairy Tales features 49 annotated fairy tales, including their histories, similar tales across cultures, modern interpretations and over 1,500 illustrations, 1,600 folktales & fairy tales from around the world in more than 40 full-text eBooks. Fairy Tale timeline. l Women Children's Book Illustrators l The Evolution of the Illustrated Children's Book l Some really beautiful free graphics and clipart from Grandma's Graphics. [more inside]
Since we are encouraging discussion on manners of spirit...
Crystal Head Vodka. Dan Aykroyd's been sampling too much of his own product
posted by allkindsoftime at 8:40 PM PST - 138 comments
Don't be Carbon-emitting?
Google, an internet search company, announced a US$ 4.4 trillion proposal for reducing U.S. dependence on fossil fuels by 2030. Google CEO Eric Schmidt, chided political leadership in the U.S. and the rest of the world for not showing initiative on the issue. Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org has already made significant investments in alternative energy solutions (previously) that will naturally tie in to this plan.Google stock has bounded on the news, but is their plan the way to go?
posted by HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal at 8:36 PM PST - 56 comments
The Mathemagician and Pied Puzzler, and others
The Mathemagician and Pied Puzzler (PDF, rough table of contents here) is a collection of puzzles created by members of the Gathering 4 Gardner Foundation, in tribute to the man himself (previously). Also freely available at the G4G site is Puzzle Craft (PDF), by Stewart Coffin. (The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections, also by Coffin, is available here.)
posted by cog_nate at 7:21 PM PST - 9 comments
Trickle Up Bailout?
Jonathan Koppell and William Goetzmann on why Congress should let Wall Street hang for a bit and use the $700 billion to directly refinance homowners' bad mortgages. Fire away, mefites! [more inside]
posted by puckish at 7:16 PM PST - 84 comments
Dinner plans... for next year.
What's the hardest dining reservation to score? French Laundry? Nope. El Bulli? Non. D.C.'s minibar? Not even close. [more inside]
posted by shiu mai baby at 7:10 PM PST - 54 comments
The Paulists
150 years ago, Father Isaac Thomas Hecker, a Catholic priest looking for a way to convert more North Americans, founded the Paulist Fathers. From the start, they took a mass communications approach to proselytizing, from the magazine the Catholic World in 1865 to the website Busted Halo. At the same time, they are also decidedly ecumenical and have a history of disagreeing with Rome, sometimes to the ire of other Catholics.
The Next New Deal
The Next New Deal With the vaunted post-Cold War "Peace dividend" evaporating, the United States found itself unable to invest adequately in either its infrastructure or its children. Eventually people began to talk of another Great Depression, before the coming of the next New Deal.
posted by Kwantsar at 6:27 PM PST - 8 comments
Na Na, Hey Hey, Don't Kiss Those Nylons Goodbye Just Yet
As most women know, nylon stockings don't last. They run, they snag, they rip, and they can't be mended. And they take 40 to 50 years to decompose in a landfill. I was sure as I began researching this post that there must be some great pantyhose crafting and art ideas out there. But the results were, um, mixed. If you are into weaving, you can make some wall hangings or rugs from nylons. If you're a Klondike Kate type who sews, you can make a skirt. If you work in a corporate environment but want to keep your edge, you can abide by your company's dress code AND sport temporary tattoos. If you're a crafty bride-to-be, you can make flowers or dragonflies for wedding decorations. If you're into the less practical kind of art, you can create semi-wearable pantyhose art, or construct pantyhose art installations like artist Mary Nicollet. You can even make pantyhose dolls, and stick them in a jar if you want to. Just be prepared for the fact that most people will never understand why you'd want to. But beware, because pantyhose arts and crafts are either underexplored or instrinsically strange, and can go from “interesting” or “kind of cute” to “bizarre” and “kind of disturbing” faster than a run can make its way from your thigh to your toes. [more inside]
Holy The Firm
Literate c1980 acid trip ~v~
IPCO Creamy Snuff Tobacco
Concerned about not only oral hygiene as well as nicotine intake? IPCO has you covered. Follows best dental practices of Ayurveda, Unani and homeopathic medicine. Chases the blues away while helping your bowels! This is indeed the wonder product for which you have waited your entire life!
posted by Ogre Lawless at 3:59 PM PST - 10 comments
Sarah Palin may be a better debater than you think
Sarah Palin may be a better debater than you think... Sarah Palin, much derided for reasons best not gone over again, may be a better debater than people tend to think. Andrew Halcro, a Republican from Alaska says, "I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do."
posted by datter at 3:34 PM PST - 1422 comments
Still a small world
Still a small world The 34th Small World Photomicography Competition is allowing visitors to pick their favorites among this years' top entries. Previous years were here and here.
posted by jenkinsEar at 3:18 PM PST - 5 comments
"What would you say if I told you that I filled my entire living room with completely original works of art for less than $300?" Andrea Dickson from Wise Bread has found an unlikely -- though, the more you think about it, almost obvious -- place to find original art from new artists: Ebay. If you can filter through the crapload of "artistic nudes", there are plenty of gems, and usually at buyers' market prices. And, as Andrea's mother mused, when it comes to decorating the house, it beats buying mass-produced art from Costco, which is about as original as a Big Mac.
posted by chakalakasp at 3:15 PM PST - 35 comments
The Ebay Solution?
U.S. Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain may be computer illiterate, but his campaign does think highly of eBay. Sen. McCain and Governor Palin have each suggested eBay as a fix for the economy, tool for government reform, and strategy for homeland security. Perhaps it's because former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, in spite of disagreeing with parts of his technology platform, is co-chair of McCain's campaign?
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 2:41 PM PST - 24 comments
Look out kids, you're gonna get hits
The Text Encoding Initiative Consortium has encoded Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues. via
posted by Knappster at 2:25 PM PST - 9 comments
The Dollar Auction and Swoopo
An online auction site called Swoopo, once called TeleBid, has hit upon an ingenious way to make money. They are an auction site not entirely unlike Ebay - but using a different auction scheme. Where EBay uses a slightly modified Vickrey auction system, Swoopo uses an auction system based on the "Dollar Auction" game - with interesting results. [more inside]
posted by Zarkonnen at 2:10 PM PST - 31 comments
Barack Obama eats a Michael Phelps breakfast?
If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, what are the most important people in the political spectrum eating for breakfast then? Obama eats eggs, McCain eats cereal, Pelosi eats... ice cream? Politicians and reporters divulge their breakfasts inside the beltway.
posted by kerning at 2:03 PM PST - 47 comments
“Sever the ignorant doubt in your heart with the sword of self-knowledge
Tsukiji knife photos by Tony McNicol. List of published articles. List of selected photo galleries. I’ve been taking photos of a 240 year old knife shop in Tsukiji fish market.... If you buy a knife at the shop you can bring it back to be sharpened for free. [more inside]
Do you have a little chocolate craving?
A brief history of chocolate slavery: That Chocolate is an oligopoly might surprise a few people. Chocolate's Bittersweet Economy (pdf) shows that seven years after the industry had agreed to abolish child labour, little progress has been made. Cross-border Migration of Working Children has still been left out of Harkin-Engel Cocoa Protocol Process. Bitter Chocolate Reflects on the politics of cocoa and chocolate. With Halloween approaching you might consider a Fair Trade approach to Trick or Treat. (If Chocolate slavery doesn't make you throw up a little maybe this will.)
Karen Killilea and her family
This post piqued my interest, as I'd always presumed I was "the only one" who'd read these books. Many, many years ago I got a First Communion gift from my ultra-Catholic grandmother of the paperback editions of both Karen and With Love from Karen. [more inside]
posted by Oriole Adams at 1:00 PM PST - 7 comments
(NSFW) Suckin' on my piggies like you wanted me . . .
"Fuck The Pain Away" performed by Miss Piggy and The Muppets. (SLYT) (Audio is Not Safe For Work.)
posted by jason's_planet at 12:23 PM PST - 45 comments
Bulbous Beings
"The common point of all my characters is that they aren’t nice, [they’re] either nasty or mean. They all have a personality with good and bad sides." Olivier Bucheron creates striking alien and robot meanies. Zamak.... (some images mildly nsfw)
Gitarrrr
Peter Nalitch [Russia's “homegrown star to match Borat”] has penned the ultimate cheesy Eastern song:
gitar, come to my buduar
gitar, jump to my yaguar baby
you have a possibility play it with me [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin at 11:21 AM PST - 18 comments
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will
Right Again. The passions of John Stuart Mill (previously).
スキャットウルトラマン
Scatman + Ultraman = ScatUltraman!
Fan-diddly-damn-tastic!
Fan-diddly-damn-tastic! The whirly-twirly-leapy-flippy world of nonce words. When something is crappy, do you ever yearn for synonyms such as crapitudinous, crapfestacular, and craposcopic? (via ADS-L)
Background on the Ball Game
Diamond Artistry. With the baseball postseason about to begin, some folks won't just be looking at the ball, they'll be checking out the backdrop. Red Sox groundskeeper David Mellor gets most of the credit for kicking off a revolution in creating patterned fields for Major League ballparks, with designs including the Sox logo, intricate plaids, and an American flag mowed into the field. Want to do this to your own lawn? He's got a book to tell you how. (Previously.)
posted by dseaton at 2:16 AM PST - 26 comments
I swear it's not a Best-Of list
To some, Exclaim! is more or less the northern equivalent of Pitchfork, a free monthly mag for the hipster masses. But I've always enjoyed the way their Questionnaire page provides an often surprisingly clear glimpse into an odd array of celebrities' lives. This month's subject is Motörhead’s Lemmy. [more inside]
posted by mannequito at 12:32 AM PST - 30 comments
Any color, so long as it's black
Oct. 1 marks the 100th birthday of Ford's Model T. With its optional windshield, gas lamps, and innovative left-side steering wheel, it ushered in an age of automotive marvels. The Model T left a legacy of mass production, user mashups, and affordable cars for everyone. It may have been one of the worst things to ever happen to the planet. [more inside]
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Faith No More stream first album in 18 years ‘Sol Invictus’ – listen
NME News Desk May 11, 2015 9:30 am BST
Mike Patton and co release the follow-up to 1997's 'Album Of The Year' on May 18
Faith No More are streaming their new album, ‘Sol Invictus’, in full.
Their first LP since 1997’s ‘Album Of The Year’, ‘Sol Invictus’ will be released next week (May 18) and was recorded in the band’s own studio in Oakland, California. It will be released on their own imprint, Reclamation Records, and distributed by frontman Mike Patton’s label, Ipecac Recordings.
Music’s 20 Greatest Cult Heroes | #12 Mike Patton
Speaking last year, the band revealed their new material is influenced by The Cramps, Link Wray and Siouxsie And The Banshees. Bass player Bill Gould – who produced the album – discussed the songs which will make up their first album in 18 years.
Having split in 1998, Faith No More reformed in 2009 and have since toured the world extensively. Listen to ‘Sol Invictus’ below, exclusive to NME in the UK.
‘Sol Invictus’ is streaming on other sites for non-UK readers.
The ‘Sol Invictus’ tracklisting is:
‘Sol Invictus’
‘Superhero’
‘Sunny Side Up’
‘Separation Anxiety’
‘Cone Of Shame’
‘Rise Of The Fall’
‘Black Friday’
‘Motherfucker’
‘Matador’
‘From The Dead’
Mike Patton and co are set to play shows in London and Glasgow following their Download Festival appearance this summer. They’ll play Glasgow Academy on June 14 and London Roundhouse on June 17.
Faith No More’s UK tour dates are as follows:
Download Festival (June 13)
Glasgow Academy (14)
London Roundhouse (17)
Jay-Z Credit: Getty
Jay-Z joins leading cannabis company as chief brand strategist
Roger Waters Credit: Getty
Roger Waters announces special 'Us + Them' concert film
Chance The Rapper / Donald Glover Credit: Getty
Chance The Rapper is in 'The Lion King' — and it's all thanks to Donald Glover
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Grammar Thread
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Thread: Grammar Thread
d o double g
handsome's van
Animaniacs was good. I watch it on hub a lot
Originally Posted by hammster
Better not waste it in the Lounge.
Originally Posted by shawn
It's been on RTE Two here for a while now. I've recorded a bunch of episodes on my Sky+ box
Knightboat
The Crime-Solving Boat
Not so much a grammatical question (it's more of a punctuation issue), but what does everyone think of using an exclamation mark and question mark at the end of the same sentence. Example: "WHAT THE?!"
I used to hate this but I've noticed that it's become rather acceptable, especially in postmodern writing.
EDIT: Just so you're clear, the fact that it's a question must first be acknowledged. So the question mark must always come first.
Simpsons Tapped Out ID: Knightboat89
Really? Is that a rule? I never thought it mattered.
Sinister Burns
Release the hounds...
Yanks put the ! first, us normal people put the ? first.
Well my mum's an English teacher and that's what she told me. I trust her enough.
Interesting. That does make sense.
Something that bugs me is when people call this: / a backslash. It is a slash. THIS: \ is a backslash.
The best English teacher I had at high school hated this too. Every now and then he'd go on a rant about common mistakes he hated. They were great!
Here's a controversial topic: the Oxford comma. I am strongly in favor it. When I write in Newspaper class, we use AP style so we have to omit the Oxford comma. I hate doing that. I think it's just to save as much space as they can.
Do you support the Oxford comma as well?
I use it sometimes
The Oxford comma is a comma just before 'and' in a list, right? Like:
"To my mother, Ayn Rand, and God"
If that's what it is, I'm in favour.
Yep, that's what it is.
I have always been a staunch supporter of the Oxford comma.
by: Dobbie
I had an English teacher who marked me down for using it in a test. I almost went up and contested it, but I didn't think it was worth it.
You should have. Did the teacher say outright which style he/she preferred? If not, you had every right to.
If I recall correctly, the question itself was an unpunctuated statement for which we were asked to insert the necessary punctuation. There was a viable opportunity to place an Oxford comma; I did so and it was marked as wrong. I suspect that it contradicted the marking schedule as she didn't go into specific detail about it. She just circled it, which is teacher shorthand for incorrect here.
Incidentally, I came first in my English class that year, so it wouldn't have mattered too much.
As my papa used to say: always put an Oxford comma, son. Or you're a degenerate.
I hate the Oxford comma. I used to use it but have since been advised by both high school teachers and university lecturers to never use it. I think it's one of those things that's dependent on where you live.
EDIT: Okay, I don't hate it per se, but I'm not a fan of it since being marked down for using it. Quite frankly, I think the Oxford comma is unnecessary and looks better without it.
Last edited by Knightboat; 06-02-2013 at 09:58 PM.
It makes things look messy
Larry Christmas
aka..BarFly#2
I don't like air quotes
I think the Oxford comma clears things up. There are some instances where not having it makes sentences more confusing. For example: "I am going to the game with my parents, Bob, and Jill." The lack of the Oxford comma will make it seem that your parents are Bob and Jill.
Or, if you talk like some of my teachers, it can make it look as though you're talking to Bob and going with your parents and Jill.
I don't use the Oxford comma, but examples like the one from @Financial Panther do make a good case for it.
Can you guys use "who" and "whom" correctly? I can tolerate when people use "who when they should use "whom," but when people do it the other way around, I hate it. It shows they're trying to sound intelligent but don't know that the words aren't interchangeable.
whom are you to talk down to me like that
Whom sounds dumb
I think I can use the two correctly. This reminds me of another topic:
@Financial Panther, do you go completely crazy when you see a sentence ending with a preposition?
what about to and too? that's pretty big
Quick Navigation The Free For All Go Top
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Four taken into custody in Elmwood Park stabbing, driver remains at large
Two people were stabbed in Elmwood Park by a man who fled in a car Wednesday, authorities said.
Four taken into custody in Elmwood Park stabbing, driver remains at large Two people were stabbed in Elmwood Park by a man who fled in a car Wednesday, authorities said. Check out this story on northjersey.com: https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/elmwood-park/2019/06/19/elmwood-park-nj-stabbing-leaves-two-hurt-driver-remains-large/1504407001/
Keldy Ortiz, North Jersey Record Published 6:24 p.m. ET June 19, 2019 | Updated 8:34 p.m. ET June 19, 2019
Four people were taken into custody and two were stabbed in Elmwood Park by a man who fled in a car Wednesday, authorities said.
The man drove to 104 Route 46 east before 5 p.m., when he was attacked by a group of people, borough police chief Michael Foligno said. He was then pulled to the ground and kicked.
During the altercation, the man managed to stab two of his attackers – one in the head and another in the hand, Foligno said.
Matthew Eley, 20, Jimmy Eley, 21, Steve Thompson, 29, and a 16-year-old were taken into custody. They all live at the Route 46 location where the incident took place. They were charged with assault and rioting.
The driver was identified as Danny Vlado from Miami.
Borough Police were reviewing surveillance video from nearby the scene and checking local hospitals, Foligno said.
Anyone with information about the incident can contact the Elmwood Park Police Department at 201-796-0700.
More: Elmwood Park council full for the first time since April as Francesco Fasolo sworn in
More: Elmwood Park spent $185,000 fighting Marcal fire
Read or Share this story: https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/elmwood-park/2019/06/19/elmwood-park-nj-stabbing-leaves-two-hurt-driver-remains-large/1504407001/
Explosion abruptly ends Ridgewood fireworks
Abandoned rail line closer to becoming hiking, cycling trail
Police involved in Paterson shooting, sources say
Tax hike for residents in $550M Bergen budget
Developer sues Ridgewood over affordable housing plan
Oldest house in Paterson damaged in overnight fire
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Woodland fun day to mark anniversary of Ty Sculpture Trail
Opening the trail are Piers Partridge and Phil Carter who created it.
The team behind a popular sculpture trail in Wraxall are running a woodland adventure day.
Piers Partridge and Fiona Andrew with the map of Ty's Sculpture Trail.
The Ty Sculpture Trail was set up in Towerhouse Wood by Piers Partridge in memory of his son Ty who died of leukaemia at the age of 21.
Piers is a volunteer warden for the woodland and Ty spent a lot of his childhood running around the woods with his friends.
The Ty Sculpture Trail features stone carvings of native animals, birds and footprints, which were carved out of limestone by Piers.
More: Families flock to Ty Sculpture Trail.
To celebrate what would have been Ty's 30th birthday, and the third anniversary of the sculpture trail, Piers and his partner Fiona Andrews are holding a woodland adventure day on Sunday.
The event will feature forest school activities, an animal party, games and fun activities.
Piers said: "This year we are planning to run the Dormouse Woodland Adventure on Sunday to celebrate the third anniversary since the launch of the Ty Sculpture Trail in May 2016 and also the day we would have celebrated Ty's 30th birthday.
"We've been overwhelmed by the success of the trail. There's been a constant stream of visitors.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would bring so many children to the woods.
"When you lose a child, anything we can do which keeps some energy alive in the world is just really satisfying for us.
"When I started doing these sculptures, all I wanted was to do something written in stone for Ty.
"I never imagined it would catch children's imaginations so much. It's been great."
The latest addition to the woods is a glass dragonfly, which can be found near the brook.
There are also a number of secret sculptures to find which are not on the map.
The Dormouse Woodland Adventure is free and will include an animal party with the Big Lanky Monkey at 1pm and 3pm, forest school activities, storytelling sessions and games with Michael Loader and a woodland quiz trail.
The adventure day runs from 10.30am-4pm and the trail map and quiz forms are available from Jacklands Farm Shop, at Jacklands Fishing Lakes in Tickenham. The easiest way to access the trail is through Jacklands Fishing Lakes.
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A strange disappearance in Grimshawland: Charlotte Grimshaw's Mazarine reviewed
by Mark Broatch / 30 April, 2018
RelatedArticlesModule - Mazarine Grimshaw
Charlotte Grimshaw’s latest novel Mazarine is an absorbing, multi-layered mystery.
Frances Sinclair is an Auckland writer, of journalism, fiction, screenplays. She lives alone, her daughter Maya having gone to London with her boyfriend, Joe. Then Maya disappears, at least in the 21st-century sense of not staying in touch digitally. When a shady ex, Patrick, randomly appears in Frances’s house, she gets spooked and makes a hasty decision to find her daughter.
The Mazarine of the title of Charlotte Grimshaw’s new novel is Joe’s mother, whom Frances tries to track down to see if she can help. The action shifts to London and Paris, and to reveal any more would jeopardise the suspense.
Grimshaw’s novels always deliver tension, intrigue, drama. Her stories are contemporary, usually vividly set in Auckland or thereabouts and packed with plot.
The haunting and resonant story of an ordinary Pākehā family
A Way with Words: Charlotte Grimshaw
by Charlotte Grimshaw
Serious doesn’t mean po-faced, though. The book bristles with life and is full of sensations, humour, rippling interchanges and sudden poetry: “I … found my seat and settled in for the next round, the stunned hours, the dizzy curve of the Earth, dreams of Patrick and Maya.” It comments on society, not gauchely, but in passing glances and subtle asides. Grimshaw cares about the world we live in and asks us to care, too.
As in previous books, fragments of reality intrude to make up an alternative world we might call Grimshawland: Frances went to Menton in France as a child; Grimshaw’s father, CK Stead won the Katherine Mansfield fellowship to Menton in the 70s. A Herald interviewer is charmed by Frances’s dog and wonders about the dragonfly on the cover of her book. Alice Munro and David Foster Wallace are discussed. There’s the awful shadow of Trump, Madeleine McCann, even the cartoonist Bromhead. Characters in previous novels resembled John Key, John Campbell and Kim Dotcom.
It’s not just things verifiable: Grimshaw builds involving emotional worlds. Frances is lonely, feels unable to read people and frets about whether she’s losing her grip, and it’s to the author’s credit that we are never quite sure about that, either. Frances slowly finds her way, comes to unexpected realisations, perhaps discovers a new, real self.
It’s been a while since Grimshaw has headed overseas in her novels, and Mazarine, her ninth work of fiction, demonstrates that she knows England and its people well. Road trips always run the risk of turning into “holiday snaps” accounts – “and then she went there” – but the author is far too good for that.
Grimshaw’s earlier novels The Night Book and Soon were triumphs and would have been sitters for film or television adaptation in any other civilised country. For me, the central relationship in Mazarine intrigues but doesn’t fully convince, and Grimshaw has so many plot plates spinning – Maya, an encrypted USB drive, Frances’s bonkers family, the dodgy ex, Mazarine, a novel in progress, the threat of Islamic terrorism – that it’s no surprise a few wobble and the odd end is left untied or seems a little neat. But what a great film it would make, provided it could capture the book’s enjoyable swirl of interior and exterior and its many mysteries, not least Frances herself.
MAZARINE, by Charlotte Grimshaw (Vintage/Penguin Random House, $38)
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New recognition of OncoBeta’s success in developing and providing an innovative therapy for non-melanoma skin cancer patients.
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Announcement Date: July 4, 2019
July 5, 2019; Pasadena, U.S. – OncoBeta®, a Medical Device Company specialized in innovative epidermal radioisotope therapies for Non-Melanocytic Skin Cancers (NMSCs), announced today, that it was honored as a Red Herring Top 100 North America Award winner recognizing the continent’s most exciting and innovative private technology companies. After being recognized with the Red Herring Top 100 Europe Award earlier this year, this is now the second recognition obtained by Red Herring.
The winners, celebrated at a special awards ceremony at the Westin Pasadena hotel, have been chosen from thousands of entrants, whittled down to hundreds making the trip to California. The ceremony, led by Red Herring chairman Alex Vieux, was preceded by two days of keynote speeches, discussions and finalist presentations.
Companies were judged by industry experts, insiders and journalists on a wide variety of criteria including financial performance, innovation, business strategy, and market penetration. Winners ran the gamut of verticals, from FinTech and Marketing to Security, IoT, and many more industries.
Red Herring’s editors have been evaluating the world’s startups and tech companies for over two decades. It gives them the ability to see through the industry’s hype to pick firms that will continue on a trajectory to success. Brands such as Alibaba, Google, Kakao, Skype, Spotify, Twitter and YouTube have all been singled out in Red Herring’s storied history.
“2019’s crop of Top 100 winners has been among our most intriguing yet,” said Vieux. “North America has led the way in tech for so many years, and to see such unique, pioneering entrepreneurs and companies here in California, which is in many ways the heartland of the industry, has been a thrilling experience.”
“What has excited me most is to see so many people forging niches in high-tech and cutting edge sectors,” added Vieux. “Some of the technical wizardry and first-rate business models showcased here at the conference has been fantastic to learn about. We believe OncoBeta® embodies the drive, skill and passion on which tech thrives. OncoBeta® should be proud of its achievement – the competition was incredibly strong.”
“Being named as one of the Red Herring’s Top 100 North America award winner in addition to the Top 100 Europe is a great honor for us. ” states Shannon D. Brown III, CEO of OncoBeta®. “The spiritof the award aligns perfectly with our team’s mission in the fight against non-melanocytic skin cancer(NMSC) with the Rhenium-SCT®.”
The complete list of the 2019 Red Herring North America Top 100 Winners can be found here inalphabetical order: https://www.redherring.com/2019-rhna-top100-winners/
Red Herring’s press release is available online at
https://www.redherring.com/red-herring-2019-top-100-north-america-winners-press-release/
About the Rhenium-SCT® (Skin Cancer Therapy)
The Rhenium-SCT® is a non-invasive, painless therapy generally providing for unparalleled aesthetic
results, even in cases otherwise considered difficult to treat. The Rhenium- SCT® utilizes the radioisotope Rhenium-188 in an epidermal application with optimal properties for the treatment of NMSCs (non-melanoma skin cancers). Due to the specially designed devices and accessories the Rhenium- SCT® compound never comes in direct contact with the patients’ skin and the application is safe and simple for the applying physician. Most cases of non-melanoma skin cancers (Basal Cell
Carcinomas and Squamous Cell Carcinomas) can be treated using the Rhenium-SCT® with a single application, applied in one single session. Scar-free healing of the treated lesion area and the regeneration of healthy tissue occurs usually within a few weeks after treatment.
About OncoBeta® GmbH
OncoBeta® GmbH with its headquarters located at the Garching Technology and Founders Center GATE near Munich, is a privately held medical device company, specializing in the development and commercialization of state-of-the-art, innovative therapies utilizing epidermal radioisotope applications. Since its foundation, OncoBeta® GmbH has concentrated its efforts on the development, regulatory approval(s) and commercialization of the epidermal radioisotope therapy Rhenium-SCT® (Skin Cancer Therapy), targeting non-melanoma skin cancers. Since then, OncoBeta® has successfully perfected the customized application and device management system in conformity with all health, safety, and environmental protection regulatory standards. OncoBeta® GmbH is European CE certified and has filed for regulatory approval in several other countries outside the European Union.
Furthermore, having the patient in focus, OncoBeta® is enthusiastically working with medical, scientific and industrial partners as well as local and national authorities to make this personalized, painless and non-invasive therapy accessible to patients all over the world. The Rhenium-SCT® significantly improves outcomes and the quality of life of non-melanoma skin cancer patients.
Find out more about the Rhenium-SCT® at https://www.oncobeta.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oncobeta-gmbh/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OncoBeta/
This announcement includes forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of OncoBeta®’s control and which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning OncoBeta®’s plans, objectives, goals, future events, performance and/or other information that is not historical information. All such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements and any other cautionary statements which may accompany the forward-looking statements. OncoBeta® undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances after the date made, except as required by law.
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Mar 16 2014 March 16, 2014 March 16, 2014 NoComment by Administrator
Why is Sri Lanka’s Media acting as a 5th column?
When 96% of world media is owned by 6 companies we do not need to go far to conclude the nature of biased coverage. The fact that media houses are owned by a handful has gone to show that we cannot trust the coverage being relayed. In Sri Lanka’s case all that we ask is why is Sri Lanka’s press not supportive of Sri Lanka’s gallant stand against the bullying western colonial countries at Geneva? That Sri Lanka’s media has never taken the stand against LTTE terror except to report on events as they have unfolded over the years makes any to wonder whether Sri Lanka’s media is functioning as a fifth column willing to be surrogates and of the West.
Biased Media – not just in Sri Lanka
MSNBC didn’t run a single negative story on Barack Obama during the final week of the presidential campaign. MSNBC didn’t run a single positive story on Mitt Romney during the final week of the presidential campaign.
In one of the most recent examples of media bias the Ukraine example shows media in connivance with imperial agenda. Media conveniently left out reference to US/NATO manufacturing protests, engineering coups, manipulating minorities, funding opposition groups and through them causing the mischief needed for them to intervene once the necessary ground work has been provided through their slave and partner in crime the press. How different can the scenario not be in Sri Lanka or anywhere else where regime change is being attempted? Media functions as an agent of that change. If wrong, can media prove so?
Hindu India – Buddhist Sri Lanka
In India with 1.2billion population and over 80% Hindus its media is controlled by non-Hindus and mostly by Christians. In fact the influence on Indians is such that Maria Mirth asks ‘why do so many educated Indians become agitated when India is referred to as a Hindu country?…..Why then is there this resistance by many Indians to acknowledge the Hindu roots of their country?” That is a good question that educated Sinhalese Buddhists need to ask themselves too. India was essentially a Hindu country just as Sri Lanka was Sinhalese Buddhist. That hasn’t changed but the perceptions are being changed using communication media. When Germany’s head asks Germany to ‘go back to Christian values’ if the same were to be said by an Indian or Sri Lankan leader, the media would immediately jump to complain the communities were being attacked.
Hindu India is certainly feeling the pinch – its Hindu culture is being denigrated, its traditional rituals are being demeaned, Hindu beliefs are being ridiculed and it has become a common practice to insult Hindus by a subservient local media ever ready and willing to act as surrogates of the West. Any Hindu or Sinhalese challenging status quo is quickly silenced by name calling with a barrage of writers promoted via media projecting themselves as giving majority opinion when in reality it is not so. Media purposely omits and blacks out the opinion of the majority.
If employees of India’s media houses are full of non-Hindus who have no love of heritage to feel proud of the Indian ancestry it means that these employees have no qualms about being subservient to their employers who are invariably working on behalf of alien forces. A content analysis of both Indian and Sri Lankan media will reveal the fact that despite Hindus being the majority in India and Buddhists being the majority in Sri Lanka, the media spends all its focus on tactics to ridicule the majority. The insinuations, the placement of articles and news, the inferences made and the sarcasms are obvious. While private media hardly offers space to the majority of either country, the state channels takes efforts to provide a balance leaves a virtual 2/3 opinion tilted towards the minorities contributing towards the overall feeling that the majority in both country’s are to blame for any trouble in the country. Politicians that lack any love for country, its heritage or the protection of that culture except to enjoy luxuries of power and privilege have worsened the situation by not drawing the lines to ensure that the historical heritage of the 2 country’s are not compromised. The damage politicians have done and are doing to the heritage of both nations is colossal and now historically heritage sites are being taken over under the ‘multicultural’ slogan. This damage must immediately stop.
If many Hindus are now coming out to say that an analysis of all programs across mainstream media in India are anti-Hindu, the same can be said of the scenario in Sri Lanka. http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=895
A ‘free’ press is not above the law. A free press cannot think that they can be allowed to do as they like, go where they like, write what they like and demand that everyone accept all they write and say given that the media runs as a business or is owned by politically motivated or religious entities.
Let us build upon the conclusions made by the Press Commission report of 1964. When Dr. K N Jayatilake Prof. of Philosophy, University of Ceylon giving evidence in 1964 before the Press Commission stated that an impression had been created in the English reading public that the ‘communal and religious minorities must get together and oppose the Sinhalese Buddhist majority if they are to get any rights at all’. This appears very close to the truth in the present context of how the English media of Sri Lanka functions.
When Dr. Jayatilake went on to say that foreign news relevant to Buddhists were never given print space by non-Buddhist editors is this not relevant to the situation prevalent today as well.
The 1964 Press Commission as a whole concluded that Sri Lanka’s Press had not conformed to general principles of journalism. If the Press was accused in 1964 of providing news that was ‘slanted, distorted, fabricated and journalists were conducting themselves in a manner hostile to the interests of the nation and Buddhism in particular which was the religion of the vast majority of the permanent population’ (page 12 of report). The situation is no different in 2014.
At a time when Sri Lanka is in need of patriotism in the newspapers the 1964 Report says thus”
‘If these English language newspapers were sufficiently patriotic they could have made a very useful contribution to bringing about unity among the various communities after the country achieved its independence.They should have advised the minority groups to adapt themselves to the changing circumstances and exhorted the majority to be generous towards the former. They failed to do that. What they consistently did was to poison the minds of the minority groups and encourage them to fight to retain the unjust privileges they had received during the era of foreign domination. ” (PCR para 112, page 56)
” The journalists manning the Sinhala language newspapers knew fully well that this policy was wrong and unpatriotic but they themselves were compelled to follow, though unwittingly, the same policy due to pressure exerted on them by the management” (PCR para 113, page 56)
On the conduct of the Tamil Press i.e. Virakesari the Press Commission Report quotes V A Kandiah and G Kumaralingam members of the Ceylon Journalists Association saying
‘ It is carrying on a continuous communal propaganda in issue after ‘issue. Virakesari is owned and run by Indian nationals, and as such their purpose is to spread the idea of Indian domination of this country and condition the people ‘
Mr. Kumaralingam said that the Thinakaran and Virakesari were
‘infecting the Tamil population with communalism, thus disrupting the unity of the Sinhalese and Tamil people. These papers should be properly controlled to enable us to play up national unity.’ (PRC para 47, page 26)
The Press Commission Report mentions ‘Ceylon Daily Mirror’, ‘Ceylon Observer’ and ‘Times of Ceylon’ being newspapers largely responsible for spreading communal disharmony on the lines that the minorities were being denied due rights and treated as second class citizens bringing non-existent parallels to the racial discrimination suffered by blacks in South Africa.
