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Quick links... Local State US/World Crime Politics A Veteran's Voice Kern Back In Business Leslie Chance Trial
Bakersfield High School English teacher Michelle Nixon-Machado dies
By: Jessica Harrington
Bakersfield High School English teacher Michelle Nixon-Machado passed away on Tuesday, according to Principal David Reese.
Reese said in an email to 23ABC Nixon-Machado died after a brief, aggressive illness.
The principal said he gathered all of Ms. Nixon-Machado's students together to let them know the news.
"Toughest thing I have ever done in my 18 years as principal," he said.
Reese said Nixon-Machado was a BHS graduate who returned to the school to teach English in 2000.
"She is one of the very best teachers that I have ever hired and she absolutely loved her students and they loved her. She leaves behind her husband Dennis and their 6 year old daughter Tessa along with thousands of alumnus and thousands of family and friends." Reese said.
Reese said plans are not complete for a memorial service.
Nixon-Machado's family is asking that in lieu of flowers, friends and family should purchase a children's book on behalf of Tessa and drop it off at the school where it will be donated to local libraries.
A former student is also asking Drillers and former Drillers who knew Ms. Nixon-Machado write a letter to compile for the family.
They're asking those who choose to write a letter to write about Nixon-Machado and about the impact she had on their lives. They're also asking those letters to include a story or a memory they have including her.
Contact srcaputo1999@gmail.com or (661) 889-8058 for an address to send the letters to or for any questions.
KHSD said brief counselors are on campus and their services are available to students and staff.
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The Alloy of Law
The Alloy of Law: Chapter Four
Wed Jul 27, 2011 1:00pm 68 comments Favorite This
More Chapters from The Alloy of Law:
Prologue & Chapter One - July 27, 2011
Chapter Two - July 27, 2011
Chapter Three - July 27, 2011
Chapter Five - July 27, 2011
Chapter Six - July 27, 2011
We are very excited to offer the next excerpt from Brandon Sanderson’s fourth and latest Mistborn novel, The Alloy of Law, out November 8th from Tor Books!
Tor.com will be releasing six excerpts in all from The Alloy of Law as the weeks go on, along with sweepstakes, news, and other fun stuff, so keep checking back!
Read through all of the excerpts in order in the Alloy of Law index.
Harmony’s forearms,” Waxillium mumbled, stepping into the grand ballroom. “This is what passes for a modest wedding dinner these days? There are more people in here than live in entire towns in the Roughs.”
Waxillium had visited the Yomen mansion once in his youth, but that time, the grand ballroom had been empty. Now it was filled. Rows and rows of tables lined the hardwood floor of the cavernous chamber; there had to be over a hundred of them. Ladies, lords, elected officials, and the wealthy elite moved and chatted in a low hum, all dressed in their finest. Sparkling jewels. Crisp black suits with colorful cravats. Women with dresses after the modern fashion: deep colors, skirts that went down to the floor, thick outer layers with lots of folds and lace. Most women wore tight, vestlike coats over the top, and the necklines were much lower now than he remembered them being in his childhood. Perhaps he was simply more likely to notice.
“What was that, Waxillium?” Steris asked, turning to the side and letting him help off her overcoat. She wore a fine red dress that seemed calculatedly designed to be completely in fashion but not too daring.
“I was simply noting the size of this gathering, my dear,” Waxillium said, folding her coat and handing it—along with his bowler hat—to a waiting attendant. “I’ve been to quite a number of functions since my return to the city, and none were this enormous. Practically half the city seems to have been invited.”
“Well, this is something special,” she said. “A wedding involving two very well-connected houses. They wouldn’t want to leave anyone out. Except, of course, the ones they left out on purpose.”
Steris held out her arm for him to take. He’d received a detailed lecture during the carriage ride on how, precisely, he was to hold it. His arm above hers, taking her hand lightly, fingers wrapping down under her palm. It looked horribly unnatural, but she insisted that it would convey the exact meaning they intended. Indeed, as they stepped down onto the ballroom floor, they drew a number of interested looks.
“You imply,” Waxillium said, “that one purpose of this wedding dinner is not in who is invited, but who is not.”
“Precisely,” she said. “And, in order to fulfill that purpose, everybody else must be invited. The Yomens are powerful, even if they do believe in Sliverism. Horrid religion. Imagine, revering Ironeyes himself. Anyway, nobody will ignore an invitation to this celebration. And so, those to be slighted will not only find themselves without a party to attend, but unable to arrange their own diversions, as anyone they might have wanted to invite will be here. That leaves them to either associate with other uninviteds—therefore reinforcing their outcast status—or to sit alone at home, thinking about how they have been insulted.”
“In my experience,” Waxillium said, “that sort of unhappy brooding leads to a high probability of people getting shot.”
She smiled, waving with calculated fondness to someone they passed. “This isn’t the Roughs, Waxillium. It is the City. We don’t do such things here.”
“No, you don’t. Shooting people would be too charitable for City folks.”
“You haven’t even seen the worst of it,” she noted, waving to someone else. “You see that person turned away from us? The stocky man with the longer hair?”
“Lord Shewrman. An infamously dreadful party guest. He’s a complete bore when not drunk and a complete buffoon when he is drunk—which is most of the time, I might add. He is probably the least likable person in all of upper society. Most people here would rather spend an hour amputating one of their own toes than spend a few moments chatting with him.”
“So why is he here?”
“For the insult factor, Waxillium. Those who were snubbed will be even more aghast to learn that Shewrman was here. By including a few bad alloys like him—men and women who are utterly undesirable, but who don’t realize it—House Yomen is essentially saying, ‘We’d even prefer spending time with these people to spending it with you.’ Very effective. Very nasty.”
Waxillium snorted. “If you tried something that rude out in Weathering, it would end with you strung up by your heels from the rafters. If you’re lucky.”
“Hum. Yes.” A servant stepped forward, gesturing for them to follow as she led them to a table. “You understand,” Steris continued more softly, “that I am no longer responding to your ‘ignorant frontiersman’ act, Waxillium.”
“Act?”
“Yes,” she said distractedly. “You are a man. The prospect of marriage makes men uncomfortable, and they clutch for freedom. Therefore, you have begun regressing, tossing out savage comments to provoke a reaction from me. This is your instinct for masculine independence; an exaggeration meant, unconsciously, to undermine the wedding.”
“You assume it’s an exaggeration, Steris,” Waxillium said as they approached the table. “Maybe this is what I am.”
“You are what you choose to be, Waxillium,” she said. “As for these people here, and choices made by House Yomen, I did not make these rules. Nor do I approve of them; many are inconvenient. But it is the society in which we live. Therefore, I make of myself something that can survive in this environment.”
Waxillium frowned as she released his arm and fondly kissed cheeks with a few women from a nearby table—distant relatives, it seemed. He found himself clasping hands behind his back and nodding with a civil smile to those who came to greet Steris and him.
He’d made a good showing for himself these last months while moving among upper society, and people treated him far more amiably than they once had. He was even fond of some of those who approached. However, the nature of what he was doing with Steris still made him uncomfortable, and he found it difficult to enjoy much of the conversation.
In addition, this many people in one place still made his back itch. Too much confusion, too difficult to watch the exits. He preferred the smaller parties, or at least the ones spread across a large number of rooms.
The bride and groom arrived, and people rose to clap. Lord Joshin and Lady Mi’chelle; Waxillium didn’t know them, though he did wonder why they were speaking with a scruffy man who looked like a beggar, dressed all in black. Fortunately, it didn’t seem Steris intended to drag him over to wait with those intent upon congratulating the newlyweds at the earliest possible moment.
Soon, the first tables were served their meals. Silverware began to clatter. Steris sent for a servant to prepare their table; Waxillium passed the time by inspecting the room. There were two balconies, one at each shorter end of the rectangular ballroom. There appeared to be space for dining up there, though no tables had been set up. They were being used for musicians today, a group of harpists.
Majestic chandeliers hung from the ceiling—six enormous ones down the center, outfitted with thousands of sparkling pieces of crystal. Twelve smaller ones hung at their sides. Electric lights, he noted. Those chandeliers must have been a horrible pain to light before the conversion.
The sheer cost of a party like this numbed his senses. He could have fed Weathering for a year on what was being spent for this single evening. His uncle had sold the Ladrian ballroom a few years back—it had been a separate building, in a different neighborhood from the mansion. That made Waxillium happy; from what he remembered, it had been as large as this one. If they’d still owned it, people might have expected him to throw lavish parties like this.
“Well?” Steris asked, holding out her arm for him again as the servant returned to lead them to their table. He could see Lord Harms and Steris’s cousin Marasi sitting at the table already.
“I’m remembering why I left the City,” Waxillium said honestly. “Life is so damn hard here.”
“Many would say that of the Roughs.”
“And few of them have lived in both,” Waxillium said. “Living here is a different kind of hard, but it’s still hard. Marasi is joining us again?”
“What is going on with her, Steris?”
“She’s from the Outer Estates and badly wanted the chance to attend university here in the City. My father took pity on her, as her own parents haven’t the means to support her. He is allowing her to reside with us for the duration of her studies.”
A valid explanation, though it seemed to roll out of Steris’s mouth far too quickly. Was it a practiced excuse, or was Waxillium assuming too much? Either way, further discussion was interrupted as Lord Harms rose to greet his daughter.
Waxillium shook hands with Lord Harms, took Marasi’s hand and bowed, then sat. Steris began speaking with her father about the people she’d noted to be attending or absent, and Waxillium rested elbows on the table, listening with half an ear.
Hard room to defend, he thought absently. Snipers on those balconies would work, but you’d need some on each one, watching to make sure nobody gets beneath the other. Anyone with a strong enough gun—or the right Allomantic powers—could take out snipers from below. The pillars below the balconies would also be good shelter, though.
The more cover there was, the better the situation for the one who was outnumbered. Not that you ever wanted to be outnumbered, but he’d rarely been in any fight where he wasn’t. So he looked for cover. In the open, a gunfight came down to who could field the most men with weapons. But once you could hide, skill and experience started to compensate. Maybe this room wouldn’t be too bad a place to fight after all. He—
He hesitated. What was he doing? He’d made his decision. Did he have to keep remaking it every few days?
“Marasi,” he said, forcing himself into conversation. “Your cousin tells me you’ve entered into university studies?”
“I’m in my final year,” she said.
He waited for a further reply, and didn’t get one.
“And how go your studies?”
“Well,” she said, and looked down, holding her napkin.
That was productive, he thought with a sigh. Fortunately, it looked like a server was approaching. The lean man began pouring wine for them. “The soup will be along presently,” he explained with a faint Terris accent, lofty vowels and a slightly nasal tone.
The voice froze Waxillium stiff.
“Today’s soup,” the server continued, “is a delightfully seasoned prawn bisque with a hint of pepper. You shall find it quite enjoyable, I think.” He glanced at Waxillium, eyes twinkling in amusement. Though he wore a false nose and a wig, those were Wayne’s eyes.
Waxillium groaned softly.
“My lord doesn’t like prawns?” Wayne asked with horror.
“The bisque is quite good,” Lord Harms said. “I’ve had it at a Yomen party before.”
“It’s not the soup,” Waxillium said. “I’ve just recalled something I forgot to do.” It involves strangling someone.
“I shall return shortly with your soup, my lords and ladies,” Wayne promised. He even had a fake line of Terris earrings in his ears. Of course, Wayne was part Terris, as was Waxillium himself—as evidenced by their Feruchemical abilities. That was rare in the population; though nearly a fifth of the Originators had been Terris, they weren’t prone to marrying other ethnicities.
“Does that server look familiar?” Marasi asked, turning and watching him go.
“He must have served us last time we were here,” Lord Harms said.
“But I wasn’t with you last—”
“Lord Harms,” Waxillium jumped in, “has anything been heard of your relative? The one who was kidnapped by the Vanishers?”
“No,” he said, taking a sip of his wine. “Ruin those thieves. This kind of thing is absolutely unacceptable. They should confine such behavior to the Roughs!”
“Yes,” Steris said, “it does somewhat undermine one’s respect for the constabulary when things like this occur. And the robbery inside the city! How terrible.”
“What was it like?” Marasi suddenly asked. “Lord Ladrian? Living where there was no law?” She seemed genuinely curious, though her comment earned a glare from Lord Harms, likely for bringing up Waxillium’s past.
“It was difficult sometimes,” Waxillium admitted. “Out there, some people just believe they can take what they want. It would actually surprise them when someone stood up to them. As if I were some spoiler, the only one who didn’t understand the game they were all playing.”
“Game?” Lord Harms said, frowning.
“A figure of speech, Lord Harms,” Waxillium said. “You see, they all seemed to think that if you were skilled or well armed, you could take whatever you want. I was both, and yet instead of taking, I stopped them. They found it baffling.”
“It was very brave of you,” Marasi said.
He shrugged. “It wasn’t bravery, honestly. I just kind of fell into things.”
“Even stopping the Surefires?”
“They were a special case. I—” He froze. “How did you know about that?”
“Reports trickle in,” Marasi said, blushing. “From the Roughs. Most of them get written up by someone. You can find them at the university or at the right bookshop.”
“Oh.” Uncomfortable, he picked up his cup and drank some wine.
As he did, something slipped into his mouth. He nearly spat out the entire mouthful in surprise. He contained himself. Barely.
Wayne, I really am going to throttle you. He moved the object into his hand, covering the act with a cough.
“Well,” Steris said, “hopefully the constables will soon deal with these ruffians and we can return to peace and law.”
“Actually,” Marasi said, “I don’t think that’s likely.”
“Child,” Lord Harms said sternly. “That’s quite enough.”
“I’d like to hear what she has to say, my lord,” Waxillium said. “For the sake of conversation.”
“Well . . . all right . . . I suppose.”
“It’s simply a theory I had,” Marasi said, blushing. “Lord Ladrian, when you were lawkeeper in Weathering, what was the population of the city?”
He fingered the item in his hand. A spent bullet casing that had been capped with a dab of wax. “Well, it started to grow rapidly in the last few years. But for most of the time, I’d say it was around fifteen hundred.”
“And the surrounding area?” she asked. “All the places you’d patrol, but didn’t have their own lawkeepers?”
“Maybe three thousand total,” Waxillium said. “Depending. There are a lot of transients out in the Roughs. People looking to find a mineral claim or to start up a farmstead. Workers moving from place to place.”
“Let’s say three thousand,” Marasi said. “And how many of you were there? Those who helped you keep the law?”
“Five or six, depending,” he said. “Wayne and I, and Barl most of the time. A few others on and off.”
And Lessie, he thought.
“Let’s say six per three thousand,” she said. “Gives us an easy number to work with. One lawman per five hundred people.”
“What is the point of this?” Lord Harms asked sufferingly.
“The population of our octant is around six hundred thousand,” she explained. “By the same ratio Lord Ladrian described, we should have roughly twelve hundred constables. But we don’t. It’s somewhere closer to six hundred, last I looked over the numbers. So, Lord Ladrian, your ‘savage’ wildlands actually had double the number of lawmen watching over it as we have here in the city.”
“Huh,” he said. Odd information for a young woman of means to have.
“I’m not trying to diminish your accomplishments,” she said quickly. “You more likely had a higher percentage of lawbreakers as well, since the reputation of the Roughs draws that type. But I think it’s a matter of perception. As you said, out of the city, people expect to get away with their crimes.
“Here, they are more circumspect—and many of the crimes are smaller in scope. Instead of the bank getting robbed, you get a dozen people being robbed on their way home at night. The nature of the urban environment makes it easier to hide if you keep your crimes below a certain level of visibility. But I wouldn’t say life is really safer in the city, despite what people think.
“I’ll bet more people are murdered here, by percentage of the population, than out in the Roughs. There is so much more going on in the City, however, that people pay less attention to it. By contrast, when a man is murdered in a small town, it’s a very disruptive event—even if it’s the only murder that’s happened in years.
“And all of this isn’t even counting the fact that much of the wealth in the world is concentrated in a few places inside the city. Wealth draws men looking for opportunity. There are a whole host of reasons why the City is more dangerous than the Roughs. It’s just that we pretend that it isn’t.”
Waxillium folded his arms in front of him on the table. Curious. Once she started talking, she didn’t seem shy at all.
“You see, my lord,” Harms said. “This is why I tried to still her.”
“It would have been a shame if you had,” Waxillium said, “as I believe that’s the most interesting thing anyone has said to me since I returned to Elendel.”
Marasi smiled, though Steris just rolled her eyes. Wayne returned with the soup. Unfortunately, the area right around them was crowded—Wayne wouldn’t be able to create a speed bubble around just Waxillium and himself. It would catch someone else, and anyone caught in it would have time sped up for them as well. Wayne couldn’t shape the bubble or choose whom it affected.
While the others were distracted by the soup, Waxillium broke the wax off the sealed shell casing and found a small rolled-up piece of paper inside. He glanced at Wayne, then unrolled it.
You were right, it read.
“I usually am,” he muttered as Wayne placed a bowl in front of him. “What are you up to, Wayne?”
“One seventy, thank you,” Wayne said under his breath. “I’ve been lifting weights and eating steak.”
Waxillium gave him a flat stare, but got ignored as Wayne proceeded to explain—with his slight Terris accent—that he’d soon return with a bread basket and more wine for the group.
“Lord Ladrian,” Steris said as they began eating, “I suggest that we begin compiling a list of conversational topics we can employ when in the company of others. The topics should not touch on politics or religion, yet should be memorable and give us opportunities to appear charming. Do you know any particularly witty sayings or stories that can be our starting point?”
“I once shot the tail off a dog by mistake,” Waxillium said idly. “It’s kind of a funny story.”
“Shooting dogs is hardly appropriate dinner conversation,” Steris said.
“I know. Particularly since I was aiming for its balls.”
Marasi just about spat her soup across the table.
“Lord Ladrian!” Steris exclaimed, though her father seemed amused.
“I thought you said I couldn’t shock you any longer,” he said to Steris. “I was merely testing your hypothesis, my dear.”
“Honestly. You will eventually overcome this rural lack of decorum, won’t you?”
He stirred his soup to make sure Wayne hadn’t hidden anything in it. I hope he at least washed that bullet casing. “I suspect that I will, indeed, eventually overcome it,” he said, raising the spoon to his lips. The soup was good, but too cold. “The amusing thing is that when I was in the Roughs, I was considered to be highly refined—so much so, in fact, that they thought me haughty.”
“Calling a man ‘refined’ by Roughs standards,” Lord Harms said, raising a finger, “is like saying a brick is ‘soft’ by building-material standards—right before you smash it into a man’s face.”
“Father!” Steris said. She glared at Waxillium, as if the comment were his fault.
“It was a perfectly legitimate simile,” Lord Harms said.
“We will have no further talk of hitting people with bricks or of shootings, regardless of the target!”
“Very well, cousin,” Marasi said. “Lord Ladrian, I once heard that you threw a man’s own knife at him and hit him right through the eye. Is the story true?”
“It was actually Wayne’s knife,” Waxillium said. He hesitated. “And the eye was an accident. I was aiming for the balls that time too.”
“Lord Ladrian!” Steris said, nearly livid.
“I know. That’s quite off target. I’ve got really bad aim with throwing knives.”
Steris looked at them, growing red as she saw that her father was snickering, but trying to cover it up with his napkin. Marasi met her gaze with innocent equanimity. “No bricks,” Marasi said, “and no guns. I was making conversation as you requested.”
Steris stood. “I’m going to see myself to the women’s washroom while you three compose yourselves.”
She stalked away, and Waxillium felt a stab of guilt. Steris was stiff, but she seemed earnest and honest. She did not deserve mockery. It was very hard not to try provoking her, however.
Lord Harms cleared his throat. “That was uncalled for, child,” he said to Marasi. “You must not make me regret my promise to start bringing you to these functions.”
“Don’t blame her, my lord,” Waxillium said. “I was the primary offender. I’ll offer a suitable apology to Steris when she returns, and will guard my tongue for the rest of the evening. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to go so far.”
Harms nodded, sighing. “I’ll admit, I’ve been tempted to such lengths myself a time or two. She’s much as her mother was.” He gave Waxillium a pitying look.
“This is our lot, son,” Lord Harms said, standing. “To be lord of a house requires certain sacrifices. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I see Lord Alernath over at the bar and I think I’ll grab a nip of something harder with him before the main course. If I don’t go before Steris gets back, she’ll bully me into staying. I shouldn’t be long.” He nodded to the two of them, then waddled toward a group of higher-built tables off to the side, next to an open bar.
Waxillium watched him go, idly thinking and rolling Wayne’s note in his fingers. Previously, he’d assumed Lord Harms had driven Steris to be as she was, but it appeared he was more under her thumb than vice versa. Another curiosity, he thought.
“Thank you for your defense of me, Lord Ladrian,” Marasi said. “It appears that you are as quick to come to a lady’s aid with words as you are with pistols.”
“I was merely stating the truth as I saw it, my lady.”
“Tell me. Did you really shoot off a dog’s tail when aiming for his . . . er . . .”
“Yes,” Waxillium said, grimacing. “In my defense, the damn thing was attacking me. Belonged to a man I hunted down. The aggressiveness wasn’t the dog’s fault; the poor thing looked like it hadn’t been fed in days. I was trying to shoot it somewhere nonlethal, scare it off. That part about the man I hit in the eye was fabricated, though. I wasn’t actually aiming for any body part in particular—I was just hoping I’d hit.”
She smiled. “Might I ask you something?”
“You looked crestfallen when I spoke of the statistics dealing with lawman ratios. I didn’t mean to offend or downplay your heroics.”
“It’s all right,” he said.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure if I can explain it. When I found my way out to the Roughs, when I started bringing in the warranted, I started to . . . Well, I thought I’d found a place where I was needed. I thought I’d found a way to do something that nobody else would do.”
“But you did.”
“And yet,” he said, stirring his soup, “it appears that all along, the place I left behind might have needed me even more. I’d never noticed.”
“You did important work, Lord Ladrian. Vital work. Besides, I understand that before you arrived, nobody was upholding the law in that area.”
“There was Arbitan,” he said, smiling, remembering the older man. “And, of course, the lawkeepers over in Far Dorest.”
“A distant city and with a short reach,” she said, “which had a single capable lawman to serve a large population. Jon Deadfinger had his own problems. By the time you had built things up, Weathering was protected better than those in the City—but it did not start that way.”
He nodded, though—again—he was curious about how much she knew. Were people really telling stories about him and Wayne all the way over here in the city? Why hadn’t he heard of them before now?
Her statistics did bother him. He hadn’t thought of the City as dangerous. It was the Roughs, wild and untamed, that needed rescuing. The City was the land of plenty that Harmony had created to shelter mankind. Here, trees grew fruit in abundance and cultivated lands had water without need for irrigation. The ground was always fertile, and somehow never got farmed out.
This land was supposed to be different. Protected. He’d put away his guns in part because he’d convinced himself that the constables could do their jobs without help. But don’t the Vanishers prove that might not be the case?
Wayne returned with the bread and a bottle of wine, then stopped, looking at the two empty seats. “Oh dear,” he said. “Did you grow so tired of waiting that you devoured your two companions?”
Marasi glanced at him and smiled.
She knows, Waxillium realized. She recognizes him.
“If I may note something, my lady,” Waxillium said, drawing her attention back. “You are far less unassuming than you were at our first meeting.”
She winced. “I’m not very good at being shy, am I?”
“I wasn’t aware it was something that required practice.”
“I try all the time,” Wayne said, sitting down at the table and taking the baguette out of his basket. He took a healthy bite. “Nobody gives me any credit for it. ’S because I’m misunderstood, I tell you.” His Terris accent had vanished.
Marasi looked confused. “Should I pretend to be aghast at what he’s doing?” she asked Waxillium in a hushed tone.
“He saw that you’d recognized him,” Waxillium said. “Now he’s going to sulk.”
“Sulk?” Wayne started eating Steris’s soup. “That’s right unkind, Wax. Ugh. This stuff is far worse than I was telling you guys. Sorry ’bout that.”
“It will reflect in my tip,” Waxillium said dryly. “Lady Marasi, I was serious in my inquiry. To be frank, it seems that you’ve been trying to act with exaggerated timidity.”
“Always looking down after you speak,” Wayne agreed. “Raising the pitch of your tone a little too much with questions.”
“Not the type to be studying at the university at her own request,” Waxillium noted. “Why the act?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“You’d rather not,” Waxillium said, “or Lord Harms and his daughter would rather you not?”
She blushed. “The latter. But please. I would really prefer to leave the topic.”
“Ever charming, Wax,” Wayne said, taking another bite from the loaf of bread. “See that? You’ve pushed the lady almost to tears.”
“I’m not—” Marasi began.
“Ignore him,” Waxillium said. “Trust me. He’s like a rash. The more you scratch him, the more irritating he gets.”
“Ouch,” Wayne said, though he grinned.
“Aren’t you worried?” Marasi asked softly of Wayne. “You’re wearing a waiter’s uniform. If they see you sitting at the table and eating . . .”
“Oh, that’s a good point,” Wayne said, tipping his chair back. The person behind him had left, and with Lord Harms gone, Wayne had just enough room to—
—and there it was. He leaned his chair forward again, clothing changed back to a duster with a loose button-down shirt and thick Roughs trousers underneath. He spun his hat on his finger. The earrings were gone.
Marasi jumped. “Speed bubble,” she whispered, sounding awed. “I thought I’d be able to see something from outside!”
“You could, if you were watching closely,” Waxillium said. “A blur. If you look at the next table over, the sleeve of his waiter’s coat is sticking out from where he tossed it. His hat folds—though the sides are stiff, you can compress it between your hands. I’m still trying to figure out where he had the duster.”
“Under your table,” Wayne said, sounding very self-satisfied.
“Ah, of course,” Waxillium said. “He had to know beforehand which table would be ours so he could be assigned as our waiter.” I really should have looked under the table before we sat, Waxillium thought. Would that have seemed too paranoid? He didn’t feel paranoid; he didn’t lie awake at nights, worried that he’d be shot, or think that conspiracies were trying to destroy him. He just liked to be careful.
Marasi was still looking at Wayne; she seemed bemused.
“We aren’t what you expected,” Waxillium said. “From the reports you read?”
“No,” she admitted. “The accounts usually omitted matters of personality.”
“There are stories ’bout us?” Wayne asked.
“Yes. Many.”
“Damn.” He sounded impressed. “Do we get royalties for them or something? If we do, I want Wax’s share, seeing as to how I did all the stuff they say he did. Plus he’s already rich and all.”
“They are news-style reports,” Marasi said. “Those don’t pay royalties to their subjects.”
“Filthy cheats.” Wayne paused. “I wonder if any of the other fine ladies in this establishment have heard of my outrageously heroic and masculine exploits. . . .”
“Lady Marasi is a student at the university,” Waxillium said. “I’m assuming she read reports that are collected there. Most of the public won’t be familiar with them.”
“That is true,” she said.
“Oh,” Wayne said, sounding disappointed. “Well, maybe Lady Marasi herself might be interested in hearing more of my outrageously—”
“Wayne?”
“I do apologize for him,” Waxillium said, turning to Marasi. She still wore the bemused expression on her face.
“He does that a lot,” Wayne said. “Apologizing. I think it’s one of his personal failings. I try to help him out by being damn near perfect, but so far, that hasn’t been enough.”
“It’s quite all right,” she said. “I do wonder if I should write something for my professors describing how . . . unique it was to meet you two.”
“What is it, exactly, that you are studying at the university?” Waxillium asked.
She hesitated, then blushed deeply.
“Ah, see!” Wayne said. “Now, that’s how to act shy. You’re getting much better! Bravo.”
“It’s just that . . .” She raised a hand to shade her eyes and looked down in embarrassment. “It’s just . . . Oh, all right. I’m studying legal justice and criminal behavioristics.”
