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Chicago's Most Elite Lounges and Bars
Curio photo via Michigan Avenue magazine.
From Brendan Sodikoff's Inglorious Basterds-inspired lounge on the lower-level of Gilt Bar to The Office—Chicago's most impossible bar to gain access to—I check out the absolute best hidden bars in the city for Michigan Avenue magazine.
'The Headgear' & Other Burning Questions Answered By The Moto Guys
Moto's Chris Jones. (Photo: Moto)
"I had a very angry streak to me when I first started at Moto," Top Chef contestant Chris Jones tells Metromix. "Moto's a very calm restaurant. We don’t yell, we don’t scream, we don’t fight, we don’t kick. And I did all of those things, so what I started doing is ... wearing some sunglasses on my head ... . It made me feel like I was back on a beach."
That answers the burning question everyone has about "what's up with all the headgear" Jones and his co-worker and former Top Chef competitor Richie Farina sport every week on Bravo's wildly popular culinary show.
Farina adds: "As far as the bandanas and pencils and armbands and all that stuff goes, that's what we wear every day. It wasn’t just stuff for the TV show."
MMX also asked about what they really thought about the unprecedented number of chefs from one city competing on the show:
A Sneak Preview of Bar Toma
Bar Toma's unique Mozzarella Bar. (Photos: 312 Dining Diva)
We slipped into the friends-and-family event Sunday for Bar Toma—it opens today!—and boy was it a scene.
The casual Italian resto helmed by Spiaggia's award-winning Tony Mantuano attracted a number of heavy hitters and newsmakers, namely current Top Chef contestants Heather Terhune (Sable Kitchen & Bar) and Sarah Grueneberg (Spiaggia). The two confessed to 312DD that they've become good friends since appearing on the culinary-driven reality show.
But they didn't come to talk about the show, they came to chow down like everyone else on Mantuano's take on authentic Italian casual fare. Most of the items on the menu were offered that night, so we had the opportunity to check out a number of dishes.
All Eyes On These Fries Around Town
Leopold's lip-smacking, Belgian-style Poutine de Merguez comes with mounds of Nordic Creamery cheese curds and house-made bratwurst. (Photo: Leopold)
I know you just came off an extended weekend of indulging in turkey, stuffing and all the pumpkin pie you could stuff down your face, but the holiday season is only beginning. So just give in, man.
One way to celebrate the next few weeks is by chowing down on the most delicious fries in the city. But not just any fries—we're talking fries that eat like a meal.
From the Pig Face Poutine at Lincoln Park's newest cocktail lounge, Barrelhouse Flat, to sweet potato fries dipped in goat cheese fondue at Uncommon Ground, you'll find the best list of suppery spuds at DiningChicago.com.
Bleeding Heart Now Offering Cocktails, Dinner
Michelle Garcia of Bleeding Heart Bakery (Photo: Bill Lambert)
The new Bleeding Heart Bakery & Cafe's ambitious concept of staying open 57 straight hours 7am Friday-4pm Sunday didn't quite take off, so they've made a few changes.
One of the reasons, according to one of the late-night servers, is because too many dishes felt like breakfast items. On a recent Friday night visit, there were eggs in almost everything, including the fish tacos. The dining room at the West Town spot was also empty.
So the diner menu has been completely revamped and the weekend hours have been cut back 7am-11pm Friday and Saturday.
Here's the newly released menu that's full of dinner-focused items, plus they've added a Mimosa and Bloody Mary to the previously non-alcoholic beverage list.
The Slurping Turtle Opens Nov. 28
Takashi Yagihashi's ramen noodles photo via rachelleb.com
We're pretty enthusiastic fans of Penny's Noodle Shop and Zen Noodles & Sushi, so we've been waiting pretty anxiously for the opening of The Slurping Turtle.
That's Takashi Yagihashi's trendy spot that's finally debuting Nov. 28 in River North. We're expecting big things from the Michelin-starred chef, so we've been stalking the menu in preparation.
Sprout Team To Open Lakeview Spot in 2012
The Sprout kitchen team includes Executive Chef Dale Levitski (second from right) and sous chef Sara Nguyen. (Photo: Sprout)
In October, Sprout's Dale Levitski told 312DD that he was looking to open a second location.
Thursday, he revealed to the Chicago Tribune that the new restaurant is going to be a French-American bistro called frog n snail in Lakeview:
"(Levitski) describes it as French classics with Midwestern sensibilities, with touches of his Eastern European roots. It’ll be a return to roots of sorts, the sort of food he was cooking at Andersonville’s La Tache.
'It’s not a concept that’s reinventing the wheel,' he said. 'My neighborhood needs a French-American bistro.'
'Best Mixologist,' 'Best New Restaurant' Categories Added To Banchet Awards
Josh Pearson of Sepia; Lynn House of Blackbird.
The 15th annual Grand Chefs Gala happens Jan. 27, and one of the highlights will be the Jean Banchet Awards ceremony, which rewards top talent on the local dining scene. But new this year are the "Best Mixologist" and "Best New Restaurant" categories, which should be hotly contested races.
Also new was that for the first time in the award's 11-year history, the nomination process was opened to the public through online voting. The winners will be chosen by all nominees as well as the chefs that participate in the 2012 Grand Chefs Gala.
Here are the nominees:
Something To Hop About . . .
Those into the beer scene will appreciate these events pairing suds with supper (or brunch):
Lincoln Park newcomer 2 Sparrows has already garnered rave reviews for breakfast and lunch, so now they're delving into dinner with the launch of a monthly beer series.
The plan is to highlight prominent breweries throughout the Midwest, and pairing the beers with seasonal and locally sourced dishes from Executive Chef Gregory Ellis. The event debuts Dec. 9 with Finch's Beer Co., with reps from the Chicago-based small-batch brewery on hand to co-host the evening. The event is $60 per person, and reservations can be made at 6, 6:30 and 7pm.
Here's what guests will get:
Country pate and pork rilette (paired with Finch's Cutthroat Pale Ale)
Scallop with crispy pig trotter (Finch's Golden Wing Blond Ale)
Porchetta with a Sunny-Side Egg (Finch's Threadless IPA)
Malted Crepes with blueberry mascarpone (Finch's Smoked Honey Dunkelweiss)
Two more events you don't want to miss:
Big Star vs. Perennial Virant!
Big Star's "Justin Cased" hot dog is on the menu at Franks 'n' Dawgs through November. (Photo: Big Star)
Even more big news for Big Star.
The red-hot taco spot's going head-to-head with Perennial Virant this month in Franks 'n' Dawgs' Iron Dawg Competition. Each restaurant's executive chef has created a signature hot dog, and the one that sells best wins bragging rights.
Happy Anniversary, Big Star!
Tacos from Big Star (Photo: Grant Kessler)
They've got a solid taco menu, dirt-cheap whiskey shots and Honky Tonk tunes to get that head nodding.
That'll be Big Star, which celebrates its second anniversary Wednesday with a blow-out bash.
For the occasion, Three Floyds takes over all the taps, and will feature all their products including the hard-to-get Zombie Dust. Other deals include $2 shots, $2 tacos and a t-shirt designed by artist Tony Fitzpatrick. Oh yeah. Somehow they're squeezing deejays in the mix.
My advice: Get there early . . .
Have a Stress-Free Holiday
If you're like me, you absolutely love holidays like Thanksgiving, but you don't love the idea of cleaning up.
Now, if you're lucky, you'll manage to get yourself invited to someone's house who doesn't mind the cooking and cleaning, but you still have to bring something. That's why I decided to add a few tips on some of the best spots to pick up an item or two.
Or, if you decide to dine out at one of the many restaurants actually open on Turkey Day, I've got you covered there, too.
'Bartender of the Year' Poll Turns Ugly
Eater Chicago launched its second-annual Eater Awards Monday, and boy did it get ugly this time around in the comments section.
Things were pretty routine in categories like Restaurant of the Year and Chef of the Year, but when the poll for Bartender of the Year went live, the comments were so nasty and personal that Eater editor Ari Bendersky had to shut them down in less than 24 hours.
The issue, according to many of the commenters who work in the industry, was that they felt that some of Chicago's best bartenders had been snubbed. Of note were Paul McGee (The Whistler), Josh Pearson (Sepia), Matty Eggleston (Perennial Virant) and Ben Schiller (Boka Restaurant Group)—who actually won last year's contest.
There was also strong opposition against a few of the bartenders who made the list, but hey, it's Eater's poll so they can pick whomever they want.
Who Makes The Best Manhattan in Town?!
Anyone who knows me well knows that you'll make me happy if you put a well-crafted Manhattan in front of me.
That's why I'm bummed that I'll miss the Woodford Reserve Manhattan Experience going down 7pm Monday at Quay.
Guests (it's open to the public for free; RSVP here) will be treated to expertly prepared Manhattans created by some of Chicago's top bartenders, including the likes of Drew Goss (West Town Tavern), Tim Williams (Pour Souls) and Kris von Dopek (Duchamp). But these guys aren't just doing it for fun; they're competing for the chance to go up against a number of mixologists from across the country at the finals in New York.
Padma Recaps 'Top Chef,' More
"Top Chef" judges Tom Colicchio (from left), Padma Lakshmi and Hugh Acheson. (Photo: Bravo)
Other than aria's Beverly Kim joining the five other Chicago chefs as one of the official competitors on Top Chef Texas (whew! and yay!), the second episode was pretty uneventful for our homeboys and girls.
But here's a recap from the show's host/judge Padma Lakshmi, who also tells the chefs about the next challenge that has to do with Mother Effin' Snakes . . .
Hot Chef News You Can Use
Chefs Curtis Duffy (left) and Takashi Yagihashi.
This may sound like a minor thing to you, but when you're a chef with as much clout as former Avenues chef de cuisine Curtis Duffy, it's pretty major.
He tells 312DD that after four grueling months, he's finally settled on a chair for his new restaurant that's scheduled to open in the West Loop next spring. That's right, a chair.
The award-winning toque wouldn't divulge details, but if it took this long to find one, that means it's going to be one helluva chair. He's getting 90 of them custom made, which means they will be ready by the time the restaurant debuts.
Duffy's still keeping a tight lid on the restaurant's name and location, and says that he'll be ready to make a big announcement right after Thanksgiving.
Next Up: Glazed and Infused
Scott Harris (Mia Francesca's, The Purple Pig, Davanti Enoteca and quite a few more restaurants) is now tossing his hat in the doughnut ring, according to a tweet from Chicago magazine's Penny Pollack:
"Mid Jan, Scott Harris joins the doughnut fray & the Fulton Mkt crowd w/Glazed and Infused. Counter, couches, wi-fi, & still 'secret' coffee."
Best Impress-Your-Date Food?!
Japonais' sushi. (Photo via Japonais)
Here's something to hold everyone's attention as they wait on pins and needles for Chicago's second-annual Michelin Bib Gourmand Restaurants to be released Wednesday.
Seamless just announced the winners of the 2011 CRAVED Restaurant Awards, with 15 Chicago spots specializing in delivery getting a nod. Now, what's the best part of this?! Through Saturday, you can get 25 percent off all the winning restaurants.
Here's what won:
Big Week For Big & Little's . . .
Gary Strauss (left) and Tony D'Alessandro at their new Big & Little's location. (Photo: Big & Little's)
In addition to Top Chef co-host Padma Lakshmi throwing props Chicago's way on this season's premiere episode, the Food Network's Guy Fieri is also giving love to one River North spot.
Big & Little's—which boasts as an owner former Hell's Kitchen contestant Tony D'Alessandro—will be featured on Monday's episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Who's Got The Best Fried Chicken In Town?!
Chicago's Harold's Chicken Shack gets the nod as one of the best fried chicken spots in the country by Food & Wine magazine.
Food & Wine just released its list for the best fried chicken in the country and two Chicago spots made the cut.
On Harold's Chicken Shack, they had this to say:
No More MeatyBalls?!
Chef Phillip Foss and his Meatyballs Mobile truck. (Photo: The Pickled Tongue)
One of the first and most popular food trucks is taking a hiatus.
Meatyballs Mobile chef/owner Phillip Foss tweeted Friday:
"Though humbling & heart breaking to inform, The Meatyballs Mobile will only occasionally 'pop up' going forward."
His reasoning?! Because he wants to focus more attention on his successful, but tiny brick-and-mortar project, EL restaurant, in the Pilsen neighborhood:
"My attention will now be devoted full time to EL ideas venture & unlocking our full potential. Still really sad right now."
Good luck, man!
Nov. 4 is a VERY Big Day!
Koren Grieveson, chef de cuisine at avec. (Photo: Jessica Tampas Photography)
That's because it's the birthday of avec chef Koren Grieveson (didja know she has an identical twin?!).
But there's more big anniversaries on this special day. . .
Heather Terhune Is On A Hot Streak
Sable Executive Chef Heather Terhune. (Photo: Sable Kitchen & Bar)
Sable Kitchen & Bar's Heather Terhune is one of the one fab chefs repping Chicago on this season's Top Chef Texas, and while we're excited about that, she just gave us yet another reason to love her even more.
She's signed on to be November's celebrity guest chef to create a hot dog for America's Dog at all locations in Lincoln Park, Navy Pier and in the Loop.
Padma Praises Chicago 'Top Chef' Contestants
Bravo's Top Chef Texas premiere turned out to be red hot as the competition was seriously turned up with 29 chef-testants fighting to stay in the game.
The twist this season is that only 16 of those chefs would get to remain on the show for the real competition. Six of the chefs hailed from Chicago, and in the opening episode five of them made it to the real competition.
Who made it in?!
New Group Moves Into Old 33 Club Space
The former 33 Club interior will look entirely different when it reopens as a new concept. (Photo: 33 Club)
312DD broke the news of all the drama that went down at the 33 Club in Old Town.
Now here's the latest on that coveted space:
Spiaggia Snags Table Fifty-Two Pastry Chef
Celeste "CeCe" Campise with her pastries. (Photo: Table Fifty-Two)
Congrats are in order for Table Fifty-Two's pastry chef Celeste "CeCe" Campise, who's leaving the upscale Southern-focused restaurant for the Michelin-starred Spiaggia.