The subject of mischievous propaganda was highlighted by none other than Sir Nicholas Attygalle, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ceylon who said that the source of false news to England and USA was from Sri Lanka’s own leading newspapers (PRC para 49, page 27). Should we then be surprised when the foreign press is hostile towards Sri Lanka when the meat is being provided by our own press! If the press acting anti-national in the 1960s has the scenario changed in 2014?
Conduct a Content Analysis
Why has the media projected a one-sided version giving no voice to Buddhist perspective purposing omitting the wrongs done to Buddhists?
Why did Sri Lanka’s media have a virtual blackout on coverage of attacks on Buddhists and Buddhist places of worship in Bangladesh, Maldives, Burma and holiest place of Buddha Gaya without a single editorial written on these events?
Why has Sri Lanka’s media omitted to cover the Buddhist version in Burma?
Why have attacks on Buddhist sites not gained the same media coverage as claims of illegally constructed religious sites and video clippings? Why has media avoided mention of the illegal construction and illegal conversions that form the basis for the issues?
Why is Sri Lanka’s media one-sided in its inference on Buddhists being intolerant without giving opportunity for Buddhist sentiments to be heard as well?
Why have media throughout 30 years not championed the need to take the issue of terrorism globally accusing the LTTE of crimes instead of simply reporting a LTTE atrocity?
In a country were 7 out of 10 are Sinhalese Buddhists how much of Buddhist related news does the English print media provide and why is coverage never from a Buddhist perspective?
Why has the English media continue to stick to only a handful of darlings that belong to the English speaking coterie and include only their versions without giving any room for new opinion, counter opinion or even right of replies? The handful of daily English newspapers are guilty of weekly publicizing only their favorite writers who have a history of attempting to distort ideas/versions and functioning as agents of alien forces.
Why have media not supported the general public as victims of LTTE atrocities always preferring to add a prefix to LTTE crimes and describing them as ‘allegedly committed by LTTE”
Why has Sri Lanka’s media personnel being Sri Lankan citizens not felt the need to defend the armed forces and their country when accused of crimes they know to be untrue? Why have these media personnel given undue publicity to the negative publicity against Sri Lanka.?
Why has the media not stood together with the rest of the public to say Sri Lanka has not done wrong and emphasized on the humanitarian efforts and made room to be thankful to the armed forces for sacrificing their lives to save the nation? Why have they instead repeatedly given room over their mediums for the lies and distortions and functioned as agents for promoting these among the general public thus creating doubt among the citizens? What has it been difficult for the media of Sri Lanka to be proud of our armed forces, proud of our achievement in being the only nation to end terrorism?
Sri Lanka’s media takes umbrage whenever its wrongs are highlighted and to avoid responding to allegations Sri Lanka’s media has been quick to project itself as victim. In 1964, the Press report alleges that the Times of Ceylon was aware of the coup d’etat leading to a military coup by Christian military officers as a result of Catholic Action and was preparing the people to accept a new Government through their media. This is a repetition of how the Western media were preparing the people in US to accept military interventions by projecting foreign leaders as dictators.
If the government or even a private organization were to conduct a content analysis of how the Sri Lankan media function they would not be able to project themselves as victims and the present insinuations of intolerance by Buddhists and discriminations by Buddhists would be proved wrong statistically. It is no better a time for the Buddhist organizations to launch a content analysis of Sri Lanka’s media and present its findings so that the Sri Lankan media and the minorities can statistically challenge the data if it can be challenged.
How many Western journalists would ridicule their nations or their armed forces? In these countries soldiers are served free, when they enter restaurants they are warmly welcomed and cheered, they are treated with admiration. If the armed forces of the West, most of whom have been sent to invade and occupy nations are being treated as heroes, why have we not done the same to our armed forces who have not only saved our nation from terrorism but physically saved 300,000 Tamil civilians at the cost of their lives? Why has the media not felt the need to stand up for Sri Lanka’s armed forces when they know that these men are building homes, making roads and helping with the development of the North? Why has the media not felt it bizarre to demand a demilitarization of the North when it is fully aware of the presence of foreign intelligence, former LTTE cadres who continue to pose as civilians and the media is well aware of the dangers to the country unless the armed forces are present in the North to safeguard the security of the nation?
When the West are using every dirty trick in the book to bring international investigations against Sri Lanka, with the resources available to the media, should Sri Lanka’s press not champion the cause of Sri Lanka? Why has the media not demanded accountability for colonial crimes, why has media failed to raise the conflict of interest aspects of Navi Pillay, why have media not highlighted the need to investigate the entire history of the problem and that history goes back to the times of divide and rule where minorities were given special privileges above the majority and that was where the divide was created. Why has media not demanded reserve discrimination for the Sinhalese Buddhists that suffered ever since 1505 when even after independence media is well aware that the losses to the Sinhalese Buddhists were never restored?
Sri Lanka’s media may claim itself unbiased this can easily be negated by the simple exercise of a content analysis and prove that they have functioned and continue to function as a 5th column and agent for alien forces ignoring their duty to the nation.
Shenali D Waduge
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Mayor's statement on loans legal action
17 July 2018 in Finance and Mayor
On Monday (July 16) at a meeting of the full Council Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz made an announcement regarding Newham Council borrowing and a specialist type of loan known as Lender Option Borrower Option (LOBO) taken out previously by the council.
Mayor Fiaz said: “Newham has decided to launch independent legal action against Barclays Bank as we have serious concerns regarding the mis-selling of LOBO loans and manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) by Barclays and potentially other banks.
“We continue to gather expert legal opinion but we would want to recover money potentially denied to us at a time when local services face the prospect of being diminished because of central government’s continued austerity drive that is causing havoc and stretching out resources for Newham residents.”
LIBOR is a benchmark rate that some of the world’s leading banks charge each other for short-term loans.
Added the Mayor: “We understand that we were the first of a number of local authorities to lodge a protective claim at the High Court about this. Since this is now a legal matter, and live, the Council can't make any further comments, but we'll be making sure we update residents as soon as we are able.”
Newham’s claim is separate to an announcement made by another fourteen councils earlier this week to pursue their own claims against Barclays over LOBO loans.
Mayor of Newham and schoolchildren join Mayor of London to break ground on historic new cultural and educational quarter in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Mayor of Newham to meet her pledge to start building 1,000 new homes at social rent with cash boost of 276 million
Unlocking the future of housing delivery with Red Door Ventures
2012 Games and legacy
Community neighbourhoods
Young Mayor
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Long IslandPolitics
Answers to frequently asked questions about Nassau's reassessment
A sign at the Nassau County Department of Assessment in Mineola on Oct. 3. Photo Credit: Barry Sloan
By Scott Eidler scott.eidler@newsday.com @ScottyEidz Updated December 15, 2018 6:00 AM
NASSAU COUNTY PROPERTY REASSESSMENT
Nassau County has embarked on a countywide property reassessment for the first time since tax rolls were frozen in 2011. County Executive Laura Curran says the reassessment is necessary to develop an accurate tax roll that will hold up under court challenges. Nassau already has borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars to pay successful tax challenges.
Roughly 52 percent of homeowners will see a tax increase while 48 percent will see a tax decrease under current plans.
The county is mailing notices to homeowners, showing the new market values of their homes under reassessment. The notices also show homeowners their 2017-18 property taxes, including for schools, and their hypothetical 2020-21 taxes.
Nassau County Assessor David Moog says the overwhelming number of homeowners will see their market values rise, after years of frozen assessments.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean their tax bills will rise by the same percentage as the market value. Generally, homeowners are more likely to see tax increases if they had grieved continuously over the years, driving down their market values, Moog said.
Also, the impact of the reassessment can vary significantly by school district.
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What will reassessment do?
Nassau County is reassessing more than 400,000 residential and commercial properties on the tax rolls. The new values will take effect in the 2020-21 tax year.
Lawmakers from both parties have agreed the reassessment is long overdue.
Tax rolls were frozen in 2011 by the administration of former County Executive Edward Mangano, a Republican who served from 2010 through 2017. His administration began work on the reassessment. County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat who is in her first year in office, ordered the reassessment completed in time for 2019.
In March, the Nassau County Legislature approved contracts with outside companies to calculate new residential market values. Overwhelmingly, residents’ market values were too low, the companies found.
A practice of agreeing to mass settlements of tax challenges, along with the frozen tax roll, “severely degraded the accuracy and integrity of assessments and shifted the tax burden disproportionately,” according to the assessment department’s website.
How did Nassau get here?
Over the years, homeowners who grieved their assessments successfully shifted more of the tax burden onto those who did not. Newsday earlier this year found the value of the shift in the tax burden, largely from more affluent property owners to everyone else, reached about $2.2 billion in the program’s seventh year, which includes October 2017 and January 2018 tax bills.
The shift in the tax burden reached about $2.2 billion in the program's seventh year, which includes October 2017 and January 2018 tax bills, according to a Newsday analysis.
What’s the impact of reassessment?
Under reassessment, about 52 percent of Nassau homeowners will see tax increases, while 48 percent will see reductions, according to county projections.
More than 39,000 homeowners will see increases of more than $3,000, while 33,000 will see reductions of that size.
More than 11,000 residents will have increases of $5,000 or more, while more than 10,000 will see reductions in that range.
Nassau County resident Cory Eisner holds the tax impact notice he received for his Levittown home. Photo Credit: Heather Walsh
The county has mailed “Tax Impact Notices” reflecting homeowners’ new market values. The notices also show homeowners' total taxes in 2017-18 and 2020-21, so they can see how much their taxes are projected to go up or down.
What has happened with the level of assessment?
In March, Curran signed an executive order unfreezing the tax rolls. Assessment increases were limited to 6 percent in the first year, and 20 percent over five years, in accordance with state law.
The order said the level of assessment — the fraction of market value at which homes are assessed — would be .25 percent. That figure is used to calculate tax bills.
In September, Curran issued another order lowering the level of assessment to .1 percent. That would allow homes to be assessed much closer to their new market values.
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran signs an executive order on property assessment with County Assessor David Moog on Sept. 26 in Mineola. Photo Credit: Howard Schnapp
Continuing to use the larger fraction would not result in an accurate tax roll and do little to erase inequities in the tax burden, Curran administration officials have said.
Majority Republicans in the Nassau Legislature have accused Curran of reneging on a deal that would have resulted in fewer swings in tax bills of those who successfully challenged their assessments over the years. Some Democrats also have criticized Curran for rushing reassessment and the resulting tax hikes.
Curran has proposed a Taxpayer Protection Plan. What would it do?
Curran is lobbying members of the New York State Legislature to pass a bill to phase in assessment increases over a five-year period. Homeowners’ assessments would reflect their new market values by the fifth year. The phase-in would slow tax hikes for homeowners who have grieved, and also slow reductions for those who haven't.
The State Legislature, which is out of session until January, must approve the bill.
How many increases or decreases
The county is forecasting how many property owners will see increases or decreases under the new plan, depending on whether it is phased in or not. Click the arrow to move through three charts that explain the breakdown, and click on any bar segment for details.
You can see specifics on what this will do to taxes in your school district.
What are homeowners saying about reassessment?
Homeowners who most likely will see tax increases are those who grieved their assessments frequently, according to county officials.
Some taxpayers are angry about the increases. They say they played by the rules and were prodded by county lawmakers and other officials to file grievances.
Crowds fill the legislature chambers and overflow rooms as the Nassau County Legislature holds a hearing on the County Executive's Reassessment Plan and implementation on Dec. 12 in Mineola. Photo Credit: Howard Schnapp
Many such homeowners also say they are worried about the new $10,000 limit on state and local tax deductions in the federal tax bill.
Curran has expressed sympathy for some who have won tax challenges.
"To those of you who played by the rules of this corrupted game and hired tax grievance firms to grieve — you did nothing wrong. You did as you were told," she said recently.
"But you were led to believe this was a permanent fix," Curran said. "They set you up for this day of reckoning — because everyone knows you can’t stay with a frozen roll forever."
Curran and reassessment backers say the readjustment is critical to leveling the playing field for the 48 percent of property owners who shouldered a disproportionate share of the tax burden during the tax freeze. Some of those taxpayers have said they were surprised to learn they had been overpaying for years.
Doing nothing, or using the 0.25 percent level of assessment, would perpetuate the unfairness, reassessment advocates say.
Curran has blamed majority GOP county legislators and Mangano's administration, as well as tax grievance firms, for allowing the assessment problem to worsen. She says she’s the only one tackling the problem.
“What was their solution? What do they say to the 50 percent of homeowners in their districts who have been overpaying for all those years,” Curran said.
Legislative Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) said, “We are concerned that we had in the past many, many people who had become underassessed."
Nonetheless, he said, "we are concerned that we will now go to the opposite extreme that we will have many, many people who are overassessed.”
Have there been problems with the reassessment rollout?
Curran's administration corrected 60,000 tax-impact notices posted on the county's website because the assessor had used preliminary, rather than final, values when estimating reassessment's effects on property tax bills.
Moog amended the notices to reflect the "final full market values" for the 2017-18 tax years, which were used as a base for the tax bill estimates. The original notices included tentative assessments that were reduced by successful tax challenges, he said.
Also, 20,000 assessment disclosure notices had to be redone because Nassau mistakenly had increased assessments of those properties by more than the 6 percent allowed by state law.
Moog said Friday that he was adjusting the values on more than 40,000 residential properties after hearing from thousands of homeowners about errors in their new property tax assessments.
Moog called it normal to make corrections after homeowners are notified of their new values following a full reassessment.
The Nassau County Department of Assessment will release its tentative assessment roll for every property on Jan. 2.
Residents have until March 1 to file appeals. The county Assessment Review Commission will review the grievances. The Department of Assessment will publish its final roll, based on the commission's determinations, on April 1, 2020.
Town and city tax receivers will mail school tax bills on Oct. 1, 2020 and general tax bills on Jan. 1, 2021.
Where can I go with questions?
Taxpayers can visit the assessment department office in Mineola, or satellite assessment offices in Westbury, Lido Beach and Roslyn. Satellite offices are open through Jan. 31.
The Nassau County Department of Assessment Satellite Office in Roslyn on Nov. 28. Photo Credit: Barry Sloan
Nassau County residents also can visit the county website, https://www.nassaucountyny.gov/4638/Ask-The-County-Assessor.
By Scott Eidler scott.eidler@newsday.com @ScottyEidz
Scott Eidler covers Nassau County government and politics for Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.
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SportsHigh SchoolSoftball
Gabby Marcheschi helps end St. Anthony's CHSAA softball title drought
St. Anthony's celebrates at home plate after defeating Kellenberg in the CHSAA final on Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at Hofstra. Photo Credit: Richard T. Slattery
By MIKE GAVIN michael.gavin@newsday.com @MikeGavin7 May 19, 2015 10:10 PM
The entire St. Anthony's softball team was asked how many of them were born the last time the Friars were league champions. Only three arms went up.
Yeah, it's been a while.
But one of the arms that did go up, that of Gabby Marcheschi, helped end that drought on Tuesday as St. Anthony's defeated three-time defending state champion Kellenberg, 4-3, in the CHSAA championship at Hofstra.
SEE PHOTOS CHSAA final: Kellenberg vs. St. Anthony's
"When I was pitching," said Marcheschi, who allowed six hits and two walks with four strikeouts, "I kept saying, 'This is our year! This is our year! I have to do this!' "
In the seventh inning, Kellenberg had runners on second and third with one out.
But Marcheschi induced a chopper to the circle and a groundout to shortstop Lexi Reale to give St. Anthony's its first league title since 1997, the year Marcheschi was born.
"All I was thinking was I better catch this ball," Reale said. "We really wanted this."
After Alyssa Delaney drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the fifth, Gabby Puglia doubled to the gap in left-center to give the Friars a 4-3 lead.
"I was praying that I have to get the ball down," Puglia said. "I swung through the ball and got the run in. And I was like, 'Phewwww.' ''
With two outs in the fifth and St. Anthony's leading 3-0, Victoria Sapraicone hit an RBI double and Amanda Riveira followed with an RBI triple to cut the deficit to 3-2 for Kellenberg (17-9). Katherine Piorkowski, who tossed a four-hitter in Kellenberg's 8-0 win over Sacred Heart in the semifinals earlier yesterday, followed with a single to even the score at 3.
But that would be the final rally in the Firebirds' dynasty.
"One generation of players passes on a culture of never quitting to another," Kellenberg coach Ken Conrade said. "I think you saw that today."
Reale drilled a two-run double that gave St. Anthony's a 2-0 lead in the third. Kim Puzo, who was named CHSAA Player of the Year, followed with an RBI single to increase the lead to 3-0.
St. Anthony's (20-1) advances to the CHSAA state semifinals on Tuesday at Hofstra.
"It's been a long time since St. Anthony's has done this," said Marcheschi, named CHSAA Pitcher of the Year after the game. "It feels great to help bring the title back."
Yeah, it had been a while.
By MIKE GAVIN michael.gavin@newsday.com @MikeGavin7
Mike Gavin has worked at Newsday since 2007, covering everything from real estate to sports. Born and raised on Long Island, he is a graduate of Stony Brook University.
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Home Science NASA conceives “Ice Home” for future Mars explorers
NASA conceives “Ice Home” for future Mars explorers
A long-exposure Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, the deepest ever made image of any cluster of galaxies, is seen in an undated NASA handout. [Photo/Xinhua]
U.S. space agency NASA is exploring the possibility of building habitats on the surface of Mars for future explorers using an unexpected material: ice.
In a statement released this week, researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center described ice as “the best building material” to protect humans from the harsh Martian environment such as extreme temperatures and high-energy radiation.
Langley senior systems engineer Kevin Vipavetz, who facilitated the design session, said they assessed “many crazy, out of the box ideas” and finally converged on the current Ice Home design, which he said “provides a sound engineering solution.”
The “Mars Ice Home” is a large inflatable torus, a shape similar to an inner tube, that is surrounded by a shell of water ice, which can be extracted from just below the Martian surface in many areas, NASA said.
The structure, which incorporates materials extracted from Mars itself, is lightweight and can be transported and deployed with simple robotics, then filled with water, it said.
The water, an “excellent shielding material” for galactic cosmic rays, also could potentially be converted to rocket fuel for the Mars Ascent Vehicle, so the structure itself doubles as a storage tank that can be refilled.
One key constraint, it said, was the amount of water that could be reasonably extracted from Mars.
Experts who develop systems for extracting resources on Mars indicated that it would be possible to fill the habitat at a rate of one cubic meter per day, which would allow the Ice Home design to be completely filled in 400 days.
Additional design considerations included a large amount of flexible workspace so that crews would have a place to service robotic equipment indoors without the need to wear a pressure suit.
In addition, to manage temperatures inside the Ice Home, a layer of carbon dioxide gas, which is available on Mars, would be used as in insulation between the living space and the thick shielding layer of ice.
Overall, all of the materials selected for Ice Home will be translucent, so people living inside will feel like they’re “in a home and not a cave,” Ice Home principal investigator Kevin Kempton said.
“After months of travel in space, when you first arrive at Mars and your new home is ready for you to move in, it will be a great day,” he said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua/NewsGhana.com.gh
conceives
Ice Home
Mars explorers
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Server-Side Enterprise Development with Angular
Bram Borggreve
Build SEO-friendly, progressive web applications that live on the web, mobile, or desktop, using the latest Angular Universal which is loaded with powerful features such as components, directives, and services
Identify what makes an Angular application SEO-friendly
Generate commands to create components and services
Distinguish between the container and presentational components
Implement server-side rendering using Angular Universal
Create a web server using Node.js and Express
Add dynamic metadata to your web application
Deploy a server-side rendered app to the cloud
Implement and configure a service worker using Angular PWA
With the help of Server-Side Enterprise Development with Angular, equip yourself with the skills required to create modern, progressive web applications that load quickly and efficiently. This fast-paced book is a great way to learn how to build an effective UX by using the new features of Angular 7 beta, without wasting efforts in searching for referrals.
To start off, you'll install Angular CLI and set up a working environment, followed by learning to distinguish between the container and presentational components. You'll explore advanced concepts such as making requests to a REST API from an Angular application, creating a web server using Node.js and Express, and adding dynamic metadata. You'll also understand how to implement and configure a service worker using Angular PWA and deploy the server-side rendered app to the cloud.
By the end of this book, you'll have developed skills to serve your users views that load instantly, while reaping all the SEO benefits of improved page indexing.
Explore differences between server-side and client-side rendering
Learn how to create a progressive web app with great SEO support
Discover best practices and how to use them to develop an app
Bram Borggreve is a software engineer from the Netherlands, who currently works as an instructor at egghead.io, and is the founder of Colmena Consultancy. With almost 20 years of experience in all fields of the software lifecycle, Bram has a complete overview of the high-value challenges that clients are keen to resolve.
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Federal and Oregon
It's Your School Board
LGBTQ Agenda
GENDER Transitioning for Minors
School Health Clinics
Obscenity in Schools
VIEWPOINT Discrimination
Molalla River School District is proud to announce... EQUALITY CLUB at MIDDLE SCHOOLS
You might be hearing about these new "clubs" appearing on middle school campuses across Oregon! Like the one suggested at Whitford Middle School, Beaverton.
According to the Molalla Superintendant, Tony Mann, this club is intended to "create community" for students who feel they don't fit into male/female gender categories. But more than that "provide a voice and a forum for LGBTQ+ students and their straight allies" by hosting events and activities throughout the school year aimed at empowering students... Mann seems excited about the 22 kids who have already signed up for the club.
It is important to note middle school students are ages 11-14. Sixth graders barely understand what puberty is, let alone anal and oral sex!
Will public schools take legal responsibility for students attracted to alternative risky lifestyles through clubs on campus? The Age of Consent law in Oregon requires a person to be at least 18 years of age to consent to sex.
Molalla School Board Member, Linda Eskridge has concern about the establishment of the club promoting sex by minors. "I am extremely concerned and stressed that you (Tony Mann, Superintendant) would allow this club to start at a middle school. This is nothing more than child abuse.You use the false narrative talking points stating how this will make students feel 'Safe and Wanted.' You fail to recognize other students have been taught that sodomy is not a safe life style."
The US Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop states, “Condoms may provide some protection, but anal intercourse is simply too dangerous to practice.” Up to 96% of these STDs contracted by youth are among homosexual youth—especially among males having sex with males. Female homosexuals are experiencing a rise in STDs as well.
The LGBTQ groups have become expert bullies. Other students who do not believe rectal and oral sex are a healthy life style, will be called homophobes. So much for tolerance! Some young students may identify as Transgender, Gay, or Queer just to gain new found attention and peer acceptance.
Are Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs used to recruit heterosexuals?
At a meeting of the Anoka-Hennepin School Board, Barb Anderson, a leader in Minnesota’s pro-family movement, told the board that Gay-Straight Alliances are recruiting centers for the homosexual lifestyle, that they are dangerous to students, and that the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, which assist with GSAs, encouraged statutory rape.
Be Informed!
Parents Rights in Education is a 501(c)(3) organization, contributions to which are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Sign up for news alerts
Copyright © 2019 Parents' Rights in Education. All rights reserved.
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topic_facet:"Railroads" topic_facet:"Prices"
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Statistics of the colony of Victoria for the year 1867 compiled from official records in the Registrar-General's Office.
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GP V 1867 Second Session no. 1 (3.4 MB)
Statistics of the colony of Victoria for the year 1863 compiled from official records in the Registrar-General's Office
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Statistics of the colony of Victoria for the year 1861 compiled from official records in the Registrar-General's Office : presented to both Houses of Parliament by His Excellency's...
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Statistics of the colony of Victoria for the year 1865 compiled from official records in the Registrar-General's Office :
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Caryn Riswold
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The Grace of Being Freed From Judging My Neighbor
July 28, 2016 by Caryn Riswold
The Grace of Being Freed From Judging My Neighbor July 28, 2016 Caryn Riswold
Earlier this week, I had an op-ed about religious freedom published in the local newspaper, responding to to legislative efforts in many states (VP nominee Mike Pence’s Indiana among them) to enable business owners to use religious freedom as a license to deny services and discriminate.
Here’s an excerpt (click to read the full piece):
As Lutherans prepare to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the advent of the Reformation in 2017, a pivotal voice from the past suggests another more compelling view of Christian freedom from which legislators and people of faith might learn.
In his 1520 essay “On the Freedom of a Christian,” Martin Luther makes an argument using twin claims: “A Christian is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone.” Both a free person and a dutiful servant, the Christian is a paradox.
How is this possible? For Luther, it was based on his concept that a person has two natures: an inner, spiritual nature and an outer, bodily nature. With regard to the spirit, Luther argued for absolute freedom from having to earn salvation; nothing that a Christian could do, say, buy or become could earn a ticket to heaven. This is because, for him, Christians are already saved by the power of God’s grace.
Freed for what? This is where Luther’s explanation of the outer, bodily nature of the person came into play. As a “servant of all,” the Christian is freed to serve his or her neighbor. Freed from having to be concerned with his or her own salvation, he or she could therefore focus on self-control “that he may be able to serve others more sincerely and more freely.” This is the part of person who interacts with others in the world through work, community and politics. As Luther said, the Christian “must needs speak, act, and converse among” other people. As must we all.
This is something Luther understood that Christians would undertake joyfully. Serving one’s neighbor is how one lives as a faithful servant of God in the world. This entails all the things that we do as members of a community, including paying taxes that support public schools, safe roads and clean drinking water. It means running our businesses fairly by following laws regarding hiring, pay, and public access. It includes states providing social services for the most vulnerable among us. It also means enforcing laws that protect us from the harmful actions of others, like discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion and sexual orientation.
Knowing that there are more Missouri-Synod Lutherans in my town than there are ELCA Lutherans (click here if you’re not familiar with why that difference matters), and knowing how conservative generally the readers of this paper are, I expected criticism. I didn’t have to wait long … two days later a letter to the editor was published suggesting that I made “a gigantic, fallacious leap” by suggesting that Luther’s ideas about freedom are “relevant to our culture’s accepting sexual orientation.” The author is a local retired LCMS clergy and former faculty member at the institution where I teach known for his writing against pluralism, multiculturalism, and Islam among other things. He goes on to quote at length the things that Luther said about Sodom in his Genesis commentary, as well as Luther’s call to hate the Carthusian monks “because they were the first to bring this terrible pollution into Germany.” (Of course, “terrible pollution” = same sex activity.)
He concludes by stating that my argument “would make any Luther scholar wince in dismay.” The implication there is that I am not a Luther scholar. Never mind my sixteen-year-old Ph.D. from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, the two books I have written on Martin Luther, the many articles and chapters I have published that work with elements of the Reformer’s theology, as well as the three forthcoming entries I will have in the Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation. His immediate disregard for any authority that I might have on the topics on which I write are based on more than disagreement; they are the product of a significant generational and gender gap.
Of course my op-ed wasn’t making an argument about homosexuality per se, thus Luther’s writings on the subject (with which I am familiar) weren’t relevant. (Nor were particular things he said about women, like “it’s more fitting for them to lisp and stammer” than to be authoritative, though my interlocutor may agree there too.) I made an argument that the nuance in the Reformer’s understanding of what it means to be Christian in the world, freed to serve, is a helpful corrective to those bound up today in a theology that compels them to discriminate and deny services to their neighbors.
In fact, Luther might recognize that way of thinking as a type of works-righteousness, something he vehemently argued against. The freedom of a Christian was a byproduct of grace: the unmerited gift of God in fact frees the Christian from having to earn her salvation by doing, thinking, saying the right thing. With such freedom she can then undertake service to the neighbor joyfully and humbly.
What a relief to not have to worry about judging my neighbor and instead look for ways to make his life better.
If only the so-called “religious freedom” zealots could enjoy such relief.
Luther rose image via wikimedia commons. Letter image mine.
Writing About #BlackLivesMatter While White
August 1, 2016 All About Hijab: Gender, Race, Religion & Ghazala Khan
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Racism, Sexism, & The Holiday Classics
"Even as a reverent agnostic, yet assuming a genuine divine revelation, I wonder how that ..."
How Gender Studies Transforms Religions
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On Feminist Pioneers & White People ..."
"Isn't the Lutheran denomination, in all its manifestations, shrinking?You used to be nearly 5.5 million; ..."
“Where God Is” :: Writing and ..."
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Fallout 3 (PC)
It’s release day for Bethesda Studio’s Oblivion. I pick up my collector’s edition (of course) grab a few bottles of any and every energy drink available, and head home to my dark gaming dungeon knowing full well I’ll be super-glued to my TV until my bladder dictates otherwise. It’s the last time I’ll see daylight for about two months as immerse myself in the vibrant world of Cyrodiil.When news emerged that Bethesda would be taking on the Fallout franchise, my imagination ran wild at the prospect of the Oblivion developer creating a post-apocalyptic RPG-cum-FPS. Unfortunately, Fallout 3 struggles to stand under the weight of expectation as the game never quite reaches the same heights as its predecessor. The game begins as you experience your own birth, and the subsequent childhood scenario which takes place inside Vault 101 (a heavy-duty nuclear bunker designed to prevent anything from getting in or out), allowing you to take part in snapshots your early life. It’s a cut above your average orientation level and introduces the RPG elements as you receive your Pip-Boy 3000 (your wrist based computer system that acts as an inventory, map, status report, and radio station). And so you are faced with your first choices in the game as you define your character, class and personality. It’s essentially a choice between good and bad and so I followed in the footsteps of that Jesus chap and created a good guy. However, once you reach the end of the prologue section, the game asks if you wish to amend your choices, rendering your first effort completely redundant. It’s clearly an addition made with the player in mind, but there’s not really enough game in the prologue to decide whether you are comfortable in your class.Emerging from the facility, you’re shown the vast, barren post-apocalyptic wasteland that is the United States, teeming with decaying beauty. Buildings appear on the verge of collapse, rubble litters the derelict streets, and anything metallic looks worn and rusty. It’s a slowly-decomposing world that still manages to look visually impressive.Heading to the first major town called Megaton you encounter the sheriff, immediately dashing any hopes that the forced, one-dimensional voice acting you witnessed in the prologue would improve once you exit the vault. Character interaction is much more limited than in Oblivion and you often feel like you’re talking to smiling cardboard cut-outs rather than people. Also, NPCs offer few visual clues as to their disposition making it difficult to judge how your scintillating wordplay is being received. The one redeeming feature of the voice acting is Liam Neeson, who plays your father. Unfortunately, he doesn’t hang around for long and Bethesda once again blows its voice talent load way too early (see Picard in Oblivion). As you emerge into post-nuclear America with the intention of finding daddy, you’ll find yourself in a vast world of quests, and the notion of choice takes over. I genuinely TRIED to follow the path of the righteous, greeting people with courtesy and completing any old trivial quest for as long as I could. But… a post-apocalyptic hero can only kiss so many asses before the desire to incinerate these needy, ungrateful bastards takes over. A quick save of the game, a slight aim of my pistol, and I remove the sheriff’s head with a brutal single shot. A broad smile appears on my face after looting his body to find a Chinese Assault Rifle. A few hours and an entire slaughtered town later (what? Killing is moreish), I feel better prepared to tackle the game’s legion of nasties.Combat in Fallout 3 is handled through a mix of first person gunplay and VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), the latter allowing you to freeze time and take percentage-based shots at specific body parts . You can blow off arms, shoot legs to make them limp, pump their body full of holes, or if you’re lucky enough, score a critical hit on the noggin, taking it clean off. I will admit, I had fun running in to enemies at point blank range, hitting the VATS key, and then taking a few heads off, but the novelty soon wears off. The VATS system is too chancy and slowly strips the game of any vague semblance of realism it had at the start. Also, it seems much more relevant to the console version of the game as on PC you can and will do a lot more damage if you just use the mouse to tee up your headshots.Owners of the PC version of Fallout 3 also have access to the same achievements as the 360 version via Games for Windows Live. The achievement list isn’t the most imaginative we’ve seen and doesn’t offer much incentive for experimental play. Nor does it really add to the game’s longevity, something not helped by the fact that after I had put a good few days of play in to the game, I signed in to the Windows Live environment, only to find it had deleted my save games. Take my advice and sign in straight away if you plan to go for achievements!One of Fallout 3’s biggest problems is its predecessor. When compared to the majestic Oblivion (complete with appalling frame rate and all), Fallout 3 comes off worse. The story is less compelling, the environments, whilst well-designed, just don’t feel as inviting and the NPCs fail to evoke any emotions. The main quest does show some imagination at times but too much of the game is spent looking for items in grotty, indoor environments. The one advantage of the PC version (other than the visuals) is that the combat feels less clunky with mouse and keyboard than it does on a joypad. Having played both the console and PC versions, it’s hard not to recommend the latter as the controls make it much more enjoyable to play. However, anyone expecting an experience on the same level as Oblivion will be disappointed. Fallout 3 is undoubtedly a big game but the pacing, quest design and NPCs all too often make it feel tiresome.
GTA 5 Director Mode – Beginner’s Guide to Filmmaking
By Peter Parrish April 17, 2015 0
PAYDAY 2 VR beta is now live for the Vive and it’s free
2.7 million Mists of Pandaria copies sold in first week
By Paul Younger October 4, 2012 0
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Laptops & Notebooks/
Eric Grevstad Acer Aspire 5 (A515-51-58HD) Intel's Optane Memory perks up the 1TB hard drive of Acer's $500 Aspire 5 laptop, but a dim screen and tepid performance will keep it off budget buyers' short lists.
Acer Aspire 5 (A515-51-58HD)
By Eric Grevstad
Intel Optane Memory boosts hard drive speed. 1080p resolution. Comfortable keyboard.