“That’s something to be ashamed of?” Waxillium said, sharing a confused look with Wayne.
“Well, I’ve been told it’s not very feminine,” she said. “But be- yond that . . . well, I’m sitting with you two . . . and . . . well, you know . . . you’re two of the most famous lawkeepers in the world, and all . . .”
“Trust me,” Waxillium said. “We don’t know as much as you might think.”
“Now, if you were studying buffoonery and idiotic behavior,” Wayne added, “that is something we’re experts on.”
“That’s two things,” Waxillium said.
“Don’t care.” Wayne continued eating the bread. “So where are the other two? I’m assuming you didn’t really devour them. Wax only eats people the weekend.”
“Both will likely be returning soon, Wayne,” Waxillium said. “So if you had a purpose to your visit, you may wish to be on with it. Unless this is just normal, run-of-the-mill tormenting.”
“I told you what it was about,” Wayne said. “You didn’t accidentally eat my note, did you?”
“No. It didn’t say much.”
“It said enough,” Wayne said, leaning in. “Wax, you told me to look at the hostages. You were right.”
“They’re all Allomancers,” Waxillium guessed.
“More than that,” Wayne said. “They’re all relatives.”
“It’s only been three hundred years since the Originators, Wayne. We’re all relatives.”
“Does that mean you’ll take responsibility for me?”
Wayne chuckled, pulling a folded piece of paper from his duster pocket. “It’s more than that, Wax. Look. Each of the women kid- napped was from a particular line. I did some researchin’. Real, serious stuff.” He paused. “Why do they call it research if I’ve only done it this one time?”
“Because I’ll bet you had to look things up twice,” Waxillium said, taking the paper and studying it. It was written awkwardly, but was decipherable. It explained the basic lines of descent of each of the women kidnapped.
Several things stood out. Each of them could trace back to the Lord Mistborn himself. Because of that, most of them also had a strong heritage of Allomancy in their past. They were all fairly closely related, third or fourth cousins, some first.
Waxillium looked up, and noticed Marasi smiling broadly, regarding him and Wayne.
“What?” Waxillium asked.
“I knew it!” she exclaimed. “I knew you were in town to investigate the Vanishers. You showed up to become house lord only one month after the first robbery happened. You’re going to catch them, aren’t you?”
“Is that why you insisted that Lord Harms bring you to meetings with me?”
“Marasi,” Waxillium said, sighing. “You’re jumping to conclusions. Do you think the deaths in my family, making me house lord, were fabrications?”
“Well, no,” she said. “But I was surprised that you’d accepted the title until I realized that you probably saw it as a chance to find out what is going on with these robberies. You have to admit, they are unusual.”
“So is Wayne,” Waxillium said. “But I wouldn’t uproot myself, change my entire lifestyle, and accept responsibility for an entire house just to study him.”
“Look, Wax,” Wayne jumped in—ignoring the barb, which was unusual for him. “Please tell me you brought a gun with you.”
“What? No, I didn’t.” Waxillium folded up the paper and handed it back. “Why would you care?”
“Because,” Wayne said, snatching the paper from his hand and leaning in. “Don’t you see? The thieves are looking for places they can rob where the wealthy upper class of Elendel can be found—because among those wealthy upper-class types, they find their targets. People with the right heritage. Those types, rich types, have stopped traveling on the railway.”
Waxillium nodded. “Yes, if the women really are the true targets, the high-profile robberies will make potential future targets much less likely to travel. A valid connection. That must be why the thieves attacked the theater.”
“And where else are there wealthy individuals with the right heritage?” Wayne asked. “A place where people wear their finest jewelry, which will let you rob them as a distraction? A place where you can find the right hostage to take as the real prize?”
Waxillium’s mouth grew dry. “A large wedding reception.”
The doors at both ends of the ballroom suddenly burst open.
Mistborn: The Alloy of Law © Brandon Sanderson 2011
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Home » Nevernight: Book One of the Nevernight Chronicle (Paperback)
Nevernight: Book One of the Nevernight Chronicle (Paperback)
By Jay Kristoff
(FICTION-FANTASY)
This is book number 1 in the The Nevernight Chronicle series.
#2: Godsgrave: Book Two of the Nevernight Chronicle (Paperback): $18.99
#3: Darkdawn: Book Three of the Nevernight Chronicle (Hardcover): $28.99
Kobo eBook (August 9th, 2016): $9.99
Hardcover (August 9th, 2016): $28.99
Nevernight is the first in an epic new fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author, Jay Kristoff.
In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.
Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.
Now, a sixteen year old Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic — the Red Church. Treachery and trials await her with the Church’s halls, and to fail is to die. But if she survives to initiation, Mia will be inducted among the chosen of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the only thing she desires.
Revenge.
JAY KRISTOFF is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Lotus War, The Illuminae Files and The Nevernight Chronicle. He is the winner of four Aurealis Awards, an ABIA, a nominee for the Locus award, a nominee for the David Gemmell Morningstar and Legend awards, named multiple times in the Kirkus and Amazon Best Teen Books list and published in over thirty countries, most of which he has never visited. He is as surprised about all of this as you are. He is 6’7 and has approximately 12,015 days to live. He abides in Melbourne with his secret agent kung-fu assassin wife, and the world’s laziest Jack Russell. He does not believe in happy endings.
"Launching the Nevernight fantasy series, Kristoff (the Lotus War trilogy) creates a splendid world of corruption and violence. Kristoff portrays a world as rife with villains and treachery as the ancient Italian civilizations it echoes. Absorbing in its complexity and bold in its bloodiness, this beginning promises (and delivers) equal shares of beauty and decay. With a delicate balance of the ancient and the magical, this tense and brutal tale is unflinching, thrilling, and satisfying." - Publishers Weekly, starred review on Nevernight
"A sensuous, shades-of-moral-gray world; a compelling, passionate heroine; a high-stakes quest for revenge—this is a fantasy fans won't be able to put down."—Kirkus on Nevernight
"The world-building is delightfully detailed, its baroque flourishes supplied by sarcastic footnotes, but we are drawn through the narrative by Mia’s triple quest: to rescue her family members, to avenge her father’s death and to survive her education at the church, where the ultimate test is to avoid being killed by the training." -The Daily Mail on Nevernight
"Assassins, magic, strange creatures are all pluses for me. But my favorite thing about this book is the voice...I adore well-done omniscient narrators with snark and a slight bit of disdain for either the reader or the main character."—Book Riot on Nevernight
"Kristoff's bold writing style...joins lyrical high fantasy with f-bombs aplenty, Pratchett-like humor and unflinching descriptions of violence."—SciFiNow
“Harry Potter meets The Lies of Locke Lamora”—USA Today
"The innovative setting, fast-moving plot, vivid descriptions, and thrilling action scenes make this a refreshing addition to the steampunk canon." - Publishers Weekly, starred review on Stormdancer
"Soars higher than the arashitora Kristoff writes about; superb." - Kirkus, starred review on Stormdancer
"Stormdancer is an intoxicating joyride into steampunklandia with a magical dose of mythology, the supernatural, violence, dystopian themes, and a top-notch brassy heroine who rivals Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games. Yes, I did say that!" —Huffington Post
"Murder, magic, sex, and humor—the first installment in Kristoff’s new fantasy series is off to a rollicking start... Kristoff has created a rich, vibrant world for readers, borrowing heavily from historical Italian political structures, which provide a base of stability and familiarity to the new creations. Footnotes accompany the story,...embellishing and further developing the world, and providing a welcome and often biting wit. Dense and measured, this will appeal to fans of traditional and political fantasies."—Booklist
Publisher: A Thomas Dunne Book for St. Martin's Griffin
Series: The Nevernight Chronicle
Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure
Fiction / Fantasy / Epic
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Our History in Australia & New Zealand
Progress towards a circular economy
Previous - Leveraging technology to tackle food waste in Australia
Next - Sourcing 100% agricultural raw materials sustainably
Tackling waste and packaging as an opportunity
As a consumer goods company, we are acutely aware of the consequences of a linear take-make-dispose model and we want to change it. Increasing resource scarcity means it is more urgent than ever to be efficient with packaging and find solutions to deal with ‘post-consumer’ waste.
The business case is clear. Reducing waste creates efficiencies and lowers costs. Re-using materials extends their life, helping to use less of the earth’s precious resources. Recycling allows us to repurpose valuable materials that would otherwise have been wasted.
In 2010, we set ourselves an ambitious target to halve the waste associated with our products by 2020 and to reduce the weight of packaging that we use by one third, through light-weighting materials, optimising structural and material design, developing concentrated versions of our products and eliminating unnecessary packaging.
In 2017 we built on this, making an industry leading commitment to ensure that all our plastic packaging will be designed to be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, while increasing the recycled plastic content in our packaging to at least 25% by 2025. These targets are driving real change in our business – in particular, how we design our packaging for recyclability and reuse.
We are among a growing number of brands, retailers and packaging companies to make plastic packaging commitments. But more needs to be done to make reusable, recyclable and compostable plastic normal. That begins by making it technically possible for all our plastic packaging to be reused or recycled – but it also means demonstrating that there are established, proven examples of it being commercially viable for plastics re-processors to recycle the material.
In Australia and New Zealand 83% of our total packaging is recyclable and we are building a roadmap to meet the 2025 target.
Less plastic, better plastic, no plastic
In the past year, in order to meet our commitments, we have adopted an internal framework which will shape our thinking and future innovation - Less Plastic, Better Plastic, No Plastic. Our strategy is helping us transition to a ‘New Plastics Economy’ and recognises the importance of recycling while acknowledging that it’s not the only solution.
Less plastic
This involves using lighter, stronger and better materials which have a lower environmental impact.
• The ‘light-weighting’ of our packaging has resulted in a 15% decrease in packaging weight globally since 2010. Additionally, our total waste footprint per consumer use has reduced by 29% since 2010.
• Locally, our light-weight Lipton Ice Tea bottle necks and caps use approximately 20% less plastic, saving 93 tonnes of plastic each year, while removing foil wrapping and the paperboard trays from our Lipton Black Tea bags boxes resulted in a 32% primary packaging reduction for our 50 Tea Bag Packs and 35% for our 100 Tea Bag Packs. This means we use approximately 168 tonnes less of paperboard annually and have helped divert 41 tonnes of foil laminate packaging away from landfill.
• Our 200ml Sunsilk Shampoo and Conditioner bottles are now also made with 29% less plastic which means we use less raw materials, save energy and reduce transportation costs.
Better plastic
We are focused on eliminating problematic or unnecessary plastics, using recyclable materials and more recycled content in line with our 2025 commitments. This means developing or designing plastics which are recyclable and have a value or purpose. For example, extending shelf life of food or reducing emissions.
• Last year, we announced a landmark move to introduce Australian sourced post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic for bottles of Australian made and well-known home and personal care brands such as Persil, Dove, Surf, Sunsilk and TRESemmé. We will introduce at least 25% recycled plastic into bottles for key brands and go further wherever technically possible, creating an end market and new life for approximately 750 tonnes of recycled plastic per year.
• In 2018 we also launched Omo EcoActive and Persil EcoActive with 25% recycled Australian-sourced plastic packaging and a plant-based formula.
• Two of our global hero brands, Seventh Generation and Love Beauty Planet, are packaged using 100% post-consumer recycled content and are now available for consumers in Australia and New Zealand.
• We have pioneered the development of a new detectable black pigment for our High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) bottles – which we use for our TRESemmé and Lynx brands – so they can now be ‘seen’ by recycling plant scanners and sorted for recycling. These automatic optical sorting machines are unable to distinguish black plastic because they use near infra-red light which is absorbed by the ‘carbon black’ pigment traditionally used to colour the bottles.
This effectively makes them invisible to the sorter and leads to them being rejected and sent for waste. The new technology means that an additional 2,500 tonnes of plastic bottles could now potentially be sorted and sent for recycling each year in the UK alone.
• Our partnership with start-up company Ioniqa and the largest global producer of PET resin, Indorama Ventures, seeks to pioneer a new technology which converts PET waste back into virgin grade material for use in food packaging. This innovation is particularly exciting because it could unlock one of the major barriers today – making all forms of recycled PET suitable for food packaging
• Single-use plastic sachets allow low-income consumers in developing countries to buy small amounts of quality products that would otherwise be unaffordable to them. We’ve been identifying a technical solution to recycling multi-layered sachets through our CreaSolv® technology with the intention to make this technology open source and helping to scale it with industry partners, so others – including our competitors – can use it. Last year our facility in Indonesia became fully operational and we are currently working to iron out any issues linked to technical and commercial viability.
Unilever will continue to look at alternative materials, new packaging formats and alternative models of consumption.
• In January 2019, Unilever was proud to be a co-founding partner of the Loop Alliance. Loop is an innovative new delivery model for premium durable packaging which is shipped directly to the consumer, returned and refilled.
As an innovative new business model, Loop has the potential to change the way consumers shop and consume goods by addressing one of the major reasons for disposability: convenience. It eliminates the need for disposable packaging by making shopping, delivery and re-use convenient. The ambition for Loop’s partner brands – including Unilever brands - is for packaging to be reused 100 times before needing to be replaced.
• Last year our Ben and Jerry’s Scoop Stores in Australia and New Zealand phased out all plastic spoons and straws.
Partnering for progress
No business can create a circular economy for plastic packaging in isolation. We can only do this by using the combined power of industry, policy, and the public to facilitate a complete transformation of how we think, use and dispose of plastic.
In late 2018, Unilever Australia partnered with Planet Ark to support National Recycling Week, an annual event led by Planet Ark and used as a catalyst for discussion about waste management across the Australian community.
Unilever New Zealand was proud to be a founding signatory of the New Zealand Plastic Packaging Declaration last year, acknowledging that no business can create a circular economy in isolation. We are also members of the Sustainable Business Council in New Zealand; a member forum which allows us to share learnings and best practice with other cross-sector leaders.
Both globally and locally we understand the need to drive systematic change in circular thinking at an industry level. We do this by working with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and on other projects such as the Global Plastics Protocol to ensure our packaging is compatible with existing and cost-effective recycling infrastructures.
Our progress in Australia has been recognised by the Australian Packaging Covenant, with Unilever awarded the highest performing organisation in the “Large Pharmacy & Personal Care” category twice and also taking out the overall Recycling Award in 2016.
Making recycling easier for consumers
We know making our packaging recyclable is only part of our responsibility. Unilever also has a role to play in helping consumers know what is recyclable and how to recycle effectively. Last year, we were one of the first companies to voluntarily sign up to the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation’s (APCO) Australasian Recycling Label (ARL).
Along with other leading organisations such as Australia Post, Blackmores, Nestlé, Officeworks and Woolworths, Unilever is adopting the label with the ultimate goal of increasing recycling rates and reducing the amount of waste going to landfill.
The ARL aims to create greater transparency amongst industry, driving more sustainable supply chain models and outlining for consumers what product packaging is made from so that they can correctly recycle it after use.
“The Australasian Recycling Label has been the result of close collaboration and partnership,” Brooke Donnelly, CEO of APCO, explains, “We’re incredibly proud of this initiative and of our members who have already pledged their commitment. The broad representation across industries demonstrates the growing sense of sustainability awareness and commitment in the Australia business community.”
Unilever looks forward to working closely with APCO and the ARL marketing partner Planet Ark as we continue to work towards a circular economy as part of our commitment to reducing our environmental impact under the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. As part of this commitment we provide technical and marketing advisory support to the Planet Ark team on driving consumer understanding of the ARL and have recently undertaken consumer testing for an integrated approach to PCR labelling.
Soft plastic recycling
Since 2015, we’ve partnered with The Red Group, an Australian closed loop recycling initiative for soft-plastics, to help improve packaging recycling rates. The REDcycle program enables consumers to recycle packaging such as Streets ice-cream wrappers and Continental packs which are then processed into new products such as outdoor furniture for schools and signage.
Through dedicated REDcycle collection bins at Coles and Woolworths, our partnership has helped divert over 2 million packs, or over 3.3 tonnes of flexible plastic packaging, away from landfill. Collectively, the efforts of manufacturers, retailers and consumers have diverted over 380 million pieces of plastic from landfill.
In New Zealand we work with the Packaging Forum on their Love NZ Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme.
Reducing waste in manufacturing
Continuing with our approach of reducing, reusing, recovering or recycling we have extended our ambition to become a zero waste business beyond our factories. In 2015 our Australian factories, offices and warehouses joined the list of 600 Unilever sites globally that are sending zero non-hazardous waste to landfill. Through a combination of waste reduction and waste recycling initiatives, we’ve also reduced our total waste per tonne of production by 26% compared to 2016 – a 52% reduction compared to 2008 baseline.
These achievements have been made possible by our dedicated and passionate people who continue to find innovative ways to reduce waste in our manufacturing operations. For example, our Minto factory established a dedicated team to identify issues, reposition waste bins on the production line and decontaminate ice cream waste. As a result, ice cream waste was able to be diverted to Earthpower and used to generate electricity or sent to local farmers to be used as stock-feed.
Upcycling is another solution that has enabled us to divert waste away from landfill at our Tatura factory. After improving recycling at the site, the Tatura factory took on the challenge of upcycling left over building materials into useful items. For example, old wooden crates and panels were turned into toys for charities and disadvantaged children by the Shepparton Men’s Shed.
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SSTAR Awards
Student Staff Teaching And Representation Awards
Each year your Students' Union holds the prestigious SSTAR Awards (Student and Staff, Teaching and Representation). These awards recognise the many excellent University staff members and dedicated students we have here at the University of Plymouth. Highlighting the people that go the extra mile and make a difference, this is your chance to nominate them for an award.
Nominations Open: 13th January 2020
Nominations Close: 28th February 2020
What is it? Why is it important? And how do you nominate someone?
First things first; the SSTAR awards stands for Student Staff Teaching And Representation Awards. It’s a chance to say thank you to someone who has made a difference to your time at uni. Whether that’s an inspiring lecturer, a caring personal tutor, an active course rep, an individual who champions for equality and diversity or someone you just want to say a big thank you to.
These awards are incredibly powerful, whether your nominee wins or not, your words can mean so much to that person. Because knowing you have made a difference for at least one person can really mean the world.
How do you nominate someone?
Nominations are now open, scroll down and select an award category to submit your nomination today.
And this year our awards will be given out in the winners communities whether that be in a seminar, lecture or offices so that we can really celebrate the person with those that have nominated them.
Millie Green - VP Education
SSTAR Awards: Teaching Excellence Report
View the 2019 Results here
Sustainability in the Curriculum Champion
This award celebrates academics who have equipped students with the knowledge, skills and attributes required to live and work sustainably.
Best Student-Led Representative Campaign
This award is given to an individual or group of students that has planned and delivered a campaign, making a positive change to the lives of students.
Best Placement Support
This award is for a member of staff who made a significant positive impact on your placement. This can be either a year out placement, part of your course, an internship, or summer placement.
Part-Time Officer of the Year
Part Time Officers are elected to represent particular groups or demographics of students to support them and make sure that their voice is heard at all levels across the university and Students’ Union.
Creative Teaching Award
This award is for somebody who thinks outside of the box when delivering the curriculum.
Course Rep of the Year
Course Reps are elected to represent the views of students on their Programme. This is awarded to a Course Rep who has gone above and beyond to ensure that the student voice is truly heard and acted upon.
School Rep of the Year
Schools Reps are elected to represent the views of students in their School, this can sometimes be a challenging role. A School Rep who listens to students and influences real change deserves recognition!
The Mel Joyner Award For Championing Equality and Diversity
This award is for an individual or individuals that really put equality and diversity at the heart of everything that they do.
Most Dedicated Project/ Dissertation Supervisor
Completing a large project or a dissertation can be one of the biggest sources of stress for a student so having a dedicated supervisor by your side to support and guide you is vital.
Postgraduate Supervisor of the Year
This award goes to a Postgraduate supervisor to recognise their contribution to your academic experience.
This award is for a staff member who shows passion and enthusiasm for teaching and inspires their students to be the best they can be.
Excellence in Championing Career Development
This award is for a staff member or a student who champions student employability and career development and to thank those who put students’ futures in the heart of everything they do
Most Effective Feedback
This award goes to an individual that enables students to progress by giving feedback that is effective and can be acted upon.
Outstanding Personal Tutor
Your Personal Tutor can often be a life-line during your time at University on all things academic and pastoral.
One in a Million Support Staff
Supporting students throughout their time at University can make a world of difference. Be it a staff member from Disability Assist, the UPSU Advice Centre, The Writing Café, PALS or elsewhere, these individuals can truly be one in a million.
Sensational Programme Lead
This award is for a Programme Lead who has made a recognisable difference to your experience within your Programme.
The Big Thank-You Award
This is awarded to anyone who makes the day-to-day experience of university for students and staff just that little bit better
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Gaming Hub
UEFA Champions League - Touré, Fernandinho: City will learn from exit - News
Touré, Fernandinho: City will learn from exit
Thursday 13 March 2014 by Graham Hunter
Fernandinho expects the lessons learned in defeat at FC Barcelona to serve Manchester City FC well next season, when Yaya Touré wants them to be "much, much stronger".
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Manchester City FC left the Camp Nou not only with a real sense of deflation at failing to win or draw their UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg against FC Barcelona but also with a strong feeling that this bitter experience could fuel their European chances next season.
Having created various intelligent openings during a dramatic match – and forced the save of the game from Víctor Valdés following a second-half header from Edin Džeko – City briefly restored parity on the night through Vincent Kompany's diving volley, only to lose 2-1 on the night and 4-1 overall. Yaya Touré's emotions were divided between disappointment at exiting a second cup competition in five days, after the FA Cup defeat by Wigan Athletic FC, and satisfaction in revisiting his old club.
Yaya Touré, Manchester City midfielder
My return to Barcelona has gone really well, particularly with the 'Culé' supporters. It cost me a great deal [emotionally] to have to play against Barcelona. But I'm really excited about the reaction of the fans. Barça remain a great team, buoyed by the weight of their history. Our task now is to work really hard and ensure that when this test comes around next year we are much, much stronger.
I can't quibble that they [Barcelona] were the better side across the two matches. Without doubt [Lionel] Messi is the best player on the planet. I'd be absolutely delighted to have him at City. Whether Barcelona are good enough to go and win this tournament is difficult to say but, from my point of view, they should certainly be finalists.
Fernandinho, Manchester City midfielder
We were terrific in both halves. We didn't allow Barça much space in which to work – there's no point making things easy for them. Despite a good number of chances the ball wouldn't go in for a long time but we carried on creating opportunities. Our team remains a work in progress, but our vision and bravery are unquestionable. Where we have gained is in terms of experience. With a bit more know-how and a bit more luck next season, we'll be better.
Can Barça win this now? That's hard to judge because there are a number of terrific teams left in the draw. Maybe things look a bit difficult for them to get to the final. Nevertheless they have good players, this is a great team – they'll believe they should be in Lisbon in May.
© 1998-2020 UEFA. All rights reserved. Last updated: Monday 6 October 2014
LiveXavi, Alves happy to show Barcelona's good side
"There were moments when we were really flying," said Xavi Hernández after FC Barcelona eliminated Manchester City FC, Daniel Alves emphasising their teamwork.
LiveMartino grateful for Barcelona resolve
Gerardo Martino acknowledged FC Barcelona "had suffered at times" against Manchester City FC, who left happy with their display according to Rubén Cousillas.
LiveBarcelona complete City success
FC Barcelona 2-1 Manchester City FC (agg: 4-1)Second-half goals from Lionel Messi and Daniel Alves, the second in added time, sealed a win that took Barça into a seventh straight quarter-final.
LiveParis made to work for second-leg Leverkusen win
Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 Bayer 04 Leverkusen (agg 6-1)The Ligue 1 leaders recovered from a goal down against a Leverkusen side who squandered a penalty and had Emre Can sent off in the second half.
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Crews tackle south Oxnard blaze in garbage truck
Fire crews worked Tuesday morning to extinguish smoldering materials inside a garbage truck in Oxnard.
Crews tackle south Oxnard blaze in garbage truck Fire crews worked Tuesday morning to extinguish smoldering materials inside a garbage truck in Oxnard. Check out this story on vcstar.com: https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/2020/01/14/crews-tackle-south-oxnard-blaze-garbage-truck/4466890002/
Ventura County Star Published 10:34 a.m. PT Jan. 14, 2020 | Updated 11:08 a.m. PT Jan. 14, 2020
The incident was reported at 10:16 a.m. in roughly the 5700 block of Cypress Trailer Park Road in south Oxnard. The neighborhood is between Cypress and Saviers Roads to the east and west and halfway between Pleasant Valley and Hueneme roads to the north and south.
Callers reported that there was smoke coming from a garbage truck at the rear of the mobile home park.
Arriving crew ascertained that material was smoldering and set about extinguishing the blaze.
The fire was reported out by 10:50 a.m., and crews expected to be on the scene handling mop-up for about 45 minutes.
Courts: Oxnard man sentenced in child molestation case
Support local journalism: Follow high-profile court cases and track public safety threats so you can protect your family. Get unlimited access to coverage like this with a digital subscription to The Star.