"My last day at Table is this Friday," Campise tells 312DD exclusively. "It was tough to leave Art (Smith) because I love him so much, but it's time to move back to the Italian roots!"
This is super exciting news for Spiaggia, which now boasts two talented head female chefs. Campise joins Executive Chef Sarah Grueneberg—who's one of six Chicagoans competing this season on Top Chef Texas.
Looking forward to seeing what she does. I already know that she makes sinfully delicious doughnuts!
Speakeasy, Bottomless Mimosas & More . . .
Some events to get you through the week—and beyond:
Frontier's "speakeasy" event happens every other Wednesday, beginning Nov. 2. That's when you'll get a number of classic Templeton Rye cocktails, including Manhattans and Cherry Smashes for $5. The "speakeasy" part comes in when you RSVP at speakeasychi@gmail.com to get directions on how to enter through a secret door. Live music by Jonathan Marks of Hey Champ and guests will be entered to win a $50 bar tab for every specialty speakeasy cocktail they purchase. 8pm every other Wednesday. No cover.
Seems like everyone's doing a boozy brunch these days. Last week I told you about the $15 bottomless Mimosas at MorSo, and now two more spots are getting in on that action. You can also get them at The Bedford and 25 Degrees every Sunday during brunch hours.
'The Headgear' & Other Burning Questions Answered ...
'Best Mixologist,' 'Best New Restaurant' Categorie...
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Calendrier d’évènements
F1000Research. OKAD
Schéma de concept
Web des données
Annuaire de VEST
Annuaire de VEST (tools)
Annuaire de VEST (dataset)
Annuaire de VEST (metadata set)
Série d’éléments de métadonnées agricoles (AgMES)
Wébinaires
D4Science Hybrid Data Infrastructure facilitating data sharing and research collaborations
D4Science is an organization offering an Hybrid Data Infrastructure since 2009 for seamless access and analysis to a wide spectrum of data including biological andecological data, geospatial data, statistical data and semi-structured data from multiple authoritative data providers and information systems.
“Modern science calls for innovative practices to facilitate research collaborations spanning institutions, disciplines, and countries. Paradigms such as cloud computing and social computing represent a new opportunity for individuals with scant resources, to participate in science. The D4Science.org Hybrid Data Infrastructure (HDI) combines these two paradigms with Virtual Research Environments in order to offer a large array of collaboration-oriented facilities as-a-Service” (The D4Science Research-Oriented Social Networking Facilities).
The long tail of research produces a bulk of scientific knowledge (data and information) though not always researchers have access to large-scale dedicated IT transporting this knowledge.
D4Science.org HDI (i.e. an IT infrastructure built as a “system of systems” that integrates a disparate set of technologies including grid and cloud, services and information systems) offers a response to this issue. The D4Science (the first model of an application level e-Infrastructure) together with D4Science-II scientific application scenarios are served by innovative Virtual Research Environments VREs and services for users willing to acquire concrete understanding of the major features and capabilities of quality working environment.
Today, D4Science HDI is a proven self-sustained underlying data infrastructure which:
combines over 500 software components into a coherent and centrally managed system of hardware, software, and data resources;
provides biological and ecological data, spatial data, statistical data collected in Integrated Data Catalogue from more than 50 data provides/ knowledge bases and repositories;
executes around 20,000 models & algorithms per month;
provides access to over a billion records in repositories worldwide, with 99,7 % service availability.
offers a number of VREs ( +40) to serve the biological, ecological, environmental, and statistical communities world-wide;
connects +2000 scientists in 44 countries;
can equip Ecopath with cloud capabilities on which they can run their model (at the moment EwE is only available via a desktop version).
D4Science: Use Conditions
Upon registration (enter Shared Workspace, register and log in) and agreeing to the related Terms of Use, you can immediately use the storage space via the Workspace Service, the Email Service to send/receive data to other registered users, the Social Service to share and read news and posts with your connections and the Notification Service for user notifications. You can also apply to a moderated or public VRE.
The data and information made available through the Gateway (the access point to Infrastructure products and services) under terms described in the metadata accompanying each product (e.g. “license” or "constraints" field).
Except where otherwise noted (i.e. in case of primary requirement to comply with the data provider’s policy) this is the Creative Commons License. All derivative products produced and made publicly available through the Gateway are licensed under the Creative Commons License CC BY-SA.
Peolple working in the agriculture domain could try to access and look through data in the the following VREs:
Bionym: a virtual laboratory supporting a flexible and customizable taxonomic naming matching workflow empowered by interfacing with authoritative data sources, e.g. Catalogue of Life, FishBase, World Register of Marine Species.
Biodiversity Lab: a virtual laboratory where biologists, ecologists, and environmental scientists can easily perform data access, data harmonization, data preparation and data analytics
Ecological Niche Modelling is a VRE designed to provide facilities to perform prevision for species distributions along the world.
The VRE offers facilities to manage several versions of the same datasets, to process those datasets efficiently and to produce Probabilistic Niche Models redictive documents resulting in Earth maps .
D4Science VREs as Social computing Service
In D4Science VREs groups of geographically distributed scientists can transparently and seamlessly access and process shared sets of resources (data, tools and computing capabilities). To that end, D4Science VREs include a social networking area promoting innovative large scale scientific collaboration patterns inspired by social computing and supported by the underlying infrastructure facilities.
(Source: The D4Science Offering – GreyGuide - CNR)
D4Science Gateway offers a way to share information by allowing users to post updates, including links to news articles and new derivative datasets, and to comment on content published by some of the Applications or Users. The D4Science social networking facilities will reshape the modern approach to communication, largely implemented by LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, by porting it to research communities. Empowering D4Science with scientific user communities, initiatives and projects.
The D4Science e-Infrastructures provide synergies across scientific communities which were in the past fragmented and which now benefit greatly from access to shared data streams that include satellite (ocean color and reef maps), climate, hydrographic and trade data.
The cooperation between Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of FAO, The WorldFish Center and Environmental Monitoring at ESA provides a basis for enhanced modeling approaches and acts as a catalyst leading to further enlargement of the community to other groups such as oceanographers and economists. Moreover, D4Science is supporting a large array of diverse initiatives and projects, such as:
D4Science is supporting the SoBigData.eu Community by providing them with dedicated Virtual Research Environment enabling communication and collaboration among the community members.
BlueBRIDGE addressing Blue Growth societal challenge by developing and deploying service-driven digital research environments, services and tools.
D4Science is providing the EUBrazilOpenBio Community with the resources to deploy and operate the EUBrazilOpenBio gateway and the underlying infrastructure.
D4Science is providing the iMarine Community with the resources to deploy and operate the iMarine Gateway and the underlying infrastructure.
D4Science is supporting the Chimaera Community by hosting the homonymous portal and the rest of underlying services. This portal is a one stop center to access the three existing regional information systems about fisheries.
D4Science is supporting the AquaMaps service provider and data managers by offering the facilities for efficiently produce the species distribution maps for more than 17,000 species of fishes, marine mammals and invertebrates.
D4Science is supporting the FishBase service provider by offering a powerful and flexible service (BiOnym) for the efficient discovery of species taxa names.
D4Science is providing the PARTHENOS Community with the resources to deploy and operate the PARTHENOS Virtual Research Environment and the underlying infrastructure.
D4Science is providing the DESCRAMBLE Community with the resources to deploy and operate the DESCRAMBLE Virtual Research Environment and the underlying infrastructure.
D4Science is providing the European Geothermal Community with the resources to deploy and operate the European Geothermal Information Platform Pilot.
D4Science is providing the ARIADNE Community with the resources to deploy and operate the ARIADNE Virtual Research Environment.
D4Science is providing the ENVRI Community with the resources to deploy and operate the ENVRI Virtual Research Environment and the underlying Spatial Data Infrastructure.
D4Science provides a series of demonstrative applications for showing applications capacities and opportunities:
DocumentsWorkflow Virtual Research Environment
DocumentsWorkflow is a VRE designed to perform any Document life-cycle management.
By using this VRE, documents may go through several iterative phases, requiring concurrent access and several communication possibilities, e.g. to add comments, annotations and metadata.
The iSearch VRE has been conceived to give users a showcase of the IR and Semantic Web facilities offered by iMarine and the D4Science Infrastructure. The Information Space is configured to access information objects coming from:
a selection of OAI-PMH collections;
OpenSearch providers like Bing and IRD Ecoscope;
FAO FishFinder Factsheets;
Knowledge bases FLOD, DBPedia, etc.
Scalable Data Mining: a virtual laboratory designed to apply cutting-edge data analytics methods to biological, ecological, and environmental data.
Tabular Data Lab: a virtual laboratory conceived to provide its users with a working environment supporting the collaborative management of tabular data, i.e. any dataset that can be represented in a table format.
If you have any suggestions for D4Science infrastructure, just contact D4Science Team here.
If you have already used D4Science VREs, we would appreciate to hear your opinion on AIMS Portal!
Source: D4Science.org
Twitter @D4Dcience
Tutorial on Hybrid Data Infrastructures: D4Science as a case study (slides)
Virtual Research Environments: An Overview and a Research Agenda (article)
PASTEUR4OA briefing paper on the Disciplinary Differences In Opening Research Data
In this video, Aureliano Gentile, FAO, provides a tutorial introducing how to manage data with an e-infrastructure. The tutorial describes the iMarine initiative and its underlying infrastructure D4Science.
Submitted on 9 May 2016 by The AIMS Team
from FAO of the United Nations in Italy
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Home > News > Inside Burma > Burmese daily newspapers coming: new information minister
Burmese daily newspapers coming: new information minister
Aung Kyi, Burma’s new information minister, on Sunday said newspapers would be able to publish daily from early 2013, bringing in a new information era for Burma.
Aung Kyi told the Myanmar Times, a private English language weekly, that state-owned newspapers would probably be transformed by private sector involvement in the coming months.
“It is my sincere belief that daily [private sector] newspapers are essential for a democratic country,” said Aung Kyi, who replaced a hardliner last week when he was appointed as part of a cabinet reshuffle seen as promoting reformists.
The former labour minister, who acted as the liaison between the government and democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi, said a code of practice should be discussed before changes were made to publication rules for private weekly journals.
He declined to give a firm date for the issuing of daily publication licenses to private sector news groups – many of which have turned to the web to provide up-to-the-minute content for a population hungry for information after years of restrictions – but estimated it could be “early next year,” according to an Agency France Presse article.
"I am sincere in wanting to achieve a comprehensive press media law that meets international standards," he said, suggesting that the new proposed legislation could be delayed to give time for consultation with journalists and experts (See Mizzima’s story today on the Myanmar Journalists Association.)
In August, Burma announced the end of pre-publication censorship, previously applied to everything from newspapers to song lyrics and even fairy tales.
State-owned dailies include the English language, state-backed New Light of Myanmar, which has shown few signs of modernizing since the country began its reforms.
But Aung Kyi said the state publications were in line for “significant changes.”
Reporters jailed under the junta have also been freed from prison and a lighter touch from censors had already seen private weekly journals publish an increasingly spectrum of subject matter, in spite of a spat of suits lately, both by government officials and private citizens and businesses.
Two journals were recently suspended for a fortnight for prematurely printing stories without prior approval from the censors, prompting dozens of journalists to take to the streets in protest.
And the mining ministry is suing a weekly publication that reported the auditor-general's office had discovered misappropriations of funds and fraud in the organization.
Last Updated ( Monday, 03 September 2012 16:13 )
Burmese govt to allow daily newspapers
Suu Kyi and Minister Aung Kyi meet for fourth time
Suu Kyi and gov’t minister discuss amnesty and establishing peace
Suu Kyi, Burmese gov’t agree to work together to avoid conflicting views
Suu Kyi satisfied with meeting with gov’t minister; more to follow
Suu Kyi meets with high-level Burmese gov’t official
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Appeals panel reinstates Wisconsin's voter ID law
PDF: Read the order
Across the Board: Voter ID reinstatement could mean trouble in November
PolitiFact | From the Archives: Does Wisconsin’s voter ID law ‘disenfranchise’ voters?
Visit our election section for complete coverage of the 2014 spring and fall elections.
By Patrick Marley and Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel
Sept. 12, 2014 0
Chicago — A federal appeals panel reinstated Wisconsin's voter ID law Friday, acting with unusual speed eight weeks before the Nov. 4 election and just hours after hearing arguments on the subject.
The move by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for the state to immediately implement the law, though it does not stop the ongoing appeal over whether the measure is constitutional. State officials responded by saying they planned to have the requirement in place this fall.
"The state of Wisconsin may, if it wishes (and if it is appropriate under rules of state law), enforce the photo ID requirement in this November's elections," the judges wrote in an unsigned two-page order.
The appellate court indicated it was satisfied by changes imposed on the law by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a separate decision this summer.
"This reduces the likelihood of irreparable injury, and it also changes the balance of equities and thus the propriety of federal injunctive relief. The panel has concluded that the state's probability of success on the merits of this appeal is sufficiently great that the state should be allowed to implement its law, pending further order of this court," the judges wrote.
Rick Hasen, a University of California, Irvine law professor and author of the book "The Voting Wars," said it was unusual for an appeals court to allow such a significant change to voting procedures this close to an election.
"Even though the (U.S.) Supreme Court could well agree that Wisconsin's voter ID law is legal, there's a real chance that the (U.S. Supreme) Court could reverse today's 7th Circuit order," Hasen said by email. "The Supreme Court has said that courts should not make changes in the run-up to elections, which can cause voter and election official confusion. The 7th Circuit did not even mention this rule in its order today."
The ruling comes as Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who signed the voter ID law in 2011, finds himself in a tight race with Democrat and former Trek Bicycle Corp. executive Mary Burke. Burke opposes the voter ID law.
The head of the state's election agency said Friday he would do everything possible to get the law back in place in time for the election — something agency officials previously said would be a challenge.
"We are taking every step to fully implement the voter photo ID law for the November general election. We are now focused on communicating with local election officials and voters, and will have more information about the details next week," said Kevin Kennedy, director of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board.
One of the first issues officials will have to contend with is how to deal with more than 11,800 absentee ballots that have already been sent to voters.
The voter ID law requires most people to submit photocopies of their IDs with their absentee ballots. Absentee ballots that have already been sent did not include instructions to do that because at that time the law was blocked.