Dim, dark display. Scanty 4GB of system RAM. Lackluster battery life. No SSD, backlit keyboard, touch screen, or Windows Hello support.
Intel's Optane Memory perks up the 1TB hard drive of Acer's $500 Aspire 5 laptop, but a dim screen and tepid performance will keep it off budget buyers' short lists.
It's an eye-catching claim on the box and palm-rest sticker of the Acer Aspire 5 (A515-51-58HD): "20GB Memory." Can a $499.99 laptop really come with that much RAM? A second glance reveals the catch: There's only 4GB of system memory. The other 16GB is Intel Optane Memory, which serves as an intelligent cache to speed up the 1TB hard drive. (The system has no solid-state drive.) It works all right; the Acer feels perkier than other PCs we've tried with 5,400rpm SATA hard drives, though never as swift as one with an SSD. But Optane can't do anything about the Aspire 5's murky screen or other shortcomings. Our Editors' Choice recommendation for a budget desktop replacement is still that you spend $100 more for Acer's Aspire E 15 (E5-576G-5762), or $200 more for the Asus VivoBook S15 S530UA.
Apple MacBook Pro 15-Inch (2018)
Dell XPS 13 (9370)
Acer Aspire E 15 (E5-576G-5762)
Asus VivoBook S15 S530UA
HP Chromebook x2
LG gram 15 (15Z980)
Razer Blade (2018)
Pinstriped Plastic
The Aspire 5 is a 15.6-inch notebook styled in generic black plastic with chrome accents around the edges and a pattern of fine lines on the lid. It's slightly overweight but not an impossible burden at 4.63 pounds. (Compare that to 4 pounds for the non-touch-screen Dell XPS 15, or 5.27 pounds for the Aspire E 15, which has an optical drive.) And it's almost as bulky as the latter, at 0.85 by 15 by 10.4 inches (HWD).
Except for missing Thunderbolt 3, which you shouldn't expect to find in an inexpensive laptop, anyway, the Aspire 5 has a good selection of ports. On the system's left side are a security lock, an Ethernet jack, a USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 port, a USB 3.0 Type-A port with device charging, an HDMI video output, and an SD card slot. On the right are two USB 2.0 ports, an audio jack, and the connector for the AC adapter.
Open the lid, and you'll see the near-full-width silver hinge, etched with the word "Aspire" and able to open a full 180 degrees. Medium-thick bezels surround the screen, while a chrome strip borders the touchpad. There's neither a face-recognition camera nor a fingerprint reader, so owners can't use Windows Hello to skip sign-ins. The webcam above the display renders washed-out, slightly noisy images; I found my image improved considerably if I sat further back from the laptop, but that put me out of arm's length or typing range.
Acer touts the machine's TrueHarmony sound system, but music from the bottom-mounted speakers sounded flat to me, though it does get more than loud enough to fill a room. There's enough bass to give some kick to drums, and vocals are clear, but the overall effect felt canned.
Speaking of bottom-mounted, however, the Aspire earns points for easy-to-remove panels that give you interior access to upgrade the RAM and storage.
Hello? Hello? Is This Thing On?
Sadly, the Aspire's worst feature is its screen. Considering the system's low price, it's definitely nice to get a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) native resolution instead of lowly 1,366 by 768, but in my first minutes with the Aspire I kept mashing the keys to turn up the backlight, though it was already at its max—the screen is just plain dim, with even slightly shaded parts of images swallowed by the gloom.
Colors are muddy, and contrast is weak. Details are reasonably clear thanks to the 1080p resolution, but it isn't an in-plane switching (IPS) panel, so viewing angles are poor, especially along the vertical axis.
While the display isn't backlit enough, the keyboard's not backlit at all. That's bearable at this price point, however, and the keys offer adequate travel and a soft, plasticky typing feel. The cursor arrows are in an unfortunate HP-style row—half-size up and down arrows sandwiched between full-size left and right—instead of the proper inverted T, and the Delete key is a tiny thing above the left half of Backspace. But there are dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys at top right, and the comfortable if somewhat hollow feel lets you move along at a good clip.
Acer backs the Aspire 5 with a one-year warranty and preinstalls a fair amount of bloatware, from Amazon and Ebates to WildTangent games and a December 2017 build of Firefox.
Optimistic for Optane
As we wrote in our review of the technology, Intel Optane Memory (not to be confused with the company's Optane SSDs) is a cutting-edge kind of non-volatile memory that monitors program launches and other disk operations to speed up your favorite tasks, giving a hard drive some of the responsiveness of an SSD.
See How We Test Laptops
It's the real deal: When I installed and loaded GIMP 2.10, exited and rebooted to make sure the app wasn't still in system memory, and launched it again, load time fell from 27 to 10 seconds. The same treatment trimmed LibreOffice 6.1 from 16 to 3 seconds. In PCMark 8's disk test, which runs each of its workloads three times, the Adobe Photoshop time dropped from 411 to 394 seconds.
On the other hand, 16GB can only do so much. Running the PCMark disk test in its entirety twice caused the score to go down, not up. (The second pass took 12 minutes longer than the first.) Subjectively, the Aspire rarely felt as lively as the many laptops I've tested with SSDs.
And its performance in our standard benchmarks was uninspiring, apart from a fine score of 3,277 in the PCMark Work office productivity test. Hampered by its 4GB instead of 8GB of RAM, the Acer failed to keep up with other laptops that carry the same 1.6GHz Core i5-8250U processor. It was downright slow in our Photoshop CS6 test, which involves loading and applying 11 filters and effects to a sample image.
Like other laptops with Intel integrated graphics, it trailed the Aspire E 15 and its Nvidia GeForce MX150 discrete graphics in our visual benchmarks, landing at the back of the pack in our Heaven and Valley gaming simulations. And it lasted for only six and a half hours of video playback in our battery rundown test, less than half the time of the E 15.
Hitting the $500 Ceiling
It's easy to tell laptop shoppers to hold out for 8GB of system memory, a solid-state drive, and an IPS screen. It's a little less easy to tell them to cough up the money required for such a machine, so I'm not unsympathetic to what Acer has tried to do with the A515-51-58HD, especially with the addition of Optane Memory, which is a genuine booster to the hard drive. But it's not a magic bullet, and it's no substitute for giving Windows the headroom of 8GB of RAM or giving users a bright display.
Acer offers numerous Aspire 5 models from $399 up. Studying the company's site will reveal some more tempting ones, worth skipping lunches and lattes for. In the meantime, our Acer and Asus Editors' Choice laptops remain worthy targets.
Bottom Line: Intel's Optane Memory perks up the 1TB hard drive of Acer's $500 Aspire 5 laptop, but a dim screen and tepid performance will keep it off budget buyers' short lists.
Other Acer Laptops & Notebooks
Acer Chromebook 11 (2018)
Acer Nitro 5 (2018)
Acer Spin 3 (SP314-51-38XK)
Eric Grevstad Contributing Editor
Formerly editor-in-chief of Home Office Computing, Eric Grevstad is a contributing editor for PCMag and Computer Shopper, where he earlier served as lead laptop analyst and executive editor, respectively. A tech journalist since the TRS-80 and Apple II days, Grevstad specializes in lightweight laptops, all-in-one desktops, and productivity software... See Full Bio
More From Eric
Tested: The Lightest Laptops for 2019
The Best 17-Inch Laptops for 2019
Acer Swift 3 (2019)
HP Spectre x360 15 (2019, AMOLED)
MSI GS65 Stealth (2019)
Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model (2019)
The Best Laptops for 2019
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Ginmas 2017 — Week 3
December is whizzing by and it will soon be the end of the year. How does that happen?
Life has been so frantic this year I have really appreicated my evening sit down with a glass of gin and reading a little more about each distillery, so here is a roundup of the seven from this week.
6 O Clock Gin
6 O Clock Gin is made by Bramley And Gage in Gloucestershire.
They say “The smoothness flows from our custom-built copper still with its unique double sphere head, together with the careful selection of our botanicals and our distiller’s craft. Only the pure heart of each run makes the cut.
Edward Kain, the dapper gentleman seafarer and great grandfather of our Head Distiller, enjoyed his gin and tonic at 6 O’clock; a tradition still shared by British gin-lovers all over the world today”
Interesting to see that they talk about using the heart of the run, many distillers use all of it, the first bit off the still being the head and the last bit being the tail. The heart, obviously, is the middle bit.
Kokoro was the only Japanese gin I tried this Ginmas and it definitely has a very distinctive flavour, making it stand out from a lot of the rest
Made, with the Sansho berry. You may not know it by name, but it is undoubtedly one of the world’s oldest seasonings. Indeed, the people of Japan have been harnessing its magical properties for over 3,000 years.
And magical it is, for Sansho is a natural flavour enhancer that stimulates the taste receptors in your brain, making everything taste better, from the bubbles in your tonic to the garnish in your glass.
The berries grow wild in the Afan Woodland in the Japanese Alps, where C.W.Nicol (aka Old Nic) introduced them to his nephew James in 2014. James immediately recognised the zingy combination of citrus and pepper was the perfect complement for gin, and Kokoro was born.
Today we pick the berries by hand at the start of the season when they are at their freshest, flash freeze them and pack them in dry ice back to the UK.
Blogger Gin
Well excuse me but if you don’t know all there is to know about this one by now WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! Made be me, and Bottomley Distillery, it has cardammon, cinnamon, lemon peel, two types of pepper and licorice in the mix to make what I think is a damn fine gin. You can buy it from The Gin Parlour (obviously) or Amazon
Manchester Gin
I love everything about this gin. From the fact their still is called “Wendy” to the fact the team behind it are a husband and wife who fell in love over gin. Plus it is made in a city that close to my heart as it is where Mr B grew up.
“Staying deeply rooted in the north, we set ourselves apart from the crowd through the use of two botanicals in particular; Dandelion and Burdock Root. Not only did we want to pay tribute to a drink that we both grew up loving, we also wanted to add an earthy centre to our gin. Along with Dandelion and Burdock Root, our award-winning signature gin is made up of ten other specially sourced botanicals including orange and lemon, liquorice and ground almond”
This is a cracker of a gin. Especially for the price, and the fact it is made for Lidl. Winning several blind taste test awards, it is one of three in the Hortus range
The gins are all made in Warrington (heart of the country for gin historically) by a chap called Kevin Love who was a protege of Heston Blumenthal’s. I wasn’t sure I would like the Hortus Oriental Spiced London Dry Gin as I am not a huge fan of spiced gins but this one was great.
An Italian gin made with lemons, it is perfect with lemonade this one. Unlike most gins, this one is made in a stainless steel still, not copper.
This is another award winning gin, and one that many people won’t have heard of. The styling of the blue bottle though really makes this one stand out
Boxer is the world’s first ‘Fresh Botanical Gin’, delivering a classic London Dry style flavour but with a new vibrancy and complexity.
The intense flavour and aroma comes from our signature fresh botanicals -the finest juniper in the world and the planet’s most complex citrus. Black Juniper is a rare varietal of juniper that only grows in the UV rich, pollution free environment of the high Himalayas. These berries are steam distilled to extract even their most nuanced flavours. Boxer’s distinctive citrus notes comes from the fresh cut peel of Bergamot fruit, grown organically in the sun drenched groves of southern Italy, which is cold pressed to extract its essential oils.
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acid android: purification
Matt Cibula
acid android
Label: Tofu
UK Release Date: Available as import
Yukihiro Awaji is mostly known as yukihiro, the drummer for L'Arc-en-Ciel, the kick-ass Japanese band that has sold 30 million albums in its homeland. Last year, dude stepped out in this techno-metal project called acid android, and then California's Tofu Records picked it up for distro in the US. It's fun and loud and dance-y; tracks like "daze" combine industrial-disco touches with actual real live thrash guitars, others, like "egotistical ideal," combine actual real live thrash guitars with industrial-disco touches. What you're supposed to get from this is that a lot of the songs sound the same. The title track does some grunge-pop things, and "circles" is kind of a black-metal power ballad. Mostly it all sounds really cool though, especially "let's dance."
acid android purification
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Michelle Power Copywriter
Press ads
Press ad - chocolate
Press ad - go for it
Press ad - sign
Press ad - missing
To come up with a new, fresh approach to sanitary protection, targeting a younger audience.
Tired of the long familiar 'you can do anything when you've got your period' messages, we wanted to do something we felt was a bit more fresh and honest.
We (women) often crave things (mostly chocolate we found), or feel worried, self-conscious or less outgoing during our periods.
After a bit of research, we discovered some incredible facts about why we feel the way we do, which we just had to share with our young audience.
The 'Missing' ad, with support phone number, received more than 20,000 calls in just one day, in Northern Ireland alone, highlighting the need for information by our target audience.
If you've got a press ad brief, or need an advertising copywriter, please don't hesitate to contact me to see how I can help.
If you like what you've seen, are looking for something specific, or would like to talk about a project, please email michelle@powerofwords.media or call 07870 416455. I love words and am always happy to talk.
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Kawhi Leonard of the Toronto Raptors runs on during a game against the Milwaukee Bucks during Game Three of the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2019 NBA Playoffs on May 19, 2019 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images/AFP
Leonard stars as Raptors claw back with 2OT win over Bucks
(Philstar.com) - May 20, 2019 - 11:07am
LOS ANGELES – Kawhi Leonard scored eight of his 36 points in the second overtime period Sunday (Monday Manila time) to lead the Toronto Raptors to a gritty 118-112 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Eastern Conference finals.
The Raptors, who dropped the first two games of the best-of-seven series in Milwaukee, clawed their way back in front of home fans and will try to level the set when they host Game Four on Tuesday.
Pascal Siakam scored 25 points and Spanish center Marc Gasol added 16 for the Raptors, who got off to a quick start and led much of the night but had to battle to put the Bucks away.
Milwaukee's Most Valuable Player finalist Giannis Antetokounmpo struggled to just 12 points on five-of-16 shooting.
Antetokounmpo didn't reach double figures in points until the middle of the fourth quarter, although his 23 rebounds helped the Bucks stay in touch.
Antetokounmpo fouled out in the first minute of the second overtime period.
Moments later the Bucks managed to edge ahead 105-103, but Leonard and the Raptors roared back.
Leonard's steal and dunk put Toronto ahead 112-109 and his driving bank shot gave Toronto a 114-110 lead with 32.4 seconds remaining.
Leonard played a key role in limiting Antetokounmpo and Toronto coach Nick Nurse said his defensive play was "probably the biggest key of the game."
"Not only did he just play good, but he made some huge plays with some steals and rip-aways and break aways," Nurse said.
"Offense was hard to come by there for both teams for a while and any time you can get a steal and a break out it's a huge momentum play."
Toronto had a chance to win it in regulation, but they let a 96-91 lead slip away in the final 1:13 of the fourth quarter.
Milwaukee guard Khris Middleton's putback basket from his own miss with 2.2 seconds left in regulation forced overtime.
The Raptors led 103-99 with 1:29 remaining in the first extra session.
But Malcolm Brogdon floated in a shot and George Hill drained two free throws to tie it before Leonard's jump shot fell short.
The Raptors overcame a slow night from Kyle Lowry, who scored 11 points and played in foul trouble much of the night before fouling out with 6:12 left in the fourth.
KAWHI LEONARD NBA NBA PLAYOFFS RAPTORS TORONTO
Philstar
Kings brace for dogfight vs Hotshots or Beermen
By Olmin Leyba | July 16, 2019 - 12:00am
After taking the No. 4 seeding in the quarterfinals, defending champion Barangay Ginebra braces for a dogfight with a heavyweight rival early in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup playoffs with either San Miguel or...
Altas, Blazers, Stags shoot for win No. 2
By Joey Villar | July 16, 2019 - 12:00am
Perpetual Help, St. Benilde and San Sebastian try to catch up with reigning titlist San Beda at the helm at the resumption today of the 95th NCAA basketball tournament at the Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
Petron, Generika clash in rematch
By John Bryan Ulanday | July 16, 2019 - 12:00am
Reigning champion Petron looks to reassert its mastery of Generika-Ayala in their rematch at the start of the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference second round today at the Bacoor Strike Gym in Cavite.
Mighty keeps rampage versus British Columbia
Mighty Sports Apparel-Phl drubbed University of British Columbia, 116-87, to stay perfect in four games in the 41st William Jones Cup yesterday at the Changhua County Gymnasium in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Differently abled bet makes Philippine SEA Games chess pool
Sander Severino isn’t letting his disability stop him from achieving his dream of winning a Southeast Asian Games gold medal someday.
European countries are unlikely to form a coalition to recognize the arbitral ruling invalidating China’s nine-dash...
Enforcing the Philippines' arbitral win against China does not necessarily mean going to war with Beijing, Senior Associate...
Majority of Filipinos want the government to “arrest and prosecute” Chinese fishermen destroying the marine wealth...
Naval operations of foreign powers refute China's claim, enforce arbitral award
Freedom of navigation and overflight operations of naval powers in the South China Sea serve as an advantage for the Philippines,...
ANTONIO CARPIO CHINA FRANCE
Carpio asks Duterte: Don't mention China fishing deal in 4th SONA
Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio advised President Rodrigo Duterte not to mention his supposed fishing...
CHINA PHILIPPINE EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE PHILIPPINES-CHINA TIES
Freedom of navigation and overflight operations of naval powers in the South China Sea serve as an advantage for the Philippines, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said Friday.
Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio advised President Rodrigo Duterte not to mention his supposed fishing deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the West Philippine Sea in his State of the Nation Address (SONA).
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Green Sturgeon
Sturgeons: Family Acipenseridae
Species: Acipenser medirostris (Ayres, 1854); from the Latin words Acipenser (bony cartilage), medi (moderate), and rostris (snout).
Alternate Names: Golden sturgeon. Called esturión verde in Mexico.
Identification: Green sturgeon have streamlined, shark-like bodies with a pointed head that is longer than white sturgeon (shovel-shaped in young) and small eyes. Instead of scales they have five rows of scutes (bony plates) on the body; one row on the back, one at the middle of each side, and one on each side of the belly). Green sturgeon have 8-11 dorsal scutes, 23-30 midlateral scutes, and 7-10 ventral scutes. There are four whiskers (barbels) under their snout, usually closer to the mouth than to the tip of the snout. Their coloring is grayish white to olive-green, although some are caught every year that are almost golden in color (and thus given the name golden sturgeon). To differentiate between green and white sturgeon (from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife): (1) Dorsal scutes (bony plates) – Green sturgeon have 1-2 trailing the dorsal fin, but on white sturgeon they are absent; (2) Vent – Green sturgeon vent is between the pelvic fins, but on white sturgeon it’s found toward the tail; (3) Belly stripe – Present on green sturgeon but absent on white sturgeon; (4) Scutes along the side – Green sturgeon have 23-30 scutes while white sturgeon have 38-48
Green Sturgeon caught at the McNear Pier by Matty in 2005
Size: To 7 feet in length and 350 pounds. Most green sturgeon caught from piers are less than 25 pounds; most caught in the ocean are small fish under 10 pounds. Two 36-inch fish were caught off of the Belmont Shores Pier in Long Beach; one weighed 6.6 pounds, the other only 5.1 pounds.
Range: From Ensenada, northern Baja California, to the Pacific coast of Kamchatka, Bering Sea, and Gulf of Alaska, to Peter the Great Bay, Sea of Japan.
Habitat: Anadromous, spending most of its adult life in salt water but ascending up fresh water streams in the winter to spawn. Most commonly found in bays and brackish water (part fresh water and part salt water). Their diet emulates that of white sturgeon with young greenies primarily feeding on insects, worms, amphipods, and other small invertebrates. Adults become more piscivorous, feeding on fish as well as bottom dwelling crustaceans and mollusks (crabs, shrimp, clams).
Piers: Although less common than white sturgeon, a few greens are still caught each year, primarily from piers in San Francisco Bay-Delta waters. Best bets: Point Pinole Pier, McNear Beach Pier, Paradise Park Pier, Eckley Pier, Martinez Pier, Antioch Marina Pier, and Antioch Pier.
Green sturgeon caught at the Martinez Pier iby John Mason in 2004
Shoreline: Sometimes taken by anglers in the San Francisco-Bay Delta although now illegal to keep.
Boats: A few are seen each year from boats in the San Francisco-Bay Delta waters but they no longer can be kept.
Bait and Tackle: None since they are now illegal to keep.
Food Value: None since they no longer can be kept! In states where they are still legal they are considered to have mild-flavored meat that contains no bones and cuts up nicely into steaks for broiling, baking or frying. Some people feel the meat of the green sturgeon is inferior to that of white sturgeon since it is somewhat stronger flavored, containing more red muscle. Others say there is no difference.
Comments: Perhaps endangered and currently illegal to keep in California. It’s amazing that we have let the number of sturgeon reach this crisis point but it’s been happening for the last couple of centuries.
“We tend to dismiss the sturgeon, if we think of it at all, as a primitive fish, and allow that to account for its rarity. In our collective memory we forget that as recently as 1890 the biomass of Atlantic and short-nosed sturgeons in Deleware Bay were in the neighborhood of 48 million pounds; that at the same time fishermen in Washington’s Columbia and Baker rivers were unable to use their gillnets in the spring because hordes of white sturgeon would have burst through them; that in Austria, on the Danube River, members of the Viennese royal court amused themselves by firing cannonballs into fleet-sized squadrons of migrating beluga sturgeons. But the sturgeon is geologic time made flesh, and the length of its tenure on earth is impossible to comprehend. The fossil record presents completely modern forms of sturgeon dating back to the Upper Cretaceous, 100 million years ago.”
—Richard Adams Carey, The Philosopher Fish
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A forensic analysis of Zizou’s amazing World Cup 2006 QF display vs Brazil
In the quarter-final of the 2006 World Cup, Zinedine Zidane produced one of the great individual performances.
Zidane had announced prior to the tournament that he would retire following its conclusion. We all know how it finished for the great man, but performances like the one he put on against Brazil are what he should always be remembered for.
He hadn’t actually been in particularly good form for Real Madrid in the previous two seasons, and there were even calls for him to be left out of France’s starting XI after the group stage, in which he missed Les Bleus’ only win – coming against Togo in the final match – due to suspension.
But after scoring in the second-round victory over Spain, the then-34-year-old rolled back the years against Brazil in what was the first meeting between the two sides at a World Cup since the midfielder’s two headers had fired France to glory in the 1998 final.
“Zinedine Zidane was the first French player to leave the pitch, but the majesty of his performance will remain seared on the memories of those present,” wrote Dominic Fifield in The Guardian.
The player himself later told FIFA.com: “There was magic in the air that day out on the pitch.”
Let’s look back at a truly sensational performance…
Given we’re about to witness an iconic performance, it’s only fitting that it starts with an iconic opening scene. Zidane and Ronaldo, two of the greatest gunslingers, facing off for one final duel, basking in the glow of the twilight of their careers.
Are they nervous? Sad? Overawed? Emotional? No. They’re excited, like giddy schoolchildren ready for mischief.
Zidane – usually all intense, dead-eyed stare – unable to prevent himself pulling a stupid face. Then there’s Ronaldo and his glorious, gap-toothed grin. Both ready to battle, but both determined to enjoy their last waltz.
This might actually be the greatest moment in the history of football.
Thirty-five seconds. Thirty-five seconds is all it takes for Zizou to start toying with the Brazilian midfield.
One turn leaves Ze Roberto and Kaka clutching at thin air before he glides past Gilberto Silva. The final pass is overhit but it’s only taken 35 seconds for Zidane to beat Brazil’s entire midfield.
They’re going to need to produce something special if they’re to match his level of greatness today.
“Football is both complicated and simple at the same time,” Marcel Desailly wrote in a column for The Guardian during the tournament – and his former team-mate encapsulates that notion emphatically.
For all the tricks, Champions League-winning volleys and his complex personality, Zidane could do the simple things better than anyone else.
He brushes off Kaka with ease, juggles the ball before finding one of his back four so Les Bleus can go on the attack once more, as Clive Tyldesley gushes: “Here is the mystical Zidane, the magical Zidane.”
The puppet master
Watching Zidane at full flight remains like no other sight in football. It’s something like a cross between Cristiano Ronaldo and Dimitar Berbatov, with his powerful physique married with a languid, graceful style.
It’s coming up to half-time now and Zizou is in full control of the game, a puppet master deciding where the other 21 players go and what they do.
Leaving two Brazilians on the floor, he attracts a third before releasing the onrushing Patrick Vieira, who doesn’t have to break stride to receive the ball, into space.
With the defence now split, Juan has no option but to scythe the midfielder down. All it took was one player to create complete havoc.
The giddy schoolchildren finally get to meet, and, unsurprisingly, it’s Zidane who literally gets one over his mate as the crowd now cheer his every touch.
Was it at this point the lucky b*stards realised they had the honour of witnessing the stuff of legend?
The assist
The glare is back now as Zidane approaches to take a free-kick wide on the left flank.
As the ball gets whipped in, the Brazil defenders are all attracted to the front post, while Roberto Carlos is distracted by his own socks.
But the delivery is perfect. Just look where Thierry Henry volleys it from. Dida is left with no chance.
Of the 51 goals Henry scored for France, this was the only one directly assisted by Zidane.
Only a man in complete control of his craft can find the time to pirouette in the middle of the pitch during a World Cup quarter-final against the reigning champions.
What comes before is equally impressive as Zidane drifts around the pitch, the ball never going further than two passes before returning to its master’s feet. He drops deep, drifts left, comes back inside.
In the meantime, the Brazil midfield is lost. Many are stood still, just watching on, looking like they’ve entered The Matrix for the very first time.
There’s still about 25 minutes left to play, but this is Zidane’s night – the conductor controlling the orchestra to play whatever tune he fancies.
The last act
How do you stop a man in golden boots? Is it possible?
During the World Cup, France boss Raymond Domenech said: “I think he’s playing like this precisely because he is retiring. He can play with freedom and expression because he knows every game could be his last.”
Zidane’s back to playground mode now, teaching Brazil how to play the beautiful game with the swagger and outrageousness they used to call their own. This would not prove to be Zizou’s final match, but it was his match in every sense.
19 of the best quotes on Zinedine Zidane: ‘He came from another planet’
A celebration of Zinedine Zidane and an amazing era for French football
A forensic analysis of when Ronaldinho ruined Real but had their fans applaud
A forensic analysis of Ronaldo’s hat-trick vs Manchester United in 2003
2000s World Cup Zinedine Zidane
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Back to Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, Inc.
Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, Inc.
Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, Inc.
Current: Letter to the Editor: 'Bias-Free' Sex ...
Letter to the Editor: 'Bias-Free' Sex Ed Needed, Newsday, September 21, 2012
The editorial "Improve sex ed in our schools" (Sept. 16) got it right.
Our kids need comprehensive, medically accurate and bias-free sex education, which has been shown in numerous studies to help prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
That's where Planned Parenthood comes in. In classrooms and community-based organizations across Long Island, we educate tens of thousands of young people, parents and professionals about making safe, healthy and responsible decisions.
We also facilitate evidence-based sex ed workshops in many of Long Island's high-risk districts. These programs are funded by the New York State Department of Health and are proven effective in helping teen avoid pregnancy and disease.
We urge the state to do what's best for New York's young people. Continue funding comprehensive, evidence-based sexuality education programs like the ones provided by Planned Parenthood and make comprehensive sex education a requirement in public schools.
Reina Schiffrin
JoAnn D. Smith
The writers are the presidents of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic and Planned Parenthood of Nassau County.
© 2019 Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, Inc.
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Indian compounder Welset expands in PVC, masterbatches
Steve Toloken
Indian compounder Welset Plast Extrusions Ltd. (Booth S20059) is spending 60 crore rupees ($975,000) to expand capacity in PVC materials for the medical market and general masterbatch compounds, to keep up with market growth.
The company, which has three manufacturing facilities in the city of Silvassa, 125 miles north of Mumbai, will double its vinyl compounding capacity to 37 million pounds per year, according to Arvind Mehta, chairman of Mumbai-based Welset. The expansion is expected to be completed in the next few months.
It's also expanding capacity for its polyethylene masterbatch compounds from 7.9 million pounds per year to 13.2 million pounds, also in Silvassa.
“The market is growing in India as well as outside and our products are approved and well accepted, though it takes quite a long time for evaluation and approval,” Mehta said.
At NPE, the company is focusing on PE masterbatches, including color, white, black and additives in the Americas, and will explore calcium carbonate masterbatches, which it said are accepted in the Indian market.
One hurdle in the U.S., Mehta said, is a 6.5 percent custom duty that the U.S. government places on masterbatch materials “to protect local manufacturers.
“We feel there is very good potential and our products are getting approved at many places,” he said. “Our quality and the price are quite competitive.”
Mehta said the medical market for PVC continues to grow, defying warnings that it will get smaller because of pressure from environmental and health groups to find other materials for medical applications.
“People say the market will go away, it will go, but it still grows,” he said. “The market is expanding. We have good export also, to the Middle East, Africa and the USA.”
Some U.S. customers have approved their PVC medical compounds but shipping costs make Welset less competitive, Mehta said.
The company claims to be one of India's largest compounders of medical grade PVC. It has Class 100,000 clean room capacity, and operates a U.S. office, Welset Americas Inc., in Leominster, Mass.
In addition to medical grade tubing and sheet materials, the company also makes grades of thermoplastic elastomer, thermoplastic rubber and thermoplastic olefin compounds, in addition to calcium carbonate, talc and other fillers.
In February, Welset won a silver medal in the Plastindia Foundation's Plasticon awards, for development of medical grade PVC compounds for blood bags, in the category of health care and personal care.
Mehta is also chairman of the governing council of the Mumbai-based All India Plastics Manufacturers Association and a delegate to the Council of International Plastic Association Directors.
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Seaton Primary School
Find out how Seaton Primary School rates compared to other primary schools in Devon with our school ratings
Rank 7,233/14,749
Here Seaton Primary School, Valley View, Seaton, EX12 2HF, is put into focus to show its scores in relation to other schools in the area.
Valley View, Seaton, EX12 2HF
The open date and status above indicate when Seaton Primary School opened or when it changed to its most recent incarnation, with a number of schools converting to academies in recent years. Where schools have changed type recently, data for previous years covering their previous incarnation is included below as well - so a school may have a status of New due to converting to an academy but have data for previous years prior to conversion.
What type of school is Seaton Primary School?
7,233 (out of 14,749) 2,234 (out of 14,624) 4,133 (out of 14,459)
How Seaton Primary School scores on each indicator.
Seaton Primary School has been rated as Outstanding at its most recent Ofsted inspection.
How does Seaton Primary School perform on each of the areas inspected by Ofsted? As of September 2012, a score of 3 changed from indicating Satisfactory to Requires Improvement.
In 2018, 66% of pupils at Seaton Primary School reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.
How have pupils at Seaton Primary School done in assessments at the end of Key Stage 2 and how does it compare to local authority and national averages?
While pupils are generally aiming to be working at the expected level in reading, writing and maths, what proportion of children at Seaton Primary School had a high score in reading and maths and were working at greater depth in writing, and how does this compare to performance at local and national level?
How do children at Seaton Primary School with different levels of attainment at Key Stage 1 and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds perform in terms of reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths?
How does the % of boys and girls at Seaton Primary School achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and maths compare to the national average?
What is the pupil:teacher ratio at Seaton Primary School and how does it compare to the national average?
At Seaton Primary School, pupils had an average progress score in maths in 2018 that was 0 compared to the national average of 0.
At Seaton Primary School, pupils had an average progress score in reading in 2018 that was 1 compared to the national average of 0.
At Seaton Primary School, pupils had an average progress score in writing in 2018 that was 0.1 compared to the national average of 0.
In 2016/17, the most recent full school year, 3.8% of half-day sessions were missed by pupils at Seaton Primary School. Nationally, primary school pupils missed 4% of half-day sessions.
What is the total school spend per pupil at Seaton Primary School compared to the local average? (school is in blue)
How much does Seaton Primary School spend per pupil on teachers and educational support staff and how does this compare to the average spending across Devon?
What percentage of the budget at Seaton Primary School is spent on supply staff?
Plymouth NewsSuzanne Elliott-Loar and Stephen Elliott bought The Waterside, Saltash but have lost over £50,000 to a building company that went into liquidation after taking their money
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Learn how to select the right beers, wines and spirits to boost beverage sales
Pizza has long been considered the perfect accompaniment to a frosty beer or a glass of Cabernet, and today’s pizzerias are proving that even themed cocktails can complement specialty pies. But are you making the most of alcohol sales at your pizzeria? According to Jim Sullivan, consultant and CEO of Sullivision.com, the gross profit margins on beverages far outweigh those on food—as much as 80% per serving—but beverages often make up less than 10% of items sold in foodservice operations. So if you have a license to sell beer, wine or liquor (or all of the above), making the effort to beef up your alcoholic beverage program is a no-brainer. Here’s how to do it.
Sudsy Sales
Beer and pizza—now there’s a perfect food-and-beverage marriage. But today’s beer scene is a far different animal than it has been in decades past. Now, craft brewers vie with the big guys for market share, and more customers eschew the typical domestics in favor of local products from smaller producers. “Make no mistake—it’s all about craft brews,” says Stuart Melia, vice president of beverage for Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom (oldchicago.com), with nearly 100 locations nationwide and headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Bloomfield, Colorado. “The U.S. beer scene is so vibrant right now that you can be drinking great beer that’s brewed right in your neighborhood. There’s no reason every pizzeria should not be offering at least one or two local/regional beers; the demand is there.”
Also watch: The Benefits of Craft Beer (3:41)
Today’s brews can be every bit as complex and sophisticated as wine, which is why some pizzerias call out beers on the menu that pair well with their specialty pies. At Sal & Mookie’s New York Pizza & Ice Cream Joint (salandmookies.com) in Jackson, Mississippi, service manager Courtney Culpepper introduced these pairing suggestions, which are now listed on the beer menu. “We’re in a craft beer movement right now, and pairings can make a meal 10 times better,” she says. “When you pair foods with beers, people are interested; it often gets them to try something new, and when one person at the table thinks outside the box, their dining companions sometimes get more adventurous, too.”