Read or Share this story: https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/2020/01/14/crews-tackle-south-oxnard-blaze-garbage-truck/4466890002/
Authorities ID victim of El Rio shooting
Man wounded by gunfire in La Colonia alley
More lawsuits filed in Conception dive boat fire
Gunshot victim found in south Oxnard alley
El Rio shooting kills 1 in county's 3rd homicide of year
March for Justice takes to Ventura's streets Saturday
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Véro Leduc is involved in various social struggles over the last fifteen years, especially in collective and community organizations around issues such as video activism, feminism, queer and sex work. She is currently on the board of the House of Deaf Women of Montreal and member of the Sourdien coffee. After a degree in social work on community art and social recognition of criminalized women in Quebec, she is currently pursuing doctoral studies in communication on deafhood, taking roots in her own experience. Lecturer in the School of Social Work-UQAM and at the Department of Communication at the University of Montreal, she is also Project Manager at the multisectoral partnership Testimonial Cultures ( Mensah et al. ). Her publications include among others « L’art communautaire, un espace pour construire la reconnaissance sociale des femmes criminalisées au Québec » (Nouvelles Pratiques Sociales, 2013, 24 : 2), « Dans l’alcôve : tête à tête queer sur les défis de la troisième vague féministe », with C. Riot In Remous, ressacs et dérives: variations sur la troisième vague féministe au Québec (M. Baillargeon et al, 2011, Remue-ménage) and « Familles immigrantes au Québec, deuils et liens transnationaux : réflexions pour la pratique », with L. Rachédi and J. Le Gall (Lien social et Politiques, 2010, 64). On her artistic side, Véro currently conducting an autocomicographie entitled C’est tombé dans l’oreille d’une Sourde (It fell into Deaf ears). This is a long term project, a first prototype edition that has already been distributed in 100 copies in Montreal and Ottawa. She recounts the experience of deafhood in the everyday life; recalls memories of childhood when her parents wanted to cure her deafness or when children at school told her she had AIDS because she was different ; she reflects also on the differences and similarities between the queer coming-out and the Deaf coming-out. She is the author of several videos and DVD compilations on realities such as sexual diversity, sex work, disability and immigration. Since 2008, she is also a painter, but she has not yet had time to mount its portfolio ( it’s coming ! )
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By Ashley Strickland. This year started off with a meteor shower and the first month of 2020 continues with a penumbral lunar eclipse during the full moon, on Friday. Lunar eclipses can only occur during a full moon. But a penumbral lunar eclipse is different from a total lunar eclipse.… SEE MORE
Washington Crab Identification Guide
1/8/2020 by US Harbors
Several species of crab are found in Washington's marine waters and along its shores, though only a few are large enough to be of commercial and sport interest. Crabs are crustaceans, having an exterior skeleton or shell. When crabbing in Washington, it's important to be able to identify your catch,… SEE MORE
Marine Zone Fishing Regulation Updates - January, 2020
Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife Regulation Updates: These are in-season regulation changes adopted on a temporary or emergency basis or adopted after the regulation book was printed. Please see e-regulations for permanent regulations. Sport Groundfish More information can be found on the sport bottomfish seasons page New for 2020 There is a sub-bag… SEE MORE
By John Schwartz. COCODRIE, La. — A marine laboratory 85 miles southwest of New Orleans was designed to be a fortress against extreme weather. But it might be defeated by climate change. Sitting at the end of Louisiana State Highway 56, where dirt dissolves into wetlands and then the Gulf… SEE MORE
Refinishing & Customizing New Sabre 66 Hulls
1/7/2020 by Great Island Boat Yard
GIBY painted two brand-new Sabre 66 hulls this fall. While the second vessel was in our care, the GIBY fiberglass and metal teams also cut, manufactured, and installed custom side-entry hull doors and fabricated metal rails to accommodate the alteration. The doors were painted, mounted, and aligned before the carpentry… SEE MORE
Outfitting an Outremer 59 5X
An Outremer 59 5X travelled from Florida to Maine this summer to tackle several significant projects. The GIBY team addressed an extensive summer punch list - performing over 200 hours of work - to bring the boat up to its new owner’s specifications. During the visit, the new boat owner… SEE MORE
By Nathalie Kirby. Let's get one thing straight—sky lovers were totally spoiled in 2019. The year started out with three (yes, THREE) supermoons, and with a recent solar eclipse among other celestial events, 2020 has a lot to live up to. While we might not see another lunar trifecta this year, experts do… SEE MORE
Heard on All Things Considered. Special fibers that change color when they are under strain have helped scientists come up with some simple rules that can predict how a knot will perform in the real world. There's a whole field of mathematics that studies knots, to explore abstract properties of… SEE MORE
Dangerous Sneaker Waves Expected Along the Coast
12/31/2019 by US Harbors
FLORENCE, Ore. - Forecasters warn of potentially dangerous conditions on the Oregon Coast for the final two days of 2019 and the start of the new year. "The combination of sneaker waves and high surf conditions will create dangerous conditions along all Southern Oregon beaches during the holiday period from New Years… SEE MORE
Sneaker Waves
By Andy Corbley. 25-30 million Christmas trees are sold every year in North America, and many of them get tossed in the landfill when there is a myriad of great recycling ideas for fir trees that can have an important impact on local ecosystems and neighborhoods. The month leading up… SEE MORE
By Jim Hendricks. Outboard-powered cruisers have never been more prevalent than they are today, owing largely to the growth of outboard motors themselves. The Yamaha 425 XTO Offshore V-8, for example, stands near the pinnacle of available outboard oomph and technology, and is well-suited for boats such as the Pursuit… SEE MORE
By Kendra Pierre-Loius. ORLEANS, Mass. — The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, among the rarest and most endangered of the seven species of sea turtles, was found motionless shortly after high tide on Cape Cod’s Skaket Beach. It was in dire straits. The chilly fall ocean temperatures off Cape Cod had… SEE MORE
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Home / Entertainment News / Billie Eilish Drops New Song “Everything I Wanted”
Billie Eilish Drops New Song “Everything I Wanted”
Singer Billie Eilish just dropped a new song called “Everything I Wanted”, her first new music since her <i>When We All Fall Asleep</i> album came out early this year, Consequence of Sound reports. The aching minimalist track features Eilish singing over a spare beat and quiet keys. The singer is expected to release another song and video called “Xanny” soon, and is reportedly working on a new album with her brother Finneas. “We’re deep into the creative process on new material for sure,” Finneas told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe last month.<br />
Billie Eilish premieres new song “everything i wanted”: Stream
Previous Maren Morris, Blake Shelton Dedicate 2019 CMA Awards Wins to Busbee
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Home / Entertainment News / GWYNETH PALTROW AND BRAD FALCHUK MARRY IN THE HAMPTONS
GWYNETH PALTROW AND BRAD FALCHUK MARRY IN THE HAMPTONS
Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk have made it official! The Goop founder and American Horror Story producer got married in the Hamptons Saturday evening, according to multiple reports. (Many of which contained faux-horror and admiration for the fact that Falckuk—GASP—drove himself to the ceremony in a red car!)
The pair got married earlier this year and Falchuk’s producing partner Ryan Murphy through them an already legendary party in L.A. with over 400 celebrity attendees!
The 46-year-old Paltrow wrote of giving love and marriage a second chance in her magazine Goop’s January issue: "I have decided to give it a go again, not only because I believe I have found the man I was meant to be with, but because I have accepted the soul-stretching, pattern-breaking opportunities that (terrifyingly) are made possible by intimacy."
She met her 47-year-old now husband on the set of Glee in 2010. She famously consciously uncoupled from her husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in 2014; Paltrow and Falchuk reportedly began dating the same year. Paltrow and Martin have remained besties and frequently appear in each other’s social media feeds. He played New York’s Global Citizen Festival the day of their wedding and could not attend.
Falchuk’s previous marriage to Suzanne Bukinik also ended in divorce. They both bring two children to the marriage and do not plan to have more with each other.
Of the wedding, Paltrow told People she considers it her first, as she and Martin eloped in 2003.
The arrival of her Iron Man co-star and buddy Robert Downey Jr. was also captured by paparazzi.
The rehearsal dinner was a star-studded, luxe affair held at Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld’s Hamptons home Friday night.
Among the 75 or so guests, were the bride's mom Blythe Danner, Downey and his wife Susan Downey, Cameron Diaz and husband Benji Madden, Steven Spielberg—who cast the bride in her first film, Hook, and his wife Kate Capshaw, Rob Lowe and wife Sheryl Berkoff and the Seinfelds.
The details of the wedding were kept strictly under wraps, including the designer of the dress. (WE ALL WANT TO KNOW!)
Previous Moore Program Changers
Next CELEBRITY GOSSIP
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Wild pollinators move into their new bee habitat wall
By: Lisa Kuder
Get up close and personal with solitary bees as they begin to inhabit the 24’ earthen wall and interactive cabinet at College Park’s Arboretum Outreach Center, a tranquil garden next to Byrd Stadium. Guest artisans and I designed and built the structure this summer with the help of many hard-working volunteers. Funding for the project came from Mike Raupp ‘The Bug Guy’ as part of UMD’s nationally acclaimed outreach program. The main purpose of the bee wall is to raise public awareness of wild pollinators and to facilitate monitoring of campus bee populations.
Earthen pollinator wall with the Audio Bee Cabinet at UMD's Arboretum Outreach Center. Photo by Lisa Kuder.
Aptly named Dwelling: Paint Branch Creek homage to the 17 mile long Paint Branch stream that flows through Prince George's County, the habitat wall mirrors the curves and layered soil horizon of a meandering river bank. Vertical earthen surfaces such as these are prime real estate for many ground nesting insects. If you look carefully, you will find premade holes of various sizes in each band of clay to attract different types of pollinators. Embedded in the wall is a beautiful pollinator cabinet that enables visitors to observe and listen as cavity or wood nesters provision their nests. Within just one week of completion, multiple species of bees and wasps had already started to move in.
Chopsticks were used to poke holes of various sizes in the contrasting colors of clay to attract multiple species of solitary bees and wasps. Photo credit: Sarah Peebles
Illustration of the solitary bee life cycle depicted on the Audio Bee Cabinet by Sarah Peebles with pyrography by Mary-Ann Alberga, assisted by Rob Cruichshank (electronics) and Jennifer Rong (cabinetry). Photo by Lisa Kuder.
But wait a minute . . . won’t I get stung? Solitary bees and wasps are non-aggressive unlike their pesky cousins the yellow jackets. Plus, they don’t defend their nests like social bees (honey bees and bumble bees). In MD alone we’ve over 400 species, most all of which are solitary, meaning each female provides for her own offspring. Don’t be fooled by the word solitary though as many species are gregarious preferring to live in large groups. It will be exciting to see who occupies the wall and how their populations fluctuate over time. Beginning next spring, regular updates will be posted to this blog documenting colonization rates.
What kind of bees do we expect to move into the earthen wall? Our target genus is Anthophora. According to the USDA ground nesting species make up at least 70% of the bee population. Yet bee expert Sam Droege estimates that the actual number might be as high as 95%. While it is more common for bees to nest in horizontal sites, some genera such as Anthophora prefer dry perpendicular surfaces. They tend to form large nesting aggregations on the face of steep cliffs, upturned tree roots, creek beds and, yes, cob structures. Maryland is home to 6 species ofAnthophora, 2 of which are fairly common, native A. abrupta and naturalized A. plumipes. In a modern landscape, undisturbed nesting sites for Anthphora and many other bees can be lacking.
A nest aggregate of Anthophora abrupta in a local cob wall. This is one of the few species in the region that builds turrets or chimneys. Biologists believe that these additions regulate the temps of their nests. Interestingly, it has been noted that dry seasons result in shorter chimneys. Photo by Charley Eiseman.
Anthohora abrupta entering a turreted nest. These fast-flying bees resemble small bumble bees and are excellent pollinators of several valuable food crops. Males don mustaches for collecting parsnip oil to woo the females. Photo credit: USDA Scott Bauer.
Wood nesting bees make up the other 5 - 30% of the population. Rather than nesting in the ground they are drawn to soft-pithed twigs and beetle tunnels in dead trees. They will also readily use blocks of wood with man-made tunnels like those found in the wall's bee cabinet. Thanks to Plexiglass sheets, visitors can observe mason bees and blue orchard bees (Genus: Osmia), yellow-faced plaster bees (Genus: Hylaeus), Megachile spp. and beneficial predatory wasps line and cap natal cells with their preferred nesting materials (leaves, mud or resin). Bring a pair of earbuds so you can plug in to the solar powered amplifier and hear the fascinating noises these small, amazing creatures make while at work.
An interior shot of the bee booth.Plug in your personal headphones or earbuds to listen and observe as solitary bees and wasps build their nests. When you're finished, please remember to shut the door so the residents don't bake in the sun. Photo credit: Rob Cruichshank.
A peek at some of the nesting activities taking place within the bee cabinet. Isodontia spp. commonly called grass nesting wasps are utilizing the top 2 tunnels. They are a gardener's best friend, as they help control insect pests. Each cell, comprised of a stunned cricket and an egg, is partitioned with grass. Finally, the solitary wasp caps her brood with a tuft of grass that resembles a broom. The 3rd tunnel from the top is filled with cells from a resin bee belonging to the genus Megachile. Look closely and you will see bees in the various stages of development (egg, larva, pupa and adult). Photo by Lisa Kuder.
Also of interest is the cob construction of the wall. Cob or cobb is a natural building material made of clay, sand and a fibrous organic material (typically straw). This ancient building technique is still used throughout the world and has recently experienced a revival in the U.S. as the demand for sustainable, green architecture grows. Approximately 7 tons of locally sourced materials were used to build the habitat wall. From the bottom up nearly all of the materials are repurposed; including urbanite (broken concrete) and subsoil from a campus construction project, cedar from an old playset and the corrugated roof panels made from 50% recycled fibers. River rocks salvaged from earlier construction work were used to protect the upper surface of the wall from the elements.
Local green builder Zak Kahn with a fresh batch of cob. The basic 'recipe' for cob is one part clay to one part sand. As these ingredients are mixed with a gas powered tiller, water is added until the consistency is thick but sticky. The final ingredient chopped straw increases the tensile strength of this earthen building material. Photo by Lisa Kuder.
Undergrads from Dennis vanEngelsdorp's Bee Lab embed river rocks into the top surface of the wall to slow the natural erosion process by reflecting water from the cob. Photo by Sarah Peebles.
A bit more about the human resources: Sarah Peebles a Toronto based sound and installation artist is the originator of the audio bee cabinet part of a media outreach program calledResonating Bodies. Engaging all of the senses enables the user to experience the secret lives of bees in a fuller more intimate way. Incorporating the cabinet into cob was a way of expanding opportunities to explore the meaning of biodiversity. Ed Raduazo, a local cob expert, was instrumental in this process by teaching the crew how to mix and build with cob using a gas powered tiller and hand tools. His passion for keeping this important building technology alive for future generations inspired all during the physically intensive work.
Ed Raduazo showing the crew how to layer cob so it doesn't sag. In the Mid-Atlantic region where humidity levels are high, only 12" or so can be added per day. Photo by Sarah Peebles.
Sarah Peebles and volunteer Monette Bailey from UMD's Center for Leadership & Organizational Change shape the wall with wooden floaters. Photo by Lisa Kuder.
Additional acknowledgements . . . a thousand thanks not only to Mike, Sarah and Ed but also to student helpers from Dennis vanEngelsdorp's Bee Lab: Adam Kellermann, Byron Mariani, Mike Gladchuk, Marina Peterson and Sidharth Ganesan, and to Eric Kuder for designing and constructing the weather guard, the entire staff at the Arboretum Outreach Center especially Carin Celebuski and Michael Carmichael for their patience and support throughout the whole process, Zak Kahn for his expertise with cob construction, Capital Projects for donating urbanite and clay, LCI Recycling for donating and delivering masonry sand and to Sam Droege for introducing me to Ed and Sarah, providing occasional cob advice and creating a buzz about wild bees.
Please stay tuned for future updates on UMD's new habitat bee wall. In the meantime, please send any questions/comments about this project to:
Lisa Kuder
Dennis vanEngelsdorp Bee Lab
Entomology Department
4112 Plant Sciences Building
Email: lkuder@umd.edu
Research and Lab Updates
Find out what kind of research our students are conducting and new projects managed by our lab scientists
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iPhone X: A Privacy Hazard?
There’s been a lot of hype around the new iPhone X for obvious reasons. I admit it – I’m captivated by all the ‘cool’ stuff – but then I start to think through it all…
The phone boasts a series of exciting new features including an edge-to-edge OLED screen, a powerful front facing camera and, perhaps receiving the most hype of all, Face ID. How cool does that sound? It immediately makes me think of all the futuristic movies I love. This has to be the coolest thing ever – right? Well, Face ID is a facial scanner that will replace Apple’s Touch ID, allowing people to unlock their iPhone with their face. Hmmm. Sounds simple and convenient but it also has many privacy experts concerned. In fact, Apple’s embrace of facial recognition opens a whole can of worms over security, the idea of people’s faces as their password and where this technology may take us.
The first question we need to ask when thinking about this technology is: does it really work? Predecessors to the iPhone X’s Face ID technology have faced security issues. It appears that previous attempts have been easily – well tricked. A facial unlock feature by Samsung could be unlocked by a photo. Another Android Face Unlock that required the phone owner to blink could be tricked by crudely photoshopping a photo so that the person’s eyes were closed and showing the phone first the original photo and then the photoshopped photo. Apple however claims that Face ID cannot be fooled by photos or face masks. But I have a bigger question – what if the person is sleeping or deceased—can it be unlocked then? Bottom line, we have yet to see whether Face ID will hold up against attempts to trick it, which although I still think this is cool, it is a bit unsettling to say the least.
Face ID raises yet another privacy issue—the phone owner is saving his/her facial image to use as their password. So, who has access to that facial image? Apple has a strong record in privacy and has noted that a person’s Face ID is stored only on the iPhone and is not shared with Apple. That however does not completely address the question. What about banks and other companies that might use Face ID for transactions? Where is the guarantee that they will not capture the user’s face—which is essentially functioning as their password? How can this be prohibited?
And then there’s the bit where in order for Face ID to work, at least some of iPhone X’s sensors must always be on. This requirement could allow for users to be spied on, for their faces to be scanned for emotion to see how they are reacting to different content. Facebook already targets advertisements to people based on what they know about them—imagine how companies could take advantage of seeing firsthand how people engage with the material on their phone. Ugh – I couldn’t take it.
Finally, the biggest issue with Apple embracing this kind of technology is that others will follow. Apple may take all security measures necessary to keep this technology secure and protect clients, but that doesn’t mean other companies will do the same. Face ID is a privacy concern because It could be used to spy on people, to hijack their identities or control them. There are already cases where in China, facial recognition was used by police to identify and shame jaywalkers. While in Russia, it’s been used to identify anti-corruption protesters.
All of this feeds into a wider issue—the disappearance of privacy for the sake of convenience. Privacy is no longer the default, it’s become something people need to be proactive about in order to ensure they maintain any resemblance of it for the future. Privacy should not be considered a luxury, although many do not prioritize it as they should.
Although cool, some of these features may be better left unused. I may even put off my upgrade for a bit, just to see how things mature… To avoid privacy issues on your iPhone, it’s recommended that you use a passcode in lieu of Touch ID or the upcoming Face ID. People should also be careful about which mediums they communicate on—Facebook, Email or SMS are typically not secure. Make sure to take the necessary steps to protect your privacy and security—something Vaporstream is heavily focused on. Learn more about Vaporstream here.
Contributor: Kristi Perdue Hinkle
Interested in More: Related Privacy Stories
Should We Sell Our Data?
Privacy Takeaways from 2019
Do VPNs Actually Protect Your Privacy?
Security Doesn’t Always Mean Privacy
A Brief History of Scanning
Collaboration Under PDGM
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Travel Wonders World EUROPE Love UK Through Simple Things
Love UK Through Simple Things
England is not simply a place I come and go, but the land has helped me to overcome myself, with many emotions and understand myself better.
Is not meaningless when everyone wishes to set foot once to England, and nor is it ridiculous when everyone is immersed in the ancient beauty that this land modern. Everyone has their own way of love. Those tourists love through the eyes admire the sight of the symbols of England. Professional photographer who loves England back through each image size, each best moments they captured was ... Then with a student like me, fall in love with this country through ordinary daily life as people indigenous, simply ask for things most traders get the most peaceful things.
When it comes to England, everyone will think of London, which is described as a picture of harmonious combination of colors and unique drawings. Where the beauty of London can be difficult and hard match, where can get. It has the bustle on the streets of the center, is busy in the subway, where the noisy crowded shopping street, but still keep yourself calm strokes through the relics associated with Britain, which features idyllic quiet while sitting in a café overlooking the window watching carefully where this capital city. England is beautiful through the eyes of those tourists, but if you watch it through another aspect, this country can most enchanting anywhere anymore.
When everyone has a race to train their own ground, no one tried to stop there, despite the influx of people hurried past each other, to immerse themselves in the beauty nameless, then steeped in thinking of themselves yet? Has anyone ever stopped enjoying performances by street performers, music feel real special of London, and laughed with them, support them yet? Is it possible for someone who used to walk along the streets of London when the shops are still closed, and contemplate: "Well, it turns out London also times like this, the moments under that quiet night after only a few hours just disappear? ".
Has anyone tried the rain in London to wear wet yourself, but in the heart and that is happiness just discovered a new beauty of this land? At times someone looks at the sky of London, so beautiful, so in, but had vague sad yet? That when someone is standing under the sky where this foreign land, there are those who are standing under the skies of Saitama on the other to his or her waiting ... Then suddenly realized, when looking at every beauty, every person still feel grief themselves.
I am a student in the coastal city in the southwest of England, 1.5 hours from the capital by boat - Bournemouth. When it comes to the UK will be obscure to Bournemouth, but for me, it is a piece of land attached to life, for I am but happy happy moments with their friends, the people I thought I would never met. The beauty of Bournemouth different from London, the picture was simpler, more casual, like something as yet to be finalized, but it is the most beautiful sketches. One should carefully watch this picture can see the hidden features, new feel all the emotions contained therein.
Who, too, is an international student would be very easy to feel lonely, feel lost between the lines are very busy people out there, and this time, I choose to go around the city to explore more about the potential, and to shake off all sorrow of itself.
Bournemouth has a coastline with sandy beaches gilded under the sun glare tied. That's where I drop soul, his heart drop, drop once confided to strong waves come and go. Walk along it, I feel the bitter cold weather, but as it wants to take away all the tiredness of me, give me comfort, joy. Walk along it, I used to cry, cry because of loneliness, so tired, so sad. Walking along it, I also had to laugh, laughing, happy, because this place has made me grow up, give me a life that, despite the failure will continue to stand up.
Study abroad, also means getting used to having to take the bus. Time sitting on the bus, headphones, forget everything, that's when I feel most comfortable. Through the window, I saw the family laughs happily, seeing the couple holding hands walking down the street, see the group you hang out together laughed straw. I remember his time in Hanoi, that he also was one of those who are happy like that, but this time I was alone. And UK alone. The bus let me admire this land in another aspect. A beauty that only human beings away from home as we understand. A beauty which alone we feel sad, alone we feel lonely.
I always sit on the last bus to the station, where I do not know where this is, nor determine the orientation. I always want to try to see where this British soil, it contains beauty that do not know anymore. See, it was immersed. I at that time, have to ask yourself how questions themselves never answered. I at the time, was crying like there's no tomorrow. I at the time, went up a hill and then shouted to the sky, saying, "I have tried many more, have to fall much further tears, how much longer must fall again, can my parents are not the days of our thoughts. "
England that day, heavy rain.
England that day, using his beauty that hold me close.
England, did not abandon me.
Besides Saitama, maybe the UK is the place I love the most, is where most memories for me. It is not simply a country I come and go, but also a piece of land gave me her beauty to help me overcome myself. This country has taken me to many emotions frame, help me understand myself. England in my eyes, is a beautiful piece of land has the same I cry, and I'm happy, a place for me to understand, and where I willingly put my love into it forever.
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RAN Protests Spruce Mine at EPA HQ
Green is the new green
Daniel Kessler, Guest Writer @danieljkessler
photo via RAN
Rainforest Action Network is working to bring attention to largest ever proposed mountaintop removal site--the Spruce mine in Blair, West Virginia. Activists showed up at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C and promptly dumped 1,000 pounds of Appalachian dirt on the sidewalk. RAN's message: "EPA: Don't Let King Coal Dump On Appalachia."The Obama administration recently announced that will decide on the Spruce mine this month. RAN says that the Spruce mine project is a "bellweather," an indication of how stringently the administration will limit mountaintop removal.
Amanda Starbuck from the Rainforest Action Network said:
"At issue here is not whether the Spruce mine would be bad for the environment or human health, because we know it would and the EPA has said it would. At issue is whether, during an election season, President Obama's EPA will stand up to coal industry pressure and veto this horrific project.
In July, the New York Times profiled the Spruce mine, saying that it was a key test case for how far officials will go using the Clean Water Act. Under the proposal, over 400 feet will be blasted off mountaintops and deposited below in the waterways.
The Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration, in a break with President George W. Bush's more coal-friendly approach, has threatened to halt or sharply scale back the project known as Spruce 1. The agency asserts that the project would irrevocably damage streams and wildlife and violate the Clean Water Act.
Because it is one of the largest mountaintop mining projects ever and because it has been hotly disputed for a dozen years, Spruce 1 is seen as a bellwether by conservation groups and the coal industry.
More on mountaintop removal:
EPA to Regulate Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining More Stringently
Fate of Biggest US Mountaintop Removal Mining Project to be Decided This Year
Rainforest Action Network is working to bring attention to largest ever proposed mountaintop removal site--the Spruce mine in Blair, West Virginia. Activists showed up at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C and promptly dumped 1,000 pounds
6 ways to 'beef up' your vegetarian vegetable stock
France begins radical plan to phase out single-use plastic
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Top 10 ways to start the New Year in Britain
If you haven’t quit smoking, cleared out the garage and gone to the gym yet you probably never will! Here are 10 New Year’s Resolutions that are easier to keep. Learn something new Take a break and pick up new skills as you go. From art classes to Scottish country dancing, Britain is a great destination for holidays where you can learn something new. Here are a few ideas to get you started. For more information check out the GoLearnTo website. • The Wedgwood Tour, Pottery Class and Lunch: Combine the heritage of Wedgwood with the chance to have some hands-on fun at the potter’s wheel. • Rick Stein’s Padstow Seafood School: At Rick Stein’s Padstow Seafood School you’ll learn about every aspect of seafood cookery. You’ll cover it all from filleting a plaice to stir-frying squid, braising brill to steaming sea bass. Save money on accommodation We’re all strapped for cash at this time of year. So if you’re planning a break you might want to consider some budget accommodation on your next UK holiday. These options are low on price not quality or character. • Smart City Hostel, Edinburgh: There was a time when youth hostels meant smelly sleeping bags and doing the washing up. No longer. The 5-star Smart City Hostel is modern, clean and cool with private rooms or dorms. The location in Edinburgh’s Old Town is hard to beat. • Camping, across the UK: It’s official, camping is cool again. It’s eco, cheap and a great way to get right into Britain’s finest bits of countryside. Find your perfect pitch with our Top 10 Camping spots. • St. Briavels Castle, Gloucestershire: Go medieval at this 13th-century castle, now a youth hostel offering budget accommodation in a genuine fortress in the lush Gloucestershire countryside. Spend more time in the garden The British are a nation of gardeners and we have some of the most beautiful in the world. Come in winter to see subtle colours, silvery trees and frost-clad lawns or in spring and summer for a riot of colour. Find out more about British gardens. Go green Trying to lower your carbon footprint in 2012? If you need some eco inspiration visit the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales, an entertaining and informative experience offering practical tips for sustainable living. Get back to nature Embrace Mother Nature with these outdoor activities: • Feed Red Kites, Mid Wales: See up to 400 of these majestic birds of prey swoop and circle before descending to feed just metres from the hides at Gigrin Red Kite Feeding Station. • Bushcraft, Lake District: Learn survival skills like fire making and shelter building with Woodsmoke then practise your new-found skills in the rugged Lake District. Spend more time in church The UK has some of the most beautiful and architecturally important churches in the world. Modernists will appreciate Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral while fans of the Norman should seek out Durham Cathedral. And if it’s the gothic that gets you going try Westminster Abbey in London or Canterbury Cathedral in Kent. Reduce your stress levels What could be better than a rejuvenating dose of pure relaxation? Detox, recharge and chill out at one of Britain’s top spas. Here are three of the best: • Bath Thermae Spa: Follow in the sandal-steps of Roman bathers at Britain’s only natural thermal spa, a place of relaxation for over 2,000 years. Don’t miss the gorgeous rooftop pool with views over honey-hued Bath. It’s great value, too. • Harrogate Turkish Baths: Take the plunge in this glorious Victorian spa decked out in colourful Turkish tiling. Under the huge vaulted ceiling you’ll find a large tiered hot chamber, a cold plunge pool, steam rooms and a relaxation area. • ESPA at Gleneagles Hotel: The Good Spa Guide describes ESPA as “possibly the best designed spa we've ever encountered” and we’d be inclined to agree. Everything from the décor to the music is just so. Choose from an array of treatments and leave transformed. Get fit the fun way Hide the PlayStation and book the kids onto an activity holiday. They might just thank you for it. Snowdonia National Park has mountainous terrain and offers everything from canoeing to rock-climbing. If you’re not sure what to try, iTry has great taster courses. You’ll find similar high-adrenaline fun in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. Get away from it all If 2011 was too hectic why not escape for a while? Hole up in one of these splendidly isolated hotels to ponder the New Year in peace: • The Inn at Whitewell, Lancashire: The historic Inn at Whitewell tucked away in the Forest of Bowland has sublime views over a trout river and combines cosiness with class. • Hambleton Hall, Rutland: Overlooking Rutland Water in Britain’s smallest county, the luxury Hambleton Hall is a country house hotel with a Michelin star chef. • Glenuaig Lodge, Scottish Highlands: Glenuaig is a former Victorian hunting lodge sleeping 8 that’s secluded in the mountains. Your only neighbours will be red deer and eagles. Ditch the car and take the train Explore the UK by rail and discover the gentler way to travel. From coastal routes in Northern Ireland to heritage lines that snake through the Welsh mountains, you’ll find travelling by train the most scenic and romantic way to see the UK.