That point did not come up during an hour of oral arguments Friday in which those who successfully challenged the voter ID law at trial were treated to tough questioning by the appeals judges.
"We are on the eve of an election," Judge Diane Sykes noted during arguments Friday.
Friday's order was unanimous and reinstates the voter ID law until the panel renders its full decisions. The judges said they were allowing the law to go into effect now because the state was likely to win its arguments that the voter ID law is constitutional.
Joining Sykes in the decision were Judges Frank Easterbrook and John Daniel Tinder. Sykes is a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush. Easterbrook was appointed to the appeals court by President Ronald Reagan and Tinder was appointed by Bush.
To vote under the law, people must show poll workers their driver's licenses, state ID cards, passports, limited types of student IDs, military IDs, naturalization certificates or IDs issued by a tribe based in Wisconsin.
The requirement was in effect for a low-turnout primary in February 2012 but soon after was blocked by a series of orders by judges in four lawsuits, two in state court and two in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee heard the two federal cases together. This April, he ruled the voter ID law placed an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote and violated the federal Voting Rights Act because minorities are less likely than whites to have IDs.
Adelman found some 300,000 people in Wisconsin do not have IDs and determined requiring people to show IDs at the polls would discount far more legitimate votes than fraudulent ones. He concluded voter impersonation — the only kind of fraud the voter ID law would curb — is essentially nonexistent, noting state officials could not cite any examples of it.
During arguments Friday, Sykes called Adelman's decision one that gave the plaintiffs "a whopper" of a remedy that she found "hard to reconcile" with a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding Indiana's voter ID law. Easterbrook also questioned how Adelman could render his ruling in light of that decision.
"He took evidence and found the Supreme Court was wrong," Easterbrook said of Adelman.
Since the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision, several states have passed voter ID laws, and lawsuits are pending around the country. Legal observers expect the U.S. Supreme Court to eventually weigh in on the issue again.
Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's aides have defended the law.
"Today's decision is a victory for common sense, fair elections, and the right of every eligible voter to cast a vote that will count," said a statement from the Republican attorney general.
In a telephone interview Friday before the court issued its order, Walker said his administration "absolutely" could implement the ID requirement in time for the election. After the decision came out, he issued a statement that said, "Today's ruling makes it easier to vote and harder to cheat."
The federal lawsuits in Wisconsin were brought by an array of groups and individuals, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Cross Lutheran Church, labor unions and the Wisconsin chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens. They are being represented in court by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Advancement Project, a national civil-rights group.
The groups said they are considering an appeal of Friday's order.
"We are very disappointed in the irresponsible decision to lift the injunction against voter ID, which will cause chaos and disruption for voters and elections workers for the November election," said a statement from Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin. "The state has not demonstrated it is prepared to make this new ID scheme work."
The panel heard the cases less than two months after the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the voter ID law in the two state cases. One was decided 5-2; the other 4-3.
Those rulings did not put the voter ID law back in place because of the separate ruling in federal court.
In the more closely divided of the state cases, Wisconsin's high court found the state could not require people to produce documents they had to pay for — such as birth certificates — to get IDs for voting. To do so would amount to an illegal poll tax, the justices found.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court crafted a "saving construction" of state administrative rules to ensure the voter ID law is constitutional and require the state to create a process for people to get IDs even if they don't have birth certificates or other key government documents. In response, state officials this week announced a new system for issuing IDs that will go into effect Monday.
Under that program, people can submit birth information so state officials can check state and federal databases to find records of their birth. The officials will also review baptismal records, school records or other documents for those who were never issued birth certificates.
The state Supreme Court decision and new process for issuing IDs means "the issue of cost is now off the table," Sykes said.
Easterbrook asked the state to provide the court with copies of the new administrative rules, saying he tried to search for them online during Friday's arguments and couldn't find them. The governor approved the rules Thursday and the state submitted them to the court soon after the arguments concluded.
About Patrick Marley
Patrick Marley covers state government and state politics. He is the author, with Journal Sentinel reporter Jason Stein, of "More Than They Bargained For: Scott Walker, Unions and the Fight for Wisconsin.”
@patrickdmarley
pmarley@journalsentinel.com
About Jason Stein
Jason Stein covers the state Capitol and is the author with his colleague Patrick Marley of "More than They Bargained For: Scott Walker, Unions and the Fight for Wisconsin." His work has been recognized by journalism groups such as the American Society of News Editors, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, and the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors.
@jasonmdstein
jstein@journalsentinel.com
Father accused of drowning 3-month-old son
Nonprofit literacy program educates Ozaukee inmates on job readiness
Three of Wisconsin's billionaires sometimes pay zero state income tax
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LETTERS October 16 1989
EXODUS OF FANS
It certainly was a magical moment for those in attendance when Nelson Liriano hit a twoout, game-winning hit in the bottom of the 13th (“The myths of autumn,” Cover, Oct. 2). But was the writer really paying attention to the exodus of fans earlier, when the Blue Jays were in a hopeless two-out situation in the bottom of the 10th inning? By the time the game-winning hit was stroked, more than half of the 49,352 fans were sulking in downtown bars. In contrast to what the author states, Toronto lacks a major ingredient of baseball: intelligent and dedicated fans. Indeed, those 49,352 screaming Blue Jays fans were simply a “myth of autumn.”
David J. Kloppenburg, Puslinch, Ont.
You state in “The myths of autumn”: “Never has the game, which some baseball historians say was first played on the grassy fields of sedate gentlemen’s clubs in New York state and Massachusetts more than 150 years ago, been so popular.” A little bit of research would have found that the first recorded baseball game was played in Beachville, Upper Canada, on June 4, 1838. That occurred more than a year earlier than the American game at Cooperstown, N.Y. Caught you reading Yankee information books, eh?
Dale White, Mississauga, Ont.
Larry Grossman’s heckling of Lloyd Moseby struck me as cruel and insensitive (“The view from Section 117,” Cover, Oct. 2). From the man who put the final nails in the coffin of the Ontario Tory dynasty, I would have expected more empathy towards an individual struggling to do a job.
Rick Durst, Toronto
I relished greatly your Oct. 2 baseball issue, but the writer who made special mention of only two Class AAA leagues—the American Association and the International League, both U.S.based—should be benched or placed on waivers. His essay ignored completely the Class AAA Pacific Coast League—the only Triple A league in North America with three flourishing Canadian franchises. Supporters of the Edmonton Trappers, the Calgary Cannons and the Vancouver Canadians are not amused by this glaring omission. Please remind your sports •writers that there actually is life west of Toronto.
Senator Ray Perrault, Honorary Chairman, Vancouver Canadians Baseball, Vancouver
‘FUTILE PROJECT’
In response to the article about Hilary Weston and Nicole Eaton, who conspired to write a critical book about gardens in Canada and England (“Backyard pride,” People, Oct. 2): So what? Does it really matter? I do not understand how “frustration” and “anger”
could have prompted these two prominent socialites to write a book about the gardens across Canada and to make a comparison with the celebrated backyards of England. What a useless and futile project. How about writing about the more pressing and urgent matters of the day?
Pearl Taylor, West Hill, Ont.
CONDOM SENSE
Things will not change until the sexologists, the teachers, the manufacturers and the advertisers modify the current emphasis on the use of condoms to prevent disease. They should take a lesson from the purveyors of cigarettes, who developed the approach to a fine art. Young people do not expect to get pregnant or to develop a life-threatening sexually transmitted disease. That happens to one’s acquaintances, not to oneself. I’m old-fashioned enough to recommend abstinence as a first choice, but practicalities must be faced, and one of these is that times are changing.
Donald I. Shade, Petawawa, Ont.
Letters are edited and may be condensed. Writers should supply name, address and telephone number. Mail correspondence to: Letters to the Editor, Maclean’s magazine, Maclean Hunter Bldg., 777 Bay St., Toronto, Ont. M5W1A7.
HIGH TUITIONS NO ANSWER
Your article on Canadian universities was telling (“The rising crisis,” Special Report, Sept. 18). Public universities should not have to rely on private donations and exorbitant tuition fees to operate—that is the business of the private university. If the present funding trend is not turned around, Canada will find more and more of its brightest minds leaving for the United States, where academic achievement is rewarded by high funding, updated facilities, and high-quality teaching and research. As an alumna of the University of Saskatchewan presently doing graduate work at Columbia University, I have chosen to stay in the United States to receive a good education.
Heather Selin, New York City
Your report depicted horrendously low Canadian tuition fees when compared with American fees. But comparing private U.S. institutions with public Canadian institutions is useless, as the funding structures are completely different. A comparison between Canadian and U.S. public institutions should have been used. In 1984-1985, tuition and other fees at the University of Toronto were $2,042, while tuition at the publicly funded University of California in Los Angeles was $3,891—not so large a difference as that passed off as the norm in your report. The problem in Canada is a lack of adequate government support. In 1984-1985, U of T received $7,740 in government grants per full-time student while UCLA received $15,382 per student. To blame the underfunding crisis on low tuition fees is ridiculous.
Bryan Leblanc, Researcher,
McMaster University Students Union Inc.,
DISCRIMINATORY MEDIA
I must protest the bias of your reporting on the hostage crisis in the Middle East (“Hostages to terror,” Cover, Aug. 14). While playing down Israel’s kidnapping of Sheik Abdel Kareem Obeid, you go all out to depict the Arabs as gun-toting terrorists, with photos to prove it. But we should be much more upset by a nation resorting to terrorism than by the terrorism of fundamentalist hotheads like the Hizbollah. The despair of the Palestinian people produces Arab terrorism, and that despair comes from the fact that they are a people we would like to forget. Concern for human rights is credible only when it speaks out equally for all individuals, all people. Discrimination such as you and most of the Western media practise makes all your moral protests suspect and sham.
Henry Beissel, Alexandria, Ont.
I felt sad when I started reading your article about Ben Johnson (“Starting over,” Sports, Sept. 18) but was happy when I read in the last paragraph that Johnson would run again—without drugs. Many Canadians will be even more interested in watching his next race and wishing him good luck.
Margaret Mastín, Montreal
Tell the truth and we will strip you of your medals and cancel your records. What an intelligent decision. The International Amateur Athletic Association could not have made a more calculated decision to promote dishonesty in sport. What about the dozens of medals and records acquired by other countries? For a certainty, Canada was not the only winner of drug-assisted medals at the Olympics.
L. Elmer Hansen,
Tsawwassen, B.C.
BILINGUAL DILEMMA
In your article “Linguistic backlash” (Canada, Aug. 28), you have once again labelled the New Brunswick Confederation of Regions party anti-bilingual. Not so. The COR is not opposed to bilingualism where numbers and circumstances so warrant. The broad-brush application of official bilingualism is at issue in this province. Should another province—Ontario, for example—adopt official bilingualism, Ontarians would be aware of what is actually involved in legislated language discrimination. Its effect on employment, advancement and other aspects of restricted economic activity would be a rude awakening to all.
Cyril J. Farrell, Riverview, N.B.
While Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa restricts the use of English, New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna promotes the use of both of Canada’s official languages. Pity that neither our Prime Minister nor his Quebec lieutenant will follow McKenna’s leadership on this issue.
Bruce MacMillan, West Hill, Ont.
INEFFECTIVE STRATEGY
If the United States is serious about the problem of cocaine (“Andean strategy,” World, Sept. 18), why do they not look at how people have turned away from tobacco? The use of that drug is on the decline, and not a single shot has been fired. Stiffer penalties and government meddling only increase drug use. Maybe next we will see a picture of Bush holding a bag of “the deadly AIDS virus” as he explains his plans to send troops to San Francisco to stop the spread of that disease.
Dan Morin, Calgary
SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE?
Thanks for a making a success of my day substituting for a junior-high-school science and computer teacher. “A day in the year 2060” (Cover, Sept. 11) sparked student interest, and their responsiveness was gratifying. The single flaw in the cover package was your choice of Marilyn Monroe’s holographic image in “Fantastic hardware.” I’ll reserve the paradox of technological complexity and overly simplified life implied by that choice for future classroom reference.
Catherine Whitney, Bridgetown, N.S.
DEBATING THE GST
It boggles the mind that this country is seriously considering the imposition of a comprehensive Goods and Services Tax when there is so little to commend such a measure (“A looming tax revolt,” Canada, Aug. 21). Spending excesses at all levels of government need to be pruned, and part of the millions earmarked for the introduction of the GST should be directed instead to eliminating loopholes in the income-tax system. The government has indicated that it will spend millions of dollars to “educate” the public on the wisdom of introducing the GST. It is about time that the public educates the government on the folly of doing so.
G. Ronald Knight, Victoria
We have brought on the GST with years of irresponsible spending. We have supported expensive institutions like the Governor General, the Senate and the CBC, and they have returned little value. We have placated hundreds of special-interest groups with no regard for the taxpayer and have wasted millions on ineffective programs. There should be no GST exemptions until we learn our lesson and cut spending.
Keith Shanahan, Calgary
INDEPENDENT PROTEST
In “Risky business” (Canada, Sept. 11), you refer to my remarks on federal Environment Minister Lucien Bouchard’s decision concerning the Rafferty Dam project in Saskatchewan. You stated that I am affiliated with the New Democratic Party. I am not. Nor is the group I speak for, Stop Construction on the Rafferty-Alameda Project. The incorrect political connection might detract from the strength of my statement condemning Bouchard.
Roderick E. MacDonald, Radville, Sask.
The passions of fall ball
October 1989 By BARRY CAME
OPENING NOTES
October 1989 By PAUL KAIHLA
LOOKING FOR A BETTER LIFE
The ball sits in Ottawa’s court
October 1989 By CHARLES GORDON
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Created by Jijith Nadumuri at 02 Apr 2010 04:22 and updated at 02 Apr 2010 04:22
MAHABHARATA, BOOK 08: KARNA PARVA
Sanjaya said, Thus addressed by Yudhishthira, Kunti's son owning white steeds, filled with rage, drew his sword for slaying that bull of Bharata's race. Beholding his wrath, Keshava, conversant with the workings of the human heart said, Why, O Partha, dost thou draw thy sword? I do not, O Dhananjaya, behold anyone here with whom thou hast to fight! The Dhartarashtras have now been assailed by the intelligent Bhimasena. Thou comest from battle, O son of Kunti, for seeing the king. The king has been seen by thee. Indeed, Yudhishthira is well. Having seen that tiger among kings who is endued with prowess equal to that of a tiger, why this folly at a time when thou shouldst rejoice?