A Boost From the Bar
Jonathan Raduns, a retail and foodservice merchandising consultant from Merchandisefood.com in Somerdale, New Jersey, offers the following tips for maximizing profits on alcoholic beverages:
Try combo menu offerings.
Use local marketing and signage; partner with local “farm-to-pint” producers, or feature
locally well-known brands on in-store signage and table tents.
Don’t automatically bring glasses of water to tables before taking drink orders. Instead, use suggestive selling first to boost the customers’ beverage tabs.
Feature high-quality photos of your product in menus and signage, but add suggestive items such as freshly poured beers in the background to subtly encourage alcoholic beverage orders. Also offer pairing ideas on your menus.
Develop a specialty drink menu and rotate through seasonally appropriate items. Contact your liquor or beer supplier for special adult drink promotions you can offer; suppliers often have signage and marketing collateral materials so you don’t have to develop your own.
Keep coolers fully stocked with beverages, and place highest-profit beverages at eye level.
For those who are considering beer pairings but don’t know where to start, Culpepper recommends research (hundreds of beer books list food-and-beer pairing suggestions) and simply trying each pizza with different beers to nail down surefire winners. In general, however, Culpepper notes that India Pale Ales (IPAs) complement spicy foods because their hoppy flavor cleanses the palate, while ambers are great with chicken, and brown ales pair well with smoked meats.
But Sal & Mookie’s goes even further by regularly hosting beer dinners; every other month on a Monday, when the business is normally closed, 50 to 60 beer lovers flock to the pizzeria for five courses paired with beers, often from a local brewer. “In October, we did one called The History of Beer, where we brought in a local professor to lead the dinner and compare modern beers to ancient styles,” says Jonathan Webb, bar manager at Sal & Mookie’s. “We have a strong following for these dinners, which we promote heavily through social media and email blasts.”
Also see: Turn a slow weeknight into a bustling pizza pairing
Meanwhile, many pizza lovers still seek out their old favorites; in fact, at Sal & Mookie’s, the No. 1 seller is Blue Moon. So don’t overlook offering at least a few traditionally popular, mass-brewed beers. “Several beers are good sellers across the board, like Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller and Miller Lite,” says Anthony Russo, owner of Houston-based Russo’s New York Pizzeria andRusso’s Coal-Fired Italian Kitchen (nypizzeria.com). “I like to include local and craft beers as well, plus imports like Heineken and Mona. We are passionate about supporting local businesses and breweries; at our Houston-area locations, we serve Karbach and Shiner Bock—they’re both Texas favorites.”
Finally, when it comes to the wide world of beer, don’t be afraid to offer a variety of categories. “It’s less about brands and more about style diversity: Don’t have five IPAs and five light beers all from the biggest brands and no Hefeweizens or high-alcohol-by-volume beers,” suggests Melia. “Have a great mix of beer styles to cater to any drinking occasion or food pairing.”
As far as the tried-and-true “pitcher and pizza” deal that many have adhered to over the years, Melia believes that while these give great value, they limit guests’ choices—and your sales—because everyone will have to share the same beer. “Instead, I recommend offering smaller beer sizes and encouraging customers to try a variety of beers based on bartender and server recommendations,” he says.
Great Grapes
Since the recession hit, fewer customers may be apt to order a high-ticket bottle of wine, especially outside of the fine-dining setting, but that doesn’t mean your vino sales have to suffer. Constantino Anezinos, owner of Zorbas Pizza (zorbaspizza.com), with three locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, has witnessed a 25% sales increase in the last six months thanks to the addition of a celebrity-endorsed wine in his pizzerias that has customers visiting from other states. “Our wine sales were always so-so,until we added Adam Carolla’s Mangria, a sangria made with a wine-based vodka,” explains Anezinos. “We used to sell a case of wine per month; now, we go through 15 cases per week, plus what we offer on tap.” By aligning himself with a product that does its own advertising and quickly gained a large following, Anezinos has not only counted more profits; he counts more Facebook followers, which have more than quadrupled since adding the wine (thanks in part, no doubt, to the wine’s thousands of Facebook fans).
Unlike draft beer, Anezinos notes, there’s no spillage associated with wine, and the novelty of this newer serving option hasn’t tapped out just yet, even in the uberhip Bay Area. To promote the offering, he makes posters announcing daily wine specials and posts them outside his pizzerias. He also offers samples to interested customers (this is easier with wine on tap) and makes sure that all servers try the wine so they can make enthusiastic recommendations. “We buy the wine for $10 and sell it for $20; with wine, you want to make sure the margins are there, and superfancy wines don’t have the markup that less-expensive wines do,” Anezinos notes.
"We have wines in the $30-to-$40 range, but more are between $20 and $30. A lot of people today don’t want to spend $40 on a bottle of wine just because the name sounds fancy!”
—Klime Kovaceski, New River Pizza & Grill
Russo agrees that when it comes to wine, operators should start by minding the basics, such as a great-tasting house wine. “Don’t go cheap; a lot of my wine sales are by-the-glass house wine,” says Russo. “We also make sure our staff is familiar with the wine list to ensure that guests can easily pair a dish with a good wine.”
At New River Pizza & Grill (newriverpizzaonline.com) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 80% of sales came from delivery and takeout, but that changed earlier this year when general manager/corporate chef Klime Kovaceski began promoting the dining room, too. Sales in August soared by $16,000 over the previous August—and alcohol sales were a big part of that upswing. Hence, a 10 for $10 wine promotion—10 bottles at a $10 price point—was designed and promoted through local media, Facebook, and promotional cards given to all to-go and delivery customers. “We have wines in the $30-to-$40 range, but more are between $20 and $30,” Kovaceski says. With a laugh, he adds, “A lot of people today don’t want to spend $40 on a bottle of wine just because the name sounds fancy!” And a full training process for staff is a must, Kovaceski notes—every server should be able to answer guests’ questions about the wines you offer.
Also see:A wine expert offers pointers for helping your guests discover the perfect pie-and-vino match
Indeed, wine can be an intimidating category for many, so don’t hesitate to put descriptions and tasting notes on the menu so that customers know what they’re ordering. Sal & Mookie’s offers plain-English descriptions on its wine list, which were put together with the help of a local sommelier. The pizzeria also sticks to affordable wines to suit its family-friendly atmosphere. “If you’re just a small restaurant and not too expensive, you’ll probably want to limit your choices to eight to 12 wines,” advises Russo. Also, depending on your typical customer and your atmosphere, you may want to offer wines at a range of prices to suit anyone’s tastes and spending habits.
The Hard Stuff
Specialty cocktails, like craft beer, have stormed the bar scene in recent years, with an ever-growing population of mixologists serving up pre-Prohibition-era classics and making their own tinctures, infusions and bitters in-house. If your pizzeria sells hard liquor, there’s no need to get quite as fancy, but you do need to make your drinks high-quality for today’s more discerning clientele.
Also see:Milan's first speakeasy pizzeria innovates on Neapolitan style
For example, Sal & Mookie’s recently underwent a complete overhaul of its cocktail program, introducing drinks with a New York theme in accordance with the pizzeria itself. “Pre-Prohibition drinks are so trendy and popular right now, so we did a lot of research and now have a drink for each of the five boroughs in New York,” Webb says. “We use fresh-squeezed fruit juices, quality ingredients and liqueurs, plus fresh herbs like basil, for our new house originals.”
"Cocktails could be a great seller, especially Bellinis and sangria—both are great with pizza!”
—Anthony Russo, Russo’s New York Pizzeria and Russo’s Coal-Fired Italian Kitchen
Meanwhile, for those customers who want something simpler (or for those who still want to get their old favorite drink from the previous menu), the pizzeria will be offering up “The Archives”—a list of classic cocktails not listed on the menu, as well as the drinks the pizzeria used to offer—so that customers can choose from a variety of options if nothing on the main menu strikes their fancy.
Finally, when crafting a unique cocktail list, don’t overlook pizza’s Italian/Mediterranean roots—drinks from this region are a natural complement. At Balena (balenachicago.com) in Chicago, for example, pizzas and pastas are offered alongside aperitivo drinks and cocktails that incorporate amaro and bitters from the regions around Italy. In fact, though Russo sells only beer and wine at his locations, he believes “cocktails could be a great seller, especially Bellinis and sangria—both are great with pizza!”
Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor.
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Home » Surveyor's Footsteps: Liability and Licenses
Business Strategies for SurveyorsLegal IssuesBoundary & TopoTurner: Surveyor's Footsteps
Surveyor's Footsteps: Liability and Licenses
Jeffrey Turner
The ever changing landscape of land surveying is offering fresh opportunities. For the person who wants to learn new technology and old methods along with design and stakeout techniques, I believe the field is wide open. One just needs to decide which type of surveying fits their ability, personality and other strengths. Are you drawn to inside design with calculating and drafting, construction layout work, high-accuracy control setup, gas drilling, mining, or typical boundary and topographic survey work?
Before I received my license as a professional land surveyor, I felt more relaxed when performing general land surveying and construction stakeout. If a problem arose, it was something for my bosses to deal with. I was really just as careful as I am now, just less concerned. But, when you have a license, you are more interesting to the people who want to sue for errors, even if you are not the business owner.
My insurance agent said that if I bought a house and an error by a surveyor cost me several thousand dollars more than the company’s insurance liability limit, wouldn’t I want to be compensated by the licensed land surveyor in charge of the work? Of course I would, and why should he/she keep their savings when I spent mine to cover their errors? He expressed that it was only a matter of time before people also sued the individual who was in charge of the mistake. Is that really the case?
At one of the Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors yearly conferences, I attended a seminar on liability. I asked the insurance person teaching the course, “If a land surveying company did not have insurance, would the licensed land surveyor working for the business be liable for errors and omissions?” The speaker said that during times of financial distress, some employers let their insurance lapse to save money, and yes, the licensed land surveyor working for them and in charge of the crews may be held liable. He went on to say that any “licensed” person should be sure their employer has current liability insurance in place. That is the brief account of what he said. At the break, several attendees whose faces blanched after hearing his answer rushed to the front to ask questions. I felt sorry since it was easy to understand they were worried they might be insuring the company personally. Yes, liability and licenses can go together.
Other Risks
A few years ago, I was asked by an engineer to stake out a large commercial building. The project had an existing building and two wings would be constructed, one on each side. When asked about staking throughout the project for piers, walls, columns, etc., I successfully begged off. Instead, I set controls for the building and they had “construction layout people” take it from there. Outside the building, I continued the stakeout for parking lots, curbs, lamps and storm water.
I have taken this same approach on other projects. My thinking is that the construction surveyors are very good at what they do. They have quality equipment. And, most importantly, they remain on site to catch their own errors and omissions in a timely manner. My old Missouri boss once told me there were $5, $50, $500 and $5,000 errors. They are all the same error; the cost depends on how soon you found it and corrected the problem.
If you have no license, you may be doing exactly the same quality of work as a licensed land surveyor but your risk is your job. The owner of the business will deal with the fallout of field errors and may or may not keep you employed, depending on how much your error hurt them. Keep in mind, employers often have deductible amounts which could be many thousands of dollars. There are times when an employer is sued for his deductible amount because the insurance company may not fight the claim.
A savvy land surveyor told me he had to fire an employee of many years after his second field error. He just could not bear keeping him. I believe that crew chief was a good surveyor, but as a business owner, I understand how painful it is to fire workers and to assess a person may not be worth keeping, even if they worked for free.
While working for my last employer as a party chief, my crew was hired to survey a city block of buildings in Philadelphia. Because the property was made up of old four- to seven-story buildings built separately and then combined, there were many changes in floor elevation. My crew would survey inside for floor elevations around the columns and inner door sills between the buildings. Our employer’s inhouse architectural staff surveyed inside the building measuring up the distances between walls and columns in order to fix the floors to match adjoining buildings. We probably spent a month on the project.
Because the building had been left empty for years, the roof leaked and the floors were extremely weak in places. One day, I heard an odd sound from the adjoining unit to the one we were surveying. I walked over and a very upset man was sitting in a Bobcat, which was halfway through the floor. The engine was still running and he was sitting still. The next floor was probably about 15 feet down. The floor had rotted badly and he happened to be clearing off old merchandise tables and scrap wood when he fell through the floor.
I coaxed the man out of the Bobcat and onto the floor and away from the machine. The construction crews solved the problem by stacking all the long scrap lumber they could muster and put it in a pile beneath the fallen machine on the next floor down. Once the pile was perhaps 6 feet high, they cut away the floor surrounding the Bobcat and it slid softly (as soft as a Bobcat can) onto the pile below and was not really damaged at all. The driver’s nickname was Deacon as he was also a deacon for his church. I’m sure the next sermon was his and spoke loudly about God’s watching over sparrows and Bobcats.
A few weeks later, a woman who was hired to run another Bobcat went through three floors before stopping. From what I heard, she was not seriously injured, but she declined to return to work at that job. My point in these stories is that construction surveyors have a high risk of errors and of personal injury while on site. Construction surveying is difficult work and specialized in comparison to general land surveying.
If I Were a Carpenter
I set up controls for highrise buildings, but the carpenter’s union layout people are better at taking the job from there as the building rises higher above the city. The union trains their layout people through a journeyman process and I assume very skilled surveyors pass down techniques and wisdom as well.
The last thing I did at that building was to stake out control lines for an atrium being constructed inside the existing structure. I set axis lines and the carpenters would string piano wire to layout as they built the new columns, floors and walls inside the building.
Why was I hired to do that interior layout? The site superintendent told me it was because my employer could be sued if the control work was incorrect. He could not sue the union workers. This might be part of a gross misunderstanding between layout carpenters and land surveyors. In my opinion, land surveyors are not competing for construction layout work on large union projects. The issue might be who can be sued if there is a mistake.
At the aforementioned site, I made the mistake of putting on a leather carpenter’s apron to hold the nails, PKs and tacks I would be setting for the control points. As I knelt down to set a tack in the floor, a dozen pairs of feet surrounded me. I was asked “What do you think you are doing?” I am pretty straightforward and did not understand I was kneeling there and they were implying a beating would be delivered to this non-union surveyor.
Innocently and directly answering their question, I said something like, “Well, I’m setting this tack for controls for the atrium,” and they looked befuddled and dispersed as I looked around, still trying to tell them what the tack meant and what I was doing.
Unbeknownst to me, later that day my crew member, the 17-year-old son of the owner, was threatened while standing at the vending machine. He was told “It’s not good for your health to be working here.” He was sufficiently frightened, told his father that night, and I was assigned another worker for the duration of the project. Nothing ever happened to anyone of us, the job went fine, and all was well.
Had us country surveyors been left alone, we would have spent only one or two more days laying out controls, and I certainly never thought I would offend layout people by my presence, nor did I think they were not just as qualified as myself to do the work. The difference between them and me is they were not insured.
There have been many times where I worked on projects setting controls to be used by very competent construction surveyors and I respect their knowledge and experience. That run in with union layout people was not a singular experience.
Non-union surveyors working for builders and contractors perform a lot of stakeout work in this area. By Pennsylvania State law, only a licensed professional land surveyor or those working under the direction of a licensed professional land surveyor are allowed to set property corners. When I see a plastic cap that has “survey marker” on the top, I wonder why there is a cap but no name on the cap.
Some of the large builders have their own inhouse survey crews for layout work and also engineering departments for their own designs. When you work for an employer, be it a land surveying firm or construction firm, you will survey the way they want you to survey, to the accuracy they require. I have seen some stakeout methods by inhouse land surveyors which I believe reflect a close relationship between layout crews and those who use their stakes.
When things were last booming here, one earthmoving company had many crews with good equipment. They also carry insurance. In the Philadelphia area during the 1980s, construction companies began to hire the field crews of large land surveying companies. Being a crew chief at the time, I looked into the possibility of working for a large developer and how much they might pay.
An extremely competent party chief named Fred worked for one of these large businesses and told me about working as a construction surveyor. You might be as good a construction surveyor as Fred, but probably not better. He was paid starting when he arrived at the jobsite and it might be an hour or more of driving time with zero compensation for mileage. Rain or snow time was unpaid time. Yes, the pay was higher, but if there was no field work due to weather or scheduling, he was on his own, sitting unpaid in the rain waiting to see if they could go back to work.
Winter meant low working hours and layoffs in construction. Weighing the difference, I chose less hourly compensation and working year round for an employer I really liked. Today, these positions may be salary with guaranteed pay, but I just don’t know.
My decision to stay with a land surveying company paid off. Had I stayed with construction surveying, there would be little chance of migrating to the office, higher pay, varying experience and licensure. We must have a variety of “land surveying experience” to pass the exam. Once I moved inside the office, my pay was far higher than Fred’s and my future was pointed at obtaining my license and even higher pay per hour, plus opportunities to own a business.
I believe land surveying companies offer a terrific future for anyone getting into the field that is willing to learn, listen, observe and work hard. For those who choose working for developers, utility companies, government survey departments, unions, to name a few, I wish you all the best of success. Whatever the way you enter into it, land surveying is the best job in the world.
Recent Articles by Jeffrey Turner
Is Land Surveying Art or Craft?
Surveyors’ Sign Language in the Field
Choose the Right Boundary Marker
Surveyor's Footsteps: Surveyors Provide On-Site Facts
Surveyor's Footsteps: Surveys Provide the Canvas for Architect's Artistry
Jeffrey P. Turner, PLS, began his career in surveying in 1971 and became licensed in Pennsylvania in 1987. He was co- owner of a surveying firm for six years before launching his own firm in the Philadelphia region in 1995. He is passionate about leaving footsteps for future generations of surveying professionals. He can be reached at qj57@verizon.net.
Surveyor's Footsteps: Heirs to the Surveyors Cache?
Surveyor's Footsteps: Thoughts from a Surveyor on Animals and Fences
Surveyor's Footsteps: Asking for Help from Other Surveyors
Surveyor's Footsteps: Surveyors as Forward Observers
V12B - Great Surveyors and Their Surveys: Understanding the Men, Equipment and Accuracy of Their Surveys Will Make You a Better Surveyor (CD)
V03A - Geodesy for Engineers and Surveyors (CD)
V02D - Professional Ethics for Land Surveyors (CD)
V06G - The Role of Engineers and Surveyors in Geographic Information Systems (CD)
American Surveyors & Mappers Council
Seiler Instrument, formally Michigan Surveyors Supply
Surveyors Exchange Co.
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Home » Editor's Points: Are You Teaming Up On Technology?
Business Strategies for SurveyorsColumnsAerialBoundary & TopoGPS / GNSSLiDAREditor's Points
Editor's Points: Are You Teaming Up On Technology?
KEYWORDS 3D data capture / 3D laser scanning / future of surveying / Surveying and mapping issues
Among the many great things my colleagues at BNP Media do is continually touch base with you — the very people we strive to serve. Of course, right? All companies do that, don’t they? Well, you would hope so, but actually…
Perhaps it’s best to save that for another time.
Back to where we were heading, POB readers are regularly asked, gauged, chronicled and profiled by BNP’s own market research division and our sister company Clear Seas Research. Whether the subject is salary and benefits, use of laser scanning, GIS integration, capital goods investment or determining just exactly who you are, we gather your feedback in order to both inform the market about itself and to ensure we are providing you with the products and information you need to do your jobs as best as possible.
In this issue of POB, we share results from our most recent market study on 3D surveying trends (see Page 14). As always, the data gathered paints an honest picture of the complexity that is the surveying, mapping and geospatial business. No one shoe fits all, and the answers to the questions posed are never quite what one would assume they’d be.
What particularly caught our eye is a market shift to partnering with companies that are adopters of 3D technology, as compared to companies directly investing fully in the technology themselves and keeping everything in-house. The last time we asked, 34 percent of respondents were using 3D tools for their work in LiDAR and photogrammetric applications. This time, the use slipped to 25 percent of respondents, but the slack was pretty much entirely picked up by an increase from 30 to 37 percent in the companies having partnerships to share 3D tools. A trend? We’ll see.
It brings us to another piece found in this issue of POB. In the second part of his three-part series on The Future of Surveying in the United States (see Page 27), veteran surveyor Milton Denny observes how “scary” it is that technology accelerates each time a new discovery is made. “The survey chain lasted for 300 years, the steel measuring tape for about 100 years, and the Electronic Measuring Device for 25 years,” Denny writes, “when GPS has since all but taken over. GPS is not the final step.”
And maybe, just maybe, that sums up why companies would prefer to partner with an early adopter and/or ground-level expert in an emerging technology, rather than invest in that technology directly. It makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? From the back storage room at your office that is stacked with hardcover catalogs, to the neighbor’s house with a garage full of unused rotary phones, you’ve undoubtedly seen examples of people buying in “too much, too soon.”
What do you think? More importantly, what are you doing? Are you more likely to go into a new area of business headfirst, or might you catch a ride with someone else venturing in early? As always, we’d love to know. Drop us an email to andersonmd@bnpmedia.com or, better yet, give us a call anytime at (248) 244-6464. In the meantime…
I’ll reach over this catalog to answer the powder blue rotary phone. With any luck, it’s our good friend Milton on the line.
Share your thoughts on this column at pobonline.com or rpls.com. To contact POB editors, send an e-mail to andersonmd@bnpmedia.com.
Recent Articles by Mike Anderson
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Editor's Points: The Honor Has Been All Mine
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2015 Capital Investment Study: Spending Plans Remain Optimistic
Editor's Points: Surveyors Care About Their World
Mike Anderson was the editor of POB from October, 2014, through January of 2016, bringing with him 20 years of experience in the construction trade press and 30 years of background in journalism. A past president of the Construction Writers Association, he has served in editorial positions with a number of leading construction industry publications throughout North America, including as the editor of POB’s former sister publication Site Prep.
Editor's Points: Please, Keep Telling Us What You Want!
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Editor's Points: We Love What Our Audience Tells Us
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Will the good ships of quarrying encounter stormy weather?
Posted February 11, 2019 | By Damian Christie
The crystal ball is back! Damian Christie discusses which states and territories are getting the most out of our current infrastructure boom - and as a result whether the quarrying industry is equipped to leverage off this activity ...
Welcome back! This time last year I speculated that Australia was, based on projections, entering a phase of amplified construction activity. I wondered if quarries and their suppliers were suitably equipped to meet this phase.
My conjecture was confirmed throughout 2018 in economic forecasts, studies and surveys from BIS Oxford Economics, Deloitte Access Economics, the Australian Industry Group, and Cement Concrete Aggregates Australia (CCAA).
The CCAA announced that the industry produced more than 30 million cubic metres of concrete in 2017. Deloitte Access Economics also reported of $324 billion of infrastructure projects in 2018, almost $50 billion up on 2016-17.
As we went to press, CommSec released its quarterly State of the States report. It revealed that Victoria is enjoying 38.2 per cent more residential, commercial and engineering work than the decade average. Construction activity in other states and territories also exceeds the decade average – New South Wales (+34.5 per cent), South Australia (+19.5 per cent), the ACT (+18.9 per cent) and Tasmania (+15.9 per cent). Employment, housing and equipment investment were also consistently high in these states and territories.
"Can the construction materials industry meet the demands of pipeline projects - on time and to budget?"
Queensland (-16.5 per cent), the Northern Territory (-32.7 per cent) and Western Australia (-40.6 per cent) were below the decade average. While Tasmania and SA recorded high growth in construction on the previous year, the “boom states” of a decade ago fell well short.
The verdict of the CommSec report was that NSW and Victoria have benefitted from population growth, construction and investment activity, and strong job markets. In line with other projections, it forecasts a steady stream of engineering construction activity in NSW and Victoria will offset a softening in residential builds.
Based on the infrastructure projects in play – the Melbourne and Sydney Metros, Western Sydney Airport, Inland Rail, Western Distributor, NorthConnex, WestConnex, the Brisbane cross-river rail – there is an impressive pipeline. The hunger of such projects for construction materials should keep the extractive industry (at least in eastern Australia) busy well into the 2020s – but the pipeline has its pros and cons.
The pro is it’s all happening in spite of Federal Government under-investment; therefore, a change of government shouldn’t weaken the pipeline. The claim of a “record $75 billion over a decade” in recent government TV ads ahead of the election amounts to a paltry $7.5 billion of investment per annum – well below state government expenditures, Infrastructure Australia’s recommendations and the feds’ own pledge in the 2014 Budget ($50 billion over six years – averaging $8.3 billion of investment per annum).
The con is whether the demand of the pipeline projects can be met on time and budget. The approvals processes for new quarries and basic operational changes to existing sites will underpin how quickly these projects reach fruition. State governments are already playing “catchup” in securing the right lines of supply to cater for rapid population and urban growth.
Further, as more development applications are lodged in the regions, will jurisdictions and proponents encounter resistance from locals who resent those reserves being diverted to the big capitals rather than towards local infrastructure? What impact could “lawfare” have on the delivery of the pipeline and on the industry?
The “state of the states” is encouraging – but industry members should be wary of stormy patches against mostly blue sky. It won’t all be smooth sailing – but the weather is favourable.
Damian Christie
Editor • Quarry Magazine
Damian Christie is the editor and a chief writer of Quarry magazine. To contact Damian, please click here.
All articles by Damian »
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'Fishing' for solutions to the environmental conundrum
Maintenance, Crushing, Screens & Feeders, Conveying, Recycling, Sand Processing, Safety, Education, Training
KAMMP: A simple yet effective conveyor belt solution
HR, Management, Soap Box, Education, Training, Tips & Advice
Is this the end of the road for roads as we know them?
01/04/2019 • By Anton Hartman
The 'quiet' drive towards a smarter, electric future
Soap Box, Education, Tips & Advice
Water, decentralisation and the economy in the 21st century
01/04/2019 • By Warwick Lorenz
News, Industry News, Supplier News, Training, Education
WIQ conferences go from strength to strength
12/04/2019 • By Tim Robertson
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SAS Shadow Raiders
by Damien Lewis
The incredible story of the radar wars: Britain’s most secret battle.
In the winter of 1941 an alien-seeming object was captured in a death-defying dash by an RAF reconnaissance pilot flying a lone unarmed Spitfire across the French coast. Balanced upon the cliffs near Le Havre was what appeared to be a giant convex dish, directed across the Channel at the war-torn British coastline.
With Britain’s cities being pounded by fearsome bombing raids, teams of experts studied the photograph worriedly. Might the dish constitute a highly secret form of radar – one that had the capacity to tip the balance of the war decisively in the enemy’s favour? If so, Nazi Germany would have leapfrogged British technology many-fold.
A top-secret mission was devised to steal what had become known as the ‘Wurzburg Dish’ after Enigma intercepted coded German messages. Appropriately christened Operation Biting, this was to be the first-ever Allied raid using airborne forces. Commanded by legendary Major John ‘Johnny’ Frost, he demanded blind loyalty from his band of piratical raiders. ‘A wild crew … they looked horrible,’ he admitted. Each and every rehearsal had proved disastrous; it was a suicide mission in all but name.
On the French coast agents of the Special Operations Executive – Churchill’s shadowy ministry for ungentlemanly warfare – risked all to map the target’s defences. At the eleventh hour, two unwelcome additions joined Frosts’s crew. One was a shadowy German cloaked in mystery; the other a British radar specialist who could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands.
Relying on files declassified for the purposes of writing this book, eyewitness testimony, and working with the families of key figures involved, Lewis reveals an untold epic of daring, ruthless rule-breaking and ferocity, coupled with bravery and ingenuity beyond measure. The results of Operation Biting would resonate throughout the war and beyond, changing the course of twentieth-century history.
Genre: Humanities / History / Military History
On Sale: 31st October 2019
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What really happened to THAT Stranger Things character?
A post-credits scene has left the fate of one major Stranger Things 3 character in doubt...
By Flora Carr
Thursday, 4th July 2019 at 6:01 pm
**Warning – this article contains spoilers for Stranger Things 3**
Hearts across the world broke when Sean Astin’s lovable Bob Newby was brutally killed by a pack of demodogs back in Stranger Things 2, and there’s been speculation ever since that The Duffer Brothers had another shock death up their sleeves for Stranger Things 3.
Well, turns out, viewers were proved correct – at least until the final post-credits scene…
It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway) that there are major spoilers ahead, so don’t read on unless you’ve watched the post-credits scene following episode eight of Stranger Things 3. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Stranger Things 3 spoiler-free review: the most exhilarating and devastating outing yet
Everything you need to know about Stranger Things 3: release date, cast, trailer, plot info, photos and more
Netflix release calendar 2019: all the TV shows coming soon
The finale for Stranger Things 3 was chock-full of shock twists: Billy’s dramatic change of heart and grisly death at the hands (sorry, fleshy-fanged-tentacles) of the Mind Flayer; Eleven losing her powers; and the Byers’ tearful move out of Hawkins with Eleven in tow. But the biggest shock of all (although the appearance of Dustin’s girlfriend Suzie surely comes a close second) was of course the death of Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour).
Hopper had had a somewhat difficult ride throughout the season. He struggled to come to terms with Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) burgeoning romance with Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and he just couldn’t get over the fact that Joyce (Winona Ryder) had stood him up on their not-a-date-but-totally-a-date. He also later struggled to shake The Terminator — sorry, sorry, the persistent, leather-clad ‘Russki’ assassin — who was determined to hunt down “the American”.
But by episode eight, Hopper was finally finding his groove (despite — or perhaps because of — the Magnum, P.I.-esque Hawaiian shirt). He’d been reunited with his adoptive daughter Eleven at Starcourt Mall, and Joyce had agreed to go on a real-life date with him after closing the new gate to the Upside Down.
one jopper can change everything pic.twitter.com/xVbLdOKRZX
— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) May 20, 2019
Ah, so close Hopper. Just as he and Joyce were about to turn the keys to shut down the gate-opening machine, The Russian Terminator showed up fists first. His and Hopper’s ensuing fight led the two men outside of the control room and next to the machine, created by the Russians. The Russian Terminator was shredded by the machine (ouch…or should that be ‘oy’?) and Hopper was trapped by a fizzing blue wall of energy, unable to rejoin Joyce in the control room.
With Dustin’s yells (“DO IT! SHUT IT DOWN!”) echoing over the radios, Joyce was forced to sacrifice Hopper, shutting down the machine as the chief of police apparently met a pretty unpleasant end and disintegrated.
Or did he?
The final post-credits scene took the viewer to a covert base in Kamchatka, Russia, where we saw a row of cells. As two guards stalked past, one made to open a door, but the other held him back. “No. Not the American,” he said in Russian, before choosing an alternate prisoner to feed to a captured demogorgon (yet another twist).
Much like Captain America’s hammer-lift in Avengers: Endgame, the “Not the American” line will likely result in viewers jumping off their seats and screaming “I KNEW IT,” because come on, who else could “the American” be but Hopper, who was also referred to as such by the Russian Terminator guy for much of the season? While exactly how he ended up in Russia remains a mystery, one thing seems clear: somehow, Hopper survived.
The cast of #StrangerThings tells you everything you need to remember about @Stranger_Things Seasons 1 and 2 to prepare for Season 3! https://t.co/IOiPEkDssK pic.twitter.com/szdXraDW8w
— See What's Next (@seewhatsnext) June 24, 2019
Of course, that’s exactly what The Duffer Brothers will want us to believe, and this could all be a cruel trick — but it seems unlikely that they would renege on that kind of reveal. If the storylines of both Steve “The Hair” Harrington and Erica (both bumped up to regulars following acclaim from viewers) have taught us anything, it’s that Stranger Things has a unique, reciprocal relationship with its fans.
The twist also makes narrative sense. After all, if Eleven’s powers are gone (at least temporarily) she’s unable to telepathically “find” Hopper in the same way she spied on Billy, Mike and Lucas during the season. His “death” also frees up Eleven to move in with the Byers, taking her outside of Hawkins and into a brand new environment, where she may even be able to start school.
Still, something tells us that a meagre underground fortress in snowy Russia won’t be able to contain Hopper for long — and the same goes for the demogorgon…
Stranger Things is available to stream on Netflix from 4th July
Netflix reveals Stranger Things 3 release date – with some intriguing hints about what’s to come
Fans could not BE any more excited about Friends arriving on Netflix
All about Stranger Things
News, photos, videos and full episode guide
9 questions we have after watching the Stranger Things 3 final trailer
Who is Chief Jim Hopper in Stranger Things 2?
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>Meagan Cahill
Meagan Cahill
Senior Policy Researcher
Ph.D. and M.A. in geography, The University of Arizona; BA in geography, Mary Washington College
Meagan Cahill is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. For over a decade, she has been conducting research and evaluation in the areas of policing and improving police-community relations; at-risk and delinquent youth—with a special focus on youths’ social networks; gang violence; interpersonal violence, including sexual assault prosecutions and family violence reduction; crime and place; and community crime prevention. She currently leads an impact and process evaluation of NYPD's Neighborhood Policing philosophy and an effort to develop tools that communities can use to improve police-community relations. She is also leading an evaluation of family violence programs for Aboriginal populations in Australia, funded by the Australian government, and conducting an evaluation of OVW’s Sexual Assault Justice Initiative, which works to improve sexual assault prosecutions in seven sites. In early 2018, she began an assessment of the combined effects of anti-violence efforts in two cities, Minneapolis and Durham (NC), funded by NIJ. Prior to joining RAND, Cahill spent over a decade conducting multi-site evaluations of anti-gang programs and studying youth gang networks and the gang desistance process at another research organization.