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INDIGENOUS TOYS & GAMES
NOTE 1ST AUG. 17 …THIS PAGE IS CURRENTLY BEING EDITED.
Note: This section is based on material sourced from old newspapers and memoirs and uses phrases of earlier times. Many of the words, like blackfellows, natives and primitives are not acceptable in today’s Australia and however condescending and insensitive they may appear, even for an earlier time, they are a matter of public record. Most of the items come from children’s sections in regional and metro newspapers. Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes.
The Queenslander 4 May 1933
A Toy Boomerang. 2 drawings.
Most of our young readers are too familiar with the boomerang, the national weapon of our aborigines— to need any explanation of its principles and uses, except to say that when properly thrown it will travel a considerable distance and return to the thrower if not interrupted in its flight by some obstacle. The boomerang illustrated is not quite the same shape as those used by the Australian aborigines, but it works on exactly the same
principle. We have illustrated this pattern before, but there are always young readers coming in who are not acquainted with the toy form, and this time we are going to show how it can be thrown much farther than in an ordinary way.
The boomerang can be made of thin wood, metal, or fibre board, and it should be made to the proportions shown in the drawing. The size can easily be calculated by means of the squares, which measure half an inch each way, so that the length of the longer arm is about 4 1/4 in. and of the shorter 3 1/4 in. measuring from the back of the boomerang. It can, of course, be made larger in the same proportion, but if too big may be a little dangerous if the thrower is not an expert. The best plan is to make a small one first, and then if the sport is attractive try a larger one. This size can be operated in a good-sized room, but beware of mother’s vases or the crockery on the shelf! One side is left flat, and the other, which is the upper side in practice, is given a slight camber (angle); in the case of the shape shown this camber would be about 1/2 in. for the width, namely thrower it can be sent over a much longer distance. This method is more suitable for a paddock or in the open where there is plenty of room.
The blackfellow of North Queensland throws his spear by means of a short 13/4 in. in the size shown in Fig. 1. If made of metal or fibre the material can be bent so as to give this cambered shape. The aboriginal method of projecting the boomerang is to throw it with the hand, but with the catapult stick known as a woomera. This is a flat piece of wood, like a boomerang straightened out, with a small hook on the edge at one end and a roughened or string-bound portion at the other end to give a good handhold. The butt of the spear, hollowed out slightly, is placed against the hook, and the spear laid along the top edge of the woomera, which is held by the hand-grip horizontally over the shoulder, the spear being kept from falling off by the fingers of the hand which holds the end. Then the blackfellow projects the woomera forward in the direction in which the spear is to go, holding the handle firmly all the time. As soon as he reaches the limit of his throw the woomera stops, but the spear continues its course towards the target because the fingers are used only to steady the spear on the woomera and do not check its flight. The driving force is the small hook at the back end of the woomera. Using a light reed spear, tipped with a hardwood point, the blackfellow can throw with the woomera to a great distance—far greater than could be done with the unaided arm.
For throwing the toy boomerang we are going to employ the same principle as the woomera, except that a catapult or “shanghai” is used in place of the woomera. In the pattern for the boomerang will be noticed a small notch at one end. This is to fit on the rubber cord of an elastic catapult as in Fig. 2.
This catapult has no leather pocket or bag for the stone like an ordinary “shang,” and left-hand with the usual fork and a piece of elastic cord. If this is not obtainable and flat rubber has to be used a short length of common twine should be inserted in place of the pocket of the ordinary catapult so that the notch on the boomerang will fit over it. It is important to hold the free arm of the boomerang in the correct direction, and also at the correct inclination. These conditions, however, need not deter the user, for after a few trials with different angles and inclinations he will find the correct one at which the boomerang will return to him after its flight. The best kind of return is the one where it passes the thrower in a series of zig zags until it drops at his feet.
The Register News Pictorial (Adelaide) 26 Sept 1929
HOW THE AUSTRALIAN BLACKFELLQW USED TO PLAY GAMES
Aboriginal Substitutes for Cricket, Golf and Tops. makers of Ingenious toys.
THE discussion about boomerangs which followed the discovery of such a weapon in Utah the other day, brought out the fact that the Australian blackfellow is the sole manufacturer of boomerangs that actually return to the thrower. It is not every boomerang that comes back, and those that do are mostly playthings. Our aborigines used to be very fond of playing games. They were light-hearted people once, and some of their toys were very original and ingenious.
THE ? blackfellow’s inventive skill was by no means confined to the production of playthings. The fighting boomerang was a very dangerous weapon, and: is still no joke among the few wild natives who are left to use it. It can be thrown so as to fly in a wide circle, but that is not its principal purpose. The fighting boomerang is thrown to kill, but it can be warded off with a nulla-nulla or shield — so long as it has not got a hook on the end of it. The inventor of the hooked boomerang was an artful fellow. He saw how the ordinary boomerang would ‘ glance off any stick held up to intercept it; so he added the hook, to catch on the shield, and swing the boomerang round it with such force as to dash a man’s brains out.
The come-back boomerang is a very different article, although one of the games in which it used to figure is what -civilized people would call rather rough. No one ever studied the sports and pastimes- of the Australian blackfellow more intelligently than Walter E. Roth, the author of a rare little book called Ethnological Studies Among the North-West Central Queensland aborigines The play boomerang seems to have been evolved from the fighting boomerang and from a highly ingenious toy throwing stick and Roth saw both throwing stick and play boomerang in use. He has left us an interesting description of the games in which they were employed, The throwing stick, he says, is a thin straight stick with a knob on the end of it, which, if cleverly thrown up against some thick foliage, or down at a tussock, can be made to shoot through the air twice as far as it can be thrown in the ordinary way. There is a curved throwing stick which will bound up and whirl about in an astonishing way if thrown against a log on the ground. Nearly related to this is the comeback boomerang, which is quite an entertaining plaything.
But the Queensland blacks, at all events, were not content just to throw the play boomerang and watch it circle in the air and return. They devised games for it — trying to make it come back in such a way as to hit one another, or to fall directly on an agreed spot marked with a peg in the ground— a sort of aboriginal game of quoits. The natives used to have at least three games of ball — catch-ball, stick-and-stone, and spin-ball. The first children with a leather ball, bound with hair-twine, not vastly different in its component parts from the earliest golf balls.
‘Stick-and-stone’ was remotely suggestive of cricket. There were opposing teams of\ from four to six players, armed with sticks and ranged up fifteen or twenty yards apart. ‘The game,’ says Roth, ‘consists in throwing a stone of convenient size from one side to the other, each individual trying to intercept it with his stick as it skips or rolls before him on the’ ground.’
Blackfellows’ Tops
The spin-ball was generally of baked clay. brightly coloured and spun between the fingers on the ground —clearly related to the top of the European boy. Roth’s black friends were also fond of skipping and used a rope made from the roots of a tree, which two persons swung backwards and forwards — and not over and over — while a third did the skipping. then there was ‘hunt the eye,’ something like ‘hunt the slipper’. It was played with a tethered object, often the lens of an opossum’s eye, which was hidden in the sand while the players, sitting round in a ring, held their hands before their faces. Hide and seek, the aborigines used to play just as our children play it today. Throwing a leaf into a column of hot smoke in such a way as to make it ascent in spiral curves, was another innocent pastime. The Australian savages with whom Roth was acquainted, even played a sort of golf, but without clubs.- There was only one hole, and that was a pit, guarded by a cross bunker, in the form of a net. The game was to throw a human shinbone from a prodigious distance, and to ‘hole in one.’ Altogether, the passion for sport seems to have been felt in this country even before white settlement.
The Daily Mail (Brisbane) 16 Aug 1924
NATIVE GAMES
By Castlebar
The Australian blacks have impressed many observers as being simply big children, cheerful, irresponsible, and with no care for tomorrow; and there is no doubt that their lives before the advent of the white man were, in the main, very happy.
The blacks are natural optimists, and love of fun, and they had no terrifying doctrines of a future world, few diseases, and no natural enemies, save themselves. There was practically no bickering in the camps of the tribesmen, but endless frolic and laughter. With them time was no object, and, especially in seasons of plenty, every day -was a holiday. The blacks had numerous games, many athletic, and’ all games of skill and everyone, even fine old men and women, joined in the games, which never failed to cause tremendous excitement and emulation. The various corroborees were, of course, the national games or ceremonies, but apart from those unique performances, the many and often clever pastimes of the blacks have never received the attention they deserved. The favourite sport was tug-of-war, which was carried out on .a different plan from that of the white men. A pole, cut from, the bush and trimmed with the stone axe heads, was used instead of a rope, and the contestants pushed instead of pulled, while the onlookers sat in rows and shrieked encouragement to their favourite side.. wrestling bouts, for men only, and these were looked forward to and well prepared for before the great gathering of the tribes for the Priodle Boorah, or. initiation ceremonies. They had also, several ball games, the ball being made from portion of the skin of an old man kangaroo, stuffed with gins’ hair. Two opposing sides or teams had each a captain, and totem played against totem, such as “White Cockatoo v Pelicans. The game was for each side to keep the ball away, from the other, and there the men arid women took part, but it was considered too strenuous for the children. ‘ Another popular game was spearing the kangaroo.” A piece of bark was stripped from a tree, and shaped, into a circle; and then bowled along the ground, while the players from given positions, had to pierce .it was an excellent practice for their hunting.
The blacks, wherever water was plentiful, spent much time in swimming, and they had numerous water games. Besides ordinary swimming diving for objects, and the Imitation
of swans, turtles, etc. Tremendous laughter invariably accompanied the for the grown
ups, both sexes participating. They were also fond of holding sham fights, excellent practice for their extreme quickness of eye for real spears were thrown, and only the watchfulness of the attacked one prevented real injury. Much time was spent in teaching the children thoroughly to fight, swim, hunt, track, etc, In these mock battles, a black was upon his honour (not to move off the ground when dodging a spear, and to avoid the hissing missiles by only the slightest possible movement of his body. The children’s games, of course,’ were imitations of those of the adults. The -boomerang was used in several games, usually the returning boomerang, which was’ largely a toy, and seldom used in contestants each lighted a small fire, at which the boomerangs were prepared and rubbed with fat. They were then thrown, and the’ game was to make them return as near as possible to a given spot. At night the blacks were fond of sending
thousands of boomerangs tipped with fire circling through the air together.
Another species of native fireworks was that known as “poolooloomee.” They
peeled off great sheets of green bark from, white gum trees, and shaped hundreds of “poolooloomees,” which resembled bark spoons with long handles
into the campfires till they glowed red and then the display began. Each black had a long stick stuck firmly into the ground, and when one against this the glowing head was
broken, off and sent whirling through the air. Hundreds were” sent up at once, the lubras rushing backwards and forwards to the fires to keep the men supplied, while the night rang with wild yells of revelry. Skipping was another accomplishment well known to the blacks, and much indulged in, and they had developed the art far in advance of the white man’s methods.-
A vine was often used for a rope, and the two turners tried by every means to catch the performer, man or woman, off his or her guard. At first the skipper went through the ordinary steps but this was soon followed by amazing variations, such as taking thorns out of feet, digging for yams, grinding seed, imitating a frog, or other, creature, striking an attitude as distance, snatching up a child, or lying flat on the ground, measuring the full length in that position, and recovering in time to jump the rope, which was kept going constantly during the whole pantomime. Many of the oldest warriors and gins were excellent performers.. The blacks also spent much time in carving implements and even whole trees, in decorating with differently coloured ochres, and in painting figures in caves. The famous gigantic painting of’ “hell-fire” at Nardoo Creek, in which hundreds of human hands appear to be lifted out of a sea of flames, is well known. They were also fond of fireside stories, mostly tales of wonder and magic, and were adept in merit of oratory, in -which their, eloquence was wonderful. Singing or chanting look up much of their time, and, according to that, first of all authorities on
the aborigines, Mr J Mathew, almost every blackfellow is a maker of lyric
verse, and while away the hour in expressing the poetry and music thai is in
him. The special bards or song-makers of each tribe were held in great esteem,
and they were overeager to learn new songs. They had songs to the dawn, and to the kookaburra; songs for various occasions, and many humorous chants or action-songs. Whenever the successful game they came in chanting the emu
song, or the kangaroo along, as the case I might be. – Some were magic or ceremonial songs for the corroboree. Whether in far-off tunes, the blacks, with their genius for mimicry, evolved the corroboree from the marvellous dawn-dance of the brolgas, or native companions, cannot be known; but they declare that the .brolgas learnt their quaint quadrilles from /the unlives’ corroborees, and. for. thnt reason these birds were never molested. Apart from the way. , hnd ceremonial dances of the boorah, and other semi-religious functions, the blacks had an unlimited repertoire of corroborees, which were the native plays or operas. Most of
these were humorous and imitative of some bird, animal, or event. The dancing grounds were lit by great armfuls- of dead timber, placed in forks of surrounding trees, and fired, and the. gins sat in rows and did (ho singing, keeping time on their ‘possum rug “drums.” It was always a wild and impressive spectacle, and seemed express all ‘the weirdness
and mystery of the Australian bush- Among the favourite performance were the sick baby dance, startled “birds, the last the tho poisoned dingo, cattle raided by the blacks, the coming of the first steamer, and. the imitation of different birds and their cries.and were in reality dramas, nnd each had its appropriate music. Numerous riddles were also | acted in pantomime. who uuhouuiw I was” called “the wild dog dance,” and began by the life-like howling of hid
den dingoes in the darkness answering each other, and then they finally came
to tho fire, running about, snarling and snapping, et« Another was the “imitation of a stormy shore,” in which the performers imitated to perfection the long rhythmic sweep of
tit wnvt> nnd their recoil, together with t he hiss of spray and the boom
of breakers. In the ennoe dance also there was the same perfect- rhythm of the swaying bodies. Among, the humorous pieces were “an old man -tormented by ‘possums,” nnd ”crossing a
river in a leaky canoe.” ‘
The Gundagai Independent and Pastoral, Agricultural and Mining Advocate 9 Dec 1926
SMH 4 Dec 1926 G V Stanley Science Research Scholar. Uni of Sydney
Aboriginal String Games
It is not generally realised that the study of aboriginal folk lore, fairy stories, and children’s games, is fo any scientific value. In consequence, these are often neglected for the apparently more profitable collecting of primitive tools and weapons, and the compilation of anthropometric data. Nevertheless, such subjects are of very great interest, and ‘their study by anyone who is in a position to do so is to be strongly urged. When Charles Lamb described the scholars of Christ’s Hospital as ‘weaving those ingenious parentheses, called cat cradles,’ he was referring to a most ancient pastime. Not only do’British children — even to the present day — play these peculiar string games, but many little savages in all parts of ‘the world know how to form complicated patterns which would throw, such well-known figures as the ‘candles,’
the ‘soldier’s bed,’ and the like quite into the shade. The Australian aborigines are no exception to the rule. They possess many complex patterns (probably several hundred) which have practically never been recorded. With the exception of Dr. Roth’s excellent bulletin on the amusements of the North Queensland aborigines, and an account by Spencer and Gillen of a pattern representing a dugong, from the Gulf of Carpentaria, the writer has been unable to find more than passing reference to this widely-spread custom. Any information relating, to these games would be very welcome.
GAINING CONFIDENCE
At present the writer has collected more than sixty patterns, chiefly from the children at the Yarrabah Mission Station, near Cairns, N.Q. Several have been gathered at odd times from
natives of Darnley Island, in Torres Straits, near Darwin. Although essentially a game played by the children, many women and men remember the patterns, and delight in teachingthem to anyone who is patient enough to write them down. The collecting of cats’ cradles is a delightful pastime: In the first place the shyness of the children must be overcome. Theyseem to be stricken dumb when the strange white man asks them a question, and it is appalling to see a pretty little, curly-headed brown girl dissolve into tears of fright. The value of lollies cannot be over-estimated. Presently the storm subsides, and beyond wriggling the toes and averting
the face if suddenly looked at, there is no further sign of embarrassment.
Confidence once gained there is usually no more trouble. The kiddies compete to show ‘new patterns, and are never tired of guiding clumsy fingers through the complicated manipulation.
The patterns represent in most cases animals, or familiar objects or actions. At Yarrabah, the wallaby, the crocodile, the turtle, and various kinds of fish and birds are each represented
by a figure. The sun, moon and the constellation of the Pleiades — whic j is believed to represent seven girls — are shown by complicated but beautiful patterns. Again, other designs
show a canoe, a boomerang, a fishing net, a round rock, two men walking towards each other, girls bathing, wild men fighting, and so on through a score of patterns. This endless variety is at first bewildering, but soon it becomes an incentive to learn more.It is, really, very easy to collect these games.
Earlier in the year the writer was camped for some weeks at Michaelmas Bay, on the Great Barrier Reef, near Cairns. Late one afternoon a beche de-mer lugger came in and cast anchor for the night. A skiff put. out, and the Darnley Island ‘boys’ who comprised the crew, came to the hut and asked to be allowed to gather some sea-birds’ eggs, for this (September) was the nesting season, and the cay was populated by many thousands of noisy terns and noddies. Although the lugger boys had in the past always collected as many eggs and chicks as they wanted, they now politely asked permission, — the island having been proclaimed
a bird sanctuary by the Government — it was believed that if a boy were caught stealing he would be fined a pound for every egg. The fresh eggs were very good — we ate a lot of
them ourselves — and permission was readily given, for the proclamation aims not to prevent such legitimate use of the eggs, but to put a stop to the wanton destruction of eggs and
chicks which often coincides with the visits of ‘pleasure parties’ to the island.
Later in the evening the boys again came ashore, this time bringing some trumpet shells which they hoped we might buy. We. tried by signs and questions to get them to show us some string figures. With the exception of a rather good-looking half-caste they appeared to be unable — more probably they were too shy — to say very much, but at length one of them, a slim, delicate-looking youth dressed only in a sarong, made a pattern which the consciously superior halfcaste interpreted as ‘the sun.’ The interpreter, because of his white blood, was rather disdainful of such childish amusements, but he was extremely useful when it came to find ing out the significance of the patterns.
All went well until we came to a pattern . which depicted ‘oo-zhie.’
We were helpless. What is oo-zhie? The boy wrinkled his nose and shuffled his bare feet, but try as he might, he could not explain. At last, after a time, he. suggested that the pattern
denoted a butterfly, to which the younger boy assented. .Unfortunately the figure did not in the least denote a butterfly. Then it occurred to us to get the boy to _ sketch the oo-zhie. He did so — rather. well — and at once we discovered that we were dealing really with a caterpillar suspended by two delicate threads to the leaf of a tree.
WHAT NOT TO DO.
Never laugh at, or make fun of the children. Beware also of making suggestions when trying to interpret the figure. To questions there is a tendency to simply answer ‘yes,’ partly from shyness, and partly from a desire .to avoid the appearance of disagreeing. For example, to the question: : ‘What is that one, Micky? that one feller wallaby?’ one is quite likely to be answered ‘yes,’ when in reality the figure may represent a young wallaby in the pouch — a very different thing. ‘
There is reason to believe that the accounts of the earlier investigators contain inaccuracies because they failed to realise that such affirmatives could not always be relied upon.
Folk lore, under which term are included superstitious beliefs, witchcraft, ceremonial customs, children’s games, dances, sagas, nursery tales, rhymes and riddles — the organised
study of which is of comparatively recent growth, is of great value in helping to decide racial relationships. At present, probably owing to lack of sufficient data, the precise significance
of cats’-cradles in this respect has not yet been fully determined by the ethnologists,
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Don't miss a kick with iFollow
Keep up with the action this Saturday.
Chairboys fans can keep up-to-date with all the action at the Keepmoat Stadium on Saturday with a subscription to iFollow, the club's online audio and video service.
UK-based fans can listen to live audio commentary while overseas supporters have access to a live video stream, now with the commentary added.
As well as the live match action, there’s extended highlights of each fixture available from noon the following day, plus exclusive post-match interviews with the manager and key players, and an archive featuring several seasons of historic content.
Subscribers can access the content via desktop, tablet and the mobile app (‘Wycombe Wanderers Official App’). The official iFollow Apps have been updated for the 2018/19 season and are now available on the App Store and Google Play. A number of new pieces of functionality have been added including:
Latest news feed
Live Match centre (including text commentary, match stats, latest scores and live league tables)
Enhanced video player (graphical overlays on the live video including team news, latest scores and live league tables)
To sign up, visit the iFollow page here and subscribe for £4.49 for a monthly pass. Overseas fans can watch individual matches for £5 each.
Doncaster Rovers vs Wycombe Wanderers on 11 Aug 18
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by John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS 29 Sep 2019 23:00 BST
SailGP Season 1 concludes in Marseille, France © Sam Kurtul / www.worldofthelens.co.uk
All the oils (and yes, if you're Australian and of a certain age bracket you'll shave your head, and dance like you're a really drunk marionette). Anyway, we started with The Good Oil, then More Good Oil, followed by Smothered in Oil, and the last one was Soybean or Peanut Oil.
So 'Coconut Oil' seemed entirely fitting for this final in our SailGP series, seeing as it has loads of good cholesterol, and now that the heat is off after the final has been run, it can return once more to a solid state. I spoke with Team AUS Skipper and said, "Congratulations Tom. You and the whole team (Tom, Kyle Langford, Jason Waterhouse, Ky Hurst, Sam Newton, and Kinley Fowler) must feel wonderful. A deserved win..."
The final SailGP event of Season 1 in Marseille, France - Day 1 - photo © SailGP
Q: Does it feel different from what you thought it would?
A: It really just feels like a weight off our shoulders. It feels amazing for sure, but there has definitely been a bit of stress these last few weeks. So it's nice to get the result we wanted.
Q: It may not be the boxing kangaroo, but you certainly had the flying kangaroo whizzing around. Does that make it very much national pride?
A: For sure it's about national pride. More than winning the money, I think we all just wanted Australia to be in top of the podium. We are all proud Aussies and want the world to know we are the best sailors.
SailGP Season 1 concludes in Marseille, France - photo © Sam Kurtul / www.worldofthelens.co.uk
Q: Do you feel like you are inspiring younger athletes?
A: I hope I am able to inspire young athletes. I hope that I am able to convince people to put in the hard work and try to achieve their goals.
Q: Do you all share the USD1M?
A: The one million will be split throughout the team. There is a clause that says the sailors must receive 50% of the total amount, so that will be divided up throughout the team.
Q: How do you prep for next season given all the constraints?
A: There is not a lot of prep for us as a sailing team for next season. We will not get to sail the boats again until Sydney. However, everyone's contracts are up so we need to re-hire team members, and also look for commercial partners in the off-season. It will be busy.
Q: Does it mean you have a target on your back for 2020?
A: I'm sure we will have the target on our back but that's the way we like it. We want everyone to know we are the team to beat.
Q: Are you doing ocean racing this Christmas?
A: No, I'm not doing the Hobart this year.
Q: Are you doing the Etchells Australian Championship with Graeme Taylor and James Mayo?
A: Yes. Planning on doing the Nationals at Brighton with them.
Now way back at the first round of SailGP in Sydney, I spoke with Sir Russell Coutts about a lot of things, and one of the items that remained was how much he was looking forward to Marseilles. That proved to be true on many fronts, not the least of which was how close the two leading teams were going into it.
Yet we both thought long and hard about how a Mistral might affect things, and then sure enough, after the SailGP was done, the 52 Super Series was well and truly held up for the famed breeze that gets channelled and accelerated by the Pyrenees on one side, and the European Alps on the other.
The Big Fella, Iain Murray in high demand from the media before stepping on board Wild Oats XI. - photo © Rolex / Stefano Gattini
Iain Murray has been the Regatta Director for the last two America's Cups (Bermuda and San Francisco). He's just completed his first of three seasons, performing the same role for SailGP, and said after racing was done, "For a million bucks they had a good race. It was hard when we had a plan and then had to move the course to where there was some breeze. There was the pressure and rush to move it all and still fit in the race before we went off air."
Talking in his very measured way, you had to know what he is like to really comprehend just what a feat it was that he and his team accomplished that day. "There was a plan in my head, but there were 600 boats in the way at the time. I also had the TV guy in my ear telling me we had just 20 minutes until we went dark. The marshalls had to move them all, but could not do so until the marks were down, but first we had to get the assets up, and then place them all down again, so they knew where to send the spectators."
Murray was also very kind to proffer these responses to SailGP's first season and Australian Sailing as a whole on the world's stage.
Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin - Ready Steady Tokyo, day 4 - photo © Jesus Renedo / Sailing Energy / World Sailing
Q: Why are Australian sailors so good, and what makes them so?
A: I think high-speed sailing has been at the forefront in AUS and NZL for a very long time. As a child, I used to go to Bradley's Head (on Sydney Harbour) and watch the sponsored 18s with a somewhat professional crew sailing in close proximity to the shore for viewing. It was started by JJ Giltinan (and the series named in his honour would become the unofficial World Championship). We have been in imbued with an open and fast culture and have led the world with fast boats.
Q: If other teams have had more training time, and have improved as a result, how do the Australians still keep winning?
A: They are all great sailors, but the best are a great team, which comes after more than just practise within one year. Stability, time for reflection, then learning and adjustment will make a great team.
Q: Is the Olympic programme a real part of it?
A: An Olympic program, or any racing at the highest level, is always the best background. Sailing is a very complex sport that requires all inputs to performance understood and resolved.
Team USA immediately before a gybe - photo © John Curnow
Q: Are we just blessed with varied waters to sail in offering a real range of conditions?
A: Of course we are blessed with our background, the facilities we have in Australia, and a climate that allows us to sail all year round.
Last week we mentioned "there will be some new enhancements to the 2020 version that kicks of in Sydney next February." We can now tell you officially that there is a seventh F50 that has been built in NZL, and it will be ready for Sydney next February. The next statements are unsubstantiated, but combine some crystal ball gazing along with a soupçon of sorcery and alchemy, even some divination. If you start from the position of knowing that Larry owns SailGP and lost the last AC to the Kiwis, then it is entirely possible that it will be a team from NZL in said seventh F50, and another leg will be added to the roster before they get to the USA. We'll await word from SailGP on all of this...
Etchells World Champions Havoc (sail no. 1461) - photo © CCYC
Back to Etchells for just a second
If you were looking, and clearly I was, then you would have seen that hull number 1461 just won the Etchells North American Championship for her new owner. This was the old Havoc and current World Champion vessel, as well as the first of the new Allanson/Murray Etchells. AUS1473 is the new Havoc, and she just splashed two weeks ago before having a small Christening ceremony, and then she went for a quick yacht, too.
Jeanne-Claude Strong was kind enough to give her build slot of AUS1471 to Magpie for the 2019 World Championship in Texas. Tom, James, and GT won an unprecedented five in row, in that sort of a fleet no less, to nearly claim said title. As we just saw earlier, that crew are planning on being in Port Phillip this coming January to snare the Australian title.
Jeanne-Claude has taken delivery of her new Allanson/Murray Etchells (AUS1475) just last Friday, and the Magpie clan will have their next one (AUS1474) this October, with a certain John Bertrand to get his in November (AUS1478 Triad3). That will be the last one for the year, with Richie Allanson returning to building craft for his ever-expanding client list in 2020.
What does it all mean? Simple. There will be some cracking racing from Royal Brighton YC, and if the place lives up to its reputation, a true champion of all kinds of conditions will be crowned. Bring it on.