I do not see here, O son of Kunti, the person whom thou mayst slay. Why then dost thou desire to strike? What is this delusion of thy mind? Why dost thou, with such speed, take up that formidable sword? I ask thee this, O son, of Kunti! What is this that thou art about, inasmuch as, O thou of inconceivable prowess, thou graspest that sword in anger Thus addressed by Krishna, Arjuna, casting his eyes on Yudhishthira, and breathing like an angry snake, said unto Govinda, I would cut off the head of that man who would tell me Give thy Gandiva to another person Even this is my secret vow. Those words have been spoken by this king, O thou of immeasurable prowess, in thy presence, O Govinda! I dare not forgive them.
I will for that slay this king who himself fears the slightest falling from virtue. Slaying this best of men, I will keep my vow. It is for this that I have drawn the sword, O delighter of the Yadus. Even I, slaying Yudhishthira, will pay off my debt to truth. By that I will dispel my grief and fever, O Janardana. I ask thee, what do you think suitable to the circumstances that have arisen? Thou, O sire, knowest the entire past and future of this universe. I will do what thou wilt tell me Sanjaya continued, Govinda then said, Fie, fie unto Partha and once more continued to say, I now know, O Partha, that thou hast not waited upon the old, since, O tiger among men, thou hast yielded to wrath at a time when thou shouldst not have done so. No one that is acquainted with the distinctions of morality would act in the way, O Dhananjaya, in which thou, O son of Pandu, that art unacquainted with them, art acting today!
He, O Partha, is the worst of men who committeth acts that should not be done and doeth acts that are apparently proper but condemned by the scriptures. Thou knowest not the decisions of those learned men who, waited upon by pupils, declare their opinions, following the dictates of morality. The man that is not acquainted with those rulings becomes confounded and stupefied, O Partha, even as thou hast been stupefied, in discriminating between what should be done and what should not. What should be done and what should not cannot be ascertained easily. Everything can be ascertained by the aid of the scriptures. Thou, however, art not acquainted with the scriptures. Since believing thyself conversant with morality, thou art desirous of observing morality in this way, it seems thou art actuated by ignorance. Thou believest thyself to be conversant with virtue, but thou dost not know, O Partha, that the slaughter of living creatures is a sin. Abstention from injury to animals is, I think, the highest virtue. One may even speak an untruth, but one should never kill.
How then, O foremost of men, couldst thou wish, like an ordinary person, to slay thy eldest brother, the King, who is conversant with morality? The slaughter of a person not engaged in battle, or of a foe, O Bharata who has turned his face from battle or who flies away or seeks protection or joins his hands or yields himself up or is careless, is never applauded by the righteous. All these attributes are in thy superior. This vow, O Partha, was adopted by thee before from foolishness. In consequence of that vow thou art now, from folly, desirous of perpetrating a sinful act. Why, O Partha, dost thou rush towards thy reverend superior for slaying him, without having resolved the exceedingly subtle course of morality that is, again, difficult of being understood? I will now tell thee, O son of Pandu, this mystery connected with morality, this mystery that was declared by Bhishma, by the righteous Yudhishthira, by Vidura otherwise called Kshatri, and by Kunti, of great celebrity. I will tell thee that mystery in all its details. Listen to it, O Dhananjaya! One who speaks truth is righteous.
There is nothing higher than truth. Behold, however, truth as practised is exceedingly difficult to be understood as regards its essential attributes. Truth may be unutterable, and even falsehood may be utterable where falsehood would become truth and truth would become falsehood. In a situation of peril to life and in marriage, falsehood becomes utterable. In a situation involving the loss of one's entire property, falsehood becomes utterable. On an occasion of marriage, or of enjoying a woman, or when life is in danger, or when one's entire property is about to be taken away, or for the sake of a Brahmana, falsehood may be uttered. These five kinds of falsehood have been declared to be sinless. On these occasions falsehood would become truth and truth would become falsehood. He is a fool that practises truth without knowing the difference between truth and falsehood. One is said to be conversant with morality when one is able to distinguish between truth and falsehood.
What wonder then in this that a man of wisdom, by perpetrating even a cruel act, may obtain great merit like Valaka by the slaughter of the blind beast? What wonder, again, in this that a foolish and ignorant person, from even the desire of winning merit, earns great sin like Kausika living among the rivers Arjuna said, Tell me, O holy one, this story that I may understand it, viz, this illustration about Valaka and about Kausika living among rivers Vasudeva said, There was a certain hunter of animals, O Bharata, of the name of Valaka. He used, for the livelihood of his son and wives and not from will, to slay animals. Devoted to the duties of his own order and always speaking the truth and never harbouring malice, he used also to support his parents and others that depended upon him. One day, searching for animals even with perseverance and care, he found none. At last he saw a beast of prey whose sense of smell supplied the defect of his eyes, employed in drinking water. Although he had never seen such an animal before, still he slew it immediately. After the slaughter of that blind beast, a floral shower fell from the skies upon the head of the hunter.
A celestial car also, exceedingly delightful and resounding with the songs of Apsaras and the music of their instruments, came from heaven for taking away that hunter of animals. That beast of prey, having undergone ascetic austerities, had obtained a boon and had become the cause of the destruction of all creatures. For this reason he was made blind by the Self-born. Having slain that animal which had resolved to slay all creatures, Valaka went to heaven. Morality is even so difficult of being understood. There was an ascetic of the name of Kausika without much knowledge of the scriptures. He lived in a spot much removed from a village, at a point where many rivers met. He made a vow, saying, I must always speak the truth' He then became celebrated, O Dhananjaya, as a speaker of truth. At that time certain persons, from fear of robbers, entered that wood where Kausika dwelt.
Thither even, the robbers, filled with rage, searched for them carefully. Approaching Kausika then, that speaker of truth, they asked him saying, O holy one, by which path have a multitude of men gone a little while before? Asked in the name of Truth, answer us. If thou hast seen them, tell us this. Thus adjured, Kausika told them the truth, saying, Those men have entered this wood crowded with many trees and creepers and plants. Even thus, O Partha, did Kausika give them the information. Then those cruel men, it is heard, finding out the persons they sought, slew them all. In consequence of that great sin consisting in the words spoken, Kausika, ignorant of the subtilities of morality, fell into a grievous hell, even as a foolish man, of little knowledge, and unacquainted with the distinctions of morality, falleth into painful hell by not having asked persons of age for the solution of his doubts. There must be some indications for distinguishing virtue from sin. Sometimes that high and unattainable knowledge may be had by the exercise of reason.
Many persons say, on the one hand, that the scriptures indicate morality. I do not contradict this. The scriptures, however, do not provide for every case. For the growth of creatures have precepts of morality been declared. That which is connected with inoffensiveness is religion. Dharma protects and preserves the people. So it is the conclusion of the Pandits that what maintains is Dharma. O Partha, I have narrated to you the signs and indications of Dharma. Hearing this, you decide whether Yudhishthira is to be slaughtered by you or not Arjuna said, Krishna, your words are fraught with great intelligence and impregnated with wisdom.
Thou art to us like our parents and our refuge. Nothing is unknown to thee in the three worlds, so thou art conversant with the canons of morality. O Keshava of the Vrishni clan, thou knowest my vow that whoever among men would tell me, Partha, give thy Gandiva to some one braver than you' I shall at once put an end to his life. Bhima has also made a promise that whoever would call him tularak, would be slaughtered by him there and then. Now the King has repeatedly used those very words to me in thy presence, O hero, viz, Give thy bow' If I slay him, O Keshava, I will not be able to live in this world for even a moment. Having intended again the slaughter of the king through folly and the loss of my mental faculties, I have been polluted by sin. It behoveth thee today, O foremost of all righteous persons, to give me such counsel that my vow, known throughout the world, may become true while at the same time both myself and the eldest son of Pandu may live Vasudeva said, The king was fatigued, and under the influence of grief, He had been mangled in battle by Karna with numerous arrows. After that, O hero, he was repeatedly struck by the Suta's son with his shafts, while he was retreating from battle.
It was for this that, labouring under a load of sorrow, he spoke those improper words unto thee in wrath. He provoked thee by those words so that thou mightest slay Karna in battle. The son of Pandu knows that the wretched Karna is incapable of being borne by any one else in the world save thee. It was for this, O Partha, that the king in great wrath said those harsh words to thy face. The stake in the game of today's battle has been made to lie in the ever alert and always unbearable Karna. That Karna being slain, the Kauravas would necessarily be vanquished. Even this is what the royal son of Dharma had thought. For this the son of Dharma does not deserve death. Thy vow also, O Arjuna, should be kept. Listen now to my counsels that will be agreeable to thee, to counsels in consequence of which Yudhishthira without being actually deprived of life may yet be dead.
As long as one that is deserving of respect continues to receive respect, one is said to live in the world of men. When, however, such a person meets with disrespect, he is spoken of as one that is dead though alive. This king hath always been respected by thee and by Bhima and the twins, as also by all heroes and all persons in the world that are venerable for years. In some trifle then show him disrespect. Therefore, O Partha, address this Yudhishthira as thou' when his usual form of address is your honour' A superior, O Bharata, by being addressed as thou' is killed though not deprived of life. Bear thyself thus, O son of Kunti, towards king Yudhishthira, the just. Adopt this censurable behaviour, O perpetuator of Kuru's race! This best audition of all auditions, hath been declared by both Atharvan and Angiras. Men desiring good should always act in this way without scruples of any kind.
Without being deprived of life a superior is yet said to be killed if that venerable one is addressed as thou' Conversant with duty as thou art, address king Yudhishthira the just, in the manner I have indicated. This death, O son of Pandu, at thy hands, king Yudhishthira will never regard as an offence committed by thee. Having addressed him in this way, thou mayst then worship his feet and speak words of respect unto this son of Pritha and soothe his wounded honour. Thy brother is wise. The royal son of Pandu, therefore, will never be angry with thee. Freed from falsehood as also from fratricide, thou wilt then, O Partha, cheerfully slay the Suta's son Karna
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Board index » Battlestar Galactica Discussion » Comm Chatter- General BSG Discussion
Caprica -- Who's Watching?
Post subject: Re: Caprica -- Who's Watching?
The virtual world is nice... looks also "retro-futurist", à la Blade Runner (zeppelins). The story seems sometimes very different from BSG... and sometimes simply too soapish. Like it hesitates between genres.
Let me guess: of course Zoe/Robot isn't destroyed. Tyrell Graystone's wife maybe only fell into water under the bridge. And poor Papadama will maybe see Tamara again, after all?
I watched all eps in a row. I found if far better than expected/feared. Even if far from perfect. Virtual world à la Blade Runner but less gloomy. Doesn't give the same depressing feeling.
BTW I've re-watched season 4.5. and I discovered a reference to STO in 'Islanded in a Stream of Stars' I hadn't notice the first time I saw it.
Jack Raby wrote:
Virtual world à la Blade Runner but less gloomy. Doesn't give the same depressing feeling.
Ah yes, the streets...
I still can hear the don't walk - don't walk... , pass now - pass now... ,
& also move on - move on... (From the Police spinners)
Virtual World is my favorite pat of Caprica. Love the Blimp of Death!
Well, a few months late in getting to this topic. Sorry.
I liked the first half of the season. I like the idea of a genius teenager (actually two teenagers, if you count Tamara) as the prototype cylon mind. Explains so much about the anger.
I, too, would like to see Grace Park appear in a decent role. But I do love that this program has strong female characters, too (even if the two primary adult ones are each a little nuts). I'm hoping Amanda and Clarice will have a little more depth in the second half of the season.
I'm fascinated to learn much of Admiral Adama's morality came from his Uncle Sam the mob enforcer.
The V-World is great.
And I love that there's not a single lovable character in the show. The storylines themselves have been strong enough to hold my interest, as it should be. The only shipping in this show, so far, involves sending cargo off-world.
Scrawny71
arial wrote:
Yeah, it explains a lot.
No lovable characters? What Serge and Caesar/Jake? And doesn't Zoe-A's predicament strike you as a littleBoomerish?
I think that Caprica has the potential to be a better-realised cousin of BSG. The acting is just as good, Bear McCreary's music is fantastic and the whole "mood piece" vibe sits well here as compared to the end of BSG. I also think that Jane Espenson's considerable talent will prove to be better employed here than on the other show.
Oh, my bad! Of course I love Serge and Caesar/Jake. I shouldn't have discounted them just because they're not human characters. However, Serge could still end up a key cylon player (not that I'd blame him, given the lack of respect from the humans).
In some ways, ZoeA's predicament is like Boomer's, but Zoe chose to be involved with a fringe group and made her own avatar to benefit that group, whereas Boomer had her programming "adjusted" by Cavil before BSG began (that none of the other Numbers "remembered" about their "parents," the Final Five shows that), so one bears some responsibility for her own fate, while the other never got to think about it first. In all honesty, I'm having a problem deciding where Zoe leaves off and ZoeA becomes a separate entity, belief-wise. But ZoeA does sometimes seem like an innocent caught up in things beyond her understanding.
Love Bear's music in this series just as much as in BSG. In this one he gets to show a little more of his romantic side.
I think this is a better fit for JE, but worry that she may have too much on her plate, with her being the co-creator of Warehouse 13. (I didn't realize that until this week )
That kind of faded out in the last few episodes. Just too much on the plate?
I guess I've found Caprica uneven so far. It seems to be trying to establish a bunch of pieces without a strong narrative hook, which is risky. I thought the best episode was the one where Tamara and that guy explored the V-world. It had a clear sense of focus on one piece that some episodes simply lack.
I'm curious whether the final episode indicated a real change of pace, or whether it will revert to form. By that, I mean is Amanda really dead or the ZOE plot-line going to fundamentally alter? If so, perhaps that shakeup we read about had a dramatic effect of some kind. If not, then it might just be more of a tonal thing.
It will be interesting to see if it finds a rhythm, and if it can do well enough when it comes back to garner renewal.