Cahill’s work employs spatial analytic methodologies for crime analysis using geographic information systems (GIS), basic social network analysis, and quantitative and qualitative methodologies. She received her Ph.D. in geography from the University of Arizona in 2004 and received a National Institute of Justice Dissertation Fellowship in 2003-2004.
Community Violence;
Corrections;
Crime and Violence Prevention;
Firearms;
Juvenile Delinquency;
Law Enforcement;
Police-Community Relations;
Previous Positions
Senior Research Associate, Urban Institute
Evaluation of NYPD's Neighborhood Policing Philosophy
Creating a Tabletop Exercise for Police-Community Relations
Reducing Violence in Communities: An In-Depth Study of Efforts in Durham, NC and Minneapolis, MN
Designing and Conducting Impact Evaluations for Indigenous-Specific Initiatives Against Family Violence
Evaluation of OVW's Sexual Assault Justice Initiative
Anita Chandra, Meagan Cahill, Doug Yeung, Rachel Ross, Toward an Initial Conceptual Framework to Asses Community Allostatic Load, RAND (RR-2559-RWJ), 2018
Jillian Eidson, Caterina Roman, Meagan Cahill, "Successes and Challenges in Recruiting and Retaining Gang Members in Longitudinal Research: Lessons Learned From a Multisite Social Network Study," Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 15(4), 2016
Caterina Roman, Meagan Cahill, Jillian Eidson "Street Gang Definitions across Two US Cities: Eurogang Criteria, Group Identity Characteristics, and Peer Group Involvement in Crime," in Cheryl Maxson, Finn-Aage Esbensen, Gang Transitions and Transformations in an International Context (Eurogang V), Springer, 2016
Pam Lachman, Caterina Roman, Meagan Cahill, "Assessing Youth Motivations for Joining a Peer Group as Risk Factors for Delinquent and Gang Behavior," Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 11(3), 2013
Meagan Cahill, Rachel Franklin, "The Minority Homeownership Gap, Home Foreclosure, and Nativity: Evidence from Miami-Dade County.," Journal of Regional Science., 53(1), 2013
Meagan Cahill, "Using the Weighted Displacement Quotient To Explore Crime Displacement From Public Housing Redevelopment Sites," Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, 13(3), 2011
Meagan Cahill, David Hayeslip, Findings From OJJDP’s Gang Reduction Program. Bulletin published by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2010
Meagan Cahill, Gordon Mulligan, "Using Geographically Weighted Regression to Explore Local Crime Patterns," Social Science Computing Review, 25(2), 2007
Silver Medal Award for Police Community Relations efforts, RAND
An Evaluation of New Mexico's Online Intake System for Civil Legal Aid
This report describes an evaluation of the online intake system for civil legal aid that New Mexico implemented in April 2016 to better assess the effects online intake systems might have in practice.
Toward an Initial Conceptual Framework to Assess Community Allostatic Load: Early Themes from Literature Review and Community Analyses on the Role of Cumulative Community Stress
Understanding extant stress levels within a community can help inform how it responds to acute or traumatic events. This report presents a framework that could be used to develop a concept for determining the allostatic load on a community.
Suicide Prevention in U.S. Law Enforcement Agencies: A National Survey of Current Practices
Many U.S. law enforcement agencies are taking steps to promote officer wellness and prevent suicide despite a weak evidence base for many of the specific approaches being used.
Knowing More, But Accomplishing What? Developing Approaches to Measure the Effects of Information-Sharing on Criminal Justice Outcomes
In this report, researchers explore measurement methods to assess how information-sharing affects criminal justice outcomes and offer lessons for future policy evaluation and information system design.
Feasibility of a Survey Panel of Criminal Justice Agencies: For Small, Rural, Tribal, and Border Law Enforcement, Courts, and Institutional and Community Corrections Agencies
RAND conducted a feasibility study to establish a survey panel of representatives of small, rural, tribal, and border criminal justice agencies. Such a panel would enable policymakers to collect up-to-date information on priorities and challenges.
The Justice Innovation Center: Identifying the Needs and Challenges of Criminal Justice Agencies in Small, Rural, Tribal, and Border Areas
The Justice Innovation Center provides information on technology needs, priorities, and solutions for small, rural, tribal, and border criminal justice agencies. This report summarizes the center's first year of efforts.
It's a two-way street. But already having this experience [peaceful, civil protests of the Rosfeld not-guilty verdict] under their belt—for both the [Pittsburgh] community and the police—is a positive thing and cause for some cautious optimism looking forward.
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
If we can raise the awareness among police and among the community about different hate crimes and also give police different tools for identifying areas where they need to put more resources, then we will call that a win.
Source: Sky News
Community Violence
Crime and Violence Prevention
Police-Community Relations
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Customs Training
EI Supports
All Supports
Currency Impact Calculator
Brexit Scorecard
Prepare for Brexit: Finance
John Power and Barry Doyle, Directors of Strategic Growth Leaders finance consultancy
How to manage financial risk through Brexit uncertainty
Barry Doyle and John Power, Directors of Strategic Growth Leaders (SGL) finance consultancy, outline the key considerations Irish SMEs should consider to respond to the challenges posed by Brexit.
The uncertainty generated by Brexit has highlighted important finance considerations for Irish businesses. Issues that impact SMEs in areas including managing multi-currency budgets, cash flow and projection, cash, currency and treasury management, optimising their capital structure and ensuring that appropriate types of funding are utilised, are heightened by the present and potential impacts of Brexit.
Too often, the finance function has been regarded as a cost, focused on historical reporting and compliance, rather than acting as a strategic, commercially-minded arm of the business. Brexit has created an impetus for companies to better structure and integrate their finance function, so that it acts as a strategic member of the management team, rather than a back office operation.
From the work SGL has done with Enterprise Ireland clients concerned about Brexit, it is clear that those who combine finance capability, resources, and a financial model that quantifies exposure, with a documented policy that explicitly states how each is to be managed, are better prepared to address any challenges that may arise.
Enterprise Ireland’s Be Prepared grant can be used to access financial and currency expertise and is a great resource for Irish SMEs eager to limit Brexit exposure. Finance is also one of the six pillars assessed by Enterprise Ireland’s Brexit SME Scorecard, an interactive online questionnaire that thousands of Irish businesses have used to assess exposure to date.
Take these six practical steps to help your business to minimise the financial risks posed by Brexit.
Quantify exposure to currency volatility
Although volatility is one of the most immediate concerns raised by Brexit, currency fluctuation is not new. Before Brexit, the narrow trading band of EUR/GBP was manageable. But volatility in exchange rates is now such that Irish businesses are experiencing significant margin erosion. With volatility expected to continue, the realisation has emerged that Irish companies must measure and manage exposure, establishing protective mechanisms to minimise uncertainty.
Analysing and quantifying exposure should be a prerequisite for every company, to enable a clear understanding of critical factors including cost base, market/product breakdown and margin, pricing strategy, cash to cash cycles, and currency breakeven FX rates. When a business can accurately quantify the financial risks of trading in foreign markets, risks that might relate to cost, currency or working capital, they can mitigate against them, over a duration that enables them to stay competitive.
Implement a treasury policy
Every company, from micro companies to large corporates, should design a currency and cash management policy, also known as a treasury policy. Essentially, that means documenting how your company manages finance. The document does not need to be complicated but should detail how the company manages all monies and transactions, including currency risk. The policy should also describe the relationships the finance function must have with other internal departments, as well as with external providers, such as banks. The policy should ideally be approved by the company’s Board of Directors and clearly identify the person(s) responsible for implementing and managing its component elements.
Use multi-currency cash flow forecasts
Determining your company’s foreign currency exchange risk can only be done by determining net receipts and payments of each currency in which it does business. Recognising that “Cash is King” for every business, cash flow forecasting is critical to ensuring active management of funds flow. It is particularly important for identifying net currency exposures. Forecasting monthly surpluses or foreign currency required, is the starting point for mitigating the impact of foreign currency fluctuations on business margin. Identifying receipts and payments that can be converted to domestic currency through negotiation with customers and suppliers to create a natural hedge position, is a crucial first step. Depending on the outcome of this exercise, it may be advisable to enter into FX contracts with a financial institution to buy or sell exposed amounts. Ultimately, it is important to bring certainty to the value or cost of your foreign currency exposure and avoid ‘playing’ the exchange rate market.
Conduct break-even analysis
Break-even (B/E) measures the level of sales required to cover fixed costs. In its basic form, it is defined as the point at which your income equals your costs, and profit is zero. As foreign exchange movements can directly impact on each component of sales receipts, cost of sales (including things like materials and tariffs) and overheads denominated in foreign currencies, modelling future B/E sales levels at different exchange rates provides management with essential information for deciding if and when price increases may be required to protect margin and ensure profitability. B/E analysis of different business units or sales territories provides management with a simple but effective comparison measure.
Understand cash cycle
Determining the working capital for each territory or market your business operates in is critical to ensuring effective cash management. Tracking timelines involved in your business of payments for overheads (labour or indirect costs), supply of materials, and conversion of sales to cash, is critical to understanding the additional permanent working capital needed as your business grows. Brexit may add significant requirements for investment in stockholding, new costs such as tariffs, reintroduction of VAT at point of entry, delayed payment terms with UK customers due to banking arrangements, and accelerated payment terms for suppliers. Understanding current cash cycles and modelling potential, or likely future cycle, will help identify the level of funding needed to maintain or grow your business in the UK. Businesses can fund additional investment required by lengthening the cash cycle through a combination of methods:
Renegotiate terms at both ends of the cash cycle, with suppliers and customers
Review in-house procedures for managing debtor collections and supplier payments
Use alternative financing methods such as supplier finance or invoice discounting
Scaling businesses should consider it as part of fund raising
Loan finance from traditional lenders and new entrants
More and more options are available to help businesses to reduce cash cycle timelines or fund additional requirements through a funding mechanism.
While the uncertainties generated by Brexit will only become clear in time, companies can create a solid business and financial plan to mitigate against known, and as yet unknown, risks. There is no doubt that Brexit is real and can create challenges for businesses buying or selling in the UK. But Brexit is not a strategic problem.
Continue to drive your strategic plan and determine the modifications needed to stay on track. Also consider:
Accelerating a diversification plan
Implementing a strategic procurement approach to protecting critical supply and protecting margin
Prioritising resources to a digital channel.
Once you’ve established a strategic plan, establish and measure the critical success factors and key performance indicators that will ensure you stay you on a strategic path.
A version of this article was originally published on Silicon Republic.
Learn how Enterprise Ireland’s Brexit: Act On Initiative can help your company prepare its finances for Brexit.
Prepare your Brexit action plan with the €5,000 Be Prepared Grant
← Prepare for Brexit: Innovation Prepare for Brexit: People Manangement →
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Anti-gay lawmakers retaliate against businesses
By Matt Hennie | Mar 24, 2016 | 8:59 PM
A handful of anti-gay Georgia lawmakers, on the last day of the legislative session, are taking a parting shot at businesses and industries objecting to an anti-gay "religious freedom" bill.
With just a handful of hours until the session is gaveled to an end, lawmakers hijacked House Bill 904 – legislation the Department of Labor needs – to target businesses that have called on Gov. Nathan Deal to veto House Bill 757, an anti-gay "religious freedom" bill that lawmakers pushed through on March 16. Objections have come from leading businesses, tourism officials, the NFL and NCAA and much of Hollywood.
Via the AJC:
But, the House and Senate used parliamentary maneuvering to send the bill to a “conference committee,” made up of three negotiators from the House and three from the Senate. Within hours they had all signed off on a new version that includes the original language from HB 904 and adds a measure that deals with private companies’ anti-discrimination policies.
“It is the intent of the General Assembly to protect consumers, legitimate business enterprises, and other members of the public that rely on such statements, pledges and policies,” the new language says.
It makes it an “unfair or deceptive practice” for a company to violate its own non-discrimination policy or statement and allows employees to sue if they believe those policies were broken.
The conference committee contained six members – three from the House and three form the Senate. Among them are the most anti-gay lawmakers at the State Capitol – Rep. Barry Fleming and Sens. Josh McKoon (photo) and Greg Kirk. The other members, according to Georgia Pol, were Reps. Brian Strickland and Trey Kelley and Sen. P.K. Martin.
McKoon has been the cheerleader of "religious freedom" legislation for the last three legislative sessions. Kirk's anti-gay First Amendment Defense Act was worked into the legislation that passed last week and Fleming has been an obstructionist for LGBT protections being added to any legislation over the last two years.
The legislative trickery behind the maneuvering helped bury the new pieces inside the conference committee report, and likely helped its chances of passing late Thursday, according to Georgia Pol.
A Department of Labor bill, House Bill 904, has been modified by a conference committee to include a new section that allows someone who believes that they have been discriminated against by a private employer because that employer failed to follow corporate anti discrimination policy to file a class action lawsuit against that company.
The new provisions are tucked into the first three sections of the conference committee report. The remaining seven sections are the original contents of the bill. That section allows the Department of Labor to work with the Department of Revenue to investigate reports of fraud and abuse of the Employment Trust Fund.
The House and Senate still need to approve the report, followed by the governor’s signature. Yet, because the original bill is considered to be a must pass measure, approval is likely.
The effort is aimed at the growing list of companies that have objected to House Bill 757, which allows faith-based organizations to discriminate against LGBT people and others. It also threatens LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination protections in nearly 60 jurisdictions across Georgia.
McKoon's motivation appears to come from his back-and-forth with Salesforce, whose CEO Marc Benioff has objected to the legislation and threatened to pull business from the state if Deal doesn't veto it. McKoon has criticized the company for objecting to the bill while also conducting business in countries that criminalize homosexuality.
And Kirk in recent days has brushed off opponents of House Bill 757 by criticizing businesses opposing the legislation while operating in countries “that chop off the heads of homosexuals.”
McKoon took aim at the companies in comments to the AJC:
“In essence, it is an amendment to the Georgia Fair Business Practice Act,” McKoon said. “And what we are saying is, if you hold yourself out as a company with a policy that is beyond the discrimination policies that are protected by federal and state law…and you do not follow your own policy, then you can be liable to a lawsuit from either an employee who’s aggrieved by a violation of your policy or a consumer who’s damaged.”
An example, McKoon said, was if “somebody decides they’re going to purchase a product or a service because of the company’s reputation for inclusiveness and tolerance and then they find out they’ve essentially been defrauded because the company is not following that policy.” That person, he said, could sue the company for false advertising.
Deal, who visited the Senate and House chambers late Thursday, said little about the surprise legislation.
@JohnnyIK @NathanDeal On new measure addressing discrimination: still looking into its content. #gapol
— Johnny Kauffman (@JohnnyIK) March 25, 2016
LGBT activists, progressive lawmakers and even conservative AJC columnist Kyle Wingfield weren't amused by the last-minute legislative shot.
This HB 904 is a bad idea. I get that they're mad, but it's a bad idea. #gapol
— Kyle Wingfield AJC (@kwingfieldajc) March 25, 2016
"religious freedom" is back.....another and worse version is on the desk in Conf Com Report 904. Uh oh, way bad. #gadems #gapol
— Mary Margaret Oliver (@mmo_mary) March 25, 2016
McKoon, Kirk, et al are going after the @GAprospers companies to punish them for speaking out against HB757. That’s mature. #gapol
— Robbie Medwed (@rjmedwed) March 25, 2016
Ok, with at all of that I can say for sure: This new bill is terrible and its authors are just spiteful. #gapol
This does serious damage to the slow crawl of civil rights in this state. #gapol https://t.co/8ui3zrZPK6
— Anthony M. Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) March 25, 2016
UPDATE | Less than two hours later, the non-discrimination language was stripped from the bill.
This just in: New HB 904 conference report eliminates ALL discrimination language. Check here for updates: https://t.co/1jYf5axRsQ #gapol
— Aaron Gould Sheinin (@asheinin) March 25, 2016
Just got the newest version of HB 904, which earlier included the "nondiscrimination" language. That wording is completely now gone. #gapol.
— Michell Eloy (@michellreloy) March 25, 2016
HB 904 is back without the language regarding businesses enforcing their non-discrimination policies. #gapol pic.twitter.com/TeDGIhsXhk
— Elly Yu (@ellywyu) March 25, 2016
Gay civic activist jumps into crowded Fulton commission race
Former state lawmaker wants to be first LGBTQ Gwinnett leader
Gay commissioner spearheads first-ever Pride Month in Gwinnett
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WWS
TEC MTCTE WPC OSP BIS BEE Test Tools
Whitewater Solutions Pvt Ltd , founded in 2013, is a Technical Consulting and Software development firm in the field of ICT compliance and conformance industry for India market.
Updated 5th April 2019
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One dead in fiery crash on Hwy 2
One person is dead after a fiery crash involving a large semi unit and a car in icy conditions on Hwy 2 south of Olds on Monday.
The collision occurred just after noon in the southbound lanes, about seven km south of the Olds overpass.
Innisfail RCMP report the collision happened when a semi-truck hauling two flat deck trailers left the northbound lanes, crossed the median and then entered the southbound lanes.
The truck collided with the car, which burst into flames.
A Mountie and a bystander arrived shortly after, but were unable to put out the flames.
The car was removed from the scene so the body could be removed. It appears one person was inside.
Police say no information on the vehicle’s description or the identity of the vehicle will be released at this time.
RCMP anticipate it will be tough to positively identify the victim.
The driver of the semi was checked out at hospital but wasn’t seriously hurt.
Police believe that winter weather and icy road conditions were a significant cause of the crash.
The highway was re-opened at 4:15 p.m.
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MONCTON, N.B. — Organigram Holdings Inc. reported a loss of $10.2 million…
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AirPR acquires Ozmotik, rebrands to Onclusive
April 09, 2019 by Sean Czarnecki
The new name is derived from the words "inclusive" and "conclusive."
Dan Beltramo
SAN FRANCISCO: AirPR is no more. The data science company has acquired earned media amplification company Ozmotik and rebranded to Onclusive.
With this deal, Onclusive allows clients to not only identify high value earned media, but also to amplify that content.
"In PR, it has become harder to get the story, the reach and the impressions," said AirPR CEO Dan Beltramo, who is now CEO of Onclusive. "Basically, the same amount of effort a PR person [puts in today] yields less results than 5, 10, or 20 years ago because of the fragmentation of the media landscape."
He added that the aim is to "put that back together for the PR person and the company via the Ozmotik capability."
Exact financial details of the deal, which closed at the end of March, weren’t disclosed. However, Beltramo said it was mostly funded by equity, so that Ozmotik’s team is "aligned with their success going forward."
Ozmotik CEO Hung Nguyen is joining Onclusive as VP of media, while CTO Prescott Lee is joining as VP of engineering. Both report to Beltramo. Onclusive’s board, comprised of members from AirPR’s board, is unchanged.
Beltramo said the name change, derived from the words "inclusive" and "conclusive," was necessary because the focus on PR in their original branding was too limiting.
"That stems from our history in PR attribution, where we help tie PR to real business outcomes," Beltramo said. "We also wanted to broaden the scope of our aim, especially as we think about our capabilities and what our customers want to do."
This new name reflects the firm’s embrace of disciplines outside earned media and the company’s desire to help their clients make "conclusive" decisions based on that expanded pool of data, he explained.
Andy Cunningham, founder of the Cunningham Collective and a member of Onclusive’s board, added that PR has become all about media relations.
"[PR] should be the business that helps to educate and influence audiences about a company’s products and services," she said. "That’s what we get paid to do. It’s not just about schmoozing and boozing with journalists."
Beltramo said he met the Ozmotik team through an old connection at Nielsen, where he worked for four years, most recently as EVP of marketing effectiveness. He’s been with AirPR for about a year. Since then, the company has doubled its headcount to 50-60 people.
Over the past year, Cision has laid off staff. AirPR recently hired a couple staffers in customer success and sales from Cision and its recently acquired company Trendkite, Beltramo said.
AirPR’s most recent funding round occurred in late 2018, raising $8 million in a Series C round. A "good chunk" of that funding remains and the company is "still well-funded," Beltramo said. The money AirPR has spent has gone toward customer success and the Ozmotik acquisition.
Beltramo said another funding round at the end of the year could be in the cards, but it depends on how Onclusive deploys its capital.
Agency M&A
AirPR raises $8 million in Series C, launches new product
Former Edelman US COO Julianna Richter joins Waypoint Partners
Kantar and Bain on their $4bn deal: Now we can invest and acquire more
WPP sells 60% of Kantar to Bain Capital
Breakfast Briefing: WPP sells majority stake in Kantar to Bain
Amit Misra promoted to MSL South Asia CEO
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"paper theater"
"Puppet showplace theatre", "Toy theater", "berlin", "brookline", "great small works", "international toy theater festival", "mexico city", "new york city", "paper theater", "puppets"
Coming soon! The Great Small Works’ International Toy Theater Festival on Tour
Guest blogger: Holly Hartman, PST Volunteer Media Consultant
Holly Hartman
I first attended a show at the Puppet Showplace Theatre several years ago, when my then-six-year-old niece was visiting Boston. I was dazzled, both by the skill of the puppeteer—the enthralling Sarah Lamstein—and the candid absorption of young audience members. They beamed at the arrival of a friendly kitten puppet, shrieked at onstage silliness, and cringed when a tiny Beelzebub rose up from behind the curtain. Afterward, a few children stayed to “meet” one of the puppets; they held its small hands and spoke to it as if to a new friend, apparently oblivious to the presence of Lamstein.
Since then I’ve also discovered PST's offerings for adult audiences, which have included some of the most memorable and ingenious theater productions I’ve seen anywhere. A troupe from Bavaria, Saltamontes Puppet Arts, enacted a mysterious tale with bunraku-style animal figures; Vermont’s Modern Times Theater used cardboard cutouts in a droll retelling of a political fable by Herman Hesse; recently, a marionette puppet slam blew my mind with wood and string. I have noticed that in the presence of puppetry arts I can be as awed and credulous as any six-year-old.
Right now I’m particularly excited about a traveling show that will be landing at PST at the end of this month: The Great Small Works’ International Toy Theater Festival.
Get Ready for Toy Theater…
One of the many things I’ve learned at PST is that there’s currently an international revival of “toy theaters” (aka “paper theaters” or “model theaters”). These mass-produced Victorian miniatures, complete with paper scenery and characters, were a popular form of home entertainment in nineteenth-century Europe. A wondrous variety of contemporary theater artists have contributed to their revival. “Toy theater festivals happen all over the world,” says PST artistic director Roxanna Myhrum, “consistently amazing audiences with the power of performance-in-miniature.”
"Living Newspaper" by Great Small Works
After a residence at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn (how’s that for a credential?!), the traveling part of this year’s festival will make a stop at PST, on June 28 and 29. Both nights will feature a cabaret-style production by three acclaimed theater companies. I'm really looking forward to seeing their work in the intimate space of PST.
Facto Teatro, "Don Chico con Alas"
Facto Teatro (Mexico City) will perform “Don Chico con Alas” (Don Chico with Wings), based on a surrealistic story by Mexican author Eraclio Zepeda. Barbara Steinitz and Björn Kollin (Berlin) will use live music—and a suitcase for a stage—in“Schnurzpiepegal” (Like Master, Like Dog), a humorous meditation on urban life and human-pet dynamics. Great Small Works (New York, but founded by veterans from Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater) will bring together words and images from modern-day media in “Living Newspaper,” a new work that addresses the issue of American gun violence.
…and a Family Matinee
“Schnurzpiepegal” (Like Master, Like Dog) by Barbara Steinetz and Björn Kollin
Never fear: kids will have the chance to get in on the toy theater fun, too. On Saturday, June 29, PST will host two daytime shows of “Schnurzpiepegal” (Like Master, Like Dog), each followed by a free workshop, where artists Barbara Steinetz and Björn Kollin will help children create their own toy theater puppets.
Just the Facts!
Evening cabaret on Friday, June 28, and Saturday, June 29, at 8 p.m. (Recommended for adults and teens 13+.) Tickets: $15 General Admission/$13 Members. Cash bar.
Family matinee on Saturday, June 29, at 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. (Recommended for ages 3 & up.) Tickets: $12 General Admission/$8 Members. Followed by a free puppet-making workshop; PST will provide materials.
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Mitchell chooses All Stars over World Club Challenge
Brad Walter NRL.com Senior Reporter
Thu 31 Jan 2019, 09:01 PM
Sydney Roosters centre Latrell Mitchell was given the blessing of his club to miss the World Club Challenge so he could play for the Indigenous All Stars against New Zealand Māori.
With the Harvey Norman All Stars clash in Melbourne on February 15 and the World Club Challenge against Wigan in England two days later, Mitchell was forced to choose between the two and decided to represent his family and Indigenous heritage.
While it was a tough decision for the 21-year-old NSW and Australian star, Mitchell had the support of Roosters coach Trent Robinson and club officials to make a decision he was comfortable with.
A proud Biripi man, Mitchell understands the positive impact the All Stars match has.
Due to the clash of fixtures, Mitchell is the only member of the Roosters squad who will play in the All Stars match, which will include a Māori team for the first time since the concept began in 2010.
"I'm a proud Aboriginal man but I'm also really proud to be a Sydney Rooster and this wasn't an easy decision because I'm so passionate about both teams," Mitchell told roosters.com.au.
"Obviously it's disappointing that the scheduling means I can't play both games and I'm disappointed that I won't be travelling to England with my Roosters family to play in the World Club Challenge.
"I can't wait to get amongst my culture and to rip in and represent my people in the All Stars game, and then go into the season fresh and ready to play for the Roosters.
"I know the Roosters boys are ready to go to England and rip in. I have spoken to a few of them and they have told me to go and represent my culture so I'm pretty happy with the decision I made."
Newcastle superstar Kalyn Ponga, South Sydney centre Dane Gagai, North Queensland prop Jordan McLean and Penrith front-rower James Tamou will represent the Māori despite having pledged their allegiance to Australia over New Zealand.
Tamou and Gold Coast second-rower Kevin Proctor are the only survivors from the Māori team which played the Indigenous Dreamtime team in a curtain-raiser to the opening match of the 2008 World Cup, which inspired the All Stars concept.
With Manly second-rower Joel Thompson ruled out with a calf injury, the Indigenous team do not have any remaining players from that match.
The Titans boast the highest representation of players in the Indigenous team, with Tyrone Peachey named at lock, Nathan Peats at hooker, Tyrone Roberts at halfback and Leilani Latu on the bench.
Ryan James was initially named in the team despite the Titans announcing on Thursday that he would be sidelined for two-to-three weeks with a knee injury, and has been replaced by Dragons youngster Josh Kerr. Leilani Latu is likely to move into the starting side in James's absence.
Cronulla and Tonga star Andrew Fifita is the other prop, with Brisbane's David Fifita and Canterbury's Adam Elliott in the second row.
Roberts will be partnered at the scrum-base by South Sydney five-eighth Cody Walker, with the duo part of a star-studded Indigenous backline which also includes Blake Ferguson, James Roberts, Mitchell and Josh Addo-Carr.
Ben Barba has been removed from the squad after his contract was terminated by the Cowboys on Friday night. A replacement for the controversial fullback is yet to be named.
Ponga has been chosen at five-eighth for the Māori team - the position he will play for the Knights this season.
The Māori forward pack comprises internationals who either play for Melbourne or have done in the past, with McLean and Proctor joining Storm prop Jesse Bromwich, hooker Brandon Smith and Warriors pair Adam Blair and Tohu Harris.
Besides McLean, all have played at Test level for New Zealand, while the seven-man bench included six Kiwis representatives – Joseph Tapine, James Fisher-Harris, Corey Harawira-Naera, Danny Levi, Brad Takairangi, and Gerard Beale – along with Tamou.
Gagai, who played for Australia against New Zealand and Tonga at the end of last season, was named on the wing for the Māori after choosing to represent his mother Tania’s family. He has represented his Indigenous heritage in previous All Stars matches.
Maori All Stars selection Dane Gagai. ©NRL Photos
Warriors utility Peta Hiku will play fullback for the Maori, with Penrith's Dean Whare and Wests Tigers star Esan Marsters in the centres and Brisbane's Jordan Kahu on the other wing.
Indigenous All Stars
1. TBA; 2. Blake Ferguson (Eels), 3. James Roberts (Broncos), 4. Latrell Mitchell (Roosters), 5. Josh Addo-Carr (Storm); 6. Cody Walker (Rabbitohs), 7. Tyrone Roberts (Titans); 8. Andrew Fifita (Sharks), 9. Nathan Peats (Titans), 10. Josh Kerr (Dragons), 11. David Fifita (Broncos), 12. Adam Elliott (Bulldogs), 13. Tyrone Peachey (Titans). Interchange: 14. Will Chambers (Storm), 15. Leilani Latu (Titans), 16. Chris Smith (Bulldogs), 17. Alex Johnston (Rabbitohs), 18. Jesse Ramien (Knights), 19. Tyrell Fuimaono (Panthers), 20. Kotoni Staggs (Broncos).
New Zealand Māori All Stars
1. Peta Hiku (Warriors); 2. Dane Gagai (Rabbitohs), 3. Esan Marsters (Wests Tigers), 4. Dean Whare (Panthers), 5. Jordan Kahu (Broncos); 6. Kalyn Ponga (Knights), 7. Jahrome Hughes (Storm); 8. Jesse Bromwich (Storm), 9. Brandon Smith (Storm), 10. Jordan McLean (Cowboys), 11. Kevin Proctor (Titans), 12. Tohu Harris (Warriors), 13. Adam Blair (Warriors). Interchange: 14. Danny Levi (Knights), 15. Brad Takairangi (Eels), 16. James Fisher-Harris (Panthers), 17. James Tamou (Panthers), 18. Gerard Beale (Warriors), 19. Corey Harawira-Naera (Bulldogs), 20. Joseph Tapine (Raiders).
To purchase tickets, head to www.nrl.com/tickets
For flights, accommodation and tickets to visit Melbourne and attend the matches, head to www.nrl.com/travel
Walker brothers the right replacement for Brennan?
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Preston Campbell: Pride can take All Stars to next level
Fri 08 Feb, 2019
Maori coach Jones promises entertaining style
Wed 23 Jan, 2019
Inglis trailing Barba, Roberts in All Stars voting
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Rape on the Night Shift
A group of janitors started a movement to stop sexual abuse
By Bernice Yeung / January 16, 2018
Sacramento, Calif., police officers take a protester into custody during a demonstration in support of a bill to protect janitors from sexual harassment and assault in the workplace.
Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
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Long before #MeToo went viral, an unlikely group of women – night shift janitors – started their own movement to stand up to the extreme sexual harassment they experience on the job.
It hasn’t been easy. They’ve had to battle resistance from within their own ranks – including jeering from male co-workers. They’ve had to demand that the public and lawmakers pay attention to a problem they’ve lived with for years. They’ve had to put their bodies on the line with a hunger strike.
It all started in early 2016, when leaders of the janitors union in California got news that shocked them: The vast majority of their members had either witnessed or experienced sexual harassment on the job.
Like most unions, the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West, which represents janitors in California, had been focused on wages and working conditions. Sexual harassment wasn’t a priority until the union leadership watched the “Rape on the Night Shift” documentary.
The film was part of a 2015 collaboration among Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program, KQED, FRONTLINE and Univision. The project told the stories of janitors who said their supervisors exploit their power – and the solitude of the night shift – to violently harass them while their employers look the other way.
Since the Rape on the Night Shift investigation, there’s been an effort to find real fixes to an entrenched problem. It’s resulted in policy change, but it’s also activated California’s janitors union and individual workers to combat on-the-job sexual violence in an unprecedented way.
Along the way, the janitors had to overcome a series of hurdles. Here’s how they did it.
The union asked its members about sexual harassment. It was surprised by what it found.
At first, some union leaders didn’t want to take on the issue because it seemed so far afield from what they normally tackle, and they weren’t sure they had the expertise to respond to sexual trauma. But after seeing how severe the problem was, they were motivated to address sexual harassment directly.
They took the rare step of adding a question about sexual harassment to the survey the union sends to its members in preparation for contract negotiations.
The results startled them. About half of the 5,000 workers who responded said they had been sexually harassed or sexually assaulted at work, and another quarter had witnessed it. It had become clear to the union that it had to take a more proactive stance.
“This was just alarming. As a union that represents predominantly immigrant janitors and 70 percent of them are women, I just said, ‘We can’t be a janitors union if we don’t do anything about this.’ We have to take on this issue that is rampant in this industry.”
– Alejandra Valles, SEIU-USWW secretary-treasurer
Alejandra Valles is secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West. Credit: FRONTLINE
Then they got the men on board.
In the spring of 2016, the union convened a meeting of hundreds of its members to talk about the new labor contract. There, bargaining committee member Veronica Lagunas announced to the crowd that the union planned to make sexual harassment a priority in its contract negotiations with big employers.
As she spoke, a low roar came from the crowd – some men in the audience were booing her. Loudly.
The union’s president, David Huerta, asked for the microphone and demanded that the men do better.
“I just started giving it to them really hard: ‘This is ridiculous. I cannot believe we’re going to sit here and one, not let our compañera speak, because that’s not what this organization is about. But two, this is a real issue. This is an issue that we have to confront. If the men in this room cannot find it in themselves to fight on this issue, then you have to ask yourself what you’re doing here.’ It was just a straight challenge to them.”
– David Huerta, SEIU-USWW president
That was a turning point for the union. Huerta’s confrontation of the booing men empowered female workers to stand their ground on the issue, and it settled the debate: The union was going to take on sexual harassment.
Several weeks later, the California janitors union signed a new contract with the largest cleaning companies in the state and it included new provisions related to sexual harassment. Now, supervisors would not be allowed to date workers they manage, cleaning companies would have to improve how they conduct sexual harassment investigations, and employers would be required to provide information about a confidential hotline so that workers could seek help if they’ve been harassed.