Tom Slingsby on the bow, James Mayo on the Main, and Graeme Taylor with the tiller of Magpie. - photo © 2019 Etchells World Championship
Short one and in
Is this the best-kept secret in the Australian Sailing world? In January the Perth Dinghy Sailing Club will be running the International 14 World Championships. Unless you sail an I14, you won't know about it, and I did not until I got a cattle prod in the tooshie, and seeing as we are talking fast on water here... check the Worlds website and there is also the WA I14 website.
Right oh - here today there are some gems for you to review like the 52 Super Series, intel from North Sails, The Clipper, classics in France, 18 Footers, Cats in WA, Veterans in SA, Lasers, The Ocean Race, and certainly there is much, much more below.
Brilliant exhibition of power sailing downwind by the Smeg crew - photo © Frank Quealey
Remember, if your class or association is generating material, make sure we help you spread your word, and you can do that by emailing us. Should you have been forwarded this email by a friend, and want to get your very own copy in your inbox moving forward, then simply follow the instructions on our newsletter page, where you can also register for different editions.
Finally, keep a weather eye on Sail-World. We are here to bring you the whole story from all over the world...
John Curnow
Editor, Sail-World AUS
Just how hard can it be?
You've won multiple World Championships, and not just in the one class... You've won multiple World Championships, and not just in the one class mind you. Try a very impressive three styles of boat. You even have the ultimate colour of Olympic bling in the trophy cabinet. Posted on 19 Jan Gladwell's Line: First cross in Cagliari
Another milestone was passed in Cagliari, Sardinia this week with the first two AC75's Another milestone in the 2021 America's Cup cycle was passed in Cagliari, Sardinia this week with the first two AC75's from rival Challengers appearing on the same piece of water, and snapped as they were leaving and entering the boat harbour Posted on 18 Jan Sail-World NZ news : Jan 16 - America's Cup News
top stories covering the AC75 action from New Zealand and around the world, and NZ national titles Read the latest newsletter from Sail-World New Zealand, with the top stories covering the AC75 action from New Zealand and around the world, and NZ national titles. Posted on 18 Jan Maiden crew to sail Classic on Anniversary Day
‘Smiling Seductress' Rawene will sail with maiden crew on Anniversary Day The Auckland Anniversary Regatta has seen many changes over the course of its 180 year history. But one sight that's still rare to behold as the ‘A Classic' fleet of vintage yachts takes to the harbour is a majority of women on board. Posted on 17 Jan Giesen New Year Regatta: 36 boats race in Sounds
The Marlborough Sounds delivered a complete set of wind conditions for the Giesen New Year regatta A variety of breezes prevailed for the Giesen New Year regatta and Friday's First National invitation race. Friday's invitation race was sailed in steady sea breeze of 12-15 knots enabling most crews to display their spinnaker or gennaker skills. Posted on 17 Jan America's Cup winner joins Events Clothing
International yachting personality Brad Butterworth joins Events Clothing Well-known industry brand, Events Clothing, has announced a new majority shareholder as the uniform provider prepares for a time of expansion. Posted on 17 Jan Sail-World: Jan 16: America's Cup Update
Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for January 16, 20120 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for January 16, 20120 Posted on 15 Jan That man Lilley
Latest Sail-World Australia newsletter from John Curnow When he won the medal race at the recent Finn Gold Cup, it was not some random event. Jake Lilley has been at it for a while. It's called work ethic... Posted on 12 Jan P-Class: Howse wins Tanner Tauranga Cup double
Kohimarama YC's Tim Howse has won the Tanner and the Tauranga Cup for P-Class Kohimarama YC's Tim Howse has won the Tanner and Tauranga Cup for P-Class, which is being sailed at Tauranga YPBC, the home club of America's Cup champion Peter Burling, TYPBC, and birthplace of the P-class in 1923. Posted on 7 Jan Highs and Lows
They go together in a symbiotic circle to form our weather patterns They go together in a symbiotic circle to form our weather patterns. In life, they also seem to always be in close proximity to one another, as well. Normally, this is a truly a wonderful time of year in Australia. Posted on 5 Jan
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Floodwaters devastate farmlands in Lauderdale County
Farmlands flooded in Lauderdale County
By Brandon Richard | July 2, 2019 at 2:33 PM CDT - Updated July 2 at 6:12 PM
LAUDERDALE COUNTY, Tenn. (WMC) - Farmers in West Tennessee are dealing with devastating flooding along the Mississippi River.
Floodwaters have swept across roads and turned at least 175,000 acres of cotton and soybean fields into lakes.
U.S. Congressman David Kustoff toured the area with Lauderdale County Mayor Maurice Gaines and Tennessee State Senator Ed Jackson Tuesday.
Lauderdale County flooding (Source: WMC)
"When you look at what's happened here in Lauderdale County in West Tennessee, and in the Midwest, this is a bipartisan issue. This is something that Republicans and Democrats should all be focused on," said Kustoff.
Kustoff and the other leaders said they would work together to try to help the farmers get some assistance.
"Farming and agriculture is the number one industry in Lauderdale County, and we're going to lose a major portion of that due to these floodings," said Gaines.
The flooding hit at the worst time, late in the season, leaving farmers no time to replant crops they lose.
"They're resilient and they're smart and they prepare for a lot of things. But some things you can't prepare for and this is one that they didn't expect," said Jackson.
The Mississippi River, which is seven feet above flood stage, is expected to crest early Wednesday morning.
Rainy and cloudy day ahead
Rain is already moving in this morning and temperatures are in the upper 30s. We will have on and off rain all day with up to 1.5 inches possible. The heaviest rain is expected late afternoon.
Brittney Bryant
Breakdown: I can see your halo, halo! Why it forms around the sun?
Sagay Galindo
Published January 22, 2020 at 11:50 AM
Clouds this afternoon, rain arrives tonight
Spencer Denton
More rain headed our way and it could begin as snow
Ron Childers
Brief sunshine today but more clouds and showers on the way
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Yamini Ghantasala’s musical journey so far
By Sindhu Udayakumar November 20, 2018
We all know of her brother, Mr. Thaman SS – a leading and trending Music director in Kollywood and Tollywood, but how many of us know of his very talented and down-to-earth sister – Yamini Ghantasala who is blessed with a beautiful voice and is in the process of making her mark in the music industry. Well, I had the wonderful opportunity of speaking to her and getting to know her personal and professional stories which were nothing short of motivating and inspiring. All you aspiring women out there, read this interview about her and do not be afraid to find your calling and follow your dreams, because it is never too late to do what you were made for!
SU: Can you tell us a little about your family, education and career?
My father Late. Mr. Ghantasala Shivakumar was a fine musician and a drummer. My mother is an amazing musician and a singer too, She is my first guru. Unfortunately, I lost my father at a tender age of 7, and that time my brother was just 13 years old and had become the breadwinner of our family. Although he is very passionate about drumming, it so happened that he had to take up his hobby as his mainstream profession at the age of 13. Today, he is 100 films old and made his mark in the industry.
Having come from an art family, a lot of my inclination was towards music. I did act in skits and a film as a child artiste, but my mother believed more in the importance of academics, good education and a disciplined upbringing and that’s why she chose to enroll me in a boarding school in Puttaparthi called Satya Sai Higher Secondary School. For my entire academic life, I spent in this school and visited my family only for a brief period of 1.5 months every year. Even there, I took every opportunity to be connected to the world of music and began winning many competitions. Soon, I became the go-to person for anything music related in my school. My friends came to me for music advice, and the best compliment I received was when one of my teachers told my mother that I was the “Nightingale” of the school! When I was in the 6th grade, I started learning a Scottish instrument called “Bagpipe” and was the lead player in my troupe. Although I haven’t practiced the instrument since schooling, I can make music with it even today if given one. Since the school was a Gurukul, utmost importance was given to discipline and we weren’t allowed to listen to film songs. I remember taking in cassettes of Jism, Taal and Devadas into the school and used to listen to the songs on repeat mode although it was not allowed in the campus. Such was my love for music.
After finishing my 12th, I returned to my family in Chennai and pursued my Bachelors in Information IT from MOP Vaishnav College. After graduation, I began my professional career as an HR in many good companies such as Virtusa and Raymond for almost 9 years. There are a few very close friends from school, college and the corporates who always knew and encouraged me to follow music. Throughout these 9 years in the corporate world, I was sure about following my passion, which is music one day.
I began taking Hindustani Vocal classes from a revered Guru Shehnai Pandit Ballesh in Chennai while I was in the corporate itself and I go for these classes even today.
SU: Your first recording was a surprise to your brother. How did he react after listening to it?
YG: My brother is the most important member of our family and there is nothing he doesn’t know about my life. But when it came to me pursuing my passion, I wanted to be sure of what I was doing and going to do before telling him and my mom about it. So, during the last few days of my corporate life, I started throwing hints to my brother about my music classes and my preparations for a demo cover video. This is because I wanted him to be aware of the fire in me to become a singer. During the initial days of my music career, I was associated with Guberan, who is the nephew of Drums Shivamani, along with few other individual artists and we formed a band towards the end of 2015. We decided to start off by making a cover video and putting it up on a platform which was accessible to people. For the cover, I wanted a song which was very unique and different compared to the other cover videos that was trending at that time. That’s when we decided to do our version of the song “Aatach Baya” from the Marathi film “Sairat”. The original being sung by my idol Shreya Ghoshal, I wanted to make sure my rendition of the song at least partially matched the way she delivered the original, with the same feel and emotion. For this, I prepared hard, and my Marathi friend helped me by comprehending the lyrics of the song line by line and also taught me the pronunciations.
I found a recording studio that would accommodate my needs and I began putting together everything for our first ever recording, which took almost a month’s time to materialize. A good friend of mine, Vikarnan, suggested that I get in touch with Madhan Karky sir to feature my cover on his music platform – Doopadoo. I reached out to him and he loved my cover version that he immediately agreed to feature it on Doopadoo.
A day before the launch of the video, I was travelling in the car with my brother and that is when I revealed to him about my cover video efforts and made him watch it. He was genuinely so happy that he immediately picked up his phone and dialled Shreya ji’s number and informed her about my tribute. That was the biggest ever moment in my life – blessings from my brother and my idol!
SU: Tell us about your relationship with your brother.
YG: My brother, having become the breadwinner for our family at a very young age, is like god to me. But much more than that, I respect him as a musician, his talent and his perseverance. There are two important things he keeps telling me;
Treat every day as a new day.
Work hard and harder till you succeed.
He and my husband Pranash are my biggest support.
SU: How was your first experience in the recording studio?
YG: although I have had a lot of experience in the studios, my first ever recording for a film song did make me quite nervous and excited.
SU: How many songs have you recorded so far?
YG: my first cover song from the movie Sairat was an important milestone for me. It was trending all the time on youtube and has reached a million plus views today. After that, I did a few other cover songs and started approaching many music directors. My first call for a recording came from Music director Achu Rajamani sir. He is a phenomenal musician and I really admire his knowledge in music. I was asked to come to his office and I randomly sang a Bhajan for him. He immediately said, “tomorrow we are recording your first film song!!” And that is how I began my career in Kollywood with the song “Aagayame” for the movie “Yaanum Theeyavan”. I have also performed as a backing vocalist for many music directors but the most memorable was when I did backing vocals for the movie MOM and Mersal for ARR sir. I literally had goosebumps when I entered his studio!
In Tamil & Telugu, I have sung for many commercials and short films as well. Sricharan, one of the busiest and a trending music director in Tollywood gave me my first break. I have sung a few songs for him and one of the song “Sakhiya” for the movie “Goodachari” went on to become a massive hit. Post that, I was approached by a young music director Ganesh Chandrasekhar for the song “minmini kootame” for his movie “Ezhumin”.
SU: Who is your dream music director to work with?
YG: I would like to work with every music director possible because there will always be something to learn from each of them and I do not want to miss that.
SU: So, when can we listen to your beautiful voice in your brother’s tunes?
YG: I know my brother and his policy very well. And I believe he will give me the opportunity to sing for him when he feels it is the right time and the right song for me. He always knows what is best for me and I trust him blindly to do only the best for me when the time comes!
SU: What is your latest recording?
YG: I have recorded a few songs in Chennai and Hyderabad in the last few months, But the one that is recently released is “Yen aala” composed by Imman sir. Imman sir is my favourite musician and I am very drawn towards his music. I have also done a few backing vocals for him and am always in awe of his rustic and earthy tunes. I have started my own music channel online and as a first, I wanted to do a song of his which was very close to my heart and hence chose to do a very different cover version of a song from the Tamil film “Kayal”. The song was launched a week ago in my channel and I was truly overwhelmed to receive a compliment from Imman sir himself.
SU: What would you like to tell the readers as a final note?
YG: For a singer, working with every music director is an altogether different journey by itself and it is a never-ending learning process. The last 4 years have been a roller coaster ride for me with all the studio hopping, meeting music directors and exploring the musician in me! I would like to tell all the wonderful women out there that do not stop learning just because you finished your academics and acquired a degree. Keep exploring by learning new things and gaining knowledge from all sources possible because I strongly believe there is no limit to the knowledge you gain through learning. Always listen to your heart and follow your calling and celebrate your life.
To listen to the beautiful renditions of Yamini Ghantasala, visit her YouTube channel
Author Sindhu Udayakumar
7 exercises that are safe to do during pregnancy
Roshni Karthik 1 year ago Reply
Lovely Voice… looking forward!!
KevinGes 11 months ago Reply
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Punit.P 9 months ago Reply
wow… useful blog
Iravaj 8 months ago Reply
music melts my heart
Gaoushik 8 months ago Reply
best of luck yamini
Ernie 7 months ago Reply
Could I take your name and number, please?
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Farooq mirza 7 months ago Reply
Jeffrey 7 months ago Reply
this website made me stay longer to read
Saravanan.S.S 7 months ago Reply
Srinivasan.S 7 months ago Reply
congrats yamini
tamilselvi 7 months ago Reply
all the best yamini
Dharshan.F 7 months ago Reply
this girl looks cute
Agnes 7 months ago Reply
nice performance
Sathyanagesh 7 months ago Reply
had a great time
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Devandran dhilip 7 months ago Reply
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Dhanalakshmi 7 months ago Reply
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best wishes for her
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Aiden 7 months ago Reply
Her voice kills me
Benedict 7 months ago Reply
she looks gorgeous.
Sophia 7 months ago Reply
whenever i felt alone or depressed i used to hear music.
Rubinimeganadhan 7 months ago Reply
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Kowshik 4 months ago Reply
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prastha 3 months ago Reply
Music to many is therapeutic and works like magic to lighten moods and better our days it tells stories, inclines to pleasure and emotions, translates pain and talks melodies. It brings acceptance across languages and cultures and moderates diversity through instruments and voices.
Eshana 3 months ago Reply
The best thing about being a DJ is making people happy. There is nothing like seeing people get up from a table to dance or the expression on their face when they hear a song they love. I also love to educate people on music they have never heard.
Marktouro 3 months ago Reply
Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought.
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Home / News / Featured Grantee Partner: Literacy Connects
Featured Grantee Partner: Literacy Connects
Interview Series: Transformational Grantmaking
What are three interesting things people don’t know about your organization?
We have almost 1,000 volunteers every year that help us do the work that we do. Sometimes people don’t realize the resources it takes to manage, coordinate, and engage volunteers.
People are surprised to know that we’re in so many places. We provide literacy programming at almost 150 sites around Tucson. In terms of how many books we give away to kids, last year between our Reach Out and Read and Reading Seed programs we gave out almost 90,000 books.
And finally, we are the primary recipients of the funds raised by the Tucson Festival of Books, receiving ⅔ of the profits from that event. We also provide them with a lot of volunteers.
What are you most excited about that’s happening at your organization?
We’re working on finishing the renovation of our building, 3,000 sq feet of which will become a youth arts center and performing arts space, and the home of our Stories that Soar program. We’ve currently raised about ¾ of what we need. We’re in the poorest neighborhood in Tucson, and when the facility is complete we’ll be able to offer a place for kids in the area to go after school that is constructive, and will get the kids engaged in finding their voice and acting it out. It will be an after-school program aimed at elementary school ages, with the goal of also having high school students act as mentors.
We’re proud to have a role in revitalizing this part of the neighborhood, of breathing new life. We’ve sold some of our land to Habitat for Humanity and they’ll be making homes. We have a Little Free Library out front and the books just disappear. The neighborhood association, the Woods Library nearby, and the Amphi School District have been strong partners.
How has a grant from the Women’s Foundation transformed your organization? Is there something you now do differently?
There have been multiple ways. First, the Women RISE program, which has been funded by a three-year grant from the Women’s Foundation, has strengthened our workplace-development program for second language learners. We’ve learned about the difficulty of the job market and the challenges that immigrants face even if they have exceptional skills. Being able to provide a place for immigrant and refugee women to learn and be prepared to go out and job search, and to be able to assist them, is something we’ve learned so much from.
And second, we’ve so appreciated the unrestricted operating grant from the WFSA as well as their understanding that infrastructure and other operating costs are critical to running a healthy organization.
To have both of these grant simultaneously have been extremely helpful. To have the WFSA really embrace Literacy Connects as an organization they want to continue to support is great. Particularly in education, it takes students years to achieve their goals. Adult language-learners or literacy-program learners have a long path. It’s really helpful to have a foundation say, “We appreciate your work and we’re going to support you.”
How has your organization grown stronger, increased its impact, or changed, because of your partnership with the Women’s Foundation?
Their emphasis on evaluation has strengthened the program. Particularly in the English Language Acquisition program, we don’t use standardized testing (nor do we in any of our programs), and are instead trying to come up with good, firm metrics for evaluation. With the assistance of the WFSA we’re honing in on some ways where we can do that in a valid and effective manner.
How did you first hear about the Women’s Foundation and their grants?
It might have been back when the Literacy for Life Coalition was first formed. It was being supported by the Community Foundation for Southern AZ, which is where the WFSA was housed at the time. The director of the coalition suggested we put together a collaborative project and approach the WFSA for funding. We did a women’s literacy project in the Sunnyside District, the Sunnyside Literacy Council, and it was very effective. We took women who had recently gotten their GEDs, trained them to be tutors, and connected them with other women who were studying to get their GEDs. The training they received was also something they could take home and use with their kids. It was very successful.
What keeps you up at night when thinking about your organization?
Money. Trying to figure out where we will get it from just to maintain current programs, let alone grow them, and our building. We have tremendously strong programs, and they’re very flexible. We can put the pieces and parts together in different ways, and there are always opportunities to meet new needs. For example, we’ve been invited by Safford K-8 Magnet School to put together a program for parents that will help them teach their kids. Prioritizing and trying to find the dollars for projects such as this is always a challenge.
What do you see ahead for women and girls in Southern Arizona?
There are certainly positive things happening in Tucson in terms of the economy and bringing in new businesses, and in that regard there should be some increased job opportunities. But with a legislature who does not believe in public education and will not fund it, for women and girls to have the skills and credentials they’re going to need in order to get those jobs, there’s a disconnect. This, along with women’s health issues and the quality of pay in this state are concerns that affect everybody.
And finally, is there anything else you would like to add about how the Women’s Foundation helps you in fulfilling the mission of your organization?
The other thing we really appreciate is that they really do want to support all women and girls, including those who are undocumented. The WFSA approach to funding a nonprofit is a partnership, not a hierarchy, and that’s very refreshing and the way it should be.
Betty Stauffer is the Executive Director of Literacy Connects, a Tucson-based nonprofit founded in July 2011 whose mission is to connect people of all ages to a world of opportunities through literacy and creative expression.
Special thanks to Women’s Foundation volunteers Gabriela Cervantes and Liz Levine for interviewing this organization and for serving as guest editors.
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Previews, Reviews, Written News Articles
Show previews, Reviews, Announcements, Press Releases!
MFPW 5/14/16
Indy Wrestling Saturday returned to the scene at The Monster factory LLC, for The MFPW show on Saturday night, May 14th, 2016! Danny Cage runs a very tight ship, so we at Wrestling Done Right were delighted to be welcomed in by him, and his team. Unfortunately we had some wifi issues that cut our pre-show just a little short, but we will work out the kinks and improve with each live broadcast! We’ve already secured some lighting, and registered with Xfinity wifi hotspots to help us going forward.
The MFPW show kicked off with two pre-show matches, beginning at 6:30pm. One which included a returning Major McCLendon, who looked good, and another featuring the MFPW tag team champs, Paid in Full vs the Blood Bound Warriors, who were off synch all match long, and actually began fighting with each other at the end of the match, costing them the victory. We will be keeping an eye on that developing situation.
The show officially began at 7pm sharp with former NXT star Bull James taking on MFPW stand out, and leading member of Rico De La Vega's Beast Cartel, Nick Comoroto. This match was two huge gladiators going full bore. From the opening bell, when Comoroto challenged Bull to do his best, withstanding numerous shoulder blocks, to Bull finally tossing Comoroto across the ring, this match was full of power moves, as each man wanted to show the other up. Bull, looking better than ever, quieted the attempted chant of “Bullfit,” and wrestled like a man out to prove something. Comoroto, determined to prove he can go toe to toe with anyone, nearly pulled the upset numerous times, until Bull finally put him away with a huge pedigree! Of course, true to form, Rico, and Fallah Bahh stormed the ring, and attacked Bull, but “The Reel life heels” Punisher Martinez, and Matt Riddle chased them out, and celebrated with Bull, to the fans delight.
Next up, the debuting Matt Macintosh came out to face Clutch Adams. While Adams came to the ring in his gear, he was visibly limping, so the fans seemed to suspect something afoul from MFPW’s resident excuse maker. True to form, Adams claimed that upon arriving in Paulsboro, he tripped on litter that the disgusting people of the area left lying around the parking lot, twisting his ankle. As such, he would not be able to wrestle, but instead Macintosh would take on Cody Vance. Vance ridiculed Adams, but accepted the match as Adams limped away to the back. Macintosh and Vance put on a clinic, as the well-known indy performer Macintosh was determined to win his first MFPW match, and Vance, always fueled by the MFPW fans, wanted to continue his climb of the MFPW rankings. Just when it looked like Vance may get the victory, Macintosh fell to the matt, clutching his leg. As the referee checked on him, Clutch Adams came to the ring, and nailed Cody Vance. Suddenly recovering, Macintosh hit a huge leaping stomp onto Vance’s chest, and scored the three count.
The ending of the Macintosh/Vance match brought out MFPW promoter Danny Cage. Cage confronted Clutch Adams, and told him that his leg seemed a lot better, and as such, he would be wrestling tonight. Adams protested, but the crowd insisted that Adams wrestle, and Cage agreed, announcing his opponent, Anthony Bowens. Bowens, looking like he was carved out of granite, came into the ring on fire, and tossed the former MFPW Champion around the ring like a rag-doll. Adams however, soon got on his game, and went toe to toe with Bowens in an amazing match up that saw numerous near falls, and a match so smooth that it gives me high hopes for both men’s future in the wrestling business. Adams however resorted to bringing a chair into the ring. As the referee tried to keep Adams from using the weapon, Cody Vance comes to the ring and confronted Adams. Bowens, using his ring smarts, takes advantage of the distractions, and Adams loss of focus, and gets the victory. Adams is irate, and promises to repay Vance for costing him the match.
The next match was a styles clash if ever there has been one, as Matthew Riddle took on another member of “The Beast Cartel” in Fallah Bahh. Danny Cage came to ringside and made Nick Comoroto leave, because he was sick of seeing matches end in interference. Comoroto wasn’t happy, but obliged. I’ll have to admit that I thought Riddle would win this easily, but for such a large man, Bahh has great cardio, and more power than I expected him to have, as he tossed Riddle across the ring numerous times to start the match. This took the former UFC star out of his game, and he suffered a beat down for several minutes, before regaining his composure, landing his famous strikes on the big man, wearing him down some. Rico provided many distractions to give Bahh the upper hand again, but Riddle overcame, and nailed his springboard knee to the face, for another notch in his win column.
After the intermission was what I’ve decided I’m calling the match that stole the show. Every match was good, so making this determination was difficult for me to do, but the 4 way bout for the MFPW Super Sonic Championship was one of the best 4 way matches I’ve ever seen. Chris LeRusso, Anthony Bennett, Chris Steelers, and LSG, put on a show! Before this match, I had never seen a 4 way that didn’t consist of one or two of the wrestlers laying on the ringside floor, as the other wrestlers performed center ring. This match consisted of all 4 men being in the ring 90% of the match! They pulled it off by performing as if the bout were a tornado tag team match, as LeRusso and Steelers worked together, as Bennett and LSG worked together. However, that said, each of those men would turn on the other the second the right moment struck, and they would not allow the other to get the pin fall either. In the end, LSG benefited the most from these tactics, as pin fall after pin fall was interrupted. LSG capitalized the one moment he had, when only he and one other wrestler (Steelers) was in the ring, and got the 1-2-3 to retain. Bennett celebrated with LSG, then suddenly kicked him in the crotch, and said that title was going to be his again!
Mario Bokara, The Croatian Sensation, who went all the way to the finals of The MFPW Cup, was out next. The MFPW fans legitimately hate this man, and anxiously awaited to see who his opponent was going to be. They were delighted when Benchmark Bill Daley was announced. Daley has been working hard to make a major upswing in professional wrestling, and has been trying to impress The MFPW faithful for months. Daley used the crowd support to give Bokara all he could handle, but Bokara is a beast, and he dominated most of the match up, taunting the fans with every move, telling them things like “this is for you!” As Bokara went to finish Daley off, he nailed a huge german suplex that he held onto, with a bridging pin. The ref made the three count, and Bokara celebrated what he thought was another win. However, the referee signaled that Daley lifted his shoulder before the three count, while Bokara’s were down, giving Benchmark a major win! Bokara was not happy, and let the crowd know that they would all pay for this injustice.
Miranda Vionette, or M.V. for short, stormed the ring, determined to win her MFPW girls title back from Britt Baker. M.V., once beloved by The MFPW faithful is now hated. M.V. grew so much, so fast, that it all went to her head, and she believes no one can touch her talent, looks, and ability. Britt Baker, trained by Candace LeRae came to The MFPW and showed M.V. how wrong she was, and took her Girl’s title away from her in a great match. This would be no different as both ladies put on a stellar show. Baker’s strikes, and kicks did M.V. in though in the end, and she retained The MFPW Girls title. Amazingly enough though, M.V. seemed undaunted, and arrogantly left ringside with her head held high.
In the main event, The Miracle Mike Bennett challenged for The MFPW championship against the champion, Punisher Martinez. Martinez has owned The MFPW for a long while now, being the face of the company, and taking on challenges from top name wrestlers across the world. Bennett, after leaving one of the hottest factions in Ring of Honor, has soared to the top of TNA wrestling, and figured he’d stop at The MFPW, and snatch their championship to add to his list of accomplishments. This match was ridiculously evenly contested. Bennett and Martinez battled in, and around the ring, as well as up and down the ramp. At one point, Bennett got so frustrated that he tossed Martinez into the locker room, and sprinted back to the ring in an attempt to win by count-out. Finally, after numerous false-finishes, and a crowd that Bennett earned so much respect from that they were split between he, and the hometown hero, Martinez finally managed to nail his sit out choke slam for the win. Maria was notably absent, and I can’t help but wonder if things could have been different for Bennett had she have come along. Rico De La Vega brought Comoroto and Bahh to the ring to attack Martinez, but Matthew Riddle, and surprisingly Mike Bennett, helped Martinez rid the ring of the “Beasts.”
Danny Cage ended the evening telling the crowd that in two weeks, there would be a Monsters ball match, with a cage, chains, chairs, tables, and thumbtacks as The Reel Life Heels, and Abyss take on The Beast Cartel. Tickets went on sale today (Sunday May 15th) at noon. This is a card you don’t want to miss and it all comes to a head between the RLH and The Beast Cartel. The MFPW improves with every show, as they are, and always have been Wrestling Done Right!