In all honesty, I'm having a problem deciding where Zoe leaves off and ZoeA becomes a separate entity, belief-wise.
That would an interesting topic for the show to really bore into. I'd like to see that more than the computer dating routine.
Scrawny71 wrote:
So how's it going? Did Caprica air the same time in Europe, or was there a delay?
NT2 wrote:
It was ten or eleven days behind to start with, but then the Stateside broadcast apparently had a week-long hiatus while we didn't. I'm looking forward to more discussion on it when it returns.
sunshine_alien
I agree that the whole "mood piece" vibe works better with Caprica than it did on Galactica. That said, I also think Caprica hasn't found its stride yet. I've yet to see much that really compares with the first two seasons of Galactica.
I hope it picks up in September. If it does wind up getting cancelled, I'd like to miss it.
I'm not so wild about Little Bill at present, but I do like "gay uncle hit man," as a friend calls him.
S2 has started. I think the two first episodes are pretty bad. It seems the writers, once again, really don't know what to do with this story. Caprica isn't worth a second season imho.
Actually, I thought the last episode was pretty good...one of the best so far. It managed to convey a sense of dread, which reminded me of BSG in a way.
Caprica iz dead.
http://www.deadline.com/2010/10/syfy-cancels-caprica/
It's over for Syfy's Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica. The cable network said today that it will be pulling the show off the schedule effective immediately. The final five episodes of the sci-fi saga will air in the first quarter of 2011 and will mark the end of the series' one-season run.
Can't say I'm sad...
The cable network just greenlighted a two-hour pilot for Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, about the young years of Ensign William Adama, which hails from Battlestar Galactica exec producer David Eick.
I guess this will look like TOS-Battlestar.
Look here for links about that.
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Podcast v broadcast...radio is the sound salvation, radio is cleanin' up the nation...
Podcasting then. The word on everyone's lips...tick is you're dedicated...you may not be an old fashioned girl but you're gonna get....oops! It's a Costello attack! Switch Elvis off, quick!
What was I saying? Oh yes, podcasting. I was astounded to hear that the Daily Telegraph now has a Podcast Editor. There was a discussion on today's Radio Cafe , dealing with the subject that is currently exercising the BBC more than somewhat, and two things emerged for me:
One is the glaring fact that you can't, at the moment, podcast copyright music. This means that, ludicrously, the much-vaunted Chris Moyles podcast is just Moyles and his posse talking, slagging off listeners etc. No music. Does anyone think this is a Good Thing?
You can get non-copyright music podcasts, mostly demos, some of which are not bad at all. However, the big breakthrough for podcasting has to be the day agreements are struck with the moronic, lumbering, self-serving money-grubbing thickos of the record companies so that we can hear artists we know and love...on demand.
Ah yes, that was the second thing that came out of the Radio Cafe item: a definition of a podcast as "radio with a pause button." And suddenly, if you'll pardon the expression, it all clicked. Podcasting. I've been doing it since I was 16. Or listening to podcasts, at least. Ever since my dad gave me his old Grundig reel-to-reel in 1973.
Hmm...those tapes of Paul Gambaccini, John Peel, Johnny Walker and Radio One In Concert. True, the Grundig was just a little bigger than an iPod (size of large suitcase) but there it was - radio I could listen to anytime I wanted. And I didn't have to buy the records. Hey, what's all this home-taping-is-killing-music guff?
(Can I suggest some t-shirts, by the way, reading as follows: DOWNLOADS - killing the music business...SAVING MUSIC!)
Anyway, the point about my old recordings (soon to be replaced by numerous cassettes of radio shows, many of which I still have, Mr Policeman) is that they were interesting, entertaining, fun...but not radio.
Radio cannot be paused. Radio is not for and at your convenience. Radio is what it is, or ought to be: live, fleeting, impermanent, evanescent. Sure, the BBC do Listen Again on the net, streaming not podcasting, and that's fair enough. But the point is The Moment. What you were doing when you heard THAT RECORD, where you were going, who you were with. The straining to take part in that competition, phoning, texting...the sense of momentary community when the presenter says something that's...that's just right. Or all wrong (phone in, sort him out) Or painfully funny. Or painful. Or tells you a story you have to hear to the end, despite having parked up for too long, being behind with the ironing, having to go get the kids from school. Miss, it...well. Nowadays it's not quite gone. But it's gone for The Moment. And so is the invisible community you're listening to it with - the other people, your fellow listeners.
Radio is what I do, mostly. The way I've tried to explain my vision of it is...as telling stories around a campfire. Or you're round at my house, we're having a few drinks, coffee, I'm hauling records old and new out, playing them, telling you about this, that and the other, the movies I've been to see, books I've read. Nonsense. The dogs. The motorbikes. And who's this with the guitar? Hell, Evan Dando...fancy doing a few songs for us? Us. Not just me and my earphones. US!
Yes, later you can download it. Later you can take it out cycling or running or commuting and listen to it. But that's not radio. That's reliving an experience which happened, live, some other time, and was collective. That's playback. You can listen again to The Moment. But you can't be IN it.
As podcasting gets a grip - and it will - the focus on 'traditional' radio will become ever more about the live nature of the beast, the need for community, the sense of life lived in real time having some kind of objective soundtrack. Out there, to be captured, received. Momentarily.
The Great Vicious Beasts of Hillswick Prepare to Savage Trespassers And Tear Them Limb from Limb
Err...That's Lulu on the left, and Lucy on the right.Mess with them and they will slobber you to within an inch of your laundry.
Springsteen in a Citroen...
There was a time when...well, when Darkness on the Edge of Town and Tunnel of Love seemed to be the only things between me and oblivion. Born in the USA, too, was an extraordinary soundtrack to one of the most difficult periods of my life, though it was harder to love, in its big-time populism. Then there's Nebraska, it's murky, twilit vignettes of failure, fear and frustration out in the backroads of middle America.
I saw Springsteen and the E Street Band, at St James's Park in Newcastle, 20 years ago. It was overwhelmingly emotional, moving, joyous. No single artist has ever meant so much to me.
And yet... and yet...in my (and his) later years I've kind of lost the unswerving faith I once had in The Boss. So much earnest craft, so little inspiration. Devils and Dust, The Rising - worthy but overworked, so...dull. And the reunited E-Street Band - self-satisfied, indulgent, crass, even , at times...at least on the Live In Somewhere Outrageously Huge DVD I still have.
I bought Tracks, the 1998 four-CD collection of Springsteen outtakes, on a whim, on the rebound from Belle and Sebastian's whimsy and because it was seven quid on eBay. Good grief.
I drove out to Collafirth Hill, the roof of Shetland, to the sound of the second CD, mostly stuff from the Darkness/River/Born in the USA period. And it was shattering to realise how good these discarded songs were. Breathtaking. Bootleg classicslike Roulette, Living on the Edge of the World and Johnny Bye Bye. the original demo of Born in the USA -stark, dark. Stunning to appreciate how much work, how much editing and sifting went into the 'official' Springsteen releases. And so very emotional to be taken back to that time, when there was a spot out near Abram's Bridge....and a darkness on the edge of town.
I've since listened to the entire 66-song package. And while there's some mediocre stuff there, the quality is simply astounding. And to hear these songs for the first time is...rejuvenating. Especially in a week when I'm listening to music for pleasure, and not for business. It's great to rediscover the thrill and the power of it all.
Posted by Tom Morton at 5:47 pm 1 comment:
Aberdeen and its myriad delights...a tie in an unexpected location...the end of an era for cyclists...and the truth about the Patio Hotel
Here I am back in grey, misty, cold, wet, blustery and on the
whole rather dreich Shetland, and yesterday saw me driving almost 200 miles in the service of the junior members of the clan.
Saturday morning music club in Lerwick as soon as I got in, then the shopping, then lunch, then back home, then Magnus to the boat so he can attend the glorious institution that is Glasgow University, then home for a couple of glasses of special Chilean anti-oxidant wine, which...as it comes from Chile, is especially good at killing off free radicals (sorry, tasteless medico/political joke).
Anyway, back from Aberdeen (ANOTHER force eight, bow-on-to-the-weather nasty, only an hour late this time), and can you spot the school tie (actually, two tied together) high in this tree in one of Aberdeen's rather nice west-end gardens? What does it signify? Who knows?
I did a lot of walking this trip, and it must be said that Castle Greyskull is a fine city for perambulation: The hills are long and gradual (which makes them bad for cycling) and the compact-and-bijou nature of Aberdeen makes it easy to get from one side to the other; or around it if you prefer. Plus, Aberdeen has rivers, a proper beach (the only real Jersey-boardwalk Atlantic-City-type City in Scotland, not necessarily a good thing) great cafes (try the Baker's Pantry at the bus station or the legendary Inversnecky) and some splendid pubs: my choice would be Under the Hammer, the Prince of Wales, Campbell's out on the edge of Torry if you're feeling adventurous, the Blue Lamp and, much improved since my last visit a couple of years ago, the Moorings down by the docks. The Moorings doesn't look that inviting at first, but it's been thoroughly spruced up, there's some great (and genuine) rock'n'roll memorabilia lurking behind the bar, they do live music, some interesting record nights, have Blaven beer from Skye, and the clientele cheerfully encompasses goths, students, well-heeled businesspersons, sailors and hydrocarbonites of all varieties. It also has the best, most comprehensive juke box I have ever seen. And on a cold winter's Thursday night, it was warm.
I was staying (for the second time) at the Patio Hotel, down at the beach. Aberdeen has disgracefully and controversially foulled its glorious public linksland with monstrosities like Codona's "theme" park (glorified fairground), the adjoining, and truly hideous, Queen's Links leisure complex, and for that matter the Patio itself, which in architectural terms, is of the early Travelodge style. It is not, however, in that price bracket. Oh no. It's an AA 4-star (which refers, basically, to facilities on offer, not quality of service) and even for oiliness-inflated Aberdeen, it's pricy. I was paying a special Beeb rate of £80 a night b&b, for an "ordinary" room; you can pay a lot more for the same thing, and zillions more for an "executive" version. Anyway, the reason people stay there, and the reason it's nearly always full, is the leisure club, Breakers. There's a pool, sauna, steam room, gym..all excellent.
Service is good too, and the rooms - although of odd design in my case, with peculiar windows too high to see out of - comfortable. Good telly provision. Bad points? It beggars belief that anyone in this day and age is charging £15 per 24-hour period for wi-fi access. That's just taking the piss. Hotels of this standard should be providing it free. And the food I had ranged from the overpriced to the horrendous: soup, steak and chips at night in the restaurant was passable, though the house wine was awesomely expensive. But the breakfasts! Boil-in-the-bag kippers (only grilled to superhardness) WITHIN SIGHT of some of the best smokehouses in Scotland! And fish merchants! Stale croissants! Cheese hard through and through (this in a room-service breakfast at a £3.75 surcharge). Cold toast...disgusting.
Best thing about the Patio, better even than the swimming pool, is the presence next door of a giant Tesco. Yes, another besmirchment of the links, but it means you can buy proper food and eat it in your room. And a bottle of very good wine for the price of a glass of house plonk downstairs. It's Holiday Inn Express for me next time. And the public swiming pool.
Finally, I was sad to see that Anderson's, an old-style cycle shop just short of its 70th birthday, has closed to make way for a "bakery and coffee shop". I bought loads of bits there, and (cheaply and second-hand) the old Dutch hub-gear bike I keep in Aberdeen, mainly because there was none of that lycra-clad patronising you get in other, groovier establishments. It was cheaper too.
I'm on holiday this week, and am determined to take up running. Or at the very least, stumbling. Or dog walking at a fast, if you will, lick. This is called djogging. This is thanks to the incredibly helpful attitude of the staff at The Running Shop, who spent half-an-hour assessing my feet, and then supplying some of their sale shoes at a very reasonable price. and with Mellis cheesemongers just up the road, it's not such a bad old place, Aberdeen.
Belle and Sebastian: yours, bewildered of Shetland...
So, Stuart Murdoch from Belle and Sebastian came into the Aberdeen studio yesterday for a wee chat, and I must say I was a bit concerned, as B&S are one of those bands I’ve never quite managed to get a handle on. The fact that they come from Glasgow, that Stuart’s lyrics are by turns phenomenally witty and movingly melancholic, indeed the overt Christian faith of their leader…all those things should have made me, if not a convert to the B&S cause, at least interested enough for some committed immersion in the works.
And yet, no. I’ve dipped into the albums from Fold Your Hands…on, and we’ve gone big on the show with Dear Catastrophe Waitress and indeed the new single, Funny Little Frog. Yet there’s always been something slippery and elusive about the band for me. Something which stopped me, well, getting it. I once mused on air that I found B&S “admirable, but hard to love”. And yet for an increasing number of people worldwide, they’re lovable to an extreme, even cultish degree.
I gave myself a crash course in B&S’s early stuff for the occasion of the interview, and pored over the excellent, revelatory Sunday Herald feature by Peter Ross. Stuart, who for years gave no interviews at all, turned out to be dressed in dapper sub-Chaplin fashion, and was open, thoughtful and friendly in a reserved kind of way, if that made sense. He was happy, for instance, to talk about his problems with ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. You can hear the interview for a week or so from now via Radio Scotland’s Listen Again facility.
We played the excellent I’m a Cuckoo from DC Waitress, and I confirmed the Thin Lizzy references. Funny Little Frog sounded great, too, and I was looking forward to the sold-out gig that night at Aberdeen’s Music Hall.
Support act was King Creosote, aka Kenny Anderson of Fence Records fame, and he was a revelation: a superb, soaring, sweet voice, and accordion-washed songs that caught at the heart. Very impressive. And then on to the main attraction, the hall absolutely rammed (studenty to late 30s, mostly, but with a surprising number of 40-55 year olds), top class sound system, major league light show…and me not knowing what to expect. A stranger at the ball.
It was…odd. I can imagine no other major (they can sell out Hammersmith and the Royal Albert Hall) act stopping a song half way through, having a good-humoured argument about whose fault it was, and then starting it all over again. Or, in a moment which was pure youth club, bringing onstage five err…over excited audience members to clap along during Funny Little Frog. That was almost 10 minutes, in fact, of cringe-inducing miscalculation, and yet immediately afterwards, for almost the first time, the band locked into something approaching a groove and turned into the “Saturday night band” Stuart claimed in the S Herald he wanted them to be.