When Lagunas reported the news to the union’s membership, no one booed this time around. Instead, there were cheers, and some workers threw their fists in the air.
Advocates found a lawmaker to take the issue to Sacramento.
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher. Credit: FRONTLINE
Soon after watching the “Rape on the Night Shift” documentary, a union official nudged Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, a Democrat and former union leader from San Diego, to watch it, too. She said she was outraged by what she saw and decided to seek a legislative response as soon as she could.
“I watched it twice. I think I spent the whole first time watching the documentary saying, ‘Well, of course this happens, but I can’t believe we’ve never thought about this.’ And then I watched it immediately again, to say, ‘What could we do? What can we do about this? This is not acceptable.’ ”
– Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, California assemblywoman
A few months later, Gonzalez Fletcher introduced the Property Services Workers Protection Act, which aimed to curb sexual harassment in the janitorial industry.
The need for the bill was bolstered by a report from UC Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program, “The Perfect Storm,” which explores the circumstances that make janitors vulnerable to sexual violence at work and cites Rape on the Night Shift.
“A key finding of the report is that the property services industry is structured in a way that isolates workers who are uniquely vulnerable to sexual harassment, and then creates conditions in which workers are afraid to step forward to report harassment.”
– “The Perfect Storm”
To build support for the bill, Gonzalez Fletcher asked female janitors to testify about the violence they’d experienced at work. The bill’s supporters also found novel ways to raise awareness of the issue when nearly two dozen female legislators wore janitors’ uniforms to the California State Capitol to show their support for women working the night shift.
Janitors demanded public attention.
Protesters hold hands as they block the street outside the California State Capitol during a demonstration in support of the bill aimed at protecting women custodial workers from sexual abuse.Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
From billboards on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to rallies throughout the state, California’s janitors began making noise about sexual harassment in 2016, long before #MeToo captured the headlines.
At dozens of marches, they held up signs that read, “Ya Basta,” which means “Enough is enough” in Spanish. At a rally in Sacramento, a handful of janitors blocked an intersection and unfurled a banner that read, “End Rape on the Night Shift.”
Credit: Courtesy of the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West
There was a ready-made group of janitors willing to speak out against sexual harassment. The union and The Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, an organization that supports non-unionized janitors, had found a way to turn workers into leaders through a new anti-sexual violence program designed for janitors by the East Los Angeles Women’s Center.
The janitors were trained to assist other women who had been sexually harassed at work, and these “promotoras,” or community-based trainers, were charged with sharing what they’d learned with other women.
Gonzalez Fletcher’s bill gave the first group of promotoras a way to put their training into direct action.
Janitors put their bodies on the line.
For a week in the fall of 2016, a group of about a dozen janitors staged a hunger strike on the lawn in front of the California State Capitol. The promotoras and worker advocates had stationed themselves near the statehouse to put pressure on Gov. Jerry Brown to sign Gonzalez Fletcher’s bill.
During the day, they met with supporters, including famed farmworker organizer Dolores Huerta. They read letters they’d written to their attackers. They shared their stories of assault and rape. Each day, as the sun set, they left their posts near the Capitol to sleep at a local church.
On the afternoon of the fourth day of fasting, a member of the governor’s staff walked from the Capitol toward the group of women. As she approached, she told them that the governor wanted them to know that he had just signed the bill. The staff member showed the women a picture of the signed document on her phone. They gathered around her to look at it in disbelief before tearfully collapsing into a group hug.
“We have made history. I feel very proud that all of us opened up this space and we broke that silence. We made history, being that we are poor, we are humble, we come from the bottom. It doesn’t matter what your status is, it doesn’t matter the color of your skin – nobody should harm your body because no means no.”
– Martha Mejia, janitor and hunger striker
Now the law requires anti-sexual harassment training for all janitors, and employers that don’t comply by 2019 can’t do business in California. And because the industry is filled with many black market and fly-by-night companies, it also creates a registry of janitorial companies so bad actors can be held accountable.
The worker rights and anti-sexual violence organizations that pushed for the bill also have come together to start the Ya Basta Coalition. The group is working on creating more effective anti-sexual harassment training for all low-income workers. Some serve on a government advisory committee to implement the bill.
They trained themselves in self-defense.
The Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund hosts a self-defense class for janitors. Credit: FRONTLINE
On a Saturday morning last month, nearly a dozen female janitors wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Ya basta” learned to punch, kick and jab an attacker by practicing on imposing plastic dummies.
They had gathered at the union headquarters in Los Angeles to learn how to defend themselves against aggressors as they worked on the night shift.
Through live demonstrations and role play, they were taught how to be fully aware of their environment, how to exude confidence and how to state loudly and unequivocally that they do not want to be propositioned or touched.
This was the first self-defense class for janitors hosted by The Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund. But it was just the beginning. Lilia Garcia-Brower, the organization’s executive director, said she plans to take this training to the buildings where the janitors work at night. The hope is that each cleaner will teach these techniques to a co-worker.
“We’re essentially looking to create an army of female janitors who are committed to go out and talk to as many female janitors as possible so that they too can understand that they have the power within them to defend themselves and society is wrong. And as we go one by one, one worker at a time, we’re going to get there to make that shift.”
– Lilia Garcia-Brower, executive director of The Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund
Garcia-Brower said the class isn’t just about throwing a punch – it’s also about teaching women that they have the power to expect a safe workplace.
This story was edited by Andrew Donohue and copy edited by Nadia Wynter and Nikki Frick.
Bernice Yeung can be reached at byeung@revealnews.org. She is the author of the book, “In a Day’s Work: The Fight to End Sexual Violence Against America’s Most Vulnerable Workers.” Follow her on Twitter: @bmyeung.
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By Bernice Yeung Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting January 16, 2018
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“This was just alarming. As a union that represents predominantly immigrant janitors and 70 percent of them are women, I just said, ‘We can’t be a janitors union if we don’t do anything about this.’ We have to take on this issue that is rampant in this industry.” – Alejandra Valles, SEIU-USWW secretary-treasurer Alejandra Valles is secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West. Credit: FRONTLINE Then they got the men on board.
“I just started giving it to them really hard: ‘This is ridiculous. I cannot believe we’re going to sit here and one, not let our compañera speak, because that’s not what this organization is about. But two, this is a real issue. This is an issue that we have to confront. If the men in this room cannot find it in themselves to fight on this issue, then you have to ask yourself what you’re doing here.’ It was just a straight challenge to them.” – David Huerta, SEIU-USWW president
Advocates found a lawmaker to take the issue to Sacramento. Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher. Credit: FRONTLINE
“I watched it twice. I think I spent the whole first time watching the documentary saying, ‘Well, of course this happens, but I can’t believe we’ve never thought about this.’ And then I watched it immediately again, to say, ‘What could we do? What can we do about this? This is not acceptable.’ ” – Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, California assemblywoman
“A key finding of the report is that the property services industry is structured in a way that isolates workers who are uniquely vulnerable to sexual harassment, and then creates conditions in which workers are afraid to step forward to report harassment.” – “The Perfect Storm”
Janitors demanded public attention. Protesters hold hands as they block the street outside the California State Capitol during a demonstration in support of the bill aimed at protecting women custodial workers from sexual abuse.Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
“We have made history. I feel very proud that all of us opened up this space and we broke that silence. We made history, being that we are poor, we are humble, we come from the bottom. It doesn’t matter what your status is, it doesn’t matter the color of your skin – nobody should harm your body because no means no.” – Martha Mejia, janitor and hunger striker
They trained themselves in self-defense. The Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund hosts a self-defense class for janitors. Credit: FRONTLINE
“We’re essentially looking to create an army of female janitors who are committed to go out and talk to as many female janitors as possible so that they too can understand that they have the power within them to defend themselves and society is wrong. And as we go one by one, one worker at a time, we’re going to get there to make that shift.” – Lilia Garcia-Brower, executive director of The Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund
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Privacy Policy2019-02-18T17:05:37+00:00
THIS POLICY (“POLICY”) EXPLAINS THE PRIVACY PRACTICES FOR THE WEBSITE OPERATED BY Speed To Contact, LLC, A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION (“Speed To Contact”), ACCESSIBLE AT HTTPS://WWW.SPEEDTOCONTACT.COM (THE “SPEED TO CONTACT WEBSITE”) AND THE COMMUNICATIONS AND RELATED SERVICES OFFERED ON OR THROUGH THE SPEED TO CONTACT WEBSITE (THE “SERVICE”), UNLESS A CONTRARY POLICY IS EXPRESSLY STATED BY Speed To Contact TO APPLY. THIS POLICY APPLIES TO ALL USERS OF THE SERVICE OR THE Speed To Contact WEBSITE, WHETHER OR NOT YOU CLICK “I AGREE” THROUGH ANY REGISTRATION OR ACCESS PROCESS AT THE SPEED TO CONTACT WEBSITE AND WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE THE REGISTERED HOLDER OF AN SPEED TO CONTACT ACCOUNT (A “MEMBER”) OR ANOTHER USER THEREOF. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE OR ACCESS THE SERVICE OR THE SPEED TO CONTACT WEBSITE.
Questions and concerns regarding this Policy should be submitted via the telephone at 1-866-678-1288. Speed To Contact respects your privacy. Any information you give us is held with care and security, and will only be used as described in this Policy or otherwise with your consent.
Subscription Registration and Membership; Information Collected In order to access the Service, you may be required to first become a Member and complete one or several registration forms. During registration (and possibly thereafter) you may be asked to give your name, a contact telephone number used to identify you, a password, your postal address, e-mail address, and other contact or identifying information. Speed To Contact may also ask for other information required to provide the Service, such as your business name, information pertaining to demographic characteristics such as your age, technology or communications services purchasing preferences, or how you found Speed To Contact. Information may also be collected by your presence on the Speed To Contact Website, even if you have not registered or subscribed to any Service.
Generally, this information falls into one of four categories: (1) “Personal Information,” such as your name and e-mail address, which can be used to personally identify or contact you (or to confirm your identity in the case of user IDs and passwords), (2) “Billing Information,” such as your credit card information and billing address, which is a subset of Personal Information and which we may use to bill you for the Service, (3) “Usage Information” such as your IP address, Service plan choices, Service usage levels, calling history, your click patterns on the Speed To Contact Website, and other information indicative of your use of the Service or the Speed To Contact Website, and (4) “Anonymous Information” which can be aggregated across users and then used to determine the demographics, habits, preferences, or statistical characteristics of the Speed To Contact Website users or subscribers to the Service, but which cannot be used to identify you or your specific Service usage history. Anonymous Information may include portions of Personal Information and Usage Information which have been decoupled from any identifying information and aggregated with that of other Service or Speed To Contact Website users.
How Information Is Used;
Speed To Contact will use your Personal Information as follows: (1) to regulate access to the Service and the Speed To Contact Website and its features (such as requiring passwords to access certain services); (2) to personalize and enhance your experience when visiting the Speed To Contact Website; (3) to promote to you Speed To Contact or Speed To Contact endorsed products or services (including contacting you by e-mail); (4) to assist our partners and sponsors in promoting to you their products or services (including contacting you by e-mail), provided that third party promotions are provided on a “blind” basis, such that only Speed To Contact will have access to your Personal Information and provided also that you may opt-out of receiving promotions from us or such third parties during the registration process; (5) Persons who supply us with their telephone numbers on-line may receive telephone contact from us with information regarding new products and services or upcoming events. If you do not wish to receive such telephone calls, please let us know by sending us e-mail at the address below. From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will post the policy changes to our Web site to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our Web site periodically, and (6) for other internal or administrative purposes consistent with our mission of providing our Members with the highest quality Services in a secure manner.
We will use your Billing and Usage Information to bill you for the Service and to provide you with technical and billing support. To the extent that Usage Information includes stored telephone number lists you generate or compile by using the Service, we do not provide such lists to third parties except as necessary to complete telephone calls you initiate by switching calls to our carriers (which typically includes providing both caller ID information and the target phone number). We will, however, validate the accuracy and format of individual telephone numbers and may also store and provide, for the benefit of all Speed To Contact clients, information pertaining to the success, failure, or other results of calling certain numbers (or similar information): for example, if a call generates a response that a line is no longer active, or if we detect that the line is used by a fax machine, we may store and utilize such information to advise clients when they attempt to initiate a call to the same number, but access to such information is on an anonymous basis from the standpoint of identifying users who have initiated calls to such numbers.
We will use Anonymous Information to optimize our marketing and product development efforts (such as keyword advertising purchases and search engine optimization), to determine the success of our marketing campaigns, to provide demographic information to sponsors, advertisers and partners, and other relevant commercial purposes. We may also provide Anonymous Information to our sponsors, advertisers and partners so that they may track the success of their advertising and promotional efforts, for example, to determine the demographic attributes and use preferences of visitors to pages in the Speed To Contact website that feature their products or services. Speed To Contact may use third party providers and subcontractors for the Services or any feature offered on the Speed To Contact Website. Service through these providers may necessarily include providing them with some or all of your Personal Information, Billing Information (for credit card processing, collections, and related matters), and your Usage Information (for subcontracted Service, but typically on an anonymous basis), but we will use diligent efforts to restrict use of this Information by these third parties to the purpose of providing the specific Speed To Contact feature, function or service for which the third party has been engaged. Additionally, Speed To Contact may share your Information with parents and affiliates under its control or common control, subject to the same restrictions described in this Policy.
In addition, Speed To Contact specifically reserves the right, to the maximum extent permitted by law, to use or disclose any Information (a) for the purposes of enforcing our user agreements, use policies and the like or (b) when requested by law enforcement agencies (whether or not under subpoena), if we reasonably suspect a violation of our user agreements or use policies or any applicable law.
How Information is Stored;Security
Speed To Contact has appropriate technical and organizational security measures in place to reasonably protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of user data under our control. For example, we use appropriate encryption for payment card transactions when we bill you for the Service, and we impose strict rules on Speed To Contact employees who have access either to the databases that store member information or to the servers that host our services. While we cannot guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of data will not occur, we make diligent efforts to prevent such unfortunate occurrences.
Please note that information or data (including Usage Information and data you collect through the Service), other than Billing Information, cannot practicably be stored in a manner which is PCI (payment card industry) or HIPAA (healthcare patient confidentiality and security) compliant. Accordingly, other than the Billing Information which we specifically request, we do not recommend that you use the service to collect or store any sensitive financial, payment, or personal information, and we cannot be responsible in any manner if you do so. Additionally, we strongly recommend that you keep all of your user information, such as account IDs, passwords, and other sensitive information secret and not disclose such information to anyone else. We cannot be responsible for any use of this information should you disclose it to anyone else, or for the use or distribution of any of your information or data stored on the Speed To Contact Website or with the Service if it is obtained via use of your account ID or password. Please note that Speed To Contact will never email you to “phish” for (attempt to convince you to disclose) your username or password. Use of “Cookies,” Web Beacons, and Log Files Speed To Contact uses a feature of your Web browser called a “cookie” — a file that your browser places on your computer’s hard drive to uniquely identify your computer. Speed To Contact creates and then uses cookies to make log-in more convenient on the Speed To Contact Website, to tell us whether you have previously visited the Speed To Contact Website, to track your clicks through the website, and to help us determine whether you came to Speed To Contact from a particular Internet link or advertisement. Cookies can also be used to save and retrieve passwords and to save information on past usage of features and other preferences. Speed To Contact does not and cannot use cookies to retrieve personal information about you from your computer unless such information was knowingly and willingly provided by you. Some of our business partners, sponsors, and advertisers use cookies through the Speed To Contact Website (for example, advertisers) to track the success of their advertising and marketing efforts, which is standard practice for many of the websites you may visit. If you wish to restrict how cookies are placed on your computer, please check your browser settings, or check your browser’s “Help” information for instructions on how to enhance the security of your browser or limit use of and access to cookies. Please note that your browser’s security settings may disable some features or services on certain websites.
Similarly, Speed To Contact, its advertisers and partners may also use “web beacons” (small image files which are used to track presence on web pages and surfing patterns) in a similar fashion to cookies, except that web beacons do not store any personal information on your computer. We may also use web beacons or similar technology to track clicks from our newsletters and the like. Finally, servers owned or controlled by Speed To Contact may or will log each website visitors’ IP address, browser type, referring and exiting URLs, and other statistical and technical information. Except for policy, agreement, and law enforcement purposes, Speed To Contact will treat this as Anonymous Information.
Other Events;
Please note that all information collected or provided may be transferred or assigned by Speed To Contact in conjunction with a merger or the sale of all or a portion of the Speed To Contact business (or similar event).
Links;
The Speed To Contact Website may contain links to third party websites and advertisements leading to promotions of third party products and services. Speed To Contact is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other websites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our website and to read the privacy statements of each website that collects personally identifiable information. This Policy applies solely to information collected by the Speed To Contact Website and other websites operated or controlled by Speed To Contact, and not any third party website.
Children;
The Speed To Contact Website and the Service are not intended for use by children or minors. We ask that children and minors not use the website or the Service without their parents’ guidance and only after their parents have fully reviewed the terms applicable to such use, including the contents of this Policy.
Modifications;Cancellation
Speed To Contact reserves the right to reasonably modify this Policy at any time by publication on the Speed To Contact Website, by notice through email, or by transmission through the Service. All such modifications will be binding on all registrants and users. If you are concerned, please check back periodically to review the current Speed To Contact Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any such changes, or if you no longer wish to be subject to this Policy, you may contact Speed To Contact (see above and also the Terms of Service) to cancel your account, and upon complete payment of any amounts due and owing under your account (or the account you use) for Speed To Contact service, Speed To Contact will use diligent efforts to delete your Personal and Billing Information.
The terms contained in this Policy are subordinate to any contrary terms contained in any express user or membership agreement between a user and Speed To Contact or to any express written agreement containing the signatures of authorized representatives of both parties.
Liability;
Speed To Contact’s liability from or arising out of this Policy or any breach thereof is subject to the general limits of liability stated in the Speed To Contact Terms of Service.
General Contact Information
Business name: Speed To Contact, LLC
Address: 840 Apollo St. Suite 100
City: El Segundo
State/Province: CA
Website URL: speedtocontact.com
Website e‐mail: [email protected]
Ricochet Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy covers the privacy practices that Speed to Contact, LLC employs when providing application, support, consulting, or hosting services (the “Services”) to Speed to Contact clients through Ricochet. Speed to Contact established this Privacy Policy to clarify Speed to Contact’s role as a processor where Speed to Contact processes services data on behalf of Speed to Contact clients through Ricochet (Software as a Service).
Services data (“Services Data”) is data that Speed to Contact is provided access to in connection with Ricochet and the related Services, such as data accessed through a Ricochet environment or data accessed through test, development and production environments. Speed to Contact treats Services Data in the manner set forth below.
Services Data Use
Services Data may be accessed and used to fulfill the requirements specified in any relevant Speed to Contact customer agreement for Services or Software Offerings. Speed to Contact technical staff may require periodic access to Services Data to monitor system performance, test systems and develop and implement upgrades to systems. Any temporary copies of Services Data created as a necessary part of this process are only maintained for time periods relevant to those purposes.
Speed to Contact may also be required to provide personal information to comply with legally mandated reportings, disclosure or other legal process requirements. Speed to Contact reserves a limited right to disclose any personally identifiable information we receive if required by law or valid order of a court or other governmental authority, or if needed to protect the health and safety of Speed to Contact employees, a client’s employees, or the general public.
Speed to Contact may transfer and access Services Data globally as required for the purposes specified above. If Speed to Contact hires subcontractors to assist in providing Services, their access to Services Data will be consistent with the terms of any relevant customer agreement and this Ricochet Privacy Policy.
Speed to Contact does not use Services Data except as stated above or as provided in any relevant Speed to Contact customer agreement. Speed to Contact may process Services Data, but does not control client’s information collection or use practices for Services Data. If a Speed to Contact client provides any Services Data to Speed to Contact, the client is responsible for providing any notices and/or obtaining any consent necessary for Speed to Contact to access and use Services Data as specified in this statement and any relevant customer agreement.
Speed to Contact’s access to Services Data is based on job role/responsibility. Services Data residing in Speed to Contact hosted systems is controlled via an access control list (ACL) mechanism, as well as the use of an account management framework. As Speed to Contact clients control access to Services Data by its end-users, end-users should direct any requests related to their personal information to Speed to Contact clients.
Certain Speed to Contact Cloud Offerings may provide clients the ability to collect personal information, via cookies and other technologies, from their end-users. Speed to Contact clients should seek their own legal advice about any laws applicable to their collection of such information, so that Speed to Contact clients can be sure that they are complying with those laws, including providing any required notices and obtaining any required consents.
When you use our Service, we track what you do on it and use this for the purposes of providing customer service and improving our Services. For example, we monitor where your cursor is, what you click on, and what you visit on the Service, and based on this, we can provide superior customer support when you need help and we analyze if certain features on our Service need improvement. We use a third-party service to record those activities and your personal data might be incidentally collected by us or third-parties, such as smartlook.com. You may opt-out of smartlook.com recordings here.
Speed to Contact reserves the right to modify or supplement this Privacy Policy at any time. The most recent version of the Privacy Policy will appear on this website with the relevant modification date. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the practices of Speed to Contact, you can contact: Speed to Contact Privacy Contact at: [email protected]
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Personalised Cherished Number Plates
Since their humble beginning in 1903, cherished numbers have continued to increase in popularity often adding the finishing touch to our prized possessions and very often prove to be a valuable investment.
The First Number Plate Ever Issued
A1 assigned in 1903
The Motor Car Act 1903, which came into force on 1 January 1904, required all motor vehicles to be entered on an official vehicle register, and to carry number plates. The Act was passed in order that vehicles could be easily traced in the event of an accident or contravention of the law. Vehicle registration number plates in the UK are rectangular or square in shape, with the exact permitted dimensions of the plate and its lettering set down in law.
You can find out where your personalised registration number plate was originally issued here.
NUMBER PLATES:
Students at a school in Surrey have been threatened with having their bikes locked away unless they comply with a new policy on cycling to school, which includes having a number plate attached to their bikes.
In a letter sent to parents, Keith Batchelor, head of the Beacon School in Banstead, said that he was implementing new rules on children cycling into school, and parents would have to sign an agreement before their children were allowed to ride in.
As well as telling students to stick to the Highway Code, wear a helmet, and use hi-vis clothing and bike lights “where appropriate”, the new rules also mean that students will have to have a number plate (supplied by the school) attached to their bikes, which Mr Batchelor hoping that this will make students not following the rules more identifiable.
“On joining the school this September, I decided to refine the current cycling policy to enhance further the safety of the students in our care and develop their sense of responsibility on the road,” Mr Batchelor said in a statement, as reported by Get Surrey.
“The procedures will support the safeguarding of our students on their journeys to and from school and help us to celebrate safe cycling. We will provide extra training to students where it is needed.”
As part of the new policy, the school says that students who fail to follow the rules may be banned from cycling to school, with those who continue to ride in having their bikes locked up until their parents or carers are available to collect them.
Number plates for bikes have been the subject of discussion in recent months after a survey by Halfords found that two-thirds of respondents were in favour of cyclists having to have them attached to their bikes.
However the idea came was slammed by both cycling campaigners and motoring groups, with the AA describing it as “impractical and unnecessary” while Cycling UK said “rather than encouraging people to cycle, and bring all the associated health and wealth benefits, it is more than likely to put newcomers or occasional cyclists off cycling altogether.”
Overseas territories
Some of the British overseas territories, including Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, use similar number plates to the UK, with the same colours and typeface.
For those residents wishing to secure their vehicle registration plates, and so preventing them from being stolen, the Kirwans Bridge Neighbourhood Watch is holding a Safe Plate Day at the next Nagambie market.
The group will be setting up in Blayney Lane on Saturday.
For just a gold coin donation, get your number plates secured with the one-way safety screws.
● Another crime prevention initiative being held this weekend will be at the Tallarook market on Sunday.
Police will be there with engraving equipment to put identifying numbers on residents pushbikes, scooters and any other similar equipment.
Bring your property down, with your drivers licence and that number will be engraved on the item.
This helps to prevent theft and also greatly assists police to find owners if property does get stolen or lost.
Number Plate Suppliers, do they have to be registered?
The short answer to the question is YES.
If you are buying a cherished plate through a registered (MIRAD) dealer who is also a registered number plate supplier (RNPS) with the DVLA then they can supply the plates for you.
Sales manager at Image Registrations Bruno Morris said if we are supplying the cherished number to the client and transferring it onto the vehicle for them then we already have established proof of ownership and identity during the transfer procedure. It saves the customer a lot of hassle by enabling us to supply the registration plates with the completed paperwork"."
Fraudsters are attempting to scare drivers into revealing personal information.
The message, which even appears to have the gov.uk logo, reads: ‘FINAL REQUEST: ‘DVLA Swansea have been trying to contact you, Click below for more information.’
It is leading drivers to believe that they may be in trouble with the DVLA.
The DVLA has confirmed it doesn’t send texts or emails with links to websites asking for motorists to confirm their personal details or payment information.
The phony website may also include malware, a type of virus that lurks in your device to steal information, such as bank log-in details.
On social media website Twitter, many people have been tweeting about the tax refund scam. With one claiming the domain is registered in Panama.
The DVLA has said it is currently investigating.
A DVLA spokeswoman said: “We are aware that some members of the public are receiving emails and texts claiming to be from DVLA.
“Anyone getting these should delete the message and don’t click the link.”
Last summer, scammers were also targeting people in Swansea claiming to be from the DVLA.
Swansea Council Trading Standards said it had seen a rise in complaints from people in the city who had reported receiving the malicious phone calls, where the caller asks for credit card and personal details.
The DVLA had also revealed e-mails were sent to people last year, which had a link to a ‘secure web form’ that’s designed to collect personal information from unwitting recipients.
The correspondence targeting motorists says: “We would like to notify you that you have an outstanding vehicle tax refund of £239.35 from an overpayment, request a refund.”
The email includes the DVLA’s existing logo and fonts, which could dupe motorists into sharing their personal data.
MNLARS was supposed to replace the 30-year-old computer system that the Department of Vehicle Services used for handling drivers licenses and motor vehicle registrations. “When finished, it will be an efficient, secure Web-based system for driver’s license, identification card and vehicle registration and ownership transactions,” the DVS’ website proclaims.
When the car registration and title portion was rolled out this past summer, years past its deadline and nearly double its $48 million budget, it was, in automobile parlance, “a lemon.” It didn’t work well at all. It’s still not working that well. And this summer, the drivers license part of the system is supposed to start up.
Now, after dozens of statewide meetings, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety has developed a “Roadmap” for fixing and improving MNLARS. It includes things like “fixing bugs and glitches,” “stabilizing and optimizing system performance” and one we really like: “Adding functionality to MNLARS that existed in the old system” — that is, make it do what you could do on the 30-year-old system.
The cost for all this, the DPS says, is $43 million, nearly as much as the whole shebang was supposed to cost in the first place.
Insanity, in this case, might be defined as giving more money for MNLARS repairs to the people who overspent to develop this wretched mess in the first place. Given the cost, it might just be better to start over.
Advisor to Chief Minister Balochistan on Excise, Taxation and Transport Mir Abdul Karim urged all lawmakers including MNAs and MPAs to fix original vehicles numbers plates in pursuance of Balochistan High Court Decision.
According to handout issued here, he said that in this regard, Balochistan High Court had been strict warned that if anybody would fine in violation of the decision of Balochistan High Court so action would be taken against them.
The minister said members of national assembly (MNAs) of Pakistan, members provincial assembly (MPAs) of Balochistan should display their official plate numbers at vehicles which were allotted by official deportment, despite, displaying ministers and senators at plate numbers of vehicles.
He hoped that ministers, MPAs, MNAs and VIPs would act upon on the decision of Balochistan High court.
For your protection and to ensure a fair and professional service, we are members of The Institute of Registration Agents and Dealers (MIRAD).
Our office can be contacted by email or by telephone on 01482 628 628 or by pOst to Image Registration Marks, PO Box 123, Hessle, HU13 0YJ.
More than seven million people tuned in to watch the Queen’s speech on television on Christmas Day - but thousands also logged on to the Swansea-based DVLA’s online services.
Figures from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in Morriston reveal that despite it being December 25, many still found time to keep on top of their vehicle administration, from taxing cars to buying personalised registrations.
So, in addition to the estimated 10 million turkeys eaten on the big day, 8,550 vehicles were taxed or declared off road online, 521 people informed the agency online they had bought or sold a vehicle, and more than 1,600 people applied for their first provisional driving licence.
Oliver Morley, chief executive of the Swansea-based DVLA, said: “Giving customers choice in how, where and when they use our services is at the heart of what we do.
“We are committed to creating digital services that meet the needs of our customers and clearly, these services are allowing people the opportunity to fit their admin into their lifestyle – 365 days a year.”
Other figures for online activity on Christmas Day include 136 people paying a fine, 621 people buying a personalised registration number, 456 people applying for a duplicate licence, 727 telling the DVLA of their new address and 11,343 viewing their driving licence.
THERE are a number of mistakes that can be made on personalised number plates that could see drivers land a £1,000 and also fail their MOT. Here is what they are and how to avoid them.
Illegal number plates could see thousands of Brits face fines and even make them fail their MOT.
Certain personalised number plates have the potential to be costly errors for drivers.
While a personalised number plate can be, to some people, a nice form of expression, they could also be costly.
Personalised number plate firm Regplates.com encourages drivers to use a degree of imagination and interpretation while designing one, but sticking to the traditional number plate formats.
According to the company, however, 15,000 drivers across the UK have been fined for having an illegal plates over the past three years.
The worst offenders come from London with 3,058 offences clocked while North Wales and Norfolk also totted up over 1,100 each.
This includes plates that did not conform to regulations, cars without a front or back plate or ones with indistinguishable/obscured plates.
It is a legal requirement for a car’s numberplate to be clear and legible and failure to meet these criteria can result in £1,000 fine, loss of the personal registration number and/or a failed MOT.
There are other modifications that drivers can also be penalised for.
These include using the wrong colours for the lettering or for the background of the plates.
Number plates should have black characters on a white background at the front of the car and on a yellow background on the back of the car.
Spacing is also crucial and drivers should ensure that the characters on their plate are correctly spaced.
Non-confirming backgrounds or stickers that could interfere with the legibility of a plate are also factors that carry a fine risk.
The standard font used on all number plates is ‘Charles Wright’ and it is the only one deemed acceptable for motorists to have.
Similarly, the flag on the left hand side of the plate must also be correct.
Acceptable flags include: The EU flag, The Union Jack, The St George Cross, The Scottish Saltire (St Andrew Cross) and The Red Dragon of Wales.
The transport department has clarified that all vehicles registered in the state must have High Security Registration Plates (HSRP) fitted by January 15, 2018. The department has plans to impose a fine of Rs 500 on those who fail to comply with the requirement.
The state government had in November 2012 made it mandatory for all new vehicles to have HSRP number plates. But the vehicles registered before 2012 were given exemption. That exemption has now been done away with and the transport department, following a Supreme Court order has mandated HSRP for any and all vehicles registered in the state. The apex court had in November this year issued notices and sought response from five states on a contempt plea alleging non-compliance of the order related to ensuring high security registration plates (HSRP) for all vehicles. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud issued notice to the governments of five states and sought their response in eight weeks.
It was contended that despite the apex court directive earlier in 2017, the five state governments - Gujarat, Assam, Delhi, Haryana and Bihar had not complied with the directions.The transport department stated that it has also come to their notice that several vehicles registered after November 2012 are moving without the HSRP number plate.
The UK's most expensive number plate to date is the F1 registration number purchased by a British businessman for £440,625 in 2008, though that's just small change compared to the £7m spent by Abu Dhabi-based Saeed Khouri on the 1 number plate - officially the largest sum of money ever spent on a registration number.
The state Department of Motor Vehicles has suspended the vehicle registrations of more than 4,900 motorists who crossed New York bridges and tunnels without paying tolls, officials told The Post.
Most of the scofflaws have breezed through new cashless tollbooths — and then ignored repeated bills sent by mail.
But the crackdown has some drivers fuming, with one, Jon Kopel, calling it “Governor Cuomo’s legalized extortion.”
Kopel recently moved from Yonkers to upstate South Fallsburg, and says he never received initial bills for crossing the Tappan Zee and other bridges. He finally received a mailed warning that the DMV would yank his car registration if he didn’t pay $960 for 18 tolls plus violation fees, he said.
Kopel says that when he called the bill collectors, they told him, “We’re going to give you a break — we’ll make it $400 if you pay it now” — so he charged it on his credit card.
“That’s some deal, isn’t it?” he griped.
Tolling agencies now have sharper teeth. Under state regulations that went into effect in January, the DMV can suspend registrations of car owners who refuse to pay the tolls and steep late fees.
“By the time the DMV is done with them, I think they’ll find out the state of New York is not kidding around here,” MTA board member Mitchell Pally told The Post.
“Sooner or later we’re going to get your money or your registration, so you might as well pay.”
To date, the DMV has received 8,262 requests for suspensions from tolling authorities and approved 4,976. Of those, 556 suspensions were sought by the MTA; 499 by the Port Authority, and 3,921 by the Thruway Authority.
The MTA so far has converted seven of its nine city crossings to cashless, with the Throgs Neck and Bronx-Whitestone bridges due in the fall.
The PA’s new Bayonne Bridge and the Thruway Authority’s Tappan Zee Bridge are also cashless.
That means cars and trucks can whiz through without stopping, which saves time for motorists and improves traffic flow.
Vehicles with E-ZPass are charged as usual, but for those without, cameras on overhead gantries photograph license plates. A contractor for the three tolling authorities mails bills to the registered owners, who are responsible for payment no matter who was driving.