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REVEALED: Cover Artwork & List of Six Extras for WWE’s (2 DISC) Money in the Bank 2018 DVD
June 21, 2018 by Daniel Bee
The next WWE Pay-Per-View to hit Home Video will be Money in the Bank 2018 beginning with the U.S. release of the DVD next month ($18.96; Amazon.com) followed up by the UK release in August (£17.99; Amazon.co.uk).
As of today it is confirmed that the MITB DVD will this year be formatted as a 2-disc set (by our count the first time the event has ran over a single disc) in order to accommodate the 4-hour event and a selection of extras. We’ve just received the finalized content listing and the cover artwork too!
The Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois once again played host to the PPV which featured both men’s and women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Matches, Ronda Rousey’s singles match debut against Nia Jax for the RAW Women’s Championship, Shinsuke Nakamura squaring off with AJ Styles in a Last Man Standing Match for the WWE Championship, and unforgettable moments aplenty.
It’s time to check out the official artwork for the Money in the Bank 2018 DVD and a list of extras WWE has planned for it, one of which is a “Rowdy” segment from this week’s RAW!
CONTENT LISTING
The Climb for Glory
Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass
Pancakes for Everyone
Bobby Lashley vs. Sami Zayn
Seth Rollins vs. Elias
Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Sasha Banks vs. Natalya vs. Ember Moon vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Naomi vs. Becky Lynch vs. Lana
Which Brand Will Reign Supreme?
Roman Reigns vs. Jinder Mahal
SmackDown Women’s Championship Match
Carmella vs. Asuka
Last Man Standing Match for WWE Championship
AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Nia Jax vs. Ronda Rousey
Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Braun Strowman vs. Finn Bálor vs. Bobby Roode vs. Kevin Owens vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Rusev vs. The Miz vs. Samoa Joe
MONEY IN THE BANK KICKOFF SHOW:
— SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match
The Bludgeon Brothers vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson
— What’s in Kevin’s Bag?
— Seth Freakin’ Rollins: The Intercontinental Champion
RAW & SMACKDOWN EXTRAS:
— The WWE Championship Contract Signing
SmackDown Live • June 5, 2018
— Fatal 4-Way Match
Braun Strowman vs. Finn Bálor vs. Bobby Roode vs. Kevin Owens
Monday Night RAW • June 11, 2018
— The Goddess Feels the Wrath of Ronda Rousey
Get your hands on the new WWE MONEY IN THE BANK 2018 DVD…
– United States: July 24th. Pre-order your copy of the MITB DVD here on Amazon.com.
– UK/Europe: August 6th. Get your Money in the Bank DVD on pre-order at Amazon.co.uk.
– Australia: August 15th. Pre-order your copy of the MITB DVD on Madman.com.au.
Posted in Blu-Ray, Covers, Listings, Media, News, PPV Extras Tags: aj styles, Alexa Bliss, Asuka, becky lynch, Blu-Ray, bobby lashley, bobby roode, braun strowman, Carmella, Charlotte Flair, cover, daniel bryan, Elias, ember moon, extras, finn bálor, Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens, kofi kingston, match listing, matches, mitb, money in the bank, money in the bank 2018, Naomi, Natalya, News, Nia Jax, ppv, release dates, roman reigns, Ronda Rousey, sami zayn, Samoa Joe, seth rollins, Shinsuke Nakamura, the miz, wwe blu ray, wwe dvd 2018, wwe dvd 2018 releases, wwe dvd cover art, wwe dvd covers, wwe dvd extras, wwe dvd match listing, wwe dvd release dates, wwe money in the bank, wwe ppv, wwe ppv 2018, wwe superstars
28 Comments left on this article...
Correct me if I’m wrong that did Money In The Bank 2018 PPV Event came out on Blu-Ray or not?
Mark D says:
It did not come out on Blu-ray, just DVD
Thomas Hanna says:
Just love the artwork for WWE Money In The Bank 2018 PPV DVD
RabidHeat says:
Not sure about “love”, but I certainly like the artwork for WWE Money In The Bank 2018 PPV DVD
kind of hoped for the IC Title Match from Raw Ziggler vs Rollins.
Timothy Thorpe says:
Great idea with the two disc with extras from Raw and Smackdown. I wonder what it will mean for the Best of R&SD sets at the end of the year though?
Bubbs says:
Gosh, if only there were a format that would allow them to put the full event and all the extras onto one disc? And in HD? hmmm….
LP1 says:
Yeah. No need for 2 DVD discs. The argument that producing Blu-rays are more expensive than producing DVDs now goes out the window. With all PPVs now being 2 disc sets, it is now more expensive to produce DVD releases. Producing 1 BD is still cheaper than 2 DVDs.
Unless I’m mistaken BDs also have more space than DVD meaning more content can fit on 1 disc. As far as MITB goes this means that they can put – maybe not all – but some of the MITB qualifier matches and the women’s Fatal 4 Way from RAW which imho was just as great if not better than the men’s so since the men’s is on the set, the women’s deserves to be on it too.
CJ Styles says:
DVDs sell better nothing to do with the price Of making them
True; if they’ve done some market research and determined that more people will buy PPVs in DVD format than Blu-Ray, then they will still produce 2-disc DVDs instead, despite the costs. At least the stuff gets sold. Plus, the very phrase “2-Disc Set” on the front cover probably helps sell it as if the buyer is getting more. I know that’s ridiculous as we know a single-disc BluRay can hold more, but Joe Public might just see the words “2-Disc Set” and think: “Wow, 2 discs!”
So you’re saying the average wrestling fan is an idiot. Makes sense actually. I mean they’re still ok with buying DVDs over BDs. You might have hit the nail right on the head.
Basically thats what comes down to i think. The average wrestling fan aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed from what it seems like (just go on Twitter and read the Youtube comments you would be surprised the amount of dumbasses out there) and I wouldn’t be surprised if thats the thought that goes through their head where they think they are getting more value for the money with 2 DVDs instead of 1 Blu-ray.
I wasn’t trying to be as negative as that, no, using words like “idiot” and such, because that’s just insulting and not really necessary. I was just saying that’s how your casual cash-strapped buyer might look at it and that’s what WWE’s market research has probably shown them.
Not true. There was a story years ago that WWE didn’t go all-in on blu-rays due to cost cutting. If you remember when they first started releasing blu-rays on a regular basis in 2010-2011, they never gave it full backing. Some were only sold in certain stores, some only online, very few were shipped to stock, they would skip some months of random PPVs, it was done very sloppy. And the reason it was reported at the time was due to the production costs of blu-rays compared to DVDs.
They should really learn a thing or two from their partnership with Warner and their Archive Collection program, they could produce Blurays on demand, there is a market out there for them, it could drive business exclusively to WWE Shop, and they could offset production costs by working those into the price per unit. Dumbass collectors like me will still pay for them regardless. And its not like the assets don’t already exist since they have the encodes prepped for international markets. Its just a matter of printing the damn things.
They absolutely could go that route. Like you said, look at Warner Bros, a multi-billion dollar company. WB can completely stop making BDs/DVDs/4Ks altogether and they’ll still be a multi-billion dollar company. They don’t need the home video revenue, but they keep making them because they know there’s a niche market for them. WWE is pretty much in the same boat. Especially when the new billion dollar TV deal goes into effect next year. WWE could stop making physical media altogether and it wouldn’t make even the smallest of dents in their revenue. If WB chooses not to release WWE BDs to mainstream outlets, then there’s no reason at all that WWE can’t bring it in-house and do something exactly the same as the Warner Archive program. The expenses to do that would be a drop in the bucket financially for WWE.
They could probably even source it out to WB altogether. Just send them the files and let them do take care of it.
Yes, but if they were selling in droves, or at least turning a decent profit, it would be worth the production costs, wouldn’t it?
Not for a niche product. Which is what wrestling DVDs/BDs are now. If they follow the Warner Archive method, then it would be worth it because it’s a print-on-demand service. They don’t have to print out thousands of discs and hope people buy them. Warner Archive is like a pre-sale where discs are made-to-order. WWE can very easily do the exact same thing.
Well they could, but presumably they would have to take on extra staff to be producing those DVDs on demand and find somewhere for them to be based; maybe they’re just not willing to do that at the moment.
John Peterson says:
I actually like the cover.
andemoine winrow says:
So THIS ‘MONEY IN THE BANK’ will be the first one EVER to be recorded on a DOUBLE d.v.d since it ran 4 hours or nearly that. The 2016 ‘MONEY IN THE BANK’ was the first one ever to run very long. I have it and i counted the exact running time. 3 hours and 17 minutes. I have last years and that one ran 2 hours and 39 minutes. So this newest version surpasses the 2016 edition and will keep the new record until next years version. The women’s match was AWESOME AND BETTER than last years. In my opinion, WARNER BROS. should have re-named the title for the d.v.d ‘MONEY IN THE BLISS’ because apparently, the ‘W.W.E’ decided to make the event Alexa Bliss’s night. Oh,and by way, after what went down on ‘RAW’ between BAYLEY and SASHA BANKS, it appears Sasha will be the villian again. I’m glad they were smart enough to add these matches b-4 the event and the ‘ Raw’ segment after the event. Why did they not suspend Alexa Bliss since she started she was one caused the ruckus and got Ronda Rousey suspended? I guess some-1 will come with the excuse ‘BECAUSE SHE’S THE CHAMP’. Talk about wrong is right.
So Alexa should be suspended for trash talking?
So you’re saying just let her get away with saying anything, whether it’s scripted or not.
Foley is good says:
I guess the old adage sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me applies to the Bliss/Rousey situation. Personally I would have sooner had Sasha Banks win MITB and cashed in like Alexa and have her be her heel NXT character again. Oh well I overall enjoyed the pay per view.
Jordan B says:
Oh man I hope they keep doing 2 disc with extras. I would think they would have to since every event is 4 hours now.
Tommy D says:
This is what I have been hoping for all along. I hope this is the theme of all the PPVs moving forward, including RAW/Smackdown matches/segments leading up to it.
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Clock Strikes Midnight: Wildcats' Cinderella run ends in Heart Tournament finals
Culver-Stockton College guard Courteney Sailor, right, dribbles down the court in front of William Penn's Brenda Pennington during Monday night's Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament title game in Oskaloosa, Iowa. | H-W Photo/David Adam
Culver-Stockton College guard Carly Harper, left, takes a jump shot over William Penn's Autumn Voigt during Monday night's Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament championship game in Oskaloosa, Iowa. | H-W Photo/David Adam
Culver-Stockton College guard Dakota McQueen, left, tries to drive past William Penn's Jenna Santi during Monday night's Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament championship game in Oskaloosa, Iowa. | H-W Photo/David Adam
William Penn's Niaja Taylor, left, tries to defend Culver-Stockton College's Ryan Dooley during Monday night's Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament championship game in Oskaloosa, Iowa. | H-W Photo/David Adam
By David Adam Herald-Whig
Posted: Mar. 4, 2019 12:01 am Updated: Mar. 5, 2019 12:30 am
OSKALOOSA, Iowa -- How much of an impact did Yashti Nwagbaraocha have on Monday night's Heart of America Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament championship game?
Just simply looking at the scorebook should give you an idea, but it more than that.
The 6-foot senior from Milwaukee had 22 points in William Penn's 67-57 victory over Culver-Stockton College. She also collected 17 rebounds, including three offensive rebound baskets, as the Statesmen owned a 47-37 rebounding advantage.
Defensively, she guarded all of Culver-Stockton's post players without any help from her teammates. Freshman Taylor Green scored 17 points to lead the Wildcats, but William Penn's perimeter defenders rarely left Carly Harper, Lacey Clark and Ryan Dooley, who combined for a 5-for-27 shooting effort.
"She's a champion. She's a winner. She's the player of the year in our league for good reason," Statesmen coach Steve Williamson said of Nwagbaraocha. "She's unstoppable."
The victory sends William Penn to the NAIA National Tournament later this month in Billings, Mont. Culver-Stockton (19-14), which entered the Heart tournament as the seventh seed, was in the tournament final for the first time since 2002.
C-SC started well, using an 8-0 run to lead 18-11 after the first quarter. Harper, Dooley and Clark all made 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes.
After that, however, the Wildcats struggled offensively. They were outscored 21-6 in the second quarter, missing 11 of 12 shots, and trailed 32-24 at halftime.
"Our adrenalin carried us early," Culver-Stockton coach Janette Burgin said. "William Penn doesn't make a lot of mistakes. You just can't speed them up. They used their time well, and we weren't patient.
"If there's a time in the game when things aren't going your way, you tend to settle for quick shots."
The third quarter didn't go much better. The Wildcats missed all seven of their 3-point shots in that frame, and William Penn took its biggest lead on a layup by Brenda Pennington to make the score 52-32 with 1:51 left in the quarter.
"I told our girls not to double down (on the Wildcats' post players) because their shooters are too good," Williamson said. "We didn't want to leave Clark out there alone. She's too good of a player, one of the best in the league."
"They were guarding us closer than usual," said Clark, who had six points -- eight under her season average.
C-SC scored the last six points of the third quarter, then got within 11 points three times in the fourth quarter. A three-point play by Curley got the Wildcats within 63-55 with 1:10 to go, but they got no closer.
Missing out on a chance to go to the NAIA Tournament for the first time since 1995 stings, but it didn't diminish a remarkable run through the league tournament.
"No one thought we would be here," Green said. "It's been a blessing at the same time."
"It really stinks that you don't win," said Clark, one of two seniors. "But I will remember this last week forever."
William Penn 67, Culver-Stockton 57
CULVER-STOCKTON (19-14)
Harper 1-7 0-0 2, Dooley 2-13 3-4 9, Clark 2-7 1-4 6, Sailor 4-8 2-3 10, Green 6-10 4-6 17, McQueen 1-2 0-0 3, Guehne 0-0 0-0 0, Curley 3-5 1-1 7, Keeling 0-0 0-0 0, Broadus 1-5 0-2 2, Neuner 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-58 11-20 57.
WILLIAM PENN (30-2)
Nwagbaraocha 9-15 4-4 22, Oliver 1-6 0-0 3, Ylitalo 6-13 0-0 16, Pennington 4-11 0-0 8, Santi 4-12 1-2 9, Taylor 0-3 2-4 2, Voigt 0-1 0-0 0, Pezley 3-7 0-0 6. Totals 27-68 7-10 67.
Culver-Stockton 18 6 14 19--57
William Penn 11 21 20 15--67
3-point field goals--Culver-Stockton 6-24 (Harper 1-5, Dooley 2-10, Clark 1-3, Sailor 0-1, Green 1-1, McQueen 1-1, Curley 0-1, Broadus 0-2), William Penn 6-19 (Ylitalo 4-8, Pezley 1-3, Oliver 1-5, Santi 0-1, Taylor 0-2). Rebounds--Culver-Stockton 37 (Sailor 7), William Penn 47 (Nwagbaraocha 17). Assists--Culver-Stockton 14 (Harper, Dooley 5), William Penn 12 (Pennington, Santi 4). Steals--Culver-Stockton 7 (Dooley 2), William Penn 5 (five with one each). Blocked shots--Culver-Stockton 7 (Green 3), William Penn 2 (Nwagbaraocha, Voigt 1). Turnovers--Culver-Stockton 13, William Penn 13. Fouls--Culver-Stockton 17, William Penn 18. Fouled out--Pennington.
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Asolo Rep receives $100,000 grant from Barancik Foundation
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Artist Sol Schwartz gives $31,000 to new Ringling College library
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Popular and award-winning works like "One Man, Two Guvnors" and "Outside Mullingar" along with FST's trademark original cabaret pieces highlight the theater's upcoming winter season.
Fuzión Dance Artists celebrates 10th anniversary
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Angelo Pizzo, writer and director, screens latest film "My All American"
Writer and director Angelo Pizzo, the screenwriter of "Hoosiers," "Rudy" and "The Game of Their Lives," sat down at the Ringling College of Art and Design and screened his directorial debut "My All American."
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No Justice for Deaf and Mute Anil Kumar? Sexual Abuse Victim
In May 2009, ZIM had referred to the ‘mute’ response of Indian Media on one of biggest crimes to ever hit India – serial child abuse.
Recent cacophony pertaining to Ruchika Girotra’s persecution by a SPS Rathore made ZIM revisit what remains a criminal suppression of truth by Indian Government Authorities and media. An Australian Christian Missionary responsible for crimes of humongous magnitude is out on bail.
Full Video of Brother Paul Alan’s gut wrenching behavior can be viewed here. Brother Paul Alan was someone who escaped justice in Western Australia for fraud and operates in India as a Catholic Christian Missionary and a respected Doctor. He led Mother Teresa’s “Missionaries of Charity’ Mass. Among other things he set up his own Missionary enterprise “New Hope”, solicited funds through advertorials.
Some of Brother Alan’s actions pertain to practicing medicine and worse doing surgeries on gullible poor, all without having a medical license.
But this was nothing compared to what you will read now. For three full decades, mind you, not just a day or a week or a month, for three full decades, Brother Paul Alan sexually abused and assaulted hundreds of teenage children across eastern India in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.
One child, 14 year old Anil Kumar, same age as Ruchika, who was deaf and mute but not dumb and who lived with Brother Paul Alan committed suicide (We do not know if it was a murder).
Deaf, Mute boy Anil Kumar:
It is not as if the news is not in the public domain. Sally Sara, ABC’s Indian Correspondent did outstanding investigative journalism to dig out the details on the outlaw.
As Sally Sara captures, Brother Paul Alan has been released on bail multiple times, doing more evil every time and Prosecution non existent.
Cover up in India has been massive. Government, the Media, So called Social Rights Activists all went “Omerta” on this one.
There are many in the Government who need to provide answers on this one:
Sonia Gandhi, Ruling
Congress Party President
Rahul Gandhi, Ruling Congress Party General Secretary
Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister
Navin Patnaik Chief Minister of Orissa
P Chidambaram, Home Minister, India
YSR Reddy, Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh
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Decode Sickular Lies on Indian History
Marxists their fellow travellors sickulars, islamis, isais have a single agenda – use every trick under the trade to keep native Indians divided. Marxist historians encouraged by congress I (isai-islami-laal) dispensation have thoughroughly subverted Indian history. Infamously their technique is called “Suppresio Veri, Suggestio Falsi” (suppress the truth, suggest falsehood).
Big idea of these rogues is to keep natives divided by deploying various affiliations: panthic like saivaite /vaishnavaite /saktha /jaina/buddhist /sikh/vedanti and language/jati/locational affiliation; this while uniting islamis/isais. It is a tribute to their deception skills and naivete of natives that by regurgitating canards the deceits have succeeded in their nefarious acts and have undermined Native Dharma.
The following note was prepared by Arun Shourie and team in response to marxist/sickular/islami-isai deceit. When faced with facts standard response from the above deceits is the classic “shoot the messenger” abuse the person rather than respond to facts.
Using this questionnaire note (Appendix 4 of book, Hindu Temples What Happened to Them), you can decode the lies and deceit peddled by communists (like ndtv, xinhua hindu/frontline), islamis, isais, sickulars (vir sanghvi, shekhar gupta types).
As this is a touchstone for locating truth, I would request those who care for native Indian wellbeing to mirror this information for maximum impact.
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE MARXIST PROFESSORS
We return to the Marxist professors with whom we started.
We have cited from eighty histories written by Muslims over a period of more than one thousand years. We have also cited several Islamic inscriptions which confirm what the historians say. The citations show how Hindu temples continued to be destroyed over a vast area and for a long time. We have added no editorial comments and given no communal twist to the events that took place. All along, we have kept to the actual language used by the Muslim historians.
We wonder if the professors will dismiss as a mere listing of dates the evidence we have presented. What we expect from the professors is that they will come forward with historical analysis and interpretations. so that the destruction of Hindu temples mentioned in the Muslim narratives gets explained in terms of economic or political or any other non-religious motives.
We stick to our position, namely, that it is the theology of Islam which offers the only straight-forward and satisfactory explanation of why Muslim conquerors and rulers did what they did to Hindu places of worship. We have provided full facts about that theology, as also about the history of how it took its final shape. It would be most welcome if the professors come out with their comments on the character and meaning of this theology. In fact, we look forward to a Marxist explanation of it. What were the concrete material conditions and objective historical forces which gave rise to this theology in Arabia at that time?
Next, we refer to the second point which the professors had made in their letter to The Times of India. They had said that acts of intolerance have been committed by followers of all religions. A subsequent sentence clarified what they meant; they had in mind the Buddhist and Jain monuments and animist shrines destroyed by Hindus. As we have said, we do not share their philosophy of separating the Buddhists, the Jains and the Animists from the Hindus. But we agree to use their terms for the time being and request them to produce:
A list of epigraphs which record the destruction of Buddhist and Jain monuments and Animist shrines by any Hindu, at any time;
Citations from Hindu literary sources describing destruction of Buddhist and Jain monuments and Animist shrines by any Hindu, at any time;
The Hindu theology which says or even suggests that non-Hindu places of worship should be destroyed or desecrated or plundered, or which hails such acts as pious or meritorious;
A list of Hindu kings or commanders whom Hindus have hailed as heroes for desecrating or destroying or converting into Hindu places of worship any Buddhist or Jain monuments or Animist shrines;
A list of Buddhist and Jain monuments and Animist shrines which have been desecrated or destroyed or converted into Hindu places of worship in the remote or the recent past;
The names and places of Hindu monuments which stand on the sites occupied earlier by Buddhist or Jain monuments or Animist shrines, or which have materials from the latter embedded in their masonry;
Names of Buddhist, Jain and Animist leaders or organizations who have claimed that such and such Hindu monuments are usurpations, and demanded their restoration to the original occupants;
Names of Hindu leaders and organizations who have resisted any demand made by Buddhists or Jains or Animists for restoration of the latter’s places of worship, or called for legislation which will maintain the status quo, or cried Hinduism in danger, or staged street riots in support of their usurpations.
We think that this sort of concrete evidence alone cane decide the question of the limits to the logic of restoration of religious sites. There seems to be no other way. Sweeping generalizations based on slender or dubious evidence are no substitute for hard facts.
We hope that the professors will not resort to the hackneyed swear-words such as Hindu communalism,reactionary revivalism, and the rest. Swear-words offer no solutions. In any case, the time when swear-words carried weight has passed. It is no use inviting the other side to hit back in a similar manner.
If the professors fail to come out with answers to questions posed by us, and to present the evidence in support of their statements, we shall be forced to conclude that far from being serious academicians, they are cynical politicians hawking ad hoc or plausible explanations in the service of a party line. In fact, we shall be justified in saying that they are not Marxists but Stalinists. Marxism is a serious system of thought which offers consistent explanations. Stalinism, on the other hand, is an exercise in suppressio veri suggestio falsi in pursuit of a particular end.
Hindu scholars, leaders and organizations have so far ignored the loud and large-scale talk in the mass media, academia, and political circles about Hindu intolerance towards the Buddhists and the Jains and the Animists. Much damage has already been done to the image of Hinduism, and much more damage is likely to result if this talk is not challenged and stopped. How loose and irresponsible this talk can be is illustrated by the following instance.
I attended a seminar on the Mandal Commission Report held in the Gandhi Peace Foundation in October, 1990. One of the participants who spoke in support of the Report was Shri Hukam Dev Narain Singh Yadav, an MP of the Janata Dal at that time and a Minister in the Chandra Shekhar Government some time later. Speaking of Brahminical tyranny, he referred to the time when rivers of the blood of Buddhist monks were made to flow in the Buddhist monasteries (jab bauddha vihãroñ mêñ bauddha bhikSuoñ kê rakta kî nadiyãñ bahãî gayî thîñ). The following dialogue took place between myself and the speaker at the end of the latters talk:
I: Could you kindly name the Buddhist monasteries where it happened, and also the time when it happened?
Speaker: I will not pretend that I know. I must have heard it from someone, or read it somewhere.
I: I give you six months for finding a single instance of Hindus murdering Buddhist monks. I am demanding only one instance, not two.
Speaker: I will try.
The speaker looked to me to be one of the finest men I had ever met. His voice had a ring of sincerity in whatever he said. His humility in presenting his point of view was more than exemplary. I expected him to remember my question and provide an answer. But two and a half years have passed and there is no word from the eminent politician occupying a high position in the public life of this country.
I know that the evidence demanded by me does not exist. It is a Big Lie being spread by Hindu-baiters. Hindus have never done what they are being accused of. My only point in mentioning the incident is that even honest people can become victims of hostile propaganda which is not countered in good time.
When the first edition of this book came out, I sent a copy of it to Professor Romila Thapar of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in her capacity as the doyen of the Marxist historians. I also addressed to her the following letter on 27 June, 1991:
I have posed a questionnaire for the school of historians which you lead. Please turn to pp. 438-441 of my recently published book (Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them, Volume II: The Islamic Evidence), a copy of which is being sent to you by registered post.
You may also read pp. 70-103 and p.i which also discuss the position of your school.
I am drawing your attention to these pages so that your school does not plead ignorance of them while maintaining silence. Of course, you are free to ignore the questionnaire as coming from a person who has had no standing in the academic world. I, however, feel that there are many people still left in this country who care for truth more than for position.
She was kind enough to reply by a letter dated 10 August 1991 which said:
Your letter of 27 June was awaiting me on my recent return to Delhi.
As regards the issues raised in the questionnaire included in your book, you are perhaps unaware of the scholarly work on the subject discussed by a variety of historians of various schools of thought. May I suggest that for a start, you might read my published lectures entitled, Cultural Transaction and Early India.
I wrote back on 31 August 1991, and stated my position as follows:
I acknowledge your letter of August 10.
I wish you had refrained from striking the pose of superiority which has been for long the hallmark of your school of historians. It does not go well with academic discipline.
For your information I have been primarily a student of ancient India’s history and culture, and gone through a good deal of source material, literary as well as archaeological. One of the reasons I have wandered into India’s medieval and modern history is that I want to know what happened to Hindu heritage at the hands of latter-day liberators.
May I request you not to suggest any further reading of your stuff. You threaten to do so when you use the words for a start while recommending your present pamphlet. I am pretty familiar with the patent lore.
I am sorry to say that your pamphlet has added nothing to my knowledge or perspective. The method of selecting facts and floating fictions is very well known to me. Christian missionaries have done far better with lesser fare.
I am not commenting on the various propositions put forward in your pamphlet. The Questionnaire which I have addressed to you was framed in a particular context. In your letter published in The Times of India dated October 2, 1986, you had stated that handing over of Sri Rama’s and Sri Krishna’s birthplaces to the Hindus, and of disused mosques to the Muslims raises the question of the limits to the logic of restoration of religious sites. How far back do we go? Can we push this to the restoration of Buddhist and Jain monuments destroyed by Hindus? Or of the pre-Hindu animist shrines? In my book I have welcomed the statement and said that the question can be answered satisfactorily only when we are prepared to face facts and a sense of proportion is restored.
I have gone ahead and compiled historical and theological data about Islamic iconoclasm from whatever Islamic sources I could lay my hands on during the last four years. More may follow as I get at more of this source material. In an earlier volume I have provided, in a preliminary survey, a list of around two thousands Muslim monuments which are known to stand on the sites of and/or have been built with the materials of Buddhist, Brahmanical and Jain temples. The list is likely to get enlarged as I continue to look into more archaeological reports.
I have also compiled a list of Buddhist and Jain monuments supposed to have been destroyed or usurped by this or that Brahmanical sect, and Jain temples functioning at what were Brahmanical places of worship at earlier dates. I am seeking your help to enlarge the list of Buddhist and Jain monuments which were destroyed by those whom you call Hindus. Your writings and statements over the years go to show that you specialize in this subject. What I am looking for in particular is the Hindu theology which inspires acts of intolerance. I expect you to guide me to it.