It all looked very peculiar too. At time there were 12 people on stage, including a string section, with lots of instrument swapping going on, something I’ve always distrusted in a band. The bewildering array of styles and pop culture references made it sometimes feel as if the music was a kind of effect, there to illustrate the lyrics rather than combine with them. And what B&S, perhaps deliberately, do not have on their side is theatre. There is no visceral drama about their performance. It’s enigmatic, weird, adolescent. They hop and grin with daft enthusiasm, where I remember the deadly serious, furious, but still gladioli-ridden humour of the Smiths in their youthful pomp. Yet Stuart Murdoch is 37.
B&S were appealling, yes, and at times transcendent. But more if you knew the songs, if the works were dear to you from the records, and you had the thrill of simply being in the same place as performers you’ve learned to love. As an event in itself, this was not successful evangelism. It was an inclusive act of worship that left me feeling like an outsider. And, oddly, thinking of Franz Ferdinand, of whom I thoroughly disapprove for their magpie tendencies, and how much more satisfying they are as an in-concert proposition, even if you’re not a fan. They have the focus, the stagecraft, and they lack the winning, fey self-consciousness that makes B&S so beloved of those who love them, and so confusing for me.
Posted by Tom Morton at 12:53 pm 1 comment:
I keep telling myself: the arctic convoys were a lot worse than this...
I struggled off the Hrossey at 9.55 this morning, groggy and swaying, almost three hours late in arriving at Aberdeen.
As nights on the boat go, this was among the worst I've experienced, and easily the roughest aboard a NorthLink ship. Though I shudder to think what it would have been like aboard the St Sunniva or the St Clair, with their old-tech stabilisers. When the captain of the Hrossey switched off her(rather efficient) stabilisers so we could finally enter Aberdeen harbour, the boat rolled with a vengeance. Battering our way south through a force eight south westerly, we had slammed, crunched and nose-dived, but the sideways motion remained bearable. Just.
No seasickness, just an initial quickening of the heartbeat once we were out of Bressay Sound and into the first of the big breakers. Reading HMS Ulysses had probably been a mistake, but at least I was able to tell myself, over and over again: the arctic convoys were worse than this...
Phenergan saved me. Well, Phenergan (freely available at your chemists, but normally prescribed for hay fever) and a small dram of supermarket (I think Sainsbury) Islay Pure Malt. Carried about my person in the hip flask my pal Stewart gave me as a birthday present. Well, that plus one of the Hrossey's excellent steak pies, with tatties, carrots and peas. And an ice cream. Never travel on an empty stomach.
I knew from the forecast it would be a bad trip, but the Captain's announcement on leaving the berth (" we are expecting VERY ROUGH SEAS") and the fact that I had been handed an "Adverse Weather Conditions" leaflet before boarding, sent me to the cafeteria while we were still tied up, and to my cabin the moment we started moving.
And there I stayed, with occasional journeys to the toilet and for bottled water (Phenergan really dehydrates you) for the next 14 and a bit hours. I was thrown sideways into the bedside table a few times, but never completely out of my bunk. Though lying on my side was impossibly rocky.
Normally, the ferry gets into Aberdeen around 7.00 am (a 12-hour trip, unless it's going via Orkney) but Aberdeen Harbour is notoriously impenetrable in certain wind directions, depending on the state of the tide. When you think about it, there's no shelter - it's just a tight river mouth. Diversions to (the much more navigable) Invergordon or Rosyth are a last resort, but things at Aberdeen are getting worse and worse as the river silts up, and it seems very likely that Rosyth will be the mainland jumping-off point for the Northern Isles in the future.
Anyway, today we had to stoat about off Aberdeen for almost three hours, which didn't bother me that much. I just stayed in bed. When I finally reached dry land, I breakfasted at the excellent Baker's Pantry, in the bus station: £3.40 for bacon and egg roll, pot of tea and a fruit scone. That's the other thing about Phenergan - it makes you really hungry.
Dog, beard and peculiar hat
This picture was taken by my dad during his visit to Shetland at New Year - I think this was 2nd January. We were out for a walk on the glorious Ness of Hillswick, looking over to the red cliffs of Eshaness (not the black vocanic ones near the Lighthouse). Good grief, am I really that fat? All right, there's no need for that...dear old Quoyle the labrador is 11 years old and still sprightly. I am a lot older than that and...oh, my aching back.
Collapse of stout party...
Phew, wind's getting up again...these gales are getting a bit wearisome.
Amazed to hear about the Stornoway lorry driver who saw a sheep flying past his windscreen...I've never seen that, but it's possible that the native Shetland breed is less aerodynamic than the Hebridean equivalent...I have seen one apparently levitating over a fence.
Funniest thing from the Ananova news website I've seen in years was this, which almost sent me into complete hysterical collapse on air this afternoon:
"A Croatian widow has submitted a pickled cucumber for a place as the world's oldest in the Guinness Book of Records.
Vera Dudas, 73, from Duga Resa, says the cucumber was pickled by her mother-in-law when her late husband was born in 1930.
She has now had the cucumber insured. She says it's her only reminder of her husband Pavao who would have turned 76 this year.
Vera said: "Unfortunately, the cucumber has survived longer than Pavao.
"I remember my entire married life when I look at that cucumber, it was with us everywhere we ever lived and through all our experiences - good and bad."
Well. Quite.
Big south westerly gales do this kind of thing in the Shetland Isles.
All the power went off in Hillswick in the early hours of Wednesday, thanks to winds gusting up to 11 (Nigel Tufnell would have loved it). Last time this happened, a window blew in at The Radiocroft, and almost next door, this trailer fell victim to the breeze on Wednesday. No injuries, thank God.
Yesterday marked the anniversary of the terrible tragedy in Uist, when five members of the same family were killed during a hurricane by wind-driven flooding.
Could the same thing happen in Shetland? Well, probably not. Shetland is nowhere near as low-lying as the Uists and Benbecula, there are few vulnerable causeways linking islands, and vulnerable coastal communities have been heavily protected by armouring, paid for by public money. That includes our own house, which is only a few metres from the sea and has flooded very badly in the past. In Lerwick, there are of course the Lodberries, houses built out into the sea and often incorporating boathouses. Most have always accomodated the ocean, more or less!
We have taken our own extensive anti-flooding measures since renovating our house, but perhaps the key difference between Shetland and the Western Isles is the financial muscle wielded by the local council (thank you, Big Oil), and the will to act on behalf of islanders. I simply cannot imagine anything like the Uist tragedy happening in Shetland. But if it had, I have absolutely no doubt that the council, for all its myriad sins, would have moved heaven and earth to ensure nothing like it ever happened again. And quickly too. It would appear that has not happened in the Western Isles.
The weather is gusty but bearable at the moment, though the forecast is for more gales at the weekend. As I'm booked on the boat to go south on Sunday night, this is not a pleasant prospect. To the Phenergan!
Old pictures...
This is a Wolseley, and it's the car that dominates my memories of childhood. Even though my father tells me it gave him "nothing but trouble", as I suppose you'd kind of expect from a British vehicle this old...cars nowadays may have less character, but my goodness they work.
I can remember long overnight journeys from Glasgow to the south of England, one sister asleep in a carry cot, the other on the rear parcel shelf, me on the floor, on cushions packed either side of the transmission tunnel. Seatbelts? You must be joking...
I had these pictures on 35mm slides (boxes and boxes given to me ages ago by dad) and before Christmas Tesco in Aberdeen, without fuss, transferred 30 or so onto CD and provided two sets of prints for a tenner in total. Not bad, I thought. the pictures themselves were all taken on a Braun Paxette, a lovely wee German camera from the 1950s. I still have one, though the winding mechanism is broken.
The other picture illustrates the defining influences on my childhood, apart from internal combustion engines, that is: Religion, in the form of Bethany Hall in Troon, and its Sunday School, plus music, which was an integral part of life in the Brethren. The picture shows, circa 1962, one of the summer open-air Sunday Schools at Troon prom. I am not the lad in the kilt belting out (probably) Store Your Treasure In The Bank of Heaven. I think that's someone called Alistair MacHaffie.
Ahem: let me see if I can remember the words, though:
Store your treasure in the Bank of Heaven
Where no thief can steal away
There you'll find it safely waiting for you
When you get to heaven (stamp stamp)
One day.
I could go on for hours in similar vein...but I won't. That's enough nostalgia.
Some snaps from last year to this, using my birthday camera
Just a wee collage, showing, variously, the coward's view of Eshaness this morning (9th January, so windy I could hardly stand; force nine gusting more); two shots of sunrise on 1st January, 2006 (around 9.00 am); a boat just along from our house, not mine; a remnant of the MOD presence at Eshaness, taken this morning; Hillswick from the Manse, around 9.00 am, New Year's Day; a corner of the kitchen during my birthday do. My dad.
All taken on the new Samsung PRO815, which is the size and weight of an SLR, but has a built-in (on?) zoom lens of colossal zoomability. It's all-singing, all-dancing, and so far I can make it sort of mumble and shuffle. Advice from Bruce, neighbour and ace landscape photographer, is to wrap it in clingfilm if out in windy, seaspray-laden conditions. Like today. Oops...
30th: Bang crash wallop. Bash Susan's borrowed/rented pick-up into sister's rental Corsa. Not good. Completely fed up and knackered.
31st: I am 50. Surprisingly good. Party starts at 3.00pm and continues for around 12 hours. Great music, food, moderate drinking. Only big disappointment is Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottling of 12-year-old Aberlour which tastes like bad schnapps. Millions of great presents and lovely people. It was...emotional.
1st: Glorious, crisp, sunny day. Walks, Busta for fantastic meal courtesy of the lovely Joe and Veronica, Lost in Translation on projection DVD...roads very slippy but no more accidents thank goodness.
2nd: Back to work. Huh! If you can call it work...
Podcast v broadcast...radio is the sound salvation...
The Great Vicious Beasts of Hillswick Prepare to S...
Aberdeen and its myriad delights...a tie in an une...
I keep telling myself: the arctic convoys were a l...
Some snaps from last year to this, using my birthd...
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About BIRD
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Bahrain Reimposes Death Sentence Against Torture Victims 2 weeks ago
Parliamentarians Urge Dominic Raab to Intervene on Behalf of Bahraini Death Row Inmates 2 weeks ago
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Parliament Question Tracker
Bahrain Reimposes Death Sentence Against Torture Victims
Parliamentarians Urge Dominic Raab to Intervene on Behalf of Bahraini Death Row Inmates
Bahrain prisoner release for National Day excludes prominent political prisoners
Huddersfield University Urged to Sever Ties with Bahraini Regime Linked to Disgraced Duke of York
52 MEPs From all Parties Condemn Medical Negligence in Bahraini Prisons
Activist Files Criminal Complaint Against Bahrain Embassy Staff for ‘Attempted Murder’
Hakeem AlAraibi Joins Jailed Bahraini Jiu Jitsu Champion in Criticising Regime-Affiliated MMA Event
Cross-Party Leaders Call for End to UK Training to Bahrain Amid Abuse of Female Activists
Ali AlHajee: 1000 Days in Prison Without Seeing His Family
Formula One Pledges to Raise Abuse of Jailed Bahraini Activist After Damning UN Ruling
Home Advocacy Event Summary: Bahrain Human Rights Challenges in 2015 and the UK’s Policy
Event Summary: Bahrain Human Rights Challenges in 2015 and the UK’s Policy
Posted date: August 13, 2015 in: Advocacy, Events, Freedom from Torture, Isa Al-Aali, Statements, TimeLineNo Comments
On Thursday, 13 August 2015, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and Human Rights Watch held a roundtable discussion regarding concerns regarding human rights in Bahrain and UK policy towards the country. Chaired by Nicholas McGeehan, Gulf researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), the discussion also included speakers Shane Enright, Global Trade Union Adviser at Amnesty UK, Kevin Laue, Legal officer at Redress and Isa Al-Ali, a Bahraini torture survivor recently granted asylum by UK court. The discussion was attended by representatives from a number of organisations including Amnesty International, Index on Censorship, Reprieve, NASUWT, English Pen and Chatham House amongst others.
Shane Enright began the discussion by drawing attention to the case of Mahdi Abu Deeb, the president of the Bahrain Teachers Association (BTA) arrested in 2011 for calling for teachers strike and sentenced to five years imprisonment. The BTA was this year awarded the Arthur Svensson Prize for recognition of their work, and to “throw a spotlight that teachers and students in Bahrain are suffering under.” Amnesty International UK (AIUK) are deeply concerned about Abu Deeb’s “precarious” health in jail, which is deteriorating, and are “keeping light” on his situation. Whilst Abu Dheeb only have nine months left of his sentence to serve, AIUK are “not convinced he is safe” and are “very concerned that [the government of Bahrain] may wish to keep him silenced.”
Whilst Mr. Enright was particularly focused on the “blight of the BTA”, he believes it offers “an opportunity to talk about wider issues” within Bahrain. Pointing to World Teacher’s Day on 5 October, Mr. Enright spoke about strengthening international and UK trade union relations with their Bahraini counterparts, as well as greater UK public awareness towards the issues as positive steps.
Kevin Laue spoke about the relationship between Bahrain and the UK, specifically the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The FCO have deliberately avoiding criticising Bahrain or drawing attention to the country’s systematic use of torture. Prior to the 2011 crisis, the FCO’s 2010 Human Rights and Democracy Report did not list Bahrain as a “Country of Concern”. Yet even during the wide-scale protests in 2011 calling for democratic change, listing Bahrain as a “Country of Concern” still did not get much traction despite repeated calls, including specific calls by the Parliament’s own Foreign Affairs Committee. Even in 2013, when the FAC led an inquiry into the region after the oft-titled “Arab Spring”, Bahrain was once again called upon to be designated as a “Country of Concern”.