Vehicle owners who ignore two bills in a row are hit with penalty fees of $50 or $100. At the Henry Hudson, one-third of motorists without E-ZPass were scofflaws.
Under the new state regulation, the DMV can suspend the registration of motorists who fail to pay three or more toll violations within five years, or for commercial vehicles fail to pay $200 in tolls within five years.
Out-of-state drivers who cross New York bridges and tunnels without paying may soon face the same fate — the DMV is seeking suspension agreements with other agencies.
“If your car is registered in Connecticut, the DMV would take into account what you did in New York,” Pally said.
A BIKER has been caught by police using a James Bond-inspired gadget to conceal his number plate to avoid speed cameras.
Spanish traffic cops pulled over the motorcyclist after they noticed he was riding without a licence plate.
However, on closer inspection, the modified plate was revealed with tech straight from 007’s garage.
The Swiss rider had the ability to flip up his number plate at the press of a button to hide the reg from police or cameras.
A similar gadget was famously seen on Sean Connery’s Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger.
Bond’s number plate could spin to change to a different number to avoid being followed or tracked.
This rider didn’t quite have the same knack for getting out of trouble as 007, though.
As according to a report on the Catalan police website, using the secret gadget led to the motorcyclist’s downfall after cops in Girona noticed the rider didn’t have a licence plate.
They pursued and pulled over the motorcyclist before noticing the number plate had bizarrely re-appeared.
After a quick search, officers found the activation switch to move the plate up and down to dodge speed cameras.
Acrylic Number Plates
Acrylic number plates sigify the registration mark of a vehicle.
They can be made of different materials, but more commonly seen are metals and acrylics. But as to how the standard specifications on the use, make and display guidelines of number plates are, it would vary with every city and country. There are some who would prefer to have their number plates more personalized. As long as how it is obtained abides with the regulations, such is possible. In fact, motorists of today are starting to appreciate better the value of vanity plates.
Cherished Number Auction Listing Now Online
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DVLA is a registered trade mark of the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency. Regplates Limited is in no way affiliated to the DVLA or DVLA Personalised Registrations.
Regplates Limited is registered with the DVLA as a Registered Number Plate Supplier to supply physical number plates. Regplates Limited is a recognised reseller of DVLA Registrations.
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Stop guessing and try data-driven business decisions instead
It’s time to abandon uninformed guessing about what has happened and what to do next and move toward true data-driven business decisions. That should be a top priority for all organizations, according to TDWI’s David Stodder.
In his TDWI Best Practices Report: Visual Analytics for Making Smarter Decisions Faster, Stodder says business users really want to move past the limits of spreadsheets and canned BI reports. And he explains how one of the hottest trends today, visual analytics, can help everyone gain a richer, more personalized experience with data for improved decision making.
Download TDWI Report
This infographic showcases some of the key statistics and findings from TDWI’s Best Practices Report: Visual Analytics for Making Smarter Decisions Faster. (Click to enlarge.)
Stodder says the trend toward visual analytics is fed by the demand for easier capabilities for nontechnical subject-matter experts – those who want to analyze data more frequently and need a better way to discover and share insights, with less IT oversight.
Here are his top 10 recommendations for using visual analytics to drive data-driven business decisions.
1. Make self-service visual analytics and data discovery a priority but ensure users understand new responsibilities.
You don’t want things to fly out of control. Governance, data quality, data lineage, data definitions and metadata are important for users to understand in their quest for unencumbered data discovery. Centers of excellence and governance committees can help clarify and assign responsibilities.
2. Don’t let IT become the roadblock; develop a strategy to address IT concerns about self-service.
Fostering dialogue between IT and business users about how to enhance freedom for adoption of self-service BI and visual analytics tools is imperative for making data-driven business decisions more egalitarian.
3. Aim for “managed” or “governed” self-service with business-focused analytical applications.
Organizations will need to find the right balance between user freedom and flexibility and proper observation of data security, privacy and regulatory policies. Again, it’s all a balance.
4. Provide training and education opportunities for users who seek to do more with advanced analytics.
TDWI’s report found that users are most successful in using BI and visual analytics tools to build dashboards and scorecards. But many could benefit from incorporating more advanced analytics into their work. Help them learn how.
5. Put delivering upper management insights high on your priority list.
The TDWI research found that satisfying executives is the most important benefit organizations hope to achieve through the use of business intelligence and visual analytics. Make it number one on your to-do list.
6. Take advantage of in-memory computing to improve performance and data availability.
Evaluate needs for in-memory computing and take advantage of it for highly interactive and iterative visual analytics. Computing answers on the fly makes faster data-driven business decisions possible.
7. Make self-service data preparation part of the visual analytic experience if the technology can support it.
According to the TDWI survey, IT is still largely responsible for data preparation in most organizations. New technologies are increasing the options for self-service data prep, which could take some of that pressure off of IT.
8. Use visual analytics to support data storytelling for smarter and faster decision making.
Educate and train users to move beyond simply presenting reports or isolated visualizations to tell a fuller story of the data exploration and analysis.
9. Evaluate cloud and SaaS options to gain visual analytics advantages without infrastructure commitment.
According to the TDWI report, neither cloud nor SaaS are in widespread use yet, but organizations should evaluate them as an opportunity for users to try out tools and build prototypes without additional infrastructure investments.
10. Integrate visual analytics, including embedded functionality, into strategies for decision management.
Organizations that need to manage a high volume of real- or near-real-time decisions can benefit from decision management, an integrated technology and approach to intelligent automation of decisions. Visual analytics can help identify these opportunities.
Read the full TDWI Best Practices Report, Visual Analytics for Making Smarter Decisions Faster: Applying Self-Service Business Intelligence Technologies to Data-Driven Objectives to learn more.
Want visual data discovery and easy-to-use interactive predictive analytics in a collaborative environment? Read this white paper to find out how SAS delivers.
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The world's first food snob saves dinner
Manny Howard
Melanie McFarland
California overdue for major earthquake?
Richard Aster
Pill talk
October is Talk About Prescriptions Month, and Battery Safety Month, and ...
Check out this article! https://www.salon.com/1999/10/08/prescriptions_2/
October is Talk About Prescriptions Month. So far, I have talked about
prescriptions with only one person, and that was a woman at the National Council on Patient Information and Education, which invented Talk About Prescriptions Month. I tried to talk about my birth control pills with her. "So," I began. "The pills are quite small, some white, some brown."
For someone whose job is to go around encouraging talk about
prescriptions, she was pretty tight-lipped. She told me she'd mail me a press kit and got off the phone stat, as they say in medicine land.
This was OK with me, for October is a busy month. I must make sure my jumper cables are rust- and corrosion-free with no exposed wires (October is Auto Battery Safety Month), gently brush the outer tooth surfaces using a vibrating back and forth motion (October is National Dental Hygiene Month), talk openly about family planning with my stepchildren (October is National Family Sexuality Education Month), disinfect food preparation surfaces twice weekly (Oct. 17-24 is National Infection Control Week), highlight adult and adolescent immunization issues (Oct. 10-16 is National Adult Immunization Awareness Week) and practice my home fire escape plan (Oct. 3-9 is National Fire Prevention Week).
Life has been hectic ever since I came into possession of the 1999
Health Observances Calendar, put out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The calendar lists 158 nationally recognized months, weeks and days dedicated to health issues. Most, like October's, appear to have been more or less randomly assigned to their calendar months. Except for the ones in May. Something is going on with May.
Check this out: May is National
Melanoma/Skin Cancer Prevention Month. Presumably, this means we're supposed to strip naked and stand before a mirror, looking for scary moles and sores that do not heal. This is a stressful undertaking (the naked-in-front-of-the-mirror business alone does a number on me). You are
guaranteed to find some sort of suspicious skin blight that you never noticed before, which will cause your blood pressure to soar and/or ulcers to develop. And May just so happens to be National High Blood Pressure Month and National Digestive Diseases Awareness Month. Coincidence? You tell me.
During May we are also asked to be aware of many things we would rather not think about. May is Hepatitis Awareness Month, National Stroke Awareness Month, National Trauma Awareness Month and Tuberous Sclerosis Awareness Month. Before I could be aware of this last one, I needed to find out what it is. When I called the Tuberous Sclerosis
Association, I was told that it is "a genetic disease that manifests itself with tumors in organs and mental retardation." Being aware of Tuberous Sclerosis has made me nervous and depressed. Conveniently enough, May also contains National Anxiety Disorders Screening Day and National Mental Health Counseling Week. See what I'm getting at?
While many of May's observances seem to follow a visible logic, others
appear to have been scheduled simply out of spite. What else could have prompted the Better Speech and Hearing Month folks to choose the month that contains National Stuttering Awareness Week? Why else would the Correct Posture Month crew opt to choose the same time slot as the National Osteoporosis Month supporters?
Moreover, why was anything scheduled at all? How do these things come
about? According to the Department of Health and Human Services, it used to be that you had to lobby Congress to get a proclamation signed by the president -- National Headache Month, if ever there was one. But the White House apparently got tired of this some years back. Nowadays, groups "just sort of do it." Can anyone proclaim a day or month? More or less, said Bob Tuska of the National Cancer Institute. "I could declare today Bob Tuska Day." It has a nice ring to it, and I told him I would do whatever I could to promote it.
The press kit for Talk About Prescriptions Month arrived this morning.
My favorite suggestion is, "Flush any old medication down the toilet." I picture people standing before their medicine cabinets, grabbing any old bottle of pills and merrily flushing them down the toilet. The press kit also says to avoid storing tubes of ointment near tubes of toothpaste. This reminds me of a story, which I'll tell you, because it's Talk About Prescriptions Month. Once I woke up from a nap in Belgium, horribly jet-lagged. I was brushing my teeth, and realized that the toothpaste
tasted horrible. My husband buys us organic toothpaste, so I'm used to
brushing my teeth with something that is very close in taste and consistency to bathtub caulk, but this particular mouthful had attained new summits of unappetizingness. I looked at the tube, and realized that it was not in fact toothpaste but vaginal yeast infection cream. The funny thing is, it had a mild minty flavor to it.
It being Talk About Prescriptions Month, I called up the manufacturer to tell my story and to ask why a vaginal cream would have a minty flavor. You know, I mean, who is it there for?
Under the guise of asking her supervisor, the woman put me on hold so
as to tell her consumer-information colleagues she had a live one on line 6. Eventually she got back on and told me that there was no flavoring in this medication, and that what I had tasted was surely residual toothpaste. I thanked her and wished her a happy Bob Tuska Day.
Former Salon columnist Mary Roach is the author most recently of "Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal." Her previous books include "Stiff," "Spook" and "Packing for Mars."
MORE FROM Mary Roach
The boldest "Pose" episode yet
Could a vaccine prevent Alzheimer’s?
Mitch and Elaine's empire of corruption
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Hermaphrodites are safe in ... Colombia?
How has a country known for its indiscriminate violence become the global haven for sexual diversity?
Check out this article! https://www.salon.com/1999/10/28/intersex/
Hank Hyena
A peaceful oasis for intersexual (hermaphroditic) infants finally exists, in one of the world's most murderous countries.
Colombia, ravaged by crime and cocaine, has emerged as the planet's most compassionate legal ally of "sexually ambiguous" babies born with aspects of both male and female genitalia, according to a recent press release from the Intersex Society of North America. The ISNA reports that the Colombian Constitutional Court issued decisions on May 12 and Aug. 2 that decree "that parents cannot give consent on a child's behalf to surgeries intended to determine sexual identity."
Freaked-out mommies and daddies there can no longer easily order surgeons to barbarically snip 'n' stitch bits of ambiguous tot crotch into "acceptable" genitalia. The court based its rulings on individual liberties guaranteed in the Colombian Constitution, and on protections espoused by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Colombian laws, according to American intersex activists, are a far cry from the backward state of hermaphrodites' civil rights in the United States.
"Modern medicine has not been friendly to the intersex community," ISNA director Cheryl Chase told me on Tuesday. "Native American tribes accept intersexuals, and Medieval Europe had laws that recognized and defined the rights of intersex people. But in the late 1950s, doctors in industrialized nations took over. They got control of assigning gender; they started doing their surgery."
Experts estimate that 2,000 intersex children in the U.S. are altered with scalpels annually, as doctors carve up hermaphroditic organs to make them appear "normal." Sensitive infant nerve tissue is lopped off and discarded; orgasmic ability is often annihilated. Although ethicists and a tiny fraction of physicians question the validity of non-consensual intersex surgery, they're overwhelmed by the vast preponderance of slashers.
Is it ironic that homicidal Colombia is the first nation to categorize Intersex Genital Mutilation as a brutal human-rights violation? Perhaps, but it also makes a certain kind of sense. Having suffered pain, terror and grief in a deeply entrenched and hopelessly complex civil and drug war, maybe Colombians are more willing to outlaw anguish that seems so patently unnecessary, and easy to remedy.
Hank Hyena is a former columnist for SF Gate, and a frequent contributor to Salon.
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Social Security could go broke by 2035, but lawmakers have new ideas to fix it
If policymakers wait too long, solutions to fixing the program may involve politically unpalatable options
Posted Apr 23, 2019 11:28 AM
Doug Sword
@doug_sword
Debt limit talks pick up pace and tax credit bonanza Democrats want to eliminate corporate tax cut but their tax measure avoids it The Democrats’ tax package explained
Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., leaves the Capitol after the final votes of the week on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
There’s nothing like waiting until the last minute — as long as waiting doesn’t make the problem worse.
Therein lies the conundrum facing lawmakers and 2020 presidential candidates when it comes to Social Security, which last year paid out retirement and disability benefits to some 63 million Americans.
[Trump’s latest self-inflicted wound: Medicare cuts]
Social Security’s moment of truth, when the money runs out to pay full benefits, isn’t until 2035, according to the latest official forecast released Monday.
The main Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund would run out of cash a year earlier than that. But the program’s trustees say that if legislation is enacted to raid the far-smaller Disability Insurance fund — which wouldn’t go bust until 2052 under the latest projections — and divert the resources to retirement benefits, it would only buy one extra year.
So once the theoretical combined reserves, which now sit at nearly $2.9 trillion, are depleted in 2035, every current and future beneficiary at that point would be forced to take a 20 percent haircut from what they’d ordinarily receive.
That 16-year lag is a blessing in some ways for the Trump administration and members of Congress, who aren’t facing much pressure to act now to fix the program’s finances. President Donald Trump has shied away from proposing any benefit changes or tax increases to put Social Security on sounder footing, and it’s not a top-tier issue for either the Democratic leadership in Congress or the myriad 2020 presidential candidates from that side of the aisle.
[Democrats Spin McConnell Entitlement Comments Into Political Messaging]
But the Social Security trustees’ findings are also a curse, since if policymakers wait too long, solutions may involve politically unpalatable options such as current retirees absorbing benefit cuts, or hitting working-age Americans with large and sudden tax increases to avoid such cuts.
According to the Census Bureau, by 2030 all of the baby boom generation of Americans will have reached retirement age. One out of every five U.S. residents will be aged 65 or older at that point.
By the trustees’ reckoning, taking action today to fix the programs’ finances for the next 75 years would require either a 22 percent increase in the payroll taxes paid by about 176 million workers and their employers; a 20 percent cut to all scheduled payments for future beneficiaries starting this year; or some combination. Waiting to act until 2035 would require a 29 percent payroll tax increase, 23 percent cut to all benefits for current and future beneficiaries, or a mix of options.
Favored fix?
The legislative fix favored by most of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates currently serving in Congress is spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Sanders’ bill, which has a House companion introduced by Rep. Peter A. DeFazio, D-Ore., would increase both benefits and taxes. It would apply the existing 12.4 percent payroll tax — split equally between workers and employers — to income above $250,000 a year. For 2019, the threshold above which the tax no longer applies is $132,900.
Also Watch: How do conference committees work?
That tax would be paired with a new 6.2 percent tax on investment income for individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples filing jointly earning more than $250,000. The new taxes would eliminate much of the program’s long-term deficit while paying for benefit increases, including increases in the minimum monthly benefit, a more generous cost-of-living adjustment and extending student benefits up to age 22.
According to Social Security’s actuaries, the Sanders-DeFazio bill would push out the date of trust fund depletion to 2071.
Senate co-sponsors include Sanders’ fellow presidential candidates Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts hadn’t signed on as of Monday, but she and Sanders are founding members of the Senate’s “Expand Social Security Caucus,” formed last September.
A competing bill offered earlier this month, from Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, would phase out the current taxable earnings cap over the next seven years while also providing a more generous method of calculating inflationary benefit increases. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., introduced the House version. Their bill, which is co-sponsored by Gillibrand, would extend Social Security solvency until 2053, according to the program’s actuaries.
The only bill currently before Congress that would restore full solvency to the Social Security program over the long haul is also the one that has the best chance of moving in the current session.
Rep. John B. Larson, D-Conn., has introduced legislation that would boost benefits while exempting more of those benefits from tax and set a new minimum benefit for lower-income retirees while applying the payroll tax above $400,000 in earnings and gradually increasing the tax rate to 14.8 percent over the next 24 years.
Larson, who chairs the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, hopes to mark up his bill before the August recess, a spokeswoman said.
While Larson’s bill isn’t expected to advance in the GOP-controlled Senate, simply marking it up in Ways and Means would lay down an important marker to gain traction in the next Congress, should Democrats make electoral gains at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
The measure has 203 House co-sponsors this year, or 86 percent of the Democratic Caucus — including Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts — though no Republican support. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., introduced their chamber’s version of Larson’s bill.
Rosier view
The trustees’ report issued Monday paints a slightly rosier short-term picture than last year’s forecast, showing that over the next six years, more than a million workers eligible for retirement benefits will keep working and put off claiming Social Security.
And a look at the new figures shows that an additional 700,000 people eligible for disability insurance will take a pass, as officials say the booming labor market has enabled more people to discard their disabled status in favor of full-time work.
These are “interesting” developments, but they don’t change the wall that the retirement fund, in particular, is destined to hit without congressional action, said Andrew Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
“This isn’t going to change anybody’s views on Social Security,” said Biggs, who testified before Larson’s subcommittee earlier this year.
While more Americans may work longer, the number of retirement fund beneficiaries is still projected to balloon from 53.5 million to 62 million by 2025. “You’ve got a similar long-term trend ... with the trust fund running out,” Biggs said.
While disagreeing with Larson’s approach because it includes payroll tax increases, Biggs agrees that it is the one proposal on the board that makes the program solvent for the next 75 years.
“The report underscores why it is so important that Congress take action now to prevent cuts from occurring in 2035, by ensuring Social Security is fully funded and strengthened for today’s seniors and future generations,” Larson said in a statement Monday. He said his bill “makes the trust fund sustainably solvent for the rest of this century and beyond.”
But Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., the ranking member on the Social Security subcommittee, drew a line in the sand on tax increases at a panel hearing earlier this month.
“The mission of the Republicans on this subcommittee is to secure benefits without tax increases,” he said. Reed said payroll tax increases in Larson’s bill would, by 2043, amount to $600 for someone making $50,000 annually.
“[W]e’re asking millennials to bear a higher tax increase in a program that they don’t believe is going to be” there when they retire, Reed said.
Conservatives would address the funding problem not by cutting benefits, but certainly by curtailing benefit growth, Biggs said. Conservatives and liberals don’t differ on wanting to secure benefits for lower-income retirees, but disagree on middle- and upper-income recipients, he said.
Both the Larson and Sanders plans, Biggs said, would raise taxes on middle- and upper-income earners while providing the same groups with greater benefits.
But middle- and upper-income earners are already saving for retirement. “All of this to pay higher benefits to people who really don’t need them,” Biggs said.
Topics: budget congressional-affairs democrats house republicans senate social-security Bernie Sanders california Chris Van Hollen Connecticut conservatives Cory Booker democrats Donald J. Trump Elizabeth Warren Executive Branch Florida hawaii House John B Larson Kirsten Gillibrand leadership Maryland Massachusetts Mazie K Hirono media Medicare New Jersey New York oregon Pennsylvania Peter A DeFazio Republicans Richard Blumenthal Richard E Neal Senate SOCP
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Discovery of Monsanto GMO wheat threatens US exports
Reuters / Tomas Bravo © Reuters
The discovery of a Monsanto-created, genetically modified strain of wheat in the US that was never approved by the United States Department of Agriculture has imperiled US exports of a staple world food commodity.
Japanese authorities have already opted to cancel part of a tender offer to buy US western white wheat and have suspended imports of both that variety and feed wheat, Reuters reported on Thursday.
"We will refrain from buying western white and feed wheat effective today," Toru Hisadome, a Japanese farm ministry official in charge of wheat trading, told the agency.
Japan, the biggest buyer of US wheat behind Mexico, will continue buying hard red winter and spring wheat from the US as well as grains from Canada, which are used for the production of bread and noodles.
However, Hisadome said the government has asked US authorities to provide more details of their ongoing investigation and Japan will stop buying the suspended species of wheat until a test kit is developed to identify genetically modified produce.
There is currently no US approved test kit to identify genetically engineered wheat. The USDA has said it is developing a "rapid test" kit.
Other major Asian importers like Korea, China and the Philippines said they were closely monitoring the situation, while the European Union is set to test any incoming shipments, saying it will block any containing GM wheat.
Following the announcement, wheat for July delivery fell 8.25 cents to $6.945 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.
The wheat, created by Monsanto Co., appeared on an 80-acre farm in Oregon in April. On Wednesday, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it had conducted a genetic test on the wheat and found that it was an experimental type created by the US agribusiness giant which had never been approved for sale.
Following the discovery of the GMO wheat, USDA Acting Deputy Secretary Michael Scuse said that state agriculture directors in Oregon, Washington and Idaho are now coordinating a multi-state investigation, and foreign trade representatives in Canada, Mexico and Asia have been contacted.
The USDA has never approved any GMO strain of wheat to be grown in the US, but Monsanto field tested a genetically engineered variety from 1998 through 2005. It was never put into use however, due to global opposition to genetically engineered cereal grains. Wheat remains an exception however, as more than 60 genetically modified crops have been approved for US food and feed supplies.
The top three GMO crops grown in the US are soy, corn and cotton, according to the USDA. Some Eighty-eight perc ent of corn and 93 pe rcent of soybeans grown in the US are genetically modified.
Although the United States produces only 10 percent of world wheat it is consistently the world's biggest wheat exporter. With world trade in wheat greater than for all other crops combined, Wednesday’s findings could dent US export prospects at a time when the USDA is expecting record global production, boosted by a 48 percent hike in Russian output and a 40 percent gain from Ukraine.
However, the USDA says US exports will likely fall 9.8 percent to 25.2 million tons in the year that starts on June 1, Bloomberg reports.
“This is not something we need to see when exports are suffering anyway,” Darrell Holaday, the president of Advanced Market Concepts in Wamego, Kansas, told the New York based agency in a telephone interview. “It’s a negative story during a negative export time, and if the Black Sea keeps getting rain it’s going to be a tough, competitive wheat market.”
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Global march challenges Monsanto's dominance: TIMELINE
Unapproved Monsanto crop found growing in Oregon
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RTД – your guide to the depths of Russia
Published time: 23 Jun, 2011 01:12 Edited time: 23 Jun, 2011 16:20
RT has launched a brand new 24-hour documentary channel bringing you the best of Russia in English
RT has launched a brand new 24-hour documentary channel bringing you the best of Russia in English. The channel was launched on Thursday by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who visited RT’s studio in Moscow.
“Be honest with me. Will it happen the moment I press the button, or is it just a symbolic gesture?” the president asked seconds before the launch. Assured everything was absolutely serious, he added, “Never did such a thing before. Launching now!”
Watch the full video of Dmitry Medvedev launching RTД channel
For over five years, RT has been working on documentary films and series. Dedicated exclusively to the issues inside the world's largest country, RTД will take you on a journey to its farthest ends and wildest corners.
“RTД is definitely a channel for inquiring minds, because that is what we ourselves are,” said Ekaterina Yakovleva, the head of documentary broadcasts at RT. “RT correspondents dug into dusty state archives, rode in the Arctic in dog relays, filmed fierce bears from ten meters away in Kamchatka, rose up to the clouds in a dirigible, lived in Russian monasteries and even prisons, spoke to shamans who on their behalf spoke to the taiga spirits… To sum it all up, we have gathered quite a lot of interesting stories about Russia that we are now ready to share.”
The new channel will be screening unique RT-made documentaries that have received high ratings from industry professionals and gained distinction at the Media Excellence Awards, Omni Awards and have even won a New York Festival prize.
RTД covers a broad range of themes from Russia’s wild nature to the country’s latest technological achievements, from ancient history to the Soviet past, from exploring the country’s eventful social scene and culture to a mini-series of Russian language lessons.
“RTД is not just a guide to the world’s biggest country, but also an English-Russian dictionary. We added a Russian letter Д to the two already familiar ones, RT. And it is no coincidence. English-speaking viewers are given a chance to learn one of the most difficult languages in the world – Russian. After a few video lessons in our “A Little Bit of Russian” section, you will learn how to say hello and goodbye properly, will be able to introduce yourself to someone, make an order at a restaurant, and much more,” Yakovleva added.
RTД has begun broadcasting on June 23.
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RT crew attacked in Athens
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Jul 15, 2019 | Updated: 10:46 AM EDT
Physics & Math
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Inspiring people to make better lifestyle choices -- through isotopes
Staff ReporterJan 24, 2019 04:31 PM EST
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(Photo : ASU) Researchers Amrita Rhoads and Gwyneth Gordon measure isotope ratios in a hair sample to estimate what participants typically ate.
Fitness goals are typically at the forefront of new year's resolutions for many Americans, and a recent study from ASU provides a new way to understand diet and exercise in a more holistic way, and may help us reach those goals.
Geologist and isotope chemist, Gwyneth Gordon of the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development, along with co-author and researcher Amrita Rhoads, recently completed a study using breath and hair to determine metabolism and increase of calories burned during exercise. The surprising results of their study have been published in the journal Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies.
An interdisciplinary approach to metabolism studies
Gordon, who has a background in geology and isotopes, worked with researchers from both the ASU Biodesign Institute and the ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change to develop various methods to measure metabolism rates for this research.
To conduct their study, Gordon and Rhoads recruited female participants who varied in age, body mass index, cultural affiliation, age, and exercise history. For each participant, the researchers measured breath carbon isotopes before and after exercise to document metabolic increases with moderate exercise.
They then compared breath isotope measurements of metabolic increase with a smartphone-enabled indirect calorimeter, called Breezing, developed by ASU's Erica Forzani of the Biodesign Institute.
Participants also kept a log of what they were eating, which the researchers then compared to the analysis of their hair, providing baseline data about past eating habits. For the hair analysis, Gordon consulted with Kelly Knudson, of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, who works on understanding human diet through hair isotopes. "Hair isotopes are typically used to gain an understanding of lifestyles of archaeological populations," explains Gordon. "but the same type of analysis can be used in modern populations as well."
Using these techniques, the researchers found that participants were burning fat when they woke up in the morning, since they had been fasting during sleep. Then, during exercise, they started burning more carbohydrates. This was found for all participants, regardless of what they had eaten.
"Initially, I had assumed that people would start burning fat during exercise," says Gordon. "However, the data was showing the opposite of what we anticipated. The exercise we asked them to do was moderate - well within the US Department of Health guidelines for physical activity - and it wasn't enough to burn through their carbohydrate stores."
In the end, each participant was provided direct feedback about the impact of their exercise on their metabolism. "This is a way to move metabolism research out of the academic laboratory into the life of the average person," says Gordon.
It is the hopes of Gordon and Rhoads that the results of this study will provide a new way to understand diet and exercise in a much more holistic fashion. They have combined techniques from geology, anthropology, and cutting-edge sensors so that people can understand the impact of diet and exercise to manage weight.
People using the Breezing device can understand their personal metabolic response to exercise, and how it changes depending on intensity, type of exercise, recent diet, and over the life course.
"This study represents a vision where people can have detailed information about how their lifestyle choices impact them, personally, in an objective way," says Gordon. "This can inspire people to make better choices."
The researchers also suggest that the analyses used in this study can help optimize all levels of athletic performance, from a middle-aged person who is working their way up to running a 5K to an Army recruit going through basic training. "This kind of research doesn't require a big lab with a treadmill," says Gordon, "just a smartphone and a simple device."
Co-author Rhoads, who is currently a bioengineering major at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, was a student at the Peggy Payne Academy at McClintock High School in Tempe when the research was conducted, and was involved in every aspect of the study. She helped write the grant proposal, conduct the research, analyze the data, and write the research article for publication.
Gordon's next steps are to pursue future funding to build on this research. "I think it's the type of use-inspired research that follows the mission and goals of ASU to work in collaboration with participants, to develop innovative global health solutions, and to work with our local community."
This research was funded by a Seed Grant of the ASU-Mayo Foundation Obesity Solutions program with support from the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.
©2017 ScienceTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science times.
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Containing discoveries heralded as greater than the wheel or fire, Dianetics has remained a bestseller for more than 60 years. And with over 22 million copies in print, generating a movement that spans over 100 nations, it’s indisputably the most widely read and influential book ever written about the human mind.
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The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) Awards Committee have announced the winners of the 2019 HPA Engineering Excellence Award. The winners were selected by a blue-ribbon judging panel after a session held at IMAX on June 22. Honors will be bestowed on November 21 at the 14th annual HPA...
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It’s official: Aspen halfpipe skiers Torin Yater-Wallace, Alex Ferreira will compete at Olympics
Austin Colbert
Local halfpipe skiers Torin Yater-Wallace, front, and Alex Ferreira do a train through the superpipe in Snowmass on Tuesday for practices for the U.S. Grand Prix.
Anna Stonehouse/The Aspen Times |
Aspen athletes confirmed for olympics
Alex Ferreira (halfpipe skiing)
Torin Yater-Wallace (halfpipe skiing)
Simi Hamilton (cross-country skiing)
Chris Corning (slopestyle/big air snowboarding)
Wiley Maple (alpine skiing)
Alice McKennis (alpine skiing)
Noah Hoffman (cross-country skiing)
Aspen’s Torin Yater-Wallace won the first Olympic qualifier in men’s ski halfpipe at Mammoth Mountain in February. This gave him four more chances to earn the second podium to meet the U.S. Ski Team’s objective criteria for the Pyeongchang team next month.
Turns out, getting on that second podium wasn’t so simple.
“In my mind, it was almost like, ‘this should be easy,’” Yater-Wallace said. “‘Just grab another podium.’ When in reality you kind of forget it’s obviously a top-level event and it’s never easy.”
It finally came together Friday, again in Mammoth, where Yater-Wallace took third to make the U.S. Olympic team alongside fellow Aspenite Alex Ferreira and Nevada’s David Wise. The discretionary fourth pick hadn’t been announced as of Sunday evening, but it’s expected to go to Crested Butte’s Aaron Blunck, a 2014 Olympian and the reigning X Games Aspen gold medalist.
Yater-Wallace, also a 2014 Olympian who is widely considered to be one of the best halfpipe skiers on the planet, needed every last run to make the 2018 Winter Olympics. He was a solid fifth at the Copper Grand Prix on Dec. 8, but fifth isn’t a podium. Ditto for Dew Tour in Breckenridge, where he took a strong fourth, one spot off the podium.
The hope was to have it come together at the Snowmass Grand Prix. But Yater-Wallace, fighting a lingering foot injury, failed to make it out of the Jan. 10 qualifying round.
“I was really bummed after that, and not being able to ski in front of my hometown crowd is always unfortunate,” Yater-Wallace said. “But it gave me motivation to go into this past event and put it down when I needed to. I gave my parents a little bit of a heart attack there on the third run of the last event.”
On Friday in Mammoth at the final Olympic qualifier, Yater-Wallace faced uncertainty. His first two runs of finals resulted in scores of 13 and 12.20, leading his Olympic dreams to one final run down the halfpipe.
“I was just wanting to land a run so bad. That was my pure motivation,” Yater-Wallace said. “I’m really happy to walk away from there how I did. I’m extremely thankful to have made it happen on the third run.”
His final run score of 89.20 was good for third place and his second qualifying podium. This means the 22-year-old Yater-Wallace is both nominated and confirmed for his second Olympics.
Nevada’s Wise, the reigning Olympic gold medalist, Yater-Wallace and Blunck went to the 2014 Sochi Olympics together alongside Boulder’s Lyman Currier. Blunck was seventh in Sochi, while the injury-riddled Yater-Wallace and Currier didn’t make finals.
Ferreira was the first-man out for Sochi. He left no doubt this winter, with a win at Dew Tour and second-place finishes in both Snowmass and again last week at Mammoth.
“Now I can just sleep easy. I fully went in there and clinched my spot. I didn’t leave anything up to chance,” Ferreira said. “I’m just blown away it’s actually happening. The three of us are all really good friends, and then Dave is a close friend of mine, as well. It’s crazy to go support your country with your buddies. I think that’s one of the coolest things.”
The 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea officially get underway Feb. 9, although the men’s ski halfpipe qualifiers aren’t until Feb. 20 at Phoenix Snow Park. Finals are Feb. 22, with the closing ceremony scheduled for Feb. 25.
Behind Wise, Canada’s Mike Riddle won silver and France’s Kevin Rolland bronze in 2014, the first year the discipline had been an Olympic sport. All things considered, the Americans believe they’re in position to have a strong showing in Korea.
“It started out as a prediction and it has come true in flying colors — this is the strongest team we have ever put together,” Wise said Saturday during the U.S. team’s news conference in Mammoth. “The hardest part of our job this year is done now. We made the team. It certainly wasn’t easy and it took a lot of dedication.”
Many Aspenites on the Olympic bubble
The remainder of the U.S. Olympic teams will be announced throughout the week, with the U.S. Olympic Committee expected to formally announce Team USA on Friday.