My Questionnaire is not at all a challenge issued in a spirit of combat. It is only an appeal that sweeping statements should now yield place to hard facts so that we know precisely as to who did what, when, where, and under what inspiration. We should be in a position to compare the record of Islamic iconoclasm with that of Hindu iconoclasm, and draw fair conclusions regarding the character and role of the two religions. I for one am not interested in the restoration of religious sites, which I leave to the politicians.
It is nobody’s case that Hindu sects (in which I include Buddhists and Jains) did not use strong language vis-a-vis each other. Every Brahmanical sect has used strong language about other Brahmanical sects. So have the Buddhist, and the Jains, not only vis-a-vis Brahmanical sects but also about one another. The situation gets much worse when it comes to the sub-sects, whether Buddhist or Brahmanical or Jain. But strong language alone, whether in words or portrayals, is no evidence in the present context, unless it is followed by overt acts of destruction or usurpation.
Secondly, I fail to understand the logic of placing Buddhists and Jains on one side of the fence, and Brahmanical sects on the other. What about Buddhists and Jains committing acts of intolerance vis-a-vis one another? For a start, I refer you to the Mahavamsa which says that the Buddhist king, Vattagamini (29-117 BC), destroyed a Jain vihara and built a Buddhist one on the same site. In the Sravana-Belgola Epitaph of Mallishena, the renowned Jain teacher, Akalanka, says that in the court of the glorious king Himasitala, I overcame all crowds of Bauddhas, most of whom had a shrewd mind (vidagdha-at-mano), and I broke the (image of) Sugata with my foot (padena visphotitah) (EI. III, 192 for Sanskrit text and 201 for English translation). The instances can be multiplied.
Thirdly, I plead that presentation of evidence should not be an exercise in suppressio veri suggestio falsi. Your one line summary (p.18) of die Saiva inscription at Ablur is a case in pint. The inscription says clearly (El.III, 255) that the dispute arose because the Jains in a body tried to prevent a Saiva from worshipping his own image, saying Jina is the (true) deity. The Jains also undertook to pluck up our Jina and set up Siva if the Saiva devotee performed a miracle. And the Jains went back on their plighted word when the miracle was shown. There was a quarrel and the Jina was broken by the Saivas. What is most significant, the Jain king, Bijjala, decided in favour of the Saivas when the dispute was referred to him. He dismissed the Jains, bidding them to go without saying further words. The story ends with the Jain king showering favours on the Saivas.
Dr. Fleet who has edited and translated this inscription along with four others found at the same place, gives summaries of two Lingayat puranas and the Jain Bijjalacharitra, and points out that the story in this inscription finds no support in the literary traditions of the two sects. Bijjals inscription dated AD 1162 discovered at Managoli (EI. V, 9-23) also does not support the story. The fact that the Saiva inscription at Ablur bears neither a date nor relates itself definitely to the reign of a king, makes it sound fishy. Authentic inscriptions do not usually deal in miracles. Obviously, the Saivas seem to have used the endowment of a Saiva temple in the Managoli inscription for mounting on it a story which was not related to any real events but satisfied sectarian spite.
Dr. Fleet has cited from the Lingayat sources to show that there was nothing Brahmanical about the Lingayats. They harboured hostility to Brahmans (p.239) and their doctrines included the persecution and extermination of all persons whose creed differed from that of the Lingayats (p.240). Brahmanism in any shape or form should not be held responsible for the doings of this sect. There is evidence that this sect drew its inspiration directly from Muslim missionaries who abounded on the West Coast of India at the time it took shape.
Incidentally, I have not been able to find anything relevant to the context in EI. XXVIII.1 which is mentioned in footnote 14 on page 18 of your pamphlet, along with EI.V.237. Is it a printing mistake? Kindly give me the correct reference so that I may examine the incident and credit it to your account if it is not already in my list. I hope it is not a case of strong language alone.
Finally, I suggest that all cases of Brahmanical rulers building or endowing Buddhist and Jain temples, and Buddhist and Jain rulers doing the same for Brahmanical temples, should also be compiled for obtaining a total picture of the religious scene. You are very prompt in pointing out the few cases where Hindu temples were endowed or built under Muslim patronage, whenever the large-scale destruction of Hindu temples by Muslims is brought to your notice. Why do you always fail to point out the numerous cases of Brahmanical patronage of Buddhism and Jainism, while listing the few cases of Brahmanical persecution? If a few cases of Muslim patronage can atone for large-scale Islamic iconoclasm, the numerous cases of Brahmanical patronage should be able to do the same for a few cases of Brahmanical persecution. I hope I am not illogical.
I have not received even an acknowledgement of this letter from Professor Thapar, leave alone any comments on the points raised by me. Her silence has left me sad, for I was looking forward to a fruitful dialogue.
Lest Professor Thapar complains that in my letter to her I have not dealt with all instances of Hindu intolerance mentioned in her pamphlet, I reproduce below the entire evidence she has presented. She says:
The persecution of Buddhists in Kashmir is referred to by Hsüan Tsang, but, lest it be thought that he being a Chinese Buddhist monk was prejudiced, the testimony of KalhaNa in the Rãjatarañginî should be more acceptable. Hsüan Tsang refers to the atrocities of Mihîrakula against the Buddhists both in Punjab and in Kashmir in the sixth century AD. Hsüan Tsang may well have been exaggerating when he lists the destruction of 1,600 Buddhist stûpas and sanghãramas and the killing of many thousands of Buddhist monks and lay-followers. KalhaNa gives an even fuller account of the king killing innocent people by the hundreds. This is often dismissed by attributing the anti-Buddhist actions of Mihîrakula to his being a HûNa. But it should not be forgotten that he was also an ardent Saiva and gave grants of land in the form of agrahãras to the brahmans. In the words of KalhaNa: Brahmans from Gandhãra resembling himself in their habits and verily themselves the lowest of the twice-born accepted agrahãras from him. It is possible that the recently discovered stûpa at Sanghol in Punjab, where sculpted railings were found in the vicinity of a stûpa dismantled and packed away, indicates this persecution of Buddhists in Kashmir and the wilful destruction of a vihãra, again by a Saivite king. But on this occasion the king repented and built a new monastery for the Buddhist monks.
Courtly literature, particularly plays written after the seventh century AD, is replete with invective against Buddhist and Jaina monks who are depicted as morally depraved, dishonest and altogether what one might call the scum of the earth. Mahendravarman’s MaTTavilãsa, a farce, is amongst the earliest plays. In the MudrarãkSasa of Viãkhadatta, a constant refrain states that it is inauspicious to see a Jaina monk. The Prabodha-candrodaya of KRSNa Mira, a drama of the eleventh century, dwells on the theme of a Kapãlika converting a Jaina and a Buddhist monk to Saivism by offering them wine and women, both of which they are said to hanker after. In the Saiva temples at Khajuraho, Jaina monks, especially of the digambara sect, are depicted in the worst possible erotic poses. Such references and depictions do not amount to persecution but reflect a contemptuous attitude towards Jaina and Buddhist monks which they would doubtless have found very galling, particularly as they occur in the literature and art of aristocratic groups. The depiction of monks and ascetics as debauched may have been due to the court’s contempt for a variety of ascetics, some of whom were associated with socially unacceptable practices. Such depictions in courtly literature may also have been an attempt to play down the authority associated with renouncers and ascetics in the popular mind. But it is significant that the Buddhists and Jainas are more commonly made the subject of attack.
Evidence on the persecution of Jainas by Saiva sects comes from a variety of sources. The earliest known cave temple originally dedicated by the Jainas in Tirunelveli district was, subsequently in the seventh century, converted into a Saiva temple. This was not a case of appropriating the temple and gradually changing it. Quite clearly, the Jaina images were either destroyed or erased, sometimes only partially, and fresh Saivite images carved in the same place. In the case of the partially erased sculpture it is possible to recognize traces of the original. Where the image is totally gouged out the desecration is visible.
The Saivite saint Jñãna Sambander is attributed with having converted the PãNDya ruler from Jainism to Saivism, whereupon it is said that eight thousand Jainas were impaled by the king. This episode is represented in painting and sculpture in medieval temples and is enacted to this day in some Siva temples during their annual festival. In later times, attempts were made to appease the Jainas by royal patrons building Jaina, Saiva and VaiSNava temples in close proximity. But in these areas the Jaina temples soon fell into disrepair whilst the others flourished. Tamil Scholar V K Kalyanasundaram highlighted that the old Siddha Marga of native Indian tradition split to jaina and saiva ways.
Such activities were not restricted to a particular area. The Jaina temples of Karnataka went through a traumatic experience at the hands of the Lingãyatas or VîraSaivas in the early second millennium AD. This would explain in part why some Jaina texts have pejorative references to Basava, who founded the Vîrasaiva sect. The Jaina temples at LakkuNDi were located in the proximity of an affluent agrahãra and the VaiSNava brahmans accepted Mahãvîra as an incarnation of Brahma. Later, however, one of the temples was converted into a Saiva temple. At Huli, the temple of the five Jinas was converted into a pañcaliñgesvara Saivite temple, the five liñgas replacing the five Jina images in the sancta. Some other Jaina temples suffered the same fate. An inscription at Ablur in Dharwar eulogizes attacks on Jaina temples as retaliation for Jaina opposition to Saivite worship. Sculpted panels at this site depict the smashing of Jaina images. In the fourteenth century the harassment of Jainas was so acute that they had to appeal for protection to the ruling power at Vijayanagara.
Inscriptions of the sixteenth century from the Srisailam area of Andhra Pradesh record the pride taken by Vîrasaiva chiefs in beheading svetãmbara Jainas. The local records of this area refer to the frequent persecution of the Jainas. In Gujarat, Jainism flourished during the reign of Kumãrapãla, but his successor persecuted the Jainas and destroyed their temples. However, Jainism was so well-established here that periodical persecution did not really shake it. (1)
She sums up: It is historically important to know why this persecution of the Buddhists and Jainas occurred in particular by the Saivas. I can only offer a few comments. At the religious level, it may have had to do with asceticism. Was Siva seen as the ascetic par excellence and the patron deity of ascetics, and were Buddhist and Jaina monks seen as imposters? Did Buddhist and Jaina monks find the worship of the lingam offensive owing to the puritanism inherent in both these systems? Yet the Tantric versions of these systems conceded to practices and ideas which were opposed to puritanism. If the hostility related only to religious differences, then it should have surfaced earlier in time. It is interesting that it begins about the middle of the first millennium AD and gains force through the centuries until Buddhism eventually fled the country and Jainism was effectively limited to a few pockets. The persecution predates the coming of Islam to these areas, so that the convenient excuse that Islamic persecution caused the decline of these religions is not applicable.(2)
Interestingly, she has refrained from mentioning the persecution of Buddhists by Pusyamitra Sunga and SaSãñka of GauDa, and the melting of idols by king Harsha of Kashmir, which had so far figured most prominently in the writings of her school. I wonder whether she has realized that those allegations have no legs to stand upon, even though others of her school continue to harp on them. In any case, it may be assumed that her present list has exhausted the entire stock-in-trade in the Marxist shop on the subject of Hindu intolerance. I will deal with these instances, one by one.
1. She has suppressed the fact, stated by Huen Tsang, that Mihîrakula had requested the Buddhist Sangha to teach him the tenets of Buddhism. The Sangha did not assign the task to a qualified teacher but sent a monk who had the rank of a servant. Mihîrakula felt outraged at this insult and persecuted the Buddhists. It is highly doubtful if this HûNa tyrant had become a Saiva. KalhaNa sees him only as a HûNa extending patronage to bad BrãhmaNas. But even if he had, his fury had nothing to do with Saivism. On the contrary, it was the fury of a tyrant whose ego had been hurt. Kashmir had known many Saiva kings before Mihîrakula as well as after him. None of them is known to have persecuted the Buddhists. In fact, most of them are known to have been patrons of Buddhism. The only instance she cites is that of a king who repented and rebuilt the vihãra which he had pulled down in a fit of anger. We should welcome a similar instance of some Muslim ruler who repented and rebuilt the temple he had demolished. The difference arises because while it was a temporary lapse on the part of the Kashmiran king, Muslim rulers were inspired by a permanently prescribed theology.
2. Dragging in the unfinished stûpa at Sangol in this context is totally unwarranted. No archaeologist has said that the stûpa was dismantled and packed away. All that is known is that many stones had been finished, and were meant to be parts of a stûpa. But no one knows for sure why they were left in pits and trenches. It is no more than a speculation that perhaps a HûNa invasion was feared. No other archaeologist or historian has surmised that Mihîrakula was leading this invasion, and that he inspired fear as a Saiva. In any case, Professor Thapar is the first to say that this represents a case of persecution of the Buddhists by a Saiva king. Her obssession has scored over her scruples.
3. The instances of Buddhist and Jain monks being made the subject of invectives in Sanskrit literature does not prove anything. Professor Thapar has herself stated in her present pamphlet that the Jain book Paumacarya denounces the BrãhmaNas as heretics and preachers of false doctrines who acquired their status through fraud (3). Shall we say that the Paumacarya invites the Jains to persecute the BrãhmaNas? I can cite many instances where the BrãhmaNas have been abused in Buddhist and Jain literature in worse language. But I will not accuse the Buddhists and Jains of persecution of the BrãhmaNas. And what about Buddhists and Jains hurling invectives on one another. Shall we say that Buddhists persecuted the Jains, and vice versa.
4. The persecution of Jains in the PãNDya country by some Saivas had nothing to do with Saivism as such, but was an expression of a nationalist conflict which I will relate shortly. What I want to point out first is that most of the royal dynasties which ruled in India, after the breakdown of the Gupta Empire and before the advent of Islamic invaders, were Saiva-Maukharîs, PuSyabhûtis, Gurjara-Pratihãras, and GãhaDavãDs of Kãnyakubja; Vãkãtakas of Nãndîvardhana and Vatsagulma; Pallavas of Kãñchipuram; Cholas of Tanjore; Chãlukyas of Vãtãpî, KalyãNa, and Veñgî; PãNDuvaMîs of Kosala and Mekala; Kalachurîs of MãhiSmatî and Tripurî; RãshtrakûTas of MãnyakheTa; Maitrakas of Valabhi; Guhilots of Mewar; ChãhmãNas of Sãkambharî, NaDDula and Jalor; Turkî and Hindû Shãhîs of Kabul, Zabul and UdbhãNDapura; KãrkoTas and Utpalas of Kashmir; Tomaras of Haryana and Delhi; Parmãras of Malwa and Abu; Chaulukyas of Gujarat; Yãdvas of Maharashtra; Kãkatîyas of Andhra Pradesh; HoySalas of Karnataka; Chandellas of Kalinjara – to recount only the most prominent of them. The Jains are known to have flourished everywhere; not a single instance of the Jains being persecuted under any of these dynasties is known. The instance she mentions from Gujarat was only the righting of a wrong which the Jains had committed under Kumãrapala. Professor Thapar does not mention the Jain high-handedness which had preceded.
The conflict between the Jains and the Saivas in the PãNDya country has been dealt with in detail by M. Arunachalam in a monograph published eight years before Professor Thapar delivered the lectures which comprise her pamphlet(4). He has proved conclusively, with the help of epigraphic and literary evidence, that the Kalabhara invaders from Karnataka had occupied Tamil Nadu for 300 years (between AD 250 and 550), and that they subscribed to the Digambara sect of Jainism.(5) It so happened that some of the Kalabhara princes were guided by a few narrow-minded Jain ascetics, and inflicted injuries on some Saiva and VaiSNava saints and places of worship. They also took away the agrahãras which BrãhmaNas had enjoyed in earlier times.(6) And a reaction set in when the Kalabharas were overthrown. The new rulers who rose subscribed to Savisim. It was then that the Jains were persecuted in some places, and some Jain places to worship were taken over by the Saivas under the plea that these were Saiva places in the earlier period.
But the reaction was confined to the PaNDya country. Jainism continued to flourish in northern Tamil Nadu which also had been invaded by the Kalabharas, where also the Saivas and VaiSNavas had been molested by the Jains, and where also the Saivas had come to power once again. It is significant that though Buddhists also invite invectives in the same Saiva literature, no instance of Buddhists being persecuted is recorded. That was because Buddhists had never harmed the Saivas. It is also significant that the VaiSNavas of Tamil Nadu show no bitterness against the Jains though they had also suffered under Kalabhara rule.
In any case, Professor Thapar should have mentioned the persecution of Saivas practised earlier by the PaNDya king who was a Jain to start with, and who later on converted to Saivism and persecuted the Jains. This is another instance of suppressio vari suggestio falsi practised very often by her school. Obviously, these persecutions had nothing to do with either Jainism or Saivism, and were no more than the expressions of a king’s personal predisposition.
Interestingly, the Persecution of Jains in the PaNDya country finds mention only in Saiva literature, and is not corroborated by Jain literature of the same or subsequent period. Specialists of South Indian history such as K.A.N. Sastri have dismissed the whole story as a Saiva braggadocio without any basis in fact. The atrocities of the Islamic invaders, on the other hand, find mention not only in Muslim histories but also in contemporary Hindu literature. At any rate, these few instances cannot overshadow the fact that Jains and Saivas have lived in perfect amity for a very long time, and over large areas. What is more important, neither Jains nor Saivas have any theology sanctioning persecution of people belonging to other religious persuasions. Aberrations should be seen as aberrations, unless we are out to make mountains out of molehills.
5. As regards her statement that Buddhism eventually fled the country and Jainism was effectively confined to few pockets as a result of Hindu persecution in pre-Islamic days, one simply feels flabbergasted in the face of such colossal ignorance on the part of a professor of history. As regards Buddhism, we are quoting what Dr. B.R. Ambedkar has to say on the subject. After observing that the Persian word ‘but’ meaning ‘idol’ is derived from Buddha, He writes: Thus the origin of the word indicates that in the Muslim mind idol worship had come to be identified with the religion of Buddha. To the Muslims they were one and the same thing. The mission to break idols thus became the mission to destroy Buddhism. Islam destroyed Buddhism not only in India but wherever it went. Bactria, Parthia, Afghanistan, Gandhara and Chinese Turkestan in all these countries Islam destroyed Buddhism.(7) More precisely: The Muslim invaders sacked the Buddhist universities of Nalanda [etc.] They razed to the ground Buddhist monasteries with which the country was studded. The monks fled away in thousands. A very large number were killed outright by the Muslim commanders.(8) D.D. Kosambi, a historian of her own Marxist school, confirms that Nalanda was sacked by a handful of Muslim raiders under Mohammed bin Bakhtyar Khalji about AD 1200 and that the tremendous complex at Sarnath which had grown up on the site of the first Buddhist sermon was wrecked beyond recovery, thus ending a continuous tradition of refuge and meeting-place for ascetics which went back to the centuries before Buddha.(9)
She would do well to read some histories of Buddhism and Jainism in this country to know that 1) Buddhism was flourishing all over the country when the Islamic invaders arrived on the scene; 2) both Buddhism and Jainism were being patronised by kings whom the Marxist lable as Hindus; 3) Buddhist monks fled to Nepal and Tibet only after thousands of them were massacred, and their monasteries destroyed by the Islamic marauders; 4) Buddhism continued to flourish all over Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka till attacked by the armies of Islam in the fourteenth century; 5) Buddhism did not survive the Islamic assault because, unlike Brahmanism and Jainism, it was centred round monasteries and monks; 6) Jainism has continued to flourish till today all over north India, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat as it did in the pre-Islamic period, in spite of prolonged Islamic persecution; and 7) there is evidence of a large number of Jain temples being destroyed in the Muslim invasions of southern Bihar and Jharkhand as well as of western and northern Bengal, during the thirteenth and subsequent centuries.
It is nobody’s case that there was never any conflict among the sects and sub-sects of Sanãtana Dharma. Some instances of persecution were indeed there. Our plea is that they should be seen in a proper perspective, and not exaggerated in order to whitewash or counter-balance the record of Islamic intolerance. Firstly, the instances are few and far between when compared to those listed in Islamic annals. Secondly, those instances are spread over several millennia while the fourteen centuries of Islam stand crowded with religious crimes of all sorts. Thirdly, none of those instances were inspired by a theology, while in the case of Islam a theology of intolerance has continued to question the character of Muslim kings who happened to be tolerant. Fourthly, Jains were not always the victims of persecution; they were persecutors as well once in a while. Lastly, no king or commander or saint who showed intolerance has been a Hindu hero, while Islam has hailed as heroes only those characters who excelled in intolerance.
It is not an accident that Professor Thapar’s pamphlet consists of I. H. Qureishi Memorial Lecture, 1987, delivered in the St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. Ishdaq Husain Qureishi was a professor of medieval Indian history in this college when I was a student in another college of the same university. He was a well-known intellectual of the Muslim League and famous for floating the proposition that Hindus were far better off under Muslim rule than they were under that of their own princes in pre-Islamic India. He migrated to Pakistan after Partition, and was that country’s Minister of Education for a term. He functioned, to the end of his life, as an apologist of Islamic imperialism as is evident from the numerous works of research he wrote or guided. One can hardly expect proper knowledge or perspective from professors who are patronized by such platforms.
1 Cultural Transaction and Early India: Tradition and Patronage, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1987, pp. 16-18.
2 Ibid., p. 19.
4 The Kalabharas in the Pandiya country and their Impact on the Life and Letters there, University of Madras, 1979.
5 Ibid., pp. 29-34.
6 Ibid., pp. 95-100.
7 Writings and Speeches, published by the Government of Maharashtra, Volume 3. p. 229 (in the Chapter The Decline and Fall of Buddhism.)
8 Ibid., pp. 229-30.
9 The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India, New Delhi, 1984, p. 18.
(For a more detailed information on marxist rogues like romila thapar, one can read Arun Shourie’s book eminent historians, where Arun Shourie meticulously documented the deceit techniques of these so called historians and their loot)
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: arun, buddhist, communist, deceit, eminent, falsi, frontline, goel, gupta, Hindu, historians, jain, jaina, jawaharlal, karan, lies, marxist, missionary, ndtv, nehru, outlook, ram, romila, saivaite, sanghvi, shaivite, shekhar, shourie, sikh, sita, suggestio, suppresio, swarup, tehelka, thapar, vaishnavite, veri, vir | Permalink
You are currently browsing the Zoom Indian Media blog archives for December, 2009.
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⚂ Does not live in a pineapple under the sea.
Hello again. It've been a short while, but I have some news - today I'm proud to present you with... Terrasavr! Terrasavr is a web-based profile viewer & editor for Terraria (video game). You can either take a look at it from that last link, or read the full post for more details.
Just recently - as you may know, I've added FileReference support into OpenFL-bitfive some time ago, which means that one can now use file dialogs to exchange files with user in HTML5 applications. Provided that I wanted to verify that new features work as intended in most cases, it was a logical choice to actually make something to use it. So I've settled with a project that requires a bit of file operations, a bit of cryptography (Terraria profiles are AES-encrypted), and some UI elements as well. So a week of morning work later, there goes this.
Well... because, I can. Also, should you look at existing profile viewers/editors for Terraria, most of them are written in C#, do not have that much of a comfortable UI, and are generally not particularly up to par. So I've decided to make something that would be a change - look good, stay functional, and work everywhere.
One of things I find particularly annoying in tools of this kind is the dependency on other tools or documentation - even if there's a built-in item search function, you still cannot efficiently compare items without looking at wiki (which can be outdated) or loading up the game (which takes time).
At the same time, Terraria (application itself) features an external interface, which can be used by applications for multiple purposes. So I've made a small separate C# tool that would poll the game for item information and then write down significant parts for later use in Haxe app.
For one, results are amusing - application displays pretty much the same set of data that actual game does, sometimes even more:
Item search itself is also kept intuitive, displaying results as you type in a familiar form:
And, just in case you don't even know what you're searching for, there is a library of items, both by categories and by index:
And, of course, there's the usual functionality of adding/removing items, tweaking prefixes, changing player names & modes, and whatnot. Everything is kept more or less intuitive and matches style of game fairly well.
Technology-wise, Terrasavr is made with Haxe + OpenFL, and is compiled into JavaScript+HTML5 application with use of my OpenFL-bitfive. Source will probably be available later on, once I'll clean things up to a point when it would no longer be possible to scare children with some sections of code.
Flash version
(if default one doesn't work)
(if you are feeling lost)
Introducing: BitFontReader
bitfive: Now with multitouch
Progress: BitmapData.noise() for OpenFL-bitfive
Introducing: OpenFL-bitfive
Haxe | haxe, html5, openfl, release | 180 Responses
180 thoughts on “Introducing: Terrasavr!”
aryan on Jul 7, 2015 at 01:11 said:
i saved and did everything the tutorial told me to. But when I loaded my world it crashed my game. I saw on my character that the hack had worked, but it still crashed. is it because I Added 1.3 stuff to my 1.2.4 account
YellowAfterlife on Jul 7, 2015 at 01:20 said:
Adding content from the later versions of the game is an inadvisable tactic. Since the game stores the indexes for everything instead of actual stats, it has no way to tell what the new thing is exactly because it is not present in that version of the game. You should be able to load back the character in Terrasavr and remove the problematic buff(s).
Srry I didn’t reply I commented do disregard that but my question
Is Should I should delete my 1.3 content I added to my charcter
Yes, you should remove 1.3 content if you save the character in 1.2.4.1 format. I have updated the program today to automatically display if items/buffs are incompatible with chosen version of the character and avoid saving them so that the game won’t crash on load.
THanks so much man this actually works
Jaden on Jul 4, 2015 at 22:17 said:
If i get stuff from this and an update comes out and buffs or nerfs the item will the changes apply to the item i got from terrasavr
Terraria only stores “which” item each slot contains (by numbering them), what modifier it has, and how many there are (if the slot permits that) – item stats are not stored so any changes to the game will reflect on items created.
a on Jul 4, 2015 at 11:37 said:
Just wanna say thank you and you may not realize how awesome you are.
vehk on Jul 3, 2015 at 20:57 said:
I just want to thank you for making this. Whereas others have left their programs to rot or tried to attach strings here and there, your diligence and expertise in designing Terrasavr has truly left me amazed. The editor is absolutely fantastic in every conceivable way.
waiting on Jul 1, 2015 at 19:08 said:
Hi yellow. I just want to know how many times left until 1.3 editor ” Terrasavr” complete. Please respond thanks.
It is now fully updated for 1.3. A partial update (saving/loading done, but no UI for new slots) was made 7 hours ago (all times are GMT+2).
mori on Jul 1, 2015 at 16:12 said:
Ah nevermind, i’ve figured it out. Greatly appreciate the work you’ve done!
How do you make a 1.2.4.1 character?
Jason on Jul 1, 2015 at 10:13 said:
Any idea what I’m doing wrong? I tried the HTML version and it’s telling me “failed to load profile. The error was RangeError: Offset is outside the bounds of the Dataview. Was it a valid file?
So i tried the flash version and it says “profile is loaded but there’s extra data in the end of file. This shouldn’t happen with valid profiles?”
thanks for any help. Tried looking for a solution but couldn’t find anything
greerge on Jul 1, 2015 at 08:25 said:
A) What approximate time will the 1.3 update be finished for use?
B) What time zone is this site in (currently in EST, but the timing doesn’t make sense.)?
Sidney on Jul 1, 2015 at 03:09 said:
Hey 1.3 was just released please make newer version
I did – in fact within one hour of the game update going live (personal record). Try refreshing the page if it still shows 1.2.4.1 for you.
At the moment it only displays new items (you can get them into the game by making a 1.2.4.1 character with items and loading it in-game afterwards) but I’ll fix this in the morning (+9 hours from now) — 1.3 added a bunch of new information to the character files and I’m yet to figure out what some of it actually does.