Mr. Laue argued that to avoid this categorisation, the FCO “creatively” listed Bahrain as a “case study”; seen to “rebranding” and ultimately “sidestepping the issues”. He also raised further concerns over the FCO’s move in 2015 to completely take down the catogory of “Country of Concern” and replace them with “priority countries”, thereby altogether removing the critical terminology. The position of Redress, therefore, is that “changing names and shuffling government posts is rather latent, what is needed is for the British government to take a principled stand in Bahrain.”
Nabeel Rajab, the President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Skyped into the meeting and spoke about the challenges faced by human rights defenders this year. He noted that the government has not shown any tolerance for criticism this year and raised the case of both Ali Salman, the head of Al Wefaq, and Ebrahim Sharif, the head of the National Action Society, both of whom have been detained on charges related to their freedom of expression. Mr. Rajab has been detained several times over the past few years in Bahrain, most recently for tweeting criticism against the government. He is currently under a travel ban after being charged for tweets criticising the government for torture in Jau Prison and for criticising the war in Yemen.
Isa Al-Aali finished off the discussion by giving his very personal testimony of the torture that he was subjected to in Bahrain. Being only 17 when the 2011 protests began, he was involved in peacefully demonstrating for democratic change and freedom of expression. Being beaten, tortured and humiliated, Mr. Al-Aali fled the country to avoid further torture and death threats. Even though he had been released from detention, he was not given freedom as the Bahraini police continued to harass and contact him trying to extract information about others, threatening him with death for non-compliance. As Nick McGeehan for HRW concluded, this “harrowing, traumatic story” is “one that’s heard all too often”, and anyone who denies that such torture continues in Bahrain is “extremely misguided.”
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Bahrain: Prisoners Denied Medical Care
Report Exposes Widespread Abuse of female Political Prisoners in Bahrain
FCO 2018 Report Continues to Deceive the Public Over Bahrain’s Rights Record
Foreign Affairs Committee Report: FCO Should Reconsider Situation in Bahrain and Stop Shielding Saudi Arabia and Bahrain from UN criticism
Exposed – UK taxpayers fund Bahrain torture and death penalty
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Holy Jeebus
Sometimes others just hit the nail on the head ... so what's the point in trying to improve on what Harold Myerson has written in the Washington Post. Here is his opinion piece titled Hard Liners for Jesus (I have italicized some parts I especially agree with).
by Harold Myerson
As Christians across the world prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, it's a fitting moment to contemplate the mountain of moral, and mortal, hypocrisy that is our Christianized Republican Party.
There's nothing new, of course, about the Christianization of the GOP. Seven years ago, when debating Al Gore, then-candidate George W. Bush was asked to identify his favorite philosopher and answered "Jesus." This year, however, the Christianization of the party reached new heights with Mitt Romney's declaration that he believed in Jesus as his savior, in an effort to stanch the flow of "values voters" to Mike Huckabee.
My concern isn't the rift that has opened between Republican political practice and the vision of the nation's Founders, who made very clear in the Constitution that there would be no religious test for officeholders in their enlightened new republic. Rather, it's the gap between the teachings of the Gospels and the preachings of the Gospel's Own Party that has widened past the point of absurdity, even as the ostensible Christianization of the party proceeds apace.
The policies of the president, for instance, can be defended in greater or (more frequently) lesser degree within a framework of worldly standards. But if Bush can conform his advocacy of preemptive war with Jesus's Sermon on the Mount admonition to turn the other cheek, he's a more creative theologian than we have given him credit for. Likewise his support of torture, which he highlighted again this month when he threatened to veto House-passed legislation that would explicitly ban waterboarding.
It's not just Bush whose catechism is a merry mix of torture and piety. Virtually the entire Republican House delegation opposed the ban on waterboarding. Among the Republican presidential candidates, only Huckabee and the not-very-religious John McCain have come out against torture, while only libertarian Ron Paul has questioned the doctrine of preemptive war.
But it's on their policies concerning immigrants where Republicans -- candidates and voters alike -- really run afoul of biblical writ. Not on immigration as such but on the treatment of immigrants who are already here. Consider: Christmas, after all, celebrates not just Jesus's birth but his family's flight from Herod's wrath into Egypt, a journey obviously undertaken without benefit of legal documentation. The Bible isn't big on immigrant documentation. "Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him," Exodus says the Lord told Moses on Mount Sinai, "for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."
Yet the distinctive cry coming from the Republican base this year isn't simply to control the flow of immigrants across our borders but to punish the undocumented immigrants already here, children and parents alike.
So Romney attacks Huckabee for holding immigrant children blameless when their parents brought them here without papers, and Huckabee defends himself by parading the endorsement of the Minuteman Project's Jim Gilchrist, whose group harasses day laborers far from the border. The demand for a more regulated immigration policy comes from virtually all points on our political spectrum, but the push to persecute the immigrants already among us comes distinctly, though by no means entirely, from the same Republican right that protests its Christian faith at every turn.
We've seen this kind of Christianity before in America. It's more tribal than religious, and it surges at those times when our country is growing more diverse and economic opportunity is not abounding. At its height in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was chiefly the political expression of nativist Protestants upset by the growing ranks of Catholics in their midst.
It's difficult today to imagine KKKers thinking of their mission as Christian, but millions of them did.
Today's Republican values voters don't really conflate their rage with their faith. Lou Dobbs is a purely secular figure. But nativist bigotry is strongest in the Old Time Religion precincts of the Republican Party, and woe betide the Republican candidate who doesn't embrace it, as John McCain, to his credit and his political misfortune, can attest.
The most depressing thing about the Republican presidential race is that the party's rank and file require their candidates to grow meaner with each passing week. And now, inconveniently, inconsiderately, comes Christmas, a holiday that couldn't be better calibrated to expose the Republicans' rank, fetid hypocrisy.
Posted by Other Side at 8:55 AM 14 Swings of the bat Links to this post
Labels: Conservatives, Harold Myerson, Immigration
Thought This was Funny
The mosquito has landed on a bottle of herbal mosquito repellant.
Sounds like a line from a Monty Python episode. The naughty bits of an ant. The mosquito has landed. Oh well, my humor is a little whacked.
Another Offering from that King of Comedic Writing, John
Our friend John, the right-wing commenter strikes again with more humor, grammatical errors and unrelenting rant over at Rick Esenberg's Shark and Shepherd.
Rick and our very own hero, the unpatriotic, LIBERAL, lose at all costs villain, Jay Bullock (folkbum's rambles and rants) are engaged in a fine discussion on waterboarding (is it torture or a fun summer activity) and whether or not waterboarding (the tortuous kind) was really effective in getting Abu Zubadayh to confess to vicious plots against American citizens, or to the location of his favorite hot dog stands on the east coast.
John decided to take matters into his own hands and he came up with this gem ... nay, masterpiece (note the exquisite use of the sticky caps lock key).
Rick, whether waterboarding has been effective "enough", is specious and unrelated to the question of whether it is TORTURE or not.
To wit, Jay et al, will NEVER acknowledge a rough technique as being "effective", as long as Jay, et al, are "invested" in discrediting President Bush, and as such are "invested" in our countries "discredit or failure" in terms of political discourse.
It's far beyond obvious. Jay Bullock, will NEVER, accept any victories by our Country, so long as HIS, party/friends, are not responsible for said victories.
That is pretty much the emblematic definition of being a traitor,(yes I am questioning Jay's patiotism or lack thereof).
Rick, I'm confident that you agree, but as usual, I recognize that you are above most of this rancor.I'll end with this.
Jay Bullock sais the following:
((No one has been able to demonstrate that a single life has been saved or a single attack prevented through the use of the technique}}
Rick, if you do not recognize how far Jay Bullock and his like, will go to deny what is obvious, then you too are nuts.
John's confidence that Rick will agree with him may or may not be founded in fact. I'd bet the house John's confidence is misplaced, however, it does beg another question. Most of us would agree that a large percentage of conservative writers are well-meaning and thoughtful (stop laughing back there, it's the season for generosity). Truly though, most do not stoop to John's level. The question being begged is when does Rick, and even Jessica McBride (whose blog John frequents) who has famously decried anonymous commenters though John has no blog and anyone could set up with the name John to make comments, say something about this clown?
I see all the time where liberal voices will disagree with each other and even call out someone for something said. Heck, in one of my more sleepy moments I once wrote something untrue about James Wigderson as a comment at Jay's blog. James caught it and wrote a gracious denial, even suspecting that I had to have been tired. Jay jumped on it and told me quite frankly it wasn't true.
I offered my apologies to James, which he accepted. We all make mistakes, but Jay stood up for a - gasp – conservative. Frankly, other than James who is always fair (and perhaps Dean Mundy, though I read his blog less often, to my shame) I have never seen another do the same.
It's really not that big of a deal. John's comments do provide comic relief and fodder for more Whallah posts, but it would be nice to see it happen just occasionally.
Labels: Conservatives, James Wigderson, Jay Bullock, Jokes, McBride, Rick Esenberg
I was a fan of Dan Fogelberg back in the 70s and early 80s and then lost track of him. I see over at James' place that he has passed away at the age of 56. Of course, the passing of most anyone is a sad affair, and I'm 51 and everytime someone who is a contemporary of mine passes away I feel the cold hand of mortality ever so briefly. Shiver.
Anyway, though I've not listened to Fogelberg for years, this song's title popped into my head immediately upon reading of his death. For my two or three readers, here's Fogelberg's "Leader of the Band."
Labels: Dan Fogelberg
Another Offering from that King of Comedic Writing...
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Sierra Nevada Makes Big Addition Following Up and Down June
The Sierra Nevada Goldens concluded the 1st half of the season a frustrated bunch. After opening their inaugural season with two winning months going (32-24), the Goldens sputtered in June going (13-15) versus the Platinum division, fininshing the first half with a (45-39) record.
The month of June started with Sierra Nevada trailing the Duluth-Superior Dukes by only 2 games in the Silver League's Copper Division. The Goldens sputtered out of the gate losing 5 of 7 to the struggling Sugar Creek Settlers. In a thrilling series, the Settlers managed to pull out 3 wins in extra innings & squeaked out another one-run victory by a score of 4-3. The 5th Settlers win of the series was a game where Beckett gave up 10 runs, 5 earned, in 4 2/3 innings.
The Goldens responded from adversity with an outstanding (5-2) series win against the league leading Diamond Gems. In the 1st ever netplay series for the Goldens, the hitters swung mighty bats as the Gems were handed their 1st series loss of the season. Sierra Nevada outscored the Gems 55-37 in the 7 games and the 2 losses were by a combined 3 runs. In the series, Beckett got a win while Buehrle earned a win and a no-decision which led to a win. The two have turned out to be dominant at times giving the Goldens a formidable 1, 2 punch. The story of the series were the bats. The Goldens seemed to hit clutch home runs the entire series and Jim Thome crushed a homer in each of the 1st 4 games. This series was by far the highlight of the month.
Sierra Nevada finished up the June schedule going only (6-8) in the remaining 14 games as Twin City pummeled them in 6 of the 7 contests and the Goldens took 5 of 7 versus the cellar dwelling Andover Cougars.
The month of June was all in all a big disappointment. You can point to poor fielding from Miles at shortstop while Renteria rested. Or, maybe the lineup missed Hank Blalock from the left side as he missed the month due to injury. More than anything, you need to point to the starting pitching. Mark Buehrle was the most effective going (2-1) in 5 starts with a 4.76 ERA, but Josh Beckett was (1-3) in 5 June starts, with a 6.82 ERA! Aaron Harang LOWERED his ERA this month by going (1-1) in 5 starts with a 5.40 ERA......not good for a #3 starter. Gil Meche went (2-3) in 6 June starts with a 6.02 ERA, including only going 1 1/3 giving up 5 in a loss at Andover.
Sierra Nevada is banking on Buehrle, Beckett, Harang, and Gil Meche to bounce back and pitch more as expected as they enter the 2nd half of the season and league play begins. The Goldens made a trade in hopes that they could improve their (11-12) record versus lefty starters. Carlos Beltran & Conor Jackson were acquired from the East Lyme Crush to add a stronger presence from the right side of the plate & speed and center field defense with Beltran. While Sierra Nevada was sorry to say goodbye to Marlon Byrd, Skip Schumaker, Mike Jacobs, & Yusmeiro Petit in the deal, the Goldens are hoping that these two additions in the middle & top of the lineup will help the Goldens make up ground on the Copper Division leading Duluth-Superior Dukes who sit 4 games ahead of Sierra Nevada. The Goldens also trail the San Jose Scorpions by 4 games for the final Silver League Wild Card spot.
The month of December will feature head-to-head games with San Jose, one of the two teams ahead of them in the wild card standings, and with East Lyme, Beltran's old team.
Posted by Doug Fredriksen at 12:13 AM 0 Swings of the bat Links to this post
Sierra Nevada Makes Big Addition Following Up and ...
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Nike Hoop Summit Practices: Day Two
Walker Beeken
Nike Hoop Summit Official International Team Measurements
With first day jitters and logistical issues out of the way at the Nike Hoop Summit practices in Portland, we were able to focus on the full 11 player international-team squad in two two-hour sessions at the Trailblazers practice facility.
As is customary every year, the international team comes together a full five days before the actual game on Saturday evening (7 PM PST, TV: FSN), while the US squad will only conduct their first practice on Thursday.
The international squad is led by new head coach Roy Rana, via Canada, who has the difficult task of blending in skill development with the tactical game preparation.
We got a chance to speak with Coach Rana after the morning practice yesterday, and we asked him about this that's always the balance, between how much time are you spending on tactics and how much time are you spending teaching and drilling guys. I think we want to keep a nice balance, and the goal is to try and get a W on Saturday night. So we're approaching this more like a preparation for a national team than we would for an all star game.
Rana (Twitter: @Roy_Rana) has plenty of experience in the national team setting, as he's served as both a head coach and an assistant for the Canadian national team on both the senior and junior-team level.
Both practices showed us quite a bit about the make-up of this International roster, which looks to have a great deal of depth and a very balanced roster, which should help to define players' roles and give Coach Rana some flexibility to play with different types of lineups.
The Nike Hoop Summit international team has always had great talent in years past, but for the first time ever there appears to be very little drop-off between the top of the roster and the bottom.
The USA roster looks to be smaller and more athletic, so it will be interesting to see how things play out on Saturday night.
We asked Coach Rana if he thought his more balanced roster gave the International team an advantage.