Aspen native Simi Hamilton is qualified for his third Olympics, where he ranks in the top 50 of the World Cup standings among cross-country skiing sprinters. Aspen’s Noah Hoffman, a cross-country distance specialist, is on the bubble. He was a 2014 Olympian, but hasn’t met the objective criteria.
Among the last disciplines to be announced will be the alpine teams, where Aspen’s Wiley Maple is right on the bubble, as well. Considering he wasn’t officially named to the U.S. Ski Team this winter, he’s in a good position to make his first Olympics after finishing in the points during each of his speed races over the weekend in Kitzbuehel, Austria. New Castle’s Alice McKennis, who once trained with the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club, is also on the bubble.
Others with AVSC connections that have already clinched an Olympic team spot are Eagle’s Jake Pates in snowboard halfpipe and Summit County’s Chris Corning in snowboard slopestyle and big air.
“There was a lot of relief with knowing you made the team and you can work on training,” Corning said Saturday during the Mammoth news conference. He sat out both the Snowmass and Mammoth Grand Prix events to heal. “When you’re at each contest there is no time to train.”
Before many of these athletes go to Korea, you can watch them compete in X Games Aspen beginning Thursday at Buttermilk.
acolbert@aspentimes.com
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Uncontrolled intersections
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Sakkare shooting update
Source : SIFY
Last Updated: Mon, Nov 19, 2012 12:22 hrs
The talkie portions of Ganesh and Deepa Sannidhi starrer Sakkare, directed by Abhay Simha and produced under the banner of Media House, is almost complete.
The shooting of the songs is now under progress. One song is presently being picturised in the Kanteerava Studios in a special set. Harsha who is the most popular dance choreographer of Kannada films is choreographing this special song for which Hari Krishna has composed music and Yogaraj Bhat has written the lyrics.
A press meet was also organised during the occasion which saw the presence of the film's two stars Ganesh and Deepa Sannidhi along with Harsha, the film's director Abhay Simha and the two producers B.Suresha and Shylaja Nag. Suman Jadugar who wrote the dialogues for the film was also present.
Producer Suresh said that the major portions of the film have been shot in Madikeri, Bengaluru, Mysore and other places.
"The main strength of the film is Abhay's script and a new combination of two talented artists, Ganesh and Deepa Sannidhi. We have rallied good artists and technicians for this film. Anant Nag, Rajesh Nataranga, Vinaya Prasad, Anu Prabhakar and Achyuth Rao are part of the cast", added Suresha.
Director Abhay Sinha said that the title of the film, Sakkare, means sweetness of love.
Ganesh said that he is happy to play the lead role in a film made by Media House. Ganesh said that the film is a different type of romantic story. "There are many type of love stories. But here the pattern is different. People are sure to notice the changes when the film gets released", said Ganesh.
Deepa Sannidhi, who is working in her fourth film, expressed her happiness to be working with a big star like Ganesh. "The entire team is very good. The whole team works like a family. And I have the best role in the film. I am enjoying this song sequence as Harsha is my favourite choreographer who has worked for all the films I had acted so far in", said Deepa.
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Youtube >
Deacon's Discourse
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Giving Up Stuff for Lent
"What are you giving up for Lent this year?"
This seems to be a question I often hear Catholics asking one another, especially those of the younger generation. There are also times when youth ministers kickstart some sort of campaigns on "giving up something for Lent".
Speaking of Cardinal Burke
I get it. He happens to be a Cardinal who sharply and unapologetically tries to stay as close as possible to what many deem to be "manmade" traditions of the Church, a crony of the previous pope (who, incidentally, a particular bishop -- not my own bishop -- told me in my face should be shot dead because he thought I too was a militant crony of the previous pope), an archaic never-evolving stiff-necked conservative who gives the Catholic Church a bad name. So his removal from the Apostolic Signatura and subsequent transfer to the Order of Malta is interpreted as a sign of the present reigning Monarch of the Church not being in favour of such conservatism.
Francis, My Unbecoming Pope
Pope Francis is the second Supreme Pontiff to whom I have pledged my obedience since my entry into full communion with the Holy Catholic Church. I do not like him. He unsettles me.
I do not like the fact that he refuses to live in his Apostolic Palace, that he dresses down and that he braves through a torrential rain on his pope mobile just to meet the crowd in St Peter's Square during his papal audience. I do not like it at all. Because when he does such things, it shakes the equilibrium of my expectations towards people who are in authority and who are supposed to be personifications of greatness.
I do not like it when he does things that I would not have personally wanted to do had I been the pope. He is... unbecoming of a pope.
Pope Francis Says Atheists Can Be Good
Just do good, and we'll find a meeting point, says Francis in marked departure from Benedict's line on non-Catholics
Atheists should be seen as good people if they do good, Pope Francis has said in his latest urging that people of all religions, and none, work together.
"Let the Little Children Come to Me..."
Habemus Papam Franciskum!
Pope Francis, 267th Supreme Pontiff
It is such a joy when the chimney of the Sistine Chapel emits white smoke and the Vatican bells begin ringing gloriously as a heralding to the world of the fact that the See of Peter is no longer vacant. Once again, we have a pope. But the relief and joy, for those who are keen followers of the papacy, very quickly translates into an instantaneous anxiety over who this new pope is going to be and what he would be like as compared to our popes of the recent past. Will he be as media-friendly as the Blessed John Paul II? Will he be as theologically astute as Pope Benedict XVI? Such disconcerting speculations, amidst others, race through one's mind.
I must admit that my heart skipped a beat when the new Supreme Pontiff appeared at the balcony without the traditional papal mozzetta (there is even a special one made for the Lenten and Advent seasons, but he was not wearing it).
Pope Benedict XVI's Resignation - My Thoughtful Response
I have sometimes wondered to myself if I have truly become Catholic at heart, at an affective level, not just at an intellectual level. Until now.
In April 2005, when Pope John Paul II passed away, I felt like my neighbour's father had passed away. It came with a subtle tinge of melancholy, but not a very heavy heart. I felt, well, sorry at the grief expressed by many Catholic faithful throughout the world, but I shed no tear. The one who had passed away was a very, very good man. But he was "someone else".
Pope Benedict XVI Announces Resignation
Pope Benedict XVI has just announced in a Consistory that he will be abdicating from the Chair of Peter very soon.
It has been more than six centuries since a Pontiff renounced his ministry as supreme and universal shepherd of the Church, and this makes the announcement shocking to many around the world.
Here is the full script of the announcement:
A Catechesis on Apparitions
The past few days have been one of the most sensational seasons in the life of the Catholic Church in West Malaysia. This began since the public sighting of an alleged image of our Blessed Virgin Mary on the window pane of Sime Darby Medical Centre in Subang Jaya.
You can read more about this inconclusive phenomenon here.
The purpose of this post is to provide a little catechesis for all the Catholics who are in touch with this phenomenon either by visiting the site of this alleged apparition or by following news of it through the media. This catechesis also contains the exact answers I gave to the journalist of the Star newspaper who interviewed me on this phenomenon.
The Day I Preached from the Pope's Chair
Well, I didn't exactly sit on the Chair of the Pope when I preached, for "preaching from the Chair" is a liturgical privilege accorded only to the successors of the Apostles. But I was in fact really close to the Chair during the celebration of a Mass with over 60 other pilgrims at the Basilica of St John Lateran on 25 April 2012. I think it was insane that we were given such a significant spot to have our Eucharistic celebration. Nothing can buy such priceless opportunities that come by once in a lifetime.
What was going through my mind? My homily on the day quite summarised what occupied my mental faculties at that celebration. I told the pilgrims that this was IT as far as our journey into the heart of the Church was concerned; one cannot get physically any closer to Mother Church than to be seated right before the Chair of the Bishop of Rome in a Eucharistic celebration. But yet, what does this mean for us all? Because millions of other pilgrims have also stood where we were standing, and perhaps most of them did so with utter ignorance about the significance of the moment
The weblog of the Rev. Deacon Dr Sherman Kuek OFS
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Windows Server 2016: Clouds To The Masses
Alex April 15, 2017 May 5, 2017
Microsoft has released Windows Server server operating system 2016, adding her support containers and new edition Nano Server. Windows Server 2016 developed a few years and in parallel with improving OPERATING SYSTEM is coming out its preliminary version. From October 1, 2016, is the Windows Server product line, consisting of six 2016 publications: WS 2016 Datacenter, Standard, Essentials, MultiPoint Premium Server CALs, Windows Remote Desktop Services CAL 2016.
One of the main directions in the Microsoft Server 2016 was the support of public and private clouds. Many of the innovations in Windows Server 2016 borrowed from Azure and brought to the mainstream level. In Windows Server 2016 also significantly improved Hyper-V hypervisor, adds support for containers and Nano Server-new “stripped-down” version of Windows Server. The goal is still the same native support for cloud-based applications.
In fact, this OS resembles Windows 10 in server performance. The Server uses the same kernel 2016 in Windows 10 Anniversary, and by typing ver at the command prompt, you get the same answer: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]. In Windows Server 2016 — the same start menu in Windows 10 Anniversary (when installing with the Desktop Experience).
What exciting things do you mention? Microsoft is more than 40 new features, including nested virtualization for containers and the Hyper-V deployment of Hyper-V hosts in Azure, or other public clouds. Many of the new Hyper-V tools includes the creation and maintenance of guest VMs.
You can change on the fly the virtual disk capacity, memory, add, and delete the virtual network card. Virtual machines can provide discrete access to devices on the PCIe bus, such as disk controllers. And the cluster of Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V, you can upgrade to Server 2016 without interrupting services.
Of course, some decisions are not cheap, but because it categorized as a mass do not apply. For example, a configuration with two accidents when the different platform Azure systems Stack. Of course, you can run the Azure Stack and on a single server, but rather for testing purposes. However, most of the changes relate to the widest possible range of users.
Updated hypervisor
Numerous improvements to Hyper-V hypervisor has undergone. You can make the following changes:
Hyper-V supports client Windows 10.
Compatible with Connected Standby.
The appointment is for discrete devices.
Virtual machine activity monitoring to optimize system resource usage (RCT).
The use of alternative accounts when connecting to another Windows Server 2016.
The updated Protocol management and other improvements.
It has support for nested virtualization (Nested virtualization) that allows you to run virtual machines on a hypervisor, which itself set in a virtual environment.
This virtual machine can be relevant to developers and simulation of virtual infrastructures, as well as for more practical use of the container application. Eliminated and many previous restrictions.
Now Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machine allows you to allocate up to 12 Tb of RAM (instead of one) and up to 240 virtual processors (instead of 64). Your Hyper-V supports up to 24 TB of RAM. To reduce wasteful loss and hardening to a Hyper-V host, you can run the Nano Server. For the Administration, in this case, you can use PowerShell and remote access.
In Windows Server 2016 received further development of security mechanisms. In particular, in a separate container called Hyper-V Virtual Security Module (VSM) placed the most valuable system data, cryptographic modules Windows Server 2016, the components responsible for the integrity of the kernel, passwords, etc. You cannot access this data even when the system compromised.
Another important tool is a virtual TPM (Trusted Platform Module), which allows you to use virtual machines by using the BitLocker encryption capabilities, Credential and Guard for safe storage identification data. Application of Virtual TPM especially true, for example, when placing the VMS in the cloud.
Impressive security solution steel protected, virtual machines — Shielded VM, but for their creation requires Windows Server Datacenter and a separate server running Host Guardian Service for storage of keys and the VM to run on a particular platform.
The technology of Shielded VM allows you to create the cloud protected. Virtual machines can access only their owner. The administrator is only authorized to enable or disable such virtual machines. Interfere with their work, read, intercept traffic, change their configuration it has no law. The VM can be Shielded mechanism demanded by hosting providers that provide services of renting virtual servers.
The ability to connect a virtual display to the VM tools that Hyper-V VM Shielded also blocked. How to fix VM, if something went wrong, and it will not start? In this case, Microsoft offers a solution to run such a contraption VM Shielded inside another VM. When you create a Shielded VM, you must also take into account that the requirements for system resources they have increased.
Superior PowerShell provides more accessible and comprehensive control over Wednesday, which significantly enhances the level of security of the scheme. One of the key security features is administering access rights.
In Windows Server 2016 also appeared tool called Just Enough Administration (JEA). This (JEA) means that administrators can log in under brief accounts, limited to certain roles. That is, the administrator, logging in with infected PC, will not cause much damage. The Windows Credential Guard also limits the possible damage from malware in this scenario. Temporary administration rights (Just in Time Administration) you can provide using Microsoft Identity Manager Privileged Access Manager.
Data storage and Networking-Software Defined
As is known, in the Window Server Storage Spaces by 2012 to create a fault tolerant memory pool on SAS drives connected to the server without the assistance of traditional SAN (Storage Area Network). Storage Spaces Direct gives you the ability to directly connect to the Cluster Server 2016 drives SAS, SATA or SSD. You can use this to create a software-configurable storage system (Software-Defined Storage, SDS).
Added the ability to dynamically manage virtual disks Storage bandwidth, Quality of Service (QoS). Storage QoS policies can apply to both the disk subsystem separate virtual machine and VM group.
Using Storage administrators Replica tools can replicate data between remote servers, clustered systems, and data centers, thereby increasing their disaster recovery and preventing losses at the file system level.
To support SDN (Software Defined Networking) in the Server role added 2016 Network Controller. The network controller designed for managing Hyper-V virtual switches, load balance, the rules of virtual firewalls and gateways. VXLAN are also supported (Extensible Virtual Local Area Network).
Nano Server is a more compact version of Server Core. It is convenient to use as a host system to deploy virtual machines, use as a DNS server or IIS to run the applications in containers.
According to Microsoft, the Nano Server on 93% less than the size of the VHD, it requires 80% fewer reboots. Such a system can use for various special functions and tasks. With Nano Server works as on a physical server and VMS. It has no GUI-only tools Sysinternals.
Nano Server convenient to also use Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure Platform to support the cloud services and service applications in a virtual environment, or on physical servers. It can be used to deploy the compute clusters and build horizontally scalable file storage.
An important difference between Windows Server 2016 from previous versions of Microsoft server operating systems support technologies. Windows Server containers are part of the open source project Docker. They allow you to run applications in isolated Wednesday on different platforms, deploy rapidly and move them between servers.
Windows supports two types of containers — containers and containers of Windows Server Hyper-V. Lightweight server containers do not require a Windows license. Windows Server containers operate like Docker containers for Linux platform. They share the operating system kernel, which makes them more compact and flexible than conventional virtual machines.
Windows Server containers share OS resources but behave as independent operating system instances. Wednesday, however, Windows Server, you cannot run the Linux container and vice versa. Container to run his image comes from the repository (public or private) and, if necessary, modified.
Hyper-V separate containers Virtualization Tools have their copy of the Windows kernel, and the Standard Edition license for them no needed. Such containers have a higher isolation level, compared to the virtual machines. This approach is more demanding to resources on the server, but the server OS improves stability and reliability of containers.
Managed both containers in the same way. Office containers, Windows Server, and Hyper-V can be carried out both using PowerShell and WMI and Docker tools. The latter provide a centralized administration Wednesday and allow you to control container applications in Windows Server or Linux Wednesday.
A good option for deployment containers — Nano Server. However, it should remember that Nano Server is a stripped-down Windows. If IIS, for example, it works, the.NET Framework is already there (the only cross-platform.NET Core). Not all applications are currently compatible with Nano Server.
Docker Windows in containers far initially. Take time for their administrators have mastered, and developers brought to mind. Microsoft will also need to replenish the relevant options available tools like Visual Studio.
In Windows Server implemented in 2016 and a host of other innovations. The system has a new mechanism for downloading and distributing updates, operating on the principle of peer-to-Peer BitTorrent protocol, SSH protocol support. Windows Server 2016 comes with Windows Management Framework 5.1 and a new version of PowerShell, using.NET Framework 4.6.
Updated Windows PowerShell allows you to operate more cmdlets (cmdlets) that perform different management tasks. In particular, PowerShell cmdlets for managing offers five local users and groups and Get-ComputerInfo for detailed information about the system.
Innovation and Active Directory services. You can now use smart cards for evaluation keys. Active Directory domain services (AD DS) provide an even higher level of security when identifying corporate and personal devices.
A new virtual machine configuration file format (. . VMCX FILE and. VMRS) with a greater degree of protection from crashing at the storage level, adds the ability to download guest operating systems securely, Linux and OpenGL and OpenCL foreign service Desktop Remote Desktop Service (RDS).
The host OS update mechanism of the cluster without stopping (the Operating System Cluster Rolling Upgrade) with zero downtime to update cluster consistent updates its separate nodes.
The Windows Server IP Toolkit also includes 2016 Address Management (IPAM), allows you to simplify the management of IP addresses. Of course, all the innovations of the new OS in one article it is impossible to tell, and this is only a very sketchy “first look.”
Windows Server editions 2016
How many versions of the Windows Server 2016? Good question. The above mentioned six. There are Standard Edition and Datacenter, different licensing schemes.
The standard includes licenses for only two VMS or containers under Hyper-V Windows Server, whereas the number of VM Datacenter is not limited. Datacenter version will need to work with some new tools, including Storage Spaces Direct Storage Replica, Shielded Virtual Machine, and some networking functions. The Standard Edition of worth $882. To 16 cores. Datacenter will cost at least $6155.
The following are features that are only in the editions of Windows Server Datacenter 2016:
Storage Spaces Direct-expansion technology Storage Spaces to create highly available clustered storage;
Replica storage is a technology block replication of data between repositories;
Shielded Virtual Machines — content protection technology, Hyper-V virtual machines;
Host Guardian Service is a server role that is designed to support secure virtual machines (VM Shielded) and prevent unauthorized access;
Network Fabric is a centralized monitoring and management of network infrastructure;
Microsoft Azure Stack — support SDN stack to build hybrid solutions.
Nano Server licensed as Windows Server, but require Software Assurance license instead of the base and not sold separately. There are free Windows Hyper-V Server that is used only as a Hyper-V host, as well as the version of Windows Server Essentials for small businesses up to 25 users and 50 devices for which you do not need CALs (Client Access Licenses). Essentials worth $501, but there are cheaper OEM versions. OEM versions of Windows Server Foundation no longer supplied.
There are a couple of special editions: Windows Storage Server for storage systems and Multipoint Premium Server, mostly for remote desktops in education. Standard Edition and Datacenter by default installed without GUI (the Server Core option).
It can note that Windows Server 2016 provides many opportunities for full deployment and operations of its infrastructure in the cloud. New OS makes it easy to access and identify the services and applications of the organization if they placed and in the cloud, and on physical servers. Microsoft Server platform has developed by industry trends and business preferences. Much work done, the system is moving in the right direction. Check the functioning of Windows Server can be 2016, taking the virtual VPS server on the free trial period three days.
15 Principles of Hyper-V Security What’s new in Active Directory in Windows Server 2016! New Features of Veeam Agent 2.0 for Microsoft Windows How to Set Up Your Own IPv6 Server Just In 10 Minutes
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The Metaprogramming In Production On Python Part 1
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Blog Gilbertson stood out on biggest stage of SHS basketball lore
Gilbertson stood out on biggest stage of SHS basketball lore
1970 SHS BASKETBALL STATE CHAMPIONS: Kneeling in front, left to right, co-captains Jerry Ingalls and Doug Love and trainer Rod Reed; back row, manager Rick Gandee, Craig Clayton, Mark Williams, Evan Thomas, Gordon Taylor, Tom Poier, Randy Recor, Bob Wahlstrom, Tom Bannwarth, Ben Krause, head coach Jack de Kubber, Steve Kirstein and assistant coach Keith Gilbertson. Not pictured is manager Don Greiert. (Tribune photo)
Although he was never a head coach in basketball at Snohomish, Keith Gilbertson Sr. still had a profound effect on Panthers hoops over the past five decades.
For 30 years, Gilby coached boys basketball as the junior varsity coach and varsity assistant under head coaches Jack de Kubber, Jim Adams and, for one year, George Fowler (1992). He joined de Kubber’s staff in 1966 and within five years helped produce four consecutive Northwest AA League championships and as many state postseason berths, culminating in the Panthers’ lone state title to date in 1970 in what was also Snohomish’s transition year to the Class AAA ranks.
Keith Gilbertson, second from right, watches SHS basketball action from the bench next to head coach Jack de Kubber in the mid-1970s. (SHS photo)
Gilbertson’s role as jayvee coach warrants particular notice, as he took the lead in developing nearly all the future varsity talent from 1966 thorough 1981. His 1969 jayvee bunch went 20-0 and supplied three junior starters for the state titlists the following year.
“Keith and I spent more time together off the court than on the court,” de Kubber said in 1993 in a letter supporting Gilby’s nomination to the SHS Hall of Fame. “We spent many hours preparing and planning, watching super-8 film during weeknights and most anytime Saturdays and/or Sundays. I would give him or he would come up with ideas, especially on offense, on which he would spend many hours with X’s and O’s, always keeping the players’ capabilities in mind.
“He not only prepared sophomores and juniors for the varsity, but he would spend time before, during and after practice with the varsity kids, making them better.”
The coaching took place both on and off the court, according to Jerry Ingalls, co-captain of the 1970 Panthers. And Gilby’s presence perhaps had no bigger impact than on the grandest stage ever for SHS hoops.
“I have many memories of Coach G coaching. From the moments he spent instructing me and others before practice began to afterwards when he might take you aside to inquire to personal matters that were affecting attitude on the court,” said Ingalls, now a building contractor and farmer in Hawaii.
“But I think if there were one memory to share it was at halftime of the high school championship game. We had overcome an early deficit and were back in the game. Maybe it was because we were underdogs, but there seemed to be an almost celebratory atmosphere in the locker room and a lot of cheerleading that went on – for what I thought too long – without direction. Coach G was given the floor, and when he did he didn’t smile and applaud us. He picked up a piece of chalk and began to draw up a plan for the second half. For me, it was the steady voice that helped us focus on the target.”
The second half and overtime periods of the game can be viewed here – special thanks are due Coach Jack de Kubber who tracked down the film and Michael Edwards who digitized and posted it.
After retiring as a teacher in 1981, Keith Gilbertson Sr., left, continued to coach the SHS boys basketball team as a varsity assistant for head coach Jim Adams, right, while George Fowler, front, took over as junior varsity coach. (SHS photo)
After the state championship game, while team members basked in glory at a townwide victory celebration, Gilbertson avoided the spotlight, slipping off to solitude and reflection on the SHS football practice field.
“I just wanted to get away by myself to savor the moment,” he later said.
Ingalls savors the small things about Gilbertson’s coaching style.
“It wasn’t while I played and was taught by Coach G, but later when exposed to other coaches and environments that I realized his special attention to details of the individual athlete. He didn’t generalize,” Ingalls said. “He took the time to study the individual and give support to the drills that would benefit that person. The smallest details could later be manifested in a quicker step to the basket, or better position for a rebound or a more secure inbounds pass or the confidence to make a free throw.
“I only saw Coach G a couple of times in the past decades, but the lessons I learned from him have lasted longer than the ability to be a good athlete. Often, and sometimes daily, his message of the value of character has continued to guide my better judgement. Every challenge I face, I am reminded of his determination to instill confidence in us all through success as a student/athlete.”
Snohomish also won its first Wesco hoop title under de Kubber and Gilbertson in 1977. Gilby then joined Adams’ staff and remained through the 1994-95 season, helping Adams’ 1985 and 1987 squads earn fifth-place finishes at the state tournament. He then began coaching girls hoops.
In Gilby’s last season as boys jayvee coach in 1980-81, the team went 19-1. The next year, his first as a volunteer assistant after his retirement from classroom teaching , he suffered a mild stroke but missed only five weeks and returned to help coach the Panthers in the postseason.
Like so many before him, Adams considered Gilbertson a role model and an inspiration.
“I doubt there is a coach anywhere who is more dedicated to kids than Keith Gilbertson,” Adams wrote in 1993 in another letter to the SHS Hall of Fame selection committee. “In addition to the countless hours he spends in direct contact with the young athletes, he also spends even more time communicating with former players by letter and telephone calls. He cares about the young people after they have put in their time at Snohomish High School. He has a remarkable ability to recall events of past years, which is further indication of his total and complete commitment to the athletes he has worked with through the years.”
To show your support for the Keith Gilbertson Sr. Memorial Scholarship endowment, click here.
Two views of coach Keith Gilbertson Sr. during a Snohomish junior varsity basketball game, reacting to action on the floor, left photo, and contemplating his next move. (SHS photos)
Keith Gilbertson Sr. Timeline
"Inspirational" Gilby Won 10 Letters in Four Sports at SHS
Gilbertson a difference-maker for Panthers, even in his 80s
Gilbertson’s SHS football legacy: 389 wins and a lifetime of support
Gilbertson left a remarkable record as track and cross county coach
Coach GilbertsonGeorge FowlerGilbyJack de KubberJerry IngallsJim AdamsKeith Gilbertson Sr.Snohomish basketball
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Law Surrounding Counterfeits in Dubai & UAE
Who’s Fooling Whom? Combating Counterfeits: The UAE Context
Published on : June 2016
Author(s):Abd El Ghany
“If buyers wish to be snobs, the law will protect them in their snobbery. i”
Consumer industry is demanding and precisely so when it relates to high-end luxury at a fraction of the retail cost. One would be only foolish to not take a sprint for runway luxury at a plausible price. The hard sell tactics are a common site in the ‘special’ alleys better known for the ‘best buys’ of popular luxury brands. In the dictionary of lawyers, these best buys are known as counterfeit goods and no matter how lucrative it may sound- dealing with them is a punishable offense.
Three brisk warning from a lawyer in the similar field could possibly be- i) the health warning- the goods may be genuinely hazardous in many instances, especially fake leather or even more? Fake medicines ii) the moral warning- counterfeit goods have the indirect yet noteworthy effect on jobs of many, loss of profit for the owners iii) the third and most important- legal warning – counterfeiting goods is illegal, in most if not all jurisdictions.
Counterfeit items consistently find novel means and ways to knock off their rivals – the pure, expensive and originals. Earlier traditional boundaries were limited to small-time retailers and grey markets but the internet has opened a plethora of opportunity for counterfeits. This increased prevalence in the online and offline marketplace has had a severe impact on both macros as well as micro levels. A challenge for illegal traders is that counterfeit goods in large quantities cannot enter countries unless they are illegally smuggled. Counterfeit goods strain economies and waste scarce resources. Markets are flooded with forged goods, evading payments of customs and fees owed to the state. In return, the state loses a portion of its income. Such goods are not of the same quality as that of original goods. They get damaged quickly without achieving the purpose and drain customers’ money to waste. If the damage resulting from counterfeit products is limited to the physical losses, it may be rectified but the main issue involves counterfeits of food, medicine, cosmetics and auto spare parts that if not produced according to specific provisions and may cause injury or death.
Across borders, state machinery has gained momentum in countering counterfeit goods trade practices. In addition to distinct state legislation, the multinational treaty like Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has gained significance. In a media statement, the Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection (CCCP) official in Dubai stated that in a drive against counterfeit goods, they confiscated 3.5 million counterfeit goods in 2015. The United Arab Emirates boasts of streamlining principle legislation by way of enforcement machinery to combat counterfeit goods. In principle, this is possible in light of the following laws:
I. Federal Law Number 4 of 1979 on Combating Fraudulence and Cheating in Trading Dealings regulates commercial cheating crimes and its penalties. Article 1 punishes anyone who cheated or began cheating the contracting party. Article 2 criminalizes everyone who cheated, began cheating or sold food, medical drugs, agricultural products, natural products or any other material. The article stresses punishment if the substances are harmful to health. Article 3 criminalizes anyone possessing such goods. Article 4 prohibits importing anything cheated. The law grants the Minister of Economy and Commerce the right to destroy such products at the importer’s cost if s/he does not re-export them to their source by a set date. Article 6 states that officers assigned to such crimes must prove to breach of the Fraudulence and Cheating Law. Articles 7-13 address procedures in order to establish if the crimes committed violated the provisions of law and its measures.
II. Federal Law Number 37 of 1992 concerning Trademarks defines a trademark as any sign or indication set by a merchant, manufacturer, or service owner in order to distinguish their products from others. The law criminalizes counterfeiting, forging, and exacting of trademarks and regulates the registration of trademarks, transfer of ownership, mortgage of trademarks, contracts licensing the use of trademarks, and trademarks allocated for the Control or Inspection of Certain Products. The Dubai Court of Cassation in Case 114 of 2008 heard on 9 September 2008 has held that{[1]:-
"The imitation of a trademark is the fabrication of a mark similar in its overall appearance to the original trademark, to a degree sufficient to mislead the consuming public to whom such marks are directed, and causing them to confuse between the original brand and the counterfeit. The purpose of a trademark is to be a means of distinguishing a specific commodity or goods so as to remove any confusion between them, and so that the public will not be confused and misled. That purpose is achieved by the difference between marks that are used in distinguishing a particular commodity or goods when confusion between them is removed, and the consuming public is not misled and confused."
III. Federal Law Number 18 of 1981 amended by Law No. 14 of 1988 concerning Organizing Trade Agencies Article 1 defines a Trade Agency as “a representation of the principal by an agent for the purpose of distribution, selling, display, or rendering of a commodity or service.” The law requires registration of the commercial agency in the Ministry of Economy and Commerce.
IV. Federal Law Number 24 of 2006 concerning Consumer Protection defines a consumer as anyone who attains any goods/services in order to satisfy personal or others' needs. The law obliges the supplier to return or replace any goods in instances of any defects discovered by the consumer, provided that the return and replacement are pursuant to the law. Regarding advertising, “the supplier shall not offer, present, promote, and advertise any defect, fake, damaged, or misleading goods/services that may harm the consumer.” Article 8 emphasizes the necessity to record goods’ prices where “the supplier shall display the price in a clear way or in a clear place over the goods’ shelves.” The consumer may obtain a dated invoice that includes the type and price of the good along with any other information specified in the Executive Order of this law. Concerning services provided by the supplier, Article 13 stipulates that “the services provider shall warrant the consumer a period of time that matches the nature of the service, otherwise the service provider shall either remit the amount paid by the consumer or shall provide the service again in the proper way. The Executive Order of this law specifies the warranty period according to the type of service.”
Recently, the Federal National Council approved a drafted federal law concerning commercial cheating which extends to free zones as well. The draft law defines commercial cheating as the import, export, manufacture, sale, storage, lease, marketing, and dealing with counterfeited goods, announcement unreal discounts, hiring commercial ads for misleading promotion, and promoting counterfeited goods/services. The penalties include imprisonment and fines up to one million dirhams.
The Court of Cassation in Dubai established principles on combating commercial fraud, ruling that malafide intentions must be proven to establish such acts as crimes; good intentions are initially assumed until otherwise proven. A provision refers to Article 5 of the Law No. 4 of 1979, which prohibits merchants, manufacturers, or producers to do the following:
knowingly use a counterfeit trademark
all actions that cause confusion between competitors’ names, products, or industrial or commercial activities.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are preparing to prohibit importation of all electrical supplies with low quality or cheap materials that do not meet the required entry conditions or threaten consumer safety. The GCC has agreed to adopt a unified list of all electrical supplies that will not be imported including refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, and heaters that are harmful to the environment. Approvals will only be granted to importers negotiating products with high-quality and specific provisions. Within six months, regulatory authorities prepare to commence intense market campaigns to withdraw products that violate regulations. Financial penalties will be imposed on the violating parties.
In order to minimize and possibly eradicate counterfeit products, its combat must consist of legislations accompanied by media awareness, written and spoken. Consumer guides should be provided, outlining how to distinguish between original products and their counterfeits and further emphasize the importance of dealing with reliable shops and sources. This will not only preserve the value of money spent by the consumer, but will also protect health and life.
[1] A similar decision was passed by Dubai Court of Cassation in Case number 242 of 2009 heard and decided on 29 December 2009
[i] Benton Announcements Inc. v. FTC, 130 F.2d 254, 254 (2d Cir. 1942) (Per Curiam) through Robert Pfeffer, 'Who's Fooling Whom: An Economic Analysis of Expressive Trademark Use'; Volume 6, Number 1, 2006, Wake Forest Intellectual Property Journal
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STA (the Firm) represents a group of internationally qualified counsels. STA Law Firm Limited is a company incorporated pursuant to Abu Dhabi Global Market Companies Regulations. STA Legal Consultants FZC is incorporated pursuant to applicable federal and local laws of Ras Al Khaimah.
The Firm operates in other jurisdictions through its affiliates and associated offices. The Firm has a presence across the UAE and its branch in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (regulated by Abu Dhabi Judicial Department). The Firm’s trademark and intellectual property is assigned in favor of the affiliates for all purposes in accordance with the assignment agreement. Firm’s Luxembourg and Moscow offices are regulated by the jurisdictional regulations.
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Amanda Bynes One Of GQ’s “Least Influential” People Of 2012
By Charley Been on November 28, 2012 in editorial
Amanda Bynes has been named one of GQ Magazine’s Least Influential People of 2012 in their famous spoof list.
The magazine is playing off of Barbara Walters’ annual list of the top 10 fascinating people by releasing a list of 25 “uninspiring” people for the year.
Bynes’ string of legal drama has landed her a spot on the list, along with some other big names including Madonna, who has made waves of headlines after stripping became a regular part of her MDNA tour.
Others to make the list include Olympian Ryan Lochte, Gotye, former Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and even First Lady Michelle Obama!
She did ruin school lunches after all!
Amanda Bynes, Barbara Walters, GQ, Least Influential, Michelle Obama, Mitt Romney
Adele’s “21” Surpasses 10 Million Sold
Charlie Sheen Blames Chuck Lorre For Angus T. Jones Rant, Calls Show Cursed
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