ZaraBeara on Jun 29, 2015 at 17:57 said:
Do you know when you’ll come out with the 1.3 items? I can’t wait to use this again for 1.3.
YellowAfterlife on Jun 29, 2015 at 18:38 said:
I don’t have any kind of early access so likely within a day of when 1.3 comes out publicly. If what I’ve heard about precise time is correct (1PM EST) it’ll still be not-too-late evening for me thus I’d be able to update it within a few hours. I’ll post an update to the forum topic when that’ll happen.
poi on Jun 28, 2015 at 09:07 said:
how to download it0.0
Currently you can only download the SWF that Flash version of the program uses and run that locally via browser / Flash Player. I plan to make an actual (executable) native version at some point, but it’s a lot of work so there’s no ETA.
Someone on Jul 6, 2015 at 19:21 said:
You can make a .exe with a .swf
When 1.3 comes out will this be updated to it?
It will be. I also plan to have my currently in-development mini-wiki app finished and released before 1.3 comes out.
AceOfHearts on Jan 16, 2015 at 20:25 said:
Just some word association stuff with the tabs that will help make them easier to navigate if named differently.
* Could you possibly rename “Stash” to either “Bank” or “Piggy Bank,” since that’s what it is?
* Also, changing “General” to “Character” would help association, since most of the editor is about changing items, and the character’s own data isn’t about that.
* I’d also recommend changing “Servers” to “Worlds” since that’s what most people call them.
Other than those decidedly minor things, I love this thing, so much.
MasterKirito on Oct 24, 2014 at 18:51 said:
I was thinking if you’re ever going to add support to mods that are avaible for Terraria, cause I can’t live without this, and if it had Mod Support, it would be awesome (for real it would). Another good thing to add would be item descriptions (maybe even recipes?).
I’m not sure what would the hardship to do it, but I would be very glad if you could do it (and I’m pretty sure other people would too).
YellowAfterlife on Oct 24, 2014 at 19:38 said:
On mod support, I’ve answered this in topic few days ago. In short, it’d indeed be nice, but very hard and impractical to do due to nature of program.
As for descriptions/recipes – that’s another story. Program already shows most of information that game can provide on request (including in-game item descriptions). I’m thinking of making a separate tool that would show essential item info (stats, description, how to find, what to craft with, extra notes) in a convenient way, but haven’t decided on the best way to handle this yet. Storing and editing 2600+ (soon to be 3000+) snippets of information is no easy task.
Adding modded items information wouldn’t need you to just add the item ID and make a library for it? As well as asking for the mod creator’s permission of course? Cause you can use the inventory editor with Modded Items, but the sprite doesn’t show, nor does it show any info on it.
To display the item properly, editor needs to know it’s name, metadata (stored in most compact and awful format like “=d|s=1|d=6|t=17|k=2|tp=55|1=Can mine Meteorite” for gold pickaxe), and image.
Name and metadata can only be efficiently obtained by polling a running instance of Terraria for loaded items. Should the mod do something “unusually”, it might not work for it.
Images are currently stored sequentially (1 cell = 1 item) like this. This small monstrosity takes some time to re-generate when updating the editor for new versions of the game.
If multiple mods have an item with same ID, it’s not possible to automatically tell which mod the item is from, so it’d also mean writing a different item data “manager” system that would allow picking “sets” of items for display.
And then, of course, it means also keeping an eye on updates and changes to all supported mods.
Time-consuming operations, one could say.
I see… Well, so much for that idea lol
Galacticruler on Oct 7, 2014 at 01:53 said:
I was wondering if you could add pages of weapons and armors, like the current “Accessories” section and it’s sub section system. It would speed things up a bit.
Also, sorting by tier or rarity would be nice.
Most of armor items can be found in “Materials” category. I might give them an explicit category in future. Added a weapons category in today’s update, I think it includes all weapons of any particular interest.
Galacticruler on Oct 13, 2014 at 03:05 said:
Alright, thank you.
Is there a way you could make a console save editor variant? There is a modder on the Elipse program, so if you can, would you look into it?
I can’t tell much on the console versions of the game – I don’t own any of those, and neither I do own any of applicable consoles.
Looking around, it seems like the format is not that different, but I’d need lots of savefiles (along with information on what is stored in them) to test loading and people to test saving, apart of time to write the actual code.
Also would probably risk getting in trouble due to official policy strictly forbidding modding and savegame editing.
Tricky stuff.
ah. pesky game devs telling us the “right” way to have fun…
Yellowsubmarine on Sep 17, 2014 at 17:36 said:
there is Offline version ?
YellowAfterlife on Sep 17, 2014 at 18:35 said:
You can download the SWF file for Flash version (right click the link, “Save As…”) and open that locally via Flash Player or the browser of choice. There may be a proper downloadable version in the future, but that would take a fair of extra resources to develop.
SomePersonYup on Jun 13, 2014 at 02:58 said:
I don’t know why but every time I save my file, it always ends up as a download which is just titled “download”. No .plr file or anything. Just download. And that download won’t even do anything. Somebody help?
The `download` *is* a .plr file, but it has to be renamed manually. This happens on some browsers. Flash version does not suffer from this problem.
Person :D on Jun 9, 2014 at 19:26 said:
Can anyone give me a written tutorial on how to use this? Every time I try, I manage to corrupt the profile I try to do. I wanted to get something good on my best person, bam, it got corrupted. I tried changing the download to (example) Sero.plr then putting it in the folder and it didnt work. I tried making it .plr and making it just say Sero. Nothing. Help D:
Anson on May 16, 2014 at 02:23 said:
great job man, it worked and it’s the only working one i can find, plus it works great
THANKS. Keep up the good work.
Natolikin on Mar 20, 2014 at 00:55 said:
When 1.2.4 comes out (The Lunar Update) will this be updated to it?
YellowAfterlife on Mar 20, 2014 at 01:19 said:
I will. I can’t say, how fast (effort needed depends a lot on changes that devs make), but last time I managed to update the program in under 3 days or so.
Max on Feb 17, 2014 at 00:59 said:
ive used terrasavr for a while, but for the past week or so, when i try to save a player file, it continuously tries to save several (about 16 last i checked) files. i have to close all of the open browser windows to stop it from attempting to save. and i cant fix it. HELP!!
p.s.: when i was able to use it, it was awesome
YellowAfterlife on Feb 17, 2014 at 15:48 said:
If the default version does not work, try the Flash version. No builds were uploaded for last week, so “breaking” would have to come from browser itself.
Thanks for that, man. Awesome stuff
Monkey999Boy on Jan 26, 2014 at 07:06 said:
Do you have a facebook page or account on the Terrarai wiki, so I can message you some questions about problems I might have? :D Thanks for making this, by the way :D
YellowAfterlife on Jan 26, 2014 at 10:19 said:
As I have it stated on About page, I’m best reached via Twitter, VK, or email. I have a profile on TerrariaOnline too, if that helps. TO topic can also be a good source of help – I answered a bunch of questions there.
as3boyan on Jan 6, 2014 at 18:54 said:
Most of it, I like that Rawr=)
Driam on Jan 2, 2014 at 13:11 said:
can u post a vid of how you edit and save the characters because when i use the terrasavr it doesn’t save to the character
im not sure if im doing it wrong or it could be something else
YellowAfterlife on Jan 2, 2014 at 16:36 said:
Sure. Take one: http://youtu.be/8qNvfkYf-pc
If it still doesn’t work, try another browser, or verify that you’re saving files into right folder.
Blaza8 on Jan 2, 2016 at 17:21 said:
Hey! Terrasavr work on offline? Please tell me.
If you’ll download the right version.
human on Jun 7, 2016 at 03:44 said:
For some reason it doesn’t load! Do you have any help on that? :)
Norton39987 on Jul 6, 2016 at 05:31 said:
Im using mac and when I hit save player i don’t get the download?
BlueBird on Apr 18, 2018 at 13:09 said:
can u link the offline version of it
Vadim on Apr 20, 2018 at 02:51 said:
Click download at https://yellowafterlife.itch.io/terrasavr
P.S.: You could find this by clicking “Help” and then “Downloading / offline use”
SIRIS on Jan 20, 2017 at 10:10 said:
Are you sure that link is still alive?
Vadim on Jan 20, 2017 at 17:00 said:
The video definitely works. If it doesn’t, just search for “Terrasavr” on YouTube – a bunch of people made tutorials about it, many of which are better than mine.
fernando on Nov 3, 2017 at 08:24 said:
my avatar doesn’t come up it says my player is there but it does not let me click on it. What do I do?
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116 ft / 35.4 m Lazzara - Sleeps 8 guests
Chartering in the Bahamas
About MONEY FOR NOTHING
BuilderLazzara
Operating in the Bahamas
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Money For Nothing_salon_1
Money For Nothing_dining_1
Money For Nothing_galley_1
Money For Nothing_aft_deck_2
Money For Nothing_flybridge_7
Money For Nothing_flybridge_26
Money For Nothing_master_stateroom_3
Money For Nothing_forward_stateroom_4
Money For Nothing_starboard_guest_stateroom_2
Money For Nothing_pilothouse_1
Money For Nothing_library_2
Money For Nothing_Bow4
Money For Nothing_Profiles15
20 kts / 37 km/h
2x HP Diesel MTU
Captain: Robert Crocker + 3
Inflatable floating island
Jet skis multiple (standup)
Scout tender 35ft / 10.70m
Seabobs multiple
Captain: Robert Crocker
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Claudia is originally from Quebec, Canada and is lucky enough to have called Whistler (North America's largest ski resort) her home for the past ten years. Living in a resort town gave her the opportunity to pursue her hospitality and accounting career while being able to snowboard [almost] every day.
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Company details for MONEY FOR NOTHING
Available in 1 area
Click here to add optional requirements
Charter Guests 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8
Guest Rooms 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4
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Zippy Facts
Interesting Random Facts
What is a coronagraph and how does it work?
December 7, 2019 by Karen Hill
A coronagraph is an optical device that blocks the light from the Sun’s disk, making it possible to observe the corona, the very thin and hot upper level of the solar atmosphere, at the edge of the disk.
A lens focuses an image of the Sun onto a masking or occulting disk that prevents the light from proceeding farther into the telescope.
A coronagraph requires very high quality optics assembled in a dust-free atmosphere. Near sea level, a coronagraph would be virtually useless, because the scattered light from the Earth’s atmosphere would overwhelm light from the corona. Scientists put corona-graphs high in the mountains or launch them into space.
But any telescope can be turned into a coronagraph, simply by taking it to observe a total solar eclipse. (Just remember, for safety, never to look at the eclipse directly; project the image out through the eyepiece onto a piece of paper.)
Because of the happy coincidence of the Moon’s size and distance, when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, it is usually in just the right position to make a very effective occulting disk. And during an eclipse, the Earth’s atmosphere is also in the Moon’s dark shadow, so light scattering is not a problem.
In fact, scientists still find a total solar eclipse to be an unexcelled opportunity to study the Sun’s corona.
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How Does Cyanide Kill, Why Is Cyanide So Poisonous, and How Does Cyanide Work To Asphyxiate Cells?
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What Causes Dandruff, Where Does Dandruff Come From, and How Does Anti Dandruff Shampoo Work To Stop Flakes?
Filed Under: Science
About Karen Hill
Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.
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UARTERLY - College of New Rochelle
cnr.edu
Friend,
Uarterly,
Rochelle,
Dr. Dorothy Brown, Professor of History Emerita of
Georgetown University, centered her remarks on three
Catholic institutions, including The College of New
Rochelle, in the evolution of American Catholic higher
education. In her presentation, Dr. Brown also recalled
visiting CNR two decades ago as a member of a special
Middle States Commission on Higher Education team.
Charged with reviewing the innovative program of our
School of New Resources, she vividly remembered our
model program as embodying “the essence of a liberal
arts curriculum.”
Our final presenter at the Colloquy was Executive
Director of the Middle States Commission on Higher
Education Jean Morse. Ms. Morse approached the
questions proposed by Sr. Bridget from the vantage
point of our accreditation authority, pointing out the
challenges we all experience because of the “public unrest
for higher education.” Ms. Morse outlined the history
of higher education in America and the issues facing all
colleges today. “Colleges,” she said, “not only have to
define and assess liberal arts student learning and other
types of learning but they also need to define and clarify
their institutional goals and get those across to the public.”
AT OUR HEART: DIVERSITY
In February, we returned for the second semester of
our academic year to hear the words of one of America’s
most important public intellectuals, Cornel West, Class
of 1943 University Professor of Religion at Princeton
Dr. West is an old friend of The College of New Rochelle.
We were gifted with his presence at my presidential
inauguration in 1997 when he reminded us all, “Education
is not a shield just to get a job. It’s a quest for wisdom
and a passion of the mind to know and to explore.
Education is not just a process for becoming sophisticated.
It is the cultivation of virtue, especially courage. Both
religion and education are the shaping and holding of
hearts, minds and souls.”
It was deeply moving for us that this man of wisdom
returned to the College to address another of the basic
elements that constitute the bedrock of CNR, and that
is our commitment to diversity.
2004 ANNUAL R EPORT / THE C OLLEGE OF N EW ROCHELLE
Dr. West has made it his life’s work to prod and provoke
the conscience of America on such fundamental questions
as race, religion, ethnicity, gender and class identification.
His message is one that celebrates diversity which enlarges
and expands the world of human possibility and reaches
a common ground respecting and embracing but never
fearing or denying the infinite variety of human life.
On a wintry afternoon in Holy Family Chapel, Dr.
West focused his intellect and his gift for language—a
gift inherited from his Baptist minister grandfather and
honed during years of study at the Yale Divinity School
—on an overflow crowd of several hundred faculty and
students, alumnae/i, family and friends of CNR.
Seamlessly weaving the wisdom of Socrates through
the lives of such present day heroes and heroines as
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, Dr. West
explained how Mother Irene Gill and the Ursulines were
all part of the same tradition, and that by opening the
doors to higher education to long-excluded populations,
they made moral and prophetic choices that made a
difference in the world. “A century ago, they had the
audacity to say that the Christian gospel has something
to do with forms of unjustified suffering, unnecessary
social misery, unmerited pain and unwarranted grief.”
Gathered for the opening convocation are New Rochelle Mayor Timothy Idoni,
New York State Lieutenant Governor Mary O’Connor Donohue ’68, CNR
President Stephen Sweeny, honorary degree recipients Avery Cardinal Dulles,
Mary Lyons and Antonio Coello Novello, and CNR Board Chair Jean Baptiste
Nicholson, OSU ’60.
PRESIDENT’S LETTER Archbishop Joseph Pittau celebrates mass to open the Centennial year celebration. Ms. Nooyi has been ranked by Fortune magazine as “one of the most powerful women in American business” and has over the last decade transformed PepsiCo for the twenty-first century. The qualities which distinguish her successful leadership are qualities clearly central to and cultivated by a liberal arts education such as ours. Yet when she spoke to us late that afternoon, she declared, “Being a science major myself, having majored in chemistry and physics as an undergraduate and then going on to my master’s in business, I wondered if I could honestly speak to you about the ‘value of a liberal arts degree’.” Indeed Ms. Nooyi could speak luminously of what is at the core of our academic program at CNR. What she has noticed in her long and brilliant career is that it is the “liberal arts” graduates who have been the most successful in life. “I began to look at my successful colleagues at work,” she told the crowded Holy Family Chapel, “my more interesting and well-rounded friends, and some of the more brilliant political leaders of the world. I realized quickly that all of them shared one thing in common—they were all schooled in the liberal arts.” She continued by making the salient point that pursuing a liberal arts education required that a student have “a greater sense of risk and adventure than pursuing an education in the sciences.” Liberal arts graduates 4 2004 ANNUAL R EPORT / THE C OLLEGE OF N EW ROCHELLE are the risk-takers, she discovered, the most adventurous of people. “I believe,” she concluded, “that liberal arts candidates are far from any road to starvation, and no death knell has been sounded… To the contrary, the only bell tolling is for a celebration of the humanities.” Continuing our discussion the next day, we welcomed to our Main Campus four outstanding educators for a special colloquy on the liberal arts. How true to our mission, how special to this year, was the opportunity for the College Community to gather in the Student Campus Center and hear the thoughtful remarks of these distinguished academics as they addressed this issue in this age of technology, an age when many see education just as career preparation and all knowledge divorced from spirituality and religious tradition. Moderator for the afternoon colloquy was our own Sr. Bridget Puzon, OSU, ’57, Editor of Liberal Education, published by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, who began the discussion by asking two core questions: How do we educate civilized human beings? And what is the state of liberal education at this time? For the next two hours, responding to these questions was the challenge and the opportunity for three panelists who approached the many facets of a liberal education at the college level with historical references and new insights. In commenting on the significance of the liberal arts, University Professor of Faith and Culture and Chancellor of the University of Dayton, Reverend James L. Heft, SM, focused on the common misunderstandings of Catholic colleges and the liberal arts and clarified the distinctiveness of Catholic intellectual traditions in America. He detailed the “intimate and distinctive relationship” that exists between liberal education and our Catholic intellectual traditions, saying, “Liberal education in a Catholic college is not about deciding who you want to be but rather discovering whom we have been called to be.”
Dr. Dorothy Brown, Professor of History Emerita of Georgetown University, centered her remarks on three Catholic institutions, including The College of New Rochelle, in the evolution of American Catholic higher education. In her presentation, Dr. Brown also recalled visiting CNR two decades ago as a member of a special Middle States Commission on Higher Education team. Charged with reviewing the innovative program of our School of New Resources, she vividly remembered our model program as embodying “the essence of a liberal arts curriculum.” Our final presenter at the Colloquy was Executive Director of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education Jean Morse. Ms. Morse approached the questions proposed by Sr. Bridget from the vantage point of our accreditation authority, pointing out the challenges we all experience because of the “public unrest for higher education.” Ms. Morse outlined the history of higher education in America and the issues facing all colleges today. “Colleges,” she said, “not only have to define and assess liberal arts student learning and other types of learning but they also need to define and clarify their institutional goals and get those across to the public.” AT OUR HEART: DIVERSITY In February, we returned for the second semester of our academic year to hear the words of one of America’s most important public intellectuals, Cornel West, Class of 1943 University Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Dr. West is an old friend of The College of New Rochelle. We were gifted with his presence at my presidential inauguration in 1997 when he reminded us all, “Education is not a shield just to get a job. It’s a quest for wisdom and a passion of the mind to know and to explore. Education is not just a process for becoming sophisticated. It is the cultivation of virtue, especially courage. Both religion and education are the shaping and holding of hearts, minds and souls.” It was deeply moving for us that this man of wisdom returned to the College to address another of the basic elements that constitute the bedrock of CNR, and that is our commitment to diversity. 5 2004 ANNUAL R EPORT / THE C OLLEGE OF N EW ROCHELLE Dr. West has made it his life’s work to prod and provoke the conscience of America on such fundamental questions as race, religion, ethnicity, gender and class identification. His message is one that celebrates diversity which enlarges and expands the world of human possibility and reaches a common ground respecting and embracing but never fearing or denying the infinite variety of human life. On a wintry afternoon in Holy Family Chapel, Dr. West focused his intellect and his gift for language—a gift inherited from his Baptist minister grandfather and honed during years of study at the Yale Divinity School —on an overflow crowd of several hundred faculty and students, alumnae/i, family and friends of CNR. Seamlessly weaving the wisdom of Socrates through the lives of such present day heroes and heroines as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, Dr. West explained how Mother Irene Gill and the Ursulines were all part of the same tradition, and that by opening the doors to higher education to long-excluded populations, they made moral and prophetic choices that made a difference in the world. “A century ago, they had the audacity to say that the Christian gospel has something to do with forms of unjustified suffering, unnecessary social misery, unmerited pain and unwarranted grief.” Gathered for the opening convocation are New Rochelle Mayor Timothy Idoni, New York State Lieutenant Governor Mary O’Connor Donohue ’68, CNR President Stephen Sweeny, honorary degree recipients Avery Cardinal Dulles, Mary Lyons and Antonio Coello Novello, and CNR Board Chair Jean Baptiste Nicholson, OSU ’60.
Page 1 and 2: UARTERLY UARTERLY The College of Ne
Page 3: UARTERLY EDITORIAL STAFF Executive
Page 8 and 9: PRESIDENT’S LETTER As enlightened
Page 10 and 11: PRESIDENT’S LETTER CNR President
Page 12 and 13: PRESIDENT’S LETTER excellent exam
Page 14 and 15: JULY 2003-2004 / THE YEAR IN REVIEW
Page 16 and 17: 2003-2004 / THE YEAR IN REVIEW OCTO
Page 18 and 19: 2003-2004 / THE YEAR IN REVIEW Prom
Page 20 and 21: 2003-2004 / THE YEAR IN REVIEW APRI
Page 22 and 23: FINANCIAL STATEMENT The financial i
Page 25 and 26: DEAR GRADUATES AND FRIENDS, LETTER
Page 27 and 28: THE COLLEGE OF NEW ROCHELLE / 2004
Page 29 and 30: The Aaron Diamond Foundation Anne A
Page 31 and 32: Alexandra Normile Driscoll SAS ’6
Page 33 and 34: FOUNDER’S SOCIETY ($500 TO $999)
Page 35 and 36: THE CHIDWICK ASSOCIATES ($250 TO $4
Page 37 and 38: THE CENTURY CLUB ($100 TO $249) Sel
Page 39 and 40: Ann Battaglia Feldman SAS ’65 Hel
Page 41 and 42: Wadiyah A. Latif Friend Barbara Kea
Page 43 and 44: Violet Regina SAS ’68 Carroll Rei
Page 45 and 46: 1928 TOTAL 2004 GIVING: $250 % Part
Page 47 and 48: SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES AND SCH
Page 49 and 50: Marian Pinto Barnette Patricia Char
Page 53 and 54: Catherine Leddy Pucciarelli Josephi
Page 55 and 56: Marilyn Kowalcyk K. Jane Seidel Kre
McGrath and her home on Daufuskie I
Patricia Connelly Wilson Sue Ann Oe
Mary Close-Oppenheimer Pamela Flahe
Tara Wood Casey SAS Noreen Clarke-S
Meghan Mastellon Mahon SAS Catherin
Sharon Adler ’93 Theresa Agliardo
Maria Pellegrino ’77 Gail Perkin
Veronica Mew Armenti ’97 Walter M
CURRENT AND PAST PARENTS John Amber
CURRENT FACULTY & STAFF Nibaldo Agu
Mary McNamara SAS’77 Charles P. M
MEMORIAL GIFTS IN MEMORY OF. . . Ro
Aero Hardware and Parts Co. Inc. Th
Rosemary Vasas Abbott SAS ’65 Ann
2003-2004 BOARD OF TRUSTEES Jean Ba
CLASS CLASS PRESIDENT REUNION CHAIR
It doesn’t take a millionaire…
Magazine: UARTERLY - College of New Rochelle
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- International Crime Fiction Author -
suburbia books
Yvonne Walus
EVE SUMMERS
Free Short Story
My Cyber Lover by Yvonne Eve Walus
I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. It’s totally crazy to be in love with somebody I’ve never met.
It’s even more crazy to be wheelchair-bound and in love with somebody I’ve never met. But then, I don’t get out much.
I’m in love with Andy1980. Cyber-love has its merits: you get to know the other person. I mean, what do you know about your boyfriend’s first puppy? Andy’s first and only dog was called Tigger and he saved Andy’s life.
I feel for Tigger. When I saved somebody’s life, I received this wheelchair in exchange, but at least I got to live. You might say it’s not much of a life, but I like it the way it is.
Which brings me to the dilemma at hand: Andy wants us to get married.
The first time he proposed, we were in bed (metaphorically speaking) doing the horizontal (cyber) tango.
“Wow,” he typed at one point. “I really fancy your fingerwork. Very, um, fast ;-) .... Will you marry me?”
“LOL,” I typed back, laughing out loud, laughing it off.
We got back to business. When your cyber lover is as good at cyber sex as Andy1980, you don’t waste time on talking marriage.
Andy was perfect. But then many guys seem perfect online. It’s easy to dazzle in cyberspace. You have all the time in the world to think up the best lines and you don’t have to worry whether your breath smells of garlic as you deliver them.
I’m not sure when I fell in love. One moment I was only playing around, confident that I could keep it fun and light, cyber and sex and no strings. I mean, Andy’s on another continent and not in a wheelchair. How practical would it be?
No. I was a twenty-first century girl who didn’t want a relationship. I kept my emotions to myself.
The second time Andy popped the question was a double-barrel effort. We were in a private chat room, and Andy was pretending that he was my soul mate and that he could ‘feel’ me across the oceans.
“You’re drinking red wine,” he typed.
I was. “So? You know I always drink red wine on a Friday night.”
“And you’re wearing something black.”
“Andy, come on. Half of the lingerie I own is black.”
“You are rolling your eyes now, aren’t you? And before you can roll them some more, answer that phone of yours. It’s ringing.”
Now that was a little spooky. My mobile had just played the first notes of “Moonlight Sonata”. I was so surprised I didn’t check the caller ID.
“Gillian Moore speaking.”
“Will you marry me?” said the voice in my mobile phone, just as the chat room exploded in pixels of fireworks surrounding the typed words “will you marry me”.
“You know I’m only in it for the fabulous sex, right?” I asked. “I’m commitment-shy.”
“That’s ok. I’m not.”
That was all Andy had to say on the topic.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. If, and it was a very hypothetical if, if I said yes... well, what would happen then? Would he come to New Zealand? Would I emigrate to the States? Big wedding, small wedding, no wedding? Would I take his last name? What was his last name, anyway?
I kept inventing small obstacles where there was one big one, with wheels and a built-in engine to save my arms from growing biceps.
So, the third proposal. Well, the third proposal arrived this morning.
After the long warm foamy bath (and the long process to climb out), tea at the ready, I opened my subscription magazine that arrived in the post earlier in the week. I’d been saving it especially for that first Sunday morning cup. I always do.
This morning, however, the magazine’s editor leapt out of the page and punched me in the stomach. Well, that’s what it felt like anyway.
If your name is Gillian Moore, the editorial said, please turn to page 16 now.
I did. Well, wouldn’t you?
And there it was. Page 16 and 17, actually. A photo spread of Andy, down on one knee in the style of those 19th century gentlemen. A bouquet of orchids (my favourite flowers) in his one hand. A velvet box with a sapphire engagement ring (my favourite colour is blue and I don’t like diamonds) in the other.
And next to him - the most gorgeous little dachshund puppy.
A speech bubble, a regular comic-book speech bubble, hovered over the dog’s snout: “You may not want Andy (who, incidentally, is fully house-trained), but how can you say no to me?”
This time I was the one who called. My hands were shaking. It was time to end another cyber fairytale.
“Andy, hi. I’d like to speak to Bubbles, please.”
“He’s listening on the other extension.”
“Bubbles, there is one thing I have to tell you. About me, I mean.”
“It’s ok,” Andy interrupted. “Bubbles knows about the wheelchair. He’s cool with that.”
“How on earth -”
“I told him, Gillian. I pieced it together ages ago, from all the things you said. And didn’t say.”
My mouth was salty with tears. “In that case, my answer is yes, Bubbles.”
“He’s wagging his tail,” Andy said, “but he’d like to know more details. Are you coming here? Are we moving there? Big wedding, small wedding?”
“I’ll move there. New Zealand has these stupid quarantine laws for animals. Also, a small wedding. Dogs prefer small weddings.”
It’s amazing how easy decision-making became once there was Bubbles to consider.
We talked for ages. I talked, anyway. Bubbles panted.
“See you soon, Bubbles.” I whispered when it was time to hang up. “I love you.”
Press Room Photo
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