Well I think it's a real strength of ours, but it's also kind of a weakness, right? I mean we've got legitimate guys down low that we can go inside to and take advantage of our size. The US is a little bit smaller and more athletic with guys like Michael Gilchrist and James McAdoo playing some 4, so defensively that kind of poses some challenges for us. But I think for us it's really going to come down to how much chemistry do you have. And really protecting the basketball. In the end, most games are about effort and hustle. We do those things, and I think we've got a chance.
About half of the NBA was represented at practice yesterday to get an up-close look at some of the best young international prospects in the world all practicing together in the same gym. Many cited the convenience of having a group of prospects of this nature assembled here in the US in such a well-organized settingsomething that saves them a significant amount of time and money for the future.
We counted at least fifteen different NBA teams on hand so far, some of whom had multiple representatives in attendance. As the week moves on, we'll surely see many new faces, while some scouts will move onto Portsmouth after getting a good feel for the prospects here in Portland.
The most intriguing long-term NBA prospects on the international team are 1992-born front-court players: 6'9 Bismack Biyombo from the Congo (currently playing for Fuenlabrada in Spain), and 7'0 center Lucas Nogueira from Brazil. Both players have some limitations on the offensive end, but also possess some freakish physical tools that were on display during every practice session thus far.
Biyombo stands out immediately when he walks into the gym. He sports a chiseled frame (measured 4.8 % body fat) with broad shoulders and an incredible 7'7 wingspan, and as we saw during some of the brief 5 on 5 sessions, he has an outstanding motor, which makes him a terror on the glass and on the defensive end. He also looks to be a very mature player with a great attitude, often seen encouraging teammates, talking with the coaching staff, and helping others with instructions. The experience he's garnered seeing heavy minutes in the top league in the world outside the NBAthe Spanish ACB--over the past few months was very evident.
Lucas also has a ridiculous 7'6 wingspan, and he runs the floor like a deer, but he's still fairly thin, as expected from an 18 year old 7-footer. He showed great mobility and shot-blocking ability yesterday, and he'll be a guy scouts will be keeping a close eye on over the next few days to see just how far along he is in his development.
Other intriguing prospects from yesterday's practice included 6'10 small forward Davis Bertans from Latvia, who showed a beautiful stroke from 3-point range, and 6'7 wing Evan Fournier from France who showed a very well-rounded skill set on the wing and excellent scoring instincts.
After missing Monday's practice, Chinese guard Ailun Guo and Brazilian point guard Raul Neto made it to Portland for both sessions yesterday. Ailun has a translator with him, highlighting the language barrier between some of the players and coaches, which is a given when you have players from all over the world coming together on the same team.
We asked Coach Rana about the language barrier and other issues facing his team there are a number of hurdles that we have to overcome. Guo, the Chinese kid, just got in last night and he's got a 15 hour time differential, Neto's coming in from Brazil, we've got guys coming in from all over the world, and not just taking into account jet lag, but also dehydration, time zone differential, and then the language on top of it, it's an incredible mental load. It tests these kids a lot. And so far they're passing with flying colors. They're buying in and picking up things pretty quickly and developing some of that chemistry within the group that's really important.
Overall, we've been very impressed with the international group, and we're looking forward to the rest of the week and getting the opportunity to further evaluate them and see how they fare against Team USA on Saturday.
See USA Basketball for more coverage.
James McAdoo PF
Bismack Biyombo PF/C
Lucas Nogueira C
Davis Bertans SF
Evan Fournier SG/SF
Ailun Guo PG/SG
Raul Neto PG
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Review: Titans: Villains for Hire trade paperback (DC Comics)
13 comments | Tags: Teen Titans
Arsenal Roy Harper appears next in Eric Wallace's Titans: Villains for Hire after Justice League: Rise and Fall; in short, if you didn't like the earlier volume, you're not going to like this one either. But moreover, I actually thought Rise and Fall had some redeeming moments, and I still didn't much care for this Titans relaunch. I think I know what DC Comics attempted here, but it didn't succeed.
[Contains spoilers]
There's nothing new about teams of antiheroes; just after Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC had success with John Ostrander's Suicide Squad, and more recently there's Marvel's Thunderbolts and Gail Simone's villain-focused Secret Six. I'd even venture that Judd Winick's Outsiders, though heroes, were the groundwork of a team just a little bit over what the law allows (not to mention that the book itself offered some overly edgy material), that lead the way for the ongoing Secret Six series.
I can't quite see Titans as more than DC trying another series to capitalize on the popularity of Secret Six. It's another villain team; there's a mild undercurrent of morality among them; they do lots of bad things, but yet we're supposed to be sympathetic to them. Unfortunately, it's a lot harder than that to catch lightning in a bottle a second time.
For me, Villains for Hire went wrong immediately with the villains' murder of Atom Ryan Choi. Letting alone the poor political implications (I'm not in favor of DC killing nor creating a character based on ethnicity alone, but they had to know this wasn't going to play well with the fans), this early murder of an essentially defenseless hero makes the new Titans seem mean-spirited, and this never goes away. Early on the Secret Six proves their "toughness" fighting a bunch of other villains; the Titans swoop in and murder a hero. This worked for Max Lord in Countdown to Infinite Crisis because we were supposed to dislike Max; here, we're supposed to want to follow Deathstroke, but I never found myself wanting to.
Second, the conflicts the Titans face in this book are wholly unremarkable. We believe they're trying to assassinate Lex Luthor (too similar, again, to the first Winick Outsiders trade), but really they're trying to protect him; their enemy is a generic shapeshifter named Facade. Later, they battle an equally generic drug kingpin Elijah and his super-team The Dominators, made up of villains with names like Spike, Brute, and DJ Molecule (no kidding). These are throwaway characters, there just for the purpose of the Titans' conflict, but pages upon pages of the Titans fighting someone the reader doesn't care about, by my estimation, ends up with the reader just not caring at all.
I believe what's actually supposed to draw the reader further into the book is not the characters themselves, but the puzzle of Deathstroke's mysterious final goal. I don't discount this -- it may be, ultimately, what gets me to flip through the next trade -- but neither do I think the mystery serves as quite enough. Deathstroke collects various artifacts, but his purpose is too vague, and the book fails to offer even a mildly satisfying conclusion; it just ends. We get, for instance, a cut scene where a child the Titans just rescued is ignored by his father -- and that's it; no tie to the greater story. Is this something that will factor in later? Is Wallace simply making a statement on parents and children? Possibly the book needed to be a few issues longer; here again, it's just not clear to the reader what's important, or for whom we're supposed to feel emotion, and so it just leaves Titans seeming flat.
All of this is even more a shame because I can see where Titans might otherwise have potential. I should mention again that I enjoyed Eric Wallace's Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink, specifically how it examined race through the lens of superheroics and villainy; unfortunately Titans lacks any such nuance so far. The characters included in Titans are both more recognizable than those in Secret Six, and delightfully weird -- Cheshire teamed with Tattooed Man teamed with Osiris? -- and the book has the potential to go in a hundred different directions (spy thriller, urban mystery, supernatural -- it even ties in to Brightest Day) but remains in the end just a shoot 'em up. More's the pity; "just a shoot 'em up" is the last thing DC Comics needs right now.
It's easy for us to look back and comment on the excesses of 1990s superhero comics from today's vantage -- there was an overemphasis on rebellion, perhaps, and on legacy heroes like Green Arrow Connor Hawke and Manhunter Chase Lawler that were "cool" without much substance. What, I wonder, will we say about the 2000s? There's a return to purity and traditionalism, of course, as in the resurrections of Green Arrow Oliver Queen, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and Flash Barry Allen, but then in contrast an almost cartoonish amount of violence. Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis, in my opinion, put excessive violence to good use, but to me Titans: Villains for Hire seems to follow the trend without getting the point. Bloody murder of a superhero? Check. Villains acting as antiheroes? Check. Leader has a secret plan that the writer keeps from the reader? Check.
All of these elements have worked to great effect in various recent titles -- but that doesn't mean they'll always work, and that doesn't mean you can just drop these elements into a book and expect success. Ultimately, that's how I see Villains for Hire; it attempts to take its place in the DC Universe next to Secret Six and others, but wanting such unfortunately doesn't make it so.
[Contains full and variant covers]
I honestly feel bad when a book lands with such a thud; I could find some aspects to like in the controversial Justice League: Rise and Fall, but not really here. Coming up, however, we follow some of these Brightest Day threads in to Justice League of America -- I hope that fares better.
Posted at 8:02 AM (Permalink) | 13 comments | Tags: Teen Titans
Robert Young 5/05/2011 09:05:00 AM
I couldn't justify buying anything to do with this after the one-shot. No less a figure than Gail Simone (who has written the Ryan Choi Atom) commented on this issue by posing the following question: How do you kill a superhero who has complete control over his mass and density, with a sword?
collectededitions 5/05/2011 11:39:00 AM
I agree with you about Ryan Choi, Robert, though Simone's argument doesn't quite work for me. "How do you kill a superhero who has complete control over his mass and density, with a sword?" Easy -- Deathstroke treated his blade with special mass-and-density killing formula, and we just didn't hear about it. That we're willing to posit a person can control his own mass and density, and shrink down to microscopic size, but not also that someone in this same world can kill them with a sword, seems like too much picking and choosing of the comics laws of physics for me. Any book could be torn to shreds that way.
Still, quite too bad about Ryan Choi.
And by that same logic you can kill Galactus with a coat hanger and some duct tape.
Yeah, OK, there's gradations, I grant. I take Simone's point, only I think there's bigger issues at stake than the physics of how a scientifically-enhanced assassin kills a man who shrinks with help of a special belt. But yes, gradations.
shagamu 5/05/2011 02:07:00 PM
Back when DiDio announced the Titans ongoing series would feature a team led by Deathstroke, I was pretty intrigued. I expected something interesting like the time Magneto led the New Mutants, or heroes and villains begrudgingly working together to achieve some common goal.
What we got instead was a unpleasant, tone-deaf, one-dimensional villain-centric book, with the added offense of gratuitously killing a great character like Ryan Choi, ruining Arsenal even further and turning Osiris into a joke. DC can't cancel this soon enough.
Robert Young 5/05/2011 02:20:00 PM
No doubt, and you're right, it's not the biggest issue here by any means. I was just pointing out what I (and Gail) considered a flaw, but not the biggest flaw. And if you've not found many reasons to follow this story, I certainly won't find any. And that's a shame, because Wallace did good work with the Tattooed Man following Final Crisis as well as Osiris during Blackest Night (remember that Osiris was one of the few Black Lanterns that resisted the urges of a black ring).
Nathaniel 5/05/2011 02:56:00 PM
I think I just hate Deathstroke. He reminds me of the worst excesses of Batman. He's a villain that isn't allowed to lose, even when going up against superior foes. And he never really answers for any of his dastardly deeds. I think what made Deathstroke originally pretty interesting was that he was a very human character who just ended up a villain because of some bad choices and a twisted sense of honor. He doesn't really have that anymore. People can criticize the 'Batgod', but at least at the end of the day Batman is an admirable figure and you can root for him when he overcomes all the odds. Deathstroke is just a thug, and I hate how they've built him up into this unstoppable force.
I don't know if that's how they portray him in this book, because I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, but I can't imagine things being much different from how the character's been portrayed the last few years.
I was thrilled at Deathstroke's resurgence in Identity Crisis, but since then he's been over-used, often without nuance. I increasingly miss the days of the morally-gray Deathstroke comic -- especially when you compare the dynamic Deathstroke/Arsenal/Cheshire story from those days versus the same characters falling flat in Villains for Hire.
I second that Wallace did a great job on Final Crisis Aftermath especially, and that's one reason I thought maybe Titans: Villains for Hire wouldn't have as many problems as I'd heard; maybe it was just misunderstood. Not the case, unfortunately.
Aalok Madhusudan Joshi 5/05/2011 03:53:00 PM
I was looking forward to this one the same way as I was to SUICIDE SQUAD, but I don't think that's going to be the case. I have yet to meet one person who tells me this is good. Same for DiDio & Tan's Outsiders, which finally did have something to like, the original Outsiders getting back together.
Liang Xiu 5/05/2011 04:03:00 PM
I was really disappointed with this book when I had thought maybe it would be worth reading. I'm a fan of Deathstroke, the scheming super assassin with grey morality. Putting him in charge of a team would make for some great spy thriller commando fun. Instead the end their one shot off with Killing one of my other favourite characters. And Ryan Choi was just told by Ray Palmer in Cry for Justice that there wouldn't be an issue of them both co-existing. I digress though...
I thought the book was going to be about characters we wouldn't like evolving INTO characters we would. Arsenal is at his lowest, Tattoo man is finding his place and starting off on an awkward foot, Osiris is misguided and naive, and Deathstroke... strokes death? But instead the book feels like you said: Flat, which I felt was a good way of describing it. Nothing really gets done and I really don't care about who they fight besides the Atom.
Maybe the book will show more evolution of the characters later, but this trade felt very blah.
I don't discount the possibility that Wallace intends a conversion for the Titans characters -- am rather sure of it, actually -- but for me this book didn't make me want to follow them up to that point, vs. Secret Six.
It is amazing, on one hand, that there is a Shazam-focused book currently ongoing in the DC Universe (a good thing), and on the other hand, this is it (not such a good thing).
Probably I'll follow Outsiders through to its cancellation. When it's bad -- the introduction of Freight Train -- it's bad, but when it's good -- the tension between Owlman, Katana, and Geo-Force, for instance -- it's good. Knowing it's ending, I can stand one more volume.
Hix 5/06/2011 02:39:00 AM
The entire reason I was interested to pick this up was the continuation of the Dark Marvels' story. I'll follow it for at least another volume, I suppose. My curiousity is also piqued by the promise of Ray Palmer's investigation of Ryan's death. Justice!!!!!!
Next volume has that Osiris solo issue, I think.
I keep waiting for DC to "get serious" about their Captain Marvel franchise. I don't know if the Marvels can support their own series, but I don't think anyone loves Billy Batson as the Wizard, Freddie as Shazam, and Mary Marvel off wherever. Time to return them to the status quo, I think, even if the next step is sending them off to limbo.
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